Red Pill Books for 2024

We are live now on the conversations that matter podcast. I hope everyone can hear me

Let me know if you can't my microphone seems to be working We have a number of books that I want to talk about today

I've tried to narrow down the list of red pill books, which is hard because there's a lot and Somebody didn't include some

I wonder whether or not I can even include because of the restrictions YouTube has unfortunately and while I don't

Necessarily always abide by those restrictions. In fact in the past. I've done some live streams and Or I should say videos that I've uploaded

I put them on rumble and then an edited version on YouTube I I do tend to try to stay as Much above board as I can because most of the listeners are on YouTube.

So So anyway, we will see where things go. I'm open to questions. I'm open to people who call in I let the patrons know yesterday if you are a patron of this podcast patreon .com

forward slash worldview conversation you can be part of the podcast and Today is kind of a free -for -all.

You can bring up any topic you want I mean, I'm kind of encouraging people talk about whether in the comments or if you call in the books that really kind of red pilled you and But you can talk about anything and and ask me really any question.

And if I don't know I'll say I don't know But I do want to say I want to start off the podcast by just Giving you a personal update.

I appreciate all the prayers and Encouragement. I I feel like I've needed a lot of that lately with the tragedies that are going on in the lives of myself and my wife and and You know,

I almost feel bad for for needing so much of that, but I do appreciate it I mean we all go through seasons and This is definitely a season for me and I didn't really understand

I still don't understand the extent to which My grandfather's death would affect me

There's been other deaths in the family. There's been other deaths of friends but this one has been especially hard for me and and I think one of the reasons for that is

I had My wife and I were talking about this actually last night. She had the same thing with her mom. I Had visions of my mind things

I wanted to do with him and I know he was he was 101 I mean, he was he was very old and and I you know, maybe some people would think well, that's kind of Ridiculous that to be planning ahead when when someone's 101, but I've had

I actually spent a year living in California and in like 2010 2011 and and since that time, especially

I've really wanted to Finish my grandfather's story of World War two because I interviewed him extensively.

I've always letters from the war. I have audio recordings I even had video recordings. I spent a significant amount of time yesterday editing some of those video recordings and I've just really

I wanted to like make a book and and I just I never could I never could I got like a

Chapter and a half in and I would slowly work on it here and there but there was always like social justice stuff or you

Know other projects and it seemed like it was always an emergency like, you know, John we need you right now No one else is really

And it's not that I'm I don't want it to sound arrogant. I'm not like irreplaceable, but there was a time especially 2020 2021 and I still feel this at times that What I've said on this podcast what

I've written in book form It's just not being said the critiques of social justice I think most of them that are popular are still inadequate and I just felt like and I think

I think it was the Right thing to put time into that. But anyway, I really wanted to finish the story so now

I'm gonna finish it, but it's gonna be more for his great -grandkids and And those who come after and I want it to be good and and so anyway

That was one of the things and the other thing was I really wanted him to you know It's just special when you when you have your grandfather or your grandmother someone in that generation

Holding your child and because my wife and I and I mentioned this in the last episode had some fertility issues

It just was delayed delayed delayed and now we're pregnant and that's when he passes away

So my last conversation with him on Christmas was what was about that and he said, you know, he would look forward

Actually, I'm not sure. I'm trying to think it was that conversation the one before that I think was one before that which was like maybe

Thanksgiving or maybe it was a few weeks before Christmas but he was looking forward to meeting the child and But then

I had plans to go out there in January and just I am going out there, but it's for a funeral instead So anyway, that's probably way more personal details than most of you wanted, but some of you do

Appreciate that kind of an update and I I have just been busy I went to California for a few days and was hopefully helpful in comforting the family who was there

Especially my grandma who I stayed with and I'm going back in two weeks for the funeral And I'm trying to put together a bunch of video stuff.

I recorded him actually quite a bit Sometimes I think without his knowledge sometimes with his knowledge. He just didn't say anything

Because I don't know if he if he if it was more formal. I couldn't do that with him He's one of those some of you understand this like once you put a camera in front of someone

Who doesn't really they're not formal and they don't really it changes the dynamic. I didn't want to change the dynamic so I have a bunch of Somewhat covert

I guess operations and don't worry. I don't do that with anyone else. Really I've never I don't think

I've ever filmed anyone else I've recorded maybe if like like I could count on one hand probably two or three conversations in my life

Without the other person knowing only in states that were one -party consent You know for for whatever reason

I've never I don't think I've ever recorded a phone call So it's not it's not a habit of mine to do that but with him I knew he was getting older and I really wanted to I Wanted to have

I wanted my children to know what he was like if they didn't get a chance to interact with him And and you don't always get that through writing.

So Anyway, I've been editing some of that stuff. I've been posting some of it on my Facebook page for those who are on Facebook But uh, anyway,

I should probably move on from that. It's been a big part of my life the last few weeks But I've also just so everyone knows

Since I haven't been podcasting I have been working hard though on something else and that's the 1607 project

We're calling the documentary for it, Virginia first There will be a book called the 1607 project that accompanies it.

It is a series of essays on everything from economics to religion to Government to music it's all about the founding of the

United States through Jamestown, which is a story that's not often told It's usually told especially in our circles and what

I mean by our circles more evangelical conservative circles. It's Plymouth It's the Puritans. This is not that This is a story for some of you.

You may never have heard it to be honest with you It it hit me as I was doing some editing this week

This really is something unique and it wasn't that long ago I mean this was something that especially if you go back to like the 19th century people would have been familiar with but The the story really does start in Jamestown and Most of the things that we consider

American the positive things that we're proud of they really are rooted back to Jamestown And so that's what the 1607 project is about.

It's not 1619 In fact, that's why we started this was to to to compete with those compete with a 1619 project compete even with the 1776

Commission Which was almost it was about as bad to be honest with you. It's just it wasn't accurate.

And so So I'm excited about that and that's premiering next February I should have probably had it queued up But you can go to the

Abbeville Institute's website to their events Abbeville Institute and if you go there, there's an event at the events page, you'll see 1607 project and It there it's in Georgia south of Atlanta Trying to remember the name of it

Cal Calaway. I think is the name Calaway Gardens beautiful place, by the way I've been there once and it's just a great place

And so if you if you have the means to be there, I'd love to meet you If not, that's totally fine. It is going to be made available publicly, but I've been mr

Editor lately, which is not usually my forte with documentaries. I'll do the interviews I usually don't even film the interviews this one though.

I filmed all the interviews. I've done all the travel I've done a lot of the editing because I I've gone painstakingly through every part of this hour and a half long

Documentary and suggested the b -roll and everything else. So so that's what I've been up to Before we get into the the books, which

I know many of you are waiting for I do want to give a shout out here to a sponsor for this particular

Podcast and I'm thankful for them and actually I've talked to the owner of this particular

Websites on the phone and great guy Christian, man You know,

I'm not gonna give you his address, but he's uh, let's just say he you know He just gave off the right the kind of Impression you want from someone whose business you would like to support.

He gave that impression to me Definitely someone I want to support screen first calm or I should rephrase that it is screen it first calm screen it first calm and This is a website for you parents that I think will be very helpful and and they're in the phase right now of needing to gather information, so There there's a few books

I think on it right now, but they need more So this is you can be part of the ground floor of this project for free.

There's no sign up It's not even an app. It's just a website screen it first calm and What it does is it gives parents the opportunity to screen books that their children may read

So what kind of books what kind of themes and books are we talking about? Well, there's foul language in books

There's violence and death there's sexual content there's LGBTQIA plus stuff there's

Alcohol and drugs they list racism as one of the things lying stealing dark content like scary things children

Especially younger age children that may be hard potty humor and explicit content there's just a lot of things in books depending on the age of your child that you may want to be aware of before they start reading a book maybe they're given a book on their birthday or for Christmas or a relative or someone who's trusted but In but you but you don't know all the details and you have a time

You know the time to read these books So go to screen it first calm and you can look up various books

You can find out what's in and what other parents have found objectionable or at least Things that they think you should know about and if you're a parent who's reviewing a book

You can be the one to help other parents donate your time They even have a section here

With with books. It says help screen books and I'm clicking on it right now. It's gonna take me to a section where It says here's some books that we need screen.

These are on the list You know books like Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone. That's not screened yet.

That's kind of a popular book maybe there's a parent who can go through that and what they can do with their phone is they can use their phone to take a picture of it upload a shot a screenshot of the book and Highlight the area that's objectionable out of maybe a little brief description and that's it there's even a live demo here if you want to see exactly how this is done that they've put together and You can see here

How yeah, so it's just it's on your phone. You go to the website You don't even need an app and you can start doing this.

So So anyway, check that out Screen it first calm and I think it's definitely well -fitting within the theme of this particular podcast

Which is going to be red pill books or books that I found to be red pills so Let's let's start here.

I I'm gonna I'm gonna do and I need to do a few books and then I'll take questions. We'll take a break So if you have questions anything is fine anything that's in the news, whatever you can put in the chat box here

You know part of the reason I'm doing this is also Just to get back in the swing of things I thought this was an easy topic for me to talk about just books that have been

And I should explain probably for those who don't know what a red pill is books who have red pilled me meaning books that Had information that I can that changed the way

I looked at things That's really what a red pill is now Some people will talk about red pill books and there you know books that show that were controlled by lizards or something, right?

It was a red pill and it doesn't mean that a red pill book is necessarily the truth

It's supposed to be I mean some it by definition I guess it should be it's the revelation of the truth, but some people will think that lies are the truth, right?

So not every book that someone says or documentary or piece of information that someone says is a red pill is actually a red pill but but it goes back to a movie

The Matrix and this option between the red and the blue pill the red pill being Understanding what reality really is what's really going on?

So so these were just books that I found particularly

Informative their secondary sources. I think maybe one has primary sources in it but these are books that that frame the way

I looked at certain things and I And it changed the way I looked at certain things or at least

Challenged the way I looked at them previously for the better and it's influenced even this podcast to some extent the way that I look at things compared to the way that maybe other commentators look at things and and I can compare myself before having looked at this information and after and and seen a development a positive development, so We're gonna start with with this

This is a book called returning to reality Christian Platonism for our Tom times by Paul Tyson I've never talked about this book on the podcast

But as I was going through some of the books that I've read that I found very influential. I read this book.

I believe in 2018 -2017 I think 2018 spring semester if I'm not mistaken and it wasn't assigned it wasn't

I had a philosophy class at Southeastern and And We had to watch a documentary

Roger Scruton's Documentary about beauty which I totally recommend that documentary.

Please go watch that if you've never seen It's called why beauty matters. I think by Roger Scruton. It's on I think

Vimeo you can check it out It's like over and it's like in about an hour, maybe Little over that but it's worth it.

And so this got me thinking What is it about this particular documentary this why beauty matters that I resonate with and it's some of these red pills are really

Things I knew kind of were true, but I didn't have any categories for it. I'd never really heard it articulated and and this is one of those

I Was shocked to be on well surprised

I'll say surprised I was surprised to find out How much how many platonic categories are found especially in the

New Testament it It wasn't something I was prepared for and it's very integrated

Actually, and this was the book that kind of helped me understand that and I'm just gonna read the description and then maybe get

Into a little more of why I found this to be particularly helpful and why you should read it I mean it was it was it's not an old book.

It was published in 2014 By Paul Tyson But here's what it says could it be that we have lost touch with some basic human realities in our day of high -tech efficiency frenetic competition and ceaseless consumption

Have we turned from the moral the spiritual and even the physical realities that make our lives meaningful?

These are metaphysical questions questions about the nature of reality, but they are not abstract questions These are very down -to -earth questions that concern power and the collective framework of belief and action governing our daily lives

This book is an introduction to the history theory and application of Christian metaphysics yet This book is not just an introduction

It is also a passionately argued call for a profound change in the contemporary Christian mind

Paul Tyson argues that as Western Christians cultures Christian Platonist understanding of reality was replaced by modern pragmatic realism

We turned not just from one outlook on reality to another but away from reality itself

This book seeks to show that if we can recover this ancient Christian outlook on reality reframed for our day

Then we will be able to recover a way of life that is in harmony with the human and divine truth. And so With the term metaphysics for those who don't understand.

This is just our understanding of reality mezzanine metaphysics is the study of What constitutes reality itself?

What kinds of things are out there? I mean a materialist would say everything's material Is that really true or are there non -material things that actually exist in reality?

That's metaphysics up until this point a lot of my reading had been presuppositional apologetics in In the category,

I would consider philosophy, which is very heavy on epistemology, so that's the nature of Not not the nature of reality so much but more how do we know how can we even approach that question right and this was

I think one of the first books that really got me to grapple with metaphysics and It's changed over the course of time.

It's changed the way I think I've viewed certain things It Platonism and I feel like I'm not doing this justice.

So just bear with me here, but Platonism just really Boiled down is this

Idea think of Plato's cave if you have any understanding of that. It's this idea that there there is reality truly exists that the things in our world are meaningful and that they actually conform to Somewhat of a higher level of being so oftentimes the example of like a circle will be used

There's you know, you can't really make a perfect circle But we know that a perfect circle exists

And so there's all these kind of standards of perfection that that even when we talk about masculinity

There's something we're trying to be that exists in reality Right, but it might not be in our physical world.

There are things beyond this physical world There there there are things that are mysterious to us even but we know they exist intuitively we know this and You see glimpses of this in Scripture.

You see when Paul even says things like You know, we see in part but we will see face to face it's it's that's a very platonic thing to kind of say especially if you get into the original language and what it's

Communicating and then Paul Tyson teases this out. So I'm not gonna do justice to what he's already done But this has

I think Ramifications for how we live our lives how we see the way that we operate in this world.

It's not just cause and effect It's not just action and reaction it there's something more going on and You think of even writers like Lewis and Tolkien who were very influenced by play

Platonism In fact the silver chair in the Chronicles of Narnia series is basically Plato's cave It and I didn't know that when

I was little reading this book But anyway, I think when you understand that it just gives a richer to me at least it gave me a richer understanding of my life the significance of my life and of the

Activities that take place in this temporal world. So returning to reality Christian Platonism for our times

Paul Tyson Is the author of that particular book? I'm gonna take a few questions and then

I'll get into some more books that were red pills for me Let's see, we have a question here

I Hope John will at some point review the movie police state by Dinesh D'Souza.

I Don't think I've seen police state by Dinesh D'Souza I there's a lot of documentaries people send me that I am books that I kind of skim or I read or I watch a few minutes of it and decide whether or not and I'm wondering if this is one of the ones that I did watch a few minutes of a but then

I Is this is this the one about George Floyd and the whole? What you what happened in Minneapolis or is that I'm I think of a different documentary?

Maybe someone can confirm for me. If not, then I don't think I've ever seen it. So If people recommend it,

I'll put it on the list and look at it at some point Let's see, we have a

Sure guide to love is the the the name here Can you explain your view of the

Dominion mandate in Genesis and where you think some get it wrong? How does the life of Christ relate to it?

I'm not sure exactly what's meant by this question, but I'm gonna give it my best shot so the

Dominion mandate to For mankind for Adam and I think this extends to Eve as well because she's his helper to have

Dominion over the earth is Used by a lot of different Christians in different ways.

In fact when I was in seminary, I remember an ethics class This was used in The Abad and Shamar keep and cultivate the garden.

This was actually translated as to worship and obey In the class I had and since then

I've actually rejected that. I don't think that's accurate I think that was a stretch and I think it was

Here's how it was framed. I'll just tell you and I'm not blaming the professor who told me this necessarily

I think they got it from somewhere else and they weren't Hebrew scholars or anything but what he told us was that the whole purpose and the

Dominion mandate was to create worshipers through procreation and And These these would in a perfect world they would worship and obey

God that's what Adam was supposed to do and Because of the curse of sin

That did not happen. And so when Christ came now the way that we fulfill this mandate

So this is the Dominion mandate still is to make disciples. So that so making disciples is an extension of the

Dominion mandate So it's almost like a replacement or an abrogation it's it's a

It's it's how you fulfill it today. The command of God in Genesis today is the Great Commission Right and in a

Southeastern, I think they call themselves a Great Commission seminary You can see why that has an appeal, you know, we're fulfilling the

Dominion mandate here I don't think that's accurate if that's what the question is is aimed at I certainly think that can fit into the the

Dominion mandate because it is related to the

Control and influence of Christ, which is that that is basically the kingdom of the kingdom of God is where Christ has dominion and influence and so forth

That's why when Christ was on this earth when he talks about That the kingdom is present with you and stuff it's

I'm here my it's my Dominion but I think though If we want to be about original intent if we want to be about the original intention that God had

I really do think the Dominion mandate is is man's Control over nature man's stewardship really over nature and that's why

Adam is first given the task of naming the animals because naming is

Implies control if you define something you have an ability to control that thing

This is one of the reasons the left is so concerned with putting the microscope on us defining what

Christian nationalism is what all the things that we hold dear every time we I remember when the Gadsden flag became popular again remember that that don't tread on me and Immediately within two seconds the left had to define what that meant

The reason is is because they you have control over these things when you can define them

The reason the Confederate statues and now founding father statues are coming down is like they've been given the control to defining these things and that was the control

Adam had of all of creation of all of the animals at the beginning of creation all living things and So I think that it should be properly

Translated to keep and cultivate the garden That was his job and that's our job with the material that God has made in this in this realm

Our jobs in this temporal realm physical realm is to manage it to steward it to the glory of God and We could go all sorts of directions on there

I suppose and maybe do a whole podcast at some point But I hope that maybe gets at if I didn't hit it.

I am I do apologize But the life of Christ, how does I'll just say briefly to you

How does the life of Christ relate to it? I think what that I think perhaps the question there is

Maybe along the lines of like the Great Commission and how does the New Covenant? How does that relate to the

Dominion mandate? Well, I think it restores our ability as as believers at least

It's it guides us towards it Orients us towards a heavenly good so it's not that non -christians can't by a

Certain instinct that God has programmed into all creation and all of mankind Do things to have dominion.

I don't think that's true, but I do think that Christians are

Better suited for that. This is one of the reasons that the Christian nationalists quote -unquote people think that hey

It's better for Christians to be in elected office They are the ones that have a better understanding

They have access to the special revelation and they're led by the Holy Spirit and they're going to make decisions

Lord willing. I mean if things are working correctly that will That are better suited.

That's at least how it should happen. We know that there are Christians who? aren't always acting in accord with what the

Bible teaches but but they should if they're being discipled in the word in Scripture if they Should have tools and an ability that goes beyond those who are not

So I think even when it comes to business and other matters in this temporal world, you're you're going to find that That Christians are going to behave in ways that or at least they should there's a general trend that they're going to Do a better job of taking

Dominion and isn't that the story of Western civilization to be quite honest with you? The this civilization that was so influenced by Christianity for so long so I don't know if I'm hitting it.

I hope I am I hope I am but we got to move on and so Someone can ask a follow -up question if I didn't get to it there

Okay, police state is about January 6 I haven't seen it then I kind of lived it though So I guess

I've seen a few January 6 documentaries I did not see that one, but in each case

I was I didn't really learn much I I was kind of like, okay I mean I lived it and then I guess

I read enough on the Ray Epps stuff and other things to be like, okay, that's I Kind of know what happened at least as much as we can know

I think Tucker Carlson's doing some great interviews by the way on this topic. But yeah, maybe maybe I'll look into it

I don't know. Is it free if it's free? Maybe I'll look into it Okay There's no more questions for now if you have questions or comments though, feel free to put them in the chat

I'm gonna keep going with some of these books and I'll try to speed it up a little since we're almost half an hour in here Ideas have consequences.

I did a series of podcasts on this actually with my father and my brother I've read this book twice and I probably will read it again because this book really was probably the most the most profound redpill

I've ever read in book form and The description says this is by Richard Weaver and what has become a classic work

Weaver Unsparingly diagnosis the ills of our age and offers a realistic remedy. He asserts that the world is intelligible and that man is free the catastrophe of our age are the product of unintelligent choice and the and the cure lies in Man's recognition that ideas like actions have consequences a cure.

He submits as possible. It lies in the right use of man's reason in the renewed acceptable

Acceptance rather of an absolute reality and in the recognition that ideas like actions have consequences

This is a really good and I and the order that I put these in is important This is a good follow -up to Tyson's book or you can read

Tyson's after Richard Weaver Because this is also about Platonism to be honest with you.

This is About how it starts with William of Ockham. It's not a history, but it's

William of Ockham's ideas How they played out in history, right so we don't we don't want to blame everything on William of Ockham There's seldom people that you can blame everything on even

Karl Marx even Darwin It's yes, they bear a lot of with you and Freud these guys bear a lot of blame for things

But it's never one person acting alone, right? And so I'm sensitive to that because that's ideologies

Form sometimes around these things. It's all Hegel and then you look at the world binary. It's either Hegel or not

Hegel it's it's it's not all William of Ockham, but But he makes the case that Ockham's ideas nominalism were

Were influential on producing modernity and that modernity is a rejection of the platonic metaphysic right that that that there is

A reality beyond us that we should be aiming for and orienting ourselves toward So I would definitely recommend this because it reads almost like a newspaper when you read this you can't believe this was written in 1948

It it seems to diagnose exactly what we're living in today And I think if Richard was just very perceived that Weber was very prescient

He could see beyond his own time to see what would happen. And and how did he do that? How did he know? Well, he could see philosophically what was happening.

And and yes, I've read, you know, I've read Francis Schaeffer I've read you know that the typical Christian books reformed

Christians are supposed to read on these things and I Don't I I really think

Richard Weaver's analysis is one of the best analysis. I would put it above Even how should we then live which

I think is a good book for the most part But I I think Weaver's really on to something with this and and read some of his other books, too

He's got a number of good books, but that's the place I'd start Next is in a similar vein David Wells a no place for truth or whatever happened to evangelical theology and The description here is has something indeed happened to evangelical theology and evangelical churches according to David Wells the evidence indicates that Evangelical pastors have abandoned their traditional role as ministers of the word to become therapists and managers of the small enterprises

We call churches along with their parishioners. They have abandoned genuine Christianity and biblical truth in favor of the sort of interdirected

Experiential religion that now pervades Western society Major red pill. Okay, this book showed me and it helped me

Understand that okay. Most of what calls itself Christianity has already compromised in the United States That's why

I'm I I'm not as disappointed and not as surprised when I see compromise because I realize okay

The vast majority and I'm talking about even Southern Baptists. I'm talking about the most conservative in the

United States They've slid into a modern mindset and and it starts really with Pastors the role of the pastor being respected and now not respected

Because of modernity because the they were replaced by the psychologists and the therapists and And now

I mean the activists. I mean how many Christians are also Pastors are basically just activists.

They're social justice warriors, right? These are things that have a higher cash value there. They're more esteemed.

They're more respected and so You look at even the evening news. Are they calling pastors on a comment on the issues of the day?

I mean there was a time when pastors would have think of the black robe regiment, right? Like pastors were the educated ones pastors would have been talking about these things, but not now now

You know, we're gonna call in our experts and so pastors in order to regain what had been lost

There was an attempt a new evangelicalism is this attempt to Reorientate what a pastor is they're a therapist.

They're your buddy They're a manager And I have to tell you a lot of churches. I've been Well, I shouldn't say a lot the churches

I've been a part of and a lot of churches I've observed and the way I was even trained in seminary Totally infused with this in my opinion totally infused with this

Even as I saw the curriculum change at Southeastern before I left we're replacing, you know classes on theology with Christian leadership

Like what is this? And you know the class is like, how do you make your church more diverse, you know things like that? that's

That's the problem. That is modernity That is a an inward oriented navel gazing at yourself looking at just just the temporal not orient a or in Orienting your life to the higher life

That exists to the to God and what he's trying to communicate. It's bringing everything down It's the immanent ising of the eschaton

And David Wells, I think really expands on what Weaver starts he shows

How this plays out in Christianity, and I think it's a great book So with that,

I will just look to see if there's questions. I think I don't think we have Any questions, let's just keep going here

How to be a conservative Roger Scruton how to be a conservative This is the next book and this is a book that I am going to actually review with my dad and my brother

It's it's actually been months and I plan to do this and with all the tragedies that have happened and it just with family

It just hasn't really worked out, but we'll do this soon and Here's the

I'll just be brief on this because I have so many more books to talk about Roger Scruton is I think an excellent thinker if you read

Charles Haywood you know, he thinks that Roger Scruton's time has basically passed perhaps and that it's we need something that's

Beyond the sort of Burke Ian paleo conservative model We need something new and of course, he has foundational ism as his his philosophy

But I think that you need someone like a scruton even if you're going to be a foundationalist

Scruton really gets at what makes of Things valuable what makes things true beautiful and valuable and In this book and there's many books by him that are good but in this particular one

Each chapter takes a different issue like it like one chapters on the environment one chapters on the market as I remember there there's a number of different chapters on different subjects and It's surprising this is where the red pill comes in it's surprising to someone who's kind of influenced by talk radio we're just neo -conservative books where You have your you can pick up almost any of them and it's gonna be the same thing you're gonna have a book a chapter on the free market and the free market is the solution to everything and And we got to get back to that and then you'll have a chapter perhaps now on family values

It's no longer even like you do traditional marriage It's just family values this broad

Concept we got to get back to that and we got to make sure that we're drilling for oil

I guess that would be under free market. We got to make sure that our Border is secure because we need law and order right?

These are all kind of the the the conservative values that You'll see on like a

Sean Hannity, let's say and in this book what I found is that this Actual conservatism up until you know, now what calls itself conservatism is more called is liberalism actual conservatism is

Really not that the market yeah free market is There is an element that's important there, but it's not like conservatives true conservatives

Aren't slaves to the free market. In other words, they're not looking at like, you know Unrestricted speech in every area and unrestricted pornography and you know making sure that every day of the week including

Sunday must be a day for the market and making sure that We have a global market that without any protections for workers in a particular country

Like that's not none of those things are conservative conservatives value

Primarily the people that are part of the nation that the conservatives who are

You know who were a part of who are crafting policy the nation they're part of or the region

They're part of the locality. They're part of their localists. So they're they're valuing the people tangible people in their lives and They want their higher good.

And so yes the market there's an efficiency there. There's a There's an invisible hand those, you know, sure, but That can also when the demand is for evil it can be bad and so there's restrictions that need to be there

I'm giving you one example Same thing with the environment, by the way Sometimes there and conservatives would think more locally not globally on this

But yes for for the local regions there should be Maybe some areas that are quartered off as this is for protection

Of or environmental protection there are certain restrictions. Now. Here's the thing conservatives would be against like a national park system probably

That that was actually a progressive era invention. I was you know, teddy roosevelt was a progressive and All the presidents after him who have federalized all this land.

They're progressives basically, but they would be about a local state and local governments taking measures to Conserve their wildlife and their so anyway, that's not something we're used to hearing about conservatives because we're constantly going after the environmentalists

And we've forgotten what conservation is. So this book really I think helps it fulfill uh

A conservative who feels like there's gaps in maybe what you you learn on talk radio and so forth

Um Um Anyone have any questions comments, uh, by the way, I should probably i'll put this in the chat if you want to uh

Call into the program at all if you have any questions that you'd like to articulate not just through uh text but also through um,

Through voice or camera or whatever i'm just going to put this link in the chat box on youtube and on facebook

Uh, you can go there and you can check it out So, all right. Next book is reading the bible with the founding fathers reading the bible with the founding fathers and uh

This particular book is by daniel dreisbach. I don't believe he's an evangelical. I've met him personally I've asked him questions and stuff because he spoke at liberty university when

I was a grad student there um, this is I think the best book in my opinion on The if you're going to recommend a book to someone and you could also

I recommend mark david hall's book On uh on this topic too, but I think daniel dreisbach has a really good book

And it shows just the influence of the bible on the founding generation In ways that you may not have known now if you're familiar with like a david barton

Let's say you're gonna get a lot of this but the unfortunate thing about david barton to me is

He's very sloppy and he's not a trained historian and it's obvious if you uh, look at his books

The citations in his books and stuff He'll be citing like encyclopedias and stuff and it's like we need a source man uh, and and that's where I think he gets in most trouble is like, uh,

When he doesn't have good sources And sometimes you know, he'll he's at least before Put out quotes that don't really exist or at least we don't have.

Um, let's just put it this way We don't have authentication that they exist and stuff. So you can't really trust. I I don't trust

A lot of the stuff he read he writes. In fact, I did a whole project on freemasonry And I got a david barton book.

It's a little book he has on it And there were some helpful things in it, but I had to read it with a very critical Eye, I had to look up all the sources and make sure that I sifted them and so Daniel dreisbach, you don't have to do that.

That's the nice thing about dreisbach. He's like this is this is accurate stuff and Boy where the was the founding generation influenced by christianity and dreisbach even makes the case that look you you cannot study the founding generation without an understanding of christianity if you do you're just gonna come up with You're not gonna understand them.

Um, preferably you would also have an understanding of classical. Uh, greek and roman Stories and that kind of thing too because that also influenced them but the bible far more far more

Um, I think he might have coined the term hebrew republicanism, too I think that might be daniel dreisbach to talk about the system that developed within the united states uh of representative government and checks and balances and all that but Uh, check it out reading the bible with the founding fathers

Um now i'm going to give you some some red pills on uh, the civil war before we get to that Uh, trey may says conversation.

Does that matter? Do you? Think we need a biblical chapter and verse answer for everything Uh, no

No, I don't uh I I mean i'm looking at my truck outside and knowing

I know I need to work on it I need to put some shocks in I don't think I need a chapter and verse Um from the bible to I need

I need someone who knows about putting shocks in a car, right? so no, um I do not believe that and there there are people

I guess who do believe that I think the more gordon clark wing of Presuppositionalism kind of says that kind of thing like you have to have a justification in the bible for everything and uh

I don't know. I I just I I think of adam without the canon of scripture I mean he had the words of the lord given to him.

We don't know everything the lord said to him, but Um, we we have a developing, uh revelation in scripture, uh,

Things that were mysteries to old testament saints are no longer mysteries. In fact, that's the language paul uses so There is this uh development that happens and I and I don't think that um

That you're gonna You know now that we have a completed canon. It doesn't mean okay Finally we we can operate in this world in every arena before we couldn't or something, right?

Uh, all right, so some civil war american civil war it's called I think that's probably the not the best term for it

But that's the term used in the academy I think war between the states is probably a much better term uh, but anyways, uh, the real lincoln a new look at abraham lincoln his agenda and the

Unnecessary war by thomas de lorenzo now This is probably the most popular book by thomas de lorenzo on lincoln.

I've read all of them. He's got like three books I think on lincoln They're all good Uh, this is the first one though.

This is the the gateway and it's received a lot of criticism In fact, there is a debate on youtube between thomas de lorenzo and harry jaffa because harry jaffa is probably more than almost any other figure the person who has engineered the argument the democrats were the slave owners and the racists and the republicans are the good guys and Pave the way for republicans to do nothing on the monument issue

And to try to really sweep under the rug and relegate all the racism in america to the to the south

And make them the bad guys. That's harry jaffa. He's done this to conservatives. He brought by making it not conservative anymore

And thomas de lorenzo challenges some of this now. It's not all of it. It's just some of it but shows that look, you know

Lincoln wasn't a conservative guy You know because like lincoln and mlk are like the two now founding fathers of conservatism to modern

You talk radio hosts where could you call themselves conservative but they're not neither of them were conservative

And he really shows this in a very uh, convincing way. This is another red pill

Uh complicity how the north promoted prolonged and profited from slavery Uh by it's three journalists who live in the north and they started researching.

Uh, slavery and the complicity of uh places like rhode island and maine and Massachusetts and new york and they were just shocked at what they found and they're like, how can we keep?

Relegating how can we keep looking down our noses at the south and saying they they've got this problem when? We were the ones that it was it was it was our people that captained the slave ships

They were the the cruelest part of this whole ordeal was them. So And we profited from we're the ones selling these slaves from so so anyway, it's a it's a book that will help

I think Give a fuller understanding and it's one of the things i've tried to make a point I said look if you're going to rip down all these statues uh to southerners, it's an acid that will eat everything because once you know the truth about slavery and Who is benefiting you're going to have to rip down a whole bunch of american history in the north as well the people that Uh are considered, you know, even abolitionists some of them who profited from this so, um good book

And then another I I've so many american civil war books I had to really narrow this down But this is more of a primary source is davis a traitor by albert taylor bledsoe

This would have been the argument used when jefferson davis was in jail If he went before the supreme court, which he never did he was never tried

But this would have been the argument, uh for why? Secession was legitimate.

Uh, and it is loctite. I I have to say I was shocked when I looked at this book that There you can't really oppose it.

It's just so um airtight this argument and I think it's been lost and that's why it's it's just This is just this kind of thing's just dismissed as lost cause, you know, whatever but it's it's never actually argued against The points are never brought up and actually defeated.

It's just dismissed And uh, so I I think there needs to be a renewal of this is davis a traitor by albert taylor bledsoe

There's a version of this book with an intro by brian mcclanahan and mike church, uh, which is the version that I have all right, i'm gonna take some questions if there are any and then we will uh,

Or comments and then we'll get into some a few more books. We've been going 40 over 45 minutes now uh and Let's see

Uh conversations that matter joel mcdermott called thomas d lorenzo a racist because of things he's written about lincoln in the american civil war period

I did not know that Joe for those who don't know probably most of you don't know who joel mcdermott is but uh, Joel mcdermott was

I believe the president of american vision gary demar's organization for a while and you know big time theonomist presuppositionalist guy and he's gone like full woke and uh,

He I remember I looked he he wrote a book. I've read i've actually read some of his books um, and and they started, uh,

I think the last one I read was the bounds of love it it Got it was getting weird to be honest with you.

Uh, but his book. Um, I've read portions of his book on slavery.

He has a book on slavery And it's it's pretty in my opinion. It was pretty terrible. Just it just wasn't well written.

It wasn't uh It was it was clear to me. This was an activist With an activist bent and I understand we all have a bias right when we approach things we all have a bent that we have um part of the goal of writing history though is to try to You know make sure that we are being as objective as we possibly can and Um, I just did not sense that with joel

I didn't think I was going to find much helpful in his stuff, but that doesn't surprise me that he would just You know, everything's a racist.

Everyone's a racist And i've met tom de lorenzo and i've read enough of tom de lorenzo

No, no the guy just because of what he thinks about lincoln lincoln was a racist in this if we're operating,

I don't like that term, but if we're using, uh, the definition of just you know, a someone who thought that White people were inferior or is superior uh because of their genetics and that kind of thing, um, i'm pretty sure lincoln would have qualified for that but Uh, someone asked do you primarily read?

Uh or audiobook I do both I do both. Um With a lot of these a lot of the red pill books.

I read them so Sometimes i'll do an audiobook and then i'm like that was really good

And then i'm like I gotta go back and slowly read you absorb more if you read I tend to find But if i'm trying to like just make my way through something

I audiobook it I just did one the power worshipers, right? I'll review that on this podcast at some point It's the basis for this new documentary on christian nationalism

I didn't want to read that Like I I already knew what it was going to say. So I you know, you listen to it on like two or three speed and In sometimes more and then you get through it and you know the basic themes and you go back to the quotes that stood out

So it really depends Uh so Anyway, all right.

Let's let's keep going here on the red pill books we got uh is

Uh, mao mao the unknown story. This is a biography of mao zedong by yung, uh, shang and john halliday and I consider this book to be

I I knew communism was bad This was a book that really convinced me

That it was bad like with actual stories Nuts and bolts. This is as bad as it can get

I mean people eating the barks off trees because they're starving because of decisions made by mao.

I mean What what happened in china? In chinese communism. I don't think anything else parallels it not even what

I mean what happened when russia was pretty bad, but chinese communism, oh my goodness uh shocking shocking the way mao looked at people because people just didn't have any value it's just uh

And and so anyway, it just is a real red pill into how evil. Um communism can be

Uh, and I don't know if this is out of order Hold on I should have I should have given you this one first.

Oh, well. All right. I'm going back now uh, robert lewis dabney dabney on fire, this is um,

Just some series of essays by robert lewis dabney on feminism and education and and they're very prescient uh, he is very prophetic and A lot of people today really hate dabney because they'll look back and they'll say well look he was in favor of segregation he was uh

He he was defended. Um The well he defended the south i'm not going to say he actually said the slave trade was an iniquitous traffic.

So Uh, you know, they'll say he defended slavery, but most people haven't actually read him But but yeah, he did after the war.

He did uh support a certain kind of segregation even in the church The presbyterian church and people look at that and say well you can dismiss everything dabney says um and I would say there's a lot of people that say things in one area that we disagree with that say a lot of Things true in other areas and dabney's one of them dabney says a lot of really true things and it's like how did he know?

This how did he know in the late 1800s that we would have sexual anarchy in our schools Just because you know catholics and protestants were being forced together and that kind of thing

He knew and so um dabney on fire. It's a really good. I mean he talks about you know

What's going to happen under feminism too? And it's just like that men are going to abuse their wives more You know, you're talking about all the things that are going to happen and you're like, oh, yep that happened

So, all right back to communism Uh red republicans and lincoln's marxist is another book on marxism in the civil war

This is an interesting book and it's not written. I don't think al benson is a historian formally

I I know walter donald kennedy is not i've talked to him before on the podcast, um he but he's a uh

So this is a popular level history, but if you look at the citations, it's very well cited And I mean, you know,

I didn't know things like, you know, carl marx is writing to congratulate abraham lincoln What what's up with that that what lincoln was doing was the um?

what was the uh the proletariat's revolution, you know, and um, and you have like in lincoln's generals and a lot of the people in his cabinet and a lot of the immigrants who

Came over and fought for the union army They're they're marxists. They're they're people who came over because of the failed socialist revolutions in 1848

And a lot of them got into newspaper business I mean this just showed me why the part of the reason the media is the way it is today and um, and it really

Made me see it helped me show me A different understanding of the american civil war and at least an angle that I think is often mixed

Here's another one on marxism called marx and satan by richard wormbrandt This is a book that I wish more work would be done on richard wormbrandt.

Not a historian either Uh, he was the one who found a voice of the martyrs and he wrote this book and it's got some interesting citations and um, it's short it just shows that carl marx it at least implies that carl marx and many of the russian

Marxists were involved in satanism on some level now It's an incomplete story and that's one of the reasons that it's kind of a red pill

But it's it's like half a red pill like you want more to be written on this and it's just not we Whether or not because things have been suppressed or because people just haven't done the research

It's not a an area that people are looking into but I really think So this is a a field that is wide open

If someone wants to draw this connection, you can start with some of the things that wormbrandt puts in there But this might be a good grad student uh undertaking for a thesis or a dissertation

And then last but not least on the communism stuff. Uh commies a journey through the old left The new left and the leftover left by ronald raddush.

This book is about a guy who grew up in new york and he traces communism and You know, he he grew up as basically a communist when he communist parents and he traces

The the people that he interacted with what they did who they were uh, how um

How deep this penetrated into especially new york? uh culture and so I I think this is a an interesting book for those reasons

Uh, so and it's just interesting too because it's the narrative, uh, it takes a narrative structure. It's it's stories and so forth, but Uh, but I do think it kind of red pills you into like oh wow

They okay. They they got farther than many many of us think maybe mccarthy was right. Maybe he was right uh, okay, um

This is a book on aliens by gary bates I had gary base on the podcast did an interview with him alien intrusion

It just shows that a lot of these aliens Abductions and sightings and so forth.

This is a demonic thing This isn't aliens from other planets. This is demons and I think he makes a very compelling case for it

And then this is a book. I also interviewed sam lively on this who wrote the trojan mouse how disney is winning the culture war

I found this book fascinating. Uh, and I you know, there's not a lot of reviews of it

There's not a lot of ratings. Uh, not a lot of people. I think i've read it But I if you're a parent read this book This is really an interesting book and it reframed the way

I thought of the culture war as more of a culture siege that You have kind of a diminishing group of traditional americans

Trying to hold on to civilization And disney has been one of the main influences, uh helping to siege

To to destroy what was there before? And sometimes in in some subtle ways in in movies even like he talks about movies like beauty and the beast which

I actually like You know and and there's good things in it, but he shows how even movies like that cartoons like that have um

Have eroded, uh, you know certain, you know gender stereotypes and things or I shouldn't say stereotypes but masculine feminine roles and Uh things like that Um, I remember he talks about like the lion king and he's like how come you can only have a strong masculine role with spirituality

And if you set it in africa like you or another place in asia You can't have that in like mulan right or you know pocahontas talking to her grandmother who's a tree or something like you can't have

Christianity, you you know western societies. There's none of that Um, so he there's a lot of really interesting things in this book in my opinion

So if you're a parent good book to read just to be aware Of what's going on? um, and and here's some books these are especially

I want to end on these because these are books that I think are especially prescient for What's happening right now in our society the 2024 election the debate over christian nationalism all this stuff

You'll be helped by these books the demon and democracy totalitarian temptations and free societies Uh by legutko, uh, this is a great book

On an individual who lived in eastern bloc communism and left and went to the west and said hey, wait a minute

I thought I left communism. Why are there so many similarities and he talks about the similarities between communism and then uh the western uh democracies

Why liberalism failed by patrick dinneen is another one now There there's some things I disagree with in this book.

I think he goes way too far on the poison pill stuff Uh, basically, you know, the the american founding was was a classical liberal and that's bad and we kind of got off on the wrong

Foot, I don't think that's necessarily true I think there's some you can see that there were elements, uh during the founding that might not have been good but I don't think on the whole it was uh what he describes but That's not most of the book most of the book is just a description of liberalism and um

The problems with it and and it really describes the right the political right

And the left to some extent but it really showed me. Okay, the political right has a problem here uh, and uh

Here's another one that's along the same lines return of the strong gods nationals and populism the future of the west by reno

Um, this is a really great book critiquing. Um Liberalism as well and uh conservative

What we consider conservative and liberal or conservative and marxist progressive statist

Leftist, uh, he critiques he shows that both of these are two wings of liberalism And that you know, and it can't really it's unsustainable

And then here's another one, um This is more fine tuning to the 1960s

The age of entitlements america since the 60s by christopher caldwell I think this everyone should read this book.

Uh, this will give you a very different view of the civil rights movement And he argues in this book that what happened during the civil rights movement and the civil rights acts was

We adopted a new constitution without voting on it Without realizing it that this has fundamentally given the court the authority to overturn the original constitution

And now we have a totally different understanding of the constitution a lot of supposed conservatives Who want to die on the hill of the constitution?

They're not even thinking in terms of the original compact They're thinking in terms of the new constitution. That's been defined by judge earl warren and others and One of the things

I thought was especially if you read the uh book by richard weaver Um, and then you read this book

If you read ideas of consequences richard weaver talks about at the end that private property Is kind of the last the the last vestige of uh, a sense of usness and ownership and Identity, uh that's left that hasn't been eroded by the acid

Of modernity and and that this Is is a hope this this helps us Uh gain, it gives us a start to try to overturn what's happened and Caldwell shows that actually in the 1960s.

We kind of gave up on that too That with the civil rights act we gave up on Uh private property at that point as well.

And and now that is being eroded too. Um, and uh

It's kind of sad in a way. I mean a lot of this stuff is sad and these are critiques They're not giving a positive vision, but they're just critiques of what we live in um, you know stephen wolf tried to give a positive vision and he was

You know By all the liberals came out to pummel him. I think anyone who gives a positive vision is going to be pummeled um, the next book that i'm writing right now will give somewhat of a positive vision by the way and so uh

People do need to Look towards the future and this is what charles haywood did with foundationalism

I'm, not endorsing any of those things. I'm just saying that someone does need to come up with. Okay, what's next liberalism doesn't work.

What's next? Um, how can we learn from the experience of history take the good things the true and valuable things?

Uh, the things that are the transcendentals And how can we then apply them to our current scenario with technology and all the rest?

Uh, that's the work that needs to be done. Now. Um another civil rights book the autobiography of martin luther king jr

Uh, and this is by clayborne carson who's the editor, but it's a lot of mlk writings and so forth

Kind of put together now why this book this is a pro mlk book It is

This is you know people who like mlk read this kind of a book But there is a myth of mlk on the right that mlk is basically reducible to I have a dream

Right, and that's a it's a great line in a in a Decent speech, uh, even though it was somewhat plagiarized.

It's a great line so Is that the real mlk though and this shows and by the way, this this is not a complete red pill like this will just This shows that the best face you can put on mlk.

He's a he's a creature of the left Uh, this is where you know, he talks about even like the third great awakening, uh in america was him with jews and catholics

Marching right. He's ecumenical. He's even in the front picture here. It's it's him and gandhi picture of gandhi there with him.

Um mlk, you know really looked to Uh to gandhi and to the hindus because they had spiritual strength.

The guy was not a christian at all You find that out reading this book But you also find out that he was he was someone of the left

I think this is the one at the end. It talks about uh, how he Before he was killed. He wanted to do a poor person's march

And he had all these plans. I don't know if it talks about then i'm trying to remember now I don't think it talks about the native american stuff that he was going to do but he uh

He he was suspected of communist ties. Obviously. That's why he was being surveilled and Um, he he definitely if he was alive today i'll put it this way

After reading this book you do get the impression Okay, like he would have been kind of for the crt stuff and the conservatives today try to make him like oh

And he was against that because of one line from one speech, but I don't think that's the case and That was a it's a good place.

I think to start uh king in his own words um So this is it's not a book against him again.

This is a book pro king But uh, you'll kind of find that out as you're reading it

So these are the books that I it was hard to narrow it down because there's a bunch of books But these are the books that I thought would be good.

Uh, Good books to recommend for reading in 2024. These are just books and my list is expanding

These are certainly books that have changed the way I think And there's obviously it's not comprehensive.

There's more books. Um, but if anyone has questions or comments anyone who's streaming Uh now is the time before we end the podcast land the plane

So, uh, some people are it looks like they're purchasing some of these books, uh right now someone just said they bought uh,

Four roger scruton books. Uh, I think that was before though. I started recording Terry strange says it is important to read mlk for yourself

I agree with all these things to be honest with you, uh in all these areas secondary sources can be good

I mean I write secondary sources, right the piecing together what primary sources say But it's always good to get back to the primary sources read the primary sources and um

I think that's that's where you're rooted in actual facts as much as possible um

Someone asked me. Okay. Uh Trottle says the thing mid big eva seem most allergic to is confidence and confidence underpins positive vision

Okay, that wasn't the one. Okay. The speech was decent. I have a dream speech Uh, that's how you know, it was plagiarized

That's if it was a good speeches are always plagiarized I don't know about that. Um Do you have affiliate links?

Oh, that's a good question. No, no, I don't I used to Uh, so in other words, can I purchase it on amazon?

And do you have affiliate links? No, I don't sorry, uh, maybe

I should I I never thought that that was um, that lucrative unless you had like I don't know millions of people.

I just I didn't do it. Sorry Um, oh, thank you. Trey. So all of john's speeches are plagiarized

No, no and but there there is there is someone out there who does think that about me There is someone who has accused me privately to a number of folks of plagiarizing my my last book

I published Which is kind of laughable, uh, if you read the book and see how many footnotes are in it

Um very hard to plagiarize when almost every sentence it seems like has every paragraph has a footnote

At least one sometimes multiple footnotes By definition plagiarism is not giving credit to people so I I string together a bunch of primary sources

But I show you exactly where I get them And that's just the way I write. That's the way you're you're trained as a historian

Uh, I I used to have to when I was doing, you know grading papers for for uh, undergrad students

I mean I had to use the uh, the plagiarism software and I had to mark down for plagiarism and stuff

You'd be surprised. I mean it happens all the time Uh people plagiarize and i'm sure with ai stuff it's happening even more

All right, well we're gonna end the podcast Uh, I hope that that was helpful for just a reading list if you're looking for books to read in 2024

Here's a few that have helped me and maybe these are some books that would interest you there's a lot more about a lot of topics that we could probably discuss but But these are the ones

I thought these are particularly relevant for the times in which we live and they've helped me so Um, god bless uh more coming and uh, i'm trying to think when the next time

I I don't have a scheduled podcast Necessarily, but i'll probably do one at least early next week

And i'll try to do a few next week if I can so I I am aware of what's going on out there um in the sbc and in other places in in political and religious places and uh,

I am gonna probably do a news roundup next week. At least i'm thinking about doing that and um, and maybe a book review of the power worshipers, um, also

I think fairly soon i'm probably going to do a review of biblical critical theory by watson.

I think it's watson Uh, so stay tuned for that lots more coming and I will announce when we are going to discuss roger scruton's book

How to be a conservative I will announce that very soon so Uh, stay tuned.

Uh, like the podcast go to the social media links uh facebook twitter

Youtube subscribe all of that stuff. I'm not the worst at promoting myself, but go to all those places