Al-Jazeera mocks America as fat and racist on Independence Day

How do you celebrate the Fourth of July? At the Al Jazeera office, you post a “funny” viral video that calls Americans fat and racist. It’s not even a very good video. Yet this is the kind of garbage that cable companies are pumping out to millions of homes across the country. Would you expect anything better from the #1 distributor of terrorist tapes?

Al-Jazeera released the video on July 3rd. For over a minute and a half, people mock America for high incarceration rates, student loan debt, obesity, and more.

"Americans consume eighty percent the world painkillers. Makes sense, right? I mean racism in this country is a big pain in the ass," one woman said.

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Glenn was furious when he watched it.

"Comcast, Time Warner, Direct TV will not carry TheBlaze (no matter what lie they tell you) but they will take your money and give it to Al Jazeera who celebrated our Independence Day with this video!" Glenn said when he saw the video.

Stu and Pat played the video on radio this morning, and put many of their facts in context.

"First of all, we have a rule of law. That's number one. And when you break laws, you go to prison. You don't get to bribe yourself out of it. In theory, at least. Obviously we haven't seen that on the border or many other fields. But in general one of the strengths of the country is the rule of law," Stu said.

"Secondly, they'll bring up, it's higher incarceration rate than Iran. Well, you know, when you have a dictator that's not letting women out of the house, there's not a lot of arresting to do. When you have people that are so terrified out of their minds that they won't say anything that doesn't align with the government, man, is it easy to police those people. Because you shoot them dead before they go to prison," he added.

Pat and Stu decided to fire back at Al-Jazeera by pointing out that Qatar, the country that owns the "news" organization, leads the world in certain areas as well.

"We don't lead the world for hiding Osama bin Laden," Stu said. "We're not the go-to country for turning over terrorist tapes. That's you guys."

Listen to the full debate on radio below:

Below is a rush transcript of this segment, it may contain errors:

PAT: 877-727-BECK. It's Pat and Stu in for Glenn on the Glenn Beck Program. A couple of stories we didn't get to yesterday that we had on tap. This is Al-Jazeera mocking America on Fourth of July weekend. This pisses me off. Jeffy thinks it's fine. He thinks it's fine.

JEFFY: They were mocking. It's a little funny.

PAT: Yes, they were mocking.

JEFFY: If we would have made that movie making fun of us.

PAT: Since when does the government news channel make videos mocking other channels? Never. Maybe in World War II when they were doing the --

STU: You're probably right. World War II was --

PAT: The Japs then invaded. Maybe then?

STU: Yeah.

PAT: I don't know. But since then, not so much. Anyway, here's the video, you tell me. And it starts out, you know, talking about things that are good, and then it gets into the mocking.

VOICE: You probably know that the US leads the world in the most Olympic medals won, the most number of Nobel laureates, and the most billionaires.

PAT: Okay. Most Olympic medals, most Nobel laureates, and billionaires. Okay. Good things. But billionaires I think they're mocking even that. Because you're stealing all the wealth and resources from the rest of the world. I'm sure that's how they feel.

VOICE: We also lead the world in some other ways.

VOICE: Not to brag, but we have the most incarcerated people in the world.

PAT: See, that pisses me off.

STU: I love this argument.

PAT: I know. And everyone makes it.

STU: It's so patently stupid.

PAT: Everyone who hates America makes it.

STU: Right. First of all, we have a rule of law. That's number one. And when you break laws, you go to prison. You don't get to bribe yourself out of it. In theory, at least. Obviously we haven't seen that on the border or many other fields. But in general one of the strengths of the country is the rule of law. Secondly, they'll bring up, it's higher incarceration rate than Iran. Well, you know, when you have a dictator that's not letting women out of the house, there's not a lot of arresting to do. When you have people that are so terrified out of their minds that they won't say anything that doesn't align with the government, man, is it easy to police those people. Because you shoot them dead before they go to prison.

PAT: Yeah. When you have a police state, there's not as much crime. Do we all not know that? In a free nation, you'll have more crime because people are free.

STU: Yeah. You want China? Because China will say they have a much lower incarceration rate than us. You want that? Because you can have that if you want that.

PAT: Jeez, I'm tired of that. But there's more.

VOICE: God bless the prison industrial complex.

VOICE: When it comes to obesity, we lead the global McDonald's line.

STU: You know why? Because we have more stuff than you. That's why. Okay.

PAT: And, by the way, yes, we have prosperity here, which leads to lead to eating food. Which when is that a bad thing? Is it better to have a nation of people starving to death? I don't think so. You do telethons for them. No one is doing a telethon for us.

STU: No. That's because we've solved our own problems. And we've been able to feed the overwhelming majority of people almost all the time. And maybe a little too much at times. And probably true. I'd much rather have that problem.

PAT: Yeah. And our food tastes good. Sue us.

VOICE: A third of us can't even see our own toes.

PAT: That has to be a lie. I mean, I've never seen that stat, but come on.

STU: Well, I don't think you can statistically measure who can see their toes. They're saying a third are obese, I guess.

We should point out, that while, yes, you are correct, Pat, this is Al-Jazeera and a state-owned -- these are Americans saying these things.

PAT: Americans, yeah. That's what pisses me off, a lot. Who are these little commies that they got to do this ad?

STU: Because it's one thing to do it and mock your own nation. It's one of those things. It's okay for us to -- to mock Glenn. But when the media does it, I get pissed off.

PAT: Yes.

STU: And it's like, that's a little hypocritical, I suppose. But it's our thing, and we get to do it.

PAT: It's not. I think it was Barney Frank. Barney Frank defended George W. Bush against who was it? It was Chavez, who came and said he smelled sulfur. And then Barney Frank the next morning after that UN speech got up and gave this incredible defense of George W. Bush and said, hey, we'll mock this guy. But not you. Okay, that's none of your business. Leave that alone.

STU: And the guy from Harlem did it too. We've disagreed on many, many issues. Congressman, been there 100 years. The guy with the voice.

PAT: In fact, it might have been him. It might have been Charlie Rangel instead of Barney Frank.

STU: Yeah, but you get that from people who don't like the president. By the way, I would do the same thing. There have been times that Obama has been attacked by people, leaders overseas hammering him. You know, I get defensive. I mean, he's still our president. I think he's done a terrible job. But he's still our president.

PAT: Right.

VOICE: Leading nation in cheese production.

PAT: Okay. Since when is that bad? Cheese is delicious.

STU: It's the thing I'm most proud of with this country. The Constitution is nice. And it's a great second place. But this is -- it's cheese, okay. Who the heck can criticize cheese?

JEFFY: That's just another way of saying we're fat.

PAT: I guess. But you've already said we're fat. So now you're piling on with cheese?

JEFFY: Yes, that's what they're doing.

STU: So we're fat for a good reason because our food is better than yours. That's why. That's why.

PAT: Cheese production!

STU: It's even true to the extent that we've taken other people's foods and made them better. You ever go to an authentic place that has some authentic food from some other country -- you're like, I love Mexican people. It's delicious. Then you have authentic Mexican food. And you're like, is that a rat has had inside of the taco? What is that? You know what, I don't want it to be authentic. I want I want it to be American Mexican. American Italian. American everything, because it winds up improving it.

JEFFY: Yeah. And I'm sure the American Dairy Association would be able to say, cheese, we feed the world.

STU: That's true.

PAT: And they're also number one in bread production. They make more staff of life than anyone, losers.

In fact, they have more food than they possibly could eat in 100,000 years. They can and do feed the entire world, these fatties.

STU: And, by the way, all the systems that they came up with to grow food in areas where it couldn't be grown before were all invented in the United States. But let's continue to mock them.

VOICE: America, specifically probably Wisconsin.

VOICE: Pew, pew, we've got 90 guns per 100 persons. Sorry, Yemen, we beat you in drones and guns.

STU: Good.

PAT: Well, good. There's another thing that's not bad. Ninety for every 100. It should be 100 for every 100 or 200 for every 100.

STU: It will be difficult to have a government overrun their people. Is that an issue for these other countries they're not mocking?

PAT: I'm pretty sure that Yemen will not overrun us. And 90 guns per 100 people is part of the reasons. Not all. But part.

VOICE: We make 89 percent of the world's porn. That makes porn as American as church on Sunday.

PAT: Okay. That's obviously bad, if that's true. I don't know if that's true.

STU: Probably is.

PAT: Jeffy, is it true?

JEFFY: First of all, Mr. Gray, why is that a bad thing?

STU: Secondly, Jeffy makes 89 percent of the world's porn and he lives here. So it must be true.

VOICE: Kids consume 80 percent of the world's painkillers. Makes sense though. Right? I mean, racism in this country is a big pain in the ass.

JEFFY: Wait. What?

PAT: Racism.

STU: See, the racism is tied to the pain pills in the way of nothing. But let's throw it in there because it seems funny.

PAT: And it's great because they are so inclusive and diverse in the Middle East. Oh, my. There's people from -- oh. Arabia and Persia in the Middle East.

STU: You know how accepting that entire area is of Jews. Oh, they love the Jews.

PAT: There's no racism there.

STU: No! None at all.

PAT: There's no bigotry there whatsoever. When they call them pigs, they mean that in a nice way.

STU: Of course.

PAT: I'm pretty sure.

STU: I hate all of these countries who point the finger at our racism and have no chance to be racist because they're all the same!

STU: And as soon as someone tries to come in their general continent and settle, they're the -- at the other end of a target of every weapon they can come up with.

PAT: Yeah.

STU: Including trying to come up with entire nuclear programs to wipe them off the map. Yeah. Nice tolerance there.

VOICE: -- developed nations can't compete when we lead with the most number of teen pregnancies per capita.

VOICE: Credit card debt, grab your Visa, because we lead the world in that too. Just think of all the air miles!

STU: Oh. Stop. Stop. Stop. Stop. Stop. Stop. How stupid is this? First of all, credit card debt. Yes, we have a lot of credit card debt. That is true. We also have the largest economy on earth. By --

PAT: So it stands to reason we'll have more credit card debt.

STU: Then you add on -- oh, teen pregnancy. Porn is another one. Porn, 89 percent of the world's porn -- I'll take that at face and assume it's true. We're not consuming 89 percent of the world's porn. Which means other places are even trying to get our porn. Screw you.

PAT: No pun intended.

STU: Thank you. The teen pregnancy rate, look, there is a -- we don't force abortions like some other areas of the world do when people get pregnant. We do have a culture that does, you know, about 50/50 on abortion. So not everyone aborts their kids. Sorry. We try to keep a lot of them alive. It's terrible, I know.

PAT: We also don't kill our children when they become pregnant, as a rule. No honor killings here. Scant few.

VOICE: America is not that great. Just say God bless the country with the most deaths by lawn mower.

PAT: Most deaths by lawn mower. Wow. How about deaths by beheadings? Is Yemen in the top ten there? I'm guessing it is.

STU: Qatar, probably.

PAT: Sandstorms, I bet they're at least top ten. Oppression of women, got to be top five?

STU: You don't get to criticize anyone for anything when your women can't vote yet, okay? You can't criticize any part of any other country --

JEFFY: That's kind of the way I felt after the first time I heard it. And? Yeah, that's great. All right.

STU: It's not something to get so fired up about. It's Al-Jazeera.

PAT: No. It's just annoying.

STU: We don't lead the world for hiding Osama bin Laden.

PAT: Or terrorist production.

STU: We're not the go-to country for turning over terrorist tapes. That's you guys. So I understand, you know, that you have to put something on your crappy network. And Jeffy is right in the point of, who cares, it's Al-Jazeera saying it. It's hilarious. All these typical complaints about America and how bad it is. First of all, as we pointed out a million times, 99 percent of the people saying it don't want to go anywhere else. And if they want to, they're able to. And they stay. Because it's great here. For as annoying as this country gets at times and as bad as the government is at times, it's still way the hell better than every other place on earth.

Then when you look at the things they criticize you over. Well, you know what, do we have a culture that has a lot of guns? Yeah. There's a great reason for that. To throw out a number, well, they have more guns per capita than any other country. So what? It's made us one of the strongest countries in the world. It's made us a country that hasn't changed its Constitution in 200 years, other than the constitutionally available way to change it, which is amending it. And even those things have been relatively few and far between. Other countries turn over their constitution every couple decades when something else becomes popular. Here we have some principles, and we fight for them. And one of those principles is being able to defend yourself. How can you possibly be against that?

PAT: How many how many coups have we had in the last 239 years? Let's count up the total number of coups since 1776.

STU: Can you do this, Pat? Because you're the historian. Remember that one from that time.

PAT: Oh, that's right. There was the time --

JEFFY: Don't forget.

PAT: Okay. Zero. None. Not a single coup. How many in Qatar?

STU: Sixty zillion.

PAT: Since Wednesday.

STU: Yeah. So some of them don't have coups because they kill all the people constantly that oppose it. So it's pretty fancy.

All right. 877-727-BECK is the phone number. I guess that one did fire me up a little bit. Probably right, Jeffy. Probably a little too much. But it's frustrating. I'm sick of that nonsense.

A Sharia enclave is quietly taking root in America. It's time to wake up.

NOVA SAFO / Staff | Getty Images

Sharia-based projects like the Meadow in Texas show how political Islam grows quietly, counting on Americans to stay silent while an incompatible legal system takes root.

Apolitical system completely incompatible with the Constitution is gaining ground in the United States, and we are pretending it is not happening.

Sharia — the legal and political framework of Islam — is being woven into developments, institutions, and neighborhoods, including a massive project in Texas. And the consequences will be enormous if we continue to look the other way.

This is the contradiction at the heart of political Islam: It claims universal authority while insisting its harshest rules will never be enforced here. That promise does not stand up to scrutiny. It never has.

Before we can have an honest debate, we’d better understand what Sharia represents. Sharia is not simply a set of religious rules about prayer or diet. It is a comprehensive legal and political structure that governs marriage, finance, criminal penalties, and civic life. It is a parallel system that claims supremacy wherever it takes hold.

This is where the distinction matters. Many Muslims in America want nothing to do with Sharia governance. They came here precisely because they lived under it. But political Islam — the movement that seeks to implement Sharia as law — is not the same as personal religious belief.

It is a political ideology with global ambitions, much like communism. Secretary of State Marco Rubio recently warned that Islamist movements do not seek peaceful coexistence with the West. They seek dominance. History backs him up.

How Sharia arrives

Political Islam does not begin with dramatic declarations. It starts quietly, through enclaves that operate by their own rules. That is why the development once called EPIC City — now rebranded as the Meadow — is so concerning. Early plans framed it as a Muslim-only community built around a mega-mosque and governed by Sharia-compliant financing. After state investigations were conducted, the branding changed, but the underlying intent remained the same.

Developers have openly described practices designed to keep non-Muslims out, using fees and ownership structures to create de facto religious exclusivity. This is not assimilation. It is the construction of a parallel society within a constitutional republic.

The warning from those who have lived under it

Years ago, local imams in Texas told me, without hesitation, that certain Sharia punishments “just work.” They spoke about cutting off hands for theft, stoning adulterers, and maintaining separate standards of testimony for men and women. They insisted it was logical and effective while insisting they would never attempt to implement it in Texas.

But when pressed, they could not explain why a system they consider divinely mandated would suddenly stop applying once someone crossed a border.

This is the contradiction at the heart of political Islam: It claims universal authority while insisting its harshest rules will never be enforced here. That promise does not stand up to scrutiny. It never has.

AASHISH KIPHAYET / Contributor | Getty Images

America is vulnerable

Europe is already showing us where this road leads. No-go zones, parallel courts, political intimidation, and clerics preaching supremacy have taken root across major cities.

America’s strength has always come from its melting pot, but assimilation requires boundaries. It requires insisting that the Constitution, not religious law, is the supreme authority on this soil.

Yet we are becoming complacent, even fearful, about saying so. We mistake silence for tolerance. We mistake avoidance for fairness. Meanwhile, political Islam views this hesitation as weakness.

Religious freedom is one of America’s greatest gifts. Muslims may worship freely here, as they should. But political Islam must not be permitted to plant a flag on American soil. The Constitution cannot coexist with a system that denies equal rights, restricts speech, subordinates women, and places clerical authority above civil law.

Wake up before it is too late

Projects like the Meadow are not isolated. They are test runs, footholds, proofs of concept. Political Islam operates with patience. It advances through demographic growth, legal ambiguity, and cultural hesitation — and it counts on Americans being too polite, too distracted, or too afraid to confront it.

We cannot afford that luxury. If we fail to defend the principles that make this country free, we will one day find ourselves asking how a parallel system gained power right in front of us. The answer will be simple: We looked away.

The time to draw boundaries and to speak honestly is now. The time to defend the Constitution as the supreme law of the land is now. Act while there is still time.

This article originally appeared on TheBlaze.com.

Why do Americans feel so empty?

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Anxiety, anger, and chronic dissatisfaction signal a country searching for meaning. Without truth and purpose, politics becomes a dangerous substitute for identity.

We have built a world overflowing with noise, convenience, and endless choice, yet something essential has slipped out of reach. You can sense it in the restless mood of the country, the anxiety among young people who cannot explain why they feel empty, in the angry confusion that dominates our politics.

We have more wealth than any nation in history, but the heart of the culture feels strangely malnourished. Before we can debate debt or elections, we must confront the reality that we created a world of things, but not a world of purpose.

You cannot survive a crisis you refuse to name, and you cannot rebuild a world whose foundations you no longer understand.

What we are living through is not just economic or political dysfunction. It is the vacuum that appears when a civilization mistakes abundance for meaning.

Modern life is stuffed with everything except what the human soul actually needs. We built systems to make life faster, easier, and more efficient — and then wondered why those systems cannot teach our children who they are, why they matter, or what is worth living for.

We tell the next generation to chase success, influence, and wealth, turning childhood into branding. We ask kids what they want to do, not who they want to be. We build a world wired for dopamine rather than dignity, and then we wonder why so many people feel unmoored.

When everything is curated, optimized, and delivered at the push of a button, the question “what is my life for?” gets lost in the static.

The crisis beneath the headlines

It is not just the young who feel this crisis. Every part of our society is straining under the weight of meaninglessness.

Look at the debt cycle — the mathematical fate no civilization has ever escaped once it crosses a threshold that we seem to have already blown by. While ordinary families feel the pressure, our leaders respond with distraction, with denial, or by rewriting the very history that could have warned us.

You cannot survive a crisis you refuse to name, and you cannot rebuild a world whose foundations you no longer understand.

We have entered a cultural moment where the noise is so loud that it drowns out the simplest truths. We are living in a country that no longer knows how to hear itself think.

So people go searching. Some drift toward the false promise of socialism, some toward the empty thrill of rebellion. Some simply check out. When a culture forgets what gives life meaning, it becomes vulnerable to every ideology that offers a quick answer.

The quiet return of meaning

And yet, quietly, something else is happening. Beneath the frustration and cynicism, many Americans are recognizing that meaning does not come from what we own, but from what we honor. It does not rise from success, but from virtue. It does not emerge from noise, but from the small, sacred things that modern life has pushed to the margins — the home, the table, the duty you fulfill, the person you help when no one is watching.

The danger is assuming that this rediscovery happens on its own. It does not.

Reorientation requires intention. It requires rebuilding the habits and virtues that once held us together. It requires telling the truth about our history instead of rewriting it to fit today’s narratives. And it requires acknowledging what has been erased: that meaning is inseparable from God’s presence in a nation’s life.

Harold M. Lambert / Contributor | Getty Images

Where renewal begins

We have built a world without stillness, and then we wondered why no one can hear the questions that matter. Those questions remain, whether we acknowledge them or not. They do not disappear just because we drown them in entertainment or noise. They wait for us, and the longer we ignore them, the more disoriented we become.

Meaning is still available. It is found in rebuilding the smallest, most human spaces — the places that cannot be digitized, globalized, or automated. The home. The family. The community.

These are the daily virtues that do not trend on social media, but that hold a civilization upright. If we want to repair this country, we begin there, exactly where every durable civilization has always begun: one virtue at a time, one tradition at a time, one generation at a time.

This article originally appeared on TheBlaze.com.

A break in trust: A NEW Watergate is brewing in plain sight

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When institutions betray the public’s trust, the country splits, and the spiral is hard to stop.

Something drastic is happening in American life. Headlines that should leave us stunned barely register anymore. Stories that once would have united the country instead dissolve into silence or shrugs.

It is not apathy exactly. It is something deeper — a growing belief that the people in charge either cannot or will not fix what is broken.

When people feel ignored or betrayed, they will align with anyone who appears willing to fight on their behalf.

I call this response the Bubba effect. It describes what happens when institutions lose so much public trust that “Bubba,” the average American minding his own business, finally throws his hands up and says, “Fine. I will handle it myself.” Not because he wants to, but because the system that was supposed to protect him now feels indifferent, corrupt, or openly hostile.

The Bubba effect is not a political movement. It is a survival instinct.

What triggers the Bubba effect

We are watching the triggers unfold in real time. When members of Congress publicly encourage active duty troops to disregard orders from the commander in chief, that is not a political squabble. When a federal judge quietly rewrites the rules so one branch of government can secretly surveil another, that is not normal. That is how republics fall. Yet these stories glided across the news cycle without urgency, without consequence, without explanation.

When the American people see the leadership class shrug, they conclude — correctly — that no one is steering the ship.

This is how the Bubba effect spreads. It is not just individuals resisting authority. It is sheriffs refusing to enforce new policies, school boards ignoring state mandates, entire communities saying, “We do not believe you anymore.” It becomes institutional, cultural, national.

A country cracking from the inside

This effect can be seen in Dearborn, Michigan. In the rise of fringe voices like Nick Fuentes. In the Epstein scandal, where powerful people could not seem to locate a single accountable adult. These stories are different in content but identical in message: The system protects itself, not you.

When people feel ignored or betrayed, they will align with anyone who appears willing to fight on their behalf. That does not mean they suddenly agree with everything that person says. It means they feel abandoned by the institutions that were supposed to be trustworthy.

The Bubba effect is what fills that vacuum.

The dangers of a faithless system

A republic cannot survive without credibility. Congress cannot oversee intelligence agencies if it refuses to discipline its own members. The military cannot remain apolitical if its chain of command becomes optional. The judiciary cannot defend the Constitution while inventing loopholes that erase the separation of powers.

History shows that once a nation militarizes politics, normalizes constitutional shortcuts, or allows government agencies to operate without scrutiny, it does not return to equilibrium peacefully. Something will give.

The question is what — and when.

The responsibility now belongs to us

In a healthy country, this is where the media steps in. This is where universities, pastors, journalists, and cultural leaders pause the outrage machine and explain what is at stake. But today, too many see themselves not as guardians of the republic, but of ideology. Their first loyalty is to narrative, not truth.

The founders never trusted the press more than the public. They trusted citizens who understood their rights, lived their responsibilities, and demanded accountability. That is the antidote to the Bubba effect — not rage, but citizenship.

How to respond without breaking ourselves

Do not riot. Do not withdraw. Do not cheer on destruction just because you dislike the target. That is how nations lose themselves. Instead, demand transparency. Call your representatives. Insist on consequences. Refuse to normalize constitutional violations simply because “everyone does it.” If you expect nothing, you will get nothing.

Do not hand your voice to the loudest warrior simply because he is swinging a bat at the establishment. You do not beat corruption by joining a different version of it. You beat it by modeling the country you want to preserve: principled, accountable, rooted in truth.

Adam Gray / Stringer | Getty Images

Every republic reaches a moment when historians will later say, “That was the warning.” We are living in ours. But warnings are gifts if they are recognized. Institutions bend. People fail. The Constitution can recover — if enough Americans still know and cherish it.

It does not take a majority. Twenty percent of the country — awake, educated, and courageous — can reset the system. It has happened before. It can happen again.

Wake up. Stand up. Demand integrity — from leaders, from institutions, and from yourself. Because the Bubba effect will not end until Americans reclaim the duty that has always belonged to them: preserving the republic for the next generation.

This article originally appeared on TheBlaze.com.

Grim warning: Bad-faith Israel critics duck REAL questions

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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.

Anadolu / Contributor | Getty Images

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.