In June, British American influencer Andrew Tate was charged in Romania with rape, human trafficking, and forming an organized criminal group to sexually exploit women. The self-described misogynist’s emergence as an internet sensation over the last year or so has sparked concern internationally, given his noxious influence over many young men via the “manosphere” — the ecosystem of websites, blogs, and forums that promote a supposedly beleaguered masculinity, misogyny, and opposition to feminism.

Ex-kickboxer Tate has his defenders and enthusiasts even beyond his core demographic of misguided male adolescents. Podcaster Joe Rogan demurs from Tate’s most extreme woman-hating ravings, but has praised him as emblematic of good breeding; to complain of the “toxic masculinity” of Tate and others is simply to be unappreciative of “the men who carve the world.” Psychologist Jordan Peterson, a regular guest on Rogan’s podcast, insists that he is uneasy at Tate’s alleged “pimpy side,” but appreciates Tate’s defiant individualism. Peterson expresses sympathy with Tate’s message that “forthright aggression is preferable to a cringey defeat” — defeat presumably meaning accepting supposedly politically correct social conventions about masculinity and feminism.

To better understand where Peterson is coming from, it’s worth considering his attacks on French philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre with reference to his concept of “bad faith” — in short, lying to yourself to avoid responsibility for your real situation. Peterson does not grasp the complicated history of Sartre’s political engagement that he so condemns, nor the Sartrean concept of bad faith, which he throws back against him. But his intervention is interesting insofar as it points to a key operative logic in figures like Tate and his defenders. Without making an iota of a concession to his vile worldview, this also offers some potential to tap into something that Tate’s followers misindentify in his message — the understandable but wildly misplaced wish for a meaningful, flourishing life.