March 2, 2021 • 46 mins
The left is cancelling Dr. Seuss and Buck says it is just another example of the destruction of speech in the US. Plus Buck does an experiment on Cancel Culture and David Harsanyi joins the show.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
This is Buck's first thoughts, the news you need to
get for your day in forty five minutes. Make sure
you subscribe on the iHeart app for wherever you get
your podcasts. What's the first book you can remember reading
when you think back to the first author that you
could name? Who comes to mind? Sure a lot of
different answers out there, but for a good number of
(00:22):
the people listening to this across the country, doctor SEUs
is a likely bet. Doctor SEUs is among the most
well known, probably the most well known children's author of
all time. And now we find out the extent to
which the cancel culture of the left has grown that
(00:44):
even Doctor SEUs is not safe from their grasp. Of
course not though right nobody can be allowed to send
the way. There's no body of work that's so important,
that's so timeless, that you will not see the left
apply the standards of wokeness with the ever evolving, shifting, changing,
and often duplicit as standards of wokeness. The six Doctor
(01:08):
Seuss books that will no longer be published today, according
to various news sources because of racist and insensitive imagery.
This is from Doctor Seus's Enterprises, so the company that
owns it no longer wants to have to deal with
the possibility here of getting getting boycotted or anything else.
(01:31):
So they think that they have beaten the left, They've
beaten the wokeness to the punch, although I'm sure they
were already receiving a lot of pressure and there's criticism.
I can hardly keep up with all the stories these days.
They had another voice actor on The Simpsons who just
came out to say he'll no longer be voicing a
character of color, a person of color character that's no
(01:53):
longer allowed, as you know, and people are supposed to
apologize for doing it in the first place. Now there's
so many of these stories. It's happening all the time.
You know, it's funny, isn't it. I thought that the
Biden administration, I thought the left, once they were in charge,
could at least give us a couple of months of
(02:13):
focusing on governance and important issues. But no, you see
what they do. You see that when you believe the
things that the left believes, you take action on it,
even when it's counterproductive, even when it's absurd, and when
it goes against core values of this country free speech
and freedom of expression are core values and shrine to
(02:34):
the First Amendment to the Constitution. There't these aren't trivialities,
these aren't small things. And never before in my lifetime
has free speech and freedom overall been under such sustained
assault from people who have adopted an ideology of sanctimoniousness
and oppression simultaneously. They think they're the good guys, and you,
(02:58):
if you don't agree with them, are the bad guys.
And that now even extends to children's books. Six Doctor Seus'
books no longer to be published, including and to Think
That I Saw It on Mulberry Street, If I Ran
the Zoo, Mckeligot's Pool, On Beyond Zebra, Scrambled Eggs, Super
and the Cat's Quizzer. This comes right after one day
(03:23):
after Joe Biden omitted Doctor SEUs from Read Across America Day,
which is usually held on the author's birthday on March second,
so it's Read Across America Day, and Joe Biden, the
Biden administration they got up a thought into this one.
You're gonna make sure that they show they prove their
(03:44):
woke bona fie days. These people are you could say
cultural Marxists, you could say they are neo Kamis. There's
all kinds of descriptions, but ultimately it comes from a
mindset overwhelmed with the propaganda of victimology. Here we are
(04:04):
in America. People are so incredibly fortunate to even be here.
This is such an amazing place. And I know a
lot of time on this show has spent criticizing what's
going wrong and what people in power are doing wrong.
That's because it's a political talk show. But I'm also
here to tell you that America is amazing. That's the
greatest country that has ever existed, and it's worth fighting
(04:27):
for because of all those things, and that you should
enjoy it as you can enjoy your life, spend time
with your loved ones, get the most out of this
place that you can, and feel blessed in that process,
even though there are people that are trying to take
some of those blessings away from you. I'm aware of that,
and that's what we talk about here. But the Left
(04:48):
takes a very different approach, one of constant victimization, a
belief that there is oppression that is omnipresident in our society.
It is absolutely everywhere, and that means the only way
to deal with it is for government power and cultural
power to combine to suppress wrong think, to suppress ideas
(05:12):
that are disfavored by the ruling class, by the elites
at any given point in time. And here you have
doctor SEUs the latest with this. But I have to
tell you what you're seeing now with Amazon banning books,
including academic works on things like transgenderism. Are people that
(05:34):
have spent years researching issues and want to present an
argument not allowed. Amazon now says that they will block
the sale of books that they find offensive or insensitive.
If you can have culture, if you can have books, movies,
television shows that can be construed by someone somewhere as offensive,
(05:56):
you've essentially created the eradication of culture. In fact, the
only culture that you'll be left with is one that
defines the dominant group as the constant enemy, right, one
that picks one group that they're always it's always open
season on attacking and everything else. Everyone else has this
constant protection that they can invoke of well, I'm part
(06:19):
of the oppressed class. This is what the left does.
Isn't it fascinating how many people live in extreme wealth,
live an unbelievable splendor in America and are some of
the loudest voices for how hard and oppressive and bad
this place is. It's stunning. Whether you're talking about you know,
Hollywood actors and celebrities, professional athletes. They enjoy looking down
(06:46):
on America while they benefit in ways that previous generations
of humanity around the globe would have thought were incomprehensible
levels of freedom and wealth and an opportunity. But I
suppose everything is relative. You know, there's a concept called
hedonistic adaptation, and it has to do with once you
(07:09):
get used to something feeling good, once you have had
enough of, say living in a mansion, you know you
want three. Once you've been flying first class, you want
to fly private. Right, whatever benefits, whatever joys that you
can find in things, in actual possessions, or in goods
(07:34):
and services that you can buy, you get used to
it and you want more. And you see this with
the elites and the wealthy in America all the time.
It's never enough, and so they eventually reach a point
where the only real thing that matters to them is
the approval and the admiration of their peers. Essentially, ego
(07:55):
is all that's left. The only thing that is truly
unfillable is ego and the adoration of the crowd. And
you see this with some very very wealthy people, someone
like Bill Gates, for example. I mean he finds he
finds an existential necessity not for the planet, for himself
in pushing this climate change nonsense. Because when you've been
(08:18):
close to or the richest man in the world for
the last thirty years, another house, another jet fanciest food
in the world, you know you can only wear one
suit at a time, you can only eat one meal
at a time. You can only be married at well,
I mean generally speaking, only be married at one person
at a time. Right, I mean, there's only so much
(08:38):
that can be done here based on material wealth. But
the ego is endless. The ego is endless, and that's
why wokeness is this, this reservoir of vanity. You see,
these are people that have to do nothing, that have
to don't They don't take a difficult stand. It's the
(08:58):
opposite of that. They cover themselves in cheaply one glory
by throwing under the bus. Writers, authors, creators, leaders, heroes, warriors,
you name it, of the past, throw it all under
the bus. As though they're better than them because they
now have a new understanding of what's important and what's
(09:22):
right in society. You should also remember that they're not
seeking to replace this with anything that is worthwhile. That's
another problem. The art that is created in communist regimes
is always the most brutish, boring propaganda. There's a reason
for that, because for the mind to be truly free,
(09:45):
there has to be the opportunity to test boundaries. There
has to be the possibility of uncomfortable ideas, of uncomfortable truths,
even expressed in society. I often tell people with the
work that I do, the truth is perhaps say, ironclad
defense against defamation. But the truth does not always work
(10:06):
in your favor. When you say it. People often don't
want to hear the truth. Truth can be an ugly thing,
a difficult thing. In fact, a huge part of what
the Democrat Party does in America today is convinced people
who feel like they are disenfranchised, that they're left out,
that they have no agency in any of this, that
(10:26):
it's not their fault. You see, they haven't made any
bad decisions. They're not putting short term over long term.
There's no individual or personal discipline involved in where you
are or how your life is going. It's the other
they're oppressing you. And maybe if we start banning more
books then things will even out. This is, of course preposterous,
(10:47):
doesn't work that way. But you have those who won't
take responsibility for themselves adhering to this, loving the hearing
of this message. And then you have those who have
done incredibly well, unbelo believably well, live in luxury and
circumstances that kings of previous eras would have found unthinkable.
(11:09):
And what do they do. They pretend to be obsessed
with the plight of those who have less, out of
both a sense of guilt and a burning desire for
superiority for other for those who don't hold the same beliefs. Right,
I am better then, this is the virtue signaling idea.
I am better than those other people because I care
(11:29):
so much about those who have less. I don't do
anything for them. Of course, I don't help them. I
don't speak honestly or truthfully to them. I pander, But
it makes me look good because the ego is endless,
and people that could have never in a million years
come up with something as timeless and creative as the
books of Doctor Seuss now find a way to make
(11:50):
themselves feel tall and strong and brave by comparison when
they're actually none of those things, and they're tearing down
the free culture that was the reason for all the
prosperity and all the benefits that we've had in this country.
You're listening to the Buck Sexton Show podcast. Make sure
you subscribe to the podcast on the iHeartRadio app or
(12:13):
wherever you get your podcasts. One of the big problems
is that police are too often called into situations where
they should actually be the last resorts. So many activists
have said that we should find alternatives to cops as
first responders, you know, maybe healthcare professionals or community members.
And now the NYPD is saying, all right, I hear you,
(12:33):
but what about robot dogs. Wow, a robot dog. What
a cool way for the police to say they have
too much money and should be defunded. And this robot
dog comes with tons of features. It's got cameras, it's
got a microphone, it's even got an extra knife that
it can plant on an unarmed body, all sorts of things.
(12:56):
But you've got to give props to the police for
how they're marketing the robots. Oh, look at our adorable dog. No,
it's a cup made out of steel. Like they can
call tear gas potty smoke. Doesn't mean it's going to
sting any less when they blast you with it. Here's
a great example of ingratitude in America and practice. You
(13:19):
have Trevor Noah, who is a guy who lives in
a thirty million dollar mansion in bel Air. I'm serious,
thirty million dollar house, not a three million dollar house.
That's a really nice house. At thirty million dollar house,
Who's calling for the defunding of a police department where
the starting salary is forty two grand. They don't need money,
(13:42):
they don't need overtime, they don't need training. Defund them.
Oh what do you think Trevor Noah, who is painfully
unfunny and not talented, and I understand the market you
would say has rewarded him, Well, not really. A bunch
of media executives who decided, for whatever reason, wanted to
(14:05):
feel good about themselves in whatever way, thought, let's make
Trevor Noah a big deal in America by giving him
a TV show where he talks about American politics. And
he's not funny. He's not good at the job. He's
just not good at People that have seen him know this.
But put that aside for a second, because that's completely subjective,
(14:26):
and people can argue with me, and they can say
he's hilarious or whatever. Fine, he's a guy who's incredibly blessed,
and the moment that he heard something go bump in
the night in his thirty million dollar house in bel Air,
I can assure you he would be calling the police
and he wouldn't want them to send a social worker.
(14:47):
He wouldn't want them to send a social worker. He
would want them to send armed law enforcement officers. But
you see, it's a more popular stance if you're on
the left now, to pretend that the problem Erica are
the cops. It's a more popular stance for celebrities to
say that this would be easy to fix, the problems
(15:09):
of society would be easy to fix if only we
would send social workers instead of law enforcement officers. These
people don't know anything. These voices you hear in the media,
they don't understand law enforcement. They don't speak the truth
about the law enforcement incidents that are at the center
of the so called BLM movement, and when the truth
does come out, they don't share that because it never
(15:30):
really matters. Right. The best example of this is Mike Brown,
hands up, don't shoot. He did not get shot with
his hands up. He was charging a police officer. According
to several African American eyewitnesses and the report done by
Eric Holder as part of Obama as the head of
Obama's DOJ that's what the facts actually said. Still still
(15:53):
went with the movement there. I'm concerned for the future
of the city of Minneapolis. You know, the George Floyd
there with Officer Derek Chauvin is going to be underway soon.
And if that goes in the direction I think it will,
which is there will not be a second degree murder
conviction I believe. If there is, I think that's outrageous.
(16:17):
There might be a lesser charge that he's convicted on.
I think that's possible. But if let's just say Officer
Chauvin ends up being cleared of all criminal charges, which
based on the autopsy report of what actually was the
cause of death or George Floyd, seems like a distinct possibility,
there will be. Right, You're in the freedom Hunt. Thanks
(16:37):
for listening to the Buck Sexton Show podcast to get
the latest from Buck at buck sexton dot com. I
want to try and experiment with you now, in this
cancel culture, in this world of left wing domination of
social media, news media, and an entertainment in Hollywood. Think
(16:59):
about some thing that you could say, as a white
male about white males that is derogatory, that is um,
that is undermining, that is offensive, that would be considered
a problem from the left's perspective. I mean, how far
can you actually go? I think it's an interesting, interesting
(17:21):
experiment to run in your in your own mind, because
you can only do this with white males. It is
only in America, the the the province, that is, it
is only the in the realm of white males, where
there is nothing that can be said about white maleness
that is too offensive, too derogatory, too nasty. And in fact,
(17:44):
you get, as a white male, or anybody else for
that matter, you get a kind of social credit score
points added to you. You're a you're a better person.
And if you're wondering, Buck, what do you mean, how
does this work in practice? Here's a phenomenal example of it.
You know, when you want MSNBC. If I went on
(18:06):
MSNBC and and wanted the audience to like me, there
are certain things that I would I would try to
work into the conversation no matter what we're talking about,
and one of them would be a self deprecating and
self loathing attitude about white maleness. I can't change it's in.
These are immutable characteristics. Despite what the left thinks these days,
(18:29):
I am male. I am considered white. Now. I think
white as a categorization is also quite broad and in
some ways useless and vague. But yes, I am considered
to be of Caucasian skin tone. And that means that
that's that's what I'm dealing, that that's what I what
(18:49):
I am. You listen to John Brennan, the former CIA director,
and you hear a guys say this, and you know
that it's the equivalent of Jeb saying, please clap. I mean,
that's what John Brennan's doing here to the MSNBC audience.
It's embarrassing. Well he's embarrassed, but not of what he
should be. Play three. That's why we started with Katie
(19:13):
Benner's great new reporting about the investigation to police officer
it renders you know, at best hypocritical, at worst cynical,
and falls any notion that the Republicans care about the
lives in the safety of law enforcement. Well, I must
say to Claire's point, I'm increasingly embarrassed to be a
white male these days and light of what I see
of my other white male saying. But it just shows
(19:35):
that with the very few exceptions like Mitt Romney, Liz Cheney,
Adam Kinzingery, there are so few Republicans in Congress who
value truth, honesty, and whatever. Embarrassed to be a white male.
He throws that in there as a cheap applause line,
but this is really a mentality on the left. There's
(19:58):
this feeling of sad and a sense of transgressing when
you're talking about white males. We've you've done something wrong,
You've somehow violated something. You don't you didn't do anything,
but your white maleness is a problem. If you're a leftist,
if you're a Democrat today, you actually believe this stuff
(20:19):
and then think, do what I had said. You have
the experiment in your head of what can you say?
How far if I were to sit here and tell
you that you know, white males are the cause of
oppression and wars all of the world, that white males
are are the cause of racism, white males are the
(20:40):
cause of sexism and the patriarchy. All these things not
just a list of what the left believes. The left
believes these things they cause the patriarchy, they cause racism.
In fact, it's really not possible for them to be
racism except white males against other people. That's the which
is crazy if you know anything about the world, and
racism all over the world that doesn't even involve anybody
who's white. Buttheless, there's a lot of a lot of
(21:03):
this belief out there, and they make it very clear. Now,
assume for a moment that you're that you're talking about.
If you were going to talk about any group other
than white males, any racial group, gender group, would you
be able to get away with this? In fact, would
it be career enhancing for somebody to sit up, sit
(21:24):
up on a national TV channel like MSNBC and trash
their identity group or mock it or make fun of it. No,
of course, And if anyone else not from the group
did it, their career would be over. Of course, it
would be all done. You'd be run out of polite society.
How did we get to this point? Well, as I've
(21:45):
been saying to you, it is part of the messaging
campaign that the left has had for many, many years
now that you can get cheap points, cheap virtue signaling
points if only you embrace this anti white male, anti
patriarchy rhetoric as a white male or as anybody else.
(22:06):
This is now the culture, This is the way people
think about this. I mean, if you turn on you know,
comedians these days, what will comedians make fun of Republicans, hillbillies,
white males? That that's what you get. That's what comedians
think their job is. They certainly will not make fun
of any other groups. If they do, the woke mob
comes after them. And even if they're making fun of groups,
(22:28):
and we all used to know the difference. As I've
been saying to you, comedy has been has been killed
off by the left. They say, will all the comedians
are liberals? Yeah, for the same reason that all the
college professors are liberals, because they're a bunch of extremists
who won't allow anybody else with different ideas to be
in the same field. Right, because they're absolutists. Right, did
(22:52):
the Communists take over the Soviet Union, did Stalin and
his inner circle or are they in charge because their
ideas were so good, you know, were they so much
more widely beloved, you know, the Bolsheviks than the Mensheviks.
Or then the reform movement that was under way at
the time of the Russian Revolution, that evolved the constitutional
(23:13):
democracy movement, but no one even remembers that anymore. They
were trying to get there. But no, of course, not right.
You're supposed to forget. You're supposed to forget all of that.
These people, because of their belief system, they think that
there can't be opposing ideas because it's all rooted in
(23:33):
this obsession with a belief of absolute truth in politics
and in culture, I mean, which is just it's so
counter it's just so counterintuitive for all the rest of us.
Of course, culture needs to be different, and culture is messy,
and this is why they get these ideas like cultural appropriation.
It's an absurdity. There's no such thing. They will tell
(23:57):
you there is, and they will say that, you know,
you can't be a white person who cooks Asian food,
for example, to which I always point out, Asia is
a very big place and everybody in Asia. Every country
in Asia has borrowed from regional cuisines. And you know,
there is no straight line here to even talk about,
but they pretend that there is. It's all about power.
(24:20):
It's about transferring into the hands of a very few,
not just the ability to dictate your actions through government
and cultural and private sector coercion now, but also to
trying to control your thoughts. There are people who are
obsessed with control as a general principle, controlling others, and
they desire also at some level to be controlled themselves. Right,
(24:44):
and only at the very very top are there those
who are so in love with their own power, their
authority that they just wish to increase the control that
they have on everyone else and then have absolute freedom
to do whatever they want themselves. That that's the end
stage of authoritarian leftism today. That's where these commies want
to take us. And you see this in the way
(25:07):
they approach so many of these issues. What cultural additions
have the haves the left made in recent years that
you think will be enduring will be timeless? What are
they doing that is inspiring beautiful worthwhile? No, they tear
down everything else before them and they hold themselves up
(25:31):
and they act as though somehow this is going to
make this a better country. By running around like powermat
hall monitors, this is going to improve American society. People
do at their core have have a yearning to be free.
They can suppress it, and it can be it can
be locked up essentially by those who would rather then
(25:53):
be controlled. And this is why a lot of belief systems,
a lot of political systems, focus so much on that
absolute control. We're supposed to have a system rooted in
individuality and individual freedom, and it is under assaults from
the collectives left. And I know you could say, all,
come on, some children's books. What's the big deal. They're
actually banning books, folks. Can we just understand the left
(26:17):
is ascendant right now and what are they doing. They
are banning books. They're not banning mind comp by the way,
that you can still get on Amazon. I checked. But
they are banning books that say that maybe giving hormone
blocking medicines, to hormone blocking agents to eleven twelve year
(26:37):
olds who think they're transgender, and it is think, by
the way, there's no physical manifestation of this, that that's
hate speech, it's hate. I've always been opposed to hate
speech codes and rules because I knew how this would go.
The slope is in fact slippery, and this is what's
happened on social media too. At first it was terms
(26:58):
of service. You can't say mean things to people, you
can attack them and you know, put their personal data
online and docks them. All Right, well, some of that
seems reasonable. Then it's as well, but also we don't
allow hate speech. What does that mean? Does advocating for
the enforcement of US federal law and ur southern borders
that hate speech talked? A lot of Democrats will say
it is they're controlling so much of the society around them,
(27:21):
and we find ourselves playing defense these days. I think
the first step is understanding why what they're doing on
a philosophical level is both wrong and destructive. This does
not make America a better place, and it doesn't even
have the outcome that they wanted to, which is that
we are all more respectful of each other. No respect
(27:42):
comes from an understanding. You know, it's really not possible
to have respect in society without also some level of
wisdom and judgment. And if people can't understand that, they're
not always going to like what others say. They're not
going to like other research and the ideas that they
(28:03):
put forward in society. All that happens is they force,
they suppress freedoms and create a backlash. And it's one
that we're going to be dealing with, I think in
unforseeable ways right now. But in time will say, of course,
of course, the book bannings and eventually I'm sure book burnings.
(28:25):
I mean, the stuff that they're doing in this country
is unthinkable, the cultural suppression. Of course, it led to
some awful outcomes, but right now they can't see it
because they're just drunk with power and self righteousness. One
of the one of the great benefits of being a
brainless leftist is that you can just bathe in sanctimoniousness
(28:47):
with a tweet with a BLM hashtag on your social
media page, all of a sudden, without doing anything or
earning anything. You're a good person. It's the single powerful
selling point of American leftism today. This is the Buck
Sexton Show podcast. Follow Buck on Facebook, for Instagram and Twitter.
(29:12):
No doubt the virus is in the air. There is
no doubt that you can catch it if you inhale
air that someone else has exhaled, and as Peers described
beautifully the exercising jogga, the puffing and panting jogger, you
can feel their breath come and you can sometimes actually
feel yourself inhale it. So there's no doubt that there
(29:33):
is a danger there. I do agree that wet soggy
masks are not a good idea, but for goodness sake,
I've been for a run this morning. Not only did
I put my T shirt in the wash, but I
put my mask in the wash as well. So the
fact that they get contaminated, it's not a reason for
not wearing them. It's not that you're going to do
(29:53):
anything with that mask apart from wash it. The other
thing to say is that forty percent of COVID cases
happen by catching it from people who have no symptoms.
So you're jogging along, you think you're fine, and then
the next day you develop symptoms of COVID. But you've
actually breathed that COVID onto someone, perhaps you know, an
(30:14):
old lady walking a dog or something like that. So
I think it's really important to be here. Let's bring
in you're jogging along, you think you're fine, and then
you breathe on an old lady and you've just murdered
her and should span the rest of your life, probably
in a dark prison cell somewhere because you wouldn't wear
(30:35):
a mask like doctor Greenley of Britain on this Piers
Mortgage show. I don't even know what it's called. Told
you too, and all of us sad in my accents.
Moving it's like it's going more into the poorer areas
of London, you know what I mean. So, yeah, this
is when you've got a British darker. You're telling you
(30:56):
that you should wear a mask when you're running alone
on TV. Now, she will not be censored or silenced
by social media or anybody else for being a moron.
They're just gonna say, yeah, that's right. Whatever protects people.
But there the the theoretical basis that she lines up
here for you. Getting the virus is like a lightning
(31:18):
strike fear. I can't tell you it's not possible. But
all the actual research on the epidemiology of this virus
is is long duration, close proximity indoors. That's how you
get this meaning, that's where the risk is, right, that's
the that's the concern. You know, there's always a concern.
(31:40):
You could be going for a jog, you could step
on a hypodermic needle and you know you might get
you know, hepatitis. But people don't run around worried about that.
They worry if they're actually intervened as drug users, about
getting blood born of blood borne pathogens like that. Right,
that's that's a reasonable You tell people, hey, don't use
dirty needles. You don't say, hey, be careful because there's
(32:03):
a one a one in a million, one in a
billion chance when you go for a job in the
park you might step on a dirty needle. It's possible.
I mean, I can't tell you it's not possible, right,
of course it is. But is that what you're worried about.
We have seen as part of the mass panic induced,
the mass hysteria induced by our mass media has resulted
(32:26):
in the complete elimination of a reasonable understanding of risk
in our lives. And this doctor is a perfect example
of it. You can listen to me, or you can
listen to doctor Fauci, who says, of course New York
did a great job dealing with the pandemic. Cromo particularly
did a great job highest death toll in the country
after New Jersey, which is basically just a province of
(32:47):
New York in terms of the population dispersal here and
how it works at the virus here's doctor Fouchi you
play twenty. The CDC will be coming out within the
next few weeks, maybe even sooner with some guidelines about
what people who are vaccinated. And I think, and I
know you're referring Dana to people who are doubly vaccinated
fourteen days out, they're protected, they have that ninety four
(33:08):
to nine protection. What can they do? I'm very certain
and we've discussed this, and you're right. I don't want
to get ahead of the guidelines because the CDC wants
to do things that are science based. If you can't
get the science, you've got to maybe you as modeling,
and in addition to modeling, you use good professional, common
sense judgment. They'll be coming out with that. But one
(33:30):
of the things that I think is going to become
clear that if you have individuals adults who are vaccinated
to people that are doubly vaccinated and are protected, then
you can do things that we weren't talking about before.
You could have dinner in a home without masks on.
You could have friends who you know are doubly vaccinated
(33:50):
and are protected together there once you're double vaccinity says,
you could have dinner in a home, a private home.
I hope you've been doing that all along, folks, early do.
This is Buck's first thoughts. The news you need to
get for your day in forty five minutes. Make sure
you subscribe on the iHeart app or wherever you get
your podcasts. It's Harsani time. We got our friend David
(34:13):
Harsani in the mix. He is at National Review dot com.
Seen your writer there, David? What's going on much? How
are you, you know, getting getting used to what it's
like to have our our democrat overlords in place here.
It's every bit is annoying, frustrating and point and uh
pointless as I thought it would be. But let's let's
(34:35):
do this this first, because I've been talking today a
fair amount about the the canceling of I know it's
only six books, but they're canceling children's books now. He
wrote that it's fascinating to me that people can't stand
against the book burners without making about Fox or conservatives
and even if geisl was a racist, meaning uh, doctor Seuss,
(34:56):
it doesn't change anything. Roldal was an anti semi and
I still wouldn't want people to stop publishing his books
explaining his arm for a long time. I mean, free
speech is not contingent or your belief in free speech
and in an open society isn't contingent on the opinions themselves.
Either you believe that free speech is a neutral principle
(35:18):
or you don't. Now, people don't have to publish a book.
But if they're banning a book because it's insensitive, and
then even the people who are are against that, meaning
you know, left wing people, they only have to make
the case that doctor Zeus wasn't you know, deep inside
he wasn't a racist. It doesn't matter. There are plenty
(35:39):
of books we read from people who are racists or
who had opinions in the time that would not work
today for us. That doesn't diminish their work. There's a
million books we can ban right now. I was just
rereading one of my favorite books, All the King's Men,
and the end word is used throughout it. But it's
not a racist book. I know, there's weird to say
it's a book of the time in Louisiana and thirties,
(36:01):
and that's the way that people spoke in those days.
This is a never ending, big damdlist you're going to have,
and the left windows they can't even say we're shoom Bannett.
Instead they're talking about how all doctor Susie who caress
that would do with it. But they can't just get
themselves to be on the right side of something like this.
(36:21):
So that's just a note. I think it shows it
shows the power of the woke narrative that there are
so many people who are making a living in the
realm of free expression and free speech or what should
be that realm. And if you're look, it's very straightforward.
If you're somebody who's a big Biden supporter and Biden voter,
(36:41):
and you work in news media, any kind of communications media,
you basically, I mean, I know there are some exceptions
that we know who they are, the prominent ones, but
you basically shut your damn mouth and go along with
all this cancelation stuff, even though you're supposed to be
the people who would speak out most fervently against it.
I mean, I'm sure you've been following this thing at
(37:03):
the New York Times, where the science reporter forty plus
years was fired for using the N word in a
descriptive way, not not not not insulting anyone with it,
but asking a student about it. And he was fired.
And this he's put up like fully long blog posts
detailing what happened, and it's just it's this. I don't
know if it's more like nineteen eighty four or it's
(37:23):
more like Kafka's the Trial or something, but it's just
insane to read. And I don't even know how people
can confunction, especially creative people are writers, or people are
supposedly thinking for themselves, can can function in that kind
of stifling intellectual environment. I think I think it's sad
for the New York Times. I think it's sad for
us in general. I've asked people this, what what, for example,
(37:46):
should be the sanction against somebody who is a court
stadiographer or is she supposed to or he's supposed to
make you know edits in real time? If if you know,
if you're if you're reading back, what somebody you know?
What about a detect if a detective who's saying this
is what I heard the suspects say before the shooting happened,
is he supposed to be bleeped or is he going
(38:07):
to actually be canceled and fired for quoting words that
he heard in the context of a criminal investigation. But
you start to go into this realm of straight crazy
town and another thing I think is really problematic. And
nobody else will say this when you're going into the
banning of words, but only some people aren't allowed to
say the words other people are. This is really just
(38:30):
a power dynamic. I mean, this is actually something that
people should reject on a principle. It's not like it's
a ban on a word because if it has ever
heard or utter. I mean in some context, words that
are banned for some people are celebrated in others, as
we all know. And I think that this is a
rule that really is just about making It's just about
making some people bend the knee to the constantly changing
(38:52):
whims of the left. It doesn't actually protect anyone or
make it. I mean, everyone understands that using an ethnic
slur or using a meeting word about somebody's immutable characteristic
is a grotesque and a moral thing to do. But
this goes way beyond that into even the repetition of
somebody else saying the words specifically to understand what the
(39:13):
word was, is now a cancellable offense. Yeah, you make
a great point on the Court's demograph. For if now
we have to board to the soul of whoever is
using whatever word and divine or try to figure out
their intent, that's going to be a rough road. And
as you say, certain people are empowered or bestowed with
(39:33):
the power to decide who's using it correctly and who isn't.
I mean, then it's just about power. Now, there's already
certain words have stigma attached to them. We don't use
them and we don't say them. A normal, well adjusted
people don't use these words in a way to insult
other people. But you know, in the end, even if
(39:54):
they do that, it doesn't mean they have to work
at the New York Times. But are we going to, like,
let's say doctor SEUs used those words in the past,
that we're gonna now get rid of his books everywhere
because he was that kind of person. It seems just
these standards are Listen. I mentioned this before, but literally
I was just thinking about all the books Pallion Chuck
(40:17):
Chuck Palinchuck wrote The Fight Club with a book that
I love. I mean, it is has misogynistic characters in it.
So what are we going to do? Do we know
that he is in a misogynist Now, I'd have to
know and like meet him before I know if I'm
to publish his book. You can't have these kind of
standards in society. It doesn't work, especially in our artistically.
Remember twenty thirty years ago, you know, it was the
last who was always like, we're going to ban books
(40:38):
in libraries. They were the ones always concerned about it.
Was in the Patriot Actor. Remember it was such a
big deal that the government would know what books you're
taking out. And now they're perfectly fine with it, or
they won't say anything, which is bad enough for someone
who's a journalist. We're speaking of David Harsani. He is
a senior writer of National Review, and David, I wanted
to get your take on the Noble the changing malleable
(41:02):
as the word I was really think of the malleable
journalistic ethics of CNN as an organization, a more specifically
Chris Cuomo. Look, I understand this. I don't care what
my job is, what I'm doing. I wouldn't be on
TV trashing a family member. And I mean up to
the point where they could say, you know you do
this or else, and I'd say, I'll take the rls
like that's just a It's a point of honor and
(41:24):
pride for me, and I wouldn't do it. However, if
I were holding myself out as a journalist, I would
also have shied away from doing a propaganda variety hour
in favor of a politician during a pandemic because he
was my brother. And I think that CNN should have
(41:44):
known that too. As a quote news organization, Yeah, they're
not a news organization. They're just kind of this corrupt
institution that pretends to do journalists and the worst of
all the worst MSNBC because they put tend not to
be on the left, which is there is a propaganda unit.
But more than that, with Chris Cuomo, they keep pretending
(42:07):
that the problem is that he isn't covering what's going
on now with his brother. No, the problem is that
he covered up for his brother for a year. He
never should. As you mentioned, I would never go on
their badmouth with my brother, even if it was true,
I would I would just report something else. But the
idea Lord wants that. I don't think any normal people
wanted to do that. They wanted him not to act,
(42:29):
as you say in this Variety Hour, covering up for
a guy who was sending people to die in nursing homes.
And for me, listen, I think that these accusations against
Cuomo are serious. I hope he's afforded to due process
that liberals never give conservatives like Bread Kavanaugh. They're serious allegations,
but the using government to kill people because even more
(42:52):
serious allegation, and people still aren't talking about it, even
the left, which is now supposedly you know, the reason,
of course is time of why they don't care aback
Cuomo now, But even they are not really getting into
his worst the worst sins and how he acted like
a dictator basically and you know, destroyed the lives of
many people. So just to go back, Chris Cuomo's problem
(43:14):
is not the coverage, as you mentioned, but the not
the I mean the not not covering, but the coverage itself.
And I have to say that this this idea that
the media was honest in the way that it was
portraying Governor Cuomo in the past. I mean, I know
that that's not true, because you and I were having
conversations six months ago about the gross, slobbering love affair
(43:39):
that the mainstream media was having, a corporate media was
having with Cuomo as the governor of New York. And
I also put it in my many, many, many exhibits
of what a complete jackass doctor Fauci is and what awful,
awful judgment he has. He was pointing to Andrew Cuomo
as the gold standard. I mean, what else do you
(43:59):
have to If this guy was my private physician, I
would never I wouldn't even go let him, you know,
hit me on the need to check my reflexes, Like
I would go nowhere near this guy. And he's still
allowed to make all these policies. He literally said the words,
this is the way to do it, where he's done
it the right way, and the rest of the country
(44:20):
should follow. Why doesn't anyone ask him about that? Why
doesn't anyone ask him how he feels about that, and
why he made another big giant mistake in the past.
No one, no one, no one challenges that guy with
any access. But yeah, we were talking about this. Probably
I don't know when exactly, but probably an April already, right,
I mean, there were some local reporters that noted that
(44:42):
he had fudged the numbers on the on the deaths
at nursing homes way back in I think it was
April or may. I think they were at the Associated
Press and some other organization in Albany. People knew. The
main main media, the political media, the big time Chris
Colombos of the world and everyone was on TV covered
it up for him, and they wouldn't report it, and
(45:02):
they ignored it, and uh, you know, and now now
they pretend that never happened. When I ever asked to
answer for those things in the media, they just go on.
They make giant mistakes. They literally cost lives. Maybe it
cost lives in this instance, or maybe then cost lives.
But they covered up something that was you know, that
(45:22):
might have had a lot to do with the high
death tolls in New York frankly so, and that spread
from there to the rest of the country. By the way,
even though I don't you know, I don't know that
that's exactly true. We can't know. I think the virus
was going to go through America anyway, But the point
is that they did not cover Donald Trump with that tone,
or De Santis or any Republicans. So it's just completely
(45:43):
misleading reporting that that was a year long thing and
now that we're supposed to reward them because they finally
decided to go after Andrew Cormo when it doesn't matter
for Democrats anymore. David Harsan everybody National Review dot com
for his latest David, thanks so much for joining U.
This is Buck's first thoughts, the news you need to
get for your day in forty five minutes. Make sure
you subscribe on the iHeart app for wherever you get
your podcasts. What's the first book you can remember reading
when you think back to the first author that you
could name? Who comes to mind? Sure a lot of
different answers out there, but for a good number of
(00:22):
the people listening to this across the country, doctor SEUs
is a likely bet. Doctor SEUs is among the most
well known, probably the most well known children's author of
all time. And now we find out the extent to
which the cancel culture of the left has grown that
(00:44):
even Doctor SEUs is not safe from their grasp. Of
course not though right nobody can be allowed to send
the way. There's no body of work that's so important,
that's so timeless, that you will not see the left
apply the standards of wokeness with the ever evolving, shifting, changing,
and often duplicit as standards of wokeness. The six Doctor
(01:08):
Seuss books that will no longer be published today, according
to various news sources because of racist and insensitive imagery.
This is from Doctor Seus's Enterprises, so the company that
owns it no longer wants to have to deal with
the possibility here of getting getting boycotted or anything else.
(01:31):
So they think that they have beaten the left, They've
beaten the wokeness to the punch, although I'm sure they
were already receiving a lot of pressure and there's criticism.
I can hardly keep up with all the stories these days.
They had another voice actor on The Simpsons who just
came out to say he'll no longer be voicing a
character of color, a person of color character that's no
(01:53):
longer allowed, as you know, and people are supposed to
apologize for doing it in the first place. Now there's
so many of these stories. It's happening all the time.
You know, it's funny, isn't it. I thought that the
Biden administration, I thought the left, once they were in charge,
could at least give us a couple of months of
(02:13):
focusing on governance and important issues. But no, you see
what they do. You see that when you believe the
things that the left believes, you take action on it,
even when it's counterproductive, even when it's absurd, and when
it goes against core values of this country free speech
and freedom of expression are core values and shrine to
(02:34):
the First Amendment to the Constitution. There't these aren't trivialities,
these aren't small things. And never before in my lifetime
has free speech and freedom overall been under such sustained
assault from people who have adopted an ideology of sanctimoniousness
and oppression simultaneously. They think they're the good guys, and you,
(02:58):
if you don't agree with them, are the bad guys.
And that now even extends to children's books. Six Doctor Seus'
books no longer to be published, including and to Think
That I Saw It on Mulberry Street, If I Ran
the Zoo, Mckeligot's Pool, On Beyond Zebra, Scrambled Eggs, Super
and the Cat's Quizzer. This comes right after one day
(03:23):
after Joe Biden omitted Doctor SEUs from Read Across America Day,
which is usually held on the author's birthday on March second,
so it's Read Across America Day, and Joe Biden, the
Biden administration they got up a thought into this one.
You're gonna make sure that they show they prove their
(03:44):
woke bona fie days. These people are you could say
cultural Marxists, you could say they are neo Kamis. There's
all kinds of descriptions, but ultimately it comes from a
mindset overwhelmed with the propaganda of victimology. Here we are
(04:04):
in America. People are so incredibly fortunate to even be here.
This is such an amazing place. And I know a
lot of time on this show has spent criticizing what's
going wrong and what people in power are doing wrong.
That's because it's a political talk show. But I'm also
here to tell you that America is amazing. That's the
greatest country that has ever existed, and it's worth fighting
(04:27):
for because of all those things, and that you should
enjoy it as you can enjoy your life, spend time
with your loved ones, get the most out of this
place that you can, and feel blessed in that process,
even though there are people that are trying to take
some of those blessings away from you. I'm aware of that,
and that's what we talk about here. But the Left
(04:48):
takes a very different approach, one of constant victimization, a
belief that there is oppression that is omnipresident in our society.
It is absolutely everywhere, and that means the only way
to deal with it is for government power and cultural
power to combine to suppress wrong think, to suppress ideas
(05:12):
that are disfavored by the ruling class, by the elites
at any given point in time. And here you have
doctor SEUs the latest with this. But I have to
tell you what you're seeing now with Amazon banning books,
including academic works on things like transgenderism. Are people that
(05:34):
have spent years researching issues and want to present an
argument not allowed. Amazon now says that they will block
the sale of books that they find offensive or insensitive.
If you can have culture, if you can have books, movies,
television shows that can be construed by someone somewhere as offensive,
(05:56):
you've essentially created the eradication of culture. In fact, the
only culture that you'll be left with is one that
defines the dominant group as the constant enemy, right, one
that picks one group that they're always it's always open
season on attacking and everything else. Everyone else has this
constant protection that they can invoke of well, I'm part
(06:19):
of the oppressed class. This is what the left does.
Isn't it fascinating how many people live in extreme wealth,
live an unbelievable splendor in America and are some of
the loudest voices for how hard and oppressive and bad
this place is. It's stunning. Whether you're talking about you know,
Hollywood actors and celebrities, professional athletes. They enjoy looking down
(06:46):
on America while they benefit in ways that previous generations
of humanity around the globe would have thought were incomprehensible
levels of freedom and wealth and an opportunity. But I
suppose everything is relative. You know, there's a concept called
hedonistic adaptation, and it has to do with once you
(07:09):
get used to something feeling good, once you have had
enough of, say living in a mansion, you know you
want three. Once you've been flying first class, you want
to fly private. Right, whatever benefits, whatever joys that you
can find in things, in actual possessions, or in goods
(07:34):
and services that you can buy, you get used to
it and you want more. And you see this with
the elites and the wealthy in America all the time.
It's never enough, and so they eventually reach a point
where the only real thing that matters to them is
the approval and the admiration of their peers. Essentially, ego
(07:55):
is all that's left. The only thing that is truly
unfillable is ego and the adoration of the crowd. And
you see this with some very very wealthy people, someone
like Bill Gates, for example. I mean he finds he
finds an existential necessity not for the planet, for himself
in pushing this climate change nonsense. Because when you've been
(08:18):
close to or the richest man in the world for
the last thirty years, another house, another jet fanciest food
in the world, you know you can only wear one
suit at a time, you can only eat one meal
at a time. You can only be married at well,
I mean generally speaking, only be married at one person
at a time. Right, I mean, there's only so much
(08:38):
that can be done here based on material wealth. But
the ego is endless. The ego is endless, and that's
why wokeness is this, this reservoir of vanity. You see,
these are people that have to do nothing, that have
to don't They don't take a difficult stand. It's the
(08:58):
opposite of that. They cover themselves in cheaply one glory
by throwing under the bus. Writers, authors, creators, leaders, heroes, warriors,
you name it, of the past, throw it all under
the bus. As though they're better than them because they
now have a new understanding of what's important and what's
(09:22):
right in society. You should also remember that they're not
seeking to replace this with anything that is worthwhile. That's
another problem. The art that is created in communist regimes
is always the most brutish, boring propaganda. There's a reason
for that, because for the mind to be truly free,
(09:45):
there has to be the opportunity to test boundaries. There
has to be the possibility of uncomfortable ideas, of uncomfortable truths,
even expressed in society. I often tell people with the
work that I do, the truth is perhaps say, ironclad
defense against defamation. But the truth does not always work
(10:06):
in your favor. When you say it. People often don't
want to hear the truth. Truth can be an ugly thing,
a difficult thing. In fact, a huge part of what
the Democrat Party does in America today is convinced people
who feel like they are disenfranchised, that they're left out,
that they have no agency in any of this, that
(10:26):
it's not their fault. You see, they haven't made any
bad decisions. They're not putting short term over long term.
There's no individual or personal discipline involved in where you
are or how your life is going. It's the other
they're oppressing you. And maybe if we start banning more
books then things will even out. This is, of course preposterous,
(10:47):
doesn't work that way. But you have those who won't
take responsibility for themselves adhering to this, loving the hearing
of this message. And then you have those who have
done incredibly well, unbelo believably well, live in luxury and
circumstances that kings of previous eras would have found unthinkable.
(11:09):
And what do they do. They pretend to be obsessed
with the plight of those who have less, out of
both a sense of guilt and a burning desire for
superiority for other for those who don't hold the same beliefs. Right,
I am better then, this is the virtue signaling idea.
I am better than those other people because I care
(11:29):
so much about those who have less. I don't do
anything for them. Of course, I don't help them. I
don't speak honestly or truthfully to them. I pander, But
it makes me look good because the ego is endless,
and people that could have never in a million years
come up with something as timeless and creative as the
books of Doctor Seuss now find a way to make
(11:50):
themselves feel tall and strong and brave by comparison when
they're actually none of those things, and they're tearing down
the free culture that was the reason for all the
prosperity and all the benefits that we've had in this country.
You're listening to the Buck Sexton Show podcast. Make sure
you subscribe to the podcast on the iHeartRadio app or
(12:13):
wherever you get your podcasts. One of the big problems
is that police are too often called into situations where
they should actually be the last resorts. So many activists
have said that we should find alternatives to cops as
first responders, you know, maybe healthcare professionals or community members.
And now the NYPD is saying, all right, I hear you,
(12:33):
but what about robot dogs. Wow, a robot dog. What
a cool way for the police to say they have
too much money and should be defunded. And this robot
dog comes with tons of features. It's got cameras, it's
got a microphone, it's even got an extra knife that
it can plant on an unarmed body, all sorts of things.
(12:56):
But you've got to give props to the police for
how they're marketing the robots. Oh, look at our adorable dog. No,
it's a cup made out of steel. Like they can
call tear gas potty smoke. Doesn't mean it's going to
sting any less when they blast you with it. Here's
a great example of ingratitude in America and practice. You
(13:19):
have Trevor Noah, who is a guy who lives in
a thirty million dollar mansion in bel Air. I'm serious,
thirty million dollar house, not a three million dollar house.
That's a really nice house. At thirty million dollar house,
Who's calling for the defunding of a police department where
the starting salary is forty two grand. They don't need money,
(13:42):
they don't need overtime, they don't need training. Defund them.
Oh what do you think Trevor Noah, who is painfully
unfunny and not talented, and I understand the market you
would say has rewarded him, Well, not really. A bunch
of media executives who decided, for whatever reason, wanted to
(14:05):
feel good about themselves in whatever way, thought, let's make
Trevor Noah a big deal in America by giving him
a TV show where he talks about American politics. And
he's not funny. He's not good at the job. He's
just not good at People that have seen him know this.
But put that aside for a second, because that's completely subjective,
(14:26):
and people can argue with me, and they can say
he's hilarious or whatever. Fine, he's a guy who's incredibly blessed,
and the moment that he heard something go bump in
the night in his thirty million dollar house in bel Air,
I can assure you he would be calling the police
and he wouldn't want them to send a social worker.
(14:47):
He wouldn't want them to send a social worker. He
would want them to send armed law enforcement officers. But
you see, it's a more popular stance if you're on
the left now, to pretend that the problem Erica are
the cops. It's a more popular stance for celebrities to
say that this would be easy to fix, the problems
(15:09):
of society would be easy to fix if only we
would send social workers instead of law enforcement officers. These
people don't know anything. These voices you hear in the media,
they don't understand law enforcement. They don't speak the truth
about the law enforcement incidents that are at the center
of the so called BLM movement, and when the truth
does come out, they don't share that because it never
(15:30):
really matters. Right. The best example of this is Mike Brown,
hands up, don't shoot. He did not get shot with
his hands up. He was charging a police officer. According
to several African American eyewitnesses and the report done by
Eric Holder as part of Obama as the head of
Obama's DOJ that's what the facts actually said. Still still
(15:53):
went with the movement there. I'm concerned for the future
of the city of Minneapolis. You know, the George Floyd
there with Officer Derek Chauvin is going to be underway soon.
And if that goes in the direction I think it will,
which is there will not be a second degree murder
conviction I believe. If there is, I think that's outrageous.
(16:17):
There might be a lesser charge that he's convicted on.
I think that's possible. But if let's just say Officer
Chauvin ends up being cleared of all criminal charges, which
based on the autopsy report of what actually was the
cause of death or George Floyd, seems like a distinct possibility,
there will be. Right, You're in the freedom Hunt. Thanks
(16:37):
for listening to the Buck Sexton Show podcast to get
the latest from Buck at buck sexton dot com. I
want to try and experiment with you now, in this
cancel culture, in this world of left wing domination of
social media, news media, and an entertainment in Hollywood. Think
(16:59):
about some thing that you could say, as a white
male about white males that is derogatory, that is um,
that is undermining, that is offensive, that would be considered
a problem from the left's perspective. I mean, how far
can you actually go? I think it's an interesting, interesting
(17:21):
experiment to run in your in your own mind, because
you can only do this with white males. It is
only in America, the the the province, that is, it
is only the in the realm of white males, where
there is nothing that can be said about white maleness
that is too offensive, too derogatory, too nasty. And in fact,
(17:44):
you get, as a white male, or anybody else for
that matter, you get a kind of social credit score
points added to you. You're a you're a better person.
And if you're wondering, Buck, what do you mean, how
does this work in practice? Here's a phenomenal example of it.
You know, when you want MSNBC. If I went on
(18:06):
MSNBC and and wanted the audience to like me, there
are certain things that I would I would try to
work into the conversation no matter what we're talking about,
and one of them would be a self deprecating and
self loathing attitude about white maleness. I can't change it's in.
These are immutable characteristics. Despite what the left thinks these days,
(18:29):
I am male. I am considered white. Now. I think
white as a categorization is also quite broad and in
some ways useless and vague. But yes, I am considered
to be of Caucasian skin tone. And that means that
that's that's what I'm dealing, that that's what I what
(18:49):
I am. You listen to John Brennan, the former CIA director,
and you hear a guys say this, and you know
that it's the equivalent of Jeb saying, please clap. I mean,
that's what John Brennan's doing here to the MSNBC audience.
It's embarrassing. Well he's embarrassed, but not of what he
should be. Play three. That's why we started with Katie
(19:13):
Benner's great new reporting about the investigation to police officer
it renders you know, at best hypocritical, at worst cynical,
and falls any notion that the Republicans care about the
lives in the safety of law enforcement. Well, I must
say to Claire's point, I'm increasingly embarrassed to be a
white male these days and light of what I see
of my other white male saying. But it just shows
(19:35):
that with the very few exceptions like Mitt Romney, Liz Cheney,
Adam Kinzingery, there are so few Republicans in Congress who
value truth, honesty, and whatever. Embarrassed to be a white male.
He throws that in there as a cheap applause line,
but this is really a mentality on the left. There's
(19:58):
this feeling of sad and a sense of transgressing when
you're talking about white males. We've you've done something wrong,
You've somehow violated something. You don't you didn't do anything,
but your white maleness is a problem. If you're a leftist,
if you're a Democrat today, you actually believe this stuff
(20:19):
and then think, do what I had said. You have
the experiment in your head of what can you say?
How far if I were to sit here and tell
you that you know, white males are the cause of
oppression and wars all of the world, that white males
are are the cause of racism, white males are the
(20:40):
cause of sexism and the patriarchy. All these things not
just a list of what the left believes. The left
believes these things they cause the patriarchy, they cause racism.
In fact, it's really not possible for them to be
racism except white males against other people. That's the which
is crazy if you know anything about the world, and
racism all over the world that doesn't even involve anybody
who's white. Buttheless, there's a lot of a lot of
(21:03):
this belief out there, and they make it very clear. Now,
assume for a moment that you're that you're talking about.
If you were going to talk about any group other
than white males, any racial group, gender group, would you
be able to get away with this? In fact, would
it be career enhancing for somebody to sit up, sit
(21:24):
up on a national TV channel like MSNBC and trash
their identity group or mock it or make fun of it. No,
of course, And if anyone else not from the group
did it, their career would be over. Of course, it
would be all done. You'd be run out of polite society.
How did we get to this point? Well, as I've
(21:45):
been saying to you, it is part of the messaging
campaign that the left has had for many, many years
now that you can get cheap points, cheap virtue signaling
points if only you embrace this anti white male, anti
patriarchy rhetoric as a white male or as anybody else.
(22:06):
This is now the culture, This is the way people
think about this. I mean, if you turn on you know,
comedians these days, what will comedians make fun of Republicans, hillbillies,
white males? That that's what you get. That's what comedians
think their job is. They certainly will not make fun
of any other groups. If they do, the woke mob
comes after them. And even if they're making fun of groups,
(22:28):
and we all used to know the difference. As I've
been saying to you, comedy has been has been killed
off by the left. They say, will all the comedians
are liberals? Yeah, for the same reason that all the
college professors are liberals, because they're a bunch of extremists
who won't allow anybody else with different ideas to be
in the same field. Right, because they're absolutists. Right, did
(22:52):
the Communists take over the Soviet Union, did Stalin and
his inner circle or are they in charge because their
ideas were so good, you know, were they so much
more widely beloved, you know, the Bolsheviks than the Mensheviks.
Or then the reform movement that was under way at
the time of the Russian Revolution, that evolved the constitutional
(23:13):
democracy movement, but no one even remembers that anymore. They
were trying to get there. But no, of course, not right.
You're supposed to forget. You're supposed to forget all of that.
These people, because of their belief system, they think that
there can't be opposing ideas because it's all rooted in
(23:33):
this obsession with a belief of absolute truth in politics
and in culture, I mean, which is just it's so
counter it's just so counterintuitive for all the rest of us.
Of course, culture needs to be different, and culture is messy,
and this is why they get these ideas like cultural appropriation.
It's an absurdity. There's no such thing. They will tell
(23:57):
you there is, and they will say that, you know,
you can't be a white person who cooks Asian food,
for example, to which I always point out, Asia is
a very big place and everybody in Asia. Every country
in Asia has borrowed from regional cuisines. And you know,
there is no straight line here to even talk about,
but they pretend that there is. It's all about power.
(24:20):
It's about transferring into the hands of a very few,
not just the ability to dictate your actions through government
and cultural and private sector coercion now, but also to
trying to control your thoughts. There are people who are
obsessed with control as a general principle, controlling others, and
they desire also at some level to be controlled themselves. Right,
(24:44):
and only at the very very top are there those
who are so in love with their own power, their
authority that they just wish to increase the control that
they have on everyone else and then have absolute freedom
to do whatever they want themselves. That that's the end
stage of authoritarian leftism today. That's where these commies want
to take us. And you see this in the way
(25:07):
they approach so many of these issues. What cultural additions
have the haves the left made in recent years that
you think will be enduring will be timeless? What are
they doing that is inspiring beautiful worthwhile? No, they tear
down everything else before them and they hold themselves up
(25:31):
and they act as though somehow this is going to
make this a better country. By running around like powermat
hall monitors, this is going to improve American society. People
do at their core have have a yearning to be free.
They can suppress it, and it can be it can
be locked up essentially by those who would rather then
(25:53):
be controlled. And this is why a lot of belief systems,
a lot of political systems, focus so much on that
absolute control. We're supposed to have a system rooted in
individuality and individual freedom, and it is under assaults from
the collectives left. And I know you could say, all,
come on, some children's books. What's the big deal. They're
actually banning books, folks. Can we just understand the left
(26:17):
is ascendant right now and what are they doing. They
are banning books. They're not banning mind comp by the way,
that you can still get on Amazon. I checked. But
they are banning books that say that maybe giving hormone
blocking medicines, to hormone blocking agents to eleven twelve year
(26:37):
olds who think they're transgender, and it is think, by
the way, there's no physical manifestation of this, that that's
hate speech, it's hate. I've always been opposed to hate
speech codes and rules because I knew how this would go.
The slope is in fact slippery, and this is what's
happened on social media too. At first it was terms
(26:58):
of service. You can't say mean things to people, you
can attack them and you know, put their personal data
online and docks them. All Right, well, some of that
seems reasonable. Then it's as well, but also we don't
allow hate speech. What does that mean? Does advocating for
the enforcement of US federal law and ur southern borders
that hate speech talked? A lot of Democrats will say
it is they're controlling so much of the society around them,
(27:21):
and we find ourselves playing defense these days. I think
the first step is understanding why what they're doing on
a philosophical level is both wrong and destructive. This does
not make America a better place, and it doesn't even
have the outcome that they wanted to, which is that
we are all more respectful of each other. No respect
(27:42):
comes from an understanding. You know, it's really not possible
to have respect in society without also some level of
wisdom and judgment. And if people can't understand that, they're
not always going to like what others say. They're not
going to like other research and the ideas that they
(28:03):
put forward in society. All that happens is they force,
they suppress freedoms and create a backlash. And it's one
that we're going to be dealing with, I think in
unforseeable ways right now. But in time will say, of course,
of course, the book bannings and eventually I'm sure book burnings.
(28:25):
I mean, the stuff that they're doing in this country
is unthinkable, the cultural suppression. Of course, it led to
some awful outcomes, but right now they can't see it
because they're just drunk with power and self righteousness. One
of the one of the great benefits of being a
brainless leftist is that you can just bathe in sanctimoniousness
(28:47):
with a tweet with a BLM hashtag on your social
media page, all of a sudden, without doing anything or
earning anything. You're a good person. It's the single powerful
selling point of American leftism today. This is the Buck
Sexton Show podcast. Follow Buck on Facebook, for Instagram and Twitter.
(29:12):
No doubt the virus is in the air. There is
no doubt that you can catch it if you inhale
air that someone else has exhaled, and as Peers described
beautifully the exercising jogga, the puffing and panting jogger, you
can feel their breath come and you can sometimes actually
feel yourself inhale it. So there's no doubt that there
(29:33):
is a danger there. I do agree that wet soggy
masks are not a good idea, but for goodness sake,
I've been for a run this morning. Not only did
I put my T shirt in the wash, but I
put my mask in the wash as well. So the
fact that they get contaminated, it's not a reason for
not wearing them. It's not that you're going to do
(29:53):
anything with that mask apart from wash it. The other
thing to say is that forty percent of COVID cases
happen by catching it from people who have no symptoms.
So you're jogging along, you think you're fine, and then
the next day you develop symptoms of COVID. But you've
actually breathed that COVID onto someone, perhaps you know, an
(30:14):
old lady walking a dog or something like that. So
I think it's really important to be here. Let's bring
in you're jogging along, you think you're fine, and then
you breathe on an old lady and you've just murdered
her and should span the rest of your life, probably
in a dark prison cell somewhere because you wouldn't wear
(30:35):
a mask like doctor Greenley of Britain on this Piers
Mortgage show. I don't even know what it's called. Told
you too, and all of us sad in my accents.
Moving it's like it's going more into the poorer areas
of London, you know what I mean. So, yeah, this
is when you've got a British darker. You're telling you
(30:56):
that you should wear a mask when you're running alone
on TV. Now, she will not be censored or silenced
by social media or anybody else for being a moron.
They're just gonna say, yeah, that's right. Whatever protects people.
But there the the theoretical basis that she lines up
here for you. Getting the virus is like a lightning
(31:18):
strike fear. I can't tell you it's not possible. But
all the actual research on the epidemiology of this virus
is is long duration, close proximity indoors. That's how you
get this meaning, that's where the risk is, right, that's
the that's the concern. You know, there's always a concern.
(31:40):
You could be going for a jog, you could step
on a hypodermic needle and you know you might get
you know, hepatitis. But people don't run around worried about that.
They worry if they're actually intervened as drug users, about
getting blood born of blood borne pathogens like that. Right,
that's that's a reasonable You tell people, hey, don't use
dirty needles. You don't say, hey, be careful because there's
(32:03):
a one a one in a million, one in a
billion chance when you go for a job in the
park you might step on a dirty needle. It's possible.
I mean, I can't tell you it's not possible, right,
of course it is. But is that what you're worried about.
We have seen as part of the mass panic induced,
the mass hysteria induced by our mass media has resulted
(32:26):
in the complete elimination of a reasonable understanding of risk
in our lives. And this doctor is a perfect example
of it. You can listen to me, or you can
listen to doctor Fauci, who says, of course New York
did a great job dealing with the pandemic. Cromo particularly
did a great job highest death toll in the country
after New Jersey, which is basically just a province of
(32:47):
New York in terms of the population dispersal here and
how it works at the virus here's doctor Fouchi you
play twenty. The CDC will be coming out within the
next few weeks, maybe even sooner with some guidelines about
what people who are vaccinated. And I think, and I
know you're referring Dana to people who are doubly vaccinated
fourteen days out, they're protected, they have that ninety four
(33:08):
to nine protection. What can they do? I'm very certain
and we've discussed this, and you're right. I don't want
to get ahead of the guidelines because the CDC wants
to do things that are science based. If you can't
get the science, you've got to maybe you as modeling,
and in addition to modeling, you use good professional, common
sense judgment. They'll be coming out with that. But one
(33:30):
of the things that I think is going to become
clear that if you have individuals adults who are vaccinated
to people that are doubly vaccinated and are protected, then
you can do things that we weren't talking about before.
You could have dinner in a home without masks on.
You could have friends who you know are doubly vaccinated
(33:50):
and are protected together there once you're double vaccinity says,
you could have dinner in a home, a private home.
I hope you've been doing that all along, folks, early do.
This is Buck's first thoughts. The news you need to
get for your day in forty five minutes. Make sure
you subscribe on the iHeart app or wherever you get
your podcasts. It's Harsani time. We got our friend David
(34:13):
Harsani in the mix. He is at National Review dot com.
Seen your writer there, David? What's going on much? How
are you, you know, getting getting used to what it's
like to have our our democrat overlords in place here.
It's every bit is annoying, frustrating and point and uh
pointless as I thought it would be. But let's let's
(34:35):
do this this first, because I've been talking today a
fair amount about the the canceling of I know it's
only six books, but they're canceling children's books now. He
wrote that it's fascinating to me that people can't stand
against the book burners without making about Fox or conservatives
and even if geisl was a racist, meaning uh, doctor Seuss,
(34:56):
it doesn't change anything. Roldal was an anti semi and
I still wouldn't want people to stop publishing his books
explaining his arm for a long time. I mean, free
speech is not contingent or your belief in free speech
and in an open society isn't contingent on the opinions themselves.
Either you believe that free speech is a neutral principle
(35:18):
or you don't. Now, people don't have to publish a book.
But if they're banning a book because it's insensitive, and
then even the people who are are against that, meaning
you know, left wing people, they only have to make
the case that doctor Zeus wasn't you know, deep inside
he wasn't a racist. It doesn't matter. There are plenty
(35:39):
of books we read from people who are racists or
who had opinions in the time that would not work
today for us. That doesn't diminish their work. There's a
million books we can ban right now. I was just
rereading one of my favorite books, All the King's Men,
and the end word is used throughout it. But it's
not a racist book. I know, there's weird to say
it's a book of the time in Louisiana and thirties,
(36:01):
and that's the way that people spoke in those days.
This is a never ending, big damdlist you're going to have,
and the left windows they can't even say we're shoom Bannett.
Instead they're talking about how all doctor Susie who caress
that would do with it. But they can't just get
themselves to be on the right side of something like this.
(36:21):
So that's just a note. I think it shows it
shows the power of the woke narrative that there are
so many people who are making a living in the
realm of free expression and free speech or what should
be that realm. And if you're look, it's very straightforward.
If you're somebody who's a big Biden supporter and Biden voter,
(36:41):
and you work in news media, any kind of communications media,
you basically, I mean, I know there are some exceptions
that we know who they are, the prominent ones, but
you basically shut your damn mouth and go along with
all this cancelation stuff, even though you're supposed to be
the people who would speak out most fervently against it.
I mean, I'm sure you've been following this thing at
(37:03):
the New York Times, where the science reporter forty plus
years was fired for using the N word in a
descriptive way, not not not not insulting anyone with it,
but asking a student about it. And he was fired.
And this he's put up like fully long blog posts
detailing what happened, and it's just it's this. I don't
know if it's more like nineteen eighty four or it's
(37:23):
more like Kafka's the Trial or something, but it's just
insane to read. And I don't even know how people
can confunction, especially creative people are writers, or people are
supposedly thinking for themselves, can can function in that kind
of stifling intellectual environment. I think I think it's sad
for the New York Times. I think it's sad for
us in general. I've asked people this, what what, for example,
(37:46):
should be the sanction against somebody who is a court
stadiographer or is she supposed to or he's supposed to
make you know edits in real time? If if you know,
if you're if you're reading back, what somebody you know?
What about a detect if a detective who's saying this
is what I heard the suspects say before the shooting happened,
is he supposed to be bleeped or is he going
(38:07):
to actually be canceled and fired for quoting words that
he heard in the context of a criminal investigation. But
you start to go into this realm of straight crazy
town and another thing I think is really problematic. And
nobody else will say this when you're going into the
banning of words, but only some people aren't allowed to
say the words other people are. This is really just
(38:30):
a power dynamic. I mean, this is actually something that
people should reject on a principle. It's not like it's
a ban on a word because if it has ever
heard or utter. I mean in some context, words that
are banned for some people are celebrated in others, as
we all know. And I think that this is a
rule that really is just about making It's just about
making some people bend the knee to the constantly changing
(38:52):
whims of the left. It doesn't actually protect anyone or
make it. I mean, everyone understands that using an ethnic
slur or using a meeting word about somebody's immutable characteristic
is a grotesque and a moral thing to do. But
this goes way beyond that into even the repetition of
somebody else saying the words specifically to understand what the
(39:13):
word was, is now a cancellable offense. Yeah, you make
a great point on the Court's demograph. For if now
we have to board to the soul of whoever is
using whatever word and divine or try to figure out
their intent, that's going to be a rough road. And
as you say, certain people are empowered or bestowed with
(39:33):
the power to decide who's using it correctly and who isn't.
I mean, then it's just about power. Now, there's already
certain words have stigma attached to them. We don't use
them and we don't say them. A normal, well adjusted
people don't use these words in a way to insult
other people. But you know, in the end, even if
(39:54):
they do that, it doesn't mean they have to work
at the New York Times. But are we going to, like,
let's say doctor SEUs used those words in the past,
that we're gonna now get rid of his books everywhere
because he was that kind of person. It seems just
these standards are Listen. I mentioned this before, but literally
I was just thinking about all the books Pallion Chuck
(40:17):
Chuck Palinchuck wrote The Fight Club with a book that
I love. I mean, it is has misogynistic characters in it.
So what are we going to do? Do we know
that he is in a misogynist Now, I'd have to
know and like meet him before I know if I'm
to publish his book. You can't have these kind of
standards in society. It doesn't work, especially in our artistically.
Remember twenty thirty years ago, you know, it was the
last who was always like, we're going to ban books
(40:38):
in libraries. They were the ones always concerned about it.
Was in the Patriot Actor. Remember it was such a
big deal that the government would know what books you're
taking out. And now they're perfectly fine with it, or
they won't say anything, which is bad enough for someone
who's a journalist. We're speaking of David Harsani. He is
a senior writer of National Review, and David, I wanted
to get your take on the Noble the changing malleable
(41:02):
as the word I was really think of the malleable
journalistic ethics of CNN as an organization, a more specifically
Chris Cuomo. Look, I understand this. I don't care what
my job is, what I'm doing. I wouldn't be on
TV trashing a family member. And I mean up to
the point where they could say, you know you do
this or else, and I'd say, I'll take the rls
like that's just a It's a point of honor and
(41:24):
pride for me, and I wouldn't do it. However, if
I were holding myself out as a journalist, I would
also have shied away from doing a propaganda variety hour
in favor of a politician during a pandemic because he
was my brother. And I think that CNN should have
(41:44):
known that too. As a quote news organization, Yeah, they're
not a news organization. They're just kind of this corrupt
institution that pretends to do journalists and the worst of
all the worst MSNBC because they put tend not to
be on the left, which is there is a propaganda unit.
But more than that, with Chris Cuomo, they keep pretending
(42:07):
that the problem is that he isn't covering what's going
on now with his brother. No, the problem is that
he covered up for his brother for a year. He
never should. As you mentioned, I would never go on
their badmouth with my brother, even if it was true,
I would I would just report something else. But the
idea Lord wants that. I don't think any normal people
wanted to do that. They wanted him not to act,
(42:29):
as you say in this Variety Hour, covering up for
a guy who was sending people to die in nursing homes.
And for me, listen, I think that these accusations against
Cuomo are serious. I hope he's afforded to due process
that liberals never give conservatives like Bread Kavanaugh. They're serious allegations,
but the using government to kill people because even more
(42:52):
serious allegation, and people still aren't talking about it, even
the left, which is now supposedly you know, the reason,
of course is time of why they don't care aback
Cuomo now, But even they are not really getting into
his worst the worst sins and how he acted like
a dictator basically and you know, destroyed the lives of
many people. So just to go back, Chris Cuomo's problem
(43:14):
is not the coverage, as you mentioned, but the not
the I mean the not not covering, but the coverage itself.
And I have to say that this this idea that
the media was honest in the way that it was
portraying Governor Cuomo in the past. I mean, I know
that that's not true, because you and I were having
conversations six months ago about the gross, slobbering love affair
(43:39):
that the mainstream media was having, a corporate media was
having with Cuomo as the governor of New York. And
I also put it in my many, many, many exhibits
of what a complete jackass doctor Fauci is and what awful,
awful judgment he has. He was pointing to Andrew Cuomo
as the gold standard. I mean, what else do you
(43:59):
have to If this guy was my private physician, I
would never I wouldn't even go let him, you know,
hit me on the need to check my reflexes, Like
I would go nowhere near this guy. And he's still
allowed to make all these policies. He literally said the words,
this is the way to do it, where he's done
it the right way, and the rest of the country
(44:20):
should follow. Why doesn't anyone ask him about that? Why
doesn't anyone ask him how he feels about that, and
why he made another big giant mistake in the past.
No one, no one, no one challenges that guy with
any access. But yeah, we were talking about this. Probably
I don't know when exactly, but probably an April already, right,
I mean, there were some local reporters that noted that
(44:42):
he had fudged the numbers on the on the deaths
at nursing homes way back in I think it was
April or may. I think they were at the Associated
Press and some other organization in Albany. People knew. The
main main media, the political media, the big time Chris
Colombos of the world and everyone was on TV covered
it up for him, and they wouldn't report it, and
(45:02):
they ignored it, and uh, you know, and now now
they pretend that never happened. When I ever asked to
answer for those things in the media, they just go on.
They make giant mistakes. They literally cost lives. Maybe it
cost lives in this instance, or maybe then cost lives.
But they covered up something that was you know, that
(45:22):
might have had a lot to do with the high
death tolls in New York frankly so, and that spread
from there to the rest of the country. By the way,
even though I don't you know, I don't know that
that's exactly true. We can't know. I think the virus
was going to go through America anyway, But the point
is that they did not cover Donald Trump with that tone,
or De Santis or any Republicans. So it's just completely
(45:43):
misleading reporting that that was a year long thing and
now that we're supposed to reward them because they finally
decided to go after Andrew Cormo when it doesn't matter
for Democrats anymore. David Harsan everybody National Review dot com
for his latest David, thanks so much for joining U.
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