Why Does Everyone Feel So Politically Homeless? - Ana Kasparian - #859

**Chris Williamson** (0:00)
Hello everybody, welcome back to the show. My guest today is Ana Kasparian. She's a political commentator, journalist and co-host of The Young Turks. When we talk with normal people about politics, we usually have more common ground than disagreement. So how have public politics become so polarized? Why does it feel so tribal? And is it really that unreasonable to hold beliefs from both sides? Expect to learn why Ana went independent and unaligned herself from the Democratic Party. The issues Ana has had with the political left. Why the left are scared of speaking up against policies they don't agree with. Why people seem to go from left to right, but not the other way around. And much more. Trust really is everything when it comes to supplements. A lot of brands may say they're top quality, but few can actually prove it, which is why I partnered with Momentous. Honestly, I try to limit the number of supplements I rely on, but three of the products I use every day to support my brain, body and sleep are their Omega-3s creatine and magnesium L-3 and 8 When I take these consistently, they have a massive impact on my cognitive performance, my strength and my sleep. The reason I keep harping on about Momentous is that they make the highest quality supplements on the planet. What you read on the label is what is in the product and absolutely nothing else. And so few other companies can say that. Best of all, they offer a 30-day money back guarantee, so you can try it for 29 days. If you do not like it, they'll give you your money back. Plus they ship internationally. Right now, Momentous is offering Modern Wisdom listeners early access to their Black Friday sale through November 25th. You can get 25% off my brain, body and sleep stack, plus a five-night trial of their sleep packs by going to the link in the description below or heading to livemomentous.com/modernwisdomusing the code modernwisdom, a checkout. That's livemomentous.com/modernwisdom and modernwisdom, a checkout. This episode is brought to you by Nomatic. Traveling should be about the journey, not the chaos of packing, which is why I'm such a huge fan of Nomatic. Nomatic has changed my entire life and their brand new method carry-on is available after selling out pretty much instantly. It's engineered to be lighter, stronger, plus it can hold up to 20% more than other carry-ons due to some wizardry that they've done inside, some sort of Harry Potter thing, I'm not too sure. But it means that you can fit a week's worth of clothes or more without stressing about space. And their products will last you literally a lifetime with their lifetime guarantee. So, this is the final carry-on bag that you will ever need to buy. Plus you can return or exchange any product within 30 days for any reason. Right now you can get 20% off everything site-wide by going to the link in the description below or heading to nomatic.com/modernwisdom. That's nomatic.com/modernwisdom.
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What does independent and unaligned mean?

**Ana Kasparian** (4:18)
For me, at this moment in my, I guess, journey, if you want to call it that, is freedom, not having this weird obligation to any political group, so I can actually explore the issues and not feel pressured to think in one way or another. You know, I thought maybe coming out as someone who's unaligned would maybe get the cultish individuals off my back, but that has not happened. It's kind of amazing because, you know, they've been very critical of me and they've been pretty obsessed with claiming that I'm not pure enough to be considered on the left. And finally, I was just like, okay, fine. Then I guess I'm not on the left. I'm unaligned because I'm certainly not someone that really fits in with the right either. It's just I have far more nuanced views of some of these issues. It doesn't mean that my policy proposals are completely different. It doesn't mean that who I am as a person is completely different. It just means that I have noticed some characteristics on the left that have essentially felt like ideological shackles. It has prevented me from, you know, allowing myself to dig a little deeper and maybe even consider whether the other side has a point. And so I just want to be in a position to do my job better than I had been doing my job. And in that journey so far, I've realized that, you know, I've had incorrect opinions and perceptions of Republican voters overall. I think that there are gradations, there are differences, it's not a monolith. I just feel a lot more in touch with reality and the world around me. And I love it. There's something very liberating about that. And so focusing on how good that feels has kind of helped me get past all of the bad faith attacks I'm dealing with. Because ultimately, if you're an intellectually curious person, you're going to have a hunger for learning more, for exploring more, for talking with people who don't agree with you.