0:00

Hi everybody, welcome to Fireside Chat number

0:02

337. 337.

0:08

And I want to remind you that all

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made possible by Prager United.

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that you're keeping the Fireside Chat free

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and alive. Actually

0:30

very serious opening. Dennis Prager here, just

0:32

in case you didn't know, but I

0:34

can't imagine who is watching the Fireside

0:36

Chat and doesn't know who I am.

0:39

Why would you be watching the Fireside Chat? Unless

0:42

you're into Firesides. So

0:45

a very serious subject and a very

0:48

sad one, but nevertheless, I have to

0:50

say something about it and then I'll

0:53

go to your video question and your questions.

0:57

So the Iranian attack on Israel

1:00

should make it clear that

1:04

that wildly overused and

1:07

distorted word genocide does apply

1:10

to the enemies of Israel. They aim

1:13

to commit genocide. They acknowledge it.

1:17

Israel is being accused of what its enemies

1:19

want to do to Israel. It's

1:24

very frustrating to live in a world where

1:26

truth matters so little and the inversion of

1:28

truth is taken as truth. Israel

1:32

is not only not committing

1:34

a genocide, has no

1:36

interest in committing genocide, has no

1:39

interest in killing one Palestinian. It

1:41

has an interest like all free countries

1:44

in leaving a peaceful life, going

1:46

to work, making a living, raising

1:49

your kids. Israel's enemies

1:51

are not interested in that nearly as

1:53

much as they are in destroying Israel

1:55

and killing every Jew there. I

1:58

know people don't want to accept accept

2:00

this. That is why I

2:02

have said, I think, pretty

2:04

much all of my adult life, the

2:07

greatest denial is not, as

2:09

is often said, the denial of death.

2:12

It's a very famous book by Ernest Becker. It's

2:15

a classic, The Denial of Death. And

2:17

to a certain extent, people do live with a

2:20

denial of death, which

2:23

is perhaps even

2:25

important to have to

2:27

function healthfully. We all

2:29

have intellectually know we'll die, but

2:32

there's still, we

2:35

don't really accept it in

2:37

our gut, which is fine. But

2:40

the real denial that people engage in

2:42

is the denial of evil. That's

2:45

the real one. And it

2:47

has always been true. We

2:49

know it because 2,500 years ago, the prophet Isaiah

2:51

in the

2:55

Old Testament said, woe unto those

2:57

who call good evil and evil

3:00

good. Clearly, it is not

3:02

new that people have

3:04

inverted good and evil. And why would they

3:06

do that? Because they don't want to

3:09

acknowledge real evil. Why

3:11

don't people want to acknowledge real evil?

3:13

Because then it forces them to confront

3:16

it. And that's painful. There

3:18

may be a whole host of other

3:20

reasons why people deny evil, but they

3:22

do. But the

3:24

tragedy is when you deny

3:26

evil, you end up

3:30

calling the good evil. By

3:33

not acknowledging real evil, you

3:35

end up applying the term to the

3:38

good. The battle

3:40

between Israel and Hamas, Israel and

3:42

Hezbollah, Israel and Iran is good

3:44

and evil. Israel is a good

3:46

country. It is flawed because

3:48

it is composed of humans and humans are

3:50

flawed. But it is a good country. The

3:52

battle between the United States and Japan in

3:54

World War II was between good and evil,

3:57

even though America was a flawed country.

4:00

that we didn't even have an integrated armed

4:02

forces at the time. Harry Truman

4:04

integrated them after the war. Of

4:09

course, there were many flaws here,

4:11

but the battle between the US and Japan

4:13

and the US and Nazi Germany was a

4:15

battle between good and evil. This

4:20

is a battle between good. Israel is a

4:22

good country. It is a free country.

4:24

It is a good country. The

4:27

2 million, I think it is 2 million, isn't it?

4:29

20% of Israel is Arab, is Muslim, overwhelmingly. There

4:35

are some Arab Christians, but it's

4:37

mostly Muslims. People don't know that. They

4:41

live wonderful lives, which is why they

4:44

stay there and they don't move to

4:46

live in an Arab country. Wouldn't you

4:48

think they would prefer that? They just

4:50

have to move a few miles. Same

4:52

language, same culture, same religion. No, they

4:55

rather live in a Jewish state than

4:57

in an Arab Muslim state because they

4:59

have it so much better. They're freer.

5:02

They are more affluent. They

5:04

have more opportunity. An

5:07

Arab Muslim Israeli got to the

5:09

Supreme Court, was a member of

5:12

the Supreme Court of the State

5:14

of Israel. Not

5:16

many people get to be a Supreme Court

5:18

justice in a free society. Well, I guess

5:20

in any society. So

5:24

now we have Iran. Iran

5:26

acknowledges its raison d'etre, its

5:28

reason for being, is to

5:31

exterminate Israel. It

5:33

acknowledges it. Same with Hamas. They

5:37

don't hide their evil and there's

5:39

still confusion sowed by

5:41

the usual confusion

5:45

sowers the left. The

5:48

ultimate, I mean this is truly

5:51

the ultimate, queers for Palestine. You

5:54

can't get more weird than that.

5:56

That's not queer. That's sick.

6:00

Queers in Palestine might

6:03

be killed for being queer, might be

6:05

thrown off a building, or imprisoned,

6:10

or in other ways punished. Queers

6:12

in Israel have parades. Queers

6:17

for Palestine, that's really sick.

6:21

That's really sort of like Jews

6:24

for Nazism, or

6:26

blacks for apartheid. So

6:33

it's very important for

6:36

the sake of the survival of

6:38

the human race, or at

6:40

least avoiding terrible tragedy and suffering,

6:43

that people be morally clear. The

6:48

only reason Israelis were not killed in the 300

6:52

plus missiles

6:56

and other objects

6:59

sent to destroy Israelis was that Israel,

7:02

with the help of the US and

7:04

the United Kingdom, was able to shoot

7:06

them down. Drones,

7:09

missiles, they were shot down.

7:13

So they didn't kill more, but the whole purpose

7:15

was to kill as many Israelis as possible. The

7:19

only genocide in the Middle East is,

7:22

well there was when ISIS

7:24

was destroying Yazidis, but nobody

7:26

cares about that. Just

7:30

to give you an example of how bizarre

7:34

the whole thing is, Israel is accused

7:38

of genocide. I

7:41

think I mentioned the 500,000 in Ethiopia. Have

7:45

I mentioned that? 500,000

7:47

people, just in the recent past, in

7:51

the last couple of years, killed

7:54

in northern Ethiopia.

7:57

Nobody cares. 30,000

8:01

Christians killed in West Africa, black

8:03

Christians killed by Muslims.

8:06

Nobody cares. But

8:08

Jews defending themselves against people who

8:11

want to annihilate them, that's

8:13

the worst. So

8:17

you can choose

8:19

in life to confront evil or

8:21

deny it, but

8:24

that's a choice that really defines

8:27

your character. That's

8:29

why George Gilda wrote such an important book, and

8:32

he has a video at PragerU called The Israel

8:34

Test. It's

8:36

five minutes, watch it. He's

8:40

a Christian, he's a non-Jew,

8:42

obviously, and

8:46

it's a very powerful, very powerful

8:48

piece. In fact, some

8:50

of the most eloquent defenses of Israel

8:52

have not come from Jews, and some

8:54

of the most awful

8:58

attacks on Israel have come from Jews. You

9:02

don't know if you know someone is a Jew or

9:04

a non-Jew what their stance will be on Israel. All

9:07

you know is do they have a

9:09

clear, functioning conscience. That's

9:13

all you know. You don't know

9:15

if they're a Jew or a non-Jew. Okay,

9:19

time for the video questions. Take

9:21

it away. Hello,

9:24

Mr. Prager. My name is Caleb

9:26

Woody. I'm 17 years old,

9:28

and I live in Bountiful,

9:31

Utah. And

9:33

as you can see, my question is, have

9:35

you ever met any members or

9:38

a member of the Church of Jesus Christ

9:40

of Latter-day Saints? And if you have, what

9:42

do you think of them? Well,

9:45

it's one of my favorite, all-time favorite

9:48

questions. You'll see why in a moment.

9:52

I am really mastering this. I

9:56

thought I was. I'm not. I

9:59

am a Catholic. completely blank screen at

10:01

this time. Okay,

10:05

well Caleb, first

10:08

of all I think I have to translate

10:10

your question to a lot of people who

10:13

don't know what the Church of Jesus Christ of

10:15

Latter-day Saints is. It's the Mormon Church. A

10:18

few years ago the Mormon Church made

10:20

a very, very powerful appeal to all

10:23

of its followers. Never call

10:25

yourselves Mormons and

10:28

only as LDS,

10:30

Latter-day Saints. The

10:33

full name being the Church of Jesus Christ

10:35

of Latter-day Saints. So

10:38

I'll begin at the end. I'm a big

10:40

fan of Mormons and I have said this

10:42

many, many times, not being asked by a

10:44

Mormon to do so or LDS or whatever

10:47

term you wish to use. But

10:49

let me, I'll begin at the end by saying I think

10:53

that the, I know what is

10:55

animating the Mormon Church. I know

10:57

Mormons really well and

10:59

I'll tell you how and why in a moment. What

11:03

is animating them is their

11:07

sensitivity on the issue that there

11:10

are Christians who don't consider Mormons

11:12

Christian because Mormon theology

11:14

is different from traditional Protestant

11:18

or Catholic theology.

11:22

I never get involved in the debates

11:24

within other religions. I have enough problems

11:27

with the debates within my own religion.

11:30

But the sensitivity to that issue

11:34

is what is animating the

11:36

desire of the Church elders

11:38

to say, listen, don't

11:41

say Mormon, say Church of

11:43

Jesus Christ to emphasize to

11:45

people that were Christian. I

11:48

understand where it's coming from and I

11:51

don't, A, I don't think it will matter. I

11:54

don't think people say, oh, oh, now I

11:56

realize you're Christian. I don't think that will

11:58

happen with the... regard

12:00

to most Christians. And

12:03

B, it's

12:06

to the non-Christian, they

12:08

really don't know, that's

12:10

the longest name of any religion in the world.

12:13

Hi, what are you? I'm a member of the

12:15

Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. It

12:18

is a lot longer than

12:20

I'm an evangelical Christian or

12:22

Roman Catholic. The

12:26

sensitivity is so great that

12:28

the church elders have even

12:30

renamed the Mormon Tabernacle Choir.

12:34

The most famous choir on earth,

12:37

they took away their name. That's

12:40

not wise. I'm allowed to

12:42

say this because I'm such a fan of

12:44

Mormons. It's only coming from pro-Mormon place. I

12:47

conducted the Mormon Tabernacle Choir at

12:50

the Disney Concert Hall. And

12:54

when I walked onto the platform

12:56

for rehearsal, I got a big

12:58

standing ovation for the members of

13:00

the choir. The

13:04

church and I have a long-standing,

13:06

very warm relationship. And

13:09

I'll tell you how warm, and I'll prove it to you

13:11

in a moment, but

13:14

renaming the Mormon Tabernacle Choir, why does

13:16

it call now the, I

13:20

think it's the Tabernacle Choir on the square

13:23

or something of that effect. It's

13:26

like changing the name of Coca-Cola. You

13:29

built a brand name over decades,

13:33

and you're going to change it. So

13:37

listen, everybody's

13:39

allowed to make mistakes, even people. And

13:43

I think these have been mistakes. And

13:46

there's nothing wrong with the word Mormon. After

13:51

the Old Testament and New Testament for the

13:53

L for LDS is the Book of Mormon.

13:57

It's not like a bad nickname. Be

14:01

that as it may, I just want to explain why Caleb

14:04

said Church of Jesus Christ of the Latter-day

14:07

Saints. Now my own

14:09

relationship goes

14:12

back many, many years and

14:16

one of my closest friends happens to

14:18

be a Mormon or LDS. Every

14:24

year, twice a year, my

14:27

wife and I have what we call

14:29

a Mormon Shabbat, where

14:31

we go to a Mormon

14:33

home in our

14:36

little town and there are

14:38

about five other couples, all

14:40

LDS, and they make,

14:43

they prepare a Shabbat which I then

14:45

lead at the table, a Sabbath Friday

14:47

night dinner. And

14:49

it's beautiful. They're so

14:52

insistent that I do every religious ritual

14:54

and they love it. And

14:57

I am so at home with

15:00

them and they with me,

15:02

it's a real comfort. But here's a

15:04

real fascinating little tidbit

15:07

of my past with

15:09

regard to Mormons. I have asked

15:12

because I have

15:14

very little fear in me and I almost

15:18

never ask, well, gee, how will people react?

15:23

I sleep better just saying what I believe. So

15:26

I asked if you could

15:28

choose among any religious group

15:31

or ethnic group in America that you

15:33

had to choose a business

15:37

partner and you knew

15:39

that the most important thing was that

15:41

the business partner be honest. Which

15:45

would you choose? And then

15:47

I offer all sorts of names and very

15:51

many people choose Mormon. Mormons

15:53

have a good name in America. Protestants

15:57

and, or especially evangelicals

15:59

and Catholics. don't

16:01

approve of Mormon theology, but they're

16:04

capable, they're

16:06

not dummies, of separating

16:08

theology and the person. And

16:12

there is widespread realization,

16:15

which I have, about

16:18

how beautiful Mormon family

16:20

life often is, for example. Now

16:22

I know enough about LDS to know that there

16:24

are real issues, it's not easy to retain the

16:29

kids for the church. By the way, it's

16:31

not easy in Catholicism, it's not easy in

16:33

Judaism, it's not easy in Evangelicalism.

16:38

It's not easy in a

16:40

secular society to

16:42

keep your kids in your religion. That's

16:46

a challenge for all

16:49

our faiths. Now

16:52

having said that, my

16:56

own feelings

16:59

are so positive. We

17:01

have quite a number of Mormon donors

17:03

to PragerU, people

17:05

whose homes I have had the privilege

17:07

of visiting, Utah in particular. So

17:11

anyway, it's a long answer to your question,

17:14

and I'm glad you asked it. Okey-smokey,

17:17

what's our timing? We're

17:20

at 17. Oh, we

17:22

have plenty of time. OMG.

17:29

I'm with it, guys. LOL

17:32

about OMG. Okey-dokey.

17:41

And the Prager United question.

17:44

They're the first question each week

17:46

because we honor people who

17:48

support the Fireside Chat by joining

17:51

Prager United. Please go to pragerunited.com.

17:53

There are a lot of bonuses that accrue

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to you if you join, And

17:58

the biggest one. And is

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that you're keeping all of

18:03

this free including the fireside

18:05

chat? Prager united.com Prager United

18:07

Member: Vicky Canyon Lake Texas.

18:11

And. Eve you guys but the Canyon Lake? And

18:15

he have you ever heard of it? Is

18:19

there a canyon lake? As

18:22

you gotta admit, That's a

18:24

great name is enough. Canyon Lake.

18:26

I'll tell you what Canyon

18:28

Lake beats. There's. A

18:31

city in Pennsylvania. Cold intercourse.

18:34

How would you like to live there? I.

18:37

Live in Intercourse. I am

18:40

stunned that they have not.

18:42

It seems that mean now

18:44

between Canyon Lake and Intercourse.

18:48

Canyon. Lake when. Our

18:51

I. Was.

18:53

So Vicky S what kind of average

18:55

person do to support Israel and Netanyahu

18:57

the idea of who best to donate

19:00

to. While I can tell you who

19:02

best. Donate to because I would

19:04

be then. I

19:07

I would be eliminating some really

19:09

worthy places you could sell. Find

19:11

it is it. There are so

19:13

many wonderful a charities are helping

19:15

I'll tell you. Are

19:17

one that is really a powerful.

19:20

And a it is the group

19:23

in Israel. I. Don't know how these

19:25

guys do it. Under

19:27

Jewish Law. Under Traditional

19:29

Jewish law. The

19:32

that the dead must be

19:34

buried, not cremated or or.

19:37

Or. Any gotten rid of any other

19:39

way, they must be buried because the

19:41

body has holiness even when the soul

19:43

has left. It is that the traditional

19:45

Jewish view. And.

19:48

If there's only a part of you left

19:51

that's buried. the

19:53

these are these are ultra orthodox jews

19:55

in israel who were the first people

19:57

at the scene of a massacre or

19:59

like like a terror bombing, and

20:03

they collect the

20:05

body parts for

20:07

a proper burial. So

20:13

you could look up the name of that group,

20:15

and it alludes me for the moment. I don't

20:17

know why, because I was familiar with it. It's

20:22

endless, the number of groups that are doing it. I'll

20:24

tell you, one of the best things you could do

20:26

is visit Israel. I

20:31

went there about 20 years

20:33

ago—I've been there 25 times—but one

20:36

of my visits was during the Intifada,

20:39

or the Second Intifada, or I don't

20:41

remember which number it was, when

20:44

busloads of Jews would be

20:46

blown up. Some

20:50

Palestinian terrorists would enter a bus

20:52

and blow himself up with all the

20:54

passengers on the bus, and

20:57

restaurants. And so I went

20:59

there, and I made a film. You could watch it

21:02

on the Internet. Israel in a

21:04

time of terror. It's

21:06

really, really worth seeing. It's

21:08

not PragerU film. It

21:10

predates PragerU by years. But

21:13

you can see it. Still in a time

21:16

of terror, Dennis PragerU, you'll be able to watch

21:18

it. Nobody

21:21

was visiting then. People were just

21:23

scared of going. Today,

21:26

many people were visiting, but they were very

21:28

scared. And I purposely went for

21:31

that exact reason. I wanted to show

21:33

support. And every

21:35

restaurant or store I entered, they were

21:37

so grateful that somebody had come from

21:40

abroad and was spending money in Israel

21:43

to help keep that restaurant or store

21:45

alive. Anyway, visiting would

21:48

be a beautiful thing for you to do. Thank you

21:50

for asking. Jonah

21:52

66, Venter City,

21:54

New Jersey. In so

21:56

many areas of common sense and morality, you, and

21:58

many of us, know that. the truths. Yet

22:02

we see more and more of

22:04

our leaders promoting ideologies that are

22:07

clearly damaging and dangerous leaving us

22:09

shaking our heads. I'm

22:11

losing hope that

22:13

being right matters anymore.

22:17

I'd like to know if and how you

22:19

have hoped that it will matter again

22:21

someday or are we descending unstoppably.

22:24

So there's

22:27

one word I

22:29

don't agree with in your

22:34

question anymore.

22:39

I'm losing hope that being right

22:41

matters anymore. When exactly

22:43

in human history that being right

22:46

matter. That's

22:49

why I quoted earlier Isaiah said, well,

22:51

what to those who called good evil and

22:54

evil good. Apparently it didn't matter 2,500 years

22:57

ago. The human condition is

23:00

not impressive, shall we say. There

23:02

are many impressive individuals, but the

23:04

human condition is not impressive. It's

23:09

not unstoppable our descent, but it

23:11

certainly is taking place. There is

23:14

a real descent in

23:17

every arena, just

23:19

basic good and evil morality

23:23

intellectually. There

23:25

is no, I can't think of

23:27

an arena of American life or

23:30

Western life for that matter where

23:33

there isn't a descent. I'm

23:36

reading a biography of a president that

23:39

most of you either never heard of

23:41

or know nothing about James Garfield. He

23:44

was a great man actually. He was a very

23:46

impressive man. So

23:49

I love learning history through biography.

23:51

I think it's the easiest way to

23:53

learn history is through the life of

23:55

an individual because then

23:57

you learn about the times they live in as well.

24:01

So each chapter

24:03

of this biography begins

24:06

with something James

24:08

Garfield wrote in his diary,

24:11

first from high school and then as an

24:13

adult. And

24:17

Garfield began every

24:21

entry into his diary with

24:24

a quote from William Shakespeare. That's

24:28

pretty damn impressive at

24:30

any age, let alone high school or

24:33

college. And

24:36

then I remember reading that just

24:39

at his high school he had to know Greek

24:42

and Latin and new

24:46

epic poems by heart from the

24:48

ancient world. I

24:52

mean the intellectual decline

24:54

is so dramatic

24:56

and very painful. I

25:01

mean quote Shakespeare. I don't

25:05

think 1% of

25:08

college students could quote one line

25:10

from Shakespeare. I'm not

25:13

sure they could all spell Shakespeare.

25:16

I know they can't spell Beethoven. Really

25:21

it would be educational

25:24

to have somebody stand in Harvard

25:26

Square and say and just say

25:29

would you spell Beethoven? So

25:34

yes there really is a decline

25:38

that medical schools, that there are medical

25:40

schools in the United States that don't

25:42

say pregnant women, that say

25:46

birthing person or

25:48

pregnant person. Like

25:51

it's not only women who get pregnant, medical

25:54

schools are doing that. So

25:57

you ask if there's hope. Well there's

25:59

always hope. The

26:01

question is, is there a chance? And

26:05

that is up to you

26:07

and me. If the

26:09

good people don't fight, then

26:12

it's unstoppable. D'Vora,

26:17

in Brooklyn, New York, you often discuss

26:19

the job of parents in their children's

26:21

lives, i.e. their

26:24

job is to correct as

26:26

opposed to compliment. That's correct.

26:30

And their role is to

26:32

impart wisdom. You got me right.

26:35

I was wondering if you feel that there

26:37

is an age limit when the child gets

26:40

married, for example, when

26:42

it's time for the parents to

26:44

step back and not

26:46

get involved in their child's decisions

26:49

and lifestyle? Or

26:51

is your job as a parent,

26:54

educator, guide, wisdom imparter a lifelong

26:56

role? That is a great

26:58

question. And

27:00

I am the parent of adult two

27:03

boys. And

27:07

I will say I don't criticize

27:10

them as much as I

27:12

did when they were 10. That

27:14

is correct. So

27:20

it's not an all or nothing. Obviously

27:26

you remain your child's parent

27:28

forever. Obviously

27:31

it changes between

27:33

when you're 12 and when you're 40 or 30

27:35

with regard to your parents.

27:42

In a healthy world, it does change. I

27:48

hope that I can

27:51

continue to play a constructive

27:55

role in my kids' lives

27:57

and not just for the be

28:00

their buddy because but

28:02

by the way even buddies should

28:05

constructively criticize to be

28:08

honest my friends have

28:10

played a very important role in my life

28:13

in making me a better man

28:17

so my answer is it's not

28:19

all or nothing and

28:22

it also depends on how you do it

28:24

you know you can't talk to them as

28:26

if they're 12 anymore it's that's degrading on

28:30

the other hand that they're

28:32

not your peer either they're

28:35

still your child and hopefully

28:38

that's that's good and they feel that way

28:42

so I hope that's the

28:44

middle road that I would suggest there

28:47

what's our story dear Megan time

28:51

for one more very very chock

28:53

full okay

28:57

all right the next question will take

28:59

about 10 minutes to read but won't

29:01

never that Jake 30

29:03

years old Alberta Canada hello

29:06

mr. Prager hello Jake I

29:09

know you talk about honoring your parents but it's been

29:11

all reader fast but it's been hard due to my

29:13

brother my brother recently

29:15

ran away stole the work truck left his

29:17

fiance and got detained by police but not

29:19

charged whoa that's

29:26

a charming family life he

29:28

then plays the victim saying how none of

29:30

this is his fault and blames God he's

29:34

a manipulative narcissist other

29:38

than that he sounds great and

29:40

he's mad at me because I stood up to him

29:42

for the first time in our lives I had finally

29:44

had enough and called him out for

29:47

the way he acts and that he has to

29:49

take responsibility for his life he then threatened my

29:51

wife and me he wrote an eye but it's

29:53

on me then later saying

29:55

I am the bad guy and he is

29:58

cutting me out of his life The problem

30:00

is, now that my parents are

30:02

wrapped up in his victim narrative

30:04

and also think that I am

30:06

the bad guy. They

30:08

keep asking me to just sweep it under the

30:10

rug and pretend to be a happy normal family.

30:13

By the way, most normal families are not

30:15

that happy. Happy is not

30:17

the same as normal. Families

30:20

have a lot of problems. So

30:22

welcome to the world of reality. There

30:24

are happy families, but that doesn't make

30:27

them normal. I don't

30:29

know how to keep a connection with my

30:31

parents when they are shutting me out. I'd

30:34

love some wisdom for this difficult

30:36

situation. So before I answer, I

30:38

have to say I'm answering based

30:41

solely on your question. It

30:43

may well be that if I interviewed

30:45

your parents or your brother, I'd

30:47

get a very different story. I

30:50

just want to make that clear to everybody. I don't know.

30:53

So all I can say, I don't

30:55

know what's true. So all I could say

30:57

is I'm reacting to what you wrote, whether

30:59

or not it is completely accurate. So

31:05

it's believable because this

31:08

happens a lot where

31:10

parents are in denial. I

31:14

have a theory about parents. Parents

31:17

generally don't know

31:20

their exceptionally miserable

31:22

child or their

31:24

exceptionally wonderful child. They

31:28

don't fully understand either, and it's

31:30

not their fault. An

31:32

exception, and it is an exception, and it's

31:34

hard to understand the exceptional, whether they're good

31:37

or bad. Also

31:39

parents do like to sweep things under

31:41

the rug. That's true. If you ignore

31:43

it, maybe it won't be there, but

31:47

it ultimately doesn't

31:49

work. If

31:54

what you write is accurate, your

31:57

parents should know. not

32:01

be enablers of his victimhood.

32:06

One of my favorite stories about that comes

32:09

from a friend of my younger son

32:12

who's, who's fireside chat.

32:15

You should definitely watch Aaron Prager.

32:18

He has a podcast AP

32:20

unfiltered AP for Aaron Prager.

32:24

And he, he was, he's now sober

32:26

seven years and we had an incredibly

32:28

open talk. And

32:31

I asked

32:34

him, when, when

32:36

did you hit bottom and decide

32:38

to turn your life around? And

32:41

he said, it was a great response.

32:43

I hope I have it word for word. When

32:47

I realized there was nobody left

32:49

to blame for my problems. That's

32:55

really important. So

32:58

your brother is blaming everybody, even God for

33:00

his problems. He should blame himself.

33:05

The day he blames himself is the day he will

33:07

turn his life around. That's what your parents

33:10

should tell him. A

33:13

friend of my son, who's a recovery

33:16

addict as well, told me a great story. It

33:19

said, Dennis, when I was

33:22

visiting years ago in Pennsylvania, where my son

33:24

lives, Dennis, my father saved my life. Really?

33:27

How? Well,

33:29

when I was addicted, he said

33:32

to me one day, get the F and he

33:34

used the F word, get

33:36

the F out of my house and come back when

33:38

you're sober. And

33:41

he, he said that saved my life.

33:45

Cause they, my

33:48

father, my father stayed a father

33:50

and not an inpatient. Parents want

33:53

to enable because it's different. too

34:00

painful for them to believe

34:03

otherwise. Oh,

34:06

if I'm just loving and kind, everything

34:08

will work out. That's

34:11

not true. And

34:14

everybody should know that. The day you

34:16

stop blaming others

34:18

for your problems will

34:21

be a great day in your life. And

34:26

with that, thank

34:28

you for watching and listening to The

34:30

Fireside Chat. I'm Dennis

34:32

Prager, and I'll see you next week. The

34:36

Fireside Chat is made possible solely

34:39

thanks to Prager United

34:41

members. Please consider

34:44

joining Prager United at

34:46

pragerunited.com.