Dean Withers
Dean Withers | |
|---|---|
| Born | 2003 or 2004 (age 20–21) |
| Known for | Online political debates |
| Movement | Liberalism in the United States |
TikTok information | |
| Page | |
| Followers | 2.3 million |
| Likes | 36.4 million |
Last updated: December 23, 2024 | |
Dean Withers (born 2003 or 2004) is an American live streamer and political commentator. Withers grew up in a conservative family, which shaped his initial political views. Through self-education, he later adopted a liberal ideology, which he uses in political debates on social media.
Withers gained prominence starting in 2022 for challenging conservative viewpoints on societal issues through debates shared via TikTok. In 2024, he was featured on Jubilee Media's YouTube series Surrounded, where he engaged in political debates with conservative figures and supporters.
Early life
[edit]Dean Withers was born in 2003 or 2004[1][2] and grew up in Grand Junction, Colorado with conservative family members, leading him to hold similar political views in his early life.[3][4] His father—an engineer—and his mother—who he described as often unemployed—divorced when he was an adolescent. He also has two older siblings.[2]
Withers has since called his mother "an incredibly far-right conspiracy theorist who absolutely loves Donald Trump."[4] During his childhood, Withers attended church three times per week and attended a private Catholic school from preschool to eighth grade.[2] He later shared that this conservative upbringing pushed him to educate himself further on political and societal issues, which led to his shift toward a liberal political ideology.[5]
In 2018, Withers began attending a public high school, where he said he was exposed to more diverse points of view. Particularly, he became friends with a lesbian couple who challenged the ideas he learned from his childhood.[2]
Controversially, Withers used pejorative words targeting the LGBTQ community and black people in 2019 and 2022. He faced criticism for these actions in October 2024, when screenshots of his conversations surfaced on social media. He apologized via Discord and X, expressing his shame for his past actions and that he "lacked critical education" surrounding political topics,[6] and his apology received mixed responses.[7]
Political activism
[edit]Withers began sharing political content on social media in 2022 as a first-year student at the University of Colorado Boulder, when he began publicly challenging conservative viewpoints on societal issues such as abortions and LGBTQ rights.[2] On TikTok, he shared videos of debates with conservative voters in Los Angeles and held live streams inviting conservatives to voice their political opinions against him.[1]
| External videos | |
|---|---|
| "Surrounded" episodes featuring Withers, from Jubilee via YouTube | |
 | |
 "Can 25 Liberal College Students Outsmart 1 Conservative? (feat. Charlie Kirk)" | |
| "Can 1 Woke Teen Survive 20 Trump Supporters?" | |
| "1 Republican vs. 25 Kamala Harris Voters (Feat. Ben Shapiro)" |
Leading up to the 2024 United States presidential election, Withers opted to pursue content creation for TikTok rather than return for his junior year of college.[2] During this time, Jubilee Media featured Withers in two episodes of their Surrounded series on YouTube.[3] In one episode, released on September 8, Withers participated in timed debates against conservative activist Charlie Kirk as one of twenty-five liberal college students "surrounding" him in a ring.[8] More notably, in another episode, published on September 20, Withers sat in Kirk's position, this time surrounded himself by twenty supporters of Donald Trump, whom he debated individually on various political topics.[9] Finally, Dean was featured in a Jubilee video released on October 24, where he was shown as one of twenty-five supporters of Kamala Harris and her presidential campaign, debating against conservative commentator Ben Shapiro.[10] He received generally positive feedback for his performance in these videos, particularly emphasizing his composure and respect.[1]
Withers was not paid by Jubilee for participating in their videos.[4] Donations from viewers of his TikTok live streams have become his main source of income, including some individual donations up to $1,000. However, Withers has declined to state how much he earns overall from his social media content.[2]
On October 2, 2024, Withers debated far-right political commentator Nick Fuentes.[11]
On December 17, 2024, Withers attended a holiday reception at the White House, where he met with political commentator David Pakman and Hunter Biden, the son of President Joe Biden. Withers continues his activism on TikTok, where he live streams for about five hours each day.[2]
See also
[edit]
References
[edit]- ^ a b c Nguyen, Kenzie (September 26, 2024). "Who Is Dean Withers? The Gen Z Creator Debates Conservatives On Social Media". Her Campus. Archived from the original on December 11, 2024. Retrieved December 17, 2024.
- ^ a b c d e f g h Holtermann, Callie (December 19, 2024). "Could This 20-Year-Old Be One of the Democrats' Bro Whisperers?". The New York Times. Retrieved December 19, 2024.
- ^ a b Lindsay, Kate (November 13, 2024). "'Woke Teen' Dean Withers Debated 20 Trump Voters at Once. Now He Has a Message for Liberals". GQ. Archived from the original on December 13, 2024.
- ^ a b c Mather, Katie (October 29, 2024). "How a former Trump supporter became YouTube's viral 'woke teen'". Yahoo News. Yahoo. Archived from the original on December 10, 2024. Retrieved December 17, 2024.
- ^ Hale, Jacob (October 22, 2024). "Who is Dean Withers? Viral political debater becoming left-wing poster boy". Dexerto. Archived from the original on December 17, 2024.
- ^ Withers, Dean [@itsdeaann] (October 6, 2024). "Screenshots of me saying the f slur in 2022 and the n word in 2019 have been doing their rounds here on X. [...]" (Tweet). Retrieved December 17, 2024 – via Twitter.
- ^ Billson, Chantelle (October 7, 2024). "TikTok star Dean Withers apologises for using anti-gay and racist slurs". PinkNews. Archived from the original on December 11, 2024.
- ^ Can 25 Liberal College Students Outsmart 1 Conservative? (feat. Charlie Kirk) (Video). Surrounded. Jubilee Media. September 8, 2024. Archived from the original on December 17, 2024. Retrieved December 17, 2024 – via YouTube.
- ^ Can 1 Woke Teen Survive 20 Trump Supporters? (Video). Surrounded. Jubilee Media. September 20, 2024. Archived from the original on December 13, 2024. Retrieved December 17, 2024 – via YouTube.
- ^ 1 Republican vs. 25 Kamala Harris Voters (Feat. Ben Shapiro) (Video). Surrounded. Jubilee Media. October 24, 2024. Archived from the original on December 13, 2024. Retrieved December 22, 2024 – via YouTube.
- ^ AdinRoss Archive (October 3, 2024). Nick Fuentes vs Dean Withers | Debate Hosted by Adin Ross & Sneako. Retrieved December 29, 2024 – via YouTube.