Political commentator and podcaster Dave Rubin discussed his political evolution in a video commemorating the sixth anniversary of his video detailing why he left “the left.”
Rubin initially released his video titled “Why I Left the Left” in February 2017 through conservative nonprofit PragerU.
The political commentator has since released three subsequent videos with the nonprofit including “So, You Think You’re Tolerant” in 2018, “The Bravery Deficit” in 2020, and “Three Ways To Fix America” in 2022.
“This month is the six-year anniversary of the famous — or infamous — ‘Why I Left The Left’ video that I did for PragerU,” Rubin said, referring to his 2017 video.
“It might be hard for you to remember, but you might remember that I once was a good lefty; I was a liberal; I was a Democrat, all of those nice things.”
“Sound familiar, [Elon Musk]?” Rubin said in a post sharing his video.
Six years after “Why I Left The Left”…
Sound familiar, @elonmusk? @rumblevideohttps://t.co/li01YszPie
YouTubehttps://t.co/J3XsBzYfSV pic.twitter.com/zENQOJrC7k— Dave Rubin (@RubinReport) February 6, 2023
“Then things started to change,” he continued. “My side — the left — was actually the ones that were acting completely illiberally.”
Rubin detailed his experience witnessing liberals “silencing free speech on campus and shouting down speakers.”
“We were focused on the collective instead of the individual,” he said, noting that his political evolution was shaped through alternative media including PragerU. “It wasn’t just about learning new ideas and being unafraid to talk about them, it was also talking to people that I thought were my ideological enemies.”
The podcaster cited political commentators and other notable figures that shaped his political views, including PragerU’s Dennis Prager, Glenn Beck of the Blaze, former radio host Larry Elder, clinical psychologist Jordan Peterson, and the Daily Wire’s Ben Shapiro.
“I was willing to talk to people, hear what they had to say, and then compare that to my own thoughts,” Rubin said. “I think everything that I’ve spent the last couple years talking about is exactly what is needed in America right now.”
“It’s imperfect; I’m imperfect; you’re imperfect; but if we fight for those ideals, and if we act a little bit more bravely, and we turn back to some of those founding documents that sometimes seem old and irrelevant, I really think we can fix this thing.”
In 2019, Rubin delved into tech and social media with the creation of his subscription-based Patreon competitor Locals. YouTube competitor Rumble purchased Rubin’s company in October 2021.
A few months after purchasing Locals, Rumble announced it would go public after entering a deal with global financial services firm CF Acquisition Corp. VI (CFVI). Rumble was initially valued at $2.1 billion, and current stock prices for CFVI are trading at about $10.22 per share.
Last week, the podcaster met with Twitter owner Elon Musk along with Twitter engineers discussing inconsistent engagement on the platform.
Musk referred to Twitter’s code as a “fractal rube Goldberg Machine,” according to Rubin.
“One wrong move the whole thing collapses,” the Locals creator said.
“Elon is funny as hell, laughs a ton and it’s just really obvious he cares about Twitter because he cares about free speech and the bigger problems facing the world,” Rubin concluded. “He doesn’t need this headache, he chose it.”
