Who Is Steven Crowder?
This article includes allegations of abuse.
Once upon a time, Steven Crowder was lauded as a powerful young voice in the conservative movement, but he has since spectacularly fallen from grace. As many might expect, Crowder's content checks off all the usual extreme rightwing boxes of homophobia, transphobia, anti-abortion, anti-feminist, and pro-gun. But what may surprise you is that 14-year-old Crowder was the voice behind "The Brain" in the beloved children's cartoon "Arthur." And at the time, things weren't great for him. Although Crowder would go on to harass and belittle numerous people with his future work, he faced bullying throughout his younger years.
In an interview with the Daily Beast, Crowder revealed that his peers often ostracized him because he was a Christian American kid in a Catholic school in Canada. The outspoken commentator told the outlet that he didn't feel safe throughout his schooling years because of the incessant bullying. Crowder recalled an incident where he stood up to a bully by hitting him back but gave up the fight when he realized the other kid's friend group outnumbered him. As an adult, the incident plagued Crowder because of his helplessness.
He said, "After high school, I wiped the dust off my shoes and thought, 'I'm never going to let that happen to me again. I'm never going to be afraid again.'" After failing to make it big as an actor, Crowder started performing stand-up comedy shows that featured racist impressions and conservative quips. He also worked with smaller, conservative websites on the side until Fox News hired him in 2009.
Steven Crowder started out as a Fox News contributor
Steven Crowder produced several blogs for Fox News, two of the most notable being op-eds. In a 2013 post written while he was on honeymoon, Crowder details why he and his wife chose abstinence and shames those who choose to have sex before marriage. In the second op-ed, Crowder writes about how he would never speak ill of his wife and encourages men to speak positively of their spouses instead of giving into wife-hating jokes. But his most prominent work at Fox came at the hands of someone else.
An edited video shared online showed a union protestor punching Crowder at a 2012 rally. Crowder agreed that he verbally provoked the protestor but did not physically attack him. But the unedited version of the video seems to reveal that Crowder initiated the attack by pushing the protestor to the ground first. After the unedited version surfaced, Ingham County refused to pursue the case any further.
In October 2013, Crowder slammed Fox News commentator Sean Hannity for poorly handling an interview and even called out the outlet itself. Shortly after, his time with Fox ended. Crowder's YouTube work gained more popularity through his satirical political parody videos and podcast, "Louder with Crowder." One of the most popular segments of the show is "Change My Mind," where Crowder primarily visited colleges to debate students on liberal ideologies and controversial opinions. And you may recognize it as the origin of the popular meme.
Steven Crowder allegedly emotionally abused his ex-wife
In April 2023, Steven Crowder announced that he and his wife were divorcing. In the video, Crowder vehemently states that divorce wasn't his decision and seems irked by Texas' laws that state that a divorce can go through even if only one person demands it. He added that he believes in a traditional family where a mom and dad raise their children together, and divorce naturally goes against this belief. For some reason, Crowder also stated that the couple's then-2-year-old twins had nothing to do with the divorce, clarifying, "It's no one's fault but my own in that I picked wrong."
However, shocking leaked Ring camera footage showed otherwise. Per The Reset, it demonstrated a vicious argument between a pregnant Hilary Crowder, his then-wife, and Steven that seemingly occurred because she refused to give their dog its medicine since she believed it was unsafe for a pregnant woman to do so. Steven repeatedly asks her to be more disciplined and follow his boundaries. When Hilary tells Steven that she loves him, he tells her that he doesn't feel the same way and questions her love because of her alleged disobedience.
After the video ended, Steven reportedly yelled, "I will f*** you up," to his eight-month pregnant wife before she left the house, fearing for her safety. Hillary's family released a statement explaining that she had endured years of abuse from Steven. In fact, she was the one trying to keep their family together and encouraged him to get help so they could have a healthier relationship for the sake of their kids.
Steven Crowder is an also reportedly a horrible boss
Steven Crowder dubbed the leaked Ring footage deceptive and threatened to unseal personal and highly-detailed court documents in response to it. But the New York Post discovered that several of Crowder's former employees agreed that he displayed abusive tendencies. They told the outlet that Crowder exposed his genitals to them on several occasions. The former employees also claimed that Crowder set unrealistic deadlines and on one occasion made his team work over 100 hours in a week. When one worker complained about the lack of sleep they got, Crowder reportedly told them to be grateful.
Despite keeping a close eye on all the company's operations, Crowder allegedly refused to take responsibility when things went wrong. When a live show didn't do as well as Crowder expected, he handed out a book entitled "Extreme Ownership: How U.S. Navy SEALs Lead and Win" to his employees to nudge them to work harder. One ex-worker informed the outlet that Crowder felt threatened by how good his employees were and tried to bring them down.
Ex-employees also alleged that Crowder even screamed at his own father when he failed to get big names for the podcast. His ex-co-host, Dave Landau, wasn't immune to Crowder's outbursts either. Speaking to "Your Welcome with Michael Malice," Landau revealed that Crowder had a "Dave don't talk button" to ensure the spotlight would be on him whenever he wanted it. Likewise, someone on Crowder's team told Landau to always let him have the last word.
Steven Crowder feuded with Ben Shapiro
Ben Shapiro and Steven Crowder appeared to be friends at one stage, but their relationship quickly came crashing down. In January 2023, Crowder uploaded a video detailing the clause of a "slave contract" he received from an unnamed but influential conservative organization. The contract stated that if his channel was suspended from the major platforms mentioned, his paycheck would receive a 25% cut until the channel was reinstated.
Given the controversial and often racist nature of his videos, a channel suspension is always on the horizon. Thus, Crowder felt the organization was attempting to censor him, just like the big tech companies. It didn't take long for people to realize the organization was the conservative media giant, The Daily Wire, founded by Shapiro and Jeremy Boreing, which is aligned with conservative figureheads like Candace Owens and Jordan Peterson. In response to Crowder's accusations, Boreing posted a video to defend his company.
He clarified that the contract clause was implemented purely from a business standpoint because they wouldn't be able to fairly pay Crowder without the revenue generated from his channels. Additionally, the company wouldn't make any money during the period, so they'd suffer the consequences too. Boreing also pointed out that the so-called "slave contract" would bring Crowder a payout of $50 million over four years. Further, Crowder would only have to work four days a week, with four weeks of paid leave, maintain complete control over his content, and have a team to help him produce high-quality content too.