Steven Crowder

Steven Blake Crowder (; born July 7, 1987) is an American-Canadian conservative political commentator, media host, and comedian. He hosts "Louder with Crowder", a daily political podcast and YouTube channel. He is particularly notable for a recurring segment called "Change My Mind". He is also a former contributor at Fox News.
In June 2019, Crowder's YouTube videos were investigated over his repeated use of racist and homophobic slurs to describe journalist Carlos Maza. YouTube did not suspend the channel and said it did not violate the site's policies, but demonetized the account the following day, citing community guidelines. In August 2020, his channel was re-monetized after Crowder addressed his behavior and content. In March 2021, his channel was once again demonetized, for violating YouTube's presidential election integrity policy.
Early life.
Crowder was born on July 7, 1987 in Detroit, Michigan. Crowder's mother was French Canadian, and at the age of 3, his family moved to the Montreal suburb of Greenfield Park, Quebec, Canada where he would live for the rest of his childhood. Crowder attended Centennial Regional High School, and at the age of 18, he moved back to the United States. Crowder attended two semesters at Champlain College in Burlington, Vermont.
Career.
Early career and Fox News.
Early in his career, he worked as a voice actor for the character Alan "The Brain" Powers on the children's television series "Arthur". He began performing stand-up comedy at age 17. He then acted in a number of films, including the role of Doug Moore in the 2009 movie "To Save a Life". From 2009 to 2012, Crowder worked for Fox News.
By 2009, Crowder regularly posted satirical videos on politically conservative media, including Pajamas Media and later at Andrew Breitbart's Big Hollywood. Crowder served as the master of ceremonies at the 2011 Conservative Political Action Conference, and generated some controversy with a rap video he premiered at CPAC 2012. In October 2012, Crowder's YouTube video parodying Lena Dunham's ad endorsing Barack Obama was mentioned in the conservative magazine "The American Spectator". In 2016, Crowder created a short video for the conservative media company PragerU in which he criticizes democratic socialism as being little to no different from Marxism.
December 2012 union protest.
In December 2012, Crowder and members of Americans for Prosperity were involved in an altercation at a demonstration in Michigan concerning the state's recently passed right-to-work law. The incident began with an attempt by union activists to tear down the Americans for Prosperity tent, which was eventually successful. During the altercation, Crowder was punched several times by a union activist. Crowder posted an edited video of the incident to his YouTube channel that cut footage of the alleged assailant being pushed to the ground and getting back up, right before throwing the punches at Crowder. However, Fox News' broadcasts of the incident included footage of the man being pushed. "The New York Times" stated, "The same footage also shows that Mr. Crowder had his hand on that man's shoulder just before he tumbled to the ground, but, while the camera does not capture the whole sequence of events, it seems likely that the man was knocked to the ground as members of the two sides pushed against one other, not shoved down by Mr. Crowder." Crowder later released an unedited copy of the video.
An AFL–CIO spokesman, Eddie Vale, stated that the organization did not condone the tearing down of the Americans for Prosperity tent or the violence against Crowder and his group.
In March 2013, Ingham County Prosecutor Stuart Dunnings III declined to press charges against anyone involved in the December 2012 altercation. According to Dunnings, his office was originally sent an edited version of the video of Crowder's altercation. However, upon reviewing the unedited version, the prosecutor's office decided not to pursue the case because the union member had acted in self-defense.
"Louder with Crowder".
In October 2013, Fox News ended its relationship with Crowder. This was announced shortly after Crowder made negative statements about Fox News host Sean Hannity and about Fox News. In 2017, the "Louder with Crowder" program became a daily program featured on "Conservative Review's" new streaming service, CRTV. On December 3, 2018, CRTV merged with Glenn Beck's "TheBlaze", where Crowder continues to be hosted.
Crowder creates mainly comedic content and political commentary on his YouTube channel. Becca Lewis, a Stanford researcher who studies extremism on YouTube, told Bloomberg News that while Crowder stays away from expressing white nationalism directly, his channel "has some of the most overt racism of any of the shows I've looked at". Francesca Tripodi, a sociologist at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, said that Crowder is "very popular, especially among young, conservative voters".
"Change My Mind".
"Change My Mind" is regular segment conducted by Crowder in which he sits at a table with a sign including the phrase "Change My Mind" and invites people walking by, often students on university campuses, to change his mind on a controversial subject. One of these segments, in which Crowder was seated behind a sign that read "Male Privilege is a Myth / Change My Mind" outside the campus of Texas Christian University, became an Internet meme based on a photograph of Crowder. After Crowder uploaded it on his Twitter account on February 18, 2018, the photograph quickly became a means for others to change the signs about different situations, often mocking and parodying Crowder. In June 2018, "Complex" rated the meme at 18 on their list of "The Best Memes of 2018 (so far)".
Investigation by YouTube.
In June 2019, YouTube investigated Crowder for using racist and homophobic slurs targeting Carlos Maza in multiple videos reacting to the Vox series "Strikethrough", which Maza hosts. Crowder referred to Maza as "Mr. Lispy queer", an "angry little queer", and a "gay Mexican", and mocked him with a stereotypical gay voice, sometimes while wearing a t-shirt with Che Guevara on it that said "Socialism is for f*gs ["sic"]". In addition, Maza said that Crowder's fans have doxxed and harassed him.
Crowder responded with a video where he said his use of slurs was "playful ribbing" and that "it's funny, it's a comedy show". He said that the investigation was a "war we will fight to the bitter end" and that "this is an example of a giant, multinational media conglomeration ... attempting to squash a competitor". He also stated that he is opposed to doxxing and harassment. After YouTube's demonetization of his videos, Crowder stated on his Twitter account, "Vox is still going to be pissed; they're not going to be happy with this", and called the situation a brewing "Adpocalypse". He also added "their goal is to completely get rid of people" in reference to Vox.
According to an analysis by Vox Media's "The Verge", Crowder's videos "routinely contain egregious violations of YouTube's policies against cyberbullying". Maza said Crowder's videos about him are "dehumanizing, and it's something I thought YouTube would be more protective about because it brands itself as being a queer space".
YouTube concluded that the language used by Crowder "was clearly hurtful", but "the videos as posted don't violate our policies". It determined that Crowder had not encouraged his viewers to harass or dox Maza either on YouTube or other platforms and that the main point of his video was to respond to opinion. The decision to not suspend the channel drew considerable criticism. The next day, YouTube suspended the channel's monetization, blaming "a pattern of egregious actions [that] harmed the broader community". The decision to demonetize Crowder's account was criticized by Republican Senator Ted Cruz, who had previously appeared on Crowder's show.
In August 2020, YouTube re-monetized some of Crowder's content on the site after Crowder addressed his behavior and content.
In March 2021, YouTube once again demonetized Crowder's channel, for violating its presidential election integrity policy. His channel also received a one week suspension.
Personal life.
He married his wife, Hilary, in August 2012, and wrote about the benefits of remaining abstinent prior to his marriage.