Man branded ‘biggest bully on internet’ says bullying builds character | US | News

An influencer branded the internet’s biggest bully says we need to ‘bring back bullying’ and claims Louis Theroux’s latest survey of the manosphere is ‘unfair’. Duke Gomez, 25, says he has been canceled multiple times and has received “romanas” from people about how much they hate him.

Louis Theroux: Inside the Manosphere premiered as the British documentary filmmaker’s debut feature on Netflix in March, exploring the online network that promotes ultra-masculine perspectives.

Duke, who said he was made fun of at school, believes bullying ‘builds character’ in victims and teaches people not to be ‘soft’. Duke, from Florida, US, said: “I have been branded as one of the biggest bullies on the internet. I can see how people see me in their eyes because of how I portray myself online.

“Do I think I’m the most perfect person? Absolutely not. Sometimes I overstep the boundaries a little, but I get the point. It’s surprising how people spend so much of their day and time writing me novels about how much they don’t like me when they could be spending so much time on a job.”

“There’s a saying I always say: ‘make men men again’. I think there are no truly manly men left these days.”

Branded ‘an abomination to humanity’ by an online rival, Duke said: “Society is very woke now. From my experiences of being bullied I think it builds character and creates a tough skin. If bullying was in the past then society would return to normal.”

Motocross fan sells clothing emblazoned with offensive slogans such as ‘bring back reasonable bullying’. “I put ‘reasonable’ because you don’t want to bully someone with special needs. You don’t want to bully someone who can’t fix something they can’t fix,” Duke said.

Duke said Theroux documentary highlighted ‘extreme’ characters and that this was ‘unfair’. Duke said: “I haven’t watched the entire Manosphere documentary from start to finish, but I’ve seen enough clips and transcripts to understand what angle it takes.

“From what I can tell, it was leaning pretty heavily on more extreme personalities, but the problem with that is that it can make the whole field seem one-dimensional. I don’t think that’s a completely fair representation of everyone in that field.”

“There are definitely people in the manosphere who say crazy things for the sake of clicks, but there are also guys who talk about discipline, personal development, fitness, making money and not being soft. That side isn’t emphasized as much because it’s not as controversial.”

“Louis Theroux is good at what he does; he knows how to get people talking and how to make things interesting. But like most documentaries, there’s always a narrative being put forward, whether people realize it or not.”

A group of Labor MPs have called for greater protection for men and boys from the “manosphere” in a letter to Ofcom. More than 60 MPs have written to the broadcasting regulator’s chief executive, Dame Melanie Dawes, saying they are “gravely concerned” about the increasing risks men and boys face when using online platforms.

In November, Ofcom gave guidance to tech platforms on how to tackle harmful content and activities that disproportionately affect women and girls online. But the group of MPs argued that men and boys also face particular risks online, such as “far-right political radicalisation”, financial fraud and violent pornography brought by “misogynistic influencers”.

In the letter, MPs said: “Men and boys encounter harmful content, including misinformation and disinformation, pornography and misogynistic content, at approximately similar rates as women and girls. However, content targeted at male audiences is likely to be different and platforms may need to take different steps to understand and address the problem.”

MPs said: “We are confident that addressing the harms men and boys face online will also have a significant impact on women’s safety. Online consumption of misogynistic and violent pornographic content has serious consequences for violence against women, and carries significant risks of financial harm to female family members, particularly where men in heterosexual partnerships earn higher incomes.”

Alistair Strathern, MP for Hitchin and co-chair of the Labor Group for Men and Boys, who organized the letter, said: “Men and boys across Britain deserve better than the exploitative and harmful excesses fed to them by the worst parts of the internet.

“Ofcom must go further and act faster and use every power parliament gives them to keep children safe online. As content creators innovate to bend the rules, our regulator must do more than the bare minimum within the scope of its statutory duties. “Misogyny and far-right radicalization online have real-world impacts not just for men and boys, but for the women and girls in their lives.

“We cannot halve violence against women and girls without stopping these hateful views from spreading online.”

Mark Brooks, policy director at the Center for Policy Research on Men and Boys, said: “Last year, we called for Ofcom to publish guidance to help address online harm affecting young men and boys. We are pleased that this issue has been addressed. More is now known about the wide range of online content that affects their lives, from cosmetics to crypto, gambling to violence and suicide to sextortion, never forgetting misogyny and pornography.”

“We know that parents and the wider community are increasingly concerned about this content and its reach into the lives of many young men and boys. However, there is a lack of policy response that specifically targets them and holds online platforms accountable for content that targets them. There is now an urgent need for this to change.”

A spokesperson for Ofcom said: “Exposure to harmful online content can negatively impact boys, which is why our rules require services to protect them from exposure to pornographic, hateful and abusive content. Our guidance also encourages technology companies to use educational and preventative approaches that help reduce online abuse.”