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March 14, 2023 - Dennis Prager Show
01:25:39
What Is a Woman?
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Hello, everybody.
Welcome to the Friday edition of the Dennis Prager Show.
The weeks go by fast.
And indeed, we are about to enter next week, March.
And my feelings...
About the years are justified.
January and February pass by extremely quickly.
Kansas rights bill angers left with its definition of woman.
Hmm.
Let's see.
Washington Times.
Legislators in red states are determined this year to do what Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson could not do.
Provide a definition of the word woman.
Do you realize if somebody had a time machine in just 10 years ago, just 10 years ago, and they could read what I just read to you,
they had somehow been able to use their time machine to come to the future in 2023. From 2013, let alone 1913. And they would read this headline.
Legislators in Republican states are determined to do what Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson could not do.
Provide a definition of the word woman.
This is the definition of chaos.
I wish I could get into a left-wing mind for a day.
I do.
I'm not being cute.
I mean that sincerely.
I would like to know what is the animating impulse of denying that there are two sexes.
What animates that?
If you have a theory on that, I'd be curious.
I mean, a very serious theory.
You may know people in your family, for example.
The odds are it's not among friends, because we tend to choose friends, and of course we don't choose family.
So you may simply have people in your life whom you did not choose, i.e.
family, who think this way.
What is the animating impulse?
By the way, you may not know and they may not know.
Not everybody knows why they do or think or feel something.
That's the reason for psychoanalysis as opposed to just regular psychotherapy.
Psychoanalysis is an extremely involved process of years duration, about three or four times a week.
To try to really get to the core of what animates you, the individual undergoing psychoanalysis.
Indeed, it's true for psychotherapy too.
If you know what animates you and you're not a happy person, or let me begin the other way, you're not a happy person, and then you find out what animates you, the theory goes, you might be able to uncover the roots of your Psychological problems.
It's not easy to know what animates a person.
For an outsider or even, quote-unquote, the insider, the person, him or herself.
What this does is simply codify in the law the definition of sex.
State Senator Renee Erickson, a Republican, told The Washington Times.
There is no definition.
Isn't that an amazing thing?
Not all people with female chromosomes, a uterus, a vagina, breasts, capability of lactating, menstruation.
Egg production, not all those people are women, but all whites are racist.
Which means that there is, as I say every single day, because something arises which prompts me to say it, truth is not a left-wing value.
Every single person listening to this knows what a lie it is that all whites are racist.
And the equal lie of the left that no black can be a racist.
You do know that.
I was told that.
When I was at graduate school in the 1970s, I was told that.
It began, it didn't begin, but it furthered me along the road away from the left.
I wish that people had more faith in their common sense.
There would be far fewer leftists.
It defies logic.
All whites are racist.
But not all the individuals that I just mentioned are women.
Amazing, no?
Amazing, yes.
The measure is opposed to transgender rights advocates.
Is opposed, excuse me, by transgender rights advocates.
Although Ms. Erickson stressed that it does not deal with gender identity, it simply says that in existing statute or law, where there is a definition of sex, it means biological male and female as determined at birth.
That's very factual.
It's very objective.
That's amazing that this is controversial.
What prompts people to think otherwise?
Partially, I'll tell you, think aloud.
What prompts people to think otherwise?
Well, the average person who thinks otherwise, I believe, does so, at least in part, to be part of the moral The desire to think well of oneself morally is apparently very deep.
Theoretically, it's a very good thing, because then you would pursue behaviors and speech that comported with that of a moral individual.
However, since even the worst people tend to think they're moral, thinking that you're moral is no indication at all of whether you are or not.
Following the majority is the shame culture that was rejected by the majority of the people By the Judeo-Christian world.
Reading this book, as I've mentioned now on a number of occasions, I think it's titled The Weird People.
The Weird are the products of the Judeo-Christian world.
And the author, I think, is an atheist.
He's a professor of evolutionary biology at Harvard.
The whole world thought in terms of shame.
Much of the world still does.
The left does.
They don't ask, is it right?
They asked, is it shameful to hold a position?
As I have said so many times, we are not moving forward to a post.
Judeo-Christian world, we are moving backward to a pre-Judeo world.
We are re-entering pagan life, which is actually not something that disturbs the left, because if it's an alternative to the West, it must be good.
Hence the new oaths that doctors take at University of Minnesota Medical School and Columbia University, its medical school, wherein they take an oath to learn from indigenous medicine.
Would they themselves be treated solely by an indigenous?
Practitioner of medicine?
This is no knock on the indigenous.
It's a knock on them, on the people who take this oath at medical schools.
Anyway, it's very controversial to define a woman as the documentary, What is a Woman?
So Revealed.
There is nothing too absurd for a massive number of people to say and thereby draw in a large number of people.
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Here's an interesting piece that I have been mulling over for a while.
It's from The Week.
Why U.S. teens aren't getting their driver's licenses.
As it notes, getting a driver's license used to be a sign of burgeoning independence.
For America's teens, this may not be the case anymore.
The Washington Post reports that 16 and 17 year olds are driving much less than their predecessors.
Unlike previous generations, they don't see cars as a ticket to freedom or a crucial life milestone.
And that reluctance to get behind the wheel is lasting into young adulthood.
Just 80% of adults in their early 20s had their licenses in 2020, down 10% from 1997. The trend has drawn some consternation from their elders.
The real reason teens aren't driving, The Atlantic's Tom Nichols writes, is because they're not growing up and because you'll drive them anywhere they need to go.
What do you think the reason is?
And do you find this true in your family?
I have said on a number of occasions, but I don't know if I've said it on the radio.
I've certainly said it in private.
If I were to have a statue of Liberty in front of my home, it would not show Lady Liberty.
It would show a rental car.
That is what I identify with Liberty.
The rental car.
I have for all of my life.
I go to a city and I'm not picked up.
I don't want to be picked up.
I don't want to be picked up by a member of the community inviting me, as wonderful as these people almost always are.
And I don't want to be picked up by an Uber or another professional driver, as wonderful as these people are and they are.
I want to be free as a bird.
I have been offered these things since my earliest speeches in my 20s.
I'll tell you exactly how it happened that I started renting a car.
So I began lecturing at the age of 21. My entire adult life, I've been in public.
And a community would invite me, and they would say, oh, wonderful, a member of the community is going to pick you up.
It'll be a guy wearing a red tie, whatever it is.
And, you know, this was before cell phones, so there was no number to call.
You had to look for the person.
And they pretty much knew what I looked like.
And I do stick out.
I'm 6'4", and I was 6'4 then too.
So that helped.
But I realized after about the fifth time I was picked up, That I did as much work in the car as I did at the speech.
Basically, they were asking for another speech, which is completely understandable.
This is no knock on these people.
So they would ask me questions, and I would, of course, provide answers to the best of my ability, or they would engage in small talk.
So, what's your family like?
And I would ask, what is your family like?
And what is life like here?
And all sorts of questions.
And then I realized, you know, I'm doing a lot of work being driven, while driven from the airport to the hotel.
I'd rather be on my own.
And that's when I began renting cars.
Mind you, at that time, renting the car was basically the same price as the money I was getting to give a speech.
So I was sort of paying all of my speech money on a rental car.
I didn't care.
And to this day, I associate it with freedom.
So when we ask why do kids not want licenses today, the desire for freedom is not deep in them.
I told you, freedom is a value, not an instinct.
So let's read more here.
The trend has been developing for a while now.
In 2013, National Geographic noted a Michigan study showing that the percentage of 19-year-olds with a license had fallen from 87% in 1983 to 70% in 2010, and that the percentage of 17-year-old drivers fell from, this is a real whopper, 69% to 43% during the same period.
Wall Street Journal in 2019 reported that while nearly half of 16-year-olds were driving in the 1980s, a quarter were driving in 2017, and it must be less today.
Washington Post, drawing on data from the Federal Highway Administration, suggests the number remained at about 25% in 2020. There really isn't any single reason experts have hit on.
The 2013 Michigan study surveyed young adults and found a wide range of reasons they weren't getting licenses.
Respondents said they were too busy, or that driving was too expensive, or that they preferred other forms of transportation.
And so they deal with the issue that, you know, things add up when you get a car, but it didn't mean you got a car if you got a license.
You might be able to drive one of your parents' cars, presuming they had two cars, for example, or whatever.
The percentage of teen drivers was inversely related.
Are you ready?
This is big.
Inversely related to the proportion of Internet users.
Now we may be hitting on something.
We continue.
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Hello.
So kids are not getting licenses to drive like they used to.
And it is a phenomenon worth analyzing.
Here's another reason offered.
The University of Michigan's Michael Sivak said the percentage of teen drivers, quote, was inversely related to the proportion of Internet users.
The more on the Internet, the fewer the licenses.
At that point, at least, kids just weren't getting away from their screens to hang out with their friends.
Quote, Virtual contact through electronic means reduces the need for actual contact.
It's worth pointing out here, writes the article in the week.
That while a number of news stories in recent years have suggested that social media are responsible for the trend, they don't often cite any research or studies proving the point.
But it's also true, as the Washington Post points out, that Gen Zers have the ability to do things online, hang out with friends, take classes, play games, which used to be available only in person, unquote.
And when they do need to be there, App-driven services like Uber and Lyft often provide the ride.
Finally, for some observers, the trend seems related to the broader tendency of young Americans to delay major life milestones, like getting married and buying a home.
But it may simply presage a broader shift away from driving.
A 2021 overview in the journal Transportation Research found that millennials, the first generation to take its time getting a license, still drove fewer miles than Gen Xers and baby boomers long after they had reached adulthood.
Yes.
Angie in Louisville, Kentucky.
Hello.
Hi.
How are you doing, Dennis?
Thank you for taking my call.
Thank you.
I called as soon as I heard you starting to talk about this topic because I think it's a delay of responsibility that they don't want.
And I do equate driving with freedom.
I remember when my son, who is now 25, when he was in high school, I had no problems with his older sister.
She drove.
She couldn't wait to drive.
I had to absolutely force him to take his driver's test and to drive.
And he had a friend, he has a friend, who just turned 25 about a month ago and only got his license then.
Still had not driven.
And I knew at the time when my son was kind of trying to delay this and put it off, I just instinctively thought, you know, you've got to do this for a second.
There's a much greater reason besides just that you need to drive.
There's a psychological aversion to that and having to take responsibility for yourself and for others when you're driving and the freedom that that gives you.
Well, there's a lot of responsibility that comes with that freedom.
And that, I think it was the underlying issue of why he wanted to delay it and certainly why his friend delayed it for so long.
Well, that makes a lot of sense.
I thank you for that.
Yes, what she said, what the article said.
I assume every generation in history has said at some point, "When I was a kid," and the next generation finds it worthy of dismissal.
They may be respectful.
Yeah, Grandpa, I hear you.
You walk barefoot three miles to school in the snow.
I know.
However...
The fact that every generation might in fact say that to succeeding generations doesn't invalidate the point being made.
It may well be the human tendency to believe that things were better in the past, but those of us who, or those of you, anybody committed to truth, doesn't care if the source is an older person or a younger person.
True is true.
I think there are a whole host, or is a whole host, depending on your grammatical predilection, of reasons for why kids are driving less.
I personally am not thrilled about it.
I will explain why and take your calls.
So, every year apparently fewer and fewer kids are getting driver's licenses.
Whatever your theory, you have to admit it's a significant piece of data.
Given the role driving played since the invention of the car in young Americans' lives, What has happened?
And I think that there are a lot of answers.
I think part of it is not wanting to grow up.
Getting into a car and driving somewhere on your own is an act of independence.
Independence in our society is a form of getting into adulthood.
Now, others will say, that's ridiculous.
I'm formulating their response as I speak to you.
That's ridiculous!
They know that the car pollutes.
They know that they can get around with public transportation.
Or they can bicycle.
Or their parents will take them where they need to go.
Or they could just call Uber.
And where is there to go?
They're not going to go to the mall like they used to.
They're not visiting friends.
They can text them.
Or follow them on Instagram.
That's the theory.
Let's see.
Let's see here.
Hmm.
Encino, California and Ellie.
Hello.
Hi, Dennis.
Thank you for taking my call.
While I agree with the phones being a problem, I think there's a deeper issue here with not wanting to go out and drive.
I think our teens are limited in their desire to explore.
My daughter is not curious about visiting other countries either, traveling, and when they're trapped on their phone and social media and the games they play or what's being fed on TikTok, her curiosity to explore what's out there.
That's what's missing.
And before all of this, when I was driving, I was curious to explore around the corner, driving, and then drive to another city adjacent.
So I think what's being destroyed is their curiosity.
That is a very intelligent call.
If I gave prizes for the call of the day, you would get one.
Thank you.
I'll tell you why I love it.
I love it because It's original.
It makes sense.
And I didn't think of it.
Thank you.
It's a compliment coming from you.
But I'm a career coach.
And students that I see to select their majors and develop their curiosity for the world of work, it's affecting that too.
So it ultimately affects so many parts of the world.
Well, what got to me about what you said is that it's a very interesting point.
I'd love to see.
If we could prove your point, I believe you're right, and I would love to see evidence.
They don't even want to see other countries.
That's what did it for me.
Yeah, it made me sad.
That's right.
Well, you saw it in your daughter.
That's pretty powerful evidence.
So if I were to ask, or better, you were to ask, but either of us, what's her name?
Sophia.
Sophia?
Okay.
So Sophia, when my generation was your age, the biggest thrill for so many of us was, wow, I could go to Europe, I could go to Asia, or more exotically, so to speak, go to Africa.
Why is that not...
A factor in your fantasy world.
What would she say?
She says, I don't know.
I'm from Iran.
I showed her videos of an area called Daraband that is so unique and different.
And I said, Sophia, if things change in Iran, this is where I'll take you.
And she looked at it for a few minutes.
Okay, Mom.
Maybe.
And she walked away.
Wow.
Does she speak Farsi?
A little bit.
And you spoke to her in English?
Yes.
Are you married?
No.
Why not?
I'm not.
I haven't found quality, conservative men here who are just not into only sex.
Well, you know, that's the lament.
I actually just did a male-female hour on that.
Do you date?
No, I sort of gave up.
Wow.
I love my work, and that's my work and my friends.
So does Sophia have a relationship with her dad?
She does.
I don't think either of my daughters are very close.
I don't want to say too much being on air.
No, no, you don't have to.
You don't have to go further.
Yeah, and I'll share with you, her dad is very, very left liberal, and I'm the opposite, and that's caused problems.
And I can't even get her to be curious about my side.
It's just this fundamental problem of curiosity.
Very, very bright.
You've given me a topic for another show.
Well, where are you located?
In Encino.
I hope we meet one day.
I do, too.
I've wanted to speak with you so much.
And I'm so glad I got through this time.
Yes, you did.
Thank you.
Well, this is a good example of what I say when I'm not on the air.
I have an advantage over virtually all other what they call public intellectuals or thinkers that are known to the public.
I can bounce off ideas and learn ideas every day.
Or every weekday.
And have for 40 years.
That curiosity point blew my mind.
I have no doubt she is right.
Whoa, it's scary.
That's a scary thought.
Alright, we continue.
That's right, curiosity.
It's been a driving impulse in my life.
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Join me.
It's the happy...
Nah, nah, nah, nah, nah.
The band is playing too low.
Nah, it's not good.
Not good.
I didn't start at the right time.
Hey, it's the Happiness Hour on the Dennis Prager Show.
Every Friday, second hour.
That's right.
Lice, vermin, frogs, blood, smiting of the firstborn, darkness.
We still have it.
Happy, happy, happy hour.
Ladies and gentlemen, the happy make the world better and the unhappy make it worse.
You have a moral obligation not to inflict your bad moods.
On other people.
That's right.
It is an achievement.
Happiness is an art.
It's an achievement.
It is one of the most wonderful things you could aspire to in life.
All right.
Hi, everybody.
I don't think I have ever done this.
I might have.
Got so fixated by your calls on the first hour's topic that I am carrying it over into the happiness hour.
It is an ode to the callers and to the topic.
So young people are not as enthused about getting a driver's license.
As at any time since the history of the automobile in America.
It was the thing you dreamed of.
Why?
Now, why did people dream of it when they were 16, when they were 15?
Independence.
That's why.
It was part of the right...
Of growing up.
R-I-T-E. Not R-I-G-H-T. The right.
As in the right of spring by Stravinsky.
That appealed to approximately.02% of the listening audience.
On the other hand, I liked it.
And Mike liked it.
Yes, my Mr. Snuffleupagus.
My friends, there was a call last hour by a woman in her 50s that was really so powerful.
I can't get it out of my mind.
I really hope we meet one day.
I... I'm carrying over that call and this topic to the Happiness Hour.
Not because of the car specifically, but because of what it represents.
Ah, that's the word.
What does it represent?
And her take, based on her own daughter's, or at least one daughter, Is a lack of curiosity.
So here's an interesting question, one of many.
Doesn't curiosity increase your happiness?
And the answer is, I don't know.
In other words, can you lead a dull life and be happy?
What do you guys say to that?
Can you lead a dull life and be happy?
See, the question is one that I don't have a definitive answer to.
Is a deep life and a happy life, are they, not is, are they connected?
Do you get happier the deeper you get?
I tend to think so, but I'm not certain.
Because I am deep.
It's not a compliment.
This notion of you can't be objective about your good and your bad traits is absurd.
You may not agree with me on any given subject, but...
I think I qualify for the adjective deep because I'm preoccupied with deep subjects and leading a deep life.
And it has massively contributed to my happiness.
But I have to believe, remember, I don't know if you remember, Woody Allen's phenomenal early movies like Manhattan and...
What was the movie with Annie in it?
Let's see.
Woody Allen.
One of his early movies.
Anyway, there was a famous scene in one of his early movies.
He's in line at a movie theater.
And he...
Sort of, not sort of, he approaches a couple and he says, so you look, you seem happy.
What is your secret?
And they said, we're shallow.
And I was thinking that, that's a great scene.
I mean, for those of you who have...
Curiosity about life and the woman who called, I think her name was Ellie, the woman who called and said her daughter was not curious noted something which really hit me hard.
Not only did her daughter not particularly want a car or a driver's license, she had no real interest in going to other countries.
So I wonder...
Do you find that?
Annie Hall.
Thank you.
That is correct.
Yes.
Did you see that?
No, but I think I'm going to do it this weekend.
Yes, you should see it this weekend.
Yes, Woody Allen and Diane Keaton.
I mean, his early movies were brilliant.
They were brilliant.
I thought a lot of his movies were, to be honest.
I think he's got a bum rap in life.
And I certainly am not ideologically a kindred spirit.
You're going to put a direct line in my IM? A direct line to what?
Oh, you have the quote from the movie?
I'll tell you, when Sean works, he really does a good job.
So was I close?
Yes, I did.
I'm very shallow and empty, and I have no idea.
No ideas and nothing interesting to say.
This couple off the street.
All right, I got it.
Shallow was the key word.
So, is this generation sabotaging its happiness on the altar of the phone?
That curiosity seems not to extend much further than...
The happenings on Instagram, TikTok, etc.
I do worry about it.
Curiosity and happiness.
I never raised that issue.
And that woman provoked it in me.
The reason that I've carried this subject over is because of, again, what it represents.
It represents another thing.
Growing up does make you happier.
You think you're happier if you stay a child, but it's not true.
It's sort of like you think you're happier if you eat as much of anything you want.
It doesn't make you happier.
Listening to your nature is not a great vehicle to happiness.
Yes.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Maybe it's instinctive not to want to grow up.
I don't know.
But wanting to grow up is one of the great features of a happy or happier youth.
Okay, let's get more of your theories.
Richard in Louisville, Kentucky.
Hello.
Hello, Dennis.
Thanks for taking my call.
Today is Louisville Day.
Hi.
How are you?
Good, thank you.
So my theory is, and I can give you an anecdote, that kids today, and not to be, you know, cliche about it, but...
I tend to be a little more lazy, I would say.
And the number one thing when I was growing up, I'm in my 50s, you wanted to get a car so you could get to your job.
You wanted to work.
And that's a big problem in the country today is people, you go almost anywhere and no one can fill in jobs because they can't get young people to work.
Yeah, that's a very important point.
And I have another reason they wanted a car coming up.
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That's the happy organ, if I'm not mistaken.
No comment.
Happiness Hour, based on a topic of my first hour, kids not wanting to drive nearly as much as they did in the past.
What does it represent?
So the last caller noted that one of the reasons kids for all of the history of the car wanted it was to get to work, but so many young people don't.
Go to work now.
Which is true.
That's just statistically accurate.
I have another theory.
That's why it's part of the happiness hour, this topic.
Which was prompted by the last call.
Not wanting to go to work or not going to work.
Not going on dates.
A big reason guys wanted a car.
Can't speak for the girls, but why the guys wanted a car was to pick up a girl and take her out on a date.
It doesn't even happen now.
I speak to a lot of young people, and of course I have the Dennis and Julie podcast, which is, let's say, the least mind-blowing.
23-year-old, magnificent young woman and I, in the most honest talk about life every week, it's called the Dennis and Julie podcast.
You can watch it, and you can listen to it.
Yeah, that was a big factor.
You get to pick up a girl and take her out on a date.
It is so...
You have the Annie Hall clip?
Yeah, let's play it.
I haven't heard it in decades.
You look like a very happy couple.
Are you?
Yeah.
So how do you account for it?
I'm very shallow and empty, and I have no ideas and nothing interesting to say.
And I'm exactly the same way.
I see.
Well, that's very interesting.
So you've managed to work out something, huh?
Right.
Oh.
Well, thanks very much for talking to me.
Amazing after all these years that I had remembered that scene.
Thank you.
It sounds so quaint, doesn't it?
Oh.
I'm going to take the car.
The family car.
My mom's car.
My car.
Yeah, I'm going to pick up a girl and go out on a date.
It is so true that so many things in life are not missed until they're gone.
The old Oregon Timber workers' statement, you don't know how tall a tree is until it falls.
That was a wonderful thing to do.
Take a girl out on a date.
Good for both sexes.
So, alright, let's, the curiosity factor that was brilliantly raised last hour, that's another issue.
Do kids today want to see other countries?
I'm only talking to somebody who obviously is passionate about it.
I've been to 131 countries.
It was a passion of mine since high school.
I wanted to see every country in the world.
I have a chance, but it's not likely.
Not only because of the time factor, but because the countries I haven't been to are not easy to get to.
They're pretty much off the beaten path.
All right, let's see what else you folks have as a theory.
Wildwood, Florida, and Jim, hello.
Dennis, you're one of my addictions.
And this whole thing is very complicated, like life.
And your last statement about, it's like your quote about a woman or a fishing a bicycle.
That's the date thing with the cars.
But I don't think I'm going to inspire you like the woman, I guess.
But I'm a simpleton, and that comes down to the whole thing.
Things, I drive less.
You know, I drive less because things are delivered to my door.
So that could be, that's part of why the kids don't get out there.
My mother would say, hey, I need a gallon of milk and a loaf of bread.
I'd run and grab the keys.
I'd be out the door.
You know, so it was just something for me to do and to get out.
And it is very much like the job and the expense.
Employers don't pay as well, and it's very inexpensive for insurance companies.
They see that you're 16 years old.
You know, it's off the charts to pay for it.
Oh, these are very intelligent responses.
I thank you for that.
Well, the insurance costs for young people I won't address because it doesn't apply to the happiness topic.
But that everything is made so convenient that you can stay home your whole life, that is a happiness topic.
And I will raise that, Sean, and put that down because that is another topic.
Is working at home, all these Disney employees that wrote, don't demand that we come into work four days a week.
We want to stay at home.
Does that increase one's happiness?
I think it's a mixed bag, to say the least.
Yeah, you don't have to take the, it's true, you don't have to take the car for a gallon of milk anymore.
Although I'm not sure, a gallon of milk, who's going to drop off a gallon of milk?
But I understood his point.
You can order in, as they say.
Exacerbated by the lockdowns.
Huh.
New York City, Kirk, hello.
Hi, Dennis.
It's always good to speak to you.
Excuse me.
I'm a little under the weather.
I'll be quick because I know we're almost at the end.
But what I wanted to say is just what the screener told you.
I'm 25 years old.
I am visually impaired.
And to add insult to injury, I'm like one line away from what's required for a driver's license on the chart.
But I would do anything for the independence and the freedom to be able to drive and have a car and whatnot.
And that's why I'm in the city.
I do enjoy traveling, though.
That hasn't been taken away from me.
Why are you visually impaired?
A disease at birth.
So, do you walk around with a cane?
What do you do?
So that's the thing.
I see well enough to go with very minimal accommodations.
I just walk around on my own.
Right, but not well enough to have a driver's license.
Yes, like I said, by one line.
By one line.
You should cheat.
I'll tell it to you right now.
A-E-P-T-Z-Y. And I'm not even looking at it.
Okay.
I am wearing my glasses.
That's true.
I think more clearly.
I make up things better with my glasses on.
I make up things better with my glasses on.
I make up things better with my glasses on.
And it's a carryover from the last hour, why so many fewer kids want driver's licenses than in the past.
I mean, the past since the invention of the automobile, basically.
So it's a first, and so many reasons have been given.
My favorite being the one where the mom who called in attached her daughter's lack of wanting a license to lack of wanting to travel to foreign countries.
And that meaning a lack of curiosity.
I'm not speaking about her, this woman's daughter, but in general I see a deadening.
I thought it was already happening in my generation.
There is a deadening of the spirit of joy.
I didn't think to attach it, but it's attached to almost everything in my way of thinking.
I think that the...
The death or the dying of religion and patriotism have had a deadening effect.
If you see movies from the 1930s about America and the joy of July 4th, there was a joie de vivre.
You know, a hundred years ago was the roaring 20s.
And now we have the dead 20s, the opposite of roaring 20s.
The deadened, the frightened 20s.
It was the roaring 20s and now the frightened 20s.
The association of the car with all of these independence-giving things.
All right.
Chicago.
Was I on with anybody?
No.
So I am free to choose any call.
Chicago, Illinois.
Donald, hello.
Hi there.
Thanks for having me.
Yes, sir.
I don't disagree with anything that's been said so far.
In fact, I think that your insights and the caller's insights so far have been illuminating.
But I just wanted to emphasize one thing and then...
Draw a little bit of a conclusion on it.
And it's the emergence of some of this technology that allows people to traverse around using apps like Uber and whatever different ride-sharing, things like that.
But it's contributing to a thing that a lot of people have been noticing, which is like that in the future you'll own nothing concept.
And the frightening conclusion from that is that when you don't own anything, then the person that does own the things makes the rules.
So, you know, imagine how conservative speech is limited on social media, Twitter, and all of that, and apply it to everything.
Apply it to, you know, your mode of transportation.
That's kind of where I went when I heard this topic.
Yeah, that's right.
It's a good point.
And you had mentioned to the screener the World Economic Forum.
That's right.
You will own nothing and be happy.
Correct?
That's your point.
Yes.
That's what they envisioned for us.
Yeah, and I'd be very curious to know if there are similar findings that you're talking about with people not getting driver's license with young people and not buying homes.
I think that would go hand in hand.
Yes, it would.
You're entirely right.
It's a great call.
I thank you.
Well, he should know he's 34 years old.
That's true.
They don't buy homes either.
That's a very good point.
And if you bought a home, you certainly bought a car.
No desire for independence and lack of curiosity.
They're not mutually exclusive, but they're not mutually dependent.
Yes.
It was taken for granted when I was a kid.
You just aspired to being a grown-up.
I'll give you an example that will strike any of you under 50 as almost incredible.
Under 50, not even under 30. They used to sell bubblegum cigarettes.
Now, why would they do that?
They did it because kids identified smoking cigarettes with being an adult.
They wanted to be adults.
They wanted to look like adults.
The Kings send out a line of Wayne Gretzky along with Luke Robitaille and Dennis Prager.
Gretzky wins the face-off.
He gives it to Robita.
Robita gives it to Dennis Prager.
Here's Prager to spray rice with Gretzky.
Two on one break.
Gretzky back to Prager.
He stumbles and falls.
I'm not sure there are five things in life that bring Sean greater joy than that.
Bye.
Hi, everybody.
This is the Irish Something in general.
Whatever it's about, about you, about me, about life, about death.
Yes, but first...
This is it.
It's the hour.
Whatever is on your mind hour.
And don't be offended if I don't take your call.
If I drop it, it is not in any way done to hurt your feelings.
There could be a hundred reasons.
Well, not a hundred.
There could be five reasons why I'm not taking that call.
1-8-Prager-776-877-243-7776.
Needless to say, calls on audio equipment, photography, cigars, classical music, or...
It's the fifth one.
Painful.
Fountain pens.
Fountain pens.
All of those are particularly welcome on this hour.
Whatever is on your mind hour.
Okay, let's see here.
We go to Los Angeles, the city...
That was Once of Angels and Eddie.
Hello, Eddie.
Hi, Dennis.
Hi.
I'm a huge fan.
Thank you.
At the very beginning of the pandemic, you said that lockdowns would cause mass destruction, but you didn't know at the time that they would save any lives at all.
And, I mean...
And was that approach to decision-making from the Bible?
No, I can't claim that it is.
I read enough very early on to realize that the price being paid by lockdowns would be great and probably greater than any savings of life.
And I had Sweden...
From a very early age as my test case because they didn't lock down.
I think you said that before Sweden decided not to lock down.
And it was just one of those things I heard you say once and you didn't repeat it like you often do, you know, with good ideas.
But I just thought it was brilliant.
I mean, because it turned out that that was...
The right approach.
Well, thank you for noting it.
It means a lot to me that you noted.
It's not for ego reasons.
I have my ego in check.
I'm a very normal guy.
The reason that is important to me is that I regularly take positions that are different from the dominant left at your university, high school.
In the media, in medicine, and they have all turned out to be right, so I should earn your credibility.
That's the reason.
And the opposition, like the American Medical Association, should earn your scorn.
I wrote very early on because I read very early on.
About the inevitable adverse consequences to humanity of the lockdowns.
And it struck me that unless you had such a lockdown that people would be never allowed out of their houses, which is what they tried in China, and it didn't work.
And so as soon as they got out of their houses, of course, people contracted COVID from one another.
Since that is not an option to keep people indefinitely indoors, and even if that is, it was not worth it.
Also, I believed, and still do, in therapeutics, like hydroxychloroquine with zinc.
The fact that the New York Times mocks people who advocate ivermectin, for example, as a horse dewormer and only a horse dewormer, only reinforces my belief that it's probably true, because whenever there's a controversial subject, the New York Times is always wrong.
It's not always wrong in every article because it doesn't have an article always on a controversial subject.
But when there is a left-right difference, the left is always wrong.
And I have the backup.
I tweeted it in April 2020. I kept reading about the hunger that would result from lockdowns, the shattered economy.
The children being set back.
When you think about what college-educated people supported masking two-year-olds on airplanes, do you understand the cruelty as well as the idiocy of such a position?
My heart broke for families that had to travel.
How do you keep a mask on a two-year-old?
Anyway, none of you...
Only the people who work with me saw my great new invention, the yarmulke mask.
Should I put one on, gentlemen?
Because some people can watch me right now, right?
At the Salem News Channel?
Is that where you can see the show?
I am about to put on my famous yarmulke mask, because I always have one with me.
And here we go, ladies and gentlemen.
The Dennis Prager invention from COVID. There you go.
Now, you can hear it's muffled.
I am behind a serious piece of cloth here.
And the joke is, you can pretty much get away with it.
Am I right?
You're cracking up, guys, but you've got to admit, it's effective.
And there you go.
the famous yamulka mask.
Well...
So, All right.
Next, let's go to you.
Thousand Oaks, California.
Nick, the famous Nick of Thousand Oaks.
Hello.
Yes, sir.
Dennis.
Yes.
I belong to a church that does not recommend its members vote.
And it also, they make an exception for local issues like PTA, school bond, trash hauling, sewage disposal, but not on the issues that are facing the nation.
And one of their supporting reasons is that it will bring division into the church.
People's political opinions will differ and it'll cause conflict and we're to remain united.
And I've been speaking out.
Somewhat against that.
I think that in this country, which was founded on principles of rights coming from God, and that the nation required a moral principle than informed citizens to direct its course, I was stunned when a couple of weeks ago you said that in your synagogue you do not discuss politics.
And if that's...
If that's appropriate, and I'm bringing in division into the church by bringing up these issues, they say it's okay to sigh and cry about the abominations of the land, but we can't do anything about it to discuss it.
Well, there are two separate issues that are completely unrelated.
Whether or not you vote, and whether or not you use the pulpit as a priest, minister, or rabbi to discuss politics.
The advocacy of people not voting is incredible to me.
On what grounds would they do that?
And as regards division...
In the world, not...
Yeah, well, no, no.
I don't know.
That's an excuse not to be morally involved.
I think it brings shame on one's religion not to be morally involved in the crises of the time.
Well, everything has been politicized.
Yes, you're right.
It's very tough.
So, look, I have run Yom Kippur Rosh Hashanah services for 15 years, and some of them are now available to be viewed, actually, whatever your religion or none.
I promise you'll be deeply moved.
And that service is a sort of refuge for people leaving left-wing rabbis and, to a lesser extent, left-wing priests or pastors.
So I wanted them to have a, quote-unquote, ironically, I'm using it, safe space.
I believe that if I talk, in that case, Judaism properly, people will draw the appropriate conclusions.
If you understand the Bible, you cannot be a leftist.
You have to pervert the Bible to be a leftist.
I'm bringing to your attention something that may be of great financial benefit to you.
If you paid your employees and you have more than one employee during the lockdowns, you can qualify for up to $26,000 per employee.
It's not a loan.
It is government giving you this money because you paid employees.
What you need to do is go to covidtaxrelief.org, covidtaxrelief.org.
Well, hello, everybody.
This is the hour we set the agenda.
whatever's on your mind.
Dennis Prager here.
And let's see.
Does anybody differ with me here?
Some might.
Not always clear.
Tallahassee, Florida.
Tim, hello.
Hey, Dennis.
I have to hand it to you.
You were right about masks.
The Cochrane database is authoritative and scientific, and it showed they didn't do very much.
But you're not consistent because the Cochrane database in December said the vaccine is safe and effective.
And the Cochrane database in July said Ivermectin is worthless.
So I'll give it to you that you will write about masks, but using your standard, you're wrong about Ivermectin and the vaccine.
Okay.
Your objection makes sense, but I still hold to my position because I don't believe that all the doctors who used Ivermectin were lying.
And that's what one would have to say.
That's my basis.
I don't have the scientific knowledge to know whether ivermectin works or not.
I believe the doctors that I spoke to, however, enough that I took ivermectin.
See, the difference, however, between ivermectin and masks is a very, very, very, very, very, very, very important one.
Masks do damage.
Ivermectin does not.
At its worst, ivermectin is useless.
At its worst, masks are horrible.
The price paid by society for people wearing masks is the same as the price that Muslim societies pay for women wearing masks.
That's a big price.
It is not a harmless thing, a mask.
It is socially utterly destructive.
It ruins children's ability to read faces at the age in which they can read a face.
So if I'm wrong about ivermectin, it doesn't mean a damn thing.
But if you are wrong about ivermectin, you're killing people.
Whoa, that's a biggie.
So as regards vaccines, I'm with Denmark.
If you're under 50, you're an idiot if you take it.
And if you give it to your child, you are a true fool.
So, I'm happy you called, and I have my response.
One more thing, I don't know if it was Cochran, but so many now studies have shown that it is better to have Built up antibodies having had COVID than build them up having had the mRNA so-called vaccine.
I'm glad I took your call.
I thank you.
All right, let's see here.
St. Paul, Minnesota and Dan.
Hello, Dan.
Yeah, hi, Dennis.
Thanks for taking my call.
I know you were talking about...
I know last week I think you were talking about loving your enemies, and I don't know if you came to a conclusion, but I think your point was that we really shouldn't love our enemies.
Oh no, it depends who your enemy is.
If your enemy is on a personal level, which is what I am certain Jesus was talking about, it is inconceivable to me that Jesus would have gone to the Jews of Europe in the 1940s and said, love Nazis.
Do you believe he would have?
Well, I think he would have said love them in the sense of doing good things to them and wanting them to turn from their evil ways.
Not in the sense of being buddies with them or condoning what they're doing, but in the sense of doing good to them.
Like Proverbs says, if your enemy is hungry, give them food.
So you would have fed a Nazi in World War II based on Jesus?
I would have.
Well, not based on Jesus, based on Proverbs.
The Proverbs says, if your enemy is hungry...
You think that whoever wrote Proverbs, whether it was King David, King Solomon, or somebody else, you think that that person...
And I'm not being cute.
I want to just understand your thinking.
You believe they would have said, if you see a Nazi soldier, feed him.
Right, and in so doing, you're burning, you know, you're throwing heaping burning coals on his head, hoping to change their heart.
I don't understand the heaping burning coals part.
Because that's what comes after the proverb that talks about, if your enemy is hungry, give him bread.
If he's thirsty, give him something to drink.
For you will heap burning coals on his head, and the Lord will reward you.
That's Proverbs 25. So, alright, it's not a proverb I'm familiar with.
I totally believe it's there, of course.
I don't understand.
You feed him and give him burning coals?
I'm not following.
Well, no, in giving him food when he's hungry, even though he's your enemy, by doing this you will be keeping burning coals on his head in the sense that you will kind of shame him because of what he was doing.
I'm certain that they mean it in terms of one's personal life.
Are you a pacifist as a result of your biblical insights?
No, absolutely not.
Okay, so in other words, if you were in fact fighting Nazi soldiers, you would have killed them, which is the opposite of feed them.
Well, it depends what the situation was.
No, no, you're a fighting soldier in World War II. You're fighting a Nazi unit.
You're on Normandy Beach.
Are you trying to kill the Nazis defending Normandy?
Or are you trying to feed them?
Okay, so then I don't understand.
What is the guideline from the Bible that you're citing then?
If you think God wants you to kill Nazis in World War II, which I do believe, then you can't say God wants me to feed them and kill them at the same time.
It's one or the other.
Well, that depends on your mission at the time.
Yes, your mission at the time is to kill them.
Yeah.
Okay, so this is one of the many reasons I've written a commentary on the Bible.
The fourth volume is coming out next year.
Three volumes are out.
And the Rational Bible is...
It troubles me when...
When people use biblical verses as a justification for positions that I'm quite convinced God does not want us to take.
When Jesus says, love your enemy, as I said, that was my first question, would he have said to the Jews in 1940, to his fellow Jews, I might add, let's love the Nazis.
I don't think so.
Yes, they're taking all of us to murder all of us, our children as well.
And our task is to love them.
We'll be back.
here.
Wonderful to be with you.
This is a painful call.
A painful call on line four.
I'm not sure if he's serious, but we'll find out.
Hello, Rick in Northridge, California.
Yes, Dennis, hi.
I am serious.
For instance, you know, maybe Sean is there as your foil, but...
You were talking, I think, last week or the week before about people being bullied.
And you asked Sean if he'd been bullied.
And he said, by women.
And you said, that's bizarre.
And then you said, it's funny, but it's bizarre.
And then the next segment, you go on to talk about how American men don't want to marry American women because of their behavior, which...
Some would call bullying.
Another example...
Well, wait.
I don't think everybody's following.
Your call is about you feel that I don't treat...
Condescend to Sean.
I'm condescending to Sean?
I said that, but go ahead.
Yeah, okay.
I love your sensitivity on behalf of Sean.
As it happens, Sean, between the two of us, far more bullies me than I bully him.
I go home and my wife gives me some first aid treatment on very many occasions.
Number two, my old adage is men who insult each other means they really love each other.
Number three...
Is that it reminds me of the callers, and there's about, I would say, 10% of my audience that thinks I should abolish the punishment room.
And for the same reason.
And I believe that this levity is extremely helpful to the show, given the seriousness of so many of the topics.
But I just want you to know, Sean, that there are people out there rooting for you.
I have no idea why.
But, see, there's an immediate insult.
There it was.
I couldn't go ten sentences without insulting you.
All right, let's see.
New York City.
Elliot, hello.
Hi, Dennis.
How are you?
Thank you for taking my call.
You know, I... I asked a question to a lot of my friends on who do they think is the most evil country in the world?
And a lot of them say China, the U.S., Russia, Iran, North Korea.
And I said, you can't do that.
Wait a minute.
You have friends who say the U.S.? Yeah.
They're not friends, but associates.
Okay.
Even associates.
I try not to have friends.
Right.
Okay.
Go ahead.
I said to them, can you believe it?
I feel that Switzerland is the most evil country in the world, and I'll tell you why.
I saw your call, and I knew why.
You hate the cuckoo clock.
No, I don't mind it coming out every hour.
That was a good one.
That was a very...
That was a good line.
Okay, why do you think Switzerland...
This is a new one on me.
Why do you think Switzerland is the most evil country in the world?
I was watching a World War II documentary, and I'm looking at the map, and I'm seeing they're always neutral.
Right, well, so was Sweden.
Sweden, you should pick Sweden.
Well, well, Sweden wasn't...
Part of Hitler's plan.
Wait, that doesn't make sense.
Sweden was as neutral as Switzerland in World War II. Did I lose him?
That's sad.
Okay, anyway, it is what it is.
It certainly doesn't qualify for the title.
Of most evil country.
But I found that he thinks about it is a good sign.
That's good.
Here we go.
Dennis has found your Belinda and my Belinda, California.
I am found in 20. Hold on.
You know what?
Hold on.
I don't want to interrupt you.
I just got the note that I'll have to interrupt you in a few seconds.
I will take you in a moment.
1-8 Prager 776. Dennis Prager here.
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