Richard Hogan: All these pathetic manosphere influencers want is views, clicks and shares

The Louis Theroux documentary on the manosphere exposes a harsh truth — that these men are ruled solely by algorithms and clicks, says Richard Hogan

Louis Theroux with HStikkytokky who was constantly trying to have a ‘gotcha’ moment with Louis in his Netflix documentary 'Inside The Manosphere'.

THE new Netflix documentary Louis Theroux: Inside The Manosphere exposes the world of male influencers and the impact their ideas are having on young men.

For anyone who works with teenagers, the ‘manosphere’ is not a new concept. I have been writing to inform parents about just who, exactly, is talking to their children and what they are saying to them. The purpose is to warn parents, so that they can challenge some of the views their children are hearing.

Andrew Tate and Jordan Peterson have long been the mainstay in this space. But it has changed. New actors have arrived.

I found the documentary illuminating, but probably for all the wrong reasons. Nothing new about the ‘manosphere’ was revealed. Well, maybe it was: These paragons of masculinity asking ‘mommy’ what’s for dinner, or crying to her that they "don’t want a juice bar" gave me a good old chuckle.

Theroux floundered at times, desperately attempting to apply logic and morals to something devoid of it.

These guys are not like the Westboro Baptist Church crowd, or other groups Theroux famously exposed. They are not committed to any ideology or belief system: Their religion is social media engagement. It is that simple and that vacuous.

I don’t think Louis fully understood that. He was stuck trying to understand what life circumstances had conspired to create men who had what he described as misogynistic, racist, and homophobic views. Absent fathers was the lazy conclusion.

The real answer was algorithms. These people are willing to say anything, no matter how heinous, to get engagement. Reasonable ideas equal zero engagement. Toxic, controversial, and hateful content equals click, click, click.

These bad actors didn’t believe the rubbish they were spouting. They were only serving their master: Views, clicks, and shares.

Myron Gaines’s interview embarrassingly elucidated this point painfully well. Gaines, who has the Fresh & Fit podcast, rather unconvincingly explained how he understands women and how they desire dominant men and want to be controlled.

This is the crux of the manosphere: They tell young, disillusioned boys that we live in a gynocentric world, where women are hypergamous (seek traditional, masculine traits, like strength and power), and therefore these mad leftie liberals are attempting to turn them into incels — involuntary celibates — so they tell them to wake up and not get pulled into ‘the Matrix’.

It would be laughable, except for the fact that impressionable boys are consuming this stuff in their millions.

When Gaines’s girlfriend stumbled into the scene, he became immediately awkward and less confident about the content he was spewing. At times, he looked apologetic and wanted Louis to stop speaking to her.

When Louis pushed him, in front of his now ex-girlfriend (shock, horror) about the fact he often said he wanted multiple wives, the grift in all its garish forms was brutally revealed. His girlfriend looked uncomfortable and unimpressed at what had been said (more shock) and Gaines looked worried.

In fact, the influencer had grave reservations after that conversation about being involved in the documentary. Gaines understood, more than Louis, that his business model was under threat. He had crumbled in front of his girlfriend about male superiority and one-way monogamy, which is not good for the old brand.

Richard Hogan: 'The documentary highlighted that these guys on the Manosphere are shallow twits, who don’t care about what they say as long as they make money and drive their social media reach.' File picture: Moya Nolan

And, also, one-way monogamy? What a concept. How about one-way fiscal responsibility? I’d be into a bit of that.

SOME of the names on the show were new to me. I had never heard of HSTikkyTokky, aka Harrison Sullivan. It appears I had lived a sheltered life.

His contribution was perhaps the most exposing. Living with his ‘mommy’ and arranging a live streamed physical assault, he was constantly trying to have a ‘gotcha’ moment with Louis, challenging him that he was Jimmy Savile’s buddy.

Again, just clicks and engagement were all he was after.

In the influencer’s recent interview with Piers Morgan, he spewed out vile and derogatory gossip about Morgan’s wife and how he was a ‘cuck’, manosphere speak for a low-value man who can’t even control the proclivity of his woman. 

It was more despicable stuff. These men don’t care about what they say, as long as it gets eyeballs on it. That’s the game.

The documentary highlighted that these guys on the manosphere are shallow twits, who don’t care about what they say as long as they make money and drive their social media reach.

I couldn’t help thinking, though, that people like Morgan and his ilk, who have been rage-baiting people for years with their headlines and social media-grabbing captions — ‘Jordan Peterson destroys liberals’; ‘Morgan eats Big Mac in front of vegan’ — were just coming into contact with the latest generation of rage baiters. 

But their tactics and methods have become more extreme and severe. The rough beats they created are now attempting to devour them.