The news broke yesterday that Romania is being pressured by the Trump administration to ease off the (in)famous Tate brothers, who stand accused of various criminal activities like human trafficking and rape – charges, it should be noted, that both Andrew and Tristan Tate strenuously deny.
They insist, rather, that they are being persecuted for refusing to bend the knee to ‘the Matrix’ – a vague term that essentially refers to a shadowy collection of people and forces who attempt to control narratives and the flow of information for the purposes of benefiting themselves and their ends, to the detriment of everyone else.
The Financial Times reported that US officials brought the brothers up in a phone call with the Romanian government last week, in an effort to get them to lift travel restrictions imposed on the brothers, both of whom are US citizens. Similarly, the FT reported that the topic was addressed at the recently-held Munich Security Conference.
Special Presidential Envoy Richard Grenell, who brought up the Tates with the Romanian Foreign Minister at the MSC, posted on X earlier this month that “Romania is the latest example” of how the “USAid programs were weaponised against people and politicians who weren’t woke”.
“Conservatives around the world were targeted,” Grenell wrote.
Now, I’m all for ensuring that justice remains impartial. If, as is frequently implied, the case against the Tates is politically motivated – or if any other case is, for that matter – corrective steps that can be taken ought to be.
That is obviously the logic from which the current Trump administration advocacy flows, with regards to this particular case.
That said, there’s a world of difference between ensuring that justice remains blind and holding up the Tate brothers as model “conservatives,” persecuted for their unflinching adherence to long-standing tradition and principle. You do not need the Romanian criminal charges to be true to come to the conclusion that Andrew and his brother are anything but model conservatives – you just need to watch their videos, or scroll their social media feeds. Andrew provided a prime example of this over the weekend, writing on X: “If all your children come from one woman you are not a conquerer.”
I’m always wary of the fact that his posts could either be taken as his actual opinion, or as expertly-crafted rage- and engagement-bait (seeing as they stimulate both in abundance), but this contribution was but the latest in what has become a lengthy tradition of denigrating the institution of marriage and traditional sexual morality.
Commenting under that post, someone asked, “how many wives is recommended then?”, to which Tate responded, “Wife? Lol”. Another commented, “I have 6 kids from 3 women. What does that make me?” Tate’s answer: “A hero.”
“The right” being as nebulous a camp as it is in the modern age, there are as many reactions to this sort of talk as there are people. Many called it out, but many others agreed – and its 28 thousand likes attest to more still, as does Tate’s enduring, and apparently growing, relevance.
The thing is, though, it’s not just about Tate – it’s about a wider trend on the right that sees being anti-woke or reactionary as being sufficient qualification for membership.
At the risk of setting myself up for criticism, I am of the opinion that any conservative movement worth its salt ought to have standards, and high standards at that. That doesn’t mean making the perfect the enemy of the good, or reducing it to a political renewal for the clean and tidy among us, but it does mean refusing to call evil, or base, good.
As American conservative activist, Chris Rufo (who has done stellar work uprooting DEI initiatives from US institutions) wrote in response to Tate’s musings: “The Right must be more selective in the people it welcomes into the firmament. Conservatives have been locked out of elite institutions for so long, many will accept any celebrity that signals opposition to the Left—even a common pimp with a social media following.”
“The basic conservative argument—that family is the cornerstone of society—is correct. Throwing it away for Andrew Tate is arguably worse than throwing it away for gender cultism. The latter, at least, is internally coherent, as the Left rejects the premise,” he writes further on in the thread.
Take alternatively the other drama playing out in recent days on X: Conservative activist and influencer Ashley St Clair, who claims to be mother of Elon Musk’s 13th child, born of nearly as many women, you might say. For his part, Elon has neither confirmed nor denied her claim.
I happen to share Elon’s concern about plunging birth rates – believing children and youthfulness to be a great, if not one of the greatest, goods we humans are bestowed with, as well as essential for the smooth functioning of our societies – but that doesn’t mean mad dash to produce as many children as possible, by any means necessary.
There’s libraries’ worth of evidence in support of the notion that the family – as referenced by Rufo above – is the cornerstone of society, and that “shooting and leaving”, as modern men are all too prone to doing, does tremendous harm to children, and through many deprived children and family units, to society. Standards are needed; morality is needed, far over and above “owning the left” or adhering to mere nature.
This principle ought to be extended, on all fronts. While many of the examples I’m highlighting pertain to the US, in the internet age, their effect is relevant everywhere – Ireland included. If a standard isn’t set, the movement currently attempting to renew western societies – “the right” – risks becoming a “dumping ground” (as Rufo put it) for those formed by the insane progressive societies it’s struggling to extricate itself from.
In other words: a conservative movement worth anything must be virtuous, striving for genuine human flourishing, which in turn will bring about societal flourishing. As an colleague of mine noted in response to Tate’s claims, “It’s really easy to have a pile of kids with different women, any monkey can do that. Having a pile of kids with the same person and raising them right is the hero”.