My younger brother keeps saying he is an Alpha male and bad mouths who he thinks are Beta. Can some one please explain to me what the hell is going on?
Your brother is on a (specifically designed and heavily funded) pipeline to being a total piece of shit (not just with misogyny, but racism, and probably queerphobia and ableism too), do what you can to get him off it. A quick search brings up what looks to be some good info to start you off:
There are also many youtube videos on the subject, though I haven't watched any recently, so I won't link, but look up something along the lines of "manosphere right wing pipeline" and you should see some results.
"Alpha male" basically translates to toxic masculinity, and "beta male" basically translates to anyone who respects other people in any way. It's the callsign of pieces of shit like Andrew Tate, who is a human trafficker and serial sexual abuser currently in prison awaiting trial in... I think it was Croatia?
He doesn't know what it means to be cool, so he's hoping that just declaring that he's cool will be good enough to make him popular.
The problem is that the kids who try this strategy almost universally cannot pick up on social cues, otherwise they would understand that it will always lead to the opposite result. People who seriously say out loud that they're alpha males are pretty much exclusively losers or scumbags.
Skip a step and just buy him some furry romance novel like "alpha of my heart" or whatever (I will not be googling for options, no shame but I don't need that in my history)
Give it to him and tell him you support him and he's really brave to be himself in front of you and others.
Tell him calling himself an alpha is just what a beta would do. Real alphas don't say shit about themselves, they have people who do that for them. Watch him implode.
People are generally stupid, even more so when they're young. Younger people are getting brainwashed by low-IQ online influencers into believing this Alpha/Beta shit.
It's that simple.
If you want to help him, try to break his addiction to those influencers.
Alpha quality, like software. Buggy as hell and should not be released. :D
srsly though it's the clusterfuckchild of social darwinism, grindset mentality and randroid zoology, plus a bit of wannabe-dom.
There was this old, debunked concept of the 'alpha wolf' as pack leader - all dominance displays, all the time, stronger and wiser and better than the rest, a sort of rightful-king that owes nothing to anyone, and that all lesser wolves obey and look up to.
Some absolute chuds picked up on the concept and decided that it applied to people, that it was a quality people could and should naturally embrace, unless they were just inherently inferior.
And of course they tied that all up with being male, because apparently men are just 'naturally dominant', unless again, they're broken and inferior ones - so if you are male, it's vital to prove that you're a properly functioning one by being a domineering asshole who deserves to get away with it out of sheer chutzpah, or else you deserve nothing but contempt and getting trodden on.
This ties in with conservative morality, which is entirely based around acknowledging and reinforcing social hierarchy. Right is when power is exerted downwards in the hierarchy, wrong is when power is asserted upwards.
So in this world, 'alphas' are the master race, while 'betas' are submissive half-men who lack the strength (and thus the virtue) to display the proper 'rugged independence'. They're also obsessed with 'cucks', ie cuckolds, men who lack the necessary manliness to fight off 'alphas' who would disrespect and shame them by having sex with their woman.
It's all incredibly toxic, and you need to pick him up and shake the bullshit out of him.
Toxic people that would never have had a platform for their bullshit have suddenly gained that ability in just 20 years time because of the internet. People that would normally receive a lot of fists in their face, do not anymore. The digital world is such a new thing that it's completely unnatural for us to live with and it affects our perspectives and social lives. It simply goes way too fast for evolution to catch up to.
Without good care, it creates people that are completely delusional and deranged. Filter bubbles also add up to the problem. One that consumes content will be served more similar content, creating and feeding a very limited perspective. Because everything in the digital world is so new, there have been almost no studies in how it affects us and how it should be remedied.
Yeah that argument has never dissuaded a single chud from embracing in the “alpha” bullshit. They’re being fed this bs from manosphere manipulators like Andrew Tate or someone adjacent or from peers. Their goal is to become cool and intimidating, it’s not about the bad research that lifted up this bullshit myth so long ago.
Young men who start to behave this way are lacking direction and aren't self-starters. So to cope with the fact they aren't accomplishing anything or going anywhere in life, they assume an outwardly-accusing posture.
Contrary to the image peddled by the grifters, every guy I've known with the "alpha" mentality has been a dishwasher, car porter, snow shoveler, or unemployed cretin.
All alpha maleism is categorically insecurity. For each of them it's different. Figure out exactly what he's trying to bury under all this tate shit and address it directly. It could be the onset of male loneliness, that shows up around the teenage years - lasts forever though if he's aware he can make changes. It could be he's insecure in his own sexuality - just get him to open up and take everything he said to the grave with you. There could be a person or activity the betas engage in that he can't, or is afraid of being made fun if. Teach him how to stand up to that shit and grow through it.
I'm not suggesting you punish your bro in a way that would enable this behavior further. It's hard to be an alpha type when you're showered in love and support- it just looks stupid. He's probably going through some of the first real life shit, and handling it poorly. As his sister you're kinda on the hook for helping him through this. If you do, you'd probably have a better brother and friend.
If you're really asking what it means, an Alpha is a strong leader. They don't take commands, they give them. If they want something, they take it. They consider themselves superior to the weaker beta males, and feel that it is their duty to lead the betas, or that they are doing them a favor by pushing them to be more like an alpha.
Although, a lot of the time, the people who claim to be alphas have none of the redeeming characteristics, so they just act like entitled assholes.
EDIT. I think because I didn't come out swinging people are assuming I believe any of this shit. I was trying to explain it from the perspective of their brother. I thought they wanted to know what it was about, and just calling people assholes doesn't really explain what THEY believe.
Correction - when you say "an alpha is a strong leader," you mean, "some people think an 'alpha male' is a strong leader, but that's not based in reality."
If you’re really asking what it means, an Alpha is a
pseudo scientific myth that has been twisted and then adopted almost exclusively by toxic men to try and boost their own ego and justify their shit behaviour
I say this as a younger brother who was beat up by older siblings. If you are both under 18 and he's a lot smaller than you, slap him. If he thinks he's an "alpha" and you aren't, it might be the only thing that points out that he is just human
After you do this, please please please try to point out his error in thinking. No "alpha" commands any respect and the "alpha" bosses are the ones nobody wants to work for
He's a beta cuck. Real alphas don't have to go around proclaiming their alpha status and receiving praise and validation from betas and other "alphas".
The underline issue is that human evolve to be part of social norms. Use to be a tribe, a country, a sport club. But new generation can be have more options. Associating with alpha male or whatever means he belong to a group who might like his meme or comments.
It could also be due to lack of a man figure they can associate with. So watching documentaries of strong males might help shed light on what the role could look like.
What you want is to balance his only identity or group with other (groups). For example, joining a gym, fishing, be part of musical band …. Whatever he is also into, just to get him out of that only identity he is associating with.
For me I would try to come from telling him being alpha means you can hunt or camp or survive in the wild, then lead to cooking classes or wood working. Something that mentally and physically taxing. I also would watch gordon Ramsay shows and Anthony Bourdain just to crash that image of one way to be an alpha male. You can cook and be an alpha male as the same time type thing.
Others have given you a lot of info here on what it is your brother is referring to.
But what this is reflecting in your brother is that he has fallen into a pipeline of watching these videos or hanging out with people that watch these videos and had some insecurities that he's dealing with that is making these ideas seem like the answer. It would be a great idea to be supportive of him in whatever other hobbies/activities he has outside of watching those videos and spending time with him. Talk with him about anything other than the content of those videos so that those thoughts aren't even entering his mind. Introduce him to your friends that are also supportive in something other than those videos (you don't mention your ages, so it's unclear if you know the same people). Having supportive people around his activities and hobbies will help him lose some of those insecurities that made him gravitate to those videos.
If that fails, what I've seen others say works is if says he's an alpha male say back "I'm not into that furry stuff, but that's really cool your so open with your sexuality like that, and accepting of others' sexualities like recognizing the beta males"
If that fails, what I’ve seen others say works is if says he’s an alpha male say back “I’m not into that furry stuff, but that’s really cool your so open with your sexuality like that, and accepting of others’ sexualities like recognizing the beta males”
I doubt that actually works to get people off that mindset. It's just a funny twitter joke people have latched onto. Other than that 100% agreed. If he's fallen into this manosphere shit things probably aren't going well for him socially and he probably needs help to get out of it. When I was young I certainly did and was fortunate enough to get into a much better environment after I got out of high school that corrected my mindset (for the most part, there's always a need for self-reflection). While deserved, ridiculing him for these beliefs won't get anywhere other than to make him feel more isolated.