Trans teachers in grade school?!?!

A Wake County elementary school's hiring of a biological male living as a woman has reignited debate over parental rights, the role of teachers, and whether young children should be exposed to gender identity issues in the classroom. Joseph and Ashley also unpack criminal charges filed against several North Carolina lobbyists over an alleged scheme involving luxury trips for lawmakers, raising questions about ethics, transparency, and public trust. Finally, they examine a shocking terrorist attack in Germany and discuss what happens when governments prioritize rehabilitation over recognizing genuine ideological threats. Throughout the episode, they explore how our understanding of truth, human nature, and accountability shapes public policy—and why those ideas have real-world consequences.

Transcript

SPEAKER_02 0:00

Welcome to Politics for Happy People. Friends, so glad that you are with us. Joseph back home once again, joined by Ashley Vaughan. Ashley, good to see you today. Good to see you, Joseph. Well, we are in different places. For those of you who are joining us on the YouTube, you will uh recognize the background is a little different. I find myself today uh in the hill country of Texas, and the background here is the tavern. That if any of you are familiar with the Wall Builder Show and Rick Green and the great work they do informing people about the Constitution and the history of our country, that's where I find myself today. I'm here uh doing some work with them, but joining everyone back here in North Carolina as well, keeping us up to date on what's going on there. So if it looks different, that's because it is, and that's what's going on. I am deep in the heart of Texas, as the song says. But we're talking about some North Carolina things today. Ashley, the one that we're gonna start off with here is happening, uh, it's Apex, right? The the school district. We have a elementary school music teacher, man wants to be a woman, confusing the elementary school kids. Question mark.

SPEAKER_00 1:19

Yes. So recently a teacher was hired who is a transgender uh bio a biological male, uh living as a woman.

SPEAKER_02 1:32

Let's just say it that way. I think if we leave the transgender language out, it's just a man who thinks he's a woman.

SPEAKER_00 1:38

It is less confusing to say it that way. Uh and this has been brought to the attention of the state representative for that area, Representative Aaron Pere, and she made a Facebook post earlier this week about the incident, and it said, I've received your emails and phone calls about the hiring of a transgender biological male who dresses as a woman music teacher in one of our local elementary schools. I have brought your concerns to the attention of the Wake County Public School System leadership. I don't care how adults choose to live outside of the professional workday, but I will always protect our children. This is an example of why we have school choice, charters, opportunity scholarships, etc., for parents. Parents should be able to have access to the education environment most appropriate for their child. I'll keep you updated. Again, this is Representative Pere. Maybe time to introduce a bill requiring gender-appropriate professional attire for public school employees, as uh Wake County Public Schools does not have a policy addressing this issue, as far as I can tell. It is important that Wake County Public Schools policies regarding employee dress and appearance should protect children from being exposed to more complex and mature gender identity questions and concepts at too young of an age. Wake County public schools can treat employees with dignity and respect and at the same time ensure young children aren't exposed to age inappropriate concepts.

SPEAKER_02 3:19

Ashley, my first question did you say this this is a new employee?

SPEAKER_00 3:26

It sounds like that. We don't have a lot of details, I don't think, about who the employee is or what school it's at, but it sounds like it's a recent hire, which is what precipitated all of these contacts to Representative Parade.

SPEAKER_02 3:38

Presumably they knew and hired him anyway. I mean, how did I I'm curious to know how he showed up at the interview and if it was just like he showed up at his first day of work, surprise. Yeah, I don't think we know those details. So here's my dress deal.

SPEAKER_00 3:53

Yeah, I thought through that as well. Um, how did this come to be? But I don't think we know the details.

SPEAKER_02 3:59

Okay. Because if you hired the gentleman under these circumstances to go teach music to third and fourth graders, um, that's really, really bad judgment for the school, in my judgment. But um what would you do as a mom if your kid came back and said, Hey mom, my new music teacher is a man in where's the dress?

SPEAKER_00 4:25

That's a non-starter for me. My child would need to be removed from that classroom. And the reason is because we want to send children the message that their body is good, their body, there's nothing wrong with their body, um, we want to help them be comfortable in their body, whether it be gender or any other uh feature that they were born with. And I would not want my children in an environment that um was so confusing.

SPEAKER_02 5:02

Yeah. Well, and this is it, this is one of the challenges because you we, you know, the whole school choice debate, especially within the church, there's a lot of people like, well, I want my kid to go be a missionary, right? And and be a representative for the truth in this environment. And it's okay that they don't agree with us all the time because it's a it's a great opportunity. I think one of the underrated realities of early childhood that sometimes parents forget is how desperately young people want to please the authority figures in their lives. That changes, of course, when they get to 12, 13, 14, right? But early on in life, all they want is the approval of the authority figures in their lives. And when the authority figures in their lives are committed to things that are not true, that is really, really uh confusing. It is confusing. Because mom and dad are saying one thing, and then this teacher that I'm supposed to respect and obey is saying another thing. And when it comes to uh especially the early years of our children's lives, having the authority figures in their lives on the same page is the only way to create clarity for children about what is right and what is wrong. Because if they just see everybody disagreeing, then maybe they will be convinced, and increasingly they do become convinced that there's no such thing as right and wrong. And so it's just everybody's opinion and it really doesn't matter. And you do not want six-year-olds believing that or getting that message.

SPEAKER_00 6:28

Yeah. If this is too complicated, it's too much for them to navigate. And you know, I think, I mean, there has been a long-standing understanding that teachers are to be role models. There are certain positions in the community that we all sort of intuitively understand um are special in the sense that um they have a higher uh moral and ethical duty to present themselves well and professionally and um to adhere to certain, you know, standards. And it's interesting, this the North Carolina State Board of Education, they have a policy manual that has a code of ethics that uh the purpose is to define the standards of professional conduct for teachers. And and it says in that that they should be able to serve as an appropriate role model. So everyone, everyone understands that the teachers that are in the schools are going to be role models for the children. And so, you know, I certainly think appropriate dress uh is necessary for the teachers. I think it's interesting that Representative Peret said, you know, I don't care what teachers do outside of school, but we've had a long-standing understanding that that actually matters too. There are policies about the um the conduct that teachers have outside of the classroom. Uh an example from 2018, there was a woman, Candace Mason. She was a sixth-grade middle school teacher, but she was also a part-time pole dancer. And a video was um leaked and uh I guess distributed, and the school district got a hold of it and she was suspended and uh they ended up parting ways with the with the school. So I think we all understand that um educators do need to uh be appropriate role models for children. Well, actually using children is not a part of that.

SPEAKER_02 8:39

When you say an appropriate role model, I promise you there are some parents in this district who think this is wonderful. This is exactly what our kids need. They need to learn how to love everybody, judge nothing. I'm so excited that we finally have a man who thinks he's a woman leading our children in an official capacity so they can see how normal and healthy and right this is. So when you say appropriate role models, right, that's totally subjective. And and and the reality is families, parents have a very different understanding of what that means.

SPEAKER_00 9:12

Well, it's true. We do, we are at a place where we have a very different understanding of what's good and what's right and what's true. But as I said in the beginning of this conversation, we would argue and uh very much stand by our conviction that it is not good or or healthy or right uh for for it to be modeled to children, that their gender might be wrong.

unknown 9:36

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 9:36

And and that uh there they might need to do something about that, whether it be social or or chemical or surgical transitioning. And and so, you know, you said that there are a lot of you bet there are a lot of parents who would support this as an appropriate role model, but I don't know if that's true.

SPEAKER_01 9:57

I mean promise we're not sure for some. I think it's a lot of people. There are some.

SPEAKER_00 10:00

But if we polled the parents, um, even I mean, even in somewhere like Wake County, and you're saying, would you like for your child to have a transgender music teacher? Uh, and their answers were confidential, I don't think a lot of parents would want this. I really don't. Even if they want that person to be treated rightfully so, you know, with dignity and respect and um to be cared for in society, I don't believe that a lot of them would want that person teaching their children.

SPEAKER_02 10:34

Well, I don't think a lot of them would. I think some of them would. And the some of them that would are also administrators in a lot of these schools. And and they have adopted a value system where this is exactly what the school should be doing. They should be helping young minds understand that there's nothing wrong with it. It's totally appropriate, it's totally healthy, and the more exposure they get, then the better it is for them because they're going to grow up in a world where this is common and becoming more common and normal, and that's how they should think about it. And they actually think this is a great opportunity. And and my guess is if in fact this is this is a new hire, and I know that we're kind of not sure whether that's the case, that the people who made this HR decision are probably of that persuasion that this is exactly what our school, what we want our school doing. And and and we know that there is a significant percentage of the administration and people in running education who believe the job of the education system is to turn is to make young people uh little leftists. And from our perspective, that's you know, we see that cynically, they see that as, you know, they see that as making them loving and tolerant and kind and not judgmental, and they would see this as a big step in the right direction.

SPEAKER_00 11:45

So it's it is the children absolutely should be taught to be loving and kind, uh no matter what. Uh and I I teach my children that they do not need to have uh a man dressed as a woman as their teacher to learn that.

SPEAKER_02 12:00

Well, we're gonna see what happens here. One of the things that she has introduced, uh Aaron Pere, the the idea that maybe there should be a standard statewide uh uh dress policy, right? And and there has to be a dress code on some level already, um, because I'm sure they will not, you know, allow their teachers to come to school in swimming suits. So there has to be some kind of a dress code. Apparently, this would be um outside of that, but um it's relevant that there the Bost decision, which was a Supreme Court case um that basically found that there are legal protections based on gender identity, and it was a it was a terrible decision. Um, I'm not gonna go into the history of all that, but that was an a dress code situation where a Christian-owned funeral business dismissed a man uh for not dressing like a man. And the Supreme Court said that that was an illegal firing. So it's actually a very uh it's it's not perfectly on point, but it's instructive to this decision. And ultimately, I think Bostok is gonna go the way of the dodo bird because it was so poorly reasoned, and and subsequently the Supreme Court had to kind of retreat from that. But um it's just kind of the the practical and legal part of the practical and legal um you know wrestling match that we're having uh with all of this. So um should there be dress code? Yeah. I think so. I think so. Is it gonna be considered to be discriminatory by a lot of people? I think it will be. So, Ashley, let's get on to our next story today, because this is another um uh pretty local one. Um, there are uh charges that have been brought against some North Carolina lobbyists for a bourbon trip to Kentucky. In uh this is April of 2026, a rake, a Wake County jury indicted four prominent North Carolina lobbyists over a 2024 Kentucky bourbon trip. They allegedly arranged for state lawmakers. Each of these four lobbyists face a single misdemeanor charge of solicitation to commit violations of law against giving gifts to lobbyists and lobbying principles. Now, here's essentially what's going on is that North Carolina law prohibits lobbyists and their corporate clients from giving gifts to legislators. And and we kind of understand why this is you can't bribe law, uh you should not bribe uh lawmakers, and so you can't give them uh money and then say, now vote for my bill, or you know, here's an all paid, all expenses paid, uh trip to the Bahamas. Now, it sure would be nice if you voted for this bill that we have, right? That it even if it's not cash, those kind of gifts are are considered a way to inappropriately influence lawmakers. And so you can't do that. But what pro what the allegations say is that these lobbyists set up an independent group called um Greater Carolina. I do remember that. And then they encouraged their their principals, their employers, to fund this group called Greater Carolina, and then the group called Greater Carolina paid for a Kentucky bourbon tour. And when they all went to Kentucky, and I think they went to the I did they go to um Churchill Downs? I don't know if they were the race or just the property. I don't I don't recall that fact. But they went to Churchill Downs. A horse racing event at Churchill Downs in the actual race. And uh the and the people who were there were actually helping, were encouraging them to support some things in North Carolina that were in their interest. So basically they're saying they hid the fact that they gave um gifts to these legislators, and now they're facing charges, and there's a bunch of legislators in Raleigh who have kind of been caught up in this as well because uh they were on this trip. Ashley, how much does this bother you?

SPEAKER_00 16:08

Oh gosh. Well, you know, on pr on the principle of lobbyists and their clients giving gifts to lawmakers, you know, what that obviously that is a problem. We don't want the policies going to the highest bidder, right? That's not how a democracy should work. And so there are there are there are laws and guidelines for uh giving gifts. I believe there are some exceptions. I believe there's some reporting requirements, and yet none of that was done properly in this instance.

SPEAKER_02 16:49

And well, there was one lawmaker who reported the trip as a gift from Greater Carolina, and and that's what he was supposed to do, but only one of them did. And I think there were what was it, 12 lawmakers who were um part of these part of these trips. And there were there was one trip back in 2022, the statute of limitations has run on that, so they can't do anything about it, but they didn't know about it. Uh, the one in 2024 is not beyond the statute of limitations, so that's why it is the one uh f facing the scrutiny at this point.

SPEAKER_00 17:22

I think the thing that's most troublesome about this, though, is that according to the news articles, there was specific legislation that would impact these corporate clients that was being debated at that point in time. So I don't think that most of us want our government being run that way.

SPEAKER_02 17:43

Agreed. You know, and and and there are very different um degrees of sensitivity to this. And in it's interesting to me that all of these lawmakers uh took this trip. My first, you know, we're talking nearly 30 years ago. I mean, yeah, something like that. When I my first job in politics, when I was still in Washington state, I was, you know, I was like doing constituent relationship stuff, answering emails and phone calls for a state senator in in the state of Washington. And he got mailed tickets uh to the county fair, right, from the local fair organizer. He's a he's a um, you know, an elected official. They did this as to to everybody, kind of as a thank you for your service. And truly, you could have you can go buy these tickets for like eight or nine dollars. And he's like, because I opened the mail and I took them to him and he goes, like, send those back. Right? I mean, and and truly, eight or nine dollars, I think, is what it costs you to walk up and buy that ticket. And he was so sensitive to the idea that um I could be accused of of receiving gifts and being bought. He's like, you know, an eight or nine dollar ticket to the county fair, is anybody gonna like freak out about that? No, but that was he understood kind of the dynamic and the concern, and he had very bright lines and and he honored those very strictly. And I and I obviously respect that a lot. And so he's not a guy who ever got caught up in these things. But there is a for legislators, you have to decide am I just gonna pretend I'm not corruptible and try to hold myself as out as that and take whatever comes to me, but say, oh, I promise I'm neutral, I'm not being influenced by that. Um, and I just don't think that's human nature. And so when you allow a lobbyist and people who you know are gonna lobby you to pay for, you know, a fun time in Kentucky with a bunch of bourbon and horse races, I mean, caveat emptor kind of.

SPEAKER_00 19:42

Yes, there are all sorts of temptations and things to get wrapped up into in the political world. But I'm curious, Joseph, like how much does this bother you? Do you think, you know, are you outraged that this was going on? I mean, what do you think about it?

SPEAKER_02 19:58

Well, it you know, it's almost, am I outraged? I'm just not surprised, right? It's like the the on on one level, because this kind of networking, no matter how hard you try to write rules, and you do want to have rules against bribing, against against accepting gifts and requiring sometimes, you know, like you'll go to lunch or something and somebody will pay for it. And and the ethics rules that I'm familiar with say, you know, if if the lunch is more than $50, then you have to report it. Part of the problem here for the lawmakers is that these gifts were generally not reported. Only one member who was on the gift on the tour reported the gift, and that indicates that he knew about it. And that, you know, to his credit, he was like, Yeah, I received this gift, and so I want the public to know about it. And the and the reason the disclosure requirements exist, or so the public can decide, oh, is that inappropriate or not? Right. But when you hide things, then it starts looking a little more problematic, like maybe you didn't know that stuff. So um I I would like to believe that everybody understands and complies with the law. When things like this are not disclosed, that is problematic to me. It is also not surprising to me because I think honestly, in so much of politics, um, the things that are so normal to them, they forget that it's not supposed to be normal, right? It's like the things that they say in private sometimes slip out in public with the press and everybody's outraged, but it's the thing they've been saying to each other for decades and decades. They just know not to say it in public, right? And so there's an element of, no, I'm not surprised. But um, yes, people should follow the law. Am I surprised that these trips are being covered by other people? No. And I'm not even like always bothered that people go on trips because sometimes these are actual friendships. And and and when you know, you and I, when we give money to candidates, we give money to candidates that we support because we support them. It doesn't mean that we're bribing them, right? It's like, I like your value system, I want you to get elected, so I'm gonna support that effort. Does that mean I'm bribing them? It it doesn't, um, because sometimes the the Support is because of the position, and the position is not because of the support, right? And it's hard to know that. So I don't know. On a scale of one to ten, I'm kind of like a you know, I'm a five. I this shouldn't have happened. I I I wish it hadn't happened. It's sloppy. It shows, I think, bad judgment. Um, does it mean that everybody involved in this situation is, you know, committing bribery? Maybe not, in that, in that sense, no.

SPEAKER_00 22:30

Part of the background that I think is a little bit interesting is that in August of 2024, there was a complaint filed with the State Ethics Commission, the Secretary of State's office, and the Wake County District Attorney's Office about Greater Carolina, this nonprofit. Um, and the the complaint was alleging these these violations of lobbying and ethics laws, and it was filed by a left-leaning nonprofit based in Carlborough called Carolina Forward. So here we have Carolina Forward, this left-leaning nonprofit filing this complaint against Greater Carolina. This uh, it's it is a right-leaning. I mean, they said their original purpose when they were organized was to um, it's a 501c4 that their purpose was to um educate people about the harms of sports betting and also I think free market capitalism, um, the importance of free market capitalism. So you've got the left-leaning nonprofit kind of outing this whole situation that involves this right-leaning nonprofit.

SPEAKER_02 23:49

Well, as they would. Everybody involved here is a Republican. Everybody who went on these bourbon trips, right? And so, yeah, the left would have the opportunity to do that. Um, and certainly the reason to want to like, you know, elevate this story, have charges so that they can use that in in, especially now that we are in an election season. Um, but that does not mean that nothing bad happened. And and the reason why the charges have come against the lobbyists and not against the lawmakers themselves is because it seems that there's reason to believe the lobbyists did this on purpose. It's like, hey, we can't pay for this directly, so why don't we send up an end set up an entity, fund the entity, and then that entity can do the things that we're not supposed to do. Um, maybe it seemed clever, but if that is in fact what happened, they clearly got caught. And um, you know, the hard part for the people involved, the lobbyists, many of whom are lawyers, they could lose their lobbying license forever, and they could lose their law licenses as well, which if you're lawyers, a big deal, because that's where you, you know, that's how you make your money. So this is not the the criminal charges are misdemeanors, right? So we're not talking like decades in prison. That's not right at risk for them. But could be huge uh professional uh losses here if you if you lose your ability to lobby, which is what you do, and you lose your uh your law license. So uh that's much more than nothing.

SPEAKER_00 25:17

Yeah. And I just think it's interesting to note, too, for people who aren't in the political world, you know, this is how this is how it works. You in politics, you always have, you know, you always have enemies. You always have people who are looking after you, and oh, you know, where can we get them? And is there something that we can expose? And um yeah, it's just it's interesting. Um don't give them fuel.

SPEAKER_02 25:44

That's that's the lessons, boys and girls. There are people trying to destroy you. Uh so one more incentive to do the right thing. They'll make it up if they can, uh, but just don't give them ammo and and and make it easy for them to do so. So we'll keep tracking this. Interesting to see if this is gonna be relevant in the election. Is the public even gonna know about it? My guess is no. I think very, very few people. Although it might be raised as an issue for the individual legislators involved. I could I could see their opponents, you know, doing some mail on these things um and trying to make an issue. You know, we'll see. We will see. But actually, one quick story I want to get to um before we get out of here. Not from North Carolina, actually from very far from North Carolina. This one's from Germany. And basically, um, I think this just kind of speaks to state of mind about how the left is causing problems for itself, because Germany released somebody that they knew to be affiliated with terrorism uh from prison, who on July 25th uh attacked a bunch of people in Berlin very near a Pride Parade. And we don't know if the Pride Parade is a coincidence or if that was the target of the event. But Saturday night, July 25th, a van was driven into a crowd in Tiergarten Park. The attacker then went after people with a machete. One woman was killed, and 29 others were injured. Now, the man was identified by Germany's interior minister as Abdul Ballout, I think is how that's pronounced. He's a 21-year-old German citizen with Lebanese roots. Interior minister Alexander Dobrindt said Ballout was born in Germany, and his mother was naturalized in tw in 2002. So this isn't necessarily an immigration issue, right? But police described him as being part of Berlin's Islamic scene and someone who was known to authorities. Ballout shared ISIS propaganda on Instagram in 2024 and the following year traveled to Lebanon, quote, with the intention of proceeding from there to Syria to join ISIS. So Germany had known he went to Syria to try to join ISIS. He was arrested and sentenced to three months in prison, returned to Germany in November of 2025. He was then prosecuted in Germany for, quote, preparing a serious act of subversive violence after his failed attempt to join ISIS. But his German sentence was suspended. He was sentenced to a year and 10 months in jail, but this was suspended partially in recognition he had art of time spent in jail in Lebanon in pretrial detention, and partially because he admitted to the crime and distanced himself from ISIS. So he said, I'm so so sorry for being a terrorist. And so they said, Well, as long as you're so, so sorry, I guess we will uh allow you to be released uh for time served. Uh this part I really like as well. Um, under the terms of his parole, he was required to attend 26 counseling sessions with a quote, counseling group on de radicalization and extremism prevention. He went to two of those meetings during which employees said his answers appeared calculated and insincere. He was due to attend his third session when he started to do terrorism. Terrorists are learning from all of this.

SPEAKER_00 29:20

Oh my gosh. Okay, so this actually reminds me of a Wall Street Journal opinion article that I read that it just talks about this entire problem of we're gonna counsel people instead of giving them consequences. And it's titled Restorative Justice Brings Violent Schools. And it kind of explains how restorative practices, social, emotional learning, and restorative justice, these policies, uh administrators basically, if there's an offending student, like they've hit another student or something like that, they are invited to reflect in a soothing place on the feelings of trauma that led them to do what they did. And they are invited into a quote, restorative circle with school staff and other students where they can share their feelings and others in the circle can talk with them about how peace in the community might be restored. So it's not just a criminal justice system issue. It's also, you know, this kind of this whole idea of um we're just gonna love people so hard and help them deal with their feelings uh instead of punishing them, essentially, is alive and well in our schools. And this article noted how it basically didn't work. And there was skyrocketing truancy, serious misbehavior, and declining achievement in the schools where they implemented this. And it's pretty, I mean, it's not hard to see why, you know. Um when you, whether it's in a school setting or whether it's in the justice system when there aren't consequences, and when you don't take um misbehavior or crimes seriously, it's just going to keep happening. And I do think when we're treating the children this way in the schools, and then they go out into the real world, you know, we basically trained them to expect the fact that there won't be consequences. And um, I mean, the idea that you can counsel a terrorist out of being a terrorist is crazy. And I think counseling is great, but this isn't a counseling issue.

SPEAKER_02 31:40

Yeah, a defining characteristic of leftism to me is their explanation for why people do bad things. And they don't believe that sin exists and they don't think there's anything inherently wrong with humanity and human nature, and so the reason people do bad things is because somebody did something bad to them.

SPEAKER_00 32:03

That can be true sometimes, by the way. Well, but I don't think that it means I don't think it means though that you remove consequences. We can have compassion for people if they've had traumatic or difficult pasts without removing the consequences that have been set um for whatever that infraction was.

SPEAKER_02 32:25

I don't in this case, I don't think consequences matter because you're dealing with a radicalized worldview, and he didn't need to be punished, he had to be controlled. Because when when when you are you that's what I think they miss is that it doesn't, I mean, he did some time-served whatever, but the problem is they didn't they don't recognize what they're dealing with because they don't think it's really when you say controlled like he should have been incarcerated, definitely. When when somebody's trying to, you know, but that is a consequence, but I mean that's weird.

SPEAKER_00 32:54

That's a consequence.

SPEAKER_02 32:56

Yeah, but it's not even like I'm gonna, you know, shame on you, naughty, naughty, naughty boy, don't do it again, or we're gonna do this again. They don't care how many times you do it again. You you're dealing with somebody who genuinely wants to destroy other people and kill them uh because of who they are and what they believe. And so that has to be controlled, right? And that's kind of what, you know, Israel has understood about their neighbors and why it's like constant vigilance and constant war. It's one of the things that, you know, this whole war in Iran, as much as I hate it, um, Trump seems to understand that, you know, you have to take Iran at their word when they say they want to kill, is they want to kill everybody in Israel and everybody in the United States, and they've been trying to get nuclear war, weapons, right? You have to believe them when they say these things. And so when you have a guy in your town who says, Oh, I want to go join ISIS and I want to be a terrorist, and then he's like, Oh, I didn't mean it if I can say I'm sorry and then get out of jail. I mean, it's just, it's just such naivete about the nature of good and evil that exists and taking evil seriously. And it is the reason this isn't an open border problem because he was born in Germany, but it is the reason that so much of Western Europe has imported all of this worldview is because they pretend, I mean they they just, I think, in many cases, choose not to understand the nature of this worldview and this ideology because it seems and feels judgmental. Is every Muslim a terrorist? Of course not. Are there a lot of them? Yes. Can they do a ton of damage? Yes. And acknowledging that problem for a lot of people on the left feels racist, it feels judgmental, it feels mean. So we just make a choice not to take it seriously. And then this is the kind of stuff that happens. So totally preventable in in my view, but I think it's worth understanding kind of what happened here.

SPEAKER_00 34:46

Yeah. Well, he didn't just say he wanted to be a terrorist and associate with terrorists, he also had a criminal history.

SPEAKER_02 34:53

So of actually doing stuff, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 34:55

Right.

SPEAKER_02 34:56

Right, right. So, I mean, you know, but if you don't want to see something, you're not gonna see something. And uh, I think in this case the German authorities didn't want to see something. But let's hopefully let let's hopefully learn from this and and do better. So, friends, that's our show for today. Thank you for joining us today on Politics for Happy People, despite all the challenges. We remain happy because ultimately our joy uh and our hope is set on eternity once everything is fixed, not on the fact that everything's gonna go well this week and everybody's gonna make good decisions. So, uh, we do look forward to our next conversation. Quick reminder new episodes every Tuesday and Friday. Make sure you like and subscribe where you found this one, and we will see you then.