Why write about politics?
But maybe a better question is: why do you care so little about our world to *not* care?
Someone asked me the other day why I post about political topics (how sad, that some people think being civically interested is strange). But I still love this question, because it exposes a lot about how many people think, so I’m going to put down thoughts on this from a couple perspectives. It’s just so interesting in modern times some feel it’s inappropriate for someone else in the public light (say, working in a senior role at a company, an athlete, a comedian) to have an opinion on topics that affect us all. Of course, if you were saying things which supported their side they wouldn’t say anything (which kind of gives away the game). I talked about this a bit in my previous post on “stick to sports” from a different perspective, and I still think these people are divorced from what it means to be American or perhaps just civically involved. Great leaders throughout our history, from Warren Buffet being pro America to Sergey Brin being anti-communist have made political statements. These are people I think it is admirable to aspire to be like, not like the frightened, timid masses who never speak what’s in their heart or they know is right.
Not only are politics a perfectly cromulent topic for any of us in a free country like America to engage with, I find it nihilistic and kind of empty to not care. And you might be free to, at least temporarily. But as the saying goes, “you might not be interested in politics, but politics are interested in you.” This is very true for me right now as a Jewish person, where currently we have people on both extremes ready to line us up against a wall and shoot us at worst, or simply suppress our opportunities at best merely because of our religion and genetics. There was historic high levels of antisemitic assault, harassment and vandalism in 2025. So you might feel compelled to speak before it’s too late if you were in our position. If you think that’s extreme you simply are ignorant of history and what invariably happens next if left to proceed, something many are. Also notable how many new generation political candidates are blatantly antisemitic, some going as far as to stand with actual, factual terrorists. Again, things you might not care about today, because you aren’t affected yet, but the day will come. It’s emblematic of a sick society, Jewish hate is a canary in the coal mine.
But even aside from this, every marketer should actually care about the culture in our sector and the reality is this now may involve politics. Let’s be clear about something too: marketers, real marketing and ad men (and women), are competitors and capitalists, whether they vote Democrat or Republican. And I actually think you can certainly be free to express your disdain of capitalism as a marketer, but if you are hiring expressed socialists for your marketing org, it’s a laughably bad choice (it’s great they post too, they’ll tell you!). These people hate your company, your profits, they hate markets/freedoms/America, they think free trade is oppressive, government should have total control over the “means of production” etc. It’s a philosophy incongruent with this craft, and frankly much of the business world. Some of these people support the DSA in earnest and legitimately believe these things, others admittedly are naïve as to what they want (some days I think being naïve is worse). If you actually read the literature and take them seriously, you would see they are extremely hostile to America as it stands. And honestly, we should all view socialists similar to Nazis, in fact the death count is even higher (>100M vs 15-20M). Again, begging everyone to read history if you don’t understand these things.
Where I personally draw the decorum line: normal Democrats and Republicans should feel completely free to say what they believe without fear, because none of those opinions are at odds with core American values. That’s the whole point of living in a free country with free speech. But free speech isn't freedom from consequence. If someone's a committed communist on the left, or a groyper on the far right, they're free to make all the deranged, hostile and insane commentary they like, and many indeed do so loudly. That's their right, and I wouldn’t want to take it from them. It's also everyone else's right to see they are deranged and anti-civilization. Employers don't owe anyone a pass merely for exercising their right to speech in the form of yelling fire in a crowded theater for some internet attention (negative signal, honestly). I hope the distinction is clear here, that you should be free to act like a jackass or promote suicidal ideology and the government can’t lock you up, but that a healthy and functional society would have a social immune system with repercussions for that. If not, our enemies will continue to use this against us as a wedge.
Frankly, the business world and marketing world in particular have made a calculated error allowing destructive ideology in over the last few years (mostly on the far left, since that is what has permeated our institutions). We see it manifest everywhere, in the ads and the culture. And again, I think you should be free to express whatever you want. But if corporate America wasn’t sleepwalking or HR wasn’t (frequently) run by Marxists and people with specific derangement syndromes, hiring would look differently. It already does at more capitalist-run firms who have rejected the ideologs (very successful companies like Shopify, 37 Signals, Coinbase, and others have done this and seeing company performance and reading the thoughts of leadership it’s all gone very well, their teams are focused on the work instead of strange and unrelated pet causes).
Another, separate point here is normal things that shouldn’t even be political have been dragged into the political discourse, which fine, whatever, but that also doesn’t mean they’re off limits. In fact it sort of demands normal people push back and try to remove politics from areas where it doesn’t make sense, especially disciplines like science and technology. That’s what moderate, sane people do. Activists and radicals do not want us to do this, they want to make you feel uncomfortable sharing basic truths. If we do nothing, they’ll win, and our spaces will remain polluted, propagandized and progress will slow. This only happens if normal people like you and I cede the public square since we feel we may not comment.
In my industry of marketing, I've continually seen both agency and brand teams staffed with people who are ideologically opposed to basic American values, promoted by media who were similarly captured, all wonder why real users told them the work felt preachy or annoying instead of persuasive (I’ve written on this before). Marketing only works if you believe people should be free to choose products from privately owned businesses, and you trust the best products win. Hire someone who thinks that freedom is evil or exploitive, and you end up with a team of soviet-era commissars who are going to publish lectures with the brand logo slapped on it, and ultimately destroy brand value. They want to take over your company and wear it as a skinsuit.
To further answer the original question in this story of why I discuss political areas, I feel compelled to talk on certain subjects to try and balance things, particularly to my marketing peers. I feel this is a more important exercise than a 10,000th post on ‘ways to build revenue’ or ‘how to tell a story.’ Countless other people already do that. I also already spent a decade building one of the web’s most popular marketing blogs. All this is kind of pointless now when you can simply ask the AI, and, even without that, I find marketing mostly a “solved” problem at this point. You just need to get to work and put in the reps, and your company either has products that you can sell or not. It’s very binary and I don’t think all that complicated.
The fact that people like me and other execs like David Hansson comment does annoy certain types of people, because they hate moderates and badly want to turn America against itself. But my opinions are indistinguishable from any moderate liberal or conservative from the 1990s. I believe in free markets, capitalism, freedom of speech, meritocracy, law enforcement, and that countries should have boarders. I don’t believe all companies or people are equal at everything. Neither does any functional adult. It’s frankly stupid and I’m tired of playing along with these strange postmodern games.
You personally don’t have to post anything, probably because you are afraid, but perhaps because you care but simply aren’t in a position to do anything. It’s okay. A few of us will keep sharing what is honest and reflects reality, and try and do our part to nurture an environment that helps businesses and people thrive. I think the world would be significantly better if everyone did this and didn’t let extremists drown us out in their propaganda and demoralization. And on the subject of cancelation, I think it’d be hilarious if a company didn’t want to hire me because I was too pro markets or capitalism. I wouldn’t want to work for them either, so we’re doing everyone a favor. All these things are self-sorting.
I’m sure some of you miss the nuance above, and I went through a few different areas so I’ll summarize briefly: I believe political discourse is a perfectly cromulent topic to discuss in our free time and normal people like you and I should speak up. I think you have to be somewhat civically depressed, or take a nihilistic, empty view of life to never share your opinions. And to add, if you are unwilling to update your beliefs based on data, research or evidence, or at least discuss tradeoffs and consider the other side, you are in a cult and no longer a political party. Talk politics peacefully. Be respectful. Find a middle ground. Don’t push silly conspiracy theories, lies, or insane/treasonous thoughts (we should stop constantly promoting certifiably insane people altogether). That’s what the West is all about.