Sam (0:00)

On the base of the Statue of Liberty is the portion of a poem. The full poem is called the New Colossus, written by emma Lazarus in 1883. And it goes like this, not like the brazen giant of Greek fame with conquering limbs astride from land to land. Here at our sea washed sunset gate shall stand a mighty woman with a torch whose flame is the imprisoned lightning and her name, mother of exiles. From her beacon hand glows worldwide welcome. Her mild eyes command the air bridged harbor that twin cities frame ancient lands. Your storied pomp, cries she with silent lips. Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to be free. The wretched refuse of your teeming shore. Send these the homeless tempest tossed to me. I lift my lamp beside the golden door. I'm recording this on July 4th. Yesterday, the House of Representatives passed the most brutal and malicious bill to lower and middle income classes in the history of the US it is the new largest upward transfer of wealth in US History. The largest upward transfer before that was Trump's Tax Cuts and Jobs Act. The big ugly bill guts public education, Medicaid, Medicare, limits access to higher education for the average American, increases the tax burden on the lower and middle classes while making tax cuts for the top 10% permanent. What a devastating day. I honestly had to leave town. I just needed to walk away from it. But today we talk about hope. Not because of the American exceptionalism hope they sold us when we were young, especially if you grew up in Christian nationalism, which all turned out to be a lie, but real hope for a new future, something different. I don't know if you know this about me, but I was kind of born to be a fighter. I feel as though I was prepared for this moment and it's always been in my personality to push back and fight back. I think that's why in this time, in this specific moment in history, I've been given the platform that I have. So today we're gonna deviate from some of my normal topics and we're not gonna do a July 4th. Oh my God, America is great. We're gonna talk about history, revolution, and a little bit about the way forward. First, I want to cover some upcoming changes. This month I've been planning on doing educational Bible studies. Originally planned to start Monday, July 7th, but my wonderful assistant and her family have been very sick and they're working through that. So we're going to give them an extra week. However, RSVPs for the study will start Monday, July 7th on Patreon first. Then they will be public on Wednesday, July 9th. I want to reiterate that these are educational studies and they are open to anyone of any faith. This is not to convert you to anything. I don't want to convince you of anything. I want to give you data. I want to give you information against Christian nationalist arguments and I want you to make the decisions about what you choose to believe or not. My goal is to dismantle harmful ideologies, oppose Christian nationalism, hopefully heal some trauma from religion along the way. This general study that I plan to start bi weekly will be donation only. I want everyone to be able to afford to come to the study if they want to, but accept donations to cover the platform cost, the teaching space I'll be using so there will be a Venmo link available again for donations not required to attend the study. The specialized studies that I'll be launching in August will be smaller and they'll be run a bit differently, but we're going to start with the general study first and also starting in July we will be having a few pieces of merch come out each month themed around what we've been talked about. Hoping to do things to kind of encourage and inspire the community. There'll be mostly limited edition runs and hopefully a comprehensive website will be launched at the end of this month as well. It will be all things that I'm involved in, flipping tables, the content I do on his on Instagram, teaching, fitness, music related things. It's just going to kind of be a resource hub that you can find what it is that you're looking for as far as the things that I'm involved in. Also Patreon will be getting a few more tiers which I'm excited about. People who will have access to all recorded classes of the Bible study and we're going to do an upper tier where there's also included cool gift boxes per quarter that I'll put together for you. I don't know if you realize this but I don't sleep very much. The last thing about Patreon is starting right now July 4th. 10% of the proceeds from that page will go directly to a featured charity of the month and a fund that I'm starting to help needy families have Christmas this year. I grew up really loving Christmas and I was I'm really attract like I love Christmas trees was a big thing for me. I would always get up when I was a kid at night, crawl under the Christmas tree and sleep there. Part of the reason I loved Christmas so much was because since my Family was so abusive and so violent and broken. Christmas was a much more peaceful time. It was a much more hopeful time. And I'm hoping to be able to raise enough money by. By December to be able to help 10 families in need. So the 10% is gonna be split between that charity and the Christmas fund. The last Wednesday of each month, I will do a 24 hour call to action on Instagram featuring that charity as well as I will do my Patreon donation on that day. In October, we'll be doing a collective fundraiser for the Christmas fund. And in October, there will be submissions for families to. And you can apply from anywhere in the country. Um, I've just recently quit my other jobs, so once I'm on my feet a little bit better with Patreon and Instagram and YouTube and all these things, I plan to increase the donations to 20% from that page. If you'd like to support these charities or me, get early access to everything or join in one of those new tiers that are coming this week, you can become an accomplice@patreon.com Monte Mater. And if you know of a charity or a cause that maybe I haven't heard of, please email it to flipping tables with mm@gmail.com. again, that's flipping tables with mm gmail.com and let me know, because I want to have causes each month and anything's fair game. It could be reaching out for homelessness, helping with immigration, animal rescues. If you know of someone who runs a charity, please send their information to me and my new little team so that we can support those charities for this month. The charity is going to be the Trevor Project. Last month, the Trump administration cut the LGBTQ suicide hotline that has taken millions of calls since. Since the fall of 2022. And the Trevor Project's mission statement is simply this. The Trevor Project's mission is to end suicide among LGBTQ plus young people. They offer a 247 hotline, trained counseling services, and outreach to help youth in need who are so much more likely to face hate crimes and suicidal thoughts. And ideation seems like an appropriate response to what the administration has done, who are apparently so pro life they don't care about these young people's lives. Weird. Funny how that works. So let's dive in today. I'm not celebrating fourth of July this year. And as someone who the fourth of July used to be my second favorite holiday. Christmas was always number one. But I was. I was raised in this idea that, oh, America's just. We're the best nation that's ever existed, and we're perfect and we're wonderful, and we're a Christian nation. And obviously, I have grown to understand that that's not true. But I am going to celebrate what's coming. And what's coming is revolution, and I hope to be on the front lines of it. I truly believe that this is my calling in life, that this is what I was made for, was a time of revolution. And I'm intimidated by it. It's scary. I'm also thankful for it. I think it's time that we declare independence from tyranny again. And so today, on today's episode, we're gonna talk about viva la revolution, starting with the Declaration of Independence and then discussing another revolution I believe is very apropos as well. As one of my favorite revolutionaries in history, I'm gonna start today by reading the Declaration of Independence and giving a brief overview of the revolution. But I'm not gonna focus there. I'm gonna tell two summaries, and then we're going to move on to things again that I think are a little bit more fitting, a little bit more inspiring. I'm about to dive into Ye Olden Speak, so bear with me. It's important. If you've never read the Declaration before, now's a great time to know what it says, what the colonists were protesting. If you haven't read it in a while, it's a good refresher in Congress. July 4, 1776. The unanimous declaration of the 13 United States of America. When, in the course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth the separate and equal station to which the laws of nature and of nature's God entitle them. A decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation. We hold these truths to be self evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, and that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed. That whenever any form of government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or to abolish it, and to institute a new government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form as to them shall seem most likely to affect their safety and happiness. Prudence indeed will dictate the governments long established should not be changed for the light and transient causes. And accordingly all experience hath shown that mankind are more disposed to suffer for while evils are sufferable. Than to right themselves by abolishing the forms of which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same object, evinces the design to reduce them under absolute despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such government. And to provide new guards for their future security. Such has been the patient sufferances of these colonies. And such now is the necessity which constrains them to alter their former systems of government. The history of the present king of Great Britain Is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of absolute tyranny over these states. To prove this, let facts be submitted to a candid world. He has refused his assent to laws the most wholesome and necessary for the public good. He has forbidden his governors to pass laws of immediate and pressing importance. Unless suspended in their operation till his ascend should be obtained. And when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them. He has refused to pass other laws for the accommodation of large districts of people Unless those people would relinquish the right of representation in the legislature, A right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only. He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable and distant from the depository of their public records for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures. He has dissolved the representative houses repeatedly for opposing with manly firmness his invasion on the rights of the people. He has refused for a long time under, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected, whereby the legislative powers, incapable of annihilation, have returned to the people at large for their exercise. The state remaining in the meantime exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without and the convulsions from within. He has endeavored to prevent the population of these states for that purpose obstructing the laws for naturalization of foreigners, refusing to pass others to encourage their migrants hither, and raising the conditions of the new appropriation of the lands. He has obstructed the administration of justice by refusing his ascent to laws for establishing judiciary powers. He has made judges dependent on his will alone for the tenure of their office and the amount and payment of their salaries. He has erected a multitude of new offices. And sent hither swarms of officers to harass our people and eat out their substance. He has Kept among us in times of peace standing armies without the consent of our legislatures. He has affected to render the military independent of and superior to civil power. He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction. Foreign to our constitution. And unacknowledged by our laws. Giving his ascent to their acts of pretend legislation. For quartering large bodies of armed troops among us. For protecting them by mock trial from punishment for any murders which they should commit on the inhabitants of these states. For cutting off our trade in all parts of the world. For imposing taxes on us without our consent. For depriving us in many cases of the benefits of trial by jury. For transporting us beyond the seas to be tried for pretended offenses. For abolishing the system of English laws of neighboring province. Establishing therein an arbitrary government and enlarging its boundaries. So as to render it at once an example and fit instrument. For introducing the same absolute rule into these colonies. For taking away our charters, abolishing our most valuable laws, Altering the fundamentally the forms of our governments. For suspending our own legislatures. Declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever. He has abdicated government here by declaring us out of his protection and waging war against us. He has plundered our seas, ravaged our coasts, burnt our towns and destroyed the lives of our people. He is at this time transporting large armies of foreign mercenaries. To complete the works of death, desolation and tyranny already begun. With the circumstances of cruelty and perfidy. Scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages. And totally unworthy the head of a civilized nation. He has constrained our fellow citizens in taking captive on the high seas. To bear arms against their country. To become the executioners of their friends and their brethren. Or to fall themselves by their hands. He has excited domestic insurrections among us. And has endeavored to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers. The merciless Indian savages. Those known rule of warfare is an undistinguished destruction. Of all ages, sexes and condition. In every stage of these oppressions we have petitioned for redress in the most humble terms. Our repeated petitions have been answered by only one repeated injury. A prince, whose charter is thus marked by every act which may define tyranny. Is unfit to be the ruler of a free people. Nor have we been wanting in attentions of our British brethren. We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislator. To extend unwarranable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our immigration and settlement here. We have appealed to native justice Our native justice and magnanimity. And we have conjure, conjured them but the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations which would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. They too have been deaf to the voices of justice and consanguity. We must therefore acquiesce in the necessity which denounces our separation and hold them as we hold the rest of mankind. Enemies in war, in peace. Friends. We, therefore, the representatives of the United States of America in general Congress assembled, appealing to the supreme judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the name and by the authority of the good people of these colonies, solemnly publish and declare that these United States are, and the right ought to be, free and independent states. That they are absolved from all allegiance to the British crown. And that all political connection between them and the state of Great Britain is and ought to be totally dissolved. And that as a free and independent states, they have full power to levy war, conclude peace, contract alliances, establish commerce, and do all other acts and things which independent states may of right do. And for the support of this declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine providence, we mutually pledge our lives, our fortunes and. And our sacred honor. Those were the crimes of the king. Do they sound familiar? Neglecting due process, interrupting trade, manipulating elections and legislatures, causing insurrections. Those were the crimes for which the United Colonies, which became the United States of America, declared their independence from Great Britain. We also look at that document and we understand that all men are inherently equal was not really what they meant. They meant all white men. We understand their attitude towards Native Americans. We have to be honest about that, honest about our past. But let's look at the crimes that they decided to protest against. And then what happened after that announcement? It was not a war that anyone thought could be won. It shouldn't have been able to be won. It began not with bullets, but with books, ideas and taxes. It was a resistive group of colonies scattered along the Atlantic who dared to challenge the most powerful empire on earth. The American Revolution wasn't just a war. It was a resurrection of liberty and a fight that was sparked by injustice, lack of representation, that nearly was nearly crushed by despair and a deep, deep winter, and ultimately crowned by a shocking and very improbable victory. We're going to journey back to 1775, to a moment when rebellion flickered in candlelit taverns, when farmers read Thomas Paine by firelight, and when the idea of freedom was more powerful than any king's decree. By the mid-1700s, 13 British colonies had grown strong and independent in spirit. But after the costly French and Indian War, Britain turned their eye toward the colonies to recoup some of their costs, if you will. The stamp act of 1765 demanded taxes on all printed materials. And then came the Townshend Acts and the TEA act and the infamous Intolerable Acts. These were not just taxes. They were declarations of control, and the colonists recognized them as such. From Boston to Charleston, whispers of resistance turned into action. The Sons of Liberty rose. The Boston Tea Party defied royal authority. And in April 1775, when British troops marched on Lexington and Concord, farmers and blacksmiths, ordinary men, not soldiers, picked up muskets and fired the shot that was heard around the world. By 1776, the war was no longer avoidable. It was inevitable. And on July 4th, the Continental Congress adopted what I just read to you, the Declaration of Independence. With words penned by Thomas Jefferson, the colonies declared that they were no longer subjects, but that they were a free people. It was radical, it was dangerous, it was treasonous, and it was the beginning of a revolution. It was also inspiring. We hold these truths to be self evident. Jefferson wrote. Liberty wasn't just a right for the elites. And again, we have to be honest and we have to acknowledge that they did see it as being only a right for white people, specifically white men. But it was one of the first times in history that a successful campaign to strip the monarch of power to give to the average person was made. And at least in theory, we know many of these men were slave owners and that would change. But again, it was the first time that people looked at a powerful monarch and said, we are taking this power for ourselves. We are taking the right to be represented for ourselves and the right to not be taxed without our consent for ourselves. The revolution planted seeds of equality that would echo for centuries and did impact progressive movements later on. They called it later the great experiment, which quite frankly, right now is not going very well. But there's some key principles that we're going to learn today that I think are good to remember, especially right now, especially after that bill. Especially when sometimes it feels like, what is the point of this? What is the point of screaming into the void? And brief little sidebar here. I was thinking about this yesterday because I was. I was so upset about that bill and the lives, the millions of people who it's going to harm. And if you followed my content for any length of time, you know I'm a big Lord of the Rings. Fan. I have the shards of Narsil tattooed on my arm. And I was thinking about the part in Helm's Deep where King Theoden is hiding in the back of Helm's Deep. Saruman's army has blown up the wall. They're raiding Helm's Deep. And he turns and he looks at Aragorn and his men and he says, so much death. What can men do against such reckless hate? And they go back and forth, and finally Aragorn looks at him and says, ride out and meet them. And I think that that's the energy we're gonna try to lean into today. In the American Revolution, victory shouldn't have been possible, much less guaranteed. It would be like me going against Mike Tyson. In the winter of 1776, General George Washington had lost New York. His army was battered. Barefoot, bleeding deserters were fleeing. They were losing supplies. People were starving. The British forces, who were well fed and professionally trained, they were soldiers, were closing in. But then came Trenton. And on Christmas night, as the enemy slept, George Washington crossed the Delaware river and struck with fury. The Continental army surprised and defeated the Hessians, which were German or Prussian mercenaries that were fighting for Britain. It was a small battle, but it was a psychological hurricane. It was that shot that turns the game around for a while. In 1777, the Americans suffered defeat after defeat. The British captured Philadelphia. Washington's men nearly froze to death at Valley Forge. There was unimaginable disease and starvation in a bitter, bitter winter. We hadn't totally fried the climate yet. But in that winter, Baron Von Steuben, a Prussian, which was Germany before Germany, officer trained the army, drilled them and unified them. The ragtag militia began to transform into an army of soldiers. In October of 1777, the tide finally turned with the Battle of Saratoga. American forces, led by General Horatio Gates and Benedict Arnold, before his betrayal, defeated the British in New York. And the victory shocked the world and brought France into the war. And I feel like Christian schools I went to really skipped over the fact that we could not have won this war without the French. And it was very profitable to us that the French had a very tenuous history with the British and had a reason to see them brought down. It's always painted as when I grew up, it was always the Americans did it by ourself and we did not. We needed the French ships, we needed their troops, we needed their money. And with the. With the French coming into the war, the dynamic shifted. And Spain and the Dutch Republic also joined the fight as well. This was not just a Colonial rebellion. This was in reality a global war. It just happened here instead of on the shores of Europe. For years, the fighting dragged on. British forces shifted south, hoping to gain loyalist support in Georgia and the Carolinas. But they were met with brutal resistance. And in a final gamble, British General Cornwallis fortified Yorktown, Virginia. He expected British ships to be able to resupply him. But Washington and the French general Ron Bachaud. Sorry, I always mix up the syllables of his name. Rochambeau marched their armies over 400 miles in secret. And at the same time, the French navy under Admiral Degrassi blocked the Chesapeake Bay. And I did double check that pronunciation. To my knowledge that's correct. Cornwallis was trapped. For three weeks, the allies laid siege to Yorktown. On October 19, 1781, Cornwallis surrendered. The British laid down their arms. Drums beat out the tune, the world turn upside down. And it was done. Two years later, the Treaty of Paris was signed and the United States of America was born. Now I don't just, I don't just cover this because of what today is or because it's a revolution, but because this helps and I think now informs our current place in history. Very specifically because the American Revolution inspired another revolution, the French Revolution. But before we dive into that, I do want to take a brief mid show sponsor break. And if you'd like these episodes early and ad free, you can sign up for $4 a month as an accomplice on my patreon@patreon.com montemater you may not know this about me, but I was born and raised in rural Wyoming. I grew up on a cattle ranch north of Gillette, Wyoming and I was born in Campbell County Hospital. As you might imagine, Wyoming is very rural and many of my family members still live there. There. With the passing of the new big ugly horrible budget bill, the hospitals in rural areas like where I was born are at risk of shutting down. After the passage of the bill, I went to ground news, specifically the blind spot feature, and followed how this affects hospitals back home. Rural hospitals in Oklahoma and Nebraska are already at risk of closing. And that's before I get to how many people will be impacted by Medicaid loss. If you've followed me for a while, you know that my great niece Lucy is having several heart surgeries this year to save her life. She's only six months old and she's on Medicaid. The consequences of this bill are personal as they are far reaching. And I noticed on ground news that only 4% of right leaning news sources are sharing this info even though these cuts disproportionately affect their readers and constituents. Now more than ever, you need to know what's happening and you need to know what you're not being told. I highly recommend using Ground News. It's efficient and you can find very accurate sources and information. And the Blind Spot features is one of the greatest assets I have found. Doing this research for 40% off their vantage plan, which comes to about $5 a month. You can subscribe@groundnews.com tables and your support also keeps my show running. This episode is also brought to you by Intravenous Solutions, Nashville's premier IV Therapy and wellness center. IV Therapy can help you recover quicker from heavy workouts or illness, treat the symptoms of dehydration, and improve sleep and give you healthy, glowing skin. Being on stage several times a week before and now simply talking so much for a living, I can say that IV treatments keep me on my feet, keep my voice healthy, and are a lifesaver. Recently I had a severe health scare and also found out that I have Long Covid. I've been using their ozone treatments to help get rid of the symptoms of Long Covid and help restore me to full health. I've only done three treatments with the ozone, but I can tell you the brain fog is clearing. My energy is improving. It is an incredible treatment that I hadn't heard of until Dr. Allen told me about it. They also offer vitamin shots, oxygen therapy, weight management and mobile services. There are four locations in Nashville, Hendersonville, Franklin and their brand new location on Second Avenue in the Bankers Alley Hotel by Hilton. It is so easy to get high quality healthcare all week. Prevention is power. Take care of your health before it becomes an emergency is what I learned this past June. So come visit Nashville. You can come party in Nashville or you can come visit me. You can give the code MONTE10 at checkout at Intravenous Solutions for a 10% discount on services. Now let's get back to the French Revolution. Let's do a little bit of an introduction. We know that the French Revolution was inspired in a lot of ways by the American Revolution. But what led to it? Because the French Revolution, while it contained a lot of the same elements as the American Revolution, was much more about the economy. The French Revolution, which lasted from 1789 to 1799, was ignited by centuries of inequality, economic crisis, and an inflexible monarchy. At the time, the French social structure was divided into three estates. The first estate, which was the clergy, made up less than 1% of the population. The second estate was nobility, about 1.5% of the population. And the third estate was everyone else, 98% of the population or 97.5. And despite making up nearly the entire population, the third est state paid nearly all the taxes and had no political power. They gave all the money but had no say. While the first and second estates lived lavishly and were often, you guessed it, tax exempt. By the late 1780s, France was deeply in debt from wars, especially the American Revolution. Food processes skyrocketed. Sound familiar? Bread took up 80% of a poor family's income. Unemployment and starvation were widespread. And the monarchy, led by King Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette, continued extravagant spending. Does this sound familiar? The top 1 to 2% of the population controlled 20% of the land and almost all of the political power, While the bottom 98% struggled to simply feed themselves. Let's talk about wealth disparity, because the wealth disparity informed the French Revolution and it's informing what's going to happen here now. France before the revolution, the top 2%, which was that clergy and nobility owned about again 25 to 30% of the land and paid basically zero taxes. The bottom 98% paid all the taxes, including tithes to the church, feudal dues and royal taxes, and bread alone. Bread. And I'm not talking about bread as in, you know, we break bread or we're having a meal. I'm talking bread by itself would consume 80% of a poor households income. That's how expensive it was. So let's talk about the United States today. And this is before what was passed in that bill gets passed gets enacted, because we got about a year before many of those take place. According to the Congressional Budget Office and Federal Reserve, as of 2023, the top 1% of Americans hold 34% of the nation's wealth. The top 10% hold 70% of the nation's wealth. The bottom 50% of Americans hold 2.5% of all wealth. The wealth gap is the widest it has been since the 1920s and guess what happened after the 1920s. And real wages for the bottom 90% have stagnated relative to the cost of living and to the rate of inflation. Housing, health care and education costs continue to rise While many people live paycheck to paycheck. Many families are forced to choose between feeding their kids, getting them new shoes, or getting them glasses they need for school. In the French Revolution, it started with hunger, like real body, literal hunger. And it ended with history being rewritten and a Template for revolutions down the road, and I think a template for us now. Before liberty, before equality, before the guillotine, there was just people in pain. In 1789, France was a kingdom suffocating under the weight of its own elegance and its own opulence. The glittering halls of Versailles massed, a nation on the brink, where nobles feasted while peasants starved and the very people who grew the grain couldn't afford a loaf of bread. This honestly, it honestly feels like now the people who are working the hardest, they're working multiple jobs, can't afford their grocery bill. Billionaires get tax cuts while the impoverished lose public schools and health coverage and rural hospitals. France wasn't just suffering, it was unraveling. Decades of war, including aiding the American Revolution, had drained the treasury. But the nobility paid no taxes and they spent like the treasury was full to the brim. The Third Estate, made up of of normal people, farmers, merchants, artisans, carried the weight of the kingdoms on their back. And it wasn't just about economics. It was humiliation. Imagine if you're a baker in Bordeaux or a seamstress in Paris. You pay debilitating taxes, your children go hungry while you are the town's baker. Meanwhile, aristocrats ride past you in gold trimmed carriages. You could think of it as a luxury car with gold rims. Living under laws don't apply to you. You get no say, you get no vote, and you know that you are financing the gold that lines that carriage. Ideas started to stir. The Enlightenment period cracked the sky open. Thinkers and teachers like Voltaire, Rousseau, Montesquieu, they questioned kings, they championed reason, not dogma, not religion, not tradition, Reason, freedom and social contract. And across France, ordinary people began to ask the most dangerous question of all. What if? It doesn't have to be this way. In 1789, for the first time in 175 years, King Louis XVI called the Estates General, a meeting of France's three social orders. The first, second and third estates. The third estate showed up 600 representatives. Strong, educated men, small landowners, lawyers. They weren't revolutionaries yet, but they showed up and they were determined to be heard. And instead they were ignored. And they were outvoted, even though they represented 98% of the population. And they walked out. And in an empty indoor tennis court in Versailles, they made a promise to each other that we will not disband until we have a constitution. This became known as the Tennis Court Oath. And it was the moment the Resistance became a revolution. And for the first time, a national movement of the people said, we Are France. Summer came. Paris was boiling with tension and heat. Rumors swirled that the king would crush the national assembly, this new ragtag group resisting him, Deciding they wanted equality and right rights, Troops marched near the city. And panic spread through Paris. And on July 14, 1789, the people struck first. Thousands of Parisians stormed the Bastille, a medieval prison and a symbol of royal tyranny. They wanted weapons, gunpowder. And what they got was not just that, but they also got history. After hours of bloodshed, the prison fell. Heads were paraded on pikes. Cannons were seized. And the monarchy, which was once divine, untouchable, we're ordained by God. God put us in this family and trembled because they weren't divine. They were people who were greedy and malicious and fallible. In that moment, the people realized that they had power. A king's army could be beaten. They outnumbered them. A fortress could fall. And this revolution had teeth. And the months that followed were very electric. The national assembly abolished feudalism, church tithes, noble hunting privileges. Medieval dudes, all gone overnight. Gone. They were like, we're not paying this anymore. Then came the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen. It declared all men free and equal. No, not the women yet. It's the 1700s. Women aren't people yet. Kidding. We'll get to that. Note on controlling women, though. The control of reproduction has always been linked to the control of wealth. And it didn't start until the Agricultural revolution. But that's why it's so prevalent, because in order to control familial inheritance, you have to be able to control birth. The government now in France derived its power from the people. It was Enlightenment theory, from Voltaire, Rousseau. Now it was law. In towns and villages across France, people tore down the old regime with their bare hands and bleeding hearts. The new that you recognize now, tricolor flag flew liberty. Trees were planted, festivals replaced, royal holidays. That's what we have to understand in America now is that the wealthy and the powerful and the privileged will not give up that power, control, wealth and privilege and advantage willingly. We have to take it by force. That doesn't necessarily mean an all out war. I know that that's really inflammatory language for some people, but I think we're at a point where if we're not saying it out loud, we're being dishonest. Revolution is what it will take. It is what it has always taken to give power back to people. It has never been given without violence, without blood, without resistance and without community. That's just historical fact. And that's where we are now. And I think even reading those numbers about the economic inequality of the French Revolution gives us an indication of where America stands. Combine that with the fascism that we're seeing, it's a problem. But again, the resistance from the top in the French Revolution, it never disappears. While the people were building a new France, King Louis XVI was secretly plotting an escape. In June of 1791, he fled Paris in disguise, dressed as a servant. But a sharp eyed postmaster recognized him from their coins, recognized him from his own arrogance, his own self absorption. Selling images of himself to the people. Sound familiar? The royal family was arrested near the border and returned under guard. To many revolutionaries, this was the final betrayal. The King hadn't reformed, he hadn't changed his mind. He tried to run and he was about to sell out the revolution, foreign kings. It was a turning point. And France would never again trust its monarch. With Austria and Prussia threatening wars, France declared a preemptive attack. At home, Civil war brewed. Food shortages worsened. Paranoia spread between the years of 1792 and 1793. And then radicals took charge. There was a moment of a power gap and they took charge. The Jacobins, led by Maximilian Robespierre, called for republic, not just a constitutional monarchy. And in August 1792, the people of Paris rose again, storming the royal palace, arresting the king, executing the royal guards in the streets. The monarchy was suspended and then it was abolished. And on January 21st of 1793, Louis XVI was executed by guillotine. I wish I would have worn my guillotine earrings today. I didn't think of that. He had once ruled with divine right. God ordained God put your king in power. The Bible says to honor your king now he died by the will of his own people. It was fitting. From 1793 to 1794, what began was the reign of terror, the revolution's darkest, most infamous chapter. Robespierre, now the powerful man in France, believed virtue could only survive through force. Let terror be the order of the day, he declared. Enemies were everywhere. Royalists, priests, Moderists, former allies. Very much like the Night of the Long Knives with Hitler. Because when you start to create an authoritarian power structure, everyone's your enemy. Everyone could challenge you, anyone could kill you and take your place. Over 16,000 people were executed by guillotine under Robespierre. Many more died in prison. Even Queen Marie Antoinette met the blade. Yet through the horror, the resistance kept moving and France was reimagining itself. Universal male suffrage that would later extend to the women of France. Free public education, slavery Abolished in the colonies and a republic of virtue, however terrifying its methods, was trying to deliver the promises of 1789. The people were exhausted. The Revolution, which was meant to liberate and did in many ways, also became a nightmare of fear. Robespierre finally fell in July of 1794. July is a very powerful month for revolutions. The more I've been studying this, July is a very common theme. That's just an interesting little piece of trivia. On July 17, 1794, Robespierre made one final mistake. He threatened to purge the very government that held him up and supported him. In a dramatic turn, he was arrested by the Convention. And the next day, he faced the guillotine himself without trial. And with that, the terror ended. France, bloody but breathing, stepped back from the edge. From 1795 to 1799, what remained was a fractured nation that spent its time picking up the pieces. The new government, which was called the Directory, tried to stabilize France. But the corruption ran rampant again. There was no power structure. There was nothing to fill the void. Inflation ravaged the economy. The ideals of the Revolution were fading into the background. But still the Resistance still did live on in imagination. And artists and philosophers, workers and soldiers all carried this dream forward, that power should rest in the hands of the people. Much of what came forward in the French Revolution, as far as ideas, new ideas, equal rights, suffrage, representation by the people, inspired Jefferson in his writing of our founding documents, what became our Constitution. Because Jefferson spent time in France during the French Revolution, and he was inspired and moved by it. Into this unstable mix walked Napoleon Bonaparte, a brilliant young general with a gift for both war and politics. And he spoke of restoring order, honoring the revolution. And in 1799, he seized power in a coup. The Republic fell, and the Revolution ideals, liberty, equality and secular law, even though they may have flickered out for a moment, would outlive all of the regimes. And when Napoleon would fall, the Republic would rise and survive. So what? What did it all mean? What was the point? Tens of thousands of peoples died. The monarchs did rise again. Napoleon crowned himself emperor. But if we look closer, it changed the dialogue, the divine right, this idea that the king is either God himself or God ordained, was gone. The idea that people could govern themselves was now a global force inspired by the American Revolution, inspired by the French Revolution, which then inspired the Constitution. In America, the dream of liberty and equality would inspire revolutions in Haiti, Latin America and Europe. Even modern democracy still echoes the chance of 1789. The French Revolution showed the world what happens when ordinary people believe they matter and they choose to act on it. And as revolutions are, it was messy, it was bloody, it was sometimes horrifying. They needed people to come in and make plans and restructure. It took work, it took effort, it took sacrifice. But in that storm, there was a truth that emerged that I am holding onto for dear life. And it is that power is not eternal. Thrones can fall and the people can rise, and they often do. There is no empire that lasts forever. The deepest, most authoritarian states have always fallen. The world changes when people do. People can take action. People who are brave, people who fight back, people who stand on what they believe, no matter what cost. And that brings me to the last section of today where I'm gonna talk about one of those people. A man who has been one of my heroes my whole life. And considering the environment that we're in now, very fitting. But this man has been a hero of mine since I was first told his story. And in the last few months, I've realized that my life has been leading me up to this fight and this moment in time. I was born and put here for this moment in history. I don't know what that means in the long term run, but I know that it's important to be here. And it's. It's interestingly reflected in the heroes that I've always been drawn to. This man spoke when silence was the only safe option. When churches caved to power and worship of a tyrant, he defied them. And it cost him everything. And this is the story of Dietrich Bonhoeffer. He was a theologian, a pastor, a resistor, and ultimately a. A martyr. A man whose quiet courage still reverberates throughout history, but especially now. And if you've never read his work, I would encourage you to do so. This was a man who refused to let his faith be tamed, tampered, and manipulated by fear. Dietrich Bonhoeffer was born in 1906 in Germany to a life of privilege. His father was a brilliant psychiatrist. His family was well educated, cultured and respected. Bonhoeffer was the definition of privilege in early 1900s Germany. He was a male. He had blonde, blonde hair, blue eyes. Educated, wealthy, respected. He had everything to gain with the rise of the Third Reich. By all accounts, he could have lived a quiet, wealthy, privileged academic life. And for a while in his adulthood, he did. By the age of 21, he had earned a doctorate in theology. He studied in Berlin, read the early church fathers, and soaked in the ideas of Barth and Luther. Later, in the New York. In New York, at the Union Theological Seminary. He was exposed to the black church in Harlem and it changed him and his faith. This was not just theology anymore. This was justice. It was suffering. It was real life. It was about taking the words of Christ and making them action. He read the Bible not as a scholar, but as a witness, A witness to injustice and a witness to privilege. Spurred on by race, he began to ask hard questions, including what he wrote. What does it mean to follow Jesus when the world is burning? By 1933, Adolf Hitler had risen to power. Many German Christians welcomed him. Germany, Nazi Germany was 97% Christian. The Christian nationalists of Germany saw him as a savior of national pride, morality and family values. Are you noticing some themes today? The German Christian movement went further, twisting Christianity to fit the Nazi ideology. The Nazis had their own Bible. They promoted Aryan Jesus, purged the Old Testament and pledged allegiance to the Fuhrer. Understand that Christians in America deeply and staunchly supported the Nazi movement and the Christian Nazi movement. We have to be honest about what these movements were in their history. What we are seeing right now is not new. It's a repeat. Bonhoeffer, however, was horrified. He gave a radio address warning against the rise of a leader, Idol. But the broadcast was cut off mid sentence and he was expelled from his own church. He did help found after being expelled from his previous church, the Confessing Church, which was a resistance movement of pastors and theologians who refused to let Christ be co opted by fascism. To Bonhoeffer, the stakes were spiritual and political and deeply personal. In 1935, Bonhoeffer opened a secret seminary in Finkenwald. It was more than a school. It was a radical experiment in Christian resistance to fascism. Active Christian participation in revolution. There, young men came to learn theology, sure, but they also shared meals, prayer, silence and service. Bonhoeffer believed community was the backbone of resistance. And he was right. The true faith had to be lived, not just preached. Faith without works is dead. If all you do is say you follow Christ, but you do nothing in the face of injustice, then I would dare say your words are empty. From this time came one of his most famous works called the Cost of Discipleship. And in it he made a sharp distinction between what he called cheap grace, forgiveness without repentance, baptism without discipline, to what he called costly grace, the kind that demands your life, your sacrifice and your service. He said, quote, when Christ calls a man, he bids him to come and die. And he wasn't speaking metaphorically. As the Nazi regime grew more brutal, Bonhoeffer's moral clarity deepened. Though he was a pacifist by conviction, he joined the German military intelligence not to spy for the Nazis, but to work against them from the inside. His brother in law was part of a secret resistance plot to assassinate Hitler. Hitler. Bonhoeffer joined the conspiracy, using his church contacts abroad to gather information and pass messages to him. This was not betrayal, this was obedience to a higher law. Silence in the face of evil is evil itself, he said. Not to speak is to speak, not to act is to act. He would not be silent. Not while Jews were being deported to third countries, not while pastors preached hatred, not while evil was marching unchecked. Again, he joined that German resistance group embedded in the military intelligence agency, which served as a front for anti Nazi activity. In his role, he acted as a courier, a liaison and a secret informant, helping Jews escape to Switzerland and forging international connections to the Allied forces. Despite being a pacifist at heart, Bonhoeffer did become indirectly involved with the plot to assassinate Hitler, including the famous July 20, 1944 bomb plot led by Claus von Straufenberg. While Bonhoeffer didn't build the bomb or plan the operation itself, he was spiritually and strategically aligned with those who did. He had become convinced that removing Hitler was a Christian duty. But he was caught before the plot unfolded. In April of 1943, the Gestapo arrested Bonhoeffer, not initially for the assassination plot, but for helping Jews escape. He was imprisoned at Tegel for months and and the full. But for months, the full Resistance. The full extent of his involvement in the resistance became hidden. He spent nearly two years in prison for centango, later at Gestapo headquarters and finally in a concentration camp. But even behind bars, his voice only grew stronger. His letters and papers from prison are among the most powerful theological writings of the 20th century. They show a man stripped of everything, his freedom, his books and even his future. But he was still burning with purpose. He wrestled with despair and hope. What the meaning of suffering was, how to live as a Christian in a world come of age? And he asked questions. We still can the Church survive without power? Is religion useful anymore? What does it mean to trust God when God is silent, so unbelievably relevant for today? And still he remained steadfast. He wrote poems, prayed for his guards, encouraged his fellow prisoners, even planned a wedding wedding with his then fiance, Maria von Wittemeyer, though he would never get to see her again while in prison, the extent of his involvement in the assassination plot had remained hidden. But after the failed plot attempt on July 20th of 1944, documents surfaced linking Bonhoeffer to key Conspirators. The Nazis dug deeper, and the truth emerged. Bonhoeffer had been part of the resistance network all the time. In February of 1945, Hitler personally ordered Bonhoeffer's execution. And on April 9th of 1945, just weeks before the end of the war, Dietrich Bonhoeffer was executed by hanging at Flossenburg concentration camp, literal weeks before. Flossenburg would be liberated. The guards who led him to the gallows would later speak of his remarkable peace. One British officer who witnessed it said, I have hardly ever seen a man die so entirely submissive to the will of Congress. Dietrich was 39 years old. He didn't live to see the fall of Hitler. He didn't witness the rebuilding of Germany, and he never held his fiance again. But he died with integrity, and that was its own kind of victory. And Bonhoeffer's legacy didn't end with the war. And he didn't end up going to the Nuremberg trials or down in infamy, as many of his rank and his class and his race did in Germany, because they caved to the power and to the lust for control. His legacy didn't end there. It began. His writings, the cost of discipleship, life together, ethics, and letters from prison shaped generations of pastors, theologians, activists, and revolutionaries. Martin Luther King Jr. Read Dietrich's work. So did Desmond Tutu. His story inspired those resisting apartheid, communism, authoritarianism, racism, where faiths collide with injustice. And religion wrestles again with those same questions. He reminded us that the church cannot serve two masters. You cannot serve Christ and the empire. You cannot serve Christ and a tyrant. That worship without justice is simply noise. That courage is not the absence of fear, but its refusal to let the fear have the final say. Bonhoeffer wrote, being a Christian is less about cautiously avoiding sin than courageously and actively doing God's will. That call still stands, and I don't think that that call is faith determinant. There's a lot of people that listen to my podcast who are atheists, exvangelicals. I have a strong following of followers of Islam, the LGBTQ community. I don't care what your faith is. That call is still the same. If you believe in a divine or not, the call is still the same. That it's not just about avoiding doing bad things. It's courageously and actively standing up for what's right. If we say that we believe in justice, we do not fight for justice. We are liars. We are liars because to not speak is a message. To not act is a message Faith without resistance is hollow in the face of tyranny or greed or fascism. Bonhoeffer reminds us that silence is a choice and neutrality is complicity. And that for those who are believers in Christ, real discipleship costs you something. It costs you comfort and applause, and sometimes it costs us our lives. But it also gives us something which is a clear conscience and it gives a better future to the children we say we care about so much. I'm not a parent, but I care so much about my nieces and nephews. And I have a great niece right now who is going to be spending the next year fighting for her life. I care about the future that she comes into, that she has the right to her own body, that she is treated equally, that her work is rewarded, that she is not pushed to the side for the benefit of some oligarch or some male that was born into the right family. I give a shit about that. We all should. We all have somebody we care about, a future we care about. And if we say we care about the future and we don't act, we don't protect the least of these, we're lying. And again, I don't care what your faith is. I think as a morality, as a, as a concept of morality, as purpose, as activists, as resistors, it applies to all of us. Because Dietrich Bonhoeffer made the choices he made. Millions of people found their voice. Yes, he died so unfortunately, at the very end of the war, but he inspired what would happen in the civil rights movement in the United States States, in the bringing down apartheid in South Africa. We are now in the same moment making those same choices. And I again, I know that this is heavy and I know that the language I'm using is pretty inflammatory to some, but I think that it is a lie to not be honest about what we're up against. We will choose the revolution. We will choose to fight for people who are. Are immigrants, who are the less than these, who are being thrown into alligator Auschwitz without air conditioning or food or water being threatened to be eating by alligators. People who have not had due process. We will choose to stand for them, even if, like me as a white person, my safety is not in danger yet. Or we will choose to fall in line with fascism. And if that is your choice, then you were never moral to begin with. And that's just a line I'm drawing. We're too far gone. But I also hope that you understand if you're someone sitting in this moment and you're scared, you're worried, you have kids. Maybe you're elderly. Maybe you're one of the people that's on Medicare or Medicaid, or you live in a rural area and you're like, I'm not a fighter. I'm not a fighter. I'm not built for these moments. That's okay. Hey, you are still part of this. And what you can do is find the people who are. Because there are people all over this country commanding little ships, if you will. They're commanding movements. There's. Whether it's a. Whether it's a social media platform or a social justice movement, there are leaders who are fighting the fight visibly, vocally. I think of. Even if you don't agree with them, I think of Jasmine Crockett, AOC Bernie. People who are fighting, find a leader that you respect, that advocates for something you believe in, and jump aboard their boat, support their boat, go to local protests. If you're like, I don't know how to be on the front lines. Follow the people who can be. Because we are in a period of time where fighters are going to be important. And I have been a fighter my whole life. Two years ago, I got goddess and warrior tattooed on my rib cage in runes, not thinking anything about it, but that's. My whole life has been that way. But just as much as fighters are going to be needed right now, we need artists and philosophers and teachers and lovers and nurturers, because there's going to be so much rebuilding that has to happen at the end of this. And this fever will break. It will not last forever. The question will be, how long does it take? And how much damage do we have to clean up? So whatever your role is, whatever your personality is, and yes, we are all afraid. I am scared out of my mind most of the time. I never, ever thought in my life I would face real fascism, but that's what makes it courage is. If we weren't afraid, it wouldn't be bravery in the first place. So even if that's not. I don't know how to do xyz. That's okay. Find leaders. Find community. Join them. Use the gifts you have. I ended up. I now have two volunteer researchers helping me with this podcast to get information out, because that's the only way this amount of information is possible. Find your space, because your part in this matters. All of it matters. Our community is the key to the revolution being successful. That's where we are now. That's the choice we have to make. And there's people like me and other leaders that we've seen fight their entire lives who are still fighting rally behind those people. The world changes when people do Silence is saying something. Choosing not to act is an action. So I end this today with I hope that you're inspired, I hope that you're motivated I know that it's nerve wracking but I hope that you walk away with this remembering that empires fall, that people have a pretty good track record of overthrowing tyrants in the end and thank you so much for your support of my channel, my platform, my patreon. That's why this is possible and that's why I'm doing this full time. I quit my gig work I quit my other job to do this and I know that for many people you still gotta go through your day to day and that's okay. That's what I'm here for that's what this community is here for. Find the leaders you trust. Rally behind them. When we get scared, we fight harder. Viva la revolution. Sam.