Manosphere Madness

I've never really understood the whole manosphere movement. To me it is bizarre that anyone would be attracted to it. It is like being attracted to idiocy. Of course, I view people who support Trump the same way. But people are attracted to both. Why? Wired has a pretty good article -- The ‘Manosphere’ Isn’t a Movement. It’s a Multibillion-Dollar Grievance Industry.

Many young men are driven to resentment and are financially exploited as influencers sell them classes, pills, and the illusion of clout, a new report reveals.

In “The Grift Economy: How Young Men Are Being Sold Fake Belonging and Fake Wealth Online,” researchers from the digital safety organization Reset Tech and the nonprofit Equimundo map how men are “algorithmically routed into paid communities, unregulated supplements, crypto schemes, and high-ticket ‘coaching’ programs,” which together make up a “multibillion-dollar industry.”

“‘Masculinity’ has become a commercial category that is constructed, curated, and financially incentivized online,” write the authors of the 153-page report.

First, men encounter aspirational self-help content when looking up advice on dating, fitness, or finance. Bad actors then exploit their areas of vulnerability by offering a misleading, grievance-based narrative to explain their frustrations. The paper cites, for example, a verified “business” account on X that used real economic data to falsely claim that the high rate of youth unemployment is only affecting men.

So maybe I get it a little. The attraction of the manosphere is the same attraction that drives women to dieting sites, cnspiracy theorists to ant-vaxing sites, Israelis to anti-Palestinian sites, Palestinians to anti-Israeli sites, and on and on. To be clear it is idiocy but sadly humans are all at least partially idiots and there is always someone who will exploit that to gain money and power. Exactly like family court.