• 14th_cylon@lemm.ee
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      1 month ago

      i think registration and actually sending any money will be two separate steps, but it is still lot of dumb people.

    • VieuxQueb@lemmy.ca
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      1 month ago

      At 50$ a pop it’s 40 000 000$ Grifters gonna grift ! Sometimes I hate that I have morals stopping me from exploiting those morons.

      • thatKamGuy@sh.itjust.works
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        1 month ago

        It’s worse than you think; it’s $50/month!

        Now part of the problem is we don’t know the average membership length, and it’s further complicated by the fact that the Tate brothers ran the ‘school’ like a pyramid scheme where enrolling another member earned you a kick-back (which is why so many random channels popped up a few years back sharing clips).

        So pulling random numbers out of my arse, if the average membership period was ~6 months and they had ~30% operating expenses (servers, bandwidth, kickbacks etc.) they could have netted ~$168m from this scheme.

        I too, share your self-loathing in my morals preventing me from exploiting these absolute morons.

      • thatKamGuy@sh.itjust.works
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        1 month ago

        Yup, was one of the first bits I thought of too…

        I still paraphrase his “your stuff is shit, my shit is stuff” to this day… 😅

        We really need someone to fill the massive shoes he left behind - an individual able to call out all the egregious bullshit.

  • Yerbouti@sh.itjust.works
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    1 month ago

    Data brokers will now have a new set of identities for Insecure White Male with No Financial Literacy.

  • TJA!@sh.itjust.works
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    1 month ago

    800.000 people?

    Talking bullshit seems to pay very good

    <edit> yes not everyone was paying, but still: </edit>

    If accurate, the site at minimum would generate upwards of $5,650,000 every month.

  • affiliate@lemmy.world
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    1 month ago

    ”Money making is a skill,” the website states. “We will teach you how to master it.”

    step 1: convince people to pay you 50$ for access to your deranged ramblings.

    there is no step 2

  • gcheliotis@lemmy.world
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    1 month ago

    Omg 800,000 people (presumably mostly young men) signed up for that bullshit? Have we failed so many that they will seek help with the top douchebag himself?

    • TexMexBazooka@lemm.ee
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      1 month ago

      There’s very much a vacuum for what healthy masculinity looks like, and shitheads like Tate are filling that void

        • TexMexBazooka@lemm.ee
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          1 month ago

          It makes me sad, especially knowing my son is going to face the same propaganda. I just hope to arm him with the knowledge to see past it.

          • gcheliotis@lemmy.world
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            1 month ago

            Knowledge and unconditional love should do the trick 🤞I have found that the men most prone to this are men with a chronic lack of love and self-esteem.

    • BigDanishGuy@sh.itjust.works
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      1 month ago

      According the “hustler’s university 4.0” website you can get in for as little as 49USD (which is a steal, when the posted before price is 147USD)

      Imagine scamming 8x10^5 for just 50USD each, I mean it’s not like a considerable criminal investigation will get started for 50 bucks, but the chinless douche is walking away with 40million, from that scam alone. And I’ll bet that there will be special courses with an additional charge, as well as merch and PPV webinars. Safe to say it’s not just 40million Tate has scammed kids for.

      • umbraroze@lemmy.world
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        1 month ago

        It’s apparently $50 a month, but based on one recent video from a guy who looked into this, there’s apparently a hard sell to “commit” to the program for a year, and if you do commit, it won’t let you cancel or refund, because you committed to the program, bro, that’s a sacred vow, bro, you can’t violate that, bro.

      • gcheliotis@lemmy.world
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        1 month ago

        Ooph. I guess we can get really dismayed at this, or maybe we should just think that given his infamy it’s only natural he’s able to monetize it, one way or another. So many influencers produce content that is on the face of it of very little value. Granted, not so many are making a career out of promoting the most toxic aspects of (so-called) masculinity. Even Jordan Peterson has redeeming qualities compared to this. Of course that’s a low bar. A low bar that seemingly many men are happy to pass and fork money for in the hopes of bettering themselves.

  • RobotToaster@mander.xyz
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    1 month ago

    My friend’s brother almost fell victim to this cult. If he’s anything to go by most members will be vulnerable idiots.

  • Fizz@lemmy.nz
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    1 month ago

    Jesus Christ he has 800,000 users. That’s so depressing.

    • TrueStoryBob@lemmy.world
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      1 month ago

      I mean,800k seems low actually… it was up and running for like six or seven years. Maybe the prices were too steep?

  • fmstrat@lemmy.nowsci.com
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    1 month ago

    Read the article, it’s so much better than the headline lets on. Trolled him, email addresses, full forum and chat content, etc.

  • stoy@lemmy.zip
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    1 month ago

    It’s interesting, the first time I saw a picture of Tate I only saw cringe, and that has not changed.

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    1 month ago

    Whoo, which would be more embarrassing? Being exposed by this leak or the Ashley Madison one. I would love to see a list of email addresses that show up in both datasets.

    • psmgx@lemmy.world
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      1 month ago

      One of the takeaways of AM being hacked was that a ton of accounts were fake, and existed to create the idea of a busy site, to add social proof and validity-by-numbers.

      The AM hacks were like decade and change ago, and Tate’s fanbase is mostly younger. I’m sure there is some overlap but probably small.

  • psmgx@lemmy.world
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    1 month ago

    Wonder how many were bots, like Ashley Madison, that exist to pump numbers and increase engagement