What Is Happening With Patreon, Gillette and Brexit? | Sargon Of Akkad
Chris Williamson (host), Carl Benjamin (guest)
In this episode of Modern Wisdom, featuring Chris Williamson and Carl Benjamin, What Is Happening With Patreon, Gillette and Brexit? | Sargon Of Akkad explores 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.
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.
Key Takeaways
Platform 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.
Get the full analysis with uListen AI
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.
Get the full analysis with uListen AI
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.
Get the full analysis with uListen AI
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.
Get the full analysis with uListen AI
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.
Get the full analysis with uListen AI
Top‑down moral engineering is less effective than bottom‑up cultural norms.
They contend that trying to legislate or advertise new moral codes for men from above (e. ...
Get the full analysis with uListen AI
Brexit has exposed a rift between popular sovereignty and political class priorities.
Benjamin argues the public can tolerate short-term disruption to regain sovereignty, but Parliament—dominated by cautious Remainers—seems more concerned with GDP and EU approval, leading to weak leadership, bad deals, and a failure to ‘just get on with it.’
Get the full analysis with uListen AI
Notable Quotes
“It 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
Questions Answered in This Episode
To what extent should private tech companies be allowed to enforce political or moral standards on users’ off-platform behavior?
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.
Get the full analysis with uListen AI
How can creators diversify their income and audience connections to reduce vulnerability to sudden deplatforming?
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.
Get the full analysis with uListen AI
Where should society draw the line between legitimate accountability for past statements and an unforgiving ‘cancel culture’ that denies personal growth?
The conversation broadens into concerns about online panopticon-style surveillance, cancel culture, and the impossibility of leaving one’s digital past behind.
Get the full analysis with uListen AI
Is it possible to address genuine problems like sexual harassment without pathologizing normal male socialization or deepening gender polarization?
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.
Get the full analysis with uListen AI
In the Brexit context, when—if ever—should economic forecasts override the outcome of a democratic referendum on questions of national sovereignty?
Get the full analysis with uListen AI
Transcript Preview
(wind blowing) Mr. Carl Benjamin, also known as Sargon of Akkad, also known as Patreon's number one enemy at the moment. (laughs) How are you today, sir?
I'm good. I didn't really consider myself Patreon's number one enemy. I don't know why they're doing this, but, um, apparently SubscribeStar has started working for people now. So it's kind of, uh, an issue that's passed us all by, I suppose. Now-
Yeah. It's-
... so-
It's kind of in and out, in and out pretty fast, right?
Mm-hmm. Yeah. It's been strange.
For the, uh, for the listeners who don't know what's occurred over the last few months, could you give us the- the rundown, the zeitgeist?
Yeah, um, basically Patreon found me insulting a bunch of Nazis on a live stream, on quite an obscure channel. And they took umbrage to the way that I was insulting them, and they decided to delete my Patreon account without warning, um, which is strange 'cause I mean, the terms of service obviously don't say that they track down things that you do elsewhere on the Internet and use that to judge you. But, uh, apparently, they do. So be warned if you have a Patreon account.
So Patreon was your way of assisting your channel, Sargon of Akkad, on YouTube, crowdfunding. It allows fans to get like exclusive content and- and early access to- to certain things and stuff like that. And by being shut down from that, I'm gonna guess that that was a- a- a primary source of income that you were deriving your, from your channel, right?
Uh, it- it was certainly one of the major ways I was monetizing my channel, yeah.
Yeah.
Um, the... YouTube has a join fe- feature that you can turn on, but I'm really hesitant to do it 'cause it's something like 30% of the money that people donate through it are taken by YouTube themselves. Whereas with- with Patreon, it's only 5%.
Yeah.
Um, and with SubscribeStar, it's only 5% as well.
Okay.
Um, just thir- 30%'s a huge amount in my opinion.
It is a big amount, yeah. But it's obviously YouTube is starting to see a- a gap in the fact that if you've got (throat clears) companies that have agendas and who are potentially gonna disenfranchise the, uh, the-
Yeah.
... content creators. So w-
Well, that- that was, that was the point of Patreon in the first place, that YouTube- YouTube were the ones saying, "We have advertisers, therefore, you can't say certain things or be, you know, quite edgy and push boundaries." You know, there- there are a lot of advertisers who, you know, corporate, you know, sponsors for, you know, and advertisers who don't want you to be too edgy, not that they really care, I think, in my opinion, but they would... And demonetizing certain videos and things like that. And Patreon offered itself as, "Hey, look, you can keep your content going without advertisers, without having to get these corporations involved. We'll facilitate you doing that." And now, they're like, "Oh, actually, but if you say something we don't like and you don't apologize, then, you know, we're..." (laughs) I mean, not that they gave them the opportunity to apologize, but, you know. But the, "If you say something we don't like, we're gonna kick you off." It's just like... Okay.
Install uListen to search the full transcript and get AI-powered insights
Get Full TranscriptGet more from every podcast
AI summaries, searchable transcripts, and fact-checking. Free forever.
Add to Chrome