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Premium: Ask Me Anything · Uncomfortable Conversations with Josh Szeps

• 0:00
  G'day, this is an abridged version of the episode that you can hear in full by signing up
• 0:04
  at uncomfortableconversations.substac.com slash subscribe. Enjoy the freebie.
• 0:30
  A huge jump in subscriptions after I announce my resignation from the National Public Broadcaster
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  in Australia, the ABC. It's been a great run of having an afternoon show there for two years,
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  but I'm doubling down on this little project. You're going to get more of me. I'm going to get more
• 0:47
  of you. We're going to be in a big loving embrace. There'll be rivers of milk and honey,
• 0:52
  lions sleeping with lambs, postman hugging, great days, and so on. So thank you if you've subscribed.
• 0:58
  If you haven't subscribed, you'll hear a little bit of this episode and then it'll be just for
• 1:03
  members and you'll get lots of other great free content in the new year. We're shooting for the
• 1:09
  end of January. A YouTube channel, you'll be able to watch stuff. If you're already a subscriber
• 1:16
  to my substac and you're listening to this on the podcast, you can see a video episode of me
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  sweating away on a hot early summer's day in not a beautiful day. Instead of being out there,
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  swimming at the beach or frolicing in a park or doing ring or ring a rosy or making daisy chains
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  with my daughter, I am here, committed, dedicated to you. So thank you. Let's get to some questions. Anthony
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  writes in on the substacks saying, you've mentioned before that you believe the far right is a bigger
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  threat to our culture is the biggest threat to our culture. It seems that many reasonable
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  podcasters and political commentators agree with you. However, the vast majority of attention
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  and content in this space is focused on the indiscretions of the far left. I very rarely hear a far
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  right person challenged in an interview or a dissertation on why the far right is so dangerous and
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  how we ought to engage with them in a war of ideas to help rid the world of the quote unquote mind
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  virus of the far right. As you, Anthony is referring there to the fact that some including Elon Musk
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  have called, uh, workness, a mind virus of the left. And Anthony asks, what do you think the
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  implications of this are? Do you think all the attention on the far left amplifies the public's
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  perception of the threat that the far left poses as compared to the far right? Um, yes, I do think
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  the cynical co-option of anti-workness by reaction resources is sinister and
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  diabolical and is precisely why the far right poses such a threat because they're able to
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  co-opt the extremes of the left and wrap themselves in a cloak of reasonableness when in fact
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  they are frequently more batchit crazy and more dangerous than any Worcester could ever be. So I'm
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  mindful on this podcast and in all of my content, not to join the chorus of right wing rat bags
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  who think that there's, you know, some kind of their champions of free speech because they
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  get in a hissy fit every time a university campus erupts in some sort of, you know, 19-year-old
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  performative social justice crisis. That being said, the very fact that far left craziness
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  is such great fodder for the right and provides such fuel for the right and makes the right seem
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  more reasonable and attractive to centrist voters who are actually winnable makes me all the more
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  concerned about having our own house in order on the left and being diligent about making sure
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  that we are the grown-ups in the room by we, I mean, just broadly people who don't want the far
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  right to take power. We don't, we shouldn't spend all of our time pointing out and exaggerating
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  and over-inflating every transgression that the left does, but I do think there's a real battle of
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  ideas on the left between people who care about economic justice and equality on the one hand
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  and another group of people who have who see the future of the left as being more tribalistic
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  identitarian, more focused on what they call equity and less concerned about matters of bread and
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  butter and economic inequality and issues of class and so on because for them they want to see
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  everything through the prism of either racial or sexual or other forms of minority discrimination
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  and supremacy. That is a true battle for the hearts and minds of progressives or small
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  l liberals. It will be hugely consequential who wins that battle and to the extent that we can
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  turn up the volume on being reasonable compassionate people who believe in equality and the sanctity
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  of the individual, we will deprive the far right of the ammunition that it needs to co-opt the
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  political sphere. So yes, Anthony, I'm extremely mindful of that concern if I ever become someone who's
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  doing podcast after podcast after podcast where I'm banging on about what are essentially
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  inconsequential young people acting up and I'm going rogue about cancel culture and constantly
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  complaining about how tough life is for white, straight, middle-aged males. I hope that you,
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  my dear audience and colleagues will call me out on it. It's something I'm mindful of especially
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  as I start this new chapter where I'm going it alone and I know that there will be an incentive
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  for a certain level of audience capture. I know that this show could be financially successful
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  if I just lean into being peers Morgan. I'm not going to do that. I don't want to do that. I think
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  there has to be a space for sanity here and so I'll address issues of the excesses of the far left
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  to the extent that I think they're warranted and no more. I mean, I think it's also just worth
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  pointing out finally on that question. It's a lot easier for most reasonable people to understand
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  where the far right has gone wrong. You know, you don't have to do a lot of teasing a part
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  of your own moral intuitions to understand that people who are marching through the streets with
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  teaky tortures wearing KKK sheets over their head that they are morally misguided. It's more complicated
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  to understand what exactly is going on when people are like what's wrong with expressing
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  repeated and ongoing support for Gaza. I'm not saying there necessarily is anything wrong with
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  that but to the extent that there is, what is morally problematic and complicated about,
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  for example, racial diversity quotas. There are just thorny issues on the left that are not
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  intuitive and I feel like it's my job as someone who has dedicated themselves to wrestling with
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  these issues to sort of walk hand in hand with everybody, every other reasonable person who wants
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  to be part of this mission of mine, of ours, and try to nut it out and try to get a bit dirty
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  in the notting of it out. And you don't need to get dirty to understand why the far right is bad.
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  Like, you know, if you don't understand why neo-nazis and authoritarians are a problem, then this
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  probably isn't the podcast for you. I'm taking that as a given and then I'm saying, but okay,
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  what are the other things that we should be mindful of in our desire to create a flourishing
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  and a diverse and equitable demos. Another person writes on the text line, what's your opinion
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  on the possibility of the Tasmanian tiger still being alive somewhere in the Tasmanian wilderness?
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  I don't know. I find it incredibly improbable and tremendously exciting if it were the case that
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  it's still wandering around out there somewhere. For those of you who don't know who are in Australia,
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  the Tasmanian tiger was this very unique creature, not a tiger, not a cat, I don't believe,
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  I think it's a marsupial, and it was hunted to extinction, extinction as so we believe in the
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  early 20th century. One thing that I think is fascinating about this is the possibility of actually
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  bringing it back.