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For a little while, it felt like the “red pill” movement had an inescapable grasp on all internet discourse. Worse, the movement transcended the confines of these little screens we spend so much time looking at, and men like Andrew Tate became easy bait for tabloid buzz.
But, not even “alpha males” or their sycophants can triumph over extremely short attention spans. The red pill movement aged like milk and is finally on its way out and we’re not even mad about it.
Nothing Says “High Value” Like Human Trafficking Charges!
“Andrew Tate’s downfall may be the end of the manosphere,” UnHerd writer Oliver Bateman forecasted in June 2023 after Tate and his brother Tristan were indicted on rape and human trafficking charges. Now, a year later, Romanian courts are looking to start their trial against the Tates, whose alleged crimes could result in a prison sentence of up to 10 years.
The poster child for the red pill movement, Andrew Tate took the reins of an existing embittered cohort of men (and some women, too), who, at other times, may have looked to the now-nostalgic pick-up artist (PUA) community for some pointers on how to date. Whether the manosphere was organically on its way out or not, Tate’s impeding trial spells bad news for many within the movement. But interestingly enough, he isn’t the only red piller recently marred by scandal.
Hosts of the popular podcast Fresh and Fit, Myron Gaines and Walter Weekes, once stirred up success by selling “self-improvement” to men to become “high value” and reject “low value” women. Like many in the manosphere, they preached against promiscuity, but, as it turns out, they may not be practicing the doctrine they preach.
Gaines was recently exposed as having allegedly impregnated his girlfriend and then asked her to get a chemical abortion. If the leaked text messages are indeed true, it’s pretty depraved to make money off talking smack on promiscuous women or single mothers, and then go out, sleep with those women, get one pregnant, and then abandon her and your unborn child.
People online are starting to see through the lies. Truly, you’d think that if Gaines were adhering to alpha red pill standards, then starting a family would be the end game. You’d think that men who whine about women not taking accountability for their actions would…take accountability for their own actions. Instead, they might just be porn-brained men poorly cosplaying as “high-value” alphas.
One Twitch streamer and stripper spoke in an interview with Mashable about how many self-proclaimed alphas actually hire “sex workers” to hang out with the guys on boats and be photographed – giving the illusion that women flock to these men, when in fact, they’re often paying for women to be there. Others have alleged that “alphas” like Myron Gaines, for example, use sugar daddy websites to solicit women, not compensate them per their proposed “sugaring” allowances, and then invite them onto the Fresh and Fit podcast instead.
Isn’t it highly suspicious that some of the biggest names in this industry can’t seem to hold down a normal relationship? The schtick is getting old. Gaines and Weekes are unmarried, both Tate brothers are unmarried, and “female Andrew Tate” Hannah Pearl Davis is unmarried. Davis is a walking contradiction who appears to have a goal of getting emotional reactions out of women for digital clout and barely even tries to hide her own immense hypocrisy.
YouTube Videos like Cruel Mind Happy World’s “The Fall of JustPearlyThings: MOST TOXIC Pick-Me” and TheAsherShow’s “The YouTube Downfall of ‘Pick-me’ Pearl (JustPearlyThings)” have racked up hundreds of thousands of views tracking her more recent digital decline, but millions have watched her pseudoscientific takes get picked apart by YouTube documentarians like Jonathan Aubrey and podcaster Ethan Klein.
“I’ve heard of being the bridesmaid but never the bride, but imagine being the pick me that’s never picked,” said one top commenter on Cruel Mind Happy World’s analysis of Davis’s falling star.
The status of the manosphere industry seems rocky at best. Alpha Influence was the brainchild of entrepreneur Jeremiah “The Bull” Evans, who later went on to host a summit called Alpha Con in Salt Lake City, Utah. Recently, however, his company has received a whole host of allegations of fraud and scams.
Some people reportedly invested $40,000 into this “alpha” brand, but one individual tragically ponied over $85,000. “Did anyone else get scammed?” wrote one Reddit user on a thread he titled “Alpha Influence Scam.” Several commenters on the thread then banded together to take legal action, but it appears that “The Bull” has been able to rebrand and start new scams – I mean, new companies.
Then, there’s Sneako. Nicolas "Nico" Kenn De Balinthazy originally got started as a gameplay commentary channel but then got into sociopolitical rants and eventually red pill ideology. Sneako converted to Islam in April 2023, and wound up in the Tate-sphere, even traveling to Romania and repeatedly defending the brothers after their human trafficking scandal spread.
He’s a habitual drama king and his copycat personality of notorious red pill men even led him to think that he could box against UFC middleweight champion fighter Sean Strickland.
Suffice it to say, Sneako didn’t stand a chance against Strickland. If it appeared to literally anyone that Sneako was an “alpha” on par with high-T (natural or not…) guys in the manosphere, this delusion was quickly squashed by his loss.
“I’m convinced he has a humiliation fetish,” wrote one Reddit user after the fight. Even if he doesn’t, Sneako is yet another grifting content creator who rode the coattails of the red pill movement, but when thrust into real-world scrutiny, he apparently can’t measure up.
Here’s What It’s Like To Escape the Manosphere
Humans are complex beings. Neither man nor woman is as predictable as the red pill movement makes us all out to be. Just like how the PUA community faded into obscurity, the red pill community has hit peak saturation and is now on the decline. Look no further than the SubReddit r/exredpill, where men (and some women) have shared how their lives have improved after freeing themselves from pseudointellectual manosphere toxicity.
“People on here are wrong. Guys like Rollo Tomassi, Michael sartain, and fresh & fit have helped me a lot. I listened to their podcasts and teachings very closely, and did the exact opposite. This worked amazingly well!” wrote one ex-red piller who credited red pill gurus as an anti-role model. “I have a wonderful relationship with my girlfriend and we got engaged recently.”
Another user wrote a long post about how glad he was to leave the manosphere in 2020 after reflecting on how it more recently “devolved into something so much more toxic” than he could have imagined. Yet another user, who has since deleted their account, started a thread to encourage people to share a story about the woman who helped them escape the red pill mindset.
But, some people on r/exredpill weren’t so successful and instead took to the subreddit to share how the manosphere destroyed their outlook on dating. One young man who has since deleted his account posted a thread titled “Extremely fearful of relationships because of views instilled in me on the internet,” where he explained how the black-and-white dating outlook within the red pill movement has led him to fear being used, cheated on, or lied to by women and being perceived as weak if he shows any vulnerability.
“I've basically seen or been told so many stories along these lines from other men that it has made me afraid of relationships...however, I feel the need for emotional and physical intimacy (not just sex, but kisses and cuddles and hugs and such as well),” he admitted. “I want a family in the future, and a partner with whom I can shoulder life's difficulties with. But all these things I listed above [in the post] make me so afraid of it all.”
Several ex-red pillers commented on his thread with words of encouragement, including one user who reassured him that the internet is filled with rage bait that causes impressionable people to think that worse-case scenarios are the norm. Another told him that the last thing he should do is “make unconscious decisions based on horror stories from people on the internet” and instead “get out there and live.”
“Most people on here exaggerate situations and swear it was the other person’s fault they wound up in that situation,” he wrote. “You’ll rarely ever see the good stories because those that can share it simply aren’t on social media. They’re living their happy life in the real world.”
Your best protection from the toxicity is to stay grounded in the real world and guard your heart from people who see the world through a monochromatic lens.
Another user who has since deleted her account wrote in r/exredpill that red pill women ruined her worldview. “I heard a lot of ‘men don’t want to f*ck your degree’ and ‘a man will choose a pretty submissive waitress over a girlboss with a degree,’” she wrote. “And it made me feel worthless outside of my physicality as a woman.”
Red pill beliefs – no matter how untrue – became “ingrained” into her psyche, and because she had been consuming so much of that content, she said she struggled to let go of feelings of resentment and depression about her intelligence, interests, and personality.
In response, one user told her that she was experiencing the effect of being “online too much where everything lacks nuance,” “retrospective thought,” and where opinions must be “divisive and unwavering.” He continued, “In the real world, people do not draw imaginary lines in the sand with every interaction and thought they take, because people are forced to work together with those they may disagree with, to cohabit with those who they don’t get along with.”
It’s too true. Disconnecting from the online world is key. When you actually interact with people in the real world and reject being chronically online, you truly do see all of the nuance in humans that gets thrown out the window in red pill discourse. Red pill gurus feed off cherry-picked evolutionary psychology studies that contain kernels of truth about human behavior but can’t take into account the complexities deep within us all.
Red pill content evolved from PUA content, which was intended to help men meet women. The PUA community had its own share of scammers, but since it wasn’t so mainstream, the general public didn’t get to watch its demise in real time. But, ever since it morphed into a misogynistic manosphere, it has spiraled out of control at the hands of professional grifters for the entire world to see.
Closing Thoughts
The truth of the matter is that, while the red pill movement is on its way out, this subset of thinking seems cyclical, and I predict it will re-emerge with new branding – just like any old grift does.
Your best protection from the toxicity? Stay grounded in the real world and guard your heart from people who see the world through a monochromatic lens. You deserve nothing less than to spend time with men who affirm your inherent value as a human being and show you true respect and kindness.
