The main topic for this episode is the recently posted discussion between Jesse and Daniel. Some great comedy and also good discussion expanding on the issues with Jesse's arguments.
For anyone who just wants to skip to the parts about Jesse, jump ahead to the 37 minute mark
The thread isn't too long and focuses more on general trends than analyzing is calling out individual reporting. That said, it does provide some good information on what the manifesto as a whole contains (very much in contrast to Jesse's analysis of going in with a theory and checking the parts that support that theory). The thread also makes some good points about the nature of manifestos, how they should be covered and the dangers of releasing them.
I highly recommend giving the whole thread a read, though it is long. Jonathon Jarry does a really excellent job outlining how Monday's episode was creating a revisionist history of past Canadaland reporting on the 'mystery illness' in New Brunswick, as well as where it just fell short.
Overall, an excellent companion ready for that episode.
There's been lots of talk about Jesse's new coziness with the alt-right and white nationalists, from his platforming and praising of Caryma Sa'd to sharing a stage with the likes of Ben Shapiro and Gad Saad, Jesse has largely refused to criticize or even talk about the threat from the increasing presence of white nationalists in Canada.
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One of the far right organizations Jesse has retweeted and worked with the most is Tafsik, a right wing pro-Israel group. Tafsik has organized at least two conferences recently that Jesse spoke at, including the anti-anti-Zionism one headlined by Ben Shapiro.
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Now, Tafsik has always been a pretty openly racist and fascist organization, but in the tweet included here they say their "paramount goal" is keeping Canada "a Christian nation" and warning against the dangers of Canada "becoming" Muslim or Hindu or Sikh or even Jewish.
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It's one thing for Jesse to object to "guilt by association" accusations for doing things like sharing a stage with people like Ben Shapiro, it's quite another to be a regular speaker at events organized by a Canadian Christian Nationalist group that believes countries should be ethnically and religiously segregated.
As most people here probably remember, Jesse speculated wildly last week that a shooting of a Toronto police officer might be the result of the scary "anti-Zionists" that Jesse keeps trying to smear as a dangerous hate movement (it's not and much of what Jesse claims is not true).
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Like with other recent speculation by Jesse, just a few days later his narrative appears to have collapsed. The accused in the police shooting was Nicholas Bennett, who is also suspected in a number of other shootings (GFL facilities, a home in Oakville, a Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu gym, etc.) is believed by police to be part of a gun-for-hire network along with the others in the apartment when he and the police officer were shot. There's no evidence being reported of any political motivation for Bennett.
Some sources:
Bennett does not appear to have been a suspect in the US Consulate shooting, with 18 year old Sheldon Tracy-Stewart being charged for that crime and a number of others. No news yet on possible motivation for Tracy-Stewart.
Edit: spelling
Adding to Jesse's online crash out over the past 24 hours, he again lied claiming Matt Lieb 'hid' from him and was unwilling to have him on a show. For anyone who's forgotten, Matt and Daniel did not agree to have him on Bad Hasbara because it's a *comedy* show and having people yelling angrily at each other doesn't really fit that format. Matt did make clear, however, that they would happily have Jesse on a different show/channel, am offer Jesse seems to have not accepted.
For anyone who doesn't remember this, Matt helpfully posted a clip here: https://x.com/mattlieb/status/2064351426965344733/mediaViewer?currentTweet=2064351426965344733¤tTweetUser=mattlieb (apologies for the X link, I didn't pay them money and so apparently can't download videos)
This came up recently and I didn't really want to make yet another post about Jesse being hypocritical on Twitter, however this one is *especially* egregious and came up in today's episode.
A tale in 3 images:
Jesse posts yesterday attacking Avi Lewis for praising the 'courage' of Canadian activists on the Sumud Flotilla, pointing out one of these activists had previously supported violence against "Zionist tapeworm cunts." Jesse refers to Avi's statement as an example of "leveled-up" anti-Jewish hate. Jesse suggests in his post that Avi explicitly praised this specific protestor, though he was clearer on today's episode that Avi was praising the protestors generally as a group.
A little over a week ago Jesse posted a photo of himself at the 'anti-anti-Zionist' symposium along with Eve Barlow, Emily Austin and Lizzy Savetsky, also praising their "courage." Jesse tagged all 3, and so clearly knew who they were.
A rundown from a previous post of some of the hateful things recently said by Emily Austin and Lizzy Savetsky, including claiming that COVID-19 was a Chinese/Ashkenazi Jewish conspiracy.
This is a case of Jesse criticizing Avi for the *exact* same things he did about a week prior. There's no explanation here other than operating in bad faith. It's one of the clearest examples of Jesse's concern being more with defensing Israel and its supporters than he is with the safety or well-being of Canadian Jews (happily praising someone with a large audience who spreads androgenetic conspiracies).
Jesse recently stated that he is increasingly skeptical of the concept of guilt by association ahead of appearing at a symposium alongside Ben Shapiro, Gad Saad and other explicit racists (including one who suggested COVID-19 was a Jewish conspiracy). Personally, I can understand the argument behind a stance like this, and while I don't really agree I think it's a reasonable stance to take assuming it's applied universally.
Unfortunately (and unsurprisingly), Jesse does *not* appear to apply that standard universally as he recently retweeted a post complaining that a Liberal MP would agree to have their photo taken with someone wearing a shirt that appears to be supportive of the current Iranian government. I'm sure Jesse would come up with some convoluted rationalization about why it's wrong to criticize a journalist for appearing next to extreme racists but acceptable to criticize an MP for having their photo taken with a constituent wearing a shirt Jesse finds objectionable, but it's pretty clearly BS. Especially considering Jesse has also suggested it's wrong for people to oppose the current Israeli government.
A week ago, Jesse published an opinion piece complaining that only one major Canadian news organization had covered the pro-Israel conference he was speaking at, suggesting it was evidence of institutional antisemitism within Canada's news ecosystem (you can see the post about it here: https://www.reddit.com/r/canadaland/s/qXMSn3n4SE). Jesse specifically claimed that the reason there was not more coverage (being the National Post, which did cover it) was because it did not "fit the narrative" that the mainstream Canadian press has for Jewish people, suggesting it would have been covered if it was being held by a non-Jewish group
Well, there was another event being held that weekend in Toronto, the Muslim Association of Canada's annual conference. This appears to be a much larger event (regularly attracting over 10,000 attendees), and yet there was *no direct coverage* of it in the mainstream press. The closest was another article from the National Post (https://nationalpost.com/opinion/first-reading-muslim-association-speaker-who-has-lunched-with-hamas-barred-entry-to-canada) about one of the speakers being denied entry into Canada. If you're interested in that story and don't want to pay to get past the National Posts paywall, you can read MAC's statement here: https://muslimlink.ca/news/statement-from-the-muslim-association-of-canada-mac-regarding-the-targeting-of-mac-convention-speakers-by-the-cbsa
Clearly, Jesse's narrative around this conference was flawed, and his suggestion that a similar event held by a non-Jewish group would have been covered is false.
https://bsky.app/profile/jessebrown.bsky.social/post/3mm7l3jytvc2j
The Catch did an interesting 3 part series digging into some of the issues with What Is Happening Here, the series Jesse claims is "antiracist" while also blaming antisemitism on Muslim immigration and people who support the human rights of Palestinians. What the 3-part say of articles on The Catch does do is make a solid case for why WIHH is more propaganda than good journalism; I recommend reading it.
Jesse has also blocked Scott on Blue Sky.