Prominent YouTuber and political commentator Dave Rubin made it big as a man with a fascinating personal story. Now, with the publication of his new book, he wants to become the champion for an ideology: classical liberalism.
I recently sat down with Rubin to talk about his journey, his new book, Don’t Burn This Book: Thinking for Yourself in an Age of Unreason, and his fight for classical liberalism more broadly.
To start, we unpacked the story he tells in this book about his political and personal evolution. Interestingly, the book was originally titled Why I Left the Left, but Rubin told me he changed the title because he wanted it to represent what he was for, not just what he was against. The first portion of his book still does tell the story of how Rubin went from a progressive gay radio host and host on the left-wing network on the Young Turks to an outspoken right-leaning commentator.
First, though, it talks about the painful journey Rubin had coming out (to himself) as gay. Perhaps the most jarring passage in the entire book is the one where Rubin describes how he actually blamed himself for the 9/11 terrorist attacks due to the guilt he felt after coming out. We discussed this jarring moment at length.
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