Dean Withers | |
---|---|
Born | 2003 or 2004 (age 20–21) |
Known for | Online political debates |
Movement | Liberalism in the United States |
TikTok information | |
Page | |
Followers | 2.3 million |
Likes | 36.4 million |
Last updated: December 23, 2024 |
Dean Withers (born 2003 or 2004) is an American live streamer and political commentator. Withers grew up in a conservative family, which shaped his initial political views. Through self-education, he later adopted a liberal ideology, which he uses in political debates on social media.
Withers gained prominence starting in 2022 for challenging conservative viewpoints on societal issues through debates shared via TikTok. In 2024, he was featured on Jubilee Media's YouTube series Surrounded, where he engaged in political debates with conservative figures and supporters.
Dean Withers was born in 2003 or 2004 [1] [2] and grew up in Grand Junction, Colorado with conservative family members, leading him to hold similar political views in his early life. [3] [4] His father—an engineer—and his mother—who he described as often unemployed—divorced when he was an adolescent. He also has two older siblings. [2]
Withers has since called his mother "an incredibly far-right conspiracy theorist who absolutely loves Donald Trump." [4] During his childhood, Withers attended church three times per week and attended a private Catholic school from preschool to eighth grade. [2] He later shared that this conservative upbringing pushed him to educate himself further on political and societal issues, which led to his shift toward a liberal political ideology. [5]
In 2018, Withers began attending a public high school, where he said he was exposed to more diverse points of view. Particularly, he became friends with a lesbian couple who challenged the ideas he learned from his childhood. [2]
Controversially, Withers used pejorative words targeting the LGBTQ community and black people in 2019 and 2022. He faced criticism for these actions in October 2024, when screenshots of his conversations surfaced on social media. He apologized via Discord and X, expressing his shame for his past actions and that he "lacked critical education" surrounding political topics, [6] and his apology received mixed responses. [7]
Withers began sharing political content on social media in 2022 as a first-year student at the University of Colorado Boulder, when he began publicly challenging conservative viewpoints on societal issues such as abortions and LGBTQ rights. [2] On TikTok, he shared videos of debates with conservative voters in Los Angeles and held live streams inviting conservatives to voice their political opinions against him. [1]
External videos | |
---|---|
"Surrounded" episodes featuring Withers, from Jubilee via YouTube | |
"Can 25 Liberal College Students Outsmart 1 Conservative? (feat. Charlie Kirk)" | |
"Can 1 Woke Teen Survive 20 Trump Supporters?" | |
"1 Republican vs. 25 Kamala Harris Voters (Feat. Ben Shapiro)" |
Leading up to the 2024 United States presidential election, Withers opted to pursue content creation for TikTok rather than return for his junior year of college. [2] During this time, Jubilee Media featured Withers in two episodes of their Surrounded series on YouTube. [3] In one episode, released on September 8, Withers participated in timed debates against conservative activist Charlie Kirk as one of twenty-five liberal college students "surrounding" him in a ring. [8] More notably, in another episode, published on September 20, Withers sat in Kirk's position, this time surrounded himself by twenty supporters of Donald Trump, whom he debated individually on various political topics. [9] Finally, Dean was featured in a Jubilee video released on October 24, where he was shown as one of twenty-five supporters of Kamala Harris and her presidential campaign, debating against conservative commentator Ben Shapiro. [10] He received generally positive feedback for his performance in these videos, particularly emphasizing his composure and respect. [1]
Withers was not paid by Jubilee for participating in their videos. [4] Donations from viewers of his TikTok live streams have become his main source of income, including some individual donations up to $1,000. However, Withers has declined to state how much he earns overall from his social media content. [2]
On December 17, 2024, Withers attended a holiday reception at the White House, where he met with political commentator David Pakman and Hunter Biden, the son of President Joe Biden. Withers continues his activism on TikTok, where he live streams for about five hours each day. [2]
Jeffrey Steven Yass is an American billionaire businessman. According to Forbes, Yass had a net worth of $27.6 billion in April 2024 which grew to $49.6 billion by September 2024 and is the richest man in Pennsylvania. He is a registered Libertarian who gives money to conservative super-PACs including Club for Growth Action and the Protect Freedom Political Action Committee. He and his wife Janine Yass are supporters of school choice, a cause to which they have donated tens of millions of dollars.
David Joshua Rubin is an American libertarian-conservative political commentator. He is the creator and host of The Rubin Report, a political talk show on YouTube and on the network BlazeTV. Launched in 2013, his show was originally part of TYT Network, until he left in 2015, in part due to widening ideological differences. Previously, Rubin, who is gay, hosted LGBT-themed talk shows, including The Ben and Dave Show from 2007 to 2008 and The Six Pack from 2009 to 2012, both of which he co-hosted with Ben Harvey. Rubin has written two books.
ATTN:, Inc. is a digital media company based in Los Angeles, California. As of January 2018, the company receives millions of monthly video views, primarily on social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube.
Charles James Kirk is an American conservative political activist, author and media personality. With Bill Montgomery, he co-founded Turning Point USA in 2012, for which Kirk serves as executive director. He is the chief executive officer (CEO) of Turning Point Action, Turning Point Academy, and Turning Point Faith; president of Turning Point Endowment; and a member of the Council for National Policy.
TikTok, whose mainland Chinese and Hong Kong counterpart is Douyin, is a short-form video hosting service owned by Chinese internet company ByteDance. It hosts user-submitted videos, which can range in duration from three seconds to 60 minutes. It can be accessed with a smart phone app or the web.
Blaire White is an American YouTuber and political commentator. White’s videos have been centered around social issues such as transgender people, feminism, and Black Lives Matter. She has previously described her political views as centre-right, but her views have more recently been described as aligned to far right ideologies.
Celebrity influence in politics, also referred to as "celebrity politics," or "political star power," is the act of a prominent person using their fame as a platform to influence others on political issues or ideology. According to Anthony Elliott, celebrity is a central structuring point in self and social identification, per-forming as it does an increasingly important role in self-framings, self-imaginings, self-revisions and self-reflection. The influential people considered celebrities can be anyone with a major following such as professional athletes, actors/actresses, television personalities or musicians. Celebrities have two kinds of specific power: the abilities to shed light on issues and to persuade audiences. Social media is one of the most common areas for celebrities to discuss specific issues or current events that are being politicized; the individuals may also speak out in public forums such as television talk shows, events, or during their own widely attended performances. In the United States, most celebrities tend to hold liberal political beliefs, for reasons that are debated by social psychologists.
The NPC, derived from non-player character, is an Internet meme that represents people deemed to not think for themselves; those who lack introspection or intrapersonal communication; those whose identity is deemed entirely determined by their surroundings and the information they consume, with no conscious processing whatsoever being done by the person themselves. The meme gained further viral status on TikTok in 2022, with the surge of "NPC Streamers". The NPC meme, which graphically is based on the Wojak meme, was created in July 2016 by an anonymous author and first published on the imageboard 4chan, where the idea and inspiration behind the meme were introduced.
Steven Kenneth Bonnell II, known online as Destiny, is an American live streamer and political commentator. He was among the first people to stream video games online full-time. Since 2016, he has streamed political debates with other online personalities, in which he advocates for liberal and social democratic politics.
Social media use in politics refers to the use of online social media platforms in political processes and activities. Political processes and activities include all activities that pertain to the governance of a country or area. This includes political organization, global politics, political corruption, political parties, and political values. The media's primary duty is to present us with information and alert us when events occur. This information may affect what we think and the actions we take. The media can also place pressure on the government to act by signaling a need for intervention or showing that citizens want change
Social media was used extensively in the 2020 United States presidential election. Both incumbent president Donald Trump and Democratic Party nominee Joe Biden's campaigns employed digital-first advertising strategies, prioritizing digital advertising over print advertising in the wake of the pandemic. Trump had previously utilized his Twitter account to reach his voters and make announcements, both during and after the 2016 election. The Democratic Party nominee Joe Biden also made use of social media networks to express his views and opinions on important events such as the Trump administration's response to the COVID-19 pandemic, the protests following the murder of George Floyd, and the controversial appointment of Amy Coney Barrett to the Supreme Court.
Nicholas Joseph Fuentes is an American far-right political pundit, activist, and live streamer who promotes white supremacist, misogynistic, and antisemitic views. His YouTube page was permanently terminated in February 2020 for violating YouTube's hate speech policy. Fuentes has promoted antisemitic conspiracy theories against Jews and called for a "holy war" against them, and has denied the Holocaust. He has been described as a neo-Nazi by various sources. Fuentes identifies as a member of the incel movement, a supporter of authoritarianism, and as an integralist and a Christian nationalist.
Groypers, sometimes called the Groyper Army, are a group of alt-right and white nationalist activists, provocateurs, and Internet trolls. They are notable for their attempts to introduce alt-right politics into mainstream conservatism in the United States, their participation in the January 6 United States Capitol attack and the protests leading up to it, and their extremist views. They have targeted other conservative groups and individuals whose agendas they view as too moderate and insufficiently nationalist. The Groyper movement has been described as white nationalist, homophobic, nativist, fascist, sexist, antisemitic, and an attempt to rebrand the declining alt-right movement.
Bryce Michael Hall is an American media personality. He is most known for his videos on TikTok and YouTube. As of December 13, 2024, his TikTok account has 23.6 million followers, and his YouTube channel has 3.29 million subscribers.
In 2020, the United States government announced that it was considering banning the Chinese social media platform TikTok upon a request from then-president Donald Trump, who viewed the app as a national security threat. The result was that TikTok owner ByteDance—which initially planned on selling a small portion of TikTok to an American company—agreed to divest TikTok to prevent a ban in the United States and in other countries where restrictions are also being considered due to privacy concerns, which themselves are mostly related to its ownership by a firm based in China.
Harry J. Sisson is an American social media influencer known for his political advocacy on TikTok. Sisson attends New York University.
Libs of TikTok is a handle for various far-right and anti-LGBT social-media accounts operated by Chaya Raichik, a former real estate agent. Raichik uses the accounts to repost content created by left-wing and LGBT people on TikTok, and on other social-media platforms, often with hostile, mocking, or derogatory commentary. The accounts promote hate speech and transphobia, and spread false claims, especially relating to medical care of transgender children. The Twitter account, also known by the handle @LibsofTikTok, has over 3.5 million followers as of September 2024 and has become influential among American conservatives and the political right. Libs of TikTok's social-media accounts have received several temporary suspensions and a permanent suspension from TikTok.
Jubilee Media is a Los Angeles–based media company. It runs the Jubilee YouTube channel, which has 9.4 million subscribers as of November 2024.
Mar Mari Emmanuel is an Iraqi-born, Assyrian Australian prelate. He is the bishop of Christ the Good Shepherd Church in Wakeley, New South Wales. In 2011, Emmanuel was ordained a bishop in the Ancient Church of the East, but was excommunicated in 2014. In 2015, he established an independent church in the Eastern Syriac tradition of Christianity.
Far-right political groups use mainstream social media platforms for communication, propaganda, and mobilization. These platforms include Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, X and YouTube. By leveraging viral trends, entertaining content, and direct interaction, far-right groups aim to spread their political messages, recruit followers, and foster a sense of community. Such activities are part of broader political processes and activities that involve the organization and spread of political values and ideologies.