I want to thank you for being here every day. I want to thank you for listening to this program. It's an honor to serve you.
Here's why: I have said --- I think almost since 9/11 --- that this audience is going to be the one that rescues the free world, that rescues the country. I don't know why, but I've always believed that.
Let me try to give you the reasons.
I'm going to give you the first reason in the context of what's going on in the country right not and its direct correlation to this Megyn Kelly interview with Alex Jones. JPMorgan Chase has asked to pull their sponsorship from the show on Sunday. Are you kidding me? Time magazine made Hitler the man of the year! What has happened to our country, where we can't listen to an opposing view or something we don't agree with?
Explain it to your friends upset by this interview by asking this: What do you think of safe zones on schools?
And you answer: I think they're ridiculous. I think that's absolute hogwash --- safe zones in schools.
And here are the follow-up questions: Then why can't you handle an interview with something that you don't like? Why can't you handle the news that exposes you to things that you don't necessarily agree with?
"Question with boldness, even the very existence of God." When Thomas Jefferson wrote that, was there a more dangerous thing to question than God? I mean, that was insanity. Nobody questioned God.
Question with boldness, even the very existence of God, for if there be a God, he must surely rather honest questioning over blindfolded fear.
Now, the key is honest questioning. That's the real problem. There are very few people in journalism doing honest questioning these days. And there are more voices that are just throwing out red meat. And, quite honestly, in the past, mine included. That's not going to get us anywhere because we're all starting to go into our caves.
And here's what's going to happen: If these boycotts continue, where they are affecting NBC and a real journalist sitting down with a controversial newsmaker, then you won't have any news. You know where you'll get your news? NPR and PBS. They will nationalize the news --- congratulations on that. They will say, we can't afford it, so the government needs to underwrite it. You want to know where the boycotts lead us? They lead us to the BBC, nationalized news.
Will your own voice be represented there? What will the national news media say about the voices online? I can tell you right now they'll call it fake news. Ted Koppel says it's fake news. He thinks we should license people to be able to put their opinions online. That's the crazy world we're entering in.
Now, what we're feeling is chaos. We are feeling disruption happening in the old world and in this new world, and it's going to be tough to get through. But because you are who you are --- you understand honest questioning, you understand there are no safe zones in life, you understand the First Amendment to mean no infringement on the press --- because you know what that means, you know that anybody who wants to write a story can write a story.
You are going to be the audience that saves the world because every other audience is starting to run and hide from the things that make them uncomfortable.
We all should be doing one thing every week that puts us in an uncomfortable position. You should be challenging yourself, your friends. Challenging yourself to meet new people, to get new experiences --- at least once a week. You should say, "I can't believe I just did that. That was cool. That was a little scary, but that was cool."
We're calcifying, and we need to break that up. Freedom, as they say, isn't free. Liberty isn't free. Liberty takes work --- mind work. It doesn't take guns. It takes nimble minds.
Right now, we're living in a world where you cannot define right and wrong. What is right and what is wrong? People in school are being taught that there is no right or wrong. Two plus two equals five, if you can show me the work. At the same time, we are taking apart every single truth that we know.
We are now entering a world where we are programming AI. Well, we have to have certain axioms that we know are true as we program AI: Human life is paramount. If we teach that all truth is subjective, what do you think is going to happen when AI is asked, can you solve these problems? "Sure, I can. Humans are a virus. Humans are causing the problems."
How can we possibly wrestle with the questions that we need to program AI, if we can't decide on truth --- if we can't even have a conversation that explores the truth?
So, I just want to thank you for being here, for being steadfast and not going over the cliff with the rest of humanity. This audience is --- and always has been --- special.
Thank you for the honor of serving you.
Editor's Note: This article is based on Glenn's radio monologue delivered on June 13, 2017.