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March 14, 2023 - Dennis Prager Show
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Dennis Prager here.
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Hi everybody, welcome to the Dennis Prager Show.
As always on Mondays, I wish you had, I hope you had a good weekend.
I'm blessed.
We had a very remarkable Saturday night here.
PragerU has a few galas around the country in the course of the year.
And the annual LA one took place Saturday night.
And I had the great privilege of having a long dialogue with Jordan Peterson.
I'd like you to ask all of your liberal friends and relatives, did they ever hear of Jordan Peterson?
Can they identify that name?
And I bet you that 90% of them cannot.
If that does not prove how little they know about...
Conservatism and conservatives?
Nothing will.
Is there even a left-wing equivalent to Jordan Peterson?
Do you know that Jordan Peterson spoke...
Did you know this?
That he spoke...
He was with us Saturday night, and Friday night he had a speech at a theater.
Apparently 6,000 people showed up.
Now tell me a left-wing intellectual...
Who has 6,000 people show up?
I can't think of any.
Maybe there is one.
I can't think of any.
I'm not talking politicians or sports figures or Hollywood.
I'm talking about thinkers.
The truth is, there aren't left-wing thinkers.
There are left-wing...
Promoters of left-wing doctrines.
I mean, he speaks about how to lead a better life, how to grow up, how to deal with your difficult nature.
He speaks a lot now, in fact, about his relatively newfound admiration and I would venture to say maybe even love for Biblical text.
Is there anybody on the left?
Well, forget the Bible.
They have contempt for the Bible on the left.
They have contempt for anything that says that there are rights and wrongs that are not dependent upon your heart coming up with it.
If you want to know, in part, why the elections went as badly as they did, and they did.
It's silly to deny it.
There are bright spots, obviously, Florida being the obvious exception, and Texas.
But if you want to know the ultimate reason, and there are many, and I will get to some of them, but the ultimate reason, they don't hear us.
They don't read us.
They don't know us.
They don't study under us.
They have never heard.
The vast majority, this is true for liberals as well as leftists.
They have never heard our arguments or our data.
They have only heard the condemnation of our pseudo-fascism.
Whereas Juan Williams wrote Christian nationalism, one of their made-up inventions.
And I had him on, to his great credit he came on.
The vast majority of left-wing columnists would not come on this show, or any conservative, essentially, unless the conservative was a pseudo-conservative who would not differ with them in any fundamental way.
Do you have that, Sean?
That's got to join our Hall of Fame.
When I asked Juan Williams about what he considered...
An example of Christian nationalism when he said the Ten Commandments.
Do you have that?
Yeah, you have all the time in the world.
Take at least five minutes.
No problem.
Were you as shocked as I was?
I always think the left can't shock me.
The Ten Commandments.
Christian nationalism, that's right.
There you go.
Promoting the Ten Commandments is Christian nationalism.
And Juan Williams is more of a liberal than a lefty.
Wow.
Anyway, we had Jordan Peterson at a major hotel in Beverly Hills, California, and it was really...
It was a feast of the mind, a feast for the mind.
And I will be reciprocating going to Florida in January for eight days to do part two, seven of us, including led by Jordan Peterson, studying the book of Exodus.
For those of you who did not read my column a couple of weeks ago explaining conservatism, And God knows I wish you would, and I wish you would send it to everyone you know.
It's not exactly fire-breathing, so maybe even your democratic relatives and friends could read it.
We want to conserve what is the best and give it to the next generation.
Can you think of a more noble ideal than conserving the best of what humans have produced?
Music, art, literature, philosophy, religion, morality, and then passing it on to the next generation.
Isn't that a debt that we owe to our children?
Here is the best.
You can graduate high school.
You can graduate college.
You can get a degree in a BA at UCLA in English and not have read a single thing by Shakespeare.
And you have a degree in English.
That's what conservatives do.
We conserve.
Now what does the left do?
It shatters.
It's truly the antithesis of conservatism.
If it comes from the past, it's a piece of crap.
Because we're better, we're finer, we're smarter, we're kinder, we're wiser.
We're everything better.
Than the people who lived before us.
That's their belief.
They actually believe they're better than Washington, Jefferson, Madison.
For that matter, Moses.
I don't know if they'd say they're better than Jesus.
I think they would feel that's a bit risque.
But everybody else.
So, that was part of my weekend.
This wonderful dialogue that we had.
Are we going to make that?
Is that going to go up?
It's not sure yet.
I'm not sure.
Not sure yet?
Well, I hope it does.
Let's put it that way.
School board candidates who pushed parental rights see mixed results.
That's reason for concern.
You read that article, right?
It's from the Wall Street Journal, and it's very important to remember the Wall Street Journal news department is not the same as the opinion and editorial department.
It is quite to the left.
I wouldn't say it's left.
I would say it's liberal.
There is very little in common between the Wall Street Journal editorial page and opinion page and their news pages.
On the other hand, the New York Times, the opinion pages and the news pages are identical.
Conservative candidates who ran for school boards saying they would change what students learn about race, sex, and gender, or who opposed COVID protocols, saw mixed results in Tuesday's election, according to supporters and a sampling of nationwide results.
Ballotpedia, a nonpartisan election site, Analyzed 361 races and found that about 36% of candidates who opposed school COVID protocols, diversity initiatives, or the use of gender-neutral learning materials won their elections.
Only one out of three?
This is about a serious reason for concern about the American people as I have come across recently.
One out of three people running for school boards who oppose what's happening in our schools, including the lockdowns?
Only one out of three won?
They're running against the unions.
They're running against the unions.
So what?
Parents don't know what's happening to their children in schools?
Oh, maybe you're right.
Maybe that's the reason.
Maybe parents don't know.
You'd think they should.
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To be personal for a moment, I'm often asked, especially because people interview me, how many books have you written?
And I never feign anything.
I don't know.
I assume approximately 10. But I do know exactly how many countries I have visited.
Which may be a little pathetic that I know that better than I know how many books I've written, but it is what it is.
That's very serious.
Travel has been always serious to me.
Okay.
How do you explain?
1-8 Prager 776. How do you explain this?
School board candidates who pushed parental rights.
Only one-third of them.
According to this, if this is accurate, one.
So, my producer believes that the reason is they don't know what's really happening in the schools.
The teachers' unions just bombard them with propaganda.
And they believe it.
I don't know why.
If you don't know what they're doing to your children at school, you're an incompetent parent.
I'm not even apologizing for insulting you.
You're an incompetent parent if you do not know the damage that most schools are doing to your children.
If you're okay with it or you don't think it's damage, I have no argument.
If you think your child should learn about straight and gay, and binary and non-binary at the age of six, and should go to drag queen story hours at the age of five, then I don't have an argument with you.
You want your child to experience this, and therefore, you have no problem.
But most parents do have a problem with this.
They should know what is happening.
Here's an example just I picked up from a list of columns that I have here in front of me.
This is from October before Halloween.
Pennsylvania parent ripped school district for canceling Halloween parades over inclusivity concerns.
A Pennsylvania mom is slamming her local school district for canceling its annual Halloween parades over safety and inclusivity concerns.
Administrators in the Lower Marion School District, located in Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, sent emails to families at all six of its elementary schools saying the parades, which date back over 50 years, will not happen this year.
Somebody was offended.
Lower Merion School District parent Linda Joseph told America's Newsroom, somebody was offended, so they're trying to take away our Halloween parade.
It's just another thing in this weird cancel culture era that we're living in.
Right.
She writes, or she says, I don't think it's going to end here.
Next year someone is going to be offended by Valentine's Day, and then it's going to be Christmas.
So my question is, where does this end?
It doesn't end.
As I often point out, the left destroys and destroys and destroys.
If an animal represented the left, it would be the shark.
It's just an eating machine.
So the parents was there.
I'd like to know.
I'm going to look this up.
Try to look it up anyway.
Did anybody run for the school district board in Lower Merion County?
Is that what it's called?
Or Lower Merion District, I should say, right?
Yeah, Lower Merion School District.
Did anybody run for school board there?
I am curious if you're a parent.
How do you explain the poor showing if only a third of the parents who worry about what is happening in schools won?
How do you explain it?
Tiffany Justice, co-founder of the Florida-based education non-profit Moms for Liberty, said roughly half of 270 candidates endorsed by a group won their seats.
Well, it's better than a third.
The group advocates for parental rights to determine rules for their children in matters of COVID precautions and gender identity, and has lobbied to curb classroom discussions on gender identity and sex education issues.
Estevan Zarate, Who defeated conservative opponents Tuesday to win a seat on the Round Rock Independent School District School Board outside Austin, Texas, said parents in his community were interested in fostering equity for students and promoting safety in the pandemic.
There you go.
Equity for students.
That means that you, at the age of six, know that there aren't two genders, as they now have redefined sex.
That is what equity is about.
But apparently he won, yeah.
Who defeated?
Conservative opponents.
So this is really critical.
Austin is a liberal hangout in Texas because it's got a big university there, UT Austin.
And so its ideas infect the community.
That means that most parents...
In that area of Texas, like the idea that their kids have Drag Queen Story Hour.
Something to think about.
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All right, everybody.
This is truly fascinating.
The Round Rock Independent School District School Board outside of Austin, Texas.
Elected Estevan Zarate to win a seat on the Round Rock School Board.
Said parents in his community were interested in fostering equity for students and promoting safety in the pandemic.
Let's take the safety in the pandemic part now.
So, liberal parents in Austin are at peace, indeed, beyond that peace, they're advocative of shutting down schools during COVID. No matter how much damage was done to kids not attending school for nearly two years,
not seeing faces for nearly two years Now, does this help explain what I call, and have for years, the unbridgeable gulf between left and right?
You're a parent who thinks that it was a good idea to deprive your child of school for two years.
You have to be a liberal or a leftist to believe that.
In this case, I think liberals and leftists think identically.
In most cases, they don't.
That's really something.
Even when it comes to the most precious thing that people own, or have, whatever term you wish to use, a child, Own is probably not the best word.
We don't own our children.
We have our children.
It still doesn't matter.
Still, the gulf is unbridgeable.
That's why it's a stupid cliché.
Not all clichés are stupid.
It's a stupid cliché.
We all want the same things.
We don't.
It used to be that liberals and conservatives generally wanted the same things, but they had somewhat different means of getting there.
But it's not true anymore about left and right.
We don't even want the same things.
I wanted your children to go to school for two years, and people on the left didn't.
How could you get more different than that?
How could you get more different than parents who actually believe it is a good idea to give a vaccine that is not a vaccine to five-year-olds?
These are unbridgeable gulfs.
We think that you are more likely to hurt your child by giving your five-year-old a COVID vaccine than by not doing so.
You believe you are more likely to hurt your child by not giving the vaccine.
That's a very, very, very big gulf.
One of us is really, really, really, really wrong.
And same with school shutdowns and masking two-year-olds on airplanes.
The damage done by not seeing a face, not reading.
We have documented...
Ill repercussions from children not seeing faces.
They learn to hear words and see words spoken.
They learn to read faces and emotions when they're that young.
But if you don't see a face for two years, or you only see your parents' faces at home, do you think there were any parents who wore masks at home?
Sure.
Yeah?
Oh, yeah.
Really?
In the height of things?
Yeah.
Like in 2020?
Right, in 2020?
Okay.
Wow.
Well, this is all by way of analyzing the election results with school boards.
I'm purposely not right now dealing with the Senate.
The House and gubernatorial races, because this is clearer than that even of the battle that conservatives need to wage.
If on the issue of children we cannot even make much headway, we're not going to make much headway on a lot of issues.
I think we can.
The issue is we have to break through their censorship.
That's why they don't want us to be heard.
They correctly fear that hearing us or reading us will be detrimental to the cause of leftism.
They are right.
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Hi everybody!
Welcome to the Dennis Prager Show.
Hope you had a good weekend.
I did.
Thank God.
So there's an interesting piece in the Washington Examiner about the elections, which turned out not to be what many spoke about, a red wave.
Maybe I'll address that before I get to this Washington Examiner piece.
You never heard even a hint from me that there would be a red wave.
And it's an interesting question since people that I admire.
And who I'm aligned with ideologically, idealistically, intellectually, said there would be a red wave.
Why did they, and I didn't, I have a lot of blocks in me against wishful thinking.
And a lot of people don't.
But it's not just that.
It's that it seemed only logical.
So in this regard, I sympathize with all those who said there would be a red wave, including, by the way, not just Republicans.
There were Democrats who thought there would be a red wave.
The country is in terrible condition, overwhelmingly because of the Democratic Party.
The reason for inflation is not Putin's invasion of Ukraine.
That contributed.
That was not the original reason.
It is the war against energy, waged by the left with its panic, sick panic, irrational panic over the use of fossil fuels, fracking, natural gas, and the proof that they are trying to change civilization.
Rather than trying to save the planet, is that they oppose nuclear power.
If the environmentalist movement was pro-nuclear power, I would join them.
Good.
Go with nuclear power.
But they don't.
So it shows their real end is to destroy civilization as we know it.
Get everybody out of cars and into trains and buses and on bicycles, just as I saw last week.
In Copenhagen, where the number of bicycles is immeasurable.
But it's not a big, big city.
It wouldn't be feasible.
Bicycles are not feasible where I live in Southern California.
Where would you bicycle to?
very little in your life is just a couple of miles away.
So, looking at what is being done to the society, the inflation, the crime, the perversion of youth, the perversion the perversion of youth, the perversion of our schools, even many Democrats thought there would be a red wave.
I'm sorry.
But there wasn't.
It appears that there's no chance for the Senate, and if the Republicans win the House, it will be by very, very few seats.
Which I admit is somewhat incredible, given the state of the country and how much damage Democrats have done.
Look, in New York State, they voted for Kathy, is that it?
Kathy Hochul?
That's really amazing.
Or John Fetterman?
Fetterman, sorry, Fetterman.
Forget the brain damage issue.
The man is as radical as anybody.
Anybody, he's as radical as AOC.
Does he really represent a majority of the people of Pennsylvania?
Okay.
I'll see you next week.
So anyway, that was what was predicted and it didn't materialize.
Why didn't it?
It's a very important discussion.
There are any number of reasons that conservatives have offered.
I was more interested in this case to read what conservatives said because they have every reason to be honest.
We lost.
Why did we lose?
Democrats writing about this were more interested in making points.
I understand.
So I read more conservatives.
A question that I am still not clear on is the role of Donald Trump in the election, the poor showing of Republicans.
I say I'm not sure of because I'm not sure.
There's evidence that he hurt the party.
There's evidence that he helped the party.
I would like to see a list of the candidates that he endorsed and see how well they did and whether the endorsement was a help or had no effect whatsoever or a hindrance.
I don't know the answer, but it's a very important question to be asked.
His attacks on Ron DeSantis have not been helpful to him.
I'm I don't know the overall effect on the Republican Party, but they have not been helpful to him.
People like me who have...
Regarded him as the greatest president in the modern period.
Are not happy with his attacks on DeSantis.
Not because they'll hurt DeSantis.
I don't think they will.
But because they hurt him and they are dispiriting in the Republican Party.
To call him Ron DeSanctimonious.
As if he's AOC, is not a good idea.
Anyway, wouldn't you think that if Ron DeSantis won by 20 points, 19 or 20 points in Florida, won Miami-Dade for the first time for a Republican in 20 years, that we might think, whoa, this is presidential material.
See, my friends, I have one agenda, defeating the left.
It's like if I had cancer, I'd have one agenda, and that is defeating the cancer.
Leftism is a cancer in every society on earth.
Not liberalism.
Liberalism is generally weak, but it is not leftism.
Leftism is cancerous to a society.
Tell me an area where leftism has been a moral benefit.
Has strengthened the institutions that undergird a civilization.
You can't.
It is the dark side of human nature that sees in beauty something ugly.
I know it's almost impossible for us to understand that, but that is the way it is.
I think that DeSantis' victories, what he has done to transform Florida from purple to solid red, these are worthy of being asked if we really want to win, we meaning those who love this country and its values.
But there are many other reasons.
Here's from the Washington Examiner.
Democrats have mastered mail balloting.
Republicans will pay if they fail to step up.
The first thing Allegheny County Republican Chairman Sam DeMarco saw on election night after the polls closed was more than 100,000 votes from his home county that dropped for Democrat John Fetterman through mail-in ballots.
Although he wasn't sure just yet that that meant the race was lost, he also knew Republicans needed to fix something in the party's way of doing things going forward.
Those initial large dump of voters were mail-in ballots from Democrats, he said of the advanced voting that began in 2020 during the pandemic.
Democrats embraced it with gusto, but Republicans shied away.
Quote, The biggest takeaway from Tuesday night is that Republican attitudes in regard to mail-in voting needs to change.
Right now, it's like we're running a 100-yard race against the Democrats and giving them a 45-yard head start.
Both parties have limited resources, but while they work during the 50 days of early voting, collecting and banking early votes, we're just collecting promises to show up on Election Day.
It's not sustainable, and Democrats get better at it every cycle.
That's where our belief in American institutions has rendered us...
Less capable of fighting.
We believe in Election Day.
Well there, everybody.
Dennis Prager with you.
Before I go on about the ballot harvesting, I have to bring this to your attention.
British Airways goes gender neutral.
Male pilots and cabin crew told they can wear makeup and carry handbags regardless of gender and sexual identity.
British Airways will allow male pilots to wear makeup and carry handbags in an overhaul of the airline's strict uniform rules.
Airline bosses reportedly told staff, In an internal memo, be bold, be proud, be yourself.
That's bold.
Carry a handbag if you're a pilot, male pilot.
Said they hoped that refreshed guidance would be embraced by everyone regardless of gender, gender identity, ethnicity, background, culture, sexual identity, or otherwise.
British Airways was said to be nearing the end of a review of its long-standing uniform policy after rival Virgin Atlantic announced it was making its traditional male and female uniform gender neutral.
So now, your male flight attendant can wear a skirt.
Something you definitely want your kids to see.
Because we are having a real problem.
In America and Britain, with boys being too masculine.
So, God forbid that that should happen.
Let's show them male models of skirt wearers and mascara wearers and handbag carriers.
The war against sexual distinction.
My book, my commentary, the third volume of my Bible commentary.
It's called The Rational Bible.
It just came out last month.
It's in the fifth of the five books.
I have two more to go.
I didn't go in order, obviously.
It's Deuteronomy, the fifth book.
And it's got a law that a man cannot wear women's clothing.
Can't get more obvious than that of the conflict between the Bible and the woke.
Choose your value system, my friends.
When the woke say they have contempt for the Bible, I at least respect their honesty.
It's the Christian and Jewish clergy who are woke and claim that they're biblical that are the bigger sinners.
Its uniform guidelines have been traditionally divided by gender, but recently, BA, British Airways, has tried to modernize its image, and last year dropped ladies and gentlemen in announcements in a bid to make all customers feel welcome.
How many non-binary customers does British Airways have?
What does that mean, make all customers comfortable?
I'm not comfortable.
Their dropping, ladies and gentlemen, has brought me discomfort.
So why is my discomfort of no significance?
But the discomfort of the non-binary passengers, of whom there may be zero, or very close to zero, that is dispositive.
Why?
Because it has nothing to do with comfort.
It has to do with shattering the civilization as we know it.
This gives people on the left meaning.
Destruction brings meaning.
Male pilots and cabin crew of BA have been told they can wear a touch of mascara and lip color and false eyelashes and paint their nails.
Well, this will draw a lot of masculine men into the profession of pilots.
It's really something.
Strict rules on hairstyles have also been eased, meaning men may now wear man buns, and all staff may now wear a handbag, regardless of their sex or gender identity.
But the airline will still keep its ban on visible tattoos.
Isn't that an interesting thing?
Why would that be?
Makes no sense.
I'd rather have a visible tattoo than a handbag.
On the guy.
Or a skirt.
Even you, right.
And you root for NBA teams based on who has the fewest tattoos.
Which means you don't root for any NBA teams.
They will also not make any changes to their physical uniform with male and female gender-specific uniforms.
Wait, I thought they're dropping that.
Didn't they just say they're dropping that?
A BA spokesman told MailOnR we are proud of all our colleagues at British Airways committed to an inclusive working environment.
God, you've got to see that there's a picture here in the Daily Mail of the Virgin Atlantic guy wearing the women's outfit.
I'll be sure to avoid Virgin Atlantic.
And if you care...
About civilization as we know it, you would avoid flying Virgin Atlantic as well.
We have worked with our people to create updated guidelines for grooming, beauty, and accessories, allowing our colleagues to bring the best, most authentic version of themselves to work every day.
Why is it authentic to wear anything?
If you want to be authentic, Why not go around in underwear?
Clothing is not authentic.
Nudity is authentic.
Will they make an announcement with regard to deodorant?
British Airways flight attendants will no longer be required to wear deodorant because your authentic self...
Smells lousy.
And we want you to be authentic to yourself.
We'll be back in a moment.
I'm Dennis Prager.
The Dennis Prager Show.
Hi everybody, I'm Dennis Prager.
Welcome you back.
One more item here on the Virginia Atlantic.
In the article...
Virgin Atlantic.
What did I say?
Virginia?
Yeah, Virgin Atlantic.
And that's the article in the Daily Mail about British Airways see their rival doing what it's doing and they want to copy it.
Virgin Atlantic updated its uniform policy to remove gendered clothing requirements in September.
Staff Including plane crew and pilots may choose which uniform they wear.
The company's red option, previously most commonly worn by female flight attendants, or the burgundy option, previously worn by male flight attendants.
This includes allowing men to wear skirts and women to wear trousers, as well as increasing the uniform options available to non-binary staff members.
They are also introducing, did you know this, pronoun badges?
Did you know that?
Yeah, that's part of it, yeah.
And a bid to allow staff to wear uniforms that express their true identity.
Oh, that's beautiful.
The airline has teamed up with RuPaul's Drag Race star, Michelle Visage.
In a bid to, quote, reflect the diversity of its workforce and offer its people a fluid approach to its red and burgundy uniforms.
Well, I won't be flying Virgin Atlantic.
Why would you want your son to see flight attendants or pilots in skirts, male ones?
Your son needs a masculine model, not a feminine model of masculinity.
It is amazing that what I just said is controversial.
It shows you how effective the left has been in destroying norms.
That's all one can say.
All right, let's see here.
Granbury, Texas.
Sandra, hello.
Hello?
Hi.
Hi, Dennis.
Thank you for taking my call, and thank you.
This is the first time I've ever gotten through to you, but thank you also for all the good that God allows you to do for us.
We appreciate that.
That's a beautiful comment.
Thank you.
I called in initially with your first segment with regard to Trump, and as I told the call screener, this weekend I was sort of lamenting all of this, you know, as so many of us are doing, and I do not...
I don't care for the negative comments that Trump had for DeSantis or any other person or situation out there.
Who wants that?
No one wants that.
But one thing that kept coming up to me is how much bullying he's taken, all these lawsuits, the impeachments, Nancy Pelosi tearing up his State of the Union behind him.
And I find myself thinking...
You know, I don't like those comments, but he's got some restraint, and I think he's worthy of forgiveness.
And I really would, you know, the Democrats, you said it best last week when you said, you know, Democrats prove that they will, they always vote for candidates that are a Democrat candidate, as you said, I believe, with regard to Fetterman.
They have this knack of circling the wagons.
And I think it's time we take a little bit from them.
And go ahead and forgive Trump.
Look at conservative leadership.
I personally would love to see Trump with DeSantis in 2024, and I think that might be a little bit of a shock to them, and then we can all move forward and see what happens.
So tell me where you and I might differ.
We may not.
All I care about is defeating the Democrats and the left.
That is infinitely more important to me than my love of Donald Trump.
Absolutely.
I'm with you, absolutely.
And I had this discussion with my husband and my brother and so many people, even though, yeah, we love him, we like him, but it's time to move forward.
If there's a ticket that does not include rhinos, if there's a ticket that moves conservatives and is pro-American, I'm all for it.
I can wish Donald Trump and deeply appreciate all he's done, but I just feel that...
You know, and as you mentioned with this whole red wave, when I first heard that red wave, I immediately, again, maybe because I've listened to you long now, I immediately thought, that's Democrat propaganda.
Oh, how interesting.
Well, I'm very touched.
Because you said maybe it's because you're listening to me so long.
Yeah, I don't easily get super optimistic.
I don't easily get super pessimistic.
Alright, wonderful call.
I thank you.
Hello, everybody.
I'm Dennis Prager. - Sure.
I have on the line a psychiatrist in New York City.
I had the delight of meeting her.
We were both at a conference in Vermont a few weeks ago.
She's one of the stars of Matt Walsh's...
Great documentary, What is a Woman?
Daily Wire put that out.
Matt Walsh is with Daily Wire.
And on with her is a parent who is losing his daughter to the transgender mania of our time.
Dr. Grossman and the dad.
And I welcome you both to the Dennis Prager Show.
Do we have the dad's name?
I see a name up here.
Is that a pseudonym or is that a real name?
My real name.
Charles Smith, Charlie Smith.
Where do you live, Mr. Smith?
I live in a little town in northwest Connecticut, Northfield.
Okay, in northwest Connecticut.
Connecticut is so small I don't even know that there is a northwest or a northeast.
Yeah.
Okay, actually I will tell you, because it's a very serious subject, but I'll start with it slightly.
Light note, when I was still living in New York until the age of 25, and I had already begun lecturing, and I had a speech in Waterbury, and I confused it with Danbury.
So you from Connecticut know what trouble I got into.
It was the only speech in my life that I never showed up at.
Danbury is right outside of New York, and Waterbury is in the far eastern end of Connecticut.
Well, they should have cut you a little bit of slack that you weren't from here.
No, well, they cut me some slack, but how much slack can you cut when it's at least another hour drive?
Anyway, welcome to the show.
So, Dr. Grossman, of course, a welcome to you.
It was a delight being with you in Vermont.
You're a courageous and powerful voice and deeply appreciated by many of us.
So who would like to begin with the story?
I think Shirley should start.
Okay, so I'll lead you on with a couple of questions and then you take it away.
So how many children do you have?
I have one daughter, Samantha, from my first marriage, who was the...
I have two younger daughters, and I have two older stepdaughters.
Oh, so you have five daughters in total.
Okay.
Now, who has been raising your first daughter, your ex or you or both?
Well, what happened was when my daughter was four, my daughter Samantha, the one that's in question with all these things, when she was four, I found that he does absorb some learning.
Wait a minute.
One minute.
Wait, wait, wait.
It cut out.
It cut out.
Mr. Smith, one sec.
The coding is very good.
Wait, does he hear me?
Okay, we have a problem here.
I hate when technical problems...
I hear somebody else, sorry.
Yeah, something...
Is that with your phone?
Is that what happened?
I just heard somebody else come over the line with me at the same time.
Sean, do you have any idea what's happening?
Okay, it's probably your end.
So I'm sorry, you've got to start all over.
So this is the daughter that, again, you divorced the mother.
At what age in Samantha's life did you divorce?
When she was four.
Okay, go ahead.
Continue.
My ex-wife felt like I've got to move on, and I'm like, you're making a mistake, her being four.
She thought she was just going to take her daughter out of state without having a job, a home, or a car out there.
And I'm like, sorry.
And she thought it was going to be a long legal process here.
She decided just to sign and leave.
But before she left, the person or people she was staying with, at one point, my own daughter said many years later that the person she was with, one of these people sexually abused her.
And she told me this happened when she was four, only found out when she was around 12. You only found out when she was 12?
Yeah.
Right.
So, again, I'm not fully clear.
Whom did she live with or was it joint custody?
Well, when my ex-wife left, she decided that she was going to leave.
Nothing was going to stop her.
So what happened was I was given sole legal custody at that time.
She was not quite, just a little bit shy of five.
Did you lose custody at a given point?
Just this February.
Well, that's because of the transgender issue.
Yes.
So she lived with you while she announced she's a boy?
She lived with me from when my ex-wife left and got remarried until 2019. And during that time, did she say she was a boy?
Well, not originally, no.
I mean, when she was younger, she had these ideas that she was to blame for when...
For her mother leaving.
And I'm like, no, you're not even a teenager yet.
I said, your mom was the one who decided to leave.
She was the adult.
You weren't.
You can't blame yourself when you're four years old.
You can't blame yourself anyhow because you weren't the one who left.
She kind of understood it, and we thought it was something that was going to kind of grow in her to understand.
For whatever reason, it never fully took a hold, and her mind was like, I don't want to grow up to be a woman like my mom.
And then, you know, she got out of some cutting things, and, you know, she was in hospitalizations for several different things before the transgender thing took effect on her at all.
Where do you think she picked up the transgender thing?
Social media?
School?
No question, school.
And what exactly do you feel happened at school?
Well, there's definitely a group that pushes this agenda.
Adults there, and pretty much every school in Connecticut has an adult that kind of pushes these things.
So you think that some adult, do you have one in mind?
I'm not asking for a name, I'm just curious.
I just know that in most schools that there's always somebody advocating these things.
Alright, so, but somebody has to be receptive.
Most of the girls at that school don't think they're boys.
What age did your daughter say, with any seriousness, I think I'm a boy?
Well, this started happening, you know, after the cutting stage, she got out of that, then she got involved at this stage, around 12, 13, early 13, maybe later of...
The year 12, maybe early.
Were you aware that she was getting reinforcement or even encouragement with regard to this at school?
Well, really, no.
At the time, I just didn't think that stuff was really in play as much as you see it in force now.
It was, but it just wasn't really catching on at that point.
My daughter is probably the first of this curve that probably has had the disastrous results as I'm...
As I will explain.
Dr. Grossman, any thoughts about what was just recounted?
People didn't understand that the mother in this family abandoned them, abandoned her daughter.
She suddenly got up and left.
And that's a very important point in understanding the later Right.
I would just add, I totally accept that.
Makes perfect sense.
However, 25...
50, 100, 200, 300, 700, 1,000 years ago, if a mother left, the daughter wouldn't think she's a boy.
Correct.
So, obviously, that might be what they call the etiology, the genesis, but without the surrounding environment...
This, I don't think, would have happened because it didn't happen in the past.
Well, of course.
I mean, I want to say first, I don't know Charlie's daughter.
I never evaluated her.
But I have seen many teenagers like her, both boys and girls.
And when they assume this new gender identity, they're expressing some sort of emotional distress.
And so it's mandatory to explore that.
And we're going to find, as Charlie tells us more of his story, that she never got that sort of therapy that she needed so badly.
Right.
Okay, so we will be back in a moment.
By the way, I'm more than happy to announce you have a forthcoming book, Dr. Grossman?
I do.
I'm announcing for the first time here.
It's called Lost in Transnation.
It'll be available for pre-order in a few weeks.
Lost in Transnation.
I got the point.
I got the double entendre.
We'll be back in a moment.
Speaking to a man who's lost.
Well, we'll find out.
Hi, everybody.
I'm speaking to two people.
Dr. Marion Grossman, a prominent psychiatrist in New York City who works a great deal on this.
Transit issue with young people.
And a father in Connecticut, Charlie Smith.
To review, and if I got any details wrong, it's good that I review because then I get corrected and it becomes completely clear.
You were married, had this girl, Samantha.
When she was four, your ex-wife decided to leave the marriage.
The girl then came to live with you and did for nearly all of her life, as I now understand it, from then until 2019. Correct.
Okay, so I got it all right, thank God.
And she started saying that she was a boy at around 10, 11, correct?
12. 12?
Okay.
And she was being encouraged in this regard at school by a teacher.
Is that correct as well?
Or, I don't know about a specific teacher, but there's several that they have meetings about these things.
And you did not know about this?
At the time, no.
Did you know that, was she telling you that she thinks she's a boy?
Well, she started with that stuff, but I'm like, look, we go to a Bible-believing church, a very small, independent Bible-believing church in our hometown.
And I'm like, you know, you heard a pastor multiple times, you know, that God made you a girl turning into a woman.
And look, if you don't like turning into a woman, you have to figure out why you don't, because you are still going to be turning into a woman.
And she would say to that, "Well, it's not true." I know I'm a man, or I know I'm a boy.
Yeah, to the degree she could say it being 12. All right, what happened next?
Well, she was in and out of several hospitals where, because of, in 2017, our state of Connecticut, the legislature, minus very few, and our governor at the time, Malloy, decided to make this thing called the transgender therapy law, which all it did was...
If a child's in therapy, which she was, a parent like me, who does not agree with these things, is basically shown the door.
We don't want to hear what you're saying.
We don't care what you're saying.
Our hands are tied.
We're going to keep proceeding with this same course.
To the point where our school psychologist sent St. Vincent's Hospital a letter saying, if you continue treating her this way, you're going to ultimately make this girl worse, not better.
So when I said to the hospital, did you get the letter?
Yes, we did.
I said, did you or would you implement any of the things they said?
No.
Why?
Because we have to go by what the patient wants.
I'm like, the patient is 14 with mental illness.
It didn't matter.
I'm glad you're sitting down.
Yeah, no, no.
Unfortunately, I don't have to be sitting down because I've covered this.
I just haven't had a parent specifically on, which I think this is important.
Well...
So, again, I've got to review here.
So, there was a law passed in Connecticut that said explicitly what you...
Well, it's called the transgender therapy law.
And basically, you know, in a nutshell, if you don't agree with it, as a parent, this is not going to take anything you say in consideration because basically they're...
Their hands are tied.
Whose hands are tied?
A therapist.
Because of the law?
Yeah.
Even if the therapist didn't agree with this, didn't want to do it.
So what did her therapist say?
Did the therapist agree with you?
Well, no.
So it was irrelevant if the therapist's hands were tied.
Well, when it turned into like a state law, it turned into where, you know, they didn't want to even discuss...
They didn't even want to...
You didn't have a side, basically.
Okay, so ultimately, was there more and more tension in the house?
Well, yeah, because the hospitals she was in, instead of getting her better, because they never worked on my child's original issue, they knew that she had issues before this that they never worked on, like why her mother left.
She even said, I don't want to grow up to be a woman like my mom.
So I said, you need to investigate and pursue this.
They never got involved with...
How she was touched as a young child.
They didn't want to touch any of these things.
It was all about the transgender thing.
Who touched her?
The people my ex-wife was staying with before she left.
Oh yeah, that's right.
You mentioned that.
This is my daughter's own words.
I understand.
Alright, so it came to a head in 2019. What happened?
Well...
I found a lawyer.
Good thing I did, because no matter how good you try to do, you're never going to dot all I's and cross all T's with the state of Connecticut.
You're just not going to, no matter how good you try to do.
So Nat Trug Hospital was one of several that, all at one point, just basically, and nobody said this previously to the previous 10 hospitalizations she was at.
Nothing was said like this.
The last two, I was...
It's a bad guy because I wasn't agreeing with what my daughter wanted to be.
So when she got out of the St. Vincent's, she was placing this, it's like a step-down plan where you don't go right home, you go to like the step-down place.
It's called S-Fit.
And there, there's a therapist right there.
She kept calling my daughter, Jaden, kept calling him he, and I said, there's no he there.
And she just kept saying the same thing.
And I know I'm not, I know what I have.
I have a daughter.
I do not have a son.
But she just kept saying this.
So I said to this therapist in front of my daughter, I said, do you see a physical boy there?
I didn't say, do you see a boy there?
I said, do you see a physical boy there?
Lady looked like she wanted to crawl under her couch.
She didn't know how to answer me.
She didn't want to answer me until I said it to her again.
I said, do you see a physical boy there?
Well, yes.
I said, You need your glasses changed.
So what happened was they decided to say that if you don't call your daughter by the name he wants, we're not going to release her to you.
So at that point, I had an attorney, Lisa Vincent in Torrenton, excellent lady, did everything she could do.
And she got DCF to admit there was no abuse in the home because they wanted to come to my home.
I said, fine, I have nothing to hide.
You tell me when.
And they did.
So, no abuse in the home.
But, still, they're pushing this agenda about calling her a boy.
At the same time, one of their edicts, one of DCF's edicts for me, was I have to examine my beliefs, meaning my religious beliefs, and how they affect other people.
Because they know I go to a Bible-believing church, and I tell her, All right,
we'll continue in a moment.
Charlie Smith and Dr. Miriam Grossman.
Hi, everybody.
I have a man on whose daughter said she was a boy, says she's a boy.
We're not up to date.
We're still learning the story.
And a highly respected psychiatrist by many, including me, Dr. Marian Grossman.
She's one of the stars, by the way, in Matt Walsh's excellent documentary, What is a Woman?
You can see her there in the documentary, which I watched.
And was riveted by...
Okay, so...
What is it?
Child Protective Services were visiting your home?
Who exactly is visiting your home?
I was the reason she wasn't getting better.
Uh-huh.
That's what they claimed?
Who was the they?
Again, is it Child Protective Services?
I didn't hear.
Yes.
Yes.
They shoved my door.
Actually, I wasn't home at the time.
They just got a letter and shoved it between the door and the door jam.
And at the time, I had the lawyer, and she just said, you know, they feel you're to blame because you're not going along with all this stuff.
Was Samantha getting angrier and angrier with you?
To a degree, yes, because I wasn't just going along with this stuff.
A, and B, the hospitalizations she had were less than stellar.
You know, the staff wouldn't work with me.
I'm not sure what they were telling her because of this transgender therapy law.
They were probably limited.
I'm sure that, you know, other kids that were there along with her, they have just as much illness as she does.
Who knows what, you know, I was basically told.
So where is Samantha today?
Well, we'll fast forward as fast as I can.
I'm trying to condense over three years of stuff.
I understand.
It's very difficult.
But in August of 2019, behind my back, without authorizing anything, my daughter was taken to a two-gay male foster home.
And the reason they were picked is to limit her contact with other women.
That's why they picked those two guys in the foster home setting.
On the opposite end of the state.
And it began hormone therapy, drugs, and hormone blockers almost immediately.
And they never told me her address.
The reason I found out the address was purely by a mistake.
The school she was at that would send me updates of how she was doing by accident put her address there.
And the state appointed my daughter a lawyer.
Her name was Rebecca Goodrich.
She was not independent at all for my daughter.
She didn't say, well, let me think, what's the best thing for my client?
No.
She was on board with everything that DCF wanted to do and did.
And then we had the DCF caseworker, Michael Clark, did everything in his power to restrict us from seeing her.
So what happens is, because of the transgender therapy law, and the therapists have no loyalty to family, Or afraid to even mention it because they could lose their license, whichever the case may be.
My daughter's on powerful drugs such as lithium.
And, you know, she has this sense of being empowered because they're giving her and doing whatever she wants to do, even though it's not the right thing to do.
She feels that they are doing the right thing for her.
So what they get the child to say is, I don't want any contact with my family anymore.
And he used that statement of a mentally ill child.
To block you from ever seeing them again.
And that's what happened.
From August 2019 to now, have not seen her.
And when we protested, my lawyer protested like you wouldn't believe she's a trooper.
She would not let them just get away with whatever they wanted to do.
What the trouble is, every step along the way that you try fighting them, it's already populated by professionals, by judges, by all these people that are going to be all on the same side.
And that's the very, very difficult part.
They put the decision to give...
Hormone therapy drugs are only good for like about two years.
When they went to the second more powerful drug, they put the decision in a 12-member medical panel, which sounds like an independent thing.
But I said to my lawyer, you know, I was born at night, but it wasn't last night, Lisa.
Find out who these 12 members are.
It didn't take her very long.
Six of the 12 members of this medical panel are DCF members.
So how does that make that panel independent?
What's DCF? Connecticut Department of Children and Families.
Six of the 12-member medical panel who decided it's okay for her to have these drugs, six of those 12 members are DCF members, not medical people.
Okay, Miriam Grossman, we're going to get to you, and we're going to get up to exactly what is happening today when we come back.
My heart goes out to him.
And to Samantha, or whatever her name is now.
Dennis Prager here.
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