Sargon of Akkad



There are a lot of people with very bad and ill-informed opinions. Don't get me wrong, I'm sure I'm one of them. I’ve said, over and over, that Milo, Sargon, Lauren Souther, [sic] and Gavin types people [sic] can be great entry points

Carl Benjamin, better known as Sargon of Akkad, Carl I of Swindon, Sardine of Yakult or The Thinkery, is a YouTube talker, failed UKIP candidate for the South West England constituency of the European Parliament, right-wing reactionary and trend setter in the exciting new scene of dairy based fashion. Although Benjamin claims the mantle of "skeptic", his commentary often features theories of a rather more conspiratorial nature (in particular, concerning Cultural Marxism), and potentially disingenuous sourcing: often overlooking critical passages, long words and graphs which might cause head scratching, calling for "social justice" courses to be temporarily suspended, complaining about the length of thorough rebuttals and criticism of his videos, and crying when Twitter suspended his account because he tweeted porn at his critics. In practice, Benjamin spends his time attacking "the left" (read: anyone from the Democrats to Chavez ), screaming profanities at college juniors, ridiculing "the media" (read: literally any news with adjectives ), complaining about Identity politics (especially people he labels SJWs), defending right-wing and fascist politicians (including Donald Trump, Marine Le Pen and Jair Bolsonaro), and defending brutal dictators such as Bashar al-Assad and Vladimir Putin. We have documented his most egregious stupidity below.

Benjamin's method of "response video" inserts his own mocking commentary at frequent intervals into an opponent's video. As a result, Benjamin tends to quotemine his subjects, presenting a fractured and tormented view of their positions. When he gives his final rebuttal at the end, his opponent has already been established as untrustworthy. In contrast, Benjamin is much, much less effective in live debate. Yet, performs well in other debates such as the one in which he causes Thomas Smith to walk out before the end.

Benjamin's political views are actually somewhat confusing, making it difficult to identify his position on the horseshoe. He loves to consider himself a liberalist "classical liberal" opposed to identity politics, however his constant pandering to far-rightists and his belief in far-right conspiracy theories makes him very much an entry point for alt-right radicalization.

As of May 2019, Benjamin's main channel had over 956,000 subscribers and over 284 million views. In December 2018, Benjamin was banned from Patreon, cutting off much of his income. This was after beefing with white supremacists and making the mistake of trying to use their language (slurs) against them (calling them "white niggers", calling them "faggots", accusing them of acting like "niggers"). How he intended it doesn't matter, however, as it violated Patreon's hate speech policy.

Conspiracy theories
I like a good conspiracy theory, but I like them because I don't believe them. Although Benjamin claims not to be a conspiracy theorist, he's entertained a number of aluminum foil-clad hypotheses over the years.

Former 9/11 Truther
On a livestream in May 2014, Benjamin parroted 9/11 truther talking points about Mossad:

In a June 2014 video titled "What I Saw", Benjamin (during a monologue in which he described seeing a UFO) reported that one of his friends was blue-pilled with regards to 9-11:

Benjamin doubled down in the comments section. In a particularly lovely thread, Sargon argued that "2 planes can't bring down 3 buildings":

Summarizing the discussion, Benjamin stated:

In a July 2015 livestream with Kyle Kulinski, Benjamin said

Benjamin's 9/11 views flew under the radar until other YouTubers called him out on it in May 2017. Afterwards, in a June 2017 video, Benjamin claims he was "deconverted" after he watched a viral December 2015 video titled "For the undying 9/11 MORONIC JET FUEL ARGUMENT" which debunked the common 9/11 truther talking point that "jet fuel can't melt steel beams": This is unexpected, as Benjamin was a 9-11 truther for years and (allegedly) all it took was a 2-minute video for his beliefs to fall apart.

Heather Heyer heart attack at Charlottesvile
In a livestream with alt-righter Colin Robertson, Benjamin cycled through the alt-right conspiracy theory that Charlottesville victim Heather Heyer died because of a heart attack, and not because she was struck by a vehicle driven by an alt-righter:

When pressed on the claim by Jared Holt of Right Wing Watch, Benjamin did ten seconds worth of Googling, proved himself wrong, and then did some whataboutism:

If Benjamin had done any research, he wouldn't have to retreat to "lies on both sides" so often.

Other conspiracy theory views

 * World-spanning conspiracy theories:
 * Benjamin believes in the Agenda 21 variation of the New World Order conspiracy theory. In a YouTube comment on "Agenda 21 For Dummies", Benjamin stated:


 * Benjamin holds that Cultural Marxism is a genuine problem for modern society. (See also his quotes on this page.)
 * Sometimes Benjamin mocks George Soros conspiracy theories. And sometimes Benjamin peddles them outright.


 * American conspiracy theories:
 * Benjamin buys Trump's (absurd ) claims about voter fraud in the 2016 election.
 * Benjamin does not believe that Pizzagate is real. However, he spends a very long time talking about why child sex rings are common and "the left" should take them seriously. This view is disingenuous -- the question is one of a very specific child sex ring, not of sex rings in general -- and enables Pizzagaters.
 * Benjamin peddled the (bullshit ) conspiracy theory that DNC staffer Seth Rich was murdered because he was involved in the 2016 DNC email leaks to WikiLeaks.  In particularly poor taste, he spread a tweet by Paul Joseph Watson.


 * British political conspiracy theories:
 * Benjamin debated Thunderf00t on Brexit, referencing a number of conspiracy theories throughout.


 * Syrian Civil War conspiracy theories:
 * "Antifa: on a scale of 1 to allahu [sic] akbar, how pleased are you that ISIS are flying your colours?" - in response to a photograph taken by the after capturing a town from ISIS.
 * Benjamin shared "evidence" that the April 2017 in Syria was staged and doubled down when questioned on it. Benjamin later maintained that he was "not even sure that there is proof of a chemical weapons attack."
 * Benjamin later presented as fact the debunked theory that a Syrian girl was photographed in three separate "staged" rescues.
 * Benjamin also said so-called "independent" journalist Eva Bartlett's conspiratorial statements on Syria were "completely accurate". In reality, they were false.


 * Miscellaneous:
 * In 2014, Benjamin asserted that the FBI believes Adolf Hitler . Benjamin doubled down and said this was "probably true" in June 2017. A day later, he said he should not have used the word "probably" but that it was "certainly a possibility." This particular FBI-angled version of the "surviving Hitler"-myth was debunked by Snopes in May 2016. The declassified FBI documents in question contained reports of alleged sightings of Hitler, and theories about his means of escape from Germany, but the FBI were only investigating rumours — not confirming zany conspiracies.

Anti-feminism
I don't agree that women face disadvantages. Benjamin is perhaps most well-known for his "Why Do People Hate #Feminism" series. His channel is filled with videos of the type, "Feminism vs FACTS" or "Feminist gets TRIGGERED". He believes that "reality has an anti-feminist bias". In short: If you've listened to other anti-feminist YouTubers, you've already listened to Sargon.

Elliot Rodger
IT IS A FUCKING FEMINIST SYSTEM! Benjamin, discussing Elliot Rodger's murderous rampage, has the following to say:

"I wouldn't even rape you"
More recently, British MP argued that internet freedom of speech requires that harassment of women become "unacceptable". In particular, she mentioned rape threats. Benjamin felt obliged to tweet this insightful response:

Since then, Benjamin has not apologised and continues to defend this exchange, which at one point notoriously garnered him applause from the audience during a live interview at MythCon 2017.

In May 2019, Benjamin appeared to double down on the remark as part of a joke in one of his videos, stating:

This has subsequently led to West Midlands Police opening up an investigation against Benjamin.

#MeToo and "gold-digging whores"
During the #MeToo campaign encouraging women (and to a lesser extent men) to share their stories of sexual abuse following the allegations against Harvey Weinstein, Benjamin stated that "I don't agree with publicizing these things" despite intentionally publicizing this event in a negative light and publicizing known falsehoods, such as Pizzagate (see below). He had another crack at Jess Phillips by suggesting #IWouldntEven as a hashtag to mock the campaign. Regarding the women who accused Weinstein of sexual assault and harassment, Benjamin blamed the victims and offered these overtly misogynistic responses:

After being called out by one of the guests on his stream, Benjamin gave a weak excuse for his remarks:

Benjamin apparently thinks it's fine to call women "whores" as long as they were "just pestered" for sex. He also seemed to have forgotten that earlier, in the same livestream, he agreed with another one of his guests that "pestering" is a soft word for what Weinstein did.

Women in politics
Benjamin seems to think that there is a "demonstrable" causal link between the point when women entered politics and the decline of society.

Anti-identity-politics
The idea that American civilisation somehow excludes black people is ridiculous. They have been there from virtually day one. Buzzfeed, you can shut up and fuck off. White men are the ONLY people on Earth it is okay to mistreat. Benjamin's favorite whipping boy is the so-called "progressive left," which he considers to be a "cancer" on the left wing. He defines "progressives" as leftists that dabble in authoritarian collectivism, claim racism and sexism where there is none, and suppress dissent through "censorship". Extending this, Benjamin puts "SJWs" and "modern feminists" squarely under this "progressive left" umbrella. Of late, he has taken to describing liberals as "Neo-Progressive", a definition which was taken straight from the Heritage Foundation. At length, Benjamin explains his view on the "SJW" mindset:

In general, Benjamin views his opponents as promoters of reverse discrimination:

I will never think it right to judge someone based on the colour of their skin instead of the content of their character. This is the reason I am not part of the extreme progressive left, just like I will not be part of the extreme fascist right.

Benjamin does support some genuinely liberal / leftist positions. He is pro-gay marriage, supports legalising marijuana (and decriminalising drug use), opposes the death penalty, is pro-choice and he doesn't like Fox News. He also made two videos eviscerating the British Conservative Party shortly after the 2015 United Kingdom general election.

Petition: "Suspend Social Justice Courses from UNIVERSITIES"
In 2016, Benjamin created a petition to "Suspend Social Justice Courses" from "UNIVERSITIES [sic]". He claims that:

The letter contained in the petition:

Sargon can't be bothered to specify which courses he's talking about, so even if there is a valid point in there, the petition is not useful.

And in the relevant video, Benjamin claims:

And when the courses are banned, then what follows is up for debate. He also suggested to read the comments as an alternative to see what he's talking about. The comments, unsurprisingly, do not deliver and are mainly rants about the social justice boogeyman, sometimes contradicting each other (such as comments saying social justice courses telling everyone is racist while others saying that social justice courses are racist by being anti-white).

This is certainly a shift from saying that "Free Speech is the Answer to Political Correctness". Perhaps Benjamin and the Islamic Republic of Iran should have a chat: the latter has moved to ban social sciences and was especially worried about shutting down women's studies and human rights courses. Finally, Iran is free of the SJW scourge.

"Why Don't I Criticize the Right"
Benjamin virtually never attacks the right. In "Why Don't I Criticise the Right", Benjamin asserts that this is because he wants to "improve" the left but doesn't want to "improve" the right. At length, he glosses over the problems of the right. For example, he complains that leftism sometimes produces communists who "undermine Western Civilization":

Yet Benjamin conveniently forgets that rightism regularly produces theocrats, white nationalists, and the like. Indeed, he explicitly minimises rights violations from the right in response to what he perceives to be the minimisation of rights violations from the left, those of foetuses, which he ostensibly values to a similar degree to children, however false the equivalence:

Benjamin thinks that abortion isn't that important, because how difficult is raising a child, really?

Incoherent ideology
I'm quite a socialist in some ways. I like the idea of socialised healthcare and welfare. In January 2019, Benjamin took a political compass test where he was placed in the centre-right, libertarian category. When Benjamin took the same test in 2015, he was placed in the centre-left, libertarian category. Benjamin commonly refers to himself as a "classical liberal", yet Benjamin once told Kyle Kulinski that "a system that produces billionaires is a bad system"; a strikingly socialist (and decidedly not "classical liberal") thing to say. Similarly, Benjamin's defense of workers' rights and talk of class warfare are more along the lines of Marxism, not "classical liberalism", but since such concepts, as subsets, aren't exclusive to their superset of Marxism, ideological coherence evidently stands. In June 2017, Benjamin clarified that he would be more accurately classified as a "social liberal" than a "classical liberal."

Despite self-identifying as left-leaning, Benjamin has been commonly referred to as right-wing. This is largely due to his anti-progressive views and recent endorsements and support of right-wing political candidates such as Donald Trump, Marine Le Pen, and Theresa May. Since he does not believe he shares the political views of these candidates, he justifies his support for them with fear-mongering, mental gymnastics, and by massively overstating the flaws of their opponents.

Compare his February 2015 views on poverty:

And his September 2015 views on poverty:

Compare his 2015 views on Black Lives Matter:

And his 2016 views on Black Lives Matter:

Compare his September 2015 views on no platforming:

And his December 2015 views on no platforming:

Trump defender
The only joy I get in talking about Trump is how he turns [liberals] mental. Please enjoy the beliefs of the "classical liberal" Carl Benjamin:


 * "You will have two anti-establishment characters running for president and thank God, it means that Bernie Sanders is going to win."
 * "I'd love to see Trump as president. He's crazy, but fuck it, how could it be any worse."
 * On "The Assassination of Donald Trump" (44:08!), Benjamin tells us that Trump is "a manifestation of the will of the people" to "regain control of the system". According to Benjamin, if Trump is assassinated, then his successor will be a "Julius Caesar" who will "end [the American] republic".
 * Benjamin whined about John Oliver's #MakeDonaldDrumpfAgain skit. Twice. (Benjamin also apparently fails to realize that, in a show spanning 30 minutes, the end skit was not actually the brunt of Oliver's criticism.)
 * In the same vein, Benjamin defended poor Donald Trump from the biased media. Again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again.
 * Benjamin genuinely thinks that: "They do nothing but lie. Trump is right to call CNN fake news and ignore their requests for comment."
 * Benjamin published "Hillary must lose." Since then, it's been a downhill slide, with "Anyone But Hillary", Trump's election will "spell the end of social justice, which I think is a damn good thing", and the crown jewel, "Walls are not racist".
 * "Anyone got a Trump/May handshake, Hillary supporter autistic screeching meme?"
 * "And left-wing radicals try and fail repeatedly to assassinate Trump, while initiating violence and public persecution of his supporters."

RationalWiki: A place so honest they actually think I'm a Donald Trump supporter. Fuck it, fuck it. He's my guy. He's doing what he said he'd do, and he's turning the left fucking crazy.

Other statements

 * "Can you find better countries than English-speaking countries?"
 * "I can't think of a single problem I have with a sex-positive feminist."

Age of consent
Benjamin discussed the age of consent in a 2014 livestream with "The Justicar":

Reactionary fans
Benjamin has been endorsed by:
 * Reactionary neo-Nazi blog MoreRight
 * The English Defense League. Benjamin sees no problem with this, even claiming it as a win (though he acknowledges that the EDL is racist).
 * Rabidly anti-feminist Paul Elam of A Voice for Men. (Originally, Elam criticized Benjamin over his claims that MRAs have "achieved nothing". After viewing AVFM's video, Benjamin apologized in the comment section, and agreed that MRAs have achieved change. Paul Elam then said that he subscribes to Benjamin, watches his videos, and that there is a "good person in that man". )
 * The decidedly reactionary Breitbart, which looked positively on "his parody of their identity politics" and described him as a cultural libertarian (read: opposed to the "regressive left")

Benjamin ran a channel called "Vae Victis" "The New Memedia" "The Thinkery" aimed at engaging his "meme culture" audience. Benjamin hasn't helped matters by repeatedly posting videos about the people of "Kekistan", a fictional ethnicity that he describes as oppressed. Kekistan is symbolized by a Nazi-flag analog with "KEK" replacing the swastika and frequent Pepe memes. Interestingly, this has both attracted and pissed off  alt-right types. Benjamin maintains that "white nationalists actually really hate" Kekistan and the flag's design is meant to be a mocking parody of Nazis.

Relationship with the alt-right
I am literally as sympathetic to the alt-right as I am to the far left, and what did I recommend the alt-right do? Join the far left. [....] The alt-right can use social justice to advance their agenda, because it will end up being exactly the same agenda. You guys ultimately want the same thing, for different reasons. [....] Racial segregation is, incidentally, what both the alt-right and the far-left want. I don't want racial segregation. I am a product of miscegenation. I do not want racial segregation in my society, because it means parts of my family would be split up from one another. But you guys, you all want racial segregation. Or are you gonna start, what are you gonna do, Left Wing Watch, are you gonna start reporting on when the colleges end up segregating the students? I don't think so. I think you're OK with that, aren't you, Jared, 'cause you're a vile piece of shit. Benjamin has an interesting relationship with the alt-right. He personally does not identify as alt-right and has mocked and criticised them on Twitter. He has tried to provoke his alt-right followers into unfollowing and blocking him by tweeting them with interracial gay pornography. He has opposed racist viewpoints espoused by the alt-right such as their discouragement of "race mixing", their use of "scientific racism" and their promotion of racial segregation. He has also mocked the idea of white genocide and does not agree with the alt-right narrative that a white genocide is occurring. Benjamin originally claimed his own grandfather is black, but later admitted that his grandfather was probably mixed race, as a dark-skinned man from St. Helena, an island of largely mixed race people between southwest Africa and South America. Due to these statements, some in the alt-right do not consider Benjamin "racially pure" and have labeled him with the obvious, cringeworthy insults expected from the alt-right.

However, despite having no apparent intention to do so, he appears to be helping the alt-right more than he is hurting them. For example, Andrew Anglin of The Daily Stormer said he did not feel it was necessary to oppose Benjamin since "on some level he is leading people in our direction (as we are the obvious conclusion to reactionary thought)." Similarly, Richard Spencer believes that people like Benjamin can be "great entry points" to the alt-right. An example of this happened when Benjamin joined a hangout with self-identified alt-righters, and one of them thanked Benjamin for "putting me on the path that got me here." He has also helped the alt-right by inviting figures such as Millennial Woes onto a livestream, thereby giving him free publicity. Benjamin has also legitimised some of the alt-right's rhetoric such as the belief that Cultural Marxism is real and a threat to modern society. While some in the alt-right are completely hostile to him, others essentially see him as someone who acts as a gateway to their ideology.

After the violence at the, Benjamin released a video in which he attempted to both denounce the alt-right but also legitimise their point of view. Benjamin said he despises three quarters of the attendees at the rally but still maintained that the alt-right deserve to have their "problems" considered. While Benjamin has claimed to not believe in the white genocide conspiracy theory, he said that the demographic shifts in America seemed to be "part of some plan" by the Democratic Party. This is a statement which, at the very least, enables those in the alt-right. Benjamin also emphasised that he believes there is a significant amount of anti-white hatred in the United States.

In August of 2017, Benjamin released a video called "Nazis are Bad", where he criticized Nazis and Neo-Nazi ideology. In 48 hours it received over 10,000 comments, with many of Benjamin's viewers taking offense at his statements and attempting to defend Nazism, White Nationalism, and/or deny the Holocaust. Many comments focused on either "the Jew book" he was reading from ("The Ominous Parrallels" by Leonard Peikoff, who is the heir of Ayn Rand), or calling Benjamin himself a Jew/Jewish shill. This prompted him to release a follow-up video two days later, "Answering Nazi Comments" (which reached 6,600 comments in just six hours, most in the same vein as the first video's) in which Benjamin questioned and mocked the Nazi commenters.

In December 2017, Kraut and Tea had one of his videos called "The Alt Right is too dumb for Quantitative Genetics" flagged and removed, in which Benjamin helped out by mirroring his video, which has also been flagged.

Spat with the Daily Stormer
Sargon of Akkad is Just an SJW Who Hates Women Andrew Anglin, neo-Nazi founder & editor of the white supremacist Daily Stormer website, criticized Benjamin for not being right-wing enough. Anglin put out an article titled, "Sargon of Akkad Needs to Address His Implicit Support for Pakistani Child-Rape". It reads:

Benjamin's video indeed blamed the rapes on British society's supposed "political correctness". Benjamin responded, saying:

And the Daily Stormer shot back:

In the end, Anglin has this to say about Benjamin:

UKIP
In June 2018 Benjamin joined UKIP together with Paul Joseph Watson, Milo Yiannopoulos and in order to "take it over in a soft coup which will lead to the total restoration of freedom in the United Kingdom", calling it "war plan purple" (how edgy). This was followed by a short boost of popularity and the party gaining around five hundred members. They then turned the party even more further to the right by allowing former EDL leader Tommy Robinson to become Gerard Batten's advisor on grooming gangs. This made many famous UKIP politicians (most notably Nigel Farage) leave the party because of the rising Islamophobia and extremism in the party. Benjamin and his alt-right friends aborted UKIP in 6 months and ruined it. Good Job!

In April 2019, deciding that Carl hadn't quite ruined their party enough the last time he got involved; UKIP have put him up in the number two position for the, in the South West Region. Unfortunately for him, Farage's upstart Brexit Party took a considerable number of votes from UKIP (which faced a 29.1% drop in vote share), meaning UKIP lost both of their seats in that region.

Interviews
Benjamin has debated, interviewed, and been interviewed by, among others: • 3

Carl's Greatest Hits
What article on the man wouldn't be complete without a quick summary of his most notable gaffs?
 * 9/11 was an inside job.
 * Feminism caused Elliot Rodger to kill people.
 * "I wouldn't even rape you (Jess Phillips a Labour Party MP)". A comment so bad that Gerard Batten went on national TV to apologise deflect by saying it was "satire". Gives Jo Cox vibes.
 * Carl displaying his masterful grasp of history: "I presume they're all foreign inventions? Democracy, freedom..." Democracy actually first appears in the historical record in Greece. When this was pointed out, Sargon replied with the non-sequitur "the mother of parliaments did not begin in Greece", which is more a statement about the British empire than origins of the concept.
 * English speakers can't be Nazis, because semantics.