Kyle Kulinski

Kyle Kulinski
Personal information
Born (1988-01-31) January 31, 1988[1]
Westchester County, New York, U.S.
Nationality American
Education Bachelor's degree in political science: Iona College[1]
Occupation YouTuber
Political commentator
Political activist
Religion Agnostic atheist[2]
Website seculartalkradio.com
YouTube information
Channel
Years active 2008–present
Genre Political commentary
Political activism
Subscribers 589,000+[3]
Total views 441,000,000+[4]
Network The Young Turks
100,000 subscribers April 2014[5]
Subscriber and view counts updated as of June 2018.

Kyle Kulinski (born January 31, 1988) is an American political activist, progressive talk radio host, social democratic political commentator, and the co-founder of Justice Democrats.[6][7][8] He is the host and producer of the YouTube show Secular Talk, an affiliate of The Young Turks network.[9] He is a member of the Democratic Party.

Background

Kulinski is from 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. He is of Italian and Polish descent.[1][10] He attended high school with former NFL player Ray Rice.[11]

Secular Talk

Kyle started the YouTube channel "Secular Talk" in 2008 when he was 20 years old. At the time, he released about one video per week, making them as a side-project from his studies. His show had three main programs: the regular program, in which he would comment on news events; the "Nutjob of the Week" segments, in which Kyle would call out public personalities for something Kyle heavily disagreed with; and the "Common Sense Award" segments, in which Kyle would congratulate public personalities for saying or doing things deemed worthy of "common sense" recently. The show started becoming more regular in late 2012, when Secular Talk started broadcasting a live radio show, while publishing multiple YouTube videos every day. In these broadcasts, Kyle talks about politics, news, current events, pop culture, economics, science, philosophy and religion from a progressive point of view.[1] The Secular Talk YouTube channel received its 100,000th subscriber in April 2014.

Political beliefs

Kulinski has described himself as a social democrat, as well as left libertarian in Political Compass parlance,[1] favoring a hands-off approach to social issues, while supporting government intervention on economic issues like healthcare and the minimum wage. He takes a relatively protectionist approach to trade. He advocates for single-payer healthcare, free tuition at public colleges and universities, a living wage, reduction in military spending and an end to military interventionism, infrastructure spending, the legalization of euthanasia/physician-assisted-suicide, and the legalization, regulation, and taxation of drugs and prostitution.[12] Kulinski is also known for his opposition to various liberal political factions in the United States, for example, neoliberals and corporate Democrats (Democratic politicians who oppose somewhat redistributive policies like single-payer healthcare and raising the minimum wage),[13] but also further left "social justice warriors"[14] whose beliefs he considers contrary to liberal values. Kulinski has said he is an international moderate, 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]

LGBT issues

Kulinski supports the LGBT rights movement. 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: "If that’s your idea of moral values, you’re an idiot.". "Not only is there no comparison, if anything the opposition position on those issues is more like opposing slavery," Kulinski said. "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."[15][16]

2016 US Presidential election

Kulinski supported Bernie Sanders in the 2016 Democratic primary election and voted for Jill Stein in the general election. While critical of Hillary Clinton, he described her as the "lesser of two evils" in the 2016 U.S. Presidential election against Donald Trump, and stated that if he had lived in a swing state such as Ohio, he would have voted for her.[17]

Russian interference

Kulinski is skeptical of many claims made by mainstream media figures and politicians regarding Russian interference in the 2016 United States elections.[18] He has expressed skepticism that the Trump administration serves Russia's interests to help Trump win the presidency.[18] He has been critical of the Democratic Party and mainstream media's coverage of the subject, arguing that in their focus on Russian collusion, they often leave out coverage of more important issues and delegitimize themselves in the eyes of the American public.[19]

Trump Presidency

During the Trump presidency, Kulinski criticized the Democratic Party's "resistance" against Trump, stating that they find themselves praising everyone who does not support Trump, even establishment and neoconservative Republicans. Kulinski disapproves of this because "establishment Republicans want Trump to do every single thing he’s doing minus the 'mean tweets.'"[20] Kyle stated "when Donald Trump needs to be opposed, we will do everything to block hideous legislation from getting through," but that when Trump proposes things that are "good for the American people", such as pulling out of the Trans-Pacific Partnership, implementing tariffs on steel and aluminum or rebuilding American infrastructure, Democrats should stand with him on these issues even if it means giving Trump symbolic victories.[9]

Kulinski believes the main problem with American politics is the existence of corporate campaign contributions and their influence on public policy. Kyle has called Democrats who take campaign contributions from corporations of Political Action Committees a "house of cards", because they have trouble attracting public support, as shown by their losses in seats during Barack Obama's presidency. Kulinski believes that, if it wasn't for these donations, Democrats would be in favor of Bernie Sanders' political program, because "these are ideas that are wildly popular".[9]

Justice Democrats

In January 2017, Kyle Kulinski joined The Young Turks host Cenk Uygur and former communications leaders of the 2016 Bernie Sanders presidential campaign in founding Justice Democrats.[21][22][23] Justice Democrats is a progressive political action committee that says its goal is to "put an end to Washington corruption and bring about election reform."[24][25]

Kulinski announced his resignation from Justice Democrats on December 23, 2017. This decision came after the staff of Justice Democrats pressured Uygur to resign following the resurfacing of blog posts he had written in the early 2000s which they argued were sexist against women. Kulinski stated that he disagreed with the staff's decision but still wanted to respect their wishes. He however stated that he still intended to support Justice Democrats' candidates.[26] As such, his was one of the only news outlets who reported on Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez's primary challenge against Joe Crowley before her victory was announced.[27]

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Kulinski, Kyle. "About". The Kyle Kulinski Show. Archived from the original on December 20, 2017. Retrieved 2017-05-01.
  2. ↑ Secular Talk (2016-02-17), "What Is A 'Militant Agnostic' And 'Agnostic-Atheism'?", youtube.com, retrieved 2018-07-23
  3. ↑ Talk, Secular. "Secular Talk - Home". youtube.com. YouTube. Retrieved 28 June 2018.
  4. ↑ Talk, Secular. "Secular Talk - About". youtube.com. YouTube. Retrieved 28 June 2018.
  5. ↑ Kulinski, Kyle (25 April 2014). "100,000 Subscriber Vlog and Recommendations". YouTube. Retrieved 27 April 2017.
  6. ↑ "Justice Democrats: About". Justice Democrats. Retrieved December 1, 2017.
  7. ↑ Hains, Tim (January 24, 2017). "Cenk Uygyr launches a new wing of Democratic Party: Justice Democrats". Real Clear Politics. Retrieved December 1, 2017.
  8. ↑ Usavage, Allison (April 23, 2018). "Golden Campaign receives national endorsement". Ithaca Times. Retrieved 2018-05-19.
  9. 1 2 3 Pfeiffer, Eric (July 11, 2017). "Kyle Kulinski Of The Young Turks Says Democrats Need To Change Before They Can Defeat Trump". Good.is. Retrieved December 1, 2017.
  10. ↑ Secular Talk (11 April 2015). "Kyle's First Time High - From K&C #10" – via YouTube.
  11. ↑ Secular Talk (26 July 2014). "Stephen A. Smith: Battered Women Shouldn't 'Provoke' Attack" – via YouTube.
  12. ↑ Taking The 'I Side With' Political Quiz For The 2016 Election (youtube.com). 4 November 2016.
  13. ↑ Corporate Dems Don't Rule Out Voting For Republican Tax Plan (youtube.com). 30 November 2017.
  14. ↑ Bemoaning 'Microaggressions' Isn't Remotely Liberal, It's Authoritarian (youtube.com). 2 December 2015.
  15. ↑ "New NRA chief once compared fighting gay rights to fight against slavery". Washington Blade: Gay News, Politics, LGBT Rights. 2018-05-07. Retrieved 2018-05-12.
  16. ↑ Johnson, Chris (May 8, 2018). "New NRA Chief Once Compared Fighting Gay Rights to Fight Against Slavery". South Florida Gay News. Retrieved 2018-05-19.
  17. ↑ Secular Talk (9 November 2016). "Donald J. Trump Is The Next President Of The United States" – via YouTube.
  18. 1 2 Secular Talk (22 July 2017). "The Investigation Into Trump Just Got Serious, Here's Why" – via YouTube.
  19. ↑ Secular Talk (27 March 2017). "Democrats Anti-Russia Hysteria Crosses Profoundly Disturbing Line" – via YouTube.
  20. ↑ "Trump is more paranoid and vengeful than Nixon — but his stupidity makes him much more dangerous". www.rawstory.com. 13 November 2017.
  21. ↑ "The Young Turks' Cenk Uygur Co-Creates 'Justice Democrats' to Revamp the Democratic Party (Video)". Truthdig. 2017-01-24. Retrieved 2017-05-01.
  22. ↑ "The Young Turks really, really don't want you to compare them to Breitbart". Mother Jones.
  23. ↑ Holland, Joshua (February 17, 2017). "Your Guide to the Sprawling New Anti-Trump Resistance Movement". billmoyers.com. Archived from the original on July 7, 2017. Retrieved May 15, 2018.
  24. ↑ "Platform". Justice Democrats. Retrieved 2017-05-01.
  25. ↑ Mitchell, Preston (2 March 2017). "Justice Democrats only support unjustified idealism". NT Daily.
  26. ↑ Kulinski, Kyle (23 December 2017). "Statement On Cenk Uygur & Justice Democrats". YouTube.
  27. ↑ "Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez - Ein Silberstreif am Horizont". Der Freitag (in German). Retrieved 2018-07-23.
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