Glenn Beck and Tom MacDonald dissect a perceived "new Red Scare," linking modern censorship proposals to the Sedition Act and McCarthy hearings while contrasting the treatment of Morgan Wallen with a New York Times reporter. They critique John Kerry's carbon-intensive travel and the "Great Reset" as an oligarchic merger of government and corporations, comparing it to FDR's National Recovery Administration. MacDonald joins to discuss cancel culture, affirming that racial slurs are unacceptable yet warning against criminalizing opinions. Ultimately, the episode argues society has lost faith in redemption, suggesting current cultural battles threaten free speech under the guise of safety. [Automatically generated summary]
You know, for us little people, I don't think the elites are going to like it.
We talk about the oligarchy, the coming together of corporations and government.
That's what's really happening in our system.
We talk a little bit about what's happening in the culture war.
There is a warrior out there, and his song has gone viral.
And his song came out this weekend and now has three and a half million views.
He has 350 million views on YouTube.
And he talks a little bit about the song and also the culture that he fears we're slipping into.
Tom McDonald is going to be with us on today's broadcast.
And so much more you don't want to miss.
You're listening to the best of the Glenn Beck program.
We are in a new Red Scare.
We are now hunting for the enemies within.
The federal government is actually having discussions about putting together a new truth and reality czar.
Somebody who will tell us what the truth is.
Oh my gosh.
We've been through this before, where people are silenced and they're afraid to speak their mind.
It's happened really twice in America with the Sedition Act under John Adams and in the 1950s with the other Red Scare.
This Red Scare is about red states.
Be afraid.
Be very, very afraid.
The enemy is within.
Well, that's what they said back in the 1950s.
The communists are inside the gates.
The enemy is within.
So they started the Committee for Un-American Activities, the McCarthy hearings.
Are you now or have you ever been a member of the Communist Party?
Are you now or have you ever been a member of the Republican Party?
Are you now or have you ever been a supporter of Donald Trump?
It's the new Red Scare.
And how people can't see this fear that is being pushed by the left isn't the same.
Remember, people lost their jobs just for things that they believed.
Now people are losing their jobs, not for things that they believe, just things that they might say.
Nick Daly, who's worked on my staff for a long time and I, we put a song together.
It's not a lyrical song.
Well, I just want you to listen to it.
And I would ask that you would pass this on.
We're going to put it on YouTube later today.
When did we stop seeing the parallels?
The average American can do very little.
They must depend upon those of us who may send down here to man the watchtowers of the nation.
And if you see anybody with that cabinet in a restaurant, in a department store, at a gasoline station, you tell them they're not helping.
Everyone goes stamps of Easton TV.
Once again, we honor their votes of office.
We're performing a public duty to protect and defend the Constitution.
A public trust.
I am pursuing this investigation.
I've seen firsthand Donald Trump's disrespect for facts.
In order to develop the facts.
It's really bizarre when you think about how aimed so many of these members of Congress have gotten.
If we, unless we make sure that there's no infiltration of our government.
Donald Trump is a clear and present danger to our country.
Then just as certain as you sit there in the period of our lives, you will see a red world.
What I'm concerned about is the Republican leadership in the House of Representatives.
The enemy is within the Helmet of Representatives.
What is the exact number of Trump supporters?
And the question is: how are we going to really almost deprogram these people who have signed up for the cult of Trump?
By cutting off their social media.
First, Google and Apple delisted Parlor from their app stores.
Then Amazon cut the servers.
Now House Democrats are trying to blame the free speech platform Parlor.
This stuff related to big tech censorship is the issue of our time.
Will Smith appearing to call for the country to purge itself of Donald Trump supporters.
We get to know who people are, and now we need to cleanse it out of our country.
There's a proposal to have a commission to investigate Republican colleagues.
Democrat senators have filed ethics complaints against two of their Republican colleagues.
The left is trying to push these businesses to shame them and threaten them into shunning and silencing Trump supporters and conservatives.
They're pushing them to fire people, even.
Council culture is a wildfire that you cannot contain.
Society's Loss of Belief in Redemption00:03:51
If you pour gasoline onto it, don't be surprised when it finally reaches you and you get burned.
Every business needs to stand up for every American.
Otherwise, eventually they'll come for you too.
This is the Glenbeck program.
They have come for you.
They're coming for you.
They're coming for anyone who disagrees with them or anyone who dares say something that might hurt their feelings.
And there is no forgiveness, none.
There is no redemption.
I was talking to somebody last night and he said the greatest motivating force in all of life.
He said, I'm convinced what motivates people, The strongest force out there, what motivates people is not pain, is not love.
It's not greed.
It's not money.
It's redemption.
That everyone is on the path looking for redemption.
Something that they have done in their life that, and the redeeming power is not just a power of, oh, I forgive you.
Redemption is this amazing thing that takes something really horrible and turns it into something miraculous.
So many people are struggling right now with feelings of guilt, of fear, whatever it is that's happening in your life.
It's happening in almost everybody's life.
I've wrestled recently with, man, what have I missed with my children?
How have I, after trying everything I could for the last 15 years, doing everything I can, I still have problems with my kids.
And I don't, what else?
And I feel like, gosh, I really am a bad dad.
No, I'm not.
No, I'm not.
These struggles happen in every child's life.
These struggles happen.
And if they can just stay on the road long enough, all of those mistakes will teach them brilliant things.
They will be completely transformed because that's what redemption does.
But we're now in a society that doesn't believe in redemption.
If you've ever said anything, if you've ever done anything, I don't care how long ago it was, you are not forgiven.
You will never be forgiven.
This goes against all human nature.
Jordan Peterson talks about God.
When he talks about Jesus, he always says, I'm not saying that he really rose from the dead or didn't rise from the dead.
It doesn't matter psychology-wise.
Psychologically, it is really important that people have a redemptive story, something that gives them hope that they can move on from that.
So you don't have to believe it.
I do.
You don't have to believe in the Jesus story.
You don't have to believe he rose from the dead.
I do.
But you do have to really, to be able to survive as a society, you do actually have to believe in redemption.
Morgan Wallen and Redemption00:05:16
So Morgan Wallen, my wife would probably know who he is.
I don't listen to country music like she does.
He's a country star.
He currently has the number one album on the country charts for Billboard, the Hot 100.
He has the number one album.
Well, he's been in trouble recently.
He was on Saturday Night Live and a few days before he was going to be on Saturday Night Live, a video surfaced of him partying it up in a bar without a mask and kissing several women.
Whoa, not a star of the stage in music doing that?
What?
So he was cut from the SNL show, given another chance a few weeks later, but that was the latest thing he had trouble.
And then Sunday night, we have no idea where he went.
I don't really care.
But he ended up early Monday morning showing up at a friend's house.
He and a bunch of other guys got together and they showed up at no, it was actually his house.
Showed up around his house around midnight and all of his friends were there and they were honking and they were loud.
This happened in Nashville.
The neighbors got pissed off.
One of the neighbors began recording something.
And so Morgan, he is stumbling towards his house and he tells someone to watch over a guy in his group.
He says, take care of this PS mother effer.
It's beautifully put.
But he's talking about one of his friends.
And he's looking to another friend and say, take care of him.
Then he goes to say, yeah, that's right.
Take care of this PS N-word.
Well, that's enough.
That's enough.
Now, it doesn't matter that he said this to a friend and about a friend.
You can't use that word.
Other people can use the word.
You can't use the word.
You're a country artist.
We know what you think.
You're white.
You're from the South.
We know what you think.
Now, this has happened to the New York Times.
The New York Times has one of their veterans Time reporter.
And this guy, Donald McNeil, he went down on a 2019 educational trip to Peru along with a bunch of high school students.
After the trip, the students left reviews alleging that he used the N-word while on the trip.
Three other participants alleged that he made racist comments and used stereotypes about black teenagers on the trip.
What did the New York Times do?
Well, it said, you know, we intended to fire McNeil, but, I mean, he's an award-winning science reporter.
And yes, he made offensive comments, but he didn't act in a hateful manner.
Really?
Hang on, but Morgan Wallen did?
So he didn't lose his job.
He said, you know, I just use extremely poor judgment.
Oh, okay.
Okay.
Well, then all is forgiven, right?
Except, there is no redemption for Morgan Wallen.
Here's what happened.
In the wake of recent events, Big Loud Records has made the decision to suspend Morgan Wallen's contract indefinitely.
Republic Records, which distributes his music, fully supports Big Loud decision and agrees such behavior will not be tolerated.
Big Loud's punitive action now comes with Wallen's 30-track sophomore album, Dangerous, the Double Album, which is number one on the Billboard top 200 for the third consecutive week.
This is not some nobody.
Then, in an unprecedented news, the Academy of Country Music announced it will halt Morgan Wallen's potential involvement and eligibility for the 56th Academy of Country Music Awards cycle.
The Academy does not condone nor support intolerance or behavior that does not align with our commitment and dedication to diversity and inclusion.
Look out.
This is about to be everywhere with the great reset.
Shortly thereafter, the rival Country Music Association, the CMAs, announced it was also removing Wallin's digital content from all of its platforms.
The statement continued, we support our country music partners for taking swift action.
We will confer further with our board of directors to review additional measures and we'll continue to examine our industry's inclusivity measures.
Everybody's running for cover.
Nobody wants to stand up.
If you don't stand up when they come for you, there's not going to be anybody left to stand for you because if you're a coward, they'll be a coward.
They're all running for cover.
And I am not excusing Morgan Wallen's use of that word.
I don't like that word.
Why We Stand Against Cowardice00:13:28
I don't ever use that word.
I don't know people that use that word.
And if they did, I would say, you know, I just don't, I don't like that word.
Can you not use that around, at least around me?
And if they were using it in a hateful manner, they wouldn't be my friend and they wouldn't hang around me.
It's a different world.
Now, he's obviously got some drinking problems.
Now, I don't know if he's an alcoholic or if he just likes to drink, but one way or another, you don't have the best judgment when you're smashed.
So I don't excuse this in any way, shape, or form, but really, he's now up there with Hitler.
We have to erase him.
We must make him pay.
I don't know what world you're living in, but in my world, there's forgiveness for the guy with students in Peru and the guy with the drink in his hand in Nashville.
I don't know what world you are living in, but I will not live in a world without redemption.
You're listening to the best of the Glenn Beck program.
So last night, if you're watching my special live on Pluto or on the live Blaze TV stream, you may have noticed some technical issues.
Apparently, our broadcast partner experienced an outage up in the Northeast, and the show is available now on demand at Blazetv.com and on Blaze TV YouTube.
It will also re-air tonight at 8 p.m. on Pluto and Blaze TV.
By the way, if you're a subscriber, you always get the best deal because my live shows are always available right at 9 on demand.
So we appreciate your support and thank you so much for watching.
If you missed it last night, I'll give you a little bit of a recap, but it's a really important show, really important show.
And I'm going to give you a couple of the highlights from last night's broadcast that I think you need to be aware of.
You know, because I've played the audio before, but John Kerry has been talking to the World Economic Forum.
Now, he's our climate czar who just got in trouble because, you know, he flew a giant, what, global express so he could do his climate work and added tons of carbon.
When asked about it, he said, well, it's, I mean, I mean, people like me, this is the only choice.
No, it's not.
No, it's really not.
Well, he's busy, though.
No, I know.
And we're not.
You know, it's like you're.
You're not busy.
He is.
It's like waiting for doctors.
It really pisses me off.
Really?
I have to be there on time because the doctor is so busy.
I'm not?
Right.
Then you be on time too, Doc.
It goes both ways.
Be on time.
And we're all busy, but they think that they're so important.
They think that what they're doing is the most important thing.
And so, and honestly, without them, what would we do?
That's what they really believe.
So here's what Joe Biden's new climate czar had to say at the World Economic Forum.
Listen.
Are we expecting too much too soon from the new president or is it going to deliver first day on these topics?
The answer to your question is no, you're not expecting too much.
And yes, it will happen.
And I think it will happen with greater speed and with greater intensity than a lot of people might imagine.
I will tell you this is true.
I told you about a story yesterday about Coca-Cola and what they're doing with their attorneys.
I was just looking up some things.
I was Googling, you know, businesses associated in putting a can of Coke on the shelf.
And I was trying to just see how many businesses outside of the Koch family.
Well, I found something that was really interesting.
It was the distributor, the Coca-Cola distributor in Europe.
And it's about a hundred-page document.
And it is all the Great Reset.
They're already deep into this, deep into this.
And at one point in this document, they say, to justify our business license, we are doing X, Y, and Z in communities.
To justify your business license?
Wow.
That's what's coming.
Now, John Kerry, the climate czar, that is now a position that is on the National Security Council.
He was speaking at the World Economic Forum on Biden's intentions for the Great Reset, the global plan to use coronavirus and climate change to change our societies globally forever.
It is an oligarchy.
Now, the video was, there was another video that I played for you last night on TV.
It was tweeted out by the World Economic Forum.
Then it was immediately deleted after people started freaking out because I have up on the screen now the last frame of it.
And it's about, you know, what life is going to be like in 2030 from the World Economic Forum.
It tells all kinds of scary things, but then it says, you'll own nothing and you'll be happy.
And when you can think about that, you can be like, oh, okay, I'm going to be happy because I'm not going to own a car.
I'll take an Uber.
Maybe I won't even own clothes.
It'll be rent the runway.
I won't own my own house.
You'll just be so much more free.
Except the things that you're using are not free.
You may not own them, but who does?
If you don't own your house, you have a landlord.
If you don't own your car, you have somebody that does.
And it will be these giant corporations that will own everything.
And so you will always be renting from these people because you can't have private property because there won't be private property anymore.
Global corporations and the global elite are merging into one.
Is this what you want for your children?
Ownership shifting from the people to a co-op between big corporations and the government used to be something the left condemned.
We all did.
It's where you get crony capitalism, and it is the reason why we hate government so much.
It's how a politician can never, I mean, he never holds up a real job.
He starts when he's young.
He has no money, no so-called outside interests, no other income coming in.
And yet, after 50 years, an elected official, somehow magically, he becomes a multi-millionaire, and so does the rest of his family.
How does that happen?
Well, the rest of the world accepts it.
Eastern Europe, Russia, China, that's just the way things work.
It's called an oligarchy.
And Democrats are helping to use the Biden administration as the catalyst to shift power from you to them.
It's really important that we explain this to our friends and family.
The excuse to merge these businesses in government is the coronavirus and climate change.
But progressives, see, this is where I went wrong.
Progressives in the 1930s, they were about Marxism, and we think it's about Marxism, but it's not.
In the old days, the progressives, they used the Great Depression for their change.
And there's a reason why the modern left idolizes FDR so much.
And it has nothing to do with winning the war.
It has everything to do with the New Deal.
He orchestrated a catastrophic change in the American experiment.
You remember when Doc told Marty, we can't go, we can't go back.
And he took the chalkboard out and he showed the timeline and it split off.
So this 1985 is not the same 1985.
Biff Tanner, Biff owns the casino.
He's married to your mother, Lorraine.
Okay.
We can go back to the original timeline.
Marty couldn't, but we can.
The original timeline was to form a more perfect union, to set the maximum amount of people free with the minimum amount of control, to make sure that we took care of all citizens and we viewed all citizens the same.
No matter their background, no matter what family they came from, no matter their job, no matter their wealth or their poverty, everyone was joined the same.
And we had the same rights.
Well, that was an experiment.
Nobody had ever tried that before.
And we're not doing it anymore, and we haven't done it.
Back in 1933, the Great Reset was sold here in America as the National Recovery Administration.
It's the old NRA, not the gun one.
It's the old blue eagle.
Private businesses, unions, and government, they all got together.
And they got together.
And we did our research on this and we were amazed.
Do you know why they got together?
All in the name of fairness and equity.
Not equal.
Equity.
Equality is we all have an equal shot.
Equity means we all have an equal outcome.
In 1933, he proposed a new public-private partnership where the federal government was able to tell business owners how much they could pay their workers, what they could or couldn't sell, and they had price controls.
It was an unmitigated disaster.
Supreme Court later declared it unconstitutional, but much of it was snuck in and changed America because of the Wagner Act in 1935.
But I'm not bringing this up because it's already been tried and already been put into place in many places, and this is why we have such problems.
I want to talk about plagiarism.
I want to talk about how FDR engaged in plagiarism.
Because somebody had already done this private business and government thing and codified it into law five years earlier than he proposed it.
It was called the National Council of Corporations.
And it was established by Benito Mussolini.
This public-private partnership is fascistic.
It is fascistic.
Now, I don't want to get into terms like socialism, national socialism, because socialists and communists and everything, Bernie Sanders and AOC And the Democrat, the Democratic Socialists of America, they're the only ones that are actually fighting for that.
Everybody else is smarter and everyone else, like John Kerry and Joe Biden, which I will show you here in a minute, they all know they're not working for national socialism.
They know they're not doing that.
They are working for an oligarchy.
That's what they're actually building, where the elites fall into two classes, the billionaire CEOs and their corporations and the government collaborators who also get rich off of those companies.
China is not a communist country as we understand it.
It was a new model.
So you have the elites in the government, and you have the elites that say, prove to me I should give you a business license.
And if they comply with whatever those elites in the government say, well, then they get that business license.
And of course, you're going to have to share the wealth just a little bit and help us out.
Everyone else outside of those two classes, you're a subject.
You're a consumer for these corporations.
You will consume.
1.3 billion people in China, it doesn't matter.
They could live, die.
They don't care.
They're just consumers.
Well, we were on this timeline.
Controversy, Cancellation, and Fake Woke00:16:06
And what did we do?
We believed in small government.
The government shouldn't get involved in business affairs.
Well, that all went out the window with FDR, with this private-public partnership idea.
We believe we shouldn't get into foreign entanglements.
Not only did we change that in World War I and World War II, we doubled down.
Because we had the bomb, we never had a standing army ever.
Because we had the bomb now, we said, whoa, whoa, whoa, we have got to build this gigantic military.
And we will be the policemen of the world.
But not only that, we're going to be the bankers of the world.
You're all going to use our currency.
You want to talk about foreign entanglements.
You now have a global military and a global dollar.
So we flush that down.
And when we had the bomb, now what we have to do is we have to get the elites in universities to help us make new bombs.
We need them to do science for the War Department.
And we need the best economic minds in universities and we'll fund them on how to spend, spend, spend.
And we need these great minds to advise our government on how to fix problems in our society because government now has to heal all.
We took all of these things and we institutionalized them.
We got off of the constitutional path of the smallest government that can hold safety.
For the biggest amount of free people.
This is the best of the Glenn Beck program.
Tom McDonald is a Canadian hip-hop artist and producer, currently based in the United States.
He initially went viral with his song Dear Rappers in 2017.
Since then, he has independently produced, released and amassed enough body of work to have 350 million views on his YouTube channel alone, millions of monthly listeners on Spotified and tallied hundreds of thousands of physical album sales.
Most recently, Tom released Fake Woke, his fourth number one single in the U.S. On ITunes charts, and it is now over what?
3.5 million views.
Now Tom, welcome to the program.
Mr. Glenn Beck, thanks for having me man, you bet.
So Tom, you know this may come as a surprise to you.
I'm not really down in the rap scene all that often, but when my but when my circle of friends start sending me videos over the weekend, as they did, and said, you've got to watch this and listen to it, it says something about your impact on culture.
I want to play just a little bit of your song here so we can talk about it and people know what we're talking about.
Sure, here it comes, adults to sit down and shut up, cancel.
Culture runs the world.
Now the planet went crazy.
Label everything we say as homophobic or racist.
If you're right, then you're privileged guilty by association.
All our childhood heroes got me too, to the rapid.
They never freed the slaves.
They realized that they don't need the change.
They gave us tiny screens.
We think we free because we can't see the cage.
They knew the race war would be the game they need to play for people to big teams.
They use the media to feed the flame.
They so fake, woke facts don't care about freedom.
So the song is called fake woke and Tom I, I have to tell you I.
I just have to ask you some questions because nobody trusts anybody anymore.
Nobody is who they say they are anymore.
Kind of what your song is about.
You look scary, I do.
I do.
I think you look a little scary.
Serial killer, white power guy.
I don't know, but I'd like to, have you ever killed anybody?
Not only on record.
Okay, all right.
But I just want to, because you get a rap, no pun intended, of being anti-feminist, racist.
I mean, I get all of those things too, but I want to make clear that you're none of those things, right?
No, absolutely not.
I mean, man, these are just like, it just seems these days, like everybody is so polarized from one another.
If there's like a difference in opinion, especially if it's regarding race or something on the LGBTQ spectrum or something like that, if there's a difference in opinion, it's like one side is automatically just, he's a racist, he's homophobic, he's anti-feminist, he's, these are just labels that, that people who I think that they have a difference in opinion.
And instead of, you know, talking it out or understanding somebody else's perspective, they'd rather just throw labels and scream on the internet.
You write, your writing is really brilliant.
You say, I think it's crazy.
I'm the one who labeled as controversial.
Cardi B is the role model for 12-year-old girls.
Rappers pushing Xanax at the top of the billboard, but if I mention race in a song, I'm scared I'll get killed for it.
It's backwards.
I love this line.
It's getting exponentially dumb.
More difficult to get a job than purchase a gun.
Eminem used to gay bash and murder his mom, and now he doesn't want fans if they voted for Trump.
Yeah, I said that for sure.
Yeah.
Your lyrics are not exactly Cardi B lyrics.
I mean, and it's hard to find something that is controversial today, but I don't think you're trying to be controversial.
Maybe you are.
It seems to me this is coming from you, and you're just stating the truth as you see it.
Do I have it right?
Yeah, I'd say that's accurate.
A lot of people like to label this stuff as controversial and stuff like that, but I think it's really just more an issue of it's just uncommon for people to, especially in today's world, kind of honestly speak their feelings or their opinions on stuff.
And I think that that's so uncommon because people are scared of being canceled or crucified on the internet.
I think it's just so uncommon that when somebody steps up and says those things, I think a lot of people immediately just start screaming, oh, he's being controversial on purpose or she's clickbaiting us or whatever.
And I think it's just that they're just not used to hearing people speak their minds.
Are you familiar with who Morgan Wallen is?
The country artist?
No.
So here's a country artist.
He is iTunes.
What was it?
Oh, I know who you're talking about.
This is a really recent story.
He's getting canceled because he had drunk and it was screaming like a racial slur or something.
Yeah, he said about a friend who I think was down on the sidewalk.
He looked at another friend about his friend and said, take care of that P-S mother effing N-word.
So, you know, not something that I, you know, I say or want my friends to say, but he wasn't being malicious.
And one way or another, there are consequences for everybody's action.
But he has been canceled.
He has zero airplay in America today.
His contract was canceled.
Spotify dropped him.
iTunes Music dropped him.
Who else?
Clear Cumulus.
iHeartRadio, I mean, it's...
Do you have any thoughts on that?
Um...
I mean, I think I don't think it's acceptable sort of by anyone's standards ever to use that word regardless of its context.
I mean, that's just my personal feelings.
Especially like being in hip-hop and immersed in black culture, that's not something that like I would never say that publicly in private.
It's just not something that I do.
Even when I'm singing rap lyrics by like my favorite rappers and I'm by myself doing dishes in my kitchen, I'm omitting those parts of the songs.
I'm just not comfortable personally with saying that.
So I agree with you 110%.
I am exactly the same way.
I don't like that word.
I don't like it.
I don't like it used casually or obviously in hatred or whatever.
I don't like it.
And he shouldn't have used the word.
That being said, though, I feel like I saw the post that I saw last night was he had been canceled and he had been dropped and stuff like that.
But I saw they took over like five or six of the top 10 spots on iTunes charts.
Yeah, I find it interesting that iTunes Music would make sure they don't play him on any of their stations, but they'll still make 30% on all of the sales of his music.
He's now eight of the top 10, 14 of the top 20.
Did he knock me out of number one?
Yeah, he knocked.
Well, no, this is, is this all music?
It's on the country chart.
On the country chart.
Yeah.
Okay, okay, okay.
Yeah, like, you know, man, I think largely like the canceling that's going on right now is ridiculous.
I think that if you hear something that you don't like, then you switch the radio station.
If you see something that you don't like seeing, you change the channel.
If you don't like what you're reading, you close the book.
All of this, like, canceling, largely, in my opinion, is ridiculous.
Sometimes I think that it's kind of justified, and I think that maybe in this instance, it is.
But I also feel like these days, Americans in North America are obsessed with what they don't like, especially on the internet.
So it's like you could release the greatest song in the world.
You could be the most PC person ever.
And you can have a righteous movement, and your branding can be perfect.
You can be America's sweetheart and get very, very little traction as a musician or as an actor or whatever.
But the second that you're doing things that ruffle feathers or tick people off, it seems like people just flock to that.
And in their attempt to sort of exploit your mistakes and quote unquote cancel you, I think a lot of the times they just end up blowing those people up, which might be part of the case with this artist.
I know for sure that I made music for a long time that weren't about my personal opinions.
And I wasn't trying to intentionally ruffle feathers of people.
And I made music for eight years and had very little impact.
And the second I started saying things that I was thinking privately, people that didn't like it ended up promoting me to such a degree that I found my people at this point.
Yeah.
We're talking to Tom McDonald, currently holds the number one spot on iTunes.
He has a new song out called Fake Woke.
It was released over the weekend and has just been viral and just stormed the country and North America.
Tom, is the reason you do your own, you are your own producer, you're an independent artist.
You don't have anybody.
You're doing it yourself.
I know another artist was the first to, I think, go number one on the charts with his as an independent artist.
And the freedom it gives him is remarkable.
Do you think you'd be the same if you had to live in a box of a record label?
I think it'd be night and day.
Not only is it more lucrative financially to do this stuff independently, but I've maintained 100% of my artistic integrity.
And I know for a fact that if I put my name on a line somewhere, like I spoke a minute ago about being America's sweetheart, it's very easy in America to clean up a mess.
For example, if you look at Kim Kardashian, she essentially, and my girlfriend loves her, and she's America's sweetheart, and she essentially blew up off of having the sex tape.
And now she's America's sweetheart.
And I think that's a testament to in America, no matter how dirty and messy things get, you throw enough money at it and you can clean it up and rebrand the whole thing.
And I'm pretty sure that something like that, well, I'm certain something like that would happen if I signed to a label.
They're going to clean up everything.
They're probably going to erase all my old music off the internet.
They're going to rebrand it.
I'm going to have very little say in what type of music I'm making.
And I'll probably be jumping around in music videos singing about Xanax and cough syrup like everybody else.
Talking to Tom McDonald, he is the mind and the talent behind Fake Woke, which has gone viral.
And you can find him at his YouTube channel, youtube.com, Tom McDonald official.
Fake Woke is a song that he just made.
Tom, you seem to have a good handle on what America and possibly your Canadian, what Canada is feeling too.
What do you see coming down the road?
I mean, there is this clash of the people that say, shut everybody up and those that say, no, let everybody speak their mind and figure it out.
Life is messy.
How do you see this coming together?
It's, you know, if there's one thing that I've learned about America in the six years that I lived here, it's very unpredictable.
So I don't know if I'm, you know, I feel like you guys are many degrees above me when it comes to sort of forecasting political climates and stuff like that.
At the end of the day, I'm just like some guy who rhymes words in his phone about things that I see going on.
But what I can say is like it does kind of where I kind of feel, I feel it's like a very slippery slope.
The Slippery Slope of Free Speech00:02:25
And what I'm scared about is, I mean, I remember when I was a kid, I don't remember the exact details of it, but I remember that there was a band from Russia called Pussy Riot.
And they went to jail.
They went to jail for either protesting Putin or protesting policies to the Russian government or something.
And I just remember that they were put in prison or in jail rather for their sort of political views that they expressed in their songs.
And I know that there's other places in the world where people don't have the right to stand up and protest and speak their mind, especially if it's negative things about their country.
So, you know, that's what I immediately think of when I see like the fact-checking and the canceling and stuff like that.
It just worries me that we're going to slide into some crazy hole where opinions become illegal, you know?
What is amazing to me is the musical artists.
I mean, rock and roll, punk rock attitude, rap, it's always been anti-establishment.
Now it's pulling for the establishment, and you can't, I mean, punk is not punk.
Rap is not rap anymore.
You know what I mean?
That's exactly it, man.
Like, I remember many years ago when I released my first sort of song that was politically charged or speaking about just the social environment in the States.
I remember my dad saying to me, he said, you know what, Thomas, like you may be a rapper, but you're making rock and roll right now because rock and roll has always been about screaming the truth at the top of your lungs and less about the music.
So as far as I'm concerned, like you're a freaking rock star.
So I've kind of carried that forward and like that's what I want to do.
And it is worrisome to think that I might not have the freedom to do that sometime in the near future.
That's a little sobering.
Thank you so much.
Tom McDonald.
Follow him at IMTO McDonald and check out his work.