The YouTube channel Jubilee creates a space that legitimizes and platforms white supremacists while capitalizing on the deep political divisions that exist within the United States. Jubilee was founded in 2010 with the mission “to create a movement of empathy for human good.” Jason Y. Lee, its founder, embarked on a journey to spark empathy through productive yet difficult conversations. This aim has not been reached. Participants in Jubilee videos often leave the experience without having gained an understanding of one another’s perspectives. Rather, Jubilee has been very successful in allowing political extremists to freely declare their bigoted viewpoints under the guise of promoting dialogue. By repackaging hate and misinformation as entertainment, Jubilee is creating dangerous content that further divides the groups that they claim they want to bridge.
I was introduced to Jubilee in 2020 during the early stages of the COVID quarantine. The first video of theirs I watched was “Flat Earthers vs Scientists: Can We Trust Science?” Watching this video was comparable to watching a car crash; I simply could not turn away. The arguments presented by the flat earthers were scientifically false, and the scientist they brought in attempted to reason with these individuals, yet they could never find a middle ground. Ironically, the series it appeared in is called “Middle Ground.” This is not an outlier; the majority of Jubilee’s debate videos never result in mutual understanding. That is not an accident, since this model is designed primarily to maximize views. These videos are so enticing because they have such controversial titles that immediately grab the viewers’ attention. Jubilee’s methods of gaining viewership directly oppose the aims of the channel to create empathy and understanding.
As Americans increasingly become more concerned about their political and social rights, Jubilee has increased production of this debate-style content that focuses on polarizing viewpoints. In 2024, Jubilee introduced a new series called “Surrounded” where one person represents a viewpoint, and 20 other people with an opposing viewpoint debate with this individual. Jubilee has platformed notable rightwing conservatives such as Ben Shapiro, Candace Owens, and Charlie Kirk, all of whom are rightfully criticized for inciting hate and are known to be unwavering in their conservative beliefs. I have always had qualms with Jubilee’s “Middle Ground” series, but at least an argument could be made that there was a level of effort by the producers to create agreement. The “Surrounded” series, on the other hand, simply amplifies hatred and is unproductive.
I’ve recently watched the “Surrounded” episode “1 Progressive vs 20 Far-Right Conservatives” featuring Mehdi Hasan. Hasan is a broadcast journalist, author, and founder of his own media company, Zeteo. This episode encompasses all that is wrong with these debate-style videos Jubilee is producing. I initially did not plan to watch it, but clips from the video kept appearing on my social media feeds, each one more ridiculous than the last. One of the clips I came across was a man stating that “whites are Native Americans.” It got to a point where I caved and decided to watch the one-hour and 45-minute video. As each second passed, I could feel my frustrations rising. The points being made were based on white supremacy, and I sadly was not surprised that Jubilee would platform open self-proclaimed fascists — I am not being hyperbolic, a contestant actually declared themselves as a fascist.
Hasan: “You’re a fan of the Nazis?”
Conor (the participant): “I frankly don’t care [about] being called a Nazi at all.”
…
Hasan: “We may have to rename this show, because you’re a little bit more than a far-right Republican.”
Conor: “What can I say?”
Hasan: “I think you say, ‘I’m a fascist.’”
Conor: “Yeah, I am.”
Following this declaration, the other nineteen contestants applauded Conor, indicating that they too align with his fascist identity. This in itself is extremely dangerous, but it is exacerbated by how content is now “clipped” and distributed throughout multiple social media platforms without proper context. This episode of the “Surrounded” series amassed 12 million views on YouTube alone. When you keep in consideration other platforms where people have reposted clips, the amount of people it has reached is practically immeasurable. This allows impressionable individuals to consume this hateful rhetoric and regurgitate it in their real lives.
Following this video, Mehdi Hasan did an interview with “Explained” co-host Noel King about his experience on Jubilee.
“What happened was the craziest two hours of my professional life as a journalist. I was not expecting — and maybe I should have been — the kind of people I sat across. I’d watched a lot of Jubilees. I watched Sam Seder’s show. I knew there were a couple of people who came and said white supremacist things and far-right things and dumb things. But I didn’t expect one after another to be telling me to my face that I should leave the country, that I’m not a real American. ‘I’m a proud fascist,’ one person told me very early on in the debate.”
When specifically asked if we should be debating fascists, Mehdi said, “No … And I was like, ‘That’s not what it is. I don’t debate fascists because fascists don’t believe in democracy. They don’t believe in debate. They don’t believe in my equal worth as a human being. So why would I debate such people?’”
Mehdi is pointing at a significant flaw within the Jubilee debate-style. Their videos are unproductive and merely give racists a platform to spew their bigotry. Mutual understanding cannot be found with extremists because they do not want to find commonality with people they hate.
The titles of “Jubilee videos reduce the extremity of its contestants’ viewpoints. In the case of Mehdi Hasan, these people were fascists, but by referring to them as far-right conservatives, Jubilee is legitimizing their views as a part of normal politics. Another example of Jubilee disguising racism as normal conservatism was in their video “Black Radical vs. 20 Black Conservatives.” Within this video, a Black conservative made the claim that race is biological rather than a social construct. This claim feeds into race science, which is a vehemently racist pseudoscience. Race science is founded on the belief that “humans are divided into distinct biological races and that these groups can be ranked in a hierarchy.” This belief has historically been used to justify slavery, colonialism, white supremacy, and eugenics. It has been scientifically proven false, yet Jubilee made the active decision to keep the clip in, disregarding the harm it may cause. The people in these videos are not simply conservative, and labeling them as such is extremely reckless.
Jubilee is creating a spectacle, one where a highly qualified individual with a nuanced understanding of socio-political issues is surrounded by people who align with hateful and illogical ideologies. Platforming individuals who maintain extremist beliefs directly opposes Jubilee’s goal of bridging communities and promoting productive dialogue. Jubilee is contributing to the normalization of white supremacy by comparing liberals with fascists. An implication is created that white supremacy is just another political opinion, where a common ground can be found, when that is false. Jubilee is not creating empathy and human understanding through its content; it is commodifying extremism and is contributing to the circulation of dangerous ideologies.
