The “Change My Mind” Series: The Birth of the Meme
This post will be both a “political meme” and “personal essay” post. The first half of the post will be about the “Change My Mind” meme, and the second half will discuss my own experiences with this video series.
The infamous conservative comedian Steven Crowder started doing his famous “Change my Mind” videos in the fall of 2017. Since then, his “Change My Mind” videos have become so popular on YouTube that each one garners millions of views (his top one has over 40 million views).
For the uninitiated, Crowder’s “Change My Mind” videos are pretty hilarious. He usually goes to an American university or public place to have civil conversations with people about controversial topics. Here is a list of some “Change My Mind” Topics that Crowder has done: Rape Culture is a Myth, Affirmative Action is Racist, Build the Wall, There are only 2 Genders, CNN is Fake News, and many more. You can probably imagine that some people would get pretty upset about these topics.
While many of the “Change my Mind” videos consist of civil discussions, others are not. Remember, that Crowder often guys to fairly liberal locations such as colleges, so he finds some interesting characters to talk to. The best videos are the ones where “adults” have temper-tantrums because they can’t have a reasonable discussion. Overall, Crowder’s videos show the utterly pathetic state of political discourse in modern America.
Even though Crowder’s videos are fairly popular, the “Change My Mind” series has taken a life of its own in the form of a meme: the “Change My Mind” meme.
The meme was born when Crowder’s twitter made the above post before one of the early “Change My Mind” videos. This political meme has become so ubiquitous that it’s often used in random and sometimes funny ways.
We’re going to now talk about more about the beginning of this meme and how it’s tied to my own university.
It All Started at TCU
In February 2018, one of Crowder’s earliest “Change My Mind” videos took place at my university: Texas Christian University (TCU). Unfortunately, I did not witness the making of this meme because I didn’t start attending TCU until August 2018.
Here’s the background to the meme: first, Crowder set up a table for this “Change My Mind” in the heart of the TCU campus—The Commons. A lot of students walk by that area to go to class, so Crowder was able to attract a crowd when he did this video.
During the video, a TCU bro came to Crowder and started to curse at him. Then, the TCU student sat down with Crowder and poorly argued for the existence of “Male Privilege” in modern America. Don’t believe me, just watch the video.
The TCU administration was not super happy with Crowder for making this video. He showed how disrespectful TCU students can be when it comes to differing opinions. Sadly, TCU banned Crowder from the campus (remember TCU is a private university) after this video. The way Crowder can get around this ban is to set-up his table right next to TCU’s campus on a public sidewalk. That’s why I have had the opportunity to witness multiple “Change My Mind” videos first-hand.
Here is the video that created the “Change my Mind’” meme:
My 1st Personal Experience of a “Change My Mind”
Since I my freshman year at TCU, Crowder has come to my university three separate times: October 2018, November 2018, and October 2020.
In October 2018, Crowder decided to come back to TCU for an even more incendiary topic: “Rape Culture is a Myth”. This video came out at during the Brett Kavanaugh Supreme Court confirmation hearings. So, Crowder talked about “rape culture” since it was a relevant topic at the time.
This video became famous because a TCU student had a temper-tantrum—even worse than the guy from the “Male Privilege is a Myth” video.
My favorite part of the video was when Steven pretended to not know who Brett Kavanaugh was. Feeling rather self-righteous, the young lady mocked Steven due to “ignorance”. The best part was that Steven looked directly into the camera and smirked as the girl was complete unaware of how much she got duped.
Personally, I did watch a little bit of this “Change my Mind” video. Unfortunately, I didn’t get to see the epic meltdown that the TCU lady had while talking with Crowder.
Here is a video to the first time that I got to see Crowder on campus:
My 2nd Personal Experience of a “Change My Mind”
As previously stated, Crowder came to TCU about a month later for another “Change My Mind”. This time, Crowder’s talk was “Hate Speech Isn’t Real”. Unsurprisingly, this video was not nearly as incendiary as the other two videos were.
Here is a picture that I took of that “Change My Mind” from my phone.
Here is the video to the 2nd Change My Mind that I witnessed:
My 3rd Personal Experience of a “Change My Mind”
Then in October 2020, Steven came again to TCU for a less-controversial topic: the Confirmation of Amy Coney Barrett to the Supreme Court.
I really enjoyed this “Change My Mind” for reasons that have little to do with the actual video.
First off, I had fun time hanging out with several conservative students before the “Change My Mind”. The TCU chapter of Turning Point USA found out beforehand that Crowder was coming to TCU. So, a couple dozen students—including myself—waited for Crowder to come do his thing. When Crowder walked by, all the conservative TCU students started cheering for him. Crowder looked pretty confused because he usually gets a ton of hostility at his “Change My Minds”. Anyways, I had fun catching up with some people that I hadn’t seen in a while.
The above picture is proof from Crowder’s video that I was at the “Change My Mind”
I took the above picture as Steven walked across the street.
Secondly, this “Change My Mind” indirectly led me to becoming an active member of Turning Point USA as well as becoming the current Treasurer for the TCU chapter. Later that night, Turning Point was having an informal get-together at a local burger joint called Dutch’s. I was on the fence about going because I didn’t know a ton of people going the hang-out. Thankfully, I decided to go and the rest is history. I met our future chapter president Reagan at the meeting, and she gave me the opportunity to become our chapter’s Treasurer. Who would’ve thought that Crowder’s Change My Mind would’ve had such a positive impact on my life.
Also, I probably wouldn’t have started this blog if I never joined TP USA. So, Steven Crowder indirectly led to the creation of this blog. I know that he’d be proud (or at least I hope so).
Finally, here is the video for the Confirm Amy Coney Barrett “Change My Mind”: