2aguy
Diamond Member
- Jul 19, 2014
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Want to know why people are walking away from the left wing, totalitarian democrats? Here is an interview with the guy who made the #walkaway video...
The Daily Wire Speaks With #WalkAway Founder Brandon Straka About Why He Abandoned The Left And Became A Conservative
DW: Why did you decide to make a video rather than simply change your political philosophies and walk away quietly?
STRAKA: I used to be a Democrat and a liberal, and that ultimately switched for me in 2017. It took months before I decided to walk away from liberalism and the Democratic Party. Over the course of that transition, I was trying to have conversations with friends and others about what I was experiencing and learning because it’s very jarring to feel like everything you believed in is being turned upside down.
When I was trying to have these conversations with people, I was met with a lot of hostility. The more hostile people became, the more I retreated into myself. I would lie in bed at night, and watch videos and read anything I could find about these subjects. The more I researched, the more I wanted to talk – but I didn’t have anyone to talk to.
It was shortly after the new year when I just got fed up with living in a constant state of anxiety thinking about who's going to lash out at me next or turn their back on me if I bring something up. So, I just decided to sit down and write this, sort of, manifesto about everything that's wrong with liberalism and the Democratic Party, shoot a video, and put the video online. That way, people could watch it, and all in one swoop, everyone who wanted to get pissed off at me or turn their back on me could to do it all at once – and then I would know. It’s like coming out of the closet. Anyone who has a problem can walk out of your life, and the people who are your real friends and who love you, they can stay.
I was so tired of not knowing who the next person was going to be who was going to leave. That was the original thought behind the video, but then I realized there was something deeper there because a lot of other people feel the same way I'm feeling. I realized I could turn it into a campaign and open it up to other people.
DW: What has the response been from your progressive friends?
STRAKA: Not great. Honestly, there really weren’t that many left by the time I did the video. So many of my closest friends had already either cut me off or stopped talking to me. It hasn’t been good.
[Brandon then told me about several of the interactions he’s had with former friends that became incredibly malicious]
DW: What was the first time you remember questioning your progressive belief system?
STRAKA: Some of the earliest memories I have of questioning my beliefs go back eight to ten years. I had a group of liberal friends in New York. They’re all Ivy League-educated, very smart people with great careers – very bright people.
I was like the only friend in the group who didn’t have a college degree. Meanwhile, they all went to Harvard and Dartmouth and Yale and Columbia – but we would hang out and have a great time together. Inevitably, we’d end up going back to someone’s apartment and talking politics. I was a liberal too, but there were so many times I would be listening to them talk, and be like, this doesn’t make any sense. But because I didn’t go to college, and they went to these really prestigious schools, I just thought the problem was me. I was like, "Well, they’re the smart ones. I’m the one who’s not getting it."
Of course, as the years went by, we started hearing about privilege and white privilege – which even transitioned into "gay privilege." That's when it really lost me. The identity politics and the PC culture.
It was around 2015, and the Supreme Court had just ruled in favor of marriage equality, and I thought, as a member of the gay community, that this would be a moment of celebration. But what happened was, as soon as we crossed that finish line, our community just started splintering, and it started to become about race, and which race of gay people has it harder. It became about white gay people oppressing black gay people, and gender non-binary, and gender fluid, and genderqueer.
Then it was: if you're a black, non-binary person, you’re oppressed by the white gay male, and I was like, this is f****** nuts. I thought we were a community; I thought we were in this together. Once my own group started turning on me, it was really painful.
The Daily Wire Speaks With #WalkAway Founder Brandon Straka About Why He Abandoned The Left And Became A Conservative
DW: Why did you decide to make a video rather than simply change your political philosophies and walk away quietly?
STRAKA: I used to be a Democrat and a liberal, and that ultimately switched for me in 2017. It took months before I decided to walk away from liberalism and the Democratic Party. Over the course of that transition, I was trying to have conversations with friends and others about what I was experiencing and learning because it’s very jarring to feel like everything you believed in is being turned upside down.
When I was trying to have these conversations with people, I was met with a lot of hostility. The more hostile people became, the more I retreated into myself. I would lie in bed at night, and watch videos and read anything I could find about these subjects. The more I researched, the more I wanted to talk – but I didn’t have anyone to talk to.
It was shortly after the new year when I just got fed up with living in a constant state of anxiety thinking about who's going to lash out at me next or turn their back on me if I bring something up. So, I just decided to sit down and write this, sort of, manifesto about everything that's wrong with liberalism and the Democratic Party, shoot a video, and put the video online. That way, people could watch it, and all in one swoop, everyone who wanted to get pissed off at me or turn their back on me could to do it all at once – and then I would know. It’s like coming out of the closet. Anyone who has a problem can walk out of your life, and the people who are your real friends and who love you, they can stay.
I was so tired of not knowing who the next person was going to be who was going to leave. That was the original thought behind the video, but then I realized there was something deeper there because a lot of other people feel the same way I'm feeling. I realized I could turn it into a campaign and open it up to other people.
DW: What has the response been from your progressive friends?
STRAKA: Not great. Honestly, there really weren’t that many left by the time I did the video. So many of my closest friends had already either cut me off or stopped talking to me. It hasn’t been good.
[Brandon then told me about several of the interactions he’s had with former friends that became incredibly malicious]
DW: What was the first time you remember questioning your progressive belief system?
STRAKA: Some of the earliest memories I have of questioning my beliefs go back eight to ten years. I had a group of liberal friends in New York. They’re all Ivy League-educated, very smart people with great careers – very bright people.
I was like the only friend in the group who didn’t have a college degree. Meanwhile, they all went to Harvard and Dartmouth and Yale and Columbia – but we would hang out and have a great time together. Inevitably, we’d end up going back to someone’s apartment and talking politics. I was a liberal too, but there were so many times I would be listening to them talk, and be like, this doesn’t make any sense. But because I didn’t go to college, and they went to these really prestigious schools, I just thought the problem was me. I was like, "Well, they’re the smart ones. I’m the one who’s not getting it."
Of course, as the years went by, we started hearing about privilege and white privilege – which even transitioned into "gay privilege." That's when it really lost me. The identity politics and the PC culture.
It was around 2015, and the Supreme Court had just ruled in favor of marriage equality, and I thought, as a member of the gay community, that this would be a moment of celebration. But what happened was, as soon as we crossed that finish line, our community just started splintering, and it started to become about race, and which race of gay people has it harder. It became about white gay people oppressing black gay people, and gender non-binary, and gender fluid, and genderqueer.
Then it was: if you're a black, non-binary person, you’re oppressed by the white gay male, and I was like, this is f****** nuts. I thought we were a community; I thought we were in this together. Once my own group started turning on me, it was really painful.
