When Nick Shirley’s video on alleged fraud perpetrated by some members of the Somali community in Minneapolis went live and went super, super viral, I was disappointed to see Jewish followers of mine share it. It’s because I spend hours every day in this space tracking and documenting extremism, and I knew exactly where this was all headed — which is why I never shared his video. Nick was associating with Jew-haters in some of his previous social media posts and videos, and he inhabited a certain very specific space of young men (again, we’re talking about a very specific group of people) who didn’t have the intellectual curiosity and capacity to truly handle the rigors of such an investigation. And now he’s responded to Tyler, who has posted a video that is dripping with contempt for Jews, with “expose it all.” The tweet with the sarcastic use of “Goyim” is a giveaway; of course, you don’t even need to watch the video. (And this is not to say that Jewish people — or any group of people, for that matter — are immune from examination or investigation, but that’s not what Tyler is doing here.) But I was also not surprised that some of my Jewish followers shared it, as so many of them have become radicalized. Their willingness to share it is cut from the same cloth as people who had no issue with suggesting that Zohran Mamdani wanted another 9/11. I hope people will be more thoughtful and examine whether perhaps they’ve allowed the legitimate fear of Jew-hatred (something I cover every day and spend hours and hours tracking on a daily basis) to lead them to take actions that are unintentionally counter to Jewish safety. Big chunks of Nick’s video never stood up to scrutiny — the man doesn’t understand what a medical park is, a red flag that shows that he will likely not understand the basic parts of this investigation — which is why I never shared it, but there was a hysteria over his video that would have prevented me from sharing it until I examined it more closely, based on the fact that these patterns are always red flags. “No one is covering this like Nick” (not true) “Why is no one talking about this?!” (It’s not that no one was talking about it, it was that enough people weren’t) “Nick is the only one covering this” (not true) “Why are you silent on what Nick has exposed — scared?” Any time there’s a hysteria like this, I always pause and become suspicious — because these sorts of phrases are hallmarks of radicalization and a sign that someone has broken with standard media literacy protocols. It involves a false sense of suppression; it’s a hallmark of conspiratorial thinking, and it ends up creating monopolistic authority. While it’s framed as a simple question that people ask, it’s not; it’s ultimately very dangerous. And anytime statements like this are made and questions like this are asked, there is an insinuation that secret information exists that isn’t being shared or has been uncovered, and Jew-hatred thrives in that environment. Just because Jews aren’t mentioned doesn’t mean the same conspiratorial framework isn’t being activated or that the underlying tropes about hidden power, secrecy, and control aren’t quietly doing their work. I became concerned when I noticed that his video could be downloaded on Twitter from his account. I’ve learned over the past few years that downloadable media (without requiring an app) helps to spread things much more quickly (for better or worse). There was fraud perpetrated by members of the Somali community in Minneapolis; the story was covered, and there were investigations. Perhaps folks didn’t think it was covered enough, or that more people should have been investigated. But there was a viral consensus — based on hysteria — that Nick was the one saving the day and that is scary, my friends. Eventually people feel left out and feel like they have to share it or they will be seen as being part of the problem. The same thing happened when “Sound of Freedom” came out in 2023 — it was like a psychosis that took over Twitter. People were demanding that people see the film, demanding they speak about it — it seemed insane to me because the film was about Tim Ballard, a man who associated with Scientologists like Marisol Nichols. No one can be taken seriously about human trafficking if they associate with Scientologists — Scientology is the most well-funded human trafficking organization on the planet. It turns out he had allegations of sexual misconduct and about claims he made about his work. And once all of that was discovered it was as if no one had spend weeks bullying people into treating the Sound of Freedom as the most important film ever produced in cinematic history. I spend my days warning people about extremism, disinformation and misinformation, about the explosion of Jew-hatred, but I have seen a collapse of institutional trust amongst some of my Jewish followers and my friends. And it has led them to isolate themselves from critical information and rely on people who don’t have their best interests in mind. It concerns me deeply.