Blog
LatestArticlesVideos
Radio
LivePodcastSerialsStations
TV
Podcasts
The Glenn Beck ProgramThe Glenn Beck PodcastThe Beck Story
Fine Art
Real Estate
Shop
More
AboutCharityBooksSponsorsContact
SEARCH
Live Radio

©2024 MERCURY RADIO ARTS.
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

TERMS OF USE | PRIVACY POLICY

Live

Glenn's Show Prep

The real death of shame

January 22, 2015
Wilson

Writer

Another off the record conversation Glenn shared on radio today focused on technology. After speaking with a silicon valley power player, Glenn relayed the new way of thinking about emerging technology discussed in the conversation. Basically, no matter how hard government tries, they will not be able to contain advancements. How will this all lead to the real death of shame?

GLENN: Facebook is now cited in a third of all divorce cases.

PAT: That's amazing to me.

GLENN: That is incredible. Now, what does that mean?

Because Facebook is an ongoing log of our lives, the sharing of written posts and pictures many times with geotracking provides a record of activity that is being used today in court cases in divorces. In one-third of all divorces.

If a partner refers to an impending bonus, a new job offer, plans for a holiday, it may provide evidence that they're not telling the truth about their financial pos. At the very least, it could call their credibility into question. It's like having a massive public notice board.

Someone says she's not in a relationship with anyone new, but then posted a message inviting everyone to a house-warming party for her and her boyfriend. Specialists at the firm examined over 200 cases and found Facebook was used by legal teams in a third of the divorce cases.

This is -- this is the new future that I want to talk to you about here.

And I think there are very few people in the world that understand this. And I may come to the wrong conclusions, but I want you to understand this because we should have a debate -- a conversation about what is coming.

I think, and I told you at the time, that the Sony hacking was a massive moment. Was something really, really important. Because I thought it sent a signal -- wait a minute. I can get a company like Sony. I can go in and hack in. I can get a company like Sony to move. Why wouldn't I do that with GM or GE? Why wouldn't I do that with some of the biggest corporations in the world. Why wouldn't I do that with the federal government? And they're now hacking into the federal government.

I've also told you that what you put online and this is one thing -- I said this to somebody yesterday and they looked at me for a second and they said, oh, crap, I never even thought about it that way.

Look at your phone. Your phone has a listening device and an eye. It has -- it has those two things that we would never bring in to -- I'd never say, hey, if I put a -- I was going to put a secret camera in your bedroom and a listening device in there. And you don't know if I'm listening or not. Or somebody else might be listening. Do you mind if I put it in there? Everybody would say no. But because I put it on a phone, you immediately say, oh, I'll do that. And it's unlike a phone that you have in your bedroom now, that doesn't have an eye and doesn't have a receiver end.

This is propped up in a cradle, so as you put it in to the cradle to recharge, the eye is staring right at you in bed. Everything that you look at -- and I don't know if you've ever seen those guys that people hack in and they're online. And all of a sudden porn comes on to the screen and it's people hacking in, and they're putting really inappropriate things up on the screen.

JEFFY: I hate that.

GLENN: Yeah, I know.

[laughter]

And you watch their reaction and some people follow the scent of the porn. And that is able to happen without somebody putting the porn on your i Pad. Somebody can be watching what you're doing -- somebody can be watching what you're reading, what's happening. Okay.

Now, we know that all of those things can happen. We know now that Sony has been hacked into. We know that Google has told us -- Eric Schmidt has told us that this generation will have to change their name by the time they're 25 to be able to get away from all of the stupid stuff that is online under their name. Because you just will have too much out there.

PAT: It's already costing kids jobs now because employers are looking at their Facebook posts and what they've done on Instagram and all that stuff and they're saying, no. No. I don't want you.

GLENN: Yeah. So you're an open book.

Now, let's add the Sony factor in. And let's add the future of technology. Phones are going to be everywhere. Phones will be on your watch. You know, some -- or cameras. Cameras will be on your watch. Some cameras will be embedded in your home. Some will be embedded in clothing. And you'll put them on. Your glasses. Did you guys see what happened yesterday with Microsoft? Their new hologram glasses?

PAT: No.

GLENN: Oh, jeez. Go to my Facebook page and see if there's any audio worth pulling up. I pulled it off Microsoft yesterday. They're on -- it's unbelievable. It's absolutely unbelievable. So they're holographic glasses you wear. And it's unlike -- it's more like the Google glass, except it puts in your environment all your apps. You want to watch Netflix, you don't have to have to have TV.

PAT: The HoloLens?

GLENN: Yeah.

PAT: Is it good audio or just visual?

GLENN: I think it's mainly visual. We'll listen to it during the break and see. But it's up on my Facebook page. You should watch it. This is what came out yesterday. That's a two-way street. It's gathering information, and it's giving you information. Whatever you're looking at, it's seeing. Whatever is in the room, it's seeing. It's recording. Two-way information. So when people hacked into Sony, they knew, okay, now we have real power. Governments will be the first ones to say, we have to fight for -- we have to fight for the right to privacy, for them.

For instance, a friend of mine suggested that we put a camera on a politician all the time. That they have to wear a camera. You want a candidate that says, I have nothing to hide. He has to wear a camera all the time. So you see what he sees all the time. If there's anybody who should not have privacy, it's the people who work for the public. But they'll the first ones to say, no, no, there has to be secrets. The next ones that will say that are the corporations. We have no power, no money, we're last on the food chain. Whatever it is that will protect their information, it will trickle down to the private individual.

Here's where it gets good, there is no way to protect the privacy. At this point, there's nothing to protect the privacy. And things will get so bad. What's going to happen is, something called the death of shame. Now, I think we're already at the death of shame. That people just don't have -- there's no shame anymore.

But once there are cameras everywhere, recording everything, once everybody can see what you look like in the bedroom, everybody can see -- I mean, think of this. How many of us -- how many of us even charge our phones there at the bathroom sink? So there you are in all your naked glory, brushing your teeth.

PAT: I'm never naked when I brush my teeth. I put clothes on as quickly as I possibly can so I don't have to look at anything.

GLENN: I do too.

STU: Unless you're in really good shape. Because things are jiggling.

GLENN: Anyway, so -- how many of us have that exposure all the time?

When you have that kind of exposure, when you're seeing the things that people are posting online, and when it is out, whether you want to post it or not, now, everybody is shameful. Now everybody is like, holy cow. That came out about you. Don't worry about it, Bob, you should see what came out about me last month. So shame dies in our society.

What is that like? When there is no shame.

How do you have self-regulation?

Right now, shame is meant -- is used to hold together and keep our feet on a course. And the more that shame dies, the worst it gets.

Okay. So what do you do?

As shame is dying, secrets are opened. Somebody is going to need something where they can embed secrets. Where you have privacy again.

I believe bitcoin is the future of that privacy. Not just for money, but for information.

I was talking to somebody yesterday at Silicon Valley, and they were talking to me about bitcoin. And we talked about the ability for bitcoin, that blockchain, to be able to have information. Because what I was talking to him about was the rise of fascism. And I said, how do we fight against the rise of fascism, when these global governments start to block the way?

And he said, you're not going to be able to -- you'll have to shut down the entire internet. You won't be able to do it. The faster fascism rises, the faster this change will come. The way to do it, is blockchain, he said.

And that is the way to transfer money in bitcoin. He said you'll be able to do it in packets of information. Right now, they can see what you're writing and watching online. But if you encode everything with blockchain, which is the way it's going to have to be done because the giant corporations will need to be able to keep their servers protected. They're going to need to have their money protected. The only way to do that is through a blockchain.

And so he was suggesting that you embed in the blockchain, that's also the way you deliver pacts of information. So all your emails will be individually encrypted and individually opened. If you go online, they won't be able to follow you on what you're watching online. What you're doing online because you'll have an individual blockchain.

If that is true, that solves a lot of the things we're worried about. If that is true, you cannot put the genie back into the bottle. Because what I've been afraid is, do they cut off the supply of information? Can they track you and your every thought?

The answer is yes. However, if you introduce the blockchain, freedom comes with that. Freedom of money -- freedom is money. The more money you have, sometimes, the more free you are. You can go do things.

But money is also freedom of speech. And what that means is, that blockchain, that bitcoin blockchain will protect your freedom of speech, and it will protect you having money. Because you go -- you go across the border now and they'll say to you, you have $10,000 -- you have $10,000? You carrying any currency across the border? Nope. But the minute I cross the border and I have bitcoin and a blockchain, if I have the code in my head, yes, I'm carrying more than $10,000 cash. I'm carrying everything across the border. And there's nothing they can do with it. So they can no longer stop people. You no longer have to smuggle money. You no longer to have smuggle things because it's all in your head. And as long as you have your blockchain memorized, you're fine.

That's a significant development. And for me, at least, significant hope that we have really weird times coming our way. Really weird times. The death of shame. That's going to be an interesting ride.

However, because of technology that is right over the corner, right over the horizon, we have the possibility of being more free than we've ever been before.

The melting pot fails when we stop agreeing to melt

Spencer Platt / Staff | Getty Images

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

VCG / Contributor | Getty Images

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.

Europa Press News / Contributor | Getty Images

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?

Jeremy Weine / Stringer | Getty Images

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.

ANGELA WEISS / Contributor | Getty Images

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.

Rage isn’t conservatism — THIS is what true patriots stand for

Gary Hershorn / Contributor | Getty Images

Conservatism is not about rage or nostalgia. It’s about moral clarity, national renewal, and guarding the principles that built America’s freedom.

Our movement is at a crossroads, and the question before us is simple: What does it mean to be a conservative in America today?

For years, we have been told what we are against — against the left, against wokeism, against decline. But opposition alone does not define a movement, and it certainly does not define a moral vision.

We are not here to cling to the past or wallow in grievance. We are not the movement of rage. We are the movement of reason and hope.

The media, as usual, are eager to supply their own answer. The New York Times recently suggested that Nick Fuentes represents the “future” of conservatism. That’s nonsense — a distortion of both truth and tradition. Fuentes and those like him do not represent American conservatism. They represent its counterfeit.

Real conservatism is not rage. It is reverence. It does not treat the past as a museum, but as a teacher. America’s founders asked us to preserve their principles and improve upon their practice. That means understanding what we are conserving — a living covenant, not a relic.

Conservatism as stewardship

In 2025, conservatism means stewardship — of a nation, a culture, and a moral inheritance too precious to abandon. To conserve is not to freeze history. It is to stand guard over what is essential. We are custodians of an experiment in liberty that rests on the belief that rights come not from kings or Congress, but from the Creator.

That belief built this country. It will be what saves it. The Constitution is a covenant between generations. Conservatism is the duty to keep that covenant alive — to preserve what works, correct what fails, and pass on both wisdom and freedom to those who come next.

Economics, culture, and morality are inseparable. Debt is not only fiscal; it is moral. Spending what belongs to the unborn is theft. Dependence is not compassion; it is weakness parading as virtue. A society that trades responsibility for comfort teaches citizens how to live as slaves.

Freedom without virtue is not freedom; it is chaos. A culture that mocks faith cannot defend liberty, and a nation that rejects truth cannot sustain justice. Conservatism must again become the moral compass of a disoriented people, reminding America that liberty survives only when anchored to virtue.

Rebuilding what is broken

We cannot define ourselves by what we oppose. We must build families, communities, and institutions that endure. Government is broken because education is broken, and education is broken because we abandoned the formation of the mind and the soul. The work ahead is competence, not cynicism.

Conservatives should embrace innovation and technology while rejecting the chaos of Silicon Valley. Progress must not come at the expense of principle. Technology must strengthen people, not replace them. Artificial intelligence should remain a servant, never a master. The true strength of a nation is not measured by data or bureaucracy, but by the quiet webs of family, faith, and service that hold communities together. When Washington falters — and it will — those neighborhoods must stand.

Eric Lee / Stringer | Getty Images

This is the real work of conservatism: to conserve what is good and true and to reform what has decayed. It is not about slogans; it is about stewardship — the patient labor of building a civilization that remembers what it stands for.

A creed for the rising generation

We are not here to cling to the past or wallow in grievance. We are not the movement of rage. We are the movement of reason and hope.

For the rising generation, conservatism cannot be nostalgia. It must be more than a memory of 9/11 or admiration for a Reagan era they never lived through. Many young Americans did not experience those moments — and they should not have to in order to grasp the lessons they taught and the truths they embodied. The next chapter is not about preserving relics but renewing purpose. It must speak to conviction, not cynicism; to moral clarity, not despair.

Young people are searching for meaning in a culture that mocks truth and empties life of purpose. Conservatism should be the moral compass that reminds them freedom is responsibility and that faith, family, and moral courage remain the surest rebellions against hopelessness.

To be a conservative in 2025 is to defend the enduring principles of American liberty while stewarding the culture, the economy, and the spirit of a free people. It is to stand for truth when truth is unfashionable and to guard moral order when the world celebrates chaos.

We are not merely holding the torch. We are relighting it.

This article originally appeared on TheBlaze.com.