Beau of the Fifth Column

Justin Eric King, better known online as Beau of the Fifth Column, is an American news, politics, and educational YouTuber. He approaches current events from a leftist perspective, with an emphasis on community building and individual action. His second channel, The Roads with Beau, features long-format interviews and educational videos. He describes himself as an "adversarial journalist."Beau of the Fifth Column: Interesting Perspective, Crazy Times -- ZandlSlant (Archived from the Wayback Machine)
==History==
Beau currently lives in "a stretch of nothing that exists between Talahasee [that is] north of the coast by forty or fifty miles".Everywhere Radio: S2E7 -- Rural Assembly
Prior to starting the channel, Beau was "busted for alien smuggling"Let's talk about me.... -- Beau of the Fifth Column in Florida, due to participating in a human trafficking operation that coerced, scammed and exploited over 200 migrants from Romania and Bulgaria from 2004-2007.Florida Strategic Plan on Human Traffickinghttps://www.dailydot.com/news/beau-fifth-column-conviction/ He was sentenced to 41 months in prison, with three years' supervision after being released.Alien smuggler Anna Czerwien sentenced -- avalonbeach.org Following his time in prison, he served as an "independent military contractor" and an "ex-tactical training instructor for police departments".Beau of the Fifth Column -- JENerational Change #2 -- JENerational Change (Internet Archive) By Beau's own admission, he stopped training cops in 2006 due to ideological differences between himself and the police force.Let's talk about a cop asking me for training.... -- Beau of the Fifth Column He now considers himself a "police accountability activist", which stems from his "[familiarity] with the policies" and the police force's continued "disregard [of] company or department policy [as well as] best practices as far as their own safety [and] suspect safety.Beau of the Fifth Column on Fact, Opinion, and the Democracy In Between -- The Daily Yonder
After this, he was convinced to create the channel after his co-workers took note of his "Redneck" accent as a party, and convinced him to start making videos using his real voice. It started off as "a joke" before shifting to something more serious, as Beau noted a "metaphorical gate-keeping in journalism" and figured that, since he'd "been handed the platform", that he "should probably do something worthwhile with it."
== Content==
Beau usually releases four videos a day, ranging anywhere from three to twelve minutes per video, averaging about eight minutes long. Recording in a shed on his property, he covers topics such as U.S. politics, racism, climate change, equality, police use of force, authoritarianism, survival, community support, and foreign policy, each titled "Let's talk about _____...." 
The deradicalization videos' titles are purposeful clickbait, aimed to target and de-radicalize young people falling down the alt-right pipeline. As explained by Beau: "[There] are a whole lot of people who will click on a video, something titled, ‘Let’s Talk About Armed Black Men,’ something like that, expecting to hear one thing from somebody who looks like me, and they get something else. And they get that other viewpoint, and I’m of the opinion that once they’ve heard it, they can’t un-hear it."In recent years, the channel's focus has shifted to independent reporting regarding domestic situations and foreign policy maneuvers, with unreported or under-reported news going to "The Roads With Beau" -- a long-form podcast on the second channel. Recently, he has written a community networking book, which will first be released on Patreon before transferring to print and eBook, then being followed up with an audiobook.The Roads to channel news and questions -- The Roads with Beau
The channel has, as of February 29th, 2024, upped its output to four videos a day, and The Roads Not Taken has begun incorporating a backlog of videos because "news just keeps breaking"Roads Not Taken Ep. 27.5 -- The Roads with Beau. Videos on "Roads" now upload twice -- once on Thursday, once on Sunday. The Roads now includes two spin-offs -- Research Roads and Driving Dates, the first of which is hosted by Mrs. Beau and the second hosted by an unknown individual. 
On July 30th, 2024, Beau announced that he was stepping back as the "face" / host of the channel due to burnout, but that the channel itself would keep going with a host of new voices taking over.Let's talk about change, progress, and evolution.... -- Beau of the Fifth Column Further clarifying on the second channel, Mrs. Beau / Belle stated:"Beau's health is fine in the sense that he hasn't received a terminal illness diagnosis or anything like that. Any physical issues he has are the result of overworking himself, and they'll resolve as he rests and regroups. [...] Beau's problem stems from being a workaholic. He has to totally step away for it to work."The Roads to your questions about the changes -- The Roads with BeauAs of July 30th, 2024, Mrs. Beau hosts videos on the main channel.
==Notable Quotes==
*Well, howdy there, internet people. It's Beau again.
*A good woman is two things: who she is and what she wants.Paraphrased from a quote by Coco Chanel -- "A good girl should be two things: who and what she wants.
*A little bit more information, little more context, and having the right information will make all the difference.
*Banned books are the best books.
*Be the anvil that breaks the hammer.Paraphrase of a quote attributed to George Orwell: "In real life it is always the anvil that breaks the hammer, never the other way about: a writer who stopped to think what he was saying would avoid perverting the original phrase."
*Can't win a primary without Trump, can't win a general with him.
*Change is not an event; it's a process.Quote attributed to Cheryl James
*Countries don't have friends, they have interests.Origins unknown; most popularly attributed to Henry Kissinger
*Foreign policy is an international game of poker where everyone's cheating, and the chips are power coupons.
*Get informed, not inflamed.
*On a long enough timeline, we win.
*Once you stop looking at this in terms of morality, and start looking at it in terms of power, then things will start to make sense.
*Ideas stand and fall on their own. Not because of some perceived authority of the person saying it, not because of the messenger, but because the idea and the information is valid.
*I don't tell people how to vote.
*Let me break this down into crayons.
*Masters of the Universe, sphere of influence, foreign policy stuff.
*Most of you traded your country for a red hat.
*Nationalism is just politics for basic people.Paraphrase of a quote by Reagan Ridley (Inside Job -- Season 1, Episode 1): "Nationalism is just politics for basic bitches."
*Seek equality in freedom, not equality in oppression.
*Terrorism is a PR campaign with violence.
*The easy path is always mined.One of Murphy's Military Laws
*The people I talked to either don't know […] Or they do know and they're lying to me, because they know that if they told me, I'd tell you.
*The truth cannot be told; it has to be realized.Paraphrased from a quote attributed to William Blake.
*You're entering a game of world domination against nation-states. Why would you think this was gonna be easy?
*[You] will not turn that Authoritarian Tiger into a vegetarian by feeding it your friends.
*Words have definitions.
*But anyways -- it's just a thought. Y'all have a good day.
**This channel became way more than just a thought. Y'all have a good day.
==Trivia== 
*Beau "considers himself politically left of the Democratic Party", "very anti-authoritarian", and someone who ascribes to anarchy as "an ideal", clarifying that he is "not the type of anarchist to be “throwing rocks at cops”".
**Most recently, he has stated: "I am not a Democrat. I am somebody who has publicly said that I don't think Biden's the strongest candidate [for the 2024 elections], and that he's not my man. I do not believe that politicians are all honest; I believe that most of them are not."Let's talk about Biden's memory.... -- Beau of the Fifth Column Further elaborating, he stated that "[Biden] is nowhere near progressive enough for me. Like, in any way -- I had incredibly low expectations. And I will admit, he exceeded them in a whole bunch of ways, but that wasn't really hard because they were incredibly low."Let's talk about Biden's experts and advisors....
*The channel's name stems from a statement by Emilo Mola, that "four columns will attack Madrid, but it will be the "fifth [column, located within the city itself]" that will start the offensive". The 'Red Terror' and the Spanish Civil War by Julius Ruiz, Ch. 8, pg. 185-186 This "fifth column", in Beau's case, refers to "opening the gates to journalism -- making it more accessible".Roads Not Taken EP 37 -- The Roads with Beau Beau has jokingly remarked that he is not allowed to talk to the other four Beaus in their respective columns, as each location is "compartmentalized".
*Beau's shirts often correlate with the stories he tells. For example, "Let's talk about the pyramids being renovated..." has Beau in an Indiana Jones branded basecall cap, with a Raiders of the Lost Ark t-shirt. "Let's talk about the UK, Palestine, and a signal....", meanwhile, has him in a shirt with the Union Jack on it.
** "Bad news" reporting usually has Beau in a black t-shirt, with a plain black t-shirt reserved for incredibly important stories. 
***A black T-Shirt with the graphic "In Walks Weirdo" usually signals something related to his experience as a military contractorhttps://www.reddit.com/r/BeauOfTheFifthColumn/comments/lvqda2/comment/gugocuf/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web3x&utm_name=web3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button.
*As part of Moonshot's "Redirect" program, Google and YouTube directed young people away from far-right extremism by playing Beau's videos as ads on right-leaning channels. According to Beau, the experiment "was run without his consent" or knowledge, although he states he "would have given approval with advanced warning". However, Beau was dropped from the program once his anarchist leanings were discovered. He was later accused of having "antisemitic views" by Republican Rep. Morgan Griffith during a House hearing.Effort to stem online extremism accidentally pushed people towards an anarchist -- Los Angeles Times This accusation presumably stems from his vocal criticism of AIPAC, the political lobbying group representing Israel's interests.Let's talk about Omar, pro-Israeli lobbying, and nuance.... -- Beau of the Fifth Column
*Beau has a wife, colloquially referred to as "Mrs. Beau" (or, more recently, "Belle"). She co-hosts "Research Road", a series on the second channel, and first appeared on camera for the video "Let's talk about Harris VP picks, who's in, and who's out...." She now serves as the host of the channel.
* Beau has two horses -- Charlotte and Marilyn.@BeauTFC on Twitter Marilyn first appeared on "Let's talk about a Thanksgiving Q&A...."
*Beau is a fan of Inside Job and "[relates] to Reagan [Ridley] an abnormal amount".Let's talk about a Thanksgiving Q&A.... -- The Roads with Beau
*Beau "[lets] YouTube pick [his thumbnails]", because of his "streamlined workflow", and the fact that making stylized thumbnails doesn't "fit" with his image / content.
*Beau acquired an (implied to be) abdominal injury in 2004 ("back when [he] was 220 pounds of twisted steel and sex appeal"Roads Not Taken EP 27 -- The Roads with Beau) which he has recently gotten surgery for.The Roads to a lighthearted episode.... -- The Roads with Beau
==References==
Category:News YouTubers
Category:American YouTubers
Category:Users who joined in 2010