StopBigCon has been a long time coming. This is a conversation that I ve actively avoided, sidestepped, and hoped and prayed that it not be necessary behind the scenes for a long while, but that s no longer possible.
00:00:41.000This is a conversation that I've actively avoided, sidestepped, and I've hoped and prayed that it not be necessary behind the scenes for a long while, but that's no longer possible.
00:00:55.000If you've watched for the last decade, you know that I've always made it clear that we here at Mug Club are in the business of serving you.
00:01:05.000The viewer, you watching, listening right now.
00:01:06.000I've also made it clear that I wouldn't be in the business of attacking other conservatives, regardless of disagreements or personal issues.
00:01:15.000And I've always explained my logic was relatively simple.
00:01:18.000I believe that the world was better with more voices out there rather than less, regardless of minute differences, considering the magnitude of the battle that we are genuinely fighting for our country right now.
00:01:31.000But for the first time, I have to say, That I believe many of those in charge in the right-leaning media are actually at odds with what's best for you, the viewer, the customer, and more importantly, the country.
00:01:51.000We here at Mud Club, we thought that we were all in this together, that we were fighting the media, entertainment, industrial complex.
00:01:58.000We thought that we were all genuinely taking it to big tech.
00:02:02.000But too many of those in charge of the big conservative platforms are verifiably in bed
00:02:25.000Now, I'm specifically avoiding naming names or going after individuals in this video because I genuinely hope that those I'm addressing, and you know who you are, have a change of heart.
00:02:37.000It's never too late to do the right thing.
00:03:16.000Now many, many, but not all of the suits running the business of big conservative, big con, at best don't share your values and at worst are taking advantage of your good graces.
00:03:32.000And as I've experienced it behind the scenes, I've watched our country be harmed as a result.
00:03:42.000Professionally, it's meant everything to us here.
00:03:46.000Personally, too, but professionally, you are the entire reason for our ability, your ability, to create this kind of content truly independently for the last six years.
00:03:55.000When I started doing, you know, right-leaning, like, comedy entertainment videos in 2009, maybe it was 2008, I really didn't have a plan.
00:04:04.000I didn't know the blueprint, because there was no blueprint.
00:04:08.000Because no one with this kind of content had ever really even tried it.
00:04:12.000It was you, Mug Club, you watching, supporting, who created the ceiling, and you made it clear that all of you were going to keep raising it.
00:04:21.000All I knew back then was that I was a conservative, I was a Christian, and there was nothing out there for someone like me.
00:04:28.000Not on cable, not on radio, certainly not on YouTube.
00:04:32.000And back then that was really the only video platform.
00:04:35.000Live streaming wasn't really even a thing.
00:04:38.000All I wanted to do was to set out to create the kind of content, the kind of show that I always wished had existed when I was growing up, and I hoped that there would be enough of you out there like me.
00:04:54.000I was told by the powers that be that you didn't exist.
00:04:59.000I was told that the only way to make a living in this business was to cater to older, conservative generations, and that comedy, that entertainment, that edgy quote-unquote content didn't work on the right side of the spectrum.
00:05:13.000An entertainment show would never work.
00:05:15.000You, all of you, are the only reason that I, that we here, were even remotely vindicated.
00:05:31.000I could see the writing on the wall back then.
00:05:34.000The big tech censorship on the horizon.
00:05:36.000The diminishing advertising revenue day by day.
00:05:38.000And I knew full well that demonetization from these platforms, it was inevitable.
00:05:44.000But I wasn't really sure that this would work.
00:05:46.000At that point in time, getting anyone to subscribe to anything was pretty much impossible.
00:05:50.000Everything on the internet was basically free except for pornography.
00:05:53.000Even, you know, Netflix, the only player in the space at the time between shipping DVDs of Poltergeist 3, they were struggling with online streaming.
00:06:02.000But I found a great partnership back then, a partnership with a company called CRTV, which later purchased The Blaze and used that name going forward.
00:06:11.000And on election night, 2016, so many of you signed up that the back end of our site crashed.
00:06:34.000Yeah, you know, I wasn't thrilled about some things and the, you know, handling of Mug Club leaving, and that's why, you know, we launched MugClubForever.com, where you can sign up just to be able to reach you.
00:06:44.000This really isn't about that, so I want to create some separation here.
00:06:47.000Business relationships end all the time.
00:06:58.000Now, before you guess who it is, Before you start trying to do some Sherlock Holmes work, there are far more people beneath the tip of the iceberg than you know about who are trying to get into this space.
00:07:11.000There are more than you would probably assume.
00:07:23.000And I don't just mean unreasonable demands for control, but what I would argue are immoral terms that actually punish conservative content creators on behalf of big tech.
00:07:38.000And that's something that I just couldn't unsee.
00:07:40.000And I want to let you know, it's not the exception.
00:08:04.000Certainly not without professional legal counsel representation.
00:08:08.000Do not sign something that includes, you know, let me go through this.
00:08:15.000Effectively, full ownership of all your social media platforms, channels, in perpetuity, the rights to your content, name, image, likeness, even the ones that you've built.
00:08:32.000Don't sign contracts out there that include multi-million dollar penalties for different... Let me read you an example of what I mean.
00:08:48.000If Crowder fails to deliver a monthly content in any month or any of the quarterly content in the corner, including any and all ad reads, and by the way, all these contracts came with 3, 4, 5, Ad reads per show, which would fundamentally change what this show is.
00:09:07.000If I failed to do that, it would be a $250,000 reduction in fee per quarter.
00:09:15.000If, let's say, we did do everything per quarter, but annually maybe missed something, like let's say we went and did a Change My Mind instead of a Daily Show, which of course requires a lot more work, it'd be a separate $1 million penalty.
00:09:28.000For that, if you miss a single piece of content.
00:09:31.000And the amount of content required is not in line with- Frankly, it's worse than Disney.
00:09:57.000You get hit by a car, you have a sick day, you could lose $100,000 a day.
00:10:06.000Hey, anyone wonder why there's burnout in this?
00:10:09.000Anyone wonder why you have kids come up and they leave and never to come back?
00:10:14.000You think if you had that kind of a penalty, you think if someone said, hey, we're going to penalize you $10,000 every day you miss coming into work, you think you'd be stressed?
00:10:24.000This is worse than the left frames their contracts.
00:10:27.000Again, I don't, of course I didn't sign any of these things.
00:10:30.000But I now know what other kids are signing out there.
00:10:35.000I think it's, um, I just think that's wrong to treat people that way.
00:10:41.000But, this is where, in going through this, and I need to take some time because, look, I've always tried to be a happy warrior, and I want to go back to that.
00:10:51.000I haven't, I haven't been happy for a while.
00:10:55.000I haven't been happy for a while, because when you know what goes on behind these scenes, and you see how many people are complicit, it creates an air of hopelessness.
00:11:13.000Do not, kids, under any circumstances, sign a contract with people who claim to be conservative, but will penalize you 25% for any demonetization or sponsor boycott.
00:12:10.000If any of the major platforms issues a content strike such that Crowder cannot be monetized on such a platform, and the company is not able to resolve the issue within 90 days, the fee will be reduced by 25% moving forward.
00:12:24.000Now, I thought this was a mistake because, you know, these people maybe didn't know who I am that we've been demonetized for three years.
00:12:31.000No, it was made very clear to me in no uncertain terms.
00:13:48.000Let me ask you, can you imagine if this show Not only was never permitted to take risks per our contract as it relates to big tech guidelines, like as far as the content guidelines, right?
00:14:01.000There's content guidelines and there's advertiser guidelines.
00:14:04.000Can you just imagine a world where this show could never take risks in relation to those guidelines?
00:14:10.000I'm saying things like mRNA injections, election integrity, take your pick.
00:14:14.000But one step further, if this show had to be advertiser friendly on YouTube, Those guidelines pretty much read, don't say anything offensive ever.
00:15:25.000We've been demonetized and we're not beholden to sponsors who might get boycotted because the sponsors that we have are going to go wherever we go anyway.
00:15:33.000We know that beyond any shadow of a doubt.
00:15:36.000That's the luxury of doing business honestly and loyalty.
00:15:40.000But to the kids out there coming up who don't have that luxury, please don't sign these.
00:16:20.000If there are enough of you out there, I will transition Mug Club Into a full-scale network with independent content creators who don't want to be locked into slave contracts.
00:16:29.000Look, I understand that business relationships sometimes fall through.
00:16:35.000But there is a way to structure these contracts and a network.
00:16:39.000There's a world in which contracts and a network exists where everyone benefits with some semblance of fairness, transparency.
00:16:47.000There's no need to be enslaved like this.
00:16:49.000If you're out there right now and you're making content work, on whatever scale that may be, there are levels to this game, I understand that.
00:17:19.000If Mug Club or whatever network it becomes isn't for you, if this isn't the right home for you, we have lawyers in representation who will negotiate your contract for you with anyone else out there at half the market rate.
00:17:47.000And if you, watching right now, right now, if you want a network that you can truly call your own, I just ask that you enter in your email at stopbigcon.com.
00:17:58.000Entering in your email makes you a signatory.
00:18:00.000It's a statement that you want, not just Muggla, but you want a network That does better.
00:18:09.000So, it's either time for Mug Club to go big, or it's time for me to go home.
00:18:20.000And frankly, swimming upstream with just this one show, it's a futile endeavor.
00:18:27.000So either Mug Club grows, and we, you, start setting the standard for this movement, we right this ship, or, you know what, I'll go back To doing maybe occasional videos, stand-up.
00:18:45.000I just want you to think about this for a second.
00:18:47.000There's a reason that if you felt this way, let me put it this way, and I've heard feedback from you.
00:18:57.000If you feel in your gut that a lot of conservative content out there feels homogenous, feels sanitized, Feels like they're missing some key points.
00:19:12.000You often find yourself asking, hey, I wonder why X won't talk about Y.
00:19:19.000And I now know any contract that I would have signed would have turned this into yet another softer radio show on video, littered with live reads for every sponsor that could be crammed into every single episode possible, devoid of the sketches, the change my mind type segments, the spontaneity, the levity that's made this show exactly what it is.
00:19:39.000Oh, and by the way, I was told would never work by the same powers that be.
00:19:45.000And the real reason the stakes are so high For us here, but me specifically, look, either I'm a break glass in case of emergency candidate here, just to start a network, and to actually start helping people out there who don't enjoy the same luxuries that we do of being independent.
00:20:06.000Either that's my role moving forward, or this isn't for me.
00:20:12.000And here's the thing, all at once it kind of hit me, and I had to take some time, I hope you understand, To really pray and contemplate this.
00:20:22.000After all of these years, even after all this time, after all of you have voted with your dollar, and your viewership and your support, you've shown what's possible, in supporting this, the largest show in the conservative movement, bar none, bar none, just to be clear.
00:20:58.000And while I'm grateful and humble, false humility doesn't... it does you a disservice.
00:21:05.000But even after all this time, after all of you have voted with your dollar, with your viewership, with your support, after you've set records, It wasn't, and it's not, I should say in the present tense, it's not that the suits in charge of these places, Big Con, and these sites, these media companies, it's not that they still believe that this show can't work.
00:21:28.000It's not that they any longer believe that you don't exist.
00:21:33.000Those at the top, those pulling the strings in Big Con, are bothered precisely by the fact that you do.
00:21:41.000They don't want a group of rebellious rabble-rousers who want to learn, fight like hell, and laugh together.
00:21:49.000You're of no value if you can't all be kept in line to some degree.
00:21:53.000I don't mean some master plan to eliminate you.
00:22:37.000And I'm willing to bet that most of you won't either.
00:22:40.000Let me know just how many of you won't.
00:22:43.000Enter in your email at stopbigcon.com.
00:22:46.000Now, I just need some time to figure out how to do this.
00:22:50.000The requirement for infrastructure is light years beyond what we would need for just this show.
00:22:56.000Some time to solve this puzzle as to how I can best and most efficiently accommodate you.
00:23:02.000And hopefully, some time to restore my faith in a movement which frankly has been shaken by some, not all, there are a lot of good people in this movement, but some really bad actors.
00:23:13.000Among us, and rather than throw anyone under the bus or continue this long, drawn-out drama playing out in the public square, I'd rather focus on how to serve you, the only people who truly matter in this movement and to this company, and I would say to the future of this country, you.
00:23:29.000The average American who's watching, not the person who's creating the content and framing the contracts, you, right now, at home, in your car, in your truck, wherever you are.
00:25:05.000Make no mistake, the liberals out there foaming at the mouth, this is not me turning against conservatism or an incident of friendly fire at all.
00:25:14.000Everything that I've ever stood for, I'm standing for now.
00:25:17.000It's precisely because I believe what I say that I'm doing this.
00:25:22.000And by the way, too many of these people aren't our friends.
00:26:20.000Now, to everyone else, everyone who's watched, listened, paid attention in any way, either right now or throughout the years, I just ask that you join me in letting them know that there are far more of us, far more of you than of them.
00:26:51.000I am going to march into these people's offices, these nameless, faceless people's offices, with your declaration and the number of you who exist.
00:27:02.000Those in Big Con are personally going to know just how many of you are equally pissed.
00:27:10.000You and the number of you out there are officially going to be their report card.
00:27:15.000Not a handful of old money billionaires.
00:27:17.000Not career political and non-profit lobbyists.