Ben Shapiro & Andrew Tate FIGHT Over The Kyle Kulinski Show

8 months ago
56

"The first time I ever really listened to Kyle Kulinski's show was
in the back of a cab last summer. The driver had his phone
hooked up through the stereo and was pumping out an
episode through the car speakers - loudly, as if looking to
convert a captive audience.
"Do you like Kyle Kulinski?"
The driver, Ahmed, was a recent immigrant and apparently a
die-hard fan of Secular Talk, the political talk show that
Kulinski broadcasts on YouTube. I told him, yes, in fact. I do like
Kulinski, had come across his show several years ago, and, all
things considered, he seemed pretty good.
"He understands what we're up against," Ahmed said. "Like
Bernie
But I was surprised to hear Kulinski's name mentioned in the
same breath as Bernie Sanders, particularly with such
adoration. Because what I did remember about Kulinski's show
struck me as mostly capital- "progressive" takes on the news
- the left wing of the Netroots crowd more than the
democratic socialism Sanders has popularized.
It's an impression that wasn't entirely incorrect.
"I have no time for philosophical, airy bullshit," Kulinski tells me
from his home in Westchester, New York. "I don't want to hear
about Lenin. I don't want to hear about Marx. "I have no time for philosophical, airy bullshit," Kulinski tells me
from his home in Westchester, New York. "I don't want to hear
about Lenin. I don't want to hear about Marx. I just want a
super plainspoken, straightforward agenda with a
straightforward way of selling it."
With over 800,000 subscribers and nearly 670 million total
views on YouTube, selling a progressive agenda is clearly
something Kulinski knows how to do - even Democracy Now,
the long-standing flagship of progressive media, cannot match
his reach on the platform. Chapo Trap House can certainly
boast a wildly devoted fan base (and a not insignificant degree
of media influence), but their audience is roughly half the size
of Kulinski's.
While Secular Talk might be more likely to be looped in with
the progressive networks around Air America and Pacifica
alums like Sam Seder than the more resolutely socialist world
Kulinski's fiery rhetoric, razor-sharp class instincts, and knack
for withering takedowns sets him apart from his peers.
Judging by his rhetoric alone, he's closer to a Eugene Debs
than a Chris Hayes.
But unlike Hayes, Amy Goodman, or his friend Cenk Uygur of
The Young Turks - who began airing Secular Talk on his web
network seven years ago - the thirty-two-year-old Kulinski is
virtually invisible in the mainstream media. Despite his
enormous fan base, his show has never once been mentioned
in the obligatory trend pieces on "the Millennial Left" pumped
out by the prestige media. Nor has Kulinski's name ever
popped up at all in the New York Times, Vox, the New Yorker,
New York Magazine, or the Washington Post, despite his
leading role in cofounding Justice Democrats, the organization
widely credited with sweeping Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and
the rest of "the Squad" to power.
Just last week, his Wikipedia page was deleted. The reason?
"There is very simply no [reliable source] coverage of this
person," according to one moderator. In new media, he's king
- the Sean Hannity of the Berniecrat left. In old media, he'snobody.

Loading comments...