DOC: I owe you an apology. It is not easy for most of us to admit when we are wrong and certainly isn't easy on a stage this big. But I was wrong yesterday. Hi, there, it is Doc Thompson in for Glenn Beck. I failed to not express my compassion for all of those suffering because of the mass murder in Las Vegas. For that, I am sorry.
I felt pretty good about yesterday's program and some of the stuff we did and ways we approached it. We updated facts, offered speculation on the motives of the shooter, and then mocked some of the celebrities which is also good stuff. Mocking them specifically for their now concern in the middle of the tragedy over gun control again and that becoming an issue.
I didn't realize until I got off the air that some people felt I came across a little insensitive. I started thinking about that. Obviously, it was not my intention. But how I was able to miss the mark and how people misunderstood that. Then I realized it is a bit of a symptom of where we live and where we are at now.
How our lives have changed from now to 50 years ago, 20 years ago. See, if you don't know me and never listened to this program then anything you hear, if this is your first moment listening to this program, this is all you know of me. It is true of any program.
If you go into a restaurant and you eat there, that is 100% of your experiences at that restaurant.
If it is a movie, television series, if you meet a new person, that experience is 100% of your experience with whatever it.
So if you tune into a radio program and hear five minutes of material that is all you have to judge it by. If it is out of context, you don't realize that there may be a slightly different meaning. For most people that listened to me on the TheBlaze Radio Network I think you recognize how seriously we value life. I am pro-life, I am anti-abortion, I fight rabidly for veterans and veteran's causes and issues, we give time and money and service to all kinds of charities. We give of ourselves on our program even within this company regularly.
When we laid out some of the facts yesterday we didn't do due diligence to take a moment and recognize the people suffering and for that I was wrong. I just assumed mistakenly that people recognize I know that Doc and I know he gets it. That was a failure on my part.
This became evident during the election. Glenn struggled with this as well. For people that listened to this program for years they said I know what that Glenn Beck is all about and then they said I am supporting trump and here is Glenn Beck not supporting trump. Why did he change so much? Maybe he didn't. Maybe you didn't. Maybe it is just you have some differences and those differences became highlighted and became out of control, our opinions of them, because of the world we live in. That is unfortunately a failure of today's society that we can no longer trust some people we have trusted because of a difference or two even though we may have marched with them, we may have fought for certain issues. But unfortunately politics has become our highest ideas, our highest values.
I am not talking issues. I am talking about concerns or historical facts or the constitution. I am talking politics. I am talking the process of governing. Not the ideas or the solutions that affect us all but the process/the system. It has become a spectator sport. Sticking it to the other side is job one now. It is what we look to do. We are trying to win an argument. We are trying to prove we are right even when we are quite often wrong.
That is when we are now. How did we get there from even just 10 years ago? I bet you started your journey to right here to be informed about issues of the day, where we are heading, what we struggle with from a very good place. You informed yourself. You said this is knowledge I need. You learned about history, you learned about other cultures, you learned about the law, you learned about all of these things, you learned about people and you study them and you look around and say why am I so alone? And how come on social media I have people I thought I knew that I can't trust anymore? Unfortunately, we are being divided and we divide ourselves.
By number one not leading first with our values. That doesn't mean blah blah blahing about them on the radios. It doesn't mean talking about them on social media. It is not a better than, holier than thou attitude. It is not telling people they are wrong. It is living them, being them and treating people well. It is good to discuss these things on social media. Debate, values and even those that differ from you are good. It is knowledge, information, and it is challenging you. In some cases it is making you realize how right your values and ideas are.
That is unfortunately not how most of us see it now. If something is different, it's got to be shutdown. We have got to come out against it rabidly. And much like judging radio show or restaurant with one little bit of information we automatically assume we know about them. We assume we know everything about them. I will give you an example. I have sadly over the past 6-8 months had to whenever I talk about the president give a disclaimer about all my political views.
If I say something critical of President Trump I have to say but I support President Trump when it comes to this, this, and this because if you have a supporter of President Trump and you hear me say one thing critical Anti-Trump and you are on that Glenn Beck program and he didn't support trump.
No, that is not accurate. Or if I say something positive about President Trump I have to put out the disclaimer I didn't vote for President Trump and of course I didn't vote for Hillary Clinton. I vote on track record and Trump not having a track record I could not support him. I am looking for someone consistent in their values and I have to go down this nutty ass disclaimer because otherwise I will be seen by people who are not Trump supporters, the ones out to get him because they are crazy and on a witch hunt, as one of those trump supporters.
You obviously wanted people to be murdered in Las Vegas. You obviously want people to die in Puerto Rico and so on and so forth. At some point, haven't you gotten tired of this game? The futility in this? Aren't you tired of that?
I admit yesterday I did not pause enough and give what I would expect most people to recognize sympathy and compassion for people in Las Vegas and other people around the globe who had loved ones who suffered or hurt or injured because of what happened.
I would expect that you would just know that most of your fellow human beings, of course, have compassion for somebody who was shot, somebody who had a loved one shot and possibly killed in Las Vegas. 80-90% outside of crazy, evil people, wouldn't you expect they have compassion? They are sensitive? They are not wishing death upon people? I did not do my due diligence yesterday to express that. That was a failure. But why aren't we giving people the benefit of the doubt with that? I don't think the CBS executive who said she would not be sympathetic because they were likely Republican supporters or gun toters that were shot, I don't think she is really hateful or really wants to see people shot. I just think she crossed the line in expressing that because the more we share craziness like that the worse it gets. There is no compassion. There is no humanity left. That is the real crisis.
The lack of humanity and the fact that we do not give the benefit of the doubt to each other. Over the years I have been uber critical, as I should be, of people that are progressive and liberals because your ideas are quite often, mainly, wrong. They are wrong for humanity. They are wrong for my fellow humans. They are wrong systems of government. They oppress. They hurt. But I don't think most of those liberals want bad. I don't think they are evil. They are not wanting to bring the system down or to hurt people.
On the contrary, I think they want to help. I think they are actually probably very caring people. I just think they haven't been able to process the information. They are not being logical. How things need to roll out to help the most number of people. But I give them the benefit of the doubt about actually mainly being caring people. I don't get that same respect from people on the left.
They believe if you are conservative, you are evil and racist and all these things but see conservatives are that way. If you are a Trump supporter and I say something negative about President Trump even if it is accurate you quite often lead to Trump hater. I know who you are. If I say something positive of President Trump and you don't support him you say oh, you are just in the tank for Trump.
No, I look at each issue based on my values and my support of my fellow man and decide what's right. I am consistent that way even though I have suffered the slings and arrows to my program and to my career because people challenge me on that thinking. They wrongly know something about me and why? Because they can't admit their own failures. That some of the things and ideas they supported are wrong.
Secretary of Health and Human Services, Tom Price, resigned Friday over the scandal of spending $400,000 on charter flights. It is a waste of money and something I have screamed about for decades. I call Tom Price out. That was wrong.
You have the secretary of the VA spending and wasting money for him and his wife to go to Europe. You have the guy from the EPA wasting money. I called out republicans in the Trump administration just like I did with the Obama administration. Photography for you conservatives who were so concerned about President Obama wasting money, how come you are not calling out Trump on these things? These are the consistency I am talking about. Give your fellow man the benefit of the doubt. Go back to your core values of your faith, humanity and treating people well and call out people who are not being consistent even if that means the people that you covet because they matter so much to you this includes your children, your clergy, your spouse, and the people you have sent to D.C. to represent you.
That is the way forward. You want solutions, you are frustrated every day? That is it. You start right there. We all get 5% better at that today and our world will dramatically change for the better.