The Radicalist David Josef Volodzko

A shorter version of this essay was originally published as a Substack Note.
If Trump wins, it will be because he has an immovable base. There’s nothing he can say to repulse them. At a campaign rally in January 2016, he claimed, “I could stand in the middle of 5th Avenue and shoot somebody and I wouldn’t lose voters.”
If Trump wins, it will be because he’s actually funny sometimes. Elizabeth Warren is a Methodist white woman from Massachusetts who tried to prove she is Cherokee with a DNA test that said 0.09% to 1.5%, all because Trump kept calling her “Pocahontas.”
But mostly, if Trump wins, it will be because of the left. Because Ruth Bader Biden’s “senior moments” are serious, yet he refuses to step aside. Because we’ve been gaslit for years with Drag Queen Story Hour and trans literalists who scream at lesbians for not wanting to go home with men in dresses or who threaten to rape TERFs.
Because of the sickening antisemitism we have witnessed around October 7. Because of the Stalinist nature of cancel culture. Because of increasingly brazen anti-white racism. Because of CRT and BLM and DEI. Because we are done with everything and everyone being called racist, sexist, homophobic, transphobic, and imperialist.
Because we see the impact on young men and boys from being told they are inherently scum and guilty of toxic masculinity. Because we are sick of hearing the lie that we live in a white supremacist, rape culture. Because of the endless disparaging of our great nation, its history, its practices, the Christian faith of many, and every dead white man of great stature.
Because of the anti-Western, anti-science, anti-Enlightenment values that the left has adopted. Because none of this stuff has made the country any better and yet the belief that it would was the only reason anyone went along with any of it.
If Trump wins, it will be because the woke left simply won’t wake up.
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David Volodzko speaks with Rio Veradonir about an Enlightenment-based liberal approach to gay rights as opposed to the extremism that characterizes so much activism today, neo-Marxist social justice warriors, the liberal solution to trans athletes and sexual displays at Pride festivals, the strategic mistake Democrats are making in highlighting certain concerns, the misconception that Pride is just for gay people, the importance of the gay community in having a positive relationship with police, declining support for same-sex marriage among Republicans, and much more.
Rio Veradonir is the editor-in-chief of Queer Majority, a news outlet that covers issues related to the gay community with a classically liberal perspective. He is also assistant director at The Bi Foundation and lead organizer of amBi, the world’s largest bisexual social group. For more information, you can subscribe to QM’s newsletter, follow Veradonir on X, and check out the good work being done at Project Liberal.


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The socialist magazine Jacobin embarrassed itself this week by claiming the new miniseries Shōgun “shows something rarely seen on screen: the shocking hubris of the colonizer and dehumanization of the colonized.”
Social media had a field day with this because, as we all know, Japan was not only never colonized but was one of history biggest colonizers. A friend asked me, why was Japan never colonized? Here’s my answer.


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David Volodzko speaks with Doug Klain (website, X), a nonresident fellow at the Atlantic Council’s Eurasia Center, where he focuses on Russia’s war on Ukraine. He is the former assistant director of the Eurasia Center and currently a policy analyst at the nonprofit Razom for Ukraine.
The conversation covers the recent German military leak and what was actually said, the kinds of weapons Ukraine needs, the general state of the war, the impact of U.S. politics, Ukrainian grain exports, a potential Trump presidency, whether Putin will stop at Ukraine if he wins the war, Russia’s genocidal actions in Ukraine, the evisceration of Russian media, the impact of sanctions, Zelenskyy’s recent change in generals, Russia and Ukraine’s respective methods of waging war, Ukrainian drone warfare, why it matters for Americans to support Ukraine, his work with Razom for Ukraine, the impact of Samizdat Online, and more.


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David Volodzko speaks with Stefan Tompson, the founder of Visegrád 24, which aggregates and curates news and current affairs on various social media platforms including X, where it currently has over 900,000 followers.
The conversation covers disinformation on social media, the Israel-Hamas War, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, TikTok as a Chinese psyop, the West’s enemies within, the origins of woke progressivism, the glories of Western civilization, the importance of civil discourse, immigration, the beauty of Muslim and black pride, slavery, white guilt, the Jewish community, drag shows, Roman Catholic faith, and more.


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Arash Azizi reacted to my recent essay, The Case for Colonizing Gaza, by responding to a troll who had called the essay “blatantly racist,” to which Arash Azizi replied, “It’s not just racist but outright fascist.”
There is nothing racist or fascist about it, any more than there was about the U.S. occupation of Germany since that is precisely what I am recommending. Moreover, when he was a guest on this show, he commiserated with me as I described my anguish over the suffering in the Israel-Hamas War, so he knows better than anyone not to accuse me of racism against Palestinians.
That said, here are some unprepared thoughts on this and the deplorable pattern of deliberate misunderstanding and accusations of racism on social media these days.
Update: Arash Azizi unfollowed me on X shortly after this post went live.


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