In this YouTube call‑in segment, host Dennis Prager engages with a caller, Biff from Orange County, about the confusing public health messaging surrounding COVID‑19 vaccination and mask‑wearing. Prager argues that the president and vice‑president, despite being vaccinated, continue to wear masks, sending the message that vaccination does not change behavior, which he deems contradictory and misleading. The conversation expands into a broader indictment of American institutions—FBI, CIA, the American Medical Association, Scientific American, public and private schools—claiming they have been corrupted and lost credibility. Prager then shifts to his personal interest in classical music, reading a New York Times piece on the late conductor James Levine. He critiques Levine’s reluctance to program new operas, using it as a springboard to denounce modern music criticism that pushes diversity quotas over artistic standards. Throughout, Prager juxtaposes Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony with Indonesian gamelan, defending the superiority of the Western canon while acknowledging his appreciation for world music. The segment blends political commentary, cultural criticism, and personal anecdotes, maintaining a confrontational and skeptical tone.
Biff in Orange County, California. Hello.
Hello. Good morning, Dennis. Nice to talk to you. I, I'm a conservative from Orange County, but I do have one theory that might explain it, uh, even though I don't believe it, but it would be the general public. Not everybody knows that they are vaccinated. Maybe some people don't. And so to comply with the law, even though the laws are ridiculous and to be safe, even though the science is minimal, They don't want to send the wrong message to the general public who may not know that both of them have been vaccinated.
It's a very excellent explanation. I think that there's merit to that. There's merit to your explanation. There's not a merit to what they did. And so I salute you. I'll tell you what message they're conveying. You're an idiot if you get vaccinated. That's the message of the president and vice president who are vaccinated and still wearing masks. See, folks, nothing changes once you're vaccinated. There you go. That's the message. If you have— if you could read any different message with regard to vaccine, the vaccine, any vaccine, and they're wearing masks afterwards, and Dr. Fauci turns out to be a bigger fool almost on a weekly basis. I have no antipathy to him personally, but that he guides a nation into the dark, as he has, he will look, he will be a symptom of the sickness pervading this country and its medical establishment when historians, should historians actually write objective history at some point, and the entire historical writing process now taken over by the left, which is a danger certainly in your lifetime. But eventually, I think things do get written and balance the record. Yep, look at that. The vice president and I got vaccinated and we're still wearing masks. Nothing has changed. 'But hey, get vaccinated.' People— it's amazing— people accept this message. Every— to the best of my knowledge, virtually every— I said every, but I have to leave room for the possibility of an exception, but I can't think of an exception. There may well be. Every institution has been essentially destroyed in its credibility. We have a corruption that I never knew existed in the United States of America. FBI, CIA, the AMA, Journal of the American Medical Association, the scientist establishment in general, Scientific American. Public schools, elementary schools, private schools, colleges. I mean, it's unbelievable. The forces of anarchy and chaos have destroyed it all. Talking about that, I want to read to you something. I, as you know, am very involved in classical music. I conduct orchestras periodically and I study it constantly and so on. So listen to this New York Times article about one of the leading— the death of one of the leading conductors of the last generation, James Levine. He was the conductor, among other places, of the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra. So their chief music critic Dennis Prager, whom I have criticized in the past for— he's the guy who said Beethoven's Third, what are you crazy? There's gamelan music. Who are we to say Beethoven's Third is any better than Indonesian gamelan music? So I've played for you gamelan music on a number of occasions on the show and I have great respect for— I actually love the music of different nations. I do. But Beethoven's Third is on a different level. Anyway, so I read his whole long piece on James Levine. Now listen to this, these two sentences here, three sentences. You would think a music director would be eager to put his name on new works. To prod his company to foster the future. But during a 2013 interview with Charlie Rose, Levine pushed back against the suggestion that the Metropolitan Opera should present a new opera each season. Quote, "I wish I really thought there was a new opera good enough for the Met every year," he said. It was a dismaying comment. You know how much I read to find this gem? It was a dismaying comment. The man is in charge of the most prestigious opera company in the Western Hemisphere, the Metropolitan Opera in New York City. He didn't put on a new opera every year like the New York Times prods him to— music critics are another— they're like the sportswriters. One is more woke than the other. I think if you're not a fool, I don't think you can advance in either profession. So the music critics push people, oh, we need more women composers, oh, we need more black composers, oh, we need more black oboe players. Which is fine, but you can't drop standards in order to achieve your end. So that's what he said. Look, I wish there was a great new opera every year, but there isn't. And that, he said, it was a dismaying comment. Do you like this term? They're great on terminology. Foster the future. Do you know how you foster the future? Mr. Tomassini of the New York Times, by giving young people the greatest works of the past.
