Beheadings, slavery, and the hellish reality of radical Islam

Erick Stakelbeck joined Glenn on radio and assailed the administration’s view that ISIS can be dealt with like a petty criminal. There is an evil ideology behind this barbarism, ignoring it will have devastating consequences. With another American caught trying to join ISIS this week, it’s time to deal with reality.

Check out Erick's new book: ISIS Exposed: Beheadings, Slavery, and the Hellish Reality of Radical Islam

Below is a rush transcript of this segment:

Erick Stakelbeck is here. He's the author of a new book called Exposed. ISIS Exposed: Beheadings, Slavery, and the Hellish Reality of Radical Islam. This is something that I really wanted to -- I want to talk to you about us getting involved as people. And this is something that I'm working towards on something this summer that I hope to be announcing soon. I want to go to the Middle East and I want to bring this story home to you. I want to meet with the people who have lost their families. I want to show you what is happening. A lot of people say on Facebook, I'll be conversing with people on Facebook, they'll say, Glenn, what is a Coptic Christian? Coptic originated from the Greek word for Egyptian. So all Egyptians were Coptic until -- at the time, Egypt was a Christian nation. It was like 65, 70 percent Christian. Then after a couple of Muslim conquests, Coptic became a derogatory term. Now you're a Coptic Christian, which really basically only means an Egyptian Christian. But this is the oldest church on earth. And there are slaughtering people. And, luckily, the new president of Egypt, which we don't hear anything about, is a really good guy when it comes to Christians.

For the first time, an Egyptian president went and celebrated Christmas and Easter mass at Coptic Christian churches. Can you imagine that? When the Muslim Brotherhood was in, they were burning the churches, and they were slaughtering people. He is standing with the Christians. But he's one of the only people in the Middle East. And, of course, the United States is not standing. And they are now taking children as young as five and sending them off into the sex slavery racket. It is horrific what is happening. And last couple of days, I've been posting some stuff on Facebook. And I've said, you know, when are the Christians going to stand up? And I've made a suggestion, and I was shocked at the heat that I got back from many of the readers saying this was a stupid idea. And we just got to grab our guns and go over there with guns ablazing. I would suggest that we don't -- we are so uneducated on this that we don't know what we're doing yet. And certainly no one in our -- in Washington, DC, has a clue as to what's going on and can't verbalize it. They can't even say that Islam is the problem over there. And it is. There might be moderate Muslims everywhere else in the world, but in the Middle East, they are a rare find.

And the last thing we need to do is just go over and start another war. ISIS, what we need to do first is comfort those who mourn. If you have a Coptic Christian church in your area, find it. Comfort them. Help them. Many of them are terrified of even going to church because they know they're a target even over here. Many of them have fled and come here now or they have relatives who have been slain and slaughtered and beheaded over there. They need our support. They need to know that they're not alone. The next thing I suggested is go to your pastor, priest or rabbi and talk to them about it. And ask them, why are we not as a church standing? Why are we not personally involved in this? At least in real education and real prayer power. There are many things that we can do.

And, yesterday -- we're going to have an interview with the guy at the bottom of this hour. Chris Tony. He is a US Navy veteran who had enough. And he's not the first guy to do it. And said, you know what, who wants to go with me to the Middle East? I'll go over and volunteer and train these people because the Christians have been abandoned. There are many things that you can do. But education is the first. And we wanted to get Erick Stakelbeck in because he's done a lot of research the last couple of years on ISIS and he knows who they are. And this is information that you're just not going to find on mainstream media because they're unwilling to say the things that sound crazy. But these guys are crazy. And they are psychotic. And they are religious zealots. Any doubt in your mind, Erick, that this is a holy war for them?

ERICK: No, Glenn. First of all, thanks for having me. And absolutely. They have declared war, the jihadists against us. Against Christians, Jews. And, by the way, against Muslims who do not agree with them. We are in a war right now. Number one, our government, our mainstream media cannot acknowledge that. Will not acknowledge it. To the Obama administration, this is a big part of the problem, Glenn, they consider this just a criminal action. A minor nuisance that can be handled in federal courts. To the contrary, it is a global jihadist movement. I'll give you an example, Glenn. We had people from 90 countries around the world who have flocked to Syria and Iraq to join ISIS. At least 180 US citizens. 3500 Europeans. At least have all been drawn to this new caliphate. And one day, they may return home. So this is a global movement. And it is a war without a doubt.

GLENN: So here's the thing, Erick, we are now seeing people who are tired of waiting for our country. We used to be leaders. And they are tired of it. And these are military veterans who are going over and saying, you know what, I can help fight. And they are volunteering and they are going over and helping these people fight, not as US military. But just as a private citizen going over and saying, I'm going to help train these Christians to protect themselves.

ERICK: Yeah. I think it's great, Glenn. Look, number one, you'll see more of it, I think. Number two, we've left the fact that we're supposed to be the leader of the free world. We've left a complete vacuum in the Middle East. Simple as that. That vacuum has been filled by Iran and ISIS.

GLENN: I don't think it's just a vacuum. I think we're actually on the wrong side, Erick.

ERICK: Yeah.

GLENN: Do you? Would you agree with that?

ERICK: We're on the wrong side, without a doubt.

GLENN: So tell me, as you were doing the research for this book, tell me the thing that shocked or horrified you the most that you just -- that you sat back in your chair and thought, good God, we're dealing literally with the powers of hell.

ERICK: Yeah. This is a demonic movement. And, Glenn, I got firsthand accounts from on the ground in Syria in Iraq from Christian leaders there. Who told me, look, there are cases of Christian children being beheaded. Not only that, when ISIS goes into a town, a village, a city, it basically enslaves the vanquished population. And ISIS now has brothels in Syria, in particular, Glenn, where Christian women, Yazidi women, are used as sex slaves. An ISIS fighter will come off the battlefield, and then he will have a brothel full of Christian sex slaves awaiting them. And it's a constant thing.

The videos ISIS releases. You just see men being beheaded, which is bad enough. But people on the ground have told me, look, this is happening to women, children, of all ages. When it comes to slaughtering and butchering, ISIS doesn't discriminate, Glenn. They're making it very clear, like Hitler did during World War II with the Jewish people, ISIS is very up front with what they want to do. They want to liquidate every last Christian from the Middle East from the cradle of the faith, the birthplace of the faith. They're doing it right now in realtime as we speak.

GLENN: They're actually sorting the girls out. They -- they have a cut-off at five. You can go to the brothel if you're five years old. But they categorize them by age. If you're too old, they send you to another Muslim country that is getting I guess the remnants. The best go to the fighters, and if you are -- if you are pretty and you are young, you are put into one of these brothels. And this is all done according to the Koran.

ERICK: That's right. It's done under Islamic Sharia law. You ask about shocking aspects of the book that I found. Here's one for you. One of these ISIS brothels, at least one of them, in Syria, in Raqaa, which is ISIS's capital, is being run by British women. British women, recruits to ISIS are actually running this brothel. We have western women playing prominent roles now for ISIS.

GLENN: Do we have any idea who they are, where they came from, or why?

ERICK: Well, at least one is a medical student from London. So much for poverty causes terrorism. President Obama says, look, lack of economic opportunity is driving this. We've had medical students. We've had business majors. We've had people from affluent communities in Britain and the United States. When it comes to the women, and, by the way, Glenn, just last week, we had three women, US citizens in New York City and Philadelphia all arrested for supporting ISIS. With the women, there's a few things. When you are building this caliphate, this ideal society, you need women. You need to reproduce. You need to keep your fighters happy. That's one aspect of it. But why are the women drawn to it? Online, ISIS does so much on Facebook, on social media, and a lot of times they lure naive, troubled young women. In my research, Glenn, I found, who are desperate and who are drawn to the darkness of ISIS in many cases, then they're the jihadi brides. On the other hand, though, you have women that actually want to go there, pick up arms and kill people. So ISIS is drawing people -- all kinds. Women from all races, ethnicities, genders, they're drawing all kinds of sick, twisted, evil people to this caliphate.

GLENN: We're talking to Erick Stakelbeck. His book is ISIS Exposed: Beheadings, Slavery, and the Hellish Reality of Radical Islam.

Erick, I'm working on a book right now that is -- its working title is Islam is the Problem: The Theology Behind the Army of Armageddon. And I know you well enough to know that you know what they mean about the armies of Rome, and that this is a holy war for them. How -- how deep is the -- the idea that they're going to bring about Armageddon? And how committed are they to that?

ERICK: Glenn, this is a central pillar of ISIS's ideology. They believe that they literally are the army of the apocalypse, as you said. And they believe that they will be the tip of the spear for the end times armies of Islam and the armies of the Mahdi. Which you discussed many times during the show. They believe that there will actually be an apocalyptic showdown in Syria in a city called Dabiq in Syria. ISIS believes that they and the armies of Islam will fight the West in a climactic battle. So in one sense, they're not -- they actually welcome western involvement in the Middle East because this fits into their end times scenario. The whole scenario they will have an end times battle with the West in Syria. If you look at their publications, Glenn, their official magazines, their websites, their propaganda videos, they talk about the end times and the apocalypse frequently. Much like the Iranian regime, by the way, different in some ways. But both the Iranian regime and ISIS, central pillars of their ideology is that we're in the end times. And in the West, my gosh, our leadership cannot wrap its head around that, won't even acknowledge the ideological driving force behind all the terrorism. Terrorism is only a tactic. It is driven by an apocalyptic ideology.

GLENN: Okay. I have to take a break. I want to talk to you about the chapter in your book called the Islamic State of Minnesota. They are here in the United States. And in particular, there is a huge Somali population in Minnesota, which is being -- which is a target for recruitment. And the southern border. Things that nobody wants to talk about, it is here. And it's very dangerous. Back with Erick Stakelbeck in just a minute.

[break]

GLENN: We're with Erick Stakelbeck. He's the author of ISIS Exposed: Beheadings, Slavery, and the Hellish Reality of Radical Islam. I want to talk to you a little bit about the Islamic State of Minnesota, which is a chapter in your book. Tell people what's going on with the Somali population going on there.

ERICK: You know, this will shock people. The Twin Cities, Minneapolis and St. Paul, very nice place to live, very high standard of living up there in the great tundra of the upper Midwest. Well, some 100,000 Somali Muslims, more than any other place in North America, live in the Twin Cities. And it has become a magnet, Glenn, for terrorist recruitment. Dozens of young Somali Muslims, American citizens have left their comfortable homes in the Twin Cities, traveled overseas to join terrorist groups like ISIS.

By the way, recently we saw the group Al-Shabaab, the Somali terror group linked to al-Qaeda carry out a horrific massacre at a Kenyan University. Well, in Minneapolis and St. Paul, there's been literally a pipeline going from Minnesota to Somalia with young people joining Al-Shabaab.

GLENN: Are we looking -- are we looking for the recruiters?

ERICK: That's a great question. Glenn, I spoke to a law enforcement source -- actually a few law enforcement sources and Somali community leaders on the ground in Minneapolis and St. Paul, and they said, look, this is how it works with the recruiters. Number one, they'll show up. They'll come on the scene. And then they kind of disappear. But when they do show up, Glenn, what they do is they'll go to a local mosque or they'll go to a local rec center, wherever there are kids hanging out. And they'll target 18, 19, 20-year-old Somali kids. At first, they will befriend them. And then the radicalization process starts. And they tell them, look, come to the caliphate. You'll be a glorious holy warrior. The entire world will know your name. You'll be at the vanguard of this new Islamic empire.

And a lot of the times, Glenn, it's interesting, these guys are in the mid- to late 20s, so they're still young enough to relate to young people. The one guy who showed up last summer in Minneapolis was Egyptian American, drove a fancy car, was showing a lot of cash, dressed in hip clothes. And he was able to ingratiate himself with the young people there. And, reportedly, a few Somalis who he had befriended headed over to Iraq to join ISIS.

GLENN: Did we get him?

ERICK: No.

GLENN: Did we arrest him?

ERICK: No. His name is Amir Meshal. No one knows where he is right now. He was in Minneapolis and St. Paul. And now no one quite knows who he is. Or at least they're not saying that they know where he is or what he's doing right now. In this Somali community, another problem they've had -- now, he was kind of an outsider, Glenn, but another problem they've had in that Somali community in Minneapolis and St. Paul is just people from the community who are recruiting. And it reminds me, you know, I've been there several times over the past few years. On the ground, been investigating, and it reminds me a lot in a bad way of what we see in western Europe right now in the Muslim communities there. In that these young Somalis are not assimilating, they're not integrating into American society. I think the unemployment rate in the Twin Cities among the Somalis is something like 30 or 40 percent. It's not going well.

GLENN: Erick, I appreciate it.

ERICK: If this continues, we'll head down the road they've headed down in Britain, France, Germany, where you have these large restless unassimilated Muslim populations that are breeding grounds for radicals.

Warning: Stop letting TikTok activists think for you

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Bad-faith attacks on Israel and AIPAC warp every debate. Real answers emerge only when people set aside scripts and ask what serves America’s long-term interests.

The search for truth has always required something very much in short supply these days: honesty. Not performative questions, not scripted outrage, not whatever happens to be trending on TikTok, but real curiosity.

Some issues, often focused on foreign aid, AIPAC, or Israel, have become hotbeds of debate and disagreement. Before we jump into those debates, however, we must return to a simpler, more important issue: honest questioning. Without it, nothing in these debates matters.

Ask questions because you want the truth, not because you want a target.

The phrase “just asking questions” has re-entered the zeitgeist, and that’s fine. We should always question power. But too many of those questions feel preloaded with someone else’s answer. If the goal is truth, then the questions should come from a sincere desire to understand, not from a hunt for a villain.

Honest desire for truth is the only foundation that can support a real conversation about these issues.

Truth-seeking is real work

Right now, plenty of people are not seeking the truth at all. They are repeating something they heard from a politician on cable news or from a stranger on TikTok who has never opened a history book. That is not a search for answers. That is simply outsourcing your own thought.

If you want the truth, you need to work for it. You cannot treat the world like a Marvel movie where the good guy appears in a cape and the villain hisses on command. Real life does not give you a neat script with the moral wrapped up in two hours.

But that is how people are approaching politics now. They want the oppressed and the oppressor, the heroic underdog and the cartoon villain. They embrace this fantastical framing because it is easier than wrestling with reality.

This framing took root in the 1960s when the left rebuilt its worldview around colonizers and the colonized. Overnight, Zionism was recast as imperialism. Suddenly, every conflict had to fit the same script. Today’s young activists are just recycling the same narrative with updated graphics. Everything becomes a morality play. No nuance, no context, just the comforting clarity of heroes and villains.

Bad-faith questions

This same mindset is fueling the sudden obsession with Israel, and the American Israel Public Affairs Committee in particular. You hear it from members of Congress and activists alike: AIPAC pulls the strings, AIPAC controls the government, AIPAC should register as a foreign agent under the Foreign Agents Registration Act. The questions are dramatic, but are they being asked in good faith?

FARA is clear. The standard is whether an individual or group acts under the direction or control of a foreign government. AIPAC simply does not qualify.

Here is a detail conveniently left out of these arguments: Dozens of domestic organizations — Armenian, Cuban, Irish, Turkish — lobby Congress on behalf of other countries. None of them registers under FARA because — like AIPAC — they are independent, domestic organizations.

If someone has a sincere problem with the structure of foreign lobbying, fair enough. Let us have that conversation. But singling out AIPAC alone is not a search for truth. It is bias dressed up as bravery.

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If someone wants to question foreign aid to Israel, fine. Let’s have that debate. But let’s ask the right questions. The issue is not the size of the package but whether the aid advances our interests. What does the United States gain? Does the investment strengthen our position in the region? How does it compare to what we give other nations? And do we examine those countries with the same intensity?

The real target

These questions reflect good-faith scrutiny. But narrowing the entire argument to one country or one dollar amount misses the larger problem. If someone objects to the way America handles foreign aid, the target is not Israel. The target is the system itself — an entrenched bureaucracy, poor transparency, and decades-old commitments that have never been re-examined. Those problems run through programs around the world.

If you want answers, you need to broaden the lens. You have to be willing to put aside the movie script and confront reality. You have to hold yourself to a simple rule: Ask questions because you want the truth, not because you want a target.

That is the only way this country ever gets clarity on foreign aid, influence, alliances, and our place in the world. Questioning is not just allowed. It is essential. But only if it is honest.

This article originally appeared on TheBlaze.com.

The melting pot fails when we stop agreeing to melt

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Texas now hosts Quran-first academies, Sharia-compliant housing schemes, and rapidly multiplying mosques — all part of a movement building a self-contained society apart from the country around it.

It is time to talk honestly about what is happening inside America’s rapidly growing Muslim communities. In city after city, large pockets of newcomers are choosing to build insulated enclaves rather than enter the broader American culture.

That trend is accelerating, and the longer we ignore it, the harder it becomes to address.

As Texas goes, so goes America. And as America goes, so goes the free world.

America has always welcomed people of every faith and people from every corner of the world, but the deal has never changed: You come here and you join the American family. You are free to honor your traditions, keep your faith, but you must embrace the Constitution as the supreme law of the land. You melt into the shared culture that allows all of us to live side by side.

Across the country, this bargain is being rejected by Islamist communities that insist on building a parallel society with its own rules, its own boundaries, and its own vision for how life should be lived.

Texas illustrates the trend. The state now has roughly 330 mosques. At least 48 of them were built in just the last 24 months. The Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex alone has around 200 Islamic centers. Houston has another hundred or so. Many of these communities have no interest in blending into American life.

This is not the same as past waves of immigration. Irish, Italian, Korean, Mexican, and every other group arrived with pride in their heritage. Still, they also raised American flags and wanted their children to be part of the country’s future. They became doctors, small-business owners, teachers, and soldiers. They wanted to be Americans.

What we are watching now is not the melting pot. It is isolation by design.

Parallel societies do not end well

More than 300 fundamentalist Islamic schools now operate full-time across the country. Many use Quran-first curricula that require students to spend hours memorizing religious texts before they ever reach math or science. In Dallas, Brighter Horizons Academy enrolls more than 1,700 students and draws federal support while operating on a social model that keeps children culturally isolated.

Then there is the Epic City project in Collin and Hunt counties — 402 acres originally designated only for Muslim buyers, with Sharia-compliant financing and a mega-mosque at the center. After public outcry and state investigations, the developers renamed it “The Meadows,” but a new sign does not erase the original intent. It is not a neighborhood. It is a parallel society.

Americans should not hesitate to say that parallel societies are dangerous. Europe tried this experiment, and the results could not be clearer. In Germany, France, and the United Kingdom, entire neighborhoods now operate under their own cultural rules, some openly hostile to Western norms. When citizens speak up, they are branded bigots for asserting a basic right: the ability to live safely in their own communities.

A crisis of confidence

While this separation widens, another crisis is unfolding at home. A recent Gallup survey shows that about 40% of American women ages 18 to 39 would leave the country permanently if given the chance. Nearly half of a rising generation — daughters, sisters, soon-to-be mothers — no longer believe this nation is worth building a future in.

And who shapes the worldview of young boys? Their mothers. If a mother no longer believes America is home, why would her child grow up ready to defend it?

As Texas goes, so goes America. And as America goes, so goes the free world. If we lose confidence in our own national identity at the same time that we allow separatist enclaves to spread unchecked, the outcome is predictable. Europe is already showing us what comes next: cultural fracture, political radicalization, and the slow death of national unity.

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Stand up and tell the truth

America welcomes Muslims. America defends their right to worship freely. A Muslim who loves the Constitution, respects the rule of law, and wants to raise a family in peace is more than welcome in America.

But an Islamist movement that rejects assimilation, builds enclaves governed by its own religious framework, and treats American law as optional is not simply another participant in our melting pot. It is a direct challenge to it. If we refuse to call this problem out out of fear of being called names, we will bear the consequences.

Europe is already feeling those consequences — rising conflict and a political class too paralyzed to admit the obvious. When people feel their culture, safety, and freedoms slipping away, they will follow anyone who promises to defend them. History has shown that over and over again.

Stand up. Speak plainly. Be unafraid. You can practice any faith in this country, but the supremacy of the Constitution and the Judeo-Christian moral framework that shaped it is non-negotiable. It is what guarantees your freedom in the first place.

If you come here and honor that foundation, welcome. If you come here to undermine it, you do not belong here.

Wake up to what is unfolding before the consequences arrive. Because when a nation refuses to say what is true, the truth eventually forces its way in — and by then, it is always too late.

This article originally appeared on TheBlaze.com.

Shocking: Chart-topping ‘singer’ has no soul at all

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A machine can imitate heartbreak well enough to top the charts, but it cannot carry grief, choose courage, or hear the whisper that calls human beings to something higher.

The No. 1 country song in America right now was not written in Nashville or Texas or even L.A. It came from code. “Walk My Walk,” the AI-generated single by the AI artist Breaking Rust, hit the top spot on Billboard’s Country Digital Song Sales chart, and if you listen to it without knowing that fact, you would swear a real singer lived the pain he is describing.

Except there is no “he.” There is no lived experience. There is no soul behind the voice dominating the country music charts.

If a machine can imitate the soul, then what is the soul?

I will admit it: I enjoy some AI music. Some of it is very good. And that leaves us with a question that is no longer science fiction. If a machine can fake being human this well, what does it mean to be human?

A new world of artificial experience

This is not just about one song. We are walking straight into a technological moment that will reshape everyday life.

Elon Musk said recently that we may not even have phones in five years. Instead, we will carry a small device that listens, anticipates, and creates — a personal AI agent that knows what we want to hear before we ask. It will make the music, the news, the podcasts, the stories. We already live in digital bubbles. Soon, those bubbles might become our own private worlds.

If an algorithm can write a hit country song about hardship and perseverance without a shred of actual experience, then the deeper question becomes unavoidable: If a machine can imitate the soul, then what is the soul?

What machines can never do

A machine can produce, and soon it may produce better than we can. It can calculate faster than any human mind. It can rearrange the notes and words of a thousand human songs into something that sounds real enough to fool millions.

But it cannot care. It cannot love. It cannot choose right and wrong. It cannot forgive because it cannot be hurt. It cannot stand between a child and danger. It cannot walk through sorrow.

A machine can imitate the sound of suffering. It cannot suffer.

The difference is the soul. The divine spark. The thing God breathed into man that no code will ever have. Only humans can take pain and let it grow into compassion. Only humans can take fear and turn it into courage. Only humans can rebuild their lives after losing everything. Only humans hear the whisper inside, the divine voice that says, “Live for something greater.”

We are building artificial minds. We are not building artificial life.

Questions that define us

And as these artificial minds grow sharper, as their tools become more convincing, the right response is not panic. It is to ask the oldest and most important questions.

Who am I? Why am I here? What is the meaning of freedom? What is worth defending? What is worth sacrificing for?

That answer is not found in a lab or a server rack. It is found in that mysterious place inside each of us where reason meets faith, where suffering becomes wisdom, where God reminds us we are more than flesh and more than thought. We are not accidents. We are not circuits. We are not replaceable.

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The miracle machines can never copy

Being human is not about what we can produce. Machines will outproduce us. That is not the question. Being human is about what we can choose. We can choose to love even when it costs us something. We can choose to sacrifice when it is not easy. We can choose to tell the truth when the world rewards lies. We can choose to stand when everyone else bows. We can create because something inside us will not rest until we do.

An AI content generator can borrow our melodies, echo our stories, and dress itself up like a human soul, but it cannot carry grief across a lifetime. It cannot forgive an enemy. It cannot experience wonder. It cannot look at a broken world and say, “I am going to build again.”

The age of machines is rising. And if we do not know who we are, we will shrink. But if we use this moment to remember what makes us human, it will help us to become better, because the one thing no algorithm will ever recreate is the miracle that we exist at all — the miracle of the human soul.

This article originally appeared on TheBlaze.com.

Is Socialism seducing a lost generation?

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A generation that’s lost faith in capitalism is turning to the oldest lie on earth: equality through control.

Something is breaking in America’s young people. You can feel it in every headline, every grocery bill, every young voice quietly asking if the American dream still means anything at all.

For many, the promise of America — work hard, build something that lasts, and give the next generation a better start — feels like it no longer exists. Home ownership and stability have become luxuries for a fortunate few.

Capitalism is not a perfect system. It is flawed because people are flawed, but it remains the only system that rewards creativity and effort rather than punishing them.

In that vacuum of hope, a new promise has begun to rise — one that sounds compassionate, equal, and fair. The promise of socialism.

The appeal of a broken dream

When the American dream becomes a checklist of things few can afford — a home, a car, two children, even a little peace — disappointment quickly turns to resentment. The average first-time homebuyer is now 40 years old. Debt lasts longer than marriages. The cost of living rises faster than opportunity.

For a generation that has never seen the system truly work, capitalism feels like a rigged game built to protect those already at the top.

That is where socialism finds its audience. It presents itself as fairness for the forgotten and justice for the disillusioned. It speaks softly at first, offering equality, compassion, and control disguised as care.

We are seeing that illusion play out now in New York City, where Zohran Mamdani — an open socialist — has won a major political victory. The same ideology that once hid behind euphemisms now campaigns openly throughout America’s once-great cities. And for many who feel left behind, it sounds like salvation.

But what socialism calls fairness is submission dressed as virtue. What it calls order is obedience. Once the system begins to replace personal responsibility with collective dependence, the erosion of liberty is only a matter of time.

The bridge that never ends

Socialism is not a destination; it is a bridge. Karl Marx described it as the necessary transition to communism — the scaffolding that builds the total state. Under socialism, people are taught to obey. Under communism, they forget that any other options exist.

History tells the story clearly. Russia, China, Cambodia, Cuba — each promised equality and delivered misery. One hundred million lives were lost, not because socialism failed, but because it succeeded at what it was designed to do: make the state supreme and the individual expendable.

Today’s advocates insist their version will be different — democratic, modern, and kind. They often cite Sweden as an example, but Sweden’s prosperity was never born of socialism. It grew out of capitalism, self-reliance, and a shared moral culture. Now that system is cracking under the weight of bureaucracy and division.

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The real issue is not economic but moral. Socialism begins with a lie about human nature — that people exist for the collective and that the collective knows better than the individual.

This lie is contrary to the truths on which America was founded — that rights come not from government’s authority, but from God’s. Once government replaces that authority, compassion becomes control, and freedom becomes permission.

What young America deserves

Young Americans have many reasons to be frustrated. They were told to study, work hard, and follow the rules — and many did, only to find the goalposts moved again and again. But tearing down the entire house does not make it fairer; it only leaves everyone standing in the rubble.

Capitalism is not a perfect system. It is flawed because people are flawed, but it remains the only system that rewards creativity and effort rather than punishing them. The answer is not revolution but renewal — moral, cultural, and spiritual.

It means restoring honesty to markets, integrity to government, and faith to the heart of our nation. A people who forsake God will always turn to government for salvation, and that road always ends in dependency and decay.

Freedom demands something of us. It requires faith, discipline, and courage. It expects citizens to govern themselves before others govern them. That is the truth this generation deserves to hear again — that liberty is not a gift from the state but a calling from God.

Socialism always begins with promises and ends with permission. It tells you what to drive, what to say, what to believe, all in the name of fairness. But real fairness is not everyone sharing the same chains — it is everyone having the same chance.

The American dream was never about guarantees. It was about the right to try, to fail, and try again. That freedom built the most prosperous nation in history, and it can do so again if we remember that liberty is not a handout but a duty.

Socialism does not offer salvation. It requires subservience.

This article originally appeared on TheBlaze.com.