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May 4, 2023 - Dennis Prager Show
01:05:38
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Dennis Prager here.
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Hey, everybody.
Dennis Prager here.
you're here.
Wonderful to be with you.
You probably have heard about the 12-year-old in, uh, let's see, Middleborough...
Where is that at?
Middleborough, PS. Yeah.
So he was sent home from school.
And told that he's making people feel unsafe.
This is the word of the left, unsafe.
If they disagree with you, they're unsafe.
If we disagree with them, we're never unsafe.
We're bigoted.
That is the rule of the New York Times.
I wonder if in the New York Times, in the last 20 years, there was one reference.
One.
That's a lot of writing, 20 years.
365 papers a year.
And I wonder if there has been one reference to anybody on the right feeling unsafe.
Notice it is a term that, to the best of my knowledge, is exclusive to the left.
They feel unsafe, which means disagree.
You know, in the 1990s, I published a piece in the Wall Street Journal.
A glossary of left-wing or liberal terminology.
I need to do a new one.
Absolutely.
It's the language.
There's a special left-wing language.
And leftists all use it and believe it.
So the t-shirt that this kid, this 12-year-old wore in school, said, there are only two genders.
That's what his T-shirt said.
Now, by the way, I just want to make something clear.
I am for banning all messages on all T-shirts.
In fact, I am for banning T-shirts.
Kids should wear nice clothing to school.
But the left has deep contempt for school.
School is solely used for indoctrination, not education.
So they don't care what you wear.
They care whether they are getting their message into your mind at an earlier and earlier age.
I just wanted, for the record, however, I am opposed to all messages.
So when they take down a pride flag from the classroom and they don't allow kids to have pride t-shirts or any other message, Including right-wing, conservative, religious messages that I may fully agree with.
I don't want any of that.
But this kid is right.
If you can have your messages, I can have my message.
So here is this kid speaking at a local, I believe it's at a city council meeting.
It might be at a school board meeting.
He's 12 years old.
We're still waiting on the video.
I know, so play the audio.
Who cares?
We got a radio show to get across.
I hope people are watching too, but at least we get...
Here we go.
...at Nichols Middle School.
I appreciate the opportunity to speak to you today.
I never thought that the shirt I wore to school on March 21st would lead me to speak with you today.
On that Tuesday morning, I was taken out of gym class to sit down with two adults for what turned out to be a very uncomfortable talk.
I was told that people were complaining about the words on my shirt, that my shirt was making some students feel unsafe.
Yes, words on my shirt made people feel unsafe.
They told me that I wasn't in trouble, but it sure felt like I was.
I was told that I would need to remove my shirt before I could return to class.
When I nicely told them that I didn't want to do that, they called my father.
Thankfully, my dad supported my decisions and came to pick me up.
What did my shirt say?
Five simple words.
There are only two genders.
Nothing harmful, nothing threatening.
Just a statement I believe to be a fact.
I have been told that my shirt was targeting a protected class.
Who is this protected class?
Are their feelings more important than my rights?
I don't complain when I see pride flags and diversity posters hung throughout the school.
Do you know why?
Because others have a right to their beliefs just as I do.
Not one person, staff, or student told me that they were bothered by what I was wearing.
Actually, just the opposite.
Several kids told me that they supported my actions and that they wanted one too.
I experienced...
I was told that this shirt was a disruption to learning.
No one got up and stormed out of class.
No one burst into tears.
I'm sure I would have noticed if they had.
I experienced disruptions to my learning every day.
Kids acting out in class are a disruption, yet nothing is done.
Why do the rules apply to one, yet not another?
I feel like these adults were telling me that it wasn't okay for me to have an opposing view.
Their arguments were weak, in my opinion.
I didn't go to school that day to hurt feelings or cause trouble.
I have learned a lot from this experience.
I learned that a lot of other students share my view.
I learned that adults don't always do the right thing or make the right decisions.
I know that I have a right to wear a shirt with those five words.
Even at 12 years old, I have my own political opinions and I have a right to express those opinions.
Even at school, this right is called the First Amendment to the Constitution.
My hope in being here tonight is to bring the school committee's attention to this issue.
I hope that you will speak up for the rest of us so we can express ourselves without being pulled out of class.
Next time it may not only be me, there might be more students that decide to speak out.
Thank you for your time and good night.
Thank you.
How do you answer, how does someone on the left answer that we are allowed our messages but you are not allowed your messages?
I usually, as I often tell you, I usually can anticipate what a left-wing person would answer a given challenge or a given question.
I don't know the answer to that one.
I know what they answer to themselves, and that is that all right-wing messages are hate and all left-wing messages are love.
That is how they answer it for themselves.
But how would they answer it for those of us who believe it's the opposite, that most left-wing messages are hate and most right-wing messages are not hate?
Why is there are only two genders hate?
Who do we hate?
We hate people who claim that they are neither gender.
Remember, the trans community does not disagree that there are two genders.
The overwhelming majority of trans people...
Deeply believe that there are only two genders.
That's the entire reason that they have transitioned.
They've transitioned to the other sex.
They don't transition to no sex.
What percentage of people in this country over the age of 21 say they are neither male nor female?
What percentage of people who claim to be trans?
I am a boy, but I am now neither a boy nor a girl.
Okay, it is extremely rare.
So whom are we making unsafe?
And let us say there's a school, and I suspect there are many schools, where there is not a single student who says that they, see?
I got my pronoun right.
That they...
Are non-binary.
That they are not either male nor female.
How many schools have such an individual?
One individual in that school.
So who is exactly being made unsafe?
Of course it raises another issue.
Do we lie for the sake of making one individual feel good?
That's a very important question as well.
And the answer on the left is, of course.
Anyway, it's not about that one individual.
It is about the tearing down of the fabric of the society which is rooted so overwhelmingly in the notion that there are two sexes.
Okay, I thought you'd want to hear that.
Talking about the two-sexes issue, I'm going to bring to you the news from Governor DeSantis' Florida on the latest that he has, the latest bill that he has passed.
Florida Republicans passed bills on pronoun usage at schools, ban on diversity programs.
Tallahassee, Florida, Associated Press.
Florida Republicans on Wednesday, that's yesterday, approved bills to ban diversity programs in colleges and prevent students and teachers from being required to use pronouns that do not correspond to someone's sex, building on top priorities of Republican Governor Ron DeSantis.
The fact that there is even such a bill, do you realize?
The dystopian world we have entered.
We continue on the Dennis Prager Show.
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AP's description is fascinating of the DeSantis bill in Florida.
The latest Republicans in Florida approved bills to ban diversity programs in colleges and prevent students and teachers from being required to use pronouns that don't correspond to someone's sex.
DeSantis, this is the language.
DeSantis, who was expected to announce a presidential campaign in the coming weeks, has driven a hardline conservative agenda as he seeks to bolster support of Republican primary voters ahead of his White House run.
So this is a perfect example of the distorted way in which news is reported by every single mainstream source.
AP, I don't know if UPI is still there.
Associated Press is a gigantic source.
And obviously the New York Times, the LA Times, the Washington Post, St. Louis Post, Dispatch, it doesn't matter what it is.
So what is distorted?
There is no analog on the left when the AP reports.
Let's look at the language again.
He has driven a hardline conservative agenda.
Now...
I'd like somebody to do a Google.
When is the last time the Associated Press has used the term hardline for any governor's left-wing or liberal, if they want to use that term, agenda?
Okay, I'm going to look that up, folks.
And you'll give me a moment.
I'm putting in Associated...
Press.
Hardline.
Liberal, because they wouldn't even say left, agenda.
Okay, let's see.
Let's see.
Is Associated Press reliable?
That's thefactual.com, media bias ratings, hardline, hardright Georgia Republicans.
I can't find one.
Maybe one exists.
So you understand the distorted way in which people receive their news, and they take it in.
There is no consciousness of what they have just read or heard.
There are only hardline conservative agendas.
There are no hardline liberal or left-wing or progressive agendas of democratic state legislatures.
So it's not a hardline agenda when Minnesota passes a law, or California, that any kid who wants to come over the age, I think it is, of eight.
I'll check that exactly.
Who wants to come to their state and get puberty blockers, it might be 12, I don't know, I will check that, can do so.
That's not hardline progressive agenda.
As he seeks, I'm continuing just this sentence in the AP, as he seeks to bolster support of Republican primary voters ahead of his White House run.
So when California passes hardline left-wing legislation, does AP write as he, that is Governor Newsom, seeks to bolster support of Democratic Party primary voters ahead of his White House run?
Or any theoretical Democrat?
There is no analog.
I pointed this out in the beginning of my career.
There are religious extremists, but there are no secular extremists.
No one has ever used the term.
Let me see.
I'll take a look at that.
I'm going to look up secular extremism.
Okay, let's see.
What do we have here?
What it means...
Oh my God, is this...
Precious?
This is precious.
You know what the first thing that came up on Google?
Actually, no, this is Microsoft Big.
Okay.
Analysis.
What it means to be secular in an age of extremism.
I see.
Then they have the term secular extremism, and it is the next one, Christianity Today.
Violent extremism.
In Wikipedia, it's not secular extremism.
Secular extremism and its dangers.
This is BMJ. What is the BMJ? Anybody know?
Anyway, it essentially doesn't exist.
Okay.
Oh, it's a letter.
Oh my God, that is fascinating.
I think it's the British Medical Journal.
But it's a letter.
It's not, of course, in the journal.
It is a letter from an Orthodox Jew defending the ritual of circumcision.
Now, let's see here.
How many results do we get for religious extremism?
All right.
Same number, actually, because the other one doesn't do it.
But anyway, so listen to what comes up.
Religious extremism, research and data from Pew Research Center.
It's time to talk about violent Christian extremism, Politico.
What makes a religious extremist?
Institute for Global Change.
Religious extremism, news, research and analysis.
Religious extremism, spring to link, religious and violent extremism.
Okay, you got it.
I don't need to make the point anymore.
Language has been manipulated by the left so effectively people don't realize it.
As I showed in this sentence on Governor DeSantis and the hardline conservative agenda.
Find me a hardline progressive agenda in an AP News piece.
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I'm reading to you the way in which the Associated Press, which is by far not the worst, reports news, just news, it's not an opinion piece, and how the language is mendacious.
It's just, it's either false, mendacious is false, or it is distorted.
In favor of the left.
So I already showed you the hardline conservative agenda line, whereas I couldn't find any reference to a hardline liberal or hardline progressive or hardline left-wing agenda.
That doesn't exist.
Next, it's about the law that...
Just passed again, again meaning furthered in the Florida State Legislature.
The bill also bans classroom instruction on gender identity.
This is the...
What they have now named.
It's amazing to see this.
The left has named the law, Don't Say Gay.
There is no such name.
When Democrats pass laws, the law's name, like the false, what was it, Debt Reduction Act?
They use all the left-wing Democratic Party names of every law.
But a Republican law with which they differ, they give their own name in the media, and then they use it.
Why is that not a lie?
Please tell me, why is that not outright lying on the part of left-wing media, which is all mainstream media?
It bans classroom instruction on gender identity and sexual orientation up to the 8th grade.
I'm curious.
Do you want gender identity and sexual orientation instruction up to the 8th grade?
Why would that be?
By the way, I opposed sex education from the outset.
That is parents' duty to talk to their kids about sex.
All it has done, all the sex education is prematurely...
Removed innocence from children and increased the number of pregnancies.
I will read to you data on that from The Vision of the Anointed, one of the most important books of the last 50 years, by Tom Sowell.
I will read to you data on what happened after the Democrats pushed sexual instruction, sex ed, into schools.
But I'll get to that later.
Legally reinforcing a DeSantis administration move to prohibit such lessons in all grades.
Additionally, the bill strengthens the system in which people can lodge challenges against schoolbooks when they argue that they are inappropriate for children.
"Think about what we are doing.
Honestly, think about how this will affect families that don't look like yours," said Senator Tracy Davis, a Democrat.
"They're still families.
They're Florida families.
But we're treating them like they're outsiders and we're telling them we don't want them here." What families is she referring to?
Trans families?
I mean, this is about gender identity.
So what families?
The fact that they are not...
I guess this is what...
I guess the sexual orientation...
I'd like to read the contents of the bill, actually.
But I'm not sure why schools should be talking to kids about homosexuality or heterosexuality.
They learn nothing.
Did you see?
Oh, you probably didn't.
But the latest reports, the data on the ignorance of American history.
But they know a great deal about preferred pronouns and gender identity and sexual orientation.
Do you understand what the schools have become?
They teach almost nothing important to make room for indoctrination.
Hi everybody, Dennis Prager here.
Professor Mark David Hall is the author of Proclaim Liberty Throughout the Land, How Christianity Has Advanced Freedom and Equality for All Americans.
Just published, and he is...
Distinguished Professor of Politics at George Fox University in Oregon, and he's doing a program with Robert George at Princeton, where he is now speaking to me from.
Professor Hall, welcome to the Dennis Prager Show.
Thank you so much for having me.
So, I'm sorry to say most Americans don't know where the title comes from.
Of course, the Liberty Bell took it from Leviticus.
So, I talk about this in many lectures because this is one of my ways of showing how deeply rooted in the Old Testament the founders were.
And the way I do it, and I'd love your reaction to this, is...
That they knew Leviticus is sort of proof about how much Bible the founders knew.
Is that fair to say?
Yeah, no, I think that's exactly right.
The founders, about 50 to 75 percent of them are from the Reformed or the Calvinist tradition.
And as you know, people in that tradition were profoundly influenced by the Old Testament.
They looked to the Old Testament for guidance.
They read rabbinical commentaries in the Old Testament, which led them to conclusions such as Republican forms of governments are the only legitimate.
Biblically approved forms of government.
Eric Nelson of Harvard has a wonderful book, The Hebraic Republic, where he traces this out in masterful detail.
And I attempt to tell some of that story in the first chapter of this book, but I do so in a very accessible way, not the scholarly sort of approach that he takes.
I wish people knew this.
So, are you on the Princeton campus this year?
I am.
Yes, sir.
Living the dream.
Dream or nightmare?
That was a dark joke.
You don't have to answer that.
It was a dream at one time.
It's deteriorated terribly like all the Ivy League.
So I'm curious.
I know there was no way to know the answer to this, but if I stopped 100 Princeton students...
And just randomly said, I'm sorry, I'm just curious, can you identify Leviticus?
What percentage do you think could?
You know, the ones I've interacted with are the ones that are associated with the James Madison program.
So they tend to be conservative.
They tend to be students of faith, both Jewish and Christian mostly.
So I think those students would know right away.
Your average student, I have to say I haven't had much interaction with, but my understanding is biblical illiteracy is rampant throughout all Americans, from the best educated, as these Princeton students are, at least as well educated as you can be for an 18 to 22-year-old, to the least educated.
So I imagine, boy, the regular students here, 25% perhaps, would be able to identify that it is a book of the Bible.
Probably not much more than that, though.
My theory is...
I don't think it's higher than 25%.
My theory is that if I said to the average kid at Princeton, or it doesn't matter, Boise State and Idaho, I don't think there's any difference in this regard.
If I said, you know who won the Kentucky Derby this year, Leviticus, I don't think that they would crack up.
No, that's probably right.
Yeah, it may well be a horse.
As far as they're concerned.
So what's the thesis of your book?
So the thesis of the book, it's sort of a sequel to my last book, Did America Have a Christian Founding?
A question I answer with a resounding yes.
And parts of this book were meant to be a sequel to that book, which came out in 2019. But between the publication of that book and this one, the 1619 Project came out.
And that just really, really annoyed me.
The 1619 Project reflects what so many scholars have said, but they did it in a way that is...
Being read by a lot more people and it's working our way into the public schools.
And basically they're saying slavery and racism is what defines America to the extent to which that project and to the extent to which most scholars talk about Christianity.
It's always as an oppressive force.
The Bible was used to defend slavery.
People were motivated by their faith to fight a war, to protect slavery, that sort of thing.
And so what I'm attempting to do is I'm pushing back.
I recognize that, of course, the Bible was used by some Southerners, especially after 1820, to defend slavery.
We have to recognize that reality.
But on balance, Americans from the early Puritans through the founders, through the abolitionists, were motivated by their faith to advance liberty and equality for all Americans by opposing slavery, by opposing racism, by opposing Jim Crow legislation, by promoting religious liberty for all.
Good, all right.
I want to get into those details.
I just want to sell your book.
Okay, thank you.
Proclaim liberty throughout the land.
Mark David Hall.
It is up at DennisPrager.com.
How Christianity has advanced freedom and equality for all Americans.
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Hi, everybody.
Proclaim Liberty.
Throughout the land, how Christianity has advanced freedom and equality for all Americans.
You know, I'm a religious Jew, and all I care about is the truth in this matter.
I don't obviously have an axe to grind, as it were.
And not that even people who have an axe to grind aren't necessarily truth-tellers.
They may well be truth-tellers.
You can have an agenda and still tell the truth.
But I would just like people to consider this.
If there were no Christianity, would there be an America?
Would there be a Europe?
Christianity has a mixed record.
How could it not?
It's composed of humans who are, on the whole, not an impressive lot.
But it's astonishing the lie that pervades academia and therefore much of America.
That at best, it was useless, and at worst, it was the creator of bad things.
That is Christianity.
The European Union, I have the author on, Professor Mark David Hall.
If I may call you Mark.
Please do.
Thank you.
Do you know this, to give you an idea of...
What's going on in the Western world?
This is not just an American phenomenon.
The EU voted on its, I think, its charter.
Yeah, that was the term.
Its charter a few years ago.
And again, this is the European Union.
So it described what Europe is and did not mention Christianity.
Did you know that?
I remember that debate, yes.
It's sad.
Well, it's just a lie.
I mean, you could be an atheist.
I don't understand.
How could there have been a Europe if there was no Christianity?
It makes no sense to me.
If you want to understand the history of Europe, even if you want to understand Europe today, you have to understand the impact of Christianity.
By the same token, if I was writing a history of Saudi Arabia, I think it would be foolish not to consider the impact of Islam on Saudi Arabia, right?
It's just commonsensical.
And yet you're exactly right.
Academics on the left, politicians on the left, they completely want to downplay or ignore Christian heritage.
And that's a mistake at a historical level, and I think that's a mistake for other reasons as well.
So I have a question that I don't know the answer to, but I know it's a worthy question.
So, do you consider, when you speak about the founders, for example, do you consider Franklin and Jefferson Christian?
In my last book, Did America Have a Christian Founding, I have a chapter where I dive into those beliefs.
They certainly identified themselves as Christians.
They held beliefs that most Christians would call heretical beliefs, and so they were not Orthodox Christians.
But since they identified themselves as Christians, I would call them Christians, yes.
So that's exactly my answer.
And I feel very vindicated because you're the scholar here on this matter.
So when I give talks about the founders, I say, look, they didn't hold orthodox.
I use the exact word you did, orthodox, Christian.
They didn't believe in the Trinity.
But exactly, if you'd have said to Jefferson, are you a Christian?
He would have said, what are you kidding?
He might have said, yeah, I don't believe in the miracles.
That's true, I don't believe in the miracles.
Everybody notes he excised the miracles from the Jefferson Bible.
But the fact that he wanted a Bible even without the miracles says a lot.
No, that's right.
Let me point out as well, Franklin spent half of the last 35 years of his life in Europe.
Jefferson spent significant amounts of time in Europe.
I think Jefferson and Franklin are really outliers in the founding generation.
If you turn to most of the founders, including important founders in the political class at the national level, we have no reason to believe that Jefferson and Franklin are representative of them.
Some of them are just so private.
James Madison, for instance, we know he came to Princeton, spent a year extra studying.
Hebrew under John Witherspoon, went back to Virginia and was incredibly private about his religious beliefs.
So we just don't know what he believed.
But nonetheless, in Federalist 51, he writes, if men were angels, government wouldn't be necessary.
But men aren't angels.
And so therefore, separation of powers, checks and balances, and that sort of thing.
And so that's a way in which I think you can show that a founder, about whom we really don't know much in terms of his personal religious beliefs, he was influenced by the Judeo-Christian idea that humans are sinful.
And the Christian idea that even humans continue to struggle with the old man within, that is sin.
And so therefore, we're not going to have a strong, centralized government.
we're gonna have a government characterized by federalism, separation of powers, checks and balances.
Whereas the French revolutionaries, of course, we're going exactly the opposite direction. - Exactly.
By the way, I did not know Madison studied Hebrew.
That's fascinating.
You couldn't get a BA at Harvard until 1800 if you didn't know Hebrew, just as a little sidebar here.
I have no doubt you're right about Madison's privacy with regard to religion.
But the fact that the man went to Princeton to study Hebrew does suggest it wasn't because he loved philology.
That's exactly right.
There's a lot of speculation that he was thinking about entering the ministry.
He obviously didn't go that direction.
And again, he is incredibly private about his personal beliefs.
That doesn't keep scholars from calling him a deist.
He's always called a deist.
But there's just no good reason to do that.
Oh, it drives me crazy.
Forgive me for interrupting you.
It's sort of like the old Groucho Marx show when you said the right word, the bird came down.
When I hear the word deist, I go nuts.
The dishonesty of what they claim.
And they redefine it.
None of them were deists in the way that they defined deists, including Franklin, who believed that there is a God who judges us and there's an afterlife.
I think that's right.
Maybe Tom Paine is accurately called a deist, but of course he's from England.
Came to America, went back to England and published The Age of Reason.
And after he did that, no American wanted to have anything to do with them.
Thomas Jefferson put him up a little bit.
Patrick Henry and others wrote full-length rebuttals of this.
And even the tolerant Quakers want to let him be buried in their meeting house yard because he was this horrible deist, basically.
Ethan Allen, perhaps a deist.
None of the rest of them were deists.
Proclaim liberty throughout all the land up at DennisPrager.com.
Proclaim liberty throughout all the land.
How Christianity has advanced freedom and equality for all Americans.
Mark David Hall.
Some final thoughts with the professor.
The book is up at DennisPrager.com.
You know, professor, I was reading data about the...
The highest rates of depression ever recorded among young girls, for example, adolescent girls, teenage girls.
And, of course, the recommendation is more therapists.
We don't have enough psychologists and psychiatrists.
That's the issue.
And I just offer the thought, maybe the radical secularization of the country in the last two generations, maybe that's played a role since...
When kids had more religion, they were happier?
Does that strike you as a rational conclusion to draw?
No, that sounds right to me, and I believe social science studies have upheld that intuition.
I haven't spent much time with these studies myself.
I think probably also some of this craziness that goes on in too many public schools.
It cannot be helpful, right?
And then social media.
Social media, I think it's just been devastating for young people especially.
So you're in a conservative program at Princeton.
What is it again titled?
James Madison Program.
Right, which I was honored to have an evening there with Professor George.
So how many students at Princeton are in that program?
The program I'm actually participating in is for professors and postdocs.
Oh, I see.
And there's 240 undergraduates who are in some ways affiliated with the program, which means they get invited to dinners and talks and that sort of thing.
I don't know that it's overtly conservative.
It certainly isn't Republican, larger Republican, but it's people who take ideas seriously, people who want to read the founding documents and have a serious discussion about them, people who want to read Plato, Aristotle, and Aquinas and discuss those sorts of things.
so it's a traditional or culturally conservative place and program and it's just wonderful it's a wonderful environment in which to be i have to tell you i have colleagues in my program from israel from slovakia from peru from germany from france and it's just wonderful interacting with all these but you're the only one from oregon the only one from oregon yes sir well thank It's been a pleasure to meet you.
Thank you so much for having me on your show.
Thank you.
I appreciate that.
Proclaim Liberty Throughout All the Land is up at DennisPrager.com, and the author is Mark David Hall, and we continue.
The Dennis Prager Show, live from the Relief Factor Pain-Free Studio.
Hi, everybody.
I'm Dennis Prager.
So there's an interesting development on the Anheuser-Busch issue of the Mulvaney, what's the guy's name?
Dylan Mulvaney.
The Bud Light beer can, a guy who is a TikTok figure transitioning from boy to girl, and he was honored, there's no other word, With his face.
How many people have ever had a face on a Bud beer can?
Period.
I mean, you have to realize how radical, even if you support it, at least you be honest and admit this is a radical thing to do.
We honor almost no one with a picture of them on a Bud beer can.
And we decided to do this with an unwell individual.
And even if you support everything about transgenderism, it is not healthy if you don't identify with your sex.
It doesn't mean you're a bad person or anything like that.
Unhealthy is not the same as bad.
But if you're a boy who thinks you're a girl...
That is an unhealthy aspect of you.
Why?
Why is that even controversial?
Well, it's controversial because the left has taken over rhetoric in our country, and up is down and down is up, and two and two is four, at least in Oregon, and Ontario is considered white supremacist.
Can't have one right answer.
So their sales are down 26%.
I wish it were 86%, but it's 26% is very substantial.
And remember, most people don't follow these issues.
Most people are completely unaware of most important matters that are going on at the time.
They live their lives with friends and or family, and they are concerned about their kid or about...
If they don't have a kid, they're a dog, and they're concerned about what's the latest movie, or whatever their concern is.
Most people don't follow the news.
So if a quarter of the sales of Bud Light disappeared, that's very substantial.
So it's a very strange piece.
Daily Mail reports, Anheuser-Busch CEO... Finally disavows Dylan Mulvaney, Bud Light Partnership, says it was, quote, not a campaign.
See, I think that they're still lying at Anheuser-Busch.
And I'm not happy to say this, but when I read what they say, it doesn't fully make sense.
So, let's see.
The CEO of Anheuser-Busch has unceremoniously disowned the disastrous Dylan Mulvaney stunt, insisting it was, quote, not a campaign, unquote, as a letter to retailers says it was just one can.
Okay, however, if you go really, really, really down the article...
I will just note to you, when they say it was not a campaign of Anheuser-Busch, then how did they have...
Let's see, where is it?
Yeah, here.
So listen to this.
Despite the company's attempts to disavow...
This is near the end of a long article.
Despite the company's attempts to disavow the connection, the video...
Mulvaney, 26, posted of herself drinking Bud Light at the start of April 2023, used the hashtag, hashtag Bud Light Partner.
So, can you have hashtag Bud Light Partner and not be affiliated with Bud Light?
Maybe.
But I assume it had already been taken up as a hashtag by Bud Light.
So they're blaming it now on an outside firm.
So that's also odd.
Then why did they suspend two of their top people involved in public relations?
If it had nothing to do with Bud people, why are Bud people suspended?
That's why I think they're lying.
I wish they were lying.
I don't have an agenda to have the heads of Bud at the very least.
Not being honest, is that preferable?
I'll happily not use the L word.
Global boss Michelle Duqueris addressed the mass backlash over working with trans-influencer Mulvaney, 26, for the first time in an earnings call with investors on Thursday.
Duqueris told investors there was, quote, misinformation.
Uh-oh.
It's always a trigger word for me.
I feel unsafe when I hear the word misinformation.
Not that there isn't any.
We drown in misinformation from the left.
As I noted to you in the first hour with the AP piece that I read to you and how much dishonesty was in the piece about DeSantis and the Republicans in Florida.
Anyway, so let's see.
There's misinformation spreading on social media about the company's team-up with Mulvaney.
He added that the company is providing direct financial support to the frontline workers impacted by the boycott.
We need to clarify the facts that this was one camp, one influencer, one post, and not a campaign.
What does it mean, one can?
There's only one can with Mulvaney's image on it?
I don't even understand what that means, one can.
What does it mean?
Of course it was one influencer.
That's what I mean.
The dishonesty of the statement, oh, it was one influencer.
Oh, had it been two, it would have been more egregious?
One camp.
What does one camp mean?
I don't understand any of that sentence, the whole notion.
It was one camp, one influencer, one post, and not a campaign.
We will continue to learn.
Meet the moment in time.
Oh, my God.
I would like to ask all of you listening, have you ever said the phrase, I will meet the moment in time?
Really, think about it.
I'm getting old.
I never said, you know, I'm going to meet the moment in time.
I'm going to meet my wife.
I'm going to meet the kids.
Meet my friends for lunch.
I may adopt that, though.
I like it.
I'm going to meet the moment in time.
Sean, what does that mean?
What does meet the moment in time mean?
It sounds like a Democratic Party campaign speech.
That's a good one.
Yes, it does.
We will meet the moment in time.
No, this is actually, in my opinion, it makes things worse.
I would be happy to say, folks, they've acknowledged what damage they have done, and people have paid the price by being fired, and then, okay, then I... I could not say they're on leave.
They're not fired.
It's not the same thing.
And I presume they're being paid while on leave.
Anyway, again, why would anybody be on leave if it was done by, well, we'll get to that, an outside group.
So, let's see.
He's meeting the moment in time.
All be stronger.
And we work tirelessly to do what we do best, bring people together over a beer, and creating a future of more cheers.
Investors were also told by Duqueris that Bud Light will triple its marketing spend this summer in a bid to woo customers back to the tarnished brand.
How will they do that?
I guess they'll just do regular ads.
Free beer to the distributors?
How does that exactly win customers back?
The disastrous marketing bid has seen sales for the American flagship beer plummet 26%.
And I continue with this particular piece because it's really fascinating to see the double talk, the meaningless talk, the word salad, as they say.
Anheuser-Busch did not intend to create controversy or make a political statement.
See, why is that honest?
You have a famous young man who is transitioning to becoming a young girl.
Nobody really believes he's a girl.
Well, very few people.
Do you believe Dylan Mulvaney is a girl?
This is not a knock.
I mean, just please.
In real life, do you believe that?
They did not intend to create controversy?
Oh.
They intended what exactly?
We'll be back in a moment.
Hey, everybody.
Okay, La Cañada, California, and Phil.
Hello, Phil.
Good afternoon or morning, wherever it is there.
I want to clear up.
I think I'm going to clear up something.
I do agree this whole thing with Mulvaney is crazy, but they never made a whole bunch of cans with his picture on it to sell.
My understanding is they sent him one or two or a few cans, and then he showed everyone he's on the can.
But they were never for sale to the general public.
Right.
So how many cans?
I saw a picture of many cans, not two.
I'm sure you've seen that too.
So did they send him a lot of cans?
I don't know how many.
So help me here because you may know more about this than I. I don't.
So what was the point of having his face on a Bud Light beer can if it was not for sale?
It was just to honor him?
I believe that's what it was.
He basically put it on his site, and he was showing off that this is what Bud...
Well, he had every reason to show off.
I assure you, if you or I were on a Bud Light can, it would make my minute.
Yeah, but basically, again, my understanding, this was just a one-off campaign.
Right, okay, yeah.
So, for those, and you're not one of them, because you obviously think it was as big a farce as I do, but for those who defend it and say, well, it wasn't a campaign, so don't blame Bud or Bud Light or Anheuser-Busch, what if they had put Clarence Thomas on a limited number of cans?
You think the left would have gone berserk?
Naturally.
But I also don't believe them.
Obviously, it's a campaign.
But my understanding, again, is that they just sent him these scans.
Yeah, but it would be inconceivable that anyone at the company was that stupid.
That's not even a matter of being a fool.
That's bona fide stupidity that it won't be publicized.
Yeah.
Exactly.
Okay, so clearly they did it with the intent that it be publicized.
Okay.
Campaign or not, they intended it to be publicized.
You don't put somebody's face on a Bud Light can and keep it a secret.
So when they say it wasn't a campaign, they're not being fully honest with you.
Whatever it was, it was to honor a guy.
Who was transitioning to becoming a girl.
It's one thing, as I have said, the left has been incredibly successful in moving from tolerance to acceptance to endorsement.
First it was tolerance, which I'm totally for.
Then it was acceptance.
Oh, that's fine.
Tolerance isn't that's fine.
Tolerance is I will not in any way harm you for your view or for that behavior.
Then there is acceptance.
I accept that you are now a girl.
But that's not enough either for the left.
You now must endorse it as a good.
And that's what Bud Light did.
And that's what a lot of Americans understand is not good.
This is what the Anheuser-Busch said.
Anheuser-Busch did not intend to create controversy.
I pushed the guy onto the tracks, but I did not in any way intend for him to be hit by a train.
Would make as much sense.
Or make a political statement.
Really?
This is why you should continue.
To boycott the product.
They're not leveling with you.
They have contempt.
Anheuser-Busch has so much contempt for the American public.
This statement is so obviously the case.
We didn't do it.
We didn't do it.
Isn't that amazing?
Bud Light cans had the guy's face on it, but we didn't do it.
Not only that, we didn't even intend to make a political statement.
Oh, really?
Then why did you do it?
In reality, the Bud Light can posted by a social media influencer that sparked all the conversation was provided by an outside agency without Anheuser-Busch management awareness or approval.
Now I'll tell you why I don't believe that comment.
Why did they dismiss or suspend two of their top employees?
If it was completely done by an outside group, by the way, if that is true, an outside group with no knowledge of anyone by anyone at Anheuser-Busch is able to change a Bud Light beer can and have it made?
This is one of the most poorly run companies imaginable.
I mean, I don't expect any company to know everything that happens under them.
It's impossible.
I fully acknowledge.
But the beer can having a certain face on it is a very big decision.
Anheuser-Busch management, no awareness or approval.
So why are Anheuser-Busch officials suspended?
Since that time, the lack of oversight and control over marketing decisions has been addressed, and a new VP of Bud Light Marketing has been announced.
Bud Light's VP of Marketing, Alyssa Heinerscheid, took a leave of absence while the VP for mainstream brand, Daniel Blake, stepped down some days later.
Their sudden departure appears premature in light of the recent comments, which also claim there was no management awareness.
Exactly.
Exactly.
Premature is what we call an understatement.
If no management knew it, are they not in management?
It's very important that people understand how they are gaslighting you at Anheuser-Busch.
There will be all sorts of headlines Anheuser-Busch takes blame, but they're not at all.
We have no blame for what happened.
That is the message of the head of the company.
1-8 Prager 776. Hi, everybody.
Dennis Prager here.
I read to you the convoluted statements of the head of Anheuser-Busch.
It was important that I do that because you will hear headlines or...
Read headlines that they've apologized and retracted all, but it's not true.
Okay, Arthur in San Antonio, Texas.
Hello.
Hello, Dennis.
Thanks for taking my call.
You know, these marketing people are really not that smart.
If they wanted to celebrate transgenderism, they should have found a female that was transitioning to a male.
A lot more men drink beer than women.
And I think it's...
It's kind of funny that none of these stories are ever about men transitioning to females or females transitioning to men.
They're all about females transitioning.
They're always the other way around.
It's always a guy who's competing in a women's sport or something like that.
So it's very one-sided.
But that would have been the way to go, I think, for Anheuser-Busch.
That's an interesting point about how much more reporting there is.
First of all, there is...
You're right, in light of the fact that there is a lot more female to male than male to female, just statistically, especially among young people, because girls are being so profoundly confused.
But I'm not sure it would have exactly helped sales among men.
Hey, look at this female who says she's a male.
Let's really get some Bud Light now.
I'm not sure of that.
Between the two, I think you're right.
This is certainly not going to appeal.
Hey, look, guys.
Hey, here's a guy who says he's a girl.
Don't you want that product?
Now, I just want you to know, though, there's a darker side to this.
The young woman who spearheaded this and who's now suspended, On leave?
Is there a difference between suspended and on leave?
If she took her own leave, it meant they put her on leave.
She believed that this would appeal to vast numbers of young men.
Now, either she's really cuckoo, or she might be right.
It doesn't make the decision any better, but she didn't make the decision thinking, oh, wow, I'm going to really lower Bud Light sales.
She was thinking, I'm going to increase Bud Light sales among the young demographic.
So it's an interesting point.
That she would think that way.
Is she right?
Is she wrong?
I don't know.
Does the average 25-year-old male whom they're trying to draw to Bud Light...
The last caller said men are bigger beer drinkers than women.
My instinct says yes.
I don't know if it's a fact.
My instinct says yes.
So, will the average 25-year-old male now become a Bud Light drinker because a guy becoming a girl is on the can or a can or the cans?
Have we gotten that far that it is now a selling point?
Not a tolerance point, but a selling point?
I don't know the answer.
But obviously, that's what she thought.
Difficult to know.
All right, let's see.
East Lansing, Michigan, Mike.
Hello, Mike.
Yes, I think that it was a little test, and if it went well, got a good response, you know, on the Internet, that they would have made millions of cans with his license on it.
That's right.
That's a very excellent point.
You know, kind of like getting on a box of leaves or something.
That's right.
I didn't think of that, and I'm sure you're right.
Well, they tested, and the test worked.
They found out what the reception might be.
And I think they'll be abstaining for at least six months.
We'll be back in a moment.
The Dennis Prager Show.
Dennis Prager here.
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