When is it okay to plant your flag? Steven Crowder State of the Conservative movement

There’s a battle going on between people you would think would be allies, even friends, and it is raging across the Internet like a California wildfire. Not too long ago, Conservative pundit and comedian, Steven Crowder, shocked us all by announcing he was leaving his successful gig at The Blaze. From what Crowder himself had said, it seems as though renewal negotiations didn’t go the way he had hoped. I surmise that Crowder wanted more money because he wants to break from YouTube and was looking for the funds he believes are needed to go YouTube-less. What it seems he was told is that, while he is a massive draw, he does not bring in the size of audience that would justify the numbers he was asking for… and so he opted not to renew his contract.

 

I think everyone assumed he was going to do like Loren Chen and Sydney Watson, both of whom left the Blaze but still speak highly of their experiences there, and try to do his own thing. Many had hoped, since Crowder was well known to be friends with Ben Shapiro and Jeremy Boreing, that he has gotten a better offer from the Daily Wire. Instead, Crowder took to the Internet to blast an offer he had received harshly. The offer was riddled with several fee reductions for what was presented as time away from work, or being boycotted or banned, things that undoubtedly frustrated Crowder as he is already demonetized on YouTube (unjustly, I might add). He didn’t name names, but many on the Internet assumed it was the Daily Wire and started to demand answers.

 

Jeremy Boreing then put out an hour-long rebuttal where he went through the offer line by line, and made clear this was only an initial offer. One Crowder declined, though full disclosure, it would be an excellent offer for me, and I’d have signed with very few changes. Crowder then replied with yet another video, this time with carefully edited recordings of his last conversation with Jeremy Boreing. He made  Boreing look like a greedy creep who was preying on young talent. Crowder, meanwhile, cast himself as the noble knight sacrificing himself to expose an exploitative dragon, advancing on the princess. He made a big deal over Boreing’s use of the term “wage slave,” and I won’t lie… I don’t understand why that term is supposed to be such a shock among people who profess to be capitalists… after all, we all know it’s an oxymoron, as slaves don’t get a wage at all. It’s just a tongue-in-cheek way of saying a lower-paying entry-level job. It’s as if we have lost the concept of entry-level work… We used to understand that entry-level is a platform from which we can launch to bigger and better opportunities within a company. I guess everyone has to have an office with a view these days. But as for me? I think that’s a fair demand for Steven Crowder, but those of us without his level of draw? An entry-level offer can be a good thing. Look at Brett Cooper. She took an entry-level offer, and now she’s a superstar with a better contract. This dialogue shouldn’t be controversial, it’s how things work in the real world.

 

I lament the fact that this argument isn’t just over money though, were the argument over money… the argument would make more sense to me, but I believe, for Crowder, it’s not, and that’s why this spat is such a hot mess.

 

From the money perspective, this contract is still a lowball offer for Crowder, but it would be a fantastic opportunity for many who are looking to build themselves out as a content provider, self-included. My channel imploded when I refused to get on board the Trump Train in 2016. My audience, small as it was, abandoned me… and they ended up being right. Trump wasn’t anywhere near as bad as I feared, and since I was demonetized long before Crowder, I didn’t feel it worth the time to re-brand and try again. So if this opportunity were to be put before me, you bet I’d sign. Crowder, meanwhile, is already a multi-millionaire, so for him, the price tag was not the only issue as I believe it was for renewing with the Blaze, because he felt he needed more to do what he wants to do… and maybe the figure offered by DW, wouldn’t be enough either, because he did make a counter offer with a much bigger price tag. An offer, DW declined. But never at any point has Crowder himself made the money the issue. Instead, he focuses on terms that doc his pay for revenue lost due to strikes, bans, and boycotts… terms which I find completely reasonable, even though I am also already demonetized for suggesting the Left is racist and providing uncomfortable receipts. I’d be happy to make adjustments to my platform. Its also worth pointing out that Ben, Matt Walsh, Michael, and even Andrew have all faced demonetization for one thing or another over the years, but for Crowder, these terms are not acceptable and are downright evil, because he wants to break from YouTube, Twitter, Facebook, etc.

 

And I don’t think there’s anything wrong with that view.

 

Likewise, DW believes that we need to work with the system we have and advocate for reforms from within the system. To do that, when you get hit with these dings, you adjust and move forward. Like Crowder, they have started putting their harsher criticism of the Left behind a paywall. Again, its worth noting Crowder is already doing this as well.

 

And I don’t think that there’s anything wrong with that view either.

 

But it’s one thing to have a civil disagreement about how Conservatives should run their News and Entertainment companies, but for me, that Crowder built a website, “StopbigCon.com”, as a direct slap at people who should be friends was… as he would say, a d—k move. Making matters worse is that we now know he registered that domain well before his recorded conversation with Boreing, and also recorded that conversation without Boreing’s permission. Even worse, Boreing alleges that that conversation was mostly just two pals catching up and that Crowder is ruthlessly mischaracterizing the conversation. There’s a call to release the whole tape.

 

But just as Boreing’s lengthy review of the offer made Crowder’s complaints seem less potent, I believe he is calling for the full tape to be released because it will further damage Crowder’s claims. You see it seems that Crowder is planning to launch his own platform, but that he intended to advertise it as the “one true Conservative” outlet. So Conservative, they’ll break from YouTube once and for all.

 

I can appreciate wanting total independence. But to pretend that DW is somehow immoral for choosing to work within the system instead of breaking away from it is disingenuous. It is an argument between water and earth. As a practitioner of Hung Gar Boxing, we use a Southern Chinese five-animal, five-elements system. Each animal has its strengths and weaknesses, as do the elements. Each also has its own philosophy for how and when to engage. Steven is acting like water when it comes to the Tech Tyrants, but fire when it comes to DW. That is to say, he wants to flow like water, around an obstacle, but completely demolish his would-be direct competition, Fire Lord Ozai style. Daily Wire, meanwhile, is behaving like Earth. The flaming boulder is coming at them from the right, a regular boulder from the Left. They did not ask for this fight, but they will face both head-on… yes… you know the quote. “Like a rock.”

 

When I first made this observation, it was just water Vs stone. It’s an interesting philosophical discussion. Do we flow around the tech tyrants, or confront them head-on while trying to advance reforms? I don’t think either path to engagement is wrong. Those who know me know I am committed to the philosophy of Earth. I don’t go looking for fights, but when one comes my way, I deal with it fast and harshly. That often ends up with me in Facebook Jail, even though I did not start the fire and am, in fact, trying to put it out. DW is much the same way. They aren’t backing down from Tech Tyranny, they get penalized all the time too, but they are facing it head-on while advocating for reform, and I am sympathetic to that. So they have developed a business model to deal with it. Say what you can on the Tech Tyrant’s platform, and what you really want to say behind the paywall. Perhaps you disagree, and that’s fine. But what I object to is the fire Crowder has unleashed. Accusing DW of being a Con, because they have a different philosophy of engagement, is immoral. Luring Jeremy Boreing into a conversation that was intended to trap him into a recording that could be selectively edited, and used against him later, is immoral. Plotting and scheming to do this to someone who is your friend, is immoral, even if you have a philosophical disagreement with that friend.

 

Conservatism does not have set guidelines over how to best push back against tech tyranny. Nor is there a plank in the GOP platform on how to address it. Getting angry with a fighter who wants to use Tiger, when you think they should use crane is ridiculous. There is room in our movement for debate over how we should fight, or even what the best business model is. There is not, however, room for making these spats public, then burning your friends so you can advertise yourself as the “one true”… which is what Crowder seems to have done.

 

We don’t need public feuds like this. The Right is already heavily divided. We have Republicans like Mitch McConnell knifing us in the back constantly. We at the grassroots need to stand together. This is not an argument about principles, and Crowder needs to stop, as he is damaging his brand, as well as the brand of DW and the Right at large.

 

So when should we plant our flag? When is it okay to have Intra-party fights? When our shared principals and or the party platform are not being honored. A great example is Sen Cornyn selling us out on 2A, or McConnell and Romney selling us out on the inflationary spending in Washington. Or Sen Tillis stabbing us in the back on immigration, and then having to audacity to fundraise against the very things they just voted for.

Here in Utah, there is a fight over whether to change Utah’s flag. The argument is, “it’s boring so let’schange it to something that speaks for all of us… in Alta… at the Ski Resort.” Opponents, such as myself, have noticed that some of the proponents have ties to a business that is already preparing new merchandise based around the redesigned flag. Why? Because Merchandising! Where the real money from the legislature is made! It’s also costing time and money at a time when the country is in a recession. I’m sorry, I know CNN denies it, but we are. Just today Google announced tens of thousands of layoffs, this after Microsoft, Bethesda, Disney, Amazon, and numerous others have also announced layoffs. The country is not fiscally healthy right now but now is the time proponents want to sell you a new flag. Literally. Adding insult to injury Utah’s Governor has asked the legislature to approve spending to advertise the new flag idea to try and win public support that they absolutely do not have.

 

Here’s the principal. Government should not waste the public time or the public dime on frivolous

UT Sens Dan McCay and Todd Weiler tell the news our flag is boring.

nonsense. Ever. Doubly so during hard economic times. This isn’t a situation like Mississippi’s flag, which had been built around the racist Democrat-Confederate battle flag, and a Republican Governor and a Republican Legislature wanted to erase a racist symbol of the party of racism and bigotry then and the party of racism and bigotry now. The Democrat-Confederate Battle Flag has always been controversial among Republicans, whom you will recall, were the Union soldiers. But not to be outdone, Utah Republicans want to chase a trendy because they think it’s trendy and get on board a train that isn’t actually moving. Their justification? Utah’s flag is boring. That isn’t a valid argument. Even the argument to change Dixie State College’s name wasn’t this poor. We can’t afford eggs, but we’re supposed to pay for advertising an unpopular redesign of our State Flag? Ridiculous.

 

But rich and powerful people in this state, who don’t have to worry about buying eggs, or finding affordable meat, or baby formula, let alone paying bills, find it perfectly acceptable to take your money and time by force so they can prop up their own business interests. You see, it’s not just about fighting the Democrats, we have to get people like this voted out within our own ranks. When we have challenges like this before us, having to deal with divisive fights at the grassroots over a question of how to do business, or not, with big tech, seems like a superfluous issue that will needlessly divide us at a time we desperately need to be united. And that’s just heartbreaking.