Looking back at when I was at the age of 13 years old, I was the type of person I would hate now. I had very bigoted opinions. As a matter of fact, I fostered very conservative views; I trashed on feminism, and said many things that should’ve never came out of my mouth. If I was standing face to face with my past self, let’s just say I would punch him. I can vividly look back on the times when I would go on Ben Shapiro’s YouTube, and watch him destroy SJWs (Social Justice Warriors – a pejorative used to describe one who promotes socially progressive, left-wing and liberal views), entranced by the way he spoke – with immense confidence and intelligence. However, I take this as a lesson; to think about what made me so attracted to the alt-right pipeline, and how dangerously charismatic these figures are; how cult-like they can be.

The common belief in the leftist community that regards the rightists as “cult-like” is not without merit. A community where they all recite the same arguments and kiss the same toes (Donald Trump), it seems as if rightists are programmed to act like machines. However, looking past these typical conspiracy theories, there are genuine reasons why the alt-right act so fictional. 

When thinking about political figures in the right-wing community, we might turn to Steven Crowder, Ben Shapiro, Candace Owens, and the infamous Donald Trump. One might also think of FOX News; a conservative television channel notorious for pushing right wing rhetoric. Media headlines adopted by such right wing commentators, which group left wingers as “crazy and radical liberals,” have patterns that lie within these overexaggerated headlines. These patterns can be identified through the way  they intentionally target vulnerable groups of people who don’t know much about a topic, and arguments are often filled with open-ended arguments. One may think of this  as a game of cat and mouse; the cat represents a vulnerable target, and the mouse, a Republican figure. The cat chases the mouse while the latter runs and runs in circles, leaving the cat to keep chasing after it until rendered exhausted.

A specific example of this is Steven Crowder’s infamous “Change My Mind” series. This  string of videos on Crowder’s YouTube channel is infamous for going to colleges with a “super hot take”, and asking for the topic at hand to be debated by students on campus. Often, these “takes” are immensely bigoted. These video topics are always politically charged, taking on subjects such as abortion, guns, and gender identity. 

The format is always the same; Crowder sits at a table  with a large paper sign that depicts his argument in black marker, and waits for his prey to bite. Crowder often states  his perspective in the intentionally  vague way. For example, in his “I am Pro-Gun, Change My Mind” video, he sets up a sign saying “I am Pro-Gun”, but doesn’t delve into the specifics of why he is pro-gun on his sign, leaving him to alter the argument in any way he wants to. Through this, he can confuse his opponent, and leave the audience to be astounded by his debate skills. For this reason, he is able to “destroy” his opponent in many of his videos – he sets himself up to win. The lack of substance in his arguments leaves the opponent confused in their own argument, a common theme throughout the series. His motive isn’t to win the argument through factual or logical rebuttals, it’s to confuse his  opponent debater’s arguments in order to humiliate them on social media.

One common thing that a lot of right-wing commentators on YouTube share is going to college campuses to harass unprepared students. It’s a running pattern that they do in order to convince the watcher that the person debating against that commentator appears as not educated. Someone who does this very frequently other than Crowder is none other than Kaitlin Bennett. If you don’t know who Kaitlin Bennett is, she is a right-wing commentator most popular on YouTube. As well as Crowder, she goes to college or university campuses with a mic to debate people there. Her motive is similar to Crowder in terms of what they want out of their videos: to humiliate the leftist students debating them on social media. However, the only difference is that while Crowder tends to use a sign, Kaitlin uses a mic and directly walks up to people and asks them a set of questions. A lot of these questions include topics about Trump, BLM, and Joe Biden’s presidency. You can see these throughout her videos as the common questions under very strawmanned titles to get clicks. “College Libs Can’t Back Up Their Claims”, “Commies on Campus”, and “THROWBACK: Libs Are Massive Hypocrites” are a few videos with a very bold and exaggerated title for people to fall into the hook, hook being the alt-right pipeline. The pattern that lies in these videos are not only her harassing these students trying to mind their business, but putting them on the spot to talk about topics they most likely haven’t done prior research in. You cannot go into a debate where the other person has not prepared for it beforehand, or else you wouldn’t know what you’re saying or arguing for. This is why in extracurriculars or courses incorporating law or debate, there is time to prep. Kaitlin ignores this to humiliate her debaters to show the world that these leftists are uneducated or don’t know what they’re talking about. By spontaneously putting people on the spot without giving them time to do some research on their own, she was able to put up such a negative narrative. In her “College Libs Can’t Back Up Their Claims” video, she interviews these four girls at a college campus and asks them if they would vote for Joe or Trump. One of the girls speaks up and says that “she is voting for Biden rather than a racist pedophile”. Kaitlin asks how he is racist and the two girls go back and forth, the student saying “no” repeatedly in terms of elaborating, and Kaitlin asking her to back up her claims. The student went on to say that “[Trump] has had multiple people be killed by police brutality”. She later adds that her English isn’t very good, therefore, she could not communicate her thoughts well.

What makes everything more infuriating is how Bennett forces the mic into her face and expects them to know an in-depth answer on the questions she asks. In that video, the girl has stated that she did not want to answer her questions, in which she has every right to. But the pressure of the camera in her face, and Kaitlin riling her up forced her to say something; something that she couldn’t really back up due to no prior research. Kaitlin had set her up for failure, and if you’re someone who isn’t that well versed in politics, or is right-wing, you can get the notion that left-wing people aren’t as educated as you think they were. This will lead to the alt-right pipeline.

Ben Shapiro is more infamous than the other two mentioned previously. He is one of the faces of the alt-right community, especially alt-right non-profit group PragerU. He is also known for his public speeches on YouTube, garnering millions of views on videos more specifically him “destroying” his opponent in social justice politics. You’ll notice that throughout his speeches, he talks quite fast, putting big words into the mix. 

One big factor that helps convince people to support you is public speaking. In order to garner an abundant amount of fans, you will need charisma. In this case, with Ben, not only does he use big, articulate words, but he also speaks very fast; his communication skills help with getting people to be on his side. In “Ben Shapiro Exposes the HUGE PROBLEM Caused by Feminism”, you can see in minute marks such as 00:00:54 and 00:02:33, his speech rate picks up the pace to the point where you can’t understand what he is saying. With the add-on of the usage of big words, it helps convince his audience that he seems like he knows what he’s talking about. For context, the woman in the audience asks Shapiro how to support women in sexual assault cases all while upholding the presumption of innocence. At 00:02:21, he starts to slow down his speech a bit and begins to speak a lot more articulately, stating “when you don’t teach men to protect women, you get men who will victimize women. When you don’t teach women that they ought to cherish men who are responsible and good, all you are doing is incentivizing bad male behaviour”. Note that he also spoke with such confidence, and not to mention using a complex word such as incentivize itself; he sounds like he knows what he is saying.

What Ben is essentially saying here is that the huge problem with feminism is women should also uphold men who are responsible and caring, because if they don’t, then those men would feel excluded and discredited and will be those bad men. It sounds very victim blame-y, and not to mention that Shapiro is a cisgender man who is speaking over what women should and shouldn’t feel and do when it comes to toxic men. The reality is that women don’t need to uphold anything respectful that these men do, matter of fact, they don’t owe them anything. It’s mens’ jobs to be respectful without being credited for such traits. After all, it is the bare minimum; treating people with respect and decency.

Although the alt-right cult isn’t as notorious like the Manson family, both are just as murderous. However, just like any other cult, you can escape it, and that is what I exactly did. I first started doing some research on my own, listening to the other party’s perspective about the oppression they face. With that, I soon started to realize that what these speeches and rebuttals that these alt-right people would say, were hurtful and full of hate, but no one impressionable would pick up on it by the way these figures would portray those oppressed people on media; uneducated and did not know what they were saying. Not to mention, the amount of articulation and exuding with such trust in his words. That was the cherry on top. This chapter in my life is something that is shameful and embarrassing, but the redemption arc that came out of it am I grateful for. I escaped this cult, and damn am I proud of it.