Listen now | Jonathan Choe (profile, X) is a journalist and a senior fellow at the Discovery Institute’s Center of Wealth and Poverty, where he focuses on the homelessness crisis in Seattle. In our conversation, we talked about Korea, his family life, his firing from KOMO for covering a Proud Boys rally, the pattern of news outlets caving to radical leftists by firing their own journalists, crime in Seattle and the failure of “defund the police,” Seattle’s stalled revitalization efforts, the homeless-industrial complex, the fentanyl epidemic, the pro-Palestinian protests in Seattle and their link to the city’s communist protest network, the failures of corporate media, how platforms like X have democratized information, and the future of independent journalism.
Yes! Broken relationships essential women issue. This is why moderate Mayor London Breed is addressing mental illness and drug addiction as the unhoused prioritized. Dem socialist Preston and the radical left might unseat her to uplift the unhoused industrial complex.... Terrible for SF.
David, you should attempt to interview Erica C. Barnett. I would love to understand who she thinks she is writing too, and more importantly, who she is writing for. Failing that, interview the Sandeep fellow who you mentioned is associated with Seattle Nice.
Sandeep is a friend and has tons of great insight when it comes to Seattle. Erica was part of the lying dogpile on X that led to my firing. The Seattle Times allegedly swiped some of her stories without giving her credit so now she has a vendetta and apparently took it out on me, which I find depraved.
Okay, that’s some insight I didn’t have before. She publishes on Substack and I routinely the first to (sarcastically) comment on her articles. I’ve said it elsewhere and I’ll repeat it to you - she replaced alcoholism with activism. She needs a “come to Jesus” moment.
I am locked out of X for wrongspeak during a Seattle focused thread. I was trying to highlight that the viewpoint extremism in Seattle has blind spots, and when challenged - “oh really, how so?” - I wrote true words. “BAM”, locked out of X. It might’ve been a hard-coded algorithmic rule I broke, but I equally suspect some Seattle “watcher” reported me for some silly ToS violation. You might find this part interesting - I was arguing from my knowledge of the use of Order Police on the Eastern Front in World War 2 (mainly from the book “Ordinary Men”). I was trying to get very activist inclined Seattleites to realize that their fervor can lead them to disregard the warning signs that they’re traveling to a destination that they do not want to go to. Reporting me to get me locked out of X was the perfect illustration that someone is already on that dark journey.
There was a small, coordinated campaign against me as well as a lot of organic reactionary engagement. Of the latter, I only saw one real journalist take part and when I reached out saying that what he had just retweeted was false, he found the truth of the matter within 30 seconds and got back to me with an apology. It just goes to show how much of this is the unthinking algorithm moving people, even people who are in the world of journalism and trained to spot it. Not that this excuses the behavior of the Times, since they actually know better and don't care.
I suspect algorithms are becoming “cover” for a new kind of aristocracy that desires to assert itself covertly. Seattle has a covert aristocracy and I would love to eliminate it via exposure and conversion to the “citizen/patriot” habit.
Great interview.
And thanks for starting with an introduction.
I’m really enjoying all of your interviews and your commentary David. I’m just wanting to share you with other people.
Please do share. And thank you.
Yes! Broken relationships essential women issue. This is why moderate Mayor London Breed is addressing mental illness and drug addiction as the unhoused prioritized. Dem socialist Preston and the radical left might unseat her to uplift the unhoused industrial complex.... Terrible for SF.
David, you should attempt to interview Erica C. Barnett. I would love to understand who she thinks she is writing too, and more importantly, who she is writing for. Failing that, interview the Sandeep fellow who you mentioned is associated with Seattle Nice.
Sandeep is a friend and has tons of great insight when it comes to Seattle. Erica was part of the lying dogpile on X that led to my firing. The Seattle Times allegedly swiped some of her stories without giving her credit so now she has a vendetta and apparently took it out on me, which I find depraved.
Okay, that’s some insight I didn’t have before. She publishes on Substack and I routinely the first to (sarcastically) comment on her articles. I’ve said it elsewhere and I’ll repeat it to you - she replaced alcoholism with activism. She needs a “come to Jesus” moment.
I am locked out of X for wrongspeak during a Seattle focused thread. I was trying to highlight that the viewpoint extremism in Seattle has blind spots, and when challenged - “oh really, how so?” - I wrote true words. “BAM”, locked out of X. It might’ve been a hard-coded algorithmic rule I broke, but I equally suspect some Seattle “watcher” reported me for some silly ToS violation. You might find this part interesting - I was arguing from my knowledge of the use of Order Police on the Eastern Front in World War 2 (mainly from the book “Ordinary Men”). I was trying to get very activist inclined Seattleites to realize that their fervor can lead them to disregard the warning signs that they’re traveling to a destination that they do not want to go to. Reporting me to get me locked out of X was the perfect illustration that someone is already on that dark journey.
There was a small, coordinated campaign against me as well as a lot of organic reactionary engagement. Of the latter, I only saw one real journalist take part and when I reached out saying that what he had just retweeted was false, he found the truth of the matter within 30 seconds and got back to me with an apology. It just goes to show how much of this is the unthinking algorithm moving people, even people who are in the world of journalism and trained to spot it. Not that this excuses the behavior of the Times, since they actually know better and don't care.
I suspect algorithms are becoming “cover” for a new kind of aristocracy that desires to assert itself covertly. Seattle has a covert aristocracy and I would love to eliminate it via exposure and conversion to the “citizen/patriot” habit.
Breathless scare story about me from Erica in 3, 2, 1 …