Do black lives really matter? Glenn reads the stunning list of black people murdered in Chicago being ignored by activists and protesters

December 04, 2014

The Glenn Beck Program

On the O’Reilly Factor last night, guest Tavis Smiley claimed “there is no respect for black life in this country,” in a rant against the grand jury decision in New York this week.

Glenn isn’t necessarily a fan of the decision, but he’s even less a fan of the narrative.

Are white cops the biggest threat to black people today?

The statistics and tragically long list of names of black people murdered in Chicago within the last few months tell a different story.

GLENN: All right. Black lives matter. He says, there's no respect. No one is paying attention and black lives matter. Let me give you a few names.

Rayvon Little, twenty years old. Chicago. Dead.

Andre Johnson, Jr., black, 29 years old, Chicago, dead.

Andrew Brown, 46, South Shore, Chicago, dead.

Doug Chambliss, black, 33, Chicago, dead.

Darrell Tolbert, 36, black, shot to death.

Gregory McKinney, black, shot to death.

Joseph Lewis, Chicago, black, shot to death.

Deon Gilbert, Jr., black, South Deering, Chicago, shot to death. By the way, he was 15.

Donnell Coakley, black, assault. Donnell was three.

Kyle Robertson, 23, black, Chicago, shot to death.

Lydell Lynch, black, 22, Grand Crossing, Chicago, shot to death.

Johnathan Cartwright, black, 18, shot to death.

Aaron Stalling, black, near west side Chicago, shot to death.

Remember, black lives matter.

Anthony Jackson, 22, Chicago, black, shot to death.

Zoraida Feliciano, black, Humbolt Park, Chicago, 33, shot to death.

Da'Lon Mobley, black, West Chicago, 30, shot to death.

Kendall Warren, black, 24, Chicago, shot to death.

Nacurvie Smith, 27 years old, Old Town Chicago, black, shot to death.

Larry Thomas, 31, Englewood, Chicago, black shot to death.

Robert Leverett, black, Englewood, Chicago, shot to death.

Derick Coopwood, black, 21, shot to death.

Krystal Jackson, 25, black, shot to death.

Tyris Ferguson, black, 23, shot to death.

David Kennedy, 24, Chicago Hyde Park, black, shot to death.

Jeffrey Daniels, black, 24, shot to death.

Ladarius Edwards, 23, black, Chicago, shot to death.

Jahakel Clark, 16, black, Marquette Park, Chicago, shot to death.

By the way, that's -- that's those who were killed in the month of November. Would you like me to give you the names —

PAT: I didn't hear Tavis mention any of them.

GLENN: Would you like me to give you the names for September because black lives matter?

There is no respect for black life in America anymore. You're right. And there's a growing condition that we don't respect any life anymore. In fact, we celebrate people who say, life is just too hard. I'm going to take my own life. We celebrate — we pay for people to take the lives of their babies because it's just going to be too hard to raise that baby. I want to live my life.

Black lives don't matter? No life matters anymore. But if you want to talk about black life, let's talk about — let's talk about how many white people have killed black people? How many black people have killed white people?

STU: And this is not, you know, to say that black people are bad. What it does say, is that there's not an epidemic of white people killing black people. 448 — this is 2011 according to the FBI, 448 whites were killed by blacks.

Approximate 193 blacks were killed by whites. That is 2.3 times more whites killed by blacks than the other way around despite the fact that there's six times as many whites in this country.

GLENN: Can we find out how many blacks killed blacks?

STU: We can. 193 blacks were killed by whites. 2,447 blacks were killed by blacks. 2,447 to 193.

GLENN: Give me again how many whites kill blacks and how many blacks kill blacks. How many whites killed blacks?

STU: 193.

GLENN: 193. Black people were killed by white people. 193 black people were killed by white people.

How many black people killed black people?

STU: 2,447.

GLENN: Is there an epidemic in America? Yeah, there's an epidemic in America, isn't there?

Nigell Vazquez. Twenty-two, black, Chicago. Shot to death.

Edward Davis, 23, black, Chicago, shot to death.

Martell Robinson, 20, shot to death.

In case you're keeping track at home. This is a whole new group of people.

Shaquille Holmes, 19 years old, black shot to death.

Decari Spivey, black, shot to death at 21.

54-year-old. He made it to 54. Malcolm Warnsby, 54.

Terry cook, 32 black shot to death.

Michael Wright, black 21, shot to death.

Michael Bloodson, 17, black, Chicago, shot to death.

Charles Labon, 28, black shot to death.

Tamica Riley, 37, black. Suffocation.

Christopher McGee, black, shot to death.

Kawantis Montgomery 19, black shot to death.

Devonshay Lofton, 17, black shot to death.

Kamaal Burton. 18, black, shot to death.

Dimitre Beck, 21, black stabbed to death.

Leon Austin, black stabbed to death.

Markise M. Darling, 19, shot to death.

Cortez river, black 16, shot to death.

Davontae Harrison, 21. Black shot to death.

Mondele Heard. 20 shot to death.

Arthur Hearn, 88, died from assault. Chicago.

Deandre Ellis black shot to death.

Malachi Baldwin, 27, black shot to death.

Leroyce Noel, 20 shot to death.

Stanley Macon Jr., 25, shot to death.

Camerion Blair, 16, shot to death.

Shandel Adams, 25, black shot to death.

Demureya Macon, 13, Chicago, shot to death.

PAT: What was that?

GLENN: That was September.

You want to talk about an epidemic? You want to talk about black lives not mattering?

Stu, how many white people killed black people last year?

STU: 2011, 448 whites were killed by blacks. 193 blacks were killed by whites.

GLENN: How many blacks killed blacks?

STU: 2,447.

GLENN: Those are the numbers.

America, I know that we're suffering from Common Core math, but those numbers — when you have to use a little arrow sign which is bigger — which is a greater number than the other, it's pretty damn clear even when you're using Common Core math.

STU: 91 percent of black people were killed by black people in this particular year. 91 percent.

GLENN: What do you say we actually talk about reconciliation? What do you say we stop listening to the clerics like Al Sharpton. The people who are just using their religion for their own power. What do you say we stop listening to the communists, the anarchists, or anybody else, that has an agenda other than saying all life matters. Why does black life only matter? Why does old life or 20-something or children's lives or American lives.

What do you say all lives matter, and we try to fix that. To do that, however, we'll have to start asking each other really honest questions: What the hell is going on in the inner cities. Where's Al Sharpton there inspect anybody who is honest would be there every weekend. Don't talk to me about — don't talk to me about something we agree on. The grand jury appears to be wrong in New York. Let's figure that one out and let's do that one together.

Continuation of the names:

GLENN: Just looking at the names of people that have -- the names of the people -- black lives matter, the names of the people killed on the streets of Chicago, just in the last couple of months.

James Watson, 61 years old, black, shot.

It amazes me how many people were shot in a town where guns are illegal.

Raymond Murray, 25, black, shot, South Shore, Chicago.

STU: Devin Pope, age 23, race: black, South Shore of Chicago. August.

GLENN: Tony MacIntosh, 20, black, shot, Chicago.

PAT: Denero Appleton, thirty-one, black shot, South Deering, Chicago.

Donald Williams, seventeen, black, shot, Austin neighborhood of Chicago.

GLENN: Hezekiah Harper-Bey, 20, black, shot, West Garfield Park, Chicago.

STU: Brian Davis, age 33, black, shooting, West Garfield Park, Chicago.

Jerome Harris, 17 years, black, shot, Morgan Park, Chicago.

GLENN: Unknown 21-year-old, black, shot, Gage Park, Chicago.

PAT: Erik Kall, 27, black, shot, Chicago lawn.

Darrien Jordan, 21 years old, black, shot. North Lawndale, Chicago.

GLENN: Remember, black lives matter.

JEFFY: Lafayette Walton, 16 years old, West Humboldt, Chicago.

Dakari Pargo, 19 years old, shot, West Englewood.

GLENN: Black lives matter.

STU: Martrell Ross, thirty-two years old, black, shot, River North.

Gabriel Stevens, 39 years old, black, shot, Auburn Gresham.

GLENN: Torrente G. Pickens, black, 37, shot, Chicago.

PAT: Ronald Holliman, 18 years old, black, shot, South Austin, Chicago.

Derrick Bowens, 27 years old, black, shot, Englewood, Chicago.

GLENN: Jackie Roberson. 22. Black. Shot. Chicago.

Billy Washington. 37. Black, shot, Chicago.

Larry Lee, 52, black, shot, Chicago.

Damani Chenier, 23, black, stabbed to death, Chicago.

Do black lives matter? Al Sharpton, do black lives matter? Mr. President, do black lives matter? Why are we marching in the streets? Black lives matter. Right?

Raddy Comer, 20, black, shot, Chicago.

Eddie Taylor, 22, black, shot, Chicago.

STU: Vincente Obregon, twenty-one years, black, shot, Marquette Park.

Darryl Allison, twenty-six, black, shot, Chicago.

Kashif Tillis, 29, black, shot, Chicago.

PAT: Alante Vallejo, 18 years old, black, shot, Rogers Park, Chicago.

Carnesha Fort, 22 years old, black, Chicago.

Brian Weekly, 18 years old, black, shot, Washington Park, Chicago.

Kennyone Pendleton, black, shot, Chicago.

GLENN: Black lives matter. Al Sharpton, Jesse Jackson, the media, anarchists, communists, Mr. President, black lives matter.

JEFFY: Jimero Starling, 19 years old, shot, Humboldt.

ShAmbreyh Barfield, 21 years old, black, shot, West Garfield Park.

STU: Jeremiah Shaw, 19, black, shot, Chicago.

Jabari Scurlock, 16 years, black, shot, Chicago.

Arnold Dearies is 26. Black, shot, Chicago.

GLENN: Alexander Smith, 25, black, shot, Chicago.

Rodney Wilson, 30, black, stabbed to death, Chicago.

Genorel Martin, black, shot to death, Chicago.

Travis Wright, 21, black, shot, Chicago.

PAT: Laquisha Hickman, 35, black, shot, Ashburn, Chicago.

Nykole Loving, 23 years old, black, Ashburn, Chicago.

Paris Brown, 21, black, shot, Grand Crossing, Chicago.

STU: Devonte Carthan, 17 years old, black, shot, Chicago.

Julio Perkins, 30 years old, black, shot, Chicago.

LaDarryl Walters, 23 years old, black, shot, Chicago.

GLENN: By the way, these are a four-month period. I'm only about halfway through my list.

Reginald Boston, forty-four, black, stabbed to death.

Stanley Bobo, 18, shot, Chicago.

Tepete Davis, black, 42, shot to death, Chicago.

Charles Wright, 39, shot to death, black, back of the yards, Chicago.

Denzell Franklin, 23, black, shot to death, Chicago.

Mr. President, black lives matter. If that's true. Let's stop the hype. Let's stop the propaganda and let's go where people are being shot to death.

PAT: Where there is really an epidemic.

JEFFY: Corey Hudson, 34 years old, black shot, West Englewood.

Robert Cotton, 35 years old, black, shot, West Englewood.

PAT: Brett Ewing, 26 years old, shooting, black.

Damian Williams, 22 years old, black, died of a shooting in Austin, part of Chicago.

Dewey Knox, 27, black, shot to death, Chicago.

Brandon Peterson, 17, died of shooting, black, East Garfield Park, Chicago.

GLENN: David Morgan, 36, black, part of Chicago, shot to death.

Marc Williams, 17, black, shot to death, South Chicago.

Bobby Moore, 25, black, South Chicago.

Darryl Owens Jr., black, 34, shot to death, Chatham.

STU: Walter Neely, shot, 25 years old, black, Chicago.

Shaquise Butler, 16 years old, black, shot, Chicago.

Amy Holmes-Sterling, 29 years old, black, shot, Chicago.

Karveon Glover, 16 years old, black, shot, Chicago.

PAT: Louis Winn, age 22, black, died of a stabbing in Washington Heights, Chicago.

Daniel Jones, 26 years old, black, shot, West Garfield Park, Chicago.

Damarcus Boswell, 18, black, Marquette Park, Chicago.

JEFFY: Shaquille Ross, 18 years old, black, shot, West Englewood, Chicago.

Donald Ray, 21 years old, black, shot, South Austin, Chicago.

Kezon Lamb, 20 years old, Chicago, shot.

GLENN: Oduro Yeboah, 22, black, shot, Uptown.

Owen Spears, 22, black, Humboldt Park, Chicago, shot to death.

Pierre Peters, 41, black, shot to death, South Austin, Chicago.

STU: Joel Wade, black, 20 years old, shot, Chicago.

Seadl Commings, 27 years old, black, shot, Chicago.

Dorval Jenkins, 19 years old, black, shot, Chicago.

PAT: 15-year-old Dekarlos Scott, black, Rosslyn Park, Chicago.

GLENN: Mr. President, may I ask a question, could any of these young men have been your son? Any of — any of these young men? Did they look like they could be your son?

Al Sharpton, is there any injustice happening here? Is there any epidemic going on here? Where are you, Al Sharpton? Why aren't you -- why aren't you encouraging people to burn down the convenience stores in Chicago? Why aren't people protesting in the streets of Chicago and turning over cars — not police cars, because this is mainly black-on-black crime in Chicago. No cops involved here. These are just kids killing kids with illegal guns.

You want to talk about oppression, you want to talk about slavery, slavery exists. It exists in the inner city where you're a slave to crime. You can't get your kids out because of the crime. You worry about your kids as they go out. Don't get shot in the front lawn. You don't even have to be doing anything wrong. Three years old, shot to death, front lawn. 14-year-old shot from inside the house even though the fighting was happening outside the house.

Where is the justice? Where is the peace? Where are the marches? Where are the civil rights activists? Where are people saying take control of your own damn life? Where is the president on this one? Why are we lumping people together and saying that — as Tavis Smiley did on Bill O'Reilly, giving five names and lumping the real, what appears to me, to be injustice in New York.

That is injustice.

Grim warning: Bad-faith Israel critics duck REAL questions

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Bad-faith attacks on Israel and AIPAC warp every debate. Real answers emerge only when people set aside scripts and ask what serves America’s long-term interests.

The search for truth has always required something very much in short supply these days: honesty. Not performative questions, not scripted outrage, not whatever happens to be trending on TikTok, but real curiosity.

Some issues, often focused on foreign aid, AIPAC, or Israel, have become hotbeds of debate and disagreement. Before we jump into those debates, however, we must return to a simpler, more important issue: honest questioning. Without it, nothing in these debates matters.

Ask questions because you want the truth, not because you want a target.

The phrase “just asking questions” has re-entered the zeitgeist, and that’s fine. We should always question power. But too many of those questions feel preloaded with someone else’s answer. If the goal is truth, then the questions should come from a sincere desire to understand, not from a hunt for a villain.

Honest desire for truth is the only foundation that can support a real conversation about these issues.

Truth-seeking is real work

Right now, plenty of people are not seeking the truth at all. They are repeating something they heard from a politician on cable news or from a stranger on TikTok who has never opened a history book. That is not a search for answers. That is simply outsourcing your own thought.

If you want the truth, you need to work for it. You cannot treat the world like a Marvel movie where the good guy appears in a cape and the villain hisses on command. Real life does not give you a neat script with the moral wrapped up in two hours.

But that is how people are approaching politics now. They want the oppressed and the oppressor, the heroic underdog and the cartoon villain. They embrace this fantastical framing because it is easier than wrestling with reality.

This framing took root in the 1960s when the left rebuilt its worldview around colonizers and the colonized. Overnight, Zionism was recast as imperialism. Suddenly, every conflict had to fit the same script. Today’s young activists are just recycling the same narrative with updated graphics. Everything becomes a morality play. No nuance, no context, just the comforting clarity of heroes and villains.

Bad-faith questions

This same mindset is fueling the sudden obsession with Israel, and the American Israel Public Affairs Committee in particular. You hear it from members of Congress and activists alike: AIPAC pulls the strings, AIPAC controls the government, AIPAC should register as a foreign agent under the Foreign Agents Registration Act. The questions are dramatic, but are they being asked in good faith?

FARA is clear. The standard is whether an individual or group acts under the direction or control of a foreign government. AIPAC simply does not qualify.

Here is a detail conveniently left out of these arguments: Dozens of domestic organizations — Armenian, Cuban, Irish, Turkish — lobby Congress on behalf of other countries. None of them registers under FARA because — like AIPAC — they are independent, domestic organizations.

If someone has a sincere problem with the structure of foreign lobbying, fair enough. Let us have that conversation. But singling out AIPAC alone is not a search for truth. It is bias dressed up as bravery.

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If someone wants to question foreign aid to Israel, fine. Let’s have that debate. But let’s ask the right questions. The issue is not the size of the package but whether the aid advances our interests. What does the United States gain? Does the investment strengthen our position in the region? How does it compare to what we give other nations? And do we examine those countries with the same intensity?

The real target

These questions reflect good-faith scrutiny. But narrowing the entire argument to one country or one dollar amount misses the larger problem. If someone objects to the way America handles foreign aid, the target is not Israel. The target is the system itself — an entrenched bureaucracy, poor transparency, and decades-old commitments that have never been re-examined. Those problems run through programs around the world.

If you want answers, you need to broaden the lens. You have to be willing to put aside the movie script and confront reality. You have to hold yourself to a simple rule: Ask questions because you want the truth, not because you want a target.

That is the only way this country ever gets clarity on foreign aid, influence, alliances, and our place in the world. Questioning is not just allowed. It is essential. But only if it is honest.

This article originally appeared on TheBlaze.com.

The melting pot fails when we stop agreeing to melt

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Texas now hosts Quran-first academies, Sharia-compliant housing schemes, and rapidly multiplying mosques — all part of a movement building a self-contained society apart from the country around it.

It is time to talk honestly about what is happening inside America’s rapidly growing Muslim communities. In city after city, large pockets of newcomers are choosing to build insulated enclaves rather than enter the broader American culture.

That trend is accelerating, and the longer we ignore it, the harder it becomes to address.

As Texas goes, so goes America. And as America goes, so goes the free world.

America has always welcomed people of every faith and people from every corner of the world, but the deal has never changed: You come here and you join the American family. You are free to honor your traditions, keep your faith, but you must embrace the Constitution as the supreme law of the land. You melt into the shared culture that allows all of us to live side by side.

Across the country, this bargain is being rejected by Islamist communities that insist on building a parallel society with its own rules, its own boundaries, and its own vision for how life should be lived.

Texas illustrates the trend. The state now has roughly 330 mosques. At least 48 of them were built in just the last 24 months. The Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex alone has around 200 Islamic centers. Houston has another hundred or so. Many of these communities have no interest in blending into American life.

This is not the same as past waves of immigration. Irish, Italian, Korean, Mexican, and every other group arrived with pride in their heritage. Still, they also raised American flags and wanted their children to be part of the country’s future. They became doctors, small-business owners, teachers, and soldiers. They wanted to be Americans.

What we are watching now is not the melting pot. It is isolation by design.

Parallel societies do not end well

More than 300 fundamentalist Islamic schools now operate full-time across the country. Many use Quran-first curricula that require students to spend hours memorizing religious texts before they ever reach math or science. In Dallas, Brighter Horizons Academy enrolls more than 1,700 students and draws federal support while operating on a social model that keeps children culturally isolated.

Then there is the Epic City project in Collin and Hunt counties — 402 acres originally designated only for Muslim buyers, with Sharia-compliant financing and a mega-mosque at the center. After public outcry and state investigations, the developers renamed it “The Meadows,” but a new sign does not erase the original intent. It is not a neighborhood. It is a parallel society.

Americans should not hesitate to say that parallel societies are dangerous. Europe tried this experiment, and the results could not be clearer. In Germany, France, and the United Kingdom, entire neighborhoods now operate under their own cultural rules, some openly hostile to Western norms. When citizens speak up, they are branded bigots for asserting a basic right: the ability to live safely in their own communities.

A crisis of confidence

While this separation widens, another crisis is unfolding at home. A recent Gallup survey shows that about 40% of American women ages 18 to 39 would leave the country permanently if given the chance. Nearly half of a rising generation — daughters, sisters, soon-to-be mothers — no longer believe this nation is worth building a future in.

And who shapes the worldview of young boys? Their mothers. If a mother no longer believes America is home, why would her child grow up ready to defend it?

As Texas goes, so goes America. And as America goes, so goes the free world. If we lose confidence in our own national identity at the same time that we allow separatist enclaves to spread unchecked, the outcome is predictable. Europe is already showing us what comes next: cultural fracture, political radicalization, and the slow death of national unity.

Brandon Bell / Staff | Getty Images

Stand up and tell the truth

America welcomes Muslims. America defends their right to worship freely. A Muslim who loves the Constitution, respects the rule of law, and wants to raise a family in peace is more than welcome in America.

But an Islamist movement that rejects assimilation, builds enclaves governed by its own religious framework, and treats American law as optional is not simply another participant in our melting pot. It is a direct challenge to it. If we refuse to call this problem out out of fear of being called names, we will bear the consequences.

Europe is already feeling those consequences — rising conflict and a political class too paralyzed to admit the obvious. When people feel their culture, safety, and freedoms slipping away, they will follow anyone who promises to defend them. History has shown that over and over again.

Stand up. Speak plainly. Be unafraid. You can practice any faith in this country, but the supremacy of the Constitution and the Judeo-Christian moral framework that shaped it is non-negotiable. It is what guarantees your freedom in the first place.

If you come here and honor that foundation, welcome. If you come here to undermine it, you do not belong here.

Wake up to what is unfolding before the consequences arrive. Because when a nation refuses to say what is true, the truth eventually forces its way in — and by then, it is always too late.

This article originally appeared on TheBlaze.com.

Shocking: Chart-topping ‘singer’ has no soul at all

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A machine can imitate heartbreak well enough to top the charts, but it cannot carry grief, choose courage, or hear the whisper that calls human beings to something higher.

The No. 1 country song in America right now was not written in Nashville or Texas or even L.A. It came from code. “Walk My Walk,” the AI-generated single by the AI artist Breaking Rust, hit the top spot on Billboard’s Country Digital Song Sales chart, and if you listen to it without knowing that fact, you would swear a real singer lived the pain he is describing.

Except there is no “he.” There is no lived experience. There is no soul behind the voice dominating the country music charts.

If a machine can imitate the soul, then what is the soul?

I will admit it: I enjoy some AI music. Some of it is very good. And that leaves us with a question that is no longer science fiction. If a machine can fake being human this well, what does it mean to be human?

A new world of artificial experience

This is not just about one song. We are walking straight into a technological moment that will reshape everyday life.

Elon Musk said recently that we may not even have phones in five years. Instead, we will carry a small device that listens, anticipates, and creates — a personal AI agent that knows what we want to hear before we ask. It will make the music, the news, the podcasts, the stories. We already live in digital bubbles. Soon, those bubbles might become our own private worlds.

If an algorithm can write a hit country song about hardship and perseverance without a shred of actual experience, then the deeper question becomes unavoidable: If a machine can imitate the soul, then what is the soul?

What machines can never do

A machine can produce, and soon it may produce better than we can. It can calculate faster than any human mind. It can rearrange the notes and words of a thousand human songs into something that sounds real enough to fool millions.

But it cannot care. It cannot love. It cannot choose right and wrong. It cannot forgive because it cannot be hurt. It cannot stand between a child and danger. It cannot walk through sorrow.

A machine can imitate the sound of suffering. It cannot suffer.

The difference is the soul. The divine spark. The thing God breathed into man that no code will ever have. Only humans can take pain and let it grow into compassion. Only humans can take fear and turn it into courage. Only humans can rebuild their lives after losing everything. Only humans hear the whisper inside, the divine voice that says, “Live for something greater.”

We are building artificial minds. We are not building artificial life.

Questions that define us

And as these artificial minds grow sharper, as their tools become more convincing, the right response is not panic. It is to ask the oldest and most important questions.

Who am I? Why am I here? What is the meaning of freedom? What is worth defending? What is worth sacrificing for?

That answer is not found in a lab or a server rack. It is found in that mysterious place inside each of us where reason meets faith, where suffering becomes wisdom, where God reminds us we are more than flesh and more than thought. We are not accidents. We are not circuits. We are not replaceable.

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The miracle machines can never copy

Being human is not about what we can produce. Machines will outproduce us. That is not the question. Being human is about what we can choose. We can choose to love even when it costs us something. We can choose to sacrifice when it is not easy. We can choose to tell the truth when the world rewards lies. We can choose to stand when everyone else bows. We can create because something inside us will not rest until we do.

An AI content generator can borrow our melodies, echo our stories, and dress itself up like a human soul, but it cannot carry grief across a lifetime. It cannot forgive an enemy. It cannot experience wonder. It cannot look at a broken world and say, “I am going to build again.”

The age of machines is rising. And if we do not know who we are, we will shrink. But if we use this moment to remember what makes us human, it will help us to become better, because the one thing no algorithm will ever recreate is the miracle that we exist at all — the miracle of the human soul.

This article originally appeared on TheBlaze.com.

Is Socialism seducing a lost generation?

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A generation that’s lost faith in capitalism is turning to the oldest lie on earth: equality through control.

Something is breaking in America’s young people. You can feel it in every headline, every grocery bill, every young voice quietly asking if the American dream still means anything at all.

For many, the promise of America — work hard, build something that lasts, and give the next generation a better start — feels like it no longer exists. Home ownership and stability have become luxuries for a fortunate few.

Capitalism is not a perfect system. It is flawed because people are flawed, but it remains the only system that rewards creativity and effort rather than punishing them.

In that vacuum of hope, a new promise has begun to rise — one that sounds compassionate, equal, and fair. The promise of socialism.

The appeal of a broken dream

When the American dream becomes a checklist of things few can afford — a home, a car, two children, even a little peace — disappointment quickly turns to resentment. The average first-time homebuyer is now 40 years old. Debt lasts longer than marriages. The cost of living rises faster than opportunity.

For a generation that has never seen the system truly work, capitalism feels like a rigged game built to protect those already at the top.

That is where socialism finds its audience. It presents itself as fairness for the forgotten and justice for the disillusioned. It speaks softly at first, offering equality, compassion, and control disguised as care.

We are seeing that illusion play out now in New York City, where Zohran Mamdani — an open socialist — has won a major political victory. The same ideology that once hid behind euphemisms now campaigns openly throughout America’s once-great cities. And for many who feel left behind, it sounds like salvation.

But what socialism calls fairness is submission dressed as virtue. What it calls order is obedience. Once the system begins to replace personal responsibility with collective dependence, the erosion of liberty is only a matter of time.

The bridge that never ends

Socialism is not a destination; it is a bridge. Karl Marx described it as the necessary transition to communism — the scaffolding that builds the total state. Under socialism, people are taught to obey. Under communism, they forget that any other options exist.

History tells the story clearly. Russia, China, Cambodia, Cuba — each promised equality and delivered misery. One hundred million lives were lost, not because socialism failed, but because it succeeded at what it was designed to do: make the state supreme and the individual expendable.

Today’s advocates insist their version will be different — democratic, modern, and kind. They often cite Sweden as an example, but Sweden’s prosperity was never born of socialism. It grew out of capitalism, self-reliance, and a shared moral culture. Now that system is cracking under the weight of bureaucracy and division.

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The real issue is not economic but moral. Socialism begins with a lie about human nature — that people exist for the collective and that the collective knows better than the individual.

This lie is contrary to the truths on which America was founded — that rights come not from government’s authority, but from God’s. Once government replaces that authority, compassion becomes control, and freedom becomes permission.

What young America deserves

Young Americans have many reasons to be frustrated. They were told to study, work hard, and follow the rules — and many did, only to find the goalposts moved again and again. But tearing down the entire house does not make it fairer; it only leaves everyone standing in the rubble.

Capitalism is not a perfect system. It is flawed because people are flawed, but it remains the only system that rewards creativity and effort rather than punishing them. The answer is not revolution but renewal — moral, cultural, and spiritual.

It means restoring honesty to markets, integrity to government, and faith to the heart of our nation. A people who forsake God will always turn to government for salvation, and that road always ends in dependency and decay.

Freedom demands something of us. It requires faith, discipline, and courage. It expects citizens to govern themselves before others govern them. That is the truth this generation deserves to hear again — that liberty is not a gift from the state but a calling from God.

Socialism always begins with promises and ends with permission. It tells you what to drive, what to say, what to believe, all in the name of fairness. But real fairness is not everyone sharing the same chains — it is everyone having the same chance.

The American dream was never about guarantees. It was about the right to try, to fail, and try again. That freedom built the most prosperous nation in history, and it can do so again if we remember that liberty is not a handout but a duty.

Socialism does not offer salvation. It requires subservience.

This article originally appeared on TheBlaze.com.

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