J. J. McCullough

McCullough is a conservative. He is opposed to the constitutional powers of the Canadian monarchy, and thinks of it as a “foreign institution with no relevance to Canadian culture or values” and “as a constitutional matter, it does not add anything of value to Canadian democracy, and doesn’t deliver the things it promises.”

McCullough's extensive coverage and opposition to Quebec separatism and governance, in general, prompted the Quebec National Assembly to issue an official denunciation of his work when he wrote the article "Why does ‘progressive’ Quebec have so many massacres?" for WaPo. The article, which was written after the mosque shooting in Quebec City, argues that the disproportionate number of mass shootings in Quebec are partially a product of the province's “dark history of anti-Semitism, religious bigotry and pro-fascist sentiment.” In a rebuttal to this article the Quebec National Assembly labeled this work as faulty and baseless.

McCullough is openly homosexual, though he does not often discuss his homosexuality in his videos, possibly because his experiences actually concerning his sexuality are limited, having not faced many instances of homophobia or rejection of his sexuality by his friends or family. However, in 2016 he did produce a short video series on the channel "Gay by Gay" where he and his openly gay friend, actor Adam Beauchesne, had short 5-minute discussions sharing their feelings and opinions on various matters vaguely related to homosexuality including religion, politics, and alcohol.

From 2012 to 2016, he did weekly appearances on True North Politics for CTV News, and from 2014 to 2015 he was a commentator on Sun News, a Canadian news channel known for its right-of centre editorial stance. Sun News abruptly signed off on February 13, 2015, however it is not clear whether McCullough resigned prior to this, or if his employment was terminated by the dissolution of the network.

Most of McCullough's videos are light-hearted, and around 10–15 minutes long, in which he discusses various subjects. Each video generates 50-150K views on average, and Social Blade estimates his earnings from YouTube at around ten to hundreds of dollars per day. The channel uploads his videos every Saturday which are generally targeted towards an international educated millennial audience.

The channel weekly releases video essays between 20–30 minutes long which take on more serious tones and discuss deeper political issues about which McCullough possesses considerable understanding and experience which he shares with his audience accompanied by his personal opinions which he tends to leave out in his other videos, having stated that he would prefer his YouTube channel to be a less political aspect of his life (being consumed with political writing in his journalistic career). These include video essays about Canadian left-wing nationalism, the role the French language plays in Canadian politics, middle-class culture, male insecurity, the "broadness" of political conservatism, the "Mandela Effect" (the video was largely centered around the abuse of the concept by proponents of QAnon), and the conflict between the Falun Gong and the People's Republic of China (both of which McCullough is thoroughly opposed to; the former for being a religious cult with ties to the far-right and a severe lack of any standards to produce credible evidence in backing their claims, and the latter for being a highly authoritarian regime with insufficient regard for human rights). Every Wednesday, McCullough live streams a Q&A session on the channel, but sometimes hosts a phone-in stream.

For a dozen years, McCullough drew weekly editorial cartoons for a website called Filibuster. His work has been reprinted by publisher MacArthur & Company until 2012. From 2013 to 2015, he drew weekly cartoons for Medium.

McCullough started appearing on TV and radio when he was 18. From 2010 to 2014, he was the only paid columnist at the Canadian version of the Huffington Post, writing biweekly political columns titled Media Bites.

In 2009, McCullough made the decision to teach English to primary-schoolers in Japan, however, felt uncomfortable in this occupation, pointing out his unfamiliarity with the language and culture, as well as a sense that he was wasting his time, and left after a year, having unfortunately not learned much Japanese. He rarely recalls his experiences in Japan in his videos indicating that he truly does find great discomfort in doing so.

John James McCullough (born July 17, 1984) is a Canadian political journalist based out of Vancouver, British Columbia who works and writes for the Washington Post (often abbreviated "WaPo") and National Review, contributing as a columnist to WaPo's "Global Opinions" section and National Review Online. McCullough self-identifies as a political conservative in the context of Canadian politics, and has repeatedly emphasised his opposition to the Quebec sovereignty movement, or other forms of radical political change in general, lending to the notion that he is broadly sympathetic to politically centrist notions. Despite this, however, MCullough has generated some controversy over articles he has produced denouncing Quebec as the most racist Canadian province, and comparing the lack of democracy within the Canadian system of government to that of Turkey's. McCullough also makes videos on his own YouTube channel ("J. J. McCullough" which also has 169K subscribers as of May 23, 2020) which produces content surrounding infotainment, and enjoys drawing political cartoons.

McCullough is of diverse European descent. His mother hailed from the Netherlands. His paternal ancestor is Thomas McCullough a Scotch-Irishman, as indicated by their surname, who immigrated to Canada from Northern Ireland in the 1820s.