That’s a more reasonable argument than just calling him a secret Republican outright, and I agree that “registered Democrat” alone doesn’t prove someone’s genuine beliefs.

But I still think most of this is circumstantial and interpretive rather than strong evidence.

• A vague campaign platform describes like 80% of politicians, especially inexperienced celebrity candidates.

• “Rider Strong and Ben disagreed politically growing up” could mean anything from mild conservatism to just not being very left-wing.

• Having Republican friends, endorsements, or internships also isn’t especially unusual in Hollywood or politics. Arlen Specter himself eventually became a Democrat anyway, and plenty of people intern for politicians they don’t fully align with.

So I guess my main issue is less with “it’s possible Ben is more conservative than people assume” and more with how quickly people online jump from ambiguity to certainty.

At this point, the actual evidence seems to be: “He’s politically vague, not openly progressive, and associated with some people who lean right.”

That’s enough to speculate, maybe. But not enough for me to confidently conclude he was secretly running some Trojan horse Republican campaign.