GLENN

Weird Groupthink: Tribal Instinct Explains Milo Yiannopoulos

According to Psychology Today, the phenomenon known as groupthink "occurs when a group values harmony and coherence over accurate analysis and critical evaluation. It causes individual members of the group to unquestioningly follow the word of the leader and it strongly discourages any disagreement with the consensus."

The decision to rescind Yiannopulos' invitation to speak at CPAC was prompted by videos in which he praised pederasty, the act of grown men having sex with post-pubescent boys. However, those videos had long been available on the internet. Why did they make a difference now?

RELATED: What Explains CPAC’s Dance With Milo Yiannopoulos? The Enemy of My Enemy Is My Ally

Jonah Goldberg, conservative thought leader and senior editor at National Review, recently published an opinion editorial in The LA Times, diving deep into how the invitation was extended in the first place:

From the outset, many on the right who do not consider themselves part of the Cult of Milo opposed his invitation. The disturbing thing is that, absent these videos, we would have lost the fight.

Even now, Schlapp defends the initial decision to invite Yiannopoulos. On Monday’s ”Morning Joe,” he insisted: “The fact is, he’s got a voice that a lot of young people listen to.” A lot of young conservative people, he should have added, precisely because he enrages so many young liberals.

And that’s part of the problem. We are in a particularly tribal moment in American politics in which “the enemy of my enemy is my ally” is the most powerful argument around.

"This is fascinating," Glenn said Wednesday on radio.

Glenn made the case that what happened to moderate Democrats under Barack Obama is now happening with Republicans under Donald Trump.

"Now that Barack Obama is gone, it's left a vacuum of just who was around him. Hillary Clinton and the Blue Dog Democrat are gone. The Blue Dog Democrat no longer exists. The Hillary Clintons no longer exist. So who are you left with? You're left with Marxists and radicals. And now the Democratic Party is saying, "Oh, man, this is . . . wait. Hold it." And they're seeing --- not all of them --- but enough are seeing what we saw," Glenn said. "The same thing is going to happen with the Republican Party."

Enjoy the complimentary clip above or read the transcript below for details.

GLENN: I want to -- I want to tell you the story about this New Yorker who is becoming a conservative now. And I think these people existed under Obama, but they were -- they were willing to accept more -- let me see if I can find this. From -- yeah --

PAT: You think there were Democrats that were shocked by the radicalism of Obama?

GLENN: Yeah, yeah.

PAT: I mean, his radical ideology where he virtually has Marxist policies. Because we never heard from them.

GLENN: Because I think the same way we're not hearing from conservatives who are shocked by Donald Trump and some of the things that he does and the radicals he has around him. Nobody is saying anything about that.

And it's because you're going to get shouted down, and a lot of people are like, "Well, but I like kind of the stuff -- I like the direction he's headed. So just don't say anything." Okay?

PAT: Uh-huh. Uh-huh.

GLENN: And they don't see that -- like they're seeing right now in the Democrats, once you lose, who really is in charge? And so the Democrats -- when I read this thing from the Democrats, it will blow your mind.

But here's what is happening. Here's what happened to the Democrats. And we're at the beginning of it. This comes from Jonah Goldberg. Now, this is just about what happened with Milo and CPAC. The decision to rescind the invitation was prompted by a surfacing of videos, available long on the internet, which Milo praised -- how do you say it? Pederasty? Pederasty. Sex between an older man and prepubescent boys as young as 13. From the outside, many on the right who do not consider themselves part of --

PAT: Had you even heard of such thing?

GLENN: No.

PAT: The reason we don't know how to pronounce a word is because I've never heard of it.

GLENN: I've never heard of it.

PAT: It's the distinction. It's supposed to be post-pubescent. Right? So pedophilia is prepubescent. And after is post.

GLENN: And this is post.

Those who consider themselves part of the cult of -- opposed his invitation. The disturbing thing is, absent these videos, we would have lost the fight, said Jonah Goldberg.

Even now, Schlapp defends the initial decision to invite Yiannopoulos. On Monday's Morning Joe, he insisted, the fact is, he's got a voice that a lot of young people listen to, a lot of young conservative people.

And Jonah says, we should be asking the question: Why are so many young conservatives?

Precisely because he enrages so many young liberals, and that's part of the problem. We're in a particularly tribal moment in American politics, which the enemy of my enemy is my ally. It's the most powerful argument around.

John Tubey, the evolutionary psychologist recently wrote that if he could explain one scientific concept to the public, it would be the coalitional instinct. In our natural habitat, to be alone was to be vulnerable. If you had no coalition, you were nakedly and at the mercy of everyone else, so the instinct to belong to a coalition has urgency preexisting and superseding any policy-driven basis for membership.

This is why group belief is free to be so weird. We overlook the hypocrisies and the shortcomings within our own coalition out of a desire to protect ourselves from our enemies.

This is fascinating. We'll come back to it in a second.

[break]

GLENN: So going over Jonah Goldberg's editorial yesterday in the LA Times. And he's talking about how we are overlooking hypocrisies on our own side. And I contend -- I want to share this with you because I believe this is what happened to the Democratic Party. The Democratic Party is in worse shape than the Republicans are, by far. They are now fighting for the soul of the party. Are they going to be this Marxist radical party, or are they going to come back to the center?

And I think that Barack Obama gave them -- was such a distraction that nobody cared about who was -- except for us, who was advising him. You know, who were the guys that were really -- that influenced his life and shaped him? And who were the people -- the Bill Ayers and the Bernardine Dohrn and all those people that were in and around this White House? And it gave us, I believe, a false belief on who the average Democrat is.

And that's because I think the average Democrat looked at Barack Obama the way many Republicans are looking at Donald Trump. They may not like him. They may not like all of those -- but they're not -- they're not concerned about Steve Bannon. They're not concerned. They think he's going to be held in place. This is America. We're not going to go against Europe and NATO. That's just not going to happen. And we're going to be fine.

And he's moving the ball in our direction. I think that's the way most Republicans look at him. And they're like, "You know, tell me the things -- yes, he's done some things I don't like, but he's moving the ball in our direction, and we're winning, generally, on the things that we want." Right? Would you agree with that?

I think that's the way many Democrats felt under Barack Obama, except Barack Obama did not have the harsh edges that Donald Trump does. Barack Obama didn't make the average Democrat feel uncomfortable. He was -- he was super slick.

If you would have seen the people -- it's why they brought Michelle Obama at the very beginning back into the White House. You can't talk because she was making average Democrat feel uncomfortable. Her last speech on the campaign trail, the first time around, was the speech where she said, "You know, we're going to have to change our tradition, we're going to have to change our thinking, our history. We're going to have to change everything." And they're like, "No, no, no, that's making Democrats worried."

So they didn't see the Marxist radical rot until now. And now they're being shouted down if they disagree with things like Keith Ellison. And they're saying, "Wait a minute. Wait a minute. I was really kind of more of a Hillary mainstream supporter, if you will." I think those Reagan Democrats who still voted for Democrat are really in search of a place to go.

Let me explain what happened to the Democrats by using Jonah Goldberg's words on what's happening to us right now. Today, the right sees the left as enemies. And I should say vice-versa.

Milo Yiannopoulos is a hero for many because he fights political correctness and is transgressive.

STU: This is a note, I have no idea really who this person is, and certainly no idea how to pronounce his name. But we should probably settle on one.

GLENN: I like Yiannopoulos.

STU: I don't know if that's it. But I'm fine --

GLENN: It's Yiannopoulos, right?

JEFFY: But we're settling with Yiannopoulos?

GLENN: Yiannopoulos. Yeah.

A flamboyant provocateur, who wears his homosexuality on his sleeve and acts very much like a left-wing performance artist. He gives the right an edgy cultural avatar to pit against the left. At a time when entertainment and celebrity matter more than facts and arguments, he is an entertaining celebrity.

Until recently, he was also a self-described fellow traveler of the racist and anti-Semitic alt-right. He advanced their worldview primarily from his perch as a senior editor of Breitbart News, the website formerly run by Steve Bannon, a senior adviser to President Trump, who also sought to make Breitbart the platform for the alt-right.

STU: Formerly.

GLENN: Yeah. Yeah.

STU: Formerly. Yeah. Formerly. Sure. Formerly.

GLENN: Last year, alt-righters got attention for hurling bigotry at Trump's skeptical journalist on social media. For instance, my National Review colleague David French was subjected to almost daily pictures of his adopted black daughter Photoshopped in a gas chamber with a Nazi uniform-clad Donald Trump poised to push the button.

It was horrible stuff that happened to David French's family.

Yiannopoulos's defense of all of this was that it was funny and rebellious. Quote: Just as the kids of the '60s shocked their parents with promiscuity, long hair, and rock 'n' roll, so too do the alt-right youngs' meme brigades shock older generations with Holocaust jokes and Klan humor.

It was a way for he and his colleague -- it was, he and a colleague wrote for Breitbart, undeniably hysterical.

Well, writes Jonah Goldberg, I can deny that. Countless conservatives defend Milo who admits he's not a conservative, in much the same way Democrats defended the anti-Semitic radio priest Charles Coughlin, as long as he supported the New Deal as Christ's deal.

Conservatives cling to rationalizations to defend their champion. They say he distanced himself from the alt-right. He did cynically, only after "Daddy" -- his term for Donald Trump -- was elected. They credit his claim that he can say anti-Semitic things because his grandmother was allegedly Jewish, and he can say racist things because he sleeps with black men.

These are the kinds of arguments a coalition accepts when it has lost its moral moorings and cares only about winning. Free expression was never the issue. If it were, he would -- he'd be at CPAC and Breitbart expressing the case for ephebophilia. I don't even know what that is. Apparently, conservatives still draw the line there, but not at anti-Semitism or racism. The tent, sad to say, is still big enough for that.

That's Jonah Goldberg yesterday.

My thesis here is that there are a lot of conservatives right now, at least, who are looking at Donald Trump and saying, "I -- I'm -- I'm pretty okay with the direction of where he's going." Nothing bad has happened. Would you agree? We disagree with some of his appointments, but so far, okay. Right?

STU: There's been some good. Been some bad.

GLENN: Yeah, there's been some good. There's been some bad. And I think the average person feels that way on the left. Because we are falling to deaf ears on the thing -- the only thing that the left is hearing. And the left is hearing racist anti-Semitic -- they're looking at the people surrounding Donald Trump.

Basically, the same thing that we did when we were at Fox. We were looking at Van Jones. We weren't looking at President Obama. We were looking at Van Jones. We were looking at George Soros. We were looking at the people behind the man. Now, that was important for us back then because it's who you put in the office around you. And there were some mainstream people around Donald Trump -- I mean, around Barack Obama, that would -- that, of course, the left would say, "They're not all radicals." And they did a good job of washing those radicals clean like Van Jones.

No, he was a former communist. He's not really a communist. He never went to prison. He went to jail. Okay?

They did everything they could to whitewash him, to make their own constituency feel good because Barack Obama was doing the things that were making them happy. But we were saying at the time, guys, you can't give him this much power. You can't do this. Don't turn a blind eye.

Now that Barack Obama is gone, it's left a vacuum of just who was around him. Hillary Clinton and the Blue Dog Democrat is gone. The Blue Dog Democrat no longer exists. The Hillary Clintons no longer exist. So who are you left with?

You're left with Marxists and radicals. And now the Democratic Party is seeing, "Oh, man, this is -- wait. Hold it." And they're seeing -- not all of them -- but enough are seeing what we saw.

The same thing is going to happen with the Republican Party. And I think there's going to be a -- a pull from both of those parties. And what happened in 1854 is going to happen again. And it's going to be a party of common sense and common values, traditional values.

Let me say it that way. But I want you to understand, traditional values, not in the way conservatives view them.

I believe traditional values meaning the American values, which is the Bill of Rights. The people who actually on both sides say, "No, we don't want to spy on our neighbors." No, you don't have a right to spy on me. No, stay out of my bedroom. Stay out of my -- stay out of my pants and my bathroom stall. Stay out of my life. You don't have a right to tell me who I can marry, and you don't have a right to tell me what my priest or my pastor can say from the pulpit. You don't have a right to do that. Leave us alone.

Those traditional values that are enshrined in the Bill of Rights. I think -- and I could be wrong -- I may be being too optimistic. But I think that there is a coming movement of the Bill of Rights. And it's not going to be taken by the Libertarians. Because the Libertarians -- the Libertarians don't do enough for this moral foundation theory that we talked about. I'd like to take you guys -- you guys have to take this test. This moral foundations theory that we talked about, was it last week or this week?

STU: Last week.

GLENN: Last week. Last week, we had Jonathan Haidt on. He's a professor at NYU. Thought he was liberal. Started doing research and realized, "Holy cow, I'm conservative." And I think that is exactly the point.

When you start actually looking beyond the labels -- and he has devised the way to look beyond the labels. And it's called the moral foundation theory. And when you see that, the average conservative actually has five moral foundations.

But we only concentrate on three. Well, the left only has two. And they only concentrate on those two. And unfortunately, the three we concentrate on don't include those two.

And if we would concentrate on those two, we could bring them along. And because Libertarians don't have that moral foundation theory. They don't have any really of those five -- and I'm talking about as a party -- that's why they fell on deaf ears. That's why they couldn't get anybody from the right, and they couldn't get anybody from the left. Because they're speaking to an empty space, an empty auditorium where there's just not enough people.

What they have is the Bill of Rights. They don't have the moral foundations. And believe it or not, a different -- I can't even say that. Not what we claim as a -- as a morality party today. If I said that, you would think, "Well, that's a church-going, God-fearing, red, white, and blue, you know, served in the military -- not that. Not that. Think bigger foundational morals. Think of the Bill of Rights. Think of compassion. Those underscored by common sense are going to become fashionable again. I'm convinced of it.

RADIO

Cabinet Wins, DOGE Audits, Tariffs: Trump's Third Week Has Been WILD!

It's only been 3 weeks of Donald Trump's second presidency and A LOT has changed! Glenn reviews some of the biggest wins that we've seen in the past few days: RFK Jr. and Tulsi Gabbard were confirmed as members of Trump's cabinet, Kash Patel is one step closer to being FBI Director, Trump has called for “fair and reciprocal” tariffs on US trade partners, DOGE is preparing to audit the IRS, and the list goes on!

Transcript

Below is a rush transcript that may contain errors

GLENN: Let's see what the president has been up to in the last 24 hours.

Does this guy sleep? What's Melania doing for Valentine's Day today?

STU: One thing. When he's the president of the United States, is he thinking about that type of thing?

GLENN: No. He has people think about it. People who have people.

STU: Uh-huh.

GLENN: Yeah, people who have people. Usually, maybe like, maybe his son. Like, Dad. Maybe you should carve out a couple of hours tonight.

Oh, crap. I didn't even. You're president. I think I can make a few calls.

STU: I feel like, it's interesting that we just have a president that is awake, like every day. He seems to wake up. We see him places. Have you noticed this? I don't know if you've noticed this at all. But current president of the United States, we see him out doing things. Isn't that weird?

I feel like it's weird.

I don't know about this system we have, where the president is awake every day. It's changing our traditions, Glenn. I'm concerned about it.

GLENN: It is. It is. Well, Barack knows. We have to change our --

STU: That's true. Trump has kind of dropped the hammer on the rest of the world with tariffs. And I kind of like this tariff. Whatever they charge us, we're going to charge them.

STU: Reciprocal tariffs.

GLENN: Reciprocal tariffs. That's fair. We're not going to charge you -- I mean, maybe China would.

But we will not charge you more than you charge us. You charge us something. We'll charge you.

I think that's good!

STU: Yeah, it's interesting. It certainly seems fair. Right? Like, don't fire up.

Because the rest of the world loves tariffs. They love tariffs more than we love tariffs, even though we --

GLENN: I don't love tariffs.

STU: I don't love them at all.

Trump does love them. We've talked to him even in private conversations. By the way, in case you're wondering, is he just saying this just for the cameras? No. He really loves them. He loves tariffs. I don't agree with him on that policy. Though, he's used it to great effect recently.

That being said, I mean, if someone started charging you 100 percent tariff on a particular item, picking that same item and putting a tariff, 175 percent, certainly is fair. Now, of course, the reason we import things typically is because we don't have them here.

GLENN: Right! But not necessarily, like cars. Cars. Europe charges us a 10 percent tariff to send a Ford over.

And they charge -- we charge them 2 percent to send a Mercedes. I mean, what's fair about that?

STU: Now, again, one of the things that's fair about that. Is it's not paying an extra 8 percent on a car. We get a benefit of that, as a consumer.

That if we want to buy a European car, we will pay a little bit less and now we'll pay a little bit more. So there is a penalty to that.

However, it is certainly fair. The word "fair," I think applies when it comes to nation-to-nation relation.

And one of the things we've liked about having these lower tariffs on our side is getting lower prices for our consumers.

GLENN: Correct.

STU: And so they're -- and as Trump has discussed, he's been very up front with us. There will be pain with these policies. But long-term, we think it's worth it.

And that's really where the rubber meets the road.

GLENN: Okay. So now, everybody is very, very upset about Donald Trump signing off on DOGE and the audit of the IRS.

Now, I do have to question your sanity when you're against the audit of the IRS.

STU: You seem to be for audits. You can't audit them?

GLENN: Yeah. Who do you have to be, to be against an audit of the IRS, and bring every single receipt you have! I want to see every receipt. Oh, I want to help them.

STU: By the way, Glenn, I work with you.

GLENN: Uh-huh.

STU: My job is -- and for multiple decades now, has to be -- become closely associated with Glenn Beck.

GLENN: Yeah, it's good.

STU: Oh, the perks. The benefits. Oh, gosh, I can't even count them!

GLENN: Yeah. Hmm.

STU: Yet, somehow, I made it through the entire Barack Obama administration. And the entire Joe Biden administration.

GLENN: Yeah!

STU: Without getting audited.

GLENN: Yeah. Not me.

STU: No. I know. I remember. And yet what about happens two weeks ago? I get a letter with the IRS, with Trump in office. That I'm getting audited.

And I don't know if this is just a parting gift from the Biden administration. How is that happening?

GLENN: That's what I'm saying. Thank God somebody noticed your shadiness. Somebody finally noticed. He's very shady. He's very shady.

You know, the good thing is, both of us stay -- to our accountants, we always say the same thing. Anybody who is preparing our taxes. Stay way away from the line.

STU: Yes. 100 percent.

GLENN: When in doubt, leave it out.

STU: Still, it's incredibly frustrating. We were talking to Alan Dershowitz, I have every single book -- everything -- yeah. Sure. Somewhere, I have every receipt from 2022. I'm sure.

But, I mean, the -- this is this relationship that we have with the government, that is this adversarial torture fest, that we pay for every year. Oh, gosh. I can't wait to pay by taxes.

Maybe I'll get a refund. Maybe they'll give me some of the money that is mine, back to me, multiple months later.

GLENN: I believe that's actually what happened to me.

I believe they owed me money.

STU: After the audit. Yeah.

GLENN: I stayed away from the line.

STU: That's what you have to be.

GLENN: You know, jail time does not sound good to me. In any way, shape or form.

STU: The wrong IRS agent, that doesn't like your show, happens to be doing it, well, guess what happens? They push it beyond the limits of normalcy. So the good senator and common sense-filled senator from Oregon, Ron Wyden said, this means Musk's henchmen are in a position to dig through a trove of data about every taxpayer in America.

Wait. What? You mean like the IRS does?
(laughter)

STU: What core of government function are you guys talking about?

GLENN: No, what's up with that? And it could be the very reason behind possible delays, in people receiving their tax refunds for 2024.

What a scare tactic.

STU: Hmm.

GLENN: These guys are so freaked out about Donald Trump. I mean, you know, the one thing that happened yesterday, that everybody should recognize. Mitch McConnell was alone. He was alone.

STU: That's huge.

GLENN: That's gigantic.

STU: On two votes. Tulsi and RFK!

GLENN: I know. I know.

STU: And before this, if McConnell said, hey, this is where I'm going, he would always have a bunch of buddies that would come with him. His closest friends. It would always do that.

GLENN: It's weird, you cut off the money, and things change.

STU: Yeah, he no longer has the leadership. He no longer has control of that cash. All of a sudden, he's a lonesome dove.

GLENN: Yeah!

So let me just ask -- I want to ask, are you tired of winning? Let me just give you the winning streak so far number Congress. Marco Rubio, voted to be confirmed, 99 to zero. Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent, confirmed, 68 to 29.

Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum, seventy-nine to 18. Brook Rollins, Secretary of Agriculture, 72 to 28.

Secretary of Transportation Sean Duffy, seventy-seven to 22. Pam Bondi, 54 to 46. Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Scott Turner, 55 to 44.

Secretary of Energy Chris Wright, 59 to 38. Doug Collins Veterans Affairs, seventy-seven to 23. Kristi Noem.

Secretary of Homeland Security, 59 to 34. Lee Zeldin became the EPA administrator 56 by 42.

I have to tell you, Lee Zeldin, there's some stuff he did yesterday, that you're like, holy cow.

STU: Yeah, I have high hopes for the him. He's off to a very good start.

GLENN: Yeah, Russ Vought, who I just absolutely love. Director Office Management and Budget. He's done a lot of incredible things this week. 53 to 47.

John Ratcliff, confirmed as CIA director, 74 to 25. Tulsi Gabbard and RFK were confirmed yesterday. You have Kash Patel who got out of the committee and is going to be voted on early next week. And, of course, you have Pete Hegseth. I mean, and Mitch McConnell, standing there alone, all day yesterday.

This is good. Now, the president did a couple of other things yesterday, that are ground-breaking. But we need to make sure Congress passes all of these things as laws.

And they're not just executive order.

And that's going to require us to keep the heat on Congress. And they're working on the budget.

Congress just put together their budget for next year.

The Senate is squealing like stuck little pigs.

But we need to get them to pass in one bill. And you're going to get some crap in that one bill, I'm sure. But you have -- you really have a hard time, going to get two bills through on reconciliation.

So we need it in one bill.

RADIO

Elon Musk is NOT a Threat to "Democracy." He's a Threat to Bureaucracy

Elon Musk and DOGE are not threats to "democracy," like Democrats are complaining. They're threats to the bureaucracy that has taken over the government our Constitution established. Glenn explains how this all originated with Woodrow Wilson, who dreamed of "freeing" the government from the "chains" of the Constitution and replacing it with a government of "experts" and administrators. That's where the shadow government began and that's what Trump and DOGE are "destroying."

Transcript

Below is a rush transcript that may contain errors

GLENN: Elon Musk said, that we're not living in a democracy, we're living in a bureaucracy.

When he said that, my response was, yes. Now, I don't know if you know who Elon. I don't know if you know who Woodrow Wilson is.

But, yes!

Living under a bureaucracy, that's the point. Let me give you the quote, the history of liberty is a history of resistance.

The history of liberty is a history of limitation of governmental power, not the increase of it. Who said that?

Sounds like a guy who understands and values freedom. Somebody who understands the delicate balance of power, between the individual and the state. Right?

But the guy who said that, was the 28th president of the United States, Woodrow Wilson.

Now, does that sound like somebody that we know, maybe on the left, that is now saying things like, we've got to save democracy? We've got to save democracy?

He's killing democracy, by cutting the bureaucracy.

Wilson was exactly the same kind of politician. Except, he was the grandfather of all of this.

He was the architect of a vision, where government would no longer be confined by the rules, the outdated rules. And the chains of the Constitution.

He was the guy who said the Declaration of Independence needed to be cast aside, because it's an outdated relic. He was the guy that wanted you not to be governed by the laws of nature. And nature's God. But by an elite ruling class of scientists, experts, bureaucrats.

That's -- that's what he wanted.

Isn't that what we have right now? We're not -- we don't elect the president. You elect the president and nothing changes. Why?

Not just because both parties are alike. But because the bureaucracy is set in stone!

It's a ruling class, of scientists, experts, and bureaucrats. Wilson believed that the government was no longer the machine of our Founding Fathers, that needed to be shackled and restrained.

He thought government should be a living organism, an evolving entity, free from the so-called outdated principles of 1776. This is where we get the Constitution is a living, breathing thing.

No, it's not. No, that's Woodrow Wilson.

He looked at the Constitution. The greatest safeguard of liberty ever written. And didn't see it as a beacon of freedom. He saw it as an obstacle that needed to be overcome. He -- let me paint you this picture.

Imagine, you're sitting in a grand lecture hall. It's early 1900s. Gaslights are flickering. And a young professor steps up to the podium.

He stands at the podium, everybody starts to be quiet. It's all -- you're in the crowd, everybody there is the future rulers of America.

And he starts in to thunderous applause, with something that, I don't know.

Me. It would -- the back of my neck, the hair on the back of my neck would stand up.

He said, quote, the makers of the Constitution constructed the federal government upon a theory of checks and balances. Which was meant to limit the government's power.

And therefore, its ability to govern.

This was a great mistake. The Constitution was founded on the Newtonian theory of the universe.

But we now understand, that the government is not a machine. But a living thing.

It must evolve. It must adapt. And it must be freed from its chains!

End quote.

Freed from its chains. When I read that line, I -- I thought to myself. I thought of setting the monster free in Young Frankenstein.

You're free! You're free! It didn't work out well.

Okay? When you take something that is like fire. Hello, California. And just release it. It is a very bad thing.

Washington said, government is like fire!

It will be the master of you, if you're not the master of it. Are we the master of our government, or is it the master over us?

What do you think happens, when you -- when you have a government, I free it from its chains?

Does it become a benevolent force?

Does it look out for your best interest. Does it even know who you are, let alone answer to you?

Wilson wasn't just a professor. He was a man on a mission.

To change, and this is his words.

To change a man or a boy, to be the most unlike his father, as possible.

Isn't that what our education system is doing?

Wilson believed that we needed to move away from the messy system of self-government.

And have it all placed into the capable hands of an intellectual elite, that he called administrative experts.

So you can see this throughout our whole government. Anthony Fauci.

The law was, that we are not supposed to do gain-of-function research!

We now know, through all kinds of records, that have been released, that Anthony Fauci disagreed with that. And he made the decision, that we were going to do gain-of-function research!

Because it's not up to him, to answer to the people!

He answers -- he's the expert!

He's the administrator. He knows better than the average person. Even if other scientists disagree with him, he is science!

These experts, that are unelected, and unaccountable, Wilson saw this. This is -- these are the people that need to run the country.

Not as representatives of the people. But as scientists, technocrats, bureaucrats, who know better than you do, on how to live your life.

For Wilson, and now you're seeing his finished product, that Trump and Elon Musk are beginning to dismantle. You are now seeing, that his vision was that the American people were not individuals that were given God-give up rights.

They were just parts of a collective. A mass to be organized. To be managed.

To be directed.

He viewed the old principles of liberty and self-determination. Those are relics of an ignorant past.

Things that have to be replaced. By science. And numbers. Cold, efficiency of science and government regulation.

Now, our founders would say, that's all well and good.

We understand that, let's just take you, at face value and say you're honest in that. But what you're forgetting is that men go bad with power and money!

All men can be corrupted.

So it's not that we are putting chains on the government, because government is bad! No. Government is made up of the people that are in it.

And if you don't limit it, if you -- if you allow them to gain more and more power, and more and more money. It will go corrupt.

And it will begin to oppress you.

The government -- the founders weren't anti government. They were anti-out of control large government. Where the people were servants of that government, not the other way around.

Wilson wrote, the Declaration of Independence. That the -- the foundation of our freedoms.

He said, it was outdated.

He called the principles for all practices and purposes in the Declaration, meaningless.

Meaningless is his word.

The words that inspired the American Revolution, the ideas that all men are created equal, that our rights come from God. Not from government. Were to Wilson, irrelevant. And meaningless in the modern world.

Why? Because you're too stupid to understand what's really going on. You're too stupid to be able to manage the affairs, of not only the nation. But the world!

Every time we try to manage a nation, or the world, we go wrong!

Every single time!

He didn't believe you really have a right to property. To speech. To life itself, unless the government allowed it. If that doesn't terrify you, let me tell you something darker than that. Not morality.

Not faith, not the Constitution. But science should be the guiding force of government.

Well, we saw that with COVID. Didn't we?

Follow the science!

What kind of science?

The experiments that Fauci has been doing on animals and everything else. It's -- it's -- it's -- it's Mengele stuff.

It's really evil stuff! Because it has no medical purpose to it at all. The science that Wilson was talking about. Was eugenics.

And that's the same kind of stuff, that just named it something else. But it's the same kind of medicine that we're talking about now.

The kind that kills those who are unfit. Look at what's happening in Canada!

It's the kind of politics that led to policies of forced sterilization.

And racial segregation.

Which he put into practice. He was the guy who reseparated -- resegregated the military.

He segregated the government.

He praised the film, birth of a nation. Which we don't need to be the Klan. He believed in an America where government, led by an enlightened few, would decide who was fit to participate in society, and who wasn't.

Does that sound like America to you at all?

Or does that sound like the birth of something entirely different?

When he left office, it grew!

It took root in Washington, because they figured out, companies could go to Washington and lobby and get their way.

This was the beginning of all of the lobbyists in Washington.

And it -- it just grew. Ever expanding bureaucracy. A shadow government of unelected officials, who now control almost every aspect of your life! From what kind of car you drive. To what you eat.

To what stove you can have in your house. How you can build your house.

His dream was that a government would no longer be by the people. But by the experts.

The people would be managed. Guided. And nudged in the right direction.

So when they're saying that they're destroying democracy, no. They're destroying the bureaucracy, which is the antithesis to our founding documents.

TV

PBD Reacts to Glenn Beck's Prediction the Epstein Files WILL Be Exposed | Glenn TV | Ep 413

Radical transparency IS coming to America, Glenn says, but only if Kash Patel is confirmed to head the FBI. In fact, Glenn makes one of his boldest predictions yet: Kash will release the Epstein client list on his FIRST DAY leading the bureau. On tonight’s episode of "Glenn TV," Glenn is joined by ‪@PBDPodcast‬ host Patrick Bet-David and co-hosts Tom Ellsworth, Adam Sosnick, and Vincent Oshana. They discuss the damning ramifications releasing the Epstein list (or the Diddy list) may have for those who were associated with the island but were not guilty of partaking in criminal activity there — something President Trump expressed concern for before becoming elected. Plus, what will releasing the JFK files do to the CIA? We now know the CIA was in Miami following Lee Harvey Oswald, so why then didn’t the CIA stop him? Public trust in our federal government dropped substantially after the JFK assassination, and it continued to plummet over the next several decades until it hit a new low (14%) under Biden. Can Trump — with the radical transparency Glenn predicts is coming — turn that all around? PBD predicts Trump could increase that number to 50% or even 60%. Democrats see it coming, too. Their meltdowns over the DOGE and Elon Musk ending wasteful spending now are on fully display: “Accountability is here, and they’re panicking.” Lastly, Glenn and the "PBD Podcast" guys discuss how the first assassination attempt against Trump changed him as a person, providing him with both laser focus and an understanding that his job in the White House is much bigger than himself.

RADIO

Trump’s Treasury Secretary SHUTS DOWN Reporter Trying to Attack DOGE

The Biden government hired 80,000 new IRS agents to make sure YOU followed every one of their complicated tax laws. But when President Trump ordered DOGE to audit the government, politicians and the media squealed! That should speak volumes about what their true priorities are, Glenn says. Glenn and Pat review some of the latest pushback from the establishment, including how Democrats are whining about Elon Musk and how a judge tried to block even Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent from accessing Treasury data.

Transcript

Below is a rush transcript that may contain errors

GLENN: You know, it's astonishing how many people have found a very clear common sense voice and a lack of fear.

They seem to be all over this administration.

Stephen Miller is one of them, don't you think, Pat?

PAT: Definitely.

And he was talking about the angry Dems. And had some things to say about them. Deputy chief, Stephen Miller, cut 14.

VOICE: The Democrat use of the term unelected is really quite remarkable here. Donald Trump was elected in an overwhelming landslide.

These are Donald Trump staffers. It's like saying that Mike Walls, National Security adviser is unelected. Or Susan Wiles, the chief of staff is unelected. Or Donald Trump's communication team is unelected.

This is presidential staff that serves at the pleasure and for the president, just as I do. I am a staffer, for the president of the United States. He is elected. He is the one that the American people have chosen to implement his agenda. This is the agenda the American people voted for.

That he is asking his staff. His subordinates. His employees. To implement.

The unelected power in this country is the rogue bureaucracy.

USAID is unelected. The FBI, that persecuted President Trump for eight years, is unelected.

The CIA and those who have laundered intelligence to try to change the foreign policy of the United States are unelected.

President Trump is restoring democracy, by controlling the federal bureaucracy.

There is one man in the country, who is elected bit whole American people, to implement an agenda they support. That is the president.

Every other officer in this country, members of Congress and Senate are elected at the state and local level. The Constitution puts one man in charge of the federal executive branch. And that's the president.

GLENN: Understood. Understood.

PAT: Let him finish.

GLENN: He's absolutely awesome.

And absolutely right.

I mean, that's the thing -- I just don't understand. When they were -- when the federal judge tried to block and did for this weekend.

But it's not going to last long.

Tried to block the secretary of the Treasury

PAT: Yeah.

GLENN: From even looking at the data, that is produced by the Treasury?

PAT: Yeah.

GLENN: Who is running things? My gosh.

PAT: Well, Treasury secretary Scott Bessent was interviewed over the weekend, and he had some things to say about -- just about that!

VOICE: Mr. Secretary, we are inside the cash room in the Treasury department. It's almost impossible to overstate how important the work that's done in the US building. Is the US financial system.

Yet right now, there is widespread concern about the DOGE teams access to sensitive payment systems.

Are you worried at all, that that access and that tinkering of the payment systems, could affect the Treasury's market or cause any disruption.

VOICE: Well, good. Thank you for asking me about that.

Because there's a lot of misinformation out there.

First of all, when you say the DOGE team, these are Treasury employees. Two Treasury employees, one of whom I personally interviewed in his final round. There is no tinkering with the system. They are on read only. They are looking. They can make no changes. It is an operational program to suggest improvements. So we make 1.3 billion payments a year. And this is two employees who are working with a group of long-standing employees.

VOICE: The letter that the treasury department sent earlier this week, talked about how the team currently does not have access to change the system.

Have they, at any point this year, had the ability to make changes?

VOICE: Absolutely not. This is no different than you would have at a private company.
By the way, the ability to change the system, sits at the Federal Reserve.

So it does not even lie in this building. So they can make suggestions on how to change the system, but we don't even run the system.

VOICE: And if they ask her, they request the ability to change the system. Would you grant that?

VOICE: No. Again, they have no ability to change the system.

I have no ability to grant that change. That they can make suggestions. Then it would go to the Federal Reserve. And just like any large system. There would be tests.

There would be this. There would be that.

And then the fed will determine whether these changes are robust or not.

VOICE: As the Secretary of Treasury, you also oversee the IRS.

Do you know what kind of access the team has to IRS data or individual taxpayer data?

VOICE: Well, I'm glad you asked that too.

Because, look, the IRS, the privacy issue is one of the biggest issues. And over the past four years, we've seen a lot of leaks out of there. The IRS systems are quite poor.

When I started in college in 1980, I learned the program. I think, there are 12 different systems at the IRS that still run on COBOL. But as of now, there is no engagement at the IRS.

VOICE: Elon Musk just a few -- half an hour ago, tweeted out that Treasury needs to stop approving certain payments. Has your staff tried to block any payments at the Treasury?

VOICE: We have not.

And I'm glad you asked that too. And just to put it in perspective, Elon and I are completely aligned in terms of cutting waste and increasing accountability and transparency for the American people.

I believe that this DOGE program in my adult life is one of the most important audits of government. Or changes to government structure, we have seen.

That when I was in my 20s, we had the grace report. And there's some great suggestions that came out of that.

Never implemented under Clinton and Gore.

I think it was to government efficiency. Or to reduce government. Nothing happened.

So, you know, President Trump came in. There's a big agenda.

And I think there are gigantic cost savings for the American people here.

And I think it's unfortunate the way the media wants to lampoon what is going on.

PAT: Yes.

GLENN: Thank you.

VOICE: These are highly trained professionals. And this is not some broken band going around doing things. This is methodical, and it is going to yield big savings.

PAT: Jeez. And what's wrong with that? Is there anything wrong with that? I don't think so.

GLENN: Right. Did you hear a nonhostile question coming from the Bloomberg reporter?

PAT: No. A nonhostile? No. But he handled it in a nonhostile way.

He was great, wasn't he?

GLENN: Yeah, very well.

I mean, yeah. And it's a little scary, that the Treasury Secretary can't make any of these decisions, they're all made by the Federal Reserve.

That's a problem, which is why DOGE wants to bring Ron Paul in for an audit of the Fed, which would be fantastic.

PAT: It would be great.

GLENN: Can you imagine what we would find at the Fed now?

PAT: Oh, my gosh. I can't imagine it. And it's the fed with the power to make these changes.

That's amazing too.

That they can't even do it from the Treasury. That's kind of eye-opening.

But I think they need to use that term audit of government more. Because what's wrong with that.

GLENN: Yes. That's why they're going into the Pentagon. The seventh audit failed.

Let me ask you something: You know, she brings up the IRS.

The government hired 80,000 new IRS agents, to go over your records. To make sure nothing -- no funny business is going on with you.

That you're paying every dime that you're supposed to pay. Because there's a shortfall.

No! There's not a shortfall.

They're spending too much. When we go in, and try to send accountants in, to say, how did you spend this money?

The same thing the IRS does to you, every year, they squeal like little pigs.

I don't know.

If -- you know, you went in to the IRS every year with the attitude that the Democrats have.

You would be audited every year. Because somebody, probably rightfully so would go, wait a minute.

Why are you panicking so much. Why are you saying we can't have access to your records?

This is a legal operation. What's happening here?

And it -- it kills me that the media is sticking up for corruption.

Whose side are they on?

PAT: Well, they're on the side of corruption. Because they're benefiting from it.

And that's been the problem for how many decades now?

How many centuries now?

GLENN: I know. I know.

PAT: Have we run the nation in a way that the Founding Fathers intended, since, I don't know. 1830. Probably not.

GLENN: No. So, you know what, I have a copy of the first budget. It was on the front page of a Columbia newspaper from South Carolina.

And it -- it lays out George Washington's budget.

And it actually asks Congress to increase the budget for firewood, because the Capitol was cold.

And they needed extra firewood to keep things warm.

PAT: Uh-huh.

GLENN: And I don't even know if that got passed. I have no idea if that got passed.

PAT: Jeez.

GLENN: But that's the way we should be. Oh, you know what, put a sweater on, Congress. Oh, you're a little cold in there. Put a sweater on.

PAT: Exactly.

GLENN: They're the ones that should be putting the sweater on. Not us. Not us.

PAT: Look how Thomas Jefferson struggled with the Louisiana Purchase.

I mean, we almost didn't do it. Because he thought, it wasn't proper. He thought it was unconstitutional.

But it turned out to be too good a deal, and we did it anyway.

But they had a completely different mindset. You know, the funds that the federal government had, that they got from American taxpayers, whether they pay in excise taxes, or wherever their taxes came from. Those were sacred funds.

And they didn't just throw them out to anybody for any reason.

GLENN: Yes. And look at --

PAT: We've got to get back to that.

GLENN: We can spend a trillion dollars and have it all just vanish on us.

But if Donald Trump says, let's take $2 trillion and buy Greenland.

Everybody would freak out. Which one should you freak out about?

The investment, or the loss?

PAT: Uh-huh.

GLENN: It's -- it's -- it's an unspeakable horror, what is going on. And how the people are reacting to it.

You know, everybody in America should be happy about this.

One other truth speaker. Somebody else who is just very good at saying exactly what he means. And getting right to the truth. Is Hegseth.

Here he is, talking about our strength. Cut 22.

VOICE: I think the single dumbest phrase in military history, is our diversity is our strength.

I think our strength is our unity. Our strength is our shared purpose. Regardless of our background. Regardless of how we grew up. Regardless of our gender. Regardless of our race. In this department, we will treat everyone equally.

We will treat everyone with fairness. We will treat everyone with respect, and we will judge you as an individual by your merit. And by your commitment to the team and the mission.

That's how it has been. That's how it will be.

Any inference otherwise, is meant to divide or create complications, that otherwise should not and do not exist.

GLENN: I've got to tell you. How is that controversial at all?

We're -- you know why they keep teams together.

You go through buds and you keep that team together, because their strength is their unity. You don't send them into war with a bunch of people that are all different with each other. You send them into war that all have different skills, yes.

But are acting as one, with one purpose.