I swore an Oath…

And this I will defend.

Hey y’all, it’s Nick and it’s awhile. There’s been a lot of shit that’s gone on since the last time I wrote and I’m not going back. I’m not looking to blame anyone in the coalition against madness and fascism. But I am going to ask questions and I am going to encourage more to do the same.

Did mistakes happen?

Yes.

Are we gonna sit and wallow in those mistakes?

No.

We have to learn and we have to go forwards. The only other option is to capitulate ahead of time and give up our great democracy, our freedoms, and a future where we all are valued. I can’t and won’t do that. I once swore an oath to uphold and defend the Constitution, I never recanted that oath and I never will. That oath is sacred to me, it binds me to the principles laid out in the Constitution. I’m sick of being told the Constitution means something different than what it says and I will not cede any more ground to the far-right. They will fail in their attempts to pervert and destroy our country.

So where do we go from here and what do we do about it?

I’ve seen a thread begin to appear from folks more knowledgeable that I, like Brian Tyler Cohen and FPWellman (Fred), where we’re acknowledging that we lost a lot of ground in the podcasting and influencer realm to folks like Joe Rogan, Theo Von, Charlie Kirk, and Nick Fuentes. They all hold massive audiences and attract so many by giving a voice to their listeners grievances, while masquerading as masculine. The advantage they hold is they aren’t burdened by the weakness of their beliefs, instead they only feel free to be ignorant. It’s time we unburden ourselves from feeling the need to convince and explain to them.

To make matters worse, there’s a huge disparity in the media sphere overall. We are seeing massive media networks which are more owned solely, and increasingly, by right wing interest groups. We’ve lost every major network, outside of MSNBC and PBS, to these right wing billionaires and extremist groups. If Project 2025 has its way, good luck keeping PBS when they slash all that “wasteful” government spending on things like public broadcasting and education.

The good news though, we’re not starting at zero, we’ve made a start with growing independent media networks; but, a start isn’t enough. We need a massive expansion in podcasters and influencers who can drive a unified message.

So I ask, why aren’t our elected officials on those channels weekly for interviews? Our elected officials need to step up more and wade into the muck. We have to break the cycle we’re stuck in and make the right wing spaces our spaces instead. We need to get on these “hostile” networks and push back with a narrative people believe.

Too many people, especially the young men in this country, live on a diet of Joe Rogan and right wing influencers who. This swung the entire election towards their preferred far right candidates. We need to have politicians and spokespeople who go on these networks and podcasts daily and change the narrative. We need to have politicians and spokespeople to go on the friendly Podcasts, YouTube channels, and through TikTok influencers in the spaces the right has taken over, and push back.

What can we do now?

I’m not intending this as a blame, but as a point to learn from. What happened to Tim Walz going on Podcasts every day? Why was Tim not on every right-leaning, non-political comedy podcast, like Theo Von, where he would have shown so brightly. Tim could have provided a new path for these boys and young men. He could have provided these boys and young men a definition of manliness that didn’t include degradation. Why didn’t we get that? And whoever runs next, get your ass their now.

And on that note, why wasn’t Tim Walz on any of the MeidasTouch Network shows? Why didn’t VP Harris ever do an interview on Politics Girl or take the time to travel for Joe Rogan? They went all out in rallies, but what happened to appealing to the wider audience and reaching people where they were at?

This is where we learn. It’s time to be proactive. This is where we need to get aggressive and be on the networks we have—like Brian’s and Fred’s—and then into the broader media sphere where we are out-monied and out-sized. We have to change that. I’m not a politician and I’m not an influencer, I’m just a guy who’s sick of the direction our country has turned and wants my daughter and wife to know I did everything I could to stop it.

I’m Nick, I swore an Oath, and I’m Sick of this Shit.