Glenn shares painful family history of abuse in response to critics

Glenn opened this morning radio’s program with an emotional monologue that touched on his own family’s dark history and why he is no longer willing to sit idly and comply.

Last week, the Wonderful World of Stu aired a segment about the inflated sexual assault statistics pushed by the White House. In the clip, Stu makes it clear that sexual assault – no matter the statistic – is unacceptable, but he also asserted that overstating the number of sexual assaults belittles those who have been assaulted. You can watch the segment HERE.

Left wing outlets like Media Matters, Salon, Slate, and Jezebel to name a few have jumped on Stu’s segment, which appeared  the Wonderful World of Stu and a portion of which aired on the Glenn Beck Program. The articles on these sites claim Stu – and Glenn by extension – are “mocking” sexual assault and harassment in a “horrifying rape sketch.”

Over the years, Glenn has learned it often best to ignore such outrage, but this morning he was inspired by the dozens of stories he has covered recently in which individuals stood up for what was right even when it wasn’t the politically correct position to take. Glenn publicly stood by Stu and his report and proceeded to share his family’s painful history with abuse and sexual assault.

Below is an edited transcript of the monologue:

GLENN: I want to start with something rather personal. I was going to blow something off because the usual suspects are rallying around this bit that Stu did on the TV show… The producers of that segment are women, and it's about rape and how horrible, horrible the new stats are about rape in America. It's all a lie. They are now trying to tell the American people that rape in America [on college campuses], by American men is three times the rate of the Rwandan genocide – three times the rate of rape than was happening during the

Rwandan genocide. It's an outrage. They do it by doctoring the questions in this poll.

STU: Yeah, they asked a bunch of questions in there – things like: If you were to pressure someone to have sex by telling them lies – so you say, ‘Hey, I'm actually a basketball player.’ If you do something like that, it's rape. If you make promises about the future that you know are untrue --

PAT: If you say, ‘I love you. I will love you forever.’ Also, if you ask more than once?

STU: Yes. Repeatedly asking, persistence.

PAT: So you could say, ‘Please?’ ‘No.’

GLENN: This is how they are defining it. This is a war on men and on women.

STU: And the goal here – the reason why I thought it was important to take this stat on – you are talking about turning every college-age male into Genghis Khan. You can't lie.

GLENN: I just wanted to say that everybody needs to watch this particular episode, and we'll post it at GlennBeck.com. Watch the full thing, not what the media is trying to smear with. That's totally fine because I stand by it. I stand by it. I double down on it.

And here's why: Rape is not a laughing matter, nor is it a matter that you lie about. You don't cheapen the real horror of rape.

I've told you now for about 10 years, there were things going on in my life I would talk to you about when the time is right, and it is damn near right. I will share a little bit of something that my family and I have gone through over the course of our lifetime, generationally, because I've had enough, quite frankly. I have had enough. I'm tired of being accused of standing with abusers and rapists. I'm tired of being called a monster. I'm just tired of the lies. I'm tired of the lies of abusers. I have had my fill of it.

My family has experienced rape first-hand – multiple times, over multiple generations. I have worked hard in my personal life to stop the effects of this over the last 10 years. It has changed my life. It has changed the lives of my sisters.

You know that my father died two months ago. My father was my greatest teacher, and for many years, he was my best friend. But my father, for me, did not two years ago. My father died about six years ago.

My father had a very bad dad. My father was abused by my grandfather, and my father ran away from home. And when he ran away from home, he ran to Los Angeles and he stayed at the YMCA, where he was repeatedly raped.

When he was young, he was stealing golf balls at a country club in Seattle. My father didn't know anything at all about golf, but he knew he could sell the golf balls, and so he was hiding in the woods with his friends and they would steal the golf balls, turn them in, sell them for money. And he was caught. He was caught by a man who said, ‘Really? You're going to have to work this off. You're going to caddy for me for the rest of this summer.’ That's the story that I had always been told by my father. What I found out recently was that man also repeatedly raped my father.

My father found himself going to try to find God, and he went to a church. He believed in this preacher. Instead of putting his faith in God, he put his faith in a man. And things didn't work out well.

When my father passed away, my aunt had come to visit me. We're now beginning to explore the ramifications of abuse generationally in families. My family is a shipwreck. I'm figuring out now why I believe – or have always felt as if – I was a bad dad because I have the sickness of self-doubt. I have been passed generationally the sickness, the effects – even if they are removed directly from you – you still feel the effects of what happened. And abuse was happening in my family. I told my father 10 years ago that it would stop because it was now being passed to the grandchildren. He said it would. I said, ‘It will, Dad? Because if it doesn't, I will end it.’

It was physical abuse, but it was not sexual abuse at that time. My father never abused any of us sexually that I know of, but my family has felt the ramifications of his abuse and has felt the sexual abuse by others in our family.

Don't you ever preach to me about what I can say and cannot say about rape. Don't you ever try to be an authority to me on the effects of rape. Don't you ever try to tell me what victims should or should not feel, as I have tried to piece my family back together and to give my sisters the love that they deserve and have never had.

My family and I are standing because of the grace of God, and because we have each other, and we have the truth. And if you have the truth and the courage to pursue the truth, time will heal everything. The good news is that I, and now millions of others, are finally facing the truth, no matter where your fear or the lies are buried, and it goes far beyond sexual abuse. There are millions now willing to speak, even if it means losing everything.

I have been saying this for a while, that courage is contagious. And last night, when I saw what was being said about Stu's segment on my program, I started to [think] I'm not going to say anything about it. But I have been inspired by those who are now standing in PTA meetings and have stood to speak their mind but violated a stupid two-minute rule and went to jail for the first time in their lives. I have been inspired for the teachers who are beginning to stand, and the TV show hosts and the football players and the peaceful group of individuals, many of whom are radically different than I am – financially, ethnically, politically, sexually – but they are all standing now, peacefully and calmly. But mark my words: Fully submitted to the truth.

I will not comply. You do not own my thoughts. A few things are very clear to me, and no amount of speech giving or bumper stickers or EPA, NSA, IRS threats will ever change the facts that are true.

These are just a few of them: My child's fingers are not, nor will they ever be a gun. Those who survived the Holocaust did not do so because of white privilege. A Hollywood blacklist is exactly the same horror show, whether the names on that list are communists or conservatives. 2 plus 2 equals 4. Always has, always will. I don't give a flying crap how you got there, as long as you got there, to 4. Global warming is not the same as global cooling or global climate change, which is different than global climate crisis and none of them have to do with the shootings in Chicago or the idea of regulating the very vapor that we as humans breathe out, that we all learn trees breathe in to grow. That is just as ridiculous as your straight face plan to now regulate cow farts.

I'm sorry, but I respectfully, lovingly, yet full-throated declare that is nonsense. I also declare the self-evident truth that racism is not about having high expectations. Racism is not about standards. And rape certainly is not about someone asking for sex too many times and then being sad when you turn them down.

If you had the facts on how brutal rape is, it shows how awful your peer-reviewed study questions really are. Let's contrast and compare, shall we, America? Who is hurting women? Who is standing up for women? Who is defending them and who is using them, merely for political power?

Have you no shame? How many gay friends do we all have that are now embarrassed by the people who have use third reel fight for freedom to come out of the shadows and love who they want, just to bash, control, and destroy everything in its wake for power now?

I have quite a few gay friends, and, without exception, they all say the same thing. They are now embarrassed and horrified at what the power left has turned the real cause of each of us being treated with respect and judged for our character into a thinly veiled mechanism of threat and retribution for anybody who dares agree on everything in this ever-expanding agenda. We have begun to destroy those who were at their side the whole time, who have the audacity to say, ‘Maybe, maybe things have gone too far.’

After a break, Glenn continued:

Those from all walks of life, color, sexual orientation and political ideology that wish to force others to think and behave the way they deem is the right way will always use every tool of their trade.  Look at what they are now defining as rape.  They are saying that threatening to hurt, threatening to smear, threatening to make afraid, lying to get their way, or pretending to be hurt or sad if you don't get your way.  All of those things, they are now saying is rape. But look at those who are doing all of these things to our society. Look at the way they are behaving.  Are they not behaving as their own self-defined rapists?

Make no mistake, they are not rapists, at least on this program.  We will define rape and racist as it is commonly understood.  A rapist and a fascist, while both monsters, are different.  Even though fascists have throughout history used rape as a tool to gain hold over a person or a public, rape still holds a unique position in society. Yes, both rapists and fascists, left and right, both want to force someone to do as they wish, or they will humiliate, threaten, violate, beat, kill or destroy.  Similar tactics, because as all intellectual and intellectually honest people will admit, rape is not about sex. It is about power over another person, their choices, their body and their life.

Those currently in power in government, education, banking, even global business, should understand: your time of lies and deceit and corruption are over.  Even if the world takes this current crop of bums and throws them out, I want you to know the other side is going to use the same exact levers and tactics again.

But here's the good news. I really, truly believe, at least 10% of the people on this planet are wide awake now, from China to Colorado, and that is more than enough to defeat anyone who wears a red tie or a blue tie or any kind of military uniform.  There are enough of us now, willing to stand just as they did in Tiananmen Square.  Stand against oppression in any form, and that number is growing.

Martin Luther King said 300 years ago enough is enough, and he's right. Rape, racism, oppression of any kind isn't a color.  It's not a class. It's not a gender problem.  It is a human problem.  It didn't start in America.  It started with Cain and Abel and has been repeating itself for thousands of years. Contrary to what our public school teachers are now forced to teach to stave the wrath of the labor union, slave owners don't have to at live in plantation houses.  Chains don't have to be physical, and those who use power to silence others don't have to be white.  They just have to see others as the means and themselves as the ends.

Just as Moses and a handful of these on the lowest rung on the ladder of political power did in Egypt and Lincoln did in America and Bonhoeffer did in Germany, Gandhi in India, Lech Walesa in Poland, we will stand - no matter the personal cost - we'll stand with intellectual honesty, stand peacefully, we will stand as decent and caring, a mass majority of all walks of life, voting records and lifestyle choices.  And we refuse to leave the lunch counter because we actually do believe in something.

We actually do believe that we can all be different and yet we can all live side-by-side, we can all be friends, we can disagree on all kinds of thing, but we can still work together and play together and be responsible enough as humans to defend each other's right to be different.  We don't need a political action committee to stoke the flames of book burning, witch hunts or mob rule.  We don't need the political action committees to tell us about blacklists.  All we need is each other and the truth.

Our black present, neighbors and families did not get beaten, go to jail and many die to win the right as a black man to have full citizenship, only now to be told to shut up and sit down at the back of the bus, because you're not black enough.  Only now to be told sit down, shut up, sit in the back of the bus, because you're Christian or atheist or gay or straight, liberal or conservative.  We're humans first.  We will continue to shout the truth from the rooftops.  I am a man, and I demand to be treated as such.

Adam Corolla said this week, it's not a crazy right wing idea.  It's just the right idea. Raising your kids to be responsible and loving is a parent's job.  Working hard and being able to pursue your dreams and keep your gain, helping those who can't make it and not because of mind-set or attitude.  That's their problem, but because of physical or mental disadvantages, helping those people, refusing to look away when you hear the cries for help, and standing up at the school yard for any bully, no matter where they're found, or no matter what label the victim seems to be wearing.  It is our job, not as Americans, but as members of the human family.

We stand with our sisters and our mothers and our daughters, because we love them, but we also stand with our fathers and our brothers and our sons, who also have been raped as well, those who have been destroyed by the cruel and calculated accusation of rape or racist, like those who smeared the cops over Tawana Brawley or the Duke lacrosse team.  We will not cower and we will not conform.

This isn't about white privilege or black power.  This is about power to the people, where it rightfully belongs.  It is about our duty and our honor as fellow human beings to comfort those who mourn, to heal the sick, to care about the poor and the poor in spirit, to hold those who are afraid, to stand with the meek, the humble, the real victims of rape and racism and classism or any other kind of ism.  Unlike the so-called civil rights leaders who have shamed themselves decades ago. We are not preachers, we are not politicians an we are not community organizers.  We are just people, and we like it that way.

We don't want, we don't need, we don't desire any recognition for this.  We don't want any power from it.  We certainly don't want money, retribution or vengeance, because that makes us into the monster we're all trying to stop.  We really even don't want to win. We don't want to win, because logic teaches us that for us to win, it requires someone else to lose.  I don't need to win.  I only search for reconciliation.  Reconciliation to the truth, because we know the truth will set us free.

I have two dads, one who is far from perfect, and one who is, and the one who is perfect asked me to love the people that hate, not to excuse their actions and not to love them in a condescending way, but a real way.

The people who are perpetrating these lies are in pain. To stay alive, they have to control others, because their lives are completely out of control, and they are afraid that they are going to be found out.

It's reconciliation, loving one's enemies does not mean condoning their actions.  It actually means exactly the opposite.  True love means you have to speak the truth.  You're wrong.  This is a problem. You have done things that deserve punishment, but take my hand.  I offer it to you as a sign of peace.  Walk with me, talk with me.  You do have to pay a price for your actions, but I, too, am a sinner.  I, too, am struggling just to keep my head above water, so I will walk with you, I will hold your hand, in hopes that you will have the peace inside of me, and I will feel your pain, but if you deny my hand, that's okay.  I can't force you to do anything, but make a choice.

Love and forgiveness or hate and destruction.  We have to stop this madness, put down our labels, put down our desire to control, put down your desire to manipulate.

The answers are easy. Look for the divine.  There's power, peace, love, forgiveness and a chance to start all over again.  Let us humble ourselves to be even worthy to see the truth again.

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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.

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.

Brandon Bell / Staff | Getty Images

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: AI-written country song tops charts, sparks soul debate

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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.

Shocking shift: America’s youth lured by the “Socialism trap”

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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.