Victor Davis Hanson: The Dangerous Decline of Western Civilization

It's a very, very strange mindset that somebody comes to the United States from a place where there's no security, there's no freedom, and there's no prosperity. And suddenly this host gives them lavish health, education, food, housing subsidies, and almost immediately they enlist in the left and they start lecturing the Indigenous population about everything that's wrong with your country. Well hello ladies and hello gentlemen and welcome to Victor, Davis Hanson. In his own words I'm Jack Fowler, the host, I get to ask Victor questions that I'm confident you would want to ask him and we will get his wisdom. We are talking on Monday, October 19th, 2026. This episode will be up on Thursday, October 22nd. Victor is the Martin and Ely Anderson Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution, the Wayne and Marsha Busky Distinguished Fellow in History at Hillsdale College, best-selling author of the Counter Revolution, the Fallen Rise of Donald Trump and the Magna Movement. He's a Senior Contributor at the Daily Signal and his website is The Blade of Perseus. Go to victorhanson.com, you'll find it there, tons of free stuff, but there's also exclusive articles and you can read them to a week, one video a week, exclusive $65 a year or sick your toe in the water, $650 a month. Victor, a ton to talk about, first of all, I apologize, folks, I don't know, we'll get this right. Computers have died. So we're both in your, yours and mine. Yeah. So we'll see. It's obviously a plot. But Victor, you are indestructible to any plot, so I'll find out, I have my 90 day biopsy Wednesday, so I'll find out. Oh, well, that will be the day before this actually appears. So well, the, I don't know, folks are praying relentlessly. So we're going to talk about, again, the French riots, Macron's response, who's behind them? Obama on Omar, Elon Musk's flying car, birth of tourism, Catherine Mahar of NPR getting a free speech, a ward, I mean, or well, spinning in his grave, and we'll get to all these topics when we come back from these initial important messages. Victor is a close friend of Dennis Prager and has had the privilege of working with his remarkable team at Prager U. Victor has appeared in several five-minute videos reaching millions worldwide, remarkably more than 60 percent of Prager U's audiences under 35, the very generation who most needs our enduring American principles. At a time when education and media too often erode confidence in our country, Prager U stands firm in defending truth, reason, and the ideas of Western civilization. We're proud to be part of the Prager U family. Please support Prager U with a tax deductible donation today. Go to PragerU.com/VDH and give generously today. We are back with Victor Davis Hanson in his own words of Victor. I remember a year ago, Manuel Macron had France recognize Palestine. I don't think he knew that the capital of Palestine was going to be Paris. So we have these curfews now that have been announced the riots. Continue the riots. Of course, France practically all city, major cities, and some minor ones too, also in Belgium, Italy, Albania. Let me just read, we're going to talk about Macron speech, curfews, and the folks behind these riots. But here's what the French Prime Minister Le Corneux was announced. There will be localized curfews put in place in a bid to stem the rioting and looting. He said that the government has not yet deemed it necessary to impose a state of emergency. When does that happen? What has happened for that to take place? So if necessary, of course, we could to date a curfew seems more appropriate to the situation. He said that police in Jean-Dame Marie forces will be reinforced this weekend ahead of further protests, et cetera, et cetera. Let me just finish babbling here, Victor, to give some quotes from what Macron said. He gave a national televised speech on Sunday night. He said, "There must be a distinction between protesters with legitimate demands, and those who destroyed Smashed and looted the President's pledge to launch a crisis unit to provide urgent aid for those who are going through difficult moments." He added that, "Lessons will be learned after the destructive violence erupted this weekend." We need to be clear yesterday, our law enforcement officials, officers and officials, despite their professionalism were subjected to unprecedented violence in several cities. Victor, it seems like he, all in all, this has been perceived as police action, police responsibility. Many of us think the nation is crumbling, and it be terrible things. I never heard of someone you're taking. He talks out of all sides of his mouth. He's kind of Gavin Newsom of the French accent, and when he said, "These are to be separated from legitimate complaints." What are the legitimate complaints? Your budget is 40 to 45 percent spent on social welfare. Is that what's wrong? The complaints that the people in the street are making can't really be addressed because your social welfare budget is not too big. It's too small. In the sense that they're saying your budget is too small, I'm talking as a protester, but it's actually way too big. They don't have the money anymore. They're disarmed, 2 percent barely. They have this war on fossil fuels. How did that work out? Open borders, first generation Frenchmen are about Asian or African descent or Muslim descent are about 14 percent of the population, and first and second when you combine it to or over 25. You've got a quarter of the country that is not on the same page as you are, and you have no way to address it because they're basically saying you're spending 50 percent of them are not working, and they're getting these benefits that are unheard of in Iraq, Afghanistan, Somalia, Libya, Algeria, Morocco. They don't exist there, but this is the best thing they've ever had, and yet France is supposed to do what, give more, so he can't say anything, and then it's quite tragic because everything Europe has done, and I include the UK. So how did that work out? So Macron gave all of these soapbox speeches, this virtual signaling performance art rhetoric about how he was going to divest from Israel, any product on the West Bank that was produced would not come into Europe. He was meeting with the Palestinians. He would deny US airspace if they attacked Iraq. The UK said you can't use Diego Garcia, you can't use our airspace, we're not, we're going to let out the terrorists, would be terrorists at the RAF-Natal base where your mommers were, three and a half billion worth, we're going to let them out on bail. So how did that all work? Did these first and second generation immigrants say thank you? You gave us all this social welfare, you've got this public free education, and you know what? You're as pro-Palestinian as you could be, you hate Israel as much as we do, and for all of that magnuminity, we're going to riot and burn down all of Europe, all the iconic emblems of France and the Republic that we can. And when are they ever going to get it in their head? But there's a certain type of mindset that says the more that you are magnanimous, the more I'm going to interpret that is weakness to be exploited and to be mocked, not to be reciprocated with gratitude and they still don't get it. And it's going to spread, but it's already spread enough to send a signal to the United States. It's not on the eve of the midterm, and this is California on steroids. This is Canada on steroids. This EU model doesn't work. One or two percent growth at most high unemployment, low fertility, wind and solar, kind of a third world foreign policy, passive aggressive hatred and dependence at the same time on the United state's military. Please save a us from Ukraine, but we're not going to let you use your basis to help us be protected from a potential Iranian missile. It's just so incoherent, and the subtext is that they're in decline, and this great continent is an utter decline. Its economy is static, it's ossified, it's calcified, they're shrinking, they're aging, they're full of animus and they're angry, and I'll just finish by saying that the only chance they have is a medicine that they see is worse than the disease, because the alternative for Deutschland are not Nazis, they have some people that are questionable politics, but mostly it's a counter-revolutionary movement. So is Le Pen, so is Farage, so is Maloney. The only way they can stop that counter-revolution is to make laws up. It says that outlaw party or jail people for free speech. They are becoming fascists to stop what they call fascists, who are not fascists. I don't see a solution here for Macron. I really don't, because he's already given immigrants too much, and that too much is seen as too little and they want more, but you start to see it's not about that at all, they want to take over the country, they really do. The president of El Salvador said who's transformed his country, but it's totally different country. It's going to be done in a year, but you need the moxie to do it. I don't know if anyone with a moxie could do it in France, because so much of the population is once money, addicted to the bloated state, even people should be thinking about it. They're going to lower the retirement to 62, and I'm 73, and I feel like I've got a few more years before I retire. Making is that this model doesn't work, and it's now got geo-strategic significance. Wouldn't it be ironic that we're trying our best to stop the Islamic world's bomb in the Middle East? I know that Pakistan has a bomb, but we want Iran not to be in control of a nuclear weapon, but it may be that the first Islamic bomb is in the UK or France, because the government seemed to act like that. They meet every demand, and they go after their own citizens who stand up to this unacculturated, non-integrated, non-assimilated population that doesn't want to assimilate. It's been a gift if the Republicans will use it because all they have to say is, don't listen to us. Just look at the ultimate manifestation of what LSAE'd, and Ilihan Omar, and Mandami, and Millet Curos, and the DSA of America. This is what they want. They want to stagnate, ossified economy, with no growth, no wealth, with each faction and a tribal group fighting each other, and unassimilated immigrants with open borders, and a green philosophy that ensures you're going to go backwards as far as civilization will progress. I think I never seen anything like it. He looked like a deer in the headlights. He looks like Gavin Newsom when they ask him what Gavin's going to do about high-speed rail and the $30 billion they've spent, or the Palisade's fire that they've diverted all the money to low-income housing. I was just in Pepperdine and Malibu, and it's so sad going down the PCH and seeing one, I think I counted one house on the coastal side that's being rebuilt, but that's California and Canada and Europe should be on everybody's mind when they vote. They really should. Because this is a deep election. I know there's personalities and there's local issues, but everybody's worried about the price of gas and understandably so, the Iran War, but this is not the Democratic Party. This is capitalism versus socialism, dash communism. This is American exceptionalism against multicultural chaos, and you've got to vote. He's got to vote for Western civilization, that's what it is. It's really, I just did a little piece about what before we came on with Newsmax and on LCE. There are so many things he said and the host was pointing them out that the aggregate amount, I mean, he can't hurt when Islamists attack a synagogue and try to kill somebody that the Hezbollah members brother and Michigan, who was killed as brother, tried to kill people the synagogue. He said, hurt people hurt. When Federman spoke up about Israel, he said we should put that ogre's head on a pike, and when people in the room said it was positive that this terrorist leader of Iran, the Supreme Leader of Komen A, was killed, he said, be careful, my dear born residents wouldn't agree with you. But they're just so many of them, like Taloriko, and then he's standing up today and yesterday talking as if, and referencing himself, John, and you would like this, Jack, John F. Kennedy had the same problem being a Catholic, and he had to stress the Pope was not running the country if he were to be elected, and the same thing with me, and isn't it ironic that we've gone all the way back where we can't have somebody from a different religion? So, it's Alice in Wonderland, yeah, these people mean business, they really do, I'm not exaggerating. Well, I have a thing or two more for you on France of October 1st to our listeners and our viewers, if you've studied enough history, you start to see a pattern, nations don't lose their way overnight, they drift through debt and division until one day you realize the foundations, you thought were permanent, were never permanent at all. Today America is spending at levels once reserved for wartime, we've normalized deficits that would have stunned earlier generations, and policymakers now debate whether the only path forward is more intervention, more printing, more distortion, but here's the historical truth, every society that pushed its currency beyond discipline eventually paid a price. The wise never waited for collapse though, they prepared for the correction, and that's why so many thoughtful Americans, especially those nearing retirement or in retirement, are reallocating part of their wealth into something that has outlasted every paper experiment in human history, physical, gold, not a speculation, but as insulation. Our reputation matters here at Victor Davis Hanson in his own words, which is why we're partnering with Allegiance Gold, a company distinguished by integrity, reliability, and an A+ rating from the Better Business Bureau. 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Victor, two things came across today and I don't know if it's apocryphal, one of these made-up sayings, but I've never seen it before, but to goll in 1959 talking about Muslims and France compared it to salad dressing, the oil and vinegar, and you could take it and you shake it up and it's mixed, but eventually the oil and the vinegar separates, and that was his view of what France would become, an unassemblable Muslim population, not that he did anything about it. He was actually allowed a million Muslims from Algeria to come in to the country and after the collapse of the Pied Noir in Algeria and he didn't even have at least Spain had a coastal enclave so that they could monitor immigration, although the current prime minister is destroying it, but he just pulled everybody out and brought a million people with him and that gave a signal. It's a very strange, I think everybody is listening, is confused as I am. It's a very, very strange mindset that somebody comes to the United States from a place where there's no security, there's no freedom and there's no prosperity, and suddenly this host gives them. But lavish health, educational, food, housing, subsidies, and almost immediately, and I'm generalizing, I understand, but it seems like it's the majority now. They enlist in the left, and they start lecturing the indigenous population about everything that's wrong with your country. It's the worst country, said Ilya and Omar. I hate God knows, I hate the United States, as Hassan Piker, mandami, giving us lectures about everything that's wrong with our immigration laws. You think they'd have a little humility and gratitude, like most of the traditional immigrants. We have $53.55 million that weren't born in the United States. I hope the majority, and I think they are. I know so many wonderful immigrants. But it's very hard for people to come from a particular region in mass, and then create a ghetto or an enclave, and claim it as a little, a toll inside America and say to America, we want your economic prosperity. We are going to have freedom for ourselves as protected by your constitution, and we of course have security, so we won't have tribal warfare. The next village or town won't kill us, or a dictator won't. But that said, we're not going to assimilate. We're just going to expand, expand, and make our little home country inside America. We create it. Not only enjoy these expensive benefits, Victor, but then engage in these hundreds of billions of dollars of fraud, all these various autism daycare centers, when you talk about birth or tourism later, I mean, the immigrant communities of Somalia and others, it's just unfathomable what they're doing here. I don't know for America, I know it, and I was listening to the woman in the, it's running in Colorado and upstate New York. One is from Ethiopia, and I think one is, I don't know where she's from. But they can't finish the sentence without white, white, white, or like Montgomery, I'm going to go after white neighborhoods. So when I was collating all these things, I asked myself, I guess they have statistics that show that the host white population in the resentment is committing all these crimes. But when I looked at the fraud and I looked at hate crimes and I looked at interracial crimes, it turns out that the so-called indigenous white population is overrepresented as victims, underrepresented as victimizers, underrepresented as crime perpetrators, overrepresented as victims of crime, with one exception in the black community, most black, violent crime is committed against other blacks, but in interracial crime, it's committed overwhelmingly against white about seven to one, depending on the, and so what I'm getting at is there's this hatred of the indigenous population, if I can use that term, or they call white, white, white, that they're so obsessed with, but they don't produce data that show that this particular targeted population is doing all these bad things to them, other than the left, I mean, the left is giving them the proverbial caricature of a Karen is a very, very wealthy, liberal, affluent woman who feels terrible about the plight of the world and votes a strict left-wing ticket no matter what, and I guess she's white and she's exempted, but there's a racial element of hatred, and I don't quite get it, and the hatred, that's why there's no assimilation, and I think it's the wages jack of, it's almost like all of these things we've just been putting fuel on, we've been making along a big bonfire, wood, fuel, gasoline, and it got bigger and bigger and bigger and bigger, with the DEI, the separate graduations, the separate dorms, the hyphenated names, the cultural appropriation, and we just, it was just insidious, we just said, okay, that's kind of silly, save spaces, yeah, we understand, okay, if you're blonde, you can't have corn rolls, we get that, and then it just exploded, it's just the match, it's exploded now, and it's exploding in Europe, it's exploding as we see in this election cycle, and I'm not exempting the socialists, the socialists of the people who are the puppet masters in Europe, and I think here too, big money, big money, the sources and the segments and all those people. Yeah, we'll get into that in a second, Victor, but just to pick up on your Karen, let Lefty Karen line, an American, but I'm sure the one outside of pure fires, videos of fires of the Lemoge, Town Hall, et cetera, is that one video going around of the woman, the shopkeeper, attractive middle-aged woman, and who is saying, please, no, stop, but I'm one, you know, I supported you, and she thought, as you've talked about many times, the Leftys think that they are immune there by voting to let us, this madness into the country, by voting left, somehow they'll be exempt, somehow they've bought insurance, but it's come to bite them in the heini. It reminds me of Dantan or St. Just, or some of the early revolutionaries trying to reason with the Jacobin, but I'm one of you, but I agree with you, no, put your head down, we're chopping it off. These revolutions get more, they always eat their own as they get more and more radicalized until they're so incoherent, they blow up, and we're getting to that point where they're going to blow up. I think this is going to affect the midterms, I really do, because I think if the word gets out and you can see it on, I know, today I went on the internet and looked at some of the coverage, you can really see that CBS, ABC, AP, CNN, they don't want to cover this, and to the extent they do cover, they talk about students not having enough books. Did you see the looting of the Louis Vuitton store, the handbags? They were all coming out. I think somebody had a little main that said, "Mem that said, these are, France didn't give their students tote bags, so they were forced to go into Louis Vuitton and get bags for their books." And now they're being sold at some of the second hand online luxury item resellers. There's also a racial element and a religious element. There was a hat cap verified, so I hesitate because it hasn't been, but it's all over social media about Marseille and other places where they're targeting non-Muslim stores and shops, especially Jewish shops like Crystal Nick in Germany, but not Muslim shops. So if you were to identify your shop or store as Islamic, you would not be touched. Yeah, there is a video, this is one of our sisters and then they go off and they're not visited by a Muslim. If that's true, it's sort of like Germany and the Crystal Nick where they just targeted shops that were Jewish. We're going really backward. I do blame also, I'll be very candid everybody. I do blame not just the people on the left, but certain people on the right that traffic in all of this, anti-Semitic Jewish, Jew, Jew, Jew, Jew. And if you're not careful, you're going to unleash the animal spirits that are always suppressed. The anti-Semitic violence that occurs, if you keep trying to target Jews, Jews, Jews, because it's not like you're in America in 1950 and you're targeting Jews, Jews, Jews in the anti-Semitic tropes. It's not like gentlemen's agreement or something like that. The Hollywood film that dealt with it. We have a large population, minority population, maybe five to seven million who hate Israel and they hate Jews and they're from the Middle East and their pro-Hesbalah and pro-Hamas. So when you say the Jews did it and Israel's evil, it's not just a crazy Americans are going to get inside it. It's you're inciting a group of people who are much more serious than you are and they really do hate Israel and they hate the West. When you saw at Lamage the cupula fall or you saw that, I've seen it in Marseille, that very famous statue of Mariana, I think, Mariana. She's the symbol of the revolution or the Republic, excuse me, the French Republic. And you see the Duomo in Italy where there's fire, you know, not very far from that famous Gothic cathedral. You can see that they really do hate the civilization, western civilization and you ask yourself, All of these iconic buildings, it's like all these Europeans are living in an ancient treasure house And they're kind of like museum guards, but they haven't created maybe high speed rail or the channel or something But what did they create it? They can't defend themselves their economy is shot Their gas is $9 a gallon and they have these welfare Programs that are not sustainable. They're higher education is not competitive in a global sense and The Russians despise the Russians hate them with a passion Because they lecture the Russians and the Russians think they're weak and the only thing really to tell you that's stopping stopping Russia from going into Europe are two things three things The what's left of the Ukrainian army is down to 28 million people are 27 13 million of left but they're fighting heroically and France and Britain for now they have about together about three or four hundred nuclear weapons and The United States Take those three things away and Putin would just walk through that continent and some of the Scandinavians the Finns and The Swedes they have various sophisticated arms, but other than that I It's and that's that really characterizes why they're so paranoid about Putin and the United States the Linsky all of these melodramas. They all have a central text That they have destroyed their economies. They're ashamed of their culture. They have this Riding in their streets. They have this unsustainable immigration open borders problem Problem and they can't deal with it because to deal with it would refute their entire post-war post-modern leftist dogma and They're just paralyzed. Yeah, and that's what and if you don't believe me go play what Jack just mentioned I watch it twice from a crone speech and it's on the one hand on the other hand Yes, but of course maybe and it's just jibberief It's jibberief he thinks that because he's kind of good-looking like Gavin Newsom and he has his hand gestures like Gavin or vice versa that we're gonna be convinced Yeah, or like they remind me of a three-studious carny Gavin and Macron They're all a lot you think about they're all technical I think they're technocrats They're all empty suits. They all have that sort of I'm I'm dignified in my really nice natty suit, but I'm also hip and They're completely Incomponent and they everything they they have the on-mindest touch everything they touch turns to draw useless in a crisis, but the creators of crisis while they're at it by the way I just want to recommend to our viewers and listeners this is a Wonderful article by Osirah Nomani and Osirah is a terrific journalist. I've known her for over 30 years She was very close to Danny Prostene who was the Wall Street Journal reporter who was murdered by the Muslim terrorists, but she has a piece at Fox News where she's an editor now France student protests back by 54 communists and Social groups and she writes here of the 54 organizations identified in the October protest ecosystem 16 are only one in three are student or youth organizations, but they include communist youth groups and Muslim student associations The remaining 38 include adult-led communist groups labor unions political parties revolutionary left organizations advocacy groups and international Propaganda outlets. They include Gillette Jean or yellow vests or radical far less group that led protests with other groups this weekend and far less far left Socialist political party La France Also me so France on bowed so anyway people who are looking to see who's bankrolling this and what's the as her word the eight-co system? I recommend this article if you have any thoughts on that Richter if not we'll move we'll move on. No, I agree with you. I it's a She's a great journals. Yeah Well, by the way, we did say one thing about the tender being set and I think within America You know, we're 30 40 years removed from high-meetown and Al Sharpton, you know urging Blacks to hate Jews and Black culture a certain segment of it has gotten Increasingly dysfunctional at that time and hostility to Jews has skyrocketed. I wonder about that as its own Well, I think in the larger sense of yeah, by the way, I mean none of those It didn't hurt any of those people in the black community that were overtly anti-Semitic I mean Jesse Jackson said I'm on my way to high-meetown He's still he kind of said he was he got mad that people quoted him. He thought it was a private conversation Then we had Lewis Farrakhan who had a picture remember with Obama and they suppressed it during his presidency He was the one that said Judaism was a gutter religion and he warned the Jews that they might be facing a hitlerian solution Then we had Al Sharpton that said put on your Yarmark and come over. I'm waiting for you during the whole Freddy's market psychodrama and Yeah, it's deeply entrenched, but what it is spread now to a central element of DEI and that binary of victim victimizers Prime targets are the Jewish community because statistically they're very affluent. They're very accomplished. They're white and That old resentment from the Black community now has been absorbed by all of the people in the DEI community And I could see it at Stanford because some of the greatest promulgators of Anti-Semitism were students that were you would classify as DEI with there was a professor African-American professor. He was not I shouldn't say professor. That's exaggerating his role with the university. He was a lecturer African-American and right after October 7th remember that Jackie said to half you go over here or Jewish Take your stuff with you and stand on that side and we're gonna see how you like being displaced and we had the Black Lives matter banners you remember with the glider glorifying the killing of Jews so the there's certain things that I've been You expect people who I don't expect black people that individual black people to have to defend people I mean, they're individuals, but they're once you say that you are a leader of the black community and you speak collectively for it and you don't address the anti-Semitism or the racism or the dysfunctionality of inner city culture Then you're morally bankrupt You don't have to but if you say you are representing the black community as a writer as an activist or an Obama and you won't mention that then People are gonna draw the logical conclusions Obama, you know, when he went over to Ireland, we discussed that and he trashed Israel and He said they took the land and all of that stuff on Netanyahu, then Addressed him. It's funny Jack his stock when he left off. I know he may pull high, but for reasonable Sensible saying people his stock is going like this Because what is he revealed himself? He's revealed himself is a selfish Grifter who left office signed all these netflax netflix Contracts all of these ways to get you know worth two or three hundred million. He didn't do anything to really Earn the money. It was kind of praise for being the first black president and a person of the left the tech money poured in and then he built this monstrosity this flat tower 850 million he shorted the contractors many of whom were African American the staff is quitting. He has no interest in it and Then as you as we see in every little crisis So when the writing broke out or Israel was being demonized that are there's a midterms and he gets on his private jet And he flies out of Hawaii or Calla Roma, Calla Roma Calla Roma is that what it is? And then he leaves Martha's Calla Rama Calla Rama excuse me and then he leaves Martha's Vineyard and he gives about a 15 minute Booster talk and thinks he's wowed everybody and then he flies back the latest not to get off topic, but He made an astounding Statement the other day that he thought it was terrible that The Trump administration might target people individuals for their political beliefs I don't When I wrote the counter revolution. I was astounded. I really was that what he did in the last year when he had in his office Brennan Clapper and Comi and they had brought back intelligence reports from their respective agencies Basically saying there's no there there with Russia collusion, steel, and he sent them back for more. He was trying to derail the election and then derail the transition and then derail the presidency actively. And no one said anything. He went after associate, associated press reporters. He went after James Rosen. They even traced his GPS phone. They monitored the text with his grandmother. The IRS went after people before the 2012 election, deliberately targeting conservatives. So he was the first present in my lifetime. Maybe FDR did it, but I was not born yet. But he really went after people. Nixon did it with an enemy's list, but not to the degree that Obama did. And for him to get up in his soap box and then say he's worried that people might be targeted. What do you think Biden did to Peter Navarro? They put leg iron son in and put him in jail. What a sluck in advocating that happens to not only sluck in, but oh my gosh, what's her name? Her kid was at a stand for Susan Rice. Susan Rice. You know, we're going to we're coming for you. Yeah. Susan Rice. Susan Rice openly said that. Yeah. I couldn't understand slotkin. She's often emphasized that she's Jewish, but she's endorsed Saeed as I see. And now she's at the vanguard of this new leftist socialist Islamist base of the party. And there is a strain in it. They're openly anti-Semitic. And I don't you know, I don't get it because there's a lot of very brave Jewish congressional representatives. I think there's two or three of them who have said that they're not going to unbore and dors Saeed and they can't. But she she's been you know that she's barely squeaked by mic Rogers. The first that was the first the first time you ran for Senate, but she just basically said we're going to create a climate of such vindictiveness and go after Trump when we get the house that all you young people that are idealistic and conservative, it's we're going to trace you if you work for that. We're going to make it impossible for you to have a career once you're staying with a Trump affiliation. The Nixon the Nixon enemies list victor that you mentioned. It was let's say there were a hundred people on it, but right now there are probably tens of millions of people who are in in a I just said it because it was called they called them the enemies list, but they didn't really they didn't really do much to any of them. I get it, but it's just this is a size thing. Let's say he had it. He did this and it but it's like okay you can fit them all on a notepad one one piece of paper, but what the the left has is for you and me and our spouses and our children and the vast number of millions and millions of people are what they want to target you know far beyond what Nixon would have ever had thought even a feasible. So can we we I need to say something you know what time it is victor by the way. What time it is? Yeah, it's time for me to talk about watches. I want my watch. Very generously gifted watch. Yeah, yes. So we tend to forget that civilizations are remembered less by their politics than by what they made the tools, the objects, the things built well enough to outlast the people who built them. For most of the last century, America made things than like much of the old productive economy, watchmaking packed up and moved overseas. Well, today's sponsor is trying to bring a piece of it back. Var that's var V-A-E-R. V-A-E-R. Var is a Los Angeles watch company whose goal is pretty straightforward. Bring American watchmaking back. They now assemble watches right here in California as well as Arizona, Rhode Island and Alabama with leather straps made in Illinois and Florida and these aren't fashion accessories. They're proper tool watches, sapphire crystals, premium materials and full waterproof warranties, meaning you can actually swim or dive with them on. V-D-H has Var's C5 Korean field solar and it looks great. And I got my var too right here. Okay. Var has already earned over 10,000 five star reviews and it's become one of the largest independent watch assemblers in the United States. Folks, if you value things that are rugged, made to last and built here at home, go to varwatches.com/V-D-H. That's var V-A-E-R watches.com/V-D-H. And we thank the good people from var and their lovely watches for sponsoring Victor Davis Hanson in his own words. Victor, talking about things made in the United States and you had talked in the past about, you know, great things that had happened, men who made such dams, highway systems, all products and what's become of America. But Elon Musk has unveiled a flying Tesla Roadster at his SpaceX Texas site. I was kind of shocked when I saw the video this the other day. And it's uplifting. Literally, it's uplifting, but it's uplifting and inspiring. Do you have any thoughts on this? I mean, you don't need a train in California. I thought it was an amazing engineering feat is the idea that, I mean, because it can't have much fuel, right? And you have an electric, is it a fuel car or is an electric car that has that capability? It's electric car that clearly has some material in it that can throw you in California. I think it has this massive vacuum. So if I'm in California and I'm driving the few places that have three lanes and there's three truckers all in the left middle, I can just hit the button and leapfrog over them. I can imagine the mid-air collisions. Did you see, there's a lot of very bright people on the internet. So the memes where they had Ilya and Omar, excuse me, AOC saying that Elon Musk was a particularly stupid or unintelligent person. And then the background, this car goes in that loop and flies. That was pretty funny. And what have they produced? What have any of those people who are so smart? What is Hillary Clinton produced? What is Barack Obama? And we're very lucky. I mean, Jeff Bezos and Elon and all these people. And if Trump can enlist them to work in the defense industry and broaden the base beyond just the normal six or seven big companies and stress quantity as well as quality. And we're going to be in a very good position. Somebody really, I did an interview with Peter Robinson that came out today about the book on common knowledge. Maybe some of people would like it. But there were a lot of hostile comments. They said the book should have been called The Fall Rise and Fall of Donald Trump. And Victor's been lying for a long time when he said when the Iraq war is over, the economy in the fourth quarter is going to boom. I just read, I was kind of curious. I thought, did I mislead people? So I went back and I said, yes, I found it. It is true that 87,000 is the highest family income we've ever had. It is true that 10.3 is the lowest poverty rate we've ever had. It is true that the Atlanta Fed will reserve is forecasting for the fourth quarter, 3.4% economic growth. And then the Philadelphia and the other branches are about 2.4 to 2.5. That's factory and high oil prices. I don't know if we have 20 trillion, but there's a document of 11 trillion dollars of foreign investment. So I really do believe that's correct. I think we're going once the war is over and once the gas problem reverts to the pre-war status, the economy is going to really take off. But I was surprised how much hostility people have toward Trump right now. Maybe there are just people on the left. And that's not known as a liberal platform. It's kind of like, if you notice as well, the comments on the Wall Street Journal articles now. I don't read them, but you do it for you. I do it just to be I'm curious, but I would I don't have a subscription to the New York Times that every once in a while somebody will send me an article. And if I hit it really quick, I can read a couple of comments. And I think the Wall Street journal comments are no different than the New York Times comments now. I would say they're 80 percent anti-Trump and Maga, 80 percent. And I would say the columnists are very good. They, you know what I mean? Yeah. Kimberly's excellent. Bill McGurne's excellent. Barton swam swam swam swam. He's excellent. I like a lot of people are angry at Gerald Baker. But I still I think he's really bright guy. And he had a very strange column the other day that he was saying that even he might be mistaken about the midterm. Yeah. going to see. I don't know if you've had these jack, but have you had people, I get a text every day from a pollster. No, I have not been post, or maybe I'm in California, but I never answered. I was just curious. So when I was at this receptor, I gave a talk and I asked people at the table, "Do you guys get pollster?" Everybody raised their hand. I said, "How many of you answered a poll?" and not one did, and I asked them why. And they said, "It wouldn't matter because they're all rigged or I don't want to be on a list where they would identify as conservative because they'll come after me or my business or something like that. So I do think that conservatives don't participate in polls to the same degree as leftists. Yeah, there's also, I did see one anecdote and I'm eorean about the election results, what they're going to be, but someone was looking at the turnout in Ohio voting early. And the surprising thing was the smaller out voting by Democrats as compared to four years ago, early voting. So, you know, we might, I don't think there's a blue wave coming, Victor, I don't know that you do, but I think it, we might be, I think it's going to be hard to hold the House, but I'm getting more confident they can hold the Senate. And that's very important, everyone, because if they hold the Senate, they can still make judicial appointments and things like that. And, you know, if they have some big treaty and they can stop legislation from the House. The House, if they keep the Senate and they lose the House and the House has a five or six or 10% 10 seat margin, all we're going to see is a third, fourth, and fifth impeachment. We're going to see Don Jr. Eric, we're going to see the whole family, Kimberly Gurph, all of them are going to be up there. Non-stop theater, four or five committees operating simultaneously coordinated. It's going to be a circus. It really is, but there will be no legislation and he'll have to rule up. That's our governor's a better word by executive order in veto in the fashion of Bill Clinton and Obama. Well, Bill, Victor, before we take off a break, I want to raise one other topic, and that is that NPR CEO, Catherine Marr. I'm surprised she's still the CEO there. She received a first amendment reward award from Harper's magazines, their first amendment award, despite her past criticism of the amendment. I'm reading now something from Fox News. As president and CEO of NPR, Catherine Marr has guided one of America's most important public media institutions through a period of extraordinary political legal and financial scrutiny, reaffirming journalism's essential role in democratic society. That's was a press release from Harper's. Victor, I'm sorry, this is Orwellian. This is a woman who was in a media position, but was an enemy of free speech. This is, like, she had no war is peace. Yeah, before a congressional committee, when she was cross-examine, she admitted what she was doing. I think she apologized, too, although it was an empty apology. I mean, nobody was a Republican. Remember that guy? There was someone who had been there a long time and he said there was not a single Republican who was a. It's the same thing with a national book award, the Pulitzer Prize, the Grammys, the Tonys, the Oscars. All of these great traditional prizes that marked real accomplishment. They're all ideological now. They're all ideological. I had David Landis' son on. He was really. He's a professor at Landis in Europe and now he's back in the United States. And we were talking about the work of the wealth and poverty of nation. That was one of the most brilliant books I've ever read about why some countries are wealthy. And it's kind of an anti-Jerid diamond book, although it's not polemical at all. Natural resources don't mean a thing. Basically, if you put people in Nigeria and they retain the same culture and you put them in Switzerland, Switzerland, the world looks like Nigeria, not because of race but because of culture. But he was talking about how his father had suffered so much. He was never recognized for what he did. And it reminds me so much of when I first got to the Hoover Institution, I had a talk with Milton Friedman. I said, "You're a duel." Obviously, you're in the economics department. He said, "Where have you been?" I'm not qualified according to the Stanford Economics Department. They don't think I'm qualified. I said, "But you're a Nobel Prize winner." And he kind of laughed and said, "Yeah, and the Nobel Prize meant something in those days." He didn't mean it didn't necessarily now. Did he only have an undergrad degree from Rutgers, I think? He did not have an advanced degree, maybe. But he had retired as a full professor from University of Chicago. And the same thing with Tom Sol, he's one of the great minds and he never was honored by any of these groups. And so it's just. And I think that has a reason that I mention that I know a lot of people on the conservative side that really do believe that if they're nice and they want these. And it's a human desire. They want these approbation from the left. And you're never going to get it. You're just not going to get it. It's never going to happen. And you should just. You'll get the Kennedy Profile Encourage Award if you sell out. That's the extent of. Or if you're a president, you will be trashed and vilified. And then when the next Republican comes in, that you'll be kind of rehabilitated to show how bad the current Republican in comparison. Don't we, Mr. George Bush? Well, Victor, we're going to take a quick break. And when we come back one final topic is why Johnny can't read or what's the matter with reading in America. And we'll do that right after these important messages. Hello, this is Victor Davis Hansen for the Daily Signal. I have a new book out on September 8th of this year. And I think you're going to enjoy it. It's called Counter Revolution. The fall and rise of Donald Trump and the Maga movement. It starts right after January 6th and it details the lack of popularity of Donald Trump, the invective that he endured, the five civil and criminal trials, the effort to get him off the ballot, the raid on Marlago, the two impeachments earlier, one in which he was tried as a private citizen and yet he came back. How did he come back? And why did he come back? I explain in the book how he defeated his primary opponents, how he was outspent. He had a hostile media and he defeated the Democratic machine and Camilla Harris. It starts on January 6th. It ends pretty much now in May of 2026. What's the title about? Don Trump is not a revolutionary. He's not a revisionist. He's a counter-revolutionary. This time around, he is not addressing just the symptoms of the progressive project of the last 50 years. He's talking about the causes. Not just an open border, but how to stop illegal immigration entirely. Not just crime, but sending the National Garden to make sure cities are safe. Not just an Iranian nuclear threat, but ending that threat that seven other presidents had identified but did not act on. Not just addressing the transgender issue or the Green New Deal and all of those issues that are so dear to the Democratic Party, but ending them, defunding NPR and PBS. So it is a counter-revolution to unwind and to roll back the entire progressive project of the last 50 years. I think you're going to like it. It's pretty interesting. It chronicles the greatest political comeback in our recent political history. Thank you very much. I'm Victor Davis Hanson for the Daily Signal. Hey folks, we're back with Victor Davis Hanson in his own words. Victor and I are talking on Monday, October 19th and this episode is up on Thursday, October 22nd. I want to remind you again, a Victor's website is the blade of Perseus, the web address is victorhanson.com and you can subscribe and you should subscribe and you'll find a link for his book there if you're not, if you haven't purchased the counter-revolution, the fallen rise of Donald Trump and the mega movement, do it off of Victor's site. So I'm on X. Victor's handle is at V.D. Hanson. So Victor, there's a woman page widely. I did not know of her existence, but I saw a post by her on X and she was an aid in both Trump administrations on economics. I think she worked with Kevin Hassan. That's another name. So she had really interesting. She provided a unified theory of why most people don't read books any more. and she's discounting some of the obvious smartphone usage, et cetera. So here is the bear with me here. And I'll read these and because as a professor, and you've talked about the ability of students to read. So first, literacy, phonics, and the formal structure of writing haven't been taught at scale for 25 years. So most people, even many college graduates, are illiterate in the sense that they cannot obtain meaning from text that is an extremely simple. And they cannot write at a level that would be appropriate in a school or business setting. Second, public libraries are now often dangerous and unusually young for vagrants and drug addicts. Third, the library science profession has been corrupted by ideology and activism. This has resulted in a trend of library professionals who are unwilling, unable or unwilling to curate appropriate materials or environments. Fourth, most people don't know how to enjoy reading. They think they have to read one book at a time, page by page, start to finish, like having a clean your plate before you can get it from dinner. Five, bookstores, her words mostly slop. And then lastly, there is a cultural hostility toward concentration and focus. They are now luxuries. Reading is disrespected and considered interruptible. Victor, I don't know how you feel about this. Glad someone is addressing it. Maybe they're writing some degree and wrong and others. But what's your take on this as a former professor with students who seem to be capable of reading and comprehending? Well, I think I've commented maybe too many times that in my 21 years at the California State University system, I saw each year the ability of students to do the work that had been required the year before they couldn't do, and I would say it was a 4% to 5% drop. And we were very upset about it. We being the faculty, whether you were left or right, we formed something called the group. And the group went to the president and said, we demand to know why you are letting in people who are illiterate. And we found out that they were. And I mean illiterate. I don't mean poor readers. So when I had history of the Roman world, or I had Greek mythology or introduction to Western humanities, and I would have a text, and I thought that they would like to read-- I don't know-- Sophocles, edipists, or Euripides, Medea, in translation, of course. And they couldn't do it. So I'd come to class, and there would be a third of the class couldn't do it. They couldn't discuss. They just sat there. And then on the exam, they didn't know it. So I thought they were lazy, or I was a bad teacher. But then I would always call them in before I gave them a bad grade. So I would spend one whole day of my office hours with five minutes. Would you please come in? And half of them showed up. I said, if you showed up, I'll give you extra credit. That was how I bribed them. And then I would have them read out loud, and they could not read. And that was what was so striking about this article. They couldn't sound the word out. I said, OK, you've heard this word buckler. You don't need to know what a buckler is. It's an archaic term, but you can sound it out. And then maybe you'll hear it from someone in class or in the lecture, and then you make the connection. They couldn't sound out words. They had not had been taught that. And I was just-- so we were letting people in that could not do an eighth grade. And it wasn't-- I mean, I'm not saying it's everyone, but the whole idea of reading and understanding how to approach literature, what you can-- has been collapsed. It's kind of ironic. When we were students, Jack, I remember Ray Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451. And there was a movie I think that they made out of it. I don't remember who was in it. But it was a dystopian future where people had banned books, and they had to memorize them. We're at that point, but there's books everywhere. But the amount-- they might as well be burned because nobody reads them. Nobody reads Dante's inferno. Nobody reads Conrad's victory. Nobody reads, you can't go home again. Nobody reads East of Eden. They just don't read them anymore. Much less the yieldier of the Odyssey. I don't mean-- when I say nobody, I'm talking about the vast majority of people. And I'm not talking about the people don't go to college. I have a feeling the people who don't go to college that go on online courses read more than some of the students. I think she meant also that the whole therapeutic social science, psychology, dash studies courses-- that's the act of commission and omission. You introduce so many non-academic, non-scholarly, non-literary courses that they just crowded out the general education. When I first started teaching in 1984, the general education requirement was pretty standard. There was mathematics, English literature, great works of the West, Western sieve, art, music. But when I left, 21 years later, there were all these drugs in the ghetto and the construction of manhood and 1920 feminist authors of color. But it was just all therapeutic. And so they crowded out the courses. And so students never got those courses. Then you get this-- or Wellions, to use that word again. When Christopher Nolan's Odyssey came out, the woman who played Helen Dash, played a Mestro, was saying that she thought it was a sexist poem, I guess, in that they were fighting to get strong women. Of course, the Odyssey is probably the most feminist work of art and quick literature, even though it's a second poem in the whole history of the West after the Iliad by date. And Samuel Butler thought it was so poll feminists, he wrote a book called The Authorists of the Odyssey, that a woman must have written it. But she said she went to Yale for-- she got two degrees there. And she said she'd never read-- she was 42. And she said she'd never read the Odyssey. So it was that arrogance and ignorance. She was ignorant of the Odyssey. But she was arrogant that she didn't really have to read it to pontificate how sexist it was. And it's the same thing about the river to see. People don't know basic geography. They don't know basic history. If you have all these people yelling, River to the Sea, if you ask them, what year was Israel created? Or did you know a million Jews were ethnically cleansed from Arab countries? What would happen to you if you say you renounce Islam in an Islamic country publicly? That's just-- it's not that they don't know it. They have no desire to know it. And that's-- it's kind of sad. We're entering a dark age, a really dark age. And knowing and feeling-- I'd rather feel things than know things. I talked to a lot of publishers. And when I first started writing for what we call "Popular Trade," my first popular book was with Alfred Kenah, the Western way of war. And then I followed with the free press and Simon Schuster. But people read in the late '80s and '90s. It wasn't like it is. The advances every author was getting huge amounts because they could justify it by sale. But now the number of copies to get on the New York Times bestseller list or Amazon number one is about half of what it used to be. And there are no real big advances. Unless you're a movie star, or it's titillating or sensationalist. It's just a commentary that most people for enjoyment and for information, it's visual or it's audio. And the result is we're losing the ability to read. When I saw the other day that there were members of the California legislature who want to ban any legislation that would say, if you're a California truck driver, you have to be able to read English. They thought that was discriminatory. In other words, they're saying, if we would like truck drivers not to know what yield is or rest off and put people in danger for diversity, equity, and inclusion, purposes. I have to say something about watching, by the way, Victor. In the last couple of years, I've always loved 12 o'clock high. But I've probably seen it about four or five times in the movie or the series. The movie. And then I watched the series, which was-- That was real hard-lancing, wasn't it? He did the first year. And then-- And Rick repented the movie, right? He did the movie. There were three seasons, a TV show. And then sometimes-- time. So I'm flying the master's master's of the year, the something that we owe series. And of course, and listening to you talk about, you know, your father's experience is 17 for about six months in training before the B-29s came out in 44 in Nebraska. But the risk, just the risk of flying the plane flew on one as a gunner. I don't mean he flew it himself. Well, the death tolls and it's so you know, you know, 40,000, 40,000. Yeah, it's just brutal. But there's a movie coming out in a couple of weeks, Jimmy about Jimmy Stewart. And I know we all love Jimmy Stewart as a great actor. But he is just a bio is a bio pick about him. And it's about his service in World War II and then ensuing. And the trauma of as you've explained, you know, your father, your father's friends, the trauma that men went through is Jimmy Stewart was very heroic. He flew at least 25 combat mission. People made fun of Curtis, LeMay, because he was one of the archetypes of Dr. Strangelove's characters. But before he took control of the B-29 program in the Mariana's, he flew himself as a colonel and a major major than colonel, about 25 missions. And he created a new stack squadron formation. He was very brave. He held the long distance record right before the war. He flew all the way down to chill, tip of Argentina and back. He was a very, all those guys were very brave. People like Lee Marvin, he was severely wounded. He was a marine veteran. He was very proud of that too in his late interviews. And there were Clark Gabel, I think, flew two missions in combat. And then they, they yanked him out. But I think even Eric Severide, you know, remember him, the news, sure. Yeah. Yeah, he flew as well on a B-17. If you, that was what catch 22 was all about the novel, that because they didn't have enough people in training, and they had to continue the bombing, they felt that the bombing survey said it had to be cumulative damage. You couldn't stop. They had to keep uping the missions from 25, you go home 30, you go home 35. And they never tell you that they originally had 20 or 25 depending on the theater. And the odds were zero. Well, anyway, this Jimmy movie, it's coming out of thing November 5th, I'm going to write about it. I look pretty good movie. I want to, yeah, I want to let people know that it exists. Given all that we've heard you talk about air service and World War 2, or Victor, I've got a few comments to read from folks. Just I'll read three here and hundreds, hundreds, thanks folks who take the time to try to get to them all. Let's get you started rights. Too many truths had to go back and take notes of all the truths of life that played out in the video. This is your recent podcast with Sammy. Excellent. Victor, you are a real sage. Then David Goodman, 87 30 rights. Thank you, Sammy, for your input and assistance to the show Victor. It's a real honor and a great gift to all of us that you would share so much time and knowledge with anyone that will take the time to participate. And yes, your humble, fair way of teaching and reminding us is a valuable breath of fresh air. God bless you all. And then one final one, this is really interesting. It's from J and DL2MQ rights. Thank you for answering questions. I really enjoyed this more than I thought I would. I put off taking English classes until now because I knew it would be painful. My English comp books, quotes Pete Buttigieg and article about Hillary Clinton throwing a baseball Obama and Marx. I also not allowed to research from my research paper. I must use the materials in the book only. She also put out a non fake newslist of approved lists. I do not know why since I'm not allowed to research. The entire list is very liberal biased. I feel like a prisoner. If this was my first semester, I would walk I would walk the way, but it is my last. The class contains more horrors than I can list. When I leave class, I feel like I was at a five hour lecture at this, this sodium, on the sodium content insult presented by AOC and Nancy Pelosi. I appreciate, I'm almost done here, folks. I appreciate you taking the time to address this. It is a huge problem. Most of these mandatory classes like psychology, sociology and English were indoctrination that with no actual educational benefit, PS, I'm a Southern, I'm in Southern Alabama at a community college. I don't know what to say. I see it first hand. My children, two of them went to the University of California campuses and one went to the California State University. And they would call me exasperated and said, if I don't write on this particular topic in this particular fashion, I'm in trouble. It's not entirely new. I was a visiting professor at Stanford University. At the heyday of the early 90s culture wars, postmodernism, Foucault, Derrida, Lacan, Gramsci. And that had taken over the classics department. And I was caricatured as this buffoon from Fresno State. It was a farmer. And it was kind of funny because that year I won the Outstanding Teacher Award in the nation of the American Philological Association. And they were using that against me. It said, see, we told you that he just at Fresno State, they don't do research. Actually, I had written more than most of the faculty there. I'd already written four books. But anyway, the point I'm making was, I had some of the most brilliant, cynical, conservative students. And they took my class. And this, this was right at the first when Max had just started to come out, you know, and people were doing. And this guy said, all our classes are so biased. And he said, you know what, Professor Hansen, I have got an A in every one of them. And I said, now, how'd you do that? He said, I have a secret. You have to promise not to tell anybody. I said, okay. So he, he opens his, his computer. And he says, I did word searches of articles we were supposed to read. And I got an impressive vocabulary vocabulary. So I made a list of phallic centric, phallic centric, socially constructed, Western, you know, Islamophobia, he had all of the words down perfect from the left. And then he had a little gauge about how many you would need to get an A, because there were five papers in the class. And he gave this little paradigm to his friends. And he said, basically, if you use this vocabulary more than 10 times this word, five times this word, you're guaranteed to get an A. And so then he showed me the paper. And every time he used it, the teacher had circled it in red and had a checkmark and said, great, absolutely true. But he was, he was only 18 years old. And he was already so cynical. But and these were professors at Stanford, right? Oh, yeah. And that was it. I, I was very sad because I see I had graduated. I went there from 1975. And I was admitted. And all of it, that hadn't happened yet. They were all left winged. But they were wonderful professors. They were. And I mean, I'm not especially smart. But I had to study 11 10 hours to keep up with that. I came you know, I learned Latin at 18 and Greek at 19. And I was competing against people in preps school. But my gosh, you had to take 12 seminars. And they were things like the manuscript tradition of Ecclesus sublients or papyri from oxyrincus or the meters, the metrics of Homer and Hesiod, they were so difficult. And then in addition, you had to read in rapid reading of Latin Greek. So that was four classes, five classes, a play a week in Greek, a play a week. And you had to read the Odyssey and three weeks in the Iliad and three weeks in Greek. And then you had composition where you had to write. And how you you would go in there. And I gave. There was this really good professor, a Lionel Pearson. He was brilliant in historian, but he was very English. You couldn't understand him. And so I had been doing, he came in for guest lectures. And I had a German teacher. She was brilliant too, Dortheia Freida. And I was doing the composition. I was getting pretty good grades, but I had to work at it. And then he wrote and said, what happened to you? But he would go in and he'd say, take dictation. And then he would say, we're going to take dictation in Greek. And he would read like six lines out of archiliacus's poem. Then we had to translate it. So we had to write in Greek with a correct accent and breathing and then translate it. And then he would say things in English. And we We had to write. the other way into Greek. So you would say things like, the ceiling is as blue as a sky today, but he didn't say the ceiling as a blue. Well, oh, chop the ceiling. And he had this thick accent. I couldn't understand it. And he called me in. He never talked to students about you, said, Mr. Hanson, you've done very well. But when I came in and when I talked in, you didn't, you didn't understand it. And I said, no, I don't. I don't understand. I can understand, I can write the Greek, but I don't understand your English. It's a language that I've never heard before. But my point is they were all left-wing. They were all disinterested. They were all professional. They were all scholars. And they had no exceptions. And they flunk people out, left and right. And when I came back, I left in 1979, 80, and I came back as a visitor, 11 years old. You couldn't recognize a place. They had all retired. It was all PC. It was all postmodernism. And it was a joke. It really was. This woke stuff. And I think that was true. And yeah, I think I'm going, I have to go, I've talked too long. We'll see. Thank you for listening, watching everybody. We'll see you next time. Thank you for tuning in to the Daily Signal. Please like, share and subscribe to be notified for more content like this. You can also check out my own website at victorhanson.com and subscribe for exclusive features in addition.