YouTube allows unchecked bigotry and hatred on BlazeTV's Elijah Schaffer’s channel
YouTube has a policy against hate speech and harassment. So why doesn't the company enforce it?
Written by Jason Campbell
Published
BlazeTV host Elijah Schaffer’s YouTube show is a hellish abyss of hatred and bigotry. Schaffer, who has a record of deceptively editing clips, has over 450,000 YouTube subscribers and regularly engages in rhetoric that is racist, anti-LGBTQ, and anti-multicultural.
Schaffer has been involved in recent major political events. He was in the Capitol during the January 6, 2021, insurrection. Though he later attempted to cover up his trespassing, he posted a picture claiming to be inside House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s (D-CA) office. Additionally, Schaffer played an important role in creating the self-defense narrative around Kyle Rittenhouse, who was tried and eventually acquitted for killing two demonstrators and wounding another during the 2020 protests in Kenosha, Wisconsin.
In recent episodes, Schaffer has continued his pattern of attacking marginalized groups and promoting hatred.
On July 1, Schaffer said, “When women lead, it’s a sign of a curse on the country.”
Citation From the July 1, 2022, edition of BlazeTV's Slightly Offensive, posted to YouTube
ELIJAH SCHAFFER (HOST): I think this is kind of crazy where we’ve gotten to a point in the country where you know things are bad when the men are like, you know what, we’re just going to give it up to the women to figure things out. And I’m not — I'm actually not talking crap about women, because the saying that behind every good man is an even greater woman — I don’t like that phrase.
JOSIAH MOODY (PRODUCER): Wrong.
SCHAFFER: Yeah, I don’t like that phrase.
MOODY: Wrong.
SCHAFFER: I think that’s dumb. Behind every man is a strong woman that he leads as she takes care of his household, as she looks after his family, as she helps him to add value to the family, right, so he can focus on his work. But this idea that, like, somehow men don’t have the capability to solve the issues — guys, we caused these problems, we literally made the issues. You can blame it on women, we’re the ones who gave them the right to vote, we’re the ones who let them get into power. And –
MOODY: Roe v Wade voted in by men.
SCHAFFER: Yeah. Roe v Wade was voted in by men. And then women, they did help to take it apart, but it was catalyzed by Clarence Thomas who was a man. And so the fact that we got to a point in the world where they’re saying, well, we just need to give up, men need to shut up, they need to step back, and they need to just let women figure things out — women can’t even get along with each other. They can’t even figure out their friendships. They’re not going to figure out the country. Even though there are plenty of lovely women who are strong leaders, who are bold, who have filled positions that men have given up, that men have chosen not to lead in. When women lead, it’s a sign of a curse on a country because if men are strong and they’re leading the country well. Women do not feel the need to lead.
On July 6, Schaffer said, “You really can’t blend certain cultures together” and that when a country allows immigrants from countries like Syria, “it actually destroys the peace and the fabric of our nation.”
Citation From the July 6, 2022, edition of BlazeTV's Slightly Offensive, posted to YouTube
ELIJAH SCHAFFER (HOST): It’s like, these people in your countries, you realize that you’re already going to have violence like you’re seeing here, like with this ethnic Dane. You’re already going to have violence. You have to realize people are unstable. You can’t really blend certain cultures together. We have different ways of doing things. That’s why you travel. You literally go travel to experience other cultures. That doesn’t mean that, like, other people of a certain race cannot come into a country or whatever. There are people who like, let’s say, like, immigration — they want to come into a nation because they like that culture better and they want to adopt that culture. It’s like, OK I do understand that.
But now immigration is about we are required to basically be like the handouts — the West is — for the rest of the world. And it’s like we are required in an immigration — in a war in Syria, we need to take in a certain amount of people. But it’s like, we don’t need to. We are not required to. And it actually destroys the peace and the fabric of our nation. That’s what they want though. They want a globalist, non-culturally specific, ambiguously racial society where there’s no central point of religion or race or any type of language. There’s just this hodgepodge. So there’s no national identity, because when you don’t have a national identity, then you can strip the history. When you strip the history, you can reshape the future.
On June 25, Schaffer said, “Obesity is the biggest crime against humanity, other than abortion, that’s been legalized in this country.”
Citation From the June 25, 2022, edition of BlazeTV's Slightly Offensive, posted to YouTube
ELIJAH SCHAFFER (HOST): Obesity is a crime. It should be a crime. Dude, fat people are very depressed in the world, they really are. And I know that, for a matter of fact, because we could all, you know, get in better shape and stuff, and like, obesity is the biggest crime against humanity, other than abortion, that’s been legalized in this country. Like, they want you fat, addicted, sick, poor, and they don’t want you to reproduce. They want you to be killing your kids.
On July 6, Schaffer spread a conspiracy theory that the alleged Highland Park shooter, who killed seven people during the Fourth of July parade, is transgender. He falsely referred to the shooter as a “trannsexual terrorist.”
Citation From the July 6, 2022, edition of BlazeTV's Slightly Offensive, posted to YouTube
ELIJAH SCHAFFER (HOST): Under the current definitions of what are a transgender is — in our current definition, our current world climate, the shooter would be considered transgender, right? Because transgender would be somebody who assumes the other gender. And what’s funny is they’re trying very hard explain that this is a costume. So suddenly they forgot what transgenderism is, and we’re calling these costumes. This is a cross-dressing white male — I think he was white, I might be incorrect on the race, but — yeah, so he’s a white male. He’s a cross-dressing white male and they’re saying well, he just cross-dressed like this to blend in. What do you mean blend in? Like guys don’t blend in in society? What are you talking about? Like, well he was trying to cover his tattoos. I am like people don’t have tattoos in society? It’s Chicago, bro. This is a cross-dressing transgender shooter that just killed people. We have transsexual terrorism happening.
On June 20, a day after Juneteenth, Schaffer said, “I’m down to celebrate the ending of slavery, it would be really cool. It would also be really cool to thank the 500,000 white men who gave their lives to end slavery rather than hating white people.”
Citation From the June 20, 2022, edition of BlazeTV's Slightly Offensive, posted to YouTube
ELIJAH SCHAFFER (HOST): Shoutout to my African-Americans out there and supporters. Congratulations on Juneteenth. It’s, you know, inaccurate and I’m down to celebrate the ending of slavery, it would be really cool. It would also be really cool to thank the 500,000 white men who gave their lives to end slavery rather than hating white people and realizing, you know, a few interesting things like that, that that’s true.
YouTube has a policy against hate speech and harassment. The platform has previously suspended another BlazeTV host, Steven Crowder, multiple times for infringing these policies. YouTube should likewise enforce its own policies against Schaffer’s hateful channel.