You may have came across a viral
video on social media and
I think it's worth talking about.
It's a heartbreaking video showing
a Holiday Inn employee in
the middle of a mental episode.
He's having a breakdown.
It's very clear,
he's having a breakdown.
As it's happening, the person
filming him, which is a customer
is incredibly cruel is kind of
bullying him throughout the process
and it's difficult to watch.
In fact, it's so difficult to watch
and so awful that we're not going
to show you the video but
I do think it's important to have
a conversation about it.
Because we're in this culture now
of constantly filming people,
constantly uploading video of
people in their worst moments
online, and then of course the
court of public opinion chimes in.
In this case clearly the person
doing the filming went too far and
the person who was on film needed
help and unfortunately did not get
any compassion from the customer
over at the Holiday Inn.
Now there's also a part of this
conversation that has to deal with
whether Twitter specifically,
where this video has gone viral
should take the video down and
I would argue it should.
Now even though we're not going to
show you the video because I want
to protect the identity of
the person having the mental
episode I am going to describe it
so you understand
just how serious that was.
The video which Tariq Nasheed
posted on Twitter shows
the employee hitting himself before
walking away in tears during
an altercation with a customer who
accused the hotel chain of quote,
stealing, and quote his money.
The alleged employee later posted
on Reddit that he suffers from
bipolar disorder and
schizophrenic affective disorders.
In the video, a customer asked
the employee why he got mad and
hit the computer and was talking or
taking out frustrations that his
company made a mistake on him.
After responding that he hit
the computer because he was mad,
the employee repeatedly hits
himself in the face and
bangs his head against the computer
monitor It's really hard to watch.
It's clear that he's really
suffering there right because he's
not hitting anyone.
He's hitting himself and
he's literally banging his head on
the on the computer screen.
So at that point, the customer
asked, so is this the type of
people they have working here?
At that point the customer I'm
sorry the employee walks away.
He tries to go in the back,
the employee says he has to go and
that the customer ruined my
night ruined my whole life.
He's crying while he's saying this.
While the employee is audibly
sobbing out of the camera view, the
customer walks to the other side of
the desk and continues filming.
This should have never been posted
online and more importantly,
the treatment of this employee by
the customer was absolutely
disgusting, horrific and
It shows you the lack of compassion
that we need to fight back against.
Because clearly the person
the employee here was struggling
and needed help and he didn't get
the help or the compassion
that he needed in that moment.
So Jake, before I give you more
details, you want to jump in.
>> Yeah, so look at this,
what I call the attention economy
has driven people to extremes.
So if you watch that video,
the fact that the guy filmed it in
the first place, then put it up and
then won't take it down and
it keeps doubling down on it.
It's unbelievable, it's sickening,
it's one of the most callous things
I've ever seen.
The guy is clearly having
significant mental issues as he
keeps smashing his head against
the computer and then sobbing.
And instead of going my god,
are you okay?
He's like,
haha, basically like I got him.
No, no man, you didn't get him.
That's just it's, you've got to
have at least just an iota of human
compassion and discuss it.
And by the way later,
the employee said, he called me
the F word for- >> A gay slur.
>> Yeah, and so
I don't know if that's true or not,
but it doesn't seem.
Anyway, you see the fact pattern
here and now you know what
both have said, but everybody's so
desperate for attention that since
he's the guy who shot the video is
getting so much attention for this.
I think that's why he's saying I
can't let it go.
It's too good if I take it down.
People stop looking at me,
and I need everybody to look at me.
>> I don't even know by the way,
I no one knows who the customer is,
right?
The only reason why this went viral
is because Tariq Nasheed posted it
and it remains on Twitter.
Here I don't think he's
the customer, I don't know where he
got the video.
He's the one who posted it.
That's how it went viral over
the weekend.
And the reason why the story has
continued to develop is because he
refuses to take it down even though
there's been significant backlash
and demands for
him to take it down.
It's awful and cruel to
keep that video up and look.
What I also don't like is that
Tariq Nasheed's excuse for keeping
that video up is because of racism.
There's no evidence that this
employee is racist.
First, this employee I haven't seen
him or seen any report indicating
that he did anything racist,
said anything racist.
If there's more context that maybe
Tariq Nasheed isn't sharing,
maybe you should share that.
>> No, there's no contest. >> But
there's nothing, there's nothing.
And so I want to give you more from
the employee himself and
what he had to say, because later
he went on Reddit and he said
this is not one of my best moments.
Mental illness is real and
it literally can destroy lives.
All I wanted to do was help them,
which I couldn't because at that
point my hands were tied, and
I'm not a manager, but
I'm overworked, right?
And then he says, but
if they pressure me and
try to argue with me, I don't know
how to handle it usually, right?
And if you watch the video that is
what's happening.
And despite his moment of distress,
the pressure continues.
He also said right before he
started his recording.
I told him I have a mental
illness and I need a moment to
think before he just kept going and
going and going and
going before it became too much.
And listen, customer service jobs
are difficult.
I know from personal
experience a lot of people
know from personal experience.
Sometimes you're having a bad day
and customers are piling on and
it's difficult to keep it cool
Imagine trying to keep it cool when
you have two mental health issues,
bipolar disorder and
schizoaffective disorder.
It's just again if we just take
a moment, take a breath and
try to think about why someone's
reacting the way that they're
reacting, but instead of doing that
everyone gets their phones out, and
everyone starts judging.
And so let me get to
the Tariq Nasheed part because he
refuses to take it down.
As I mentioned,
Twitter should take it down really.
But Twitter has remained silent on
this issue.
And I want to give you two tweets
from Nasheed.
He says, quote all that phony
outrage and coordinated trolling
was used as a smokescreen, to
allow Holiday Inn to wiggle their
way out of being held responsible.
>> No wasn't.
>> Responsible for what?
And what exactly
are they responsible for?
>> There's no evidence of the kid
even did anything wrong.
So what the hell
are you talking about?
So look guys, have we covered
hundreds of cases of overt racism.
And by the way,
sometimes implicit racism, and
we explain what white privilege is.
Have we done all that here on
The Young Turks, to the point
where the right wing despises us.
They think we do they accused us of
white racism hilarious all this
nonsense, right?
But that doesn't mean that every
charge of racism is true.
Of course, of course you have
to use human judgment, right?
And so the right wing goes
to obvious extreme.
I never see racism anywhere.
Tim Scott yesterday in response to
by now there's no racism no matter
what reason when he explained case
of racism against him.
He then accuses progressives
of being racist against him.
And then he says there's no racism.
No racism is real, unfortunately
it's overwhelming oftentimes, and
but false charges of racism hurt
tremendously, okay?
because it allows all
those right wingers to go yeah,
it's all like to refund a sheet.
I saw the video the poor kid didn't
do anything wrong and he sobbing
and the guy has no sympathy for
him, okay?
And so it's counterproductive and
do we have to use judgement and
again with the standard when we had
the Me-tube movement.
Believe that women means don't
disbelieve the woman automatically,
which is what they used to do in
the past.
It doesn't mean every allegation is
by definition true, that's absurd.
And no progressive would ever think
that because we actually believe in
a fair justice system.
And being fair just in general in
society, right?
And giving people an opportunity
and actually looking at
the evidence, here they have no
evidence of racism at all, and they
have evidence of whoever the shot,
the film and then sheet for
putting it out of being incredibly
callous towards this person.
And now finally want to say one
thing, look the body cameras and
then everybody shooting
the footage has been amazing and
it's brought accountability we
never had in this country.
And again the person
who shot the video of George Floyd
being killed by Derek Chauvin did
an enormous service to our society.
So but a good thing always
the pendulum swings too far, right?
Even with a great thing,
so now this is evidence of it
beginning to swing too far, okay?
Now everybody wants to catch
something bad on tape so
they can get famous.
And now, for the first time,
I'm beginning to see people pushing
it and creating things that aren't
really there.
>> Yeah, I mean, look when we talk
about canceled culture,
I think that it's such it's
a nuanced topic because I don't
agree with those who reject
the canceled culture exists.
I also don't agree with those who
consider everything canceled
culture like Barry Weiss is like
I'm a victim of canceled culture.
No, you're not, you're privileged.
You're still working,
you're doing fine.
But canceled culture In a form does
exist and usually it overwhelmingly
negatively impacts average people
who have no power.
And this is an example of that, the
person filming it was hoping that
everyone would watch that video and
this kid, essentially I don't know
how old he is, but he looks like
a kid is going to get canceled.
Everyone's going to pile on him and
we have to ask ourselves what is it
that makes people what makes us
want to see that happen?
Why do we want to enjoy that kind
of public backlash or
outrage toward, in this case
a private individual, right?
He's just a worker at
a Holiday Inn.
>> Yeah, and guys are so
often this is a general fact about
all politics and
all the conversations.
We have every fall s in the camps,
right?
So, either everything is racist or
nothing is racist.
No, the reality is you gotta use
just, it's so obvious, right?
Either you should film everything,
you should film nothing.
Have no judgement even including
the people with power who break
the law all the time or you should
have extreme judgment all the time.
The kid had a bad day and he's got
a mental illness a smashing
the computer with his own head and
sobbing uncontrollably,
no we judge you don't judge
that kid Jesus Christ.
Don't you have any sense at all?
So no, we're rare showed that
actually asked you to use your mind
and and we believe in you, and
we believe you could
make the right judgment calls.
And part of our job is to get
present the facts to you and
say okay, not everything is simple,
not everything is binary,
not everything is black and white.
And it turns out you could have big
general phenomenon of, for example,
horrific racism in the country,
historically and today.
But still have
some things not be racist.
And same for sexism, same for
all of these issues.
Please use your minds,
it's not too much to ask for.