BLOGJuly 31, 2017

Holy Cow! 45 Percent of Republicans Think This About Free Speech?

In a shocking new poll, 45 percent of Republicans surveyed said that the government should be able to target and shut down media outlets publishing “biased or inaccurate” stories.

“Americans, you better pay attention to this,” Glenn warned on radio Monday.

The survey from New Economist and YouGov asked if people “favor or oppose permitting the courts to shut down news media outlets for publishing or broadcasting stories that are biased and inaccurate.” Of those surveyed, 45 percent of people identifying themselves as Republicans said they favored the statement, while 20 percent opposed allowing courts to shut down news outlets for perceived bias.

“Small government and conservative principles have nothing to do with this,” Glenn said. “This is fascism.”

Democrats swung the opposite way, with 18 percent of self-identified Democrat respondents being in favor of such policy and 39 percent opposing court intervention. A surprisingly high percentage of Republicans, Democrats and Independents didn’t understand the dangers of government censorship enough to say, with nearly half of Independents saying they were unsure.

GLENN: Forty-five to 20. Forty-five percent say, yeah, the judge -- a judge should be able to say, "You have too much point of view," and shut down a newspaper or a news organization, television station, cable company, online -- whatever it is. "You have too much of an opinion."

Holy cow. Americans, you better pay attention to this. First, they came for the labor unions, and I said nothing because I wasn't a union member. Remember how that ends?

And then they came for me and no one was around.

So you want to start giving people the right to shut people down if they have too much of an opinion. Well, what about talk radio?

45 percent of Republicans are for this. Only 20 percent of Republicans are against. The rest are I don't knows.

How is that even possible in today's world? Well, I'll explain.

It's possible because so many people have done so much to discredit themselves.

Do you remember talking about a time that people won't know what to believe or who to believe?

Too many people have discredited themselves. And now it's up to you. And now, hopefully, you have some credibility left and you can say to your friends and family, "Don't go there. Don't go there. I know it feels good, but don't go there."

Why wouldn't people just shut down talk radio? Why wouldn't they just shut down the talk radio that they don't like? Why not shut down Fox News?

Republicans are thinking that they can shut down CNN or NPR or I don't know what. MSNBC. Too much of an opinion. But where does that stop? Who decides? The mob? The judges? The judges? You want court systems, the same people who have helped get us into this mess, the same people who don't understand the Second Amendment, you want them to now start to parse the First Amendment? The same court system that said that O.J. Simpson wasn't guilty? I don't.

Small government and conservative principles have nothing to do with this. This is fascism. The First Amendment is there because the world has gone through this time and time and time again. How many things do we -- do we have to see in our own lifetime? How many things do we have to read in history books, and for that not to be relevant?

Well, nobody reads history. Nobody is paying attention.

Okay. How many things do we need in pop culture, to tell us that this always leads to dark places? How many people watch Games of Throne -- of Game of Thrones? Couple weeks ago. 17 million. Broke all records.

Have you noticed what life is like there? Do you think that's protected speech?

What happens when you -- when you shut a news organization down? Do you think those people just go away, or do they find other ways to communicate? Do I now have to shut them down on the internet? Do I now have to shut them down as individuals? And if they still won't be shut down, if they still go around town and there will be a town cryer, and they're just saying it to their friends and anybody else who will listen, do we have to jail them? How do we silence them?

This is a disaster. Shutting down news organizations that are publishing stories that are biased or inaccurate. How are we going to decide which -- what is inaccurate?

We can't even -- we don't -- how do we define that? Half of the country is saying that -- is saying that something that the president's son himself released wasn't released or wasn't true.

Well -- so is -- reporting on that, something that is a verifiable fact, that what is it, 45 percent of conservatives don't believe is a fact? He released it himself. He released it in advance because the New York Times was coming out six minutes later.

I could understand if you said, I don't believe the New York Times. But now you're saying that something that Donald Trump Jr. did, didn't happen. And if it did, it was fake. Why would he release bad information about him?

The righteous didn't suddenly become righteous, they just refused to go over the cliff with everyone else. So how do we solve this one?

Well, we have to start teaching the Constitution. We have to start teaching history. And I thought that we needed to spread it. I thought we needed to get it outside of our own circles, but we don't. We need to be rock solid in our circles. We need to start teaching critical thinking.

You know who the best critical thinker I know is, is a guy who grew up with Torah studies. I think the best critical thinkers honestly are those who went through Torah studies. Maybe we should just start teaching the Torah.

That gets your God and your critical thinking.

We're sicker than we presumed.

There was -- there was a quote -- I've been saying it lately a lot. A friend told it to me. And I can't remember who it is. It's -- it's like Xerxes or somebody from, you know, a billion years ago. Some Greek. And what he said was, in a nutshell, people don't rise to the occasion. They don't rise to the level of expectations. They don't.

They rise to the level of their preparedness and knowledge. Now, think of that. Think of all of the people that rose to the occasion in the darkest hours. They were always the people, Abraham Lincoln, who had gone through something in advance and really prepared themselves. Knew who they were. And prepared themselves.

Corrie ten Boom. She grew up in a family that afternoon exactly what it was. And her father prepared the whole family for those times. Dietrich Bonhoeffer, that's what he did for a living. He had something in him that allowed him to think differently, and he started to think about the future and what was coming. And before it hit, he had already decided, "I'm not going there. I'm not going there. What am I going to do?"

We are -- we're living in a time right now where people are struggling. And it's Maslow's hierarchy of needs. And what's on that first base? If you look -- can you one of you guys look this up real quick?

Maslow's law is -- you know, the hierarchy of needs is -- is, you know, I've got to have food and water and shelter. Protection. That's the baseline.

And you -- it won't allow you to look at anything else. If you don't have that baseline, you don't have the privilege of looking toward anything else.

Do you have it, Pat? What is it?

PAT: Food, water, warmth, rest. Basic needs.

Safety needs. Security and safety.

GLENN: That's the next level?

PAT: Yeah. Then after that, belongingness and love needs. Intimate relationships and friends.

Just above that, esteem needs. Prestige and feeling of accomplishment.

And then at the top, self-actualization. Achieving one's full potential, including creative activities.

GLENN: Okay. How many times do I talk about, we were born for this time? That's self-actualization. That is, what am I here for? What is my purpose?

There are so many people that are down at the bottom all over the world that are looking for food, water, shelter, warmth. Then they're at security.

That could be jobs. That could be, I need my health care so my whole family doesn't crater. I've got a terminal illness, or I have an illness, or my son or daughter has an illness.

Do you think Charlie Gard's parents were thinking in the last six months about self-actualization? All they were thinking about was saving their child's life. That's it.

If you have the ability now to be thinking about, "I'm here for a reason," you're a lucky one. And you're going to become more rare. You have to now say, "Who am I going to be when the time gets trouble for me?" And it's not enough just to think about it. You actually have to prepare for it.

And while you're doing that, we have to go help the people at the bottom, the people who don't have the ability now to think beyond, "Look, I'll do whatever I have to do. The media has got to shut up because we've got to get things done."

They can't see past what the media is doing. And so they just want to get something done. And we've always been against, "No, no, no. You don't just get something done." Somebody's got to do something. If we could just save the life of one child. That's never worked for us. But it's working now.

Because we have massive pain inflicted on a lot of Americans.

THE GLENN BECK PODCAST

Whitney Webb: How You Can BREAK FREE of the Chains of the Elites

Are you truly free, or is your life quietly controlled by systems most Americans never question? In this eye-opening conversation, Glenn Beck speaks with investigative journalist Whitney Webb about how the Elites, banks, and global systems have created modern forms of enslavement, all while the public remains largely unaware. They discuss the urgent need for local self-reliance, alternative financial systems, and taking personal responsibility to protect yourself and your family. This is a wake-up call for anyone who believes freedom is guaranteed, and it’s time to see the truth and act before it’s too late.

Watch Glenn Beck's FULL Interview with Whitney Webb HERE

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SHOCKING: Glenn Beck Interviews 'Detransitioner' Deceived by Doctors

Claire Abernathy was just 14-years-old when doctors told her parents she’d take her own life without hormones and surgery. They promised “gender care” would save her life. Instead, it left Claire with irreversible scars, broken trust, and a lifetime of regret. Her mom was told she was required to comply. No one ever addressed the bullying, or trauma Claire endured before being rushed into medical transition. Now, years later, both Claire and her mother are speaking out and exposing how families are misled, how doctors hide risks, and how children are left to pay the price. With federal investigations now underway, their story is a warning every parent needs to hear.

RADIO

The most INSANE Deep State story you've never heard

Was an NGO with deep government ties trying to RESTART the opium trade in Taliban-run Afghanistan while former Taliban members were on its payroll...only to be caught DESTROYING the evidence?! The State Department's Under Secretary for Public Diplomacy Darren Beattie joins Glenn Beck to expose what he found when he was made Acting President of the United States Institute of Peace. Plus, he debunks ProPublica’s claim that DOGE “targeted” an “Afghan scholar who fled the Taliban.”

Transcript

Below is a rush transcript that may contain errors

GLENN: Darren, welcome to the program. How are you? Darren, are you there? Is he there?

STU: Hmm.

GLENN: Okay. Check if he's there. Is he? Dick Cheney. Dick Cheney.

STU: Trying to shut him down. They don't want peace. They don't want peace.

GLENN: They don't. They don't.

He is -- he is a big-time anti-globalist. I've got to tell you, what we're doing with the State Department. I absolutely love. The State Department has been a big problem for this country for a very long time. It's what's gotten us into these global wars. These endless wars, and everything he is.

And, I mean, I don't know what happened to Marco rube, but he is tremendous.

And the way president Trump is appointing different people like Darren, it's fantastic. Darren, are you there? Darren.

STU: Something must be wrong with the lines. Because we are talking to him offline on the phone here. And it does seem to be working, but not coming through our broadcast board here for whatever reason.

GLENN: Well, let's see if we can get that fixed, and maybe let me just talk here for five, six minutes on something else. Then we'll take a break and come back and see if we can get him.

There's something else that I really want to talk about. And that is this flag-burning thing. Now, it's not an amendment.

This is something that the president is putting up in an executive order and has very little teeth to it.

But I -- I -- look, I understand. As a guy putting an enormous flagpole up at my house today.

I mean, an enormous flagpole.

I love the flag. I love it!

And there are a few things that make me more angry than see somebody you set our flag on fire.

For a lot of people, that's a punch in the gut, especially our military people. And it has been planted on distant battlefields. It's raced after victory. Saluted in the morning, or should be in our schools and folded and given to the hands of grieving families. It feels like spitting on every sacrifice, that ever made this nation possible. And the argument against flag burning is really simple: It dishonors the idea of all of that. Okay?

And it defends millions of people, including me. It disrespects, I think the veterans that bled. The families who mourned. The dream that binds us together.

However, here's the hard truth: Symbols only mean something, in a land where freedom is alive.

If you outlaw the burning of a flag, the you have placed the cloth above the Constitution that it represents. You have made the flag an idol.

We don't worship idols. If you can only praise the flag and never protest it, it just stops being a symbol of freedom. And starts being an idol of obedience.

Now, that's the argument for allowing it. At least to me.

Because the real strength of a free nation is -- is to -- it's -- it's how we protect, not the speech we love, but how we endure the speech we hate!

And the Supreme Court has already ruled on this. And, you know, they -- the line they drew wasn't an easy one. Freedom of speech, stops where it directly -- directly insights violence. And that's it same thing, kind of, in this executive order.

You can burn the flag. But if I'm not mistaken, but if it incites violence, then you're in trouble.

And that's true. But the bar of inciting violence is so incredibly high. And it's -- it doesn't have anything to do with speech that offends. It's not speech that stirs anger. Not speech that wants you to punch the speaker in the mouth. It's speech only, that provokes imminent and specific violence.

And unless it's that be with the government doesn't have any right to -- to get into the business of silencing speech. Ever. Ever. Ever.

It is a hard line. And that standard is really hard. It's painfully hard.

Because what our citizenship requires, this is civics. What our citizenships require, is that we defend -- oh, I hate this.

We defend the right of your opponent to mock everything that we hold sacred.

Now, I want you to think of this. You can burn a Bible. You can burn the Word of God. But some want to make it illegal to burn a flag. Where are our priorities? You can burn the Constitution. The words that actually are the ones that stir us into action. But you can't burn a flag.

You can't burn a Koran. Can't burn them. Can't. Can't.

You will -- you will quickly come to a quick end, not legally. But you will come to a quick end. I don't ever want to be like that. Ever!

You burn a Bible. I think you're a monster. What is wrong with you? What is wrong with you?

But you have a right to do it. Why are we drawing a line around the flag? It -- the reason is -- is because we feel things so passionately. And that is really a good thing, to feel love of country so passionately. But then we have to temper that. My father used to tell me, that I think this country needs to hear over and over again, every day. My father -- we would talk to somebody. And we would walk away. And he would go, I so disagree with everything that man just said. But, Glenn, son, he would say. I will fight to the death for his right to say it. He used to say that to me all the time. Which now lees me to believe, I know where I've got my strong opinions from. Because dad apparently would disagree with a lot of people all the time.

But that was the essence of freedom. That is the essence of what sets us apart. Standing for universal, eternal rights like free speech. It's not easy. It means you have to take the size of those people that offend you. It means -- it doesn't mean you have to disagree with it. You can fight against it. You can argue back and forth.

But you -- can you tolerate the insults to the things that you love most. That is so hard, and that is why most of the world does not have freedom of speech. It's too hard! But our Founders believed people are better than that. Our citizens can rule themselves!

And the only way you can rule yourself is if you don't have limits on freedom of speech. So the question is, do we want to remain free? Or do we want to just feel good? It really is that simple. It's why no one else has freedom of speech. It's too hard! I think we're up to the task. Okay. Give me 60 seconds. And then we will try again.

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Elderly men and women. Who remember a time when help never came. All of them wonder. Is anybody going to stand with us, this time?

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(music)
All right. Let me -- let me bring Darren in. Darren, are you there now?

DARREN: Yes!
GLENN: Oh, God. Thank goodness.
Thank you for putting up with us. I don't know what happened with the phone system. But, first of all, tell me what the US Institute of Peace is. I've never even heard of it.

DARREN: That is a fantastic question. And I'll try to give the abbreviated answer, because I know we don't have several hours.

GLENN: Good. I know.

DARREN: But US Institute of Peace is one of lesser known, but quite important member of the NGO archipelago, that was created in the '80s. It belongs to the same cohorts as national endowments for democracy.

GLENN: Oh.

DARREN: And some other -- some other better known NGOs that really in the broad context of things. In kind of the sweep of things, was created as a kind of reorganization of the government structure in the aftermath of the church type committee hearings that expose a lot of the dirty dealings of government agencies such as the CIA, and so sort of a broader response to that government lie was to create this NGO layer of governance, with an armed distant plausible deniability, a kind of chameleon character of not exactly being government, not exactly being private, in order to fulfill some of those more sensitive functions that had been exposed in the course of the church hearings.

And so US Institute of Peace is one of those NGOs that had particular focus on conflict regions. But, of course, as I think you -- you suggested earlier, peace requires at the very least, an asterisk. Because there involves a lot of things, that conventional, most American citizens would not think should belong as part of the portfolio of something calling itself an institute of peace.

GLENN: So what was the thing with the -- with this Taliban member that was getting money from us?

DARREN: Right. So this is an interesting case. So there's a whole saga of a takeover of the US institute of peace under -- under DOGE.

And that's really a fascinating story unto itself. Just to give you a sense of what these characters were like. They barricaded themselves in the offices.

They sabotaged the physical infrastructure of the building. There were reports of there being loaded guns within the offices.

GLENN: Wow!

DARREN: There was one, like, hostage situation where they held a security guard under basically kind of a false imprisonment type situation. It was extremely intense.

Far more so than the better known story of USAID. And in the course of all of that, they tried to delete a terabyte of data, of accounting information that would indicate what kind of stuff they were up to.

What kind of people they were paying. And in the course of that, DOGE found that one of the people on their payroll. Was this curious figure, who had a prominent role in the Taliban government. And then seemed to kind of play a bunch of angles across each other.

Sort of one of these sixer types in the middle of Afghanistan.

The question is, what the heck is an organization like this, having an individual, who is a former Taliban member on their payroll.

It underscores how incredibly bizarre the whole arrangement is. And to just reinforce that. I think even more bizarre than having this former Taliban guy on the payroll is the kind of schizophrenic posture exhibited by the chief -- one truly bizarre thing is that one of the US Institute of Peace's main kind of policy agendas was basically lamenting the fact that the opium trade had dissipated under Taliban leadership. They had multiple reports coming out, basically saying, this is horrible, that the opium trade is diminished under the Taliban. Meaning, finding some way to restore it. How bizarre is that!

GLENN: What was their thinking?

DARREN: Well, it's -- it's very strange, and it depends on what kind of rabbit holes you want to go down. But the whole story of opium and Afghanistan and its connection to, you know, government entities, is a -- is a very intricate and delicate and fascinating one. But it seems very clear that the US Institute of Peace was involved in that story to some degree because their public reports. They had a full-the time guy of basically lamenting the fact that the opium trade dissipated under the Taliban. And, meanwhile, they're funding this former Taliban guy.

GLENN: Unbelievable. Now, ProPublica got this. And you have released the statement on it. And ProPublica just completely white-washed this -- said this guy was a victim, and his family was taken hostage. Was his family ever taken hostage because he was exposed?

And correct the ProPublica story, would you?

DARREN: Yeah, I mean, the ProPublica thing, as usual and as expected was a total joke.

GLENN: Yes.

DARREN: I mean, this guy, I'm not an expert on this particular person's history. But what's very clear is he was a former Taliban guy, and he was probably one of these people, who was playing all sides, made a lot of enemies. I know that there were several kind of attempts on his life by the Taliban, in the course of various -- various decades.

This has nothing to do with -- with DOGE.

I mean, he's a known quantity in the region.

And somebody who has made a lot of enemies.

And he was not -- he was on the payroll of the US institute of peace.

And nobody is expecting something like that. So then, and, again, there's this sort of hostile takeover situation.

Where the people are barricading he themselves in. Trying to delete all this data.

And sure enough, what's in the data, is stuff like this.

These random former Taliban guy, making his contract with $130,000.

GLENN: You know, this is the -- this is the real Deep State stuff, that I think bothers people so much.

Look, we expect our CIA to do stuff, we don't necessarily want to do it. We expect it.

When it's in the State Department.

When every department is pushing out money to NGOs to overthrow governments and everything else.

It's out of control!

It's just completely out of control.

And who is overseeing all of that.

DARREN: That's a great question.

I think part of the NGO -- UCEF was almost a cutout of a cutout.

A fourth of its money came from USAID.

In many ways, it was a cutout of USAID. Which itself was a cutout.

So there are many layers of distance. Plausible deniability.

And UCEF, I think institutionally really perfected this chameleon structure of being able to plausibly present itself as government. When that was convenient for what they were doing.

And also to present itself as a private organization, when that was convenient.

It's a very intricate setup that they had, that was truly optimized for this chameleon character of plausible denial operations. In conflict zones. Doing God knows what, with American taxpayer money.

And it's just an absolute hornet's nest.

We have recovered that terabyte that they tried to delete. And once we get things settled in the building itself, I intend to do a kind of transparency effort, whereby we release all of this material to the public.

GLENN: Good. Good.

DARREN: Just like I'm doing at the State Department. I'm currently acting as secretary at the State Department. And doing a transparency effort here. After I eliminated the global engagement center, which was sort of the internal censorship office within the State Department, decided, we've got to -- we've got to air this out to the public.

So within the next couple of weeks.

We'll have our next tranche of helps you of thousands of emails, documenting what this were doing.

GLENN: I would love you to go back on, through those emails.

I think you guys in the State Department are doing an amazing job. Thanks for being on.

Glenn's Show Prep

Holy Cow! 45 Percent of Republicans Think This About Free Speech?

Whitney Webb: How You Can BREAK FREE of the Chains of the Elites

SHOCKING: Glenn Beck Interviews 'Detransitioner' Deceived by Doctors

The most INSANE Deep State story you've never heard

Transcript

Hamas hostage's brother speaks out with Glenn Beck