Relatable with Allie Beth Stuckey - Ep 475 ｜ The Police State Down Under

00:00:00.000 hey guys welcome to relatable happy monday hope everyone had a wonderful weekend so

00:00:14.680 we've actually got some good news that we're going to talk about today i know there's a lot

00:00:19.680 of bad going on in the world and we're actually going to talk about some of that too but i'm going

00:00:24.160 to talk about i guess the silver lining in some of that bad news and then just some good news

00:00:29.980 stories the first good news story that i just want to touch on we're not going to get into too much

00:00:34.220 is that today is the last day that new york governor andrew cuomo is in office we talked about

00:00:41.980 all of this a couple weeks ago we've also had janice dean on this podcast who has been going

00:00:48.260 hard after andrew cuomo really for the past year um and that the the thing the reason why she was

00:00:55.240 going after him was not actually the reason why he ended up resigning she was going after him for

00:01:00.760 what i think is the most scandalous part of all of this uh or of his entire uh entire time in

00:01:07.440 leadership and that was for shoving a bunch of covid positive elderly nursing home patients back into

00:01:15.660 the nursing home knowingly and there are different reasons for that we talked about the corruption that

00:01:20.900 led to that kind of decision the financial motivation that led to that kind of decision

00:01:26.260 back i think it was in april 2020 we were talking about it and that's not even the reason why he left

00:01:31.520 office which is really sad i mean the guy literally has blood on his hands but um his hands got him in

00:01:38.660 trouble in another way because he was touchy-feely with some women and was accused of sexual harassment

00:01:44.800 that is why he ended up um stepping down uh now is his replacement going to be any better probably not

00:01:54.140 probably not um so that is not necessarily going to be long-term good news for new york but i mean this

00:02:04.460 guy was hoisted up as a hero and the foil to donald trump while donald trump was in office and his rise

00:02:11.060 and fall has just been one of the most stunning things that we have ever seen i mean the guy got

00:02:15.780 an emmy award for his leadership i didn't even know that was possible and also he got like a five

00:02:22.560 million dollar book deal talking about leadership even as he was killing elderly people because of

00:02:31.380 his policies that also happened by the way in pennsylvania and michigan this is not just a one-off new

00:02:36.880 york thing that decision to really not care about the elderly even while calling people who question

00:02:42.280 the use of masks grandma killers but that's a whole other thing for another day so today's his last day

00:02:49.520 in office maybe we'll talk more about that um tomorrow it's really honestly pretty shocking that it even

00:02:56.800 happened but today uh we are going to talk about what's going on in australia what we can learn from

00:03:03.120 what's going on in australia this is not something we typically talk about or a country that we

00:03:08.200 typically talk about we're typically very focused on what's going on here which is a good thing but i

00:03:13.220 think that there are some things to learn from what we see in australia we're going to look at some of

00:03:18.400 the continued hypocrisy that we see here from our nation's beloved elites um what it's going to look

00:03:24.620 like if and when people finally wake up from their stupor and realize that even though covet is very real

00:03:31.840 and it can be a very real threat to some people uh the fact of the matter is is that many of these

00:03:37.740 public health orders are not based on science they're certainly not based on compassion and a

00:03:44.120 desire for your well-being first let me um i'm gonna kind of set this up because i've um been noticing

00:03:53.320 how people have been talking not just about what's going on there but just what's going on in our

00:03:59.960 political moment in general and i kind of want to just lay a foundation and give a little bit of

00:04:07.040 clarity and um remind all of us i guess what my priorities are and what my focus is on this podcast

00:04:16.540 um and why i talk about the things that i do because every day i struggle with whether i should be talking

00:04:26.460 about politics in the news or not every day i struggle with how much i should care about what's

00:04:30.360 going on in politics the news culture wars uh i go back and forth between okay this is affecting real

00:04:37.640 people it has real consequences the people in my audience need to know about it do something about

00:04:43.220 it and this is just going to be um and then the other side of that i i think okay well this is just

00:04:48.920 going to be divisive this is just going to make people mad maybe this is just a distraction i shouldn't

00:04:53.180 talk about this because it takes away from the bigger truths that we should be focusing on about

00:04:57.080 god and who he is and how we can obey him in our daily lives so that's a struggle that i have every

00:05:02.360 day when i'm thinking about what to post about and and what to talk about because i don't want to

00:05:06.500 distract from the bigger things and i really want to give you guys a balance i mean at least once a

00:05:12.040 week we have an episode that's dedicated not to the news and we will again uh this week we're going to

00:05:18.240 talk to um a therapist a mental health counselor about how people are struggling and i'm going to

00:05:24.080 ask her some of the questions that you guys have about all that and i hope that it's just a uh a

00:05:28.580 refresher a breath of fresh air for you guys and every every episode every day that we have an episode

00:05:35.720 i try to draw us back to scripture back to the gospel remind us of the god who is in control remind

00:05:41.220 myself and you that jesus's victory assured that one day evil will be no more and that our job is to

00:05:46.820 trust and obey until then but i also feel so strongly that we can't be asleep at the wheel

00:05:53.340 right now when it comes to the changes our country is experiencing and our role in them so a lot of

00:06:00.380 you guys ask me like how do i balance that how do i make sure that we're not so inundated with the

00:06:05.100 news we don't become obsessed with what's going on in the world and that we don't put our our trust

00:06:11.040 in people and in politicians rather than in god and just to be transparent with you i think about

00:06:18.140 that and wrestle with that every day i mean that's part of the reason why this podcast is called

00:06:23.100 relatable because i am figuring this stuff out even as you guys are figuring this out and you're coming

00:06:29.400 along um on that journey with me um and the days that i feel like okay should i talk about this

00:06:38.940 controversial topic should i get into this particular culture war or should i just forget all about it the

00:06:45.260 reason why i do the reason why i have the conversations that i have the reason why i do

00:06:49.640 dive into these tough subjects is because one you guys have questions about them like we can pretend like

00:06:55.020 the things in the world aren't going on but people are wondering what to think about for example uh

00:07:01.260 transgenderism people are wondering what to think about refugee resettlement people are wondering what

00:07:06.600 to think about abortion and all of these things and if you're not getting your information and your

00:07:12.420 answers from your pastor or from a mentor or from me like you're gonna go to tiktok and you're gonna

00:07:18.960 get the random 17 year old who thinks that they're an expert on geopolitics to tell you their opinion

00:07:23.800 that's gonna shape your worldview so i find that worldview shaping and talking about these different

00:07:29.000 issues really does matter and that's why i talk about the things that i do even if people accuse

00:07:34.940 that of being divisive um as we always say on this on this podcast politics matter because policies

00:07:43.160 matter because people matter politics affects policy policy affects people and people matter also we

00:07:49.540 have been placed in america at this time not arbitrarily so you've been placed in your town

00:07:54.680 your neighborhood your school district with your kids purposely by the god who does nothing accidentally

00:08:00.880 or haphazardly and i believe just as israelites were called in jeremiah 29 to seek the welfare of

00:08:07.760 the city in which they were exiled we as christians who are exiled on this earth whose true citizenship

00:08:13.000 is in heaven are called to seek the welfare of the city in uh of the city and country in which god has

00:08:20.060 placed us and in the united states like we get to do that democratically we get to do that by uh via

00:08:26.380 free speech speaking up about the things that matter in in legally lawfully pushing back against

00:08:32.440 policies and politicians that we don't agree with yes we are called to love our communities directly

00:08:38.020 but i also love my community by caring about issues that i know are going to affect them

00:08:43.880 and it seems like people who profess to be more progressive social justice christians understand

00:08:50.180 this more than those who consider themselves conservative christians and how do i know that

00:08:55.200 because people who consider themselves i see it people who consider themselves on the center left and

00:09:00.500 christians speak up a lot more about political issues that they care about than people on the center 0.56

00:09:05.940 right do now i think people who identify as you know leftist christians make politics their idol they

00:09:13.280 elevate progressive activism above christian sanctification but they do recognize at least

00:09:19.340 um that public policy has an effect on the public and therefore we should care about it and we should

00:09:24.760 seek to influence it whereas i see christians who consider themselves theologically conservative consider

00:09:30.500 themselves maybe center right politically they actually seem much quicker to speak up about more

00:09:36.600 leftist social and political issues than conservative ones for example i had plenty of friends who consider

00:09:42.300 themselves conservative christians post a black square after the george floyd thing without really

00:09:47.160 knowing anything that's going on in regards to that whom i have never seen publicly talk about abortion

00:09:53.280 who i know they consider themselves pro-life too and i believe that they are they had no problem

00:09:59.000 talking about so-called anti-racism last summer um but talking about you know for example the

00:10:05.640 humanitarian disaster at the border directly caused by biden's border policy right now they would

00:10:11.040 probably consider too divisive and maybe even to be a little bit more charitable i don't even think

00:10:15.880 they know what's happening there at the border right now most young christian women even those who are

00:10:22.100 not liberal when it comes to speaking up about social and political issues online simply wait for the

00:10:28.000 next trend or trending story to tell them what to be upset about and what to post about and that is

00:10:35.760 that's why this podcast exists because i don't want us to have that existence like i and i don't know maybe

00:10:42.600 it's the same thing like maybe this podcast is you just waiting for me to tell you what to care about

00:10:47.960 and that's not necessarily what i want either but i do hope to give you um a broader spectrum a bigger picture

00:10:55.540 of all the different types of things that are going on than the one viral story that we are going to

00:11:02.500 see trending on social media that we happen to latch on to just because the outrage mob is going to come

00:11:07.640 get us if we don't care about it so that is part of why this podcast exists uh exists to tell you about

00:11:14.580 a bunch of different things that are going on that affects you not just the thing that happens to be

00:11:19.680 trendy in that moment and that you know people on the left are telling you that you actually that

00:11:25.760 you absolutely have to care about in order to be a good person now look it's not everyone's calling to

00:11:31.540 be thinking about and talking about the news all the time i totally get that i'm glad that's not

00:11:36.420 everyone's calling you have to be focused on what's right in front of you and do the work that god has

00:11:42.620 called you to do in your home in your church in your community and you cannot be burdened uh by

00:11:50.680 everything all at once as we talked about a lot last week but at the same time we can't bury our head

00:11:56.820 in the sand and decide we no longer care enough to speak up publicly about issues just because they're

00:12:02.240 not trending on social media so all this to say all this to say that is why i try to talk about the

00:12:11.980 things that i do while also bringing us back to an eternal perspective when i can i am an unabashed

00:12:18.700 conservative you guys know that um i am here to give you a conservative and to the best of my ability

00:12:26.540 by the grace of god and the power of the holy spirit a biblical analysis of what's going on

00:12:31.020 now that does not mean i don't get it wrong that does it mean that i don't make mistakes or that i am

00:12:35.800 the arbiter of all things true thank the lord i i don't and cannot bear that burden

00:12:41.700 um i am trying to get women like me and like you to care about things that have a real effect 0.95

00:12:48.540 on our world while reminding us of who is ultimately in charge i want us to be involved in our communities

00:12:53.920 our state our country without making politics an idol i want us to raise a respectful ruckus as we say

00:12:59.560 about the things that matter without ceasing to love those with whom we disagree i want us to care

00:13:06.620 about what's going on without being cynical i want us to have knowledge about big issues without feeling

00:13:12.440 the anxiety of thinking we have to control it all and fix it all we have a very limited capacity to

00:13:19.680 care and to do we are called to influence by the power of christ the little and big spheres we occupy

00:13:24.720 with truth and with love so you don't have to care equally about every subject that's talked about

00:13:30.040 on this show my hope is to make you aware of all the big things going on and that you will find that

00:13:36.920 one or those two or three things that you really care about and run with them and that everything

00:13:41.580 else that we talk about will simply you know enlighten you about things that you didn't know

00:13:45.560 were going on will help shape your worldview will equip you to have informed conversations with people

00:13:50.700 in your life and will help you when it comes time to vote and most of all my goal is to remind you

00:13:56.560 that the god who made us and made the universe is in complete control and while we have a role in

00:14:02.680 this ultimately god has totally and completely got it nothing throws him off so while we have that faith

00:14:09.640 and our hope is ultimately in heaven god created us to occupy this time this space on earth that means

00:14:17.120 we have a purpose here we have a say here especially in the united states thank god for the first

00:14:21.880 amendment and that is to uh and our bigger purpose is to glorify god in all that we say and do in

00:14:29.580 one way to glorify god is to love our neighbor in one way to love my neighbor in my opinion is to care

00:14:36.660 about my neighbor's freedom and that brings us finally finally i know it seems like i kind of

00:14:42.600 went off rails for a second but i'm bringing us back here uh it brings us to what is happening

00:14:48.220 in australia which does have an impact at least on how we think uh about things that are happening

00:14:55.420 in the united states so i will explain all of everything that's going on there and why in just

00:15:01.480 one second okay australia what's happening down under this is craziness the videos that i have seen

00:15:13.120 are crazy um of the protesters getting beaten by police officers in the name of public health so

00:15:22.420 it's insane let us back up just um a little bit so parts of australia have locked down again because

00:15:29.720 of a seven-day average of four deaths now uh all the people who have died in all of the world australia

00:15:38.320 the united states everywhere else absolutely matter they are people made in the image of god

00:15:43.000 they have souls that are going to live forever they had people that loved them um and so every

00:15:48.020 single death matters it's not insignificant but when you are talking about public policy that affects

00:15:54.200 the lives the livelihoods and the mental health of millions of people you have to make a calculus like

00:16:00.740 you have to look at the equation and say okay what makes sense let's do some cost benefit analysis

00:16:07.740 here when we're kind of weighing the cost of um our policies like that's that's what good leaders

00:16:14.740 would do right they wouldn't be hysterical they wouldn't drive people to panic um and especially

00:16:19.840 in a place like australia when you think australia you don't think chinese communist party and yet that

00:16:26.480 is how the government in australia is acting when it comes to um so-called public health policy so

00:16:32.620 this is a an average a seven-day average of four deaths um out of 25 million people that live in

00:16:40.700 australia so australia did not report a single death from october of 2020 to july of 2021 good job

00:16:48.360 australia and now fewer than 10 people have died in the last week and the people um in australia are

00:16:55.580 barely allowed to leave their homes because of that so here are the new restrictions according to nine

00:17:01.960 news in parts of australia only the only these are the only reasons that you're allowed to leave your

00:17:07.000 home leave your home shopping for essential items um one person only so you're not allowed to go with

00:17:14.580 anyone else i i don't what do you do by the way if you're like a single parent are you allowed to go

00:17:20.340 with your dependents because you're also only allowed to designate like one person to be able to

00:17:26.680 have any sort of like community and fellowship with and so i guess that person what has to be

00:17:30.820 your babysitter i don't even know how this would work so you can only leave your home shopping for

00:17:36.060 essential items um you can leave for care and compassionate reasons so they recognize that

00:17:42.440 human beings can't live in isolation solitary confinement is uh the cruelest form of punishment that

00:17:49.380 we uh allow and yet we are um we are forcing people into it basically in the name of public health

00:17:59.500 but only one visitor is um allowed for these so-called care and compassionate reasons uh you can leave your

00:18:07.000 house for exercise in groups no more than two excluding groups of household members within five kilometers

00:18:15.400 or within the the local government district i guess so no outdoor recreation no outdoor recreation

00:18:23.360 because that makes a lot of sense for a virus that we know um that can be uh it can respond well to

00:18:31.640 vitamin d in the sense that it can actually reduce the length of um symptomatic in infection and it can

00:18:39.520 also be um preventative to a certain degree and we also know that the virus as it

00:18:45.120 transmit effectively at all outside but no outdoor recreation says the australian government

00:18:50.440 um work and education that cannot be conducted remotely which i guess they would call

00:18:56.240 uh essential business so some terms that the government there has been using single bubble

00:19:02.760 that means people who live alone can nominate one designated family member or friend to visit for

00:19:08.060 companionship um they'll be required to be registered with the government by the way

00:19:15.000 so they don't trust you to actually like pick that bubble i think it's actually singles bubble so

00:19:20.680 um they don't uh they don't trust you to be able to designate your bubble you actually have to require

00:19:26.460 that bubble of people with the government um school educate so schools will conduct remote learning

00:19:34.440 but will remain open for students who need them that's under the education umbrella masks must be worn

00:19:40.960 in all non-residential indoor settings outside while uh waiting for uh waiting for i guess a cab or

00:19:49.020 something at outdoor markets and in all common property shared spaces of a residential building

00:19:55.160 um will be mandatory everywhere outside the home except for when exercising from monday august 23rd but

00:20:03.020 you're only allowed to exercise for up to one hour so um okay in addition to the stay at home order

00:20:11.020 uh it says must wear a mask at all times outside like we said 9 p.m to 5 a.m curfew as of august 23rd

00:20:18.820 that's today exercise limited to one hour per day um that must not go farther than five kilometers

00:20:25.640 uh from the house for exercise shopping or single bubble visits must not leave their lga local

00:20:34.400 government authority for work except for emergency services and health care workers child care workers

00:20:40.460 and disability workers in the lga must have their first vaccine dose by august 30th authorized workers

00:20:46.900 must carry a service nsw permit construction workers can attend unoccupied sites if they meet

00:20:53.080 vaccination conditions so if you don't i guess you are um you're just out of luck and you don't have

00:21:00.100 a job anymore a curfew has been introduced across 12 local government areas in greater sydney where

00:21:04.980 coronavirus cases are at their highest of course they are not high so people literally cannot leave

00:21:12.060 their homes they cannot leave their homes without the permission of the government you can't leave your

00:21:19.420 home at all from 9 p.m to 5 a.m like what in the police state is this can you imagine the state

00:21:26.200 telling you not to leave your home and honestly there are millions of people here in the united states

00:21:31.020 that would be totally fine with that like that's what i'm convinced of and that's what i it just

00:21:36.260 boggles my mind the lack of love for liberty that people have for just the semblance of safety it's not

00:21:43.460 even we don't even know if this stuff is keeping people from being infected by coronavirus and yet

00:21:47.960 people are like oh yes please i i love the government so much big brother really does care

00:21:54.120 about me sure i'll stay inside if the government says so it's mind-boggling to me real clear politics

00:22:00.180 reports this quote a sydney australia family says their 12 year old daughter was pepper sprayed while two

00:22:06.900 other family members were arrested for not following face mask rules during a shopping trip um so they're

00:22:13.100 there are videos of this going around on twitter which is actually strange it's hard to find them

00:22:18.700 it was not hard to find them the other day i don't know this but i would not be surprised at all if

00:22:23.580 twitter is for some reason suppressing that um and but i did see that in the video at least one of the

00:22:29.420 officers appears to not be wearing a mask and they're certainly not socially distancing you got to

00:22:34.180 be kind of up close in order to pepper spray a 12 year old i mean it's insane it's insane um there

00:22:40.120 was a video i saw circulating again which is hard to find now of helicopters hovering over a beach in

00:22:46.640 australia telling people to obey public health orders that is totally dystopian some people seem

00:22:52.600 to not have understood that 1984 wasn't like a guide for what the government should do but a warning

00:22:58.660 against a warning against what happens when we continue to surrender our freedoms uh the total

00:23:06.100 number of deaths since march of 2020 in australia is 984 uh if my calculation is correct that is

00:23:13.920 like point zero zero three percent of the population of course all of those lives matter but look there have

00:23:22.040 been um there have been over 800 suicide attempts in australia in just the past six months there is an

00:23:31.260 epidemic of teen suicide um that is happening in australia and teen suicide attempts that's happening

00:23:37.660 in australia i am sure in large part due to the isolation that we have forced upon children without

00:23:44.040 thinking one bit about their mental health it's insane it's insane if you really care about lives if you 0.81

00:23:50.880 really care about public health you have to realize that people aren't just bodies and vectors for a

00:23:56.440 virus but they also have hearts they also have souls as i have been saying and a lot of people

00:24:01.980 not just me but we have definitely been saying for a year and a half on this podcast that you have to

00:24:07.340 care about the entire person like this is not how human beings are meant to live you will see more

00:24:13.040 suicide because of this it's cruel it's cruel okay i mean i care about the people who have died i know

00:24:20.540 people personally who have been put on a vent i know people who know people themselves who are

00:24:26.360 probably not going to survive this virus i know people whose parents have died from this virus and

00:24:30.460 so i'm not minimizing that but look people cannot live in isolation you can't take away people's

00:24:36.580 livelihoods and then expect them to be okay you have to care about those things too the progressive

00:24:42.180 mentality about human nature that humans can be endlessly adapted to different kinds of public

00:24:48.740 policies and different kinds of environments it's just a lie people were made they were created by

00:24:55.120 god to live in community that's one of the parts of being an image bearer of god because we were made

00:25:00.580 in god's image and god is living eternally in community as a triune god the father son the holy

00:25:06.900 spirit are living in community with one another so we were not made to live in isolation by ourselves we

00:25:12.880 have to have fellowship we have to have community and taking that away from people is going to drive

00:25:18.340 people to the brink of insanity and it's definitely going to drive people to anger so that's what

00:25:23.340 we're seeing right now we are seeing in australia protests we are seeing people uh storm the streets

00:25:29.620 we are seeing arrests we are seeing police um beating people again in the name of public health

00:25:35.000 because people want to go outside like people want to be free people want to be able to travel

00:25:40.600 um so let me show you some of the the clips of the the crazy protests that are happening right now in

00:25:46.680 australia so these people i mean they're not armed obviously because australia made the fateful decision

00:25:58.160 to surrender their guns again in the name of um public safety and so now they are bearing the

00:26:04.480 consequences of giving up um their right to self-defense simply because like this is why this

00:26:12.000 this is this is why i know it's controversial to say but it's just true like the second amendment

00:26:17.680 was um was created uh so people have the right to self-defense and they had the right to defend

00:26:25.660 themselves against the violence of tyrants like it wasn't to hunt that is not why the second amendment

00:26:31.880 exists that's a great reason for it but when you disarm the populace they are easier to control so i'm

00:26:39.280 very glad that australians are they're they're protesting the way that they still can that's

00:26:45.740 that's really good and i definitely would not i know there are some people who disagree with me on

00:26:51.540 this i would not call for violence you're not gonna see me doing that i do call for peaceful

00:26:58.460 protesting i do call for people speaking up and people standing up and people um pushing back

00:27:04.520 the police told reuters that they arrested 218 people in melbourne and issued 236 fines for breaking

00:27:11.340 public health orders at three thousand nine hundred dollars each so because i care about my neighbor

00:27:17.700 i care about people's freedom like i care about them not being ruled under a police state like that

00:27:24.420 matters not just there but also here and we are watching what it looks like for people to be pushed

00:27:31.640 by tyrants to the brink of insanity in some cases the brink of suicide in some cases the loss of

00:27:37.560 livelihood um and certainly to uh their breaking point they just can't take it anymore and you

00:27:45.840 absolutely have an obligation while you can as lawfully as possible as lawfully as possible to push

00:27:53.900 back um against tyrants and so i am glad the people of australia have realized this i hope

00:28:01.140 that at some point people in the united states realize that so many of these arbitrary guidelines

00:28:06.840 and restrictions that are being placed on people especially on children are not really for your

00:28:11.100 health it's for control it's for control now listen to this story too if you don't if you don't believe

00:28:17.400 me that this is not really about health this is from sky news uh rescue dogs shot dead in australia

00:28:23.840 over coronavirus restrictions a council in australia killed the impounded animals to prevent

00:28:29.520 volunteers at an animal shelter from traveling to pick them up and potentially spreading the virus

00:28:33.680 let me read that to you again a council in australia killed shot impounded animals to prevent volunteers

00:28:41.780 at an animal shelter from traveling to pick them up and potentially spreading the virus

00:28:45.860 so that's how australia is going if you want to see the trajectory of continuing allow politicians who

00:28:53.360 do not care about you who don't care about your child who really as we will see in just one second

00:28:58.360 aren't even scared of coronavirus this is the trajectory of continuing to allow them to take

00:29:03.780 your freedoms away in the name of public health it's cruelty it's cruelty on a humanitarian level

00:29:08.740 it's cruelty when it comes to how they're treating animals if they really cared about lives do you think

00:29:14.080 that they would be doing things like this no no absolutely not absolutely not but so here's how

00:29:20.660 we're going to transition to the next thing that i told you guys that i had good news and this is

00:29:25.580 part okay so part of the good news is that okay australians have woken up and they're pushing

00:29:30.700 back against uh this kind of thing they're pushing back against a police state which i do i do believe

00:29:35.720 is a way to love your neighbor um while you still can you push back against tyranny tyranny always hurts

00:29:41.660 the most vulnerable as we have already noted like suicides are going up as a result of this so do you do

00:29:47.300 you love your teenage neighbor that's on the brink of suicide because of loneliness well then you need

00:29:52.080 to speak up about this as australians are now um the weird thing about australia is that if you look

00:29:59.720 at their mask mandate it is only required for people ages 12 and up now that is very different from the

00:30:06.540 united states where in many areas and on planes kids as young as two as young as two are required

00:30:14.640 to wear masks now we talked about last week we did a whole episode and i've written a whole article

00:30:20.740 about all of the peer-reviewed studies all of the scientific analysis all of the data that says

00:30:25.960 that kids should not be wearing masks and actually that mask mandates in general really have no effect

00:30:30.800 whatsoever on the spread of the virus if we're ready for that conversation which a lot of people have

00:30:34.860 been having for the past year and a half um but kids should not be mandated to wear masks and most of

00:30:42.780 our peer countries in europe do not require kids to wear masks i mean consider the fact that australia

00:30:49.020 one of the most tyrannical places right now when it comes to covid restrictions does not require kids

00:30:54.500 under the age of 12 to wear masks and yet here in the united states you actually have districts in

00:30:59.500 places like florida like texas like tennessee who are trying to sue the state and are trying to defy

00:31:06.300 the governor's ban on uh mask mandates in schools um by saying no we're just going to mandate that kids

00:31:13.900 kindergarteners have to wear masks we are going to mandate that two-year-olds um in these areas

00:31:19.580 have to wear masks at daycare some of you have reached out to me that uh your kid who is going

00:31:24.960 to daycare young as two years old is going to be forced to wear a cloth mask all day i'm sorry i know

00:31:30.600 people get mad at me when i say this but that is a form of child abuse that's a form of child abuse

00:31:35.460 it is and people say oh well it's not child abuse there are people who are really abused yes there are

00:31:40.400 people who are abused worse than that absolutely and i don't believe that the intent necessarily

00:31:44.920 is abuse but the impact is tell me what it is when you force a child to do something that only has

00:31:50.140 physical and psychological harm and no clear benefits what is that called what's that called

00:31:54.660 is that not a form of abuse but here's what i think is a piece of good a piece of good news um in all

00:32:03.760 of this is that the is that new york magazine which is very liberal magazine is actually reporting on the

00:32:08.920 fact that mask mandates among kids don't work they don't work i'll link to my past episode and my

00:32:15.580 article on this but the fact that new york magazine is talking about this um is a very good thing it

00:32:22.700 means that possibly possibly the dam is breaking and i'm going to read you some excerpts from that

00:32:29.160 article in just one second

00:32:30.500 all right let me tell you guys uh about this article which i was so surprised to see i also

00:32:42.280 felt very vindicated um because i you know i compiled all of that data about mask wearing and the fact

00:32:51.240 that it's not effective for kids to be wearing masks and i got way more support than i got detractors

00:32:57.320 or any pushback but i did get pushed back and there were people that i know for a fact did not

00:33:02.680 read the article and just said oh you're citing yourself you know allybethstucky.com is your source

00:33:08.240 no those people didn't look at all of the studies that were linked um and people there was this one

00:33:16.140 woman who calls herself a doctor was like oh this is just so unintelligent and it was just a screenshot 0.84

00:33:22.640 of the link to the blog post so this person didn't even read it and so some people like

00:33:29.440 masking is just it's a religion for them it's become an outward symbol of their alleged virtue

00:33:38.500 like they think that it makes some sort of statement about how loving and compassionate they are

00:33:44.120 and it's become therefore a part of their identity and so it doesn't matter how many facts you bring up

00:33:50.420 they're not actually thinking rationally they're thinking emotionally and it's really hard to get

00:33:55.820 someone to change their mind who is only thinking emotionally by using logic and data it's almost

00:34:01.640 impossible um but i say almost impossible because i do think it's possible and that's why it's important

00:34:08.160 that we continue to talk about it and so i was very happy to see in new york magazine um this author

00:34:14.840 david zwig uh talking about this so he mentioned at the beginning of the article um that the cdc

00:34:21.760 published uh what he says is a notable yet mostly ignored large-scale study of covid transmission

00:34:26.540 in american schools and he links to the article and um the study which is or the summary of the study

00:34:34.280 which is basically the only thing that people even read when they're looking at these studies

00:34:39.000 says that masking then unvaccinated teachers and improving ventilation with more fresh air were

00:34:43.840 associated with the lower incidence of the virus in schools they said this is these are common sense

00:34:49.060 uh measures and they said and they said that you know all of these things need to be implemented to

00:34:55.000 to mitigate the spread of the virus in schools however the article goes on to say other findings of

00:35:01.080 equal importance in the study however were absent from the summary and were not widely reported

00:35:05.660 these findings cast doubt on the impact of many of the most common mitigation measures in american

00:35:10.300 schools distancing hybrid models classroom barriers uh hepa filters and most notably requiring student

00:35:19.420 masking were each found to not have a statistically significant benefit in other words these measures

00:35:26.080 could not be said to be effective um and then he goes on to mention as we have said before

00:35:32.800 in the uk ireland all of scandinavia france the netherlands switzerland italy have exempted kids

00:35:39.740 with varying age cutoffs from wearing masks in classrooms there has been no evidence of more

00:35:45.660 outbreaks in these places in schools relative to the schools in the u.s where the solid majority of kids

00:35:51.780 wore masks for an entire academic year and will continue to for the foreseeable future again he talks

00:35:58.140 about what we talked about last week that the who whose child masking guidance differs substantially from the

00:36:05.020 cdc's recommendations have explicitly recognized that the decision to mask students carries with it

00:36:10.140 potential academic and social harms for children and may lack a clear benefit and they have not changed

00:36:17.220 that just because of the very transmission transmissible delta variant um and so we are seeing a very

00:36:24.700 different message from the who who by the way i think it's a corrupt organization but even a you know a broken

00:36:31.520 clock is is right twice a day and so the who has said you know there are a lot of harms in masking kids

00:36:40.020 unicef which i think is another you know corrupt organization says that you should under no circumstances be

00:36:47.420 masking kids under the age of five again i linked to that in the blog post that i published a couple weeks

00:36:53.700 ago um and they said really kids age five to eleven only if they have to wear masks should only be made to

00:37:00.600 wear masks for a certain amount of time in certain situations but really they don't recommend mask

00:37:05.400 wearing under the age um under the age of 12 the american academy of pediatrics this is weird it's

00:37:12.280 going to take us on a little bit of an aside um they said that kids need to be wearing masks aged two

00:37:19.520 and up they had a tweet that they put out where they said and this was just stunning american academy

00:37:26.080 of pediatrics babies and young children study faces so you may worry that having masked caregivers

00:37:31.920 would harm children's language development there are no studies to support this concern young children

00:37:37.780 will use other clues like gestures and tone of voice so i think we talked about this actually last week so

00:37:44.920 their first sentence actually contradicts the next sentence babies and young children study faces

00:37:49.600 okay so they know that for a fact and so understandably we may worry that wearing a mask covering

00:37:55.000 half of your face the most expressive part of your face is going to hinder their communication their

00:37:59.720 neurological development and they're saying no there's no studies yeah there are no studies there

00:38:06.100 are no studies if you don't study it good one aap but actually they did have a study on their website

00:38:11.700 that talks about the importance of face time um with a baby with your with your kids um smiling at them

00:38:20.620 them uh seeing how you move your mouth when you're speaking is very important for babies very important

00:38:26.360 for toddlers it's especially important for kids with special needs kids who are hard of hearing kids

00:38:31.900 who are autistic they need to see the full spectrum of human emotion on the face to really uh to really 0.99

00:38:37.940 have that kind of emotional intelligence and be able to gain social cues that are already hard for

00:38:44.160 them to gain because of their special needs but it's also important for kids who don't have special

00:38:48.340 needs the american academy of pediatrics had a study showing that um on their website and they took it

00:38:55.220 down they took it down so you can actually see where the link uh where the link used to exist or at least

00:39:01.360 you could a few days ago when i when i searched this on duck.go um but when you click on it it doesn't

00:39:07.980 actually take you to that page now thankfully the ohio chapter of the american academy of pediatrics

00:39:14.920 still has uh still has the uh study or still has at least um a summary of that study on their website

00:39:23.840 and so i was able to read that it's from 2013 um and it talks about how important how important

00:39:30.880 facetime is how important uh smiling is and talking to your baby is and all of this is much harder when

00:39:38.780 you have a mask on i mean obviously they can't see your smile with a mask on and the aap again

00:39:44.400 like 1984 is just memory holding that information so you're going to tell me that they actually care

00:39:50.600 about our kids health why should we listen to the aap on anything now there are scientists there are

00:39:56.940 pediatricians within the aap that i think um differ on this and some of them are actually quoted in this

00:40:03.320 particular article and some of them are quoted in the article that i wrote but as um an upfront

00:40:09.480 position they are saying that kids need to be masked at two years old and of course all caregivers

00:40:14.280 at all times need to be masked around children it absolutely makes no sense whatsoever it's

00:40:20.480 political so once again whenever i hear that republicans are the ones that are politicizing this

00:40:25.920 no no the people on the left these organizations politicians on the left have been politicizing this

00:40:31.760 from the moment they figured out they could use it against donald trump now they figured out they

00:40:36.140 can use it against conservatives they can use it to try to fight some kind of war against republican

00:40:41.020 governors that's exactly what the biden administration is doing by condemning their republican govern

00:40:45.380 governors from banning mask mandates um that's exactly what the school districts who are trying to sue

00:40:51.500 these governors who are banning mask mates uh mask mandates um are doing they're not following the

00:40:58.240 science they're not following the science whether it's in uh whether it's in florida or tennessee or

00:41:04.660 or texas these school districts that are saying no we are absolutely going to make kindergartners

00:41:09.680 wear masks we are not going to politicize this virus we care about our kids you're politicizing it

00:41:14.280 because you're not following the science you are just trying to score points against ron de santis and

00:41:19.540 i see you and i see your lack of compassion and i'm not going to let you get away with it um or at least

00:41:26.120 i hope the people in your district aren't going to let you get away with it and i am going to arm them

00:41:30.900 with as much information with as much data as i possibly can to make sure that you don't get away

00:41:35.660 with it so this article in new york magazine um goes on goes on to talk about the american academy

00:41:43.180 of pediatrics how this is clearly a political stance how um it's contradicted by some of their own

00:41:50.560 studies it goes on to say in florida tennessee and elsewhere local school board meetings are verging

00:41:55.220 on violence as parents and officials fight over the question but with tens of millions of american

00:41:59.680 kids headed back to school in the fall their parents and political leaders owe it to them

00:42:03.280 to have a clear-sighted scientifically rigorous discussion about which anti-covid measures

00:42:08.360 actually work and which might put an extra burden on vulnerable young people without meaningfully or

00:42:14.360 demonstrably slowing the spread of the virus in that context the best practices for mask

00:42:19.860 mask use in schools elementary schools in particular are much less obvious than cdc guidance and news

00:42:25.680 headlines about keeping schools safe might have you believe so again the cdc is going against the

00:42:30.820 science and all of this these are bureaucrats before they are actually scientists now the study by the cdc

00:42:37.400 looked at 90 000 elementary school students in 169 georgia schools from november 16th to december 11th

00:42:46.140 and again they found there was no uh statistically significant um uh impact from kids being forced

00:42:55.780 to wear masks this particular journalist reached out to the cdc they reached out to the american academy

00:43:02.120 of pediatrics asking hey you know what's your evidence what's your underlying data for the

00:43:07.780 recommendations that you are putting forth that all two-year-olds and up need to be wearing masks the

00:43:13.400 american academy of pediatrics did not respond to this journalist which is revealing in itself

00:43:18.320 the cdc press office replied that since children under 12 cannot be vaccinated the agency recommends

00:43:23.760 schools do universal masking and then included links to unrelated materials on vaccines in a recent

00:43:29.740 outbreak among adults so again did not answer the question that's because i don't know what the

00:43:35.900 politics are behind it i don't understand the nefarious reasons i don't understand the ulterior motives

00:43:41.140 like it just doesn't it doesn't make sense like the same people who seem to want to turn america into

00:43:47.500 europe and are constantly lauding you know the policies of scandinavia on this they are departing

00:43:54.260 from that and i truly don't understand um so this is alisa schecter perkins who is the director of

00:44:02.340 emergency medicine infectious disease at infectious disease management at boston medical center said

00:44:08.720 a year ago um i said masks are not the end of the world why not just wear a mask but the world has

00:44:14.840 changed there are real downsides to masking children for this long with no known end date and without

00:44:19.620 any clear upside without any clear upside i'm not aware of any studies that show conclusively that kids

00:44:25.660 wearing masks in schools has any effect on their own morbidity or mortality or on the hospitalization

00:44:30.760 or death rate in the community around them so like they're even not there and we talked about this again

00:44:36.820 they it is very rare that they even transmit the virus to teachers or to adults and by the way

00:44:43.740 if the vaccine works um and these people are pro vaccine then everyone above the age of 12 has already

00:44:51.960 had the opportunity to get the vaccine and so why would they be scared of kids transmitting the virus to

00:44:57.520 them if they got the vaccine that they apparently believe um works uh so the article then uh goes

00:45:06.680 on to talk about how children are less likely to have severe disease from SARS-CoV-2 they're less

00:45:12.880 likely to be symptomatic and even though it might be okay for adults to wear masks even though i think

00:45:21.280 these masks are highly ineffective they say children are not little adults just because something is

00:45:27.800 okay for adults does not mean that it is okay for kids a difference between the effectiveness of

00:45:34.540 requiring masks on children in schools and adults in other environments would not be a surprising

00:45:40.000 finding this may in part explain why the cdc study did not find a statistically significant benefit in

00:45:45.980 elementary age kids but did see a benefit in unvaccinated uh teachers again i would probably

00:45:52.440 push back on that based on the other data that we have uh that we have talked about cloth masks in 95s

00:46:00.540 kn95s uh none of these seem to make any kind of difference in effectiveness when it comes to

00:46:07.160 masking kids um again the who they say has repeatedly affirmed their guidance for children under the age

00:46:14.400 of six not to wear masks that it's actually harmful for them to wear masks and so we don't actually know

00:46:20.440 where the cdc where the aap is getting any of their data but we do know for sure that this is going to

00:46:27.320 have a negative impact on kids so i'm gonna link if you didn't see me link it on instagram or on twitter

00:46:32.980 i'm going to link this article in the description of this podcast episode so you can read it for

00:46:38.660 yourself and you can arm yourself um with the data that you need to talk to your school board your local

00:46:45.120 health officials unfortunately they have a big hand in this now there have been i got a message this

00:46:51.140 morning from uh someone and this just makes my heart sing so they used the data that i compiled

00:46:57.960 on my blog post she rallied a bunch of other parents who don't want their kids to be wearing masks

00:47:03.720 and they went to their school board they changed the mind of two people on their school board and so

00:47:10.180 the school board ended up voting to make masks optional whereas it was mandated before the rest of the

00:47:16.940 board is really mad and is um trying to somehow reverse this decision but it makes a difference

00:47:25.000 it makes a difference it i mean maybe it maybe it won't i can't guarantee obviously that kind of result

00:47:30.820 everywhere that you live but looking at the data um taking the facts that i've provided you with

00:47:37.400 that a lot of other people can provide you with that have been doing this work for a very long time

00:47:42.700 um and finding other parents that agree with you even just five other you know five other sets of

00:47:50.600 parents that agree with you going to your school's administrators your the teachers at the school

00:47:55.300 probably can't make a difference but you can get them to join in with you going to the school's

00:47:59.380 administrators if you're at a private school going to the local school board if you're at a public

00:48:04.300 school trying to talk to your local health officials um uh this can make a big difference when

00:48:10.640 you are armed with facts now again a lot of these people are not thinking rationally they're just

00:48:15.620 thinking about what looks good for them they're thinking about the political fights that they

00:48:18.780 might be having with their republican governor so they might not give one lick what you say to them

00:48:23.300 but you might be able to change some people's minds and it matters now we have seen some what i

00:48:28.180 consider some reprehensible behavior from some people that seem to be threatening uh the other side with

00:48:34.360 violence i obviously do not recommend that i would say uh that we have to raise a respectful ruckus

00:48:41.220 as i say so that means being as peaceful and as kind as possible but that doesn't mean that you can't

00:48:46.140 be bold that doesn't mean that you can't be brazen that means that doesn't mean that you can't be

00:48:49.940 brutally honest because like your kids well-being is on the line and that absolutely matters and so if

00:48:57.080 you're someone who has been sitting on the sidelines then i recommend that now is the time to get in the

00:49:02.700 game like now is the time to talk about this stuff you see what's happening in australia

00:49:06.980 for the people who say oh it's just a mask it's just this little thing it doesn't really it doesn't

00:49:13.640 really matter giving up your freedom especially with like there is absolutely no public health benefit

00:49:20.800 to it it absolutely matters and for people who cite you know romans 13 yes that's an important passage

00:49:28.540 but you have a right to speak up it's not illegal it's not illegal for you to push back on this stuff

00:49:33.920 like you are this our elected officials are supposed to be beholden to the constitution you've

00:49:39.640 got the free speech right to stand up for this the state as we always say does not care about your kids

00:49:44.160 you care about your kids you know about your kids it is your god-given responsibility to speak

00:49:48.820 up for your kids when something like wearing a mask only proves to be psychologically and physically

00:49:55.360 harmful and has no physical or psychological benefit like that is a form of abuse again i don't think

00:50:01.440 that's the in the intent but it does end up being the impact and so i mean if we could get the uh the

00:50:09.340 airlines to no longer require this i would say that that is a huge win but let's start at schools

00:50:14.460 and let's start with your voice coming together with other voices and using facts to push back on what i

00:50:21.500 think is just a absolutely egregious policy something else that i found interesting just

00:50:27.960 talking about masks in general was this 2003 article when there was a sars outbreak then um and this is

00:50:34.660 from australia so this is from the sydney morning herald listen to this first line retailers who cash in

00:50:40.720 on community fears about sars by exaggerating the health benefits of surgical masks could face fines up

00:50:46.240 to 110 000 and so there were retailers who are saying oh this mask is going to protect you the

00:50:52.220 surgical mask is going to protect you um from this virus and scientists knew that this wasn't the case

00:50:59.500 and so uh they um the you know the authority said look you can't swindle people like this you're not

00:51:07.400 going to be able to trick people and you are going to get fined in an insane amount if you try to trick

00:51:13.000 people by telling them that this is uh that this is effective and so they knew that professor yvonne

00:51:19.480 cassart of the department of infectious diseases at the university of sydney said those masks the

00:51:24.720 surgical masks are only effective so long as they are dry and they become ineffective in as little as

00:51:30.840 15 or 20 minutes after which the mask must be changed if you talk to a nurse that used to you know

00:51:38.420 if they were wearing masks with a flu patient for example in the hospital uh they would be told to

00:51:44.960 change their mask after every patient because it becomes unsanitary and so we've known these things

00:51:51.780 to be true for a very long time and the fact that we are continuing to push this it just doesn't make

00:51:56.820 any sense and as we say often we have to live not by lies we have to live not by lies and masks will

00:52:05.580 start with we'll start with the kids um it's a lie it's a lie that it's helpful and i think that we

00:52:11.820 are required by god to live not by lies let me close out by reading you this one tweet by or tweet

00:52:19.140 c.s lewis did not tweet this but he did say this he did write this um and you've probably heard it

00:52:23.840 before but i think that it um it's it goes well with what we're talking about of all tyrannies a

00:52:30.060 tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive it would be better to

00:52:34.580 live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies the robber baron's cruelty may

00:52:39.440 sometimes sleep his cupidity may at some point be satiated but those who torment us for our own

00:52:45.160 good will torment us without end for they do so with the approval of their own conscience a tyranny

00:52:51.960 sincerely exercised for the good of its victims is without a doubt the most oppressive and we do have

00:52:57.980 the obligation while we have the freedom to do so to love our communities by pushing back against

00:53:03.640 tyranny especially that which is done in the name of our good all right we'll be back here tomorrow see

00:53:09.460 you guys then

Relatable with Allie Beth Stuckey - August 23, 2021

Ep 475 ｜ The Police State Down Under

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