The Best Debunkers Shouldn’t Have Day Jobs

How the Fight Against Antisemitism Needs to Change

I’ve been spending a lot of time going back and reviewing my previous beliefs, many of which were antisemitic and tied to conspiracy theories of Jewish world domination. Naturally, this leads the antisemite to conclude that I’ve been compromised in some way, whether through blackmail, selling out, or being threatened by the Mossad—all of which is just another conspiracy theory. They have to come up with some kind of theory, because the alternative is that the belief they’ve invested in has cracks in it.

I’ve seen critiques from the least sophisticated people in these circles to the most, and they all share the same underlying claim: that there’s something wrong with me. It’s impossible that I learned something new and that I’m being genuine. But I understand where they’re coming from: “How can he go back after ‘noticing’ everything he noticed? How could he forget all the dead kids he saw in Gaza? There’s no way!”

The thing my former allies fail to understand is that I still see the same exact patterns I’ve seen before, and I’ll never forget the kids who’ve been blown to pieces in Gaza. The difference is, I no longer see those things with a tunnel vision that makes the world black and white, that removes all nuance and lacks the important details and context. Those are the things that separate truth from fiction, and conspiracy theorists, especially grifters, simplify things to the point they become a fiction by eliminating all the various and messy factors that come with reality.

The most important part of my transition is this: none of my beliefs changed because of censorship, threats, or shaming. In fact, those three things strengthened my beliefs in antisemitic conspiracy theories, because it seemed like powerful Jews had something to hide, confirming that I was “over the target,” which is a self-sealing mechanism. What changed my mind was being shown all the cracks in each theory that were either filled in with lies or facts that were exaggerated to the extreme.

This is why the most effective way to debunk conspiracy theories is to provide people the details that the theories are missing. But the details only land if they come from someone the person can actually hear them from, and that turns out to be the harder problem.

And here’s the part I can’t do anything about: nothing I say about my own motives can settle it, because I’m the source in question. Anything I offer as evidence of sincerity is exactly what a bought man would offer, which makes my testimony about myself worthless to the person who needs convincing. The organizations fighting antisemitism have the same problem, and most of them don’t know it.

So what should we do to fight antisemitism? I’ve been asked this question by many Jewish people.

I’ve told them they need an army of influencers like Nick Matau—people educated enough to debunk antisemitism with the details, the statistics, and the historical facts that expose the cracks in these theories, so that people stop believing in them rather than being destroyed for believing them.

Nick works a regular job and has to find time after hours to debunk people on TikTok and YouTube, while the other side has bot farms, e-celebrities making millions pushing lies, and followers echoing their narratives because social media incentivizes all of it—no doubt supported by foreign actors. Billions of people are getting their education from that machine, and for the next generation it’s more influential than any newspaper.

Someone like Nick, who is doing extremely important work, shouldn’t be squeezing it in around a day job. He should be able to do it full-time. The same is true of Brandon Martinez, who was as antisemitic as I was, snapped out of it, and helped me do the same. He does serious work and has said he keeps other jobs to support himself, while the people pushing these narratives travel the world doing collaborations without a worry.

Notice that Nick and Brandon work for opposite reasons. Nick was never in it, which is exactly why an antisemite can’t dismiss him as self-interested. Brandon was in it as deep as I was, which means he can’t be dismissed as ignorant, and he knows which claims are load-bearing. Those are the two things that actually reach someone inside, and neither of the men doing it has anyone paying for it.

Right now all the money goes to organizations that identify people, catalogue them, pressure their employers, and publish reports on rising antisemitism. That approach has had decades and a great deal of money behind it, and there is still no evidence that it makes anyone stop believing.

And here’s the part the organizations are least likely to want to hear. If someone already believes Jews run the world, no appeal to Jewish victimhood can land: not the Holocaust, not the pogroms, not the expulsions. The frame has already classified Jews as powerful, and a powerful group claiming to be a victim doesn’t read as a victim. Worse, it reads as confirmation: “Look how the Jew uses it to stop you from criticizing him!” The suffering becomes another exhibit for the prosecution.

This isn’t unique to Jews either. Watch what happens when White Americans or Europeans raise concerns about demographic change or being disenfranchised by “anti-racist” policies. The answer comes back: “You’re the majority, you hold the institutions, and you don’t get to complain!” The grievance gets laughed at regardless of which parts of it are true. It’s the same exact mechanism. “The Jew” is replaced with “The White Man.”

Which is why the most effective messengers have to come from outside the group being accused.

This isn’t a PR trick; it’s the structure of verification. You don’t audit a company’s books with that company’s accountant, and you don’t settle a claim about a group by consulting only that group. If someone thinks “these people are lying,” then those people are the one set of witnesses whose testimony can’t be trusted.

This is also the answer to the problem I started with. My own account of my own motives can’t resolve anything, because I’m the person in question. What does resolve it is other people independently arriving at the same place, which is why the handful of people who’ve publicly said they think I’m sincere did more for my credibility than every interview I’ve given.

This is why having non-Jews debunk antisemitism isn’t optional. It’s the concept of social proof, where other people validate the facts about you, and it’s extremely important, because in order for someone to check the facts, they need to get them from a place outside of the source in question. If Jews are the only ones debunking antisemitism, the antisemite will see it as a cover-up: “Of course the Jews are going to defend the Jews!”

I’m not writing this as an outsider offering theory. I spent fourteen years producing the material that creates this problem. And here’s the part that should really hit hard: I had already heard Jews say exactly what Nick and Brandon have said, but it never reached me because I thought Jews were liars, so anything they said was discounted before I heard the end of the sentence. What got through came from non-Jews validating what Jews said, including people who had lied to me about Jews and whom I later caught lying about other things.

That’s social proof, and it works like star ratings on a product.

So what needs to happen to effectively fight antisemtism?

1. Debunkers specializing in specific topics and conspiracies need the backing to do it full-time.

2. Outreach to the people who aren’t actually antisemites yet. Most of the people repeating these lines picked them up secondhand and have never been given a reason to doubt them.

3. Safe and civil exchanges between people who can actually argue, aimed at the conspiracy theories themselves. That’s how you compete with the machine on the other side instead of handing it new martyrs. That means inviting the biggest names to talk about what they believe, in public, at length, without being shamed, blamed, or punished.

Since I left, a steady stream of people have reached out to talk, some out of curiosity, some to understand how someone gets out. That’s the bridge-building I said months ago I wanted to do, and it’s working better than I expected.

What I’m describing here is the same thing at scale, with institutional support behind it.

The alternative is the existing playbook, which has had decades and a great deal of money and has coincided with the problem getting worse. Keep running it, and nothing will change, because every person it crushes is a demonstration of the exact power the conspiracy says they have.

I’d rather be debunked than destroyed. That was true of me when I was at my worst, and I’m sure it’s true of everyone else that is still in these circles.

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