Fireside Chat Ep. 116 — Anne Frank & Media Smears | Fireside Chat

hi everybody dennis prager and this is the fireside chat every week of the year it's amazing because I travel a lot but we're we're very dedicated to this thanks for being with me I'm in my home that's Otto needless to say he can introduce me by now because he's so well known and let's see the usual my fire my dog my my study and it's completely unscripted it's just a chance to offer some thought spontaneously and take your questions so why am I sitting with this two big media things took place in this past week one in Newsweek which is well not here or there I'll talk about in a moment and the other is the New York Times I'll start with the New York Times the New York Times on Sunday on the biggest edition it publishes has a front page huge front page article starts on the front page on Prager you and there it is front page and there's the article with the somewhat condescending headline it's Fox it's a Fox News for teenagers in short videos that was the way the New York Times could put us down in the headline because there's no reference to Fox and it was what's in the entire article or anything or anything analogous but that's what they decided it's very different by the way from the internet headline which was what do you remember what the internet headline is it does anyway it's just different be that as it may look at how big the article is I mean it takes an entire giant page of the New York Times with pictures of Praeger you folks and you know what am I gonna say to be perfectly honest with you it was it was it was certainly helpful to a pretty you this is the fourth gigantic I mean really as you see gigantic article on Prager you on a a left wing or a left-of-center source buzzfeed Mother Jones front-page LA Times and front page New York Times and they they try they don't they're not happy with how influential we have become in the lives of so many people but there's there's nothing they could say because we're very sophisticated it's a very sophisticated operation it's on a very high intellectual and moral level that's my intent it's the intent of all of the 50 people who work there it's the intent of the board of directors these are wonderful people we even if you look you can't find anything quote-unquote hateful or anything like that so they write what they write and my favorite line I think I think my favorite line I have more oh I think I'm more or less memorized that was Prager you something to this effect Prager you circumvents or tries to circumvent brick-and-mortar universities and parents with its message which is such an odd state what does it mean circumvent what should we do ask parents for permission to put out a video ask ask the University of Michigan can we put out the yeah it's such a bizarre lie but there are a few bizarre lines like that where the attempt is to try to show something in a darker light then then a reality would dictate but uh I I don't believe that the writer set out I met her and I said to my colleagues at the Praeger you I don't think she set out to write a hit piece on us I want to be very fair I think that New York Times would have liked to but the reporter I don't think wanted to the New York Times did report on me about two years before and they they did it was it was a sort of hit piece and I know to do with Praeger you just have to deal with me and the so-called controversy of my conducting the Santa Monica Symphony Orchestra at the Disney Concert Hall but I don't I'm gonna get into that now it's it's actually worthy of mentioning another time but not not important anyway that's that's what it is you could read the article obviously go to the New York Times and and just read I'm sure we put up a link to it right at prettier you I'm sure we have and it I'll tell you what's interesting there's something much more interesting to me than the article what's interesting about the article is that the New York Times thought that we deserve front-page reporting at such great lengths and couldn't find anything negative to say and I mean that's that's what's interesting but the most interesting is to read the comments on the internet on the New York Times page where there are comments on articles I read all eight hundred plus I took me about five hours to go through all of them and I did and I on my radio show I have been reading a lot of them not all of them or they would take me a week but I've been reading selected ones the the most common comment is well this is right-wing hate they not one not one in 800 now not all 800 said that but not one in the 800 gave one example of right-wing hate or any hate they would just say it because they're programmed to believe that if you are not on the Left we'll just call you a hater that's it's like it's they're programmed I mean it since it's depressing that was depressing not the article the depressing is the comments of New York Times readers about the article I mean these are people I would assume 98% of whom went to college which is probably why they don't think clearly and I don't mean that as a cute line I really do I don't believe college teachers you were think clearly it teaches you to rip to memorize responses to things you differ with Oh sick syrup sexist intolerant xenophobic homophobic Islamophobic races bigoted and of course hater and now transphobic there's a new phobia every couple of years that's that's you ought to take a look at that maybe I'll write an article on the comments I think I will because that's that's truly instructive the stuff that people write but but a minority but a fair number wrote well why don't you give us an example they would write as a comment on the comment gee you know an honest question not even people who know us but you know I don't I don't know prettier you just but I everybody who keeps writing this but I don't hear one example of a lie Oh cuz a lie is propaganda give us an example we don't lie do I say that every single thing is is incontrovertible I mean it's very very few things other than you know two plus two equals four is incontrovertible but God knows we never lie I mean it's it's actually wrongful and I think you and I think people left the answer to God if they lie that's one of the reasons were effective I mean when you think of the people this is what what isn't noted think of the people who have made Prager you videos if I would write a response to some of these I'd say do you really believe Bret Stevens of the New York Times anti-trump bread spread Stevens he lied for Prager you George will anti-trump Pulitzer Prize winner they're both Pulitzer Prize winners he's made a number of videos for us that he'll I would he would either of these guys make a video for a lying propaganda website what would with four Prime Minister's we have four Prime Minister's who've made videos or three prime ministers and four Pulitzer Prize winners that's that's that's actually the correct number I mean these people have dignity Jordan Peterson one of the most honorable human beings I've ever had the the honor of meeting he's done videos for us or a video for us I don't know how many well would he would he associate or all of these wonderful people they've Ruben van Shapiro I mean there are so many extraordinary people I'm you know I'm afraid to name any because I don't want to insult the ones I don't name but but you know we have 400 videos I can't I can't name everybody that's that's what they would have to answer the last Prime Minister of Canada Stephen Harper made a video for us you think he'd associated with with a with a propaganda mill relying site who else was the prime minister of Spain the Prime Minister I think was it of Norway I don't remember or Denmark it's they don't know how to argue on the left they only know how to smear which brings me to the other perfect segue to the other item look at this headline Newsweek from Newsweek conservative radio host ridicules and Frank I don't get my wisdom from teenagers I need I need women those pagers actually that's me this is this I have to say is the most despicable headline I have seen in mainstream media as pure undiluted lie it's in fact a libel but I'm not suing them I could but I'm not my column is about them this week you can read it and I have a column every week I hope you would all read it it's easy find space Don townhall.com but it's all over the Internet and it's a Dennis Prager comm and it is about this you have to understand charging me with ridiculing Anne Frank is is so low is so vile I've devoted so much of my life to the welfare of the Jewish people I was a board member on the board of directors of the Holocaust us Holocaust Museum you know I it's it's actually bizarre it's so it's so bad it's it's in the realm of the bizarre so how did this this guy who who should be should be fired in my opinion but I'm not calling from three-five they just Newsweek's to just apologize on his behalf he won't benjamin Fernau or fear now f.e.a.r and Oh w-who is not not an impressive human being so how did I how did he come up with the idea that I ridiculed and Frank so it was on this watching a fireside chat I was asked in fact I'll give it a minute I'm gonna give it to you exactly as it was said you could of course watch it so I got a question from Sam and Meridian oh hi Idaho on your most recent fireside chat you said that people are not basically good this is the question we've heard you discuss this topic before and Frank is quoted as saying despite everything I believe that people are really good at heart how do you respond to her quote so this is a word-for-word transcription I'm just going to add a bracketed words to make it clear but this is what I said she wrote that in her diary the most famous Holocaust document she was a teenage girl a Dutch Jewish girl who hid with her family until they were trade by someone to the Nazis who then shipped them to death camps and she died murdered by the Nazis in the death camps she was about 16 years old maybe 15 her diary is very famous it gives a face to the horror of the Holocaust so far does it sound like I'm ridiculing Anne Frank or am i saying how tragic and great she is I continued I know she wrote that and my answer is it doesn't matter that she wrote it I don't get my wisdom from teenagers that she was a wonderful young woman and wrote an unbelievably powerful document that will last forever is beside the point I don't expect sixteen year olds unless they grew up in a religious Jewish or Christian home where it is taught as a basic religious doctrine that people are not born basically good she was a secular Jew most kids believe that people are basically good but it isn't true so it has never been an issue for me will you disagree with Anne Frank so what and by the way to be very serious for a moment I would be very curious I've thought about this a lot if I were to be able to visit Anne Frank while in a concentration camp which she still have believed that we don't know i ridiculed and frank you have no idea how many left-wing sites now have Prager ridicules Anne Frank because truth is not a left-wing value it's a liberal value it's a conservative value but it's not a left-wing value this is one of the most repeated phrases of my life truth is not a left-wing value that's why all these are people are writing in The New York Times could say we lie and we're this and were that they make it up they make it all up and this this is a this is he made it up I didn't ridicule I just read to you you could watch it I can't change it it's out there in the fireside chat when i when i spoke about this to say that you don't get wisdom from from a teenagers is not to ridicule teenagers nobody got wisdom for me when i was 16 i didn't expect them to fact i would have thought the world was upside down if adults came to me for wisdom and i didn't go to them for wisdom i would have been a little horrified that things are not in imbalanced in life there isn't a there is an any human being I've ever met who doesn't believe they have more wisdom than they did when they were teenager including I suspect this guy who although he may not have more wisdom than when he was a teenager by the way I do believe that there are a lot on the left who don't have any more wisdom than when they were a teenager that's why they're so offended because they don't have more wisdom than when they were a teenager that's why they want to give the vote to 16 year olds why did why in American history was at 21 not not 18 not 16 because Americans correctly believed that you need a certain cutoff age obviously and it should be later not sooner because few people have wisdom under 21 let alone under 18 but but the Democratic Party in many states wants to give the vote to 16 year olds and and they're right from their perspective because they don't have more wisdom than sixteen year olds I truly believe that they don't they feel they don't think anyway where are you where you have to get wisdom now you can get wisdom from life if you are predisposed to wanting to be wise but not everybody is people will go through life and and not grow up I remember when I used to do I ran a a Institute for an educational institute for college-age kids for a number of years that's how it's when I first came out to California in my late 20s and early 30s and I would give them lectures and I would tell them listen at your age you think that at a certain age you automatically become an adult it's not true you become an adult when you decide to be an adult there are many 50 year olds who are children and more than ever by the way more than ever so this is uh this is this is a this is a vile thing you should tell Newsweek they should withdraw it or or or apologize we got a fight otherwise they got away with this stuff okey-dokey time for your questions all right and here we go our first video or our video question for today hi mr. Prager my name is charissa Griffiths I'm a member of the preggers boys here in moraine Ohio and I just wanted to know how would you go about addressing the homelessness crisis that's currently going on when our economy is at an all-time unemployment low because there's something clearly missing when you have a lot of people homeless and an economy where unemployment is very low the question is so good yes that's a very fair question why why if almost anyone who wants can get a job are so many people living on the street especially here in California where I live and I'm not going to get into specific policies right now it's a very long complex question however there the let's let's put it this way the major reason there are so many more homeless is not because of a lack of homes ok that's what the left will tell you because they always blame society for for what especially American society when American society may not in fact be to blame here why didn't they have more homeless in the past when people were much poorer why when I was a kid who it was it was unknown basically because they didn't let you live on the street it was as simple as that you were not allowed I don't know why it is allowed today because we have decided to have compassion I think it's false compassion but compassion / wisdom is a perfect example of where wisdom matters but why weren't there in the past there were more homes not because there were more homes most of these people men I don't know most I I don't know if we know a lot that has to be absolute truth on these matters many have mental problems I know this as a truth many have addiction problems that's that's a separate problem but society does not have to allow for people to live in the street that is something that society that a higher civilization doesn't allow for their sake and for others I think the collapse of the family in many instances is a factor the collapse of the family is is due to a values issue that has taken place in American life family is not nearly as valued as it was and I think it's a collapse of religion because our churches and synagogues so often played roles in these people's lives to help them out but vast numbers of people do not religiously affiliate there are so many issues involved and as I said mental illness my wife and I one night on a very cold night in Los Angeles that a number of years ago for whatever reason we were out late at night may be coming from a dinner I don't remember why but there was a homeless man it was it was it was a white middle-aged guy and I said I'll tell you what I'll give you I don't know how much five dollars which is more than he usually gets maybe ten dollars I don't know I said if if you let me ask you questions and in effect interview you not on a microphone just human-to-human said fine he was thrilled and and it basically turned out I said the you have really no place to live said no my sister will take me in any anytime I don't want I want to live here in the street and to us it sounds who would want to live in the street but a lot of them do I don't know why this man by the way was an addict and maybe it was just easier for him I don't know the answer I don't know I don't know what makes these people tick I do know that society has a right to say you cannot live in the street that I do know been 19 Hollywood Maryland how many states have a Hollywood I really do wonder I know Hollywood Florida Hollywood California now Hollywood Marilyn mr. Prager do you keep a diary and what are your thoughts on them I did keep a diary in high school and that's where I wrote when I wasn't writing about the girls I was interested in I was writing about what I was what I wanted to do with my life and my my thoughts about life I was I always cared about the big questions I was I was very atypical as a kid but I was very fun-loving I mean you know I had a lot of friends and so on but I might my mind was elsewhere and anyway I wrote there I know what I want to do with my life I still have that diary I want to influence people to the good and that's that's all I've done that's all I wanted to do and if it worked out it worked out and if it didn't work out I tried and I wish I had kept up a diary the rest of my life and I know why I didn't I'm lazy now I know that this might sound odd because I do get a lot done I admit that that's obvious but I I have to fight my inner desire to just play for example I love classical music I could watch concerts on the internet because it's a great way by the way to get into classical music is to watch these concerts that may hold your interest more than just listening in the beginning but I still love watching and I could just watch this stuff I have a great stereo system I could do my hobbies I have so many hobbies I could truly sleep late go to bed life completely irresponsible like with great ease but diary I just stopped because it's effortful unlike Alem estrin my my co-founder of Prager you who is the most discipline human being I know he writes a page every single day he has the page the day we met it's really fascinating met Dennis Prager dah dah dah dah dah I you know it's it's quite hee-hee under every circumstance he could jet lag nothing it doesn't matter he will keep a diary you should do that you will thank yourself later and by the way it doesn't have to be long right five lines if I could do it all over I don't have a lot of requests Gretz everybody has some regrets I don't know how you can live a life and have no regrets but that would be one of them thought oh well all good with mr. Rowe okay Eric fifteen Budapest by the way I'm speaking in Budapest they I'll put it up at dennis prager calm as soon as it's finalized where it'll be Erik 15 years old Budapest Hungary good day mr. Prager how would you challenge the leftist argument that the socialism that Bernie Sanders wants is not the same type of socialism that is used in Venezuela or the USSR thank you I am a big fan okay none of them start out with wanting Venezuela or the you assist so they just want bigger and bigger and bigger and bigger government which means that government controls more and more and more so you're less free and less free and less free that's the way it is you know we have a video all this thing well what about Scandinavia we have a video by a I think a Dane a major Danish thinker who says this is nonsense that were that were a socialist state Denmark is is a Denmark is a capitalist country you know that the in Sweden the Swedish taxes on corporations were way lower than America's taxes until Donald Trump lowered them so you know the Scandinavian example is not is not a good one I don't trust people with power you shouldn't either that's why the question are people basically good aside from God the existence of God the second most important question in determining how you look at life is do you believe people are basically good and the amount that comes out that is wrong from that belief is is astonishing you must understand that human nature is flawed doesn't I never said we're basically evil if we were just evil there would be no good in the world of course there's good but human nature must be disciplined must be fought okay most paths most fantasies people do not fantasize visiting the sick in a hospital right let's be honest so why would you trust flawed creatures with all that power that's why Lord Acton the British thinker and and and diplomat Lord Acton said the famous quote power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely that's just the way it works that's why democracy with all its flaws is the best form of government well really a republic is but we'll leave it at democracy and Churchill said democracy is the worst form of government except for all the others which is true that's why you don't want to give the founders of the United States who would the ultimate truly brilliant oh you know whenever I talk about the founders it's an astonishing thing he's thinking right now Madison and Jefferson Adams is that right out oh yeah that's his way of affirming what we're just saying they were they were that they were geniuses these were gifted gifted human beings and they understood you have to put as men many checks on power as possible that's why Congress checks the president the president checks the Congress the court checks the President and Congress there's always checks that's why there's a an electoral college in America we they don't even they didn't even trust the majority so they wanted to give small states power in deciding who's president so that the the the biggest don't bully the littlest so this this you know Bernie said they all mean well Oh we'll take over the entire medical system in America and it'll only be better on what why would i don't believe that it's not it's not even possible you have to fix what is broken but you don't smash it they smash what isn't perfect that's what the left's view on and everything Florida's just get rid of it the Boy Scouts beautiful art we'll just a religion oh it's got flaws arena what are you going to substitute for Christianity and Judaism in the West what are you going to substitute so justice that's what they've done it's exactly right as our time okay that internal clock by the way I got a Hungary story and then we'll go since you're from Hungary Erick so my first time in Hungary because I might my my field of study was communist countries so I went to the Soviet Union and East Europe a lot and Hungary was at the time under communist rule jános kádár I'm sure it's a name you'll know and my first time in Hungary this is what happened I took a I took a hydrofoil fast boat on the Danube from Vienna to Budapest and when I got on the boat I needed to go to the bathroom and I figured all just you use the bathroom on the boat but for whatever reason I guess because it's a quick trip they didn't have one or at least that's what I recall otherwise I would have used it so I got to a budapest in in some pain needing to relieve myself but I had to go through communist customs they open up all your luggage see if you're bringing any Western magazines in and they would take it away check everything so I'm in real pain when I'm finally when I finally got through communist customs in Budapest I walk out onto the street and I don't thank God oh I see on an island in a big highway on a you know land a little land between the two directions of cars WC I think thank you God at least that's international it stands obviously for men's room ladies room WC is a water closet so anyway I go there and I see two doors and over one door it says knock and over the other door it says for fiak and I look for you Oh like an outline of a man an outline of a woman nothing an umbrella and a skirt nothing the international symbol of male female nothingjust nook and fur fiak I don't know if I Menaka refer fear and I know a lot of languages but Hungarian you know it's related to finish but only a long time ago there's nothing related to Hungarian so what do I do I stand in the middle of the street and as people walk by I go excuse me nook surf yak so this six foot four American kid is asking Hungarians if he's a man or a woman so some of them actually got scared they thought I was a lunatic meantime I'm in terrible pain and Hungarians think I'm a lunatic this was not a good good moment for me so finally I go I'm not gonna get an answer nobody isn't gonna get to tell me so I mean what would you do if somebody said hello am i a man or a woman you know well maybe today well today would be particularly confusing so I've just figured look I got a 50-50 chance furphy axe ounds like female i'll walk into nook and i was wrong and some women start yelling at me and that's the first two words I learned in Hungarian and I clearly have not forgotten them so whatever I meet a Hungarian I tell them the story I'm sure you get a kick out of it Eric so kissing them say pen which I do also know thank you very much to all of you thank you and I'll see you next week thank you for watching if you'd like to keep these fireside chats free please do by donating to Prager you