“Who is Andrew Tate?” was one of the most Googled searches in 2022. A kickboxer turned social media personality whose online videos on TikTok alone have amassed 11 billion views, keeps making references to “The Matrix”. The appearance-reality distinction that underlies Tate’s pronouncements has a distinguished pedigree, going all the way back to Plato. But another philosopher, Friedrich Nietzsche, warned of the dangers of believing that reality is only accessible by the few, and lies beyond the ever-changing world of experience, writes Alexis Papazoglou.

“The Matrix has attacked me” were the words of Andrew Tate, an online influencer, supposed multi-millionaire, and former kickboxer, as he was being arrested by police in Romania last December. Tate talks a lot about “The Matrix” in the myriad of videos one can find of him pontificating online. In one such video, when referring again to “The Matrix” he says: “They want to control us. This is what people who are in charge ever wanted from the beginning, control. They want people to comply. And you have to put systems in place to ensure people comply.” So what is Tate really trying to get at when he references the science fiction film franchise? That we are living in a computer simulation? No. What he’s saying is that the world that most of us take as real is a mere appearance, an illusion, and that he has cracked the code and come to see the world as it really is.