Andrew Tate Truth Bomb Drops: Worse Than Anyone Thought Possible

In this episode of Based Camp, Simone and Malcolm Collins break down Heidi Blake’s exhaustive New Yorker investigation “Andrew Tate’s Empire of Abuse.”

They examine the documented pattern of rape, strangulation, underage exploitation, financial and psychological control, human trafficking, and the systematic teaching of “pimping” through the War Room. Key accounts include Lauren Southern’s experience in Romania, the early UK cam-house abuses, the recruitment and abuse of Romanian schoolgirls, the use of female enforcers, the coercion and reputation-destruction of women who tried to leave, and the real-world violence linked to Tate’s content.

The discussion also covers Tate’s conversion to Islam, the Taliban’s public support, the double standard with Jeffrey Epstein, the failure of parts of the online right to apply consistent standards, and why “maximum masculinity” as an identity is a reliable red flag for dangerous actors.

Sensitive content warning: detailed discussion of sexual violence, underage exploitation, trafficking, and child abuse.

Show Notes

For the full thing, read: Andrew Tate’s Empire of Abuse

How the defining figure of the manosphere built a fortune—and became a political force—by systematically exploiting women

By Heidi Blake, published June 8th

In this article, Blake “pieced together an account of Tate’s activities from thousands of private messages, internal documents, sealed prosecutorial files, and court records—as well as scores of interviews with the Tates, their associates, and more than a dozen alleged victims”

“I’ve done this with over 100 girls,” Tate said, about compelling women into sex work. “I almost sound evil. But I’m not.”

The Lauren Southern case

In case you’re not familiar with Lauren Southern: “She had become a darling of the manosphere at the age of nineteen with a video titled “Why I Am Not a Feminist,” in which she argued that men were the real victims of an unjust society. She followed up with a series of videos in which she trolled women who marched against sexual violence, ridiculing their views and holding up a sign saying “THERE IS NO RAPE CULTURE IN THE WEST.””

After getting introduced by Tommy Robinson, Andrew Tate got Lauren Southern to fly to Romania.

“She told me that she flew to Bucharest without knowing much about Tate; Robinson had simply said that a kickboxer in Eastern Europe wanted to finance her work. When they arrived, Tate was waiting in one of his supercars, and he insisted on taking her out for lunch alone. Over steak, he told her “everything that you would want to hear as a conservative right-wing woman,” talking about the importance of family and praising her work. “You’re saving Western civilization,” she remembers him saying.”

“After lunch, they headed to Tate’s compound. At a long table, Southern listened as the brothers laid out their proposal: they would fund a new right-wing media venture, with her and Robinson in charge, if she would use it to pump a cryptocurrency they were planning to launch. The idea, she recalls, was, “basically, we’re going to create a European-nationalist outlet to fleece all these idiots for money.””

Hmmmmmm….. That’s not what our community does

“That evening, the Tates took Southern to a club, where they ordered bottle service. After a couple of shots of vodka, she recalls, she suddenly felt “like my consciousness was collapsing.” Tate carried her to his car, and when she came to they were on the bed at her hotel.”

“Tate started kissing Southern and pulling off her clothes. She told me that she tried to push his hands away, but he wouldn’t stop. Then he hooked his arm around her neck and started to squeeze. She remembers thinking, “Oh, s**t, this guy actually is going to rape me.” Southern was anti-abortion, and was terrified of getting pregnant. She began pleading with him: “I know what you’re gonna do here. Please just wear a condom. Please.””

“Southern remembers fading in and out of consciousness as Tate raped her unprotected and choked her. Afterward, he sat on the edge of the bed and said, “Don’t tell the press I raped you.” She remembers saying, “My whole brand is literally talking about how stupid b*****s get themselves in situations like this. There’s nothing I can say without destroying my career. So congratulations.””

“In the car to the airport, Southern said, she discovered burst blood vessels around her eyes and marks on her neck. Back in Toronto, she was examined by a nurse who specialized in sexual assault. On an assessment form, the nurse recorded that Southern had been raped and strangled by a “well known male” at a hotel in Romania and had suffered an intimate injury. She noted that Southern seemed to be experiencing “personal struggles with her belief system” as a result.”

“Southern told me that she tried to apply her political convictions to her experience, telling herself that she was at fault for drinking with a man she didn’t know. A month later, she texted Tate. “It was really shitty what you did that night in Bucharest,” she wrote. “I’m not going to tell anyone obviously because I was an absolute moron, but I hope you don’t do that to anyone else.”

““What did I do?” Tate replied. “I expected tons better from you. This msg is some liberal #metoo b******t.””

“You literally strangled me when I said I didn’t want to have sex,” Southern wrote. “You literally told me in the morning ‘don’t tell the press I raped you.’ ”

“You’re absolutely embarrassing yourself,” he wrote.

“Tate denied raping Southern, but he bragged to the War Room about spending the night with her, saying that he had invited her to Romania to discuss a business deal but “didn’t invest a f***ing penny.””

The Depravity

He assaulted and raped women becuase he thought it would lead them to not require payment in exchange for camgirl work

* This started with two young women, Walker and Navvaro, in the UK he recruited after learning from one of his girlfriends how much he could make

* “But Tate was already coming to resent paying Navarro and Walker a cut of their earnings. Hruskova let him keep “100% of the f***ng money,” he later said. But, he complained, “once you get bigger, you start hiring girls who don’t love you.” He decided on a strategy: “I have a financial incentive to f*** as many as I can.”

* NOTE ABOUT HRUSKOVA: “He reported in private chats that her live streams had made him around two million dollars, but all she got was pocket money for coffee and manicures.”

* Even before this, when he did give them money, he immediately took them to malls and told them to go on shopping sprees, which meant they lacked funds to get away

* What it was like to be in the house:

* “One morning, Navarro [who was stranded at the house because the Tates would not drive her home and she lacked money or a car to get out] woke up to Tate and Walker having sex next to her. She shushed them, and Walker got up and went into the bathroom. When she was gone, Navarro said, Tate put her in a choke hold and raped her for a second time. Though she clawed at his arms, he wouldn’t release his grip. “I was scared that he was going to kill me,” she told me. Then Walker emerged from the shower, and he rolled off her.

* Later, Navarro said, she was working on camera when she heard strange noises and went to investigate. Through the open bedroom door, she saw Tate strangling Walker on the bed. Walker’s face was red and puffy, and her body was limp. Navarro said that she felt a strange paralysis. “I was, like, There’s nothing I can do about it,” she told me. She went back to work.”

* “