this post was submitted on 10 Jan 2025
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Explain Like I'm Five

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[–] Cruxifux@feddit.nl 59 points 1 week ago (33 children)

It’s called the manosphere, and it’s a bunch of bad podcasters and YouTubers giving shitty advice on how to be a man to insecure kids. It’s annoying because it’s so stupid on its face and yet it’s working.

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[–] dumbass@leminal.space 44 points 1 week ago

Andrew Tate and his cum dungeon brother are a big reason for this.

[–] DragonTypeWyvern@midwest.social 39 points 1 week ago (2 children)

Beat his ass to establish dominance.

[–] OmegaLemmy@discuss.online 20 points 1 week ago (2 children)

True solution, beat him into submission so that now he's the beta male and all of a sudden he's denying the concept

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[–] Delphia@lemmy.world 15 points 1 week ago

Seduce his mom!

[–] TheBananaKing@lemmy.world 26 points 1 week ago

Alpha quality, like software. Buggy as hell and should not be released. :D

srsly though it's the clusterfuckchild of social darwinism, grindset mentality and randroid zoology, plus a bit of wannabe-dom.

There was this old, debunked concept of the 'alpha wolf' as pack leader - all dominance displays, all the time, stronger and wiser and better than the rest, a sort of rightful-king that owes nothing to anyone, and that all lesser wolves obey and look up to.

Some absolute chuds picked up on the concept and decided that it applied to people, that it was a quality people could and should naturally embrace, unless they were just inherently inferior.

And of course they tied that all up with being male, because apparently men are just 'naturally dominant', unless again, they're broken and inferior ones - so if you are male, it's vital to prove that you're a properly functioning one by being a domineering asshole who deserves to get away with it out of sheer chutzpah, or else you deserve nothing but contempt and getting trodden on.

This ties in with conservative morality, which is entirely based around acknowledging and reinforcing social hierarchy. Right is when power is exerted downwards in the hierarchy, wrong is when power is asserted upwards.

So in this world, 'alphas' are the master race, while 'betas' are submissive half-men who lack the strength (and thus the virtue) to display the proper 'rugged independence'. They're also obsessed with 'cucks', ie cuckolds, men who lack the necessary manliness to fight off 'alphas' who would disrespect and shame them by having sex with their woman.

It's all incredibly toxic, and you need to pick him up and shake the bullshit out of him.

pic related

[–] x00z@lemmy.world 25 points 1 week ago (3 children)

Toxic people that would never have had a platform for their bullshit have suddenly gained that ability in just 20 years time because of the internet. People that would normally receive a lot of fists in their face, do not anymore. The digital world is such a new thing that it's completely unnatural for us to live with and it affects our perspectives and social lives. It simply goes way too fast for evolution to catch up to.

Without good care, it creates people that are completely delusional and deranged. Filter bubbles also add up to the problem. One that consumes content will be served more similar content, creating and feeding a very limited perspective. Because everything in the digital world is so new, there have been almost no studies in how it affects us and how it should be remedied.

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[–] Thcdenton@lemmy.world 16 points 1 week ago

Just beat his ass lol

[–] vrighter@discuss.tchncs.de 15 points 1 week ago (1 children)

next time he says that just slap him hard. And ask him who's the alpha now?

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[–] TheFinn@discuss.tchncs.de 15 points 1 week ago

That tells you that he's insecure about himself

[–] JeeBaiChow@lemmy.world 12 points 1 week ago

He found tate's channel.

[–] Today@lemmy.world 7 points 1 week ago

How old is he?

[–] Cochise@lemmy.eco.br 6 points 1 week ago

He is a furry that identify as a wolf. /s

[–] Rhynoplaz@lemmy.world 4 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (2 children)

If you're really asking what it means, an Alpha is a strong leader. They don't take commands, they give them. If they want something, they take it. They consider themselves superior to the weaker beta males, and feel that it is their duty to lead the betas, or that they are doing them a favor by pushing them to be more like an alpha.

Although, a lot of the time, the people who claim to be alphas have none of the redeeming characteristics, so they just act like entitled assholes.

EDIT. I think because I didn't come out swinging people are assuming I believe any of this shit. I was trying to explain it from the perspective of their brother. I thought they wanted to know what it was about, and just calling people assholes doesn't really explain what THEY believe.

[–] protist@mander.xyz 18 points 1 week ago

Correction - when you say "an alpha is a strong leader," you mean, "some people think an 'alpha male' is a strong leader, but that's not based in reality."

[–] ShareMySims@sh.itjust.works 13 points 1 week ago (1 children)

If you’re really asking what it means, an Alpha is a

pseudo scientific myth that has been twisted and then adopted almost exclusively by toxic men to try and boost their own ego and justify their shit behaviour

FTFY

[–] Rhynoplaz@lemmy.world 4 points 1 week ago

I wouldn't even give it that much credit.

[–] shittydwarf@lemmy.dbzer0.com 3 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Yeah, ask him how many omega males he's fertilised.

[–] RealM__@lemmy.world 2 points 1 week ago

How old is your brother?

[–] Alue42@fedia.io 2 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Others have given you a lot of info here on what it is your brother is referring to.
But what this is reflecting in your brother is that he has fallen into a pipeline of watching these videos or hanging out with people that watch these videos and had some insecurities that he's dealing with that is making these ideas seem like the answer. It would be a great idea to be supportive of him in whatever other hobbies/activities he has outside of watching those videos and spending time with him. Talk with him about anything other than the content of those videos so that those thoughts aren't even entering his mind. Introduce him to your friends that are also supportive in something other than those videos (you don't mention your ages, so it's unclear if you know the same people). Having supportive people around his activities and hobbies will help him lose some of those insecurities that made him gravitate to those videos.

If that fails, what I've seen others say works is if says he's an alpha male say back "I'm not into that furry stuff, but that's really cool your so open with your sexuality like that, and accepting of others' sexualities like recognizing the beta males"

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[–] Zier@fedia.io 2 points 1 week ago

Anyone who calls themselves an "alpha" anything is a small dicked nobody.

[–] motor_spirit@lemmy.world -1 points 1 week ago

this is great lmao what a prick

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