Conor McGregor has been telling and showing us who he is from the very beginning – The Irish Times

Finally there is good news Conor McGregor.

There’s probably a way to spin this as bad news, which is what the dirty mainstream media will do.

But after his defeat in a civil case against a woman who accused him of raping her in Dublin, you have to pledge your support as brands and fans scramble to disown him, while murals are hastily painted across the island. you can find them. Step forward: Andrew Tate.

“Bullshit decision against Conor McGregor,” Tate wrote from Romania, where he is facing his own legal troubles, including human trafficking and rape charges.

“Women sleep with rich men and if that man doesn’t finance their lives later, they lie and sue. Their brutal narcissism can’t handle the L of being unwanted. We have set a dangerous precedent. It is literally impossible to be a man in the Western world.”

But Tate is of course never one to let the truth get in the way of a tweet.

Where is our podcast empire and internet university, despite the fact that so many men in the Western world manage to struggle every now and then? – there is a certain wistful quality to all of this. Hypersensitivity, victim card, persecution complex: isn’t that quite it? . . did you wake up?

On the other hand, perhaps you need Tate’s hyper-developed level of intelligence to find any common ground with McGregor at the moment.

Of course, at this point, kicking McGregor (whether in pressure or from the pocket) is the easy part. We know this because even brands that are famous spokespeople for ethical taste are now parting ways. Tesco and Costcutter are among the supermarkets that no longer stock the whiskey brand he founded. All McGregor content and likenesses from the Hitman video game series have been removed.

“We take this matter very seriously,” a spokesperson from IO Interactive said.

At this point, it’s worth reflecting on all the previous issues that have been deemed unworthy of being taken seriously by many of McGregor’s business collaborators over the years.

Not serious: When he was found guilty of punching a man in a Dublin bar or snatching and smashing a fan’s mobile phone. Not serious: When he hurled racial slurs at Floyd Mayweather and his entourage. Not serious: When he called his rival Khabib Nurmagomedov, a Muslim, a “reactionary jerk” for refusing to drink whiskey. Or called Nurmagomedov’s manager a “terrorist” and his wife a “towel” or threw a metal car at his bus.

The Nurmagomedov fight – its chaotic build-up, violent fallout and toxic effects – is generally considered the beginning of McGregor’s decline. Perhaps this is true in a strictly athletic sense. But the broader McGregor universe – the cult of sinister content and hype he built around his talents, commercial justification and para-social sycophancy – persisted for years after those talents had abandoned him.

From the very beginning, McGregor was telling and showing us who he is. And yet, perhaps even because of this, he was praised, applauded, richly rewarded.

McGregor’s damaging appeal was never just about what he could do with a quick left counter or a bloody elbow. From the beginning, he was exalted as something more: a working-class hero, a patriotic icon, an aspirational figure, a model for a particular model of masculinity, perhaps even a (naked capitalist) paradigm of what success looks and feels like. 21st century. It’s a handy way to sell tickets and pay-per-view packages, where guilt and controversy, racism and sexism, ableism and homophobia are part of the overwhelming knowledge.

Sometimes, in some polite circles, it was necessary to ignore the praise heaped on McGregor for the genuineness of his actions. “Separatist” was often the euphemism of choice. “Love him or hate him” was another; As if this were just a consumer choice, a matter of personal taste, like putting the jam or cream on the scone first. Rather than a moral judgment, it’s a very specific way of seeing the world and the people in it.

So what was this worldview? A world where the only value is gained through fame, wealth and physical strength: the putrid triangle of male fantasy. Where all our problems can be solved through violence. A place where you never have to apologize, where you can show vulnerability, where you can tell the truth. As he once memorably put it, “the double champion does what he wants”.

From here it’s a short step to the idea that you are entitled to your own version of reality, that everything you say is true simply because it comes out of your mouth. In this he was easily encouraged by the sport by the fighting community, who were less anxious to cash checks than to oppose his unacceptable views and engage in indiscriminate violence.

As recently as August this year, Eddie Hearn was still defending him as “a great guy and a funny character” and promising him a nice payday if he decided to return to boxing.

Where does this lead?

Perhaps in November 2024, a jury in a Dublin courtroom listened to Nikita Hand’s harrowing testimony for two weeks before finding McGregor responsible for the attack and awarding him €248,603 in damages. (McGregor plans to appeal the decision.)

Perhaps to the unseemly stampede of brands and celebrities who have now distanced themselves from a man they once wholeheartedly supported. Perhaps until the race riots in Dublin in late 2023, when McGregor’s declaration of “war” was adopted by far-right Telegram channels, mostly made up of the same disaffected young men on whom he built an empire.

Around this time, McGregor announced plans to run for the Irish presidency; He promised to stamp out corruption, dissolve the Dáil, and fight on behalf of the people against traitors and elites. This dream is probably dead for now.

Presumably even McGregor’s most volatile supporters will now reject him; Pragmatism, profit, public relations and principle are finally in brief harmony. I mean, imagine if a country elected a man convicted of sexual assault as its president. Ah. Or even wait. – Guard