Ben Garrison, arguably one of the most notable libertarian artists working today, continues to rise in popularity despite years-worth of attempts by some to derail his career.
Touching on subjects such as the Federal Reserve, the Second Amendment and the TSA, Garrison’s political illustrations have famously adorned countless news sites and blogs.
As stated by Garrison in a recent exposé by Breitbart, the targeted campaign against him began roughly six years ago and still continues to this day.
“Around 2010, I found that one of my cartoons was vandalized after making an Internet search. Someone had pasted an anti-Semitic cartoon caricature over my work. My signature was left on it so that I’d catch the flak,” the artist said. “It was easy to ignore the hate mail, but I could not ignore the defacement. I traced it to a personal website in New England. Someone was using it to illustrate his version of Nazism. It’s his right and free speech to promote such stuff, but the libel was actionable.”
Although the website agreed to take down the image, its removal caused an immediate backlash from Nazi groups all across the Internet.
“When the dopplegänger pages began appearing on Facebook early in 2014, it marked a turning point. Trolls were using my name and face while calling for murder. I could no longer ignore what was being done to my reputation,” Garrison added. “I removed 10 dopplegänger pages on Facebook in 2014 alone and it didn’t help end the trolling.”
Unable to pursue costly legal efforts and offered no help from the usual left-wing voices screaming about “cyberviolence,” Garrison instead used his free speech to protest his name being wrongfully attributed to Nazi-created imagery.
“We need to use our free speech to speak out against such behavior. Each of us can choose to elevate the level of discourse on the Internet,” he said. “We don’t need further government force to mandate that.”
With the recent surge of Donald Trump, Garrison, who officially supports no candidate, has become more popular than ever with his artistic depictions of the hotel tycoon and Republican frontrunner.
“As bad as the trolling has been, it has ended up making me draw even more cartoons in an attempt to recapture my own voice,” Garrison said. “It seems to be working and the trolls are finally losing.”
To the dismay of a shrinking number of Internet trolls, Garrison’s art continues to reach more and more people as his message of liberty reaches the next generation of libertarians.
Website: http://grrrgraphics.com/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/GrrrGraphics
The Emergency Election Sale is now live! Get 30% to 60% off our most popular products today!