And now Andrew Torba on the whole thing with Crowder and Daily wire
*Conservative Inc and The Deal With The Daily Wire Devil
By Andrew Torba
This week Steven Crowder made headlines for turning down a 50 million dollar term sheet offered by The Daily Wire. The term sheet, which would have forced Steven to sign over his email list, social media accounts, and revenue streams from his Mug Club, among other things from his life’s work, raised concerns about censorship and the gatekeeping of content creators by large conservative media companies and their owners.
The point of this article is to open your eyes to why your favorite conservative media outlets are not on our side and help you understand that they exist to keep you from discussing ideas that threaten the power of the Regime. These types of exploitative gatekeeping deals are not the outlier; they are the norm. Unlike most of the talking heads I have no gatekeeping contracts and thus can speak freely on these matters and tell you the unfortunate truth that you need to hear.
The Daily Wire is currently trying to gaslight Crowder and make this issue about money or greed when anyone paying attention knows that is not the case. This is a projection on their part because money is indeed what they care about here and in general. They can’t imagine that someone would reject that much money, and it “offends” them. They cry out in pain as they strike Crowder with a terrible one-sided deal for his soul.
It’s not about money, it’s about controlling the narrative.
Clearly, money is not an issue for a man willing to turn down $50 million and go public to dispute the predatory practices of a very large conservative media company. It’s also noteworthy that Steven claims to have been friends with everyone involved for the past decade, so this likely wasn’t an easy decision on his part from any angle. He’s burning bridges here in a big way.
It’s difficult for many people to wrap their heads around what appears on the surface to be a large sum of money. Most of us could never imagine turning down that sum to make Youtube videos. Still, for a creator as big as Crowder with an already established large audience and revenue-generating business, that amount of money over a multi-year period isn’t all that large. Likely, Crowder is already generating millions of dollars annually with his business.
Crowder’s business is worth a significant amount of money between his successful Mug Club monetization strategy, his established audience, and the potential for advertiser deals. Remember, the Daily Wire deal is not just for Steven himself, but for the entire operation he has built up over the past decade, including his library of content, the talent of his team, and the various revenue-generating business models he built. The money would be used to continue funding and expand the operational costs of his business.
The bigger picture here is that some things are worth more than any amount of money—things like dignity, principles, and the ability to speak freely without asking permission from Ben Shapiro.
One of the main issues with the term sheet was that it would have required Steven to censor himself to avoid being banned by Big Tech platforms or face steep financial penalties from The Daily Wire. In other words, Steven would have had to compromise his principles in order to maintain his operational income and continue to reach his audience. He would be beholden to the gatekeeping whims of Ben Shapiro and Big Tech.
He would be, as Jeremey Boring said in a recorded call with him, a “wage slave.”
Crowder made the right choice in rejecting the deal with The Daily Wire. He has set an important example for other content creators and media figures and exposed the dark underbelly of exploitative contracts in media companies like the Daily Wire, who put on a facade of “fighting back against the Regime,” when in reality, they are the controlled opposition that operates on behalf of it. Still, there is much more to this story.
Gatekeepers of the Regime are not our friends.
We live in a time when the Friend/Enemy Distinction is essential to understand. This may be difficult for many of you to accept, but Ben Shapiro and The Daily Wire are not our friends. Nor are Fox News, Prager U, The Blaze, Charlie Kirk, and many others in the “conservative” media landscape. Not even Crowder himself, for that matter, but hopefully, that is about to change.
These people are working on behalf of our enemies. They aim to keep you within a tightly controlled narrative box of what the Regime deems “acceptable oppositional discourse.” Anyone who steps outside that line is blacklisted, smeared, and banned by these “conservative” media outlets for daring to speak the Truth.
Ask yourself why in a culture of censorship unlike anything ever seen before in this country, has Ben Shapiro, The Daily Wire, and all of the other “popular” conservative media outlets I mentioned never faced any modicum of censorship over the past seven years? Why is Ben Shapiro “shadow-boosted” into Facebook and YouTube feeds while the rest of us are banned, demonetized, and shadowbanned?
You may think that it’s because he is paying Facebook millions of dollars, and that would be a very logical assumption, but what is going on here is much bigger than that. Ben Shapiro, The Daily Wire, and the rest of Conservative Inc. exist for one reason and one reason only: to keep you from entertaining forbidden opinions. They are a release valve that herds those who would otherwise be genuinely right-wing (and thus a threat to the Regime) into bland, “acceptable” conservatism that threatens nothing.
That’s why they are not only allowed on Facebook, YouTube, and Twitter by our enemies but also boosted and promoted by them. They pose no real threat to those in power; instead, they are an asset to them. They give the illusion of opposition to the totality of the Regime’s grasp on government, media, entertainment, banking, and technology.
Shapiro is boosted artificially so much by Big Tech that he consistently appears in the top shared links on Facebook, not because his content is novel, interesting, or good, but rather because our enemies are inflating him on purpose. That purpose is to corral the conversation and prevent you from listening to anyone with ideas that legitimately threaten the existing power structure. For the life of me, I can’t understand how people could possibly listen to his annoying nasally speed talking for hours, but I digress.
Control the media, control the narrative, control the world.
The Daily Wire and Conservative Inc aren’t interested in free speech. They are interested in Controlled Speech. That’s their job. They rope you in by giving off the appearance of cultural resistance, and when it really matters, they sideswipe their conservative Christian audience with Regime-approved narratives. There are many examples of this – too many to count. Christians need to wise up to what is going on here.
Ben Shapiro was notoriously anti-Trump in 2016 when it mattered. He called the January 6th political prisoners’ evil’ and said they should “end up rotting in prison.” He made a case in front of his audience for “mandatory vaccinations” when people were losing their jobs and businesses for refusing to be lab rats. He has repeatedly shilled for endless foreign wars on behalf of Israel. The list goes on and on.
Conservative Inc lures you in with culture war distractions, convincing you that they share your values and are fighting back against the Regime. The reality is they exist to pull a bait and switch on you and force Regime-approved narratives about critical issues down your throat from a “right-wing” perspective. Big Con is conning you, and many of you don’t realize it yet, but hopefully, with what Crowder is exposing here, you are starting to get the picture. Conservative Inc is not your friend.
What happens when you sell your soul to Conservative Inc?
Let’s look at what happens when someone signs on the dotted line with a Conservative Inc company like The Daily Wire. Jordan Peterson did just that several months ago. The first videos Peterson released after joining The Daily Wire chastised Muslims and Christians with criticism and scolding. Noticeably he provided none of the same complaints and scolding to people of the Jewish faith. Instead, he is now making trips to Israel, crying on stage, praising them, and doing glowing interviews with Benjamin Netanyahu. This is what it looks like to sell your soul for money and become a dancing clown for Ben Shapiro and Israel.
Last fall, Ye came under scrutiny from the media for expressing similar concerns to Crowder with certain music industry contracts that were equally exploitative. Ye was then promptly banned from social media, bank accounts, and much more for criticizing the group of people behind these contracts.
As it turns out, the same group of people are behind Steven Crowder’s exploitative term sheet offer from The Daily Wire. So, it appears Ye indeed had a point about exploitative contracts from Jewish media moguls. These are the facts, and the gatekeepers at Conservative Inc don’t want you to discuss these uncomfortable truths. It’s not Christians running these companies and making these deals. Ye told you who is running them, and they destroyed him for it.
When Ye’s friend Candace Owens, who works for The Daily Wire, went to bat to defend him, Ben Shapiro quickly put her in her place to stop it. Signing on the dotted line with The Daily Wire means you are forbidden from discussing topics that make Ben Shapiro uncomfortable. Topics that are essential to breaking down the problems in our society and that are culturally, spiritually, and politically relevant. Taking the deal with the Devil means you must shut your mouth about these topics and must leave your friends and principles hanging under the bus.
Money can be a powerful motivator for many people, but there are some things that no money can buy. You cannot serve God and money (Matthew 6:24). The Bible tells us:
A little that a righteous man hath is better than the riches of many wicked.
For the arms of the wicked shall be broken: but the Lord upholdeth the righteous.
Psalms 37:16-17
It’s easy to see the appeal of making a deal like this for Crowder, Jordan Peterson, Candace Owens, and others. Many on the right are making a point about the “large sum of money,” but are missing the bigger picture about this deal: no amount of money is worth being a “wage slave” and selling your life’s work to Ben Shapiro. None. Not $50 million.
Money can provide us with the means to live a comfortable life, care for ourselves and our loved ones, and pursue our dreams. But what’s the point of having all of that if we have to abandon our principles and shut our mouths to get it? When we sell our souls, we’re giving up something that money can’t replace.
In an age when Big Tech companies have a significant influence over the distribution of information and content, we must support and protect the rights of creators to produce content freely and without censorship. That’s what we have been doing here at Gab for over six years now, and it’s what we will continue to do going forward. Why do you think none of the Conservative Inc personalities and media companies are on Gab? They can’t control the narrative here. It’s that simple.
We Need to Support Christian Leaders At Christian Media Companies. Period.
Last summer, I said that to be a leader or influencer on the right, you need to accept Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior and be a Christian. I said in no uncertain terms that people like Ben Shapiro and Jordan Peterson have no place in any serious right-wing movement and resistance to the Regime unless they become Christians. I got a lot of flack for this from the media and many people on the right, but I stand by it, and now you see why.
This Daily Wire situation with Crowder is a great example. Christians don’t act the way Ben Shapiro and Jeremy Boreing act. They don’t refer to themselves as “god-kings.” They don’t write soul-buying exploitative contracts. They don’t refer to employees as “wage slaves.” They don’t force people to throw their friends under the bus. These people don’t act like Christians because they aren’t Christians, and the Christians who do work for them and have made a deal with the Devil–people like Matt Walsh–should be ashamed of themselves. If they had any self-respect and cared about the truth and fighting the Regime, they would move on to bigger and better things.
When you support The Daily Wire, Ben Shapiro, and Conservative Inc, this is the behavior you are endorsing and making possible. This is why we need to explicitly support Christian businesses, creators, media companies, and leaders only. Period.
Steven’s decision to turn down The Daily Wire’s term sheet is a powerful reminder of the importance of standing up for our principles and preserving our freedom of speech. Despite the financial incentives, Steven made the right choice in rejecting and exposing the deal. Whether you enjoy his content or not, you should support his decision to expose the exploitative term sheet and behavior of The Daily Wire.
I wish him all the best with whatever comes next and pray that he starts speaking a little more boldly, stops punching right, and remains independent from the Conservative Inc machine.
Andrew Torba
CEO, Gab.com*
So…. yeah. He’s actually against major conservative outlets, which gives a pretty good indication of how far right he is. Honestly didn’t see that coming.
And yeah the alt righters losing their shit over Pink Floyd is amusing.
