In recent years, we have seen the rise of a new kind of left-wing pundit, one whose audience consists almost entirely of right-wingers. And there is a good reason for that. Almost every one of these people do nothing but criticize Democrats, despite calling themselves progressives or liberal.
There's a long history of this on the political left, and this phenomenon exists in other countries as well, like the UK and Canada.
What motivates people who started off with some sort of leftish politics to gravitate toward right wing fans?
There are many reasons, as it turns out. Some of them originate in the intersections of libertarianism with other political ideologies. Other such commentators seem to have financial or emotional reasons for seeking Republican audiences. And still others seem to have a poorly developed understanding of how to build political change, which leads them to seek unproductive alliances.
In this episode, I’m joined by David Masciotra, a writer and author who recently wrote a piece in the New Republic entitled “Who Are These Supposed Lefties Who Love Robert F. Kennedy Jr.?” that we’ll be discussing. Also interestingly and relevant to this conversation, he had a libertarian phase as well.
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Theory of Change #073: David Masciotra on the ‘fanfiction left’