Universities, Election Interference, and Colonialism

Summary

Podcast Summary: The Victor Davis Hanson Show
Episode: Universities, Election Interference, and Colonialism
Release Date: May 1, 2025

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1. Introduction and Overview

In this episode of The Victor Davis Hanson Show, hosts Victor Davis Hanson and Jack Fowler delve into pressing issues surrounding elite universities, election interference, and the enduring effects of colonialism. The discussion navigates through the complexities of institutional resistance against governmental policies, foreign influences on American institutions, and historical reflections on imperialism.

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2. Elite Universities Resisting the Trump Administration

Formation of a Collective: Jack Fowler introduces a Wall Street Journal story titled "Elite Universities Form Private Collective to Resist Trump Administration," highlighting how approximately ten prestigious institutions, including Ivy League schools, have banded together to counteract demands from the Trump administration aimed at enforcing cultural changes at Harvard and other universities.

Funding from Foreign Sources: Victor criticizes the financial entanglements of these universities with foreign entities. He states, “[Harvard] has taken $60 billion since they started taking money just from communist China and Qatar and other Gulf sheikdoms” ([07:28]). He argues that such funding compromises the universities' independence and fuels unethical activities, including involvement in the persecution of Uyghurs in China.

Implications of Reduced Federal Funding: Victor elaborates on the potential financial repercussions if federal subsidies are cut, predicting severe budget shortfalls despite substantial endowments. He asserts, “They are going to have to borrow money and they're going to have to get into the private bond market or something against their endowment” ([11:43]).

Quotes:

• Victor Davis Hanson ([07:28]): “Harvard University is directly involved in that genocidal campaign.”
• Victor Davis Hanson ([12:27]): “All of the things we did in Afghanistan to push a left wing progressive culture were backed by...”

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3. Election and Foreign Interference

Discussion on Various Forms of Interference: The hosts explore different dimensions of election interference, contrasting actions by foreign powers like Russia and China with internal manipulations. They touch upon recent allegations against Klaus Schwab and discuss how elite institutions may be influenced or acting in foreign interests.

U.S. Interference in Israel: Highlighting a specific instance, Jack Fowler references Ilan Goldenberg, a former aide to President Joe Biden, who claimed that the Biden administration attempted to oust Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu post the October 7, 2023 terror attack. Victor connects this to broader themes of U.S. imperialism and political maneuvering abroad.

Contrasting Left and Right Interference: Victor contrasts left-wing and right-wing approaches to interference, suggesting that leftists engage in cultural imperialism by imposing progressive values globally, while historically, right-wing actions have involved direct military interventions.

Quote:

• Victor Davis Hanson ([29:09]): “Anytime a leftist says that there's interference, that's because they interfere. That's what they do.”

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4. Reflections on the Fall of Saigon

50th Anniversary of Saigon's Fall: Victor reflects on the 50th anniversary of the fall of Saigon, sharing personal anecdotes from his time as a student at UC Santa Cruz. He criticizes the U.S. Congress's decision to cut off aid to South Vietnam, which led to the collapse of resistance against North Vietnamese forces.

Analysis of U.S. Decisions: Victor argues that Congress's withdrawal of support was pivotal in the defeat, emphasizing that sustained aid could have altered the war's outcome. He reminisces about the influx of Vietnamese refugees and the lack of preparation for their integration into American society.

Comparison with Afghanistan: Drawing parallels between Vietnam and Afghanistan, Victor suggests that similar mistakes were made in both conflicts, leading to prolonged instability and foreign interference. He notes, “[We] cut them off” in Vietnam, resulting in chaos akin to the situation in Afghanistan.

Quotes:

• Victor Davis Hanson ([32:47]): “They naively cut off all the aid to the South Vietnamese and they panicked.”
• Victor Davis Hanson ([40:11]): “Afghanistan, that was the Locust classic, because that was a repeat.”

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5. Colonialism and Imperialism

Modern Perceptions of Imperialism: Victor discusses the contemporary understanding of imperialism, noting that while historical European imperialism is widely acknowledged, modern leftist actions often go unrecognized as imperialistic. He asserts that today's imperialism is implicitly accepted as long as it aligns with left-wing ideologies.

British Imperialism vs. Left's Imperialism: Using British imperialism as a benchmark, Victor contrasts it with current leftist interventions, arguing that the latter impose cultural and political changes without the overt coercion characteristic of historical imperialism.

Impact of Imperialism on Modern Politics: Victor connects imperialistic actions to present-day policies, suggesting that the U.S. and European left continue to exert influence globally through economic and cultural means, thereby perpetuating a form of neo-imperialism.

Quotes:

• Victor Davis Hanson ([69:32]): “Imperialism is bad. And imperialism was really good in Afghanistan apparently.”
• Victor Davis Hanson ([70:39]): “That's what it means.”

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6. Additional Discussions

Sanctuary Cities and Federal Authority: The hosts debate the concept of sanctuary cities, arguing that these jurisdictions undermine federal law. Victor criticizes the judiciary for their leniency towards such policies, emphasizing the erosion of federal authority.

Transgender Issues and Cultural Impact: A significant portion of the discussion centers on transgender policies and cultural shifts, with Victor expressing skepticism about the prevalence of gender dysphoria and criticizing institutions that promote transgender studies. He recounts Martina Navratilova's criticism of Nike's involvement in transgender research as emblematic of broader cultural conflicts.

Falling Standards in Media and Judiciary: Victor laments the influence of left-wing media and the judiciary, suggesting that liberal judges and media outlets consistently undermine conservative figures and policies. He highlights the lack of accountability and the superficial coverage of significant political developments.

Quote:

• Victor Davis Hanson ([62:35]): “All of these people want to transition or at least they want to get. And it's a very dangerous thing to do. And that's not even getting into the males competing in female sports.”

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7. Conclusion and Listener Engagement

Reader Comments: The episode concludes with the hosts reading listener comments, reflecting appreciation and support for their discussions. They emphasize the importance of civil society and encourage listeners to engage with their platforms for further insights.

Final Thoughts: Victor underscores the significance of maintaining institutional independence and resisting external influences that compromise ethical standards. He reiterates the need for informed discourse to preserve American integrity both domestically and internationally.

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Notable Quotes with Timestamps

• Victor Davis Hanson ([07:28]): “Harvard University is directly involved in that genocidal campaign.”
• Victor Davis Hanson ([12:27]): “All of the things we did in Afghanistan to push a left wing progressive culture were backed by...”
• Victor Davis Hanson ([29:09]): “Anytime a leftist says that there's interference, that's because they interfere. That's what they do.”
• Victor Davis Hanson ([32:47]): “They naively cut off all the aid to the South Vietnamese and they panicked.”
• Victor Davis Hanson ([40:11]): “Afghanistan, that was the Locust classic, because that was a repeat.”
• Victor Davis Hanson ([62:35]): “All of these people want to transition or at least they want to get. And it's a very dangerous thing to do. And that's not even getting into the males competing in female sports.”
• Victor Davis Hanson ([69:32]): “Imperialism is bad. And imperialism was really good in Afghanistan apparently.”

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Final Thoughts

This episode provides a critical examination of how elite institutions interact with governmental policies and foreign powers, the ongoing challenges of election interference from various actors, and the nuanced understanding of colonialism and imperialism in modern contexts. Through incisive analysis and robust debate, Victor Davis Hanson and Jack Fowler offer listeners a comprehensive overview of these interconnected issues, urging for vigilance and informed engagement to safeguard national integrity.

Transcript

[Victor Davis Hanson]

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[Jack Fowler]

Hello ladies. Hello, gentlemen. This is the Victor Davis Hansen Show. I'm Jack Fowler, the host. You're here for the wisdom being dispensed four times a week on this podcast by the great Victor Davis Hansen, who is the Martin and Ely Anderson Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution and the Wayne and Marsha Busky Distinguished Fellow in History at Hillsdale College. And Victor is the possessor of a website, the Blade of Perseus. Its address is Victor Hansen dot com. Go there early and often. I will tell you why later in this episode. You actually should be subscribing. We are recording on Monday the 29th and this particular episode will be up on Thursday, May 1st. Victor, today is a breaking, not breaking. Well, there's a story that came out yesterday, updated today about about elite universities corralling their forces to fight the Trump administration. We have your thoughts. We want to get your thoughts on the fall of saigon. It's the 50th anniversary of the fall. This week Klaus Schwab, the man who wants to be the leader of the world, is found to be a mooch. What else do we have some thoughts on? Colonialism, Russian interference, excuse me, Israeli interference by Democrats two years ago. So we'll get your thoughts on these topics, Victor, when we come back from these important messages. Time is our most precious commodity and we've heard from so many listeners who've asked for advice about how they can spend it wisely to improve themselves and the people around them. Hillsdale College is Offering more than 40 free online courses that's right, more than 40 free online courses. Learn about the works of C.S. lewis, the stories in the Book of Genesis, the meaning of the US Constitution, and the rise and the fall of the Roman Republic, or the history of the ancient Christian Church with Hillsdale College's free online courses. You can even take Victor Davis Hansen's class the Second World Wars. This free seven lecture course will help you to understand this massive and complex conflict in a new way. It will give you a clear picture of why the war was fought and how the allied powers ultimately triumphed in order to save the west from a new form of tyranny. This class is taught by Victor Davis Hanson and Hillsdale's President, Larry P. Arn. The course is self paced so that you can start whenever and wherever. Go right now to Hillsdale Edu VDH to enroll. There's no cost and it's easy to get started. That's Hillsdale Edu VDH to enroll for free Hillsdale Edu VDH.

[Victor Davis Hanson]

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[Jack Fowler]

We're back with the Victor Davis Hansen show, my friend. Let's get right to it. Here's the Wall Street Journal story. The titled elite universities form private collective to resist Trump administration. The informal group currently includes about 10 schools including Ivies and leading private research universities, mostly in blue states. Strategy discussions gained momentum after the administration's recent list of demands for sweeping cultural change at Harvard, viewed by many universities as an assault on independence. This story is well worth reading, Victor. It reads kind of like the cool kids are assembling the highest levels trustees, presidents, et cetera, et cetera all. It's not like they, they haven't colluded before, at least when it comes to admissions. And seems like Victor, these places sitting on piles of money still want the dollars in your wallet and my wallet they do.

[Victor Davis Hanson]

And as I said, I used that metaphor earlier of a mossy rock you turn over. But I don't think they really, really, I mean they can negotiate. There's been some news accounts that their presidents are negotiating privately off the record with the Department of Education. They know what they're doing and they're cul and they thought that no one because they're Harvard and Yale and Stanford nobody would ever given their alumni are strategically placed all over the corporate and government world but they know what they're doing. And what are they doing? They took $500 million this year 2024 from China and gutter alone. No, there was just a news story that broke this this morning, Jack that Harvard University with its health policy partner in China was training so called health workers in China and they were involved in the persecutions of the Uyghurs. So Harvard University is directly involved in that genocidal campaign. They've taken $60 billion since they started taking money just from communist China and Qatar and other gulf sheikdoms. And they it's not, there's not, I mean it's not well as if there's not consequences. We know the result of them what they're trying to do. They're trying to affect U.S. policy and train the next generation of elites. That's why they focus on elite colleges. They think that's where the bang for the buck. They know that they were charging 60% and above on surcharges on federal grants. They know that $1.7 trillion in student loans is allowed them to raise the rate of tuition, room and board twice as high as the rate of inflation the last few years. They know they have safe spaces. I don't think it's going to work. Harvard, to call as the Mayo Clinic you just did and others, that the Department of Equity, Inclusion and Diversity is going to be the. What is it called? The belonging group or the belonging. The division of belonging. And they're doing that with segregated dorms or theme houses. That's old. The latest one I saw Jack for racially segregated was auxiliary celebrations or additional celebrations. But they know what they're doing. They're breaking the 14th Amendment. They're breaking the civil rights statutes. Everything about them is culpable. And I don't think they want the public, if they get into this, they're going to be sorely disappointed because just the reduction from 50 to 60% down to 15% on government contracts with a big bill in the Senate and House versions in each about taxing the endowments and then a cutoff of a lot of this Chinese and Middle east money. Everybody, you know, we say that Harvard has a $50 billion endowment. Stanford 30. Yale, I think 40. But that is, if you go look at those endowments, they're targeted people. People are not stupid enough. I mean, some are to write a blank check to Harvard because they know what it's going to go for. The general fund will be used for the most unpopular and harebrained scheme. So they're targeted seven or eight million dollars per. Per endowed professor programs, you know, everything from good ones, Western sin, to, you know, transgendered stuff. But what I'm pointing out is that when you start looking at the scale of these cuts to 2 billion up to 9 billion, and you look at their operating budget and you look at the amount of capital whose interest upon it can be used in the general fund to pay the daily, you know, electricity. It's. They're going to have to borrow money and they're going to have to get into the private bond market or something against their endowment. And I don't think people realize that, that they were counting. What I'm trying to say.

[Jack Fowler]

Is they liquid?

[Victor Davis Hanson]

No, it's not liquid. And it's. It's even worse. It's targeted. They can't touch it for what they want to use it on. And so what I'm getting at is you could have a bunch of endowed professors that are wildly paid and you could have some great programs at Harv and bad programs that are Wildly overfunded. And they couldn't pay the heating bill because it's not in the general fund. And that's why they're going to go out in the open market and buy, because they were using the federal government, especially the 40 or 50, 60% surcharges on these massive grants to pay their.

[Jack Fowler]

Bills and to swell their administrative state.

[Victor Davis Hanson]

And private giving to Harvard was down $150 million. And I'm sure Stanford and Yale, Princeton, if they want to disclose it, it's similar. And a lot of people, I did see that Harvard added a segregated dorm. I mean a segregated graduation ceremony. Now you can have a Jewish auxiliary ceremony. Why is that all of a sudden?

[Jack Fowler]

I think they have 10 ceremonies actually.

[Victor Davis Hanson]

Yes, they do, but they just added a Jewish one that could break off from so called white people at Stanford. If white people are 20% of the incoming classes, are they going to have. And they're a minority in the state as well, are they going to have separate white graduations? I wouldn't want to go to them. Would you want to go to a graduation that had Gavin Newsom with you and you were supposed to feel solidarity with him because he happened to be the same you as you were? I wouldn't.

[Jack Fowler]

Yeah.

[Victor Davis Hanson]

I don't have a particular affinity with, I don't know, AOC or Elizabeth Warren just because they look white. AOC may be Hispanic, but she's whiter than most white people I know. Yeah.

[Jack Fowler]

Victor, you talk about not tussling. You said it here, inferred it here, and I've said it directly on some previous podcasts that universities should not get into a fight with the government on this. But also I think how this plays out in the public. We as a country seem to have borne too much of a brunt of genuflecting to entitlement. And this is entitlement, this is assumption. And I think we're done with entitlement or we're getting done with entitlement. And that mindset in the society is going poorly.

[Victor Davis Hanson]

The thing is they always get the propaganda because they're tied at the hip with the left wing media, the left wing corporate were all the left wing foundations. But they don't want that message to get out about what they're really doing with the racial segregation and Chinese communist money and illiberal Middle east money and anti Semitism and safe spaces segregated, all that. They don't want that to get out. No First Amendment rights, shouting down speak. It's just a mess. And they think what they're trying to do is say if you cut the federal. If you cut the federal subsidy, people are going to die of cancer or this super, super secret weapon we're building and we're. That's all lies. There's money there for scientific research. Every time the state of California cut the CSU system, you know what they would do? They would say they would keep the La Raza studies, or they'd keep black studies, or they would keep therapeutic studies. And they say, we're going to cut the Physics Department, we're going to cut German, we're going to cut French. And it was always because nobody. All of the things that they wanted to fund, nobody would care if they cut them. But they did care about other things. So that's what they do. Why don't they just say we're going to have to cut all of the DEI out? You know, there's an article, I mean, there's a study, Jack, as I remember, from the Goldwater Institute, and it said the annual cost of DEI on campus, not in the corporate world, not elsewhere, just on campus, was at least $2 billion and $400 million hours of labor. Gosh, I was curious about that. I remember it was about a month ago. I looked at it and then the countervailing arguments. Well, yes, but there's so much savings and profit because of inclusivity. That's what the left does, you know, dei. We have all these bureaucrats monitoring and snooping about to look at people's complexions, but that's actually helping us. Speaking of dei, Jack, just to be off topic, did you see that internal report that the New York Times got its hands on about the tragedy at Reagan Airport and the helicopter pilot.

[Jack Fowler]

I did. Well, I listened to. Megyn Kelly was talking about it this morning. Yeah, go ahead.

[Victor Davis Hanson]

Well, I mean, I'm not. I don't have the. Alex Berenson was tweeting about it, but it does seem that the female pilot was repeatedly ordered not to stay in the space that she was headed to, not to go there, not to stay there. And for some reason, she didn't follow those orders. And then there were other suggestions that if there was two nodes of culpability, one is the military should never be flying blind with night vision at night in the busiest corridor and the most important corridor in the United States. That's just insane. Anywhere near Reagan Airport and the people in the chain of command who ordered or adopted that policy should be held responsible. That being said, if there is a suspicion that this was. And 70 people were killed, because of one pilot's error. You'll see what's going to happen. People are going to go back and maybe you, because I didn't listen to Megan today. They're going to investigate the number of hours she had under training. What was her training record? And the question will be, was she put into that very risky position at that risky corridor because of Di or because of her spectacular record as a pilot and lengthy hours of aviation service? I don't have that answer.

[Jack Fowler]

Yeah, well, 70 dead people though. And from what I heard, she was in control. She had been directed two times or maybe three times to change course. And including the flight level, you know, the height of the flight. And that does not sound like she followed any of, of the orders given then and there. So. Hey, Victor, we're going to. I've mentioned entitlement before. We'll, we'll speak about it. Get your thoughts on another entitled person, Klaus Schwab. But first, let's face it, dear listeners, our healthcare system is no longer serving the people it was designed to help. Appointments take weeks only to end in a rushed five minute consultation. If you're lucky to get that, prescriptions are delayed, bureaucratic red tape gets in the way, and treatment options are limited to what some agency deems acceptable. It's inefficient, impersonal, and increasingly untrustworthy. And that's why All Family Pharmacy is different. They believe in medical freedom. Your right to choose what works best for your health alongside a doctor who respects that choice. No interference from government regulators or insurance companies. Ordering is simple and direct. Skip the waiting rooms and the long pharmacy lines. Just go online, place your order and your medications are shipped right to your door. They carry over 200 medications, including trusted names like ivermectin, hydroxychloroquine, mebendazole, if I hope I said that right, folks. Antibiotics and other essential treatments your family may need. You can also order emergency kits, customize your supply or buy in bulk to be fully prepared. Over 100,000Americans have already made the switch to All Family Pharmacy. Perhaps now is the time for you to do the same. Visit allfamilypharmacy.com Victor and use the promo code Victor 10. That's V I C T O R. The number one, the number zero to get 10% off your first order. That's allfamilypharmacy.com victor. Take back control of your health on your terms. And we thank the good people from All Family Pharmacy for sponsoring the Victor Davis Hansen Show. Victor, before we take a break. Headline financial and ethical misconduct allegations against Davos founder Klaus Schwab made public.

[Victor Davis Hanson]

I would have never imagined. I'm shocked he found it. It was his life's work.

[Jack Fowler]

Yeah.

[Victor Davis Hanson]

Wasn't there also a suggestion? There might have been possibly, sort of, kind of maybe a little bit of sexual harassment or sexual discrimination, I think so. He was lecturing us all about our wasteful habits, our overindulgence, American consumerism, our carbon footprint. And he was going to get the world's best and brightest, the elite to come to Davos each year. And then they could plan out how we use our energy, our demographics, our tax laws, everything among European, Asian and American elites. That was the idea. Yeah. Eating crisp. Thank you, Klaus. All these people. Isn't it funny how, you know, I did a video for the Daily Signal on what comes around goes around, and I. And I didn't want to get religious, although I am a Christian, but I said, all belief systems have this. What comes around goes around. Karma, payback's a bitch. That kind of vernacular. Nemesis in Greek. And I was talking about Jack Smith and his $140,000 confession that he got free legal services, or Letitia James basically committing much more egregious offenses, but of the same nature that she accused Trump of. Fannie Willis is just a train wreck. You know, Stacy Abrams, same thing. But Klaus Schwab, I mean, my gosh, he was the self appointed moral sensor of the universe. And. And then. Did he stay on? I think he's 88. Was he staying on because he knew that it was like musical chairs. As soon as he got up, he would have no place and people would start to like Biden. What is it with these people, everybody? Why do we only hear about Biden's transgressions? And now we're hearing a little bit more about the Burisma today. There was a story about it, but why do we hear only that he was non compos mentis and maybe demented once he got out of his chair? And the same thing with Klaus Schwab. Surely this was known. So he steps down and all of a sudden it comes out. It shows you the obsequious nature of all the people in the media and around them. It's hard.

[Jack Fowler]

I can't remember the guy's name on CNN who's, Who's writing the book about Biden and the media. Oh, my gosh, why can't I remember? Don't get old, Jack.

[Victor Davis Hanson]

He knew about this.

[Jack Fowler]

Well, actually, on top of somebody put together A video of his mocking people. How dare you. He has a stutter, of course he's smart, etc.

[Victor Davis Hanson]

Cheap fakes. Cheap. Remember that? Cheap fake. Yeah, well, I haven't heard Corinne Jean Pierre lately to come back out and defend Joe Biden. How dare you suggest that I was completely right, that he had no cognitive problem. I was surprised. I thought that given the left wing history that she would end up as chief of communications of Apple, Google's point woman. It hasn't happened yet.

[Jack Fowler]

Yeah, well, she'll be. There's a pedestal waiting for her at some foundation.

[Victor Davis Hanson]

Yeah, they always take care of their own.

[Jack Fowler]

Yeah, well, Victor, when we come back, we're going to look at U.S. interference. Speaking of the Biden administration in Israel, let's also get your thoughts early on in this episode about the fall of Saigon. And we'll get to these matters and others when we come back from these important messages.

[Victor Davis Hanson]

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[Jack Fowler]

Hey folks, we're back with the Victor Davis Hansen show recording on the 28th. Is it the 28th? Yes, the 28th of April and this episode will be up on May 1st. Victor's website, the Blade of Perseus [e-mail] you should go there. If you're interested in seeing the things Victor writes, you'll find links too, and the content of many of his essays for American greatness, the New Criterion, his weekly syndicated column, the archives of these podcasts, Victor's other appearances, links to his books and then ultra articles, which Victor writes exclusively twice a week for the Blade of Perseus. And he also does an exclusive video once a week. 650amonth. Stick your toe in the water, you'll like it. And then subscribe for the full year. It's discounted at $65. The Blade of Perseus. Victor, I have a little headline here. I wrote this. Russian interference. Bad US Interference Good. Former Biden aide We tried to oust Netanyahu after October 7th through elections or quote, God knows what, end quote. One little paragraph. Ilan Goldenberg, a former aide to President Joe Biden, told Israel's Channel 13 that the Biden administration tried to oust Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu after the October 7, 2023 terror attack. Channel 13 interviewed Goldenberg, noting that while Biden administration officials had been reluctant to speak in the early days of the Trump administration for fear of retribution, they are now telling their story. Russian interference. Russian interference, right. But U.S. interference. Okay, Victor, your thoughts?

[Victor Davis Hanson]

Well, there was Russian interference. Remember, it was some of the sources for the Steele dossier were Russian and they were probably dependent on Hillary Clinton's lack of Ethics and morality. And they knew that her agents would pick that up and they used it. But, but it's kind of like the El Salvador story. You know, we go down, we traipse down, we American Democrats and we, I'm not a Democrat, but we Americans traipse down to El Salvador and then we say, hey, El Salvador, this is what you're going to get down to your knees and listen to me. Now, Mr. Garcia, he happened to be illegally in the United States, so therefore we have authority over him. So here's what you're going to do. You're not going to. We don't care about your laws about M13. We do not care about anything about M13. We just know that he's your citizen and your citizen is. You're going to be forced to give your citizen against your will and send him back to us. And now the same thing with Israel. We're going to go over there and some of that article, some of the articles that came out, Jack, are a little eerie because they say things like they pondered what to do or they were considering other measures. I don't know what that meant, but they really, now we know why they put stays on 2,000 pound bombs. They really thought they could get rid of Netanyahu and have their Obama agenda for the Middle east, which was to empower Iran and play it off against Israel and the Gulf states. So it was again, everybody remember projection. Anytime a leftist says that there's interference, that's because they interfere. That's what they do. Anytime they call you an imperialist, it's because they're imperialist. It wasn't some conservative that went over to Kabul and said, oh, we're going to have a gender studies. Here's $80 million in this traditional Islamic society. Oh, we're going to have a pride flag on our website and maybe fly it from the embassy. Oh, we're going to put George Floyd posters in Kabul. And that's what the left does, it really does. They're cultural imperialists and they're political imperialists. Everybody. You all know what I mean. Once you have any ideology that says the ends justify any mechanism because they're superior to everybody else in an ethical or humanitarian sense, then any method is okay. That's what leftists have always done through history. We're for the people. We're for collective people. We're not for the rich, the elite, the aristocrat. We're always for the people. Therefore, if we have to kill them or we do anything we want, we can do anything we want. That's what they do.

[Jack Fowler]

They do have to also have in that equation their bad guys. So it could be the kulaks in Russia or it could be the deplorables here in America. Right. You know, the folks who are the true enemies of the elite. Victor, speaking of foreign affairs, then let's reflect back or get your reflections, if you don't mind about this being around the 50th anniversary of the fall of Saigon. I know you mentioned as we ended the last podcast, you remember watching what happened, but your thoughts about how that war played out and any reflections you want to share about the fall, but also about the war itself.

[Victor Davis Hanson]

Well, I was an undergraduate my senior year and I was on a very left wing campus, University of California, Santa Cruz and its incipient early years when it was really nutty. And all my colleagues had told me that the North Vietnamese were Lincoln esque, they were democratic, Ho Chi Minh, they loved him. There were posters all over my dorm that he was like a Lincoln figure. And if they could just get rid of these awful right wing puppets then you were going to have this socialist European democracy. So when the South Vietnamese resistance collapsed and remember the Congress in the post Watergate era, I think they cut off aid support for assistance to the South Vietnamese 17 times. So they didn't have any air support. They were fighting pretty well as long as they had air support. And of course the North Vietnamese had signed the Paris Peace Accords. It was all set. There was going to be a South Korea like North Korea, like distinction, and it was going to be a viable. But then the US Congress thought, you know what? I guess we like Ho Chi Minh. He was dead, but we like his system a lot better. So they naively cut off all the aid to the South Vietnamese and they panicked. They didn't have any support. They had fought pretty well. We didn't have ground troops at the time. And the whole thing collapsed. And they ended up on the roof of the American Embassy in Saigon, but soon to be Ho Chi Minh City. No more Saigon. And then those pictures of those carriers out in the Pacific. And they remember they had to get room to get the planes to bring people and they were throwing these new planes over the side. It was just Gerald Ford was the inheritor of it. Kissinger was disgraced, Ford was disgraced. And the Congress did it. The Democratic controlled post Watergate Congress. And then what happened? They came right down Highway 1 the conventional forces so much, the Viet Cong had been obliterated. It wasn't the CIA and the Creighton Abrams military had gotten rid of him, gotten rid of the Viet Cong. It was just a traditional. They had armor, tanks, all Chinese and Russian made equipment. They came in and they took all of the 200, 300,000 of any ARVN troops, the army of Republic of Vietnam, they took them, they put them in camps, they tortured them, they starved them, they killed them. And then there were 500,000 people who just got in boats and just got out anywhere they could. And they were flying on any way they could get to the United States. And there were three or four locations. Fresno took seven or 80,000. I remember it very clearly because my father was a community college administrator in the State Center College and he had a program called the Vocational Training center where they were trying to suggest that this area that was Appalachian like in its per capita income, was going to train people to be mechanics, air conditioner repairman. And so as soon as this happened, when they flew in, 70,000 people, all in an area. I know you visit Fresno, Jack, but that area near our friend who has a big office there, that was where they really. Yes, and it still is a Southeast Asia community. And they didn't give them any preparation. They didn't. There was no. And they relied on private charities. And I just remember my father came up with the idea that he was going to reach out and have Southeast Asian, Cambodians, Thai, Vietnamese, but mostly Vietnamese try to become mechanics. And they started training them. But Fresno was a designated refugee locust, as was California was the preferred when people were surveyed, where do you want to be? It was all California and the climate and then also, you know, along the Louisiana coast and places. But it was just a complete refutation of everything that Hollywood told us, everything the left told us that this was going to be a golden age of Vietnam. Now people say, well look at now, 50 years later, Vietnam is a friend of ours. That's only because of two reasons. Don't believe that it's not a cutthroat, autocratic dictatorial communist. It is. But the only reason that it might be somewhat less horrendous than it was is that we have a mutual enemy in China and they're terrified of China. And then number two, we allow them to be a source, an alternate source to Chinese assembly and manufacture. So a lot of American companies and even European and Japanese and Korean are using Vietnam as a place to export to the United States.

[Jack Fowler]

I'm curious, Victor, the military strategica and related things you do at Hoover, has there ever been any focus even for A day conference or on the war itself in Vietnam.

[Victor Davis Hanson]

Yeah, there has been. H.R. mcMaster is a fellow and remember, he wrote a book on Vietnam, very critical of the military. I think he's had speakers and fora on it. We've had our mutual friend Mark Moyer out as part of the military history, and he wrote, he's working on volume three of a revisionist history of the Vietnam War that suggests the war was won basically by 1973 and it was viable. And all we had to do was extend the same support to South Vietnam that we did to South Korea. And he made the argument, I think he would make the argument that the political evolution of Vietnam was transgressing at a rate maybe more rapidly than South Korea. So the problem wasn't that it wasn't an instant democracy. Korea really didn't become a democracy from 1953 into the late 70s and early 80s. And Vietnam was having. But the problem was us. We weren't that generation, our grandparents who were willing to say, you know what, Korea may be bad, but compared to the 20 million that Stalin killed or the 70 million that Mao killed, it's a paradise. So we're going to try to nudge him along, but we're not going to try to sell the rug from. We're just not going to cut off South Korea because it doesn't look like Carmel. Our generation did. And of course, the aftermath was the Cambodian Holocaust. And then. And then what comes around, goes around. China invaded. Remember they invaded Vietnam. They didn't do very well, by the way. The Vietnamese were crack soldiers after two decades of fighting the Americans and the French and they really mussed up the hair, so to speak, of the Chinese who got out.

[Jack Fowler]

Yeah.

[Victor Davis Hanson]

But. Well, it was a mess. The whole thing was. Everything about it was a mess. And as someone who was a. I got a 1972, I got my lottery number, my twin brother, and I think we were 258. But there was no troop. By the time I turned 18, there was no troops there. They'd all been gone in 1971. So from 71 to 75, they survived as a viable entity. They just needed American guidance, support, intelligence, munitions. And we cut them off. And Jerry Ford didn't. I don't know what the. I think Kissinger wanted to keep funding them. And Ford said no.

[Jack Fowler]

When we saw it played out again nearly 50 years later in Afghanistan.

[Victor Davis Hanson]

Yeah, Afghanistan, that was the Locust classic, because that was a repeat. The difference. There was a little bit of difference. And that was when we got out of Vietnam we didn't leave $50 billion in munitions. And the embassy was nice but it wasn't a brand new one billion dollar embassy. And some of we gave up bases but nothing like Bagum Air Force base with that geostrategic locale. And now who's in Afghanistan? Now the Chinese are in and why are they in there? They have a multi billion dollar plant or concession to get rarer earths. Afghanistan's got one of the richest deposit of rare earth mineral.

[Jack Fowler]

Well, we're going to talk about China a little bit in a minute. Some of its monkey business. But first Victor to our listeners, if you're running a business, you know that every time you miss a call, you're leaving money on the table. When every customer conversation matters, you need a phone system that keeps up and helps you stay connected. That's why you need OpenPhone. OpenPhone is the number one business phone system that streamlines and scales your customer communications. It works through an app on your phone or computer. So no more carrying two phones or using a landline. Remember them. With help and phone your team can share one number and collaborate on customer calls and texts like a shared inbox. That way any teammate can pick up right where the last person left off, keeping response times faster than ever. Plus with AI powered call transcripts and summaries, you'll be able to automate follow ups, ensuring you'll never miss a customer interaction again. So whether you're a one person operation drowning in calls and texts or have a large team that needs better collaboration tools, Openphone is a no brainer. See why over 50,000 businesses trust Openphone to manage their businesses calls and texts. Openphone is offering Victor Davis Hanson show listeners 20% off your first six months at openphone.com Victor that's O P E N P-H-O-N-E.com Victor and if you have existing numbers with another service, Openphone will port them over at no extra charge. Open Phone, no missed calls, no missed customers. And we thank the good people from OpenPhone for sponsoring the Victor Davis Hansen show. Victor I said China, you said China, we said China. China is helping fund the Houthis who are using that money to attack American ships. I wonder how.

[Victor Davis Hanson]

Yeah, this is Senator Cotton. I just got a book in the mail, has a new book out. 7 things you can't say about China that they want that there are existential enemy and they think they can go to war with. It's a, it's a short but it's a very good book. We May have him on the podcast.

[Jack Fowler]

He's terrific.

[Victor Davis Hanson]

Yeah, he is. Great. Yeah. So China's policy is sort of like Putin's. Anything the United States does, they're going to oppose. And the Houthis. But, you know, I said that before, under Biden, we lost the navigability of most of the major. I mean, the Black Sea was a no go, the Red Sea was a no go. Even the Straits of Hormuz. We were being harassed in Haran's heyday in especially after the fall of Afghanistan. And the east coast of the Mediterranean was kind of dangerous with Hezbollah and Syria, and we didn't know how dangerous maybe the Panama Canal could have been with the Chinese presence growing at an astronomical rate and that. And isn't it funny? You know, Trump's under all of this pressure, and everybody thinks everything has gone to hell, but they don't. It's like we wake up. I think everybody listening is kind of freaked out, like I am. It's like, well, I woke up and the Houthis are not controlling the Red Sea. How did that happen? Did he. He wouldn't have dropped a bunker buster on them, did he? Oh, he did. Oh, he's really taken out their command and control, and they know it. Oh, he's given Israel a blank check to do whatever they want. Oh, they've stopped. The Red Sea is navigable in the Suez Canal. Oh, the border. How'd that happen? There was no comprehensive immigration reform. It shouldn't have happened. Oh, they just deported, what, 7, 800 people from Florida. Ooh, they're finding all these criminals. That doesn't make it. It's like, you know, I beat this horse. Now, I don't mind, but I looked Jack today at the Wall Street Journal. Every single article was negative, negative, negative, negative, negative, negative. You would have never thought that the Wall Street Dow Jones is making a rally the last few days. You would have never thought the economic news on inflation, on job growth and corporate profits, on affordability. That's all been good. It's just negative, negative, negative. What is the rational why? Why, why, Why? I want to know why. Why are they doing that? He doesn't get to answer those questions because he's an apostate. On libertarian.

[Jack Fowler]

Well, think about not a war he created. We have a war in Ukraine because of what Joe Biden did in Afghanistan. The big fat dots connect. And Donald Trump is trying to bring this to an end. And he just had some. What seems like a good meeting with Zelensky to try to make this happen. And not getting the requisite slap on the back from the media. The same media that praised Barack Obama wasn't even president. He got the Nobel Peace Prize.

[Victor Davis Hanson]

He even said he didn't deserve it. He's not going to get. If there is a peace. And I think that 60, 40, there will be. He's not going to get anything. And they're going to get angry at him. They would rather have another million and a half casualties and see him as the person who was the catalyst for. Absolutely they would. You see that? They really trashed him for wearing a blue suit. And I read about 10 articles. They said the Vatican has a stern coat. During Vatican funerals, it's a black tie and black coat, as you see in the picture. And then they cut the picture. They had another story. I'd say 30 to 40% of the crowd had suits on that were other than black, but they didn't let them be viewed. And then they had that picture that he was dishonoring the Vatican's sobriety or formality when he and Zelensky had those two chairs.

[Jack Fowler]

Right.

[Victor Davis Hanson]

And then Macron tried to come in and get his picture with him and they. And Starmer, too, I think, and he said, butt out. It's not your place.

[Jack Fowler]

Yeah, well, it was actually, you know, a day for the breaking of traditions. I mean, where the Pope was buried himself, how his coffin, you know, was just plain pine. It's fine, you know, but.

[Victor Davis Hanson]

Yeah, I kind of like that idea.

[Jack Fowler]

Yeah. But so what? He was there. He came. If he, if he hadn't come, then it would have been a story unto itself, too. Hey, Victor, before we go to a break, I want to get your thoughts on one other thing and then we'll have another topic or two. It is. If I could only. Oh, yeah, it's about sanctuary cities. I mean, there isn't a thing that Donald Trump is doing that a federal judge is not trying to stop. I think you mentioned it the other day, but, gosh, what show was I listening to under. Under Biden, I think there were, let's say, 16 dozen to two dozen actions over his four years efforts to get federal judges to stop something Biden was doing. Donald Trump has already had 68.

[Victor Davis Hanson]

I know. And he's had more than the entire Biden tenure. Yeah, It's. It's just. And I don't know why John Roberts and the Supreme Court doesn't step in or the ledge. Can't. Can't. The Republican Senate and House, don't they have enough cohesion to get a Bill passed. They have a majority. Are they afraid that the left would, I guess, filibuster? But it has to stop because right now the country's being run by about 350 liberal district judges and they think they get. So what's their motivation? I never heard of any of this. Wisconsin, I never knew Roseburg. I never knew judge from. They are now nationally known. They're like that Judge Aragon. Remember Aragorn, that hammed it up in the. That was the Letita James trial. He just couldn't stop looking at the cameras or Judge Ito. Remember in the OJ Trial, they're just celebrity creatures. They're fawning. They just have. They're like a moth to a light bulb. And the light bulb is Donald Trump. And they just have to fly to him and circle around him and be seen. And it's really disgusting. It really is that what they've done to the judiciary. And it's really hard. I wrote an article about democratic legality. They all talk about what? Dictatorial, Dictatorial. He doesn't listen to the Supreme. No, no. You set the president. Chuck Schumer, you were the one that yelled and threatened the justices by name. You, Merrick Garland, you were the one that let people swarm the homes, commit felonies. And you didn't even investigate and didn't even prosecute. You were the one that lowered the bar so assassins could show up ready to kill Kavanaugh, Gorsuch, you were the one Elizabeth Warren that talked about packing the court. You were the one Joe Biden who said that you were going to go around the Supreme Court ignore it to cancel student loans. So it's just again, the idea is that their means are justified because their ends are so more moral than the rest of us. Everybody gets, I don't know, they get pretty tired of it and I am. Sanctuary cities is a neo Confederate idea. It's no different than South Carolina in 1832 saying, you know what, take your tariffs and smerfs and get rid. We're not going to follow them. And Andrew Jackson said, you know, you have you read the Constitution and we're going to have tariffs. They may be protecting Yankee Yankees, but we're going to have tariffs. That's what the Congress voted. And I will take troops and I will force you at your ports, I'll shut. And he did. He was going to invade. And this idea that these individual 600 jurisdictions can say, well, federal law doesn't apply here. But you know, they really don't believe that, Jack, because as I said before, if you were in Utah, Wyoming, Idaho, Mississippi, and you said, you know what? Our little town has a new law that says you can buy a handgun the day you. You can walk out with it. No federal gun registration. Or you know what? When you're building your apartment building and there is a two spotted nose possum and he's on an endangered species list, just smash this SOB because there is no Endangered Species Act. We don't follow the. What would happen to the left when that happened? And they'd go berserk. They'd go berserk. And that's what Harvard should know. I mean, the federal government goes in and tells Bob Jones, rightly so. You want federal money and you want to make it against your policy that people of different races can date each other or marry each other, then don't take federal money. And the same thing applies to Harvard. You want to have your graduations or your dorms predicated on. Or your programs predicated on race, fine. Just don't take federal money. Right. You can do whatever you want to do in your private life. We're not going into your dining table and saying, you can't have a guest over. You have to have a. You know, you can't say, I don't want somebody of a different race having Christmas. That's your business, Harvard. But just don't get on the public teat. I don't understand that. They have all this money.

[Jack Fowler]

They're entitled to it. They're entitled.

[Victor Davis Hanson]

They're entitled. They are entitled. And then they get, you know, they get all these Harvard graduates and professors that say that we're going to lose a war against cancer if Harvard can't participate, or Boston General Hospital is going to starve to death. It's just disgusting when they have all of these programs and they're collaborating with the Chinese with millions of dollars of joint programs. The Chinese are not stupid. They take the money, they get the Harvard veneer, and then they use it for what communists do to persecute and kill their enemies.

[Jack Fowler]

Yeah, Victor, I don't know if you made up that type of possum. Two spotted possum.

[Victor Davis Hanson]

I should have said lizards.

[Jack Fowler]

Maybe it's for real.

[Victor Davis Hanson]

I know there's a salamander that stopped a lot of stuff.

[Jack Fowler]

Yeah, box turtles stop things here in the Northeast. Hey, we're going to take a little break and then come back for a final segment. And on that, we're going to get your thoughts on post colonialism. And if we have time, Victor, I want to Martina Navratilova, who is she's just never thought I would consider her a conservative hero, but she's a hero for sanity and we maybe get some thoughts about her and we'll do all that when we come back from these final important messages.

[Victor Davis Hanson]

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[Jack Fowler]

This one's going to Thailand and that.

[Victor Davis Hanson]

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[Jack Fowler]

We are back with the Victor Davis Hansen show again recording on Monday, April 28th. And this episode is up on Thursday, May 1st. Recording a little late in the afternoon. Victor I, I, I had to go. I had lunch today with Michael Walsh who you had on the show a few weeks back. Yeah, Michael's up in the hills of Connecticut.

[Victor Davis Hanson]

He's got his new book out too. It's a very good book on determinative battles. Great battles. Yeah.

[Jack Fowler]

It doesn't, it's got a great blurb on the back by Victor. Michael's a great Musician, too, and he's planning to do a concert tour. So just a lovely, great guy. I've known Michael a long time. He's a good man. Yeah. Victor, let's get Martina. I don't say out of the way first.

[Victor Davis Hanson]

She's kind of like J.K. rowling, isn't she?

[Jack Fowler]

She is, yeah. She's a culture warrior. And Martina. And here's, you know, she's been very much involved in the similar fight as J.K. rowling on the trans athletes. Here's a headline. Martina Navratilova Blast Nike over reported role in trans athlete research. She's taking aim at the sportswear giant for trying to hide its apparent involvement in research programs concerning transgender athletes. On Tuesday. Last week, Nike refused to say whether it was funding transgender research of any sort. Still, a story over the previous weekend published by the New York Times seemed to provide evidence that Nike is financing at least one study of trans athletes being conducted by Joanna Harper, a man who identifies as a woman, et cetera. She ends up. She tweets, I think, says, why is this sneaker brand doing medical experiments on our children? That's a great question, Victor.

[Victor Davis Hanson]

I don't know. The left. I grew up with a left telling us that the American Medical association was toxic, that doctors are toxic because they want to operate on optional procedures that have no proven medical benefit and are dangerous. They have too many. This is what I grew up on, too many hysterectomies. I was told that I had orthoscopic knee surgery. It didn't have any proven effect. Now that I have this sinus infection, I'm reading all these reports, reports that multiple antibiotic courses, really, even if it's bacterial, don't really work. So my point is that the left has a long history of opposing procedures and drugs, and then they turn around with this experimental radical surgery. Mastectomies are altering the sexual organs. Really disfiguring and dangerous. And then the hormonal treatment that are very. It's kind of like the abortion pill that they wanted to give without a prescription. We're learning now that it can be very dangerous to take it without a close doctor supervision. So my point is, they're just completely hypocritical. And then on the transgender question, I was interested. I think it was the Manual of Mental Health and therapy, the fifth edition. They just did a study, Jack. It's 1 in 14,000 people demonstrably have gender dysphoria. And yet there was a poll that people in generation, this generation, we're not X what are we? Generation Z? Yes. Generation Z had a poll and 30% think they're LGBTQTT. So in other words, this is a. When you have scientific data showing that this dysphoria is about.005%, 0.0051 in 15,000 and then you say that there's a mass group of people that are suffering this and it's because it's in the news as the latest civil rights left wing cause celeb. You can see that it's a cultural construct. It's all of these people want to transition or at least they want to get. And it's a very dangerous thing to do. And that's not even getting into the males competing in female sports. And when you ask very polite questions, as Martina Navatorola and J.K. rowling and others have said, if you're right and this is a genuine third sex, then why don't we just have transgender athletes? We have disabled Olympics. Let's have a transgender. If you really believe, on the contrary, that it's not a separate sex, that people can transition fully and authentically to the opposite sex, then let's just do a study and see how many biological females that have transitioned to males are walking away with accolades and medals from male sports. How many center nose guards are there in the NFL, how many fullbacks, how many great players in the NBA are transgendered males that were biological. There's none. So the whole thing is just. It's absurd. And it was just a cult. It's like a pet rock or a Duncan yo yo. And I'm not saying that general. You know, I mentioned before in Antiquity, whether it's Catullus tragic Attis poem or Petronius transgender transvestite scenes in the Satyricon. And I think there's a passage, as I remember in Diodorus about a male who has multiple sex organs and is an object of inquiry by physicians in ancient Greece. But the point is it was rare and it was a medical condition and all of a sudden it's been a cult phenomenon as the left does with everything.

[Jack Fowler]

I think the number you mentioned before, Victor, about 30%. That's disturbing. On another level, take it outside of the trans. You know that 30% of Generation Z might think they're okay. I might not be trans, but something else on that 190.

[Victor Davis Hanson]

Well, I mean, I think it's. I think it's non binary. The point. That's the 30% of the people who plan like David Hogg. Remember he said he was never Going to have children, Promises, promises. Because he was going to have a particular type of expensive dog as his partner or his pet. You know, it's this. This ideology kind of. I don't know if you ever watch this show. The Last of Us. Have you seen it? It's an existential about fungal disease takes over and kills everybody. And there's zombie. Anyway, Pedro Pascal is in it. The only reason I mention it is he came out the other day and trashed J.K. rowling, the guy that was in Game of Thrones. You know, he's a good actor. I really like him. He was really good. But they killed him off on the second season because he was a male. And you can see the sub in this series that everybody loved it. And then you kill the male rough, tough, masculine character who is. And every scene has little touches of. I don't know what you'd call it, gender dysphoria or gay. And so now the female young girl is becoming a teenager. And now we're going to see that. Now you got the white male cisgender guy out of the way, the hero, you kill him off. Then she and another girl are going to have already had a lesbian relationship and a kiss on. And I guess in some versions they had a sex scene. But you can see where this thing is going, that they're going to be the revengers, that you're going to see two little teenage girls take on all of these horrific cisgendered males who killed their hero, who was a cisgender. But it's going to be. What I'm getting at is they can't just take these stories and make it incidental. It has to always be right in the center of everything. Sexuality, sexual orientation. And it's all the mind. It's all the creation of a small percentage of the population in places like Malibu or West Hollywood. And then they wonder why the Snow White latest thing bombed. I think it might be the biggest loss in Disney history because of its DEI fixations.

[Jack Fowler]

Yeah. I mean, did Shane need a gay angle to it or hermaphrodite angle to it?

[Victor Davis Hanson]

That's funny you said that. Because I was saying to Sammy, I don't know if I said it on air. I said it would be exactly like Shane, that just when they're meeting at that dance in the movie and they don't know what to do, one of the Ben Johnson character, the guy that turns good, you remember? Yes. He kills Alan Ladd. Like 40 minutes in, he's gone. And then Jean Arthur and another Woman take up. They think, you know what? We didn't need Shane. And they go after the evil cisgender people in town, the three of them. But you're. They're gonna kiss a little bit, Jack, and they're going to be in a bed together and then they're going to turn the lantern on and say, how was that kiss we had? Would you rate it 1 to 10? That's what they did in this. And she said, I give a six. Well, I'm not completely gay. That's what they would do to Shane or High Noon. Gary Cooper would, you know, he would be a white male Christian CIS person that was just too headstrong. And the four would come in and Lee Van Cleef would shoot him. And then all of a sudden Grace Kelly would say, oh, my God, Katie Gerardo, you and I have got to go get those guys. But before we do, you know, you're kind of good looking. And they would have a little on scene kissing and then they would be in a bed together and then they would conspire to kill the bad guys and get the credit for avenging poor little stupid.

[Jack Fowler]

Well, she did. She did kill, didn't she? Did she shoot?

[Victor Davis Hanson]

She did. She did. She killed one of the four. But she did it. She did it. Put it this way, she did it in partnership with her husband.

[Jack Fowler]

Right? Right.

[Victor Davis Hanson]

But she didn't see him killed. And then partner with Katie Gerardo. And then as an excuse, that should have been the plot line to get the bad guys, but it's actually a subtext for the real emphases of the director and the writer to show teenage girls coming of age as all you girls can. If you watch this and have homosexual.

[Jack Fowler]

I see great Victor Davis Hansen essay here. Like four or five great movies. The Searchers, like rewritten today. Yeah.

[Victor Davis Hanson]

The reason I'm saying this, I like Pedro. Pedro Pascal, that's his name. I can't remember. And he's a great actor. But why did he have to go after J.K. rowling? I guess it was because he was a part of this very lucrative franchise that made Last of Us. And I'm sure they're going to have flashbacks, get him in some of the episodes he's filmed. And then J.K. rowling, given what she said about transgender, he thought that if he attacked her, that would cement his public fides as a champion of the type of homosexuality that his series has emphasized and made him. I mean, he was known, but he's now a superstar because of this series. It's it. And I, I predict that it's going to lose a lot of viewers. At least it's going to drop off from where it was.

[Jack Fowler]

Yeah.

[Victor Davis Hanson]

Because now it's just, it's just we're just going to indulge what some 30 wannabe Hollywood writer thinks about what he did the night before last or something.

[Jack Fowler]

You know, I'm shocked. Victor, you have time to watch any television?

[Victor Davis Hanson]

Well, I was typing a call in my defense as I watch it.

[Jack Fowler]

All right.

[Victor Davis Hanson]

My wife says to me, you never watched television without typing.

[Jack Fowler]

Oh, is that true? Oh, wow.

[Victor Davis Hanson]

Or I probably was trying to decide whether grapefruit extract, curcumin salt spray or manuka honey. Salt spray was preferable for my sinus infection.

[Jack Fowler]

I will find that patron saint. I'll get a cure. So, Victor, last thing here, you wrote in your most recent syndicated column, how ironic those who rail about colonialism now sound like 19th century Yankee imperialists. We just talked about 19th century confederates. Would you give a little explanation on that, on lefties and colonialism? Is there any way. You see.

[Victor Davis Hanson]

Well, imperium is a Latin word for power. And you put on the ism, which is actually the Latin version of a Greek adjectival. So imperialism means the use of your power and in this context, beyond your national boundaries. And it starts with Roman imperialism. And then we get into European imperialism. But now in the modern world, it's mostly talking about European imperialism in the 18th and especially the 19th century in places where people were of color. Nobody says that the British were imperialist in the United States because they were colonial, because the people that they were trying to dictate looked like they did. So they'll tell you that it's a imperial power pushing its weight around. But when the imperial power pushes its weights around other people who look like them, then nobody seems to care. And that's but what it means.

[Jack Fowler]

He may have been imperialists in Ireland, the British, but we'll talk about that another time.

[Victor Davis Hanson]

That was a religious difference, though. If the Irish had been Protestants, it wouldn't have been imperialism. And it's not imperialism, Jack. That little Denmark has a huge colony called Greenland and it's a European left wing government entity and Greenland belongs to North America, so it is exercising long distance imperialism and it owns Greenland. And now they feel so bad because of Donald Trump's ruminations that they put the Greenland map on their coat of arms. They've given them a billion dollars, patted them on the head and said, have a vote for your autonomy, semi autonomy. But you know, my Colleague at Hoover Institution, Andrew Roberts and Neil Ferguson have written a number of books and in passing and some books about British imperialism. And they have taken the point of view that while it was coercive, the people who were under lasted so long because it was not like German imperialism and it wasn't even like French imperialism. It was different in that Anglo Saxon judicial. And what do I mean by yeah, they ended Suti, the practice that the married wife has to jump on the pyre. I think it was that great. I'll remember his name, the British general. Somebody said, well, are you interfering with suti? They'd let them have their custom. And we have our custom. And our custom is we hang people that make sure that their wives are executed when they die. And they tried to moderate the caste system, they built railroads, they left law codes. One of the reasons that India is, I think, destined to be more effective than China is that it has the English languages that unites these thousands of dialects, which was their great challenge. You had so many little tiny principalities with different languages and culture and religion. And the British came in and gave them English and then of course a constitutional system of government, which they did.

[Jack Fowler]

In Hong Kong, by the way, talking about China.

[Victor Davis Hanson]

They did, they did in Hong Kong and they did in Singapore. And that's why those countries are very advanced. So there was not defending imperialism. I'm just saying that like a lot history is not melodrama. You pick winners and losers in a Marxist binary. It's tragedy and there's all sorts of complexities, but they don't talk about that. And of course, as we just said earlier, left wing people have no problem with imperialism as long as it's left wing. China went into Tibet. That was one of the most brutal imperialistic takeovers. They tried to extinguish their religion, their language. They did everything. And the Soviet Union was the imperial. As soon as that power started to falter in the middle of Moscow, all those republics broke away. They wanted nothing to do with Russia and they wanted nothing to do with that brutal, murderous system that was an imperialistic system. And so some imperialism is good, some is bad. You can argue that Iran was trying to have an imperial presence by its diktat to Assad, its client, the Hezbollah, its client, the Houthis. They couldn't really operate independently without approval from Tehran. October 7th would have never happened if the imperial power didn't say to the subject, the colonial power, here's some money and here's the date and here's what you're going to do. If Iran had said to Hamas, you're not going to do that. We're not going to give you any aid, we're not going to give you any satellite information, locations, we're not going. Going to give you any arm. They wouldn't have done it. They couldn't have done it. So imperialism is bad. And imperialism was really good in Afghanistan apparently. We went in there and as I said earlier, we got a traditional Islamic society to have a gender studies. I'm sure there was a transgendered course for Taliban women and I'm sure there was a George Floyd like, sort of like Nancy Pelosi, remember in the capital there, they all took the knee, they had the little flag of Africa around shawl, something like that. And then they had the.

[Jack Fowler]

Might have had a Harvey Milk school there.

[Victor Davis Hanson]

Yeah, the tried flag they had. All of that's imperialism, everybody that's subjecting your values onto a traditional far distant society through force of arms. Because ultimately all those things we did in Afghanistan to push a left wing progressive culture were backed by what, the marines, the army, the Air Force. Without them they would have been slaughtered. All of those cultural imperialists and they were almost slaughtered anyway. But the left has a. Of imperialism. But we never call it that.

[Jack Fowler]

Well, that's in Victor's amongst many other thoughts, his most recent syndicated column. Again, you can find that every week on his website. Well, we've come to the end, Victor of another gremlin.

[Victor Davis Hanson]

Gremlin, yeah, I had a short in this amplifier.

[Jack Fowler]

That's all right, Victor, you go along with the intelligence. So hey, I've got three comments I want to read. So many folks leave comments on YouTube now the podcast is. You can watch it on YouTube. Also on rumble, you can listen on various platforms. Thanks. For everyone who leaves comments, try to plow through them. There are hundreds and hundreds of them now, but here are three. Victor. One is short and sweet from still learning. 83, 60. Writes back to school at age 68 in VDH University. Wonderful. I agree with that totally. Then there's another one from.

[Victor Davis Hanson]

Do I get federal funds? Jack.

[Jack Fowler]

I want the graduation ceremony.

[Victor Davis Hanson]

I have a. I'm looking, looking at my little studio and I have a segregated area for my dog Gracie. And another one that she's not to talk to Spike, he's different. And we've got this new somebody dumped. I don't know. I think my wife called her Cashew or something. Oh yeah, she's. Yeah, she kept it. Of course she did. And now they're so. I'm gonna have segregated ceremonies for all of them.

[Jack Fowler]

All right.

[Victor Davis Hanson]

Well, maybe that way I'll get federal funds.

[Jack Fowler]

I'm coming out there. Maybe you'll let me be the commencement speaker. Yes. Now this one from me, you, she, he, they writes. Victor Hansen, I am so glad that a friend introduced me to your show recently. Just wish I had known about you much earlier. Bless you for your insight, intelligence, fairness and loyalty to this country. May you be blessed for your efforts to keep us informed and keep this country a positive influence in the world. Very kind. And one final one from Karen Prather. 9693. Good Saturday afternoon from Arkansas enjoying VDH and Sammy discussing Americas and the global current state of affairs in such a factual and intellectual, calm, collective and cool way to help those who are listening to connect all the dots to see the bigger picture of so many events that have happened and are currently happening. God bless and thanks. These three comments, by the way. Yeah, very reflective of what many people are saying. Thanks folks, for that. I just want to end here by by letting you know that I write I, Jack Fallow, write Civil Thoughts, which is a free weekly email newsletter for the center for Civil Society, which is trying to strengthen civil society. You know, civil society is at the core of what makes America great and exceptional. Civil Thought comes out every Friday. What you'll find when you get it in your inbox. 14 recommended readings Great articles I've come across the previous week that I think you might enjoy reading or find inspiring. So sign up, go to civilthoughts.com we will not sell your name, I promise you. Thanks for those who do who have subscribed. Victor, you've been terrific as you everybody.

[Victor Davis Hanson]

Thank you for listening. Thank you for watching and I will say, Jack, I had to go to Phoenix to speak for the don't say why my university, my institute. And I was noticed that when people came up at the airport and on the plane, they did not reference books that I've written. They didn't reference FOX News. They just referenced our podcast. Yeah, well, that was the only reference. So that shows you that I think that we're gaining a movie audience.

[Jack Fowler]

It's very true and exponentially. All right, great folks. We'll see you again on the next episode of the Victor Davis Hansen Show. Bye Bye.

[Victor Davis Hanson]

Okay, thank you.