Australia

I know this guy is popular - but my god I can't stand Jordan Shanks. I absolutely don't get the way parts of the Australian Left revere this guy as a hero and almost a martyr.

Everything I've seen from him was low effort. He goes out and points a camera at people or things while talking to/about them. He does very little background research, and basically just plays insinuations for effect. He presents some vaguely related, easy to find factoids, and then does a bit of 'surely there's something crooked here, wink wink'. His videos are more about his crude humour than anything else - every Honest Government Ad (shoutouts to thejuicemedia) manages to pack more actual and factual information and context into a few minutes than what Shanks does in an hour of waffling. Their clip on the cashless welfare card was highly educational, and that's just one example of many.

Not only is Shanks' work low-effort, it also does investigative journalism - which he has been alleged to be engaging in - a huge disservice. Investigative journalism does more than sling allegations and mire itself in innuendo. Investigative journalism aims to uncover things, these people go to great lengths to dig up material that most people would never know even exists. Again, Shanks rarely does anything like that. His spat with Barilaro always seemed to be more rooted in personal aversion than anything else. And not to be misunderstood: Is Barilaro a corrupt piece of shit? That's almost a given. Has Shanks achieved anything tangible to uncover corrupt activities on the part of Barilaro? Doubtful. And whenever the going got tough, Shanks had to give in.

And once again, not to be misunderstood: I give him full credit for raising bushfire relief funds - that's actually something tangible and highly laudable he has achieved. And I don't wish death threats and arson attacks on anyone, even people I can't otherwise stand.

But no, to me he's not a hero. He's a Youtuber with high visibility who, ultimately, likes to feed the outrage machine, but offers very little of substance. In that sense he's not unlike some of thew well known right wing outrage merchants.