 In an interview with New York Magazine mayoral candidate in Buffalo, New York, India Walton was talking about various things related to the state of her race, along with leftist politics more generally speaking in the US. And what she said is really important. I think that the way that she words things makes her really important in the broader leftist movement. I think that she has real potential here to go the distance because she says things in a way that makes it really easily digestible for people who aren't usually open to a leftist message. So she was talking about woke politics and how she herself, surprisingly, she doesn't really consider herself to be that woke, at least publicly. So here's what she said and I'll tell you why this resonated with me. She says, I'm not that woke. Walton said with a smile. I've learned a lot over the last year, but I also believe in meeting people where they are. If you're a member of DSA or ultra progressive, your friends are going to tend to have the same political leanings, she said. So we use certain terminology when we speak with one another, which is not resonant with average working class folks. Anyone who uses the word defund, you can never make it sound like a positive thing because you haven't taken the time to explain what that actually means, right? It doesn't mean we're going to rid ourselves of the entire police force. Walton invoked her experience as a nurse. Medical professionals have language they use with each other, but that is not how they might talk to a patient. We have industry language and we have lay language. A lot of language that we use in progressive circles is industry language and we have to begin using more lay language and being a lot more patient with people when they don't understand it. So I think that's a really great point. And what she's talking about here is what I think Michael Brooks was getting at in his book Against the Dark Web because he had a similar constructive critique of the left and that we can be too insular. We can be a little bit too sensorious and almost come off as if we're bullying people at times and it may come from a place of concern for the environment and the country. But politics is about marketing and if you're not marketing your ideas well, then you're losing. And there are things that the left does that are good. I think Medicare for all we've won on that front thoroughly. So now it's just a matter of enacting the policy that we've convinced Americans is the best policy. Or one of the best policies as it relates to health care reform. But you know one thing when it comes to defund the police, for example, I do have to defend the activists who coined the slogan defund the police because this wasn't necessarily something that was focused group tested. It just kind of emerged organically and it's stuck. It's stuck and sure a lot of us know that it means reallocating resources away from the police department and into public health and mental health. But people just think, oh well that means you want to get rid of the police. And that is us failing to effectively communicate the message. And I think that her criticism here is important and it matters. It's important that we're introspective. I try to be introspective and I acknowledge that I fail at communicating the leftist message sometimes. I mean if you tune in you probably like what I have to say. But if you don't agree with me, I'm probably going to turn you off. I mean when it comes to anti-vaxxers, for example, I have no patience. It's to the point where I'm less trying to educate and I'm just ranting because I feel really frustrated with the situation because why don't you see it from my perspective? Look at all of the evidence. But I mean evidence doesn't always work. Sometimes you have to use emotions. Sometimes you have to frame it in a certain way. LGBTQ plus issues. That's another thing. I mean this is something that I care deeply about. People don't see it the way that I see it. I feel like I have no patience and it's certainly something that I'm working on and that I have to work on because I have a large platform. So of course if I'm not an effective communicator at all times then I'm kind of failing the left and there are broader implications for that. So what she's saying here is really important for all of us because the way that we talk with others who aren't in our circles, that really is going to determine how successful we are long term with our movement. So when she talks about this wokeness and how she's not very woke, one thing that really comes to mind as it relates to me in my perspective is LGBTQ plus issues. I mean for me I've been struggling with this and it's because it's really frustrating that people don't see it the way that I see it because I feel like we just had this argument about gay rights 10 years ago. And now we're having basically the same conversation about trans rights and the people who supported gay rights aren't getting it when it comes to trans rights. And to me I find that so infuriating because people hate trans people for the same reason why they hate gay people. If you are born there's a set of expectations that are ascribed to you, right? If you're a man, if you're a cis man you are expected to act masculine, behave a certain way, do certain things and date women. Have children with women not be attracted to men and date men so you're violating these norms and because you did this society doesn't like that. You're not in that box the society tries to put you in so there's discrimination, right? There's this idea that oh well you just want to be gay so you can get attention or you are a predator, you know you're preying on straight men in bathrooms. And I mean we're having the same conversation again with trans people. I mean these trans people are predators. These trans people are trying to turn our kids trans when it's the same thing. I mean trans people are discriminated against because they violate societal norms. You have a gender ascribed to you at birth before you even know who you are. So you know to violate that gender norm that you were given at birth society doesn't like it and it doesn't matter that we just had this conversation ten fucking years ago. You already see that I'm frustrated and we're having it again. People forget because it clicks for someone if they know a gay person but a lot of people just don't know trans people or have trans family members so you have to try to educate them in a way that makes them see it. Where you make it click for them as the gay issue clicks for them if it clicks for them at all. And part of the problem is that the right has gotten a lot more savvy in the way that they propagate these culture war issues so they'll take an issue like trans issue and they'll link it to wokeness. So if you support LGBTQ plus rights well you're woke and this is one thing that has always been frustrating for me. So when I first launched the channel I was talking to somebody who was transgender. It was a congressional candidate and one of the comments really stood out to me. It said man you know she has great politics but I hope that she's not an SJW and I don't know why you would automatically assume that a trans person who's just a normal working class trans person is like hypersensitive snowflake. It doesn't make sense to me right? And I realized that this is the result of the right wing kind of taking all LGBTQ plus issues even feminism, black issues and linking it to wokeness. So you know to me it's obvious but to other people leftists and liberals when I feel like it should be obvious to them but they don't see it that's where there's this disconnect where I begin to get really flustered and frustrated. So like with the Dave Chappelle thing a lot of people who are leftists who are usually predisposed to support trans rights you know that they for whatever reason they're missing the mark on this one. They just don't get it. And part of it is because when you have really influential culture figures like Dave Chappelle who they like and admire say something you kind of just tend to side with that person we're a tribalistic society so we have to acknowledge that this is something that's working against us and Republican operatives and their framing is working against us and we have to accept all of that realize that we're human beings and we're gonna get frustrated and try to come up with ways to counter that and I think that the way that we do that is to try to put ourselves out there and you know try to disarm them rather than thinking that we're woke snowflakes and try to be self-deprecating try to make jokes this is how I won over a lot of my family members when I came out as gay but again you know this is a really strategic conversation that I think that people with platforms mostly should be having but I mean if you have a pretty big social group of friends and you know you have these debates I think you also too have to work on the way that you communicate with people you're framing and it's tough right because I feel like just accepting LGBTQ plus people trans rights this is all just it's a given it's common sense but it's not common sense for somebody who has never met a gay person it's just not they don't get it they don't understand it they don't know what goes through the mind of someone who's trans they don't get it so they're just by default going to be against us so we have to try to find ways to win them over and if they think that we're part of some woke mob who's going to cancel them if they ask us a question that might be a little bit too spicy then that's working against us and it's a really complex thing but what India Walton is saying here is we have to try to do a better job be more effective at communicating because you know it's hard to do the right they are as stupid and you know nefarious as they may be you've got to hand it to them they are effective communicators and I watch Fox News and I'll think man this segment is awful who would buy this shit this is low IQ idiocracy level bullshit but it resonates with people so we have to find ways and that doesn't mean that like we sacrifice our principles but I think that the way that we frame things the narratives that we build the way that we communicate that's something that we always have to be trying to improve upon and this is something I've been thinking about you know since Bernie Sanders lost in 2020 so I think that what India Walton is doing here and what Michael Brooks called for was for us to just try to meet people where they are more right the frustration is inevitable when we're talking about things that are really important high stakes issues climate change LGBTQ plus rights these are things that are important it affects people's lives in a very very concrete way so you know as much as we try to reach out to people who don't get it I wish that there was also some level of empathy for us who you know they feel like they know that we're passionate but at the same time they try to see it where we're coming from you know it's frustrating because as leftists we're always the ones who have to do the brunt of the work we're always the ones who have to reach out to everyone else there's no expectation that they're going to be sympathetic towards what we support you know it's it's frustrating but this is you know if you're on the right side of history and you genuinely are a believer in the things that you espouse then this is you know an effort that's worth putting in so I'm kind of rambling at this point but long story short I really like what India Walton is saying here because I think that things like this will make her less scary to people who are pretty defensive when they hear the word socialism or they hear about socialist ideas she could be the next Bernie Sanders and she has leader written all over her and I think that she knows how to effectively communicate things that she supports so you know I really respect that and if she's a better communicator than me or you or other leftist content creators I think it's important that we try to boost her up because we need that we need people who sometimes they have charisma sometimes they frame things in a way that makes it click other times they just know what makes right wingers tick and we need that so we're all kind of trying to do our report and from time to time we're going to have to acknowledge that we have to be introspective and that constructive criticism is important so yeah I think that what she says here it's important it's always good to look within and see what could I be doing differently how could I be more effective and I'm glad that she also views this in that way too