Carl Benjamin (born 1 September 1979), also known by his pseudonym Sargon of Akkad, is an English YouTuber known primarily for his political and social commentary. Benjamin's alias is taken from the first ruler of the Akkadian Empire, Sargon of Akkad.
Video Carl Benjamin
YouTube career
Benjamin's early videos often concerned Gamergate and antifeminism. He has hosted live streams with guests, including internet personalities such as JonTron. He also appeared as a guest on The Joe Rogan Experience in June 2017.
His channel first drew attention during the Gamergate controversy in 2014, when he argued in one of his videos that members of the Digital Games Research Association (DiGRA) were actively plotting to influence video game development to conform to their "ideological feminist agenda". He stated that the research produced by DiGRA board members was "sloppy and unprofessional and absolutely overrun by people who have an ideological agenda that they simply cannot leave out of their research". An Inside Higher Ed article described these allegations as a "conspiracy theory".
Several months later, in June 2015, YouTube took down one of Benjamin's videos when it received a copyright claim from The Guardian. Benjamin contested the claim against the video, which used substantial portions of The Guardian's video, but was not successful. The Guardian said it was offering "advice on how to engage with Guardian content without breaching copyright". The video was restored later the same day. However, one Los Angeles Times columnist called it "alarming to see copyright law used to stifle debate in the public square".
In May 2016, in response to Labour Party politician Jess Phillips' statement that rape threats are commonplace for her, Benjamin said "I wouldn't even rape you" in a YouTube video and repeated this on Twitter. Benjamin declined to apologise for the comments.
In early 2017 Benjamin created a YouTube video and a Thunderclap with 13,165 supporters in defence of YouTube personality PewDiePie following a controversy about PewDiePie's satirical use of anti-Semitic imagery.
Heat Street and others credit Benjamin's videos with popularising Kekistan, which is a fictional country, political meme and online movement.
He has secondary YouTube channels such as "Ancient Recitations" which contains numerous audiobooks, including ones for the Epic of Gilgamesh, the Enuma Elish, an Akkadian erotic hymn, an Akkadian hymn to Ishtar, and other ancient historical texts from Ancient Greece and the Ancient Near East. Benjamin's other YouTube channels include "Sargon of Akkad Livestreams", "The Thinkery" and "The New Memedia" (formerly known as "Vae Victis"). "The New Memedia" was removed for copyright reasons and was replaced by "The Thinkery".
Maps Carl Benjamin
Game development
In March 2014, Benjamin was involved in a Kickstarter campaign created to fund the development of a video game called Necromancer. It raised £8,016, just beating the goal of £8,000. Benjamin took the role of programmer and co-designer for the game. However, by June 2016, the game had not been released and all supporters were refunded.
Political views
Benjamin self-identifies as centre-left and a classical liberal. However, Nieman Journalism Lab, Vice magazine, and Mic have described Benjamin as "right-wing", and Redbrick, The Daily Dot, Salon, Gizmodo, and Vox have described him as "alt-right" or "alt-right sympathizer". Benjamin has rejected these labels and has criticised the alt-right for collectivist, identitarian and authoritarian thinking. He has further replied to alt-right followers on Twitter with links to interracial pornography so that they would unfollow him. The piece in The Daily Dot stated that although Benjamin is not part of the alt-right, his videos concern "favourite alt-right targets" such as "feminism, Islam, Black Lives Matter, and the notion of straight white male privilege".
Benjamin has opposed movements that purport to defeat online misogyny, such as the British group 'Reclaim the Internet', which he called "social communism". He has been characterised as "deliberately provocative", "unabashedly politically incorrect", and "anti-progressive." He has been cited as one of the "most controversial YouTubers" by WatchMojo, who claimed that he "clearly doesn't shy away from saying stuff that others find offensive." In a November 2016 opinion piece, Vice criticised Benjamin's "logic-before-all attitude", claiming that "when you're speaking on issues of a social nature that cannot be boiled down to textbook definitions of words, it's not really an approach that works particularly well".
Benjamin was both a vocal supporter of Brexit and economically critical of the European Union. He has described Donald Trump as the lesser of two evils, compared to Hillary Clinton, in the 2016 US presidential election. Prior to the primary election of Clinton as the United States Democratic Party candidate, Benjamin stated he would have preferred Bernie Sanders over Clinton or Trump. Benjamin criticized Emmanuel Macron in his run in the 2017 French presidential election.
Religious views
Benjamin is an atheist.
Personal life
Benjamin is married, has two children, and lives in Swindon, UK.
References
External links
- Carl Benjamin's channel on YouTube
- Interviews with Benjamin on The Rubin Report:
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- Rubin, Dave (12 February 2016). "Ep 21: Sargon of Akkad". The Rubin Report. Retrieved 14 March 2017.
- Rubin, Dave (14 December 2016). "Ep 58: Sargon of Akkad". The Rubin Report. Retrieved 14 March 2017.
- "Bonus Interview: Sargon of Akkad". art19.com. 21 June 2017. Retrieved 26 June 2017.
Source of article : Wikipedia
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