Democrats will need to lead the charge against leftist radicalization... unfortunately (09-25-2025--Hour3)

What's going on? Thank you so much for listening to this podcast. It is heard live every day from noon to three on WBT Radio in Charlotte. And if you want exclusive content like invitations to events, the weekly live stream, my daily show prep with all the links, become a patron, go to dpetecleanershow dot com. Make sure you hit the subscribe button, get every episode for free, write to your smartphone or tablet, and again, thank you so much for your support. Eric Ericson is a talk host out of Atlanta and or out of George. I think he's Atlanta and he wrote a piece on his substack today called we Arrive at My Fear and he talks about the current climate. He says a philosophical festering has taken root in the minds of the left, that their opponents are evil and words are violence. A permission structure UH, a permission structure formed on MSNBC and other progressive media outlets that the right must be stopped to save democracy. An exculpatory structure formed on CNN and other media outlets downplaying or excusing progressive violence. A triggering event happened with the election of Donald Trump. Then progressive politicians amped up the rhetoric to push the disturbed and violent across the line. What he just described there, by the way, is what the left called until about a minute ago, stochastic terrorism. Writing in The New York Times in twenty seventeen, the psychologist Lisa Feldman Barrett argued, quote, if words can cause stress, and if prolonged stress can cause physical harm, then it seems that speech, at least certain types of speech, can be a form of violence. Eight years ago Trump's first term, this toxic idea has taken hold, where now people think that anything that causes them quote unquote stress equals violence. Donald Trump's election triggered the left, he says. Now, media outlets and Democrat politicians insist Donald Trump's rhetoric is to blame. He's a dictator, and Democrats need to get comfortable doing things they would otherwise not do. In the words of Connecticut Senator Chris Murphy, who I think the day before Charlie Kirk was assassinated, said this is war. See they talk in these terms, and it's okay, see because it's different. Let me jump over and get Chris on he's been hanging on for a while. Hello, Chris, welcome to the show. Wow, you could not wait to talk to me before you posted that. That was my exact thought. I'm sorry, so sorry, Chris. Well, you could go ahead, and you can. You you could steal man this if you want to go ahead. So I do want to make a distinction when when we say political violence and in say in relation to I'll get back to Charley Kirk, but in relation to, say, the ICE agents for the bust being shot at, I didn't I haven't heard the news that did they catch that guy and did he say that he no reason we're doing it? They well, they caught his. Body, yeah, because yeah, that's right, killed. Himself and they found the they found the the the writing on the bullets that he left. And now they've also revealed that they found a handwritten note where he said his goal is to inspire or to strike terror. Uh in all ICE agents, so they have to be on the lookout for sniper anywhere they're doing an operation. So so and that is just I'm kind of I'd kind of make a little distinction, uh, not necessulting in the speech, but in that relation, it's kind of related to ignorance and the whole lot of ignorance. So we see the media throwing out there that I say that they're they're catching even Americans and deporting me and all this other stuff. So in that ignorance, there's a little bit of a I don't want to say a justification, but a kind of a reasoning of why maybe there are enemies. Right there being yes, they are getting in for like just like Jimmy Kimmel right when he got on the air and said, oh, they're trying to uh, they're trying to tell everybody that this guy that the shooter of Charlie Kirk wasn't a MAGA guy, wasn't part of the Maga crowd. And a third of Democrats believe that. So yeah, I get that. So and in the in relation to Charlie Kirk, I mean, everybody's looking at Charlie Kirk and everybody sees all this guy does is talk, and that's where that idea is coming in his speech is violence. And I say that, and you answered, I was just gonna say you real quick, do you answered the question? Because I was I figured psychology there was there was something to this, I haven't heard from it, and you just kind of enlighten me. So go ahead with what you were going to say. Yeah. No, this concept that speech is violence is rooted in this idea that that you know, words cause you harm, they cause you mental distress, the same uh, it's the same thing that prompted the you know, the trigger warnings like oh, we're going to say things are going to make you feel uncomfortable, and so you have some right to be protected from uncomfortable speech. And so if you are then discomforted, made to feel uncomfortable, then that is some sort of you know, personal physical harm that you are suffering. Hence it's violence, which, of course then when you start thinking in those terms, you can meet violence with violence to make it stop. And this is the permission structure that has been constructed. All right, So here's one more question than do we have any data from say, twenty years ago and any thoughts on what people thought of violence at the time are because I get this feeling that this is a new thing five ten years ago that made. It it is, Well, it has gotten worse. I mean, that's the it has gotten worse. And I can just tell from my personal experience, and I know it's just my experience, but I mean, I've been covering this stuff for a very long time. The idea that that political violence was acceptable was not a wide held a belief that was you know, widespread. And look, even now it should be pointed out that, you know, ninety seven ninety eight percent of Republicans and ninety percent of Democrats say that's still the case. However, it has increased. This this acceptability has increased, and it has increased according to that Carolina Journal poll that I did that I covered in the first hour, that has become more acceptable among the more liberal educated group inside the Democrat party. Right well, right quick of a good about education and we're saying the college campuses and stuff like that. Is there any is there anything that points to the creation or manifestation of this idea there by somebody teaching or or you know what I'm saying, because that seems like this is where a lot of this is coming from, too and there, But there's no I'm never hearing anything like it's bringing it into manifestation, you know what I'm saying. So, yes, so I would trace the roots of this to the long march through the institutions. This is all part of critical theory. Whether it manifests as radical queer theory or critical raise theory, it all stems from that same source. That's where it's all coming from. And over the last you know, forty years, you have K twelve, and you have colleges that have become infested with this kind of mentality. It is a it's a mark exist mentality that is rooted in the idea that there is an oppressor and an oppressed and that all relationships and really all society is best identified and described through power dynamics. And so in any relationship, you have the power or someone else is exerting power over you. And so when you start viewing yourself like that, as this perpetual victim in a constant power play at a societal level, at a family level, at a personal level, it then it robs you of your ability to empathize with other people. It makes you look inward, if you become self absorbed. And there's a name for this, which is called the tendency for interpersonal victimhood TIV. And it's a personality i would say disorder. And once you become, once you identify yourself as this victim, it becomes almost impossible to break free of that mentality. You can, but it's virtually possible. And when you have the superstructure that exists with media, Hollywood, h K twelve, education, college professors, when and everybody is reinforcing this in your world, then you don't even know you're the fish that doesn't know it's wet. You don't even realize that you have. You've been sort of indoctrinated into this way of thinking. Cool good, all right, Yeah, man, I appreciate the call, Chris. It's it has been a it has been a long project that the left has undertaken, and people have been talking about it and trying to fight against it for a long time. I think now it's become so obvious and it's so pervasive that you've got a lot of people that realize, you know, the alarm is going off. You know. Stories are powerful. They help us make sense of things, to understand experiences. Stories connect us to the people of our past while transcending generations. They help us process the meaning of life, and our stories are told through images and videos. Preserve your stories with Creative Video started in nineteen ninety seven and Mint Hill, North Carolina. It was the first company to provide this valuable service converting images, photos and videos into high quality produced slide shows, videos and albums. The trusted, talented and dedicated team at Creative Video will go over all of the details with you to create a perfect project. Satisfaction guaranteed. Drop them off in person or mail them. They'll be ready in a week or two. Memorial videos for your loved ones, videos for rehearsal, dinners, weddings, graduations, Christmas, family vacations, birthdays, or just your family stories, all told through images. That's what your photos and videos are. They are your life told through the eyes of everyone around you and all who came before you, and they will tell others to come who you are. Visit creative video dot com. Going over this piece that Eric Ericson wrote over at his substack, and he points out that the Atlantic, beloved publication of the progressive elite, even the Atlantic, is now sounding the alarm that left wing violence is outpacing right wing violence. Democrat politicians, he rights, are forcing a government shut down, scared of their voters or scared that their voters might turn physically violent against them. Democrats are going to have to be the ones to take the lead, To lead this charge to confront the radicalized leftists and the increased violence coming from the left. And that's the bad news. I don't think they're able to do it. I really don't. News outlets continue making excuses, blaming Trump and stacking bodies to see which side is more violent. California Governor Gavin Newsom, after suggesting that everybody should tone it down after Charlie Kirk was assassinated, then went on to Stephen Colbert's show to declare he really does believe Trump will cancel the twenty twenty eight presidential election. In the meantime, Charlie Kirk is dead, a gun control activist shot up in ABC station in California. ICE agents have been shot, detainees have been killed in Texas. Mourners for Kirk were hurt in Arizona, and explosive device was placed under a local Fox TV van in Nevada. A federal facility in Oregon was vandalized and employees assaulted by protesters. And that's just the last two weeks. Until Democrats police their own side, the violence will only increase. Yeah, he's exactly right, And here's here's a solution. Maybe. Sean Davis suggested this over at the Federalist. The guy who murdered the detainees at the ICE facility yesterday and then killed himself, he went looking for that app, which we talked about at the time when it was when it was developed and people started using it. A guy developed an app to track ICE operations, and the shooter went looking for those apps. I think, I don't know how many there are, but he went looking for the app. What is the reasonable expectation that the maker of the app, the developer? What is the reasonable expectation that the developer had when it comes to how his product would be used? Well, luckily we don't really have to wonder about that because CNN did a fawning interview with him and he explained it. It was to beat the ICE operations. Was so people could avoid detection, so people would know where ICE was operating, so then they could avoid that area and escape arrest, which is criminal activity. So, as Sean Davis suggests, maybe go after this guy for conspiracy. Whoever develops these apps, you then could be targeted and arrested yourself for obstruction, conspiracy, and in this case maybe even murder. Maybe that would stop people from doing this sort of thing. Jim Garretty at National Review. He said, considering how quickly a false narrative that a right wing lunatic had killed Charlie Kirk spread, I wonder if authorities were eager to fill the vacuum with clear facts about the crime and likely motive. Right. This is what I said earlier. I agree with Jim Garrity that the publication of that photo of the AMMO and now the release of the written note from the shooter in order to get ahead of the false narrative that the left constructs in the immediate aftermath of these events, in order to muddy the waters and to have the lie calcify as the narrative. He says, while everybody has the right to criticize our immigration policies, and Dice is not above criticism, you start to wonder whether months and months of calling ICE agents, fascists and jack booted thugs are convincing left wing nut jobs that this really is the time for violent resistance to the US government. And then he mentions The Atlantic, which actually ran an article and a headline that its lefty readers are not probably happy about. They would prefer not to encounter this kind of of a headline and story. The headline read left wing terrorism is on the rise. For the first time in more than thirty years, attacks by the far left outnumber those by the far right. Slight problem, a little bit of a bone to pick, is that some of the data that they use, and I'm going to go into this deeper tomorrow because these studies it's all about the classification of the crimes. For example, if you've got a bunch of Aryan Nation gang members in a prison and they murder somebody in a prison and it doesn't even matter what the race is of the person they murder, that gets coded into the data set as right wing violence, political right wing violence. Do you think that's appropriate? Or how about this one? The murder the assassination of the Minnesota Speaker of the House, Melissa Hortman. You've heard a lot of her name and her husband. They were murdered by this nutjob in Minnesota couple of months ago. That guy is coded as a right wing terrorist. However, the guy who actually did it seems more like a delusional maniac. He wrote a letter where he said that he had been secretly trained by the US military and had participated in secret overseas missions, all in the line of what I thought was doing right and was in the best interest of the United States. He claimed he had been approached by Governor Tim Walls, a Democrat, who ordered him to kill the state's two US Senators, Amy Klobucharentina Smith because quote Tim wants to be Senator? Does that sound like a right wing, politically motivated guy or does that sound like a nut job? Game on Week one starts now and every touchdown brings you closer to a p out. With Draft Kings sports Book and official sports betting partner of the NFL, this isn't just football, it's first touchdown fireworks anytime. TD rushes live bets that ride every momentum shift a DraftKings. Every play is your next shot to win. Will the Panthers win? Will we even get a touchdown? New customers bet just five dollars and get three hundred dollars in bonus bets instantly, plus get over two hundred dollars off NFL Sunday ticket from YouTube and YouTube TV. So your season starts now. Download the Draft Kings sports Book app and use code Pete to get three hundred dollars in bonus bets instantly when you place your first bet of five dollars or more plus over two hundred dollars off NFL Sunday ticket from YouTube and YouTube TV, but you got to use promo code PETE. In partnership with Draft Kings, the Crown is yours. Gambling problem called one eight hundred gambler In New York, call eight seven seven eight hope and why, or text hope and why four six seven three six nine. In Connecticut, help is available for a problem gambling Call eight eight eight seven eight nine seven seven seven seven or visit CCPG dot org. Play Responsibly on behalf of Boothill, casino and Resort Kansas. Fees may apply in Illinois twenty one plus. Age and eligibility varies by jurisdiction void in Ontario. Bonus bets expire seven days after issuance. S Sportsbook dot DraftKings dot Com, slash promos NFL Sunday Ticket offer for new subscribers only and auto renews until canceled. Digital games and commercial use excluded. Restrictions apply additional NFL Sunday Ticket terms or at YouTube dot com slash go Slash NFL Sunday Tickets slash terms limited timeofer message from Russ my Son mentioned this morning. It's not just violent rhetoric coming from the left. They keep setting up fake scenarios like put y'all back in chains. That was Joe Biden. Remember talking to a black audience during the twenty twelve election I believe, or maybe it was his twenty twenty race, I forget, but he promised black people that Republicans were going to enslave them U which is weird because it was the Democrats who did all that. Anyway, threat to democracy, climate change, everything is an existential threat, right, suspension of elections, all of this stuff, and people are told there's a dire threat that you can't stop through the normal political process, and so they are left with the only reasonable option, which is to eliminate their opponents. He's a very that is a wise and astute observation. Rust this is the problem. For example, I mentioned this guy's name earlier, Hassan Piker. You may not know who this is. This is a Twitch streamer. He is actually I think the number one twitch streamer on Twitch well the platform. Usually gamers are on Twitch and they broadcast their games and such. But this guy has turned his platform into a talk show if it ever was about gaming. I don't know, Hassan Piker. He's got three million followers on Twitch. Here's a quote. Let the streets soak in their bleeping red capitalist blood. This guy has directly called for the murder of conservatives repeatedly on his streams, and Twitch does not remove him. He has not been removed. He's been reported, but he's not been removed. So is this tacit approval? Is this? Well, we don't want to jeopardize the you know, all of the audience lost and all of that. Is it a business thing whatever? Right? That's why I say, like the left has to they've got to be policed by Democrats. But the Democrats are not going to do it. They're just like, I've seen no indication that they're interested in doing it. In fact that it seems like they just keep ratcheting up the rhetoric, which then leaves what as a response, You're going to have to have government do it government when Republicans are in control of it, and then they'll be criticized. Oh there they go. Look at them, their tyrants, their fascists, their authoritarians. This is from Jim Garrity talking about the mainstream media's role in all of this. Why is it that, when confronted with a horrible situation where somebody who identified with the left did something terrible and someone on the right is the innocent victim, that the media feels an apparently uncontrollable urge to romanticize the perpetrator. Why in recent days have we witnessed this full court press from Lawrence Tribe the Lawyer Guy, to Jamel Hill, to Jimmy Kimmel to Reuter's contending that Charlie Kirk's assassin had to be a right wing figure. Why is there this reflexive refusal to believe that someone who identified as being on the left side of the political spectrum could do something terrible and violent. Noah Rothman at commentary dot Com recalled the degree to which the mainstream media downplayed the crimes of those involved in the Occupy Wall Street movement. Remember that one, that's a blast from the past. That was fifteen years ago, Noah Rothman wrote, After well after Occupy exposed its pensiont for violence to all who were willing to see it, the left liberal intelligentsia reserved most of its revulsion for the police who were ordered by their superiors to contain displays of public order disorder the Atlantics, James Fallows mourned, quote what has happened before the world's eyes at Davis and Berkeley and other recent occupy sites, by which he meant local law enforcement's efforts to roll up the illegal encampments. We saw the same treatment with the Tenti Fada as well, and PR reported the aggressive new police tactics have focused attention on the ongoing protests against economic inequality that began in New York City last month that have spread to several US cities. And of course we know now, and we knew very early on actually that these were astroturfed. Right. These were backed by big money nonprofit organizations with funding from corporate entities and leftist foundations. Right, these were astroturft. People who identify now as Antifa have a long history of vandalism, attempted arson, successful arson, building, incendiary devices and improvised explosive devices, harassment, stalking, shootings, looting, burglary, even murder. NPR's Mara Eliason, why did you assert that Antifa are comparable to the Allied forces? Landing at Normandy. Remember that they fought they fought fascist too, That's what she said. Why can you not discern that a bunch of violent guys claiming to be anti fascist does not actually make their actions opposition to fascism? Why do we get the same argument from julia iafe or whatever her name is over at Puck as well? He's calling people out here, Jim Garretty is. After the appalling Capitol Hill riot on January sixth, did you hear anybody in the mainstream media trot out the Martin Luther King junior quote that a riot is the language of the unheard? No, nobody said that. How come when the right wingers riot, the mainstream media can see right and wrong and four K crystal clarity, But when left wingers riot, everything suddenly becomes murky and complicated. Why are you like this media? Be better? Or, as Milanie would say, be best. So when I was a kid, my grandpa died with Alzheimer's, and before he died, my mom and my dad took care of him as he got worse. Forty years ago, there were no treatments and not much support for caregivers and family. But things are different today because of the work of so many people, including the Alzheimer's Association of Western Carolina. It's a great organization with awesome people with huge hearts. I've been a supporter for twenty five years. This cause means a lot to me. I participate in the annual Walk to end Alzheimer's and I'm leading a Charlotte team again this year, and it's called once again Pete's Pack. You can sign up and you can join the team and walk with us. It's on October eighteenth, that truest field. Sign up at alz dot org slash Walk and then you can search for my team name Pete's Pack. There's also a link at thepetepod dot com. There's also a link in the description of this podcast. Also, I'll be am seeing the Gastonia Walk on October eleventh, and so you can make a team and join that one too, or make a donation and help me hit my goal of five thousand dollars. If you do, I really appreciate it. There are a bunch of other walks all all over the Carolinas. You can go to alz dot org slash Walk for all the dates and locations. We're closer than ever to stopping Alzheimer's. Can you help us get there? Will you walk with me? For a different future, for families, for more time for treatments. This is why we walk. I will read some of the massages here on the text line from Danny. The public education system, along with universities, have built a wall for the intrusion of logic. Center we're center right thinking individuals to join, potentially come to leadership positions, and possibly higher like minded people to join them. If you're a center or center right, you have an uphill battle not only penetrating these institutions, but climbing any type of leadership ladder is nearly impossible. This person says, I work for a large healthcare system in the area, and because the leadership is left leaning, all of the left leaning employees feel like they can be more outspoken and are without any repercussions no matter how outrageous or divisive their statements are. See, and this is something that people on the left have no real comprehension. A lot of people on left don't have any understanding of this. Of this dynamic. Conservatives self censor all the time in the workplace, family gatherings, and stuff. They won't say stuff, They won't engage with people, They won't say things because they fear retribution, particularly in the workplace, and people on the left, they just say whatever they want because there's no fear of retribution. It's the same. Look. It's very logical to me that you have a group of people in America who believe that there are all these existential crises, that their political opponents are literally Nazis and fascists, but they don't behave like that. They will walk up to a Charlie Kirk memorial and destroy it without any fear of physical confrontation. Right. Those are not the actions of people who actually believe everyone's trying to kill them. Corey says, we need to get you a bigger soapbox. Keep preaching. Great show today, rich and compelling. Thank you, sir. Would a lawsuit get results against Twitch? Any conservative should be able to claim standing, says John in New Jersey. That's a good question. I don't know. Another message. Twitch is a meeting place for the domestic terrorists. The Left has to be destroyed and discarded by everyone. This won't happen. It'll come to violence in the streets over the country. Believe me, and then Kevin says, silence is violence. Words and disagreement or violence. Make it make sense, Pete, Oh okay, well I can do that for you. The point is chaos, that's the point. It's why they change the meaning of words. It's why they're constantly, you know, trying to get you on your back feet with regard to framing of narratives and what is real and what is not and men can be girls and girls can be boys and all of that, Like, the whole point is to create chaos. Why well, if you create chaos, then you fight among each other, you don't know what's real, and Western civilization collapses. The institutions, the center can't hold and when that happens, then they step into the void. They assume power because remember these are revolutionaries, these are Marxists. Everything is power dynamics. Who has the power. You can't do anything unless you have the power. So we're going to take the power, which is what animated people like the Black Liberation Army, the weather underground. In fact, this was a Mark Hemingway piece at the Federalists the other day, who he said, you know, in going over some of this stuff, he was reminded of Chase Abowden, who was the DA in San Francisco, got there with the George Soros money. He eventually got thrown out, But remember his parents went to prison for terrorism, domestic terrorism, and he was then raised by his adoptive parents, Bill Ayres and Bernadine Dorn And you'll recall they were specially radical. They got teaching positions at colleges, and Barack Obama launched his political career at their house. In fact, Chase Abouden would have been about fourteen or fifteen years old at that time, and it never occurred to anybody that this would be like some sort of a disadvantage for Obama. Right to launch your career in the home of unrepentant domestic terrorists. He was rewarded, so Hemingway says, says, if you have ever excused or condoned violence, or knowingly consorted with those who have, I don't care one wit. If you're someone as lofty as Barack Obama, you need to be driven from polite society. I will happily engage in the ritual malediction of saying that call to ostracize obviously extends to forces on the political right as well, except I do so knowing that no matter how much corrupt Democrat leaders cook the stats to pretend right wing violence is a serious threat, nothing the right has done comes close to setting off five bombs a day for eighteen months straight, proceeding to terrorize the country for more than a decade, and then electing new generations of politicians that knowingly excused this insane level of violence and it has led to this. All right, that'll do it for this episode. Thank you so much for listening. I could not do the show without your support and the support of the businesses that advertise on the podcast, so if you'd like, please support them too and tell them you heard it here. You can also become a patron at my Patreon page or go to thepetecleanershow dot com. Again, thank you so much for listening, and don't break anything while I'm gone.