• ampersandrew@kbin.social
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    11 months ago

    Click the link in my comment. There is room for almost all of what he said to be true, but he didn’t prove it, and that’s a big problem, because there’s also room all of it or nearly all of it to be false. It’s why an actual reporter would get someone on the record to confirm a fact, consult with an expert, and be sure that the things they think are damning are actually damning. Meanwhile, he and OrdinaryGamers may have made some legal faux pas in the process of putting up videos that are sensationalist for clicks. Again, this doesn’t mean that their allegations are false. But it’s so, so important to actually prove it, because if they’re wrong, lies travel faster than the truth, and if they ever make a retraction (I doubt it), fewer people will actually hear it.

    • mozz@mbin.grits.devOP
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      11 months ago

      I asked about the specific claims in the story I linked to.

      Claim #1 can be verified by watching Jirard’s video

      Claim #2 can be verified by watching Jirard’s video

      Claim #3 is a simple statement of logic, no factual assertion

      Claim #4 is a statement of what’s in Jirard’s video, and an argument about how the law works, no factual assertion beyond what’s in the video

      Claim #5 is a simple statement of logic (predicated on what’s in Jirard’s video)

      Claim #6 is an assertion about what Jirard claims “constantly”; hard to verify without watching literally everything Jirard has published

      Literally nothing in the story I linked had anything to do with anything not in the public record. I was asking about those specific claims to get a sense of what exact statements of Karl’s you’re talking about. Your answer doesn’t give me a ton of confidence that you’re being precise in your allegations about Karl.

      I haven’t watched your video and don’t plan to for a little while because of time reasons, but I’ll take a look. I am curious on the topic (why I asked you the question I did.) The only other thing I’ll say on the topic is, Karl’s been on the receiving end of a $100k+ lawsuit already from the subject of one of his videos; it’s possible that he’s saying irresponsible things without consulting with his lawyer who would otherwise advise him not to, but I think it’s unlikely.

      • ampersandrew@kbin.social
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        11 months ago

        I’ll start you off by saying that his “textbook definition of charity fraud” is not from a textbook, and you’ll find that and many other answers in the video I linked you. It’s long, but it’s chapter coded with timestamps, and while I didn’t skip it, the author gives you a sizable chunk on tax law that you can skip if it’s too dry.

        Literally nothing in the story I linked had anything to do with anything not in the public record. I was asking about those specific claims to get a sense of what exact statements of Karl’s you’re talking about. Your answer doesn’t give me a ton of confidence that you’re being precise in your allegations about Karl.

        As far as I can tell, the only thing he actually proved was that approximately $600k sat in a bank account that most people probably believed was being moved along more judiciously than that. Even that has a reasonable explanation from a legal perspective, and even that answer may not be good enough for the people who donated to Open Hand. As someone who just wanted to know the truth, whatever it was, there was no smoking gun in the next two Jobst videos I watched, and that’s the problem. Legally, the video I linked gets into far more about what they shouldn’t have said and why Jirard’s video was definitely heavily advised and/or drafted by actual lawyers (which even us non-experts suspected, even if we didn’t know why) who may have set up Jobst to fall for a trap allowing Jirard to legitimately sue him.

        These two and a half videos from Jobst (I got fed up with his “this response is the worst thing ever” video) are the first I’ve ever watched from him, because it came up in my recommendations, and his reputation around Billy Mitchell and Wata preceded him. What I saw led me to believe that perhaps he just needs to be the guy who exposes people’s scummy secrets, but maybe this one actually ended before it got truly juicy, because life isn’t always as dramatic as what gets written for television, and then he just had to fill time in extra videos. Either way, I was not a fan of what I saw and decided to never watch a certain YouTuber again based on his videos; it just wasn’t Jirard…oh, and ordinary gamers was probably worse than Jobst.

        • mozz@mbin.grits.devOP
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          11 months ago

          he only thing he actually proved was that approximately $600k sat in a bank account that most people probably believed was being moved along more judiciously than that

          The assertion was that Jirard had confirmed that some of the money was spent on things that weren’t charity, and that the explanations Jirard gave for why it hadn’t been given to charity after years had passed were nonsense. All of that depends just on Jirard’s statements.

          That said, I can buy the idea that there were other allegations in the video that shouldn’t have been made because they’re not provable; I’ll watch your video.

          a trap allowing Jirard to legitimately counter-sue

          Counter-sue? Karl is suing Jirard? When did this happen?

          • ampersandrew@kbin.social
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            11 months ago

            Counter-sue? Karl is suing Jirard? When did this happen?

            You’re right, miswording on my part. I got lost in the legal threats back and forth. I’ll correct it.

            • mozz@mbin.grits.devOP
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              11 months ago

              There were no legal threats from Karl’s side to get lost in. There were statements about Jirard’s conduct, but no threats. I’m suddenly a lot more skeptical about what you’re saying, although I’ll still watch the video.

              • mozz@mbin.grits.devOP
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                11 months ago

                Okay, I’ve seen enough; I made it to 33:12. This video is way longer than it needs to be; Karl made some pretty specific allegations, which do line up with the legal definition of charity fraud (which is laid out in clear legalese in the video), if they’re true. The most critical part is the way Jirard repeatedly on stream made very specific statements about where the money was going to go, or had gone, that turned out not to be true by his own later admission. The video could have started at 28:29 with “what is fraud, and did it happen,” and done at most a couple minutes’ Cliffs Notes for the rest.

                I waited and waited for this to be addressed.

                At 31:02, he artfully excerpts a statement from Jobst saying the behavior was “unethical and almost certainly illegal,” by saying only the “certainly illegal” part. Those are two very different statements, and this was the first time my whoa-hold-the-fuck-up meter started to register.

                At 31:30, he airs one of the statements by Jirard that’s not really an issue, and explains that as a general statement it’s not really an issue. How about the statements Karl took issue with? I was back in waiting mode.

                At 33:04, he says, “The times where Jirard has stated that funding has occurred might be obvious miscommunications or simple misstatements. Human error.”

                Shut the fuck up Mr. Lawyer Man. You can’t make a whole half hour lead up about why the whole thing is a huge misunderstanding and what a great position Jirard is in since he never actually did any fraud, and then just casually drop that “Oh yeah and those the times he lied about where the money had gone he probably just made a mistake and it’s not a big deal.” Especially since part of the defense is, well we were waiting before we actually gave the money for it to be enough to be able to do X Y Z fancy thing.

                I am not a lawyer. There may be some additional explanation that clarifies why they were “obvious miscommunications.” But I saw enough to satisfy my curiosity.

                • ampersandrew@kbin.social
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                  11 months ago

                  if they’re true

                  Look, I get you’re a fan of his, but this “if” is the problem, like I’ve been saying. The video I linked you, which you aren’t interested in watching, only outlines why he may legally want to shut up about Jirard. The video author comes to this conclusion tediously because the law is tedious, but at least he’s got some sense of humor. I personally just never want to watch another video of Jobst’s because I think he did a poor job of reaching a burden of proof that an actual reporter would need before coming forward with a story. Even not being a journalist myself, I came to the same conclusion as that link the other user sent you. Good on you if you enjoy Jobst’s videos, but I hope he holds himself to higher standards in the future.

                  • mozz@mbin.grits.devOP
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                    11 months ago

                    I’m not trying to get into a big back-and-forth about this, but just to take one more stab at what I’ve been saying:

                    The Moon video, Jobst, and the article someone else sent me here all seem to be in agreement that Jirard is on video claiming to have already donated money that it turned out later he hadn’t donated. I’m not sure where you’re getting that there’s a lack of evidence of charity fraud.

                    Jobst, if I remember correctly, showed the clips of him saying it. Moon said they were “obvious miscommunications or simple misstatements.” Ernie said they were “slip-ups” and that he was just filling time on his stream. To me, the latter two sound like bullshit. You are, of course, free to draw your own different conclusions and judgements about any or all of this. Just the fact that he said some things doesn’t automatically mean he’s guilty. But it’s weird to say there’s no evidence when all the sources seem to acknowledge (with their own wildly differing spins on the presentation) that there is.

                    As for your implication that I’m just saying all this because I wasn’t interested in the video, I just like Karl Jobst’s videos, etc:

                    “Well, I haven’t ignored [evidence for creationism]; I considered the purported evidence and then rejected it. There is a difference, and this is a difference, we might say, between prejudice and postjudice. Prejudice is making a judgment before you have looked at the facts. Postjudice is making a judgment afterwards. Prejudice is terrible, in the sense that you commit injustices and you make serious mistakes. Postjudice is not terrible. You can’t be perfect of course; you may make mistakes also. But it is permissible to make a judgment after you have examined the evidence. In some circles it is even encouraged.” -Carl Sagan

            • mozz@mbin.grits.devOP
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              11 months ago

              I think I got so mad that I spent half an hour of my life watching this, that I replied to myself. But my response (after watching most of the video) is up there.