Welcome to The Left Hook!

A new substack community by Wajahat Ali for everyone, especially those with good taste, a sense of humor, and a healthy aversion to fascism.

People, it’s finally happened. I’ve started my own Substack.

I’ve been avoiding this day for two years. I assumed everybody was overwhelmed and exhausted with online content and would simply roll their eyes at yet another Substack in the universe.

“Why add to the clutter?” I asked myself.

However, my friends have gently and aggressively encouraged me to create my platform ahead of the upcoming 2024 elections citing the urgent need for progressive voices willing to cut through the corporate B.S. and nonsense centrism.

Call me Pakistani Pollyanna, but I still believe the majority of people on Earth are decent, kind-hearted, and willing to embrace pluralism and join what I call the multicultural Avengers. (No capes!)

They just have to be invited.

If this describes you, then I warmly embrace you in a loving but awkward Dad hug and say, “Welcome to The Left Hook!”

The Left Hook Is For You

The Left Hook is a thoroughly opinionated and biased intellectual playground for people who enjoy political, cultural, and religious hot takes without corporate censorship and nonsense centrism. 

The Left Hook is for you if you believe in reading books instead of banning them; if you are more outraged by school shootings than by “woke” authors and diversity initiatives; if you want to expand women’s rights instead of sending women back to the 19th century.

The Left Hook is for you if you believe that a messy, multicultural democracy, no matter how flawed, is worth defending against a rising, global, right-wing authoritarian movement.

The Left Hook is for you if you’re tired of the good guys - the majority - getting pushed around, beaten down, outworked, out-flanked, and out-maneuvered by a well-funded right-wing minority with its own influential media ecosystem that radicalizes people daily with misinformation, hate, and a strange obsession with pronouns and Disney cartoons.

The Left Hook is especially for you if you know that Hyderabadi biryani is the most superior biryani, chocolate hummus is humanity’s mockery of God’s mercy, the Oxford comma is optional but reflects sophistication and class, Lego counts as an “adult” hobby, and Costco is a perfectly suitable place for middle-aged parents to buy their clothes without shame.

When they go low…take out their knees

The Left Hook is intended to grow into a global community playground where we can platform and elevate writers who stir up some good trouble to bring about more awareness, curiosity, and empathy - but with a punch.

The majority want their elected officials and ossified institutions to fight back against forces attempting to hijack and chokehold us back to 1953, before Brown v. Board of Education. Sadly, most haven’t stepped up. They prefer civility and profits to freedom and justice. They’re like Charlie Brown who insists on believing Lucy even as she removes the football and laughs at him after he’s fallen ass-first on the ground.

They bring a dull pencil, an eraser, and a wagging judgemental finger to a knife fight as the other side brings a bazooka.

Who do you think will win?

People want fighters with passion, intellect, and compassion. God bless Michelle Obama, but “When they go low, we go high” isn’t a sustainable strategy.

At The Left Hook, when they go low, we take out their knees and force them to tap out. (All according to MMA rules and regulations, of course! No cheating!)

The Left Hook will hopefully grow into a vibrant community where people feel they have a forum and space to exchange ideas and fight back - but always with some humor, joy, warmth, and an occasional good time.

The Left Hook is intended to be a peaceful, festive, and fun abode! (Mostly.) You’ll especially enjoy the community if you can tolerate commentary about current affairs, parent life, religion, 80’s action movie references, foreign policy, South Asian food, sports talk, comic books, and Lego.

I Need Your Support

I’m going back to my independent roots and launching this online community from the ground up. 

We can’t outsource our problems. The Avengers aren’t coming to save us. We have to step up and save ourselves. (Again, no capes!)

I’ve been humbled enough by time and life to know I can’t do this by myself. I also know people have bills to pay and are inundated with subscriptions. That being said, your investment and support will ensure I can spend quality time writing, producing content, and building The Left Hook into a grand, fun intellectual playground for you to enjoy, even if you only occasionally stop by to swing on the monkey bars.

This is why I’m starting The Left Hook and why I need your help. Help me, help us, help yourself, and help restore and strengthen democracy.

So how’s it going to work?

Free subscribers

You will get some fresh, tasty written pieces and videos by me. They might be about politics, current affairs, foreign policy, pop culture, religion, or my failed attempt to shed my dad bod. I’ll even post some solid Lego content once in a while.

Paid subscribers $5 a month/$50 a year

First, you’ll be helping me start and grow this substack. I’m serious. Your generosity will allow me to write for free for everyone, plus put the time aside to build this into a community into a full-blown media brand for the left and anyone who is allergic to fascism and rising authoritarianism.

But you’ll also get:

• Weekly posts: both written or video.

• The ability to join and add to the conversation after every single post.

• Access to exclusive interviews I conduct with subject matter experts.

• And, finally, the beautiful karmic knowledge that you are helping to build something delicious, entertaining, and helpful from the grassroots.

Founding Members $250 a year

This is where things become very tasty. This is for those who want to really invest in this (inshallah) growing community. You’ll get:

• Access to a frequent Ask Me Anything with me.

• Quarterly Zoom chat with me and our growing community.

• Future swag assuming we become so big we can produce and give away swag.

• My mother and father’s prayers and well wishes for helping me feed my family.

Finally, The Left Hook looks even better in the Substack app. Download it to get The Left Hook on the go AND to participate in the community chats when they happen.

We hope you enjoy your stay, and even if you disagree with us, we promise to never bore you.

Are you in? I hope so. And if there’s anyone you know who wants to be ‘in’ too, please feel free to share the news.

Sincerely,

Wajahat Ali, a Southpaw willing to fight back.