Modern WisdomWhat Is Happening With Patreon, Gillette and Brexit? | Sargon Of Akkad
At a glance
WHAT IT’S REALLY ABOUT
Deplatforming, Digital Censorship, Gillette Backlash, and Brexit’s Power Struggle
- Chris Williamson and Carl Benjamin (Sargon of Akkad) discuss his sudden removal from Patreon, framing it as part of a broader pattern of Silicon Valley–driven political censorship and cartel-like behavior among tech/payment platforms.
- They explore the cultural fallout over Gillette’s ‘toxic masculinity’ advert, criticizing it as feminist propaganda that pathologizes normal male behavior like boys’ roughhousing and risks deepening gender antagonism.
- The conversation broadens into concerns about online panopticon-style surveillance, cancel culture, and the impossibility of leaving one’s digital past behind.
- They close by analyzing Theresa May’s handling of Brexit, arguing that Parliament is weak, overly focused on economic fear, and failing to deliver on the referendum mandate to leave the EU, even without a deal.
IDEAS WORTH REMEMBERING
5 ideasPlatform dependence makes creators financially and politically vulnerable.
Benjamin’s Patreon ban instantly removed a major income stream and severed many supporters, illustrating how a single platform’s policy decision can function like a ‘Sword of Damocles’ over independent creators’ livelihoods.
Tech firms increasingly act as a coordinated ideological gatekeeper.
He argues that Patreon, PayPal, and other Silicon Valley entities share a common culture and strategy, citing PayPal’s sudden withdrawal from SubscribeStar once banned creators moved there as evidence of cartel-like protectionism and political bias.
Terms of service are being retrofitted to justify political deplatforming.
Benjamin notes Patreon penalized him for speech on an obscure external livestream, despite previously stating they only judged on-platform behavior, which he sees as an ex post facto rule change used to remove disfavored voices.
The internet has created a permanent, weaponizable record of personal history.
They describe modern life as a ‘panopticon’ where old posts and youthful mistakes can be resurfaced decades later to destroy careers, discouraging growth, forgiveness, and genuine change in people’s views.
Pathologizing normal male behavior risks harming boys’ development.
Critiquing the Gillette advert, they argue rough-and-tumble play is a healthy, well-documented way boys learn limits, hierarchy, and self-control, and conflating it with sexual predation is both bigoted and scientifically unsound.
WORDS WORTH SAVING
5 quotesIt is kind of terrifying knowing that you're living under a Sword of Damocles. Every day I wake up and I check that my YouTube channel is still there.
— Carl Benjamin (Sargon of Akkad)
The fascist state is wide awake and has a will of its own. You can definitely say that about Silicon Valley.
— Carl Benjamin (Sargon of Akkad)
It's not just the voice that I have that they're silencing. It's the ability for anyone who wanted to hear what I had to say—they've been deafened in the process.
— Carl Benjamin (Sargon of Akkad)
No one in reality thinks that boys play fighting is a particularly harmful behavior… The pathologizing of just male behaviors is being driven by people who don't really understand men and are kind of afraid of them.
— Carl Benjamin (Sargon of Akkad)
It's like a parliament of lambs leading a country of lions.
— Carl Benjamin (Sargon of Akkad), on the UK Parliament during Brexit
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