The online clip factory that's radicalizing teen boys

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The videos often seem to come from nowhere — devoid of any context like names, locations or professions — and pop onto a young man’s phone screen, guided by the invisible hand of the algorithm. The clips are undeniably provocative. Sexy young women at microphones, with captions promising the viewer is about to see them “TRIGGERED” or “CRYING” with “ZERO ACCOUNTABILITY” for their allegedly awful actions. Every basement dwelling-misogynist’s worst views of women are, the headlines suggest, about to be proved true: Women are too stupid for politics. Feminism has turned women into a bunch of sluts. Women shamelessly lie to manipulate men. “Girl power” has deluded women into believing they’re much hotter than they are. Women have ridiculously high standards for both men’s looks and wealth.

The message to young male viewers is unmistakable: Modern dating is a fool’s errand, because “woke” politics has turned all the women into gold-digging harlots. Better to stay home and keep scrolling, making yourself ever more furious that women’s liberation robbed you of your rights as a man.

After the 2024 election, much media attention was paid to “bro” podcasters like Joe Rogan and young right-wing influencers like the late Charlie Kirk in an effort to explain how and why many young men have moved to the right politically. But there was far less focus on the even rowdier world of “dating” shows aimed at young men, most of which turn out to be less about dating than about delivering a steady stream of over-the-top misogynist content. Masculinity influencer Andrew Tate got some press attention after his arrest on rape charges in Romania, but he’s just one in a large field of content creators who, under the guise of offering dating and life advice to young men, push “this hegemonic, masculine ideal, where men are dominant and women are subordinate,” as researcher J.J. West of Polarization and Extremism Research and Innovation Lab puts it.

Technically, Brian Atlas’ show is called “Dating Talk,” but most people call it “Whatever,” the name of the long-standing YouTube channel that hosts it. Atlas spent many years publishing half-baked “prank” videos on his channel, which often had right-wing undertones, before he discovered what appears to be his real money-maker: a veritable factory of anti-feminist rage bait, churned out at an unrelenting pace for rapid dissemination on every social media channel imaginable. For roughly three years, “Whatever” has stuck to a formula that has generated nearly 5 million subscribers: bring in young, conventionally attractive women who are willing to sit through a video shoot that can last six to eight hours (and sometimes longer) in hopes of capturing moments of weirdness, conflict or outrageous behavior. Clip those moments and publish them on multiple social media channels, provoking a mix of lust, curiosity and rage that keeps male fingers scrolling. On YouTube alone, the channel has netted 27 million views in the past 30 days. It’s hard to get exact numbers on the revenue that has produced, but with numbers like that, Atlas has likely made millions off this machine-gun approach.

https://www.yahoo.com/news/articles/online-clip-factory-radicalizing-teen-114515578.html