Your bag is empty.
This is The Manthropologist, a column by Charlie Sosnick about the Internet and the male mind.
In January 2026, the manosphere personalities Andrew and Tristan Tate, Nick Fuentes, Sneako, Myron Gaines, and Clavicular streamed themselves in a Miami Beach nightclub listening to the Ye song, “Heil Hitler.”
This was something of an “Avengers, assemble!” moment for online male provocateurs. Players from every level of the grift were present: Andrew Tate, the self-proclaimed “Top G” of this whole thing; Fuentes, the most overtly political of the bunch; and Clavicular, whose hyperspecialized expertise on looksmaxxing had rapidly propelled him into the upper echelon. Everything that makes the manosphere the manosphere was on display: Miami nightlife, livestreaming, loud and too-tight suits worn in a “swag is for boys, class is for men” kind of way. Playing an intentionally offensive song to intentionally offend, then wondering why everyone is mad at you.
When we look back at the manosphere one day, this could go down as its peak. Indeed, the past nine months have not been kind to the boys on the party bus. Andrew and Tristan Tate were finally arrested and are currently awaiting extradition to Britain for charges including rape and sex trafficking. Additional charges were filed related to indecent images of children and extreme pornography involving a horse and an eel. Clavicular was charged with rape and other offenses for an incident involving a 17-year-old girl, the same one he injected with facial filler during a 2025 livestream. Nick Fuentes, despite trying to fill the vacuum left by Charlie Kirk after his assasination, remains banned from most conservative events. He cancelled his own America First Political Action Conference due to concerns for his safety. Ding dong ding dong, the manosphere is dead!
But the manosphere is a hydra, and for every head that gets arrested or deplatformed, more will inevitably appear. Except for the Tates, who are unable to post from federal prison, these events are more like setbacks which can easily be spun into a desired narrative. The more politically-minded men in this group can claim they are being censored for exposing the powerful. The most overtly misogynistic can claim greedy women are making false accusations for money. All of this serves them well. But to everyone else, who are understandably sick and tired of hearing from these guys, these developments can seem like proof that this is all going away soon. It isn’t.
Consider Clavicular. I cover looksmaxxing as a journalist, so I have followed his rise obsessively and interviewed him myself several times. In some ways, he is the best thing to ever happen to looksmaxxing. He made looksmaxxing famous, popularized its teachings and techniques to the general public, and likely introduced tens of thousands of boys to the subculture. Clavicular is also the worst thing to ever happen to looksmaxxing. He turned a secretive, Flight Club-esque community into a global laughingstock. The new generation finding this through mainstream social media are dabblers compared to the hardened incels who invented looksmaxxing. And through his own personal hunger for fame, Clavicular has made countless parents and teachers aware of what looksmaxxing actually is—making adults and other kids more capable of helping when they see a young man flirting with the blackpill.
Since Clavicular’s arrest, editors have told me not to include him in my reporting on looksmaxxing. I get it. The man has been charged with rape. But Clavicular is not in jail and still posts. He is more active than ever and still the most important voice in looksmaxxing, whether the media covers him or not. Teenage boys are still cutting their eyelids with razor blades and purchasing peptides on his advice. He is still talking and children are still listening. My contention is that keeping people like Clavicular in the public consciousness, warts, crimes, and all, makes us all more aware about what’s going on in the world. The manosphere exists whether we cover it or not.
The conventional understanding of “platforming,” in which a legacy media outlet lends accidental assistance to a bad actor through coverage, does not work for the manosphere. These people have all the reach, influence, and eyeball-hours they need to succeed. When we fret about platforming, what we’re trying to protect is our sensibilities. We want to erect walls around our small, safe village full of normal people with normal ideas and stay blissfully unaware of the chaos outside the gates. When Clavicular got arrested many people breathed a sigh of relief and thought, “Finally, we can stop hearing about this guy.” Too bad. You can’t. Venal, fame-hungry men with rape charges are radicalizing your kids with bizarre and dangerous worldviews. Don’t cover your ears and pretend it’s not happening.
As long as being some form of radicalizing guru to younger men is a lucrative career path, people will keep doing it. And they will each need to be covered, quoted, criticized, and responded to. The best cure for mold is sunlight.
Sneako, one of the figures from the Miami bus incident, recently went on the NBA player Michael Porter Jr.’s podcast for a very friendly interview. Porter himself is essentially Sneako’s target audience, but with the means to start a YouTube show and book his favorite personalities. With his show, “Curious Mike,” he seeks to have “respectful conversations” about “sensitive subjects” without “crucifying” people for disagreeing. In the first few minutes, Porter asks Sneako “what community was the most upset” by the “Heil Hitler” incident, adding that it was likely to “upset the establishment.” Eventually, Porter asks if the recent Tate arrest is “just people ruining these guys’ reputations,” as “they” did to Michael Jackson. Sneako answers that Michael Jackson was being controlled by a rabbi.
Sneako typifies a new streak of manospheric thought, in which their most extreme opinions are sandwiched between agreeable, centrist takes. He thinks that MAGA is like a cult in its refusal to criticize Trump. He thinks that the war in Iran was a mistake, that it was started on false pretenses, and that it will probably last for years. He laments that Elon Musk is pouring millions of dollars into elections to advance his own interests. In contrast to Tate’s pimping and Clavicular’s womanizing, Sneako is a practicing Muslim and decries how his competitors push gambling, alcohol, porn, and hedonistic sex on men. The result is more palatable to more people, and harder for the rest of us to write off.
By the end, Porter invites Sneako back for part two. Men in the comments loved it. “Thanks for having the guts to have sneako on your platform dispite [sic] knowing you might get negative pushback,” said one viewer. “No gambling, no alcohol, no club girls. SNEAKO is a streamer you can let your young child watch without worry,” said another.
The manosphere is dead. Long live the manosphere.
