What do Donald Trump, Lidia Thorpe, Andrew Tate and big tech have in common? Young Melburnians tell

In this series, The Age asks a diverse group of people aged 19 to 29 to reveal what challenges and rewards they face as young Melburnians.See all 5 stories.

Who is the most influential person in today’s culture?

The deliberately ambiguous question prompts furrowed brows and pensive looks from a diverse group of young Melburnians gathered around the dinner table.

But each seems to be waiting for someone else to answer first.

Eventually, 27-year-old construction administrator Abdulmalik* pipes up. “Andrew Tate,” he says. “He was just crazy, I feel like a lot of young boys look up to that … even old guys, they look at his views too.”

Tate, a former professional kickboxer turned influencer, has become a leading voice of the “manosphere”, a controversial digital space discussing masculinity, men’s rights and opposition to feminism. Authorities in Florida have launched a criminal investigation into Tate and his brother Tristan, after the pair returned to the US earlier this month from Romania, where they were charged with human trafficking and are being investigated for the same alleged offences in a different case. Andrew Tate has also been charged with rape. They deny the allegations.

Abdulmalik does not agree with Tate’s views but says “a lot of people” admire the influencer.

He also suggests “Big T” as another powerful influence. The nickname causes slight confusion around the table.

“Big T?” someone queries. “Trump,” another fires back. The recently re-elected US president and Time magazine’s 2024 person of the year needs no further introduction.

With the ice broken, conversation begins to flow as the young Melburnians debate influence, fame and notoriety over dinner as part of an Age series on what it’s like to be a young person in Melbourne. How do we measure influence? Can someone be influential even if you don’t personally like or subscribe to their values?

Some take a deliberately different approach. Jenson Galvin – a 19-year-old university student, financial services worker and member of the Young Liberals – believes the most influential “person” are the technology and financial industries.

“Everything we digest, from newspapers to what someone’s wearing in a day, is presented to us in a digital manner,” he says. “You can’t walk down the street without seeing a digital advertisement. You can’t drive in a car without a digital screen.”

Politicians as influencers

Youth worker Ikram Mahamed chooses Australian Senator Fatima Payman. Payman rocketed to prominence after quitting the Labor backbench last year over its stance on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, becoming an outspoken independent before forming her own party, Australia’s Voice.

“I think seeing a young Muslim woman in a political space ... that’s not something you see quite often,” says 23-year-old Mahamed. “Just seeing her being able to hold her own space ... it’s really inspiring.”

Ikram Mahamed is inspired by politician Fatima Payman.Credit: Luis Enrique Ascui

Performer and producer Ryan Stewart, 29, agrees Donald Trump is one of the world’s most influential people, noting “you say his name and everyone has an opinion”.

“Sure, there’s positive influence with the people who voted for him and the people who are advocating for his policy, but he’s also influenced people who are reacting … and trying to stop that stuff from happening,” says Stewart, who uses they/them pronouns.

“The reactions for women’s movements and queer movements and migrants’ rights movements have been influenced by the presence of Donald Trump.”

On a personal note, Stewart says Senator Lidia Thorpe is another major influence.

“This is probably my own bubble and the media I’m consuming ... but a lot of people in Australia have an opinion of this woman, whether it’s positive, whether it’s negative,” they say. “She’s starting conversations around Indigenous rights ... around the project of what Australia is and where it is moving going forward, and its role as a Commonwealth country.”

Indigenous artist Mia Boe finds it difficult to pinpoint a specific person. The 22- year-old moved from Brisbane to Melbourne a few years ago and was a 2024 Archibald Prize finalist for her portrait of television presenter Tony Armstrong.

“The people who influence me aren’t going to be the people who influence most people,” she said before pausing. “Like technology… the controllers of technology ... who are they?”

A chorus of laughter erupts. “In the cloud somewhere,” jokes Galvin.

Boe laughs before adopting a more serious tone.

“Elon Musk … he’s just got more power. So if it’s forceful influence, then it’s the people that are controlling our algorithms and access to technology and information and journalists … in a sadistic way, those are the people that have the most influence over us, because we’re getting all our information from online, and we’re also getting restricted information online.”

The murky world of cancel culture

With the pizza boxes half empty and the bottles of sparkling water nearly done, the conversation shifts to a juicier topic: Cancel culture.

The cultural phenomenon that’s gained traction over the past decade thanks to social media refers to withdrawing support for a person after they’ve said or done something considered offensive or wrong.

So, should someone’s tweets from 2012 be held against them? Can you recover from being cancelled? How do we determine who is cancelled, and for how long?

The group jumps straight in.

Galvin is adamant the principle of cancel culture is “bullying”.

“It allows people with limited consequence ... to tell others what they don’t like about them,” he says. “The fact that we buy into it as people, and we continue propagating it, means that bullying becomes systemic, and it becomes ingrained.”

When asked for an example of someone who had been “unfairly cancelled” or encountered “unfair backlash”, Galvin highlights federal Opposition Leader Peter Dutton.

“He’s [Dutton] generating really positive policy from my personal opinion, and he’s looking at ways for our country to be better as an opposition leader should,” he says. “But the way that people perceive him is how they perceived him when he was the immigration minister.”

It’s clear from glances and murmurs around the table that his choice of victim is unpopular. Galvin is unfazed. The topic is important and personal to him.

The 19-year-old unsuccessfully ran for the Bayside ward of Bleazby in the 2024 local government elections and was one of the youngest candidates in Victoria.

“I had people commenting on my Facebook posts when I was running for council, with screenshots of what I posted on Twitter when I was 16,” he says. “I’m proud of what I posted then.”

Boe has been listening intently from the opposite end of the table.

“I think ... what happened to you, is very different to what Peter Dutton did,” she says, addressing Galvin. “He [Dutton] had very violent, harmful policies about immigration, policing, human rights … that’s very different to a bad tweet … All these policies affected thousands of people.”

Dutton served as immigration minister between 2014 and 2017 and supported Operation Sovereign Borders, to prevent asylum seekers from entering Australia by boat.

He often clashed with refugee advocates over conditions and requests for medical treatment on Manus Island and Nauru.

In 2018, the then home affairs minister faced criticism when he said Victorians were “scared to go out to restaurants” because of “African gang violence”.

Boe believes cancel culture is a broad term. She doesn’t always agree with “every part of it”. But the 27-year-old Butchulla and Burmese woman comes from a family of lawyers and says cancel culture is often a way for those without power to speak out.

“When it seems like the only way a powerless person can have power is to speak up ... call out an abuser, call out someone who’s been racist to them ... I don’t think you can shut down that ability to call out injustice at the same time,” she says.

Mahamed agrees, noting public figures and politicians should be held accountable for their previous behaviour and comments.

“If we are talking about Peter Dutton … comments around some of the things he’s said about African people ... he should be held accountable for it,” she says.

“Of course we shouldn’t spew cancel culture on young people … people make mistakes, but let’s say those people who made mistakes are now in office. They should be held accountable.”

“But what if they regret those mistakes?” Galvin interjects passionately. “To remove the example of Peter – perhaps using that was the wrong example … what if they regret those decisions? But their voice isn’t loud enough to say that they do regret them because once cancel culture starts, it’s like a train with no handbrake. It’s hard to stop, and the internet makes that so.”

‘Piling on until they disappear’

The group discusses various celebrities and public figures who have faced social ostracism following controversial remarks or behaviour – actor Armie Hammer, One Nation leader Pauline Hanson and Harry Potter author J. K. Rowling, who has been cancelled numerous times for her views on transgender women in women-only spaces.

Everyone voices differing views.

Abdulmalik believes it’s gone too far. People need to “toughen up”, he says. Boe is adamant people with power should be subject to criticism, emphasising some who are “cancelled” still retain their power, wealth and relevance.

For 15 minutes, Stewart has not spoken. They pause when prompted to offer their opinion.

“There’s holding people to account for things they’ve done – whether it’s right or wrong ... but I think that’s different from cancel culture, because cancel culture inherently doesn’t believe in a system of accountability,” they say.

“It’s just piling on to someone until they disappear from public life.”

As the robust conversation wraps up, Galvin wants one parting shot. Cancel culture, he says, only exists “if you buy into it”.

“If you agree that you’ve been cancelled, then you’ll be cancelled. But if you don’t agree with the premise of it, if you believe in what you’ve said and stand by your word – as you should do with anything you put online – then you’ll never be cancelled.”

*Surname removed following doubts about being fully identified after the interview was conducted.

With Angus Delaney, Brittany Busch, Hannah Hammoud and Gemma Grant

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