David Joshua Rubin / b. 1976 / New York, New York, USA / Comedian, Political Commentator, Podcaster
Note: The specific sources of the following quotes are unknown; however, they most likely derive from Rubin’s many online commentaries, interviews, and podcasts.
College
Instead of silencing speakers on campus, perhaps do what you’re supposed to in college instead: listen to someone who thinks differently than you do.
Comedy
Even though standup seems like one-way conversation, if you’re doing it right, it’s actually a two-way discussion between the comic and the audience… the audience just happens to be communicating through laughter.
The whole point of real comedy is that you can say something that is true, and by being funny, you can make it tolerable for people, and hopefully they’ll laugh at you, too.
Free Speech
We should all be able to express our opinions without fear of being silenced or canceled.
Free speech is the cornerstone of a free society.
I don’t have to agree with you to respect your right to speak.
If you don’t stand up for free speech when it’s under attack from your own side, you don’t really believe in free speech.
Ideas are not dangerous; the suppression of ideas is dangerous.
The battle for free speech is the defining issue of our time.
Ideas should be challenged through open dialogue, not silenced.
Gay Marriage
I think for me, as a gay person, I can convince a lot more people to be for gay marriage by not screaming at them and berating them and embarrassing them and belittling them, but by showing them that we’re all exactly the same.
Human Rights
You are born free. I was born free. The government can take your freedom away, but it did not give you your freedom. It was your human right. The key part of that is you are free first.
Identity
I don’t care about your identity; I care about your ideas.
I don’t care who you are or where you come from; if you have a good idea, I’m willing to listen.
The best way to combat hate speech is with more speech, not less speech.
The Left
Sadly, the Left is no longer liberal at all, for it has traded in individualism for collectivism, thus placing us into an oppression Olympics where victimhood is a virtue. This post-modernism—this cultural Marxism or whatever you want to call it—can only destroy; it cannot create.
Everyone that we disagree with is a racist and a homophobe and Islamophobe and a bigot. It’s just silly. It’s lazy thinking, and I think it gets us nowhere.
The regressive Left ranks minority groups in a pecking order to compete in a kind of ‘Oppression Olympics.’ Gold medal goes to the most offended.
Just by existing as men, we are automatically guilty of everything in some people’s minds. And, on top of that, we’ve created a situation in the media where men are only allowed to talk about politics and sport.
Prohibiting any words not approved of as “politically correct”—that’s not progressive. Putting “trigger warnings” on books, movies, music, anything that might offend people—that’s not progressive, either.
Marketplace of Ideas
I believe in the marketplace of ideas. I believe in open dialogue, free speech, and the free exchange of ideas.
In the marketplace of ideas, the best arguments should prevail.
It’s important to have conversations with people who disagree with you; that’s how we grow and learn.
The battle for free speech is a fight worth having.
The marketplace of ideas is the best tool we have for solving problems and finding truth.
You don’t need to agree with someone to have a civil conversation with them.
Media
I think the media has portrayed conservatives as these cold, heartless people who want poor people to die and let half the population starve and all this. They’ve done that so effectively because they’ve owned the narrative for so long.
Cable news is force-feeding you an endless back and forth of pundits who consistently get everything wrong, while at the same time, they mask their opinions as facts and argue about the endless minutia of a broken Washington, D.C., instead of arming you with real knowledge and new ideas.
Politics
It’s not enough to be against something; you have to be for something.
The most important thing we can do is to engage in honest and open conversations with people who disagree with us.
Ideas don’t hurt you. They’re just ideas.
Freedom of speech is the bedrock of a free society. Without it, we risk losing all our other freedoms.
The best way to combat bad ideas is to expose them to the light of good ideas.
Open-mindedness and intellectual diversity are crucial for progress.
You are the one who makes the choices that control your fate.
It really is this: you are either for liberty, you’re for freedom, and you’re for living how you want to live without infringing and impugning on anyone else’s rights, or you want the state to deal with everything.
The Right, much more than the Left, believes in the notion of live and let live, and that is the true definition of tolerance.
Speaking out, sharing what you think, and expressing yourself—regardless of sexuality or anything else—is the most important thing you can do as a man, as a human.
It’s not about whether we should have a conservative or a liberal. It’s about, do we have someone that has the mental acumen to understand what the laws are, and not write laws but defend the laws. That’s the whole purpose of three branches of government.
Rubin on Rubin
I’m a classical liberal, which means I believe in individual liberty, limited government, and the importance of free expression.
I would rather stand for what I believe in than bow down and be loved.
I got into politics when I was 12, back when George H.W. Bush was running against Michael Dukakis. We did a mock election in my social studies class, and I remember how so much of what was thought of as liberal made sense to me.
I’m a married gay man, so you might think that I appreciate the government forcing a Christian baker or photographer or florist to act against their religion in order to cater, photograph, or decorate my wedding. But you’d be wrong. A government that can force Christians to violate their conscience can force me to violate mine.
Somehow, defending my liberal values of free speech, liberty, and rights of the individual has become a conservative position.
I’m not a huge parade guy myself.
I firmly believe in individual liberty more than anything else. And that you have to live the life you want for yourself.
One criticism that I hear occasionally is that I am actually not a real liberal, and I am secretly a conservative. Or sometimes they will say I am the only thing worse than a conservative—a dreaded “right-winger.”
I’m not even proud to say this, but I’ve never voted for a Republican in my entire life.
Tolerance
The Right, much more than the Left, believes in the notion of live and let live, and that is the true definition of tolerance.
Seriously, we all need to get over being offended every time someone says something you don’t agree with. Guess what? That’s life. And I’d rather have that life any day than only hear from people who agree with me.
Do you know people on the Right who are tolerant of people who are for gay marriage and are pro-choice? I actually do, plenty of them. When there is a disagreement, I see way more people on the Right… more often willing to agree to disagree rather than to de-friend or to smear.
Trump
The election of Trump threw the chess board up. The pieces are all over the place. That’s upsetting to a lot of people, but what I think is there’s a lot of fertile ground for good ideas.
Obviously, I agree with Trump on many of his criticisms of the mainstream media. You can absolutely argue that their failure to report honestly, to get outraged before we could, and to collude with the Clinton campaign directly led to the rise of Trump.