4 March 9-15, 2023 miaminewtimes.com | browardpalmbeach.com New Times | music | cafe | culture | Night+Day | news | letters | coNteNts | Month XX–Month XX, 2008 miaminewtimes.com MIAMI NEW TIMES | MUSIC | CAFE | FILM | ART | STAGE | NIGHT+DAY | METRO | RIPTIDE | LETTERS | CONTENTS | NEIGHBORHOOD NAZI Anti-Semite livestreamer Jon Minadeo Peddles Hate by the Minute. BY NAOMI FEINSTEIN AND IZZY KAPNICK C lad in sleek a sportcoat and sporting a tightly trimmed salt-and-pep- per beard and mirrored sunglasses, Jon Minadeo II counts the cash trickling in, dollar by dollar, minute by minute, as he hosts his livestream on the video platform Odysee. A tab on the screen displays a running tally in real time, showing whether his viewers have met his daily fundraising goal. Minadeo thanks his followers for the donations — or “donos,” as he calls them — which amounted to more than $7,000 last month. The 40-year-old former YouTube rapper isn’t shy about what he’s selling these days. “Anti-Semitism is the best drug out there. I get high on anti-Semitism daily,” he tells his audience. “I’m telling you it is the ultimate high. Anti-Semitism. Bam! Ultimate high.” During a January 25 videocast, Minadeo solicited money while claiming he’d recently crashed a drone into an FBI property in West Palm Beach. The incident occurred while he and his associates were in town for a stunt in which they used a light projector to flash a bright green swas- tika onto the cityscape. “That was a costly mistake. Definitely not a cheap mistake,” Minadeo said of the drone mishap. “I appreciate that we’ve been making donos quite a bit. Those things will set you back. That definitely did set us back. That set us back. That one stung.” He then imitated an older man with a ste- reotypical Jewish voice: “I can’t see anything. Oh god, I hit the fucking FBI building! Ah fuck, someone find the drone. I just cost my- self a thousand dollars.” Minadeo’s streams are filled with rants be- littling and demonizing Jewish, Black, and gay people. He often interacts with random folks on the chat app Omegle, including young children, trying to court them into neo-Nazi beliefs. During a February 23 stream, Minadeo repeatedly called a Black boy a “nigger” while chatting with the child on Omegle. In another segment, he encour- aged two girls to sing a chant with the slur. In a February 14 video, he voiced support for violent attacks on transgender people. Hailing from a Mexican-American family in California, Minadeo has risen through the ranks of extremist media over the past four years to become one of the internet’s most popular neo-Nazis. Out of his past home base in Petaluma, he formed the Goyim De- fense League, a network of anti-Semitic pro- vocateurs. His popularity swelled when he went on his “Name the Nose” tour in 2020, where he drove around California in a white van covered with slurs, anti-Semitic mes- sages, and swastikas. The tour soon ex- panded to other states. In addition to livestreaming, he has been responsible for several anti-Semitic stunts, including neo-Nazi light projections in busy cities, distributing flyers nationwide alleging Jewish conspiracies, and insulting Jewish people with a bullhorn outside houses of worship. A widely viewed video from February 17 captured Minadeo and several fellow neo- Nazis displaying anti-Semitic posters outside the Chabad of South Orlando in southwest Orange County. Minadeo is shown in the video haranguing people near the property and shouting into a megaphone, “Heil Hit- ler!” and “You filthy Jew piece of shit!” Promoting Violence: “I Totally Support This” Minadeo fashions himself as a neo-Nazi master of ceremonies, claiming he’ll throw a big party after his goal of expelling Jews from the United States is achieved. Once Jewish people and their “Kabbalah witch magic” are banished, a global war against Jews will fol- low, he preaches. The outcome he backs is simple: drive Jews out of America, send them to Israel, and wage war. “We are going to wage war on Israel — and this will be the end,” he professes. Minadeo peppers Nazi salutes throughout his show. At times, he twists his head side- ways as if he were trying to shake off the hand of a Jewish phantasm he believes is wrapped around his neck. His antics have become finely tuned to invigorate his followers — ref- erences to Jewish devil worship and hook noses are favorites. Despite the Mexican-American back- ground of his family, which runs an Italian restaurant in California, he spouts anti-La- tino slurs and has made immigration, disdain for interracial marriage, and ethno-national- ism central points in his rhetoric. On February 14, Minadeo featured a video entitled “India Says No! to Drag Queen Story Hour,” in which attackers are shown beating a group of trans people in India, according to Minadeo. As the clip played, Minadeo com- mented, “I totally support this,” and, “This seems like good old-fashioned common sense.” He exclaimed, “Yes, yes!” as the as- sault devolves into villagers striking the trans people with sticks. Added Minadeo: “If we could trade the In- dians who are doing the tech help in America for these Indians to come over here and beat the shit out of our faggot trannies, I think I’d sign up for it.” He claimed that he “doesn’t endorse vio- lence,” only to observe moments later that he would be pleased to see attackers “bring out the sticks and just do what you gotta do.” “Wake up these fucking sleepy Americans to how you deal with this shit. Are we there yet? I mean, are we there yet? How much more do we have to tolerate? How much more?” he said. “We’ve gotta do something here. Folks, we are running out of time.” Minadeo’s entertainment career dates back to a foray into independent movies. In 2011, he appeared in Curveball, a movie in which he stars as a man whose marriage plans are derailed when he finds out his girl- friend is cheating. According to IMDB, he starred in the short film “Vampire” released the same year. Under the name Shoobie Da Wop, he put out rap albums entitled “American Man Whore” in 2013 and “Whore Moans” in 2015. In songs like “College Girls” and “Pocket Full of Dope,” he raps about sexual escapades, pounding booze, and smoking weed. Minadeo declined to answer questions about his background, radicalization, and revenue stream when reached by phone by New Times. In reference to the Goyim De- fense League, he released a statement saying, “We are a peaceful, nonviolent movement ex- posing Jewish supremacy. We will stop flyer- ing across the country when the media debunks the flyers.” Minadeo’s GoyimTV channel started broadcasting episodes roughly two and a half years ago, and he’s recorded more than 350 episodes since. Over the show’s course, he has shifted towards a more polished, swank- ily dressed appearance and fiery orating style. Some of his livestream sessions have gar- nered $1,000 in two hours. In one video, he gets frustrated when a viewer calls him “Jon” in the chat box: “If I don’t know you by your first name, don’t call me by my first name. I really don’t like it. That’s a good way to piss me off.” He says his “warrior name is HT,” or Handsome Truth, his Odysee channel moniker. “Respect me. Call me by my warrior name, please. Jon’s gone.” Odysee and Entropy: Empowering Hate? Odysee, the video platform on which Mi- nadeo streams, is marketed as a YouTube al- ternative — an interface where content creators aren’t bound by overly aggressive censorship. The company depicts YouTube content regulation as politically motivated, biased, and heavy-handed. In a social media post from October 22, 2022, Odysee says, “Big tech moderators should not be responsible for shaping our culture.” Though the company has carved a solid niche for itself with a hands-off approach to moderation, its community rules explicitly prohibit bigoted, hateful activity. Content that incites hatred against “a particular group or person” based on ethnicity, nationality, race, religion, or sexual orientation, is not allowed, according to Odysee’s rules. The rules also bar content that features “prolonged name calling or malicious insults” based on someone’s “intrinsic attributes,” such as physical appearance or race. Moreover, the promotion of criminal ac- tivity is prohibited. “Put those Romans in the sky, and let’s expose these Jewish lies,” Jon Minadeo cries out, referring to the salute he uses to open his show. Screenshot via GoyimTV | METRO | “ANTI-SEMITISM IS THE BEST DRUG OUT THERE. I GET HIGH ON ANTI- SEMITISM DAILY.”
