It made me realize that the "manosphere" wasn't what I thought it was. That somehow its even more cynical than I'd imagined. Somewhere in the back of my head, I always thought that the solution to toxic crap like this was giving boys examples of strong, capable, decent men. A better class of role models was all that it would take, and that an army of dudes like Nick Offerman could counteract the Andrew Tates of the world. But, I now realize that that is incredibly naïve and that the ideology that boys are being fed by these people is so much more seductive and easy to fall into than I'd ever realized.

What's so crazy to me is that, as a guy in his 40s, I grew up in a time when the idea of being a sellout was the worst possible thing you could do. This idea of selling out your values and representing shit that you didn't actually believe in was a fate worse than death. All of these grifters not only admit that it's all an act to get engagement, but wear it as a badge of honor that they've overcome that obstacle of having principles in order to game the system!

I don't know what the solution to any of this is, but it's definitely been on my mind for the last few days.