GLENN: Steve Deace is a good friend of the program. Really smart and a conservative that you need to know, if you don't already. He writes for ConservativeReview.com. And I will tell you, I almost ejected him from my friend's circle when he recommended The Circle in one of his articles. The movie, The Circle. One of the worst movies of all time. He starts with this -- with this understatement. It's like saying Hitler sometimes could be --
PAT: Understatement of the century perhaps.
GLENN: -- testy.
He wrote: Make no mistake, The Circle is not a great movie by any means.
Yeah. Yeah, and Hitler was testy.
However, it's a movie I would highly recommend that every American see.
No. Stop. So I thought I would get Steve on the phone, and explain yourself to this kangaroo tribunal here, Steve.
STEVE: Well, first of all, I want to throw myself on the mercy of the court with that setup, for one.
(laughter)
STEVE: But the film does -- I mean, I found myself -- I laughed out loud with my wife at the movie several times.
GLENN: Oh, yeah, me too.
STEVE: And about two-thirds of the way through it, I leaned over to Amy, and I said, "Honey, this might be the most conservative movie that wasn't made by, you know, studios that are favorable to our belief system I've ever seen." Because I don't know, the movie may be so bad, that it's unintentional.
PAT: That's what I think.
GLENN: I think so too. I don't think they had any idea.
PAT: They did it by accident.
STEVE: And that's probably true. But when you look at -- and I point out several places where the movie gives you the full monty, if you will, of progressivism. And it shows, if we're mixing metaphors here, how it literally just chokes the life out of a civilization. And it shows that abundantly.
I mean, listen, the moment where the heroine says -- don't tell me you didn't laugh, Glenn -- when Emma Watson's character says, and here's a piece of protest art. Click on -- click frowns on our social media and send a stern message to the oppressive regime that's being protested, which I'm sure they'll understand.
GLENN: Oh, yeah.
STEVE: That's pretty much the most millennium snowflake thing of all time.
GLENN: But they meant -- but I don't think they wrote that in a way -- they meant that.
PAT: I think so.
GLENN: They meant that.
STEVE: I know. That's what makes it even better, right? When they show you honestly, here's what we really believe, where we really want to take you. The movie really plays up in its trailer, the line with Tom Hanks, says, quote, I believe in the perfectibility of man.
GLENN: Yes.
STEVE: And it really plays that up and then shows his own fallibility on parade. So I think that the fact that they didn't intend that makes it a more powerful apologetic because they think this is an infomercial.
GLENN: Okay. So, Steve, I really think that they were going to make a happy movie called The Circle. And then they realized they don't really have anything there, maybe after they started production.
And then they thought, okay. We'll make it kind of creepy, and we'll show how it can be really creepy. But they didn't want to go all the way and say that this was bad. And so this movie went nowhere.
It didn't have any idea, if it was supposed to be for The Circle or against The Circle.
STEVE: I don't disagree with that at all. And if you want to see a movie that was made earlier this year that is much better made -- it's in a different stratosphere in terms of filmmaking, that also turns progressivism on itself, I would recommend Get Out, which does exactly that.
GLENN: I haven't seen that. Oh, yeah, that's --
STEVE: I mean, Get Out. Blue state progressive. More impervious to racism, and it turns the reflection on themselves. And it's brutal to watch. That's a better deconstruction in terms of filmmaking. But I think -- I think if they had actually embraced the story they told and did that in the filmmaking process and marketed it accordingly, they might have had something. Because let's face it, a lot of Americans, a majority of Americans have -- have turned their backs on utopian schemes of progressivism. They have seen it fully immersed in the last eight years under Obama and realized that this can't deliver. This existentially, this can't do what it promises it's going to do.
The problem with the mainstream studio, with a star like Tom Hanks making a film like that, is it really goes against their stated value system. And so you can sense the conflict.
GLENN: Oh, yeah. I've never felt conflict like that. You could feel the conflict from the writing, directing, the acting. Everything.
STEVE: Yeah.
GLENN: They were so conflicted, they didn't know what to do with this.
PAT: Hmm.
STEVE: Look at one of the supporting characters Mercer.
All right. So on one hand, he throws in one of the -- one of the only real leftist true propaganda moments in the movie, when he says, you know, we have anti-trust legislation to break up all these big banks and big companies. But then this is the white guy who drives a pickup truck who wants to live off the grid, making deer and antler ornaments, and is literally -- is literally pestered by progressives, literally to death in the film.
GLENN: Yeah.
STEVE: That is the exact conflict that exists throughout the course of this movie.
GLENN: Yeah.
STEVE: And it's because, ultimately, when we enact progressivism, gentlemen, when we take it beyond the theoretical and put it in a real world, and we do things that say, no, man is not fallible. No, the world -- the creation is not fallen. And we attempt to impose a square peg in a round hole, we create those conflicts, and we're living in them in our society right now.
GLENN: Steve, can I change subjects with you?
You wrote to me this weekend. I'm having a heck of a time here in Texas finding a school for my kids. Yesterday, this school that had previously told us that it was fine, started hearing I think from parents, et cetera, et cetera, that Mormons might be attending. And so they've rejected us now. And they actually said yesterday to my wife, look, you know, kids can be cruel. And when they find out that your kids are Mormon, I mean, you know, I just -- I hate to say this, but they're going to make fun of them.
Instead of saying, by the way, if we find out any kids are making fun of your kids because they're different, this is a Christian school and, you know, we can't guarantee that that won't happen, but it won't be tolerated. No, no. Instead, they were just telling us that they were going to be made fun of. And even in class, they could be made fun of. Oh, okay.
PAT: Maybe some of the teachers.
GLENN: You know, they said in class. They can't help that. They're going to feel out of place because they won't -- they won't fit in with the --
PAT: You know, sometimes Mormon kids get locked in closets. It just happens.
STU: There are beatings.
PAT: There are beatings. Things happen.
GLENN: It's crazy.
PAT: What's the name of this school?
GLENN: I don't think that that does anything to --
JEFFY: It sure does.
PAT: It sounds like --
GLENN: No, we don't want to go -- I mean, I asked my kids, you know, do you want to go to a school -- and they were like, no. We do not want to go. We're not going.
JEFFY: That would be a shame if other people decided that same thought, if we knew the name.
PAT: So you're not saying it's Liberty Christian? You're not saying that?
GLENN: No, I'm not. No, I'm not saying that. But thank you for that.
PAT: Okay. All right. I'm glad you're not saying it's Liberty Christian. Because we wouldn't want anybody to know about that. Right? Would we?
GLENN: Okay. Thank you, Pat. Thank you, Pat.
So, Steve, if I may, you said something to me this weekend, and you said -- what is the name of this place?
STEVE: Freedom Project Academy is what it's called.
GLENN: Is that the thing you endorsed, Pat?
PAT: Yeah, uh-huh.
GLENN: And you're sending your kids through that, Steve?
STEVE: Yeah. We're going to send our youngest, our son through that. Our -- I hate to use the term "middle child" because I think there's a stigma with that, so I always call Zoe our youngest daughter. She has a couple of learning disabilities. So she requires a different level and kind of education from her mom here at home. But we're going to send Noah through that this fall. And we're looking forward to it. I first heard about these guys -- actually they came to me when you guys were putting the -- the Common Core movie together a few years ago.
GLENN: Yeah.
STEVE: And that issue was a hot burner issue. And the guy who was sort of the dean of the academy, Dr. Duke Pesta, was actually doing a lot of talks around the country, warning people about the perils of Common Core.
GLENN: Yeah, I've looked into them --
STEVE: That's where I first heard about these guys.
GLENN: Yeah, I've looked into them, and they are wildly anti-Common Core, which I love.
PAT: Yeah. It's classic education, which is important.
GLENN: Yeah. And it's a classroom situation. So they're at home. And they're watching -- participating in a classroom.
STEVE: Yeah.
You know, Noah is like pretty much any other boy. You know, we tend to think that if they're not willing to sit still for more than 20 minutes, they need to be drugged. That's kind of how we roll today.
On the other hand, he needs some structure. You know, he needs to be challenged. So mom and I -- we just decided, you know what, let's just do this program and get him a little more structure and challenge him a little bit more intellectually and put him in some inconvenient situations and get him to man up a little bit. So we thought it was the perfect fit for him.
GLENN: And the name of it again is -- what is it?
STU: Freedom.
PAT: Freedom Project.
GLENN: Freedom Project. Okay.
Steve, thank you, brother. And I just want you to know, you are on the edge of the friend's circle by recommending The Circle.
Now, I understand you can take lemons and make them into lemonade, please, dear God, do not wish that movie on any human being. If they find themselves there -- if you're strapped to a chair --
PAT: You can look for some of these things --
GLENN: You're strapped to a chair and somebody says, "Hey, The Circle has just come out, and we can watch it online," as long as they're screaming, "No, dear God, no, not The Circle," but they put it on and you can't stop it, then I understand.
STEVE: Glenn, always remember this when it comes to our progressive friends: Unintentional self-repudiation is always the best. Always remember that.
GLENN: Yep. Thanks a lot, Steve. I appreciate it.
Steve Deace from the Conservative Review, and it's always good to have him on.
