Relatable with Allie Beth Stuckey - Ep 469 | Responding to Beth Moore & Advice for Gen Z

Episode Date: August 11, 2021

We start off by analyzing and responding to a recent Twitter thread from well-known evangelist Beth Moore, in which she claims that Christians must wear masks to fulfil Jesus' command to "love thy neighbor." She also claims that's not a political statement. However, it's entirely possible to disagree with both those statements and still be right with Jesus. While some Christians are now saying that we must all wear masks during the COVID pandemic, were they saying the same thing a few years ago when the flu season was particularly harsh? No? Why not? Because, unfortunately, politics has wormed its way into nearly every aspect of our lives, including the pandemic. Then, we talk about some observations many people have had about Gen Z: They seem not to want independence very much, and they seem to be very prone to anxiety and depression. We have some advice for young people who may be feeling all the pressures of the modern, secular world and some tips for how to be a more well-rounded person. --- Today's Sponsors: Patriot Mobile shares your values & supports organizations fighting for religious freedom, the Constitution, Sanctity of Life, Veterans & First Responders. Go to PatriotMobile.com/ALLIE or call 972-PATRIOT & get free activation with the promo code 'ALLIE'. Good Ranchers delivers meat and better than organic chicken individually wrapped, vacuum sealed, & ready to grill - right to your door! Go to GoodRanchers.com/ALLIE & use promo code 'ALLIE' to save $20 off a one-time order, plus free express shipping - or save 20% when you subscribe! Bambee was created for small businesses & gives you a dedicated HR manager, helps craft HR policy, & maintain your compliance - all for just $99/month! Go to Bambee.com/ALLIE to schedule your free HR audit. --- Show Notes: "Effectiveness of Adding a Mask Recommendation to Other Public Health Measures to Prevent SARS-CoV-2 Infection in Danish Mask Wearers, Annals of Internal Medicine https://bit.ly/2VDDR1v Allie's Recommended Books: https://bit.ly/3xC4ssI --- Buy Allie's book, You're Not Enough (& That's Okay): Escaping the Toxic Culture of Self-Love: https://alliebethstuckey.com/book Relatable merchandise: https://shop.blazemedia.com/collections/allie-stuckey

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 Wednesday. Hope everyone is having a wonderful week so far. Today we're going to talk about a few things.

We're going to talk about Beth, Beth Moore's Twitter rant from yesterday about people loving their neighbor by wearing their neighbor by wearing their. their masks. And then I'm going to talk about some stats surrounding that. And then you might have seen my, um, my Instagram stories where I was talking about this phenomenon or my tweet that talked about the two, this phenomenon that I've noticed among Gen Z of wanting to, um, avoid risks as much as possible. So some of those risks that I've noticed them avoiding are getting their driver's license and driving by themselves, um, dating people. and even, you know, leaving their house to go to college or to move out of their house. And it's not going to be, it's not going to be critical that segment of the podcast because,

look, I'm a millennial. And just five minutes ago, we were talking about how terrible millennials were and how we are pushing off responsibility and commitment and all of that stuff. So I just want to give some advice to my 17-year-old self and to teenagers who, are kind of in the throes of everything that has gone on for the past year and a half and find themselves kind of drowning in that anxiety that I think is crippling a lot of Ginzi. Ginzi are not only teenagers. I think they're born, I'm pretty sure it's 1997 and after. Millennials are 1981 to 1996, according to Pew Research.

I'm 1992, so I'm right in the middle of millennial. So I want to give some loving advice and maybe some tough love. to that crowd. And so it will end with an encouraging portion of this podcast episode. But first, but first we're going to talk about Bethmore and her little rant about how crucial it is to wear a mask in order to love your neighbor and to follow Jesus. But let me back up, give you some context for the few of you who don't know who Bethmore is. She's the famous Southern Baptist author, creator of dozens of Bible studies since I think the 1980s. She really likes to, at least for the past few years in the Trump era, we've in and out of

politics. And at the same time, claim that she's not being political at all and just that she's simply following Jesus. I guess she's implying that if other people follow Jesus, the way that she does, they would land where she does on, for example, Trump or nationalism or immigration or critical race theory or social justice, and now on masks and loving your neighbor. So let's read her latest thread. She says, if we are in Christ, it is unconscionable for us to to in any way politicize this virus. What on earth are we doing? Question mark, question mark, question mark. Our sides are not more important than lives. We are Jesus people called to serve sacrificially. For the love of God, we got to love our neighbors, even our enemies. For all our

Jesus talk, where on the ever-loving earth is our Jesus walk. If you are not a Christian, I'm not talking to you, but if you are, Jesus wasn't plain when he called us to a whole different ethic from the world. We're not loud-mouth boasters. We're servants. We serve. Stare in the face of what some of you are saying. My rights are more important than your life. Sorry, not sorry. If you're not going to get vaccinated for the love of God, put on a mask in places, and I'm speaking loudly because she is using all caps. Put on a mask in public places with vulnerable people. Go ahead and unfollow me.

I don't care. Follow Jesus. So she loves dropping bombs like this and then walking away and just insisting that it has nothing to do with politics and everything to do with the gospel. First, let me say that unfortunately, and I mean that sincerely, the virus has always been political. It's been political from the very beginning when Trump first said that. that, hey, we should maybe not have travel from and to China.

People called him a xenophob. I mean, you had Nancy Pelosi in February of 2020 say, oh, you should go down to Chinatown. And in San Francisco, it's perfectly safe. You had billed the Belasio mayor of New York City saying a similar thing that people should go out and enjoy their lives. It's nothing to worry about really just in an effort to push back against Trump and disagree with Trump when he said, hey, we should probably be limiting travel. You had people calling him all kinds of.

name synonymous with bigotry and racism because he said those things. And then when it seemed like he wasn't taking things seriously enough, when he said, you know, hey, masks probably aren't going to help all that much, then they had to take the opposite position. Every single death that happened while Donald Trump was president was attributed to Donald Trump and his presidency. And yet every death that has happened since Biden took office has in no way been attributed to Biden in his action. So unfortunately, this has been politicized from the very beginning. So to just say that people that are hesitant about wearing masks, at least at this point, are making this political, well, that's missing the big picture here.

Like, that's missing what has been going on for the past year and a half. Now, I will give Beth Moore credit that she tweeted back, I think it was in November, or October, whenever Donald Trump, or October, whenever Donald Trump and Melania tested positive for coronavirus. She tweeted that as soon as she got the news, like she immediately started praying for them. and, you know, asked God to heal them and all that stuff. So I think that's all well and good. But still, to say that only the people that are refusing to wear a mask are the ones that

are politicizing this and aren't caring about people's lives, I'm sorry. I just, I don't think that's true. This has been politicized from the very beginning. And at least from my perspective, it started being politicized by people on the left who saw this, unfortunately, as an opportunity to defeat Donald Trump in the presidential election. and therefore, you know, pushed back on him every which way when it came to everything that he said or suggested about the virus, even when he ended up being right. And I think that's really sad because that probably did that kind of panic and that kind of unnecessary disagreement from

political pundits and politicians I think has had a really, really negative effect on our country. And who knows, maybe in some way and directly cost lives. Now, I can relate. I will say to give her a little bit more of the benefit of the doubt, I can relate to her thinking that says, I'm not being political, I'm just saying that something that I know was true and I know is biblically true. Because as a Christian, you don't make political statements unless you believe they align with Scripture, or at least that they're not against Scripture. For example, like, I'm pretty clear that I think most progressive policies and ideas are not supported by Scripture. However, I also know that the Bible doesn't directly speak to every single policy and God is not Republican or Democrat.

And I should never try to pretend that he is. Therefore, you will not hear me say that. For example, you believing in single payer health care means that you don't love Jesus or even you believing in open borders means that you're not following Jesus. I think those policies are really destructive and that they can lead to real, tangible, significant harm for people. they might be helpful to some people on one side of the equation, but I think the harm outweighs the benefits when it comes to those two policies. And those are just two examples. I could make the argument that voting Democrat at all means that you are not loving your neighbor. I could make that argument. I could say that you're not loving your unborn neighbor by voting for the party that not only openly and brazenly celebrates abortion as a sacred right, but also forces taxpayers to fund the killing of babies. I could say you're not loving your neighbor. by voting for the party whose policies have decimated every major city in the United States. Progressive district attorneys, mayors, city council, and school board members, judges have brought absolute destruction on cities like Austin, Houston, where Bethmore lives,

by the way, according to her Twitter page, L.A., San Francisco, Minneapolis, New York, D.C., Chicago, Atlanta. They have hurt these cities through policies that enable and encourage a rise in violent crime and murder, tent cities, public drug use, public defecation, general chaos and deterioration. So I could say you're not loving your poor neighbor by voting for the party restricting the police's ability to serve in poor minority neighborhoods in the name of anti-racism. That's the only security that poor women and children have. And it's a problem that you, and your suburbs will likely never have to bear the brunt of. It's not loving your poor neighbor by voting for the party against allowing families to have school choice for their kids. I'm sorry,

you can't tell me that the cities who are enabling lawlessness and inescapable dependence on the government are doing a better job of loving their neighbor because they're requiring everyone who is not living on the street to wear a mask when they're in public. So you see how easy that is to make those kinds of arguments. Like, we could do this all day. And so, someone from the other side of the aisle could level the same charges against me. I think it's wrong to vote Democrat. I do. That does not mean that I think Republicans are anywhere close to perfect, but I think democratic policies, especially today, are destructive. But, and here's my point, I know people who love Jesus, who voted Democrat in the last election. And even though I think

their reasoning is really faulty, I see the sincerity of their faith and the fruit in their life. And I hope that even though they may disagree with me on certain things, they would give me the same benefit of the doubt. Now, I do typically see Christians who start voting Democrat also start becoming more liberal theologically, but that's a different subject. I do believe these people in their hearts love their neighbors. And they are voting in a way they think is helpful. I am voting in a way I think is most helpful. Politics is a way to love your neighbors because policy is people, as we say so often, especially the most vulnerable, but it is not the only or even the primary way to love your neighbors. What I think we see reflected most in Jesus' ministry is that loving your neighbor

most powerfully is found in the direct personal voluntary meeting of a person's needs. That means if someone, in my opinion, erroneously votes Democrat, but I see that person's kindness and gentleness and goodness and faithfulness to the truth of God's word and love for their fellow man, I'm not going to accuse that person of not following Jesus or not loving their neighbor. So all this to say, and this may not seem like it relates to Beth's thread, but it does. I'm coming back around to that because my point is that people can do and believe and advocate for different things than I do, political or not, and unless those things are indirect and intentional contradiction to scripture and the gospel, for example, I think advocating for

abortion is in direct contradiction to scripture. I do not believe it's right to accuse that person of not loving Jesus and those around them. Even some things that I believe to be unbiblical, like open borders, and really tangibly harmful to both the migrants and the people living here, I recognize that this is not a salvation issue. And if you're saying that someone isn't following Jesus because they're not wearing a mask. You're basically saying that they're not a Christian. That's what I take from Bethmore's thread. Now, I know what the pushback may be that a mask isn't political. It's a direct way to love your neighbor. But see, I've just listed some very real things that I believe are unloving to your neighbor that you are enabling by voting Democrat. And you may

disagree and that's fine. But the point is that we all do things that can be interpreted. as selfish or unloving. And this does seem like a log in your own eye situation here. When we're talking about masks and not wearing masks being a symbol of not loving your neighbor. So you're telling me the person who gives their time and their money and their energy to helping those in need but doesn't believe there's a good reason to wear a mask in most places. Is it following mean Jesus? Like, what if this person has read the data and is convinced that it's really not that effective? Because look, the reality is the evidence is mixed on masks. The largest study on masks was a Dutch study. We will link it in the description to this podcast that found that

masks do not prevent infection for the wear, but may, keyword may, prevent the spread of infection. The study, however, could not really prove the latter because everyone in the study was healthy. So really the best evidence that we have that masks mitigate the spread is theoretical. In 95 masks are proven to be able to definitely stop the particles. We know that. But surgical masks, we also know help less. Cloth masks help even less than that. So then, by Beth Moore's logic, Is it fair to say that only wearing a cloth mask is not loving your neighbor? Wouldn't it be fair to say that you have to be wearing an in 95 mask to love your neighbor? Like if we're going to go in that direction of logic, it really goes to much bigger question.

The question is like what actually is loving your neighbor? Like how much do you have to pay and how much do you have to give up for yourself and your family? to love your neighbor. Like what really is the definition? I do think in some instances it can be more loving to wear a mask. Like if you have a friend who is immunocompromised who says, hey, look, I would love for you to come over and drink coffee and hang out with me. But look, it would make me a lot more comfortable if you wore a mask.

I personally do think the loving thing to do, it's such like a low cost to me. If that makes my friend more comfortable, you know, even whether they're immunocompromised or not, and they want to hang out with me and they need some encouragement and fellowship, and I'm going to go over to their house and they tell me they'd be more comfortable if I wore a mask, then I'm going to wear a mask because that's not a big deal. Now, if say that friend was coming over to my house and that friend had a toddler and say, I have a pool in my backyard. And that friend says, look, in order for me to come over to your house today, I'm going to need you to buy one of those fences that goes around your pool because I am nervous about my child drowning in your pool. Now, those fences are really expensive. They're probably $5,000 to $10,000 in some cases. Maybe some are a little bit cheaper, but you have to get someone to come out and put the fence up. Like, it's a very complicated process. I might say, you know what? Like, I really care about

child's life a lot, but let's maybe take some other measures to prevent a drowning accident, because I obviously don't want that to happen either. But hey, like, I'm probably not going to spend $5,000 doing that when there are other things that we can do to prevent that from happening or we can go a different place. Like, is that not loving my neighbor because I am not willing to pay that cost for them to feel comfortable and to mitigate a particular risk? Like, I think that these are very fair questions that we need to ask ourselves. And when it comes to masks, especially because there is a lot of really shaky evidence that you are doing a whole lot by wearing a mask. Are you loving your neighbor to wear a mask when you go into Target or into the grocery store?

I personally don't think so because now you can make other arguments for wearing it, but we're talking about specifically loving your neighbor. I don't think so because that's not how the virus spreads. And so if you're going into Target, you're probably not going to be within six feet of someone. And so how are you actually loving your neighbor by wearing a mask? And if you know for a fact that you're not sick, like I know we talk about asymptomatic spread, but even the evidence on asymptomatic spread being something that is actually driving the virus, that evidence is also shaky. So we're talking about a lot of theory, a lot of shaky evidence.

and if you are judging someone's love for Jesus and love for neighbor based on shaky evidence of cloth masks being worn in places like grocery stores, I just don't think that's very good theology. And I also, I don't think that's actually very loving to make that kind of judgment. Again, it seems like a log in your own eye kind of situation here that we are warned about very thoroughly in Matthew 7 and in other places like Romans 2. Hey, this is Steve Deast. 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. And so I just, I'm not sure that this logic holds up. And if we look at other statistics, for example, like the 2017 through 2018 flu season, it was a really, really bad flu season. The CDC estimates that over 640 kids died from the flu in 2017 to 2018. and that's just a few month period. And we've only had about 400 kids in the past year and a half die involving COVID. And that's the CDC's terminology.

And I'm actually going to, just as an aside, I am going to make a separate video and a whole separate post talking about kids specifically wearing masks and kids in COVID. I'm going to include all the links and all of that for you because a lot of you guys have been asking me about that. But, I mean, that was a very severe flu season. There were 11 million kids that tested positive for the flu, a little over 640 kids that are estimated to have died from the flu in those few months of the flu season. And we don't even talk about it. Like, I highly doubt that Beth Moore wore a mask. Like, was she socially distancing during that time? Like, we didn't blame that flu on Donald Trump.

As far as I know, there weren't a bunch of think pieces, you know, blaming Christian conservative anti-vaxxers on the hundreds and hundreds of kids that died from that. And there were tens of thousands of people and other age groups that died of the flu in 2017 to 2018. And like, we didn't take any measures. We didn't pull kids out of school. We didn't say, hey, you should probably virtually learn and isolate. And we could have it. And that could have saved lives, by the way. Maybe it could have.

If after 100 kids died from the flu, we said, you know what, we're going to pull all kids out of school. We're going to shut down the economy. And we're going to make sure that, you know, we're going to limit movement. Everyone's going to have to wear a mask. I mean, we could have done that. That could have saved lives. But we made some kind of calculation or maybe we just didn't even think it was an important

enough thing to make any kind of calculation. But someone made a calculation somewhere that said it's not worth it. And that might sound callous, but that's exactly what happened. Like there were calculations that were made, I guess, in that flu season that said, even though there are hundreds of kids dying from this right now, even though there are thousands of people across the country dying from this, we're not going to close down schools because kids have to be in schools. We're not going to wear masks because that would, you know, cause a lot of trouble.

And so I'm just wondering, like, what changed, especially if we're talking about protecting kids and protecting immunocompromise people, which are. are at a comparable risk of the flu every year, like what changed in those calculations? Like, why wasn't it not loving your neighbor in 2017 to 2018 to not wear a mask or to stay inside or to not go somewhere? Like, when did the logic change? That's what I want to know. Now, I understand that COVID is a lot deadlier than the flu for particular for particular

groups. That's true. But it's not necessarily deadlier for very, very vulnerable populations in general. It's not deadlier for kids in general. And so could you make the argument by Beth Moore's logic that you not staying home and not wearing a mask in 2017 and 2018, you weren't loving your, you know, child's neighbor by doing that? So my point is that this is really messy. Like it's a really it's really complicated because again, we go back to how much do I have to pay, how much do I have to sacrifice in order to be considered loving to my neighbor? Like how much do I have to sacrifice like my kids well-being in order to love my neighbor? Like if a parent thinks that their kid, especially like their two-year-old, is harmed from wearing a mask that it's not.

healthy for them, that it's not good for them. Are you saying that they're not loving their neighbor by refusing to allow their kids to wear masks? Because the truth is, like, we take risks every day. We take risks every day that could negatively harm someone around us. Every time you get in your car, every time you go out and really do anything, like you are doing something that could negatively impact someone around you. Are you telling me that you have never gone. out. You've never gone in public with the sniffles or even maybe knowing that you have a cold or knowing that you have the flu. You're telling me that you never ran to the grocery store to get something knowing that it's possible that you could transfer that sickness to someone else.

Or are you telling me that that wasn't loving Jesus when you did that? Like everyone takes risks. I definitely think as far as we can, like we shouldn't go in public when we're sick or send your kids to daycare or school when they're sick. Yes, I think that could be seen as a form of selfishness. All I'm saying is that this is extremely judgmental when there are so many other factors and so many other points and so many other data points that come into play when it comes to wearing masks and a lot of the mitigation measures that we have taken when it comes to COVID. So to say outright that someone who refuses to wear a mask in public is not. loving their neighbor, I just don't think holds up to scrutiny. I hope that makes sense. I'm willing to

hear your perspective on it, but I've seen this over and over. And Kamala Harris, who, I mean, I don't want to hear what Kamala Harris has to say about loving your neighbor. She said, you know, getting the vaccine is loving your neighbor. That's a whole other thing. Once again, there's so many factors and so many angles from which to approach that, that I just don't think you can say across the board that that is what it means to love your neighbor. I don't want to hear from Kamala Harris, who believes that late-term abortion is a human right. I don't want to hear from her what it means to love your neighbor. Like, I don't see, I don't see fruit in her life. Like, I have no reason to believe that she's a believer. Like, I don't want to, I don't want to hear from.

her what it means to love your neighbor. And I think that, by the way, there are plenty of people on the right and the left that talk about God and talk about Jesus. Politicians I'm talking about that I have no idea if they're saved or not. So I'm not just saying that because she's a Democrat, but certainly the things that she advocates for, I mean, I think that I have a reason to question her trustworthiness when it comes to her definition of loving your neighbor. So I just wanted to respond to all of that because a lot of you asked me to respond to Beth Moore's. little rant. She'll go back to pretending like she is not political at all. Just own it. Just own it. It's okay to be political. It's okay to make a political statement as a Christian,

but don't pretend like you're not. That's one of my beefs with this whole thing. All right. That's it on that. It was a little bit of a ramble. I know. I was kind of thinking through the logic of that as I was speaking, but I hope it gave you something to think about yourself. And like I said, I'm actually going to have a more organized video and I'm going to be able to organize some resources and links for you guys when it comes to specifically pediatric cases and kids wearing masks because a lot of you, so many of you every day message me and say like, oh my gosh, my school district just mandated masks for kindergartners. I got a message today from someone who said that your area is mandating masks in public for kids as young as 24 months, two years old. I mean,

that's insane and I've got a lot of data that I think rebuts any mandate for kids, especially that young wearing masks. And I'm not talking about like data anecdotes from holliesholistics.com. If that's your website, I am not, I'm not shaming you. I'm just saying that the data that I'm talking about is coming from medical journals, American Academy of Pediatrics. And so I'm going to put all those together for you guys. I'm going to put all those together for you guys. I'm going to make it a resource that you guys can refer back to. All right, I want to talk about Gen Z. I want to talk about Generation Z because I talked about something on Instagram that got me a ton of messages and it got me a lot of replies to the tweet that I put out about it.

Basically, almost all affirming that's my observations about Generation Z are true. And I said when I was first saying these observations that I'm not trying to describe the generation as a whole. These are just anecdotes that I have received from parents and members of Generation Z themselves talking about just some of the fear and anxieties and propensity towards depression and insecurity and paranoia that a lot of people in Gen Z have. And one of the things that I have noticed that got me thinking about this that I really think is a unique phenomenon among this generation is the deferrence or the deferral of driver's licenses. So I have heard from several parents over the past few years and from teenagers that they don't want to get

their driver's license when they turn 16 or that they get their permit when they turn 15 because your parent makes you. But then after, you know, several years pass by and you still don't want to get your driver's license. There are some people that messaged me said that you are in your 20s and you still don't like to drive by yourself. There are people that parents that message me that said, like, you have had to force your child to go get their driver's license so that they can drive independently. And there's just not a desire for that. I've got a lot of teachers, a lot of mentors, a lot of youth pastors that have messaged me and affirmed that this is really true. This is really widespread that a lot of young people have anxiety about driving with themselves.

Now, maybe part of that is good because there are a... There's a reason why insurance is so high for especially boys who are 16 years old, but also girls, because the front part of your brain isn't fully developed until you're about 25. And so your ability to be able to see long-term consequences, even when you're driving on the road, to be able to deduce, okay, if I do this, this is going to happen. It's extremely limited. And I know if you're a teenager listening to this, you don't think that's true. Of course, I didn't think that was true either.

but my driving record speaks to the reality that I was reckless without really realizing that I was reckless or without trying to be reckless. It's just that you are not able to kind of make those judgments very well when you are so young. So part of me is like, okay, you know, maybe this is good. I wouldn't really mind if my kids weren't, you know, dying to get out of the house and wanting to drive by themselves with all of their friends when they're just 16 years old. But it struck me how different this is, how different this attitude is from how I felt when I was 16 and how my friends felt. I mean, you were so cool if you were one of the first people that got their driver's license. And it was such a bummer.

Like I was on the younger, younger part. Most people in my grade were born in 1991. And then the other half of us, or the other percentage of us were born in 1992. And you were considered kind of on the younger side if you were born in 92. And so I had to wait a little bit to get my driver's license. and I loved driving around with my friends. One of my friends, she was one of the first people. Maybe she was listening to this podcast.

She was one of the first people to get her driver's license. And she had this like old Buick. And it was just so cool for her to pick me up from my house. And we would like listen to CDs. Now if you're 17 years old, maybe you don't know what a CD is. But this was before we, you know, primarily listen to, you know, or primarily had Bluetooth or, or, listened to, um, uh, listen to our iPods and all that stuff. So it was just really cool to have

that independence. And I just could not wait. I could not wait to drive. I couldn't wait to be independent. I couldn't wait to go to college. I actually specifically wanted to go out of state for college. And this was not because I didn't like my parents or didn't like my friends in high school or didn't like, uh, you know, Texas where I grew up. I just wanted something different. Like I love the thought of independence. Of course, this could also just be. be my personality. My dad says that I've been 26 years old since I was six, and that is probably true. I've always loved the idea of being an adult. And I understand not everyone is like this, but it seems like all of my friends were also very excited about the independence that comes with

getting older. And now it seems like it's the opposite, that there is just no excitement for young people when it comes to being on your own, taking the risk of driving. There is a risk that comes with this, but it even, I am hearing, bleeds over into their ability to create relationships, specifically romantic relationships. Now, I do remember when I was like in seventh grade, I think, yeah, I got my cell phone a little flip phone when I was for Christmas when I was almost 13 years old. Now looking back, I think that was probably too young. But texting with people was like really exciting and texting boys was like really exciting. And then when you would see them in person, you like wouldn't want to say anything, but you would have like, you know, a thriving texting

relationship. And then when you saw them at their locker when you were in middle school, you didn't want to say anything. So I remember that, but not when I was 18. Like now I'm hearing 17, 18, 19, 20, 21 year olds who talk to people on dating apps, who talk to people on Snapchat. That's apparently the primary mode of communication. who just are really scared for guys to actually ask a girl out or to have any kind of like in-person meaningful relationship or dating life in real life. And that is also very troubling to me. There seems to be, and I think that the data shows this, a significant rise in anxiety.

and even, I would say, almost agoraphobia, like the fear of going outside when it comes to young people. Now, I think the past year and a half, understandably, has helped that, has, or not helped, but exacerbated that, worsened that, I should say. But I think it happened before that. I think a lot of it has to do with social media. A lot of it has to do with liking how we sound or liking how they sound, I should say, and look on social media versus how they're able to present themselves and, communicate and form relationships in real life. I think that they, a lot of them have,

have had parents who have produced that kind of anxiety in them. I think that living your life primarily virtually through technology on the internet, through social media and parents who have allowed kids to do that and have not challenged them to take risks and to build those kind of in-person relationships. I think all of this and more has played into a generation that is afraid of growing up, like a generation that is afraid of going out on their own. Now, millennials did also, I would say younger millennials, like 1990s millennials like me and even younger than me, also had that problem. I mean, we were talking about, you know, five years ago, how millennials don't want to move out of their house, how they're living at home until they're 30

and all that stuff. It seems to me that that is even more prevalent. in Generation Z. Now, not everyone, of course, is like that. I've talked to a lot of you who are in Generation Z who don't feel that way, that you are excited to get your driver's license, or you have had a boyfriend for a long time. You're excited to get married and all of these things. But I don't think that's typical.

I was actually looking, if I can pull it up, I will. I was looking at this album by some Generation Z person, like this new album that came out. and all of the songs on the album were just about how like terrible life is. Okay, so this is by, I pulled it up. So this is by Nessa Barrett. I don't know who this person is. This just goes to show also that I'm old.

5.7 million followers, this Nessa Barrett person, I've never heard of them. So apparently this person's album came out. It's called Pretty Poison. And here are the seven songs. One, pretty poison. Two, keep me afraid. Three, I hope you're miserable until you're dead. Four, grave. Five, scare myself. Six, I want to die. Seven, sincerely. Okay. So, like, these are the kinds of songs and the kinds of things that kids today are consuming that apparently characterize how they feel, then I think that's a pretty, you know, that's a pretty sad but accurate indication of where their mental health is. And now, I wrote about this a lot in my book, the way, just shameless plug. Today is August 11th. It's been exactly a year since my book, You're Not Enough, and that's okay, came out. And we talk about this, actually, this phenomenon

of just totally unstable mental health and how people really are riddled with all kinds of anxiety and worry and fear and insecurity and paranoia. And we're told that the answer to that is just to love yourself more. But I don't believe that because we're looking at a generation, Generation Z, who has been absolutely conditioned to love themselves and focus on themselves and rely on themselves completely, who have been encouraged to make everything about them and to put off any kind of inconvenience or sacrifice or risk, and they are the least mentally healthy generation by far that we have, whereas older generations who have gone through a lot harder than we have, who have had a lot less luxury than we have,

don't have the mental health problems that young people have today. So it doesn't make sense that in the age of self-love and self-empowerment, that if those things are the answer, self-love and self-empowerment to bad mental health, that we are continuing to see such bad mental health. Maybe the problem is, is that we are encouraging young people to focus on themselves way too much, way too much, and that we have convinced them that convenient in safety and insulation and comfort are the most important things in life. to value most in life. And I think that that's a problem. Now, I am someone who I think my propensity

as a parent will be to hover and will be to do anything I can to keep my kids safe. I think that is going to be my tendency. It will take effort for me to make sure that my kids are taking, make sure that my kids are taking calculated safe risks, that my kids are challenged, that my kids are able to, you know, obtain the independence at an age appropriate time that they need, it will be my tendency to try to keep my kids safe for as long as I can because that's just who I am. Like, I can be a very anxious person in that way. And so if that's you as a parent, I understand that. But I think we can see, we can learn from Generation Z that that's actually not healthy. It's not healthy for kids to be scared all the time. It's not healthy for kids to just

stay home. It's not healthy for kids to not spread their wings and fly and to take those calculated risks. There's some fear that comes to that, but I actually think that it's more important to have strong and brave and bold kids than it is to have kids that are that just want to stay home all the time and not say anything that might ruffle feathers. I think another thing is like they're so addicted to perfectionism because all of their lives have been spit online and cancel culture. And online bullying is so rampant among kids that they don't want to. to say anything that might go against the grain, that might go against the mainstream. Think that's what characterizes a lot of their politics, that they haven't even really thought about whether

abortion is right or wrong or whether socialism is right or wrong or whether patriotism is a good thing that, you know, we should dawn or take off. I don't think many of them have thought about that because they are so, so, so, so addicted to group think. And they have seen when people go outside of group think what happens to them, they become these social pariahs. And that's the worst thing, I think that you can be as a young person, that they're really not willing to step out of the bounds of that. And we have so poorly modeled what good debate and dialogue looks like, what it looks like to be able to have conversations, I think. We're just modeling that so incredibly poorly as adults, as millennials as, you know, Gen X in general, that of course they're scared. Of course they're scared of those things.

Of course they're scared to swim upstream. dream. And so I think that you unfortunately just have a lot of scared, paranoid, insecure, self-centered group thinkers and Generation Z. Again, not all of you. And I'm not criticizing you. I think a lot of it is a part of your environment. Some of it is your choices, yes, but a lot of it is stuff that you have inherited, unfortunately, from older generations. And the question is, because I think all of that stuff that I've listed is so unhealthy, like how can you leverage the good things about your generation to be different from the people that are only going to go with the flow when it comes to the negative aspects of your generation? And I'll answer

some of those questions in just one second. All right. So here's my advice to Generation Z. And I've given, you know, different forms of this advice before. And I'm speaking to someone who's 29. So I'm not speaking to someone who has like a ton of more life experience than some of you. But I have been 17 before. And if I were in your same position, like if I were 17 right now, I'd be the same way as you. So I don't think that I'm like, that we're inherently better because we're older. And it's the same of every generation. Every generation turns around and criticizes the previous generation. And I think some of that is valid and some of that is not.

Because the truth is like if baby boomers were teenagers, the same time millennials were, they would have the same problems. And if I were a teenager now, I'd have the same problems, the same negative characteristics that you do. but there are characteristics that are not going to change just because, or there are characteristics of success, I should say, that are not going to change just because you, Generation Z have a hard time embodying them. Because your bosses are not going to be Generation Z. Your bosses might not even be millennials. Your bosses are probably going to be Gen X and even for a while, still younger baby boomers. I mean, baby boomers are still, there are some that are in their 50s.

there are some that are significantly older than that, but the youngest baby boomers, I believe, are in the latter parts of their 50s. So they're still going to be your bosses, which means they come from a different area than you. They have different values than you. And I do think that there's something to learn from them. And yes, even to learn from us very old and wise millennials. And some of the things that I would encourage you to do to stand apart from your generation because there's good news about your generation being agoraphobic, being so paranoid and scared and insecure and unwilling to take risks and to work hard for the sake of working hard, to move out of their houses, to drive, to sacrifice and embrace inconvenience and all of these things is that there's a very low bar.

There's a very low bar for success. There's a very low bar for standing out. And so you will be able to stand out from your generation by just taking a few steps. One of the things that I think that you can do is you can read more than you scroll. I'm preaching to myself too, by the way. Something that I used to do a lot in high school that I don't do. as much as I used to was read. I didn't have the option to do Snapchat and stuff in high school,

so it's a little bit difficult. But I've got a whole recommended resources list on my show that I can link in the description to this podcast that I recommend you go through. They're not always the most exciting books in the world. But if you want to think differently and learn things that are broader and bigger and more profound than your peers, especially if you're a teenager,

then I recommend reading rather than give. getting all of your news and information from Instagram and Snapchat. Those Generation Z influencers that you follow on TikTok, even those other celebrities that think that they know things about Palestine and Israel, that think that they know things about the transgender issue, think that they know things about, you know, capitalism, socialism, all that stuff. They probably don't. Like, they probably don't know anything.

Like, you and I should both be learning from people that are smarter than us, learning for people that know a lot more than us and have actually studied this, not just from people who post pretty pictures on Instagram and are sharing the meme that someone from some political campaign told them to share or paid them to share on social and media. So, and even if you're not interested in just reading Thomas Sol all day, which I understand, like read fiction, read classics, read stuff that has nothing to do with politics or culture or anything. Like, your brain is getting exercised and is learning creativity, is learning how to communicate

and write when you are reading fiction too. Now, I read a lot of trash fiction when I was in high school. I was in high school when Twilight came out and that literally consumed my life for like years. That's really sad. But I, you know, I read all that kind of trashy fiction when I was in high school probably shouldn't have. I think that it probably was not good for me emotionally. But it's still, I think, better than just scrolling.

So I encourage you to read fiction, read old fiction, maybe read some new fiction, be careful about the values that it's promoting, make sure that you're a critical thinker through all of that. Read C.S. Lewis. Read the things that are actually going to edify your mind. You will become a better writer. You'll become a better talker. You'll become a better thinker. You'll become more creative that way. Those are all things that are going to be lacking in people in your generation because your mind actually atrophies. It actually weakens from spending all of your days on social media. And that leads me to the second thing is that if you're a critical thinker, if you are asking questions about the things you read, about the things that you see, about the things that

you see shared, then you are already going to be far and above most people your age. If everyone your age thinks something about something, then you should just start questioning that. You should start with the question, is that really true? You should use a search engine, which is a really wonderful part about technology today, to pick apart some of the things that people are saying in your generation to ask yourself if the research really backs that up. And don't just look at the Huffington Post or Teen Vogue to try to support your arguments because, again, these are all going one direction. Just try for a day to go against the grain and what you're thinking and really start breaking down people's arguments and ask yourself if they make sense.

So be a good reader, be a good thinker. The next one I would say is be a good writer. This will always matter. Like I don't care how much we decide that we are going to flout the rules of grammar, how much it doesn't matter how someone spells or the grammar that people use. Look, if I'm I am your boss, which maybe I will be one day. Who knows? Maybe I will be some of your boss. If I am your boss, I care if you can use proper grammar. I care if you can write a proper email. Like, I care if you know how to form a sentence in a way that's not a comma splice or a run on. Like, I care about that. And I guarantee you there are other people in my generation who may be your bosses one day and older than us who care about that kind of thing. Be a good writer.

there will never be a lack of a need for a good communicator. It doesn't have to be like your number one thing that you're great at. You don't have to be this wonderful creative writer. You might be a scientist, mathematician. All that is well and good too. But something to keep in your back pocket is to be a good writer. The way that you do that is you become a good reader or consistent reader. That's one way at least to do that.

And you can also practice writing all that good stuff. And then the last one is be a good communicator. Like be able to hold a conversation. with someone, someone your age, someone of the opposite sex, someone who is older than you, someone who is younger than you. Learn what it means to be adaptable and accommodating to people who are not like you. That's one great thing about your generation is that your eyes are open to all different kinds of people who don't look like you, who don't have the same background as you, who don't come from the same socioeconomic class, religion as you, and all of that can grow a lot

of compassion and empathy in you and I think that's all well and good. But you need to learn who you are, what your true identity is, and I'm not talking about the million sexual identities that people make up on a daily basis on TikTok. I'm talking about knowing why you're here, what your purpose is, knowing the God who made you, knowing what your worldview is, especially if you're a Christian, which I assume if you're listening to this podcast that you are, understand the word of God, understand who he is and who you are in light of what he has done for you. what is right and wrong and good and right and true according to God's word, not according to what Instagram influencers and TikTok influencers say. Be confident in those things and from that place, be able to have a confident conversation and communication with people of all different ages and all different types around you. That will, those things alone will make you a leader. Those things alone will make you a leader. What else will make you a leader? And this is my last

thing because I've got it in this is to refuse to be it written by a leader. anxiety and the self-centeredness that causes anxiety. So realizing, and this is so unfortunate, it's not your fault that you've been raised in an age that you are made to think that you have to be everywhere at once and that you have to know everything at once and that the weight of the world and, you know, climate change and climate hysteria and the weight of every pandemic and the weight of every negative news story is on your shoulders and you think you have to know about it and know what to do about it. That's not your fault, that that that's, is weighing on you and has caused you to be anxious, but release that. Okay, the weight of the world is

not on your shoulders. You like everyone else, you are finite, you are fallible. You need like every human that has ever existed. This is just true about human nature. I heard a doctor say this recently. You need a simple life. Okay. We all need to live simple lives. We need stable and simple lives. Like kids need two parents that love them very much and that support them and that can help them. Kids need some kind of stability. And if you're raised in a home that is not stable, you need to try to make your life as simple and as stable as possible. You need to join a church. You need to get off social media.

You need to stop thinking that every problem in the world is on your shoulders or you need to stop thinking that everyone is out to get you. you need to stop thinking that death is knocking on your door every second. The fact of the matter is you need to leave a simple and stable life and be involved and rooted exactly where you are and seek to make the lives of those around you better. I promise. I'm not saying that is the cure for all anxiety and depression. I'm not saying that. I actually think counselors and medication can all be very helpful.

But I promise you it will help. I promise you. There's so much more that I could say so much more on this. but I hope just a little bit of that is helpful. And if you guys want me to do an expanded episode on something like that, I will. All right, that's all I've got time for today. Please tune into tomorrow's episode so important about the Great Reset and everything that's happened over the past year and a half.

It'll be a really, really good and informative episode. And I will see you guys then. Hey, this is Steve Deast. 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 Steve Day show right here on Blaze TV or listen wherever you get podcasts.

I hope you'll join us. Thank you.