Photo: AndyCNgo ; cropped by Beyond My Ken ( talk ) 00:23, 8 May 2020 (UTC) · CC BY-SA 4.0
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Joe Rogan Experience #2303 - Dave Smith & Douglas Murray
40 attributed claim occurrences
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Dave's a comedian
Dave Smith is a well-documented American stand-up comedian, podcaster, and political commentator based in New York, who hosts the libertarian podcast 'Part of the Problem.'
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Pat Buchanan debated against Andrew Roberts and several other historians at the Intelligence Squared in London and was 'absolutely leveled'
Pat Buchanan did debate at an Intelligence Squared event in London on September 3, 2009 (at Methodist Central Hall Westminster) on the motion 'Churchill was more a liability than an asset to the free world.' However, the opposing debaters on record are not confirmed to include Andrew Roberts — sources name Nigel Knight and Norman Stone as Buchanan's co-proposers, and the claim that Buchanan was 'absolutely leveled' is a subjective characterization; the Commentary Magazine account notes Buchanan's side won very few converts (181 of 1,800 attendees), suggesting a poor showing, but the specific claim about Roberts being a debater there is unconfirmed.
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In February 2022, Vladimir Putin's tanks invaded Ukraine.
Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine on February 24, 2022, with armoured columns including tanks crossing the border from multiple directions. This is extensively documented by Britannica, CNBC, and other sources.
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Ukraine is a pretty corrupt country by EU standards and by World Bank standards.
Transparency International's Corruption Perceptions Index ranks Ukraine 104th out of 182 countries with a score of 36/100, and one source notes it is the third most corrupt country in Europe (after Russia and Belarus) — well below EU member states. World Bank governance indicators similarly reflect low control-of-corruption scores for Ukraine, supporting the claim.
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Pat Buchanan debated historians on the origins of World War II
A well-documented 2009 public debate in London had Buchanan argue that WWII was unnecessary, facing historians including Andrew Roberts, Antony Beevor, and Richard Overy. Roberts's side won overwhelmingly, with about 1,800 of the ~2,000 attendees siding against Buchanan.
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The moderator turned to the historian Andrew Roberts and asked why World War II began
While the Buchanan vs. Roberts debate on WWII's origins is well-documented, the specific anecdote of a moderator posing this exact question to Roberts during the debate cannot be confirmed or refuted from available sources.
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The speaker wrote the New York Post cover the next day after Trump's statements, featuring a big picture of Vladimir Putin with the headline 'this is a dictator'
The New York Post did publish a front-page cover with a large photo of Putin and the headline 'Mr. President: Putin is THE dictator' in response to Trump's posts, but it was published on February 21, 2025 — two days after Trump's February 19 posts, not the next day. The cover was written by columnist Douglas Murray.
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NATO didn't go around recruiting — countries came to NATO
Multiple historical sources confirm that after the Soviet Union's dissolution, Eastern European and former Warsaw Pact states eagerly and voluntarily sought NATO membership out of fear of Russia, rather than being recruited by NATO. NATO formalized this through Membership Action Plans in response to demand from these countries.
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Putin tried to invade Georgia and seized South Ossetia and Abkhazia in 2008
Russia waged war against Georgia in August 2008 and subsequently occupied and formally recognized South Ossetia and Abkhazia as independent states, effectively seizing both territories from Georgian control.
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Putin's actions in February 2022 provoked two new countries (Finland and Sweden) to join NATO and his borders with NATO have grown
Finland and Sweden both applied to join NATO in May 2022 explicitly due to Russia's invasion of Ukraine, and Finland's accession alone more than doubled NATO's pre-existing land border with Russia (adding ~830 miles).
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It doesn't come easy or natural for Sweden to join a military alliance
Sweden maintained a formal policy of military neutrality and non-alignment dating back to the Napoleonic Wars (~1812), over 200 years, before joining NATO in March 2024.
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Moynihan's rule is that the number of human rights violations in a country occur in exactly inverse proportion to the number of claims of human rights violations
Moynihan's documented quote states: 'The amount of violations of human rights in a country is always an inverse function of the amount of complaints about human rights violations heard from there,' which matches the claim accurately.
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Putin decided he wanted to gobble up Ukraine because he wants to reconstitute the Soviet Union
Putin has described the Soviet Union's collapse as 'the greatest geopolitical tragedy of the 20th century' and Russian foreign policy has sought to re-impose control over former Soviet states, lending some support to this claim. However, many analysts characterise his primary goal as eliminating Ukrainian statehood and democracy rather than literally reconstituting the USSR, making this a simplification.
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Ukraine is in its third year of war
Russia's full-scale invasion began on February 24, 2022. By February 2025, the war entered its fourth calendar year, though the 'third year' framing (meaning the third year of fighting) was accurate at the time this was likely recorded.
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Hamas leaders bought condos in Qatar and lived extremely well
Haniyeh and other Hamas leaders did live in luxury in Qatar and Turkey, splitting time between luxury hotels, private jets, and fine dining. However, the specific claim of purchasing 'condos' in Qatar is an imprecise characterization; reporting indicates they lived in luxury hotels rather than personally owned condos.
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Hamas had 18 years in Gaza (since 2005)
Israel withdrew from Gaza in August-September 2005, but Hamas only won the legislative elections in January 2006 and did not gain full control of Gaza until June 2007 after the Battle of Gaza. Counting from 2005 inflates Hamas's tenure by 2 years; counting from their actual takeover in 2007 would be approximately 16 years at the time of recording.
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Accurate▶ 1:31:14
Mahmoud Abbas is currently in something like his 20th year of his first four-year term
Abbas was elected to a four-year term on January 9, 2005, and has remained in power ever since without holding new presidential elections. By 2024, he would be in approximately his 20th year of that four-year term, consistent with CFR noting he was in his 15th year as of January 2019.
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There were plans to organize a protest in Times Square in support of Hamas on October 7, 2023, while the massacre was still going on.
Pro-Palestinian rallies did occur in New York on and immediately after October 7, 2023, and some demonstrators celebrated the Hamas attack. However, the most prominent and well-documented large-scale Times Square protests (organized by 'Within Our Lifetime') were on October 8 and later dates, not confirmed as being organized during the attack itself. The claim that a 'massive protest in support of Hamas' was planned while the massacre was 'still going on' cannot be fully verified from available sources, though the rapid emergence of celebratory protests on Oct 8 is documented.
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The Ariana Grande arena bombing in Manchester happened in 2017.
The Manchester Arena bombing occurred on 22 May 2017, following an Ariana Grande concert, killing 22 people. This is well-documented.
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The Bataclan massacre in Paris happened in 2015.
The Bataclan attack was part of the November 13, 2015 Paris attacks, making the year 2015 correct.
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The Pulse nightclub shooting happened in 2015.
The Pulse nightclub shooting in Orlando, Florida occurred on June 12, 2016, not 2015 as claimed.
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The stated aims of Hamas include the annihilation of the Jewish people.
Hamas's 1988 founding charter does call for killing Jews and destroying Israel, but the 2017 revised charter shifted language from 'Jews' to 'Zionists' and framed the conflict in political rather than ethnic/religious terms. The speaker's characterization applies most accurately to the 1988 charter and to statements by some Hamas leaders, but the current official charter is more ambiguous, making an unqualified claim about 'stated aims' misleading.
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Hamas attacked a dance party (Nova music festival) in the early morning, with attackers using machetes on people.
Hamas did massacre attendees of the Nova music festival (a pre-dawn rave) on October 7th, killing 378 people. However, the primary weapons used were firearms and rockets; while brutal close-quarters killings occurred, 'macheteing' is not widely documented as a primary method in verified accounts of the Nova attack specifically.
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False▶ 1:43:20
There was no starvation in Gaza after 2005 and no deficit of goods coming in
Multiple UN and humanitarian sources document that the blockade imposed after Hamas's 2006 election victory severely limited food, medical supplies, and essential goods, contributing to significant humanitarian deterioration well before October 2023. By 2018, over 80% of Gaza's population relied on humanitarian aid for food, contradicting the claim that there was no deficit of goods.
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The blockade began after the first rocket fires, before Hamas was elected
Hamas won Palestinian legislative elections in January 2006, after which sanctions were introduced; the blockade was dramatically tightened only after Hamas's violent takeover of Gaza in June 2007. The claim that restrictions began 'before Hamas was elected' is not supported by the historical record — if anything, restrictions followed the election, and the full blockade followed the 2007 coup.
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Joan Rivers (described as 'late') said: 'if New York was being rocketed from New Jersey, we would level New Jersey'
Joan Rivers did make this argument, and she is indeed deceased (died September 4, 2014), so calling her 'late' is correct. However, her actual documented quote was 'if New Jersey were firing rockets into New York, we would wipe them out' — the speaker paraphrases it as 'level New Jersey,' which is a slight but meaningful distortion of her wording.
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Hamas had 18 years in power in Gaza before October 7
Hamas took control of Gaza in June 2007 following the Battle of Gaza; from June 2007 to October 7, 2023 is approximately 16 years, not 18. The speaker repeats '18 years' multiple times, but the figure is incorrect by about two years.
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Vivian Silver's body wasn't identified for months because there wasn't enough of her charred remains left to even extract DNA from
Sources confirm that Silver's burned remains were identified via DNA testing approximately five weeks (not months) after the October 7 attack, with her death confirmed on November 13, 2023. DNA was in fact successfully extracted from her remains, contradicting the claim that there was not enough to do so.
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Gaza has a disproportionately heavy/young population
Multiple sources confirm Gaza has one of the youngest populations in the world, with nearly half (approximately 47%) of its population under 18 years old.
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There are still hostages in Gaza held for the last 18 months by Hamas, including young Eden Alexander from New Jersey
At the time this was likely recorded, Edan Alexander (spelled 'Edan', raised in New Jersey) was indeed still held in Gaza. However, he was subsequently released in May 2025 after ~600 days in captivity, making the present-tense claim outdated. The name and New Jersey detail are accurate.
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Hamas took approximately 250 hostages at the beginning of the conflict on October 7
Multiple sources confirm that Hamas took 251 hostages from Israel into Gaza on October 7, 2023, consistent with the speaker's figure of '250 odd hostages.'
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ISIS was made effectively operationally incapable in capital cities in Europe
ISIS attacks in Europe peaked in 2015–2016 and have significantly declined since, but ISIS was never formally declared operationally incapable in European capitals — attacks continued sporadically well after the campaign. The claim overstates the completeness of the defeat.
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ISIS still has pockets in Syria and in Iraq
Multiple authoritative 2024 sources confirm ISIS remnants remain active in Syria and Iraq, with U.S. Central Command estimating approximately 2,500 fighters in both countries as of early 2024.
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BBC's chief Middle East correspondent Jeremy Bowen said live on air that the Kalashnikovs in Shifa could belong to the hospital's security department
Multiple independent sources confirm that Jeremy Bowen (BBC Middle East Editor) made on-air comments suggesting the Kalashnikovs found at Al-Shifa could plausibly belong to the hospital's security department, citing the prevalence of guns in the Middle East. His title is 'Middle East Editor', not 'chief Middle East correspondent', but the core attribution is accurate.
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Much of the destruction seen in Gaza photographs is the result of the IDF setting off munitions (used by the American military and others) to trigger secondary explosions in booby-trapped buildings
While IDF forces did detonate booby-trapped buildings as part of clearing operations, and Hamas extensively booby-trapped structures, independent assessments (including UN satellite analysis) attribute the majority of structural destruction to Israeli airstrikes and artillery, not solely to detonating booby-traps. The claim presents a partial explanation as the primary cause.
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John McCain went to Syria to speak to some rebels and one of them immediately turned out to be a kind of headhacking jihadist.
McCain did visit Syria in May 2013 and was photographed with rebel commanders, and one individual in the photos (Mohammad Nour) was identified by freed hostages as the spokesman for a brigade that had kidnapped Lebanese Shia pilgrims. However, the claim that one of them 'immediately turned out to be a headhacking jihadist' overstates and sensationalizes what was actually a kidnapping allegation; McCain denied knowing the men's identities, and the broader accusation that he met ISIS leader al-Baghdadi was debunked by Snopes.
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13 years of conflict in Syria
The Syrian civil war began in March 2011; counting from 2011 to the approximate recording date of ~2024 yields approximately 13 years, which is accurate.
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The Iranian revolutionary government has been oppressing the Iranian people since 1979.
The Islamic Republic of Iran was established in 1979 following the revolution, and it is widely documented that the government has suppressed political dissent, civil liberties, and minority rights since its founding.
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Vasily Grossman was a great Soviet Jewish writer who had the line: 'Tell me what you accuse the Jews of and I'll tell you what you're guilty of.'
Vasily Grossman was indeed a Soviet writer of Jewish heritage, and this quote appears verbatim in his novel 'Life and Fate,' as confirmed by multiple independent sources.
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The Iranian revolutionary government has been colonizing Iraq, Yemen, Lebanon, and Syria.
Iran has undeniably built extensive proxy networks and wielded significant political and military influence in Iraq, Yemen, Lebanon (via Hezbollah), and Syria, which many analysts describe as destabilizing 'colonization.' However, calling it literal colonization is a rhetorical characterization; Iran does not formally administer or annex these territories, making the framing an overstatement of a real but more nuanced dynamic.