Unfortunately I accidentally deleted my draft post that had all of the relevant names and details for the remaining Conservative Insurgent Thursday entries and will have to rebuild it before next week. What a pain.
In the meantime here's a list of previous installments. Interestingly there's a Brit and 3 Canadians on the list so far. That's not deliberate, just an interesting trend.
This week we're looking at an atypical but profound conservative insurgent. Professor Jordan Peterson: he's atypical from the perspective that he's not a younger conservative, nor is he a typical conservative. You could even argue he is much closer to a classical liberal who understands the need for a balance between left and right. He happens to see a current dramatic imbalance that favors radical socialist/communist left (a Left far too far for him). So he is an ally of the right and a remarkably powerful one who will not waver in the face of a liberal onslaught. He is most assuredly an insurgent who favors what conservatives favor.
Who is Jordan Peterson?
Jordan Peterson is a Canadian clinical psychologist and professor of psychology at the University of Toronto. He studies a variety of types of psychology but his primary areas of interest seem to be religion and ideological beliefs. In Canada he rose to prominence in 2016 for opposing the political correctness of the Canadian government's plan to enact Bill C-16. He was probably Canada's most forceful advocate of free speech in 2016. He actually appeared before the Canadian Senate to discuss the flaws of the bill. Here is the hearing unfiltered. It's dry but Peterson is typically brilliant.
Background:
Peterson was born in Alberta, Canada in 1962. He attended the University of Alberta as well as McGill University where he remained as a post-doctoral fellow from 1991 through 1993 when he moved to Harvard as an assistant and the associate professor. In 1998 he returned to Canada as a professor at the University of Toronto. As a teenager he worked for the socialist New Democratic Party throughout his teenage years before growing disillusioned by them at the age of 18. By age 18 he had already been exposed to the writings of Ayn Rand, George Orwell, Aldous Huxley and Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn. As he pursued an education in psychology he was clearly particularly influenced by Carl Jung. Peterson has typically identified as a Christian when asked, although not always. He sometimes approaches discussions concerning the benefits of Christianity from a clinical perspective. He identifies as a classical liberal, which is to say, a modern conservative. Peterson married in 1989 and has a son and daughter. He also became a grandfather in 2017.
Notable Achievements:
He has published two books, 1999's Maps of Meaning: The Architecture of Belief and this year, 2018 he released 12 Rules for Life: An Antidote to Chaos. In addition, he has been published in countless journals on psychology as well as non-psychology publications. In 2004, a multi-episode TV series aired based on Peterson's first book Maps of Meaning: The Architecture of Belief. He has also made numerous television appearances in Canada, the U.K. and increasingly the U.S.
Peterson and several professorial colleagues created a writing therapy program with a series of online writing exercises, titled the Self Authoring Suite. Over 10,000 students had used the program as of January 2017, exhibiting drop-out rates decreased by 25% and GPAs having risen by 20% overall. His overall body of work including university lectures and speaking engagements wherein he speaks on a wide variety of topics. Recently for example he met with David Rubin and Ben Shapiro and had a great dialogue on conservatism, religion and society.
Why We Need Him:
I've used the term brilliant debater in the past for conservative insurgents. For Peterson it is especially true. His command of the facts as well as his ability to recognize traps or tricks used to trip him up during debates is unparalleled. In addition his conversations are engaging and able to hold the attention of viewers while making his points in ways that are sure to connect with the audience. Here are some examples.
Highlight Reel:
Jordan Peterson has been known in his native Canada for other reasons for years. He has a boatload of highlights to share, but this is the obvious one to mention here. His internet/media persona blew up as a result of this Channel 4 interview in Great Britain. An interview that became a debate was completely owned by Peterson with not only common sense backed by facts, but also a razor-sharp ability to understand the dynamic of the conversation and navigate accordingly. This is truly brilliant. Watch it, and enjoy the obvious gotcha moment in addition to all of the other victories Jordan Peterson racks up along the way.
To add onto obviousness of the brilliance Jordan displays, YouTube personality Charisma on Command offers a brilliant analysis of how Jordan Peterson adroitly managed the conversation.
If you've heard the name Red Pill Black, you may not know it, but you've heard of Candace Owens. This timing of this weeks episode is fortuitous since there's been a bit of a firestorm ever since Kanye West recently stated that he loves the way she thinks.
Who is Candace Owens?
Candace Owens, a.k.a. Red Pill Black was woke, to use the vernacular, to the Red Pill (apropos the reference comes from the movie The Matrix, wherein the hero awoke to true reality) reality after being pummeled for trying to start an anti-bullying website. The Left accused her of unwarranted doxing of individuals. She awoke to the reality of the Left and has since gravitated towards
Background: Candace was born in Stamford Connecticut in 1990. She attended the University of Rhode Island and graduated with a B.A. in journalism. She has worked for Vogue and for a private equity firm. During her appearance on the very well done Rubin Report she details much of her own journey.
Notable Achievements:
In addition to a successful YouTube channel that can boast a video that reached 80 million people (!) she has done a number of great speeches at universities and been taken on as the Communications Director at Turning Point USA. She's been the subject of stories from all corners of the internet (for example, this one that includes a discussion of push back from true black conservatives). But that's just good for her brand, and her brand is young, African American emerging conservatism. That's part of why we need her in the conservative movement.
Why We Need Her:
Given that Republicans have repeatedly dropped the ball with conservative supporters in the last year and a half or so, it's not surprising that they have continually been unable get a foothold in the African American community beyond a paltry few percent. Sure, there have been African American conservatives like Thomas Sowell who brilliantly advocate for conservatism. But they have been unable to reach the audience with the effectiveness that "Red Pill Black" does. In that regard her outspoken advocacy of conservatism checks two boxes: (i) it reaches the right audience and (ii) it does so in a succinct and understandable way to which the audience can relate. For example, her response to the Kanye West backlash was a brilliant tweet of her own:
Far right? Allow me to clarify: I believe the black community can do it without hand-outs. I believe the Democrats have strapped us to our past to prevent us from our futures. And I won’t stop fighting until all black Americans see that.
I’m not far right—I’m free. pic.twitter.com/wtqCuYPtM2
There is a simple effectiveness to that response at a visceral level. And she can reach a younger African American audience that Mr. Sowell would have difficulty reaching. Indeed, her views need not be limited to any 'community'; they are universal in their common sense. It's not that the common sense has been lacking, it's the right messenger. Candace delivers her message in a truly effective manner.
Highlight Reel:
Since being thrust into the limelight Candace has done a remarkable job putting forward conservative ideas from an African American perspective, and she has done so fearlessly and frequently. As a result narrowing down her highlights to just one has been difficult (just as it has with all of the previous Conservative Insurgents). However, to keep this short, I've narrowed it down to this particular one as emblematic of her ability to communicate and push back against unfair attacks on her and those who would listen to her.
After a couple of weeks of delay, Conservative Insurgent Thursday returns in force with a look at beloved conservative loudmouth and web-based editorialist/entertainer (hopefully that's a fair descriptive) Steven Crowder who is taking the conservative argument to the trenches, wherever those trenches may be - campuses, the web, social media.
Who is Steven Crowder?
Steven Crowder is a 30 year old conservative political commentator and comedian. He was born in Gross Pointe Michigan but raised in the predominantly French province of Quebec in Canada. He was raised Christian and has been married since 2012 to his wife Hilary (not Clinton). Previous to his calling to conservatism's defense Crowder was an actor, starting at a young age. Currently his Youtube channel has over one million subscribers, including myself. His show, Louder With Crowder is also available on CRTV. Background: Steven Crowder's political background became apparent when he started appearing as a guest or panelist on Fox News, where he eventually worked from 2009 through 2013, when he was 'fired' for criticizing Fox in a radio interview. In addition to Fox News, Crowder has contributed videos to Breitbart, PJ Media, Prager University and in 2011 he was the MC at the CPAC conference. Notable Achievements: Most conservative insurgents would not count being punched as a notable achievement but in Crowder's case, he was punched in defense of the conservative cause. In 2012 he was punched several times by a union activists when he was at at a Demonstration in Michigan where unionists were protesting Michigan's new Right To Work law. Americans For Prosperity had a tent at the event and it was also torn down. No charges were brought against Crowder's assailant. In terms of that being an achievement, getting punched is not so much an achievement, but getting punched and continuing to crusade for conservative values and against progressivism and socialism, that is an achievement worth mentioning. Crowder has also been the august conservative The American Spectator for his work on Youtube. He's also done the university tour in an effort to fight back against the tide of socialism the prevails on university campuses. It's yeoman's work but he's clearly up to the challenge. Why We Need Him: Crowder is fearless, much like all of the other conservative insurgents I've profiled so far. More importantly, he brings a sharp comedic edge to his conservatism that demands people take note. Yet despite the bite, Crowder comes across as personable and approachable. Indeed in his Change My Mind video series he debates liberals in a surprisingly engaging and affable way. He's hard not to like on a personal level and it only helps him with his message. Here's a prime example;
Highlight Reel:
There are a number of great Crowder clips, but I would be remiss to not include this particular epic rant in response to a social justice warrior attempt to shut down a talk hosted by campus Republicans, before anyone had even spoken. It's crude in spots, but brilliant in it's frontal assault on the flaws in the SJW hypocrisy on free speech. The crudeness itself even speaks to the generation he's trying to reach.
I'm hoping to get today's episode of Conservative Insurgent Thursday completed later today, as we've been sidelined by a veterinary emergency.
Meanwhile, here's a video by the last Conservative Insurgent Thursday icon, Lauren Southern, on her participation in the Defend Europe Mission. It was posted about 7 months ago amid her being banned from Patreon for some sort of violence-related b.s.
Conservative Insurgent Thursdays continues with Lauren Southern, whom Wikipedia refers to as a "far right" activist (which apparently encompasses anyone who isn't far left). They also claim she is associated with the alt-right, a claim which is patently ridiculous.
Lauren is the first woman featured on this young series, but she's first for good reason. Lauren is not afraid to stand up for classical liberalism/conservatism/libertarianism no matter the situation. She's fearless. She's feisty. She's intelligent. She's internet savvy. And she's not what the left claim she is. She's fighting an uphill battle but it never appears that she's bitter or negative because of it. All of that make her a logical choice as the next conservative insurgent profile.
Who is Lauren Southern? Born in Canada in 1995, to a father of Danish descent, her birth name was actually Lauren Simonsen. She studied political science at the University of the Fraser Valley but decided not finish her degree. In 2015, at the age of 20, she ran for parliament in British Columbia, Canada as a Libertarian candidate. She did not win. When in Canada, and only in Canada, Lauren identifies as a man - more on that later.
Background: At the age of 22, Lauren has a surprising list of accomplishments in support of the conservative/libertarian cause. She has been banned by Patreon and Facebook (mistakenly, and then re-instated in the case of the latter). She has worked for Rebel Media (a Canadian conservative Youtube channel run by Ezra Levant that has helped launch other conservative insurgents into the limelight). In 2017 she departed to start working independently.
Not a great deal of personal information about Lauren is available. It's not surprising given her youth, but it's also refreshing that she does not put herself out there completely, in contrast to so many of her generation.
Notable achievements: In addition to working at Rebel Media, and bravely going out on her own, Lauren wrote and self-published in 2016 "Barbarians: How Baby Boomers, Immigrants, and Islam Screwed My Generation".
Most recently Southern has traveled to South Africa to do a series of videos on white farmers being harassed, assaulted and even killed by black citizens.
Why we need her:
Lauren is simply fearless. She is not afraid to walk into the belly of the liberal beast during protests to challenge people's fallacious beliefs, armed with quick-witted facts. In doing so she has been verbally maligned and even assaulted. She never backed down. In 2015 her cameraman was shoved and later in 2016, in Vancouver a protester poured urine on her head as she was engaging another protester. Her bravado, poise under fire and knowledge far exceed her years, indicating she will have a lengthy future in conservative activism. It is highly probable that her greatest accomplishments still lie ahead.
Her youth is not at all a detriment but rather an asset - talking to millennials is more likely to have an impact if the facts and debate are coming from another millennial and not some 'old person'. It also matters that despite having left her political science course, Southern approaches her discussions and journalism well-armed with knowledge pertinent to the topic.
synonyms: rebel, revolutionary, revolutionist, mutineer, insurrectionist, agitator, subversive, renegade, incendiary
Last week the inaugural episode of Conservative Insurgent Thursday I profiled Milo Yiannopolous. As I mentioned, he has not only alienated most of the Left, he has also managed to alienate some on the right. Most notable among them is Ben Shapiro. Ben Shapiro's acutely incisive ability to talk intelligently, backed by an armada of factual information (which he seems to so easily pull from his memory with amazing accuracy) enables him to debate and engage with others with the forceful ability to convince or halt opposing viewpoint in their tracks.
Ben thinks and talks with such rapid fire precision that you have to imagine his thought process must run at about Mach 6.
Who is Ben Shapiro?
Ben Shapiro is not only an author, journalist, radio talk show host and frequent guest on mainstream media, he's also a lawyer. He's just 34 years old, and recently at that. Ben was born in Los Angeles in 1984 to Jewish parents who immigrated from Russia. He graduated UCLA at age 20 (where at age 17 he was the youngest nationally syndicated columnist in America). By 2007 he had graduated Harvard Law School. Background:
Ben is quite young and as a result a lot of his background involves things that are still active, and in many cases he is still actively involved in them. Ben published his first book in 2004. His fifth book was published in 2013. From 2012 through 2016 he worked for Breitbart. He founded the conservative website The Daily Wire in 2015. He also co-founded Truth Revolt, a conservative version of the liberal Media Matters. Ben is Jewish.
Notable achievements:
In addition to all of the items listed in his background, Ben has frequented the university campus speech tour which has highlighted the duplicitous nature of the vocal left. Despite Ben's unoffensive, factual approach to discussion, his speeches and Q&A sessions have required him to hire security and caused riots when he tried to speak at U.C. Berkeley, not because of any sort of insensitivity or racially insensitive remarks, but just because he was espousing, and making the case for conservative ideas. That's all. Ben, unlike Milo is no bomb thrower, he is a fact thrower.
Why we need him:
In contrast to the bombastic and sarcastic approach taken by Milo, Ben's fact-based, logic-driven approach to advocating for conservatism makes his points almost impossible to dispute. In some cases, completely impossible. Ben provides a roadmap for conservatives with respect to how to approach a debate; preparation, keen observation, consistency of approach and logical rigor with respect to issues. We can all learn from him, and we should.
Ben advocates for a conservative approach to problems, and his ideological purity often puts him at odds with the likes of Breitbart, president Trump and of course his arch-rival/nemesis Milo. That's not a bad thing; there is still plenty of common ground between them, and the president while assuming the current mantle of conservatism, is not always right, nor always it's best face. The right is supposed to be a big tent party and a party of ideas. Keeping everyone in lockstep as the Democrats do, is ultimately unhealthy. Currently Ben serves as a reality check for conservatives who blindly follow the president regardless of his positions or approach. If we are to really self assess, we would not always blindly advocate for the president's positions or actions. We should not do that, or at a minimum we should assess the rationale for doing so, as well as the cost/benefits of taking such positions.
Additionally Ben touches on varied topics like metaphysics and in such forays, gets us to think about them and to think about political and social issues in those contexts as well.
Highlight Reel:
I've included a couple here, because no single 'highlight reel' does Shapiro justice.
Given that definition, what better place to start with Conservative Insurgent Thursday than with a true icon of (pardon the political connotations of the term) the young turks of the conservative movement? Milo Yiannopoulus is the perfect starting point. There is a new vanguard that has arisen among conservatives who are younger, but often more in tune with the roots of classical liberalism, conservatism, and their adjunct components than a lot of establishment so-called conservatives. There is a surprising diversity of conservative opinion as will become obvious throughout this series. This stands in stark contrast to progressivism which, by it's very collectivist nature, seeks to mitigate the difference between people that should rather be celebrated.
Given the purpose of this weekly feature, I have no intention of dwelling on any negatives or controversies associated with any of these conservative insurgents. If you want that, you can find plenty of negativity on any of these people in plenty of liberal places. The purpose here is to make you aware of who these people are, fighting for our conservative values and provide reasons why they might deserve your attention or support.
Who is Milo Yiannopolous?
Milo is certainly a bomb thrower. He comes to debates backed with facts, but he has no reservations about using sarcasm, foul language or ad hominem attacks as he sees fit. It certainly garners attention generates enemies (on both the left and right). But when it is followed cogent, solid and mostly irrefutable factual arguments, attention is an asset. Many on the conservative side of the spectrum are afraid to say what they really think. It's hard to win an argument that way and Milo's biggest asset is that he understands that point. And like president Trump, he punches back whenever he needs to do so.
Background:
Milo was born and raised in England in 1984 to a Greek-Irish father and a Jewish mother. He describes himself as Catholic. Milo is also openly gay and has been married to an African-American man, since 2017. He is often described as a member of the alt-right, which he rejects, given the now-accepted definition of that term. [The term alt-right was initially defined differently than it's current definition as neo-Nazi/white supremacist]. He is a resident alien in the United States. Milo was an early journalist covering the Gamergate issue, however he did so from the perspective that it was a feminist incursion into a space that there was no need to foist feminism upon an unsuspecting public group.
Notable achievements:
Milo came to prominence in America during his time as a tech writer at Breitbart. After a specious scandal, which Milo vehemently denies the mainstream take on, Milo left Breitbart and has since published a bestselling book and toured in support of it, but more generally, in support of conservative principles at colleges, for which he has been persecuted, censored, and even threatened with death.
Milo developed a massive following on Facebook, and Twitter and has his own Youtube channel. Milo was removed and permanently banned from Twitter after a scathing review of the Ghostbusters reboot, following which some of his followers tweeted some truly offensive comments, even though Milo himself did not. Ironically, the banning elevated Milo's audience as Twitter has developed a reputation for banning conservative voices and his was a very notable case.
Why we need him:
Milo has offended and is at odds with a lot of the mainstream media, establishment conservatives and even other insurgents as well (Ben Shapiro comes to mind). Nevertheless the Republican party, which is supposed to be the home of conservatism, is supposed to be a big tent. There are a large number of conservatives who have not felt that they have had a voice, or a voice that is strong enough or eloquent enough to push back against the cacophony of socialist voices, social justice warrior voices, and progressivist voices. Milo provides such a voice. He is quick-witted, intelligent and does not back down. He is a natural consequence of the same oppressive culture in America (and the West in general) that gave rise to president Trump, and Brexit.
More importantly, there are a lot of potential conservatives, whom Milo has the potential to reach, or awaken because of his unique and sharp take on issues as well as his fearless desire to reach younger audiences who may have not yet been fully indoctrinated by the political left or at least may still be reachable. Not only is he able to debate he is also a very effective promoter and can garner the attention needed to at least start those conversations or point out the censorship efforts of the left if they force him to not make an appearance.
I had planned on starting my Conservative Insurgent Thursdays segment today, but the THE MEMO is supposed to be coming out today and it's going to overshadow everything, so - bad timing. Instead Conservative Insurgent Thursdays will start next week.
Previously Nonsensible Shoes has had regular Thursday installments, most prominently the Thursday Hillary Bash wherein Hillary Clinton's issues were exposed week after week, for years, leading up to the 2016 election. Hillary hasn't entirely gone away but the need to continue to bash her week after week long since has. That's left a gap in Thursdays. A couple of ideas have come up, but I've decided to take Thursdays in a positive direction. Starting next week, Conservative Insurgent Thursday will make its debut. The purpose is to highlight new, exciting and cutting edge conservatives who will take up the mantle of conservatism that has been passed along from the likes of William F. Buckley to the Rush Limbaughs and Sean Hannitys of the world. The stalwart standard bears like Limbaugh are not going anywhere just yet, but they will not be around forever. Knowing who will carry the torch next is like looking at a crop of football rookies and being excited about the potential they hold. It should be fun.
