Relatable with Allie Beth Stuckey - July 12, 2021


Ep 452 | Knock Knock. Who’s There? Joe Biden!


Episode Stats

Length

32 minutes

Words per Minute

169.53806

Word Count

5,537

Sentence Count

301

Misogynist Sentences

6

Hate Speech Sentences

16


Summary

What's going on in Cuba and why we should support the Cuban people. Also, the Biden administration is going door-to-door to encourage people to get vaccinated. And Matthew West's controversial music video gets a lot of criticism.


Transcript

00:00:00.000 Hey guys, welcome to Relatable. Happy Monday. Hope everyone had a wonderful weekend. All right,
00:00:15.520 we're going to briefly talk about Cuba today, what's going on there. We're also going to talk
00:00:21.180 about the vaccine and the Biden administration going door to door and encouraging people to
00:00:28.700 get vaccinated. A lot going on. We have a lot to talk about this week, some good interviews and
00:00:35.120 some hot topics to cover. One of the topics that I really want to cover this week is modesty and
00:00:40.620 Matthew West's modest is hottest music video that apparently got a lot of blowback from progressives
00:00:47.680 and professing progressive Christians. That is a topic that many of you have asked me to address
00:00:52.340 and I hope to get to it on Thursday. But today, because this is probably the biggest story that's
00:00:58.420 going on right now, I want to talk about Cuba first. So the cries for freedom are coming from
00:01:05.640 the people there who have been bearing the weight of tyranny of a communist regime for almost or for
00:01:12.280 a little over 60 years. These are the biggest protests Cuba has seen in decades. People are
00:01:19.480 tired of being oppressed. They're tired of being starved and mistreated and jailed for dissent.
00:01:25.200 So they are pushing back. And it's really remarkable. Like I said, we haven't seen something like this
00:01:30.900 coming out of Cuba in a very long time. The Biden administration, you may have noticed, liberal media
00:01:36.480 are saying that the protests are because of covid, the lack of medicine that they've been able to get.
00:01:42.640 But that is clearly not the case. If you actually look at the videos of these protests, they're in the
00:01:48.280 streets chanting things like freedom, liberty, down with the dictatorship. The New York Times tweeted
00:01:54.940 that the protesters are shouting, quote, freedom and other anti-government slogans. I just thought
00:02:01.660 that that was such a funny way to say what the word freedom is. Yes, sure. I guess it is anti-government
00:02:08.960 slogan. They're flying American flags and the liberal media. And I think even the Biden administration
00:02:15.080 don't want to admit that these Cuban protesters are pushing back against communism because communism
00:02:21.240 is an ideology of the left. But we all know the Cubans here know that's that's why they supported
00:02:29.040 Donald Trump so significantly. And we should just consider that for a second, like consider that
00:02:34.900 those who have fled to America from real oppression and authoritarianism so significantly supported
00:02:42.280 Donald Trump. I just think that that that's interesting to note. Anyone who tells you, by the way, that
00:02:48.620 the starvation of the Cubans and the dilapidation of the country has to do with America's sanctions just does
00:02:55.960 not understand how corrupt regimes work. Lifting the sanctions and thus enriching the Cuban government is not
00:03:02.100 going to help Cubans themselves. Corrupt governments hoard the money. They starve the people and they continue
00:03:08.520 down a destructive path. So we need to support the Cuban people in their push for freedom however we
00:03:14.640 can. Cubans understand better than many leftists do here. It seems that America is the last bastion of
00:03:22.080 freedom that exists. That's why they're in the streets carrying these American flags just like Hong Kongers
00:03:28.520 did before China took them over and squashed all dissent last year. And I feel like we need to be talking
00:03:35.220 about that a lot more. By the way, we've talked about it here a few times. We actually talk about
00:03:40.900 China quite often, but I'm not sure if we in the West in general have really come to terms with the
00:03:47.160 fact that what was once an autonomous democratic city is now part of communist China. Every pro-democracy
00:03:54.140 news outlet in Hong Kong has been shut down by the government and every pro-democracy dissenter
00:03:59.560 has been jailed or killed or silenced in some way. That's a really big deal. And we should just hope
00:04:06.460 that Cuba does not go the same way. A threat to liberty somewhere is a threat to liberty everywhere.
00:04:12.000 There are a lot of people who know a lot more about the political history of Cuba, and I hope to have
00:04:20.200 them on this week to give us some insight. But what I do know, what's obvious, is that communism
00:04:26.780 is a scourge in the world that has killed more people than any other ideology by far. And the idea
00:04:34.140 that anyone here in America, where our very poorest people are living in the lap of luxury compared to
00:04:40.340 the average person in Cuba with access to food, shelter, clothing, emergency care, vaccines, government
00:04:47.520 help, should be looking to communism or socialism as a better way. It's just absurd. But as we know,
00:04:55.680 unfortunately, anti-American propaganda, like we talked about last Tuesday, is prevalent right now.
00:05:02.880 It has been actually for a long time. It's come from socialist countries over the past 100 years,
00:05:09.180 like Soviet Russia, even North Korea. China has infiltrated many of our major institutions,
00:05:15.040 especially academic institutions. Ashton Kutcher, of all people. Now, I think that he has some
00:05:21.880 very good and interesting views, but I say of all people, because you just don't really expect
00:05:26.360 celebrities to say things like this. He's actually warning about this kind of propaganda coming from
00:05:33.620 TikTok. He said this in an interview on YouTube, according to Fox News, quote,
00:05:39.060 if I'm China and I want to create a problem in that area of the world, specifically a naval problem in the
00:05:45.640 South China Sea, I would probably want to utilize TikTok in order to influence the minds of Americans.
00:05:51.980 The article goes on to say in Fox News, he noted that such social media platforms can be used to
00:05:57.260 create, quote, an anti-US propaganda, anti-Taiwanese propaganda effort that could result in any war from
00:06:04.060 the United States being extraordinarily unpopular. And I think he's absolutely right about that. I mean,
00:06:11.100 it's amazing to me that young people here don't realize that they're so easily manipulated to hate
00:06:17.180 freedom and hate their country, to somehow ignore the past 100 years of of failed communism and
00:06:23.620 socialism, to ignore what happened in Hong Kong, what's happening right now in Cuba, and to still
00:06:28.360 insist that these collectivist systems could somehow work here. I mean, just think about the
00:06:34.500 misinformation and the misunderstanding it takes to get to that conclusion. There was a poll from issues in
00:06:40.920 insights that came out a few weeks ago showing that Americans between the ages of 18 and 24
00:06:46.720 are the least likely to be proud to be Americans. Only 36 percent are extremely proud or very proud
00:06:54.420 compared to 86 percent of Americans 65 plus who are very proud or extremely proud. I mean, doesn't that
00:06:59.920 tell you something that maybe the people who have seen more, who know more, who have experienced more
00:07:06.000 might have a better grasp on how good of a country America is, especially compared to the rest of the
00:07:12.100 world? And yet I think that number is going to continue to go down among young Americans as long
00:07:19.060 as the tenets of critical race theory and anti-American leftist ideology are being pushed in
00:07:25.220 schools. I do not think it's a coincidence that people 18 through 24 are also the most likely to have
00:07:31.820 an affinity towards communism and socialism are the most likely to be liberal, as well as the most
00:07:38.180 likely to not be proud of our country. I mean, as long as students are being told that the very
00:07:44.560 foundation and all of America's institutions are infected with racism and bigotry, as long as they're
00:07:50.880 being taught that America has been a force for evil in the world, young Americans will not only
00:07:57.560 continue to dislike their country, but also themselves and each other, because that's what
00:08:02.480 this kind of ideology and thinking actually produces. It produces resentment and ingratitude
00:08:08.540 and weakness of the country through division, which is exactly what our enemies like the Chinese
00:08:14.920 Communist Party want. They and the rest of the unfree world have been trying to get Americans to hate
00:08:22.180 themselves, to hate our country and to hate each other for decades. You are less likely to fight
00:08:28.840 for your country, to keep the secrets of your country's military and industries, to prioritize
00:08:33.960 the economic well-being of your country, to rely on the manufacturing of your country or defend the
00:08:40.120 principles of liberty of your country if you think that your country is inherently bad. And we already see
00:08:46.780 that happening with corporations, for example, like Nike or Disney or others who talk about how America is
00:08:54.640 racist and so bad, yet praise the CCP, which is a racist, evil regime that is enslaving and colonizing
00:09:03.080 as we speak. So that kind of thing is already working. And we touched on this last week, but I just want to
00:09:09.180 mention it again because it's been on my mind. It seems that people from every other country are able
00:09:15.500 to manage to have some sort of patriotism, even though their country isn't perfect or in some
00:09:21.160 cases is really bad. My husband has been into watching UFC lately, and I've honestly started to
00:09:28.640 like it myself. I know that might be kind of surprising. It's not really my brand. But we watched
00:09:33.540 the big fight on Saturday night. And if you don't know what happened, I was telling people at church on
00:09:38.620 Sunday, like what happened? Like I'm some like huge UFC expert. I'm not, but it was, I mean, it was a good
00:09:44.240 fight. There were a lot of good fights, but the last fight, Conor McGregor, you know, the infamous
00:09:48.940 Irish fighter fought against Dustin Poirier. I think that's how you pronounce his last name.
00:09:53.640 And in the first round, if you don't know, McGregor stepped back and his leg snapped right
00:10:00.460 above his ankle. Oh my goodness. It was so hard to watch, especially like the show, the slow-mo and
00:10:05.340 everyone who's showing it on social media. If that kind of thing grosses you out, I don't recommend
00:10:10.200 looking it up. But it was, if you can somehow catch the fight and see what happened, it is,
00:10:16.260 it's pretty incredible to watch. And it was pretty disappointing as well, because everyone wanted
00:10:22.600 to see them in the next rounds. But of course, that didn't happen. And I also learned, this is
00:10:27.880 just a side note for a second. I also learned that I do not understand Irish English. Like it is a
00:10:35.180 completely different language. I mean, he was trash talking. Some of you probably saw
00:10:38.620 after the fight. And I literally could not understand a word he said while Joe Rogan was
00:10:44.600 interviewing him. I needed some kind of translator. But anyway, so back to the point. He's got this big
00:10:50.480 Irish flag coming out there like he always does. Clearly, he loves his country. He's proud of his
00:10:55.360 culture. And you look at the other fighters too, who always do the same thing. You've got fighters
00:11:00.140 from Nigeria, from Brazil, from Russia, places with serious human rights violations and very corrupt
00:11:06.420 governments. And they're all so proud to wrap their country. And you see this not just in the
00:11:11.480 UFC, but in the Olympics, in any event where people are representing their country. People love where
00:11:17.300 they come from, even in third world countries, even if they don't love the leadership or all the
00:11:21.980 policies, because people understand that patriotism isn't about liking all the policies and the
00:11:27.060 politicians that are put in place. It's about something much deeper than that. It's about either
00:11:31.180 founding principles and values or just the culture from which you come. Now, you could say that
00:11:36.120 some of the people in some of these places are forced to show patriotism, and that's absolutely
00:11:41.200 true. But I really think for the most part, people just have an affinity for where they come from,
00:11:47.000 even if they fled the country because of tyranny. More immigrants, you guys know we talk about this a
00:11:54.520 lot, flee to America than to any other country by far every year. And they often choose to retain
00:12:00.820 much of the culture of the country from which they fled because they still love it because countries
00:12:06.420 are like families. They're not perfect, but they're yours. And you still have a deep love for them
00:12:11.640 because of that. So all this to say, don't you think it's just a little sus, speaking it in Gen Z
00:12:18.280 language, that you, college student, with all the opportunity, freedom, luxury in the world,
00:12:25.740 hate your country, when people in much worse countries with much less are still patriotic?
00:12:31.660 Like, isn't it a little sus that you loathe the country to which millions of people are fleeing to
00:12:37.720 for a better life? Is it not strange to you that you white Gen Z-er are sure this is a terrible,
00:12:46.180 racist country while brown and black people from India, from Africa, from China, from South America
00:12:51.080 sacrifice everything every year to come here? And when they do, are able to achieve incredible
00:12:57.060 success, often rising above the American-born population when it comes to things like income
00:13:01.840 and their careers and graduation rates? Do you think it's just that they didn't get the memo that
00:13:07.040 America is an awful white supremacist place and that somehow they lucked out when they got here?
00:13:13.020 Or do you think it's possible, do you think there's a possibility that you are the one who has been
00:13:19.160 lied to for nefarious purposes? And that people who are older than you, people who have a bigger
00:13:24.260 perspective than you or me, people who actually know what communism and socialism and fascism and
00:13:30.360 authoritarianism and oppression are, may have a better understanding of what kind of country America is
00:13:40.280 than you? Like, could it be that you're blinded by your own privilege because someone, a professor,
00:13:47.460 a classmate, a social media influencer, at one point told you that ragging on your country is cool
00:13:53.340 or sophisticated or intellectual sounding? Now, I'm reading Great Society by Amity Schlaes,
00:14:00.780 and I am, I'm realizing how much socialism we already do have implemented in the U.S.
00:14:06.720 and how big the federal government is compared to what it was originally intended to be. But that said,
00:14:13.740 we are still freer and more capitalistic than the vast majority of countries, and we have a ton of
00:14:21.400 success to show for it. So we should be talking about that. We should be grateful for that. We
00:14:26.260 should be happy about that. Thanking God for that. I don't mean that we don't have bad parts of our
00:14:32.200 country. I always give that caveat and that we have bad parts of our history that we shouldn't be
00:14:36.660 talking about. I'm not talking about whitewashing history. Actually, I think that Americans should be so
00:14:41.140 confident in our founding principles and so confident in liberty that we are comfortable
00:14:45.760 talking about the ugly things that America has done, unlike authoritarian countries that have to
00:14:51.560 cover up the bad that they've done in order to stay in power. But remove yourself from your place of
00:14:57.440 privilege for just a second, which I and everyone in this country occupy, and look to the people who
00:15:04.300 love liberty and waved the American flag in Hong Kong, look to those waving the American flag in
00:15:12.060 Cuba and realize how incredibly blessed you are and how much America and her freedoms are worth
00:15:18.240 fighting for. There are people who have rioted with Antifa and with BLM for the past year who have
00:15:25.080 actually burned the American flag in the streets. Instead, they've raised the Chinese communist flag or a
00:15:32.260 flag with the communist race fist or the communist symbol on it. And look, I'm going to be honest,
00:15:38.240 I would not be against some kind of voluntary exchange program where the citizenship of the
00:15:44.180 people who hate America and love communism are given to the people in other countries like Cuba who
00:15:51.540 love America and love freedom. But I mean, isn't it interesting that people who flee to America for
00:16:00.100 freedom are like, wow, you know, I love my country, but I just have to leave. And then there are people
00:16:04.820 here who hate America who are like, I hate my country, but I'll never leave. Like, it just doesn't make
00:16:10.640 sense. It's just something to think about. Now, we should be we should be absolutely praying for the people
00:16:19.220 of Cuba. They will be facing a lot of opposition from their government. I don't know what change is going to
00:16:25.560 look like there. But if we care about human rights, if we care about their well-being, if we care about
00:16:30.680 justice and freedom, which I think we should, then we should care about and pray for Cuba.
00:16:36.500 All right. That's all I have to say on that. Like I said, hopefully we'll talk about it again this
00:16:40.520 week. I hope to get an interview with, I've got a couple of people that I've reached out to that I
00:16:46.040 hope will come on the show and give us more insight and some personal testimonies of what it's like in
00:16:51.500 Cuba and why these people are rising up in the name of freedom. But in speaking of authoritarianism,
00:17:00.380 I want to at least scratch the surface of another topic that you guys have been asking me about,
00:17:04.820 and that is this COVID vaccine and specifically the push to make it mandatory or at least as
00:17:11.720 mandatory as possible. So we'll get to that in just one second.
00:17:15.280 Now, when I say authoritarianism, I'm actually not talking about the Biden administration. They
00:17:26.920 have not issued a mandate, and I'm not sure that they will. HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra
00:17:32.500 said on CNN recently that they're trying to give people the sense that we have as much freedom and
00:17:39.080 choice as possible. I thought that was an interesting choice of words, but that they're going to knock on
00:17:43.720 people's door to encourage them to get the vaccine. He said people don't have to answer the door,
00:17:48.680 but if they do, the government representatives will talk to them about the vaccine and any of
00:17:53.480 their concerns. And look, do I think that that's kind of creepy? Yes, I do. Like Ronald Reagan said,
00:18:00.440 some of the scariest words in the English language are I'm from the government and I'm here to help.
00:18:04.560 But honestly, I actually commend the Biden administration for now for trying to do everything
00:18:10.260 they can short of making it mandatory. They actually deserve some kudos for that. They're
00:18:16.160 going door to door. They're trying to reach out to people about something they think is important
00:18:19.760 without actually forcing them by law to do it. So whatever. You don't have to answer the door like
00:18:24.600 they said, but that's an effort that they're trying to make. But not everyone outside the
00:18:30.340 administration feels the same. And this is why I talk about authoritarianism. And I don't mean in the
00:18:35.520 governmental sense. I'm just talking about this authoritarian attitude that a lot of people on
00:18:40.540 the left seem to have, especially in relation to this vaccine. So Leanna Nguyen, former Planned
00:18:46.520 Parenthood president and CNN commentator. So just judging by her professional history, I'm not really
00:18:51.820 sure if we want to listen to her when it comes to subjects that have to do with saving lives,
00:18:57.060 considering she has presided over the killing of unborn children. But she did have this suggestion.
00:19:02.000 And what we really need to do at this point is to make vaccination the easy choice. It needs to be
00:19:07.380 hard for people to remain unvaccinated. Right now, it's kind of the opposite. It's fine. I mean,
00:19:12.180 it's easy if you're unvaccinated. You can do everything you want to do anyway. But at some
00:19:16.100 point, these mandates by workplaces, by schools, I think it will be important to say, hey, you can opt
00:19:21.280 out. But if you want to opt out, you have to sign these forms. You have to get twice weekly testing.
00:19:26.160 Basically, we need to make getting vaccinated the easy choice. That is what it's going to take for us to
00:19:30.660 actually end the pandemic.
00:19:32.000 So basically, what she's saying is, while the government can't force you, we should make it
00:19:37.440 very difficult for people to enjoy life at all or access basic services. Then there was this tweet
00:19:46.580 from I don't even know who it is. It sounds like a very, I'm not trying to be rude, but crazed
00:19:53.180 left wing blog called the Palmer Report. Lots of lots of followers, but it's always tweeting very
00:20:00.320 strange things. Said this, Leanna Wynn is correct. Unvaccinated right wingers are a threat to national
00:20:06.500 security. What about unvaccinated left wingers, by the way? It's not just right wingers that are
00:20:11.660 not getting the vaccine, but just unvaccinated right wingers. OK, unvaccinated right wingers are
00:20:16.880 a threat to national security. And the only thing they understand is consequences. Force them to get
00:20:22.280 constantly tested, lock them out of public spaces, public places, force them to stay home by default.
00:20:30.340 They'll whine, but they'll cave. All right. And then someone underneath replied this. I just wanted
00:20:36.760 to include this because it's just so stunning and sad. Someone says Gen X resists. They should
00:20:43.720 have to. That's what their handle is. They should have to wear a scarlet letter C and heavily tax the
00:20:49.900 willfully unvaccinated. I mean, are you guys? Are you OK? Is there some other virus that only
00:20:57.480 infects the brain that I'm not aware of? They are going to be a preventable burden on the medical
00:21:03.020 system for a generation. I mean, yikes, huge yikes. There are all kinds of just hellacious replies
00:21:10.680 under that tweet of people celebrating the prospect of death for people who aren't vaccinated,
00:21:15.500 saying that they shouldn't get medical care at hospitals if they refuse the vaccine.
00:21:19.320 Let's just let's tease out that logic just a little bit. So someone shouldn't get medical
00:21:23.620 care at a hospital if they refuse the vaccine, which basically is saying if someone refuses to
00:21:27.920 do something that could have probably could have prevented sickness, they shouldn't get care.
00:21:33.980 So if someone refuses to stop smoking, they shouldn't get treated for lung cancer. Is that
00:21:38.800 what we're going with? Like if someone refuses to lose weight, they shouldn't get treated for
00:21:43.680 diabetes. If someone refuses to get sober, they shouldn't be treated for a drug overdose.
00:21:48.740 Wow. Yes. I cannot wait to turn over our health care system to the absolute control of these kinds
00:21:53.520 of people. Super compassionate. Very excited about it. It should be noted, by the way, that according
00:22:00.800 to a Gallup poll, conservatives are two and a half times more likely to answer correctly the
00:22:06.620 question, how likely is it to be hospitalized because of COVID? So 41 percent of liberals believe
00:22:13.440 that the answer is 50 percent plus, that you've got a 50 plus percent chance to be hospitalized if
00:22:19.880 you contract coronavirus. Only 9.8 percent of them got the answer right, which is that you have a one
00:22:26.620 to five percent chance to even have to go to the hospital with COVID, whereas 25.6 percent of
00:22:32.720 conservatives got that answer right. But actually, both conservatives and liberals way overestimate
00:22:38.320 the risks of COVID. But conservatives are far more likely to get that answer right. And that's
00:22:43.780 because liberals, just to be honest, have been on a steady diet of panic porn for a year. That doesn't
00:22:49.940 mean that people shouldn't take it seriously. I've said that a million times over the past year,
00:22:54.600 but we should have an accurate idea of the real risks, right? Okay, I'm going to get to more of
00:22:59.980 that in just a second. Now, here's what Leanna Nguyen and other left-wingers seem to understand.
00:23:13.060 I'm judging from their rhetoric that I'm not sure that the Biden administration understands, or if they
00:23:19.540 do understand that they're not showing it, if someone has not gotten the vaccine at this point,
00:23:26.020 it is very likely not because they don't know how, or they haven't heard about it, or that there's some
00:23:33.240 logistical issue. They really don't need someone coming to their door telling them about it. It's
00:23:39.720 because if they haven't gotten it yet, they don't want to. They've weighed the risks, they've weighed
00:23:45.720 the benefits, and they just don't want to get the vaccine. And look, I understand that there are
00:23:51.620 people out there who think the decision not to be vaccinated is selfish and stupid, but you also have
00:23:58.280 to understand that there are people with legitimate reasons for not wanting to be vaccinated. It's a new
00:24:03.660 vaccine, hasn't been out that long, hasn't been out long enough to study long-term effects. We have
00:24:09.000 heard about questionable, albeit rare, side effects, like changes to menstruation for women and
00:24:15.600 heart inflammation for young people, especially young men. This is what NBC reported about it in
00:24:21.880 June. Quote, a higher than usual number of cases of a type of heart inflammation has been reported
00:24:27.600 following COVID-19 vaccination, especially among young men following their second dose of an mRNA vaccine.
00:24:36.620 The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Thursday, overall, 226 cases of myocarditis or
00:24:44.460 pericarditis after vaccination in people younger than 30 have been confirmed. Dr. Tom Shimabukuro,
00:24:52.200 Deputy Director of the CDC's Immunization Safety Office, said during a presentation to a Food and Drug
00:24:58.380 Administration advisory group. Further investigation is needed, however, to confirm whether or not the
00:25:08.320 vaccination was the cause of the heart problem. Normally, fewer than 100 cases would be expected for this
00:25:14.960 age group. Teenagers and people in their early 20s accounted for more than half of the myocarditis cases
00:25:21.820 reported to the CDC's safety monitoring systems following COVID-19 vaccination, despite representing a fraction
00:25:29.600 of people who have received the shots. Okay, 226 cases out of millions and millions of shots means that this is really
00:25:39.060 rare. But it is still a risk that some young and healthy people are not willing to take. The New York Times reported
00:25:46.840 that young people are the biggest barrier to immunity because they're just nervous about taking it. And they also know that
00:25:54.640 complications from COVID are super rare unless you have some kind of underlying condition. So here's what the New York
00:26:01.140 Times reported in June. Rare but real side effects have emerged as a serious concern, especially for young people
00:26:07.520 who feel they're at low risk from the virus itself. Johnson & Johnson vaccinations were paused briefly this spring
00:26:13.980 after the discovery of rare blood clots in young women. And federal health officials said last week that the
00:26:20.420 Moderna and Pfizer-BioNTech vaccines have caused heart problems in about 1,200 Americans, many of them under
00:26:29.800 age 30, though they said the benefits of the vaccination continue to far outweigh the risks. Just a reminder that
00:26:37.820 also, according to the CDC, for people under the age of 19, the flu is significantly deadlier than COVID. For people
00:26:45.220 under the age of 40, the flu and COVID are equally deadly, which means not very much at all. The people
00:26:53.540 for whom COVID is riskier than the flu is people who are above 60. Those who are 60 plus are much more
00:27:03.500 likely to suffer serious complications from COVID than from the flu, even though those serious complications
00:27:09.900 are very rare. And I understand that we are concerned about these unvaccinated people passing it along to older
00:27:17.820 people. But A, not being vaccinated against a virus doesn't mean you are a carrier of the virus. That's very
00:27:24.920 important to know. And being a carrier of COVID is going to become increasingly rare, as there are still so many
00:27:30.780 people who are vaccinated. B, most older people are vaccinated. So they're at very, very, very low risk, which I think
00:27:39.860 is a great thing. By the way, there is no question in my mind whatsoever that if you are elderly, the
00:27:45.200 benefits of getting the vaccine actually outweigh the risks. But again, I think it's a it's a personal
00:27:50.460 decision for you. But for young people, maybe not. Maybe the benefits don't outweigh the risks. And
00:27:56.880 since cases and deaths have dropped across the country so drastically, it doesn't seem like the
00:28:01.960 people who choose not to get the vaccine need to be excluded from polite society or unable to travel or
00:28:07.780 or go to work in person or go to concerts, it just doesn't make sense. It honestly doesn't even make
00:28:14.360 sense to force unvaccinated people to wear masks. Like, I know that's controversial to say, but from
00:28:19.220 all the data that we've seen that we've collected over the past year and a half, there seems to be
00:28:24.040 no correlation at all between the number of COVID cases and mask mandates or lockdowns. And actually,
00:28:31.240 in many cases, you've seen lower cases in free states like Texas and Florida than you have in
00:28:36.420 locked down heavily masked states like New Jersey and New York. Those are just the facts. There's also
00:28:42.220 a racial equity portion to this as well, considering that a large percentage of unvaccinated people
00:28:50.840 are black Americans who just don't want to get the vaccine. It's not because of a lack of access. So
00:28:57.420 much money has been dedicated to getting minority populations to get vaccinated. And a lot of them
00:29:04.600 just don't want to. So are you really going to segregate society along largely racial lines
00:29:10.100 because of this vaccine? I mean, if you want to follow the science, that means you don't just
00:29:15.480 shut down the critical thinking part of your brain and listen to whatever Anthony Fauci says.
00:29:19.900 It means you think, you ask questions, you look at the data, and you're willing to form conclusions
00:29:24.680 based on factual information that may be unpopular. And I say all this as someone who has never been
00:29:32.460 anti-vaccine in my life, just full disclosure, up to and including now, no one in my family is
00:29:38.080 anti-vaccine. I used to be actually more of a vaccine caring, if you will, wanting everyone
00:29:43.740 around me to get their flu shot, etc. But I've eased up. I've eased up on that. I'm not anti the COVID
00:29:51.340 vaccine, although I don't think it's your business if I'm vaccinated, nor do I think it's my business if
00:29:57.240 you're vaccinated. I also always complied with the masking rules and all of that, but it didn't bother
00:30:03.200 me when other people didn't. So you can't say that I'm some kind of crazed anti-masker, anti-vaxxer.
00:30:09.440 That's just not factual. I am a big fan of choice. I'm a big fan of liberty and factual information.
00:30:17.280 It's hard for me to understand how those two things don't, like some people cannot carry those
00:30:24.740 two things in their mind at the same time. The vaccine, I will say, is not the mark of the beast.
00:30:30.620 That's just bad theology. It's not magnetic. It's not inserting a tracking device, but it is a new
00:30:36.940 vaccine, even though it's made from old technology. And people are not crazy to assess the risks for
00:30:44.720 themselves. In fact, that's much more scientific than the people who apparently think that science
00:30:50.320 means just accepting everything bureaucrats tell you without questioning anything. And if there seems
00:30:57.020 to be cumbersome restrictions for living your life that you just think are unjust, call your state
00:31:03.640 legislators, email them, see if there's anything that can be done about it. Trampling on freedoms isn't
00:31:08.680 just something that the government can do. Big business can do it, too. And state lawmakers may be
00:31:13.920 responsible to act in some cases. If the Biden administration shows up at your door and you
00:31:20.640 don't want to talk to them, treat them like a Jehovah's Witness. So either you just ignore them
00:31:27.220 and you don't answer the door, or you can invite them in for tea and crumpets. Go for it. Share the
00:31:33.040 gospel with them. Explain to them your reasoning for not getting it if you want to, if you're not going to
00:31:38.260 get it. I think your options are to be kind and hospitable and truthful with them or to not answer
00:31:45.920 your door at all. I don't know if there's any reason necessarily for animosity. I think that it
00:31:51.800 actually can be an opportunity to tell them about Christ. Who knows? Maybe that's part of why
00:31:59.560 God is allowing that particular program. You certainly could use it for His glory in that way.
00:32:07.440 So I hope that answers some of your questions. I understand this is a controversial topic with
00:32:12.660 a lot of, I think, respectable and valid opinions across the spectrum on that. But I wanted to try
00:32:18.840 to give you a neutral and balanced view on it. And I'm sure whenever I talk about this subject,
00:32:25.640 there are always people who are disappointed on both sides. And that is perfectly fine with me.
00:32:31.340 All right. We will be back here tomorrow with a really good topic that I'm excited about.
00:32:37.440 Talking about. I will see you guys then.