Relatable with Allie Beth Stuckey - Ep 237 | Toxic Mommy Culture

Episode Date: April 13, 2020

Today we finally dive into the much-anticipated topic of Toxic Mommy Culture. We discuss why the bullying of kids by their moms online is much more harmful than you may think. Today's Sponsor: Laurel Springs is an accredited, online private school for students in kindergarten through twelfth grade. Register your child at https://laurelsprings.com/allie/ & receive a waived registration fee.

Hey, this is Steve Day. If you're listening to Allie, you already understand that the biggest issues facing our country aren't just political. They're moral, spiritual, and rooted in what we believe is true about God, humanity, and reality itself. On the Steve Day show, we take the news of the day and tested against first principles, faith, truth, and objective reality. We don't just chase narratives and we don't offer false comfort.

We ask the hard questions and follow the answers wherever they leave, even when it's unpopular. This is a show for people who want honesty over hype and clarity over chaos. If you're looking for commentary grounded in conviction and unwilling to lie to you about where we are or where we're headed, you can watch this D-Day show right here on Blaze TV or listen wherever you get podcasts. I hope you'll join us. Hey, guys, welcome to relatable. Happy Monday. I hope everyone had a great Easter weekend celebrating with your families and whatever non-traditional ways that you got to celebrate this weekend. Today we are talking about toxic mommy culture. This is a topic that a lot of you have been asking me to address. more thoroughly. We've talked about it on the podcast before, but I'm going to tell you what it is, why it's bad and why we as Christian women should avoid it. Now, if you are listening on Monday, you know that this podcast episode is out a little bit later than usual. There were some technical difficulties, so I apologize for that. I actually had to record it a second time because

the audio was out on the first one. So anyway, sorry for the delay there, but I'm so excited to get into the subject that a ton of you have been requesting that we dive into more deeply. Hey, this is Steve Day. If you're listening to Allie, you already understand that the biggest issues facing our country aren't just political. They're moral, spiritual, and rooted in what we believe is true about God, humanity, and reality itself. On the Steve Day show, we take the news of the day and tested against first principles, faith, truth, and objective reality. We don't just chase narratives and we don't offer false comfort. We ask the hard questions and follow the answers wherever they leave, even when it's unpopular.

This is a show for people who want honesty over hype and clarity over chaos. If you're looking for commentary grounded in conviction and unwilling to lie to you about where we are or where we're headed, you can watch this T-Day show right here on Blaze TV or listen wherever you get podcasts. I hope you'll join us. Okay, let's get into toxic mommy culture. What is toxic mommy culture? This is a term that I made up, or at least I think I made it up. I'm sure other people somewhere have said this phrase before, but I think,

that I came up with it. Toxic mommy culture, it is what I used to describe the trendy malice expressed by parents about their kids on Twitter. Let me tell you what I am talking about and what I'm not talking about just so we can be clear. Let me start with what I'm not talking about when I say toxic mommy culture. So what is not toxic mommy culture is saying motherhood is hard. That's not toxic mommy culture or asking for help or advice, voicing. your worries or your fears or your stressors when it comes to motherhood, talking about needing a break or a time of refreshment or rest, being honest about the real challenges of raising children. That's not toxic.

Laughing about something your children said or did. Joking about not having it altogether or even, you know, poop explosions or all the non-glamorous parts of motherhood. These are not part of what I consider toxic mommy culture. Of course, every situation is. and everything that said online is different and requires us to look at tone and context and things like that. But just up front, I'm not talking about, I'm not talking about vulnerability and transparency and lighthearted humor when it comes to talking about motherhood online.

I think that these can all be done on social media in a way that's lighthearted, that's fun, that's funny and edifying. When I talk about toxic mommy culture, I am not indicting, like I said, vulnerability and transparency. I am condemning meanness, malice, disrespect, and what even may very well be considered bullying and emotional abuse. This word toxic is used a lot nowadays in this whole what I call the trendy narcissism culture, the culture of self-love to say, okay, if you have a toxic relationship, you need to cut it out. What I mean by toxic is that it is that it is, it is, infecting you, it is bringing you down, it is making you, your thoughts, your life, your relationships worse, it is tearing things down rather than building things up. So that's

what I mean by toxic. So toxic mommy culture includes but is not limited to. And this is just my own personal definition. Other people might have different definitions, but it's my personal definition in light of what the Bible says about motherhood and raising children and things like that. So toxic, non-edifying, non-building up, non-encouraging mommy culture is including, but not limited to calling your kids names online. A-hole seems to be a prevalent one that people just think is hilarious nowadays, but also calling your kids brats, jerks, things like that, talking about how your kids are driving you to alcoholism, pointing out that you hate spending time with your kids or they're holding you back from doing all the things that you want to do,

you hate having them in the house and you just can't wait for them to go away. All of this by the way also applies to how a lot of women talk about their spouses online. And it is almost always wives complaining about these things. Wives complaining about their husbands, moms complaining about their kids, not always, but often. Our sinful and incessant need to nag as women seems to be spilling over onto social media. And let me tell you, it ain't pretty. and that is why I am talking about toxic mommy culture. There are social media accounts that are dedicated to this kind of stuff.

Not all the posts on these accounts like Scary Mommy, for example, are bad, but there is a theme to most of them, and it's this, that I am a victim of motherhood. I am strung out, I am stressed out, I am put out, I deserve better, I'm entitled to recognition and vacation, and I'm not getting these things, so I'm bitter. That's the theme of most of these posts, these degrading posts about kids and toxic posts about motherhood. All of this is presented usually under the guise of humor. And as I have learned in my experience, if you call this out, if you point out even from a Christian perspective, a Christian perspective that this kind of attitude is unhelpful, is hurtful and unbiblical,

you will be met with a cacophony of defenses. You will hear things like, lighten up. It's just a joke. Moms just need a place where they can vent and voice their frustrations. Or why don't you give these moms some grace rather than telling them their reactions are wrong? Stop being so judgmental or my personal favorite. Just wait. Just wait till you have teenagers.

Just wait till you have more kids. Just wait till you are met with X, Y, Z, Challenges. just wait, then you will understand and you will start talking like this about your kids. And instead of just discounting these defenses of toxic mommy culture, instead of just writing them off, I'm going to address them one by one. Because some of this pushback is legitimate or it's at least understandable and it's worth answering and I will use my responses to these justifications of toxic mommy culture to make my argument against it. First defense of toxic mommy culture is it's just a joke okay i love jokes like i can take a joke i am not easily offended by jokes

even if jokes are targeted towards me or a demographic or a group that i represent i have a very deep appreciation for jokes for jabs for sarcasm and even some good-hearted cynicism when the time is right but but not at the expense of those who can't defend themselves that's not humor that's bullying and there is nothing that I hate more than bullying. Think about this. The only reason you as a parent, and I'm talking universal you, because I'm sure most of you listening to this podcast

don't engage in toxic mommy culture online, the reason that you, who this might apply to as a parent, feel so bold and brazening, calling your kids brats online or saying that you are dreading, spending time with them during quarantine, is because they can't read. And if they can read, you don't care if they see it or not because you have power and authority over them.

Or like in the case of women complaining about their husbands online, you just don't care what they think. You would never say these things that you say about your kids or your spouse, about your neighbor publicly or your friend publicly, or your boss publicly, or people whose opinions that you care about and whose feelings you don't want to hurt because they might be able to retaliate in some way. In most cases, kids are helpless.

And by calling them names online or seeing how much you dislike them, you are exploiting their helplessness and dependence on you. Now you might say, Allie, it ain't that seat. Come on. They're just funny memes. They're nothing more than that. We just laugh and we scroll on. But again, humor is humor.

Funny memes are funny memes. But bullying isn't funny. What other class of helpless people is it acceptable to public? call names and talk badly about, a people with special needs, the elderly, the poor. If there were accounts dedicated to how burdensome special needs people are, we'd probably think it was in bad taste, right? Like, we'd actually probably think it's immoral, and we might even take steps to get that account taken down. And yet, it's become trendy, funny, to demean other vulnerable, another vulnerable group of people, children, to get a laugh. Think about

it. If there were hundreds of accounts, accounts dedicated to how terrible wives and women are, like how dumb and annoying and dramatic and braty and needy women are, how exhausting we are, how men can't wait till we're gone or to get out of the house so we're not bothering them. And there probably are social media accounts like this, but like what would we say to these? We would laugh maybe, but we'd also probably agree that it's sexist, that it's rude, that it's not helpful to society at all, that it's not edifying, right? we probably wouldn't say, oh, well, it's fine. Like, it's fine if lots of men voice these opinions publicly and become influencers based on their sexism.

We'd probably see these people, these guys that start accounts like this, as scumbags. We'd probably wonder if they were really decent people. We probably would say, well, maybe the problem is with you as a husband and not with your wife. If you're constantly complaining or she's constantly nagging you, we'd probably start having those thoughts. We'd probably wonder if this kind of pervasive attitude contributes to society's, general view of women. And we would be right to wonder all of these things if these accounts exist or did exist. So no, I don't think all of the memes about kids being chicken nugget eating brats are as innocuous as you think they are. And from a biblical perspective, Ephesians 429 says,

let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths but only such as is good for building up, as fits the occasion that it may give grace to those who hear. Now, this is a verse that I personally can certainly put into practice better and more regularly, not in relation to this topic specifically, but in general, certainly in online conversations about politics and disagreements and things like that, but it absolutely also applies to the things that we say about our families, especially publicly, privately too, but especially publicly. The things we say should be good for building up, as that verse says. pushback number two when I say toxic mommy culture is bad and we shouldn't engage with it.

A pushback that I hear is moms need a place where they can vent their frustrations. Well, yes and no. As women, I think we need to be a lot more thoughtful about what we decide to quote, vent. What I notice in a lot of us in many different kinds of situations is that we use this, sorry, I just need to vent as an excuse for saying things that we know we shouldn't say, things that we know aren't glorifying to the Lord, things we know don't qualify as what's good for building others up, things that would be really hurtful if the person that we're talking about heard them,

including our kids. It's kind of like when we excuse gossip by saying, oh, I'm just worried about her or, oh, I would say this to her face, so it's not gossip. We're all guilty of that, but we know the truth, that we're still gossiping. Or it's like when we say something rude to someone followed by like, no offense or just bless her heart. Vinting does not give us an excuse to sin.

It's not a justification for slander or bullying or tearing down or hatefulness. And again, I have absolutely been guilty of this in the past in other areas, but vinting does not provide a justification for unfit, for hateful, or for mean words. Jesus condemning the Pharisees said this in Matthew 1234 through 37. For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks, the good person out of his good treasure brings forth good. And the evil person out of his evil treasure brings forth evil. I tell you, on the day of judgment, people will give account for every careless word they speak.

For by your words you will be justified and by your words you will be condemned. Jesus later says in Matthew 15, and he called the people to him and said to them, hear and understand. It is not what goes into the mouth that defiles a person, but what comes out of his mouth, this defiles a person. What comes out of the mouth proceeds from the heart, and this defiles a person, for out of the heart, come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality,

theft, false witness, slander. These are what defile a person. So out of the heart just says, the mouth speaks. So we should all ask ourselves, why are we saying the things that we're saying? They don't mean nothing, words don't mean nothing they mean something are we bad-mouthing our kids online because we hate them because we don't like them if so that's a heart problem that's a you problem not a kid problem

but you problem fundamentally are we doing it because we want attention and affirmation this i think is typically the main reason why people engage in toxic mommy culture if so that's a heart problem or are we doing it because we feel envy uh towards single people people without kids, people who seem to have it easier, or maybe because we covet other people's kids, their husbands or their financial situations? If so, that's a heart problem. The mean-spirited tearing down of kids, even in the name of humor, is not an indication of your circumstances, but of your heart. So it's not an indication of how bad your kids are, how lazy or unhelpful your husband is, how difficult quarantine is, it's an indication of something that is going on

in your heart, it's an indication of sin. Your resentment toward your kids is a heart issue. Your bitterness toward your husband is a heart issue. Your desire for attention or affirmation from strangers on the internet or friends in your phone. This is a heart issue. Now, this does not mean that your kids aren't behaving badly or that your husband isn't lazy. They might be these things. And these things might not be your fault. You might actually have it. it really hard. I'm not discounting that. But your public vinting sessions where you are calling your kids and your spouse's names is an effort to tear them down to build yourself up. And that is pride, that is sin. And not only that, but I'm telling you it's not going to help because you have deeper

heart level needs that may be numbed by your social media bashing, but will not be healed. The only person that can help you repent of your resentment and bitterness and selfish need for attention is the God who made you. And this God sees you, he hears you, he knows how hard you have it, however hard you have it, he knows what challenges and obstacles you face. First Peter 5-7 tells us to cast all our anxieties, all our cares on the Lord because he cares for us. The reason why you bring your requests and your concerns to God in gratitude and humility, not in bitterness or anger or entitlement, is because, yes, he cares for you, but he can also do something about these things.

He can also help you. He can supply you with the strength and the joy and the wisdom you need. Memes cannot do that. A like on social media will not do that. Those people that are a part of that mom group that you're on that you're using to vent cannot do that. The friend egging you on over text message in your vinting session cannot do that. Now again, seeking wisdom from our friends, very good. Asking for encouragement from friends or even that mom's group that you're a part of on Facebook, good. Being transparent and vulnerable about

the difficulty of motherhood, absolutely. But using vinting as an excuse for gossiping and bad-mouthing your family, it's unhelpful and it's unfit both for you and those who see an engagement. inherent. Next defense I hear of toxic mommy culture. Give these moms venting about their kids in mean ways some grace instead of pointing out the flaws in toxic mommy culture. Don't be so judgmental. Well, you are right in that a lot of the moms engaging in this kind of online rhetoric may be really struggling. And they're looking for people to relate to. They're looking for some reprieve, maybe some encouragement. And maybe their kids, like I acknowledged, really are wild. Maybe they're really is inattentive and unhelpful and annoying.

So maybe this mom really is completely overwhelmed by motherhood. All of this can be true. At the same time as it is true that some speech is edifying and some speech is objectively degrading and that the effects of the things that we say about kids matters. That some of these things are hurtful, they're unhelpful, and they contribute to the larger culture of hatred toward, or at least apathy toward children that is so rampant today.

I think the vast majority of moms who engage in this kind of toxic online behavior love their kids and are probably nothing like their online persona in real life. But again, the question is, why are you doing it? What good is it doing? And do you find yourself taking on this online persona of entitlement and bitterness? And is that helping your family? or is it hurting? Do you find yourself looking for opportunities to create a situation in which your child acts like a brat so you can chronicle it for last later? If so, again, who is that helping?

And I would challenge you to ask the Lord to examine what is in your heart, as we should all be doing in all things, ask him to examine what is in your heart that is making you feel the need to do this kind of thing. And there absolutely is forgiveness and grace and understanding and love for you that only your creator can give, but there will also be a call to repentance. Because remember, out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks. And then finally, what I probably hear most often when I bring up toxic mommy culture and just how damaging it is, is just wait. That's what I hear. Just wait.

Just wait until you have more kids. Just wait until you have toddlers. wait till you have preteens, wait till you have teenagers, then you'll see why moms talk like this and you'll probably do it too. And you are right in that. I have no idea what you are going through. I have one baby and I'm not going to lie, she is pretty incredible. I have no idea what it's like to have twins or triplets or to have toddlers or to have teenagers or two, three, four, five kids. I don't know. I don't know what it's like to have kids with special needs. I don't know what it's like to have a husband who doesn't help. I don't know what it's like to be a single mom.

I don't know what it's like to be a mom who works 80 hours of the week outside of the home. I can go on and on about the kinds of moms that have it harder than I do. I can talk forever about all of the things that I've yet to experience as a mom that I've yet to learn about motherhood. There are many of you listening who know exponentially more than I do about being a mom. So I don't come at this subject of toxic mommy culture as an expert on motherhood. I'm not. I come at this from a perspective of a Christian who knows what the Bible says about children as an observer of culture and as a commentator on the lies being fed to women by our culture,

this lie and other lies, that you are a victim of motherhood. I also come at this as someone who is fortunate enough to be around moms of three kids, four kids, five kids, kids with special needs, and they all have different parenting styles. they've all gone through their tough times and I'm sure they would tell you that they have gone through their hard moments and and mistakes that they've made. But all of the moms I know do their jobs with gratitude and joy. And so I know what a righteous attitude looks like in moms who have it much harder than I do and who might who might also have it harder than you do. It is a judgment of the kind of negative culture and behavior surrounding motherhood that I am, that, that I am engaging in.

And yes, I am judging that kind of behavior as wrong and as harmful. Bitterness is fanned into flame and creates more contentment, more envy, more unhappiness in this kind of online conversation and culture. And it also has an effect on our culture at large, a culture which already places a low value, you on children. It exacerbates this feeling that children are a burden and that they can be discarded at any point in pregnancy as long as it's convenient. And this trans, uh, this, uh, transitions me into my offensive points. So those are my defensive points against what are attempts at justifying toxic mommy culture. And here are my offensive points about why toxic mommy culture is bad and

wrong and probably a little bit offensive to some people. Number one, yes, as I was just stating, I do believe that toxic mommy culture contributes to abortion culture. How could it not? How could it not contribute to that mentality when teachers, when teenagers, sorry, and young women see moms constantly complaining about having kids, do you think that parenting sounds appealing to them? Or do you think that it terrifies them? It's the latter. There's no doubt about it. that. I also believe that it probably encourages apathy and typathy and even forms of abuse towards children. If moms feel like they're validated and their deep-seated resentment and even sometimes hate of their kids, why would they try to hide these things? Number two, it is disrespectful

to engage in this kind of behavior, not just to your kids, not just to your family, but also to those who want kids and haven't been able to have them. There are millions of men in women, it's always important for us to be reminded of this. There are millions of men and women who would give anything to be doing the late night wakeups, the dozen diaper changes, the temper tantrums, the helping with homework, but it hasn't happened for them yet. They have emptied their bank accounts. They have spent hours on their knees praying. They have waited years on adoption list, all to get a chance at having the same experiences that you right now are complaining about. Now, that does not mean that you don't have the right, that we don't have the right to

acknowledge hardship and parenting. Whether you have one kid or you have seven kids, we can say when things are difficult. We can be tired. We can be stressed. We can feel like we don't know what we're doing. We can confide in a friend. We can ask for help. We can pray to God for strength. Of course, none of these things mean that we're not thankful for our kids just when we're being honest. But remember to be thankful for your kids. And don't let vulnerability, which is good, turn into grumbling, which is bad and a sin. Philippians 2.14 through 15 says, do all things without grumbling or disputing, that you may be blameless and innocent. Children of God without blemish in the midst of a crooked and twisted

generation among whom you shine as lights in the world, holding fast to the word of life, so that in the day of Christ, I may be proud that I did not run in vain or labor in vain. Our lack of grumbling and complaining is a characteristic of being children of God. It helps us shine as light in the midst of darkness, which leads to my third point, which is the most important point. Number three, viewing children as brats and burdens is unbiblical. This is the third and most important reason why toxic mommy culture is wrong. We shouldn't have a part of it.

If we see secular society sound a certain way or say certain things, our first reaction should never be to mimic it as Christians. If society tells us that kids are brats and burdens, instead of agreeing, instead of nodding our heads and joking along with them, we should ask ourselves, hang on, the world is saying this? Is this what God says? Is this what God says about kids? Is this what God says about parenting?

Because as Christians, we don't care what other moms say that motherhood is. We don't care what memes say that motherhood is. We don't care what celebrities say that motherhood is. The question is, what does God say that motherhood is? The one who created it, the one who tells us what to think and how to act. And the Bible says that kids are not brats, they're not burdens, but they are blessings. That doesn't mean that they don't sometimes act bratty. Doesn't mean that sometimes they don't have bad behavior and that motherhood isn't hard,

but that children innately are blessings to us. Psalm 127 3 through 5 says, Behold, children are a heritage from the Lord, the fruit of the womb, a reward. like arrows in the hand of a warrior are the children of one's youth blessed is the man who fills his quiver with them. Jesus also used the innocence, the trusting nature, the eagerness of children as a representation of what our faith should look like. Mark 1013 through 15 says, and they were bringing children to him that he might touch them and the disciples rebuked them. But when Jesus saw it, he was indignant and said to them, let the children come to me, do not hinder them, for to such belong to

the kingdom of God. Truly, I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a child shall not enter it. Jesus made these children. He loves them. He sees them as precious. Throughout the Bible, we see that God is the giver of children that he creates us fearfully and wonderfully in our mother's womb, that life starts at conception and it is precious from then onward. And let me tell you from a first time relatively it experienced mom, motherhood is a blessing. Any of you who have been negatively affected by people who say kids hold you back or inhibit you or stop you from fulfilling your dreams or they take too much of you, don't listen to that. You will experience in parenthood a love that you have never felt in your life.

And I know that it is a tough road ahead. For me, for anyone as a parent, I was a strong. well child I wasn't even stronger will teenager my parents had a rough go of it I understand the road of parenting is never easy and that there are times to weep over it to struggle with it to ask for help with it to not know what to do with it but there is never a time to bully our children behind their backed online for a like or a laugh and again I want to reiterate because I know I'm going to get at least one comment on this on YouTube or something someone is still going to discount all of the caveats that I've put in this and say that I'm being judgmental and that I'm

trying to say that women should just be fake and pretend that parenting is perfect and easy. And I'm not. I am not advocating for being fake or pretending that things are going perfectly. Confess your struggles and your sins to the Lord to trusted friends, ask for help and for wisdom while keeping in mind something important and true. You are not a victim of motherhood. You are a beneficiary of it. Words matter. Attitudes matter that scary. mommy Instagram page might be funny, but is it helpful? Is it really helping you or is it making you more bitter? Is it helping society or is it adding to the negative noise? Toxic mommy culture is a subsidiary of what I call the culture of self-affirmation or trendy narcissism as we've

talked about many times on this podcast and these two subjects, like I said, are interlaced. They're interlocked. And this is something that I wrote a book about, actually. actually you're not enough and that's okay. Escaping the toxic culture of self-love comes out August 11th. You can go ahead and pre-order that on Amazon if you would like. Trendy narcissism is this mythical idea that if you love yourself more, you'll be happy. That if you put yourself first, you'll be satisfied. That if you care for yourself better, you will find purpose and peace,

that you're really the center of your universe and everyone else is in your orbit. It encourages this sense of entitlement, entitlement to your wants and your self. space in your dreams. But the truth is the fact of the matter from a biblical perspective, we're not entitled to these things. Yes, we need rest. God made us this way and dictates our rest and commands that we find refuge in him. And yes, there are things that we like to do, things that make us happy that we should do and engage in whenever we can. But our children are not getting in the way of the things that we are entitled to. And viewing them as such will make us bad parents and miserable people because it will make us bitter. Pride is always the author of

bitterness. A toxic mommy culture is based on pride, on what you deserve, on the affirmation and attention that you think that you are entitled to. I saw a post on a mom's group on Facebook of a mom calling her eight-month-old an a-hole because he wouldn't stop screaming and crying. She called herself a terrible mom and said, sorry, I just needed to vent. And all the comments assured her, no, you're not a bad mom, you are doing your best, you're doing a great job. And I'm just afraid, looking at this conversation that I did not even engage in at all, I'm afraid in many cases that this is the reason why moms use such harsh language against their kids and even themselves is because they want to be puffed up. They need their ego to be stroked. But ultimately,

this doesn't help anyone. The truth is, the hard truth is, we don't know if this person is a good mom. Like we don't need to puff her up with empty platitudes. We need to remind her of the truth, of the truth that it is understandable to be going through a hard time right now, but that God can give her the strength to do her job, which is to steward her blessing of having a child. Toxic mommy culture, just like the larger cults of self-affirmation, trendy narcissism, all seek to elevate the self. And it should tell us something that its participants are always complaining, they're always blaming, and they're never fully fully, finally happy. Remember, none of the answers that you are searching for are found inside yourself

because the self can't be both the problem and the solution. That's why you see these that are obsessed with the self are often very up and down in their emotions. They're always looking for the next thing or the next 10-step program or relationship or book that will make them feel better and it helps for a little bit and then it fades. The burdens and and the worries and the concerns of toxic mommy culture and trending narcissism are heavy, but the good news is that Jesus' burdens are like. His yoke is easy.

He calls us to self-denial, to self-forgetfulness, not to self-obsession, and self-denial might sound scary, but it actually frees us from the discontentment and constant striving for attention and affirmation that comes with self-worship. When Jesus is the center of our lives, when we make pleasing him and glorifying him, our number one priority when he is our purpose, then our kids are no longer inhibitors of fulfilling

that purpose, but part of fulfilling that purpose. Parenting them in love and edification is a way that we glorify God, which is what we are all as believers called to do first and foremost. Okay, that concludes this episode. I hope that you guys enjoyed it. If you love relatable, please leave me a five-star review on Apple Podcasts, that would mean so much. And if you have not subscribed to my YouTube channel, Ali Beth Sucky yet, please do so. I will see you guys back here on Wednesday. Hey, this is Steve Day. If you're listening to Ali, you already understand that the biggest issues facing our country aren't just political. They're moral, spiritual, and rooted in what we believe is true about God, humanity, and reality itself. On the Steve Day show, we take the news of the day

and tested against first principles, faith, truth, and objective reality. We don't, Just chase narratives and we don't offer false comfort. We ask the hard questions and follow the answers wherever they leave, even when it's unpopular. This is a show for people who want honesty over hype and clarity over chaos. If you're looking for commentary grounded in conviction and unwilling to lie to you about where we are or where we're headed, you can watch this D-Day show right here on Blaze TV or listen wherever you get podcasts. I hope you'll join us.