Beau of the Fifth Column (2024)

Justin 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."^[1]

History[]

Beau currently lives in "a stretch of nothing that exists between Talahasee [that is] north of the coast by forty or fifty miles".^[2]

Prior to starting the channel, Beau was "busted for alien smuggling"^[3] in Florida. He was sentenced to 41 months in prison, with three years' supervision after being released.^[4] Following his time in prison, he served as an "independent military contractor" and an "ex-tactical training instructor for police departments".^[5] By Beau's own admission, he stopped training cops in 2006 due to ideological differences between himself and the police force.^[6] 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.^[7]

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."^[7]

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."^[7]

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.^[8]

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"^[9]. Videos on "Roads" now upload twice -- once on Thursday, once on Sunday.

Notable Quotes[]

• Well, howdy there, internet people. It's Beau again.
• A good woman is two things: who she is and what she wants.^[10]
• 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.^[11][1]
• But yeah, country's doing great.
• Can't win a primary without Trump, can't win a general with him.
• Change is not an event; it's a process.^[12]
• Countries don't have friends, they have interests.^[13]
• [You] will not turn that Authoritarian Tiger into a vegetarian by feeding it your friends.
• 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.
• 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.^[14]
• Seek equality in freedom, not equality in oppression.
• Terrorism is a PR campaign with violence.
• The easy path is always mined.^[15]
• 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.^[16]
• You're entering a game of world domination against nation-states. Why would you think this was gonna be easy?
• Words have definitions.
• But anyways -- it's 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”".^[17]
  • 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."^[18]
• 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". ^[19] This "fifth column", in Beau's case, refers to "opening the gates to journalism -- making it more accessible".^[20] 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".^[21]
• 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 contractor^[22].
• 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"^[17]. 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.^[17] This accusation presumably stems from his vocal criticism of AIPAC, the political lobbying group representing Israel's interests.^[23]
• Beau has a wife, colloquially referred to as "Mrs. Beau". She has appeared most recently on "The Roads to a Valentine's Q&A...."
• Beau has two horses -- Charlotte and Marilyn.^[24] 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".^[21]
• 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.^[8]
• Beau acquired an (implied to be) abdominal injury in 2004 ("back when [he] was 220 pounds of twisted steel and sex appeal"^[25]) which he has recently gotten surgery for.^[26]

References[]