Beyond the Cult of Self-Reliant Bootstrapping

My ventures in attempting to lift myself up by my bootstraps led me to videos filled with hyperbolic exhortations aimed at motivating young men just like me. “Absolutely everything that happens in your life—whether it’s good or bad—is completely your fault,” typifies the rhetoric, in this instance as delivered by Andrew Tate. “If it rains tomorrow, I am responsible for the rain,” says Tate, “I could have looked at the weather forecast and flown to another country to avoid the rain.” More inflammatory and entertaining than figures such as Jordan B. Peterson or Joe Rogan, Tate regularly dispenses wisdom that is scarcely distinguishable from the absurd.