Andrew Tate, lifestyle influencer, was arrested after posting a photo of a Romanian-based pizza restaurant box online during an online argument with Greta Thunburg, the 19-year-old climate activist. 

The argument started when Andrew Tate tweeted a photo of his car with the caption, “Please provide your email address so I can send a complete list of my car collection, and their respective enormous emissions.”

Shortly after, Thunberg responded with a tweet captioned, “Yes, please enlighten me. Email me at smalldickenergy@getalife.com.”

Tate posted the infamous video response, in which he features a pizza box, embossed with “Jerry’s Pizza.” This pizza box allowed for Romanian authorities to trace his location. 

Some worry that Andrew Tate’s messaging and frequent appeals to young men struggling with self-esteem could promote misogyny and gendered violence. By preying on young men’s insecurities, Tate has gained an active audience and pushed more people down the alt-right pipeline

Despite somewhat widespread support among young men, while looking for people to interview for this article, we at B-Line struggled to find anyone who would speak to us in favor of Tate. Dean of Student Services Mr. Muhammad, however, had a lot to say. 

“People are pretty discreet about supporting somebody of that nature,” he said. “I almost equate to liking the same energy that I saw with people when Trump became a potential nominee.” Likewise, a study on Americans from all over the political spectrum found that about 62% are not willing to share their political views publicly. 

“Even people you knew were potentially republicans were almost like, not ashamed, but hesitant to say,” Mr. Muhammad continued. “Because I think they knew that it was taboo, but there were reasons justifying skepticism.” This phenomenon appeared during our attempts to find people to interview about Andrew Tate. 

Mr. Muhammad continued, “The first reference I heard to Andrew Tate was during a middle school meeting. We had this activity where it was like if you could have lunch or dinner with somebody a bunch of boys shouted out Andrew Tate.” Despite this, the middle school halls were devoid of anyone willing to talk about Andrew Tate as well.

Mr. Muhammad attributes this to a lack of intervention in polarizing views. “There’s no space to have genuine conversations without kids being attacked for thinking differently,” he said. “You have got to have a space where the kid who is somewhat conservative, or might have religious views, is not demonized for navigating through that process.”

Barstow’s closest club to this is the debate program, where students debate a variety of political issues. “I have learned more in debate than in all of high school,” said sophomore debater Tyler Bauman (‘25).

“Your ego is destroyed in debate,” agreed fellow sophomore debater Hattie Schedler (‘25). “It made me question a lot of the things that I grew up with; as I was exposed to critical literature, I’ve grown as a person.”

While the debate team may not be for every student, students should be encouraged to engage with views that oppose their own both to grow as people and to help their peers grow. Tate’s controversial presence speaks to a larger problem of people being unwilling to engage with those they disagree with in good faith.