Stossel: Leaving the Left

Dave Rubin tells John Stossel how he walked away from the left.

Dave Rubin is a popular YouTube host who was once on the left. He worked for The Young Turks TV show.

But Rubin tells John Stossel how he gradually changed his mind and became a classical liberal. For that, Rubin lost friends and gets protested at college campuses.

While many leftists are so angry at Rubin that they will no longer talk to him, conservatives are eager to talk. Rubin says that surprised him because, "I'm pro-choice. Most of them are pro-life. I'm against the death penalty, most of them are for the death penalty."

Stossel had a similar experience. "When I went from left to libertarian, the right was willing to argue," he tells Rubin.

Why would that be? Rubin speculates that it comes down to treating people as individuals rather than groups. "If you believe in the individual, then you fundamentally understand that individuals are different. So you are willing to sit down with someone different than you," he says.

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The views expressed in this video are solely those of John Stossel; his independent production company, Stossel Productions; and the people he interviews. The claims and opinions set forth in the video and accompanying text are not necessarily those of Reason.