The Day I Left the Left by Jim Goad.

"The Day I Left the Left" is an essay by Jim Goad recounting his personal journey from left-wing political beliefs to a more conservative and skeptical worldview. The essay, first published in 2011, details a pivotal moment in 1990 when Goad, then a 28-year-old journalist, was fired from the Los Angeles Reader after writing a cover story on the Hicks Boys, a gang of Mexican metalheads in East LA.

The magazine's publisher, whom Goad describes with a distinctive appearance and high-pitched voice, rejected the article, calling the gang members "losers" and "scumbags," despite Goad's attempt to convey their complex reality.