News of the Restless

David Doel breaks it all down, with examples from his own channel, The Rational National:

And Michael Brooks’s analysis is also on point:

And don’t miss Shaun, who checked in a bit late on this, but is still very much worth watching, because he REALLY gets to the meat and potatoes of Crowder’s hatemongering:

With all this, there’s ample evidence that Steven Crowder is a hatemonger. He certainly has no problem hosting them on his show. And, as the old German saying goes, if ten people sit at a table with a Nazi (and don’t exclude him from the conversation), that means there are eleven Nazis at the table.

Now, we can say all we like about “guilt by association”, but Crowder doesn’t exactly go hosting (and promoting, and not-so-tacitly approving) any actual leftists and/or antifascists on his show. He doesn’t even debate them on his “change my mind” forays on campus; he prefers to pick on first-year students with little to no debate experience, learning, and life experience in general. In short: He only likes to “debate” those he can punch down on. No leading lights of the left on HIS show.

Whom DOES he invite, but NOT to debate? Racists. White supremacists. “Alt”-right proudboys. And oh yeah, actual fucking NAZIS. He never debates them; he kisses their asses, and touts them out the wazoo. He doesn’t merely associate with them; he fucking fraternizes with them, in the chummiest, wummiest way. He legitimizes them as some kind of brave, innovative, free thinkers (which they are not). Why? Oh, gee, could it possibly be because he actually believes their shit, too?

And he doesn’t stop them from spouting their hate and their crapaganda, because that might also mean checking his own bigotries (which are the entire basis of his so-called humor). To do so would, in turn, be to lose all those wannabe-edgy dumb kids who tune in to his show in order to get their confirmation that their racist, sexist, LGBT+-phobic views are, in fact, valid political positions and even, Bog help us all, “funny and cool”.

Which, incidentally, brings me to the real problem: YouTube itself. If you think Steven Fucking Crowder benefits from his own (and his guests’) loud and proud bigotry through views on YouTube, guess who benefits even more? Yup…YouTube itself. They and their parent company, Google, take such a hefty cut of the ad revenues that even popular creators make chicken feed by comparison.

Sure, they could demonetize all his videos (and, if they were following their own policies, they damn well ought to). They could kick him off their platform altogether, and they would be perfectly right to do so. But they won’t, because that’s millions of stupid-kid eyeballs that aren’t earning them that sweet, sweet ad revenue anymore. All they did was a wimpy-ass compromise where they (temporarily) wouldn’t allow ads on any of his videos where he hawks his homophobic t-shirts targeting Carlos Maza. The rest of his fascist shit is still being allowed to stand, unchallenged and still fully monetized. And with no danger of ever being yoinked, because big rich YouTube and Google just can’t bear to do without profiting off of it.

So, savor the ironies here: Steven Fucking Crowder, right-wing macho man, isn’t enriching himself half as much as he is doing it for Google and YouTube. He’s a nobody who depends on them for a platform, but they also depend on him…for dollars. They don’t really need him, but they choose to keep him around anyway, because he still makes them a shit-ton of money. That’s why they backtracked even on demonetizing him, and just went on letting him peddle his hate-merch unabated, and even let him rile up his fans to harass Carlos Maza and his family further. It’s the grossest and slimiest of symbioses.

And, oh yeah: There’s also the inconvenient fact that they have a history of marginalizing LGBT+ creators. So, not only are they happy to make money off Steven Fucking Crowder’s bigotry, they have a great deal of their own that they have yet to answer for.

Lucky for them that they enjoy virtual monopoly status…for NOW. Because the day that THAT ceases to be the case, their platform is going to collapse like a house of cards. I can’t wait for the day some brave, knowledgeable trust-buster takes an anti-monopoly ax to them; it’s a reckoning that’s long overdue.

Meanwhile, since this is depressing and we’re all in dire need of a good laugh, here’s the only moment in his entire sad-ass career where Steven Fucking Crowder was ever honest…or funny:

Those added sound effects from 2:50 on, Stevie…that’s what you need in order to be TRULY funny. And if you’re going to edit your videos to make yourself look better, then you need all the funnies you can get.

After all, you’re supposed to be a fuckin’ comedian.