The Cynical Historian

Joseph Hall-Patton (born: ), known otherwise as Cypher or The Cynical Historian, is an American YouTuber who mostly makes videos about history and reviews historical films. He is the son of historian Mark-Hall Patton, who sometimes appears in the History Channel television show Pawn Stars.
==Personal life==
Joseph was born on August 31, 1988, in San Luis Obispo, California.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q-xUz6POwGA&t=93s He was raised as a Unitarian Universalist, where he was exposed to a variety of religious systems, but never practiced the faith as an adult. He later then moved to Las Vegas, Nevada, but he never stopped returning to San Luis Obispo, where he had an ancestral connection to. His first video was mainly about history films and how they could improve. He also talked about many obscure historical battles, and when he hit a milestone he would make a Q&A video as well. 
When he was 17, he joined the Nevada National Guard in an attempt to pay for his college studies. After basic military training, he was sent off to Afghanistan for a year of military duty, and then to Kuwait. After that, they were then promptly returned to Las Vegas, where he was greeted with the fact that his father, Mark-Hall Patton, had acquired new fame by being on the TV show "Pawn Stars". This was where he first started making YouTube videos. He then later moved to Albuquerque, New Mexico, where he currently resides today.
His first video was called "Movies And History, ep 1" where he discussed some of the flaws in history movies and whether they were true or not. Joseph continued to make videos, and he hit 100,000 subscribers on November 9, 2019. He then made a Q&A video about it, as he had for every milestone he reached starting at 25,000 subscribers.
==Content==
Joseph makes videos about history and historical topics, and here are some of the series that he has done on his channel. Some of them are still running, and some of them are long defunct. 
===Historiography===
Historiographyhttps://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLjnwpaclU4wXi3h9O4E0a0ZVPGYxAuUTy is the most recent series and first-ever YouTube Shorts series that he has created. It focuses on the various ways in which history has been documented throughout time. The first episode was called "Intro | Historiography #Shorts 1" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-8lzfkQJTas&list=PLjnwpaclU4wXi3h9O4E0a0ZVPGYxAuUTy&index=1, and the most popular one was "When is modernity? - Historiography #Shorts 4"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ESCuX9KfmDE&list=PLjnwpaclU4wXi3h9O4E0a0ZVPGYxAuUTy&index=4. 
===US Political Polarization===
Unlike the previous Historiography series, this onehttps://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLjnwpaclU4wXxGRwtV4EGk_vuAH2VkODSis mainly composed of long, 30-minute videos explaining major recent events in American politics. The first videohttps://www.youtube.com/watchv=hBHHIJG8Rds&list=PLjnwpaclU4wXxGRwtV4EGk_vuAH2VkODS&index=1, "The Party Switch | US Political Polarization" was released on 4th April 2021, and the most popular one was "From Counterculture to Culture Wars | US Political Polarization"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tppeGYoWDxg&list=PLjnwpaclU4wXxGRwtV4EGk_vuAH2VkODS&index=2.
=== Based On a True Story===
Based on a True Story is one of his most famous and arguably best work. Here, he discusses various historical films, like Midway and Darkest Hour and debates their historical accuracy. This is his longest-running series to date, with the first episodehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oHEUL2DBGac&list=PLjnwpaclU4wVzPp-sQVV48cdfyeg9G5JJ&index=93 uploaded on June 20th, 2015.
===The Diatribe===
Not to be confused with "Detail Diatribe", the series uploaded by Overly Sarcastic Productions.
Here, Joseph talks about various opinions that he has, sometimes related to YouTube's inefficient demonetization policy. He also talks about his personal experiences, and his various videos being demonetized and the racism and misinformation in some of his videos' comments before the turned them off.
=== Project Demon-etized===
Project Demon-etized is a video playlist made in collaboration with other EduTubers like Mr. Beat, KhAnubis, and even possibly Nerd City that tries to shed more light on the YouTube demonetization scene. 
==Controversy ==
Some of the Cynical Historian's videos have a tendency to attract criticism and controversy, most notably from 4chan far-right groups. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-vRGguUJIx8&t=1472s Many of his videos are demonetized by YouTube for reasons vague and unknown, even after manual review. He then made a few videos and compiled them into a playlist called "Project Demon-etized".
===Opinions on YouTube===
Joseph does not hold the YouTube staff, which he calls "Team YouTube", in very high regard, describing them as "systematically corrupt" and saying that they "embed all sorts of conspiracy theorists, including genocide deniers" into the platform, and also has made repeated calls for Google's monopoly on video sharing and search engines to either be broken, or most extremely, for Google, and YouTube along with it, to be nationalized. He even created a hashtag on Twitter entitled "#TrustBustGoogle"https://twitter.com/hashtag/trustbustgoogle?src=hashtag_click to spread his views.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-vRGguUJIx8&t=1750s
==Subscriber milestones==
Note: all data is found through browsing Joseph's videos.
*25,000 subscribers: Jun 30, 2017. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ROiutFxx2k0
*50,000 subscribers: May 28th, 2018. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hNXRuI4RBW4
*100,000 subscribers: November 9th, 2019.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q-xUz6POwGA&t=93s
*150,000 subscribers: July 27th, 2020.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9aMbK4DAkD0
*200,000 subscribers: June, 14th, 2021.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zqx8cHPuSzU&t=17s
==Quotes==
*WILSOOONNN!!!!
*Hey, Cypher here!
*No bigots allowed.
==Trivia==
*Joseph used to only be referred by the name "Cypher" up until August 31st 2018, when he revealed his real name. He did this to prevent from being associated with his more famous father, Mark-Hall Patton.
*Joseph has a short domestic-haired cat. Its name is King Richard II.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Nwe0ehW2nY
*Joseph has a deep-seated hatred for former US President .
*Joseph was stationed in Kunar Province, Afghanistan, when he was stationed there. He describes it as a place heavy with fighting.
==References==
Category:Commentary YouTubers
Category:Review YouTubers
Category:Reaction YouTubers
Category:Educational YouTubers
Category:American YouTubers
Category:Users who joined in 2013