April 28, 2020 - Dennis Prager Show
04:43
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| Time | Text |
|---|---|
| Heather MacDonald, ladies and gentlemen, is one of the most insightful writers and speakers in the U.S. She's a contributing editor for the arguably best journal, now written city journal, senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute. | |
| So, let's try to give a picture here. | |
| Do you live in Manhattan? | |
| I do. | |
| I live in Manhattan. | |
| Walking distance to Central Park. | |
| And are you locked down on your own? | |
| Well, I believe in exercise. | |
| I'm not going to accept this idea. | |
| People seem to be interpreting these lockdowns in as draconian a fashion as possible. | |
| I go to the park early in the morning, and then I go out two more times a day. | |
| To get exercise. | |
| But there are people in my building who I don't think have been out for weeks of their apartment. | |
| This is unfathomable to me. | |
| Now, there's also a lot of people who have left the city entirely for their country homes because this place is a ghost town. | |
| It's a tragedy to see every single day the city in a complete, static, moribund state. | |
| So I have a question. | |
| I read your wonderful piece in The Spectator. | |
| I'm a subscriber to The Spectator because I like to keep everything conservative alive. | |
| It's my little way. | |
| It's a great, great journal. | |
| And it's published in England, but they have an American edition. | |
| We put up Heather MacDonald's piece, ladies and gentlemen, up at DennisPrager.com. | |
| You and I think so similarly. | |
| That it actually presents a challenge whenever I have an interview with you. | |
| No, I'm totally serious. | |
| It's eerie how similarly we think. | |
| To this point, yesterday I did my weekly fireside chat. | |
| And it goes up on Thursdays. | |
| It's my 132nd edition. | |
| I never miss a week. | |
| And guess what I talked about? | |
| The religion. | |
| Of being safe. | |
| And what did you do? | |
| You gave the religion a name. | |
| Safetyism. | |
| I love it. | |
| I refuse when I'm saying goodbye to somebody on the phone to say, be safe. | |
| Because it presumes the opposite. | |
| That we're not safe. | |
| And it's simply not a particularly relevant category as far as I'm concerned. | |
| Now, obviously... | |
| During this current moment, there are groups that are at extreme risk, and we should do everything we can to protect them. | |
| But the idea that we're all going around to each other, perfectly healthy people, even though I guess I'm officially in an age category that has a higher level of risk, warning each other to be safe is just completely ridiculous. | |
| How about be literate? | |
| Be informed. | |
| Be knowledgeable. | |
| Be enlightened. | |
| But be safe. | |
| That's kind of the lowest common denominator. | |
| And one that we don't otherwise live by. | |
| I mean, that's what's so curious about this moment. | |
| This came out of the university and has now engulfed everybody. | |
| I mean, we're all looking for safe spaces. | |
| When I see people... | |
| Running in Central Park at 5.30 a.m. | |
| or whizzing around the park 20 miles an hour on their bike wearing masks. | |
| Oh, God bless you. | |
| As if on a bicycle in 843 acres you're going to get infected. | |
| Right. | |
| It's absurd. | |
| Well, you know, I've told my listeners, my realization that epidemiology is voodoo... | |
| Some epidemiologists like John Ianides at Stanford are true scientists, but by and large it's voodoo. | |
| And I knew it because of the secondhand smoke stuff. | |
| And people actually... | |
| Do you know that there are now articles in science journals of thirdhand smoke? | |
| Yeah. | |
| Public health has been politicized for a very long time, whether it ever was not. | |
| I think that was definitely a case time. | |
| Hold on, hold on there, Heather. | |
| Forgive me. | |
| I've got to break because these are the people who make this show possible. |
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