Hi Andreas, thanks for the comment. I take issue with the “who can be the most woke” challenge on the part of the left too. Social media does tend to incentivize the most extreme and inflammatory rhetoric that I believe is doing the left a disservice. By the way, I do love Greenwald and I have to dig to find news on Tulsi myself. I get Matthew Yglesias emails in my inbox from Substack.

To your critiques, I do believe the January 6th events turned the tide a bit, at least for me. I’ll still think for myself, but perhaps being more critical of the left’s smug self-righteousness than Trump the past four years was a misplacement of priorities. There are certain initiatives proposed all across left-wing media I don’t support — court-packing, for example. Defending rioting and looting is also a huge mistake that most of my peers go head over heels for, and the party should certainly prioritize more popular issues, like raising the minimum wage and the stimulus checks.

However, I had to cast aside the both-side analysis after January 6th. I don’t claim to have all the answers, but storming the Capitol building changed the landscape quite a bit.