Today is Sunday, March 23, 2025. A new British series on Netflix called Adolescence is bravely tackling the thorny issues of online culture for young men in which openly misogynistic influencers like this odious Andrew Tate have typically enjoyed a very wide audience in which his rants about male dominance, female submission and wealth, have appeared everywhere. I started watching the series yesterday after hearing about how wonderful it is, and I’ve only watched the first episode. In this first episode which truly packs a wallop in that it covers the arrest of a seemingly innocent-looking thirteen-year-old, Jamie Miller (Owen Cooper), for suspicion of murder. This episode follows the Miller family as their middle-school son is hauled into the local precinct and is fingerprinted, strip searched, and is interviewed by the detective who brought him in: Detective Inspector Luke Bascombe (Ashley Walters) and his partner whose name escapes me. When you watch this, you truly believe the boy is innocent of such a horrendous crime: he’s accused of stabbing to death a fellow female student named Katie Leonard.

As the series progresses, it turns into a terrifying examination of male online interactions in which the main character, Jamie Miller, is thrust into such a toxic culture online. We soon hear words like the “manosphere” and “incel.” The first word refers to a jumble of groups and philosophies that center around ideas of toxic masculinity commonly referred to as the “manosphere.” The second word refers to young men who are “involuntarily celibate” because they believe that they’re unattractive to women who won’t sleep with them. This kind of thinking can easily lead to outbursts of violence against the very people they think are ignoring them: women. Acts of violence against all sexes can be attributed to these radicalized young men. In this country alone, I can’t begin to list the many mass shootings attributed to young men who have called themselves incels. One very significant one is the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting on December 14, 2012. The assailant there was one Adam Lanza, 20, who fatally shot 20 children and six adults, after killing his mother first before undertaking his brutal campaign of carnage.

Now we have a British series that courageously tackles such issues as male rage, modern masculinity, and online bullying. Again, I’ve only watched the first episode and I found it emotionally wrenching and riveting. All I can say after viewing this first episode is that I’m so glad I don’t have children as young as Jamie anymore. The series puts under the microscope every family’s worst nightmare: having a son or daughter accused of such a heinous crime before reaching the age of consent. Who is to blame for such a transgression? Should parents take a more active role in what their children are doing on the internet? Should social media platforms be better regulated?

These are all hard-hitting questions that need to be addressed if we want our sons to not be radicalized by evil influencers like Andrew Tate. Actually, this bastard is now facing six legal investigations – four criminal and two civil – in Romania, the United Kingdom, and the United States (Little Donnie would probably pardon this son of a bitch before you can say incel). Reading his page on Wikipedia, I see that Emory Andrew Tate, born in 1986, is “an American and British social media personality, businessman, and former professional kickboxer. His controversial commentary has resulted in his expulsion from various social media platforms and concern that he promotes misogynistic views to his audience.” He has amassed a staggering 9.9 million followers on Twitter, or X, as of August 2024 and was the third-most googled person in 2023 [what happened to people like Albert Schweitzer or Mahatma Gandhi], with most British adults aware of who he is. He has been dubbed the “king of toxic masculinity.” He calls himself a misogynist, even. At least, this loathsome character knows what to call himself. I would be shocked to hear if he were married, and he’s not.

In Romania, Andrew along with his brother Tristan face charges of human trafficking and forming a criminal gang to sexually exploit women. Allegedly, they lured women to Romania, where they were reportedly sexually exploited. Andrew Tate was also charged with rape.

Oh, what a sick and twisted world we live in these days, folks. It’s very difficult to fight against these divisive forces now that we have such a divisive character back in the White House. But we must try! I applaud this series for opening up a much-needed dialogue on this very alarming situation all over the world. But don’t expect any kind of regulation of social media platforms in this country over the next four years. We are alone, regrettably, in this matter! Parents will have to take a more active role in monitoring their children’s internet usage if they want to escape the same fate as the Millers will face at the end of Adolescence.

Have a good week.

And so it went!