Go Ahead, Read my Texts
A revealing text exchange about how politics is hurting advertising and friendships.
This text exchange touches on many subjects: being canceled, DEI, an article by a former coworker (Rich Siegel) in which he calls me a “brownshirt”, the repressive/censorial climate inside ad agencies today and the response to my provocative Daily Wire LinkedIn recruitment campaign, which clearly incensed many - especially former colleagues.
This exchange is with an industry friend. We do not agree politically in the least - never have.
That said, back in less heady times - before 2020, let’s say - politics never mattered all that much at work.
What did matter was the actual work and all the fun we had along the way making it. People’s political differences were secondary and tolerated.
Then, that all changed almost overnight.
Today, one’s politics matter - way too much. And the result is unprecedented division.
The question is what happened?
What led to the politicization of agency life (indeed, every aspect of American life)?
Why is it the more we speak of “tolerance”, the less tolerant corporate culture seems to become? Why is it the more we speak of “diversity”, the more conformity seems to rule the day? And the more we talk of “inclusion”, the more exclusion there seems to be?
I’m surfacing this text exchange at the prompting of a friend who felt it advanced a worthwhile discussion about DIE’s effects and the hyper-politicization of the work space. And also, because this friend pointed out (rightly), that I have not always stated clearly the “why” I believe DEI, as currently practiced, is deeply flawed.
Untangling the problems with DEI is a very nuanced and in-depth task, of course, which is partly why I’ve been reticent to engage it fully.
*Note: I have changed the names and taken out anything that would indicate who I’m texting with. But still, I feel the surfacing of this exchange is worthwhile.
Finally, this text exchange offers two perspectives on the controversial DW LinkedIn campaign and a genuine dialogue, which we need more of.
But of course, judge for yourself. I’m sure you will ;).
(Text exchange below):
Me: Noticed you thumbed up Rich’s article on Linkedin which called me a “brown shirt”. The brownshirts, as I assume you know, is a reference to the paramilitary that carried out violence for the Nazis.
If you’re in genuine agreement with Rich’s article about me, one must wonder why you worked with me for so long, so willingly? Or did you thumb up his post because you felt compelled to distance yourself from me? Only you know, John.
As I’ve said before on Linkedin, it’s clarifying to finally see who puts their politics, and fealty to the woke mob, above friendship.
No matter what you ever told me about your political beliefs or who you vote for - and I couldn’t disagree with you more based on what I know - I would have never ever applauded an article calling you a “brownshirt” publicly on LinkedIn.
99% of these people calling me names I could care less about. Many of them have tremendous personal problems.
As you well know, I am anything but a “brownshirt”. My boss is an Orthodox Jew, (you know, the people the brownshirt Nazi socialists gassed by the millions).
You also know my heart and how I treat people. Yet you would side with these vicious identity politics and a cancel culture that destroys people like me (and Jennifer Sey from Levis, and Joe Rogan as an another recent example).
I’ll admit, it truly hurts me to see you do that. Why not just stay out of it? Especially if you cared at all - especially after what happened to me? I was destroyed for nothing. Everything I worked for annihilated. It was absolutely devastating.
Not one friend in the industry spoke up, except Kelly. But many happily joined the mob denouncing me then and now. I can add you to the list. I pray you never experience that, it’s horrible.
And this identity politics movement, must be opposed. It will eventually come for you, and your kids. That you can’t see where this is all going, as a father, is shocking. That you can’t see that it’s all sponsored by the political party you vote for, is also beyond perplexing.
Simply dissent on a single issue that the totalitarian left believes and you’re done.
And I guarantee when they do come for you, no one will speak up on your behalf - not even your closest friends, as I found out. But you will likely discover your friends will happily denounce you - many certainly have the “courage” to do that.
Finally, good luck. All the things you said to me about what I did for your career - none of it even feels authentic at this point.
When you could speak up publicly in my defense, you were silent. When you could side with the mob publicly against me, you took the opportunity.
Friend: Brett, I didn’t sleep much last night, as your text gave me a lot to think about. There is quite a lot to unpack there. Too much for me to even respond to right now. But you are right. It is unfair to equate you to a Nazi. And that isn’t how I have ever viewed you. You have been a very positive force in my life and I will always appreciate the opportunities you gave me. That is as true now as it was in ______. I’m truly sorry for what happened to you. And how it happened. I supported you then and I have been defending you to anyone who would listen for 2 years. But I can’t get behind your current recruitment campaign. The strategy and tactics. I find it unnecessarily incendiary. And not very clever or persuasive. And I’m not the only one. I’ve spoken to so many of our old friends and colleagues over the last few weeks, as many have reached out to me. So many. These people, who were sympathetic to your plight are all questioning you now. I don’t know if you checked in with Kelly recently, but he’s certainly not defending you now.
That’s a bummer. These are good people, who were very empathetic to you. Maybe you feel they didn’t support you enough. And that’s your right. Or maybe they too have “tremendous personal problems?” Whatever that means? We all have personal problems. I have them. You have them. I’ve battled with ________ and _______ my entire adult life. You’ve told me about some of your own personal struggles. Are those “tremendous?” Does that make any of our opinion and beliefs invalid? Aren’t we all flawed?
Listen, that’s besides the point. I can only imagine what you went through. And I agree, I hope I never go through something similar. I believe you that it was devastating. I was devastated for you. And you are right that you aren’t a “brownshirt” and I know better than that. And summing you up that way is as problematic as any email or LinkedIn post you’ve written. I still care about you and your family. And hope for the best for you. I was really happy for you when I heard you had landed a new gig. And I hope it works out for you. Honestly, I’m just tired of all the rhetoric. On both sides. Cancel culture. The division. And the only way past it all will be through open dialogue. So I appreciate you writing me, giving me some stuff to think about. I’m able to look at my actions and see when I’ve made mistake. And I’m sorry if I hurt you. I’ve gone and unliked the post.
Take care, Brett.
Me: Well, we have a dialogue now. Ha. It doesn’t have to close either. But I will respect whatever you decide. And I do appreciate your thoughtful response. And you’re right, too much to unpack. But I do want to respond as best I can to you.
I accept that many will very much dislike the recruitment campaign. But believe it or not, I strongly feel that this whole DEI thing is cancerous. It sounds nice, but my goodness, is fixation on skin color and affinity groups the way forward? I cannot agree with that. So I wanted to speak. It’s been burning a hole in my conscience.
But furthermore, I directly relate DEI to what happened to me. Only in a climate where people are guilty for simply being male, white and supposedly “privileged” would it be permissible for a 5 year-old, poorly-worded email to be enough to take your living from you, without so much as an investigation etc.
This is a merciless ideology. There is no forgiveness because the whole ideology is about seizing power, but masquerades as empathy and tolerance.
Do you feel freer to speak, create and think at (xxx agency) since this ideology’s installment? If yes, I’m shocked.
But also, regarding this Linkedin recruitment campaign, I genuinely needed great creatives and know there is a repressive, stifling feeling in the advertising industry, but few creatives know there could be something else. So I did a campaign to target them specifically - I wanted the best of the best. To do that I needed to speak to where they’re at. And it has worked. Adweek wouldn’t even let me place an ad if I tried, so I had to find another way.
(text exchange cont.) Now if you think that advertising has not become hypersensitive and stifling, I’m shocked, since we talked about it a lot. Your guy, Joe Rogan, who I don’t even listen to, is now a “right-winger”. It’s such a joke. He’s just an independent thinker who speaks his mind.
Jennifer Sey from Levis has black children and is an LGBTQ advocate but she thought the covid policy towards children was unnecessarily harsh and was told to be quiet and she could become CEO, or, speak and lose her career at Levi’s. This is insanity. Good people are being destroyed. Are you for this? If not, who is the sponsor of it? Who has the institutional power to enforce cancel culture? Is it people like me?
And you say you advocated for me, but what does that mean? Privately? Thank you, but it makes no real-world difference. My reputation was slaughtered publicly. The defense needed to be public.
I would definitely like to believe I would have stood up for a friend who had some ridiculous charge like the one leveled against me, threatening to take away his/her livelihood. But no one would - no one.
And I get why, believe me I do. This environment encourages the stoning of people, so I get it. And you would have been stoned next if supported me publicly. But can we call this climate “tolerant” or “inclusive”? The people doing the stoning say those very words even as they throw their rocks at other people.
And the personal problems I spoke of, was just to say, many of these people’s lives are disastrous - yet they attack me publicly. One would think, they would put their stones down. Given that we’re all flawed and can I use the word, sinful, why are people so willing to publicly judge others? Because they see it as beneficial to them. I know I am flawed. Perhaps others would NOT want to get anywhere near the stoning of a good, but imperfect person, knowing they are flawed too. But even you, my friend, picked up a stone to cast it at me. And then this behavior is applauded as “courageous”.
Do you know that for 20-something years in advertising, I quietly listened to an entire industry insult my beliefs and very person? Even you, once said such and such is a “bible thumper” in front of me. Did you know that that very much offended me? I am a bible believing Christian. In almost every meeting, every vendor I visited, my beliefs and convictions were regularly mocked, ridiculed and derided. I never said a word. And when my career was destroyed unfairly, again, I was expected to never say a word in my own defense.
Yet despite all these insults that piled up over the years… I still considered you and all these industry people my friends. I learned to separate politics from friendship. I learned to leave politics out of work. I might find someone’s views antithetical to everything I hold dear, but I still can enjoy that person. I have friends who are communist, but I still like them personally. And the reason I can do that, is at worst, I just think they’re operating from different upbringings, different information and life experience.
But I don’t think they’re evil.
The left believes anyone who disagrees with them to be evil. Therefore they cut them off and out of polite society. They are so sure of their own moral goodness, they can’t imagine someone could very much disagree with their POV - and even have good, thoughtful reasons for doing so.
Most of the time, if I ever get in a dialogue with someone progressive, they don’t even know what the average conservative believes, they just ascribe “hate” and whatever nasty pejorative to that person that comes to mind, and never bother to listen to them at all. I appreciate you not doing that.
As for people like Kelly stopping their support of me? Well, that hurts, but I know I am speaking authentically and truthfully - and, yes, imperfectly, for sure. But also people now know me and clearly won’t accept me as I am.
That said, if I have done anything to you or Kelly personally, other than treat you with the utmost respect and kindness, please bring the charge forward.
Yet I suspect, it’s my political beliefs and now, the company I work for that people despise. And unlike myself, who has learned to live and let live, people on the left have decided that they cannot still tolerate me. I am a person who should be destroyed for my beliefs. That’s where we’re at.
You want all the rancor to end. I agree. Then we have to allow for people to have different values, opinions and beliefs and then still call them a neighbor and friend. We once did that in America. We also have to look at the things we do agree on.
I love your humor, talking about life and family. And yes, the turning away from _______ is an awesome, shared story. I don’t have to agree on Bernie Sander’s policies to love you.
But honestly, John, I believe the left, has now said: agree to my worldview or you are persona non grata. You may not even make a living. You will be reputationally destroyed for simply taking a single position the left deems out of bounds. This is wrong. And that is an unbridgeable gap. There can’t be peace if this continues.
This will lead to irreparable conflict. I promise. I’m saying what I’m saying, not to stir up anger, but to call attention to a bad road we are traveling on.
You can look at the Daily Wire and my politics and dismiss me, or you can say, as you have, there might be something to what I’m saying. Worth thinking about. And even if you disagree, you still won’t participate in the unpersoning of that individual and public destruction of them.
I appreciate your note. It was thoughtful. I also appreciate taking down of the thumb up of that post and know you didn’t have to do it.
And John, I truly care about you, even if you never talk to me again.
As a Christian, I have to forgive. I’m working through that demand imperfectly for sure. It’s a process. And screwing up too.
I am comforted by this thought from Christ, “if the world hates you know that it hated me first”. I am not comparing myself to Christ, but simply accepting his words as true. The world has a lousy track record on recognizing worthy moral stands at the moment they are happening.
I think my stand is correct. I know you’ll disagree. The truth is, I am a people pleaser by nature. But I’ve just stopped trying to be one now and determined to be who I actually am. And think it’s vital more people do the same.
Come what may. It’s definitely unpopular and I know full well what it means to myself and even my family. I will never work in mainstream corporate life again - and that’s just a start. I know that. I know have lost many friends. Yet I am at peace.
Friend: Another thought provoking response. And I really want to continue this dialogue but just can’t right this second. I will though. Just want to acknowledge that, and for you to know I’m always willing to talk. And maybe we should just hop on a call later. Probably easier than the long back and forth. As these are incredibly nuanced conversations. Anyway. Have a good day dude. Talk soon.