RADIOSeptember 13, 2022

THIS is how we can END the ‘victimhood’ RUINING America

America has a victimhood problem. And that victim mentality has helped to create a ‘vacuum at the heart of American souls,’ says Vivek Ramaswamy, author of ‘Nation of Victims.’ But, thankfully, Ramaswamy believes he has the answer. He explains to Glenn how rejuvenating Americans' ‘unapologetic pursuit of excellence’ can help to create a new national identity that leaves victimhood far behind…

Transcript

Below is a rush transcript that may contain errors

GLENN: There is a must-read book, that has just come out called nation of victims. Identity politics. The death of merit and the path back to excellence. It's out today.

Vivek Ramaswamy is the author, and he joins me now.

Vivek, first question. And don't hate me for this, if I've had it wrong the whole time. I am the worst on names. The worst. And every time I see you on a show, you never correct anybody. And they're always pronouncing your name a different way.

Am I getting it wrong, and you're just being polite? Or is Vivek the way you say your name?

VIVEK: Vivek is right. Ramaswamy. Ramaswamy.

GLENN: Ramaswamy. Ramaswamy.

VIVEK: Right. Exactly. You know, there's TV hits, you usually get three to four minutes. I prefer to talk about content. Since you asked, I love it.

GLENN: Yeah. So, Vivek, out of respect for you, because I'm watching it. And I'm so paranoid, I always get things wrong on names. Always. Like my wife, I would screw up her name. I just wanted to make sure. Okay. So nations -- nation of victims is out.

And you're known at least on this program, as somebody who is very into ESG. You know, very -- against it. You are doing everything you can, to bring back merit. This book does not really deal with ESG or anything like that. This is the answer in our own lives. Would you agree?

VIVEK: That's right, Glenn. I would agree. I think there are two sides to this equation. Right? Even if you think about the kind of stuff we usually talk about in this program. The kind of stuff I'm working on, in the private sector. Yes. That is about corporate meddling in our culture. It is about the use of corporate power to advance one-sided progressive agendas. But it takes two to tango. What do I mean by that? It also takes a population, and a consumer base, that is willing to buy those narratives, and use that to actually be moved by it. So what this book is about is the broader question. Why is it that consumers are so hungry for a cause, and purpose, and meaning and identity. That they fall for these victim narratives. That companies and other cynical actors to sell them. That's what this book is about. And the case that I make in this book is that we've fallen into a moment in our history, where we see hardship as the same thing as victimhood.

Well, guess what, my thesis is that hardship is not the same thing as victimhood. Hardship is part of what teaches who we are, both as individuals and as a people.

And I think the black hole, at the vacuum of Americans. And the vacuum of the heart of the American soul right now, is our absence of a shared national identity. And the case I make in this book, is that we can fill that vacuum, with a shared national identity, based on the unapologetic pursuit of excellence. Through our system of free market capitalism. And as individuals who are free agents in the world. Regardless of the color of our skin. Or where our parents came from. That's why I wrote this book.

GLENN: So where do you think the big turning -- because I think it was 2008. Where the bailout happened. We're now doing all of that. And it's the end of personal responsibility for corporations.

VIVEK: It really was. It was a different level of responsibility at every level of society. So I think 2008 was a big turning point for a lot of reasons. What happened in 2008? We had the 2008 financial crisis. We had the bailouts. We had no accountability for a lot of financial institutions, that took risk at the public -- at the public -- when times were good, they got paid. When times were bad, the public had to bail them out. That was also the birth of the identity politic wing of the new left. It was Barack Obama elected as the first black president of the United State, a lot of victimhood narratives that went with that. We're also in the thick of the greatest intergenerational wealth transfer in human history. From the Baby Boomer generation to my generation of millennials and Gen Z. And I think that creates a new victimhood culture. And a culture of entitlement as well.

Just there were a lot of things around the turn of the last decade. There were a lot of factors in our culture that conspired to create this new culture of victimhood. And one of the things I -- one of the things I describe in the book, is also the rise of a laziness culture. Even in our work. But in our culture more broadly. And one of the things I say in the book, is that victimhood fits laziness like a glove. In that people today, who are lazy, and that don't want to work. Construe that as not just their own sloth. Which is one of the human vices.

But also a narrative of the grand fight of the oppression of capitalism. The oppression of modernity, the colonialism of capitalism. This is the kinds of things you hear, as part of the great resignation in the pandemic, started back in the post 2008 era. So I think it was a combination of a new laziness culture of entitlement, that came from my generation being on the receiving end of this large inter-generational wealth transfer.

But combined with these victimhood narratives, this justified that laziness with a moral veneer.

That is part of what led to us now having a shared national identity based on victimhood. We're a nation of victims. And I think the case I made, we need to graduate from that.

You talk about Plato's ideal society. And you talk about it, because you say, that's how we find the ideal citizen.

What is the ideal citizen in 2022?

VIVEK: In America, this is the question of our hour, okay. So I think there are two parts to what it means to be Americans. And I think each of us has some of this in our heart. On the one hand, we all want to be an individual, who is able to pursue our own individualistic dreams through the system of free market capitalism. That's what we think of as the American dream.

I have that impulse. You have that impulse. Most of the listeners in this program, share that feeling too. That's half the story. That's what I call the pursuit of excellence. The unapologetic pursuit of excellence. But I think there's another half of the story too, Glenn. I think many of us on the right, have missed for years. Which is also our hunger to be part of a nation, that is greater than the sum of its parts. A collective whole as citizens. And that's the side of our identity as individuals, that really, I think revolves around also the revival of civic duty. One of the chapters of the book is entitled A Theory of Duty. It's a play on John Rawls' A Theory of Justice, which was the North Star of the left, for much of the late 20th century.

I offer what I call A Theory of Duty, which talks about the revival of a civic duty. And the case I make, is it's not at odds with liberty, to have a civic duty. Our civic duty as citizens is different than the freedoms we want to have, in all of the spheres of our life, including economically. And I think it's one of the things that conservatives sometimes get wrong. We get wrong. In our -- in our obsession. We just talked about freedom. And believe me, I'm ten out of the scale of ten on that discussion. We miss the fact, that we have civic duties as citizens, that actually gives us greater fortitude to pursue our freedoms through the system of free market capitalism, through our pursuit of excellence as individuals, which is not the philosophy at the heart of this book, actually.

GLENN: I'm old enough, that in high school, you couldn't graduate without having a class called rights and responsibilities. And we have forgotten the responsibility part. And that is, like you say, huge.

But, you know, I learned something, when I lived in New York City.

When I moved to New York City, I was always a guy, who if there was garbage on the street. I would pick it up and throw it in the garbage can. And it was just ingrained in me. I grew up in a smaller town. And after about two years of living in New York, there was garbage at the front of my building, at sixth avenue. And it was just this newspaper. It was just blowing everywhere. And my first thought was, how much money do I have to pay this stupid city, for them to keep it clean?

And I stopped in my own tracks, and I thought, oh, my gosh. I've turned into one of them!

VIVEK: Well, that's really honest of you, Glenn. To talk about. Look in the mirror that way. That's something more of us ought to do. That's before we point the finger outward, let's take a mirror and look within. It's funny, I'm talking to you from a car in New York City right now, where I'm literally seeing bottles lining the street on the left hand side of my car, without somebody stepping down to pick it up.

And I think that idea of civic duty is something that -- I could call out the liberal side of this. I have been for years. I do a little bit of that in the book as well. But I think it's a place for the conservative movement to look internally and say, all right. Look, we can criticize the poison that fills the vacuum, all we want.

At the end of the day, we're not rising to the occasion. If we don't fill that vacuum with something more meaningful, something more rich, that dilutes the poison.

GLENN: So help me out.

Because, Vivek, I think -- and I know religion plays a big part in religion and in your life. The right would say, we do our civic duty. We're much more charitable. We work through our churches. I know people who go on missions all the time. I mean, we do do our civic duty. That's what they would say.

VIVEK: I think we need more than that. I think there's definite -- that's why -- that's why I'm more interested in speaking to the conservative movement than I am to the left. Because I think that there's a greater chance of filling that national vacuum, and we have to pick which political party or which political movement is going to do it. I'm more optimistic about the conservative movement.

That's why I'm preaching to that choir, rather than the other one. Because I think that's our best chance of success.

I think we need to revive that though. And I think there's one of two directions, for the future of the conservative movement. Either one that wallows in a new version of victimhood, in response to left-wing victimhood.

Which I've been -- by the way, a big critic of. And a lot of what I'm saying is a self-reflection, Glenn. I've spent the last two years criticizing a lot of woke victimhood culture. Left-wing victimhood culture. But one of the things I've learned, introspective for myself.

Is how much -- and we're moving the needle a little bit, by putting the spotlight on the problem. If we want to move the needle in a big way. We won't have a generation left, to save the identity of this country.

And if we're going to do it, it's not going to come by just pointing our finger at all the hypocrisies of the other side. Because that would take all of our time. We would have no time left, and time would run out, before we would be able to save our national identity. We need to fill the void of national identity with something else.

And what I offer in this book is two reasons for that. One is the revival of the shared pursuit of excellence. That's part of what I'm working on in the private sector. In the board of directors at Chevron, last week. Doing what I'm doing at strive. I'm trying to do that through the private sector.

That's still only half the story, though.

And I think that as citizens, we also need to revive our sense of civic duty, to start talking about that more. You know, I think it's a provocative idea, I offered in my last book. I talk about it in this one too, of even thinking about weaving civic service, into education. That's something that makes conservatives, a lot of Libertarian conservatives, even myself, ten years ago, would have recoiled at that idea. That feels like, it's an infringement on our liberty. Well, what I say, is, first of all, if you start at a young enough age, we accept that children, under the age of 18 or 16, are not yet free agents in the world. We have to create those citizens. And weaving the idea of service. Of identity as a citizen in your country, is part of what allows you to actually be an unapologetic capitalist. An unapologetic free agent, once you do enter that free world.

And part of that problem, I think, is we have an entire generation. My generation, that never learned how to do actual service. Nor how to pursue their own self-interests in their own right, by co-mingling the two. We never learn how to actually do either one on its own.

So I think it will actually create a greater generation of capitalists. A greater generation of free individualist agents in the world, if we also revive this idea, of living out our civic duties. And I think you're right. A lot of conservatives in their private lives do that. I think we need to make that as part of a North Star of what it means to America.

GLENN: I think you're seeing that now, with the takeover of the school boards, and you know the local city councils, et cetera.

I mean, conservatives. You know, they were busy keeping their nose to their business. And down to the grindstone. And et cetera, et cetera. And just thought. Oh, this is all being taken care of.

It was being taken care of. Just not in the way we appreciate.

VIVEK: Exactly. And one of the things I like to do, Glenn. Let's take a step back from the present. Let's take a walk through history. One of the things I do in the book. I talk a lot about a post-Civil War history and the Reconstruction Era. But one of the areas of history I go to is Roman history. One of the things I reminded myself of. You know, you hear a lot of analogies today, between the fall of the American experiment. And the fall of Rome. Well, guess what, there was no one rise or one fall of Rome. There were many rises, and many falls.

And it -- you know what, I don't think we're done with this American experiment quite yet either. There were many rises and many falls of Rome. There were many rises and many falls with this great country, and this great experiment as well.

And I tell the story of, it's interesting, I hadn't studied this since high school. Emperor Septimius Severus, he was known as the black Emperor. Okay. That's how I studied him in high school at least. One of the things I learned doing the research of this book. He only got that name, the black Emperor. In the last few decades. As he was redescribed in modern American history. There was a TV series that highlighted the story of the first black man to walk on England's soil came not as a slave, but as a conqueror. And then they made a whole narrative around it. Well, the funny thing is, if you go back to the Roman era, people could see that he had dark skin. It was no different than someone having dark eyes or dark hair.

The thing they actually cared about were, were you a Roman citizen? Or were you not?

Were you a member of this nation, or were you not?

That's how they actually saw him. And in a certain sense, we've created our vision, even in history. He's the black emperor we need. Not the black emperor he was. That was never how the Romans saw him. And it just shows you how anachronistically we even view history. That if we're able to take off the Googles of the present. The filters of the present. And actually even take ourselves out of the present, it suddenly becomes politically less controversial. We're able to talk about these ideas in ways that are 1,000 years removed. But then you come back to the present and you see what a strange world it is that you live in.

GLENN: Yep. Yep.

VIVEK: And I think that's one of the reasons why I felt compelled to write this book. It's not for everybody. But if you're a lover of history, if you're interested in potentially the parallels between Roman history and modern American history, how we got here, dating back to the post Civil War.

Reconstruction Era, where victimhood culture began, and I think how we were able to translate that into the victim culture that we see today.

You know, for those who actually enjoy that walk through history, that's who this book was intended for, in contrast to Woke Inc. my last book, which was more about current events and the current era. This is a walk through history, that gives us hopefully a different view of the present.

GLENN: Yeah. Well, you've really targeted the wrong audience for that.

VIVEK: I don't know about that. I don't know about that.

GLENN: This audience -- you're speaking their language. It's great. It's called a nation of victims. And it's written by Vivek Ramaswamy.

And we appreciate everything that you do, Vivek. Thank you so much. God bless.

You bet. Nation of victims. A must-read. All right. Back in just a second.

WARNING: Digital slavery is HERE | Whitney Webb sounds the alarm

Artificial intelligence is being sold as the ultimate tool for progress and convenience, but at what cost? Glenn Beck sits down with investigative journalist Whitney Webb to uncover how Big Tech and government powers are quietly constructing a “digital prison” that feeds on human data, erodes individual freedom, and conditions society into passive dependence. Webb exposes how the seductive promise of comfort and automation masks a deeper agenda: cognitive manipulation, emotional engineering, and a move toward a post-human future.

Watch Glenn Beck's FULL Interview with Whitney Webb HERE

Is AIPAC proof that Israel CONTROLS the US?

Glenn Beck was recently asked a question during his TPUSA speech at the University of North Dakota: Is the fact that AIPAC doesn’t have to register as a foreign agent under FARA evidence that Israel has unprecedented control over the United States? Glenn did his homework and presents his findings: It looks like the real issue is our own laws…

Watch Glenn's TPUSA speech HERE

Transcript

Below is a rush transcript that may contain errors

GLENN: There is a -- a phrase that is carved into the marble at the Supreme Court, and it says "equal justice under the law." Equal justice under the law.

That is the one thing that we've really forgotten about here in America it seems. You want special justice. You want justice for this group or that group. But, no, I want equal justice. It's why justice is blindfolded. Justice should never see who is at the bench.

They should see, what are the facts of the case? And who is at the bench should not make a difference. I don't care if you're rich or you're poor, you're homeless, or you're Bill Gates. I don't really care. I want to know the facts. And then we judge that, not looking at the person.

That's the closest we can come to perfect justice. And the farther -- the more we take that blindfold off of justice, the more corrupt justice becomes, and we know this. Because that's why if you were black back in the day, you couldn't get a fair hearing. A fair trial. Because justice wasn't blindfolded, okay? That's why it's up on the Supreme Court.

Equal justice under the law. And it's not a suggestion. It's not a slogan. It is the beating heart of the American experiment. You know, no man. No movement. No institution. No creed stands above the law!

Now, the reason why I bring this up, is because last week I was in a turning point event in North Dakota, and I said all the way through, "I hate these question and answer things."

Because I don't believe -- hate conflict. And I also don't believe anybody is doing anything other than trying to win. When you're in a crowd, somebody is trying to win. I don't play that game. I don't like that game.

I like honest questioning. And you also have to have a debate, where you can talk about -- you can talk about subtle things. You know, you can -- you have to be able to look at things, not everything is black and white.

There is right and wrong, yes. But now, how do we get there?

For instance, last week -- yesterday, I talked to you about AI. Earlier, this seems like last week already. Earlier in hour number one, in the podcast. I was talking to you about AI.

And I don't know the right answer on that yet. We have to have that debate.

But an honest debate on things. So last week, I started taking questions, and, boy, did they take these and selectively edit. Interesting.

But I was asked, you know, Glenn, how come AIPAC -- that's the American-Israel Public Affairs Committee -- how come they don't register as a foreign agent under FARA, the Foreign Agents Registration Act? Well, I know that Hunter Biden was supposed to register under that. Or was he?

Now, I said at the time, I don't know anything about it. I haven't looked into that. But I will do my homework on it. Because I want to know. And my guess is: If they don't, then there's something wrong with our law! Okay?

Either they're giving special favors that they shouldn't, or many people are getting special favors, and they shouldn't. Everyone should have to obey the law. And equal treatment.

Justice is blind. Okay. So let me tell you now.

I went home. I did my homework. Let me tell you what I found on AIPAC. First of all, it is bigger than AIPAC. Much bigger. It is a mirror held up to an uneven application of American law. Let me tell you what FARA is supposed to do. It was passed in 1948, to stop the Nazi propaganda. People were -- there were lots of Nazis here in America. And it requires anyone that is working on behalf of a foreign government, to register as a foreign agent.

Seems simple.

But is it?

It requires transparency and accountability. But here's where it gets murky in the law: AIPAC is an American lobbying organization, registered under the lobbying disclosure act, not FARA.

Because it's funded and run by American citizens, not a foreign government. Now, that's the legal line. Now, I don't agree with this. But that's the legal line.

But AIPAC is not the only one running this. So why are we only hearing about the Jews controlling the government, when -- and AIPAC doing it, when they're not the only one.

Did you know the National Iranian-American Council, the Armenian Assembly of America, the Turkish Heritage Organization, even Saudi Arabia's ARAMCO, their subsidiary, Motiva operate under exactly the same -- you want Saudi Arabia and ARAMCO?

Why are they not paying it? Why are they not registered under FARA? Now, some people will defend this. Because they say, these are groups of diaspora. They are US-based subsidiaries. They have domestic roots, et cetera. I don't buy any of that bullcrap. I mean, that's me. I mean, we can argue it, but I don't agree with that. Because I think it's a really dangerous loophole that allows quiet foreign money to come in and influence and hide behind a US address.

But here's where it gets serious. This is not just a legal issue. This is about truth.

When you and I or anyone else, begin selecting only the facts that make our point, while ignoring those that don't, we stop doing research, and we start doing propaganda.

If you've listened to voices that pick and choose data, to inflame your anger, you have to start asking yourself this question. Is my source being honest.

I ask you all the time, do your own homework.

I'm the guy who I think popularized that with the youth now.

Do your own homework.

Don't take my word for it. Do your own homework.

But that requires that you do homework on all fronts. You ask honest questions. Am I wrong?

Is this wrong?

I want to read the opposite side. And I want to see what's credible on both sides and bring it together.

Example, once you learn that the Iranians, Cubans, Saudis, Armenians, and Turks all have the same objection, yet it's only the Jewish organization that is accused of secretly controlling Washington, do you see -- a disturbing pattern here.

Because the -- the argument starts to sound less like a legal concern, and more like something far older and darker. And that was my point. I said, look, you don't to have agree with Israel.

I don't want to fight their wars. I don't want to do anything. I support them in their right to defend themselves as they see fit.

I don't support anything like genocide. I don't believe they're doing genocide.

I do believe Hamas is. And I do believe you can make a very, very clear case, that Hamas, Hezbollah, Iran are evil.

And I said, look, you don't have to accept Israel. And you don't -- you don't have to accept Hamas. You can say nobody is a good guy in this. But when you look at things like AIPAC. If there's more, and this is what I said, if it's about something legal, then we have to correct that. And the argument would be over.

I could say what I'm saying today, and say, look, we should have listened to Tom Cotton. He introduced legislation on this. All of this has to stop.

So let's do that. Why are we dividing ourself on an ancient Jews control the world thing, when that's not even true about AIPAC, okay?

Because everybody else is doing that too. The problem isn't Judaism. It's not Islam. It's not any one nation. Quite honestly, if you want to be honest, the problem is our laws and our politicians.

Equal justice under the law. It must be our demand every day. Jew, Muslim. Gentile.

Hunter Biden. Everyone -- everyone should be the same under the law. What's happened instead, is that this loophole has become a weapon.

And people twist it, to their own, you know. Their own the light.

To suggest that AIPAC, you know, runs the US government and the Pentagon and the president, which is laughable, especially this week. That is laughable.

Just look at the events of the last few days. Do you really think that Donald Trump is being controlled by Israel?

Have you heard what he has said to Benjamin Netanyahu?

Have you seen all of the Egyptians and the Saudis and everybody else and the Arab world, all now lining up for this peace?

When he bombed -- when he bombed Iran, he's not fighting Israel's war.

When he bombed Iran, it wasn't for Israel. Any more than it was for I didn't want and Saudi Arabia. You found out yesterday, that the one thing they all unite on, is that Iran is the real problem there.

And what he did was a -- a show of peace through strength. The same principle, that ended the decades of stalemate between Arab nations, and Israel.

And here's another thing. When you stop sending pallets of cash, to your enemies, and you start saying, don't do that anymore!

And I'm serious. They tend to listen.

And what was the result?

You could speculate, and I worried at the time.

I said it, on the air. I'm worried that this could slate things.

But it didn't. So what is the result?

The result was not an endless war where we're over fighting in the Middle East. I don't want that. And neither do you.

The result was true Arab Israeli peace. The first chance of true peace in -- in a millennia.

And now, he's taken that credibility of saying, look, I'll be tough on the Arabs. I'll be tough on the Iranians. I'll be tough on the Jews. I'll be tough on Hamas.

However, I will say, Hamas, you do these things.

And I'm with you. He yesterday invited Iran into the League of Nations.

Look, just because we bombed you, it doesn't mean we hate you. We want you to have peace.

So come on in. Now he's taken that same credibility, and now he's turning it towards Russia and Ukraine. And he's doing that.

He's meeting with the leadership of Ukraine, on Friday.

And he's going to apply the same exact principle.

And here's what's going to happen.

The same people who said he was once a Russian puppet, will now accuse him of getting us into a war with Russia, and do Ukraine's bidding.

Which one is it?

Which one is it?

May I suggest a third reason? Maybe, just maybe, for the first time I believe in my lifetime, we are seeing America -- an American president doing America's bidding.

Trying to broker peace. Trying to keep us out of these endless wars.

Because honestly, isn't that what all of us want. I don't care who you voted for. Do you want more foreign wars?

Because I don't.

I'm tired of it.

Do you want to see more blood and treasure spilled in some unknown country?

Wants that -- isn't that what we all want is an end to these wars. No more young Americans spilling their blood in distant deserts or frozen tundras, for somebody else's freedom, who I don't even know if they really want freedom?

I want freedom here.

I want to -- I want to able to show the world, what people who actually understand what freedom is.

Know what the high price is, that we have to pay for our own freedom. Not your freedom.

Our freedom. What we can do in that freedom.

We want to be a shining city on the hill.

That everyone can look at, and go, look at those guys. I want to be more like them.
Not going over to other countries and jamming it down their throat. I want peace, but peace grounded in strength and honesty.

And the unbreakable, carved in stone, promise of equal justice under the law.

That's what we have to do, to restore faith in the republic.

We have to stop taking little bits and pieces. Look at the whole thing and say, what's corrupt? Well, what's corrupt here might have started as a good thing. But it's no longer a good thing.

We have to change the law. Equal justice under the law.

I'm sorry. If you are doing the bidding, Hunter Biden or AIPAC. Or the Iranian Council or Armenian Council, or whatever. I'm sorry.

We have to tighten this down. Because money has changed. It's changed!

Things that were happening in 1945, 1955. '85. '95. So that I have.

It's changed, and I don't want any foreign influence coming into this country, unless we know exactly you're -- you're influencing for a foreign country.

Because this is what makes us different than every other country that has come before. And that's not ideology. That's not party. That's not tribe.

That's how we have to define America again. If we're going to survive.

So you may not like it. I'm sorry.

But you asked me to do my own homework on AIPAC. There it is!

There's a QUIET WAR brewing with China…

There is a quiet war brewing between China and the US over rare earth minerals and AI. We CANNOT lose this war, Glenn Beck warns. But can we win it without destroying ourselves in the process? Glenn Beck explains why we must have this conversation and connects 4 stories from around the world that reveal what’s coming…

Transcript

Below is a rush transcript that may contain errors

GLENN: All right. I told you about gold here. Record highs.

And it is telling us something. Usually, it would tell us if the dollar is in real, real trouble. I think, and I am guessing at this now.

But I think what this is telling us, is that the whole world, the system is in trouble. And let me give you an example. I'm going to talk to you about something to try to make sense of it here. But I do have a good answer. Because we're not having these conversations. I have told you for almost 20 years, when it comes to AI. We must have these conversations now, because the world is going to change overnight. And we are at that point! We are at the point of singularity. Where there is no turning back. And we haven't had these conversations. Do you want to win the AI war?

I will tell you, we cannot lose it. But to win it, we may have to sacrifice so much on the altar of liberty, that I don't want to fight it!

So what do we do?

Let me explain. Something has shifted in the world. And most people cannot feel it yet.

But if you're paying attention, you understand, there is something on the horizon. One day soon, we're going to wake up, and we're going to realize, uh-oh. I think we crossed the line here. Quietly, silently. While no one was paying attention, everything changed.

Over the past few days, while the world was paying attention on what's going on in Israel and the Middle East. There's a couple of other really important headlines that caught my attention.

And at first, they all seemed unrelated. Just random stories from around the world. But when you look closer. And this is what I think I do best.

I take things that are seemingly unrelated. And say, wait a minute. Wait a minute.

I think they all fit into this category.

So let me give you some threads here.

First thread is China. Beijing just tightened its grip on rare earth elements. These are the minerals that make absolutely everything possible. Your smartphone. Your electric car. Your missile defense system. Your refrigerator. Everything depends on these rare earth minerals. China, because of our inaction and stupid policies over the last couple of decades, control now, 80 percent of the world's supply chain. That cannot stand. Now, what they're doing, is they're choking it off! They're now closing it up, and they are threatening the West. No more rare earth -- rare earth minerals. If that happens, we cannot defend ourself.

Do we have rare earth minerals? Yeah. We have lots of them. But we're not mining them.

It will take a decade to start mining them, up in Alaska. Where they mainly are.

That's why Donald Trump was saying, we need Greenland!

That's what he was saying. Rare earth minerals. Because they're already mining them there. And we cannot lose them!

Now, they're choking it off, and rare earth stocks exploded overnight.

Because whoever controls those minerals, controls the future. Now, here's the second threat, the Pentagon.

Out of nowhere, they made a billion dollar emergency order for those same rare earth minerals. That's not normal. That's not paperwork. That is the sound of the military quietly preparing for something, a shortage. Possibly in a storm. Like I said, we are -- because of what Biden did in Ukraine, we are -- are wholly unprepared for any kind of military action. We don't have the materials.

And at the same time, everything is changing to high-tech. We don't have the rare earth minerals, and the chips now, to make our guided missile systems.

The third threat, JP Morgan Chase. One of the most powerful institutions on the planet, just announced this week, a $1.5 trillion investment plan. In what they call security and resilience.

That's not going to mom and pop shops. That's not going to community loans. That money is being funneled straight into AI, defense manufacturing, and critical minerals.

It's as if the Pentagon and Wall Street just linked arms and decided to build a fortress economy together.

Then came the fourth threat. Nobody paid attention to this one. In Europe, the Dutch government just seized control of the Chinese-owned chip maker on their own soil.

They invoked emergency powers and nationalized the company to stop the Chinese influence over the semiconductor industry. That's not good. Four stories, four continents, four quiet tremors in the ground. When you weave them all together, that's when you begin to understand what all of this means. So let me try to do that.

The old world, as we know it is dying! Pragmatism the world of free markets. The world of open trade. Individual enterprise.

The world that lifted billions out of poverty, is being replaced now, slowly, but surely by something new.

And this one is being done in the name of security.

And I don't have an answer for this. This is why we must pay attention, and talk about it now!

Corporations now are aligning with state power. Before, we had the tech industry, aligning itself with the government to control speech.

This is the government aligning themselves with tech rare earth minerals, et cetera, et cetera. To be able to win the AI war.

This -- this -- all of this is a single unspoken motive. And that is, the race to dominate artificial intelligence. This is the new arms race. This is the nigh Manhattan Project. The new nuclear weapon. Except, this is a million the times more enslaving than nuclear weapons could ever hope to be.

Whoever masters this first, whoever gets to AI and AGI first will control the economies, the information, even your thought itself.

Every rare earth mineral, every chip, every line of code, they're all ingredients in that same contest. And the nations are moving fast. They're hoarding materials now.

They're beginning to seize companies.

They're building walled off supply chains. This is happening on their side. And on our side.

And the free market in this particular place, is no longer free. It's being drafted into a digital Cold War. Now, that sounds bad, but now let me tell you the danger that nobody seems to get.

When nations go to war, even an economic war, freedom always becomes a casualty. We tell -- we tell ourselves, we're fighting for liberty. And we are!

Because we don't want to live if had a society like China, right?

I don't!

But when survival is on the line, governments tighten control for our own good. They regulate. They ration. They censor. And one day, you look up, and you realize, the line between democracy and technocracy is gone. If the -- if the West wants to win this AI war and we must, then we have to have a conversation.

Why are we even fighting this war?

Because if in winning it, we become China. Why not let China just win?

If we adopt the same top-down control. The same surveillance. The same emergence of government and corporate power. Then what did we actually win?

Didn't we just trade one master for another?

The old global system, free enterprise, open markets, individual liberty.

It is being rewritten in real time.

And the threads are now all coming together. And they are -- they are weaving a new tapestry.

I don't know what the tapestry looks like. I can guess what that tapestry looks like.

And I don't like it.

Will it be woven, from freedom, or will it be woven from fear?

If we lose sight of who we are -- look, our global leadership, it's already lost sight for who we are. They don't care. They don't care.

None of them care. They'll get to this global dominance over the individual, one way or another, in their book. You must care. You must stand for freedom. You must be at the head of having this conversation. Because if we lose sight of who we are, it -- this tapestry is going to be strong, efficient, and unbreakable.

But it will not be free. Some take can, historians will look back at this moment, and they will go, what happened?

They're going to see these quiet headlines. These invisible decisions that are being made right now. And they will realize, this is when the new world began. They will be able to look at this point and say, this was it!

Why didn't people see it?

Hmm.

The answer to that is office.

We have -- we're overwhelmed with everything that we have to do. Everything we're looking at.

This has been a very well-planned takeover of freedom.

You have to ask yourself: When the weaving is done, whose pattern will we be living in? Because that is what is coming.

There's a story in the show prep today, that I really want I to live. I will talk to you about it in a second. Western executives who visit China are coming back terrified. You don't have any idea how far China is ahead of us.

And you can say, well, I don't want to be China. Well, you will be China, and China will be controlling you, if we don't push back.

But how do we push back, without becoming China.

Listen to this next story.

You can find it in our headlines. If you just go get the free email newsletter, at GlennBeck.com.

Western executives are visit China are coming back terrified.

I will explain it to you, coming up in a second. First, our sponsor this half-hour, it's JASE Medical. Headlines, this week. Have been a mix of relief and reality. Good news, in some places, in chaos and uncertainty, still just one turn away.

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Ten-second station ID.
(music)
I am in Washington, DC. I'm actually at the Rush Limbaugh studios at the Heritage Foundation. I can't help them enough for the short notice, I was invited at the White House, over the weekend, to join the president and -- in honoring Charlie Kirk on his 32nd birthday today.

My receiving the freedom medal, and I'll be there along with a lot of other people. And I really can't wait to experience that. And hope to have some time with the president later today, and talk about some other things.

There's a lot of things going on. By the way, you can watch this ceremony, at TP USA. Turning Point USA YouTube. And the channels at 4:00 p.m. Eastern time.

And I hope to see you there. And I'll be back in the studios in Dallas tomorrow, to give you more about that, as we -- as we continue.

Okay. So let me give you this story. Western executive visit China, who are coming back. Quote, it's the most humbling thing I've ever seen, said Ford's chief executive about his recent trip to China. After visiting a string of factories, Jim Farley was left astonished by technical innovations being packed into Chinese cars from self-driving software to facial recognition.

The cost and quality of their vehicles is far superior to that on which I see in the West. We are in a global competition with China, and it's not just EVs. If we lose this, listen carefully, there is no future at Ford! If we lose this, there is no future at Ford.

Another executive: This one from the EU says, I can take you to factories in China now, where you'll basically be alongside a big conveyor belt, and the machines come out on the floor and begin to assemble parts. You're walking alongside this conveyor, and after about 800 meters, a truck drives out, and there are no people involved.

Other executives describe a vast dark factory, where robots do so much of the work alone, that there's no need to even turn on lights for humans.

We visited a dark factory, producing some astronomical numbers of cell phones.

The process is so heavily automated, that there were no workers on the manufacturing side, just a small number who are there to make sure a plant was working.

You get this sense of change, where China's competitive has gone from government subsidies and low wages, to a tremendous number of highly skilled, educated engineers, who are innovating like mad. Between 2014 and 2024, the number of industrial robots deployed in the country, rocketed from 189,000 to more than 2 million. It is -- just give you -- just let me give you this. Last year, China added 295,000 robots. Germany added 27,000.

The US 34,000. The UK, 2500.

The UK is over. I mean, it's just absolutely over. It boasts 567 robots for every 10,000 manufacturing workers. 449 in Germany for every 10,000. And 307 for the US.

So this is not -- this is -- I'm not preaching this because this is, you know, good for the country. It's bad for workers. It's bad for workers.

But China is doing it for a couple of -- a couple of things. First of all, their policy is known. I can't pronounce it in Chinese. But it translates to replacing humans with machines.

In China, they don't need to have a Patriot Act.

A really, super great thing for auto workers. No.

Replacing humans with machines, is the name of the policy.

Okay.

And it is -- it's happening everywhere. Everywhere. They can develop and execute models in probably half the time, that most European car makers can make.

And they're doing it, partially because they're seeing the decline in their birthrates. And they know, we're not going to have the workers to be able to do this.

But what's disturbing is. All of these robotics, are needing power.

They also need AI.

So they are building these gigantic server farms, which we are still breaking ground on. They're building them. They're building new power plants. One power plant, coal-fired power plant every week. And I think 40 -- can you look this up, Stu?

I think it's 40 nuclear power plants a year.

We're not building anything!

We're not building anything.

We're breaking ground on it.

Trump has already said, he's cutting all of the regulations.

But we're still far, far behind.

And we are getting close to the point where they win, we lose.

Again, I don't know what to do about it. Except, have a conversation about it. Because I've read the conversations from the left. I've read the conversations from World Economic Forum. And they don't care. They will take you and literally put you in a drug -- a drugged state, and put you online, and you're just going to play video games, your whole life. That is honestly their plan for a large number of people in the West, that will be just no longer usable. Undesirables. Well, I don't like those labels.

FBI investigates Glenn's expose on Antifa network

The FBI showed up to Glenn's house to discuss his TV show exposing Antifa's network. Glenn shares what he learned from his "surreal" meeting and warns any member or funder of Antifa: you should be a little concerned because the FBI is SERIOUS about investigating you.

Transcript

Below is a rush transcript that may contain errors

GLENN: Let me tell you something else that's changed.

Let me start with this. Cut five here.

Here are the new talking points for the media on Antifa.

Listen to this.

VOICE: This is an entirely imaginary organization. There's not an Antifa.

VOICE: Look, I don't even know what Antifa is.
VOICE: There is no growth.

VOICE: It's not even like far right groups, like the Proud Boys and Oath Keepers, compared to right-wing extremists, Antifa-linked violence is rare and limited.

VOICE: It is an organization.
It is -- it is in many ways mythology.

VOICE: It's not like the Proud Boys or the Oath Keepers. You know, they're defined terrorist organizations, the leadership that led -- that, you know, leads violence.

VOICE: It's not a highly organized movement. It's a moniker. It's not even a group like the Proud Boys are.

Things like Antifa are things that are thought up.

VOICE: These guys are going after Antifa, which is nothing. There's no organization called Antifa.

VOICE: Nobody is a member of Antifa because it doesn't exist! They are just claiming existence to something that doesn't exist.

VOICE: There is no Antifa organization, so maybe that's good for social media.

But it really has -- is nonexistent.

VOICE: They exist on the internet and chat rooms.

And in 4chan.

GLENN: Okay.

VOICE: And places like that. Where they run discussion boards. Trade tactics.

Documents. Things like that.

But none of them are called Antifa.

STU: What!

GLENN: I don't even know what they're talking about.

You want to talk about living in a different world.

But that's what's going around.

Now, let me just tell you this: Last week, I did a TV show that apparently got the FBI's attention.

STU: Hmm.

GLENN: The topic was -- was initial investigation. A jumping off point, shattering the myth that Antifa just -- oh, it's -- it's just leaderless. And decentralized. Uh-huh. Uh-huh.

We thought, no. It's really not. So we dove in. Head first.

And we analyzed the Antifa network. And we went from the street thugs, to the support groups, eventually, to the funding.

Okay?

To say the FBI was interested in this might be an understatement.

Let's just say, the FBI is turning over every single stone.

It is so clear to me, that they are exploring all angles of this. And they are talking to anyone and everyone that can give them think kind of information.

How do I know?

Saturday, I get a phone call.

The director would like to send over some agents to speak to you, Glenn.

And I'm like, the director?

The FBI agents?

Yes, you said, some things that they need to talk to you about.

Well, good things or bad things? "They'll be over."

Three agents sat in my living room on Saturday afternoon for almost two hours. And I immediately called Jason. I'm like, Jason, you're the researcher. It's your fault. I'm going to throw you under the bus. You better get your butt over here.

So Jason was there. My wife and I sat there, and it was surreal at one point. I talked to them for about 15 minutes just going over the Tides Foundation. And saying, if you understand Tides, you'll understand how difficult your job is going to be. And this is information that I first gave on Fox years ago.

Let me just say this: Finally, we have an administration and an FBI director, that is willing to go in deep. Not surface. But deep!

I could only imagine what we could have avoided, if anyone in an administration, would have done this, in 2011.

But if I were in that, imaginary group, of Antifa, which, by the way, has imaginary leaders. Leaving the country to go maybe to imaginary countries outside of the US right now. I would be very concerned. If I were a part of anything that was sending money their way or assistance their way.

I don't know!

I might be a little concerned, because the FBI is deadass serious.

Thank you, thank you, thank you, Donald Trump, Kash Patel, and all of the agents at the FBI.

GLENN: We're covering from Allie Beth Stucky's big event, six or 7,000 women showed up this weekend for a weekend conference. It was -- it was unbelievable.

STU: Really, I saw the crowds. It was incredible.

GLENN: Yeah. She did a great, great job. I'm so proud of her. She's just killing it. But we will try to get to some of those clips because they're really, really good. We'll get to those later on in the program. You know, Stu and I were talking about how Antifa doesn't exist. And, you know, that's like saying -- it's like saying Al-Qaeda doesn't exist. Well, you're right.

There is no way, you know, 501 Broadway, you know, where you go to al-Qaeda's office. That doesn't happen, but it does exist, and it's an ideology.

And while they may not -- they may not take their direction from the same person at the office, I don't know. There's no HR. So they don't exist. They exist!

They exist. And they're loosely affiliated. And sometimes, they are getting money. You know.

STU: Uh-huh.

GLENN: And for the press and everybody else to say -- when you're watching them all over the country, and they're doing exactly the same thing, same tactics. Every -- everywhere.

You know, to say, they don't exist is just infantile.

STU: Yeah. It's like a -- it's -- I don't know what the word -- there should be a word for this, if there isn't.

But there's a real point used in an intentionally dumb way to mislead.

Is that malinformation? Is that what that is?

GLENN: Yes. Yes.

STU: It really is. There's a real point to it. They're disengaged from a centralized thing. This makes them more dangerous. This is how you had to deal with terrorist cells back in the day. However, they're using it in a way that makes it seem like it's not a threat, which is not accurate. And they know it's not accurate. And they're trying to mislead people with a piece of --

GLENN: Why would you -- why would you support -- why would you try to brush Antifa under the rug? I mean, it's just perplexing.