RADIOMay 24, 2023

PROOF Bud Light, Target boycotts ARE WORKING. But will it last?

Bud Light sales have dropped dramatically since the Dylan Mulvaney controversy, and now Target is taking steps after its over-the-top pride month/LGBTQ products caused backlash nationwide. The boycotts — and YOUR stance against both companies — are working. But will this actually last?! Typical boycotts usually don’t see longterm effects, but resistance from Americans in these two situations may be different. Glenn and Stu discuss what makes today's Bud Light & Target backlash different and what MUST happen to truly make a long-lasting difference…

Transcript

Below is a rush transcript that may contain errors

GLENN: I'm going to tell the story here, of Target. Now, it came out in the New York Post.

Just a couple of days ago. Target's top executive dismisses the social media uproar over the retailer's new line of LGBTQ friendly kid's clothing. Outraged shoppers have posted videos and images on social media, showing bathing suits, that offer an extra crotch coverage, as well as rainbow-colored onesies for infants and children.

Other offerings that raise conservative haggles, include T-shirts that say Pride Adult Drag Queen.

Trans people will always exist. Girls, gays, theys. So in the podcast last week for Fortune, called Leadership Next, the CEO of -- of Target, Brian Cornell, was asked about the backlash to woke capitalism.

And specifically about Budweiser and Disney. He said, you know, I think these are just good business decisions. And it's the right thing to do for society. And it's a great thing for our brand. The things we've done from a D, E, and I -- diversity, equity, and inclusion standpoint. It's adding value. It's helping us drive sales. It's building greater engagement with both our teams and our guests, and those are just the right things for business today.

Spokesperson for the company told the Associated Press, the tuck-friendly swimsuits are only offered now in adult sizes. Kid's collection does not feature the label.

STU: Oh, that's great.

GLENN: Oh, that's nice.

Yeah, when we think about purpose at Target, he said. It's really about helping all the families. And the word all is very important.

Most of America shops at Target. So we want to do the right thing that supports families across the country. I know that the focus on diversity and inclusion and equity, has fueled much of our growth over the last nine years.

Huh. So it was -- last week, the story was. They're going to stick to their guns. Well, Target came out yesterday, Tuesday, and said, the retail giant is going to pull some of its LGBTQ-friendly kid's clothing from its stores, after facing customer backlash.

Just days after the company's top executive dismissed the social media uproar, the Minneapolis-based chain said, one of the main factors in the nationwide adjustment, ahead of Pride Month, was because some customers had become violent with workers.

Well, I hope that that is not true, and if that is happening, I don't want anything to do with that.

STU: Any of it. If you were to harass a Target employee, violently over clothing.

GLENN: You're an idiot.

STU: Of any sort. But still, this is what they always say.

GLENN: Yeah, I know. So I don't know if I believe anything.

STU: Yeah, they always say, we've had death threats. They have always said. The death threat thing is particularly comical for anyone who happens to be in AM talk radio.

GLENN: Yeah. Suck it up, buttercup. Jeez.

Since introducing this year's collection, we've experienced threats impacting our team member's sense of safety and well-being, while at work, said the Target spokesperson.

Given these volatile circumstances, we are making adjustments to our plants, including removing items that have been at the center of the most significant confrontational behavior.

Target declined to say whether it would remove the tuck-friendly women's swimsuits that allow trans women.

They're men, who have not had gender-affirming operations to conceal their junk.

My words, not theirs. One of the LGBTQ brands being pulled, however, is Aprallen (phonetic), which makes T-shirts, sweatshirts, bags. Mainly because, you know, it's a cult, and Satanic-themed.

LGBTQ features and stuff. I mean, I don't know. Criticism has been widespread, Target spokesperson said.

Folks are reaching out with feedback. While some are sharing it with constructive criticism. They disagree with product decisions that we have made. Target shares were down, 3 percent yesterday. At closing.

So it's good for their brand. Good for their brand.

No. Actually not good. You are the beginning to have an effect.

You -- anyone -- anyone that you know that is like, let's go and tear it down.

Tell them they're a moron.

You're beginning to win!

Already, ESG -- any ESG fund is way down.

They're not introducing -- they're introducing half of the number of funds, than they did last year.

That's because you're winning.

Now you have Budweiser on the ropes. I mean, have you heard the ads from one of the local bottling companies in Alabama.

Did an ad. And they're -- it's a really bad ad. But it's like, we're sorry. We don't have anything to do with this.

We have nothing to do -- we're all local people just like you. We disagree.

We have nothing to do with this.

But it's getting -- it's bad.

STU: I think this is a really fascinating case study. The whole Bud Light thing.

And I think the Target thing is rising to that level as well.

In which, I don't know exactly how these things work. Or how you do them, or how you make them happen.

You know, we were talking about this a little off-air the other day. Obviously, Miller Lite is one of the big alternatives for Bud Light. I swear Bud Light is the one -- this is Sara Gonzales' point which I'm stealing, but I swear Bud Light leaked the Miller Lite ad because it was old.

GLENN: Oh, sure they did. I'm sure they did.

STU: But Miller Lite is the alternative. Right? But then they were doing this too.

Now, of course, Coors is -- owns Miller Lite. So Coors Light and Miller Lite are in on all this stuff too.

And Michelob Ultra also released an ad a while ago, that had a transgender athlete that we just all missed. I don't even know what happened.

GLENN: That's okay.

I don't care who teaches everybody a lesson, somebody needs to teach -- be taught the lesson.

STU: And that's what's fascinating here.

Maybe that's the answer. Because you really can't boycott everybody that does things that you don't like. It wouldn't even be consistent with capitalism to boycott everyone that disagrees with you.

GLENN: It's not even possible.

STU: It's not possible in this society. It's also not consistent with the principles of capitalism. Like, you're not supposed to do only business with people you agree with.

That being said, when you have things like this, that's making a big difference. Their sales are down 24 percent.

Their stock does seem to finally be reacting to this. For a while, it hadn't really reacted.

GLENN: Because I don't think people thought it was serious. And thought it was going to last.

STU: Right. And so now you're seeing them panic. You see a real reaction. Disney is the same way.

I don't know that Disney's business was particularly harmed by any of the stuff that happened there.

But it might be.

They -- a lot of the stuff that has been talked about.

We talked about it with the DeSantis situation.

They acted like they were blaming DeSantis for this 1 billion project that they shut down.

When in reality, they pretty much shut it down previously.

But still, like, nobody wants to be the next Disney. Nobody wants to have -- nobody wants to be the next Bud Light.

Nobody wants to be the next Target. Why bother with this stuff?

Just stay out of this discussion completely.

GLENN: Well, I will tell you that I hear from Ramaswamy. What's his name?

Yeah. Vivek Ramaswamy. He said, I talked to business leaders all the time, Glenn.

He says, there's a few of them that are held hostage. He said, that they're like, we don't want to do any of this with Vivek.

We just can't not do it.

STU: I think that's more common than we realize.

GLENN: I think so too.

You start teaching.

I don't know if Target is a true believer or not.

Boy, they sure seem like it.

STU: But the fact that they're moving clothes from the front to the back.

GLENN: They're only doing it in certain cities, et cetera, et cetera.

I think they just -- I -- boycott.

Don't -- and this is a women's thing, really. The men who goes -- that go to Target. They're like, I'm going to tear your face off. Are not the ones that they are going to concern themselves with.

STU: Also, are there actually any of the people -- I've never seen one. It's possible. I suppose. Some idiot is doing something dumb.

GLENN: I don't know. But one person does something dumb, and then it becomes the whole thing.

STU: Yes.

GLENN: But women, and I -- I mean, Ricki, our executive producer, she's like, I'm trying not to go to Target. It's been three days. I'm having a hard time not going to Target. I'm like, well, we can -- I can give you a 12-step class to go to.

We'll do 12 steps to get you off of Target. But it's the women that will make the difference in this one. And if you keep this up, if you teach Target the Anheuser-Busch lesson, you've got two in a row. And kind of with Disney. Three.

STU: Yeah. I just Disney counts. I think too, one of the things that's interesting with the Bud Light thing. And I've gone through this myself. It's not as much about some sort of organized boycott against this company.

Honestly, I don't know that -- I've heard a lot of people talking about that. It's not like a typical boycott that we've been on the other side of. Right? Where you have all these big organizations.

One of the things I think with Bud Light. And maybe Target is getting to that point.

Is that it's created some level of like societal, like, ickiness.

Like, it's one of those things. I think I mentioned this story.

I went to a wedding, and they had all the beers up there.

You can choose whatever you like.

And normally, I'll have one beer at a wedding. I'll probably have a Bud Light, just because it's the one I -- but I looked at it, and I was like, eh, I don't want to get a conversation about transgender issues tonight with somebody. I'll take a Miller Lite.

And I think that is like, what is actually affecting sales.

I don't know, that everybody would be like. Yes. We have people who are -- Kid Rock is shooting his Bud Light with machine guns. Maybe that's part of it. But I think part of it, too, is people want to avoid it.

And it's created this societal pressure on people, to just choose something else.

GLENN: That's -- when that happens, when somebody comes into the house with a Target bag, or you say, oh, I got this at Target.

And they'll say, you're shopping at Target?

STU: Yeah. Yeah.

GLENN: That's when this will change. That's when this will change.

STU: That's when it happens. It's amazing.

GLENN: I've been saying this for a while. I have really good feelings. Bad crap is coming our way. Don't get me wrong.

For those of you who listen for the doom and gloom, I'm still here.

But good things are happening as well.

There is something happening in America. Anheuser-Busch going down and staying down. And now, just in a couple of days, I mean, the icky feeling happened with me and my wife.

When we were walking through Target, and it's right there.

It's in your face.

And as I'm walking down the aisle of Target, right in front of the cashier. And I see all of this.

I'm like, you know, really?

This is who you are? This is who you think we are?

You think that transgendered needs a -- a display up front?

How many transgender people are there?

You are grooming our children. It really bothered me. Really bothered me.

STU: Yeah. And, you know, when you look at -- we just talked about this with the social media alert from the government yesterday.

They sent us a positive, one of the things about social media was it helped people -- what was it?

Developed their identity in LGBTQ. That was one of the positive effects of social media.

They had tons of negatives like suicide and everything else. But one of the positives was, if you happen to be LGBTQ, this helps you develop your identity.

And it's like, well, that's just saying, that social media is there, to walk you -- I mean, grooming is -- it's actually a really good word for that.

GLENN: It is. It is.

STU: It's different than the criminal version of it.

But it's a pretty applicable word.

GLENN: You know, they say, the thing that one generation tolerates, the next will embrace.

If you look at casual sex, we tolerated Bill Clinton.

Well, it depends on what the definition of is, is. And all of a sudden, it became totally cool.

Sex, and oral sex. All of that, totally fine.

Kids doing it in schools, almost immediately. Okay?

Remember that -- where was that story that was in Virginia.

STU: Alexandra, Virginia. Anyway, there was a -- this happened over night.

What are we tolerating? We are now tolerating Satanism.

We are now tolerating our children being groomed for trans drag shows. You don't want this embraced as a society.

The TRUTH about George Washington They DON'T Teach Anymore!

Glenn Beck speaks with a PhD candidate studying George Washington about how America has forgotten the truth of its founding. Together, they uncover the miraculous, morally grounded legacy of Washington — a man guided by divine purpose, not myth — and expose how modern academia and media have twisted history into ideology. From Washington’s providential survival in battle to his moral transformation on slavery, Glenn reveals why rediscovering the Founders’ own words is essential to restoring truth in a post-truth age.

Transcript

Below is a rush transcript that may contain errors

GLENN: Let me go to Paul in Pennsylvania. Hello, Paul.

CALLER: Hello, Glenn, I never would have called the show if I didn't have a dream about speaking to you last night, on the phone. So I thought that was profound. Stu will tell you that: If you're dreaming about Glenn, things aren't going well.

GLENN: Wow, you've got to raise your standards, there. My wife doesn't even dream about me, yeah.

CALLER: Well, yeah. I better jump on it. What we talked about on the phone call was George Washington. I'm actually writing my PhD dissertation on George Washington, and I never had a mixture of excitement and heartbreak in my heart like George AI. So I was heartbroken, and I wasn't involved in it.

And so I'm just calling about that, because I don't know. When you're dreaming about Glenn Beck in the phone call, you know, I feel you should jump on it. So...

GLENN: Well, okay. So, Paul, you're getting your PhD in history.

CALLER: Correct.

GLENN: And specifically with George Washington, or just that is your final paper?

CALLER: My -- currently it's American history. My dissertation is on George Washington.

GLENN: That is fabulous. And what did you come away thinking about George Washington, learning about George Washington?

CALLER: Well, I grew up in Pittsburgh, so Washington is all overt Pittsburgh area because of the French and Indian War.

GLENN: Yeah. Yeah.

CALLER: And you kind of wonder how much of it is legend and how much of it is true. And then the more you look into it, you realize, these things weren't written about him, after or during the revolution to, you know, pump him up. These things were actually written minutes or weeks after it had happened.

GLENN: Yeah.

CALLER: What pastor, like Samuel Davies, is riding after the Battle of Monongahela, "This man might be being saved for our future purpose."

GLENN: Right.

CALLER: And that stuff has happened 20 years before the Revolution.

GLENN: Is that --

CALLER: The more you know, the more awe-inspiring it is.

GLENN: Yeah. Go ahead.

It is. Isn't it amazing, you look at George Washington, and I can't believe we lie about his teeth, we lie about the cherry tree when he is the most honest forthright and heroic guy, I think in all of American history. I mean, he is one of a kind.

And we lie about him. And we don't talk about all the things that happened, that are absolutely real and just confounding, miraculously!

CALLER: And "miraculous" is a correct term. It's shocking when you think of all of the instances where his life -- I mean, I know you had Salena Zito on a couple months ago, and she was talking about the incident in Butler, where he was shot at. He was 21 years old.

And then a bullet flies between him and a guy, inches away. I mean, the -- as much as American history gets altered, if he dies before the war, world history is altered.

GLENN: Everything, I know.

So what is the worst thing you could find about George Washington? I could only find that his mother said that he ate a lot of ice cream, and that was too extravagant, his Mother Mary.
(talking over)
GLENN: Not at all. No.

CALLER: Kind of --

GLENN: You know, the more you learn about her, the more I think George Washington's mom, probably sounded a little like that, you know what I mean?

She just --

CALLER: She would essentially sound like her.

GLENN: She's not a likable person.

CALLER: Yeah, probably why he went on adventures so early, just to get out of the house. She kind of chased him out.

GLENN: Yes. Yes.

What's the worst thing you learned about him?

CALLER: I don't know. It's hard -- it's hard to find the dark, when the light is so bright within.

GLENN: I know.

CALLER: Are you aware that one of the reasons that he ended slavery, ended it was a dream he had.

That he was being --

GLENN: Not aware of that.

CALLER: And he -- he told her, I'm rewriting the will, and that's when he's on a deathbed. He brings up the two wills. He brings out the new will that he wrote that freed the slaves after he had this dream!

GLENN: I'm -- where did you get -- what source is that?

CALLER: That is in a book called Imperfect God.

GLENN: I have to tell you, have you seen original sources on it? Is it quoting where it's coming from?

CALLER: Yeah, it does quote. It does quote where it's at. I mean, I have the book on my desk. I don't know exactly where it's from.

GLENN: So, you know, Paul, I would really to get your information. Put him on hold. And get his information. And he should go over to -- I mean, he had a dream. I mean, we should at least pursue this, to see if there's anything there. Seeing that we're building George AI. And that's what you're all about.

You know, there -- it is -- if you can get through college and you want to learn history, I don't know how -- you know, I don't know how Paul did it and made it with his -- with his brain not just Jell-O. You know.

Because this is the difference between -- look, George AI is not going to be -- it's are not going to be complete for a long time.

It has -- there's just too much in there.

But it is going to be a -- a doorway into learning about the Founders in their own words with the founding documents.

You know, when you go to a university, or you learn from history in class, you're -- you're -- you're -- you're trained to quote the interpreters of history, not understand the originators. Instead of -- instead of reading Madison, you're standing there, and you're sitting there. And you're listening to a teacher or a professor trying to explain what Madison really meant.

Well, why didn't I just go to Madison?

I don't want the modern context. I want it in his writings.

Can you imagine, 100 years from now, Trump -- Trump in the history books, how do you think that guy will be remembered, with historians?

How are they going to get -- we can't even -- half the country doesn't even know who he is.

Half the country!

And they're watching him in realtime.

What's the difference? They're not actually watching or listening. They're listening to the interpreters.

If you actually listen to him, if you actually watch him, you learn, that's a completely different guy. There's a show going on, and there's things that he does, that I don't necessarily like. But that's not who he is. That's not what he's doing.

That's -- that's why, first sources are so important. You know, you're not -- you're not -- you're not learning the interpretation. When you read about Washington and the farewell address and Lincoln's second inaugural, you see -- you see men who believed that truth existed outside of them!

Moral and divine, and it was -- it was outside of them. Universities are also teaching that, you know -- I don't know.

Truth is in you!

It's your truth. No. No.

Real truth is outside of me. I don't know how Paul made it through without hating America. You know, because usually you're taught that the Founders were hypocrites.

And you're not reading the original sources. When you read the Federalist papers. When you actually read the words of Frederick Douglass. Not the interpretation of Frederick Douglass. But read the words of Frederick Douglass. You see a guy who is really struggling, trying to figure it out. Not a perfect guy.

Not perfect. Same with the Founders. Not perfect.

They're really struggling. And that's not even understood I don't think in today's world. The struggle for truth, the struggle for thinking. You're not taught to critically think anymore.

You're conform, conform, conform. Write this down, kids. It will be on the test. Parroting is what they want.

AI tops country charts: Humanity's soul at stake?

The #1 country song in America isn’t sung by a human... it was generated entirely by AI. Glenn Beck dives into what this means for music, creativity, and the very definition of humanity. If artificial intelligence can sing with emotion, write lyrics about suffering, and imitate a soul it doesn’t have, then what separates human beings from machines? As AI agents begin creating personalized music, podcasts, and worlds, Glenn warns that we are entering a moment where the battle for meaning, purpose, and identity becomes unavoidable.

Transcript

Below is a rush transcript that may contain errors

GLENN: I don't know if you saw the number one song on the billboard music charts. I want to talk about this in-depth tomorrow. But it is number one, on the country music billboard charts!

I want you to listen to it.

Go ahead.
(music)

GLENN: Okay. So the interesting part about this song is that guy who is singing that has not been talking for a long time. He's not been walking for a long time. In fact, he was not born long ago. He's not real. That's AI. The number one song on the billboard country music chart is AI. AI.

I have to tell you, some of my favorite music is coming from AI right now. And I don't know how to feel about it. You know, we -- we just -- it wasn't too long ago, that we thought, oh, well. It won't ever be able to do that. Art is the music. Art is the window to the soul!

How -- how is AI. If you look at some of the lyrics of this song, I mean, it talks about how he's been dragged through the mud. You know, he's had to really stand.

I mean, it -- it doesn't know any of that stuff. None of it is real. And yet, it's assembling it in a way, that is so appealing, it's number one on the billboard country chart!

If that -- and this is what I want to focus tomorrow. I want to talk to you about college.

And what are you telling your kids about college.

What are you doing?

If you're in college, what are you doing?

If you're thinking about college, what are you thinking!

Because the whole world is about to change.

You know, I just heard Elon Musk say that in five years.

There's not going to be phones and apps.

I want you to think about this. There won't be phones or apps. It will just be some sort of a box or a device that you kind of carry around with you.

And it's listening. It's -- anticipating.

It's AI. It's an agent AI.

And it will know what you want to hear.

What you want -- and it will create the music you want to hear. It will create the podcasts I want to hear.

It will do all of this stuff for you. So we will be even in our own universe, even more than we are right now!

But if -- if AI can fake being a human and sing soulfully, while not having a soul, what does it mean to be a human?

I have been asking this question and been saying, Stu, since the '90s?

I have been saying, we have to have a conversation on what does it mean to be human!

What does it mean to be alive?

Because there's going to come a time, when you won't know what it means!

Are we there yet?

Stu. Are we there?

STU: It's a good question. I think we know what it means to be human. But I think the ways that we have shorthanded that over the years, are dissolving. Right?

You know, when you come up with what seems like original thought. We might all be able to acknowledge something that AI churns out is not original thought.

But it certainly seems like it, to most.

And I don't think a lot of people don't care.

People won't care if it's made by humans or not. If they like it.

And they seem to like it. And while there will I think be a real pushback by some, against this stuff, just like, you know, I have a bunch of friends who are into the horror movie practical effects of the world.

GLENN: Yeah. Yeah.

STU: Where they're like, I like going -- that's why I like to watch horror movies. Because thee use real fake blood, or whatever -- it's a real dedication. It's not my thing. I don't care.

If I go to the movie, if it's CGI and it looks real, I don't care. But they love the fact that it's being made by practical effects. And if that's -- there will always be some interest in that, I think.

There will always be some interest in watching someone doing something manually that a machine could do easier and in some ways, better.

But like --

GLENN: And -- and --

STU: It becomes niche after a while, doesn't it?

GLENN: Yeah, handmade is going to come back into style. At some point, handmade. Human made will come back to style.

But we are going to go through a period, where it will get really scary.

Because, I mean, if a machine can -- if a machine can sing soulfully, and not have a soul, what does -- what does that mean?

If it can sculpt beauty, generate things that can make you cry. But it -- how does it know -- it doesn't have anything real inside of it. If it can imitate genius, then what is our genius, what does that mean? Let me start this conversation. We will go more into this on tomorrow's program.

Let me start this. When you start to ask yourself, what does it mean to be a human? A machine can produce, and it can produce and will produce better than you can! But it cannot care.

It cannot actually care. It can calculate. But it cannot love! A machine can imitate suffering.
It can relate to suffering. It can sing songs soulfully, like it has suffered. But it can never walk through the valley of suffering.

It can analyze morality, but it can't instinctively choose right and wrong, because it's serving a higher power. It has no --

STU: No conscience. It has no courage. It has no soul! It will never put itself between danger and a child! It will never forgive. Because it's never really offended. It will never sacrifice. It will never bury a friend and carry that little piece of the brief with them, for the rest of their lives.

There's something different about humans, and it is -- it's not about what we can do.

It is everything about the divine spark. Only humans can look at something and say, "Damn it. I know all the odds are against me. All reason goes against this. But I'm going to build it instead. I'm going to rebuild." Only humans hear the call of -- from deep within, the whispering of the spirit. Or the ancient whispers. The machines will never hear!

Saying, live for something greater than yourself.

There is something more out there. Only humans can take suffering, and learn compassion!

Only humans can take fear and turn it into courage and bravery.

Only humans can take history and turn it into real wisdom.

We are making artificial minds. But we are not making artificial life!

But as these artificial minds begin to get better and better, and their tools become better and better, it should not make us smaller.

It should make us ask bigger questions!

Who am I?

Why am I here?

What is the purpose of life?

The questions that man has been asking since the dawn of time, what am I willing to endure, for the sake of truth?

What am I willing to stand up for?

What is worth living for? What is worth dying for?

What is the purpose of the freedom that I have right now?

Is there a purpose?

What's spark inside of me, that no machine will ever be able to copy?

No algorithm can simulate?

No code can counterfeit?

What makes me unique?

That answer is going to be found in each of us. In each of our hearts.

And it's this weird, mysterious furnace, where reason meets faith, and memory becomes meaning. And the divine, echoes inside of us. Reminding us, that we are individuals. That we are here for a purpose. That we can be forgiven. We can get stronger. We can rebuild.

We can forget everything the world is saying and chart our own course!

That's what makes us humans, and machines will not understand that!

Being human isn't what we can produce. Because you're going to see, it's producing everything.

It's what we can choose. We can choose to love. We can choose to sacrifice. We can choose to tell the truth.

We can choose to stand when the world bows.

We can choose to create, not because we're told to create, not because we make money to create, but because there's something inside us, that is so restless, until we do create!

A lot of people don't know that I paint. I'm an artist.

I don't patriot for anybody else.

I don't patriot to sell my paintings.

I don't -- I don't -- I paint, because there's something inside of me, that compels me to do it. That is human.

It can reproduce my brush strokes, and make them better.

And it can borrow our melodies, it can echo our stories. But it cannot replace the things that make us human. The ability to forge meaning! Out of all of the things that we have suffered through, the age of machines is rising! And it is going to diminish us, if we don't figure out who we are and what our purpose -- what is that stirring inside of me.

You may not find it. But recognize that stirring inside of you, and if it's not, you're already starting to lose your humanity. It doesn't have to finish us, it can refine us. It can remind us who we truly are.

It can urge us, find that! Because I'm coming to replace everything else.

What makes us, us, we're human. And that itself is a miracle, that a machine cannot re-create.

How a pacifist pastor became Hitler’s fiercest enemy

Tucker Carlson recently claimed that Dietrich Bonhoeffer decided “Christianity is not enough” when he took part in a plot to kill Adolf Hitler. Was Tucker right? Glenn Beck, who has studied Bonhoeffer in-depth, dives into the full story of Bonhoeffer and his struggle with these same questions…

Transcript

Below is a rush transcript that may contain errors

GLENN: I'll bring this up. Tucker did a podcast yesterday, that I listened to, or a couple of days. Whatever. You know, I listened to it yesterday.

And -- and the reason why I listened to it is because so many friends are like, he's talking about Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Glenn. Blah, blah, blah.

And I don't want to get into -- I'm not going to talk about personalities. I just want to talk about facts. You draw your own conclusion about who you listen to. And you can listen to them or not listen to them. That's fine. But let's make sure we correct facts and not make it about personalities.

Okay. Dietrich Bonhoeffer is one of my heroes. Dietrich Bonhoeffer is one of the greatest men to ever live. Dietrich Bonhoeffer is a Christian pastor. And let me set it up this way. When the Third Reich grew, and the Weimar republic collapsed, there was this -- there was this -- this movement in Christianity that happened quickly. Within the first year of the end of the Weimar and the beginning of the Nazi regime, within a year, 60 percent of the churches ridded themselves of everything Jewish. Okay? Now, that's hard to do when your main hero figure is a Jew! And the entire history, that said, hey. He's coming, is also written by Jews! Okay?

It's the Old Testament. And, by the way, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. They were Jews too! So it's hard to rinse the Jew out of the Judeo-Christian world. But somehow or another, they did it. Sixty percent. Okay?

They've gotten rid of, including many churches, already had gone for it and gotten rid of the Old Testament. That is something that Hitler's people were really pushing for: Get rid of the Old Testament. Well, you have nothing left, if you don't have the Old Testament with the New Testament!

So the world had gone insane. The Christian world had gone insane. Within six months, many, if not most of the churches had replaced the picture of Christ on the altar, with a picture of Adolf Hitler. So he changed the fabric of Christianity, entirely. And he was going after any pastor, priest, anybody, who was preaching something different. Okay? There were a couple of pastors. One played along with it at first. Pastor Niemöller. And he was like, "At first they came for this, and I didn't say anything, and then they came for this."

He didn't say anything at first. Then he -- then he got in -- and he's like, oh, I should do it. But he was praised in the end, for his unwavering faith. He actually stood.

And he actually -- he was -- one of the guys who preached that the Nazis were not to blame alone. They played their role.

But may I quote, would the Nazis been able to do what they would have done, if church members would have been truly faithful Christians. The answer is, no!

Truly faithful.

Now, Tucker said yesterday, that he doesn't think that Bonhoeffer was -- I don't remember the exact lines. I'll probably get it wrong.

Do we have it?

Okay. Go ahead and play it.

VOICE: We really have no choice, but to start shooting them. To be Dietrich Bonhoeffer. And sort of reach the end of reason or even Christianity.

Bonhoeffer decided, Christianity is -- he's a Lutheran pastor.

Christianity is not enough. We have to kill the guy. Not judging Bonhoeffer. He was a great man in some ways.

But, I mean, that's inevitable, once we decide that people are Nazis.

GLENN: Okay. So his point here, he's making about, we have to stop calling people Nazis.

And he's absolutely right. You have to stop calling people Nazis or shooting against them. Exactly right, unless they're actual Nazis. You know what I mean?

I mean, there's a difference between saying, hey. We should not call people Nazis, who are not Nazis, and Dietrich Bonhoeffer shouldn't have called Hitler a Nazi. He was the Nazi.

He's the idyllic Nazi. He's the king of all Nazis. He's a Nazi!

So when it is a Nazi, I think you can call people Nazis.

But, yeah. That does require you then to make a choice.

And that's where Bonhoeffer found himself.

This guy was an amazing man. He was a pacifist. He did not believe in war. He did not believe in killing. He -- and that's how he skated for a long time. Because he was saying, quiet. Quiet. Quiet.

Nope. Nope. Nope. Do not involve yourself in this. God does not want us to kill each other. He was a huge pacifist. His story goes back and forth. You have to read the Bonhoeffer book by Eric Metaxas.

But he goes back and forth. He comes to the United States. He sees faith in action, actually in Harlan. And kind of has this renewed kind of faith experience. He goes back to Germany. He's there for a while.

He knows now that Hitler is -- because he's helping Jews escape. And he knows Hitler is on it!

And he's going to -- he's closing in on him. He's going to get him. He leaves. He comes to the United States. He's here, and he starts feeling guilty. Like, I can't leave my own country. I have to stand! I can't leave and hide!

I've got to stand. So he goes back to Germany. I think on the last vote, that is going into Germany, and he gets to Germany. And he starts plotting Valkyrie. He's part of Project Valkyrie.

Valkyrie is the Tom Cruise movie you've seen, von Stauffenberg, a huge German hero, who was not a Nazi, but he was a German soldier who decided, "Oh, this has got to stop."

And they planned with a lot of people who said, "We've got to stop Hitler." Because look at what he's doing. He's destroying everything, and he's killing millions. And it's got to stop.

And Bonhoeffer, when he got back, he was wrestling with his pacifism. He was a pacifist. A strong one. He really believed that God said, no. No, fighting.

No war. Nothing.

You're not allowed to kill.

But the evil that he saw was so overwhelming, that he started questioning everything that he believed.

And ins class, because he would -- he was teaching these young pastors coming up. In his class, he started saying things to the class members, so if a pacifist saw something that was so evil, you needed to stop it, would it be okay?

And then they would argue. And the class didn't have any idea. He was working it out with the class in his own head.

He was working it out.

How do I work this.

How can I -- am I a Christian. If I do this.

He got to the point to where he said, if you knew of a pacifist, that you respected. And they did get involved in that. Would you still be their friend?

Would you still respect them?

Are they still Christians?

Okay. He's looking to work this out. And he struggled with it.
Hitler grabs him. Puts him in -- in prison.

He's in prison for a long time.

And the only reason why he survived as long as he did, he came from a very famous family.

And so Hitler really didn't feel like he had the juice to kill him. Without causing him other problems.

But he escaped for a while. And he was in prison. He wrote some beautiful stuff.

One of the most beautiful homilies on marriage, that I've ever read, is from him.

He was a guy who didn't get married.

He was going to get married.

But knew what was going to happen to him. But didn't want to endanger her, so he didn't get married. So he didn't know anything about marriage, except what he had read. What he thought about and read in Scriptures. And he writes this beautiful homily, because he's supposed to give the sermon at his sister's wedding. The Nazis won't let him out to do it. He writes it. It's read at her wedding. It's absolutely beautiful. And deep, deep, deep.

He's in prison for a while. He's now -- it's -- it's, you know, coming up to April 1945. Hitler dies in April 1945.

And everything is falling apart. And so the Nazis start kind of cleaning up the death camps. And they start transferring people. And -- and Bonhoeffer is supposed to be let free. And he gets on to this bus, you know, driven by the Nazis. And he's being transferred to where he will be released. Well, on the way, the tire goes out, and they don't have a spare. And so they're sitting on the edge of the road, and they got all these prisoners.

And these -- this other bus is coming. The other direction. And they're like, "Hey, where are you going?"

They said, "Well, we're going to this camp." Great. Will you just take these prisoners with you? Here's the paperwork and everything else.

Here's the prisoners. You just take them with you. So all the prisoners, who were there, including Bonhoeffer, who was supposed to be released, go to this other death camp. And now he's sitting there on this death camp and waiting for death.

And not supposed to be.

And in that, he is preaching Christ to the guy who did all of the experiments, on the Jews, you know, freezing them. Bringing them up, at high altitude. Until their his pop. All the horrible experiments.

Everything that is now in every hospital in the world.

The book about hypothermia and everything else.

It's the number one book on what the human body can do and how you fix things.

Number one.

It's in every hospital.

Every doctor has it. That was written by that Nazi.

He released it, without Hitler's permission. Because he thought it was such a gift to the world. And he went to prison. Because Hitler said, we're not trying to save the world. We're saving German soldiers.

Puts him in prison. The guy is a vile guy, as you can imagine. He's in, I think a French spy. This woman, she's a double agent. So they're in this cell, with Dietrich Bonhoeffer. And he's preaching to them. And they're just vile with each other, in front of him!

He keeps his cool. Keeps who he is.

Comes up to -- a couple of weeks before Hitler is going to kill himself. And they come, and they're going to execute everybody in that cell. So they go out, and the only reason why we know how Dietrich Bonhoeffer died and when he died is because of the way he acted. He went out. They took him out to the would see. And they had built a hanging platform. And one by one, they brought him up. Put the noose around their neck. Trapdoor. They died! Cut them down. Next one. Bring them up. Put the noose around their neck. Trap terror. Opens. They die!

Bonhoeffer, when he comes up, he comes up to the platform, and the guy who is putting the noose around his neck, he says, something like, thank you for your kindness.

Okay?

And the guy is like, what know.

Everybody else is freaking out. Everybody else is, you know.

And he says, "Thank you for your kindness."

He tightens the noose. Pulls the trapdoor. Dead.

He remembers that one guy. And remembers, that was Dietrich Bonhoeffer. I don't know if he knew who Dietrich Bonhoeffer was at the time.

But he knew him, because of that "thank you." He died like a very valiant man. Okay?

In a way, I don't know if I could. What is the difference between when you confront evil, when you see evil. I mean, Dietrich Bonhoeffer is the guy who said, "Silence in the face of evil is evil itself."

God will not hold us blameless.

Not to act is to act. Okay?

That comes from a deep, deep spiritual place.

What is the difference between that and Thomas Jefferson? Saying, "Rebellion to tyrants is obedience to God?"

Do you, as a Christian have a responsibility to kill Hitler, if you had the opportunity with not Baby Hitler. Baby Hitler hasn't committed any crime. You're seeing this death machine. And you've tried everything you can to stop it.

Do you have a responsibility as a Christian to stop the evil? I think you do! I think silence in the face of evil is evil itself.

Not to act, is to act. You know, for -- for evil to happen, it's -- it will happen when good men do nothing!

We know that. We have a responsibility to act. But we have a responsibility to do everything Christ-like that we can, first. But you get into this place, to where, you know, whoa unto those who call evil good and good evil.

Everybody starts to confuse the language. Right?

And that's what's happening right now. Everybody is calling everybody a fascist or Hitler.

Everybody calls everybody a Nazi. And so there's no meaning on words.

We can't forget what words actually mean or we will wind up calling good evil and evil good!

That's what happened to so many Christians.

They did nothing. They just went along with it. They just played along, and then it became them! Dietrich Bonhoeffer was a great, great man.

A Christian giant!

And a man who fought real evil, and wrestled with it!

We squabble on the internet. And I don't want to add to that.

All I want to do is make sure that we talk about the facts as they are, so we don't lose our way as everything gets jumbled.

THE GLENN BECK PODCAST

The RETURN of a Hidden Biblical Alien Race? | Timothy Alberino | The Glenn Beck Podcast | Ep 274

What did Jesus really know about the Book of Enoch and the Nephilim giants? Does the Bible hint at “extraterrestrials” cohabiting with mankind in a forgotten golden age? Glenn Beck sits down with ‪@TimothyAlberino‬ for a mind-blowing conversation that connects the dots from Genesis 6 to the coming post-human apocalypse. As futurists like Yuval Harari openly declare the end of humanity, gene editing, artificial wombs, IVF, and transhumanism are rapidly remaking man in a new image. Alberino issues a chilling wake-up call to Christians: “There’s only one qualification for redemption at the cross of Christ — you must be human.” Are we about to sell our birthright for a bowl of stew and step into a nightmarish dystopian future where humanity itself becomes obsolete? Does transhumanism threaten our eternal salvation? Is our humanity worth preserving? Anchor yourself in the gospel — this explosive episode is a spiritual red alert you cannot afford to miss.