Americans Took Free Speech For Granted

I am not despairing, okay? I do not in any way, as you all know, understate the crisis of this country. It is the greatest crisis since the Civil War, and it is the only one in the history of America since before 1776 to have such widespread suppression of speech. That was the one thing Americans took for granted. It was the sweet land of liberty. As I have said, given that the French socialists have objected to America's suppression of speech and woke culture, maybe they'll take the Statue of Liberty back. If they offered to, I think it would be a wake-up call to Americans about what the left is doing. In any event, we have Amala and you Your story, I only know a little. You grew up politically on the left, is that correct?

Yes.

So tell us about your mom.

So I was raised by a single mother. My parents divorced when I was around 6 years old, so I grew up with her influence, and she happens to be a fundraiser for a major left-leaning organization over in Central Florida. So she was my main influence growing up, and that's where I got all of my ideology and all of my beliefs. Which happened to be socialist and atheist. So I grew up as a very angry, angry liberal, if you would call it that. And I was very vocal about my beliefs. And of course, I was spitting out socialist ideology to anybody who would listen to me. And I was so passionate about it that when I graduated high school at the age of 17, I started working for that organization as a youth organizer.

You used the magic word when you said angry. I say on almost a daily basis, there are happy and unhappy conservatives, happy and unhappy liberals, but all leftists are unhappy. I've also said that if you go to college, or now high school, you get a degree in anger. Is that fair?

That is a very fair assessment across the board.

Was your mother angry? Is she angry?

My mother is very angry, unfortunately, virtually on any topic that you can think of and bring up. There is always this air of anger to it, and I'm not sure why, but that seems to be the story on the left.

It does indeed. Before we learn about your, your eventual awakening, if I may use that term, to the extent— and I'm not at all prying into your family life, I'm using this as really a macro issue, but I have a human being to tell her story, so if there's anything that's uncomfortable, don't hesitate not to answer. Sure. Do you know at all anything about your mother's upbringing?

So she was raised by my grandparents who happened to be very conservative. And for most of her life, up until the point that she went to college, she was pretty conservative in lifestyle and in her beliefs. And she went to university in Charleston. And when she came out of university, life had changed and she was not— she was no longer a conservative.

What year did she go? What years did she go to college?

Oh, I'm not too sure about the timeline there.

Well, when was she born?

What year she was born? So right now she is 51 years old.

So, so 51 from 2021, 1970. Okay, so she went to college, we would say, uh, in the '80s, right? Yeah, or even early '90s, right? So yes, by then certainly going to college meant an indoctrination in anger.

Absolutely.

So how did your grandparents react to her transformation?

My grandparents remain very neutral when it comes to politics. They don't like to assert themselves. When the topic is brought up, it's always a very bombastic argument about whatever issue is brought up, so we tend to avoid that at all costs in our family.

How long were your parents married?

My parents were married, I want to say— I'm not, I'm not too sure how long they were married. My father wasn't really in my life that much. I have very few memories of him, and it's not something that we discuss.

All right, we'll be back in a moment with Amala Ekpunobi.