Why I Left the Left and the Right #4: How To Move Forward | TaraElla Report Reset

Welcome to a new season of the TaraElla Report, which I will call TaraElla Report Reset. Today, I want to talk about what this season will be focused on, and why I'm calling it a reset. In today's episode, I will be going back through the history of this show, what I actually wanted out of it in the first place, what I learned in my journey so far, and what I want to do going forward.

Let's start by looking back. When I first started this project, this show, several years ago, what I wanted to do was to talk about ideas from different people and different factions of society. I wanted to be part of the ongoing cultural and political conversation in the Western world, which was at one of its most heated points in recent history. I was increasingly frustrated about the state of the conversation, with its polarization, division, but also conformity within echo chambers, acceptance of faulty reasoning on both sides, rise of what I consider extreme ideologies, and so on. I wanted to bring a better approach to the table.

Looking back, I was deeply frustrated with the changing dynamics of what could be broadly described as 'the left side of the spectrum', which I sort of thought I belonged to ever since my college days. Back when I was in first year of college, the Iraq War happened, and I didn't really like the politics of the pro-war neoconservatives, who were dominant in America and several other Western countries. I decided that, by comparison, 'the left', which was more war-skeptical overall, and which was not as opposed to things like gay marriage, was for me. So that remained my political identity for some time. We have to remember that, back then, many people weren't as clear about dividing it into the center-left, far-left, old-left, new-left etc. While there is an argument to be made about avoiding labels, in this case, these divisions are actually real and important, in the context of this story. The other things was, libertarians were also part of the anti-war coalition, and they were gravitating away from the Bush Republican Right because of that. They were also upset at the whole religious right thing, especially with Bush making gay marriage a big issue around 2004. Libertarians were increasingly raising the fact that they would have been on the left in the original French revolution sense. Some of them even voted for Kerry in 2004. So in my mind, libertarians were sort of left too. I know this might not make sense for many people today, but back then, it was how I saw it. So when I say I was 'in the left', what I probably meant was that I was effectively center-left plus libertarian fusion, which was probably quite common for young people back then.

Around 4 or 5 years ago, I became increasingly frustrated at how 'the left' was changing. There was a rapid increase in identity politics and a pro-conflict, us-vs-them orientation, and there was a rapid drop in respect for liberal norms like free speech, freedom of conscience and so on. There was also increasing hostility between those who considered themselves 'left', and those who considered themselves 'libertarian'. These things meant that, overall, the Left now felt like a collectivist, group over individual, zero-sum political faction, that was also driven by theoretical concerns rather than practical needs. You know that famous Dave Rubin video 'Why I Left the Left', it might be cliche and unfair in places, but I was increasingly feeling like the Left was like that, and it definitely wasn't what I signed up for back in college. Knowing a bit of political history, it felt like time had gone into reverse, and we were back in the nightmare of the late 1960s and 70s. I thought society had grown up and moved beyond that unproductive era, but no, we were back there again.

Anyway, some people were also voicing the discomfort I had, with the changes I was seeing. These included both people I consider moderately liberal like Amy Chua and Jonathan Haidt, as well as moderate conservatives like Jordan Peterson and several of the new crop of political YouTubers. I was probably closer to the liberal camp rather than the conservative camp, but what I saw was that, if we could work together, we would be able to effectively push back and restore the sanity. So I decided to see if I could bring the ideas and arguments from the two sides together, to try and find some common ground. This is why, early on, this show was called Daily Centrist. I was trying to act as the 'centrist', to bring the ideas and frustrations of the two sides together, to find common ground on which we could move forward.

By around 2019, however, the political landscape had further fractured, and now I could see that there were at least six or seven big factions along the political spectrum, or rather, the political map, because it clearly had more than one dimension. I stopped calling myself a 'centrist' because that term became less meaningful with this new development. Instead of just looking to find common ground among two factions, I expanded to try and find common ground between multiple factions, which both overlapped and conflicted depending on the issue we were talking about. Old school 'two big coalitions' politics was breaking down almost completely, and as a Moral Libertarian who believes in independent thinking, I loved it. I became particularly interested in the people who tried to bridge the newly formed factions, like I was doing. I was convinced that this was the politics of the future. Decentralized, spontaneous, flexible in its alliances, and so on.

And then, 2020 came. The end of the Democratic primaries meant that American politics settled firmly back into two big camps, and much of the rest of the Western world followed suit. Biden's history of bipartisanship initially gave me hope that he would evolve into one of those people who wanted to bridge the divides, but so far, I've not seen any indication that he wants to move that way. Maybe, with the base he now has, he couldn't do it even if he wanted to. Meanwhile, a new wave of social movements served to further the popularization of things like cancel culture. Even a letter supporting free speech, signed by prominent left-wing intellectuals like Noam Chomsky, got attacked by the new wave of cultural warriors. On the other side, the Trump campaign also happily encouraged polarization over these events, for its own political purposes. Of course, the culture wars also mean that nothing is being done about the important issues, like the dwindling prospects for young people, the rise of automation, the health of families and the social fabric, housing affordability, and so on. Let's face it: 2020 was a big disappointment, a major setback for people with priorities like myself.

So, where do we go next? I have spent much of 2021 so far quite directionless, not knowing what exactly to do, to be honest. The cultural and political landscape looks pretty much like a war torn wasteland these days, to be honest. But what I have learned is that, there is hope in ideas, and there is hope in conversations. This is why, going forward, I will be exploring interesting ideas across the political spectrum once again. Through ideas and conversations, we can once again get inspired, find common ground, and find the will to work together on practical issues again. In particular, through exploring diverse ideas, I hope to help build a new politics that is progressive, in the sense of forward looking, but also not tied to the dogma of the so-called theories coming from the Left or the Right. I will talk about that more next time.

That's all for today. I'll be back next time to discuss another big idea. Remember, on this show, the personalities don't matter, it's the ideas that matter. Interest in an individual's ideas does not mean support for all their other ideas. Until next time, remember to resist conformity and stay positive. Our future depends on it.