As many people know, I started off my career as a feminist, social commentary writer. I’ve been working more on the money-making and personal finance side of things lately because I honestly just need to take a break from most of the politics these days.
With that said, I recently found a video of a woman who went on dates with a bunch of far-right men. The woman, Vera Papisova, penned a massive column that went viral on Cosmopolitan, starting off with her retelling of going on a date with a man who threatened to kill her.
As she got interviewed, discussed what she noticed about the men she dates, and talked to other journalists about, something stood out. She pointed out how insecure far-right men are.
This is far from the only time you’ll hear people call out the insecurities of right-wing men.
There is a pipeline that runs from the “Red Pill” dating coaches of online culture straight into the right-wing/alt-right political movement. It’s basically common knowledge at this point. Dating coaches that espouse “Red Pill” rhetoric claim they can help men get dates, love, or just a roll in the hay.
All the men have to do is do what the coaches tell them to do. The coaches then tell them they need to “man up” and be an “alpha” to get girls. Now, what they suggest doing is a mixed bag. Some of the advice (earn more money, hit the gym) can be good. However, it’s a poison pill.
One of the key tenets of Red Pill ideology is how often it turns men against women, teaches them to emotionally abuse women, and alienates men from the very women they allegedly adore. After all, no one wants to date someone who puts them down as a means to control them.
As a person who used to work as a dating coach assistant, I always advised against using Red Pill techniques. It’s not just because the advice didn’t work, either. It was because of the psychological damage it did to men, especially when it comes to their insecurity.
If the advice is so toxic, why are so many Red Pill dating coaches so successful?
It’s no secret that the Red Pill has become a major problem for society. Andrew Tate, one of the most notorious sex traffickers in the world, gained most of his following from being a Red Pill dating coach. Many of his followers are now under 18 years old, which is why teachers are now complaining about the Andrew Tate Effect among students.
Tate has amassed millions of dollars from his fans, with some dropping tens of thousands of dollars just to be in the same room as him. So if his advice is so toxic, why are so many men flocking to him?
It’s simple: he’s exploiting male insecurity to play his followers like a fiddle. This is part of a typical Red Pill content business marketing plan.
Tate’s advice doesn’t work. It’s not supposed to work. What he’s doing is meant to act as a grift. Tate makes money as long as his users remain insecure and alone. If his users no longer need his advice to make them confident or popular, they stop paying him.
If you go on sites where former Red Pill users deconstruct, you’re going to see a lot of talk about how being into the Red Pill started to make them depressed and insecure. That’s the whole point: the insecurity is profitable. And it’s addictive.
As a content creator, you have to think about your long-term business strategy.
Being a content creator is a lot like being a hacker in a lot of ways. Both fields involve numbers. Both fields often require you to come up with roundabout ways of getting the job done, meaning you’re required to have a certain level of creativity.
Oh, and there’s also a matter of “white hat” versus “black hat” work in both fields. In hacker speak, “white hat” is ethical, moral hacking. “Black hat” is hacking done via unethical methods, such as backdoor entries or even manipulating people into giving up passwords.
Content creation is the same way.
White hat is ethical. Black hat can cause serious damage, to the point that it could actually cost millions of dollars to fix. At times, black hat hacking can be so damaging, it can actually upend major websites, security nets, and businesses. Black hat hacking can be weaponized.
You can be a “white hat” or “black hat” content creator, too.
People often don’t really grasp how powerful content creation can be. It can help bond society together or break it apart. Content is incredibly persuasive when done correctly. After all, it’s basically marketing. That’s why Russia invested so much money into troll farms. They knew it sways people.
Ethical content creation can lift people up, create communities, help rally others for a good cause, and improve the mental health of fans. Unethical content creation can absolutely destroy a person’s mental stability, which is precisely what I’ve watched happen to so many men who watch those Red Pill dating gurus.
Ethics matter for more reasons than you might think.
At first glance, Red Pill gurus came up with a good long-term strategy:
- Get insecure people to watch your content by promising a simple, easy secret while validating their emotions. Ever notice how Red Pill content creators always tell their viewers that men are the victims? That it’s never men’s fault? Or that they have simple secrets that help men become rich and sexually succesful? Yep. That’s what that is. It’s playing on the wants and needs of men who feel lost and insecure.
- Make current viewers feel like they aren’t enough. You can’t have men who are happy with themselves as good, devoted followers of a dating guru. Insecure men will pay any price possible if it makes them feel like the advice (or community) will make them feel better. So, Red Pill rhetoric tends to use subtle ways of making men feel like they’re not enough, not worthy of love, or dealing with women who will never love them.
- Keep fans single by fanning the flames of hate and distrust in women. Happily married men don’t pay dating coaches, after all…
- Get more viewers by having current viewers mention how unfair things are. A lot of these content creators get more viewers because their fans end up recommending them as people who “tell the truth about women.”
Short-term and middle-term, this business model works well. Long-term? Well, we’re now dealing with a society unraveling because women have seen how bad Red Pill men treat them. It’s a major contributing factor to why women are opting out of dating!
Unethical business practices tend to have that issue: they don’t work well long-term. The fallout from black hat content creation doesn’t just harm the followers, either. Black hat creation can also pose a safety risk for the creator too.
There have been cases in which unhinged fans have attacked people over things they read on the net. Sometimes, the victim is the actual creator who started the community too.
As a content creator, it’s easy to forget that your name is often inextricably linked to your brand.
One of the bigger issues that comes with content creation is the impact it has on the creator in terms of reputation. White hat content creation has the added perk of giving you a better reputation, provided that you’re not an ass in your personal life too.
Being a black hat content creator has serious, often-lifelong consequences. People notice when you grift and exploit others. It’s a bad look and it’s a look that will often result in self-inflicted reputational damage. In cases like Andrew Tate, it also can lead to problems with the law.
Should content creation die out, you might end up boxed into a corner career-wise. Think about it. Would you willingly hire a person who made a living from hate speech? Would you willingly hire a person who made a living by stealing from others? Probably not.
As a content creator, you need to think about leaving an exit for yourself. It’s possible to bounce back from the stigma of being a spicy content creator. It’s not as easy to bounce back from a reputation for being a hateful grifter.
Now that you know why so many dating gurus want you to be single, you better think about how to avoid that mistake with your own brand.
Keeping your viewers hooked because of the dopamine rush you offer them through content can be done in a benevolent way. That’s why people love funny content creators and why people love uplifting creators. You don’t need to be the person who exploits others to get ahead.
If anything, that makes less sense than it makes dollars.
Leave a Reply