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Feb. 8, 2021 - Dennis Prager Show
07:47
VDH: How Much are YOU Willing to Speak OUT?
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They ask, what can they do?
And again, I ended my last hour saying, I have a microphone.
I have PragerU.
I have writings.
I'm blessed.
But what is the person who doesn't have that?
What is he or she supposed to do?
We have to give direction to...
Half this country agrees with you and me.
Absolutely.
I go back to that Aesop's fable sometimes in my mind, remember about bellying a cat, that the mice get together and say, this cat's devouring us.
That's the left.
But we need to know warning, have some warning about him.
Somebody's got to go out and put a bell around his neck.
And then the guy who said, that's a great idea, we've got to bell him.
Somebody says, well, who's going to bell the cat?
Because the person who bells the cat is going to be eaten in the process.
So I guess what I'm saying is that it would be very easy for me.
And I have not the platform you do, but, you know, I'm tenured to say we all have to speak out, and I think we do.
But some people who are in junior positions, I don't expect them to be crusaders and be fired for the cause.
But what I do think is that people like yourself and myself and others that are in their 60s or 50s or whatever their position is that has some protection, they have a greater responsibility.
And if everybody just in our position says, you know what, I'm going to speak out and I'm going to speak out and I'm going to speak out and I'm going to speak out, I think this thing will collapse.
It's sort of like that 1984 Apple commercial where the woman athlete comes in and throws that hammer into the screen, the Big Brother screen.
I think there's no there there, but everybody's scared.
And if we'll just say, you know what, you guys are the freshest.
You are the ones canceling people out.
You are the ones who don't believe in the First Amendment.
You are the illiberal ones.
And we keep at it, I think it will dissolve.
But it won't if we keep silent.
I get so many letters from assistant professors or part-time lecturers or high school teachers.
What can I do?
I don't want to say to them, go to the principal's office and say, you're not going to teach 16, 19 in your class and then be fired for the cause.
But I do think that a senior person has a greater responsibility because they're more protected.
Well, again, we're in just total agreement.
That's why I tell people I understand that I'm protected, but that a lot of people are not.
And I can't tell somebody get fired for the cause when I'm not fired for the cause.
I'm with you.
But a lot of people won't be fired.
They may lose friends.
So people have to decide, how much am I willing to speak out?
No, you're absolutely right.
Each person, according to their own station, has to make that decision.
And for some, it's a neighbor.
You remember the L.A. Times op-ed yesterday, I think it was, where the woman said, This guy very graciously snowplowed my driveway, but he's a Trump supporter, so I don't have to apologize.
Well, that Trump supporter should go over to our house and say, that's the last time.
I'm never going to snowplow your driveway after the ingracious insult you leveled publicly, because it's not going to be very hard to find out who I am after you wrote that.
And I think that's the kind of stuff that can be done and should be done, and we need to speak out against it.
I know I've had members of my family.
Who, out of the blue, after years, will just text me and say, you should be ashamed of yourself.
You need to go on national TV and ask forgiveness.
You know, I'm telling you, it's scary.
I'm telling you, am I talking to myself?
To talk to you is a unique experience.
I had that with a relative last year who has known me for 50 years.
And out of nowhere.
I know.
This is not the same Dennis Prager I knew.
That I had all of a sudden, I've been a decent human being all of my life.
He loves me.
I mean, he admired me.
But I supported Donald Trump, so I became a moral failure.
I know, and they usually want some type of public expiation or confessional.
And I have another friend.
I'm on my farm.
I've had a very close friend who's a farmer who's a conservative Democrat, wonderful person.
And he writes me and says, you know, you've lost all credibility in my eyes.
And all I can say when they do that is I always say two things.
It's happened four or five times.
Close friends, but also relatives.
Very close siblings.
And I always say the same thing.
Have I ever...
Under all of the crazy things I think you've done and said, have I ever said that to you?
Would I ever, you know, accelerate that there are differences to such a point that I would condemn you?
And then I always say, this is my last communication with you.
Life's short.
I'm in my late 60s.
I don't have time to do this anymore, so I wish you well, but please don't contact me again.
And I think that's all you can do.
Did you get a response to that?
No, I don't want one.
No, I know.
That's clear.
Yeah, because I think in the past, we, on the right, think that we have to do something.
We have to show that Donald Trump, while he might have been unwise and reckless, he didn't really stir up this edition.
He's not directly responsible for it.
We have to do that.
And then we're supposed to say, but you know what?
It's all right when Chuck Schumer calls out justices by name and says they're going to hit a wall, or Maxine Waters does this, or Nancy Pelosi says this, or Kamala Harris bails out convicted rioters.
But we're just supposed to play by these markets of Queensbury rules.
I don't think we have to.
I think we need to be symmetrical.
And we create deterrence on our side.
And I can tell you why I work at, I'm being brought up, I think, this week for the thought crime of criticizing Joe Biden before the Stanford University Faculty Senate.
And it doesn't do any good to defend yourself unless you were willing to go and return it in kind.
Because I don't think the left understands any...
They interpret magnanimity or moderation as something to be...
as a sign of weakness and not to be reciprocated in kind.
They do.
You are going up before Stanford?
Well, I'm not doing it in person.
I'm just saying that I... No, no.
I don't understand.
What are they charging you with?
Well, they bring up in the Faculty Senate, they're trying to de-platform the Hoover Institution.
When I say Stanford, I mean a large number of faculty.
So they bring up to the Faculty Senate, we need to get Hoover off the campus.
And then they say, why should we get them off?
And they say, well, there is Shelby Steele, or there is...
Victor Hansen or their Scott Atlas.
And then they go after us.
And the people who go after us often are the most radical and intolerant people with a history of a lot of anti-Semitic activity, of things I won't go on to because I don't want to defame them because, you know, I'm talking casually, but they're asymmetrical.
All right.
Our director has to go there.
All right, my friend.
I know you've got to go.
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