Relatable with Allie Beth Stuckey - Ep 377 | 'The Bachelor' Cancel Queen Gets Canceled

Episode Date: March 1, 2021

Today we're discussing the controversy surrounding Taylor Nolan, Chris Harrison, and "The Bachelor," as well as Trump's return to the spotlight at CPAC. Taylor Nolan of "The Bachelor" has long been a champion of cancel culture and a self-proclaimed expert on all things woke. But that didn't save her from the rage mob when it was discovered that she had some offensive tweets of her own from years back. Incredibly, Taylor shifted the blame from herself to society at large. This is a classic example of the double-edged nature of cancel culture: Once they set their sights on you, no amount of wokeness can save you. As Christians, we know that God has the authority to really cancel us for all eternity, but we find our joy in his grace and forgiveness — two traits that cancel culture is sorely lacking. Moving on to CPAC, Trump took the stage to deride the Biden administration's stance on school openings and the fact that allowing transgender girls to compete in women's sports is harmful to biological girls. Many at CPAC said they would vote for Donald Trump if he ran again, but the man would be over 80 years old by then! Others say that Florida Gov. Ron Desantis could be a kind of Trump 2.0, since his state is faring quite well in the pandemic compared to blue states and he has taken other strong stances conservatives approve of. --- Today's sponsor: ExpressVPN: Protect your information from the prying eyes of big tech! Get an extra 3 months of service for free at https://www.EpressVPN.com/ALLIE --- Today's sources: Page Six: ‘Bachelor’ alum Taylor Nolan apologizes for ‘hurtful’ past tweets: https://pagesix.com/2021/02/28/bachelor-alum-taylor-nolan-apologizes-for-hurtful-past-tweets/ Video: Donald Trump's comments at CPAC on re-opening schools: https://twitter.com/DailyCaller/status/1366149804720537602?s=20 Video: Donald Trump's comments at CPAC on women's sports: https://twitter.com/DailyCaller/status/1366155527395434497 Washington Times: Artist of golden Trump sculpture strikes back at liberal critics: 'This is not an idol': https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2021/feb/28/tommy-zegan-says-golden-trump-sculpture-not-idol/ --- Previous Episode: Ep 369: The Bachelor, Solly Baby & Gina Carano: How (and How Not) to Handle the Mo‪b‬

Hey guys, welcome to Relatable. Happy Monday. Hope everyone had a wonderful weekend. It is March 1st, which is just crazy. I feel like I say this at the beginning of every month, but man, time just goes by fast. For those of you who have been asking for a personal update for me, which I get requests for all the time, and I hardly ever satisfy those requests because that's not necessarily what this show is about. I'm not a lifestyle influencer, and I don't really talk about personal stuff all that much, but I am doing well. I am very, very pregnant and we'll be giving birth here in a few weeks, but never you worry. We have all kinds of wonderful episodes, wonderful interviews that have already been recorded and prepared for you that will come out starting at the end of April and will continue into May. And so you are not going to be left alone. I promise I will not abandon you. If you are here during my last maternity, I believe, you know, that I really prioritize getting episodes and getting content out to you guys and making sure that your time is spent productively when you are listening to Relatable. And that is even when I am taking a break to birth and care for a child.

So thank you to all of you who have been asking. Thank you to all of you who have been praying. I appreciate that. I covet your prayers, of course, during this time. But our family, we are doing well. So thank you. Thank you so much. All right, today we're going to talk about a few things. We're going to talk about this controversy, this Bachelor controversy. And as some of you, you might not be interested in what happens with The Bachelor. I'm not necessarily interested

with what happens with The Bachelor. But I think that it is actually a good representation of the craziness and the constant contradictions of cancel culture. and of woke social justice, performative activism culture. And I think that we can learn lots of lessons from it. We're also going to talk a little bit about Trump's speech that he delivered at CPAC. This was the first time that people got to hear him on a public platform like that, have gotten to hear him in a really long time. And so people were super excited about it.

And so we're going to talk about that. I was going to talk about the Golden Globes. And we were going to talk just in general about kind of political and celebrity idolatry today, but we're not going to talk about that. There's really not that much to talk about with the Golden Globes. Maybe there's some controversies that I missed, but to be perfectly honest, I haven't watched an award show in a very long time. And the last time I did watch an award show, it was just to see whether or not there were going to be political statements made about Donald Trump, which now that Donald Trump is in an office, they don't have any jokes to tell.

They don't have anything funny to say or interesting to say because unfortunately for a lot of those people disliking Donald Trump has become their personality. It's become the most interesting thing about them. It's become even their sign of virtue. And now the Donald Trump is gone. They have nothing interesting to say. So Golden Globes not quite as exciting. It's very interesting how much Trump seems to affect so many spheres in our society without even trying to. But because of the people who hate him so much want him to be center stage so they can use him as a way. way to show their virtue and morality and personality, he has become the star of a variety of these cultural institutions like award shows. So nothing really to say about the Golden Globes.

Y'all don't really care. I'm sure that much about the Golden Globes either. Does anyone really care about it? The only thing I guess they care about is if Ricky Jervais says something funny at the expense of celebrities. All right, let's talk about this Bachelor Taylor Nolan controversy. Some of you might not know what I'm talking about, but like I said, I think it's actually important to look into this because it speaks to a larger moment in our culture. And as Christians in particular, I think there are lessons that we can draw from everything that's going on. So first, let me back up a little bit. You can go to episode, I think it's 369, and we will link it in the description of this episode. But there has been controversy and drama surrounding The Bachelor, contestant, old pictures of,

hers were uncovered where she was at this old South Kappa Alpha party at Georgia State University and she was wearing like this big, you know, antebellum hoop skirt thing. And apparently she had liked to picture with a Confederate flag in it. And there were a couple other things that people were calling this contestant a racist. Chris Harrison, who has been the host of the bachelor since its inception. So I think like 20 years did an interview on Extra with racism. Rachel Lindsay, who also, I think, used to be a contestant of The Bachelor and also is like this social justice activist person who is constantly talking about all that kind of stuff, interviewed him. And Chris Harrison defended this contestant and said, look, like, we don't know that she's a racist.

This was in 2018. We have different standards today. I think that we just need to, we don't need to be harassing this girl. We don't need to be harassing this contestant. Apparently people had docks to her parents, had found out how her parents, voted and we're just trying to take her down. And Chris Harrison just said, look, we need a little bit of grace. We need a little bit of understanding. While not only did Rachel Lindsay not like that, but apparently a large swath of the internet didn't like that. And so Chris Harrison ended up

apologizing twice using all of the anti-racist Ebermax, Kendi, Robin DiAngelo language to say that he was sorry that he shouldn't have, he shouldn't have said, I guess, to give this contestant grace and that we I guess shouldn't have understanding because he said that he had harmed people by you know giving an excuse to the pictures and that he is now on this anti-racist journey to do better he's taking a step back from the bachelor and he is not hosting after the final rose which is like the culmination of each season where they kind of go back and they they look at what happened throughout the season now it's going to be Emmanuel Akko I think that's how you or Aco, that's how you pronounce his last name.

And he is a guy who has been hosting, I think it's conversations with a black man, mostly on Instagram over the past few months since the George Floyd incident happened. And so I think that they felt that, you know, he was a good pick for hosting after the final rose. Emmanuel Aco is the same, I think, as most social justice activists, he perpetuates narratives that we've talked about on this show, I do not think, are actually factual, but I'm sure he's a nice person. I'm sure he will be a good host.

But it hasn't been enough for some people that Chris Harrison said, I'm going to take a step back and I'm going to go on this anti-racist journey, blah, blah, blah. It is not enough because they want him to be fired. They want him to be taken down. They don't think that he should be the host of The Bachelor anymore. Again, not because he said or did anything racist. but because he said that people should give grace an understanding to the contestant that had been doxed and harassed and insulted because of past pictures that people deemed racist. That is why people are calling for Chris Harrison to be fired from The Bachelor in one of the loudest voices in being in this whole thing for Chris Harrison to be fired for.

from The Bachelor is a previous contestant, Taylor, Nolan. So she was on The Bachelor in 2017. She was on season four of Bachelor in Paradise. And since then, she has been able to build a platform with hundreds of thousands of followers. She has a podcast where she talks about all of these woke subjects and racism, especially how terrible white people and whiteness is and how, you know, know, we have to be anti-racist activist. She talks about body positivity and self-love in every single woke social justice activism thing that you can think of. She is talking about and she purports to be

an expert on. And she has been extremely loud in calling for the firing of Chris Harrison. She has said, just because you don't think something was racist in the past doesn't mean that it's not racist. So we have to, quote, hold people accountable for that. We have to call people out for that. She has just been vicious against this past contestant. She has been vicious against Chris Harrison, just relentless in calling for his firing and calling for his taking down. Well, it was found out that 10 years ago, she tweeted a variety of very objectively offensive tweets about Asian people, about Indian people, about Jewish people. There were some slurs against gay people that she used, against fat people.

And so she had a lot of very just nasty tweets, like very cruel, very mean tweets about different kinds of groups of people. And so people are calling her out for this and saying, look, you can't pretend to be this expert on love and inclusion and tolerance and anti-racism when obviously you were kind of harboring these feelings and these kinds of perspectives in your heart and mind, even though they were 10 years ago, people are calling her out and people are insulting her and all of that kind of stuff. And so she came out and she apologized, kind of. She said, look, these tweets were bad. I shouldn't have done it. But listen to this. She said the reason that she did it is because of whiteness because she is half black, half white, and she was centering her whiteness.

She says, look, I'm just a product of my environment. I live in this capitalist racist society, too. And so I just had basically, I'm summarizing, internalized all of these toxic kind of mindsets from the pervasively white, capitalistic society in which we live. So basically I'm a victim of all of this stuff. And I was speaking as a victim of white supremacy and whiteness and capitalism and the patriarchy and fat phobia, she said in all of these things. And that's why I said that.

And I shouldn't have said it. But look, other people have said racist stuff too. And she basically said, just because I did something bad doesn't mean that I can't call out other people for doing things bad. And this is why I'm doing this work because I used to have these bad, terrible thoughts too. and so I am working to push against this kind of stuff, blah, blah, blah. She never took full responsibility for it.

She kept on shifting the blame to, quote, society, which I've noticed a lot of people on the left like to do. I often say that leftism gets human nature wrong. It views humans as just products of our environment as these malleable objects that can be formed and reformed based on the, you know, on the dominant powers in society, and that's just not true. We have nature as well that is not malleable, that is not changeable based on what the people in power want or based on what society says things should be.

And so it's a very convenient excuse for someone like Taylor Nolan to just say, look, I'm a victim too as a woman of color. And I was speaking as a victim. And it's still, white people are still to blame here. It's a very convenient excuse, and it actually fits perfectly into the worldview of critical race theory, which we've talked about so much, which views the world as white versus black, white corresponds with bad and the oppressor, non-white corresponds with the oppressed and good. Therefore, anyone on the side of the oppressed is never going to be held responsible in the same way that someone on the white slash oppressor side is going to. And you can see how that kind of mentality is so unbiblical because we will all stand before a God as individuals and we're not going to be based on our skin color.

We're not going to be based on whether or not we were categorized as the oppressor, the oppressor, based on our race or based on our sexuality or based on our gender. We are going to be held to account for the things that we say and the things that we do. Now, for us who are in Christ, those of us who are believers, like our slate has been wiped clean, we have been eternally forgiven forever. We do not get into heaven based on what we've done or based on what we've said, but rather because of Jesus's righteousness, which by grace through faith,

he has given to us through his death and resurrection, all of those who believe in him. So the fact of the matter is, is that this kind of mentality, this kind of critical race mentality, which Nolan is so perfect. perfectly exemplifying here, it not only does not correspond with reality or any kind of morality, but it also doesn't correspond with any kind of biblical truth. You don't get off the hook

just because of your skin color, just because you are a product of your environment, or just because you want to blame this kind of intangible, non-quantifiable idea of whiteness that you say has affected you and has caused you to be a mean person. Unfortunately, I think that so many people in this world have lost the art of apology because they don't think that they actually need to apologize. And so rather than taking responsibility, they put their responsibility on other people. The lesson that I think that we can draw from all of this, because apparently she's still getting insulted, she's still getting dragged. People are still swarming her comments. They're still trying to cancel her. Of course, they're rightfully calling her

a hypocrite for all of this. I think the lesson that we can learn is that no amount of wokeness is going to save you. No amount of wokeness is going to insulate you from cancellation. It's never going to be enough. Like you can listen and learn all you want to. You can say that you're reading the right things. You can say the right things. You can repeat the right rhetoric. You can be on the front lines of social justice activism. You can post the black square, post the right things on social media. No matter what you do, you are still going to end up with the pitchforks in your face because the very same mob that you have worked into a frenzy in the past to, you know, rage towards other people, they're going to redirect their frenzy and their rage towards you. That's just what happens.

Like you've created this monster and you can't be surprised when the monster turns around and attacks you. That's what cancel culture is. cancel culture is a bunch of people hoping that joining the cancel mob is going to protect them from being canceled or condemned or criticized. And it's just not like she is as mainstream and as left wing as it comes on every single issue. And the rage mob still turned their backs on her. And she asked for it in some ways.

Like if you play with fire, you're going to get burned. If you point out the log or the spec in someone else's eye, you can't be surprised when someone turns around and points out the log in your eye. And so she certainly in some ways has helped add to the chaos that is now surrounding her and that has now made a victim of her and she doesn't like it. And look, I don't think that she should be canceled for her past tweets. I don't think that she should be harassed.

I don't think that she should be taken down. I don't think that her advertisers on her podcast should be targeted because I think cancelers should be taught their lesson through kindness rather than cruelty. And I know it's very tempting to get satisfaction out of seeing someone like that, a hypocrite like that, get a taste of their own medicine. But at the end of the day, I still don't want her to be canceled because I don't like the idea of this mutually assured destruction. when it comes to cancel culture.

There are two kind of paths that I think conservatives take when it comes to what we're seen in cancel culture. So like a conservative, like Gina Carano, if you can consider her a conservative, getting fired for saying something that really wasn't very controversial, especially in comparison to what some of her co-stars had said on the Mandalorian on their social media and they're perfectly fine. So when conservatives look at that, there are two paths that we can take or when conservatives look at something like this whole Taylor Nolan situation. Either you can say, okay, mutually assured destruction.

If you people on the left, if you're going to cancel us, if you're going to cancel people for past mistakes or things that they have said or done that you don't like 10 years ago whenever it was, then we're going to do the same to you. And we're going to take you down too. If these are the rules of the game that you have set, then we'll play by the rules. But understand, we know how to play this game to and you are not going to like it. You're not going to like it when we apply your ruthless, vicious standards that you have set to you. You're not going to like the consequences of it. So that is, that's one option that people say, okay, you're going to take us down. We're going to take you down. You're going to dig up our past tweets. We're going to dig up your past tweets.

And all these people that you on the left have worked into a rage and worked into a frenzy, we're going to stick them back on you if you do that to us. And so you can either stop or we can keep going and everyone is just destroyed. Now, that's one option. I don't like that option because I don't think it creates a good society. Maybe eventually people would learn their lesson, but I think it creates a lot of vengeance, a lot of resentment, a lot of hate, a lot of bitterness that could lead potentially to violence.

even more violence in our country, and that's not something that I want. And I also don't think that that's Christ-like. I think that the Christian response, which is the response that is so unsatisfying to our flesh, and I very much understand because I don't like bullies. And of course, my propensity is to want bullies to be bullied. I really, I hate bullies. I think I can say that. I think I can say I hate bullies, because I really do hate bullies. And so I'm with you, if you are someone who sees this situation and you're like, oh, you just want her to get what she has dealt out to other people. I get it. But I think that so often the response that Christ calls us to is the response that is so

difficult and so unsatisfying to our flesh, and yet he tells us is good and right. And I think that that is the response that says, look, I can't cancel you, Taylor Nolan, or whoever is involved here, because God in Christ chose not to cancel. me. God could have canceled me eternally, but he chose not to in Jesus Christ. And therefore, I do not have the ability. I do not have the place to be able to cancel you. Because God could have canceled me. He had every right to cancel me as the God of the universe is this perfect holy being. But he chose not to in Christ, not because I'm good, not because I earned it, but because he is gracious and through his love and through his mercy, offered a propitiation and a way of forgiveness for my sins. And so in the same way that

God showed me love and mercy, I'm going to show you love and mercy. And I am not going to join in on the mob. I am not going to call for your doxing or harassing or people insulting you or trying to hurt you or target your advertisers or get you fired. I'm not going to play that game. I think that is the right response. I think it is a turning the other cheek kind of response that we are called to have as Christians. Now, here's what I, here's what I want to say. I want to clarify and caveat. I don't think that means that you can't publicly disagree with someone because I publicly disagree with people all the time. That's not the same as cancellation. That's not the same as the cancel culture mob. I think that you can publicly disagree with someone. I think that you can even

call someone out. I think that you can say, look, what this person said is, is wrong. This person's a hypocrite or I don't like what this person does. You can choose not to support someone. You can choose not to follow someone. You can choose not to shop somewhere or fund something if they do or say something that doesn't align with your values. You can talk to other people about it. I think that's all well and good. I think what we have to avoid as Christians is the kind of vengeance that God warns us against in the Bible. God says vengeance is mine. I will repay. Vengeance is not ours. We are not to take vengeance. on other people. And plus it's not even our responsibility to do so for random people on the

internet. Remember, accountability, this idea of accountability, as we've talked about before, comes from a place of authority. And so you can only hold someone accountable if you have authority in your life. You and I don't have the authority over random people's lives on the internet to, quote, hold them accountable. And random people on the internet don't have the authority in your life to, quote, hold you accountable either. It's a fascist tactic to try to ruin someone's life because they said something that you don't like or they said something imperfectly or just because they made a mistake. Now, I'm not talking about like actual criminal behavior here. Obviously, there is a civil process for that and I think that's important. And that actually is a

form of accountability because the people in charge do have the authority to hold someone legally accountable for a crime that they committed. I'm not talking about like abuse and predation and that kind of stuff, which absolutely has to be held accountable, both in the private and the public sphere. I'm talking about this kind of stuff. I'm talking about past tweets. I'm talking about taking a picture that maybe was politically incorrect. I'm talking about making a mistake or not being quite social justicey enough or people being held to impossible standards when it comes to of this kind of new-fangled, culturally defined righteousness. That's what I'm talking about.

Cancelling people, sicking the mob after people, because in the name of holding people accountable, it's a totalitarian fascist tactic that is reminiscent of Maoist struggle sessions in communist China in the 20th century. We should have nothing to do with it. And as Christians, I do think that it's our responsibility to say, look, you know what, I'm not going to, I'm not going to join in on this. I'm not going to join in with the rage mob. I am not going to try to take this person down. I am not going to return their cruelty and kind. And you just hope when you pray that that person, this person like Taylor

Nolan, who seems extremely arrogant and like she hasn't learned her lesson at all, you just pray that God would soften her heart. You pray that she knows the gospel. You pray that God's kindness would lead her to repentance, as Romans 2 says. Isn't that amazing? That it's God's kindness that leads people to repentance. It's that that leaves us with that gut feeling, that gut-wrenching feeling that, wow, we did something wrong and we need to make it right and we need to take responsibility and we actually need to repent of our wrong. It's God's kindness that does that. And I think that we reflect that by showing God's kindness to other people, sharing the gospel with other people. So our hope is that someone like Taylor Nolan or any leader of these

vicious, vicious mobs that we see online, that they would know the gospel, that Jesus would change their hearts, that they would, that he would soften their hearts going from a heart of stone to a heart of flash. And so that's our reaction to all of this. It's unfortunate that this is the society that we live in, that we are so graceless, so merciless, but that also gives us so much hope and such a reminder that what we have in Christ, the gospel that Christians have, is so much better than what the world offers in the form of a very legalistic secular religion, like social justice and critical race theory, intersectionality, leftism, progressivism, it makes up this very merciless religion.

Like, you have the tiniest sin. You commit the tiniest infraction, and you are out. You're excommunicated. Like there's no grace or love or acceptance or help for you at all. You're just out. And people are out for blood. And so thankfully, we have a better, we have an alternative. We have an alternative.

People are trying and failing to find satisfaction and find hope in this kind of woke religion. And it's always going to turn up empty. And it's always going to turn on them. as well. But as Christians, the only thing that we have to focus on is not following the rules of the world or the rules of culture, but to love God with all of our heart, mind, soul, and strength, and to love our neighbor as ourself, do not let anyone tell you that that's not enough. Don't let anyone tell you that, no, you have to read these books. You have to use this language,

or you have to post this on social media or engage in this kind of performative activism. It's not true. Don't let anyone tell you that it's not. not enough for you to love your neighbor as yourself and to love God with everything you have because it is enough. And there's so much peace that comes from that, that knowing that because of that, because of Christ, you are ultimately uncancellable. And you also don't have to be on the exhausting track of trying to constantly cancel other people for the things that they do. Remember, cancel culture predominantly spearheaded by women and the victims are predominantly women. And this doesn't surprise me at all. It's the same kind of tactic that we've seen from Satan since the

garden. Did God really say? Like, did God really say that you're not supposed to condemn other people? Did God really say that you're not supposed to seek revenge? Did God really say to put away all malice and slander and wrath and anger and bitterness and to forgive other people? Did God really say that? Did God really say that you're not in the place of God? Or are you really supposed to be in the place of God? And are you you supposed to have the power to try to condemn or redeem people, which is exactly what the leaders of cancel culture tried to do. So all of this, again, it's just Satan specifically going after women to turn us against each other in a very sinful and a very divisive way. And as Christian women, we need to model a better way. All right, now we're going to switch into talking just a little

bit about Trump's CPAC speech and what I think about that. So I wanted to make sure that we talked a little bit about Trump's CPAC speech because this is a this was a big thing that happened over the weekend. People were very excited to see Donald Trump. But I got to say it was kind of weird seeing him and listening to him. I didn't watch the entire speech, but I did catch some highlights that we're going to play for you on Twitter. And it was, it was just strange. It almost felt like we were back in a different era. Like he just sounded exactly like he always does. And all, like, like he always did when he was president, which honestly is what I think so many people love about him is that he doesn't change. Like he is a performer. He is someone who gets energy from the crowd

and energy from people's support. And you could tell during the speech that he loved it. Like he had probably missed this big time. A lot of people get energy from being in front of people. I feel like I get energy from giving speeches. Like I always feel really energized and really excited when I have given a speech and when I've talked to a bunch of people at an event. Donald Trump is like that, except I think times like 1,000. I mean, the guy is, he's like a stand-up comedian and he just loves to entertain. But in all of that, he said some stuff that I think is really important. Like, he knows what people want to hear. He knows what people are concerned about, even though he's not on Twitter. Actually, he probably has some like anonymous

Twitter account that he doesn't tweet from, which would be really. funny. And I think he just realizes what conservatives care about the things that we're concerned about. And now he definitely has, you know, now he's seen as kind of, well, I guess he's always been seen as this, even when he was president, as kind of this underdog who has to have this punching bag in order to, in order to kind of make his points and be as entertaining as possible. And he did this in regards to Joe Biden and Joe Biden's policies. I'll play. you this short clip first. There's two clips I want to play you. The first one was about kids going back to school. There's no reason whatsoever why the vast majority of young Americans should not

be back in school immediately. The only reason that most parents do not have that choice is because Joe Biden sold out America's children to the teachers unions. I mean, he's absolutely right. And he has been saying this since last summer. And the data that we've talked about on this show that we have combed through a variety of times we've talked to several guests about, is that it is safe for kids to return back to school. It is safe for kids. It is safe for teachers. It is safe for parents.

Unless you have a child who is very vulnerable health-wise or if you live with maybe a grandparent who's very vulnerable health-wise, it is safe for your child to go back to school. And actually the risks are much higher for kids. to be out of school than for kids to be in school. Now, there are parents and families who thankfully have the opportunity to homeschool their kids. One parent can afford to stay home. I think that's wonderful. I think that's preferable than sending your kids to public school. There are parents who are able to switch their kids to private school. I say praise God, especially if it's a

Christian private school. There are parents who have been able to form these kind of teaching pods with other kids, which I'm sure, again, is better than going to public school. I think all of those alternatives are absolutely wonderful for people who can do it. But there are a lot of families who can't afford to do those things. And there are a lot of families and a lot of children who rely on going to public school for their meals, for welfare checks, for just normalcy. A lot of times, unfortunately, public schools are the only institutions that provide the kind of resources that kids with special needs need in order to thrive and in order to stay on track. and just remain mentally and emotionally stable and healthy.

And that's really true for all students and all kids is that you need that kind of schedule routine, that socialization to stay stable and healthy and developing the way that young kids are supposed to. But unfortunately, a lot of kids have been placed in front of a screen nonstop in isolation, in a dark room for the past year of their lives. course they're struggling. Of course they're suffering. That's true of all human beings. Again, like I said, human beings are not just malleable products of society. Like we still have a nature that has to be met. As I've said from the beginning of this whole thing, is that we are whole people.

Yes, of course we care for the body and we try to prevent deadly sicknesses as much as we possibly can, but we can't neglect people's souls and their hearts and their minds indefinitely. It is not any more compassionate to say, well, I'm just going to keep people inside and keep people locked down in the hopes that they, you know, don't catch a virus with a 99% survival rate. But I am going to encourage policies and restrictions that precipitate mental health deterioration and emotional instability. that is not the more compassionate stance. The more compassionate stance is the balanced stance.

And part of being balanced in all of this and actually following the real science is saying kids should be back in school in person. And Donald Trump is absolutely right that Joe Biden cowtows to the teachers unions. The teachers unions still want to get paid with your tax dollars without having to go back to work, without having any risk whatsoever. You have a risk, by the way, every year of getting some kind of illness as a teacher that's kind of just a part of the deal. And I know that there are a ton of public school teachers out there, by the way,

who want to teach in person. But a lot of these teachers' unions and some of these public educators, they don't want to teach in person. They want to get paid. And they just want to do the remote learning or they don't want to work the same hours as they were before. and teachers unions are holding kids hostage in order to get political, their political agenda accomplished, whether that is like in L.A., whether they want to defund the police or they want Medicare for all. They are holding kids hostage to try to get their political goals met by the local Democratic officials.

And unfortunately, a lot of Democratic officials are cowtowing to these teachers unions who have way too much power. I've told you guys before, I don't believe. even public unions, I think they're immoral. For our taxpayer dollars to go towards a public union that then turns around and uses our dollars to fund politicians that we don't like who enact policies that we don't agree with, that's true whether you're a Republican or a Democrat, by the way. If we're funding police unions, we're funding firefighters unions, we're funding especially teachers unions, you're probably also funding politicians, again, whether you're on one side

of the aisle or another that you don't like and who's policies you actually think are very detrimental to your community. That's why I think the public unions are completely immoral, unethical, and that we shouldn't have them. And if we didn't have teachers unions, I guarantee you the public education system would greatly improve because we'd have a better chance at school choice. That means that schools would actually be competing in quality and in the services that they provide and they would be therefore incentivized to spend the money that they have more efficiently. You remember, Barack Obama.

It was reported by the Washington Post in 2017. His administration had poured billions and billions of dollars into the schools in America that were in the poorest communities and that were seen as the worst performing schools in the United States. After seven years, no positive results, billions of dollars in funds to these schools, no positive results from that. It's not a matter of a lack of money. It is a lack of efficiency and effective.

effectiveness in spending. It's also corruption of public school bureaucracy in part due to the teachers' unions. And they're absolutely what is behind the prevention of opening up schools in a variety of areas. Children are always the victims of progressive social experiments, unfortunately, not just when it comes to school shutdowns that are affecting them so negatively. but also when it comes to this whole gender identity madness. And Donald Trump also talks about that, in particular, pertaining to women's sports and how unfair it is for males to be competing against girls just because they say that they are girls too. So here's a clip of Donald Trump talking about that. Joe Biden and the Democrats are even pushing policies that would destroy women's sports.

A lot of new records are being. broken in women's sports. Hate to say that, ladies, but got a lot of new records. They're being shattered. Young girls and women are in sense that they are now being forced to compete against those who are biological males.

It's not good for women. It's not good for women's sports. So once again, Donald Trump is correct. This is something that most politicians won't talk about, even Republican politicians won't talk about, at least on its merits. They might talk about the importance of, religious liberty or they might talk about the importance of a right of privacy, but they won't

just talk about the fact that boys shouldn't be competing against girls. Men should not be entering women's spaces, no matter what they identify as, no matter what they declare themselves to be. It doesn't change biology. And biologically, men and women are very different. And biologically, men in general, are much stronger and faster than women. And in many cases, especially in vulnerable cases, like in prisons or in women's shelters, they can pose a physical threat to women. And if we care about the rights of women and girls, they have to be sex-based rights because sexually, biologically, men and women are different. Like, it's crazy. It's beyond me that we're even having this conversation. And this is why people like Donald Trump, because he's not afraid

to wade into the culture war. He's not afraid to talk about this kind of stuff. Now, there were some things, of course, in the speech that are, you know, he's not going to let go of. He's not going to let go of the 2020 election. He is going to always talk about how it was stolen and how he really won. And he's talking to him about running in 2024. And apparently there was a poll that I saw going around on Twitter. The majority of CPAC attendees said that they would vote for Donald Trump or they would support Donald Trump. If he was running in 2024, I think coming in second was Ron DeSantis, the Republican governor of Florida.

I'm just going to be perfectly honest, guys. I don't want like an 80-something-year-old Trump as president in 2024. I just don't. Like, yes, I think that he accomplished a lot. He did a lot of good things. But I don't want him to be president again. I think that he served his time and he did what he was supposed to do. But I think that we need to be looking a different direction.

I really like Ronda Stantis. I think he's done an excellent job in Florida. And people who are saying he's just a Trump 2.0, I think that you're wrong. I don't think that he is entirely like Trump actually. And I don't know. I'm not saying that's good or bad. He's just a little bit more of a politician.

I met him several years ago. I think when he was a state rep or a U.S. representative at some event that I was speaking at. And I think that he, I don't know, maybe he was speaking at too. But so I don't know him personally. But from what I've seen, he has led Florida very well. I mean, people are flocking to Florida. because of the freedom and because their numbers, as we talked about last week,

in comparison to New York and California and even Texas, they're good. They're good. And his vaccine rollout plan has been much better than the vast majority, if not all, blue states. And so I think that he is showing himself to be a really good executive leader. I am partial towards people when it comes to presidential primaries who have executive experience that's part of why in 2016 I didn't support President Trump. Actually, who I voted for in the Republican primary did not have executive experience either.

But I did not support President Trump in the 2016 primary. I voted for someone else. But I actually do typically prefer someone who has experience as a governor. I do think that it helps. Not always. But in DeSantis' case, I think he is making a very good case for himself, that he would be a good leader of the country. And so I like Ron DeSantis and I would prefer him over Donald Trump in 2024 for people who are saying that, oh, you know, he'd be a great vice president,

like Trump 2024, DeSantis on the ticket. No, why would we waste that? Like we want him. If he's not going to be president, we want him to stay governor of Florida. Like we want Florida to stay free. He's being a good leader there. And Florida would probably vote for Trump anyway, no matter who on the ticket. And so we don't need to take someone from Florida, put them on the ticket. It's just a waste. It's a waste of talent. In my opinion, it's a waste of votes. And so I don't want Ron DeSantis to be a vice president. You know, the vice president doesn't really do all that much. I like Mike Pence. I think he did a good job. But the vice president doesn't do all that much. And I think Ron DeSantis is in position to have a different kind of leadership role than that. And so am I troubled,

the potential of Donald Trump being the nominee in 2024. I'll just say we've got a long way to go, people. We've got a long way to go. He would not be my first pick. I'll just be perfectly honest with that. But I know for a lot of people, like a lot of people just like love Donald Trump. And there was this, this like golden statue of Donald Trump that was being wheeled around CPAC and that people were making fun of. And it was a little, I'll be honest, it was a little disconcerting to see. It did look like an idol. Now, Tommy Zegan is the statue sculptor. And he said, he told Washington Times, this is not an idol. And it was just, you know, no one's worshiping this. Nobody is making sacrifices to it. This is a sculpture. And liberals don't know the difference between a sculpture

and an idol. That's all I can say. And of course, I don't think that he meant to make this an idol in any way. think he was just making a golden statue because he likes Donald Trump. Did it look kind of weird? Yes. Do I think that some people do worship Donald Trump? I do. Whether or not they would say it, but I do think that there are some people who idolize Donald Trump who see him as some kind of Messiah that's going to save America from destruction and see him as some kind of like dimmy god almost. And I do think that that is problematic and dangerous when we elevate anyone, whether it's a bachelor contestant or a social media influencer or a podcaster or a politician when we elevate anyone to the place of like being our savior Messiah, I think that's problematic. Now, this particular

statue I don't think is necessarily emblematic of that. I think it just happened to look kind of sketchy. And I think that if there were a golden statue of like Kamala Harris or Hillary Clinton or Joe Biden at a liberal conference, I think conservatives would all be saying the same thing. that, oh my gosh, liberals are constantly idolizing politicians. Like you put politicians in the government in the place of God. And we do say that, by the way, because there are these like votive candles that you see for sale with like Dr. Fauci looking like some kind of patron saint on there or Kamala Harris or Joe Biden kind of, you know, on these votive candles that are supposed to, I don't know,

show them as the saints of democracy or something like that. And conservatives have made fun of those things. And I'm sure that no one is actually worshipping and bowing down to those politicians and Dr. Fauci. But I don't think it's good. I think it's sacrilegious. And so I think that we should be fair. Like both sides make fun of the other side for doing things like this. And of course, as Christians, we refuse any idolatry, whether it's of a politician or certainly Dr. Fauci or a celebrity or anything like that. can appreciate someone without bowing down to them. And of course, I think that we need to be sure to draw that line. There's one other thing that I was going to note about CPAC. People were freaking out because the shape of the stage at CPAC, and we'll put a picture up, was apparently

the same as like some kind of Nazi symbol, not a swastika, but some kind of Nazi symbol. And people are saying, of course, this is a dog whistle. And they're just flaunting, their, their Nazisness, whatever. And Alyssa Milano was calling for people to boycott Hyatt. Hyatt came out and said, look, what? Basically, just stop. And so good for Hyatt for not latching on to the social media madness. I'm sorry.

I promise you I would be saying this if this were a Democratic conference and people were accusing Democrats of this. I promise you, I would also be saying, come on come on you really think you really think that someone did this intentionally you really think that someone was like oh this is a really good idea to design the stage and a nazi symbol because we secretly love Nazis like that doesn't even make any that doesn't even make any sense you understand that conservatives are constantly calling the left and their kind of cancellation tactics, fascists, that conservatives don't see any affiliation or association between themselves

and the Nazi regime. Like, it just doesn't even make any sense. I mean, I think that people on the left, like, have this weird fetish and fixation on Nazi symbolism and look for it everywhere. And it's really unhealthy. And I promise you, if someone were leveling this kind of accusation towards someone on the left, that the stage design, was supposed to be incongruence with Hitler or something like that or some Hitler type symbolism.

I promise you that I would also be saying, are you serious? So let's take a step back from silliness, you guys. Maybe that's the theme of this episode. Let's take a step back from silliness and from constantly being outraged by things, by which we should not be outraged. And let's remember what's important. important, give a little bit more grace, a little bit more forgiveness, a little bit more understanding, and treat people how we want to be treated, even when we disagree, because I

disagree with a lot of people a lot. And there's a lot of people that whose ideas I think are bad and dangerous. And I think that's all well and good. And we can talk about that. We should talk about that. But like, let's not try to get whipped up into a frenzy about everything. All right. That's all I got to say today. I'll be back here tomorrow.