CAMP: My Interview With Political YouTuber NuanceBro

Since launching his channel in 2017, political YouTuber NuanceBro, who attends political rallies and protests asking critical questions of both sides, has gained 100,000 subscribers.

In addition to his exchanges with protesters and rally-goers, NuanceBro posts in-studio videos in which he talks about issues ranging from the alleged “Pink Tax” to misinformation regarding the NRA. He also takes deep-dives into political policy, looking at established law and court rulings to clearly define the topics at hand.

For example, in this video, NuanceBro talks about President Trump’s statements regarding immigrant asylum, and in this video, he takes on the Jim Acosta incident.

Having followed his content for months, I wanted to speak with NuanceBro to understand why he started his channel, what he wants to inspire in his viewers, and what his plans are going forward.

The following is my interview with NuanceBro:

DW: Were you always interested in the political world?

BRO: Yeah, pretty much. In contrast to other YouTubers, some of whom recently got involved in politics, I’ve been involved pretty much my whole life, in one way or another.

DW: You launched your channel about a year ago, but when did you first want to start making this type of content?

BRO: Honestly, probably around 2009 or 2010. Especially with the election of Barack Obama and then the Tea Party movement, and then the Occupy Wall Street movement. I saw interactions with people in the Tea Party movement and Occupy Wall Street specifically, and I thought those interactions were fascinating – just the dichotomy between those two groups. You know, people going out there asking other people questions. I just found their responses fascinating. I felt like I had a lot of questions I wanted to ask those people, and I felt a lot of those weren’t being asked in the content I was seeing, or the dialogue wasn’t as good as I’d want it to be. I always thought, “You know, I’d like to do something like that,” but I just never got to it until I guess now.

DW: Did you see a vacuum that needed to be filled content-wise?

BRO: I’d put it that way, yeah. I didn’t feel like it was huge, but I felt like I could get in. I was interested in it. I felt like it was in a little bit of a niche. I wasn’t necessarily gonna come at it from a super ideological, partisan angle, like I see some other people doing – which is fine. I mean, it’s entertaining sometimes when it takes a more comedic route, and I do that sometimes as well. I think it’s always good to lighten things up. That said, I wanted to bring a little more of the nuance into things, I guess you could say.

DW: Were you always “nuanced” in your thinking? Were you always the type of political questioner that you are now, or were you more ideological before you started creating content on YouTube?

BRO: I would say I’ve definitely experienced the cognitive dissonance that comes with being hyper-ideological. In the past, whether it was being far on the Left or far on the Right, I kind of held on to that tribal identity. Over the years, I came to see how that thinking was flawed, and now I value the nuance of things, and the facts. I try to let the facts determine what I believe.

I still have guiding principles. I wouldn’t say I necessarily have an “ideology.” I have guiding principles, but I always let the facts come first rather than letting the ideology be the driving factor, and then picking facts that reinforce the ideology. I take all the facts I can, even if they conflict with what I perceive as my existing world view, and then let the facts speak for themselves.]DW: What is your goal with your channel, and what do you want to inspire in other people?

BRO: Well, a lot of times when I’ve gone out to these protests, I see people talking past each other and not with each other. I think if we’re gonna have any sort of society at all, especially one where people have diverse political opinions and different ideas of what society should look like, if we’re going to live peacefully together and not have another civil war, we’ve got to be able to talk to each other and not just talk at each other.

I’m trying to inspire some of that dialogue and critical thinking. I’m trying to get people to think about things in different ways, and not always from the standpoint of, “This is my tribe, and this is what we believe, and anything that conflicts with that belief is going to be discarded.” Seek to understand before being understood.

DW: Have you gotten any serious pushback?

BRO: Honestly, most of the comments in the YouTube section, for example, are pretty positive. But, I guess the most serious pushback would be from groups like antifa. I’ve honestly tried to engage with them as much as I can, but usually even if they – some of them are starting to know who I am. To what extent they know who I am, I’m not sure. They know my name, and they know what I look like, but I don’t really know if they’ve really seen my content.

They seem to be the most opposed to what I do, and I think it’s because they have this ideology of, “If you’re not with us, you’re against us,” which ironically comes from the Bush administration. That was kind of their policy: “If you’re not with us, you’re with the terrorists.”

DW: Going through your content, I noticed there was one area where you seemed to get a lot of pushback, which was your analysis of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s speech before the Congress. Some commenters claimed that you went from your usual, unbiased position, and appeared to analyze his speech with more of a “superficial eye,” seemingly offering the benefit of the doubt to Iran. What would you say to that?

BRO: I wouldn’t say I give Iran the benefit of the doubt. I also never say I’m unbiased. First of all, I really have no problem with Israel. I like to make critiques of everything. When I go to the various political rallies in my videos, whether I’m interviewing people on the Left or the Right, I always ask people challenging questions, and I like to critique things.

I guess you could say I have a bit of a contrarian streak. Whenever I see one side sort of represented and I don’t see the other side represented – in the media, I feel like Israel is generally presented in a positive light. Netanyahu is generally spoken about by most of the mainstream in a positive light. I think, where’s the critique? Is there any critique that’s even allowed sometimes?

The main thing I was trying to point out in the video is that the information Netanyahu was presenting in his sort of grandiose way was information that we’ve already known and that’s been presented before. The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said a lot of this already. It didn’t seem to really be new information. I guess they got the physical documents from the Iranians, but other than that, it’s information we’ve already known for a long time.

DW: So you wanted to note that?

BRO: It just seemed like a grand spectacle for information that we already knew, and that was really my main point there, and I didn’t really see a lot of people bringing that up in the mainstream.

I want to clarify something because you said, you know, “It seems like in that one video about Israel, you came off a little biased.” I don’t claim to be unbiased, especially in my studio videos. When I do my interviews on the streets with people, I try to be as unbiased as possible. I try to ask challenging questions – and I’m not gonna ask one side more challenging questions than the other. I always try to ask people challenging questions regardless of what side they’re on.

I think people have this impression that I’m anti-Israel because I did like, one video about Israel, and I’m really not. Like, I’d love to go to Tel Aviv. I think it’d be great to go. I’m not anti-Israel by any means.

DW: When you’re interviewing people at rallies or protests, is there a group of people or a certain type of person from whom you see ignorance or intolerance more than others, or is it something you see across the political spectrum?

BRO: You’re gonna see it from all groups, but definitely more from radical extremists. Now, I haven’t had the opportunity to interact with radical extremists on the Right, simply because of where I live and the events that usually occur in this area. Also, the Left seems to protest a lot more frequently, and with that you get the radical Left, like the antifa types.

Most of the intolerance I’ve experienced has been from that side. Their unwillingness to have conversations or simply open up and hear me out. They seem to want to judge me and dehumanize me, and say, “This person is a fascist, a Nazi sympathizer,” and automatically cast me out before hearing what I have to say.

DW: A lot of your direct-to-camera videos seem to be aimed more toward “debunking” more progressive ideas, like the Pink Tax or anti-NRA talking points. Is there a reason for that? Is there a political side you sort of lean more toward?

BRO: Of course I have a political side I lean more toward. I have my own personal biases, but I wouldn’t say I’m unfair. I like to take the facts as they come.

When it comes to the types of videos I do, I obviously can’t choose to cover everything. I can’t choose to debunk everything – whether it comes from the Right, the Left, or elsewhere – but I can choose to focus on the side that’s less talked about.

If you have the media taking a side and saying one thing – and they’re all saying one thing – well, that voice is already out there. That’s the one that’s getting all the coverage. If I just mirror that sentiment, it’s not really doing anyone any favors because people already have that information. They’ve already seen that side. I view my role as giving the other side a hearing. Is there another perspective that’s different than what’s already out there? If I offer a different perspective, or additional information, then people are at least getting something out of that.

When a large swath of media is covering one thing in a certain way, I want to offer additional information. Maybe I can agree with them partially. I don’t like that they sometimes exclude certain information that might be crucial to the point that they’re making.

DW: What are your plans going forward, in terms of expanding your brand, the channel, and the content that you want to create? Are there any immediate or long term goals?

BRO: I’d like to put out more content. If I could put out more content covering more topics, then I could cover a wider range of issues and perspectives. That would be great because right now, I’m pretty much a one-man team. Even when I go out to these interviews and protests, my cameraman is literally either a family member, a friend, or a fan who reached out on Twitter.

In my in-studio videos, I do all the filming and editing. No one does that but me, so I’m gonna try and expand that. If I could hire somebody to take some of the work load, that would be great.

DW: Do you have any journalistic or political role models, or people after whom you maybe model your style of questioning?

BRO: I definitely like to watch people like Ben Shapiro, Steven Crowder, David Pakman, and Kyle Kulinski. I like to watch as many people as I possibly can to have the most accurate picture of what’s going on or being talked about.

DW: If you had to recommend one book for people to read that would help them get in the mindset of being more politically agile, or politically nuanced, what would it be?

BRO: “Crucial Conversations: Tools for Talking When Stakes Are High.” It’s by a few different authors, but it’s really good book.

DW: Lastly, is there anything you would want our readership to know?

BRO: I would just say, always keep an open mind. Don’t just rely on sources of information that agree with you. Always try to cross-reference as much as possible so you know you’re not just getting a biased perspective. It’s better to always cross-reference to get the full picture, and that’s usually how I try to find my information. Look at the facts and come to your own conclusions based on those facts but don’t ignore the facts just because you think they might conflict with your ideological worldview.

I’d like to thank NuanceBro for taking the time to speak with me. You can follow him on YouTube or on Twitter @NuanceBro.