Steven Crowders Assertive Opinions
Steven Crowder is known on social media for his podcast “Louder With Crowder” where he discusses trending media topics. His podcast typically includes controversial topics that he presents strong opinions about. He believes heavily in his own opinions and tries to disprove people of differing opinions.
One popular segment Crowder includes in his podcast is the “Change My Mind” series. He goes out into public spots such as college campuses, parks, the streets of a popular city, basically anywhere that he will bring in a lot of attention and different people with a variety of opinions. He then sets up a table and two chairs, and hangs a big poster off the front of the table. He sits in one chair and waits for the poster to attract a contestant to come have a conversation with him.
Some of the phrases shown on the poster he hangs are, “The Covid Death Count is Inflated, Change My Mind”, “‘Rape Culture’ is a Myth, Change My Mind”, “There are Only 2 Genders, Change My Mind”. There are many instances of these posters, these are just a few of the major controversial ones.
When a contestant comes to try and have a conversation with him, they usually come in strong with their opposing opinion. I feel as this is quite manipulative of Crowder, to exploit these people for his own gain on his YouTube channel. The target audience of these posters is the community who feel most strongly towards whatever topic he presents. The way in which he presents facts is very condescending and he makes the other person feel less than him for having an opposing view. He acts like he is calmly having a conversation while the other person is getting overwhelmingly frustrated. This gives him the content he is looking for, because he shows the worst conversations he has on video and then makes money off of it. Another repercussion is that he diminishes the reputation of the person he converses with when they have a strong opposing opinion.
Crowder takes advantage of viewers even more by giving his content appealing titles. He will use tactics such as capitalizing keywords like “CONFIRMED!”, or “LIES”. These titles don’t stop with just capital letters. Crowder will also pose controversial questions, state an unpopular opinion, or make an outlandish claim. These titles are what get people to click on these podcasts and listen to the facts that he believes the truth in.
There are great social implications that these podcasts have on our modern society. His views are so politically motivated that it is almost impossible for him to be able to see the other side of his opinions. Even when the contestant on his change my mind segment is calm and presents real convincing facts, he just comes back with more of his own facts and tries to denote the other person’s facts as wrong. This way of podcasting shows his audience negative behavior of having a sole opinion and trying to force that opinion onto others.
Along with his podcast, Crowder owns rights to a website called louderwithcrouder.com. When you visit his site, you are immediately prompted with an option to sign up for his newsletter with your email address. You are presented with big bold text that states, “Tired of the Left? Of course you are. Sign up for my newsletter.” The options are either to put your email address in and click a button that reads “sign up”, or click the other button that reads “I hate myself”.
This poses a conflict because he basically is right off the bat saying if you don’t believe in the same opinions that he does, then you should hate yourself. Although a lot of people do not specifically identify to be far right or far left, the options presented immediately when you enter his website will likely turn off most of the new audience from what he has to say.
Although it will turn some audience members away from what he has to say, these options he presents right away will also likely attract like minded people into his world of opinions. This is known as confirmation bias. The people who agree with his beliefs will enjoy listening to what he has to say, even if it is fake news or propaganda. It will actually accelerate their opinions and they will begin to spread this news, saying that it came from a credible source. Opposite to this, the people who do not agree with his opinions will ignore his online presence and write off his facts as fake news.
Episodes of this podcast are posted 4 times per week, all topics of strong opinions and involving subjects people are usually afraid to discuss in a public forum. Although he is very assertive in his thoughts, Crowder is taking advantage of the freedom of speech amendment presented in the Constitution that founded our country.
His podcast ratings average around 4.7 out of 5 stars, which is another piece of evidence that shows me how confirmation bias is a huge part of Crowder’s ways of podcasting. He has around 33,000 ratings, and apart from all the 5 star ratings, there is a gap, with having little amounts of 4, 3, and 2 star ratings, and then a larger amount of 1 star ratings. This goes to show that people either love or hate Crowder, but the years he has spent building an audience on youtube and across all podcast streaming platforms also proves that he has made a big impact on a lot of society.
Along with podcasting, Crowder also does stand up comedy. I find this relatively intriguing as he seems more serious about his opinions, rather than enjoying being laughed at. However, he does thrive off of spreading his opinion and stating why other opinions are wrong so it is possible that he enjoys finding humor in the opinions of others.
Whether it be to watch out of entertainment, to confirm self biases and opinions, or to leave hate messages, it is undeniable that Steven Crowder has gained a massive audience which provokes conversations all around about differing opinions. It is beneficial to have these conversations, but only when multiple opinions can be heard and not immediately shut down.
Here are a couple of the YouTube videos which Crowder has posted on his channel:
And here is his podcast website:
Louder With Crowder Podcasts. Louder With Crowder. (n.d.). Retrieved March 25, 2022, from https://www.louderwithcrowder.com/st/podcast
Crowder, S. (2017, December 5). There are only 2 genders | change my mind — youtube. YouTube.com. Retrieved March 25, 2022, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WtftZPL-k7Y
Crowder, S. (2018, October 2). ‘rape culture’ is a myth | change my mind — youtube. YouTube.com. Retrieved March 25, 2022, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H6dv6G1FWxk
