 Welcome to a discussion of radical fundamental principles of freedom, rational self-interest, laissez-faire capitalism, and individual rights. The Yaron Brooks Show starts now. Good morning, afternoon everybody. I hope you all had a fantastic Christmas and that you are looking forward to the rest of the weekend, New Year's weekend. So hopefully you'll enjoy New Year's Eve, a great New Year's. And yeah, this is a great time, a great time for reflection, a great time to look back at the previous year and kind of, you know, what worked or didn't work in one's own personal life in the world around us. And it's a great time to set goals for the next year. It's a great time to look forward and try to assess what's going to happen next year, where one can become a better human being, live a better life. You know, I'm big on living the best that you can, being the best that you can be, and living the best life that you can live. New Year's, the period between Christmas and New Year's, a great time to sit back and think and contemplate and consider what does it take? How do I become better? How do I become the best that I can be? How can I live the best life possible to me? And how can I take advantage? How can I exploit the changes that are happening in the world around us? So I encourage you all to do that this coming, the next few days, this weekend, this is a great weekend for contemplation, for thinking, for planning, for, you know, setting those goals for the new year. And I'm not just talking about, you know, I'm going to lose weight, I'm going to go and exercise. It's funny how gym memberships rise dramatically in the month after New Year's and then nobody goes to the gym. Now I'm talking about really taking seriously what it's going to take to make your life better, to live a better 2018 than a 2017 and set yourself up for a great decade, for a great life. So great time to be thinking about those things. And of course, also a good time to think about the past. What did I do? Well, what did I do poorly? What mistakes did I make? How do I rectify the mistakes? How do I do better, you know, in 18 than 17? I'm a big advocate of learning from one's mistake. I'm a big advocate for trying constantly to become better, to live a better life, to be a better person, to be the best that you can be, to take your happiness, take your happiness seriously. I actually had a great discussion yesterday with Tara Smith, a philosophy professor on happiness. We spent an hour talking about happiness, what it means and how to achieve it and what needs to do in order to achieve it. Why one is worthy of achieving happiness. So that was a great discussion yesterday to go up on my podcast in the coming days. Look for it. I'll also go up on YouTube in the coming days. So look for that. You can find all the latest stuff going on that I'm putting out there on uranbrookshow.com. uranbrookshow.com. You can find all the great stuff. And again, philosophy Tara Smith and I discussed happiness yesterday. Great conversation, very positive and very worthwhile. So I hope you'll all watch it, listen to it when it comes out in the next few days. So yeah, a time for contemplation, a time for looking back and a time for looking forward. So we're going to do a little bit of that today. We're going to look back at our world, our culture, our politics. And what worked and what didn't work in 2017. I don't know. The thought the question I made is I'm mainly going to talk about what didn't work because I think that was more important. And we're going to talk a little bit. I don't know how much time we'll have. We're going to talk a little bit about 2018, my expectations for 2018, my hopes, my fears for 2018. So we're going to look backwards. We're going to look forwards. We're going to take this year and review it. And hopefully this will be a value. Hopefully we can learn from this. Hopefully we can benefit from this and all adjust for the coming year and get more motivated and more incentivized for the coming year. All right, so let's jump in. Let's jump into, well actually I'm not going to jump in. Yep, stop. I'm looking my outline. That's not where I'm supposed to go. Before we really jump into next year, I want to give you a, I want to set this up because I want to give you a context. We're going to talk culture. We're going to talk politics. And I want to explain to you where I am coming from, what I believe. And I'm going to do this briefly because I think a lot of you know this, but also because I really want to get into the analysis of last year and we can go on in terms of what I believe. For a very, very long time, there are hours and hours and hours of me discussing what I believe all over the place that you can find. But in the context of culture, in the context of politics, in the context of analysis, analyzing politically and culturally what happened in this last year. I want you to tell, I want you, I want to explain what my standards are. Now my standards are high. I am a believer in the founding principles of this country. I am a believer in America, not just America as a bromide, not just America as a slogan, as I think it has become, you know, make America great again. America first, but what does America mean? What does America represent? In my view, America represents America means its founding principles. America is unique among all the nations in the world, not in its geography, not even in the composition of its people. But what makes America special, what makes America unique, what is American exceptionalism are the principles on which it was founded. On the ideas that made this country the greatest country in human history. The only moral country in its founding in human history. The ideas as articulated by founding fathers in our Declaration of Independence and in our Constitution and in the Federalist Papers and in the writings of those great, great men of the founding. And I think it's too easy to forget in the back and forth of left and right how far we have come from those founding principles. And I want before we get into my analysis of Donald Trump and of the Republican and Democratic parties and of our culture that we live in. I want us to remember where we come from. Those of us who emigrated here, I'm an immigrant, as you know, have chosen this country not because of Donald Trump, not because of Republicans and conservatives and Democrats. I at least chose this country because of the founding principles on which it was established. And it's sad, it's sad for me that those of you who are born here have so easily given up on those principles, so easily drifted away from those principles, so easily forgotten what those principles are. And I've said this on the show before, I think that basically two foundational ideas at the core of the founding of America. Two foundational ideas at the core of that era in human history. The founding of America was a combination of the Enlightenment. It was a combination of a very intellectual period. And in a world in which we live in today which is anti-intellectual, anti-elites. America was founded by the intellectual elite of its time. Let me say that again. America was founded by the intellectual elite of its time. I don't think most people in America at the time had an understanding of what the founders did. I don't think that a majority of Americans necessarily even supported the War of Independence. Not clear. Suddenly a large minority opposed it. And yet this intellectual elite founded and grounded in great ideas, grounded in a confidence that their ideas would create a fantastic future. They were willing to declare war on the mightiest military force in human history at the time in order to bring those ideas to reality. What were those ideas? The fundamental idea was that the individual, individual human being has the ability to reason, to think, and therefore to live his own life for himself. He does not need a king. He does not need a council. He does not need a government to dictate to him how to live. What to think? What to do with his life? We are all as individuals capable of living our own lives, of examining reality, discovering the truth. And the founders were big on truth. The founders were big on reality. The founders were big on reason, on man's capacity, on every individual's capacity to reason, to think for himself. And therefore to be left alone, to be left free, free of coercion, free of the government interfering. So reason is a core idea of the founding and second to that. It's political implementation. And that is the idea of individual rights, the idea of individualism, the idea of the sanctity of the individual. The individual has an end in himself. The idea that government's only role, only role, is to protect us, to defend us, to protect us from cooks and criminals and fraudsters and people who would steal our stuff, people who would defraud us. So our government was created to protect individual rights and that's it. It was not created to provide welfare. It was not created to regulate and subsidize and control. It was created to leave us alone. So the two founding principles of this country was a deep respect for ideas, a deep respect for reality and a deep respect for truth. In other words, a deep respect for reason and secondarily, a deep respect for the individual. Individualism and reason are the two founding ideas, founding principles on which this country was established. They animate the Declaration of Independence. They animate the Constitution. They animate the separation of powers. They animate the whole approach to government, to culture, to life that the founding fathers left us with. Now that legacy has been attacked over and over again by the left and the right for decades. And that attack has really, you know, almost, almost from the, since the ink and the Constitution dried, it's been under attack. And that attack has suddenly intensified and been successful over the last hundred years. And it's been led primarily by the progressives and the left. We have been systematically driven, we have systematically driven our government away from those founding principles. But I have to say that I think that 2007-17 is a new low. A new low in the attack on the founding principles of this country. Alright, to talk about why that is, to talk about how do I justify that, that's insane, Iran. We will come back after this message. You're listening to Iran Book Show on the Blaze Radio Network. Alright, we're back. The last show of 2017. Time just flies. It wasn't, it wasn't too long ago as doing a year in a review for 2016. So here we are at the end of 2017 going into 2018. 2018 is going to be exciting year for me. I'm busy here packing. I'm not revealing where I'm moving to yet, but we are packing leaving tomorrow. I will start the new way in the new year in a new location to be disclosed later this week. Alright, so in reviewing 2017, I want you to remember that my standard is, my standard is the founding fathers. And my standard is are we moving towards those ideals of reason and individualism and freedom and the constitution and the declaration and individual rights and thinking and an intellectual elite that understands these principles. Are we moving away from that? That is basically my standard. That is how I evaluate the passage of the years. And unfortunately almost every year, almost every year, really every year. Since I've been in the United States for 30 years now, 30 plus years, every year we have moved away from those principles. So I have no, I have no positive experiences of yes, we're moving in a positive direction. I mean, there have been some positive things that have happened, but mostly we're slip sliding away to quote Paul Simon. We're slip sliding away from freedom. We're slip sliding away from individual rights. And we are certainly slip sliding away from reason, from respect for the mind, for the respect for the intellect. And again, I think this year saw us maybe a little oil in that slide, slip sliding maybe faster than usual. So let me start by saying a few things that happened that are good this year politically, culturally. I really can't think of anything. Some good things, some good things politically, economically. You know, we've definitely seen some some progress on deregulation. We've certainly seen it particularly when it comes to environmental regulations. We've certainly seen some progress on energy. You've seen specifics, particulars and with regard to a Perry's energy department is doing and supposedly going to do good things. You know, financial regulations probably not so much. We've seen a stock market that's going up. Why it's going up is a different question whether the going up bodes well for the future or not is hard to tell. But you know, if you were in the stock market, you made good money this year, you did OK, almost 20% return. We're generally seeing a loosening up of in many parts of the regulatory world. We're seeing a loosening up and generally if you look around, you can see a lot of pockets of positivity economically. Business wise, innovation in this country continues. I continue to be a huge fan of Silicon Valley and their continued ability to innovate and to make our lives better in spite of being ridiculed and harassed by left and right who hate their guts, who want to break them up, who want to regulate them to death, who want to sink the Justice Department and the Antitrust Division on them. And yet we keep seeing new products in healthcare, in biotech, in technology. I mean, it really is stunning some of the achievements particularly on genetic engineering. The use of CRISPR, this gene editing technology, which is going to revolutionize healthcare in our future. The great advancements in what's called artificial intelligence. I hate to use that name, but on kind of a better programming that learns, that is able to come to use big data to come to fantastic conclusions and innovations. Big step forwards in robotics. We're going to see robotics implemented in lots of industries and in lots of ways to improve our lives and to raise our standard of living. So, you know, the vast improvements of technology over, I mean, this is so much more important in many respects than anything that happens in Washington, D.C. This is so much more important than Zuckerberg's political views or any of the technology CEO's political views. These companies and people are making our lives better in profound ways. Biotech companies have the potential to make our lives, they allow us to live longer, healthier, better lives like never before. And to ignore that is the real positive. I mean, American industry generally, in spite of the Great Recession, in spite of the regulations, in spite of everything, in spite of the uncertainty, in spite of everything continues to astound in its ability to produce and create. In spite of Donald Trump's negativity about manufacturing, we manufacture today in the United States more stuff than we have ever manufactured in the United States. And continue to do so. We just do it with fewer people. You know, think of the fracking revolution. How much has that changed your life? Dramatically. It's beautiful. It's amazing. And do you care what the politics are of the CEOs of the fracking companies? I don't. I admire them for having done what they did, no matter what their politics are. Now, yeah, everybody's gonna say they're probably on the right. I don't know. But the point is that the brightest spot, the brightest aspect of American society over the last 30 years has been its businesses, have been its evil corporations. It's been its entrepreneurs. The ability of American business to rebound from recession, the ability of American business to continuously innovate, the ability of American business to find ways around regulations so that they don't hamper their productivity, the ability of American business in spite of all that we have put upon it, in spite of their taxes and the regulations and controls, and in spite of their attempts by Donald Trump to be, you know, central planner-in-chief, particularly early in his presidency. In spite of all that, wow, we continue to innovate, grow, produce, employ, create wealth on a massive scale. One could only imagine, one could only imagine how much we could be producing, how much we could be creating, how much we could be innovating if our economy was truly free, if our economy was truly free. So, yeah, in this new year, say thank you to the innovators, to the entrepreneurs, to the creators, to the builders, to the employers, to the businessmen who drive the U.S. economy, to the businessmen who create and build in spite of politicians, in spite of politics, in spite of culture, in spite of what's taught in the universities. The greatest thing about America, the greatest thing about America are its businessmen. The greatest thing about America are its producers, its innovators, its entrepreneurs. I love America because of the energy, the excitement, the productiveness, the imagination, the innovation of Silicon Valley, in spite of its politics. That's what makes America great today. I mean, I love America because of the founders, but given that they are gone and their ideas to a large extent are long gone from the political life, from the intellectual life of this country, what we've got left are the people who built this country, who made this country, who created the wealth that we all enjoy, and that is business. So, you know, reflect a little bit. That's a good time to reflect on all the good stuff, on the wonders of Amazon, on, you know, you like to course Facebook all the time, I know, but think of all the time you spend there and the enjoyment you get out of it. Think of everything that Apple has created. Think of fracking, think of all the amazing things that exist in our world because businessmen and entrepreneurs have created. All right, we're going to take a break. You're listening to your own book show on the Blaze Radio Network. We'll be right back. All right, we're back. You know, I'd love to talk about all the positives from last year, all day long and pull out all the gadgets that they bought and all the cool stuff and encourage you to call in about all the good things that happened to you during the year, but you know what, let's get real. As much as business and as much as entrepreneurs and innovators gave us a good year, nowhere as good as it could be if we had real free markets and freedom. The year was not a good year. The year was not a good year because we're just not living in a good period of time. This country is slip sliding away. It's deteriorating. We're heading towards an abyss. I don't know what that abyss will look like. I don't know when it happens, but we're heading there unfortunately. I think it's going to be both an economic abyss, but it's certainly going to be a cultural abyss. And I really do think that the presidency of Donald Trump to a large extent is a game changer, a new manifestation, a new form of this slip sliding away, a corruption that I don't know how this country recovers from. In spite of the positives his administration has done, particularly in the area of deregulation. I think that Trump has basically attacked the very foundational principles of America in a way and in a style that has never been done before. And in an explicit way that has never been done before. So that's what we're going to talk about for the rest of the show, except for the last section, which we will talk about hopefully if we have time talk about next year. Now, if you want in a conversation, if you want to argue with me or defend Trump or defend what's going on in the world, then call 1-88-900-3393. 1-88-900-3393. Please keep it to this topic. The topics we're discussing. And, you know, we will in the final segment open it up to any questions you want. A moment of reason we have here on the Iran Book Show every show. But 1-88-900-3393 is the number you can call in with any questions or comments that you might have. Let me also say before I get into this. In two weeks, I'll be in New York City. I don't know how many listeners we have in New York City, probably not the strongest area for the Blaze Radio Network. But if we have listeners from New York City, I am going to be in New York on January 16th for a debate. And I think it's going to be a lot of fun and it's going to be really interesting. I'm debating a real powerhouse. I'm debating Jean Epstein, who is the editor of Barron's magazine. So he's the economics and books editor of Barron's. So a real intellect. And we're debating a philosophical issue, which is going to be fun, but a moral philosophical issue. We're going to debate selfishness. Is it a virtue? So I'm going to be defending the resolution, the selfishness, self-interest, is a virtue. He's going to be against that resolution. And we have a great moderator. I'm sure many of you are familiar with the moderator. The moderator of the debate is going to be Judge Andrew Napolitano. Judge Andrew Napolitano, who at the age of, I think, 14, read the virtue of selfishness by Ayn Rand. So Judge Napolitano, who read the virtue of selfishness by Ayn Rand. He might be on my side on this debate, at least partially. He's also a good Catholic, so I don't know. But he might be on my side on this debate. Or maybe he'll be a good moderator. He'll be a little bit here, a little bit there. We will see. But it should be a fun event, a fun debate. You can find that information. You can buy tickets. You have to reserve in advance on thesohoforum.org, thesohoforum.org. And I know that it's kind of getting sold out. Last I heard, there weren't a lot of tickets left. So go get your tickets, reserve them, and make sure you come. If you're in the New York City area, I think it's going to be a fun evening. And it'll be a challenge. It's going to be a challenge. I'm up against two, you know, Epstein's a serious challenger. And I think Judge Napolitano is, you know, he's going to stick his opinions in there in the middle of it all. So it should be a good event, a lot of fun, quite entertaining. And so what, let's go back to, let's go back to, what is it about the Trump presidency? And look, in reviewing 2017, Trump is the center figure of 2017, should have easily been man of the year in every publication. He set the terms of debate. Everything in 2017 has been either him or response to him. You know, he has dominated the year like few presidents have. And I think that's, I think so, my discussion of 2017 looking back is going to be dominated by discussion of Donald Trump. So what is it about Donald Trump's presidency that I find so offensive, if you will? There are two things that he challenges. What Donald Trump challenges explicitly and in his behavior and in what he says and what he argues for is reason, fact, reality, truth. His is the most explicitly mindless administration, anti-intellectual administration, anti-reason administration ever. Now, lots of administration have been anti-mined, anti-mined. Lots of administrations have lied. Lots of administrations, almost all administrations, particularly in the modern era, have deceived, were corrupt, were argued for fakery, for falsehood, you know, thrived on emotion over reason. But most of them disguised it. Most of them disguised it behind a facade at least of intellectuality, behind a facade of with truth seekers, behind a facade of reason. Trump is the first president who relishes his primacy of consciousness, the idea that whatever happens in his mind is reality. The first president who relishes his lying, the first president who's proud of his anti-intellectuality, his proud of the fakeness of what he preaches. He never apologizes, he never, when he lies, he lies blatantly. He doesn't try to disguise this as anything. He is the first president who fully embraces his emotionalism, doesn't hide it anymore, doesn't pretend it's something else. And in this, he has taken all the deceit that we have experienced, all the mindlessness that we have experienced for 100 years in politics. And now it's just blatantly out there. Now, I mean, this could go either way. This could go in the direction of, oh, that's horrible. And we reject it as a culture and embrace, embrace the opposite. Embrace reason and intellectuality and facts and reality and reason. Or we can say, well, yeah, there is no reality. There is no truth. It's all fake. Conspiracy theories are just as legitimate as anything else, as any factual analysis. There is no one interpretation of history. There's whatever you feel like it. There is no truth in economics. There's whatever you convince people, you can convince people of. And I fear that that's what the culture is embracing now. The culture is embracing that because the left has prepped it. Postmodernism has prepped it in that sense. Trump is the first postmodern president. More so than Obama, more so than anybody on the left, because he is living it. He's truly expressing the idea that reality doesn't matter, right? How many, you know, more people attended my inauguration than any other presidents. And here are the photos to prove it. The photos actually prove the exact opposite. Doesn't matter. He doubles down. It doesn't matter because I believe more people were there. Therefore, that is the truth. Therefore, I expect those of you who are loyal to me to agree with me, even though the evidence, as even I present them on the wall in the White House briefing room, show that he's wrong. He is embracing lying. He's embracing non-reality. He is embracing everything our professors at the universities have been teaching us. Reality doesn't exist. Facts are not facts. I mean, Clinton started this off by, he was like, he started this off, but he's now kind of relatively mild-manners compared to Trump. You remember what he said? Well, it depends on what is, is, right? He was already hinting at this, you know, post-modernist interpretation of language and of reality and what facts are. And Trump has doubled down on this completely. Completely doubled down on this. So, you know, the facts are irrelevant to this White House and they don't even pretend to care about facts. They don't even pretend to care about truth. That's what makes this administration truly unique. It's embraced the philosophy, in many respects, of the radical, of the out-there leftists, fully, wholeheartedly, in the name of, I don't know, in the name of America? America first? Make America great again? I don't know. All right. It's time for another break. When we come back, we're going to talk more about mindlessness, the fact that we live in a, you know, that this administration is an administration cultivating the mind less. You're listening to the Iran Book Show on the Blaze Radio Network and we'll be right back. All right, we're talking about the era of mindlessness that I think Donald Trump has launched and the fact that he has made lying, not something to be embarrassed about, not something to apologize, but just something that if it works, go for it. If you manage, if you can lie to manipulate people, cool. And from day one, from day one, from the crowd size to a statement that there was carnage in the streets of America when, you know, a violent crime is almost at all time lows to almost every time he opens his mouth. He lies and he doesn't care and nobody seems to care. That's what's scary. You know, every politician lies. All politicians lie all the time, right? But people seem to care about their lies. They call them on them. They criticize them for them. Some politicians will even apologize for having misspoken. But Donald Trump doesn't care and the whites as represented by Donald Trump doesn't care because they're complete pragmatists. Whatever works, whatever gets them power or gets them control or gets them whatever end they want, that's what they'll do. Lying works to Donald Trump. So he's going to continue to lie. He's going to continue to lie. Now, what that reflects about our culture, what that reflects in terms of how we're educating our kids, what that reflects in terms of the future of this country, I mean, you fill in the blank. But, you know, whether it's carnage in the streets or the greatness of the first year of his presidency, it's all alternative reality. But he doesn't care. He doubles down on it time and time and time again. Stock market is at all time highs. True. But actually, stock market did better in the first year of Obama than it did in the first year of Donald Trump. And you know what's amazing to me? When I said that on Facebook a few days ago, that the number of people who told me I was distributing fake news because that's the response to anything they don't like is to attack, which is what they've learned from Donald Trump again, to lie, and when people show you you've lied, it's to attack them. Not to apologize, not to change your mind, not to provide alternative facts. No, to attack them. That's where we are. That's where we are. And it's, you know, it's really, really bad. I mean, I'll give you, and the sad thing is the conservatives and Republicans are towing the line. They're not calling him honest. They're not calling anybody honest. They're buying into this, you know what? Because it works. It's giving them power. And what they're really about is power. They're not about the truth. They're not about what's good for the country long term. They're about themselves achieving power and destroying the Democrats. I'm not that opposed to the second destroying the Democrats. But in the name of what? In the name of power? You know, I could go for the Democrats if it was just about power. Right? This is all about short-term gains. This is all about pure pragmatism. No principle getting where you need it. You remember, you remember, Donald Trump was a truth, was a truth. There was a period in which he was the leading advocate of a conspiracy theory against President Obama. Now Obama was a bad president. But so what? You don't fight him through conspiracy theories. And everybody's forgotten that. So when we have a million conspiracy theories going on around us, I mean the president of the United States is a spread of a conspiracy theories. There is no truth. Truth means nothing today. And nobody calls him on it. Nobody suddenly, from his own party, calls him on it. I'll give you an example. His chief of staff, this whole Charlottesville thing, but his chief of staff, because of the monuments of everything, came on and basically said, well, you know, it's too bad that in the Civil War they didn't just compromise, really. They weren't that far apart. It wasn't that bad. Really? Are you nuts? The Civil War was about slavery. One of the most disgusting, evil institutions in human history. And finally America was ready to get rid of slavery. There's no compromise around slavery. What do you compromise about? Right? And he's basically saying, yeah, let's not exaggerate. It's no big deal. Let's not overdo it here. Really? And did anybody on the right call him out on this? Did anybody on the Republicans say, wait a minute, that's fake news. That's real fake news. That's important fake news. That's fake news. Historically, that really matters. And again, you're buying Kelly and the whole Trump administration into the left view of history. It's whatever you want. It's whatever you make up. It's whatever you want to perceive it as. Really? And you know, not to mention Trump's own response to Charlottesville. Oh, there's some good people marching there, really? Good people marching with neo-Nazis? I don't know any good people who march with neo-Nazis. I don't know any good people who march with KKK. You don't go into the street if a neo-Nazi is marching. If you're a good person. You stay home. Even if you agree with something that they might be marching, you stay home. I'm not saying everybody who opposes taking down the statues of the of the Confederacy or neo-Nazis or white supremacists are not. But you stay home. You don't march with them. If it's their march, and it was their march, you don't. But for Donald Trump, ah, there were good people there. There were good people there. On both sides, because everything's moral equivalency. Counterfactual. Aye. It's sorry. It's a new low. And the sad thing is that he's making a correct point. He's making a correct point about the fake news in the media, or the bias in the media. I don't like to call the fake news bias. The media's biased. NPR's biased. CNN's biased. New York Times is biased. So is Breitbart and so is Fox. They're all biased. And it's good to bring that out. But when you're a liar, when your method of communication is through lying, then what claim, what moral high ground do you have when discussing fake news? You have no moral high ground. What alternative are you presenting when you yourself are producing fake news and conspiracies? What are you giving the American people as hope? Nothing. And therefore all the American people now are cynical. Yeah, the New York Times is bad. The president lies. Everybody lies. Everybody lies. Maybe reality is whatever we feel like it to be. And this undercuts. It undercuts one of the founding principles of this country. The efficacy of reason. The importance of truth. A fact of reality. This is the founding of America that comes at the end of the age of reason. The enlightenment with the respect for reality and facts and evidence and truth and the human mind. And yet we have an administration that is negates the human mind and we have a university system and intellectual leftist establishment that negates the human mind. This is what scares me. What is left? When in politics and in academia politics and academia reality doesn't matter. Facts don't matter. Reason doesn't matter. The human mind doesn't matter. And the people who attacked Donald Trump and Donald Trump were all basically advocating fundamentally the same thing an engagement of reality and reason. All right. You're listening to Iran Book Show. We've got another hour to go. We'll be right back on the Blaze Radio Network. All right. Welcome back for those of you who back from the first hour. Welcome for those of you who just joined us. This is Iran Book and the Blaze Radio Network. We're talking about the year in review and really talking about what this presidency means because if you look back at 2017 Donald Trump dominates 2017 whether it's because people are responding to him or he's responding to events. He is everywhere and everything. And I'm pointing out how mindlessness or anti-reason, anti-intellectuality, anti-thinking, anti-fact, anti-reality this administration is and this administration positioned itself. And it's really in everything that he's done. In everything that he's done. Whether it's you know the statements he made you know about crime early on in his presidency of course which were completely bogus, crowd size the the value of his presidency the legislative success and everything else he's just promotes mindlessness and anti-intellectuality and I think one of the ways in which this is particularly true is on the issue of trade. Now I'm not going to get into an argument with you guys on trade because there is no argument on trade. Trade is a settled issue. It's a settled issue of science. It's no different than arguing about the existence of molecules the existence of atoms or the existence of gravity. Now it's a more complicated thing and many people are ignorant of the science behind trade but trade is a settled issue. It's been settled since at least since Adam Smith and then every economist, every significant economist is a supporter of free trade every economist including those on the left and right this is the one settled, one of the few settled issues in economics. If you can cut deals where you lower tariffs that's a good thing. Ideally you would lower tariffs unilaterally to zero that would be ideal but NAFTA is a good thing trade with China fantastic thing. You don't like the violation of IP rights in China great boycott the companies that are violating IP rights. Make a list of all the companies and boycott them, they're criminal they're stealing property, fine but trade in and of itself is not we need to negotiate. No, every time you walk into a Walmart and you buy something you've negotiated. You've accepted that whatever you bought made in China is a good deal for you because you've been willing to put up the money and accept that the good. You negotiate every day when you go into the marketplace and buy and sell stuff. Trade is good and yet Trump announces the trade is bad. He announces he can cut better deals he announces the deals we have are no good no evidence, no proof no economist agrees with him he brings in the one economist who's anti-trade in the entire country Navarro from actually from U.C. Irvine here in Southern California a hack not an economist a hack I know him I've met him but he's the only economist I know serious economist who thinks trade is a bad thing particularly trade with China is a bad thing and he brings him into the administration to guide him and then suddenly suddenly all these people around and this is the scary phenomena of Trump presidency all these people around me anti-trade it's like everybody in Facebook everybody encounter has all their knowledge of economics just out the window it doesn't matter because as I said this is a presidency in which facts don't matter truth doesn't matter science doesn't matter and again I tell you this is very consistent with the academic left where all that is true of as well and this is true you would say with Obama presidency the difference is that here it's outlandish it's upfront it's non-apologetic it's all embracing it's the guiding principle now somebody on the chat and I've heard this a lot from people say look Iran this is what's needed don't defeat the left you know he lies strategically he's a troll I mean that word is overused way overused he does this because he knows the impact it's going to have he's a very sophisticated thinker and he's doing this to beat down the left now even if that were true using the left's tactics to beat down the left is long term unbelievably destructive to America undercutting reason in order to defeat the left is the end of this country if that's what he's doing I don't think that's what he's doing I don't think Donald Trump is a thoughtful person I mean that's my analysis of him he's a great marketing person he's great at marketing and yeah he's figured that he can lie and there are no consequences he figures that he can lie because his base will accept whatever he says and I see it all the time I'm seeing it right now on my youtube chat people accept him blindly no matter what he does he said early in the campaign I mean this was one of the most striking things he said and the fact that it was had an element of truth to it is one of the reasons I could never vote for him he said that he could stand in the middle of 5th avenue and shoot somebody and people would still vote for him I mean if that is true and I think it is unfortunately then that means that facts don't matter reality doesn't matter morality doesn't matter legality doesn't matter what matters is winning at any cost, at any price no matter what even if the truth has to be sacrificed you're gonna winning is all that matters and when you lose you challenge it's interesting that Roy Moore who Trump supported Roy Moore lost in Alabama challenged it it was a recount or whatever it was certified by the court he's still not accepting defeat that's this primacy of your own consciousness not of reality, not of facts, not of evidence but whatever I want, whatever I feel like that's what should be I mean Roy Moore is the ideal the perfect Trump-like candidate yeah made my day when he lost not that the Democrat won but that Roy Moore lost I mean it's exactly that Donald Trump can support Roy Moore I mean Republicans can support Roy Moore in spite of the fact that he flouts the rule of law and then of course Donald Trump pardons Sheriff O'Opio who flouted the rule of law because the rule of law doesn't matter if you don't happen to agree with the law God forbid illegal immigrants oh my god, they're illegal they're criminals every single one of them is a criminal well how about Roy Moore being an illegal he flouted the law he went against the Supreme Court that's illegal how about O'Opio as an illegal sheriff he didn't he ignored the ruling he ignored the ruling of a court a court of law and he did whatever he felt like doing when do you get off when do you get off talking about illegal anything when you when it's convenient for you, you don't care it doesn't matter I'm an illegal driver I've said this all the time I speed all the time and uh I'm sure I violate other laws I'm sure I do because you know what the United States is so insane it's hard not to I want to give you one of the example of the mindlessness and again this is not unique to Trump what's unique to Trump is how much we flouted and what's unique to Trump is how much he doesn't care and how much his supporters don't care but how aggressive he is about it again Obama Obama was anti-American but he at least attended he presented a facade a reason of of fact presented that attended that Trump has none of the facade he's naked in his anti-Americanism in his of his actions he's not anti-American in his speech right but he's anti-American in what America represents versus what he talks about he's anti-the mind he's anti-ideas he's anti-intellectuality he's anti-fact reality and so on alright let me say I wanted to give one more example but I'm gonna do that after let me just say this I think that Trump's vulgarity is part of this Trump's vulgarity is part of this vulgarity it's a form of anti-intellectualism it's a form of anti-reason it's the last refuge of somebody who has nothing really to say it's it's crude it's ugly and it's reflector of that his tweets are the same thing the fact that he condenses everything into short sentences all of that all of that add it all up all I see all I get is irrationality the worship the adoration the normalization of irrationality alright we're gonna be right back we're gonna take a quick break from messages you're listening to Iran book show on the blaze radio network alright we're back and I think the point I was making towards the end of the last segment was the idea that Trump is normalizing the irrational normalizing the idea of no facts of the insignificance of reality of the insignificance of truth the insignificance of reason that is the lasting lasting damage he's doing and those of you who Trump bites those of you who seem to follow him almost blindly that's what you're achieving you're not destroying the left you're embracing the left because that has been the agenda of the left all along that's been the agenda of the post modernist all along and you're just embracing it you're helping it propagate and when you attack trade you attack capitalism when you attack trade you attack free markets when you attack trade you attack all economic knowledge you make it irrelevant it's all about emotion trade feels bad so trade is bad capitalism feels bad then capitalism is bad you're playing right into the hand right into the hand of the worst of the worst elements in the left and the right I want to give you one other example and related to trade and that's this term globalism which is this amazing package deal that so many people are bought into and our package deal is when you put into one concept two things that are not compatible and they clash with one another making the word itself it doesn't mean anything globalism is exactly that globalism means nothing what does it combine in it it combines the idea of the UN running the world of global governance of the UN dictating how we should do everything or whether it's the UN or some other international organization dictating how America should be run and in that package together the idea of free trade now I for example am a huge advocate for free trade and completely antagonistic completely opposed to world government and I've said that the United Nations is one of the most immoral institutions in human history am I globalist am I not a globalist am I half a globalist what is it it doesn't allow you to think it doesn't contribute anything to cognition and it's exactly what Donald Trump wants he wants all those who are opposed to the UN to be opposed to free trade and to be trapped by this word globalist people constantly accuse me of being a globalist because I'm for free trade and so other people look at me and say oh wow you're for government by the United Nations you are the United Nations to control us really so anyway so it's so and again everybody does this but Trump does this to a higher level he's really really good at it and he is systematically destroying trying to destroy our ability to think about politics to discuss ideas because he's taken out the foundation facts, reality, clear definitions using terms accurately and definitively right I mean I don't care if you want to call me a globalist but just include their only free trade if free trade is what defines you as a globalist I'm a globalist but if globalism means world government or world governance or UN then I'm not a globalist now I know that you guys can't handle that fact some of you can't handle that fact these two things right you can't handle that I'm pro free trade but against that for you it's all one big package deal alright alright we've actually got to call her alright let's take this call hi Brian from Chicago you're on the Iran book show hey Iran enjoy the show I tried calling you earlier knowing I was answering your phone well I have no control over that unfortunately that's the blaze I agree with everything you said about Donald Trump but I think the point that a lot of commentators are always missing or forgetting is that Donald Trump the phenomenon of him being in the White House is more to do with the rejection of both of our established parties both parties are horrible most people in America are not a member of either party most Americans despise politicians so I remember when Trump was wreaking havoc he established republicans in the primary and they're all trembling thinking he was going to wreck the republican party he was going to go down in flames Hillary was going to be the president that was conventional thinking but so many Americans despise Bill and Hillary Clinton because they've proven liars I get I get why Trump was elected the question is here he is governing and not only is he governing he hasn't wrecked the republican party he's actually got the republican party behind him 100% that's supporting him completely what he's done is he shifted the republican party to his anti-intellectual tribal mentality so he's made the republican party even worse than what it used to be now I'm not going to argue if Hillary Clinton would have been better to me that's irrelevant I don't do alternative histories I look at the facts as they are he is president of the United States and the question is what impact is his presidency having on the world around us and that's what I'm trying to analyze well he's got everything all shook up and I think a lot of republicans swallowed hard because they wanted that tax bill that's what they wanted more than anything with that tax bill and they got it so happy for that now what's going to happen in the next six months who knows what their faces and I got a feeling it's going to I think the republicans it's all going to blow up in their faces the democrats are going to take over congress trump is going to be neutered and then all the gains they've garnered are going to go away I wouldn't be surprised if you're right that's the way the public is everybody like simple little stories and another big problem in American politics is television media is horrible everybody that's where most Americans get their information is television and they like the quick simple stories they like the trump insult of the day or who did trump insult today I think trump is reinforcing the anti-intellectualism that is already in the American public and he's reinforcing it and he's playing into it and he's supporting it and that does not bode well for where the country is heading it's going to blow up in our faces because this is not sustainable it's not sustainable from trump it's not sustainable from the left it's not sustainable from the republican party that what we have created in this country is heading towards disaster exactly the form of the disaster I don't know but it ain't good nothing good is going to come of the trump presidency that I can assure everybody alright Brian thanks for participating thanks for calling in and you know I agree with you it's a much broader phenomenon that trump is the manifestation of it trump is one individual but the fact that he won the fact that people support him the fact that even people listening to this show don't get what globalism actually means all of that it just reinforces the message that we anti-intellectual unthinking and don't care about reality and I think that things are going to have to get worse before they get better and the only thing preventing it from getting worse is those geniuses in places like silicon valley who keep the economy going and without whom we'd be in a depression right now and it is it stuns me the people who are supposedly pro-american the greatest producers among us the people who actually make this country work and keep pushing forward keep moving forward I can't imagine what the world would be like if without those incredible businessmen alright so the great danger of trump is that he's normalizing the irrational and that what trump is revealed is that there is a big portion of Americans who are already there who are supportive of this who are willing to follow and engage in this kind of lying manipulation marketing in order to achieve these goals and then the question is what happens and we already know on the left that this is what is being taught our kids irrationality lack of facts, lack of reality emotionalism now we have it both on the left and the right and what is the expression what happens to people when they lose confidence in their own mind when they are taught that the mind is impotent that truth facts reality don't matter that the irrational rules in a sense of emotion rules all they have left is to cluster around in their little group and to follow the leader or to follow the majority what you get is tribalism the consequences of the negation of reason are always tribalism and that's the other negative thing that the trump presidency indicates is real is how tribal we have become how tribal we have become and we are becoming and trump encourages that supports that but the whole left-right division in America supports that the whole idea of identity politics on the left support that the alt-right on the right supports it I've never I haven't seen more racism more racist comments more collectivism more tribalism in America than I have over the last year and I think trump is the one who has brought that out brought that to the forefront so when we get back I want to talk more about this tribalism about the danger of tribalism and why it's so anti-american we are the land of the individual all right you're listening to the Rodbroke show we're here on the blaze radio network every Saturday and we'll be back after these messages all right happy new year everybody I hope you had a great Christmas and I hope you're having a great reflective time to think about the year that's passed and the year and the future and your life and great time to make commitments to making the world and your life a better place you know one of the things I'm going to go a little bit off but come back to tribalism one of the things that really stands out in terms of the last year is the extent to which illegal immigration has become central to almost every discussion every debate about anything no matter what it comes up everywhere and again another topic that the kind of republican establishment is completely barred into the rhetoric on now I'm not going to debate illegal immigration I'll just point out that it's not that important of an issue there are much bigger problems in this country individual rights are being violated left and right by the government everywhere and all the time illegal immigration since 2007 till today has basically been flat it was negative through much of the late 2000s because of the economy it's never really picked up it's never become a huge problem crime in the United States meaning since 1990 as illegal immigration has been increasing from 1997 illegal immigration increased dramatically and yet crime went down and then from 2007 both crime and illegal immigration have gone down so there doesn't seem to be a correlation between crime and illegal immigration there's no issue where illegal immigration is important you know the manufacturing jobs that have lost in this country has nothing to do with trade has everything to do with technology I mean there's no issue there's no there there I mean you can argue they're illegals they should be the law of the land they should be deported we should change the laws whatever but why is this the central issue that everybody discusses all the time whenever we debate politics it's not that important it's not a violent crime it's a crime I don't know where it is on the rates of crime but it's not a big deal no rights are being violated they haven't stabbed anybody in the back they haven't done anything so horrific as to dominate our mental space and yet all we can talk about seemingly is illegal immigration who cares I mean yeah it's an issue we should debate it we should discuss it but the centrality the single-mindedness again indicates both a mindlessness and a tribalism I truly believe that much of the of the emotion around illegal illegal immigration has to do with tribalism they're not from our tribe oh my god people are coming here and they're not from our tribe this kinkal is different they have a different culture they speak a different language oh my god what tribe is being threatened that's unamerican and again a turn to the worst and tribalism and racism and xenophobia all these things are much much worse today than I can ever remember them in America in the past I think racism and tribalism have always been under the surface there but what the Trump presidency has done is brought them out brought them out into the open and I just mentioned immigration already people attacking I never mentioned open borders and I've discussed Israel and I've discussed Israel's walls and I've done all that so if you want my opinion about why America is different than Israel why Israel's walls are not that important I've talked about that go find it and why what I mean by open borders nobody cares it's like an emotional thing just drops over people's minds and they get completely blocked nothing threatens it seems people on the right in America today more than illegal immigrants oh my god zombies are invading and they're going to kill us all and of course in spite of the fact that almost all illegal immigrants are Mexicans the next response is the Muslims are coming I mean it just shows everything I've said the emotionalism the negation of fact and reality and reason and ultimately the tribalism the xenophobia, the racism that I think unfortunately and shockingly is all around us and again the right meets the left identity politics on all the universities an agenda item that emphasized race over everything else identity as skin color identity as cultural belonging as ethnic group over everything else that was the most important thing to the left now the right has embraced it and basically said hey we can play this game now they're not quite as open about it as the left is but yeah I mean never have the not in a long time not in a long time have the American racist being as bold as they are right now not in a long time have American racist being as bold as they are right now not in a not in a long time as a president of the United States being as sympathetic to those views or at least non-condemnatory of those views as Donald Trump has been he there's an encouragement and an emphasis and kind of a hood mentality of don't think for yourself of just follow the leader and follow what is politically correct but on the right and politically correct on the left I mean if the left and the right there's nothing that the right hates more than people on the left and there's nothing on the left that they hate more than people on the right it's truly stunning how deep that goes how deep it goes yeah there we go I just mentioned immigration like masses of people came on to YouTube and they're all talking about it it's funny it's funny yeah yeah sharia law is not good for the US who the hell is for sharia law in the United States I mean that's such a straw man that's such nonsense at least for that but that's how quickly any discussion where immigration is just mentioned becomes because of how trouble we have become because of our inability to think because of the mindlessness because of the irrationality because of the lack of of discussion rational discussion, rational debate fact based panic and emotion and that's tribalism my group that's what's important what does my group think oh I'm for that so it's sad it's sad the land of individualism the land of reason is now the land of irrationality and tribalism at least it's not gone as I said there's still a lot of individualism in American business there's still a lot of rationality in American innovation there's still American people for the most part are still individualistic and rational but hell on the right and on the left in politics and scraping more and more into our culture and embracing more or enveloping more and more Americans is this irrationality and tribalism that is everywhere everywhere there's now racism on the left and racism on the right and no answer we're going to take a quick break when I come back I want to quickly talk about America first and then maybe say something about 2018 if not we'll do that next week we'll talk about what I think next to come you're listening to your own book show on the Blades radio network and we'll be right back we're heading towards the last segment of the last show of 2017 we've goodbye to another year oh my god I'm getting old so one of the things I hear and you know is the idea that look Trump is at least pro-American I was one of the first to call him such I called him the first anti American president ever and at least Trump is pro-American now my view on this is really is he not that I think he's anti-American I just think he's neither I don't think he knows what America is I don't think he cares I think he's pro-Trump in a superficial short term not a statistical way but look at where he says America first I mean that's a joke a joke what about Trump's foreign policy has been America first you mean his basic handing over of Syria and Iraq to our worst enemy in the Middle East Iran and to our only potential global enemy the Russians you know what's been America first about it we're still in the UN and in spite of their headlines we haven't cut our contribution to the UN the UN just voted overwhelmingly against America we did nothing we didn't walk away, we didn't leave what's America first about it let me tell you what America first strategy would be just highlights right we'd leave the UN we'd actually say that over the next 10 years we're going to leave NATO we'd let the South Koreans take responsibility for defending themselves against the North Koreans we'd start unwinding our treaties with them and the Japanese, let them defend themselves stuff that to some extent Trump actually said during the campaign which was the few things that I liked that he said we would actually not just de-certify the Iranian deal we would actually negate it and deal with the Iranians we would actually deal with the Saudis although that might be happening in spite of ourselves the Saudis might be reforming themselves because of America but in spite of us our weakness with regard to Iran our weakness generally in the world I think is encouraging the Saudis to take responsibility for their own defense and their own lives and I think as a consequence we might be seeing internal reform in Saudi Arabia which if true would be terrific would be really really good news what has been America first? yeah he moved the embassy to Jerusalem or at least said he would finally the Democratic presidents have promised to do that and haven't so he might actually do it big deal indeed in actual policy put aside what he says put aside how he says it put aside the vulgarity the quitter nature of the whole thing the lying and all of that most of what Trump has done is very conventional the tax bill is a conventional Republican tax bill the attempt to repeal Obamacare to establish free market medicine in America they would just attempt to repeal Obamacare and even they failed his farm policy it doesn't exist you know it's maybe better than Obamacare but I doubt it I don't think Obama had much of a farm policy at least we're not apologizing to the world I'll give him that we're not apologizing to the world which Obama did all the time say in that sense it's better but it's conventional and at the same time any Republican would have got the tax bill passed any Republican president any one of those 12 candidates would have done tax cuts that's what Republicans do they don't know how to do anything else they certainly don't know how to cut spending so they cut taxes that's the one thing they're good for so his presidency in terms of policy has been mostly conventional I think somewhat by accident he has appointed some good people on the regulatory agencies who are doing good things but in other places like Jeff Sessions in the Justice Department it's another disaster it looks like from an antitrust perspective this is going to be a disastrous administration so that's a mixed bag there there's just nothing that interesting about what Trump has actually done just nothing that interesting all the interesting stuff is how he does it what he says you know what he gives moral sanction to and what he doesn't all his lies and his vulgarity and his Twitter action very little and not that meaningful yeah, leaving the Paris treaty that was good, that was good there are things here and there we will see how it all pans out and we will see what what happens where we go from here 2019 let me end very quick I'm not going to really get into this because I've only got about 6 minutes to the end of the show this would take a whole show to really get into it but let me say some things I'm worried about going into 2019 and some things 2018 I've already skipped a year, I'm already on 19 I've actually got in my notes 2019 2018 is coming up things I'm worried about Trump I have no idea what he's going to be doing you know the course of nature of his presidency, what impact that's going to have on America the rule of law which I think is tentative Obama was very anti-rule of law Trump is even in some ways worse what's going to happen what's going to happen with Russia investigation given his disrespect of the rule of law and process and the separation of powers is going to be really interesting you know, Bannon said that he does not believe that Trump will finish out his term that's interesting how that all plays out and what kind of damage it does to the country what happens in the midterm elections in 2018 the Democrats win, is that a good thing, a bad thing you know if they can hold the Senate which I think they've got a good chance of doing and they lose the House more divided governments even more stalemate in Washington, is that necessarily bad I don't know I'm not commenting on the Russian thing because I don't think it's that important but it is important in terms of the politics it's got important political ramifications one way or the other and do I buy people are asking do I buy the Trump colluded with the Russians I don't rule that out but that way I don't have any evidence to support it but it doesn't strike me as science fiction do I think the Russians try to manipulate the elections absolutely, I don't think there's any doubt about that, they do that with every country, they are known as that do I think Putin is a bad guy absolutely, I think he's one of the worst people on the world stage do I think he would do anything to try to undercut the United States absolutely, so yeah, all of that I think Russia is a big deal what's going to come of the Mueller investigation I don't know and the fact that in the New York Times interview with Donald Trump just from a couple of days ago he denied that there was any collusion unprompted, he mentioned that there was no collusion between him and the Russian 14 or 16 times I mean the protest too much so, you know, that whole thing I mean who cares, right, that's the least my worries about Donald Trump is my worries about Russia I worry about Russia a lot it's one of the really bad bad actors in the world stage today and threatens US interests significantly there's a lot Europe, what's going to happen in Europe I just have to tell you the story so in Berlin for the big New Year's Eve celebration they're creating zones that are safe for women and it's zones that if they get harassed they can come and get counseling during New Year's Eve celebration now this is according to BBC BBC I mean how bizarre is that shouldn't the whole of Berlin be a safe space for women the fact that they acknowledge that it's not the fact that they're not putting enough police out there into the crowds to make it so is pathetic the fact that they would set up zones is pathetic so the whole European caving to Islam is just unbelievable unbelievable and something to continue worrying about as we move into 2018 and into the future just nuts what signal does that send the worst elements within the Muslim population it sends the worst kind of signals they can do whatever the hell they want they can be safe zones and then the women can escape to safe zones and then of course Europe the backlash to that is Poland, Poland the wonderful Poland no Poland's a disaster freedom in Poland is in decline freedom of the press, freedom of speech freedom of religion Poland is in deep, deep trouble that's not the solution so where do you go I mean Europe is a mess Europe continues to be a mess okay I want to end on some hope most important piece of news over the last weekend there are protests in Iran against the Mullahs, against the leaders if Donald Trump is truly an America first president then well he should be on every day supporting them not just by giving them weapons and money but actually for the bully puppets supporting them morally Obama had an opportunity to do that in 2009 and did not campuses free speech there seems to be a pushback to the rise of Dave Rubin Jordan Peterson etc. all good things the sexual harassment stuff is good overall bad elements to it but good overall in that it's bringing it to the forefront and maybe reduce its prevalence so there's some good things these are good things that are happening moving into 2018 that we can build on and make even better the fight the struggle for this country will continue 20 and if we identify reason if we fight for individualism use facts and logic and science and reason we will win whether it's in 2018 or 2025 the future is ours talk to you next year have a great new year you're clear all right happy new year happy new year good luck with the move thank you see you