Despite being deplatformed on nearly every major social media site for hate speech, conservative influencer Andrew Tate still reaches followers via Hustlers University 2.0 — his suite of courses purportedly teaching money-making methods like investing in cryptocurrency, offering copywriting services to businesses, and setting up your own e-commerce stores.
BuzzFeed News enrolled in the Hustlers University 2.0 online Discord network in August. For $49.99 a month, users have access to the Discord and Tate’s video lessons. But what the site sells more than anything is Tate himself, the cliché of a successful former athlete turned business owner who spends endless money on private jets, expensive watches, and sports cars.
“Most of you are happy to be losers part time,” Tate declares in a Hustlers University 2.0 introductory video. “You want to escape. That’s why you joined. You don’t want to be a loser anymore.”
Who are the students? Hundreds of thousands of people, predominantly men, some who say they’re as young as 13 years old. Social media has been filled with young men espousing “Tateism” as the key to freedom from societal slavery and financial gains, and by August, the Hustlers University 2.0 hashtag on TikTok had a billion views and the Andrew Tate hashtag had over 10 billion.
But something is shifting in Hustlers University 2.0. In early October, Tate announced that the program will relaunch as The Real World on Nov. 14. He promised it would be “the portal to escape the matrix,” with access costing new students $149 a month. This time, the platform will be Telegram, an encrypted messaging service that has attracted extremists in the past. “We will show you how to escape…” a video advertisement for The Real World reads. “Join the resistance.”
Brittney Griner lost her court appeal
WNBA player Brittney Griner, who has been detained in Moscow since February, lost her appeal for her nine-year prison sentence on Tuesday. Barring US intervention or other changes, Griner could be forced to serve her sentence in a Russian penal colony, the Washington Post reports.
Lawmakers around the world have called the entire court proceeding a sham. "The verdict contains numerous defects and we hoped that the court of appeal would take them into consideration. We still think the punishment is excessive and contradicts the existing court practice," her attorneys said. The WNBA Players Association also stated that Griner "is very clearly a hostage," ESPN reports.
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The parents of the 17-year-old shot by a cop outside a McDonald's have broken their silence. Erik Cantu remains hospitalized in critical condition and on life support. Sometimes, Erik wakes up having hallucinations, his father said, during which he can see him "raising his hands, trying to press the pedal to the car, and pushing gun symbols" with his hands. "These are the things we have to see daily," he said.
Doctors say there's an alarming spike in RSV cases among kids right now. Here's what you need to know. The respiratory virus is the most common cause of bronchiolitis and pneumonia in children under a year old in the US.
Adnan Syed's innocence has not yet been certified in court, and Hae Min Lee's murder remains unsolved. These are three pieces of evidence you didn’t hear on Serial about the 1999 murder.
James Corden explained why he genuinely didn't think he'd done anything wrong when he made a "rude comment" to a server at Balthazar. In a five minute monologue on The Late Late Show, James gave viewers his side of the story after restaurateur Keith McNally said, "I wish James Corden would live up to his Almighty initials and come clean."
Police said the St. Louis school shooter left behind a handwritten note saying he had no friends, family, or girlfriend
The 19-year-old who killed two people and injured others at Central Visual and Performing Arts High School on Monday had just graduated from the St. Louis school last year and had no prior criminal history, authorities said. The suspect had more than 600 rounds of ammunition on him when he entered the school and left a handwritten note about feeling isolated and having no social life.
Orlando Harris, who was shot and killed by a responding police officer, left the note in the car he drove to the school, which was found by the FBI. "I've been an isolated loner my entire life," the note read. "This was the perfect storm for a mass shooter," the suspect himself wrote.
At a press conference Tuesday, interim police chief Michael Sack encouraged citizens to notify the police if they are "aware of an individual who appears to be suffering from some kind of mental illness or distress" and is talking about buying guns or causing harm.
The deceased victims were a 16-year-old student and a 61-year-old teacher. Seven other victims, all 15 or 16 years old, were injured and are currently in hospital and reportedly in stable condition.
IMAGE OF THE DAY
Tom Brady embodies a dying breed of masculinity
I wonder how Tom Brady is processing the transitional stage he is currently facing, Albert Samaha writes. Major life changes loom large over his carefully crafted routine. The 20-plus-year career he has dedicated his life to is slowly, inevitably coming to an end — as might be his marriage of 13 years.
Brady has long embodied a trope as old as the patriarchy: the honorable provider who clocks in even when he doesn’t feel like it, gives his fullest effort every second, and rises up the ranks of his industry, securing his family’s financial well-being. But as he prepares for another football season, Brady’s devotion to his craft reflects a toxic byproduct of conventional masculinity that has stunted the emotional development of many men, me included.
For years, I allowed my work to take up every inch of space available, and created as much space as I could for it, because I felt like any inch it didn’t cover was a missed opportunity. By projecting a righteous cause onto my work habits, I could justify, or better yet ignore, the damage my decisions wrought on other aspects of my life — the relationships I wasn’t giving attention to, the body I stopped taking care of, the mental health obstacles I compartmentalized.
“What are you willing to do and what are you willing to give up to be the best you can be?” Brady says in the 2018 Facebook Watch docuseries Tom vs. Time. “If you’re gonna compete against me, you’ve gotta be willing to give up your life. Because I’m giving up mine.”
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