The ‘Manosphere’ Isn’t a Movement. It’s a Multibillion-Dollar Grievance Industry

Published 7 August 2026 · india

For many years now, a dark question has haunted parents, teachers, the internet, and media institutions: What’s wrong with young men? Why, people ask, are

For many years now, a dark question has haunted parents, teachers, the internet, and media institutions: What’s wrong with young men? Why, people ask, are boys so politically extreme, spouting misogynist rhetoric, and increasingly drawn into risky crypto schemes and online gambling? How did they become so lonely, with their depression symptoms often overlooked? The male youth vote broke for Trump in the 2024 election following a GOP campaign built on naked appeals to meathead machismo. Yet there are signs that his second term in office has done little to stem the anger of Gen Z men, whose support for the president is now plummeting. The most common explanation of these interrelated phenomena is that younger men have banded together online under the umbrella of something known as the “manosphere,” usually conceived as an organic right-wing rebellion driving the culture wars. A new study, however, suggests that this is entirely backward: The digital ecosystem that produces red-pilled men is less of a movement than it is a pyramid scheme.

In “The Grift Economy: How Young Men Are Being Sold Fake Belonging and Fake Wealth Online,” researchers from the digital safety organization Reset Tech and the nonprofit Equimundo map how men are “algorithmically routed into paid communities, unregulated supplements, crypto schemes, and high-ticket ‘coaching’ programs,” which together make up a “multibillion-dollar industry.” “‘Masculinity’ has become a commercial category that is constructed, curated, and financially incentivized online,” write the authors of the 153-page report. First, men encounter aspirational self-help content when looking up advice on dating, fitness, or finance. Bad actors then exploit their areas of vulnerability by offering a misleading, grievance-based narrative to explain their frustrations. The paper cites, for example, a verified “business” account on X that used real economic data to falsely claim that the high rate of youth unemployment is only affecting men. “By framing credential competition and labor market dynamics as a coordinated attack on men,” the researchers write, “this operation converts genuine economic anxiety—which is real and documented—into resentment with named targets: women, immigrants, foreign workers.” Once men feel they are in community with one another based on a shared sense of victimhood and betrayal, and hostility toward a mutual enemy, the same predatory characters can then sell them the dubious solution, whether that’s a class, access to an exclusive club, or gray-market pills.