Dennis Prager argues that the left relies on falsehoods rather than truth, citing examples like claims of systemic racism, Israel as apartheid, and transgender athletes in women's sports. He traces how lies have enabled historical atrocities from slavery to the Holocaust, contending that societies built on comforting illusions about human goodness collapse under the weight of reality.
It's one of the reasons— there are so many reasons— Mao's China, Stalin's Soviet Union, Pol Pot's Cambodia, the staggering amount of torture of human beings in almost every society— that I have such an anger. You would think I wouldn't be angry about people adults who believe that human nature is basically good. And I think, are you aware of what has happened? And some are, and they still say that because they want to believe it. I'm thinking a lot. I'm thinking— not aloud now, I'm thinking aloud. I was thinking quietly. About writing something brief called Lessons from a Life Lived. One of the big lessons is most people believe what they want to believe. They don't ask, is it true? They ask, really, what do I want to believe? For some reason, people want to believe that people are basically good. A lot of people want to believe that. I, I have, I have no wants in this matter. I only want to know what is true, because if I want to believe something that isn't true, I'm actually making the human condition worse. Is that not obvious? So why would you want to believe something? Why would that even be an operative element? You want to believe it. I want— I visited China a number of occasions. I want to believe I speak Chinese. Now, if I said that to you, you'd think, what are you, out of your mind? You don't speak Chinese. Oh, but I want to. I want to believe that I speak Chinese. Okay, but if you want to believe it and you're in rural China in need of medicine You might die because you wouldn't know how to say, "I need medicine." You want to believe people are basically good? First of all, I don't even know why do people want to believe that. What comfort does it give you? I would think it'd make you more miserable if people are basically good and there's all this horrible, horrible behavior. People are basically good, but in every society in history, there's been slavery. And sometimes the conditions— I mean, like, like everything else, there are gradations of evil. At its best, it's evil, but at its worst, it's horrific. It's sadism. It's legal sadism. When you— people are basically good, but, but people enjoyed watching, uh, cats get burned alive. This was a, uh, a book on medieval Europe that I was reading, and just in passing they mentioned how the royalty would, would watch cats burned alive, and it would they would just laugh themselves silly while munching on some wonderful meal. People are basically good. I mean, back to the origins. Yesterday was Holocaust Memorial Day. If you read what has happened with these people, aberrations. Now, I don't believe people are basically evil, because if we were basically evil, we couldn't be good. We wouldn't want to be good. I think we have— we can do either. We have free will. But it's basically— good is ridiculous. How often did you tell your child, say thank you? If we were basically good, you'd only have to tell your child once, twice, three times, and then your child would realize, oh, of course, it's the right thing to do, to express gratitude. But did your, uh, did your child say that? Why did you have to say, say thank you a thousand times? Very possibly more than a thousand, if we're basically good. But as I said, people believe what they want to believe. Truth is everything. It is hard to imagine that a society rooted just in truth will be a bad society. It really is. It's hard to believe. I can't imagine it. There are many things that are needed to produce good people and a good society, but that's the pillar— truth. And the left is the world of the lie. Because you don't ask, is it true? Like, Israel's committing genocide. That is, that's the contemporary example. America's systemically racist. Men give birth. The enormity of the lies. It's fair for a man to compete against women. Where did this just happen? Oh, just— the— this issue arose, well, in some— in some school or town, and the, uh— it eludes me for the moment, but I was amazed at how many people were angry at this, this public official who said that it's not right for men to compete against women just because they say they're a woman. You're a hater, transphobic. I mean, those— the very notions, you see, that they don't say you're not telling the truth. They say you're a hater. They say you're transphobic. But of course it's the truth. It's not fair if a man competes against women. It's irrelevant that he says he's a woman. Irrelevant. Truth. The motto of Harvard is truth. Veritas. There was a time in American history when it was realized truth was everything. That's why that's a one-word motto. And who has it? One of the other colleges, uh, has Lux et Veritas. Was it light and truth? Are you aware of that? Take a look. Lux, L-U-X, et Veritas. I think it's another Ivy League college that has that. There was a pursuit of truth. Look, slavery was built on a lie, the lie that the Black human beings are inferior. Yale. Yale. Yeah, I thought so. And, and of course Yale is the one with the, the Hebrew from the Hebrew Bible, the The breastplate of the high priest. Can you imagine that? Other than a few religious Jewish students at the college, does anybody at Yale know what their insignia is about? I'm amazed that they haven't objected to it. Just amazed. Hmm. The whole Holocaust was based on the lie. The whole anti-Israel thing today is based on a lie. Israel's an apartheid state. It's just a lie. The Palestinian— 2 million Palestinian Arabs live in Israel, full citizens. Did blacks live as full citizens in South Africa? We have a video on that too, from a black South African member of the South African Parliament. He went to Israel to see, is there truth to the charge that Israel is an apartheid state? He lived under apartheid, he would know. And he came back and said, this is a big lie. For how many years did the New York Times and Washington Post and CNN and NPR lie about Russian collusion with the Trump campaign? Campaign. 51 members of the intelligence community signed a letter saying that the Hunter Biden laptop was probably Russian disinformation a month before the 2020 national election. They asked, how do we make it easier for Biden to win? They didn't ask what is true. What is true has to be the first question before every other thing. For the full episode of The Dennis Prager Show, go to pragertopia.com, sign up, and become a full member.
Life, Legacy, and a Dangerous Mission in the Soviet Union | Sunday Fireside Chat
