Oh my goodness. I saw this post a few days ago and made a mental note to ask my 17 year old DS if he knows who Andrew Tate is. I then forgot about it until we were at my DM’s for dinner earlier and she mentioned the recent exchanges on Twitter with Greta Thunberg.
My DS declared that he “likes” Andrew Tate and that he hasn’t done anything wrong, and he hasn’t really been arrested and it’s all made up. When he said to me that he’d never done anything wrong, I told
him that he had been removed from big brother after a video of him hitting a woman went viral.
DS looked shocked and it stopped him in his tracks for a second - at thus point though, DS2 (who is TEN years old) interrupted with : “It’s been proven that isn’t true, she admitted that it was sex play, I saw a video of her saying that, on Tik Tok”.
Those exact words. WTF?!
DS2 doesn’t have Tik Tok - but apparently his friend does. Where to start with that I don’t even know, he won’t be staying at the friends anymore but what on earth have they been watching? I still can’t take that in. He seemed to actually know who and what we were speaking about.
Back to DS1… we just shut down the conversation as were about to have a family dinner, my DM looked at shocked as I was and we decided to return to the topic later.
After we got home, I brought the subject up with DS1 and said I was surprised as I’d have thought he’ve had recognised the guy is a twat.
He then started telling me that Andrew Tate is obviously doing very well as he is rich and has his own businesses (he was unable to elaborate on what they are), and that he himself predicted he would be banned from Twitter, then arrested for something he hadn’t done, then killed… and that it is all coming true as “the Elite” are after him because of what he knows. So this proves he is telling the truth and all he is actually guilty of is money laundering and the trafficking charges are a lie.
When I questioned this he told me I am “in the matrix”. Then told me I am stupid if I don’t know that conspiracy theories are true. He then said “What about Jeffrey Epstein?”. I replied “Jeffrey Epstein was a sex offender” and DS said “Exactly, the Elite” and nodded, as if I’d just proved his point completely.
I left it there with him as I just couldn’t decide how to proceed with the bizarre conversation and told him I would look into this more (as he is insisting I haven’t listened to Andrew Tate enough, apparently he also thought he was a twat at first but then he listened and realised everything he said was true) but suggested that he also applies some critical thinking skills and is open to the idea that this man, and his supporters, are not telling the truth.
I feel a bit shaken up to be honest. I separated from his dad when he was younger and was always really close to DS as he is the oldest. I thought I’d brought him up to respect women and we had always talked about everything, although we don’t talk so much over the last year or so as he has a very busy social life.
I haven’t had any worries about him - until now! I had no reason to. He seems materialistic and very image focused but I thought that was just a teenage phase that he would grow out of, in the same way he would grow out of buying stupidly expensive coats and trainers.
He is popular, sporty, a good looking young man, always academically bright. He has a big group of male friends who he has been close to since primary school.
He has only ever had one girlfriend though who lasted a few months and I couldn’t get to the bottom of what happened (though I got the impression that she had ended it) and I have been starting to think that is a bit odd, but maybe just a generational thing. None of his friends seem to have girlfriends either.
Maybe though, he is a misogynistic, conspiracy peddling little idiot and THAT is why he doesn’t have a girlfriend!
I can’t take his phone away though, he is nearly 18 and pays his own phonebill 😦