The World According To Ben Stein

How The Hell Did We Get Here?!

Episode Summary

How did Americans allow ourselves to get here? How did we let the vast majority of our universities become dens of Communism and anti-American hatred? How did we let big tech become big government and allow the mainstream media to become state run? How did we allow a minority of people tyrannize the majority? Tonight we will talk about how we got here and how the hell we reassert our God-given natural liberties.

Episode Transcription

where do you live or do you live in hollywood sir

christian yeah sorry um no i'm actually in  denver colorado i think where does what's up  

what's hollywood in tokyo about her so that's  my website it's an entertainment news site but  

it covers hollywood from a right-of-center  perspective and i'm also a film critic god  

bless you for him are you sound good sir hollywood  and toto.com my side the daily wire and some other  

sources as well and on that note i want to welcome  everyone to the world according to that man  

benjamin jeremy stein hello sir hello gentlemen  and everyone in the world hello all the ships at  

sea as walter winston used to say and uh and of  course uh i want to thank everybody that's in the  

youtube chat and uh that follows us a parlor at  ben stein we are humbled we are humbled by all the  

downloaded podcasts it is on apple and all across  all the streaming networks we truly thank you  

and we are joined for the first time tonight by  hollywood.com christian toto thank you so much  

for making it easy to with all your info in front  of you christian it makes life for me a lot easier  

welcome to my pleasure welcome glad to be  here how and how are you tonight sir good  

um raring to talk and uh looking forward to  it um and of course from the simplelife.com  

now.com you see i could never get it right  gary collins if you put it across this  

stream down there you would see it  right and i've spoken down there  

so many times and i love your site and i love your  podcast and of course welcome gary back as always  

but this show wouldn't be complete without  lawyer after provocateur lovers saying sinner  

father husband grandfather doctor lawyer many  people many people do not know that i'm a doctor  

uh my office hours are my appointment only but uh  i specialize in geriatric geriatric uh compulsions

geriatric compulsions and um i want to welcome  everybody on the spine saturday night and  

um christian but you also you also um you just  told me started work writing and working for real  

clear politics so that's very cool and interesting  and one of the things we are going to talk about  

tonight is big tech but there's something  um ben and ben and me often talk about this

ben and i thank you ev how the hell did  we get here and um as as a society i mean  

right did you instead of a mad as hell as and i  can't take a medazel it's like how the hell then  

did we end up here i know gary's at that point  where he wants to you know take the rv and move  

somewhere but ben how the hell did we get here we  got here because we had a lot of crazy pathetic  

people as our leaders and i think societies  generally fall apart when their leaders fall apart  

and we had just several generations of very poor  leaders and when we finally got one good leader he  

so infuriated the mass media and the critics  uh no and no harm injected critics uh  

that uh they had to get rid of him and uh  so they did and so the mass media went on  

the war path basically had a revolution and then  they used racism as their main ideological tool  

uh which was a complete phony but they used it  anyway and uh there so now we have a society in  

which people are living terror being called racist  living terror a bit i'm not following whatever  

beacon the mainstream media has laid out for  them and just generally i would say live in town  

so you bring up a great point and i want  to get this to everybody because everybody  

this isn't a new thing okay this isn't donald  trump losing this is this is 70 years in the  

making of of the societal you know donald trump  was the fly in the ointment that the globalists  

and the media here made sure they got rid of  ben but this has been a long time coming with  

the universities to to just indoctrination and  and here we are today where people are literally  

where you're scared when you hear when you hear  sirens you're scared you're gonna get pulled over  

by the thought police well i'm i i have to  say i i'm just absolutely a fearful person  

but i'm scared even when i talk on my car phone  that somebody's going to be listening to my car  

phone and is going to pull me over for saying  that the election was stolen at the election i  

should not have turned out the way it did uh  i i think we are living in a climate of fear  

about a new american police state  that has been unrivaled in my lifetime  

uh although the people some will say the mccarthy  era was close and in some ways it was but this  

uh has the internet uh work going for it and that  is a very scary tool of uh surveillance chris and  

toto what are your thoughts on this well i think  you've got two different cultures on the right  

people want to live and let live they want to live  their lives they want to be with their families  

go to work you know kiss the kids good night and  they don't see every single cultural opportunity  

as a way to weaponize their belief system and  i think on the left is the opposite i think  

people in hollywood say i'm popular i'm attractive  i can make movies well that's not enough i want to  

send a message with my movies i think people in  academia say it's not enough that i'm in front  

of your this classroom talking to people i want to  use that to indoctrinate you so i think there are  

two different mindsets here and i think that while  the left is like we got a boycott we got a boycott  

i think people on the right are often like  no we don't do it that way well you know what  

when you're playing by a different set of rules  there are different outcomes and i think we're  

seeing the results of that right now that's  that's actually well exceptional point and um  

you know gary the question i know you're just  you're you're just sitting there livid and for  

everybody that's listening or doesn't know gary  area served our country for over 20 years or did  

serve our country for 20 years now he serves in  a different way and he's a true patriot and and  

he served in all different forms of government  and gary i mean you've seen this coming ben's  

been writing about this for 50 years and it's  it's it's absolutely frightening well yeah i  

mean i'm from california you know i'm from a  little po dunk town uh where we are all poor  

there's a couple middle-class people and that was  about it but i think the problem today is enough  

kids haven't been spanked and told to go to their  bedroom without dinner is the problem honestly  

uh we've got a bunch of spoiled brats a bunch of  people who've never suffered who have never served  

their country have never done anything and i find  it amazing that all left leaning billionaires  

are are ethnic uh what would you call them  ethnic liberators everyone else is a racist  

somehow even it's amazing how i'm i'm honestly  getting sick and tired of being called a racist  

i've done nothing we all are nothing against  anyone we are hey how do you look i'm gary how  

old are you my friend i'm 50. so i'm 26 years  older than you i when i was in high school  

marched for civil for equal accommodations at the  local movie theater in maryland where i grew up  

and so that's a hell of a long time ago 1961  or two and i am i am being called a racist  

for saying that people should be promoted on  the basis of merit and not on the basis of  

race and this by people who don't even know what  racism is they have no idea that's exactly right  

that's exactly right ben you just summed it up  it's a word people say that they have no idea  

what it means yeah it's it's right it's writing  it it's when i was again i'm much much older than  

anybody else on this panel i can remember when  it was really frightening to be called communists  

but people were not generally called communists  unless they had some connection however tenuous  

with communism but now people can be called  racists for any reason whatsoever and that that's  

and once you're called that how do you escape  from that box that you're locked in that box  

for a very long time maybe forever i mean how do  you escape it but i i frankly don't know i mean  

i thank god that i'm so insignificant that nobody  bothers to really go ahead on calling me a racist  

but some people do and it's very upsetting i  think myself i have on my buttock a scar from  

being pushed against a curb and falling down in uh  150 in cambridge maryland my home state maryland  

uh for demonstrating for equal accommodations for  african americans and uh i think myself i don't  

think these kids at yale have those scars and uh  why what what makes them my judge why where did  

they get the right to judge me so christian as is  is i'm not sure if you're familiar with the story  

but and getting shared this with gary and ben  but in major league baseball right now they're  

trying to the all-star game supposed to be in  georgia this year and um they are trying to ban  

you know take away the all-star game from  georgia because of the racist um decision to  

make sure people could vote legally i didn't  know that well well when you're being way way  

too kind to the left side that's not like you the  the criticism is for bills in the georgia state  

legislature that would require people even the  most modest way to authenticate their identity  

before they vote even in the most tiny way and  that makes them makes you a racist even if you're  

in the most tiny way want to authenticate that  this person is really a person really of legal  

voting age really not a felon and really is  a citizen of georgia that makes you a racist  

pretty much these a days point in the racist term  they use the term racist because they want to shut  

you up because they can't argue in the merits of  the conversation right so if you say well voter id  

you know i show vital id when i go on the plane  you know it's not a racist situation there's no  

real back and forth there's no argument there's  no debate it's you're a race that's shut up and  

often in our culture what what's worse than being  called a race is not much so you tend to shut  

up or you tend to be silenced or you tend to be  ignored and that's it's a very effective cudgel  

that's used and that's why it's in play and and  the horror of it is as you so rightly say listen  

it's against freedom of speech and the whole  idea of freedom of speech is that even racists  

can say whatever's on their mind i mean i i grew  up in the narrowing of people like strom thurman  

and other extreme racists in the senate and  in congress and i didn't like them i didn't  

think they were great people i wouldn't have  wanted them uh my as my next friend they they  

definitely wouldn't want me as an extra  neighbor but uh that's freedom of speech  

the people who are we are dealing with now are  against freedom of speech and freedom of speech  

is the bedrock of the constitution and the bedrock  of america to take that away is a really terrible  

matter and basically ends america as we know it  so gary let me ask you a question so you grew  

up as you've shared before you broke their poor  you know you worked your way up from the bottom  

and essentially what they're saying is when they  when when with these when they call people when  

with the voter id laws and all this stuff they're  basically insulting the black community by saying  

you're you're so dumb and stupid that you can't  fill out a form you know that you're you're you're  

you're dumb you're this and gary growing up poor  or growing up disadvantaged doesn't mean you can't  

fill out a form as you so happily didn't serve our  country well yeah i had to have a driver's license  

when i turned 16 and i had to have this proof of  id to serve my country interesting but according  

to them they don't need to have an id to vote yet  i have to protect that right to vote by having an  

id and not only that here's the problem when you  see these this looting and these underprivileged  

in these bad neighborhoods they can afford or get  a hold of 200 a pair air jordans but they can't  

afford to go get an id i have a pro you know i'm  tired of it i'm looking at that but but sir you  

have really now that i'm gonna be we've got in 13  minutes into our program and gotten into it what  

we're really doing here is saying black people do  not have to live up to the same standards as white  

people if a black person loots he's justified  he's been oppressed he's been racially biased  

uh there's been racial bias and fighting against  him if a white person does anything whatsoever  

it's his own hook it's his own lookout uh he  can't blame anyone for it we have a situation now  

where after many decades of struggle to get  equality for races we now have a situation  

where we are explicitly trying to get one race to  be superior to the other race just on the basis  

of their race that is not what the constitution  is all about and that is not what a free society  

is all about and nobody wants black people to have  equal rights more than i do but i do not want any  

ethnic group to have superior rights over any  other ethnic group by virtue of their ethnicity  

as well the new uh head of oh gosh i want  to say he's uh what is it psychological  

evaluations or personnel for special operations  command uh he's a black uh i want to say

the guy i never heard of the guy before and they  interviewed him and he was talking about how that  

we need to start looking for the people within  the military who are extremists and we need to  

start routing them out i went is anyone listening  it's worse than that imagine a white leader of a  

military division going you know what we've got  to get rid of these black people because they're  

just too radical could you imagine someone saying  that and i was listening to the words of this guy  

and i was absolutely appalled i would tell anyone  right now who is a part are thinking about going  

in the military don't do it if these are the ass  clowns who are going to be in leadership positions  

they're going to be hunting you if you don't agree  with them i've been there i spent a lifetime in  

this in this in i'm telling you i've watched  people get hunted it's ugly when the government  

starts hunting their own and there's the rules  are out the door i'll be honest with you i left  

the second year of the obama administration i'll  just say that i won't say anything else i saw  

the writing on the wall i left and i've said  enough's enough because they started hunting  

our own remember his famous words of we're gonna  protect the whistleblowers you know what they did  

they hunted the whistleblowers that's  exactly that and it works evil evil on  

the other side too which is that they promote  people on the basis of race and ethnicity  

there's been a tremendous amount written  about how within the department of defense  

promotion advancement and leadership are now  going to be handed out on the basis of race  

they're sick of there being so many white people  in charge of military units and military entities  

of any kind and so they're going to divide them  up on the basis of race this is a terrible idea  

it's incredibly important that the military  be led by people on the basis of their mirror  

i certainly would not even consider wanting to  have people of any ethnicity discriminated against  

because of their race or ethnicity but to advance  them regardless of merit because they're raised or  

ethnicity that's an invitation to catastrophe  and if you just tuned in you are listening to  

the world according to ben stein welcome everybody  that's a little late to the party in the chat and  

um i want to remind everybody download the podcast  also sign up for ben's newsletter ben stein  

we don't take money for any of this we do  this for fun and for free because we love  

to do we're joined tonight by christian toto  from hollywood.com and of course gary collins  

from simplelifenow.com and we're talking about how  did we get here and i i i i was watching um video  

clips and gary had written i mean christian had  written a piece about the suppression of comics  

um by big tech and i was i was watching a george  carlin video uh you know where he he was going off  

on liberals and um then and uh you know it used to  be punk to go against the establishment it used to  

be it used to be like like that there was a love  for for for for being against the establishment  

and now it's suppressed ben they are literally  blacking out movies they are blacking out comments  

they are blacking out people with differing  thoughts how did we let big tech get so big were  

we just like did we just like they planned this  because big tech figured out the weapon to use  

against america namely allegations of racism  they had tried many many different things but  

the allegations of racism worked because america  and many americans did feel guilty about america's  

racist past and let's not get ourselves america  did have a very serious racist past so did every  

country in the world but use of that tool enabled  them to clobber the constitution clobber all kinds  

of enemies in which merit was the main deciding  factor in advancement and promotion and to set up  

a reign of terror what do you say about that  christian because you you wrote a piece for  

um real clear about comics being suppressed and  but pretty much everybody is fair game right now  

yeah you know a couple thoughts one is a few years  ago it was decided in the culture that comedy  

matters that comedy can change hearts and minds  and that the comedy aimed in the wrong direction  

could be trouble for people on the left and  that's why you're seeing all the comedians  

staying aggressively to the left and not attacking  any of their own uh but also what what i find  

amazing and just you know i love hollywood in a  sense that's why i became a critic and a reporter  

and but it just breaks my heart my soul to watch  the entire almost entire hollywood community  

basically line up and say yeah go big tech  suppression there were so many celebrities that  

were cheering on the fact that donald trump got  banned from every platform imaginable they love  

they are not really artists they are  really thugs and money making machines  

i see the when i first came to hollywood i worked  for a wonderful wonderful man extreme leftist  

but a wonderful man named norman leader i'm happy  to say he's still alive at 99. i just got a very  

loving text email from him today uh but he could  accept all the different kinds of viewpoints  

within his comedy workshop he was making it one  time seven or eight sitcoms on in prime time  

in those days was unimaginable but he can accept  all kinds of different points of view within his  

establishment that couldn't happen now you have to  be right on the line doing whatever the boss says  

it's exactly like pre-emancipation  proclamation uh plantations you have  

to do exactly what the boss says or you  get horseshit and i want to bring you  

his sitcoms were so magical the fact that he  was able to kind of accept different views  

and not be sort of lockstep in his thinking  even though he felt a certain way his artistic  

sensibilities maybe had more more an openness to  it that accepted different potential and different  

writers and you know what i see in the in the  landscape today are these woke stories where  

it's very doctrinaire very one-sided very black  and white and that's not good storytelling and  

uh and it's all over the top it's all over the  dial for christmas all over the dollar it's not  

it's not just comedies it's dramas too there's  al always the black versus gonna be the hero  

always the businessman is gonna be the villain  all time always the middle class dropping middle  

class white person is going to be the killer  always the guy who's from again the ghetto gang  

is going to turn out to be the good guy they have  managed to create an alternative america in which  

one root group white middle class and upper  middle class males are thugs and fascists  

that's i'm sorry to say that is how hollywood  has created america and people watch it  

and they think well that's that's america we we  don't know much outside the line as in our home  

but we guess this is the way life is in america it  isn't that way at all this is just the alternative  

lifestyle created and broadcast to america by  hollywood it's frighteningly untrue one of my  

favorite things though is gary and i are both  massive fans of the band rush and um gary belong

and i have to go turn on the air conditioner  and gary belongs to uh tell the story because  

i know how livid it's made here of  what oh the the far left taking over  

oh god uh i'm gonna probably get myself in  trouble but i don't care you know that but  

yeah i saw this movement to where there was  a group that had this rush event every year  

i don't want to name because they can't defend  themselves and i don't believe in doing that  

but they they i could tell one of them let's  just say worked for obama and it took on this  

weird slant and the things they were saying  them all this is not what rush is about at all  

and then they had the the audacity to put rush  black lives matter and people came unglued and  

i was one of them i didn't say anything because i  knew that i would scorch the earth and i knew not  

to say anything but i laughed because they always  uh they always rip on iron rand right they'd go oh  

she was a racist she was a bigot she was a sexist  she is this and i go have you read any of her  

books no it doesn't matter and i laughed because  if you actually are a true rush fan neil peart  

used ann ran well beyond he said that he no longer  did because he caught so much crap for it if you  

are a big rush fan i've read ayn rand's book  several times his lyrics were influenced almost  

all the way to the end so shut up and i think what  gary said just now is a very important point ben  

there aren't enough people saying shut up okay  there aren't enough they're saying shut up to me

they're not saying shut up to mrs pelosi i  mean look we have an actual i'm not a doctor  

i actually am a doctor but i'm not an md doctor  they're mrs pelosi an actual psychopath as far as  

i can tell an actual psychiatrist mr schumer and  again i'm not a medical doctor i'm a doctor loss  

it's an actual psychopath nobody is saying  shut up him during the presidential debates  

that horrifying mr biden actually said shut up  to the president of the united states where are  

the conservatives saying shut up to the people  like nancy pelosi and their millions of offspring  

in hollywood you know you know he brings up a  great point and you being a john used guy ben  

i i i often wonder if john used movies we we know  that the critics torched him they just torched him  

they you know and i want you know there's a lot of  revisionist history with bands like russian john  

hughes how everybody loves them but they were  torched at their time and i even wonder if if  

a john used movie as as beautiful and as noble  as they were could be made today and and you  

know they would you know you would have to have  this type of character and then you christian  

i don't do you do you remember any black  people in any john years babies except  

one guy who was the valet car parker and ferris  bueller's day off and maybe one or two uh fellow  

travelers in uh clinton's trans automobiles  black there were no black that can't give a  

recast it rewrite it give us some black people  and that's christian where it takes away the  

authenticity of everything and the beauty of it  right you know you were talking about you know  

we were talking about norman libra you know going  to john you you can't rewrite how your life was so  

you could put characters in you know you can't  make john hughes was a white male from chicago  

from illinois that's who he was there's nothing  to be embarrassed about you know if you are who  

you are and you're authentic christian you can't  make a movie today you can't make a show today  

yeah the authenticity of that voice it really does  matter when you're a storyteller and john hughes  

was sort of informed by his life his experiences  and the fact that it's 35 years later and people  

still connect to those movies even though they're  technically dated even though the fashions aren't  

the same it means that he knew what it was  like to be a teenager he knew the angst he knew  

the pain in the frustrations the joys the hormones  i mean he knew what that experience was like and  

so it doesn't matter that there are certain  dated references it's still applicable today  

and i just like to you know i'm running  a book right now about woke hollywood and  

you know spoiler alert i'm starting out with  a a fictional screenwriter screenwriter saying  

what am i doing i want to write a story but what  if i offend this group what if this character  

isn't woke enough what if this storyline  isn't applicable to a certain demographic like  

if you're an artist you want to be  free you want to express yourself  

and what we're seeing in the creative community  now is just this clamping down that no you can't  

express yourself this is the story this is not  the story this is the way this is not the way  

what a terrible way to make art my dear friend  i was a hollywood screenwriter from roughly 1976  

until roughly 1994 or and i actually did  it i made a fairly good living at it and uh  

one day i was writing a piece described by the  vice president in charge of development who had  

been a secretary before nothing nothing's wrong  with being secretary at all uh and uh i said uh  

you're making this kind of um without much  imagination and she said well that's all we  

want and i said do you see a script as being  more like a poem or more like instructions on  

how to operate a xerox machine and she said well  more like instructions to operate as x machine  

well i thought that's it that's the last time i  ever wrote a script or even tried to sell a script  

so that's but that's how hollywood is now only  10 times worse and by the way what does the word  

woke even mean i don't know these people even i  don't think that word is even in the dictionary  

the irony in it ben christian if the word woke  is how asleep these people are i mean that's the  

irony of the word they have no they have no joy  they bring no happiness they bring nothing fresh  

it is it is the exact opposite of the word of  whatever the word woke is and um gary i want to  

give your thoughts on this i mean it's it's um  it's because i know i i i talk to gary a lot on  

the phone as a you know not as but i i hear your  frustration and it bothers me because it bothers  

me that somebody that served this country is so  disturbed by this country and so frightened that  

somebody that served here over 20 years wants  to leave this country that really bothers me  

it's where would you go my dear friend where  would you go well i'll just say we're we're  

working on some plan b's is what i'm i'll  say but not that we'll execute them i don't  

want to execute them but i'm i'm no dummy and i  feel when you attack me as a person who's never  

harmed anyone never done any you know i'm not a  racist i don't i treat people equally i i everyone  

knows that i don't care what color you are i've  said this many times i care what type of person  

you are and the irony is the way they combat  the woke combat racism is they become racist  

okay that makes absolutely no sense and only that  but hollywood and christian i want to hear your  

opinion on this hollywood is absolutely utterly  stale and brain dead each movie is ridiculous with  

the same tropes the same song and dance i grew up  i watched boys in the hood could you imagine boys  

in the hood and they said you know what you gotta  throw in like eight guys from duke because this  

is way out of whack this isn't going to make it  you know you got to get everyone in there i love  

that movie i love it to this day i love doughboy i  love that movie i it told a great story all i care  

about's the story i'll give a crap what color you  are i don't care i don't with the greatest respect  

and to all of you gentlemen here especially as a  christian who's a screen film critic and i started  

out my work in hollywood as a critic uh for the  wall street journal uh there's uh you you just  

can't even imagine what it's like here i mean it  is a dictatorship of the highest dictatorial order  

it is mussolini's nationalist italy uh down to  a t except that the stormtroopers are out of the  

vashishti and the black shirts are driving batman  convertibles other than that it's the same thing  

when did the switch happen i want to ask you you  know you been you christian when ben went and gary  

when did the switch happen because hollywood  wasn't always like this used to have patriots  

in this town you used to have proud supporters but  you had some really i'm talking about you had the  

duke you had you know guys like bob you know it  it wasn't a uh democrat town it wasn't a commie  

it was it might have been behind the scenes it  was behind the scenes but the movies that were  

made it's a wonderful life man you know certain  movies couldn't that would never be made today  

and and when did holly how did when did it happen  and how did did we did it was just this like  

progressive thing and i think about like all these  things that have happened with the universities  

right at first it was a little teaching that  it became a little more teaching and the same  

thing with movies it became this type of movie  where you were forced on and then and then this  

sliding effect but ben when did it happen that  movies suddenly changed well it happened gradually  

i'm sorry i'll do the 30s extreme leftists uh  became more and more influential as writers and  

directors with specialist writers then they were  sort of stopped in their tracks by congress and by  

the fbi in the late 40s and into the mid 50s and  then they came roaring back in a big big big way  

and uh in the 60s and 70s by that time they become  pretty much dominant if i if i may respectfully  

uh give you a self-referential twist when i came  out here on june 30th 1976 i remember very well  

the day i came out uh i was uh working as a writer  and a consultant on a show for norman leader  

and the producers both extreme left leggers one  who had actually been a party member uh used to  

introduce me to the audience during the tapings as  their resident fascists because i was republican  

they're resident fest now move forward a little  for a little one down one i wrote a treatment  

for a movie about an america being taken over  pursuitly by an invasion of the soviet union in  

cuba and uh it was picked up right away uh it was  written the script was not great but it was okay  

then came time for the titles  to be added and the director  

said he would not allow his name to be used  if my name were on the screen as story by  

and so because i had worked for richard nixon  now i thought for sure the writer's guild would  

stomp on that and say forget it he's a member  of the writers of course she gets screwed ew  

they said we are not going to give any  credit to any sop it works for richard nixon  

that was uh i would say early 90s so by this  time just completely it's frightening i mean  

it is frightening and and i that sort of i'm very  very blessed i mean because i am an economist and  

a lawyer by training as well as a doctor now i  have dr marshall so i was able to earn my living  

in various other ways but if you're a screenwriter  and you are not telling a lessening line you are  

broke so you know and so christian getting to this  of how is is do you see any i mean and i'll ask  

you all this do you see any avenue because i don't  honestly other than maybe the hallmark channel  

or the accidental show like cobra kai  that actually had like like you know  

you brought up norman lear remember norman lear  accidentally tripped into carol o'connor and um  

sherman helmsley as being tremendous hemsley  as being tremendous actors you know that  

sort of was among you know sort of like  you know you you you you love these people

yeah sorry about that mrs lovin and so christian  do you think there's any sort of avenue for for  

a different type of storytelling i mean because  that's how we get you know ben constantly talks  

about writing that's how we get our points of view  across so you write from real clear politics gary  

writes for his site benriserspectator.org but is  there any sort of mainstream hope or is that just  

you know that i'm cockeyed well i think all the  things the cultural forces that we're discussing  

are intensifying now so if there was a glimmer of  light 10 years ago and a little pinpoint of light  

there's almost nothing now and i think what  we're seeing though is i think a lot of credit  

to the daily wire they're trying to get into  the entertainment business they're going to be  

producing movies and tv shows and content that  is not just right of center but just maybe a  

political that just speaks to half the country who  doesn't want the sort of the left-leaning politics  

so i think what they're what we have  right now are these different sort of mini  

independent studios you've got people on  youtube you've got independent filmmakers  

like fellow macaleer who are always looking to uh  crowdfund their latest project because hollywood  

won't touch them so it's up to us as conservatives  to say hey i'm going to write that small check i'm  

going to support that different group and it may  not be the greatest piece of art ever but it's a  

start and it's a toe hold and if we don't do that  we're done if you don't support what the daily  

wire is up to but then who will so it may be rough  at times then maybe the movies won't be as good as  

we hope but we've got to kind of start exploring  these alternate patterns and these different  

distributors because the gatekeepers in hollywood  are not gonna let us in it's never enough not only  

are they not gonna let us in they're gonna stomp  on us there's a wonderful line at the very end of  

the ultimate book 1984 by george orwell of course  in which he said in which uh o'brien says to uh  

one of the lessons not the very lesson says  to winston smith would you like to sit near  

the future of the human race it's a boot stomping  on a human face forever and that is how hollywood  

sees its mission and but gary you're going to a  christian set gary you're all self-published you  

you know every book you you know you self-publish  it and you sell quite a few books and um what  

he's saying ben is completely gary is completely  right is that we have to start funding our own  

you know we have to start well and that's why i  did it i i kind of saw the writing on the wall and  

trust me doing self-publishing is incredibly  hard because self-publishing beyonce doesn't  

have the best reputation in the world but i also  wanted to control my content because i pitched  

a couple books to publishing companies and  the idiots i got back and what they said to me  

they were going to change everything and they're  all they cared about what's your hook gary you got  

to have a hook i go how about i tell a story and  i tell the truth and i help people no no no no we  

don't want to hear about that and i just said  i've got to do this on my own and actually got  

some gary very good advice from an author named  gary tobbs who i'm still friends with to this day  

he said gary if you can do this on your own do  it on your own and i did and it was it's brutal  

but i think for what i do i probably sell some  of the most books as an indie author and what  

i do in the country and that's yeah and it's it  trusts me it's not great being an author is rough  

but i did it my way and i'm proud of it and the  thing is no one can control and inhibit what i  

say everyone who comments on my books  goes that's gary and i go that's all i ask  

good bad or ugly and different they'd go he wrote  that you know and i'm glad for that and i think  

what we have to do is we have to have some  people step up and create these platforms  

where where true free speech is allowed you know  i don't care if you're on the left i don't care if  

you're on the right i just want to hear the  truth i just want to hear someone's opinion  

without it being biased and filtered by some some  you know third party that i don't even know about  

like jack dorsey that idiot you know maybe he  should go do some more acid and stare in the  

corner i don't know what's wrong with that guy  but he's an idiot and i don't want him censoring  

anything that i do and i don't think it's fair  you know i don't know i just do the best i  

care why are you talking about fears and joke and  hollywood fairs and jokes but forget about failure  

what are you talking about was where did you  ever hear that word that's a that's a word from  

150 years ago that n word doesn't exist anymore  that word has been killed in the new dictionary  

put out by the ministry of truth and now  it's well where word that word became

gary i don't think that he's an idiot  jack dorsey i think he's a bond villain  

and i i think you start there i say the same thing  about george soros by the way you couldn't make  

up a bond villain worse than george soros but ben  you know ben um here's my question for all of you  

guys is it we just want equal we just want equal  rights i can't believe it i understand and i was  

talking to you as before in your house and i was  saying is there not one person in the media right  

as they're as they're seeing the story ahead  of you know as they're reading the teleprompter  

and they're seeing what's going on in georgia  and they're saying that this is jim crow  

or racist not one of these people i mean just one  to say i can't [ __ ] i just can't do this this  

is this is this is just this is the onion i am  reading false news ben like that like no no no  

they're not that's not one person there's not one  person because if you do that you lose your job  

you can't pay your mortgage on your lovely  house you can't send your children to uh  

saint albans uh and uh and you don't want to  do that so you know as i like to say uh money  

is a constant truth is a variable but here's the  thing about money and christian could you and we  

could all talk about this hollywood isn't making  money like you know you said oh my dear friend you  

may not think so but there are plenty of people  in hollywood who are no no the stars are making  

money but movies have been trending downwards and  losing money because i hollywood i mean christian  

am i wrong about i mean yes and no i mean clearly  they're surviving the box office numbers have  

been going down but i think i think for them to  really start to change their behavior there has  

to be not just a pinch in the wallet but a chunk  gouging they need to really suffer financially  

you know when i won't do it you're sure that won't  do it they they are really ideologically dying  

very thoroughly but i i think about more of the  actors where if i'm an actor and i'm constantly  

attacking half the country but i'm still getting  those 10 million dollar paychecks i don't care  

at all but these paychecks go away all of a  sudden i can't find work and it's connected it  

doesn't matter you're not you're not in charge  you're a punk if you're an athlete it doesn't  

matter how much you get paid you're a plunk the  people that run the studios are the bosses they  

get paid a lot more or sometimes a lot less than  the stars but they're the bosses actors are planks  

okay but ben listen i want to get back to  big tech for a second because we we we have  

an election coming up fairly soon um and we have  allowed we all of us have allowed google to be  

i mean essentially google amazon facebook are the  government of the united states or the government  

of the world and we've sat back because we  enjoy sending messages to each other we enjoy  

the the things these these media sites offer ben  we've allowed them to have way too much control  

well what do what do we do about it  and it's done my dear friend it's done  

there's not all we can do i keep saying this day  after day and i mean it with all my poor old uh  

heart we have to keep writing writing writing  getting that everywhere we can no matter how  

insignificant the place little by little it builds  up at some point possibly over these critical mass  

uh maybe it won't but we all at least have given  up the old college and on that note if you just  

tuned in you are listening to the world according  to ben stein i am reading your comments uh i try  

to be funny thank you i'm on youtube chat and uh  i want to thank everybody that downloads the show  

remember download the podcast the world according  to ben stein wherever you can download podcast  

and remember to give that five star review also  beenstein.substack.com and of course i'm parlour  

at ben stein you can find christian toto at  hollywood and toto dot com hollywood and toto  

on parlor and you could also find gary collins at  simple life now at parlor and i want to welcome  

everybody back you know it there's big this thing  of mine but i i i it's sort of a frightening thing  

how we let ben how we let 10 i don't even know if  it's 10 ruin our lives literally destroyed we have  

allowed 10 of the country to dictate to the rest  of us how we live our lives and we've basically  

sat back and said okay well uh first of all and  i may say so my life is not by any means ruined  

i get very good food i have a wonderful family  i have an adorable wifey i have an adorable son  

i have a uh house that i don't deserve in  a million years uh and i have uh a lot lots  

of lots of good things my life's ruined  but i am not allowed to tell the truth  

so that means it's ruined then if you don't have  i hate to contradict you you've lost free speech  

that means your life is ruined well it doesn't  mean my life i have not lost all free speech but  

i've lost a lot of free speech but even at the  american spectator which i've been writing for  

for almost as long as it's been in operation i've  had a person there who's a very very dear friend  

tell me there are certain subjects having it with  race they just can't touch now that being said  

they have recently changed and they're  going more balls out about that subject  

but even there there is lack of free speech  again it's this race thing that has been used  

to be the lever to pull apart the constitution  the false allegations of success systemic racism  

the amazing thing is there used to be really  horrible racism and hardly anyone said anything  

now there is the thought that this democracy  is gone and that's all people talk about

nobody wants to say anything  good that i would sing

you said it absolutely perfectly and i  accidentally hit the mute button and i was reading  

the youtube chat but christian he raised sorry go  ahead kristen oh so yeah i didn't this is not my  

original thought but people on social media said  you know the left controls academia and hollywood  

and the government and this and that so if there  is systemic racism it's their fault i mean it's  

it's equipped but there is some it's a very good  point that's a very very good point that's a very  

very good point but they would say no no no no  it comes off of a great unwashed ku klux klansman  

all over america anytime you go into a 7-eleven  anytime you go into a safeway and again these are  

wonderful stores i have nothing against them at  all any night you go in the guy behind the counter  

smiling at you his hood his whip his gasoline  his pistol are there under the counter waiting  

to shoot you down if you're not a white protestant  man that's what they would say that's what they  

would say and it's only hollywood that has  kept us from being run by this kind of fascist  

dictatorship of the ku klux klan in power only  hollywood has bravely stood up to them it's an  

incredibly ridiculous nauseating lie but that's  what they say and so so here goes the question so  

is is kobit hit and gary i know you you're not a  mass player you know especially when you're alone  

and um god the people in cars that are driving  by themselves that wear their masks sometimes

and we've come to this place where you know last  year as i was sitting there going this isn't going  

to last a week or two we've been so indoctrinated  that we took it up the butt as a country and we  

allowed to have allowed ourselves for over a year  to be under you know martial law under martial law  

christian and it's one of the most frightening  things i've ever i've i've ever seen in my life  

and we've we've accepted it um couldn't agree more  uh but i think one of the things that we're not  

talking about and we should be talking about  we should spend hours talking about it is the  

corruption of the media on so many levels i can't  even count them all but they've scared us to death  

and they're the reason why when i walk out my uh  my house there are people walking their dog alone  

outdoors wearing masks i i am i'm flabbergasted  by it but i see it across the greater denver area  

i peop i talk to people in different cities  and they see it too they scared us to death  

with the narrative of that we're all going  to die based on this particular virus  

i don't diminish the environment you understand  what it is but by golly you're not going to go  

walk your dog and get it okay there's no proof of  it there's no science behind it and yet we're all  

doing it and the fact that we bent to that will  is i don't recognize my country i just don't  

but look at this they've made us wear masks  the most recognizable part of the human being  

is his or her face or in case of gender fluidity  their face and we have taken that away from people  

we cannot see who's around us we might as well  be locked up in a prison cell a little old prison  

cell of reynolds wrap reynolds rounds of aluminum  foil wrapped all around us uh as we go through it  

through the day we might as well be alone in  prison all day long i don't like it now bear  

in mind as i say that remember i did just say  recently a few moments ago i live a great life  

and i do live a great life but i hate this idea of  this isolation i sure will be glad when it's over  

if it is ever over i want to tell you a story  so friday ben after we left the doctor i went to  

triple a i have a bad back so i get a temporary  pass for parking for my back and there was this  

you know wait at the triple a that was and i  said something to the guy next to me i said  

there's like 20 people working here and nobody's  getting serviced and the guy behind the counselor  

that was working at triple a says to me sir  if you have a complainer you know or you're  

complaining about me i'm like i'm not talking  to you and secondly just because of covid  

i'm still allowed to complain and that even  they've beaten into us that how dare you  

complain in the era of covet gary how dare you  you like you could be dead so don't complain about  

the hour and a half lying you have a triple a to  get a pass well obviously there's a covet canine  

strain as well and uh what spring canine  dogs can now transmit it to humans apparently  

but what i've seen i made a joke with the  dunkin donut or uh uh krispy kreme was giving  

a free donut to people who went and gave proof  that they had gotten vaccinated and i laughed  

and i said isn't this what got us in this position  to begin with was people eating too many donuts  

and i said i'll give i'll match uh uh krispy  kremes donation i will i'm giving free punches  

in the face for people who wear their mask in  their car and i might even give you two punches  

in the face because i care that much and people  who are dying because it is the most idiotic thing  

in the world if you're one of those people  driving around in your car with your mask on  

you're a [ __ ] we need help you really do you  need help i see it in beverly hills all the time

no i'm just saying i i see these people and i  just go that's the problem with america is we have  

become so lackadaisical and so ignorant we are  at the cusp of the end because we are completely  

morons and not only that we're fat morons and i  saw the statistic because i'm in health i used to  

i still teach it that's what i  did after i left the government  

and the biggest complaint i would get from clients  is i don't have enough time to work out like you  

do i go i work out like five hours a week come  on and now covet hits we have a year of people  

who have more time than they know what to do  with a big part of the 25 i guess percent of  

the populations making more money unemployed  than they were employed and guess what they do  

they turn into big fat obese beasts and then  they complain and say where's my free health care

what are we doing oh racist i'm a racist

when you look at that that tells  the story the main complaint  

people have for not getting in shape they  get and then they turn around and gain weight  

americans wake up if you're one of those  people pull your head out of your fat ass  

and go out the door and go walk your dog without  a mask and get some sunlight and maybe not eat  

those donuts just throwing that out there sorry  got on my box but it drives me absolutely nuts

ben he raises a great point the media  and christian brothers have also with  

the media creating this narrative we are  they have literally shamed us shamed us  

into this into this um driving with the  mask on if you don't you're a bad person  

you know all these forms of you're a bad human if  you somehow question if you somehow i mean it's  

the indoctrination that we've allowed to go on  ben i don't think you ever thought you'd in your  

wildest dreams like you'd see in your lifetime  no i never thought i would although i i will say  

i did write a screenplay which got made into a  uh i made into a 14 and a half hour mini series  

uh about a soviet takeover of america where there  was this kind of of a thought control and let's  

back up a little farther than that the japanese  under the empire before world war ii and during  

world war ii had what was called the kempi thai  the thought police literally the thought police  

who are in charge of making sure that japanese  people thought the same way and thought in the  

same way that sympathize with the military and  we have something like the thought police now  

only it is the media no it's a it's it's it's a  brilliant point and i want to go back to what uh  

christian was talking about before you know thank  you for calling it brilliant it is and but um well  

ben that's you you know come on you know you make  me call you that um uh at least twice a day and uh  

but look what christian was talking about is and  what you were talking about i find it ironic that  

that some of the greatest shows by by or some of  the greatest movies sometimes by luck like wall  

street where gordon gekko ended up being the hero  even though that wasn't oliver stones he didn't he  

wanted him to be the villain or as in all in the  family you know carol o'connor what was the hero  

even though he was meant to be the buffoon so so  i want to get back to this the solution type thing  

you know what christian was talking about which  is you know crowd you know going going to these  

sites that support conservatives going to you know  even spectator.org you know going to gary's site  

which is off the you know going to gary said  simplelifenow.com and kristen you know i i know  

sometimes they're terrible movies and nobody  wants to be in a christian movie or you know  

a movie with stephen baldwin you know um you  know you know my wife's not watching anymore  

you know it's it's a problem mrs lovin but uh  uh kristen why don't you tell some of the sites  

that people could go to that they could donate to  because i think this is a really important thing  

well first i want to quickly mention that the  christian the faith-based community and the genre  

has actually gotten much much better in recent  years it's been a nice ramping up of quality  

and you've got some pretty big stars who are  kind of entering that space but having said that  

you know it's hard to say that there's one  site you know kickstarter indiegogo uh there  

may be some independent places where people  can go but just kind of keep your radar open  

for all these different projects that are working  you know uh share stuff on youtube on social media  

if you're on social media you know make sure that  you kind of spread the stuff around that matters  

yeah just a quick note a couple years ago clint  eastwood made a movie richard jewell it was an  

excellent movie and it was almost like it was  perfectly designed to appeal to people on the  

right it excoriated the media it excoriated the  fbi for its overreach and no one went to see  

it and that's the kind of movie that we should  have made a blockbuster and sent a message that  

we want more things like this if we don't send a  message that we're willing to pay for this content  

it's not going to happen there are lots of young  artists out there need our help comedians uh  

screenwriters uh you know youtube channels things  like that i'll mention ryan long i mentioned adam  

yenzer uh there's there are talented folks out  there give them your love give them your attention  

give them your social media shares give them  your money when you can afford it support them  

they need your help i can't i want to say  something christian you just like like sent  

like shockwaves to me you know it's almost  like ben like we're the ones now saying pbs  

like you know we're like like saying support  your local artists support it's almost like  

gary and ben the parties i mean we've said this  before have totally shifted where we're the  

ones now saying support your independent artists  support you know this person support that person  

and it it's sort of a fascinating how that that  that happened that this is what we have to do now  

this is how the reds have always worked it they  start out as outsiders and they burrow their  

way in i've said this a million times when the  soviet revolution began in saint petersburg uh  

then called later gold minecraft there were only  a couple of hundred people in the communist party  

when the national socialist started in munich  there are only a couple hundred people maybe not  

even a hundred in the national socialist party  they work with energy and energy and energy we  

have to work with energy and energy and energy but  not to shut people down open people up you know  

quick point what what do we have on our side we've  got joy we've got freedom we've got camaraderie  

we have some wonderful things that we need to kind  of frame and peddle and and push to the public and  

i think if we make that counter culture message  that we are the counter culture but we're for  

freedom i think that's a great message to share  that can't be can't be countered the other side  

yeah i i agree with you that message of love  gary i know you uh wanted to say something  

well with it it's just more of you know we just  i don't understand i think a lot of people are  

struggling today because everything seems to  be completely turned upside down and christian  

made a very good point i almost didn't watch the  richard jewell movie by clint eastwood or was it  

a series i can't remember it was a movie right i  was not too long ago maybe three four months ago  

and i almost didn't watch it because it got such  bad reviews and i went clint eastwood doesn't  

usually make clinkers but you know and i watched  it it was fantastic as a former law enforcement  

officer he hit all the heads on the nail and  richard jewell's story it's a travesty it took  

this long to tell the true story and the poor  man died years ago and no one even knows he's  

he's passed on it's sad the guy was absolutely a  victim he did nothing wrong and that story needs  

to be told because that's where we're at today is  people are being attacked for doing nothing wrong  

you know uh i just always say be careful  because eventually you're gonna be the target  

so and gary that was exceptionally said and i'm  exceptionally disappointed in you being a rush fan  

listening to critics um and ben you know um you're  in one of the most iconic movies of all time  

that was not loved at the time and it is one of  the greatest most you're in two of the most iconic  

movies to me because planes trains and automobiles  and ironically you're in a movie called the mask  

but as you pointed out but you know  that you don't listen to the critics  

and um i think ben the message is love  well you know the message is love and  

as christians talking about and writing as much as  possible and thought like you said talking as much  

as possible and singing is possible and if you  just we are running out of time then i just want  

to i'll let you we are running out of time i want  to thank everybody for joining tonight i want to  

get a song for you creep ben never mind i don't  have any feelings don't you tell me that ben i  

don't worry about me i don't have any  feelings ben creep is our safe word  

i've asked you not to share that out loud  and uh i want to thank everybody that's  

on youtube tonight i want  to thank christian toto from  

hollywoodintoto.com you were exceptional i want  to thank gary collins who's always exceptional  

go to his website simplelifenow.com buy some  of his products buy some of his books he is an  

awesome dude and um of course go to spectator.org  um it is and and there's something i i have to say  

talking to ben every day is learning every day  and for the people and i don't say that if ben  

and i have some of the most amazing conversations  we don't where we throw stuff back at each other  

and that's really important to find and um i'm  done blowing smoke then um but i i just want to  

thank everybody we're grateful we're humble that  you listen us remember to download the podcast and  

ben if you will take us out in an amazing song  on this saturday night we'd be honored treat me  

like a fool treat me mean and cruel but love me  ring my faithful heart tear it apart but love me  

thank you everybody thank you everybody we'll see  you tuesday night we are humbled again thank you  

very much have a great night everybody good night  good night power to the people power to the people