Beyond Andrew Tate: What His Rise Tells Us About the Bigger Picture

As the COVID pandemic worsened in late 2020, I signed up for a life coaching licensing program. Zealous as ever, I hopped on. This program would also set up a payment gateway to enable me to recruit mentees. The rates were high. My license alone cost upward of $2500, and my mentees would have to pay just under $700 for the 10-week coaching program. Overall pros and cons aside, there were several problems with the system, much of which I noticed when it was too late.

I originally signed up for a shorter and cheaper program. I was encouraged to upgrade my license to a higher package in the middle. There, I was told that coaching is an easy and fast money-making business. They also emphasized that my results are solely my effort and marketing. At that point, there’s no way to turn back or blame the system. If I succeed, the system works; if I don’t, I failed on my part somewhere. Schemes like these are designed to be psychologically and legally foolproof. Painted as fast money-making businesses, they quickly reel in people.

Why did I mention COVID at the start? I’m no fan of mentioning COVID repeatedly, given how many times we’ve heard about it, its cousins, and unborn children. It was used as a marketing tool. Coaching alone was not easy money, but it relied on the despair COVID has created to easily find people looking for hope and support.

All things aside, I don’t intend to write a good/bad review on the system or how it worked out for me (yet). The biggest question falls on the price. Is charging people $700 to come out of their “despair” a fair price? If there was to be an itemized bill for this, would it be able to logically justify itself by keeping “brand name” and the [full] cost I was made to [almost] pay?

Essentially, the system is: take a license to coach -> find other people to coach -> eventually upgrade to training coaches on coaching who can then find more people to coach -> further expansion…

Sound familiar? Welcome to Giza.

Who is Andrew Tate? He’s a former kickboxer, attempted live TV star, and now influencer marketer and the man behind the Hustler’s University Business with a large social media following reaching several billion views on TikTok alone. His enormous influence is under deep scrutiny because of past charges on him, his controversial statements and actions, and the impact his work has on people. In this article, I review much of the discussion around him and draw bigger picture implications beyond just analyzing the guy and his business.

Specific to Andrew Tate’s system of ‘Hustler’s University’, it’s pretty much the same. It has a significant component that rewards people with commission if they recruit others to the “university.” It’s ironic if the system is designed to give people freedom and immense growth but relies on those people to provide much larger growth to just Tate and his associates.

Misogyny, Racism, and Other Tate Controversies: What Does it Mean?

I won’t go into detail reviewing the controversies around these, but ample evidence expounds on how Tate has made several abhorrent remarks. Some prominent ones are:

Claiming that women are men’s property and that rape victims should bear some responsibility for their attacks.
Claiming that he will not perform CPR on someone unless they’re a “hot woman” or someone I know. He calls performing CPR on a man as “gay.”
Claiming that 40% of the reason he moved to Romania was because the police there were less likely to pursue sexual assault allegations.
Has strong ties with far-right wing people, pro-Trump individuals, and conspiracy theorists.

Some people may try to dismiss these charges and express that these statements are comedic However, many people are seeing the outcomes of Tate’s influence being taken as seriously or manifesting in other aggressive forms. Besides, comedy on these lines is in a grey area unless it’s clearly satirical of hustle culture. Except, when the man’s primary source of income is hustling, claiming to teach hustling, and a never-ending cycle of the same, there is no doubt that the statements are far from satire.

If most of us have agreed that people like these are harmful for society, why aren’t there repercussions for these actions, statements, and the influence they have?

If you wanted to grow fruits and vegetables and tossed seeds on hard concrete in the worst possible weather conditions. How likely are you to even see let alone reap what you [didn’t] sow?

Capitalist, Misogynist, and Racist Elements of Society Allow Andrew Tate to Grow

The marketing style was a prominent difference between the program I was in and Andrew Tate. Most people in my program were working adults. However, Tate’s base is likely to contain teenagers and young adults given his use of TikTok and Instagram. My program primarily used Facebook marketing. The age difference is no surprise. But the kind of content Andrew Tate creates would also not resonate with older and more traditional people. We can take several examples of successful schemes, good or bad, and how audience-specific marketing is essential for their success.

Ultimately, the point is that Andrew Tate did not just spawn and create the environment we are so widely against. Instead, the environment already existed, and it was profitable to tap into it and catalyse it for further gain. For all you know, like many capitalists, Andrew Tate may not even genuinely believe in the stuff he says. Still, the environment allows those statements to resonate with chunks of society and bring attention, which brings profit, allows for more marketing, and brings even more attention. This isn’t to victim blame society or defend Tate, but focusing on Andrew Tate’s past and present alone may not get us anywhere beyond reactionary and performative activism, which can make things worse; one of the things Andrew Tate’s work offers is a community and reinforcement of mistaught beliefs. If our work to improve society relies on ostracizing individuals, we only reinforce peace in our circles, making the already conducive environment for haters even more conducive.

Andrew Tate’s system abuses people’s despairs, goals, and insecurities to reach out to them with even his atrocious claims.
Finance resonates with money-hungry people.
Misogynistic remarks for those who are already sexist and fall in the anti-feminist band.
“Alpha male ideology” with those looking for a role model, some hope, or feelings of security and superiority.
Ridiculousness with almost anyone who only laughs at the guy.
Finally, by getting support with the benefit of the doubt by those who are naïve and believe in his authenticity based on a few accurate yet obvious and basic statements.

Tackling the Bigger Picture: Capitalism, Misogyny, and Racism.

In a world moving towards more inclusion and togetherness, Tate’s misogynist, racist, and divisive ideas definitely have no space in today’s society. It is pathetic that these words sway people to act on them and become more hateful and polarizing individuals. However, bashing Tate alone is not going to make much change. When done in an aggressive style, it further loses any chance of making change as it increases polarization because of the othering that already exists and is created by Tate’s community. In the long run, tackling bigger picture elements—Misogyny, Racism, and Capitalism—separately may perform better. As we speak about Andrew Tate, we shouldn’t fixate on highlighting the ridiculous statements he’s made but draw more meaningful arguments and methods to tackle the issues reflecting and created by the man and his community.

Challenging Andrew Tate’s Influence

We understand that much is wrong in this entire ordeal. Now what? Acknowledgment alone does not get us the social change we desire.

Conversations are essential in tackling almost any issue in any realm. No matter what the precursors and actions behind people being influenced by Tate may be, a purely reactionary approach will not cut it, even though it is completely understandable. We need to ask ourselves more important questions regarding why people are falling into it, deeply analyze the situation and plan our strategies to deal with it better. Unfortunately, none of this is easy; social change does take time and effort.

As a starting point, having conversations about Tate and his ideas independently or together with your friends, people on your socials, and children is important.

For strategies on feminism as a movement independent of Andrew Tate, click here: ‘Feminism, Activism, and Striving for Lasting Change.’

Challenging Capitalism and Hustle Culture

A discussion on Capitalism is essential, to begin with. It is important to learn more about the things Capitalism rests on, what it uses to benefit the ones on top, how the richer get richer, and the impacts it has on society at large. Our meaning as humans should not be centered solely around ourselves. Having personal goals that relate only to you is essential, but some context of the bigger picture and society is also vital. Wanting to be rich may not be a heinous crime alone, but the means used to get to that position are the make-or-break points. Supporting harmful capitalist ideas in the process may do you good, but it comes at the expense of others. Tate’s hustler’s university benefits him most while robbing participants of money through selling this pyramid scheme and overpriced services that can be learned otherwise.

Challenging Big Corporations’ and Social Media Policies

Another commonly raised question against Tate’s remarks is, why isn’t any corporation doing anything about it? A simple answer is because of the huge amount of traffic he gets. If corporations are profiting from it, they are less likely to remove it. But the issue with corporations is beyond profit and connects with vested interests. This may sound like an empty statement given that many times, a corporation’s vested interests are profits. However, discussing the issue of corporations and social media platforms in greater detail would clarify this. While I won’t be doing that in this post, highlighting a few things would clarify. There’s a lot of content online that goes unnoticed. It is harmful to people, but it doesn’t get deleted. On the other hand, I once had a Minecraft picture removed by Instagram for “violence and dangerous organizations” (how?), while my reports of people abusing my religion and sending personal threats were marked as “not in violation of Instagram’s community guidelines.” Clearly, it’s a very broken system. All in all, the control of social media is biased, and reform around this is necessary too.

Truly “Breaking Out of the Matrix”: On Self Help and Personal Growth

It is also important to note that much of what Tate teaches is far from “breaking out of the matrix,” as he calls it. Teaching people dropshipping or using current systems higher than oneself only feeds into the capitalist matrix we are trapped in (how does working for Amazon free us in any way? Prime irony, pun intended). Spending more time thinking about hustle culture thus also becomes essential.

Why do we hustle?
Where do we feel the need to hustle from?
Who does hustling benefit most?
What ways do we deserve to use apart from slogging several hours, making only a tiny fraction of the profits we generate for larger corporations and individuals?
Is making money fast even relevant or important?
How can we define our life purposes differently to not fall into this trap?

Good answers to these questions will help you build a more healthy, calm, and content lifestyle and prevent you from falling prey to pyramid schemes, apparently fast money-making programs, and individuals like Andrew Tate.

Finally, note that this is not a call to renounce any notions of personal development. But there are way better sources that can be used. If you are looking forward to developing personal and professional skills, you can do so for free using resources like Coursera, LinkedIn Learning, Edx, and YouTube. If reading self-help books helps you, that may also be a good idea. If you feel like the idea of reading sounds good but it’s not something you can get yourself to do, consider using audiobooks and look for nutshell explanations or commentary of notable books on YouTube or other platforms.

Searching for productivity content online for free is also not a difficult task. Much of what personal growth involves is understanding yourself and specific concepts in productivity, neurology, and psychology. This information is abundantly available online for free. All it takes is a search. For example, if you were to look for content on dopamine detox, how to be more productive, ways to make money in such and such ways, understanding certain market systems, finding job opportunities, learning how to start businesses, you can find this content easily. As you begin searching, YouTube will start recommending such videos to you, making them easier to find. The cost? Nothing. Would you rather pay $50 a month or higher rates for similar or even worse advice or look for it for free?

I know what you may think; looking for things alone does not involve a community. Sure, it doesn’t. But with access to the online world, if you find it difficult to make friends in real life on the get-go, even simple messages like “I’m looking forward to creating a group chat of self-driven and motivating people, who’s down?” might work for the starters. Efforts can go a long way. It may not guarantee success, but it’s better than throwing yourself into a toxic, misogynist, and scammed community only because it’s a community.

Recommended YouTube Videos with First-Hand Accounts and Commentary of Andrew Tate and his System

Other References

The Vigilant Mind

When truth and falsehood come together, falsehood is bound to perish.

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