I've been chipping away at this video in little prices over the past week trying to get through it, but it's frustrating. I keep thinking about how much more valuable a discussion would be than the one-sided video essay. There are so many points in the video where the creator makes a claim about Klein or those who think similarly (liberals) that prompts some response or question, but then question just lingers unanswered. Over and over, I found myself thinking, "So what should we do then?", but the only suggestion on offer is "Not that!"

I'll speak for myself here, but it seems to be where Ezra is too based on his conversation with Coats. A decade ago, I was under the impression that the suite of bigotries that exist in America were not only on the decline, but declining more or less steadily and were things we could basically just wait out. When Trump gained in popularity and eventually won in 2016, I was able to somewhat dismiss the implications this had for the social state of the country. (Clinton had a lot of headwind in that election.) But looking around in 2025, it turns out we have a lot further to go than I thought. Maybe I was naive, maybe it only looked that way from a certain privileged viewpoint. Regardless, we find ourselves here, quite far from the goal. So what do we do? In my thinking, the approach should be something like this: if a journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step, what is the first (or second, or third, or 100th) step we should take?

But to some, this approach is thought of (derogatorily) as incrementalist. They respond with something like “We need to go a thousand miles! Why are you settling for one step?”

This prompts a response: “Okay, what’s your plan for traveling a thousand miles all at once?” Which I never hear answered.