Owen Benjamin is a conservative comedian who has been featured on Dennis Prager’s “Prager University” series multiple times, has collaborated with then-CRTV host Steven Crowder, was featured by podcasters at The Daily Wire, and has guest-hosted Alex Jones’ Infowars. On his own time, he produces a live video series in which he shares extreme conspiracy theories to a large audience that calls him “Big Bear.”
Benjamin is a classic example of what can happen to people who think they’ve swallowed the “red pill” promise of truth—a “truth” that bears little resemblance to everyday reality—and take it fully to heart. What started with a flirtation with so-called “alt-media” and right-wing internet personalities who dabble in conspiracy theories has resulted in Benjamin now spouting anti-Semitic conspiracy tropes, doubting the authenticity of the moon landing, believing the Holocaust was exaggerated, and rubbing shoulders on-air with white nationalists.
Despite this, Benjamin has been featured in two Prager U videos that, at the time this article was published, had together pulled in more than 5.4 million views. He was interviewed favorably by The Daily Wire’s Michael Knowles in November and has collaborated with Crowder, who expressed last month that he had “real concern” for Benjamin’s well-being. At the time of Crowder’s and Benjamin’s split, Benjamin had said that his belief that the moon landing was faked resulted in him losing contact with Crowder. On Alex Jones’ Infowars site, Benjamin debated the authenticity of the moon landing at an extended length.
What happens when you OD on “red pills?”
If we’re to believe Owen Benjamin, it’s getting fired by @scrowder after telling him that you doubt the moon landing unironically pic.twitter.com/LPmPnmTur7
— Jared Holt (@jaredlholt) January 23, 2019
Users of a forum board on Reddit dedicated to Benjamin have been sharing clips of Benjamins’ most questionable comments in recent weeks, which illustrate his descent into right-wing conspiracy theories and far-right ideology.
Benjamin took to his stream one night to argue that the Ku Klux Klan was “less offensive” than a progressive agenda that supports pro-choice measures, gun reform and socialized healthcare.
“The Klan is less offensive than baby murder and socialism and disarming a population. If you’re going to order what is more offensive, what is scarier, between the Ku Klux Klan, disarming a population, murdering babies, and the creation of a state-run centralized society, if you don’t think that the KKK is by far the least problem, you are—ladies and gentlemen—retarded,” Benjamin said. “The Ku Klux Klan never killed babies. They hung, like, eight dudes.”
“They may string up some guys. They’ve done it. It’s been like 50 years—big fucking deal. We get over things in this country. Then they started adopting highways and having barbeques. Murdering babies is way worse!” Benjamin said.
In another example of Benjamin’s thinking, he alleges that acclaimed director Stephen Spielberg was involved in pedophilia crimes that resulted in the death of child actress Heather O’Rourke, who died in 1988 of cardiac-pulmonary arrest and septic shock. For believers—such as Benjamin—of “Pedogate” conspiracy theories, O’Rourke’s sudden death, young age, and involvement in Hollywood have fueled conspiracy theories about supposed rampant pedophilia in the entertainment industry.
“Stephen Spielberg saw something in this girl—gee, I wonder what—and had to have her. So [he] put her in a movie, put her in a few things, she got passed around a Nickelodeon,” Benjamin said. “She, according to the coroner, was sodomized to death on set. You got the creeps yet, guys?”
At the time of O’Rourke’s 1988 death, Children’s Hospital of San Diego spokesperson Terry Merryman said the actress had died of complications due to a birth defect in her bowel. Right Wing Watch cannot find any reported evidence that a coroner believed O’Rourke was sodomized to death but did find numerous examples of the claim being made on forum boards and blogs popular with the “Pedogate” community.
Later during the stream, he said he wishes the Spielberg family had been killed in the Holocaust.
In another recent stream, Benjamin read a message from a viewer that said “most Jews are good people.” He refuted that remark and replied that a lot of Jews “are scheme-y, sneaky.” In another video, Benjamin said that Jewish people are “pushing too hard” for their interests.
“It’s the lobbyists. It’s the [American Civil Liberties Union]. It’s the fucking—all this shit is going too far. And I know a lot of Jews that agree with me—a lot. And they’re like, ‘This has to stop,’” he said.
He added, “There is a section of the Jewish population that is so fucking—you know, they just don’t stop pushing and grabbing and sneaking and by the end there’s going to be a population in America that’s like ‘Fuck the Jews,’ and that isn’t good.”
In the same video, he called Barack Obama the n-word.
Yesterday, Benjamin appeared on a livestream with white nationalist Faith Goldy, where he was preceded by VDARE’s Peter Brimelow. Benjamin used his appearance to shower homophobic remarks about Canada’s 50-year anniversary of decriminalizing gay sex, referring to such acts as “degeneracy.” Brimelow’s VDARE is designated as a white nationalist hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center.
