Fireside Chat with Dennis Prager: Ep. 50 | Fireside Chat

hi everybody welcome to my home I'm Dennis Prager the Prager University and other arenas of life this is my fireside chat just about every week from my home to yours or wherever you're watching me actually probably not watching me at home I don't know where people do watch this are you watching this on an airplane on a bus in a car hopefully in the passenger seat ah wherever you are it's good to be with you it's a real fire that one I'm talking about about this one but I want to talk to you about this one so we just got word from Facebook that they will not allow us to promote the fireside chat or at least the last one was not promoted as a result of some people apparently complaining or Facebook noting that I smoked a cigar during the event so I was thinking of a lot about this and I really want to talk to you specially if you're a young person it I have mentioned this I think in the past the America that I grew up it is so different then the America that you are growing up in and the area I'm thinking of is freedom there was so much more freedom the in the America that I grew up with now interestingly my parents say you'll say well maybe every generation says that not true the the my parents grew up in America and the America they grew up in was just as free or I should say the America I grew up in was just as free as the America my parents grew up in there was no change there were technical technological changes of course they did they didn't grow up with airplanes and I grew up with airplanes okay that's that's fair but everybody understands that technology changes generation after generation it's the diminution of freedom that is so utterly dramatic almost more than anything I mean when I think of of just about anything I'll give you an example at the age of I flew from Miami where my aunt my dear beloved and chippy who still with us and still in Miami and my dear beloved and chippy lived in in Miami Miami Beach and we lived in New York and so my parents would send me to visit my my aunt for weeks at a time I stayed that they didn't care if I miss school it's another example of freedom in third grade it did not eat it my parents that I might miss a month of school somehow they figured I might catch up with cease see a spot run which is probably what I was learning then I don't know when I learned that's how we learned how to read and we learned it very well you looked at a word you sounded it out was it phonetics I mean it actually works I can't think of a better way to work you sound out the letters voila that is a with anyway so my parents would send me down and I remember at 7-7 actually that's my seven not yours I think that should be your seven at the age of seven I flew home alone from Miami to New York alone it was a non-issue nobody had to sign any papers I didn't get charged the fee I didn't have to be greeted at the at the airport officially they didn't the stewardess didn't have to excuse me flight attendant we called them stewardesses then a flight attendant didn't have to walk me off and nobody got kidnapped that amazing nothing happened kids could fly on their own and that's what I did one second was that my phone that's always embarrassing I always have it on I don't understand how that happened it's on vibrate so it can't be my phone oh it's the question I knew it wasn't it was not me I want you to know so anyway so I went I flew from Miami to New York it's a very it's it's a it's a family traditional story now it's it's it's entered the realm of sort of legend but it's true so not only did I fly alone and nobody gave a hoot I flew alone and my parents arrived the airport late which never once I remember I remembered the story is one of my earliest memories and they came late and I didn't I didn't care it never struck me as oh my parents don't love me or what will happen to me my parents are not there to greet me so I went to the luggage I got my own luggage and here's the family lore the family story so they saw what-what just as they walked in they saw me tipping a skycap whom I had asked to take my luggage I am so proud of that story I mean I've done hopefully many things I'm proud of but there's nothing I'm more proud of that I tipped the guy at 7 that's important is an important thing and then they walked it and I said hi and everybody went home there was a non issue that I flew alone you understand it was a non-issue we we were allowed to do that the assumption was your parents knew what they were doing if they allowed you to fly alone nobody was kidnapping you can you tell me the last time an American child was kidnapped at an airport has it ever happened maybe it has ever happened but maybe because somebody arranged it it does it doesn't it doesn't happen it's not a danger I flew my I have a dear beloved nephew you that I bring out to my wife and I bring out to our home from New Jersey every year and we've been doing this for a number of years now and it is astonishing the amount of paperwork and and that has to be filled out I believe at 15 at the age of 15 if you can't take care of yourself at 15 you are pathetic or disabled that's a separate issue I get that but he's not he's not disabled neither mentally nor physically the country is disabled because it and all of this why did I get to all of this I'm gonna come back to this the cigar the deprivation of freedoms in the name of safety not to mention the name of hate speech I mean you name it every arena is less free a 15 year old can't get on an airplane and and that's it you have to oh and the airlines it's a total gimmick with the airlines they know because of these idiotic laws they can then charge you at least $100 I mean a serious amount of money now it's okay for me $100 I am I am blessed I have a good income but for a lot of people $100 is not insignificant especially if the ticket is $200 that's that's a 50% increase on the ticket because the because it's a 15 year old child what if I don't want my fifteen year old to be taken care of what I actually think my 15 year old is an adult or it can be treated like an adult no doesn't matter so that's it just one it's just one is another one my mother would send me to what we used to call candy stores in Brooklyn New York well you know you buy newspapers and candy and paper and pens and you know it's just like anything you wanted basically a lot of magazines and news I said newspapers yeah so my mother was I remember my they're saying to me I may have been eight years old she said here's uh she gave me money get me get me some cigarettes so I bought my mother cigarettes today if somebody would sell an eight-year-old a pack of cigarettes the big they would they would be they'd be out of business they might be arrested I didn't want I didn't buy it for me and I can't even take I can't even take I couldn't take my kids are both older than 18 I couldn't take my kids with me where I would smoke a cigar in a cigar cigar lounge as they call it he couldn't even enter at 17 not enter now you'll all say not all but many will say oh well this is for the safety of the kid and secondhand smoke and third-hand smoke and forth and smoke and firsthand nonsense that's what it is I've talked to you about secondhand smoke you should see the British Medical Association's the bunking of the secondhand smoke myth all these 50,000 people the statistic and America dying of secondhand smoke please it's see there's always a reason to deprive people of freedom health is a reason to deprive people of freedom safety is a reason hate speech is a reason bad feelings bullying now I'm not for bullies being free to bully I am III hate bully I've always hated bullies I beat up bullies and got kicked out of school a lot for beating up boys I hate bullies I've spent my life fighting bullies but the bullies today are the people who are bullying us and to know freedom that's ironic that's the irony but it's always in the name of something good anti-bullying is a good thing but there's always there's always a deprivation of freedom in the name of something Noble freedom is always secondary truth and freedom are always secondary to some other wonderful concern so now back to the cigar so so Facebook does not allow a guy who's talking to people while smoking a cigar - to what is the word publicize is that it promote we can't promote it I'm talking to you about wonderful things in life but we can't promote it or we couldn't the last time record on smoking a cigar so they bought the nonsense first of all though cigars are not are not in the same danger universe a cigarette as it happens and by the way when when all of this crazy the hysteria over tobacco arose and I fully admit that cigarettes cigarettes in particular are dangerous facts are facts and my motto would life is first tell the truth then give your opinion that's a fact but this is not particularly dangerous at all because you don't inhale cigars you inhale cigarettes ninety-nine percent of Americans don't even know that this staggering difference between cigarettes and cigars but a tobacco tobacco but I wrote in it I wrote a long essay a long time ago there's something morally broken about a society that goes after tobacco and not alcohol how many how many kids are abused by by an adult who's just smoked a cigarette and I'm against cigarettes but let's be honest hmm zero right this tobacco ever caused anybody to lose their conscience and abuse a child as opposed to alcohol how many how many spouses and girlfriends have been beaten up after somebody got drunk after somebody drank alcohol but hey alcohol SHM alcohol it's no big deal tobacco that's the killer it's so sick cuz there's no moral upshot you if you hurt yourself you hurt yourself but you don't hurt others after tobacco you hurt others after alcohol anybody how many people are killed by smoking drivers as opposed to drinking drivers okay get my point and by the way to Facebook I got a question can any can do you folks not allow any movie from before 1970 to promote itself or for that matter after 1970 if somebody is smoking in it I'm just curious what's the difference between that and this how about Churchill the savior of Britain and perhaps Western civilization against the Nazis I smoked a cigar all day every day you know by the way there there is it one want one of the Churchill museums in London has actually photoshopped cigars out of Churchill's hand or Mount SiC I'm telling you you you you don't know how sick it is I do because I lived in a healthier America that's why and God was it freer just know my father my father I give you another example you know how many parents are visited by Child Protective Services or even have their children taken away if they allow them to walk on their own at the age of eight just take a walk oh this is I report this on my radio show regularly and I don't report all the cases every day I would report a case yes some some sick person reports oh I saw I just the other day I wish I had this story in front of me three kids the three kids together and and they were taken away from the parents that's child abuse done by the state it's one of the reasons I don't trust the state that's the difference between me they conservative and liberal in one sentence do you trust the state no I don't because I don't trust people with power period okay the less power they have the better generally some people need to have power police need to have power or there will be moral chaos there will be violence and criminality rampant we all understand that mmm right now I mean a lighter I forgot to bring a lighter to my somebody see you got a lighter so this is this is another example of the lesser lesser freedom that your generation has if you're a young person but you don't know it because you didn't grow up in the previous generation obviously so to you this is normal you know there were kids who even say oh I'm gonna call Child Protective Services on you when I was a kid parents were authorities not government it's a better world there's something more some parents terrible yes of course there's no guarantee of anything in life except taxes and debt that's not that's not original to me by the way I just I don't want to take credit for a grapevine it's a great line but it's not mine well anyway alright so I just like to know would they would Facebook allow the promoting of a film on Churchill like the middle he smoked all the time smoked cigars I am curious to I don't know the answer if I were sitting here and I had let's say a margarita would they not allow us to promo and if I was sipping at a margarita I don't happen to drink alcohol but not out of moral fervor but because I just don't enjoy it but let's say I did let's say or a wine glass of wine I don't know maybe the answer is yes they wouldn't allow it do you know you guys know maybe we don't know be an interesting question it's the the examples are legion about the deprivation of freedom alright I'm gonna go to your questions here let Facebook mellow that somehow you can handle it if you watch a guy smoking a cigar you you know you really you really even though you don't somehow or other it's not not high on your list of awful things the meanest that I can advocate here without a cigar I can tell people the whole time to be kind and beautiful which I try to do but I have a cigar alright York kissed you'll see boo alright Emily 26 per vine California do you think that calling someone a self-hating Jew is equivalent to the black community calling someone an Uncle Tom should the Jewish community avoid using the term self-hating Jew so it was not to legitimize the use of the term Uncle Tom okay well let me the second part is very easy one has nothing to do with the other if there was the uncle people who call blacks Uncle Tom blacks who called blacks Uncle Tom have net taken their lead from Jews who call some Jews self-hating Jews there's no there's no conjunction between the two there really are self-hating Jews I've never met a black who who devoted his life to hurting blacks but there have been very many Jews not many more than a few who have devoted their life for example there are many Jews who devote their lives to hurting Israel is there is there any black who is devoting his life to hurting a black African country I don't think there's one if there were you call him a self-hating black the people may call Uncle Tom's are people who want good for blacks but differ with left-wing positions on blacks so what they've done is the same thing with the word racist the left calls everybody every term they can because they have no intellectual basis for their arguments so what they do is let's say a black for example it's like larry elder larry elder who's one of the most brilliant humans i know is a black my colleague salem radio you can hear him many parts of the country you could hear him on the internet and you could read him and Larry's black and larry takes issue with the the phony arguments on beat that are so cold on behalf of blacks like it's a good thing to lower academic standards for black students it's just an insult to blacks that's how he looks at it he's insulted as a black that people would lower standards because of my skin color why is that he's called an Uncle Tom but he's in fact trying to help the black community as is Tom soul as is Walter Williams there are so many blacks and every black who isn't the left winger is called an Uncle Tom so it's a phony term it's it's like racist and xenophobic and all the other terms the Left uses to dismiss the decency of people they differ with but self-hating Jews really do exist I'm sorry to say can it be overused every term could be overused but in objective reality they exist okay Zack 29 Houston Texas Dennis my wife is recently out of the army and I am in the process of joining the Air Force thank you both once I am in I'd like to invest for our future what a smart investment decisions I can make in today's economic climate okay I am flattered that you would ask me but when God gave out abilities he gave me some but I when he gave out general abilities in other arenas I was not in line when it came to business investment I didn't even know the line was there so I didn't get much talent in that arena but my my immediate instinct based on just my immediate instinct you have to look further is in the course of my lifetime real estate has just been a consistent winner over over time everything is over time that matter stocks I've been to over time but you're going to take losses and you got to be able to sustain the losses waiting for the the market real estate or stock to ultimately but you're young enough that it shouldn't matter and I would invest in an apartment or a or a house and it's it's a very good it's good equity it's it's good for renting and it's good for a nest egg if you leave it okay Diego 19 in it very bad al dust nebbish Mena SH get iishe Brazil now if I pronounced that word right I'm a happy man 19 years old Diego I would like to know what do you think about the lack of respect that the world and especially young people are developing towards facts and history for example the disregard for sacrifices that have been made to ensure freedom exists well you're being taught by people who have a district for facts you know it so bad the left's the left's takeover of the universities means that facts don't matter and by the way they admitted like if they admit it even in the sciences where they the Prager University will have a video coming out in a few weeks by Heather McDonald one of the great they're writers of our time she writes for the unhappen Institute City Journal and Heather shows how more and more science department physics and other and other departments of science say getting the right all quote getting all the right answers or getting all the answers right unquote is not as important as diversity you hear that and the sciences of course the only thing that counts in science is getting the answers right not who gets the answers right getting the answers right so the example you gave of you know about people who sacrifice for freedom that that's that's another example but even in the science and it's a valid example how many people know about the American loss at 37,000 young men in Korea thirty-seven thousand to keep Korea free or at least the southern part of Korea free Debbie sixty-two Escondido California what is the best way to convince your Jewish child to marry a Jew well first let me explain to everybody almost everyone who is committed to their religion wants their child to be to marry someone committed to their religion and by the way that makes perfect sense the odds are with all the challenges in any marriage if a Catholic marries a Catholic if they're both believing Catholics it will help to me evangelical marries another Christian it will help if a Mormon marries a Mormon it will help so same thing with Jews it's just if a having religion in common is a big help because the children come how are you going to raise them we'll be baptized then we're we bar mitts for them I mean there are just endless questions what type of school will he send them to will we ever go to synagogue will we ever go to church if we go to church won't be a Catholic Church will it be a Mormon temple will it be a Protestant Church I mean these are these are questions that when you're in love you don't think about but eventually you have to confront with regard to what you specifically I've never quite understood the argument of an of an non-religious Jewish parent that their child should marry a Jew if they don't share Judaism what do they share ethnicity do you think Hispanics all have to marry Hispanics Latinos all have to marry Latinos or or blacks all have to marry blacks I'm a bet you don't think that way so I've always wondered why a secular Jew would be insistent on their child marrying a Jew on what grounds especially if they're liberal because liberalism is open-minded or a religious Jew has an argument based on religion but what does a non-religious two have an argument based on okay uh no noe how do you pronounce noe no it's not Noah all right anyway it just says no I know 18 Anaheim California hey Dennis hey I'm wanting to explore our faith and to try to trying to rekindle my faith in God I feel since I am gay it is difficult for me to do so homosexuality and Christianity can I achieve what I want to pursue any advice whoa boy I got a lot I know a lot of a religious a lot is may be overstating it I know a fair number of religiously committed a gays and I know this this this is disturbing to some of my best friends in the Christian community who believe that you cannot be gay and Christian at the same time unless you are live alone and not not with another gay man or another gay woman and I I understand their argument they don't want people to think that Christianity is saying yes to homosexual conduct and I agree I Christianity and Judaism do not say yes to homosexual conduct we have to be real but if you are gay you I don't know why you you would not still take God and the Bible seriously I want you to then it's a struggle then then I fully and I'm not gonna tell you what to do but I I can't look I'm writing a twenty thousand word piece on the Bible and homosexuality it will come out in one of my five volume commentaries on the first five books of the Bible called a rational Bible Volume one is out Exodus it's called the rational Bible it's brought a lot of people read the reviews on Amazon I mean it Polly I'm asking you to see how it has changed people's lives it's meant to change people's lives in the third book of the first five books called Ovidius I will explain in 20,000 words why the Bible frowned upon homosexual conduct in a nutshell every society before it did not frown upon homosexual conduct this is this is news to most people it was news to me when I did my research and so what you have was in very many societies when men want this is amazing to modern people when men wanted sexual pleasure they often sought young men women were for babies young men were for sexual pleasure and the Bible came along it said no the place for sexual pleasure is marriage with a woman that's what it is about there are a lot more to say I have twenty thousand words to say it but at least I wanted you to have a respect and all of you listening I'm not just gays but I I have I have met seriously religious gays and that you should you should be in touch with them but don't dismiss the Bible or in your case Christianity because you're gay it's a terrible loss in life on drun ik 19 los angeles dennis is the era of today's radical left nearing the end of its course you got to be kidding I wish my column this week I have a syndicated column that comes out every Tuesday it's at its at townhall.com National Review calm and many other websites and of course my own and it is about the be the conflict between Western civilization and the left not liberals the left and how I show example after example how their they differ with one another it's a very big problem what happened is Christianity died in the West but religion never dies Christianity may have for much of the West but religion doesn't the religion is secular religion and it's called leftism Marxism socialism communism feminism environmentalism and by the way I'm Pro female equality in a pro the environment but I don't worship the environment it's not these aren't religions I have a religion in my case Judaism I don't need a secular religion but people need meaning more than anything else and if religion won't give it secular religion will give it so we're in trouble but does it mean all I'm answering is your question it is not is hardly the end of the radical left by the way radical left and left is pretty much identical left and liberal are not identical final question Corrie 38 Fort Worth Texas do you like cake and if so what's your favorite kind of cake asking me if I like cake is almost like asking if I like to breathe I do like breathing I eat cake rarely because I tried to cut sugar a lot but I love cake don't love cookies but I do love cake the answer would what kind of cake that was the question here's my very sad answer any what can I tell you all right everybody uh what am I gonna tell you the freedom issue is perplexing its disturbing not perplexing people yearn for many things more than Liberty America was founded on a yearning for liberty and in that regard it has been unique maybe it won't be so unique as the years go on it'll become more normal and Liberty will lessen that's my fear thanks for being with me I'm Dennis Prager see you next week you