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TERMS OF USE | PRIVACY POLICY

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Glenn's Show Prep

BLOGFebruary 08, 2018

‘Social Media Doesn’t Reward That’: Why Can’t Conservatives, Liberals Listen to Each Other?

How do we heal division in our country when we can’t even have conversations?

“I really feel one of the biggest problems is nobody’s listening at all,” Glenn said on today’s show while sitting down with Eric Liu. “Nobody feels heard right now.”

Liu, founder and CEO of Citizen University, leans liberal in his political views but has the same passion for bringing people together. He pointed out that we’ll have to be better than our political leaders if we want to reach across the aisle. We’re learning terrible habits from our political leaders and the way social media encourages extreme views.

“That’s a set of habits that nobody’s modeling for us in national politics,” Liu said. “Nothing in our daily lives rewards that. Social media doesn’t reward that.”

Listen to their full conversation on today’s show here:

This article provided courtesy of TheBlaze.

GLENN: So much to the, I think, chagrin of my friends and chagrin of his friends, we are friends, Eric Liu. He is the founder and CEO Of Citizen University. Also, the executive director of the Aspen Institute. Citizenship and American Identity Program.

He's -- he's from Seattle. I don't think I need to say anything else. He's from Seattle.

(laughter)

GLENN: So we don't necessarily agree on everything. But we have become friends because we both are trying to find sane ways to have conversations with each other and other people. Or we're doomed. We're doomed.

Welcome. How are you?

ERIC: Glenn, it's great to be back. It's great to see you.

GLENN: How is Seattle?

ERIC: It's beautiful. It's thriving. It's booming. You know, you grew up in the area.

GLENN: I know. I love it. I love it. I love it.

I don't think I would be welcomed there anymore. I don't think I was welcomed there ten years ago, let alone today.

ERIC: Well, we'll follow-up and bring you back together, and we'll do something in Seattle.

GLENN: Yeah, good. I would love to.

So would you agree with me that both sides, to one degree or another, have become unhinged on the extreme edges?

ERIC: Yeah. I think our politics today, and especially if you spend more than ten minutes on social media, it is about voices on the unhinged extremes.

GLENN: Yeah.

ERIC: And it's about this pattern that plays out over and over, where each extreme has to gin it up in order to feed the rage and the anger about the other side's extreme.

GLENN: Yeah.

ERIC: You know, that is our politics as it's mediated, you know, especially through social media. But I think -- you were talking about this before we went on-air. There is a broad swath of, you know, sane people. You know, interested bystanders. People who aren't super active in politics, super active in commenting on politics, who just want to understand each other, and who just want to fix stuff.

GLENN: Yeah.

ERIC: And some of them are as progressive as I am. And some of them are as Libertarian as you are. And many of them are all points in between. But they're not interested in the game-playing and the posturing that so much of national politics is about today.

GLENN: Yeah. I mean, I -- we're making everything about politics now. Absolutely everything is about politics.

And we're not going to survive. That's nuts.

The story today came out on sports -- sports illustrated. They just did a swimsuit issue, that doesn't have any swimsuits. All of the women are completely naked. And they're beautiful women. One is lying down naked, face up with the word "truth" painted on her rib cage. Another one is naked with "feminist" emblazoned on her arm. The other is the daughter of Christie Brinkley that is staring at the camera, laying on her side with the word "progress" written across her back. And they've put this -- this is -- I don't understand this. This is Sports Illustrated, a magazine for men, trying to say, see, we shouldn't objectify women. I don't understand that.

ERIC: Yeah. There's a lot that is great fundamentally about the Me Too movement and the fact that our society is waking up to shifting norms on what's okay when it comes to actually treating women with respect.

GLENN: I agree. I agree. I agree. Yes.

ERIC: But I do not look to Sports Illustrated as my moral guide on the objectification of women. Okay?

GLENN: How do we find a way -- and tell me what your feelings are on the people that, you know, on the -- on the dangers -- even Margaret at wood brought this up, the dangers of just these kangaroo courts, who are not even a kangaroo court. Just, you're guilty, and you're done if anybody accuses you.

ERIC: The danger is there. But I think actually as a society, we're navigate it right now. I mean, this is somewhat uncharted. Right? It's not like the society has tried before to have deep equity between men and women, on what -- who gets to harass whom. We've never done that before. We're having a society-wide reckoning.

Are there going to be cases where people abuse that -- the power that comes with that?

Sure. But are our institutions and are the leaders in our institutions fundamentally trying to reckon with that in good-faith? I actually think we are.

And even this kind of absurd Sports Illustrated cover is a sign that -- you know, one thing you can say about Sports Illustrated is they're trying to tune into the zeitgeist. They are aware of the market place, right? And they know the zeitgeist is, you got to be on the right side of the speech. Right?

GLENN: Yeah. Right. Right.

But if I did photos of naked women and put #metoo, I don't think I would get the pass that --

ERIC: Well, exactly.

GLENN: -- from either side, in my case. From either side.

STU: Yeah.

ERIC: The question is one of -- you know, in the law, they talk about standing. Do you have standing to make a case? Right?

During the Super Bowl, we all watched the ads and stuff. I didn't think Dodge Ram trucks had the moral standing to use an MLK speech about the dangers of commercialism to sell trucks. To me, that was -- and to lots of Americans, that was, you know what, message and messenger not aligned here.

GLENN: You mean the MLK message?

ERIC: Yeah. Yeah.

GLENN: So the MLK message -- may I present an opposite point of view. That's a sermon that most Americans have not heard, was really good. I agree with you that the images of the truck coming in, halfway in. You're like, okay. That's really -- you don't need that.

Just a simple Dodge at the end would have been perfect.

ERIC: Yeah. Yes. Would have been great.

GLENN: However, I have had more email on a monologue that I did on forgiveness, and I used that sermon the very next day. I've had more email on that from people who woke up. So, I mean, you can't necessarily reject it as universally bad that they did it. Because it did affect people.

ERIC: Well, look, I mean, Sports Illustrated was trying to do something like the right thing. But the equivalent would have been, had they had a cover -- if they said, this year's swimsuit issue, here's what it looks like. And it was a black cover that just said, we're taking some responsibility for feeding this culture in which women are treated like objects and which men feel they have permission to treat women like objects. We own a piece of that.

GLENN: And it would be the lowest selling Sports Illustrated.

STU: But that would be a powerful statement. Writing it on naked women's bodies doesn't seem quite as --

ERIC: It would be low-selling as a swimsuit issue. But the whole country would be talking about it. Would be talking about Sports Illustrated.

GLENN: Yeah, that's true. That's true.

So who have you found, Eric, I have been looking for a while, people like you, that we don't necessarily agree, but we can have really good conversations. And we can move things forward together.

ERIC: Uh-huh.

GLENN: Who have you found on the -- on the left or in the media that is really willing to do that?

ERIC: Hmm. You know, and I'm not sure if she's been a guest on your show, but my friend Neera Tanden --

GLENN: Nope.

ERIC: -- who runs the Center for American Progress.

Big, big progressive think tank, that I know you cross swords with. Right? But Neera is both able and willing to have conversations with anybody. And to have them in ways that aren't just the made for TV food fight, that are really trying to say, what's your deal? Right.

What are you getting at here?

GLENN: I really feel one of the biggest problems is nobody is listening at all.

ERIC: Yeah.

GLENN: Nobody feels heard right now.

Somehow or another, the left still controls most of the media. Doesn't feel heard. And the right now that they control the House and the Senate, they don't feel heard. And it's because nobody is -- nobody is actually -- I guess emoting what the average person is feeling right now. You know, we're all scared. It's amazing. I saw a YouTube video of a liberal talking about how afraid she was that Donald Trump was going to build concentration camps. And it was in a room -- probably had 1,000 people in it. And they were all like, yeah, yeah. And I remember, I debunked the lie about Obama making concentration camps. Because that was a big deal.

STU: A big conspiracy theory at the time.

GLENN: Big conspiracy. I was called a conspiracy theorist for debunking that conspiracy theory. And now the other side is feeling the same kind of fear that so many Americans did when they didn't trust the president. And I think this is a moment where we can wake up and say, see, this is why the president should never have this much power. The president should not be able to affect our lives, to the point to where we're afraid of him.

STU: Yeah.

ERIC: I actually agree with that. I think there's one lesson that people on the left are learning today, and that is the dangers of this imperial presidency. Right?

Which is not a Trump phenomenon or even an Obama phenomenon. It's been going back half a century at least, right?

GLENN: Been going for a long time, yeah, yeah.

ERIC: At least since World War II. Right? Concentration, power in the executive, right?

GLENN: Yeah.

ERIC: But I think you're -- I want to go back to something you were saying about listening and being heard, right?

We live in this time right now where there is -- and we've talked about this. There's so much pain. There's so much pain.

The segment you were doing right before the break, in which you were just speaking to a human, an individual about the pain they were feeling in their journey. And you were tying it to the pain that you have felt at various points in your journey, right?

That kind of conversation which is both about listening -- but it's about, I'm not just listening to the words you're saying and the points you're making. I'm trying to listen underneath, to the emotional currents there. That's a set of habits that nobody is modeling for us in national politics. And that we as citizens, frankly, it's gotten easier for us to shed those habits. Because nothing in our daily lives rewards that, right? Social media doesn't reward that.

GLENN: The media doesn't reward --

ERIC: The media doesn't reward that.

So we've actually got to build experiences where we see each other face-to-face again. You know, if we were having this conversation by phone, this would be different. But I'm looking you in the eye right now, Glenn. And I'm looking at you as you've spoken about these questions. And there's a human connection here. That I can't now just call you a nutjob and call you a this and call you a that. Like, we've connected on some level, right? It doesn't mean we're going to agree on the issues.

But it means I'm not going to demonize. And I think the deepest ill in our politics is how we've forgotten how to rehumanize each other.

GLENN: That's -- I just wrote a member of the press morning, a private conversation, that dealt with that. I said, we are -- we are calling each other subhumans, exactly the way the early, you know, 1920s Nazis were starting to. Train people that you're subhuman. If you don't agree with me, you're subhuman. And we're training each other that way.

But it doesn't -- social media is not the only one that doesn't reward it. Media doesn't reward it either. I mean, if you're not going to call somebody a nutjob or a Nazi. You don't win. And they don't put you on. And you, Stu -- was it you yesterday that said that you had seen somebody say, no, well, on the surface, this means X and X. And the guy was like, no. But that's -- can you tell the story?

STU: Yeah. It was an interview about some controversial comment that had gone on media. And they had brought someone on to kind of answer for it. And the typical kind of cable news back and forth. And that's essentially, when the person was pushing back against it. To say, yeah, but you got to admit on the service, it's an insult.

It's like, well, isn't the point here as human beings, that we go beyond the surface, that we think a little deeper about these things?

Because we can all get frustrated at the surface of it. We can all find the worst possible intent of a comment and turn it into something that is going to enrage our side. But that shouldn't be our goal.

GLENN: So, Eric, how do we do that?

ERIC: Well, it starts with something I actually want to give you guys credit for, which is, you got to put something at risk. Right?

When you started a couple years ago saying, I own my piece of how our politics and our political culture have gotten toxic. And I've decided I want to be part of the solution. I want to start reaching out and having conversations across certain divides, right? You put a bunch of stuff at risk.

You feel it acutely, right? You feel it every day. You put -- I don't have to name it. Right? It's not just about the business side of things and the listeners and the sponsors or whatever. I'm talking about reputational power and so forth, right? You put stuff at risk.

And I often ask myself and I ask my friends who are left of center, what are we willing to put at risk in order to change this politics? In order to go a little deeper, beyond the surface and beyond just this throwing of flames at each other? Right.

So number one, it's being willing -- and I want to name the fact that you all have started something and set in motion a different cycle of responsibility, taking rather than responsibility shirking with, right?

GLENN: Thank you.

ERIC: There is only one way to break the cycle of dehumanization and responsibility shirking, and that is to break it.

GLENN: Yeah.

ERIC: That is to say, you know what, I didn't start it. I'm not the one to blame. But darn it, I'm actually just going to say, I'm stopping right now, and I'm trying to change direction here. Go a little deeper. And rehumanize. And, yeah, I may pay some price for that. But this is a question of purpose.

STU: One of -- a famous poet said, we didn't start the fire.

GLENN: It was Billy Joel. Stop it.

ERIC: A poet. Yes, indeed.

(laughter)

GLENN: So what do your friends say to you, when you say, what are we willing to lose? What chip are we willing to put up?

ERIC: Let me tell you about something we've been doing at Citizen University. For the last year plus now, a year and a quarter, we've been doing these regular gatherings that we call civic Saturday. And these are basically a civic analogue to church. It's not church. It's not synagogue or mosque. But it's about American civic religion. Right? The stuff that you and I, civic nerds, are steeped in. Right? Understanding the language and the texts and what you might think of as civic scripture, whether that's from the declaration of the preamble or King speeches or Susan B. Anthony or whatever it might be, and understanding that we have all inherited this body of values and text and idea. And we do these gatherings with the Ark of the Faith gathering.

We sing together. You turn to the stranger next to you. You talk about a common question. There are readings of these texts.

There's a sermon that I've been giving. And then afterwards, there's more song. And then there's an hour afterwards where people kind of form up in circles and talk about, what are we going to do together? Right?

And I go to length to tell you about this, because number one, it's been amazing how people have responded to this. There is this need, across the left and the right, whether you are traditionally religious or not, there is this need in our political life for a space where we can come together and rehumanize, right?

Number one. Number two, when in that space, I've said to folks in these sermons what I've said here, which is, we've got to be willing to take risks. We've got to be willing to ask ourselves, what are we willing to put on the line?

And people are -- people sit there for a minute because they haven't been asked/challenged to do that in a long time, right? All of our political leadership is about, let me indulge you. Let me indulge your worst instincts. Let me indulge you. Not what can you do? And maybe even give up a little bit, in order to start solving the problem, right? And that leads to different kinds of conversations.

And, frankly, not all of them are about Trump or national politics. A lot of these conversations then come to life in our city, which is changing dramatically right now.

GLENN: That's what it should come down to in the first place.

ERIC: Yeah.

GLENN: Eric, we're going to continue our conversation at 5 o'clock tonight on the Glenn Beck Program. He has written a book, You're More Powerful than You Think. His name is Eric Liu. And we'll have more tonight at 5 o'clock. Make sure you join us on TheBlaze.com/TV.

The dangerous truth behind Minneapolis Mayor's Somali speechplay icon
RADIO

The dangerous truth behind Minneapolis Mayor's Somali speech

Minneapolis mayor Jacob Frey recently kowtowed to Somali immigrants, even speaking Somali in a speech, amid a fraud scandal. But his decision to do so doesn't just appear to put Somalis before American taxpayers. Glenn Beck explains the dangerous secret it reveals about how the Democratic Party really views immigrants...

Transcript

Below is a rush transcript that may contain errors

GLENN: I've been talking about not making enemies, but speaking the truth.

That's the important part. Speak the truth.

Because I have now in my life, and you do too. I have evidence now, I've always -- I've always felt God existed. I feel like I know him.

I -- I have accepted him into my life. I have asked for forgiveness. And asked for salvation. I've received it.

I feel these things. And I have personal witnesses of a testimony to say, he exists. But for the very first time, we all have, as a collective, evidence that not only does he exist, he is involved in the affairs of man.

And the first one, that we all can agree on, is the assassination attempt on Donald Trump.

That was an act of God. I'm sorry. But it was.

There was no way. There is no way, that was an act of God. God inserting himself in the affairs of men.

Because he's not neutral on things. That doesn't mean he's a Donald Trump guy, or a MAGA supporter.

It means, he will use things, you know, whether we like it or not, he will use things to further his agenda.

And that's not a political agenda. I also feel that it was a miracle. And this gets a little more sketchy. But I think it was a miracle in retrospect, what happened in 2020. Because we wouldn't have the president that we had today, if he had been elected in 2020. The other miracle is what we saw after Charlie Kirk. So why we don't put more faith into God. We're not alone.

We're seeing, he's showing up for the first time.

And we don't need to have these big arguments on big esoteric things.

We -- you know what, we just need people -- here's one. Let's agree that we should arrest people, that break the law.

Whether they're the president, or an illegal alien that has nothing.

You break the law. You pay the price!

Why -- how is it we can't agree on this. I don't know. Did you hear the Minneapolis mayor on this fraud? This taxpayer fraud?

We're talks about a billion dollars in fraud. Okay?

Your tax dollars going to Somalia, and going to some of it, Al-Shabaab, one of the worst terrorist organizations in the world. Your tax dollars, in fraud.

And here's the Minneapolis mayor. Play cut one please. Listen to this.

VOICE: Good afternoon, my name is Jacob Fry. I'm the mayor of Minneapolis. And we are here to respond to a number of credible reports from several media outlets relaying that there are as many as 100 federal agents, that will be deployed to the Twin Cities with a specific focus, targeting our Somali community.

To our Somali community, we love you. And we stand with you. That commitment is rock solid.

Minneapolis is proud to be home to the largest Somali community in the entire country.

They've been here for decades, in many instances.

They're entrepreneurs, and fathers. They benefit both the culture and the economic --

GLENN: Is anybody arguing with this?

Is anybody arguing with the Somali community?

They are not coming in to target the Somali community. They are coming in to target the fraud that is happening in the Somali community. See, he immediately jumps to race.

Because that's what that means. Once you tart talking about a collective. They're coming after the Somali community. You know you're into racism. You're into some ism, okay?

That's very reminiscent of Hitler. Because that's what he did, and everybody is the same. Only the certain German elites. Only the certain Germans with blue eyes and blond hair. Well, except for the Hitler leader, can rule the world. Okay?

That's racism. When you're saying, they're coming after the Somali community, what you're saying is, oh, well, they're racists coming in. But what he's actually saying is, look, we -- we're lumping every Somali in our community as clean!

Well, no. No. You can't say that. That's racism.

Just like I can't say, every Somali is dirty. You send in teams of professionals to find out, who is involved in this.

And I don't care if they're Somali or they're the governor, if they broke the law, they need to go to jail.

But let me tell you what's actually happening here. What's actually happening here, is 100 percent all about politics.

If he doesn't protect or appear to be on the side of the Somali community. If he doesn't make -- if he allows Feds to come in and mess with the Somali community, even the lawbreakers, he feels he can't win.

If you don't have the Somali community in many Minneapolis, you're not going to win.

Now, how un-American of me to say that.

Well, it's funny. Because he speaks about how un-American it is for Donald Trump to come in and send people into the community. To fight crime. How un-American.

Play what is it? Cut 42?

VOICE: That's not American. That's not what we are about. We're going to do right by every single person in our cities.

And to our Somali community (foreign language).

STU: Oh, my God. At least practice it in the mirror first.

GLENN: That's like me doing it.

That's like me speaking English. I mean, that is just -- that's embarrassing. That's embarrassing.

I mean -- and to follow that. Or to proceed that with, that's just un-American!

We're going to support every member of our community. That's un-American.

And so to our Somali community, you mean the American community? That has been here for decades?

Why are you speaking Somalian to them?

Why? Have they not melted in? No. Because we're a salad bowl. We're not a salad bowl.

You want a salad bowl, go over to Europe. And you'll have that delicious salad, that will not satiate any kind of hunger, ever!

We're a melting pot. Which would imply that you speak English, especially when you say, you know, everybody here, they're great Americans. They're great Americans.

Great. So let me say in English, because I know you're learning English, oh, you're not learning English. Oh, okay.

Well, that -- oh, that's right. We're a salad bowl. That's un-American. That's un-American.

I want -- somebody said to me the other day, you know, Glenn why -- why -- why -- why don't people understand immigration?

And I said, what do you mean by that? Well, you know, people want immigration, and they don't want people coming in. And they're saying they're for immigration.

Wait a minute. Hang on just a second. Everyone I know, that I think is reasonable, everyone that I know, they love immigrants. They love immigrants.

The immigrants that come over and they're like, thank God I'm here. I got here as fast as I could. I mean, I'm a citizen. And they light up when they say they're a citizen. They'll talk about our Founders. They've -- and they'll speak English.

They want to be citizens. Because they know what freedom actually means. Okay?

I want those -- I want those people in every day. I would love to have Somali citizens here, that realize what they escaped.

And realize, wow. That was a really bad scene. I'm glad I'm out of that. And I'm here.

Because I have the opportunity to be me.
I don't want the ones that were here, that are just trying to re-create Somalia. Go to Somalia. What! Why are you here?

Hang on -- you moved from Somalia so you could create another Somalia, except with loads of snow? I mean, help me out with that one.

STU: That was the problem with Somalia. Too warm. That was the big one.

GLENN: Too warm. Too warm. Not --

STU: Just everything else about it was great.

GLENN: Not just endless mountains of snow for months on end. I mean, come on. Come on.

STU: It's so strange.

You know, the -- the instinct behind a politician to think that the right thing to do is to come out, in the most awkward way possible and fumble your way through the language of a few of the residents of your city.

Like, what -- it's so pathetic, the pandering is just awful. And, you know, look, no one cares. I'm sure there's plenty of people in the Somali community that are entrepreneurs. And I'm sure they're doing a great job. And for the people that came here legally and are doing a great job, great. Those are not the people being charged with these crimes. Those are not the people who are defrauding autism programs to bilk the state out of millions and up to a billion dollars. That should be going to kids who actually have autism. Right?

GLENN: How about food?

STU: Food. Housing.

GLENN: How about food?

STU: Basic human needs, these programs that obviously, shouldn't exist to the levels that they do. As they're being manipulated this way.

If they're going to exist, they should be going to people who need the help.

People that might exist.

GLENN: And you know who is really hurt?

You know who really this mayor and this kind of philosophy hurts?

The Somali that wanted to come here, because they knew what America was.

What's happening is, they are allowing this growth of crime, corruption. You'll have warlords. You'll have Sharia law.

You'll have all of it.

The Somalis that came here for a new life, that wanted to escape all that, they're being forced right back into it by the politicians they thought represented the United States of America and our Constitution. And our rule of law!

Instead, they're speaking Somalian. Somalis. Somali -- instead, they're speaking that language, and -- and the Somali that came here for a better life has got to be like, what the hell? What? You've got to be kidding me! You're going to create what we just left!

It's sick. It's really sick.

And dare I say, un-American.

The peril of rewriting history: Hitler's villainy cannot be redeemedplay icon
RADIO

The peril of rewriting history: Hitler's villainy cannot be redeemed

Attempts to recast Hitler as a misunderstood figure and paint Churchill as the true villain are spreading again... and the historical consequences of that distortion are dangerous. The reality is that Hitler sought domination, not coexistence; prepared for war long before Britain acted; and pursued a worldview fundamentally incompatible with Western civilization. Revisiting these facts matters now more than ever, as modern ideological confusion threatens to blur the line between tyranny and freedom. This is a sober reminder that history’s villains are clearly identified, and the record proves it.

Transcript

Below is a rush transcript that may contain errors

GLENN: I saw an interview yesterday, talks about Hitler again. Trying to make Hitler into the good guy.

And Winston Churchill into the bad guy.

I just don't get it. I really don't get it.

History. Really history is not a choose your own adventure kind of thing. It's ink on paper.
Orders in filing cabinets. Telegrams, diaries. Bodies.

It's what actually happened, not what we hope happened.

So let me just set the record straight on something, again, that is circulating. And it just -- somebody just has to calmly just say, what the truth is.

The thing is now that -- that Hitler had no intention toward the West.

That Britain didn't have to enter the war. That Winston Churchill. Not Adolf Hitler is the villain, who dragged the world into conflict.

Oh, my God. Let me just say this calmly, factually, and finally. Germany's plans for Poland were not reactive.

They were premeditated. The argument says that Britain roped the West into war by promising to defend Poland. No. Germany had already prepared to destroy Poland long before Neville Chamberlain ever made a pledge. How do I know this? Because in my history valuate, I have one of the clearest pieces of proof. It's called fall vice.

It's Hitler's operational blueprint for the invasion of Poland, drafted in 1938, a year before Chamberlain said, we're going to guarantee their safety.

So Poland was not a spontaneous reaction. Hitler was a liar. I know that's hard to get your arms around. But Hitler was a liar.

It was not about German minorities. It was not about self-determination. It was about conquest.

A step in Hitler's explicitly stated road map. Austria. Czechoslovakia. Poland. Then the east.

Britain didn't pull Germany into war. Germany was already marching toward war. Global war.

The second thing that has to be said, clearly. Hitler didn't have designs on Britain and the West.

Really?

Well, Hitler wanted peace with Britain. Because we have the paper trail again.

No, no, no. He wanted peace. He had no western ambitions.

Well, how do you explain Operation Sea Lion?

Hitler's detailed plan to invade and occupy Great Britain. You don't draw amphibious landing schedules across the English Channel, just in case.

And before that, Hitler deployed a different strategy. Diplomacy, and subterfuge. In May 1941, the deputy furor Rudolf Hess, that's a name, flew solo into Scotland, hoping to secure a deal with sympathetic elements with Great Britain. He parachuted down. He claimed he was carrying an offer: Let Hitler dominate Europe, and Germany would leave Britain alone.

Well, that sounds really peaceful, unless you forget what Hitler meant by dominance. He meant dismantling sovereign nations, annihilating the Jews, the Slavs, the -- the -- the gypsies. Any political opponent. Millions of human beings. Just eliminate them.

It -- in what world? In what world could a democratic nation be friends with that?

Britain had internal Nazi sympathizers. And Hitler counted on them.

Hess wasn't flying blind. Hitler believed Britain was divided, and he was right. You know why he was right?

Again, in my vault, I have it from Hitler's own schedule that was on his assistant's desk, the whole time!

Now you have the name and the time that he arrived. Former king Edward. He abdicated in 36. He had clear documented sympathies for the Nazi regime. He met Hitler in '37. I know! I have the documents!

He was courted as a possible puppet monarch. He said, reinstall me, and you can do what you want. I'll help you.

The Nazi files recovered after the war, showed explicit German plans to reinstall him, after an occupation. Hitler was not avoiding conflict with Britain. He was planning a subversion.

Well, yeah. But Hitler's ideology. You know, made friendship with the West possible. What? What?

Even if you pretend not to see the invasion plans and the Hess mission. And the internal sympathizers. Even if you erase every map, every memo, every military order, Hitler's ideology made an alliance with the Western democracies absolutely impossible. And I'm going to get to Stalin here any a second. But hear me. Hear me on this.

Hitler believed that the state was supreme. That the German people existed for the Reich.

In America, the Constitution is supreme!

And it exists to limit the states. Rights come from the fewer or and the government in Germany.

In America, rights come from God. And the government is the servant, not the master.

The individual in Germany, spendable. The West is built on the sanctity at this time of the individual.

Racial hierarchy, is destiny in Germany. The West at its best, rejects racial supremacy.

The Declaration starts with all men are created equal. Not some races are destined to rule.

Nowhere in our document does it say, the state must expand endlessly. That's not compatible with anything. Anything.

You cannot align with a regime whose foundational premise is that human dignity is a myth.

Well, well, the West chose Stalin. Because we thought he was better.

No. We chose survival. People are arguing now that the allies should have sided with Hitler instead of Stalin. No rational reading of history supports any of that.

Hitler and Stalin were both monstrous. Monstrous.

And the RIPA PAC proved that they were natural partners in evil, carving up Poland like a holiday roast, okay?

But here's the brutal truth: Once Hitler launched Operation Barbarossa, is that -- was that what it's called, Stu, you know? Barbarossa, right?

STU: Barbarossa.

GLENN: Barbarossa. When they turned to Russia. The question for us was no longer, hey, which dictator was better?

The question was, which outcome prevents Hitler from ruling all of Europe?

Because if Hitler defeated the Soviet Union, the resources of the east. All the oil. All the grain. All the industry. All the manpower, would have made the Third Reich unstoppable. So the choice was between two horrors. Which one?

Or do you want to stay out, and let them have all of that power. Well, yeah. Nowhere -- he's.

Only one Hitler had a trajectory of global domination at that time. Also, racial extermination.

And total state worship, that could not coexist with Western civilization.

We knew at the time, Stalin was just as bad. We knew we were going to be in war with Stalin at some point. And you know who really knew that?
Winston Churchill? He was the one saying, we can't have this guy as an ally. Britain did not drag the world into war.

Hitler did. And so let's go back to the central point. Churchill did not force a war. Chamberlain didn't conjure up a conflict out of thin air. The West didn't provoke Hitler. Hitler provoked history. He's the one who built the camps. And if you want to say you don't believe in the camps, God help us all.

He's the one who wrote Mein Kampf. He's the one armed in secret. He invaded without cause. He sought domination, not coexistence. To suggest otherwise, I mean, what is your intent, to rehabilitate him?

Hitler?

I mean, you're repeating the arguments Hitler made to excuse his aggression.

This is not about defending Churchill, who I think is a hero. But it's about defending the record, the truth. So in our moment of confusion and upheaval and ideological extremism, we don't lose our footing on the bedrock of fact.

This is the dangerous door we must not reopen. When we begin to question whether the West should have resisted Hitler, where are we going?

Would we entertain the idea that freedom and tyranny could have co-existed?

You're not just rearranging interpretations. You're reopening a door millions died to close.

History is not there to flatter us. Did the United States do bad things in World War II? Yeah. Did England? Yeah. Were we perfect?

No. Did we do the best we could?

Yes!

You know, sometimes -- sometimes your only choice is between bad and worse!

You cannot allow somebody like Hitler just to continue to grow and grow and grow and gobble the resources. And then take over the Soviet Union.

And then what? Have all of those resources to take the rest of the world?

My God!

It's so -- hmm. Sorry. I want to just keep this about facts. History is there to warn us.

And the warning is really, really simple.

Be very careful when someone tells you the villain wasn't really the villain.

Whoa, unto him, who makes evil good and good evil.

We know who the villains were. The documentation is very clear.

Trust me, I have a vault full of it.

You want to see it?

Come. Otherwise, you're just full of it!

When you have somebody telling you the villain is not the villain, that story never ends well. Fix reason firmly in her seat.

THIS could COLLAPSE every major civilization at the SAME TIMEplay icon
RADIO

THIS could COLLAPSE every major civilization at the SAME TIME

The United States, Europe, and China are all preparing for a coming global reset. Throughout history, civilizations have risen and fallen according to the same cycle of prosperity and debt. But never before has EVERY major civilization been on the verge of collapse at the same time. Glenn Beck breaks it all down.

Transcript

Below is a rush transcript that may contain errors

GLENN: Because for the very first time in world history. There's something new that has happened. The entire globe is riding the same wheel at the same time.

Okay? We're all in this debt cycle. And this has never happened before.

The cycle always begins the same way. The first step in this at the time cycle is discipline.

Discipline equals prosperity. Okay.

It goes right into prosperity. And every great empire starts with discipline. Rome did, you know, rebuilding after all the wars, strict budgets. Every great empire starts with discipline. Rome did. You know, rebuilding after all the wars. The strict budgets. Silver coinage. Land reforms. It helped restore, you know, the battered middle class. The Dutch Republic did the same thing: They invented modern finance, turning the swamp into the world's largest trade hub. Then the British empire did it after the glorious revolution. It brought fiscal stability and a gold-back pound, that the world trusted for over 200 years.

When that fell, America did it. After World War II, our debts were manageable, our currency was solid, backed by gold, productivity was unmatched, and we prospered. That is stage one. Discipline into prosperity. And prosperity if not darted, always leads to the second stage. Complacency into excess, okay? So excess creates this fatal illusion. The moment, you know, where we all look at each other, and go, this is great. It's going to be like this forever. It was always like this. It will always be like that.

Rome began borrowing heavily to pay for endless bread and circuses. France, funded the palaces and the pensions and the perpetual wars, through loans it could never repay.

Britain, in the late 19th century, took its global empire for granted, and levered -- levered itself into World War I.

Then came World War II. And then America beginning in the 1970s, untethered from -- untethered the dollar from gold. And discovered that debt could replace discipline.

So the second stage of the debt cycle is the age of entitlement, expansion. Imperial overreach.

Cheap credit.

And political bribery disguised as compassion.

Any of that sound like we've been there?

Done that?

The Dutch called it win handle. The trade in the wind.

Paper promises that replace real production.

We call it stimulus.

Easy money. Deficit spending.

Different words. Same exact sin.

That lees you to stage three. Financialization.

That goes to fragility. This is the most seductive stage. Rome debased its money until it was worth less than 2 percent of the original silver. The Byzantines watered down their unshakable dollar, if you will, and confidence collapsed. France printed their money, backed by land, until they were worth less and used as wallpaper.

Weimar, Germany, did the same thing. They destroyed a thousand years of savings in 18 months. Japan, 1990. Papered over its real estate collapse, with 30 years of zero interest rates.

And America, after 2008, discovered this intoxicating illusion, started by George W. Bush. I can violate the free market system, to save the free market system. That's quantitative easing. Money conjured up, without cost. Without any restraint. Without any consequence.

In stage three, nations convinced themselves, they're immune to any kind of gravity. Okay?

This time, it's different! We can manage this debt. Well, modern tools, you just don't understand. You know, the rules no longer apply.

You don't understand. Really?

Don't understand. The older rules always apply.

Because math is math.

And stage three always ends exactly the same way. Wherever it's tried!

The markets no longer trust the promises they're being fed, which leads us into stage four, the breaking point. Every empire eventually reaches a moment where its debts cannot be serviced. They can't be inflated away quietly. They can't be rolled over without consequence.

Rome reached it when they froze prices and shattered the last productive parts of its competent multiply France reached it in 1788, when it can no longer borrow. And that whole thing came to a head. Britain reached it in 1931 when it abandoned the gold standard.

Weimar reached it when inflation ate the soul of the nation. And extremism took over. Yap reached it, when its bond market effectively became nationalize. Propped up by its own central bank. Right now, America, Europe, China, Japan. And every other major power, listen to this carefully, have all hit stage four at the same time.

Never before in human history has this happened.

The bond markets are shaking. The currencies are all volatile. Politicians are praying that no one notices the numbers.

You know, that they no longer add up.

Stage four is not coming. We are now living inside the opening act. This is so important.

Yesterday, there was a story that said, that this is going to be the biggest Christmas season ever. And I'm wondering to myself, I see the prices. I go to McDonald's.

I go to the grocery store.

Any of us Walmart this weekend. I see the prices. And I'm looking at the prices.

And every time I'm looking at the prices, I'm like, how's the average person afford any of this?

And yet, we're spending. Spending. Spending.

And I don't understand it. And I fear we're doing what the government is doing. We're just spending because we can -- we think we can get out of it.

Then comes stage five. It's called the reset. Hmm.

Every debt system ends in one of three ways.

They inflate the money, so they can pay off the debt. And that's just an absolute wipeout. Weimar republic did it. France did it. Rome did it.

Just a wipeout. Then there's a hard default and political upheaval. Russia did that in 1917.

Argentina did it over and over again.

War leading to a new monetary order. That's another one.

And the neo -- the -- the Napoleonic wars. The British gold standard. World War II. Bretton Woods.

All of that. But there's always a reset. Always a new order that's born from the ashes of the old.

And here's what makes this moment unprecedented. Rome collapsed by itself. France collapsed alone. Weimar collapsed by itself.

Britain declined while America rose.

It was always one country coming down, and another one coming up.

This time, all countries. All countries, on both size, the free world and the not so free world, there's no one rising.

China is drowning in its local government debt. It's never going to say this, but it's a paper tiger.

Europe is fractured. And coming apart at the seams. Japan, demographic time bomb.

America is politically frozen and insolvent fiscally.

So for the very first time in world history. Every major civilization has reached its peak of the debt cycle.

This time, all at the same moment.

No one is coming up!

So what does that mean?

Well, for the very first time in human history, it means, when it arrives, it will not be regional. It will be global. It will not be slow. It will be systemic. It will be everywhere. Now, the hope, the history books don't tell, and nobody in the media will tell you this, is when every one of those resets, every collapse, every crisis, it created the conditions for renewal.

Rome, its fall opened the door for a new Christian civilization. France, the revolution there, birthed the modern nation state. Britain's decline cleared space for America's rise. The devastation of World War II led to the great expansion of prosperity, the greatest the world has ever seen. So the next chapter is not written. What happens to us is not written.

And it -- whether we rise or fall, from what's coming depends not on Washington. Not on Wall Street. But on us. In our homes, in our families. In our churches. And our communities.

The debt cycle is not prophecy. It is a warning.

You cannot borrow your way out of moral, fiscal, or spiritual bankruptcy.

Now, I don't feel like I chose this path. This -- with Bretton Woods and then 1972 coming off the gold standard. And what they did in 2008, to bail out all the banks. I didn't have anything to say. Did you have anything to say about that?

I didn't. I didn't. I wouldn't have chosen those things. But the world is putting something together.

And I want to show you what our choices are. Because right now, people say, you know, I don't like what Donald Trump is doing. Or, I don't like the World Economic Forum.

Or, I don't like what China. Okay. Great. But I want you to know, it's going to be one of these systems. Because it's being built.

It always happens. When one is coming down, some new system, usually a country.

But not a country this time. A new system begins to rise.

And it happens before the fall.