- Joined
- Aug 9, 2014
Intro
Dave Rubin, born David Joshua Rubin on 26 June 1976, is an American "political commentator", "comedian", YouTube personality and talk show host. Formerly a member of the Young Turks, he is now best known as the host of The Rubin Report on YouTube. The show has become incredibly popular in the past five years, and the channel currently boasts 1.18 million subscribers as of this writing.
In and of itself, that's not a write up to get anyone on this site particularly interested, but if you read on, I'll show you that behind that glossy exterior lurks a story that is equal parts sad and deeply pathetic.
I've written previously in this post that I've considered giving Dave a lolcow thread. At the time, I said it wasn't justified because he's too boring. I still don't think he qualifies as a lolcow, but due to recent developments, I think he deserves some kind of thread on here, so I'm putting this in multimedia for the time being. If anyone thinks it needs moving, go right ahead.
The Young Turks Days
As I said in the previous section, Dave first came to prominence as a member of the infamous progressive YouTube political commentary show the Young Turks. I'm sure most people reading this are more than familiar with who the Young Turks are, and if not, I've linked to their thread here, but yes, his colleagues during this time did include Cenk "Buffalo" Uygur and Ana "I'm fucking better than you" Kasparian.
There's not actually much of note to say about this time period, and I'm only bringing it up for background. The only vaguely interesting thing to mention is that Dave was one of the few people on the Young Turks willing to defend Israel, resulting in a debate with Kyle Kulinski which did not go well for him:
Leaving the Young Turks
Dave left the Young Turks in March 2015. His stated reason for doing so was increasing disillusionment with Cenk Uygur and Ben Affleck's attacks on Sam Harris for his criticisms of Islam, an event which he describes as his "political awakening". And you know what? Fair enough. I can definitely understand looking at those two morons screaming at a man making reasonable observations and thinking to yourself: "I don't want anything to with that shit".
Around this time Dave, having previously been a Bernie-loving leftist, began to reorient his show to feature people from the other side of the aisle, including Milo Yiannopoulos, Ben Shapiro, Mike Cernovich and others. This brings us to today.
Dave Rubin - The Internet's Punching Bag
Now that we're up to speed, let me describe what a typical episode of the Rubin Report is like.
Actually no, even better I'll show you what a typical episode of the Rubin Report is like:
I know that's a comedy video, but it's frightening how accurate it is when compared next to a real episode of the show. And bear in mind, this was made by a fan of Dave's.
Episodes will open with Dave giving a tired spiel to the camera about how "the left is no longer liberal" and "we can't be afraid to discuss ideas". All stirring stuff, or would be if he and the rest of anti-SJW YouTube hadn't been saying the same thing for the past four fucking years. The interview proper will then begin and Dave will sit there and basically act as a doormat to whoever he's interviewing.
Some people (and Dave himself) have tried to defend this by saying he's just an interviewer and that there aren't many interviewers who will just let their guests speak and that this allows him to get a handle on their views. The problem with this is twofold:
Kyle Kulinski, David Pakman, Sam Seder and others have been banging on Dave's door to be interviewed and he has run and hidden every time, giving pathetic excuses as he does. People have even suggested he has some alt-righters on the show to mix things up, and the reaction's been exactly the same. Of course, Dave isn't obligated to interview anyone he doesn't want to, but, when you bill your show as "the largest talk show about free speech and big ideas on YouTube" and the big ideas are just the same thing over and over, people start to smell a rat.
However, Dave is not unjustified in being afraid of having people outside his bubble on his show, because anytime he ventures outside it, he quickly gets owned.
His own subreddit has become a haven for people shitting on him over his constant disingenuous behaviour. An AMA he did on the r/Classical_Liberals subreddit quickly turned into a massacre as people began holding Dave's feet to the fire on why he wasn't holding Trump's feet to the fire despite saying he would. and generally calling him out on his bullshit:
The level of disrespect some people give him is honestly rather heartbreaking. Larry King interrupted an interview with him to answer a phone call from a family member in one of the most awkward clips I've ever seen, and even people who've been on his show and been friendly with him in the past have turned on him:
Also, Tommy Sotomayor had a hilarious freakout upon discovering Dave was gay and was disgusted they shook hands:
And Dennis Prager admitted to Dave's face that he only sees Dave as useful idiot to further his own goals. Ouch.
Don't Burn This Book? I wouldn't even use it as toilet paper
You may have read all that and been thinking to yourself: "So what? Just seems like a bunch of whiny drama queens going after a harmless YouTube talkshow host. Big whoop."
Well now dear reader, we get to the thing that convinced me to make this thread.
Dave has recently released his first book:
This is the blurb:
Oh wow, how edgy, provocative and insightful. Sure does feel a lot like 2016 up in here.
Now that the book's out reviews have dropped and... let's just say they've not been kind. The Spectator gave it a scathing review, which is incredible bearing in mind that they're on the same political wavelength as Dave. Here are some of my favourite excerpts:
This one in particular made me howl with laughter:
Dave has reacted to this criticism with very good grace, and has definitely not egged on the idea that this review is a hit piece:
He has also definitely not accused anyone giving it a negative review of being a dang dirty troll:
And it's not like the positive reviews are only coming from people Dave knows either:
Gee, all of these actions are reminding of someone else who behaves in a similar way, why can't I put my finger on who...
Oh and no book like this would be complete without the boomer trick of saying Hitler was a leftist. Although I think this might be the most absurd take on that I've ever seen:
Conclusion
Although the above has been pretty snarky and negative, I do want to say that I think Dave seems like a genuinely nice person and I used to be a huge fan of his. But Dave's brand of anti-SJWism is slowly dying and nowhere is that more apparent than in his tanking viewcount, the overwhelmingly negative reaction to his terrible book (which he would've been better off releasing in 2016 - lord knows why he didn't. I can't imagine the research was particularly taxing) and the fact that he gets very little respect even in sympathetic circles anymore. It's a sad story of one man's redemption and an even bigger fall from grace. Would Dave have been better off if he'd stayed at the Young Turks? Probably not, and his profile would be lower, but I imagine as time moves on, barring another political awakening, he'll be left even further behind as history continues its march, and I'll be very surprised if he's remembered as anything other than a footnote.
External Links
Rubin Report YouTube Channel (archive)
Twitter (archive)
Facebook (archive)
Website (archive)
Dave Rubin, born David Joshua Rubin on 26 June 1976, is an American "political commentator", "comedian", YouTube personality and talk show host. Formerly a member of the Young Turks, he is now best known as the host of The Rubin Report on YouTube. The show has become incredibly popular in the past five years, and the channel currently boasts 1.18 million subscribers as of this writing.
In and of itself, that's not a write up to get anyone on this site particularly interested, but if you read on, I'll show you that behind that glossy exterior lurks a story that is equal parts sad and deeply pathetic.
I've written previously in this post that I've considered giving Dave a lolcow thread. At the time, I said it wasn't justified because he's too boring. I still don't think he qualifies as a lolcow, but due to recent developments, I think he deserves some kind of thread on here, so I'm putting this in multimedia for the time being. If anyone thinks it needs moving, go right ahead.
The Young Turks Days
As I said in the previous section, Dave first came to prominence as a member of the infamous progressive YouTube political commentary show the Young Turks. I'm sure most people reading this are more than familiar with who the Young Turks are, and if not, I've linked to their thread here, but yes, his colleagues during this time did include Cenk "Buffalo" Uygur and Ana "I'm fucking better than you" Kasparian.
There's not actually much of note to say about this time period, and I'm only bringing it up for background. The only vaguely interesting thing to mention is that Dave was one of the few people on the Young Turks willing to defend Israel, resulting in a debate with Kyle Kulinski which did not go well for him:
Leaving the Young Turks
Dave left the Young Turks in March 2015. His stated reason for doing so was increasing disillusionment with Cenk Uygur and Ben Affleck's attacks on Sam Harris for his criticisms of Islam, an event which he describes as his "political awakening". And you know what? Fair enough. I can definitely understand looking at those two morons screaming at a man making reasonable observations and thinking to yourself: "I don't want anything to with that shit".
Around this time Dave, having previously been a Bernie-loving leftist, began to reorient his show to feature people from the other side of the aisle, including Milo Yiannopoulos, Ben Shapiro, Mike Cernovich and others. This brings us to today.
Dave Rubin - The Internet's Punching Bag
Now that we're up to speed, let me describe what a typical episode of the Rubin Report is like.
Actually no, even better I'll show you what a typical episode of the Rubin Report is like:
I know that's a comedy video, but it's frightening how accurate it is when compared next to a real episode of the show. And bear in mind, this was made by a fan of Dave's.
Episodes will open with Dave giving a tired spiel to the camera about how "the left is no longer liberal" and "we can't be afraid to discuss ideas". All stirring stuff, or would be if he and the rest of anti-SJW YouTube hadn't been saying the same thing for the past four fucking years. The interview proper will then begin and Dave will sit there and basically act as a doormat to whoever he's interviewing.
Some people (and Dave himself) have tried to defend this by saying he's just an interviewer and that there aren't many interviewers who will just let their guests speak and that this allows him to get a handle on their views. The problem with this is twofold:
- As you'll see further below, although Dave is primarily known as an interviewer, he has also to some extent positioned himself as a political pundit.
- Dave only ever interviews people he agrees with, despite billing his show as "the largest talk show about free speech and big ideas on YouTube".
Kyle Kulinski, David Pakman, Sam Seder and others have been banging on Dave's door to be interviewed and he has run and hidden every time, giving pathetic excuses as he does. People have even suggested he has some alt-righters on the show to mix things up, and the reaction's been exactly the same. Of course, Dave isn't obligated to interview anyone he doesn't want to, but, when you bill your show as "the largest talk show about free speech and big ideas on YouTube" and the big ideas are just the same thing over and over, people start to smell a rat.
However, Dave is not unjustified in being afraid of having people outside his bubble on his show, because anytime he ventures outside it, he quickly gets owned.
His own subreddit has become a haven for people shitting on him over his constant disingenuous behaviour. An AMA he did on the r/Classical_Liberals subreddit quickly turned into a massacre as people began holding Dave's feet to the fire on why he wasn't holding Trump's feet to the fire despite saying he would. and generally calling him out on his bullshit:
The level of disrespect some people give him is honestly rather heartbreaking. Larry King interrupted an interview with him to answer a phone call from a family member in one of the most awkward clips I've ever seen, and even people who've been on his show and been friendly with him in the past have turned on him:
Also, Tommy Sotomayor had a hilarious freakout upon discovering Dave was gay and was disgusted they shook hands:
And Dennis Prager admitted to Dave's face that he only sees Dave as useful idiot to further his own goals. Ouch.
Don't Burn This Book? I wouldn't even use it as toilet paper
You may have read all that and been thinking to yourself: "So what? Just seems like a bunch of whiny drama queens going after a harmless YouTube talkshow host. Big whoop."
Well now dear reader, we get to the thing that convinced me to make this thread.
Dave has recently released his first book:
This is the blurb:
Oh wow, how edgy, provocative and insightful. Sure does feel a lot like 2016 up in here.
Now that the book's out reviews have dropped and... let's just say they've not been kind. The Spectator gave it a scathing review, which is incredible bearing in mind that they're on the same political wavelength as Dave. Here are some of my favourite excerpts:
This one in particular made me howl with laughter:
Dave has reacted to this criticism with very good grace, and has definitely not egged on the idea that this review is a hit piece:
He has also definitely not accused anyone giving it a negative review of being a dang dirty troll:
And it's not like the positive reviews are only coming from people Dave knows either:
Gee, all of these actions are reminding of someone else who behaves in a similar way, why can't I put my finger on who...
Oh and no book like this would be complete without the boomer trick of saying Hitler was a leftist. Although I think this might be the most absurd take on that I've ever seen:
Conclusion
Although the above has been pretty snarky and negative, I do want to say that I think Dave seems like a genuinely nice person and I used to be a huge fan of his. But Dave's brand of anti-SJWism is slowly dying and nowhere is that more apparent than in his tanking viewcount, the overwhelmingly negative reaction to his terrible book (which he would've been better off releasing in 2016 - lord knows why he didn't. I can't imagine the research was particularly taxing) and the fact that he gets very little respect even in sympathetic circles anymore. It's a sad story of one man's redemption and an even bigger fall from grace. Would Dave have been better off if he'd stayed at the Young Turks? Probably not, and his profile would be lower, but I imagine as time moves on, barring another political awakening, he'll be left even further behind as history continues its march, and I'll be very surprised if he's remembered as anything other than a footnote.
External Links
Rubin Report YouTube Channel (archive)
Twitter (archive)
Facebook (archive)
Website (archive)
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