Jussie Smollett’s 2019 "hate crime" hoax—bleach poured, MAGA chants, and a noose—collapsed under his own confession, security footage showing him holding his subway sandwich post-attack, and mismatched attacker descriptions. Schaffer argues the case exposed fake hate crime trends, diverting focus from real issues like prison overrepresentation and black fetal abortion rates, while questioning why funds meant for actual victims went to Smollett. Despite political polarization critiques, including media bias at Berkeley, the episode concludes that fabricated narratives undermine trust in justice, even as Trump’s anti-socialism stance gains traction. [Automatically generated summary]
Not that they are a big deal, but is it like one of the biggest problems facing minority communities?
unidentified
Oh, no.
In modern contemporary society?
No, of course not.
I would think things like, you know, the like socioeconomic issues are probably at the forefront or like, you know, literacy, you know, access to education and healthcare and things like that are.
I don't think hate crimes are in the U.S. occurring on a day-to-day basis.
Yeah, he's friends with Kamala Harris, Corey Booker, the Obamas.
But additionally, he's also an empire star and a singer.
And then on top of that, he's actually an activist against Donald Trump and said that this crime was done by Trump supporters who yelled this is MAGA country as they poured bleach on him, beat him up, and put a noose around his neck.
Yeah.
unidentified
Well, that's a big problem.
A lot of people, they just take too hard to one side of the spectrum, of political spectrum, rather.
Do you think that we don't hear about Trump people attacking gays and blacks because the media doesn't report on it or because it doesn't really happen?
unidentified
It's also the fact that Trump supporters, they like to say that he's not racist.
So people that support Trump like to cover it up and say like, oh, he had other motives.
He's not racist.
But I definitely think it's both of those that you said.
Well, they know it wasn't real, but whether or not he's gonna get charged with the felony, because the evidence shows that it wasn't real, right?
They have security cam footage where he didn't have, he didn't have the attack on footage.
He had his subway sandwich in hand when he was leaving.
They found the two suspects.
They weren't white, like he said.
They made confessionals.
They had a death letter sent to his office.
They found the magazines in the house with the pages cut out that they used to make the letters.
So all the evidence is there, but obviously we can't put the verdict on him because that wouldn't be fair because that's what we live in our free country, right?
I mean, he has to go through a jury of our peers.
But I mean, so it is fake, but I mean, whether or not he's a criminal is what the jury will decide.
Do you feel like the ends justifies the mean?
Like, because he's an actor.
What if he came out and said this was all an act?
This was activism.
Because he did really, he's a good actor, actually.
He is.
So if you come out and he goes, yeah, actually, I did this whole thing as a, not a joke, but like to show, should he still be prosecuted for lying, or do you feel like the ends justifies the means here?
unidentified
I think he still should be prosecuted because he did take like money from like an investigation that could have been used for other resources to solve other crimes that actually did happen.
So yes, he still should be prosecuted, but I mean, I could see like why he would try to do that, though.
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