This is something of minor interest that's been on my mind for a while now, so I thought I might as well record it in Voat. Many of you will be aware of commedian Owen Benjamin's podcast, which airs just about every day, often more than once in a day. I used to watch it regularly because Benjamin is often quite funny, and his views are conservative, in the general sense of the word. Lately I haven't been tuning in as often because he tends to repeat himself, and I find that I've heard most of what he is going to say before. But an awareness has been growing in the back of my mind for months, and that awareness is this: Owen Benjamin is creating his own cult.

It is not overtly a religious cult. It's more of a back-to-the-land, survivalist cult. However, Benjamin does espouse Christian values. He's not a fan of homosexuals and perverts, he doesn't like pornography, he advises against masturbation, he advocates for marriage and having children, and so on. All good things. He also is not keen on niggers and Jews -- also a good thing, in my opinion, although he's softened his stance on this matter lately. So what makes what he is doing a cult?

Well, I noticed that when viewers of his live podcast write comments about it, which Benjamin can view as he is talking, he is incredibly intolerant of any opinion that disagrees with his own. This happens to be a characteristic of cult leaders. They winnow down and cull out potential followers by immediately dismissing anyone to disagree with them. You cannot disagree with Benjamin about anything, or you are instantly banned.

I also noticed that Benjamin is using a lot of cutesy terms he has invented, and he encourages his viewers to use them as well. These are "insider" terms which help to separate those inside the cult from those outside it. If you want an example of this, look into Scientology -- L. Ron Hubbard was a master with this technique. I'm trying to think of an example off the top of my head now. Here's one -- for a while Benjamin was calling the Jews the "men with small hats." Then after a while he changed it to the "grabblers." This coining of insider terms is similar to Hubbard's use of such terms as "getting clear." Those who use the insider terms define themselves as part of the circle, which of course puts everyone else outside the circle.

Benjamin calls his followers "bears." He calls himself "Big Bear." There is a bear motif running through his podcasts. He used to have the stuffed head of a grizzly bear pearched behind him while he was on camera, until it rotted and fell apart.

Lately Benjamin's been getting together some kind of project to buy land in a remote location. He is encouraging his "bears" to participate financially, or was the last time I checked in on his podcast. One of his "bears" asked if it would be OK for them to just go to this oasis for shelter when the race war started, and Benjamin reluctantly said, sure, it would be OK. He intends this retreat as a kind of community or commune for like-minded "bears" -- I suppose mostly for those who put up some money to live there.

All these things just scream "Cult! Cult! Cult!" in my ear. I have a very bad feeling about Benjamin's bear cult. I'm hoping it will just fall apart when people realize what he is up to, and when Benjamin himself realizes that people cannot be manipulated quite as easily as he believes, but it would not suprise me if one day, a year or two from now, I read on the Internet of some violent episode at the Benjamin Bear Commune that necessitated the involvement of the police. Maybe it won't be at the Jim Jones or David Koresh level of violence, but something unfortunate is going to evolve out of this cult Benjamin is creating around himself.

Benjamin himself is obviously mentally unstable. He suffers from paranoia -- he thinks others are "out to get him." This has caused him to destroy numerous friendships and potential friendships with other commedians and Internet personalities such as Joe Rogan and Stephen Crowder, who are baffled by his sudden display of hostility. Benjamin frequently brags about his knowledge of propaganda and social manipulation, which he claims to have picked up from his father. He hates his father due to his father's homosexuality and betrayal of his mother. Freud would have had a field day with Owen Benjamin.

Anyway, that's it. Thanks for reading if you've read this far. I just wanted to make a record of Benjamin's creation of a cult of personality with religious overtones around himself, and his attempt to create a remote survivalist community, or commune, with himself as absolute ruler. I don't think it's going to end well for him or his followers.