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naraburns  nihil supernum  1yr ago (text post)   27854 thread views

Culture War Roundup for the week of December 26, 2022

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Not a good day for Mr. Tate Andrew Tate, Brother Tristan arrested amid human trafficking probe

Andrew Tate and his brother have been arrested and led away in cuffs after their luxury Romanian mansion was raided by police.

The divisive influencer, referred to by his fans as ‘Top G’, and his brother Tristan are being quizzed over human trafficking allegations, according to local reports.

The pair have reportedly been under investigation for the alleged kidnapping of two young women in their villa in the town of Voluntari.

Their home was raided by the Directorate for Investigating Organized Crime and Terrorism in Bucharest earlier today, reports Libertatea.

The brothers were issued warrants in relation to forming an organized criminal group, international human trafficking, and rape.

I am skeptical. This does not make sense from a risk vs. reward perspective. Presumably their hustler university program and other businesses provide plenty of legal revenue; why engage in such unnecessary risk? Romania's criminal justice system probably does not have the same requirement of burden of proof as in the US.

But I find it literally incomprehensible how you can look at those people and not realize immediately that they're running a scam. And it's not even like there's a "Well, yeah, they're terrible but think about the Supreme Court picks." argument to be made, they're just going to take your money and you'll still be a loser that wants to be like them and defends them when they say stupid shit...

This is a fully general criticism of parasocial relationships. I know a young man who I often overhear listening to these sorts of social media videos. The usual format seems to be a Red Pill Guru type dispensing cynical reductionism (that makes a lot of evo-psych style sense), usually with some clueless man or woman getting "schooled" in either a hostile or humble manner as a foil. The appeal is the impression of being in on non-obvious lore and understanding, and of flexing that superiority over others in a way that forces them to acknowledge it.

It's basically just The Daily Show with less obfuscated and more direct sales scams advertising revenue.

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