0:00

Hi everybody, welcome to fireside chat

0:02

number 347. I'm Dennis Prager and

0:06

we have the fireside chat

0:08

in order for me to

0:10

just open up to you

0:13

about what's on my mind, take your questions

0:15

and it's

0:17

really proven its worth over

0:19

the, what is it, seven years, isn't

0:21

it? Basically seven

0:24

years. It's amazing to think. By

0:26

the way, this is all made possible thanks to

0:28

Prager United. So please join

0:30

go to Prager united.com there

0:33

are tremendous benefits that you

0:35

accrue and the biggest one

0:37

is that it helps support the

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fireside chat. Everything we do is free at

0:42

PragerU and obviously that

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includes a fireside chat. So

0:47

that's Prager united.com My

0:49

dog, Mr. Tubbs is currently circling

0:51

me. I don't know if that can be

0:53

seen, apparently not. He is moving my chair in

0:55

case you notice that it is moving. So

1:00

I have actually quite a brief opening

1:03

thought. There are so many

1:05

good questions I want to go to them as quickly

1:07

as possible, but I'd like to share with you a

1:10

thought about the change in our

1:13

society that I'd like to identify.

1:15

There are many changes and

1:18

many of them have not been positive.

1:20

A few have obviously. So

1:23

I remember when

1:25

the war on tobacco began

1:30

and I remember having an

1:32

instinct and my instincts on moral

1:34

issues have been pretty good, pretty

1:36

solid over the course of my

1:38

lifetime. My instinct

1:41

was of course cigarette smoking is

1:43

dangerous to deny that is to

1:45

deny reality and truth

1:47

is the number one issue. But

1:50

I remember thinking they're

1:52

going a little overboard, not a little,

1:55

a lot. With secondhand smoke

1:57

they really went

1:59

overboard. They even know why they did

2:01

it because telling people it was dangerous

2:04

was not enough. They had

2:06

to tell people you're being killed

2:08

by people who smoke and

2:10

that was the winner issue.

2:15

You're not just killing yourself, you're

2:18

killing others. But of course,

2:20

by the way, two thirds of people who

2:22

smoke cigarettes, I don't smoke cigarettes, never have

2:24

smoked cigarettes. I think I put

2:26

a few in my mouth at some point but it

2:29

was to taste what it's like. I never smoked

2:31

cigarettes. I don't like them. I don't like their

2:33

smell. I love cigars and I

2:36

love pipes because I love tobacco. But

2:38

there's no comparison because I don't inhale

2:41

and that's the issue with cigarettes. You have

2:43

to inhale because the purpose is nicotine, not

2:45

taste. So I'm explaining

2:47

the difference between cigarettes and cigars and

2:49

it's a huge difference. My

2:54

instinct was right that something

2:57

had gone awry and what prompted

3:00

this was a

3:02

man calling my radio show. I

3:05

talked about Father's

3:07

Day and he

3:10

spoke about how he had a

3:12

very difficult father because his father

3:14

was abusive and beat

3:17

the children, including him. And

3:20

I didn't want to interrupt him but had

3:22

I interrupted him, I would have said, I assume

3:26

your father was

3:28

an alcoholic or at least drank too much.

3:31

And sure enough, on his own, he noted, oh,

3:34

my dad was an alcoholic. And

3:36

the reason I'm tying them because there's no

3:38

way you would figure out how I'm tying

3:41

these two issues is this. The

3:46

amount of evil that

3:48

is allowed, enabled, or

3:50

even caused by alcohol

3:53

is enormous. Much

3:58

wife-beating spousal. beating, child

4:00

beating, occurs

4:04

after the influence of alcohol. Did

4:10

anybody ever speak about the

4:12

influence of tobacco? Does

4:15

anybody ever say, you know, my father beat

4:17

me after he had a cigarette? It's

4:20

absurd. It's truly absurd. So

4:25

here is my point. In

4:27

the 1920s, America

4:31

campaigned massively

4:34

against alcohol. Seventy

4:37

years later, America

4:39

campaigned vigorously against

4:43

tobacco. And

4:45

here's the change. America

4:48

went from moral preoccupation to

4:52

health preoccupation. That's

4:56

a big change in the country. The

4:59

attitude was generally, listen,

5:03

cigarette smoking is dangerous. We're

5:05

telling you that it's dangerous. End

5:08

of issue. Okay? We're

5:10

moving on. A lot of things people

5:12

do that's dangerous. But

5:15

the war, the preoccupation, the

5:17

anger and so on, and

5:20

no anger and no preoccupation

5:22

with alcohol, they brought the

5:24

heads of tobacco companies into

5:26

Congress and drilled them

5:28

and grilled them. Were

5:31

any of the producers of alcohol brought

5:33

in? Of course not, because every member

5:35

of Congress essentially drank. It

5:37

was a hell of a lot easier to

5:39

go after the tobacco companies than

5:42

the alcohol companies. And I'm not saying

5:44

they should have gone against the

5:46

alcohol companies. I'm only noting that

5:48

they didn't. That

5:50

the preoccupation was health. That

5:53

is when I developed my line that

5:55

I've used on radio so often, probably

5:57

said 500 times. What

6:01

is it? Health über alles. Health

6:04

above all. über alles is

6:06

German, comes from the phrase Deutschland

6:09

über alles, Germany above all,

6:11

which was a phrase during

6:13

the Nazi era in Germany. Health

6:17

über alles. Health above all. I'll

6:20

give you another example of something that is

6:22

a moral issue and

6:25

that has been converted completely into a

6:27

health issue. Abortion.

6:30

Abortion is not a moral issue for

6:32

the whole left because

6:34

they don't have a moral compass that

6:36

I believe works. So

6:38

it's not, I don't care if

6:40

you're pro-choice, I care

6:42

if you deny that there is

6:45

a moral problem with regard to

6:47

abortion. Then

6:49

I can respect

6:51

the pro-choice position, I cannot respect

6:53

the position that says there is

6:55

no moral problem with abortion. So

6:59

what is it called? Reproductive

7:02

health? Right? That's

7:04

what it's called. It's

7:06

not a moral issue that you're

7:08

taking the life of a living being.

7:11

I mean, it's a fact, it's

7:13

not a mosquito, not

7:16

a pimple. So

7:19

what we have done is we

7:22

have dropped moral preoccupation and

7:25

substituted other preoccupations. One

7:28

of them is health. We

7:31

are supposed to be morally preoccupied.

7:35

There is no more important question

7:37

in life than, is it right?

7:41

Well, I guess there might be one.

7:44

Is it wrong? Okay.

7:48

So now let's go to your questions. And

7:53

here we go. Take it away. Hi.

7:56

My name is Jovanna Ragsdale. I'm a French

7:58

American currently living in the South. of France

8:00

and amongst the many questions that I would

8:02

like to ask Dennis Prager, I would probably

8:04

start off by asking who the most influential

8:07

person in his life has been and how

8:09

have they helped to shape the person he is

8:11

today. Very

8:14

nice. Well

8:17

done. Giovanna

8:21

and you are French American now living

8:23

in the south of France and sent

8:25

me the question from the south of

8:27

France. Nice. Nice.

8:30

I dazzled the video guys. Just

8:41

so I get it now. Alright

8:44

so I've asked that

8:47

on more than one occasion. Makes perfect sense

8:51

and I have to tell you I'm

8:53

very self-conscious about answering

8:55

it and I'm not often

8:58

self-conscious. But

9:02

I'm not self-conscious about telling you why

9:04

I'm self-conscious. How's that? I'm,

9:07

I'll be, I'm, because I'm open or

9:10

as one caller put it beautifully I'm

9:13

transparent and I aim to be transparent.

9:16

By the way just a word on

9:18

transparency. It's one of the things

9:21

my wife loves about me. She

9:24

said it very early on her way of

9:26

putting it was I don't have any black

9:28

boxes. I'm

9:31

not even sure I have ten boxes.

9:37

And I've worked on that. I, I,

9:41

if I hid things I would, I

9:43

wouldn't sleep well. It's

9:45

great to be able to not hide.

9:48

So the reason I'm self-conscious and maybe

9:51

it's wrong to be but I, I,

9:53

I'm very much because I want to

9:55

protect my parents dignity

9:57

and honor and so on. What

10:00

I think is people expect me to say one

10:02

or both of my parents when

10:05

I'm asked who's most

10:07

person most influenced you in your life

10:09

and So

10:11

I I don't want

10:16

To dismiss their influence, but

10:19

I don't want to I don't want to overstate

10:21

it either But

10:23

having said that I want I

10:25

will say I will say this I Do

10:30

believe my father had a big influence It

10:35

not in terms of how

10:37

he treated me he was pretty distant Not

10:40

you know not abusive just

10:43

distant Which is

10:45

very common for parents in the past

10:47

generation, you know I love you was not a common thing

10:49

or hugging or anything like that Or

10:54

anything like that But

10:58

he did something more important in

11:00

my opinion and I

11:03

and I was a loving dad and still

11:05

am a loving dad. So I obviously take

11:07

that as being important But

11:10

there was something more important Especially

11:15

for a boy, but I but I think

11:17

for both sexes, but especially for a boy

11:19

is The type

11:21

of person your father is Not

11:25

the type of father Your

11:28

father is is that clear the

11:30

difference? That's that

11:32

I've never heard that distinction made

11:35

maybe it's an invalid distinction, but

11:37

I'm making it So

11:40

he was not the

11:42

most attentive or or hands-on

11:44

or whatever father He

11:47

was a wonderful provider the home

11:49

was stable But

11:52

what my father did

11:54

was provide me with a

11:56

male model Boys

11:58

don't know how to grow up without male

12:00

models overwhelmingly. It

12:03

may not be their father. It might be an uncle.

12:05

It might be a family friend.

12:08

It might be a television or

12:10

movie character. It might be

12:12

a podcaster. A

12:15

lot of people have said to me, I'm

12:17

a father figure in their life and I'm

12:19

honored and delighted to be and

12:21

that's not insignificant but you need

12:23

one. A man

12:26

needs one. We're

12:29

wild without a model of what

12:31

a man should be like. We'll

12:33

just go nuts and

12:36

not generally in good directions

12:40

but he was a moral,

12:43

ethical man and

12:45

that had a big impact on me

12:49

and he had a very good, laissez-faire

12:58

attitude towards life. I'll

13:01

never forget when I was in

13:03

my early 20s and I was

13:05

already out of the house but I came to

13:08

visit regularly

13:10

because I had a job near, a

13:13

weekly job near where they lived and

13:16

I told them, you know, this summer I'm

13:18

going to Lebanon, Syria, Jordan

13:21

and Egypt which was not

13:23

a normal place for a

13:25

kid to go, especially a

13:27

Jewish kid. And

13:29

my mother sort of fell off the bed. I

13:31

remember they were in their bedroom. She

13:36

was not thrilled and

13:38

my father looks at me and he just goes,

13:40

you know, Dennis, you're

13:42

only young once, have a great time.

13:46

That was big. That was big.

13:48

That's why I remember it. He

13:55

provided a good model of how to

13:57

handle life. And

14:00

he was, and again, as I said, he was a

14:02

very ethical man. And

14:04

that was a good combination. So that had,

14:08

I didn't realize what an impact

14:10

until much later. So

14:12

had you asked me this question at 25, I

14:14

don't even know if I'd have mentioned him. I

14:17

don't know who I would have mentioned, to be honest. So

14:20

beyond that, let me say this. And

14:25

again, I'm self-conscious about this too, because

14:29

it almost sounds, or at least I

14:31

fear it might sound, like

14:34

I'm bragging. But

14:36

I don't take credit for this. I

14:39

just note the truth that

14:41

I didn't

14:44

rely on models. I

14:49

sort of brought myself up in many ways,

14:53

if that makes any sense. And

14:57

that was just the nature that I was given to

15:01

handle life. I

15:07

knew what I needed very early, and I

15:10

was very lucky about that. So

15:14

anyway, it's a long answer to a

15:16

short question, and I hope it helped.

15:19

But I also hope that if I could be a

15:22

male model to young

15:24

women, but especially young

15:26

men, or even

15:28

not young, I was told,

15:31

just one final thought on this, I

15:33

started broadcasting when I was 30 years old, 32

15:36

years old. I

15:40

would say within five years, in my

15:42

30s certainly, men would

15:45

call me and say, you know, Dennis, you're a father

15:47

figure to me. They

15:49

go, hello, I'm 38 years

15:51

old, and I'm

15:53

a father figure. It

15:56

doesn't matter what age. If you're

15:58

a mature man who. conveys

16:00

wisdom, men need

16:03

you and want you. I could

16:06

have been five years older than the guy

16:08

calling in, and I was a father figure.

16:11

And by the way, I say to every

16:13

man, you should strive to be father figures

16:15

to younger men. Whether

16:18

you have children or not, that

16:20

is your task. Okay,

16:23

we go on the Prager United

16:26

question. You get the first question

16:28

after the video. Josh,

16:31

38, in Portland, Oregon.

16:35

Hello, Dennis. Hello, Josh. I

16:37

appreciate all you do and how genuine you are.

16:40

Thank you. Thank

16:43

you for being you. Well,

16:45

it's very hard to be somebody else, but

16:48

I know what you mean and I thank you. My

16:51

wife and I have a great relationship on

16:53

many levels. However, over the last couple of

16:55

years, we have grown apart politically. I

16:58

consume conservative radio shows, podcasts,

17:00

and videos, and don't

17:03

have any social media or

17:05

consumed legacy media. She

17:07

is on several social media platforms and

17:09

spends hours a day on TikTok. Do

17:14

you have any advice? The reason I paused

17:16

was, how do you spend hours a day

17:18

on TikTok? And it's not a cute question

17:20

because I don't know enough about TikTok. What

17:23

would you be doing following

17:25

influencers? Yeah, it's just

17:27

an endless scroll of content. Okay,

17:29

endless scroll of content. So

17:32

I have to learn about that

17:34

more. I've been on it, but not enough. Not enough

17:36

to know how you'd spend hours, but I

17:39

believe you. She is on several

17:41

social, oh yes, okay. Do you have

17:44

any advice on how to approach finding

17:46

common ground in politics? We

17:48

both are believers, grew up in the

17:50

church, even attended the same church denomination,

17:53

but now find ourselves on opposite sides of

17:55

most of the major issues of our time.

17:57

Thank you. It's

18:02

a very difficult issue. It

18:05

was not nearly as difficult when

18:10

I grew up. Parents

18:12

won one as a Republican, one as a Democrat. Nobody

18:14

gave a hoot. And

18:17

the reason nobody gave a hoot was you

18:20

didn't have such opposite

18:23

views. I mean, let's

18:25

take the example. I

18:28

would love to know, does your wife think

18:33

that it is moral,

18:35

ethical, right, fair,

18:37

whatever term you wish to use for

18:40

men who say they're women to

18:43

compete against women in sports on

18:46

women's teams? See,

18:49

we didn't have that issue 15 years ago, or

18:51

even 10 years ago, I suspect, let alone when

18:56

I grew up. But

18:59

now it is an issue. Now,

19:02

if your wife thinks it's fair

19:05

for a man to compete against women

19:07

just because he says he's a woman, I don't

19:10

know what you can do. I

19:14

say that with total sadness. I

19:17

don't know. Because

19:22

the issue there isn't values, it's

19:24

rational thought. The

19:26

issue on men competing against women is

19:29

not a political issue. It's

19:35

a rational issue. It's

19:39

not rational to say yes. He's

19:42

a man in what

19:44

matters in sports. Now

19:50

if a guy looks like a woman and wants

19:52

to be hired as a waitress, it's a non-issue

19:54

to me. You're a waitress, fine.

19:56

And if you have a beard, I won't call

19:58

you a waitress, okay? that

20:02

we have to be allowed Common-sense

20:05

thought to but

20:08

sports if It

20:10

didn't matter Whether you

20:12

were biologically male or female. Why is

20:15

there female sports to begin with? Because

20:19

men have an advantage physically that's the

20:21

reason end of issue So

20:26

I when when you tell me that on most

20:29

issues you you you differ I would love to

20:31

know what else there might be you say you're

20:33

both in a church. Do you differ on abortion?

20:36

Does she believe that all abortions are moral?

20:38

I? Mean

20:42

because you can at least have

20:44

some Meeting if

20:46

she says you know what the truth is some

20:48

some abortions are not moral I

20:51

want to leave it nevertheless for a woman

20:53

to have the choice But at least I

20:55

acknowledge a fair number of abortions

20:57

are not moral then then fine you

21:00

think all abortions are are Homicide

21:03

are taking of an innocent life,

21:06

and she would think well some Sometimes

21:09

it's okay, or at least there

21:12

are gradations of evil Okay,

21:15

but if if she says there

21:18

is no moral issue in abortion

21:20

then again, it's like the the

21:23

men saying they're women and Competing

21:26

in women's sports. I don't

21:28

know where there's a meeting point so

21:31

I would love to know I would love to

21:33

know And

21:36

maybe a follow-up question from you

21:39

five issues where

21:42

They're the the five biggest issues

21:45

of difference this might because

21:47

this would clearly help other people as well You

21:52

know I came up with an

21:54

answer to happy wife happy life

21:56

that very famous phrase all

21:59

of my life I've been trying to figure out,

22:01

well, what's the answer with husband? But

22:04

I realized no word rhymes with husband.

22:07

So I was, I was,

22:09

uh, what is it? Chasing

22:12

the wrong ball or whatever. Then

22:15

I came with a, I came up with

22:17

an answer, which I love.

22:20

Rational spouse, happy

22:23

house. Good

22:26

one, eh? Took me about 20

22:28

years folks. Just want you to know it

22:31

didn't happen overnight, but that's

22:33

the truth. If two

22:35

rational people are married to one another,

22:40

that's a big help

22:43

to a happy marriage. All

22:47

righty. Next. Uh,

22:51

Horace, Horace. There's

22:54

a Horace alive. Horace

22:57

is 19th century. You're

23:00

a good Horace in Rochester, New York.

23:04

You know, that makes sense for some reason. If

23:06

someone were to say, if there's a Horace in America,

23:08

Dennis, where is he? I'd

23:11

have said Rochester. Mr.

23:14

Prager, I enjoy your video so much. I

23:17

am a gay man and this is my question. You

23:20

know, I'm not a gay man. I'm a gay man. I'm

23:22

a gay man. I'm a gay man. I'm

23:24

a gay man. You

23:27

have stated that you are a Godfather to

23:29

the child of a gay couple. And

23:33

by the way, you say adopted child.

23:35

I have to correct that. You revere

23:37

the Torah. It

23:40

states in Leviticus that a man may not

23:42

lie with another. It's an abomination. How do

23:45

you reconcile this? Well,

23:47

I could spend the hour on this subject.

23:49

By the way, sometime I should just,

23:52

just for the record, to clarify what

23:55

is truly

23:57

not clear in our time. Yes,

24:00

my wife and I are God parents

24:03

to the children of a gay couple.

24:05

That is correct. So

24:07

how do I reconcile that? And by the way,

24:10

it's an interesting question. The

24:12

child is not adopted. They use the

24:14

surrogate, but it's not adopted. That's

24:16

why I wanted to make that

24:18

clear. The

24:20

young woman I do Dennis and Julie

24:23

with, she was, her parents

24:25

are married and heterosexual and she

24:28

was born to a surrogate mother because

24:30

her mother couldn't carry a pregnancy. She's

24:33

certainly not adopted. By the

24:35

way, I have an adopted child. I don't see

24:37

anything, I love adoption. But I

24:39

just want to clarify the issue with the couple. So,

24:43

okay. First

24:46

of all, I'm not sure

24:48

exactly, well, I

24:50

am sure exactly, but the

24:56

fact that they live with one another

24:59

and I think at

25:01

this point, by this point, they're married to

25:04

one another, that

25:09

in and of itself doesn't violate Leviticus.

25:11

Leviticus says, do not lie with a man

25:14

as one lies with a woman or the lying of

25:17

a woman. It's

25:19

the Hebrew is not

25:21

easily translated, but it's essentially that.

25:26

I mean, theoretically, if they wanted

25:28

to live by

25:30

the Levitical law, they could be living

25:33

together and they could not

25:36

necessarily literally violate that

25:38

verse. I

25:43

won't go into details, but everybody knows what

25:45

I'm talking about. But

25:49

you're asking a bigger question. How could I

25:51

be the godfather

25:55

to the children

25:57

of a couple when I... I

26:00

accept the Torah's laws

26:03

and views. So

26:05

here is my very

26:07

quick answer. I

26:10

believe in standards in the macro

26:13

and compassion in the micro.

26:18

So I did not support redefining

26:20

marriage to

26:25

include members of the same

26:27

sex, and I still don't. So

26:32

I have not abandoned my standards,

26:36

but I love these two

26:38

men. They're beautiful human beings. And

26:43

so I don't abandon

26:45

my standards. They know how I feel about

26:47

same sex marriage. And

26:49

they still have me as a godfather

26:52

to their children. And

26:54

the godparents job is to provide the

26:56

values to the children. So

26:59

if they die, God forbid, but

27:01

if they die and

27:04

my wife and I are responsible,

27:06

they will be transferring authority, moral

27:09

authority to a couple

27:11

that doesn't believe in the marriage they

27:14

had. And they're fine with it. Just

27:16

as I'm fine with

27:18

being the godfather, godparent

27:22

to their child. We

27:26

both are thinking rationally here.

27:30

So yes, I have not abandoned my position

27:33

that marriage should be reserved to a man

27:35

and a woman, one man and one woman

27:37

at that. But

27:42

what am I going to do with regard to these

27:44

two men? Abandon

27:47

them? They're good people. Bend

27:51

their children? What good

27:53

will that do for the children? They

27:56

wouldn't have the influence. I hope I'm a

27:58

good man. My

28:00

wife is certainly a good woman. So

28:03

I hope that answers your question. The

28:10

fifth book of my five-volume commentary on

28:12

the Torah, the first five books of

28:14

the Bible, is

28:16

Leviticus. I have done the

28:18

other four. And

28:21

it's called the Rational Bible. It's

28:24

meant to change your life for the better. So

28:27

please, at least read one of the

28:29

volumes, and then I think

28:32

that'll convince you to

28:34

buy a second volume. Everything

28:38

is in the Torah. It's the greatest of

28:40

the books, those five. In

28:45

Leviticus, there is that

28:47

law that Horace

28:49

cited. And

28:55

I do commentaries on

28:57

many verses. I comment on almost

28:59

every verse. But

29:03

I write an essay on

29:05

some verses because

29:08

some big issue was touched here. On

29:11

that one verse, do

29:14

not lie with a man as with a

29:16

woman. Just

29:18

generalizing its translation. I

29:21

have written 20,000 words on one verse. Basically,

29:29

it's a book within a book. What's

29:32

our timing? That

29:35

inner clock, I'm telling you. Isn't

29:38

that eerie? You've got to admit.

29:42

I'm not even proud of it. It's

29:46

almost like someone who can look

29:49

at an M&M's bag and know how many M&M's

29:51

are in there. It's

29:54

not something to be proud of. It's not something to

29:56

be ashamed of. It just is. Okay,

30:02

everybody, I'll see you next week.

30:05

Thanks. The Fireside

30:07

Chat is made possible

30:09

solely thanks to Prager

30:11

United members. Please

30:14

consider joining Prager United at

30:16

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