I have not seen that but I will forever be glad she was steering some people away from stuff like Jordan Peterson at the height of “attack helicopter” transphobia and “Intellectual Dark Web” nonsense. I am sure she makes no effort to turn anyone communist, but plenty of liberals, especially in red states, who already regard Elizabeth Warren as far left, are better for having watched her.
She’s a centrist encouraging people to be centrist, that doesn’t seem like “getting libs to think a little more leftward” by any reasonable metric. I don’t seek to contest nor do I really care about your sentimental/parasocial affection for her, but the facts are the facts.
Here’s the video, by the way. The first thing I always remember about it, though it’s in a tangent, is that she calls Mao a “strongman,” which aside from being wrong and reeking of chauvinism, is just so fucking stupid that it’s beneath even a College Republican.
As someone whose grandfather and great aunt were both professors sent to a labor camp by Mao, and whose mother grew up having to thank a portrait of Mao before dinner every evening, but still believes he did a lot of good for China, I forgive her.
Give me a break, I know a professor who was caught in the whole “reform by labor” business and they would side with me that “strongman” is a completely ridiculous thing to call Mao, even if you wrongly think that he didn’t do a lot of good for China. “Strongman” doesn’t mean “leader whose policies I dislike,” though I’d argue Brandon does some strongman politics with his bullshit about pushups and challenging random civilians to fights when they disagree with him.
