July 24, 2023 • 30 mins
In this episode, Lisa talks to Chris Rufo, author of "America's Cultural Revolution." They discuss the culture war and whether conservatives can win it. Rufo explains the origins of the cultural revolution and its impact on institutions. He emphasizes the need for conservatives to understand the movement intellectually and institutionally in order to defeat it. Rufo expresses optimism about grassroots support against Critical Race Theory and Gender Ideology. They also discuss the importance of anger, the impact of conservative activism on companies, and the need to actively engage in the culture war. The Truth with Lisa Boothe is part of the iHeartRadio Podcast Network - new episodes debut every Monday & Thursday.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Can Republicans win the culture War? We've all witnessed the
radical left taking over America's institutions for decades now. Sometimes
it seems hopeless, but then other times hopeful when you
see companies like Target, Disney, and bud Light taking hits.
So where does this all stem from? What are the
origins of this radical takeover from the left, and how
(00:24):
do we win the culture war as Republicans. Chris Rufo
is going to come on the show. He's out with
a new book about all of this. It's called America's
Cultural Revolution, How the radical Left conquered Everything. I can't
think of anyone better to fight this fight, to write
this book to guide us through this than Chris Rufo.
He's the one that exposed Disney for trying to push
an LGBTQ agenda on children. He's exposed so many institutions,
(00:47):
really fought on things like critical race theory, diversity, equity, inclusion,
and all these different companies. So we're going to talk
to him about his new book, this roadmap that he's
paving for us to win and also get to the
roots of the lefts radical takeover. Here's Chris Rufo, writer, filmmaker,
and activist and author of the new book America's Cultural Revolution. Well,
(01:13):
Chris Rufo, it's awesome to have you back on the show.
You're out with a new book. It's already number one
best seller on Amazon, so congratulations on that.
Speaker 2 (01:21):
Great to have you back on.
Speaker 3 (01:22):
And it's great to be with you. You know.
Speaker 1 (01:24):
The book's about a really important topic, America's Cultural Revolution,
which I think everyone at this point realizes that we're undergoing,
you know, something like that. Can we as conservatives win
the cultural war?
Speaker 4 (01:36):
Yeah, I think we absolutely can, But it must begin
by understanding the culture war, understanding its origins, and then
understanding how it works. And so the opening idea in
the book was to take this question that was really
vexing the public after the George Floyd Summer of twenty twenty.
What happened to all of our institutions? How did they
(01:57):
seemingly all at the same time become captured by critical.
Speaker 3 (02:01):
Raise theory and other ideologies.
Speaker 4 (02:03):
And so the book answers that question, tracing back the
development of these ideas and these institutional changes over the
course of fifty years. And I think that that's really
the beginning point for conservatives to start winning that you
first have to start understanding, and I think that the
book really is designed to do exactly that.
Speaker 2 (02:23):
We'll take us to the origins.
Speaker 4 (02:25):
The origins are in a single year, the year of
nineteen sixty eight, And in nineteen sixty eight you had
this tremendous ferment and change and the initiation of what
radical left intellectuals called the cultural revolution, of course, using
a play on words relating it to Chairman Mao's cultural
evolution in China. And all of the ideas and tactics
(02:49):
and esthetics that were established in nineteen sixty eight still
define the modern left that we see today.
Speaker 3 (02:54):
And so you see analogs everywhere.
Speaker 4 (02:56):
The Black Panther Party suddenly becomes Black Lives Matter, the
weather underground, you know, it's kind of the white intellectual
terrorists of the time are suddenly their ideas are suddenly
in the K through twelve curriculum. And then the violent
riots that you see exploding in nineteen sixty eight re
emerged in twenty twenty using a lot of the same chants, slogans, arguments, justifications.
(03:22):
And so I think in some ways we are in
a loop. We're looping over and over the politics of
nineteen sixty eight, and conservatives have not figured out how
to get out.
Speaker 3 (03:33):
Of that loop.
Speaker 4 (03:33):
And unfortunately, so many conservatives haven't quite understood that we're
even in the loop. And so what I think is
important is that once you gain an understanding of the origins,
you can defeat the movement intellectually, and then you can
start to defeat the movement institutionally.
Speaker 3 (03:51):
And fortunately, what we're seeing around the.
Speaker 4 (03:53):
Country is exactly that people are starting to get organized
for the first time and starting to decide that wait
a minute. In a republic and a democracy, we get
to decide how our institutions are run, and we want
to make sure that they're run according to our values.
Speaker 1 (04:08):
Do you think enough people are awake to what's happening?
Speaker 3 (04:11):
I do absolutely. I mean, if you look at the.
Speaker 4 (04:15):
If you look at this huge rise in grassroots support
for the fight against critical race theory, for the fight
against gender ideology, for all these great classical K through
twelve schools that are popping up everywhere. Conservative parents especially,
I think, are the focal point of this movement. You
look at Moms for Liberty, this incredible grassroots group. There
(04:40):
is a lot happening on the political right and people
are starting to feel and the wake of twenty twenty,
that their interests were being jeopardized, that they could no
longer trust institutions that they had formerly trusted, such as
the public school system, and that they need to actually
build alternatives. And so we have to support people effort.
(05:00):
We have to support them through public policy, through legislation,
but also through intellectual and artistic work, creating literature for
them to read, creating curriculum for them to share with
their kids. And so there's so much work to be done.
We're just at the very beginning of this process. But
I for one, am optimistic because I think that people
ultimately have not given up hope, even though they see
(05:23):
that the forces and the odds are stacked against them.
Speaker 3 (05:27):
They're starting to mobilize.
Speaker 4 (05:28):
They're starting to realize if I care about, you know,
all the institutions that matter to me in my local community.
Speaker 3 (05:34):
I have to step up. I have to start working
for it.
Speaker 1 (05:37):
Is creating our own institutions enough or do we have
to recapture existing institutions.
Speaker 4 (05:43):
We have to do really three techniques, the two that
you mentioned. We have to recapture public institutions such as
public universities. You know, we have to raise or destroy
certain institutions that are that are that are that are
antithetical to a good society, like, for example, the teachers' unions.
Speaker 3 (06:04):
We have to abolish them.
Speaker 4 (06:06):
And then we also have to build alternatives like parochial schools,
religious schools, home schools, classical K through twelve schools, our
own media companies, our own newspapers and other publications. I mean,
throughout the whole every sector of society. We have to
be creating alternatives. But we can't give up the fact
(06:27):
that public institutions, for example, state governments, state universities, state
run schools, we have to also fight for those.
Speaker 3 (06:36):
Just creating, you know, alternatives is not enough.
Speaker 4 (06:39):
We actually have to contest the institutions that have been
captured and corrupted, and a big part of that.
Speaker 3 (06:45):
Is recapturing them.
Speaker 1 (06:46):
And we also need Republican governors to step up. I
think there's something like twenty three states with GOP trifecta,
so there really is no excuse that governors and Republicans
in those states aren't doing everything they can to recap
sure these institutions. We've seen it in Florida, which you've
been a part of with Governor destantus, Why do you
think more governors aren't stepping up and getting involved in,
(07:09):
you know, demonstrating a little bit more muscular conservatism.
Speaker 4 (07:12):
Fear I mean, I mean it really boils down to
fear first and foremost, because it's actually really hard to
recapture institutions as as as as you know, the work
that we've been doing in Florida demonstrates it's not an
easy fight.
Speaker 3 (07:26):
People will resist at every turn. They have strategies of.
Speaker 4 (07:31):
Subversion of lawsuits, of all these different tactics to resist
any change, any improvement, any transformation. The media will go
absolutely ballistic. You know, they'll swarm and they'll attack, and
they'll vilify and they'll they'll they'll distort the record. And
so a lot of these governors have decided that it's
(07:53):
not worth fighting for. They're not willing to take the heat,
they're not willing to stand up, they're not willing to
do what it takes to to in and therefore they
actually view their job. And I've learned this with some
There are some great governors out there that that that
know how to fight, of course Governor DeSantis being being
the best example, but a lot of these governors. For them,
it's about the prestige of office. Once they get into
(08:16):
the governor's mansion, for them, they've won that. That's what
they were setting out to do. They have the office,
they have the title, they have the you know, the
the jet and the and the motorcade, and so they're good.
They're just going to kind of stop there. And that's
that's what their idea of victory is. They view the
office as a symbolic rather than an administrative position. But
(08:37):
but we need governors that understand that that you have
to actually fight, you have to be willing to get
into the arena, and that winning the election is just
the beginning.
Speaker 3 (08:46):
That's step one. You have to govern.
Speaker 4 (08:49):
You have to reform, you have to to to recapture.
You have to make the institutions work for the people,
not work against the people.
Speaker 3 (08:59):
And two many any.
Speaker 4 (09:00):
Of them, however, don't seem to understand that, or they
understand it, but they're too scared to do it.
Speaker 2 (09:05):
Quick commercial breaks.
Speaker 1 (09:06):
Stay with us, Chris, Why do you think the left
has been so successful in capturing America's institutions?
Speaker 4 (09:16):
That's really one of the great questions that I addressed
in writing and researching this book, and I think a
large part of it. It's not because their ideas are better.
It's not because their outcomes are better. Their outcomes are
certainly worse. It's not because they're smarter or better looking,
or whatever.
Speaker 3 (09:34):
In qualities they might have.
Speaker 4 (09:37):
I think one of the things that it boils down to,
crucially is that they want it. They desire it, They're
willing to take risks for it. They're willing to fight
for it, They're willing to put in the decades of
effort that are required.
Speaker 3 (09:50):
Because they truly believe in what they're doing.
Speaker 4 (09:53):
And even though I find the politics of the figures
that I profile in the book totally abhorrent, I'm in
total disagreement.
Speaker 3 (10:03):
I developed a respect for many of the.
Speaker 4 (10:06):
People who are leading the radical movements of the nineteen
sixties because their their tenacity, their passion there, they're kind
of risk taking capacity, their their their faith, even if
it's in something that turns out to be wrong. There's
there's an element of respect because they know how, they
(10:26):
know what politics is, they take it seriously, and they're
willing to put out and and take risks for their beliefs.
Speaker 3 (10:32):
And so.
Speaker 4 (10:34):
I think Conservatives in a lot of ways, unfortunately, have
developed a complacency.
Speaker 3 (10:38):
Uh, They've retreated to the private sphere.
Speaker 4 (10:41):
Well, you know, this is my family, this is my household,
this is you know, kind of what's immediately around me.
And and and and that's enough. I protected my own interests.
But we have to revive a sense of public spiritedness
among conservatives to actually go out there and be willing
to fight and to and to be willing to do
what the founding fathers of this country did. They risked
(11:03):
it all for for for the country, for their principles.
And you know, well, I don't think that we should,
you know, declare war against the British.
Speaker 3 (11:12):
Probably, you know, not not appropriate at this time.
Speaker 4 (11:15):
I think that we should absolutely have some of that
spirit as we as we as we look to reconquer
the institutions and to fight these nihilistic ideologies that have
captured so much of American life.
Speaker 1 (11:26):
I mean, they are nastier than we are. I mean,
they really do adopt the philosophy you know, by hook
or by Kruk, trying to get their way.
Speaker 4 (11:35):
Yeah, that's absolutely true.
Speaker 3 (11:36):
And and I don't think we should do that.
Speaker 4 (11:38):
I think that you know, I think that that actually
compromises the principles that we have that are better than theirs.
But even if you look at the early Christians as
they were, as they were, you know, in a sense,
peacefully conquering the Roman Empire, what was really attractive about
the early Christians is that they were They lived differently,
(11:59):
They gave a different energy, They radiated a kind of
happiness and other worldliness that was very attractive. And I've
been thinking of that in the context of conservative activism,
and what I would counsel people against is having an
angry tone, having a menacing tone, having a pessimistic tone.
Speaker 3 (12:22):
I think that we need to actually have.
Speaker 4 (12:25):
Kind of demonstrate to people through how we live and
how we act and how we speak, that we have
a kind of secret knowledge or kind of the keys
to a happier way of being. And we need to
have optimism and courage and all of these great virtues
that are conservative virtues fundamentally and demonstrate them to people.
(12:48):
And I think where I see that just incredibly is
in these classical schools.
Speaker 3 (12:53):
That are popping up everywhere.
Speaker 4 (12:54):
I mean, the people who run them, the people who
teach it them, and the students who attend them are
just different in a way that I think is so
attractive when you compare it then to the kind of
you know, kind of genderless, nihilistic uh teachings and cultural
expressions that you find in many public schools. I think
(13:18):
it's just, you know, there's a sense of despair and
ugliness that that that we can create contrasts with that
I think.
Speaker 3 (13:25):
Would be a powerful tactic and technique for us.
Speaker 1 (13:28):
Chris, I'm not gonna lie when when you're talking about
people not being angry on TV, I was like guilty,
especially during Kavanaugh and COVID. I uh, probably lost my
temper a timers.
Speaker 2 (13:44):
I'm not gonna like I'm not perfect over here, you know, no.
Speaker 4 (13:47):
None of none of us are. None of us are perfect.
Certainly I'm not. But but you should clarify too. Though
anger is important, you shouldn't resist or or or you
shouldn't you know always squash anger can be actually extremely motivating.
But there's a different tone of anger, and I think
you do this actually really well.
Speaker 3 (14:05):
Even if you're.
Speaker 4 (14:06):
Angry, even if you're you're you're you're in a critical mode,
you don't seem consumed by the anger. You seem to
be angry at whatever's happening the object of it. But
there are some people and on our side and in
our movement that seem to let the anger actually seep
into themselves and starts to change their character. And I
(14:26):
think that that's something that we have to be on
guard for, because there's a lot of things to be
angry about, and we should be.
Speaker 3 (14:33):
Angry about many things.
Speaker 4 (14:34):
It's a it's a powerful emotion and tool and rally
and cry, but we have to be very careful, those
of us in public life, to not let that anger
consume us, or warp us, or or start to contaminate
how we how we think and how we how we
feel as we're doing what we're doing.
Speaker 2 (14:51):
That's a good point. I appreciate that.
Speaker 1 (14:53):
I mean, COVID was definitely a challenge for me and
not you know, trying to control my frustration and anger
at the way government was treating us. But I appreciate
that kind comic. I was on TV the other day
and while I was waiting, I heard someone else I'm
not going to name names because I'm not a jerk,
but they're talking about bud Light and saying, hey, look,
message sent. We got to let up. You know, there's
(15:15):
people impacted by it. But I was thinking to myself,
I just think that's so wrong. I think that bud
Light needs to be crushed, and they have to be crushed,
not because I want anyone's job to be impacted by it,
but we have to send a message, right one hundred percent.
Speaker 3 (15:31):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (15:31):
I mean it's like we're on the verge of victory.
Let's give up now. I mean it's like, wait or what.
You know that that can't possibly be the right strategy.
And I agree that you cannot live let up. You
have to make an example, and you have to have
a strict and in some cases a severe set of
(15:54):
consequences in the interest of some notion of justice. And
so I think that bud Light should become a symbol
of what not to do and therefore become a disincentive
for companies to do it in the future.
Speaker 3 (16:08):
And if you let up and the consequence.
Speaker 4 (16:11):
Ease, you're you're You're not you're not winning, you're not
changing anything, you're not actually succeeding. And so I think
that there's a time for mercy, of course, but there's
also a time for justice. And I think bud Light
needs to be put through a swift and relentless UH
(16:35):
process of of of of of justice. And I think
that it's a really exciting example of conservatives finally coming together,
rallying in a decentralized way, making their economic power.
Speaker 3 (16:48):
UH an actual political force.
Speaker 4 (16:51):
And and I think if the numbers continue the way
they're they're that that they're going, we'll make every CEO
in the country, I think twice before reflexively regurgitating the
most kind of gross, nihilistic and destructive elements of left
wing culture war.
Speaker 1 (17:11):
Well, and you've really been at the forefront of exposing
institutions like Disney, which is why you know you're the
perfect messager for this book. You know, to your point
what we were just talking about, do you think companies
are looking at Disney and the hits they've taken, the
hits the bud Light take. Do you think they are
on notice or do they just not care at this point?
What's your assessment?
Speaker 4 (17:31):
They're absolutely on notice, you know, and you know you
don't have to take my word for it. The Wall
Street Journal did a really great story where they talked
on off the record, or rather anonymously, to Fortune one
hundred CEOs and in the aftermath of Disney, basically all
the CEOs in America are talking to one another and
strategizing and adjusting their their kind of risk profiles, adjusting.
Speaker 3 (17:55):
Their their their.
Speaker 4 (17:57):
Policies in order to avoid becoming the next Disney. And
so that fight was significant. I think it changed a
lot of minds in C suites. But the problem for
those CEOs, but also the problem for us in some ways,
is that, of course a corporate executive doesn't make all
the decisions.
Speaker 3 (18:18):
Those decisions are decentralized.
Speaker 4 (18:19):
Those decisions are in the hands of people that are
our age, you know, that are in their thirties.
Speaker 3 (18:25):
That that love it.
Speaker 4 (18:26):
I mean, you know, the brand manager in charge of
influencer marketing for bud Light is like, you know, some
thirty something, you know, elite college graduate with a marketing degree.
Probably that is like, oh yeah, we got to step
on trend with Dylan mulvaney.
Speaker 3 (18:45):
And so.
Speaker 4 (18:48):
The people making the decisions at the at the execution
level are are probably not as attuned to the risks
as the executives, and so I think that it will
require some good management in order to change the culture
in a more deep way within these companies. But certainly
(19:09):
the leadership of these companies is already thinking about this,
and I think we've already changed the culture to an
extraordinary degree with really a limited number of test cases.
It's Disney, Target, and bud Light, right, those are the
big three, And so I think that this is a
promising avenue for conservative activism, and conservative activists can hopefully
(19:32):
build up a more sophisticated infrastructure for punishing companies that
step out of line.
Speaker 1 (19:38):
It's to take a quick commercial break more on America's
cultural revolution with Chris Rufo.
Speaker 2 (19:46):
You know, the left really uses.
Speaker 1 (19:48):
Race and gender ideology right now to accomplish their goals
that are seemingly probably the two big ones that they're
using right now. Why race and why gender ideology?
Speaker 4 (19:59):
There's a f famous formulation, a trio, a famous trio
of race, class and gender right. I mean, this is
the subject of Angela Davis's one of Angela Davis's books.
It's the subject of like kind of ad nauseum of
all the left doing social theories and universities and class
has disappeared entirely because it's not effective. Working class and
(20:21):
middle class people in this country do not want what
the left is selling. But but race and gender are
vulnerability spots. Race for obvious reasons. Historically the United States, gender,
which is of course, you know, kind of as it's
related to sexuality, is obviously a place that has extremely
(20:44):
strong emotions. And if you can manipulate people's emotions around
their sexuality, you can turn people into political objects or
political tools to do your bidding. And so they use
these areas that are highly emotional, highly irrational in a
philosophical sense. And if you can learn how to play
(21:05):
the buttons, and the left plays the buttons beautifully, you
can really move societies on these issues to an extraordinary degree.
And so our opponents understand this, and really they have,
to their credit, some tremendous insights into these questions that.
Speaker 3 (21:24):
They've turned into political strategies.
Speaker 4 (21:27):
And the right, I think, you know, for a little
self criticism and family criticism. Here, we don't even know
the arguments anymore. We don't know our opponent's arguments in
a deep way. We don't know our arguments. You know,
we're just starting to maybe start to formulate them again.
But you know, we're thirty forty years behind on these questions,
(21:51):
and we've got to catch up quickly.
Speaker 1 (21:53):
Well, there's also dispute over how important fighting the culture
war is on the right. It seems believe, which you know,
you share the same belief, is that the cultural war
probably is the biggest fight we're facing. I mean, obviously
the weaponization of government is up there as well. Or
culture defines who we are as a society, and if
we lose our culture, then you know, we're essentially going
(22:15):
to live in a society that looks like China, where
we're shut out of the economy, where we're shut out
of these institutions, and we're controlled by social credit scores,
and we're not really we're not free anymore, We're not
living life.
Speaker 3 (22:26):
Yeah, that's right.
Speaker 4 (22:28):
I find it astonishing that that that Republicans have an
aversion or a distaste for the culture war.
Speaker 3 (22:35):
We shouldn't fight on these.
Speaker 4 (22:36):
Questions, you know, we should We should just let everyone
do whatever they want. We shouldn't never contest the left
wing institutional cap I mean, it's like these people are
libertarians to the point of nihilism. They believe that the
only thing that's good about America is our GDP. And
of course I support a rising GDP, an increasing standard
(22:57):
of living, but the purpose of an economy is to
serve the higher ends of the society, and that includes
in a deep way, the culture. Culture comes from the word,
you know, to cultivate, meaning that culture is the soil
that we all grow up in. It's the soil or
(23:17):
the formation for our kids, for example.
Speaker 3 (23:21):
And so.
Speaker 4 (23:23):
By somehow saying that that's not important, I think it's
just a nihilistic libertarian idea that that is just so
wrong headed.
Speaker 3 (23:34):
We have to correct it.
Speaker 4 (23:36):
We have to get everyone on our side lined up
on this, because the culture is everything. I mean, the
culture is really of all the things. Is the war
worth fighting because it defines who we are, defines what
we believe, It defines which values that we transmit from
one generation to the next. It defines our identity, our emotions,
(23:59):
our are thinking. I mean, it's who we are in
the profoundest sense. And so the idea that we should
scoff at the culture war and look down on it,
and and I just find it so.
Speaker 3 (24:14):
Disqualifying for anyone on our.
Speaker 4 (24:15):
Side, anyone who anyone who believes that should be immediately
reprimanded and brought into line or really just cast off
into the wilderness. Good luck you know, you can live
in you know, Galt's gulch with ain Rand or whatever.
Speaker 3 (24:31):
You know, you know, good luck to you, you know,
take off. That's that's what I would say.
Speaker 1 (24:35):
Well, it's also just totally blind to this moment that
we are in right now as a country. You know,
to the point of your book, I'd love for everyone
just to be left alone and you know, we can
live our lives and what have you. But that's not
the way it is. I mean, they're going to keep
trying to shove this stuff down earth roads. They're going
to keep weaponizing government against us, weaponizing institutions against us.
(24:55):
They wanted to bank us. I mean, they're not going
to let us live our lives. So we have to
fight back. We have new choice, of course.
Speaker 4 (25:03):
Yeah, one hundred percent agree. That's that's a really good point.
And you know, I did a story a week or
two ago where I uncovered some evidence and and video
and documents that that proved and demonstrated that there is
a publicly run hospital in Oregon, uh in which doctors
and surgeons are using robots to castrate children and turn
(25:28):
their genitals, their male genitalia into an artificial vagina and
it was the I mean, the most horrifying story that
I could that I've ever reported on in some ways,
and it's like, oh, well, that's just culture war nonsense.
It's like, no, no, no, they're using robots to castraight kids.
(25:49):
I mean, if you can't summon up some moral feelings
on that, if you can't understand why that's an important
thing to shut down, I mean, who are you?
Speaker 3 (26:00):
I mean what happened to your conscience?
Speaker 4 (26:05):
And I think that you have even presidential candidates Asa
Hutchinson saying oh no, no, no, we can't mess with that.
Speaker 3 (26:11):
We got to let them do it.
Speaker 4 (26:13):
I mean, this is these are litmus test issues for people,
and I think we have to reawaken the moral conscience
of people, even on our own side, in order to
let them know that these issues that have been that
are really ravaging throughout the country and really hurting in
particular young people and kids are worth fighting and are
(26:36):
worth standing up for.
Speaker 1 (26:38):
And that's really what it is is a loss of
a moral compass as a society when you know you
support abortions up until the moment of the birth, or
you support a child mutilating his or her body, castrating
a young man, a double mistectomy for a young girl,
puberty blockers that are going to leave a child infertile.
I mean, this is deeply sickening and really evil stuff
(27:03):
that is happening to kids, and it really does underscore
the point that we have seemingly, or I guess very obviously,
we've lost any moral compass as a society.
Speaker 3 (27:13):
Absolutely one hundred percent.
Speaker 4 (27:14):
And and it's sad to say that even some people
who are you probably think of themselves as you know,
moral conservatives, you know, family values whatever, whatever kind of
terms that they that they that they think of themselves.
Speaker 3 (27:26):
With somehow like don't don't register it, you know.
Speaker 4 (27:31):
And I think that that is the kind of saddest
part of the story in some ways.
Speaker 3 (27:35):
And on the other hand, what.
Speaker 4 (27:38):
I would say that's optimistic, and the reason why I'm
ultimately optimistic is that more and more people are waking
up to what's happening and waking.
Speaker 3 (27:46):
Up to the to the to the necessity of.
Speaker 4 (27:48):
Finding a solution, and they're also waking up to the
fact that they're going to require that their politicians fight
on their behalf on these issues.
Speaker 3 (27:57):
And so.
Speaker 4 (27:59):
Uh, ultimately, I think, you know, maybe it's kind of
a kind of corny democratic sentiment. But you know, I
think that most people, most average people, most you know,
middle class people, most families in this country have the
right moral instincts. They have the right uh set of
(28:20):
principles that they live by, and it's time for us
as intellectual leaders, and then certainly it's time for their
political leaders to start listening to them and to start
channeling those sentiments into public policy, to start making changes
on their behalf.
Speaker 3 (28:35):
And so that requires leadership.
Speaker 4 (28:37):
And I think that the book and why I wrote
it and what I think it's why I think people
are responding to by sending it to the top of
the charts, is an outline for why we why we
must fight, how we must fight, what we must fight about.
And I think that I hope that it's a blueprint
or a guidebook for people who care about the culture
(29:00):
war to actually give them all the information and narrative
and argument that they need in order to be successful
in their own communities. And that's the vision, that's the
hope of the book. And I think that so far,
in the first couple of days, the response.
Speaker 3 (29:15):
Has been just overwhelming, quite good.
Speaker 1 (29:17):
You've been out there just fighting exposing all of this
and just tenations and actually really putting points on the
board in a way that other people aren't. So you've
just been so important in bringing this all to light
and also just showing as a path forward of how
to fight. So just appreciative view and the work that
you've done. Everyone should go check out this book, America's
(29:37):
Cultural Revolution. Thank you for what you do, Chris, and
I really appreciate you taking the time to come on
the show.
Speaker 3 (29:42):
Thank you so much.
Speaker 1 (29:49):
That was Chris Rufo talking about his new book, America's
Cultural Revolution, How the Radical Left conquered everything. Such a
smart guy. Really always enjoy talking to him. You learn
so much. Kim for coming on the show. I want
to thank you for listening at.
Speaker 2 (30:02):
Home or wherever you are. It's a podcast. You could
be doing anything right now.
Speaker 1 (30:05):
I want to thank John Cassio and my producer for
putting the show together every Monday and Thursday, but you
can listen throughout the week. Feel free to leave us
a review on Apple Podcast, give us a rating. Always
love reading those Till next time.
Can Republicans win the culture War? We've all witnessed the
radical left taking over America's institutions for decades now. Sometimes
it seems hopeless, but then other times hopeful when you
see companies like Target, Disney, and bud Light taking hits.
So where does this all stem from? What are the
origins of this radical takeover from the left, and how
(00:24):
do we win the culture war as Republicans. Chris Rufo
is going to come on the show. He's out with
a new book about all of this. It's called America's
Cultural Revolution, How the radical Left conquered Everything. I can't
think of anyone better to fight this fight, to write
this book to guide us through this than Chris Rufo.
He's the one that exposed Disney for trying to push
an LGBTQ agenda on children. He's exposed so many institutions,
(00:47):
really fought on things like critical race theory, diversity, equity, inclusion,
and all these different companies. So we're going to talk
to him about his new book, this roadmap that he's
paving for us to win and also get to the
roots of the lefts radical takeover. Here's Chris Rufo, writer, filmmaker,
and activist and author of the new book America's Cultural Revolution. Well,
(01:13):
Chris Rufo, it's awesome to have you back on the show.
You're out with a new book. It's already number one
best seller on Amazon, so congratulations on that.
Speaker 2 (01:21):
Great to have you back on.
Speaker 3 (01:22):
And it's great to be with you. You know.
Speaker 1 (01:24):
The book's about a really important topic, America's Cultural Revolution,
which I think everyone at this point realizes that we're undergoing,
you know, something like that. Can we as conservatives win
the cultural war?
Speaker 4 (01:36):
Yeah, I think we absolutely can, But it must begin
by understanding the culture war, understanding its origins, and then
understanding how it works. And so the opening idea in
the book was to take this question that was really
vexing the public after the George Floyd Summer of twenty twenty.
What happened to all of our institutions? How did they
(01:57):
seemingly all at the same time become captured by critical.
Speaker 3 (02:01):
Raise theory and other ideologies.
Speaker 4 (02:03):
And so the book answers that question, tracing back the
development of these ideas and these institutional changes over the
course of fifty years. And I think that that's really
the beginning point for conservatives to start winning that you
first have to start understanding, and I think that the
book really is designed to do exactly that.
Speaker 2 (02:23):
We'll take us to the origins.
Speaker 4 (02:25):
The origins are in a single year, the year of
nineteen sixty eight, And in nineteen sixty eight you had
this tremendous ferment and change and the initiation of what
radical left intellectuals called the cultural revolution, of course, using
a play on words relating it to Chairman Mao's cultural
evolution in China. And all of the ideas and tactics
(02:49):
and esthetics that were established in nineteen sixty eight still
define the modern left that we see today.
Speaker 3 (02:54):
And so you see analogs everywhere.
Speaker 4 (02:56):
The Black Panther Party suddenly becomes Black Lives Matter, the
weather underground, you know, it's kind of the white intellectual
terrorists of the time are suddenly their ideas are suddenly
in the K through twelve curriculum. And then the violent
riots that you see exploding in nineteen sixty eight re
emerged in twenty twenty using a lot of the same chants, slogans, arguments, justifications.
(03:22):
And so I think in some ways we are in
a loop. We're looping over and over the politics of
nineteen sixty eight, and conservatives have not figured out how
to get out.
Speaker 3 (03:33):
Of that loop.
Speaker 4 (03:33):
And unfortunately, so many conservatives haven't quite understood that we're
even in the loop. And so what I think is
important is that once you gain an understanding of the origins,
you can defeat the movement intellectually, and then you can
start to defeat the movement institutionally.
Speaker 3 (03:51):
And fortunately, what we're seeing around the.
Speaker 4 (03:53):
Country is exactly that people are starting to get organized
for the first time and starting to decide that wait
a minute. In a republic and a democracy, we get
to decide how our institutions are run, and we want
to make sure that they're run according to our values.
Speaker 1 (04:08):
Do you think enough people are awake to what's happening?
Speaker 3 (04:11):
I do absolutely. I mean, if you look at the.
Speaker 4 (04:15):
If you look at this huge rise in grassroots support
for the fight against critical race theory, for the fight
against gender ideology, for all these great classical K through
twelve schools that are popping up everywhere. Conservative parents especially,
I think, are the focal point of this movement. You
look at Moms for Liberty, this incredible grassroots group. There
(04:40):
is a lot happening on the political right and people
are starting to feel and the wake of twenty twenty,
that their interests were being jeopardized, that they could no
longer trust institutions that they had formerly trusted, such as
the public school system, and that they need to actually
build alternatives. And so we have to support people effort.
(05:00):
We have to support them through public policy, through legislation,
but also through intellectual and artistic work, creating literature for
them to read, creating curriculum for them to share with
their kids. And so there's so much work to be done.
We're just at the very beginning of this process. But
I for one, am optimistic because I think that people
ultimately have not given up hope, even though they see
(05:23):
that the forces and the odds are stacked against them.
Speaker 3 (05:27):
They're starting to mobilize.
Speaker 4 (05:28):
They're starting to realize if I care about, you know,
all the institutions that matter to me in my local community.
Speaker 3 (05:34):
I have to step up. I have to start working
for it.
Speaker 1 (05:37):
Is creating our own institutions enough or do we have
to recapture existing institutions.
Speaker 4 (05:43):
We have to do really three techniques, the two that
you mentioned. We have to recapture public institutions such as
public universities. You know, we have to raise or destroy
certain institutions that are that are that are that are
antithetical to a good society, like, for example, the teachers' unions.
Speaker 3 (06:04):
We have to abolish them.
Speaker 4 (06:06):
And then we also have to build alternatives like parochial schools,
religious schools, home schools, classical K through twelve schools, our
own media companies, our own newspapers and other publications. I mean,
throughout the whole every sector of society. We have to
be creating alternatives. But we can't give up the fact
(06:27):
that public institutions, for example, state governments, state universities, state
run schools, we have to also fight for those.
Speaker 3 (06:36):
Just creating, you know, alternatives is not enough.
Speaker 4 (06:39):
We actually have to contest the institutions that have been
captured and corrupted, and a big part of that.
Speaker 3 (06:45):
Is recapturing them.
Speaker 1 (06:46):
And we also need Republican governors to step up. I
think there's something like twenty three states with GOP trifecta,
so there really is no excuse that governors and Republicans
in those states aren't doing everything they can to recap
sure these institutions. We've seen it in Florida, which you've
been a part of with Governor destantus, Why do you
think more governors aren't stepping up and getting involved in,
(07:09):
you know, demonstrating a little bit more muscular conservatism.
Speaker 4 (07:12):
Fear I mean, I mean it really boils down to
fear first and foremost, because it's actually really hard to
recapture institutions as as as as you know, the work
that we've been doing in Florida demonstrates it's not an
easy fight.
Speaker 3 (07:26):
People will resist at every turn. They have strategies of.
Speaker 4 (07:31):
Subversion of lawsuits, of all these different tactics to resist
any change, any improvement, any transformation. The media will go
absolutely ballistic. You know, they'll swarm and they'll attack, and
they'll vilify and they'll they'll they'll distort the record. And
so a lot of these governors have decided that it's
(07:53):
not worth fighting for. They're not willing to take the heat,
they're not willing to stand up, they're not willing to
do what it takes to to in and therefore they
actually view their job. And I've learned this with some
There are some great governors out there that that that
know how to fight, of course Governor DeSantis being being
the best example, but a lot of these governors. For them,
it's about the prestige of office. Once they get into
(08:16):
the governor's mansion, for them, they've won that. That's what
they were setting out to do. They have the office,
they have the title, they have the you know, the
the jet and the and the motorcade, and so they're good.
They're just going to kind of stop there. And that's
that's what their idea of victory is. They view the
office as a symbolic rather than an administrative position. But
(08:37):
but we need governors that understand that that you have
to actually fight, you have to be willing to get
into the arena, and that winning the election is just
the beginning.
Speaker 3 (08:46):
That's step one. You have to govern.
Speaker 4 (08:49):
You have to reform, you have to to to recapture.
You have to make the institutions work for the people,
not work against the people.
Speaker 3 (08:59):
And two many any.
Speaker 4 (09:00):
Of them, however, don't seem to understand that, or they
understand it, but they're too scared to do it.
Speaker 2 (09:05):
Quick commercial breaks.
Speaker 1 (09:06):
Stay with us, Chris, Why do you think the left
has been so successful in capturing America's institutions?
Speaker 4 (09:16):
That's really one of the great questions that I addressed
in writing and researching this book, and I think a
large part of it. It's not because their ideas are better.
It's not because their outcomes are better. Their outcomes are
certainly worse. It's not because they're smarter or better looking,
or whatever.
Speaker 3 (09:34):
In qualities they might have.
Speaker 4 (09:37):
I think one of the things that it boils down to,
crucially is that they want it. They desire it, They're
willing to take risks for it. They're willing to fight
for it, They're willing to put in the decades of
effort that are required.
Speaker 3 (09:50):
Because they truly believe in what they're doing.
Speaker 4 (09:53):
And even though I find the politics of the figures
that I profile in the book totally abhorrent, I'm in
total disagreement.
Speaker 3 (10:03):
I developed a respect for many of the.
Speaker 4 (10:06):
People who are leading the radical movements of the nineteen
sixties because their their tenacity, their passion there, they're kind
of risk taking capacity, their their their faith, even if
it's in something that turns out to be wrong. There's
there's an element of respect because they know how, they
(10:26):
know what politics is, they take it seriously, and they're
willing to put out and and take risks for their beliefs.
Speaker 3 (10:32):
And so.
Speaker 4 (10:34):
I think Conservatives in a lot of ways, unfortunately, have
developed a complacency.
Speaker 3 (10:38):
Uh, They've retreated to the private sphere.
Speaker 4 (10:41):
Well, you know, this is my family, this is my household,
this is you know, kind of what's immediately around me.
And and and and that's enough. I protected my own interests.
But we have to revive a sense of public spiritedness
among conservatives to actually go out there and be willing
to fight and to and to be willing to do
what the founding fathers of this country did. They risked
(11:03):
it all for for for the country, for their principles.
And you know, well, I don't think that we should,
you know, declare war against the British.
Speaker 3 (11:12):
Probably, you know, not not appropriate at this time.
Speaker 4 (11:15):
I think that we should absolutely have some of that
spirit as we as we as we look to reconquer
the institutions and to fight these nihilistic ideologies that have
captured so much of American life.
Speaker 1 (11:26):
I mean, they are nastier than we are. I mean,
they really do adopt the philosophy you know, by hook
or by Kruk, trying to get their way.
Speaker 4 (11:35):
Yeah, that's absolutely true.
Speaker 3 (11:36):
And and I don't think we should do that.
Speaker 4 (11:38):
I think that you know, I think that that actually
compromises the principles that we have that are better than theirs.
But even if you look at the early Christians as
they were, as they were, you know, in a sense,
peacefully conquering the Roman Empire, what was really attractive about
the early Christians is that they were They lived differently,
(11:59):
They gave a different energy, They radiated a kind of
happiness and other worldliness that was very attractive. And I've
been thinking of that in the context of conservative activism,
and what I would counsel people against is having an
angry tone, having a menacing tone, having a pessimistic tone.
Speaker 3 (12:22):
I think that we need to actually have.
Speaker 4 (12:25):
Kind of demonstrate to people through how we live and
how we act and how we speak, that we have
a kind of secret knowledge or kind of the keys
to a happier way of being. And we need to
have optimism and courage and all of these great virtues
that are conservative virtues fundamentally and demonstrate them to people.
(12:48):
And I think where I see that just incredibly is
in these classical schools.
Speaker 3 (12:53):
That are popping up everywhere.
Speaker 4 (12:54):
I mean, the people who run them, the people who
teach it them, and the students who attend them are
just different in a way that I think is so
attractive when you compare it then to the kind of
you know, kind of genderless, nihilistic uh teachings and cultural
expressions that you find in many public schools. I think
(13:18):
it's just, you know, there's a sense of despair and
ugliness that that that we can create contrasts with that
I think.
Speaker 3 (13:25):
Would be a powerful tactic and technique for us.
Speaker 1 (13:28):
Chris, I'm not gonna lie when when you're talking about
people not being angry on TV, I was like guilty,
especially during Kavanaugh and COVID. I uh, probably lost my
temper a timers.
Speaker 2 (13:44):
I'm not gonna like I'm not perfect over here, you know, no.
Speaker 4 (13:47):
None of none of us are. None of us are perfect.
Certainly I'm not. But but you should clarify too. Though
anger is important, you shouldn't resist or or or you
shouldn't you know always squash anger can be actually extremely motivating.
But there's a different tone of anger, and I think
you do this actually really well.
Speaker 3 (14:05):
Even if you're.
Speaker 4 (14:06):
Angry, even if you're you're you're you're in a critical mode,
you don't seem consumed by the anger. You seem to
be angry at whatever's happening the object of it. But
there are some people and on our side and in
our movement that seem to let the anger actually seep
into themselves and starts to change their character. And I
(14:26):
think that that's something that we have to be on
guard for, because there's a lot of things to be
angry about, and we should be.
Speaker 3 (14:33):
Angry about many things.
Speaker 4 (14:34):
It's a it's a powerful emotion and tool and rally
and cry, but we have to be very careful, those
of us in public life, to not let that anger
consume us, or warp us, or or start to contaminate
how we how we think and how we how we
feel as we're doing what we're doing.
Speaker 2 (14:51):
That's a good point. I appreciate that.
Speaker 1 (14:53):
I mean, COVID was definitely a challenge for me and
not you know, trying to control my frustration and anger
at the way government was treating us. But I appreciate
that kind comic. I was on TV the other day
and while I was waiting, I heard someone else I'm
not going to name names because I'm not a jerk,
but they're talking about bud Light and saying, hey, look,
message sent. We got to let up. You know, there's
(15:15):
people impacted by it. But I was thinking to myself,
I just think that's so wrong. I think that bud
Light needs to be crushed, and they have to be crushed,
not because I want anyone's job to be impacted by it,
but we have to send a message, right one hundred percent.
Speaker 3 (15:31):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (15:31):
I mean it's like we're on the verge of victory.
Let's give up now. I mean it's like, wait or what.
You know that that can't possibly be the right strategy.
And I agree that you cannot live let up. You
have to make an example, and you have to have
a strict and in some cases a severe set of
(15:54):
consequences in the interest of some notion of justice. And
so I think that bud Light should become a symbol
of what not to do and therefore become a disincentive
for companies to do it in the future.
Speaker 3 (16:08):
And if you let up and the consequence.
Speaker 4 (16:11):
Ease, you're you're You're not you're not winning, you're not
changing anything, you're not actually succeeding. And so I think
that there's a time for mercy, of course, but there's
also a time for justice. And I think bud Light
needs to be put through a swift and relentless UH
(16:35):
process of of of of of justice. And I think
that it's a really exciting example of conservatives finally coming together,
rallying in a decentralized way, making their economic power.
Speaker 3 (16:48):
UH an actual political force.
Speaker 4 (16:51):
And and I think if the numbers continue the way
they're they're that that they're going, we'll make every CEO
in the country, I think twice before reflexively regurgitating the
most kind of gross, nihilistic and destructive elements of left
wing culture war.
Speaker 1 (17:11):
Well, and you've really been at the forefront of exposing
institutions like Disney, which is why you know you're the
perfect messager for this book. You know, to your point
what we were just talking about, do you think companies
are looking at Disney and the hits they've taken, the
hits the bud Light take. Do you think they are
on notice or do they just not care at this point?
What's your assessment?
Speaker 4 (17:31):
They're absolutely on notice, you know, and you know you
don't have to take my word for it. The Wall
Street Journal did a really great story where they talked
on off the record, or rather anonymously, to Fortune one
hundred CEOs and in the aftermath of Disney, basically all
the CEOs in America are talking to one another and
strategizing and adjusting their their kind of risk profiles, adjusting.
Speaker 3 (17:55):
Their their their.
Speaker 4 (17:57):
Policies in order to avoid becoming the next Disney. And
so that fight was significant. I think it changed a
lot of minds in C suites. But the problem for
those CEOs, but also the problem for us in some ways,
is that, of course a corporate executive doesn't make all
the decisions.
Speaker 3 (18:18):
Those decisions are decentralized.
Speaker 4 (18:19):
Those decisions are in the hands of people that are
our age, you know, that are in their thirties.
Speaker 3 (18:25):
That that love it.
Speaker 4 (18:26):
I mean, you know, the brand manager in charge of
influencer marketing for bud Light is like, you know, some
thirty something, you know, elite college graduate with a marketing degree.
Probably that is like, oh yeah, we got to step
on trend with Dylan mulvaney.
Speaker 3 (18:45):
And so.
Speaker 4 (18:48):
The people making the decisions at the at the execution
level are are probably not as attuned to the risks
as the executives, and so I think that it will
require some good management in order to change the culture
in a more deep way within these companies. But certainly
(19:09):
the leadership of these companies is already thinking about this,
and I think we've already changed the culture to an
extraordinary degree with really a limited number of test cases.
It's Disney, Target, and bud Light, right, those are the
big three, And so I think that this is a
promising avenue for conservative activism, and conservative activists can hopefully
(19:32):
build up a more sophisticated infrastructure for punishing companies that
step out of line.
Speaker 1 (19:38):
It's to take a quick commercial break more on America's
cultural revolution with Chris Rufo.
Speaker 2 (19:46):
You know, the left really uses.
Speaker 1 (19:48):
Race and gender ideology right now to accomplish their goals
that are seemingly probably the two big ones that they're
using right now. Why race and why gender ideology?
Speaker 4 (19:59):
There's a f famous formulation, a trio, a famous trio
of race, class and gender right. I mean, this is
the subject of Angela Davis's one of Angela Davis's books.
It's the subject of like kind of ad nauseum of
all the left doing social theories and universities and class
has disappeared entirely because it's not effective. Working class and
(20:21):
middle class people in this country do not want what
the left is selling. But but race and gender are
vulnerability spots. Race for obvious reasons. Historically the United States, gender,
which is of course, you know, kind of as it's
related to sexuality, is obviously a place that has extremely
(20:44):
strong emotions. And if you can manipulate people's emotions around
their sexuality, you can turn people into political objects or
political tools to do your bidding. And so they use
these areas that are highly emotional, highly irrational in a
philosophical sense. And if you can learn how to play
(21:05):
the buttons, and the left plays the buttons beautifully, you
can really move societies on these issues to an extraordinary degree.
And so our opponents understand this, and really they have,
to their credit, some tremendous insights into these questions that.
Speaker 3 (21:24):
They've turned into political strategies.
Speaker 4 (21:27):
And the right, I think, you know, for a little
self criticism and family criticism. Here, we don't even know
the arguments anymore. We don't know our opponent's arguments in
a deep way. We don't know our arguments. You know,
we're just starting to maybe start to formulate them again.
But you know, we're thirty forty years behind on these questions,
(21:51):
and we've got to catch up quickly.
Speaker 1 (21:53):
Well, there's also dispute over how important fighting the culture
war is on the right. It seems believe, which you know,
you share the same belief, is that the cultural war
probably is the biggest fight we're facing. I mean, obviously
the weaponization of government is up there as well. Or
culture defines who we are as a society, and if
we lose our culture, then you know, we're essentially going
(22:15):
to live in a society that looks like China, where
we're shut out of the economy, where we're shut out
of these institutions, and we're controlled by social credit scores,
and we're not really we're not free anymore, We're not
living life.
Speaker 3 (22:26):
Yeah, that's right.
Speaker 4 (22:28):
I find it astonishing that that that Republicans have an
aversion or a distaste for the culture war.
Speaker 3 (22:35):
We shouldn't fight on these.
Speaker 4 (22:36):
Questions, you know, we should We should just let everyone
do whatever they want. We shouldn't never contest the left
wing institutional cap I mean, it's like these people are
libertarians to the point of nihilism. They believe that the
only thing that's good about America is our GDP. And
of course I support a rising GDP, an increasing standard
(22:57):
of living, but the purpose of an economy is to
serve the higher ends of the society, and that includes
in a deep way, the culture. Culture comes from the word,
you know, to cultivate, meaning that culture is the soil
that we all grow up in. It's the soil or
(23:17):
the formation for our kids, for example.
Speaker 3 (23:21):
And so.
Speaker 4 (23:23):
By somehow saying that that's not important, I think it's
just a nihilistic libertarian idea that that is just so
wrong headed.
Speaker 3 (23:34):
We have to correct it.
Speaker 4 (23:36):
We have to get everyone on our side lined up
on this, because the culture is everything. I mean, the
culture is really of all the things. Is the war
worth fighting because it defines who we are, defines what
we believe, It defines which values that we transmit from
one generation to the next. It defines our identity, our emotions,
(23:59):
our are thinking. I mean, it's who we are in
the profoundest sense. And so the idea that we should
scoff at the culture war and look down on it,
and and I just find it so.
Speaker 3 (24:14):
Disqualifying for anyone on our.
Speaker 4 (24:15):
Side, anyone who anyone who believes that should be immediately
reprimanded and brought into line or really just cast off
into the wilderness. Good luck you know, you can live
in you know, Galt's gulch with ain Rand or whatever.
Speaker 3 (24:31):
You know, you know, good luck to you, you know,
take off. That's that's what I would say.
Speaker 1 (24:35):
Well, it's also just totally blind to this moment that
we are in right now as a country. You know,
to the point of your book, I'd love for everyone
just to be left alone and you know, we can
live our lives and what have you. But that's not
the way it is. I mean, they're going to keep
trying to shove this stuff down earth roads. They're going
to keep weaponizing government against us, weaponizing institutions against us.
(24:55):
They wanted to bank us. I mean, they're not going
to let us live our lives. So we have to
fight back. We have new choice, of course.
Speaker 4 (25:03):
Yeah, one hundred percent agree. That's that's a really good point.
And you know, I did a story a week or
two ago where I uncovered some evidence and and video
and documents that that proved and demonstrated that there is
a publicly run hospital in Oregon, uh in which doctors
and surgeons are using robots to castrate children and turn
(25:28):
their genitals, their male genitalia into an artificial vagina and
it was the I mean, the most horrifying story that
I could that I've ever reported on in some ways,
and it's like, oh, well, that's just culture war nonsense.
It's like, no, no, no, they're using robots to castraight kids.
(25:49):
I mean, if you can't summon up some moral feelings
on that, if you can't understand why that's an important
thing to shut down, I mean, who are you?
Speaker 3 (26:00):
I mean what happened to your conscience?
Speaker 4 (26:05):
And I think that you have even presidential candidates Asa
Hutchinson saying oh no, no, no, we can't mess with that.
Speaker 3 (26:11):
We got to let them do it.
Speaker 4 (26:13):
I mean, this is these are litmus test issues for people,
and I think we have to reawaken the moral conscience
of people, even on our own side, in order to
let them know that these issues that have been that
are really ravaging throughout the country and really hurting in
particular young people and kids are worth fighting and are
(26:36):
worth standing up for.
Speaker 1 (26:38):
And that's really what it is is a loss of
a moral compass as a society when you know you
support abortions up until the moment of the birth, or
you support a child mutilating his or her body, castrating
a young man, a double mistectomy for a young girl,
puberty blockers that are going to leave a child infertile.
I mean, this is deeply sickening and really evil stuff
(27:03):
that is happening to kids, and it really does underscore
the point that we have seemingly, or I guess very obviously,
we've lost any moral compass as a society.
Speaker 3 (27:13):
Absolutely one hundred percent.
Speaker 4 (27:14):
And and it's sad to say that even some people
who are you probably think of themselves as you know,
moral conservatives, you know, family values whatever, whatever kind of
terms that they that they that they think of themselves.
Speaker 3 (27:26):
With somehow like don't don't register it, you know.
Speaker 4 (27:31):
And I think that that is the kind of saddest
part of the story in some ways.
Speaker 3 (27:35):
And on the other hand, what.
Speaker 4 (27:38):
I would say that's optimistic, and the reason why I'm
ultimately optimistic is that more and more people are waking
up to what's happening and waking.
Speaker 3 (27:46):
Up to the to the to the necessity of.
Speaker 4 (27:48):
Finding a solution, and they're also waking up to the
fact that they're going to require that their politicians fight
on their behalf on these issues.
Speaker 3 (27:57):
And so.
Speaker 4 (27:59):
Uh, ultimately, I think, you know, maybe it's kind of
a kind of corny democratic sentiment. But you know, I
think that most people, most average people, most you know,
middle class people, most families in this country have the
right moral instincts. They have the right uh set of
(28:20):
principles that they live by, and it's time for us
as intellectual leaders, and then certainly it's time for their
political leaders to start listening to them and to start
channeling those sentiments into public policy, to start making changes
on their behalf.
Speaker 3 (28:35):
And so that requires leadership.
Speaker 4 (28:37):
And I think that the book and why I wrote
it and what I think it's why I think people
are responding to by sending it to the top of
the charts, is an outline for why we why we
must fight, how we must fight, what we must fight about.
And I think that I hope that it's a blueprint
or a guidebook for people who care about the culture
(29:00):
war to actually give them all the information and narrative
and argument that they need in order to be successful
in their own communities. And that's the vision, that's the
hope of the book. And I think that so far,
in the first couple of days, the response.
Speaker 3 (29:15):
Has been just overwhelming, quite good.
Speaker 1 (29:17):
You've been out there just fighting exposing all of this
and just tenations and actually really putting points on the
board in a way that other people aren't. So you've
just been so important in bringing this all to light
and also just showing as a path forward of how
to fight. So just appreciative view and the work that
you've done. Everyone should go check out this book, America's
(29:37):
Cultural Revolution. Thank you for what you do, Chris, and
I really appreciate you taking the time to come on
the show.
Speaker 3 (29:42):
Thank you so much.
Speaker 1 (29:49):
That was Chris Rufo talking about his new book, America's
Cultural Revolution, How the Radical Left conquered everything. Such a
smart guy. Really always enjoy talking to him. You learn
so much. Kim for coming on the show. I want
to thank you for listening at.
Speaker 2 (30:02):
Home or wherever you are. It's a podcast. You could
be doing anything right now.
Speaker 1 (30:05):
I want to thank John Cassio and my producer for
putting the show together every Monday and Thursday, but you
can listen throughout the week. Feel free to leave us
a review on Apple Podcast, give us a rating. Always
love reading those Till next time.
Host
Lisa Boothe
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