Dennis & Julie: The United States of A-MERIT-A

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Well, hello everybody, it's Dennis and Julie. I'm Dennis and that's Julie. Dennis Prager, Julie Hartman. Do you know that there were people in different parts of the world who told me that they watched Dennis and Julie? I just came back, as you know, from Romania and Bulgaria and Serbia and Croatia and Hungary and Poland, and not one was a new country. Isn't that sad? I can't add to my list.

But you observed a lot that was different, as you wrote in your column.

Yes. No, it was, uh, there's a lot to say about that. I will just say for a moment, Julie, to reflect on this, as much as I've traveled 131 countries, not that I'm counting, but it's the one, the only brag that I inject on any occasion I can. But what is still remarkable to me is that Monday night I gave a lecture in the Romanian Parliament, not to the Parliament, there were parliamentarians there, but I always wanna make that clear. Truth is important, but it was in the Parliament building. And then Wednesday I was broadcasting here in California.

It is crazy. It really is. I mean, I think about that when I just go to New York and come back in a day, but let alone another country. And you're not tired. Oh, well that, yeah, well that's a separate issue. He is not, he just did his 3 3-hour radio show. You did it yesterday. We're doing Dennis and Julie.

Right.

And you, I'm probably more tired.

Yeah. Well, that, that's a gift. I'm very, and I'm very cognizant of it. But my, of course my comment was not about me. It was about the age of the jet. I do wonder, do you think anybody imagined this 200 years ago? And before that?

I think about that so much. I don't think so.

You do think about it?

Oh, all the time. Oh yeah.

It's fascinating.

Well, what a time to be alive. I mean, what a time to be alive in a good way and in a bad way. But if you think about it, for thousands and thousands and thousands of years of human history, you lived no different than how your parents or grandparents or great-grandparents, et cetera, lived. Life was the same for generations upon generations. We live in this time where our lives are drastically different from our grandparents' lives, let alone our great-grandparents. I mean, my grandma alone has seen the plane become invented, the telephone, the iPhone. She was born in the 1920s, so World War I had just finished. World War— lived all through World War II, the Cold War, the Vietnam War. Now she's in the age of AI.

This one person? My grandfather. So my grandfather was born at the end of the 19th century.

Oh, wow.

And he saw horse and buggy to men go to the moon.

Yep.

So you'll find this fascinating. My grandfather would visit. My parents would pick up my grandparents every Sunday, bring them to the house. And so I would take a walk with him. I loved my mother's father. And he loved me. Anyway, he— I'll never forget his telling me, Denola, that's what he called me, Denola. Yeah, Denola, they didn't go to the moon. And then he would cite Psalms in which it says, it's very interesting, in which it says, let's see, I'm translating from the Hebrew, Hashem, Hashem, Hashem, the heavens belong to God and the land or earth he gave to human beings. So that's it. Human beings are meant to stay on Earth. That ended the issue for him.

You know, a lot of people think that the moon landing, including Candace Owens— now, she may have been joking. So I heard on one of her podcasts, I think she was joking, but also with her, you never know. I think there are a lot of people who think that was a conspiracy, that we didn't land on the moon.

Yeah, that's, that's very depressing. I mean, there's a lot that has turned out— look, I'll tell you, boy, is this the— this is the show of— what do you call it, the tangent hour? Yeah. Well, I'll tell you, I've not said this on my radio show, I've not said this publicly till this second. I For the first time in my life, I strongly entertained doubts that Lee Harvey Oswald was the only shooter of John F. Kennedy. I have defended that notion all of my life. There was one shooter and it was he. Now I'm not sure that there was one, and I'm not even sure it was he. This is very bad. It's a bad sign if a guy like me Mm-hmm. Is starting to contest it. But the amount of information that the Warren Commission did not allow to be public and still does, this government still doesn't. Why would they hide any information about the Kennedy assassination?

So I have to tell the listeners this story. Dennis Prager knows it because he was there, though you might as well not have been there because it was just your wife and me exchanging. Did I get that right?

Yes.

Me.

Right. With—

I struggle with that.

I wish that I just drop the other name. With me.

You don't say with I. I know that. For some reason, clearly I'm slow.

It's not as fast for me in my brain. You're okay. If you're slow, then much of humanity is non-moving.

On this issue, I'm slow. Okay. I struggle with that. Anyway, we went out to dinner one night, the three of us. And Sue, I brought up the assassination because I actually have been to the Grassy Knoll, and it was a Christmas present. This is what a nerd I am. When I was a junior in high school, I read William Manchester's book, The Death of a President, which was the book released in the '60s, as you probably know. He interviewed the Kennedys, one of the few authors who was able to interview Jackie. And so I read that book. I was so interested in it. And junior year was a hellish year with, with work and swimming. So my mom felt really bad for me and she said, you know what, Julie, for a joint birthday and Christmas present— my birthday's in October, Christmas obviously is in December— I'm going to take you to the Grassy Knoll for 24 hours in Dallas. We went, we went to Love Field, which is the airport at which Air Force One landed. We traced the motorcade route that they went down. We went to Lee Harvey Oswald's boarding house. Obviously we went to the Sixth Floor Museum. We even went to a corner where Officer Tippett, one of One of the police officers was shot by Lee Harvey Oswald. We did it all. I was struck by how small the site is because the pictures are taken with wide-angle lenses and you think it's this massive place. No, it's not. Anyway, that's not the point. I was telling Sue this story of how I visited the Kennedy assassination site and she, you remember this, Dennis Prager, she dove in and Sue Prager is like, the number one researcher in the United States. She is so smart, so well-read, and she gave me one after the other these things that didn't add up. And she's right. And let me tell you one very eerie thing that I remember. You know, there's a Zapruder film, uh, it's the only film, the only film of the assassination. If you look at it, it's a terrible video to watch, but it's, but it's also fascinating. There's So a first shot and President Kennedy leans forward and clutches his neck. The second shot, which again supposedly came from behind because it was supposedly shot by Lee Harvey Oswald in the 6th floor museum or depository, now it's a museum, then it wasn't, from behind, but in the Zapruder film, he lunges backwards, not forwards. If he were shot in the head from behind, as is the narrative, he would have fallen forwards. That's the way movement and gravity works. But in the video, that second shot that hit his head, his head goes backwards. That was one of the things that I thought was—

well, didn't add up. I don't know nearly as much as Sue does on this, but I'll give you one more. If it's true, the Warren Commission never saw the autopsy pictures.

Really?

That's a little scary if that's true. They got the drawings, but they never got the pictures. Why didn't they get the pictures? All right, look, it's a very— the whole thing's disturbing. How did we even get onto the Kennedy assassination? Oh, because I usually could trace things.

I know, I usually can too. You were talking about your grandfather seeing the horse and buggy and then the man on the moon, right? And then you— oh, because I said the moon— some people think the moon landing was a conspiracy.

That's how we got there.

Well, look, Dennis, a lot of— I hate to say it because I don't like to consider myself to be a conspiracy theorist. I'm I've never, at least to my knowledge, entertained them. But a lot of so-called conspiracy theories have come true. Remember when it was a conspiracy theory that COVID came from a lab and not from a bat? That turned out to be true. Remember that it was a conspiracy theory that President Trump did, in fact, not collude with the Russians in the 2016 election? That turned out to be true, that he did not collude. There have been several examples.

Well, it's getting worse and worse, actually. The— is it a conspiracy theorist only who believes that the World Economic Forum would like the world to be run by people who have some centralized authority? It's obvious that they do. Anyway, I want to go back to Europe for a moment. I wrote one of my columns about the, a different sense that I had living there than in America. I have to make this clear. I've gone abroad every single year of my life since before your age, since 18. Only 2020, because there was nowhere you could go. Even 2021, when it was very hard to go abroad, I did go to Hungary to give a speech. So I have been, I've come back to America vast numbers of times. And all of my life, welcome to the United States, or the immigration officer checking your passport, welcome home. And I got the chills and I'd see the American flag. And I don't have that anymore. Do you understand what a price that is? See, this is back to our discussion, who's it worse for, the decline of America? In every way now, your generation for whom this is your present and maybe future, or my generation who has seen the decline? I don't have an answer to the question, but it's a fair question. And I don't have that anymore. And when I was in these countries in Eastern Europe, now 4 of them, I will show you pictures. If I said to you I took these pictures when I was a kid, in the '60s, you would say, yeah, makes sense. Couples holding hands. I mean, of course there were couples who hold hands in America, but the proportion— people just walking in, you know, public squares, just walking, kids playing with one another. The kids— I didn't see any jaded kids. The average American kid today has a jaded look. Yeah, like nothing moves them. And they can't innocently laugh. These kids radiated an innocence. Young couples, old couples, middle-aged couples holding hands, people laughing in the streets. I look, I don't romanticize, I try not to romanticize anything, but I'm telling you, it was a different feel visiting those countries than coming back home. Sad.

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It's very sad. We talked about it last time when, when I was sitting there and you were on the ship, which is just, again, amazing that we could even do that episode. Talk about—

Oh, so I did. Then I don't want to— I don't want to repeat myself.

But, but it's important because since then I've been contemplating why that is. And we discussed it a little bit last episode. Why is it that American youngsters, and not even just young, just Americans, are more jaded than it seems the people who you observed in, in Europe? By the way, is, is it right to say Europe? Romania and Bulgaria?

Totally. That's just Eastern Europe.

Eastern Europe. Okay. Um, I was saying this to you last night on the phone. It's very difficult right now to be young. It's always difficult in some ways to be young, but especially now because Again, as I said to you on the phone, what is the incentive to work hard when marriage—

Oh, I want you to know something. I'm sorry for interrupting, but you will be happy in this case. I cited you on my radio show.

Oh, thank you.

With that point. That point is bloody brilliant.

Thank you.

We—

this is what I said. I said, okay, I got to tell you the whole— you'll wait.

Let me just tell you what it is for the listeners.

I'm sorry. You're right. Yes.

No, no, no. I just, because I've listened to Dennis Dennis and Julie, and we do this because we know each other's thoughts, but just so the listeners know, and then I'll shut up, correct? Is, is what is the incentive for young people to work hard if merit is no longer the principal thing that you are being rewarded for? If every program is just, we're going to take X amount of transgender people, X amount of Black people, X amount of women. Yes, women. And, and I'll tell you another thing. There's that there's not an incentive to work hard because merit is no longer being rewarded as much as it was, but also because this goes with the jadedness thing. People my age are paralyzed by fear because they're so afraid that one thing they may say or do will get them canceled. And so they think, I'm— nope, I'm not going to go there in class. I'm not going to challenge my classmate's opinion in front of this section because then they— and this happens— classmates will go on social media and post pictures of people who they have heard or seen say conservative things and say, unfollow this person, cancel this person, they're a bigot. I mean, literally, we live in the age of— there are some individuals who engage in that public humiliation. So no wonder we're jaded. Anyway, go ahead.

That's another huge point I would like to return to at some point. So I want to make clear, this is what I said on my show. You'll really like this because aside from your by citing you because it was such a great point, and I want to explain to people why it's a great point. But first, so I am working on the fourth book of my five-book commentary on the Five Books of Moses, the Torah, the Pentateuch, the first five books of the Bible. It's called the Book of Numbers. It's a boring name in English. In Hebrew, it's called In the Wilderness. Most people are not familiar with the Book of Numbers, but it is, it is incredibly, incredibly interesting. And important, as all 5 books are. Anyway, I'm up to chapter 27, and in the chapter is one line. And you know how much I show might be pregnant in one line, because you're such an— I'm so delighted— avid reader of my Bible commentary. So it speaks about, you know, there were 2 brothers, Moses and Aaron. So Aaron had a son. Aaron had 3 sons, actually. 2 died at the hand of God. It's a separate issue. But one was the high priest. So he succeeded Aaron, who was the high priest. His son succeeded Aaron. But Moses's sons did not succeed. Neither succeeded Moses. And who did? A man named Joshua. He was the successor to Moses. And Joshua was not only not related to Moses, Joshua was of a different tribe than Moses. Why did God pick Joshua? And it says why, because he was such an excellent man. He was a courageous man. He was one of the two spies who differed with the other spies who said Canaan can't be conquered. I don't want to get into detail, but he's a very great man. And this is the point that I make. This in one fell swoop killed one of the most powerful impediments to progress— choosing people not by merit.

Well said.

Oh, it's huge. Joshua became Moses's successor not because of family, not because of blood, not because of paying off anything. Merit, period, end of issue. It started with that story. Moses's sons, we hear nothing about. Must have bothered Moses. Aaron's son succeeded him. Why didn't my son, or one of my two sons at least, succeed me? Because there was a guy with more merit named Joshua. And that we are undoing the basis of civilization. I now have another book for you to read because you read books like people eat candy bars. They do it with the same joy, except this is more lasting. And it's titled Who Prospers. Oh yes, Lawrence E. Harrison. I read this many years ago, and it was— he asked the greatest question, most important question: why do some societies prosper and others don't? Yes, this guy spent his life— he's an American scholar thinker. He spent his life with USAID. That's our big international aid thing. And he was in Latin America most of his life and the head of the missions in various countries. And he asked the great question, why is North America successful and South America and Latin America or Central America not successful? And this was one of his biggest reasons. They have familism. We don't. You want to give a job in Latin America, you give it to your son, your son-in-law, your cousin, your uncle, your this, your that. In America, you gave it to the best guy.

Totally.

We are going backward. The whole anti-merit thing. And that's when I cited you. The whole anti-merit thing is backward. You cannot prosper as a society if you don't reward merit, period. End of issue. You can't. You know that there's an Asian student He had— what was— what is the highest score on SAT?

Oh, I saw this.

What is the highest possible?

1600. He had a 1590.

Yeah, 1590. And he was rejected by 6 colleges.

Yep. Oh, it's total discrimination.

Oh, total. It's because he's Asian. Harvard did this to Jews in the 1930s. There were too many Jews. That is a very famous story. Yeah, you're right. So, so the United Airlines is reserving half of its places for pilots. To women and minorities. Not to the best pilots, to women and minorities. They may be great, they may not be. The, and the left, 'cause the left crushes everything it touches, end of issue. This is another example. Anti-merit means the end of the society in which you live. We will now go backwards. We will go into a pre-Mosaic world of nepotism. And in this case, not by family, but by race, gender, and sexual orientation. So your point, I want to explain to people why it was such a great point. When we oppose dropping merit, we think of it being unfair to those who strive for merit. But your point is it's just as unfair to the ones who benefit because they won't work hard. That was a great, great point. I hadn't thought of it, Jules, and that is a big deal. So I just wanted to commend you, but that's exactly what's gonna happen. So two things happen: the society will suffer because merit will no longer be the reason for anything, any position, any, any quote-unquote achievement. And secondly, it says to people It says to the ones who work hard, don't bother working hard because we're not choosing by merit. And it says to the, to the minority, whatever that minority is called, sexual or gender or race, there's no reason to work hard. You're going to get ahead just because of your gender or race.

And that was the Dennis and Julie Show. It's such a— yes, everything that you said. It is spot on. If you follow the merit route, it's actually the most— well, not equity. I don't like the word equity, but equality-inducing, diversity-rewarding situation that you— it will bring about all of these values and these outcomes that the left proclaims that they want. I really believe that if that if we encourage and create an environment where people can prosper and based on, on their merit, then we will see representation. We will see Blacks in, you know, leadership position. You know, they say, you know, how many House of Representatives members are Black? We will see all of the things that we, the left, claims to want.

Well, you've been through PragerU. You see how diverse racially it is. Well, that's a very good point. And there was no affirmative action.

None. None. Okay, I have a few thoughts. The first one I just said is principle one, that there will be diversity if we do merit. If you do merit. You and the Torah commentary, I just have to say, it's such a winning combination because the Torah is so wise and you are so wise, and there is just no better translator for it, I really believe. I just, as you were talking, I was like, That is the perfect project that someone like you could do. This is the Torah. It's life-changing stuff. And it really— like, this is why I believe it's divine, because it is so spot on about human nature and everything that it outlines about life. There's a prescription and there's a way forward. And it just, it makes me think too that The fundamental difference today in American society isn't so much Democrat and Republican or liberal and conservative. It's anti-civilizational versus civilizational values. That is the place that we have come to now. It's no longer we should spend more or we shouldn't spend more. Like I use, Sean's ears are probably gonna bleed 'cause I talk about this so much on Timeless, but I view the importance of American society as like having a big center of a Venn diagram. We can have two opposing sides, But the values that keep us together, i.e., the big circle in the middle of the Venn diagram, has to be robust and the same for both. Now we don't have that same circle in the middle of the Venn diagram. We have one side that's affirming merit, one side that's affirming e pluribus unum, one side that's affirming following the rule of law, respecting institutions. And we have another side who isn't. It's not Democrat or Republican. It's civilization versus anti-civilization.

That is—

it's Torah values versus non-Torah values.

She gets it.

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This is— that's why you give me hope, because you really do get it. This is right. That's what it is all about. So did I tell you? I wonder if I told you. I did mention this on the air. So, you know, I always say I think best under pressure. I've come up with my best lines doing a broadcast because that's total pressure. Or during Q&A sessions, right? So in Romania a couple of nights ago, I was asked by someone in the audience, and it was almost all, mostly young people, and the Romanians were all young people. There were some Americans there who came from the ship that I was on with my listener cruise. Just, I always add these things because I so want to be precise. It's sometimes unnecessary.

No, it's okay.

Okay. Anyway, so, so one of the Romanians asked, would you please define leftism? So I, my mind raced and I realized it's not possible. No one can tell you what leftism is.

That's a great question, by the way.

It's great. I'm going to write on that because I just wrote my speech, by the way, was What Is a Conservative? I'm going to put it up at DennisPrager.com, the one in Bucharest. But now I have to do— but it doesn't— won't take as long. So this I realized in answering, there is no answer to what does the left stand for? The left only stands against.

Yes. Yes.

That is the reason that the most erotic word to a leftist is change. This— what was Barack Obama's idiotic slogan? Hope and change. What hope? As I said, I said it at the time. I said, wait a minute, the most affluent country in world history, the freest country in world history, you need hope? What are you talking about? What, what, are you running for president of Ghana? What are you, nuts? Hope? Change? Change what? And he said, this is the key, and I said it at the time, I identified it at the time and I still play it on the show all these years later. In 2000, what was his first election? 2008, right? 8 and 12, he was elected. So that means that would be 16, right? So that would bring us to Trump. Yeah. So 2008, 5 days before the election, he's speaking to a gigantic crowd. We are 5 days away from fundamentally transforming the United States of America. We are 5 days away from fundamentally transforming the United States of America. Okay, yes, that's really important, Julie. This is my point. That's all they stand for. Fundamental transformation. That was the French Revolution, that was the Russian Revolution, and that is the leftist revolution here. That is— they don't stand for making, they stand for transforming.

Yep, it's so true.

Yeah, it's—

so how did you answer it?

That's what I said. I said all they want to do is destroy. We want to— the conservative wishes to conserve the most beauty, the most, most wise, the most profound, the most, the best of everything. They don't. We want to preserve the nuclear family. They want to— they don't, right? They admit it. The nuclear family is heteronormative bigotry.

And what's the alternative to the nuclear family? They don't have a, a, a—

I know that's correct.

Anarchy. And whatever you want it to be.

Yes, that's right.

No, it's so, so, you know, when I first realized this, I gave this speech at Harvard, 3 weeks before I graduated in the Memorial Chapel, and it was on anti-Americanism. It's about 5 minutes long. You can go and Google it. Just Google Julie Hartmann anti-Americanism Harvard senior speech. And I went through and I said, I listed all of these things that the left seeks to tear down and that people on campus the ideas that people on campus adopt. And I say it's a shame because we are undermining the very system that we've benefited from. And we are only mouthing these talking points because we think it will personally or professionally advantage us. That was the gist of my speech. But I went through and I said, you know, those who decry the nuclear family came from two-parent households. Those who criticize the Bible adopt Judeo-Christian values without even realizing it in their own lives. And I also went through and I said the things that we remain silent on. I said the New York Times says that the American Revolution was fought to preserve slavery and we remain silent. The American Medical Association wants to remove gender from birth certificates and we remain silent. Black Lives Matter embezzles millions of dollars that was supposed to go to prison reform and school building, and we remain silent. And so I had some people who gave me a hard time for that speech. By the way, there were so many people on the internet who commented, wrote letters to me. I mean, it was overwhelming, the response, and I was so grateful. But of course, there were people who gave me a hard time. And you know what a leftist said to me? He said to me, you know, the whole speech was you criticizing. The whole speech was you tearing something down instead of advocating for what you want to build up as a conservative. And I said, no, no, no, you have it totally wrong. I am criticizing, I am wanting to tear down the people who want to tear America down. The extent to which I was criticizing in that speech was I was pointing out to the people who criticize. I want to preserve, conserve this system. I am getting mad at the person who seeks to undermine it. But it was just interesting that that person couldn't— this leftist who made that challenge to me couldn't see that. It's totally true. All they seek to do is change. And there are no— they not only present alternatives, but they don't— I don't even think they see a need to have an established alternative. Does that make sense? They just think anarchy is the alternative and that will be okay. That's right. I would actually respect them more if they had a precise alternative to, for instance, the nuclear family. If they had said, well, polygamy is better. They don't even have an identified solution.

Anything you want to say is a family is a family.

It's just whatever you want.

There is no ideal.

How do they think that's going to work out?

They, they, they don't think that way. Okay. You asked a conservative question. How do you think it will turn out is a conservative question.

Yes. You say that once you ask what the consequences will be, you're conservative.

What is the price is a conservative question. There are no prices. They don't think in those terms. So this is a very scary period when the dominant culture is tear down the—

yes, the counterculture has become the dominant culture.

Yes, literally counterculture. Yes, counter to culture.

Yes, literally.

So the poop, the poop sculptures that I always talk about, are you familiar with that?

I'm not, but I'm familiar with the crucifix, the Piss Christ.

Okay, so that's related, correct? Piss Christ is related, where Andres Serrano put his— put a crucifix in a jar of his urine. And by the way, it went from museum— got a National Endowment for Humanities award, the museums that showed it. Oh, if you don't know this, I'm delighted because you know a lot and you know a lot of what I talk about. I don't know, about 7 years ago, maybe less, there was a major exhibition at a major Dutch museum, a very big one, of, uh, what they called sculptures of turd.

No fun.

Yeah, turd, for those who don't know, is another word for poop.

And people know—

I don't know if that's true. I don't know how many people know turd. Yes, he just said to me maybe he'll title this episode Sculptures of Turd. You could, as far as I'm concerned. Oh, he wants another word for poop. That's what he wants. That's very funny. So, so, uh, the New York Times in the art section seriously reviewed this Exhibits seriously of giant, larger than human turd sculptures. That is the— it's another example. It's only tearing down. What does the left— does the left stand for turd? And if they did, is your point is well taken. At least say what you stand for. We love turd.

Yeah.

Okay, fine. But they don't. At least you just tear down.

Yep. Okay. So two, two points I want to make, by the way. Thank God we've instituted this write down. The points during D&J because otherwise we just forget. First, I may have said this on the program, but I— the last time I was in New York, my friend and I went to the Guggenheim Museum on 90th and 5th. And we— this was stupid of us. We should have looked ahead and seen what exhibits were available, but we stupidly thought, oh, it's the Guggenheim Museum. They're going to have something worth seeing. No, we walked into a critical race theory exhibit. It was, it was so bad. I actually have photos of it. I can send them to Sean and you can put them up.

Was it busy?

It was busy. And it was, it was, I mean, we could do a whole show on it. It was fascinating to see the crowd. A lot of people were masked. A lot of people had piercings, blue hair. It was really, and so my friend, he's conservative. And so we were like, how did we end up in this critical race theory exhibit? But then we used it as an anthropological study. To study the left. This exhibit was awful. It was, the guy brought together, I think trash or discarded items and made them into sculptures. I don't even know what the sculptures were. I swear to God.

Nobody does.

It was nonsensical. It was truly not, like there was just a bunch of trash and I think there was a bench at one point and then there was like an African American, head that was on top of like an old picture, old painting of a slave ship. Like the whole thing was just odd. And you know, I'll tell you one parts of the exhibit, I'm not kidding, you walked into a room, this is at the Guggenheim Museum in New York, which was once an esteemed museum, not anymore. I have no respect for that place anymore. You walked into this room and there was part of the exhibit was, I'm not kidding, a video of a black man in a full big bunny costume, a pink bunny costume, full body. And he's like doing interpretive dance moves in the video. And here we have all these liberals at the Guggenheim with their masks and their piercings and their blue hair and their Birkenstocks and their Resist the Patriarchy shirts. And they're looking at this, this video like it's so profound. You know what I think, Dennis? I think a lot of modern art in modern exhibits. Maybe not this one. I think this, this, this guy who made the exhibit, it was an avowed leftist and thought he was making some profound social commentary. But I wonder if a lot of modern art isn't intended to be a mockery of the audience. Nefarious, the number one movie on Salem Now, is available to rent today. Sue and Dennis strongly recommend this film. Nefarious comes from the filmmakers behind God's Not Dead and Unplanned. Sue and Dennis turned it on and thought they'd watch it for 20 minutes, but the movie was so riveting they finished the whole film. Sean Patrick Flannery and Jordan Belfi give Oscar-level performances in this movie based on the book by Steve Deiss. The woke critics hated it, but audiences have given it a 96% approval. And here's what others are saying. Matt Walsh, the filmmaker behind What Is a Woman, calls it excellent. Dinesh D'Souza calls it captivating, suspenseful, and profound. Charlie Kirk says that this psychological and spiritual thriller may be a movie, but it contains far more truth about the reality of our world than most would like to admit. Visit SalemNow or your favorite video platform to rent Nefarious today, even though it's still in theaters. If you want to rent for your church or large group, visit movienight.com to rent it today. It actually would be really interesting to— for, for the, for the artist to go, how many affluent, overeducated people will come in and act like my piece of cardboard with a dot on it is the latest profound thing? They say art is a social commentary. Maybe it is. Maybe, maybe modern art museums are intended to be a social commentary of the museum goers.

Well, I, I don't think so.

Probably not. I know, I think in reality that is exactly what they are, but they're not intended.

No, I, I think that there is another— I think there are two other motivating impulses. One is the destruction. That's it. It's just change for change's sake. The other is they don't have talent.

Yes.

So if you have no talent, what was the museum— major museum, I think was in New York, where— but it might have been Europe. Where they— the guy just simply put up a banana peel.

Yeah. Oh, and people come, pay, took pictures.

It's ridiculous.

No, it's, it's all destruction.

So look, they mock us for saying, which I, I continue to say, if I could do it, it isn't art. I have no artistic talent. I could do a banana peel. I could do what Jackson Pollock did. I really do wonder, unless you were a Jackson Pollock memorizer of every single quote-unquote painting he did, whether 95% of art instructors can tell the difference between Jackson Pollock and what somebody else did throwing paint from a ladder onto a canvas. I'd be very curious. Oh, that's clearly a Jackson Pollock. That, that's paint throwing at a level that no one else can do. I'd be very curious.

Okay, so I'm going to make a shameless plug for PragerU. Dennis, God knows you, you never asked me to, to publicize or talk about how much PragerU has influenced me. I'm truly just saying it because it, it really has. Robert Florczak, who has become one of my close friends thanks to you, is this brilliant artist. Art historian, and he does this video at PragerU. I think he— it's why— two of them, two of them, why modern art is so bad and why classical art is so good. I believe those are the titles. So worthwhile.

Brilliant. They're brilliant. They should be seen 5 times each.

They are brilliant. I had him on my show Timeless in person, and I said, what are 5 paintings everyone should know? And we went through them. And now we are such close friends. I am seeing him in Berlin in a few weeks, and we're going art seeing, or in a few months, actually, not in a few weeks, we're blocking out a few days just to go to art museums together. And I Zoom him and we talk about art. Thank you, Dennis, for many things, but especially the gift of Robert. He and I have discussed this point, which is that when you go into a museum and you see a banana peel on the wall, or as I have seen, or, you know, the black guy dancing in the bunny costume, I mean, you would think this stuff is made up, but it's not. What I wish people would understand is that it's actually really insulting to them. I think it's insulting to the museum goer to think that they are so stupid and unworthy of seeing great art that they can, that they should walk into an exhibit like this. It's like, I think about this when I'm broadcasting because And I've talked about it on this show too. I could react to woke TikToks. I could show up to work some days and I'm exhausted and I, you know, could kind of BS my way through the hour. But every single episode, I really, really, I take it so seriously, actually to a fault. I probably could be more laughy and funny at times. I so badly want to give the viewer interesting material and useful material. You know why? Because I respect them. I would view it as an insult to the viewer if I spent the hour BSing them by pulling up a photo or a video of a tranny and going, oh my God, look how stupid that person is. No, I respect my viewer enough to go, I want to enrich your mind. I want to make this worth your while. And it's just so insulting for an artist or for museum curators to push that on the audience and think that the audience should pay them good money for this trash. I wish they would understand that.

Reason number 36 why I love her. Continue.

I actually do. I said I was going to bring up two points. I've been waiting for the second one because we're— we're on this.

Why I said I love you is because that, that I totally resonate to.

I know you do.

I think every show—

you never BS.

And I, I, all I think of is These people are worthy of respect. I feel, I feel that if I have not given somebody something worthwhile, then I've wasted their time. And that is a form of theft. I've stolen their time. I believe that do not steal applies to time just as much as it does to money or other material matter.

Do you understand how much I love that line? That is so well said. It is theft.

Totally.

That's what it is, right?

When you keep people waiting, you're stealing their time. It's a form of theft. Here's another form of theft people don't think about. Do you know, this is— and this cracks me up because this is often said to me, uh, by, uh, by, uh, by religious people, often Christians, whom I adore. And they will say, Dennis, I just want you to know how many of your ideas I've stolen. And they say it as a compliment. And I'm so tempted to say, yeah, but that's stealing. That's, by the way, that's a big Jewish principle that I really have always embodied. I think that, what does it say? Maybe the one I'm trying to remember. Whoever brings a word, when you translate it, it's so awkward. Whoever brings a word or a thought Oh no, yes. Whoever brings a thought in the name of the person who said it brings redemption to the world. It's a great line which you learn in Hebrew. It's what I was working on in my brain. As any kid in a yeshiva, a rigorous Jewish school, learns, you have to cite a source because truth brings redemption to the world. And if you don't cite a source, you're lying. You're stealing their thought. That's why, for example, there is a— there's a thought that I cite in Genesis where it's God said it's not good for man to be alone, about Adam. And I, and I heard once a brilliant thought: even God is not enough. After all, Adam knew God. God is saying, I am not enough, you need a human being. It's a brilliant thought, but I don't know who said it. But I write in my commentary, you do. I don't know who said you do, but it isn't my thought.

True. He doesn't.

I'm adamant about that. If it isn't mine, I have to give credit to whose it is.

Look, I know I'm complimenting you. I don't care. It's worthy of compliment. You're really, really diligent about that. I've noticed it. I noticed it from—

well, it was inculcated in me at a very young age, and it's a beautiful Brilliant thought.

And above all else, it's a gracious thing to do.

Yeah, that's exactly right. Well, it isn't mine. I would be wracked with guilt, and I don't like guilt. I like walking around without guilt. I got an interesting thought on a totally separate issue. This has been very intense thus far, today's, uh, today's Dennis and Julie, which is fine. We're both We're both light but intense people. It's a good way of putting it. So here, here is an interesting thought that I reflected on, and you made me think about it because you said, just amazing to me, that it was just the last Dennis and Julie I was on. What country was I in? Do you remember?

Serbia.

Serbia. Okay. And I was doing it from my, my room.

It's amazing.

Totally. But I want you to know And this is really, really important. I thought it was fine, but it does not compare to the shows we have when we're together.

Right.

And I felt it afterwards. You know, I hope people watch it. I'm proud of every Dennis and Julie. But this is— we do better in person. And I want people to understand that because there is this thinking, oh, we don't have to go to the office, we could do everything by Zoom, we could do everything by Skype. Listen, I don't live in the same part of the country as my grandchild or my grandchildren, so I Zoom with him every week or almost every week, and it's invaluable. I know that. But people should never delude themselves that there's any substitute for in-person.

That's the key word, substitute. It's a great resource if you don't have the access to the person, but it is not a substitute.

That's correct. This is a better show than last week's. Last week's is excellent, all that good talk, but the— and God forbid it should ever be the same. I mean, the thought that real can be ever changed— it's not real when you're not together. When you're talking via Zoom, it's— it— the words are important. You can even see gestures, as I said. It's great. It's better than nothing, but it doesn't compare to this.

Well, we saw that when I came home from college in that first Dennis and Julie when we were in person.

It was magic.

Yes, it was magic.

That's right.

Really fun. So it shows you how much we really do think about producing a good product, that we would both have that thought. Because after the last Dennis Prager— of course, yes. Well, there, it's just, there's, there's no doubt in person is better. But we, we really do take it very seriously, this not giving people a diminished product, not BSing people. I was thinking, when I, when I listen to radio, sometimes, and I can tell the host is BSing or riffing until the commercial. Sorry, I'm so taken with this theft point that you've said. I think it is so astute. I do. I feel robbed and I feel— and look, I know I'm using extreme terms here. There's being robbed when you're listening to someone BSing and then there's actually being robbed. I get that. But I feel like, you know, I placed my faith in you. Like, I went to this channel. I could have searched for other channels. I've spent the past 2 minutes trying to get invested into your point, and you are just taking me down a magical mystery tour that is giving me no intellectual benefit. And it just— yeah, maybe I'm being too dramatic about it, but I feel, I feel a little used. Hi folks, we're delighted to announce Dennis's next listener cruise with our friends at Coastline Travel. England, Iceland, and Greenland, June 24th to July 5th, 2024. They're going to be sailing on the Regent Seven Seas on one of the most beautiful, luxurious ships Dennis says he's ever seen. The Seven Seas Splendor with white glove service, spacious rooms, and superb cuisine. Regent is a 5-star luxury line and all-inclusive. That means business class air, one night pre-hotel in London, shore excursions, unlimited beverages, gratuities, and of course special events with Dennis all covered in the cost. Visit spectacular places in Iceland, one port in Scotland, the Faroe Islands, and three ports in Greenland. As Dennis always says, the best reason to travel is the kindred spirits you will meet on the journey. These trips always sell out fast. Click the banner at DennisPrager.com or call 1-800-345-2483. Again, click on the banner on Dennis's website or call 1-800-345-2483 or email them at PragerListeners@CoastlineTravel.com. Again, click on the banner on Dennis's website or send an email to PragerListeners@CoastlineTravel.com. I feel like, you know, I placed my faith in you. Like, I went to this channel. I could have searched for other channels, right? I've spent the past 2 minutes trying to get invested into your point, and you are just taking me down a magical mystery tour that is giving me no intellectual benefit. And it's just— yeah, maybe I'm being too dramatic about it, but I feel, I feel a little used. Or I feel a little abused. Abused. Yes. Like I am just your ears for your—

So it's very interesting. So I started radio literally 40 years ago, and I remember I said to myself from the beginning, I will never talk like so many of the others do. Have I told you this?

Yes. Hello, I'm Dennis Prager. Hey, hey, hey.

All right, everybody. Well, So therefore, it's fascinating. I get two reactions constantly from people in the street, at restaurants, wherever, airports. One, I think, I feel like I know you, Dennis. And to which I always just say, you do. Number two, I, this, this, you may, I don't think you've heard me say this so frequently, say you sound exactly like you do on radio. They're shocked that I talk the same off radio as on radio.

Well, you literally do. I mean, I— and by the way, I try to do that myself. I don't even know if I do it, and it's not, it's not, um, intentional. When you are speaking to people, it's very difficult not to change your, your voice even a little bit. Yes, just even for the sake of enunciation. You are almost to a scary extent totally— your, your voice— well, here's the interesting thing.

I told this to you privately. I worked hard on remaining real because it's so— listen, when kids— if you ever hear a kid read a speech, it's so stilted.

Yeah.

Now, why? They don't talk stilted, but they're in front of people, and so they don't know how to be real. And real is very powerful.

That what you just said could be a whole episode. It takes practice to be real.

Well, so Sean asked me, does being authentic come naturally or do you have to work at it? So there were two. The question is actually two parts: being authentic in general and being authentic on the radio or TV. They're not the same question. I— people have to work at being authentic in public. That you have to work at. And I did. And I am. In real life, if you have to work at being authentic, it's a big problem. If that doesn't come naturally.

A lot of people do.

But oh, there's no question about it.

Gosh, I have to tell you, and I know you're the same, I can tell whether someone's fake in 10 seconds. And if I can tell they're fake, I will just—

And by the way, they might not even know it.

That—

yeah, I don't know how self-aware people are in general and how they— how much they are in this particular instance. If you would say to them, you know, you're not coming across as genuine, not even to be insulting, just right, they would— I don't think they'd know what, what, what on God's earth you're talking about. Look, the fact is, and this is another That's a totally different discussion. But on the— I'll just tell you this. The number of people who don't open up, talking about being authentic, who don't open up their authentic self to friends or even spouses may well be more than 50%.

And why do you think they don't?

I know why. This is not even a thinker, this is a knower. They believe if that person knew me, they would leave me.

Is it true in some cases?

Yeah, probably. But it doesn't mean that you're bad. It might be a reflection on them. It may not be a reflection on you. I mean, I'll give you the most My conservatism. Oh, all right. Well, that's obvious. Okay. That's, that's the most obvious example where you hide. Listen, there's a couple you met. We won't go further than that. A wonderful couple. He's a, he's a very— he's a successful actor in Hollywood. No one in Hollywood knows he's conservative. But more frightening, not one of his friends knows he is.

That was—

you remember him?

Yes.

He's a wonderful man.

He is.

And a great actor. And I thought, I could not go through life like that. I can't hide who I am. But here's the kicker, and this is— I admit I have guts for saying this. I've been saying it all along, but I have always known if I don't have the courage to say what's true, I'm not going to help anybody. Most men hide who they are from their wives.

That is the territory that only you dare to go into.

It is.

We're all better for it.

Yeah. Well, it's very interesting. I could, I could even say it publicly. So I had a guest on my show and he's a very prominent economist. And he said to me during a break, he said, I just want you to know he was actually in studio. He lives in Maryland. He was visiting California, and he said, I just want you to know you are my wife's marital therapist. I was very touched by that because she listens to the Male Female Hour, and this is a prominent couple. And, and I said to him, I said, well, then you are lucky to be married to that woman. Yes, that's the irony. If she can handle my forthright talk about men, and it's one of the parts of my male-female hours. Ladies, you don't know your husband, so let me tell you about him on his behalf. And, you know, some women will just say, oh, that's not my husband. It's, you know, my— oh, you may not know the story. You'll love this. A perfect— this, this exemplifies what all of what I'm talking about. When I was in my 20s, I played racquetball regularly, and I had a racquetball companion. The guy I usually played with most often. So he got married at about 28 years of age. Lovely woman. I knew them both pretty well. So I was having dinner one night with both of them, and they had just been married maybe 6 months. You don't know the story, right? I love it when I have a story for you that you don't remember, or don't know, I should say. You always remember.

That's true.

I know. That's why I'm happy, you know, I never told you this. So we're talking and she says, so how's the racquetball going, guys? Oh, great. And then Mr. Open Dennis decides to say the following. Yeah, we really have a great time. And, you know, once between games, we step out of the court, you know, wipe ourselves off with a towel, sit on the bench for a couple of minutes to rest and watch the women walk by. You know, in their leotards and so on.

Oh God.

Oh no, I don't recall. Oh, oh, oh, so wait, so she said, uh, let's just call him Tom. She said, oh, Tom doesn't do that. And I remember thinking, holy— well, you can fill in the word.

Yes, I can.

And he kicked me. No, the hardest I had ever been kicked in my life.

Really?

To clearly say, of course Tom doesn't, only I'm looking.

Oh gosh.

So here, here, but, but that had a very big impact on me, that moment that, A, he doesn't level with his wife. He's afraid to. Yeah, honey, the truth is I'm looking just like Dennis does. It threatens our marriage zero. I love you, I want you, but yeah, I look, I'm male, that's the way I'm built. Take it up with God. That is my view to anybody who has a problem with men looking. I'm not talking about gawking, staring, ogling, but looking, absolutely. And the A, that he couldn't tell her that, and B, I made a vow to myself If when I am married, because I always wanted to get married, when I am married, my wife will know me. I will not kick a guy under the table if he says Dennis and I look at women between racquetball games. But that's what I mean. People do not tell people who they are.

And, you know, knowing is better than not knowing. We— I think we ended the last D&J when we were Zooming from Serbia this way, but I said, I think you asked me something like, you know, why is your generation depressed? Or why are people jaded? And I said, I think some people know that there is something wrong with society or with the culture right now, but they can't figure out exactly what it is. And I said, for me, and it's true, understanding the damage wrought by leftism as sobering as it is to understand, it's been helpful understanding it because at least I know, at least I can— when I see something that unsettles me, it's better to know where it's coming from than be unsettled by it and not know. And I would apply that to male nature. I would apply that to anything in life.

Anything.

Anything. It's just, it's just—

people, people want to believe what they want to believe. Women about their men, is just one example. People don't want to believe that there's luck in life. When I first sat on the radio, that's why it's so been invaluable to me to have a radio show, because I get feedback from so many human beings. You see just the feedback from Dennis and Julie. Oh yes, it's invaluable. And, and I would say, of course there's luck. I just read a story on the, on the, on, on my radio show of this, this girl. Like, I, I, I, I was fighting back tears, which is very rare for me on a radio show. Who had been raped by her father repeatedly from the age of 5. He finally committed suicide. He was a raging alcoholic, and after years of this, he committed suicide. And then she was then abused by the pediatricians and psychiatrists who said, oh, your, your problems are not that. Your problems are you really are a boy. And so she had her breasts removed, and she so deeply regrets it anyway. And Anyway, all I'm saying is it's not bad luck that she had such a father, right?

Or such a pediatrician.

But people don't want to believe that there's luck. I'm religious. I don't believe God— God had this girl raped by her father. What kind of vision of God is that? God allows bad things to happen. Okay, that's a fact because he allows free will, but But people don't— people don't want to believe what they— they believe what they want to believe, and they reject what they don't want to believe. I, I have always believed— and well, this will end, and I know you do, and that's why I so find you invaluable— to already at your age, you can't fool yourself and make a better world. You can't make a better world on delusion.

You know what I think? This is the life that I got. This was the world that I was born into. If I could take a magic wand and make some things different, I probably would. But I want to get it. I'm here. This is what I got. Let me understand it.

And that's why people should listen to Dennis and Julie. I mean it.

No. Yes. We try to make life understandable.

The real deal.

And we go on tangents.

Tell people how to contact you.

No, you tell us how to contact me.

You can contact Julie by going to the following address.

No, don't do that. Definitely don't do that.

Julie will be—

Julie will, uh, all right, move away.

Julie at julie-hartman.com.

I'm, I'm true— I'm actually truly proud of you because That's pathetic.

You know, that's the sort of proud of, like when the kid makes a bowel movement and is like, I'm really proud of you. That is the level I think that was on.

This really should be the title of the episode. Number 2 has been referenced a few times. Look at Dennis and Julie, you're talking about God, understanding life, great art, and number 2. But yes, you can reach me at julie@julie-hartman.com. Be sure to check out Dennis and Julie every Monday on this YouTube channel, which is the Julie Hartman YouTube channel. And you can also follow me and see Dennis and Julie clips @JulieRHardman on Instagram and Twitter, as I say in my Boston accent. See you all soon. It's a joy to be with you.

See you next week.

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