Relatable with Allie Beth Stuckey - Ep 478 | Vaccine Passports, Mandates, and the French Resistance

Episode Date: August 26, 2021

We're covering several topics today, starting with the atrocious news that suicide bombers in Kabul have killed several people, including American servicemen. Unfortunately, it seems like the Afghanistan situation just keeps getting worse. Then, we have some advice for South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem, who for some reason decided to get into a Twitter argument with Matt Walsh. Lastly, we discuss how to push back on mask and vaccine mandates in local areas, as well as look at some of the resistance against draconian COVID restrictions coming out of other countries like France and from celebrities like Joe Rogan. --- Today's Sponsors: Good Ranchers products are individually wrapped, vacuum sealed, & ready to grill (which helps eliminate waste!). Know where your meat comes from — go to GoodRanchers.com/ALLIE to get $20 off & FREE express shipping. Bambee can change HR from your biggest liability to your biggest strength. Go to Bambee.com/ALLIE right now to schedule your free HR audit! --- Past Ep Mentioned: Ep 477: Why Biden Is Turning His Back on Americans in Afghanistan | Guest: Rebeccah Heinrichs https://apple.co/3yiJkrO Ep 473: Carrie Underwood Gets It: Masks Don't Belong in Schools (with Data) https://apple.co/3sQZlUP --- Show Links: Glenn Beck & the Nazarene Fund: https://bit.ly/3mAFUOF No One Left Behind: https://bit.ly/3jfCsHf Houston Welcomes Refugees: https://bit.ly/38jSk5n AllieBethStuckey.com: "Why Kids (And You) Shouldn't Be Forced to Mask:" https://bit.ly/37XCkG1 --- 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 Thursday. Hope everyone has had a wonderful week. You've almost made it to Friday. So congratulations. Good job. Pat yourself on the back. You did it. We're going to talk about a variety of things today. Today is the Relatable Variety Show. Some things are going to be serious. and sad some things are going to be happy and uplifting. Hopefully maybe a couple of things even make you laugh. So you're going to have to bear with me as we transition through some of those things. Might have to be a sharp turn sometimes.

But we're going to get through it. First thing I need to say off the bat that I don't have all the details of. When I am recording this, it is Thursday morning. So by the time you're listening to this, there may be some developments that I'm not able to tell you right now. But as I said, as I am recording this, there have been two explosions outside of the Kabul airport in Afghanistan. And I just wanted to let you know that I'm watching that. I'm watching the development of that. Maybe I will share more information about it on Instagram this afternoon.

Let me tell you what I know right now. I literally, just as I was walking in, happened to look off to the side and see a Chiron on Fox News talking about some explosion outside of the Kabul airport. I didn't know about it. And then I walked in and my team said, oh, yeah, there was another explosion. I didn't even know about the first explosion. It's very hard to keep up with all of this. So if you didn't know about it, that's okay. That's part of why I'm here. So let me read you a little bit from the federal list. They reported this morning, quote, an explosion rocked the Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul on Thursday as thousands of people were waiting for evacuation flights out of the Taliban-controlled country. If you haven't, this is me talking. If you haven't, this is me talking. If you haven't. listened to yesterday's episode of Relatable, we gave you an update on everything that is happening in Afghanistan, why what's happening is happening, the policy decisions made by this administration that led to what's happening, and then what I had an expert on Rebecca Heinrich's in what she believes is going to happen in the future, the things that we need to watch out for. And she made a couple predictions about what is to come and how things are going to devolve.

So go listen to that episode if you have not already. This is what's happening right now. Several outlets the federalist says reported that the blast occurred at one of the airport's main entrances, Abbey Gate, and was triggered by at least one suicide bomber. The Pentagon confirmed there is an explosion and said there are, quote, an unknown number of casualties. We can confirm an explosion happened outside Kabul Airport. This is a tweet by the Pentagon. casualties are unclear at this time.

We will provide additional details when we can. Fox News reported that at least three U.S. troops were wounded in the blast. As of Wednesday, approximately 1,500 Americans were still waiting to be rescued from Afghanistan. There are probably a lot more than that. I also saw a New York Times news alert that said that there's a plan to get 500 of them out, but not the 1,000 that I guess are still going to be left. The Biden administration has succeeded in getting tens of thousands of people, out of Afghanistan, but only 5% of those thousands of people have actually been American.

So the vast majority of those people have been Afghans and not necessarily Afghan allies, but just Afghans in general. I believe that we should be taking refugees. I want to take refugees. I believe absolutely once they're here that we as Christians have an obligation to help them with our time and our energy and our resources and our donations as we can. But I believe that the American government should be prioritizing American citizens. That's what a government does. That's why you see governments of other countries actually sending their military into Afghanistan, not just waiting at the airport to rescue their citizens from Afghanistan. Unfortunately, the Biden administration has stopped our troops from doing that. They're just

kind of waiting at the airport and then telling American citizens to go to the airport to hopefully get on a plane and get out. But unfortunately, the Taliban is making that difficult. and then this terrorist attack, of course, is making it even more difficult. That is just one of the many reasons why the Biden administration has botched this and has caused unprecedented, at least as far as our foreign policy goes, probably unprecedented chaos. And so it's just a disaster. These two bombings, these two explosions just add to the disaster that could have been quite probably curtailed by better decision-making.

by the U.S. government. The federalist goes on to say, just one day before the explosion, the U.S. embassy cautioned Americans against traveling to the airport for evacuation until they were specifically told to do so. So it is likely that the United States saw this coming. And actually, we have heard that one fear was that ISIS would capitalize on the chaos at Kabul airport and possibly perpetuate one. of these attacks. We don't know beyond that who is responsible for it. Very, very sad, very tragic.

There's just, there's just no way. I don't think that Biden lives this down. There's no way to spin it. Like he can try to give as many press conferences as he wants to. He can be as defiant and as defensive as he wants to. He can run away from the press as much as he wants to. He can try to pivot talking about COVID and attacking governors like Ron DeSantis for their policy for his policymaking, he's not going to be able to run from it. Because like we talked about yesterday, this is a rare instance in which we do have a lot of members of the media actually being honest and trying to literally speak truth to power, rather than just say that they're speaking truth to power. As we know, the liberal media often gives a path to Democratic politicians. But in this

case, they seem to be holding his feet to the fire, which they should be doing for every single politician at all times. That is the responsibility of the press to do that for politicians on both side of the aisle. So I woke up this morning praying about the situation in Afghanistan. I shared on social media. I'll share again. There are a variety of organizations that are helping and very tangible and very effective ways. Glenn Beck has sent a team over to Afghanistan or is helping fund a team in Afghanistan. that is actively rescuing Christians. And so they're going over there with their large planes and they are getting Christians

out of Afghanistan. Praise God for that. God is using many people to do the same thing. This is just another example that private citizens, that the private sector, typically, the vast majority of times is a better job at doing things effectively than the government does. And even though we are seeing such a failure of leadership, a dereliction of duty, by our country's leaders when I see something like what Glenn Beck is doing or what other

organizations are doing to help those in need and to get American citizens out and to get American allies out in Afghanistan. It reminds me of why I am proud to be an American because even when our leadership fails, this is the character of our country. This is who we are in the midst of all of our disagreements. This is the character of the United States, sacrificing everything to ensure the safety of our fellow Americans and of our fellow Christians if we are Christians. So I also, we, youth with a youth with mission is an organization that we decided to donate to. There is actually a specific couple that are friends of a friend that we wanted to support financially that are, they're going over there.

I don't know that I'm actually allowed to disclose their names. They're going over there and trying to help Christians in Afghanistan. We also donated to no one left behind who was trying to rescue Afghan allies there. And then one other organization, Houston welcomes refugees. Houston, Texas has a huge refugee population and they create welcome kits for refugees of all different kinds that arrive in Houston and they are doing that also for Afghan refugees. No matter what you think about the politics of refugee acceptance, the fact of the matter is, is that once they're here, they're here, and it is the obligation, I believe, of Christians

to help them as we can. That doesn't mean that we help them instead of helping American citizens, but in addition to. And so those are three organizations that I think that are doing good work. There are other organizations that are doing good work as well. I'm not affiliated with any of those organizations that I just promoted, just giving you some options to look into on your own. I want to transition to some other things and it can be difficult, like I said, to make this transition into some lighthearted stuff. And then also we're going to get back into some serious stuff. But let us remember that even in the midst of chaos, even in the midst of really hard things going on, that we can't feel guilty for seeking lightheartedness and seeking

alleviation from those burdens. We do what we can. We trust God as we pray without ceasing for those in need. But we also have to focus on what's in front of us and God does give us joy as a gift. Proverbs 1722 says a joyful heart is good medicine, but a crushed spirit dries up the bones. And I also love this from Proverbs 1413, that even in laughter, the heart may ache and the end of joy may be grief. And so even as we laugh, even as we show joy, if you are, say, you know, watching a show or watching a movie or watching a video that makes you laugh, brings you joy. You're laughing at something that your friend or your child said, don't feel guilty for that just because there is also sorrow. We actually,

the human heart is very complex and multifaceted. We can carry sadness and sorrow at the same time that we are expressing joy. And we actually see that very much depicted throughout scripture, that we are to rejoice in trials of many kinds as the book of James tells us to do, even as we are sad and maybe even fearful in some ways in those trials. And so let's transition into some other things because I do want to talk about some good things that are going on and some things that I see around the world where people are pushing back against what they see as tyrannical policy. And as I was writing, so let me tell you first. Let me tell you some wins and failures of Ali Stucky first before I get into some. global wins and failures that I think that I see. First of all, a win for me this morning.

Sometimes I write verbatim what I want to say, even if I don't follow my script. Sometimes I follow my script to the T because I know exactly what I want to say and it's better if I write it in the morning. Sometimes I don't write a script like right now. I don't have a script that I am looking at. Sometimes I write a script and then I go off script. This morning I just started kind of typing things out. I'm an external processor. So sometimes I have to start writing and it gets my brain going. This morning, I started out typing that there was a smorgasbord of things that I wanted to talk about today. And I was very proud of myself because I spelled smorgasbord correctly on the first try. Now, some of you, you might need to just pause it for a second, pause relatable for a second,

and see if you can spell smorgasbord the right way the first time. Because I asked my husband if he could, who is a good speller. Now, I, granted, I'm a pretty good speller anyway, but still, that's a difficult word because I think we typically say smorgas Borg. And that's how my husband spelled it. It's actually smorgas Bord. I don't know if you knew that or not. But I was pretty proud of myself that on the first time, I mean, I just pat myself on the back about that because that's not easy. Smorgas Borg, if you did not know, is actually like a market in Brooklyn. Smorgas Bord is a Scandinavian word that is, it describes some kind of like meal, not just like a cheese board, but it has all kinds of different like meats and cheeses and things like that. That's a smorgas board because it's a variety,

a mish mash of things. So it's pretty proud of myself. That's a win for Allie's Ducky that happened this morning. Now let me tell you about my, let me tell you about my loss. And this, I'm going to try to tie it into the other things that we're talking about. But we'll see. It's just, maybe it's just story time because this is called relatable. And I don't, because there's so much going on in the world, I don't often tell stories. So some of you know, if you follow me on Instagram, that my husband and I've been trying to do whole 30. We're about two and a half weeks in, and I've cheated here and there, but I've done a pretty good job. And if you don't know what whole 30 is, it's basically that you try to eat whole foods for 30 days. And so no processed food.

You can't eat dairy. You can't eat legumes. So that means, like, you can't eat beans. You can't eat peanut butter because a peanut is actually not a nut. It's a legume. And so it's difficult. I've done keto. I did keto a little over a year ago. It was effective. But you can eat, I think, a lot more on keto because you can eat dairy and sour cream, which is dairy. So you can eat dairy and you can eat some other things that I think gives you a little bit more latitude and is a little bit easier. You can't eat any of that on whole 30. But I didn't want to wait like I did after my last pregnancy a whole year to start eating healthy. And so that's why we decided to do it. So if you've done a whole 30 before, you know that there is a day where you feel. And I'm sorry

if you're listening with kids, this is a little bit of an inappropriate, where it's not a cuss word. It's an inappropriate word because it speaks to maybe, I don't know, a mature idea. But you feel hungover. One of the days on Whole 30 because your body is detoxing all of the bad stuff that you had been eating, all of the processed food and all of that. And you just feel bad. and everyone knows that you're supposed to push through that day and you're just supposed to get on with it. But yesterday I woke up, like, I think I was still like half asleep waking up thinking about how bad my head hurt. And I woke up, had a full night of sleep, but was so tired, so nauseous. And I just, I did not feel good.

And I didn't even want coffee. No, I'm not pregnant. So don't ask me about that. I didn't want coffee. I didn't want anything. I felt awful. And you could probably, you could go back and look at yesterday's YouTube video and how tired I looked. I didn't do my hair. I hardly did my makeup. Was not feeling good. But I was like, Allie, you got to push through this.

It's only two and a half more weeks. Like my husband and my anniversary is at the end of Whole 30. So we are already excited about what we're going to eat. And so I was like, you got to push through it. Well, your girl is not very disciplined when she passes by. in and out. And that is what I did. So I drove by in and out and I actually drove past it. So this is how bad it is. I drove past in and out and I made a U-turn because I could not, I couldn't do it. I couldn't do it. My resolve just totally, it totally fell through. And I circled back around and I got myself a hamburger and fries and a Diet Coke. And I wish I could say, like if I had any semblance of integrity when it comes to a whole 30, I would feel bad about that. I would have some

regret. And I would say, oh, you know, I really wish that I hadn't done that. I should have just, I should have just pushed through and I would feel better today. And my body feels bad. And I just regret it. And I could have, you know, gone to my husband with all of this guilt. And I didn't, I still don't feel bad about it. I felt so good afterwards. I was like, I think my body needed that. I think my body needed the fries and the hamburger. I still feel good about it today. I probably won't do it again because I'm going to try to re-implement my discipline. But I'm just going to be honest.

Like I went home and I told my husband about it. And I was like, I don't feel bad. I don't feel bad. I felt honestly like my body needed in and out. So that is if you consider that a failure when the spelled smorgasbord correctly on the first. try this morning. Fail, loss yesterday on Whole 30 completely gave in and just ate in and out, which is even just like weird for me. I'm not really a fast food person. But that's what that's, that's my story. I just wanted to tell you that because maybe you can relate to it. You win some

and you'll lose some. One today, lost yesterday. That's, that's life. That's life. And I just, I just, I don't know. I wanted to share that with you. And maybe it'll tie into what we're talking about next, some wins and some losses, some goods and some bats. We're going to talk about Christy Noam and we're going to talk about vaccine mandates and we're going to talk about France. And so there are some winners there.

And then there are some not-so winners there. So maybe that ties into what I just said. 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 the Steve Day show right here on Blaze TV or listen wherever you get podcasts. I hope you'll join. All right. So like I said, some winners and some losers. I don't want to call governor of South Dakota

Kristy Noem a loser because I don't, I really don't think that she is. But she has taken some tactics on Twitter that I just don't think are wise. And because I think that she's done a lot of good things, is the South Dakota governor. Like, I want to give some friendly advice. So let me tell you some drama that went on on Twitter yesterday with Christy Noam and Matt Walsh. Now, this is a lot of This is like the third week in a row that we're talking about Matt Walsh. We talked about Matt Walsh on an episode about Carrie Underwood. And then we had him on, I think, the week before. And so he's a newsmaker.

And so we're going to talk about him again in relation to Christy Noem. So he said on his podcast that the only reason that Christy Noam has the attention that she has, again, Governor of South Dakota is because she is a very attractive woman. he said, you know, add, I think he said 20 years and 40 pounds to her or something like that, then she doesn't get the attention that she does. Now, we know that that is like, that's Matt Walsh's brand. He says stuff like that. Well, Christy Noem decided that she was going to post that clip, which she apparently got from Media Matters and say that Matt Walsh is a misogynist. and then she tweeted something again saying, actually tagging Ben Shapiro, I guess kind of like telling on Matt Walsh and saying like, you know, I've roped steers bigger than Matt Walsh when I was a teenager or something like that.

And the reason why this all started is because Governor Noam, she's gotten a lot of conservatives frustrated, I think understandably so because she refuses to tell corporations that they can't, mandate vaccines, whereas in somewhere like Florida, Governor Ron DeSantis has tried to make it impossible for businesses to mandate vaccines. Now, there are conservatives typically on the anti-Trump side, I would say, that don't like that kind of thing. And I'm not saying that necessarily they're only characterized by being against Donald Trump. They just typically tend to be in that camp who say that it's not conservative. Like I saw Joe Walsh, for example, he, I think, said that he was going to run against Trump last time, and their Republican primary. But he said, you know, what's conservative about a Republican governor telling businesses that they

can't mandate something? They are telling school districts that they can't mandate something. And I replied. And I said, well, they're protecting individual choice. I am on that side. I am okay with a politician telling a business what they can and can't do. it comes to protecting the rights of individuals to make particular choices, I think. Now, I could maybe be persuaded by a good argument to the contrary of that. But I like that Ron DeSantis is stepping

up and saying, look, no, you can't trample on a parents right to decide what is best for their kid and you can't trample on an individual's right or try to manipulate them into doing something with their body that they don't want to do, talking to a business. and basically give them an ultimatum. It's either this or you're fired. Maybe there are some other restrictions that you can put on them. Maybe you can make them test. Maybe you can try to make them wear a mask.

But you can't force them or you can't fire them if they refuse this vaccine. I don't know the ins and out of Rondisantis's particular policy, but I know that he's trying to protect individual choice by basically saying, no, you can't mandate this kind of thing. Whereas, because you know what I'm saying, look, I don't have the power to do that. And I don't want to do that. I don't want to coerce businesses into not mandating something that they want to mandate. And I get that, but I do think it's different. The government is saying, look, the company, you can't force your employees to do that

versus saying versus a governor or an elected official telling a company that they have to do something, if that makes sense. I think that there is a difference because on the one hand, the former situation, you are protecting individual choice, I would say that is the role of a conservative politician to try to protect individual choice as much as possible. You are representing individuals. You are not primarily representing corporations. And so this is another thing that a lot of conservatives consider a blunder on the part

of Christine Noam after she refused to protect girls' sports. Now, she did explain her decision not to sign the bill that was said to protect girls' sports, but a lot of people think that she has conflicting interests, corporate interests, and that she is not representing people in a conservative way. So that's what people have beef about. That is why Matt Walsh was criticizing her. If you look at his podcast in general or the episode in general, you'll see he actually did lay out some specific complaints.

about Kristy Noam and the policy positions that she has decided to hold. And it wasn't just about her looks, but this is the clip that was kind of taken out that she tweeted and she had a problem about. Here's the thing, Christine Noam. First of all, I do disagree with you when it comes to the businesses, when it comes to protecting individual choice. I would not say what Matt Walsh said. I am a woman.

I wouldn't like someone to say that about me. I wouldn't. And so I understand her being offended by that. I'd be offended by that. I think it's offensive. I'm sure that Matt Walsh doesn't think it's inoffensive. But it's fine for him to say whatever. He has the freedom to do that.

And there is some truth to it. Like there is some truth to it. She is a beautiful person and beauty has privilege. There are privileges that come with beauty. That is just true. That's true. No matter what party you're in. That's true.

No matter what your background is. There is such thing as pretty. privilege. You will get a more prominent platform if you are appealing to the eyes. Now, in her defense, she was the only governor that decided not to shut down any businesses or shut down any churches for any amount of time. And that is actually why she rose to the position that she did, because she was such a staunch defender of liberty from the get-go at the beginning of COVID. So we do have to give her credit in that. I think that she signed some good abortion legislation as well, anti-abortion legislation.

And so we have to give her credit there. But, I mean, you have to also realize that some of it has to do with your beauty. Some of it does have to do with your beauty. And maybe that is a double standard. But that's also because men and women are different. There are other female governors. And I'm not knocking those female governors. are saying that they're not pretty.

Maybe they are pretty. I don't even know. We don't even know. We don't even know what they look like because they don't have necessarily the same, the same attractiveness as Governor Noem does. So here's the thing. Here's the why Governor Noem ends up losing in this situation.

And I'm not calling her a loser, but in this situation she loses. Okay. Kristy Noem, you don't troll the trolls. You don't troll the trolls, okay? it might be annoying that Matt Walsh said that to you and I understand totally being offended by that, but you win nothing by fighting these fights, okay? You win nothing. The internet will take the side of Matt Walsh. And coming on the heels of you deciding something that a lot of conservatives are mad

at, mad at, you are not going to win. There is no good target audience for this particular fight. Like people really like the Daily Wire. They like the podcasters there for good reason. I like them all too. I think that they're hilarious and awesome and insightful. And millions of other people do too. It just makes you look bad. It makes you look petty.

And I understand the offensiveness. But you lose in this situation. And so if I were your political advisor, which you have no reason to listen to me, I would advise you not to tweet anything like that ever again because there is no winning side of it. There's no winning side of it. And I also recommend you not take implied shots at Ron DeSantis like you did in your CPAC speech

because, again, even if you feel like you've done a better job, he is super popular and people, conservatives really like the job that he did. And so it's just the whole thing, the pettiness doesn't work. And maybe it's a double standard. It probably is a double standard. but I think especially when women engage in that kind of thing, people assume that you're insecure and that you're petty and that you're jealous. And I'm not saying that you are,

but people are going to assume that. And so the loser in this particular situation, like I said, Christine Nolm, about my in-and-out and smorgas board thing, you win some, some days, you lose some some days. So focus on continuing to be a good governor for South Dakota. Focus on continuing to pass and to tout conservative policies. And, you know, the game is changing. The game is changing a little bit and maybe you need to realize that there are Republicans who want their Republican representatives, their governors, their elected officials to wield power in the same way that Democrats wield power for the advancement of individual liberty. That's kind of where we are right now. Love it or hate it. Now, speaking of all of this stuff, this does kind of transition us into what I want to talk about next. And that's, is fighting for your individual liberty when it comes to things like your kids' school mandating

masks, or maybe you're someone who maybe you're someone who doesn't want to take the vaccine and yet the organization that you work for is forcing you to. This is not a stance, as I've said many times, on the vaccine itself. I haven't given that stance and I'm not going to give that stance. I haven't disclosed my status because I think we did to normalize not disclosing that. I don't judge you if you got it or if you didn't get it. But I am unequivocally against mandates and coercion and manipulation. And so I want to talk about what can you do if you are in that position where maybe you've

chosen not to take it or maybe you've chosen to take it. But you don't want to engage in the show your papers please culture that we are seeing growing at a rapid pace around the world. So I want to talk a little bit about that in just a second. Okay, so the biggest question that I get that I do try to answer every now and then although it's difficult to do, the biggest question is how do I push back against policies that you don't like? Mask mandates in your kids' schools, like we already listed vaccine mandates and passports. I don't have the answer to all of those questions because there may or may not be a variety of strategies that work. So I asked some of you about this on Instagram if you've effectively gotten a policy.

to change at work or in a school district or a school. And I asked you, okay, what did you do? And I got several messages. I got several messages from you guys basically telling me kind of what you did. And the thing that I heard from a lot of you was that you collectivized. So that was the first thing that I heard that you rallied some other parents that agreed with you on something. And I keep thinking about specifically mask mandates in schools because there really is no data whatsoever that support having mask mandates in schools. And there's plenty of data to the contrary. I'll link the past episode in which we broke that all down. And I'll link my blog post that links all of the studies that show that there's really no effect.

Well, there's really no effectiveness to most masks and how most people wear masks in general, no matter what your age is. but especially when it comes with kids, especially when they're wearing wet cloth masks all day. There's no effectiveness and there's actually potential for developmental delays and also pathogens to be created and spread. But we'll link to those past episodes. And so I'm thinking of that when I'm thinking about people who have actually changed policies. A lot of these policies that are being pushed back on right now have to do with children.

And I care about mask mandates for adults too and that we're actually following the science on that. but I care more about kids because kids are being forced to do this. And I get a lot of people saying, well, my kid loves to wear a mask. My two-year-old loves to wear a mask. Okay, that doesn't mean that it's good for them. At one point, they were made to wear a mask. They probably didn't voluntarily just say, hey, mom and dad, like, can I wear a mask? I'd love to wear a mask.

They probably either saw their friends doing it. They saw someone doing it. Or you told them that they had to do it. So at some point, they were made to wear a mask. And that means that we're making kids do something that has no proven scientific benefit and may cause psychological harm in not being able to communicate how we are used to communicating, how God made us to communicate. Like he gave us the half of our face that we are covering up. And like, who are we with again, no scientific benefit proven, especially for kids, who are we to say that that is good and right and effective? and that's not going to add some kind of psychological harm, especially for kids with special

needs, especially for kids who are still learning to speak and enunciate their words and things like that. Other countries understand this. The UK understands this. All of Scandinavia understands this. Even Australia, the police state of Australia, understands this. They do not make kids wear masks. In some countries, 12 and up, but not younger than that. America is very draconian and unscientious. when it comes to the recommendation of masks at two years old, there's no science. And so most parents who have decided, okay, I'm going to push back against this when it comes to my kids' daycare, when it comes to my kids public school or private school, what you have said that you have done is you have collective eyes, so you've rallied together with like-minded parents, and you have taken your complaint either in a letter or in an email. Some of you have gone to your school board meetings,

and you have stated your facts, and you have continued to contact the members of your school board or members of your city counsel in other cases with the facts and with your persuasive, logical, respectful arguments for why you don't believe it actually makes sense to mandate masks in this particular age group or in this particular setting. So those of you have been effective have first you found like-minded people and then you took your complaints in a very professional and respectful and persuasive way linking to the studies, linking to the facts and continue to pressure the people who make these decisions into making decisions that are based on science and compassion. And one person specifically said the route that you took was every time, I think it was an

email that you would get from your child's school every time that you got an email saying, you know, this is, we're thinking about mandating masks based on, you know, this criteria or whatever, you would reply and you would very strongly state your opposition and state your reasoning for your opposition every time that you would get an email saying, hey, we're actually thinking about making masks optional or not doing masks. You would respond with very strong support. And so you kept on showing how passionate you were about your position and how passionate you were against a particular, you know, mandated position. And that actually worked. You showing strong communication and strong feelings and strong support towards one position actually put pressure on the people that you

are communicating with to go the way that you wanted it to go. We see people on the left doing this all the time to try to push their policies and you have to be just as if not stronger in voicing your position. So find like-minded people in your workplace, in your school district, at your kid's school and formulate a concise and factual argument, present it to the people who make the decisions. It might even be local health officials. Present it to the people who make the decisions. Try to get business owners involved.

People in other positions of power locally who have influence, who have influence in your community, in your school. Get them to sign on to some kind of petition, some kind of letter. get them to show up to a school board meeting, peaceful protest, raising your voice about these things, showing that you're paying attention and that you're putting pressure. Again, respectful pressure. We're not talking about any kind of threats in any way. Respectful pressure on the people who make these decisions to make the right choice. Again, based on science and compassion that can absolutely be effective. I want to show you a video of what I think is a very peaceful.

protest, a form of protest that is allegedly, and I say allegedly because the person on Twitter who tweeted this video says this is what's happening in France. And I'll tell you what's happening before I show it. There are people sitting on the street in France eating basically at picnics. It looks like hundreds of people outside of the restaurants that are requiring the vaccine passport in order to eat there. Those businesses are suffering because some people don't, either they don't the vaccine or they don't want to play a part in the tyranny that they believe is represented by vaccine passports. And so they're all eating their dinner in front of these French restaurants, rather than going into them as these French restaurants are suffering economically. And so here's a

video of that happening. Talk about winners and losers. Those are winners. Again, I bet you some of those people. I bet you a lot of those people are probably vaccinated, but it's possible. to be for something and be against the, the, um, that something being mandatory. And so I'm very proud of the French, you know, this, I was just telling my team before this that I've kind of got a Ron Swanson view of Europe and Europeans and especially the French. I think a lot of Americans do. But way to be united and to peacefully protest in a way that I think makes a really good statement. And people were saying underneath this tweet that this could. never happen in America because we couldn't unify long enough to do this. Now, I do think that

there's a lot of unity and parents and local communities that are peacefully protesting, but we kind of, I mean, things are so divided and we're so divided even on each side on small issues that it actually is very hard for people in America to unite. Our foreign enemies love that, by the way. And it's so it's hard for us to, I think, unify and do a demonstration like this. Also, we've got a lot of crazy people. Like both sides have a lot of crazy people that end up ruining these kinds of peaceful demonstrations because they're going to roll in with their like, I don't know, crazy symbol and yell and things like that. And so it's hard for this kind of thing to happen in America, but I'm playing that and watch this on YouTube if you're listening and you didn't get to see it.

I am encouraging Americans to think of these kinds of ways to do what we say on this podcast, raise a respectful ruckus, make a difference in that way. It might not be immediately successful. but let's exercise our privileges and our rights that we have to freedom of assembly, to freedom of speech, freedom to petition the government while we still can. We don't know how long these freedoms are going to last. If the 20th century tells us anything, it does tell us a lot of things, maybe not everything, but if it tells us anything, we know that like these freedoms, these rights aren't guaranteed forever.

So let us exercise our right to free speech while we can by respectfully, by peacefully, raising our voice. It can make a difference. I love the messages from you guys that say that you took information from this podcast and you were able to persuade either one person or a group of people or people in power to change a bad policy into a good one. I want to talk about a little bit of the fallacies that I see going around that I've kind of alluded to them already. But I saw this social media post going around basically saying that your right to safety trumps people's right to liberty. And therefore, you shouldn't be speaking up about vaccine passports. You shouldn't be pushing back against any kind of mandate that I guess people in Australia and people in the United

States and people in France that are pushing back against this stuff, that they're doing the wrong thing because they're prioritizing rights over people's lives. And I just think that that is a totally erroneous way to think about this. For some reason, we've got this crazy idea going around that the absolute guarantee of safety trumps people's liberty. And it just doesn't. Like there's no such thing as the absolute guarantee of safety, nor is there a constitutional right to not be offended or to not catch a virus or to not be around someone who is armed with the gun. But there is a right to free speech, even offensive speech, especially offensive speech. Like that's why the First Amendment exists. It doesn't exist for speech that no one wants

to silence. There is a right to gather to worship. There is. is a right to own a firearm. People also have a right to life, which is why murder and manslaughter are punishable by law, but accidentally spreading a virus doesn't actually fall into either of those categories. That doesn't mean that we don't sometimes give up some liberty for some restrictions that we hope will encourage safety because we do, like seatbelts, speed limits, security checkpoints, in airports. But anytime we make these decisions, our policymakers should, be weighing the risks and the benefits and considering just how much freedom of particular policy denies and if that denial is worth it. And this should be decided also with the opinions

of the constituents that they represent. I mean, that's why something like the Patriot Act, which was signed into law by George W. Bush after 9-11, is so controversial because in the name of safety and protection against terrorism, it has made surveillance. of American citizens much easier and more common. So on the one hand, we want to curb terrorism, yes, but on the other hand, you don't want the government spying on civilians like we live in communist China. So policies like this have to be carefully weighed and debated. And unfortunately, they're often not. Usually those in power opt to give themselves more power. And one of the questions that should be asked is not just, is this good policy? But also, what power does this

give the government or corporation or school board to do in the future? What's the logical conclusion of this kind of authority? We have to be thinking that we have to be thinking that way. Now, sometimes that's a slippery slope fallacy. Sometimes, like, power has to be taken and put into the hands of the government to do certain things. It's kind of what we talked about in the whole Kristy Noem debate. But in general, asking about what authority this gives the government and what will this allow them to do in the future? That in itself is not a slippery slope fallacy. That's just understanding how bureaucracy works. That's understanding how power works. Once given, it's not easily taken away or diminished. That's true of both Republicans and Democrats.

So we just have to be careful in all cases, what power we give the government, especially, I would say, not even, but especially in the name of safety. I find that leftism often thinks of its preferences as rights and anything that violates those preferences as a violation of rights. And I see the mentality, too, that everything they like should be mandatory, everything that they don't like should be banned, which leads them to this erroneous conclusion that if you're against something being forced or banned, then you are against that thing, and that's not true. So there's no room for discussion of liberty and choices except strangely when it comes to things like abortion, which is actually literally killing a human being.

I mean, I think some things should be banned too, namely murder. And yet on that, for the left side, there's nuance. But on things like vaccines, there's no nuance. You should absolutely enforce someone to do something with their body because it affects other people. But how do you not see that abortion directly affects someone else and someone not getting a vaccine only maybe has the potential to affect someone else? And we take risks every day that may or may not affect the safety of someone else.

So this is all of this to say, I'm not even coming to some kind of like conclusive answer. all I'm saying is that there is a debate about this and that you have a right to speak up about this. We do have a right to discuss these things. In every single policy, when we are weighing safety versus liberty, there has to be a conversation about it. People just trying to cudgel you and saying safety, safety, safety, and not caring about liberty at all. Like I've said before, you want to look what it, you want to see what it looks like to not have rights? Look at the 20th century. Like, rights do matter.

Liberty does matter. That is a way to love your neighbor. we are not just vectors of viruses. We're not just physical bodies. Yes, of course, trying to protect as much as you can. Other people from sickness may be important, but people's rights are important too. People's livelihoods are important too. People's development and communication and neurological development when their children

from seeing the expressions on people's faces also matters. And other countries seem to be able in some ways to do this better than America has, at least in some state. So that's just my encouragement to you to keep trying and keep going and keep pushing. Quickly, we're about to end. I just want to play this quick clip of Joe Rogan because I think that this is, what he says is so true. And he's not necessarily conservative. He's certainly not a Christian.

But this shows me that people that aren't necessarily on our side of everything are also seeing how this is tyranny. And maybe this will motivate you to speak up about. some of these things that I really think matters. So here's a clip from his show. Can't do what you want to do unless you do what I want you to do. I mean, Don Lemon was talking about that openly on CNN. Yeah. Don't have a vaccine? Can't go to supermarket. Don't have a vaccine? Can't go to work. Like, it's so strange that people want to say things like that. Like, that's the thing that blows me away. Why do you, why do people want to because they're dumb? They're dumb. They're dumb. They don't understand history. They don't understand

human beings, they don't understand human nature, they don't understand the history of every single country that's ever existed other than the United States. Up until 1776, every country that has ever existed was run by dictators, all of them. This is the first one where you had elected officials. This is the first experiment in self-government that actually worked, and it created the greatest superpower of the world's ever known. It created the greatest cultural machine, the greatest machine of art and creativity and innovation right here.

And how did it do that? It did it through freedom. Because when you give people freedom, you let people do whatever the they want to do. They actually find ways to succeed and grow and thrive. But as soon as you put the boots to them, as soon as you tell them, you have to do this or you can't do that. You have to listen

to me. Now you have a mini dictator. You have one step away from a king. You have one step closer. You're moving One step closes dictatorship. That's what the fuck is happening. That's what's going to happen with a vaccine passport. That's what's going to happen if they close borders.

You can't enter New York City unless you have your papers. You can't go to here unless you have that. You can't get on a plane unless you do what I say. And people say, well, it's all about protecting people from them. No, it's not. It's not because we've shown this is a fact. Just a couple of months ago, the idea of a breakthrough case was unheard of. Nobody heard of anybody catching COVID that had a vaccine, right?

That was the whole idea. You get a vaccine. You don't have to worry about it. Now we know not only do you get it, but you can spread it. And some people have died. Apparently, it's a small number. I don't know what the numbers are, but I know that most people who get vaccinated when they do have the disease, they have a better time of it than the people who are unvaccinated. But where are the people out there calling for people to get healthy? Where are the people out there calling for people to lose weight? Okay, so he, I don't think, I'm sure, I bet he's vaccinated. I don't think he's against vaccines at all. I think that he communicates a position that a lot of us really feel, that independent of your view, of the vaccine, that when you start mandating things and when you start limiting people's movement and their access to basic services, you don't actually convince them of the efficacy and the safety of something. You do not convince them that you are interested in their well-being. Actually, I think this makes people dig their heels in even more. It's not an effective strategy. And he's right.

It leads to a dictatorship. America and the freedom that it represents is absolutely worth standing up for. Like, if you don't see how this creates the infrastructure for much worse things, then I need you to do some, I need you to do some, I need you to do some, some searching online about the Gulag Archipelago or about Mao's China or about communism in Cambodia. Like, I need you to read about some totalitarianism that obviously didn't have the same things that we're talking about now, but some of the same principles that we are seeing now.

I don't necessarily think that's the intent of everyone who is trying to mandate vaccines. I don't. Or trying to have vaccine passports. but I do think it can absolutely be the impact, and it's important that we think about that. And if someone like Joe Rogan, who I don't think I know a lot of people on the left think he's like alt-right or something, but the guy is at the very least a liberal or a social liberal, if not a political liberal in general. So if other people see that and it's not just this right-wing thing, then maybe it's time for us who do espouse conservative values to stand up for the freedoms that matter. that is a way, as I say, to love your neighbor.

All right, that was Smorgasbord of Things. I hope that that rallies you. I hope that that was a little bit of a positive episode for you, even as we're talking about very serious things. Next week, we've got a lot of good guests, a lot of good episodes coming down the pipeline, super excited about it. But for now, I hope you guys have a great rest of your day

and a great weekend. See you guys on Monday. Hey, this is Steve Dase. 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.