Thursday, November 08, 2018

Why We Win


 










Full Transcript

[Applause]
00:14
thank you very much delighted to be here
00:18
on a kind of fateful day in American
00:22
politics the United States in 2018 it's
00:29
probably more fractured more divided
00:32
than at any time since 1860 when Abraham
00:37
Lincoln an outsider a Republican won a
00:41
close election and one may say all hell
00:44
broke loose
00:46
I've been trying to make sense of the
00:50
results of yesterday I think we'd have
00:55
to say that there was no blue wave and
00:58
there was no red wave what we got was a
01:01
certain kind of political draw but
01:05
that's not a meeting in the middle but
01:07
rather that the Democrats had one good
01:11
thing happen and the Republicans have
01:13
had one good thing happened which has
01:16
now topped off by a second good thing
01:18
for the Democrats the good thing is to
01:21
capture the house and that's important
01:24
not because the Democrats can do
01:25
anything with it but it does give them a
01:28
sort of place to launch projectiles and
01:32
it gives them a chance to launch
01:34
investigations of course they can pass
01:36
legislation but it's gonna go nowhere it
01:40
is also a way to check Trump and I
01:44
suspect that there is a feeling in
01:45
America among some people including some
01:49
Republicans the Trump is a man who could
01:51
use a little bit of checking now on the
01:55
Republican side there is also good news
01:58
and that is that Republicans have a kind
02:02
of secure majority in the Senate which
02:07
the Republicans didn't have before so
02:10
the Republicans have actually traded
02:12
control
02:12
before they really had the house but
02:15
they didn't have the Senate and they
02:18
were dependent on a very precarious one
02:23
or two votes particularly for Court
02:26
appointments and that's why the
02:27
Cavanaugh thing was just so close but
02:30
now Republicans have a clean majority in
02:32
the Senate and that means that Ruth
02:36
Bader Ginsburg better take her vitamins
02:39
because otherwise we could quickly go
02:41
from five four to six three and it is
02:44
not inconceivable that you could also
02:45
have seven two so if you ask most
02:49
Republicans would you trade the house
02:51
for a reasonable shot at six three or
02:54
seven two and the court I suspect most
02:56
would make that bargain very quickly
03:00
today something very interesting
03:02
happened and that is that Jeff Sessions
03:05
aka Rip Van Winkle has been put out on
03:10
the sidewalk and the reports are that
03:13
rod Rosenstein his sidekick the
03:16
initiator of the Moller investigation
03:18
might soon follow this is really
03:22
important because Trump's great weakness
03:25
in the past two years has been that the
03:27
guy does not control his own Justice
03:31
Department this is because of trumps
03:34
greatest mistake of his presidency which
03:37
was not to fire Comey and Rosenstein on
03:39
day one he could have done it easily no
03:43
one would have questioned it it would
03:44
have saved them a whole lot of problems
03:46
one of the downsides of being an
03:48
outsider is that you come in and you
03:50
sort of try to figure things out and by
03:53
the time you figured them out all kinds
03:55
of things have taken off including the
03:58
appointment of a special prosecutor but
04:01
now Trump has actually the chance to
04:03
name his own guy and what that means is
04:07
that if the Democrats initiate
04:09
investigations the Justice Department
04:12
can initiate counter investigations and
04:14
this is all the way of saying that
04:16
American politics has entered a sort of
04:18
fractious troubling phase there's a
04:22
breakdown of civility I think we know
04:25
that
04:25
there's certainly a rising level of
04:29
emotional intensity we know that I just
04:33
saw on social media video of a protester
04:36
screaming about my presence here tonight
04:39
he white guy and he goes you don't know
04:43
what it means to be a person of color
04:44
and I thought well there's one thing I
04:46
do know it's that and if there's one
04:50
thing you don't it's that but
04:52
nevertheless this notion of me being
04:56
educated by whites on what it is like to
05:00
be an immigrant not a new experience but
05:02
nevertheless intriguing I want to speak
05:06
tonight about the sort of deep undertow
05:10
of this debate it's a kind of culture
05:13
war some would call it a cold civil war
05:17
it's obviously not a hot civil war you
05:19
don't have grand armies moving across
05:21
planes but it's a cold civil war in that
05:24
there is a clear secession of the
05:26
American mind and what I mean by that is
05:29
that you have two groups of Americans
05:31
who see the same things the same facts
05:34
let's say the Cavanaugh hearings but
05:37
they see them completely differently and
05:40
intellectually this is a problem how is
05:42
it possible for intelligent people to
05:45
see the same facts and interpret them so
05:48
differently well clearly the bringing
05:51
different assumptions different lens you
05:53
might say to the camera and the premises
05:57
embedded in the debate that are
05:59
completely rejected by the other side
06:01
believe all victims or even take
06:04
something like he said she said now for
06:08
those of us who are supporters of
06:10
Kavanagh this was not a case of he said
06:13
she said why because he said she said
06:16
only applies in a situation where both
06:19
parties are completely unknown and you
06:21
have no basis for actually assigning
06:23
credibility to either one if a cop goes
06:26
into a domestic violence complaint he
06:29
said she said you don't know anything
06:31
about the two parties and so you have to
06:33
give them
06:33
equal credibility or equal lack of
06:37
credibility but with cabinets not like
06:40
that
06:40
and with Kavanagh it's more select
06:42
something like this someone comes out
06:44
and accuses Albert Einstein of faking
06:46
his equations well that's not he said
06:48
she said Albert Einstein is a public
06:50
figure
06:51
innumerable scientists have testified to
06:53
the to his credibility and intellectual
06:55
probity and in the case of Cavanaugh you
06:58
have innumerable people who have worked
07:00
with them over decades testifying to his
07:01
personal decency and rectitude and then
07:04
you have a complete nobody who pops out
07:06
of nowhere scrubs or social media so
07:09
that's not he said she said you have two
07:11
figures of completely unequal public
07:14
credibility and so anyone who starts to
07:17
debate what he said see she said is
07:19
distorting the lens of the debate
07:22
distorting the lens of the argument well
07:28
now I use the Cavanaugh example merely
07:32
to make a point which is that there is a
07:35
divide and the divide is over facts over
07:38
news over what some people call fake
07:41
news I'm going to talk tonight not so
07:44
much about fake news but I'm going to
07:48
talk about fake scholarship and I'm
07:50
going to talk about fake history and
07:53
fake scholarship and fake history are
07:56
the key the key to the narrative that
08:02
the political left has generated in
08:05
America and all our public accusations
08:08
are based upon this deeper narrative if
08:11
the narrative is false a lot of what we
08:15
hear in the public domain collapses so
08:16
take something really simple Trump is a
08:19
fascist we hear this all the time we
08:21
hear are we hearing it since Trump's
08:23
election and you turn on Rachel Maddow
08:25
krishnaji Trump is a fascist they know
08:28
it but this notion this accusation the
08:32
Trump is a fascist is parasitic on a
08:35
deeper claim and the deeper claim is
08:38
fascism is a phenomenon of the right
08:41
it's a right-wing thing think about it
08:45
if fascism were left-wing
08:47
then it would make no sense to call
08:48
Trump a fascist and yet the notion that
08:51
fascism is right-wing is not something
08:54
recent it didn't it wasn't concocted
08:57
with Trump it's in fact 75 years old
09:00
this notion that fascism is on the right
09:03
started after World War two it's in our
09:05
textbooks it's on the History Channel
09:08
it's in Wikipedia it's all over the
09:11
place and yet this notion that fascism
09:17
is on the right is rarely challenged
09:20
it's rarely challenged and in fact it is
09:23
so dangerous to challenge it we see it
09:26
right now that when you begin to do it
09:28
the it disturbs people it unnerves them
09:32
why because their worldview is at stake
09:34
if I could demonstrate tonight that
09:36
fascism was on the left the real
09:39
fascists would have to shut up
09:40
the real fascist would have to suddenly
09:42
say wait a minute
09:43
we have been masquerading as
09:45
anti-fascist we excuse all kinds of
09:48
barbaric conducts reckoning people
09:50
intimidating them shouting at them
09:52
beating them up on the grounds that
09:54
those guys are the fascists and we are
09:56
the anti-fascists but if the truth is
09:58
the opposite if the truth is the
09:59
opposite then the whole political
10:03
landscape has to be redrawn and the real
10:06
thugs become unmasked for who they are
10:08
so I'm going to take that risk tonight
10:10
of pushing down and examining a couple
10:14
of key episodes of American history just
10:18
to ask two questions who are the real
10:21
racists and who are the real fascists
10:27
yes
10:28
buckle your seat belts buckle your seat
10:32
belts I'm going to start with the issue
10:35
of I'm going to start with the issue of
10:37
racism racism which became embedded in
10:42
America because of the long-standing
10:45
practice of slavery slavery was you
10:48
might say the institutionalized context
10:50
for racism in the United States and yet
10:55
this racism interestingly enough is
10:58
always blamed
11:00
the left on the American founders they
11:03
started it there are the culprits and
11:05
the proof of this if you want to pick it
11:08
right off progressive literature from
11:09
Howard Zinn or any of these other shady
11:12
characters who masquerade as historians
11:16
it's the three-fifths clause hey it says
11:19
right there in the Constitution
11:20
african-americans are worth three-fifths
11:24
of a human being now if this were true
11:27
we would have to admit that the American
11:30
Founding was seriously flawed but it so
11:33
happens that it is demonstrably not true
11:37
and it is easy to verify by simply
11:41
looking at the context for the actual
11:44
debate which was a debate between the
11:46
north and the south and it was a debate
11:48
not over slavery directly but over
11:51
political representation over the
11:53
assignment of congressmen for example
11:56
and in this debate very interestingly
11:58
the North wanted blacks to count for
12:03
zero and the South wanted blacks to
12:07
count for one why because the South
12:11
wanted more representation to strengthen
12:13
the power of slavery and the North
12:15
wanted to count blacks to zero
12:16
not because they were racist but because
12:18
they wanted to weaken the power of the
12:21
south and the three-fifths compromise
12:23
was a middle ground between the North
12:26
and the South in the sense the two sides
12:28
agreeing to find a point at which they
12:31
could both move ahead and one can debate
12:35
if this was a good compromise or not but
12:38
what one cannot debate is that this said
12:41
absolutely nothing about the intrinsic
12:44
value of black life or about the
12:47
intrinsic value of blacks as human
12:49
beings the issue was the North was using
12:52
the compromise to break the back of
12:54
slavery in the south and weaken slave
12:57
represent the power of southern
12:59
representation these this is an
13:02
historical fact I want to vault forward
13:09
a little bit and now come to Abraham
13:12
Lincoln
13:12
and they come to Lincoln because Lincoln
13:14
was the great student of the American
13:16
Founding and Lincoln is very important
13:19
because today the left has tried to
13:21
appropriate Lincoln Lincoln was a
13:23
liberal Lincoln was a progressive if
13:26
Lincoln had lived today he would be you
13:28
know a member of an tyfa really now
13:33
history is a matter of trying to get
13:37
into the spirit and the mind of people
13:41
who live at the time the interesting
13:44
thing about Abraham Lincoln is not once
13:46
in his life or his writings did he ever
13:48
call himself a liberal
13:50
not once did he ever call himself a
13:53
progressive in fact the whole concept of
13:56
progressivism developed later it's a
13:59
phenomena in the late 19th century and
14:01
the early 20th century after Lincoln the
14:06
one thing that Lincoln did call himself
14:08
repeatedly was you guessed it a
14:13
conservative and what Lincoln said is I
14:17
am conserving the principles of the
14:21
American Founding now when Lincoln
14:26
described slavery he described it this
14:30
way you work I eat and this is a very
14:36
profound understanding of slavery it's
14:38
not even racial the basic idea is one
14:40
guy gets to work and the other guy
14:42
steals the fruit of his labor and
14:44
disposes of it as he deems fit so this
14:49
is slavery it's essentially confiscation
14:51
and theft and Lincoln says very
14:53
interestingly this is the cradle not of
14:56
the south but of the Democratic Party in
14:58
the north and the south this is what
15:01
Democrats believe this is who they are
15:03
at their core and then Lincoln defines
15:06
who the Republicans are by contrast he
15:09
goes Republicans believe quote the hand
15:12
that makes the corn has the right to put
15:15
the corn into its own mouth the
15:18
principle here is very simple people
15:21
should get to keep the fruit
15:23
of their own labor it's the anti-slavery
15:25
principle we own ourselves we have a
15:28
right to keep what we earn and here's
15:32
Lincoln's definition of social justice
15:34
you keep what you make and I'll keep
15:36
what I make
15:38
the street sweeper has no more right to
15:41
take the earnings of the brain surgeon
15:42
than the brain surgeon has the right to
15:44
take the earnings of the street sweeper
15:46
this is Lincoln's doctrine and I
15:49
mentioned this because today it's not
15:51
uncommon for me on campus to encounter
15:53
professor world the nurse you absolutely
15:55
know that the two parties switched sides
15:57
well did they really switch sides
16:00
let's examine isn't it isn't it true
16:03
today that the core principle of Trump
16:06
and of the Republican Party is that the
16:08
hand that makes the corn should eat the
16:09
corn and is it not a fact well we're
16:14
happy I'm happy discuss it I think it is
16:17
and the core principle of the Democratic
16:19
Party today is also just the one that
16:22
Lincoln defined you work and I eat one
16:25
guy gets to work and another group of
16:27
scoundrels confiscates what he earns or
16:29
she earns and disposes of it as they see
16:32
fit what's very interesting about this
16:34
is that despite party change the parties
16:36
have changed there are also deep veins
16:39
of continuity and this deep vein of
16:42
continuity shows that the fundamental
16:44
core principle of the party's a pro
16:46
market throw upward mobility free
16:49
society which Lincoln championed that's
16:52
what we conservatives in America are
16:54
fighting for now now Lincoln named what
17:00
he called the four horsemen he didn't
17:04
say of the apocalypse but he meant of
17:05
slavery the four bad guys of slavery and
17:07
it's very important to pay attention to
17:10
this because what Lincoln is showing is
17:11
that these four guys are not southerners
17:14
in fact only one of the four is a
17:17
southerner Lincoln name's Roger tawny
17:23
the author of the Dred Scott decision
17:24
from Maryland Lincoln Council is a
17:27
southerner and then we have Franklin
17:30
Pierce the former president from New
17:31
Hampshire northern Democrat and
17:34
James Buchanan the sitting president
17:35
from Pennsylvania northern Democrat and
17:38
Stephen Douglas of Illinois northern
17:40
Democrat now the reason this is really
17:42
important is that right now there are
17:44
massive statues of Douglas of Peirce of
17:47
Buchanan all standing in their hometowns
17:49
untouched by ante for black lives matter
17:52
black lives matter and antia and the
17:54
south knocking down statutes knock down
17:56
robert e lee knock down the Confederate
17:58
statue this Confederate Guard soldier
18:01
was a bad guy first of all this
18:03
Confederate soldier the nameless
18:05
Confederate soldier which is the
18:06
majority of the statues was typically a
18:08
dirt poor farmer or laborer he didn't
18:11
own a single slave and when asked why he
18:13
was fighting in the Civil War his simple
18:15
answer was because the Yankees are down
18:17
here you want to make that guy the bad
18:19
guy of American history if you do it's
18:22
fake history you're a fake
18:24
why because that's not the bad guy the
18:26
bad guy were the conspirators in the
18:29
north who worked with the plantation
18:31
owners in the south to sustain slavery
18:33
and Lincoln had their number but
18:35
progressives have to hide the complicity
18:37
of the northern Democrats because what
18:40
they're doing is taking the crimes of
18:41
the Democratic Party and foisting them
18:44
on the south they're basically trying to
18:46
hold the South accountable for what they
18:48
did and Lincoln was on to them then and
18:51
I have to say I'm kind of on to them now
18:54
I now want to fast-forward from Lincoln
18:57
and a couple of words I've said about
18:59
slavery to fascism I want to come to the
19:02
20th century moving us along the Swift
19:05
course of history and I want to address
19:09
a question that Trump's sort of kicked
19:10
up when he said he was a nationalist and
19:12
of course there was somebody on CNN
19:15
saying how can you use the word
19:19
nationalist it's like Hitler and Hitler
19:23
in fact was a nationalist but so was my
19:27
countrymen Gandhi and so was a Mandela
19:30
in South Africa and so was Winston
19:33
Churchill and so was de Gaulle and so
19:36
was Abraham Lincoln and all the anti
19:39
colonial leaders were nationalists so
19:41
clearly there is more than one type of
19:44
nationalism what is the type of
19:46
nationalism that defined Hitler and by
19:50
extension Mussolini and by extension all
19:52
the fascist movements in Belgium in
19:54
France in Germany
19:56
in Italy in England and so on and the
19:58
answer is there's only one thing that
20:00
identified that type of nationalism and
20:03
that was its marriage with socialism the
20:07
essence of fascism is the marriage of
20:10
nationalism and socialism and the reason
20:13
that the Left can never admit this is at
20:14
the moment they do their whole big lie
20:17
blows up and national socialism is
20:19
vividly exposed as a phenomenon of the
20:22
left now I'm not just alleging this in
20:26
some vague sense I actually in my book
20:29
look at the founding fathers of fascism
20:31
in numerous countries I'm going to take
20:34
the simple example of France there was a
20:36
powerful fascist movement in France when
20:38
the Germans invaded France these people
20:40
became the intellectual soul of the
20:41
Vichy regime and these guys the founders
20:45
of French fascism were all men of the
20:47
left there is no exception to this rule
20:48
jean le monde who was involved with the
20:51
drive this case the so-called
20:52
grandfather of French socialism one of
20:55
the founders of French fascism Marcel da
20:59
prominent socialists became the leader
21:01
of the fascist movement in France
21:03
Jacques Daurio was the head of the
21:06
French Communist Party and he became a
21:08
leading fascist Mussolini in Italy his
21:11
chief advisor was the founder of Italian
21:14
fascism a friend of Lenin and when
21:16
Mussolini started the fascist movement
21:18
in Italy he got a telegram of
21:19
congratulations from lenin who
21:24
recognized him as a fellow revolutionary
21:26
of the left now why was National
21:31
Socialism so leftist what was it trying
21:35
to accomplish the basic idea of fascism
21:38
was government control over the private
21:42
economy and government control over the
21:45
lives of citizens that's the meaning of
21:47
fascism that's what it is that's what
21:50
the Nazis were all about the National
21:51
Socialist Party
21:54
in my movie in my movie in my movie well
22:22
we have some dr. Ford and put is the axe
22:24
here let me ask you this question let me
22:28
ask you guys this question well okay if
22:32
you'll stop chatting I'll address your
22:34
point
22:34
here's something interesting where is
22:37
dr. Ford you know this is really
22:41
interesting when I noticed that when
22:42
when when when when Roy hold on don't
22:45
shout at me you'll have a chance ask
22:47
questions when Roy Moore was attacked by
22:49
all these women he but you pre oppressed
22:51
me he did this he did that and suddenly
22:53
when he's defeated they all knelt into
22:56
air this is Karl Marx all that is solid
22:58
melts into air suddenly the media hold
23:01
on don't shout at me don't shout at me
23:03
I'll be huh I know you came voluntarily
23:06
did I ask you to come no don't shout at
23:09
me I'm defending fascism Noah I'm
23:12
exposing you as a fascist because
23:14
because
23:16
[Applause]
23:20
do you rely up and I'll tell you how you
23:23
ask me a question
23:25
hold on are you familiar are you
23:38
familiar with the black shirts in Italy
23:40
or the brown shirts in Germany do you
23:42
realize that they would go to campuses
23:43
goom's and would stand in the back of
23:45
the room and when somebody tried to make
23:47
an intelligent presentation and answer
23:49
questions they would shout them down
23:51
yell at them try to intimidate them and
23:53
count a success if they could get the
23:55
event canceled and the speaker
23:57
threatened but see the problem is
23:59
sometimes you get speakers like me who
24:01
are not scared of people like you we
24:03
recognize your frauds I recognize I
24:08
recognize that ultimately you are afraid
24:10
of ideas you're not willing to engage
24:12
with me yes you're afraid of ideas
24:14
you're not afraid of flashes you think I
24:16
pose a threat to you I'm an immigrant I
24:18
came to America with nothing what threat
24:19
to I posed to you I propose dangerous
24:26
violator kill people who have I killed
24:30
capitalism do you realize do you realize
24:33
that Hitler's deadly opponent was
24:35
capitalism if have you read the Nazi
24:37
25-point platform let me give you a few
24:40
themes from it state control of the
24:41
banks do you support that no state
24:44
control of healthcare use of what that
24:46
state control of education do you
24:48
support that No all right what I'm
24:51
trying to get at is the fascist ideology
24:53
is one that is distinctly under left
24:55
what about you personally support it
25:11
in fairness in fairness there's going to
25:14
be plenty of time to engage you but let
25:16
me just say this
25:17
no movement that calls itself a national
25:20
socialist movement is going to be on the
25:23
right and the idea that the fascists are
25:25
right-wing because they support racial
25:26
superiority wait a minute the guy who
25:29
showed the Ku Klux McKellen movie in the
25:31
White House was Woodrow Wilson a
25:33
progressive Democrat so progressivism
25:34
was married to racism at the hip so
25:37
don't pretend it was a right-wing
25:39
phenomenon it wasn't now now let me let
25:46
me continue because it is segues right
25:48
into where I was before and that is I
25:50
was talking about a scene in my movie a
25:51
very a scene that I think if you didn't
25:53
know my work you would find kind of
25:55
bewildering and that is you have a group
25:58
of Nazis the top Nazis in 1935 who are
26:02
making the Nuremberg Laws which make
26:04
Jews into second-class citizens they
26:06
involved segregation of Jews into
26:08
ghettos outlawing intermarriage between
26:11
Jews and other Germans and confiscation
26:14
of Jewish property and these guys making
26:17
the Nuremberg Laws interestingly you see
26:19
them in the movie they have in their
26:21
hands the Democratic laws of the Jim
26:24
Crow South they have the American laws
26:27
made by the Democrats and they are
26:29
crossing out the word black and writing
26:31
in the word Jew I'm not saying that the
26:33
Nazis had similar laws to the Democrats
26:36
I'm saying they got it from the
26:37
Democrats they will indirectly influence
26:40
by the Democratic laws and they used
26:42
them as a model now you might ask Dinesh
26:47
[Applause]
26:53
the opposition retreats out of ideas no
26:57
problem
26:59
they can't argue this stuff it's because
27:03
they don't know anything but they have a
27:07
lot of heat and the combination of anger
27:10
and ignorance can only result in
27:14
outbursts of irritation or fleeing the
27:17
room in the intellect is suppressed by
27:20
this kind of unfortunate process and
27:22
it's the job of education to kind of
27:24
prevent it but unfortunately it's become
27:26
kind of widespread alright so now you
27:28
might say wait a minute
27:29
Dinesh you're showing a scene of Nazis
27:32
learning from Democrats and I have never
27:35
heard this in my life and I consider
27:36
myself an educated person and I've never
27:38
read a book about it and it's not in any
27:40
textbook in high school or in college
27:41
and I can see that's true so I asked the
27:45
question how is this possible where am I
27:47
getting it the answer is I'm getting it
27:49
from the whole body of historical
27:51
scholarship including the Yale legal
27:53
historian James Whitman and its recent
27:55
book Hitler's American model in which
27:58
Whitman has the transcripts of the
28:00
meeting and he lays it out chapter and
28:01
verse and he's familiar with my work and
28:03
he has never criticized me in public for
28:06
this here's the interesting thing with
28:07
Whitman he's a progressive he's on the
28:09
Left he doesn't want to put the blame on
28:12
the left even though he knows it belongs
28:14
there and so he hides this by switching
28:17
Democrat through American notice
28:20
Hitler's American model Hitler got it
28:22
from America but these were democratic
28:25
laws think about this this is the fact
28:27
that is left out of James Whitman's book
28:29
every segregation law in the American
28:32
South from the 1880s to the 1950s was
28:35
passed by a Democratic legislature
28:37
signed by a Democratic governor enforced
28:39
by Democratic officials and there is no
28:41
exception to this rule once you plug in
28:45
that fact you realize that Hitler's
28:47
American model should be retitled
28:49
Hitler's democratic model now I mention
28:55
all this by the way because this is not
28:56
just history the reason we're talking
28:59
about history is because if we look
29:00
around objectively today I think we
29:03
would have to admit that the fascist
29:05
streak that we see in American politics
29:09
and I admit it's there but it's
29:11
predominantly on the Left who are the
29:15
people suppressing speech they come from
29:17
the left who are the people who use the
29:20
weapons of the state against their
29:21
political opponents they're on the Left
29:23
I'll give you an example from my own
29:25
infamous case and somebody mentioned it
29:27
earlier I go before the Justice
29:31
Department this is the team ultimately
29:37
headed by Obama of course but Eric
29:39
Holder and in New York City Preet
29:41
Bharara this fellow Indian guy of mine a
29:45
fellow of a very recognizable Indian
29:47
type if he watched the movie Slumdog
29:48
Millionaire he's he's he is one of the
29:51
ringleaders in that movie a waterboy
29:54
someone is willing to carry do work for
29:57
the bad guys and so they sit me down
29:59
they go Dinesh did you exceed the
30:01
campaign finance laws and I go well I
30:03
actually did I was trying to help a
30:04
friend of mine a Dartmouth friend of
30:06
mine I've known for 25 years I didn't
30:08
mean to do it but I did it and so I'll
30:10
take whatever penalty other people get
30:12
for doing the same thing and the US
30:14
government says to me no that's not our
30:17
idea at all we're gonna get you for bank
30:19
fraud and I go bank fraud they go yeah
30:22
cuz you you took your money out of the
30:24
bank and then I go wow and then they go
30:28
we're gonna get you for mail fraud I go
30:30
mail fraud they go yeah cuz you put your
30:32
check in the mail and it then occurred
30:35
to me that what was going on was that
30:37
the US government was using this
30:41
accordion of federal statutes to read
30:43
ascribe my offense in six different ways
30:45
attach a charge to each one and use laws
30:47
that were designed to get rid of Al
30:50
Capone and the Mafia and Isis laws of
30:53
surveillance laws of intimidation if you
30:56
can't get Capone on murder let's get him
30:58
on this technicality they were using
30:59
this against US citizens to go after
31:01
their political opponents and if that's
31:04
not fascism I don't know what is and I
31:07
saw it firsthand now
31:11
racism a very good question to ask is
31:14
where is the racism today where is the
31:17
racism today if the parties did not
31:19
switch sides as they manifestly did not
31:22
the proof of this by the way is you
31:25
simply I mean this is the beauty of
31:26
living today we all have a phone and the
31:30
left let's just take the Princeton
31:31
historian Kevin Cruz the racist
31:34
Dixiecrats all became Republicans
31:37
because of Richard Nixon's tricky
31:39
strategy tricky dick and all that all
31:43
right for our proof we make a list of
31:45
all the racist Dixiecrats and there they
31:47
are about 200 of them these are the
31:49
people who join the Dixiecrat party or
31:51
they voted against the Civil Rights Act
31:53
of 1964 and now we ask how many became
31:56
Republicans let's count and the correct
31:58
answer is to one in the house Albert
32:02
Watson one in the Senate Strom Thurmond
32:04
and all the other racist dixiecrats
32:07
lived and died and a lionized to this
32:09
day in the Democratic Party and there
32:11
are buildings right here in Washington
32:12
DC named after them so this notion that
32:15
the racist dicks de Grasse became
32:16
Republicans is an empirical falsehood
32:18
and a flat lie now where is the racism
32:24
today if people say to me are you
32:25
actually saying the Democratic Party is
32:27
the same as it was in 1830 no I'm not
32:29
saying that but I am saying that the
32:32
progressive left has faked the evidence
32:35
of racism and tried to pin the racist
32:38
tail on the Republican elephant by
32:41
claiming that the neo-nazis and the Ku
32:44
Klux Klan and the white nationalists are
32:46
all Trump supporters well what is the
32:51
proof for this remarkable statement has
32:54
anyone actually done a survey a poll
32:58
account provided any empirical data
33:02
whatsoever to situate the show I'm happy
33:05
to listen to everyone answer me this I
33:08
I like that kind of slaughterhouse
33:09
aspect of the Q&A; so say save it for
33:12
them but what I'm getting at here is
33:14
that there is no such empirical evidence
33:16
in existence the only proof for white
33:20
supremacists being Trump stars is the
33:21
images of charlottesville of white
33:24
nationalists wearing Trump hats and
33:26
since I smelled a rat I've actually done
33:29
an investigation of the leading white
33:30
nationalists - mmm and - a woman and if
33:34
you read my book you will see that every
33:36
single one of them has a deep history in
33:38
the left Jason Kessler the organizer of
33:41
both Charlottesville rallies longtime
33:43
Obama activist Occupy Wall Street guy
33:46
that's a fact and it's a fact known to
33:48
the media at the time but suppressed
33:50
number two the editor of the neo-nazi
33:53
website Andrew Anglin is a leftist and
33:55
environmentalist hates white people is
33:57
open about it that's a fact and ended in
34:00
the movie if you watch my movie I bring
34:02
in Richard Spencer the poster boy of
34:04
white supremacy and what ensues is an
34:06
eye-opening interview in which I ask him
34:08
simple questions that make it blindingly
34:11
obvious than he is on the far left who's
34:15
his favorite president they're all
34:17
Democrats what does he think of Reagan
34:18
he hates him what does he think of
34:20
national healthcare great idea
34:21
does he think our rights come from God
34:23
no where'd they come from they come from
34:25
the state and on and on it goes and so
34:27
you're viewing this and it suddenly
34:29
dawns on you that you have been
34:30
subjected to the fakest of fake news a
34:33
massive public relations con that
34:37
presents the white nationalist as
34:38
right-wing when to a man and out of
34:41
their own mouths they are all left-wing
34:44
now if they're not the racists what
34:49
usually when someone says the racism is
34:51
over there and they're trying to hide
34:53
something what they really mean is don't
34:55
look over here one of the things I want
34:58
to suggest I'll leave you with this and
34:59
open the door to questions is that the
35:02
Democratic Party has always been the
35:03
party of the plantation the plantation
35:06
defines the Democratic Party it always
35:08
has by the way the plantation does not
35:10
define the founding there were
35:12
plantations at the time of the founding
35:13
but not so many it was Eli Whitney's
35:18
invention of the cotton gin
35:20
that produced the mass that was in 1793
35:22
by the way that produced the massive
35:24
expansion of the cotton plantations the
35:26
cotton industry began to spread in the
35:28
American South in the nineteenth century
35:30
and the political party the Democratic
35:32
Party arose to defend advocate and
35:35
protect the plantation in the north and
35:37
the south now where is the plantation
35:40
today if you read the historian Kenneth
35:43
stampp in his book the peculiar
35:45
institution he says that the plantation
35:48
the old slave plantation was
35:49
characterized by five features there
35:52
lappa dated housing slave quarters
35:54
broken families his slavery was nowhere
35:57
legal in any slave State for the slaves
35:59
third no advancement no one gets ahead
36:02
for there's a high degree of violence to
36:05
hold the place together because slavery
36:07
of course is based on force and fifth a
36:10
pervasive atmosphere of nihilism and
36:13
despair and what I suggest that is that
36:17
today we find those exact same five
36:20
features in the black ghettos in the
36:24
Latino Barrios on the Native American
36:27
reservations we find them not just in
36:29
Oakland and Detroit and st. Louis we
36:31
find them in the Latino Barrios of South
36:34
Texas and LA we find them in the Pine
36:36
Ridge Reservation which I visited in
36:38
South Dakota and as you walk around and
36:41
you look around you see all the
36:43
essential features of the old slave
36:45
plantation and there they are
36:47
and it's one-party rule and the
36:49
Democrats have control these places for
36:51
decades and they never seem to change no
36:53
matter how much money is spent on them
36:54
there's dependency there's servitude
36:57
there's nihilism and that's those are
37:00
all features that were there
37:01
historically but it's the same party
37:03
that's doing it so I leave you with the
37:07
thought that a lot of what we call
37:10
history is in fact progressive history
37:13
we should not be so naive as young
37:16
scholars to think that history doesn't
37:18
come from a bias from a point of view I
37:21
have a point of view I'm an immigrant
37:23
and when I come to America I bring an
37:24
immigrant point of view in fact to be
37:27
honest with you a lot of progressive
37:28
history strikes me as uninteresting
37:30
because those are not to me
37:32
important questions to ask at all I'm
37:34
not interested in finding out whether or
37:36
not people are oppressed in American
37:37
society I see that all over the world
37:39
what I'm interested in is how does a
37:41
society take board people and make them
37:43
rich how does a society begin is one of
37:46
the poorest countries in the world as
37:48
America was in 1800 and become by 1900
37:51
the richest society in the world who
37:53
made that happen who thought of that
37:54
idea that's not in the history books
37:57
no one even discusses it fake history
38:00
and so I want to leave you with the idea
38:03
that we need to have a debate about
38:04
history figure out if I'm right or if
38:07
what you see on the History Channel is
38:09
right yeah if you type in fascism in
38:12
Wikipedia it's gonna say that fascism is
38:14
on the right why because the idiots are
38:16
all bad have been reading the same
38:18
history books that I'm criticizing so
38:21
that's what they're getting it you can't
38:22
take that as confirmation of the truth
38:25
because they're just lifting it from the
38:26
same source ultimately it's about debate
38:30
but debate can only occur in an
38:32
atmosphere of freedom my only objection
38:36
of the students who were yelling and
38:38
screaming a moment ago is they don't
38:39
like the atmosphere of intellectual
38:41
exchange it's threatening to them they
38:45
ultimately feel that they have a certain
38:46
moral right to Trump dissidents who
38:51
don't agree with them but who are
38:52
perfectly willing to hear them out as
38:54
they are not willing to hear me out and
38:56
I want to leave you with the thought
38:58
that you should be very intolerant of
39:01
that kind of intolerance
39:02
don't be suckers for it just says you
39:06
shouldn't be suckers for received wisdom
39:07
if you doubt anything I said today check
39:10
it out
39:11
look it up for yourself at the end of
39:15
the day it seems to me America as a
39:17
country Lincoln called it the last best
39:24
hope on earth and there's got to be
39:26
something very uniquely powerful about
39:28
it and powerfully good about it because
39:31
it remains today the same magnet for
39:33
immigrants that it was in Lincoln's day
39:35
whether we want that we can debate it
39:37
legal or illegal in of the bottom line
39:39
of it is lots of people want to come
39:40
here and this is in fact the clue that
39:44
tipped me
39:44
off to the idea that the multicultural
39:46
mantra that all cultures are equal and
39:49
no culture is better or worse superior
39:51
or inferior to any other which I heard a
39:53
Dartmouth a generation ago right away I
39:56
knew it was a lie because I thought to
39:57
myself if all cultures are equal
40:00
everybody would stay home why would you
40:03
get up and leave your family and your
40:06
friends and the whole world that you
40:07
know what I'm talking about refugees
40:09
we're talking about people who
40:10
voluntarily move from one culture to
40:12
another the only reason to do that is
40:14
because you have decisively voted with
40:16
your feet in the most powerful way
40:18
possible that this new society is better
40:20
than the one you came from and that's
40:23
why you're willing to bet your life
40:24
which is all that you have on that
40:26
decision that is ultimately the whiff of
40:30
freedom the whiff of freedom backed up
40:33
with knowledge that's what it ultimately
40:36
does to make us here in the university
40:40
context Americans and I urge you to
40:43
follow that path even though it requires
40:46
a certain element of bravery to do that
40:48
thank you very much
40:50
[Applause]


Is there today a more talented, reasoned, and well grounded debater than Dinesh D'Souza? On a level with William F. Buckley Jr, Daniel Webster, and Winston Churchill?  Every D'Souza video I watch leaves me pumped and weak from adrenaline rush.  So, when I say that this Nov. 7th 2018 appearance at American University is terrific, even by those standards ... . YES! You have to watch it. If for no other reason than to catalog the history for later use.

When a group of Snowflakes stand, chanting in unison during his monologue, D'Souza does not miss a beat.  He takes on the silly girl spokesthing with aplomb.  They walk out to cheers from the audience,  This, folks, is a 40 minute American history lesson like they will never encounter (sadly) again. 


1 comment:

Skoonj said...

This week Dinesh D'Souza's new film, Death of a Nation, arrived. He does excellent work.

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