The Daily Signal - INTERVIEW | Matthew Peterson Fights Wokeness

Episode Date: September 12, 2022

Woke corporations are increasingly embracing the left’s political agenda and taking aim at the values we as conservatives cherish. So what can we do about it? Matt Peterson is cofounder of New Founding, president of New Founding Media, and host of "The Matthew Peterson Show." He’s fighting back against woke corporations and joins "The Daily Signal Podcast" to tell us about New Founding. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This is the Daily Signal podcast for Monday, September 12th. I'm Virginia Allen. And I'm Rob Blewey. On today's show, I speak with Matthew Peterson, the co-founder of New Founding, and host of the Matthew Peterson podcast. We discuss the left's assault on American values and how new founding is creating alternatives. We also read your letters to the editor and share a good news story to remember 9-11 and thank those who continue to honor the day all these many years later. Now stay tuned for today's show after this. Are you looking for an easy and entertaining way to keep up with the news you care about? The Daily Signal and Heritage Foundation YouTube channels offer interviews with policy experts on the most critical issues and debates America is facing today, as well as short explainer videos that break down complex issues and documentaries that dive deep into the way its policy actually impacts people.

Go ahead and subscribe to both the Daily Signal and Heritage Foundation YouTube channels today. You can search for either on your YouTube app or visit YouTube.com slash heritage foundation and YouTube.com slash DailySignal. Woke corporations are increasingly embracing the left's political agenda and taking aim at the values that we as conservatives cherish. So what can we do about it? Matt Peterson is co-founder of new founding and president of new founding media. He's fighting back against those woke corporations and he joins the Daily Signal podcast today to tell us about new founding. Welcome to the show.

Hey, thanks for having me. Great to be here. You and I had the opportunity to be part of a panel at the Heritage Foundation's Resource Bank earlier this year. Thank you for your remarks at that event and the work you're doing today. For our listeners who aren't familiar, you founded the American Mind, a publication of the Claremont Institute, and you have years of experience working in digital media communications and political consulting. So what inspired Nate Fisher and you to start new founding?

I think it was in 2020, after the election for me when I just thought, you know, we need to take this battle and in some ways the real battle is being fought in the economic space and the cultural space. You can't really separate the commercial and the cultural in America. We're a commercial republic after all. And so much of the problem is that we have, you know, woke capital being used against, you know, it's the people who give it money. So, you know, we're all. all giving money to corporations. We're all investing money in large structures that are acting against us and, in my opinion, are, you know, really harming America, destroying it. So I think after

the result of that election, I knew that, although I'm very proud of the work I do with Claremont, and I still work with them, that we needed to move forward into this commercial cultural space. And Nate was thinking similarly, we'd have been talking for the last, you know, year and a half before that. And it was just sort of go time. I think there was a release of energy of people just to go out and start doing what needs to be done. You know, reading your mission, it's to build networks, businesses, and organizations that are free to flourish and protected from this woke ideology that seems to infest so much of our culture today.

How did we get to this point where those institutions have turned so dramatically in this direction? Well, I mean, look, there's a lot of different causes, but I think what you have is a kind of civic religion that is protecting. you know, very powerful interests who've adopted it, some because they really believe in, you know, wokeness, others perhaps more cynically. And I think there was a vacuum. There was a vacuum of a compelling and comprehensive moral vision of what society is and should be. And, you know, in the past, we used to say business was neutral. It was never neutral, but we could regard this neutral because

we just all agreed on the basic principles and purposes of government. And we were arguing about, other things, you know. And so now when there's a divide over, you know, what men and women are, what the family is, what citizenship is, what the nation state is, all of a sudden, you know, it's apparent that business itself wants to, for good reason, be doing something for the common good of society, even though it's motivated by profit. Everyone wants meaningful work, right? And so I think what the wokeness did is come in and give meaning to, to work, but it poisoned everything, right? So right now you have a situation in which, you know, you can say go woke and go broke. We can say that till we're blue in the face, but the fact is

these are large organizations that aren't going broke. They might take a hit here and there, but they're very committed to this cause, both for personal interest and for, you know, for principle, for many of the people who are more radical. So, I mean, in a sense, though, however we got here, we are here. And the question is, you know, what do we do about it? Well, so should we as conservatives be content with neutrality or do you believe that we need to push these corporations and other institutions toward our values? Yeah, I am one of those who firmly reject the idea that we're just trying to go back to neutrality because I don't think there ever was neutrality. You cannot have a nation and a healthy, flourishing system. Ultimately, you'll destroy the free market itself.

if you say that, you know, sort of all things are lawful for corporations and business can put, you know, its own interest above that of the nation. At a certain point, it can't. And you see that with a globalization problem. You know, at a certain point, you're either on America's side or you're on China's side. And so, well, I'm not against, you know, trade. I don't think, I don't think you can have neutrality. I think this is what's got us in trouble because we're trying to replace a positive with a negative when you argue for neutrality. You know, they have a comprehensive moral vision of how work can be meaningful. They have an ethical system.

They have, you know, all of that in a neat package. You know what social justice is when you see it. You know what ESG is. And it all kind of hangs together. And you can't replace, you know, that positive with a negative just saying, well, I'm anti-woke. I'm for neutrality. And that's also not how you sell products and services. You sell products and services based on a compelling vision.

of a way of life that's attractive. And this is not a top-down solution either. And that really is the true mission, I think, of new founding is providing that vision and getting people excited to see what we could be fighting for rather than just fighting against. Matt, what kind of reception have you received to what you're trying to do? I think specifically one of the ways that you're attempting to take on some of these challenges is to bring people together so that we can, as you say, build and defend a better way of

life. So how are you bringing people together? Many ways. I mean, look, in the beginning, this started with people over the last few years, last four or five years or so contacting me privately. And I just noticed how many, you know, talented professionals in sectors like media, tech, and finance were, you know, sort of, or law were knocking on my door saying, you know, hey, buddy, can you get me out. I don't want to work for this big will corporation anymore. Can I get with like-minded people? So in the beginning, it was, it's really grassroots. And to some extent, it still is. I still get, you know, direct messages, people who want to contribute in some way or want to be connected in some way. And so the question is, you know, how do you scale that? First, you need to put out this positive

vision. And I think that's ultimately the most important thing we're doing. But as you do that, people start coming together in different ways. So one way is return dot life, which is, you is a community that has a publication. And the publication is Return, and it's about, you know, how a guide to living well in the digital age. We have some exciting plans for expansion in the near future for return. And to join return is to join a community of people that, you know, ultimately it's going to be getting all kinds of content and all kinds of ways to interact behind the scenes with

each other. That has a digital, a tech focus, but it's not exclusive to tech. And then align is for businesses that are not woke and connecting them with consumers who, you know, want to find products and services from people who don't hate them. Right now, that's as simple as a widely read newsletter every week, a directory that's growing online and a beta version of a platform that will allow people to curate these businesses. And, you know, as we grow, there's a number of other ways in which we'll connect. people. And ultimately, though, what people are rallying around, right, there's always ways to connect them, but what they're rallying around, especially in response is, is this positive vision of a pro-American, you know, pro-family, pro-sufficiency sort of way of life. You know, we all know we want that.

And that's what, that's how people band together. And I would say, you know, given that fact that people want this, demand is there. The real problem is organizational. I mean, every day we're thinking about new ways to connect people. Well, I know that it's so important for the individual Americans, including listeners of this show, to fight back and get involved. We'll provide links in the show notes and the transcript. But for our listeners, tell us what steps they can take right now to learn more about new founding and perhaps sign up and support the work you're doing.

Absolutely. The easiest way to go to newfounding.com. You can join us there. that membership, those memberships are going to include really everything we do. Return. Life also as a membership. And those are going to be the same thing. Like you'll get access to everything as we build it. So if you go to newfounding.com, you can see all the different things we're doing and click out on there.

And you can just join us there with one simple membership. And, you know, that membership is important because we're going to a lot of investors now. And when they see that people are signing up, you know, based on what we're doing now and that are growing with us, that excites them. And that helps us to, you know, hire more engineers and help build this movement. So I appreciate, you know, anyone going there, you can become a member today. That's fantastic. And Matt, as you build these alternatives, how was that competition going to force the entrenched interest or the existing institutions to perhaps change? Well, that's where things get fun. What excites me the most is the idea of taking small and medium

size companies and building them into, you know, larger and larger entities that really start to draw blood from the big dogs. When you start to think about the investment side of this, principal investments is one of our, you know, adjacent entities that's working on this. What's really going to change the dial is when you take a, you know, $10, $15 million company and turn it into a $50, $60 million company. And all of a sudden, the regional distributor of the large soft drink company is, you know, looking at this up-and-coming soft drink company that's really trading.

on their awokeness, and that's what will change the dial. That is what ultimately, I think, it takes to win. A boycott is not sufficient. It's very difficult to do, especially when these companies are so big. That's why they're able to get away with it. So the more we create alternatives and we have some real winners that emerge from this movement, the better. But as it becomes easier and easier to buy all kinds of products from, you know, even smaller businesses that maybe, you know, don't grow exponentially. You're still taking billions of dollars. You're still taking billions of that's being used against you to support all this garbage that's destroying America and bringing it out into a new ecosystem where, you know, it's going to help consolidate power

and bring people together in a way that can then retake the country. And that's what I would say to people who say, well, this is divisive and, you know, this will further divide us. I say, no, this is what people want. We don't want to be, you know, hijacked by woke corporate. we want to create a whole new media, tech, and financial ecosystem that ultimately retakes and saves America. Well, I'm glad you mentioned tech because digital platforms have provided conservatives with certainly unprecedented opportunities to reach the American people directly, bypassing the traditional corporate media filters.

And frankly, outlets like the Daily Signal and the American Mind might not be as successful as they are if they weren't able to distribute that content across some of those platforms. And yet it seems that today it's increasingly challenging because big tech has turned against conservatives or even some of the listeners of this show who occasionally write and tell us about their own experiences with censorship. What changed in that big tech community to make them turn so hostile to conservatives? It's quite a story. I mean, I mean, someone looking back, hopefully after we win is going to have a tale to write. but what you can see is is really the political moment it changed very quickly right and so the internet was good uh for many years and Obama was the first Twitter president remember and that's when he was getting all the information from Facebook and Google and those execs that and Google were

working on his campaign and you know digital technology was great this is free and uh everything was hunky dory it was when Trump won that all of a sudden uh you know actually this is digital media is really dangerous and we have to do something about this. And that moment really profoundly changed everything. And even the last election, you know, they changed their rules again so that it's very hard to, you know, to advertise for many conservatives. You know, they got very nervous about politics. And so, I mean, I would say that it certainly there's a lot of woke people in tech, but it's especially that the most powerful forces in the country and the most powerful institutions in the country, which, you know, are not really conservatives, all said, you know,

what the heck is going on? We have to put an end to this. We can't have this happen again. And that's when you saw the censorship really begin. I would also say that we shouldn't neglect the fact that China, you know, is a far greater influence than Russia on this sort of thing. You could see that when Twitter yanked Zero Hedge for saying true things about the virus very early on. And so if you're in tech, I mean, I would say, yeah, they're woke and you shouldn't, you should be angry at them. They shouldn't be doing what they're doing. But I think the real impetus for this came from very powerful forces, both foreign and domestic, that did not want Trump to happen again and that saw an opportunity to really clamp down and force the kind of speech they wanted.

And, you know, it's shameful. It's shameful to see what has happened in America. And it's a kind of collusion between large corporate structures and governmental entities and the foundations on the left and everyone else just pushing, pushing, pushing. So, you know, I do have some hope there. I mean, I think that we all know what needs to be done. And there's a certain element of, you know, we have to race to be there when the new internet is born. We have to be the users of the most cutting edge tech to make us more self-sufficient. and that's, you know, that's why we're interested in return. And life and creating that because, you know, we have to get ahead of the game.

It's going to be very difficult to stop, you know, Google and Facebook. But the next round of technology is something that we really need to be part of and it needs to make us more self-sufficient, needs to make. Technology should make us more free, you know, it should make us more human, not less. It should not enslave us. And we know this now. So there's no excuse. You know, we need investors and founders to work together, to come together, to really foster a new movement in technology.

And let me tell you, it's late and it exists. I mean, I see both sides of it. I mean, there's investors who really want to find the best young talent who are going to build in this way. And there's lots of young people in their 20s who are part of the blockchain crypto communities who want to move in this direction. So we can do this. We can beat them. But, you know, it's going to take a sustained effort. And we have to foster this as a movement.

Do you see any opportunities for there to be policy changes, whether it be in Washington, D.C., or increasingly what it seems, state capitals, to address some of these issues, or are you more bullish on the private sector, as you are doing yourself, being the ones that are going to stimulate the change? Well, it's always a combination. You know, I think both things influence each other. And, you know, one side of it is that politicians, will do what you tell them if you're part of a popular movement that has money. It just seems to work that way. So that's what we need to create a commercial cultural movement that really is demanding, you know, this way of life and then let the policymakers figure out how to get us there. But, and I think overall that means encouraging people in policy in the state capitals or D.C. to just to just think more boldly about when and get more inventive, be more innovative, about what might be done.

You know, if you don't have that kind of push to innovate in policy, just like in any other realm, things get stale and stagnate. And we're in a very exciting time here because people are starting to wake up, right, especially in red states to the fact that, wait a minute, we are in charge, we can pass laws. What laws should we be passing that actually address, you know, the problems of reality that we see around us? And I think there's a wide variety of things that we could be doing,

obviously you see some great things in Florida with Ron DeSantis. And all over, I think, you see more experimentation. So I do think that, you know, there's a lot that could be done in that area. There's a lot that will be done in that area. And both sides will nourish each other. Now, you know, one really important thing with the policy right now when it comes to tech is to protect, I think, a lot of a lot of the newer technology. And that includes, you know, Bitcoin, crypto, there's a lot of, there's a real desire in the part of governments to take that over and use it in electronic currency to sort of tyrannize, you know, populations. And, you know, that's one area in which, you know, policymakers can get inventive. And that's a traditional conservative stance

to kind of keep things free. But, you know, I have, I have some hope here because I know that demand is there. I know the Republican base is increasingly demanding action. And I hope that we will see that and help foster it in the next five years. Well, I certainly think it's critical that we do. You know, as part of, you've talked about some of the initiatives that you're doing at new founding. I also want to give you an opportunity to talk about the partners, particularly those who may be interested more in investing. You have principal investments. You have firebrand, American reformer. Anything you want to say about some of the other ventures that you're doing? Yeah, so some of the other things we've started along the way, I mean, they're each,

They're each wonderful. I mean, I'll take two. Principal investments existed before new founding. My co-founder, Nate Fisher, started that at first to invest himself. And now it's become a much larger thing. My colleague, Bart Lamont, does an incredible job as president of principal. And the goal at Principal now is to create a growth equity fund that will do exactly what I was talking about earlier, right? We'll start to invest in America in the companies that are going to provide an alternative path rather than woke capital. So that's very important stuff. The other thing is we do have a super PAC American fire brand, which is making hot fire when it comes to content. And the goal there is to really curate and credential the messages that, you know, reward and punish, whether they're

on the right or left, the right messages. So, you know, we don't have a problem criticizing Republicans through American Firebrand. We feel like they should be criticized. We want to push in America First Agenda. And I think a lot of your listeners would really like American Firebrand. And it's one of those things where, you know, we get funding to make stuff. We can make all kinds of creative content that will really turn the dial up. So, you know, if you check out American Firebrand on Twitter or American Firebrand.com and you like it, you know, get into. touch because there's a lot we can do with that vehicle as well, and it's sorely needed in politics. And you have your own show, the Matthew Peterson podcast, which we, of course, encourage our

listeners to check out and subscribe to, where you can obviously follow a lot of the work that you're doing in American Firebrand and new founding. So thank you for being on the front lines and pushing those messages and making sure that more and more Americans, I think, are waking up and seeing the reality of what the left is trying to do. Well, hey, thank you, Rob. And I thank, I thank heritage for having me. I think it's really exciting things are happening all around for all our organizations. And the more we continue to work together on this, you know, we can indeed fight to win. And I have a lot of, I have a lot of hope for the future based on the response to what we've been doing. This, you know, America's not over. This isn't done. We haven't even begun to fight.

Matt Peterson, co-founder of new founding and president of new founding media, thanks for the work that you're doing to revitalize America and restore some of those conservative values that we hold dear. We appreciate it and look forward to having you back on the show sometime in the future. Hey, thank you for having me. At the Heritage Foundation, we believe that every single policy issue discussed in D.C. tells a story. So we want to tell it well. On the Heritage Explains podcast, co-host Tim Decher and Michelle Cordero, take one policy issue a week, mix in a creative blend of clips, narration, and hard-hitting interviews to equip you on crucial issues in under 20 minutes.

So get your story straight. Subscribe to Heritage Explains wherever you listen to podcasts. Thanks for sending us your letters to the editor. Each Monday we feature our favorites on this show. Virginia, who's up first? One of our podcast listeners recently left us a five-star review and rating on Apple Podcasts writing, finally, news that I can listen to.

Well-thought news and analysis that leaves out the sensationalism. It is enough of a deep dive to make me feel like I can understand current events better, balanced and fair, just like they promise. And Barbara from Cincinnati, Ohio, left us a review writing, I like the podcast headlines. I usually listen to the Daily Signal first thing in the morning because of the quick review of the top news. Please continue to include this as part of your podcast.

Well, Barbara, we are pleased to share that our daily news headlines are back. You can catch them right here on the podcast feed at 5 p.m. every day. And our interview shows are continuing to go live every weekday morning. Your letter could be featured on next week's show. So send us an email at Letters at DailySignal.com or leave us a review on Apple Podcasts. As I approached the walkway from around the back of the building, they had taken crowbars to almost all of our windows, two of our doors, and just shattered all of the glass. That's the voice of Susan Campbell, executive director of Blue Ridge Pregnancy Center. In the early hours after Roe v. Wade was overturned, vandals smashed windows and spray-painted threatening messages outside the center.

I'm Virginia Allen. The Daily Signal has just released a documentary about what happened to the Blue Ridge Pregnancy Center. Plus, we take a deep dive into the violence and attacks against crisis pregnancy centers across the country. Make sure that you're subscribed to the Daily Signal's YouTube channel so you can watch the new document. and never miss our new content. Virginia, you have a good news story to share with us today. Over to you. Thanks so much, Rob. The American flag is a symbol of freedom. And yesterday on the 21st anniversary of September 11th, the organization reeds across America invited Americans to step outside and wave our flag to honor the lives lost that day and to remember our nation's enduring liberty. Hundreds, if not thousand,

of Americans began waving flags at 8.46 a.m. yesterday. The same time, hijackers took control of American Airlines Flight 11 and flew it into World Trade Center's North Tower. The flag waving lasted until 10.03 a.m. when United Airlines Flight 93 crashed into a.m. Crash into field in Pennsylvania. Karen Worcester is the executive director of Reeves Across America and told Fox News why she feels so strongly that we can never forget September 11th. You have to remember there's a generation of kids now that are grownups now that weren't alive on 9-11 and it's really sad that it takes a tragedy. We need to unite under that flag. We need to remember what it stands for. The tradition of waving the American flag every September the 11th began with a few

ladies that we have actually featured on this show before. They were known as the Freeport flag ladies. How did they get their name? Well, the three women live in Freeport, Maine. And in the moments after planes hit the World Trade Centers on September 11, 2001, the three women grabbed American flags and stood on the side of the road and waved the flags to remind those passing by of who we are as a nation, as Worcester explained. They just stood there. Then they waved it. And then people started honking, and that symbol that has brought this country through so much helped us all through the days of 9-11 and the days following. The Freeport flag ladies were so moved by seeing Americans' response of hope to the flag

that every Tuesday morning, for 19 years, they went into Freeport and waved their American flags for the community to see. But after the ladies retired in 2019, the nonprofit, Rees across America, took up their legacy to raise the flag every Tuesday morning and call all Americans to never forget 9-11. Karen Worcester says the simple act of waving a flag bears tremendous power. Let's just join together. Remember, unified and under that flag, you can overcome everything and we can accomplish anything. And of course, Reeves Across America is challenging Americans to teach our children about the importance of the flag and the memory of 9-11. If you want to learn more about Rees Across America, learn what happened yesterday and how you can participate in the future. You can visit Reesacrossamerica.org.

Virginia, thanks so much for sharing that story. We all have so many memories of 9-11, and I want to thank all of our Daily Signal listeners and everybody else who took part in activities yesterday to remember the lives lost on that day. Yeah, so critical to keep that memory alive. And as the next generation is coming up to make sure that they understand the significance of the day. That's right. We can never forget. Well, we're going to leave it there for today. You can find the Daily Signal podcast on the Rurcashay Audio Network. All of our shows can be found at DailySignal.com slash podcast.

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