Will Putin plunge the globe into World War 3? The past gives us a look at the future

Below is a transcript of tonight's monologue

Russia has been chipping away at a master plan, a plan that few, if any, have even taken note of, and no one has shown you. You know the history. We’ve shown it to you, and the brain behind it all. Tonight, we’re going to try to show you what possibly could be coming next, and it is critical that you understand this, because Putin, how he reacts could drag the entire globe into World War III.

Putin, Aleksandr Dugin, and like-minded elites dream of rebuilding a Russia that dominates Eurasia. In the old days—and we showed this to you—in the old days, Russia owned all of this from the blue line out. This was their spiritual center. In fact, their spiritual center was right here. That’s where Russia really had its heart.

Then, in World War II, World War II gave them all of this territory. Now, all of that is gone, and now they’re behind this green line. Russia, if you look at the maps on the things the way it used to be, Russia was this enormous country, and then what happened? Then it shrunk down. The days of Ivan the Terrible and every step of the way since has been trying to grab that land back. The only difference today is the enemy now isn’t the mongrels or Nazi Germany. The enemy is like it was in the Cold War. It is America.

This struggle to dominate and restore the Russian empire needs fuel, and the time-tested way for Russians or anyone to fuel the fight is through nationalism and religion. Nationalism, how do you boost nationalism? Well, you promote and propagandize anything that would unite ethnic Russians. Remember, I told you last night ethnic Russians, after World War II, they needed to make sure that these became Russian and never went back, so what they did is they took Russians, and they put them and they transplanted them all in through these Soviet satellite states, and they became Romanian Russians. They did everything they could.

Now that the border has crept back here, now all these ethnic Russians find themselves in another country. This is really important. The other thing you need to do besides nationalism to make sure you speak to each of these people and say you’re Russian, you don’t belong to Romania or Bulgaria. You don’t belong to the Ukraine. You’re Russian.

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The other thing you have to do is you look at history, and you tap into the Orthodox Church, your bishops. You put the focus on your religion. You’re seeing this now play out with the targeting of gays in Russia. You’re seeing this play out with Putin bashing America’s lack of morals. He is positioning Russian now as the moral beacon that will lead the Christian world.

For example, this will blow your mind. In Paris, the Cathedral of Notre Dame, they couldn’t afford their gigantic Christmas tree this year, so who saved Christmas? Vladimir Putin bought the tree, even sent a Russian Santa for the lighting ceremony. Another effective means is to unite under a common enemy. When Putin invaded Georgia, he blamed the United States. When Putin invaded Crimea, he blamed and used both religious and the common enemy, blamed the United States for our lack of moral standards. He said Crimea is as sacred to Russia as the Temple Mount is to the followers of Judaism and Islam. Watch.

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Vladimir Putin: This enables us to say today that Crimea, Korsun, Kherson, is of huge civilizational sacred importance to Russia, just like the Temple Mount is to those who follow Judaism, and this is the way we will treat this territory today and forever.

Glenn Understand? Jews need the Temple Mount. Russia needs Crimea because it’s their spiritual center. He added that the United States would have found a way to issue sanctions even if they didn’t annex Crimea. Putin is indeed following the platform laid out by the influential radicals like Aleksandr Dugin, but they’re not satisfied with him. They are urging him to do more. They are true radicals.

This is a dangerous time for Vladimir Putin. He’s enlisted the help of far-right European radicals, and now he is not delivering on promises, so how far will they go to make sure they get what they want, what he promised them and them? Tonight, we’re going to look at all of the scenarios and wargame what could happen next, but I want to do so under the original premise that I laid out from the FOX days.

I said these things would come, that radicals would unite from all walks of life, and they would begin to create chaos and destabilize the West, destabilize Europe, and then the rest of the world. So, let’s look at that. What is it that Putin has really done with the map? Because Putin sees a few things standing in his way of this Eurasian dream. We’re going to look down the road and look at the roadblocks and see how Putin is going to handle them.

First, the United States and the European Union alliance, Putin knows defeating the U.S. and the EU via military is not going to happen. It’s just too much. You don’t want to climb that hill, so the first option has to be something else. Well, that’s where Aleksandr Dugin comes in and his philosophy in Russia and then export it to Western Europe. What is Dugin’s philosophy?

Well, like with Karl Marx, it’s consciousness, but it’s not class consciousness. It’s racial consciousness. You try to reach into people and say who are you really? See, we’re different than one another. We’re not a melting pot. You’re Russian or you’re French. You’re Christian. You’re German. The Russians unite on the Orthodox Church, their culture.

For Western Europe, it’s self-identity for each nationstate. Nobody wants to be a part of the EU. People identify themselves as French first, Spanish, Italian, not European, so when somebody comes in, let’s say from Algeria and moves up to France, and they don’t want to be a part of the French culture, that plays into the hands of people like Dugin and Vladimir Putin, because he can say you’re French, send them home.

So how is he exploiting this? Well, it’s very easy. Far-right groups currently rising up all over Europe, people think that this is not connected. It is. Now is the perfect time because of especially places like Greece and Italy, France and Germany and Spain, the economic stress, and naturally the fingers are pointing at the immigrants who are coming in, sinking the boat, and taking the jobs. It’s already happening organically.

All Russia has to do is just pour a little Dugin gasoline on the fire, and if that fire burns hot enough, it destabilizes the West, and it destabilizes the region and promotes independence. And if they can provoke nations to move towards an eventual break with the EU, eventually you break it all apart, and you neutralize your top enemy.

Now, if that sounds far-fetched, remember what Scotland just voted on. They voted on independence. It was the highest turnout in their election history, and it was a fairly close vote. It was 55 to 44%. With the withdrawal from the EU movement gaining steam in the UK, you’ve got something here. Conditions are ripe, and Russia is reaching out to almost every major far-right nationalist group involved in European unrest.

Don’t believe me? Let me show you. First we go to Greece, the Golden Dawn Party. That’s the neo-Nazis. PEGIDA, that is the Nazi party in Germany. The party, the…how do you say this, Tiffany? Ataka party in Bulgaria…where is Bulgaria? The Jobbik party in Hungary is also on his list of payroll people, the Freedom Party in Austria. You have the neo-Nazi party in Italy. You have Party for Freedom in the Netherlands, and then you have the last one this week, the National Front in France.

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He seems to be positioning his people outside of his border. By the way, the Russian banks just loaned Marine Le Pen 9 million euros. The Le Pen people said no one else will give us a cent. Putin will, and now we know why. The architect is playing the long game. He created the Eurasian Youth Union. Hmm, what is that? It looks darn familiar. Somebody else created one. If they’re symbol looks familiar in this youth union, it’s because it’s the same exact symbol we showed you yesterday that is an ancient magic symbol from the pagan days that stands for chaos…chaos, the same thing the 12ers are looking for in Iran.

Russia is just beginning this escalation. Remember, real economic strife has not even hit all of the world yet. We have seen depressions or recessions. We have seen joblessness, but we have not seen a global depression yet. Nobody has seen what the world is about to see since the 1930s, so all bets are off as soon as the dollars start to really collapse. The far right, the Golden Dawn, Le Pen, they are poised right now for positions of real power within their government.

It also plays right into Russia’s hands. But how long can Putin hold out? Because the economy is in real trouble. To make budget, Russia depends heavily on oil. Prices have collapsed more than 60% in six months. Uh oh, is that a good thing or a bad thing? Well, this has prompted the Russian government to say on social media the oil and gas economy has exhausted its potential, and we can’t guarantee stable growth or encourage investment in the real sector.

They’re not even pretending to be optimistic right now. Instead, they don’t blame it on their incompetence. Guess who they blame it on…the West. Putin said that at least 25% of their economic troubles are directly due to President Obama’s sanctions against them, but remember, Putin is operating under a Dugin view that America and the EU and all other Western imperialists are manipulating global financial institutions. Geez, when’s the last time we heard a Fascist say that somebody was going to manipulate economies? I remember, it’s the Fascist in World War II that blamed it on the Jews. Oh wait a minute, that’s why people who are Jewish are starting to freak out, because they’ve seen this movie before.

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He feels the fix is in to make the world remain pegged to the dollar. Listen to this, America. That’s why Putin is committed to destroying the dollar. That’s why Putin has tried to create his own version of the IMF. That’s why Russia along with China have gone out and bought as much gold as they possibly can, because their economic security is making him wobble. So, get your gold in now.

They believe that the Western debt-based economies are going to collapse. That doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out. That’s probably right. How do you possibly keep going on? We’re printing money. Yes, it possibly will go down, and so then what happens? China and Russia are betting you go back to gold. With the combined gold reserves of Russia and China on top of their existing natural resources, their economies would be unstoppable and even more formidable if they are combined with the oil and gas from the Middle East. A Middle Eastern ally is crucial to the goal.

Why don’t we have help sent to Iran? There’s another reason to cozy up. Why don’t we send help to Syria? Do you see the problem? Now, the problem for Putin is how long can you hold out? Are you going to be able to survive the current economic crisis? This is the only guy playing a long game. Right now we’re playing today, today, today, today. Look what the pieces that he is moving because he knows the world is about to change.

Inflation right now is at a frightening 17% for Vladimir Putin. Russia’s finance minister called a cut in planned spending to weather economic crisis, warning that a 45% billion drop of revenues is going to happen right now if the average price of oil is $50 a barrel, but this January it was $45 a barrel. He is already under immense amount of pressure, and he is getting backed into a corner, so what happens? Man, what happens when you back a bear into a corner? Well, if the saying is true that history repeats itself, you are not going to like the answer.

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On the night of February 24, 1956, the public session of the 20th Congress of the USSR, the former Soviet Union, came to a close. After most of the politicians cleared out, Nikita Khrushchev called a closed-door session with senior members and delivered a shocking speech. It was later called the secret speech. It was shocking because Stalin was dead, and his close supporters were in line to take over, yet Khrushchev was revealing that Stalin was a tyrannical killer.

Soviets loved Stalin, viewed him as a divine leader, and now they were being told that he was a torturer and a murderer of party members. The speech eventually leaked out and was wildly and widely reported. It also was credited with bringing Stalinism to a screeching halt.

So, is there a modern-day Khrushchev who’s going to come forth and point out Putin’s failures? If he doesn’t give Russian people exactly what he wants, somebody is going to step forward. I believe his name is Igor Girkin. He typically just goes by his nickname which means shooter in Russian. He basically is the Russian cross between Rambo, John Wayne, and the Pope.

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It’s amazing how tough these guys all have to be. He led the insurgencies in Chechnya, Bosnia, Moldova, Georgia. The Russians see Girkin as sort of a holy warrior defending Russian civilization from what Girkin calls the godless West.

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Girkin: I can say to all of the Western civilization is leading a war against us, with intent to divide us and to plunder. We have already discussed the fact that Russia is capable of becoming a country that will raise a moral counterweight to a world that they are building. Utterly apostasic, soulless world, where everything is based on materialistic values, where people have simply forgotten God.

I hope you could read that, because I couldn’t read that, so it was not quite as frightening as maybe it should be. I was just noticing his haircut looked an awful lot like Hitler’s too. According to Girkin, it was Girkin and not Putin who pulled the trigger on the war in Ukraine. After the protests in Kiev, Girkin crossed into Crimea and led the takeover. Well, after Crimea was fully accessed, he crossed into Eastern Ukraine and led the uprising there.

In April, he paraded Ukrainian captives in front of the press. They were gagged, and they were blindfolded. He told reporters that Ukrainians were planning to kidnap Russians, but instead they got captured. When the cease-fire was negotiated, Girkin relocated back to Russia and has been leading the organization for the Russian fighters and equipment flowing into what he calls the new Russia, ditching his military uniform and donning a suit.

Igor Girkin, he is somewhat of a rock star now in the Russian media. Putin addresses the nation, tells them don’t worry about the dire situation of the Russian economy, but Igor is not part of that. He can be seen preaching the liberation of the new Russia.

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Girkin: Russia, as a self-sufficient major power, has a chance to preserve itself through the death of this global project which is, in my opinion, simply satanic.

Ivan the Terrible was the first Czar of Russia. He ruled in the mid-1500s. He believed that he was chosen by God to lead the Russian people and defend orthodox Christianity. During the reign of the Russian empire, they would see the greatest territorial expansion ever. The question is is Igor Girkin the modern-day of Ivan the Terrible? Is Russia at the precipice of another great period of territorial expansion with the champion of their faith at the helm, whoever that will be?

Will Putin feel he is out of options and obey the calls from the radical right and lead the nation into war to do the same thing, potentially unleashing World War III? Time only holds the answer, but history gives us a look at the lock and the keys.

A Sharia enclave is quietly taking root in America. It's time to wake up.

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Sharia-based projects like the Meadow in Texas show how political Islam grows quietly, counting on Americans to stay silent while an incompatible legal system takes root.

Apolitical system completely incompatible with the Constitution is gaining ground in the United States, and we are pretending it is not happening.

Sharia — the legal and political framework of Islam — is being woven into developments, institutions, and neighborhoods, including a massive project in Texas. And the consequences will be enormous if we continue to look the other way.

This is the contradiction at the heart of political Islam: It claims universal authority while insisting its harshest rules will never be enforced here. That promise does not stand up to scrutiny. It never has.

Before we can have an honest debate, we’d better understand what Sharia represents. Sharia is not simply a set of religious rules about prayer or diet. It is a comprehensive legal and political structure that governs marriage, finance, criminal penalties, and civic life. It is a parallel system that claims supremacy wherever it takes hold.

This is where the distinction matters. Many Muslims in America want nothing to do with Sharia governance. They came here precisely because they lived under it. But political Islam — the movement that seeks to implement Sharia as law — is not the same as personal religious belief.

It is a political ideology with global ambitions, much like communism. Secretary of State Marco Rubio recently warned that Islamist movements do not seek peaceful coexistence with the West. They seek dominance. History backs him up.

How Sharia arrives

Political Islam does not begin with dramatic declarations. It starts quietly, through enclaves that operate by their own rules. That is why the development once called EPIC City — now rebranded as the Meadow — is so concerning. Early plans framed it as a Muslim-only community built around a mega-mosque and governed by Sharia-compliant financing. After state investigations were conducted, the branding changed, but the underlying intent remained the same.

Developers have openly described practices designed to keep non-Muslims out, using fees and ownership structures to create de facto religious exclusivity. This is not assimilation. It is the construction of a parallel society within a constitutional republic.

The warning from those who have lived under it

Years ago, local imams in Texas told me, without hesitation, that certain Sharia punishments “just work.” They spoke about cutting off hands for theft, stoning adulterers, and maintaining separate standards of testimony for men and women. They insisted it was logical and effective while insisting they would never attempt to implement it in Texas.

But when pressed, they could not explain why a system they consider divinely mandated would suddenly stop applying once someone crossed a border.

This is the contradiction at the heart of political Islam: It claims universal authority while insisting its harshest rules will never be enforced here. That promise does not stand up to scrutiny. It never has.

AASHISH KIPHAYET / Contributor | Getty Images

America is vulnerable

Europe is already showing us where this road leads. No-go zones, parallel courts, political intimidation, and clerics preaching supremacy have taken root across major cities.

America’s strength has always come from its melting pot, but assimilation requires boundaries. It requires insisting that the Constitution, not religious law, is the supreme authority on this soil.

Yet we are becoming complacent, even fearful, about saying so. We mistake silence for tolerance. We mistake avoidance for fairness. Meanwhile, political Islam views this hesitation as weakness.

Religious freedom is one of America’s greatest gifts. Muslims may worship freely here, as they should. But political Islam must not be permitted to plant a flag on American soil. The Constitution cannot coexist with a system that denies equal rights, restricts speech, subordinates women, and places clerical authority above civil law.

Wake up before it is too late

Projects like the Meadow are not isolated. They are test runs, footholds, proofs of concept. Political Islam operates with patience. It advances through demographic growth, legal ambiguity, and cultural hesitation — and it counts on Americans being too polite, too distracted, or too afraid to confront it.

We cannot afford that luxury. If we fail to defend the principles that make this country free, we will one day find ourselves asking how a parallel system gained power right in front of us. The answer will be simple: We looked away.

The time to draw boundaries and to speak honestly is now. The time to defend the Constitution as the supreme law of the land is now. Act while there is still time.

This article originally appeared on TheBlaze.com.

The Crisis of Meaning: Searching for truth and purpose

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Anxiety, anger, and chronic dissatisfaction signal a country searching for meaning. Without truth and purpose, politics becomes a dangerous substitute for identity.

We have built a world overflowing with noise, convenience, and endless choice, yet something essential has slipped out of reach. You can sense it in the restless mood of the country, the anxiety among young people who cannot explain why they feel empty, in the angry confusion that dominates our politics.

We have more wealth than any nation in history, but the heart of the culture feels strangely malnourished. Before we can debate debt or elections, we must confront the reality that we created a world of things, but not a world of purpose.

You cannot survive a crisis you refuse to name, and you cannot rebuild a world whose foundations you no longer understand.

What we are living through is not just economic or political dysfunction. It is the vacuum that appears when a civilization mistakes abundance for meaning.

Modern life is stuffed with everything except what the human soul actually needs. We built systems to make life faster, easier, and more efficient — and then wondered why those systems cannot teach our children who they are, why they matter, or what is worth living for.

We tell the next generation to chase success, influence, and wealth, turning childhood into branding. We ask kids what they want to do, not who they want to be. We build a world wired for dopamine rather than dignity, and then we wonder why so many people feel unmoored.

When everything is curated, optimized, and delivered at the push of a button, the question “what is my life for?” gets lost in the static.

The crisis beneath the headlines

It is not just the young who feel this crisis. Every part of our society is straining under the weight of meaninglessness.

Look at the debt cycle — the mathematical fate no civilization has ever escaped once it crosses a threshold that we seem to have already blown by. While ordinary families feel the pressure, our leaders respond with distraction, with denial, or by rewriting the very history that could have warned us.

You cannot survive a crisis you refuse to name, and you cannot rebuild a world whose foundations you no longer understand.

We have entered a cultural moment where the noise is so loud that it drowns out the simplest truths. We are living in a country that no longer knows how to hear itself think.

So people go searching. Some drift toward the false promise of socialism, some toward the empty thrill of rebellion. Some simply check out. When a culture forgets what gives life meaning, it becomes vulnerable to every ideology that offers a quick answer.

The quiet return of meaning

And yet, quietly, something else is happening. Beneath the frustration and cynicism, many Americans are recognizing that meaning does not come from what we own, but from what we honor. It does not rise from success, but from virtue. It does not emerge from noise, but from the small, sacred things that modern life has pushed to the margins — the home, the table, the duty you fulfill, the person you help when no one is watching.

The danger is assuming that this rediscovery happens on its own. It does not.

Reorientation requires intention. It requires rebuilding the habits and virtues that once held us together. It requires telling the truth about our history instead of rewriting it to fit today’s narratives. And it requires acknowledging what has been erased: that meaning is inseparable from God’s presence in a nation’s life.

Harold M. Lambert / Contributor | Getty Images

Where renewal begins

We have built a world without stillness, and then we wondered why no one can hear the questions that matter. Those questions remain, whether we acknowledge them or not. They do not disappear just because we drown them in entertainment or noise. They wait for us, and the longer we ignore them, the more disoriented we become.

Meaning is still available. It is found in rebuilding the smallest, most human spaces — the places that cannot be digitized, globalized, or automated. The home. The family. The community.

These are the daily virtues that do not trend on social media, but that hold a civilization upright. If we want to repair this country, we begin there, exactly where every durable civilization has always begun: one virtue at a time, one tradition at a time, one generation at a time.

This article originally appeared on TheBlaze.com.

The Bubba Effect erupts as America’s power brokers go rogue

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When institutions betray the public’s trust, the country splits, and the spiral is hard to stop.

Something drastic is happening in American life. Headlines that should leave us stunned barely register anymore. Stories that once would have united the country instead dissolve into silence or shrugs.

It is not apathy exactly. It is something deeper — a growing belief that the people in charge either cannot or will not fix what is broken.

When people feel ignored or betrayed, they will align with anyone who appears willing to fight on their behalf.

I call this response the Bubba effect. It describes what happens when institutions lose so much public trust that “Bubba,” the average American minding his own business, finally throws his hands up and says, “Fine. I will handle it myself.” Not because he wants to, but because the system that was supposed to protect him now feels indifferent, corrupt, or openly hostile.

The Bubba effect is not a political movement. It is a survival instinct.

What triggers the Bubba effect

We are watching the triggers unfold in real time. When members of Congress publicly encourage active duty troops to disregard orders from the commander in chief, that is not a political squabble. When a federal judge quietly rewrites the rules so one branch of government can secretly surveil another, that is not normal. That is how republics fall. Yet these stories glided across the news cycle without urgency, without consequence, without explanation.

When the American people see the leadership class shrug, they conclude — correctly — that no one is steering the ship.

This is how the Bubba effect spreads. It is not just individuals resisting authority. It is sheriffs refusing to enforce new policies, school boards ignoring state mandates, entire communities saying, “We do not believe you anymore.” It becomes institutional, cultural, national.

A country cracking from the inside

This effect can be seen in Dearborn, Michigan. In the rise of fringe voices like Nick Fuentes. In the Epstein scandal, where powerful people could not seem to locate a single accountable adult. These stories are different in content but identical in message: The system protects itself, not you.

When people feel ignored or betrayed, they will align with anyone who appears willing to fight on their behalf. That does not mean they suddenly agree with everything that person says. It means they feel abandoned by the institutions that were supposed to be trustworthy.

The Bubba effect is what fills that vacuum.

The dangers of a faithless system

A republic cannot survive without credibility. Congress cannot oversee intelligence agencies if it refuses to discipline its own members. The military cannot remain apolitical if its chain of command becomes optional. The judiciary cannot defend the Constitution while inventing loopholes that erase the separation of powers.

History shows that once a nation militarizes politics, normalizes constitutional shortcuts, or allows government agencies to operate without scrutiny, it does not return to equilibrium peacefully. Something will give.

The question is what — and when.

The responsibility now belongs to us

In a healthy country, this is where the media steps in. This is where universities, pastors, journalists, and cultural leaders pause the outrage machine and explain what is at stake. But today, too many see themselves not as guardians of the republic, but of ideology. Their first loyalty is to narrative, not truth.

The founders never trusted the press more than the public. They trusted citizens who understood their rights, lived their responsibilities, and demanded accountability. That is the antidote to the Bubba effect — not rage, but citizenship.

How to respond without breaking ourselves

Do not riot. Do not withdraw. Do not cheer on destruction just because you dislike the target. That is how nations lose themselves. Instead, demand transparency. Call your representatives. Insist on consequences. Refuse to normalize constitutional violations simply because “everyone does it.” If you expect nothing, you will get nothing.

Do not hand your voice to the loudest warrior simply because he is swinging a bat at the establishment. You do not beat corruption by joining a different version of it. You beat it by modeling the country you want to preserve: principled, accountable, rooted in truth.

Adam Gray / Stringer | Getty Images

Every republic reaches a moment when historians will later say, “That was the warning.” We are living in ours. But warnings are gifts if they are recognized. Institutions bend. People fail. The Constitution can recover — if enough Americans still know and cherish it.

It does not take a majority. Twenty percent of the country — awake, educated, and courageous — can reset the system. It has happened before. It can happen again.

Wake up. Stand up. Demand integrity — from leaders, from institutions, and from yourself. Because the Bubba effect will not end until Americans reclaim the duty that has always belonged to them: preserving the republic for the next generation.

This article originally appeared on TheBlaze.com.

Warning: Stop letting TikTok activists think for you

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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.

Anadolu / Contributor | Getty Images

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.