Three questions after release of school threat; the appeal of socialism | Hour 1

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 the peak calendar show.com. Make sure you hit the subscribe button, get every episode for free right to your smartphone or tablet. And again, thank you so much for your support. And this man's name is Andrew Dunn. You can read his work over at the Charlotte Observer, but also Longleaf Politics, longleafpol.com. And he also has a book that, Andrew, I can tell you, two-thirds of the people in this studio right now own a copy of your book. Wow. Okay. Yeah. So yeah, you're, you're, you're huge in the WBT studio at this moment. So yeah, I got my copy last week. Yes. I got my copy last week. Producer Nick got his copy as well. And you're, you've got an event coming up, right? Another one at the park road bookshop or whatever. I do. It's September 9th, Wednesday, September 9th, 7 PM park road books. I hope all the listeners will be there. What are you going to, what's the plan? Well, so Governor McCrory and I will both be there. We're going to do a little bit of a discussion. I'll ask him some questions. I might read a little bit from the book and. Then we'll take questions from the audience. So I hope to make it real interactive. And then at the end, we'll sign until until all our pens run out of ink. Now, what kind of questions could you ask him that you didn't ask him when you wrote the book? Well, I might have to go back to the well and try to draw out some of. The great stories. But, you know, trying to get people interested. In the book piece. Yes. No, I get you. I already bought one. Stop trying to sell me. I already bought one. No, and I recommend it. I do recommend it. So let's see here. You got a couple different pieces I wanted to hit with you. One from Longleaf Politics in defense of Judge Bell. And this is. After the story broke right before the beginning of school. that a guy named Drew Owens had been released. He bonded out after the bonds were reduced and he did bond out. And the charges that he was looking at were related to making threats of shooting up five different Charlotte schools. And obviously being released two days before the start of class did not, did not, I don't know, assuage people's concerns here. So people wanted to know immediately, like who was the judge that released him and, And I actually found out from the court system as well that it was George Bell. And you pull his profile up and he's like, I think, like the only Republican on the bench. And so you wrote a piece in defense of Judge Bell regarding this this story. So lay out your case. And I guess your three the three main questions that you have. About the case. Yeah, so if any of your listeners spend time on X, which I cannot recommend, they're probably well aware that there's a cottage industry built around the outrage machine where there will be some salacious headlines, some outrageous headlines, and then everybody piles on and asks, well, we don't have to live like this. How could they let this happen, et cetera, et cetera? And in Charlotte, we tend to come up– quite a bit in this outrage machine. Usually it's around a criminal who's been arrested 15, 20 times getting picked up on another pretty serious charge. But in this case, the headline was around the story you just described about this guy getting. Let out of jail. Just two, three days before school started after threatening to shoot up a bunch of schools. And so the question. Immediately arose, well, who was the crazy, woke, liberal judge who let this happen? And as it turns out, like you said, it was George Bell, Judge George Bell, one of only two Republican judges left in Mecklenburg County after this November's election. We will have a grand total of zero Republican judges in Mecklenburg County. Well, that's what Democrats call that fair representation. That's right. That's exactly right. But Judge Bell is running for a promotion. Of sorts for Court of Appeals. And this whole thing just didn't sit right with me, so I decided to go into some of the court records and figure out, well, what's actually going on here? And, of course, the reality is always going to be a lot more nuanced than what social media will have you believe. No. I don't know if we have time to go into all the nooks and crannies here, but long story short is that... The real problem here seems to be our lack of getting people to trial in a speedy manner. We do have a constitution that says people are entitled to a speedy and public trial, and this guy had been. In jail for more than a year. On these low-level felony charges, and just nothing had happened with this case. Right, and you point out that maybe there should be a discussion about increasing this from a Class H felony to a higher level. You know, you make threats against schools. That should be a higher classification. But also, yeah, to your point, like why? Why is he in jail for 18 months without ever reaching trial? What's the deal with that? I got to believe that can't all be the courts. It's got to be something to do with the DA's office as well, to some degree. Yeah, I'm not entirely sure what the holdup is here. I mean, it seems to me that the evidence is pretty clear-cut in this case, so I'm not quite sure what's going on. But, yeah, to your point, there's a lot of different questions to ask, and another important one being, well, if you threaten to shoot up a school, what should the punishment be? And how things are today in North Carolina, it's a very low-level felony that most of the time doesn't carry any prison or jail time at all. Right. So you could even say 18 months in jail. He like even if he's found guilty, he may not get sentenced to anything except time served. He could he could. Exactly. That's totally what I would expect. Yeah. All right. Let's pivot over here to my other favorite topic besides the courts is and data centers, of course, is socialism. You apparently you got to to chat a little bit with our what did you call him? Our version of Mom Donnie. That's right. J.D. Masuera Arias. You're supposed to say all of the names. The Charlotte Observer did a big story about this. I don't know if you're aware. I missed that one. Oh, yeah. Then when he first got on the council, they did a whole story on people call him Councilman J.D., And and like he's like, oh, I don't mind, but I kind of do mind. And there's like a whole story about how he really kind of minds. Yeah. So use all of the all of the all of the names. So J.D. Masuera Arias. So I had to ask, first off, did you happen to ask him about how his naturalization origin story? Did any of that come up? Do you know anything about that? No, we didn't talk about that. You know, I really was trying to dig in on exactly why, you know, what does it mean. To be a quote unquote democratic socialist? Because it seems to mean different things to different people. And also why in the world is this ideology getting more popular? Right. So I think you hit on it because you've got another piece at the Charlotte Observer kind of in tandem with this. that socialism is growing in North Carolina, don't dismiss it. And did you read the comments? I never advise people read the comments section, but did you read any of the comments to your piece? No, I don't read the comments. There's rarely anything enlightening in them. Well, it proved your point, because when you make the point in the piece about, like, what does this term even mean? It's like lost its sort of fear factor or shock factor, like, us Gen Xers and boomers, we call people socialists or communists or Marxists, and that means something to us, but to the millennials and the Gen Zs, they just roll their eyes at it. And you can literally see people in the comments section saying that exact thing, like, oh, you don't understand what socialism is, like it's never been tried, right? There are all these different ways to kind of deflect away from this ideology that they are actually espousing. I'm not so sure that they do understand what the ideology really is. I think it's just sort of like this new way to fight against the oppressors, because that's what all Marxism always boils down to, whatever form it takes. It's just oppressor oppressed lens, right? Everything gets viewed through that one lens. And I think JD Masuera Arias is, um, is a good example of that. He even talks like this in the piece that, uh, that you did about your interview with him, that he's, he's like, Oh, it's the corporations. And I just want to balance things with the government. And to him, I guess that makes perfect sense. But like to anybody who knows the history of this ideology, uh, like that it's never in balance. It goes one way. It always is. Well, that's, that's really the key thing here is that the word socialist has completely lost its sting. You know, Elon poll came out with numbers a few weeks ago that showed that 29% of North Carolina's electorate said that the words, the term democratic socialist accurately described them. And, uh, it was something like 56% of Democrats embrace the label. I think 20 years ago that would have been unheard of, but it's, it, The term socialist has lost its sting. And I think for Republicans, it's important to keep in mind that if you're trying to push back on these candidates, on this ideology, just screaming socialist. and communist is not going to do the trick because people are not, they either don't know their history. Or they've forgotten it and. They are not put off by that label anymore. But the other point I want. To make is that it almost feels like potentially it's a Trojan horse situation here. Depending on who you ask, you know, democratic socialism can mean everything from, on the one end, kind of like your FDR, New Deal, Joe Biden-type stuff, all the way to the group that was out here at Charlotte City Council, the Party of Socialism and Liberation, where they're really hardcore Marxists overthrow the government. And it all has gotten... wrapped up on this label. I feel like the people in the Elon poll probably, they must be doing a good thing with their branding, the DSA, because I think the vast majority of people who are saying that this label describes them are drawn to the more FDR-style soft socialism, I call it. Oh, sure. It's the promise of the safety net and all of the programs and things will be easier, right? That's always the pitch. It's always the pitch. And then once you– it's like you vote for socialism, but you've got to shoot your way out of it because it never ends. I think you say in your piece here that the ratchet goes one way, and that's always the case. As Washington said, government like fire is a useful servant but a fearful master. And so when you empower government to a much larger extent, as is required under a Marxist state, then that ratchet gets twisted pretty quickly and pretty hard. Yeah. So, yeah, and I think you also made a very good point in your piece at Longleaf Politics. Whether you believe your life is shaped mostly by your own choices or by forces outside your control, that's basically, that's the siren song. And it's on the right as well. There are people on the right that have this same sort of lens, this oppressor-oppressed lens that they view everything through, that if only those people weren't in my way, then I would be able to be successful. And that's so disempowering to the individual. Oh, exactly it is. I mean, this is exactly the conversation we had a couple years ago when we were talking about critical race theory in schools, and that we were teaching kids that they did not have control over their lives, that the color of their skin dictated whether they They were oppressors or oppressed, and nothing they could do would break them. Out of that mold. Now, the right has adopted its own version of that. You can call it post-liberalism or whatever label you want to put on it. But at the core, the real issue is cross-partisan, and it's something that the right and the left are dealing with right now. We will leave it there. Longleaf Politics is the website, longleafpol.com. You can also read his work at the Charlotte Observer. Andrew Dunn, thanks for your time today. And, oh, and the book is called The Change Agent, Pat McCrory's Rise, Reckoning, and Legacy. Links are in the podcast description. Andrew, thank you very much. Appreciate it. Thank you, sir. All right, take care. All right, for over a year now, you've heard me talking about Create-A-Video, great local company in Mint Hill that has helped more than 2 million families preserve their memories by turning old photos into VHS tapes, film reels, and slides into lasting keepsakes. Now, Creative Video is helping families and groups create brand new memories while they're traveling. 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Check out GroupTravelVideos.com. That's GroupTravelVideos.com. Or call 704-846-7870, extension 206. And when you do that, ask for Katie. But Pete, can I just email? Well, yes, you can. You can email Katie, katie at grouptravelvideos.com. Group Travel Videos, from old memories to new adventures, preserving life's moments for a lifetime. All right, so this is from the text line. Jonathan says, socialism has definitely lost its sting, just like racist or fascist, because the Democrats called everybody... a racist for anything they did, no matter what it was. Right. Well, and this is the thing too. I, and when I was reading through Andrew's pieces on, you know, this interview that he did with JD Masuera, a city councilman, but also this piece at the observer, socialism is growing in North Carolina. Don't dismiss it. The thing I kept thinking was schools. I mean, this is the product of the school system. Schools that thought it was their mission to train up the next generation of activists and advocates for social justice, racial justice, fill-in-the-blank justice of any kind, that these are the things that you should be pouring into the young skulls of mush rather than things like reading and math, right? And so when you raise up two generations that are all taught that, you know, we are inherently systemically evil or is somehow as a nation, all of our institutions are corrupt and none of this is worth saving. This is all a project of a bunch of racist landowners and whatever. Like when you. Pour that kind of slop into the brains of kids and you do it, for year after year after year for 30 years, it's not a surprise that the kids think democratic socialism is a-okay. They're fine with it. It doesn't carry any of the negative freight that its history warrants because they weren't taught about it. They were not taught about it. They were taught the evils of our country, but they were never taught, say, the evils of Mao. Right. They're not aware of this stuff. And you can tell in the interviews with these champagne socialists in the DSA that have all of a sudden become very popular on the podcast circuit and the network TV circuit. And you start asking them basic questions about history and they don't know. They don't know this stuff. So that that to me is the root of this. And Lennon knew it. It's the schools. Okay, Andrew Dunn's piece at Longleaf Politics regarding his interview with J.D. Masuera Arias, 27-year-old first-term Charlotte City Councilman who considers himself part of the DSA, though he's careful to attach plenty of caveats to that description. So, yeah, I identify as DSA. I'm DSA adjacent, I guess. I'm DSA but not a dues-paying member of the DSA. Like that other guy, where was he? Like in Milwaukee or something, and he said that he's no longer in the DSA, and then it turns out it's because his membership lapsed like a month ago. So there's this game that they play where it's like I'm not DSA, I disagree with some of the things that they stand for, some of their, you know, planks in their platform, which, yeah, have you read their platform? It's crazy. So they never actually tell you, though, which ones they disagree with. And every now and again, you get one of the DSA true believers, as we heard with Megan Romer is her name. And She was asked, like, write down the list. This is what you guys believe. And she's like, oh, yeah, absolutely. Abolish the Senate. Abolish the filibuster. States, statehood for Puerto Rico and D.C. Open borders. Amnesty to illegal aliens. Defund the Pentagon. Defund the police. Abolish the prisons. Government ownership of corporations. Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes. We're for all of that. But not J.D. Masuera Arias. Not sure which planks he disagrees with. He's just DSA adjacent. And then he says, I think if we spend all of our time debating whether the word socialism or the momentum of democratic socialism as scary, we miss the more interesting story. Well, yes, of course you don't want to discuss and devote any time to a conversation about why socialism is scary, because it is when you see the way it operates and you understand the ideology, the Marxist ideology, it is scary. It should be scary. So I understand why somebody who is promoting themselves as a DSA adjacent kind of guy might not want to have a conversation about what makes socialism scary. You just want to focus on the sales pitch. The sales pitch is I shall provide you. And by I, I mean like the force of government at gunpoint, stealing money from other people to pay for. This unicorn and rainbow for you. Vote for me, right? This is always, you know, there's an old joke about guy dies and he goes to the pearly gates and he's like, all right, well, you know, God's like, I'll show you around or St. Peter's like, I'll show you around. And it's, you know, people hanging out on clouds, playing harps or whatever. And then the devil takes him down to hell and he sees everybody just like chilling out, you know, drinking coffee, chit chatting, whatever. But the, the ground is covered in poop and he's like, well, this doesn't seem so bad. Um, it seems like there's more activities to do down here than there is up there. So he's like, oh, you know, I'm going to, I'm going to choose hell over here. And St. Peter's like, are you sure? And he's like, yeah, yeah, yeah. It seems, it seems like this is more of my, my style. They're like, okay. So he chooses hell and now he's in hell. And all of a sudden the big alarm goes off and the devil comes out and says, okay, coffee breaks over everybody back on your heads. Like that's socialism. They're selling you something on the front end. And of course, all politicians do this, of course, but that's what makes this so insidious, is that it promises you relief from all of these materialistic things as if that is your spirit. That's the problem with Marxism. It's a materialism. It is a religion, okay? And it supplants all other religions. It robs the individual of their spirit, and... reduces you down to a piece of this larger machinery. And there are some of these comments that the socialists make that give away this game. So going through, he says, why are more young people and working people open to these ideas? Why are people questioning who benefits from Charlotte's growth? And again, I keep coming back to the schools. That's why more young people and, quote, working people are open to these ideas. And in fact, the working class people, they actually vote against the DSA. We now see this replicated in all of these Democrat primaries where black voters and working class voters, they are rejecting the DSA. The people who are voting for the DSA are the awfuls, the affluent white female liberals. Right? People with college degrees that don't really have any marketable value after graduation, right? That's why all of these revolutionary leaders, they all have this same sort of, uh, bio. They all have the same bio of raised as richy rich kids, you know, consumed by their liberal white guilt. And so then they're like, I'm going to champion the working poor while they live in a million dollar mansion. He, um, Andrew Dunn goes on to say, or he quotes Arias as saying, my politics are about balance and power, making sure neither— and by the way, remember, Marxism is all about the power dynamic. That's the oppressor-oppressed lens, okay? Everything is a power dynamic to a Marxist. Who has the power? How can I get it? making sure neither government nor corporations become so powerful that ordinary people lose their voice and their ability to live a decent life. And I think democratic socialism is answering the call. Yeah, it doesn't actually do that. It just empowers the government. That's what democratic socialism does. It empowers the government. And Andrew points out, that's the clever part. Arias isn't asking voters to choose between capitalism and a Marxist state. He's asking whether corporations have become too powerful. And that's not the question that they're answering. I threw that last part in. All right, so over on the text line here, this is from Kevin up first. Pete, I realize this won't be read on the air. Okay. Next up then. By the way, if you really don't want me to read your text on the air, Tell me that you don't think I'm going to read your text on the air. That is an emotional, manipulative measure that you've just engaged in. And you're not the first, Kevin. People do this all the time. They send emails. They've been doing it for 20 years. I know you won't read this. You don't have the guts to read this on the air. Whatever. You really don't want me to read it on the air? Then tell me. that you don't expect me to, and then I won't. Right? Because that's emotional blackmail. That's what you're doing. It's manipulative. But, being the generous person that I am, I will continue to read the text message that I totally will not read on the air. I realize this won't be read on the air because constructive criticism is unbearable at times. Well, see, here's the thing about quote-unquote constructive criticism, Kevin. is that I have to believe that you have my best interests at heart and I don't. So that's, so that's the, that's the rub. You may think you're being constructive or you're just trying to help me or whatever. But if I don't believe that you're acting in good faith, that you have my best interests at heart and you want to see me improve somehow, then it's not going to be received. And this isn't just me. This is everybody, right? If people like people who hate me and they offer me advice, you should really do this thing, whatever. Yeah. Why would I do something if I don't believe that you want me to improve? Right. You're just using it again as a as a rhetorical device. OK, so let me get past the first sentence here. I feel you are black pilling us with all the facts about how horrible democratic socialism is. but not giving us a way to counter the ideology besides gotcha facts about it. Okay, I don't think you know what blackpilling means. Okay, just by the way you used it right there, Kevin. We are in a battle. I say this all the time. We are in a battle. It is all around us at all times. And so me talking about the contours of the battle space is not black pilling. Black pilling would be me saying, there's no point in talking about this. There's no reason for us to fight. There's no reason for us to make our arguments. All is lost. Everything's out of our control. There's no point in voting. There's no point in, you know, volunteering for a campaign or donating money or anything like that because all is lost already. See, that's blackpilling. And I don't say that. I say, this is the battle space. Here are the ways that it is being waged in this particular arena or that arena, right? Whether it's the cultural stuff or its policy or its election tactics. Yesterday, we talked about the use of all of the campaign funding. So there are all different ways that the battles are waged. When we talk about them, when I talk about them, I bring that information to you so you are now aware, hopefully, of some of the actors or tactics in the battle. That's actually to prepare you for the battle. That's so you can make these arguments yourself. That's why I do this. And you may not understand. You may think these are gotcha facts. But that is the way that you combat bad ideas is with better ideas. That's the way you do that. Unless you resort to violence, which I do not espouse. So I am left with this one form, which is to engage in the rhetorical battle and to highlight the bad ideas and to counter them with better ideas. The good ideas, the ones that have worked, right? That's not black pilling. It's actually the opposite. That's white pilling. This is telling you that you are in charge of your future. You can make the difference. I think I say this pretty regularly, right? I talk about how if you abandon the battlefield and you just, if you got good and competent people that don't step up to volunteer their time and their resources to try to improve our community or society, then you will be governed by bad, incompetent people. I talk about this pretty regularly, right? All of this is under the heading of you can make a difference, but you have to decide to do that and have to decide how to do that. And everybody is different. Okay, back to the text here. Not giving us a way to counter, I read that part, counter the ideology besides gotcha facts about it. Again, like if you don't want, like if you don't want to hear the ways in which to attack democratic socialism, Marxism in general. If you don't want to hear these arguments because you don't ever want to use them, then you should listen to a different show. Because I believe that this battle is very important. That's my own opinion. Facts are great for gotcha moments when having a discussion about but usually never result in winning someone over to your side. I don't have an argument with a commie or a Marxist. I don't have an argument with a Marxist to win them over to my side, Kevin. I've talked about this numerous times as well. I have the argument to convince people who are listening to the argument that I have a better argument. In the argument, my opponent is never going to say, oh, you know what? You're right. They may at some point, that'd be awesome, but That never happens in a debate. Hopefully people hear the debate and if they're on the fence and they don't know enough about it, so they're not engaged in it themselves. They hear my argument and they think, Oh, that's a better argument. Yeah. He, I like what he's saying. I like what Pete's saying better. Kindness and empathy are an actual way to win over lost souls. This idea is discussion at Romans 12, 17 through 21. Also, there's a link, which by the way, I do not click links. Um, That's how I keep my computer from being infected. I'm not saying, like, who's saying that you cannot engage with somebody who's talking about Marxism? Who's to say you can't engage with kindness and empathy? You can. That's fine. Like, you want me to, like, draw up some proposal for your personal actions, how you specifically need to devote time or energy to something, like, You send me what it is you're interested in, Kevin. I'll work up a proposal for you. 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 the Pete Kaliner show dot com. Again, thank you so much for listening and don't break anything while I'm gone.