Who among us has not been isolated, judged entirely for our appearance, the color of our skin? And not just in the places where one might expect, it can happen anywhere. I grew up in a conservative small town in Ohio, where some peers called me an orc or a nigger, but I’ve also encountered deliberately nasty prejudice in Trader Joe’s in Pittsburgh, at a high-end stationery store in Manhattan, before orientation at my beloved alma mater in Ithaca, at a gift shop purporting to be inclusive in Chicago, and in the hallways of the chemistry department as a grad student at Berkeley — just recollecting a few incidents off the top of my head.
Meanwhile, I have been aware of the Surrounded web series produced by Jubilee, or at least it’s been on the edge of my awareness from reading about Pete Buttigieg convincing some undecided voters before last year’s general election, and of Jordan Peterson floundering to define himself as a Christian. The format of the series involves a couple of dozen people surrounding one person, who debates each of them about claims.
Yesterday the YouTube algorithms decided to feed me the most recent episode of Surrounded, entitled “1 Progressive vs 20 Far-Right Conservatives (ft. Mehdi Hasan)”. I took the bait. Although I was unfamiliar with Hasan, I was curious to see how well he would represent his progressive views. I was also prepared to witness some uncivil behavior towards him.
However, I was unprepared to see the extraordinary degree to which these young far-right conservatives were willing to go, to reveal the emptiness of their arguments while remaining stunningly petulant and clueless that they had in fact lost those arguments. So far I have been able to bear to watch only the first half hour.
The introduction teases us with several exchanges. In one, a green-shirted angry man questions why Hasan, a naturalized citizen, should have any stake in the claim “Donald Trump is pro-crime and pro-criminal”. Another openly declares that he is a fascist, to the laughter and applause of many in the group. The third becomes stone-faced when Hasan says that he is an immigrant:
Get the hell out.
I should get out? Why?
I don’t want you here.
As for the actual sequence of events, in this episode Hasan claimed that “Donald Trump is pro-crime and pro-criminal” based upon the data that Trump pardoned January 6 protestors who violently assaulted police officers as well as those who committed financial fraud, that Trump associates with criminals, and that Trump is himself a criminal. The first interlocutor Jace had no real response and was swiftly voted out by the rest of his group. The second interlocutor Richie admitted that Donald Trump is pro-crime but that it simply doesn’t matter to him. The third, Gerard, attempted to argue that progressives are also pro-crime and that Hasan’s claim is in bad faith, but his argument didn’t land. The fourth interlocutor Samuel claimed that it’s possible that Trump pardoned criminals for other reasons, such as to unite the country, and that Trump’s intent is important to determine whether he is pro-crime and pro-criminal, but Hasan successfully countered by stating that knowingly releasing violent criminals renders someone pro-crime, regardless of intent. The last interlocutor of this segment, Lance, attempted to “whatabout” Joe Biden’s pardons, but Hasan noted that Trump is himself a convicted criminal and associated with criminals.
In summary, from what I have watched so far, Mehdi Hasan established his positions and held his own against attacks, not only on those positions but also his views on what it means to be a US citizen.
I do not know whether the outrage Surrounded elicits in viewers is actually helping us to see others’ points of view or whether it further polarizes us. I do not know whether a video that shows others applauding a self-proclaimed fascist is good for our country. It does seem to me that Hasan was waylaid, believing that he was going to argue with rational far-right conservatives rather than outright fascists. Nevertheless, here it is, among us.