Before Robby Starbuck became a problem for leftist companies, alerting consumers to stupid woke indoctrination policies, he directed music videos.
He worked with some big names, like Snoop Dogg and Natalie Portman.
In my new video, I remind him that his Snoop Dogg video includes the lyrics: "Set the mood, spoon and groom. ... I can get you high."
He replies, "Realizing that this stuff has a negative effect on culture ... is something that became present to me when I became a dad."
One day, his daughter came home and told him she had to sit through a "weird white privilege" lecture at school.
He investigated, and what he found set him on a new path.
Now he's won a big following on Twitter by pointing out companies that force employees to obey "woke" rules.
Walmart, Toyota, Pepsi, John Deere, Harley Davidson and others scaled back DEI mandates after Starbuck's posts.
It's great that he's made real change, simply by publicizing what companies do.
But I'm skeptical about his new movie, "The War on Children."
Starbuck says it "covers everything kids have faced today in the West, from gender ideology to the sort of communist mentality that's entered our schools, to the depression crisis and the mental health crisis."
His movie was banned on Amazon Prime. He was banned by TikTok.
"One reason they might have banned you," I suggest, "is you say, 'TikTok intentionally confuses kids about their gender.'"
"TikTok's algorithm has fed young children in this country gender transition content that confuses them about who they are," he replies. "This is a social contagion."
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But when I signed up for TikTok, the algorithm just gave me short videos I find fun to watch -- beach volleyball, emotional family reunion, kittens playing ...
Starbuck says young people get different feeds.
"If the sole information they have about you is you're a teenager and interested in pop culture, that's where they orient you."
But does TikTok intentionally confuse kids about their gender?
"Transitions rarely happen," I point out. "0.08% of kids get diagnosed with gender dysphoria. If TikTok is converting them, they're not doing a very good job."
"You're talking about thousands and thousands of kids who get the medical procedures," he replies. "It's certainly, in many areas, way beyond the number that you stated. This is a social contagion. Look at the whole area surrounding UC Davis in California in the public schools; the number of kids who believe they're some form of LGBTQ+ is well over 20%."
I ask him, "Aren't there some people who genuinely feel like they're born in the wrong body?"
"They can believe it all day long. That's fine. It doesn't make it the truth. I'm not going to pretend to affirm something that's not true ... I would be doing a disservice by pretending that every delusion is actually real, just because it might make somebody happy."
"But it does make some people happy," I say.
"Sure, and if you're an adult and you make a set of decisions I disagree with, that's your prerogative. Knock yourself out. But once you cross a line and you start doing this to children who don't have informed consent, don't understand what they're actually doing and what they're signing up for, I think there's no forgiveness."
While Starbuck and I don't entirely agree on this issue, I'm glad we can talk about it.
Now, you can look for yourself -- "The War on Children" is officially unbanned.
What changed Amazon's mind?
"The politics have changed," says Starbuck. "It's back on Amazon Prime now and I'm unbanned at TikTok ... I was right when I warned about the idea of modern communism, where companies act as a proxy for the government, because these things all occurred when the Democrats were in power. Now we're in a new time period where the people on my side are in power. Now these companies are tripping over themselves to go and say, 'We're not banning you. We didn't mean it ... ' We need companies to not be prisoners to political ideologies and instead just behave like they're actual companies."
He's right about that.
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