Interview with James Strock and an Explainer
James Strock is a writer, political analyst, and what I would call a “thought leader.” His Substack is rich with brilliant essays on our past, present, and future. I was thrilled when he asked me to be a guest on his podcast. I’ve been listening to his interviews for quite a while so it was, again, exciting to be on it.
I also wanted to offer a bit of an explainer to new subscribers here. I seem to attract readers from various different factions of the internet. I don’t think it’s possible for one Substack to satisfy everyone. Even The Free Press, which I think is a great start, is probably less satisfying for, say, Trump supporters.
On the flipside, so many who have fled the Left in search of common sense and criticism of the insanity that has taken hold, aren’t exactly thrilled by someone writing in a MAGA-friendly way. The baseline on the Left is you must HATE Trump and his supporters.
I would probably have more subscribers if I took one side or the other fully and completely. But I don’t. For instance, I write a lot about January 6th and Trump in a sympathetic way. That in itself is a major thoughtcrime almost everywhere. But at the same time, I don’t write about the issues often discussed in MAGAland, like the border, or the vaccine, abortion, etc.
I used to believe I was a Democrat for life. That was because we used to divide between core issues: abortion, gun control, taxes. Over time, other issues have divided us and we’re supposed to obey our tribal affiliation and align with our rightful side. The common theory is that each side has become more extreme over time. But I don’t really see it that way. I see one side becoming more extreme (the Left) and another side reacting to it (the Right).
That doesn’t make one better than the other necessarily but I find myself stuck in the middle. I am trying to make sense of what’s happening to our country, to all of us. That wasn’t possible if I stayed inside the bubble of the Left.
It was partly a desire to be able to simply write freely what I actually thought instead of writing in the language of the new Left, careful of every word, pushing an ideology, etc. I find it strange that I am more afraid of people on the Left than I am of people on the Right. That’s because on the Left there is a disconnect from reality.
But I am not just switching sides either. I didn’t go from, as someone in the comments recently suggested, “thinking Trump was the antichrist to thinking the Demcorats are the antichrist.” I never thought in those terms. But I did find that I could not continue to stand by a group of people that was not only dehumanizing another group of people but was demanding I go along with it.
I don’t want to HATE people anymore based on what they believe. If I did I’d have to wish for the obliteration of all mankind because every person alive has something to hate about them. I love animals, especially pigs, and I can’t stand what is happening to them in factory farms. So I’d have to hate everyone who eats bacon. I love dogs so I’d have to hate everyone in countries that kill and eat dogs. I have to think about things from their perspective and realize they’re not bad people. They just don’t the extreme empathy I seemed to have been cursed with (like I can’t even cut a leaf off a basil plant without feeling some guilt).
So for people, I’m expected to hate on the Right, like Tucker Carlson, Candace Owens, or Matt Walsh, I can’t. I don’t agree with many of the things they say or believe but I’ve listened to them enough to see their humanity by seeing things from their point of view.
This was the biggest change in me that occurred in 2020, other than leaving the Democratic Party. Something about that year made it impossible for me to tolerate one more minute of a group of very wealthy, powerful people spending all of their time hating one man and his supporters.
It is hard for people to understand all of this. It’s much easier for them to simply say I’ve become radicalized or “right-wing.” What can I say to that? Nothing that won’t end in a screaming match.
Most people, I have found, are decent. They’re doing the best they can with what they have. There are people who are born “bad,” without a doubt. And there are people who have been raised to be violent or cruel because that is how they were raised. But in general, we’re all just out here doing the best we can.
So welcome to my Substack. Hopefully you will find something worth reading. The podcasts have music and audio clips, which I think enhance the experience (for some).
Hope you enjoy my interview with James too. That link is here.
There are so many people (including me) who are in your position. I left the left once I realized they had become radicalized zombies devoid of empathy who would destroy Western Civilization if given their way. The few years since my departure have only intensified and verified that belief. I did not think Trump was the ideal President but he was the only politician who railed against the totalitarian madness, racism and sexism that engulfed the Democrats. I am baffled by people who could support a Democrat party that hates white people, denies the reality of biological sex, warmongers, and mandates injection of toxic drugs into unwilling people. I am outraged by the Biden voters who sacked and burned once beautiful cities and left its streets littered with homeless people dying on the sidewalk with needles in their arms. I was forced to flee a city I loved that had become overrun by criminals put there by the Democrats. It is difficult not to be angry at the people who have ruined so many things that we and generations of our ancestors fought to build. Neutrality in the face of such evil constitutes complicity in the crimes, but demonizing those who share our disaffection does not help. The question is how to reach the persuadable middle without first shocking them out of their complacency.
This is a great explanation. I'm a right- and libertarian-leaning person but from what I can tell, we are not really "right" and "left" anymore, at least not how we used to understand it. No one is allowed to live and let live. We have to accept AND CELEBRATE anything and everything that comes down the pike or else we are nazis. Doesn't matter your previous affiliation or leaning.
I can't and won't accept that. And I can't and won't accept what those people, whatever we call them, want to do and are willing to do to kids in pursuit of whatever utopia they are pursuing.
I love your writing and don't care that I don't agree with you 100%. I don't agree with a single person in my beloved immediate family 100% - why would I need that from anyone else?!