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Kyle Kulinski

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Kyle Kulinski
Kulinski at Politicon 2018 (31729043058) (cropped).jpg
Kulinski at Politicon in October 2018
Personal information
Born (1988-01-31) January 31, 1988 (age 33)[1]
Westchester County, New York, U.S.
EducationIona College (BA)
Occupation
  • Political commentator
  • media host
Political partyDemocratic[citation needed]
Other political
affiliations		Justice Democrats (2017)
YouTube information
Channel
Years active2008–present
GenrePolitical commentary
Political activism
Subscribers973,000[2]
Total views900 million[2]
NetworkThe Young Turks (2013–2021)[citation needed]
YouTube Silver Play Button 2.svg 100,000 subscribers 2014
Updated: October 10, 2021

Kyle Edward Kulinski (born January 31, 1988) is an American political commentator and media host. Kulinski is the host and producer of The Kyle Kulinski Show on his YouTube channel Secular Talk and is a co-host with Krystal Ball on the progressive podcast Krystal Kyle & Friends.[3]

A self-described left-wing populist and social democrat, Kulinski is a co-founder of Justice Democrats, a progressive political action committee whose candidates refuse donations from corporate PACs.[4]

Early life

Kulinski was born on January 31, 1988 to a family of Polish and Italian descent. He 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.[5]

Kulinski credits his father's premature death due to inadequate healthcare, the 2003 invasion of Iraq in his teenage years, and studying the works of Noam Chomsky as helping to shape his political views.[6]

Career

The Kyle Kulinski Show

Kulinski started a YouTube channel in spring 2008, named "Secular Talk", while studying as a political science student.[6] Kyle indicated from the beginning that the show leans heavily to the left. He presents the news with a "brash" and "in-your-face" tone along with jokes and swear words, in sharp contrast to the professional presentation style found in mainstream news outlets.[7]

Disillusioned with US President Barack Obama by the end of his first term, Kulinski began publishing videos full-time, and started broadcasting on BlogTalkRadio as The Kyle Kulinski Show. This surge in activity pushed his YouTube subscriber count above 100,000.[6] By 2015, Kulinski was making a living from Secular Talk.[6] Since then, his videos regularly get hundreds of thousands of views.[8]

Justice Democrats

Main article: Justice Democrats

In December 2016, after the 2016 United States presidential election, Kulinski—alongside Cenk Uygur of The Young Turks, and Saikat Chakrabarti and Zack Exley of the 2016 Bernie Sanders presidential campaign—created Justice Democrats, a political action committee with the goal of supporting progressive candidates in primary elections against Democratic members of congress.[9] Uygur and Kulinski resigned from the group in late 2017.[10][11] Since leaving, Kulinski has expressed disapproval with the Justice Democrats' political strategy,[12] and has criticized congresspeople aligned with the Justice Democrats for not withholding their votes from House Speaker Nancy Pelosi in exchange for a House vote on Medicare for All.[13]

Krystal Kyle & Friends

In January 2021, Kulinski and Krystal Ball of Rising started a podcast titled Krystal Kyle & Friends, where they are both co-hosts. Notable podcast guests have included Russell Brand, Noam Chomsky, Thomas Frank, Glenn Greenwald, Carl Hart, Justin Jackson, Bernie Sanders, Matt Taibbi, Nina Turner, Cornel West, Marianne Williamson, Richard D. Wolff and Andrew Yang.[14][non-primary source needed]

Political views

Kulinski is cited as a progressive commentator.[15] Kulinski has been noted by The Hill for his commentary regarding various presidential candidates, including Bernie Sanders, Joe Biden and Hillary Clinton.[16][17] In Bridgewater State University's journal The Graduate Review, Kulinski has been described as one of the "new organic intellectuals of YouTube."[18]

He has described himself as a social democrat, agnostic atheist, secular humanist, left-wing populist, 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".[1][dead link] Kulinski advocates for single-payer healthcare, free tuition at public colleges and universities, a federal living wage, reduction in military spending, military non-interventionism, abolition of capital punishment, infrastructure spending, the legalization of euthanasia, and the legalization, regulation, and taxation of drugs and prostitution.[19]

Kulinski opposes the use of biometrics for the purpose of employee management, characterizing this use as "rank authoritarianism disguised as corporate efficiency for consumer satisfaction."[20]

Campaign finance

Kulinski believes that campaign finance policy is what distinguishes progressive candidates from the mainstream of the Democratic Party, which he referred to as "just Republican-lite." When advocating for candidates endorsed by Justice Democrats, Kulinski stated "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]

Electoral politics

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 and said that people in swing states should vote for Clinton to stop Trump from winning.[22]

After Trump's election, Kulinski expressed his belief that progressives and liberals could successfully lobby President Trump to pursue policies such as infrastructure spending and economic protectionism.[23] Kulinski criticizes the Never Trump movement and discourages praising Republicans who criticize Trump, stating "establishment Republicans want Trump to do every single thing he’s doing, minus the mean tweets."[24]

After then-candidate Joe Biden became the presumptive winner of the 2020 Democratic Party presidential primaries, Kulinski stated that he would not support Biden, even if it meant Donald Trump winning. When commenting on this position, Kulinski mentioned that he encourages his critics to "blame him" if Trump were to win re-election, as he believed this would have demonstrated that candidates such as Biden require the support of him and those who share his perspectives in order to win. Journalist Mehdi Hasan criticized Kulinski for this view, stating: "If you’re ok with a white nationalist winning a second term, I question your 'left-wing' credentials." Television host Joy Reid concurred with Hasan's criticism of Kulinski's position.[25]

Social issues

In 2014, when then-Fox News host Oliver North made a speech comparing fighting against gay rights to fighting against slavery, Kulinski covered the speech by saying: "Not only is there no comparison, if anything the opposition position on those issues is more like opposing slavery". Kulinski added: "To be in favor of gay rights and to try to treat people equally under the law—that is definitely a movement that is more in line with the idea behind the abolitionists of treating people equal and treating people right".[26]

Kulinski has criticized religiously-motivated opposition to abortion, arguing that, according to his interpretation of the Bible, abortion is permissible in Christianity.[27]

References

  1. ^ a b Kulinski, Kyle (2016). "About". The Kyle Kulinski Show. Archived from the original on May 20, 2016. Retrieved May 1, 2017.
  2. ^ a b "About Secular Talk". YouTube.
  3. ^ Olson, Tyler (March 3, 2020). "Sanders campaign rails against 'nervous' establishment, as candidates flock to Biden". Fox News. Fox Corporation. Retrieved March 5, 2020.
  4. ^ 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.
  5. ^ Kulinski, Kyle. "About". The Kyle Kulinski Show. Archived from the original on December 20, 2017.
  6. ^ a b c d 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.
  7. ^ 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.
  8. ^ Brooks, Cale (April 11, 2021). "From Posting to Politics". jacobinmag.com. Retrieved April 16, 2021.
  9. ^ Grigoryan, Nune; Suetzl, Wolfgang (2019). "Hybridized political participation". In Atkinson, Joshua D.; Kenix, Linda (eds.). Alternative Media Meets Mainstream Politics: Activist Nation Rising. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield. p. 190. ISBN 9781498584357.
  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. ^ Levitz, Eric (December 22, 2020). "The Left's Most Naïve Cynics Have Turned on AOC". New York Magazine. Retrieved March 20, 2021.
  13. ^ Uyehara, Mari (January 18, 2021). "Medicare for All Needs a Sunrise Movement". The New Republic. Retrieved March 20, 2021.
  14. ^ Ball, Krystal (2021). "Krystal Kyle & Friends". Substack. Retrieved February 14, 2021.
  15. ^ Axelrod, Tal (April 10, 2020). "Kyle Kulinski: What went wrong for the Sanders campaign". The Hill. Retrieved February 12, 2021.
  16. ^ "Kyle Kulinski: What went wrong for the Sanders campaign". The Hill. April 10, 2020. Retrieved August 5, 2020.
  17. ^ "Kyle Kulinski on why Biden is beating Trump in the polls". The Hill. June 10, 2020. Retrieved August 5, 2020.
  18. ^ Lydon, Keith (September 28, 2020). "Gramsci in the Digital Age: YouTubers as New Organic Intellectuals". The Graduate Review. Bridgewater State University. V: 34–45. Retrieved January 31, 2021.
  19. ^ Kulinski, Kyle; Uyghur, Cenk (February 1, 2017). "Justice Democrats Platform". Medium. Retrieved May 11, 2020.
  20. ^ Stancil, Kenny (March 24, 2021). "Amazon to Delivery Drivers: Agree to Be Spied On Biometrically or You're Fired". Common Dreams. Retrieved April 16, 2021.
  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. ^ 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.
  23. ^ Pfeiffer, Eric (July 11, 2017). "Kyle Kulinski of The Young Turks Says Democrats Need To Change Before They Can Defeat Trump". Good Worldwide. Retrieved May 11, 2020.
  24. ^ Moyers, Bill (November 1, 2017). "Trump is more paranoid and vengeful than Nixon -- but his stupidity makes him much more dangerous". The Raw Story.
  25. ^ Wulfsohn, Joseph (April 14, 2020). "MSNBC's Joy Reid rips Sanders supporters for not backing Biden as 'privileged white voters'". Fox News. Retrieved October 7, 2021.
  26. ^ "New NRA chief once compared fighting gay rights to fight against slavery". Washington Blade: Gay News, Politics, LGBT Rights. May 7, 2018. Retrieved May 12, 2018.
  27. ^ Carey, Lodge (May 8, 2014). "'God is pro-choice,' claims US radio host". Christian Today. Retrieved April 10, 2021.

External links

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