Wisdom from Dennis Prager

It is remarkable that Dennis Praguer has remained such a prominent voice for so long, and it has such wisdom to give. You know, the motto of his show as I prefer clarity to agreement, I could not agree more. I couldn't agree more with that that sentiment. He's also the founder of Praguer University Praguer You. It's the most viewed conservative video site in the world, with one billion views a year, where than half of those people are

under the age of thirty five. So he's doing a lot of work and trying to reshape the indoctrination that we're seeing in schools across America, trying to change that trajectory, changed the way people think. He's also a New Times best selling author of nine books on a ton of different subjects, from religious to morality, the left, America, happiness.

He's also written extensively on religion. His book The Rational Bible is the first volume of his five volume commentary on the first five books of the Bible, rooted in his knowledge of Biblical Hebrew. I mean, the guy has just done so much, has so much wisdom to give us. So it's truly an honor to have him on the show. We're going to talk about a whole host of things, the decline of society that we're seeing, the decline of religion, the decline of the American family, and we're also going

to talk about what can we do about it? How can we right the ship, how can we change the trajectory that we were on as a nation. So who better to get into some of these really deep questions, really deep thinking than Dennis Brager, Right, So it's an honor. I hope you love this. Here's Dennis Bragger. So, Mr Prager, it's such an honor to have you on the show. You know, this is a tough industry of the media business. You've been such a prominent voice for so long, and

conservative media, which is really a testament to you. And and you know, there's a lot going on in the country right now, so I'm really looking forward to getting your insight on just the current state of affairs for the country. So it's an honor of a deep amount of respect for you, my pleasure. Thank you for that. Thank you so sir. You were born in Brooklyn, New York. You've also you know, you've posted your radio show out

of Los Angeles for for quite some time. We've seen these cities and cities across America really in a decline right now. I mean, the country seems to just be in a societal decline. Why is that? Why why are we in such a decline right now? I actually think I have an answer, and it's not the one that even most conservatives offer. Some do, and it's certainly one

that the entire left would reject. When your country is founded on a couple of principles, or two or three principles, and those principles are then demolished or on the way to being demolished, it's not possible for the society to maintain itself. We have three principles. I didn't make them up there on every coin, So it's a pretty old standing,

the statement of what America stands for. And on every coin and every bank note, you have what I call the American trinity, and they are liberty, de pluribus um for many one, and in God we trust. And the elites, run by what we now call progressives or the woke or the left, have made war on all three. They have wants a radically secularized society. They that's so getting would have been called we trust. Liberty has never been

a left wing value. Equality they claim to be a much more important value, or now equity, which is very dangerous. And they don't believe in eplur brazoonum from many one. They believe from many many that the idea that everyone should have an American identity strikes them as neo fascistic. So, uh, how do you survive when the three primary values of

your society are being demolished? Well, and we've seen those come under attack, you know, particularly when you look at liberty during COVID, And I know, you know, look, I've always loved this country, I've always valued this country. But I don't really think I realize how fleeting freedom truly is until COVID and we really saw how susceptible we are at to tyranny as a nation, how how many people are willing to go along with it as well.

You know, why do you think we reacted so rationally as a country And what did that show you about how fleeting freedom is in America? Well, least of the experience you have had is one that I have had. The last two years have been very sobering for me. I've been in love with this country all of my life, and frankly, I would not have predicted the amount of irrational obedience to irrational law on the part of at

least half of my fellow countrymen. It has been that has been disappointing, the the collapse of virtually every national institution, from the American Medical Association to the FBI. Fifty one fifty one leaders of FBI, CIA and other intelligence agencies signed a letter a month before the election saying that the Biden laptop was Russian disinformation. So you realize the other and total corruption of all of our intelligence agencies. Again,

you wouldn't have predicted this. I wouldn't have you named the institution. American Medical Association announced a couple of years ago that we should not put the sex of a child what it is born on its birth certificate, because the child will determine one day what sex they are or what genders that they now use the term. So I share your sadness and what has developed? Why did

it happen? Well, you said it in your question, and Reagan put it beautifully when he was president that liberty is a fragile thing and we our own one generation in any time away from getting rid of it. I would add this, liberty is not the most fundamental human yearning. More people want free things than freedom. That's human nature. Human nature is to yearn for free things, not freedom.

And that's that's what the left. That's the reason the left isn't it has been in power in so many countries, most countries at some point in the last hundred years. People rather have free things than be free. Well, you know, we're talking about liberty being under attack as we as we saw throughout COVID. You also talked about the pillars of society being knocked down, and I totally agree with you. You know, everything that holds up a civilized society is

being burnt to the ground right now. Why does so many people that live in America have such disdain for this great country. It's a combination of of two huge things, affluence and secularism. They produce board people. The poor people are not bored. Their life is filled with meaning, and the meaning is get lunch, get dinner, get breakfast, feature family, put a roof over your head. So the poor don't have a problem, oh with meaning. And the religious poor

or wealthy don't have a problem with meaning. They get it from their religion. When you take away poverty and you take away religion, people have to find meaning elsewhere. And the left in this country has filled the vacuum left by the death of Judeo Christian and patriotic values. They used to be a superman. It used to be a proud American superman has renounced his American citizenship, being

now a citizen of the world. And they have dropped truth justice and the American way to truth, justice and the better way. So there's nothing American about superman anymore. So you have this massive whole left by the collapse of Strudeo Christian religions and the massive affluence that boredom, that yearning for meat meaning has been filled by what we call progressivism. Well, that progressive ism seems to always lead to division as well, and intentional division. And we

saw that during COVID. I know you had talked about being unvaccinated. I am as well. I chose not to because it didn't make sense to me, and I was looking at the data. I'm young and healthy, it made no sense. I was also looking at the fact that wasn't much deadlier than the flu. So why am I going to get a vaccine that I don't need for

a virus that's not a threat to me? Uh? You know, but what we saw unvaccinated really being treated as a persecuted group, and you know, threats of not wanting people like me to be able to go to the grocery store, to make our lives as difficult as possible. And I think that's sort of like hatred. Really made me concerned for the future and what things could be possible and the treatment of our own citizens as we continue to

go down this path as a country. The parallel that I drew about half year ago in a column, I was the pariah status at some point of days with age, and I said, this is uh, we have now seen this happen to a far larger number of Americans the unvaccinated. For the left went ballistic that I would dare compare anybody to h to gay victims because Kay's blacks and women are supposed to have a monopoly on all victims status.

There are no other victims. But the fact is the hatred of the unvaccinated, the wish the wishes expressed publicly publicly that they die of COVID, the talk about banning them from all travel, which, by the way, it did happen in Canada. In Canada, the unvaccinated could not enter an airplane or a train or a bus. What Canada did? I wrote a column on that to Canada is the new the new North American Cuba. You know, nobody cares about it, which is really sad to see. So, uh,

that's right, the unvaccinated. I don't know who the next pariah will be, but it may well be again over health quick break back with a great Dennis Brigger on the other side. So was the hatred towards the unvaccinated? Was it about the vaccine or was it about the fact that unvaccinated people refused to submit to their will? Both? Yeah, it was. They didn't read anything about the science. They read nothing. Uh, and and so the obedience, this was

the frightening part. It was, That's what I said, obedience to irrational authority. The fact that parents would give young children a vaccine. Uh. Of course they didn't want to deliberately hurt their child, but the chance that they would hurt their child was much greater than the chance that they would help their child. What was done by that side of the American public, shutting down schools for two years, putting two year olds on masks, on planes and an airport.

I mean, the the abuse of children, the hurting of children deliberately. Now wasn't deliberate in the sense that we want to hurt children, but what they did was obviously deliberate. They just they just thought they were helping. But the irrationality of it more. I mean, this is this is from the Washington Post. A few weeks ago, more Americans in under the age of six died of suicide than

of COVID. That's a product of your progressive totalitarians and the half of the country that went along with them. It's it's actually a very very scary thing that we have gone through and will probably do so again. That is why it is so important to alarm people at their obedience to authority without question. I mean, we we. I wrote another column in a year ago, in the middle of the worst lockdowns, I wrote, I wrote a column a week. One week it was the Good German,

in the next week the good American. I'm a Jew, and I've I've written about a book about anti Semitism, and I studied the Holocaust my whole life. There's a there's a common reference called the good German, the guy who didn't do anything bad to a Jew in Germany, but who did nothing. And that good German was a sarcastic term held holding the quiet German and contempt. But of course I'm not comparing what happened. There's no comparison

to the Holocaust. But there is a comparison to obedience to irrational authority, and and the the hatred of the ones that didn't submit to irrational authority. And when I see the fear that dominated Americans here without a Gestapo, I mean, at least the good German had the had the fear, the legitimate fear of being picked up by the Gestapo. But there was no Gestapo here, and people feared Facebook and the New York Times and what their

neighbors would say, and they were obedient to authority. And again that the squashing of children's lives. This is this is a very bad, bad moment in our history, and we have not recovered from it. But it seems you know, you talked about the treatment of children and how they were really punished the most during COVID, but it's not isolated. We increasingly, you know, you look at the left, they support abortion basically up until you know, the day of birth,

and maybe even beyond it in some instances. But you have a party that believes and that even party that wants to indoctrinate young children, tell them that they should derive value from the color of their skin, things that they were not that they were born with it they had no control over. Uh, look at what's happening in schools with sort of a lot of this transagenda that's being pushed on children as well. I mean, what does it say about a society that doesn't protect its most vulnerable?

That's right? What do you say, that's exactly right? You say that the society has become sick. And I'll tell you what's even sicker. Another another revelation in my life. I thought most of my revelations had already occurred, and that is I had always, truly, always taken for granted that it is instinctive in women to protect child's children's innocence, and that that belief is has been a jettison. The women are overwhelmingly disproportionately involved in robbing children of innocence.

The teachers, the teachers, unions, the principles, the professors of gender studies overwhelmingly their female and they are in the vanguard of doing something for the first time I don't know in Western history, very possibly, but certainly American history deliberately robbing children of their sexual innocence. It's there's a sickness that pervades our society. And only God knows the future. I only know. I don't know the future. I'm neither

optimistic nor pessimistic. I find both of them useless. I only know that I have to fight them now. It does seem like an evilness has sort of overtaken the country and it's just become much more perverse. Uh. You know, COVID really seemed to brought out inner demons and a lot of people in America. And you know, I know you've referenced this, but you've spent a lot of time

studying religion. You've lectured at the Hebrew or that you've lectured on the Hebrew Bible at the American Jewish University, have written numerous books on religion as well. The American Enterprise and She recently published a survey finding that more than one third of Generation Z identify as religiously unaffiliated, unaffiliated the least religious. Yet, why are we losing religion

as a society? Like what's behind that? The left understands that the only unified opposition to the left is religion. The the Soviets understood this. That's why they they squashed and murdered so many Orthodox priests, so many rabbis, so many Catholic priests. But but especially May don't really May have many Catholics in Russia, says, mostly the Orthodox priests. They I've understood this. The Chinese understand this with regard

to Christianity, and the Soviets understood this. Soldier NEETs, in the greatest single critic was of course a religious Christian. The Jews in the Soviet Union were a big nemesis the Muslims and the Soviet Union, who are a big nemesis. If it's sort of either either the Judeo Christian religions, Protestantism, Catholicism, Mormonism, Judaism, either they will prevail or the left will prevails. It's truly a a death fight of finding to the death one of them will prevail. And they have taken over

the institutions. Not only have they taken over education and were there profoundly anti religious, radically secular agenda, they have also taken over a good chunk of Judaism and Christianity. They look at the Pope and Catholicism, look at the mainstream Protestant churches, and look at non orthodox Judaism. They have been taken all the can over buy the left.

They're all failing, they're all alienating people from them. And it's no wonder then, Also, I must be honest, it is also the failure of religious people who did not know how to make the case for a religious life. Most religious people, I think are wonderful people, but they have no clue how to make the intellectual case against the left and against the anti religious forces that are

part of the Left. So the kids here these arguments at school that the God has nonsense and religion is actually worse than nonsense, it's dangerous, and the parents had no idea how to counter these arguments. That's why I do so much work, especially in my Bible commentary, the Rational Bible, the third volumes coming out this here, and I I'm doing this to give people the intellectual ammunition

for the greatness of the Bible. Well. And it also seems to be an effort by the left to remove anything that gives someone value in their life, that roots them to something more meaningful. And you know, it's attack on religion, it's the attack on the family unit. It's taking away from people that bring value to life, that that roots you in life. And I believe the reason is because people that don't have religion, as you pointed out, people that don't have a strong family, you know, they're

more easily controlled because they're not rooted in anything. They don't believe in anything deeper. I was at the Democratic National Convention when they made that the famous and fascinating claim over the loudspeakers. Government is the only thing that all Americans have in common. The this country was found to have a small government so that the individual is infinitely precious. For the left, it is the us that the government is precious, the individual as a cog in

the machinery of the government. I I contended on my show after this horrible massacre at the Texas school that a big part of the gun issue is exactly about this. The left really does believe only the government should have arms, and the that that underlying the passions is really the the fundamental difference is the individual strong or the state. The individual that has arms is strong. The individual with no arms and the government has all the armaments that

then the government is strong. They believe in the state. But as I point out, and has never pointed out at college or high school or elementary school, never pointed out this is revelatory to a typical college student, the mother of all genocide is big government. There's no such thing as genociah government. With one exception Rwanda, that was ethnic genocide done by tribe against tribe. But otherwise the hundred million people massacred, I'm not talking about combatants, I'm

talking about noncombatants. In the twentieth century, everyone was the victim of big government and almost in every case left wing big government. But this was the exception of Hitler and and the Turkish murder of the of the Armenians that was religious. So they this is what it is about. Brussels should be dominant. That's why they hate Brexit, That's why they hate Hungary. Any country that defies Brussels rule, defies big government. Ultimately, they would like the big government

be an international government. That's what Davos is about. It's what Brustles is about. So this is the stuff that they that they want, and we are stopping them. I mean, look, I've never owned a gun in my life, but I support the Second Amendment because I understand that it protects

us from government tyranny. And when you look at communism when it takes over, authoritarians when they take over, and I know you as someone who understands is a deep understanding of history, the first two things to go are a freedom of spreech speech and guns, because it makes it a lot, a heck of a lot easier to control a society when you control the flow of information

and you disarm a population. It's so irrational. The hatred of individuals being armed that I said years ago on on Fard Ball, the show that they used to have on MSNBC in days when they actually would have a conservative on. And I don't know why why it was raised with me, but I said, and I was devoted much of my life to fighting anti Semitism. I have

a book on anti Semitism. I was on the Holocaust Museum board of directors and I said I wish every Jew in Europe had been armed, and the they went ballistic. They almost threw me off the show. I mean, it was really, it was incredible, the hatred of what I had to say, As if it's a bizarre notion. It wouldn't have been a blessing if every Jew. I don't say that they wouldn't have been mass murders of Jews.

I thought there wouldn't have been six million. And not only that, it would have given Jews the dignity of dying while fighting instead of the indignity of walking naked into a gas chamber or being buried naked in mass shootings. I mean to say that it wouldn't have been a great thing if every Jew had a gun in Europe. You know how sick that person must be to save that. And there are a lot of Jews who say that because leftism has poisoned their minds too. A lot of

Jews are anti Israel. I mean, leftism is a poison. It corrupts the conscience, it corrupts the ability to think clearly, men give birth. You've gotta be kidding. I mean, it really is just you know, I'm thirty seven and I feel like I'm like ninety years old now looking at society and just some of the things that we're saying. You know, Netflix having a special He's expecting just people

believing things that defy logic, that defy reason. It's the entire reason I name the show you Know the Truth with Lisa Booth, and the whole point of the show is trying to get to the truth of these critical issues that are facing the country. But it's just h I mean, there is a there is a Democrat witness. I'm sure you saw, sir h came in front of the how a Judiciary committee recently saying that men can give birth. It's just it's just what it's called that

that's right. And and what about the Supreme Court justice just put on the Supreme Court who couldn't define woman? Let biologists do it, which by by irony, we agree let biologists that they're the ones who should define it. The left doesn't believe that it's a sociological term, not a biological term, male or female. We've got to take a quick commercial break and then more with Dennis Prager.

At least it seems like it has changed in my lifetime, and most recently is we are so willing as a society to just push things that are demonstrably false, that are disprovably false, like men can give birth, and society goes along with it, like why and how does that happen? It just it just defies all logic, defies all common sense. It's insanity, the power of repetition. Another sad revelation of the last few years I studied. My field of study

and graduate school at Columbia was communism. I learned Russian and went to communist countries repeatedly, and I all of my life I thought that only in a dictatorship, in an authoritarian regime can the media brainwash the population. And I have had to modify that. We live in a relatively free society and the media and schools have effectively

brainwashed people. I was on Bill Marshaw, your listeners can actually watch this on YouTube win viral ironically to two and a half years after I was on was on too and a half years ago, right before COVID, and this has gone viral. People started posting the video. Will mar said to me that Donald Trump is a liar and so on, and I said, it's not comparable to left wing lies. He said, like what he said, like American systemically racist, that's a big lie. And like men menstruate,

the left says men menstruate. And people you aye listening to you can watch this Bill Moore and it's all his panel and the entire audience laughed at me, I mean, just couldn't stop laughing at me for making up such an idiocy that the left says men menstruate. And he said, where'd you hear that? Dennis, where'd you pick that one up? And now you can't even say that men don't menstruate. So look at how fast what people laughed at two and a half years ago is now widely accepted as

a truth two and a half years later. That is how fast people can be brainwashed by the media and by school. How do we save this country? Well, we save it by fighting back. First of all, if every conservative got out of a closet, most are in the closet. And I'm not blaming them. I'm just stating a fact. People are afraid of losing their jobs, losing their children, losing their their careers, losing their their friends, losing their reputation. That the people are afraid because the left does all

of those things. I mean a lot of kids don't speak to parents who are on the right. Give you an idea of how scummy left is s are that they won't talk to a parent because the parent is conservative. We don't have the opposite. How many how many conservative adult children don't talk to a left wing parent? It's probably most zero. There's the left makes you're scumming your human being. People got to get out of the closet to answer your question, and it is painful, but you

get rewarded. Are you sleep better? Be you help your country? And see you will make new friends who are are much more important to have, mainly kindred spirits. So the first thing is to get out of the closet. Second is to help the fighters and prayer youth. For example, my Prayer University, which has a billion views a year and the under the age of thirty. And we're not alone. We're fighting TPUSA, fighting daily wires, fighting a lot of

fantastic websites. Uh, there are a lot of wonderful groups. So if you if you're not a fighter by nature, help the fighters, because helping fighters is as important as fighting. As we see with helping Ukrainians. You've gotta you've gotta help the fighters. So that's what everybody has to do. Otherwise we will lose the greatest experiment in liberty and human history. And there was no guarantee at all it

will be resurrected. It also has a domino effect as well, because I know, you know, I made a big stance on not getting the vaccine. I wrote a call him a newsweek about it, articulating why, because I felt like there's this idea in the media that somehow people who are unvaccinated were roubes and having given it thought and you know, can't really articulate why, and so I wrote my best effort, you know, assisting to piece explaining why

and pointing to a bunch of data, well research. But the reason I did was because I was seeing people, even athletes like Jonathan Isaac of Orlando Magic and you know Kyrie Irving of the Nets come out and explain why they were getting vaccinated. And so I was thinking to myself, as someone who works in the media, you know, how dare I sit back and not do something about this or not speak out when you have so many people potentially losing their jobs or losing their job over

the issue. And so, you know, I do think that it has a domino effect when you do speak out, other people see that, just as I saw you know, people before me speak out. Yeah, that is exactly right. There were domino effects in both directions. People who do bad or copycat and people who do good or copycaton you know, someone who has covered you know, just been in the media for for a long time, a lot

of research, a lot of history. What should people know about this point we're in as a country that you think maybe is getting missed and all of this. They're missing a lot of things that they're missing. That the that the basic values of the country are under great attack. Liberty and God, we trust the plura the sooner like

I gave that as the example. They're missing the fact that what they take for granted may be lost very rapidly, mainly liberty, although clearly half the country doesn't really care much about liberty. They prefer things to freedom, So they're they're they're missing even on the deepest level. They're missing how great this country is and has been, because the left has has taught them that the country is a scummy place and has always been one. These people are evil.

I mean, I don't know what else to say. Uh People, people who crap on good are bad people. And this country has been essentially good only but only if you compare it to other countries, if you compare it as left wing children. And they're all children, as they children compare their parents to perfect people, and then they find them lacking. Then they grow up and they realize that

their parents aren't normal or even better than normal. These are children who who who don't understand how good America is because they don't compare it to other countries. As I said, they compare it to some imagine of John Lennon. They imagine this world. That's the left. The left romanticizes the future, and that is that is its source of utopian dystopia. Sir, it's been an honor to have you on the show. Is there anything else you want to

leave my audience with before we go? Well, as self serving as it sounds, but I have to say, nobody writes Bible commentaries to get wealthy. Uh. I would. If people do believe that the case has not been effectively made for why God and Biblical values today a Christian values are the answer, they should read my Rational Bible series. It's the best selling Bible commentary and American to aid Genesis and Exodus. A ount Deuteronomy is coming out later

in the year. I always feel self conscious about doing this, but as I said, you know, Deuteronomy commentaries generally don't don't let you buy a second house. But I I tell you without without those values. Look, Lincoln didn't go to church, but he had a Bible on his nightstand. Every founder was Bible centered, even Franklin and Jefferson, who were not doctrinal Christians, but they were Bible centered. The ignorance of that book is a big problem for this society. Sir,

thank you so much for joining me. It's been an honor. I truly appreciate your time. It's been my honor. Thank you, Lisia. It was such an honor to have Dennis Kraeger on the show and to impart such wisdom on all of us. I know I learned a lot from him. I hope you did as well. And I want to thank you for listening to the show. I truly appreciate it greatly appreciate any effort to share it with your friends, post on social media, leave us a review on Apple Podcasts,

give us a rating as well. I want to thank my producer, John Cassio for putting the show together. Thanks so much, guys, and continue to check the show out every Monday and every Thursday. Take care