Ana Kasparian: another change story
Ana Kasparian is – or used to be until recently – a “progressive journalist.” But she’s had one of those mugged by reality experiences – literally [my emphasis]:
“The Young Turks” co-host Ana Kasparian explained what drove her to ditch the Democratic Party while on Jillian Michaels’ “Keeping It Real” podcast on Monday.
The progressive media host described feeling “politically homeless” over the past few years, as she started seeing an intolerance to debate and the free exchange of ideas as well as an embrace of soft-on-crime policies by the left that she believed were detrimental to society.
She ripped efforts to “demonize and even dehumanize the other side” while admitting she used to be a person who believed you could not be friends with conservatives or someone who supported former President Trump. …
Kasparian said a turning point for her was when she was scolded by liberals after confessing she was fearful to leave her house after being sexually assaulted by a homeless man while walking her dog in Los Angeles in 2022.
I want to pause here and point out what grabbed my attention. The first thing is that, although I’m not familiar with her work as a “media host,” if she was on “The Young Turks” she was definitely to the left. So for someone such as that – who is publicly affiliated with that wing of the party and whose livelihood depends on it – to go through a political change experience, the incident that sparks it would ordinarily be fairly dramatic as well as something that hits in a very personal way. After all, the left has had a “strong intolerance to debate” as well as “soft-on-crime policies” for many years. And yet Kasparian only began her change journey after her 2022 experience.
That’s not a criticism by me, by the way. I applaud her for waking up to the situation rather than denying it, however late her change occurred. She goes on:
“Before I knew it, I started getting these messages, and it’s really, really harsh stuff, about how, ‘You are painting a picture of the homeless community. How could you be like this? These are your unhoused neighbors and they need help,’” she said of the negative messages she received.
“A few people accused me of being racist, even though I had never disclosed the race of the individuals who did this to me. And in fact, they were white,” Kasparian continued.
Does any of that ring a bell for you? It immediately reminded me of the story Barack Obama told in 2008 about his own grandmother, that “typical white person” who raised him and whom he casually threw under the bus in his effort to give a lofty speech about race in America. To refresh your memory, I wrote this at the time:
And along the way [Obama] managed to make what I felt was one of the single most revoltingly self-serving statements I’ve ever heard in a speech. …:
“I can no more disown [pastor Wright] than I can my white grandmother—a woman who helped raise me, a woman who sacrificed again and again for me, a woman who loves me as much as she loves anything in this world, but a woman who once confessed her fear of black men who passed by her on the street, and who on more than one occasion has uttered racial or ethnic stereotypes that made me cringe.”
In addition, I wrote this around the same time:
And please read what actually happened to Obama’s grandmother as he previously related the story in his book. Turns out she was nearly mugged, and her allegedly racist comment was made not in front of Obama but reported secondhand by his grandfather. Obama’s grandmother appears to have mentioned to the grandfather that the aggressive panhandler who bothered her was black, and the grandfather told Obama that was the real reason she was afraid.
I’m sure you can see the parallels here, and the way Obama’s example of what counts as racist remarks set an example for the sort of reactions Kasparian got. Of course, it’s not just due to Obama. But I strongly believe that this sort of reaction became more common during his candidacy and presidency: that one cannot speak ill of a person from a leftist-protected group – be it a black person or an “unhoused” person or an “undocumented” person or whatever – even though that person has obviously acted in such a way that it is appropriate to speak critically of him or her.
So that’s what Kasparian ran into. It’s astounding that she was shocked by the reaction she got, but apparently she was. I think it’s because, until it happened to her, it was easy for her to just tell herself that other people – people on the right who said similar things – were bigots because that’s just how they were already defined. She knew she wasn’t a bigot, plus of course she also knew her assailant wasn’t even black and that it was merely an assumption of her holier-than-thou critics that he was. But they were treating her the way Obama spoke of his “typical white person” of a grandmother.
Here’s more of Kasparian’s story, which ends this way for now:
Today I’m less certain and more curious than I was four years ago. I’ve made humiliating mistakes while covering political news because I was previously unwilling to consider or understand the perspective of Americans who vote differently from me.
That’s quite an admission, and I admire her for it. Few people are capable of it. What’s more:
The point of this new project is the pursuit of intellectual freedom and open mindedness. I want to nurture curiosity without fear of offending the sensibilities of loyal partisans. I reject arguments about the evils of platforming people who are considered too naughty to converse with. I want to facilitate dialogue.
I don’t know what my political identity or label is, and I’m not even sure I want to be pigeonholed. This is my effort in pursuing extreme honesty and humility in the quest for common ground and truth without the constraints of a tribal identity.
Last night I happened upon this video, which is relevant. The topic is the difficulty of changing one’s mind, and the ways in which people deny evidence that would cause them to do so:
Wasn’t Dave Rubin, who has also moved politically I think, a founding member of this “Young Turks” thing, or am I mistaken? I haven’t paid them much attention at all, I confess, so know very little about them.
Anna was infamous if you trawled the online political video sphere much. She was the one that made a meme once of “yeah, I’m f*ING better than you.”
AJW has a bunch of videos on her. Including her recent conversion depending on how deep you want to dive.
https://youtu.be/6wyH_H39B44?si=pBSECUqXokC3EQrN
@sdferr – Dave Rubin did work for The Young Turks (TYT). I don’t think he was a founder though.
There is a clip out there ironically of Anna bashing Dave after his conversion. I’m wondering now of they’ll meet again after this.
Jimmy Dore is the one i know from young turks who is pretty “right” now, but i don’t know what he was like when he was there, maybe he was bought on as the token opposition Juan Williams type so who knows
Ana was definitely very left in the 2016 cycle though
@dave – Jimmy Dore is the one who spit on Alex Jones when AJ crashed TYT’s convention stream. (I think it was the republican convention but I could have that wrong.)
https://youtu.be/k6DXsJt6Oe8?si=1yakJkfWObapYxmG
Jimmy is still VERY left. If anything he’s trashing the current dems for being too corporate.
I think I have mentioned that my Other Brother now says he might have to vote for Trump (after voting for him twice) because of his hatred of Harris and her group. I hope he does. I have been working on him for almost 4 yrs after all.
Must confess – that I am more impressed by JD Vance every week. After that exchange with Martha Raddatz, humble me has even overlooked his stance against Ukraine – a difficult stance for me to move away from, as some here might know.
From watching him since being selected as VP for Trump he does a great job of handling himself—more so than DeSantis (he of the ‘five-inch stilettos‘ cowboy boots?!!?!!?).
Now, can he continue to get along w/ Trump—w/o being destroyed by Trump? If anyone can, then it might be JD Vance…
speaking of refusing to change one’s mind despite evidence:
There is a flat earth society. I am not joking. The folks in this organization are convinced the earth is flat. They dismiss or rationalize any evidence presented that is contrary to their belief.
There are folks who really believe the moon landings were a hoax and it all really took place in some Hollywood studio.
There are folks who believe the 9-11 twin towers terrorist attack was the work of Bush, Cheney, Halliburton and the Mossad. They also believe that another nearby building fell because it was blown up by explosives. I actually know someone who believes the entire 9 -11 disaster was an inside job by Bush, et. al.
There are people who are convinced the Holocaust (the one Hitler implemented) just never happened or they believe the death count is way way overstated.
People can believe whatever they choose to believe and that’s all there is to it. The problem is that people like this – people who just believe and refuse to think – also vote.
I honestly think that those folks who refuse to consider hard evidence when forming an opinion must have some sort of personality disorder. Their brain is just not functioning properly.
As an aside; who thinks Martha Raddatz of ABC “news” would dismiss out of hand as a one-off, as being insignificant, if a bunch of Venezuelan illegal alien armed thugs occupied and terrorized her home in Arlington, VA.
It’s too bad this cannot be arranged.
I have come to believe that the key, is this: Curiosity. Changing your mind can only happen when you follow your curiosity to a new place, and make a discovery that re-shapes your thinking. You see how different that is, mentally, from having somebody trying to convince you that you’re wrong? There is a complete absence of suspicion when you are following your curiosity, until something that you notice causes you to be suspicious.
How to use that? I don’t know. I guess, lead your subject to a place where they will become naturally curious, and then let them go on their way.
Dr. Saad is very wise.
“There is nothing more painful to me at this stage in my life than to walk down the street and hear footsteps… then turn around and see somebody white and feel relieved.”
Jesse Jackson
O’s meemaw was on to something.
John Tyler
Yes, it would be fun to see how Ms. Martha the Enlightened Rat@#% would react to having “only one” Ven thug occupy and terrorize her home. “But it’s only one…..just think—it might have been a MAGA maggot doing the same…”
Have to hand it to Maduro, to export some of his thugs to the US.
Here’s another kind of Young Turks
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zQ41hqlV0Kk
I never was a fan of this particular artist.
Well, there’s the old joke, ‘A conservative is a liberal who got mugged’.
I don’t believe that I’m actually a conservative. I vote for the candidate who will least impact my and my family’s freedoms. And right now that’s the Left.
Gad Saad’s video at the end of Neo’s post was very insightful.
What he said was not particularly new to dedicated political junkies, but he picked a good example to illustrate the principles.
“A Psychological Explanation of the JD Vance-Martha Raddatz Exchange” on the Aurora Colorado invasion by Venezuelan gangs, which has been so much in the (right wing) news lately.
Saad quotes the eminent scientist JBS Haldane on the four stages of scientists accepting a new theory: “I suppose the process of acceptance will pass through the usual four stages: (i) This is worthless nonsense; (ii) This is an interesting, but perverse, point of view; (iii) This is true, but quite unimportant; (iv) I always said so.”
That came from Wikipedia, along with a number of other good quotes.
However, despite Haldane’s well-deserved eminence, he still fell prey to the Socialist Myth, almost to the point of defending Lysenko, and did support Stalin, describing him in 1962 as “a very great man who did a very good job”.[34]
Which seems to echo the discussion we had a few days ago about the connection between being intelligent and yet stupid at the same time.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/J._B._S._Haldane
Some comments from the video:
@dash4800 1 day ago Wow, that quote is an exact description of the evolution of every argument I’ve had with a liberal in the last 10 years.
@charles.neuman18 16 hours ago I saw the whole interview, and every time he started giving an answer that she couldn’t argue with, she interrupted and changed the subject.
@secretgoldfish 1 day ago Telling yourself something pretty (despite ACTUAL reality) has become the sad new norm. I’ve worked in manipulation my whole life and am now increasingly redundant when folks have been so devolved that they now increasingly manipulate themselves.
@migbgold3191 1 day ago Persuasion is a tough game! I’m a former trial attorney and can speak first hand to how overcoming jurors’ preconceptions and biases is an almost fool’s errand in frivolity. Aside from certain conditions like someone with an asperger or kind of autism where they can take facts (and typically focus on facts in an almost robotic way), most people have an ego that interferes with their ability to view facts objectively. Raddatz, et al. was emblematic of this in the news clip you ran in this video.
@Reginald_Harrison 13 hours ago I would say 1 apartment complex getting taken over by gangs in this country is too many.More than 1 complex in a single city is a serious problem.
@sjambler 1 day ago I’m not sure Martha Raddatz is simply ignoring the evidence. The evidence would suggest that her property (a house in Arlington VA for which she paid over $US 2 million) is safe. Venezuelan gangs taking over apartment complexes is a problem, but a problem for the plebeians who live in those complexes, not a problem for Martha Raddatz.
@CarsInDimension 22 hours ago The landlord of one of those apartment complexes issued a statement today saying the city and the police did nothing to help them after the property manager was beaten up by the Venezuelan gang members.
@Apollyon-er4ut 16 hours ago Bible speaks of this centuries ago, and it’s the bane of humanity: “Because they didn’t receive the love of the Truth so as to be saved. And for this reason, God will send them a deluding influence so that they may believe what is false” (2Thes.2).
One thing leads to another on the Internet, and looking up Haldane’s quote led me to this post by our colleague David Foster, which excerpts a letter from C. S. Lewis to Haldane in response to the professor’s critique of Lewis’s political views, as expressed in his Perelandra books.
Lewis, as is usual, covers a LOT of the reasons for why socialism is not-a-good-thing, including the famous allegory introduced by his assertion that “If we must have a tyrant a robber baron is far better than an inquisitor.”
Much of the content is relevant to several topics hitting the news these days, because the contrast between socialism and (true) democracy is so pervasive in this election, despite the Democrats’ trying to claim the mantle of the latter rather than admit to wearing the robes of the former.
https://chicagoboyz.net/archives/71164.html
“one cannot speak ill of a person from a leftist-protected group – be it a black person or an “unhoused” person or an “undocumented” person or whatever – even though that person has obviously acted in such a way that it is appropriate to speak critically of him or her.”
I believe this is just another manifestation of the left’s propensity toward projection.
Their entire movement is built around categorizing people and pigeonholing them based on those categories. If you’re black, latino, white, homeless, illegal, gay, lesbian, etc etc etc you are identified by that group and it is assumed that you must conform with the opinions, beliefs and behaviors of everyone else in that group. Strangely, I remember when stereotyping people was frowned upon…but times have changed.
They then, because they cannot conceive the possibility that there is any other way to view people, assume that because they judge everyone based on group memberships, everyone else must do so as well.
So, if they assume that everyone will judge all homeless people based on the actions of a few, or all black people based on the actions of a few, or all latinos based on the actions of a few, then it becomes verboten to mention the group membership of anyone in a favored “victim group” because that is tantamount to casting aspersions on the whole group…hence the outrage when “one of their own” breaks ranks and does so. They view criticism of one member of a group to be denigrating the entire group, and that cannot stand.
Regarding Obama’s white grandmother, if you live in an urban area and you are not afraid of groups of young Black men (particularly teenagers) then you are in self denial. Sorry, but it’s true.
To the extent that the foil was Raddatz, the presumption is that she believed what she said. This is a common presumption. But in many cases, once you see the dodging, it’s a matter of lying. Raddatz, (imo, 80-20) knew what had happened and knew it was damaging to the liberal program so she sought to blow it off by minimizing it. And make Trump the bad guy for even mentioning such a minor issue.
Liars do some fancy footwork, too. And since they have to address your points, it seems as if they believe their line.
As has been discussed here over the years, there are people for whom a particular just, righteous and holy belief defines them as just, righteous and holy people. It’s a prop to their self-image. Can’t afford to do without it. Contradictory facts must be dismissed.
She’s still left she’s just sane left. But she can be reached now, and swayed on various issues potentially.
Richard, yeah she was lying. That’s what they do.
BrooklynBoy
My roommate in my freshman year was from the Upper West Side of Manhattan. A young black grabbed his grandmother’s purse. She hung onto the purse for a while, but fell and broke her hip. This was in the ’60s.
I’m not sure where in NYC this happened. I will assume that it was where my roommate lived, the Upper West Side.
I got mugged in Houston in a heavily Hispanic section near downtown. (back in the day, relatives lived in the area. The accountant that my cousins used for years, by then deceased, lived in the next street over from me.)
I had no cash on me, so they took my eyeglasses. Ironically, I was going to pick up a new pair of eyeglasses in a couple of days, so losing the eyeglasses was no big deal. BTW, the muggers were WHITE.
Gringo I never implied that white kids couldn’t act like thugs either. But statistically, we know that the vast majority of crimes in urban areas are committed by young blacks against other blacks. I once asked a huge liberal woman who complained about people being racist when they were afraid of young black men this question “if you’re walking down the street at night (or for that matter in the daytime as well) and you see three black teenagers leaving High School or three Hasidic Jews walking towards you, which group are you afraid of?” She was intellectually honest enough to admit it would be the black kids.
“The Young Turks” co-host Ana Kasparian
So she’s of Armenian heritage and calls herself a Young Turk.