The Glenn Beck Program - Best of the Program | Guests: John Ziegler & Gad Saad | 2/18/19

Episode Date: February 18, 2019

Best of the Program | 2/18 - The Wolf Who Cried MAGA? - h1 - The Right Kind of Victim? (w/ John Ziegler) -h2 - Racist Flashback 1986? -h3 - Collective Munchausen? (w/ Gad Saad) -h3   Learn more about... your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript
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Starting point is 00:00:00 Hey, welcome to Monday. It is, well, as you will find out, it's Weeners Out Day. And we took that every place you can imagine. So Weeners out, we'll talk about that. You're welcome for that, by the way. Yeah, and Cosby. We actually get into Cosby and Blackface and the little dog weather advisory that is going on. That's kind of a confusing show, but that's not where we start. Where we start, actually, is Smollett. Yes, Smollett and his story falling apart, of course, which will remind you that tonight on television. Glenn will be going through all of the cases, not only Somalette, but the dozens of cases of people claiming to have racial attacks perpetrated against them,
Starting point is 00:00:43 mostly inspired by Donald Trump that turned out to be, you know, totally fake. We have John Ziegler is joining us for the podcast today. And what will his punishment be? Stu had a really good idea. Thank you. I appreciate that. And we'll be getting into on today's podcast. You're listening to The Best of the Blenbeck program. So here it is.
Starting point is 00:01:19 This is the way the media works now. They find a story that confirms their bias, confirms their narrative, and then they run it constantly, relentlessly. Then when the real story comes out, they minimize the exposure of the correction, and then they repeat. Look at the major stories that have broken recently that have been so very wrong, that have occupied so much of our time. Kavanaugh.
Starting point is 00:01:47 Was that true? Nope. Turns out, nope. Then you had the Covington story. Was that true? Nope. Look how they, look at how they corrected both of those. Just barely.
Starting point is 00:02:03 Just barely. And I say, well, I'd say, well, I'd. Both of them, would you even say barely still? Because they were still saying they're guilty of something. Yeah, I mean, certainly haven't corrected the Kavanaugh thing. I mean, they just say that it was, I mean, I think they would still say that one's true. Well, I mean, do you remember the FBI stories that came out afterwards and what the FBI had uncovered that it was bogus? That the people that were, you can't, you don't know for sure because, you know, we're still going.
Starting point is 00:02:37 going off of people's memories, but it was her beach friends that kind of help shape this story. Yeah, I mean, I think all of these stories are stories that they would still hang on to. Yeah. Yeah. Right. So they're not really corrected. They're not really corrected. Let me give you the knee-jerk reactions that the media had on this Jesse Smollett hoax. This is from Insider Edition, CNN, e-news, headline news, CNBC, TMZ, just to name a few. Listen. Beaten with a news around his neck and hospitalized. Empire star Jesse Smollett was the victim of a vicious, racist,
Starting point is 00:03:16 and homophobic attack. His attackers hurled racial and homophobic slurs. Two people yelled racist and homophobic slurs. Racial and homophobic slurs. Not only homophobia, we're talking about racism. We're talking about hate with steroids. They are looking for two suspects who were apparently wearing Make America Great Again hats.
Starting point is 00:03:37 The offenders uttered, this is MAGA country. The hate crime went down early this morning in Chicago. Officials are investigating the alleged assault as a hate crime. And now police say they're investigating this is a possible hate crime. Anyone attacked in a hate crime like this is an outrage. This is, this is stomach turning, mind-boggling information. It's out of control. It is out of control, isn't it?
Starting point is 00:04:02 Isn't it out of control? Now, these are just the reactions on TV. just as bad, if not worse, in some cases, in print and online. I'll give you one example. You know the situation is bad when TMZ is connecting the dots and seeing through a guy's story. It's TMZ. Listen to this, quote, The sources say there were red flags from the get-go.
Starting point is 00:04:24 Cops were extremely suspicious when Jussie took them out to the area where they said he was attack and pointed to an obscure camera saying how happy that the attack was on, that the attack was on video. Well, it turns out the camera was pointing in the wrong direction. Cops thought it was weird. He knew the location of that camera. And then there's this. We're told investigators didn't believe the two alleged attackers
Starting point is 00:04:52 screamed this is MAGA country because not a single Trump supporter watches Empire, end quote. No, I'm sure there is one, somewhere, maybe, probably not here's the man himself in an interview just days after the alleged beating I'm sorry the alleged modern day lynching here he is in an interview with ABC News
Starting point is 00:05:18 complaining about people making stuff up that I had said that they were wearing maga hats I never said that I didn't need to add anything like that they called me a they called me there's no which way you I don't need some MAGA hat as the cherry on top of some racist Sunday.
Starting point is 00:05:38 I've heard that it was a date gone bad, which I so resent that narrative. I'm not going to go out and get a tuna sandwich and a salad to meet somebody. That's ridiculous. And it's offensive. Yes, there's grinder. Yes, there's jacked. Yes, there's all of these things, which I have not been on in years. I can admit that I was on that back of the day. I was single.
Starting point is 00:06:06 You know what I'm saying? But I haven't been on that in years. But aside from that, it's offensive. And I absolutely resent that narrative because it's bull. It's bull. It's bull. And he knows bull, apparently. Now, he starts out.
Starting point is 00:06:27 Play the first 10 seconds of that for me again, please. That I had said that they were wearing masks. MAGA hats. I never said that. I didn't need to add anything like that. Stop. Huh. Here's a story from USA Today. The headline, Empire Star at Jussie Smollett, attackers yelled, this is MAGA country during the beating. Chicago Police, blah, blah, blah. You get down to about eight paragraphs down, and it says, Sergeant Cindy Giera confirmed to USA today that Smoliet said in a follow-up interview the next day that his 11th.
Starting point is 00:07:04 alleged tackers yelled, this is MAGA country. So apparently there was some confusion on whether or not he said it. Now, he seems to be confused yet. And the Chicago police said, no, no, no, he didn't say that. Then USA Today called and said, could you check on that? They checked on it and said, oh, yep, you know what? The next day, he did say that. so I guess he does need a little cherry on a racist Sunday
Starting point is 00:07:35 the problem is is he's the racist let me give you a story from let me give you two stories from the press just this weekend there is a story from the Washington Post
Starting point is 00:07:55 where the writer now this is a this is an editorial writer. A writer from the Washington Post, an editor, said, she really needs this to be true. She needs this to be true. What do you mean you need this to be true?
Starting point is 00:08:20 I want this to be true. I need it to be true. Does anybody remember after 9-11 when we started having copycats? Remember when we started getting all kinds of powder sent to us, and we were hoping, hoping, praying that this was not an American copycat, that this was somebody that was doing this, that we wanted to trust each other. Do we remember that feeling? Maybe it was just me who wanted that, but I don't think so. You want to live in a country where this is true? I want to live in a country where this is not true. Now, she went on to say,
Starting point is 00:09:03 because just think of the damage that will be done, which brings me to the second story. This one from the New York Times. Republicans are already demonizing Democrats as socialist and baby killers. Now, this isn't related to the Smollett case, but yet it is. We don't believe the Smollett case. So apparently we just all group all of it together. We just, we don't believe this guy, so we're not going to believe any racism exists.
Starting point is 00:09:38 Well, that is a danger of crying wolf. However, I don't think that's who the American people are. And look at how the New York Times story, this is not an editorial, this is a story. Republicans are already demonizing Democrats as socialists and baby killers. Well, I got news for you. If the baby is born and then you kill. kill it, what else would you be called? If you believe capitalism is a thing of the past,
Starting point is 00:10:13 and you believe that the government can run things better, that's a socialist. What else would you be called? Jussie Smollett wanted so badly to believe that Americans were just, homophobic racists that he had to hire two Kenyans
Starting point is 00:10:43 to perpetrate this hoax on us I guess there are jobs that Americans still won't do now I don't I don't know how he could have possibly thought that one of them was named
Starting point is 00:11:04 Cletus because they don't look like a cletus to me he orchestrated this I want to take a break and come back with just a list of all of the stories where people have been orchestrating these things. Because that's exactly what's happening. And the press doesn't get it. And it gets worse and worse and worse. And if the press doesn't wake up, we're screwed.
Starting point is 00:11:40 We're screwed. How's this going to fix any? it's going to be fixed. How are we going to come together if the press doesn't see their involvement? But again, they don't want to see their involvement. Again, it's just confirmation bias. Others are doing this. We're not involved at all. Yes, you are. I'll give you the list of just the things that are directly correlated with this. Donald Trump is to blame because this racist thing happened and it turned out to be a hoax. Okay. Um, cyberstalking making hoax bomb threats. Ann Arbor woman reported a hate crime. She was suffering from depression and she said that she had been
Starting point is 00:12:43 prompted. She had been attacked and she told the, I don't know why. I don't know why. they picked on me. She said maybe it was a safety pin that she was wearing. What does a safety pin represent? Do you have any idea? Okay, well, somebody out there apparently knew what a safety pin meant and didn't like that. And so it's a hate crime. Well, it turns out, no, nope, she was just crazy.
Starting point is 00:13:11 She had made a superficial scratch on her face, and she was embarrassed about it. and so she said a stranger had done it to her while she was walking, and her friend said you should report it to the police, and I made a big mistake by doing that. Yep. Kansas State, second time in two years. Racist slurs at Kansas State was a hoax. Officers received a report of a note using a racial slur posted on a door in an apartment complex.
Starting point is 00:13:44 Upon questioning, the person who reported the... incident admitted to creating and posting the note to their own door. The matter will be addressed, they said. But this was the one that had the note, beware and words live here. Remember that story? Yeah, that was a hoax. How about this one? Villanova. Villanova had a report of a black female student allegedly knocked down by young white males yelling Trump, Trump, Trump, Trump. but the student doesn't want to pursue the matter, but wanted to make sure that it's hard to move forward. It's hard to move forward.
Starting point is 00:14:28 Well, yeah, and it was hard for the university to move forward because it was fake. So they couldn't find anybody that had done that. New Jersey man arrested 58 years old. He was arrested in 10,000. connection with racist and politically charged messages that appeared spray painted on a property in South Philadelphia on the day after the Trump election. He was arrested because he wrote Trump rules and Trump rules black B words and the letter
Starting point is 00:15:07 T. I guess that's just I have no idea. No idea. Could have been a T party. could have been there's a lot of things that could be done. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. A low testosterone issue.
Starting point is 00:15:22 A report of a racist note on a black student's windshield. This happened in Minnesota. A racist threat against a St. Olaf's student that touched off campus-wide protest and forced the college to cancel classes earlier this month was a fake, according to this story. A threat, an anonymous typewritten note, was fabricated.
Starting point is 00:15:44 It was a strategy to draw attention to concerns about the campus climate. It was not a genuine threat. The note was tucked into the windshield of a black student's car. And it apparently, you know, well, they were just trying to show that, you know, this is something good has got to come out of such a bad thing. But it was full of racial epitets. And, uh, and, uh, and of course, Trump. Woman told police she was driving home when four teens confronted her, yelled Trump
Starting point is 00:16:23 2016 and told her she didn't belong here to go home. The woman who told the police she had a hateful note on her car after a group of teens did this to her, said, uh, yeah, okay, I made the entire story up. Muslim woman. She reported a hate crime. on the subway, 18-year-old Muslim woman, claimed that three men attacked her on a Manhattan subway. They tried to pull off her hijab,
Starting point is 00:16:53 and turned out to be completely fake. She was making that up. Long Island Man, Nassau Community College, said he couldn't sleep at night because somebody had drawn swastikas several different times at various different locations on the campus. Three swastikas were found inside of a man's bathroom, and he couldn't sleep at night.
Starting point is 00:17:23 I don't know how people sleep at night when they're the ones who do it. Police found out he was the perpetrator. I'm not even a third of the way through the stories that have come out in the last year. And the Washington Post has the guts to say that we're going to use this one to say that people are making things up. No. No. you not yet get it? This is why we don't
Starting point is 00:17:48 believe the news. The best of the Glenn Beck program. John Ziegler is with us. He is an independent voice and rights for Mediite. And he is one of the guys and I think the first to
Starting point is 00:18:12 really take this Jesse Smollett case on and say, wait a minute, something's not right here. We talked to him on Friday as this was starting to fall apart and he laid the case out. John, I'd like you just to lay the case out again real quick, just in case somebody isn't familiar with the case.
Starting point is 00:18:31 Sure. A couple weeks ago, Empire actor Jesse Smollett claimed that at 2 a.m. in Chicago in the middle of a polar vortex that he had been attacked by two Trump-loving goons who yelled, among other things, at him racial epitats, insulted his sexuality. and declared Chicago to be MAGA country, sprayed in with bleach, tied a rope around his neck, I guess which was supposed to be a news. He was the victim of a horrible hate crime. And the media, of course, shockingly, lapped this up as if this was obviously true
Starting point is 00:19:13 and that there was no other scenario that could possibly be the case, because after all, in their minds, no one ever lies or exaggerates about any of this kind of thing, even though the end result, as you well know, Glenn, and many of your listeners know, is that many of these stories end up being false. And this one never made any sense. And the way that it fell apart over a couple of a period of time to me is fascinating. And, you know, I appreciate you give me the credit because, you know, I don't get credit for any of these types of stories. I have made literally hundreds of dollars over the years going after these stories. Well, let's not stretch it.
Starting point is 00:19:51 It's not fun because, by the way, even when you're right, you still end up taking more grief than you get credit in most cases. But I feel like all I was was the kid and the emperor with no clothes. You're just going, wait a minute. The emperor has no clothes here. This is an obvious story. What was fascinating about just to be real quick. What was fascinating to me was I did a series of interviews in Chicago very early on this story where I'm being used by Chicago radio host. radio hosts who are not supposed to be afraid of anything, right? Because they don't want to be the
Starting point is 00:20:26 ones to say this is false. So they bring me on because I've written for Mediite and tell them what they already are thinking, but no one wants to say. And that's really what happened here. It's really frightening. So, John, I think one of the reasons why the average person may have been caught up on this and just accepted it is because at first he had gone to the hospital, And you got the impression that he had to stay there for a day or two. And so he was really hurt. That's all bogus too. Well, yeah.
Starting point is 00:21:00 I mean, you look now who it was, these two Nigerian brothers who are bodybuilders, who were the ones who were involved in this, if they were going to beat Jesse Smollett up, he would have had more than a scratch underneath his eye. And he would not have been able to go to Los Angeles almost immediately to do, I guess he would call it a concert where he was dancing within a couple of days. I mean, that part didn't make a lot of sense. There were a lot of things that didn't make a lot of sense.
Starting point is 00:21:30 Well, the fact that he held on to his subway. Well, I mean, that's a love of a sandwich, man. You're like, I'm fighting off two guys who are trying to beat me up, bore bleach on me, but I am not letting go of this sandwich. Well, and by the way, the police were, both of us were essentially wrong in our original. theory about what happened because I'm told from my sources, which have been very good on this story from the beginning,
Starting point is 00:21:59 that originally the police, and I thought this made sense because I'm not a conspiracy guy. I despise conspiracies. I believe in incompetence. But even the police were convinced that this couldn't have been a total hoax at first because it was so poorly done, so incompetently done. Apparently they even rehearsed it.
Starting point is 00:22:19 And so I presumed, and again, the police thought this, that this was some sort of a domestic dispute, a relationship he had had with one of these two actors that went wrong, and then he created the hate crime allegation afterwards. I am told that they're state police still believe that there was a relationship between Smollett and one of the two of them, but they now believe that what happened here was that Smollett paid them to be part of this. One of the more interesting things I'm looking forward to as this goes along, which I'm sure is not going to happen, is is Smolett going to get the Me Too treatment?
Starting point is 00:22:55 Because if the police are right that he had a relationship with one of these two guys, he forced them, right, using his power as an actor in a romantic relationship to engage in a crime. That's a Me Too violation. Wow. This thing is absolutely fascinating. I saw it this morning that the police said one of the things that immediately said, wait a minute, this may not be right, is he took him to the scene where it happened. And he immediately pointed out the video camera and said,
Starting point is 00:23:26 I am so glad that that camera is up there because you caught all of it on video. And it was so obviously pointed in the wrong direction. And they were like, hey, we've never heard that from a victim who's like, and I saw right away that there's a video camera right here. And it was so obvious that it was not going to pick this up. They went, uh-oh, something's wrong. Well, Glenn, you make a really great point, which I underestimated the police at the beginning of this. I think the police played possum here.
Starting point is 00:24:00 I do, too. I think that they made it seem as if they had no idea it was going on. They released the photograph of those two blurbs, those blobs that they were the persons of interest. And at that time, I perceived, and I think Smollett perceived, that was a sign of weakness that the police had nothing. They had no idea what was happening here. it is now very clear they knew immediately what was going on. They had been able to chart those two blobs, which turned out to be the Nigerians, all the way from the scene of the alleged hate crime, into an Uber.
Starting point is 00:24:33 They identified them. Apparently they have video of them buying the rope. So they knew their identity from very early on. And of course, they immediately know they're Nigerian, they're black. One of the works on empire, this story is clearly false. And to use what I'm sure the left will think is a bad metaphor, they essentially gave Smollett enough real rope to hang himself because he ends up identifying them on Good Morning America, which of course was ridiculous to be.
Starting point is 00:24:59 You couldn't identify the people when you were being attacked, but you're identifying two blobs in a grainy photograph. And that's the incredible thing is he went on Good Morning America to say he doesn't appreciate how this is just, you know, how he's being treated and called a liar by some. It's just like those Trump people. And they put up the two blobs. And it's really like the back of two guys, isn't it? I can't even tell. I don't know.
Starting point is 00:25:26 I just because the faces were so dark, I just thought that they were, I don't know, wearing a hoodie or something and walking the other direction. There's no way you can tell anything about these two guys, except it's two big people walking. Right. Or standing up. Right. And he gets off. and says, I know these are the guys.
Starting point is 00:25:45 Well, how do you know? I was there. I saw it. I know these are the guys. Right, which to me felt like desperation. Like he's just latching on to anything that will disdain and shade his story. Also, under the belief that the police will never be able to identify these guys when they already had. And, of course, it's a couple hours after the Good Morning America interview finally airs. When they apprehend them, they question them. They get them to flip on small ad.
Starting point is 00:26:11 They don't charge them. And now, of course, we're waiting for Smallet. I'm told the police are hoping that Smollett will turn himself in. I'm still very skeptical, Glenn, whether Smollett is going to suffer any severe legal consequences over this. The state's attorney in Cook County, I'm told, is very corrupt. They're going to be under a lot of political pressure to give him a sweetheart deal and let this just go under the rug. I told you on Friday, which I think was a key part of this, that Rahm Emanuel, the Mayor of Chicago was pissed off, and he may have unleashed the dogs on Smallette when he went on Good Morning America,
Starting point is 00:26:46 but he's not in charge of this anymore. This is a state's attorney's issue. And so I'm still skeptical whether the left will ever really be forced to eat the crow that they should on this. And I also think this is important for your audience. I hope that we don't just look at this as the left wants us to as an isolated. Oh, no, it's not. This is somehow unique. This is an epidemic, especially in the realm of hate crime situation.
Starting point is 00:27:11 And it's also, I think, and maybe I'm sure people, I know I've already driven people on the left crazy for raising this issue. But let's go back to Kavanaugh for a second, Brett Kavanaugh. Because we were told, we remember we were told that even though Christine Ford's story had no corroboration. By the way, Jesse Smollett story at least had a time and a place. And a picture of two blobs. Right, two blobs and a contemporaneous report. But in comparison, Jesse Smollett story was fantastically corroborated in comparison to, to cut Christine Ford. But we were told the reason we believe Christine Ford is that a prominent person would never tell an untruth about an allegation like this. That would never happen. What do they possibly have to gain? No one would ever do this and put themselves through this. Well, now we know that's bull crap, because Jesse Smallette has done that for whatever reason he did. I don't fully understand why he did it. We may never know, but people do very strange things. And the other thing that's related,
Starting point is 00:28:11 this is, the number one misconception, especially the left has, is we now live in a world where being the right kind of victim is the American dream. That's the biggest false premise of the whole thing. People presume we're still living in 19, whatever it was, when being a victim was somehow an item of shame. It's not an item of shame anymore. And by the way, maybe it never should have been, but the pendulum has swung so far in the other direction, people want to be a victim. You can You get attention. You get money in certain situations. I believe Colin Kaepernick figured this out and did it more beautifully than anyone has ever done in creating himself into being a victim. And now he's made millions and millions of dollars out of it when his football career should have been over by now. So that's the number one premise. Being the right kind of victim is the American dream today. When I come back, I want you because you work for Mediite, I would like to talk about the media. and what the media should pull from all of these stories that they've done.
Starting point is 00:29:16 What's the real problem here? Part of it is us. The free market is like, who's buying stories about victims? Everybody. I've got a victim story. That's part one. But the other part is journalism and media today. And quite honestly, you touched on the beginning.
Starting point is 00:29:37 Fear. John Ziegler. So what does the, what is the, media going to pull out of this or should pull out of this? And what role do they play in all of this? Great question, Glenn. Those are two very different things. What they should and likely will. First of all, I think they're an unindicted co-conspirator in the Jussie Smollett story. And I mean, without them, I don't think Smollett would have ever thought wanted he could get away with this or that he would get adulation for it. That's number of.
Starting point is 00:30:11 number one. Number two, what they should take away from this is let's not be so damn gullible. Let's not take everything at face value. And, you know, I mentioned on Friday, I have an equation. It's really pretty simple. You just take the, how implausible a story is, how little corroboration it has, and then you divide it by how hesitant the media or the authorities would be to debunk it because of political correctness concerns. And if you get a number less than one, the story's probably not true. formula has worked for me on many, many occasions. And on this occasion, it was as clear as day that the story is probably not true. But the problem here is the business model of the media is broken. It is badly broken. Every single element of the media is broken, which means the two
Starting point is 00:30:58 things. Everyone has to lunge after every story that looks like it might get clicks or traffic or trend on Twitter immediately, which means that, of course, there's no time for, There's no time for research or investigation. And then, of course, the other part of the broken business model is that the people within the business have no job security. And when you have no job security, you can't do real journalism because real journalism requires saying things often that are unpopular or dangerous. Well, in this day and age, if you say something that's unpopular or dangerous, when you have no job security, guess what's going to happen to you? Especially if you have to be a white male. You're in a story like this, you're done. It's over, and there's no place to get
Starting point is 00:31:45 another job. So that's where the fear comes in that you already referenced. So there's way too much fear. And by way, no one ever gets fired for jumping on these types of stories. You only get in trouble if you contradict them and don't get vindicated immediately because you're pissed off the wrong people. So, John, here's the thing about this, is, as We're looking at this story. Nobody's buying a story. Nobody wants to run a story that the narrative is counter to this one. And so you're not incentivized in any way.
Starting point is 00:32:25 Everybody wants to be first or wants to be in the stream. Nobody is actually trying to be right over first. And the last thing is there isn't anybody in the media that really doesn't want to believe this story. This is what they believe anyway. So it's massive confirmation bias. A hundred percent, especially that's, and that's why the liberal media gets these things wrong so often. But I think your point about incentivization is so incredibly important because there's still a lot of people who believe that truth is the coin of the realm of the media and journalism. I don't know if that was ever the case, but it's definitely not the case now. It's
Starting point is 00:33:08 popularity. That's what, it is what matters. And oftentimes, the popular narrative is inherently faulty because of what you mentioned about confirmation bias. And of course, you and I have talked many times about the Penn State, Joe Paterno, Jerry Sundiske case. To me, this is the patron saint of all of these cases. Where the truth is, and I've investigated for six years, I know with every fiber of my being to be 180 degrees different than what the popular narrative was. But the narrative that was popular, was so overwhelming that it was a tidal wave over the truth. And the truth is never going to win in that case. And it's not close.
Starting point is 00:33:44 And this is not an isolated situation. That's just the most dramatic one I've seen. Okay. John Ziegler, you can find him at Zygman Freud, Zygman Freud, and also with the media. I think so much, John. This is the best of the Glenn Beck program. Hi, it's Glenn. If you're a subscriber to the podcast, can you do his favor and rate us on iTunes?
Starting point is 00:34:18 If you're not a subscriber, become one today and listen on your own time. You can subscribe on iTunes. Thanks. There has been a time in the past where that was not the way people thought about it. I mean, certainly some did, right? Like we know that there have been really bad examples of this over the past. But I thought myself, Soul Man was a movie released by a major studio in which the plot of the movie is a white guy goes into black. blackface to get into Harvard.
Starting point is 00:34:50 And it's a hilarious comedy about a white guy who puts on blackface to go into Harvard. Now, we would all say now that would not be something that would be released. And no one would act in it if offered. However, in this period, was it that crazy? Again, it was before Soul Man came out, like what, six years previous to this, he supposedly wore Blackface. Okay? And in 1986, the movie Soul Man came out.
Starting point is 00:35:17 And I thought to myself, self, what was the New York Times saying about Soul Man in 1986? Because were they out there saying like, this is a relic from 1884? They said, now they're saying it's a party like in 1884. Here is their review of Soul Man in the New York Times from 1986. I love you, Stu. I just love you. There's nothing, again, I want you to understand this, Glenn. There's nothing automatically funny about the story of a rich white college boy who masquerades as a black.
Starting point is 00:35:53 There's not automatically. It's not automatically. You got to work into this little bit. We're going to make you work for that laugh. It's more than just putting the black face on, which of course, funny. But not automatically. Not automatically. That's not automatically a hit comedy.
Starting point is 00:36:08 Right. You guys got to go deeper. There's nothing automatically funny about the story of a rich white college boy who masquerades is black in order to collect a scholar. to Harvard Law School. That's putting it mildly. But Soul Man, which opens today at Lowe's State and other theaters, has a breezy, unapologetic manner. And it also happens to be funny, which goes a long way towards making up for any of the underlying obtuseness or insensitivity. The director has arrived at this cheerful frat-house version of Tootsie. A cheerful frat-house version of Tootsie. Yeah, hang on just a second. Hang on just a second.
Starting point is 00:36:45 second. Could Tootsie even be made today? I don't think. Probably not. Probably not. Because wouldn't that be a because it was a guy, it was cross-dresser. A cross-dresser. And he was pretending to be a woman to be near his children. I probably not. You're confusing that. I am. With Mrs. Doubtfire. Oh, yeah. Okay. That's right. I am. This is another one you could make. I don't think you can make that one either. So wait, what's Tootsie about? Tutsi is the actor that couldn't get a job. He was a great actor.
Starting point is 00:37:20 Couldn't get a job. He needed to be a, you know, a strong woman is what they were looking for. So, and everybody's saying he was a bad actor. And he's like, okay, I'll show you. It's a brilliant, funny, funny movie, funny movie. I mean, not automatically funny. Sure, but funny. It's a good point.
Starting point is 00:37:40 It's not automatically funny. It's important to point out. Just a guy in a dress isn't automatically funny. Now, I will say, I will ask this question, Glenn, is it, as the New York Times called Soulman in 1986, a blithe, silly, good-natured movie, and of its kind, quite an enjoyable one? Now, hang on, just a second. The governor of Virginia is in trouble. Now, if he was the one, well, if he's either one in the picture with the clan, okay, he's in trouble. But he denies that that's him, either the clan or.
Starting point is 00:38:15 the blackface guy. Right. And I, you know, again, this is this is not something you want to push back on. But I mean, if the, what's the point of the clan black guy photo? Like the only thing I can think of is why this photo would exist is the odd pairing, right? Like it's an odd couple, like two people going to a party. One's a clan member and one's not, one's a black guy. Right. Yeah. That's probably the quote unquote joke. Again, not that I'm defending it. Right. But I don't know. Is that any more or less offensive than being. Michael Jackson in blackface previously? I don't know. Yeah, I think it actually is. It may be. It's kind of like, you know, a Jew in, you know, prison guard going with Hitler. Right. Yeah, that's not a good look.
Starting point is 00:38:59 Not a good look. Not funny. However, Michael Jackson, I bet that was a breezy performance. It goes back to what Megan Kelly was saying. Yeah. Is this so bad? Yeah, I think the, you know, I'm not going to shun anybody, you know, from business 30 years after their life because they did that.
Starting point is 00:39:19 However, when you are doing a tribute to someone like he was doing with Michael Jackson, is that so bad? Right. The theory being that if you're trying to compliment someone as dressing up with them, like, you know, it's the same controversy you see every Halloween now where if you dress up as a Native American, right, you're taking their culture and it's offensive. but if the person is saying, well, I'm not doing it to be offensive. I'm doing it because I like that culture.
Starting point is 00:39:49 Is that a problem? And today, absolutely it is. In 1980, was it? I don't know. In 1986, the New York Times was praising a major studio release about blackface. You had, for the first time in American history, you had a bunch of white kids wanting to be black like Michael Jackson and your star who was black changing his face to try to be.
Starting point is 00:40:14 be white. Or a woman. Or had a very rare disease. Not sure what that was about. The New York Times goes on to talk about his phony looking afro in the movie. And this is what actually reminded me of this when you said, Cosby.
Starting point is 00:40:30 This is one of the quotes from the movie. This is from the white guy in blackface saying, these are the 80s. This is the Cosby decade. America loves black people. This is a hilarious joke. They quote, in the movie they're praising. Mark's manner remains unchanged after his physical transformation.
Starting point is 00:40:48 His attitudes could not help but be affected. In the end, a tootsie-like learning experiences emerges from this adventure. He finds, for example, that he can no longer stand listening to the Beach Boys. That's your learning experience? This is a learning experience. If this seems speedy and superficial course in conscious raising, and it comes at relatively late in the film, it's better than nothing. And the pretty actress named Malota Hardin does what little she can
Starting point is 00:41:12 with the role of a white girl who wants to sleep with Mark simply because he's black. Quote, something about 400 years of oppression and anger, as she explains it. This isn't a positive review. So is that still available? Do you know? What? Is that, can you still rent that? Can you still find that?
Starting point is 00:41:32 Because you can't get Song of the South, which is one of the most endearing stories of all time. You cannot get Song of the South. It's not available on YouTube. The Zippity, do, dot. No. No. cannot get it. But you can get this one?
Starting point is 00:41:47 I don't know. That's a good question. You're listening to the best of the Glenn Beck program. We had Gad sad on. Now, Gad is a guy who is a university professor from Canada. He is a guy who just loves the truth and is very concerned about what's happening to the truth in universities and all throughout society. And we talked about everything. One of the first people, Jordan Peterson reached out to when he was having his troubles initially. Yeah, because he's like the godfather of telling truth, you know, and always getting in trouble for it.
Starting point is 00:42:36 And he doesn't care. And I just, I love this guy. You're going to fall in love with him when you listen to him. But check it out. Here he is talking about, you know, we say it's Trump derangement syndrome. He calls it something else. Listen to this. So Munchausen syndrome is where someone feigns a medical condition.
Starting point is 00:42:56 so they can garner empathy and sympathy. Oh, poor me, look at me, I'm sick. Munchausen syndrome by proxy is where you take someone who's under your care, your biological child, your pet, your elderly parent, and you harm them so that you can get and garner the sympathy and empathy by proxy
Starting point is 00:43:13 because they're damaged, right? So this is called Munchausen syndrome by proxy. And by the way, the ones who suffer most from that are usually women who harm their biological children to garner the sympathy. So I had written a paper, you know, talk about the psychics. psychiatric disorder. And then when I started seeing the full victimhood, the screaming, the fake
Starting point is 00:43:32 hysteria associated with Trump, that's when I coined the term collective bunchausen. Because it was a way for people to seek attention in grotesque ways and truly what seemed to me in false sounding ways, right? I mean, I would see on my Facebook page people sort of testifying to their looming victimhood. I am a woman of color. I attend the University of Maine. Will it still be? be safe for me to go to college now that Trump, well, what do you think? There's going to be roadblocks and the Trump storm patrols are going to be ushering you to gang rape centers. I mean, what can justify this level of idiotic hysteria? And so that's why I called it collective munchausen, because it truly was a confabulation of faux hysteria.
Starting point is 00:44:18 What upsets me is that it's one thing for this idiot on my Facebook page to write this stuff. it's another thing when many of my supposedly sophisticated intellectual friends were succumbing to the same hysteria. That's what upsets me. So I won't mention any names, but one of my good friends, whom you probably know, is one of the type who will say things like, you know, there's going to be food shortages now that Trump. There's going to be a nuclear holocaust. He's the worst thing since Hitler. And this is a guy who otherwise you would have thought is a terribly sophisticated and dispassionate thinker.
Starting point is 00:44:52 And so it's a real mystery to me why they are... What causes that? What caused that in him? I think I know who you're talking about. Very smart. Very reasoned. Very. I mean, he's sort of the model of the very dispassionate, right?
Starting point is 00:45:07 So I pitched an idea on the Rubin report as to why I think this is happening. I think that the intellectual class views Trump as what I call an aesthetic injury, right? He lived, you know how this beautiful place that you're in, I mean, is gorgeous aesthetics, right? You have a nice aesthetic sense. Well, academics and intellectual types have a sense of the types of aesthetics that they seek in their leader. Barack Obama, exemplar fit that. He's tall. He's got a beautiful smile.
Starting point is 00:45:40 He speaks with a certain cadence of a Southern Baptist preacher. He seems noble and majestic. So it doesn't matter what he says, that most of it is complete. But he, my God, he sounds noble and intelligent. intellectual. Donald Trump is an ogre. He speaks in an ugly way. He's grotesque. He's a brawler. He's a New Yorker. He's swearing. He's grabbed this. Right. So on every possible aesthetic metric, he offends my sense of aesthetics. And so I think they are disgusted by him. They are repulsed. It's visceral. He is a remarkable man. His name is Gadsad. And he's just remarkable the way he
Starting point is 00:46:22 he thinks. We cover all kinds of topics, really, almost everything. And he, at one point, we started talking about freedom of speech. Listen to this. So Munchausa syndrome is where someone feigns and medical conditions. Free speech absolutist. I believe that anything short of a direct exhortation to violence, libel and defamation, everything goes. And the way that I demonstrate demonstrate my commitment to those principles as I pick the most grotesque possible instance, which is Holocaust deniers to a Jewish person, right? What could be more offensive than taking the historical event that is probably the most documented in history where people were systematically, you know, exterminated and allow someone
Starting point is 00:47:13 to say, no, it never happened. But if you are a free speech absolutus in a free society, then you have to tolerate the most grotesque. So I tell people, I am a Jewish person, and I support the right of Holocaust deniers to reject that the Holocaust ever happened. So I walk to walk, talk to talk. So your hurt feelings?
Starting point is 00:47:32 Frankly, I don't give a blank about. Life is anti-fragile, to use the term of Nassim Talib, right? You grow by being, that which doesn't kill you makes you stronger, correct? Therefore. Postmodernists say that which doesn't, how is this the turn of the first? phrase on this.
Starting point is 00:47:56 We could have cut this part out of this for the love of being. I've never heard the postmodern. They've twisted and turned it around upside. So it really, I find it very frustrating because it is a perfect way to stifle discussions, right? Don't criticize Islam because that's my religious faith. That hurts me. What do you mean? In a free society, you can go on Twitter and say what a bunch of
Starting point is 00:48:19 crock Judaism is. If I'm strong in my beliefs, I shouldn't worry about what Blenbeck thinks.

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