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All right, everybody, welcome to The Buck Sexton Show. Jared Stepman, my man, he is with us now. He is the author of the War on History, The Conspiracy to Rewrite America's Past.
Jarrett.
Great to see you. I could see the book behind you. So tell me this, my friend. What did General Schuyler do to deserve all of the hate up in Albany, New York recently that he was getting? What happened here?
I thought?
I thought Skyler was tied in with what Hamilton's family or something. Right, isn't this how this all went down? Tell me what's going on here?
Yeah? Absolutely, it's amazing. It's to see General Philip Schuyler, who was a general during the American Revolution, to have his statue taken down knob of Albany, which is, of course the capital of New York. Skyler was in fact tied to Alexander Hamilton. He was his father in law, was one of the more prominent men of New York during that time. He was instrumental during the Saratoga campaign of creating the defenses at that time, which is how he became so prominent as a general. And at one
time he was very well thought of. He was a prominent member of New York. He was one of the big families. Being tied to Alexander Hamilton was something that the family was very much proud of. The state was
very much proud of him. He's been a fairly uncontroversial figure and a pretty prominent one until quite recently when it was discovered that well, he owned a few slaves during his lifetime, so therefore all of his accomplishments are Nolan Voyd and his statue had to be removed from the front of the Albany State Capital because people may have been offended by the fact that he at one point had owned slaves. So his statue was dragged off kind of in the almost in the middle of the
night by a truck. There was very little fan feather fair. There was very little public discussion about whether or not people were actually offended in the community. They simply removed the statue, got rid of it, done away with again. Of course, many of the arguments about taking down statues and figures of America's past revolved around whether or not they were confederates or something along those lines. Of course,
Skyler was in no way a Confederate whatsoever. He was tied to the American Revolution at one time, considered a great patriot that could be celebrated by all Americans. Now he's gone, and now he held no record of him or his statue in front of the state capitol.
So I just need to understand what the rules are, because if being a figure from the Revolutionary War era in America and having any connection to slavery, having owned slaves at any number at any point in time, is enough to get your statue torn down, we got some problems with the founders, don't we, right, Like what happens to George Washington and Thomas Jefferson, Yeah, what happens.
To Washington, d C. What happens to Benjamin Franklin. I mean, yes, he did release his slaves at some point, but is that good enough? It doesn't seem to be good enough for those who want to destroy our past. So yeah, we're basically going to have to cut through all the Founders. The capital city is going to have to be renamed, They're going to have to be names across the country that are changed and done away with, and of course I think there are a number of people who be
very happy if that took place. But this really gets the heart of the criticism of America. It's history, our founding itself, this idea that because it was linked to ideas and things that again we today obviously reject. We are happy that institutions like slavery are gone largely because of the philosophy of the founding fathers, because those flaws
existed in our founding. That means we have to effectively erase our history, or some body somewhere will be offended and will decide that they may either officially try to take down a statue or remove a name, or they may do so with a mob, as we saw in twenty twenty, where we saw people actually go after figures in history and statues to try to take them down to themselves.
It's remarkable, you know. There's also been recently some situation tell us about this.
Robert E.
Lee his horse traveler. There was a marker at the grave of Robert E. Lee Civil War Confederate general of his horse that was messed with.
What happened here This is really quite remarkable. Traveler, his horse that was sort of famous during the war and after it was his favorite horse, was there at the Washington and Lee University. They buried his horse on the grounds. Recently, they decided that the plaque to this horse, you know, the racist horse, had to be removed because it referenced the fact that it was tied to Robert E. Lee, one of the men who was responsible for the existence
of that college. He was the first president of Washington and Lee when it became a prominent university after the Civil War, he least served in a civilian capacity trying to rebuild the country after the terrible Civil War. Traveler was a well known horse. People came to put apples by the grave and was very much beloved. But as we've seen with the iconic class of our moment, that's not good enough. And it doesn't matter if it's simply a horse. This is some symbol of America's horrible, terrible
past that needs to be taken down. So they actually cracked up the statue. They removed it and tore it out from its place that existed there in Washington Lee campus. And it's certainly something that should be asked, is how long the school of Washington and Lee will continue to exist with its name. Certainly Lee is going to be checked off the list very soon. How soon is it going to be Washington as well? I would say not very I would say quite so.
Quite frankly, So, you wrote a great book, The War on History, which people should get a copy of. They don't have it already. Why are they waging this war on American history? Why is the left seeking to truly tear down physically literally tear down in the case of some of the statues and monuments. What's this all about?
I think they see the American project, the Constitution, the American people as a major impediment to their ideas and their plans. I think that that is what a large part of this is. America stands for many traditional values. It stands for limitation on government and limitation on power. It stands for many traditional ideas that they find repugnant, and so I think their aim is to, of course, want to associate America with all terrible things. Of course,
outside the larger scope of history. When you go after American history, you say, oh, America has a legacy of racism and has a legacy of slavery. Well, the whole world has a legacy of racism and slavery. What has made America different, of course, is that there are criticisms
of those things even from the beginning. Even from that founding, of course, we have things like the sixteen nineteen Project and other I think radical ideas that say that essentially, no, the entire point of the United States wasn't liberty, wasn't seventeen seventy six. It was slavery and tyranny, and therefore you should give us power. We're going to tear down all those good things that you thought were good, which were actually terrible. We're going to tear down those things
and put something in its place. And I think that that is a large part of what this is. It's not a nerdy discussion about history or statues. It's about power. It's about power in our society, and it's about removing any symbol or notion of traditional ideas that I think built this country and have made this country great. It's about removing those from symbols of status in this country. And I think that the left, unfortunately has been very successful in doing so.
I want to come back and ask you this question. I'll put it out to you now, Jared, you can answer it to after our quick word from a sponsor here. But it's what do they want to replace our history with? So hold that thought for a second. But a few things stop you cold in your tracks, like your computer failing you, right, or the thought that maybe you lost your laptop right, That can also happen, so it's a huge stressor when that comes up, or if you accidentally
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You know, I think there are many things. I think you have to look at the writings and the ethos of for instance, Nicole Hannah Jones, who is the creator of the sixteen nineteen project that became very famous that was pushed by the New York Times that now exists and schools across our country. Her mentor was an outright communist, and not just a communist, but a Stalinist. He thought that the United States was an evil country, as an evil institution that needed to be brought down. He said
a lot of things that were in fact outright. I think defensive of Joseph Stalin, the Soviet dictator. I think that she has a very left wing, I think Marxist view of the world. I think that she wants to lay this country low. She wants to tear up its traditions and replace it with something a morkin to her
Marxist philosophy. But I think there are also a lot of liberals, just social liberals, who feel extreme guilt about this country's past, to have simply allowed those to criticize our country, tear it down, have offered no resistance, no defense this country because they feel embarrassed about this country. They think it really is just a racist, bigoting country
that has no reason to be defended. I think what it's going to leave us with is a lot of radicals, empower people who want to control your life, who want to aggrandize themselves, and a lack of resistance and the institutions that we're supposed to at one time defend what made this country great. Unfortunately, many of those institutions now work actively against it. I mean, you talk about Harvard or Yale or the Ivy leagues or any of the
other elite institutions. They're no longer able to put up any kind of defense of what built this country, even built those institutions themselves. And so I think this is a lot about gaining power and power over you and me and just regular Americans across this country and reducing any kind of resistance, reducing i think the constitutional limits on power, and empowering them in society. And I think
that's what a big part of this is. They have ideas of creating this revolution that's going to equalize things. Of course, they themselves will not actually surrender the power that they have. Person This is about controlling you in your life.
What do we know about some of these fights that have come up on a policy level. Florida as a one example of this with Governor Ron De Santis and the pushback on a black studies curriculum. Why is it that these days we're being told that there's a problem with teaching honest history. That's what they'll say. And then you look at this and say, well, wait, how is critical race theory honest history If you're supposed to be talking about like the American Revolution or you know, other
periods in history. It seems like there's an infusion of ideology that's going through all of this.
Now, that's exactly what it is, that honest history line which continues to be used over and over again. It's quite remarkable given the fact that they themselves do not promote honest history when they're actually pressed to it. I mean, the sixteen nineteen project headed a number of flaws that they absolutely denied that even got criticism from which was funny from even some socialists criticized it because it was just bad history in general. So I think there's that
element to it. I think what it really is it's about imposing an ideology on the American people. This really doesn't have anything to do with actual historical baits about the various peoples of the past and the arguments they had about structure of government. This is about power in
the modern times. It's about imposing ideology on the American people, especially young people who don't maybe have a lot of knowledge about history anymore about civics, something that's very much been lost in this country, where they're willing to accept I think a lot of radical ideas because they don't know any better. They don't know much about the founding. They don't know much about the history of the country
or the world around us. They haven't been taught to have that kind of informed patriotism that I think existed for previous generations. That's been lost in the newer ones, and it's made us quite susceptible to a lot of radical ideas that have nothing to do with history, have nothing to do with the truth, And I think this
is really the problem of where we are. I think it's it's great to see states like Florida and hopefully many others finally battle back, especially on this issue of curriculum and what we're going to pass along to the next generations of Americans.
Are you a country music guy, Jared?
I do like some country music. I'm not a fan of all the all the new pop country music, but I do enjoy country music alongside a lot of other music.
So I want to ask because I want to ask you. You know, there's the fight over history, but there's also the fight over culture, and these things are very much intertwined. And you may have seen that Jason al Dean is getting a little bit of a little bit of heat. We'll come back to this in just a second. They're saying that he has a song that is racist, I
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Check it out at Disappearing dollar dot com. Paid for by Rogue Economics. All right, Jared, why did they why are they having such a big problem with try that in a small town. The Jason Alden.
Song, Yeah, it's it's really amazing. And I loved his song Flyover States. I think it is a great patriotic song. But there's really a freak out going on right now with the left because of this song by Jason al Dean, which shows the various images of the protests and I would say the riots that took place in twenty twenty. And the song has lyrics that say things like, well, we're not going to accept robbing a store, beating up a grandmother, talking about the crime that exists in a
lot of big cities across this country. Some of those cities I've lived in, I've experienced. The song is basically about, hey, in our small town, don't try to do anything violent here. We don't accept that in small town America. I think
it's actually a great message for the song. The way that the left has twisted this is to say that he's actually promoting violence in his song, that this is a pro lynching song that some have said on the left, and this has actually prompted his music to be canceled on CMT. There's a lot of leftist celebrities, Cheryl Crow and many others saying that this song is deeply inappropriate, that it's racist, that it's offensive, and so he's being
canceled for this. I think, very much like the econoclastic movement that's taken down statues in American history, I think they're going after al Din. They're canceling an actual person, this case a country music star for saying something that bucks the narratives that they want about America, which is that the twenty twenty riots were good and well and that any opposition to them makes you a racist, defending a country that's based on systemic racism.
It also seems perhaps a little crazy to say this, but I think it's I think it's true, or maybe it's just the observation sounds crazy when you say it out loud. I think that the left really has just developed a hostility for the notion of small town like small town America bad.
Yeah, it's this idea that, oh, those hillbillies and the small towns, they're just a bunch of bigots and know nothings and they're bad and we should look upon them as bad, and anything that praises them or says something good about their lifestyle we're against and is in itself bigoted and racist. I think that's the mentality you have now. There's just this deep contempt, I think, an elite contempt of large swaws of America. I mean, most Americans do
come from small towns. It's really amazing. You know. At one time in this country there used to be kind of recognition like, look, we like the cities, we like small towns, we like all parts of our country. There's something good and specialle about each one of those. But I think what you're getting from many of the elites in this country is this idea that it's funny, it's almost ironic, given this song about flyover States, about people
kind of mocking the middle of the country. You know, as anybody who's been to large parts of the middle of the country, I think so there are many wonderful places across this country, from sea to shining Sea. But there's a real contempt I think for a lot of Americans maybe who haven't gone outside the confines of New
York City or Los Angeles. For the people who live in those places, they see as representative of many of the traditional views that they find utterly contemptible and want to destroy and eliminate, just like the statues.
I want to end this podcast on a positive note chart though it's important we talk about these important issues. If you had to tell them, it's your history, guy, You've written a defensive history. You don't like when they destroy the history. Your three best historical films all time? You get three your three favorite history movies right, So anything that is a historical piece, what are they.
Does is that consider? Does that consider like a series? Two? Like historical series?
Oh no, movies, just movies. Feature films, sir, feature films only.
Okay, So one, I love The Battle of Britain, which is just one of my favorite war movies. It's just like one of those great classics, a lot of great actors, a lot of great action. Another one is maybe a little off kilter. One is Rawn by Kira Kurosawa, which I think is a great take on Shakespeare. It's actually King Lear. I highly suggest that people go back and watch the movie. It's a little less known in the United States, but as an incredible, incredible action sequences on
top of being Shakespeare. I think the last one is a personal favorite of mine, which is to Tour Tour, which is about Pearl Harbor, which is one that I think I watched about fifty times when I was a kid, that I think is a great historical take on an attack on Pearl Harbor. Of course The Day That Will Live in Infamy, which is definitely heavy on the history, but has a lot of great scenes that of course use a lot of the planes and the actual things that were there in World War Two at Pearl Harbor.
That I just found to be a great movie. It's historically accurate, and a lot of the technology they use was accurate too. It didn't rely on the modern cgi as much that I don't like as much.
I gotta tell you, I don't think I've heard of any of those movies before. So I learned something new. Do the do the show Gater Day by Fred Everybody should get a copy. I'll check out those movies I would be. I'd say, like Braveheart, Gladiator, you know a little more. I do love Master and Commander. So apparently I'm a big Russell Crow historical epic fan, Last of the Mohicans. But you've you've expanded my horizons, mister Steppens. Part of part of how you roll. I know that
ever should get a copy of the War on History. Jared, thanks so much for being with us. Appreciate it.
Thank you so much.