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“”The strongest societies and countries are those with no diversity in ethnicity, nationality, language, or religion.
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| —Simon Webb[1] |
Simon Webb, also known as History Debunked, is a British far-right YouTuber, global warming denialist, and pseudohistorian. Ironically, despite his YouTube channel claiming to debunk history, it mostly focuses on Webb's stance on modern politics, particularly in regards to the decline of British society. His content mostly focuses on the problems of immigration, multiculturalism, climate change, the black diaspora, the territorial disputes between Israel and Palestine, and supposed historical revisionism.[2]
Webb has connections to far-right influencers and white nationalists. He has spoken at events for the Traditional Britain Group.[3][4] He is an opponent of diversity and multiculturalism and has complained about seeing interracial relationships between black men and white women on British television.[1][5][6] Unsurprisingly, his video comments sections are rife with racists, white supremacists, antisemites, Islamophobes, transphobes, conspiracy theorists, and just about every collective crowd of far-right bigots you can think of.
Prior to his History Debunked YouTube series, Webb ran a small blog on homeschooling called "Home Education Heretic". While the blog did detail his experiences homeschooling his children, the vast majority of it was devoted to often-strange criticisms of the very British homeschool movement he was part of, particularly what he saw as its commitment to "so-called autonomous educators."[7]
In March 2024, in response to this article exposing Webb's racist views, he removed his offensive video "The BBC are obsessed with the idea of black men and white women, preferably blondes…" from his YouTube channel in an attempt to prevent damage to his "reputation", if he had such a thing.[5] He also deleted a video he made criticizing trans rights.
Several arguments made by Simon Webb in his videos include:
| Simon Webb's Video | RationalWiki response |
| In the video Ancient civilizations of Africa, Simon Webb attempts to lay out an argument that combined colonialism apologia with a selective depiction of African architecture in order to advance the racist position that "African culture" is inferior to European culture and that pre-colonial Africa was populated solely by primitive ignoble savages.
Using cherry-picking, Webb attempts to contrast selective shots of Great Zimbabwe Next, Webb proclaims that the idea of pre-colonial civilizations in Sub-Saharan Africa was a myth invented in the 1980s. To attempt to prove that claim, he shows a book about ancient civilizations by Arthur Cotterell and claims that African civilizations are nowhere mentioned in the book. Webb then proceeds to claim that the Mali empire was entirely fictional, or at the least, hardly an example of a civilization. To "prove" this, Webb claims that the Great Mosque of Djenné Webb repeats many of these same arguments in Three famous African civilisations. Additionally, he also disparages sub-Sahara Africa for purportedly not having a written language, roads, buildings with upper stories, or wheels. In addition, he additionally advances his argument that Mali was purportedly uncivilized prior to colonial conquest, claiming that the culture of Mali was not created by black sub-Saharan Africans but by the Berbers | Firstly, as noted, Webb engaged in major cherry-picking. For instance, in the first video, the images that Webb used of the Great Zimbabwe ruins were of a single wall. This is hardly representative of the entire site as a whole. In addition, Webb ignored many other world-renowned examples of African architecture Even though Cotterell's encyclopedia did indeed overlook far too many ancient African civilizations (at least in its 1988 edition),[10] the book does includes a whole section on ancient Egyptian civilization — which, of course, was in Egypt, an African country. The omission of the rest of Africa from Cotterell's encyclopedia has a simple explanation. When the first edition was published in 1980, Western scholarly research was very limited on Africa. This was undoubtedly much due to the colonialism prejudice of the historians of the past. For example, in 1963, English historian Hugh Trevor-Roper Webb's claims about the diminished influence of classical music in British academia in favor of "African drumming" is made without evidence. A glance at a sample structure of the music curriculum at the University of Oxford Multiple historians have done extensive documentation on pre-colonial African civilization, [14][15] including the Mali empire that Webb claims does not exist.[16] It's pretty obvious that Webb's claim that there is "no evidence" for the Mali empire is 100% bullshit. It is true that the current Mosque of Djenné, originally built in the thirteenth century, was a reconstruction built in 1907. Little is known about what the mosque actually originally looked like before the reconstruction; the mosque underwent severe decay in the 19th century due to the conquest of Djenné by Seku Amadu. Independent invention of writing is rare in human history. A common consensus is that a full writing system was independently invented only four times in human history: Cuneiform Most of Webb's other technical superiority claims are simply bullshit. To give just a few examples: pre-colonial Bokoni The Mali Empire was founded by a West African ethnic group called the Mandinka people; Technically speaking, Sankoré Madrasah was not a "university" in a modern Western sense. It was a madrasa, Regarding metalworking, there is good evidence that as early as 2000 BC, the Agadez Region It is worth nothing that there are other technologies that Webb ignored where Africa played a significant early role. For instance, cotton weaving began along the middle reaches of the Nile River around 5000 BCE.[14] An earlier textile technology, that of weaving raffia cloth, |
| In Aksum, an ancient kingdom in Africa, Webb argues that the existence of the historical Kingdom of Aksum | It is true that Aksum, prior to its foundation as a kingdom, did have significant Semitic influences, notably from the Sabaeans. It is true that the Oromo language is looked down upon by at least some of those historically in power in Ethiopia, but in such cases, it would be more likely due to a century-long conflict with the Ethiopian Empire. |
| In the videos What do we mean by 'civilisation'? and Were Benin and Great Zimbabwe African civilisations?, in response to the release of a PBS series called Africa's Greatest Civilizations, Webb declares that the term "civilization" should encompass several criteria, at least according to him: a written language; a substantial populace living in cities; roads; and political structure. Citing Roman poet Claudian | As perhaps clearly demonstrated by the pseduohistory of Webb, the term "civilization" has historically been used in problematic ways. In the 19th and early 20th centuries, the term "civilization" was used in Europe and America to justify a separation of countries into "civilized" societies, and "savage" or "barbarous" societies. Naturally, using racialist social Darwinism tinged reasoning, "savage" and "barbarous" people (including not just Africans, but Asians and Native Americans) were treated as "unequal" to the supposedly superior "white race". This ethos was used to justify colonialism.[37]
By the 1960s, many historians saw the problems with the loaded nature of previous definitions of "civilization", and sought to come up with categorizations that were non-judgmental and merely descriptive characteristics.[38] "Big History" historian and educator Cynthia Stokes Brown,
Even within this list, Brown acknowledged that a civilization did not necessarily have to contain all the bullet points on the list to be called a civilization.[38] The exact definition of "city" has proven to be even more difficult for historians to come up with. As classical scholar Moses Finley Thus, there are many examples of communities that actual historians would consider "civilizations" and "cities", while failing to meet Webb's narrow criteria. A prominent example of such a civilization is the Inca Empire. |
| In Rhodesia and Zimbabwe; the end of colonialism in Africa, Webb states that Rhodesia was living a significantly more prosperous life than Zimbabwe and that the reasons for the latter's collapse is primarily attributed to the new government's reluctance to utilize economic complexity, due to animosity to the ideas of the white population. He then concludes that the unwillingness to economically plan ahead and delaying gratification, which he describes as "white ideas", are what led to the purported "failure" of most Sub-Saharan African countries since the end of colonialism. | There is little question that the rule and policies of Robert Mugabe were a disaster for Zimbabwe. However, Webb fails to provide any historical context beyond his ill-thought out racist interpretation.
Prior to 1965, Rhodesia was a colony of the United Kingdom. In 1962, the right-wing white minority-rule anti-decolonization Rhodesian Front It is worth noting that Webb's inference regarding the purported poor economy of all sub-Sahara African decolonized colonies from a single example is a hasty generalization, and that Webb's conclusions are overly simplistic (and racist to boot). It is true that until 2000, the economic performance of post-colonial Africa overall was sluggish. But it is also true that no other continent experienced colonialism to such a far-reaching degree as Africa did.[46] In 1867, Dadabhai Naoroji |
| In Rudyard Kipling; the archetypal British imperialist, before reciting The White Man's Burden | The arguments that Webb uses are not untypical of those who defend colonialism. Colonialism apologists tend to promote the paradigm that pre-colonial colonies were backwaters with no culture, education, commerce, craft, or serious agriculture, and that the colonizers actually provided great benefit via the spread of "civilization" and the benefits of the Industrial Revolution. Such viewpoints tend to be Eurocentric, and also ignore the wide variety of trade, craft, and culture that was occurring in pre-colonialization countries.[55] It is no surprise that Webb is fond of Kipling's The White Man's Burden, which even at the time of publication in 1899 was widely seen as pro-imperialism and pro-white supremacy, and was subject to numerous parodies by those opposed to such.[56]
Historians who are critical of colonialism argue that although European colonial powers (such as the British Empire) were indeed responsible for the abolition of slavery in the colonies and the development of infrastructure, by and large they did not come to Africa with the specific intentions to import democracy or end famines and epidemics. Rather, they came to Africa to exploit the continent's natural resources, while also drawing artificial borders to the present-day states with complete disregard to ethnic and religious boundaries.[57][55][58] In fact, some historians have gone further and argued that despite the infrastructure advancements, colonialism overall resulted in economic underdevelopment, as such infrastructure's purpose was exploitative and was entirely done for the economic benefit of the colonizing countries, with little benefit for the native population.[59] |
| In What did colonialism do for Africa?, Webb claims that European colonialism is being unfairly denounced before stating that Africans would not have progressed beyond spears and harpoons had it not been for the introduction of schools, hospitals and infrastructure by European colonials. | Webb seems to associate colonialism as being synonymous with technological advancements, without considering consequences of colonialism, such as exploitation of economic resources and implantation of settlers into conquered territories. In addition, his statement about the history of technological development among Africans is erroneous, as various African nations also developed swords, knives, axes, crossbows and other advanced tools.[14] For newer technologies, just because European colonialism was responsible for much of the continent's Industrial Age infrastructures and modernized cities doesn't mean that the process was necessarily good for the indigenous peoples. One thing Webb seems to ignore is the various atrocities committed against the African population by the Europeans. Examples of such include Belgian king Leopold II's "voracious" administration over the Congo Free State (Atrocities in the Congo Free State |
| In Exploding the fairy tales of medieval civilisations in West Africa, after a silly non-sequitur about a book titled Don't Touch My Hair by Emma Dabiri, | Even if it was true that Benin City lacked public street lighting and that the idea has been exaggerated, this does not negate the idea that West Africa had urbanized cities prior to European arrival. Other examples of West African cities aside from Benin City include Kumasi, |
| In We were kings..., Webb argues that the Islamic settlements on the East African coast were not cities built by indigenous Africans, but rather Arabic slave ports established for the Indian Ocean slave trade, while also detailing the linguistic influences of Arabic on the Swahili language. He also claims that Sub-Saharan Africa lacked other stone structures. | It is incorrect to call the settlements of the Swahili coast |
Several of Webb's videos regarding the black diaspora involve him linking black crime statistics with ethnicity and accusing others of historical revisionism involving African history, where he claims that the concept of pre-colonial civilizations in Sub-Saharan Africa is merely a myth invented to appease the black population. In a now-deleted video, he also claimed that indigenous Africans were originally white.[71] Ironically, despite citing the "myths" of pre-colonial African civilizations like Great Zimbabwe and Benin as well as the Bantu expansion, he also claims that nothing has changed in Africa for the past 20-30,000 years.[72][73][74] Several of his videos on African history were put under heavy scrutiny in history-oriented social media for cherry picking historical accounts to downplay the significance of African achievements and to preserve the "Dark Continent" trope.[75]
Unsurprisingly, Webb's cherry picked white supremacist tinged viewpoint of history extends to African-American history too. In The truth about the Tulsa race riot, Webb tries to whitewash the Tulsa Race Massacre.
Webb also made a series of videos attacking the climate change consensus and downplaying the alarming effects of climate change, such as claiming that the majority of wildfires worldwide are attributed to arson. He also compares the climate change consensus to a religious cult, claiming that the consensus lacks any scientific basis and is more based on a spiritual phenomenon.[80]
Webb dislikes interracial relationships between black men and white women, claiming there is an "agenda" by the British media to push these relationships which he considers "odd" and not reflective of typical relationships found in British society.[5][81] He has made a video complaining about the BBC promoting such relationships, "The BBC are obsessed with the idea of black men and white women, preferably blondes".[5] He says relationships between black men and white women are rare in society and questions the motives of the media for promoting such relationships on the television.[5]
On his video, 'On the nature of inter-racial relationships in modern Britain and their depiction in the media' which he released on the 9th of June 2024 Webb maintained that during his lifetime he had been in a long-time relationship with an Indian woman and also had dated a black woman. He however then went on to compare women in inter-racial relationships to French women who slept with German soldiers in occupied France in World War Two.
Webb dislikes LGBT and is a proponent of the homosexual agenda conspiracy theory. He has criticized transgender surgery and has complained about seeing rainbow flags at a railway station.[82][83]
One of his videos was titled "How ‘trans rights’ infringe upon, and interfere with, the rights of the other 99% of the population".[84] In March 2024, Webb deleted this video.
Webb is an opponent of racial diversity. He claims that the strongest societies and countries have no diversity.[1]
He is an ardent opponent of multicultural education, claiming that it is primarily used just to appease other groups of people and that it harms children, while also calling it "colonization" against western civilization.
Webb is a supporter of the far-right English Constitution Party and tells his followers to vote for them.[85] The group has been described by Hope not Hate as promoting conspiracy theories and "antisemitic statements on social media".[86] The English Constitution Party have attended anti-refugee rallies alongside Patriotic Alternative (a neo-Nazi group).[87] He has spoken at events for the Traditional Britain Group.[4]
Webb has been interviewed by white nationalists, so he obviously has no issue associating with racists.[88] In April 2022, Webb made a video criticizing the far-right group Patriotic Alternative's methods as too extreme and stated that the group was destined to fade into oblivion.[89] Since that time he has softened his opinions about members of the group and released two videos defending Sam Melia of Patriotic Alternative who was convicted in January 2024 for distributing material intending to stir up racial hatred.[90][91][92]
Webb has said that he agrees with the anti-immigration policies of the National Front.[93] His books have been positively reviewed on white nationalist websites such as Counter-currents.[94]
On March 5, 2024, Simon Webb uploaded a video to his channel in response to his RationalWiki article. In the video, Webb accuses RationalWiki of being a left-wing wiki using McCarthyism-esque smear tactics against right-wing opponents like him via guilt by association. He then accuses the page of attempting to incite violence against him by citing the caption below an image of himself featured in the article: "Simon Webb displaying his resting bitch Dastardly Whiplash ![]()
extremely punchable "smarmy git" face".[note 1] Afterwards, he responds to the article's points about his opposition to interracial relationships and LGBTQ+ rights and dismisses them as lies. He then cites the article's points and dismisses its claims that he only associates with far-right groups, as he states that he also attends meetings with far-left groups as well, such as the Workers' Liberty and Solidarity group and a left-wing conference in Berlin in 2019. Webb concludes that RationalWiki has slandered him for his supposedly exclusively far-right agenda when he attends meetings with anyone on the political spectrum.
Webb doesn't explain why his entire YouTube uploading history consists of him complaining about immigration, Islam and attacking black history. For example, within 48 hours of uploading his response to RationalWiki he uploaded a video calling black history a "scam" and another criticizing a Muslim war memorial.[95][96] His uploading history reflects that of a far-right extremist, not an individual who shares left-wing viewpoints.
Categories: [Anti-LGBT bigots] [Authors] [Bloggers] [British right wing] [British people] [Conspiracy theorists] [Fascists] [Global warming denialists] [Journalists] [Living people] [Nationalist pseudohistory] [Pissed at us] [Pseudohistory promoters] [Pseudoscience promoters] [Racists] [Right-wing activists] [YouTube]