Dennis’s Big April Update | Dennis Prager's Latest Thoughts | PragerU

Dennis, it's great to have you back on so we can hear your latest thoughts. Great, great to be with you. I'd love to start by talking to you about something that I'm very concerned about, and that is the SAVE Act. It just feels like a twilight zone. I don't understand why it's not passing, and I'd love your feedback on it. I would like to ask those who oppose the Act, which would require, among other things in the it would require people to prove that they are a citizen of the United States in order to vote. Something that is normal in virtually every free country in the world. We don't have that. So here's the question I'd like to ask. Why should America be an outlier? But I have a bigger question. Why do you think the Democratic Party allowed tens of billions, tens of billions, some say 50 million, illegal immigrants into the United States, and within a few days, Donald Trump was able to lower it to zero? They kept saying, oh, we need a comprehensive bill. That's the reason we can't deal with the problem of illegal immigrants. They didn't need a comprehensive bill. They just had to shut the border, which is exactly what Donald Trump and the Republicans have done. Why would a party want 10, 20, 30, 40 million illegal immigrants to enter the country, if they didn't think it would benefit their party? Isn't that obvious? It's not an act of pure altruism. So that's the question I would ask. Now, if it's true that they say so few people, non-citizens have voted, it's not really a problem. I don't know the data on that. But let's say they're right. This prevents it from becoming a problem. The problem, a problem in America, is that a serious portion of the American people don't believe that our elections are legitimate anymore. That is a very bad thing for a democracy. So, Dennis, I try to have honest conversations with people about this issue. And I spoke to people on the right when it came to discussing the Save Act, the America Save Act. And they say, we don't understand why would anybody vote against it? Why would you expect somebody to have a valid voter ID in order to vote in America? Anywhere around the world, you should have a valid ID in order to vote. When I speak to people on the left, the answers that I have received, and believe me, I looked for real honest answers because I really want to honestly understand, why are they against demanding that there is an actual valid ID when somebody votes? And the answers that I have received are frankly shocking, maybe the most shocking one. And I'm especially sensitive to it because I am a married woman. The claim is that married women may not be able to vote because they have taken over, they have taken the name of their spouse. Is this for real? Are we living in reality here? Is that really the concern of those who are voting against the Save Act? That women who are married that have taken on their husband's last name are not going to be able to vote? I've been voting for as long as I've been married here in the United States and I had no issues with that. How do you explain the claims that it's not fair? These people are even opposed to voter ID, having nothing to do with citizenship. Just show that you, the person showing up to vote, are that person. That's universal. And they don't even want that. They say it's unfair to blacks. The insult to blacks is beyond belief, beyond belief. Ami Horowitz did a video. He went into Harlem and he asked passers-by, do you know how to get a voter ID? And every one of them laughed at him. What kind of stupid question is that? The DMV is right over there, walk over two blocks. I mean, it is honestly demeaning. It's demeaning to me as a married woman to make this claim that married women cannot vote because they take on their husband's last name. It's demeaning to black people who are supposedly unable to get a valid form of ID. It's demeaning to Americans. I honestly don't get it. And I frankly don't understand why more people are not up in arms over this issue. Speaking of things that people do get up in arms about, you know, silly tweets and silly quotes and silly things that are happening on social media, everybody is spending all their time and energy over nonsense, while in the meantime, we're losing our country to these bogus politicians and issues that are very, very significant. That's right. Between social media, which takes up so much time of so many Americans, especially young ones, and the real crises in the world, whether it's Russia and Ukraine, whether it's the U.S. in Iran, there's so much going on, not to mention American politics, that American life with congressional elections just seven months away. So it's very hard, apparently, to get people stirred up for any length of time, because there's a new issue the next week to get stirred up about. It's a very real problem. Social media has done a lot of damage. And yet, without social media, we wouldn't be in existence, I pray to you. There's a line in the Torah, I have put before you the blessing and the curse, and I've always translated it as every blessing comes with a curse. Yeah, that is definitely the case. I oftentimes say that I would probably give up social media if I could also let go of all the problems that we have in our society right now. But you're right, it's technology, right? Technology comes with good and bad, and we all have to be responsible and careful. Speaking of things that upset people as of late, the relationship between President Trump and the Pope. I don't know if you've been following the story, but the Pope has obviously entered into the political arena by making certain comments. The President has directly commented against him. And there was a post of a meme that may have been misunderstood, but certainly was in bad taste, it was taken down. That's a brief summary of it. But what is your take on what is happening between President Trump and the Pope? I side with the President on this. The Pope's comments are wrong, theologically, morally, having nothing to do with Donald Trump or Iran. He said, for example, and I'm paraphrasing, I don't remember the exact quote, that God doesn't hear the prayers of soldiers at war. And I was thinking, really, God didn't hear the prayers of the American troops who stormed Normandy Beach to liberate Europe from the Nazis and to end the Holocaust? Really? I even went to the PayPal website just to read, what did he mean by that? Because it's so morally wrong. And they said, well, he didn't really mean it as that, but he said it. And it's like, it's like Tucker Carlson said, any killing of an innocent in war is a murder and it's a crime and it's an evil. Then you can't wage war. There is no war possible where no innocence will be killed. We live in an age of such moral confusion, but I don't care about Tucker Carlson. I care about the Pope of the Catholic Church, the vicar of Christ on her. If he isn't thinking clearly, that's a bad sign. Happily, a vast number of Catholics have learned the sad way not to agree with their Pope on every matter. And let me explain to everybody, Popes are only infallible when they invoke infallibility. And they have done so, I believe in the history of infallibility twice and they were over theological church doctrines, which have no oral consequence. So you can be a great Catholic and differ with your Pope. And you are a great Catholic if you do in this matter. Dennis, I know that many of your best friends are Catholics. Many of the Prager U employees are Catholics. Several board members at Prager U are Catholics. It is very difficult for me to see the president talking back at the Pope, right? You think that the Pope is somebody you don't talk back at, except my other reaction to it is, is there an expectation that if the Pope enters into the political arena and starts talking politics, is there an expectation that nobody reacts to him when he talks about politics? And that's what I think is very tricky and difficult here. We want to give him the respect that he should command and deserve. But how do you do that if he's entering into this arena where there is going to be natural disagreement? And I don't know if politics is even the arena of the Pope. No, I think that certain, I don't know what politics means. He's not going to say vote Democrat or vote Labor, but the issue he raised was moral about killing and God listening to the prayers of people who kill. And if God didn't hear, I'm not saying God responded, but if God didn't hear the prayers of the soldiers who liberated France and the rest of Western Europe from the Nazis, then that's not a God I believe in. We believe in different gods and especially what is the ban on non-Catholics speaking against the comment that the Pope makes. The Pope is not immune to difference and Donald Trump is not a Catholic. It would be tougher for a Catholic. But it was, they've already learned from Pope Francis who said something to the effect that capitalism was a scourge on humanity. The only economic system that has raised billions of people from poverty. What we have here, and I think the president said that Pope Leo was elected Pope in large measure because he was American and could thereby, they thought, stand up more to Donald Trump. That was the general consensus of Vatican watchers that they elected an American Pope. Nobody that I know of was even talking about him as a prospect. He came in on the fourth ballot, but that's probably the reason. You have here not a battle between Catholic and Protestant. You have here a battle between the American left and the American right. But I just want to end this part by saying, wouldn't it be a little refreshing if the Pope had come out and said, you know, Iran is run by terrible human beings, irrespective of their religion. I would say it, whatever their religion, they are running a brutal dictatorship, a country of no freedom, of no independent judiciary, independent press. And my fellow Catholics, God wants us to side with the good against the bad. Can you imagine if he had said that? That would have been probably very encouraging. To say the least. Many people feel like President Trump should put down his phone and not tweet. Some of the messages are kind of funny. And for those who know President Trump and understand that he is not a typical politician, but he is somewhat of a comedian in the way he expresses himself. And sometimes it feels like he crosses the line and it doesn't come across presidential. What are your thoughts on that? Should the president tweet less? Should he stop connecting via social media with the public? What he should do is run every tweet by Milani. That's what he should do. You always have the best answers, Dennis. You always do. Well, hopefully he's listening to this advice. I think it's a good one. Right. I want to talk to you about the recipients of the tweets and of social media in general. And this is a conversation you and I had a few weeks ago that really touched my heart and I think is very significant. And that is the blackpilling that we're seeing in our generation. And what I mean by that is many young people, especially young men, but young women too, feel like living in America right now is very, very challenging. They feel like they can't make ends meet. Things are becoming more and more expensive. They're saying that they can't get a job. They can't get the job that they're passionate about. They can't buy the homes that they want. And just life is very, very challenging. They can't date. All women are feminists, et cetera, et cetera. There's a lot of negativity out there amongst the youth. You've heard Charlie Kirk come to you and warn you against it. I think we're living through a lot of it right now. And I don't know if it's entirely true. I don't know that ever in human history, there was an expectation that everybody could buy a home or that everybody could live on a single salary. I don't know if that has been the case. And I'd love for you to give us a little bit of perspective, because when I look at the numbers, the unemployment rate is actually quite low. If I look at the numbers, the economy is actually doing pretty well. Things are not that horrible. I still see people Instacarting. When I was in college and I had no money, I had bananas and a bag of nuts for breakfast. I think that's an anomaly. I think most people can afford three, sometimes four, maybe even five meals a day. So I'd just like to get a little bit of perspective on this blackpilling. Are things really that bad or are we being sold black pills every day? We're being sold black pills and people buy them. I wrote a piece in the 1990s. I published a piece and it got into my book of essays, Think a Second Time, about how people are more influenced by what they see than on television, now on social media, than what they experience. It was based on an experience I had. I slept in Manhattan one weekend for a speech or one weeknight. Then I went to Cherry Hill, New Jersey, right outside of Philadelphia, for a speech that night. The radio kept saying all morning that there was going to be a terrible storm coming into New York. Don't drive unless it's an emergency. I looked out the window and there were snow flurries. There was no blizzard. There was a snow flurry. So I went four hours early on my trip down the New Jersey Turnpike. You should know on a Friday afternoon, the New Jersey Turnpike is full. It was empty. I went 60 miles an hour, got to Cherry Hill four hours early. Then I went to a bookstore. The bookstore was empty. I said to the woman, why is business so low right now? She said, because everybody heard that there's a storm. I said, but all they had to do was look out their window and they would see there's no storm. She's the one who opened my mind to this. She said, yeah, but people don't believe what they see. They believe what they hear on the radio or see on television. That's what's happened. If you hear America stinks, then the only thing you've heard about George Washington is that he owns slaves. Now you get historians who say Churchill is the villain and Hitler didn't want World War II. These things go on the internet as valid. You don't know what to believe. Your world is sent topsy turvy. And I don't understand, to make one other point, Marissa, I don't understand this notion that if a place, let's say Manhattan, while people can't afford a place in Manhattan, then don't live in Manhattan. I don't understand that. When I lived in New York, when I was in my twenties, I left New York to California. I couldn't afford Manhattan. So I got an apartment in Queens. That's the way life works. If you can't buy Miami, then go 50 miles north or wherever you have to go. That's the way new places are built. This notion that I have a right, an alienable right to afford a place in the place I most want to live, it's just absurd. It's the chaos. The left has shown chaos and that's my big fear. I think we've grown accustomed to the Marxist blackpilling, right? When you talk about the left destroying and creating chaos and basically telling everybody that America sucks and there's nothing one can do about it. I have not grown accustomed to seeing this on the right and the blackpilling that I'm talking about is actually a big part of what you're seeing on the right with America's youth. You mentioned to me when I asked you this question a couple of weeks ago and we didn't get a chance to record this and so I wanted to bring this up with you. You mentioned that it feels Soviet, that it feels Russian. What did you mean by that? There is a very famous joke. The best humor of my life was Soviet dissident humor. What Soviet citizens who were dissidents, the jokes that they would tell. It was one of the brilliant ones. In the Soviet Union, the future is known. It's the past that's always changing. That's what's happening. Our past is always changing. I just mentioned Churchill as villain and Hitler as victim. 25% of Americans, I think in their 20s, don't believe that there was a Holocaust. The most documented single event in human history and they don't believe it occurred. Another 25% think it was exaggerated. These are very frightening things. The past is changing. How many young Americans, and by young I'll say even under 35, know that it was Christians who ended slavery? How many? I wonder. They sure know about Christians going on crusades and they know about Christians and persecution of others and that's correct to know. How about the good? That's what reminds me of the Soviet Union. That we're rewriting the past. There's another thing that does. The end of truth. Lenin, who was a genius, named the Soviet communist newspaper Pravda. Pravda in Russian means truth. In other words, this is the truth. Nothing else is. I played on my radio show, probably a hundred times, the New Zealand Prime Minister, who's now teaching at Harvard, quite appropriately, the Prime Minister of New Zealand, getting on New Zealand television and radio and saying, if you do not hear it from the government, it is not true. That is utterly Soviet. If people stop believing that, they don't know what to believe and we're paying a big price. Well, I think people certainly don't know what to believe, especially on the right. If it comes from the government, they don't believe in it because of what happened with COVID and the lockdowns and all the other disappointments that we have seen. I don't need to enumerate the examples. Many of our viewers share those same concerns. And then with that said, now with President Trump leading the war in Iran right now, there is a pushback against him saying, well, you promised never wars. You promised no wars. Now you're getting into a war in Iran. I'm not sure that he ever promised never wars, but there is a huge pushback against him from the right saying, well, we can't spend money abroad. We can't have a larger defense budget. We can barely make ends meet. We can't buy our own homes. We can't increase our bread basket at the end of the week. We don't want to be spending money on wars in the Middle East. Why are we getting entangled in an issue that shouldn't be our own issue? President Trump, MAGA, you promised us no more wars and now you're pulling us into these wars. And what they're adding to this is the reason you're doing this is not because you're America first, as you promised President Trump, but the reason you're doing this is because Bibi Netanyahu controls you. That is this new narrative that is coming also from the right. And so how do you explain what's going on here? This is all social media, Tucker Carlson and Candace Owens. They have millions and millions of followers and people who listen or not followers, but who listen. And the thought that the United States of America is bullied by Israel is so counterintuitive. And so it's just absurd. You may not agree with what the president is doing, but Israel did not force him or compel him to do it. And this notion about AIPAC ranks so low in the list of groups that give congressmen money. It's incomparably, incomparably smaller than what just Qatar has given to universities to establish Islamic studies departments and other international relations departments. Why don't people talk about that? How our universities are almost universally anti-Israel. And by the way, that's an example of the moral inversions, Churchill villain, Hitler victim, Israel villain, Hamas victim. It's very, very worrisome. Do you think the president and the Trump administration in general is right to request a larger defense budget after they have already increased the budget and said that they will spend less of America's taxpayers' dollars? They weren't really able to doge that much out of our healthcare system. We're just looking at larger and larger bills. Is it the right thing to do to increase America's defense budget and spend more on what they would call the military industrial complex? I've always been for a large military budget. I believe in peace through strength. When America is perceived as weak, wars flare in the world. And an American is very myopic, myopic if he thinks that all these wars will not affect America. We are interrelated in the world today. It's very, it's impossible to be isolationist. Maybe if you live in Nepal, you can be an isolationist, but the United States can't. Anyway, I appeal to the Christians of America, to all Bible-based Americans, isn't it a moral requirement of those who are given a lot to give a lot? We're the richest country in the world. We have the most freedom in the world. We have it good. The prices of items, even with inflation, are cheaper in America than almost anywhere else in the world. Don't we owe it to other places? I'm very curious. I have no, of course, I have no answer. Would there be as much pushback if the United States defended Taiwan against China? I'm just curious. If China invaded Taiwan because they believe it belongs in China, the one China policy, don't we owe Taiwan its freedom and independence? The idea of watching evil trample others of course we can't fight every evil in the world. I understand that, but there's a big difference between fighting every evil and not fighting any evil. But I'll tell you another thing. I wrote many years ago that there is a tendency of people, especially on the left, but now not only the left, people who do not fight evil, hate those who do fight evil. A lot of people didn't hate communism, but most of them did hate anti-communists. And that's what Israel's position is. Instead of acknowledging the Islamist evil that surrounds Israel, and that unfortunately pervades the Palestinians, they have channeled their hatred to Israel, which does fight it. That's a big factor here, aside from other reasons for the moral inversion of being anti-Israel. Those who want to black pill us are the same people who believe that we should retreat from the world stage. It really does work hand-in-hand because if we are sold this concept that we are victims, that America isn't the greatest country in the world, and we actually believe it, then we will naturally retreat because we won't say that we have the moral obligation to spread the goodness around the world. We will believe that we just need to retreat and focus in and really victimize ourselves. It seems like it's quite connected, isn't it, Dennis? No, the way you described it is exactly right. That's why I say it's moral chaos on the international scene, on the national scene. It's exactly right. I mean, how many tens of thousands of Iranians were mowed down because they demonstrated for freedom? And it went like it never happened, the amount of attention it got. And then the New York Times shows a starving Palestinian baby, right? Remember that on the front page? On the front page, turns out the baby was suffering from an illness that had nothing to do with Israel, and his sibling was completely well-fed, if you saw some of the other pictures. I mean, the parents were heavyweight too, and so how are the parents so heavy if the child is starving? I remember that one. If out of this, the New York Times and Harvard lose their cachet, some good will come out of this. Well, I guess that's in God's hands. We never know his plan, but we have to trust that ultimately something good has to come through some of the bad that we're witnessing. Right. Well, I will say it's in our hands, not some of God's hands. I lost my reverence for these institutions many decades ago. Yeah, this is true. Well, Dennis, it's as always, great having you on. You're feeling all right? Can you give us a I have come here because there's a physicist, not an MD, a physicist who's been working for 30, 40 years on using electrical currents to enable paralyzed people to begin to move. I have started in one week to move my fingers a bit. They haven't moved in nearly a year and a half. The biggest concern right now is my breathing because by the nerve, the nerves from my diaphragm and the nerve to my lung have been, everything's been hurt. When there's spinal cord injury, there's both complete and incomplete. I have no complete injury. I have incomplete. So there's hope. I'll tell you one. I guess it's a dark note, but it's one to make people think. I envy people in wheelchairs who are paraplegic. It's a very strange thing. Perspective. There's always perspective. Things can be worse and things can be better. That's what I've always said. It's exactly right. But I am surrounded by love and that's a big deal and I, and I have so much to say and I want my voice back out there to fight for the good as you're doing every day and my beloved PragerU. Well, Dennis, thank you. And you're right. We do love you so much. And there are some people out there who can't give you hugs and see you every day, but they send their love and their prayers for you. And we appreciate you. And we look forward to our next little chat. Thank you. God bless you. Well, Marissa, thank you so much. And I'll see you next time. See you next time, Dennis.