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April 30, 2020 - Dennis Prager Show

07:36

Dave Rubin on The Dennis Prager Show

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	Hoffman wrote Steele, this book.
	Was that your inspiration, so to speak?
	Well, I'll give you a little insider information, which I go into a bit in the book.
	So the original title for the book, when I decided to build a random house on the dotted line, it was going to be called YLSLS. And, of course, that was the original PragerU video that I did.
	That was the title of that first video, and that one really caught fire, and I'm guessing it's probably got about 20 million views at this point.
	And I started writing that book, the Why I Left the Left book, and as I was writing it, about three weeks in, I realized that I didn't want to write a book solely about what I was against.
	I wanted to write a book about what I was for, and I scrapped the title, and I went to a big meeting with all the higher-ups at the publishing house, and I said, guys, I know that's the deal we signed, and I know I already cashed part of the advance, but I want to see if we can switch this thing around.
	And fortunately, I got no pushback.
	They said, Dave, we want you to do what you want to do.
	And the idea of Don't Burn This Book actually was that when the book was going to be titled Why I Left the Left, we were going to put a red band around it, like a piece of paper that you'd have to rip to open the book.
	And it was going to say, Don't Burn This Book.
	And suddenly we were sitting in the meeting and it just dawned on all of us like, oh.
	That's the title.
	Because the whole point really here is that what I lay out in this book is very common sense.
	Even for the stuff that, you know, we may disagree on, it's like you can probably see what my logic is.
	You can probably see that, you know, I'm taking a slightly different position than you on something, but this is common sense stuff, and maybe you've got a better argument, and let's argue it out.
	I mean, that really is the whole thesis.
	The fact that common sense is now something that should be burned says more about where we're at in 2020 than about the ideas in the book themselves.
	Yes, I get it.
	So let's talk for a moment about the crisis we're in.
	If you were president, what would you do?
	You know, Dennis, I... As you know, I'm a New Yorker originally.
	I was born in Brooklyn.
	I grew up in Long Island.
	I lived in Manhattan most of my life.
	I moved to L.A. seven years ago.
	So I've only lived in New York and California, Los Angeles, which is sort of funny because I think most of the people who appreciate me, probably like you, most of them happen to be in the middle of the country.
	I don't know exactly what that says about us, but here we are.
	You know, I saw this thing last night that Gavin Newsom is now closing all of our beaches as of, I believe, today or tomorrow.
	And for the first time this week, David and I have been discussing leaving California.
	I don't know that I should live in a state that is governed endlessly by progressives at every level.
	I mean, at the gubernatorial level, at the mayoral level, most of our state representatives, we have insanely high taxes here.
	Most of the things that I believe in are no longer happening in my state.
	That's very depressing.
	As to what the president should do, I mean, you know, I'm a believer in states' rights.
	There's a lot of stuff in the book about states' rights.
	I want the states to do what's best.
	I'm happy to see that, you know, Greg Abbott in Texas is starting to open up.
	We cannot live like this forever.
	I know some of your thoughts on it.
	And the simple fact is we're going to have to have some risk involved and maybe a second wave and all sorts of stuff.
	But we cannot live in our houses forever.
	This is not what America is supposed to be.
	This is not what any free Western nation It's supposed to be.
	And I'm just feeling very strongly right now that if the states are supposed to do it, which they mostly are, and Trump can help, the federal government can help coordinate and all sorts of stuff and give help where needed, but if the states are supposed to do it, you know, I'm really feeling right now I should live in a state that shares some of my ideals.
	And that's a kind of depressing reality that I'm in at the moment.
	I'm quiet because I so agree with you.
	I'm here.
	I am in complete dissonance with the state in which I live.
	It is run by fools, in my opinion, by power-hungry, corrupt fools.
	And this beach thing, I don't know, how do you even engage?
	They're closing, I was going to say engage in civil disobedience, because they're closing the parking lots that are adjacent to the beaches.
	Go on.
	Well, you know, I saw this morning that our friend Michael Knowles tweeted out that, you know, maybe he'll take a trip to the beach this weekend.
	And I messaged him, and I think maybe I'm going to join him.
	I don't know how we're going to deal with parking or the rest of it.
	But how does it possibly make sense that in a time when we have been trapped in our houses for two months...
	Where right now in Los Angeles, for the first few weeks of quarantine, it rained a lot.
	Right now we're in sort of perfect SoCal weather.
	The idea that we can't go to the beach, and then you can still be responsible at the beach, by the way.
	I'm not saying we should just unleash everyone at the beach at once and pack it beyond imagination, sort of like a picture of Santa Monica Beach by the pier on a summer day.
	But what reasoning would there be that a few people can't show up at the beach, lay their towel out, sit separately from each other, I mean, I think you're right in that we have given way too much power to people who love power.
	You know, if we had a libertarian governor, let's say a more conservative governor here in California, I suspect they would be doing everything possible to not...
	Take these executive actions.
	And yet people don't know what rights are.
	And I think in many ways that also is why I wrote the book.
	People sort of think that just because the WHO says don't wear masks six weeks ago, that that makes sense, even though that was wrong.
	And then YouTube, I know this is a big one for you too, YouTube is now saying if you do anything against the WHO, we'll take your videos down.
	I mean...
	The WHO is not infallible.
	Gavin Newsom is not infallible.
	None of us are infallible.
	No institution, no person.
	The whole idea of science and open inquiry is to find out what is true, not what is just sort of handed down to us by people.
	So we really are in sort of an information war, I would say like a governmental confusion war, because I think a lot of people just think, oh, well, the governor of California said we can't go to the beach, so we better stay at home.
	And it's like...
	You know this, Dennis.
	I mean, I'm going out now to the supermarket, or I went to the drugstore the other day, and people are starting to get to their breaking point.
	And you really can't blame them.
	It's not that these people are explaining everything well.
	Did Gavin Newsom explain exactly why this beach situation is the way it has to be?
	No.
	He just sort of makes an edict.
	And then we're all just supposed to sit there and take it.
	That is so profoundly anti-American.
	What state would you go to?
	Well, I tweeted it out this morning.
	I threw out Texas, Florida, Utah, and Arizona.
	And I'm getting a lot of love from Texans these days.
	So, who knows?
	But, you know, what they always say is, Dave, if you come here, you can't bring all those stupid blue state policies.
	That's not a worry.
	We're all going to vote the wrong way.
	Well, bless you.
	Folks, it's a...
	Readable, powerful, energizing book.
	Jordan Peterson is on the front endorsing it.
	That should be enough.
	Don't burn this book.
	Dave Rubin will talk again.
	Stay well.
	Say hi to David.
	Thank you, my friend.
	Best to you and Sue.

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