Blog
LatestArticlesVideos
Radio
LivePodcastSerialsStations
TV
Podcasts
The Glenn Beck ProgramThe Glenn Beck PodcastThe Beck Story
Fine Art
Real Estate
Shop
More
AboutCharityBooksSponsorsContact
SEARCH
Live Radio

©2024 MERCURY RADIO ARTS.
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

TERMS OF USE | PRIVACY POLICY

Live

Glenn's Show Prep

CORONAVIRUS UPDATE: March 20th

March 20, 2020
Staff

WRITER

Glenn gives the latest coronavirus numbers, updating YOU on everything needed to know as Americans and officials monitor China's new COVID-19 virus:

Daily Stats as of 5:30 AM CT (from John's Hopkins)

  • Total Confirmed Cases Worldwide: 252,014 (up from 225,237 yesterday)
  • Total Confirmed Deaths Worldwide: 10,405 (up from 9,276 yesterday)
  • Total Confirmed Recovered Worldwide: 89,044 (up from 85,823 yesterday)
  • 182 Countries have confirmed cases (up from 176 yesterday), 4 more have suspected cases. Officially, only 13 countries on earth do not have at least 1 case of COVID-19.
  • 5% of Active Cases are considered serious (requiring hospitalization) steady from 5% yesterday but down from 19% just 3 weeks ago
  • US has 14,366 Confirmed Cases and 217 Deaths, up from 9,464 cases and 155 deaths yesterday
Governor of California Issues Shelter In Place Order for Entire State https://www.npr.org/2020/03/20/818764136/california-issues-stay-at-home-order-as-coronavirus-infections-rise
  • Residents told to stay at home unless they need to leave to acquire food, medicine, medical care or for other emergencies.
  • Speaking at a late evening news conference in Sacramento, Newsom said his directive "goes into force and effect this evening and we are confident that the people of the state of California will abide by it, will do the right thing."
  • He said compliance would rely heavily on "social pressure," and not law enforcement.
  • No time-frame was given for how long the order would remain in place.
  • "We're going to keep the grocery stores open," he said. "We're going to make sure that you're getting critical medical supplies. You can still take your kids outside, practicing common sense and social distancing. You can still walk your dog."
  • Essential travel included trips to the grocery store, gas stations, farmers' markets, food banks, convenience stores, take-out and delivery restaurants, banks and ATMs.
  • The directive also exempts critical infrastructure such as food and agriculture, healthcare, transportation, energy and financial services.
California Shelter In Place Comes After Governor Projected 50% of Population Would Get COVID-19 by May https://thehill.com/policy/defense/488547-california-projects-56-percent-of-the-population-will-be-infected-over-8-week
  • California Gov. Gavin Newsom said in an official letter to the Trump administration that 56 percent of the state's population — 25.5 million people — is projected to be infected with the coronavirus over an eight-week period, according to the Los Angeles Times who received a copy of the letter: https://www.gov.ca.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/3.18.20-Letter-USNS-Mercy-Hospital-Ship.pdf
  • In the letter, Newsom asked President Trump to deploy the USNS Mercy hospital ship to the port of Los Angeles until September of this year "to help decompress our current healthcare delivery system in the Los Angeles region in response to the COVID-19 outbreak."
  • A spokesperson for the governor's office stated: "Governor Newsom has been honest about the threat of the virus and its impact on the health and welfare of Californians. This projection shows why it's so critical that Californians take action to slow the spread of the disease – and those mitigation efforts aren't taken into account in those numbers. The state is deploying every resource at its disposal to meet this challenge, and we continue to ask for the federal government's assistance in this fight."
  • California has approximately 8,500 Intensive Care beds, and over 80% are already occupied, according to the LA Times.
  • COVID-19 Has a Serious Complication rate such that about 5-6% of patients require hospitalization, including about 4% who require Intensive care.
  • The average stay in Intensive Care due to COVID-19 is 20 days, according to the WHO.
  • If 25.5 Million people get COVID-19 over 8 weeks, and 4% require Intensive care, that is 1,147,500 people who require Intensive Care, lasting an average of 20 days each.
  • Yes: 8,500 beds exist, but over 1 Million beds may be needed over the next two months....Just in California.
In Related News, Marijuana Dispensaries Deemed Essential Under California Shelter In Place Order https://nypost.com/2020/03/20/las-cannabis-dispensaries-deemed-essential-under-emergency-coronavirus-order/
  • The "safer at home" emergency order just announced by California requires all indoor malls, shopping centers, playgrounds and nonessential retail businesses to close effective midnight tonight.
  • LA County specifically set a date of April 19th, 2020, for all non-essential businesses to be closed.
  • However, allowed to operate — as long as they observe proper social-distancing guidelines and do not include more than 10 people in one place — are a list of essential services including city and county government services, grocery stores, hardware stores and, Marijuana Dispensaries.
  • Such stores are considered exempt due to being "medically necessary".
  • Also remaining open will be Liquor stores, officially deamed to be 'food or convenience store" businesses.
  • State Liquor stores in several other states, including Utah, New Hampshire and Deleware have already been closed.
Conspiracy Corner: CA Government Been Planning For COVID-19 Shutdown & Outbreak, Medical Emergency Since January... http://www.capradio.org/articles/2020/02/25/map-last-week-gov-newsom-made-286-sites-available-for-homelessness-solutions-heres-where-they-are/Turns Out Having Lots of TP Not a Bad Idea...Nearly Half of COVID-19 Victims Present With Digestive Issues & Diarrhea https://www.cbsnews.com/news/coronavirus-digestive-symptoms-diarrhea-almost-half-of-patients/
  • Diarrhea and other digestive symptoms presenting in nearly half of coronavirus patients, Chinese researchers said in a new study.
  • Most patients with COVID-19 do have respiratory symptoms, but these findings from the early stages of the outbreak show that digestive problems are also prevalent in nearly half of patients with COVID-19.
  • "Clinicians must bear in mind that digestive symptoms, such as diarrhea, may be a presenting feature of COVID-19, and that the index of suspicion may need to be raised earlier in these cases rather than waiting for respiratory symptoms to emerge," wrote the investigators from the Wuhan Medical Treatment Expert Group for COVID-19 in early March.
  • The researchers analyzed data from 204 COVID-19 patients, average age of 55, who were admitted to three hospitals in the Hubei province between Jan. 18 and Feb. 28, 2020. The average time from symptom onset to hospital admission was 8.1 days.
  • However, the finding showed that patients with digestive symptoms had a longer time from symptom onset to hospital admission than patients without digestive symptoms, 9 days versus 7.3 days.
  • This suggests that patients with digestive symptoms sought care later because they didn't yet suspect they had COVID-19 due to a lack of respiratory symptoms, such as cough or shortness of breath, the researchers explained.
  • Patients with digestive symptoms had a variety of problems, including loss of appetite (nearly 84%), diarrhea (29%), vomiting (0.8%) and abdominal pain (0.4%).
  • As the severity of the disease increased, digestive symptoms became more serious, the researchers found.
  • Patients without digestive symptoms were more likely to be cured and discharged than those with digestive symptoms (60% versus 34%), according to the study published March 18 in the American Journal of Gastroenterology.
  • "In this study, COVID-19 patients with digestive symptoms have a worse clinical outcome and higher risk of [death] compared to those without digestive symptoms, emphasizing the importance of including symptoms like diarrhea to suspect COVID-19 early in the disease course before respiratory symptoms develop," Dr. Brennan Spiegel, journal co-editor-in-chief, said in a journal news release.
Trump Administration Makes Anti-Malaria Drug Available for COVID-19 Patients https://www.foxnews.com/politics/trump-fda-experimental-drugs-coronavirus
  • President Trump announced Thursday that the Food and Drug Administration is making experimental drugs available as part of the ongoing effort to tackle the spread of COVID-19.
  • Trump announced at a White House press briefing that chloroquine, a drug designed for use in malaria, will be made available to administer to patients.
  • He said it was one of a number of antiviral therapies to limit the symptoms of the virus that the administration is trying to get to Americans as quickly as possible.
  • "I have directed the FDA to eliminate rules and bureaucracy so work can proceed rapidly, quickly and fast," Trump said. "We have to remove every barrier."
  • FDA Commissioner Stephen Hahn explained during the press conference it would be allowed under what's known "compassionate use" -- where doctors can request to use the experimental drug and get permission from the FDA to give to patients.
  • Hahn also said he didn't want to give "false hope" but said he was hopeful about the treatments.
  • "Chloroquine is not a cure for Coronavirus, but may be effective at treating respiratory symptoms and helping more patients recover," he said in a statement.
SARS-CoV-2 More Infectious For Longer Period Than SARS-1 https://www.scmp.com/news/china/society/article/3076022/coronavirus-infects-faster-and-lasts-longer-sars-raising-new
  • The virus causing COVID-19 infects faster and lasts longer than SARS, raising new containment challenges, Chinese studies suggest.
  • Researchers found that on average, infected people expel virus particles from their bodies for a relatively long period of 20 days, even before symptoms appear.
  • Such a long asymptomatic spread period may explain why the virus has spread so quickly in Italy, Spain and other areas.
  • Findings indicate longer quarantine periods may be needed for patients, according to researchers from the China-Japan Friendship Hospital, who published in the medical journal Lancet.
  • The virus also remains persistent in the feces of children, suggesting it can be transmitted through a fecal-oral transmission route – meaning that contaminated feces from the infected child is somehow ingested by another person.
  • The study was issued by a team of Doctors which included China National Health Commission expert Dr. Cao Bin.
Walmart Giving Employees Cash Bonuses To Help Them Cope with COVID-19 https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/walmart-giving-over-500-million-in-early-bonuses-to-employees-because-of-the-coronavirus-outbreak
  • In total Walmart is paying over $500 Million in early cash bonuses to employees this week.
  • Walmart announced it would be giving out nearly $550 million in early bonuses to its hourly employees amid the coronavirus outbreak.
  • "Walmart associates have gone above and beyond the call of duty in serving our customers during these unprecedented times," Walmart's CEO Doug McMillon told the Hill on Thursday. "We want to reward our associates for their hard work and recognize them for the work that is in front of us."
  • The company is giving full-time hourly employees a bonus of $300, while part-time workers will get $150. The store is also planning on moving up its quarterly bonuses to April for its associates.
  • The company also said it would be hiring another 150,000 people through May.
  • "Millions of Americans who are usually employed at this time are temporarily out of work, and at the same time we're currently seeing strong demand in our stores," McMillon said. "We're looking for people who see Walmart as a chance to earn some extra money and perform a vital service to their community."
Cities Urging People To NOT Flush Disinfecting Wipes Down Toilet https://sanfrancisco.cbslocal.com/2020/03/18/coronavirus-disinfecting-wipes-being-flushed-down-toilets-causing-major-pipe-problems/
  • First, Don't "Wipe" with Disinfecting Wipes. Clorox and Lysol type disinfectant wipes are meant for surfaces, not human bodies. Several children have been brought in with 'burns' from parents who are using Clorox wipes during diaper changes.
  • Second, cities are begging residents to NOT flush disinfectant wipes down toilets, they are NOT intended for sewers and do not break down in sewage systems.
  • A message on the City of San Francisco's public utility website read, "Please read the instructions on the package before flushing anything down the toilet. Use common sense. Don't be stupid."
GLENN

A Sharia enclave is quietly taking root in America. It's time to wake up.

GLENN

Why do Americans feel so empty?

GLENN

A break in trust: A NEW Watergate is brewing in plain sight

Grim warning: Bad-faith Israel critics duck REAL questions

Spencer Platt / Staff | Getty Images

Bad-faith attacks on Israel and AIPAC warp every debate. Real answers emerge only when people set aside scripts and ask what serves America’s long-term interests.

The search for truth has always required something very much in short supply these days: honesty. Not performative questions, not scripted outrage, not whatever happens to be trending on TikTok, but real curiosity.

Some issues, often focused on foreign aid, AIPAC, or Israel, have become hotbeds of debate and disagreement. Before we jump into those debates, however, we must return to a simpler, more important issue: honest questioning. Without it, nothing in these debates matters.

Ask questions because you want the truth, not because you want a target.

The phrase “just asking questions” has re-entered the zeitgeist, and that’s fine. We should always question power. But too many of those questions feel preloaded with someone else’s answer. If the goal is truth, then the questions should come from a sincere desire to understand, not from a hunt for a villain.

Honest desire for truth is the only foundation that can support a real conversation about these issues.

Truth-seeking is real work

Right now, plenty of people are not seeking the truth at all. They are repeating something they heard from a politician on cable news or from a stranger on TikTok who has never opened a history book. That is not a search for answers. That is simply outsourcing your own thought.

If you want the truth, you need to work for it. You cannot treat the world like a Marvel movie where the good guy appears in a cape and the villain hisses on command. Real life does not give you a neat script with the moral wrapped up in two hours.

But that is how people are approaching politics now. They want the oppressed and the oppressor, the heroic underdog and the cartoon villain. They embrace this fantastical framing because it is easier than wrestling with reality.

This framing took root in the 1960s when the left rebuilt its worldview around colonizers and the colonized. Overnight, Zionism was recast as imperialism. Suddenly, every conflict had to fit the same script. Today’s young activists are just recycling the same narrative with updated graphics. Everything becomes a morality play. No nuance, no context, just the comforting clarity of heroes and villains.

Bad-faith questions

This same mindset is fueling the sudden obsession with Israel, and the American Israel Public Affairs Committee in particular. You hear it from members of Congress and activists alike: AIPAC pulls the strings, AIPAC controls the government, AIPAC should register as a foreign agent under the Foreign Agents Registration Act. The questions are dramatic, but are they being asked in good faith?

FARA is clear. The standard is whether an individual or group acts under the direction or control of a foreign government. AIPAC simply does not qualify.

Here is a detail conveniently left out of these arguments: Dozens of domestic organizations — Armenian, Cuban, Irish, Turkish — lobby Congress on behalf of other countries. None of them registers under FARA because — like AIPAC — they are independent, domestic organizations.

If someone has a sincere problem with the structure of foreign lobbying, fair enough. Let us have that conversation. But singling out AIPAC alone is not a search for truth. It is bias dressed up as bravery.

Anadolu / Contributor | Getty Images

If someone wants to question foreign aid to Israel, fine. Let’s have that debate. But let’s ask the right questions. The issue is not the size of the package but whether the aid advances our interests. What does the United States gain? Does the investment strengthen our position in the region? How does it compare to what we give other nations? And do we examine those countries with the same intensity?

The real target

These questions reflect good-faith scrutiny. But narrowing the entire argument to one country or one dollar amount misses the larger problem. If someone objects to the way America handles foreign aid, the target is not Israel. The target is the system itself — an entrenched bureaucracy, poor transparency, and decades-old commitments that have never been re-examined. Those problems run through programs around the world.

If you want answers, you need to broaden the lens. You have to be willing to put aside the movie script and confront reality. You have to hold yourself to a simple rule: Ask questions because you want the truth, not because you want a target.

That is the only way this country ever gets clarity on foreign aid, influence, alliances, and our place in the world. Questioning is not just allowed. It is essential. But only if it is honest.

This article originally appeared on TheBlaze.com.

A nation unravels when its shared culture is the first thing to go

Spencer Platt / Staff | Getty Images

Texas now hosts Quran-first academies, Sharia-compliant housing schemes, and rapidly multiplying mosques — all part of a movement building a self-contained society apart from the country around it.

It is time to talk honestly about what is happening inside America’s rapidly growing Muslim communities. In city after city, large pockets of newcomers are choosing to build insulated enclaves rather than enter the broader American culture.

That trend is accelerating, and the longer we ignore it, the harder it becomes to address.

As Texas goes, so goes America. And as America goes, so goes the free world.

America has always welcomed people of every faith and people from every corner of the world, but the deal has never changed: You come here and you join the American family. You are free to honor your traditions, keep your faith, but you must embrace the Constitution as the supreme law of the land. You melt into the shared culture that allows all of us to live side by side.

Across the country, this bargain is being rejected by Islamist communities that insist on building a parallel society with its own rules, its own boundaries, and its own vision for how life should be lived.

Texas illustrates the trend. The state now has roughly 330 mosques. At least 48 of them were built in just the last 24 months. The Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex alone has around 200 Islamic centers. Houston has another hundred or so. Many of these communities have no interest in blending into American life.

This is not the same as past waves of immigration. Irish, Italian, Korean, Mexican, and every other group arrived with pride in their heritage. Still, they also raised American flags and wanted their children to be part of the country’s future. They became doctors, small-business owners, teachers, and soldiers. They wanted to be Americans.

What we are watching now is not the melting pot. It is isolation by design.

Parallel societies do not end well

More than 300 fundamentalist Islamic schools now operate full-time across the country. Many use Quran-first curricula that require students to spend hours memorizing religious texts before they ever reach math or science. In Dallas, Brighter Horizons Academy enrolls more than 1,700 students and draws federal support while operating on a social model that keeps children culturally isolated.

Then there is the Epic City project in Collin and Hunt counties — 402 acres originally designated only for Muslim buyers, with Sharia-compliant financing and a mega-mosque at the center. After public outcry and state investigations, the developers renamed it “The Meadows,” but a new sign does not erase the original intent. It is not a neighborhood. It is a parallel society.

Americans should not hesitate to say that parallel societies are dangerous. Europe tried this experiment, and the results could not be clearer. In Germany, France, and the United Kingdom, entire neighborhoods now operate under their own cultural rules, some openly hostile to Western norms. When citizens speak up, they are branded bigots for asserting a basic right: the ability to live safely in their own communities.

A crisis of confidence

While this separation widens, another crisis is unfolding at home. A recent Gallup survey shows that about 40% of American women ages 18 to 39 would leave the country permanently if given the chance. Nearly half of a rising generation — daughters, sisters, soon-to-be mothers — no longer believe this nation is worth building a future in.

And who shapes the worldview of young boys? Their mothers. If a mother no longer believes America is home, why would her child grow up ready to defend it?

As Texas goes, so goes America. And as America goes, so goes the free world. If we lose confidence in our own national identity at the same time that we allow separatist enclaves to spread unchecked, the outcome is predictable. Europe is already showing us what comes next: cultural fracture, political radicalization, and the slow death of national unity.

Brandon Bell / Staff | Getty Images

Stand up and tell the truth

America welcomes Muslims. America defends their right to worship freely. A Muslim who loves the Constitution, respects the rule of law, and wants to raise a family in peace is more than welcome in America.

But an Islamist movement that rejects assimilation, builds enclaves governed by its own religious framework, and treats American law as optional is not simply another participant in our melting pot. It is a direct challenge to it. If we refuse to call this problem out out of fear of being called names, we will bear the consequences.

Europe is already feeling those consequences — rising conflict and a political class too paralyzed to admit the obvious. When people feel their culture, safety, and freedoms slipping away, they will follow anyone who promises to defend them. History has shown that over and over again.

Stand up. Speak plainly. Be unafraid. You can practice any faith in this country, but the supremacy of the Constitution and the Judeo-Christian moral framework that shaped it is non-negotiable. It is what guarantees your freedom in the first place.

If you come here and honor that foundation, welcome. If you come here to undermine it, you do not belong here.

Wake up to what is unfolding before the consequences arrive. Because when a nation refuses to say what is true, the truth eventually forces its way in — and by then, it is always too late.

This article originally appeared on TheBlaze.com.

Shocking: AI-written country song tops charts, sparks soul debate

VCG / Contributor | Getty Images

A machine can imitate heartbreak well enough to top the charts, but it cannot carry grief, choose courage, or hear the whisper that calls human beings to something higher.

The No. 1 country song in America right now was not written in Nashville or Texas or even L.A. It came from code. “Walk My Walk,” the AI-generated single by the AI artist Breaking Rust, hit the top spot on Billboard’s Country Digital Song Sales chart, and if you listen to it without knowing that fact, you would swear a real singer lived the pain he is describing.

Except there is no “he.” There is no lived experience. There is no soul behind the voice dominating the country music charts.

If a machine can imitate the soul, then what is the soul?

I will admit it: I enjoy some AI music. Some of it is very good. And that leaves us with a question that is no longer science fiction. If a machine can fake being human this well, what does it mean to be human?

A new world of artificial experience

This is not just about one song. We are walking straight into a technological moment that will reshape everyday life.

Elon Musk said recently that we may not even have phones in five years. Instead, we will carry a small device that listens, anticipates, and creates — a personal AI agent that knows what we want to hear before we ask. It will make the music, the news, the podcasts, the stories. We already live in digital bubbles. Soon, those bubbles might become our own private worlds.

If an algorithm can write a hit country song about hardship and perseverance without a shred of actual experience, then the deeper question becomes unavoidable: If a machine can imitate the soul, then what is the soul?

What machines can never do

A machine can produce, and soon it may produce better than we can. It can calculate faster than any human mind. It can rearrange the notes and words of a thousand human songs into something that sounds real enough to fool millions.

But it cannot care. It cannot love. It cannot choose right and wrong. It cannot forgive because it cannot be hurt. It cannot stand between a child and danger. It cannot walk through sorrow.

A machine can imitate the sound of suffering. It cannot suffer.

The difference is the soul. The divine spark. The thing God breathed into man that no code will ever have. Only humans can take pain and let it grow into compassion. Only humans can take fear and turn it into courage. Only humans can rebuild their lives after losing everything. Only humans hear the whisper inside, the divine voice that says, “Live for something greater.”

We are building artificial minds. We are not building artificial life.

Questions that define us

And as these artificial minds grow sharper, as their tools become more convincing, the right response is not panic. It is to ask the oldest and most important questions.

Who am I? Why am I here? What is the meaning of freedom? What is worth defending? What is worth sacrificing for?

That answer is not found in a lab or a server rack. It is found in that mysterious place inside each of us where reason meets faith, where suffering becomes wisdom, where God reminds us we are more than flesh and more than thought. We are not accidents. We are not circuits. We are not replaceable.

Europa Press News / Contributor | Getty Images

The miracle machines can never copy

Being human is not about what we can produce. Machines will outproduce us. That is not the question. Being human is about what we can choose. We can choose to love even when it costs us something. We can choose to sacrifice when it is not easy. We can choose to tell the truth when the world rewards lies. We can choose to stand when everyone else bows. We can create because something inside us will not rest until we do.

An AI content generator can borrow our melodies, echo our stories, and dress itself up like a human soul, but it cannot carry grief across a lifetime. It cannot forgive an enemy. It cannot experience wonder. It cannot look at a broken world and say, “I am going to build again.”

The age of machines is rising. And if we do not know who we are, we will shrink. But if we use this moment to remember what makes us human, it will help us to become better, because the one thing no algorithm will ever recreate is the miracle that we exist at all — the miracle of the human soul.

This article originally appeared on TheBlaze.com.

Is Socialism seducing a lost generation?

Jeremy Weine / Stringer | Getty Images

A generation that’s lost faith in capitalism is turning to the oldest lie on earth: equality through control.

Something is breaking in America’s young people. You can feel it in every headline, every grocery bill, every young voice quietly asking if the American dream still means anything at all.

For many, the promise of America — work hard, build something that lasts, and give the next generation a better start — feels like it no longer exists. Home ownership and stability have become luxuries for a fortunate few.

Capitalism is not a perfect system. It is flawed because people are flawed, but it remains the only system that rewards creativity and effort rather than punishing them.

In that vacuum of hope, a new promise has begun to rise — one that sounds compassionate, equal, and fair. The promise of socialism.

The appeal of a broken dream

When the American dream becomes a checklist of things few can afford — a home, a car, two children, even a little peace — disappointment quickly turns to resentment. The average first-time homebuyer is now 40 years old. Debt lasts longer than marriages. The cost of living rises faster than opportunity.

For a generation that has never seen the system truly work, capitalism feels like a rigged game built to protect those already at the top.

That is where socialism finds its audience. It presents itself as fairness for the forgotten and justice for the disillusioned. It speaks softly at first, offering equality, compassion, and control disguised as care.

We are seeing that illusion play out now in New York City, where Zohran Mamdani — an open socialist — has won a major political victory. The same ideology that once hid behind euphemisms now campaigns openly throughout America’s once-great cities. And for many who feel left behind, it sounds like salvation.

But what socialism calls fairness is submission dressed as virtue. What it calls order is obedience. Once the system begins to replace personal responsibility with collective dependence, the erosion of liberty is only a matter of time.

The bridge that never ends

Socialism is not a destination; it is a bridge. Karl Marx described it as the necessary transition to communism — the scaffolding that builds the total state. Under socialism, people are taught to obey. Under communism, they forget that any other options exist.

History tells the story clearly. Russia, China, Cambodia, Cuba — each promised equality and delivered misery. One hundred million lives were lost, not because socialism failed, but because it succeeded at what it was designed to do: make the state supreme and the individual expendable.

Today’s advocates insist their version will be different — democratic, modern, and kind. They often cite Sweden as an example, but Sweden’s prosperity was never born of socialism. It grew out of capitalism, self-reliance, and a shared moral culture. Now that system is cracking under the weight of bureaucracy and division.

ANGELA WEISS / Contributor | Getty Images

The real issue is not economic but moral. Socialism begins with a lie about human nature — that people exist for the collective and that the collective knows better than the individual.

This lie is contrary to the truths on which America was founded — that rights come not from government’s authority, but from God’s. Once government replaces that authority, compassion becomes control, and freedom becomes permission.

What young America deserves

Young Americans have many reasons to be frustrated. They were told to study, work hard, and follow the rules — and many did, only to find the goalposts moved again and again. But tearing down the entire house does not make it fairer; it only leaves everyone standing in the rubble.

Capitalism is not a perfect system. It is flawed because people are flawed, but it remains the only system that rewards creativity and effort rather than punishing them. The answer is not revolution but renewal — moral, cultural, and spiritual.

It means restoring honesty to markets, integrity to government, and faith to the heart of our nation. A people who forsake God will always turn to government for salvation, and that road always ends in dependency and decay.

Freedom demands something of us. It requires faith, discipline, and courage. It expects citizens to govern themselves before others govern them. That is the truth this generation deserves to hear again — that liberty is not a gift from the state but a calling from God.

Socialism always begins with promises and ends with permission. It tells you what to drive, what to say, what to believe, all in the name of fairness. But real fairness is not everyone sharing the same chains — it is everyone having the same chance.

The American dream was never about guarantees. It was about the right to try, to fail, and try again. That freedom built the most prosperous nation in history, and it can do so again if we remember that liberty is not a handout but a duty.

Socialism does not offer salvation. It requires subservience.

This article originally appeared on TheBlaze.com.