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Rachel Denning (00:10.542)
Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the Extraordinary Family Life podcast. We're your host, Greg and Rachel Benning in our home in Portugal that was flooded yesterday. It was insane. Big storm. It was unbelievable. So the weather here is almost always sunny. 300 days of sun here. Yeah, it's just beautiful and calm and sunny. It's so nice and so temperate. And wowsers. It was, because we flew.

A few of us flew in from France and I think that was the roughest landing I've ever had. It was the very first time I clapped at a landing. Have you guys been on flights where people clap? I remember the first time I was like, why are they clapping? I've never clapped on a flight. We've been on hundreds of flights. I've never clapped. I clapped yesterday. I told my kids, I was like, that one is worth clapping for. Cause the plane was all over the place. I mean, it was, the wind was throwing us.

side to side right so the wings were dipping and i'm like you better you better level this out before we hit and i look over and we're almost on the ground i'm like we're gonna have a wing tip touchdown before the wheels do up this is a doozy and he landed so i was like yes sir nicely done it was it was wild then the rains came flooded into our house here and so we we were standing outside

sweep a river in my underwear. I tore off my clothes and ran outside and tried it because it was coming in through the house and we're trying to shovel it away. It was wild. It was madness, but we're glad to be back. I wanted to give a quick update about our trip to France. It was quite literally a bucket list weekend.

For my entire adult life, I have wanted to go to Chamonix and Mont Blanc and do a via ferrata. And so we took the weekend because Kimball and Aliyah and I are training for Mount Kilimanjaro. And so we booked a little weekend trip. Here's, okay, this is the thing we were celebrating. This is why we live in Europe.

Rachel Denning (02:25.677)
One of the biggest reasons we moved to Europe because we're like, okay, we can in a couple hours, super cheap flights around Europe in a couple hours. We woke up Thursday morning and Thursday morning still, it wasn't even lunchtime. Thursday morning we were in Geneva, Switzerland. And then the kids and I were like driving into France. Like we love France. We love France. Oh, so it was so good to be back. We'd prefer to live in France.

We stopped at the bakeries and the cheeserees and the meteries and the oh man it was just glorious even the grocery stores. I stayed here. Yeah. We went to the grocery store and we're just like oh we're back in France this is amazing and the views everywhere you go. So anyways we we checked it off and it was our first day.

Was beautiful the sun was shining. It was we were just sweating like crazy expecting it to be cold and You know, it was it was cold, but we were really sweating So then the next day we go out kind of expecting a similar experience But we went way way way way higher and we got snowed on but we got rained on first so we were completely drenched and Then it froze and it was snowing and sleeting and blowing in our eyes. We were literally only humans on the mountains. We saw some mountain goats

was rad. We were the only humans on that mountain that I could see anywhere and it was miserable and hard and we were exhausted and it was perfect. Just exactly how we want it and and the kids just they did so well. They're so tough. They're just not a not a single word of complaint. Not not a syllable. They just were smiling, pleasant, just grinding and I could tell they were hurting.

I was hurting I was like this is fantastic exactly I want to be and got some good training in training for kill me. Yeah, especially go my jar. All right, and He's kept saying we kill me. Jar is gonna be easier than that day It's probably case that was that was my goal right like let's grind so hard and and gain so much elevation in literally the worst conditions Because for me when you're out in the outdoors

Rachel Denning (04:48.877)
Really cold rain in wind those are the worst condition. I can snow all day long But cold rain blowing in your face. Oh, man, that's that's tough and we covered a lot of ground lots of miles Lots of miles and lots of elevation gain those perfect and then the following day we went and did a really scary really challenging via ferrata and For those of you don't know what that is that it's like in Europe. They'll go

these insane canyons or cliffs and they put little steps and little handles little metal steps a little metal handle so you put the cliff yeah and so and this particular one was in a wet canyon and I mean you're you're over this waterfall and the winds blowing it was crazy you're basically just hanging on the side of a cliff yeah and you have these little metal bars and these little metal foot pegs for for your feet and hands and then

the craziness you just got to go for it. And it was it was it was overhauling and I mean, it was it was challenging and scary, of course, because you're just on these little metal rods. But it was awesome. And both my kids. So my daughter said 16 and she's done some stuff. So I mean, we've been skydiving bungee jumping. We've done some rad stuff. She's like, that's the scariest I've ever been. And Kim Kimball was great. He I mean, they bought it was awesome. Rachel would have been so proud. They just they have.

They've learned, we've trained them how to just kind of flip the switch. They get into serious mode, like, let's go, let's get this done. They both just, I mean, you look at them and you're like, man, they're just handling this. And afterwards they're like, I was so scared, but they stayed so calm, so clear, so focused. They moved their carabiners exactly. They're supposed to do it very careful, methodical. It was awesome. It was just a beautiful demonstration of, of.

the training being put to action. And afterwards she said, that's scarier. So I've been in the Kimball afterwards. He's like, yeah, I've been that scared in quite a while. That was nice. It was awesome. And then she cut out after the first section and then he and I did the second section. And, and then last, the last third of it was, it was an overhang. I mean, you're, you were in it. And

Rachel Denning (07:11.789)
You're holding on, right? And your arms are formed, your hands are getting exhausted. It was awesome. It was fantastic. So literally a bucket list weekend is so fun. And so I was thinking, man, in a major way, our children's childhood life experience in part is you and I pursuing our dreams.

Literally our bucket list. Yeah, so our bucket list plan trips and is their life experience, right? And and I want to make this make sure we're understood here not misunderstood our kids Love it. I mean they crazy love it. So things that you and I said, okay We're gonna chase our dreams and the first time we experiencing in our 20s and our 30s and now in our 40s they're experiencing it as Toddlers and then tweens and teenagers now

they get to experience all these unbelievable things as we chase our dreams and take our family with us. And so it's not a selfish pursuit because we're taking our family along. Like we're, it's like chase your dreams, bring the kids, right? And it's, it's not like the kids are an afterthought. Like the dreams we're chasing include our children and are a major, major part of their development. Well, I mean,

even along that line, that's one of the reasons you haven't done a via ferrata before is because we didn't have the family, well, the kids weren't old enough to be able to do that. That's why, that's primarily why. So essentially we did the things when they were younger that they were able to do with us. Exactly. And we put off these other things because...

they weren't able to do them. So it is like anxiously awaiting for me. I'm like, come on, get bigger. Exactly. It's been, you know, a long time coming for some of these bigger adventures because they weren't old enough to participate. And I consciously remember that we did this on purpose. We would be like, oh, well, no, I guess we're not going to go there and do that thing because kids can't do it. You were specifically, you would be the only one who could do it because I'm carrying the baby or I'm nursing or I'm pregnant or.

Rachel Denning (09:26.029)
And so we only did the things that we could all do together. And that would be for their benefit and growth and that would expand them through exposure and experience. And then some of the things like, you know, Kilimanjaro and other big things we've done, I knew not only did they have to be older, but they had to be seriously prepared. And so it's been strategic and deliberate training and preparation for years to get to where we can just say, Hey, let's let's head out for the weekend and go do something.

very challenging. In fact, there was big warnings in the canyon, like don't even attempt this unless you're in fantastic shape. Right? Right? And I looked at both of them like, we got this. Like, yeah, let's go. Yeah, it was awesome. And it's just, it's so fun. It's so fun to live life that way. So for today's episode, it's gonna be a little different. We're just gonna kind of

share some things that are just on our minds and things that you're observing. So when, when you get out and you're reading a lot of books, especially about history and things that have happened, and you're out traveling the world, meeting with lots of people and connecting with people in a lot of different industries this year. So Rachel and I, we get to coach people from all kinds of industries and all kinds of backgrounds. And well, Amber.

listening to a lot of podcasts about current events and different world topics. Well, OK, here's OK from this weekend. This is really relevant. We. Went into this grocery store, end up having this cool connection with the cashier who is from Cameroon. And we talked about that and and it was it was just really fun and fascinating to catch him. And we're in France and this guy's from Cameron.

Then we picked up a hitchhiker, which I don't recommend you pick up hitchhikers. But this kid was standing in the rain. He looked safe. Right now that's not always the case, but he looked safe. And it was me and Kimball and Aliyah. And like the worst thing any idiot could do was try to pick a fight with the three of us. Like you're gonna get wrecked in a tin can and just get dumped.

Rachel Denning (11:51.725)
So I was totally confident and Kimball was sitting up front and Lee was sitting back. So I'm like, I'm putting this guy next to my daughter. But I was like, oh, she would wreck any idiot. So anyway, the kid was awesome. Genuinely great human being. It was so fun. He's from Tunisia. And he came to Italy and then to France because he's working, he's saving up to one day go back and live a better life in Tunisia and he can earn more than double.

in France, what he was learning there. And so he came up and he learned Italian. Now he's learning French and he's just a hard working kid. And we had this fun, really enjoyable conversation. He's connecting with this kid and learning about his life. I mean, that just blows your reality when you hear other people's stories up close. Well, we picked up some hitchhikers.

Well, we are in Turkey. The Russian ones. That were from Russia. Yeah, that was so insightful. Which was very insightful to me because, you know, obviously the Ukraine -Russia war is going on and this was a few months ago, so it was even more relevant and recent. And it was just very insightful to listen to their perspective. And I know we specifically asked them like, oh, well, is it safe? Like,

for Americans specifically to travel there and they're like, oh yeah, it's totally safe still. You could still go there. Most of the Russian people are just living their normal lives. And so it's, to me, that's how you actually get a pulse on the world, is by talking to real people. Now granted, people all have differing opinions and viewpoints and definitions of what safe is, et cetera. And so you have to take all of that into consideration. But I think that our advantage has always been...

because of the unique life we live and all the different people we get to meet, it gives you a pulse on the world, on the real world from real people, not from the media, not from the news, not from world leaders who have their own agendas and have their own objectives and the certain narrative they want to share. And so, well, I mean, that's leading into some of the things we want to talk about today. But I don't know if I even told you this. I'm on a...

Rachel Denning (14:11.565)
a men's volleyball team here in Portugal. And one of my teammates is from Ukraine and came over when the war started. And we met tons of Ukrainian refugees while we were traveling. Their personal stories. It was, wow, it was incredible. So anyways, as we're having all these experiences, so in France, and we met a family from Mexico that moved to Geneva. So we're getting this whole mix and having all these conversations and meeting with people who are just,

struggling to survive and then people who are unbelievably wealthy and some who have no education, some are extremely educated, just all across the board. And so we're reading all these books, we're listening to these things, we're coaching people, we're traveling and meeting people, we're seeing firsthand. We've been, you know, in the last 12 months, we've been in 18 countries -ish, something like that. And so you get a perspective. And the way we try, we're not just like tourists. We...

We go in and we're there and we're talking. I mean, we are, but. Yeah, we are. But we're experiencing it like travelers. And we're very curious people. And we've learned over decades, just working with people, just we can read a lot. We can read into a scene, into a person even. I think you can even read the culture based off of little signs like billboards or signs or.

you know, just things that happen. And so we're constantly analyzing that. You know, we did a whole podcast episode about after having been out of the United States for nine months, coming back and just the billboards and the TV and all the things that are picking up. It gives you these huge clues about the culture and what they believe and what they're promoting or, you know, promulgating, propagate the propaganda. It's.

Okay, and that's kind of that's a perfect lead in because that's where we want to go today. One of the things that's on our minds is we're noticing this global propaganda that's going on, first of all, and it's at a big global level, which this has got to be probably, I would say the first time in history that it's actually been possible.

Rachel Denning (16:25.069)
Oh, absolutely. Where where you have the internet like it is and not just internet like it was 10 years ago, like it is today. And you have these huge global organizations that in this weird way, they want total power. And so some of them aren't even governments, they're organizations that are beginning to act like totalitarian states. Like this is crazy bizarre.

And it's so fascinating to watch. And it sounds conspiracy theorist. And yet this is the fascinating thing to me because listening to a wide range of podcasts, reading a wide range of books. From very liberal to very conservative. Right. Exactly. The whole spectrum. You know, there's this sense that. No, it's real.

It's not conspiracy theory. It's conspiracy. And in fact, if you don't believe in conspiracy, there's something wrong with you because there are conspiracies happening all of the time around the world. Always has been. Like there'll be the crazy. If you don't believe in conspiracies, then I give you the challenge of finding any time in the history of the world where there hasn't been active conspiracies happen. Right. It is legit. It's just part of the human story. And I know that this has been part of my mindset shift.

was previously I thought, oh no, those things can't be real. The world is a good place. Not in our day. Not, yeah, well that too. Before when people were ignorant, those things happened. Right, exactly, right. And now I realize, well no, that's just part of human nature and part of power grabbing and dominance hierarchies and power struggles and all. It's been the history of the world. People conspiring to gain,

and maintain and keep power. We would be, that's how it works. Utterly naive to think that it wouldn't happen in our time, in our country, in our state, in our, in our lives. Right. It's utterly naive. And I think the reality is it's actually happening more and more nowadays. And, and I think it lines up, you guys have heard us talk about the fourth turning. This lines up very, very well with fourth turnings. Oh, absolutely. There's, you know, the climate,

Rachel Denning (18:51.693)
Has been so comfortable and so convenient not like weather not the weather climate but like the the Social climate has been just it's set up. It's just ripe for people to do power grabs and because we've become so interconnected globally that these countries that are connected like you might say Western Civilization countries and I'm sure it's happening in Eastern and Middle Eastern

you know, they're all kind of interconnected and we have little interactions culturally across the board, but there's still some pretty big variance. But then there's these organizations that kind of are operating in between those things and businesses, I'd say too, and then governments and then governments that kind of get together. And individuals even. And individuals, yeah, with so much power. That you see them making decisions and it...

It's fascinating to watch because you'll see some rise up and say, hey, whoa, whoa, whoa, don't you dare do that. That's bizarre. Like we're going to fight for freedom here. And you'll see individuals and countries and nations and businesses do that. They'll stand up and fight for freedom. But then there's other ones that they want some kind of global control. Right. Or this idea of like, you know, the best thing for the planet is to do this and they'd be settled. Even though it might lead to the destruction or deaths of millions of people, that doesn't matter because we'll be saving the earth. Right, exactly.

We have to do this for the future. We have to do this for the planet. So if it's okay to kill people, if a billion people need to die over time, then so be it. And it's hard for you and me to think, nah, there can't be anyone who actually thinks that, but it's true and it's real. And then there's others who want to control. They want total control. And it might even be for a quote, noble ideal or something. Or even people, I know there's even people who are aware of force turnings and...

want to contribute to that happening where, you know, there's supposed to be a reset of society. And so they want to force the reset in order to whatever, bring in their utopia. And so they're participating in the collapse of society intentionally, right? And you know, even if you are listening to this and think, wow, you guys have really gone off your rocker here and you're crazy, there's books out there. There's one called the great reset by, um, Klaus Schwab, who's head of the world economic forum.

Rachel Denning (21:17.325)
This is real stuff. We're not making this up out of our crazy imagination. This is real. It's happening. And if you watch what's going on in Canada, Canada is literally... It's in trouble. Yeah, there's some totalitarian stuff going on. But one we heard of just recently, we're learning about is something that WHO is doing. They're trying to do a big power grab. World Health Organization. And that one's interesting because it's not a government.

Right. It's this organization that's trying to move to have power tended, you know, best. Well, like the best intentions on the front. But you're like, whoa, you have to see behind the scenes. That's crazy. It's a totalitarian. Well, it would essentially what they're proposing would essentially give them global power over governments. And like I was listening to a podcast about it.

it would essentially give them power over even the constitution to institute things, you know, actions, best practices, think of, you know, COVID mandatory, mandatory things that you have to require to. They were specifically talking about medical products, that they have the right to insist that you take medical products or, you know, use medical products, however they define what that is, you know, depending on the situation.

for the good of the public safety, public health safety. So I mean this is - Now on the surface you might think, well yeah, we want people to be healthy and there's some of those developing countries that they just won't listen so they ought to be forced or there's some radicals in the US that ought to be forced to comply but what you're talking about is a totalitarian dictatorship. Exactly.

And I love that you said that you mentioned it would have power even over our constitution. The part of freedom that people don't like is that people have the freedom to make bad choices. But if you remove that, you've just removed your own freedom. Exactly. So essentially, you're removing, we are losing individual sovereignty. We don't have the power to any longer say,

Rachel Denning (23:39.661)
No, I don't want to do that or I don't participate this or I choose not to be vaccinated or whatever. Like we don't have that power. And that's just not right. Because when you examine and think about where that actually leads, well, that leads to the Gulag. That leads to Nazi Germany. Like that's what it leads to people. That is what it leads to. Study history and you will see. What there was a great quote we just heard recently like.

The people who are censoring and controlling, they're never the good guys on the side of history, right? They always end up being the bad guys. Exactly. And yeah, that's always been the case. Well, and here's something that's interesting. I was writing the other day, I was doing writing and I had no intention of even bringing this up, but it just occurred to me now as you're saying this. One observation I've had in a lot of the books I've read recently about history is that the people who are the rule keepers, like,

that you know who they are and you know who you are if you're one of them. There's some in our church. Yeah. Well, there's some in every church and there's some in every organization, every school. It's just part of, I don't know, there's part of people, they're like, they like feel this insane drive to keep the rules. Now part of that, it's one of those strengths that has an inherent weakness. Part of that strength is it keeps society functioning. We have to keep rules. Like if nobody wanted to obey road rules, for example, none of us could go out and drive. It just wouldn't work.

If we didn't have some worse than driving in Egypt rules that it works actually, which is all. Anyways, that's another topic. Well, no, what I, what I was thinking though actually is because while driving in Egypt is insane and it seems like from a Western perspective, there's no rules, but really there are there. There are rules going on. It's just a very different, organic type of, and there's, there's actually more freedom on the road. It's really, anyways, that's the different topic. That was powerful.

and cool experience. But as I've been reading these and studying these, I realized it's the rulekeepers who keep society kind of functioning, that when a dictator comes in, when a tyrant comes in, when a totalitarian state comes in, the rulekeepers become that person's primary weapons. It's the people who are keeping the rules, who insist on everyone else around them keeping the rules, who just have this

Rachel Denning (26:05.517)
Intense drive to just do what you're told to do those people become the most dangerous people in society and they become the weapons of dictators and tyrants right and that's a scary thought because those are generally good people and they're keeping rules, but then a dictator state comes in or an organization comes in and says no everyone on this planet must

take this medication, must follow this thing, whether it's backed up or correct or not or whatever, they start forcing that and then they use all the rulekeepers in society to help enforce social enforcement. Which, I mean, you know, to bring up to state the obvious, we already saw this happen during COVID. Yeah. It was just the sampling of what could happen. Oh, absolutely. And now here we are, you know, a couple of years later and...

on the CDC website, it clearly states that there is no benefit to having the vaccine versus not having the vaccine, you know, and that masks are, were not effective in preventing the disease. And yet if you dare to say any of those things during that time, the rule keepers are, you know, like the crab pulling you back in the bucket. So we already saw that happening. So we're bringing all this stuff up.

at the risk of sounding again like conspiracy theorists. And we want to take this approach from a very historical, very calm, very thoughtful, very logical approach of like, just study history, just study sociology, just study psychology. You're going to look back, read these things and then look for similarities in our day. And you're like, oh, there it is right there.

Well, or read something like the psychology of totalitarianism and you're like, oh yeah, here it is. This is how totalitarianism works. Well, and the other fascinating thing to me as well, mentioning the fact that we listen to and read from a lot of different sources and try to keep an open mind to different perspectives. But what is super interesting to me is that there's this growing awareness.

Rachel Denning (28:24.845)
People talking about this saying yeah, these conspiracies are going on. It's no longer like the weirdos Just talking about these team things. These are very educated very articulate very rational people saying yeah, and it's interesting these conspiracies are going on and not not surprisingly those voices are now being controlled and stifled and

even by governments, there was a recent law in the UK. Right, that's a perfect example, like the recent law in the UK, which I think, I don't know if it's Europe -wide or they're trying to make it Europe -wide, because I know that there is that school in France that's supportive of it, but essentially, they're introducing this bill to protect, you know, it's all in this good, all for good cause. We want to protect people from misinformation, from hate speech, from bullying, all these things, so it sounds like a good thing.

But if you look at what that actually means, it's essentially limiting free speech. You're not allowed to say these things, whatever it is, if somebody else deems it misinformation. And when you have a society like that, you're actually in trouble. Big trouble. The only thing that keeps a society truly, truly safe and free is the ability to speak out against the narrative. Right.

And to be able to question it. Otherwise, it's all propaganda and it's all very controlled narrative. If you can't question and intelligently speak out against it to have the opposing view, then you lose balance and you lose control of freedom. And of course, the danger, the people, the reason people don't like that is because if you allow free speech, well, it naturally allows for all of the crazy ideas, crazy videos.

ideas you know that people have. Idiot. Exactly that too and people don't like that. It allows for hate speech and bullying because there are hateful and ignorant people in the world who are going to use their free speech in that way but we have to understand that that's why it's so dangerous because in order to protect ourselves from those things we are limiting our own freedom. I don't know why I think of this.

Rachel Denning (30:49.869)
Maybe because I just think it was portrayed in such a great way. Because there's this movie, I think it's called Assassin's Creed. And it's a pretty violent movie, so be aware if you want to watch it. But I loved so much how they portrayed the idea that the most important idea in the world was that of free speech, free will. And that the entire movie was that they would do anything necessary to protect free will.

And the same idea with free speech. It's that important and it's that powerful that we have to allow the bad things, the bad, the hate speech, the negative things. We have to allow those to occur so that we have the power and ability to speak freely because until we can speak freely, until we can disagree with each other and say, you know, I believe that you're spreading mince information, but let's talk about it rather than I'm going to cancel you. I'm going to shut you down.

I'm not going to allow you to speak or have a platform. That's not the way to have a conversation or a debate or to actually find truth. You can't find truth that way. In fact, you just limit the ability to understand truth when you shut down opposing viewpoints. So the only way to actually have a truth based society, based society or a society with

truth being taught, it won't all be truth, right? Because even if you tried to dictate or mandate all truth, that's impossible. It's like 1984. Exactly. So in order to have a society where truth is available, you have to tolerate misinformation. You have to tolerate people just blabbing on and idiot ideas. The minute somebody or something starts to control that and limit it, you're literally walking like sheep to the slaughter.

as they whoever they is whoever gets to decide what what is true or not like that's insane and so dangerous and the reason we're talking about today is because Across all these experiences we're having across all these countries with all these different people We're seeing this global size Deception occurring and some of its

Rachel Denning (33:16.749)
subtle, some of it's conniving. And now, interestingly to me, so intriguing, some of it is blatantly open. More and more, there are certain people or organizations are stepping up and saying, we're doing this. And I'm like, that is right out of the playbook of communism, or Marxism. Like, that is insane.

are people that ignorant, like this is a line from Nazi Germany. And they just gave it some world organization, like are you kidding me? Did people not hear that? Like what is going on? But we're far enough removed to the people who lived and experienced World War II are all dead. So we don't have our grandparents or great grandparents.

there with us saying, did you just hear that? I heard that in my childhood. Don't believe it like that. They're gone. And so those things start happening again. And the generation that's not in touch with this like, oh, that sounds like a good idea. We should do that. Right. And unfortunately, and, you know, I include myself in this. Most people are so under educated.

that they're not aware. And so they hear things or they come across ideas that on the surface sound like, oh yeah, that's a nice idea. Like diversity, equity, and inclusion, y 'all. That's the buzzword and phrase now. And that sounds like a good thing. But when you dig into what that actually looks like and what it actually means and how the context and history, you're like, ugh, these are actually dangerous things. Extremely dangerous. But you're right. First level thinking.

It looks wonderful. Tolerance, compassion, inclusion, all of that. Right. At first you're like, yeah, that's great. But all of those virtues quickly become vices if they are not kept within healthy boundaries. Well, and if not a vice per se, they certainly become a doorway to the opens to allow.

Rachel Denning (35:43.309)
worse things to occur. I just read a headline recently, I didn't read the article, but I was intrigued. And it said, why Christians need to be more intolerant and less charitable or something, you know? But it's basically this idea that, and this is one of the things that's occurred in society over the last 20, 30, 40 years, is...

because, let's just use the words left and right for now, because right leaning people tend to be, they try to focus on kindness and compassion and inclusion, they try to be nice, right? They've allowed these ideas to persist and to be pushed forward that are ultimately now becoming.

detrimental to the foundations of society because they weren't willing to stand up and say, ah, no, wait a second. That's a line right there. And when they have done it, they've been attacked or, you know, they've gotten huge push back. They've been canceled. They've been all of these things. And so they just think, oh, well, I'm not going to for one thing or I'm going to be nice and I'm going to be open. I'm going to be understanding and I'm going to end.

And while that's important, like those things are important, but as you always say, for every strength there's an inherent weakness. And at some point, too much compassion is a vice. It's not a good thing. Too much tolerance is not a good thing. Too much acceptance is not a good thing. It can go too far to the point where it now becomes destructive. It literally is destroying the fabric of society because we've become so accepting and tolerant and...

What other word did I use? I forgot. I don't know. We've become these things and it's now underpinning all of the foundations of society. Right. And so then what happens is, is kind people, people want to be good and they want to be tolerant. They want to be loving and accepting and nice. They start backpedaling and apologizing and backing away and taking something.

Rachel Denning (38:01.005)
It's really trying to be oversimplified and made super black and white. It's either this or that. Right. And you stop and say, well, it's never that simple. It's never ever that just plain black and white. Racism is never just just that simple. You think it is. You think, oh, it's just racism. No, there's so much complexity there. Well, ultimately religion and so any kind of prejudice like there's a lot more depth there. There's a lot more history and complexity than just.

what we're being presented on the surface. Exactly. Well, and that's exactly the case right now with Israel and Palestine. You know, it's like you've got to pick a side, which one? When the reality is you can't pick a side. It's the the entire situation is so complex that it's not black and white. It's not one or the other. And the solution is not one or the other. It's a it's something that's going to be way more complicated than we can currently even imagine. And it's way beyond just Jews and Muslims.

Exactly. And it's actually an interestingly, this one's goes quite a bit beyond just Israel and Palestine. And there's a lot more at play. And then while that's happening and has the news and people's attention, other things like the WHO, they're trying to sneak in other things, which is, which could be even more significantly detrimental to society as a whole, especially on a global level than what's happening in Israel and Palestine right now.

And yet, it's so boring. Nobody's going to notice or talk about it. Well, and the other thing, another good example of this too is I had mentioned the author of Eat, Pray, Love, which I read years ago. She's written lots of books, but she, I just read this recently. She had written another book and it was supposed to be released soon. And she, the title was something like She Cancelled Herself because she pulled it from publication because she had received.

kickback or something from people complaining that the book that she wrote about took place in Russia and had a Russian... Gave it a good light. Yeah. Well, it wasn't even that. She explained that the book, it didn't put the Russian government in a good light, cast a negative light on them, but it was a Russian person living in Russia. And people are like, how could you write about that when people in Ukraine are suffering?

Rachel Denning (40:26.189)
And so it's this very black and white view of the world, like, Ukrainians are good, Russians are bad, so how dare you write a book about Russia? And the problem is, she cowed to that. She was the one that then said, oh, you're right, I'm so sorry. How dare I write a book like that? Well, here's a perfect example that happened to us. So we went to Turkey, and we were in Turkey for three months. And we stayed in four different places and had an absolutely...

wonderful experience with the place and the people. It was amazing. Yeah, there wasn't any negative thing that happened. No, we went over to the Aegean Sea. We were in the Caribbean down there. No, not Caribbean. That's way over there. The Mediterranean. So we were in the Aegean, the Mediterranean, and then we're up in the mountains. And we're in Istanbul, which is over by the other sea. Is it the Black Sea? Yeah, the Black Sea. So we had...

We kind of a little bit of experience and we drove, we drove a lot and covered quite a bit of ground. Just had a wonderful experience. So we get on and we share. Well, months later even. Yes, months later, we share our positive experience. Nothing wrong with that. We go have a great experience. And again, we weren't going as just like little tourists. You go in for a weekend, do the touristy things and fly out and say, it was great. We were there.

Not even staying at the grocery store, not even in touristy locations. We were in with the people where there was no other tourist locations for other Turkish people. Right. And and there was lots of places where like we didn't see other foreigners. We were in having the experience with the people. And again, the way we travel, the way we interact, we're interacting with everybody. I have an amazing experience that day. This little lady steps out of her door, waves us down. I'm driving past. She waves down like, oh, maybe she needs help. She just wanted a ride up the road.

So she hops in and like no English or anything. And I just gave her a ride way past our house. I just gave her a way up in the hills and she's like, oh, thank you. And then she drives back. It was so awesome. But we have all these great experiences. So we post about it like, wow, we had a great experience. All of a sudden out of nowhere, we didn't we're aware of it, we get attacked. Somehow we got into the algorithm. And they were like, how dare you say that Turkey is a good place? How dare you put Turkish people in a good light? How dare you?

Rachel Denning (42:48.717)
They're evil, they're rotten, they're terrible. Shame on you. And that's what it was. It was shame on you for saying you had a good experience. You shouldn't be promoting this country because, well, there's problems going on with Turkey against their Armenian people. And of course, anciently Turkey took Greece from the Greeks and all of these things. And I'm like, well,

That's the history of the world. Like you couldn't promote any country. You can't travel anywhere. Definitely don't go to the United States because you know, they have a dark history. And so it's kind of this idea of, and I get it. Bad things are happening. I'm not discounting that. I'm not saying Turkey's perfect either. I'm sure they have problems. I'm sure they have done horrible things and are doing horrible things in certain areas. Like I'm not discounting that that's going on. And that's the point.

It's so much bigger than Turkey's good, Turkey's bad. Turkish people are like this or Turkish people are like that because there's millions and hundreds of millions of people from all different backgrounds. And as I wholeheartedly believe the vast majority of people on this planet are good people and they're just living their lives like good people. They have their families, they're doing life and most of them would be kind and helpful to you, to anyone.

And so it would be wrong for us. Okay, first it would be ignorant of us to say, no, no bad things happen in Turkey. We didn't have a bad experience. So nothing bad ever happens there. That would be ignorant and naive. But it would also be wrong of us. And this is the point I want to make. It would be wrong of us to pull down our posts about Turkey and say, apologize, I'm so sorry. And start like backpedaling and saying, you're right, you know, our experience in Turkey, it wasn't good.

We must have missed something. Maybe we were wrong and naive and we actually had a bad experience, but we didn't know. That starts sounding like crap out of like 1984 and Fahrenheit 451 and the controlled speech. You're like, oh, wait a minute. No, we were wrong. Like an animal farm. Like, you're right. We did have a bad experience because those Turkish people, they're bad. We're so sorry that we had a good experience or we were deceived.

Rachel Denning (45:11.981)
into having a good experience. That would be so wrong of us to do that. Yes. We can. There's still parts of Russia and Russian people that are amazing. We're tentatively planning a trip to Russia. And it ought to be celebrated. And there's wonderful, wonderful Chinese people and beautiful parts of China, even though there's some crazy communism over there. Right. And Putin is doing some crazy stuff, right?

No, agreed. And even while saying that, I do understand on another level, like, you know, there's layers, there's maps of meaning on a higher level.

I get it that there are different worldviews and different viewpoints that if you carry those out can be dangerous. And yeah, that's communism. That's one of those worldviews that are dangerous. But we also have to learn how to separate that from average regular people too who may believe in communism and may, you know, they go along living their communist life. That's still very different than

the people who are actually in power, pushing forward communist ideas and beliefs and doctrines. There's layers there that we have to learn to differentiate. That's kind of the point. Like, yeah, I get it. Some worldviews are quote unquote better than others. They're safer. They're better for humanity. They're more progressive and inclusive and in the best kind of ways, not the dangerous ways. That is true. I do believe that.

some ideas when you carry them out they lead to dangerous and dark ends you know they lead to nihilism or they lead to totalitarianism and so ultimately if you get right down to that yeah I get it some of those worldviews are not are dangerous essentially but what we have to understand and I think that this is one of the advantages to the you know like

Rachel Denning (47:20.685)
I heard someone else use it, although it's not the best term necessary, but the views of the West, meaning the views of all human beings have individual worth and they're created equally. Where that leads is to the individual personal interactions where we treat another human being with respect and love and kindness, regardless of their race, regardless of their religion, regardless of the color of their skin, or even their sexual preference. We treat human beings with respect because...

every human being has individual worth. And that's different than the government that you happen to live under or the religion you happen to have been born into. That's a whole nother level. And even while saying that, because you're right and it sounds so good, that also has to have boundaries. Like we will love you, we respect you, but we will not, we have boundaries. We won't allow you in the name of tolerance or acceptance, we won't allow you to cross.

any boundaries of freedom, or taking, you know, or doing wrong or harm to other people. Right, so even that goodness, those good traits have to come with boundaries and limitations. Great, because you have to be, you can respect someone, but you're not going to allow them to harm you or harm your children. I feel so bad for you because your life's been so hard, like, yeah, here, take my stuff. I'm going to tolerate theft.

because you've had a hard life. Even worse, as I've also read recently in my news sources, which is not the main media news, there's been a lot of murders lately. So people who quote unquote are on the left. Right. People who are on the left who are activists for let's say Black Lives Matter, which I just heard someone say is actually an extremely racist organization.

Well, inherently is because it's saying Black Lives Matter. Right. It's separating, it's perpetuating racism. Exactly. And they were also in support of defunding the police, all of these different, and this has happened to at least three or four or five people separately, but same type of activists, right, that are supporting the same types of ideas. And they were all murdered by...

Rachel Denning (49:42.605)
people who in the name of acceptance and tolerance, they were interacting with in a way that the you and I, specifically you and me, would not have been interacting with them in that way because we would have these boundaries in place that said, no, I'm sorry, I don't care about your race, your religion, your sexual preference, the color of your skin. If you behave in this way, I'm drawing a line. Now, these people didn't - Independent of your race, religion, background, anything. It's independent of that.

Like there's certain behaviors that have boundaries. Right. This is the one specific example I want to make. This woman, I think she was young, maybe like in her 20s, late 20s. She was the CEO of some company. I don't know where she lived in this major city. And she was very vocal about white men and how horrible they were and that they're terrible, you know, all of this. And then she specifically, because of her

you know, she's a supporter of Black Lives Matter and all this stuff. She's a white woman. She invited this man in to her apartment, so let him into her secured building, brought him up to her apartment, and he killed her. And they didn't find her body for like three days. And then on the news, the main news, they didn't even report the fact that she had let him into the apartment. Like.

They just mentioned she'd been killed in her apartment without ever saying how the guy got there. Now, again, this isn't a race issue. This is an issue of learning to see past color. If someone is a dangerous person, I don't care what color their skin is, you have to learn how to read that. You have to learn how to read the situation and not feel like you're judging someone because you think they're dangerous and you must be racist because they're black. No.

You're dangerous because you're a dangerous person and you put off a dangerous vibe. And so that can be any color. Where this gets a trouble and this is not a new story or a new experience is you, you, you sense danger or threat and you think I don't want to be racist. Right. And so then you allow serious actual threats and harm to your life and your family, your stuff by trying to not be racist. Exactly.

Rachel Denning (51:58.669)
And that's where you get in trouble. It's naive. It's so naive. This is where society is headed in that it is literally putting more people at danger because in the name of not being racist or sexist or homophobic or trans whatever like any of the titles you want to say in the name of doing that we have no standards and no boundaries and no like line in the sand of like you don't cross this. And so people are literally getting hurt and now being murdered. Another case was

Again, I think a white guy who was a big defund the police supporter and he was murdered by a homeless man, black homeless man in a major city and he because he was engaging and having this conversation with this guy and kept telling him just chill calm down and the dude literally told him I will kill you and he did he killed him right there with his girlfriend I'm like why didn't this guy

learn and walk away. When someone is unstable, you have to view them as being unstable and not be afraid of being seen the wrong way. You know, like I'm not living up to my principles here by treating this person in a, you know, in a certain way because I believe Black Lives Matter or whatever it is, you know. And again, we don't know the details of these stories, so we can't pass judgment specifically on these stories, but you can see this play out in principles where...

people in their naivete say, well, I'm not going to be prejudiced. I'm not going to be racist. I'm not going to be rude or mean just because this person's homeless. And you could be dealing with somebody who has genuine psychosis, a true murderer. And you're super naive to think, well, no, I'm not going to judge them. And I'm not going to treat them poorly. I'm going to treat them like I would treat anyone else.

And that's how you end up getting just totally taken advantage of. Well, right, because again, that's this line that can be difficult for us to understand and not want to cross. Because yeah, I get it. You want to be compassionate. You want to be understanding. You want to be like, yeah, homeless people, they have a story. There's a reason why they are where they are. And I get all of that. But when it comes right down to your own personal safety or the safety of your family, you have to be able to draw a line and say, no, I'm sorry.

Rachel Denning (54:19.789)
I'm not gonna interact with you in this way. I'm going to leave. I'm going to protect myself. There has to be a place where you just don't tolerate it anymore. And I'm afraid that, well I'm not afraid, I can see that. I know that this emphasis, this growing emphasis on tolerance in all forms is, and you see it on the fringes. Because you're paying attention, because we are paying attention, you're seeing it on the fringes.

and you're saying, oh, well, it's on the fringe now, that's only gonna grow. Because until the entire culture wars switch and all of this stuff stops happening of like, you know, fighting each other, which is basically what's happening in America is the left and the right are fighting and dividing and you know, until that ends, what's happening on the fringe is only going to grow and increase and become more common. It already is. It's even happening in our schools. Oh.

Absolutely. Just insane violence and crimes and theft and that kind of crap. Let's be tolerant. And not to even mention what's happening in stores like Target and REI and what we just heard about in San Francisco where people are literally, they park their car on the side of the street with the windows rolled down and the trunk open because people are just going around smashing in windows and stealing stuff. They're mob stealing from stores like Target and Walmart and they go in because...

you know, the law has been passed that, oh, if you steal less than $950, you won't be prosecuted. So what do the thieves do? They go in as a group, they steal $950 each and they can't prosecute anyone because what can you do? REI closed its flagship store in Seattle because they keep getting robbed. And so, and you know, we have friends that used to live in, well, they lived in Oregon and left because basically in their words,

the homeless people were taking over the town. Because people want to be loving and kind and accepting and say, oh, you have a story. But instead of finding them real help that would actually improve their lives, they just let them, you know, now take over the town. Again, it's so detrimental and naive to remove boundaries just because you want to be tolerant and accepting and helpful and understanding that people have stories. So yeah, this is, it's complicated. It's very complex. It's complicated. Just like...

Rachel Denning (56:46.989)
all the things that are happening in the world. We have a personal example in our family that we, I still wrestle with psychologically. We have traveled through Mexico extensively. We spent many, many months in Mexico and driven from the top to the bottom at least three times. Four or five for you. Yeah. We have just explored that whole country and I've had so many wonderful experiences.

One time our family got mobbed and It's by a mob. It was a as a mob in this Mexican town There was no police down there because his mom when we finally mom office and we told them about it They're like, oh, yeah, we don't know that we don't go there the police don't and they're their answer to us We had just been attacked and there's their thing was like, yeah Tell your friends not to go there. That was there's I'm like what needs to be done? They're like, we'll just tell your friends and family not to travel there. I mean, it's just it's like this

failed state. Yeah. And it was traumatizing for us. I mean, I was shaken up for three days. I was livid. And I wanted to get out and really, really put the hurt on some people. But we were just grossly outnumbered. They had weapons. They just smashed up our car. It was a horrible experience. That could easily, so easily taint.

our perception of Mexico and Mexicans. Easily. And you still wrestle with it. Every time I think about Mexico or Mexicans, my survival brain goes, remember that time? Mexico's dangerous. Mexicans are dangerous. And it brings that up. And so we have months and months and months and months of positive, wonderful experiences and 30 minutes of hell.

that's what wants to stand out. So I get why people, if they've had a background even worse than that, we got out okay, we didn't lose any money, nobody got hurt. It could have been way, way worse. And I realized that people have experienced far, far worse. They've been maimed or murdered or lost family members. And so naturally they're gonna have some genuine...

Rachel Denning (59:07.981)
concerns, resentments, anger, hatred, all that. And that's essentially what's happening with Israel and Palestine, you know? I mean, it's been going on for generations. That's been going on for thousands of years. Yeah, not thousands. I know, but. But, well, the history in that part of the world, in all parts of the world, honestly, is thousands of years. It's very complex. So it's human history is what's going on. But today we just wanted to share some thoughts and things we're thinking about and talking about.

I hope it's been intriguing and maybe sparks some ideas for you, at least some conversations, but please, please know there are some deceptions going on, local and global. And there's a lot of con artists out there in the shape of governments and businesses and organizations and social platforms and agendas and activism. There's a lot of charlatans and con artists. And

there are legitimate tyrants and dictators. They're trying to come to power. So we would be so naive and stupid to just roll along with our life and think, oh no, none of that's happening. Not in our day. It's not that bad. That's exactly when you read all the books about World War II, the vast majority of people in Europe were thinking, oh no, I mean, yeah, we've heard about it and we hear it's crazy, but.

There's no it's that bad and it's not gonna happen here. That's what they were assuming until they got invaded until The the SS kicked in their doors. They were literally saying the night before it's not gonna get that bad Well, yeah, which book was that? I'm trying to remember. Oh, it was the gift by yeah No, the choice choice the choice she tells that story and you know She was a Holocaust survivor and she literally said that the night before

They had the chance to leave and her parents were like, holy, it won't be that bad. Yeah, they had a chance to leave. Someone was like, come with us now. And of course, they didn't want to leave their home and give up everything they had and go start over. They didn't want to do that. And they said, oh, no, it can't be that bad. And the next morning, the SS came. That night. Or was that night? It was that night. Yep. While they were sleeping. Took them away. And both her parents died. She never saw her parents again. Yep. And she survived Auschwitz and just.

Rachel Denning (01:01:24.557)
Oh, unbelievable suffering. That's such a great book. You should all read that book. And you know, it's not like we're saying, hey, watch out, the SS are going to come get you tomorrow. It's not necessarily that kind of thing that we're talking about. But the point is. But it's that kind of evil we're talking about. Yes. And that kind of serious. Control. Control. Sorry, I keep putting words in your mouth. No, it's good. That kind of serious type of event that is.

Looming on the horizon. Absolutely. And I know that this sounds terrible and horrific and depressing and overwhelming and yet there is no doubt in my mind that we've been talking about it for a while, at least a couple, three years or more and it's getting worse and getting bigger and it's not gonna get

It's not going to go away until it gets worse. Yeah, it's not going away. Not going away. So we keep sharing this just because we we see things happening and we're like, hey, we should share this with people who maybe don't have the luxury of seeing and maybe like you haven't noticed. So we're like, hey, well, yes, heads up. Pay attention to this. And maybe you live in a quiet little rural area where you won't be affected and bless you. Hallelujah. That's wonderful.

Some of you are living in areas or in situations where you're going to be affected much sooner than others. If all this being said, we are totally still going about our life and having a great time. We are enjoying our life. We're happy. We're chasing dreams and goals, building our businesses, raising our kids. We just got back from a bucket list weekend. We're still living while we're also noticing. Well, I think that's the point. I think that's the point is because.

just because we are living our lives and we want to keep living our lives and we keep dreaming and planning, like it's not like we're giving up on our future, we're definitely not doing that. But I feel that we are required to pay attention and to not just ignore these things because they're uncomfortable or distressing or you know, whatever it is, fill in the blank. We can't just ignore it. We have to pay attention because at the very least it's going to help us be more prepared.

Rachel Denning (01:03:49.261)
For whatever it is, like maybe there comes a time when you have to speak up or stand up or something. But if you don't pay attention, you're gonna be caught unawares. And that's not a good place to be. That's always worse. That's always worse. Right. It's always worse. So our invitation, because we're doing it, is everything you hear, everything you see, just pause before you just absorb it, before you drink the Kool -Aid and just go right in first level thinking.

Just pause and say, yeah, before you form a strong opinion, oh, I'm with them or I'm with them and change your little Facebook profile. I stand with like that is so retarded. What do you mean you stay? Are you willing to pack up right now and go over and actually help take down your stupid little profile and do something like you're doing? Yeah, you're not doing anything like when you're willing to get on the ground and make a difference.

Okay, then, then do it and stop telling people I stand with you. Oh, it's just this form of like assuaging your desire to do something by saying you're with them. And you don't even really understand what's going on, except what you've seen in the media that has a controlled narrative. Exactly. Okay, but beyond that, what we're saying is, see beyond the first level thinking, say what's

What's behind the scenes here? Why would they say that? Why would they do that? What's the real purpose or point or desired outcome? And what are other media outlets around the world saying? What might the long -term effect of these on the surface, these upfront, on the surface situations, what might the long -term effect be? Like, oh, that'll help. But then, whoa.

down the road, actually, that will mean we've lost our freedom. That's never a good exchange rate. So see past the facade. See past the little song and dance they're putting up up front, whether it's, oh, it's so bad, so bad, so bad, when maybe it's not, or they're like, this is so good, so good, so good. Yeah, it's actually it's not. There's a whole lot of smoke and mirrors going on right now.

Rachel Denning (01:06:19.021)
I would, everywhere you turn, everywhere you turn, there's a whole lot of smoke and mirrors. Yeah, we haven't even touched on a whole other area. You know, like there's whole areas we haven't even touched on yet. And it's happening right now. We have front row seats to the craziness of history and another fourth turning, but a global one. Events that have.

never happened like this before because they couldn't because of technology. And so it's happening right now under our noses. And we all need to be aware of it and pay attention and asking harder questions and looking beyond the surface. And it's always better. It's always better to understand more. It's always more uncomfortable too, but it's always better. So think about it, notice it, have discussions about it, read about it, like prepare yourself.

And keep living, keep living your life joyfully and wonderfully, but just pay attention. Well, and that's why we do what we do. That's why we even have this podcast is because ultimately we sincerely believe that the long -term solutions to the world's problems come from strong families, strong individuals, strong marriages, strong parents raising strong kids. That's how we're going to change the world. That's really how it's going to happen.

It doesn't come, it's a grassroots thing. It doesn't come top down. It comes from the bottom up. And the bottom, in the best sort of way, the foundation is family. Well, it's the individual, strong individual, and then, you know, creating a strong family, creating a strong family. That is the answer. It really is. And so that's why it's here. That's why we're here. So ladies and gentlemen, create and maintain and sustain your extraordinary family life.

Love you guys. Take care.

Rachel Denning (01:08:34.797)
you