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Glenn's Show Prep

'Globalist': You Keep Using That Word. I Do Not Think It Means What You Think It Means

September 22, 2016
Lori Hanes

Writer

Redefining words is a very dangerous thing. It's happened on the radical left for years through political correctness, impacting both society and politics. Old school Blue Dog Democrats didn't see it coming until it was too late, and the entire Democratic Party was taken over by radicals.

The same thing is now happening on the conservative side, with words like "nationalism" and "globalism" being morphed into new meanings.

"I want to show you the first example of me finding it on my own social media," Glenn said Thursday on his radio program. "I contend so many people will agree with a quick reading of this that it seems harmless, but it is absolutely the alt-right. This is the earmark of everything changing in language, and so suddenly that you will not even notice you've been sold into slavery."

It's time to pay attention and read between the lines.

Read below or listen to the full segment for answers to these definitive questions:

• Is "nationalism" tied to improving the lives of Americans or neo-Nazis and racism?

• What does Bob in Pocatello say about the rejection of the virus that is globalization?

• Are iDentists online practitioners of dentistry?

• Do you think the alt-right should produce films on faith for your church?

• Would Thomas Jefferson have been for or against tariffs?

• Is American exceptionalism the same thing as American nationalism?

Listen to this segment, beginning at mark 1:20:50, from The Glenn Beck Program:

Below is a rush transcript of this segment, it might contain errors:

GLENN:  I want to show you a post on my social media.  And let me just -- let me read it to you.  And don't overthink it.  Just tell me if you are kind of comfortable with it.

We/me is a crackpot theory, saying the we generation and the me generation.  It's clearly not a crackpot theory.  It is very well researched.  But this is somebody who happened to be watching the show from The Vault last night, where I mentioned it.  

And the we/me is a crackpot theory.  Don't accept a binary choice, America.

STU:  Hmm.  I thought we were supposed to -- isn't that we've been told for months?

GLENN:  Listen to this:  American nationalism isn't racial or ethnic-oriented, nor is it rooted in expansionist foreign policy like Bush conservatism.  Keeping people out is not invading their country, occupying their land and trying to bring democracy to them.  Modern nationalism and populism in America is a refocusing on improving the lives and well-being of Americans who are being crushed under the weight of globalization, which is rooted in social Darwinism.

(chuckling)

American nationalism and populism is a wholesale rejection of the virus that is globalization.

PAT:  This is just written by Bob in Pocatello.  Right?

JEFFY:  Right.

(chuckling)

PAT:  Bob just happened to be watching, and he thought, "You know what, I'm going to pop off something to Glenn."

GLENN:  With no followers.  No pictures.  No friends.

STU:  He wanted to sign up to social networks, just to post that particular paragraph and then never post again.

GLENN:  And then never post again.

PAT:  It's interesting though because you can be okay with all of that, mostly.  Almost all of it, you can say, yeah --

JEFFY:  Oh, on the surface, absolutely.

GLENN:  On the surface.

PAT:  I agree with that.  On the surface, I agree with that.

GLENN:  If you read it again, you're like, "Okay.  Wait a minute.  American nationalism.  No, I'm not for nationalism.  That's not good."

STU:  Right.  But patriotism.  People conflate those two terms.  Those are very different.

GLENN:  Yes.  Yes.  They're very different.

STU:  And we've seen nationalism rise and what it does.  But this is trying to save that term, right?

GLENN:  Yes.  To reintroduce this term.

STU:  Right.

GLENN:  Okay?  To reintroduce it.

STU:  Yep.

GLENN:  Listen to this again.

American nationalism -- it's not racial or ethnic-oriented.  Why would you say that?  Because nationalism is tied directly to neo-Nazis.

PAT:  And racism.

GLENN:  Yes.

STU:  And also, by the way, very specifically the people who are the intellectual heads of this particular movement have very specifically talked in overt terms about race and ethnicity being vitally important to this.  I mean, this is --

GLENN:  No, they're not racists.  No, no.  They're identists.

STU:  Right.  But, I mean, they've said, "We need an ethno-nationalist --

PAT:  They're dentists on the internet?

GLENN:  No, they're identists.  They're identists -- 

JEFFY:  ID.  

GLENN:  No -- yes, they recognize the identity of people, but that's not judging people on race.  It is looking at the identity of people.

PAT:  I see.

GLENN:  So if you want to call it racist, that's an old term.  That's -- that describes old things.  I do believe that we all have an identity that is unique from where all of us originally came from.  And there's nothing wrong with pointing out someone's identity.  You're black.  I'm white.  But I do believe there are specific things that are different in each culture.  And perhaps we shouldn't live together.

STU:  This is --

PAT:  Perhaps we shouldn't live together.

(laughter)

GLENN:  Okay.  Did you hear what I just said?

JEFFY:  Yes.

PAT:  Yes.

GLENN:  And if you're hearing this from a friend and somebody who you think is a conservative -- and you will.  I'm telling you, this is coming.  You're going to start hearing this from your church friends, people you trusted, and they're going to make a great case because they're changing the language.

STU:  This is Candle In the Wind and Candle In the Wind 1997, where like Princess Diana died, and we're going to release the same exact song with like three different lyrics.

GLENN:  Yes.

STU:  That is what this is.  It's the same pitch.  It's the same thing that you think it is.

GLENN:  Same song.

STU:  It's just using new terms and trying to overtake old ones.

GLENN:  And using emotions to push it to the top of the chart.

STU:  Yeah, yeah, yeah.  One of the terms that is attempting -- and it's an interesting, somewhat subtle thing that's happened over the past year or two, which is the term globalist -- now, the term --

GLENN:  Uh-huh.

STU:  I would not consider myself a globalist at all.  I mean, for example, we've been doing this show for how long.

PAT:  Why are we globalists?

STU:  Right.

GLENN:  Hang on just a second.  Hang on.  Before you get into this, I just want to set this up.  Globalism is a tripwire of nationalism.  Okay?

Once you hear your friend, who -- why are you hearing the word "globalist" all the time now about people?  Where is that coming from?

STU:  Yeah, all the time.

GLENN:  That's coming from people like Breitbart, who are into the alt-right, and they are poisoning the well.  And globalist is your first sign of warning.  Hang on just a second.  What do you mean by globalist, exactly?  And I'll bet that's what you were going to make the point on.

STU:  That's exactly what I want to go into because we've been doing this show for a long time.  There's been things that have, you know, leaned towards globalism, that the talk radio audience, generally speaking, rejects, as do I.  Things like the United Nations making our decisions on our military.

GLENN:  Yes.

STU:  And, you know, global climate treaties that --

GLENN:  IPCC.  Yeah.  The IPP --

STU:  The Kyoto treaties -- yeah, Protocol.  

PAT:  Nobody has been more anti-globalist than we have.

JEFFY:  Right.

STU:  Exactly.  Having global entities control what we do in our country.

PAT:  Right.

GLENN:  Even some global trade agreements.  We need to have trade agreements.  But are they about -- for instance, the T- -- what is it?  The TPP?

PAT:  Uh-huh.

GLENN:  The TPP is an Asian global look at things.  And it is an Asian pact that supersedes our law.  

STU:  And there's elements of many of these agreements that we've fought against.

GLENN:  Uh-huh.

STU:  And so the idea that we would look towards global entities to influence our policy and the way we deal with our things here, we reject and have rejected for a long time.  And the talk radio audience, with that definition of globalist, has always been against that.

PAT:  But they've changed it now.  Right?

STU:  But now you notice -- and you say Breitbart.  But really, Alex Jones.  Breitbart and Alex Jones are one and the same at this point.

GLENN:  Absolutely.  Alex Jones is who he is, and everybody knew it.  And now one step closer to the media is Breitbart.  So one step closer to the average person as --

PAT:  And Drudge.

GLENN:  And Drudge.  Anyone want to talk about the new movie Torch Bearer?  Torch Bearer is a new movie, when man stops believing in God, he'll believe in anything.  Sounds really good.  Phil Robertson is in it, everything else.  You know who the producer is?  You know who the executive producer of this film is?

PAT:  Yes.

GLENN:  Who?

PAT:  It's Bannon.

GLENN:  Bannon.

PAT:  Bannon.  What's-his-face, Bannon.

GLENN:  So Bannon, who is Trump's campaign manager, who is, yes, we're providing a platform for the alt-right --

PAT:  Yeah.

GLENN:  -- is now producing films on faith for your church.

PAT:  Unbelievable.

GLENN:  Congratulations, America.  Congratulations.

PAT:  Wow.  Unbelievable.  

GLENN:  You are sliding into a cesspool that you have no idea what is coming your way.

STU:  On the globalist thing, to finish that, the old definition was, you know, international agreements and things that we were skeptical of.  We don't want to be controlled by international bureaucracy.

PAT:  Anything.  We want our sovereignty.

STU:  We want our sovereignty.

GLENN:  Yes.

STU:  And a lot of times that has gone along with having borders and border security.

PAT:  Right.

GLENN:  And we are for Brexit.  I'm for Brexit.

STU:  Yeah.  I believe in sovereignty.  I don't like the European Union.

GLENN:  Yep.  Don't like it.

STU:  What it's now turning into is, do you believe in free trade?  Are you against tariffs?  Are you for or against legal immigration?  Do you think we should have any interaction with -- with our allies?  Do we have any role in the rest of the world?

If you believe any of those things, all of a sudden now you're a globalist.

PAT:  Globalist.

GLENN:  If you don't believe in tariffs -- tariffs are the most destructive thing to the free market, which is what we are based on as conservatives --

STU:  Right.

GLENN:  If you're against tariffs, you're now a globalist.  Well, tell that to our Founders.

PAT:  If you're against Donald Trump, you're supposedly now a globalist.

STU:  Right.  And that's certainly where a lot of this comes from.  

PAT:  Yeah. 

STU:  And a lot of the passion behind it, obviously, because we're in the middle of an election season.

GLENN:  It goes way beyond him.

STU:  But, I mean, look at -- I can't remember -- was it Cruz or maybe Pat Toomey, when they were running, they were running ads against them, saying, "Hey, did you know that -- I can't remember which one it was.  But they were talking about free trade and how it's helped us.  But it's also helped lift billions of people out of poverty.

GLENN:  Yeah.

STU:  And the fact that we've lifted Chinese people, for example -- a billion Chinese have come out of poverty because they've started to embrace a little bit of capitalism and free trade.

GLENN:  Bono just said this.

STU:  It's a great commercial for what we believe.  Rooting for the success of people in other nations, wanting people to not starve to death all of a sudden is some weird definition of globalist.  I mean, these things do help the rest of the world.  I think free trade has been one of the most positive things that has ever happened to this planet, but it's also helped us.

GLENN:  Here's why nationalism is so wrong, and here's why saying that we are a unique country is right, but it is not the people.  American exceptionalism is not the people.  We're no different than anybody else.

Yes, do we have different work ethics?  Did we have different ethics than other countries?  Yes.

Do we now?  Not so much.  Do the Chinese or do the Saudis understand American exceptionalism?  No.  Does that make them different people?  No.  It means they don't buy into the idea of America.

America is not a country.  It's an idea.  It is also a country.  And nationalism glorifies the country and its people.  What patriotism should be is the -- the glorification of the idea that we aspire to.  The idea that we all men could be free, that all -- that all men can pursue their own happiness.  And it's a very subtle difference.  But if you don't get it, you are on the train to hell in these times.

I want to end this segment real quick just by reading this again, and I want to you listen because this is going to become -- I don't know how many people in this audience -- but I am still convinced that this audience is going to be the audience that will be remembered for pulling the republic out of the fire.  I'm convinced of it.  And I don't know when that happens.  And I don't even know if it's because of what you do, other than teaching your children these things.  Maybe it is because of what we do collectively that teaches our children and our children save the nation or bring it back.  I don't know.

But for those with eyes and ears, please hear me.  Let me read this again.  American nationalism isn't racial or ethnic oriented.

Yes, it is.

Nor is it rooted in expansionist foreign policy like Bush conservatism.

That is true.  That goes to the point on globalists.

Keeping people out is not invading their country, occupying their land and trying to bring democracy to them.

So what they're saying is:  We can keep foreigners out of here, and that's better than -- well, you're giving a binary choice here.

Modern nationalism -- modern nationalism, let me tell you, is exactly the same as old-timey nationalism.  Modern nationalism and populism.

What is populism?  Populism is nothing but tyranny of the majority.

Modern nationalism and populism in America is just a refocusing on improving the lives and well-being of Americans who are being crushed under the weight of globalization, which is rooted in social Darwinism.

Oh, my gosh.  Hello, Germany, 1930.

American nationalism and populism is a whole scale (sic) rejection of the virus -- hello, Goebbels -- of globalism.

Please, please, know the tripwires.  Please know, national -- nationalism is suicide.  Populism is suicide.  That the tripwire of globalism doesn't mean what you think it means.  To them, it means anything other than America, first and foremost, and nothing else.

STU:  It's okay to prioritize America.

GLENN:  Right.  It's fine to prioritize.  

STU:  That's what you should do.  But it does not mean -- 

GLENN:  It means a complete withdrawal and enemy outside -- it is complete isolationist, protectionist, and no trade deals.  Even our Founders made trade deals.  And we protested tariffs.  What do you think the Tea Party was about?  It was a rejection of tariffs.  And that's what nationalism is doing.  And it is coming.  And it is coming beyond this election.  And it will only gain strength after this election, no matter who wins, because this is not about Donald Trump.

Featured Image: Screenshot of Inigo Montoya (played by Mandy Patinkin) from The Princess Bride.

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

NOVA SAFO / Staff | Getty Images

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.

Why do Americans feel so empty?

Mario Tama / Staff | Getty Images

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.

A break in trust: A NEW Watergate is brewing in plain sight

Gary Hershorn / Contributor | Getty Images

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

Spencer Platt / Staff | Getty Images

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.