Ep. 49 - How Conservatives Can Win Back The Culture
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Summary
In this episode, I talk about why most of us are moral cowards, and how we need to do better at standing up for what we believe in and taking a stand on something that may alienate us from our friends and family.
Transcript
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So I think one of our problems, one of our big problems, one of our primary problems in the
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culture today is cowardice, moral cowardice, especially. I think we, you know, we can look
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at the state of things in our world and we could try to provide ourselves with excuses and come up
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with reasons as to why it is the way it is while dancing around the real issue. And the real issue
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is that most of us are cowards, plain and simple. Not all of us, certainly, but many, most. And so
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you may be wondering, well, how do I know if I'm a coward? How do I know if I'm a moral coward?
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What's the test? I think we can figure out if we ourselves are moral cowards by asking ourselves
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just a few questions. Okay, so this is what you can ask yourself. When was the last time I did something
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that I really didn't want to do, but I did it anyway because it was morally right? Or the inverse
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of that, when was the last time I didn't do something that I really, really wanted to do and
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had the opportunity to do, but did not do it because it would have been immoral? Or when was the last
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time that I took some kind of moral stand that I knew was going to bring about humiliation and maybe
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even worse consequences than that? And especially a moral stand that I knew could potentially alienate
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me from even my own friends and people on my side. And so I'm not talking about going on Facebook and
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writing some Republican things, you know, some talking point from Fox News that you know all your
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Republican friends are going to agree with. No, I'm not talking about that. That takes no courage
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whatsoever. I'm talking about taking a stand on something that may alienate you from everybody
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practically, where you have no guarantees that anyone around you is going to agree. I think if
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we honestly ask ourselves those questions, if we're really honest about it, so I'm asking you,
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like, really think about this. Ask yourself honestly those questions, just as I'm asking myself those
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questions. And I think if we do that, a great many of us would have to admit that we've never done any
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of those things, or not done them, as the case may be. I think if we're being really honest, many of us
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cannot think of one actual example of us doing something we really, really didn't want to do, but
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doing it because it was moral, or especially not doing something that we really, really wanted to do,
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but we didn't do it because it was immoral. And I really think that most of us probably can't think
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of one honest example of us in our own lives, standing up, taking a stand, and really going out
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on a limb, and exposing ourselves to humiliation and other consequences because of it. I just, I think
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most of us can't come up with an example of that. And I feel safe making that assumption, because if a
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majority of us had the willingness to act with moral courage, then we wouldn't be in the shape
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that we're in, in our society. We've arrived at this point through the consent, and often the active
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participation of most people. That's just the sad reality. And that's why I'm not a populist. Okay,
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I know populism is very popular these days, not surprisingly, but I can't jump on board with this
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kind of right-wing populism thing. Because what I notice in populism is this, is this instinct to
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blame everything on institutions and on the kind of elite, shadowy villains in academia, and the
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government, and the media, and they, they're the ones, they did everything, it's their fault. And it's true
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that they deserve quite a lot of the blame, and I spend a lot of time blaming them for things, and they
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deserve it. But it's not just them. The sad fact is that most regular people participate, have participated
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in the degradation and destruction of our culture. And if they were not participating, or at least
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consenting to it through silence, if most of us weren't doing that, then we wouldn't be in this state.
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All of those elites and everything, they only have the power that we give them. Hollywood only has any
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power, because we, if we didn't pay attention to Hollywood, it would have no power whatsoever.
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It also wouldn't have any money if we didn't give them money. We all sit back, like, how does Hollywood
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have so much power? This is ridiculous. Meanwhile, we're giving them, we're just handing our, we're
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literally handing our cash to Hollywood and saying, I can't figure out why Hollywood is so powerful.
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I'm so sick of Hollywood. And yeah, oh, what is that for the movie ticket? $27? Well, here you go.
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I mean, and then we go in and we vote these people into office, and then we say, I can't figure out,
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where did these politicians came from, come from? I can't figure out why they're controlling
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everything. And then we complain about academia and say, well, academia is destroying society.
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Meanwhile, we push our kids into these liberal colleges and universities, and we send our kids
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to public school. We're like pushing, we're pushing our kids into the academic system while
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complaining about academia. So yes, I blame us. We are not innocent little victimized snowflakes
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who are just trying to live our lives and are being bullied by those mean elites. That's not
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what's happening. So I mentioned yesterday, just by way of example, the story of the two biological
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boys who were permitted to compete against and ultimately defeat girls at a state track and
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field championship in Connecticut. And I talked about this on the show yesterday. The reason I bring
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it up again is because it's what got me thinking about the issue of courage. This story is just a
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perfect example, a perfect microcosm of how things always go in our culture when you have radical
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leftists imposing their will on moral cowards. So as I said yesterday, just in that example,
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just as one example, if every parent who silently disagreed with allowing boys to steal medals from
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their daughters, and every coach who privately felt disgusted by it, and every school official who
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harbored serious reservations about the whole thing in their minds, if they all would just speak up
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and refuse to participate in or facilitate any competition that involves boys, then the problem
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would be solved just like that. And that's the case for most of these problems. If everybody who silently
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disagreed with it would just say something and do something about it, the problem would go away.
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It would really be that easy for most of these things. But in that case, too many people were afraid.
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Too many of them were cowards. And so they let the smallest minority pushing the craziest ideology
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I hear all the time about the so-called silent majority. There is supposedly a silent majority
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who allegedly opposes and despises radical leftism. You know, they're not on board with any of this
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stuff. They're the silent majority. And conservatives will often talk about this majority with some kind
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of like pride. You know, conservatives will talk about this majority as if we're proud of the fact.
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We'll say, well, you know, we're the ones really in the majority. We're the ones. There's more of us
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than there are of them. Did you know that? Well, I don't understand the pride because if this majority
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exists, and I think it probably does, then their status as a majority just makes their cowardice all
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the more shameful. I mean, you're telling me that we're in the majority and we know we're in the
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majority, yet we still won't say anything. We still sit back and let all this stuff happen.
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We've allowed the relativists and the hedonists to upend and reshape and reform and destroy our
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civilization and dictate terms to us and get their way on almost everything, even to the point of
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intruding into our daughters' bathrooms and sports teams. And what do we do in response? We just kind
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of shake our head and we furrow our brows and we mutter quietly to each other and we complain about it
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whispering in our living rooms to each other when nobody, you know, we're whispering to each other
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in our living rooms with the doors locked. We're looking around and, hey, you know, I really disagree
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with this transgender stuff. You know, I honestly, I think it's crazy, but oh, shh, shh, shh, someone's
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coming. How many schools have instituted these insane transgender policies while a majority of parents
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and teachers and everybody opposes it yet says nothing? You've got this in these cases with the
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transgender stuff, there's definitely a silent majority who are totally against it and think
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it's nuts, but they won't say it. They just stay quiet. And that's just one example. I mean, in my
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piece yesterday, I mentioned the story of a CrossFit executive. Now, this is an example on the other end of
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the spectrum. This is an example of courage. This is what courage looks like. So a CrossFit executive
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got fired after saying that gay pride parades and gay pride festivals are sinful, which is true. They
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are sinful. And he said this on his own Twitter account and he was fired for it. But that made me
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think, well, how many communities have hosted these sinful spectacles known as pride parades while the
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majority of residents in these communities are absolutely opposed to the whole thing, but they
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don't say a word of protest against it. They just kind of stand off on the side and maybe they even
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wave one of the rainbow flags just so nobody, because they don't want anyone to know that they're
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opposed to this in their head. They're so terrified. How many people feel very upset about
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the Holocaust of the unborn that happens in abortion clinics across our nation and the one
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million babies that are killed every year? And yet, although they feel upset by it, they do and say
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nothing in opposition to it. How many people complain, as I said, about complain about Hollywood
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and all the filth on TV and everything, yet they keep on watching it, watching the filth and letting their
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children watch it, and on and on and on and on. We let all of this stuff happen. We stand by while
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it happens. We say nothing. And then we claim that our silence is rooted in some kind of principle.
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This is my favorite thing, when conservatives are trying to justify their cowardice and their silence,
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and so they'll try to make it about freedom, about respecting other people's privacy. And they'll say,
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well, I don't agree with it, but we all have freedom and, you know, the free market and freedom
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and free market. That's become, look, I believe in freedom and I believe in the free market, but it
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has become a crutch for cowardly wusses in the conservative movement who just want, they want,
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they lean on that for everything, to give them an excuse so they don't have to fight back ever about
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anything. So, for instance, I remember I wrote an article a few months ago about porn, and I said
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that porn should be banned. It should be illegal, which is a position, the idea that it should be
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illegal to publish hardcore pornography that children, that like eight-year-olds can access.
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Now, that is not a radical position, or at least up until very recently, it would not have been
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considered a radical position. And almost anyone who considers them conservative, consider themselves
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conservative, and certainly anyone who consider themselves Christian, would agree. Obviously,
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yes, that stuff should be illegal. So I wrote this article, and what I found is that the majority of
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conservatives in the audience absolutely disagreed with making hardcore pornography. On the basis of
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freedom, they said, we, no, we need, it's freedom. So, yes, because of freedom, we have to let our
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eight-year-olds watch hardcore pornography. That's what we need. It's freedom. That's what Thomas
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Jefferson would have wanted. You know something? I know this is going to be very scandalous for a lot
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of conservatives in the audience. I don't care what Thomas Jefferson would have wanted. Thomas
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Jefferson is not God. Now, I actually don't agree. I think that our founding fathers never intended for
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the First Amendment to cover hardcore pornography. And if they could have looked into a crystal ball and
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solid situation where the First Amendment was being used to give pornographers the freedom to, you know,
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shove this filth into the faces of children, I think our founding fathers would have been very much against
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that. And the fact that there were decency laws on the books in almost every state up until recently, I think
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that kind of speaks to that. But here's the point. I think it's pretty clear that the First Amendment does not
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protect hardcore pornography, and it does not exclude individual communities and states. It doesn't
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prevent communities and states from having standards of decency and decency laws. So that's as far as the
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law goes, I think that's clear. But as far as what our founding fathers individually would have wanted in
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their own heads, I don't care. It doesn't matter. It doesn't matter to me. I mean, Thomas Jefferson was
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also, I mean, he ripped apart the Bible and made his own Bible. Okay, so that's what that's from a moral
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and spiritual perspective. That's the kind of guy we were dealing with. So I don't really care what his
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moral and spiritual opinions were. All right. That as a Christian, what we need to be what we need to be
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worried about is, what would Jesus, it's not like, what were Thomas Jefferson, what were the founding
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fathers' priorities? What was Jesus' priorities? What would Jesus want for our country and our community
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and our children? That's who we should be worried about. Jesus is God. Not the people on Mount Rushmore,
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not the founding fathers, not the people that, you know, signed the Declaration of Independence.
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They were great men. They were not gods. And I think in the conservative movement, what we've done
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is we have made a religion out of, we've made kind of a national religion for ourselves.
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And we have pushed Jesus out of the frame completely. But as Christians, I think it's clear
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that our first priority is to shape the kind of country and the kind of civilization, the kind of
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community that God wants for us. That's what we should be doing. And that means standing up
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against filth and degeneracy and all this stuff. Do you want to live in a culture of filth and
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degeneracy where your children are eaten alive by this garbage? Is that the kind of culture you want?
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If not, say something. Don't tell me, well, I don't want it, but we can't do anything because of freedom.
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No, that's not freedom you're talking about. It's cowardice. So do something. Stand up.
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The fact is that most of us are exactly like the parents, coaches, and officials who stood off on
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the sidelines, politely clapping while a couple of dudes cheated and humiliated their daughters.
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That's what most of them were doing. They were just kind of, they had a fake smile on their face and
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they were just standing off on the sidelines. Hey, yeah. Okay. Good job. You go, girl.
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I mean, why, why, why weren't their parents running onto the track itself and saying, no,
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I'm not even going to let this race go up. Why wasn't, why didn't some girl's dad go up and
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confront these dudes, these cheaters and say, hey, buddy, you got the wrong track. The boy's track
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meet is that way. Okay. Now get off. Why didn't somebody's dad do that? You think, let me ask you,
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like 50 years ago, if this had happened, if this happened 50 years ago, imagine like your
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grandfather. Okay. If 50 years ago, you've got a dude, you've got some muscle bound dude that shows
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up at a girl's track meet 50 years ago and says, yeah, I'm going to race against the girl. And there
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are a bunch of dads in the audience. How do you think the dads would have responded to that? Do you think
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they would have just sat back and said, well, we can't do anything. It's freedom, you know, freedom.
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Yeah. It's what Thomas Jefferson would have wanted. No, those, those dads would have walked
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right onto that track and said, Hey, bud, get off. No, you get out of here. But we don't do that
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anymore. And why is that? Because, because we're afraid. And what do we say we're afraid of? I think
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the, the, the, one of the excuses that you always hear is, well, we'll lose our jobs. Well, I think
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there's quite a bit that we could do to stand for our convictions without getting to the point where we
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might lose our jobs. Like losing our jobs is here and we're over here. We could, we got a lot of room to
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cover before we have to worry about losing our job. But even if that is a risk, and maybe it is
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in some situations for some jobs, maybe it is a risk. Okay. Maybe that's a risk we have to take.
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Jesus says we have to be willing to give up our lives for the truth. So if we won't even give up
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our jobs potentially for the truth, then how far are we from living like Jesus told us to live?
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But the thing is, that's not even the real fear, is it? Because it's not just about jobs.
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I think people are mostly afraid of social alienation. They're afraid of humiliation.
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And it's natural to fear, fear, fear those things. But really, when you think about it,
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who cares about that? Who cares what these cackling drones think about you? So people laugh at you. Who
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cares? Why be afraid of that? Our lives are not being threatened. We're not being called upon to
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demonstrate a huge amount of courage, the kind of courage that you need to demonstrate when your
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actual life is at risk. Our lives aren't at risk. Nobody's coming to our houses and killing us because
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of our opinions. Maybe eventually we'll be at that point. But well, actually, we're never going to be at
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that point at this rate because there's no reason for us to ever get to that point. You know, our
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ideological enemies and the enemies of God in our culture, they don't need to kill us because we're
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no threat to them. We're too busy watching Netflix and minding our own business, so why are they going
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to come kill us? We're not worth killing, basically. The Christians in the Middle East, they're worth
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killing from the perspective of the satanic persecutors of the church because they're on fire with the
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faith and they're courageous and they're strong Christians. And so the enemies of the church say,
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well, we got, well, all we can do is kill them. The enemies of the church in this country, they look
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at us and they just laugh. They say, you guys are no threat. You're not going to do anything.
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I mean, you won't even stop watching Disney movies. Yeah, you complain about Disney. You can't even bring
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yourself to do that. Yes, you're no threat. You're worried we're going to kill you. Why would we ever do
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that? So it's not a lot of courage that we need to demonstrate. I think we need to demonstrate just a
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little tiny speck of courage. And if we all had that, if we all had just our little speck,
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if we all came equipped into every situation with just that little speck of courage, like you can't
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hardly even see it. But if we all have that and we're willing in any situation to demonstrate just
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that small speck of courage for only even just a few seconds, that's what most situations call for
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a small amount of courage that you will demonstrate for a very short amount of time.
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And if we were willing to do that, then I think everything would change. So that's my challenge to
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you and to myself. Because by the way, I'm not, I'm saying all this, I'm talking to myself as well,
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not just to you. I'm talking to all of us. That's why I'm using the word we and us. I certainly don't put
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myself forward as a, some sort of monument of courage at all. So this is a challenge for all
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of us. And I think if we, if we were willing to, if we're willing to just have a little bit of
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courage for a short amount of time, little courage in small spurts, basically, if we're willing to do
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that, then I think things would change. So let's give it a try. It's worth a shot. And who knows,
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it could be fun. It could be exciting. That's the other thing. I think when you, if you live with
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courage, your life is also more exciting and unpredictable, right? So let's just try it
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and see what happens. Thanks for watching. Thanks for listening, everybody. Godspeed.