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Kyle Kulinski

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Kyle Kulinski
Kulinski at Politicon 2018
Personal information
Born (1988-01-31) January 31, 1988 (age 36)
Westchester County, New York, U.S.
NationalityAmerican
Political partyDemocratic (2016–present)
Independent (until 2016)
EducationIona College (B.A.)
Occupation(s)Talk show host
YouTuber
Political commentator
Political activist
YouTube information
Channel
Years active2008–present
Genre(s)Political commentary
Political activism
Subscribers955,000[1]
Total views812 million[1]
NetworkThe Young Turks
100,000 subscribers2014
Last updated: February 3, 2021

Kyle Edward Kulinski (born January 31, 1988), is an American political commentator. Politically, he is a social democrat. In a profile with the Santa Clarita Gazette and Free Classifieds, Kulinski describes starting the popular YouTube channel Secular Talk when he was a college student, commenting on national politics from a left progressive liberal standpoint.[2]

Kulinski, alongside his early colleague Cenk Uygur, is compared to Marxist philosopher Antonio Gramsci, and is labelled one of the new organic intellectuals of YouTube, someone who forges alliances between different progressive factions.[3]

A March 2020 profile on Kulinski in Jacobin describes his career path on YouTube. Kulinski had a modest start from his grandmother's basement in spring 2008. He experienced disillusionment in 2012 with the end of President Obama's first term, leading Kulinski to a surge in activity that pushed his YouTube subscriber count above 100,000. By 2015, Kulinski could make a living from Secular Talk. Kulinski reflects that his father's demise due to inadequate healthcare helped shape his political views.[4]

Kulinski is the host and producer[5] of The Kyle Kulinski Show on his YouTube channel Secular Talk, an affiliate of The Young Turks network.[6] Kulinski is a co-founder of Justice Democrats.[7]

The Kyle Kulinski Show

Kulinski started a YouTube channel in 2008, named "Secular Talk", while studying as a political science student. In 2012, Kulinski began publishing videos full-time, and started broadcasting on BlogTalkRadio as The Kyle Kulinski Show. As of January 2021, his show had 953,000 subscribers.

He spends a lot of time studying all the major issues so he can give a complete breakdown of everything for his audience. Kyle is very intelligent and he can dissect political policy in a very smart manner that is easy to understand.

— Eric Goldin, Santa Clarita Gazette and Free Classifieds[2]

Justice Democrats

In December 2016, after the 2016 United States presidential election, Kulinski—alongside Cenk Uygur of The Young Turks, Saikat Chakrabarti, and Zack Exley, veterans of the 2016 Bernie Sanders presidential campaign created the Justice Democrats to reform the Democratic Party and challenge President Donald Trump.[8][9] Uygur and Kulinski resigned from the group in late 2017.[10][11] By 2021, ten members of Justice Democrats held seats in the United States House of Representatives.

Politics positions and recurring critiques

He is cited as a "progressive commentator".[12] Kulinski is a prominent media personality of the contemporary American left, for example speaking in depth in 2016 on Bernie Sanders, Joe Biden and Hillary Clinton.[13][14]

Kulinski has described himself as a social democrat, an agnostic atheist, a secular humanist, and a left libertarian. He characterizes his beliefs as moderate by international political standards, arguing that he is only considered far-left and extreme in the United States because "the spectrum of public discourse has shifted to the far-right".[15] Kulinski is known for his opposition to social and economic conservatism, extreme religiosity, corporatism, political correctness, and the white supremacy movement.[citation needed]

Kulinski advocates for single-payer healthcare, free tuition at public colleges and universities, a federal minimum wage increase, a living wage, reduction in military spending, the end of military interventionism, infrastructure spending, the legalization of euthanasia/physician-assisted-suicide, and the legalization, regulation, and taxation of drugs and prostitution.[16]

Kulinski supported Bernie Sanders in the 2016 Democratic primary election, and later voted for Jill Stein. While critical of Hillary Clinton, he described her as the "lesser of two evils" in the general election against Donald Trump.[17]

After Trump's election, Kulinski emphasized his belief that progressives and American liberals could successfully lobby President Trump, rather than universally oppose him, especially regarding populist issues such as infrastructure spending and fair trade/protectionism, policy positions Trump used during his primary and general election campaigns.[18] Kulinski similarly criticizes the Democratic Party's broad "resistance" to Trump, stating that, as a result of such a position, they find themselves praising everyone that doesn't support Trump, even establishment Republicans. Kulinski disapproves of this, because "establishment Republicans want Trump to do every single thing he’s doing, minus the "mean tweets".[19]

In 2020, Kulinski refused to support Joe Biden, even if it meant Donald Trump winning. Journalist Mehdi Hasan and talk show host Joy Reid criticized Kulinski for this view.[20]

Kulinski distinguishes new wave of progressive candidates from mainstream Democratic Party by campaign finance policy, “[Democrats are] just Republican-lite.” “If somebody gives you a check for a tremendous amount of money, you’re going to look out for them. The Democratic Party is a shell of its former self. Get rid of the corporate money. We need to focus on the issues.”[21]

Personal life

Kulinski was born and raised in the New York City suburbs of Westchester County, New York. He graduated from New Rochelle High School in 2006 and Iona College in 2010 with a bachelor's degree in political science and a minor in psychology.[22]

References

  1. ^ a b "About SecularTalk". YouTube.
  2. ^ a b Goldin, Eric (January 9, 2020). "The Passion of Kyle Kulinski". Santa Clarita Gazette and Free Classifieds. Valley Publications. Archived from the original on January 28, 2020. Retrieved August 5, 2020.
  3. ^ Lydon, Keith (September 28, 2020). "Gramsci in the Digital Age: YouTubers as New Organic Intellectuals". The Graduate Review. V. Bridgewater State University: 34-45. Retrieved January 31, 2021.
  4. ^ Kilpatrick, Connor (March 3, 2020). "Kyle Kulinski Speaks, the Bernie Bros Listen". Jacobin. Bhaskar Sunkara. Archived from the original on March 4, 2020. Retrieved March 5, 2020. {{cite news}}: |archive-date= / |archive-url= timestamp mismatch; March 5, 2020 suggested (help)
  5. ^ Dice, Mark (November 12, 2019). The Liberal Media Industrial Complex. ISBN 9781943591084. Retrieved March 5, 2020.
  6. ^ Olson, Tyler (March 3, 2020). "Sanders campaign rails against 'nervous' establishment, as candidates flock to Biden". FOX News Network. Fox News. Retrieved March 5, 2020.
  7. ^ Stuart, Tessa (November 21, 2018). "Can Justice Democrats Pull Off a Progressive Coup in Congress?". Rolling Stone. Penske Media Corporation. Archived from the original on February 2, 2019. Retrieved March 5, 2020.
  8. ^ Grigoryan, Nune; Suetzl, Wolfgang (2019). "Hybridized political participation". In Atkinson, Joshua D.; Kenix, Linda (eds.). Alternative Media Meets Mainstream Politics: Activist Nation Rising. Rowman & Littlefield. p. 190. ISBN 9781498584357.
  9. ^ David Weigel (January 23, 2017). "Progressives launch 'Justice Democrats' to counter party's 'corporate' legislators". The Washington Post. Archived from the original on March 30, 2019. Retrieved April 6, 2019.
  10. ^ Kerr, Andrew (March 5, 2019). "Ocasio-Cortez and Her Chief of Staff 'Could Be Facing Jail Time'". The Daily Signal. Retrieved December 19, 2019.
  11. ^ Stuart, Tessa (November 21, 2018). "Can Justice Democrats Pull Off a Progressive Coup in Congress?". Rolling Stone. Retrieved February 26, 2020.
  12. ^ MacDonald, Tyler (January 3, 2020). "Kyle Kulinski Blasts Trump Administration For Soleimani Strike: 'This Is The Whims Of Psychos'". The Inquisitr. Retrieved August 5, 2020.
  13. ^ "Kyle Kulinski: What went wrong for the Sanders campaign". The Hill. The Hill. April 10, 2020. Retrieved August 5, 2020.
  14. ^ "Kyle Kulinski on why Biden is beating Trump in the polls". The Hill. The Hill. June 10, 2020. Retrieved August 5, 2020.
  15. ^ Kulinski, Kyle. "About". The Kyle Kulinski Show. Archived from the original on May 20, 2016. Retrieved May 1, 2017.
  16. ^ "Justice Democrats Platform". Medium. February 1, 2017. Retrieved May 11, 2020.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  17. ^ Ladak, Sheikh Jaffer (August 1, 2016). "Thinking of voting for the lesser of two evils in the US elections? Why not vote for someone not evil? - TMV". The Muslim Vibe. Retrieved May 11, 2020.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  18. ^ "Kyle Kulinski Of The Young Turks Says Democrats Need To Change Before They Can Defeat Trump". Good Worldwide. July 11, 2017. Retrieved May 11, 2020.{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  19. ^ "Trump is more paranoid and vengeful than Nixon — but his stupidity makes him much more dangerous". The Raw Story.{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  20. ^ Wulfsohn, Joseph A. (April 14, 2020). "MSNBC's Joy Reid rips Sanders supporters for not backing Biden as 'privileged white voters'". Fox News. Fox Corporation. Retrieved August 5, 2020.
  21. ^ Niles, Emma (April 21, 2019). "How Justice Democrats Plan to Give Progressives a Reason to Vote in the 2018 Midterms". TruthDig. Retrieved December 4, 2020.
  22. ^ Kulinski, Kyle. "About". The Kyle Kulinski Show. Archived from the original on December 20, 2017.
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