Know Your Enemy Matthew Sitman

I grew up in the rural Midwest. My family and the area are deeply conservative. I have since moved away, and this podcast helps me understand the underlying philosophies and assumptions of family members’ professed politics and their unspoken values. Despite the podcast’s name, the hosts overall treat the views of their subjects with respect (and with condemnation where deserved). While I am certainly a leftist, I hope to better relate to and sympathize with the concerns of my conservative loved ones.

This show is great for self congratulatory bad faith readings of conservative voices. It is worthless if you want to understand conservatives and conservatism in itself. Maybe the title should be "Know how to talk about your enemy at Manhattan cocktail parties."

As the child of religious conservatives, and for a time a card-carrying dittohead before I moved left, I find so much fascinating, illuminating, and even healing about these good-faith attempts to understand and take seriously the American conservative movement and its impulses. Matt and Sam are eloquent, knowledgeable, and charitable while unashamedly holding to their convictions. In this truly painful and at times even terrifying time in US History, I take comfort knowing there are people like Matt and Sam out there. Thanks so much you guys.