Debate-style video roils internet after participant openly identifies as fascist
The episode, which was posted Sunday, featured British American journalist Medhi Hasan, who was tasked with debating 20 'far-right conservatives.' Hasan hosted a show on MSNBC from February 2021 to January 2024.
Hasan had made the claim that President Donald Trump is 'defying the Constitution' as one of the topics of conversation. In a roughly seven-minute-long debate with Hasan, Connor spoke about his desire for an autocracy in the United States and praised the ideas of Carl Schmitt, a Nazi Party political philosopher, while saying there was 'a little bit of persecution' of Jewish people during the Holocaust.
'You're a fan of the Nazis?' Hasan asked the participant.
'I, frankly, don't care being called a Nazi at all,' Connor said.
Later on, Hasan said, 'We may have to rename this show, because you're a little bit more than a far-right Republican.'
'What can I say?' Connor replied.
'I think you say, 'I'm a fascist.''
'Yeah, I am,' Connor said with a smile as several others in the circle clapped.
In just two days, the YouTube video has garnered 4 million views. Clips quickly began spreading online, sparking criticism that the channel and YouTube were platforming pro-fascist content.
'Jubilee this isn't even a debate anymore. It's just pure hatred that these people have in their hearts. Giving these people a platform is insane to me,' said a comment that got over a thousand likes under the YouTube video.
A creator known by the username @mattxiv on X posted a remark that was viewed over 500,000 times: 'i don't think a channel that gives a platform of millions to people who self identify as 'fascist' should be allowed to monetize its videos. do you @youtube.' YouTube did not respond to a request for comment.
Data from Google showed that searches for 'Jubilee' jumped significantly Tuesday after Connor announced he had been fired from his job.
Hasan has since said online that the extent of the guests' views were not thoroughly communicated to him before he went on the show.
'To be clear, I didn't know they would be actual outright open fascists!' Hasan said on X.
In another reply, responding to someone who had inquired about why Hasan would agree to go on the show if 'Jubilee invited a bunch of nazis,' he said that 'that's not how the debate was sold to me. You can see my shock when they start expressing their views openly.'
Connor later claimed that he was fired because of his participation in the video. In an interview with the right-wing online social media brand TheRiftTV, Connor said being fired made him feel 'destroyed.' TheRiftTV started a fundraiser to help him as he looks for new jobs which has already received over $30,000. Connor did not respond to a request for comment.
'Unfortunately voicing fully legal traditional right wing political views results in real consequences,' read the description of the campaign on GiveSendGo, a Christian crowdfunding site that has become a go-to platform for controversial crowdfunding campaigns. 'This is cancel culture and political discrimination on full display.'
In what appears to be Connor's Telegram channel, many rallied behind him in his debate, writing that Hasan 'had nothing to say because you were right,' among other hate comments about Hasan.
The YouTube video was part of Jubilee's web series 'Surrounded,' in which one guest sits in the middle of a circle, 'surrounded' by around 20 people with opposing viewpoints. The web series has featured well-known political influencers as the main debaters, including Candance Owens, Charlie Kirk and Ben Shapiro.
The show works by having the main guest start a debate by making a claim and having those who wish to debate it rush up to a chair facing the person in the middle. Whoever touches the chair first is allowed to take part.
Whoever is sitting in the chair is able to take part in the debate until those surrounding the chair decide to vote the participant off. People who wish for the person in the middle to be voted off can raise a red flag, and if enough people raise their flags, the person is kicked off the debate and replaced by another person in the circle.
This isn't the only video that has gone viral for its controversial participants. Clips from several other 'Surrounded' videos have caused controversy in the past, with users claiming that the channel was giving a platform to bigoted views. One of the channel's most viewed videos, a debate in which Kirk is surrounded by '25 Liberal College Students,' accumulated 30 million views.
In an interview this year, Jubilee Media CEO Jason Lee addressed those concerns, saying the channel hosts people with controversial views to give their audiences the 'ability to hear nuanced perspective[s].' He added that the show tries to limit misinformation by incorporating fact-checks throughout the videos. Jubilee did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
'It's a question that we've been asked about: 'Is it dangerous to platform or have certain voices or points of view on?' And the way I would respond to that is I feel like we live in a more dangerous world if two individuals are not able to sit in the same room together and have a conversation,' Lee said. 'It doesn't necessarily mean that conversation is going to be productive or that anyone is going to necessarily change your point of view, but I think that that is sorely missing.'
The video featuring Hasan's debate with Connor features only one fact-check, for a claim Connor made about the number of people killed by Spanish dictator Francisco Franco.
Jubilee's videos span a range of topic areas. Currently, the channel is recruiting people for its 'Surrounded' series, including 'Conspiracy Theorists,' 'Conservative Christians' and 'Anti Capitalist[s],' and are part of a larger trend of debate-style internet content.
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