Immediately following my public resignation (read: constructive dismissal) from Smith College, I was inundated with media requests. The attention was overwhelming. As a person content to remain anonymous, I found that —virtually overnight— I had turned into a public activist engaged in a high-stakes conflict with a powerful institution. As a “nobody” with very little social, financial or political capital fighting an elite multi-billion-dollar-endowed institution, I was happy to speak with anyone willing to give me a platform.
The consequences of my actions were (and still are) enormous. I did not therefore stop to ponder what I saw as an afterthought: the political implications of my media choices.
But plenty of other people did. Public figures, verified blue checks on Twitter, and other assorted humans —all liberals who had publicly dissented from the woke narrative— swooped in to offer advice on how to navigate the media firestorm.
I am grateful for their concern. However, I felt as if I were running around a hot racetrack while my new friends shouted advice at me from the shade-covered bleachers: “Be careful of who you talk to!” they told me. “Don’t talk to right wing media!”
They made lists, and they named names. While the list of acceptable people was different depending on whom I spoke to, there was a grand consensus about one person in particular:
“Whatever you do, don’t talk to Tucker Carlson!”
These well-intentioned people warned me that if I did, I would earn the aspersions of liberals everywhere. As a self-professed liberal, I was (apparently) supposed to stay in my lane. If I didn’t, they warned, I would be cast out of the herd. To say I was confused is an understatement.
Hadn’t I already been cast out? Hadn’t we all?
This was the beginning of the next phase of my dissident education. I came see we had divided ourselves not into two, but three distinct political groups.
The Unapologetic Right
The Unapologetic Left
The (very) Apologetic Disaffected Left
As many of you know, it is easy to earn the label of “racist” these days. Dare to question the racial affinity groups in your workplace? Racist. Publicly challenge the tenants of Critical Race Theory (CRT) at your school? Racist.
Accept an invitation to appear on Tucker Carlson Tonight? Racist.
Thankfully, most disaffected liberals have conquered their fear of being called racist, and this is progress.
However, in the heart of every disaffected liberal looms an even greater fear:
For disaffected liberals, the only thing worse than being called a racist is being called right wing.
This is our achilles heel.
And it is unfortunate.
I watched Tucker Carlson Tonight for the first time in the spring of 2020, six months shy of making my first video. As a Smith employee and (naive) liberal quietly suffering within the Major Woke Vortex of Smith College, I feared —on more than one occasion— that my doubts about the behavior of my employer might be an indication that I was off my rocker. I needed to confirm, before I did anything else, that I was not crazy. I absolutely needed to hear others say out loud what I felt inside to be true, and Tucker seemed as good a place as any.
Believe it or not, I didn’t know much about him before that summer. All I knew was that he worked for Fox and he was less-than-adored by my liberal peers. Based on these knowns, I made the leap and assumed he was right wing.
The first time I watched him, I was floored. Not only did he not align neatly with any particular political agenda, he was interesting. Here was a man who not only said what he thought, he did it with aplomb. He is confident, animated, and in possession of a refreshing joie de vivre most news anchors lack. No one could ever accuse him of being boring (a big plus in my book).
[Do I agree with everything Tucker says? No. That would be ridiculous. I don’t agree with everything that any single person says. I’m not an automaton. I am in a possession of a mind; I have my own thoughts. I can’t even believe I have to say this.]
Anyway, although I had somehow managed to grow the moral cajones necessary to publicly challenge my workplace and alma mater, I found that I had to grow an even bigger pair to withstand the backlash I faced after showing up on Tucker Carlson Tonight. After I appeared on his show, the predictions of the well-meaning people who had reached out to me to warn me not to do so came true.
It was not surprising to me that Smith College received dozens of emails (and those are only the ones I know about) demanding they terminate my employment because I had appeared with a “known white supremacist.”
Equally unsurprising was the number of the ideologically obsessed who wrote to inform me that I was no longer merely racist, I was now a white supremacist.
What was surprising was the number of disaffected liberals (supposedly my own people, the humans who were on my side) who wrote to me to inform me that —because I had appeared on Tucker’s show— they were withdrawing their support.
The implications of this are clear: what I say is less important than to whom I say it. The fact that I was publicly sticking my neck out —David v. Goliath style— to challenge the wrong-doings of an elite, powerful institution suddenly meant nothing.
My real crime was that I had dared to step outside my liberal bubble, the same one that had caused the problem in the first place.
In my first video, I said:
“This is not a left [versus] right or a red versus blue issue, this is a human issue . . . I don't think my political persuasion has anything to do with it, but I'm gonna say that I'm a lifelong liberal, in case that helps, because I've seen how these things go. Somebody speaks up and they immediately get written off and I don't think that's fair to people. I think that's killing the messenger and [that’s] not really engaging with the message. So I really ask that you engage with the message here, Smith.”
I understand that humans can be lazy. Let’s face it, refusing to engage with the message itself, opting instead to kill the messenger is easier. And —especially these days—it is highly effective. Killing the messenger is the default strategy of people who do not have (or cannot formulate) a counter argument.
And you know who engages in this tactic the most?
That’s right, the woke.
In case you haven’t noticed, The philosophical foundation liberals once stood on has not merely shifted, it has quaked. It has moved so far beyond what it once was that it is now wholly unrecognizable. If I had a dime for every time a liberal told me “I haven’t changed my beliefs, everyone else has!” I would be rich.
Because of this, we are now living in a new socio-political universe. In this new realm, labels like “left/right” or “liberal/conservative” are meaningless.
This is not a policy debate. This is not about who you voted for, and it is certainly not about race. [Nor is it about a virus, for that matter].
This is about authoritarianism. And it doesn’t matter from whence it came. It is here, and it has come for all of us.
Thus, the new ground we stand on actually only has two sides. They are:
Those who resist authoritarianism
Those who perpetuate authoritarianism
Tucker Carlson, a man who consistently uses his powerful, 4-million-viewers-per-night platform to give voice to the voiceless helps us amplify a much-needed message farther than just about anyone else on the planet. When we write off anyone who appears on his show, we are not only abiding by the Rules of Woke, we are actively helping to advance authoritarianism.
Recently, Nicole Levitt, the brave warrior fighting outrageous anti-racism policies in her workplace recently had the opportunity to tell her story to Tucker on Tucker Carlson Today. Predictably, she was urged —in the same way I was, and for all the same reasons— not to do it.
Good for you, Nicole.
Whistleblowers face opposition on every front. I cannot underemphasize the immense amount of courage it takes for a “regular” person to stand up and not only defy morally stunted and legally questionable policies in their workplace, but appear on national media to tell our stories. To face opposition (even hatred) from the same people who claim to support us is a one more difficulty we do not need.
I urge you dear reader, do not succumb to this ridiculousness. Dancing around the fragile edges of the new “center-left,” attempting to retain (or regain) the respect of the same people bent on destroying us is not helping. Nor is disowning our brothers and sisters on the right. The truth is, we cannot afford to disown anyone fighting this fight.
We can go back to our former political positions if (and that’s a big “if”) we can manage to pull ourselves back from the brink of civilizational annihilation. We can then, if we choose, go back to wringing our hands worrying about which side we are on, who said what, and with whom we should associate.
Even better, we can stop worrying about appearances. We can stop telling others what they can and can’t think or say (or with whom they should associate) and go back to expressing what we really think, without fear of losing our livelihoods and/or being disowned by our families.
In other words, we can go back to being actual liberals.
And maybe (just maybe) we can collectively pledge to never succumb to such ridiculousness ever again.
YES!! Beautifully said Jodi.
Yes! It is so painful to listen to people like Jesse Singal, Katie Herzog and others contorting themselves in an increasingly desperate attempt to avoid being called “right wing”.
“Well, yes, the woke are attempting to brain wash our children into becoming foot soldiers in some sort of queer version of the cultural revolution, and yes, they do believe that babies are racists and sure, they are enabling the mutilation and sterilization of adolescents… but really Trump and Tucker Carlson are evil
incarnate.” It’s just craven and pathetic.