The Philip DeFranco Show - PDS 8.15 The Andrew Tate Problem is Actually A Complicated One...

Episode Date: August 15, 2022

Start your free trial today:  http://www.Squarespace.com/Phil & enter offer code “Phil” to get 10% off your first purchase! News You Might Have Missed: https://youtu.be/Nzdpe9Gw7bQ TEXT ME! [phone] Get More Phil: https://linktr.ee/PhilipDeFranco – 00:10 - The Andrew Tate Problem 10:52 - MrBeast Gives 5 School Buses of Supplies to Underserved Schools 12:56 - Sponsor 13:41 - Trump Under Investigation for Potential Espionage Act Violations – ✩ TODAY’S STORIES ✩ Andrew Tate’s Social Media Rise: https://roguerocket.com/2022/08/15/andrew-tate-tiktok-rise/ MrBeast Gives 5 School Buses of Supplies to Underserved Schools: https://youtu.be/STiUV6XXG4E https://www.cnn.com/2022/07/28/business/back-to-school-spending-inflation/index.html Trump Under Investigation for Potential Espionage Act Violations: https://www.cnn.com/2022/08/12/politics/trump-mar-a-lago-investigation/index.html ✩ STORIES NOT IN TODAY’S SHOW ✩ Bank Robber Demanding His Own Money Hailed as Hero in Lebanon: https://roguerocket.com/2022/08/15/bank-robber-hero-in-lebanon/ —————————— Produced by: Cory Ray Edited by: James Girardier, Maxwell Enright, Julie Goldberg, Christian Meeks Art Department: Brian Borst, William Crespo Writing/Research: Philip DeFranco, Brian Espinoza, Maddie Crichton, Lili Stenn, Chris Tolve Production Team: Emma Leid ———————————— #DeFranco #AndrewTate #MrBeast ———————————— Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Sup you beautiful bastards, welcome back to the Philip DeFranco Show. Make sure you're subscribed because I'm going to be splitting $10,000 across 10 lucky subscribed beautiful bastards this month, and let's just jump into it. The first thing that we're going to talk about today is all this news surrounding a man who, whether you love him or hate him, it feels like thanks to the algorithm on all these platforms, we have been forced to learn about over the past few months, and that is Andrew Tate. I'm getting DMs from what appear to be early teen boys saying, I hope Andrew Tate destroys you.

So that was Australian television and radio personality Abby Chatfield, who we're gonna get back to later, and she's talking about former kickboxer turned massive online personality, Andrew Tate. And Tate, as it turns out, has actually been around for quite a while now, but over the past several weeks and months, he's just blown up in a crazy way.

Or just looking at Google search trends over the summer, searches skyrocketed for him, outpacing those of people with massive followings like Joe Rogan and A-list stars like Taylor Swift. And so with that kind of following, you're like, okay, well, what is he known for? What genius is he putting out there into the world? For me, I think my first introduction to Tate

was this Dave Portnoy clip where he's just like, if a woman is going out with a man, she belongs to that man, that's his woman. So if she wants to do OnlyFans, she owes him some money because she's his. Yes, that's what I said. Well, that's crazy. You think if a man...

That one's crazy. So it's reverse. A male porn star owes the woman. I don't know because I think the women belong to the man. I think the woman's given up. Yeah, that's inherently where you get called sexist. I didn't think that he was being real. I was like, this has to be a character because this is so outlandish.

He's talking about women being property. And that's just one example. Of course, there are highlights that paint a fuller picture. Women should clean up. Not only should women clean up, women should clean up unprompted. I will not administer CPR unless you're a hot female. If I have responsibility over her, then I must have a degree of authority. For the same reason, if I have responsibility over, and everyone's going to lose their mind,

it's an example, it's only an analogy. If I have responsibility over a child's going to lose their mind it's an example it's only an analogy if i have responsibility over a child i have to have some authority you cannot be responsible for something that doesn't listen to you you can't be responsible for a dog if it doesn't obey you some dude once said to me yeah but if it's next to your bed what if you like upset a girl she catches you cheating and gets a machete bro there's no female alive even with a machete that that would stand a chance. Have you ever seen a woman try and do anything competently? Oh, you're cheating, you're cheating.

It's bang out the machete, boom in her face, and then grip her up by the neck. Basically, everything's escalating from ugly, ugly misogyny to straight up violence against women. And that stuff's just the tip of the iceberg, right? He's said things like rape victims should bear some responsibility for the violent crime that was committed against women. And that stuff's just the tip of the iceberg, right? He's said things like rape victims should bear some responsibility for the violent crime that was committed against them, and has also said that he prefers to date girls that are 18 or 19 so he can make an imprint on them. And that's in addition to some of the creepy stuff he's literally said to girls who are under the age of 18. Once you're 18, if you want to get yourself a real man, I know a guy. There were also reports that the UK was investigating him for abuse allegations, which he has denied. And when

he moved from the UK to Romania, he said that 40% of the reason that he moved there is because it's easier to evade rape charges. Saying, I'm not a rapist, but I like the idea of just being able to do what I want. I like being free. But also the investigations into him reportedly don't stop in the UK. This because a 21 year old girl was allegedly being held against her will at his home in Romania. Though Tate has denied wrongdoing, but authorities have said that an ongoing investigation includes human trafficking and rape allegations. And so with this, I know a number of you watching are probably like, well, how is he even on a platform? And that is actually one of the more interesting things.

He has been banned from Twitter over these views, which, once again, are only a fraction of his controversial takes. And he isn't even actively on TikTok himself, but instead, there are tons of videos of him from other accounts racking up over 11 billion views. And the reports here about how he managed to rack up these views are interesting, because one of Andrew Tate's main ventures is called Hustlers University. Now with this, I'll say right at the beginning, it sounds very much like an MLM, I don't know how you say it's not, but as Tate describes it, it's a community where me and dozens of War Room members will

teach you exactly how to make money. And adding that it gives people access to stock analysis, options plays, crypto analysis, DeFi, NFTs, e-commerce, copywriting, freelancing, affiliate marketing, and more. Saying every professor is verified by me personally. Each one of them is making anywhere from 10K to 500K a month in their select fields. And saying I chose fields that anyone anywhere can do now to get rich. No bullshit, no fluff, just hard-hitting lessons and making money. It's $49 per month and the website says that even if you spend your last $49 on it, you're gonna make it back and more. As far as one of the reasons that people call it an MLM is that one of the best ways to make your $49 back

and or a profit is to just push it on to other people, which is something that Tate has faced questions on, including from Hasan Piker, who asked him about it during a stream. I want to understand, you know, because you are a businessman. I want to understand how you generate revenue. Is it okay to get this information for free

or do I have to pay $50 and then maybe get an affiliate link and get other people to also join so i can make a 10 cut off of them also joining hustlers university you can find everything on the website and you can join if you want more information that's fine but you don't want to you don't want to share this information for free right now you don't want to educate me on that i don't want to sit here and spend the next hour you trying to accuse me of some bullshit hu has an affiliate program for some people. They want to affiliate like everything else in the world. We have over a hundred thousand students making more than they invest each month. If they didn't make more than they invest, they wouldn't sign up on the most successful online educational platforms in history.

Is it, are there multiple layers to make some money yourself? If you want to join and have more information, it's all on corporate take.com. You can find out yourself. So it is a multi-level marketing scheme. Got it. And according to reports, it's the people that are a part of hustlers university that are apparently a big part of the big boom in seeing andrew tate all over tiktok with a guardian explaining that many of these followers flood social media with videos him often choosing controversial clips to boost engagement they essentially manipulate the algorithm to amass this community of boys and young men who are now interested in andrew tate reportedly it's a super easy rabbit hole to fall down with a guardian publishing this investigative report that looked at how tikt TikTok's algorithm promotes people like Tate to young men and teen boys.

And in that article, the paper says that it conducted an experiment where it created an account for an imaginary 18-year-old boy. Saying at first, the account was shown a mix of materials such as comedy clips, dog videos, and discussions about men's mental health. Then noting that the algorithm began suggesting more and more content tailored for men after watching videos aimed at male users, including a clip from the Alpha Blokes podcast and a clip of a TikToker discussing how men don't talk about their feelings. But then where things

really take a turn is because without liking or searching for any content proactively, the account began stumbling across videos of Tate, including one from a copycat account using Tate's name and picture caption, the harsh reality of men, which appeared to blame feminism for making men miserable, adding that the majority of men have no money, no power, no sex from their wife and their lives suck. And while The Guardian in in their report, went on to explain that TikTok's algorithm also suggested videos from the likes of Jordan Peterson, it noted that Tate became the dominating face presented to this account. We saw in response to The Guardian, TikTok issued a very PR-laden statement saying that misogyny and other hateful ideologies and behaviors aren't tolerated on the platform,

and that it's reviewing this content and that it'll take action against videos that violate its guidelines. But with all that said, it brings us to one of the biggest questions in this story, is with people that have audiences, what do they do about Tate? Some people, like Noel Miller of the Tiny Meat Gang podcast, initially saying he should just be ignored. It's like, who cares? Yeah. I know that's a really hot take, but people get really f***ing worked up.

Like, oh, this guy f***ing doesn't like girls. Like, so what? It's like, leave him in Romania, like, talking to himself. Well, I know, but the problem is he's not in romania talking to himself he's talking to millions and millions of kids who all are just eating up everything he's saying the whole hysteria around him is because everyone's bored and he is not a new thing right so you had cody co kind of pushing back but you know there was a conversation about people trying to debate him. It's not gonna work. With Miller kind of later minimizing

Tate's possible influence. And at one point saying that he's not anti-Tate. And very quickly he faced backlash from his audience. With people saying a number of things, including that the world is not taking misogyny seriously. It's turning a blind eye to real issues. Later leading to Miller releasing a statement clarifying that he does not think Tate

is a good influence or a person, and he's not trying to justify his cultural presence. Miller and Kotico also saying in a later podcast, we do not support Andrew Tate. With Miller then apologizing for his ignorance and suggesting that Tate has no influence if you just ignore him, talking about how the consequences are real for the people that Tate's remarks are about. It's easy for us to be like, ah, just tune him out. Or like, oh, he's just like these other guys, like him,*** him. Ignore him. That's easy for us to say. But we're not the women that now go outside and have to deal with, like, the dudes that are, like, fans of him or, like, trying to emulate him. This dude's a f***ing tumor.

And I'm continuing to discuss the importance of that perspective, which is something many other people have brought up recently. And even, actually, Andrew Tate himself has said that the best thing that his critics can do is ignore him. The smartest thing my haters could do is never mention me again. All you are doing is accelerating my endless conquest. And so all of that brings us back to, as promised, Abby Chatfield discussing the situation on a show called The Project. And there she debated what to do about Tate. How can the media productively handle this, especially since she's been asked repeatedly to talk about him with her saying, I do feel like I really want to ignore him. I want to try and suffocate him with any oxygen in media because the more that I engage with his content, even to research for a radio segment, if I look at his TikToks or if he's tagged in a TikTok and I look at it for too long,

that feeds the algorithm and it spreads that more to my followers and to the followers that are already engaging in that content. But Chatfield also adding, It is getting a bit too big to ignore now, but I do still fear that if I speak about it to my followers or my listeners in my podcast, it doesn't really achieve anything for me. I'm sure those who are my listeners already feel this way. Right, basically saying at best, someone in her position is speaking in an echo chamber,

but at worst, she could be encouraging people to seek out his content, thus promoting it more to the algorithm. But also with us saying she knows from firsthand experience that Tate's influence is real. Talking about those DMs she gets from teen boys saying they hope Tate destroys her and adding. I also get comments calling me Abby Tate and comments on TikTok especially. That's where it's really, really rough. And she's not alone in pointing out the real world consequences of Andrew Tate with Marie Claire putting out a piece saying, women are under threat and we have been for generations.

Men like Andrew Tate are making the world even more unsafe for women and girls who are already terrified of becoming another statistic. And so with all of that said, the question I want to pass off to you, I mean, one, any aspect of the story, I'd love to hear from you, but also what is the right thing to do here

if you are anti-Tayton? We've talked about a version of this story multiple times. The most recent, though, kind of disconnected was the offensive bikini top. It's rageonomics and the backlash economy, where the more people get angry about a thing, the more that thing grows or makes money. And people have had the same debate regarding QAnon or Donald Trump. By covering it or even opposing or debating it, are you just giving it more oxygen? Or if you just try to not talk about it, ignore it, does it just build in the darkness?

And because it runs unopposed, more and more people just join. Personally, I don't have the answer, but that's also because I don't think there is an answer for this modern problem. Also, just so we're on the same page, not a Tate fan, probably because I'm not a top G, though 20-year-old Philip DeFranco

probably would have ate this shit up. I had a lot of anger about life, frustrations with women, I was a stupid fucking edgelord. And it's really hard for me to see him as having anything other than an incredibly negative social impact, just raising up a bunch of angry misogynists. And of course, why wouldn't he continue to do it if he's making mountains of money from being the worst version of himself? But ultimately, that is the story today, some of my personal opinion. And of course, now I pass the question off to you. What are your thoughts here?

Whether it be regarding Tate as a person or a personality, or what's the best way to deal with him? And then, because the whole first half of this video was about someone doing bad things with their audience, let's talk about some good stuff, including our BAMF of the day, MrBeast, who just recently put out a video where he helped a few schools by giving away five buses worth of goods. First, stopping at a few schools locally locally and at the first stop saying,

Each kid will take a backpack and fill it with enough school supplies to last an entire school year. Yeah! When they see this today, it's gonna blow them away. Somebody really cares. But it also didn't stop with the students. There was one teacher with car troubles. He gave her a new Jeep. He gave $10,000 to a lunch lady whose husband recently passed away.

Taking a few more buses to another school, buying supplies for their STEM and art classes, and giving a $10,000 to a lunch lady whose husband recently passed away. They get a few more buses to another school buying supplies for their STEM and art classes and giving a $10,000 donation to the school. By the time they had finished helping a handful of local schools, they'd given away $200,000 in supplies. And then after that, Mr. Beast's team going across the country to a school in need and they're helping the teachers. So it's a fantastic feel-good story. I'm happy it happened, but also anytime something like this happens, it puts a spotlight on a very real problem that this needs to be done in the first place. There on a very real problem that this needs to be done in the first Place there's a very real issue that families and teachers are facing right now is the first day of school comes up which is the Cost of school supplies this year the National Retail Federation finding that while it's a really hurting right now when it comes to back-to-school

Shopping saying that households are expected to spend around eight hundred sixty four dollars on back-to-school shopping this year Which is up fifteen dollars from last year But also up nearly one hundred dollars from 2020 and over $160 from 2019, with consumers mostly noting higher prices on clothing, followed by school supplies and shoes. And so to handle all these costs, you have 38% of families saying they're cutting back in other areas, 18% taking on extra hours or overtime at work, and 17% using buy now, pay later options. We're also seeing some families working as a team, choosing to buy in bulk and then splitting the cost with friends and other families, as well as people buying used and secondhand products from places like Facebook

Marketplace. And all of that's in addition to teachers who just need basic ass supplies. It, it break, like I, I help, but it still breaks my heart when you have teachers saying, hey, here's my wishlist so I can teach the kids. It's just fucking insane how we fail our teachers in so many ways, because this is just one. I've seen an increasing number of videos of teachers on TikTok getting ready for the school year, and some of y'allall, like, I don't know how you do it. You either have hearts of gold or you're masochists. But hey, all of that said, here is to a good and uneventful, except in the good way, school year. But from that, I want to take a second to thank the fantastic sponsor of today's show, Squarespace. You know, I've been partnering with

Squarespace for years now and I have to say, if you're getting your business off the ground or creating a place to share your homemade goods, new favorite hobby, current obsession, or even a personal blog to get all those thoughts out of your head, no matter what you're doing, Squarespace is there to help. And it's also easy. There's nothing to install, patch, or upgrade ever. And creating a beautiful website with Squarespace's all-in-one platform has never been so simple. It's extremely intuitive and easy to use. And with their mobile-optimized websites, your content automatically adjusts. Your content looks great on any device. Plus, with Squarespace, you get access to all their marketing

tools and analytics and their award-winning customer care team via email or live chat 24-7. So if you want to check it out, see why so many others love it so much, go ahead and start your free trial today over at squarespace.com slash phil. When you realize you love it, make sure you enter an offer code phil to get 10% off your first purchase. And then we need to talk about updates around the absolutely massive story of the FBI raid of Trump's Mar-a-Lago estate and all the fallouts since. Right, so where we last left things, Attorney General Merrick Garland

made an unprecedented announcement calling for the search warrant and the inventory of everything that agents seized to be unsealed, saying that the public had a right to see the information. Hours later, Trump posted on social media that he supported the documents being publicized, though notably he and his lawyers could have done so at any time.

And then on Friday, those documents were first leaked and then officially unsealed, with the inventory revealing that agents took around 20 boxes of various items from Mar-a-Lago last week, with this reportedly including 11 boxes of classified files. And specifically, they seized four sets of files labeled as top secret, one that was top secret slash sensitive

compartmentalized information, three classified as secret documents, and three that were confidential. While we don't know much about the specific contents of what was taken in all of the 20 boxes, we do know that there was one item labeled Info RE President of France, as well as another listed Executive Grant of Clemency RE Roger Jason Stone Jr. Also, the Washington Post reported last Thursday that among other items, the FBI was looking for classified documents about nuclear weapons, though that is just according to sources and Trump has denied this claim. And while there

are still a lot of unknowns here, another crucial piece of information that we did get from the unsealed documents is why the FBI went to Trump's estate and what it's investigating him for. The warrant there showing that the judge who issued it found that there was probable cause to believe that agents would find evidence of three separate crimes. The first is a violation of the Espionage Act, which despite its name does not just pertain to spying on foreign powers, but also broadly covers unauthorized retention, transmission, and other mishandling of national security information, with each offense of that law carrying a sentence of up to 10 years in prison. The other two crimes that Trump is being investigated for do not pertain to national

security, with the second being a law that prohibits those in custody of government documents from concealing, destroying, or falsifying them. And there, notably, in addition to each offense of that law being punishable by three years in prison, another penalty is that the defendant is barred from holding federal office though notably legal experts say that if Trump was charged under the law he would likely not actually be blocked from running because of some legal Stuff that I'll save that for another video but finally the third crime that Trump is being investigated for here is the violation of an obstruction of justice law that carries a sentence of up to 20 years in prison for each violation of destroying or concealing records quote with the intent to impede obstruct or influence the investigation or proper administration of matters in the

jurisdiction of federal departments or agencies and trump for his part has addressed the whole situation with the classic tactic of throwing literally everything at the wall and seeing what sticks with his team claiming that this is all politically motivated and the fbi is corrupt at one point also implying that the fbi planted the evidence but then turning around and arguing that the evidence they literally just said the fbi had planted had actually just been declassified by Trump. With his aide saying in a statement that he often took documents, including classified documents, to the residents. And had a standing order that what he took were deemed to be declassified the moment he removed them. Now, besides this insanely flawed argument of arguing that Trump automatically declassified these documents by bringing them to Mar-a-Lago,

and then also kind of saying the FBI somehow planted those same documents. There's also other holes here. First of all, this is the first time we're hearing of this so-called standing order. And by we, I don't just mean the public, but rather top officials who would have definitely needed to know about it, like Trump's literal national security advisor, John Bolton, who wouldn't, you know, claim to have no knowledge of such an order saying. If he were to say something like that, you would have to memorialize that so that people would know it existed. And adding that if Trump had removed records, it would have to be documented what they were, each document, so that people would know what had been declassified. And what's more, also noting that secure facilities for looking at sensitive materials were created at Trump's clubs in Florida and New Jersey, so the documents wouldn't even need to be declassified.

And to that point, while it's true that the president does have broad discretion to declassify documents, there is still a formal process, and some kinds of declassifications do indeed require additional approvals from other government officials. But easily the biggest flaw is that the matter of classification is essentially entirely irrelevant to the actual legal matters here. As one report explained, even if it is true that Mr. Trump deemed the files declassified before the end of his presidency, none of the three crimes depends on whether the documents are classified. All the laws that Trump is being investigated for, even the Espionage Act, can be applied in ways that center around the handling of the documents and the fact that Trump kept them at Mar-a-Lago so long after his presidency, regardless of classification. Which is probably why we've

seen so many of Trump's allies and members of the Republican Party opting to run with the narrative that the FBI and DOJ have become politicized and corrupt, with many Republicans stoking skepticism and distrust in the agency and plenty of top leaders also actively spreading misinformation or making wild claims without any evidence. You got Florida Senator Rick Scott likening the government to the Gestapo. Definite same person, Marjorie Taylor Greene,

releasing a line of merch literally calling the FBI the enemy of the state. Representative Paul Gozar of Arizona even going as far as to tweet, we must destroy the FBI. But also, on the other side, we have seen a growing number of Republican leaders condemning their colleagues' rhetoric and calling for a more restrained approach. With that, possibly

because these people fear what could happen and already is happening among Trump's base in response to all of this. How incendiary and violent words and lies can lead to things like January 6th. And, I mean, according to reports, in the days after the FBI served the Warren at Mar-a-Lago, there's been an increase in threats against Attorney General Merrick Garland and the FBI. There's also been an increase in reports of Trump supporters taking to TikTok with threats of civil war. We're already seeing some of this spill over into the real world. Or you've got things like over the weekend, a group of armed people gathered outside an FBI office in Phoenix, Arizona to demonstrate against the Mar-a-Lago raid. With many saying they were especially

concerned that this group was armed, given the fact that just a few days prior, an armed man tried to storm an FBI office in Cincinnati, Ohio and engaged in a standoff before being fatally shot. And while the authorities have not said what this man's motives were, it has been reported that he was a Trump supporter who posted about his anger at the raid and documented his attack on Trump's Truth Social. The Truth Social account believed to be the gunman's posting a call to arms and urging people to be ready for combat following the FBI raid. And reportedly, after the attempted breach of the office, the same account posted, if you don't hear from me, it is true, I tried attacking the FBI. Just a lot of really scary,

concerning shit happening right now. But that is where we are with this story for now. We're gonna have to wait to see what happens next. But ultimately, that is where that story and today's show ends. As always, thank you for watching, being a part of the conversation on these daily dives into the news.

And if you're looking to watch more from me, you can click right here or in that description down below. But my name's Philip DeFranco. You've just been filled in. I love your faces and I'll see you tomorrow.