What’s coming up for voters there?
Well, everything. Deep down, I think we all have the same concerns, but I think that I share prescriptions with a lot of the Democratic voters I met. And then some of the Republicans…I would say I have my own election fears in terms of election security, but it’s not from the same cause that some of them feel it is. I will say this: Nobody seems to like the direction the country’s going in.
AI, data centers, inflation, the environment—were there any issues that emerged as a top concern?
100% prices. The Democrats I met weren’t leading with that, but were leading more with the Constitution, civil liberties. But then again, I met some Republicans who say the Constitution is under attack.
How long have you been doing political advocacy work?
The first canvas I did with Swing Left was in 2018 for the midterms in Laguna Beach. I participated in a somewhat national, but certainly local effort to flip a seat that Dana Rohrabacher used to have. And I did some campaigning in 2008—I got involved early in the century.
I remember when I really awoke politically, it was the Bush/Gore election, and then 9/11 happened eight months later. I remember thinking that morning: “It’s not so good to have a moron in charge.” And while I do think he’s a lot more civil and honorable a person than who we have leading the government now, I don’t think he’s sharp, not to mention I just disagree with his politics. But I thought, A bad thing happened and we have a bad leader. We’re still paying for that 25 years later.
Do you feel like Hollywood’s gotten more conservative?
I guess outspokenly so, yes. Again, as one side has more power, it makes sense that it draws people to it for all the human reasons that would be attractive: groupthink, your own well-being, your own money and success.
Everyone kind of liked Obama, mostly. I wasn’t looking under the hood too much, but you considered everyone to be like-minded. Between COVID, a second Trump term, Israel-Gaza, it’s really brought out some different beliefs that I was ignorant to, and then disheartened by.
A defining voter concern in the Democratic primaries has been candidates’ stance on Israel-Gaza, as you mentioned. How is that coming up in your messaging?
Truthfully, it hasn’t. I have spoken a lot about it privately. I haven’t spoken much about it publicly.
Would you care to speak about it publicly?
Put me down as thinking it’s a genocide. Put me down as wanting a free Palestine. It’s awful that it’s taken so much death and misery, but it does feel like it’s reaching a breaking point that it should have a while ago. I’m hopeful that another administration can really do some good and correct some of these policies that are helping that situation be as awful as it is.
You have this renewed attention on you for the success of Nobody Wants This, and you’re actively engaging with the community politically, but you aren’t on social media—are you tempted to change that in order to reach a wider audience?
No. I think being off social media has been the healthiest thing. I’m forced to use a lot of tools and products where I don’t believe in the heads of those companies, but I’m sure as shit not going to be on anything that Elon Musk is a part of. I know people are doing really good work on [X], and I’m really glad about that. But it’s not for me, and I don’t have any guilt about not being on it. Sorry, I feel great about it.
