Going Soviet

Dennis Prager here. Thanks for listening to the Daily Dennis Prager Podcast. To hear the entire 3 hours of my radio show commercial-free every single day, become a member of PragerTopia. You'll also get access to 15 years' worth of archives as well as the daily show prep. Subscribe at pragertopia.com. Hi there, everybody. Welcome to the Dennis Dennis Prager Show. So I received from my producer Alan Estrin, aka the Living Martyr, every night hand-picked article articles that, in addition to my own article research, he has found. Sometimes they coincide. Most of the time I had not seen the ones he sends, and he has very, very pithy comments really, I mean, he summarizes the intent of the piece in 10 words or 6 words, and they're very bright. By the way, this is not why I'm mentioning it. I'll tell you why in a moment, but you can receive exactly the same articles I receive when you subscribe to the show at Prager Utopia. And you got the show anytime you want. Keep it if you want, send it if you want. And it is also commercial-free at pragertopia.com. It's, it's a terrific thing to have because not everybody can hear all 3 hours. Some people want to hear it again or play it for somebody. And again, it's commercial-free, so it's, it's almost half the time. And you can listen at different speeds. It's called PragerTopia.com. It's also a magnificent gift to somebody you would like to have Dennis Prager in their lives. Well, I— why do I mention that? Because in today's batch, he sent me a piece from Fox News, the sudden turn of events that could derail Trump's indictment. Manhattan's DA, Manhattan DA Bragg, is determined to snooker a grand jury into indicting Trump. Show me the man and I'll show you the crime was the infamous boast of Joseph Stalin's ruthless secret police chief, Lavrentiy Beria. His modus operandi was to target any man the Soviet dictator chose and then find or fabricate a crime against him. Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg has taken a page out of Stalin's playbook and targeted Donald Trump. Driven by personal and political animus, the DA presumed the former president must be guilty of something. It wasn't just a matter of devoting enough time and resources to hunt down the crime. Failing to find one, Bragg copied Beria's paradigm. And simply dreamed one up. That is exactly what has happened. The man spent a amount, $100-something thousand, I don't even remember what the sum is, to have a woman that he had a one-night stand with not say anything. And he's being charged with a felony. I know, well, you know, he didn't exactly report the fund as a business expense that he should have. I mean, my friends, there is almost no person in business, no person, let's put it this way, who earns an income who could not be indicted if somebody— I'm not saying convicted. All Bragg cares about is a mugshot and a humiliation of a man he loathes. The damage to the country is irrelevant, as it always is to the left. The bigger picture of, look, we're going to keep kids out of school for nearly 2 years was the left-wing position, and many people went along with it who were not left-wing. Why they did is worthy of its own investigation, morally, psychologically, socially, etc. But that is the way they operate. They don't ask what is the effect on the larger society. What will, what will gain me power now? That is a much more rational question for the left. It is rational. That's why I've always said, as much as you must use reason in life, reason is not enough. It depends on what your ends are. You could be very rational in pursuing evil ends. So the reason I raise this is the pithy comment, or the, if you will, the sad comment that accompanies this, this particular article that was sent to me by my producer. So what is his comment? It is, uh, here it is. More support for your idea that American leftism is not all that far from Soviet communism. That's correct. I have undergone a, a, some major metamorphoses in the last few years. One of them is my view of the Russian people. I thought Russians had a predilection toward tyranny. After all, they had centuries of the czar, and then came the communists, who were totalitarian. The czar was authoritarian. There is a huge moral difference. Totalitarians control everything about your life. Authoritarians control your political life. You don't bother the regime, the regime doesn't bother you. Under totalitarianism, everything about you is regimented. We are moving toward that here. We already had the dress rehearsal for a tyranny. How you think is what the left cares about as much as how you act. I don't care about how you think. Dictators don't care about how you think. They care about how you act. The left is rooted in totalitarianism. That is a part of human nature. So what is the metamorphosis that I underwent? And it's totally sad. There's not a single silver lining in this realization, and that is that a lot of groups can be— can create a totalitarian state. The Russians had less— had more of an excuse, actually, for supporting communism, and most didn't, by the way. Didn't matter, though. They had more of an excuse. They had no experience with with liberty. This is the sweet land of liberty, and its own citizens are turning it into a totalitarian state with the support of the New York Times, Washington Post, and CNN, and virtually every college, and virtually every high school, and virtually every elementary school, and virtually every profession, including the medical profession. We have a doctor who speaks out on behalf of therapeutics, that is, in other words, therapies for COVID, as opposed to just relying on a vaccine, and therapies might be ivermectin and might be hydroxychloroquine with zinc, then that doctor must be shut down. When did that happen, that doctors were shut down? In California, a doctor who spreads, quote, misinformation, which means there's a definition to the word misinformation, and that is whatever the left differs with. That is what is called misinformation. So it appears that the totalitarian spirit is not a monopoly of Germans or Russians. It is a monopoly of the left. Now you say, well, aren't there right-wing totalitarians? Well, name one. There are right-wing dictators. Now if you consider Hitler right-wing, he was actually racist, which transcends right or left as categories. Nazism means National Socialism. I wouldn't call him a leftist. And I wouldn't call him a rightist. He is— he was a racist. His theory of life was based on race. Why is racism right-wing? There's much more racism in America today. Contempt for blacks is much greater among leftists than it is among others. The belief that the races should be separated is almost a monopoly of the left today. More and more colleges are having black graduation ceremonies. There's no irony to the left. It is astonishing. They call the right racist and the right opposes black graduation exercises and therefore the sense of irony. There's no self-monitoring on the left. It's a very happy place. Well, I take that back. There's no happiness on the left. But it has a sort of comfort. 'Cause you never ask, "Gee, wait a minute, I'm not supposed to be racist. Why am I having a black dormitory or a black graduation exercise?" Stalin lives.

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If I can do it, you can do it. A Democratic-run city, needless to say, in Colorado city by the name of Louisville passed an ordinance limiting the number of gas stations allowed to operate within the city to just 6. They want to fight climate change in Louisville, Colorado. Everything the left touches, it ruins. This country could be energy independent, but what, what you must understand about the climate change activities the anti-climate change activities, is that they are another left-wing attempt at the control of society. COVID was an example, fully successful from the left's point of view. They got healthy people to take an experimental vaccine. They got kids out of school for only bad reasons, no good reasons. They ruined tens of thousands of small businesses because they're in cahoots with big businesses. So you could go to Target, but you couldn't go to Jerry's Hardware Store. So the control of people is a very deep part of leftism. Oh, that's definitional. If they don't want to control you, they're more liberal than they are leftist. Liberals are not preoccupied with controlling people. They're preoccupied with voting for people who control people. The tragedy in America is the tragedy of liberals who think that conservatives are their enemy and not the left. That's the tragedy in a nutshell, as I have so frequently noted to you. But this is a vehicle for further control. That is what climate change is about. You want proof? There are so many proofs. I'll give you two. If they're really serious about limiting carbon dioxide emission, why is China allowed to build— what did I just read— two coal mines a week? Yeah, that's right. They are relying more and more in China the world's largest country and second economy to only the United States. They are relying more and more on coal while we limit gas stations in cities and pass laws that you must— you cannot buy a new gas-powered car in California. What is it, after 2030? What is it? I believe it's 2030. Which is, uh, 5 and a half or 6 years, 6 and a half years from now. Controlling people's lives is a yearning on the left. It's difficult for me to comment on it because, or, or even say it, I should say, because if you don't have a desire to control others, you, you don't relate to this. It's— it comes from a dark place in the human spirit that if you don't have that dark place, it's, it's like it's a puzzle to you. We, we all understand many, many bad things that people do. Nobody asks, why did he rob a bank? Why did he mug a person on the street? We understand why. We understand various evils, but the desire to control your fellow human being. That is almost unique to the left. Now obviously some controls, we don't allow people to murder, there are laws that those are functions of, we're not anarchists. We understand that there will be some laws, but this is a classic example. So they're not serious. It's the seriousness is controlling your life, not combating carbon dioxide emission. How would the United Nations allow so much additional reliance on coal in China while telling the West how they have to become energy dependent rather than independent and cause people to enter what the Germans call energy poverty? The second proof is that they're opposed to nuclear power. See, nuclear power would allow you to remain, to continue to live as you live now. But the left does not want you to continue to live as you live now. They want you to bicycle to work. They want you to walk to work. They want you to take a train or a bus to work. In fact, they don't even want you to go to work. They would ideally like you to stay home, which is another reason, from what everything I'm reading, for the increase in loneliness and depression among Americans. So what will you not do at home? In effect, you'll watch movies at home, you'll order in food at home, you will work at home. It is very healthy to leave home. I could broadcast this show from home. I did for years. I'm perfectly capable technically of doing so, but I realize it's much healthier to have to come in and interact with people. People need people. In the left view, what people need is money. I have another— I have a very interesting proof of that. The New York Times had an article about, yes, David French, who is nominally conservative. Dennis Prager wrote one of the 2 or 3 of the 100 or so right opinion pieces at the New York Times, and he wrote about why— what if kids are sad and stressed because their parents are? You know what the most popular comment, the single most popular comment in the comments section of New York Times readers? What about poverty? Yep, kids today are more depressed than ever according to New York Times readers because of poverty. You know when I knew that I wasn't a leftist? The day I heard poverty causes crime. 1-800-PRAGER-776. 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AmericanFederal.com. The, the amount of misinformation from the left is remarkable. They live in a make-believe world of panic in order to suppress people's liberty. That is the raison d'être of the left. So this city in Colorado has me mesmerized. The number of gas stations in this small city will be 6. You can't open another one. The ease with which people's lives and private industry or private companies, small businesses, are controlled, like in California with a petty Stalinist by the name of Gavin Newsom governs. But it doesn't matter if it's Gavin Newsom. Gavin Newsom is as interchangeable as any of the communists in the Soviet Union. You got rid of 100, 100 would take their place the next our. It is irrelevant, the name. That's why I— the only one by name that I actually pick on is the president, because he is a particularly vile human being, aside from being by far the most destructive of America presidents we have ever had. So I— Newsom doesn't interest me. The left interests me. But this doesn't bother half the country. While China has more coal plants, fires up coal at an incredible rate, we're supposed to limit the gas stations in Louisville, Colorado. It was unanimous, of course. I assume they're all Democrats there. And because it is a religion, people will take it. Everyone sacrifices for their religion. It's one of the definitions of religion that you are prepared to sacrifice for it. So people are totally prepared because with the death of Judeo-Christian religions, we have secular religions. They're known as leftist ideologies, and so people are prepared to suffer for it. In fact, it makes them feel even more religious in the sense of more committed to their left-wing ideology. We have an obligation. This is what a member of the council, a woman, Maxine Most, or Most, M-O-S-T. We have an obligation to take every step possible to address the changes to our climate that are ravaging our planet and directly impacting the health, well-being, and livelihoods of the constituents we represent in Louisville. Now, she— I don't believe she believes— I don't think she knows she's lying. So it's a very interesting question. Is she lying? It's— that's a philosophical moral question. If you tell a lie and you believe it is true, are you lying? Uh, I don't know if part of the definition of lie is you must know that it is a lie. It's a tough one, but it is objectively a lie. You might not be able to say she is a liar because she thinks she's telling the truth. It's a very interesting question. How many people know that they're lying when they lie? What percentage of lies are told that people know are lies, and how much have they talked themselves into believing? I don't have an answer, but that's an important question if you want to understand the concept. So let's analyze this. Okay, we have to address the changes to our climate that are ravaging our planet. This is propaganda of the left, just like lockdowns was propaganda of the left. Protect kids, don't send them to school was propaganda of the left. Wear masks all the time, or near, or nearly all the time, was propaganda of the left. All of these control activities, this is propaganda. This is the, the world is not being ravaged I, I could tell you that since where you live is relevant, and I will get back to Louisville, Colorado in a moment, but where I live in Southern California, we are experiencing about as cold a winter as I have in my 40 years of living in California. I mean, it has been truly cold. It is cold today. And we're in spring. It is, uh, it just isn't true that we, uh, at least where I live, which is nominally a warm climate, are having our health ravaged. Ravaged. They always use the most hysterical term possible because that is the only way they can control your life, is with a hysterical term. Existential threat to mankind. You can't get worse than that. Existential means existence of. So let me continue analyzing this completely deceitful statement of Councilwoman Maxine Most in Louisville, Colorado. Rather, the changes to our climate are ravaging our planet. Okay, that isn't true. There are some deleterious consequences, but our planet is not being ravaged. And directly impacting the health, well-being, and livelihoods of the constituents we represent in Louisville. Really? I'd like to know how, how it has impacted their livelihoods, health, etc. Hi everybody, I'm Dennis Prager. I will read to you from the Los Angeles Times, whose editorial board seems to be composed largely or exclusively of fools. I, I have no other term for their latest editorial. It's called Bills Intended to Shame and Scare Transgender Students Are Despicable. It is remarkable the lying that comes with such ease to all leftists. Not all liberals, not all conservatives, but all leftists. There is a bill to shame and scare transgender students. The bill, which of course has no chance because there are only Democrats controlling the two houses of the California legislature, and of course the governor is a Democrat. So there's no chance it could pass. It's symbolic to show those who care about children the amount of damage that the Democrats are doing to children. They— but they pay no price. They were the ones who advocated closure of schools that has led to far lower abilities intellectually among children in all these states, and has led to severe depression at rates never seen before in American history. But they know they don't pay a price because, as I wrote 30 years ago, being on the left means never having to say you're sorry. Do they still think the lockdowns of schools were right? By the way, I think— is it LA teachers are on strike? Is that correct? Yes. And sympathy for other strikers. Teachers unions care about children as much as— I never can fill in the rest of the sentence. I need help here. Teachers care about children as much as X care about Y. What would that be? Well, I guess as much as you care about crickets, since crickets were raised last hour. Except you do less damage to crickets than the teachers unions do to children. Yeah, there you go. Crickets. It's funny that they use crickets as a euphemism for no response. Well, what was the response? Crickets. I guess crickets means that you can only hear crickets, so it's very quiet. So listen, listen to this editorial in today's Los Angeles Times. Republican lawmakers across the nation have introduced more than 400 bills to restrict the rights of LGBTQ people in the current legislative cycle, according to Human Rights Watch. Do they ever identify anything as a left-wing source? They always identify— always. I don't believe that the name— the names Dennis and Prager have ever been used in a left-wing journal like the Los Angeles Times without saying right-wing or conservative. And I don't mind that, but they never say left-wing or progressive or liberal or whatever. Right, so Human Rights Watch is considered just neutral. They're not citing a left-wing source, of course. One of them, Assembly Bill 1314, an odious— so far we got despicable and odious— proposal by California Assembly members Bill Asayly and James Gallagher. By the way, if you want to know what it's like to be lonely Ask a Republican in the California legislature. That is a definition of loneliness. To compel teachers, counselors, and other school staff to notify parents if their kid is transgender. That's odious. It's not odious that if a boy says he's a girl, the teachers go, then you're a girl. Of course, it's wonderful, and we'll hide it from your parents. Why should they know that their 10-year-old boy says he's a girl? Who the hell are parents? They're a nuisance. Parenthetical point: I'm asked, as I was yesterday on a Christian podcast that I appeared on to discuss my latest Bible commentary on Deuteronomy, I was asked, as I've often asked, and it's a perfectly logical question, do I think any of the Ten Commandments is the most important one of the Ten Commandments? And I have given different answers at different times. My current answer is honor your father and mother, because the road to cults and to totalitarianism always begins with the destruction of parental authority. That's right. The Nazis and communists told the children, you don't owe your parents allegiance. Schools do not owe parents allegiance. They owe it to the party. And that is essentially what they say in the Democratic Party. Your parents are nuisances. We will feed you breakfast and lunch. We will take care of you. We will hide from your parents the pathology of believing that you are the other sex at 10. And it doesn't mean you're a bad person. Pathology doesn't make you bad. But if you do not think that that is pathologic, then you don't know the term. It is not perfectly healthy psychologically for someone to believe they are the other sex, because you cannot be what you think you are. You cannot be a woman if you're a man. You cannot be a man if you are a woman. It is quite astonishing that I have to say this, but more astonishing is that it's controversial. It's considered hate-filled. Yes, it's hateful according to the left to say that a man cannot be a woman. He can think that he is, of course, and can act that way. My view is very simple. If you look like a woman, talk like a woman, and have a woman's name, I will regard you as a woman. I'm not going to ask you what you were born, what you are biologically. But if you announce it, then I, then I, I have to say you are announcing something that is not possible. Apparently the state's Republicans aren't quite as concerned with privacy as they pretend. So now this is a new— the LA Times editorial board reaches new intellectual lows regularly. So it's now the— we are now worried about the privacy of elementary school students. Wow, that's interesting. It's a new— it's a new idea in the realm of human rights, the privacy of children. The school should collaborate in hiding from the parents the, the most radical belief, in effect, that a child could have. I don't mean politically, and that is that the child is not what the child is. Under the bill, notification would be triggered If any school employee finds out that a student is identifying as a gender— a gender, I love that— a gender other than what is on official school records, or— I wonder if they'll even have this anymore. I'll bet you schools in California do not list any longer the gender, as they've already owned the language. They dropped the word sex. Or if a student participates in a sex-segregated school program or athletic team. Oh, so they are for boys competing on girls' teams at the LA Times editorial board, and they claim to care about children. Leftism is a religion. It is a secular religion. The LA Times board believes that boys should be allowed to compete in girls' sports and go into their locker rooms if they say they're girls. As deeply as many of you believe they shouldn't. Just understand that. Please understand the sickness that pervades the Los Angeles Times editorial board and Washington Post and New York Times and virtually every other mainstream newspaper. These are the people who bring you news. This is very remarkable. We're living through a sick time. I keep referring to it as a dark time, and it is. We're living in a dark age. And by the way, this is unique to the United States. Europe has essentially stopped all of this. Canada probably has it too. Canada is one step ahead of us toward totalitarianism. 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New York—

excuse me, LA Times, they're interchangeable. LA Times editorial: kids should be allowed— schools should be allowed to hide from parents that their child at school says he is a girl or she is a boy. Mind you, if every adult in children's lives said no, You're a boy. You really are a boy. I don't know why you think you're a girl, and I love you and I support you, but that your, your brain is playing tricks on you. You are a boy. If every single adult said that, in the vast majority of instances, you would have ultimately a happier and healthier individual. Having adults say, oh, of course you're a girl, when you're 10 years old, it's not, it's not a good thing. But the LA Times thinks it is a very good thing. It's odious, a bill that says schools should inform parents. Wow. Odious, hateful bill. They, that's another term that they used. So they acknowledge it's unlikely to advance in the Democratic-controlled state legislature. It was likely filed only to rile up California liberals. By the way, it's not true. I don't think California liberals think that the bill is wrong. California leftists. What the left has done, like the LA Times editorial board, you can't get left of the LA Times editorial board as a rule. What they have done is they have raped the word liberal, as so many other words have been done to. And what they've done is they have co-opted it. We're, we're not leftists, we're liberals. And so the liberal thinks, oh, this is what liberalism thinks. So I support the LA Times editorial board and AOC and leftists who are ruining our society and hate Western civilization. And that's because I'm a liberal, and now I know what it means to be liberal. A liberal wants children, wants schools to be allowed to hide from parents that their child says that he is a girl or she is a boy. What's chilling is that bills targeting transgender youth, we think they're— see, this is really, this is the beauty of clarity, you know, my love of clarity over agreement. So they say these bills target transgender youth, right? Well, they do they target them, but they mean it in a nefarious way. We believe you're targeting transgender youth, and you believe we're targeting transgender youth. So over time, we will find out, just as we did with lockdowns, we will find out, and probably vaccinations in cases of any young person, and I mean young under 40. Which is now in Denmark, for example, ask that people under 40 not get vaccinated? What do they know, after all? A country heretofore idolized by the, by the left. So history will judge who was right. Those who said boys can become girls and parents should not be told that their child says that, or those who say boys cannot— those who said boys cannot become girls, and parents should be notified. If you send your child to a public school or most private schools in California, you are taking a very big risk with your child's future. And then it goes on to say, listen to this, Despite opposition from medical groups such as the American Medical Association and the American Academy of Pediatricians, which say that these healthcare procedures— they never use the term, I don't believe, uh, puberty blockers. They don't use the term. They don't want their readers to understand. They call it healthcare, like abortion has nothing to do with taking a life. It's a health measure. This has nothing to do with distorting the biology of a child, distorting the health of a child. Nah, it's healthcare. Get it? Remember, the left lies with the ease with which you breathe because truth is not a left-wing value. Winning is. Controlling By the way, they're right though. The American Medical Association and American Academy of Pediatricians, to the disgrace of American medicine, which has so covered itself with shame. It is very difficult for a regular person in America to come to peace, to come to grips with and make peace with the shame that permeates the medical profession at this time. Kaiser Permanente is being sued by a girl whose breasts were removed by, by Kaiser Permanente when she was 13. 13. The sick folks at Kaiser Permanente— and there are some terrific folks too, but they don't say anything, so they're, they're somewhat terrific. They don't want to lose their job. They don't want to be hated by their colleagues. I understand that. It's why the, the creation of these giant healthcare centers, corporations like Kaiser Permanente, is not a good thing for the country. Big, as a rule, is bad. If there were no big governments in the 20th century, there wouldn't have been the genocides of the 20th century. Big can do good, but it does a lot more harm. The founders of America knew that. Most of us today don't. Well, fundraising month for PragerU. And by the way, whatever you donate so that we can keep everything free and therefore reach people who don't agree with us. That's— nobody changes as many minds, I believe, no institution, as PragerU does. And whatever you give this week will be tripled. Yep, that's an amazing thing. We have generous donors. You give $1,000, it's $3,000. You give $5, it's $15. Prageru.com. But the highlight is interviewing each day somebody affiliated with PragerU. And I go as far as Los Angeles. Just yesterday, the Prager Force member— that's our 19,000-strong young people organization— was in Britain. Today he is in Los Angeles. He is Ryan Beaudry. Ryan, did I pronounce your last name correctly?

You sure did. Actually, you had it perfect. Ryan Beaudry. That's right.

Well, one minute. I am debating, do I give credit to my engineer or not? And I won't. The fact that he told me that it was Beaudry should be irrelevant because I accepted his suggestion. So I should get all the credit.

There you go. Granted.

Exactly. Ryan, it's a pleasure to meet you. You are on the older side of Prager Force members. You're 31, you told me.

I sure am. Yes, sir. 31 years old. So I think definitely on the older side. But, you know, I'm here to support.

That's really nice. So how did you discover PragerU?

Yeah. So I discovered PragerU really by happenstance. I was on— so I'm pretty heavy on social media. And I think in the past maybe like 4 or 5 years, I started getting on Instagram a little bit more. And then I just ran into some PragerU to you videos really by accident, but I was intrigued by them and I started to look at a few of them. And specifically, I was drawn to one of you guys' people of interest, Amala. She had a story where she talked about her upbringing and how she came over to, you know, more of the conservative values and things like that. And it really, you know, spoke to my heart and spoke to my own journey. And then from there, I started looking at more of the videos and then Now here I am, Prager Force member, and, you know, very strong for the cause.

Well, that really does my heart good. Amala Epunobi is a remarkable young woman. If though, for the, for those of you who don't know, she's, she's actually sat in for me, not only been on the show, she has sat in for me. Yes. Yes, Ryan. She's amazing, amazing young woman. She has a BLM tattoo on her arm. Yeah, that is how far she has traveled morally and philosophically, and in large measure because of PragerU. Of course, the credit goes entirely to the individual, but we have to spark something. So you discovered us, and then when did you join Prager Force?

So I actually joined Prager Force, uh, this year. I think about maybe a month or a month and a half ago. There was an event that was happening here in SoCal and I wanted to go. And then I found out that you had to be a Prager Force member. So I said, oh man, you know, I really want to become a member anyways, and especially for this event that's coming up. So how do I do this? Went online, registered, and thankfully the folks over at Prager Force signed me up, you know, pretty quickly within the day. So then I was able to come on over and enjoy the event.

You had a good time?

It was an incredible time, really, Dennis. There's nothing like being in a space full of, you know, just very strong, passionate patriots Patriot, you know what I mean? Especially in today's day and age. And, you know, me being in Los Angeles, right, I've lived here for about 31 years now, all my life. And, you know, I'm not too fond of it anymore, especially with kind of what I've learned about, you know, conservative values versus liberal and things like that. LA is a pretty, you know, I would say anti-conservative space in a lot of ways. And so, you know, being able to go to an event where I can have fellowship with other like-minded individuals who are conservative and who are patriots, who love this country, you know, and we can, you know, just talk and share ideas and share struggles and things like that. Really, it was a wonderful time. And I'm very, very grateful for Prager Force for putting on that event and, you know, just having a good time for us.

Were you ever on the left?

Yes, sir, I was. I absolutely was. That's why I said I did kind of feel towards Amala's story. I was I would say that I grew up pretty force-fed Democratic ideologies and things like that. Victimhood, victim mentality, that kind of thing. You know, as a Black man, I was expected to think a certain way, act a certain way, and vote a certain way. And actually, it wasn't until, man, it was the election of Trump where, you know, since it was so just like, you know, so many passions on both sides. I finally started to look into some of the things that I believed, right? And I'm sorry, at the time I became a Christian. So looking at my Christian principles, my Christian values, I just started to notice that they lined up a lot closer to conservative values. And so from there, I just started to dig a little bit more. I started to do some research. I thought about the idea of personal responsibility, right? Accountability, things like that. And then slowly but very surely, I came over to the conservative side.

All right. I want to continue with this. This is, folks, this is what we mean. Please go to PragerU. Hi, everybody. A true highlight of fundraising month for PragerU is to speak to young people, sometimes older people, but usually young people each day at some point in my 3 hours who are affiliated or been affected by, or both, PragerU. We have a 19,000-member Prager Force around the world. Yesterday I spoke to a young English member from Manchester in England. Today, Ryan Beaudry, B-O-W-D-R-E, is a member of Prager Force, and he is 31. On the older side of Prager Force members, and I asked him about his own evolution toward conservatism. So you mentioned a number of things. PragerU was one of them. Obviously becoming a Christian was another.

Yes.

Which makes perfect sense because Judeo-Christian values are the antithesis of leftist values.

Absolutely.

In virtually every arena. The Pope even, who is on the left, has come out and saying a man cannot be a woman. He just announced that. Like, it's ironic, the Pope tells scientific truth and scientists tell religious falsehoods because they are a religion. So I always ask Black conservatives this question. How is your family reacting to you?

You know what, Dennis? Not well, unfortunately. There has been a lot of pushback. There has been, you know, just some, some tough conversations and some tough times. I feel like I've been ostracized and othered in a lot of ways. And, you know, really there's only maybe about 2 or 3 other conservatives in my family that I know of. I have a very big family, you know, so extended family. There's a couple of us there. But, you know, certainly my immediate family and even my stepfamily, I am the only one. Everyone else is pretty far left. And, you know, so it has not been easy. It's been some, it's been some tough times.

Right. I suspected such is why I asked you, and I salute you even more so for it because you're paying a price.

Right.

There's no question. So I am curious. I really am curious. I don't know the answer to this question. Sometimes I have an answer in mind when I asked, but I don't have now. I don't know what your answer is. Do the great majority of your family, extended family, believe that whites are all racist?

Wow.

You know what, to answer shortly, in a lot of ways, yes. There is a very high amount of anti-white racism in my family. And it really doesn't make any sense. And honestly, it breaks my heart. But, but yeah, there are very strong elements of that in my family.

Did you tell any of them that you went to a Prager Force meeting and met a lot of nice people, most of whom were white?

I did not. I told my sister. She's the only one I told because her and I have been coming— have been becoming a little bit closer and more honest with each other with these things. But no, I did not want to tell, uh, you know, most of my family because I knew it would not have gone on well.

Would you say, uh, in this case, I, I, I do suppose an answer, but I still want you to give the truth and not what you think I want to hear. Would you say that you are happier than most of your relatives?

It certainly seems that way, yes. I would say that, you know, becoming a conservative has really just given me a lot of freedom. The biggest thing holding me back and what I see still holds back a lot of my family members is, again, that victimhood mentality. You know, thinking that the world is out to get you, thinking that this country is out to get you, thinking that, you know, white people are always going to be trying to put you down and things like that. And the police are out to get you. And there's all these programs that are against you, things like that. And for me, escaping that mentality has been an amazing thing for me, right? I'm not a victim. And, you know, like, it's also partly towards my faith where I've come to this realization. But yeah, it's been difficult. And I would certainly say that I am in a much happier place and seemingly so much happier than a lot of my siblings and my family.

Yeah, you're a special guy, Ryan. I'm very, very happy to make your acquaintance. Do you know— you wouldn't know, so I'll just tell you. One of my books is on happiness. It's a very important subject to me because, as I say, the happy make the world better, the unhappy make it worse. I actually have a chapter, and the book is completely apolitical. I have a chapter on victimhood. That if you think you are a victim, if that is a primary identity, it is not possible to be a happy person.

Wow.

Well, you're living it. You are, you are living the truth of that thesis of mine.

Yes, absolutely.

I'll, I don't want to, I don't, I don't want to in any way cause a bigger rift in your family, believe me. But I, I, I thank you, but I, I want you to know that part of what they are annoyed about with regard to you is not only your, your changed politics and values and so on, but the unhappy who are often unhappy for either psychological or even social reasons, because again, if you're told you're a victim, you will become unhappier. They resent your happiness. That's— I just want you to know that. It may not have been something you yourself have, uh, have thought through, but I want you to know that if you were as miserable as they— if you were as angry at the world as they, they would love you more.

Yes, yes. Um, honestly, Dennis, like, just to that point, I have seen that in real time. You know, when I speak about me being happy in this country and wanting to serve my country, being proud of where I'm from, you know, and I talk about certain values and principles, they get upset. They feel like I need to be angry. They feel like I need to try to share that resentment towards—

that's exactly right.

Things, right?

Ryan, you've made a really big impact on me. I am very happy to know you. I would like to do this again. Yes, you're a joy and a credit to yourself and to PragerU and to Christianity. God bless you, my friend. We will meet again.

Yes, sir. Thank you so much, Dennis. It was a pleasure. See you next time.

Please help PragerU. Hi, everybody. Welcome to the Dennis Prager Show. This is a good example as a preface to my introduction to my foreword. As an exercise in redundancy, this is a perfect example of why I laugh at myself when I first began radio decades ago, and I had a daily show for 3 hours, and I asked one of the legends of radio, a man named Ray Breen, familiar certainly to many of you in Southern California, who was on 5 hours a night, midnight to 5 AM. And I'll never forget, I said to him somewhat nervously, I said, "Ray, I can't imagine I'll have 3 hours of things to say every day." And he just laughed. A man who had 5 hours of things to say every day. Anyway, why is this the forward to my introduction to my preface of my guest? There is so much that I want to talk to you about, but this young woman is another find. If you want hope, and I don't believe in hope that is baseless, but if you want hope for our society, you should listen to this show regularly because of all these Spectacular people I have on, and not just young people. That obviously gives hope just because of the chronology of things. But there are some— there are so many terrific people in this country. This country is the most toxic idea producer in the world. It is also the best idea producer in the world. The best and the worst in ideas are coming from the United States of America. And in the best category falls this woman, Amber Athey, A-T-H-E-Y. I've had her on before, who is all of 28, and it proves a thesis of mine: wisdom is related to whether or not you are wise, not whether or not you are young. The Snowflake Revolt is the book, just come out. The subtitle is How Woke Millennials Hijacked American Media. Woke millennials. And the examples are a legion. Anyway, Amber, welcome back to the Dennis Prager Show.

Thank you so much for having me. It's great to be back.

How great on a scale of 1 to 10?

How great? I would say probably a 10.

Wow. I expected 9.3. I did. I was not sure what you would say. You know, I should, I should have warned you because we spoke for a few minutes before you came on. I throw these curveball questions that come into my fertile mind out of nowhere. I mean, how many people are going to ask you how happy you are to come on their show?

Well, that's why this show is good fun. Well, that's a 10 out of 10 on good.

That's, that's right. Well, thank you. Well said. So, by the way, just remind me and my audience, what is a millennial?

A millennial is someone who was born between, I believe, the years 1980 and 1997. It's about that range. So I am actually a younger millennial. I was born in 1994, so I'm pretty close to that cutoff.

And then after millennials is Gen Z.

That's correct.

The ones born—

Zoomers, as they're called.

The what? Zoomers.

The Zoomers.

Oh, I see. As opposed to boomers.

Right.

I get it. I hear you. So you attended Georgetown University and you were the most, according to the book, the most outspoken conservative there. Is that accurate?

Yes, that is beyond dispute.

So here is a— I'm going to throw an interesting thought at you, and I'd like you to react, or you don't have to even react, but I'm good. I want you to hear this. It— if I were to try to understand where you come from, I don't mean background and all of that, that's part of it. In other words, what made you a fighter, to be very, very precise. My answer is largely that's your nature. And I'm curious if you would react to that.

That's an interesting point. And I think that is mostly true. I do have an older brother and he is political but not very public about it.

Exactly.

That's right. He works as a police officer.

Same genes, same environment, same home, same religion. That's exactly right. And it's true for every fighter that I know. It's like, it's like God or nature or both throw out a certain number of people who will fight for good things. You're— you just happen to be one of them, and thank God you are. That's I have no better explanation. But tell me about your background. You, you had a very interesting statement to me when I asked you about, did you grow up conservative? And you said yes. And tell us about your parents.

Absolutely. So my parents are working-class Americans. My dad was a union plumber for the entirety of his adult career. My mom was a video store manager while my dad went through trade school. School and then ended up becoming a stay-at-home mom after I was born in '94. And they always were very clear with me that life is not fair. And they taught me and my brother the value of hard work. They taught us to take responsibility for our own lives. And as we were talking before we came on, that is such a difference from a large swath of the millennial generation. Which is very entitled and not just entitled to things, but they think that they're entitled to be protected from things, meaning they don't believe they should have to face challenges. Having anything that is considered offensive or troubling to them has to be destroyed. And they operate under the concept that life should be fair, and maybe life should be fair. That's obviously a different ontological question, but it's not the reality. And these are people who just fundamentally don't grasp reality.

I have to say, when a good-looking woman says ontological, it is— I have a very positive reaction. So, as I said to you earlier, that being told by your— in your upbringing that life is unfair is, as I said to you, it's, it's a, it's the best vaccine, vaccine you can take against depression and against bad ideas. They, as you said, this generation of which you remember expects life to be uncomplicated. That's why, you know, Adam Carolla and I made a film called Safe Spaces. And no safe spaces, sorry. And this whole notion of a safe space embodies what you're talking about. You're unhappy that a conservative came to your campus, come and have hot chocolate and play, and play with Play-Doh. Did Georgetown have safe spaces?

They did, and one of them was implemented because of something I did when I was the chair of College Republicans my junior year. We decided to bring Dr. Christina Hoff Sommers to campus, and we were I believe the first major university to do so, even before Oberlin. And the reaction was very aggressive from the campus left. I was reported to the administration for allegedly creating an unsafe environment for my fellow students. They had a safe space next door to the speech itself. They demanded that we institute a trigger warning for the event, which we refused to do. And then even afterwards, when video of the event went up on YouTube, Georgetown itself, the administration tried to get us to remove that video, even though the event was open to to the public. So it was a major fiasco where these people who didn't have to attend the event, didn't even have to listen to what Dr. Summers had to say, had somehow made themselves the victim of a speech that had yet to happen.

How many allies did you have at Georgetown?

It was not a lot. The College Republicans had an active membership base of about 40 students. And out of those, I would say maybe 5 to 10 were as outspoken or close to as outspoken as I was. The rest of them really just wanted to avoid controversy. And that was a problem, obviously, because there's a lot of safety in numbers when you're in these very contentious political environments. And we simply didn't have that. A lot of us felt like we were on an island. And I heard from quite a few of my friends after the Christina Hoff Sommers' speech that they never wanted to do anything like that again because of how mentally draining it was to be constantly defending yourself from whatever accusations they were throwing out, from rape apologists to racists to misogynists.

I mean, to regard Christine Hoff Sommers as some hate-filled human being, the right— it's equally absurd and vile. The woman is such a serious, decent, professorial even individual. I know her for many years. So she came. Did she— did she give the speech unmolested?

She did. There were people in the back who had signs of protest, and of course there were some people who asked some rather nasty questions. But I think the entire event really demonstrated the arrogance and narcissism that defines my generation as well. Because these people had basically read her Wikipedia page or maybe Googled Vox for some example of her saying something.

That's what they do. That's exactly right.

And they somehow thought that they were qualified to take on the decades of research that she had done on feminism and rape culture.

Forgive me, Amber, we have to take a break. Everyone, I'm telling you, I'm reading this book, The Snowflake Revolt. How Woke Millennials Hijacked American Media. It is up at DennisPrager.com, and I cannot recommend it highly enough. We'll be back with Amber in a moment. To a terrific young woman, Amber Athey, and a very, very important book. By the way, your book has footnotes on the bottom of each page. Rather than at the end. For that alone, I want you to know I salute you and your publisher.

I know. God bless them.

That is rare. I mean, it used to be common. But in any event, I just thought I'd note that. The Snowflakes Revolt: How Woke Millennials Hijacked American Media. So I'm going to put you on the spot here because they just had a situation. I don't remember the protagonists, but someone on our side was asked, I think a congresswoman, But I'm not certain. What does— by an antagonistic person on the left. So what does woke mean? And she didn't come up with a very good answer. I'm curious how you would define woke.

That was my friend Bethany Mandel, and I really feel for her because she has a chapter in her book defining woke, and I know she knows what it means.

Oh, that was Bethany, really? Oh, that's fascinating. Well, look at that.

Yeah. So that was a shame. I feel for her. She's getting a lot of heat. But I mean, I think she would probably give a pretty similar answer that I'm going to give, which is obviously that woke actually started as a rather academic term that people of color used to describe the moment that they awakened or woke up to the idea that this country is systemically racist. And therefore all the powers that be are aligned against them. And the saying or the thinking is that once you wake up or become woke, you're then able to better fight against that systemic inequality. Now, as the right has adopted the term and used it to describe mostly radical progressivism, it's more mocking the idea that our country is systemically racist. And that identity politics is a necessary ideology in order to combat that inequality. And even more so, woke has come to define, I think, just the leftists who reject the fundamental ideals in which America was founded, which is equality of opportunity over equality of outcome. They reject freedom of speech. Freedom of religion. They really don't believe in having discourse. They believe in shuttering the other side. And they also believe that they have a monopoly on truth.

So the truth is there's really no difference at this time between woke and left. There is between woke and liberal, because I believe liberal and left are not the same thing. But liberals vote for the left, so they do as much damage. But that's a separate issue. So is that fair to say that, that essentially in terms of positions held, woke and left are synonymous?

I agree. I think woke is synonymous with the illiberal left, as you put it.

Right, exactly. So your thesis is essentially that— how, again, the subtitle, How Woke Millennials Hijacked American Media, is that is in the title, that they are snowflakes, that they, they are incapable of dealing with the fact that life has challenges and pain. Is that a fair summary?

Yes, that's correct.

Okay. By the way, is there a more dramatic example? And you would know this because you wrote a book on this. But I want people to know that even those of us who didn't write a book on this are aware of the— what is it— hijacking of American media by, by these millennial snowflakes. What happened at the New York Times when its longtime opinion editor invited a Republican senator to write a column? What— tell us the story.

Absolutely. So at the New York Times, During the summer of 2020, when there were riots breaking out across the country, Tom Cotton was invited to write an opinion piece about sending in the National Guard to quell the riots. This piece sparked an internal revolt in the New York Times newsroom, and not only just in terms of complaints on Slack channels or to editorial directors, but there was also a public social media campaign that these woke staffers instituted where they accused their colleagues who had published this opinion piece of causing harm to Black New York Times staffers. They legitimately claimed that the publication of this op-ed was going to lead to violence against Black people. And what ensued was essentially an apology tour on behalf of New York Times leadership. It led to the resignation of several of the opinion editors there. Including James Bennett. And the op-ed to this day has an editor's note at the top of it indicating that it should have never been published.

Really? I did not know that. That's awesome. It's so— they're stupid at The New York Times. Aside from censorious and vile, they're stupid because it's their way of acknowledging we never publish anything we differ with.

That's exactly right. And what's insane about this internal takeover of all of these media companies is that usually the people who are, who are doing it, who are pushing for progressive activism over a search for facts and truth, is that they're usually the most mediocre, poorest performing employees, or at least in the lowest level position. So they're people who don't have any authority whatsoever. And don't really have much talent, and yet they demand that they have their— their—

their— their—

their— their— editorial direction of these papers.

Forgive me, I have a tough question, seriously tough question for you. Uh, I wrote a column, been writing columns for decades, and one recent column I wrote about what I believe, and I gave a lot of data, the disproportionate influence of women in the woke world. So we're going to take a break, but I don't want to keep people hanging, as it were. Do you essentially agree with that?

Yes.

Okay, I want to hear your thoughts on that. This is an important woman and an important book. This— that's why I'm taking so much time. The Snowflakes Revolt. How Woke Millennials Hijacked American Media. And it's under 200 pages, almost. We return. You're listening to The Dennis Prager Show. Hi everybody, I'm Dennis Prager. This is a remarkable guest, Amber Athey. The Snowflakes Revolt. She's a millennial herself. She is a writer for— what is your title actually? Washington editor for The Spectator, which I happily pay to subscribe and read. It's a wonderful site. And the book is The Snowflakes Revolt: How Woke Millennials Hijacked American Media. I'm still, by the way, reeling from the— I did not know that the New York Times has an advisory at the Tom Cotton article. Why does it say we regret having published this? What was the advisory? Well, I'm not hearing— I'm not hearing Amber.

Didn't go. I think it says something along the lines of it didn't go through the proper editorial process, and it's essentially a warning that the piece should not have been published in its current form. It's really incredible. I encourage everyone to go read it.

It is incredible. So I asked you a very provocative question, but it's not meant to be provocative. I didn't write my column or say it regularly. Women are disproportionately ruining America. And the— it just hit me over time how disproportionately female the, for example, The belief that minors should have breasts removed on healthy girls if they say they're boys. It is women who are propelling this much more than men. And these, I'll bet that was true with the New York Times with the millennial revolt. So you said you agree, and then we took a break. So give me some thoughts on this.

Well, wokeness fundamentally is a manipulation of people's emotions because it's telling them that in order to make life easier for a group of people or to make life more fair for a group of people who have been historically disadvantaged, you have to support this certain slate of policy proposals or this group of, of ideologies. And women, of course, would have this resonate more with them because, as we know, and I would probably get in trouble for even saying this, There are biological differences wherein women tend to be more empathetic, more compassionate, and tend to be caregivers. And so they are— it appeals to them more, the idea that they can help people out and give people a hand up if they support this progressive ideology. And I think this has only ramped up and become more toxic over the past decade or so because women are getting married at older ages and having fewer children. So their caregiving sentiments are not being directed towards families, they're being directed towards politics.

What an intelligent last comment. That's right.

Thank you.

I'm going to get in trouble because I don't do the hiring at PragerU, but I'm going to definitely recommend you give a video. Dennis Prager, your mind is very sharp and clear. It is truly a pleasure. That— see, I have a different take on the exact same first half of your last sentence, and your take is at least as accurate as mine. My take is women are not getting married, so they don't have the male influence in their lives. They're their only influencers, they and fellow girlfriends, as it were. And that is in— it's totally understandable, but unless you believe that men and women think the same, which people on the left apparently do think, but it's not true, there is a problem. And I have said, and I'm attacked all the time by the left, which brings me great joy, by the way, as a just as a note to you, uh, and, uh, that girls must be— I said this on The Young Turks. To their credit, they actually invited me on. Uh, the left almost never hears from people like, like us. And anyway, and so, uh, they, they just found it absurd that I would say that you have to raise daughters to control their natures just as much as you have to raise boys to control their natures. And the nature that the girl has to control is not every emotion is a valid policymaker, whether for herself or for society. But you have added— and so the lack of male influence is— was my take. And yours— I'm not dropping mine, but yours is just as valid. The normal direction of female compassion and caregiving is in the micro, but they don't have that anymore.

Yes, and I think that's another feminine impulse that we usually have to rein in, is it's that we can't save everybody.

And yeah, hold on, hold on there. Okay, keep that thought. You can't save everybody. I'm going to come back. This is just— this is like a candy store for me. Dennis Prager here. Thanks for listening to the Daily Dennis Prager Podcast. To hear the entire 3 hours of my radio show commercial-free every single day, become a member of Prager Utopia. You'll also get access to 15 years' worth of archives, as well as the daily show prep. Subscribe at pragertopia.com.