The Algorithm Isn’t Broken. It’s Working Exactly as Designed
By now, we’ve traced the rise of the manosphere, unpacked its vocabulary, and met its most visible influencers. Episode 5 turns to the machinery that makes the whole thing profitable: the technology that ensures misogyny not only spreads but pays.
When people ask how these messages reach so many boys and young men, the answer is deceptively simple. It’s all about the algorithm.
Social media algorithms are designed to keep users engaged for as long as possible. They don’t prioritize truth, nuance, or safety; they prioritize attention. Outrage, fear, and controversy generate the highest engagement, so that’s what the algorithm serves up again and again. The result is an endless loop of reinforcement, pushing users deeper into the worldview that content creators want them to adopt.
Once a platform’s algorithm learns who you are, your interests, your insecurities, even your political leanings, it knows exactly what content you will click, like, and share. And it keeps delivering more of it, regardless of whether you agree with it, laugh at it, or are appalled by it. Engagement is engagement.
From Harmless Motivation to Open Misogyny
The radicalization process doesn’t start with the most extreme rhetoric. It often begins with innocuous-sounding motivational clips or self-improvement tips.
A young man struggling with school, work, or dating might watch a gym reel or a hustle-culture speech. He likes it. He shares it. Before long, the algorithm starts feeding up more of the same, just with small changes in tone or topic. Over time, those so-called “life advice” videos slip in gendered storylines about men deserving admiration and women giving adoration, hinting that women are naturally different and meant to take a back seat.
From there, it’s only a few clicks to overt misogyny. Influencers start warning men about “slutty women” who will “ruin their lives,” dismissing marriage as a trap, and framing women’s autonomy as a cultural threat. This steady drip of content doesn’t just shape beliefs—it reframes an entire worldview.
“The algorithm is feeding men a steady diet of alpha male fantasies and apocalyptic warnings about the decline of western masculinity.”
Algorithmic Chaos and Cultural Drift
This isn’t just a manosphere phenomenon. The same algorithm that serves Andrew Tate speeches can just as easily deliver bizarre AI-generated videos of CEOs followed by animal-human hybrids. The point is not ideological purity, it’s emotional reaction. If you engage with it, you’ll see more of it. The logic is profit, not coherence.
For young men consuming manosphere content, this means they are constantly fed alpha-male fantasies and apocalyptic warnings about “the decline of masculinity.” Over time, repetition becomes reality. If it’s everywhere, it must be true.
Outrage Pays
The structure of social media monetization rewards those who provoke the strongest reactions. Platforms like YouTube pay creators based on ad views, with rates (CPM—cost per thousand impressions) that can climb into double digits for popular channels in the U.S. That kind of reach means top manosphere influencers can pull in hundreds of thousands, sometimes millions, a year from ad revenue alone.
Take a few examples:
- Fresh and Fit – Before their demonetization in 2024, they were pulling in about 50 million views a year, likely bringing in close to $1 million from YouTube ads.
- Chris Williamson – Around 130 million yearly views, which works out to more than $1.5 million in ad revenue.
- Whatever Podcast – Even more subscribers and probably a higher CPM, which could put them well into seven figures.
And that’s not even counting merch sales, sponsorship deals, memberships, or money coming in from other platforms.
The Feedback Loop
The cycle is self-reinforcing:
- Misogynistic content is posted.
- People interact. Some to agree, others to push back, and plenty just to make fun of it.
The algorithm notices and pushes the content to even more users. That extra reach brings the creator more visibility, more followers, and more money.
“Success incentivizes more of the same content.”
Because outrage spreads faster than facts, these platforms have every incentive to keep the most inflammatory voices in circulation. Misogyny, racism, and conspiracy theories don’t just stick around in this kind of environment — they thrive.
Misdiagnosing the Problem
The path into the manosphere often starts with real struggles. It could be losing a job in a male-heavy field, struggling to make ends meet, dealing with loneliness or depression, or trying to adjust to changing ideas about gender. But instead of pointing to structural problems like wealth inequality, globalization, or corporate exploitation, voices in the manosphere turn that frustration toward women and feminism.
Historian Michael Kimmel calls this aggrieved entitlement. It’s the belief that a person is entitled to power, status, or access and that losing any of it is an injustice. For men, this can look like pushback when women turn them down, compete with them, or outshine them. Patriarchy frames dominance as something men are born to have, so when equality gets in the way of that, anger often follows.
Why It Matters
Blaming women for men’s problems covers up the real forces driving economic and social instability. It moves male frustration away from the systems that are actually exploiting them and toward scapegoats that are easier to attack. The outcome is a culture where calls for equality get reframed as oppression, and where platforms, advertisers, and influencers make money by keeping that resentment alive.
In the final episode of Red Pill Nation, we follow the pipeline from red pill ideology into far-right extremism, showing how misogyny can serve as a gateway to nationalism, authoritarianism, and organized hate.
