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July 14, 2021 - Dennis Prager Show
04:52
Julie Hartman: Leftism, a Way to Attain "Cheap Grace"
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Well, for my weekly segments, you ask me to focus on topics that pertain to my generation.
And something that I've been really thinking about is, why are there so many people my age who are on the left?
We know that they're there.
We know what they think.
But I think we need to talk about...
The question, why more?
And especially, why have so many of them stuck with the ship in the past year, as I think the left has kind of entered a new realm of destruction with their policies, specifically defund the police, 1619 Project.
And my hypothesis for that is I really think that it doesn't...
So much have to do with the policies and it's way more about the kinds of benefits that they get from being a member of that cohort.
And I would even venture as far to say that if you gave one of my peers truth serum and you said, you know, do you really think defunding the police is a good idea?
I actually believe if you got to their true self, they would say no.
But nevertheless, I think the reason why they stick with it is because it provides them with a way to get what I like to call cheap grace.
This idea of being saved or having benefits conferred upon you without actually having to do any kind of work or making any real sacrifice.
Even yesterday, off the air, we were talking about the very famous Harvard-Yale protest that happened a year and a half ago where some of my peers stormed the field and they led a climate change protest.
That is a perfect example of what I'm talking about.
They get to run on the field.
They get to shriek and yell.
They get their face plastered on the New York Times.
They feel really good about themselves.
They get status and street cred with...
Other liberals.
But then they actually don't need to make any kind of sacrifice.
They get in their gas-guzzling SUVs and go back to their fossil fuel-lit dorms, and it's no skin off their back.
Similarly, the people who advocate for defunding the police, they live in communities that have private police forces, or they go to colleges with security.
So again, no skin off their back to advocate for these things.
And it's created...
I think a really appealing deal that they have here, where they get to advocate for these really destructive, irresponsible policies, they get praised for doing it, and then they insulate themselves from the consequences.
Sounds right to me.
I think you've hit it on the nose.
First and foremost, fitting in.
Is that what you're saying?
Definitely.
I mean, even I've noticed, whenever I walk by a house that has a sign that says, hate has no home here, or you see a bumper sticker with some slogan.
Wait, wait, wait.
I want to revel in that.
I know.
Hate has no home here.
Haven't you seen those?
Hate has no home, no.
That's a new one to me.
I remember when Berkeley City Council announced that Berkeley was a hate-free zone.
And I don't know if you ever heard me say this, but I have repeated this every couple of years.
I announced at the time I could not visit Berkeley because I hate evil, I hate Nazism, I hate communism, I hate rape.
I have a lot of hate.
So I can't visit Berkeley.
So I was just thinking hate has no home here.
It's such a stupid comment.
And by the way, what is a more hateful thing than to put up a sign that says, hate is no home here?
What that sign is really saying is, I'm better than you.
I get to tell you what to think.
I'm the authority.
I'm woke.
That's the irony of it.
But my point is, because you were saying it's fitting in, when you walk by these houses that have these signs, or you see a bumper sticker, you see someone, you know, posting...
Something on social media.
That is a mechanism of what I'm talking about.
I see that as camouflage.
And if you look at the point of camouflage, camouflage is to get your eye to drift over something and not see it for what it really is.
And I think this public demonstration is a way to distract, to prevent people from really asking, like, what are you actually doing?
Beyond the virtue stuff, what are you doing?
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