December 13, 2023

December 13, 2023; Is the World Safer than Ever? Does the FBI deserve our respect? Anti-Semitism on College Campuses, Policy vs Doctrine part II

1 hour 3 minutes

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The Thought Provoker

Sam. All right, so here's my question. So I have friends that listen to our show and friends that are in the Chicagoland and in the Michigan area, Detroit, and other areas in the upper Midwest, and we've often talked about crime rates in those areas and some of the challenges that face people politically, economically in those areas. And I was joking recently with someone about going out for a run super late at night in the Chicagoland and talking jokingly about hey, is it really safe to be out there? I mean, there's no cash bail. We've seen crime. And he actually came back and showed me stats that show crime in the Chicagoland versus Detroit, measuring it to other major metropolitan areas, trying to make it say that it's not as dangerous as what I try to make it out to be. So curious about that. I went and did a little research, right? And I stumbled into this topic. will sometimes create a perception of mental unsafety that ends up kind of feeding and self-fulfilling that narrative. And then maybe COVID and some of the other things that went on around that made it even worse. So my question for you is, do we live in a safe time or is the premise of this article not correct? And if we are in a safe time, why is there this perception that it's much less safe and why do we feed into that?

Next up, Matt. In testimony before Congress, FBI Director Wray stated that the United States right now is facing unprecedented threats to its safety. “What I would say that is unique about the environment that we're in right now in my career is that while there may have been times over the years where individual threats could have been higher here or there than where they may be right now, I've never seen a time where all the threats or so many of the threats are all elevated, all at exactly the same time.” He then detailed the specific threats currently posed by China, Iran, Russia, and International Terrorist Organizations. At the same time, many Americans are distrustful of the FBI and local police. Should Americans change their views about the police and FBI?

Last up, Shawn. Presidents of Ivy League schools Harvard, penn and mit testified before congress about the rise of antisemitic activity at their schools. They faced massive criticism for evasive answers about whether calls for genocide violate school policies and so far one has lost her job. Question: How is it that our most elite thinkers and intellectuals could be so wrong on such a simple and fundamental idea? Are they actually open to a genocide of Jews depending on the context?! Were they simply failed by their pr and legal teams? Or is Thomas Sowell correct when he says: “'experts' may be smarter and have more information accumulated, but they do not command even 1% of the consequential knowledge required to adequately meet our needs.”.

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