Relatable with Allie Beth Stuckey - Ep 714 | The Balenciaga Story Is Even Worse than You Think

Starting point is 00:00:00 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.

Starting point is 00:00:19 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. Balenciaga used children to promote sexually explicit products. They're taking some serious heat. Kim Kardashian speaking out about it, but I am not satisfied with these responses and I will tell you why. Also, actress and professing Christian Tia Mowrie said she's ending her first.

Starting point is 00:00:57 14 year marriage for self-love. As you can guess, I have a lot to say about that. This episode is brought to you by our friends at Good Ranchers. Go to good ranchers.com slash alley. That's good ranchers. com slash alley. Happy Monday. I am so glad to be back with you guys. It has been a long time. Thanksgiving. Hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving. We had a great Thanksgiving. We spent it with my husband's family this year. Lots of cousins. Lots of of aunts and uncles, lots of food. It was wonderful. It was restful. And I hope that yours was too. But then the week before, I also had to take a little break because I had the stomach bug, which is one of the worst things that you can ever have somehow. And thankfully,

Starting point is 00:01:56 graciously, my husband avoided it. But my kids and I, we both had it. It was terrible. I actually think I had it the worst of my kids. I mean, it really, it lasted a really long, like an ordinate amount of time. Thankfully, by the mercy of God, I had my appetite back just in time for the pecan cobbler. Yes, pecan cobbler that we had on Thanksgiving, but it was really terrible. But thank you to all of you who prayed for me, prayed for our family during that time. I'm sorry that I had to take a little break right before Thanksgiving. If you haven't listened, though, to last week's pre-recorded episodes. We pre-recorded them before we took the break on the week of Thanksgiving.

Starting point is 00:02:41 Go back and listen to those because on Monday we talked about the recent climate meeting between all of the global elites, if you will, what was suggested there, what the strategy is for the future, according to these global leaders. And then we also did a Q&A on Tuesday. and then, or I think that was Wednesday, I can't remember. But then we also did an episode with Naomi Riley. One of my favorite episodes maybe that we've ever done because it's such a fascinating subject that so few people talk about. And that is what is really going on on Native American reservations. We hear, especially this time of year, we need our land back.

Starting point is 00:03:20 You're living on stolen land. The white man has oppressed Native Americans. but what is actually oppressing the Native American population to the point to where they have such disproportionate rates of sexual assault and violent crime and murder and poverty and homelessness? Why is the education system on these reservations so terrible? And so we dig in to exactly why that is on that episode. So go listen to that last week. Lots of good stuff.

Starting point is 00:03:48 But if you guys have been following me on Instagram, you know that for the past 10 days or so, it's been very difficult for me not to have a show to talk to you about the drama that we are talking about today, namely Balenciaga. I talked about it on my Instagram stories. I'm like that, that meme of that kid, like sitting in the classroom who looks like he's about to burst if he doesn't like say something or yell something or get something out. That's how I am when I don't have a show, an outlet to talk about the things that I need to talk about. But thankfully, I mean, or not thankfully, the Balenciaga story has carried over to today. So I have like new information to talk about. It's not just going back a week to when this was relevant. This is still a very

Starting point is 00:04:39 relevant conversation and discussion. So I'm going to break it all down and tell you what I think about this in just a second. I do want to tell you before we get into that, that we have amazing merch that is for sale right now on our merch site. And I will link it in the description of this episode, both on YouTube and on the listening side. I mean, the designers here at Blaze TV did such a good job. I love all of them. We've got two sweatshirts and we've got a little funny sticker. But I love the sweatshirt so much, but especially the thrill of hope one. You can see we've got it up on YouTube. On the back of the crew neck sweatshirt comes in green, comes in white, has a depiction. It has a drawing of Mary with Jesus in her womb. And it says a thrill of hope alongside it. And I just

Starting point is 00:05:32 love that. I had like this rough idea of what I wanted it to be, but I'm not artistic. So I couldn't articulate it. And Blaze TV designers took my jumbled thoughts and then made something really beautiful. And then one of you suggested on Instagram when I asked for some inspiration. for Christmas merch raise a joyful ruckus. And so we've got that in blue and in green and a crue neck sweatshirt. That's a play on our raise a respectful ruckus that we always say. That's one of the things that I think we're called to do as Christians is to raise a respectful ruckus about the things that matter.

Starting point is 00:06:07 But we also raise a joyful ruckus. The joy of the Lord is our strength. And this is a joyful time of year. So raise a joyful ruckus. We've got that. And then we've got our controversial sticker, and that is Mr. Pitbull. And it says you better watch out. You better watch out for Pitbull Danger.

Starting point is 00:06:28 I know I'm going to get even just from this one piece of commentary, I'm going to get messages and emails from those of you telling me how wrong and how awful I am for talking about the danger that I think Pitbulls represent. and our pit bull has a cigar in his mouth. I don't know why, but I just thought that it added to his rough and tough looks. So I'm just leaning in to the anti-pit bull brand that I have dawned. All right, that's our Christmas merch. Definitely snag it. I'm super excited.

Starting point is 00:07:01 I hope mine, I haven't even gotten mine. Some of you have already gotten yours. I hope mine came in so I can wear it and I can post it on Instagram. All right. I think that's all of the housekeeping announcement stuff that I have. Now let's actually get into the story about. Belenciaga. Hey, this is Steve Day.

Starting point is 00:07:22 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.

Starting point is 00:07:46 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. Okay. Let's talk about Balenciaga. I don't, I didn't know very much about Balenciaga at all. Your girl is not really a designer fashion type person. I'm also not really in that much to celebrity culture.

Starting point is 00:08:21 I mean, I feel like I just kind of know things that are going on. just by being on social media, but I'm really not into that. The only thing I know about Balenciaga is that Cardi B, who I also don't really listen to, but somehow I have, like, I have her lyrics in the reserves of my mind, and she has that one lyric in some song from a few years ago that says, like, I like those Balenciagas, the one that looks like socks. So I guess Belenciaga sells shoes that look like socks. I don't know, Cardi B.

Starting point is 00:08:51 I don't know. But that's not what we're talking about today. We are talking about Balenciaga getting in hot water because of a disgusting advertising campaign, a holiday campaign that they posted on their website involving young children. We're talking three or four year olds and they are surrounded by items, including the item that they are holding that have to do with bondage sex. Now, it is difficult for me to even say that. And I am going to allow you, if you don't know what I mean by that, to just kind of piece together what that is. And if you've seen the pictures, you can probably deduce what I'm talking about.

Starting point is 00:09:31 It's BDSM. It's a type of sexual activity, often pornography, that has to do with very often pain and humiliation. And we will leave it at that. And there are different types of outfits and tools, I guess, that are used. They often look like leather and just painful and gothic and just strange. And they decided that, oh, this would be like a good pairing with children to put on our website. They sell these plush teddy bear backpacks that look perhaps like a children's toy. And if you're watching on YouTube, we'll put some of the stuff up.

Starting point is 00:10:10 We're going to blur out the kids' faces because the last thing that I want to do is to aid in the exploitation of these children. but I do want you to see what I'm talking about so you know I'm not just making this up. They look like children's toys, but they are wearing these leather straps and the choker and the spikes. And some people were saying, well, maybe it's just gothic. Maybe it's not bondage. But as we will talk about in just a second, Belenziaga apologized for this. And some of the celebrities involved with Belenciaga actually apologized and said they're reevaluating their relationship. And so Blenciaga never said, oh, no, it has nothing to do with bondage.

Starting point is 00:10:49 Belenziaga never said, oh, no, no, no, you're wrong. It's just emo. It's just gothic. No, when people said, why are children being paired with bondage BDSM stuff? They never denied that this is what happened. So let's back up a little bit and just give you kind of a recap. And so as you can see in this picture with the child's face blurred out, she is holding this little bear in the bondage outfit and then some of the items that you can see,

Starting point is 00:11:20 this child, one of the children, they're standing on a bed. They've got like chains and chokers around them. Very strange. The combination of childlike items and clearly adult sexual items I think is very strange. I mean, they've got dog collars really weird. There's one picture as well where the child is laying down. on the couch on his or her stomach. You can't tell, I think, the androgynous nature also of the children's appearance and outfits is probably, probably intentional there. The child even kind of

Starting point is 00:11:57 looks drugged. And in the picture where the child is laying down on his or her stomach, there are like wine glasses and alcohol glasses all around. So very odd. There's another picture that they that they put up of a child standing in his bedroom with this plush bondage toy over in the corner. Again, just very strange. And so I originally saw all of this from a tweet from a person who goes by shoe on head. And she's a very popular YouTuber. She's not conservative.

Starting point is 00:12:34 She's not liberal. But she does talk about a lot of things, including child exploitation. And so she posted about this. This tweet went viral. And then people started digging into the rest of the other advertisements that Balenciaga posts, some of the other photos that they had been publishing. And one of the photos, this is, was on their website. And it's a collaboration with Adidas.

Starting point is 00:13:02 And there is a purse that's on a table. And underneath the purse is a bunch of papers. In one of the papers, you can actually see the text. Some internet sleuths figured out that this case that is shown is a Supreme Court case United States v. Michael Williams from 2008. It has to do with child sex abuse material, child pornography. And the little bit that is shown is actually part of a case called Ashcroft v. Free Speech Coalition. Ashcroft v. Free Speech Coalition, 2002 Supreme Court case that struck down two overbroad, what they considered overbroad provisions of the Child Pornography Prevention

Starting point is 00:13:53 Act of 1996 because they abridged the freedom to engage in a substantial amount of lawful speech. This part is, according to Wikipedia, the case was brought against the government by the Free Speech Coalition, a California Trade Association for the Adult Entertainment Industry, along with Bold Type Inc, a publisher of a book advocating the nudist lifestyle. These are people who wanted to paint and to post erotic images, but under the Child Pornography Prevention Act, some of the things that they wanted to publish were illegal. And so this Free Speech Coalition, they challenged the illegality of. this kind of artistry and went to the Supreme Court and the Supreme Court said that,

Starting point is 00:14:40 you know what, you're right. The Child Pornography Prevention Act is too overbroad and you should be able to depict some of the things that these type of artists want to publish. It should be covered under the First Amendment. Now, that does I mean obviously that all forms of child sex abuse material are covered under the First Amendment, but this particular Supreme Court case said that the Child Pornography Prevention Act just went too far. Tell me why Valencia would choose of all Supreme Court cases, because it's pretty common for these kinds of campaigns to use Supreme Court cases as documents because they are available to the public.

Starting point is 00:15:25 They don't have to worry about copyright and things like that. That's pretty common. But why, out of all of the Supreme Court cases that they could have chosen, Why did they choose this one? Why did they choose this one to put on display? It wasn't even hidden that well. It's almost like they wanted people to see that they chose this particular Supreme Court case. So this has a lot of people understandably scratching their heads.

Starting point is 00:15:50 Now, Balenciaga has been pushing the limits of fashion for a while. And I don't think most people even really pay attention to that. If you look at their 2023 line, Spring Collection, which is what they are now advertising. That includes the bondage, the teddy bear backpack things. Most of the attire that we're seeing, and we'll put them up on YouTube, is bondage related. Like it's a lot of leather, a lot of chains, a lot of things that look painful, not comfortable.

Starting point is 00:16:27 You also have some of their models looking like they've just gotten beaten up. That's a little strange, right? Like you are condoning, you are glorifying, glamorizing, sexual abuse. You'll see there is this one, again, I think, androgynous-looking model wearing Balenciaga, I guess, had just walked the runway, who has like a fake bloody nose, a fake almost like broken nose, a fake black eye, and is holding up this plush teddy bear with its bondage gear on the same plush teddy bear that is being held by children in their advertising campaign. So, Balenciaga, are you trying to condone glamorize, normalize mainstream, not just sex with

Starting point is 00:17:18 children, which is rape, but also violent sexual abuse of children? Is that what you're trying to normalize? Is that what you're trying to hint to that that is the road that you want to go down, that you are glamorizing and that you are now mainlining, mainstreaming, the violent rape of children using BDSM? Is that what you're doing, Belenziaga? Now, Balenciaga, after they started receiving this backlash and they saw that people were understandably very upset about this, they did release a statement, a couple's statements, which I find entirely insufficient.

Starting point is 00:17:56 And I'll tell you why. So they posted this first on their Instagram. story, we sincerely apologize for any offense our holiday campaign may have caused. Any offense? They're not sorry that they did it in this original apology. They're sorry that you were offended by it, you rubes. Our plush bear bags should not have been featured with children in this campaign. We have immediately removed the campaign from all platforms.

Starting point is 00:18:22 And then they go on. Okay. So I think that they realized pretty quickly that that original apology we apologize that you were offended. Wasn't really going to cut it. So then they posted this on their story. We apologize for displaying unsettling documents in our campaign. Unsettling.

Starting point is 00:18:39 We take this matter very seriously. We are taking legal action against the parties responsible for creating the set and including unapproved items for our Spring 23 campaign photo shoot. We strongly condemn abusive children in any form. We stand for children's safety and well-being. Do you? Do you? I'm not so.

Starting point is 00:18:59 sure about that. Like, you're telling me that you still can't take responsibility for this. Like, you're still blaming it on someone else. Like, this is not the advertising campaigns for companies that are this major, that are this elite, that are this big, they don't just pass through like one set of hands or one set of eyes. I mean, you are talking about dozens, at least dozens of adults who had to approve each in every step. of this advertising campaign, of these photographs. This isn't something that was just thrown together one day in, oops, we accidentally ignored that detail.

Starting point is 00:19:42 Oh, we didn't realize that this child who is four is a four-year-old child holding bondage gear. Oh, that just, that totally surprised us. Come on. They're playing dumb. The only reason they're saying anything is because people got upset. They're not actually sorry for. what they did. And here's my question, by the way, even if you did, if you were just completely

Starting point is 00:20:04 naive and you gave them the total benefit of the doubt, and you said, oh, somehow this just passed through all of these adults and they just didn't catch how this could be problematic, why are you creating a teddy bear that has bondage gear on in the first place? Even if you didn't include children, even if it were just adults holding this teddy bear, which, bondage gear on, with a bondage collar and all of that, with BDSM stuff on. That would still be freaking weird. You're still infantilizing BDSM. Like, you are still bringing a child likeness into violent sexual activity.

Starting point is 00:20:47 That is weird in itself. So don't just apologize that you put the Supreme Court case there, which was, they're saying a coincidence. don't just apologize that you used minors in this campaign to promote your BDSM stuff. Apologize that you're making the stuff in the first place. I mean, it would be bad enough to create this stuff for adults. But you're creating stuff that you know looks like a child's toy. And you're putting it in a set that looks like their room. You're putting it in a set that looks like their bed, that looks like their couch.

Starting point is 00:21:23 Do not tell me that was accidental. because it's not just the photos, it's the product itself that looks like a child's toy and yet is wearing sexual gear. You freaking sickos. So no, I do not take this apology at all. I saw a lot of conservatives applauding when they apologize. And I get it like, okay, we're happy that for once conservatives, which it was mostly conservatives. It's not as much anymore. It was though seemingly kind of partisan in the beginning. But then I would say that it has grown to be kind of like nonpartisan bipartisan for the most part. There's still a lot of people like mainstream outlets on the left who are really just reporting about the reaction to it rather than the problematic nature of the like

Starting point is 00:22:09 campaign itself. But I will say that this has become like a nonpartisan bipartisan, um, concern campaign. And so I, but I understand why there are conservatives who were applauding their apology who are saying, this is great. Like our voices, matter. No, I will be applauding when there are trials. I will be applauding when there is an investigation by the DOJ into Belenciaaga. I will say, okay, we did something. We made an impact when there is some kind of legal accountability or at least investigation, some kind of process looking into how this company is exploiting children. That's when I will maybe say, you know what? I am I'm feeling positive about how this is turning out.

Starting point is 00:22:57 This is just lip service because they're afraid of losing money. That's all it is. All right. So the photographer told CNN, his name is Gabriel Gallimberty. He told CNN that the direction and shooting up the campaign were totally out of his hands. He has, he's done other campaigns. I'm not going to say that they were ever sexual in nature, but he did do it. campaign for several years showing kids and their favorite toys. And he would go into their homes

Starting point is 00:23:40 and do a photo shoot of children with their favorite toys. I'm not saying that he had any malintent when it came to that. But I do think some people looked back on that and said, that's weird. So you seem to have, you have history taking picture of kids. And now you decided to take a picture of kids holding BDSM stuff. And he said, you know, it's out of my hands. As he says, as a photographer, I was only and solely registered to lit the given scene. I think he meant light the given scene and take the shots according to my signature style. As usual, the direction of the campaign and of the shooting are not in the hands of the photographer. Okay, that's true.

Starting point is 00:24:19 You didn't have to do it. You didn't have to do it. Like when you showed up and you saw that, okay, this kid is laying on the couch with this weird sexually suggestive bear, surrounded by wine glasses and champagne glasses and chokers and collars, like, oh, that's probably not something that I want to put my name on. You could have said that. Let's not act like you couldn't have. You could have said, no, I don't do anything sexually suggestive at all with kids. This is not a campaign that should include children. I'm sorry, I'm not doing that. So while it may not have been your idea to do this, you could have said no. You could have just not done it. That is always

Starting point is 00:24:59 an option. And then the father of one of the child models actually defended allowing his child to be a part of this because that's a lot of people's question. A lot of people's question is, where were the parents? Why would parents allow this? Well, because it makes money. And some parents, I think, are taken with a brand name like Balenciaga and they think, wow, like this is my child's big break. This is paying us a good amount of money. Maybe this. is literally paying our bills this week. And so the father said, according to Daily Mail, that he was present at the shoot, which was a, quote, enjoyable day out and said that the bizarre pictures had been taken totally out of context. Hmm. Interesting. He said no parent would actively

Starting point is 00:25:48 encourage the child to take part in something, which was pornographic. And I think the publicity surrounding what has, what happened, has been blown out of proportion. I don't think so, actually. I don't think so at all. I think that you just didn't have discernment as a parent, that maybe you were just blinded by the lights and the importance of it all. And you thought that this is no big deal. I mean, you could say that maybe you honestly did not know that that's what the bear was. Like, maybe you were misinformed or you were uninformed about that, all right?

Starting point is 00:26:20 But that would be the statement that you would make as a parent after. Like, oh, I didn't know that this was a part of a BDSM line by Balenciaga. Like I did not know that this was pornographic in nature. And again, we know that it is because Balenciaga has never denied it. They never said, oh, that's not what these bears are. That's not what these items were surrounding the children. They said, oh, we should not have done that. If it wasn't supposed to be sexual in nature, they would have said, you weirdos,

Starting point is 00:26:48 why are you thinking this way? This has nothing to do with sexuality whatsoever. So, I mean, we understand what it was supposed to be. And now they're just backtracking. And this dad, I guess. doesn't care. That just goes to show like when we talk about crazy things like drag queen story hour or parents putting their kids on puberty blockers or allowing their kids to be introduced to sexual content in schools and having no problem with it or taking their kids to these

Starting point is 00:27:14 family friendly drag shows, it's because there are parents who just don't see the protection of their child's innocence as important. That's not a value that they have. I'm not saying that they don't in their own convoluted way think that they love their children, but their definition of love, their definition of seeking their child's best interest is so fundamentally flawed and so different than, you know, yours and mine that it's almost like we're speaking a different language. It is very difficult to comprehend. It's very difficult to comprehend how a parent could actually love their child and put their child in a situation in which they will be sexualized and exposed to sexuality. I mean, it's, it's just really so sad.

Starting point is 00:28:01 Balenciaga, again, they're saying that this is not on us. They have now filed a $25 million lawsuit against the producers of the ad campaign. Balenciaga, this is according to New York Post, brought the suit on Friday, November 25th against production company North Six, Inc. And set designer Nicholas Desjardine and his company for the inclusion, in one of the ads of legal documents related to Ashcroft v. Free Speech Coalition. Blenciaga is bringing the case to secret dress for extensive damages, defendants caused in connection with an advertising campaign. Belenciaga hired them to produce,

Starting point is 00:28:39 according to the Manhattan Supreme Court summons. Again, okay, get your money. I get it. Like, you're trying to get money. But don't act like this is not your responsibility. This goes all the way up to the CEO. Okay? everyone has to sign off on this.

Starting point is 00:28:56 Everyone in charge has to sign off on this. Am I wrong on that? Is it intern signing off on this? Is this something that happens independently of the approval of the people in charge? I have a really hard time believing that. The people in leadership at Blenciaga knew that this was happening. They approved of what was happening. They helped select the images.

Starting point is 00:29:15 They approved the images. They signed off on the creation of a plush teddy bear backpack with BDSM gear. on. So don't act like, oh, your hands are, your hands are clean of this. Just like Pilot. They are not. They are not. And then there were some other strange development, some other conclusions to more online sleuths, particularly on Instagram and TikTok, to, they were looking into some of the other pictures that Balenciaga has posted. And they found some things that I think are just worth asking questions about. Again, I would have probably said, well, this is just a conspiracy. If it were just the background stuff, I would have thought, you know what, people are looking

Starting point is 00:30:02 too far into this. They're jumping to conclusions. I am not someone who looks for symbolism in everything in Hollywood or everything that a brand puts out or everything that a celebrity wears. there are people who put stock into like the color combinations that celebrities wear or different things like that. I just think in general that's kind of a waste of time. It induces unnecessary anxiety about things. And yet there is some symbolism or there are some things present in these kinds of campaigns and photos that are so obvious and the connections are so blatant that you would be dumb not to investigate them. And when a company is so overt as to put the child and the BDSM gear together, like I think that it is just common sense or logical to say, okay, what else have

Starting point is 00:30:56 they been kind of sneaking into their campaigns before they became this overt? So some people are looking at one of one photo or one set of photos that featured, that featured a book in the background about the Belgian painter Michael Borrimands. And we can put up that picture. Borroman's art, I don't suggest looking it up. I didn't look it up. I saw this Instagram post where they had looked it up on Google images, like what the artwork of Michael Borumans is. Again, one of his books in the background of one of Blentiaga's photos. And they are very disturbing and very often violent and nude depictions, paintings of children. There is a picture of a little girl making herself throw up after eating.

Starting point is 00:31:45 There are pictures. I'm sorry, this is disturbing of naked children playing in what looks like the blood from one of another child's detached limbs. There is another Balenciaga photo that has a frame certificate in the background that seems to say college month on Aurarium with the name John Philip Fisher underneath it. Now, this is very difficult to verify. But some people are saying that, you know, this is a strange selection of a name because there was a man by the name of John Philip Fisher. He in 2018 was charged and convicted of molesting his granddaughter from the age of four years old to the age of 16.

Starting point is 00:32:33 So there is no proof that they chose the name John Philip Fisher to be on a certificate. in the background of one of their photos because of this guy who was convicted of molestation in 2018. But I will say that's a very specific name. All three names in the same order of all the names that you could select to put on a certificate in the back of your photo. That's the one you chose. I don't know. I don't know. Also, there's an Instagram account called Mama Bear a Fax. She posted a series of pictures alleged to have previously been posted by a Balenciaga stylist by the name of Lada Valcava and her Instagram is now private. And so we can't go into her Instagram and see these pictures for ourselves, but there are screenshots that people have, have been sharing

Starting point is 00:33:28 all this Balenciaga stylist. She, I don't believe, was the stylist of this particular ad campaign, but she has styled for Balenciaga before. Again, we see a lot of violent depictions. of children and a lot of satanic depictions. She has pictures of, it looks like Satan. I'm so sorry to even say this, but sexually assaulting a woman. There are pictures of children tied up. So this is apparently a Balenciaga stylist named Lada Valcava. So there are a lot of parts of this company that I think are very disturbing or at least, I mean,

Starting point is 00:34:06 we know that there are some parts that are. objectively disturbing. And then there are some other questions that people have that take us down a very disturbing path. And man, I have spoken out against the conspiracies that are Q and Q and on because I think that going down those conspiracy rabbit holes can really ruin people's lives and take you away from that which is actually true and that which we can see and that which we know it's kind of a form of gnosticism. But man, when you see things like this and you just ask yourself the question, like, how deep does this go? Like, how insidious is this problem of the sexualization of the violence against children? The problem with the Q&ON conspiracy was not that it

Starting point is 00:34:54 problematized child sex abuse or that it talked about sex trafficking. All of those are real problems. The problem with Q&ON was that it saw Donald Trump as the savior and Q as the secret person, leaving clues and all of that. All of that. All of that. that was nonsense. All of that was nonsense. Cue actually, the whole Q&on conspiracy theory, because it very often went down rabbit holes that just were not true and were actually crazy, it missed what is really going on underneath our noses. And that is that these real companies happening in real time are sexualizing children and they're not even trying to hide it. and it has nothing to do with Donald Trump.

Starting point is 00:35:39 It probably doesn't even have to do with the secret global cabal. It just has to do with evil and with malice and with wickedness that is insidious and that is pervasive in all different forms of society. And you don't have to be a conspiracy theorist to see that or to know that or to care about that. I think one really big damaging effect of the whole like QAnon thing or maybe like the media emphasis on it is that it conflated concern with child sexualization and with child sex abuse material and sex trafficking with conspiracy theorists in Q&on.

Starting point is 00:36:17 And that made it partisan. And that meant that one side really didn't want to talk about it and the other side didn't. And like that, that is a problem. And that is a really damaging effect of not just conspiracy theories, but also the media thinking that everything that the right cares about is a conspiracy theory. This should not be a partisan.

Starting point is 00:36:37 issue, especially when you have Bolensiaga, just like every other company, virtue signaling about words that are said and not actually caring about the corruption, the deadliness and just the darkness that is at the core of their mission. They recently cut ties with Kanye West after he made a series of antisemitic remarks. And yet they are allowing this kind of thing to happen again with their approval no matter what they say someone had to approve of this stuff celebrities like Nicole Kidman Bella Hadid Haley, Beaver they at least from what I've seen as of right now have not said anything they have not condemned the ads and these are the kind of people of course that would if Belenciaga said something that was distasteful about like black people

Starting point is 00:37:32 or about immigrants, of course, they would be the first people or trans people, the first people to speak out. Why is this subject something that people are so reticent to say anything about? It's very strange. It should be the first thing that you have a concern about. Now, Kim Kardashian, I don't even know if I want to say to her credit. I'll just say, but I guess it is, it is to her credit. I am glad that she said something. She put out a tweet thread about this because people have been tagging her, people have been saying, hey Kim, you need to say something about this.

Starting point is 00:38:05 You need to speak up about this. She put out a tweet thread yesterday and said, I have been quiet for the past few days, not because I haven't been discussed in outraged by the recent Belenciaaga campaigns, but because I wanted an opportunity to speak to their team to understand for myself how this could have happened. As a mother of four, I have been shaken by the disturbing images. The safety of children must be held with the highest regard in any attempts to normalize child abuse of any kind should have no place in our society.

Starting point is 00:38:32 period. I appreciate Belantiaga's removal of the campaigns and apology. And speaking with them, I believe they understand the seriousness of the issue and will take the necessary measures for this to never happen. Again, that I don't believe. Then she goes on to say, as for my future with Belizeaga, I am currently reevaluing my relationship with a brand based on off their willingness to accept accountability for something that should never have happened to begin with and the actions I am expecting them to take to protect children. I can almost guarantee she is not going to separate ties with Belizziaga, re-evaluating. It's just, I just don't believe it's going to happen.

Starting point is 00:39:04 If they had said something that was politically incorrect, according to the left, then she probably would have sever ties with them. I guess depending on the money involved there. But again, I say, why is this subject the sexual exploitation as children regarded by anyone as partisan? Why should the story be that the right pounces or the conservatives pouts? But again, I guess I'm not all that surprised because a lot of the people who think that child sexual exploitation is a conspiracy theory would take their child to see a grown man

Starting point is 00:39:41 in fake cleavage and fish nets dance for money and who think that it's totally normal to for a teacher to talk to their child about changing their genitalia when they're six years old. So I guess, again, this is just not a value that everyone has, but it should be. What do we always say? On this podcast, children are always the unconsenting subjects of progressive social experiments. And the religious right, really, like we did not even have enough foresight. People called us slippery slopers for saying that opening up sexuality and normalizing different kinds of sexual activity outside of the.

Starting point is 00:40:32 marriage between a man and a woman is going to lead to the normalization of other kinds of sexual perversion. Of course, we were called conspiracy theories then, but actually, we didn't see far enough ahead. We didn't think it would get this bad. And it will only get worse. It will only get worse. Children, of course, they're the group of people. They don't have political capital. They don't have a voice. They don't have any power. Their safety, their protection is entirely dependent upon adults seeking their best interest. And look, that has been the role of the church, by the way, for thousands of years. I've given this spiel before. But Christianity revolutionized how the world saw children. Go back to pagan Greece and pagan Rome in the ancient days. And when the church burst on the scene,

Starting point is 00:41:21 it revolutionized how society regarded children and regarded women, regarded slaves, regarded the sick, regarded the elderly, all people who were pushed to the margins. because of their lack of productivity and their political power and capital. Christianity, universally the idea that people are made in the image of God. And then doubling down on that idea, emphasizing that idea even more by saying we are all equally dead without Christ or equally alive in Christ, it changed the game for how human beings are regarded, that we're not just valuable based on what we bring to the table, but we are inherently valuable because we have souls because we were made by God. And we have a responsibility to care for the vulnerable.

Starting point is 00:42:10 We have a responsibility to speak up for the voiceless. That was not true in ancient times. It will not be true in a post-Christian world, by the way. It is not true currently in countries in which Christianity has not been the historical basis. The entire idea of human rights, but especially children's rights, and the protection of children is based on a Christian idea and ideal that human beings are made in the image of God and that children are not products for exploitation but are rather vulnerable people to be protected, but are actually gifts to parents, to society.

Starting point is 00:42:49 That is a distinctly Christian view. And people don't realize that when you pull Christianity out of the foundation of a society, that things get really ugly, really fast. The things that America thinks are just obvious. Human rights, dignity, equality, laws against murder and theft. That's just common sense. That's just natural law. That's just obviously right and wrong.

Starting point is 00:43:20 You don't realize how much you're taking that for granted that those things actually have a biblical foundation. And when you take the foundation away, again, things get really ugly. really fast. I mean, look at what's happening in Canada with the whole assisted suicide movement. That's what happens when you take away the idea that human beings have any value and are made in the image of God. We really are just clumps of cells. Who cares? What happens to the sick? What happens to the disabled? What happens to the baby in the womb? What happens to the child? And so here we are. Here we are. As I said a couple weeks ago, I used to think, what is the society

Starting point is 00:43:57 that progressives want? What will it actually look like? How will we know when we are actually there? Here we are. Here we are. We don't have to wait. Like we are actually already seeing the consequences of when progressivism says, let's just tear down everything.

Starting point is 00:44:14 Let's tear down the safeguards. Let's tear down the foundation. Let's tear down all of the constructions that were put up for the sake of order and safety and security and well-being. Let's take those down. and see what happens when things just run wild when everyone decides for themselves what's good and what's right. Here we are. Do we like it? Are we happier? Are we better off? Are we more purposeful? Or are we lonelier? Are we in more danger? Are we more purposeless? I think we know the

Starting point is 00:44:48 answer to that. Okay. I wanted to talk quickly about this Tia Maori story about divorce and her her interview with Black Entertainment TV and how she said it's just basically about self-love and self-care. And this makes me sad for multiple reasons. I'll get into why she's so wrong. But Tia Mowri, she builds herself. I think she and her sister both, Tia and Tamara. I mean, you guys know probably sister-sister. I grew up watching that. Great show. Tia and T-Mowri build themselves as Christians. And it's hard to find Christians in Hollywood that you want to look up to who have marriages and relationships that can be esteemed. And they seemed like a good example of that. And now Tia Maui's comments really make me question honestly the authenticity of her faith.

Starting point is 00:46:02 I'm not judging her salvation. I don't know if she. saved or not, I pray to God that she is and that she repents of this horrible theology that she has in regards to divorce and how we think about relationships and love and commitment and also ourselves. But I think that we can judge a tree by its fruit and say, based on her comments here, that this is rotten fruit that is being produced. And I worry about the fruit that it will produce in others as well. So here's the headline. Tia Maui reveals why she followed for a divorce plus why she considers her 14-year marriage with Corey Hardrick a success. Maori said she knew it was time to move on from her marriage by saying this.

Starting point is 00:46:45 I knew when I really started to focus on my happiness. I feel like women. We tend to focus on everybody else's happiness, making sure that everybody else is okay, meaning our children, our friends, our family, but at the end of the day, it's about self-love. That's demonic. When you start to really work on yourself, love yourself, know your vision. value and know your worth, then all of a sudden there's this awakening. And it's not easy.

Starting point is 00:47:12 It's a hard journey. But at the end of the day, I feel like it is so, so worth it. I would not be shocked at all if she got this from Glenn and Doyle. She probably read untamed by Glenn and Doyle and was like, yes, I need to follow along in this person's footsteps and liberate myself from the covenant that I made with my husband before God, the commitment that I've made to this marriage, the commitment that I made to my children. And for the sake of my own feelings, for the sake of my own self-affirmation, my own self-worship,

Starting point is 00:47:43 my own self-adoration, I am going to disintegrate this marriage, this covenant that God has brought together at the expense not only of that commitment, but also at the expense of the health and the well-being and the security and stability of my children. It is wrong when people say it's just false, just based on data,

Starting point is 00:48:04 based on any common sense that children just need their parents to be happy. Yes, I do think that ideally, ideally, children are in a home with two parents who are happy, who are happily in love, who show affection to one another, who get along, who are happy and fulfilled as spouses, as parents in the mission and causes that God has called them to, yes, I think that is the ideal. But children do not need their parents to be happy, go lucky all the time. They do not need their parents to always be smiling. They do not need their parents to feel good about themselves all the time. Ideally, they have happy, healthy parents consistently, but children need their parents to be together. Now, there are,

Starting point is 00:49:01 are exceptions to that absolutely i am not condoning tolerating abuse i'm not i am saying though that there are better things there are deeper things there are more important things to life and to marriage and to child raising than your own feelings of happiness and self-fulfillment and what she is teaching her children in this is that my feelings matter more than yours and not only only is she's saying that my feelings matter more than my children's feelings. She's saying that my feelings matter more than your stability and security and well-being. She may have deluded herself into thinking that, oh, my children will be better off if I'm just happy. If I feel myself, if I'm feeling good about my self-esteem, if I'm liberated from the bonds of marriage

Starting point is 00:49:52 because I have tricked myself into thinking that that's what freedom and fulfillment looks like, but they're not. She has put her children on rocky ground as Katie Factor. house often says she is an adult asking her children to do hard things for her rather than how it should be adults doing hard things for their children and that might mean working through a marriage that is not in that very moment giving you all of the butterflies and feelings that you want it to yes marriage is about love but it's also about another four-letter word and that is work that is what relationships look like. Children benefit from seeing the sacrifice and from seeing sometimes the hardship and sometimes the difficulty that is inherent in any committed relationship. And that is you offering a

Starting point is 00:50:43 firm foundation for your children. There is a reason why scripture says that God hates divorce. That doesn't mean there's not forgiveness and redemption and grace there, but you are taking apart what God has brought together. This is what Jesus says in Matthew 19 that really goes against this whole idea that, oh, well, all that matters is that we're just happy and that we feel good about ourselves in the moment. The Pharisees in verse 3, Matthew 193, Pharisees came to him and tested him by asking, is it lawful to divorce one's wife for any cause? And Jesus said, have you not read that he who created them from the beginning made them male and female? And said, therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife and the two shall

Starting point is 00:51:32 become one flesh so they are no longer two but one flesh what therefore god has joined together let not man separate and i actually think the next couple of verses are important too they said to him why then did moses command one to give a certificate of divorce and to send her away Jesus said to them, because of your hardness of heart, Moses allowed you to divorce your wives, but from the beginning it was not so. And I say to you, whoever divorces his wife, except for sexual immorality and marries another commits adultery. And then you can read the whole thing about the passage. So basically saying, yes, God did allow for laws in ancient Israel that permitted divorce in particular cases.

Starting point is 00:52:21 But that is not because that was God's desire. It was not supposed to be like that from the beginning. It is because of man's wickedness that sometimes God allowed for there to be the legality of divorce. But Jesus is saying that is not how it's supposed to be. God has joined you together. And sometimes it's going to be hard. And it is not about your self-love.

Starting point is 00:52:46 Let me read you what the Bible says about self-love. A reminder, I wrote a book on this. I don't think you can see it in this shot. Yeah, there it is in the wide shot. You're not enough and that's okay. Escaping the toxic culture of self-love. As I have mentioned many times as I argued in my book, because as I have argued here, I do not encourage self-loathing or self-deprecation. that is simply another form of self-obsession. I do encourage a self-forgipfulness, and I do tell you that the Bible does not command us to love ourselves, that how we feel about ourselves is a really bad indicator of how much we're worth

Starting point is 00:53:29 and how valuable we are. What we think about ourselves, what we see when we look in the mirror, our feelings about our aptitude, our insecurity, they are not good indicators of our value. You know what is God's unchanging love for us? Self-love is entirely dependent on our mood,

Starting point is 00:53:52 on what other people think of us, what other people say about us, about our accolades, about our success, or lack thereof. Therefore, it is changing moment by moment. Can you imagine if you made all your decisions based on how you feel about yourself on any given day or in any given season, but instead we view ourselves through the prism of God's love,

Starting point is 00:54:17 which does not change because for the Christian it is dependent upon Christ what he has done for us and who he says that we are. And that Jesus, Hebrews 138 says, is the same yesterday, today, and forever. So that's good news that we do not make decisions. based on how we feel about ourselves, that we do not pursue self-love. We pursue God's love. We do not love other people based on how much we love ourselves. I know that a lot of people say, you can't love your neighbor until you love yourself because Jesus says love your neighbor as

Starting point is 00:54:53 yourself. That's not what Jesus is saying. He's saying that you already naturally love yourself. You already are born loving yourself. That doesn't mean that you like yourself all the time. That does mean that you are always seeking your best interest. We naturally are seeking. to quench our thirst. We naturally are seeking to satiate our hunger. We naturally are seeking shelter. We're naturally seeking protection. We are naturally seeking in a lot of ways alleviation from pain. We are seeking things that are good for ourselves. Even people pleasers are seeking the affirmation that comes from pleasing other people, even people who tragically die by suicide are seeking alleviation from their misery. We are born loving ourselves. Our society, Tia Maui, is not suffering from a

Starting point is 00:55:36 deficit of self-love. We already love ourselves way too much. That is actually the cause of most of our problems. We are being fed a lie that you don't love yourself enough. Society doesn't love themselves enough. Teenage girls don't love themselves enough. That's the problem. That's why they're sad. That's why they're depressed. That's why they're lonely. And so we just have to preach self-love over and over again. Then people will be happy and fulfilled. If that was the problem, we would be doing a lot better than we are. But actually, we've been preaching self-love and self-focused and self-fulfillment for decades, especially over the past 10 to 15 years. Where are we?

Starting point is 00:56:13 Where are our rates of depression? Our rates of anxiety. Our rates of loneliness. Are they higher or lower than they were? 20 to 30 years ago. That's a rhetorical question, I think, that you know the answer. Our problem is actually that we are focusing on ourselves too much. The problem, Tia Maori, is not that you are focused too.

Starting point is 00:56:33 much on the happiness of other people, but that you are now focused too much on the happiness of yourself. I'm not saying that we shouldn't be happy, but our happiness, thank God. As Christians, is not derived from how we feel about ourselves, but is derived from who God is and what he has done for us, and that does not change. That means the joy that we have is unshakable even when we are sad, even when life is hard, even when things are inconvenient, even when we are asked more than we asked of, even when things are asked of us that we think that we cannot give. God's love gives us the reserves, the resources to be able to pour out love for other people, no matter how we feel about ourselves.

Starting point is 00:57:14 That is the good news. That's why the culture of self-love is toxic because it's superficial, because it's unreliable. That's why the road to self-discovery and to self-liberation and self-fulfillment is actually just a hamster wheel. It leads nowhere. You're just exhausting yourself. Allow the Lord to care for you. Allow him to be the source of your joy and your fulfillment and your commitment. Allow him to be the solid ground that you are looking for. The self can't be both the problem and the solution, Tia Maui. If inside yourself you are finding these very real feelings of insecurity and doubt and brokenness and depression and anxiety, you are not going to find the

Starting point is 00:58:02 solution to those things in the same place where you are finding your problems. The only way to find solutions to the problems that we have inside of ourselves is to look outside of ourselves, namely to the God who created us, who tells us who we are, how much we're worth, why we matter, why we're here, what our job is here on earth. And one of those jobs is not to find out ways to love ourselves more. I promise it's not. It's not. There's a lot of freedom and self-forgetfulness. Again, that's not self-loathing. It's not self-deprecation. It's not hating yourselves. That is stewarding the body and the time and the life that you have and that can include a lot of restful things, a lot of leisurely things, a lot of joy and happiness-inducing things. That is not

Starting point is 00:58:47 living a life of like morose sadness. That is not, you know, again, being hateful to your self, that is just finding your joy and something that is everlasting and unchanging. And we see now what the pursuit of self-love and self-fulfillment gets you and it gets you broken relationships, gets you divorce. It gets you a delusion that makes you think that exchanging your child's, your children's well-being for your own superficial feelings of self-esteem is a worthy exchange. Here's what 2 Timothy 3 says about self-love. This is really the only time that we see in the Bible,

Starting point is 00:59:31 God even talking about self-love, and here's how he describes it. But understand this, that in the last days there will come times of difficulty. For people will be lovers of self, lovers of money, proud, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, heartless, unappeasable, slanderous,

Starting point is 00:59:52 Without self-control, brutal, not loving good, treacherous, reckless, swollen with conceit, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, having the appearance of godliness, but denying its power, avoid such people. Here we go. For among them are those who creep into households and capture weak women. Burdened with sins and led astray by various passions, always learning and never able to arrive at a knowledge of the truth. Bray Brown and Glenn and Doyle. That's what it is. It's a superficial self-love theology that is just

Starting point is 01:00:28 going to put you on a hamster wheel that will lead to disappointment and destruction. Repent and follow Christ and he is the only one that will ever truly satisfy you. Tia Mowrie. That's my prayer for her. It's very sad. She also goes on to say that my marriage is, that her marriage is a success. is sad. I look at it as a curriculum when you're in college or high school. You're learning, you're growing, you're evolving, you're creating. And I was able to create with Corey's and beautiful, amazing children. At the end of the curriculum, there's a graduation. There's a celebration. Hoof. So lost. It's not curriculum. It's a covenant. And to break it, it's not. It's not a small thing. Believe it or not, I didn't even get to everything that I wanted to

Starting point is 01:01:26 today. I wanted to talk about Tampax's dumb tweet and the NHL going trans. Oh, man. What a crazy world. What a crazy world we live in. But we will talk about that stuff tomorrow. I just have a lot of pent-up commentary, as you can tell. Also, if you're watching on YouTube, I hope you like our pretty Christmas decorations. Aren't they beautiful? Okay. All right. That's all I got to say today. We will be back here tomorrow. See you guys in. 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.

Starting point is 01:02:17 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.

Relatable with Allie Beth Stuckey - Ep 714 | The Balenciaga Story Is Even Worse than You Think

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