Is Briahna Joy Gray Doing the Most Good She Can Do?
I remember coming up to the 2020 elections and soon after, if you criticized Joe Biden, many people would strangely assume you’re a Trump supporter. We see this happen on a daily basis to this day. Our country has become so polarized that we instinctually believe that if you’re not with us, you’re against us, and that leaves no room for nuance. The other day, I had a family member accuse me of being brainwashed by Fox News and Tucker Carlson because I was critical of liberal media, and she even said I was playing into “white supremacist narratives”. I’m one of the most progressive liberals you’ll meet, so this is always odd to me. Something that liberals do is hold people in power accountable regardless of their affiliation. With that said, I’ll be offering a criticism of Briahna Joy Gray because I think she’s amazing but isn’t doing the most good she can do.
The last thing I’ll add before diving into the “meat” of this piece is that we criticize the ones we love or see potential in. I personally spend more time criticizing “my side” than the other side because I know how much potential our ideas have to make this world a better place, and I changing the mind of the ideological other is a much more difficult hill to climb.
So, for those of you who don’t know who Briahna Joy Gray, her most current project is the Bad Faith podcast, which is fantastic. She is an intelligent, passionate young woman who has strong beliefs but is willing to talk to people she disagrees with. Anyone doing this is doing a tremendous service because far too many of us refuse to talk to the other side because we don’t believe they deserve a platform to share their ideas, and that doesn’t really solve anything (and if you want to learn more about why that is and what we can do, check out my recent episode with the wonderful Monica Guzman from Braver Angels about her upcoming book).
Briahna also worked on the Bernie Sanders campaign, and Bernie is my guy. I was a political nihilist until 2016, and once I learned about Bernie, I was sold. Briahna supports a ton of Bernie’s ideas, so I agree with her a ton. Whether it’s better wages, healthcare, closing the wealth gap, or issues with systemic racism, I’m right there with her. There are a few ideas and opinions she has that I’m not completely sold on, but that’s to be expected.
So, if I appreciate Briahna’s work and agree with her ideas, what’s the issue?
Well, as you saw from the title, I think about this question constantly. Is Briahna Joy Gray be doing the most good she can do? And could she be doing good better? These are questions I don’t just ask about Briahna, but I ask them about literally everyone who wants to make this world a better and more equal place. On a daily basis, I ask myself these questions, too. But I can’t take the credit for asking these questions, they’re from the effective altruism movement.
I’ve written and mentioned effective altruism numerous times, but I still don’t think you all really get how important it is. Two of the best books I’ve read on the topic are from the creator of effective altruism, Peter Singer, and his book The Most Good You Can Do as well as Doing Good Better by William MacAskill. You need to read these books ASAP, but here’s a rough idea of effective altruism.
I truly believe that 99.9% of the world’s population wants to do good, but most of us go about it in the wrong way. We donate money to the wrong places and spend a lot of time doing things that don’t make as much of a difference as we think. Effective altruism has you look at altruism in a more rational, scientific way and always ask, “How much is this actually helping?”
In no way am I here to pick on Briahna, but maybe there’s a chance she sees this, and it gets her wheels turning. And worst case, you read it and can think about your own generosity in a better way.
Briahna seems to be stuck in a trap that most people of influence and public figures are stuck in. This trap is that talking about the problem and raising awareness has somehow trumped taking action. Let me tell you, as someone from the working class who is a recovering drug addict with mental health and medical issues as well as a son to feed, this is extremely frustrating.
Words like “rich”, “elite”, and “privileged” are extremely relative.
For example, the last month has been an absolute nightmare for my girlfriend, son, and me as we deal with a rat infestation in our apartment that the complex has been less than helpful with. One option we’re considering is moving to a different complex, so yesterday we did some research. Applying for an apartment is a huge pain in the ass. Our income isn’t great, and it’s even more difficult with my girlfriend being a full-time grad student for social work while living off of student loans.
After the headache of talking to multiple complexes and knowing that we have to pay to apply and may be denied, I went on one of my rants about how screwed up and backward everything is. At one point I turned to her and said, “The craziest thing is how difficult this all is for us, and we have it way better than so many other people.”
Using Briahna as an example, she has it far better than us. I can’t speak to her childhood, and I know she works extremely hard. But Briahna and I were born two months apart, and our lives took extremely different trajectories. She has a BA from Harvard and a JD from Harvard Law School. As a woman of color, she has faced challenges that I can’t even imagine, but I truly believe that we all have a responsibility to help people below us once we reach a higher level. And maybe that’s just the AA in me talking, but I’ll die on that hill.
Where Briahna can do good better starts with the guests she has on as well as where she makes appearances. This is similar to a piece I wrote not long ago titled Batya Ungar-Sargon Called Out the College Elites, but Nobody Seems to Get It.
Let’s take a look at some of Briahna’s recent Bad Faith podcast guests:
Batya Ungar-Sargon: I love Batya, and I even wrote that more people should follow her lead by taking action. But for the sake of my argument, Batya has a Ph.D. from Berkley and is doing alright as Deputy Opinion Editor at Newsweek.
Thomas Chatterton Williams: This dude graduated from Georgetown with a bachelor’s in philosophy and then got his master’s from NYU. At this point, he’s basically paid to be a public intellectual who writes for the New York Times, Harper’s Magazine, and others. I could write a whole piece about the issue of paid intellectuals making money to talk about what people in my class want and need.
Andrew Sullivan: You’d be challenged to find many people who don’t know who Andrew Sullivan is. He’s a well-known author, writer, and public figure who also attended Harvard.
Andrew Yang: You know who Andrew Yang is.
Now, there is an argument to be had that Briahna is doing some good by having such popular figures on her podcast because it spreads more awareness of these conversations. Her large audience combined with the large audience of the guest reaches massive amounts of people. But, again, is she doing the most good she can do?
Briahna is also a regular guest on The Hill, which has 4.2 million Twitter followers and 1.4 million YouTube subscribers. A few months back, she was also a guest on Breaking Points with Krystal and Saagar as well as on the Krystal, Kyle, and friends podcast.
I could write this piece about hundreds of people, and I just might because I don’t think people are seeing this pattern. But from down here, I see it each and every day.
I can’t speak for everyone in the working class struggling to survive, but I can say a lot of us feel the same way. Even with the best intentions, there are a lot of rich elites talking about us and not talking to us. I shed light on this because even with their good intentions, I don’t think they realize that it’s strange and frustrating for people like me to see people with Ivy League degrees who make hundreds of thousands of dollars a year talking about what I want and need.
So, what’s the solution? Well, here’s where I may have someone read my suggestion in “bad faith”(get it?). For this final section, I’m going to use myself as an example and that’s only because I know my personal experience. But this isn’t for me. As I write this following section, please keep the big idea in mind. If you read with the assumption that I have bad intentions, nothing’s going to change.
I can tell you from personal experience that people like me are ignored, and there’s no way that I’m the only one.
The best thing my dad taught me that’s helped me survive in this world and improve my opportunities is this: if you don’t ask, the answer’s already no. I have people ask me how the hell I’ve had such big guests on my podcast even though I just started it in May, and it’s thanks to my dad beating this into my head.
I have an extensive list of people I’ve reached out to on more than one occasion to come on the podcast and have received no response. Briahna is one of these people. I’m one of the people she’s fighting for, but I’m not big enough to be a blip on her radar. And I want you to really think about that for a second.
Just as another quick example, I’ve reached out to Krystal and Saagar as well. I watch them daily, and they’re regularly fighting for people like me, but I’m non-existent to them.
Without going full social psychology nerd on all of you, it’s a really simple concept:
People with large platforms can do good better by giving people without large platforms a platform. This provides social proof as well as access to a larger audience.
Again, this can seem like I’m just some butthurt hater, but I’m just using myself as an example. I’m just one person struggling to get by out of millions. Give any of them a platform.
Do you have any idea how many small creators are out there who want to have their voice heard? Could you imagine if just once a week, hell, even once a month, these people seemingly fighting for us gave someone in my class a chance to be heard?
It’s genuinely difficult to believe that any progressive or anyone fighting for the social good actually cares when all they do is stay in their circle of what we see as “elites”. If you’re only platforming best-selling authors, Ivy League graduates, politicians, and people with large platforms, are you really doing the most good you can do?
To conclude, while writing this, I actually realized I wasn’t following Briahna on Twitter, so I just followed her.
In a recent tweet, she said to her 347k followers:
I replied:
and she liked that tweet.
Not long after, she retweeted this from Zaid Jilani:
Zaid Jilani is a well-known writer for some huge publications, and he has 111k followers.
In her retweet, she said:
Since life is often silly, I decided to make one last-ditch effort while wrapping up this piece. I was like, “I’m going to try this one more time. And if she agrees, I’ll have to delete or rewrite this entire post.” So, I replied with:
Alas, there was no response. Granted, it was only about 10 minutes ago, but I’m fairly familiar with Twitter. When someone is currently active on Twitter like this, it’s either a response or it goes ignored.
I always say the best type of writing is where the author argues with themselves by presenting opposing arguments.
It’s very well possible that Briahna (and others) think I’m a clout chaser with bad intentions so they don’t reply. I don’t find this to be a strong argument. I can understand the assumption, but it still doesn’t answer the bigger issue. If that were the case, Briahna and others could go out of their way to make first contact and platform people. Because as I said, this isn’t about me.
I’m going to keep shining a light on this issue until someone recognizes this as an issue. I can’t stress enough how much I respect people like Briahna and appreciate the world she’s doing. But is she doing the most good she can do? I don’t think so. Could she be doing good better? Absolutely.
I think what breaks my heart the most is that this takes minimal effort, and you’d be hard-pressed to find many people doing this.
Again, I hold myself to the same standard. I have a tiny platform, but I do everything I can to platform and promote the work of others even if I don’t receive anything in return. I learned this in AA, and I think it’s the least some of us can do.
I’m currently writing a book about how we’re manipulated by the news, social media, technology, advertisers, and each other. It dives into the psychological history of manipulation, our biases, tribalism, and more.
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