Three of the major speakers on behalf of the conservative - right wing movement in the US are Ben Shapiro, Dennis Prager and Jordan Peterson. They have millions of followers and makes LOTS AND LOTS of money speaking publicly. When I am in that very small room that has no mezuza and where one is forbidden to learn Torah, I sometimes listen to them as well [beats counting the number of tiles on the bathroom walls or worrying about things that will never happen].
Ben is openly Orthodox [as evidenced by his kippah]. Unfortunately, some of his ideas are not true to the Torah, nor is the language he uses always appropriate and he makes no claims of being a Talmid Chochom or anything close. He is brilliant but unfortunately never spent any significant amount of time applying his sharp intellect to Torah. Had he done two years in Israel after high school and followed up with Yeshiva, he and the rest of the world would have benefited greatly. But alas he went to UCLA and then Harvard Law School, not places to hone one's Gemara skills. He also seems to totally buy in to "shittas Darwin". Evolution is not necessarily a contradiction to Torah, but since there are many scientific questions on the theory, why does he take the whole thing wholesale as if it is fact?
Prager is proudly Jewish and grew up in an Orthodox home although he is no longer frum. He says "I am religious but not Orthodox". The problem is that he made up the religion so it doesn't count for much. He believes that Yetzias Mitzraim happened and [I think] in Ma'amad Har Sinai as well but is not halachically observant. He talks a lot about how to have a happy marriage and like many experts - he is on his 3rd wife. So I guess he learns by trial and error... He seems to think that he is much smarter and knowledgeable than he actually is but a lot of what he says makes sense. Like that the reason academics say so many stupid things is that ראשית חכמה יראת השם and since they lack Hashem in their lives they also lack common sense.
Peterson is not Jewish. He is a psychologist and I have long wondered why any depressed person [he claims to have counseled over 25 thousand people or something like that] would pay to see him when he strikes me as being one of the most depressive personalities I have ever listened to. He also comes across [at least to me] as being filled with anger and as hyper-hyper sensitive. He speaks to these huge crowds and seems to think that he is so brilliant [I probably would to if millions of people would listen to my talks]. He really says mostly simple things that are basic, common sense - like that men and woman are fundamentally different [which today is a hotly contested topic😕]. He wrote a best selling book which is also just common sense.
The truth is that by his own admission he battled depression for many years and was himself on anti depressant medication. He recently checked himself into rehab for addiction to the anti anxiety drug clonazepam that he took to deal with his anxiety about his wife's cancer. He couldn't get off it and, as his daughter revealed in a recent video - he was a complete wreck, so he checked into rehab.
These people's value system is much closer to ours than those on the left ["conservative" is the belief that we should conserve traditional values]. They are against abortion and radical feminism, are in favor of traditional marriage [man with woman!!!] and family, believe that men and women are different. are patriotic and appreciate the gift of the USA, stress the importance of belief in G-d and the dangers and stupidity of atheism, are capitalists who don't believe that the rich should be forced by the government to hand over all of their hard earned money to support the poor etc. etc.
But bottom line, if you want really deep philosophy and psychology - listen to shiurim from Rav Moshe Shapiro, learn Maharal, Ramchal, Rav Kook and Alei Shor etc. etc. etc. What all of these popular speakers are saying is like 1st grade curriculum compared to our Giants teachings. Also, as human beings, we have so many Tzadikim to look up to who were and are such paragons of virtue. We don't need to look elsewhere, and even if we do, we will be disappointed.
We have our own heroes. They are the REAL DEAL!!
