This week’s guest on Pop Culture Warriors with Lisa De Pasquale: Sebastian Gorka
On a recent episode of the Political Punks Podcast, it was revealed that talk show host Sebastian Gorka is a “pop culture polymath.” After a wide-ranging podcast ranging from muscle cars to when his wife rented out a theater for the two of them to watch Star Trek: Wrath of Khan for his birthday, the author and former Trump Administration official rose to the top of the list of pop culture warriors to highlight.
Gorka was born in the UK after his parents escaped fascism in Hungary. There he became obsessed with American culture, especially pop culture, and had an innate love of freedom because of what his parents endured.
If you’re looking for a movie recommendation heading into the weekend, Dr. G gives Top Gun: Maverick high praise. He tweeted, “Why is so good? Yes it’s not PC. Yes it’s well-acted. Yes it’s practical over CGI. But the Truth is more important: Maverick celebrates service and sacrifice. It’s about doing what is right, not popular. And it’s about Excellence. AMERICAN Excellence.”
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Pop Culture Warriors with Lisa De Pasquale is an interview column dedicated to the significant work of freedom lovers who chose the path of more resistance. Not only are these pop culture warriors fighting the predominant groupthink in entertainment, but also the predominant groupthink on the right side of politics that entertainment doesn’t matter or that the pop culture war is lost. The purpose of this column is to highlight their projects and contributions to expand freedom in new, exciting, and counterculture ways.
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What do you think Andrew Breitbart meant by “politics is downstream from culture”?
Not what most people understand by it.
What this crucial phrase actually means, is that whatever issue you care about, be it the sanctity of life, the 2nd Amendment, the economy, Freedom of Speech, by the time it arrives for “debate” in Washington DC, it is done and dusted because the issue was settled years - if not decades - earlier in the popular culture.
The idea that you can influence a baked-in issue politically is wrong. It’s the schools, the colleges, movies, the MSM, and now Social Media that set the stage for the final political decision.
Conservatives too often don’t understand the significance of what Andrew taught us.
Who inspires you?
My parents who survived Nazi occupation in Hungary during the war. And then after the Communists took over, my father was part of a secret Christian student organization that resisted the dictatorship until the group was betrayed by British double-agent Kim Philby.
He was tortured and given a life sentence in a political prison only to be liberated by the freedom fighters of the Hungarian Revolution 6 years later. They never broke him.
Neither was my mother defeated by the pain she suffered for decades as the result of her dislocated hips at birth or later rheumatism. I have no excuses given what they lived through.
What was your childhood pop culture obsession?
Anything American and/or SciFi related. Loved, loved Star War, Star Trek, Flash Gordon reruns, and all the great shows like the Bionic Man, Starsky and Hutch, Columbo, etc. although I lived in England.
It was so bad, before we bought a VHS recorder, I’d record shows like Battlestar on a mono audio cassette recorder forcing my parents to stay quiet during the broadcast!
What was your first concert and how did you get there?
Probably Dumpy’s Rusty Nuts - look it up, it’s real - the new-wave British Heavy Metal band my buddy Andy dragged me too.
However the best was seeing Joan Jett live in the tiny yet seminal London rock venue, The Marquee. Now that was a show.
Tell us about the last movie, TV show, book you consumed for entertainment.
Just went to see Star Trek The Motion Picture Director’s Cut at the local theater. Amazing. And no, it’s not too slow or “boring!” Just the tracking shot of the new Enterprise is worth the ticket price.
I read over a dozen books at a time. Right now, I strongly recommend Andrew Klavan incredible new book “Truth and Beauty.”
TV show? Trying out Tehran. However my wife is getting too stressed out by the high tension levels. Good thriller so far!
What would you tell readers who say they’ve opted out of the pop culture war?
They should leave America. If you think teenage girls getting mastectomies because being transgender is “cool” on TikTok isn’t a huge problem, you don’t deserve to live in the greatest nation on Earth.
Those who control pop culture are united by one belief: they think America is “the problem” and those who built it must be punished. We must stop them by taking back the culture.
And everyone has a role to play by standing up to the censorious left and Cancel Culture fascists.
Who do you think are the most positive influential people in pop culture today?
That’s easy: Joe Rogan, Jordan Peterson, and Elon Musk. None of whom are leftists!
What can readers do to support you and your projects?
Just tune in! My national radio show AMERICA First broadcasts across the nation daily. Just go to Spotify or was the video stream on Rumble. Plus there’s The Gorka Reality Check Sunday night on Newsmax.
Plus I’m on all the Social Media platforms. Except YouTube, because they’re fascists. Go to www.SebGorka.com.
