I Hate Johnny Harris and You Should Too

Are you a white, mid-30s guy with a beard and a camera? Then Youtube might be the place for you! Seriously, it seems like every YouTube literally meets that requirement. And Johnny Harris is the worst of them, besides those idiots from Good Mystical Morning who seem to spend most of their time playing dumb games and eating food. GMM has 10 million subscribers, and they most important thing they talk about is new fast food menu items or the time they both got vasectomies. Perhaps I will complain about them at length at another time. Let’s get back to Johnny Harris and his many sins.

Who is Johnny Harris?

For the uninitiated, Johnny Harris got his start in the Vox Media “Borders” project, where he dashed around the world in his UNIQLO jacket and studied borders and their histories. Alright, that’s fine, but not exactly earth-shattering journalism. Vox decided to (wisely) dispense with his services and end the project and release him into the open wild. The rest of is have been suffering ever since from his YouTube “journalism.”

Johnny Harris is an ex-mormon who likes to hike, explore, and study things. In one video, we actually used a telescope to photograph the night sky. He even did a video about his infamous orange UNIQLO jacket. He still does a great deal of content with maps and other stuff similar to the Borders project. However, it has been pointed out that he does the job poorly.

Why Johnny Can’t Read?

Johnny Harris seems fairly benign on the outside. However, those with platforms, especially ones as big as his platform must be held to a higher standard. He seems like a nice enough guy but he just needs to improve the information he’s spreading. I don’t know if it’s a lack of research or simply spending too much time on production value but people can be easily misled on matters of history with modern implications by following his videos.

I found this video which does an excellent job of talking about his ignorant and false analysis of history by a real historian:

I knew that he had many things wrong, but I had no idea how wrong he really was. Harris lives in a rather fact-free world. This is so emblematic of our age. This is why people get caught up in media narratives and end up shooting up pizza shops or attack the US Capitol during a Constitutionally-mandated proceeding. This is the danger of people who spread misinformation. I’m not saying that the government should shut them down (heavens no) but it is the responsibility of the rest of us to hold them account.

Then there is this video about his participation in what the creator describes as “propaganda.”

Can’t Help Harris

I think the part that pisses me off the most is how the media (Harris is now at NYT) keep getting platformed over other creators and others who are better at doing the job. I don’t mind people who get huge platforms and are good at what they do. In Harris’ case he does a craptastic job and continues to have a huge platform both on his own channel and on the channels of major news organizations. This is the trouble with our modern age. Anyone can say anything and it might be popular. I have certainly benefitted from this myself but the sad reality is that Johnny Harris is doing people a disservice.

There is also the simple fact that he left Vox and immediately popped to the top of YouTube rankings. He fills feeds in both long-form and shorts. Putting his name in the title of a video will get views quick just from curiosity. I never liked his Borders project at Vox anyway but I thought his story was interesting enough. I think his video about leaving Mormonism is a must-watch. As an exvangelical, I share some of that story. I wish the rest of his videos were as accurate about their facts.

Final Thoughts

I am begging people who have big platforms to get the facts right. Some of us work hard to make sure we have our facts in order and the fact that someone like Johnny Harris doesn’t even seem to try and get them right (see videos above) is simply disappointing. Also, he should get rid of that dumb jacket. No one is following him for his sartorial choices.