RADIOAugust 18, 2022

How progressive 'puritans' are DESTROYING FUN for us all

Noah Rothman, author of ‘The Rise Of The New Puritans,’ details just how ‘miserable’ the lives are of today’s progressives. And the worst part? They don’t even REALIZE IT! But these progressive ‘puritans’ are ‘pursuing a moral framework and have imposed it on EVERY ASPECT of life,’ Rothman explains, just like the totalitarian philosophy on which their ideology is based. Glenn and Rothman discuss how this kind of moral absolutism — that takes no prisoners — could cause our society to cease to function normally…

Transcript

Below is a rush transcript that may contain errors

GLENN: Noah Rothman. A guy who I think really gets it. He's the -- just written the book, The Rise of the New Puritans. The war on fun. Really. Noah, welcome to the program, how are you, sir?

NOAH: Very well. Thank you so much for having me. I appreciate it.

GLENN: You bet. You bet. So Stu and I are in the midst of reading your book. We haven't gotten all the way to the end yet. But I have to ask you: Do -- do progressives know that they're almost embarrassingly unfun right now? Do they know this?

NOAH: No. They absolutely don't. They would reject the premise. And they sort of recoil at the assertion that they're pursuing some sort of a moral framework. That they have imposed this moral framework on every aspect of life. Especially the apolitical aspects of life. They don't see themselves as less fun, less chill. Less accommodating than their parents or grandparents. But they most certainly are. They're having less fun. They're having less sex. They're enjoying life less than their elders.

GLENN: They're having less sex?

NOAH: Oh, yeah. You haven't gotten to that chapter? That's a good one.

GLENN: No.

NOAH: So that is my very salacious chapter on sex and booze. It's called -- it's titled Temperance. All of these chapters are organized around unimpeachable moral values. Because they are pursuing a moral ideal, about how society should organize itself. So when you think of progressives, you don't think they have sexual prescriptions, right?

But if you dig into the literature around the many proliferating sexual identities. It's not about self-gratification or self-fulfillment. It's about the political program associated with these things. This has to pursue and advance a political agenda. And couple that with the labyrinth theme of consent requirements now, in statute, in places like California, but mostly in dorms and college campuses.

And you have this unnavigable labyrinth that has been erected around consent. Which absent consent is obviously a crime. But we created now, real legal and moral, and social consequences, if a Q is misread or a signal is overlooked, or it's just human behavior that's intervened in the process. The complicated process. The result is less sex, people are reporting, especially young people are reporting have much less casual intercourse than their parents did.

GLENN: Okay. I have to tell you, first of all, it is a religion. It is a religion. So you have Puritans absolutely right. And they are imposing it on all of us. But I look at people who are like this. And I think to myself, how could you not be just miserable, if you believe all the things that they believe, it's just a life of misery.

NOAH: Yeah. They don't see themselves as miserable, but they are making their compatriots miserable. I think nine out of the ten people I spoke with are -- who -- most of them wouldn't go on the record, for fear of consequences, saying the things that they actually think.

GLENN: Which is weird.

NOAH: Yeah. Well, there are real social and professional consequences for going against this movement. It's not a big movement, but it punches way above its weight. And so these guys are Democrat. They vote Democrat. They wouldn't vote Republican with a gun to their head. But they didn't get into the business of making delicious food and writing screenplays and broadcasting sports because they wanted to do politics. They don't. They've just been drafted into this movement. And it's sapping them of enthusiasm for their life's work. And they really, really resent it.

STU: Can you go over some of these? You have so many examples of this type of thing. The hummus place is one.

GLENN: I would like to hear about the burrito truck. Tell us about the burrito truck.

NOAH: A truck that was in the Pacific Northwest, these two women went down to Mexico. Fell in love with the food, interviewed chefs, picked up some recipes, brought them back to the Pacific Northwest, and it was a profound success. They were very commercially successful. In fact, a lot of people targeted by this movement are successful. And their success engenders quite the resentment. But they brought it to the Pacific northwest. And the media environment down there, which is beholden to this progressive set of ideas, just went about destroying the thing, because they had stolen this heritage from -- from the hard-working people of Mexico. They hadn't given them any credit. They weren't giving them the proper remunerations that were due.

It was a very nebulous idea of what they violated. What prescriptions they ignored.

But this thing was destroyed. These two women were driven out of business. And the burrito truck, which was feted, which was loved, which was driven under -- out of business. In part, also because I think it was so good. But they had violated some unspoken, unwritten ideals about whatever culture appropriation is, it's very difficult to define. But it's believed to be some form of theft, as though culture is a 0-sum game. And it's commodified in some way.

GLENN: So when I read that, and I thought about it, I had just seen the new Elvis movie. Have you seen the new Elvis movie?

NOAH: I haven't. I heard it's good.

GLENN: It's very, very good. But it taught me something about Elvis that I didn't know. I didn't know that he was so poor after his dad died, that he and his mom lived in a black community in Memphis. Which never happened. He was like the only white kid in this black community. So he grew up in that culture. He grew up with the music. That's why he moved the way he did. And the -- at the time, the programmers of radio, many of them would have loved to have played the black music. But they couldn't put a black man on the air. And when they heard his music, it was the black culture and black music sung by a white guy.

And, you know, it shows B.B. King and all of these legends who were friends of his, going, man, take it. Take it. I'm glad people are listening to it.

Now, you would look at that, and it would be cultural appropriation. And they would hate. I think they probably do, hate Elvis and anybody like him, because he was just stealing that. No, he wasn't.

He was popularizing it. He was breaking a barrier.

NOAH: Yeah. Popularizing it and creating synthesis. And there's this idea abroad that synthesis in music, in culture, in cuisine, is some sort of form of theft. Is there needs to be -- there's a racial essentialist element that's put to this.

That suggests that any creativity in creative works of art and amalgamating and synthesizing various influences into some finished product represents some form of attack on culture, even though what you just said is absolutely correct. In art, in food, and in music, you're exposing new audiences to this thing. You're creating a broader understanding and acceptance of these cultural traits, albeit, perhaps, amalgamated. Not necessarily adulterated. They confuse the two, probably deliberately. But the expansion of broadening the exposure to these ideas. These cultural traits. Used to be something that we would celebrate and accept as an unadulterated good. It's not anymore.

GLENN: Right. I know there was a guy who I grew up listening to on the radio.

He was very, very good. His name was Charlie Brown. He was originally at KJR in Seattle, and then CUBE. And I studied at his feet. I was lucky enough to work with him when I was very, very young. And I watched him, and I talked to him. When I started doing my own show, I called him up and I asked him. Hey, Charlie, can I -- can I steal this and this and this from you? And he just laughed, and he said. And I think this is true, with almost everything.

Because it's not -- you're not living in a vacuum. And he said, Glenn, you steal from me. You have stolen twice.

And that's what we don't understand, that it all is just kind of -- that's where you get your inspiration. And you take it. And you make it your own. And you move -- not stealing things word-for-word, et cetera, et cetera.

Let me ask you, because I'm watching -- I mean, I know you're -- your IQ is a lot higher than mine. And I don't know if you're -- if you're watching like The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, which I think is fantastic.

But it centers around this woman in the 1950s, early 1960s, who wants to be a comedian. And one of the running characters is Lenny Bruce. And Lenny Bruce would absolutely be in progressive jail right now, if he lived today. And you had all of these great comedians, that were there to push back, on the man. Whatever it was, they pushed back. These people like Ricky Gervais, make it, I think, because they don't apologize, and they don't stop.

Can you talk a little bit about the effect of apology, and what's happening in comedy.

NOAH: Yeah. The very same sentiments, policing of public morality, that took in Lenny Bruce. George Carlin and Richard Pryor are at work today. The executors of this campaign are not on the right. They used to be.

You know, the tendency that saw something that would corrupt you into great society and innocent cultural fare, used to be a tendency native to the right. In part, because we are all heirs to this puritanical tradition, has found a home in both political coalitions over the years.

On -- when it comes to comedy, one of the things you see now among this particularly puritanically inclined progressives is to emphasize the pain that someone had to endure, in order for you to enjoy something as trite as a punch line. You know, I see this in the fans of the comedian Hannah Gatsby. An anti-comic. And who is funny when she wants to be. She doesn't always want to be. Sometimes she will build the same tension that would otherwise lead to a punch line, give you that release, and doesn't break the tension. Just lets you sit and marinate in it, and absorb her pain. And maybe interrogate you about that joke that you told five minutes ago, and ask you, why you thought that was funny. Why was my suffering funny?

And that's what they love so much. They love the language. They love the ardor. Because it's a sign of your prudent understanding. That suffering exists in this world. And if you don't dutifully dwell on it every second of your life. You're sacrificing a moral mission, to advance a progressive project and make the human experience just a little bit more, you know, tolerable. This is a very puritanical ideal.

GLENN: I've never heard -- go ahead. Well, hang on. Hang on. I have to take a quick break. I want you to get to the apology. And I want you to explain a little bit deeper this anti-comedian. I've never heard that term before. Anti-comedian. And, you know, it's different than like Andy Kaufman. Who just, for his own entertainment, would make people wildly uncomfortable. But that's a completely different look. As I understand it. We're talking to Noah Rothman. He's the author of the rise of the new Puritans. A great book. You want to understand what's going on with the left and this new religion, and how it affects everything? The rise of the new Puritans, by Noah Rothman. Back with him in 60 seconds.

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(music)
Noah, I would love to do a podcast with you and spend, you know, at least an hour with you on this -- this topic. You've really nailed it. The book is the rise of the new Puritans. Tell me about the apology.

NOAH: So we are often bombarded with demands that you will apologize for your conduct. The apology provides you no absolution. And that's where I differ from a lot of the very brilliant scholars. Who have called this a purely secular faith. I don't see it entirely as a faith. Because in a faith in the western condition, there is deism, that expiates sin. There can be no absolution for sin in this particular faith because there is no deism. And because it is such an all-encompassing social code, I liken it more towards Puritanism. Because Puritanism wasn't just a phase. It wasn't just congregationalism. It was a way of life. It was a totalitarian philosophy by definition, because it was total.

When it comes to the apology, the apology as we've all observed, makes you just a more delicious target, and trains more fire on you. This isn't just true in comedy. There's several examples of that in the comedy chapter. But there's a particularly interesting anecdote that I lead off the book with, about a grocery -- about a grocer in Minnesota, that was, again, very popular. Very successful.

It was vetted by Keith Ellison on the floor of the House of Representatives. Diners, drive-ins, and dives. Guy Fieri featured it.

So it turned out, the owner of this grocer had a daughter, who in her youth, 14 and 18, respectively, made racially insensitive remarks online. This was picked up by the online community, that they attempted to him, to -- to apologize. And -- and to make absolution for his sins. He had to fire his daughter. That was not good enough. He pledged that she would devote herself to good works for the community. That was not good enough. Eventually, the holder of his lease terminated the lease.

GLENN: Oh, my gosh.

NOAH: Because that was the penitence that was deserving of the sin he had committed. The careless parentage of a willful daughter. And this is as moral a code as you can find. It goes back to the founding of the country. When you are apologizing in any other tradition, you would find some absolution. This particularly uncompromising tradition offers no -- no absolution for offenses against it.

GLENN: It is. I will tell you, you're right about this. As a completely different kind -- you don't call it a religion. I do. I just think it's an Antichrist-style religion. There is no forgiveness. And without forgiveness, we cease to function normally as a society. You just can't live in a society, where there is no forgiveness. Where you're held accountable, not only for everything you've ever done, but also anything your ancestors have done. That's a pretty shallow pool of good people that can be swimming around.

Noah, thank you so much for being on the program today. I would love to have you back. Love to do a podcast with you. The book is the rise of the new Puritans. Fighting against progressive's war on fun. Noah Rothman is the author

This plan could FINALLY FIX our broken immigration system

Is it enough to just stop ILLEGAL immigration in America? Rep. Chip Roy (R-TX) joins Glenn Beck to explain his proposal to stop ALL immigration until we fix our broken system…

Transcript

Below is a rush transcript that may contain errors

GLENN: Anyway, let me go to Chip Roy.

Hello, Chip, how are you, sir?

CHIP: Glenn, how are you? Merry Christmas, bro.

GLENN: Merry Christmas. This is our Congressman from the great state of Texas for Texas attorney general.

Talk to me about your bill on immigration.
Does it have a chance -- tell me what it is. And I want to know if it has a chance of passing.

CHIP: Sure. I mean, you know, you opened this segment by talking about our need to focus on not just illegal immigration, but legal immigration. And I strongly believe that that is true. I think for way too long, we have been getting loose. Fast and loose overly corporate. Overly driven by, you know, your kind of chamber of commerce crowd.

All of a sudden, we now have a situation where we have millions of people in our country, that are not seeking to assimilate, not seeking to assimilate, not seeking to be, quote, the melting pot.

But rather trying to reestablish their cultures from other countries, rather than becoming fully American. And that's been a long string of -- of decisions. And we go back and put it in perspective. We have 51 and a half million foreign-born people here in the United States.

The vast majority of whom, did not come here illegally, right?

But came here legally. Then they've been abusing the process and the system, because we've got this broad use of H-1B one visas. We have diversity visas. We have chain migration. We have everybody's cousin. Uncle, aunt, whatever. And there's the growing population here.

And this is now, unlike it was a century ago, right?

When we had the mass migration. The late 1800s, the early 1900s. And at that point, we didn't have a welfare state. We have schools that were teaching that America was great, or even the Constitution. And we had, you know, God in the schools, and we had our culture being elevated, not being criticized. And at that point, we stood for immigration in the 1920s. Right? We still flatlined it because everybody said, whoa, whoa, whoa. We have so many people in.

Our country was stronger for it. Today is worse. Because we have so many people coming here, who are not assimilating. We have schools that are not teaching people that America is great.

And we certainly are continuing to have a welfare state now, that is causing a big problem. So I think we should pause it. It's called the Pause Act. We should pause legal immigration, until we fix a lot of things.

Fix diversity. Fix chain migration. Fix H1 --

GLENN: Wait. Can you tell me what a diversity visa.

What is a diversity visa? I don't even know what that is.

CHIP: Diversity visas. Chain migration, these are all things being used currently to have expansive use of the ability of people to come into the country, and -- and say that they're -- you know, a family member, right.

An extended individual, in what we're calling chain migration. So you'll have a person come in, and instead of it being a close knit family member, right?

Instead of it being, okay. This is my spouse, or this is my child. It's cousins and aunts and uncles, and so forth.

And, you know, this is the kind of thing that we've got to reform. And including, H-1B visas. And including all the problems that we have here with birthright citizenship.

Obviously, the Supreme Court is going to hear the Trump administration's executive order on that.

But we should codify a new view of how we deal with birthright citizenship. You can only be a citizen, if you're born of citizen parents. Not because you were on our dirt. So these are -- in Texas, right?

We had a Supreme Court opinion, in the 1980s to educate the children. Of illegal aliens. Illegal alien children. We do challenge that, overturn it. And we should fix it.

Until you fix all those things. Fix illegal immigration.

Then we're going to lose our country. We're going to lose our culture, and I think we need to do that. So that's why we have to have a bill to pause it.

I just talked to police officer, the day before yesterday. And I was walking down the street, going into the store for Christmas. And he said, hey, Glenn Beck.

And he had this slight accent. I couldn't tell exactly what it was. And then he said, eventually, I'm Irish. I came from Ireland. I've been here for 20 years. My wife and I lived in Ireland.

I said, my gosh, does Ireland even exist anymore?

And he said, Glenn, it used to be. I go back every year, it used to be you could go anywhere, and you would have the Irish public.

And, you know, you could see Irishmen everywhere. And, yes, there were people from other parts of the world, et cetera, et cetera. But it was Irish!

He said, I can go down into my hometowns, small ones, and he said, I don't see another Irishman.

He said, the Irish culture is completely annihilated. He said, it's all mosques and Pakistanis and whatever.

And he said, is there ever anyone who will say, hey, wait a minute, the Irish culture, the American culture, the English culture.

The -- the whatever culture, that's important too! When is anybody going to step up and say, you know what, we -- we don't want to lose this!

By embracing that! We can have both. But not like this!

CHIP: Well, Glenn, and you know. And, by the way, the thing I -- since I got up and I started talking about chain migration. But just so you know, right? That's a program very specifically designed to bring people in from countries that we don't have significant immigration from. It's literally designed to diversify our immigration population.

GLENN: What!

Who cares?

CHIP: Right. And that's my point. And this is what's so wrong about our immigration system.

And it's being done that way. And by Afghanistan, all of it is being abused. And we have had this mass migration. And, again, you are the ardent defender of the First Amendment. So am I, and you can believe what you want to believe. Right?

And we would never want to insert the federal government into your belief system, like between you and God.

But what we have to remember about Islam is that it is a politically motivated group of individuals. Right?

This is -- when we look at the core, and we look at what -- you look at what the Muslim government is talking about. When you look at Sharia law, when you look at the tenets of Islam, there's a massive political component to it, and we have to remember that.

We have to remember. You actually read the words. Read what's being said. And look what's happening in Dallas.

Epic City is not just an accident. What happened was the growth and the promotion of Sharia law in the United Kingdom, in France, in America.
It's not an accident, okay? And this is well beyond, hey, you can believe what you want to believe. You can be agnostic. You can be Christian, Jewish, Hindu, Muslim. We stand for that principle.

When you come here to annihilate and change your culture. Then you've got to approach that.

We -- we Americans to have approach that in a different way.

And I believe, we should pause immigration. We should be doing what the President is doing.

Remove a whole lot of the people dumped into our country under Biden with illegal immigrants, asylum, that were abused for all those abused by Biden and Mayorkas, and go around and make sure that we are resetting the table and reset our laws. And we should just pause for a while. And reclaim our American culture to your point about what you just said about Ireland.

GLENN: You -- you lay out -- I saw your press release, and you lay out what this bill will do, and I got to read this to the audience.

Because I can't believe you have to say this. It would end the practice of automatic citizenship, yeah, and chain migration.

Yeah, that's not what the Fourteenth Amendment says. That's not what it is about. That's not what it was written for. And the H-1B one visa program. Got it. Ensure immigration assimilation, got it. Now, listen to these last three.

This is what he is proposing we do.

Okay? We're not doing it. He's proposing we do this: Deny entry to Sharia law adherence.

Oh, I don't know. Yes!

I can't believe we have to even say that, out loud. Deny entry to Chinese communist party members. I don't know. Yes!

And the third one: Deny entry to terrorists!

This is a civilization that is on a suicidal path. If that can't happen. That's not -- it's crazy that that's not already happening!

Suicide. Just committing suicide.

CHIP: Well, the other element that we have to factor in is the welfare that is being doled out.

GLENN: Yes.

CHIP: To noncitizens in the form of not just food stamps. Medicaid.

All of the social programs in the federal government. But also our local schools and local hospitals to get inundated by people coming into the United States.

Knowing that they will get free health care and free education, and they might be able to then use birthright citizenship, to come here, to grow here. And none of this is about the melting pot.
And, Glenn, that's what I'm trying to make the case here to people. When you have people who came here, who largely shared our values. And when they came here, they wanted their kids to learn English. They wanted their kids to love America.

They wanted their kids to love our history and our founding. They appreciate what our country stood for. By the way, that mass migration occurred right after the Civil War. So our country has literally been at war. And people said, I want to go there. Because this country stood for something bigger and better. And people knew it. But they wanted to be apart of it. And they wanted to embrace it.

They didn't want to change it. That's not true now. Right? That's definitively not true.

United States Congress. Ilhan Omar.

When we openly and outspokenly, committed to changing America to be like her home country!

That's a problem. That is what is happening. And if we don't -- you can't win a war, that you don't acknowledge exists, Glenn. And there is a war being waged against our way of life. And against our culture.

So look, I've increased the legislation here. But it's also why I'm running for attorney general. And a campaign speech, you hear me.

We have to have states. That are standing up and leading this fight as well.

If we're going to save America.

GLENN: You brought up, you know, there's a war being waged.

I -- every alarm bell in me is going off.

Every alarm bell within me. We are -- we're in a war. We won't even recognize it.

I think the president has. But I think it's going to take a lot more than what we're doing right now. Look at what's happening in Europe.

France just happened their -- their ball drop, you know, for New Year's Eve.

They have it -- every year. They cancelled it. And said, just stay at home. And watch a rerun of it from another year.

That's insanity!

They just have surrendered.

The -- how serious are we at -- at preparing for a civilizational war.

CHIP: Well, I think on the positive side, we have an increasing number of people in leadership, who were understanding the threat.

In a way that they didn't a year ago, or five years ago.

That being said, we also have a long way to go and a very short time to get there. Right?

We have got to move quickly. If you see what's happening in Europe, right? And we go, well, they're 20 years ahead of us now. I don't think that's true.

I think Europe is a mere months, years, few years ahead of us, in terms of how bad it's gotten.

And I think we're now realizing, how much damage we've done over the last decade, in particular. Certainly, the last two decades in terms of the mass influence of people, that do not ultimately share our values. So I do think it's important that we support the president on what he's doing and removing bad actors, and making sure that we're removing people that need to be removed, or here illegally.

But if we don't reform our illegal immigration system immediately. And pause it. And freeze it. And reset who we are as Americans. And get people to understand that when you're here, you're going to embrace being an American. Then we're not going to save the country. Right?

So that's why I wanted to introduce this bill. It's why I introduced this bill. That's why I had to introduce several legislation to defend people from Sharia bill. That's why I've given a bill to take away the tax status for CAIR. We've got to get people to realize, that we need immediate change. That we can't wait. So right now, Congress is not codifying or advancing the ball on this front yet.

The president is doing it unilaterally. And I think that's a problem.

GLENN: Can the house actually get it done? Are we going to pass it? Does it have a chance of ever getting to the president's desk?

VOICE: Right now, we are socializing it, and there's a growing number of people who support the concept. And it's not on social media.

But we've got to get it socialized with the White House and the leadership of the House, to get it to the point of trying to enforce a vote. There's going to be a lot of resistance. There's going to be a lot of people, that are going to be listening to business interests. A lot of people who will say, well, I've got a certain culture in my particular district and so forth.

And we've got to ride the (inaudible) act and recognize, if we don't do this, then we have no chance to save the country.

Because if another 55,000 people come in on diversity visas this year, and another 55,000 coming next year, and then another 55,000 the following year, all from these supposed low immigration countries for purposes of diversity. In addition to the chain migration, in addition to H-1B visas. Right? Do the math. See what's happening.

And how many things are happening. So we've got to freeze that. And reset what we want to do for our country.

GLENN: All right.

It's called the pause act. Get online, and support Chip Roy at the pause act. Ask your Congress man. Your senators.
To join Chip on the pause act. Again, you can follow him on X, at Chip Roy.

TX. He's also running for candidate for attorney general. What is your website? Chip.

CALLER: ChipRoy.com. Pretty simple. Pretty straightforward, and I appreciate it. And look, this Christmas Eve and for everybody out there, Merry Christmas. We have the greatest country in the history of the world. We have to keep our heads up and put our faith in Jesus, and remember that it's on us, to pass it down to our kids and grandkids.

GLENN: Thank you so much, Chip Roy.

The END of 'Glenn TV': 14 Years of Truth Bombs, Tears & Glenn's NEXT Revolution | Glenn TV | Ep 475

It's time to say goodbye to "Glenn TV," but Glenn's radio program and "The Glenn Beck Podcast" will continue to be main staples on BlazeTV. After 14 years of "Glenn TV," Glenn Beck looks back at the warnings and predictions that defined the show. From predicting the Islamification of Europe to exposing the corruption in Ukraine years before the mainstream media, Glenn revisits the moments he challenged the experts and sounded the alarm early. He rewinds his predictions on Russia, ISIS, socialism, and the coordinated collapse of capitalism and Western civilization. Glenn also revisits his early reporting on Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) and the COVID lab leak — stories the media originally dismissed. Plus he gives a first look at what's to come with his new project, the Torch, debuting January 5, 2026.

The Western World is UNDER ATTACK... And THESE Shocking Stories are Proof

A wave of global instability is forcing Western nations to confront hard truths they’ve ignored for years. From Australia’s deadly attack and a media narrative that excuses extremist violence, to France canceling its iconic New Year’s celebration over “security concerns,” the cracks in Western resolve are becoming impossible to hide. This conversation exposes how denial, mass migration without assimilation, and media double standards are eroding public safety, cultural confidence, and the West’s ability to defend itself from growing threats.

Transcript

Below is a rush transcript that may contain errors

GLENN: You know, there's more on the -- the shooting in Australia. Did you see the comment from the mom?

The -- the hero who disarmed. He's a hero. He's getting a lot of accolades.

But here's the family of Ahmed al Ahmed. No, no, no. That's the good guy. Hang on just a second.

That's the hero. I'm just looking through all of the stories. Here it is. Here it is.

Mother of the Bondi beach shooting suspect. The mother of Naveed Akram, who along with his father, allegedly killed more than a dozen people at a Hanukkah celebration, said on Sunday, insisted her son was a good boy.

Now, I mean, I can understand, you know, you wanting to believe that, because your son is your son. You know, but I don't think -- I don't think anybody in Rob Reiner's family is thinking the brother is a good boy. They might love him still, but he's not a good boy if he indeed did that.

STU: Yeah, there could be an element of thinking, right? Like, you know, he's been overcome by addiction, or overcome by mental illness. And I think he's a good boy underneath hat. You can have that Islamic extremist terrorist son if you want.

But what you would have to say I think accompanying that, was he got infected by this extremism. And, you know, by his dad who, you know, led him down a terrible path.

GLENN: Right. Her husband.

STU: Right. That's a plausible thing, if you believe. He can't be a good boy if he's murdering people, unless, of course, Glenn, you believe that the outcome was positive.

GLENN: Well, it was positive, yes.

She said, he doesn't have a firearm. Yeah, he does.

He doesn't even go out. He doesn't mix around with friends. Well, now you're describing a loner.

He doesn't drink, smoke, or go to bad places. Anyone would wish to have a son like my son. He's a good boy.

No. No. I'm safe to say, I don't want a son like that.

STU: No. Yeah, I'm pretty sure she was about to say, and he stays away from trans fats.

That's great, just doesn't have much to do with this particular incident.

GLENN: Yeah, I would say that. Also --

STU: Can I follow up, while we're in this realm here real quick with this audio. This is -- you mentioned this briefly. But let's play a game here: Can you find the logical problem with this particular audio from ABC News?

This is about the somewhat associated shooting of the pro-Palestinian group. Or the pipe bombing, from the pro-Palestinian group you discussed earlier this hour. This is a real clip, not edited.

GLENN: All right.

VOICE: Nowhere did they allege that any of these individuals wanted anybody to be harmed as a result of these pipe bombs. Specifically, it does appear that their aim was to sent a political message, as they said, prosecutors yesterday in this news conference.

VOICE: Carol and Page also discussed plans for follow-up attacks after their bombings, which included plans to a target ICE agents and vehicles with pipe bombs.

STU: Now, can you detect any issue with that?

GLENN: I found two.

I found two.

One, they're not targeting anybody with the use of the pipe bomb!

STU: Right.

GLENN: Now, maybe. Maybe nobody gets hurt like that.

But experience and history tells me. Sometimes when you don't know what you're doing, pipe bombs hurt people.

STU: Right. Yes.
GLENN: And sometimes when you do know what you're doing, pipe bombs hurt people.

That's the -- that's problem number one. Problem number two was, they stated they were then going to target ICE agents?

STU: Right.

GLENN: As if ICE agents aren't people?

STU: You know, Glenn, that is exactly what I came up with. I think, I've heard this statement. You mentioned the same sentiment earlier on the program. A lot of people are saying this. I guess, in their conversations that were, you know, picked off as we were going through this investigation. There were some similarities. If you think back to early environmental terrorist attacks.

ALF and ELF, some of those attacks -- not all, but some of those attacks were targeted at infrastructure, and things around the -- you know, the oil industry. But not -- you know, intentionally trying not to harm the workers or whatever.

And some of their I guess conversations back and forth echoed that sentiment. Like, let's put them this a place where people aren't going to be.

Again, I don't think that's good. I don't think of these people as heroes. But Hollywood would make movies over people like that and how wonderful and glorious they were.

But at the end, they seemed to ignore, that they had attacks planned against ICE agents. And the only way that makes logical sense is if you don't think ICE agents are people.

GLENN: Are people. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. Dehumanize. Dehumanize. Dehumanize. That's why I've been saying, we've got to stop MAID. We have to appreciate life again.

We have to stand for life. All life!

If we don't, you can just say, well, that's not really a person.

You've got to stand for life.

One more story in this, just to show you how close we are to losing Europe.

The French who aren't -- are not used to waving the white flag.

You know, they're -- they're -- they're tough. They have decided on New Year's Eve, that they are not going to hold the fireworks show, that they always hold at the art drive.

So they always have a New Year's Eve concert and fireworks show, but this year, they've decided that they're going to scrap it, wait until you hear what they were going to replace it with. But they're going to scrap it because there are security concerns such as, quote, unpredictable crowd movements.
You mean, like the crowds that are coming over on boats and coming on to your shore? You mean those crowd movements? Because, I mean, I think we know what they're saying here. They're saying that they're very concerned that there might be trouble. There might be some sort of, you know, shootings or activity or terrorists. But they're not -- they're just saying, it's unpredictable crowd movements. And so we're -- we're suggesting that we cancel the decades old fireworks celebration on New Year's Eve.

That's like canceling Times Square. Okay?

We're going to cancel that. And instead, replace it with -- this is a quote.

With a prerecorded video to be viewed in the safety and comfort of your French living room.
(laughter)

GLENN: Oh. So we're watching an old celebration.

Why not? Dick Clark. We got all those tapes of Dick Clark. Let's just cancel New Year's Eve and Times Square and just play one from 1977. I mean, who didn't love that?

STU: Not only is that completely insane. It's also a great example of why virtual school didn't work.

Right?

You know, that's not the same thing. My wife say big fan of around this time of year. Every television has the Yule log on it, you know. And at his help you. It's nice. It helps you celebrate the season, a little bit. But it's not the same as going around the fire, and feeling the heat, it's not the same.
GLENN: Right. Yeah. There's no warmth. There's no warmth. But leave it to the French to surrender. I mean, we've lost France. We've lost France.

If they're not willing to say what's going on. Look, there's terrorists here. And we're afraid of a large crowd. And we're lost, because we let too many people in here. We have no idea who they are. And they're dangerous. And they want to kill us and kill our civilization.

We're working on that, so we can have this next year.

This year, we will to have cancel it.

But they're not saying that. They're saying, you know what, watch it from home. And it will be a videotape of an old one. Oh, okay.

For a Night, We Were Human | The Christmas Truce Music Video

In the frozen trenches of World War I along the Lys River in 1914, amidst the relentless thunder of artillery, a miraculous unofficial truce unfolded on Christmas Day. British and German soldiers, weary enemies, emerged from the mud and wire to share gifts, songs, and stories of home together in the ruins. Produced by Glenn Beck in collaboration with AI, this poignant music video and original song recapture the true story of the Christmas Truce, reminding us that even in the darkest times, a single brave act or small light can awaken our shared humanity, allowing soldiers to lay down their weapons and remember they are human... just for a night.

Stay tuned at GlennBeck.com for more musical storytelling inspired by Glenn’s artifacts next year on Torch.