Sargon of Akkad



Carl Benjamin, aka Sargon of Akkad is an atheist gamer, amateur historian and YouTube commentator from the United Kingdom who's been active since 2010 and known for his "This Week in Stupid" videos. Although his topics have generally involved culture, history and gaming, he's gained fame (and notoriety in certain circles) for his commentaries on politics, current events and especially social movements like feminism.

His style can be best described as firm, measured and calm if often sarcastic, unless he's angry in which case it becomes significantly more brash. Like The Amazing Atheist and The Armoured Skeptic, which he has collaborated with many times, he's also very frank about his views and arguments. It's then no surprise that he has no qualms with his reputation of being politically incorrect or sounding offensive to certain people. He's also known for engaging with both his fans and with his erstwhile enemies, at least when said opposition are acting in good faith.

Sargon's main channel can be found here. While his gaming videos can be found here, as are his readings on ancient history.


 * Action Girl: Sargon's a fan of these, mentioning the movie Alien as being among his all time favorites. But he's not a fan of the feminist interpretations of what constitutes one.
 * And Now For Something Completely Different: Some of the earlier videos on Sargon's main channel include gaming videos and historical readings, which can come across as this. Eventually, he set up separate accounts for his gaming content and strictly historical content respectively.
 * Angrish: Not frequently, but some of the stuff he covers in "This Week in Stupid" wind up doing this to him.
 * Animation Bump: His more recent intro got this, as has his equipment thanks to his Patreon. The quality of his more recent videos has also seen a noticeable upgrade.
 * Arch Enemy:
 * Over the course of his run on YouTube, he's become one to social justice warriors, radical feminists, activists and ideologues.
 * Among media groups, he's not particularly fond of The Young Turks.
 * He's increasingly come to see the likes of Black Lives Matter as this as well, viewing them as Not So Different from ISIS or recognisably racist organizations like the KKK.
 * Archive Panic: His videos generally tend to be long. This is especially true for his recorded livestreams, which can last for several hours.
 * Author Avatar: In most of his videos, he uses a picture of the actual Sargon of Akkad's head as an avatar. As of 2016, this has varied somewhat to showing myriad versions of the historical figure.
 * Author Tract: Given some of the topics and political issues that he tackles, some of his videos can come across as this. On the other hand, he's still willing to converse, debate and even concede certain points.
 * Badass Beard: His actual appearance, which makes him look like a cross between Robert Baratheon and the historical Sargon of Akkad.
 * Badass Bookworm: His knowledge of ancient and medieval tactics is shown to pay off in his gaming videos involving Chivalry: Medieval Warfare and the Total War series.
 * Belief Makes You Stupid: While he has no hatred for religious people, he does reserve this for fundamentalists and rabid ideologues, regardless of whether they're religious or atheist.
 * Berserk Button: Any distortion, manipulation and censorship of anything historical or factual is a major pet peeve for him. Also, radical feminism.
 * Beware the Nice Ones: Sargon's generally nice and considerate. Piss him off however and he can be merciless.
 * Big Name Fan: Of sorts to Gamergate, having expressed sympathy and support to pro-GG.
 * Conspiracy Theories: Occasionally pokes fun at these and deconstructs them. He also makes a point to bring up how truth can be stranger than fiction, and how the lack of secretive Illuminati-esque orders or cabals influencing events in real life can actually be more concerning than their existence.
 * Cool Teacher: In general, he manages to make history and socio-political commentary both engaging and fun.
 * Deadpan Snarker: He tends to do this frequently, often at stuff he finds inane.
 * Early Installment Weirdness: Downplayed. His first posted videos on YouTube in 2013, which coincidentally involved Feminist Frequency, have a considerably lower voice quality as well as a tendency to constantly change which image of the historical Sargon of Akkad to use. His style and mannerisms have remained more or less consistent even then, though it wouldn't be until July 2014 that the first actual "This Week in Stupid" video would be posted.
 * Flame War: The' comment section for some of his videos can turn into this. Not to mention that Sargon himself is no stranger to these either.
 * Foil: Originally seen as this to Feminist Frequency. Over time however, Sargon's seen by supporters and fans as one to a sizable portion of the media in general.
 * Go Mad from the Revelation: Sargon at times has a tendency to stumble on things that would make him question his faith in humanity.
 * Guest Star Party Member: Every now and then, a friend or fellow YouTube commentator would take the reins of "This Week in Stupid" or a video in general as a guest host.
 * He Who Fights Monsters: He's particularly fond of pointing out how ideologues like to project their own tendencies onto others or behave like their ideological "rivals." It also forms part of the basis for "Sargon's Law."
 * History Repeats: Occasionally, he makes comments on how certain events or ideologies are repeating the past.
 * Hope Spot: While he's immersed himself in topics that would drive many to despair, he still comes across things that make him more hopeful for humanity.
 * Humans Are the Real Monsters: Given what he generally tends to come across, he doesn't particularly have a high view of at least some segments of the human race.
 * Mean Brit: Averted, usually. He's rather amiable and prefers to give even his opponents the benefit of a doubt. Once he gets pissed off however, this goes into full effect.
 * MST: A good portion of his videos, especially his "This Week in Stupid" ones are some variation of this, as he dissects the material he's covering bit by bit.
 * No True Scotsman: Averted. Sargon makes a point to avoid this trope, which partially stems from classical liberal views and his own distrust of dogma. He also doesn't mind defending conservatives, libertarians, and those he doesn't necessarily agree with.
 * Not So Different: Echoing "horseshoe theory," he tends to view the likes of the "Regressive" Left on the one hand and their Alt Right counterparts on the other as being this. Especially given their similarly authoritarian streaks.
 * New Age Retro Hippie: He's expressed more than a few times how he's not exactly fond of them or certain movements born from the 1960s counterculture.
 * One of Us: When he's not talking politics or social commentary, Sargon not only tends to demonstrate his nerdiness frequently. But he's also an amateur game developer who was working on an game called Necromancer. And when that didn't push through, made a point to refund those who had donated to the game's development.
 * Papa Bear: Looks the part, at least. Not to mention that he also has a child.
 * Patriotic Fervor: Downplayed, but he's proud of being an Englishman and his British heritage.
 * Political Correctness Gone Mad: Sargon has no love for it. Over time, it's also contributed to his growing disdain for what's been called the "Regressive" and "Illiberal" Left.
 * Precision F-Strike: He doesn't swear a lot, but his cursing is timed very appropriately.
 * Insult Backfire: The slander and attempts to discredit if not outright censor him have not only backfired. But Sargon even put some of said slander in his trailer video for the channel. In addition a December 2015 WatchMojo Top 10 video on the most controversial YouTube channels, which included him, has done little more than elicit the Streisand Effect and a sarcastic comment on said video from Sargon himself.
 * Love It or Hate It: Invoked by Sargon himself regarding his videos, opinions and arguments. He also makes a point to encourage anyone to comment, whether they agree or not.
 * Loophole Abuse: Sargon more often than not brings up how feminists, radicals, etc. sometimes try to resort to this (be it in vague wording or by technicalities) in order to get away with the stuff they do or say.
 * The Reason You Suck Speech: So far, he's delivered his share of these to feminism, SJWs, racists and the "Regressive" Left.
 * He's also reserved quite a few scathing lines aimed at The Young Turks.
 * Trope Namer: He's attributed with codifying Sargon's Law. An internet principle that states how whenever an ideologue (usually a SJW) makes a character judgement about someone they are debating with, that character judgement is usually true about themselves.
 * Reality Subtext:
 * His more visibly ranting episodes tend to have this air to them. Especially if it involves personal attacks on Sargon himself.
 * He's used a recent vacation to Spain as an opportunity to spotlight various other Youtubers as they fill in on Sargon's behalf.
 * The growing number of videos about the UK and Europe on his channel stem in part from the Brexit vote and his own vocal support on the matter.
 * Self Deprecating Humor: He tends to poke fun at himself frequently. Case in point: Sargon Quest.
 * Shown Their Work: He makes a habit of posting source links to whatever he's talking about. His "Ancient Recitations" channel is pretty much this as well, given it's largely him reading from or discussing Antiquity.
 * Sincerity Mode: He's generally frank about his thoughts. But there are particular times wherein he emphasizes this further.
 * Stiff Upper Lip: Becomes evident whenever he's about to cover something bound to piss him off in some manner.
 * Straw Feminist: Some critics accuse him of committing this claim rather than being fair to feminism. Sargon generally counters them by pointing out how they and their colleagues are demonstrating his case.
 * Straw Misogynist: How his critics view him, especially over his comments on feminism and his more recent sympathy to Gamergate. Sargon however, has been more than happy to respond on how inane said accusations are.
 * Vitriolic Best Buds: While he's a professed classical liberal leftist, he has more than a few friends and acquaintances who could be considered right-wing. Naturally, this leads to quite a number of engaged if civil debates.
 * Worthy Opponent:
 * Sargon makes a point to look into and subscribe to groups whose views he otherwise disagrees with, covering various corners of the political spectrum.
 * He apparently views Thunderf00t as this regarding the Brexit issue, the ensuing debate being rather civil as a result.
 * Subverted however with The Young Turks and the likes of Cenk Uygur in particular, with Sargon having lost virtually all respect for them to even consider engaging with.