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Digital Social Hour
Elijah Schaffer: The Dark Side of “Viral” Internet Culture | DSH #1790
00:35:25
What happens when you build your career on asking the questions you’re “not supposed” to ask? In this AmFest conversation, Elijah Schaffer opens up about getting hit with multi-million-dollar lawsuits, the realities of modern “clout media,” and why he believes truth-telling comes with a price. He also breaks down how online culture is reshaping young men—from hyper-viral creators repackaging adult content for mainstream audiences, to the insecurity loop of “looks-maxing,” status chasing, and dopamine-driven addiction. This episode goes deep on faith, discipline, pressure, and what it takes to stay grounded when everything around you is incentivized to go off the rails. What You’ll Learn 👇 🔥 How lawsuits and “lawfare” are used to pressure creators 🧠 Why clout-based media rewards fake outrage over truth 🧨 How explicit internet culture bleeds into mainstream platforms 🧩 Why “status + vanity loops” never feel like enough 🛡️ What discipline looks like when nobody’s watching ✝️...
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Transcript130 lines
- [00:00]
A
You know, Jack Doe already, if that's even how you pronounce his name, is worse than an online. He's a scumbag who's abusing women. He's taking advantage of young girls sexually who are barely of age. He's promoting them to children. He's getting young kids know the name of adult stars, and then he's repackaging it like they're not adult stars.
- [00:24]
B
All right, guys, here at amfest, day three with Elijah Schaefer finally made met each other. We've been talking for years, man. Good to see you, dude.
- [00:30]
A
It's good to see you too, man.
- [00:32]
B
What's. What's new in your world? You're dealing with a lot.
- [00:35]
A
Oh, you know, every time you think something's going really well in your life, you can expect a catastrophic failure. And that's why I think God gives us good moments, is so we can prepare for the impending doom. And it's not to make anyone depressed, but you're promised only death and taxes. But on the way towards death. And in the process of paying taxes, you got to put in the work. You got to actually put in the effort. And with that's going to come some serious challenges. And right now, being sued for $5 million.
- [01:03]
B
Jesus.
- [01:03]
A
By the FBI director's girlfriend. And this comes right after a season where I thought everything was going perfect. It was all going my way. And you know what? I think God gave me a little bit of fresh air just so that I could be prepared for this season. And it's hard, man. I'm genuinely struggling to get through. I'm genuinely having a hard time, man.
- [01:22]
B
Anyone getting sued for that amount of money I think can relate to. You know, I got my first lawsuit. I was bedridden for weeks.
- [01:29]
A
Really?
- [01:30]
B
It was a similar amount to you. I had an E Commerce store at the time. And every text you send without the customer's approval is a $500 fee. And what happened was when they abandoned their car, when they were checking out on my site, my program would text them, hey, you forgot to purchase this order. Finish your checkout.
- [01:50]
A
No way. So you know what? So you know. You know what's funny? This is the second time I've been sued for millions of dollars. The first time I got sued was for having Nick Fuentes on my show.
- [01:59]
B
You got sued for that?
- [02:00]
A
I got sued for millions of dollars for hosting Nick Fuentes on my podcast in 2022. Sydney Watson, Australian YouTuber who was my co host at the time. I would thought it was weird. I got Sued for sexism. And then people thought it was being sued for sex, sexual, like assault or sexual harassment, but it was sex harassment based upon me targeting her as a woman. And I always thought the lawsuit was weird because she was a friend of mine and I didn't know what I did. Turns out the lawsuit, which is for like seven figures, had four to five pages of talking about how I had Nick Fuentes on my show. It damaged her reputation. It gave her vertigo. She had health problems. And a organization led by Kurt Schlitner, who's a prominent lawyer, kind of picked up the legal fees, allegedly and launched this lawsuit. So they claimed it was about discrimination, but really she was bitter because Nick Fuentes made her look bad on a podcast and it ruined her reputation. It said she couldn't do sue him for being smarter than her. She went after one of her best friends. She was my neighbor too.
- [03:06]
B
Wow.
- [03:06]
A
And yet tried to get me fired. They stole my YouTube channel in the process. Crashed my career, got me stuck in law there. All because I had a person they didn't like on my podcast. It was a crazy time, but I beat that one. Got out completely. Apparently it's not illegal to have Nick on your podcast, but it'll cause you problems. I know you've felt some of the same problems.
- [03:26]
B
You were too early, I think, with Nick, cuz now everyone has him on his show. It's true, you know, I think you were a year or two early.
- [03:33]
A
It's unfortunate, you know, it's. It's unfortunate. I almost got fired a few times for having Nick on my show. And it's not great because, you know, Nick. Nick called me out on his show and recently, yeah, just the other day, like two days ago, essentially degraded and like tore. Tore down my work and who I am and basically said I'm an idiot and that I'm not smart, basically. Like, that's kind of how he presented it. And maybe he's right, I don't know, but he's just like, you know, he presented a situation of saying, like, you know, I try to press him on not voting for Donald Trump. And, you know, if I had watched his podcast, maybe I wouldn't have voted for Trump. But there's two things on this. Number one, I've got no hate in my heart for Nick Fuentes. Okay. People have to realize, I know he doesn't care because he doesn't see himself as having friends in politics, but I've always seen him like a friend. We've been friends for about 10 years.
- [04:34]
B
Wow.
- [04:34]
A
And When I first met him, he was essentially completely canceled. And I don't mean he was a nobody because he wasn't important. I don't mean he was a nobody because he isn't effective. I mean because Ben Shapiro and Cassidy Dillon effectively got him canceled. This is while I was working at Blaze, which was the sister network Daily Wire and Blaze. Blaze was bigger than Daily Wire at the time.
- [04:57]
B
Oh, way.
- [04:58]
A
Yeah. So I had a flagship show on, on BlazeTV. We were bigger than Daily Wire. And essentially I invited Nick Fuentes on my show back in, like, I think it was 2018, it was a long time ago. And they wrote the script for me. They told me what I had to give a disclaimer, dude, to have Nick on my show in 2018. I had to say, I do not agree with anything this guy says. I do not align with his values. And I didn't know anything about him at all. He was a podcaster in his room, he had a little camera set up. And I brought him on my show at the time, you know, we had a lot of interesting people working for us. I worked for Glenn Beck, really worked for Mark Levin.
- [05:39]
B
Wow.
- [05:39]
A
These names people know today. But, you know, I got called into the office after I had Nick Fuentes on my show for the first time and I got grilled. Are you a white nationalist? Are you a white supremacist? And I go, what's going on here? All I did was ask a guy about his, you know, thoughts on war, about his thoughts on the future. And that was the first time I got threatened. Like, you know, if you want to have a career in, in media, you can't be having these kinds of conversations. And I was taught real quick early on in my career that if you want to be something great, if you want to actually make money in the right wing industry, you can't have conversations like you had with Nick Fuentes. And they made that pretty damn clear from the get go, less than a year into my career, that he was blacklisted and they effectively canceled him. They effectively made him disappear. But I want to let people know I have a problem with the modern media game because it's all about clout. It's all about how edgy can you be while still maintaining your monetization. And how can you attach yourself to people, whether you agree with them morally, whether they're reprehensible people in a way that's going to drive your viewership. There's no authenticity in the media game anymore. And it's not about truth. It's not about productivity. It's all about money and fame. And those are the death of man. Right? The lust of the eyes, the lust of the flesh and the pride of life. That's what the devil tempted Jesus with in the wilderness with. He was on his 40 day fast, and that's what people are falling for today. But back in the time, having Nick on your show meant cultural and career suicide. I had him on multiple times. I. I actually believe I got him in person to his first coning show, major conservative network. I snuck him in a back door through security with a hoodie on.
- [07:21]
B
Wow.
- [07:22]
A
Couple minutes before my show threw him onto set. Didn't tell anybody he was on set, and it went live. And I immediately got a text message. What are you doing?
- [07:30]
B
Wow.
- [07:31]
A
Why do you have this guy in our studio? And that's that. That's what I'm saying. Not only did I get in trouble, threatened with being fired, but a little while later, I ended up getting sued for several million dollars for the act of having that guy on my show. And it was worth it. And I would do it every single time. Because I don't care if there was no clout or it didn't do anything. He has the truth. In my opinion. He knows what he's talking about. And if I could just do a little bit to help normalize the conversation, fight the censorship that's going on at the very basis of that, and do my part to ensure that people like Ben Shapiro don't. Don't have the monopoly on the conversation, I think it was worth it. And I don't think there's creators like that. Too far spread into our industry who actually will do anything that would hurt themselves.
- [08:26]
B
You're a rare breed. You're a very rare breed. Do you think, speaking of Ben Shapiro, do you think him calling out Megan, Kelly and Candace on stage yesterday was. What kind of move do you think he was making there? That was very interesting, right?
- [08:39]
A
Yeah. Ben Shapiro is bleeding subscribers because he's a liar. Ben Shapiro has an agenda, and he's essentially like the Jack Doherty of conservative politics. He's been pimping out his followers to lies, cashing in and driving Ferraris in the process, and at the same time thinking that none of us notice he's a complete short asshole. And that's who Ben Shapiro is. He's like the millennial version of a insufferable kick. Live streamer. But you don't know what to do because they have so much money and power, they can pay everyone to Work for them and to act like they like them. And when he called them out, what, he's mad? He's jealous. He's jealous because they're telling people the truth. Candace Owens and Megan are, are on the nose about what's going on with the Zionist agenda in our country. They're being threatened behind the scenes. Guys. We're being threatened behind the scenes. You know Seth Dillon, the CEO of Babylon be a major organization. He threatened my company with severe legal litigation because when Charlie Kirk was murdered, you know, I got on the phone with Candace Owens, I got on the phone with a couple others I don't want to name. And we started a joint investigation and I had a friend who was at that Hamptons meeting.
- [10:00]
C
There's this new technology floating around that people cannot stop talking about. It's called the light system. Before you roll your eyes, it's not some gadget you strap on or supplement that promises the word world. Every once in a while I come across something that actually stops me in my tracks. And the light system is one of those things. This isn't a supplement. It's not a biohack. It's a full on energy environment built to help your mind and body synchronize, recharge and operate at a higher level. It uses light patterns, color frequencies and coherent energy fields. All the stuff that your body naturally responds to to create a coherent energetic field around you. People are saying they feel more clear, more centered, more aligned in their environment. And honestly, the same science behind it is fascinating as I've seen a lot of wellness tech. But the numbers coming out on this new study of the light system are actually insane. Researchers measured human chic cells before and after sitting in front of a system. And get this, a 30 minute session boosted cellular conductivity by 61%. The study even showed increased conductivity in isolated DNA, which is associated with stronger structure and better repair pathways. The result, More clarity, more balance and more alignment. You could save $500. Now if you go to thelightsystems.com and use account code.
- [11:10]
A
Sean and I remember we were talking about it and I accidentally tweeted about it before we were going to go public about it. And Seth comes in and starts threatening one of my employees, a girl too. Like my weakest, my weakest link. He's coming. He's like, hey, we're watching you. We're, you know, we're, we're keeping track of every word you say. We're gonna like. Basically this is major legal intimidation because we decided that we were Just gonna ask certain questions that make his death suspicious. And that's all Megan and Candace are doing. They're just asking questions. They're trying to find the truth. And we're being threatened with excommunication, with censorship, being pushed off the lot. Like Barry Wise said. Ben Shapiro, we don't tolerate conspiracy theorists. And what are conspiracy theorists in 2026, as we go in, it's anybody who does not have an undying support for the Zionist agenda. That's it. We are not at a civil war, Joe. Barry, we are not in a civil war. Set. Dylan, you keep saying there's this fight. You have Zionists who believe in the Israeli agenda over truth that are willing to sacrifice not their lives because they're cashing out. They're going to sacrifice your life. They're going to sacrifice my life. They'll put us on the altar. They'll chop our necks. They'll make sure we can't feed our families. They don't care as long as their agenda stays dominant. And the rest of the people that are fighting, it's anybody that just believes in the truth that's going. You know, America, there's too much damn Israeli power in this country. And I just don't know how I can go down the street and I see my bridges falling apart. I see Irina Zarutska getting knifed in the neck. I can't wear a Rolex even in the streets of Los Angeles without fearing for my life. Can't have nice things. We can't have nice things. And yet we can send another $15.8 billion to Israel. That's what we want to know. And that's why they're trying to cancel us. Because simply put, we're getting in the way of their unending money pit. They got the CIA, they got the military industrial complex. They got a trillion dollar bankroll plan.
- [13:08]
B
Geez.
- [13:08]
A
And we. We don't. We don't. We don't want that to go towards other nations anymore. It's not anti Semitic, man. It's not hateful to love America, bro.
- [13:16]
B
Speaking of walking around la, I couldn't even walk around Phoenix last night.
- [13:19]
A
It's crazy, dude.
- [13:21]
B
I almost got robbed on the way to James o'.
- [13:22]
A
Keefe.
- [13:23]
B
Well, I was dumb. I was wearing this. But like, you think Phoenix is like a city? Like, you can walk around. We live in America. But that was a reality check for me.
- [13:33]
A
What happened? I mean.
- [13:34]
B
I mean, I walked past a homeless person. He had a knife out. He was. Look, I.
- [13:37]
A
How did they look?
- [13:38]
B
Pretty homeless.
- [13:40]
A
Do they look like people who would rob you, bro?
- [13:42]
B
He was. I could literally see him thinking about it.
- [13:44]
A
So they didn't look like me?
- [13:46]
B
No.
- [13:46]
A
I figured.
- [13:48]
B
No, I could see the person thinking about it.
- [13:50]
A
They say when you're around, never relax, right? You can't relax. It's true, man. It's like you can't relax. Dude, I'm sorry that happened, you know. What? Being robbed, man. You know, that's the truth, man. You know, I almost died from a group of. Of scholars and engineers.
- [14:08]
B
Wow. In la.
- [14:10]
A
In Philadelphia, actually. Several times, actually. I've had issues. But in Kenosha, Wisconsin, a couple weeks earlier, you can see this on footage. A young astronaut, a NASA model employee, pulled a gun out and pointed it to my head while I was recording journalism. Look this up. Elijah Schaefer, gun pointed ahead.
- [14:30]
B
Oh, I thought you were joking about the astronaut part.
- [14:32]
A
Well, that's what they call them. They call them astronauts, doctors and engineers. But let's just say their heads are in the clouds. I don't know if these people are so bright, but this young Nike tracksuit wearing. Got fresh Js on astronaut, pulls a gun out, points it to my head, and he pulls the trigger. And you hear it go. And it jams.
- [14:55]
B
No.
- [14:56]
A
And he tried to shoot me in the face. And you can see this on. You can see this happen. It's like. And it jams. And so I duck and I run. And I'm like, man, Lord, thank you. And I credit God for being alive. Jesus saved my life. I'm not dead, man. And I'm thankful anyways for that. But then a few weeks later, I'm in Philadelphia and I'm recording a protest and they start looting, Right? These are different. These are the same kind of doctors and NGOs. Now, do you track what I'm saying here? Yeah, Model citizens. And they start looting a five Below. At five Below, what are you stealing? Discount one ply toilet paper. Like, bro, I'll give that to you. I don't want that. And I'm standing there and they start yelling out, get the white people. Like, get the white people. And they start chasing white people around the area. They come up, a group of them, because they always hunt in packs and just split open my face. Dude. At gunpoint, too, by the way. At gunpoint, someone has a gun out, split open my face, knock me to the ground. And they're around me and have a gun pointed at me, talking about the color of my skin. And I. And I don't. I'm not Proud of it. But I had to beg for my life, man. And I don't know if anyone's ever had to be humiliated like that. Like, you know, you see a lot of people in very dramatic situations where they might get in a fight. When you have a group of thugs surrounding you and you've got a family at home and you're in an American city. This is America, damn it. This is our country. And people are walking around like animals. And guess what I found out. The police had a stand down order. So the very people who could have, they were right out. They could have stepped in, they could have, they could have saved a citizen's life. But they were told don't get in the way because George Floyd just, you know, people are upset. So they gave up law and order for diversity, equity and inclusion. I almost got killed. Pointed a gun at me. I begged and the Lord spared my life that night. Cuz they went out and shot a girl in the stomach. And it was so crazy, dude. They were so animalistic. They were robbing each other at gunpoint over the looted goods. Even more ghetto than, than. Than robbing a store over one ply toilet paper. They were putting guns to each other's heads to steal the toilet paper from the other guy.
- [17:17]
B
That's crazy, isn't that?
- [17:18]
A
That's the world we live. And the police stood there with their hands in their pocket. Hundreds of them in a line with their bikes, just watching it happen.
- [17:24]
B
It's like that movie the Purge.
- [17:25]
A
Yeah.
- [17:26]
B
Literally, right? Crime was real for like a day or 2.
- [17:29]
A
That's what 2020 was. Purge. But for a year.
- [17:32]
B
Yeah, yeah, the riots lasted a while.
- [17:34]
A
A year. A year, yeah, it was about nine and a half months.
- [17:37]
B
Yeah, I know. Some cities were worse. I think I was in LA around that. It was pretty.
- [17:41]
A
They robbed Beverly Hills though. Wheelchair as well.
- [17:44]
B
I remember. What's the big street in la? I forget.
- [17:47]
A
Rodeo.
- [17:48]
B
Yeah, it might have been Rodeo.
- [17:49]
A
Yeah, they did. They looted everything.
- [17:51]
B
Yeah.
- [17:52]
A
Did you see? Well, yeah, also it was crazy too. Like, you know, one of the sad things about this modern administration, I worked really hard in 2019 through. Well actually 2018 towards the end to expose antifa, who are now designated as a terrorist group. And I used to embed myself and go undercover as an extremist. And you know, I'm white. I'm going to be honest, I think white people are pretty cool and they get a lot of hate. But there's a lot of white people that are liberal and kind of retarded and a lot of them were in Antifa. And I worked in Seattle and Portland to expose this growing terrorist network. And the government wasn't taking me seriously. And I was putting in reports for the doj and I actually they ended up sieging a federal building in Portland with fireworks, with Molotov cocktails. Trump sends in the DHS to go secure it like a military zone. And this is during the height of COVID And I remember every day there was thousands of us surrounding the building. And every night it was turned into a war where we were just throwing rocks. Not me, by the way, but the group I was embedded with and assaulting all the officers and taking over the federal building. There was a war over a federal building that no one talks about. People look this up. The war for the Portland federal building. It was a 30 day skirmish war that involved real, real live fire returning to each other, actual sieging military tactics. And somehow they don't know what happened. But foreign intelligence groups embedded themselves and were training the Antifa on how to create military factions and militia resistance using umbrella tactics to block rubber bullets. Like in Taiwan. They had put taking cones and sticking cones over the tear gas and then pouring water to neutralize them. They were being trained by a foreign military op. Hundreds of thousands of dollars were being poured into this and unfortunately, DHS thought I was an actual terrorist. So he took a gun, particularly. I don't know if it was a flashbang, I don't know if it was just like a tear gas, but he shot me point blank in my shin. Shattered my shin. And I passed out from blood loss and exhaustion.
- [20:06]
B
Crap.
- [20:07]
A
Yeah, on the floor. So you can see, I'm like recording, filming and just goes, oh my. You just hear and hear. And I just like, you just see the camera just go douche. And then it's just on. It's on the floor. And I was just. I had to get rescued from that. So then I get evacuated. It was very, very bad situation. But it's like, you know, I've lost a lot. I don't have any feeling in my face. I've had bones broken. I've had a beg for my life. I've seen people get killed. I saw, you know, I helped Kyle Rittenhouse get exonerated because I helped film him getting murdered. And.
- [20:36]
B
Yes, you were there.
- [20:37]
A
Yeah, right there.
- [20:38]
B
That's crazy.
- [20:39]
A
Right there, right there. Watched him. Watched him kill a pedophile.
- [20:42]
B
Dude, you've been through a lot.
- [20:44]
A
It's been weird. You ever. You ever seen a pedophile get killed? It's pretty cool.
- [20:47]
B
I can't say I have.
- [20:49]
A
I'm not going to say I'm mad about it. Like, you know, people say he was a pedophile, but let's not bring some. Bring a religion or race into it. Yeah, I mean, that is a coincidence, but, I mean, he killed a pedophile who's trying. He's a minor. The guy was trying to grab his gun and he shot him. And that was a turning point in American history. And they tried to put him in prison for life. For life for saying that he murdered innocent black people. But thanks to the footage of, like, people like myself, like, like Jorge and others that were out the Daily Caller, we were able to use our online footage to exonerate an innocent man. And I want to remind people of that. You think that your work's not important online. You feel like, oh, I got to get clout. I got to get clicks. I don't care about clout and clicks. My work was used to exonerate a young man from being unjustly put in prison. That is what matters to me. They used my footage to keep Trump from getting kicked out when he got impeached for January6. I was there that day. I filmed the violence start. And when I saw that my footage got a. Got entered into official records and Trump remained president. Did not get disgracefully removed. Sitting president, whether I liked him or not. He didn't unjustly get removed because of my work. That's what work used to mean. That's what media used to mean to people. How does. How does what I'm doing make the world a better place? And now it's how. How can I get money into the only fans, girls, pockets, whom I'm also abusing? You know, Jack Doherty, if that's even how you pronounce his name, is worse than an online pimp. He's a scumbag who's abusing women. He's taking advantage of young girls sexually who are barely of age. He's promoting them to children. He's getting young kids. Young kids know the name of adult stars. And then he's repackaging it like they're not adult stars, putting them on YouTube. YouTube used to be a place for community and fun. You watch Roblox Stream or Fortnite. But then when you find out the creators of Fortnite are also the same creators of the adult industry, if you ever look into that they're the same people, you start to notice why they get jiggly and the body parts Move. It's the same developers, the same people as the hub connected to Fortnite. So when you see a lot of the same, the same issues going on there, you see there's been a target on kids lives. I hate the new creators, I hate who they are, I hate the streamers. Your looks maxing can go fuck itself. You know what matters? Human souls and young men are suffering and they need God and they need love and they need redemption because they're depressed and they're upset. Who gives a care to. I don't care if you're mogging people. Good for you. You're better looking clavicular.
- [23:19]
B
Oh, like face modification?
- [23:21]
A
Yeah. What is clavicular doing? I've never seen someone get more lost Surgery.
- [23:26]
B
Did you see that?
- [23:26]
A
No.
- [23:26]
B
He got a jaw surgery yesterday and it went really bad. He's.
- [23:30]
A
Don't you feel bad? He's 19.
- [23:31]
B
I feel bad, bro. He's also trying to get the shin surgery to increase his height by 2 inches.
- [23:36]
A
But what's the point of that? Like what's the point of looks maxing now your God is your looks. And the truth is women do care about looks at that age. But as they grow up and develop, if you want to attract a quality woman, she cares about character facts. So if you're a young man and all you tell young men is, is looks, look, looks will get you girls, but it won't get you women.
- [23:57]
B
It won't get you a good woman.
- [23:58]
A
Correct. You're not going to get a mom to raise your kids. And it's like all these people today becoming white supremacists and neo Nazis and whatever. Look, if you're a white supremacist, I have two questions for you. How many kids do you have? Because if you love the white race, where are your children? And two, what have you done that's supreme? What have you doing? Complaining on the Internet isn't going to help us.
- [24:23]
B
Yeah.
- [24:24]
A
And people like Clav Clive got asked Israel or Palestine? And he goes neither. Nothing helps me mog. Fair question. We got to stop the team politics. Politics is not a team. Sports, you don't need to. He doesn't need to have an opinion on that. But it does make me concerned that at 19, clavicular is so insecure about his looks that he's having to alter himself with life altering surgeries to achieve what? Does he need any more clicks? Does he need any more views? No, he's one of the most popular people on the Internet. Does he need more women? No, he's Pulling tail quicker than anyone I've seen. So what is it for? It's the same trap a heroin addict falls into. It's the same trap that an alcoholic falls into. It's called chasing the dragon. It'll never be enough. You have a God sized hole and you can fill it with things that you think are gonna lead you to satisfaction. It's never going to be enough, Clav. I wish I could look him in the eye saying, man, it's never going to be enough. We've all seen those guys with botched faces and big lips and the Botox and you go, why did you do that to yourself, man? Why do you look like that? You know why? It's the same reason someone dies of cirrhosis from alcohol abuse or a cocaine addict gets a heart attack at 30. Sin always keeps you longer than you wanted to stay, costs you more than you wanted to spend, and takes you further down you wanted to go. You are a spiritual being and vice, including vanity, will take you down. And I'm nervous for these looks maxers because their vice is vanity. And vanity has ruined a lot of women's lives. It's crazy to see it ruining men's lives too.
- [26:06]
B
You mentioned alcohol a few times. I know you quit. Was that recently?
- [26:09]
A
Yeah, I did. I. I quit alcohol a few months ago.
- [26:13]
B
How long were you drinking for?
- [26:17]
A
I've been drinking. I was drinking pretty much non stop since 2012 daily. Pretty often, like four or five times a week.
- [26:24]
B
Yeah. Holy crap.
- [26:25]
A
So most days. Yeah, I've been drinking.
- [26:27]
B
Thanks for being honest about. About that.
- [26:30]
A
A lot of people drink more than they let on. There's a lot of people watching this podcast right now who would be really scared for people to know how much alcohol they drink. Because when you're a drinker, you learn how to do two things. You learn how to make sure that nobody knows that you're drinking as much as you're drinking so that you don't have to get judgment. And number two, you're always thinking about drinking and it's a scary, scary road to live on and you don't realize how lost you are. Yeah, but think about this. And a lot of people have an alcohol problem, but we've normalized alcoholism so much today that people don't think they're alcoholics. It's like an ant living on an ant hill and not thinking it's a bug. Like, well, I'm surrounded by ants. It's like, but you're a pest. Yeah, but everyone's a pest around me. But does it make you less of an ant? And I think with. I'm not here to lecture anyone. I'm not in any place to tell anyone how to live. But I do want to let people know. If you are out there and you're sneaking alcohol, if you're at restaurants and you're stopping by the bar when you're with friends to take that extra double shot just to get a little ahead, if you're going to go to parties and you're pre gaming, call it pregaming. You're drinking some, some liquor just to feel like, you know, a little more of a buzz so people don't judge you. If you're going for the 9% beer instead of the 4% beer, I'm not going to tell you you've got a problem. But do you have a solution? And that's what I want to ask. Is this a solution? Because alcoholism is a progressive disease and I don't know if I was an alcoholic and I don't really know if you were functioning. I was functioning.
- [28:06]
B
My dad was a functioning alcoholic too.
- [28:08]
A
Yeah. What is that?
- [28:09]
B
He could read a book a day, but at the end of the day he would drink a 30 pack of beer. But that's.
- [28:14]
A
That's what he was drinking.
- [28:15]
B
That's.
- [28:15]
A
That's. But it gets. But it gets there.
- [28:17]
B
It gets it.
- [28:17]
A
But he died.
- [28:18]
B
What I'm saying is it led to a lot of health issues.
- [28:20]
A
Okay.
- [28:21]
B
You know what I mean? Mental health issues. I think mental health and alcoholism are pretty.
- [28:24]
A
Yeah.
- [28:25]
B
Intertwined too.
- [28:25]
A
So he gets you angry, angsty.
- [28:27]
B
Yeah.
- [28:28]
A
You snap, you get abusive, you get. You can't maintain relationships, you can't arbitrate. You become not uncompassionate. You become a victim. You start feeling like you're a victim and everyone doesn't understand you. It doesn't. It. What it does is I tell people this. The difference is anyone can stop drinking. But can anyone stay stopped from drinking and I may drink again in the future? I don't know. But I knew. And I asked myself this. Can I become the man I want to be with alcohol in my life? And the truth is I couldn't. And I can't. Why? Because every time I drink alcohol, I don't do something bad. Every day I drink alcohol. You don't cheat on your significant other. Every time you drink, you don't end up in jail or with a dui. But every time you get into a serious problem, ask yourself this. Were you drinking? So you're playing a game of roulette Right. And because the good times are there, you forget about the bad times.
- [29:28]
B
True.
- [29:28]
A
But the bad times can ruin your life forever. And so you just ask yourself, do I want to be living a life of some bad times or ruining. Or do I want to live the best possible life I can imagine? And for me, all I could speak for. For me, I couldn't live the best life I wanted to live and keep up the way that I was drinking. And I credit. Credit God. I had an experience with God on an airplane, and God told me that if you don't get your life right with me, that you're going to die. I heard a voice tell me you're going to die.
- [29:59]
B
Wow. Were you drunk? Were you?
- [30:01]
A
No.
- [30:01]
B
Eyes closed, eyes open?
- [30:03]
A
Just sitting down, listening to an audiobook, and I got, like, a memory implanted in my head. You are going to die if you do not follow God with all your mind, with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength. And I looked up and I was like, is anybody hearing this? And I was like, is that God? I go, God, what. What do you mean by that? In my heart, I knew everybody knows God is calling young men to actually be obedient. Everyone's talking about God now on podcasts because it's popular. But you know what all that God calls us to, he calls us to obedience. And that's what people don't want to talk about. They'll tell you about reading your Bible, how prayer is helping you, how God forgives. Like Nala Ray.
- [30:47]
B
Yeah.
- [30:48]
A
But the question is, is, are you willing to stop doing the things that you love, which are the things that God hates? And are you willing to start doing the thing that God loves that you may not like? Because that's what faith is. Your flesh likes the things that it shouldn't like, and it hates the things that it should like. And that's why you have to faith. Because God comes in by his Holy Spirit, and he gives you the power to begin to hate the things that he hates and to love the things that he loves. But you know what? It doesn't happen like magic. You have to give up that thing in your life that you know is your God and I don't. It might not be drinking. You can drink and be a Christian. You can drink and know God. That's. There's nothing God doesn't say. You've got to stop drinking. You can do other vices. And, like, I still smoke cigars. Probably should cut back for health reasons. But it's like, am I not. Am I not a Christian because I smoke cigars? No, obviously not. But if anything in your life has control of you, if you are not in control of something, that is your God and you are a slave to it. And why did God come? Not so that you can repent publicly and have on podcasts to talk about it. It's that in your heart, when you go to sleep, you have a clear conscience that if you were to die tonight, that you could tell God in the face of the Lord. I actually did what you said, and I want to have eternity with you. And I hope that young men realize you don't need to just go to church and you don't need some magic, you know, words, and you don't need to wait till people see it. Guys, don't give up on God because the people in your life judge you based upon your past. You know who brings up your past? Women and the devil. Right? The only people that bring up your past are women and the devil. They always remind you of what you've done and who you were. You know what the boys in God do? They tell you about who you are now and where you can be. And God believes in his plan. His plan is true. And it's for us to prosper and for us to what, repent and find change. And I just want to. I want to kind of leave a message here to people. If you are hurting and depressed, if you are dealing with anxiety, if you are walking around and you're stuck in consuming adult content online, if you have things that you know are wrong for you and you just can't stop and you cry out to God and you beg, God, and you say, God, please, Please. And I've been there. You're like, man, you wake up hungover and you're like, God, please. Just like, if you take this away, I'm like, I'll do anything for you. And then what happens 24 hours later, sometimes less. You're back on the hub. You're back behind the bottle. You're back doing the same thing. And you know what? I'm going to tell you what, that's because you're doing it in your own strength, and you don't have to fight more than this moment. People say, take it one day at a time. Take it one moment at a time with God. And that's how you find God in your life. If you're out there and you don't know who God is, you're confused. You find God by right now, in this moment, speaking to him because he has a promise. He says, if you draw near to me, I will draw near to you. Which means if you take the first step. What is faith? It's taking the first step. If you take the first step, I will show you more of myself. And like the disciples who walked on the water, he said, come out of the boat. Walk on the water. And when their eyes were on Jesus, they walked. And when they got scared by the waves, when they got scared by the storm, there was a storm going on. And Jesus approached them and he tested him. The disciples started to sink in the water because why? He was focused on the waves. He was focused on the storm. And in your life, if you focus on the storm, you will sink and you will fall again and again. But if you keep your eyes on Christ and what he's done for you, don't worry about what your mom thinks, your girlfriend thinks, the life, you know, the people around you. God said that you were forgiven. Believe in that and start living like it. Being a Christian isn't being good. So God accepts you. It's realizing that God has forgiven and accepts you. So act the way that he sees you. God sees you as perfect when you receive His Son. So just behave like it. And if he said you could, then you can. And he'll empower you.
- [35:01]
B
Wow. Thanks for your wisdom, brother. It's been a fun episode. Where can people support you and find you?
- [35:05]
A
Yeah, follow me on YouTube if you like these kind of things. I got a daily show called the Riff right here. R I, F T. Or you can find me on X. I'm at Elijah Schaer. E, L, I, J, A, H, S C H A, F, F, E, R.
- [35:18]
B
Check them out, guys. Peace.
- [35:19]
C
I hope you guys are enjoying the show. Please don't forget to like and subscribe. It helps the show a lot with the algorithm.
- [35:24]
B
Thank you.