Thank you for speaking out how you do. I’m a lifelong Democrat/Harris voter. I left the progressive movement on Oct 7, 2023, after watching the progressive’s odd celebration of Hamas invading Israel. I supported the BLM peaceful protestors in 2020 but disagreed heavily with the rioters. I disagree with Defund/Abolish the Police. I’m a social worker in law enforcement. We need well funded and trained police. I got called racist when I was speaking out against the violence and these crazy policies.
There has been a refusal on our side of the aisle to acknowledge when our policies and side have gone crazy. Identity politics has damaged the reputation of the Democratic Party. And the mere questioning of identity politics produces vitriol and outrage. It produces support for Trump in my opinion. I believe in a full fledged working class agenda to help all Americans. But too many on the identity left instead obsess over calling half of voters racist, sexist, and privileged.
They ask people of color to view themselves as victims. Which coming from a social worker, is unhealthy and dangerous. They treat white people in poverty as being in the same group as Elon Musk and write them off as privileged. The suicide rates among men in this country are horrific but if you listen to progressives you’d think men had no problems at all and in fact are the problem.
I just became disillusioned by the aggressive anti-common sense approach, cancel culture, and the elitism. Nuance is gone and I want it back. I got tired of dehumanizing people by treating them as categories of an identity group rather than an individual. And don’t get me started on how they took a soft on crime approach that only enabled/worsened drug addiction, theft crimes, carjackings, etc.
I’m still an FDR Liberal. I believe in economic policies that protect the American people and ensure a good standard of living. I don’t believe in assuming someone is only either oppressed or an oppressor. And yet, even saying any of this out loud became taboo on the left.
I don’t like Trump. But I can see why someone who was once a Democrat would flock to him.
Ana, I think liberals like us are the majority but people have been afraid of being cancelled and losing friends so they don’t speak out. Behind closed doors, I get a lot of people who say something to the effect of, “I agree with everything you’re saying. I can’t say it in public because of the backlash. But I agree with you.”
I am familiar with Meghan Daum from her op ed pieces in the LA Times. I used to enjoy them. Neither she nor yourself were in any way unfair or inaccurate in your reporting on Trump during his first term. There was nothing you said about him that wasn’t true. The intensity of the reaction against him, rather than being sheepish groupthink was more a cry of exasperation. Since Reagan, conservatives have dominated both American politics and the framing of issues. After the debacle of the Cheney administration we got a chance to finally get us on track and then people decided to go with this ultra right wing clown instead. I think a lot of us felt betrayed and we’d had it up to here with decades of this bullshit. Electing Bozo the Clown was a huge setback and the final insult. Electing an outsider is fine but you don’t just go with the first jackass who comes along.
Conservative policies have created the situation in which a household requires two incomes to stay afloat so they have no place to gripe about how people live their lives. I grew up in the 70s in SoCal (“Dewd, not even!”) and my mom did not have to work because my dad made enough but as soon as my brother and I were old enough to know how to use a key she was out looking for a job. She hated being home. That worked out well for my brother and I also. Funtime! Today, my wife and I have no kids because we are not breeders (high five) and we both think that anyone over 18 or so who does not have a job is kind of a bum regardless of their gender. Fuck this male breadwinner bullshit. What a joke!
Thanks for having Meghan Daum on, it’s nice to hear the voice of someone whose words you have only read.
Everything you said about both extremes of the left and the right lacking nuance is completely true. Sometimes it makes me miss college classes where people with differing views could raise their hands and have civil debates. Civil debates is what makes education interesting. When those civil debates disappear, things definitely get boring, i feel you there. Corporate media was betting on viewers favoring being fed and massaged their own biased political views, then the corporate media was proven to be a bad business model when podcasters became ten times the size of them in terms of viewers because podcasters were nuanced. I dont think the two extremes of both the left and the right will ever become nuanced though. Im a fighter for the working class, and sometimes I understand that I need to make my language less nuanced in order to reach blue collar workers. In terms of my personality, im exactly like you, very nuanced and explorational into curiousities and solutions. But i also understand part of what makes a good leader is someone who can take those nuances, then explain them to people who may have more difficulty seeing things from a more nuanced perspective. You are a great jounalist Ana, whether you choose to build an audience who prefers a more nuanced perspective, or whether you choose to build an audience with less abilities to see things from a nuanced perspective and explain things in a way they can understand, everyone is going to love your content either way. Im enjoying every single one of these videos so far, you seem like youre having fun too.
Thank you for speaking out how you do. I’m a lifelong Democrat/Harris voter. I left the progressive movement on Oct 7, 2023, after watching the progressive’s odd celebration of Hamas invading Israel. I supported the BLM peaceful protestors in 2020 but disagreed heavily with the rioters. I disagree with Defund/Abolish the Police. I’m a social worker in law enforcement. We need well funded and trained police. I got called racist when I was speaking out against the violence and these crazy policies.
There has been a refusal on our side of the aisle to acknowledge when our policies and side have gone crazy. Identity politics has damaged the reputation of the Democratic Party. And the mere questioning of identity politics produces vitriol and outrage. It produces support for Trump in my opinion. I believe in a full fledged working class agenda to help all Americans. But too many on the identity left instead obsess over calling half of voters racist, sexist, and privileged.
They ask people of color to view themselves as victims. Which coming from a social worker, is unhealthy and dangerous. They treat white people in poverty as being in the same group as Elon Musk and write them off as privileged. The suicide rates among men in this country are horrific but if you listen to progressives you’d think men had no problems at all and in fact are the problem.
I just became disillusioned by the aggressive anti-common sense approach, cancel culture, and the elitism. Nuance is gone and I want it back. I got tired of dehumanizing people by treating them as categories of an identity group rather than an individual. And don’t get me started on how they took a soft on crime approach that only enabled/worsened drug addiction, theft crimes, carjackings, etc.
I’m still an FDR Liberal. I believe in economic policies that protect the American people and ensure a good standard of living. I don’t believe in assuming someone is only either oppressed or an oppressor. And yet, even saying any of this out loud became taboo on the left.
I don’t like Trump. But I can see why someone who was once a Democrat would flock to him.
Ana, I think liberals like us are the majority but people have been afraid of being cancelled and losing friends so they don’t speak out. Behind closed doors, I get a lot of people who say something to the effect of, “I agree with everything you’re saying. I can’t say it in public because of the backlash. But I agree with you.”
Great interview. I am so glad there are more honest people who don’t fall in the trap of far left.
Thanks for this interesting conversation, even while recovering from illness, Ana. Feel better soon!
I am familiar with Meghan Daum from her op ed pieces in the LA Times. I used to enjoy them. Neither she nor yourself were in any way unfair or inaccurate in your reporting on Trump during his first term. There was nothing you said about him that wasn’t true. The intensity of the reaction against him, rather than being sheepish groupthink was more a cry of exasperation. Since Reagan, conservatives have dominated both American politics and the framing of issues. After the debacle of the Cheney administration we got a chance to finally get us on track and then people decided to go with this ultra right wing clown instead. I think a lot of us felt betrayed and we’d had it up to here with decades of this bullshit. Electing Bozo the Clown was a huge setback and the final insult. Electing an outsider is fine but you don’t just go with the first jackass who comes along.
Conservative policies have created the situation in which a household requires two incomes to stay afloat so they have no place to gripe about how people live their lives. I grew up in the 70s in SoCal (“Dewd, not even!”) and my mom did not have to work because my dad made enough but as soon as my brother and I were old enough to know how to use a key she was out looking for a job. She hated being home. That worked out well for my brother and I also. Funtime! Today, my wife and I have no kids because we are not breeders (high five) and we both think that anyone over 18 or so who does not have a job is kind of a bum regardless of their gender. Fuck this male breadwinner bullshit. What a joke!
Thanks for having Meghan Daum on, it’s nice to hear the voice of someone whose words you have only read.
Everything you said about both extremes of the left and the right lacking nuance is completely true. Sometimes it makes me miss college classes where people with differing views could raise their hands and have civil debates. Civil debates is what makes education interesting. When those civil debates disappear, things definitely get boring, i feel you there. Corporate media was betting on viewers favoring being fed and massaged their own biased political views, then the corporate media was proven to be a bad business model when podcasters became ten times the size of them in terms of viewers because podcasters were nuanced. I dont think the two extremes of both the left and the right will ever become nuanced though. Im a fighter for the working class, and sometimes I understand that I need to make my language less nuanced in order to reach blue collar workers. In terms of my personality, im exactly like you, very nuanced and explorational into curiousities and solutions. But i also understand part of what makes a good leader is someone who can take those nuances, then explain them to people who may have more difficulty seeing things from a more nuanced perspective. You are a great jounalist Ana, whether you choose to build an audience who prefers a more nuanced perspective, or whether you choose to build an audience with less abilities to see things from a nuanced perspective and explain things in a way they can understand, everyone is going to love your content either way. Im enjoying every single one of these videos so far, you seem like youre having fun too.
What happened with the girl, Ana? Also, i would love to see the whole bird image on your wall some day;]
Conversation and discussion of differing viewpoints is much more enriching, to say the least.