Is it just me, or are charisma channels a little weird?
Don’t get me wrong, they’re often pretty good, they have some valuable tips,
but I find they can be a little…
capitalist? Is that the right word?
Business-oriented, I suppose.
I’m going to look at the channel Charisma on Command for demonstration.
And I want to examine the rhetoric this channel often engages in, the charismatic figures
they associate with, and how they can be a small part of a much
larger problem.
[Music.]
Hi, I’m Ace from EconEnby.
I’ve been subscribed to Charisma on Command since around the beginning of
2016, and I’ve really enjoyed their work.
In fact, I’ve enjoyed their work so much that I bought their book
“Charisma on Command: Inspire, Impress,
and Energize Everyone You Meet” by Charlie Houpert,
one of the founders of the channel and business.
Let’s take a look at a quote from the book:
[Reading.]
Wait, what?
Transgendered?
Jesus, okay. Well, either way, good sentiment, if a little
yikesy at the end. Don’t listen when people are insulting you,
they’re doing it because they’re insecure about themselves.
Basic stuff, sure, but fair enough.
Still, Charlie makes it clear he’s straight. Quote:
“I happen to be straight and I’m happy to tell them the truth if they care to ask.”
Nothing wrong with that. But we know what we’re dealing
with here, now. This book, and the Charisma on Command channel, is run by a
straight, white, cisgender, neurotypical, able-bodied
man who used to make lots of money in finance until he decided to start
his own business with his best friend, Ben Altman, who
is also a straight, white, cisgender, neurotopical--
neurotypical, able-bodied man who used to work in finance.
And there’s absolutely nothing wrong with that.
People are people, let them be people.
But it does give perspective:
this book, and its channel, are oriented towards
straight, white, cisgender, neurotypical, able-bodied men who,
if not well-off, are at least not poor.
And it shows.
I already mentioned the “transgendered” wording,
but Charlie Houpert has a bit of a weird history with problematic language.
While this page on his “Charisma on Command” website has
admittedly been deleted (though not because of the language I’m about to use, but because
someone made an admittedly pretty hateful hit piece on him),
I still want to point out this wording here (content warning for the r-slur):
So I repeat. It is impossible,
masochistic, and…
r-slured to try to change other people.”
Ugh.
To be clear, like I said before, there’s nothing wrong with these guys
being who they are, and really there’s nothing wrong with your target
audience being the demographic that they cater to. It’s
profitable, after all. I’m examining
this not because I think these people or this channel is evil,
I do genuinely enjoy both the channel and their book as a whole,
but because it’s a good way of examining the overall biases of our current
society, and maybe I’ll sprinkle some light but
friendly criticism along the way. So let’s talk about the content of the channel.
I’m going to pick a random video. Let’s see… oh dear god it’s
Ben Shapiro.
Okay, okay. Maybe it’s not all bad.
Ah. Jordan Peterson.
Well, let’s see-- Jordan Peterson again.
And two more times!
At least we’re done now-- Sam Harris too.
Okay. [Sigh.]
Jesus Christ.
Anyway, as you can--
OH MY GOD
He did cover Trevor Noah, who’s… a liberal,
and he also has covered Russell Brand a fuck ton,
who is pretty sexist but he is an anarchist, and
I’m an anarchist, so…
that’s pretty cool, I guess.
That’s… the extent of his covering of even slightly left-wing people.
A talk show funny man who called ANTIFA “vegan ISIS”
and a kinda rapey anarchist.
Yay.
Now, I’m obviously being uncharitable here.
Charisma on Command isn’t a political channel, and they
always mention this when covering someone who is heavily involved in politics.
But this covering of the “intellectual dark web” so
thoroughly is still disturbing to me, even despite
that he’s not overtly supporting their views. He’s giving
them a platform, he’s praising them in many cases.
Let’s start with Steven Crowder. Admittedly the video
done on him wasn’t exactly positive,
but it definitely wasn’t negative either.
The conclusion was essentially “this guy has been
bad at debating before” (he’s referring to the “Change My Mind” debates)
“but he’s done good too.” So let’s examine him.
Steven Crowder is an extremely popular right-wing
“comedian” and YouTuber who has hilariously
imitated black people’s voices,
"And to find out about that system like... it's only $9.99 a month!"
dressed up as Asian stereotypes, called a gay journalist a
“lispy queer” causing HUGE amounts of harassment for that journalist,
and has associated with and platformed numerous other right-wing
figures, including, but not limited to:
Stefan Molyneux, white nationalist and “alleged” cult leader
who believes black people are less intelligent than white people
because of the shape of their skulls; Lauren Southern,
a white nationalist who has promoted the conspiracy theory
of  “white genocide” which believes that because white people have
sex with black people, white people are apparently being
genocided; Gavin McInnes, founder of the
violent, neo-fascist hate group Proud Boys, espoused
the same white genocide conspiracy theory, and has sympathized with
holocaust-deniers;
Gavin McInnes: "This is basically a brain-washing trip."
"I mean, I think the Jewish-- the Israeli government paid for this,"
"and we had donors too, but I think"
"they were mostly Israelis that assumed we were gonna..."
"listen to all this shit we get fed, and..."
"That's having the reverse effect on me, I'm"
"becoming anti-semitic."
"Like at the Holocaust museum."
"Or as I call it, the 'Holocaust museum.'"
"No, I'm just kidding." [Nazi laugh.]
"Yeah, like at one point the tour guide goes:"
[Racist impression] "You know, there are people that think this didn't happen."
"And I felt like-- I felt myself defending the, the, the--"
"super far-right Nazis."
"Just because I was so sick of being... so much brain-washing that I felt like going, 'Well, hehe,'"
"they never said it didn't happen."
"What they're saying is that it was much less than 6 million. And um..."
"that they starved to death, that they weren't gassed, that they uh..."
"that they didn't have supplies."
Jared Taylor (a white supremacist): "He's a very well known economist and"
"researcher, he did a really fantastic, thorough job."
Gavin McInnes: "Sounds like, uh..." [Immitates a Jewish nose.]
Jared Taylor: [Nazi laugh.] "What's this?"
Gavin McInnes: "That's my, uh..."
"Jew finger thing."
Ace: Paul Joseph Watson, an alt-right conspiracy theorist who has helped Alex Jones
spread fake news such as 9/11 being a cover-up, the chemtrail
conspiracy theory, and quite a few more;
Owen Benjamin, a "comedian" who has hosted Steven Crowder’s show before,
who is a holocaust denier, believes transgender rights is a eugenics
movement funded by Bill Gates, has said of Adolf Hitler,
quote: [Reading.]
[Reading.]
And later said: "Jews run our entire media, all of
Hollywood, all of pornography," and that gas chambers could
not have been used in the Holocaust. Crowder's hosted more,
but I think it’s pointless to keep going over this stuff.
Shaun did a really good video on Steven Crowder called “What is white supremacy?”
I suggest you check it out.
Again, the argument is not that Charisma on Command believes these things or agrees
with these sentiments, it’s that it’s irresponsible to platform these
types of people with no condemnation. Okay,
what about Jordan Peterson? He’s been platformed
four times on Charisma on Command’s channel, and each video talked
about how charismatic Jordan Peterson is.
I think it’s fair, then, to see how charismatic he is.
I’m going to use clips courtesy of Thought Slime, check out his video in the
description, because he can explain it better than I can.
Thought Slime: "Peterson has a lot of unusual, some might say"
"controversial views. Like for example, this one:"
[Other person]: "The feminists, it's got to be because..."
"Muslims right now are higher up on the victim hierarchy"
"than them, so even if it's way over there, they're not allowed to..."
"...speak out against it."
Jordan Peterson: "I think it's their...
"unconscious wish for brutal male domination."
Thought Slime: "Oofa doofa!"
"Worse yet, they keep trying to imply he's some sort of"
"Alt-Right figure-head, which is... ridiculous."
"He has roundly condemned the Alt-Right, he would never"
"associate with or defend them."
"Except for... Milo Yiannopoulos."
"And Stefan Molyneux."
"And Lauren Southern."
"And Tommy Robinson."
"And sure, he either shares or is unwilling to question"
"their views on the inheritability of intelligence"
"and its racial make-up:"
Jordan Peterson: "The IQ..."
"literature reveals that which no one would"
"want to be the case, which is that there are profound"
"and virtually irremediable"
"differences in people's cognitive performance,"
"and that those differences have a very"
"solid biological and"
"heritable basis. No one wants to hear that."
"They don't want to hear that it's biological, they don't want to hear that it's heritable."
"They don't want to hear that it's permanent."
"They don't want to hear that it's irremediable."
"And that it actually has a practical consequence. And no wonder they don't want to hear it."
Stefan Molyneux: "And even worse, they don't want to hear that it differs between genders and"
"ethnicities, that is to me, one of the most painful"
"things that I've ever learned in my life,"
"uh, is this kind of information, it is one of the great heart-breaks when it"
"comes to the dream of pure
"egalitarianism, uh, and that is, I think,"
"even harder pill for people to swallow."
Jordan Peterson: "Yeah, well, the gender differences in IQ look relatively trivial,"
"but there are differences in ethnicity that don't look"
"trivial. The Ashkenazi Jews, for example, have"
"on average, a 15 point advantage, over the rest of the"
"Caucasian population, which is sufficient to account for their"
"radical overrepresentation in positions"
"of authority and influence, and--"
"Ashkenazi Jews... radical overrepresentation in"
"positions of authority and influence."
"A s h k e n a z i  J e w s"
Ace: Again, check out the full video in the description below, he does a great and
pretty funny job shitting on Jordan Peterson.
Peterson has also frequently called people he doesn’t like “Postmodern Marxists,”
which makes absolutely no sense, considering
postmodernism is a critique of modernism, and
Marxism...
is modernist… so....
But the fact that Lobster Daddy is incorrect about everything he ever says
except for the occasional actual psychology he talks about
(you know, the only field he has any credentials in)
is irrelevant, it wouldn’t be a good enough
reason to say he shouldn’t be platformed.
But his incredibly racist, sexist, and transphobic views, absolutely!
Oh, did I say transphobia? Yeah, the reason
Jordan Peterson got famous in the first place is because he
(possibly intentionally)
misinterpreted Bill C-16 in Canada,
thinking that it would lead to the police arresting anyone who misgenders transgender people...
which hasn’t happened yet.
I’m still waiting, Peterson.
It seems you don’t have an excuse to refuse to use the
correct pronouns for transgender people, PETERSON.
Whoops!
These two were bad, but what about Sam Harris?
He’s an islamophobe. He just...
really hates Muslims.
Not even just the culture, I mean I get there’s shitty things about some Muslim cultures. He just...
doesn’t like Muslim people.
Oh, yeah, and he also interviewed and has continuously
defended Charles Murray, the author of the Bell Curve,
which claims that black people have lower IQs than white people-- GODDAM
If you want a full debunking of the Bell Curve,
Shaun made a really great video on it.
I keep promoting that video, but it’s just so damn good.
And finally, Ben Shapiro.
As Hbomerguy puts it,
[Reading.]
Here's a nice quote from Ben:
[Reading.]
Lovely.
Or how about how he views transgender people as mentally ill (which, by the way, there's a
HUGE medical and scientific consensus that this is not the case
and that transgender people are the gender they say they are,
I’m making a series on this, so stay tuned for that).
He’s also a Zionist, meaning pro-Israel and
anti-Palestine, so...
fuck that. He’s against abortion, and his views on this make
no sense. If you want an
explanation to that, check out Philosophy Tube’s video on Abortion.
He also thinks climate change is...
real, but not a big problem?
Ben Shapiro: "So let's say, let's say for the sake of argument,"
"that all the water levels rise by, by"
"5 feet, over the next 100 years, say 10 feet,"
"over the next 100 years, and puts all the low-lying areas"
"on the coast underwater. And let's say all that happens."
"You think people aren't just going to sell their houses and move?"
[Sounds of an axe hitting the wall.]
Hbomberguy: "JUST ONE SMALL PROBLEM:"
"SELL THEIR HOUSES TO WHO, BEN?!"
"FUCKING AQUAMAN?!"
Ace: He has bad takes on every single issue.
And guess how Charisma on Command describes him?
Fucking dominant.
A great debater.
Not only is he a shitty person that hates LGBTQ+ people,
he's not charismatic!
At all! I can at least see the other people, but
Ben Shapiro?!
He sounds like he's simultaneously on crack and helium.
And yes, Charisma on Command covered his debate with Andrew Neil and concluded that
he easily lost that debate, which he did,
but the fact remains that they are promoting this guy in general as charismatic,
despite his horrible views and that...
well, he’s not charismatic.
I think that sufficiently covers the topic.
Charisma on Command frequently features
far-right, sometimes fascist or fascist-adjacent YouTubers,
influencers, public speakers, whatever.
I think it’s dangerous for him to do that, to platform and promote these people that,
yes, can lead people down the Alt-Right rabbit hole.
But I have other problems with the channel.
Let’s talk about capitalism.
Actually, we’re not talking about capitalism, this video isn’t about capitalism,
but we are talking about Charisma on Command's frequent
if unconscious defense of capitalism.
The channel frequently teaches people to idolize,
imitate, and glorify the rich and celebrities.
And it makes sense for a charisma channel, absolutely.
I just think it’s pretty bullshit.
Here’s a clip from “5 Common Habits That Make People Instantly Distrust You”:
Charlie Houpert: “When somebody’s as smart as Bill Gates is...”
Ace: Smart, sure. Why not?
A good person? Probably not.
[Cough.]
And here’s him defending Bill Gates again.
Charlie Houpert: "And I think what is really occuring at a deep level is that there's a"
"lot of frustration, resentment,"
"and anger for the way things have been going in people's lives."
"And that is occurring on the macro-scale, we're all stuck inside"
"right now, people are losing their jobs, but also it could be on the"
"micro-scale, within one's own family, if there's some anger"
"that they haven't worked out with their friends or their parents"
"or their brothers or their sisters, and I think..."
"that inner anger looks for an escape route."
"And this has happened all throughout human history, and some group"
"or some person becomes the subject of it because"
"they are different."
Ace: Yeah, I do think there’s anger at people like him.
I don’t think it’s because he’s trying to murder the world with
vaccines, as Charisma on Command’s comment
section seems to think, I think it’s because, as a billionaire,
he screws over a shit ton of people and exploits a lot more.
[Coughs louder.]
I don't have the coronavirus, I swear.
Or how about how to negotiate like a billionaire.
Step 1, already be rich.
Step 2, don’t pay your workers enough.
Step 3, pollute a few neighborhoods.
Step 4: Profit!
Here’s a video about another rich person.
Here’s another. Here’s one about Elon Musk,
the man who said that Karl Marx was a capitalist because “he
wrote a book about it.”
Also, he mistreats his workers.
Here’s a video about how great Logan Paul is.
Logan Paul?
Really?
Huh.
Okay. Here’s a video about Steve Jobs,
who’s biggest achievement was yelling at his employees and taking credit for their work.
But of course, his videos aren’t about how completely unethical
all of these people are, save for maybe alpha m., who
seems like an okay dude. No, they’re about charisma!
See, my main issue isn’t about the tips he gives. They’re good tips!
Hell, I’ve personally found them to be very useful.
It’s the fundamental individualism rooted in all of his work.
Nothing’s ever society’s fault in Charisma on Command’s eyes.
Nothing is ever out of your control.
If you are in a bad position in life, it’s your responsibility to get out of it.
And that’s just not how it works.
42% of children born to parents in the bottom fifth of the
income distribution remain in the bottom, while 39%
born to parents in the top fifth remain at the top. Only
6% of children born to parents with family income at the very bottom
move to the very top. It’s a Hollywood story
when people talk about the rags to riches trope. And if you're black,
Latinx, transgender, or any other minority that is
systematically oppressed, good luck!
This individualistic thinking is also super evident in his analysis
of the 2019 Joker movie titled,
“5 Common Habits That Make You Mentally Weak.”
First of all, Charlie, mentally weak?
Really? Kinda ableist. But even ignoring that, did--
did you miss the whole point of the movie?
Did you watch the movie, Charlie?
Ben?!
The point is that Arthur Fleck isn’t mentally weak.
He’s mentally ill, sure,
but the point is that society failed him.
The point is that the rich don’t care about the poor
and the system doesn’t care about those who are suffering.
This extremely anti-capitalist movie is being interpreted here as the fault of Arthur.
I’m not saying Fleck is a good guy in the movie, he obviously
does some evil shit, but like… he’s purposely
not demonized in it.
He’s not mentally fucking weak.
The system failed him.
Jesus fucking Christ.
Charisma on Command has some really good advice, but they suffer from an ideology
that favors those in power and oppresses those that are not.
And if you’re oppressed, their advice is just to be better.
And it’s great to strive to be better, absolutely! We should all try to be our best selves.
But that doesn’t ignore the awful inequality
that still remains, the inequality we need to address.
Now, that doesn’t mean you can’t keep watching them, I just want you to be wary.
Their advice is fine.
Except for their dating advice.
Yikes.
Thanks for watching.
I post videos every single Friday, so be sure to hit the like button and subscribe to my channel!
Also comment down below: what do you think about Charisma on Command?
Do you agree, disagree? Why? I’d love your feedback on the
topics and the video quality itself. Also be sure to share
this video online, as it’s hard to get out there as a small YouTuber.
As always, have fun, be safe,
and be kind. Bye!
