EndemicEarthling

Comedian, provocateur, YouTuber, muckraker & investigative journalist #JordanShanks (aka #friendlyjordies) had his house #firebombed a couple of months ago. A long list of powerful interests have plenty of motive, given his history of exposing #corruption & abuses of power in NSW politics. (NSW is an Australian state with 8m people, 5m in #Sydney.)

Shanks has targeted many of NSW's major industries: #coal, #banking, #construction, #media, #realestate, #gambling, #logging. He's been sued by a mining magnate #billionaire & a member of the state executive. He's exposed links between organised crime & the executive, shown how easy #moneylaundering is, triggered parliamentary questions about #NSWpolice abuses, & played a not-insignificant role in bringing down a popular premier & her deputy, almost causing a rift between the two parties that form a Coalition government in NSW. He's also covered corruption in federal parliament.

At times, he has been nasty, misogynistic, racist & ableist. He's unashamedly partisan (pro-ALP). But there's no denying that while still in his 20s he has become a significant figure in #NSWpol and #Auspol, whose influence has been felt across many fields.
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#Barilaro #Berejiklian #NSWICAC #ClivePalmer

Feb 23, 2023 at 11:32pmWeb
Show threadEndemicEarthlingFeb 23, 2023

All this has gained #friendlyjordies an online audience almost as big as some of the major TV channels—as well as a lot of enemies.

Before having his house firebombed (then doxxed on the evening news), he's faced lawsuits (civil & criminal), had numerous hit pieces against him in the corporate press, had numerous videos taken down, been subject to plenty of death threats, and had counter-terrorism cops surveilling him and then arresting his producer on bogus charges.

So after getting firebombed, what does he do now? Keep his head down?

No, he picks one of the most controversial topics in the country, sure to anger some violent people with access to deadly weapons (and embarrass yet more powerful people): #WarCrimes in the Australian Defence Force during the #AfghanistanWar, and how (so far) the only individual prosecuted in relation to them has been the #whistleblower who brought them to national attention.

Watch it before it gets taken down: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_NCPkoUekHQ
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#ADF #ADFwarcrimes #surveillance

True (war)Crime Podcast

YouTube
Show threadskuaFeb 24, 2023
@EndemicEarthling
Link goes to a 2 year old episode about #KoalaKillers
Show threadEndemicEarthlingFeb 24, 2023
@skua Ah thanks - fixed now. Just cut+pasted from the wrong tab.
Show threadskuaFeb 24, 2023

@EndemicEarthling
#AusPol
FriendlyvJordie is unpleasant.
Probably less so than the real Tony Abbott and real Scott Morrison.
But still deeply unpleasant.

And his making people more emotional will make them more stupid.
But less stupid than if they sit staring at the SkyNews, with another alcoholic beverage in hand tilted to let a small stream slowly run onto the upholstery.

And out of that scrap bucket comes information that big media refuse to touch and that is in the national intetest.

Show threadEndemicEarthlingFeb 24, 2023

@skua Yeah, I'd stopped watching him for a while because of how unnecessarily vicious he is. It's almost as though he's always needing to prove to his critics that he's not 'woke'. It comes across with a similar vibe to the kind of performative homophobia that was a constant feature of culture when I was growing up, a performance of hatred driven by fear of contamination if the performance wasn't convincing enough.

Despite this, the stories he continues to break are astounding. So I re-subscribed.

But it's not just distasteful, it's limiting his reach and offering hostages to fortune. For instance, if his original bruz video had taken fewer cheap shots at Barilaro's Italian heritage, it would not have been nearly as vulnerable to the mainstream media spinning the subsequent defamation case as being about racism (rather than corruption).

The depressing thing is that he likely continues with the nastiness because he's found that without, a significant chunk of his audience stop listening.