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Jordan Peterson: Don’t Compare Yourself to 'The Facebook Version of Everyone Else'

Social media can be helpful, but it can also be addictive and destructive. On today’s show, Dr. Jordan Peterson talked about some of his “12 Rules for Life” in the context of a world ruled by Facebook and YouTube.

“Compare yourself to who you were yesterday, not to who someone else is today” is Rule No. 4 on the list of 12 rules in his book. When you’re scrolling through your News Feed, you can’t compare your life to “the Facebook version” of everyone else’s life.

“No one else is really like you in any deep sense,” Peterson said. “The conditions of your life truly are unique.”

This article provided courtesy of TheBlaze.

GLENN: If you've been listening to this program, about -- I think maybe 2005, 2006, I started doing my research on the Twelfth Imam, which is this crazy end of times theology of -- of some people who live in the Middle East, specifically Iran.

And it's -- it's scary. They're very dangerous. As I did my research on it, the goal to hasten the return of the Promised One is to wash the world in blood and create chaos.

And I said in 2006 and I've been saying it ever since, run from chaos. Put order in your life.

The world is going to start moving towards chaos. This is what Russia and Aleksandr Dugin is also pushing, is his chaos theory. Chaos is the work of darkness. For I don't know how long, people have been saying, you've got to get Jordan Peterson on. He's the greatest guy in the history of the world.

We're like, yeah, yeah, yeah. We'll get to him. Then finally we sat down and we watched him. And we understand why everybody was saying, you've got to have him on.

He's just written a new book. The 12 Rules of Life: An Antidote to Chaos.

Welcome to the program, Jordan Peterson. How are you, sir?

JORDAN: I'm good. How are you doing?

GLENN: I'm good.

If I may describe your book this way, tell me if I'm wrong, people right now feel this chaos and they feel they're overwhelmed. And they feel like everything they do or have done doesn't make any difference. And so they're starting to unplug and they're starting to throw up their hands and get frustrated and angry. You are saying that, "No, no, no. Forget about the big picture. Do these 12 little, pretty simple things, and you'll change the world -- at least change your life.

JORDAN: Yeah. Well, that's a good place to start. And you won't do any harm either. So first do no harm. The positions have it.

GLENN: Right.

So, first of all, let me just give -- or have you give your credentials.

You are a clinical psychologist and a professor of psychology. And you have really been found -- and kind of a worldwide sensation on YouTube. And you're really --

JORDAN: Yeah.

GLENN: Go ahead.

JORDAN: Oh, no. So far, you've got it right. Yeah, I've been a practicing clinical psychologist for about 20 years. I've spent tens of thousands of hours talking to people about their deepest problems. And I've worked as a business consultant. And I helped entrepreneurs. I've helped companies find entrepreneurs to help run them.

I've done all sorts of things.

GLENN: I want to go through -- I want to go through the book. And we have some time with you today.

JORDAN: Yeah.

GLENN: I want to go through the book. We can't go through all 12. I'm going to give you the advice, and then you tell me exactly what it means and how to apply it.

Rule number two: Treat yourself like someone you're responsible for helping.

JORDAN: Yeah. Well, people are harder on themselves -- you know, everybody is aware of their own flaws and faults and inadequacies and failures to live up to even their own ideals.

And we're also painfully aware that we do things purposefully wrong from time to time, just out of spite and a desire to produce misery.

And because of that, we don't feel as positively predisposed towards ourselves as we might, and so we don't take care of ourselves very well.

It's deeper than that. Even -- we kind of have contempt for ourselves because we're fragile and mortal and subject to the tragic conditions of life. And we're not exactly sure, I would say, that we deserve the best or that we deserve to be taken care of properly.

People will often treat their animals better than they treat themselves. And that's not good. That's not good. You have to detach yourself from yourself a little bit and understand that you deserve to be cared for like -- at a level of basic decency, just like any other living creature, let's say. You should want the best for yourself.

GLENN: So I've always been fascinated by the human race. Because we are -- we really are self-hating egomaniacs.

We build ourself up into these all-powerful, but as individuals, we -- we also have this self-loathing.

How do you -- so it doesn't sound like --

JORDAN: People have a hard time with it. You know, we're the only creatures that are self-conscious. And we're aware of the fragility of life and our own flaws. And so it's very difficult for us to regard ourselves properly. And so chapter two, rule two -- treat yourself as if you're someone that you should take care of -- is a description of why it is -- a deep description of why it is that people have doubts about their own being. And then also what you should do in the face of that.

I mean, the fact that we're faced with our own mortality constantly and with the human proclivity for evil means that we have a very large burden to bear. But we're also very capable of doing that. And you should regard yourself positively as someone who is able to face the tragedy and malevolence of existence and still move forward. And sometimes move forward with great nobility and grace. I mean, people can operate under horrendous conditions and do so well admirably. And that's something really remarkable.

And so chapter two, rule two is about asking people to treat themselves with some respect. And see what might happen as a consequence.

GLENN: Do you think that -- I just read a study this morning that shows depression rates of teenagers are up -- I think 48 percent. Suicide is up 24 percent since 2010. And the study showed that it coincided with the use of a smartphone. You know, and all of the social media.

Do you think this is helping us -- because we're -- one of your other rules. Let me see which one it is. Rule four, compare yourself to who you were yesterday and not who someone is today. Do you think this is coming from, we're not good enough because we don't have the life that we think everybody else has based on their bogus Facebook page?

JORDAN: Well, I -- I think there's a couple of things going on there.

We're undergoing sequential technological revolutions, and it's not easy to keep up. And so I think we don't know what to do with all the magical technological devices that are being thrown our way. It's a very, very steep learning curve.

And social media -- all the major social media outlets, Twitter and YouTube and Instagram and so forth, they all have their advantages and their pitfalls. They're quite addictive. And they do throw you out into a massive realm and allow you to prepare yourself to the Facebook version of everyone else. And that definitely is rough.

I mean, you don't -- and you pointed out rule four, compare yourself to who you were yesterday, not to who someone is today. That's a good maxim to live by.

Because no one else is really like you, in any deep sense. I mean, obviously people have their similarities. But the conditions of your life truly are unique. And what -- the way to -- you need an ideal pursuit. Compare myself to other people, to establish that ideal. But you don't really -- you have to figure out who you are and be better than that. And that's something you can always do too.

And one of the things I tried to do in that rule is outline why that's good enough. You can make incremental changes over who you are right now. And those incremental changes will compound and transform you across time. It's a really, really powerful way of looking at the world. And it stops you from being bitter and resentful.

Part of the problem is when you look at someone who you think is doing better than you -- I mean, look, perhaps they are. We don't want to be naive about it. You don't know everything about their life. You know, if you're admiring a celebrity and you think, "Well, I would love to have a life like that," you see the celebrity as a very low-resolution hero. You don't know the details of their life. You don't know how they're doing across ten or 11 dimensions of comparison, dimensions that are important.

It's better to think about who you are now, to take stock of your flaws and your virtues, and to move forward from that foundation. That way, you can have an ideal. I'm going to be better than I am. And you don't have to be bitter and resentful because you're not who you think someone else is. So maybe the social media feeds that, you know

GLENN: Professor, I'm a 22-year-old recovering alcoholic, and I've discovered something about myself that I wonder if it isn't true about most people. When I first started my journey into figuring out really who I was late in life, in my 30s, I -- I stopped. And I really didn't -- it wasn't a real conscious stop in some ways. And then I -- I was motivated to continue to look deep inside of me.

And I realized at that time, the reason why I think I was afraid. And I don't know if this transfers to other people, but I was afraid because I was afraid there was nothing really of value inside of me.

JORDAN: Yeah, right. Well, and that is people's deepest fear is that there's -- really, there's nothing valuable (cutting out) -- and I truly believe that is deeply, deeply wrong.

Like, one of the things I've tried to do in 12 Rules For Life is to take a very stark appraisal of human existence. I do believe our lives are fundamentally tragic. You know, we grow old, we get sick, we die, we lose the people we love. All of that. We're finite creatures, you know. And there is real malevolence and evil in the world, and not only in the hearts of other people, but definitely in our own hearts.

And so the conditions of existence are very dire in some sense. Tragedy and evil.

But I do believe there are ways of living in the world that enable us to transcend that. And the old idea that we each have a light inside of us, that if turned on will illuminate the world. I believe that to be true.

I think that the human spirit is more powerful than death and evil. And that if you live a truthful life and if you live a life that's oriented towards the highest good, that you can withstand the burden of being and you can discover within yourself something that's -- it's that spark of divinity that unites you with God.

(music)

STU: Back with more from Jordan Peterson in just a moment. He's @JordanBPeterson on Twitter. The book is called 12 Rules For Life: An Antidote to Chaos.

GLENN: I may have been a little esoteric here. If you don't know who Jordan Peterson is, he is so right in where people live right now. I fear I'm doing him a disservice. He is -- he's controversial right now because he's saying the things that we all know where true, but have not been said for a long time. What it takes to be a man. And many of his followers on -- on YouTube are young men. They're starving to hear, what does it mean to be a man?

More in a second.

GLENN: We covered the presidential speech last hour, and we will continue here in about 34 minutes with some more analysis on what happened in Washington last night. It was absolutely amazing.

But we're joined now by Jordan Peterson. He has a new book that is out today. It's called 12 Rules For Life: An Antidote To Chaos.

Jordan, I've been watching you now for a few months. And I saw something that you just did on the BBC where the presenter was after you from the beginning. There wasn't an honest question, I didn't feel, from the get-go. She was trying -- it was almost like every question was like, come on, fight with me.

What is it that you're saying that is making so many people just angry? Because I don't see it.

JORDAN: Well, I'm calling out the identity politics types on the left. And in a really -- in a really blunt way. And so they're not very happy about that.

GLENN: But you're doing it with facts. You're doing it with ease and gentleness and kindness.

JORDAN: That's worse. That's worse. You know, because --

GLENN: I know.

JORDAN: Because the radical leftists have to paint everybody who opposes them as some sort of super villain because if they don't -- if the person who opposes them isn't unreasonable, then they're reasonable. And that means reasonable people can critique the radical left. And I am a reasonable person. And that makes me more threatening rather than less.

And, I mean, I believe the radical leftists have pretty much destroyed the humanities. And that's a terrible thing. Because they're at the core of university. And I also believe -- and there was an article in the Boston Globe just this last week making exactly the same case, that corruption of the humanities is now spreading out into the broader public and into corporations and so forth, often through the back door of human resources.

And I'm pointing all this out, the pathological legislation that's been in Canada, for example, requiring compelled speech that results in inquisition of a teaching assistant at Wilfrid Laurier University.

And, yeah, people aren't very happy with me as a consequence. Because I'm describing what's going on. And also why it's wrong. It's really wrong for us to degenerate back into tribalism.

GLENN: So I want to -- I want to go into that. We have to take a quick break. And I want to go into that. Why it's wrong. We are in several tribes. And we're all really doing it. Why is it wrong? And how do we -- how do we change that in our own life?

GLENN: Whether he knows it or not, there is a movement -- a global movement that is building underneath Dr. Jordan Peterson. He's Canadian. He is now sweeping the world on YouTube, a lot of young people are -- are really listening to him and following him.

And he is -- he is articulating universal principles that that haven't been articulated this way in a long time, in his new book for life 12 Rules For Life.

He says things like this: Confront the chaos of being. Take aim against the sea of troubles. Specify your destination and chart your course. Admit what you want. Tell those around you, who you are. Narrow and gaze attentively, and move forward forthrightly.

STU: We were talking about, before the break, something that -- and this was kind of reminded me of a recent article about sort of an alt-right conspiracy gathering in New York City. And a bunch of reporters went to it. And they started asking -- trying to fish around for what their ideology was. And one of them said this: We're not ideological. We're tribal. We don't care about the politics, as much as we care about pissing people off and trolling and shaking things up.

Doctor, before we went to the break, you mentioned our -- the way we're starting to degenerate into tribalism. I think people now are starting to look at tribalism as a positive. Why isn't it?

JORDAN: Well, people, when they lose their unifying (cut out), they degenerate into tribalism. You saw that happening, for example, in Yugoslavia when the wall fell and the Soviet Empire collapsed, people degenerate into their tribal groups.

Now, look, you know from being a child to being an adult, you have to pass through a period of time where your primary affiliation is to the group. That's what happens when you're a teenager and a young adult. You have to become socialized. You have to take your place as a member of a group. But that isn't where your development should end. You should then transcend the group and become an individual. Then you're part of the force that establishes and renews the group, as well as just being part of the group.

And it's that transcendent identity as an individual that enables different groups to live together on the same territory peacefully. Because I can come out of my group as a forthright and honest individual. And you can come out of your group the same way. And we can communicate and negotiate. And we can figure out how to cooperate and convene peacefully and to trade and all of that without degenerating to tribal murderousness.

Now, what's happening in our culture is that the radical left is attempting to establish the narrative.

GLENN: You're saying this globally. You're not just talking about the United States.

JORDAN: No. No. No. This is happening all over the world. But particularly in the West. It's everywhere.

And that the radical left narrative is that there's no super ordinate narrative. There's nothing that really unites us. The world is a landscape of competing power interests. And those power interests are --

GLENN: Wait. We lost you. Hang on. Those power interests. Are you there?

JORDAN: Can you hear me?

GLENN: Yeah, I can hear you now. We just lost you. You said those power interests are...

JORDAN: Are based -- ethnicity, race, or gender, these essential elements that no one can change. And that the entire world is just a battleground of power between those competing groups. And that some of those oppress the other. The right wing looks at that, the radical right and says, okay. If the world is nothing, but a battleground between power groups, then I'm going to pick my power group, whatever it happens to be, and I'm going to win.

And so they end up playing this extraordinarily dangerous group identity game. And there's nothing at the end of that except catastrophe.

GLENN: So can I ask you this question? And I ask you this as a Canadian because that way you're not getting into politics.

As an outsider, we don't -- we've lost our national identity. And we don't know who we are anymore.

As an outsider looking in, what is the identity that all Americans could and should unite around. Who are we?

JORDAN: Well, it's the old American dream. It's that America is a place where people are judged on their competence and are able to compete --

GLENN: Doctor, I don't know if you've moved into another room or something. But we're losing you and we can barely -- we can barely understand you. So let's try this -- is that -- I don't know what's wrong with the connection.

GLENN: No. That's -- now you're gone again. Can you hear me now?

JORDAN: I can hear you pretty well.

GLENN: All right. So go ahead. And I'll tell you if you drop out. We'll try one more time.

JORDAN: Okay. So, well, the United States is a beacon to the world, as far as I'm concern. (cuts out)

GLENN: We're going to -- we're going to have to stop and see if we can get a new connection with you. We're going to call you right back and see if we can get a new connection.

STU: Yeah, it's unfortunate.

GLENN: We're going to take a quick break and come back with Jordan Peterson.

Canadian phone systems.

STU: Blame the Canadians. Typical Glenn.

Jordan Peterson is the author of 12 Rules For Life. We're going to have him on in just a second. It's an antidote to chaos, which clear your cellphone connection is also --

GLENN: Yeah. A little chaotic.

GLENN: We're talking to Dr. Jordan Peterson from Canada. He is a new favorite of mine. And really -- I mean, just so clear in his thinking. He has a huge global following that has been building for a while. And a lot of them are young males. And he is not spoon-feeding them stuff. You know, the average person in the media or in universities would say, you know, oh, that's what they want to hear. And you got to coddle them. He doesn't coddle them. He tells them, grow up. Be a man.

What does that mean, Jordan, when you're talking to these guys, what is it they're starving for?

JORDAN: Well, they're starving for the idea that their life has purpose. A recognition of the idea that their life has purpose. And so I tell them, well, there's things to do out there in the world. You know, there's chaos to confront. And there's order to establish and revivify. And there's suffering to ameliorate. And there's evil to constrain. And that the world is a lesser place if you don't take your place in it. And that the consequences of that are dire.

You have an important destiny. You know, I tell them that they're made in the image of God like the old stories say. And that they have something beneficial -- God, every time I talk about this, it breaks me up. But they have something beneficial that they have bring into the world. It's that, that stops the world from degenerating into hell.

And it truly is important for you to get out of bed in the morning and to -- and to face the world honestly and to set your family straight and to work for your community and to aim at something great in the world.

This is vital. Without that, everyone -- everyone suffers stupidly and miserably. And why bother with that? It's like, you can't just hide in the basement and shirk your responsibilities. It makes you miserable and bitter. And even murderous. It's not a pathway to take.

It's just good to stand up and take on the burden of the world. And to pick up your damn cross and walk up the hill.

You need to do that. It's important. It truly is important.

And people aren't one dot and one speck among 7 billion. We're all networked together. We're all in this together, and we could do something remarkable together, if we aimed high and spoke the truth.

STU: Some of your prescriptions are pretty tough for this, though. Rule six is one that pops out to me. Because this is something I've -- I've found over and over again that people absolutely despise doing with themselves, which is set your house in perfect order before you criticize the world.

That is something that people don't want to do. It's very difficult to do. How do you make them do it?

JORDAN: Well, I think what you do is what I tried to do in that chapter, is that chapter is about kids who shot up the Columbine High School and about a mass murderer named Carl Panzram. And I try to describe in detail the motivations for doing such things.

And people who do such things have very powerful motivations for doing them. They're very angry about the conditions of existence, the tragedy that constitutes existence. And they get bitter and resentful. And then they want revenge. And they're willing to take it -- well, they're willing to take revenge on the most innocent.

I mean, that's what the guy who shot up the school in Connecticut did. He went and shot kids. It's like, well, how the hell do you get into a situation like that? You brewed on the horrors of existence. And you get resentful for your part in the tragedy. And there's no excuse for that. I mean, life is very, very difficult. There's no doubt about that. And unfair things happen.

But to retreat and to become resentful and bitter is only to multiply the problem. So chapter six is an injunction -- anti-activist injunction, I would say, to some degree.

Like, for the last 50 years, we've encouraged young people to go out there and stop the people who are doing bad things from doing them.

And I just think that's a counterproductive way of living in the world. It's like, you should stop the bad things that you're doing. And you should straighten up your life. And then you should straighten up your family's life. And then your community's life. And then everything will be straight and proper.

And that's all to the good. And then maybe we won't degenerate back into that brutal tribalism that characterized the 21st century and wipe ourselves out.

GLENN: So I am -- I'm -- I'm sitting here. I have found these things myself over the last few years. And to be true. And people will say, well, you can't surrender and retreat. And you can't just let it go by. And you're like, no, I'm not letting it go by. I'm not surrendering. I'm just not playing that game because it gets us nowhere. And I can make an impact in my own home and in my own life. And that changes things.

JORDAN: It's not trivial either. Like, you know, it's not that easy to set your family in order. And if you do that, you'll learn something deep. You know, if you can make peace with your brothers and your sisters and if you can make peace with your parents and your past and you can make your own house peaceful and productive, then you've learned some deep psychological and practical truths. And then when you go out into the world and attempt to do things, you're going to be first on a very solid footing because you'll have lots of support and you won't be tortured by a never-ending stream of domestic hell and idiocy. And you'll be ready to do things in the world that are -- that are appropriate and proper. You'll have practice.

GLENN: You do --

JORDAN: It's not like setting your house in order is trivial. It's very difficult.

GLENN: You admit that there is evil in the world. And it is profound. And I think that's --

JORDAN: That's one of the most self-evident things about the world.

GLENN: I know.

And people who hear this -- because I've heard this from people. Glenn, there is evil, and it has to be stopped.

Yes, it does.

And, you know, just a retreat from evil because that's just not going to stop. Can you connect the dot to the -- the chaos in our own life and then the -- the evil that is out?

JORDAN: Well, look -- look to yourself first. That's the thing, is that the best place to begin the process of constraining evil is in your own heart. It's like, you know, I've studied totalitarian brutality for 30 years.

And one of the things that I taught my students -- well, since the early 1990s is that if they were -- if each of them was placed in Nazi Germany in the 1930s, there's an overwhelming probability that they would be Nazis. Like everybody thinks, no, I would be Schindler rescuing the Jews. I would be the Dutch family that hid Anne Frank. It's like, no, you wouldn't. That's not true. You would be on the side of the majority, just like you are now, in all probability.

And if the temptation was put in front of you, to do the terrible things that were offered to the people that were offered to the people who did the terrible things the Nazis and the Communists did, then it's really probable that you would do those. And it's also really probable that you're doing such things already on a smaller scale.

You're torturing the people that you love. You're betraying your friends. You're not working up to your potential at work. They're all sorts of things that you're doing in your life that are small examples of the things that get out of control in tyrannical societies. Lots of people are tyrants in their own little domains, or they're tyrants to themselves. That needs to be stopped.

GLENN: I'm sure that you've read the book Ordinary Men, on how men in Poland --

JORDAN: Yes.

GLENN: They did with compassion at first. And they turned into monsters. It's a slow, gradual thing that you just don't see.

JORDAN: Yeah. Oh, that's a great and terrible book, Ordinary Men. That's one of the ones I have on the reading list on my website. And that's one of the books that's on the reading list because that is a great example of how you move to perdition one step at a time and how perfectly ordinary people can be trained, even against their own will in some sense, against their own better instincts to become, well, committers of atrocities.

When I read history, I don't read it as an innocent bystander. I read history as a perpetrator. And that's the right way to read history.

GLENN: We have a list of books to read as well. And it's quite long. But move this to the top of your list: 12 Rules For Life: An Antidote To Chaos.

Move this up on your list of things to do or watch. Jordan Peterson on YouTube. He is so well-spoken. So well-thought out. And a voice of common sense that you just don't hear very often anymore.

Dr. Peterson, thank you so much. Appreciate it. And we'll talk again. God bless.

JORDAN: Thanks very much for the invitation. It was good talking with you.

GLENN: Good talking to you. Jordan Peterson again. The name of the book, 12 Rules For Life.

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TPUSA Presents This is The Turning Point Tour LIVE with Glenn Beck at the University of North Dakota

In this poignant segment of Turning Point USA's American Comeback Tour live event, Glenn Beck honors the late Charlie Kirk by revealing his private plan to name Kirk as his successor in conservative media, emphasizing Kirk's unparalleled dedication and achievements. Blending themes of faith, history, and personal resilience, Beck shares life principles on forgiveness and truth while unveiling 'George AI,' a revolutionary tool for exploring American history through digitized artifacts and interactive conversations with Founding Fathers.

RADIO

Israel and Hamas sign Trump's historic deal. Will it work?

Israel and Hamas have signed phase 1 of President Trump’s peace deal, paving the path for the release of all remaining hostages, hopefully in a few days. Glenn and Stu explain the significance of this historic deal and what it could mean moving forward.

Transcript

Below is a rush transcript that may contain errors

GLENN: Oh. Your initial thoughts here on the peace deal?

STU: It's an incredible opportunity. I think it is important to remind ourselves, that this -- these things typically do fall apart. That is essentially your expectation, any time anything like this happens. Part of this is going to be Hamas coming through on promises.

I have very little belief that they are typically able to do such things.

That being said. They probably also -- you know, one of the things -- a friend of mine pointed this out to me. We were going through all of this.

And he said, you know, one thing to think about it: This is, like, not the B team of Hamas. But the R team of Hamas. They've killed so many of the leadership.

GLENN: Yeah, yeah.

STU: These are people making decisions that were not at the top of this organization and had those ridiculous ideological beliefs that would lead you to October 7th. That's not to mean that Hamas, these people that are left are like, "Hey, you want to invite them over for Thanksgiving."

But I do think there's a possibility here that they're like, you know, maybe this life is not here for us.

GLENN: That would be nice if that were true. I don't know if that were true. But it would be really thyself.

STU: I don't know if that's true. I do think there may be a little bit lower ideological commitment, potentially. And also, the idea that some of these people might be able to make this deal and escape to another third country.

GLENN: Yeah.

STU: And live life there, in a different way.

GLENN: So the breaking news that just was announced, Israel, their parliament or their cabinet just met or approved phase one of the deal.

And Hamas has just come out and said, they accept phase one of the deal.

That means the hostages will be released either this weekend or Monday.

Any remaining hostage will be released.

STU: I mean, just that.

GLENN: Just that.

STU: If that occurs, it is a massive achievement.

GLENN: Yes.

STU: So far, it is already the greatest opportunity we've had.

And only possible because of his detection to this idea!

GLENN: And his deal-making.

Not just his vision.

But his ability to work all of the parties and find out what all the parties need.

And make it happen.

You know, we're not talking about peace between Gaza, you know, Hamas, and Israel.

We're talking about peace in the Middle East.

STU: Yeah. It's bigger. It's bigger than just Israel.

GLENN: I mean, it's Egypt and Saudi Arabia and -- and Jordan to some extent. And -- and Turkey. All of them getting together and saying, you know what! We'll rebuild Gaza. We want to make it into a very prosperous kind of area. I mean, think of places in Saudi Arabia that are so prosperous. That's the way Gaza could be. So they're all getting together and they're saying, "We will rebuild. We'll oversee. We will try to make everything -- you know, keep everything held."

They will put their money into it, which means they have a lot to lose if it goes awry. And they're all saying, "We can co-exist with Israel."

Three years ago, did you even think that was possible?

STU: Yeah. And, you know, look, there are a lot of places you can go and find non-stop criticism of Donald Trump. They will say terrible things he does, and everything he does is the worst thing ever.

GLENN: Yeah.

STU: Also, there are plenty of places you can go where you find that everything that he does is the greatest thing of all time.

I hope you realize that's not what we do here. And I -- on a -- I said this -- and you said this as well when we -- when this was unveiled.

Sometimes, you can get -- people are critical of the way Trump handles these situations.
Sometimes. And sometimes there's arguments on that.
Sometimes it's not the best approach.

You know, we were critical of him, for example, how he handled Canada. You know, probably cost Poilievre that election. And I think that's a really bad thing.

GLENN: I do on top.

STU: That being said, this is a great example of where his instincts work perfectly. This is all set up over a long period of foundational stuff from his first term. With the decision he made, to come out and just announce the agreement with Netanyahu. We agreed. We agreed to this peace deal.

Now, in theory, we have no position to agree between these two parties. But he came out and all of the focus had been, look at all the bad things Israel is doing. Look at how bad, they're so evil. They're so bad.

And he said, we agree with Israel. Now we just need Hamas.

And so the world's attention was like, what's Hamas going to say?

Finally, he was able to focus his attention to the appropriate place. To the party that is holding the hostages, to say, hey. How about asking if they want to a freaking cease-fire for once?

He was able to do that. In a way that I think only Donald Trump could achieve. Which leads to this, over a long foundation.

GLENN: And here's another thing.

You know, this guy has walked through wall after wall after wall of fire. Everybody calling him everything. Nazi, every day.

Here's a guy who, you know, in a time period where the whole world is like, the Jews control everything. Donald Trump is run by the Jews.

He not only kept his relationship with Israel solid and helped them, when he thought they were right. But when they were wrong, in his view, he chastised them.

He knew how to do it. And still hold their respect.

And gained the respect of places like Qatar. And say, so Qatar. When he chastised Benjamin Netanyahu and Benjamin Netanyahu had to I think apologize to some degree about what they did in Qatar.

That's when the Middle East went, wait a minute.

He's not being controlled by the Jews! You know what I mean?

That should be a really big wake-up call to everybody who thinks that Donald Trump is just being controlled by the Jews.

No. No. No. He's not.

He does what he thinks is right. And he'll chastise both sides.

And he will support either side. When they're right, to get to a deal. That's good for everybody.

This deal could be amazing.

I don't have any -- and it's not because of this deal.

I happen to -- I read the end of the book. So I know how this ends.

This will not -- you know, this is not --

STU: You skipped ahead?

GLENN: I skipped ahead. I skipped ahead.

STU: Don't ruin anything.

Don't -- no spoiler alerts.

GLENN: I won't. No spoiler alerts.

Let's just say, this might last for a week. It might last for a thousand years. I don't know.

But we will be in this situation again. We all know that. We all know that. But let's take and celebrate peace while we can.

And the hostage is coming back. That is massive. Massive.

And due to Donald Trump.

Today, if you don't like Donald Trump, fine. Fine.

But how do you take this one apart?

Honestly, how do you not claim this is a massive victory, for the whole world?

STU: Well, I can tell you, that a lot of people on the left are rooting for it to collapse, which is a shockingly revealing moment. I mean --

GLENN: Wait. What?

STU: They are -- you know, they're not going to be out there like, we hope this collapse is.

But you know they hope it collapses.

They don't want to give Trump credit for it.

And they would rather have this continue. They would rather have this war go on.

Than admit that the reason it's ending is because Donald Trump was able to negotiate this deal.

That is central!

GLENN: I think anybody who has played politics with the Palestinian, you know, all that stuff. And all the stuff on the streets. That -- that has been a very effective tool for them. And so I would agree.

And they don't want that tool to be taken away.

STU: You think the Hamas wing of the party wants this? You think Rashida Tlaib is all thrilled about Donald Trump's efforts here. They will hear about Ilhan Omar -- how wonderful --

GLENN: Those are extremists.

STU: I mean that. This is a very revealing dividing line on the left. Right?

If there is anything that is ever going to happen, that Donald Trump can be given credit for. That you think this could be clear. John Fetterman. Fetterman has obviously pretty good on this issue. But Fetterman came out, gave a statement that should be basic. Basic. Like, hey, this is good. And I really hope it works. Donald Trump did a good job on this.

That's the type of stuff that should be obvious for everyone to be able to --

GLENN: That's what "Tip" O'Neill would have done. "Tip" O'Neill and Ronald Reagan, they got together. They disagreed. They fought hard, but they had dinner.

Yeah. Because "Tip" O'Neill could say, that was good. That was good. What he did was just good for all of us.

STU: That worked well. Good. I'm glad that happened. You should be glad that happened. We should all be rooting for the success here.

Even if what the -- you know, like, I rooted -- again, I have all sorts of criticisms the way Barack Obama dealt with the Middle East.

Yeah. Plenty of them. And we went over them over and over and over again.

And plenty of issues with specifically the way he went after Osama bin Laden. But on the day that it happened, really happy about.

Very happy that we were able to do it.

Now, look, it's our military that does it. They can say all this stuff too. They can say, oh, well, the real reason is. Blah, blah, blah.

But we can still be happy, that this occurred. And you can still be excited and give credit where credit is due.

GLENN: This is a win for all humankind. For humanity!

For life!

Stopping Hamas from torturing. You know, torturing kidnap victims.

Stopping the bloodshed that was happening because of the war on both sides.

That is a win. Having the possibility of a stable Middle East, at least for a while. That's a win!

That's a win all the way around. Everyone should be happy. I don't care if you like the president or not.

Everyone should be happy that mankind, put one on the chalkboard for all of mankind today.

This is a huge -- never seen -- this is on the good side. Never seen this one before. Didn't see this one coming.

I mean, we should all be able to say, wow!

And thank you. Because he's the -- I really, truly believe, when it comes to negotiating things like this, there is nobody better.

I mean, that's what he does for a living.

And he knows it. He knows how to read people. He knows how to it.

And this is evidence of it.

STU: And he will do things that are so out of the norm. That it resets everybody's thinking. You know, I mentioned --

GLENN: If he wouldn't have done that. If he wouldn't have done that, we wouldn't have all the Middle East signing on to a peace deal.

STU: I respect. What would they have done in a situation like Trump was with Netanyahu?

Their advisers would have said, "Look, this is great. You guys are together on this. Let's go to Hamas. We'll talk to them. We will see if we can get something done. We don't want to ruin it by announcing it publicly. There are times, where that tactic cannot work. But it worked really well here."

He forced them to basically say, "No, we don't want a cease-fire," or, "Okay. We'll go along with this."

And, by the way, you go down this list, there's a lot of stuff -- this is Hamas never, ever having control of this region ever again is built into this agreement. Now they've only talked about -- they're only on phase one here. So we don't know that we get all of this stuff. But like, there's a lot here that really improves the lives of Israelis, of --

GLENN: Palestinians.

STU: Arab Israelis in the region. You know, Palestinians. Other Arabs in the region.

GLENN: Saudi Arabia. Everybody.

STU: Yeah. Not to mention, just globally.

Right? This is a positive.

GLENN: Look what this does.

That's Turkey. So that separates Turkey from Syria, which is right in bed with -- with Iran.

I mean, think about how this box is. If you have the entire Middle East, now operating with Israel, and saying, we have a right to exist. Think about what that means, for this block, now to Iran. Iran doesn't mind being a pariah.

But now, everyone is officially saying, aisled do business with them.

STU: We will choose business over these guys.

That's a big statement in that world.

GLENN: That's a big deal. Big deal.

RADIO

Big investors buying gold: What does this mean for your dollar?

Gold has reached a record high price of over $4,000 an ounce. So, what does that mean for your dollar? Financial expert Carol Roth joins Glenn to explain why this news is so concerning and why many big investors have started to buy gold.

Transcript

Below is a rush transcript that may contain errors

GLENN: Well, Carol Roth, welcome to the program. How are you?

CAROL: I'm doing great, Glenn! I'm actually celebrating my 26th wedding anniversary today, so it's a blessed day.

GLENN: Oh, my gosh. Congratulations! Congratulations! It's weird. I'm coming up on my 26th on January.

CAROL: Oh, fabulous. Fabulous. It's a good amount of time to be married, yes.

GLENN: It is. It is. So, Carol. Let's talk about the price of gold hitting --

CAROL: It's over 4,000.

GLENN: Which is nuts. And I don't think people really understand. I don't think the average -- this is my guess, and I want you to correct me. I don't think the average person is buying gold. I think this gold-buying is happening from sovereign funds and central banks, mainly. Also, Asian markets. I don't think Americans really understand what $4,000 an ounce means. Can you explain it?

CAROL: Absolutely. I think the world both, investors and central banks are catching up to the things that you and I have been talking about for years. So, you know, we're ahead. We warned everyone. And now this is a little bit of catch-up. Interestingly, you know, as you noted, the average American is very behind in terms of what gold means.

When you look at Chinese households. When you look at Indian household. There are estimates that each one of those country's households owns up to 30,000 tons of gold at this point. Which to put that in context, the US government owns 8,133 times.

GLENN: So the Indian households, all of them combined, 27,000 tons.

CAROL: Right.

GLENN: What we say we have, is he 8100. Wow!

CAROL: So the households in China and India are really ahead of the curve. When you look at data for the US, it's a little bit hard to get good data. But from what I've seen, the estimates are only about ten to 11 percent of US households at all, have exposure to gold.

Now, I know that your audience is very sophisticated and is ahead of the curve. And I would imagine blows through that number. But just shows how sort of unprepared US households are in general.

GLENN: When you're looking at Indian and Chinese households that own gold. Does that include all the gold jewelry?

CAROL: Yes. Yes. That's actually, particularly in India. One of their preferred ways of procuring gold. Yeah.

GLENN: Okay. So gold has -- gold has shot up over $4,000 in record times. I mean, breathtaking time. What is causing that?

CAROL: Okay. So there are a confluence of factors, and I think the two most important factors, which, of course, are linked. Are what Wall Street is now calling the debt debasement trade. Which they're just caught up. And gave it a cute name.

And changing the global financial order. And they're very much linked.

GLENN: Yeah. Tell me, what is it? The debt debasement? What is that?

CAROL: They're doing the debt debasement trade, which is just basically what you and I have been talking about, which is our unsustainable fiscal position.

GLENN: All right.

CAROL: And what all of the money printing that we've seen over the past 17 years, what that has done to our purchasing power, and how that's going to catch up to us.

So as a reminder, our debt to GDP is at emerging market crisis levels. We were at 120 police levels of GDP.

We're running deficits equivalent to a war-time level. Or recession level, while we still have growth.

Which is crazy. We have interesting interest rate -- or interest payments that are outpacing defense spending.

So everyone is now finally catching on to the fact that this is an unsustainable financial position.

And it is going to be very difficult to get out of. Without there being some sort of additional debasement of our currency. Which is a fancy way of saying, a diminishment of your purchasing power.

What's really crazy. There's a chart that's been going around, and they did kind of a comparison of different asset classes. Price in US dollars, price in gold.

So if I look from the end of September 2018, out seven years, and you look at the top 100 NASDAQ nonfinancial companies. It's called the NDX. In US dollar terms, that is up 236 percent. So you think you're super rich, right?

But in gold terms, solid money that doesn't -- you know, that doesn't have its value debased. It's only up 4.7 percent.

GLENN: Oh, my gosh.

CAROL: Yeah. Of course. The S&P 500 up 133 percent over that period in dollar terms. It's down 27.6 percent in gold terms.

And what's called the Case-Shiller Home Price Index, which is the value of homes, the way that's measured. Dollar terms, 60 percent. Oh, houses. So expensive In gold terms, it's down 50 percent.

In fact, right now, it takes less gold in terms of ounces, to buy the median single-family house, than it has in decades and decades and decades.

So it goes to show, that even though we see these dollars. They're buying less and less. And now, you and I were talking about this forever.

But now Wall Street is catching on. Oh, that's not a great thing. And so in terms of preserving the hard-earned capital, we need something that is that -- that hedge. That mutual hedge that is going to retain its value.

And that's why more investors, institutional investors. Funny enough, a lot of millennials, more than anyone starting to really get in to gold.

GLENN: You know why? Because millennials have not been trained their whole life. Trust the system!

CAROL: Yes.

GLENN: And they see it clearly. And they look at it, and they're like, well, this doesn't make any sense at all. And they're going to spend this.

And they will wreck the dollar and everything else. They just see it without being trained over and over and over again. Like, trust the system. They don't trust the system.

And once you realize, the system is rigged in a million different ways. And the system is not telling you the truth.

I mean, that is amazing. When you look at the stock market. And you say, it's actually down, when you compare it in US dollars. To gold!

What's happening -- let me explain this to the audience. What all that means is: Gold is only going up in dollars. It's staying -- it's staying stable. But it's costing you more because of inflation. The dollars are buying less! So it looks like you're paying more, but you're really not. It looks like the stock market is going up, but it's really not! It's what it costs to get in with dollars. If you're going in with gold. You'll actually see that if it was all done in gold, the stock market is down. The price of housing is town.

It's the dollar. It takes more dollars to buy, than it does with gold, which holds its value.

That is -- if people could understand that one thing, that changes all the conversations of, the government has to do something to make housing more affordable. No, they don't. They have to stabilize the dollar. They have to stop spending so much money.

CAROL: Yeah, I mean, if you think of the three definitions of money, it is a medium of exchange. You know, how you helped to exchange goods.

It's a unit of account, which we say, things are priced in dollars, and it's supposed to be a store value. The unit of account, that you just talked about. My friend Steve Forbes has a great analogy, and he talks about other measurements.

You know, imagine that your clock, you know, one day, at 12 o'clock, you know, means midnight. And another day, 3 o'clock means midnight. Or 6 inches to measure a curtain one day. And then the same measurement is like a foot, a different day.

You can't have -- a consistent measurement if the unit of account continues to change. And that's what we've been seeing here with the dollar. And unfortunately, it has not been to our favor.

Which means, that when you work really hard to earn something and it's valued in a dollar, that over time, that -- that work that you put out, your productivity is worth less and less.

And so what gold is meant to do. It's meant to be Capitol preservation. It's not a risk asset. It's not meant to take on risk. And maybe go up a ton. And maybe go down a ton. It's really meant to be a counterbalance to what you have earned. So that you can preserve your purchasing power.

GLENN: You know, I've been saying this for a long time. That you put your money. And I have money in the stock market. You put the money in the stock market.

If things really go awry, go ahead. You're going to cash out for an awful lot of money. But those dollars. It will be paid back to you in dollars.

Those dollars will be worth less, even though there's more of them stacked up, than that ounce of gold, or, you know, that 10 ounces of gold, or whatever you had!

The stock market is paid in dollars. And so as the inflation goes up.

But gold keeps its value!

Keeps its value and hold it steady.

So, yeah. You will be paying more in dollars if you try to sell your gold. But that will continue to increase while stock markets will go down. Am I right?

CAROL: It's a counterbalance. So if things were to shift, and for some reason, you know, things were to change with the dollars, which we would need a lot of different catalysts. Then your gold goes down. It's a counterbalance, which is why it's important to have that diversification in your portfolio. And to have the gold hedge.

What's interesting, Glenn. Just the history, we're talking about millennials.

You know, they went through the great recession. Financial crisis.

They're kind of keyed into this. But if you think about when we came out of the '70s with this crazy inflation. We came out of the gold standard. It used to be very commonplace for a financial adviser to sit down and say, okay.

We've been through this. And so you should be putting, you know, five to 10 percent of your portfolio in gold. As the stock market took off in dollars. And became this big thing.

And they started seeking fees. That went away. Financial advisers, who don't get paid sometimes at all, when you allocate to gold. Stop recommending it.

GLENN: Yep.

CAROL: And now we're seeing a shift back, now we're seeing, you know, oh, yes. You should have some. Some of the big names out there saying, even more.

GLENN: Ray Dalio just came out and said, 15 percent.

CAROL: Yes, we've seen big names like that, anywhere from ten to 20.

And when they surveyed high net worth investors, which are $250,000 in assets or more, they're averaging right now, 21 percent of their holdings in gold.

So it's a very big flip in recent years, on how this is being viewed bit people who have accumulated those dollars and are worried about them.

GLENN: Okay. So let me just summarize here before we move on. On to some other questions.

That is exactly what my grandfather who lived through the great depression said. What are the people with big large amounts of money doing?

I want to do that. And if I did do that. I would be better off in the great depression.

You just heard it, 20 percent or more, right?

From big dollars.

They're investing in gold. 20 percent!

You should -- you should have some!

CAROL: And it's interesting. Some of the portfolios we're seeing is coming from not only the equity peace, but from the fixed-income peace, which is pretty interesting too.

GLENN: Amazing.

TV

Unmasking Antifa: The Dark Truth Behind Its Well-Funded Network | Glenn TV | Ep 461

The cities of Portland and Chicago are turning into war zones. Federal agents have been ambushed, police have been ordered to stand down, and mayors are defying the Constitution. It’s insurrection in plain sight. Glenn Beck heads to the chalkboard to uncover the hidden support and funding networks propping up Antifa. Glenn debunks the myth that Antifa is decentralized and leaderless, tracing connections from Soros to Tides and other shadowy nonprofits. Plus, independent journalist Nick Sortor joins from outside an ICE facility in Portland, where he was wrongfully arrested by police following attacks by Antifa members.