All Episodes
Previous Next
April 5, 2022 - Dinesh D'Souza
52:07
SAVING FREE SPEECH Dinesh D’Souza Podcast Ep304
| Copy link to current segment

Time Text
Elon Musk is now the largest shareholder in Twitter, and I'm going to talk about the implications for saving free speech.
A big win for Viktor Orban in Hungary, and I'm delighted about it.
Why?
Because it's a repudiation of the left's globalist agenda.
Radio host Stacey Washington is going to join me.
We're going to talk about her new book, which is called Eternally Cancel Proof.
It's about Christians and politics.
And we're going to continue our journey through Dante's Purgatorio, this time meeting an interesting poet by the name of Sordello.
This is the Dinesh D'Souza Podcast.
The times are crazy and a time of confusion, division, and lies.
We need a brave voice of reason, understanding, and truth.
This is the Dinesh D'Souza Podcast.
Elon Musk has become the largest shareholder in Twitter.
In fact, he's bought, it seems overnight, a 9% stake in this public company, Twitter.
He now owns about 73.5 million shares.
And his stake is worth close to, well, $2.89 billion, close to $3 billion.
And by the way, that's not a whole lot of money for Elon Musk because he has something like $300 billion.
So this is money he's taking almost, you can say, out of his back pocket.
But it's caused a sensation at Twitter.
The stock actually has surged 25%.
By the way, Twitter has been down recently.
Some 50% roughly.
Partly as people have recognized this is not really a free speech platform anymore and so it's lost a lot of its value and it's lost some of its spice.
The interest in Twitter was you had people from different sides of the spectrum who were able to go back and forth and some of that kind of vibrant energy is no longer on Twitter and of course The most vibrant, energetic tweeter of all time.
Donald Trump is no longer on the Twitter platform.
And that alone, I think, is an absence that is felt on Twitter.
Now, very interestingly with Elon Musk.
Now, Elon Musk has taken kind of a passive stake, by which I mean he hasn't announced yet that he's trying to remake the company.
He's going to fire this Parag Agarwal guy, the fellow that Jack Dorsey put in his place to be the CEO of Twitter.
So Musk is moving cautiously.
At this stage he merely owns a big stake and that means they're aware of him, but he hasn't moved actively to affect the management of Twitter.
But he could do that next.
There's nothing to stop him from increasing his stake.
And of course with increasing his stake he would increase his influence on the market.
Already, one of the programmers at Twitter I saw on social media, he's like, oh, this is terrifying.
He goes, we've been working so hard to keep Twitter safe from bigots, and we're working so hard to keep Twitter safe from doxers and bad guys.
And he goes, I resign.
I'm out of here. So to me, this is like fantastic news.
Because it means that some of the termites are starting to leave the building.
And if I were Elon Musk, I would kind of get my fumigation equipment ready because you want to go on a major termite removal campaign.
Twitter is basically full of termites.
And I find it very amusing to watch the left as they react to this because for a long time they were like, oh, you conservatives are just so hypocritical.
Twitter's a private company.
Private companies can do whatever they want.
And the moment that they hear that Elon Musk is moving into the building, they go, Twitter is too important to be left in private hands.
So suddenly it's like, oh, Twitter's now going to become a government utility because it's no longer safe.
So as long as their billionaires were in charge, as long as they were imposing their regimes of censorship, oh, it's a private company, leave it alone, private companies have every right to do whatever they want.
Suddenly now, it's a whole different tune.
Whenever you're dealing with these places that have the rat infestation of the left, you need a careful strategy to go in there, and you need to move actually kind of quickly.
So if I were Elon Musk, I would not trust the system to fix itself.
Like, okay, Elon Musk now has a big share.
Elon Musk has spoken multiple times about free speech.
By the way, a little tidbit that really made me smile.
I see that the guys of the Babylon Bee noted, Seth Dillon, who's been on the podcast here, said, Elon Musk called over to the Babylon Bee.
And he goes, hey, is it really true that you guys were suspended?
I mean, I think for Elon Musk, it's like inconceivable that you'd have a platform like Twitter suspending a satirical site.
For satirical posting.
And so I think Elon Musk realized this is a much bigger problem.
This isn't just a matter that they're trying to regulate opinions that are dangerous or opinions that could lead to insurrections.
No, this is an arbitrary regime of absolutely entitled, probably kids in their 20s and 30s going, you know...
Let's get this guy off.
Let's knock that guy out.
Let's deplatform this guy.
So Elon Musk is like, this is a very dangerous trend in a society to have these kinds of people regulating our social media conversation.
So Elon has decided to move.
But my advice to him is, Elon, you know, don't give them time to plan and react.
They're probably already having meetings about how to minimize your influence.
Now for me, this is part of the larger, I call it my Elon Musk project.
Debbie and I talk about this occasionally.
Our Elon Musk project is much bigger than, essentially, Elon moves into the driver's seat at Twitter.
We think Elon needs to start an online university, the best one in the world, and offer a global, world-class education for little or no money.
This would be a huge contribution that he could make.
We also think Elon Musk needs to create or buy a network.
And I don't just mean a cable network.
I mean a network that's reaching 50, 60, 70 million people.
So here's a guy who has the means, who has the resources, and I think is being politicized in the right way, by which I mean he isn't being politicized simply because, you know, he read Solzhenitsyn's The Gulag Archipelago.
He read Hayek's The road to serfdom.
Through experience, you have a very savvy guy who's realizing there's something that's gone deeply wrong in our culture.
And I, Elon Musk, need to protect the free market system that has enabled my success in America.
Go to it. Elon, you are in a unique position to do this.
And I think that history will look back and thank you if you live up to that responsibility.
Mike Lindell, the inventor and CEO of MyPillow, wants to make it easy for you to be a super shopper just like Debbie and me.
How? By giving you great deals.
For example, his Giza Dream bed sheets are now 60% off.
Wow, as low as $39.99.
Plus, with any purchase using promo code Dinesh, Mike will send you a copy of his inspirational book.
Now, Mike is also offering up to 66% off other products.
All the MyPillow products come with a 60-day money-back guarantee and a 10-year warranty.
So go ahead, call 800-876-0227.
That number again, 800-876-0227.
Or go to MyPillow.com to get the discounts.
You've got to use promo code DINESHDINESH. We're reaching a very interesting situation with regard to Hunter Biden because the question has been posed to Joe Biden about Hunter Biden.
And Joe Biden has essentially said, A, Hunter Biden did nothing wrong, nothing unethical.
And number two, Hunter Biden, quote, never made money in China.
Wow! Never made money in China.
Now, these statements are flatly false.
And yet, the White House, this is the problem with being a Kate Beddingfield or being a Jen Psaki, you are a sort of administration parrot.
And by that, I mean if the administration essentially says up is down or white is black, you have to go out there and give reasons for why that's the case.
So your job is essentially one of being the propagandist for the senile dotard in the White House.
And so you've got the White House staff now essentially repeating, with a straight face, Biden's brazen lies.
And all of this is happening while there's an ongoing investigation by U.S. Attorney David Weiss in Delaware.
And the media is reporting not only locally, but I've seen some national reports that Hunter Biden may well be indicted.
Now, think about this.
This is not only talk about this as a shock for the White House, a shock for Biden.
Well, not really a shock for Biden.
Biden's shock is we got caught.
What? Our wall of protection somehow never worked.
But think of what a repudiation this would be of the media, of the Washington Post, the New York Times, CNN. All these people have been saying, they've been, first of all, saying that the Hunter Biden laptop was Russian disinformation.
After that, they said it's a non-story.
But... I've been thinking about why the New York Times and the Washington Post have rushed to confirm the Hunter Biden laptop in recent weeks.
And I think the reason is, it's not because they've become journalistically honest momentarily.
No, they're just the same deceitful snakes that they've always been.
But they've realized, if there's an indictment, this is going to make us look foolish.
So, let's pretend like we, ourselves, through our own dogged and relentless journalistic efforts, have confirmed the Hunter Biden laptop.
And that way, when the indictment comes, if it comes, we'll go, yeah, well, you know, we ourselves reported that the laptop was legitimate.
But the new line of defense from the left is, none of this has anything to do with the president.
So, they move, this is the kind of hopscotching from one lie to the next.
So, the first lie is, Hunter Biden is completely clean.
And that's, of course, to this moment, Joe Biden's line.
Once that becomes untenable, the next line of defense is, yeah, Hunter, you know Hunter, the kids of presidents sometimes get out of control.
It's not the first time it's happened.
Yeah, he used his father's name.
Is he the first guy to use the name of his famous father?
Well, the point is, All of that is itself deceitful because Joe Biden is completely involved in the Biden family racket.
There were meetings arranged by Hunter Biden with Joe Biden.
There were all kinds of oligarchs from all over the world congratulating each other in emails.
So, in other words, when you look at the contents of Hunter Biden's laptop, you see that Joe Biden is directly involved.
Moreover, that's now confirmed by the guy Tony Bobulinski, who was brought in by the Biden family to manage its business dealings, and Bobulinski makes clear Joe Biden was the big guy.
He was getting a cut. So this is not just about Hunter Biden, the whole Biden family, and by that I mean his brother.
James Biden, his other brother, Frank Biden.
I mean, this is a complete, this is a whole menagerie of losers.
But they're losers who know, well, they're losers who can smell an opportunity.
And so all of them were in on the racket, Joe Biden included.
So the big guy sitting in the Oval Office is certainly part of this.
And when that last line of defense falls...
It may be. I don't think this is likely, but it's not out of the question that Joe Biden himself ends up under some form of criminal indictment.
If the system works and if—these are big ifs, I admit—the authorities press this matter.
And if—another big if—Merrick Garland does his job.
But I think it's becoming time where Merrick Garland needs to appoint a special counsel because the facts are too clear.
And the stakes are too high.
And the crook of all crooks may well be sitting in the Oval Office.
Want to know what big tech and big government have in common?
Well, they both want to silence any dissenting voices into submission.
So let's say you're a proud gun owner.
You want to talk on social media about the right to bear arms.
Well, chances are your posts will be flagged by a content moderator and you might end up on some kind of government watch list.
Well, Well, to fight back against censorship from big tech and government, I recommend ExpressVPN.
When I use ExpressVPN, they can't see.
No one can see my IP address.
My identity is anonymized by a secure VPN server.
Plus, ExpressVPN encrypts 100% of my internet data for protection from hackers and eavesdroppers.
ExpressVPN is by far the best VPN I've tried.
It's the VPN rated number one by Business Insider and countless other tech publications.
And I love... ExpressVPN because it's so easy to use.
So stop letting big tech and big government censor and track you.
Defend your rights. Protect yourself at expressvpn.com slash Dinesh.
That's E-X-P-R-E-S-S-V-P-N dot com slash Dinesh.
You'll get three extra months for free.
Visit expressvpn.com slash Dinesh.
I'd like to say a few words about the election result in Hungary.
The party of Viktor Orban One decisively.
And one after a massive campaign that was conducted against him.
A campaign in part financed by, well, George Soros.
Let's remember, George Soros is Hungarian.
And Soros has spent money all over the world to promote leftist causes.
He has, David says, essentially bought off big chunks of South America.
And he has been very active in Eastern Europe.
He's been very active in Asia, manipulating currency.
Of course, he's been one of the primary funders of leftist groups in the United States, including some of them with a dubious and a violent history.
And this is Soros.
He's essentially a thuggish operator who has thuggish operations all over the world.
And I think he was desperate in his own country of his birth to defeat Viktor Orban.
Now, why? What is so bad about this guy Orban?
Well, what's really distinctive about Orban in Europe is that he stands as an unabashed defender, not only of nationalistic sentiment, which is to say, Hungary first.
He's a Hungary first guy.
If we're America first, we should understand why people are going to be India first or Hungary first, and that's what he is.
But the other thing is he is an unapologetic defender of traditional values.
And much of Europe today has become kind of...
I'm embarrassed to stand up for traditional Western values and specifically Christian values.
But there are some notable exceptions to that rule.
Poland is one of them. Hungary is another.
So Viktor Orban is kind of a symbol of someone who doesn't play the globalist game.
And for this, the European elites with the European Union, they don't like him.
Soros doesn't like him.
And interestingly, guess who else doesn't like him?
Zelensky. Zelensky doesn't like...
Doesn't like Orban.
And apparently was getting involved in the Hungary election, basically saying that because Orban is Hungary first, I mean, Orban's view pretty much on Ukraine is, listen, Ukraine, I sympathize, but I don't have anything to do with Ukraine.
Why should Hungary put its own economy and its own inflation rate and its own security at risk For something that has absolutely nothing to do with Hungary.
I think the American founders would have totally understood this sentiment.
This is Orban's sentiment.
And for this, Zelensky thinks that Orban needs to be sort of disciplined.
He needs to be brought into line.
He needs to be defeated.
Here's a title in the Associated Press report.
Wins for pro-Putin leaders buttresses autocracies in Europe.
So, the...
Victory of Orban is being interpreted as pro-Putin for the simple reason that Orban wants to stay out of the conflict.
And who's the real autocrat here?
I mean, it's not Orban, it's Zelensky who has outlawed opposition parties.
It is not Orban, it's Zelensky that has shut down.
I mean, essentially, Zelensky said, we're at war, so since we're at war, we can't afford to have pro-Russian parties in Ukraine, even though pro-Russian parties have actually been part of the Ukrainian political process.
And so, the censorship, the going after the political opposition, the outlawing the political opposition— That's occurring in Ukraine.
That's not occurring in Hungary.
So who's the real autocrat? It's not Orban.
So I think these days, as we look at foreign policy, we have to really decode what we see in the media because so much of what we're told is just slightly untrue.
And people who are portrayed as autocrats aren't really autocrats, and people who are portrayed as champions of freedom.
Oh, the Nazis who are fighting in the Ukrainian side of the good Nazis.
They're not the real Nazis.
The real Nazis are those MAGA guys who attack Jussie Smollett.
So you've got these inversions of truth, and it puts a heavy obligation.
And, you know, I try in the podcast here to be someone that makes these distinctions so that we can, in our normal lives, figure out what's really going on.
Some of us wish we could rewind the clock when it comes to our health.
Well, exercising, climbing stairs, all the things young people take for granted, these are things that don't have to stop just because you age.
Well, neither is it the case that you need to suffer from the normal aging aches and pains.
There's a solution now. It's 100% drug-free.
It's called Relief Factor.
Relief Factor supports your body's fight against inflammation.
That's the source of aches and pains.
The vast majority of people who try Relief Factor order more because it works for them.
Debbie loves using Relief Factor when her shoulders started acting up about a year or so ago.
It was the only thing that worked for her, and she knows if she doesn't take it, the pain's gonna come right back.
So Debbie's like, I'm not gonna be without this again.
You too can benefit. Try it for yourself.
Order the three-week quick start for the discounted price of just $19.95.
Go to relieffactor.com.
or call 833-690-7246 to find out more.
That number again, 833-690-7246 or go to relieffactor.com.
Feel the difference.
Guys, I'm really happy to welcome to the podcast Stacey Washington.
She's a radio host.
In fact, she hosts a show called Stacey on the Right.
I've been really delighted to be on the show from time to time.
She's also the communications director of Family Vision Media.
She served as co-chair of Black Voices for Trump.
And she is the author of a new book.
It's called Eternally Cancel Proof.
A Guide for Courageous Christians Navigating the Political Battlefront.
Hey Stacey, welcome. Great to talk to you.
I guess the roles are reversed.
I've been on your show and you've been interviewing me.
Now it's my turn to interview you.
And you've written a book about, you know, Christianity and politics.
And so, let me start by asking you, is that how you came to politics through your faith?
Or how did you become a conservative?
Well, Dinesh, thank you for having me on today.
And yes, that's pretty much how it happened.
We were sitting in church, this is years ago.
We had just one child, a little baby, and we're sitting in church and we get this statement that our pastor made.
And I was thinking, wow, that does not line up with how we vote.
And so that little nugget kind of started the ball rolling.
And from there, I just kind of would compare sometimes, or a very big pivotal point was when we had a, he was a politician, a local politician who's no longer in office, came to the pulpit.
And on a particular Sunday when our pastor had been pretty fiery about some biblical concepts, then that politician stepped into the pulpit and he was sharing, you know, please vote for me and please, you know, come out and knock doors for me.
And then he began to talk about issues on the Democrat Party platform, the support of abortion or the right to choose, And I was like, wait a second.
That's definitely not what the Bible tells us to do.
And I thought, am I approaching this correctly?
Because I'm trying to live uprightly.
Now that we have a child, I'm really focused on instilling these values into her.
But that's not how I vote.
And so I think that was the beginning of the journey.
Now, there are some pastors, as you know, who have a certain fear of sort of crossing the political divide.
In fact, sometimes Debbie and I listen online to a pastor, and what he says is something like, Come see me for lunch and dinner and I'll tell you what I think, but I don't view the pulpit as my role to talk about these matters.
And he even means moral principles that bear upon politics.
So what do you say to pastors who take that kind of narrow view that this is not their proper sphere?
Well, Dinesh, that's not what the founders based our constitution on.
So we actually have representative government, which is found in the Bible in Exodus 18.
And then you have the Black Robe Regiment, which is what they called pastors back before we were even a country.
And these men had fiery sermons that came from the pulpit that they actually wrote down in their own longhand.
And then those sermons were shared.
So those sermons were then given to the founders, and they used some of what they found in those sermons to base the Constitution upon.
So we have the very founding of our nation rooted in this fiery oratory from the pulpit.
And so today's pastors don't have a different legacy.
They have that same ability.
And it's a misinterpretation of the Johnson Amendment that is used by Democrats to frighten pastors into losing their tax-exempt status But I encourage people, speaking truth, all of it's covered here.
Politics is a tool.
The Bible is our guide.
And I cover in my book exactly how you're supposed to actually approach this from the biblical worldview, understanding that if you know what God's Word says and you're a Christian, you're empowered to speak truth.
It's not just that you can speak truth at lunch or privately.
It's that you're empowered to do it.
Now, the title of your book, Stacey, is Eternally Cancel Proof.
And help me to sort of decode the title.
Are you saying that the truths in the Bible are not just for this moment or that moment, that there's a kind of enduring or eternal value to them, and that no matter what How much people may want to oppose those principles?
You can't cancel them because they're rooted in reality.
They're rooted in the way the universe is structured.
They're rooted in human nature.
Is that what you're getting at when you say eternally cancel-proof?
Well, I know I need you to assist with any promotion we do over the next months with blurbs because that was fantastic.
And that's true.
But the main reason I call this book eternally cancel-proof is because a lot of people will say to me, oh, Stacey, you know, You're so brave.
This is easy for you.
And especially when I used to fill in for big hosts, I'd fill in for the Dana last show or Larry O'Connor show, and I would be literally kind of shaking before the mic would be hot, and then I would just do my job.
And so I do it scared.
I do it because it's the truth, but I'm empowered to do it.
Much of the courage that I have comes directly from the fact that God tells us not to fear.
He says, the enemy is under your feet.
And he says, speak truth.
He also says that blessing comes from obedience.
So when I say eternally counsel-proof, I fear no man, Dinesh.
And I really feel like you're a great example of this because you were improperly persecuted and sent to prison, which only made you stronger.
You did a documentary from inside of basically the prison criminal factory system.
And you broke down walls and barriers of understanding for people who we never would have experienced that had you not been so publicly ridiculed and vilified and attacked.
And so it's the same with me.
I liken it to Star Wars, Dinesh.
You know, when Obi-Wan and Lord Vader were standing there and Obi-Wan told Lord Vader, if you strike me down, I'll only become more powerful.
It's the same with us.
I was canceled by the Post-Dispatch.
I wrote for the NRA and was paid, even though I'd never been paid to write for them before.
I was canceled for my radio show.
Now I'm on Sirius XM. I consider those to be providential blessings of God, and I know that I wouldn't be as strong as I am in speaking out, especially as a black woman.
The attacks are much more personal.
They're much more directed at my daughters and myself, and they're more virulent.
They're horrifying. But I can withstand that because I know no man can touch eternity for me.
I've given my life to Jesus Christ, and I am eternally cancel-proof.
I can be canceled here a hundred times.
And what I tell people in Chapter 9 is that you probably will be canceled.
In today's culture, we're simply telling the truth about gender.
A woman is a woman. A man is a man.
You can get fired. Brendan Eich was let go for donating lawfully.
To a cause that he believed in from his own company that he founded.
And that was years ago before we even had the term cancel culture.
So Dinesh, eternally cancel proof means I fear no man.
I'm telling the truth no matter what's in front of me because it's my job.
And I want to empower people by reading this book to do the same.
Let's take a pause, Stacey.
When we come back, I want to talk to you about some of the principles that are laid out in your book and sort of the biblical foundation for them.
We'll be right back. The global upheaval caused by Russia's invasion of Ukraine and the crippling sanctions on Russian trade are showing to have massive ripple effects around the world, including right here in the U.S. And it's not just at the gas pump.
Food prices are soaring right now, to quote President Biden with regards to food shortages.
It's gonna be real.
Get started now. Text Dinesh to 989898.
With thousands of satisfied customers, an A-plus rating with the Better Business Bureau, Birch Gold can help you protect your savings.
So text Dinesh to 989898.
You'll get a free information kit on gold.
There's no obligation. Text Dinesh to 989898 and protect your savings with gold.
Stacey, you said something quite poignant in the last segment.
You said... When we're facing up to this cancel culture, it's not as if there are the strong people who can wade through it and the weak people who have to run away.
None of us want to be taken off these platforms.
This is a way in our time that we communicate with each other.
But you're saying that there's a certain...
Is there any fearlessness that comes from your faith that you're, in the end, not really afraid because what can they do?
What's the most they can do to you?
Okay, fine, they'll do this to you, they'll do that to you, but God will open other doors.
Is that why you're saying that Christian hope sustains you even though human fear naturally creates some hesitation?
It does. And so, you know, sometimes you find yourself, especially on Twitter now, where you can be suspended for 24 hours for simply tweeting an article about hydroxychloroquine.
Just saying the word can get your video kicked off of YouTube.
There are times when I find myself self-censoring and I have to kind of say, okay, wait a minute.
What is it I really want to say here?
And then I have to send that message out and then, you know, you might get suspended.
We have Charlie Kirk just suspended for sending out a tweet about gender.
It's crazy, but...
The reason we're in this place, Dinesh, is that too few people, especially people of faith, have actually held elected officials accountable, have actually spoken out truth because we're afraid of being censored.
I have a lot of statistics and political information in the book.
66% of Americans admitted in a survey recently that they do not talk about politics publicly and especially at work for fear of being canceled.
And the 66% represents the Republican respondents.
Democrats are far less likely to censor themselves or not speak out publicly about politics because they don't fear cancellation.
So that tells me a few things.
First of all, we know that we have the truth.
We know we're in the right. We know that history favors the truth.
It favors our perspective as conservatives.
Also, we know that when truth does not reign Supreme in our cultural landscape, we experience negative ramifications like our open southern border.
That is an actual attack, assault on the truth, which is that we're a sovereign nation and we have every right to control who comes in here.
So in the book, I talk about the biblical truth.
First, you get to take a little quiz.
It's so easy. It's at the beginning and you write nothing down.
You just answer in your mind. Whether or not you have a biblical worldview.
Then we go through and we talk about abortion.
And I have a whole chapter on that because almost all of Democrats' policy is connected to abortion.
And then I talk about other things like critical race theory, true black history.
I have a whole chapter dedicated to indoctrinating your own kids because Democrats shouldn't be doing that.
That's your job. And we talk about that from the biblical perspective.
So Christian or not, the book is appropriate for you to read because it's about the time we're living in right now.
And I offer solutions to what we're seeing.
I mean, you made me chuckle a moment ago when you said, almost using the term indoctrination in a positive sense.
And I think that it is important to realize when you have very young children, they have not developed critical reasoning skills.
So they accept things.
And so indoctrination is a kind of necessity at that age.
Later, you can turn assumptions into questions.
Later, you can say, well, this is why we believe these seven things to be true.
But you're saying that it's The indoctrination is not something that should be coming from ideologues with an agenda, using the schools as a mechanism to execute it.
But parents should be sharing their values with their children.
The children may learn to question those later, but many of them, even in questioning them, later then come back to the values that their parents instilled in them at the outset.
Well, and with our kids, so our children are all in college, and so we've been through this where when they were little, my main object with them was obviously to have a very close relationship and to understand them, to teach them to read and write before they went into school, and to present the human body to them as a whole system,
and then to correctly name the anatomical parts so that they wouldn't go to school and learn Cutesy names or vulgar names for body parts and that they wouldn't learn about sex and reproduction from other children or adults who had harm intended for them.
And so in doing that, I demystified a subject that a lot of parents feel uncomfortable discussing.
And then it made it possible for my children to basically it's a swinging door of information.
They can come and ask me one question with no repercussions or they can ask me for a long discussion about anything having to do with human sexuality.
And that really worked with our kids.
They don't use cutesy names for body parts.
One of our children is graduating from college and she's pre-med.
And so there's not, there's, the issue here is not so much that we don't have the power or the ability to do it.
We kind of, we've been, I guess, maybe indoctrinated ourselves by Hollywood to think that children are these complex, you know, only teachers with master's degrees in education can talk No, it's your job.
You're the mom. Who knows your child better than you do?
And how much more would they appreciate having the information from you, someone they trust that they can come to again and again and have a continuing, ongoing conversation about human sexuality, marriage, gender, and if your child would become gender confused or anything of that nature, They're much more likely to come to you than to go to the school nurse or a teacher who might have an agenda So it is indoctrination But aren't we all glad that we were indoctrinated into using toilets and using the restroom with the door closed and all the things that go
Along with that that is a part of how we live and have a great society So I'm saying treat it as basic instruction for your children. Just speak to them like they're people. They appreciate that I mean I think this is important Stacy because sometimes there are parents who think I won't raise the topic at all Because I don't want my child to be quote thinking about sex at this young age
But I think what you're saying is the problem with that is that if you take that completely hands-off approach, there's a vacuum.
Children are curious. They keep hearing other kids talking.
And so they end up getting their information from secondary and bad sources.
So parents shouldn't be reluctant to do that.
Let's talk for a moment in the little time we have left about critical race theory.
How would you, applying a biblical framework, address some of the ideas and assumptions of critical race theory?
In what sense does critical race theory is out of sync, let us say, with biblical truth?
So, Dinesh, the basic tenet of critical race theory comes from critical theory, which is a Marxist concept, and that is a tool used by people who want to take control of a society to drive a wedge in and divide people.
Critical race theory assumes that America has a systemic race problem that can never be solved.
The Bible teaches us that all sin, all problems can be solved and that there is redemption for any person who wants it.
So if we truly have systemic racism that cannot be thwarted, it can't be changed, we can only basically kind of, you know, genuflect to try to basically say I'm sorry for it as white people and as blacks and minorities were the victims who received that genuflection, then that goes directly against what Jesus came for, which was to save people. And to heal and to rescue us.
So either we have redemption or we don't.
And in America, we know we do because we went to war with each other to fight over the issue of slavery and then came back together, a more unified nation.
We've had a black president, Oprah Winfrey Swans amongst us.
Dinesh, we are a blessed nation.
We do not have to consider the problems that we have to be unsolvable.
I mean, Martin Luther King spoke a generation ago about the beloved community, and King's point, I think, was that, yeah, you might have division, but the division is aimed at an ultimate reconciliation.
In other words, the division is not there to put a permanent wedge, but it seems like critical race theory is about creating permanent division, and in some sense, for the political benefit of the Democrats and of the left.
It is. And I call it a Trojan horse.
It comes into any organization, whether it's a Fortune 500 company or a university, and it creates division.
And that's why Columbia University currently has all-black graduations.
They have an all-black student center.
Other universities are moving in that direction.
And I just try to figure out, Dinesh, why someone would pay hundreds of thousands of dollars for an education with the elites We're good to go.
We're giving something away that we don't have to, like, you don't give to your enemy.
You don't yield to someone who's trying to take from you.
We don't have to give them access to our children to teach them critical race theory.
We should teach true black history as a part of our total curriculum.
We should, anything Marxist, anything critical theory related, and there are hundreds of names for it because they want to hide it from us, we should always fight that and stay away from it.
Stacey, you're doing great work.
Keep it up. Guys, the book, check it out.
It's Eternally Cancel Proof, A Guide for Courageous Christians Navigating the Political Battlefront.
Stacey Washington, thanks so much for joining me.
Really appreciate it.
Thank you. There's some very good news on the campus front.
Oberlin College. A very left-wing liberal arts college in Ohio has been ordered to pay $31 million to a bakery in the town where the college is.
Four, falsely accusing the bakery of being racist and essentially destroying the bakery's business.
Now, all of this goes back to 2016 when apparently some Oberlin students were stealing wine from the bakery.
And the bakery sort of busted them.
They were arrested.
The students later admitted their fault.
And yet the college, because the students were black, the college decided to go into full aggression mode.
And what they did was they portrayed the bakery as engaged in racial profiling.
So essentially Oberlin said, our students aren't thieves.
You went after them just because they were black.
And this caused the bakery to lose all its business, and it's partly because Oberlin acted in very aggressive ways against the bakery.
First of all, the Oberlin president, a woman named Carmen Twilley Ambar, moved against the bakery and denounced it.
The Dean of Students, Meredith Raimondo, apparently was part of massive protests against the bakery and also was handing out flyers saying that the bakery was racist.
Pretty much the same with a woman named Tita Reed.
Other faculty members got involved.
Oberlin barred purchases from the bakery and an Oberlin official apparently pressured another contractor with the college named Bon Appetit to stop doing business with the bakery.
So they essentially destroyed this bakery.
And so what did the bakery do?
The bakery went to court and won.
And the initial award was actually $40 million.
But now it was later reduced to $25 million plus $6 million in legal fees.
So it's terrific.
Oberlin now has to cough up $31 million.
And by the way, Oberlin appealed.
To what they thought was a friendly court, which is the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.
And guess what? The Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the verdict and said, no, no, the verdict is just fine and Oberlin has to pay.
Now, what makes this all...
Particularly sickening is that no one at Oberlin has actually apologized.
You would think the president of the college would go, well, you know what?
Yeah, our students acted badly.
They were held accountable.
We were wrong to jump the gun.
None of that. She's basically dug in.
She's essentially standing by her position.
Not a single one of the deans or faculty members who went after the bakery has been in any way reprimanded or held to account.
So you've got a college here that doesn't deserve any consideration or any sympathy.
Yes, this is a heavy financial price that they have to pay, but not only from their actions in this regrettable episode, but their complete lack of contrition, their complete unwillingness to learn anything from this.
I'm quite convinced that if this were to happen all over again, they would do exactly the same thing.
Why? Because this is essentially their race-baiting MO. This is how these leftist colleges are now.
This is their natural mode of operation and And this is why it's so difficult for them to apologize.
An apology isn't just an acknowledgement of error.
For them, it's a repudiation of their worldview.
It undercuts the premises on which they operate.
It undermines the moral code that sustains them.
And so, my point to Oberlin is that you acted very badly.
You didn't show a moment of repentance over this.
And now you have to pay.
And all of us are and should be absolutely delighted about it.
Imagine the lifelong impact of a journey to the Holy Land.
Surrounded by like-minded travelers, picture yourself stepping foot in iconic locations right out of Scripture.
Join Dr. Sebastian Gorka and Dinesh D'Souza on this life-enriching Israel Tour, November 30th through December 9th, 2022.
For more information, call 855-565-5519 or visit StandWithIsraelTour.com We're continuing our journey through Dante's purgatory.
And by the way, I should mention that a few people have written me through my website and said, in effect, well, Dinesh, it's a little uncomfortable for us to be hearing all this stuff about purgatory because we don't really believe in purgatory and, you know, it seems like you do or at least you're giving purgatory all this attention and what's the purgatory mention in the Bible and what's the theological basis for purgatory?
Isn't this some sort of a Catholic thing and as Protestants we don't really go along?
Well, I'm actually going to talk about this question on Friday.
I'm doing a special episode of the podcast.
It's just Q&A. And for one of the questions, I'm going to take this very issue up, and I'm going to discuss it in a little bit more detail.
Again, I do want to emphasize here that what we're doing is we're kind of going with Dante.
And what I mean by going with Dante is we don't need to settle the question theologically of purgatory purgatory.
We're doing what in reading can be called provisional suspension of belief.
By the way, we do this all the time.
Think of it. You go to a movie.
It's a horror movie. And the premise of the movie is that no one is allowed to speak.
What's that movie called, honey? Silence.
So the premise of silence is that if you say a word...
Aliens from outer space, alien monsters will appear and immediately eat you.
And you might say, well, that's ridiculous.
That's not really true.
But you know what? Go with it.
Suspend your disbelief because that's the premise of the movie.
And within that premise, a story unfolds.
So if you don't really believe in purgatory, no problem.
Do exactly that, a kind of suspended belief in which you're allowing Dante to develop this idea, because there's still a whole lot that you can learn about.
And of course, the concepts that we're discussing here, which is self-examination, atonement, a deeper understanding of the nature of sin, this sense that we need to rid ourselves of sin, all of this is completely relevant, of course, to the Christian framework.
Now... Here we are with Dante and Virgil, and we're now moving.
We talked yesterday about Canto V, where we met such figures as La Pia.
And now we're going to talk about Cantos VI and VII. Now, this is, I would call it, something of the poetic and political section of the Purgatorio.
And by the way, it matches.
Canto 6 through 10 of Inferno are about politics.
Remember that Canto with Farinata and Cavalcanti, who are respectively a Florentine politician and a poet.
That's Canto 10 in the Inferno.
And we're going to see some resonances of all that here in Canto 6 and 7 of Purgatory.
And remember, we're still in anti-Purgatory.
We're in the outer room of Purgatory.
It's not until Canto 9 when Dante and Virgil go through the famous gate of Purgatory.
We'll talk about that a little bit later.
But here, I'm now reading from the text.
Dante and Virgil see a guy, and they don't know who he is initially.
We made our way toward him.
"'O Lombard souls, how stately and disdainful you appeared!
What majesty was in your steady gaze!'' So right away here, we're seeing this majestic figure.
And if we're thinking back to Inferno, and remember, we're doing this back and forth constantly as we read the Purgatory.
We're thinking back to Inferno.
In some ways, we're also projecting ahead to what might come in Paradiso.
This idea of a stately and disdainful figure very much brings to mind the politician Farinada.
This is the Ghibelline politician who engaged Dante and the, who are your ancestors and my ancestors routed your ancestors and so on.
So this guy, whom we're seeing, seems to have the same gait, the same stature.
He did not say a word to us, but let us keep moving toward him.
But Virgil went straight up to him and asked directions for the best way to ascend.
The shade ignored the question put to him and asked, asking of us instead, who we were.
My gentle guide began Mantua.
So Virgil is a Mantuan.
He's from a part of Italy known as Mantua.
And then watched the other guy's reaction.
And the other, until then all self-absorbed, sprang to his feet and came toward him, O Manchuin, I am Sordello of your own town, and the two shades embraced.
Now... Here is this guy.
He's a poet named Sordello.
Pretty well-known poet in the generation before Dante.
And he too is from Mantua, as is originally Virgil.
And the moment that Sordello finds out that Virgil, like him, is a Manchuan, they embrace.
Now, this, I think, is intended by Dante to contrast what happens between Farinata and Dante in Canto X of Inferno, where, if you notice, even though Farinata and Dante are from the same place, namely Florence, Right away, there's a division between them.
Right away, Farnada's like, I'm not one of you.
I belong to the other party.
You belong to the Guelphs.
My ancestors took your ancestors out.
And you never came back.
So, division is the name of the game.
Whereas here, we find that Sordello doesn't need any information.
In fact, he doesn't even know who Virgil is.
For him, it's enough that it's a fellow man.
Oh, we're from the same town.
Essentially, let's hug.
And... This, I think, is intended by Dante to convey the mood of sociability and conviviality and a kind of group feeling that we see in Purgatory, we don't see in Inferno.
So then, let's continue.
Dante, noticing this kind of conviviality between Virgil and Sornello, goes into a diatribe against political divisions in Italy.
Here's Dante. This is Dante, the pilgrim speaking, but I think he's also echoing Dante, the poet.
O wretched Italy, search all your coasts, probe to your very center.
Can you find within you any part that is at peace?
So nowhere is there peace in Italy.
This is Dante's commenting on this.
And then Dante says, What matter if Justinian repaired the bridle?
If the saddle's empty now, the shame would have been less if he had not.
So who's Justinian?
The Christian emperor and lawgiver who consolidated and brought together all the Roman laws.
And Dante's saying, in effect, we have good laws.
All these laws were brought together by Justinian.
He repaired the bridle.
So the horse is ready to be ridden, but he goes, but the reason it's not being ridden is the Roman emperor...
He's off in Germany, doing his own thing.
He doesn't even care about Italy, so the laws are not being enforced.
There's another guy who's trying to run the place.
Who is that? The Pope. He's not qualified to do that.
He's actually supposed to be a spiritual leader, but he's trying to control.
He's trying to keep the emperor out of Italy so that he gets to run Italy.
So Dante is like, everything is all messed up over here.
Dante is sort of engaging in this, as I say, diatribe against the Holy Roman Emperor and against the Church, against the Pope.
Here's Dante. You priests who should pursue your holiness, remembering what God prescribes for you, let Caesar take the saddle as he should.
So here's Dante saying, not calling for some strict separation of church and state, but Dante's saying, the church has a job, and it is the caretaking of souls.
And the emperor has a job, and it is the administration of the laws.
And what Dante's saying is, neither one is doing their job.
And then I'll just close today with Dante's diatribe and then pick it up the next time.
Dante goes, What's Dante talking about?
Noble families in Italy that have now been set against each other.
And notice... Who's the Capuletti?
Who's the Montecchi?
Well, if you were to anglicize those names, that's the Capulets and the Montagues.
In other words, those are the very families that Shakespeare used as the basis of Romeo and Juliet.
Shakespeare, of course, writing around the year 1600, so 300 or 400 years after Dante.
But these are the Italian families that Shakespeare is talking about.
And here's Dante saying, That what happens is these noble families that should be cooperating in the administration of good laws are now at each other's throats.
So Dante is talking about what happens when church and state is all out of kilter.
And when we come back tomorrow, we'll pick it up with Sordello and how Sordello reacts to all this and how Sordello reacts to the recognition of who Virgil really is.
Subscribe to the Dinesh D'Souza Podcast on Apple, Google, and Spotify.
▲
Export Selection