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May 27, 2021 - Dennis Prager Show
06:43
Harvard Student Julie Hartman Recounts the Reaction to Her Appearance with Dennis
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Young woman here, she's going to be a senior at Harvard, and I witnessed truly a metamorphosis, a transformative moment, as I called it last segment, when she debated whether to come on my show and knew that she would have health to pay among her peers.
Young people want to be loved by peers.
Old people want to be loved by the New York Times.
People want to be loved by the wrong people.
Everybody likes being loved.
It's normal.
But if you're loved by unimpressive people, there's something unimpressive about you.
So, she knew, and she didn't know how bad it would be, as it turns out, and I'm learning that now.
Coming on my show, That would be known at her school, among peers, etc.
So, you said off the air that they were two of the toughest weeks of your life after you appeared on this show.
Yes.
You want to get our mic on there?
It was.
Yes.
Right.
Describe it in more detail.
Well, I think at that point, I really was...
I was at the beginning of my journey with conservatism.
So I found PragerU.
I read your books.
And I wasn't yet.
I have read so much more now.
Again, as I said last segment, I'm so much more comfortable in my conservatism.
But then I was just kind of at the beginning of it.
So I didn't really have the tools to kind of come back at people in the way that I do now.
People were just so unkind.
Interestingly, when I saw the YouTube video, a lot of the people commenting on the video were actually really lovely, like a lot of your listeners, which I'm very, very grateful for.
They say that people on the internet are so terrible.
They actually were really lovely to me.
It was the people in my life, interestingly.
It was the people who I went to school with or who had...
I had gone to school with or played on a sports, you know, it was those people that gave me the toughest time.
And, you know, I'm a good person.
I don't want to hurt other people's feelings.
And it was so hard because people were, they weren't just saying that they disagreed with me.
They were saying that I was condoning and supporting bigotry.
And, you know, it started to get to me.
And I look back and I go, Julie, how did, you know.
You should have just blocked out the noise.
You knew you were not doing anything wrong.
But when you have such a crowd of people telling you that you are doing something so wrong, I think as any good person would, you just look inside yourself and you go, okay, did I? But again, I had a friend who said to me, Julie, you are doing what a college kid is supposed to be doing.
Again, you are seeking out new perspectives.
You are learning.
You are evolving.
You're not just catering to the party line or what you've been taught.
You're seeking out different perspectives.
And that is what pulled me out of it.
Because I thought, you're right.
You're totally right.
I'm doing what any college kid is supposed to be doing.
Out of curiosity, I'm interested on a personal level and obviously on a larger level.
Did you actually confront any of those who attacked you for coming on the show?
Yes, I did.
I did.
And did you ask any of them, do you have evidence to support your saying that Dennis Prager is a bigot?
Well, they would point to things like your opposition gay marriage or your pro-life policy.
And to them, that is very, very bigoted.
I happen to see it differently.
I think that you have – I may disagree with you on some of those issues, but I think you have very principled stances on them.
But they – here's the thing.
If you just have a different policy perspective, they're immediately going to brand that as bigoted.
They're not even going to listen to what your reasoning for that is.
They're just going to dismiss you.
And that's what I really learned.
Because sometimes arguing with these people, what I've noticed is there are some people who just don't fundamentally understand conservatives.
I fell into that camp before I found you.
But then there are other people who blindfold themselves.
They don't want to understand why conservatives have these arguments.
It's not just that they see us as villains, but they need to see us as villains.
It's intrinsic to their worldview.
That's why you often say that leftism is a religion of sorts to these people.
It's true, because they confect these mythologies about conservatives.
They refuse to see that they can have a...
Opinions that are not rooted in bigotry.
They see us as the satanic figures, and they see themselves as the messianic figures.
It's very bizarre.
They cannot accept that you have certain opinions that are not rooted in bigotry.
It's unbelievable.
It's really shocking.
It's so interesting because the left has historically argued that they're nuanced.
And we're not.
I know.
We're Manichean, and they're not.
But it's all inverted.
They are Manichean.
The world is divided between light and dark, and we're dark.
That's why you can't...
See, there is no left-wing show.
If there was a show called We Hate America, I would appear on it.
I would be thrilled to appear.
On a left-wing show.
But they don't want to appear on our shows.
Why is that?
No, I'm serious.
Why is that?
I really think...
Well, they'll say because, you know, they don't even want to give a voice to bigotry.
That's their classic response.
But what it really is, is they don't want to debate you.
That's right.
They know they don't have the ammo to do it.
They don't have the ammo to do it.
And they don't have truth on their side.
Well, it is one joy to have you on our side.
Thank you.
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