 G'day mate 40 here. So I started listening to Talk radio on an ongoing basis when I started working in construction like the the summer of 1986 and I began listen. No, actually I when I came to the United States in 1977 I got a radio listen to mainly the news and Sports talk radio. I guess some talk radio, but then working construction in the summer of 1986 I started listening to a ton like people like Ron Owens and Kejio radio and in San Francisco and then I discovered Dennis Prager on KBC radio in the fall of 1988 and Dennis Prager played a really important role in my life He was he was a man. She was just a good person I learned a lot from him and he was always, you know, very polite when I would call in and argue with him and so I learned from him his men's lakai and he had this week night weekend show on KBC Saturday night Sunday nights and When I finished with his show, I was usually a better person Like I was I was predisposed in a more moderate direction more more thoughtful direction a little more attuned to possibilities of God and questions of right and wrong and so Yeah, there was quite an element of showmanship with Prager even back then there was a Substantial element of intellectual vulgarity with with Dennis Prager there where he talked about things that he didn't know much about But I think there was a substantial change in Dennis Prager show from when he just did this show On Saturday and Sunday nights to when he moved to every day So when he moved to an every day show and particularly when he became nationally syndicated He moved into a different situation so on Saturday nights, he'd have like 40% of the radio audience and There weren't many Adverts because not many advertisers wanted to advertise in a program. There was all about God and good and evil and And so he had freedom to discuss ultimate issues Then when he moved to a show that was every day He still discussed ultimate issues to a little bit, but he had to primarily work within a particular genre that Requires essentially that the host Infuriate the audience like get the audience worked up about how the elites are taking advantage of them and so The easiest way to get an audience in talk radio is to give people something that they can't get in the rest of media That they can't get on NPR. They can't get in Los Angeles Times New York Times NBC News CNN you have to give them something different and as the rest of the media is Essentially left of center So you want to give them a right-wing perspective because there's this huge audience out there for right-wing perspectives that are not getting fed Generally speaking by the mainstream media, but then to get people coming back to your show every day You have to feed them something beyond just a conservative perspective. You have to give them Thoughts that are not in the mainstream media and so you are incentivized to Increasingly become a conspiracy theorist and and a crank and to And as you develop an audience you get an over exaggerated sense of your own abilities to discern patterns of the mainstream media can't see And so it's a familiar whipping boy whipping point whipping and Direction of right-wing talk radios to decry house landed the mainstream medias and how they're just distorting reality and so people get on their hobby horses in talk radio and because if all they do is Regurgitate the main talking points from the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal Then people are better off just going to the New York Times the Wall Street Journal So you're incentivized to move away from an evidence-based approach From from the same facts that everyone else is talking about in the media to your special facts and to your special Interpretations you have to give people something that they're not going to get the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal And so this leads to people becoming increasingly cranks and this is what's happened Dennis Prager. I Used to have the experience when I listened to Dennis Prager I would come away from the experience generally speaking elevated I would be happier and more thoughtful and more moderate and then once he started getting this daily show And he had to work within the confines of talk radio, which depends upon getting people Feeling victimized by the elites by the mainstream media and you're gonna fight for them people who've been victimized against the elites That's the whole formula for right-wing talk radio Once Prager got got stuck with this particular prism with this particular genre But I'd noticed that I'd come away from listening to his show consistently angry and I've come away from listening to his show Consistently worse off than I was before I listened to it Because I was angry at a chip on my shoulder. I was outraged at the the elites and It was making me a worse person. I was very unhappy or angry or more resentful and I don't necessarily blame Dennis Prager for this. He's working within a particular genre I think that tends to do that. Now. I haven't listened to a ton of talk radio Very much talk radio at all outside of Dennis Prager show in the last 25 years and I haven't listened to Dennis Prager show in a year or two So I'm sure that there are probably exceptions to what I'm talking about So tell me like who are nationally syndicated talk show hosts Who don't have a business model that depends upon making people angry and resentful and Feeding them a duplicitous message that you are you're on the people side against the elites against the the nasty oligarchical regime that is imposing on them all these horrible things and so I think a prominent example of How Prager's situation as a nationally syndicated, you know conservative talk show has Has led him to crazy Cranky perspectives. This is media matters Dennis Prager announces. He has covered while ranking against vaccines and declaring that he was trying to get infected so his direct quote from apparently Dennis Prager show Today October 18th. I'm broadcasting from my home because I'm not going to the station as I have covered I was tested positive last week. I've been steadily improving at no point was I in danger of hospitalization I have for years a year and a half been taking hydroxychloroquine and that just seems That seems to be against the evidence like the evidence that people would be better off just taking hydroxychloroquine every day To minimize the symptoms of COVID or to minimize bad outcomes with COVID I don't think that's medically supported. I think that's scientifically supported. I'm The Zelenco protocol. So count me highly skeptical of the Zelenco Protocol so zinc ZPAC as Zithromycin Hydroxychloroquine so I'm highly skeptical of this protocol Prager says I've taken Ivermectin again, I think this is The stuff of cranks I've done what a person should do if one is not going to get vaccinated. So is Dennis Prager not vaccinated? That's insane He's got a nationally syndicated radio show and he's not vaccinated It's infinitely preferable to have natural immunity than vaccine immunity says Dennis on what basis there's no basis for saying that Like this is quintessential example of the naturalistic fallacy just because something's natural doesn't mean It's better than something that's not natural without Insulin people with type 1 diabetes would die decades earlier But with insulin people with type 1 diabetes can live decades longer and have fully productive lives So Dennis Prager's best friend Joseph Talushkin is a lie because he takes something that's not natural. He takes insulin All right, so this notion that that which is natural is better than that which is not natural There's no there's no basis for this All right, so yeah in some set examples I'm sure there are times when that which is natural is better than that which is unnatural But you can find just as many cases when that which is unnatural is better than that which is natural There's absolutely no evidence that anything that's organic is any better for you than like some GMO food So this idea that like natural immunity is better than vaccine immunity. There's there's absolutely no factual scientific medical basis for this So Dennis was minimizing covid for months. He had Michael fermento on multiple times and fermento was saying oh this covid is just overhyped It's No, it's just it's another No needless hysteria, right? So we've had Over 700,000 americans die from covid we've had At least four million people around the world die from covid and these numbers are probably undercounted by a factor of three according to the dominant academic studies on this this topic so So Dennis said I wanted covid I wanted covid I hoped I would achieve natural immunity and be taken care of by therapeutics. That's insane to want to get covid To develop natural immunity and to be taken care of by therapeutics I mean That's that's insane Like why would you want to get covid? This is exactly what has happened. It should have happened to the great majority of americans Well, if this had happened to the great majority of americans without our lockdowns without our public health policies We would have Probably four times as many dead americans, right? If america had followed These preger policies we'd have four times as many dead americans number of deaths in this country going to covet is a scandal Maybe scandal compared to who what other first world industrialized nation has done substantially better than the united states america that There aren't any like sweden's had like two-thirds the number of our deaths per capita, but that's not a huge huge difference The opposition of therapeutics on the part of the cdc so is that I'm sure there are lots of problems with the cdc, but is its opposition to therapeutics Something that's killing large numbers of americans. I'm unaware of any evidence for this. This is just a crank perspective And it's owing to the corruption of the belief and the value of the vaccine Again, no evidence for this vaccines. We work. We use them for polio. We use them for for measles We use them to minimize all sorts of diseases And uh, COVID vaccines prove to be highly effective You're about 120th is likely to die and about 120th is likely to get hospitalized if you if you're vaccinated And so preger's saying whether it's because of all the money that goes into the cdc from pharmaceutical companies Pharmaceutical companies aren't funding the cdc. This is just like bogus cranky crank conspiracy fact-free You know nonsense Right, the cdc is funded by the federal government. It's not funded by pharmaceutical companies or a simple unquestioning faith in vaccines The cdc and vaccine advocates don't have an unquestioning faith in vaccines There have been times in american history where rushing out a vaccine has killed a lot of people All right, this is not one of those occasions right now We have no evidence for that but in the 1970s under president jerald ford We did rush out a vaccine that killed a lot of people so Neither I nor any responsible person is pro vaccine thinks that all vaccines automatically You know unquestioning faith no sane person has unquestioning faith in vaccines Vaccine trials have to be done, right? the trials for vaccines in the united states of america were done very rigorously And that's why we have what is overwhelmingly a you know, very solid very safe and very effective product So this is just nutty stuff from from denis prego And there's just so much nutty stuff on the right. I remember when Trump was was running in 2016 against hillary clinton. I was at that time I was like You know 100 times more supportive of donald trump for president than hillary clinton now in retrospect. I think the odds are probably 80 80% likely that trump was a better president than hillary clinton would have been But by the time 2020 rolled around and trump ran against biden Uh, I guess I probably favored trump 80 to 20 So in 2016 I was like hundred to one trump over hillary by 2020 trumps incompetence trumps Lack of ability to be an effective leader trumps, uh, you know childishness narcissism and nihilism Like he the more I learned about donald trump the less enthused I am about him So by 2020 I was probably in favor of trump like 80 20 over biden Now after the election it's probably shifted Because trump was being so irresponsible after the election making these false Fact-free allegations about electoral fraud costing him the election. So I've probably shifted to like 70 30 I would rather have trump over biden. It does seem generally speaking that biden has been more of He seems more competent with regard to covet and he seems more competent with regard to allies I think there's no question that biden has been more competent with working with our alliances Building up against china than trump was with regard to covet. I am not sure it just seems that biden's more more competent so certainly Biden talking out the vaccine but the vaccine was brought about by trump So I don't know enough to make like a definitive statement that obviously the biden's administration is more competent than the trump administration with regard to covet It just seems that way and I wouldn't be surprised if those are the facts on the ground but I don't Put the primary blame for america's death toll from covet on donald trump the trump administration america Has done pretty much middle of the road for first world industrialized western nations with regard to covet so Be back