Why I can no longer support Casey Neistat

Summary

Highlights

• Casey Neistat changed the landscape of YouTube vlogging with his innovative approach and cinematic style. 📽️
• His comments on social and political issues, including a controversial tweet about Los Angeles, have been divisive. 🐦
• Neistat’s reluctance to release a critical documentary about a fellow YouTuber raises questions about media responsibility. 🎬
• The creator criticizes Neistat’s portrayal of complex global issues, suggesting it lacks depth and insight. 🌐
• The video dissects how a public figure's legacy can be tarnished by contentious views and actions. 🔄

Key Takeaways

• Casey Neistat revolutionized the YouTube vlogging scene, setting a high bar for visual storytelling. 🎥
• His political stances and public comments have sparked controversy and divided opinions among his fanbase. 🔍
• Neistat’s involvement in controversial topics, especially his perceived protection of David Dobrik, has led to scrutiny. 🤔
• The creator criticizes Neistat’s understanding of geopolitical issues, particularly regarding Israel and Palestine, deeming it shallow. 🌍
• The video reflects on how public figures can fall from grace by failing to adhere to the values that once made them admired. 🌟

Overview

Chapters

• 00:00 - 00:30: Introduction The introduction discusses the early days of YouTube, a time when the mere mention of the platform would spark specific associations and thoughts. The chapter likely sets the stage for a broader discussion on the impact and evolution of YouTube over time.
• 00:30 - 02:30: Casey Neistat's Influence on YouTube This chapter discusses the significant impact Casey Neistat has had on YouTube, emphasizing how he transformed the platform. It highlights Neistat's role in changing the standards of YouTube videos, particularly by elevating the focus on cinematography and aesthetics in vlogs. Before his influence, vlogging was more about mundane aspects of life with little consideration for video quality. His approach made daily vlogging immensely popular and set a new benchmark in the YouTube community.
• 02:30 - 05:30: Casey Neistat's Life Story The chapter discusses Casey Neistat's transformative impact on YouTube through his vlog which started in 2015. It mentions his background in filmmaking, including his work on high-budget commercials for big brands such as J Crew, Nike, and Mercedes-Benz, as well as journalistic productions for the New York Times. The chapter highlights how his expertise in film-making contributed to his unique style and influence on the platform.
• 05:30 - 14:30: Casey Neistat's Move to Los Angeles and Political Opinions Casey Neistat's transition to Los Angeles marks a new chapter in his versatile career as a filmmaker and storyteller. At 34 years old, Casey reflects on significant life changes, including getting married a year ago and welcoming a newborn three months ago. His older child, Owen, is now driving, adding to the whirlwind of personal developments. Professionally, Casey is excited about starting a proper daily vlog amidst his frequent travels both with and without family. This new endeavor signifies a fresh and exciting project in his life.
• 14:30 - 27:00: Casey Neistat's Documentary on David Dobrick Casey Neistat's documentary delves into the rise of David Dobrik, highlighting his rapid ascent to fame in the vlogging world. David's charisma and content style quickly earned him the title of 'king of vlogs.' Despite his success, complications arose, such as a disappointing meetup turnout and his subsequent move to Los Angeles where he faded from public view. His sporadic returns to the spotlight are usually marked by controversial political opinions.
• 27:00 - 66:00: Critique on Casey Neistat's Views on the Israel-Palestine Conflict The chapter discusses Casey Neistat's experiences in Israel during a Birthright trip he took in 2005, highlighting the nature of the trip as being similar to a summer camp and educational field trip. Additionally, it notes Neistat's return to New York City and his subsequent sporadic YouTube posting schedule.
• 66:00 - 71:00: Conclusion The chapter discusses a recent change in the author's perception of Casey Neistat. Despite being a fan who watched nearly all of Neistat's uploads, the author now views him in a less favorable light due to a particular recent action that also casts past actions in an unfavorable lens. The author's shift in perspective is so significant that they can no longer support Neistat.

Why I can no longer support Casey Neistat Transcription

• 00:00 - 00:30 [Music] [Music] There was a time when if you heard the word YouTube, you would immediately
• 00:30 - 01:00 think Casey Neistat. Casey Neistat. Casey Neistat. Casey Neistat. Casey Neistat. You know who Casey Neistat is, right? My name is Casey Neistat. Casey Neistat forever changed the platform, setting a new bar for what it means to make a YouTube video. You're about to say something important. You want to zoom in to really get the audience engaged. Vlogging used to be something mundane, focused on the lives of the subject with almost no focus on the cinematography, the aesthetics of the video itself. Then daily vlogging became a thing. Vloggers typically using simple
• 01:00 - 01:30 point-and-oot cameras, speaking to their audience through the lens, and giving them a glimpse into their daily lives. Sometimes that life needing a bit or quite a bit of fabrication. But when Casey Neistat began his vlog in 2015, it completely changed YouTube as a platform. Casey comes from a background in film making, specifically in producing high-budget commercials for J Crew, Nike, Mercedes-Benz, and even making more journalistic productions for the New York Times. So when he began his daily vlog, he brought his expertise in
• 01:30 - 02:00 film making and storytelling to a medium that had yet to see such a venture. I'm 34 years old and I've never had so much going on in my life. I got married like a year ago. Uh had a kid 3 months ago. My other kid Owen, he's driving now. Um I've been traveling a lot with and without the family. Uh, yes. I'm starting a proper daily vlog. I'm psyched. So, this is the first vlog
• 02:00 - 02:30 entry. Soon skyrocketing to a level of notoriety on the platform, undeniably becoming the king of vlogs. So, it's kind of a bummer. No one no one showed up to the meetup. Uh but then he stopped moving to Los Angeles to never be heard from again except when he felt the need to give some brain dead political take. Look at this guy. Look at the guy
• 02:30 - 03:00 in red. Check the hair. That's me in Israel. I think in Jerusalem in 2005. Um, if you're Jewish, you get to go on this free trip called Birthright Israel. It's fun. It's like, uh, it's like summer camp. You go to Israel with a bunch of people your age, and you get to do cool stuff and learn. It's like a field trip. It's great. Casey Neistat has since moved back to New York City and has begun posting to YouTube again, this time much more infrequently.
• 03:00 - 03:30 And while I've been a fan of his return, watching nearly all of his uploads, even the more cringe ones, he did something recently that has completely shifted the way I see Casey Neistat, as well as past actions throughout his career that are now seen through a less than favorable lens to the point that I can no longer support him by any means of the word. Today's broadcast is brought to you by
• 03:30 - 04:00 viewers like you. Become a member today and unlock exclusive content at patreon.com/northstarradio. This is me in 2014, the year I discovered Casey Neistat, one year before he began his daily vlog. I have a not so unique connection to Casey Neistat that makes me feel as though I have the authority to make such a video. I was obsessed with Casey [Music]
• 04:00 - 04:30 Neistat. The year I discovered Casey, I had already been making videos on YouTube, but quickly shifted my style entirely, blatantly copying the Neistat style like everyone else. And I say Neistat and not Casey Neistat because Casey's first big break was not by himself, but rather with his big brother Van Neistat, who worked on an HBO show with Casey that unfortunately didn't get picked up for a second season. Van Neistat is a small piece of this greater Neistat puzzle. So remember
• 04:30 - 05:00 his name. Casey Neistat frequently brings up his coming to fame story, how he grew up in New England, was a teenager at the time of his son's birth. After 3 months there, my girlfriend got pregnant. So, we moved back to Connecticut and I dropped out of high school all the way to his move to New York City where he was basically homeless for a few weeks. I moved to New York City in on June 4th, 2001. Literally exactly on June 4th of 2001 when I moved here, I had a 3mon sublet. So, I had a place to stay for 3 months.
• 05:00 - 05:30 After those three months, I moved into a friend's couch that was in the financial district that was literally a half a block from the Twin Towers until maxing out multiple credit cards to purchase an iMac where he eventually made a few bucks off his first video project. This was the first ever computer ever that I ever edited video on. Ever. The year was 2000. Y2K had just passed. The dot bubble had burst. The Concord crashed in France. Vladimir Putin had just been
• 05:30 - 06:00 voted in. and Bill Clinton was about to leave office. That was the year I got this thing. This is an iMac DV. And this was the first machine to ship with iMovie on it. iMovie version 1.0. At the time, I was washing dishes for a living. But when I first played this thing, I was like, I have to have it. And I maxed out my credit card and got one. Ah, the classic good old American pick yourself up by your bootstrap story. Don't you just love capitalism? Except it seems like now that Casey Neistad has finally achieved fame and financial stability,
• 06:00 - 06:30 he no longer looks fondly on those simply trying to get by in this crazy fend for yourself by any means necessary latestage capitalist system. Moving to Los Angeles in 2019 and not long after experiencing capitalism up close and personal, tweeting this after several of his cars were broken into. So our cars got robbed this morning because Los Angeles is a crime riddled third world of a city. but tremendous appreciation and gratitude to the hardworking officers at the LAPD who not only arrested the [ __ ] but they got all of our stolen goods back. Now,
• 06:30 - 07:00 there's a lot to break down here, but can we first give props to Seth Rogan for ripping this loud New Yorker a new one? Dude, I've lived here for over 20 years. You're nuts. It's lovely here. Don't leave anything valuable in it. It's called living in a big city. coming from a guy who donated to bail out protesters from right here in Minneapolis because of the George Floyd protests and more recently has criticized the idea of a Jewish ethnostate in the Middle East and has reflected on his education on Israel growing up saying that they forgot to
• 07:00 - 07:30 include the facts. All right, Seth Rogan, this NSR branded spliff is getting lit up in your honor. Okay, I'm getting sidetracked. This tweet from Casey Neistat got quite a bit of attention. probably in part due to the fact that he wrote it not long after Donald Trump called Haiti and several African countries [ __ ] hole countries. This person saying, "Can't imagine having millions to my name and getting worked up enough about petty theft to call LA a [ __ ] hole and thank the police in the same breath." And this is where the police come into play.
• 07:30 - 08:00 Casey Neistat is a New Yorker through and through. And something every New Yorker is confronted with on a daily basis is the fact that they live in a police state. A police state run by the stinkiest gang in all of America, followed closely behind by the LA Sheriff's Department, the NYPD. We're taking existing technology, uh, uh, cameras, uh, being able to communicate with people, and we're placing it on
• 08:00 - 08:30 wheels. Behold, the NYPD's newest crimes stopper, K5 Autonomous. The NYPD is an incredibly infamous police department for both their vast history of excessive force over petty crimes. New developments tonight in the police shooting in a subway in Brooklyn yesterday. Two cops firing their weapons at a fair jumping man who authorities say used a knife to try to attack the officers. But in the process, two passengers were shot, one of them critically, and one of the cops was also
• 08:30 - 09:00 hit. How that happened, we still don't know. But are even more infamous for their inability to do their job when it matters most. The officer uh attempted to get a fire extinguisher to uh you know to douse the flame. And so I'm not going to speak more on that particular issue. Yet time and time again, Casey Neistat has made a concerted effort to do soft propaganda for the NYPD, frequently featuring them in his elaborate videos and going out of his
• 09:00 - 09:30 way to celebrate and thank them for their supposed bravery. There's the man. What up, Rich? Rich, what do you think of the new One Wheel? It's nice, right? At least one day, man. I'm specifically talking about this video where Casey rips on a cop for driving a tiny police car. Basically going apeshit because he believes the NYPD are a powerful force in the city and need to drive a big car in order to be respected as a police force. I mean, what does he want the cops to drive
• 09:30 - 10:00 around in tanks? Oh, right. What is this car? A smart car. Man, what do you do? How where's your NYPD? is the dignity, man. That is the goofiest car I've ever seen. Look at this thing. Look at the little lights. That's ridiculous. Dear NYPD, what were you thinking when you bought these things? How is anyone supposed to respect a police force that drives around in little go-karts? Look at this
• 10:00 - 10:30 tiny little car. What do you think of this thing? Yo, this thing is crazy. I've never seen anything like it. Do you think they had to leave their dignity at the police station cuz they couldn't fit it in the car? What do you think of that cop car? It's little. I wouldn't want to ride in it. Officer, is it embarrassing driving around in that go-kart? Poor guy. Stay safe, little buddy. Stay safe, little buddy. Watch out for potholes. Wouldn't want to lose you. Casey Neistat revolutionized the daily vlog. However, he didn't come up with
• 10:30 - 11:00 the concept by any means. In fact, one particular Viner turned YouTuber began his daily vlog a mere month before Casey Neistat, suggesting that Casey was quite inspired by this person's venture into daily vlogging. This is my first vlog. I don't know how long this is going to last, but I'm I'm going to give it a shot. I'm going to try vlogging maybe every other day, every day. Who knows? But I'm going to do it. So, subscribe to YouTube channel. Hey, this is my first vlog, man. [ __ ] off. All right, let's let's just start
• 11:00 - 11:30 vlogging. What a dick. In 2022, Casey Neistat released his documentary Under the Influence at South by Southwest, a film about the rise and fall of the biggest YouTuber in the world, whose feel-good videos masked the dark and reckless new ethos of online celebrity culture. The film received massive praise from its audience, and after being nominated for the Golden Starfish Award at the Hampton's International Film Festival, it's never been seen again.
• 11:30 - 12:00 And from the looks of it, Casey Neistat may be holding off on the film's public release in order to protect the image of his new friend, David Dori. Casey facetimed me and that's why I sued David cuz I saw what David said about me and how he really felt and I was like, "Noing way." Like my heart dropped. I thought I knew I was like best friends with this kid and this is how he talks about me behind my back. Yeah. It's not even behind my back. It's in a documentary that'll be out in a year, you know? Yeah, but the statute of limitations would have been up. If I
• 12:00 - 12:30 hadn't seen that clip, I would have never got the Oh, got you. The suit. Yeah. So, thank you, Casey, for doing that. But also, kind of you Casey right now because Oh, he Yeah. He said that he's not releasing his documentary that you sat down with a girl that was assaulted and spoke to you about her most traumatic moment of her life for days, weeks, and you're going to bury the story to protect this kid that you openly admitted. Caseying sat for weeks
• 12:30 - 13:00 interviewing her and now he said that he thinks that David was the best comedian on YouTube in history. That that was the funniest part of the interview right there. Between the filming of this documentary, its subsequent film festival release, and to this day, David Dori has faced quite a bit of controversy. And I'm not talking about problematic age gaps of 2 years. I'm talking real criminal [ __ ] And it seems as though that's what this film
• 13:00 - 13:30 explores. That is sexual assault. But not long after, he did it again. I had an idea to pull the prank on him. Maybe I'll have some new friends that, you know, will will support me and in in my ventures moving forward. And and I I made the decision to just kind of go along with it. But instead of David himself apologizing or even just speaking about it publicly in any way,
• 13:30 - 14:00 he had one of his employees, Scotty Sire, make a video [ __ ] on Seth and defending Big Daddy himself, David Dori. What's up, guys? I am totally sick of seeing my friends names get dragged through the mud because of false allegations and lies and just things that aren't true. So, I'm going to address some of those allegations and defend my friends. they haven't said anything because typically the Vlog Squad does not address rumors and lies and gossip because it platforms the person telling the lies, draws attention to it and we know who we are. We know
• 14:00 - 14:30 our character. We know we're good people and we know it's not true. But this has gotten to a point where it's such a serious accusation that it needs to be addressed. Everybody makes mistakes. I am not an angel. I've definitely made mistakes myself and all we can hope for when we make mistakes is to learn and grow from those mistakes. That being said, telling a lie is a mistake itself. And there's been a lot of that going around. First of all, David's a great person. Jason's a great person. In fact, they're both fantastic people. David doesn't have a mean bone in his body. He's so nice. When someone does something that really upsets him, he gets disappointed instead of angry. But
• 14:30 - 15:00 then, can you believe it? Something even worse took place on camera, front and center on the David Dori vlog. And can you believe it centered around someone who goes by Dirty Dom? That's such an innocent, downto-earth name. To keep this video somewhat brief, David and his friends for hire were all hanging out and thought it would be funny to center that day's vlog around Dirty Dom, who planned on bringing several collegeage girls to his apartment with the sole purpose of having sex with them.
• 15:00 - 15:30 Holy [ __ ] Oh, this is weird. All the while, David was standing right outside the bedroom door recording the entire time. Oh my god. Oh my god. I can't look in the We have to leave the apartment. What if I told you that the man named Dirty Dom wasn't exactly receptive to the concept of consent? Shocker, I know. After one of these girls came out to
• 15:30 - 16:00 address what took place in that bedroom all those months ago, the story blew up, leading to much online scrutiny and investigation into what took place that night. I knew this article was coming out, but it was way more in-depth and the gravity of the of the accusations in this article was way more than I expected. For the last couple of weeks now, I've been telling you guys all the stuff that's been going on with David Doi. This blows everything out of the water that we've talked about. Chief exposed Dom with regards to the essay allegations and debunk certain elements
• 16:00 - 16:30 of the article that was written about the allegations. Jeff said that Trisha lied in the article about Jeff supplying alcohol to lien up the girls. You said a bunch of times in your video that Trisha is the reason you're in this article. Did you Did you read the article? I didn't want to pay for the payw wall on it on it. No, I listen I I uh I don't want to make any jokes. I just have a sarcastic tone like I want I want to be clear that I'm here. Do you acknowledge that it wasn't Trisha
• 16:30 - 17:00 just saying that? Now, after listening to you guys uh addressing the article a bunch of times, yeah, I understand. So, you really didn't read the article or were you joking? No, listen. So, I'll start from the top. And like I said, you know, I'm not here to discredit the victim at all. And I want to make that clear. I'm not I'm just here to explain my side of the story. And the reason I'm even coming on here is because I genuinely feel like, you know, this are there are some misunderstandings here and we could just clear it up if we talk it out. When I first got reached out to by Insider, the the reporter, immediately I was like, "Oh, what is
• 17:00 - 17:30 this? My name and an article with Dom and sexual assault. Like, I'm going to call right away before I had the facts straight." This was 3 years ago. So, you know, stupid move. You're right. I'll give it to you. That was dumb to call a reporter when I I don't even know. But I don't think she mischaracterized you either. So, I got to stop you there a little bit, too. I had nothing to do with the sexual assault. had nothing to do with with anything that happened inside of that bedroom. When I peaked in, it was a faked bit. And the sweaty part after was a a fake a setup shot
• 17:30 - 18:00 after the next day. And I mean, that's my story. That's from 3 years ago. That's what I remember. And I I can I can, you know, I think from what I can tell, I agree. I think you're a good dude. And like I said, I hope you get through this and you're okay. But uh what what is the goal here? Because for me, it's to try to help sexual assault victims. Genuinely, I that's genuinely what I'm I'm here for. And you know, I Well, what you're doing when you
• 18:00 - 18:30 question the motives of the authors, you're basically saying that there's no article that could be about this that would be acceptable to me because they're making money. You're saying that if there was a payw wall on it and you wanted to get those clicks through doing it this way. They had lawyers. The lawy David's lawyers were threatening them non-stop. They have I don't know. I I don't know this stuff. You act like I'm done with David every day. Well, it's in the article if you would have read the article. Okay, Ethan. Now, that right there is Jeff Whitick, someone who was seen in that clip, ironically became his next
• 18:30 - 19:00 victim. After the Dirty Dom controversy, David Dori and the Vlog Squad planned an elaborate vlog for their big return to YouTube with help from an excavator. And what do you think happens when you operate professional construction equipment with one hand while you hold a camera in the other with your friend swinging on a rope tied to said machinery? Not good things. [Music] [Applause]
• 19:00 - 19:30 So, where does Casey Neistat tie into all of this? For all I know, Casey wasn't there during the excavator incident, but it did take place during the time Casey was recording the documentary on David Dori. The documentary being completely upended and forced to change course as it was originally meant to be nothing more than a puff piece on David Dori and the extravagant and exciting lives of internet celebrities. Casey Neistat had to make a
• 19:30 - 20:00 choice. Do I release this expose on my friend David Dori after all this time filming and hanging out together? Or do I protect him and hide this film from the general public as a way to shield him from the well-deserved consequences of his actions? Well, Casey and Neistat went on Jeff Whitick's podcast not too long ago. I got you this present. Look at that. You know, take it out. Take Show what it cuz you didn't have to do
• 20:00 - 20:30 that because I I don't know if you Well, I mean, I know it's Christmas and everything. I don't know if you're running out, but there you go. It's a It's a bunch of Kool-Aid cuz you're still drinking it, my friend. You didn't just stop. You're still in the cult. You're still blind. Yeah, these I'm going to put these both up, my friend. You still have a little bit in you. And if you didn't get blasted in the head by a crane or had sex with against your will when you were drunk, you may have different feelings. It took me a long time to stop drinking that Kool-Aid. It took I went through like five surgeries and I was still drinking
• 20:30 - 21:00 that Kool-Aid. And upon being confronted by Jeff Whitick on his seemingly tight and protective friendship with David Dori, this is what he had to say. You know, I haven't had any communication Yeah. with David. Nor have I sought any communication um with him. And when I talk about this idea of protecting him, like no, I don't I don't feel any desire to protect him. And what I said in that interview, and I still I'll still say this today, is that like the way that that documentary transpired, like if I
• 21:00 - 21:30 can give the whole thing in an abbreviated way, is I really was excited about telling this story of what it means to go from zero to being the biggest creator in the world. That was a story that I wanted to tell. And that was a story I wanted to like dedicate years of my life to telling. And David seemed like the perfect candidate. He seemed like it. Yeah. He really seemed like it when when I first met him and and his explosion was unlike anything I had seen. And I rode that wave and like that tour, The Greatest Time of Your Life was sort of the apex of that. It was like um we were going to universities, we were going to Miami, we're going to all these places and like
• 21:30 - 22:00 the way even Hero 368 felt like the Beatles. The way people reacted to you guys was unlike anything I'd ever seen. And that was the movie that I wanted to make. Yeah. And then this story comes out. When you talk about drinking the juice Yeah. I think that I'll take that criticism and I'm not going to I won't fight with you about it. I've been I drank the juice for the first year. I kept saying I I pushed back on it, Jeff, because like, you know, it it's I I didn't hesitate to, you know, throw away my friendship, which I I did have with
• 22:00 - 22:30 him, and I should have never made that friendship with him cuz it made me less uh of a good journalist. Yeah. Less of an objective journalist for sure. And that I had to tear off the friend band-aid and put on the journalist hat. And that was really hard to do. And if I had just been a journalist the whole time, maybe I wouldn't have gotten the access. honest mad because of all this [ __ ] that I felt like was hidden. Yeah. And was
• 22:30 - 23:00 masked and when it came out so you can give me [ __ ] for drinking the juice, Jeff. I'm going to take this Kool-Aid home, but I want but I but I want you to sort of start start dwindling dwindling down. You know, maybe do a lower dose each day before you got to get off that stuff. Yeah, I just push back because I I would love to understand how how you think it's, you know, me drinking the juice because of the fact that I've never had anything to do with the guy. And when I talk about this idea of like just saying things like like what you did in that
• 23:00 - 23:30 interview with that guy, uh I don't know who who is that guy cuz you don't you don't do a lot of podcasts. No, he's fantastic. His channel's fantastic. He used to work at YouTube. He got good questions out of you. He Yeah, really good question. Got you some backlash. Was there other answers? No, no. From uh just like saying things about um you know that he was the best comedian. Oh, just about David stuff. Yeah. Yeah. Just like that stuff. So like you know I you not releasing the doc for the sole
• 23:30 - 24:00 purpose that you feel the need to protect. Yeah. I never said that, Jeff. That's a that's a that's a complete that's a total mischaracterization. And I still don't know why I don't put it out there. I think it's because maybe some part of me, as much as I'm ashamed to admit it, is because I still like very deeply love and care for David. And maybe it's about protecting him. Casey Neistat does admit shortly after that maybe not the entire reason, but a piece of the puzzle as to why he has yet to release the film might be that deep down
• 24:00 - 24:30 he feels bad for David Dori. You you said that in the there was that that's part of it and it's a nuanced like the the hard part with the internet is being honest and being nuanced. Yeah. Because people don't want to hear it. They want to take absolute and that's not an absolute. When I think about that movie, it forces me to confront all of the [ __ ] that I just expressed. And then that evokes a sense of doubt in me. And this is real. And this is me being honest and me being vulnerable. And this is the same thing I would say to you if none of these cameras were here or anyone that asked me like why isn't it
• 24:30 - 25:00 out? And it's like maybe there is some part that's like I don't want to have to confront this story. Maybe there's some part of me that feels guilty because the reason why I had that access is because I was their friends. I was David's friend. Yeah. And he gave me all this access and then in the end I used it to make a movie that told the truth that he didn't want out there. That'sed up. But like I'm I'm just being honest. Like there is some tiny bit of doubt in me that thinks maybe the reason why I'm not
• 25:00 - 25:30 more aggressive in getting this out there is because of that. Is that me protecting him? If if you see it that way, then then there's nothing I can do. I'm just going off words that I actually heard. I can understand why he would feel that way. I can understand why he is filled with all different sorts of guilt over the situation. But what I cannot understand is how that would stop him from releasing the film to the public, which covers realworld crimes that need to be brought to light. Maybe there's extra details I'm not aware of. There there are certainly details I'm not aware of, but from a journalistic
• 25:30 - 26:00 standpoint, from an artistic standpoint, I do not respect that decision by Casey Neistat. And Jeff's audience is seemingly on the same page. Calling yourself a journalist while refusing to publish your journalism is bizarre. The role of a journalist is to tell the truth objectively without being influenced by personal biases. You tell the truth even if it's ugly. He interviewed a victim of essay, made her relive the horror just so her story won't be told because he just isn't feeling it. Halfway through the pod and
• 26:00 - 26:30 not really keen with Casey. He reminds me of a politician and says whatever he thinks the person in front of him wants to hear to keep the peace. Asking himself questions and answering them is so politician. Holding on to this footage for three years now, while at the same time explaining in interviews that the reason it's not out is due in part to the fact that you kind of feel bad for David, is just not a good look. I don't know what else to say. It's just not at all admirable, especially coming from someone claiming to be doing journalism, someone I looked up to. Say
• 26:30 - 27:00 what you will about the whole situation, but I personally don't think it's the worst of it. I've looked up to Casey off and on for a decade at this point. And while many of these things I was able to look past or find an explanation for in my head, this last subject is what really made me change my mind entirely on Casey Neistat and changed the way I see all of his past doings. The way he talks about Palestine, that charter makes it clear. It's not about land. It's not about helping the people of Palestine live prosperous or happy
• 27:00 - 27:30 lives. It is about Jews. These are not freedom fighters. They're racist [Music] murderers. It's now been a year and a half since the initial October 7 attack, which was not at all the beginning of this conflict, but was an event that certainly accelerated what Israel had been doing for nearly a century. Casey Neistat is without a doubt not a political person, at least on the
• 27:30 - 28:00 internet. He's made a very successful career for himself for that reason. I mean, the last time he tried to make some political statement, he got absolutely dunked on. Albeit by some of the least respected people on the internet, but still it wasn't pretty. Casey Neistat is a very popular YouTuber who made a video a couple days ago, Hillary Clinton. I will be voting for Hillary Clinton. Casey endorsed Hillary with such gusto, he basically [ __ ] her in the ass and gave her a reach round. I mean, he went full service for her, which is fine. And frank frankly, I even
• 28:00 - 28:30 respect it a little bit because I know it can be so divisive and difficult to talk about politics. So, it's cool that he did that and I respect that. But towards the end of the video, he gets into this whole thing about how we're all moral of morally obligated to vote for Hillary. And he even goes as far as to telling people to ask their favorite creators on YouTube to get a spine and backbone and make sure that we all vote
• 28:30 - 29:00 for Hillary. I want to end this by calling out all the big YouTubers. Some I know and some you viewers might know. See, making videos like this, they're not popular. They're not going to get you subscribers. They're not going to boost your view counts. But there is something much more valuable than subscribers or dollars, and that's backbone. Kind of rubbed me the wrong way. That all changed after October 7th, when 4 days after the fact on October 11th, Casey Neistat released a video with a oneword title.
• 29:00 - 29:30 Ready? Look at this guy. Look at the guy in red. She got the hair. That's me. in Israel, I think in Jerusalem in 2005. Um, if you're Jewish, you have to go on this free trip called Birthright Israel. It's fun. It's like a It's like summer camp. You go to Israel with a bunch of people your age, and you get to do cool stuff and learn. It's like a field trip. It's great. Israel is an
• 29:30 - 30:00 ethnoc colonial project. And that free trip that every Jewish person gets to go on in hopes that they decide to live in Israel or even better fall in love with an attractive IDF soldier like what happened with Ethan and Nila was just a fun summer camp for Casey Neistad. Not now is targeting Birthright in a campaign urging the group to in its words tell the truth about the Israeli occupation. Welcome to the 2018 Birthright Israel
• 30:00 - 30:30 summer. Birthright is a program that was started in the 90s as a response to rising rates of intermarriage. A late baby birthright is one of the main sources of information about Israel for my generation of young Jews. We don't really know much about Israel until you come here. And the Israel that Birthright portrays is an Israel that is really only half the truth. such a kind and welcoming place. At least eight
• 30:30 - 31:00 foreign Jews who are anti-occupation advocates have come forward with stories of intimidation, harassment, or interrogation over their political views. You immediately feel there's something here for you. Something I unexplainable, you know, like home. The Israeli Arabs have described it as a racist law that borders on a parttheid. Birthright has an explicitly right-wing political agenda. It is up to you to be our soldiers abroad, ready to rally governments public opinion in Israel. It
• 31:00 - 31:30 feels like the equivalent of like going to the Jim Crow South during segregation and like not not talking about segregation. Six activists joined by two other birthright participants staged a protest walk out. My name is Karen Kersy. My name is Rebecca Oliver. My name is Rhysa Nagel. My name is Hie. My name is Sarah Fedum. and I just walked off my birthright trip. What it's really doing is is hiding the occupation from young American Jews like myself. I
• 31:30 - 32:00 couldn't just sit back asking questions, seeking out the truth. To me, this very strong part of my Jewish identity. What we are trying to do is to say to to our community and to Birthright, we deserve the truth. If you're Jewish, you get to go on this free trip called Birthright Israel. It's fun. It's like uh it's like summer camp. You go to Israel with a bunch of people your age and you get to do cool stuff and learn. It's like a field trip. It's great. It's like summer camp. It's like a field trip. It's great. Have y'all seen the movie Zone of
• 32:00 - 32:30 Interest? I think that comparison speaks for itself. I'm not religious at all, but I'm Jewish. I'm a very proud Jew and I've always been aware of my Jewishness. When I was a little kid, it was holidays at Nana's house. You I was going to synagogue on holidays because that meant I got to skip school. uh when I was a little bit older, like maybe when I was a teenager, I remember Stephen Spielberg's epic movie Schindler's List coming out. And I
• 32:30 - 33:00 remember like I remember very specifically watching that movie, understanding that that film was like a very true-to-life depiction of things that actually happened here on planet Earth. A a graphic, in-your-face representation of the Holocaust. And I remember watching that movie and thinking like, why didn't the Jews just stop being Jewish so they wouldn't get shot? I didn't understand then that to be a Jew that that's your
• 33:00 - 33:30 ethnicity. And to hate someone because they're Jewish is not to hate a people based on their actions or their politics or who they choose as their god, but it's to hate them because of who they are. And and watching that movie, even as a kid, I I never understood why the bad guys hated them so much. It made no sense to me. And I'm older now and maybe just slightly less naive. But to hate a people just because of who they are still doesn't make any sense to
• 33:30 - 34:00 me. I don't get it. And look, the situation in the Middle East is complicated. And to call it complicated is a wild oversimplification. I love when people call the Israel Palestine conflict a complicated situation. There's nothing complicated about it. You know what? Instead of me explaining it, here's the late great Michael Brooks giving his explanation for the simplicity of the conflict. As someone with a Jewish background, yes. How do you feel about Bernie's plan for Israel,
• 34:00 - 34:30 especially as someone concerned with foreign policy? I love it. It's absolutely necessary. My Jewish values teach me to oppose apartheid. Are you not concerned about the binary between either condemning Israel entirely um being like also a stance that a lot of like very strong and notorious anti-semitic people agree with versus like you know seeing this as more of a complex issue where it is wrong what's going on and there's also a way to do this that Israel still exists and is
• 34:30 - 35:00 supported. So or is so it's not a complex issue. That's the big thing. It's super simple. There's one group that has enormous power. It's the most powerful country in the Middle East. It's backed by the United States. It acts on another population of people with total impunity and is never held accountable for anything. So there's no symmetry in the relationship. Period. And just as like a thought experiment, IDW people, if we know that if somehow a population of Jewish refugees ended up
• 35:00 - 35:30 in West Bank in Gaza and an Arabic government in Jerusalem and Tel Aviv had an open air prison in in what you know, Jewish Gaza, which they bombed the white phosphorus, they killed civilians indiscriminately in. They had no uh provisions for medicine. They had an embargo that blocked food, that the electricity wasn't running, that there was an over 48% unemployment rate, life expectancy and malnutrition. Statistics were horrifying. The uh one of the major uh policy makers in this hypothetical
• 35:30 - 36:00 Arabic Palestinian state said, "We need to put those Jews on a diet." In the West Bank, there was another Jewish area where there was a little bit more autonomy, but there was regular Arabic settlements where they pulled up the Jewish farmers foods. They terrorized them with rocks. The security forces broke children's bones and they couldn't drive their own roads. We'd all have no problem understanding what that was. So there's nothing complex about it. It's a conflict that's thousands of years old. It's a conflict you can read about in the Bible. The Romans fought over
• 36:00 - 36:30 Jerusalem, the First World War, the Balffor Declaration, the Second World War, 1948, 1967, 1973, 1982, and on and on. It's nuanced. It's complicated. And despite the world's very best efforts for peace, no one seems to be able to figure it out. I certainly don't understand it. It is too complicated for me. I find it incredibly funny that this dude is married to a white South African, yet think something as simple and straightforward as a parttheid is too complicated to figure out a solution
• 36:30 - 37:00 for. Like, dude, you already figured it out decades ago. What's not complicated though is what happened last Saturday when members of Hamas set out on a mission with a singular goal to kill as many Jews as possible. They murdered, mutilated, kidnapped Jewish women, grandmas, kids in entire families. And look who war has existed
• 37:00 - 37:30 for all of human history and all war is violence. There's not much morality in any of it. But there's a reason why history singles out the truly reprehensible. And when it comes to walking doortodoor shooting families in their homes or or killing 260 young people an electronic dance music festival, um a lot of those 260 innocent young people were shot in the back as they were running away.
• 37:30 - 38:00 or kidnapping a young woman, violently raping her and then parading her through the streets to cheering crowds or uh or finding out yesterday a confirmed report that uh about 40 dead babies were were discovered. Some of them still in their cribs. This rumor about 40 dead babies got a lot of motion post October 7. So much so that Sleepy Joe himself made the claim at a press conference. not only claiming that it happened, but claiming
• 38:00 - 38:30 that he saw the evidence. I never really thought that I would see and have confirmed pictures of terrorists beheading children. It's honestly scary that Casey Neistat reiterates how this was a confirmed report when in absolutely no sense of the word was the crime confirmed. It was simply a rumor spread by I24, a prominent news channel in Israel. There's no moral equivalency here. There's no yeah, but there's no
• 38:30 - 39:00 justifying that kind of barbarism because of a cause. It is horror and demonic in the very worst that humans, any humans are capable of. Yes, any violence against civilians is unacceptable. But without analysis of the situation, the power structure at hand between an oppressed apartheid state and those being oppressed, the only conclusion that you can come to is these Arabs are anti-Semitic. I'm making this video not because I'm the best person to deliver this information. Read
• 39:00 - 39:30 the news if you want to know what's going on. I do not have a deep understanding of the geopolitical situation in the Middle East or some naive answer to a conflict that is thousands of years old. And despite this awesome t-shirt that I have on, you need to leave. Uh, you know, I'm not here to give the peace sign and say, "Can't we all just get along?" I'm making this video to be as vocal as possible. uh in in calling out anti-semitism when I see it. Anti-semitism, that is to hate Jewish
• 39:30 - 40:00 people simply because of who they are, Jewish. Wanting peace for Palestinians, that's not anti-semitic. Questioning or criticizing the Israeli government or its leaders for their actions, that is not inherently anti-semitic. That's that's an important dialogue that everyone concerned should be engaged in. But what happened what happened Saturday was not motivated by a desire for land or freedom or any political agenda. It
• 40:00 - 40:30 was about Jews. The people of Palestine who escaped Gaza were not motivated by their hatred of Jewish people. They were motivated by their hatred of whichever people were on the other side of that fence. Had they been Russian, German, Turkish, they would have committed the same atrocities. This is a people who have tried every action under the sun to achieve prosperity and self-determination and failure after failure had only one more option. But to Casey Neistat, these people are evil, vile scum of the earth and only want one
• 40:30 - 41:00 thing in this world. To end the lives of Jewish people. You know what? Here's Norm Finkelstein explaining how his parents who lived in the Warsaw ghetto felt about German people. And then your other expert seems to believe that they need textbooks to incite them to hate Israelis. I got news for you, sir. My parents were in concentration camps. My
• 41:00 - 41:30 parents did not need Jewish textbooks to convince them to hate Germans. It was their real life experience. that convinced them. Can I can I can I I'd like All right, back to the malarkey. Hamas, the perpetrators of of that violence. Hamas has a singular mission, and they're not secretive about it. Um, you can read Hamas's charter. It's online. You got to dig around, but you can find it online. And that charter makes it clear. It's
• 41:30 - 42:00 not about land. It's not about helping the people of Palestine live prosperous or happy lives. It is about Jews. These are not freedom fighters. They're racist murderers. The day of judgment will not come about until fight Jews and kill them. Then the Jews will hide behind rocks and trees and the rocks and trees will cry out. There's a Jew hiding behind me. Come and kill him. That is a that is a poorly translated but direct
• 42:00 - 42:30 quote from the Hamas Charter. A publicly stated goal of the murderers. We're 1 and a half years into this genocide. I really don't think I have to explain how idiotic this statement is. The actions of Hamas on October 7 were quite literally pointblank period motivated by a desire for freedom. Let me explain this from a simple context we can all understand. Casey is not lying about the Hamas charter. It does say those things,
• 42:30 - 43:00 but it is not anti-semitic to hate your oppressor who just so happens to be Jewish. Let me explain. During the times of cattle slavery in the United States, people from Western Africa were kidnapped to work on plantations in the south. We all know the story. And for about 300 years, black people universally understood white people to be their oppressor. If those slaves were to come together, form a makeshift army, and write up a charter, they would without a doubt write about their singular goal to achieve freedom through the of white people. Does this mean
• 43:00 - 43:30 they're racist against white people? No. But even if you do believe that, answer me this. Do they want to white people because they are white? Not in the slightest. They want to white people because they are being oppressed by white people. Were there white people in the US at the time who were completely against the concept of slavery? 100%. But the only white people slaves ever knew were the ones they were forced to work under for generations. I can't even believe I have
• 43:30 - 44:00 to explain this. So when I see on social media um especially by post by people that I know attempts at justifying the acts of these savages by by equivocating it. Did bro really just use the word savages? The slaves who revolted during the Nat Turner rebellion who killed their slave master and his entire family. Were they savages? I shouldn't even ask this question cuz Casey would probably say yes. so-called activists rushing to say that there are reasons why it's okay
• 44:00 - 44:30 that those families were murdered or or or people who can look at a video of a girl being pulled out of a truck with blood pouring from her pants after she's been ganging sake say all resistance is justified. My question is like on what grounds do you make such claims? Have you no humanity? Can you not separate the desire for peace or land or whatever your goals might be from these heinous acts? Like where do you have to go in your brain before you can stop seeing the
• 44:30 - 45:00 murder of babies in their cribs as just that murders of babies and instead see it as just it is incomprehensible to me. This dude is a millionaire living in the Imperial Corps. Of course, you don't understand. Okay, I'm I can't watch any more of this garbage. I'm going to give the floor to Hassan just to finish it up. The people who who marched the day after the attacks holding up a sign that read by any means necessary. Really? Any means? Of course,
• 45:00 - 45:30 there are innocent Palestinian victims out there who need support, who need a voice, but Hamas, the people who committed these barbaric acts, they're not serving those people. That's not their I hate the like the the liberal Zionist take of like yeah the people uh the people the innocent Palestinians deserve more than Hamas. It's like okay well then abolish the apartheid like the
• 45:30 - 46:00 major actor here is Israel anyway. goal, their mission is singular. It's to kill people because of who they are, because they're Jewish. Yeah, totally. And look, I I know a lot of a lot of folks are are scared to speak up or or speak out in support of their Jewish friends because it's a complicated situation. Nobody wants to say the wrong thing.
• 46:00 - 46:30 But know that that Jewish people know that your Jewish friends when they see scenes like this that's a that's a large group of people chanting gas the Jews in Sydney, Australia like 2 days ago. That literally wasn't that like aing random group of people and then they immediately got dealt with by the protesters. Yeah, there's opportunist that was confirmed fake. Oh, that was actually just straight up debunked. I thought it was like a bunch of random uh
• 46:30 - 47:00 dudes that showed up, opportunists. It doesn't seem too complicated for Casey Neistad. Like he keeps saying it's complicated, but it doesn't seem to be that complicated. He's saying that the Palestinians are barbaric monsters or the kamas is barbaric monsters and you know they're operating simply on anti-semitism as like their overarching reason. Why would that be complicated then? This is what I do not understand. What hurts Jewish people more than those scenes is when
• 47:00 - 47:30 non-Jews are silent, when their peers are too afraid to speak out against that kind of blatant hatred, that kind of blatant anti-semitism. All right? And obviously if you were paying attention to the actions of Israel, you woulding know regardless that uh Israel was about to do some unconscionable [ __ ] The problem, however, is that many who defend Israel always refused to pay attention to what
• 47:30 - 48:00 Israel does. That's the problem. And he has not done a follow-up since then. Casey Neistat's brother, Van Neistat, also made a video after October 7th. And somehow his takes in that video were even more brain dead than his brothers. I came up with the idea for this episode last February. Over the past two weeks or so, I've been listening to a lot of podcasts and accounts of the October 7th
• 48:00 - 48:30 terrorist attacks on Israel. I've seen the footage of the anti-semitic chants and rallies from around the world, especially on college campuses. At a very young age, I was warned that these things would one day come again. I see the explicit anti-semitism and I and others who know Jews or are Jews, we're astonished by
• 48:30 - 49:00 anti-semitism because it makes no sense. In the face of the contributions Jews have made to our civilization and in the face of the consequences that we know Jew hating leads to, it makes no sense that kids in Australia and England and in the United States are rallying against Jews. So why why do people hate Jews?
• 49:00 - 49:30 Yeah, let's show some videos of pro Palestine protests and a girl wearing a hijab and claim they're rallying against Jews. How stupid do you have to be to make such a claim? Ironically, this itself is an anti-Semitic statement. By claiming that anti-Israel protests are somehow anti-Jewish, you're conflating the crimes of Israel with the teachings of Judaism. Two things that could not be more opposed to one another. Thomas Soul says that hostility towards Jews is beyond all proportion to any other group that he can think of. Soul says the
• 49:30 - 50:00 reason for the hatred is because Jews succeed in a way that is a threat to the egos of other people. Historically, immigrant Jews, wherever they've gone, started out with nothing and arose to tremendous success. Thomas Soul, I love this guy. famed economist who's frequently quoted by racists and anti-semmites alike like Candace Owens for example. Weak unsuccessful people
• 50:00 - 50:30 see that rise and they hate the successful Jews for it because it's easier than hating themselves who especially in this country are the actual ones responsible for their own lack of success. Americans are responsible for their own lack of success. This is the greatest bootlicking I've heard. escape the mouth of a Neistat. And that's saying something. But alas, this video is about Casey Neistat. And as much as I'd love to watch this video in full and dissect his every word, I have a life. I need to
• 50:30 - 51:00 get on with this video. Casey Neistat never made a follow-up to his original video. Even after months of Israel's disproportionate response to October 7, what is now quite obviously seen as a genocide of the Palestinian people. Instead, he doubled down and one month after October 7th, decided to wear a hat with the Israeli flag on it while he ran the New York City Marathon. One month after that, he wore the same hat in another marathon. This time, turning it backwards. Wow, so brave. He then went silent for the next few months as bombs
• 51:00 - 51:30 continue to drop on Gaza at an unimaginable scale. It wasn't until April 2024 when Casey Neistat decided once again to take a stand. Not against the atrocious actions of Israel, but against the college students protesting said actions. As Israel's assault on Gaza enters its 200th day, Palestinian solidarity protests and encampments are spreading on college campuses across the United States. Inspired by the Gaza Solidarity Encampment at Columbia
• 51:30 - 52:00 University, here in New York, police raided a student encampment at New York University. Monday night, police arrested more than 150 people, including students and 20 faculty members. Earlier on Monday, police at Yale University arrested 60 protesters, including 47 students who'd set up an encampment to demand the school divest from weapons manufacturers. At Colombia, the student encampment has entered its seventh day. The president's
• 52:00 - 52:30 decision to send riot police to pick up peaceful protesters on our campus was unprecedented, unjustified, disproportionate, divisive, and dangerous. Yeah. Student encampments are now in place at numerous other schools including University of Michigan and Arbor, University of California, Berkeley, University of Maryland, MIT, and Emerson
• 52:30 - 53:00 College in Boston. In April of 2024, protests sprung up all over the United States, specifically at universities with the goal of divestment, getting the universities to walk back their investments in Israeli companies and companies operating in Israel in the occupied West Bank of Palestine. These weren't just any protests. The reason they became so controversial was due to their permanence in the form of encampments. Starting at Columbia University in Manhattan, students set up tents, medical stations, food stands
• 53:00 - 53:30 with the purpose of making this protest the final protest. After Colombia's encampment was subsequently shut down, students suspended, and then the camp returning even stronger and greater than before, these university encampments began appearing all across the United States. I graduated from college just a few months earlier, but I visited the University of Minnesota's encampment a few times, and the energy was great. Actually, the University of Minnesota encampment had a similar story to Colombia's. It was small at first. The
• 53:30 - 54:00 students were almost immediately arrested, and the next day, the encampment returned, significantly larger, and with a greater student body than the day previous. There was an energy in the air unlike anything I had ever experienced. Not only were students protesting, but faculty also joined in at various schools across the nation to show support for their students who were upholding their First Amendment right to protest unjustifiable warfare and genocide in Gaza. Unfortunately, this energy only lasted so long. Students in
• 54:00 - 54:30 Austin were subject to brutal arrests, as were students in California. Some students continued the fight and were able to occupy buildings for days, but that too came to a close. At UCLA, a mob of Zionists were the ones inflicting violence upon the student protesters. With no police in sight, not until the Zionist mob left did the police finally show up and subsequently shut down the encampment. As we broadcast this morning, Los Angeles police and riot gear are dismantling a
• 54:30 - 55:00 pro Palestinian encampment on US UCLA's campus after hundreds of police used flashbang grenades, rubber bullets, and tear gas in a face off with protesters who chanted, "We're not leaving. You don't scare us. [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] The police raid at UCLA came a day after
• 55:00 - 55:30 pro-Israel counterprotesters attacked the encampment with fireworks, metal rods, and tear gas for hours late Tuesday night and into early Wednesday morning. At least 15 people were injured. This is how UCLA's student newspaper, The Daily Breuan, described the violence instigated by counterprotesters in an editorial. Quote, "It began with earpiercing screams of wailing babies loudly emitting from speakers, counterprotesters tearing down the
• 55:30 - 56:00 barricades, laser pointers flashing into the encampment, people in masks waving strobe lights, tear gas, pepper spray, violent beatings. Fireworks sparked at the border of the encampment, raining down on tents and the individuals inside the Daily Breuan Road. The editorial noted Los Angeles police did not arrive until slightly after 100 a.m. Meanwhile, around 3:30 a.m. Wednesday morning, four UCLA student journalists were attacked
• 56:00 - 56:30 by the pro-Israel counterprotesters on campus. One of the journalists was treated for injuries at the hospital and has since been released. There were no arrests after Tuesday night's attack. Wednesday's classes were cancelled. The Daily Bruins editorial ended with a question, quote, "Will someone have to die on our campus tonight for you to intervene, Gan Blancc? The blood would be on your hands." So for Casey Neistat, having resided in New York City for some time, these protests must have hit close
• 56:30 - 57:00 to home. I mean, his studio was a mere few miles from the Colombia encampment, and Casey had yet to comment on the actions of Israel over the past months. So, this was the perfect opportunity for him to come out in support of these students using their voices for good, right? I mean, he makes videos. Why not go travel down to Columbia University and make a video about the encampments? That'd be cool, right? Casey Neistat used this opportunity to go to Instagram to post this photo with the caption reading, "Protest the war. It's your right." But death to America, death to
• 57:00 - 57:30 the Jews. You can right off with that. Discrimination against an entire ethnic group because of the actions of a country 6,000 mi away is unamerican and unconscionable. Right? Clearly Casey is unaware that a huge chunk of these student protesters are Jewish themselves. Many of these encampments were orchestrated by Jewish groups like Jewish Voice for Peace. Yet here he is continuing to make this about himself claiming that these protesters want death to Jews. Are you kidding me? And my god, the American flag hanging behind
• 57:30 - 58:00 him. That's just the cherry on top. You are not based for this take. You are simply demonstrating the delusions of people who conflate Israel with Judaism. You are quite literally doing the thing you are arguing against. So this was in April and a whole [ __ ] ton more death and destruction has taken place since then. And Casey has yet to make any statement critical of the Israeli government, which isn't very surprising at this point because the reason I'm making this video is because Casey Neistat made an appearance on a podcast recently. The
• 58:00 - 58:30 same podcast where Casey defended David Dori. The same podcast that made Jeff Whitick confront Casey Neistat in the first place was the podcast that made me want to make this video. Towards the end of this interview, their conversation was interrupted by a protest taking place outside his studio on Broadway running through lower Manhattan. And can you guess what the people on the street were protesting? What's your relationship like with David Doick now? It's non-existent. You know, I think that um you know, when the movie was done, I
• 58:30 - 59:00 showed it to him. He's not happy with it. Um and that's it. Uh you know, I made it clear to him that like if he ever wants to reach out, I'm still the same person and I'm always here and available. But uh that's that's kind of where things where things lie. Yeah. Um and then last, what in God's name is happening outside of my office? Some sort of protest. Come on, man. I got to get out there. There's a protest outside. I mean, we hear a lot of the noise. So, what do you think is the appropriate response to this? Maybe he'll go down to
• 59:00 - 59:30 street level and interview the protesters, or at least have a conversation with one of them. Maybe he'll just show his support and yell out the window in agreement with the protesters. I'm naive. I don't know what he's going to do. Let's see what he does. [Music]
• 59:30 - 60:00 It's always something in this city. I think that was a uh some sort of pro Palestine march. I like to go down Broadway. You got to show the love, you
• 60:00 - 60:30 know. All right, one more question. It's actually about that. Okay, let's get into it. Yep. He goes and grabs his Israeli flag, which for some reason he just has on hand hanging up at its designated spot in his office and waves it out the window. What a horrible, I mean, just brain dead human being. Let's see how he justifies this. How he justifies counterprotesting a protest against genocide. I mean, seemingly he's pro genocide. Let's see how he justifies it.
• 60:30 - 61:00 Can you just explain what what happened there? Yeah. So that was um like a anti-Israel march going down Broadway. And you know when that happens I like to wave either my American flag or an Israeli flag or some combination of both. Why? He likes to wave his American flag or Israeli flag or both. What's the point of that? He's quite literally just anti-Palestine at this point. How do you think about your platform and speaking out about that
• 61:00 - 61:30 given how polarizing it is? Well, I think it's it's challenging and I've never been one to hold my tongue and I think it that exasperates for me sort of the the frustration in speaking out against anti-semitism because you know long before I spoke out against anti-semitism I was quick to speak speak out um you know for pro-LGBTQ rights and I was very loud in speaking out um in my support of African-Americans and why it's important that uh you know we stand up if there's
• 61:30 - 62:00 a moment in in this country where like our our fellow black Americans are feeling like they're being unfairly treated. Um I've never held my tongue. So when it becomes about anti-semitism, um you know, for me it's it's certainly it's different because I think everyone only understand is able to truly understand prejudicness through which the lens they experience it. I'm I'm not I'm no idea what it's like. Can imagine, but I have no idea what it's like to be
• 62:00 - 62:30 black in a place where somebody might be judging you because of the color of your skin. I don't know that. Um but I know what it's like to be treated differently because I'm I'm Jewish. Um so it's unique to me and I feel like I can speak on that in a different way. The classic liberal Zionist, the most annoying of them all. Oh, I've supported Black Lives Matter. I've supported LGBTQ rights. How could I stand idly by and not stand up against this anti-semitism? In what way is a pro Palestine march anti-semitic?
• 62:30 - 63:00 Oh, because they're anti-Israel. Israel is the antithesis of Judaism. How can people not understand this? I guarantee you, this is New York City. I guarantee you a group of hidic Jews were participating in that march because they understand how Israel has no right calling themselves the one and only Jewish state while literally committing genocide against a people group. Oh, but they're anti-Semitic, too, right? What's really challenging is that um I I do support Israel and I love Israel and I've been
• 63:00 - 63:30 there and I love Israelis. Um I don't understand Israeli politics. Yeah, no [ __ ] You clearly don't understand Israeli politics, so maybe don't speak on it. You know, I don't I don't If you say Netanyahu is a bad guy, okay, like I I think that we've had really bad presidents, too. I think we have a lot of bad leaders in this country. Criticize them. If you say I don't like the way that Israel is is um prosecuting a
• 63:30 - 64:00 war, I say, "Okay, I'm not a general." That's fair. I don't like the way that we marched into Iraq. I don't like reading about the [ __ ] that we did in in in Vietnam. That's fair. Criticize that. Um, if you say that Palestinians deserve dignity and rights and their own country, I say hell yeah they do. Hell yeah they do. Like Palestinians deserve their all of that. Casey, that's what the people on the street are protesting.
• 64:00 - 64:30 You're literally agreeing with them. Yet you stick your head out the window in opposition. You look down on them. You know, one of my lab mates at MIT was from Gaza. love the guy, but I also support Israel. And I think what's so complicated and so frustrating about this conversation is that you're not allowed to say that. You're not allowed to say that I want innocent people that live in Palestine to not be suffering and I want them to have good lives. But I also believe I don't just believe. I'm convicted in the fact that Israel has
• 64:30 - 65:00 every right to exist and that when attacked, Israel has every right to pro per um to protect itself and to fight back. And those two things are you're not allowed to say those two things. You're saying it right now, bro. You're saying it and you're still a millionaire. What you're actually not allowed to say is that you want self-determination for Palestinians without being called an anti-semite for wanting it. That is what you're not allowed to say. In the same way that you're not allowed to say like, you know, I think the Democrats are doing
• 65:00 - 65:30 some stupid stuff that I don't appreciate, but I also think that the Republicans are [ __ ] for doing stupid stuff that I don't appreciate. Um I, you know, I don't like the way that the the Democrats handle some um criminal justice reform because I think you're letting too many criminals out. What did I just hear? Casey Neistat is now coming out and taking a stand against criminal justice reform. He wants less people to experience freedom after serving their time and being rehabilitated. Who is this guy? I hate
• 65:30 - 66:00 liberals. I can say that about the Democrats. I don't like that the Republicans um the way that they address uh women's reproductive rights. I can say that about both sides, but you're not allowed to say that. And you're not allowed to say that you think that there are good people in Palestine and that you support the state of Israel. If I went down there and tried to say that those people screaming, marching down the street, they would not be receptive to that conversation. And that is really hard. Yeah. I wonder why. I wonder why. Going down on the street and confronting
• 66:00 - 66:30 people while you hold the flag of the oppressor. I wonder why that would cause violence. It's really hard because I'm not down there on the street having this conversation with 20 people um on the internet saying it to a million people and it's really hard. It's super hard to to have that conversation and it's frustrating. So, it's not hard to speak up. It's hard to try to reconcile that we can't be civil and have an honest conversation about such a a a volatile
• 66:30 - 67:00 um dangerous personal matter. How how do we start to at least have that conversation? I don't know. Trying my best, you know? I I know for me personally that I I no longer engage with people that I don't think are willing to hear. I I know that I'm very open-minded and I'm willing to hear whatever it is you have to say. No matter how much I disagree with it, I'm willing to hear your argument. Um and sometimes people convince me and I
• 67:00 - 67:30 change my perspective. I really do. It's happened a bunch in my life. Um, but you can usually tell in the first heartbeat of meeting someone if they're going to be receptive to hearing being open-minded. And if they're not, immediately walk away. Otherwise, I can just stand and argue with that door right there. It's not going to help me. It's going to make me angry and frustrated. I won't lose an ounce of sleep over that if I was realistically there would probably there would be violence if I went down there with an
• 67:30 - 68:00 Israeli lead flagged. Um though they're not I don't mean to generalize perhaps there are people down there who would be willing to engage in conversation but in my experience because I go to a lot of counterprotests. Holy [ __ ] I hate [Music] liberals. So yeah, Casey Neistat is basically your average millionaire liberal who's moving further and further to the right every day. As the contradictions in his ideology are too difficult for him to
• 68:00 - 68:30 ponder, to reconcile with, he drops all courage and sides with the oppressor. The borderline invisible violent system that makes any defense against said violence seem to be the aggressive force. Casey Neistat is someone I used to look incredibly fondly upon, someone I was inspired by to create and share my voice to an online audience. Yet, as time passes, Casey
• 68:30 - 69:00 Neistat is becoming increasingly unreceptive to that same voice he inspired in so many. And for that reason, I can no longer support Casey Neistat. Peace and love. Free Palestine. Where's the [Music] mag? Never thought it, but I'm left with
• 69:00 - 69:30 an emptiness. Won't you tell me where the magic's gone? [Music] Back when I was young, it was all around. Everywhere I looked, it was there. Now I blankly stare. And I wonder where the magic's
• 69:30 - 70:00 gone. Is there a reason why I was leaving? Did I stop believing? know could it be true now? I just hope that one day it'll come back and make everything new. Ooh. [Music] [Applause]
• 70:00 - 70:30 [Music] Well, maybe one day soon we'll be together again and the world will come alive right before my eyes just like magic. Oh, sweet
• 70:30 - 71:00 magic. Yeah, this old magic that I once knew. [Music]