No Love of Country

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. Hi everybody, Dennis Prager here. Hope you're well. Can't say I hope you had a good weekend I hope you had a good Wednesday. It's very hard for me not to root for American teams in world competitions. It never even occurred to me that I would not. A, who will I root for if not? B, how could that be? I love my country, but I hope the women's soccer team loses. I'm not only not rooting for them, I hope they lose. They have contempt for me and my country, so in turn I have contempt for them. It's not a complex issue. I don't root for you just because you are American. And stand for the opposite of everything that I treasure about being an American. So the story is worldwide, but here it is from the Daily Mail, the British website. U.S. women spark fury with another listless rendition of the Star-Spangled Banner. At the World Cup as Holland's players proudly sing their anthem with arms wrapped around each other. So when I was in Europe last month, I wrote my column, my weekly column, about how much better I felt in Europe. Now, to be honest, that was Eastern Europe, but this would be an example We're talking about the Netherlands, which is a pretty woke country, I might add. But apparently its women's soccer team loves their country more than our soccer team— women's soccer team loves their country. The Dutch were involved in colonialism and imperialism and all that stuff. But apparently the women of the Dutch soccer team do love their country, gleefully singing their national anthem with their arms wrapped around one another. Our team looked, for the most part— there were exceptions like they were about to undergo life-threatening surgery. What am I doing here with this crappy piece of lyric and music being played for a place for which I have contempt? Well, how many are on the team? 15? I don't know how many are on the team. Of the luckiest human beings on the face of the Earth. Only 6 players held their hands to their chest when the Star-Spangled Banner was playing, and not all of them were singing. Most were not. Those who did, such as Alex Morgan, Julie Ertz, and Lindsey Horan, appeared to mumble the words rather than sing loudly along. They wouldn't sing loudly along because the truth is it took some courage just not to be silent with the ugly human being— talking about ugly in a moral sense— Megan Rapinoe in the lead with her contempt for the United States of America. By comparison, the Dutch team— that's the team against which the U.S. women played, and I think they tied— the Dutch team sang proudly to their anthem Wilhelmus, with the players wrapping their arms around each other before the game began in Wellington, New Zealand. All 11 Dutch women sang their anthem. Too bad we can't match them, one fan said on Twitter. You should see the picture. All the black players were silent the entire time. You're a traitor to your race. Totally racist concept to begin with. If you dare show any affection for, respect for America. That's what it's come to. These poor suffering women soccer players who were Black, oh my God, do they suffer. Yeah, another supporter said, why would you play for USA but not even participate in the national anthem? Embarrassing and disrespectful. Another fan wrote, thank you, USWNT— women's national team players Julie Ertz, Alyssa Nayer, and Lindsey Horan— for being proud of your country and representing it well by singing the national anthem, the National Cup. It comes after the opening game against Vietnam last Friday where 6 of the 11 starting players opted against placing their hands over their hearts, instead keeping their arms at their sides or behind their backs. Meanwhile, 5 others did put their hands on their hearts, including 3—Julie Ertz, Alisa Nair, and Lindsey Horan—who also sang the national anthem lyrics. I wonder if there's tension on the team. It's not an important question, but it's a human question. I suspect not. I suspect it's sort of live and let live. If you have contempt for America, that's great, and if you actually like the country, you're somewhat of a weirdo, but that's no problem. Go right ahead. Rapinoe now playing in her— oh, let's see. Oh yeah, that's right. She knelt in protest of racist police brutality beginning in 2016. She's not in the starting lineup for this game. She is instead named as a substitute. Well, anyway, that's why I'm not rooting for the team. I don't root for the Los Angeles Dodgers. I live in Los Angeles. I have been robbed by the teams that I would have affection for because the left destroys everything it touches. Read the— well, you can read— there is so much. I'm trying to think. Of any one given book, but I will tell you one actually, that America's Cultural Revolution and Christopher Rufo, which I am just about to finish, and it is one powerful explanation of what has happened. The complete racialization of discourse in the United States of America. Everything is ascribed to white supremacy, including reason, including the notion of being race-blind. Everything good— it's ironic The left and the KKK agree on almost everything. The KKK believes all good comes from whites, and the left believes all good comes from whites. The only difference is they believe that the good is bad because it comes from whites. That's the only difference between the Ku Klux Klan and the left on the issue of America and race. And they don't know it. They are so unself-aware. Just by the way, an update. I again, I urge you to go to my website and click on videos and watch my speech last week in Phoenix at the Arizona State Legislature about the Arizona State University professors who attacked Arizona State for inviting Charlie Kirk and me to speak. It's, uh, I, I said what, among other things, that the reason they oppose us is because deep down they know the shallowness of their intellectual life. They are afraid of any articulate conservative speaker, that we will undo in 90 minutes the indoctrination they have engaged in for 4 years. Gold dealers are a dime a dozen. They're everywhere. What sets these companies apart, and whom can you really trust? This is Dennis Prager for AmFed Coin and Bullion, my choice for buying precious metals. When you buy precious metals, it's imperative that you buy from a trustworthy and transparent dealer that protects your best interests. So many companies use gimmicks to take advantage of inexperienced gold and silver buyers. Be cautious of brokers offering free gold and silver, or brokers that want to sell you overpriced collectible coins claiming they appreciate more than gold and silver. What about hidden commissions and huge markups? Nick Grovich and his team at AmFed always have your back. I trust this man, that's why I mentioned him by name. Nick's been in this industry over 42 years, and he's proud of providing transparency and fair pricing to build trusted relationships. If you're interested in buying or selling, call Nick Grovich and his team at AmFed Coin and Bullion, 800-221-7694, AmericanFederal.com, AmericanFederal.com. National Review is doing a service. It is having a series of young people, I mean really young, in their 20s, who regret terribly the life-crushing decision to transition from one sex to another. So the latest one is a story about a young woman who was unhappy with what with her life in general, somewhat dysfunctional at home, and she didn't like the, the early age at which her breasts started growing. She's in Wisconsin, and so she— I'll read to you now, I'll go down the article. So she didn't know what she was because she didn't— she didn't fully identify as a girl, and she had some degree of autism. Her childhood trauma was so intense, she said she developed complex PTSD. In high school and on Tumblr, Becker— that's, that's her last name— learned about gender identity. A concept that appealed to her as a way to categorize herself since she so frequently felt like an outcast. Tumblr has many niche online groups and fandoms. Becker's favorites were the rock star pages, benign enough, but queer ideology got into every single community on there. Wow. Queer ideology got into everything. Many users she interacted with had mental health issues and autism. The platform made her increasingly LGBT curious. There was a cogeneral attitude of nihilism and complete distrust of any traditional wisdom. That in and of itself is a wise comment. Incidentally. That's correct. That describes the left in a nutshell. A general attitude of nihilism and a complete distrust of any traditional wisdom. And it started with the asinine members of my generation, the baby boomers, those who said never trust anyone over 30. All of this crap dates back even earlier than my generation, but to a large extent with it. Raised poorly by the greatest generation, only cared about having us avoid poverty and war. Lovely goals, needless to say, but most of them incapable or unaware of the importance of teaching liberty and love of country and what America stood for, and for that matter, in many cases, even religion. At the Gay-Straight Alliance Club at Becker High School— now, why do they have these clubs at high school? Why don't they just have a French club? Or a judo club. Why do they have such clubs at high schools to begin with? Tell me. It's all, it's all a matter of indoctrination. Gay-straight club. Watch my video which I made long time ago, what, what I would say if I were a high school principal, the only clubs— there would be no ethnic clubs, no race-based clubs, no sexual orientation or identity clubs. There would be clubs about life that everybody could join. That the Gay-Straight Alliance club at Becker's high school, the concepts of gender identity and sex fluidity were popular. Into her early teens, Becker identified as genderqueer and presented as androgynous and quirky, she said. As high school progressed, she began to take on male attributes. By then, Becker was already suicidal and had begun cutting herself, overeating, and abusing alcohol, marijuana, psychedelics, and pills, she said. As she shed her female characteristics, Becker had to square her new persona with her sexual orientation. The only women who looked like her were masculine lesbians. She couldn't relate to them because she was heterosexual. Becker also had several unrequited loves with gay friends who identified as queer at the time. She said, they led me on and used me emotionally as a stepping stone to realize they were homosexual. God, that's depressing. I feel for her. I had a breakdown because I felt so unlovable and worthless in my body. She started having severe gender dysphoria. And body dysmorphia. She ruminated about her female body, especially her genitalia, and fantasized about what her life would be like if she was a gay man rather than a straight woman. At 18 years old, Becker started wearing a binder and changed her pronoun to them and they. A couple of months later, she came out as a transgender gay man. Okay, let's, let's follow that, folks. She wanted to get a man. She wasn't getting a man as a heterosexual female, so she came out as a gay man in the hope that then a man would be interested in her. She officially transitioned at 19 when she first took testosterone prescribed by a gender clinic in Chicago. After informing clinic staff of her gender dysphoria, they gave her the prescription, quote, that day— that day— for a very high dose of testosterone, 200 milligrams per week to inject. I'm going to take a break for a A guest that I need you to hear from and return to this. 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One of the proofs that the environmentalist movement is just another left-wing movement out to destroy Western civilization is their opposition to nuclear power. It is as simple as that. You really believe that carbon dioxide, the food of plant life on Earth, without which we can't live, is a pollutant. It shows you how effective manipulation of language is when you say it often enough. It's, it's mind-boggling. Carbon dioxide is a pollutant. Yep, a lot of people believe that. The answer has been nuclear energy. Completely carbon-free, reliable, safe. Why does the left oppose that? So James Meigs, senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute, a collection of some of the finest minds in the country, all of whom are somewhat masochistic since they're located in Manhattan, He presents the new PragerU video, How Dangerous Is Nuclear Power? Okay, congratulations, James, on a great video. Oh, thanks.

I had so much fun working on it with your team, Dennis.

Yeah, they're a great team. Thank you for that. Where do you live?

I live in Yonkers, New York, just north of the island of Manhattan and, uh, on the shores of the Hudson River.

Was my description of you, some of the finest conservative thinkers in America, living in Manhattan as masochists, completely incorrect?

Well, some people like it. I would say probably most of the scholars at, uh, at the Manhattan Institute are not in Manhattan per se, but in the surrounding areas. But, you know, New York City remains a vital and thriving place for ideas and business, but not everybody chooses to live right in the heart of it. I get you.

So what are your— what is your background that brought you to make this video?

Well, I used to be editor of Popular Mechanics magazine for about 10 years, and we covered everything about technology that would be of interest to the, the regular civilian who cares about the future, who cares about technology and, and our society. And so I got interested in nuclear power because when I was young, I was a big environmentalist opposed to nuclear power. I thought we needed zero population growth, and, you know, I, I thought it was good when people went out and protested these planned nuclear power plants. Now I support the people protesting to keep them open. I've learned, partly from my time at Popular Mechanics and partly just by serious research in the engineering questions around nuclear power, that it's really our, our best single power source. And it's really a shame when people agitate to get the plants closed down, and we should be starting to build new ones.

So I'm going to play the first minute. Sean, would you put it up? The first minute of your video. And of course, folks, it's free and available at prageru.com. It's this week's video.

Whenever I talk to people about the benefits of nuclear power, how dependable, how efficient, how clean it is, I'm always challenged with this. Yeah, but what about the waste? Their question is hardly surprising. The New York Times claims that the U.S. is awash in radioactive waste. The Los Angeles Times writes that figuring out where and how to safely store radioactive waste is one of the biggest obstacles to nuclear power. And Wired magazine warns that even our next-generation reactors may still have a big nuclear waste problem. And so it goes. Even though the greenest of greens will admit that nuclear power is a clean source of abundant, reliable energy, Many stop short of supporting it. The nuclear waste problem ends discussion before it begins. After all, why develop this great source of energy if it's going to poison our air and water with deadly radioactivity?

All right, we're going to talk about that in a moment. It's 5 minutes that should persuade you that nuclear power is the answer if you really want to go carbon free. James Meigs is my guest. We'll be back in a moment. The Dennis Prager Show. My, my guest, which I— fascinating that he said he was editor of Popular Mechanics. He has done the video this week for PragerU on how safe nuclear power is, which of course it's true. So first of all, I just got to ask you, is Popular Mechanics still in print?

Yes, it is. It's still going strong as far as I know.

I can't— I want you to know there's no way for anybody listening to quite follow this, but I'll say it anyway. When you said that, I got a chill up my spine. When I was in high school, I waited with bated breath every month for Popular Electronics to come out. Was that your sister publication? Did we lose him? We lost him. How shocking. I gotta tell you, it's a shockeroo. The reason that I waited for Popular Electronics— I read none of the articles on electronics. But for whatever reason, there was a section at the end of Popular Electronics every month on shortwave radio listening, my passionate hobby. I would, I would listen to foreign stations all over the world with my shortwave radio, and Popular Electronics had a section on shortwave radio in every issue. So you, you have really tapped into a passion of mine. All right, anyway, back to nuclear, uh, nuclear energy. So I always ask the why question. You may not even have a theory on this, and if you don't, that's fine. But do you have a theory as to what really animates left-wing opposition to nuclear power, given that it would completely solve the problem of carbon pollution?

I do have a theory. I think that on the far left, not everybody in the mainstream left, but on the far left, there is opposition to nuclear power Partly because they are basically opposed to the modern world. They have a fantasy that we should all return to some kind of an agrarian world without a lot of high technology, without capitalism, where we all get our food from local farmers markets and our energy is made, you know, with wind power in the backyard or little solar panels on the roof. And this is a very appealing fantasy for a lot of people who feel that our technological world has just gone too far too fast. And it's an old urge, you know. You could go back to the 19th century and see people that were worried about progress in the future. And you see a lot of this thinking among the radical, you know, the most extreme environmentalists. So if you really ask them You're concerned about climate, here's a solution. What you realize is they're not that interested in solution. They're interested in using what they see as a climate emergency as an excuse to overturn capitalism, to change our governmental systems, to return to some kind of mystical idealized past. And not everyone is that extreme, but that kind of thinking underlies a lot of the worries about nuclear power, and especially the paranoia about nuclear waste. Superb.

I will only put it in, in different terms, but what you said is exactly my belief. The reason the left— I don't believe parts of the left, I believe the whole left, not all liberals. I distinguish between left and liberals. And so when you said extreme left versus left, I think you were saying the same thing, left and liberal. Yes. Yeah, okay. The reason the left opposes nuclear power as a solution is because it is a solution. They are out of business if nuclear power is used. It ends their relevance. People want to be relevant. They are sort of like the March of Dimes when polio was conquered. Does that make sense?

Absolutely. If we rolled out nuclear power, we put the same effort into nuclear power that we are putting into trying to build wind and solar facilities. If we put that effort into nuclear power, the carbon emission problem would go away pretty quickly. And that would undermine the rationale for this idea that there's a global crisis that requires radical political and social economic change.

That's right. Did you ever hear the watermelon theory of environmentalism?

Yeah, go ahead, tell us.

Oh no, no, it's actually from David Horowitz, and he told it to me in 1990. Said, Dennis, the environmentalist movement is a watermelon— green on the outside, red on the inside.

Yes, well, there are certainly, you know, a big share of people in the environmental movement who got into environmentalism more because of radical politics. And again, there's an awful lot of just mainstream liberals who don't share that, but I do think that's true. Alright, name me—

this is not a challenge, it's actually a yearning. Name me a prominent non-left-wing environmentalist group.

Okay, well, that's a good question. I would have said Environmental Defense Fund being, in recent decades, being more pragmatic, more kind of interested in practical solutions. But even those guys have not been as wholehearted in their support of nuclear power as they should be. The good news, Dennis, is some of these groups are are coming around on the nuclear question, and a number of prominent Democrats, including Gretchen Whitmer in Michigan, have come around to support nuclear power.

Good. I love good news, folks.

Watch this video up— I'm sorry, progress is possible sometimes, right?

Yes, possible and sometimes are the operative words. Terrific video, terrific work. Thank you, James Meads. Please watch it at prageru.com. It's the latest, it's probably about the 600th of our 5-minute videos. You will understand the world if you watch all of them and have your kids watch them. Take your calls when we come back. Hello everybody, I'd like to share with you The National Education Association's 2023 summer reading list, because you may want the recommendations to think, gee, what am I going to read this summer when I have more time to read? So here you go. It's from the Wall Street Journal. The subtitle is The NEA's 2023 Summer Reading List may make you regret that you ever learned to read. America's largest teachers union, the National Education Association— I will just add, like everything else, taken over and destroyed by the left. All they know to do is destroy— issued its 2023 summer reading list Among its recommendations are Gender Queer, a graphic novel memoir about identifying outside the gender binary. The moment he heard about this, Sean ran out and ordered a copy. How's it going, Sean? Gender Queer, you're— are you riveted? You got the audio version? Okay, nice, nice. The book has been removed from many school libraries in Florida where I live, writes the author, but I checked it out at the public library. I was shocked that a book marketed to young adults 12 to 18 has so much graphic content. Here is a sexting— that's texting about sex— dialogue from page 170. This again, this is on the National Education Association's reading list. These people are nihilists. There's definitely something sick in their souls. And by the way, it's overwhelmingly women. I told you I've had a— I've had to deal with some cognitive dissonance I always took it for granted that of the two sexes, women were the more likely to be protective of young people's innocence. And the left has proven me wrong. Women are way, way, way more involved in robbing children of sexual innocence than men are in America today. Men, of course, dominate the rape and abuse field. I'm talking about the innocence field. Here's a sexting dialogue from page 170, and I'll read what is permitted to me and the Wall Street Journal, for that matter. I got a new strap-on harness today. I can't wait to put it on you. And anyway, the rest I can't read on the radio, even though the Wall Street Journal published it with deleted words with only one letter. On the facing page, color sketches graphically depict this scene. So if you think that the LGBTQIA+ crowd is a decent crowd— I'm not talking about all the people who identify as such, I'm talking about the activist organizations— if you think the activist organizations of LGBTQIA are decent, ask them one question: do you think that this should be on the reading list for 12-year-olds in America? That's all. It's a yes or no question. I posted that quote with slightly less family-friendly redactions in the comments section below the NEA reading list alongside several other comments from other readers. Within an hour, all the comments were deleted and the comments section on the post was closed. The book is listed under the heading "Banned Books: Celebrate the Freedom to Read." But the NEA doesn't want people actually to read it. A day after closing the comments section, the NEA deleted one of its original recommendations, Milo and Marcos at the End of the World by Kevin Christopher Snipes. Publishers Weekly calls that book an emotional navigation of faith and queerness about a boy named Milo who, quote, becomes convinced God is punishing him for being gay. A super religious, super shy nerd with, quote, adamantly Republican Presbyterian parents, Milo falls in love with a Cuban boy named Marcos and believes the world will end if he pursues this romance after a series of natural disasters occur during their courtship. There are no classics on the list, but there are other edgy recommendations, including Ready Player One, which has explicit descriptions of blow-up sex dolls Online brothels and masturbation. The union also recommends a pair of books by ideologues who argue that America is systemically racist: White Fragility by Robin DiAngelo and Uncomfortable Conversations with a Black Man by Emmanuel Acho. These are listed under books to celebrate or understand Juneteenth. Why not a history book about slavery or the Civil War? Mr. Acho, a former professional basketball player and son of Nigerian immigrants, writes that, quote, we will never achieve a post-racial America as long as the gears of systemic racism continue to churn. Well, He's really had it tough. He came from Nigeria to America and became a professional basketball player. Is that what it said? I'm sorry, football. Yeah, you're right. I do that periodically to check that Sean is listening, and he passed the test today. We will never achieve a post-racial America As long as the gears of systemic racism continue to churn. He's right. Since the only systemic racism is left-wing racism, as long as it continues to churn, we will never achieve a post-racial America. Anyway, they're lying. They don't want a post-racial America. They want an America that is preoccupied with race as long as it takes to dismantle its institutions. He lectures white people, you've likely spent your whole life enjoying the fruits of systemic racism and never having to directly engage with its fallout. What the hell does that mean? So I look at Sean and I think, Sean, Have you spent your whole life enjoying the fruits of systemic racism? And Sean very thoughtfully shook his head. Yep, he gave it some thought and seriously shook his head. Really? So let me think. We have Sean McConnell here, a fine white man, and we have Oprah Winfrey, a fine black woman. Sean has benefited from white racism and she has suffered from white racism. Isn't that obvious? When I think of it, you can tell people anything, and if enough people say it enough times, most people will believe it. Systemic racism, white fragility, men give birth. There is nothing— the most absurd lie you can think of— that will not be believed by vast numbers of people if they hear it often enough. Nothing. You cannot make up something. The left proves it. Ms. D'Angelo sings a similar tune: a racism-free upbringing is not possible because racism is a social system embedded in the culture and its institutions. We are born into this system and have no say in whether we will be affected by it. You can't disprove a word she said because you can't prove a word she said. And they yell at religious people for irrationality. I'm telling you, I'm looking at this National Education Association Great Summer Reads for Educators. I read to you some of the books. It's so, so fascinating. The worthless crap that they have. This is what people should read— the, the sex-drenched, America-hating, drenched books that they, that they're recommending. Really sick people have taken over education in America. You read Christopher Rufo's book That just came out. I'm almost done with you. And you still send your kid to school. It's either because you know your school is not like what he's describing, or because you are willing to gamble your child's whole life that it will not be ruined by the sick people who run our schools in most instances, really sick people. Nice sick people, just for the record. The gamble you take by having your kid go to school in the United States of America today is unbelievable. It's unbelievable that I'm talking this way. It's a gamble to send your child to an American school. Yes, it is. White fragility, genderqueer. Wow, this is, this is for educators and for children and young adults. Wow. For Pride Month in June, the Read Across America committee recommends the young adults book Milo and Marcos at the End of the World. I read to you about this love affair of two boys who come— one of whom comes from a Republican Christian home and thinks God is punishing him. And then looking ahead to July, which is Disability Pride Month, there's another interesting use of the word pride. I've talked about this and I wrote about this. So let's say you have a disability. What does that mean to be proud of it? I didn't understand this about any of the things. Why is— why are you proud to be gay? By the very arguments of LGBTQ, you had no choice in it. So you're proud to be something that you didn't choose to do. There was no achievement involved in it. But the disability one is really remarkable. Or let's say you are— you were in a car accident and you were paralyzed from the waist down. Are you proud of it? Now, you shouldn't be ashamed of it because there's no shame in it, but there's no shame and there's no pride. Now, if you, if you won a wheelchair race— and they are fun to watch, by the way— or wheelchair basketball That, that's, that's different. I totally get it. Then you take pride in an achievement. You accomplish something remarkable, great dexterity while in a wheelchair. But why is the being in a wheelchair— if, if you're disabled by dementia, are you proud of it? The raping of language is one of the characteristics of the left since Stalin. They simply— they change language. Disability pride. I must admit that I never had heard of that until the National Education Association's reading list. So this is July, it's Disability Pride Month. I'm going to look that up. Did anybody here ever hear of that? Disability Pride Month. All right, so I'm going to— I'm Googling that right now. Okay, why and how to celebrate Disability Pride Month 2023. This is put out by the ARC. Okay, it's the first thing that came up, let's put it that way. Disability is a part of the rich tapestry of human diversity. It is? Then why do we want to get rid of it? They— I told you truth is not a left-wing value. Even, even in this, this first sentence is a lie. It's not a part of the rich tapestry of human diversity. We want to get rid of it. If it's part of the rich tapestry of human diversity, then why would we want to get rid of it? You were paralyzed in an accident? Hey, you're part of the rich tapestry of human diversity. Yeah? Your face has scars from third-degree burns? All right. And something that nearly all of us will experience at some point in our lives. Yes, and all of us want to get rid of it. That's why we go to a hospital. That's why we take drugs. This is, this is actually, thanks to the National Education Association, this has been a revelatory moment in my life. Disability Pride Month. God, are you lucky to be in that wheelchair. You are part of the rich tapestry of human diversity. The left lies because truth is not a left-wing value. How did anybody write this lie? It's a great thing. You are contributing to humanity by being disabled. Why would you ever want to undo that condition? My only regret is that your left-wing brother-in-law doesn't hear these broadcasts. Listen to this. I mean, this is it. I, I learned it real time while you were listening that this is Disability Pride Month. So I, I've been looking up these various websites, and the denial of reality is a very big part of leftism. If it's unpleasant, it's an unpleasant reality. Or it's any reality they don't want to acknowledge, they just deny it. So the biggest, or one of the biggest apparently, groups for the disabled, and I salute them for it by the way, is ARC. And what they wrote is about people with, uh, let's see, it's Disability Pride Month. Yep, here we go. So I don't quite understand the word pride, but I, I've asked that a lot. But anyway, so they said it's, it's, it's a great thing in that it's part of the tapestry of human life, but it's the only part of the tapestry of human life everybody who has it wants to get rid of. So it's not a great thing. It's a crappy thing to have a disability. Okay, that's just— that's the way it works in real life. That doesn't mean you get depressed. That doesn't mean you can't be hired. You should be hired. All of those are wonderful things, but don't make— live in a make-believe. It's— there's such a childish aspect to to all of the woke world. Oh, you, you're disabled? Wow. By the way, they say you, they should use— they say you shouldn't say disabled person, but a person with a disability. But listen to this. I guess the ABA, the American Bar Association, didn't get the message. Here it is on the American Bar Association's page. Celebrating Disability Pride Month. The opening line: Disability Pride Month celebrates disabled person— disabled persons. Wow, isn't it persons with disabilities? Like, as I say, they didn't get the memo. Disability Pride Month celebrates disabled persons embracing their disabilities as integral parts of who they are. What does that mean exactly? That's an interesting question. I don't even mean this critically. What does it mean? So let us say you're paralyzed from the waist down. You embrace that disability as an integral part of who you are. But isn't a big part of a positive life with a disability to transcend your disability, not to embrace it? What does it mean? And I mean it sincerely. If you have a disability, call me up. I interviewed the late great Charles Krauthammer. He really did something remarkable given his paralysis. He was basically almost entirely paralyzed. He could move an arm somewhat from the neck down. People didn't know this because he was so brilliant and such an eloquent speaker, and we lost a major voice in the country when he died. But he came out to a PragerU event, what we call a PragerU Gala. We do a few of these a year around the country. And I had a remarkable dialogue with him. I have few regrets in life. One of them is that I never took him up on his offer to attend a Washington Nationals baseball game with him. That's the great Hebrew saying that I learned in first grade. If not now, when? Im lo achav ematai. Yeah, that's such a good, good line. If not now, when? Now I would like to ask him, have you embraced your paralysis? He got this while at Harvard Medical School. He's— he was an MD, and he was a real athlete, dived into a pool and broke his neck. I really wish I could ask him these questions. Did he celebrate Disability Pride Month? 1-800-DENNIS-PRAGER, 776- Hello everybody, welcome to the third hour of the Dennis Prager Show, and I'm Dennis Prager. You realize what a boring life I have led? Let me think about it. When I just said, hi, I'm Dennis Prager, so I've kept my name that I was given at birth. I, I never changed sex or thought that I was a girl. I, I've stayed in the religion that I was born into and raised into. I loved my country. Do you realize it— to many people, that must sound like such an unrich, boring life. I have Julie here, Julie Hartman. The Dennis and Julie podcast is one of the most wonderful things I have ever engaged in in public life. Okay, I just want to say that. You can watch it in a lot of places or listen to it, including, uh, um, Julie's website and including my own, where it says, uh, video. Where do they hear it on yours?

They can go to the Julie Hartman YouTube channel, and it premieres every Monday at 1 o'clock Pacific, 4 PM Eastern, and you can see us in addition to listening to us. You can watch.

In my view, you don't even have to react to this. This is a completely spontaneous, out of left field comment. You have the most wonderful life of any of your fellow Harvard graduates.

Can I react? Yeah, I agree. And you know what, this is, this is worth a Dennis and Julie topic. I have learned more in the past year than I did in all 4 years of college. And, and by the way, I, I did learn a good amount in college. I was very, very selective and careful with the professors I chose and the classes that I chose. But now I've entered a new realm of learning where I can learn for fun. I can just read what I want to read. I don't have to write an essay on every single, you know, symbol in a book that shows up. And it's just— I'm, I'm so happy. I'm so happy. And I think I'm smarter.

Yeah, you are. You are happy and you are smarter. So I opened up the show by saying that it's very sad that I have to say this, I mean, it's been instinctive. I never even thought about it. In any world competition, I've rooted for the American team. In the Olympics, American athletes, and, you know, or American teams like in hockey in the Winter Olympics. Of course I root for the American team. I am not rooting. I'm rooting against the women's soccer team. I hope they lose. If you would have told me 10 years ago, Dennis, you will announce that you hope an American team will lose in world competition, I would have thought you were high on some substance. Are you aware of why I'm saying this?

Megan Rapinoe is one reason.

I know. Yes, she is. What are the others? Oh, that the majority of the players won't sing the national anthem when it's played. The Daily Mail did a contrast. The US team played the Dutch team, Netherlands team, yesterday. It ended up a 1-1 tie. It's too bad Holland didn't win. And it showed the gusto that every member of the Netherlands team sang their national anthem while swaying arm in arm. I have the chills as I tell you this. And ours looked as if a funeral dirge. For their best friend were being played, with some exception.

It's utterly disgraceful. What I would like to ask those players, why do you go and play for Team USA if you hate the USA so much?

Well, they, they could answer, who are we going to play for?

Well, you should stand on principle. If you think that this country is so awful and racist and homophobic and defective, you, you're, you're principle of not playing for such a team should trump your desire to play the sport?

That it's a great challenge. They obviously, you know, want— they want the benefits of being American without saluting America. Right.

That's what half of the country wants.

Yeah, it's— but the contrast, and as I mentioned earlier, the contrast with the Dutch team is so dramatic, and they can do the same thing in the Netherlands. They, they can talk about the Dutch were imperialists, they were big imperialists, the Dutch. Why, why can't they, uh, be anti their own country?

Does the German team sing the national anthem with gusto and glee? I bet they do. What about the Japanese? Somehow, yeah. Chinese? Shall I go on? Argentinians, Brazilians, Cubans?

The Spaniards, they— Persians! They colonized all of South America and Latin America. The only thing the British colonized was Canada and the US.

Do African teams sing their national anthem when in over half of Africa's 54 countries homosexuality is criminalized, including in many cases the death penalty? But we know we shouldn't sing our national anthem. It's, it's just awful. And you know, Dennis, it's sad because I love watching sports with my dad. We actually watched the game last night and it was really fun. I did not know, however, that most of the players don't sing the national anthem. Now that I know that, I don't think I'll watch and root for them. But it's so sad because sports used to be that one area of life where you would see meritocracy on full display. There's no affirmative action in the US women's soccer team. And now it's so hopelessly corrupted by wokeism. I mean, do you remember back in 2020?

By the way, just don't forget the 2020 point. Can you name— this is not rhetorical— can you name an area of life the left has not perverted? No. I can't. Even if we had a minute of silence, do you think I've actually thought about this?

I've thought about this. I can't. Art, they've ruined music, they've ruined sports, politics, education, medicine, the rule of law.

The irony is there's no safe space, right? That's the irony. Sports was a safe space. Yes, it was. You did not know if the guy next to you at your Chicago White Sox game, you did not know if the guy's politics—

it didn't matter. Didn't matter.

You were rooting for the White Sox. Mm-hmm.

What I was going to say is, do you remember in 2020 during the Black Lives Matter riots, protests, mostly peaceful protests, as CNN would lyingly call them, the NBA teams stitched like equality, Black Lives Matter, justice.

Of course.

Slave laborers in China or God knows where else stitched them. But I stopped watching basketball, which again, I used to love doing with my dad. It's a way for us to bond. I was so disgusted because everything was just a reminder. Every player that the camera zoomed in on, it just reminded me of the wokeism. And it's really done a number, I think, to the American spirit, not just the wokeism itself, but corrupting sports, which to your Brilliant point was a way of bringing us all together regardless of race, gender, political affiliation. It's a great loss.

It is. I'll tell you though, it would be very nice if the word got out like it did with Bud Light. Don't watch the women's soccer team play. I know if the ratings of those games went down like Bud Light did. You're right.

But the sad thing is, what do we watch anymore? I don't like watching a lot of TV shows because of wokeism. Terrible. Don't like watching sports.

I don't go to museums. We're making an alter— we're making an alternate world. The, the, the right, right. Really not the right, the non-left, because liberals are completely welcome in our world, but not— but leftists have obviously would have no desire because anything they enter, they, like termites, just chew up. I, I really think— I wish, I wish I could spread the idea that the women's soccer team is Bud Light. That— did you read the latest with Bud Light? They just— I mean, I feel bad actually. They've gotten rid of 2% of their workforce. They're losing Tens of billions of dollars. I— is the target working? Target? I, I'm more interested in hurting Target than Bud because of what they've done in their displays. But you're right, I mean, who's left?

Very few options. Very few options is right. Books, maybe that's not a bad thing. Get us all back to reading.

Well, we have— the truth is America is the most poisoned by the left. Look at the Netherlands. And then the Netherlands is poisoned by the left, but not— but doesn't get as far as their sports teams. On the other hand, we have the most robust right on earth. There's nothing comparable to what we have. Talk radio is an example. Just, it's a very big example. People should not take it for granted. All right, everybody. I'm going to continue, uh, when we come back. I— this— National Review is doing a great service by highlighting the stories of young people who regret that they transitioned. It's heartbreaking. So periodically, on the third hour of my show, I have Julie Hartman, with whom I do a weekly podcast. Cast. We've now done more than 70. And I was reading a piece, if I can find it now. Where is it? Does this happen to you every so often?

Respectfully, I can't say it does.

Well, why is that engendering so much laughter on Sean's part? Yes. Okay, so, okay, you showed me up, which is totally fine. I have no issue with it. There was a piece in the, uh, a piece, a depressing piece in the Wall Street Journal. I, I pretty much have it in my brain that they're now closing beauty salons in Afghanistan. Did you see that?

I did, yes. It was in the editorial section.

And yes, and What the author who has written a book about an Afghan woman— anything that celebrates femininity is being shattered. But do you know what I was thinking when I read the article? There are many parallels between the Taliban and the American left. They're not thrilled when, when women beautify themselves. They think that's part of the heteronormativity patriarchy. When I, when I was your age, that was the bra burning, don't shave your legs, don't shave your armpits, uh, movement of feminism. You're doing that just to look good, and that that serves men.

As a young woman, I can tell you that there is a kind of style that's in vogue among females where it's cool to look a little dirty, like physically a little dirty, like unkept, chipped nails, um, saggy, maybe not ironed or washed clothing. Kind of have your hair messy up in a bun. I mean, when I say dirty, I don't mean people like want to have dirt or, you know, be unsanitary. But, but don't shave your, your armpits. That is increasingly a style. And people think that it's defiant and cool. But whenever I see young women wearing those things or looking that way, I think about Norman Cousins' quote, They wear the uniform of non-conformity. That's a great line. Uniform of defiance. And it can't really be defiance if everyone is wearing the same thing. I know, I know.

I'm debating whether to praise you. I am. I'm really—

Oh, just do it. Okay. No, I'm kidding.

I know that. I know that. I know you were kidding.

Well, a bitter disposition because their entire worldview is based on grievance. Yeah, someone wronging you.

It's not the route to happiness. Nope. So anyway, I thought of the Taliban and I thought of the— listen, they got rid of the swimsuit competition in the Miss America contest. Did you know that? It's one of the only countries in the world that doesn't have a swimsuit component to its own competition in that. And I mentioned, I mean, I have not seen the Miss America contest since I lived in my parents' house as a kid. So I don't have a vested interest in the Miss America contest. I have a vested interest, however, in the totalitarian and anti-feminine aspects of of the left wing, of leftism. So the, as I pointed out, this is a great example of the left being a substitute religion. When Judeo-Christian norms existed in America, there was no issue with the swimsuit competition. How come religious Americans had no issue with the swimsuit secular left Americans do? Are you asking me? Yeah. Isn't that interesting? Or just saying it?

Well, it's been captured by ideology. The swimsuit competition used to not—

But it's Taliban-like ideology. That's my point. The Taliban don't allow swimsuits. They don't even allow dresses.

I think that the Taliban's ideology there is more trying to oppress and disenfranchise women, prevent them from going out and working in a salon, interacting with one another in a salon. I think the left is more about the femininity, heteronormativity. I agree with you, but the article was with the anti-femininity aspect.

Back in a moment, Dennis Prager, Julie Hartman with me. Did you happen to hear me read the National Education Association's suggested reading list for the summer? No.

It has. Thank God I am in some sort of little conservative island in the middle of Westchester County. It's actually unbelievable how little it hasn't pervaded us, but I see it all the time. And it's— when we were discussing books that we would teach last year, everything was about the very things that you've talked about, about identifying what the students You know, ethnicity or skin color or gender affiliation or things. Nothing about teaching, you know, great literature first. And, you know, I try to fight it all the time. And I mean, I'm there 26 years. There's little they can do to me at this point. That's one great thing about tenure. But it's an uphill battle. Everyone in the very departments that I work with fight me tooth and nail.

And that's in the conservative— what you call the conservative island in Westchester County. Yeah.

Well, to say conservative island in Westchester is not much more than saying a conservative island in Manhattan.

I mean, it's, you know, so, yes, it's sort of like— let me think of another analogy. It's like a cold spot on the equator, but a cold spot on the equator It's still hot. When I bring these things to people's attention on an almost daily basis, am I right in assuming that— I'm asking you, Julie, because I want to bounce this off somebody. When I tell people the gamble it is to send their children to an American school today, and, and the vast majority of course continue to send their kids to these schools, so here are the options of reasons. One, they actually are leftist themselves. Okay, but that's a small percentage. Another option of answer, I think a lot don't know.

That's definitely true.

I think that's a big factor, and they don't want to know. Well, that's a third category. Oh, there's no question. The, the biggest part of not knowing is not wanting to know. The, uh, and the other is, I know, I don't like it, but it won't ruin my child's life. So we'll talk about that. The reasons people send their kids to a regular American school. If you have another reason and you're a parent, I'd be very curious to hear it. 1-800-PRAGER-776. 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.