The Perplexing Failure of Classically Abby (Ben Shapiro's Sister)

https://discord.gg/EGFRjwwS92

In this in-depth analysis, Malcolm and Simone Collins explore the reasons behind Classically Abby's failure to gain traction as a conservative influencer. They dissect the changing landscape of conservative culture, the disconnect between traditional and modern right-wing values, and the importance of authenticity in online content creation. The video also touches on broader topics such as the evolution of conservative thought, the role of "vitalism" in modern conservative appeal, and the challenges facing established conservative institutions. Additionally, the Collins discuss the ethics of featuring children in online content and offer insights into successful conservative influencer strategies.

Malcolm Collins: [00:00:00] What? She's actually cool? She is actually an interesting nerd. What on earth? In real life. What? But the person she presents as, on YouTube, I loved your shock face here

Would you like to know more?

Malcolm Collins: Simone! I am so excited to be talking to you today. Something really interesting that we mentioned in a recent episode, that when I was editing it, I was like, wait a second, I should be really focused on this question. Why didn't, classically Abby, then Shapiro's sister,

Being a conservative woman in today's day and age is not easy. !

Malcolm Collins: why didn't she catch on with the public?

And so people can understand just how much this didn't work. She was doing tons and tons of ads at one point on YouTube. If you are active on YouTube, you definitely saw her all the time for a period. Every time I bought this up with a YouTuber, they're like, oh yeah, that. If you were aren't active on YouTube to give you an idea.

Her top four or five videos have over a million views. [00:01:00] And if you're paying for that much in ads, because it was certainly in ads that caused these videos to go out there certainly over a million dollars in ad spend, if I had to guess, I would guess it was probably 1. 5 to 2 million in ad spend.

For a channel that today. produces weekly videos that are similar in format to ours and similar also in content to ours and are getting, I'd say on average, probably about half the views that we get on daily videos. So this is really interesting to me and I can post our numbers on the screen and everything like that.

So you can check our math. We're getting on average, I think now, what is it, 8, 000 views per day, 7, 000 views per day and about 1, 300 watch hours per day or 7, 400 watch hours per day depending it's, it goes up and down for us. There was a peak a little bit ago.

Simone Collins: But you've done a really good job, Malcolm.

Malcolm Collins: No,

Simone Collins: I don't know. I'm a million to 2 I would guess more like at least a hundred thousand dollars.

Malcolm Collins: Oh, [00:02:00] certainly more than a hundred thousand. Really? Oh, absolutely. It had to be there. There is no way it was less than half a million, but I suspect very likely between a million and a half, a million and a half.

But we can run the numbers, whatever. The point being is she's connected to a famous person. Her videos are generally well done, edited, well executed. She is an attractive woman. And she had the ability to get in front of tons of people. Why didn't her message connect with any audience? And this is a very important question to be asking for a, probably the biggest reason is because the message that she was shilling is the message that the conservative elites believe the conservative base should be hearing.

Simone Collins: Yeah. And I, my, when I was going through her [00:03:00] videos in preparation for this, cause I hadn't really watched any, I felt like I was watching an AI video. These were AI responses. If you asked chat GPT. What are some reasons why a woman would need to dress modestly? Or, what are some reasons why I should keep my apartment clean?

These are exactly the answers that it would generate. Oh my god, you're right? Yes, I am exactly right. And I think that's also an issue

Malcolm Collins: if you did the framing of and you're a conservative YouTuber and then that's what it would spit out. You would need to give it some framing.

But hold on before I go further with this I want to make a few caveats about my thoughts after watching a lot of her content. So my first thought is I think that ideologically we are probably not that different from her. Even socially, I don't feel we're that different from her. When I watch her videos, to me, she reminds me [00:04:00] intensely of some of my cousins. And by that what I mean is Yeah, I would say

Simone Collins: your family, but definitely not us.

She's not weird. Well, no, this

Malcolm Collins: is the f ing weird thing. She is actually, in real life, she DMs for her husband's some of his tabletop gaming groups. She is into Warhammer. What? She's actually cool? She is actually an interesting nerd. What on earth? In real life. What? But the person she presents as, on YouTube, I loved your shock face here.

Oh my god! But they are also like my family. My family members who are like her Oh yeah, when they're drunk, they're amazing.

Simone Collins: Oh yeah, they're

Malcolm Collins: amazing when they're drunk. But when they're not drunk, they are just like her. They are very concerned Entirely palatable. About this very crafted They're conservative, Barbie and Ken.

Yeah. And it doesn't work for a few reasons. So the very [00:05:00] first reason that I'll get to why I don't think her image worked or found an audience is In one of her videos, the one on tradwives, she explains why she chose the term classically. Instead of trad. And it was because she saw trad as being too reductionist and restrictive in terms of what it represented as a woman being strictly beneath the husband.

And she'll make arguments very similar to ours that no, this wasn't the case for most families. Historically, women usually worked. She's lucid and educated on these topics. But the problem is so she saw classic as the alternative of that. And she really is quite a classical person.

She does opera singing. If you look at the environment of her house or the way that she styles herself, it is a very classical look. Really. It's Starbucks. It's Starbucks basic. Whatever you get to say. The point is if you are going [00:06:00] to Dallas house parties of wealthy people, that is what you would see, is a house that looks like hers. And this I think is the first mistake, is that Classical. What does classical really mean in a modern context? Classical means what is socially normative in the upper classes of a society or the elite classes of a society.

My name is Classy, with an I, and a little dick hanging off the C that bends around and f the L out of the A S S.!

Malcolm Collins: . The problem is that in our current society, being conservative is not socially normative among the elite communities.

Therefore, being conservative is not normative. Is not classy from the perspective of this elite group that rules our society This is why when you go to your standard billionaire who hasn't put a lot of thought into their political beliefs and [00:07:00] they're doing what's socially normative whether it is mark zuckerberg or bill gates or even The sons because I grew up adjacent to the very wealthy community in Dallas, my granddad was a congressman.

And I know what happened to their kids, right? I know the lives that they're living now. They almost