In this interview, Dennis Prager and Adam Carolla examine contemporary cultural conflicts. They argue that ad hominem attacks in debates signal a loss of argument, illustrating how "racist" or "homophobic" labels are used to shut down discourse. They cite a high school teacher assigning a PragerU video for extra credit and the Toledo Blade's opposition, using this to highlight perceived censorship of conservative viewpoints in education. The conversation shifts to the documentary No Safe Spaces, noting that Netflix and Walmart refuse to distribute it, which they attribute to a right‑wing agenda and label as "McCarthyism on steroids." They then discuss COVID‑19 coverage, contending that mainstream media and public health officials have either over‑scared the public or, conversely, that fear has waned, leading to shame‑based attacks on those who refuse masks. Throughout, they portray the left‑leaning media as employing fear, shame, and ad hominem tactics to silence dissent, while positioning themselves as defenders of free speech and common sense.
Chapters
Whatever one thinks of my views or yours, we're decent people. So how do you explain what's happened? It's like a moral virus.
Well, if you really think, you know, if you look at everything through a sort of an argument with a 9-year-old, when you have an argument with a 9-year-old, you, they state their case, you state your case, you then destroy their case, and at some point they call you fat. And then they end the argument. So it goes ad hominem, right? So when you were being called a racist or homophobic or xenophobic, or, you know, all the things they call you, all the things they call me, in a weird way, it's a compliment because it means they've lost the argument.
Got it. That's entirely accurate.
Could you imagine a speech in debate in high school, like some speech and debate tournament where they went back and forth, you know, raise the minimum wage, or, you know, border security or whatever the subject, greenhouse gases, wherever it would be. And at some point, one side just start calling the other person a racist. Well, you go, that guy lost the debate. He lost the debate.
That's exactly right. I wonder if that doesn't happen now in debate. No, I'm not sure.
It probably does.
Kids are taught you dismiss opposition. We had— you dismiss opposition with ad hominem attacks. That's— I wanted to finish the sentence. I don't expect you to have followed this, but it is amazing. Outside of Toledo, Maumee High School, the teacher said, "I'd like you to hear both sides, so for extra credit, watch a PragerU video." 5 minutes of non-left-wing input. The Toledo Blade, the major paper of the area, has now editorialized twice against allowing PragerU videos to be shown in schools. And I don't raise it because it's my organization. I raise it to give you an idea of what is happening. And this is middle America.
But again, a very backhanded compliment because they feel so threatened by your message. You know, when they would let a video, a flat earther video run, and they wouldn't care because they would go, this is ridiculous. No one believes this crap. It's, you know, who cares? No harm, no foul. Wow, this is a great compliment in that they are taking you seriously and that they also know the message has a lot of truth in it and they feel threatened by it.
Well, you know, I have— you'll love this. So our old motto was for PragerU, give us 5 minutes, we'll give you a semester. So I have restated it. Give us 5 minutes, we will undo a semester, right?
Yeah, you're now like, uh, you're now like an orthopedic surgeon who is not seeing the patient after they had the skiing accident. You're seeing them a year later when the bone didn't set right, and you literally have to re-break the bone. You have to redo it. It kind of used to be a triage, like see us We'll fix you. Now, first we must undo the brainwashing you received that cost you $50 grand a year, and then once we get to the blank slate, we can move forward with the message.
Welcome to the treat and orthopedic surgeon hour of the Dennis Prager Show. I've never been called an orthopedic surgeon, just as you were never called a treat. By the way, I want to remind you folks, Adam Carolla and I I hate to use the word, I so never think of myself with this verb, but I don't know what else to say, star in a movie called No Safe Spaces. It is truly a great movie and I don't take credit for it. The people who made the movie made a great movie. And it is available, just go to nosafespaces.com. This is what you should show yourself, And anyone who is willing to watch a movie which has a lot of liberals in it, I always remind people, but it is about freedom of speech in America in a powerful way. Nosafespaces.com. By the way, Netflix will not stream it. And Walmart will not carry it. Just want you to know that. But it is, You go to nosafespaces.com, you can get the DVD and you can stream it. What do you think of that? Why did Netflix say no?
Well, I think we know why they said no. They would say it didn't meet our criteria or something, you know, didn't reach a level of quality or something, which you can always hide behind because all that stuff's subjective, right? You could do that with Gone with the Wind. You could say, yeah, we didn't, I give it a 4. We only do 5s and above here on Netflix. But I think it's pretty, I think it's now, I think 5 years ago when you were talking about this stuff, when I was talking about this stuff, people were looking at us with one eyebrow raised. I think it's understood now that there's an agenda with these entities and they don't like anything that's perceived as right wing, even if it's not right wing. And it's a McCarthyism. And the insane part about it is these people never stop bitching about McCarthyism, and now they engage in it.
This is McCarthyism on steroids, right? Adam Carolla is with me here. Did you hear me? Yeah, I know you did, because I'm very honored. I know you listen to my show every day, and I am honored. So, uh, I was reading a piece in the New York Times by a doctor who was also a columnist there We need to scare Americans much more than we have about COVID What is your take on that?
Well, first off, if anyone has watched 10 minutes of CNN in the last 9 months, they're sufficiently scared. It's, it's an interesting thing that we need to scare people more. That's all the New York Times has been doing. That's all LA Times have been doing. It's all CNN, MSNBC. That's all the news agencies have been doing. And What she doesn't understand, and by the way, I never thought I would come across this many stupid doctors, did you? Like when you were a kid, when you were 9 and someone was a doctor, they were the wisest man in town, the wisest woman in town. Did you know you're gonna meet this many dumb doctors? It's insane. Okay, she doesn't realize that the reason people aren't sufficiently scared is because they already did it with the boy that cried COVID. They went too much, too hard, too overblown, closed down beaches, closed down parks, outdoor dining, never giving the ages out of all the people have died. They went too hard that direction, and that's why people are going the other direction. If they go harder that direction, people will go harder the other direction.
That's the hope, I certainly believe. So my take is that the issue is not science, it's disposition. People are disposed to embracing life with all its dangers, and there are people who are scared. Is that a fair thing?
Yes, and as you say, the people— the biggest driving factor in this whole thing is not fear, it's shame. And when scared people see people that aren't scared, they're shamed. And when they're shamed, that brings out the ire. That brings out— you want angry? Shame somebody. A disagreement's a disagreement, but you're a coward and I'm not. Now there's great anger.
So the— their response is you're killing people. I'm not. You're not wearing a mask outdoors, walking your dog 1 mile from another human.
