#276 Making Sense of Current Trends & Events - A Humble Conversation to Understand the World Today

Greg & Rachel Denning (00:11.074)
Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the Extraordinary Family Life podcast. We're your host, Greg and Rachel Denning. And in spite of our massive underdeveloped education, in spite of...

the embarrassing amount of uninformedness. We even have to make up some words to describe this. make up words to describe how under qualified we are to talk about this subject. I think the May Dip words will definitely help with that. It helps expose our under qualifiedness and our under educatedness. In spite of all that, we still feel like we have to talk about

what's going on in the world? And not in the world so much as trends in society. They're... Really, we're not even sure what we're talking about, except that we feel like we need to talk about it. Because I think we, and I would say most people, sense that something's really off. yeah. And so maybe they can't quite articulate, like we can't. Right. And they're just like...

Yeah, things are weird, things are off, things aren't right. What's going on? wrong. How do we talk about this? What's the problem? OK, there's the other problem is that we, ourselves included, are afraid to talk about it. Right. Because if you start saying, hey, wait a minute, no, that doesn't seem right, you're immediately labeled as racist, prejudiced, homophobic.

I mean they come up with words every day. They're making up new words to make you feel bad about So we're not so bad for making up words. Yeah, right. We're just we're just part of the party, right? They're like well No, we and they're coming up with new labels and if you stand for something they're gonna label you as something else and if you have values and standards if you think that if you think Okay, let's just throw down here if you think that marriage is a great thing for society and the families are the right way

Greg & Rachel Denning (02:23.15)
and if you're all about heterosexual relationships and fidelity and if you're in favor of education and if nothing else because heterosexual relationships still make up 90 % of society but if you do that you're bigoted and small -minded and homophobic and we'll just throw racist in there for good measure because if you think marriage is good you're probably racist

We're playing around a little bit here, but we're also dead serious that that's how they, and we're using they. Whoever they are. the they is. I don't know that there's some, you couldn't walk in a car and be like, there they are. It's not that, but there are people who. Unless that's their pronouns or something. Or a they them. Maybe that's it. So if they embrace the they, then that's who we're talking about. But there is a.

concerted effort to undermine traditional values. even saying traditional, they're like, it's just old fashioned. Like, you got to catch up. You're behind the times. There's this attack on values. I don't even know, per se, if it is a concerted effort as much as it is a trend or a.

mass hypnosis because you know there's definitely we've listened to a lot of i've listened to a couple podcasts about mass formation which is the type of mass hypnosis that happened during covid you know well it's happening in other ways right now too although yeah it is although back to the idea of a concerted effort

Yes, there is evidence, especially when you dig into it further, which I've done inadvertently through podcasts and things like that, that there are people who in the 50s, 60s, 70s began infiltrating the education system, specifically higher education. And because today, to date, the education system is primarily dominated by

Greg & Rachel Denning (04:45.942)
what we'll call left ideologies or left -leaning Democrats. It's that group of people that are primarily in the education system, both in the administration, holding positions as professors, and the student body. It is mostly left -leaning people. There are very, very, very few conservatives in the education system nowadays.

Now that didn't just happen by accident, actually I've listened to multiple podcasts about that. It happened through concerted effort. Partly because, well partly as a result, it's also led to the fact that most positions in the government, most of the big businesses today, I mean, Google, Facebook, Metta, many, most of them,

are run by people who went to university. So it's this trickle down effect that's occurred.

starting with the education system that has led to this spread of ideas, not just because traditional education as we used to think about it is not what it was anymore. And it's now, it's now spreading into government and into big business and into the media and into everything because naturally that's where most of those people spent time in Ivy League schools and universities in general. So.

When there's part of me that like, yeah, there's no concerted effort of like somebody's in charge making all of these things happen. But in a way there is because I recently just listened to a couple podcasts about that, that there are people who in the 60s and 70s had market Marxist ideas and they became very deliberate about spreading those in the universities, which has then like just grown over time. Like it's metastasized. They literally use that word. It's metastasized.

Greg & Rachel Denning (06:51.544)
carrying over into now public schools for children. Well, and elementary schools. Elementary schools. deliberately and in some cases forcing teachers and administration to teach queer theory. Critical race theory. And transgender things to little kids. Right. And that stuff should absolutely yes, you're right. It's not like there is this.

organizing body board of directors or something that's directing this but it is also in a way a concerted effort it very much is and and i want to back up just for a second because you mentioned all the people who are left or democrats whatever like we don't have we don't have any beef with democrats per se and we don't have any right or actually i don't even like the think i mentally considered myself a democrat at one point like i i was definitely born into a republican family but over time i thought i'm more like

Democrat now according to their definition I'm definitely not a Democrat Republican for that matter but I mean if someone had to put me in a box that's probably more where it be is Republican yes I don't like either agreed but and we don't have anything against leftist ideas I think where the big concerns are again on extremes of both sides there's yeah problems but what we just watched this morning as a family about fascism

That's where I have major concerns and we all should. Because on the far left is where fascism is and it was founded by Gentile, who was a philosopher in Italy and Mussolini was his little... Proponent? mean the guy who was like, he loved Gentile and so he implemented it and was just an absolute horrible dictator. But fascism is...

Greg & Rachel Denning (08:46.474)
is a far left ideology. And Well, okay, so just to clarify for a second, because like you were saying, ultimately we need ideas from the left and right. We have to have these sort of opposing ideas to help society function. Just like we need a left hemisphere and a right hemisphere in our brain to function. And like we need a man and a woman to function. Right, which is an idea that now is... You can't share that idea.

But if we use the brain idea, we have a left hemisphere and a right hemisphere. And that's not by accident. That is something that is significant. We need both. And just like for our body to function, our entire being to function, we also need that in society. For society to function, we need left and right. need them. And we need men and women.

And we need men and women. And marriages need men and women. And families need men and women. Children need moms and dads. Yes. But the danger happens when, like, there are, in fact, I just recently heard this, that depression is actually a disease of, essentially, they said something like, when the left brain takes over. Like, if your left brain takes over and you don't have any.

little development on the right side of your brain, it is directly connected with depression. That's what we're kind of talking about here. That when there becomes an imbalance, especially if you think we love to use yin and yang, because that's also another good representation, I think, of like left and right hemisphere. If that becomes off balance and there's too much of the yin or too much of the yang, that's where the danger lies. And I think that ultimately, if we could label what we're talking about today, it's kind of that idea.

that on the extreme ends of left or right, because Nazi Germany was, it was right wing extremism that led to the Nazis. They were national socialists, right? Which I just learned this morning, Nazi was just kind of this little. Contraction. Contraction of national socialists, right? And socialism essentially is very left. And fascism, he was fascist.

Greg & Rachel Denning (11:06.464)
And so any point where the state, the government wants to control all the outcomes, quote, for the good of the people, it's like it's for your own safety. It's for the good of the whole. When you hear those words, be warned. Like there's real trouble. And those things are happening right now. So it's the extremism on either side that's the concern.

we're talking about today because that's where the danger lies and I do think that that's the problem right now obviously that there is too much extremism currently on the left and some on the right so yeah extreme because I think it always exists there's always the fringes so there's always extreme left and extreme right when the fringes start but when the fringes become the majority that's when we get into danger

or the biggest decision makers. don't even think the majority. think the majority is just quiet. People who want to be good human beings, they want to live, they want to get married and have kids and live a good life. Good, stable, healthy They're quiet. And here's one of the things I've been thinking about, and it's tough, because one of the strengths of just being a good person

is you don't like to offend other people and you don't like to speak up and you're like hey just let me live my life and I'll let you live yours. your thing I'm cool you want to do your thing do your thing let me do my thing right but then they won't leave it alone they're like no they're not they're not going to do their thing and they want everyone else to accept them and they want to literally pass laws forcing others to refer to them a certain way or or to you know do what they're doing or to teach a certain thing yeah we're gonna force

We're going to force the silent majority to be taught about this teeny, teeny, minority problem that's off, honestly. And it's not healthy. It's not normal. is Normal, meaning it doesn't apply to the majority of the people. And to what actually works in society actually constitutes a healthy overall well -being and a healthy community. a healthy life. Right.

Greg & Rachel Denning (13:18.966)
and healthy psychology and a healthy identity. good people keep quiet. And then when they try to say something, they get labeled as being racist or bigoted or prejudice. And as a good person, you're like, no, like, no, no, no, no, no, that's not me. I'm not racist. I'm not bigot. I'm not prejudice. I'm not homophobe. And so we back back, we back off. And we won't stand our ground and say, no, like this is a standard and this is what works for millennia. This is what

like nature and science obviously show. The problem is it's not necessarily obvious because unless you actually study and learn a lot.

You don't, you can fall prey to the ideas that are being taught, which is, no, this whole idea of the traditional family, this whole idea of sex and gender, like that's just a social construct. It has nothing to do with our biology. has nothing to do with healthy psychology. That's just a lie you've been told. The reality is there's fluidity. There's no, it's not binary. It's not one or the other. I think one of the most evil.

Evil examples of this right that's happening right now is that they're teaching in many places and universities and and even other younger lower levels of education they're teaching that pedophilia or sexual attraction for children is a normal thing and they're trying to promote it as like well everybody has it to some degree and and it's okay to have to be a minor attracted person right like a map

A minor attractive person.

Greg & Rachel Denning (15:09.154)
Well, I think that that is the extreme end of what we're talking about. Like there are, there's all sorts of levels here that we could argue are not good or evil or really bad. But to me at least, that right there is like, okay, yeah, for the majority of people, they're not going to disagree that when it comes to children, there needs to be some strict rules.

But the problem is that we don't realize that it's actually creeping up on us. We don't realize that it's already infiltrating our school systems and the peer groups. Like, it's getting everywhere. And it's just of it has been kept quiet for so many years. Yes. And it's just almost on this tipping point of where, yeah, mine are attractive persons. Like, that's a thing. OK. Let's just accept that too, because we've accepted everything else.

So, and I really feel that that's where we are. We're on the verge of a tipping point where things are really bad, but they're going to be worse. Like they're gonna get worse before they get better. And that's what's terrifying to me. And that's, guess, why we're having this conversation, even though we're like, what are we even talking about exactly? We're just talking about it. Like what's going on here? Because...

Like I said to you last night, and this seems in some ways like an extreme idea, but yet it is how I feel after having, I I've been thinking about this and learning about this at least for, at least since COVID for sure. Probably, you know, four years at least. And so I don't say this lightly, but I feel like we are in the same place people were in 1939 Germany.

Like we're on the brink of this Holocaust of atrocity that's right now just happening under the surface in a lot of places, but it's starting to bubble up more and more if you pay attention to it and you're noticing it. Like it's coming. It's bubbling up. And we will look back at this period of time with the same horror I think we did on the Holocaust saying what in the world happened? How did this happen?

Greg & Rachel Denning (17:34.68)
How did we allow this to happen right under our noses? That's already the case with human trafficking. Definitely with human trafficking. trafficking, of children, women and children, and people who are displaced families, or people who going through some kind of disaster, just the people who are struggling and suffering the most, they're getting taken advantage of by the most evil predators. And that's happening in the millions. Right now it is happening while we're talking, in the millions.

And what are we doing about it? This is insane. I was listening to Nietzsche this morning and in his time, he said that he said, we are entering a time of war. He said, can see it. I can see it on the horizon. I can see it in society. can see what's going on. War is coming. And of course he was right. And he called it out because he saw it. He saw the strange things happening. And when he said that this morning, I'm like, yeah, that's where we're at. And I think it'll look differently this time.

Definitely. There's going to be.

variations well and without doubt there are outside influences and maybe enemies to the to our society enemies to the United States in particular or enemies to Western societies that are participating essentially in the weakening. Well in Democratic Republics and they're attacking them and they're doing it they've been playing they've been playing a long game.

and there are nations and ideologies that specifically Iran hate that well Iran and China and Russia are some of the ones that come to mind in North Korea and so they've been playing this long game and this is gonna sound like conspiracy theory but all you gotta do is research a little bit you're like man

Greg & Rachel Denning (19:21.77)
okay it's actually happening. They want to weaken and they want to help facilitate the weakening inside. want to take a nation and an idea of a democratic republic and they want to just destroy it from the inside. And they can sit back and like they just laugh and laugh and laugh and be like look what those idiots are doing. They don't even they can't even tell the difference between male and female. Like this is crazy like they don't even know.

I guarantee you there's a lot like the Americans don't even know what a woman is. This is insane because and well here's the thing identity is directly tied to behavior. So if you disrupt identity you disrupt behavior. Right. And so an identity that is fragile or well and an undefined identity is also directly connected to psychological suffering.

In essence, like an illness and illness is directly connected to depression, anxiety, a lack of hope and positive feelings. Like if you have an undefined identity or a fluid identity, it's almost it is impossible to have a solid to have solid mental health, essentially. Like it's not possible. because you have to have some sort of stability in order to have mental health.

And if you remove that stability, even down to am I a man or a woman? I don't know. You remove the foundations for mental well -being. And so then it easily wrecks mental, emotional, physical, spiritual, social health. Just erodes it. And then you have a nation that a majority of people are completely unfit to.

protect themselves. Well yeah to get into a fight and say hey we're gonna protect our way of life and we're protect what we believe in. They're completely unable to do that. don't even know what they believe in. Like what would they be fighting for? You know? But then they're also unable to function and live in a healthy way and to think clearly and act clearly and when you think of what it takes to protect freedom. The only way, the only reason we're there's no way we can have an army. Well yeah.

Greg & Rachel Denning (21:44.398)
Because 77 % of the age eligible Americans are completely unfit for military service. That's crazy. And over 75 % of Americans are obese or overweight. Which that's a whole other topic. The, let's call it, conspiracy against health.

through the food pyramid, which is literally a scam. then there's a direct link between obesity and brain health. And so that's also the brain health is also affecting mental emotional health and relationships. I mean, it's the whole thing. And so if you just step back and you take a look at the whole, you're like, this is a dumpster fire. It's a time bomb waiting to go so bad. So there's going to be.

a falling apart from within, there's going to be and already is some form of civil war happening. sometimes it's a psychological warfare. Other times it's going to be literal warfare. But then there's also attacks from the outside where there are groups who want to destroy freedom and democracy.

And again, that sounds so conspiracy theory, but it's because when we lack exposure, we've never like actually personally met somebody who truly genuinely thinks like that and wants to destroy it and rid. They want the power. And I get it because I used to think like this. I would read about Mussolini and I would read about Karl Marx and read about Stalin and Hitler and think those are.

absolute madman like how did that ever happen? I remember vividly thinking this for years like gosh I'm grateful that that kind of madness doesn't exist anymore like that's a thing of the past. That's so naive. Yeah because here we are facing the same madness. But you're like well no no people don't think like that anymore that's that's madness that's that's insanity there aren't people on the earth in our enlightened age with the internet.

Greg & Rachel Denning (24:08.434)
Which in a way think that way literally yeah, I think the internet is actually exacerbating the problem in reality because it's it's making this more of a global issue rather than an that's why in some ways I feel like we're in a time where it's going to be worse than the Holocaust because That was isolated. It was it could only be spread physically Geographically like that was the limitation

Now we have the internet. So people in Mongolia who have a smartphone can start picking up on some of these ideas. we see it in little ways. they start dressing differently. They start doing things differently. They start identifying differently. They change their pronouns. Like it's spreading worldwide because of the internet. So it's really sad. Because I look at, like for one example, we were recently in Mongolia. You had.

previously been there five years ago in 2019 before COVID. And since then, I mean, you went, not me, but from your description, things have changed. One example is food. Like they are getting infiltrated with the sad diet, the standard American diet. That is gonna have a long -term effect on their health and wellbeing that is just beginning right now.

Screen addictions. will. Yeah. And the screen addictions. we, it was so sad to me to watch young children being entertained by screens in a country like Mongolia where. They just did, it was just nature. was all nature. It was all nature. So that impact, have, we are yet to see what impact and how that's going to play out in the developing world. Because right now it's mostly in the modernized, the Western world.

That was one of, that was one of, that was the most family -centered country I've ever traveled and ever seen. was absolutely beautiful. And just in the last five years, they're like, well, why get married? Because we see all these people online that seem to be living this happy single life. life, no responsibility. Why take on the responsibility of marriage? That's such a burden. Not realizing that that's one of the foundational pieces of having a healthy, happy.

Greg & Rachel Denning (26:26.262)
Meaningful life is to take on responsibility through marriage and children marriage and children. That's the path to development and education growth and wealth adulthood the studies are obvious that the most educated and Wealthy people are married. Yeah, they're still married despite the fact that because of the feminist revolution We came up with this idea that we don't need to be married We get to be free and we don't have to deal with the consequences because we have birth control and abortion

still the most educated and the wealthiest people are still getting married because they still know it's a good thing and it's the poorest people who are suffering the most and suffering all of the psychological impact of those decisions. So your probabilities and this isn't like marriage is the solution to everything marriage is hard and having kids like now I have bliss and joy and happiness like no I have sleepless nights and snotty noses and dirty diapers good night and rebellious little turds they're hard to

They're like herding cats. But that's the point. It's the challenge. It's the struggle that makes us strong. So you're trying to increase your probabilities. And the probabilities lean into having high values and standards, having core spiritual practices. And increasing your levels of responsibility. Yeah, being more responsible, like getting an education, getting the wealth.

You're trying to set up your probabilities to have a really happy, healthy, successful life. And the irony right now is the big message being spread is like, we'll just have freedom and entertainment. Whatever that feels like in the moment. It's bread and circuses. what brought down the Roman Empire. is literally bread and circuses combined with this weird.

Nihilism and relativism and and definitely Marxism like there's well and Ironically Marxism and fascism. It's all mixed in there Yeah, it's being spread across the planet and if you don't have a deep classical education You're not seeing the breadth and depth of of history and time and space It seems like this amazing. It's cotton candy for everybody. Yeah, right and the world this is amazing cotton candy for everyone

Greg & Rachel Denning (28:51.63)
And it feels fun and pleasurable and because we live in this this empty frivolous frothy time period where the consequences are not yet like very very real they will be soon within the next few years because the consequences aren't immediate people are making these decisions as endless stream of visual trash and

cotton candy content and lifestyle and they're like what yeah what what are you guys talking about you Dennings you're crazy like what there's no consequences look I'm living the dream and and that's irony because it's actually the foundation built by our ancestors that was based off of traditional families and traditional communities and traditional traditional roles in a way right that

That was able to build a society that is stable and prosperous and safe. Like you don't have to. I was joking with our two sons yesterday because there's a line from one of our favorite movies, The Hunt for the Wilder people about form fillers. Like you gotta be a form filler. You gotta fill out forms to do anything right in life. And I said, and while we were talking about that and we joke about that every time we try to do something, we're like, you gotta fill out forms, you know.

I said, well, the reality is though that allows society to function. Because otherwise, if you wanted to buy something, you could just go over and steal it and kill the guy and take it. that's how society used to work. So we've created a society and a system that can sometimes include bureaucracy and forms. But that provides the safety net so that we're not constantly worried about our lives.

Am I going to die today? Am I going to be able to eat today? And because we're so far removed from that, we now have these luxury beliefs where, you know what, I wonder if I'm a man or a woman. You know, like, like, like that's a luxury belief. It's because your life is so comfortable and easy that you have time to think about whether you're a man or a woman. And and guess what? That was built by the people you now.

Greg & Rachel Denning (31:15.714)
despise and it's going to be destroyed by these very ideas. Yeah, exactly. I wanted to point out that that you said there, you know, our parents, grandparents, great grandparents, whatever they they took these traditional ideas and practices and values. But the reason they did that, the reason they're traditional or even classic, we might call them classic, is because they picked up these lessons through disaster.

Through the collapses of society and they said, whoa, don't do that again. Let's hold on to these things that work. Right. But then, you know, a few generations pass and there it is again. You guys are just old fashioned. We don't need that anymore. So throw it aside and guess what happens? There's a collapse in society, if not an annihilation. And then what happens? Traditional core values come back. Right. Because that's what works.

and they're being thrown aside and we would be grossly naive to think, well, no, no, it's like we're so beyond that now. We're so enlightened. We're so developed. Like those things won't happen again because we have technology, because we have inventors and Elon Musk won't let it happen. He'll save us.

Whichever president happens to get in like, yeah, they'll prevent that from happening. It's like, give me a break. It's a joke. And so the Titanic is sinking. Yeah, it's going down. And some are trying to straighten the deck chairs as though that's going to make any difference. But the reality is all that we're seeing, all these things we've been talking about and trying to.

identify or articulate. They're all symptoms of a sinking ship. Right. And I think they're symptoms of a problem that is a very, very serious disease that can literally kill society as we know it.

Greg & Rachel Denning (33:33.804)
And I guess the reason we're having this conversation is because, at least for me, I've been, I'm being woken up to this. Like, if we want to go back to the whole idea of woke, like, it's like, it's time to woke up. Like, you need to be awake. But for real, this time, we need to wake up. We need to wake up to what is actually happening and realize that things are heading in a very, very dark.

direction, like destructive direction. And I know that if you haven't been thinking about this or learning about this or paying attention to this, you're kind of like, you guys are a little crazy. You're a little extreme here. Like, just don't see that. I just don't think. But I also. My guess is most have observed it. And they're just like, yeah, it's pretty weird.

You know, I still get to go to the grocery store, I'm still taking my kids to school. Life still goes on. I got to go to church and like my life's pretty much the same. I don't know why you guys are, you know, saying the sky's falling because things are good for me still. Or there's some of you who have noticed it, but it's terrifying. It's absolutely terrifying to face it and think about it. You'd rather not.

Every time you notice it, you're that's scary. Let's avoid it. what's for lunch? Let's go focus on lunch. Exactly. What movie are we going to watch on Friday? Let's focus on lunch. thinking about that or facing it is terrifying. And the last thing you want to do is what we're actually recommending you do is you speak up and do something about it and get into the fight. And I'll throw this down right now. It is so easy to pick an opinion.

It's so much easier to pick an opinion than it is to pick a fight. To get in the fight. And it's easier to put on your little bracelet and like... We're with whoever... Change your Facebook profile. Yeah, little profile change or even a bumper sticker. Most people don't bumper stickers anymore because they don't want to ruin their nice cars. But it's the bumper sticker approach of like, I put a sticker on there so that people behind me, they see that I stand for something. That's so much easier than actually...

Greg & Rachel Denning (35:51.084)
getting involved and standing up, stay standing up, speak up and keep speaking up even when they call you a racist or bigot or prejudiced or homophobe or whatever or just pointing out the problems but actually getting in and doing something about it. And for a long time you and I were both like this, it's like look people want to do their thing, do your thing, whatever, I don't care. But at some point when whatever they're doing starts to infringe upon the rights of others, that's when you have to fight back.

That's we have to draw a line. So, know as people are like no let them do the thing like I'm tolerant You know, I'm a nice person like All right, you want to you want to do those things? Okay, like go do your thing But when when that goes too far and they step up and like You need to treat me this way and you we're gonna change the laws and we're gonna force feed this to children and we're gonna pass a law Yeah, we've gone way too far and we have to fight back

so they can crawl back in the dark little hole that those ideas come from and stay there. Like if you want to live in dark hole and do weird things, do it. You start...

Greg & Rachel Denning (37:11.598)
Praying on children? I'll come after you.

Greg & Rachel Denning (37:18.154)
all the force I can bring. You start praying on little kids. And that's where it's going. I mean it's already there in many many ways. But it's going there in a greater force. And they're trying to normalize it and they're trying to legalize it and make it seem just fine and they're trying to make it common and

And they're really making this push of like, well, let's legalize this. Let's normalize. Let's say that it's OK to take advantage of people. and I know that that probably sounds crazy to a lot of people because they think, it's not going to go there. Yeah, maybe we're legalizing all these other things. You can change your sex. You can change all of this. But it's not going to go to that.

We've seen college professors teaching college classes about mentor -attracted persons. It's just another thing. Minor, minor attraction. Sorry. Minor -attracted persons. It's just another thing. To normalize along with everything else, we've already normalized. There's no such thing as sex. Gender is a thing, and it's fluid.

They're already teaching these ideas and this is just the next step and that is where it's going.

It's already there in many places. Now the challenge is that we don't see it. And that's if you're not paying attention and you're not noticing and you don't understand the significance, it's hard to put the puzzle together and to know what picture it's making. But that's what we have been trying to do for four years or more. And when you start getting the picture clearly, which I feel like even though we're undereducated about it in general and

Greg & Rachel Denning (39:15.404)
you know there's still so much we don't know we're starting to I'm starting to see the picture and it's a dark horrifying picture yeah as ignorant as I am I'm seeing the picture exactly my goodness and so we might be like it's because you're gonna you don't see the picture you don't see how progressive we are and how enlightened we've become I know all you got to do is study enough history and be like hey this has happened before yeah this is not the first time

Besides the fact that it's there's multiple like if this was a war which it is there's multiple battles going on and none of them are pretty One of the things I recently listened to we both listened to a podcast about it and It was talking about in in the UK. They're having a ton of problems tons of problems which also has to do with

the increase in immigration, both legal and illegal, which to me is also a difficult subject because I love immigrants. I love going to other countries. I love interacting with other people. I have a love of culture and different races and different belief systems and different religions. we, OK, we got to make this personal here. It's not like theoretical. It's not hypothetical. Yeah, we've lived in. know a lot.

of people personally who are our friends, who are immigrants, who are just sincerely striving to live a better life. Exactly. And we have also lived in lots of countries, including many Muslim countries. lived in Morocco for extended period of time. Mexico and every country in Central America. South America. We know these cultures and these people. They're our friends and our neighbors. Yes. But just like every culture and every religion, on the extreme end,

there is danger. And so specifically in this podcast episode we listened to, one of the recent things that happened, there's been many happening, is that there was a immigrant who came from a Muslim country who I think the story was his parents had immigrated and he just came along for the ride or whatever. They were escaping a war -torn country. So they're starting a new life and he grew up just spoiled and blind and clueless. I don't know the full story but basically

Greg & Rachel Denning (41:40.504)
Well, they did talk about how it is often the immigrants' children who resonate more with these extreme ideologies. They get radicalized. They get radicalized because they grow up, they don't totally fit into their new culture because they are immigrants, right? And so there's this disparity that leads to radicalization. He went to a dance class. I don't know. They said it was a Taylor Swift dance class for nine -year -olds.

slit their throats of nine -year -old British children.

And the problem was that the media, because of government influence, was trying to cover up the fact that this was an immigrant. Who had been radicalized. Who had been radicalized. Because, here's why, because like, who can say something? Because if you say something, you're racist. You're racist. You're prejudiced. But the problem that they were discussing this episode is like, but what, what can we say? What can we do?

When there's an increase of this type of violence by immigrants who have been radicalized by extremists, what can we do about it? We can't continue to allow children to be murdered. What do we do? And I also bring this up because this is a problem that America is also facing. Again, being in general a pro -immigration person.

We also have to talk about the ugly side of immigration. We also have to talk about the negative side of these issues. So again, it's a puzzle with lots of pieces. There's lots of battles going on. There's so much going into it. It's very complicated. There's no one size fits all solution to any of these things.

Greg & Rachel Denning (43:33.868)
But ultimately, it is lots and lots of things that are going on that are literally leading to the destruction of a way of being, a way of life. Yeah, and cultures and societies. And that's part of the fight of this having a culture, which is a good thing. Having a culture is a good thing. But then if you try to maintain a culture, though, again,

they'll give you some labels and tell you you're a horrible person and why should you have a culture? You're just so prejudiced and you live within your little borders and you're so privileged and you're probably a white male. Right, especially if you're white. Because now, right now, white male is just getting thrown under the bus. like, I shouldn't even...

According to them, I shouldn't be allowed to have an opinion or to vocalize it because what do I know? I was just handing everything on a silver platter because I was born with pasty white freckled skin and a penis. And wow, everything was given to me except it wasn't because my dad left and then stepdads came and went and I ended up out on my own at 16 living in a hellhole as a privileged white man.

her privileged white male. Fought my way into university, has been the first one in my family to go. But it was all because I was so privileged. My homelessness must have been privileged. It was a privileged homelessness. times when I was starving, sleeping in an old truck, and could only afford ramen noodles, it was because of my white privilege and being a male, of course. Just saying. Yeah.

I don't know what we can say about it because that's literally where society is at this moment. And so I don't even know. Like, what's the point? And what can be done about it? I don't know. The truth is, I don't know. I don't either. That's why we're having this conversation. The first part is just be aware. Like, hey, let's just open our eyes. Let's wake up a little bit and let's look at it.

Greg & Rachel Denning (45:42.798)
Because often we want to avoid it, right? We don't want to look over there. It's like, you know there's something, there's a disturbance over here and you're like, I'm just going to pretend. Look at this, kids. Look at this. Let's look over here. This is so nice. Because you're avoiding looking at the thing that's the problem, that's ugly, that's scary. We're going to avoid this. If you see a couple guys roughing up some girl over there.

the vast majority of people and they've done this like social experiments whatever the vast majority of are just gonna walk away. They're gonna avoid Okay but the problem is that is probably the best response for the vast majority of people because they're not trained to be able to handle something like that. Going in to interfere with the lack of skills makes you a victim. comes back to the underlying problem is that in too many ways we're just completely unprepared for what's happening. Okay so well there's one thing there is get your

self -prepared. Come to the asset training that we're holding so that you can... Exactly. So you can be an asset. You can be an asset. To your family and to society. Right. Exactly. Come learn these skills. Learn how to protect yourself. Learn how to... combatives and... And medical training. Like... Self -defense. Be helpful. Learn... We're going to talk about how to think through scenarios and situations. How to have situational awareness and what to do. And even if you do see something like that, you know, you don't walk over there, hey guys, please stop. It's not very nice what you're doing.

Turn on your camera call it will get on your phone call the police call in one turn your camera film it start yelling get get the people over like keep your distance, but you get 20 people like hey knock it off stop and and you start creating something like you can do it from a safe place or get in your car and go over and drive them over Like whatever extreme great no way if somebody's like really attacking an innocent person and the only you know Self -defense weapon I have is my vehicle. I'm gonna use it

Right? Whatever, you just have, have to think differently, but we're trying to avoid it. We're trying to avoid the issues. So let's have some awareness. Let's start talking about it. Let's start thinking. Let's face it. And as, as uncomfortable as it is, as scary as it is, the best thing we can do is face it. We have to face the problems that are facing us. We have to. So that's the first step, but then I want to encourage all of you listening, like do something to prepare yourself, whatever way to actually get involved and not.

Greg & Rachel Denning (48:03.094)
Not by changing your Facebook profile and getting a bumper sticker and a bracelet. Or, you know, take on this opinion like, support whatever. Do something about it. Get in think if nothing else, by educating yourself about it. By actually learning about what's going on and what significance it has. And then spreading education. Well, education, arguably, is the most powerful tool in the world.

So spreading education could be one of the best ways to get in get in the action. Right. And to stop. Which requires requires you to educate yourself like you can't just be spreading opinions. You have to be spreading whatever education you have, which is what we're trying to do here. Like, yeah, we don't get this on Jordan Peterson's level or these other.

authors and thinkers and leaders we don't understand it to that level but at the level we do understand it we are trying to talk about it we're telling our children about it we're trying to help them understand that's why we watch a video about fascism this morning especially because we live we live in a country Portugal that's fascist leaning you know we want to understand these principles and why they're important and what the bigger picture

long -term consequences of these things are because otherwise

We can just get swept up in it and just be like, yeah, let's just go along. It's just the way of the world now. So yeah, no big deal. Let's just change our pronouns on Instagram and be a part of that whole thing because it's trendy. It's the thing to do. Rather than realizing that there's a bigger movement happening here that at the end of the road is a disaster waiting to happen for all of us.

Greg & Rachel Denning (49:58.636)
Yeah, so don't get on board, you know, if you've changed your pronouns on Instagram, take them off there like little things like that so that we start standing up against the movement rather than just halfheartedly contributing to it because that's what people are doing. Right, exactly. Just going along. If you know that the train tracks are blown out, like don't stay on the train. Right. Get off the train. Get off the train. But nor can we just say, you know what?

I'm gonna let other people do it. I'm gonna let this play out. I'm just gonna live my life. We can't do that either because we've seen history has shown us time and time again that people who are good people who trying to live traditional values, they become pretty passive and they think this will just play out and it won't affect me. That's not true. It ends up becoming a sweeping fire that consumes everything and everyone including you and your family.

Greg & Rachel Denning (50:57.058)
Don't just.

stick your head in the sand and hope it blows past because it won't. Unless you want to move away to some remote isolated location and be a hermit family, that's an option. very appealing actually and I think of it often. There's many times where I'm like, let's just go somewhere so far removed that it's very unlikely to affect this place. And there are places like that in the world. That's awesome. It's true. She was like, now I'm out,

go live in the woods in my bus with my family. Like Captain Fantastic. Captain Fantastic style. You know there's something to that but we also need warriors and so those of you who listening who have the warrior heart who feel the call. I think there are too few warriors because the warrior mentality has literally been indoctrinated out of

society. I agree. So I don't know that there are many that hear the call because that is a bad thing. That's toxic masculinity right there. If you feel like you're some sort of warrior and you might want to fight for something, that's toxic. Fight against these... Because you're supposed to be more like a woman and less like a man.

right there is so screwed up because the only reason we enjoy the freedoms to be able to say the comfortable safe society that we live in, things, is because real men fought for freedom. And now you're saying, we shouldn't be like that. That's toxic masculinity. No more fighting.

Greg & Rachel Denning (52:43.33)
Which is part of the long game of the destruction of society because if you effeminate, if you make men more effeminate and you demasculinize them, you don't have warriors to fight and to protect the society. And that is what's happening. I mean, it really is. It's really happening intentionally. And I know that sounds crazy, but it is.

And we're not the only ones who have said, like multiple people in various platforms are talking about this. It's happening. And one of the ways we see that that's happening is all of the protesting that's going on in the universities. And this is the irony to me that's obviously been pointed out by others is that the very people who are protesting in support of Hamas and Palestine,

are often the type of people that would be immediately killed by them because... Well, after they were raped and tortured and filmed and like the killers like celebrate. Yeah, but because they are in direct violation of everything they believe as a religious group. Like they're not gonna support you and your gender fluidity. Fluidity. No. You will be killed.

Greg & Rachel Denning (54:12.802)
This has been a... Unhappy thought. A little bit of sunshine in your morning. A little bit of a reality check. Yeah. No, it needs to be a reality check. And it's good, but it's important one. Would you rather not know? Would you rather get blindsided and not see it coming and just, like, I didn't see it coming. I wish somebody would have told me, hey, we're telling you, it's coming. It's exactly the same thing that happened in Nazi Germany. And it happened in...

Stalin's Russia and it have I mean it happens in all the places that we the people don't know it's coming because we want to believe that that's not really gonna happen that's not really that's people aren't that bad that it's not really gonna be that bad it's not gonna get that bad that's what we want to believe that's I don't know human nature I guess but I guess this podcast episode is about believing that it can get that bad again

Because it has gotten that bad. That's point. has been that bad and in some places in the world it still is that bad. I North Korea it's bad there. Having never been. Having read about it. From one person. It's bad in the it's it's a totalitarian state with.

Well, OK. complete lack of freedom and food and resources. I have been in Cuba. Communism is I got to see it in real time. It was devastating, and the suffering is real. Right. So the point is that if we continue to adopt these philosophies, which, OK, that's something we didn't really even talk about or dive into, but is a

important part of this equation is that when you get right down to it, what is happening is essentially a form of Marxism. That's basically what's happening. It's a form of Marxism. And when you adopt that in your society, I mean, then you're basically practically almost there with communism and totalitarianism, like government control. So we're not that far away from

Greg & Rachel Denning (56:37.592)
having that become a reality for us. guess that's the danger. That's the risk is that the society that we live in is based on currently on democratic principles, Western ideas, and that is being eroded.

Greg & Rachel Denning (57:03.642)
They're not flawless. Western ideas aren't No, they're not. mean, there's a lot of But they're, so far, some of the best ideas that humans have come up with because, like you love to say, results don't lie. I mean, yeah, the Western world is not the perfect world. But if you compare it to history, to where humans have come from, and to other places where there is not democracy and individual rights,

and freedom of property to own property, free trade, things are worse off there. They're really bad. I'm telling you, just even talking about Cuba, it's worse there. North Korea is worse. It's worse off. So for us to think that, well, we're not that great. We're not that important. Our culture doesn't matter. We're nobody special. Yeah.

In some ways that's true, but in other ways it's not true. It's 100 % wrong because results don't lie and democratic nations are some of the most prosperous and safest in the world and in history. That's a result that means something and we're losing that if we undercut its value and significance. Well, or if we let it.

Most of the people listening to this podcast, won't be we won't be the ones driving it into destruction. We'll be the ones that because of some passivity, we we allow it to happen. We just we watch it just go down like, that's really sucks. I sure enjoyed my life. But at some point, I don't know, I guess maybe the mental wrestle is, know, we want to avoid the fighting. We want to avoid being part of the battle.

but it's either get in the fight that tries to prevent it or by force you'll be forced to be in the fight that's way worse. That's way worse. So if we can prevent any of it, even in small circles. Even in our families. Yeah, if we can prevent it in our families. Because, I mean, that's another thing we didn't touch on either, but these ideologies are destroying families.

Greg & Rachel Denning (59:23.374)
I mean, it's literally, it's anti -family at its very nature. Like if you look at something like queer theory, which started I think in the 60s, it's anti -identity, it's anti -family, it's anti anything that's good or stable or like this comes from their own wording. Like their books and their papers that they have written, this is essentially what they stand for. They stand for.

Which is what Marxism is too. It's anti anything and everything. Anything that exists should be destroyed. That's basically Marxism. And Marx, Karl Marx was literally...

as proclaimed by himself and his father and mother was essentially possessed by a demon. Like that was his belief that he was a tool of Satan. Literally he wrote that and believed that. His ideas are genuinely satanic. Right. And so, you know, that is the foundation of some of these ideologies and

If we don't stand up against them, we get swept up. We get swept up in I will say this adamantly with all the force I can share here. If we do not teach our children effectively and deliberately how to think clearly about this, they will be swept up in retarded ideology. Even tweens, or even your kids now.

Kids are getting swept up in this and then the tweenagers and then the teens and young adults are just being swept aside. They're caught up in the tide and the current and they're off they go and it's happy. Well especially because in the episode we just listened to or I just listened to like they are directly targeting children. They're targeting the school system. They want to teach queer theory for one because it's also directly connected with

Greg & Rachel Denning (01:01:30.452)
in some forms pedophilia because the founders of queer theory were essentially pedophiles. And so the whole mentor attracted person and all of that, like that's an underlying.

Greg & Rachel Denning (01:01:44.85)
They're teaching sexuality to children. so they are directly targeting children. And they have a whole approach, a whole philosophy. Now, this is not to say that every single person who's pro -LGBTQ, who's gay, who identifies as queer, it's not to say that they have this agenda. But the people who started the movement,

the people who wrote the original documents, this is their agenda. And they have what they call it like trauma bonding. Like they have this whole approach to breaking down the belief systems of children so that they can provide the solution, which is queer theory, queer identity, fluidity, openness, no identity. You aren't, which in many ways correlates with like communist China where

The government, the state, the ideology is more important than family. It's more important than love. Like, love's not a thing. You know, it's more important than relationships. It's more important than marriage. They want to set themselves up as the most important thing. Yeah. Like, it's brave new world. It literally is brave new world where none of that matters and you're all just, like, there's no...

Identity to you. There's no structure. There's no relationships. There's nothing that's more important than Just you being an individual that can change that does everything for the state. Yeah and can change your

your identity and your gender at any time. this assault on children is another attack on children. It literally is. And so even trying to teach them, it's another form of abusing children, taking advantage of children because they're young and innocent and more malleable and more easily brainwashed. We have to protect our kids. Right. Physically and ideologically. So going back to the idea of like, one of the best things we can do is to educate ourselves so that we can protect our families. Because if

Greg & Rachel Denning (01:03:57.044)
We are not teaching our children about this and how dangerous these ideologies can be, then who is? No one is. No one else is teaching them any different. In fact, they're teaching them the opposite. And they're going to teach your children that if you speak contrary to it, you are actually the bigot. You are actually the racist. You are actually the one in the wrong, which is exactly what they did in communist China. Like, if you listen to Wild Swans, that is the story.

When the government is telling you that your own family is the problem because they are keeping you away from belonging. That legit is happening in the schools already where the legislation has been passed and it's happening where the and they don't have to communicate at all with the parents and so teachers and administrators are disregarding It was passed into law in California that a teacher is not required to even tell.

parent if their child decides if they identify as a different gender or they decide to have a D -transition surgery like they don't it's not required that they tell the parents parents don't even have to know this okay so I know some of you like what do I read what education I work on and I just thought of several books that you should read I think we'll make a list and we'll include it in the show notes along with because we did a recent episode about

resources versus resourcefulness and being resourceful and the fourth turning and all of that. And we wanted to make a book. Someone asked for a book list about that. So I think we should make, it could be the same book list that has the list of books to help you be resourceful along with the list of books of what to read to understand what's happening. Like what is going on here? And how do we understand it? Get the link.

and then get the lists and read or listen to. Many of them are on audible, so it's great to listen to them while you're driving or doing the dishes or whatever. Read them, mark them up, and please, please, please teach the core principles to your families and to others within your circle of influence. That's where we can start. Okay, love you guys. Reach upward.