Sam Harris is is a very popular American author, philosopher, neuroscientist, critic of religion, public intellectual, and podcast host.
Sam Harris also has the 13th most popular account on Patreon.
Advertisement - story continues below
Patreon is a is a media platform that provides business tools for artists, writers and creators to run a subscription content service and raise money from supporters or “patrons.”
On Sunday Sam Harris removed his account on Patreon.
Sam posted a powerful statement as he left the platform.
Sam Harris left Patreon after their continued expulsion of conservative content creators.
Advertisement - story continues below
Patreon is dead as a business, and the Valley will take note. https://t.co/mbw8cK0shK
— Filmmaker Mike Cernovich (@Cernovich) December 17, 2018
Last week Patreon removed Carl Benjamin’s account. Carl, aka Sargon of Akkad, was banned after he defended himself against neo-Nazis.
Barrett Wilson at The Post Millennial wrote about the expulsion.
Benjamin was booted from Patreon after a video surfaced of him deriding Neo-Nazis by using a racist term in an ironic way. Whatever you may think of Benjamin’s language in the video, it was not in violation of Patreon’s policies. Benjamin was well within his right to express himself, and the fact that he was deplatformed for exercising free speech as opposed to committing some kind of harmful action is problematic to say the least.
This tweet from YouTuber and writer Benjamin Boyce sums up exactly why what happened to Benjamin matters to other creators and consumers:
https://twitter.com/BenjaminABoyce/status/1071951967864287232Advertisement - story continues below
Patreon CEO Jack Conte went on the popular YouTube show The Rubin Report last year to assure creators that they could trust him to not punish people for their speech. In this appearance, Conte successfully convinced creators that Patreon would not cave to ideological pressure and would defend free speech. Most remained convinced until “The Sargon Incident.”
Many creators and patrons have since expressed frustration and disappointment in the platform. They see the banning of Benjamin as a betrayal. Indeed, many have already abandoned Patreon for SubscribeStar, an alternative crowdfunding platform.
Sam Harris is not conservative.
But he is not a fascist either.
Tonight Sam Harris became a hero to all for his courageous defense of free speech.
The move is reverberating on Twitter tonight:
Advertisement - story continues below
Wow… @SamHarrisOrg has walked away from @Patreon due to the deplatforming of voices he *disagrees* with.
This is going to be the trend in 2020. I predict platforms will emerge that lean more toward the @ACLU’s stance on free speech (ie protect the speech you don’t like). pic.twitter.com/2puFDd1pzP
— [email protected] (@Jason) December 17, 2018
Respect pic.twitter.com/5ZCd9CJnKH
— Stefan Molyneux (@StefanMolyneux) December 17, 2018
Patreon is just the tip, any alternative should expect problems with the companies up the river, so to speak. Payment processing, credit card, and so on will(already are?) start to block business with wrong thinkers.
#PatreonPurge— Túlio Fernandes (@devtul) December 16, 2018
— Sam Harris (@SamHarrisOrg) December 17, 2018
Advertisement - story continues below
Antifa thugs still have their accounts.
Patreon Tolerates Calls for Violence from Leftists While Banning Conservativeshttps://t.co/mV1ADGQr36 shoutout to @FarLeftWatch!
— Allum Bokhari (@LibertarianBlue) December 15, 2018
