Relatable with Allie Beth Stuckey - March 01, 2021


Ep 377 ｜ 'The Bachelor' Cancel Queen Gets Canceled


Episode Stats

Length

48 minutes

Words per Minute

175.79025

Word Count

8,466

Sentence Count

511

Misogynist Sentences

11

Hate Speech Sentences

16


Summary


Transcript

00:00:00.000 Hey guys, welcome to Relatable. Happy Monday. Hope everyone had a wonderful weekend. It
00:00:14.040 is March 1st, which is just crazy. I feel like I say this at the beginning of every
00:00:19.960 month, but man, time just goes by fast. For those of you who have been asking for a personal
00:00:25.560 update from me, which I get requests for all the time and I hardly ever satisfy those requests
00:00:31.580 because that's not necessarily what this show is about. I'm not a lifestyle influencer and I don't
00:00:38.940 really talk about personal stuff all that much, but I am doing well. I am very, very pregnant and
00:00:45.640 will be giving birth here in a few weeks, but never you worry. We have all kinds of wonderful
00:00:52.120 episodes, wonderful interviews that have already been recorded and prepared for you that will come
00:00:57.220 out starting at the end of April and will continue into May. And so you are not going to be left alone.
00:01:04.880 I promise I will not abandon you. If you were here during my last maternity leave, you know that I
00:01:11.160 really prioritize getting episodes and getting content out to you guys and making sure that
00:01:16.040 your time is spent productively when you're listening to Relatable. And that is even when
00:01:21.660 I am taking a break to birth and care for a child. So thank you to all of you who have been asking.
00:01:29.020 Thank you to all of you who have been praying. I appreciate that. I covet your prayers, of course,
00:01:34.480 during this time, but our family, we are doing well. So thank you. Thank you so much. All right.
00:01:40.960 Today, we're going to talk about a few things. We're going to talk about this controversy,
00:01:46.840 this Bachelor controversy. And as some of you, you might not be interested in what happens with
00:01:52.820 The Bachelor. I'm not necessarily interested with what happens with The Bachelor, but I think that it
00:01:58.560 is actually a good representation of the craziness and the constant contradictions of cancel culture
00:02:08.140 culture and of woke social justice, performative activism culture. And I think that we can learn
00:02:15.180 lots of lessons from it. We're also going to talk a little bit about Trump's speech that he delivered
00:02:22.160 at CPAC. This was the first time that people got to hear him on a public platform like that,
00:02:27.680 have gotten to hear him in a really long time. And so people were super excited about it. And so
00:02:31.960 we're going to talk about that. I was going to talk about the Golden Globes,
00:02:34.860 and we were going to talk just in general about kind of political and celebrity idolatry today,
00:02:40.200 but we're not going to talk about that. There's really not that much to talk about with the
00:02:43.500 Golden Globes. Maybe there's some controversies that I missed, but to be perfectly honest,
00:02:48.480 I haven't watched an award show in a very long time. And the last time I did watch an award show,
00:02:53.420 it was just to see whether or not there were going to be political statements made about Donald Trump,
00:02:58.080 which now that Donald Trump is in an office, they don't have any jokes to tell.
00:03:01.800 They don't have anything funny to say or interesting to say, because unfortunately for a lot of
00:03:06.940 those people, disliking Donald Trump has become their personality. It's become the most interesting
00:03:12.180 thing about them. It's become even their sign of virtue. And now that Donald Trump is gone,
00:03:16.400 they have nothing interesting to say. So Golden Globes, not quite as exciting. It's very interesting
00:03:23.380 how much Trump seems to affect so many spheres in our society without even trying to, but because
00:03:31.780 the people who hate him so much want him to be center stage so they can use him as a way to show
00:03:38.080 their virtue and morality and personality. He has become the star of a variety of these cultural
00:03:47.160 institutions like award shows. So nothing really to say about the Golden Globes. Y'all don't really care,
00:03:53.380 I'm sure, that much about the Golden Globes either. Does anyone really care about it? The only thing I
00:03:57.340 guess they care about is if Ricky Gervais says something funny at the expense of celebrities.
00:04:01.840 All right, let's talk about this Bachelor-Taylor Nolan controversy. Some of you might not know what
00:04:08.800 I'm talking about, but like I said, I think it's actually important to look into this because it speaks
00:04:13.440 to a larger moment in our culture. And as Christians in particular, I think there are lessons that we
00:04:18.760 can draw from everything that's going on. So first, let me back up a little bit. You can go to episode,
00:04:24.360 I think it's 369, and we will link it in the description of this episode. But there has been
00:04:30.720 controversy and drama surrounding The Bachelor. Contestants, old pictures of hers were uncovered
00:04:38.460 where she was at this Old South Kappa Alpha party at Georgia State University. And she was wearing like
00:04:45.420 this big, you know, antebellum hoop skirt thing. And apparently she had liked a picture with a
00:04:51.660 Confederate flag in it. And there were a couple other things that people were calling this contestant
00:04:57.020 a racist. Chris Harrison, who has been the host of The Bachelor since its inception, so I think like
00:05:02.080 20 years, did an interview on Extra with Rachel Lindsay, who also I think used to be a contestant of
00:05:09.640 The Bachelor and also is like this social justice activist person who is constantly talking about
00:05:16.200 all that kind of stuff. Interviewed him and Chris Harrison defended this contestant and said, look,
00:05:21.000 like we don't know that she's a racist. This was in 2018. We have different standards today. I think
00:05:25.740 that we just need to, we don't need to be harassing this girl. We don't need to be harassing this
00:05:31.300 contestant. Apparently people had doxxed her parents, had found out how her parents voted,
00:05:37.300 and were just trying to take her down. And Chris Harrison just said, look, we need a little
00:05:42.220 bit of grace. We need a little bit of understanding. Well, not only did Rachel Lindsay not like that,
00:05:47.880 but apparently a large swath of the internet didn't like that. And so Chris Harrison ended up
00:05:53.420 apologizing twice, using all of the anti-racist Ibram X Kendi, Robin DiAngelo language to say that he was
00:06:01.040 sorry that he shouldn't have, he shouldn't have said, I guess, to give this contestant grace and
00:06:08.740 that we, I guess, shouldn't have understanding because he said that he had harmed people by,
00:06:13.980 you know, giving an excuse to the pictures and that he is now on this anti-racist journey to do
00:06:19.040 better. He's taking a step back from The Bachelor and he is not hosting after the final rose, which is
00:06:26.140 like the culmination of each season where they kind of go back and they, they, they look at what
00:06:31.380 happened throughout the season. Now it's going to be Emmanuel Akko. I think that's how you, or Akko,
00:06:37.060 that's how you pronounce his last name. And he is a guy who has been hosting, um, I think it's
00:06:42.400 conversations with a black man, mostly on Instagram over the past few months since the George Floyd
00:06:47.760 incident happened. And so I think that they felt that, you know, he was a good pick for hosting after
00:06:54.340 the final rose. Emmanuel Akko is the same, I think, as most social justice activists. He perpetuates,
00:07:01.800 um, narratives that we've talked about on this show. I do not think are actually factual, but I'm sure
00:07:08.600 he's a nice person. I'm sure he will be a good host, but it hasn't been enough for some people that
00:07:14.120 Chris Harrison said, I'm going to take a step back and I'm going to go on this anti-racist journey,
00:07:18.320 blah, blah, blah. Um, it is not enough because they want him to be fired. They want him to be
00:07:25.740 taken down. They don't think that he should be the host of the bachelor anymore. Again, not because he
00:07:29.740 said or did anything racist, but because, uh, he said that people should give grace and understanding
00:07:37.500 to the contestant that had been doxxed and harassed, um, and, uh, insulted because of past pictures that
00:07:47.320 people deemed racist. That is why people are calling for Chris Harrison to be fired from the
00:07:52.980 bachelor. And one of the loudest voices in, uh, being, uh, in this whole thing to, for Chris Harrison
00:08:00.380 to be fired from the bachelor is a previous contestant, Taylor Nolan. So she was on this,
00:08:07.880 the bachelor in 2017. She was on season four of bachelor in paradise. And since then she has been able
00:08:14.640 to build a platform with hundreds of thousands of followers, she has a podcast where she talks about
00:08:19.860 all of these woke subjects and racism, especially how terrible, uh, white people and whiteness and
00:08:27.340 whiteness is. And, um, how, you know, we have to be anti-racist activists. She talks about body
00:08:35.000 positivity and self-love in every single woke social justice activism thing that you can think of.
00:08:45.720 She is talking about, and she purports to be an expert on, and she has been extremely loud in
00:08:53.660 calling for the firing of Chris Harrison. She has said, just because you don't think something was
00:08:58.780 racist in the past doesn't mean that it's not racist. So we have to quote, hold people accountable
00:09:03.320 for that. We have to call people out for that. She has just been vicious against this past contestant.
00:09:08.300 She has been vicious against Chris Harrison, just relentless in calling for his firing and calling
00:09:13.600 for his taking down. Well, it was found out that 10 years ago, she tweeted a variety of very
00:09:20.240 objectively offensive tweets about Asian people, um, about Indian people, about Jewish people. Um,
00:09:28.540 there were some, uh, slurs against gay people that she used against fat people. Uh, and so she had a
00:09:36.580 lot of very, just nasty tweets, like very cruel, very mean tweets about, uh, different kinds of groups
00:09:45.200 of people. And so people are calling her out for this and saying, look, you can't pretend to be this
00:09:52.220 expert on love and inclusion and tolerance and anti-racism. When obviously you were kind of
00:09:59.800 harboring these feelings and these kinds of perspectives in your heart and mind, even though
00:10:06.160 they were 10 years ago, people are calling her out and people are insulting her and all of that kind
00:10:11.320 of stuff. And so she came out and she apologized kind of, she said, look, these tweets were bad. I
00:10:17.760 shouldn't have done it, but listen to this. She said, the reason that she did it is because of
00:10:24.020 whiteness, because she is half black, half white, and she was centering her whiteness. She says, look,
00:10:29.960 I'm just a product of my environment. I live in this, you know, capital, capitalist, racist society too.
00:10:36.560 And so I just had basically, she, I'm summarizing, internalized all of these toxic kind of mindsets
00:10:44.200 from the pervasively white capitalistic society in which we live. So basically I'm a victim of all
00:10:53.440 of this stuff. And I was speaking as a victim of white supremacy and whiteness and capitalism and
00:10:59.040 the patriarchy and, and fat phobia, she said, and all of these things. And that's why I said that.
00:11:04.380 And I, I shouldn't have said it, but look, other people have said racist stuff too. And she basically
00:11:10.020 said, just because I did something bad, doesn't mean that I can't call out other people for doing
00:11:14.200 things bad. And this is why I'm doing this work because I used to have these bad, terrible thoughts
00:11:19.320 too. And so I am working to push against this kind of stuff, blah, blah, blah. She never took full
00:11:25.880 responsibility for it. She kept on shifting the blame to quote society, which I've noticed a lot of
00:11:32.760 people on the left like to do. I often say that leftism gets human nature wrong. It views humans as
00:11:40.000 just products of our environment, as these malleable objects that can be formed and reformed based on
00:11:48.080 the, you know, on the dominant powers in society. And that's just not true. We have nature as well
00:11:55.640 that is not malleable, that is not changeable based on what the people in power want or based on what
00:12:01.500 society says things should be. And so it's a very convenient excuse for someone like Taylor Nolan to
00:12:09.740 just say, look, I'm a victim too, as a woman of color. And I was speaking as a victim and it's
00:12:16.080 still, uh, they're white people are still to blame here. It's a very convenient excuse. And it actually
00:12:22.280 fits perfectly into the worldview of critical race theory, which we've talked about so much, which
00:12:27.500 views the world as white versus black white corresponds with bad and the oppressor, uh, nonwhite
00:12:34.180 corresponds with the oppressed and good. Therefore anyone on the side of the oppressed is never going
00:12:42.040 to be held responsible in the same way that someone on the white slash oppressor side is going to.
00:12:48.120 And you can see how that kind of mentality is so unbiblical because we will all stand before God as
00:12:54.560 individuals. And we're not going to be based on our skin color. We're not going to be based on whether
00:12:58.780 or not we were categorized as the oppressed or the oppressor based on our race or based on our sexuality
00:13:04.720 or based on our gender. We are going to be held to account for the things that we say and the things
00:13:10.400 that we do now for us who are in Christ, those of us who are believers, like our slate has been wiped
00:13:17.200 clean. We have been eternally forgiven forever. Uh, we do not get into heaven based on what we've done
00:13:25.360 or based on what we've said. Um, but rather because of Jesus's righteousness, which by grace through
00:13:32.840 faith, he has given to us through his death and resurrection, all of those who, uh, believe in
00:13:38.900 him. So, uh, the fact of the matter is, is that this kind of mentality, this kind of critical race
00:13:46.000 mentality, which Nolan is so perfectly exemplifying here, it not only does not correspond with reality or
00:13:54.520 any kind of morality, but it also doesn't correspond with any kind of biblical truth. Like you don't
00:14:00.260 get off the hook just because of your skin color, just because you are a product of your environment,
00:14:05.740 or just because you want to blame this kind of intangible, non-quantifiable idea of whiteness
00:14:13.700 that you say has affected you and has caused you to be a mean person. Unfortunately, I think that so
00:14:19.240 many people in this world have lost the art of apology because they don't think that they actually need
00:14:24.080 to apologize. And so rather than taking responsibility, they put their responsibility
00:14:29.260 on other people. The lesson that I think that we can draw from all of this, because apparently she's
00:14:36.320 still getting insulted. She's still getting dragged. People are still swarming her comments. They're still
00:14:41.640 trying to cancel her. Of course, they're rightfully calling her a hypocrite for all of this. I think the
00:14:47.740 lesson that we can learn is that no amount of wokeness is going to save you. No amount of wokeness
00:14:54.060 is going to insulate you from cancellation. It's never going to be enough. You can listen and learn
00:15:00.560 all you want to. You can say that you're reading the right things. You can say the right things. You
00:15:04.480 can repeat the right rhetoric. You can be on the front lines of social justice activism. You can post
00:15:10.480 the black square, post the right things on social media. No matter what you do, you are still going to
00:15:18.520 end up with the pitchforks in your face. Because the very same mob that you have worked into a frenzy
00:15:25.720 in the past to rage towards other people, they're going to redirect their frenzy and their rage
00:15:33.400 towards you. That's just what happens. You've created this monster, and you can't be surprised
00:15:38.520 when the monster turns around and attacks you. That's what cancel culture is. Cancel culture is
00:15:44.720 a bunch of people hoping that joining the cancel mob is going to protect them from being canceled or
00:15:52.500 condemned or criticized. And it's just not. She is as mainstream and as left-wing as it comes
00:16:01.780 on every single issue. And the rage mob still turned their backs on her. And she asked for it in some
00:16:11.500 ways, like if you play with fire, you're going to get burned. If you point out the log or the speck
00:16:16.900 in someone else's eye, you can't be surprised when someone turns around and points out the log in
00:16:22.640 your eye. And so she certainly in some ways has helped add to the chaos that is now surrounding her
00:16:34.500 and that has now made a victim of her and she doesn't like it. And look, I don't think that she
00:16:40.420 should be canceled for her past tweets. I don't think that she should be harassed. I don't think
00:16:44.880 that she should be taken down. I don't think that her advertisers on her podcast should be targeted
00:16:49.280 because I think cancelers should be taught their lesson through kindness rather than cruelty.
00:16:54.500 And I know it's very tempting to get satisfaction out of seeing someone like that, a hypocrite like
00:17:00.380 that, get a taste of their own medicine. But at the end of the day, I still don't want her to be
00:17:06.780 canceled because I don't like the idea of this mutually assured destruction when it comes to
00:17:12.940 cancel culture. There are two kind of paths that I think conservatives take when it comes to what
00:17:18.840 we're seeing in cancel culture. So like a conservative like Gina Carano, if you can consider
00:17:23.180 her a conservative, getting fired for saying something that really wasn't very controversial,
00:17:28.120 especially in comparison to what some of her co-stars had said on The Mandalorian on their social
00:17:35.260 media and they're perfectly fine. So when conservatives look at that, there are two
00:17:39.680 paths that we can take. Or when conservatives look at something like this whole Taylor Nolan
00:17:44.200 situation, either you can say, OK, mutually assured destruction. If you people on the left,
00:17:49.820 if you're going to cancel us, if you're going to cancel people for past mistakes or things that
00:17:54.720 they have said or done that you don't like 10 years ago, whenever it was, then we're going to do
00:17:59.020 the same to you and we're going to take you down too. If these are the rules of the game that you
00:18:04.400 have set, then we'll play by the rules. But understand, we know how to play this game too.
00:18:08.980 And you are not going to like it. You're not going to like it when we apply your ruthless,
00:18:14.960 vicious standards that you have set to you. You're not going to like the consequences of it. So
00:18:20.640 that is that's that's one option that people say, OK, you're going to take us down. We're going to take
00:18:27.740 you down. You're going to dig up our past tweets. We're going to dig up your past tweets.
00:18:31.720 And all these people that you on the left have worked into a rage and worked into a frenzy.
00:18:37.800 We're going to stick them back on you if you do that to us. And so you can either stop or we can
00:18:44.660 keep going and everyone is just destroyed. Now, that's one option. I don't like that option because
00:18:52.240 I don't think it creates a good society. Maybe eventually people would learn their lesson,
00:18:58.020 but I think it creates a lot of vengeance, a lot of resentment, a lot of hate, a lot of bitterness
00:19:04.120 that could lead potentially to violence, even more violence in our country. And that's not
00:19:10.040 something that I want. And I also don't think that that's Christlike. I think that the Christian
00:19:14.460 response, which is the response that is so unsatisfying to our flesh, and I very much understand
00:19:21.120 because I don't like bullies. And of course, my propensity is to want bullies to be bullied.
00:19:27.420 I really, I hate bullies. I think I can say that. I think I can say I hate bullies because I really
00:19:33.080 do hate bullies. And so I'm with you. If you are someone who sees this situation and you're like,
00:19:37.540 oh, you just want her to get what she has dealt out to other people, I get it. But I think that so
00:19:43.700 often the response that Christ calls us to is the response that is so difficult and so
00:19:49.340 unsatisfying to our flesh, and yet he tells us is good and right. And I think that that is the
00:19:55.460 response that says, look, I can't cancel you, Taylor Nolan, or whoever is involved here, because God
00:20:04.440 in Christ chose not to cancel me. God could have canceled me eternally, but he chose not to in Jesus
00:20:11.480 Christ. And therefore, I do not have the ability, I do not have the place to be able to cancel
00:20:19.340 cancel you. Because God could have canceled me. He had every right to cancel me as the God of the
00:20:25.500 universe is this perfect holy being. But he chose not to in Christ, not because I'm good, not because
00:20:31.100 I earned it, but because he is gracious and through his love and through his mercy, offered a propitiation
00:20:37.660 and a way of forgiveness for my sins. And so in the same way that God showed me love and mercy,
00:20:43.120 I'm going to show you love and mercy. And I am not going to join in on the mob. I am not going
00:20:49.320 to call for your doxing or harassing or people insulting you or trying to hurt you or target
00:20:56.460 your advertisers or get you fired. I'm not going to play that game. I think that is the right
00:21:03.000 response. I think it is a turning the other cheek kind of response that we are called to have as
00:21:09.160 Christians. Now, here's what I want to say. I want to clarify and caveat. I don't think that means
00:21:15.520 that you can't publicly disagree with someone because I publicly disagree with people all the
00:21:20.000 time. That's not the same as cancellation. That's not the same as the cancel culture mob.
00:21:24.780 I think that you can publicly disagree with someone. I think that you can even call someone out.
00:21:29.320 I think that you can say, look, what this person said is wrong. This person's a hypocrite or I don't
00:21:34.420 like what this person does. You can choose not to support someone. You can choose not to follow
00:21:38.340 someone. You can choose not to shop somewhere or fund something if they do or say something that
00:21:43.800 doesn't align with your values. You can talk to other people about it. I think that's all well and
00:21:48.600 good. I think what we have to avoid as Christians is the kind of vengeance that God warns us against
00:21:54.660 in the Bible. God says, vengeance is mine. I will repay. Vengeance is not ours. We are not to take
00:22:01.400 vengeance on other people. And plus, it's not even our responsibility to do so for random people on the
00:22:06.420 internet. Remember, accountability, this idea of accountability, as we've talked about before,
00:22:10.860 comes from a place of authority. And so you can only hold someone accountable if you have
00:22:15.740 authority in your life. You and I don't have the authority over random people's lives on the
00:22:20.320 internet to, quote, hold them accountable. And random people on the internet don't have the
00:22:23.960 authority in your life to, quote, hold you accountable either. It's a fascist tactic to try to ruin
00:22:28.840 someone's life because they said something that you don't like, or they said something
00:22:32.520 imperfectly or just because they made a mistake. Now, I'm not talking about actual criminal behavior
00:22:38.600 here. Obviously, there is a civil process for that, and I think that's important. And that
00:22:44.920 actually is a form of accountability because the people in charge do have the authority to hold
00:22:49.640 someone legally accountable for a crime that they committed. I'm not talking about abuse and
00:22:55.280 predation and that kind of stuff, which absolutely has to be held accountable both in the private
00:23:01.020 and the public sphere. I'm talking about this kind of stuff. I'm talking about past tweets.
00:23:06.460 I'm talking about taking a picture that maybe was politically incorrect. I'm talking about making
00:23:11.660 a mistake or not being quite social justice-y enough or people being held to impossible standards
00:23:19.700 when it comes to this kind of newfangled, culturally defined righteousness. That's what I'm talking about.
00:23:30.080 I'm talking about canceling people, sticking the mob after people because in the name of holding
00:23:36.320 people accountable, it's a totalitarian fascist tactic that is reminiscent of Maoist struggle
00:23:43.000 sessions in communist China in the 20th century. We should have nothing to do with it. And as
00:23:48.580 Christians, I do think that it's our responsibility to say, look, you know what? I'm not going to join in
00:23:56.360 on this. I'm not going to join in with the rage mob. I am not going to try to take this person down.
00:24:02.220 I am not going to return their cruelty and kind. And you just hope when you pray that that person,
00:24:07.300 this person like Taylor Nolan, who seems extremely arrogant and like she hasn't learned her lesson
00:24:12.500 at all, you just pray that God would soften her heart. You pray that she knows the gospel.
00:24:18.380 You pray that God's kindness would lead her to repentance, as Romans 2 says. Isn't that amazing?
00:24:25.420 That it's God's kindness that leads people to repentance. It's that that leaves us with that
00:24:32.880 gut feeling, that gut-wrenching feeling that, wow, we did something wrong and we need to make it right
00:24:38.300 and we need to take responsibility and we actually need to repent of our wrong. It's God's kindness that
00:24:44.120 does that. And I think that we reflect that by showing God's kindness to other people, sharing the
00:24:51.320 gospel with other people. So our hope is that someone like Taylor Nolan or any leader of these
00:24:58.020 vicious, vicious mobs that we see online, that they would know the gospel, that Jesus would change their
00:25:03.880 hearts, that they would, that he would soften their hearts going from a heart of stone to a heart of
00:25:09.280 flesh. And so that's our reaction to all of this. It's unfortunate that this is the society that we live
00:25:15.760 and that we are so graceless, so merciless, but that also gives us so much hope and such a reminder
00:25:21.860 that what we have in Christ, the gospel that Christians have, is so much better than what
00:25:27.520 the world offers in the form of a very legalistic secular religion, like social justice and critical
00:25:36.300 race theory, intersectionality, leftism, progressivism. It makes up this very merciless religion.
00:25:43.760 Like you have the tiniest sin. You commit the tiniest infraction and you are out. You're excommunicated.
00:25:51.980 Like there's no grace or love or acceptance or help for you at all. You're just out and people are out
00:26:00.480 for blood. And so thankfully we have a better, we have an alternative. We have an alternative. People are
00:26:08.680 trying and failing to find satisfaction, find hope in this kind of woke religion. And it's always going
00:26:16.340 to turn up empty and it's always going to turn on them as well. But as Christians, the only thing that
00:26:22.960 we have to focus on is not following the rules of the world or the rules of culture, but to love God
00:26:28.700 with all of our heart, mind, soul, and strength, and to love our neighbor as ourself. Do not let anyone
00:26:33.760 tell you that that's not enough. Do not let anyone tell you that, no, you have to read these books.
00:26:38.220 You have to use this language or you have to, um, you have to post this on social media or engage in
00:26:46.240 this kind of performative activism. It's not true. Do not let anyone tell you that it's not enough
00:26:51.160 for you to love your neighbor as yourself and to love God with everything you have, because it is
00:26:56.480 enough. And there's so much peace that comes from that, that knowing that because of that, because of
00:27:01.280 Christ, you are ultimately uncancelable. And you also don't have to be on the exhausting track of
00:27:09.600 trying to constantly cancel other people for the things that they do. Remember, cancel culture,
00:27:14.080 predominantly spearheaded by women and the victims are predominantly women. And this doesn't surprise me
00:27:21.140 at all. It's the same kind of tactic that we've seen from Satan since the garden. Did God really say,
00:27:26.600 like, did God really say that you're not supposed to condemn other people? Did God really say that
00:27:32.400 you're not supposed to seek revenge? Did God really say to put away all malice and slander and wrath and
00:27:39.220 anger and bitterness and to forgive other people? Did God really say that? Did God really say that
00:27:44.840 you're not in the place of God? Or are you really supposed to be in the place of God? And are you supposed
00:27:50.440 to have the power to try to condemn or redeem people, which is exactly what the leaders of
00:27:55.620 cancel culture try to do? So all of this, again, it's just Satan specifically going after women to
00:28:01.320 turn us against each other in a very simple and a very divisive way. And as Christian women, we need
00:28:06.420 to model a better way. All right, now we're going to switch into talking just a little bit about Trump's
00:28:11.620 CPAC speech and what I think about that. So I wanted to make sure that we talked a little bit about
00:28:21.600 Trump's CPAC speech, because this is a this was a big thing that happened over the weekend. People
00:28:25.980 were very excited to see Donald Trump. And I got to say, it was kind of weird seeing him and listening
00:28:31.860 to him. I didn't watch the entire speech, but I did catch some highlights that we're going to play for
00:28:35.520 you on Twitter. And it was it was just strange. It almost felt like we were back in a different era.
00:28:44.960 Like he just sounded exactly like he always does. And like he always did when he was president,
00:28:51.900 which honestly is what I think so many people love about him is that he doesn't change. Like he is a
00:28:57.500 performer. He is someone who gets energy from the crowd and energy from people's support. And you could
00:29:03.300 tell during the speech that he loved it. Like he had probably missed this big time. A lot of people
00:29:10.140 get energy from being in front of people. I feel like I get energy from giving speeches. Like I always
00:29:15.720 feel really energized and really excited when I have given a speech and when I've talked to a bunch of
00:29:21.340 people at an event. Donald Trump is like that, except I think times like 1000. I mean, the guy is
00:29:27.840 he's like a standup comedian and he just loves to entertain. But in all of that, he said some stuff
00:29:34.260 that I think is really important. Like he knows what people want to hear. He knows what people are
00:29:39.380 concerned about, even though he's not on Twitter. Actually, he probably has some like anonymous
00:29:43.120 Twitter account that he doesn't tweet from, which would be really funny. And I think he just realizes
00:29:50.220 what conservatives care about, the things that we're concerned about. And now he definitely has,
00:29:55.320 you know, now he's seen as kind of, well, I guess he's always been seen as this, even when he was
00:30:00.420 president, as kind of this underdog who has to have this punching bag in order to, in order to kind of
00:30:09.980 make his points and be as entertaining as possible. And he did this in regards to Joe Biden and Joe
00:30:15.360 Biden's policies. I'll play you this short clip first. There's two clips I want to play you. The first
00:30:21.340 one was about kids going back to school. There's no reason whatsoever why the vast majority of young
00:30:26.320 Americans should not be back in school immediately. The only reason that most parents do not have that
00:30:34.040 choice is because Joe Biden sold out America's children to the teachers unions. I mean, he's
00:30:41.220 absolutely right. And he has been saying this since last summer. And the data that we've talked about on
00:30:46.920 this show that we have combed through a variety of times, we've talked to several guests about,
00:30:53.460 is that it is safe for kids to return back to school. It is safe for kids. It is safe for
00:30:59.520 teachers. It is safe for parents. Unless you have a child who is very vulnerable health-wise, or if you
00:31:08.960 live with maybe a grandparent who's very vulnerable health-wise, it is safe for your child to go back to
00:31:14.540 school. And actually, the risks are much higher for kids to be out of school than for kids to be in
00:31:20.420 school. Now, there are parents and families who thankfully have the opportunity to homeschool their
00:31:25.640 kids. One parent can afford to stay home. I think that's wonderful. I think that's preferable than
00:31:30.460 sending your kids to public school. There are parents who are able to switch their kids to private
00:31:33.880 school. I say praise God, especially if it's a Christian private school. There are parents who have
00:31:38.380 been able to form these kind of teaching pods with other kids, which I'm sure, again, is better than going to
00:31:43.160 public school. I think all of those alternatives are absolutely wonderful for people who can do it.
00:31:48.420 But there are a lot of families who can't afford to do those things. And there are a lot of families
00:31:53.400 and a lot of children who rely on going to public school for their meals, for welfare checks, for just
00:32:00.040 normalcy. A lot of times, unfortunately, public schools are the only institutions that provide the
00:32:05.920 kind of resources that kids with special needs need in order to thrive and in order to stay on track and
00:32:15.340 just remain mentally and emotionally stable and healthy. And that's really true for all students
00:32:21.180 and all kids is that you need that kind of schedule, routine, that socialization to stay stable and
00:32:28.160 healthy and developing the way that young kids are supposed to. But unfortunately, a lot of kids
00:32:36.120 have been placed in front of a screen nonstop in isolation in a dark room for the past year of
00:32:44.160 their lives. And of course, they're struggling. Of course, they're suffering. That's true of all human
00:32:51.380 beings. Again, like I said, human beings are not just malleable products of society. Like we still
00:32:59.920 have a nature that has to be met. As I've said from the beginning of this whole thing is that
00:33:04.260 we are whole people. Yes, of course, we care for the body and we try to prevent deadly sicknesses as
00:33:10.000 much as we possibly can. But we can't neglect people's souls and their hearts and their minds
00:33:15.020 indefinitely. It is not any more compassionate to say, well, I'm just going to keep people inside and
00:33:20.880 keep people locked down in the hopes that they don't catch a virus with a 99% survival rate.
00:33:26.880 But I'm going to encourage policies and restrictions that precipitate mental health deterioration
00:33:37.900 and emotional instability. That is not the more compassionate stance. The more compassionate
00:33:43.740 stance is the balanced stance. And part of being balanced in all of this and actually following the
00:33:49.400 real science is saying kids should be back in school in person. And Donald Trump is absolutely
00:33:56.680 right. That Joe Biden kowtows to the to the teachers unions, the teachers unions still want to get paid
00:34:05.580 with your tax dollars without having to go back to work without having any risk whatsoever. You have a
00:34:11.780 risk, by the way, every year of getting some kind of illness as a teacher. That's kind of just part of
00:34:19.620 the deal. And I know that there are a ton of public school teachers out there, by the way, who want to
00:34:23.400 teach in person. But a lot of these teachers unions and some of these public educators, they don't want to
00:34:29.960 teach in person. They want to get paid and they just want to do the remote learning or they don't want to
00:34:36.360 work the same hours as they were before. And teachers unions are holding kids hostage in order to get
00:34:41.920 political their political agenda accomplished, whether that is like in L.A., whether, you know,
00:34:48.100 they want to defund the police or they want Medicare for all. They're holding kids hostage to try to get
00:34:54.700 their political goals met by the local Democratic officials. And unfortunately, a lot of Democratic
00:35:01.160 officials are kowtowing to these teachers unions who have way too much power. I've told you guys
00:35:07.360 before, I don't believe in public unions. I think they're immoral for our taxpayer dollars to go
00:35:12.580 towards a public union that then turns around and uses our dollars to fund politicians that we don't
00:35:18.880 like, who enact policies that we don't agree with. That's true. Whether you're a Republican or a
00:35:24.000 Democrat, by the way, if we're funding police unions, we're funding firefighters unions, we're funding
00:35:28.840 especially teachers unions. You're probably also funding politicians, again, whether you're on one
00:35:34.920 side of the aisle or another, that you don't like and whose policies you actually think are very
00:35:39.740 detrimental to your community. That's why I think the public unions are completely immoral, unethical,
00:35:44.640 and that we shouldn't have them. And if we didn't have teachers unions, I guarantee you the public
00:35:48.420 education system would greatly improve because we'd have a better chance at school choice. That means
00:35:54.720 that schools would actually be competing in quality and in the services that they provide,
00:36:03.060 and they would be therefore incentivized to spend the money that they have more efficiently. Remember
00:36:08.680 Barack Obama, it was reported by the Washington Post in 2017, his administration had poured billions
00:36:14.880 and billions of dollars into the schools in America that were in the poorest communities and that
00:36:20.600 were seen as the worst performing schools in the United States. After seven years, no positive
00:36:27.060 results, billions of dollars in funds to these schools, no positive results from that. It's not
00:36:32.860 a matter of a lack of money. It is a lack of efficiency and effectiveness in spending. It's also corruption
00:36:39.760 of public school bureaucracy, in part due to the teachers unions. And they're absolutely what is behind
00:36:46.780 the prevention of opening up schools in a variety of areas. Children are always the victims of progressive
00:36:55.520 social experiments. Unfortunately, not just when it comes to school shutdowns that are affecting them
00:37:04.140 so negatively, but also when it comes to this whole gender identity madness. And Donald Trump also talks
00:37:13.220 about that in particular pertaining to women's sports and how unfair it is for males to be competing
00:37:20.760 against girls just because they say that they are girls too. So here's a clip of Donald Trump talking
00:37:27.780 about that. Joe Biden and the Democrats are even pushing policies that would destroy women's sports.
00:37:34.380 A lot of new records are being broken in women's sports. Hate to say that, ladies, but
00:37:39.820 got a lot of new records. They're being shattered. Young girls and women are incensed that they are
00:37:46.160 now being forced to compete against those who are biological males. It's not good for women. It's not
00:37:53.880 good for women's sports. So once again, Donald Trump is correct. This is something that most
00:37:58.820 politicians won't talk about. Even Republican politicians won't talk about, at least not on its
00:38:04.060 merits. They might talk about the importance of religious liberty, or they might talk about the
00:38:08.980 importance of a right of privacy, but they won't just talk about the fact that boys shouldn't be
00:38:14.440 competing against girls. Men should not be entering women's spaces, no matter what they identify as,
00:38:19.520 no matter what they declare themselves to be. It doesn't change biology. And biologically, men and women
00:38:24.100 are very different. And biologically, men in general are much stronger and faster than women. And in many
00:38:31.300 cases, especially in vulnerable cases like in prisons or in women's shelters, they can pose a physical
00:38:37.080 threat to women. And if we care about the rights of women and girls, they have to be sex-based
00:38:41.180 rights because sexually, biologically, men and women are different. It's crazy. It's beyond me that
00:38:48.720 we're even having this conversation. And this is why people like Donald Trump, because he's not afraid
00:38:53.160 to wade into the culture wars. He's not afraid to talk about this kind of stuff. Now, there were some
00:38:58.420 things, of course, in the speech that he's not going to let go of. He's not going to let go
00:39:03.700 of the 2020 election. He is going to always talk about how it was stolen and how he really won.
00:39:09.720 And he's talking to him about running in 2024. And apparently, there was a poll that I saw going
00:39:14.780 around on Twitter. The majority of CPAC attendees said that they would vote for Donald Trump or they
00:39:20.920 would support Donald Trump if he was running in 2024. I think coming in second was Ron DeSantis,
00:39:27.240 the Republican governor of Florida. I'm just going to be perfectly honest, guys. I don't want,
00:39:33.380 like, an 80-something-year-old Trump as president in 2024. I just don't. Like, yes,
00:39:40.020 I think that he accomplished a lot. He did a lot of good things. But I don't want him to be
00:39:45.460 president again. I think that he served his time and he did what he was supposed to do.
00:39:49.880 But I think that we need to be looking a different direction. I really like Ron DeSantis. I think he's
00:39:55.220 done an excellent job in Florida. And people who are saying he's just a Trump 2.0, I think that
00:40:01.480 you're wrong. I don't think that he is entirely like Trump, actually. And I don't know. I'm not
00:40:06.080 saying that's good or bad. He's just a little bit more of a politician. I met him several years ago,
00:40:11.540 I think, when he was a state rep or a U.S. representative at some event that I was speaking
00:40:18.400 at. And I think that he, I don't know, maybe he was speaking at, too. But so I don't know him
00:40:23.920 personally. But from what I've seen, he has led Florida very well. I mean, people are flocking to
00:40:30.200 Florida because of the freedom and because their numbers, as we talked about last week,
00:40:35.300 in comparison to New York and California and even Texas, they're good. They're good. And his vaccine
00:40:40.980 rollout plan has been much better than the vast majority, if not all blue states. And so I think
00:40:48.300 that he is showing himself to be a really good executive leader. I am partial towards people
00:40:55.160 when it comes to presidential primaries who have executive experience. That's part of why in 2016,
00:41:02.440 I didn't support President Trump. Actually, who I voted for in the Republican primary did not have
00:41:08.820 executive experience either. But I did not support President Trump in the 2016 primary. I voted for
00:41:15.140 someone else. But I actually do typically prefer someone who has experience as a governor. I do
00:41:22.020 think that it helps. Not always. But in DeSantis' case, I think he is making a very good case for
00:41:29.080 himself that he would be a good leader of the country. And so I like Ron DeSantis, and I would
00:41:34.740 prefer him over Donald Trump in 2024. For people who are saying that, oh, you know, he'd be a great
00:41:41.800 vice president like Trump 2024, DeSantis on the ticket. No, why would we waste that? Like, we
00:41:48.360 want him if he's not going to be president, we want him to stay governor of Florida. Like, we want
00:41:52.920 Florida to stay free. He's being a good leader there. And Florida would probably vote for Trump
00:41:58.860 anyway, no matter who was on the ticket. And so we don't need to take someone from Florida, put them
00:42:04.780 on the ticket. It's just a waste. It's a waste of talent. In my opinion, it's a waste of votes.
00:42:09.420 And so I don't want Ron DeSantis to be a vice president. You know, the vice president doesn't
00:42:13.520 really do all that much. I like Mike Pence. I think he did a good job. But the vice president
00:42:19.240 doesn't do all that much. And I think Ron DeSantis is in a position to have a different kind of
00:42:25.540 leadership role than that. And so am I troubled by the potential of Donald Trump being the nominee
00:42:33.240 in 2024? I'll just say we've got a long way to go, people. We've got a long way to go.
00:42:39.180 He would not be my first pick. I'll just be perfectly honest with that.
00:42:44.620 But I know for a lot of people, like a lot of people just like love Donald Trump. And there was
00:42:50.220 this this like golden statue of Donald Trump that was being wheeled around CPAC and that people were
00:42:57.700 making fun of. And it was a little I'll be honest, like it was a little disconcerting to see.
00:43:04.920 It did look like an idol. Now, Tommy Ziegen is the statue sculptor. And he said he told the
00:43:11.540 Washington Times, this is not an idol. And it was just, you know, no one's worshiping this.
00:43:17.600 Nobody is making sacrifices to it. This is a sculpture. And liberals don't know the difference
00:43:20.820 between a sculpture and an idol. That's all I can say. And of course, I don't think that he meant to
00:43:25.160 make this an idol in any way. I think he was just making a golden statue because he likes Donald
00:43:30.740 Trump. Did it look kind of weird? Yes. Do I think that some people do worship Donald Trump?
00:43:36.880 I do. Whether or not they would say it. But I do think that there are some people who idolize
00:43:41.360 Donald Trump, who see him as some kind of messiah that's going to save America from destruction
00:43:46.620 and see him as some kind of like demigod almost. And I do think that that is problematic and dangerous
00:43:53.680 when we elevate anyone, whether it's a bachelor contestant or a social media influencer or a
00:44:00.480 podcaster or a politician, when we elevate anyone to the place of like being our savior or messiah,
00:44:04.880 I think that's problematic. Now, this particular statue, I don't think is necessarily emblematic of
00:44:09.920 that. I think it just happened to look kind of sketchy. And I think that if there were a golden
00:44:16.800 statue of like Kamala Harris or Hillary Clinton or Joe Biden at a liberal conference, I think
00:44:21.780 conservatives would all be saying the same thing that, oh, my gosh, liberals are constantly idolizing
00:44:26.580 politicians like you put politicians in the government in the place of God. And we do say
00:44:31.140 that, by the way, because there are these like votive candles that you see for sale with like Dr.
00:44:36.980 Fauci looking like some kind of patron saint on there or Kamala Harris or Joe Biden kind of, you know,
00:44:44.560 on these votive candles that are supposed to, I don't know, show them as the saints of democracy
00:44:52.800 or something like that. And conservatives have made fun of those things. And I'm sure that no one is
00:44:57.640 actually worshiping and bowing down to those politicians and Dr. Fauci. But I don't think it's
00:45:04.400 good. I think it's sacrilegious. And so I think that we should be fair, like both sides make fun of the
00:45:09.580 other side for doing things like this. And of course, as Christians, we refuse any idolatry,
00:45:13.920 whether it's of a politician or certainly Dr. Fauci or a celebrity or anything like that. We can
00:45:19.540 appreciate someone without bowing down to them. And of course, I think that we need to be sure to
00:45:24.760 draw that line. There's one other thing that I was going to note about CPAC. People were freaking out
00:45:29.320 because the shape of the stage at CPAC, and we'll put a picture up, it's apparently the same as like
00:45:37.840 some kind of Nazi symbol, not a swastika, but some kind of
00:45:43.920 Nazi symbol. And people are saying, of course, this is a dog whistle. And they're just flaunting
00:45:50.820 their Nazi-ness, whatever. And Alyssa Milano was calling for people to boycott Hyatt. Hyatt came out and
00:45:58.560 said, look, what? Basically, just stop. And so good for Hyatt for not latching on to the social media
00:46:07.920 madness. I'm sorry. I promise you I would be saying this if this were a Democratic conference
00:46:13.880 and people were accusing Democrats of this. I promise you I would also be saying, come on,
00:46:20.320 come on. You really think? You really think that someone did this intentionally? You really think
00:46:26.460 that someone was like, oh, this is a really good idea to design the stage in a Nazi symbol because we
00:46:32.720 secretly love Nazis? That doesn't even make any sense. You understand that conservatives are
00:46:38.920 constantly calling the left and their kind of cancellation tactics fascists that conservatives
00:46:46.560 don't see any affiliation or association between themselves and the Nazi regime. It just doesn't
00:46:54.920 even make any sense. I mean, I think the people on the left have this weird fetish and fixation
00:47:01.140 on Nazi symbolism and look for it everywhere. And it's really unhealthy. And I promise you,
00:47:08.080 if someone were leveling this kind of accusation towards someone on the left, that the stage design
00:47:13.500 was supposed to be incongruent with Hitler or something like that, or some Hitler-type symbolism,
00:47:20.560 I promise you that I would also be saying, are you serious? So let's take a step back from
00:47:27.160 silliness, you guys. Maybe that's the theme of this episode. Let's take a step back from silliness
00:47:32.540 and from constantly being outraged by things by which we should not be outraged. And let's remember
00:47:42.340 what's important. Give a little bit more grace, a little bit more forgiveness, a little bit more
00:47:47.640 understanding, and treat people how we want to be treated, even when we disagree, because I disagree
00:47:52.820 with a lot of people a lot. And there's a lot of people whose ideas I think are bad and dangerous,
00:47:57.440 and I think that's all well and good, and we can talk about that, and we should talk about that.
00:48:01.200 But let's not try to get whipped up into a frenzy about everything. All right,
00:48:07.220 that's all I got to say today. I'll be back here tomorrow.