Speaker 1: Welcome to Behind the Bastards, the only podcast about bad
Speaker 1: people that there's ever been under only one NATO law. Um.
Speaker 1: I'm Robert Evans, host of this podcast. Formally, I tell
Speaker 1: the the very detailed story about a terrible person, or
Speaker 1: a terrible group of people, or a terrible thing that
Speaker 1: was done by terrible people. But this week we're we're
Speaker 1: doing things a little bit a little bit different. Garrison,
Speaker 1: Uh my, my, my, my friend, um, local youth about town,
Speaker 1: Portland photo journalist, Garrison, you want to explain what's going
Speaker 1: on today? Have the last name just just oh yeah,
Speaker 1: this this This is Garrison Davis, local youth in Portland.
Speaker 1: And reporter my young Ward Yeah, robertson Ward. And because
Speaker 1: of Robert's injury, I have not successfully coded this podcast.
Speaker 1: You did, and I am now gonna be running the
Speaker 1: show for today until there is a coup to the
Speaker 1: is coup to counter coup? Counter coup has been studying
Speaker 1: the School of the Americas. Is it really a coup?
Speaker 1: If you go, hey, can I host your podcast? And
Speaker 1: Lynn Robert and I both go, Yeah, I don't know
Speaker 1: either way, Sophie. I've got some death squads in El Salvador.
Speaker 1: But that may wind up just being just a separate
Speaker 1: thing I do. Anyway, Garrison is going to be presenting
Speaker 1: the episode this week, an episode that he wrote, and
Speaker 1: I will be the guest on my own show, and
Speaker 1: I will supervise all of it well while drinking, Yeah,
Speaker 1: while I drink a paraseco out of a glass straw.
Speaker 1: And we've we've scheduled this for Garrison's eighteen birthday, so
Speaker 1: that I'm no longer violating child labor law by having
Speaker 1: you on the podcast. Yeah, hello, yes, yeah, it's my
Speaker 1: birthday today. So Garrison, you want to tell the people America, England, Australia,
Speaker 1: numerous other countries, Canada, maybe you want to tell them
Speaker 1: what the episode for today is. UM. We already talking
Speaker 1: about an organization called Focus on the Family with IF
Speaker 1: if you've if you've heard of that, you've probably heard
Speaker 1: of it from John Oliver's show. UM, or you grew
Speaker 1: up with this organization kind of in your life, as
Speaker 1: like like if you grew up as a Christian. Um,
Speaker 1: we're be yeah, we're gonna be learning all about some
Speaker 1: weird stuff. They did, some surprising stuff they did. Um Yeah,
Speaker 1: and I was it was actually a surprised for even
Speaker 1: though I'm familiar with this organization, like personally, I learned
Speaker 1: some new things when I was doing research for this,
Speaker 1: so even I was surprised with what I found. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and for our our listeners who haven't been stalking you
Speaker 1: on the internet, you grew up in what you've called
Speaker 1: to me repeatedly a cult. Yeah, I, me and my
Speaker 1: family were in a cult in Canada for about eleven years.
Speaker 1: We moved to Portland to get out of the cult
Speaker 1: and have been here and I I've been here ever since.
Speaker 1: Some of my family's back in Canada but not but
Speaker 1: not in a cult. Yeah, when you're in a Canadian cult,
Speaker 1: is it the Mounties that burn your compound UM by
Speaker 1: incenterating tear gas or is there another agents? I've seen
Speaker 1: the Mounties do stuff like that. Also, the Canadian Revenue
Speaker 1: Service UM was the big enemy of our cult. That
Speaker 1: makes sense, that was the one that they had fights with.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna guess a lot of people didn't think they
Speaker 1: ought to pay taxes illegally trying to get like tax
Speaker 1: cuts for their like fake school that they were running
Speaker 1: that I went to for the first like six months
Speaker 1: of my first six years in my schooling. Yeah. Anyway, alright,
Speaker 1: we'll talk this this this DEVI will come back later.
Speaker 1: So let's talk about Focus on the Family. Focus on
Speaker 1: the Family start. Yeah, thank you, Sophie. To really understand
Speaker 1: what Focused on the Family is both in the past
Speaker 1: and what it kind of is now, we're first going
Speaker 1: to have to kind of learn about its founder, James Dobson,
Speaker 1: or technically it should be Dr James Dobson, but we'll
Speaker 1: talk more about why. I don't want to say that later. Um,
Speaker 1: since Focus on the Family is really just an extension
Speaker 1: of who Dobson is as a person. Um. Dobson was
Speaker 1: born in nineteen already six and he is still alive.
Speaker 1: He was born in ninety six. He's still alive. Uh.
Speaker 1: He was born in Louisiana. His father was a traveling evangelist.
Speaker 1: Religion was a prevailing part of Dobson's life since he
Speaker 1: was essentially a baby. Quoting a book about Focus on
Speaker 1: the Family and Christian right wing radio and the influence
Speaker 1: they had on American culture and the like across the
Speaker 1: whole twenty century. Um, it's a book called Stations at
Speaker 1: the Cross, actually a pretty pretty good book. But this,
Speaker 1: this is this is a quote. Dobson claims to have
Speaker 1: been able to pray before he could talk, and to
Speaker 1: have felt God's calling from as early as age three,
Speaker 1: when he toddled up to the altar in response to
Speaker 1: his father's Sunday morning altar call that the unsaved offered
Speaker 1: their lives to Jesus Um and this this isn't that
Speaker 1: all uncommon for like people as on young as three
Speaker 1: to like have their parents pressure them into doing I
Speaker 1: this even now, this is still this isn't this isn't that.
Speaker 1: If you if you want to, if listeners want another
Speaker 1: look at what it's like to be pushed into stuff
Speaker 1: like this when you're three, check out the documentary Marjo,
Speaker 1: which is about the youngest pastor in American history who
Speaker 1: was performing marriage ceremonies when he was like four years.
Speaker 1: His name was Mary and Joseph. That the photo and
Speaker 1: video that's been going around the interwebs this week of
Speaker 1: the baby that was jet skiing that's six months old,
Speaker 1: Well that's just red. That sounds good. Actually, I don't
Speaker 1: see a problem with that. No. I actually think baby
Speaker 1: should be jet skiing at even younger ages. They should
Speaker 1: be jet skiing before before they should be able to pray.
Speaker 1: That is my opinion. I would agree with you, all right, um,
Speaker 1: and uh, there there's a there's an article from in
Speaker 1: the Washington Post by a journalist name Laura strepp Um
Speaker 1: and and the detailed a lot of stuff about focus
Speaker 1: in the family in the seventies and eighties, and it
Speaker 1: details some of Dobson's early life and family. This is
Speaker 1: a quote from that article. His father and mother, James
Speaker 1: and Myrtle Dobson, were married for forty three years. His
Speaker 1: father never went to college and became a traveling evangelist
Speaker 1: UM in the Church of Nazarene, which is like a
Speaker 1: fundamentalist Protestant type of church. UM. As an only child,
Speaker 1: he received all the attention and love his parents had
Speaker 1: to give. His mother deferred to her husband on all
Speaker 1: major matters, but she often found herself alone from her
Speaker 1: Dobson says he got his idea that firm discipline is
Speaker 1: the cornerstone of the parent child relationship. And this, this
Speaker 1: is very this is very important. Here's a quote from
Speaker 1: Dobson's first book when he when he talks about his mother,
Speaker 1: she knew that backtalk and lip are the child's most
Speaker 1: potent weapons of defiance. And must be discouraged. On one
Speaker 1: occasion weapon backtalk, back talk, violent weapon and speaking on
Speaker 1: what occasion she cracked me with a shoe. At other
Speaker 1: times she used a handy belt. This is in response
Speaker 1: to back the weapon of back talk. Yeah, you got
Speaker 1: to use the weapon of a shoe against the weapon
Speaker 1: of back talk. That's just this is fine. The day
Speaker 1: I learned the importance of staying out of reach shines
Speaker 1: like a neon light in my mind. I made the
Speaker 1: costly mistake of assassing her. When I was about four
Speaker 1: feet away, her hand landed on a girl roll. It
Speaker 1: waited to put sixteen pounds and was lined with leaden steel. Jesus,
Speaker 1: she drew back and swung that abominable garment in my direction.
Speaker 1: The intendant blow caught me across the chest, followed by
Speaker 1: a multitude of straps and buckles wrapping themselves around my midsection.
Speaker 1: She gave me an entire thrashing with one massive blow.
Speaker 1: From that day forward, I cautiously retreated a few steps
Speaker 1: back before popping off. Good lesson for kids to learn,
Speaker 1: stay out of reach of adults because they want to harm.
Speaker 1: But remember this is the stuff that that influenced his
Speaker 1: ministry because this is the stuff that he thinks is
Speaker 1: the corner His earliest lesson is you always want to
Speaker 1: stay away from adults. Is out of reach of adults
Speaker 1: because you never know when they will want to physically damage. Yes,
Speaker 1: and but this is a keyton of his ministry is
Speaker 1: teaching stuff like this though. This is like the cornerstone
Speaker 1: of a strong parent child relations. Does this guy tie
Speaker 1: into to train up a child in that book and stuff? Awesome?
Speaker 1: Wait until we talked about his first book and what
Speaker 1: some fun, some fun fun legal issues that happened. Boy,
Speaker 1: it's a child abuse episode, everybody. This is very exist whole,
Speaker 1: this whole two partners, a child abuse episode. Sophia sent
Speaker 1: Sophia a letter of apology that we we don't have
Speaker 1: her on to talk of our children. Are there dead babies? Um,
Speaker 1: there's dead teenagers? Hell? Yeah, all right, Um, but I
Speaker 1: mean and yeah, what well damn right, Well we'll figure
Speaker 1: this out later. Um. The Washington Post article continues. As
Speaker 1: Dobson was about to start his junior year in high school,
Speaker 1: his father decided to take a job as a pastor
Speaker 1: and settled down in San Benito, Texas. Um a very
Speaker 1: hot flat outpost near the Mexican border. Because of his
Speaker 1: religious beliefs, Dobson couldn't dance or go to the movies
Speaker 1: like the rest of his friends, but he earned their
Speaker 1: respect by becoming a top tennis player. Okay, which okay,
Speaker 1: so in terms of cults, but tennis is tennis. Tennis
Speaker 1: in the colt No, what is involved in the cult
Speaker 1: is like being able, like in these kind of very
Speaker 1: firm Christian kind of churches, and also you know some
Speaker 1: more of the worst cult stuff. Not being able to
Speaker 1: dance or go to the movies is pretty standard, Like
Speaker 1: I couldn't go to the movies for most of my
Speaker 1: most of my life so far, I've not been well, yeah,
Speaker 1: because that's like Hollywood's just straight. My parents at my
Speaker 1: parents wedding, they weren't allowed to dance. There was no
Speaker 1: dance allowed at all. There was no dancing. Well the
Speaker 1: devil right into the wedding. You would have grown up
Speaker 1: with your brother the devil if that had happened. But wait,
Speaker 1: I don't understand how does what does tennis have to
Speaker 1: do with this? Tennis is how he is. How he
Speaker 1: gained his friend's respect because he couldn't go to the
Speaker 1: movies or dance. So the thing Dobson did to get
Speaker 1: like friends is play tennis very well. So it's like,
Speaker 1: I guess it's not like how Keith Ronary made all
Speaker 1: his people play volleyball at like three in the morning. Right,
Speaker 1: I don't know what that means. I'm too young. Oh
Speaker 1: that was another guy we did an episode on where
Speaker 1: he forced them to play volleyball at like three and them. No,
Speaker 1: it sounds like it was just a kid. This is
Speaker 1: a kid trying to find anything to gain friends because
Speaker 1: he can't because he lives in a situation. Yeah. Um,
Speaker 1: those were the best years America ever had, said one
Speaker 1: of Dobson's high school friends, retired Colonel Harland Baker Jr.
Speaker 1: That's his high school friend. Okay, Colonel Bake Baker Jr.
Speaker 1: Bake Baker. We had the hamburgers, the milkshakes. We didn't
Speaker 1: drink or smoke. Our parents gave us room to spread
Speaker 1: our wings, but also set limits. Again, this is the
Speaker 1: kind of stuff he's gonna talk about in his ministry.
Speaker 1: You know, we'll find well, I'm seeing what's building. This
Speaker 1: is kind of bodies. What's kind of being built here? Um?
Speaker 1: After graduating high school, Dobson went to Pasadena College, a
Speaker 1: small liberal arts college, well, a small liberal arts Christian
Speaker 1: college UM in southern California, with an interest in human
Speaker 1: behavioral studies. Uh the Washington Post the yeah, yeah, you
Speaker 1: can see where this is gonna go in like the
Speaker 1: fifties and sixties Washington Post article rights. But after he
Speaker 1: had taken a couple of psychology courses, Dobson was convinced
Speaker 1: that God was calling him to go all way into
Speaker 1: the field. It was not an easy time for a
Speaker 1: Christian to go into psychology. Some psychologists thought Christians were
Speaker 1: deluded no nothings, and some Christians thought psychologists were devil
Speaker 1: worshippers or worse. Okay, I'm not sure what worse. I
Speaker 1: don't know that I believe either side of that. I don't.
Speaker 1: I don't really believe that there was ever a situation
Speaker 1: in which like a bunch of psychologists were like, oh, hey,
Speaker 1: members of the largest in the surely dominant region in
Speaker 1: the country, y'all are silly, You can't be psychologists. Yeah.
Speaker 1: I don't think that ever happened. No, not in the sixties.
Speaker 1: But he's into psychology because I know a lot of
Speaker 1: colts are like against likeschology, is anti psychology, etcetera. He's
Speaker 1: into He's into psychology, and this is gonna be his
Speaker 1: most potent weapon in trying to take over the country.
Speaker 1: I think this is going In'm so excited. Continue yeah soon.
Speaker 1: Dobson went on to the University of Southern California to
Speaker 1: get his PhD in child development UM. This is when
Speaker 1: Dobson became doctor James. Dobson's was in nineteen sixty seven.
Speaker 1: His doctor's status was very important to him as he
Speaker 1: became popular in the eighties and nineties, with his employees
Speaker 1: only being able to refer to him as Dr Dobson.
Speaker 1: Like this was this was very important to give him
Speaker 1: credibility to speak in like wide settings with politically and
Speaker 1: and and like two Christian people. He was very happy
Speaker 1: about being being able to be called a doctor. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean, I'm pretty proud of being a reverend doctor.
Speaker 1: According to the State of New Jersey, um so Dobson.
Speaker 1: According to the Post, Dobson took the precise number of
Speaker 1: credits needed to get his doctor into not one more.
Speaker 1: He was anxious to get his family life going and
Speaker 1: to speak out on the values he believed were a
Speaker 1: roting at breakneck speed. It's a little weird to critique
Speaker 1: him for not taking more credits than he needed to
Speaker 1: get a lot of credits, but he was very anxious
Speaker 1: to get his work started. Um and the values that
Speaker 1: he thinks, Sarah Wroting Um. He he writes about in
Speaker 1: one of one of his books. This was this was
Speaker 1: when he was getting his doctor. He was in l
Speaker 1: A during the mid sixties. And yeah, and one of
Speaker 1: Dobson's books from the nineties called the book selled the
Speaker 1: Strong Willed Child. By the way, just you know, get
Speaker 1: a sense of what his books are titled. I guess
Speaker 1: strong willed means talking. Yes. Um, this is what Dobson
Speaker 1: writes about. The summer of nineteen sixty five in l A.
Speaker 1: Our cities began to burn during the hot summer of
Speaker 1: racial strife that signaled the start of the chaos to come.
Speaker 1: The class of nineteen sixty five entered college at a
Speaker 1: time where drug abuse was not only prevalent, but became
Speaker 1: almost universal for students and teachers alike. Intellectual deterioration was inevitable.
Speaker 1: Accompanying this social upheaval was a sudden disintegration of moral
Speaker 1: and ethical principles such as which has never occurred in
Speaker 1: the history of all of mankind. All at once. There
Speaker 1: was no definite values, no standards, no absolutes, no rules,
Speaker 1: no traditional beliefs on which to lean. Um. Now, when
Speaker 1: Dobson's referring to this talk of chaos in a long
Speaker 1: hot summer of racial strife, quote unquotes referring to the
Speaker 1: rising of when he was in l A. And that
Speaker 1: that was if you're unfamiliar, this started when the police
Speaker 1: assaulted uliple people during an arrest for reckless driving. Um
Speaker 1: the l A Times Rights um. After rumors spread of
Speaker 1: the police and rough people up and kicked a pregnant woman,
Speaker 1: angry mobs formed, turning a forty six square miles swath
Speaker 1: of the city into a combat zone. And this this
Speaker 1: isn't like exaggerating, So people get angry when you kick
Speaker 1: pregnant women. The police kick a lot of people during
Speaker 1: a nasty arrest. UM. It's estimated that thirty or five
Speaker 1: thou people took part in the mass rioting and looting
Speaker 1: over the course of those six days. Fourteen thousand members
Speaker 1: of the California National Guard were deployed to put an
Speaker 1: end to this civil unrest. Again, this is for like
Speaker 1: six days. UM. In all, sixteen thousand law enforcement officers
Speaker 1: were mobilized as a self described attacking force. Thirty one
Speaker 1: people were killed by law enforcement during these protests and riots. UM.
Speaker 1: They were over a thousand reports injuries, arrests over the
Speaker 1: course of these six days. UM. The police chief that
Speaker 1: handled this uprising was the same chief that UM, if
Speaker 1: not coined, at least popularized the term thin blue line.
Speaker 1: Same same guy, so and and Dobson. Dobson was here
Speaker 1: for all of this. He he watched this unfold and
Speaker 1: he was very upset UM. In referring to this, referring
Speaker 1: to the wats uprising, he said, what's what's happening to
Speaker 1: this country? And what what will happen to my children
Speaker 1: as a result. So he was, he was there for this.
Speaker 1: He was not He was not a fan because I mean,
Speaker 1: you know, he's not a fan of all of these
Speaker 1: people getting angry that a cop kicked a pregnant one. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and he's not that pro racial civil rights that much.
Speaker 1: That's not going to be like a big part of
Speaker 1: what we're talking about. But he was. He was known
Speaker 1: to be a racist, which we know he's a guy born.
Speaker 1: I know, someone's a real character when you can say,
Speaker 1: like he was super racist, but we're not We're not
Speaker 1: going to talk about that. The conversion therapy, which is
Speaker 1: much worse. Um. Yeah, really the racism was the best
Speaker 1: part of it. It's at least about a damage. Um. Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: it's unfailing obedience to authority, an old fashioned Christian morality
Speaker 1: became Dobson's signature talking points. Um, when you spoke about
Speaker 1: raising children. Um. Despite him having like an actual job
Speaker 1: at you know, the university. He had a job at
Speaker 1: the University of Southern California's School of Medicine for quote,
Speaker 1: researching childhood disorders that led to mental retardation. Because again,
Speaker 1: this is the sixties and that's how we phrase things. Um.
Speaker 1: Even though Dobson had a job, Dobson just eventually began
Speaker 1: showing up at local PTA meetings to like talk about
Speaker 1: child development, like, not for his own kids, just local
Speaker 1: ones showing up at TAM. Yeah, I've I've done the
Speaker 1: same thing before. Sometimes I'll get a little bit drunk,
Speaker 1: like it's you know, it's a good way to spec
Speaker 1: And then eventually he got invited to teach Sunday school
Speaker 1: classes and then got invited to speak on like Rado talks.
Speaker 1: He actually he actually got on just invited to speak
Speaker 1: on Barbara Walters TV talk show. Um, just about random
Speaker 1: stuff because I mean again, he's a doctor in child development.
Speaker 1: But this was just like a thinly veiled thing to
Speaker 1: spread his religious um kind of parenting advice. M that
Speaker 1: sounds fine. His biographer Rolf Zetterston, I believe that's how
Speaker 1: you say it. Whatever. Um, we don't renounce things right
Speaker 1: on this podcast. It's fine, cool, great, um he he
Speaker 1: he wrote about why Dobson had such immediate popularity with parents. Uh,
Speaker 1: this is this is what Rolf says about Dobson in
Speaker 1: one Adopson's biographies. Um. He condemned the so called numerality.
Speaker 1: He demanded more discipline into schools. He taught parents how
Speaker 1: to restart their story at home, and he unflinchingly called
Speaker 1: sin by its biblical name Sin. That's all caps. That's
Speaker 1: all the only difference is it's all in all caps
Speaker 1: the end. That's that's that's really yet. Um. By nineteen seventy,
Speaker 1: Dobson was able to publish his first book, UM by
Speaker 1: Christian publisher uh Tynedale House. The was called Dare to Discipline,
Speaker 1: and I'm sure we can all guess what that book
Speaker 1: was about, because what is his discipline? It means it
Speaker 1: means picking up a girdle, a bit of tennis racket
Speaker 1: was and slashing your children like what happened to him,
Speaker 1: and probably tennis rackets. Yeah, I mean the key to
Speaker 1: meeting children. I've always said this is that you want
Speaker 1: to use improvised weapon rate because that shows that there
Speaker 1: wasn't intent. If you wind up in a court case
Speaker 1: like later, you want to be able to claim that
Speaker 1: it was just an accident the kid ran into your girdle,
Speaker 1: which you can't claim if you're like using a telescope
Speaker 1: and baton on a child. Yeah. Yeah, um. Five years
Speaker 1: later he released another book, and this book is the
Speaker 1: best title this is. This is the title to his
Speaker 1: his second book, released five years later, What What Wives
Speaker 1: Wish Their Husbands Knew About Women, which is really that
Speaker 1: this is full of a lot of good information. I
Speaker 1: really love that. Again, him as a man born in
Speaker 1: the thirties, wrote a book called What Wives Wish their
Speaker 1: Husband's Knew about Women? And that's that's that's that's the
Speaker 1: second vibes wish their husbands knew about women. Okay, wrong
Speaker 1: answers only, Robert, Uh, oh boy, you know what, I
Speaker 1: don't want to get canceled, So I'm not even going
Speaker 1: to try to make a joke about that. Moving on,
Speaker 1: it might be in hot water after the baton in
Speaker 1: children remarks. So let's just let's just say all on, yeah,
Speaker 1: because we're like, you know a right, Um, we're like
Speaker 1: twenty minutes in. Oh, I think you know what. Won't
Speaker 1: baton your children? Oh? Yes, you need them baton You
Speaker 1: know what, Garrison, Garrison, Garrison, you're the host. You get
Speaker 1: to do it. Will not get your children hit by
Speaker 1: a girdle giving them a thrashing in one single below?
Speaker 1: Any guesses? Uh, Sophie, what is it? Robert? Is it
Speaker 1: the services that support some services? Indeed products? We're back. Um,
Speaker 1: that was a great ad pivot, Garrison, really good for
Speaker 1: a first try. I tend to advise more death threats
Speaker 1: against billionaire social media, which which we'll then get edited out. Yeah. Yeah,
Speaker 1: that's key to the processes, all of the all of
Speaker 1: the incitements to violence that we have to have Chris
Speaker 1: edit from the podcast, which is like of the run
Speaker 1: time generally, so that's why these takes along to record. Okay. Um.
Speaker 1: In seven is when Jobson really started the thing that
Speaker 1: they kind of makes them famous or that will eventually
Speaker 1: make him, you know, that eventually be what he's known for. Um.
Speaker 1: He started his own weekly radio show, initially got picked
Speaker 1: up by forty stations. Um. The Washington Post article reads,
Speaker 1: by night, oh wait, sorry, yeah, this is this is
Speaker 1: this is separate. So he he had his radio show.
Speaker 1: What he was also doing at the time was filming
Speaker 1: seminars and selling them. And then also churches would like
Speaker 1: invite him to teach seminars like across the country. Um.
Speaker 1: And then here's here's the Watchington Post article by Dobson's
Speaker 1: seminars on the family, like on family issues. We're making
Speaker 1: so much money, drawing up to three thousand people per
Speaker 1: weekend at twelve dollars a ticket. That he finally quit
Speaker 1: his job at University of Southern California and formed his
Speaker 1: own nonprofit company focused on the family, which was then
Speaker 1: he what he retitled his radio show as well. So
Speaker 1: he's making so much money from these like seminars you
Speaker 1: would do every once in a while, Like I'm it's
Speaker 1: unclear how often he did these. It's not you can't
Speaker 1: really find that kind of information because this is like
Speaker 1: in the sixties or seventies. Um. But it's enough that
Speaker 1: he was able to quit his people hearing this guy
Speaker 1: talk about kid beating, Yeah, um, what women want, yes,
Speaker 1: about what wives wished their husbands knew about women? Yeah. Um.
Speaker 1: But despite Dobson formerly making this a nonprofit company, what
Speaker 1: he was really starting was a Christian media empire. Um,
Speaker 1: as the name suggests, focused on the family, was primarily
Speaker 1: about Christian family life and how to properly raise your kids.
Speaker 1: A short quote from the post says, uh, Dobson's adult
Speaker 1: journey into family psychology and family politics is one man's
Speaker 1: attempt to retrieve the era that he grew up in,
Speaker 1: which is really fair. All of his kind of stuff
Speaker 1: is about going back to this era in like the
Speaker 1: thirties and forties, about what family life was like back then. Yeah.
Speaker 1: It's the essence of conservatism looking back at a past
Speaker 1: that's half remembered and half imagined. That's yeah, that's that
Speaker 1: is very that's very accurate. Um. This sentiment is shared
Speaker 1: by Joyce Johnson of the Child Welfare League, saying of Dobson, um,
Speaker 1: about about how Dobson clings to his philosophy from quote
Speaker 1: twenty to thirty years ago that said children were property
Speaker 1: of their parents. I mean kind of kind of fair. Yeah,
Speaker 1: they're like cats or dogs. Um, but they yell more
Speaker 1: creatively when you hit them. Good. Yeah, Dobson would like
Speaker 1: even in the even in the eighties, people people thought
Speaker 1: his philosophy was like thirty years old, are you hitting?
Speaker 1: It was because their property. Yeah, you can hit your property.
Speaker 1: According to Dobson, you can just hit your property. Would
Speaker 1: you get angry at somebody who like, I don't know,
Speaker 1: pounded on their desk because they were frustrated. No, And
Speaker 1: it's okay for people to hit kids because kids are
Speaker 1: like a desk, but they're not like a dog. A
Speaker 1: dog is like a desk. It's property, it's property. Oh
Speaker 1: my god, I'm just I'm just saying the speaking of
Speaker 1: child abuse. The next canceled. The next paragraph is going
Speaker 1: to be a good finn. So uh yeah, here's a
Speaker 1: here's what the post says about some controversy that that like,
Speaker 1: of course, is going to develop eventually along Dobson's parenting
Speaker 1: advice quote. But it is Dobson's view on childhood punishment.
Speaker 1: They got him into the most hot water several years ago.
Speaker 1: This is um. Several years ago. For example, a Massachusetts
Speaker 1: couple was charged with child abuse because they beat their children,
Speaker 1: and and they say it's because their pastors said it
Speaker 1: was all right. Based on Dobson's writings that I'm gonna
Speaker 1: bet that's the only time that happens now. Dobson said
Speaker 1: his books have never advocated beating children. But again, his
Speaker 1: first book was called Dare to Discipline and about physically
Speaker 1: punishing your children. Yeah, I think he might argue that
Speaker 1: it's not beating them as long as you're angry. But yeah,
Speaker 1: it's like this, this this was an ongoing problem back
Speaker 1: in the twentieth century for most of the twenties and
Speaker 1: since still now seems like it's still an and it's
Speaker 1: still an ongoing problem. Yeah, a lot of seems like
Speaker 1: it might have something to do with all those guys
Speaker 1: who keep assaulting people based on their political opinions. Um. Yeah,
Speaker 1: a lot of a lot of beating is still is
Speaker 1: still to come cool. Yeah. Mainstream family psychologists say that
Speaker 1: while setting limits to help build secure parent relationships are good,
Speaker 1: there are better methods than the back of the hand
Speaker 1: or a strap such as giving you know stuff that
Speaker 1: was recommended back in the nineties was giving you know
Speaker 1: people time outs. That was kind of a new concept
Speaker 1: in the nineties. And the article rights spanking can quote
Speaker 1: stimulate rebelliousness rather than respect and wisdom for the parents,
Speaker 1: which she wash. It's you know, a psychologists trying to say, Dobson,
Speaker 1: you're not gonna do good. Your kids are not going
Speaker 1: to respect you if they're always thinking about whether or
Speaker 1: not they're far enough away that you can't. Yeah. Like
Speaker 1: part of the cult I was in, I was spanking
Speaker 1: to my people that aren't even my parents. And I
Speaker 1: have grown up with heavy respect for authority. Yeah, which
Speaker 1: is why I'm now a journalists whatever covering the uprising
Speaker 1: respect authority. Yeah, I love all authority. Um. Yeah. So
Speaker 1: I don't think his really philosophy even that work. It
Speaker 1: doesn't He doesn't even work that much. Um. Even though
Speaker 1: these psychologists criticize a lot of a lot of dobson
Speaker 1: the work because they thought it was you know, bad, um,
Speaker 1: they were quick to admit that he is better known,
Speaker 1: like as a psychologist, and probably a lot richer than
Speaker 1: they'll ever be. Um. I I doubt there's any American
Speaker 1: psychologists selling more books than dobbson. This is a quote
Speaker 1: from from a psychologist. I I doubt there was any
Speaker 1: other psychologists selling more books to the American public right now,
Speaker 1: uh than any other psychologist. This was a psychologist named
Speaker 1: Paul klement Was who was also a professor of psychology. Um.
Speaker 1: So yeah he was. You know, he was really the
Speaker 1: man for psychology in the eighties and nineties and in
Speaker 1: the in the in late seventies, Dobson was just really
Speaker 1: starting to kick off. Um. But eventually Dobson wanted to
Speaker 1: be more than someone who gives bad parenting advice. At
Speaker 1: the start of Focus on the Family, it was relatively nonpartisan,
Speaker 1: still very like conservative, but it wasn't it wasn't really
Speaker 1: about partisan politics. He wasn't like, he wasn't advocating for
Speaker 1: candidates or like endorsing parties. Um. In fact, when he
Speaker 1: when he filed nonprofit statists, he answered no to the
Speaker 1: question if Focus in the Family would engage in activities
Speaker 1: intending to influence legislation. Now, this very quickly turned out
Speaker 1: to be not true. By night so get he started
Speaker 1: his radio show in seventy seven, he got his nonprofit
Speaker 1: status and seventy eight. By late seventy nine, Dobson started
Speaker 1: to get more formally involved with politics. President Carter was
Speaker 1: forming what becomes known as the White House Conferences on
Speaker 1: the Family, and Dobson wanted in focus on the family's
Speaker 1: vice president and co founder named Gil Alexander Mogarel described
Speaker 1: Dobson's entry into politics like this, quote, Jim got tired
Speaker 1: of telling people what to do when a six year
Speaker 1: old was the bed unquote, yes, you might as well
Speaker 1: start making policy on like nukes and shop so he
Speaker 1: may as well start making a lot of a lot
Speaker 1: of This is a really interesting time in the history
Speaker 1: of like American evangelism because that period of time, like
Speaker 1: right as so, Carter came got elected off the strength
Speaker 1: of the evangelical Christian vote, and he was the last
Speaker 1: Democrat that that was ever true of because Reagan was
Speaker 1: elected immediately afterwards based on a lot of friends of
Speaker 1: Mr Dobson's, including Dobson in uniting them all, you know,
Speaker 1: mainly to deal with abortion and gay rights and women
Speaker 1: doing stuff that isn't getting hit by their husbands. Um, yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: this is that whole very cool period of time in politics. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's it's not great. Um. The way Dobson describes his
Speaker 1: move into politics, UM, and the way he marketed the
Speaker 1: change in topic to his audience, because again he has
Speaker 1: to switch his audience to being used to him talking
Speaker 1: about like family issues to talking about political stuff. Now.
Speaker 1: The way he the way he gets past this is
Speaker 1: talking about how like schools and governments are taking authority
Speaker 1: of parenting away from the parents. Like the schools governments
Speaker 1: are becoming too influential in deciding what kids are and
Speaker 1: aren't allowed to do. Essentially, um. Dobson says this in
Speaker 1: an interview. Until fifteen years ago, a girl couldn't pierce
Speaker 1: your ears without getting her parents permission. Now a parent
Speaker 1: can send a thirteen year old to school, The school
Speaker 1: can transplant that child to have an abortion, and the
Speaker 1: parents won't even know about it. She may come home
Speaker 1: and begin to bleed and the parents won't know why parenting.
Speaker 1: The parents have been eliminated from the entire process. How
Speaker 1: did that happen? It was discussed somewhere, even debated, but
Speaker 1: Christians didn't participate. So I don't think true in the
Speaker 1: seventies or eighties, nor even now, can a thirteen year
Speaker 1: old get sent to a hospital to have an abortion
Speaker 1: by a school and the parents not know. Yeah. I
Speaker 1: don't think that's ever happened ever. I I don't know,
Speaker 1: at least not in the seventies. Yeah, I think we would. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I I don't think that's that's a thing. But I
Speaker 1: don't know. Maybe maybe maybe I'm wrong on this. We
Speaker 1: could be, but I think not in the seventies. No,
Speaker 1: because it's a minor and it's a major medical procedure.
Speaker 1: You usually don't get um like rights over your body
Speaker 1: medically into you don't have any right to privacy is
Speaker 1: a thirteen year old because your property like a desk.
Speaker 1: That's what Dobson would say. Um. Dobson's uh, you know,
Speaker 1: co founder of Folks in the Family who later you know,
Speaker 1: came out kind of against Dobson because he was scared
Speaker 1: of what he was doing. Um. Gil Alexander Mogarel wrote
Speaker 1: a whole book about Dobson called James Dobson's War on America. Um,
Speaker 1: now this is I hope somebody writes a book like
Speaker 1: that about me one day. Robert Evans bar in America,
Speaker 1: well on the FDA. Maybe it's a good title. Yeah, Um, noted.
Speaker 1: Here's a quote from the very good book James Dobson's
Speaker 1: War in America. Two years after we started Focus on
Speaker 1: the Family, Jim got his first taste of the surreal
Speaker 1: sense of power and control that working in Washington offers.
Speaker 1: The flavor was sweet to to this only child, and
Speaker 1: ever since focused on the Family's component about political activism
Speaker 1: has been a central feature in the life and work
Speaker 1: of James Dobson, and one that he personally relishes more
Speaker 1: than any other aspect of it. And this absolutely is true.
Speaker 1: He as soon as he got some political influence, he
Speaker 1: got like addicted to this. Yeah. It's almost like power
Speaker 1: is is a literal drug that that ruins people. And
Speaker 1: if you were already kind of shitty beforehand, it makes
Speaker 1: you into something, um more frightening than any any anything
Speaker 1: Lovecraft ever dreamed up. Sure, yeah, yeah, how did we
Speaker 1: end up at love Craft? I don't know, But like
Speaker 1: cosmic James Dobson, I think about cosmic car I think
Speaker 1: but the death of stars, Yeah, and the death of
Speaker 1: many teenagers. Yeah, a lot of teenagers. Um, which will
Speaker 1: we'll find out about? Yeah? Yeah. The first taste of
Speaker 1: worming his way, like the first taste of power was
Speaker 1: him worming his way onto the Carter Family Advisory Council,
Speaker 1: like the thing that President Carter established. UM. By now
Speaker 1: Focus on the Family's radio program was expanded to a
Speaker 1: daily fifteen minute program instead of a weekly one. Um.
Speaker 1: It was on hundreds of stations now um A year
Speaker 1: later in the program got turned into a thirty minute show.
Speaker 1: It became racking up thousands of stations around then. UM
Speaker 1: what Now. The way Dobson got on this council is
Speaker 1: that one day on air, he persuaded his listeners that
Speaker 1: he needed to be on this this this whole like
Speaker 1: family conference thing, telling them that such conferences are usually
Speaker 1: dominated by quote Eastern establishment to liberal secular humanists. Um,
Speaker 1: he's got all the buzzwords in there. Yeah. So Dobson
Speaker 1: was fear was trying to scare his audience UM and
Speaker 1: saying that maybe if um, maybe that he can maybe
Speaker 1: Dobson can get invited on if his listeners right into
Speaker 1: the conference director urging to invite Dr Dobson UM and
Speaker 1: wrote and wrote in They did. Eighty thou people either
Speaker 1: called in or wrote into the White House UM requesting
Speaker 1: Dobson joined the committee slash conference. UH an invitation was
Speaker 1: to join was sent out to this relatively unknown Christian
Speaker 1: radio psychologists from l a UM. Yeah, also take notes, listeners,
Speaker 1: because I would like to be on a commission. People
Speaker 1: call in. Yeah, just whatever commism, whatever commission, it doesn't matter.
Speaker 1: Whatever commission Robert wants, We're going to get him on. Yeah.
Speaker 1: Everyone gets your phones ready to take a random something
Speaker 1: like something to do with like like like potatoes or
Speaker 1: some ship something something in their potato conference would be good. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I could. I know a lot about potatoes, you know,
Speaker 1: like the ones I'm talking in your house a few
Speaker 1: weeks ago. I did. I did have some poto anywhere.
Speaker 1: Were left my cabinet for far too long. Yeah, an
Speaker 1: not really potatoe. After this invitation was sent out the
Speaker 1: post article rights that's when he realized the power of
Speaker 1: his electronic forum UM, the power he's not hesitated to
Speaker 1: use on other issues, including the Civil Rights Restoration Act
Speaker 1: and now here this Dobson got. Dobson got hundreds of
Speaker 1: thousands of people to call in and oppose the Civil
Speaker 1: Rights Restoration Act of UM. The bill then failed to
Speaker 1: pass on the on the first few votes that they
Speaker 1: tried to do. It only passed four years later after
Speaker 1: quote abortion neutral language was added, so, you know, utilizing
Speaker 1: your public power to quash the Civil Rights Restoration Act
Speaker 1: as one does. Yeah. So here here's the good part.
Speaker 1: After the bill was passed with you know, the uh,
Speaker 1: with the abortion neutral language, Reagan then vetoed the bill
Speaker 1: great great politics sational. The Senate then had to override
Speaker 1: his veto. UM. It's unclear how much influence Dobson had
Speaker 1: on this whole like videoing process with Reagan and stuff.
Speaker 1: But as we'll soon see, UM, Dobson and Reagan became
Speaker 1: very close friends. UM, and Dobson did not hesitate to
Speaker 1: use his power to mobilize hundreds of people to call
Speaker 1: the government to complain about that just happened to agree
Speaker 1: with him about hitting little kids. That was my Reagan.
Speaker 1: There's some really good pictures of Dobson and Reagan together,
Speaker 1: just together, pretending the AIDS crisis isn't happening. Dobson was
Speaker 1: happy about the AIDS crisis. Dobson hated gay people so much.
Speaker 1: I'll bet that was the best thing that ever happened.
Speaker 1: That's why he wasn't talking about gay people in the eighties,
Speaker 1: because he was happy where things were going. He only
Speaker 1: started talking with them in the nineties and two thousands
Speaker 1: when they started to get a little bit better. Yeah,
Speaker 1: when when they weren't all dying. Yeah, Yeah, I'm sure
Speaker 1: that was hard for him. Shortly after UM Ronald Reagan's election,
Speaker 1: he put Dobson on the National Advisory Commission to the
Speaker 1: Officer of the Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Program, which
Speaker 1: is way too long of a title. Yep, that's way
Speaker 1: too long of a title for anything. But Dobson got
Speaker 1: put on this because Reagan liked him. UM Dobson also
Speaker 1: served as co chairman on the Citizens Advisory Panel for
Speaker 1: Tax for Form in consultation with Reagan. I don't know
Speaker 1: what Dobson's qualifications were for tax reform because that's not
Speaker 1: really part of any of his education training. And there
Speaker 1: he was running a nonprofit tax adam business that was
Speaker 1: just a media empire at this point, So I really
Speaker 1: don't think he should be the one on this tax advice.
Speaker 1: Is just convinced me that I do have what it
Speaker 1: takes to run the American Coastguard. I'm gonna I'm gonna start,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna start putting up feelers to the Biden put
Speaker 1: me in charge of the Coastguard. Listener, everyone, let's email
Speaker 1: the Biden team and let's get Robert and charged. I
Speaker 1: don't know what I'll do, and neither will the Coastguard.
Speaker 1: That'll keep them on their toes. Uh. Dobson also served
Speaker 1: as a member Dobson Dobson also served as a speaking
Speaker 1: of the Coastguard. UM. Dobson served as a member and
Speaker 1: the and the chairman of the United States Armies Family Initiative,
Speaker 1: which was like about Army families and stuff and you know,
Speaker 1: you know stuff. Um. He was appointed UM to Attorney
Speaker 1: General Edwin Meeces Commission on Pornography in the mid eighties,
Speaker 1: and he got put on a teen pregnancy prevention panel,
Speaker 1: which I just think is not a good call as
Speaker 1: someone who hates abortion. But you know, seems like he
Speaker 1: might not have a lot of helpful things to share there. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and he also got put on Attorney General's Advisory Board
Speaker 1: on Missing and Exploited Children. Um, he was up to
Speaker 1: so much stuff. Seems like he actually might know why
Speaker 1: some kids are missing. He's he's responsible for a lot
Speaker 1: of missing children. His kind of workers the reason why
Speaker 1: a lot of kids ran away. Yeah, especially in the
Speaker 1: nineties and two thousand's good decision for those kids to make. Yeah. So,
Speaker 1: despite him being up to a lot of stuff during
Speaker 1: the reggae years, Dobson wanted more and he wanted more
Speaker 1: direct lobbying power. UM. This next bit is taken from
Speaker 1: the Washington Post article again UH the nineteen In the
Speaker 1: Dobson convinced that. Dobson was convinced that the Conservative cause
Speaker 1: needed more help than he alone could give. He persuaded
Speaker 1: the Focus on the Family Board to buy the Family
Speaker 1: Research Council. Since that purchase, the Family Research Council has
Speaker 1: become one of the largest evangelical Christian lobbying organizations in Washington. UM,
Speaker 1: and this is likely inaccurate. It was the biggest Christian
Speaker 1: lobbying group ever in the history of this country. Awesome
Speaker 1: UM former the former vice president and UH and co founder,
Speaker 1: who since since like came out against Dobson, now says
Speaker 1: of Dobson, he is a tremendous threat to the separation
Speaker 1: of church and state. UM. James Dobson lobbies Washington more
Speaker 1: powerfully than any individual or organization within the religious right.
Speaker 1: I mean, I'm glad he figured it out after a while,
Speaker 1: but It would have been nice if he hadn't helped him,
Speaker 1: if he didn't help him start the business, start the
Speaker 1: thing that is essentially a giant weapon aimed at shooting
Speaker 1: all of our freedom in the dick. He should have
Speaker 1: or whatever, he should have realized that. Um, do you
Speaker 1: know who won't shoot your freedom in the dick? Robert
Speaker 1: or whatever? Or very inclusive. Here the fine products and
Speaker 1: services that support your very show. Thank you, Garrison. Yeah, products,
Speaker 1: and hello, we are back. This is Garrison talking about
Speaker 1: focus on the family here, and this is Robert listening
Speaker 1: and planning a violent counter coup. Yes, and well we'll
Speaker 1: figure things out after the recording session. Why doesn't have
Speaker 1: to be violent just because of the mercenaries I hired?
Speaker 1: Oh sorry, I should have been more prepared. I should
Speaker 1: have brought more than one. You should have brought mercy.
Speaker 1: It's a coup. Yeah, I should have planned this a
Speaker 1: little bit. You want to get yourself some former Navy
Speaker 1: seals who have just been doing nothing but mainlining cocaine
Speaker 1: ever since they got building and building a pipe part.
Speaker 1: Those are the best guys to help you do a coup.
Speaker 1: They never, for example, wind up arrested on the streets
Speaker 1: of Venezuela's soaking in their own urine. Uh. Good times,
Speaker 1: better times than this because in the mid better times
Speaker 1: than the mid nineties in America, because in the mid
Speaker 1: nineties Dobson was receiving a hundred twenty five million dollars
Speaker 1: in lobbying power between Focus and Family Family Research Council
Speaker 1: in the nineties, UM the Family the f r C.
Speaker 1: That's kind of referred to UM or. They continue to
Speaker 1: be an active Christian lobbying group today. It's not as
Speaker 1: influential now, but it's still as active. UM. It also
Speaker 1: is affiliated with a with a conservative pack called Family
Speaker 1: Research Council Action UM. In two ten, the Southern Power
Speaker 1: they were skipping ahead a little bit, but we'll we'll
Speaker 1: go back in time later. UM. Twous and ten, the
Speaker 1: Southern Poverty Law Center declared the group as an anti
Speaker 1: gay hit group. UM. Yep, seems like that's fair. This
Speaker 1: is the Family Family Research Council lobbying up here. Focus
Speaker 1: on the Family never got declared an anti gay hit
Speaker 1: group because it was they were too religious about it
Speaker 1: that Southern Center didn't feel comfortable calling it that. I
Speaker 1: feel very comfortable calling it an anti gay group. Because
Speaker 1: they ran a conversion therapy program. We're gonna talk more
Speaker 1: about what Focus in the Family was doing for anti
Speaker 1: guay stuff in in part two because they didn't really
Speaker 1: get really active that until the nineties. UM. But the
Speaker 1: Post article sums up quite well what made Dobson's entry
Speaker 1: into politics unique at the time, and they kind of
Speaker 1: ushered in a whole new type of political Christian conservative activism. UM.
Speaker 1: Dobson says he has no intention of ever running for office,
Speaker 1: a pledge even his critics believe, but he also he
Speaker 1: also says Focus in the Family should not endorse candidates,
Speaker 1: although letters to the GOP and Democratic presidential nominees in
Speaker 1: competance sent out to constituents UM leaves little room for
Speaker 1: doubt that he believed Bush to be the better candidate.
Speaker 1: But what it made it more unique is how Dobson
Speaker 1: entered into politics quietly, without the press conferences and pomp
Speaker 1: that surrounded predecessors like Reverend Jerry Folwell. Uh. This represents
Speaker 1: a maturing of a certain segment of evangelicalism within mainstream politics,
Speaker 1: particularly in the in the Republican Party. According to a
Speaker 1: Brooking Institution fellow UM, an expert on religious life. Gone
Speaker 1: are the days of TV preachers and bombast What lay
Speaker 1: in their place are layman like Dobson who are emerging
Speaker 1: and taking more of a talking more about with a
Speaker 1: palatable language that's less about religion and more about civil rights.
Speaker 1: So like trying to like, you know, their their rights
Speaker 1: to run, the right to raise their kids their way,
Speaker 1: and they're right for you know, unborn babies. That's like
Speaker 1: kind of it's like, it's the real change from from
Speaker 1: like religious conservative activism to being like to be mainly
Speaker 1: about religion to being more about civil rights. Was was
Speaker 1: Dobson kind was the first one to do that, which
Speaker 1: is now we see a lot of that nowadays in
Speaker 1: the Senate and Congress, in the White House. Okay, yeah,
Speaker 1: so yeah it is um ABC primetime profile on Dobson
Speaker 1: opens up, opens up like this. He was one of
Speaker 1: the most powerful men in the country, and yet few
Speaker 1: people even know his name. On Capitol Hill. He's treated
Speaker 1: like some big powerful lobbyists because he was and yeah,
Speaker 1: uh but and you've probably never you've never you've probably
Speaker 1: never heard of him. But James Dobson's one of the
Speaker 1: most influential leaders in the entire religious right. Dobson's vision
Speaker 1: to transform America is known to every member of the
Speaker 1: House and Senate, and he's been delivering his messages to
Speaker 1: the White House in person for years. Thanks ABC for
Speaker 1: really cracking the case on that one in the nineties. Uh.
Speaker 1: Dobson's often described as like a stealth campaigner or a
Speaker 1: stealth lobbyist for his ability to remain kind of under
Speaker 1: the radar despite his massive influence. Because yeah, if if
Speaker 1: you even if you're kind of into politics, there's a
Speaker 1: good chance that now you've never even heard of focus
Speaker 1: on the family or family research counsel or Dobson, because
Speaker 1: he was very good at staying under the radar despite
Speaker 1: his massive power. Yeah, they're just one of those groups
Speaker 1: that you like, you see them referenced constantly, you see
Speaker 1: their logo on things, but it's usually just with a
Speaker 1: bunch of other fucking different like non governmental organizations, Like
Speaker 1: it doesn't He's not the kind of Yeah, that's that's
Speaker 1: really how you exercise terrifying power. That's good, Yeah, because
Speaker 1: it's more dangerous because because we knew so little about time, Well,
Speaker 1: everybody's angry about I don't know, there was other stuff happening.
Speaker 1: There was other stuff happening. Um, couple of wars, I think,
Speaker 1: Yeah yeah, Um. Well, as Dobson's political aspirations were growing,
Speaker 1: so was focused on the Families so called nonprofit publishing
Speaker 1: empire UM citing the book Stations at the Cross Christianity Today,
Speaker 1: which is the biggest evangelical slash Christian magazine UM dubbed
Speaker 1: focused on the Family's president and founder, James Dobson, the
Speaker 1: undisputed king of Christian radio. Focus on the Family was
Speaker 1: the third most listened to radio show in the entire
Speaker 1: country after the Rush Limbaugh and Paul Harvey programs, and
Speaker 1: estimated twenty point six million people listened to his evangelical
Speaker 1: radio program at least once a week, so in the
Speaker 1: in the nineties he was the third. He had the
Speaker 1: third most popular radio show in the entire in the
Speaker 1: entire country. Yeah yeah, I'm not I'm not happy with
Speaker 1: the way this is going. Really thinking electricity might have
Speaker 1: been a mistake. And it's good that Rush Limbaugh is
Speaker 1: the most and then and then it's Paul Harvey, and
Speaker 1: then it's James Dobson. Although actually, according to other sources,
Speaker 1: James Dobson beat out beats out Paul Harvey Um. In
Speaker 1: some years it's there. They're kind of neck and neck. Um.
Speaker 1: But Russia Limbaugh is the first one, and that you
Speaker 1: have that, you have James Dobson Rush Limbaugh is the
Speaker 1: first one, the good old, the good old one to
Speaker 1: combo us James Dobson. Dobson wasn't a big part of
Speaker 1: my childhood, but Limbaugh was. Um. And I that's why
Speaker 1: I had fun lessons from my mom, like why it's
Speaker 1: okay to carpet bomb the Middle East? Yeah, and had
Speaker 1: I had the opposite. I didn't have Russia Limba, but
Speaker 1: I had James Dobson. Yeah. So yeah, that explains the
Speaker 1: differences between the only differences we have is that that
Speaker 1: one event and the Canada thing. You like, you call
Speaker 1: hats the wrong word. What do you call hats? It's
Speaker 1: a it's a little too degenerate term. I canceled me
Speaker 1: on Twitter off do it post listeners can't see it,
Speaker 1: but my face went, oh yeah, it went like Sophie's
Speaker 1: expressed the proper reaction to Canadian burbiage. Um By. They
Speaker 1: had seven separate magazines in print, focus on the Family
Speaker 1: here for for this norm. They had good content for
Speaker 1: all it's not this nonprofit magazine at seven seven of them,
Speaker 1: which they sold again nonprofitly um Focus on the Family
Speaker 1: successfully had books being published themselves. At this point, many
Speaker 1: seminars and sermons were taped and then sold nationally and internationally.
Speaker 1: They got to deal with the US Army that the
Speaker 1: US Army like bought and set them out to teach
Speaker 1: army parents and get their kids. Yes, yeah, yeah, because
Speaker 1: you're in the army, you know how to hit, but
Speaker 1: you might not know it's okay your own children. You
Speaker 1: don't just have to hit Iraqis. You can hit your kids.
Speaker 1: It'll help you get better at hitting iraqi. Yeah, it's
Speaker 1: good practice. If you get good at doing it to
Speaker 1: your children without remorse, you can hit any of their
Speaker 1: child interact. If you can harm your own children without
Speaker 1: a thought, then you can really commit violence on behalf
Speaker 1: of the state. A Focus on the Family made a
Speaker 1: thirteen episode live action like half live action, half animated
Speaker 1: TV show called mcgeene me Um. They started a whole
Speaker 1: film department, most popular for their Last Chance Detectives series
Speaker 1: in the mid nineties, which cost by like one million
Speaker 1: dollars per film to make. And it's all just propaganda, right, here,
Speaker 1: here's the not all of it, which is why it
Speaker 1: gets actually really interesting and dangerous. It's why you hear
Speaker 1: about focus on the family, like you'll see their name
Speaker 1: at the end of a bunch of different like public
Speaker 1: TV shows and stuff. Yeah. Yeah, So like the thing
Speaker 1: about um all of their entertainment media is that more
Speaker 1: often than not it's frustratingly competent um because again, they
Speaker 1: had hundreds of millions of dollars at the disposal UM.
Speaker 1: A review of mcgheine me, which I've watched all of
Speaker 1: as a kid, I watched, I watched all these to
Speaker 1: all these things. Slash Ens Detectives is kind of helped
Speaker 1: me get on my detective path, which I now you
Speaker 1: sing you are you are a detective? Yeah, um but
Speaker 1: but yeah, those of you who don't know you are
Speaker 1: track down the identity of Kyle Rittenhouse, the Kenosha shooter,
Speaker 1: like six hours before the police figured out who it was.
Speaker 1: There's a Forbes article about it. Yeah, thanks, focused on
Speaker 1: the family of A review of m ME from Chicago
Speaker 1: from the Chao Tribune says that the show is exceptional.
Speaker 1: I'm saying it has the pression qualities top notch. The
Speaker 1: show offers an entertain a mixture of live action animation
Speaker 1: as well as well written stories with positive more messages,
Speaker 1: and although the stories are definitely based on principles from
Speaker 1: the Bible, the series isn't excessively preachy or pushy, which
Speaker 1: is why I can get on the air. And apparently
Speaker 1: the animation from the show was done by the award
Speaker 1: winning team from fregl Rock, My Little Pony and Mappa Babies.
Speaker 1: Fraggle Rock, Yeah, I know the drawn into this and
Speaker 1: Mappa Babies that's the one that hits. I didn't want
Speaker 1: to hear the rock dudes helped make little dominionist Christian property.
Speaker 1: Let us let us talk about the babies and Frago
Speaker 1: Rock Sophie, come on, Little unacceptable. I'm not happy with
Speaker 1: any of this. Um, but by far, the most successful
Speaker 1: and popular media program that folks the Family has ever
Speaker 1: made and run is an audio drama series called Adventures
Speaker 1: in Odyssey. Now we're gonna go on a bit of
Speaker 1: an aside here, because again this is this is radio.
Speaker 1: We're on radio, um right is Radio Garrison. It sounds
Speaker 1: with your voices, and sounds with your voices, concept forms
Speaker 1: and wavelengths, and yeah, I'm not sure it's gonna catch on,
Speaker 1: but continue. Um. I listened to shiploads as of the
Speaker 1: show as a kid. Um. It's been running NonStop since
Speaker 1: nineteen eighty seven. Um, and it was the second most
Speaker 1: listened to Christian radio program. Can you guess what? It was?
Speaker 1: Only beating up by the other focus of the family programs? Great? Okay. Um.
Speaker 1: So the premise of the show is that you're in
Speaker 1: this small Midwestern town on the main character is this
Speaker 1: old Christian man named Mr. Whittaker, who is an ex
Speaker 1: secret agent and a genius inventor who runs like an
Speaker 1: ice cream shop slash learning center called wits End. Here's
Speaker 1: a picture, Roberts. It sounds like you're describing the kind
Speaker 1: of dreams that you get after I don't know, like
Speaker 1: taking a shipload of acid. This show is so weird.
Speaker 1: So here's Mr Whittaker. He can you describe how that
Speaker 1: looks to the audience. Um, it looks like Wilfred Brimley. Yeah,
Speaker 1: he looks like Wilford. Um. So, even though I said
Speaker 1: the main character is this old ex agent man who's
Speaker 1: an inventor and runs an ice cream shop, their prospective
Speaker 1: characters are these like different families that cycle out of
Speaker 1: the show every ten years or so. Um, they deal
Speaker 1: with like family issues and small town political issues, and
Speaker 1: this old guy is like a mentor figure to this
Speaker 1: whole town. Um, I'm gonna show you. I'm sure, Robert,
Speaker 1: I'm sure Robert a picture of of one of these families.
Speaker 1: I don't like his outfit. You don't like his outfit? Now? Okay, well,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna sure Robert a picture one of these families.
Speaker 1: And note these are the only black characters they've ever
Speaker 1: had in the entire show. When when they were so
Speaker 1: he got were the course of the thirty years, for
Speaker 1: five years out of the thirty years, their Maine family
Speaker 1: with the black family. Uh, but besides that, they've had
Speaker 1: no black characters. Oh no, it's really oh no, oh no,
Speaker 1: So they just drew O. J. Simpson, right, They just J.
Speaker 1: Simpson for the dad. Okay, that's oh boy. And they
Speaker 1: all boys accentuated teeth and really Johnny foreheads, tiny eyeballs.
Speaker 1: It's really bad J. Simpson though, That is absolutely O. J. Simpson.
Speaker 1: That is James or in fall Simpson, the most innocent
Speaker 1: man in history. Yeah, the juice was loose for five years.
Speaker 1: Christian television. Now, this episode that I listened to as
Speaker 1: the episode that that Arbork is from gave me nightmares
Speaker 1: as a child. By the way, before I saw the
Speaker 1: artwork was because of something. It was like it was
Speaker 1: their closest together getting to like a horror episode. I
Speaker 1: see that they're in an old West town there, they're
Speaker 1: only there. Why is the kid hold I just realized
Speaker 1: acting it's because they were like they were like, I forget,
Speaker 1: but I know this episode. I know this specific episode
Speaker 1: gave me a nightmares because they went to this old
Speaker 1: western town had like take up a treasure or something. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I'm sure there were ghosts listeners all post start alloud
Speaker 1: because of Christian stuff, right, because that would imply an
Speaker 1: afterlife outside. I've told you this before, but one of
Speaker 1: the most popular episodes is called Castles and Cauldrons, and
Speaker 1: they had a d an episode about how D and
Speaker 1: D is bad and satanic? Yeah good, Yeah good. This
Speaker 1: seems like a fun show that you watched as a kid.
Speaker 1: Game so much of this yeah, so like it was
Speaker 1: radio show. They also made a television show based off
Speaker 1: of it, okay animated. Um so, the original gimmick of
Speaker 1: the show is that Mr Whittaker, the inventor X agent guy,
Speaker 1: made this invention called the Imagination Station, which is like
Speaker 1: a mix of the hollow Deck and a time machine
Speaker 1: kind of unclear. Um. Now, the purpose that serves in
Speaker 1: the show is a way to travel to the quote
Speaker 1: unquote past to teach the audience. Um, an audience surrogates
Speaker 1: quote unquote history an incredibly an incredibly whitewashed pro colonial
Speaker 1: Christian revisionist history. I mean, that's all terrible, but I'm
Speaker 1: already coming up with an alternate cannon in my head
Speaker 1: in which Mr Whittaker is a former CIA agent and
Speaker 1: all he's doing is dosing these keys from the n
Speaker 1: s A. Yeah, I've got my own head cannon. He's
Speaker 1: given MLSD. This is all he's continuing mk ultra on
Speaker 1: his own make a way that would make way more sense.
Speaker 1: Um yeah. But like again, the frustrating thing is that
Speaker 1: the show is very well produced, often hiring l A
Speaker 1: voice actors, like it has people from the Animaniacs who
Speaker 1: are still on the show now, which I don't know how, Yeah,
Speaker 1: because people need paychecks. The main character from Steven un Verse,
Speaker 1: like the guy who was to Stephen used to when
Speaker 1: he was a very small child voiced a character on
Speaker 1: this show before he broke out into animation. Um for
Speaker 1: Stephen Universe and stuff. You know, a very gay show.
Speaker 1: Um and focused on the family is a very not
Speaker 1: gay friendly company. I mean, if he was a kid,
Speaker 1: he was, he was a very young child, and he's
Speaker 1: now he's an adult. Um. Yeah, we all need paychecks. Yeah, um,
Speaker 1: we get good health insurance in this country. Years. And
Speaker 1: I don't know if they taught you that in Canada. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I know, I live here, I know. Yeah. Yeah, not
Speaker 1: a great call, by the way, I know. Anyway, Yeah,
Speaker 1: there was spinoff movies, tons of books. Um, for some reason,
Speaker 1: Mr Whittaker's son is also a secret agent. Okay, of
Speaker 1: but the goal you see, right, so we stopped, so
Speaker 1: we stopped. Wait guys, all right, So the goal of
Speaker 1: the show runners supposed to make him like an anti
Speaker 1: James Bond, or like a Christian version of James Bond. Now, Robert,
Speaker 1: picture that man in your head? What people in the nineties,
Speaker 1: Christian people in the nineties thought the Christian version of
Speaker 1: James Bond would look like picture that end in your head. Okay,
Speaker 1: do you have him? Yeah? All right? And the scrolled
Speaker 1: down here he is, which wait, all he's all of them,
Speaker 1: all these all three is Indiana Jones clearly in one
Speaker 1: of those there's three pictures here, one of them in
Speaker 1: like a very tight shirt. First Sync, Yeah, yeah, he
Speaker 1: looked he does look like a member of in Sync.
Speaker 1: And the first one he has three has like he
Speaker 1: has like he has like a goatee. He has like
Speaker 1: a little like soule patch and gotee. It's not attractive,
Speaker 1: it's not good. Has he has giant feet future abnormal
Speaker 1: and elf like at the toe. And then in one
Speaker 1: of these pictures, they've done a terrible thing and put
Speaker 1: him in Indiana Jones out of that, which I am
Speaker 1: offended by. Yeah, it's very upsetting. Who was he in
Speaker 1: the middle, because Indiana Jones, that's very famously was not
Speaker 1: a Christian, because he knew for certain about the existence
Speaker 1: of their deities, the magical. All three of the same
Speaker 1: character these looks like this is the same this is
Speaker 1: the same guy. This is the same guy. Yeah, well,
Speaker 1: I guess, I guess. Indiana Jones's religious status is unknown,
Speaker 1: but he both engages with like mystical powers on behalf
Speaker 1: of Hinduism, Judaism, and Christianity, so you have to assume
Speaker 1: he's got some new nuanced understanding of the Yeah. I
Speaker 1: just don't like that. Yeah, that this person they tried
Speaker 1: to make a cool Christian version of James Bond, who
Speaker 1: looks terrible. The first guy is definitely the most babilicious
Speaker 1: of the three. Yeah, I really he looks like Lance Bass.
Speaker 1: No he doesn't. He looks like the j c uh
Speaker 1: oh no, I'm so sorry nineties. We'll have to agree
Speaker 1: to disagree, all right. Anyway, from I don't know who
Speaker 1: that is, I think he's he definitely knows the bye
Speaker 1: bye bye. Back to Dobson. Back to Dobson specifically, Um,
Speaker 1: one of his more weird griffs was doing Ted Bundy's
Speaker 1: final interview. How did that happen? You're gonna find out? Okay?
Speaker 1: On the date. On the day before Bundy was executed
Speaker 1: in nine Bundy received hundreds of interview requests from media outlets.
Speaker 1: He denied all of these, and specifically requested to be
Speaker 1: interviewed by James Dobson. The entire interview was about how
Speaker 1: it was actually pornography that caused Bundy to murder and
Speaker 1: rape all of those people. What a weird last flip
Speaker 1: which which which which was which Bundy specifically argued against
Speaker 1: in court he said it wasn't pornography, and then as
Speaker 1: a final troll, he got Dobson in to like record
Speaker 1: this whole interview about how was actually poor and that
Speaker 1: made him murder and right pulled his people. What a
Speaker 1: piece of So not only does he kill all those people,
Speaker 1: but like the last thing he gets a choice over,
Speaker 1: he uses that choice to funk up porn for everybody. Yes,
Speaker 1: so it's cleared us. It's about this Ted Bundy character. Oh,
Speaker 1: this has really pushed you over the edge. I'm no
Speaker 1: longer I'm no longer neutral on Well that's that's a
Speaker 1: good development. I'm kind of concerned for your previous Bundy views.
Speaker 1: But okay, like I have one tattoo of the guy
Speaker 1: that doesn't mean tattoo. Yeah, it's like so it's clear
Speaker 1: that Bundy was essentially trolling Dobson and the entire world here. Um,
Speaker 1: But Dobson found a way to capitalize on this exclusive um.
Speaker 1: The tapes were technically free to use, but with the
Speaker 1: stipulation that the interview be aired in its entirety without
Speaker 1: editing or interruption, which is over like an hour long.
Speaker 1: So it gave Dobson a lot of time to talk
Speaker 1: and of course the news news media is not going
Speaker 1: to do that. Um. So it's technically free to you
Speaker 1: because again he runs a nonprofit company. UM. But he
Speaker 1: would he would sell if you cut down the interview
Speaker 1: at all, he would charge you for the tapes. Uh.
Speaker 1: This it proved to be extremely profitable for Dobson. Um.
Speaker 1: He either gets here yeah okay, capitalized on Ted Bundy.
Speaker 1: He either gets a straight hour of media exposure on
Speaker 1: national news programs, or he gets money. Within a year,
Speaker 1: Dobson ranked in over a million dollars in profit from
Speaker 1: the tapes. Um. He initially pocketed all of the money
Speaker 1: for himself. Oh yeah good, why would you give it
Speaker 1: to the families of his victims? But amid public outcry,
Speaker 1: he donated six dollars to it, sillars of it to
Speaker 1: anti porn groups and anti abortion groups. You know you're
Speaker 1: a good person when your backstory repeatedly includes the line
Speaker 1: amid public outcry. Um so that he kept um he
Speaker 1: kept so like he kept four d dollars for himself
Speaker 1: and but but part of the six dollars donated to
Speaker 1: anti porn and anti abortion groups. UM Focus on the
Speaker 1: Family is included as those groups. So can you just
Speaker 1: give the money to himself? He killed a piece of ship,
Speaker 1: he kept beautiful, He kept four dollars in his own
Speaker 1: bank account and then gave the rest to the business
Speaker 1: he owns. That's UM, I gotta hand it to him.
Speaker 1: That's a good grift. That's a good Grift's a good grift.
Speaker 1: Not not many people would look at a man who
Speaker 1: repeatedly raped and molested the corpses of his victims and go,
Speaker 1: I bet I can make a million dollars off this guy.
Speaker 1: So every media empire needs its own castle. Folks in
Speaker 1: the families no exception. UM Focus on the Family claims
Speaker 1: they accepted a four million dollar grant from the Colorado
Speaker 1: based L. Palmer Foundation. The foundation's website says they accept
Speaker 1: applications from five O one C three organizations UM to
Speaker 1: serve Colorado in the areas of arts and culture and
Speaker 1: community and health and blah blah blah whatever. So at
Speaker 1: the time, Focus on the Family was based on the
Speaker 1: California So they applied for this grant UM and then
Speaker 1: they got this money, so that they had then they
Speaker 1: had to move to Colorado's to get the grant accepted,
Speaker 1: so for four million dollars UM, they they transferred three
Speaker 1: employees from California to Colorado and hired four hundred more
Speaker 1: in state. Forty six acre lot was purchased um to
Speaker 1: build their grand headquarters in Colorado Springs. They have their
Speaker 1: entire They have their own entire zip code for their
Speaker 1: further headquarters. During a tour of the folks in the
Speaker 1: family offices, a couple from Michigan asked if handling all
Speaker 1: of the sightseers in the main building was a distraction
Speaker 1: from the regular working staff. The working staff said yes.
Speaker 1: The couple then donated four million dollars to build a
Speaker 1: new visitors center on the land u so Focus. The
Speaker 1: family soon had built five hundred and twenty six thousand
Speaker 1: hundred square feet of stuff on their Colorado, Colorado property,
Speaker 1: including an entire replica of wits end that the ice
Speaker 1: cream shop, slash of learning center from their radio program Amazing,
Speaker 1: which um which I have been to. How's the ice cream?
Speaker 1: I screams, not that the rest of it. I may
Speaker 1: have some notes. Did you get drugged by a former spook? No,
Speaker 1: but my brother did cut his head open in here
Speaker 1: he fell and cut his head, opens his scar. You'll
Speaker 1: you'll shoot a suit. Well we were very happy at
Speaker 1: the time because we were they are called yeah whatever. Um. Yeah,
Speaker 1: so i I've been there. Um in the focus on
Speaker 1: the Family is like welcome center. Kind of film he
Speaker 1: has like always you know people have Liken always have
Speaker 1: like a film playing on a television. Ever. Um Dobson
Speaker 1: compares his decision to build the headquarters in Colorado Springs
Speaker 1: to the founding of the Temple at Jerusalem. Okay, makes
Speaker 1: a lot of interesting calls. This. So when when I
Speaker 1: went to the Focus of the Family headquarters when I
Speaker 1: was like ten, I was not there in a journalistic
Speaker 1: capacity because I was ten years old. Um, an intercult Um.
Speaker 1: So I'm gonna refer to Auslan article about touring the
Speaker 1: facility in the in the late nineties. Um. The tour
Speaker 1: guide takes me upstairs to where the real work happens.
Speaker 1: We Uh. We stopped first at a at a viewing
Speaker 1: room for an area full of cubicles. Hundred and twenty
Speaker 1: people work here. The tour out explains all they do
Speaker 1: is answer focus on the Family correspondence. Uh. The room
Speaker 1: is empty today because it's a Saturday, but he says
Speaker 1: during the week it brims with activity. He tells me
Speaker 1: how Focused listeners pour out their problems, asking for prayers
Speaker 1: on on their behalf and UH and seek advice on
Speaker 1: things like marital problems, depression, and their sons and daughters
Speaker 1: who are gay. We receive about ten thousand letters a day,
Speaker 1: he says. Sometimes they send money. The guy that mets,
Speaker 1: but Focus on the Family doesn't require them to every
Speaker 1: Every letter gets an answer, regardless of who sends it.
Speaker 1: He points out that the correspondent staff takes the initiative
Speaker 1: to send out free literature books and tapes of Focus
Speaker 1: on the Family broadcasts even to those who don't donate. UH.
Speaker 1: Focus on the Family also keeps a database with description
Speaker 1: of everyone's problem to refer back to them if the
Speaker 1: person ever writes again. This database is over four million names.
Speaker 1: That's really creepy. It gets so weird, it gets worse.
Speaker 1: This database is very interesting and terrifying. UM. A big
Speaker 1: part of the daily radio show is asking listeners to
Speaker 1: write in with questions or for people to send donations.
Speaker 1: Sometimes they'll advise like, if you donate x amount, will
Speaker 1: shipt you this book as a thank you. Um, you
Speaker 1: know this stuff like that, that's kind of common. Um.
Speaker 1: The Folkus of the Family co founder describes the radio
Speaker 1: business model like this, most focused on the family broadcast
Speaker 1: give the appearance of half of half howurd talk shows,
Speaker 1: but are actually thirty minute infomercials for our focus on
Speaker 1: the family product. It's as ingenious as it is perfectly legitimate.
Speaker 1: The goal here is obviously for people to send money,
Speaker 1: because you know, there are a donation primarily donation based
Speaker 1: nonprofit quote unquote. Um, they also sell stuff or or
Speaker 1: you like, buy stuff, but it's a technico donation that
Speaker 1: they send you a book, So thank you, just you know, yeah, Um,
Speaker 1: But so sending them to the goals to send money,
Speaker 1: but just sending them any correspondence is a win, because
Speaker 1: whether they send in money or just a question, their
Speaker 1: names and address is get added to this master database. Um.
Speaker 1: A special complimentary magazine is sent out monthly to everyone
Speaker 1: in this database, just like um, just like the radio
Speaker 1: show is a product catalog thinly veiled as a parenting guide. UM,
Speaker 1: so is this this magazine that they send out? It's
Speaker 1: mainly but people, it's it's too you know, the advertising
Speaker 1: products and stuff. But It's thinly veiled as like parenting
Speaker 1: advice for like you know, a free free magazine from
Speaker 1: Focus on the Family UM. People on Smiling This are
Speaker 1: also strongly encouraged to set up a monthly donation with
Speaker 1: with different like thank you gift tears kind of like
Speaker 1: Patreon UM. Not only does Dobinson and Focus on the
Speaker 1: Family use this database as like a grifting machine, it's
Speaker 1: also another way for Dobson to deploy his army of supporters.
Speaker 1: He will routinely personally write letters for a call to action,
Speaker 1: including a way for someone to contact Capitol Hill UM.
Speaker 1: Then then he can just like mail out to everyone
Speaker 1: in this database, you know, for people to respond so
Speaker 1: you can easily, you know, get changes in legislation done
Speaker 1: so this database, combined his ability to simply disparagingly mention
Speaker 1: a piece of let of of a piece of legislation
Speaker 1: on air UH can get resulting in hundreds of thousands
Speaker 1: of people to write in or call in. He also
Speaker 1: he also has the power to mobilize people UH to
Speaker 1: meet his political goals through this like database like letter
Speaker 1: system UM. And everyone in Washington knows this, which is
Speaker 1: why so many conservative politicians have gotten so cozy with
Speaker 1: Dobson is because he has this database that he can
Speaker 1: just use on a whim to like mail something else
Speaker 1: to like millions of people and then also just address
Speaker 1: stuff on his radio show Agress. And part of why
Speaker 1: this works is because he develops a p social relationship
Speaker 1: with his listeners. It's like, hey, I James, as your
Speaker 1: friend needs your help with this thing. I will send
Speaker 1: you on a letter, you know, call in to us
Speaker 1: if you have a family issue. You know, He'll get
Speaker 1: people to respond, then just get more and more names
Speaker 1: added added to the database. Uh, massive thing. A huge
Speaker 1: amount of the right wing, like the whole right wing,
Speaker 1: is all about getting mailing lists which then monetized and
Speaker 1: used to drive donations and stuff. Yeah. So in the
Speaker 1: in the next episode, we're gonna hear about the best
Speaker 1: thing that ever happened with this database. Um. But also
Speaker 1: all the gay conversion therapy program do it. So we
Speaker 1: have those two things to look forward to. But that
Speaker 1: is the end of this section about focusing the family
Speaker 1: and James Dobson. How do you How do you feel, Robert?
Speaker 1: I feel good. Um, I love that I've been pretty
Speaker 1: standard kind of Yeah. I love that he managed to
Speaker 1: make hundreds of millions of dollars for himself and his organization,
Speaker 1: although those two things are essentially the same because nobody
Speaker 1: ever goes after these people for breaking the law flagrantly. UM.
Speaker 1: I loved that he monetized a mass murderer. UM and
Speaker 1: then when he got in trouble from monetizing it, he
Speaker 1: still gave the money to himself himself. UM I love.
Speaker 1: I love. What I love about the right is the
Speaker 1: complete lack of ethical consistency and the total and all
Speaker 1: consuming lust for power. UM. And I think in James
Speaker 1: Dobson embodies that in a number of ways, but most
Speaker 1: clearly in his desire to have people do violence to children,
Speaker 1: because that's really the core of like that right wing
Speaker 1: obsession with power is like, if a child disrespects an adult,
Speaker 1: they deserve to be harmed. This was an idea that
Speaker 1: I grew up with a lot too, Like my mom
Speaker 1: would tell me if I ever if I ever hear
Speaker 1: you talk back to an adult, like I'll beat the
Speaker 1: ship out of you, UM and variations of that. UM.
Speaker 1: And the things that I got the most physical punishment
Speaker 1: for as a kid were times in which UM I
Speaker 1: disrespected an adult. This idea that like, the worst thing
Speaker 1: you can do as a child is not respect the
Speaker 1: power of adults. Um. It it all speaks to the
Speaker 1: kind of man he is. And as soon as he realizes,
Speaker 1: like like when he's got no power, um, before he
Speaker 1: gets into politics, then he's obsessed with this idea of
Speaker 1: disciplining children. Um. But as soon as he has some
Speaker 1: chance to force his views on everyone else, he takes it.
Speaker 1: Because that's the kind of person he is. He does
Speaker 1: want people to be able to do things he doesn't
Speaker 1: personally want them doing. That's the essence of him and
Speaker 1: of conservatism. Yeah, yeah, that's cool. As as we'll learn
Speaker 1: more about gay conversion therapy, which in alves a lot
Speaker 1: of child abuse in the next episode. Awesome, m Robert,
Speaker 1: do you have any pluggables you want to plug? Um?
Speaker 1: Yeah you know, Um, I have a podcast it's this one.
Speaker 1: Um you can probably yeah, you can listen to it
Speaker 1: on the internet. Yeah. She's great. Um. The internet is
Speaker 1: also great. One of many things that has no consequences.
Speaker 1: So find me. Find me on the internet alongside a
Speaker 1: bunch of racists plotting the downfall of civilization. But Roberts
Speaker 1: on Twitter and I right, Okay, I'm on Twitter and
Speaker 1: there's a t public store behind the bastards. You can
Speaker 1: get the FDA approved to prevent all diseases thing. I'll
Speaker 1: see you guys the next episode. Yeah shook right now.
Speaker 1: Look how while he did, I always knew he was
Speaker 1: coming from behind. Dude phrasing all right, goodbye, mm hmm