0:00

Hello, everybody. I'm Dennis Prager with

0:02

Fireside Chat number very high. Thank

0:06

you. Oh,

0:08

that's a milestone. Wow.

0:13

Wouldn't you know it, on the 350th, a truly

0:16

dramatic event has taken place in

0:19

the United States of America and reverberated

0:21

internationally. But first, I just want to

0:24

remind you that everything

0:26

we do at PragerU is free, and

0:28

that obviously includes the Fireside Chat, and

0:31

you can directly support the Fireside

0:33

Chat's availability to the world, and

0:36

the world is really accurate. We have

0:39

questions today from what? India, Iran. Israel.

0:42

Israel. Mexico. Mexico.

0:46

And even parts of America.

0:50

So I would ask you

0:52

to consider joining Prager United, and it's

0:54

also terrific for you because you get

0:56

a whole slew

0:59

of benefits when you do

1:01

so. So go to pragerunited.com

1:04

and see what

1:07

you would like to do, if anything, and I

1:09

appreciate it. Supporting

1:12

good stuff is a big deal in life. Okay,

1:16

so guess

1:18

what I'm going to be talking about

1:20

in my opening comments. Normally

1:23

you can't guess because it's very rarely tied

1:26

directly to the news or something

1:28

happening, but in this case, where

1:31

we have just witnessed the

1:33

attempted assassination of

1:36

a former president and

1:39

presidential candidate nominee

1:41

for the office, that's

1:44

a rather important subject. So

1:48

my take on

1:51

issues is always, as you

1:54

know, the broad picture and

1:56

the philosophic one. There

2:01

are obvious political elements, but I

2:03

want to deal with a few

2:05

of the larger elements to

2:07

begin with. And I'll begin with

2:11

something especially dedicated to those

2:13

of you who

2:15

are young. By young, I mean,

2:17

you know, let's say under

2:20

25, under even perhaps 30. Both

2:26

as regards the United States and virtually

2:29

every country in the world. This

2:35

is not the first assassination or

2:37

in this case attempted assassination of

2:42

an American leader. Abraham

2:45

Lincoln, the greatest president alongside

2:48

George Washington was assassinated.

2:51

James Garfield, another president was assassinated

2:54

and it wasn't even a political

2:56

issue then. It

2:58

was a

3:02

strange guy who was

3:05

angry at the president, then James Garfield,

3:07

who was a wonderful man, by the

3:10

way, for not

3:12

getting him a job in

3:14

the government. I mean, it's

3:16

beyond belief. And

3:19

the poor president lingered on because

3:21

doctors in those days basically

3:24

did harm. They

3:28

did more harm than good. You

3:30

were very lucky if no doctor attended

3:32

you. They tried to get

3:34

the bullet out and they would stick

3:37

their dirty fingers into his body where

3:39

the holes were, which of

3:41

course created an infection, but they never heard

3:44

of infection. They didn't even know about germs.

3:47

And so the poor president who might

3:49

have actually survived if

3:52

doctors had not infected him, lingered

3:55

in pain and finally died.

3:59

But that was one and then

4:01

James McKinley's first name,

4:04

William McKinley. President

4:06

William McKinley was assassinated. Then

4:08

Teddy Roosevelt became a president

4:10

as a result of that. And

4:13

John F. Kennedy was assassinated in 1963 and

4:15

Martin Luther King was assassinated

4:20

and Bobby Kennedy,

4:24

John Kennedy's younger brother,

4:27

who was running for president for

4:29

the nomination of the Democratic party and probably would

4:31

have gotten it. I mean, so

4:34

what is my point? My

4:36

point is you

4:40

need to understand and very few

4:42

young people do. Indeed,

4:44

very few people, not just young,

4:46

very few people do period. When

4:50

you grow up in a country like

4:52

the United States, where

4:54

things for most people

4:57

are relatively remarkably good

5:00

financially, freedom wise, opportunity wise. This

5:02

is why so many in the

5:04

world have wanted to move to

5:06

the United States. You

5:09

start taking it for granted and

5:11

then you're shocked when evil takes place.

5:15

There are bad people on this planet

5:18

and they do a lot of damage and it

5:20

doesn't take a lot of people to do a

5:22

lot of damage. The

5:25

communists were a tiny group and then they

5:27

ended up killing just in the Soviet Union

5:30

20 to 40 million innocent people. And

5:35

they were, the Chinese Communist Party was tiny and

5:37

they ended up killing about 60 million Chinese and

5:40

enslaving a billion people. And

5:46

the Nazis were a minority in Germany and

5:48

look at what they did. It doesn't take a lot of

5:50

people to do a lot of

5:53

bad. It's

6:01

It's a tragic fact of life. So

6:06

maybe you should understand then,

6:09

this is not new. Every

6:12

day that something terrible doesn't happen is

6:15

a blessing. Or as

6:18

I put it on my Happiness Hour on

6:20

my radio show, if nothing's

6:22

horrific, life is terrific.

6:25

And that's true in the macro, in

6:27

the societal realm, and it's true in your personal

6:30

life as well. Next.

6:36

For eight years now,

6:39

Donald Trump, I

6:41

have heard regularly, I mean regularly,

6:44

called a Nazi, called a

6:47

white supremacist, called a racist, called

6:49

a fascist. You

6:51

can't say that about a person

6:55

thousands and thousands of times

6:59

and have no impact on

7:01

someone. I

7:03

think it has an impact on a lot of people. If

7:07

Donald Trump is a Nazi, he

7:09

deserves to die. I'm

7:12

sorry to say that, but there

7:15

are levels of

7:17

evil that render you

7:20

worthy of death. I

7:23

would think Nazi is one of them. He

7:27

was, in other words, he's called the worst

7:29

possible thing a human being could be, and

7:32

then people are shocked if somebody tries

7:34

to kill him. And

7:38

then we're told both sides need

7:40

to cool the heated

7:43

rhetoric. Well,

7:45

most of the heated rhetoric comes

7:47

from one side, and

7:49

it's the side that calls not just

7:51

Donald Trump. My God,

7:54

when Charlie Kirk and I spoke at

7:56

Arizona State University, we were called white

7:58

supremacists. When

8:00

I spoke the University of Wyoming, I was

8:02

called an anti-semite They

8:05

just throw out horrible names. I mean,

8:07

I'm a committed religious Jew I've

8:11

written the most widely used introduction to

8:13

Judaism in the English language and I'm

8:15

an anti-semite They just

8:17

they just throw out these words because the left

8:20

smears they don't debate 34

8:24

professors at Arizona State wrote that no

8:26

one should attend our lectures Charlie's in

8:28

mine And all

8:30

I said is why don't you come on

8:32

my radio show and tell people why I'll

8:35

give you a vast national audience I'll

8:38

give you more people than you will ever speak to in

8:40

your life Tell them

8:42

why I'm so terrible, but they don't even come

8:44

on that let alone invite me into their classroom

8:48

So Donald Trump is just writ

8:50

large what happens to all people

8:53

Who are opposed to the left and I

8:56

don't mean opposed to liberalism opposed to the

8:58

left You are

9:00

you are attacked mercilessly as a Nazi

9:02

is a fascist and so on Listen

9:07

I've said that in regard to I'm always

9:09

asked why think that there was cheating in

9:12

the 2020 election and I

9:15

I've always Answered I

9:18

have a few answers, but I only give you one

9:20

now one that I've always given is If

9:23

you really believe Donald Trump is a fascist

9:25

and a Nazi and a white supremacist racist

9:28

Why wouldn't you cheat? What

9:31

I have cheated if I were a vote

9:34

counter in Germany in 1938

9:37

or 39 the last election that they had there

9:39

and I

9:41

could I could have tilted the election

9:43

away from the Nazis wouldn't I have cheated?

9:48

It's so you can't have it both

9:50

ways you can't say oh X

9:54

is a Nazi, but we should not

9:57

do anything Wrong we

9:59

shouldn't Try to cheat in

10:01

an election. We shouldn't try to kill

10:03

him No, then

10:05

he's not a Nazi if you really believe he's

10:08

a Nazi and by the way the people who

10:10

really did that there were a fair number of

10:12

people on the internet and Reports

10:14

that I got from callers of

10:17

people saw too bad the shooter missed Well,

10:21

and they are the only

10:23

consistent ones we think

10:25

he's a Nazi it's too bad the

10:27

shooter missed That's the

10:30

only logical Deduction

10:33

Conclusion to be reached if you

10:36

think that Donald Trump is a

10:38

Nazi too bad the shooter missed

10:40

that's that's actually a Logical

10:44

conclusion you can't say

10:46

oh, he's a Nazi. Thank God. He

10:48

wasn't killed That

10:52

doesn't make sense So

10:56

the the they have set a

10:59

terrible agenda here of staggering

11:04

horrible terms used I Remember,

11:08

I used to be invited on CNN Pretty

11:12

often and and then that

11:14

just stopped but I was on in

11:16

the very beginning of the Trump era

11:18

and I Was

11:21

on with three guests and the

11:23

host all of them said Donald Trump

11:25

was it was it anti-semite? The

11:29

problem is I know

11:31

what anti-semitism is and

11:33

I knew that Trump wasn't But

11:35

it was amazing to me. I felt like I

11:38

had entered the Twilight Zone he's

11:40

it wait, so he has a religious

11:42

Jewish daughter and Religious Jewish

11:45

son-in-law and religious Jewish grandchildren

11:47

and he's an anti-semite. That's

11:49

a first But

11:54

it didn't matter just call

11:56

him anything to destroy him And

12:00

then somebody did try to destroy him. And

12:04

a final thought on his

12:07

behavior, even

12:11

in the New York Times, they

12:13

grudgingly acknowledge that it was quite

12:15

remarkable. His presence of

12:18

mind after being shot puts

12:21

his hand through his ear and it's filled with blood.

12:25

And he falls down and, well, in

12:27

order to avoid getting shot more, I

12:30

don't think he fell down.

12:33

I think he decided to go down. And

12:39

I mean, this man is larger than life. There's

12:42

just no question about it. And

12:46

that is undeniable. The

12:50

presence of mind, the calm with which

12:53

he reacted. I think

12:55

most people shot on the

12:58

side of the head bleeding

13:00

would probably be yelling, I'm

13:02

shot, I'm shot or something

13:05

to that effect, right? I'm

13:07

bleeding, I'm bleeding. Get me help. Get

13:10

me out of here. It

13:12

says, no, no, no, I want to put my shoes on. Isn't

13:16

that amazing? Want

13:18

to put my shoes on. And then

13:20

looks at the crowd and goes fight, fight. Certainly

13:27

among those who

13:30

are truly admirers of

13:32

him, I mean, this confirms

13:34

their adoration of

13:39

him for

13:42

logical reason. This is

13:44

a larger than life character. So

13:49

I think

13:52

this language just needs

13:54

to stop. He's

13:56

not a Nazi. Oh, and by the way. To

14:00

Prager use credit About

14:03

six years ago We

14:06

put out a video called the

14:08

Charlottesville lie Steve

14:11

Cortez Was

14:14

the man who delivered it he's a

14:16

terrific news person

14:19

commentator and It

14:22

has many many millions of views I'm

14:25

maybe 10 million This

14:29

notion that he said

14:32

after there were some demonstrations

14:35

and Anti

14:39

demonstrations in

14:41

Charlottesville, Virginia When

14:45

he said there were fine people on both

14:47

sides he was trying to calm down

14:49

the situation He was not

14:51

talking about Nazis. He never

14:54

said Fine people

14:57

With the reference to the Nazis. That

14:59

was a separate March He

15:02

was talking about pro and

15:04

anti Confederate statues Not

15:06

about Nazis and anti Nazis It's

15:10

a lie and Snopes, which is

15:13

the one of the most Widely

15:16

used fact-checkers and is

15:18

liberal not conservative said

15:20

it was a lie Just recently

15:22

but the New York Times

15:24

repeats the lie regularly that

15:26

he called Nazis fine people

15:28

and The

15:32

president of the United States Joe Biden

15:35

Said it in his debate and keeps

15:37

repeating it. I went into

15:39

this and ran for president because

15:43

Donald Trump said that Nazis

15:45

were fine people and

15:48

they just keep up the lie. He never said it

15:51

You should watch our video, but I just want

15:53

to know I want you to know we're on

15:55

record While

15:57

I'm talking about what records were on

16:00

I just want to remind you that

16:02

within six weeks of

16:04

the lockdowns, I

16:06

said that the lockdowns were the greatest

16:08

international mistake in history. And

16:13

that's on the internet. I

16:17

said it on radio. I said it at PragerU. And

16:23

I was quite attacked for it because

16:25

the experts came out

16:27

for lockdowns. I

16:30

am going to do a fireside

16:32

chat on experts.

16:35

That will be one of the great fun

16:38

moments of my life to

16:40

let you know what I think of experts. Not

16:45

experts' knowledge, experts' wisdom.

16:49

I don't have an issue with experts' knowledge.

16:52

I have big issue

16:54

with their honesty, their integrity,

16:57

and their wisdom. So

17:01

if I want to know how

17:03

do mitochondria work, I will go

17:05

to an expert biologist. No

17:08

question. But if I want

17:10

to know whether to deprive children of school for

17:12

two years, I will not go

17:14

to quote-unquote experts. I

17:17

will go to people with wisdom. And

17:20

in that case, I would have gone to

17:22

Sweden. But that's a separate

17:24

subject. In any event, just

17:27

know that the human

17:29

condition is a very troubled one.

17:33

America has been pretty blessed. Europeans

17:37

have had staggering wars on their

17:39

soil. We've had one

17:41

war on our soil, a civil war. Europeans

17:45

had World War I and World War II. So

17:50

people all over the world

17:52

know suffering on a scale

17:55

that is exponentially greater than

17:57

the suffering that America has.

17:59

have had. So

18:03

I am not shocked when a bad thing happens,

18:05

as happened this past weekend. Okay.

18:12

To your questions, here we go. Hi,

18:17

my name is Sahil and I'm from India. I had

18:20

two questions for Mr. Prager. Number

18:22

one, patriotism. It used

18:24

to be considered a very good

18:27

quality, but now the work left has

18:29

ensured that it is seen as an

18:31

evil. How exactly are you

18:33

planning to combat it? And number

18:36

two, when are you coming to India? We

18:38

are a country of 1.4 billion who

18:41

had a very strong value system, but

18:43

now is crumbling thanks to the West.

18:45

We need someone like Prager you to come

18:47

here and make

18:50

things better again. Boy,

18:54

do I agree. We do. Okay,

18:56

so thank you very

18:58

much. I wish you would have

19:01

told me what city you're in. I've been to India

19:03

four times. People ask me

19:05

because I've been to 132 countries,

19:07

not that I'm counting. And

19:10

so what's your favorite to visit?

19:13

And there is no answer. I

19:15

have loved virtually every one of the 132. Most recently Greenland,

19:17

which is

19:26

not exactly a tourist destination,

19:29

but it was fascinating. I find every

19:31

country fascinating. And they are.

19:33

Every country is fascinating. But

19:36

I always mention to people, Israel and

19:38

India, those are mine.

19:40

And then I did an

19:42

analysis in my own mind. Gee,

19:44

why do you recommend Israel and

19:47

India? Do they have

19:49

anything in common? And I get, yes, they're

19:51

the only two countries in the world with

19:53

their own religion. There's

19:56

only one Jewish country. There's only one Hindu

19:58

country. I don't know. Maybe. Maybe

20:00

there's, you could

20:02

speak of Nepal or something,

20:04

but there's one Hindu country,

20:06

there's one Jewish country. So maybe

20:09

that's part of the fascination that

20:13

one would have with both countries. Anyway, I

20:15

really love visiting your country. So

20:19

patriotism, yes, the left

20:21

loads patriotism because

20:24

patriotism is a form of nationalism.

20:27

I love my country is not

20:29

a left wing idea. It's a

20:31

liberal idea, it's a conservative idea.

20:33

It's not a left wing idea. I

20:36

love my race, that's a left

20:39

wing idea. But I

20:41

was raised as a liberal to believe

20:43

I love my race is

20:45

racist. By the way,

20:47

I still hold that view. I

20:49

love my race is pure undiluted

20:51

racism. There was nothing

20:54

to love about your race, nothing.

20:58

It's a skin color, that's

21:00

all it is. And what

21:02

if you're mixed race? Which race do you

21:04

love? I'm very serious. Let's

21:07

say you have a black father and a

21:09

white mother or vice versa. I

21:12

love my race doesn't mean much because unless

21:15

you love two races, but then

21:17

that sort of

21:19

obviates the point, doesn't it? No,

21:25

the left has killed patriotism because

21:28

it's love of country. In

21:31

the United States, I can tell you that

21:33

on holidays where when

21:36

I grew up, you saw so

21:38

many American flags, July 4th, American

21:40

Independence Day and the

21:42

last, Monday

21:45

in May, Memorial Day, so many

21:48

flags were around. And

21:50

now if you even show

21:52

the American flag, you're considered

21:55

almost a fascist. It's

21:58

really tragic. what's happened to

22:01

patriotism. So

22:03

I didn't know

22:05

that this is happening in India

22:07

because I thought under your Prime

22:09

Minister Modi, there was a resurgence

22:12

of Indian nationalism and patriotism. So

22:15

I just, I don't know how to apply

22:17

it exactly, but I'll tell

22:20

you what you said that's really sad. Something

22:23

to the effect, maybe it is here. Yeah.

22:30

We are a country of 1.4 billion who

22:33

had a very strong value system, but

22:35

now is crumbling thanks to the West.

22:38

It's so ironic because the West brought

22:40

you so many of the values that

22:43

you adhere to, and

22:46

now the West is taking back

22:48

its values. This

22:53

is so sad and

22:55

potentially catastrophic for the human

22:57

race. Western values

23:00

are great values. They're

23:05

Judeo-Christian and they're

23:08

rational. And

23:12

that's a great combination. Judeo-Christian and

23:14

reason, that's

23:16

the best combination for

23:19

a good society. All

23:23

right, thank you. And

23:26

now a Prager United question. Prager

23:28

United members get the first question

23:31

after the video question. This

23:33

is from Angela A28 in Miami, Florida.

23:39

Hi Dennis, I was very impacted by

23:41

your story of your father calling his

23:43

mother each week, only to

23:45

say, yeah ma or

23:47

okay ma, every so often while his

23:50

mother yelled at him. I

23:52

strive to honor my parents and parents-in-law in

23:54

the same way. Do you have

23:57

suggestions on how to do this when parents

23:59

are being difficult? in

30:00

any event, stay

30:03

well, be strong, and I'll see

30:06

you next week. The

30:09

Fireside Chat is made possible

30:11

solely thanks to Prager

30:14

United members. Please

30:16

consider joining Prager United

30:18

at pragerunited.com.