To the Andrew Tate disciples who feel downtrodden by society: straight white men are still winning | Zoya Patel
While it’s easy to mock these young men, we need everyone on board if we are to to fix inequality
As far as viral TikTok content goes, Flynn Martin’s controversial rant started out unassumingly: a young white guy sitting in his car, baseball cap and grey T-shirt, speaking conversationally. He meanders for the first few seconds with caveats and prevarications, but his next sentence sets the app aflame. “Is it actually OK,” he drawls “to be a white straight male? Because I was born this way.” Cue thousands of stitches and duets ripping Martin to pieces.
I watched the original TikTok video – which has since been deleted, along with his original Phlinmartin account – with a sort of sick fascination. As he ranted about emasculated feminist men, who he characterised as being fat and unfit, I wondered what had caused Martin to snap and spew this nonsense out on the internet.