Tate hate has returned as Andrew and Tristan Tate inexplicably were allowed to enter the U.S. after having been detained in a Romanian prison on sex trafficking and sexual abuse charges. Predictably, mainstream conservative voices have loudly denounced Andrew Tate and his cartoonish brand of masculinity.

As before, this denunciation means little. Not because Tate’s critics are wrong, but because very few people these days care about Andrew Tate. The only people who seem to care belong to the older set, who have long since made up their mind about the faux macho man.

Meanwhile, the audience of young men who are Tate’s supposed target audience have moved on. Assuming they have heard of him, and many Zoomers have not, they think he’s a nasty (if sometimes amusing) creep.

This is because the issues Tate is known for speaking out about have since been taken over by other, smarter, more talented, and less pointlessly provocative voices who effectively advocate for men, provide a masculine perspective, and promote self-reliance. In many ways, Trump’s reelection and the MAGA movement is the culmination of American men finding their voice again and recovering their place in public life. The rule of the “longhouse”—a term used to describe the rule of entitled midwit women—is on the wane.

By contrast, none of this was the case during Andrew Tate’s infamous rise to prominence, which began during the tenure of President Barack Obama. In those years, his provocations earned him the negative attention he craved. Originally known for being kickboxing champion and the proud owner of an adult webcam business, Tate moved to Bucharest, Romania during Trump’s first term and presented himself as a masculine guru who called out the weak feminized culture of his time.

Keep in mind, these were the years of the Obama cult, Hillary Clinton’s “the future is female” campaign, constant tirades against toxic masculinity, women’s marches, college rape hoaxes, and eventually the #MeToo movement. This was also when every new Disney princess kicked butt, the protagonist of the new Star Wars trilogy was an overpowered Mary Sue, and the ultimate girlboss superhero movie Captain Marvel grossed over a billion dollars. In music, Taylor Swift, Beyonce, Kelly Clarkson, and Katy Perry were the queens of pop, singing odes to female empowerment. All the while, every mainstream organization aggressively encouraged women to “lean in” and enter every career field and dominate every academic discipline.

Not surprisingly, this was also the time when the transgender movement peaked, and radical gender ideologues feverishly devised new genders and sexualities (putting the ‘+’ in LGBTQ+) every week.

As for the men, they were routinely derided as imbeciles who needed to check their privilege and essentially (and in the case of the transgender movement, literally) neuter themselves. Of course, many young men were neglected in broken homes with no male role models and intellectually sedated with online pornography, video games, and ADHD medications. As for the more ambitious men, assuming they weren’t accused of rape by an angry girlfriend in college, they would often be passed over for job opportunities and leadership positions to make room for their (oftentimes less capable) female peers.

On cue, this was also the moment when modern dating culture utterly collapsed into a pathetic shambles. It became cool for young women to evaluate prospective romantic partners and loudly proclaim on social media that “if you can’t handle me at my worst, then you sure as hell don’t deserve me at my best.” In addition to this, men with the wherewithal to ask women out began to feel they must walk on eggshells, trying their best to avoid coming off like a predator. The practical result was an epidemic of loneliness and the rise of online dating platforms which increasingly consist of hookups and disguised prostitution.

In those days, few people on the right or the left said much about any of this. Leftists obviously celebrated the perceived progress of the feminist agenda while conservatives tediously invoked the success sequence of finishing high school, getting a job, and marrying before having children, remaining oblivious to what was happening in the real world.

For about a decade, this was the surrounding context that led the social media phenomenon formally known as Andrew Tate, an aggressive dude-bro smoking cigars, driving Bugattis, and boasting of a harem of beautiful women. Sure, his whole image was the puerile dream of an immature teenage boy. Sure his entire schtick is that of an ignorant misogynist who likely abused women. But what other options were there in the popular culture at the time for fatherless young men starved for normal masculinity? Pajama boys? Male feminists? Celebrations of transgenderism?  

Fortunately, there are plenty of other options now. Today we have many strong, articulate, and successful men who have stepped up to fill the cultural vacuum. And for the most part, this has been a great blessing for both men and women. Men are finally being encouraged to achieve, improve themselves, and fight for their own spaces, and women are finally allowed to embrace their femininity, admit they admire masculine men, and not feel guilty when they step away from the dehumanizing grind that only judges their worth by their success in the workplace. In time, the arguments and examples of these men may restore some balance (and sanity) to the modern world.

As for Andrew Tate, he has done his part and can now comfortably fade into irrelevance—or face punishment for his crimes. No one should feel compelled to defend him, nor should they bother with criticizing him, fearing him, or canceling him. In the end, he is a relic of the 2010s and largely the manifestation of so many frustrated young men during this dark time. We have grown up since then, and to paraphrase St. Paul, it may be time to put away childish things.