GLENNFebruary 17, 2017

Glenn and Riaz Patel Discuss Bridging the Divide to Find Common Ground

Glenn and Riaz Patel couldn't come from more different worlds. Yet, these strange bedfellows are modeling how people from different perspectives can still develops friendships and have conversations despite their differences.

"In general when I have conversations, I react to the way the question is asked. You know, I think so much of what people say is not being said, it's the way they're saying it," Patel said Friday on The Glenn Beck Program.

Riaz, who was recently unfriended by a longtime friend on Facebook, shared great advice on how to handle relationships in our current combative political climate: Don't judge people based solely on what's happening now.

"Examine today, and the friendships and the history of people start from the past, work your way forward," he advised.

GLENN: Riaz Patel, recovering Hollywood addict.

[Laughter]

STU: Don't insult the guy.

RIAZ: I'm used to it. I'm used to it.

GLENN: So, Riaz.

RIAZ: Yeah.

GLENN: Your friend and a deep friend, not a Facebook friend, unfriended you, hasn't talked to you, unfriended you, wrote a story that said, you know, he's friends with Glenn Beck, who is a racist, blah, blah, blah, didn't talk to you. Tell me how you are A going to approach this and how you would if she would have come to you.

RIAZ: I mean, I think in general when I have conversations, I react the way the question is asked. You know, I think so much what people say is not being said, it's the way they're saying it. If they're talking about the president, they're getting roweled up, that's what they're saying. They're getting angry. If she asked me, I would notice she's angry. And I'll be honest. I am very concerned for the black community right now. I am. I do think there are real fears.

GLENN: I do too. And they're afraid -- I believe -- talking to some Black Lives Matter people, they are also afraid of their own millennials.

RIAZ: Yeah.

GLENN: They're afraid that there is a shift of values that they don't understand.

RIAZ: It's everywhere. And, to me, look, with someone like that, I would go from the past forward. Forward is now the past. The press conference last night. That's the past 12 hours. 24 hours. I would go back to the eight years, ten years, 15 years ago we met and be, like, remember this photo? Let's start there. And then with he work our way forward. Now today, which is only one one hundredth of our relationship, what do you want to talk about? Because it's really about today and then we talk about tomorrow. But what you discuss today does not design who you are. But I believe some people who voted for Trump, what they feel every day is infused with eight years of expectation, disappointment, frustration. So they're hearing things with the hope of what they believed would happen.

GLENN: There's a really interesting thing that said yesterday on my TV show in the audience. A guy said -- we were talking about the press conference, and he said it feels so good to have him wipe the press, their nose in it because they deserve it.

There's a big feeling for those who are on the out of the last eight years. You have this empathy because you were picked on in school all the time.

RIAZ: Picked on always.

GLENN: Right. So for every -- from every angle.

RIAZ: Every angle.

GLENN: So you have this great empathy.

RIAZ: Yeah.

GLENN: So you can also understand the feeling of I've been squashed for eight years.

RIAZ: Yes.

GLENN: I want somebody --

RIAZ: Can I just have a small window where my president can be president? Is what I am saying. Can I just get a couple months? And I would say, I hear that empathetically I hear that. What is going on today disturbs me separate from what the expectations of all of that two years of campaigning was. Two years of campaigning is like going on the longest blind date and then you're finally in a relationship, and then you're starting to get to know each other. This is what he's like as a president. Do I like him? Evaluating him every day. Not from the two years of expectations and then the eight years of disappointment. Examine today and the friendships and the history of people start from the past, work your way forward.

GLENN: Back in a minute.

[break]

GLENN: Welcome to the program. We're glad you're here. Riaz Patel is with us who was a new friend of the program. Has it been a year yet?

RIAZ: It was July. Our one-year anniversary is coming up.

GLENN: I say paper this year, isn't it? Riaz is a amazing guy and a searcher, and I think that's what this show is and needs to be. It's what I am, and I think that's why we get along so well. We don't believe -- and, you know, I said to somebody yesterday.

One of the things that caused problems for me or the reason why I could cause some problems is I was in a way arrogant over the last eight years or so. And not the way I was guarding against, you know? I wasn't -- I wasn't in it for the fame or the money. So I wasn't that kind of arrogant. I just really, truly believed that I knew the way to make the point.

RIAZ: Uh-huh.

GLENN: And that if I would just make the point, and I could make it an entertaining way, that people would hear it, and they would pick it up, and they would make that point in their own way, but I could get them to listen.

RIAZ: Yeah.

GLENN: And that arrogance stopped me from seeing so many Americans that didn't speak my language.

RIAZ: Yeah.

GLENN: You know what I mean?

RIAZ: Yeah.

GLENN: And it is the drop of the arrogance. Not the principles. Not even some of the policies. It's the dropping of the arrogance and saying "Okay. There's half of the country that I don't see eye to eye with."

RIAZ: Yeah.

GLENN: And that I've demonized.

Question for you. If you and I were sitting down, and we were talking about policies, and we would have to reach out for policies with each other. You and I even if we would disagree, you and I would walk away saying, well, he's not a bad guy. We just disagree. Not a bad guy. You can't do that with 330 million people.

RIAZ: No.

GLENN: And how do you bridge the gap to where when I look at the policies of the left, I do believe there's -- and let me give you a couple of examples.

RIAZ: Okay.

GLENN: I do believe that there are people both left and right who are just in it for the politics and so the things that they will compromise on, the things that they will do will be bad for people.

RIAZ: Yeah.

GLENN: Will be bad for the one.

IAZ: Because the win is important.

GLENN: Correct. I believe there are some really good, honest people who do not look at the constitution the way I do. They feel that it is an old, dusty document that is no longer relevant.

RIAZ: Yeah.

GLENN: And they want to, you know, this progressive, giant state can be a babysitter for everybody. I believe that is destructive to the soul because I believe that we are born to be responsible for ourselves. And if everybody is -- if mommy is a helicopter parent and lifting you up all the time, if we don't let the banks fail, that's bad for the bank, and it's bad for everybody else.

RIAZ: Yeah.

GLENN: So those who believe in the helicopter government --

RIAZ: Yeah.

GLENN: -- I think that is bad.

So when we talk about things, because there's people on the left thank the same thing, I'm callous and want children to starve, how do we talk to each other and get to a place to where we can understand each other when we really do believe that the policies will hurt people?

RIAZ: I think it starts -- we need to stop shoulding on each other. Should is a word we use in psychology when you think there is a moral right and wrong. There are moral rights and wrongs.

STU: Can you spell that real quick?

RIAZ: Should.

STU: Just for our facilitates who thought it was a different word.

RIAZ: It's controversial and easy to remember. But if you and I talk, you and I can disagree. But if I say Glenn, you should think this, we're not going to agree. If I tell you you should believe this, you conservatives should do this. The should implies a moral question. There are moral rights. Policy about banking is not a moral, necessarily. So everything becomes heightened to this moral level.

GLENN: So that's one of the issues that liberals have with conservatives that conservatives do look at things in a moral. Okay? Because generally speaking, conservatives are the ones that believe in God and hard fast rules with God.

RIAZ: But liberals will say their morally superior in ways because they're understanding of systems and humanity is superior. Because both sides -- and that's where I'm, like, it's a lock head. If you're both morally thinking you're superior, morally thinking you are right, it's very hard to move.

GLENN: Right. So let's take this. I think morally, I believe in Ben Franklin, and I don't know if you founded the history of Ben Franklin.

RIAZ: He founded the universe.

GLENN: He invented a patent and then won't take the own patent on his stuff because he said this is good for all man. But that was an individual choice. He started the patent and then individually said, no, I don't want to do that and set the example. We believe -- I believe -- that man must be free to fail and succeed. He must be free to be a bad guy, should he choose in my eyes. Not a bad guy legally. But a bad guy in my eyes. A greedy SOB that takes his money and blows it all in Vegas, if he wants to or uses it to build strip clubs or whatever. I don't have a right to tell him "no." Okay? Unless he breaks the law.

RIAZ: Yeah.

GLENN: And you have a moral responsibility to stand up for people's right to fail.

RIAZ: Yeah.

GLENN: There are a lot of people who believe I've got to take the pain away from the world. Ben Franklin said "The best way to make -- to assist the poor is to make them uncomfortable in their poverty. The more the government tries to help, he said, the more I find that they fail longer and are -- dig themselves into even more misery."

RIAZ: Yeah.

GLENN: People on the left see that as cold and callous.

RIAZ: It's funny this friend I reached out to from middle school. He is in Seattle, liberal -- he's the one I called who works in grassroots poverty. He's one of the first policies in the country, and he said to me capitalism works. And I thought how funny. You need to talk to my new friend Glenn.

GLENN: Who is he?

RIAZ: His name is Jeff. He was actually someone who picked on me in middle school, and we've reconnected because he saw some of the work I've done with you, and he said I just wanted to say I love some of the work you're doing, and we reconnected. And he started this way of giving loans, and he says the incentive of the capitalism. And he's doing it through his grassroots organization, Democrat. But he says it's interesting. Capitalism seems to be working.

GLENN: Oh, I know.

RIAZ: So I think everyone has to be allowed to learn. And I appreciate that. Do we spotlight that? Do we show that too? Because gray. It's all gray now, people. It cannot be binary black and white.

GLENN: It's funny. I was asked to speak at a very leftist organization. I can't even say that -- yes, I can. Some of the things they go for are really -- they pushed for the $15 minimum wage in Seattle. And so they're very, very leftist on some things. But they reached out and wanted me to talk to the group because there are many that we see do agree on.

RIAZ: Yeah.

GLENN: That I was shocked. And as I was talking to him, I said, "You live in Seattle. Do you tell people that point of view in Seattle?"

And there is this weird hybrid coming out where some of these things are true like capitalism works. Some of these things are true and the older marxist lies are being shed while other new things are being brought in, you know what I mean?

RIAZ: It's evolving, and I think we want to get to a point. Any good can come out of all of this chaos where we don't even know what party system means. In that let it be gray. Let people define for themselves what they believe. And if this guy think so that this community, this works great. But show that it's, you know, a liberal who traditionally would go one way seeing an implementation, look at this new information we have. I love information. I love new information by experience. Not just data. What did they say? What did they guy feel when they got this loan for the first time? What did they do? Let's track him. That's the stuff that will change. Not the statistics. You said to me one of the first time you're in a post fact world, and it shocked me. How can we ever get that point? It was like a year ago, and I'm, like, oh, my god. I did not see it coming. Did not see it coming. Post fact world. I was, like, what does he mean? Who? You see things. You shared. That's how we'll move forward. This guy in Seattle, Jeff. He shared. We move forward. Or we can sit and say, well, you used to believe this, and I believe -- and six years ago and eight years ago -- we can do that until the cows come home. But at some point, we have to grow up and be adults.

GLENN: The number one thing that I get from people is nobody on the left is going to change. Nobody on the left wants to reason. Nobody on the left wants to work together.

RIAZ: Hello. Here I am, you know? And there are more of me.

GLENN: Yes.

RIAZ: But I think they're afraid to come out. I think everyone's afraid because they could be unfriended by a real friend. I think people are talking -- the professor yesterday. I'm sure in academia halls --

GLENN: I'm going to ask him if he has the time because I want to get his moral foundation theories. Have you read it yet?

RIAZ: I haven't.

GLENN: He's going to explain it here in a few minutes. But, yeah, I would like to know. I mean, being a professor at NYU, a liberal professor and then flipping -- doing his own homework and then going out and saying wow wait a minute. I see the world a totally different way. It's interesting to me, and I wonder how his life has been at NYU.

RIAZ: Yeah. I mean, that has to be -- we're all feeling fish out of water. I don't know a single person you would ask today and say did you have a good day? Are you happy? Like, everyone is in this rage mode all day because suddenly --

STU: Is that true?

RIAZ: I will say liberal. Sorry. Definitely liberal. It's all rage all day. And, to me, they're terrified, and I get it. But at some point, we've got to bring it down from DEFCON 5 to be effective. I look at trump and the press, and they're these weird bizarre frenemies. It's, like, I love you, but I hate you. I love you, but I hate you.

GLENN: I keep asking the question every time I watch the press conferences, how does this end? How does this end? Because the other one will punch twice as hard, escalate, punch twice as hard, where does that end? It doesn't work.

RIAZ: I think eventually information comes out. There are no secrets anymore, apparently. So is that a better era that we move where we now based on all of this hacking, you can't do this anymore. Like, that's off the table.

GLENN: Yeah, total transparency. Radical transparency.

RIAZ: That would be really interesting.

GLENN: Thank you so much. Thank you so much, Riaz.

RIAZ: Happy to be here always.

GLENN: Appreciate it.

RADIO

Could passengers have SAVED Iryna Zarutska?

Surveillance footage of the murder of Ukrainian refugee Iryna Zarutska in Charlotte, NC, reveals that the other passengers on the train took a long time to help her. Glenn, Stu, and Jason debate whether they were right or wrong to do so.

Transcript

Below is a rush transcript that may contain errors

GLENN: You know, I'm -- I'm torn on how I feel about the people on the train.

Because my first instinct is, they did nothing! They did nothing! Then my -- well, sit down and, you know -- you know, you're going to be judged. So be careful on judging others.

What would I have done? What would I want my wife to do in that situation?

STU: Yeah. Are those two different questions, by the way.

GLENN: Yeah, they are.

STU: I think they go far apart from each other. What would I want myself to do. I mean, it's tough to put yourself in a situation. It's very easy to watch a video on the internet and talk about your heroism. Everybody can do that very easily on Twitter. And everybody is.

You know, when you're in a vehicle that doesn't have an exit with a guy who just murdered somebody in front of you, and has a dripping blood off of a knife that's standing 10 feet away from you, 15 feet away from you.

There's probably a different standard there, that we should all kind of consider. And maybe give a little grace to what I saw at least was a woman, sitting across the -- the -- the aisle.

I think there is a difference there. But when you talk about that question. Those two questions are definitive.

You know, I know what I would want myself to do. I would hope I would act in a way that didn't completely embarrass myself afterward.

But I also think, when I'm thinking of my wife. My advice to my wife would not be to jump into the middle of that situation at all costs. She might do that anyway. She actually is a heck of a lot stronger than I am.

But she might do it anyway.

GLENN: How pathetic, but how true.

STU: Yes. But that would not be my advice to her.

GLENN: Uh-huh.

STU: Now, maybe once the guy has certainly -- is out of the area. And you don't think the moment you step into that situation. He will turn around and kill you too. Then, of course, obviously. Anything you can do to step in.

Not that there was much anyone on the train could do.

I mean, I don't think there was an outcome change, no matter what anyone on that train did.

Unfortunately.

But would I want her to step in?

Of course. If she felt she was safe, yes.

Think about, you said, your wife. Think about your daughter. Your daughter is on that train, just watching someone else getting murdered like that. Would you advise your daughter to jump into a situation like that?

That girl sitting across the aisle was somebody's daughter. I don't know, man.

JASON: I would. You know, as a dad, would I advise.

Hmm. No.

As a human being, would I hope that my daughter or my wife or that I would get up and at least comfort that woman while she's dying on the floor of a train?

Yeah.

I would hope that my daughter, my son, that I would -- and, you know, I have more confidence in my son or daughter or my wife doing something courageous more than I would.

But, you know, I think I have a more realistic picture of myself than anybody else.

And I'm not sure that -- I'm not sure what I would do in that situation. I know what I would hope I would do. But I also know what I fear I would do. But I would have hoped that I would have gotten up and at least tried to help her. You know, help her up off the floor. At least be there with her, as she's seeing her life, you know, spill out in under a minute.

And that's it other thing we have to keep in mind. This all happened so rapidly.

A minute is -- will seem like a very long period of time in that situation. But it's a very short period of time in real life.

STU: Yeah. You watch the video, Glenn. You know, I don't need the video to -- to change my -- my position on this.

But at his seem like there was a -- someone who did get there, eventually, to help, right? I saw someone seemingly trying to put pressure on her neck.

GLENN: Yeah. And tried to give her CPR.

STU: You know, no hope at that point. How long of a time period would you say that was?

Do you know off the top of your head?

GLENN: I don't know. I don't know. I know that we watched the video that I saw. I haven't seen past 30 seconds after she --

STU: Yeah.

GLENN: -- is down. And, you know, for 30 seconds nothing is happening. You know, that is -- that is not a very long period of time.

STU: Right.

GLENN: In reality.

STU: And especially, I saw the pace he was walking. He certainly can't be -- you know, he may have left the actual train car by 30 seconds to a minute. But he wasn't that far away. Like he was still in visual.

He could still turn around and look and see what's going on at that point. So certainly still a threat is my point. He has not, like, left the area. This is not that type of situation.

You know, I -- look, as you point out, I think if I could be super duper sexist for a moment here, sort of my dividing line might just be men and women.

You know, I don't know if it's that a -- you're not supposed to say that, I suppose these days. But, like, there is a difference there. If I'm a man, you know, I would be -- I would want my son to jump in on that, I suppose. I don't know if he could do anything about it. But you would expect at least a grown man to be able to go in there and do something about it. A woman, you know, I don't know.

Maybe I'm -- I hope --

GLENN: Here's the thing I -- here's the thing that I -- that causes me to say, no. You should have jumped in.

And that is, you know, you've already killed one person on the train. So you've proven that you're a killer. And anybody who would have screamed and got up and was with her, she's dying. She's dying. Get him. Get him.

Then the whole train is responsible for stopping that guy. You know. And if you don't stop him, after he's killed one person, if you're not all as members of that train, if you're not stopping him, you know, the person at the side of that girl would be the least likely to be killed. It would be the ones that are standing you up and trying to stop him from getting back to your daughter or your wife or you.

JASON: There was a -- speaking of men and women and their roles in this. There was a video circling social media yesterday. In Sweden. There was a group of officials up on a stage. And one of the main. I think it was health official woman collapses on stage. Completely passes out.

All the men kind of look away. Or I don't know if they're looking away. Or pretending that they didn't know what was going on. There was another woman standing directly behind the woman passed out.

Immediately springs into action. Jumps on top. Grabs her pant leg. Grabs her shoulder. Spins her over and starts providing care.

What did she have that the other guys did not? Or women?

She was a sheepdog. There is a -- this is my issue. And I completely agree with Stu. I completely agree with you. There's some people that do not respond this way. My issue is the proportion of sheepdogs versus people that don't really know how to act. That is diminishing in western society. And American society.

We see it all the time in these critical actions. I mean, circumstances.

There are men and women, and it's actually a meme. That fantasize about hoards of people coming to attack their home and family. And they sit there and say, I've got it. You guys go. I'm staying behind, while I smoke my cigarette and wait for the hoards to come, because I will sacrifice myself. There are men and women that fantasize of block my highway. Go ahead. Block my highway. I'm going to do something about it. They fantasize about someone holding up -- not a liquor store. A convenience store or something. Because they will step in and do something. My issue now is that proportion of sheepdogs in society is disappearing. Just on statistical fact, there should be one within that train car, and there were none.

STU: Yeah. I mean --

JASON: They did not respond.

STU: We see what happens when they do, with Daniel Penny. Our society tries to vilify them and crush their existence. Now, there weren't that many people on that train. Right?

At least on that car. At least it's limited. I only saw three or four people there, there may have been more. I agree with you, though. Like, you see what happens when we actually do have a really recent example of someone doing exactly what Jason wants and what I would want a guy to do. Especially a marine to step up and stop this from happening. And the man was dragged by our legal system to a position where he nearly had to spend the rest of his life in prison.

I mean, I -- it's insanity. Thankfully, they came to their senses on that one.

GLENN: Well, the difference between that one and this one though is that the guy was threatening. This one, he killed somebody.

STU: Yeah. Right. Well, but -- I think -- but it's the opposite way. The debate with Penny, was should he have recognize that had this person might have just been crazy and not done anything?

Maybe. He hadn't actually acted yet. He was just saying things.

GLENN: Yeah. Well --

STU: He didn't wind up stabbing someone. This is a situation where these people have already seen what this man will do to you, even when you don't do anything to try to stop him. So if this woman, who is, again, looks to be an average American woman.

Across the aisle. Steps in and tries to do something. This guy could easily turn around and just make another pile of dead bodies next to the one that already exists.

And, you know, whether that is an optimal solution for our society, I don't know that that's helpful.

In that situation.

THE GLENN BECK PODCAST

Max Lucado on Overcoming Grief in Dark Times | The Glenn Beck Podcast | Ep 266

Disclaimer: This episode was filmed prior to the assassination of Charlie Kirk. But Glenn believes Max's message is needed now more than ever.
The political world is divided, constantly at war with itself. In many ways, our own lives are not much different. Why do we constantly focus on the negative? Why are we in pain? Where is God amid our anxiety and fear? Why can’t we ever seem to change? Pastor Max Lucado has found the solution: Stop thinking like that! It may seem easier said than done, but Max joins Glenn Beck to unpack the three tools he describes in his new book, “Tame Your Thoughts,” that make it easy for us to reset the way we think back to God’s factory settings. In this much-needed conversation, Max and Glenn tackle everything from feeling doubt as a parent to facing unfair hardships to ... UFOs?! Plus, Max shares what he recently got tattooed on his arm.

THE GLENN BECK PODCAST

Are Demonic Forces to Blame for Charlie Kirk, Minnesota & Charlotte Killings?

This week has seen some of the most heinous actions in recent memory. Glenn has been discussing the growth of evil in our society, and with the assassination of civil rights leader Charlie Kirk, the recent transgender shooter who took the lives of two children at a Catholic school, and the murder of Ukrainian refugee Iryna Zarutska, how can we make sense of all this evil? On today's Friday Exclusive, Glenn speaks with BlazeTV host of "Strange Encounters" Rick Burgess to discuss the demon-possessed transgender shooter and the horrific assassination of Charlie Kirk. Rick breaks down the reality of demon possession and how individuals wind up possessed. Rick and Glenn also discuss the dangers of the grotesque things we see online and in movies, TV shows, and video games on a daily basis. Rick warns that when we allow our minds to be altered by substances like drugs or alcohol, it opens a door for the enemy to take control. A supernatural war is waging in our society, and it’s a Christian’s job to fight this war. Glenn and Rick remind Christians of what their first citizenship is.

Glenn's Show Prep

Glenn and Riaz Patel Discuss Bridging the Divide to Find Common Ground

Could passengers have SAVED Iryna Zarutska?

Transcript

Max Lucado on Overcoming Grief in Dark Times | The Glenn Beck Podcast | Ep 266

Are Demonic Forces to Blame for Charlie Kirk, Minnesota & Charlotte Killings?

Here’s what we know about the suspected Charlie Kirk assassin