 Let's be real about the State of the Union. The State of the Union is bad. The United States is in bad shape. The United States is thoroughly divided. It's tribal. People hate each other's guts. There is real discussion and conversation among serious people with real intensity around a civil war. People on the wrong side of the political aisle from where you are are traitors. They're not just mistaken. They're traitors. We are becoming this attitude, this tribalism, this disdain, this disdain for any values. For any values. And for disdain, deep disdain, both on the right and on the left, for defining principles of America, for defining fathers, for the Constitution, for the principles of individual rights. This is the disdain that crosses the aisle. It's one of the reasons I despise Trump as much as I did, do. Because of that disdain. That is undermining the benevolence and the optimism and the attitude of don't tread on me and moving forward on creating, on building, on making stuff that is the American spirit. It is undermining the American sense of life. And that is disastrous for this country. This country is on a path to become, it probably is already Europe and become much worse. It's on a path to authoritarianism or civil war or both. And as such, the only cure is to get rid of the disease. And the disease is collectivism. The disease is tribalism. The disease is statism. The only solution to this disease is to shrink the state. It's the limit government. It's to get government out of our lives. So we're not fighting over the crumbs. We're not fighting over the goodies that government is handing out. Should critical race theory be taught in schools or not? Well, I know you guys all think, no, of course it shouldn't be taught. But why? If parents want it to be taught in schools, why shouldn't it be taught in schools? Who are you to tell parents and teachers at schools what should or shouldn't be taught? Well, your taxpayers, you say, you pay for this, right? This is why it's an impossible conundrum. The only way to get rid of the conflict around critical race theory is to get government out of education. And then you wanna educate your kid with critical race theory. I feel sorry for the kid. You wanna give him some crazy Christian education and an education in creationism? Your business, I feel sorry for the kid, but your business, stay out of my business, I'll stay out of your business. But when it's my taxpayer money paying for the schools or it's my kids going to the school with your kids because we live in the same neighborhood and we don't have a choice, then of course I care and of course I hate you and of course I want you to be put down. If the US government is handing out goodies and they're giving you more than they're giving me then I'm gonna resent you. If the US government is telling us what drugs we should take and what drugs we shouldn't take, what hygienic precautions we should take or what we shouldn't take, what diseases we should get and what diseases we shouldn't get. Stay out of it, it's none of your business. I'll listen to my doctor, thank you. I'll do my own research, thank you. But the conflicts between us are because one size fits all, we all have to do what the government tells us. So if you wanna solve the divisions in America, the only way to solve the divisions in America is to unite us over the principle of freedom, over the principle of individual liberty, over the principle that each one of us can make decisions by itself and stay out of our business. That we exchange with one another, that we associate with one another on a voluntary basis and if we don't want to, then we don't have to. You wanna come into my store, you have to wear a mask. But it's okay if you don't, you don't have to come into my store. The government shouldn't force you to come in and it shouldn't force me to accept you. The only way to solve the divisions in America today is to go to the heart and the source of those divisions and the heart of the source of those divisions is statism. It's collectivism. It's the government doing our thinking for us. It's the idea that the government should control every aspect of our lives. And yes, the left thinks this, but the right thinks it too. But the right doesn't believe any of this either. But it doesn't matter what the right and what the left think. If these freedoms, if these liberties are protected by a constitution, then fine, you don't have to agree with me about anything. Go and live your life. But that means if I wanna have an abortion, not me personally, then it's none of your business right either. If I don't want my kids to pray in school, if I don't want my kids to learn creationism, if I don't want my kids to be instilled with Christian values, then people on the right, it's none of your business either. Right, God, you guys are such suckers. Sorry, some of you guys on the chat are such suckers. So the only thing that can unify this country is the elimination of state control, the shrinking of the state. And it's not that the status quo is gonna survive because the fact is that things will get worse, not better unless we're willing to challenge all this. Things will get much worse. Indeed, what is the root of war? It's statism, it's collectivism, it's tribalism. And if we have it here, put aside in Russia, if we have it here in America, the statism, the collectivism, the tribalism, then we are heading towards war. We are heading towards violence, not just violence of the state inflicting on us, which it does every day. But we are heading towards a time where we are going to be violent towards each other, we are heading towards some kind of civil war, or we're heading towards a dictatorship where the state will completely violate our rights and run our lives for us. So stop defending the right, stop just attacking the left. You gotta know what you're fighting for, and what you need to fight for is limited government, is individual rights. What you gotta fight for is personal freedom, individual liberty, the government getting out of our lives, and not Trump, and not Biden, and not Cruz, and not AOC, stand for that, not one of them, not even close. So they're all the enemy, and until you recognize, until you recognize, I don't know why I'm getting so angry, but I am, until you guys recognize that we have no allies in politics, that we stand alone, and that we have to advocate on principle for something radical, for some big change. Only then do we have a chance of winning. Instead of fighting over at the margin, is this a little bit better than that? Is this guy gonna violate our rights more than that guy, who the F cares? I don't want them to violate my rights at all. I wanna be able to fight, I wanna be able to stand, I wanna be able to advocate for no rights violation, and I can't do that. If I'm affiliated with people who wanna violate rights just a little bit less than the other guy, you completely undermine your cause, you completely undermine your moral high ground, and your ability to stand for an ideal, to stand for what this country really needs, which is freedom, freedom, not a little bit, freedom. So forget the politics of this, forget the politics of this. Politics is a distraction, politics is what they want you to do, politics is what, politics is you're playing right into the hand of the status and the collectives, by getting excited about politics. You should be excited about the ideas of freedom, the ideas of liberty, and be willing to go out there and fight for them, fight for them. Before it gets to the point where you have to fight with weapons and muscle just to survive, because at that point, you won't be fighting for freedom, you'll be fighting to survive. Freedom will be gone, finished, done. Civil war will not result in a free state or any free state, it will result in competing dictatorships. All right, it's not even an election yet. So that would be part of my state of the union, how about that? That would be the core of my state of the union, fight for freedom, fight for liberty, stop expecting governor bail you out, stop expecting government to save you, stop expecting governor to win your cultural wars for you, stop expecting anything or to fight your cultural wars for you. Get government out of the cultural war, government should have no involvement in the cultural war, government should be completely neutral when it comes to culture, completely neutral. Thank you for listening or watching the Iran book show. If you'd like to support the show, we make it as easy as possible for you to trade with me. You get value from listening, you get value from watching, show your appreciation. You can do that by going to iranbrookshow.com slash support by going to Patreon, subscribe star locals and just making a appropriate contribution on any one of those, any one of those channels. Also, if you'd like to see the Iran book show grow, please consider sharing our content and of course, subscribe, press that little bell button right down there on YouTube so that you get an announcement when we go live. And for those of you who are already subscribers and those of you who are already supporters of the show, thank you. I very much appreciate it.