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Undercover in Bangkok: 'Walking Away Was the Hardest Thing I’ve Ever Done'

March 02, 2017
Staff

WRITER

Editor's Note: The following is a guest post by Jason Buttrill, Head Writer/Researcher for 'The Glenn Beck Program', recounting the human trafficking horrors he witnessed in Bangkok.

____________________________________________

I recently traveled to Thailand with Glenn Beck to see firsthand the work Operation Underground Railroad is doing to combat human trafficking. More specifically, to see the children who are being bought and sold on a black market that can only be described as pure, unadulterated evil.

I’ve been to most of the corners of the world during my life. I’ve seen pretty much the worst the world has to offer --- from my time as a military intelligence agent in Afghanistan and Pakistan, to my time as a researcher covering the atrocities ISIS has left behind in Iraq. None of it compares to what I saw one Sunday night in Thailand.

The following is an account of what happened, as best I can remember it. But I have to warn you --- this isn’t for the faint of heart. You’re going to be disgusted and angry. God knows I was --- and still am. But there is good news: Heroes are out there on the front lines.

 

Sunday 8:00 PM • A Remote Village in Thailand

I link up with one of agents from Operation Underground Railroad (OUR) --- let’s just call him Bob --- and make the long drive out to a remote village. Bob is an impressive dude. At around six feet and 220 pounds of muscle, I pity the fool who tangles with him.

But Bob is more than just a tough guy. Bob is a highly competent professional and a true believer in the cause. He cares for children with conviction, and that’s a trait common with every operator in OUR. They’re willing to trade their lives, if needed, to save a child from slavery and bondage. That is exactly Bob's demeanor as we pull into the "rally point."

The Rally Point and Plan

The rally point is a safe location just outside the village where we gather information and gear, as well as get briefed on what we are about to do. The target is a small strip of road within the village rumored to be trafficked with children in multiple brothels. I listen as Bob bluntly lays out the scenario. This is not a safe environment. There are some very bad dudes taking advantage of some very innocent kids. Westerners don't frequent this part of Thailand, so we'll stick out. Our height alone will make us suspect.

Our cover is as two lost tourists looking for a good time. If we manage to talk our way into one of the brothels and confirm that underage kids are inside, we can take evidence to the Thai police. The problem is locals turn away anyone not from the village --- Thai and foreign alike. If you don't live there, it's a no-go. Bob explains how we'll first do a drive-by of the entire street. If he estimates the danger as manageable, we'll park and approach the brothels.

Go Time

It’s roughly 8:30 p.m. and the single-lane streets in the village are pitch black. Tiny lights from within shanty houses provide the only illumination. Bob turns down the target street and lowers both our sun visors so they provide some cover for our faces. Pretty soon, the brothels come into view, as well as the prostitutes hanging out on porches and in doorways. There are eight or so visible brothels, but probably more hidden away. Halfway down the street is an outdoor market and bar where a group of men drink heavily, blitzed out of their minds. We mentally make note of their numbers, estimating about 10 to 15 men --- a potential problem --- but one we ultimately decide is manageable. Bob gives the okay and parks down the street.

We begin our walk toward the string of brothels and immediately get into character, beginning to joke around and act like typical, naive tourists out for a good time. We’re smiling and laughing, but simultaneously calculating everything we see.

Two Curious White Guys

At the first brothel, we approach four prostitutes hanging out on the front porch --- all barely look 18. It’s difficult to gauge how old they are, but the goal is to charm our way inside. Intel collected by OUR indicates these brothels house extremely young children on display in the back. These kids are typically kidnapped and sold into slavery. We need eyes inside to verify this. As Bob begins talking to the girls, I’m now less worried about our safety and more concerned about our success. It hits me like a Mack truck that kids’ lives are at stake here, and we can't screw this up.

The girls are very friendly. We try to converse with them, but the language barrier is holding us back. It becomes pretty clear they're speaking with us --- two white guys --- out of curiosity rather than seeing us as potential clients. An older woman inside whispers something to girl number four and she relays that to girls one, two and three. All conversation stops. They bury their eyes into their phones and refuse to look up. Failure number one.

Heading down the road, Bob surveys the surroundings. Pretty soon we hear a commotion coming from the drinking men. White people don’t come out here, so this must be an odd change in their nightly routine. Some look hostile, but the majority seem more amused than anything else. We keep tabs on them as best we can, and they for sure keep an eye on us.

FaceTiming Madam

Approaching the next brothel, we hope for better results. Bob is like a machine, perfectly in character while I try to keep up. Like the last brothel, there are about four girls sitting on the porch. I can see through the front door a bit, and there’s a blue light illuminating the interior with hardly any furniture inside. Again, there’s an older woman inside sitting at a small table. She looks to be conducting business on a cell phone and doesn’t seem to notice us at first. These girls are also very friendly and giggling nonstop, making fun of us and having fun at our expense. The older woman inside hears the commotion and walks out.

She’s FaceTiming with someone on her phone and holds the camera up to show the person on the other line our faces. While Bob is trying to communicate and gather information, I glance over at the group of men getting trashed and notice they’re watching us intently. This isn’t looking good.

Eventually, the girls decide they’ve had enough "fun" and the older woman gives a similar whisper to one of the girls, everything stops. One of the girls gives me a cold stare and then buries her face in her phone. Failure number two.

Bob and I agree the safety situation is getting worse, and we’ve clearly outstayed our welcome. The playful banter has ceased. The drunken men on the street are eyeing us and yelling, and someone has seen us on the older woman’s phone. Time to leave.

I feel extremely deflated, knowing kids are inside living a nightmare, powerless to stop it. Bob on the other hand is business as usual. This is how surveillance and investigations are done, day in and day out. It’s not always sexy. You’re not kicking in doors and rescuing innocents every day. It takes time and OUR is on the job 24 hours a day, seven days a week. I have no doubt their operatives will bring down that street of horror.

9:30 PM • Somewhere Two Hours From Bangkok

Bob drives while I struggle to stay awake. It’s been a brutal two days, with only a bit of sleep. I get a text from Tim Ballard, head of OUR, who informs me two of his deep undercover operatives are working on several big leads. He invites me to tag along. I get another text with an address. Two hours later, I say goodbye to Bob and book it on foot through the streets of Bangkok. I'm heading into the seedy underground of the city and the freaks are out to play. Most of the people in this area are prostitutes and Western men looking to pick them up. It’s disgusting.

James and Bond

Now 11:45 p.m. or so, I think I’ve arrived at the location to link up with OUR’s undercover operatives. Let’s call them Agent James and Agent Bond --- and let me tell you, their namesake would be very proud. These guys are legit. I’ve worked with human intelligence teams in the Middle East, and these two guys could easily lead any of them.

James greets me and gives a quick briefing on the night. Fifty meters up the street is a group of African prostitutes who promise to deliver a 15-year-old within a minute. I get into my assigned character, playing a role that perfectly fits the story they're running. Thinking I would only be observing from a distance and getting camera footage, this was a bit of a surprise to me, but I was excited for the opportunity to help. I was also aching to have some success after the earlier "failures" with Bob.

I follow James to the group of prostitutes, immediately surprised that many of them speak English, making negotiating much easier than before. James transforms right in front of my eyes, becoming a jerky American looking for underage girls. As promised, the leader of the group motions a little girl over to us. She is also of African descent. The innocence in her face shows she's not like the others. She wears skimpy clothing and a ton of makeup --- just like the others --- but keeps her head lowered the entire time, cowering. She stares at her high heels, clearly inexperienced, and hobbles off balance as she walks. Not once did she look the other prostitutes, or us, in the eye.

James keeps the story running, gathering all the information he can and leaving with everything needed to continue the investigation and move on to the next phase. I’m blown away by his skill.

We turn and walk back about 50 meters to our original meeting point. I think we're done, but he immediately begins briefing me on the next operation. His partner Bond is working another group around the corner, down a seedy back alley. They had worked a source earlier in the day and arranged for the trafficker to bring proof that he had underage kids for sale. He agreed, claiming to have a 12-year-old and a couple of 14-year-olds.

Under the Influence

The plan is the same. I am to play my role, but this time James tells me to sit next to the 12-year-old girl and talk to her while he gets intel from the trafficker. My first thought is, Oh, hell no. There is no way I can pretend to be one of these monsters preying on little kids. It must be the feeling any undercover investigator or operator goes through initially. I had never experienced it before. All of my experience has been in the military, catching enemy combatants and terrorists. This is completely different.

As we walk closer I begin to see the little girl and immediately get a sick feeling in my stomach. She is clearly on some drug, resting her head on a table. James taps her shoulder to wake up, sliding a chair next to her and motioning me to sit down. I want to throw up. She speaks a few words of English, similar to how I speak Spanish: yes, no, hello, thank you. I try to stay in character while, at the same time, say things that might make her feel better.

From my right ear, I can hear James negotiating with the trafficker, who explains he has many more kids as young or younger than the 12-year-old sitting next to me. Apparently, he could have brought more --- but they have school. I almost lose it right then and there.

Win the Battle and Lose the War?

Plans of action shoot through my mind. This guy was tiny, as were his bodyguards. I could snap their necks in a heartbeat, and we could rescue this girl and she’d be safe. My adrenaline is pumping . . . fists are clenched . . . leg muscles are ready to shoot out of the chair.

My attention is diverted as Bond starts hooting and hollering across the table with two more girls this trafficker has brought in. My nerve is breaking, but his is strong. Did he notice me folding? I never ask him, but I’m glad he got vocal at that moment. It makes me realize there are two more kids here. Not only that, but MANY more back at a secret location James is learning about. I feel helpless, so I continue small talk with this poor girl.

James finishes and motions for Bond to get up. We begin to walk away and the trafficker grabs me by the arm: I got you covered. Many, many more kids. I take one last look at that girl, turn around and walk away.

Walking away was the hardest thing I’ve ever done in my life. I’m not speaking in hyperbole. Walking away changed something inside me that I don’t think I’ll ever get back. It’s gone for good.

Baby Steps

James and Bond explain how this was a crucial meeting, an opening salvo in a long process of gathering information and intelligence to build a case. They held their nerve, as I almost didn’t, and the lives of countless children are at stake. James had received a treasure trove of information, one more crucial battle in this long-fought war.

The night goes on as I follow James and Bond through the darkest, seediest alleys in Bangkok. I watch and listen as they approach potential traffickers. They are clinical. The way they get information from people seems almost effortless, they’re that good. They get at least one more lead from a madam that brought a 14-year-old-girl to show to us. She is dressed like a veteran prostitute while simultaneously clutching a teddy bear.

Our night ends around 2:30 a.m. James and Bond hop in a cab, but I decide to walk back to my hotel. I need time to process.

What's Next?

I thought I had seen and known evil throughout my many travels. Turns out, I knew nothing. This was evil in its purest form. This was the worst humanity has to offer. As I write, I'm still struggling to get the image of that little girl out of my head. She remains in a remote, secret location among many more child slaves. But I know something her captors don’t: OUR and their Thai partners are on their trail. The goal? The liberation of every single child involved in this depravity and the evil men responsible to be thrown in jail. I’m counting the seconds.

If you would like to join Jason and the team at Operation Underground Railroad in the fight to save children from sex trafficking, learn more and get involved through prayer or financial contributions. Just five dollars a month makes a massive impact in OUR's capability to save a child and provide recovery services.

GLENN: Jason Buttrill is a guy who has worked with me for a very long time. And is our head researcher. And former military intelligence. Has helped us delve into what's happening in Russia, et cetera, et cetera. And he came with me to Bangkok, Thailand. And our mission there was two-fold: I was going to look for the virtue. Jason went to look for the vice.

And I saw the horrible things of human trafficking and slavery through Operation Underground Railroad. I saw the after rescue.

Jason's job was to go take the cameras and go see the beginning of the slave trade. And I haven't had a chance to talk to him. But every time we have seen each other, I can tell that he's on the verge of tears and says that his whole life has changed.

Hi, Jason.

JASON: Sir.

GLENN: What did you experience?

JASON: Wow, I've been kind of dreading this conversation actually. When you asked me to come on, I didn't really want to do it. I wrote out a story, the first parts going out on Glenn Beck today so you can see this or read this in full detail.

Wow. Yeah. I -- my whole life has changed. That's not hyperbole. That's -- that's straight-up. There's no way to describe it. I had no idea. No one has any idea -- I knew about Operation Underground Railroad. I've seen the results, you know. You know, I've seen the commercials, you know.

GLENN: We've worked with them for a long time. You know the guys personally.

JASON: But I never had a grasp until I went with them. I was with you the entire time. We had got split up, and I got a text from Tim Ballard, the head, and he's like, "I've got two guys deep undercover." He goes, "We invite you to come out and see them work." So I'm like, "Okay. Great. You know, I'll take a cameraman. Watch you from a distance." And he's like, "Oh, you can't bring a camera. This is -- you're going to have to get real up and close and personal with these guys." I'm like, "Okay."

So I made to where I could use a phone. So you'll be able to see all this when we air your special because I did covertly use a phone camera.

But he takes me up -- I meet him up in a little remote location in Bangkok, real seedy, nasty area. And I meet up with his guys. And one of his guys comes up, and he's in full-on character. He breaks character for just a couple seconds. He goes, we're going to go around a corner. We've been working a source, and there's a man that has promised to show us three little girls.

And the next steps are crucial because if we can pull this off, we can get enough information where we can find out where their main housing location is, so we can go in and get the rest of the girls, which is rumored to be ten to 20 more of them.

And I was like, "Okay."

And he goes, "What I'm going to do now is -- he gave me a role. I'm not going to go too much into it because I don't want to tip off how we did it.

But you're going to have a role and you're going to play a part. And I'm like, "Whoa, whoa, I'm going to play a part? I thought I was just going to be out in the distance."

He's like, "No, you're going to play a part." And he goes, "What -- what I really need you to do is I need you to sit next to this one girl. She's the youngest girl there, 12 years old."

I'm like, no, I'm not doing that.

He's like, I need you to do it. It's part of the operation. I need you to go in there, act like -- well, I won't go too far into that. Act like you're interested in her. But you need to talk to her. But not only that, I need you to see how innocent she is.

This is her right here.

I need you to see how innocent she is. And I'm not wanting to do this. And I follow them up there, and I can see her as we go down this dark alley. And she's younger than my daughter. And we go up to her and she's passed out on the table.

And she's drugged out.

GLENN: And they -- they -- the -- the guys who are the slave traders, because she was new, drug her. They drug them early on, just so they can get through what they have to do.

JASON: So the main agent, operative taps her on the shoulder and she's still spaced out, so they give her ice cream. So she wakes up because she's eating ice cream. And I sit next to her. And I try to talk to her. And she has no idea what's going on. Just trying anything I can think of, Glenn, to not blow the operation, but say some words of encouragement so that she would hopefully forget about what's going on.

But I talk to her for a while. I could hear the agent out of my right ear talking to this evil, evil person who is negotiating with this agent on her life and the lives of two other people.

And I can hear this guy -- this OUR agent is so good. So good. So competent. And I've worked with some of the best intelligence agents in the world. And this guy, bar none, would lead every single team I've ever been a part of.

GLENN: These guys are amazing.

JASON: He was amazing. And in a matter of minutes -- it felt like an hour, but in a matter of minutes, he got all the information out of this guy. He's got the next operation setup. Really is only a matter of time. They could be knocking the doors down right now.

But I hear this guy. And he's like, yeah, no problem. Tons of kids. You know, we've got ten to 20. He keeps going.

And at that moment, I dang near lost it. Almost did. I was just about to stand up -- you're thinking -- you see this guy. He's got two body guards. We could have taken those guys out in a second. Could have easily done it. All I wanted to do was grab her and rush her to safety.

I don't know if the other agent that was there noticed that. I have no idea. But he got very loud and boisterous at one moment. And I looked up, and I saw the other two girls. And then I remembered the 20-plus more that could be -- that are out there still. And it was in that moment that I realized how important this is.

GLENN: I will tell you --

STU: Jeez.

GLENN: -- that I had the same experience that Jason had. I lost it. I sat through this meeting, and I was fine. You were with me, Jason. And I was fine. And we only saw the rated G stuff.

And I wanted to kill these people. I've never been -- I've never felt that way before. I -- if those people would have been around me, I would have killed them.

And what they are doing to these children is so obscene. And that is why operation OUR, the underground railroad, that's why this team is so amazing. Because they don't -- I talked to Tim. I said, "Tim, how do you do it?" And he said, "Glenn, we have the best operatives in the world, I believe." And he said, "I've come close too." He said -- and he told me a story of when he almost lost it. And I won't repeat it.

He said, "Glenn, I -- I could have had his throat in my hands, and I could have snapped his neck easily." And he said, "Everything in me wanted to." He said, "But then I thought of all of the girls that would be lost if we blow it. All of the boys that will be lost. All of these 6-year-old, 10-year-old, 12-year-olds that will be lost."

JASON: I've -- I've we've been on a mission to find the good guys in the world. It's taken us all over the world. It's taken us to Iraq. It's taken us to -- both of us have been there. All over the country.

These are the good guys. Operation Underground Railroad, these are the good guys. I mean, this is really what I've really been looking for. I mean, these are just -- some of them are veterans. Some of them --

GLENN: Police.

JASON: Military, police.

GLENN: Some of them are former agents.

JASON: Intelligence.

GLENN: Intelligence.

JASON: And they're out there doing the job when the governments are failing to do it. And not only that, they're training -- they're setting up departments within police all over the country so that they now have procedures to go out and do this on their own. I mean, this is amazing. The amount of skill level, I cannot stress that enough in Tim's guys. They are the best of the best. I've never seen that before. They started those leads, Glenn, that day.

And the story that I just told was one of like four that night. One girl, which I didn't bring a picture of, but one girl -- a madam brought this girl out. And just to accentuate how young and innocent she was -- and of course she was dressed horribly, real skimpy. But they brought her in clutching a big teddy bear, just to further show off how young she was. She was about 13.

These people are evil, evil people. Evil. There's no other way to describe it.

And -- if you think about what they were able to pull off in just an afternoon of gathering information -- think of rampant, how horrible it is in that country and all over the world.

GLENN: And the guys who are doing it are from America and Germany and England and France and Switzerland.

JASON: When we first showed up to that girl with the teddy bear, there was two guys hitting on her while we walked up. Both were American.

GLENN: And they come back to America. After they have had their way with the slaves, they come back to America. And if you think your children are safe, it's an alcoholic going to a country and saying, "Well, I'm going to drink for a week, but when I come back, I'm not going to have anything." It doesn't happen that way.

I have -- I have put a goal of $15 million to be able to help Operation Underground Railroad. That goes to hiring more agents. That goes to -- I'm sorry. $2,500 to rescue a child. But it goes further than that. Because this is not just about the rescue. This is about the aftercare. They are -- if they're 12 years old. They're with -- they're with an OUR operative until they're 18 years old. They're taught how to have a job skill. And it's happening here in America.

We don't talk about America because we can't really talk about America. The things that are going on here, we can't -- we can't talk about. They're happening in other companies that we just can't talk about because they're either too connected to the United States, or they are way too sensitive. But they're happening all over the country.

These guys are traveling all over the world. And when I met -- and you were there. Tell me -- tell me that this isn't true.

When we sat down with the head of the FBI in Thailand, they thanked this audience and said, "Please thank your audience for helping us stop this and catch the bad guys." And there are bad guys. They're coming back home. If they don't get caught there, they come back home.

JASON: Yeah, and another -- what was so amazing about that meeting. That was -- I was talking to Tim after that. That took two years to come to fruition. That right there. They didn't have -- they wouldn't have even spoken to us two years ago. But now they have all the awareness, and they have the -- the --

GLENN: Credibility.

JASON: The task force and everything that's set up to now combat it. They didn't have that before until OUR went in there. But now they have it. Just amazing.

GLENN: It's the only place in Asia that has this task force now. And they're going to be spreading it all over Asia.

Meanwhile, in Great Britain, the head of the Child Protective Services just said they have to stop busting pedophiles for kiddie porn. They're going in the opposite direction. We, as America, can set an example. And this is something that we can all come together on.

If you would like to help us stop modern day slavery, become an abolitionist now. It's happening in our own country. Become an abolitionist. Go to ourrescue.org. That's ourrescue.org. Any donation, even $5 a month, price of a cup of coffee, you can sign up. And it will just take $5 a month off your credit card. And you can become an abolitionist. Be that person that we all say we would have been in the 1800s.

JASON: And if you're a veteran, go to ourrescue.org. And you want to be involved, you want to make a difference, this is your place. Go here. They also have a volunteer section right there. I would have done this a long time ago out of the military. I would have went straight there. This is your spot, if you want to make a difference in the world and the country, this is where you can get it.

GLENN: I'm going to lose you, aren't I?

JASON: Possibly.

GLENN: Yeah. You're going to quit and go to work there.

JASON: It's definitely worth it.

GLENN: I know. I know. I know. I -- I felt the same way. I just wrote to a friend last night, I'm having a hard time justifying my life right now.

JASON: Uh-huh.

GLENN: After seeing what I saw, I'm having a hard time coming back to work and doing this, when this other makes such a huge difference. It actually truly is changing the world.

JASON: I had to stand up and walk away. That was the hardest thing to do. You want to continue to help.

GLENN: I know.

Okay. Operation Underground Railroad. Go to ourrescue.org and help out.

Faith, family, and freedom—The forgotten core of conservatism

Gary Hershorn / Contributor | Getty Images

Conservatism is not about rage or nostalgia. It’s about moral clarity, national renewal, and guarding the principles that built America’s freedom.

Our movement is at a crossroads, and the question before us is simple: What does it mean to be a conservative in America today?

For years, we have been told what we are against — against the left, against wokeism, against decline. But opposition alone does not define a movement, and it certainly does not define a moral vision.

We are not here to cling to the past or wallow in grievance. We are not the movement of rage. We are the movement of reason and hope.

The media, as usual, are eager to supply their own answer. The New York Times recently suggested that Nick Fuentes represents the “future” of conservatism. That’s nonsense — a distortion of both truth and tradition. Fuentes and those like him do not represent American conservatism. They represent its counterfeit.

Real conservatism is not rage. It is reverence. It does not treat the past as a museum, but as a teacher. America’s founders asked us to preserve their principles and improve upon their practice. That means understanding what we are conserving — a living covenant, not a relic.

Conservatism as stewardship

In 2025, conservatism means stewardship — of a nation, a culture, and a moral inheritance too precious to abandon. To conserve is not to freeze history. It is to stand guard over what is essential. We are custodians of an experiment in liberty that rests on the belief that rights come not from kings or Congress, but from the Creator.

That belief built this country. It will be what saves it. The Constitution is a covenant between generations. Conservatism is the duty to keep that covenant alive — to preserve what works, correct what fails, and pass on both wisdom and freedom to those who come next.

Economics, culture, and morality are inseparable. Debt is not only fiscal; it is moral. Spending what belongs to the unborn is theft. Dependence is not compassion; it is weakness parading as virtue. A society that trades responsibility for comfort teaches citizens how to live as slaves.

Freedom without virtue is not freedom; it is chaos. A culture that mocks faith cannot defend liberty, and a nation that rejects truth cannot sustain justice. Conservatism must again become the moral compass of a disoriented people, reminding America that liberty survives only when anchored to virtue.

Rebuilding what is broken

We cannot define ourselves by what we oppose. We must build families, communities, and institutions that endure. Government is broken because education is broken, and education is broken because we abandoned the formation of the mind and the soul. The work ahead is competence, not cynicism.

Conservatives should embrace innovation and technology while rejecting the chaos of Silicon Valley. Progress must not come at the expense of principle. Technology must strengthen people, not replace them. Artificial intelligence should remain a servant, never a master. The true strength of a nation is not measured by data or bureaucracy, but by the quiet webs of family, faith, and service that hold communities together. When Washington falters — and it will — those neighborhoods must stand.

Eric Lee / Stringer | Getty Images

This is the real work of conservatism: to conserve what is good and true and to reform what has decayed. It is not about slogans; it is about stewardship — the patient labor of building a civilization that remembers what it stands for.

A creed for the rising generation

We are not here to cling to the past or wallow in grievance. We are not the movement of rage. We are the movement of reason and hope.

For the rising generation, conservatism cannot be nostalgia. It must be more than a memory of 9/11 or admiration for a Reagan era they never lived through. Many young Americans did not experience those moments — and they should not have to in order to grasp the lessons they taught and the truths they embodied. The next chapter is not about preserving relics but renewing purpose. It must speak to conviction, not cynicism; to moral clarity, not despair.

Young people are searching for meaning in a culture that mocks truth and empties life of purpose. Conservatism should be the moral compass that reminds them freedom is responsibility and that faith, family, and moral courage remain the surest rebellions against hopelessness.

To be a conservative in 2025 is to defend the enduring principles of American liberty while stewarding the culture, the economy, and the spirit of a free people. It is to stand for truth when truth is unfashionable and to guard moral order when the world celebrates chaos.

We are not merely holding the torch. We are relighting it.

This article originally appeared on TheBlaze.com.

Glenn Beck: Here's what's WRONG with conservatism today

Getty Images / Handout | Getty Images

What does it mean to be a conservative in 2025? Glenn offers guidance on what conservatives need to do to ensure the conservative movement doesn't fade into oblivion. We have to get back to PRINCIPLES, not policies.

To be a conservative in 2025 means to STAND

  • for Stewardship, protecting the wisdom of our Founders;
  • for Truth, defending objective reality in an age of illusion;
  • for Accountability, living within our means as individuals and as a nation;
  • for Neighborhood, rebuilding family, faith, and local community;
  • and for Duty, carrying freedom forward to the next generation.

A conservative doesn’t cling to the past — he stands guard over the principles that make the future possible.

Transcript

Below is a rush transcript that may contain errors

GLENN: You know, I'm so tired of being against everything. Saying what we're not.

It's time that we start saying what we are. And it's hard, because we're changing. It's different to be a conservative, today, than it was, you know, years ago.

And part of that is just coming from hard knocks. School of hard knocks. We've learned a lot of lessons on things we thought we were for. No, no, no.

But conservatives. To be a conservative, it shouldn't be about policies. It's really about principles. And that's why we've lost our way. Because we've lost our principles. And it's easy. Because the world got easy. And now the world is changing so rapidly. The boundaries between truth and illusion are blurred second by second. Machines now think. Currencies falter. Families fractured. And nations, all over the world, have forgotten who they are.

So what does it mean to be a conservative now, in 2025, '26. For a lot of people, it means opposing the left. That's -- that's a reaction. That's not renewal.

That's a reaction. It can't mean also worshiping the past, as if the past were perfect. The founders never asked for that.

They asked that we would preserve the principles and perfect their practice. They knew it was imperfect. To make a more perfect nation.

Is what we're supposed to be doing.

2025, '26 being a conservative has to mean stewardship.

The stewardship of a nation, of a civilization.

Of a moral inheritance. That is too precious to abandon.

What does it mean to conserve? To conserve something doesn't mean to stand still.

It means to stand guard. It means to defend what the Founders designed. The separation of powers. The rule of law.

The belief that our rights come not from kings or from Congress, but from the creator himself.
This is a system that was not built for ease. It was built for endurance, and it will endure if we only teach it again!

The problem is, we only teach it like it's a museum piece. You know, it's not a museum piece. It's not an old dusty document. It's a living covenant between the dead, the living and the unborn.

So this chapter of -- of conservatism. Must confront reality. Economic reality.

Global reality.

And moral reality.

It's not enough just to be against something. Or chant tax cuts or free markets.

We have to ask -- we have to start with simple questions like freedom, yes. But freedom for what?

Freedom for economic sovereignty. Your right to produce and to innovate. To build without asking Beijing's permission. That's a moral issue now.

Another moral issue: Debt! It's -- it's generational theft. We're spending money from generations we won't even meet.

And dependence. Another moral issue. It's a national weakness.

People cannot stand up for themselves. They can't make it themselves. And we're encouraging them to sit down, shut up, and don't think.

And the conservative who can't connect with fiscal prudence, and connect fiscal prudence to moral duty, you're not a conservative at all.

Being a conservative today, means you have to rebuild an economy that serves liberty, not one that serves -- survives by debt, and then there's the soul of the nation.

We are living through a time period. An age of dislocation. Where our families are fractured.

Our faith is almost gone.

Meaning is evaporating so fast. Nobody knows what meaning of life is. That's why everybody is killing themselves. They have no meaning in life. And why they don't have any meaning, is truth itself is mocked and blurred and replaced by nothing, but lies and noise.

If you want to be a conservative, then you have to be to become the moral compass that reminds a lost people, liberty cannot survive without virtue.

That freedom untethered from moral order is nothing, but chaos!

And that no app, no algorithm, no ideology is ever going to fill the void, where meaning used to live!

To be a conservative, moving forward, we cannot just be about policies.

We have to defend the sacred, the unseen, the moral architecture, that gives people an identity. So how do you do that? Well, we have to rebuild competence. We have to restore institutions that actually work. Just in the last hour, this monologue on what we're facing now, because we can't open the government.

Why can't we open the government?

Because government is broken. Why does nobody care? Because education is broken.

We have to reclaim education, not as propaganda, but as the formation of the mind and the soul. Conservatives have to champion innovation.

Not to imitate Silicon Valley's chaos, but to harness technology in defense of human dignity. Don't be afraid of AI.

Know what it is. Know it's a tool. It's a tool to strengthen people. As long as you always remember it's a tool. Otherwise, you will lose your humanity to it!

That's a conservative principle. To be a conservative, we have to restore local strength. Our families are the basic building blocks, our schools, our churches, and our charities. Not some big, distant NGO that was started by the Tides Foundation, but actual local charities, where you see people working. A web of voluntary institutions that held us together at one point. Because when Washington fails, and it will, it already has, the neighborhood has to stand.

Charlie Kirk was doing one thing that people on our side were not doing. Speaking to the young.

But not in nostalgia.

Not in -- you know, Reagan, Reagan, Reagan.

In purpose. They don't remember. They don't remember who Dick Cheney was.

I was listening to Fox news this morning, talking about Dick Cheney. And there was somebody there that I know was not even born when Dick Cheney. When the World Trade Center came down.

They weren't even born. They were telling me about Dick Cheney.

And I was like, come on. Come on. Come on.

If you don't remember who Dick Cheney was, how are you going to remember 9/11. How will you remember who Reagan was.

That just says, that's an old man's creed. No, it's not.

It's the ultimate timeless rebellion against tyranny in all of its forms. Yes, and even the tyranny of despair, which is eating people alive!

We need to redefine ourselves. Because we have changed, and that's a good thing. The creed for a generation, that will decide the fate of the republic, is what we need to find.

A conservative in 2025, '26.

Is somebody who protects the enduring principles of American liberty and self-government.

While actively stewarding the institutions. The culture. The economy of this nation!

For those who are alive and yet to be unborn.

We have to be a group of people that we're not anchored in the past. Or in rage! But in reason. And morality. Realism. And hope for the future.

We're the stewards! We're the ones that have to relight the torch, not just hold it. We didn't -- we didn't build this Torch. We didn't make this Torch. We're the keepers of the flame, but we are honor-bound to pass that forward, and conservatives are viewed as people who just live in the past. We're not here to merely conserve the past, but to renew it. To sort it. What worked, what didn't work. We're the ones to say to the world, there's still such a thing as truth. There's still such a thing as virtue. You can deny it all you want.

But the pain will only get worse. There's still such a thing as America!

And if now is not the time to renew America. When is that time?

If you're not the person. If we're not the generation to actively stand and redefine and defend, then who is that person?

We are -- we are supposed to preserve what works.

That -- you know, I was writing something this morning.

I was making notes on this. A constitutionalist is for restraint. A progressive, if you will, for lack of a better term, is for more power.

Progressives want the government to have more power.

Conservatives are for more restraint.

But the -- for the American eagle to fly, we must have both wings.

And one can't be stronger than the other.

We as a conservative, are supposed to look and say, no. Don't look at that. The past teaches us this, this, and this. So don't do that.

We can't do that. But there are these things that we were doing in the past, that we have to jettison. And maybe the other side has a good idea on what should replace that. But we're the ones who are supposed to say, no, but remember the framework.

They're -- they can dream all they want.
They can come up with all these utopias and everything else, and we can go, "That's a great idea."

But how do we make it work with this framework? Because that's our job. The point of this is, it takes both. It takes both.

We have to have the customs and the moral order. And the practices that have stood the test of time, in trial.

We -- we're in an amazing, amazing time. Amazing time.

We live at a time now, where anything -- literally anything is possible!

I don't want to be against stuff. I want to be for the future. I want to be for a rich, dynamic future. One where we are part of changing the world for the better!

Where more people are lifted out of poverty, more people are given the freedom to choose, whatever it is that they want to choose, as their own government and everything.

I don't want to force it down anybody's throat.

We -- I am so excited to be a shining city on the hill again.

We have that opportunity, right in front of us!

But not in we get bogged down in hatred, in division.

Not if we get bogged down into being against something.

We must be for something!

I know what I'm for.

Do you?

How America’s elites fell for the same lie that fueled Auschwitz

Anadolu / Contributor | Getty Images

The drone footage out of Gaza isn’t just war propaganda — it’s a glimpse of the same darkness that once convinced men they were righteous for killing innocents.

Evil introduces itself subtly. It doesn’t announce, “Hi, I’m here to destroy you.” It whispers. It flatters. It borrows the language of justice, empathy, and freedom, twisting them until hatred sounds righteous and violence sounds brave.

We are watching that same deception unfold again — in the streets, on college campuses, and in the rhetoric of people who should know better. It’s the oldest story in the world, retold with new slogans.

Evil wins when good people mirror its rage.

A drone video surfaced this week showing Hamas terrorists staging the “discovery” of a hostage’s body. They pushed a corpse out of a window, dragged it into a hole, buried it, and then called in aid workers to “find” what they themselves had planted. It was theater — evil, disguised as victimhood. And it was caught entirely on camera.

That’s how evil operates. It never comes in through the front door. It sneaks in, often through manipulative pity. The same spirit animates the moral rot spreading through our institutions — from the halls of universities to the chambers of government.

Take Zohran Mamdani, a New York assemblyman who has praised jihadists and defended pro-Hamas agitators. His father, a Columbia University professor, wrote that America and al-Qaeda are morally equivalent — that suicide bombings shouldn’t be viewed as barbaric. Imagine thinking that way after watching 3,000 Americans die on 9/11. That’s not intellectualism. That’s indoctrination.

Often, that indoctrination comes from hostile foreign actors, peddled by complicit pawns on our own soil. The pro-Hamas protests that erupted across campuses last year, for example, were funded by Iran — a regime that murders its own citizens for speaking freely.

Ancient evil, new clothes

But the deeper danger isn’t foreign money. It’s the spiritual blindness that lets good people believe resentment is justice and envy is discernment. Scripture talks about the spirit of Amalek — the eternal enemy of God’s people, who attacks the weak from behind while the strong look away. Amalek never dies; it just changes its vocabulary and form with the times.

Today, Amalek tweets. He speaks through professors who defend terrorism as “anti-colonial resistance.” He preaches from pulpits that call violence “solidarity.” And he recruits through algorithms, whispering that the Jews control everything, that America had it coming, that chaos is freedom. Those are ancient lies wearing new clothes.

When nations embrace those lies, it’s not the Jews who perish first. It’s the nations themselves. The soul dies long before the body. The ovens of Auschwitz didn’t start with smoke; they started with silence and slogans.

Andrew Harnik / Staff | Getty Images

A time for choosing

So what do we do? We speak truth — calmly, firmly, without venom. Because hatred can’t kill hatred; it only feeds it. Truth, compassion, and courage starve it to death.

Evil wins when good people mirror its rage. That’s how Amalek survives — by making you fight him with his own weapons. The only victory that lasts is moral clarity without malice, courage without cruelty.

The war we’re fighting isn’t new. It’s the same battle between remembrance and amnesia, covenant and chaos, humility and pride. The same spirit that whispered to Pharaoh, to Hitler, and to every mob that thought hatred could heal the world is whispering again now — on your screens, in your classrooms, in your churches.

Will you join it, or will you stand against it?

This article originally appeared on TheBlaze.com.

Bill Gates ends climate fear campaign, declares AI the future ruler

Bloomberg / Contributor | Getty Images

The Big Tech billionaire once said humanity must change or perish. Now he claims we’ll survive — just as elites prepare total surveillance.

For decades, Americans have been told that climate change is an imminent apocalypse — the existential threat that justifies every intrusion into our lives, from banning gas stoves to rationing energy to tracking personal “carbon scores.”

Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates helped lead that charge. He warned repeatedly that the “climate disaster” would be the greatest crisis humanity would ever face. He invested billions in green technology and demanded the world reach net-zero emissions by 2050 “to avoid catastrophe.”

The global contest is no longer over barrels and pipelines — it is over who gets to flip the digital switch.

Now, suddenly, he wants everyone to relax: Climate change “will not lead to humanity’s demise” after all.

Gates was making less of a scientific statement and more of a strategic pivot. When elites retire a crisis, it’s never because the threat is gone — it’s because a better one has replaced it. And something else has indeed arrived — something the ruling class finds more useful than fear of the weather.The same day Gates downshifted the doomsday rhetoric, Amazon announced it would pay warehouse workers $30 an hour — while laying off 30,000 people because artificial intelligence will soon do their jobs.

Climate panic was the warm-up. AI control is the main event.

The new currency of power

The world once revolved around oil and gas. Today, it revolves around the electricity demanded by server farms, the chips that power machine learning, and the data that can be used to manipulate or silence entire populations. The global contest is no longer over barrels and pipelines — it is over who gets to flip the digital switch. Whoever controls energy now controls information. And whoever controls information controls civilization.

Climate alarmism gave elites a pretext to centralize power over energy. Artificial intelligence gives them a mechanism to centralize power over people. The future battles will not be about carbon — they will be about control.

Two futures — both ending in tyranny

Americans are already being pushed into what look like two opposing movements, but both leave the individual powerless.

The first is the technocratic empire being constructed in the name of innovation. In its vision, human work will be replaced by machines, and digital permissions will subsume personal autonomy.

Government and corporations merge into a single authority. Your identity, finances, medical decisions, and speech rights become access points monitored by biometric scanners and enforced by automated gatekeepers. Every step, purchase, and opinion is tracked under the noble banner of “efficiency.”

The second is the green de-growth utopia being marketed as “compassion.” In this vision, prosperity itself becomes immoral. You will own less because “the planet” requires it. Elites will redesign cities so life cannot extend beyond a 15-minute walking radius, restrict movement to save the Earth, and ration resources to curb “excess.” It promises community and simplicity, but ultimately delivers enforced scarcity. Freedom withers when surviving becomes a collective permission rather than an individual right.

Both futures demand that citizens become manageable — either automated out of society or tightly regulated within it. The ruling class will embrace whichever version gives them the most leverage in any given moment.

Climate panic was losing its grip. AI dependency — and the obedience it creates — is far more potent.

The forgotten way

A third path exists, but it is the one today’s elites fear most: the path laid out in our Constitution. The founders built a system that assumes human beings are not subjects to be monitored or managed, but moral agents equipped by God with rights no government — and no algorithm — can override.

Hesham Elsherif / Stringer | Getty Images

That idea remains the most “disruptive technology” in history. It shattered the belief that people need kings or experts or global committees telling them how to live. No wonder elites want it erased.

Soon, you will be told you must choose: Live in a world run by machines or in a world stripped down for planetary salvation. Digital tyranny or rationed equality. Innovation without liberty or simplicity without dignity.

Both are traps.

The only way

The only future worth choosing is the one grounded in ordered liberty — where prosperity and progress exist alongside moral responsibility and personal freedom and human beings are treated as image-bearers of God — not climate liabilities, not data profiles, not replaceable hardware components.

Bill Gates can change his tune. The media can change the script. But the agenda remains the same.

They no longer want to save the planet. They want to run it, and they expect you to obey.

This article originally appeared on TheBlaze.com.