Barstool Sports founder Dave Portnoy recently criticized social media as a “cesspool” that encourages hate, following a disturbing anti-Semitic incident while he was filming a One Bite pizza review in Starkville, Mississippi.
During a conversation on “My View with Lara Trump,” he recounted a moment when a child shouted, “They threw a bunch of coins at me and said, ‘You’re a Jew.'” Portnoy expressed his thoughts on how we got to this point, mentioning that it starts in colleges where intimidation and hate speech often go unchecked.
As someone who is Jewish, Portnoy highlighted that social media amplifies such hateful actions. It creates a platform for those with harmful views to connect and feel validated.
“The internet is a cesspool,” he remarked, noting that certain individuals who harbor hatred use anonymity to express themselves without facing any real-world consequences.
A related incident involved a former Mississippi State University student, Patrick McClintock, who, at the age of 20, was arrested for disturbing the peace for yelling anti-Semitic slurs at Portnoy during the review.
McClintock reportedly shouted, “Hey, you Jew, Dave!”
Portnoy, however, found some solace in the public’s response. Rather than supporting the aggressor, many bystanders confronted him and extended apologies to Portnoy. “It was really uplifting,” he shared, though he added that he didn’t seek apologies; he wanted to express outrage at such incidents.
In a broader context, Portnoy linked this incident to a larger issue fueled by the anonymity of the internet, mentioning that Lara Trump faces similar hateful messages daily on platforms like X and Instagram. He remarked, “These people are not real; they cover their faces.” He noted that the online world allows such individuals to form echo chambers, reinforcing their flawed beliefs. It’s a troubling situation, indeed.
