Ben Garrison

Benjamin “Ben” Garrison is an American far-rightAlejandro De la Garza, President Trump Invited a Cartoonist Known for 'Anti-Semitic' Images to a White House Social Media Summit. Time, 7 July 2019. editorial cartoonist and QAnon conspiracy theorist https://grrrgraphics.com/the-fourth-branch-of-government/ from Montana whose stated goal is "to help raise awareness of the drift toward tyranny"About us GrrrGraphics (archived from April 15, 2020). by advocating that we sprint towards tyranny, and by helpfully labeling everything in his drawings. He is a self-described libertarian, although his cartoons tend to fuse a strong authoritarian paleoconservative and alt-right streak into his libertarianism as well. While his work demonstrates numerous conspiracy theories and much pseudoscience, it also reveals that he is a very skilled and talented illustrator; his comics are commonly featured on far-right websites.
He is basically the real life version of The Onion's fictional Stan Kelly.
Since 2018, his wife Tina has occasionally also been drawing cartoons with a "TinaToon" signature. One of her comics was retweeted by Donald Trump.Catch the Red Wave! (2018) GrrrGraphics (archived from November 9, 2020).
On January 8, 2021, he was banned from Twitter along with several other far-right figures (including Trump himself) for incitement of violence during the January 6 attempted coup."Twitter cuts off QAnon conspiracy accounts as employees push to ban Trump" by Richard Lawler, Engadget, 2021 January 8
==Politics==
In keeping with his vulgar libertarian ideals, of the 2016 United States presidential candidates (on the right, of course), he has said that Rand Paul was the "perfect candidate",Ben Garrison: Political Cartoons Open A Dialogue On The Real Truth The Alex Jones Channel (Aug 19, 2016) YouTube. although since Paul's departure, Garrison fanatically threw in for Donald Trump.
As with all political cartoonists, it is very easy to tell whom Garrison is sympathetic towards in his cartoons, as they will likely be the only ones who aren't drawn really really ugly. Donald Trump in particular is unsurprisingly depicted very positively — bold, handsome, even bulky (!) — in many of his illustrations."Trump Van Helsing", pulling back the Establishment Curtain (11/01/2015) GrrrGraphics (archived from March 12, 2017)."The Basketball Ring, Trump's Slam Dunk" New Cartoon (05/04/2016) GrrrGraphics (archived from November 8, 2020).The Trump Tamers- New Ben Garrison Cartoon (01/24/2016) GrrrGraphics (archived from March 12, 2017).
His cartoons lack any sort of subtlety, exemplified by the excessive labeling. According to Garrison's Law: The more labels you have, the more effective your cartoon is.
File:Mccain-tumor-removal_orig-1024x723.jpg|Geddit? Because McCain was fighting brain cancer?
File:Trump-all-hat-cattle-ben-garrison_1_orig-1024x747.jpg|Of course Ben hates CNN.
File:Ben Garrison Trump NFL.jpg|Trump is known for being in peak physical condition.
File:Ben Faux News.jpeg|Fox News is too left-wing for Ben.
In short, he is a fervent Trump supporter.A Return to Normalization: Rightbloggers Help Numb the Nation to Trump by Roy Edroso (November 28, 2016) The Village Voice.
==Gallery of crankery==
In his cartoons and on his blog, Garrison has expressed strong opposition to climate change action,Al Gore’s Climate Change Express (07/15/2017) GrrrGraphics (archived from November 9, 2020). Islam,Of Like Minds (11/20/2015) GrrrGraphics (archived from November 19, 2020). political correctness,A Thin-Skinned Minority Is Ruining This Nation" (11/09/2015) GrrrGraphics (archived from November 19, 2020). social justice warriors,Attack of the Cry Bullies- New Ben Garrison Cartoon (11/13/2015) GrrrGraphics (archived from November 8, 2020). neoconservatism, gun control,Bad Medicine 10/15/2015) GrrrGraphics (archived from 8 Dec 2015 21:43:35 UTC). and the Federal Reserve;Lifting Rates (11/06/2015) GrrrGraphics (archived from March 12, 2017). basically, enough to give three in a row on any given crank magnetism bingo card.
File:Change-in-weather-ben-garrison.jpg|Welcome to Ben's world, where the frickin' Pope is a tool of the satanic, globalist, UN NWO.
File:Deep-state-swamp-ben-garrison_1_orig.jpg|Trump draining the swamp with the Bilderbergs and Rockefellers in it. In addition to being a conspiracy-peddling nut, Ben also happens to be ignorant in biology; swamps actually contain vibrant ecosystems.
File:New-Four-Horsemen-Ben-Garrison.jpg|Ben seriously fell for the "Bill Gates is a eugenicist" meme.Did Bill Gates ‘Admit’ Vaccinations Are Designed So Governments Can ‘Depopulate’ the World? The computer magnate believes that vaccines can be used to reduce childhood mortality and ultimately reduce population growth through associated social changes, not as an agent of death. by Alex Kasprak (10 March 2017) Snopes.
File:Ben not being racist.jpg|Remember, liberals are the real racists!
File:Garrison Quixote.jpeg|Ben doesn't understand In the book, Quixote was a deluded man who believed that he was a knight fighting ferocious giants but was actually fighting windmills, so this comic is accidentally sending the message that social media "censorship" is an imaginary threat…
File:Garrison Quixote 2.jpeg|…but this was before, so, in other words, he still didn't learn.
File:TinaToon transphobic Barbie cartoon.jpeg|TinaToon trying to score three goals in one shot: Barbie: The Movie because it hurt men's egos, transphobia and Bud Light.
===Anti-vaccination movement===
File:Vaccinations ben garrison.jpg|Fluoridations, genetic modifications, and vaccinations, oh my!"Citizen Cattle" (c. 2019) GrrrGraphics (archived from June 8, 2019).
File:Mad-Vax-Bomber-Ben-Garrison.jpg|"Autism": brought to you by the FDA, CDC, and Big Pharma — courtesy of mercury, aluminum, polysorbate 80, "aborted fetal DNA", and "bacterial & viral DNA". It's only surprising that he didn't include chemtrails in this one.
File:Australian-Freedom-Force-Ben-Garrison.jpg|Ben portrays a bunch of dumbasses who got banned from Australia as superheros for speaking out against "forced vaccines". Also Vaccines have destroyed Tasmania according to this picture.
File:More-Ben-Garrison-Anti-Vaxx-Stupidity.jpg|It (was) 2019, Ben. You have got to be joking.
File:Ben Garrison Australia Lockdown.jpeg|Anti-vax crankery, or bizarre fetish porn?
Oh, and as for the GMOs? Well, we either trust 156 Nobel Laureates (as of 2020)Laureates Letter Supporting Precision Agriculture (GMOs) (June 29th 2016) Support Precision Agriculture.156 Laureates Supporting Precision Agriculture (GMOs) Support Precision Agriculture. or Alex Jones and his chiropractic "doctor" Bohdi Radbod.
In the 2019, Ben cranked out this whopper:Mad Vax Bomber (2019) grrrgraphics (archived from April 1, 2019).
This is the kind of insane crap which pushes Ben over the line of being garishly pro-Trump to promoting ideas which are dangerous to public health. He created this cartoon immediately after anti-vaxxers in Washington state caused a deadly measles outbreak,Measles outbreak grows in area with low vaccination rate, most patients unimmunized by Joel Shannon (Published 11:32 p.m. ET Jan. 17, 2019; Updated 11:58 p.m. ET Jan. 17, 2019 and right before a 6-year-old boy in Oregon was hospitalized with a horrendous case of tetanusAn Unvaccinated Boy Got Tetanus. His Oregon Hospital Stay: 57 Days and $800,000. by Sarah Mervosh (March 9, 2019) The New York Times. because his parents are anti-vaxxers.
Perform a cursory Google search to find out what happens when people don't get vaccinated if you don't mind losing your lunch.
===Climate change denialism===
File:Al-Gore-climate-change-global-warming-game-Ben-Garrison.jpg|You'll find out that Ben really has a love-hate relationship with Al Gore.
File:Al-gore-climate-change-cartoon_orig-1024x728.jpg|See what we mean?
File:Al-Gore-Thermometer-Ben-Garrison.jpg|Ben is basically your idiot grandpa who always brings up the fact that winter is cold!!! at Thanksgiving.
File:Smokey-Jerry-Brown-Ben-Garrison.jpg|Ben simultaneously jumps on the "California wildfires are a globalist plot" and "climate change is a Marxist ploy" conspiracy trains.
File:AOC-Doomsday-Machine-Ben-Garrison.jpg|Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is Ben's new Al Gore.
File:Garrison-is-a-hapless-moron.jpg|Is Ben… okay?
Basically Gore's Law in action with a dash of red-baiting for good measure. For an in-depth look into Gore's flawed "Ice Free by 2014" claim and why its veracity is irrelevant to the existence/importance of climate change, see the analysis by Snopes.Did Al Gore Predict That The Ice Caps Will Melt by 2014? In the late 2000s, the former U.S. Vice President sometimes inaccurately represented studies that predicted the timeline for an ice-free Arctic. by Alex Kasprak (17 April 2017) Snopes. In line with most global warming denialists, Garrison also portrays the hockey-stick graph as fraudulent, likely in reference to Ross McKitrick and Steve McIntyre's multiple attempts at discrediting it. These, of course, have all been thoroughly debunked.The Discovery of Global Warming: The Modern Temperature Trend by Spencer Weart (January 2020) American Institute of Physics.
Much like Stefan Molyneux, Garrison's hardcore libertarianism lends him to believing that most forms of taxation and government intervention is a precursor to socialism. He believes that climate change is being used to perpetuate "worldwide communism",Firm Handshake by Ben Garrison (2017) GrrrGraphics (archived from January 4, 2018). and regularly blames the Sun,Change in the Weather (2018) GrrrGraphics (archived from July 11, 2019). thinking that he will avoid being labeled a denier.
For some strange reason, Ben has also come to think that the Fukushima nuclear meltdown is actually humanity's greatest ecological challenge,The New Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse (2018) 'GrrrGraphics (archived from July 11, 2019). despite timely cleanup and generally good forecasts for the area in light of the event.The Children of Fukushima Return, Six Years After the Nuclear Disaster by Motoko Rich (April 21, 2017) The New York Times.
===Insane conspiracy theories===
On the request of alt-right twitter personality Mike Cernovich, Garrison made a cartoon portraying George Soros as a puppet of the Rothschild banking family, resorting to the old anti-Semitic canard of Jews as the puppet-masters behind world events.Anti-Semitism Used in Attack Against National Security Adviser H. R. McMaster Anti-Defamation League. August 3, 2017. This is not the limit of his conspiracy nuttery. He thinks the UN is controlled by the "Satanic Illuminati."The Cookout. Ben Garrison. He thinks Greta Thunberg is a puppet of Soros, who wants to usher in global socialism.Climate Facade Updated. Ben Garrison. And he's responsible for this whale of a quote:A Republic to Keep. Ben Garrison.
If conservative free speech is gone, one wonders how Ben is able to continue inflicting these cartoons on us.
File:Ben Garrison censored.jpg|How deep does the rabbit hole go?
File:Ben Cali 30.jpeg|The UN responsible for California wildfires.
File:Ben republic.jpeg|Obama and the Illuminati destroying America.
File:Ben Garrison Capitol False Flag.jpeg|The 2021 U.S. Capitol riot was a false flag by the FBI. Hey, at least he's moved beyond blaming Antifa.
===Wee bit of anti-semitism===
The George Soros / Rothschild " puppet" cartoon above created for Cernovich was widely condemned on social media, and by watchdog organizations such as the ADL, for being blatantly anti-semitic, evoking the long-running "Jews control the world" trope."Anti-Semitism Used in Attack Against National Security Adviser H. R. McMaster", ADL, 2017 August 3 This led to trouble when Trump invited Garrison to a "Social Media Summit" in July 2019."President Trump Invited a Cartoonist Known for 'Anti-Semitic' Images to a White House Social Media Summit" by Alejandro De La Garza, Time, 2019 July 7 The invitation understandably drew ire from many Jewish groups, leading to Trump eventually revoking the invitation shortly afterwards."White House Disinvites Artist Who Drew 'Blatantly anti-Semitic' Cartoon" by Amir Tibon,Haaretz, 2019 November 07
In response to being uninvited, on July 2020, Garrison sued the Anti-Defamation League... for defamation."Trump Loving Cartoonist Sues The Anti-Defamation League for Defamation" by Will Sommer, Daily Beast, 2020 July 14 In the court filing,Garrison v. Anti-Defamation League, Docket Number: 3:20-cv-00040, archived at CourtListener.com on July 13th 2020 the ADL is described as not an "anti-hate organization that seeks to stop the defamation of the Jewish people", but as "a tool of the Democratic Party and private corporations, such as Google, to target Trump supporters, members of the Republican Party, and conservatives generally." In the lawsuit, Garrison insists that it is absolutely true that "the Rothschilds controlled Soros and that Soros controlled McMaster" and that Garrison is not anti-Semitic, nuh uh, no way!
The complaint also takes issue with ADL having a Garrison cartoon headline one of their pages, where chairman was doctored to look like an stereotypical evil Jewish merchant. Although the article apparently originally goofed and wrongly attributed the cartoon to Garrison, from at least July 10, 2019, a caption below the picture was added stating that this was a doctored picture and the original version had no anti-Semitic content"Jewish "Control" of the Federal Reserve: A Classic Anti-Semitic Myth", Anti-Defamation League Garrison however, in the complaint, ludicrously claims in the lawsuit that the ADL doctored the cartoon, in spite of the fact that the doctored image has been floating around white supremacist forums for a long time.Oboler, Andre. (2014). The Antisemitic Meme of the Jew. 10.13140/2.1.2736.7200.
===Vegas massacre===
Despite Garrison's claim, gun control is relevant to the massacre because … the shooter had a gun. Making it harder for people to have guns makes it harder for massacres to happen. Instead of actually refuting Hillary's argument, he dismisses her comments as ignorant and moves on. Ironically, the NRA pushed for gun regulations for bump-stock devices after the massacre:https://www.yahoo.com/news/powerful-u-gun-lobby-calls-more-regulation-vegas-184705026.html
Also, the 762 murders in Chicago in 2016 were individual cases,Chicago's 762 homicides in 2016 is highest in 19 years by Azadeh Ansari and Rosa Flores (Updated 5:20 PM ET, Mon January 2, 2017) CNN. not from a single mass murderer as was the case for Las Vegas, so this is a non sequitur.
===Not an argument===
The comic supports Stefan Molyneux's signature informal fallacy, "not an argument". It also refers to Molyneux's widely-shared "Untruth About Donald Trump" series produced during the 2016 U.S. presidential election, which despite Garrison's cartoon made questionable use of "logic", "reason", and "evidence".The Truth about the Untruth about Donald Trump (2016) Reddit (archived from December 10, 2020).
===Islamophobia===
Ben Garrison asserts that political correctness is ruining America because we are allowing Muslims in our country.
Garrison clearly sees Muslims as a threat to good ol' America. Garrison would prefer that nationalists be called "patriots".
==White genocide==
In August 2018, following coverage by Tucker Carlson and even a tweet by Trump himself, Garrison promoted the far-right "white genocide" conspiracy theory, with specific respect to the controversial land disputes in South Africa. He not only gave a full-throated endorsement to the theory that Cyril Ramaphosa and the "communist" African National Congress ruling coalition are behind it all, but that Obama is somehow in on it too.
Ben seriously cited notorious white nationalists Lauren Southern and Stefan Molyneux as credible sources. Moving on…
...Yeah. Needless to say, this is all complete and utter bullshit.Is a ‘Large-Scale Killing’ of White Farmers Underway in South Africa? Isolated and believed to be wealthy, South African farmers have historically been the targets of attacks in South Africa. by Bethania Palma (24 August 2018) Snopes.
==Hillary Clinton==
===Pizzagate===
Easily the dumbest crap that Ben seriously believes in is the Pizzagate conspiracy theory,Hillary's Spirit Cooking Stronger Together (2017) GrrrGraphics (archived from December 1, 2017). and Satanism permeating the federal government to a great extent.
Funniest among this is Garrison's belief that Bill and Hillary Clinton, of all people, could secretly escape to the Middle East and live there in hiding if their purported empire of Satanic pedophilia was revealed.
Garrison has further stated his belief in federal Satanism and pedophile rings, writing in another cartoon's description: "...We are now enduring rampant lies, graft, plunder, pedophilia and satanism at the highest levels of government. And of course, we have endless war."July 4, 2017, Holding Back Liberty (2017) GrrrGraphics (archived from January 4, 2018). One might also spot John Podesta in a few other of Garrison's 'toons, either sitting atop a slice of pizza titled "Spirit Cooking", as an octopus ensnaring little children, or holding a slice of pizza while part of a supposed criminal lineup. He has also suggested without evidence that Podesta could be the son of Josef Mengele, apparently based on a YouTube video by some like-minded fellow.
===Marijuana===
A comic that was supposed to be about marijuana legalization somehow has a description that hates on Hillary Clinton:Sessions' Garden (2018) GrrrGraphics (archived from April 1, 2019).
===Free speech===
In this comic, Garrison compares far-right "conservatives" being banned from social media platforms to segregation. Garrison claims Sabo was banned from Twitter because of globalists:
Garrison doesn't understand what free speech means and blames conservative silencing on a deep state conspiracy:
==Corporations==
In this cartoon, supposed "libertarian" Garrison reacted to Alex Jones being banned from multiple social media platforms by railing against corporations.
…Very libertarian-sounding, right? He continues:
Garrison again reaffirmed his stance as a Sandy Hook truther.
==Cesar Sayoc==
Following attempted mail-bombings of prominent Democrats and liberal public figures by Cesar Sayoc in October 2018, Ben reflexively jumped on the conspiracy theory that the unsuccessful bombing attempts were a false flag operation actually committed by liberals.
Even once Sayoc's identity was revealed and images of his van, plastered with pro-Trump stickers, were released, Garrison doubled down and seriously claimed that "the stickers look too new." He continuously updated the post on his blog with desperate denials from fellow conspiracy theorists, an obviously fake Photoshop of Sayoc's supposed voter registration info showing him as a Democrat, and the hilarious straw-grasping that Stormy Daniels and Sayoc worked at the same nightclub.
==Crisis actors==
Following a viral incident in late November 2018 in which migrants attempting to cross the US-Mexico border from Tijuana were tear-gassed by the border patrol, Garrison promoted a completely nonsensical conspiracy theory that the entire thing was staged by the "Fake News Media".
So did it happen or not, Garrison? He lends himself a little plausible deniability in promoting this ridiculous theory, while simultaneously reasserting his staunch closed-borders stance on immigration. What's more, he provides no reasoning or evidence for why the "Fake News Media" would stage this event, aside from casual and baseless accusations of Soros funding them. Because of course.
Again, utter bullshit.Was the 'Illegal Alien Mom with Kids' Photograph Staged? "The illegal alien mother ‘fleeing’ from the border wall was all a lie. It was a setup." by Bethania Palma (26 November 2018).
==4chan==
Garrison has been the target of a sustained smear campaign"4Chan’s /pol/ and the Trouble with Dean", Online Hate Prevention Institute, 2014 May 22 by members of 4chan, who have photoshopped many of his cartoons to combine them with strongly xenophobic, anti-semitic, and racist cartoons, most of which are culled from National Alliance newsletters published in the 1980s, specifically A. Wyatt Mann cartoons, which often feature grotesque caricatures of Jews, gays, and racial minorities. These fake Ben Garrison works still contain Garrison's signature, however thus falsely giving the impression that he holds these views. He may be a crazy right-winger, but he isn't a Nazi or an overt race warrior of the 4chan kind.https://thenib.com/the-internet-s-most-trolled-cartoonist-91a92d9b7585
File:Garrison 4chan cartoon before.jpeg|From pathetic basement dwellers…
File:Garrison 4chan cartoon after.jpeg|…to allies against media shills
Despite some initial pissed off blog posts complaining about the trolls,Stop the Hate (2014 April 28) GrrrGraphics (archived on 2015 Feb 24). he seems to have reconciled with 4chan's troll hordes. His more recent cartoons have taken a decidedly alt-right friendly, racist and Islamophobic turn, often portraying Middle Easterners as murderers ready to destroy European culture,Shariabucks Coffee (Update June 19,2018) GrrrGraphics (archived from July 11, 2019).Grab em by the MOney (2018) GrrrGraphics (archived from October 30, 2020).Johnny Allah Seed (2018) GrrrGraphics (archived from July 11, 2019).The Radical Islam Pendulum (2018) GrrrGraphics (archived from July 11, 2019). including a cartoon alleging an evil plot by Angela Merkel to replace Europe with foreign countries and implement Sharia Law. It seems as long as you limit your bigotry to Muslims, your image will be totally cleared. Alternatively, the entire smear campaign could be viewed as an earnest attempt by the 4chan troll community to take his early Federal Reserve conspiracy cartoons and boil them down to what they really mean.
==COVID-19==
Ben is deeply pseudoskeptical over the coronavirus pandemic, alleging that the virus is a hoax made by the "Deep State" in order to oppress the people.
Or, in his own words:
Garrison has also promoted the discredited conspiracy theory that the pathogen is a bioweapon produced by the Chinese after going on an anti-atheist rant, complete with a potentially libelous misquote of Vermont senator Bernie Sanders.
Later, Garrison changed his tune somewhat, arguing that the virus was, in fact, made by Bill Gates and not the Chinese government. Apparently Gates is a eugenicist who wants to murder people, including by promoting GMO crops. Garrison also for some reason thinks SARS-COV-2 is an influenza virus.
His wife Tina was quite obviously elated when Trump defunded the WHO, claiming it hates America and that China "reaps all the benefits", despite the WHO's efforts at combating Ebola in Africa,Ebola Virus Disease World Health Organization. among other things. She then demanded the UN be defunded.
On September 27 2021, Garrison reported that he and his wife contracted COVID-19. In an email to Garrison claimed to be self-medicating with questionable treatments such as ivermectin, beet root juice, and zinc. He continued to maintain bullshit that the COVID-19 vaccines were "free poison", "foul spike protein-producing jabs which are neither safe nor effective". He also claimed that he’d never visit a hospital to treat his COVID-19, due to his fear that hospitals were killing COVID-19 patients for "extra money for Covid death reports, which is necessary to keep fear ramped up"."Anti-Vaccine Cartoonist Ben Garrison Says He's Got Covid-19, Won't Go to Hospital" by Matt Novak, Gizmodo, 2021 September 27
==Abortion==
Unsurprisingly, Garrison is hysterically anti-abortion, and believes in conspiracy theories concerning chemtrails, the Georgia Guidestones and a Satanist Illuminati-led NWO planned depopulation, having stated that 5G is a plot to kill people and control their minds, and that fluoridated water is evil.
==Endorsement of secession==
For someone who claims to love his country and be a patriot, Ben sure enjoys supporting treason and sedition. Here's a post of his with his commentary on a bill that would let Texas leave the union:
==Moon landing==
Even sillier than Pizzagate, Ben also thinks that the Moon landing was faked by NASA. Specifically, "the CIA lied about" it, "the Van Allen radiation belts", "it was beyond our technical expertise", and "the Deep State had to win against the Ruskies at the time".
In conclusion, you should probably take Ben Garrison about as seriously as any half-sane person does Alex Jones.
==Prevalence==
Garrison's comics have been shared by the following people and places on the Internet
*
*r/The_Donald
*
*
*Pat Buchananhttps://buchanan.org/blog/
==See also==
*Antonio F. Branco
==External links==
*His blog (not updated since 2017)
*His website for comics
*Twitter (suspended January 2021, reinstated by Musk because of course it was)
*KnowYourMeme interview with Ben Garrison
*ThinkProgress interview with Ben Garrison, which he later semi-regretted doing
*Reddit's "Forwards from Grandma" sub, where Ben's cartoons are routinely laughed at
==References==
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