The Charlie Kirk Show - Dennis Prager | On #MeToo, BLM Inc, Lockdowns and How to Win the American Culture War

00:00:00.000 Thank you for listening to this Podcast 1 production.

00:00:02.000 Now available on Apple Podcasts, Podcast 1, Spotify, and anywhere else you get your podcasts.

00:00:08.000 Hey, everybody.

00:00:09.000 Special treat for you.

00:00:10.000 Probably one of the most influential conservatives on the planet, someone who has influenced me more than almost any other conservative thinker out there, Dennis Prager, host of the Dennis Prager Show, the national radio program.

00:00:21.000 Dennis Prager is a dear friend and someone who cares deeply about our country and defeating the left.

00:00:27.000 This is one of my favorite conversations I've had recently.

00:00:30.000 Before we get into it, I want to thank those of you that support our program that allows us to have incredible guests.

00:00:36.000 For those of you that go to charliekirk.com slash support, charliekirk.com slash support, please consider becoming a monthly supporter of our program at charliekirk.com slash support.

00:00:47.000 Dennis Prager is here, everybody.

00:00:49.000 Buckle up.

00:00:50.000 Here we go.

00:00:51.000 Charlie, what you've done is incredible here.

00:00:53.000 Maybe Charlie Kirk is on the college campus.

00:00:55.000 I want you to know we are lucky to have Charlie Kirk.

00:00:58.000 Charlie Kirk's running the White House, folks.

00:01:02.000 I want to thank Charlie.

00:01:03.000 He's an incredible guy.

00:01:04.000 His spirit, his love of this country, he's done an amazing job building one of the most powerful youth organizations ever created.

00:01:11.000 Turning point USA.

00:01:12.000 We will not embrace the ideas that have destroyed countries, destroyed lives, and we are going to fight for freedom on campuses across the country.

00:01:21.000 That's why we are here.

00:01:23.000 Legacy Box is a super simple mail-in service to have all your videotapes, camcorder tapes, film reels, and pictures digitally preserved on thumb drive, DVD, or cloud.

00:01:34.000 I love Legacy Box.

00:01:35.000 All my family's archives, my ancestors that fought in the Civil War and that fought in the Revolutionary War, now I have all their pictures on Legacy Box.

00:01:45.000 Are your family's memories trapped on an old camcorder tape or film reels?

00:01:48.000 Was your favorite childhood memory caught on film or videotape and maybe it disappeared and you're regretful for that?

00:01:53.000 Well, do something about it by going to Legacy Box.

00:01:56.000 It's legacybox.com slash Charlie and get 40% off your first order.

00:02:00.000 You just mail it in.

00:02:01.000 They catalog it, send all of the originals back to you and a digital file.

00:02:05.000 Do you need to rescue your recorded memories but haven't had any time to know where to start?

00:02:08.000 Do you want these irreplaceable moments forever?

00:02:11.000 Have them digitally preserved so they stand the test of time and can be passed down for generations to come.

00:02:16.000 Get back perfectly preserved digital copies on a thumb drive.

00:02:19.000 It's legacybox.com slash Charlie.

00:02:21.000 Buy today to take advantage of this exclusive art offer.

00:02:23.000 Send in when you're ready.

00:02:25.000 Legacybox.com slash Charlie.

00:02:28.000 Save 40% while supplies last.

00:02:32.000 Hey, everybody.

00:02:34.000 Super thrilled to have this episode of the Charlie Kirk Show to present to you today.

00:02:38.000 A friend of mine and someone who I have learned from more than any other person in the conservative movement in a variety of different ways.

00:02:46.000 I have watched every single one of his fireside chats and I catch as much of his daily radio show as I possibly can.

00:02:53.000 Dennis Prager.

00:02:54.000 Dennis, welcome officially to the Charlie Kirk Show.

00:02:57.000 It's great to be with you.

00:02:58.000 And if I have touched your life, then it has been a life well spent.

00:03:04.000 That's very kind.

00:03:05.000 And I've read your book on happiness and I'm trying to get through your Bible commentary.

00:03:14.000 Not that it's difficult to read.

00:03:16.000 It's just I'm doing it with such intentionality and I keep getting.

00:03:20.000 Well, my view is that if I don't have at least one life-changing idea per page, I failed.

00:03:30.000 Well, there's a lot of truth to that.

00:03:32.000 So I get to the eighth page, and I'm questioning whether or not I'm running my life correctly.

00:03:36.000 And so I'm like this far through it.

00:03:38.000 And then I'm taking voluminous notes.

00:03:42.000 That's great.

00:03:43.000 So there's a lot happening in our country, and I want to ask you about that.

00:03:47.000 And I also want to ask you about some things that I've heard you say multiple times and just kind of get more context on it, especially on how to live a good life, which is a focus of your life's work to try to create good people, which I think is a phenomenal mission statement for a country that we have been missing so greatly.

00:04:07.000 Let's start with this, though, Dennis.

00:04:09.000 Do you, in the last couple of weeks, in the last six weeks, we have seen America grow into more discord and unrest, a lot of which you predicted years ago in your incredible writings and your book, it was still the last hope.

00:04:26.000 Is that correct?

00:04:27.000 Is that the best hope?

00:04:29.000 Still the best hope.

00:04:30.000 Where you talk about the American Trinity, and you aptly said in your book, you describe the left better than I have seen anyone else describe it, where they take their protests, they take their rituals with the same sort of intensity and the same sort of seriousness that a religious person would take a religious ritual.

00:04:48.000 This is a religion to the left.

00:04:50.000 It really is.

00:04:51.000 So I guess, Dennis, let's start with this.

00:04:54.000 Are you more or less optimistic about the future of America after what you've seen in these last couple months?

00:05:01.000 I have a policy of answering questions honestly as opposed to what is most effective.

00:05:11.000 So it's more effective to say I'm optimistic, but I'm not.

00:05:17.000 I'm less optimistic.

00:05:19.000 But I need to add something unbelievably important.

00:05:23.000 It doesn't matter.

00:05:25.000 I don't fight one whit less because I'm less optimistic.

00:05:30.000 Did the guys who stormed Normandy Beach, were they optimistic?

00:05:35.000 Why would they be peeing in their pants on the landing strip if they were optimistic?

00:05:43.000 You don't fight only when you're optimistic.

00:05:47.000 It's when things look bad that the fighting is most necessary.

00:05:51.000 Did Washington fight only when it looked good?

00:05:54.000 I mean, you know, people ask me this, and your question is entirely appropriate.

00:05:59.000 But when people ask me this, I know that part of their thinking is: do I give up?

00:06:06.000 Do I give up is not the same as, am I optimistic?

00:06:11.000 That I'm not optimistic doesn't allow me to give up.

00:06:16.000 All good people in history would have given up if the issue were determined solely by the question of optimism.

00:06:25.000 The American dream is losing. 1.00

00:06:27.000 I mean, to deny that is to be an idiot. 1.00

00:06:31.000 And I'm not an idiot. 0.99

00:06:33.000 So I can't deny it. 0.97

00:06:36.000 I mean, we are bathing in lies because truth is not a left-wing value.

00:06:43.000 By the way, I am glad you said it because I feel self-conscious, but I have to say it.

00:06:49.000 If your viewers want to understand the left, they should read my book, Still the Best Hope, and to Understand America.

00:06:57.000 Yes.

00:06:58.000 I think there are a lot of great books, but it's the best describing them both in one book.

00:07:05.000 And I said exactly: America stands for three things: the American Trinity, and God We Trust, Liberty, E pluribus Unum.

00:07:14.000 The left hates all three.

00:07:16.000 It has gotten rid of God.

00:07:18.000 It totally, the whole point is to get rid of e pluribus unum out of many one.

00:07:24.000 The point is, Thomas Friedman of the New York Times.

00:07:28.000 Out of many, many.

00:07:29.000 Yes.

00:07:31.000 Did I predict this or not?

00:07:33.000 They hate the out of many one.

00:07:37.000 To them, they don't even, this generation, I don't even know if your generation ever heard of it.

00:07:42.000 The melting pot.

00:07:44.000 This is, I was raised that America is a melting pot.

00:07:47.000 That is a dirty word.

00:07:49.000 You can say the F word on the left, but you can't say the M word, melting pot.

00:07:55.000 But that's what, if we're not a melting pot, it's over.

00:07:59.000 If we don't all become American, that doesn't mean you lose whatever cultural identity you have.

00:08:03.000 I speak Hebrew fluently.

00:08:05.000 My kids went to Jewish day schools, but we're through and through American.

00:08:12.000 I'm in an area where I broadcast from an area in California where more Armenians live than anywhere except Armenia.

00:08:19.000 They send their kids to Armenian schools, but they're crazy about America.

00:08:23.000 Yes. 1.00

00:08:23.000 That's fine. 1.00

00:08:24.000 You can have your cultural issues, or expressions, but they don't want us to all be American.

00:08:24.000 That doesn't matter.

00:08:33.000 You're a black. 1.00

00:08:35.000 Capital B. That's right. 1.00

00:08:36.000 And I think, Dennis, your answer by saying it's not an excuse to give up, that's correct.

00:08:42.000 A lot of people ask that.

00:08:43.000 They say, hey, Dennis, can I check out now?

00:08:45.000 Is it okay since things are going so horrible?

00:08:48.000 Question really means.

00:08:50.000 If you only fight when you're optimistic, we don't need you.

00:08:54.000 Well, and I think there is a second part of the question, though, why I ask it, which I think we have to be honest, because there's an equal as many people, though, that are complacent, that think that things just work in cycles that will go back.

00:08:54.000 That's right.

00:09:06.000 Great point.

00:09:08.000 That's a great point.

00:09:10.000 Yeah, no, you're entirely right.

00:09:13.000 You've given me a good reason to honestly say why I'm not optimistic.

00:09:18.000 You can't be complacent.

00:09:20.000 Don't take America for granted.

00:09:22.000 We can lose it.

00:09:23.000 And a lot of people do, and they believe because things have gone rather well for our country in the last couple of decades that we have this inevitability to self-correct.

00:09:34.000 It's gone good for this country for the last 200 years.

00:09:39.000 Yes.

00:09:39.000 Except for the Civil War.

00:09:41.000 Well, this country's been blessed.

00:09:44.000 And a lot, some of these people that I talk to and communicate with, they say, Charlie, you're so alarmist.

00:09:49.000 You're so intense.

00:09:50.000 The downfall of...

00:09:52.000 No, there's a lot of it.

00:09:53.000 There's a huge portion of America that believes this.

00:09:57.000 That believes what?

00:09:58.000 This will pass?

00:09:59.000 Oh, sure.

00:10:00.000 Yeah, that's right.

00:10:01.000 Yes.

00:10:02.000 I communicate with a lot of those people and predominantly in suburban America that they don't want to necessarily get involved in the culture world.

00:10:12.000 Well, they won't be very suburban if Biden wins because he's going to put poor people's housing in the suburbs.

00:10:19.000 It's exactly right.

00:10:20.000 Well, and there won't be any police.

00:10:22.000 So let's see how that one will work.

00:10:23.000 That's right.

00:10:24.000 Yes, exactly.

00:10:28.000 So, Dennis, you talk about a lot your time in Russia growing up as a young man.

00:10:35.000 And you smuggle Bibles, I believe, into Russia, if I'm not mistaken, right?

00:10:41.000 I was at 21 years old.

00:10:43.000 I was sent into the Soviet Union by Israel.

00:10:47.000 The Israeli government, until 1967, it sent Israeli young people to smuggle in religious items and to smuggle out names of Jews who wanted to leave.

00:10:59.000 So it was somewhat dangerous, but I'm not saying that I'm not a hero, but I just don't want to understate that it was, you know, it was somewhat risky behavior.

00:11:10.000 But once after the Six-Day War in 1967, the Soviets ended relations with Israel. 0.65

00:11:17.000 So Israel sent Jews who were not Israeli.

00:11:22.000 So I was an American Jew.

00:11:24.000 Somehow they got my name at 21.

00:11:26.000 I knew Russian and Hebrew. 0.98

00:11:27.000 So I was like perfect, the perfect candidate to send in.

00:11:30.000 I went for four weeks, and that was obviously life-shaping.

00:11:35.000 And that's why I have been in public life, I guess, sort of like you.

00:11:42.000 I have been in public life since the age of 21.

00:11:45.000 Wow.

00:11:46.000 So you saw a country under totalitarian communism.

00:11:51.000 With no God and a completely different value system.

00:11:51.000 Right.

00:11:55.000 The same.

00:11:56.000 They were all human beings, but they operated with almost a lower level of existence than they would in the West.

00:12:02.000 Dennis, why is it that the Soviet Union and how Lenin took power post-Romanovs, why do you think specifically that is not taught in our school system?

00:12:14.000 That is the number one piece of history that our young people have the least understanding about that has the most significance, I think, to what we're living through, and also so much applicability.

00:12:25.000 At Prager U, there's a video.

00:12:28.000 It's one I've given.

00:12:29.000 I only give one out of 10.

00:12:31.000 You've given, of course, for Prager U.

00:12:33.000 But about no more than one out of 10 I have given. 0.60

00:12:37.000 And one of them is, why isn't communism as hated as Nazism?

00:12:44.000 And there's a reason, because the left teaches our history.

00:12:52.000 They're not interested in our knowing how evil left can be.

00:12:57.000 They only want to teach how evil right can be.

00:13:00.000 Whether you call Nazism right or left is not a debate I want to get into now. 0.95

00:13:04.000 They call it right, so fine. 1.00

00:13:06.000 Not fine, but it is what it is.

00:13:08.000 But they don't teach left-wing evil.

00:13:11.000 That's the issue.

00:13:13.000 So I would be shocked if one out of a thousand people your age can identify the Gulag archipelago.

00:13:26.000 Yes, yes.

00:13:28.000 By the way, I mean, even talking about Nazism, I wonder if one out of a hundred could identify Auschwitz. 0.98

00:13:36.000 That's correct.

00:13:37.000 And the idea, the lessons of the 20th century we are eerily repeating of grouping people by their skin color, allowing the loudest, most charismatic demagogue to get the most attention.

00:13:50.000 And I believe it was Alexander Solshenitsyn that wrote the Gulag Archipelago, or was it Dosievsky?

00:13:55.000 It was Alexander Solshenitsyn.

00:13:56.000 Yeah.

00:13:57.000 And that book, more so than any other, captures, it actually probably contributed more to the downfall of the Soviet Union than almost any other missile defense system did or any sort of military formations, because it was an honest assessment from within the Soviet Union as to how it fell and how it operated and eventually led to its fall.

00:14:19.000 Dennis, outside of the Soviet Union, there's a lot of young people that watch this show and listen to this show.

00:14:24.000 What is the one piece of history that you are saddened that they are not learning?

00:14:29.000 What is the one chapter in world or human history that you believe is not being taught?

00:14:34.000 And because of that, we live in a less free America.

00:14:38.000 So you're including all communist history?

00:14:41.000 Not necessarily.

00:14:42.000 No, no, no, it's your call.

00:14:42.000 You're excluding.

00:14:44.000 Are you asking me outside of communist history?

00:14:47.000 Yes, let's say that.

00:14:48.000 Outside of the communist history, what else do you think is not being taught?

00:14:51.000 That is number one.

00:14:53.000 So, all right, what is number two?

00:14:55.000 I mean, number two, although, I mean, in some ways, that would be number one, is the Bible.

00:15:02.000 That that is not taught means that you are going to have a generation with no wisdom.

00:15:09.000 And wisdom is more important than good intentions.

00:15:12.000 Good intentions not only do, you know, is the road to hell paid with good intentions, but good intentions without wisdom necessarily leads to evil.

00:15:24.000 Not every person who is protested, every person who is violent is vile, but not every protester is a bad person.

00:15:34.000 A lot of these people mean well.

00:15:36.000 They hate racism, which is, I agree with them.

00:15:38.000 I hate racism.

00:15:40.000 So they think they're doing good.

00:15:42.000 They don't understand that Black Lives Matter is as dangerous as the Communist Party was in Russia in 1917. 0.52

00:15:51.000 It hates America. 0.68

00:15:52.000 It hates liberty. 1.00

00:15:53.000 It hates Jews. 0.87

00:15:55.000 By the way, anti-Semitism, Victor Davis Hansen wrote this week, and he's one of the giants of our time. 0.67

00:16:01.000 Yes.

00:16:02.000 And he wrote that what you were going to see if Biden wins when the left takes over is a serious increase in anti-Semitism.

00:16:11.000 And the thing to know about anti-Semitism is this.

00:16:16.000 Always, there was no, I wrote a book on this called Why the Jews.

00:16:20.000 Always, anti-Semitism brings down the anti-Semites.

00:16:25.000 Jews suffer the first, obviously.

00:16:28.000 They're the target of the hatred.

00:16:30.000 But there is no exception to anti-Semitism wrecking the anti-Semitic country.

00:16:37.000 So it is always a symptom of the decline of a society when anti-Semitism rises. 0.60

00:16:45.000 Always. 0.83

00:16:45.000 It is the clearest symptom you have. 0.83

00:16:48.000 Yes.

00:16:49.000 And it repeats itself.

00:16:51.000 And the book that you reference, and I remember flipping through it years ago, someone gave me a copy of it.

00:16:58.000 You talk about how the Jews are typically always, obviously, God-centered, and they believe in the law.

00:17:07.000 They work very hard.

00:17:08.000 And because of that, a lot of people will gin up a lot of unnecessary and unwarranted resentment and then try to organize force.

00:17:16.000 That's exactly why America is resented.

00:17:19.000 In my book, it's interesting.

00:17:21.000 I published the book a long time ago in my 30s.

00:17:26.000 It's gone through, it's been in print for all of these years, Why the Jews?

00:17:31.000 But interestingly, the last edition, about 10, 15 years ago, the third edition, I wrote a chapter on how anti-Americanism is almost identical to anti-Semitism.

00:17:46.000 And now it turns out to be prophetic. 0.80

00:17:50.000 America is hated for the same reasons, generally speaking, except for the theological ones, that Jews were hated. 0.99

00:17:59.000 Jews did well. 0.85

00:18:01.000 And I don't mean just financially. 1.00

00:18:03.000 Most Jews were never rich.

00:18:04.000 But Jews had a stable family life.

00:18:08.000 They were not involved in violent crime.

00:18:11.000 It was a stable, decent society, very little alcoholism, and they were resented.

00:18:19.000 Also, because they said they were the chosen people.

00:18:23.000 America is resented for saying, oh, we're the last best hope.

00:18:26.000 Yes, that's exactly right.

00:18:28.000 And a lot of ways it's an attack on any form of hierarchy or the pursuit of success is really where the left finds itself in.

00:18:40.000 So Dennis, I want to ask you about something that you said a lot on your fireside chats and on your radio program.

00:18:45.000 And I was hoping you could clear it up for me and for the audience.

00:18:48.000 But first, I want to make sure that I get your position clear.

00:18:51.000 You've said many times that what people say privately really does not matter.

00:18:57.000 It's how they act publicly.

00:18:58.000 Can you say it?

00:18:59.000 You say it better in your own words than I could.

00:19:00.000 Yes.

00:19:02.000 This is an example of the lack of wisdom in our society. 0.51

00:19:06.000 Well, so-and-so said an anti-black, anti-Jewish, anti-whatever, sexist, misogynist comment privately, like the president thinking he was talking privately when he, of course, he wasn't president with regard to women. 0.53

00:19:24.000 It means nothing. 0.53

00:19:26.000 It means nothing.

00:19:28.000 I can't emphasize this strongly enough.

00:19:31.000 Two things matter.

00:19:32.000 What you say publicly and what you do, whether it's private or public.

00:19:38.000 But what you say, in other words, there are four categories.

00:19:41.000 What I say privately, what I say publicly, what I do privately, what I do publicly.

00:19:46.000 What you do privately and publicly matters.

00:19:49.000 What you say publicly matters.

00:19:50.000 What you say privately doesn't matter.

00:19:52.000 Harry Truman referred to Jews as kikes regularly. 0.64

00:19:57.000 And he was the man who recognized Israel first in the world against the whole State Department.

00:20:02.000 They hated him for recognizing the Jewish state.

00:20:05.000 He was the greatest friend the Jews ever had and privately used kite. 0.91

00:20:09.000 What the hell do I care? 0.99

00:20:10.000 I even wrote a piece in the Wall Street Journal.

00:20:14.000 You could Google it.

00:20:15.000 And I wrote it in the 1990s defending Hillary Clinton against charges of anti-Semitism because they said, oh, she said this privately.

00:20:25.000 It's not about, what do I care?

00:20:26.000 Nixon said things against the Jews privately.

00:20:29.000 He saved Israel's life in the 1973 war.

00:20:33.000 You have to allow people a vent.

00:20:38.000 Everything that I say or you say or any human being says privately.

00:20:43.000 So what if we put in a microphone for pillow talk, what a man said to his wife at midnight in bed?

00:20:50.000 Are we going to use that against them?

00:20:52.000 The left would.

00:20:53.000 The left would definitely.

00:20:55.000 Oh, you know what Senator so-and-so said to his wife?

00:20:57.000 We got a recording of it. 1.00

00:21:00.000 That's how foolish we are. 0.99

00:21:03.000 It's a mark of an immature society, is what it is. 1.00

00:21:06.000 Yeah.

00:21:06.000 So I guess my question is then, Dennis, would you support, because conservatives, a lot of times now in the last couple of years, we have done a lot of undercover journalism.

00:21:15.000 There's been a lot of people that have found private remarks.

00:21:19.000 Even Hillary Clinton's deplorable comments, it was not supposed to be leaked publicly.

00:21:23.000 It was to a private fundraiser that a lot of people, you know, made popular.

00:21:30.000 Do you see any issue with that of conservatives leaning in on it too much?

00:21:34.000 When you talk to an audience, that's not private.

00:21:37.000 Okay.

00:21:38.000 I guess she thought she was in private, but yeah, I see.

00:21:41.000 Well, I mean, you know, what if you think you're in private with a thousand people?

00:21:45.000 At what point does privacy kick in?

00:21:48.000 Normally, we think of privacy as with one or two friends or one or two people in a room.

00:21:53.000 But if you tell an audience, look, I speak before audiences, I always assume it's going to get out.

00:22:00.000 A better example would be the Acorn example, right?

00:22:02.000 Remember?

00:22:03.000 Yes.

00:22:04.000 Yes.

00:22:04.000 And the look, I am torn on this issue.

00:22:08.000 It is a very fair question you ask.

00:22:12.000 The only thing that matters is, are they revealing policies, not emotions?

00:22:20.000 It's none of my business if somebody at Google hopes all conservatives die.

00:22:27.000 That is not my business.

00:22:29.000 But if they say, well, you know what?

00:22:32.000 The truth is, we at Google are trying to do everything possible to suppress conservative thought.

00:22:37.000 That strikes me as newsworthy.

00:22:41.000 There's one thing that everyone needs to know about home security systems.

00:22:45.000 It's that criminals are on the loose.

00:22:47.000 They're looting.

00:22:48.000 They're killing.

00:22:49.000 They're doing awful things.

00:22:51.000 And home security companies, most of them, trap you with high price, tricky contracts, and lousy customer support.

00:22:56.000 So while there are a lot of options out there, there's only one no-brainer, Simply Safe.

00:23:01.000 Simply Safe is a no-brainer.

00:23:02.000 Protect what you love.

00:23:03.000 That's what I've done on all my property.

00:23:05.000 There are criminals just a couple blocks from me.

00:23:08.000 They're breaking into homes.

00:23:10.000 They're stealing items.

00:23:12.000 They're doing evil things.

00:23:13.000 And guess what?

00:23:14.000 We got Simply Safe.

00:23:16.000 Simply Safe's got everything you need to protect your home with none of the drawbacks of traditional home security.

00:23:21.000 It's got an arsenal of sensors and cameras to blanket every room, window, and door tailed specifically for your home.

00:23:27.000 Professional monitoring keeps watch day and night, ready to send police fire at medical professionals if there's an emergency.

00:23:33.000 You can set up yourself in under an hour, just peel and stick the sensors exactly where you need them.

00:23:37.000 No technician required, and there's no contract, no pushy sales, guys, no hidden fees, and no fine print.

00:23:42.000 All starts $15 a month.

00:23:43.000 What is your dog, your home, your family worth to you?

00:23:46.000 I'm sure it's worth more than $15 a month, and simplysafe.com slash Charlie is the place to go.

00:23:50.000 And we're not the only ones who think SimplySafe is great.

00:23:52.000 U.S. News World Report named it the best overall home security system 2020.

00:23:56.000 Try simplysafe.com/slash Charlie and get free shipping at a 30-day risk-free trial.

00:24:01.000 There's nothing to lose.

00:24:01.000 SimplySafe.com slash Charlie.

00:24:05.000 So, I think we can agree that America is going through some form of a conflict.

00:24:11.000 Dennis, you've called this an American Civil War.

00:24:14.000 In fact, you've called it for many years a civil war.

00:24:17.000 Do you think that it might, what we're experiencing now is still a civil war, or is it more a revolutionary war where they want to destroy the country that pre-existed them and build something new?

00:24:26.000 For example, when Robespier tried to take power in the French Revolution, we called it a revolutionary war, not the French Civil War.

00:24:34.000 So, do you think that this is now more a revolutionary aspect and less a civil conflict?

00:24:40.000 Well, if it's a revolutionary war within a society and not against an outside force, then by definition, you have both civil war and a revolution.

00:24:50.000 But this is actually not a revolution.

00:24:53.000 It is a revolution, but it's really a counter-revolution.

00:24:57.000 It's against the American Revolution.

00:25:00.000 So, you could call it whatever you want, but it is a revolution, a counter-revolution, and a civil war.

00:25:08.000 I've said this was the second civil war, as you pointed out, for many years, way before what's going on now.

00:25:15.000 But I've always known that's snoozing.

00:25:20.000 Otto never barks.

00:25:21.000 If Otto barks, it means that there's a grenade being thrown into the house.

00:25:27.000 Otto is very calm.

00:25:30.000 But the point that I've often made was: there is a civil war in America, but only one side is fighting.

00:25:39.000 That's what has always bothered me.

00:25:41.000 Conservatives don't fight back.

00:25:44.000 Some are, certainly the president has been.

00:25:49.000 And a handful.

00:25:52.000 Ted Cruz does.

00:25:55.000 But generally speaking, conservatives are not fighters.

00:26:00.000 Yes.

00:26:00.000 So that goes to my next question.

00:26:02.000 What do you think has been the greatest failure of conservatives of the last couple of decades?

00:26:06.000 It seems conservatives had a huge amount of political power post-Reagan.

00:26:11.000 We had a majority of the country believe that this is a generally decent country.

00:26:16.000 And now we no longer have any of those sorts of successes in a lot of different ways.

00:26:21.000 You know, we have a generation that has been taught to hate America.

00:26:24.000 What has been the greatest failure of the conservative movement?

00:26:29.000 It emanates from right after World War II.

00:26:32.000 The traditional American, call person conservative, if you will, did not teach their children what America stands for.

00:26:43.000 They assumed that just as they loved America and they loved liberty and they loved the flag, their kids would.

00:26:55.000 No good values are passed from generation to generation without effort.

00:27:04.000 The effort that the baby, what is called the greatest generation, the World War II generation, the effort that they made was to provide their kids with everything they didn't have, namely peace and money, monetary security.

00:27:22.000 And they gave them that by and large.

00:27:25.000 And when I began lecturing at your age, I looked at audiences and said, you know, you've given my generation everything you didn't have, but you haven't given my generation everything you did have.

00:27:40.000 Wow.

00:27:42.000 I think that's well put.

00:27:44.000 And as an extension of that, you know, my parents and my generation was taught even to a lesser extent about what America meant because we were being taught by the people that were never taught what America meant.

00:27:56.000 And so it has a worse.

00:28:00.000 You were taught by people who loathed what America meant.

00:28:03.000 That's exactly right.

00:28:04.000 It's the opposite of it.

00:28:05.000 Yes.

00:28:06.000 And now we're living through the consequences of that.

00:28:09.000 So, Dennis, one of the most famous things that Prager U has been engaged in was your lawsuit against Google.

00:28:16.000 I think that you aptly pointed out as this is one of the most important issues of our time when Prager sued Google.

00:28:23.000 I think the issue has only gotten worse in the last 18 months since your litigation started and all the tech elites and the tech giants.

00:28:30.000 And I know that you guys are constantly fighting that battle.

00:28:33.000 Should conservatives favor government Sherman antitrust action against these companies?

00:28:39.000 Because I'm starting to believe that that should probably become a, let's just say, option on the table.

00:28:46.000 Of course.

00:28:49.000 Again, your viewers can watch me testify in the U.S. Senate subcommittee.

00:28:55.000 And I said in my remarks that people ignore largely what Prager U has suffered at the hands of YouTube, owned by Google.

00:29:11.000 But I said, one day you will say they came after the conservatives and I did nothing.

00:29:18.000 And then they came after me and there was no one left to speak up for me.

00:29:23.000 It was a play on a very famous statement about the Nazis.

00:29:28.000 So now the left is, which always happens, it eats its own. 0.62

00:29:34.000 So, you know, with the Me Too excesses, so you have Al Franken, who, you know, who was a big gung-ho fan of Me Too and, you know, all the feminists and women always believe a woman.

00:29:52.000 And, you know, the guy was removed for very nebulous reasons.

00:29:57.000 Well, was there a picture of him jokingly with his hands on a model of a breast or something or something to that effect?

00:30:05.000 I mean, give me a break.

00:30:08.000 This is in the realm of evil.

00:30:10.000 Correct.

00:30:11.000 I mean, there is.

00:30:16.000 This is, by the way, I will admit, this is an argument I've had with my closest allies, which is evangelical Protestants, who for years, not all by any means, but evangelical callers would call my show because I do shows not just on the news, and I have an ultimate issues hour, talk often about religion.

00:30:40.000 And I always have held there are gradations of sin.

00:30:44.000 And many Christian callers would call me and say, no, no, no, in God's eyes, all sin is equal.

00:30:51.000 And I say, so you think that God believes molesting a child and stealing a stapler from the office are equivalent?

00:31:00.000 That's right.

00:31:00.000 They're both rebellions against God.

00:31:03.000 So I throw up my hands and I would just think God looks foolish if you say that. 0.98

00:31:07.000 God is really as disturbed by a stapler being stolen as he is by a child being a seven-year-old child being molested. 0.95

00:31:16.000 Same thing with what happens to a woman.

00:31:19.000 There's rape, and then there's a joke of a guy with his hands on a woman's breast or on the model of her body.

00:31:25.000 I don't even remember.

00:31:26.000 Was it real or a picture?

00:31:27.000 I mean, my God, you can't see the difference.

00:31:30.000 This is all lumped in with sexual attack.

00:31:34.000 I mean, and I can't stand Al Franken. 1.00

00:31:36.000 He's a moron, in my opinion. 1.00

00:31:38.000 Yes. 1.00

00:31:39.000 A bona fide moron. 1.00

00:31:41.000 But nevertheless, it was an example of: well, first they came after the conservatives, and then they started eating the liberals. 1.00

00:31:50.000 Yes.

00:31:51.000 And so, so to answer your question, this notion of, well, private enterprise has free speech, that's like saying the utilities can do whatever they want with your electricity.

00:32:03.000 What if the utilities decided to say, your local gas company or electrical power company, you know what?

00:32:11.000 We will not provide electricity to conservatives.

00:32:14.000 It's a private company.

00:32:16.000 Why would you say, wait, you can't do that?

00:32:18.000 Why?

00:32:20.000 It's a private company.

00:32:22.000 Why is this any different?

00:32:25.000 Google supplies the roadway to the internet like your power company supplies the roadway to power.

00:32:34.000 And so I think we've reached that breaking point where you can no longer protect free expression in our country in the First Amendment if tech companies don't want to allow that to happen.

00:32:44.000 I think we're really and I think the tech companies are more powerful than the government in a certain sense.

00:32:49.000 I really do believe that.

00:32:50.000 Certainly with regard to information, there's no comparison.

00:32:53.000 Yes.

00:32:54.000 So, Dennis, you talk about a lot, and I actually was listening to one of your fireside chats where you talked about a fun kind of mini-series you did with Jason Alexander, and I actually watched it.

00:33:05.000 It was terrific on YouTube.

00:33:07.000 They are terrific.

00:33:09.000 For goodness sake, did you see For Goodness Sake 2?

00:33:12.000 No, I didn't.

00:33:12.000 I only saw the first one.

00:33:14.000 Yes, there's For Goodness Sake 2, which is so appropriate.

00:33:18.000 I did it with Larry Elder.

00:33:19.000 It is so appropriate. 0.77

00:33:21.000 It is about race. 1.00

00:33:22.000 I have to check it out. 0.99

00:33:23.000 The first one, it was funny.

00:33:25.000 It was in your interview with Alan Estron, I think, that you guys, that's where you guys met is actually over the idea of that project.

00:33:33.000 So you talk a lot about creating good people and creating happy people.

00:33:37.000 The book is Happiness is a Serious Problem, I believe, was the title of it.

00:33:42.000 I want to make sure I get that correct.

00:33:43.000 Yes, that's correct.

00:33:45.000 There's a lot of young people that listen to this podcast that we get emails from that struggle with living a good life and finding meaning.

00:33:51.000 And we try to be more than just a political podcast to them.

00:33:55.000 Can you just give a very short version?

00:33:57.000 I know it doesn't do it justice, of what some applicable piece of advice, or at least just pique their curiosity as how they'll pursue your book further.

00:34:06.000 Well, the book on happiness has a chapter on meaning, but it is about happiness.

00:34:12.000 If you want meaning, then obviously my Bible commentary, the rational Bible, I really beg people to read, which is, you know, I have a lot of dignity and I hate begging people to anything, but I know it will change.

00:34:30.000 Look, there are over a thousand reviews.

00:34:32.000 It's the best-selling Bible commentary in America. 1.00

00:34:36.000 And atheists read it. 0.98

00:34:38.000 It's called the Rational Bible.

00:34:39.000 So for the question of meaning, but I could put it in a sentence.

00:34:44.000 This is what has animated me.

00:34:46.000 Okay.

00:34:48.000 That it will or will not animate another.

00:34:50.000 I fully recognize there are different ways of finding meaning in life.

00:34:58.000 My basic core belief is there is a God and God wants us to be good.

00:35:05.000 That has always been my single biggest belief.

00:35:08.000 Goodness is very hard to achieve on a personal level and certainly on a societal level, which is why I'm so angry at the left because they are crushing the best society thus far made.

00:35:22.000 And that idea that God wants me to be as good as I could be, not an angel.

00:35:31.000 I'm not interested in producing saints, just decent, good people.

00:35:37.000 And that doesn't mean sinless.

00:35:40.000 It doesn't mean saintly.

00:35:42.000 Just good.

00:35:43.000 That has animated me.

00:35:45.000 It has animated me to get married, make a family, have a religious community, in my case, a synagogue every Saturday.

00:35:56.000 These are life-filling things.

00:35:59.000 That America has allowed me to do this is one of the reasons I'm so grateful to America.

00:36:06.000 You were not allowed to do this in the Soviet Union or in communist China.

00:36:13.000 It's a different world.

00:36:15.000 And what we have today is obvious.

00:36:18.000 People do not have meaning.

00:36:23.000 I have an equation.

00:36:24.000 I have a lot of equations.

00:36:26.000 This one is secularism plus affluence equals boredom. 1.00

00:36:31.000 Bored people do a lot of damage.

00:36:34.000 And you're never so bored as in a quarantine.

00:36:37.000 So this is the worst possible circumstance.

00:36:43.000 The bored are rioting.

00:36:46.000 Yes.

00:36:47.000 And so, Dennis, let's expound on this.

00:36:50.000 You called the lockdown one of the greatest mistakes in American history or the greatest mistakes in world history.

00:36:59.000 Can you elaborate?

00:37:00.000 I agree.

00:37:01.000 Yes.

00:37:03.000 You know, there's a giant.

00:37:05.000 We live, we bathe in lies. 0.99

00:37:07.000 America is racist, systemically racist is a lie. 0.99

00:37:12.000 The Russian collusion was a lie. 1.00

00:37:13.000 I mean, we just bathe in lies.

00:37:16.000 So here's an example of what they don't even realize they're lying.

00:37:20.000 As a result of the pandemic, tens of millions of people are out of work.

00:37:27.000 No, it's not a result of the pandemic.

00:37:28.000 It's a result of the quarantine.

00:37:30.000 It's a result of the lockdown.

00:37:32.000 Sweden didn't lock down.

00:37:34.000 Sweden never closed its schools.

00:37:37.000 I don't know if there was one kid who died or one teacher who died.

00:37:41.000 And by the way, let us say one kid will die.

00:37:43.000 One kid will die.

00:37:44.000 More than one kid will die in a car crash going to school.

00:37:48.000 Should we not go to school?

00:37:49.000 Well, actually, we shouldn't.

00:37:50.000 We should have homeschooling.

00:37:52.000 But if you're going to go to school, you can drive.

00:37:55.000 There are risks in life.

00:37:57.000 The damage that this has done, we're not even beginning to understand because the government is cushioning the damage to many people's lives because of the checks it sent out.

00:38:09.000 Yes.

00:38:10.000 But who's going to pay $20 trillion in debt? 0.98

00:38:13.000 You're your generation.

00:38:17.000 It is an economic albatross. 0.92

00:38:20.000 I don't see how you will get out of, frankly.

00:38:22.000 And then, of course, your generation believes, oh, have the government even pay more, pay for my college.

00:38:27.000 With what?

00:38:28.000 Monopoly money?

00:38:30.000 Well, I'll tell you, Dennis, if I wanted the destruction of America, I would want to destroy the purchasing power of the currency, get people addicted to government benefits, get 30 million people out of work.

00:38:42.000 That's right.

00:38:42.000 Yes.

00:38:44.000 Oh, this plays into their hands.

00:38:46.000 There's no question.

00:38:47.000 Why is it that Democratic governors keep the states shut down and Republican open them up?

00:38:55.000 There are two reasons.

00:38:56.000 Democrats, as you move left, you are more scared of life and more scared of death.

00:39:02.000 And the other reason is political.

00:39:06.000 The worse off the country is, the better the chance of defeating Trump in November.

00:39:11.000 Yes.

00:39:11.000 Well, and also, so it's interesting.

00:39:13.000 Here's a domestic example.

00:39:15.000 South Dakota, the only state not to fully shut down, thanks to Governor Christy Noam, lowest unemployment rate in the country, $19 million surplus.

00:39:24.000 They have the lowest death rate per capita in the country.

00:39:27.000 They have almost, they have lower unemployment in certain parts of the state than ever before because cheap labor is not being brought in.

00:39:35.000 And they get this, Dennis.

00:39:38.000 They were sent a billion dollars by the federal government, and Governor Noam tried to return it and they wouldn't take it.

00:39:42.000 So she's decided just to spend it on economic development all across her state.

00:39:47.000 And what's interesting is that many of these states could have treated their rural counties like South Dakota.

00:39:52.000 So you have to understand is that California could have had many of their states as many South Dakotas that could have been very sane.

00:40:01.000 Instead, they locked everything down all at once.

00:40:04.000 And we've seen how that has worked.

00:40:06.000 And it has that woman.

00:40:11.000 She loves liberty.

00:40:12.000 She does.

00:40:14.000 No, she's articulate.

00:40:15.000 She loves liberty.

00:40:16.000 Loves liberty is enough.

00:40:19.000 But she's really terrific. 0.71

00:40:22.000 I hope she runs for president one day.

00:40:24.000 Yeah, I do too.

00:40:25.000 So a couple of minutes left here, Dennis, but this kind of goes to a question that I have that I've been struggling with.

00:40:30.000 And you know Russian history very well and you know the cultural revolution.

00:40:34.000 I'm afraid that we as conservatives have focused too much on the cultural reason as to why we're losing the country and not enough on the economic.

00:40:42.000 Because you just articulated that when you have people that basically are just being subsidized by the government and have very little invested future in what tomorrow will bring or the next year will bring, they're ripe for a revolution.

00:40:56.000 And I think that if we as conservatives think the only reason as to why our country is declining is because all the cultural institutions have been taken over and not because of the real material economic downfall, I think it's an incomplete picture.

00:41:09.000 And I think the Russian example is interesting in 1917 because as they were trying to industrialize their economy, I think that they didn't manage that correctly and they were a citizenry that was more ripe for a revolution in the urban center than not.

00:41:23.000 What do you make of that, Dennis?

00:41:24.000 Do you think that there is an economic component to this or do you think that that is probably not as significant of a contributing factor?

00:41:32.000 Well, there's a huge economic component, and the issue is, but the issue is a cultural value called liberty.

00:41:43.000 They're indivisible.

00:41:46.000 If you are if you are, if you honor good values, you do not allow people to receive money for not working.

00:42:01.000 Yes.

00:42:02.000 That is a bad value.

00:42:05.000 It harms the recipient and it harms the society.

00:42:11.000 So they're indivisible.

00:42:13.000 The American dream was: I take care of me first.

00:42:16.000 I take care of my family second.

00:42:19.000 I take care of my community third.

00:42:21.000 America was remarkably successful in doing that.

00:42:25.000 So successful that what the left does is it takes the success of the right and then it creates socialism from it.

00:42:35.000 Socialism has never produced a penny of wealth.

00:42:39.000 All wealth has been produced by the free market.

00:42:42.000 All.

00:42:43.000 There is no exception.

00:42:44.000 All socialism does is take the money from the free market and take control of it and use it to embellish its own power in the name, of course, of helping people.

00:42:56.000 Who doesn't want to help people?

00:42:59.000 But the question is, how do you help people?

00:43:02.000 And In Judaism, there are, I forgot, I think, six levels of charity.

00:43:09.000 And the highest level is enabling, giving a person a loan or charity to start his own business.

00:43:18.000 That is the highest level of charity.

00:43:20.000 This was developed a thousand years ago before capitalism by M. Imonides, the greatest Jewish philosopher.

00:43:28.000 Incredible.

00:43:29.000 Last question, Dennis.

00:43:31.000 Can you paint what a picture looks like if the left takes power?

00:43:34.000 You've lived in these countries.

00:43:35.000 You've traveled the world.

00:43:36.000 I think you've been to 100-plus countries.

00:43:38.000 What happens if they win?

00:43:40.000 130.

00:43:41.000 Oh, I'm sorry.

00:43:44.000 You need to be sorry.

00:43:48.000 Look, we're getting a picture of what it will look like right now.

00:43:56.000 If you say on your Twitter account, Twitter feed, or your Facebook page that you believe there's only one race, the human race, you are depersoned.

00:44:12.000 You're gone.

00:44:12.000 Your kids may hate you.

00:44:15.000 If you say America is the best country that was ever made with all its flaws, you're doomed.

00:44:21.000 I mean, do you realize all it takes now?

00:44:24.000 In one day, Drew Brees of the New Orleans Saints went from, listen, I don't think we should kneel.

00:44:30.000 The flag is the flag.

00:44:33.000 This is our uniting treasure.

00:44:35.000 We revere the flag.

00:44:37.000 The next day, oh, uh-huh.

00:44:39.000 Now that I've talked to people, I fully understand that, of course, you'd want to take the knee and not stand for the national anthem.

00:44:47.000 So now whole teams aren't standing for the national anthem.

00:44:50.000 I don't know how anybody could watch a football, basketball, or baseball game now.

00:44:54.000 The entire San Francisco Giants at an exhibition game just now, to the best of my, including the manager, took a knee.

00:45:01.000 Let's all rise for the national anthem, except for the players.

00:45:05.000 That's beautiful.

00:45:08.000 It's not sustainable.

00:45:09.000 I'm afraid that if this continues, a national divorce is imminent, and I don't want that to happen.

00:45:14.000 I don't.

00:45:15.000 Well, that's right, by the way.

00:45:19.000 I have entertained in my mind, as it were, the idea of a conservative states of America and a leftist states of America.

00:45:29.000 And in 50 years, let's see who thrives.

00:45:32.000 Yeah, and what you would have in that, let's just say, somewhat theoretical exercise, you'd have a brain drain from the liberal states go to the conservative states.

00:45:42.000 Yeah, and then they would vote liberal again.

00:45:45.000 That's right.

00:45:46.000 Exactly right.

00:45:48.000 Because everything the left touches, it destroys.

00:45:50.000 That's right.

00:45:51.000 This is one of the mottos of life.

00:45:53.000 Yes, it's an awfully depressing one, but it's very true.

00:45:56.000 Dennis, anything you want to plug that our audience can support you?

00:46:00.000 Your Bible commentary in particular?

00:46:02.000 Yeah, that's really big because even if you don't give a damn about the Bible, if you give a damn about life, it's in there.

00:46:11.000 It's called The Rational Bible.

00:46:13.000 Two of the first five volumes are out.

00:46:15.000 Third volume is next year.

00:46:17.000 And if you want to understand the left, still the best hope.

00:46:20.000 You want to be happy.

00:46:21.000 Happiness is a serious problem.

00:46:23.000 And of course, there's all always Prager U, where we're doing a lot of good work and touching a lot of people.

00:46:32.000 Like you are.

00:46:33.000 I mean, you know, TPUSA and us, we're not the last best hopes of the last best hope, but we're among the last best history.

00:46:45.000 We're pretty close to it.

00:46:46.000 Pretty close to it.

00:46:48.000 The few fighters.

00:46:48.000 There's few organizations that fight.

00:46:51.000 And it's for you and Turning Point USA.

00:46:53.000 And Dennis, you've been a hero of mine, and I learn from you all the time.

00:46:56.000 So thank you for that.

00:46:57.000 And thank you for being so generous of your time.

00:46:59.000 Appreciate it.

00:47:00.000 My joy.

00:47:03.000 What a great conversation that was with Dennis Prager.

00:47:05.000 Please consider joining TurningPointUSA at tpusa.com.

00:47:09.000 That is tpusa.com.

00:47:11.000 Turningpoint USA is the nation's largest conservative student organization on over 2,000 high school and college campuses across the country fighting for freedom, liberty, and American exceptionalism at tpusa.com.

00:47:24.000 tpusa.com.

00:47:27.000 Please consider supporting our program at charliekirk.com slash support.

00:47:31.000 It is charliekirk.com slash support.

00:47:33.000 And email us your thoughts, subscribe to the Charlie Kirk Show, take out your phone, type in Charlie Kirk Show, hit subscribe, and give us a five-star review.

00:47:42.000 Thanks so much for listening, everybody.

00:47:43.000 God bless.

The Charlie Kirk Show - July 23, 2020

Dennis Prager | On #MeToo, BLM Inc, Lockdowns and How to Win the American Culture War

Episode Stats

Summary

Transcript