No, Jimmy Dore is Not A Right-Winger or Moving To The Right
The allegation that Jimmy Dore is right-wing or is moving to the Right show a fundamental misunderstanding and/or deliberate misrepresentation of Jimmy Dore's political ideology.
I’d like to get two things out of the way before we get started.
First, I’m not the first person to write something like this. The Dissident already wrote a Substack piece on this (and you should go read it (and this one as well)).
Second, I am a big Jimmy Dore fan, but I don’t agree with Jimmy Dore on everything and will admit he can be an asshole at times. The problem I have is that a lot of the criticisms Jimmy Dore seems to be getting are just smears and/or fundamental misunderstandings/deliberate misrepresentations of his views. So, let’s go:
Is Jimmy Dore Moving to the Right?
Many of Dore’s critics claim that he’s “moving to the Right” and is going the same route as people like Dave Rubin or Tim Pool. This is where we see a fundamental misunderstanding or perhaps dishonest misrepresentation of Dore’s politics.
Dave Rubin’s entire schtick is claiming that he “used to be on the Left until he realized how crazy the Left had become”. He claims that the Democratic Party and the Left have gone to the extreme Left and have become “too crazy” and “too radical”. He uncritically platforms right wingers and people like the white nationalist, anti-feminist conspiracy theorist Stefan Molyneux, while never bringing on Leftists (one glorious exception was Marianne Williamson). He’s also openly pro-Capitalism, a supporter of the Israeli Occupation, and pushed conspiracy theories that Trump was going to overturn the outcome of the 2020 election. Tim Pool pretty much has the same schtick, claiming that the Democrats and the Left have moved “too far to the Left”, and have become “too radical” and “too crazy”.
Jimmy Dore is the exact opposite of this. His entire critique of the Democratic Party comes from the fact that they aren’t fighting for Medicare For All, Green New Deal, ending the wars, a living wage, free college, cancelling student loan debt, etc. He also goes after progressive Democrats for not fighting hard enough for these things. He also goes after progressive outlets like The Young Turks and The Intercept for opposing movements and pressure campaigns to achieve these things (like Force The Vote and March For Medicare For All), as well as for towing the Establishment line on Russia, Syria, and Julian Assange & WikiLeaks.
Jimmy Dore critiques the Democratic Party and progressives from the Left and his primary criticism is that they aren’t far enough to the Left and aren’t radical enough. This is literally the exact opposite of the “critique” offered by Dave Rubin and Tim Pool, and makes me think that the people who make this argument think that any criticism of the Democratic Party is right-wing. Saying that because both Jimmy Dore and Dave Rubin & Tim Pool criticize the Democrats, therefore Jimmy Dore is right-wing, is literally the equivalent of saying that because both Leftists and so-called “RINO Republcians” criticize Trump and the Trumpist Right, that means “RINO Republicans” are Leftists.
Free Speech
People claim that Jimmy Dore is right-wing or moving to the Right is because of his opposition to censorship and his criticisms of certain sects of the Left (the Synthetic Left) for supporting this. Again, this shows a fundamental misunderstanding and/or deliberate misrepresentation of Jimmy Dore’s political ideology.
Jimmy Dore has consistently stated that he supports Free Speech and opposes censorship from a Leftist perspective. Dore has stated that censorship is a “Neoliberal position” (or as he calls it, “ShitLib”) and that censorship will come back to hurt the Left. Dore has also consistently defended Leftists who have been censored.
All of this is contrary to right-wingers who only care about Free Speech and censorship when it affects them personally and ignore Frees Speech issues involving censorship of the Left. Jimmy Dore is expressing the exact same views on Free Speech as Noam Chomsky.
Going on Tucker Carlson’s Show
People next claim that Jimmy Dore is right-wing or moving to the Right because he goes onto Tucker Carlson’s show. The logic of this is that because Tucker Carlson is an anti-immigration extremist (and borderline white nationalist), that because Jimmy Dore is going on his show, he’s endorsing them (this attack is also often leveled at Glenn Greenwald).
There are a few problems with this arguments however.
First, this criticism isn’t leveled at others who have gone on Tucker’s show, like Nomiki Konst, Cornel West, or Ro Khanna. Second, Jimmy have never once expressed or endorsed Tucker’s extremist anti-immigration views. Third, Jimmy has gone on Tucker’s show to critique the Democrats and certain aspects of the Left that defend them (the Synthetic Left). He even changed Tucker’s mind on Julian Assange and condemned Nancy Pelosi for supporting Trump’s efforts to carry out regime change in Venezuela. The idea that Jimmy is right-wing for going on Tucker’s show is laugable.
Interviewing A Boogaloo Boy
The next attack is that Jimmy Dore interviewed a Boogaloo Boy (and I expressed this criticism of him as well before looking more into it). The argument is that because the Boogaloo Boys are far-right, Jimmy was platforming the far-right.
However, Jimmy interviewed the Boogaloo Boy because he had many views that aren’t associated with the far-right. The Far-Right tends to be pro-Cop, anti-BLM, anti-LGBTQ, anti-immigration, etc. The Boogaloo Boy Jimmy interviewed was pro-BLM, pro-LGBTQ, anti-Imperialism, anti-Cop, and anti-ICE, all positions typically associated with the Left. Jimmy was interviewing someone who had similar political views as many on the Left and saying that maybe we should work together on some issues.
Now, you could make the criticism that Jimmy should’ve pushed back more over acts of violence carried out by other Boogaloo Boys or that this one person isn’t representative of all Boogaloo Boys (which are fair criticisms) but acting like Jimmy is right-wing for interviewing him or that he endorsed any right-wing views is just dishonest. If Jimmy Dore was right-wing, he would’ve interviewed a Boogaloo Boy with far-right views, which this one didn’t hold.
Is Jimmy Dore an Anti-Vaxxer?
Many people have expressed this criticism lately that Jimmy Dore is either an anti-vaxxer or has at the very least endorsed anti-vaxxer positions. And I’ll also admit that even I made this criticism of him as well for awhile.
Dore himself has already responded to that here and has clarified his position. Jimmy Dore isn’t against people taking the vaccine (he encourages people to do so), he’s against vaccine mandates and certain aspects of the COVID narrative. Now, I don’t actually fully agree with what Jimmy says on this subject, but acting like he’s an anti-vaxxer is dishonest.
Jimmy also came under fire because one of his videos misquoted an article about COVID in Singapore. Jimmy has since apologized and corrected the error. However, this was apparently still bad because Sam Seder (who has an unhealthy obsession with Jimmy Dore) and Ken Klippenstein (who I actually like) attacked him for correcting the error. Some people are just desperate to hate on him.
Final Thoughts
In his Substack piece, The Dissident said it best:
There is no way anyone in good faith could claim Jimmy Dore is right-wing. He is staunchly in favor of progressive policies such as Medicare for all and critiques elected progressives for not fighting for said policies. He is staunchly anti-imperialist and opposed to the U.S. security state and goes after those that parrot their narrative. He focuses his critique on elements of the left who do this because he believes a wolf in sheep clothing is more dangerous than an open enemy. He has a principled view of free speech and defends those on the left and right who face censorship. This is the polar opposite of figures like Dave Rubin or Tim Pool who oppose progressive policies, claim the democrats are too far left, and only defend the right-wing on free speech. Those making the argument that Jimmy Dore has moved right know it is a smear and inaccurate which goes to show they do not have a rebuttal to what he is saying. They cannot refute his points so they go to smearing. This goes to show there is probably something to what he says.
And as I’ve pointed out on Twitter:
Jimmy Dore haters don’t have an actual argument. All they have are lies and smears that involve either a fundamental misunderstanding or deliberate misrepresentation of Jimmy Dore’s actual political ideology.
Dore is a buffoon.
Dore is more than a buffoon; he's a conspiracy theorist. https://socraticgadfly.blogspot.com/2021/02/hot-take-on-uncritical-leftists.html (And the Dissident has deleted both the pieces you link to)