Relatable with Allie Beth Stuckey - February 22, 2023


Ep 759 ｜ Book-Banning Brigade Comes for Roald Dahl


Episode Stats


Length

42 minutes

Words per minute

175.15175

Word count

7,531

Sentence count

522

Harmful content

Misogyny

18

sentences flagged

Hate speech

20

sentences flagged


Summary

Summaries generated with gmurro/bart-large-finetuned-filtered-spotify-podcast-summ .

In this episode of Relatable, Allie and Bryn talk about Roald Dahl and what he meant to them growing up. They also react to some clips that have been circulating on social media and try to speak clarity into the chaos.

Transcript

Transcript generated with Whisper (turbo).
Misogyny classifications generated with MilaNLProc/bert-base-uncased-ear-misogyny .
Hate speech classifications generated with facebook/roberta-hate-speech-dynabench-r4-target .
00:00:00.000 Roald Dahl's children's books are being edited to be less offensive.
00:00:04.860 Makeup influencer Jeffree Star is being applauded by conservatives.
00:00:09.840 And Don Lemon says Nikki Haley is past her prime at the ripe old age of 51.
00:00:15.340 You know, because the president that we currently have is so vivacious and sharp.
00:00:19.680 This episode is brought to you by our friends at Good Ranchers.
00:00:22.940 Go to GoodRanchers.com.
00:00:24.280 Use promo code Allie at checkout for a discount. 1.00
00:00:26.520 That's GoodRanchers.com.
00:00:27.920 Code Allie. 1.00
00:00:30.000 Hey guys, welcome to Relatable.
00:00:39.620 Happy Wednesday.
00:00:40.560 Hope everyone's having a wonderful week.
00:00:42.640 My son Bryn and I, we're still here.
00:00:45.080 It's getting better.
00:00:45.820 Also, wow, if you're watching this on YouTube, my hair is kind of wild today.
00:00:49.680 Yeah, sunburn's still here.
00:00:50.940 It's still on my face too.
00:00:52.040 My face is in its like leather era right now.
00:00:55.160 So you probably can't really tell underneath the lights and the makeup,
00:00:58.320 but it's like starting to like crack and peel and things like that.
00:01:02.640 Wear your sunscreen, people.
00:01:04.480 Wear your sunscreen.
00:01:05.820 If you need to know more about my sunburn and my PSA about sunscreen,
00:01:09.160 you can listen to yesterday's episode.
00:01:11.140 All right.
00:01:11.500 We're going to talk about some, I mean, fun things to talk about.
00:01:14.520 I don't know if they are necessarily fun.
00:01:16.640 They're a little bit more lighthearted, even though they are serious,
00:01:19.100 because we're talking about our culture taking a free fall into utter stupidity.
00:01:25.380 But it can be a little bit lighter, feel a little better to talk about these things
00:01:30.120 rather than talk about things like nuclear war, right?
00:01:33.000 And that's what we had to discuss yesterday.
00:01:34.920 So we're going to talk about some of these culture war issues
00:01:37.140 and react to some clips that have been circulating on Twitter
00:01:39.440 and just look at what in the world this says about our culture.
00:01:42.580 And then, of course, try to speak clarity into the chaos.
00:01:45.140 Okay, first, we're going to talk about this Roald Dahl story,
00:01:49.700 which I just find his name to be really difficult to say for some reason.
00:01:53.540 I think it's because of where the L's are located in his name.
00:01:56.800 And even though I read his short stories growing up,
00:01:59.660 I don't know if I've ever actually really said his name out loud.
00:02:02.280 So I had to confirm how to say his name before I started this.
00:02:05.660 So it's Roald Dahl.
00:02:06.840 But I might have a hard time.
00:02:07.860 I might just shorten it to RD or something like that,
00:02:10.140 because it's just it's difficult.
00:02:12.040 It's difficult to pronounce, especially for a children's author.
00:02:14.280 It's a little bit ironic.
00:02:16.060 Children have a hard time saying their L's.
00:02:17.920 So anyway, he was a British novelist.
00:02:20.060 He was a short story writer.
00:02:21.960 He was a poet.
00:02:22.920 He was a screenwriter.
00:02:24.060 You're probably familiar with some of his most popular works.
00:02:26.520 James and the Giant Peach, Matilda, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.
00:02:31.320 Fantastic Mr. Fox.
00:02:32.500 He wrote not just the book, but also the script.
00:02:34.400 And then he wrote the script for Chitty Chitty Bang Bang.
00:02:37.080 Now, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. 0.88
00:02:38.620 I think I get that confused in my head with bed knobs and broomsticks.
00:02:43.500 I don't know why.
00:02:45.160 I can't really remember the plot of either of them, but I know that I watched them both
00:02:51.360 when I was little.
00:02:52.620 So he's kind of known for dark comedy, unexpected endings.
00:02:56.560 Like if you think about Willy Wonka, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, like it's a little
00:03:00.980 weird.
00:03:01.380 It's a little weird that the girl turns into a blueberry.
00:03:04.660 It's a little sad that the one kid gets sucked up into the chocolate tube.
00:03:09.040 Like it's a little bit depressing.
00:03:11.520 And actually, that's why I didn't love watching the old Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.
00:03:15.280 I remember thinking, like it's really sad that Grandpa Joe and the grandparents have
00:03:20.060 been sitting in this bed for like 20 years.
00:03:22.200 And then, oh, all of a sudden you get a golden ticket and Grandpa Joe, he's no longer paralyzed.
00:03:29.060 He can run around because he has the prospect of money.
00:03:31.880 Grandpa Joe is very selfish.
00:03:33.240 So there are all kinds of things like this in Roald Dahl's works that are a little bit
00:03:38.560 depressing, like a little bit dark and yet clever and funny and creative.
00:03:45.540 Same with James and the Giant Peach.
00:03:47.000 This was an animated movie that I did not want to watch growing up because it depressed me.
00:03:52.040 Matilda, I did like Matilda, even though also depressing.
00:03:56.280 What is it called?
00:03:57.120 The Chokey. 0.99
00:03:58.980 And I hated the scene.
00:04:00.820 I hated the scene in Matilda.
00:04:02.200 I probably should not have watched this movie growing up.
00:04:05.000 I wouldn't recommend allowing your kids to watch it.
00:04:06.880 I don't think I would let my kids watch it.
00:04:08.320 But the part where they make the fat kid, and actually that has something to do with
00:04:14.780 what we're about to talk about, eat the whole chocolate cake in front of the entire student
00:04:21.740 body.
00:04:22.380 I just remember thinking that was so sad.
00:04:24.160 That's like a form of torture and humiliation.
00:04:26.440 So anyway, those are the kind of themes that you see in Roald Dahl's book.
00:04:29.460 So they're not without some, I guess, some controversy, at least as far as parents maybe
00:04:35.200 not wanting to promote all of his books to their very young children because of some of
00:04:39.700 their dark themes.
00:04:40.620 But that's not why he is at the center of controversy in the education system today.
00:04:47.840 The reason why his books are now being called to be removed or be sanitized and edited is
00:04:55.760 because they say words like fat.
00:04:59.060 Yes, they say words like fat.
00:05:01.420 And so it's too offensive.
00:05:03.000 So this is according to The Guardian.
00:05:04.700 Roald Dahl books rewritten.
00:05:06.440 They're being rewritten to remove language deemed offensive.
00:05:09.480 Roald Dahl's children's books are being rewritten to remove language deemed offensive by the publisher
00:05:14.360 Puffin Puffin Puffin has hired sensitivity readers.
00:05:17.380 Oh, that's so funny.
00:05:21.520 Imagine if you spent tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands of dollars.
00:05:26.260 You're in debt hundreds of thousands of dollars because you got your English degree at some
00:05:30.000 liberal arts college only to become a sensitivity reader for Puffin.
00:05:34.560 I'm so sorry to rewrite chunks of the author's text to make sure the books can continue to be
00:05:40.400 enjoyed by all today, resulting in extensive changes across Dahl's work.
00:05:46.620 Edits have been made to descriptions of characters' physical appearances.
00:05:51.540 The word fat has been cut from every new edition of relevant books, while the word ugly has also
00:05:59.400 been cold.
00:06:00.820 Guys, these are objective descriptions of things.
00:06:04.780 And I understand, like, they're derogatory.
00:06:06.980 But, okay, what if you were writing a story about how bullying is bad?
00:06:11.280 What if you were trying to write about an antagonist?
00:06:14.140 And the antagonist is the one going around calling people fat and ugly.
00:06:18.460 Like, are you saying we can't have that theme?
00:06:21.780 So this actually, I think, is going to confuse not just, you know, objective descriptors of what
00:06:28.420 things are fat.
00:06:29.880 And some things, by the way, are objectively ugly.
00:06:33.200 So not only does it confuse that, but it could actually confuse depictions of right and wrong
00:06:40.020 and good and bad.
00:06:42.020 Like, isn't that part of reading?
00:06:43.560 Isn't that part of the journey of reading comprehension that kids are able to figure out,
00:06:50.540 like, who's the good guy?
00:06:51.500 Who's the bad guy?
00:06:52.380 What's a nice thing to say?
00:06:53.600 What's a mean thing to say?
00:06:54.980 It's like they think that kids have no comprehension, that people have no comprehension or no discernment
00:07:00.420 whatsoever to be able to pick up on, like, okay, what would be nice for me to say in a
00:07:07.580 normal interaction with someone?
00:07:09.000 Or what are things that I shouldn't say?
00:07:10.380 Like, they're just going to repeat and internalize everything they read.
00:07:14.040 Look, there are plenty of books that I read that I'm sure weren't representative of me or
00:07:18.380 were maybe insensitive to some things I believed.
00:07:20.840 Heck, as like a conservative Christian, most of the things that we consume are insensitive
00:07:26.180 to us and what we believe.
00:07:29.040 Some of that stuff, I'll just choose not to read because I don't want to read it or not
00:07:33.440 necessarily because I'm offended by it, but because it's not necessarily edifying.
00:07:38.580 And then other things I will choose to read because it's a good book.
00:07:42.340 I get something out of it or I enjoy it.
00:07:45.100 And so I can take some of it.
00:07:46.560 I can push some of it away.
00:07:48.020 Or I am just trying to expand and exercise my mind with the writing that I am reading
00:07:55.700 or the storytelling that I am consuming.
00:07:58.180 And I'm not necessarily drawing a moral lesson from it or I'm not applying the morality and
00:08:03.680 ethics that I see in this book to my life.
00:08:06.460 Like, if I read a book that said, you know, people that don't wear sunscreen are really freaking
00:08:12.220 stupid and they should never be let outside again. 0.81
00:08:15.980 I mean, that would be really silly.
00:08:18.380 But what if that's like a character in a book who's saying that and that is a part of the
00:08:22.280 story?
00:08:23.220 Am I supposed to say, you know what, sensitivity reader graduated from Columbia to do this job.
00:08:30.140 Can you please come edit my book?
00:08:32.440 I mean, honestly, how far does this go?
00:08:34.880 Like, some people are fat.
00:08:37.000 Some things are ugly.
00:08:39.720 Are these adjectives that we are not allowed to say anymore?
00:08:42.200 Like, do we not see how this is so Orwellian?
00:08:46.580 Like, wasn't this part of Winston's job in 1984 to try to reconstruct the language, to
00:08:53.540 try to minimize the language so you minimize people's understanding of reality and minimize
00:08:58.160 the range of consciousness so people don't even have the words to describe the things
00:09:03.660 that they see anymore?
00:09:05.640 It's just wild.
00:09:07.260 Okay, I haven't even gotten through.
00:09:08.620 I haven't even gotten through this article yet because I have so much to say.
00:09:12.380 Okay, so they remove the word fat.
00:09:14.600 They remove the word ugly.
00:09:15.720 Augustus Gloop.
00:09:17.220 Augustus Gloop.
00:09:18.080 Okay, so the guy who was drinking the chocolate in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and gets
00:09:22.040 sucked up the tube is now described as enormous because that's better.
00:09:27.500 If you walk up to someone and you say, you know what?
00:09:34.960 I know your whole life you have been called fat.
00:09:38.400 Not anymore, buddy.
00:09:40.400 You're enormous.
00:09:42.720 Dude, is that better?
00:09:43.720 I'm so sorry.
00:09:46.560 I can't believe that this is real.
00:09:49.000 In the Twits, Mrs. Twit is no longer ugly and beastly. 0.95
00:09:52.580 Just beastly.
00:09:56.040 Hundreds of changes were made to the original text and some passages not written by Dahl.
00:10:00.900 This is not a joke.
00:10:01.800 Okay, this is not a parody.
00:10:05.460 Hundreds of changes were made to the original text.
00:10:07.700 Some passages not written by Dahl have been added.
00:10:10.560 But the Roald Dahl story company said, it's not unusual to review the language during a
00:10:16.240 new print run and any changes were small and carefully considered.
00:10:20.980 It's unusual to take out the word fat and the word ugly.
00:10:25.400 Like, it's okay for those words to be included in things and for me to then have the opportunity
00:10:31.720 to talk to my kids and to say, you know, that's not something that we call people.
00:10:36.940 You know, that's, you know, an objective description or whatever it is.
00:10:40.560 But you can have those conversations with your kids or you can choose to not have your kids
00:10:45.740 read something.
00:10:46.800 But when we get in the business of editing books because they might be slightly offensive
00:10:51.200 to one portion of the population, we saw this with Dr. Seuss a couple years ago.
00:10:57.020 We saw Dr. Seuss being taken off the shelves in school libraries.
00:11:02.360 We were told that Dr. Seuss could be offensive because some of his books perpetuate racial stereotypes
00:11:07.420 about Japanese people, maybe about black people.
00:11:09.980 People were saying that Cat in the Hat was actually like the main character was actually
00:11:13.700 modeled after some stereotype of a black woman, which I don't think any toddler, any young 0.98
00:11:18.920 person reading Cat in the Hat would ever deduce or ever think or ever apply to their perspective
00:11:23.940 on black people.
00:11:25.420 And so, I mean, this is where it's going.
00:11:28.280 We are spiraling into ultra sensitivity to where I think, especially when it comes to Dr.
00:11:32.800 Seuss, you are doing a disservice to kids.
00:11:35.440 I mean, Dr. Seuss, as a person, as an author, his works has probably done more to help kids
00:11:42.340 learn how to read, not just read to themselves, but read out loud than any other author that
00:11:48.780 has ever existed.
00:11:50.160 And when we have the problem right now of a majority of fourth graders are reading at a
00:11:55.480 kindergarten level or below, I don't think the biggest issue that we're facing is how
00:12:01.680 insensitive Dr. Seuss was or Roald Dahl was.
00:12:05.860 Like, if this is a book that a young person wants to read and can read and is helping them
00:12:12.540 and it happens to say fat in it, I would say that that calculation, like, it works out in
00:12:19.560 favor of letting the kid read it, right?
00:12:21.360 Obviously, like, there are limits to what we want our kids to read.
00:12:24.980 Absolutely, we want them to be imbibing things that are good and right and true.
00:12:29.940 But I don't think that these adjectives qualify as something that's evil that our kids shouldn't
00:12:35.180 be consuming.
00:12:35.860 Um, in The Witches, which is something that he wrote, a paragraph explaining that witches
00:12:51.480 are bald beneath their wigs ends with the new line.
00:12:54.680 There are plenty of other reasons why women might wear wigs, and there is certainly nothing 0.98
00:12:57.820 wrong with that.
00:13:00.060 Really?
00:13:00.500 Like, we have to, we have to caveat that?
00:13:05.340 Come on now.
00:13:06.760 In previous editions of James and the Giant Peach, the centipede sings, Ant Sponge was
00:13:11.200 terrifically fat and tremendously fat flabby at that, and Ant Spiker was thin as a wire and
00:13:16.280 dry as a bone-only dryer.
00:13:18.040 That's funny.
00:13:19.060 Both verses have been removed, and in their place are these rhymes.
00:13:23.160 Ant Sponge was a nasty old brute.
00:13:25.560 Brute, well, I thought brute was male, um, and deserved to be squashed by the fruit.
00:13:32.160 Ant Spiker was much of the same and deserves half the blame.
00:13:36.800 Okay, um, I, you know, whatever.
00:13:39.200 If you wanted to add those to this story, but again, the reason that they're doing it,
00:13:43.940 because it's wrong to call someone flabby, like, what if that's an important part of
00:13:47.600 the story?
00:13:48.240 Also, I think physical descriptions, which it seems like they're removing or caveating all
00:13:52.000 these, are really important.
00:13:52.940 I think they're really important for kids' imagination.
00:13:56.600 References to female characters have disappeared.
00:13:59.940 Cool.
00:14:01.120 Uh, Miss Trunchbull in Matilda, once a most formidable female, is now, oh, okay, a most 0.98
00:14:07.280 formidable woman.
00:14:08.280 So now they're saying woman because, does it have to do with trans stuff?
00:14:13.760 Because female, we have been told, indicates, like, your sex and indicates your actual chromosomes,
00:14:22.260 but woman is someone who simply identifies as woman. 1.00
00:14:26.180 I don't know if that's the motivation here, but it seems really silly.
00:14:30.240 Gender neutral terms have been added in places where Charlie and the Chocolate Factory's Oompa
00:14:33.780 Loompas were small men. 0.97
00:14:34.840 Now they're small people.
00:14:36.300 Okay.
00:14:37.120 Just in case someone out there is reading, one little girl out there is reading, it's
00:14:40.640 like, I want to be an Oompa Loompa.
00:14:42.960 Well, now that little girl's mother can look at her earnestly in the eye and say, you can,
00:14:47.520 baby, you can, the cloud men in James and the Giant Peach have become cloud people.
00:14:52.960 Good.
00:14:53.660 See, now, now the little girl, little toddler girl, Abigail, she can look at her mom and
00:15:01.540 say, but mom, I, I didn't know that I could be a cloud person.
00:15:06.780 I thought only my brother Tom could be a cloud man.
00:15:11.560 And now that there's cloud people, now, now I want to be a cloud person.
00:15:15.460 She can say, yes, yes, you're absolutely right.
00:15:18.660 You can.
00:15:19.780 This is breaking glass ceilings.
00:15:21.840 I'm so proud of Puffin.
00:15:23.620 Puffin enrolled and the Roald Dahl Story Company made the changes in conjunction with Inclusive
00:15:28.820 Minds, which is an organization, um, that, uh, describes itself as a collective for people
00:15:35.400 who are passionate about inclusion and accessibility in children's literature.
00:15:39.540 Uh, Alexandra Strick, a co-founder of Inclusive Minds said they aim to ensure authentic representation
00:15:45.300 by working closely with the book world and with those who have lived experience of any
00:15:49.980 facet of diversity.
00:15:51.700 Look, not all books are going to represent you, are going to represent every facet of
00:15:56.960 diversity.
00:15:57.780 They're simply not.
00:15:58.620 That's not necessarily what books are for.
00:16:00.760 Books aren't necessarily so you can see yourself reflected at it.
00:16:03.240 That's not necessarily what TV shows are for.
00:16:05.080 I'm not saying all forms of representation are bad.
00:16:07.140 I'm not, I'm not saying that, but to write a book for the purpose of representation solely,
00:16:17.080 I think that that actually is probably going to compromise your ability to just tell a good
00:16:21.580 story and certainly going back retroactively editing stories to try to match all of our
00:16:27.280 different forms of representation today.
00:16:29.360 I think that's just stupid.
00:16:30.900 I think again, it's just counterproductive.
00:16:33.000 It's totally, it's totally pointless.
00:16:36.140 I remember I had a mom on and she was a mom whose speech went viral at the school board
00:16:41.620 meeting.
00:16:42.640 And, uh, she was talking about this terrible book that was being presented to her eighth
00:16:49.020 grader.
00:16:49.680 And there were multiple, actually, there was one that described the different ways that
00:16:54.180 this person wanted to commit suicide in very graphic terms.
00:16:57.400 We're talking about her 13, 14 year old being told that he can read this book in eighth grade
00:17:02.760 provided, provided for him by his public school.
00:17:05.800 And then this is in a conservative area, by the way, in a conservative state.
00:17:09.960 And then, um, middle schooler was also given by the English teacher, a book describing different,
00:17:17.600 um, sexual activities, including rape.
00:17:21.160 And the defense I've heard is the defensive representation.
00:17:25.380 Well, some kids have gone through that.
00:17:27.500 Some kids have thought of suicide.
00:17:29.100 Some kids have gone through sexual assault.
00:17:31.860 Oh, so they need to be re-traumatized by their assignments at school.
00:17:35.780 Really?
00:17:36.800 That's your argument?
00:17:38.260 Those things don't need to necessarily be represented to little kids.
00:17:42.060 And most, and most kids, by the way, have not experienced those things.
00:17:45.800 And so then we're planting those ideas in their head before they even have the frontal lobe,
00:17:50.440 before they even have the capacity to really be able to comprehend them.
00:17:55.020 They're being assigned.
00:17:56.400 And in a lot of cases, given those books by their teachers, or at least given access to
00:18:01.560 those books in the libraries, those are far more offensive than anything that Roald Dahl has
00:18:07.660 written for children.
00:18:09.320 Anything Dr. Seuss has written far worse for their mind, for their development, for their
00:18:14.160 self-esteem, for their view of others, their view of the world.
00:18:18.980 That has a far worse effect on their behavior, their mentality, their psychology than any
00:18:25.860 of these children's books that are now being censored by sensitivity readers and inclusive
00:18:32.020 minds.
00:18:33.160 And yet those are the kinds of books that are actually being promoted in schools, even while
00:18:37.260 Roald Dahl and while poor Dr. Seuss is being taken out and they're being chastised for not
00:18:47.400 being sensitive enough.
00:18:50.400 The Guardian also said, publisher of Roald Dahl books in French has no plans to rewrite.
00:18:55.580 So this is apparently just for the English books.
00:18:58.780 Antoine Chiron, he's a lawyer with ACBM, that's a Paris law firm that specializes in authors'
00:19:05.220 rights, said it was not illegal in France to change a dead author's works, but it is dangerous
00:19:10.900 for the culture.
00:19:11.920 Agree with you, Antoine.
00:19:13.200 Agree with you.
00:19:13.900 Here's what he says.
00:19:15.020 How far back should we go?
00:19:16.800 Baudelaire?
00:19:17.460 Voltaire?
00:19:18.040 The Bible?
00:19:18.780 If books are changed in this way, they are not the original works.
00:19:21.500 It is not far off censorship.
00:19:24.620 This is our artistic history.
00:19:26.100 I would be in favor of completely getting rid of the work rather than changing it if we
00:19:29.700 feel it offends current thinking.
00:19:30.900 But again, where do you stop?
00:19:32.500 Who decides what is now offensive or goes against current thinking?
00:19:35.580 This seems to be an attack on artistic creation and freedom of expression.
00:19:38.740 He's absolutely right.
00:19:39.760 And he's French.
00:19:40.480 Gosh, that's crazy.
00:19:43.100 And now I don't think that getting rid of the work rather than changing it is any better.
00:19:49.960 I mean, you're just looking at burning books.
00:19:52.000 How many dystopian novels have we seen there?
00:19:54.760 And actual, I mean, examples from history of communists, of fascists, totalitarians, burning
00:20:01.560 books, changing history.
00:20:03.220 Again, 1984, think about all of the dystopian novels that you can think of that were written
00:20:09.660 in the 20th century.
00:20:12.720 All of them had to do with the controlling of language and the name of compassion, of
00:20:17.020 course, and the name of order and the name of peace and the name of kindness.
00:20:22.360 All of them had to do with attacking this kind of artistic expression.
00:20:25.780 I mean, look at Mao's China. 0.52
00:20:27.160 This is exactly the kind of route that Mao went down.
00:20:32.100 And by the way, this is still what the CCP does to this day.
00:20:34.620 The CCP has edited the Bible to take out anything that could be seen as offensive to communism.
00:20:40.120 And by the way, you have Americans here who think that the Bible as it is, is pro-communism.
00:20:44.840 But at least the Chinese are actually, as atheists, more theologically knowledgeable to realize that the Bible as it is written is not pro-communism. 0.75
00:20:52.920 It has to be extremely edited to seem that it is pro-communism.
00:20:58.760 So anything about owning private property or seeming to support individual rights or liberty or things like that, the CCP has said,
00:21:07.960 oh, no, that's not going to make it to the final version of the Bible that we let our people read.
00:21:14.680 Like, how is this any different than that?
00:21:16.420 No, it's not the government doing it.
00:21:18.160 So I guess that's a little bit better.
00:21:19.560 But I think we've learned through what we've seen through the efforts and big tech and corporations,
00:21:24.160 how they try through their means to try to clamp down on speech, that it's still a First Amendment issue.
00:21:32.020 And I just think it makes us really stupid.
00:21:36.060 There are other examples of the changes that they're making to Roald Dahl's books and Matilda and the witches.
00:21:43.000 Again, just trying to make things more palatable for our sensitivities today.
00:21:52.400 You can't say things like crazy.
00:21:56.760 You can't, you know, obviously call people fat and things like that.
00:22:03.140 You can't say flabby.
00:22:05.200 There was one part in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, great flabby folds of fat bulged out from every part of his body.
00:22:12.200 That's been changed to great folds bulge out from every part of his body.
00:22:15.780 So that's important.
00:22:17.500 You can't say the word queer because queer means different things today.
00:22:21.940 You had to change it to things like strange.
00:22:25.620 And again, I'm just looking at the different things.
00:22:27.920 James and the Giant Peach taking out all references to fat.
00:22:31.520 So funny.
00:22:32.200 I mean, this kind of, it just, it just ruins, it ruins Roald Dahl because part of it was the shock factor.
00:22:39.500 Part of it was how he described people and things, like how he described both beauty and ugliness.
00:22:45.100 Like in Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe.
00:22:47.200 I mean, you see this kind of language from C.S. Lewis too, calling something as ghastly and grotesque and ugly.
00:22:53.180 Especially when you're looking at the evil that the White Witch and all of her ghouls represent versus the kind of royal and beautiful and bright descriptions of Aslan and his army. 0.88
00:23:06.000 I think like all of these things are really important for kids to understand as they're discerning light versus darkness.
00:23:11.200 But when you exchange the God of Scripture for the God of self, feelings reign.
00:23:19.200 Feelings are central to every decision that we make.
00:23:22.680 Moral relativism, which is inevitable when you remove God as the foundation of morality,
00:23:29.740 means that standards of right and wrong are constantly changing depending on the feelings of those who hold the most power.
00:23:37.700 And today we've decided, ironically, that the quote unquote most marginalized people
00:23:42.460 actually have the most power to tell us what words we can say and what stories we can read.
00:23:49.920 By the way, if you have that kind of power, you're not actually marginalized.
00:23:54.020 And so you just go along with the person who has the most political capital.
00:23:57.660 You just go along with the person who is the loudest.
00:24:00.640 The person whom you are told if you offend them in any way, that indicates that you are lacking empathy or morality.
00:24:07.240 I mean, that's how moral relativism goes.
00:24:10.980 It actually shrinks our language, shrinks our imagination, shrinks our creativity.
00:24:17.800 And it's not going to create a kinder society.
00:24:20.420 By the way, like we've been becoming more sensitive for the past, I don't know, 30 or so years.
00:24:27.540 Do we have a kinder and less polarized America because of that?
00:24:30.720 Has political correctness helped us come together?
00:24:34.280 Like, have we become a nicer, more polite people?
00:24:37.500 Have we become friendlier?
00:24:38.640 Have we become better at relationships?
00:24:40.240 Have we of a country, as a country, become more empathetic because of the policing of our language?
00:24:45.500 Because of removing words like that from books?
00:24:48.420 I don't think so.
00:24:50.200 I don't know.
00:24:50.680 I think our kids can be better equipped, better equipped than all of this.
00:24:54.800 And like I said, just a reminder that these people aren't, they're not actually interested
00:24:59.220 in like the well-being and the formation of your kids because they are pushing kids into books
00:25:05.400 like the ones that we've talked about before.
00:25:07.800 Flamer.
00:25:08.980 It's perfectly normal.
00:25:10.520 This book is gay.
00:25:11.780 Let's talk about it.
00:25:12.740 Born Ready, Gender Queer, all of these books that I listed in Florida, in Alabama, in Texas,
00:25:19.700 Oklahoma.
00:25:20.740 I mean, these are books that have pornographic descriptions that are being in some cases presented
00:25:25.300 to middle schoolers, probably in some cases elementary school schoolers in the name of
00:25:30.880 representation, in the name of diversity, in the name of inclusion, in the name of education.
00:25:36.780 And yet, like this is the kind of stuff that is actually going to damage the minds of kids.
00:25:40.740 They don't need to see depictions of genitalia.
00:25:43.720 They don't need to hear that they might be born in the wrong body.
00:25:47.600 Like this has long-term damage on kids, not hearing words like flabby in the book Matilda.
00:25:55.140 I mean, we've just gotten so crazy and so backwards.
00:26:00.000 But again, this is what happens when you exchange the God of Scripture for the God of self.
00:26:06.600 Romans 1 becomes, it manifests itself in stupidity like this.
00:26:13.640 Foolish minds are darkened and they just make bad decisions.
00:26:17.760 Okay, next thing I want to talk about, speaking of things that kids should not be presented
00:26:34.760 and speaking of our culture going to a place of craziness, we now have a person by the name
00:26:41.780 of Jeffree Star.
00:26:43.760 Jeffree Star, I actually don't know if this person, like how he quote unquote unidentifies.
00:26:50.300 I don't know if he actually goes by like she, her pronouns or like calls himself a woman.
00:26:54.380 He goes, I'm hearing in my ear, he goes by he.
00:26:57.060 Okay.
00:26:58.000 I mean, I would have said that anyway because he is a man, but I just was curious.
00:27:01.700 So he goes by he, his name is Jeffree Star and he is a makeup person.
00:27:07.800 I think he was like a makeup YouTuber.
00:27:09.260 I think he has his own makeup line now, but he dresses as a woman. 0.97
00:27:13.360 He dresses like totally femininely, but he doesn't make an effort besides that to look
00:27:17.820 feminine.
00:27:18.320 Like his body is very masculine, his face, his voice, very masculine, but everything else
00:27:23.460 he tries to make like very feminine.
00:27:25.200 So I find him very frightening, like very dark and demonic seeming and very frightening
00:27:31.780 as a person.
00:27:32.980 He has millions and millions of followers and subscribers.
00:27:36.740 He has a lot of influence.
00:27:38.720 And this video I saw circulating and yes, some conservatives praising it because he has like
00:27:45.940 a modicum of common sense.
00:27:48.940 Here's that clip.
00:27:49.840 I'm not into all the other bulls**t, I think.
00:27:52.580 What other bulls**t?
00:27:53.420 The they and them.
00:27:54.600 Yeah.
00:27:54.860 And all that extra s**t that we added during the pandemic because everyone was so bored
00:27:58.460 on their f**king houses. 0.81
00:27:59.780 They just started to make up more s**t. 0.92
00:28:01.700 More stuff?
00:28:02.280 Yeah.
00:28:02.800 That's why the conservatives like me because I'm just real.
00:28:04.940 Yeah, you do have a conservative vibe to you.
00:28:06.720 You're not they and them. 0.99
00:28:06.960 You're trans, you're male or you're female. 1.00
00:28:10.120 And you're standing on that.
00:28:11.200 And people get so mad when I say that.
00:28:13.180 How are you with they?
00:28:13.900 What the f**k does that mean?
00:28:15.800 As stupid is what it is.
00:28:17.160 Yeah.
00:28:17.620 But you need someone like me that looks like me to say it.
00:28:19.680 Because if you say it, it turns into you're homophobic, you hate trans people, you hate gays.
00:28:23.500 And it's just how you feel.
00:28:24.620 You don't hate anyone.
00:28:25.440 You just think it's stupid.
00:28:27.940 Yeah.
00:28:28.420 I mean, I don't need to look like Jeffree Star to say that.
00:28:31.100 A lot of us have been saying that for a long time because we don't care if we get called
00:28:34.360 those names.
00:28:34.920 You cannot be a they them. 1.00
00:28:36.600 That is plural.
00:28:37.560 Or that's what you call someone when you just don't, you don't know.
00:28:40.580 You don't know what their gender is. 1.00
00:28:41.860 That hasn't been disclosed in a story.
00:28:43.320 That hasn't been disclosed to you.
00:28:44.580 You're like, someone's like, oh, you know, the CEO will be here soon.
00:28:48.380 Oh, what time are they going to be here?
00:28:50.260 Like you ask that because you don't know if it's he or her.
00:28:53.600 You don't look at someone who presents themselves to you and say, oh, I'm going to call you they
00:28:57.520 then.
00:28:57.800 That's not like a pronoun that you declare for yourself.
00:29:00.920 And actually, it's very selfish to try to bend the laws of language in order to accommodate
00:29:06.840 a feeling that you have created for yourself.
00:29:10.760 And so I agree with Jeffree Star there.
00:29:13.260 And I do appreciate.
00:29:14.480 OK, so he's got some common sense there.
00:29:16.600 Like you're either male or female and you can't be they them. 0.95
00:29:21.200 And I appreciate that.
00:29:23.680 I appreciate him saying that.
00:29:26.180 But do I think and I'm not saying that I've seen like a ton of people do this.
00:29:29.940 So just let me put that out there.
00:29:33.040 But do I think that he's like on our side now?
00:29:36.440 He says, oh, conservatives like him.
00:29:38.160 I don't doubt that there are some conservatives who do.
00:29:41.480 Conservatives get so excited when someone who is like on the left or is not just an out
00:29:48.260 and out Christian Republican says something that we agree with.
00:29:52.260 And I understand the excitement because it's like we get lambasted all day by all these celebrities
00:29:58.060 and all of these mainstream sources that when someone says something that's just like a
00:30:02.320 little bit true, we're like, yes, our hero.
00:30:05.740 But look, this like this is still a person, a man who is very, very confused and very, very
00:30:12.220 lost.
00:30:13.160 This is a man who presents as a woman.
00:30:15.820 Now, maybe he's not confused about who he actually is.
00:30:18.880 And I can like appreciate that, that he is apparently not trying to say, I don't know,
00:30:25.560 that you can be they or whatever.
00:30:27.480 But he obviously doesn't believe that a man is a man and a woman is a woman.
00:30:31.900 He believes that there is a lot of gender bending that goes on there.
00:30:36.000 So I'm not going to like applaud this as, wow, he is a beacon of common sense and clarity
00:30:42.260 for us.
00:30:42.880 And I would just say that, yeah, of course, you can be a fan of someone who doesn't agree
00:30:48.040 with you on everything.
00:30:49.680 There are people that I like that I know I don't agree with on everything.
00:30:52.320 And I think that's fine.
00:30:54.560 But I just think that we should pump the brakes, slow our roll before conservatives are like,
00:31:01.100 yay, Jeffree Star, conservative hero, our advocate for common sense and for clarity in
00:31:09.020 all things.
00:31:09.380 He said something that people five years ago, the vast majority of people would have been
00:31:14.040 like, yeah, what are you even talking about?
00:31:15.760 No one goes by no one goes by they them.
00:31:17.880 Like what counts is truth telling today.
00:31:20.740 What counts is courage and bravery today.
00:31:23.560 It's really sad.
00:31:24.940 I mean, so there's this meme that I've shared before.
00:31:27.980 I actually edited it myself because when I shared it on Instagram, I don't even know
00:31:32.840 how to describe it.
00:31:33.840 It's like the gray guy and like the based chat over here.
00:31:38.260 And we'll put it up on YouTube if we find it.
00:31:40.220 And the gray guy is like, who radicalized you?
00:31:45.580 And the based chat over here is like, no one.
00:31:51.860 I am just a normal person from 50 years ago.
00:31:55.000 But I changed that to 10 years ago.
00:31:57.520 OK, the things that you think are radical that I think men are men and women are women
00:32:02.240 from the point of conception, that genetics actually matter, that I'm not going to accept
00:32:06.600 this idea that a man can become a woman and vice versa, that I believe that marriage between
00:32:13.140 a man and a woman is sacred and has a special and irreplaceable place in any kind of strong
00:32:19.680 society.
00:32:20.340 Yeah.
00:32:20.480 The vast majority of people believe that 10 years ago, the things that you're calling
00:32:24.540 bigoted and radical today, even the stuff on like social justice and things about like
00:32:29.460 reparations and systemic racism, the things that I know about those things, not even believe
00:32:33.600 know about those things based on the data that we have.
00:32:36.760 Yeah.
00:32:36.880 Most people believed and knew those things 10 years ago and weren't even afraid to say
00:32:40.320 it.
00:32:41.140 Don Lemon was one of those people.
00:32:42.600 There was a clip that was circulating recently that he was talking about, look, if you want
00:32:46.440 to clean up your communities, if you want a better life, he's talking specifically to
00:32:49.680 black people, which most people would not say this today.
00:32:53.580 Most people on the right would not say this today just because of the absolute backlash
00:32:57.100 that you would get.
00:32:57.740 He just was like, look, clean up your community, pull your pants up, like, you know, speak in
00:33:03.040 a way that is like respectable and things like that.
00:33:05.320 Today, you're told that there is no agency whatsoever in these minority communities and
00:33:10.960 every single bad thing that comes upon them, the consequences or the trials and
00:33:19.640 tribulations that they have, the disparities that exist there have nothing to do whatsoever
00:33:24.440 with any kind of choice or any kind of behavior, any kind of it like any kind of morality or
00:33:33.460 anything like that, that it all has to do with the system.
00:33:36.900 It all has to do with white people. 0.67
00:33:38.340 It all has to do with racism and white supremacy in the system holding them down.
00:33:42.400 And in that way, it's very belittling.
00:33:45.000 It's very patronizing.
00:33:47.020 It's very infantilizing.
00:33:48.720 And it's actually dangerous because you just perpetuate the cycles that in a lot of cases
00:33:53.400 are keeping people in poverty, incarcerated and things like that.
00:33:58.220 Ten years ago, people were bold enough to say the things that, you know, we knew are true.
00:34:03.480 Now, today, most people won't say those things because it's, again, offensive.
00:34:07.780 And it goes back to what we were saying when feelings rain, you are constantly changing
00:34:13.220 the standards of morality to try to meet the people in power who are telling you what
00:34:17.260 you have to believe to be considered empathetic or not.
00:34:20.020 And speaking of Don Liman, who we've seen over the past few years, he is one of many people
00:34:24.860 who was just completely broken by Donald Trump.
00:34:28.760 Now, he was liberal before that.
00:34:30.760 Certainly he was at CNN.
00:34:32.000 But I mean, the country shifted way to the left.
00:34:35.280 And after 2010 is when things really started to happen.
00:34:39.400 But then 2014, 2015, 2016, things just accelerated so much.
00:34:43.840 And I think Donald Trump being the polarizing figure that he is, and that's not me bashing
00:34:48.920 him at all.
00:34:49.520 It's just how it is.
00:34:50.600 Like that got things to a very crazy place on the left very quickly.
00:34:56.400 And Don Liman was one of those people.
00:34:59.060 So he's certainly on the left.
00:35:00.160 But then he'll say things that are like, what are you talking about?
00:35:04.740 So now he is, he's on this morning show and CNN.
00:35:08.140 He used to have a nightly show that wasn't doing very well at all.
00:35:11.240 Now he is a morning show host, but he is having a hard time adjusting.
00:35:14.660 I don't know if you guys have seen these stories where apparently he just has bad behavior.
00:35:18.800 He doesn't treat his co-workers well, especially apparently his female co-workers. 0.99
00:35:24.380 His, what's the, what's the co-worker's name?
00:35:27.380 The, the young one, she's like my age that is also the, oh, Caitlin Collins, his co-host
00:35:36.060 on this, on this morning show.
00:35:37.560 Apparently it's reported that he was yelling at her, screaming at her because she accidentally
00:35:42.780 interrupted him and something, which by the way, happens in cable news on accident all
00:35:47.140 the time.
00:35:47.660 But he just thinks it seems like he is bigger and better than all of this because he used
00:35:52.020 to have a prime time slot.
00:35:53.460 So he's having a hard time sharing the spotlight, but maybe it's because of what he thinks about
00:35:59.120 women in general that is actually driving some of his bad behavior and his mistreatment
00:36:03.460 of his female co-workers.
00:36:05.720 So he is under fire for comments that he made about Nikki Haley.
00:36:10.160 So this is according to AP News, Don Lemon to return to CNN undergo formal training.
00:36:15.560 So that means that he was put on pause.
00:36:18.220 He was not let go, but he was told, hey, he can't host the show because of comments that
00:36:22.720 he made on February 16th on CNN this morning when he, I'll just play you the clip, when
00:36:30.360 he said this.
00:36:31.500 Nikki Haley is in her prime.
00:36:32.940 Sorry.
00:36:33.640 When a woman is considered being in her prime in her 20s and 30s and maybe 40s.
00:36:37.600 What are you talking about?
00:36:38.600 That's not according to me.
00:36:40.160 Prime for what?
00:36:41.120 It depends.
00:36:42.000 I mean, it's just like prime.
00:36:42.940 If you look it up, it'll, if you look, if you Google, when is a woman in her prime, 0.98
00:36:46.180 it'll say 20s, 30s and 40s.
00:36:48.520 I don't necessarily.
00:36:49.340 Oh, I got it.
00:36:49.880 I'm not saying I agree with that.
00:36:51.620 So I think she has to be careful about saying that, you know, politicians aren't in their
00:36:55.740 prime.
00:36:55.880 I think they need to qualify.
00:36:56.920 Are you talking about prime for like child appearing or are you talking about prime for
00:37:01.400 being president?
00:37:02.100 Don't shoot the message.
00:37:02.900 I'm just saying what the facts are.
00:37:06.720 It says 20s, 30s and 40s.
00:37:07.200 And I'm just saying Nikki Haley should be careful about saying that politicians are not 0.97
00:37:11.060 in their prime and they need to be in their prime when they serve because she wouldn't 0.71
00:37:14.420 be in her prime according to Google or whatever it is.
00:37:18.340 OK, OK, so people think it's weird because he was like a woman is not in her prime and
00:37:24.920 you can just Google it.
00:37:26.160 You can Google it.
00:37:26.960 A woman is not in her prime when she's past her 40s. 1.00
00:37:31.140 I guess Nikki Haley is probably in her 50s or something like that, which is like, I mean,
00:37:36.700 she could be the, you know, the young daughter of our the current president of the United
00:37:45.880 States, who is only 18 years younger than Jimmy Carter, who is almost 100 and is in hospice
00:37:51.640 right now.
00:37:52.560 Jimmy Carter is 98.
00:37:53.720 He's only 18 years older, 18 years older than the president of the United States.
00:37:58.220 So, like, I don't think that anyone on the left can say that a reason that they shouldn't
00:38:04.500 vote for that we shouldn't have a president like Nikki Haley is age. 1.00
00:38:09.240 Now, past prime, if you were talking about childbearing, sure.
00:38:14.160 Like, I think that's true.
00:38:15.760 If Don Lemon, like if you are concerned about Nikki Haley's fertility, thank you so much for
00:38:20.260 thinking about that and thinking through that.
00:38:21.760 I'm sure she I mean, I'm sure she just really appreciates that because, you know, she was
00:38:26.260 probably considering giving birth again. 0.77
00:38:28.480 And then she heard Don Lemon.
00:38:29.980 She was like, oh, my gosh, that is so true.
00:38:31.780 I'm in my 50s.
00:38:32.540 I can't have kids.
00:38:34.620 Oh, thank you.
00:38:35.760 Thank you, Don Lemon.
00:38:36.600 So I'm sure she takes kindly to looking out for her fertility and whether or not she can 0.98
00:38:42.680 have another child.
00:38:43.700 But if you're talking about prime in any other way, I'm just wondering where is the like,
00:38:48.740 where are you getting that?
00:38:49.840 So if I Google, I don't use Google, but I'll use Google for the sake of argument.
00:38:55.060 When is a woman in her prime to do anything publicly? 1.00
00:39:03.780 Let's see what Google has to say.
00:39:08.320 Well, primewomen.com says, bottom line, as far as having wisdom and verve and the experience
00:39:14.620 used both wisely, most women are in their prime after the age of 50. 1.00
00:39:19.840 Now, the Healthy Journal says a woman's prime is between the ages of 28 and 45. 0.98
00:39:27.920 But again, it says it's for this is for child raising and child bearing.
00:39:34.780 OK, so again, I guess I'm just confused about if Don Lemon is talking about Nikki Haley's
00:39:41.260 ability to have kids or if I don't know, he's talking about her ability to run for president 0.98
00:39:47.060 of the United States.
00:39:48.520 I don't know.
00:39:50.120 I mean, we have an octogenarian right now in the White House right now, right now.
00:39:56.340 So I'm thinking that it would probably be OK.
00:39:59.000 Now, maybe there are a million other reasons that you don't want to vote for Nikki Haley.
00:40:02.760 And that's fine.
00:40:04.420 But I don't think her age is something that disqualifies her.
00:40:08.520 It was just such like a silly, silly thing to say.
00:40:11.940 He said, I'm just saying what the facts are.
00:40:14.360 Really?
00:40:15.160 Really?
00:40:15.960 Now, Nikki Haley said, I wasn't asking for a mental competency test for a sexist male
00:40:19.980 reporter on CNN.
00:40:21.240 I was asking for transparency for mental competency test for elected officials who make tough decisions
00:40:26.200 for Americans every day.
00:40:27.120 Now, if it were me, I would not use the word sexist.
00:40:31.120 You're playing leftist language games like I understand why you want to do this.
00:40:36.500 But if you're running for president, don't even don't even give it.
00:40:39.700 Don't even give them anything like that, because it's just don't even use sexist or racist or
00:40:46.160 anything like that, because you are just playing their game.
00:40:51.480 I mean, Don Lemon is not bright.
00:40:53.720 We know that.
00:40:54.640 I mean, he's he's not he's he's not a wise person.
00:40:59.060 I remember I was watching one day and he said the word disrespectful and he literally said
00:41:05.020 disrespectful.
00:41:06.420 Oh, wait, that's not actually a word.
00:41:09.180 Un un unrespectful.
00:41:10.880 I don't know.
00:41:11.940 Non respectful.
00:41:12.720 So this is someone who doesn't know the disrespectful is a word.
00:41:16.480 OK, that's what I would have said if I were Nikki Haley.
00:41:19.760 So maybe he's passed his prime.
00:41:21.240 I don't know.
00:41:22.380 I don't know.
00:41:23.040 Um, just something to consider.
00:41:36.540 OK, guess what, guys?
00:41:37.900 Next week, I have a surprise.
00:41:40.560 I have a very fun interview that is coming up that will be conducted soon.
00:41:46.760 It will come out next week.
00:41:47.940 I'm not even going to tell you.
00:41:48.780 It's going to be a surprise and you're going to be so excited and happy about this interview.
00:41:53.580 And I'm super pumped for it, too.
00:41:56.020 And so just stay tuned for that.
00:41:57.800 Stay tuned for that.
00:41:59.680 All right.
00:42:00.340 Oh, one last thing I want to say is tomorrow, Thursday, February 23rd.
00:42:06.360 If my page says February 27th, I'm guessing it's February 23rd tomorrow, I'm going to be hosting an off the record private Q&A exclusively for Blaze TV subscribers.
00:42:18.660 So you can send me questions.
00:42:20.660 So if you're a Blaze TV subscriber, go to blazetv.com slash off the record and sign up today so you can join the conversation.
00:42:29.720 Use promo code off the record if you want to become a subscriber to be able to chat with me.
00:42:35.480 And it's not just with me, like sometimes it's Glenn Beck and different hosts at Blaze TV.
00:42:40.580 So tomorrow, Thursday, February 23rd, this is 27th twice, at 1145 AM CT, 1245 PM ET, head over to blazetv.com slash off the record, blazetv.com slash off the record.
00:42:56.500 All right.
00:42:57.120 That's all we've got time for today.
00:42:58.460 See you guys back here tomorrow.
00:42:59.760 See you guys back here tomorrow.