(08-28-2025, 05:35 AM)Johannesbrst Wrote: [ -> ] (08-27-2025, 10:18 AM)Shannon Wrote: [ -> ]There is a BIG difference between what I am and what Andrew Tate is. He represents the classic "Alpha Male". I am much more an "Ascendant Alpha". Just because there is some overlap between the two does not mean one is the other. Not even close. But I am not afraid to say it when I see someone do something I don't respect. Going in knowing there will be effort required and then giving up, I can't respect that.
AM7 is going to be designed to help those guys who are green, but one of the biggest reasons we need something like AM7 is that a lot of these guys out there these days are just weak. They're raised to be weak, they are told to be weak, they're sometimes even forced to be weak. They're taught helplessness and giving up, instead of trying harder and figuring out a way forward. That's the problem, and AM7 is aimed at being a solution. But it's those very guys who need it most who are most likely to just say, "This is too hard." and walk away. No real effort, no determination, no resilience, no strength, no drive to succeed. If it's "too hard" they just give up and whine and cry about it.
One of the biggest goals of AM7 is to help guys go from weaker than they could be to stronger. Not physically, but mentally and emotionally. Help them develop their drive to achieve and succeed, and develop resilience and the strength and fortitude to keep going when they want something, even though it hurts.
We no longer live in a world where a man has to "hunt and succeed or starve to death", but we do need males to be men instead of little boys when they're physical adults. Not that long ago, in the United States, a boy was expected to start work at the age of 5 or 6 and he was expected to take a wife, BUILD HIS HOUSE, and start a family around the age of 12. Now, we have guys in their 30's, 40'sand even a few in their 50's, who are mentally and emotionally children because they've never had to take responsibility for themselves, never mind anyone else. Even if they are "parents". Quotation marks, because most "parents" these days don't, and aren't, where I am.
Don't forget that first an foremost, an Ascendant Alpha leads HIMSELF. Provides for HIMSELF. Takes care of HIMSELF. A classical Alpha needs followers, admirers, because his is a hierarchical reality, where he can only be dominant if someone else is less dominant, or not dominant. He will eventually lose his ability to maintain his dominance, because a classical Alpha is dominant for primarily physical reasons. As he ages, his physical ability to enforce that dominance will decline, and he will be challenged and replaced by someone younger and more physically capable of attaining and maintaining that position.
But an Ascendant Alpha does not need to dominate others, or have others follow him. He is his own leader, master of himself, provider for himself, and he doesn't necessarily need or want to lead (or dominate) others. Instead of leading and being dominant because he is physically capable, an Ascendant Alpha leads himself, and others will follow his lead (if he allows it) because they see his strength, and they admire him and what he is and has accomplished. The classic Alpha leads with force and fear, and the Ascendant alpha leads through being worthy of admiration he didn't necessarily want or ask for. He is just trying to be the best possible version of himself, typically for himself or himself and his family and friends.
But both types of Alpha are going to be seeking strength in some form. Classic alpha seeks physical strength primarily and strength of will, emotions, etc. are usually sought, but not primarily, Ascendant alpha seeks strength of other types more than physical. Mental, emotional, wisdom, knowledge, ability, non-physical perseverance, etc. are common.
Strength is to be respected, as long as it is not used to harm. Weakness is not respected. This is universal truth. So when a male starts a journey to become stronger, he gains respect, and as he succeeds, he gains respect. But if and when he decides it is "too hard" and just gives up... he loses respect. A LOT of respect. That is what this whole thing is about.
Thanks for the reply. Just to clarify from the start - I don’t believe you and Tate are alike. What I meant was that the phrasing about “running away as a bitch” gave me the association to Andrew Tate. And while I know you’re a thoughtful person, I still got that association, which makes me think there are plenty of others who might dismiss this kind of language as “just another guy who thinks he’s alpha,” and lump everything about IML into the “manosphere” bucket. I don’t believe it belongs there. That was my main point.
Your association suggests to me that you're perhaps a bit too sensitively tuned to and affected by Andrew Tate's tactics. Men have been calling weaker men who they do not respect for their weakness "bitches" for time immemorial in one way or another. This is not a breakthrough by Mr. Tate.
And might I point out that anyone who lumped IML into the "manosphere bucket" would very likely not be our target demographic regardless. We really have nothing much to do with "the manopshere". I focus on men because they are my primary demographic and they have needs that are not being met anywhere else. I would also very much like to have a balance of female customers again, but the titles that they would be attracted by cannot be made yet. I don't want to be engaged in the "gender wars", or the "manopshere debate", but I do want to be a force for helping men in a world that increasingly hates them simply for existing. The "reasons" for the feminist movement have been far surpassed, and now the pendulum swings past the balance point into attacking, demonizing, vilifying, hating and even suggesting androcide against, men. That is waaaay too far to be reasonable. I intend to help bring the pendulum back to the balance point. It would be nice if it stayed there, but when the pendulum swings this far past the balance point, it is going to go past the balance point again on the backswing, whether or not I like it. My position is that I would like the pendulum to stop swinging, so we can move on from the same old bullshit about sexism and racism, etc. that we've been hashing out for millennia now. I think we should be mature enough as a human race to be able to move past ridiculous points of contention, like gender and skin color, but so far the human race as a whole seems to disagree. Regardless, I am simply pushing to correct the overbalancing in the direction of harm to men.
Quote:On the deeper part - I see weakness more as a symptom, manifested out of something deeper. In my experience, what’s really behind it is lack of self-belief. And self-belief can’t be given to someone, it has to come from their own lived proof. That’s why yelling at someone to “BE STRONG” can only take them so far - it works as long as someone else is pushing, but once that’s gone, the fuel runs out.
Having created the Alpha Male set for myself, before I ever considered selling it, I'll share with you my point of view on this. Weakness in men is the result of those men being raised and or trained to be weak, or allowed to be weak when they were coddled as boys instead of being given the responsibility they should have been given and expected to embrace and live up to it. It is neither an accident nor a random thing. Weakness in men, as we see it now, is the intentional result of a segment of society manipulating the structures within society to achieve that aim, specifically because the strong men were perceived as a threat to the plans and goals of those who perpetrated this.
I am not yelling "be strong" and getting upset when a male is not man enough to finish AM7. I am providing the tools he needs to become strong, and then losing respect for him when he chooses to fail instead of accept the challenge HE CHOSE AND PAID ME TO START to make that change. Maybe Andrew Tate might yell "be strong", I don't know. But there is a HUGE difference between what you're suggesting and what I am actually doing here.
Quote:That’s why I think there’s a risk in stopping at simply labeling someone or some action as weak. The more important part is to look at the individual and figure out why they lack self-belief in that specific situation. And once that reason is clear, then encouragement can be placed behind the individual to overcome the challenge - in a steady and secure way, not in a “if you don’t do it you’re WEAK”-kind of way. Maybe that’s also how you’ve designed AM to work, and if so then I guess we agree. But from the way the description read, I got more the impression of a drill sergeant screaming at a cadet, rather than a father who steadies his son after he’s dropped a critical pass for the third time and feels crushed - and then gives him the push he needs to walk back on the field.
AM is designed to take a man from a state of more weakness to a state of less weakness. It is designed to take into account his initial state may be complete weakness, that he may be starting with absolutely no concept of what masculinity and masculine strength is.
AM is also a drill sergeant screaming at a cadet in some ways, precisely because of that weakness. Why do you suppose that tactic is universally used in Basic Training? Why is it called "boot camp"? Because you are breaking down the weak and rebuilding it in strength. Weakness is what it is because it is allowed to exist without pressure or requirement to change. AM requires change and growth, and sometimes that meets with resistance because it is uncomfortable. That resistance must be overcome to push the individual to grow and become what they have the potential to become, instead of remaining comfortable in their existing state of weakness which does not match their potential. This is exactly why drill sergeants do this, and exactly why fitness trainers often do it also. It is applying pressure to overcome one's laziness, weakness and desire to prefer comfort over change, growth and improvement.
Given all this... when a male chooses to go on this journey, and he pays big bucks to do it, and then he gives up and chooses to embrace his weakness and fear and desire for comfort instead of the challenge and growth that he started into... that is the epitome of weakness for a man, and I do not respect that. In fact, no "man" would respect that. At that point, said person would need to go back and try again which would be worth some respect, and then overcome the weakness that caused him to quit before, which would be worth some respect, and then achieve his goals, which would be worth some respect.
The very reason that AM sells is because guys are in need of the training in how to become the leaders they must be to achieve their potential in life. Whom they lead does not matter, it can be just themselves. But the very weakness they pay for AM to overcome is what results in that failure to complete it. Giving up is not a masculine trait. Weakness is not a masculine trait. Choosing comfort over growth is not a masculine trait. Accepting failure is not a masculine trait. There is no MAN on earth who has not failed at something, and most likely failed many times in his life. But je does not give up if the goal is important. He assesses his failure and uses it as a step to success, and then he adjusts his effort and tries again. And again, and again, until he achieves his goal and succeeds.
One of the primary differences between a man and a boy, or a boy in a man's body, is that a man will not be deterred by the need to accept personal responsibility or by hardship in achieving his goals. It is at the very core of a man's ability to be a man, not a boy or a boy in a man's body, that he DOES accept personal responsibility, and does so proactively. And when a boy or a boy in a man's body starts doing that, he necessarily realizes that he cannot remain a boy, or a boy in a man's body anymore. He must now grow into being the man he has the potential and responsibility to be, even if only for himself and his self respect, self esteem and sense of self worth. That means he must undertake the journey to making himself that man, and that requires growth and experiencing challenges and discomfort and pressure and stress.
Current society, at least in the United States, encourages boys to become boys in a man's body instead of becoming men. The result is that you see society crumbling. This MUST change if we are going to keep this society from self destructing. And toward that end, I am rebuilding AM6 into AM7, and this time with more emphasis on helping those starting from scratch get started, because just yelling at them to "be strong" doesn't help much if they don't have the understanding or tools to do that. And society in the US has effectively stripped most boys and boys in men's bodies of those tools and understanding, and has rendered many who would be much more "men" than they are needing help or a refresher because of the constant societal messaging that is aimed at weakening and destroying men.