The Nick Fuentes Phenomenon

[00:00:00] Foreign Nick Fuentes is one of the most popular and most controversial commentators in today's new media landscape. We're going to take a look at his work today and whether it's a good idea for Catholics to align with him. Hello, I'm Eric Sammons, your host. Aaron chief of Crisis magazine. Before we get started, you know what to do. Smash that like button, subscribe the channel, let other people know about what we're doing here. I really do appreciate when you do that and we're growing the audience want to just continue to do that, let other people know about what's going on around these parts. Also, I want to put another plug my my science fiction novel is coming out very soon. I just got my first physical copy of of it, Shard of Eden. So just go shardofeden.com to pre order it. I have not yet got the batch a big A box in order to ship out to the pre orders yet. Hopefully we'll get them within the next week or so. But I got my first kind of advanced copy. It looks great. I'm very happy with how it turned out as far as just the, you know, the presentation aspect of it. I believe it's a very good story. I think people will like it. But also was happy with the COVID and with, you know, the way it's laid out, all that. So go to shardofeden.com that's shortofeden.com and you can pre order that also. I have to Note Today is October 21st as we're doing this live and today is the feast of Blessed Carl of Austria. [00:01:31] Blessed Carl, of course is one of my favorite saints. He's not can I saint yet but you know what I mean. Here of course is his. I have right here a bust of Blessed Carl. And so I would urge you to ask for Blessed Carl's intercession for peace in the world, particularly peace in the Middle east and peace in the Ukraine. Part of the Ukraine was under his dominion at one point in time. [00:01:56] Also I'm excited about this that in Dallas, Texas next March, March 6, March 7, 2026 to be a Blessed Carl Symposium, the 5th annual. I'm going to be one of the speakers and I'm very excited. I've gone to it a number of times. My first time being a speaker and so sign up for that. Go to I think it's blessedcarl.org blessedcarl.org to sign up for that. [00:02:18] Okay, so I think we can get into the topic of the day now. [00:02:22] So which is Nick Puentes. So who exactly is Nick Fuentes? What's interesting is if you're on social media a lot, if you're online a lot, you know exactly who Nick Fuentes is. However, there's a lot of people, especially older people, who really don't know who he is. They're not on social media very much, so they don't really know who he is. I'll get. Just briefly, I'll just say who he is. He's a. [00:02:44] A young. I think he's 27 right now. Political commentator. [00:02:47] He has a. [00:02:49] He's Catholic and he talks about his Catholic faith a lot. He's not a trad. This is a mistake people. Misconception people have about him that he's a traditional Catholic. He's not. I mean, he would never say he is. And he has some significant critiques of traditional Catholics of the tlm. [00:03:07] So, you know, he's not traditional Catholic, but he is Catholic. Like I said, he talks about a lot. [00:03:11] He's extremely controversial. [00:03:14] He's risen to fame. He rose to fame really, in his teens, in his late teens for being very critical of Israel, which got him canceled by the right. [00:03:25] And it turned him into kind of this shock jock type for those older people. Know what I'm talking about? Shock jock type of commentator and provocateur. [00:03:36] The biggest claim against him is that he's racist, he's anti Semitic, misogynist, probably all those things. [00:03:43] And so, like I said, he's extremely popular, though. His shows get. He has a show on primarily on Rumble, and it gets. Each show gets at least 600,000 views. That's 600,000 views. So he. And he does multiple shows a week, so he gets millions of views each week. [00:04:04] He's extremely popular with young men in particular. [00:04:07] That's his. His main audience is young men like him, obviously. [00:04:12] And he has some very passionate defenders online. We'll just say that they very strongly defend him. They're kind of called groipers. I know Gripers isn't just connected to him, it's before him even. But that's kind of the general term for his. The people who support him and defend him. He's called a white nationalist. If you look him up, like on Wikipedia or something like that, he'd be called a white national. [00:04:36] And so that's basically who he is. And like I get for people who aren't in the Internet world, they might not think, what's the big deal about Nick Fuentes? I've never even heard him. The man on the streets Never heard of him. But the reality is he's very. He's very popular. He's very big. [00:04:54] And so just to ignore him or dismiss him, I think does a disservice both to him, but also to all the people who follow him, all the people who are his fans, who, who listen to him every day or very often. I don't think we should just dismiss this and act like, oh, if we act like it doesn't exist, it'll go away, or something like that, or not take it seriously. I think it's. It's important that we engage in these things, that, that. And recognize Nick Fuentes leads a very popular, very strong movement. Not saying he's Donald Trump level, but he's big. He's big. [00:05:30] So I want to talk about then, like, as Catholics, I mean, I know he's Catholic, but as Catholics, should we. What's our perspective? What should be towards somebody like Nick Fuentes, towards him specifically? But before I do, I do want to address an underlying issue involved with this whole discussion, and that's a generational divide. [00:05:51] We are seeing this very much so today, that every generation, Boomer, Gen X, Millennial, Gen Z, whatever you want, whatever it is, they. They refuse to listen to any other generation. [00:06:06] They basically dismiss, mock, denigrate every other generation that's not theirs. I'm Gen X. I know I've done it towards Boomers. [00:06:16] I probably shouldn't have, but, like, it's just this idea. The truth is, though, there are differences, first of all, between the generations. What they grew up with. How I grew up in the 80s is not the same as somebody who grew up in 2000 and tens. I'm the first to admit that. I'm not saying we have the exact same issues, had the exact same experience or anything like that. [00:06:37] That being said, two things. First is there are truths that are timeless and beyond generations. [00:06:45] And so if you hear something from somebody, another generation that kind of falls in their generation, don't just be so quick to dismiss it as, oh, that's just a boomerasm, or what, or that's just generic ex people, whatever, you know, be willing to understand that people that there are truths that, that. That go beyond any individual generation. How we are to live is not different for me than it is for somebody who's Gen X or somebody who's Boomer, somebody's millennial. We're all called the holiness. [00:07:16] We're all called to live a life of Christ in us, no matter what our generation is. Secondly, I do think we should listen to the wisdom of our elders. I think it's a very bad thing that we've turned into this whole idea that basically you don't listen anybody outside your generation in particular, you don't listen to people older than you. And to be honest, I understand the irony of what I'm about to say. [00:07:40] I blame the boomers. [00:07:43] The reason I blame the boomers is because they kind of, they kind of abdicated from their duty to be the wise elders because they were so self centered. And of course, I don't mean every boomer. [00:07:58] Obviously there's very good and holy people who are boomers. Scott Hahn is part of the baby boomer generation and I, and I think very highly of him. And there's others. I mean, there's plenty of them. [00:08:08] But as we know is a generational whole. But what it did was it got people to basically be like, I'm not listening to these people because they're, they don't understand what it's like to be me. Also, even the whole phenomenon of like generations, like this is a modern conceit, It's a modern thing. Do you really think somebody in 1320 was like, I'm nothing like the guy who was born in 18, I'm sorry, in 1280. I mean, by goodness, the whole world's different. Course not. Now, the world does change a lot more quickly right now. [00:08:39] And so generations do experience different things now. But the same time is, you know, we should recognize that because some of my criticism, I know what's going to happen. Some defenders of Nick Fuentes are going to say, oh, he's just Gen X. Probably call me a boomer even though I'm not. But I understand they're basically just saying, I'm not going to listen to him. Here's something else we need to remember. [00:09:00] Just because something appeals to young people doesn't make it good. [00:09:04] Just because something appeals to young people doesn't mean good. So if you say, but look at all the young people, he's reaching, you know what else reaches young people? Pornography. Are we going to say pornography is good because it reaches so many young people? No. [00:09:17] So just by the fact that somebody's popular with young people doesn't mean it's automatically a good thing. Now we should look at it and say, what is it about it that's popular? I mean, obviously pornography, we know it's because of evil and fallen nature, but we should look at somebody like Nick Fuentes. Why is he popular with young people? What is it about him? And there might be some Very good things about that. But just being popular with young people and appealing to them does not mean it's a good thing. So I'm trying to say here is Gen Zers, don't dismiss every criticism as a boomerasm. Don't say everything that somebody says who's older is like, okay, we don't have to listen to that person because they're older. They don't understand what it's like to be a young person today. Do I understand exactly what it's like? No. But do I understand what it's like to be a human? [00:10:02] Yeah. Do I understand what it's like to be a teenager? What's like to be in the twenties? All these things? Yes. Also, I talk to a lot of people who are young, young people, and I understand what they're, I try to understand what they're saying and listen to them, but sometimes they're just wrong. [00:10:18] And sometimes Gen Xers are wrong. I get that boomers are wrong sometimes, Millennials are wrong sometimes. So let's keep that in mind. So my purpose today is I'm not here to bash Nick Fuentes. I'm not here to call for canceling Nick Fuentes. I think we need to take him seriously. Like I've already said, I think we need to take him and his followers very seriously. [00:10:38] But I want to consider him and his movement holistically, from a Catholic perspective. What I mean by that is I'm not going to be critiquing and analyzing all his political views. [00:10:49] Those might be important, but they're not most important to me. What I think matters more is, is, is he helping us draw closer to Christ? Is he helping us understand the world from a Catholic perspective better? [00:11:04] Is he doing these things? Is he modeling to us a life that we should live as Catholics, you know, a more holistic. I'm not asking that he be a saint. [00:11:14] I don't think any of these public commentators, whether it be me or Taylor Marshall or Matt Fradd or whoever, I'm not saying any of them are saints, that we're supposed to act exactly like them. But I am saying, though, are they helping us or hurting us in that, in that most important thing? Not political politics is important, but it's not the most important thing. So that's, that's my perspective now. Recently, Fuentes has been on kind of a, a media campaign or whatever you want to call it. [00:11:40] He, he was interviewed on Patrick Bet David show a couple weeks ago. I, I, I listen that entire, that's the first time I really Listened to him in depth. I've heard clips of his. I've seen a few of his shows. Not full shows, but I've seen parts of his shows. But I listen to. I was like, okay. And then I listened to him on Dave Smith show. I listen to Dave Smith show a lot, and I heard him on Dave Smith show. And I really appreciate, first of all, that both Patrick Bet David and Dave Smith had him on their program because I don't believe that. I hate the idea of canceling people for something they said or whatever. I'm not saying you have to have every single person on your program. If you don't want somebody on your program just because he's not interesting you to you, you don't like him, you don't have to have them on. But that's more that happened more than that when it came to Nick Fuentes. And so to be honest, listening to them, to him, I was like, okay, I appreciate him a bit more than I did before. I admit I dismissed him for a number of years without really taking him very seriously, and I probably shouldn't have done that. But, you know, it's hard. There's so many people out there. [00:12:43] You can't like, analyze and check out every single person on the Internet and you know, what, what you think about them. [00:12:50] We make quick, snap judgments all the time. So I wanted to give him a little bit of a look into Morse. I listened to more of his programs, his own show, and really tried to see where he's coming from. And I've talked to people who are big Nick Fuentes fans in person, and I've tried to hear what they had to say. [00:13:06] So first, I just want to say some things I like about Nick Fuentes and some things I think are good about him. First of all, I think he's right in what he's reacting to, the problems he's reacting to. I agree with him. They are problems. Now, of course, I would say the same thing sometimes about like something like Bernie Sanders. I think some of the things Bernie Sanders reacts to, he's right that they're wrong. Now, his, his solutions are usually worse. [00:13:28] So just because Fuentes is right about some stuff doesn't. About, you know, perceiving a problem doesn't necessarily mean his solution is right. Doesn't mean it's wrong either. [00:13:38] I also think he makes some very good points, like, for example, the influence of Israel on American politics. I think he's absolutely 100% right to, to be focused on that. I do think Israel has too Great of an influence on our country. [00:13:54] And so I think that's important. I think that's good also. I think it's good how he emphasizes the importance of maintaining culture. [00:14:02] I do think culture matters. Now we're going to talk in a moment about the relationship between race and culture, which I think he confuses. But just the idea that, yeah, we should not just give our culture away. Now America has a weird culture because it's like a mix up and not really one and kind of different ones in different areas, but just the idea that culture matters and that we should defend our culture. Like, I think what's happening in England is awful. How they're losing their English culture, their historic culture. And I think it's awful. With the rise of immigrants and just the wokeness and all that, I think that's awful. And I think it's great that people are finally stepping up and talking about that. And I want to give Nick Fuentes credit. He was one of the first really doing it and he was. And he was getting attacked and canceled for it. So I want to commend him for that. I also. He talks about his Catholicism a lot. He talks about Catholicism a lot. He promotes it. I mean, you know, I checked out like one of his videos the other day. Like it's a six hour video on Rumble, but like he actually doesn't join it until about four hours in. It's just like some screens and music and he's got like the Nicene Creed up there and he's got like different Catholic things up there. So he's very unapologetic about being Catholic. And I always appreciate anybody like that, that, that is not afraid of their Catholicism. They talk about it. I also want to note that I think Nick Fuentes is extremely talented and intelligent. He's clearly intelligent. He's far more talented than I ever will be at this medium of podcasting and commentating and things like that. I mean, the guy, if you, if you try to act like he's just an idiot or whatever, you just, you're. You're being an idiot. He's very, he's very intelligent. He's also very talented in what he does sometimes. I think he uses that talent for ill. [00:15:49] For bad things, but doesn't mean he's not talented. [00:15:53] Also, I do think it appears that he does seem to be maturing. I think the Charlie Kirk, his reaction to Charlie Kirk assassination is a great example of this, I do think. I mean, he's 27 now. He really came into the public era when I was like 19 or so. I mean, I don't know about you, but I was an idiot when I was 19. So I tried to be somewhat gentle in my judgments of a 19 year old in the public eye. [00:16:16] And I also think that he has been treated unfairly. I mean, honestly, I think in the, in the. [00:16:21] Ben Shapiro is a bad guy in this story. I'm not saying that makes Nick Fuentes a saint, but Ben Shapiro is a bad first. I just think Ben Shapiro is bad for America after the conservative movement. I mean, he's obviously right. Ben Shapiro on a lot of things, but his Israel first type of attitude and the way he goes after anybody who even questions the influence of Israel and what they're doing over there is just not good. And, you know, he basically was the one who led the charge to cancel Nick Fuentes. And I think that's awful. Instead of just saying, okay, maybe he's got a few points there about maybe Israel is a little too influential in our country's politics and on the right. Why don't we look into that? No, it was like, let's just go all attack, nuke him from orbit that he cannot be part of the conversation anymore. And I think honestly, what that did was that backfired. [00:17:13] It's led to what we have now where tons of young people have abandoned people like Ben Shapiro and they, and they've embraced people like Nick Fuentes because of the Israel stance alone. [00:17:22] So I think it backfired. But I do think he was, he was the bad guy here. Okay, so let me. Now, I do think Nick Fuentes has a lot of problems. I do think there's a lot of problems associated with him. This is not just a hand wringing of boomers trying to cancel. Like I said, I don't want him canceled. I think he should be allowed to have a YouTube channel. I think he should be allowed, you know, he should be allowed to speak things like that. I think it's good when he. Other people invite him onto their podcast. I think that's a good thing. [00:17:49] Also, this is not like, like nitpicky stuff like the whole contra, the kind of pseudo controversy about the group chats, the Republican group chats. Oh, no, they're racist. Whatever. You know, I care more about people shooting people in the neck and, you know, fathers and husbands in the neck in front of thousands of people and bombing innocent, you know, people in, in Gaza or wherever than I do about what some young people might say in a private group chat. So I'm not talking about the that level of criticism of Nick Fuentes. [00:18:18] So what are my problems? First of all, I just want to say that I think, I think it's very difficult not to have issues when it comes to when you have a three. Well, not three hour, but he has hours long podcasts. He does most days. [00:18:37] And I think in the age of social media and the Internet, in the age we're living in now, that almost guaranteed that you're going to be over the top. You're going to say a lot of things that you shouldn't say because that's what brings in viewers. I know that. I mean, I've been podcasting now for about four and a half, five years here on Crisis, and we have a small, smaller audience. I don't have a Nick Fuentes level audience. I don't claim to have that, but one of the reasons is because I refuse to do the purposely provocative clickbait, but also just like say things that will then be clipped and become go viral because they're so outlandish and crazy. I do say some outlandish things, but I really do believe them. [00:19:19] And I think it's a problem when you have that many hours to fill every day on commentary. You're gonna, you know, trying to get an audience online. You're just gonna say some really bad stuff. And so I think that's, that's one of the things that he has, I think, you know, honestly, I think Rush Limbaugh might be the only person who was able to kind of pull this off, have a three hour show every day and not go completely crazy. I mean, he, you know, this is an outlandish things, but everybody knew with Rush how it was said in jest often things like that. So I think that's one issue. [00:19:49] My first thing though, I really want to specifically criticize Nick Fuentes for and call me a boomer, call me an old lady, I don't care. [00:19:58] It's the relentless cursing and crude talk that he engages in on his podcast. [00:20:06] It's not just saying the F bomb, which I don't really think we should be saying very often. It's, he says some really disgusting things. Some very, like, crude things. That is not a good example for Catholics. Now, I'm not a prude. I mentioned before, I listened to Dave Smith. Some Dave Smith, he drops the F bomb regularly on his show. When he gets really upset, he drops it even more. And I listen to it. I'm not like somebody who's like, oh, if somebody says the F bombers, I refuse to listen to them. Well, first of all, also, Dave Smith is not claiming to be a Catholic. He's not claiming. I mean, he's Jewish, and he's not like claiming to be a moral example to anybody. And so it's not that I'm saying, okay, you can never say these words, but I do think if you're gonna put yourself out there as this Catholic example, saying the things he says on a regular basis, it's not good for the soul, for people, for the person who says it, for people who listen to it. I could not listen to him regularly simply for that reason alone. Even if every. His political analysis was perfect. Everything's the way he talks and the way he talks about people and what he calls them and things like that. I mean, I wish I could give examples here, but I don't want to do that on a family program. [00:21:16] I don't want to give the actual examples, but they're bad. [00:21:19] And so I just think that that impacts us. [00:21:22] Like I said, call me a boomer, call me an old maid or whatever, but the fact is, I really do believe the saints aren't talking like that. You know, holy people I know are not talking about people who are serious about their holiness. Don't talk like that. I'm not saying you never drop, you know, drop an F bomb once is sends you to hell, anything stupid like that. I am saying, no, that constant vile talk is not good for the soul of person speaking or the person listening. And so choosing to listen to that constantly, I think is not good. [00:21:52] I also want to give a couple. I'm going to talk about some of the more bigger issues, but I'll give a couple examples also of some things he did recently. These are just recent ones. [00:22:00] Recently he was. Somebody asked him on his program, what's your favorite feast day? And basically his answer was to mock the question and mock the idea of having favorite feast days. Now, I do know he later tried to play it off as a joke, but honestly, that's a problem too. [00:22:19] So first I want to say that mocking piety is never good. [00:22:25] Mocking piety is never a good thing because you're mocking things that are sacred, things that are holy, people trying to be Catholic. Yes, I do know there's something kind of funny sometimes about the people at, you know, I see them at traditional, at mass parishes, of course, you know, where they look overly pious and deal stuff. But honestly, when I see them, I think, okay, these are people trying to be holy. Maybe they're a little too outward about the way they do it or whatever. Maybe they're just a little too over the top, you know, whatever, but they're trying. [00:22:57] And I would never, ever mock that. I don't think any Catholic, any Catholic who's like a mature Catholic would never mock people trying to exercise, you know, have piety. They would never do that. [00:23:09] And yet he did. [00:23:11] And so, you know, and the idea that later he's. It was just a joke. It's just a joke. [00:23:17] I think that's a problem too, because that's what gaslighters do. That's what manipulators do, to be honest, that's what con artists do. When you criticize them, they're like, oh, I was just joking. And they make it like you're the problem. They say something outlandish. And then when you call them out and say that was outlandish, they say, oh, oh, you're just, you know, you didn't get the joke. You don't understand what I was saying. You know, you, you know, put in contact stuff. That's what manipulators do. So they never have to face criticism. They never have to look at themselves and say, you know, maybe I shouldn't have said that. Maybe that was a problem. Maybe I need to like, you know, watch what I say and how I think and why is it that I look down on people who are practicing piety? [00:23:57] Maybe they're doing it outlandish, like I said. But, you know, why should I? I should never mock the things that are God of God. I should never mock people trying to get closer to God, having favorite feast days, things like that. I mean, every Catholic I know who's serious about their faith takes feast days. And this is traditional Latin mass, Novus ord, doesn't matter. Converts, cradles, if they're serious about their faith, they take feast days seriously. They do things in their family to like, you know, recognize certain feast days during the year. They try to do piastic practices to draw closer to Christ, help their families draw closer to Christ. He would never mock that. That's why I want to say I question, like, his, his attitude towards the faith. He's going to mock things like that. And like I said, if he's just saying he's joking about it, that's a problem too. You really. And I think this is actually something I've noticed with him in a few cases, you know, in his interviews, but also in his own show, is he's very thin skinned about criticism now. Okay, I do want to say if you are put on blast at The Age of 19 by Ben Shapiro and others and canceled. I get that you're going to be sensitive. I, I totally understand that. But I do think as he's become more and more prominent, he gets older, he needs to drop some of that thin skinness. When somebody. Chris, when people's Chris, and all of a sudden he sees a bunch of faithful Catholics say, dude, you shouldn't be mocking, you know, piety. He should at least accept. I can say, okay, maybe I went overboard on that one. I was trying to make this point. I probably spoke out of turn in how I said it. I was just trying to say, don't make your faith completely an outward thing. It should be more inward. Okay, fine. But he needs to be able to do that. [00:25:36] You know, he needs. And, and honestly, just the whole mocking, the constant mocking and cynicism, that's spiritually unhealthy. I mean, if you watch him long enough, you see he mocks everything. He's cynical about everything. He's never. I mean, I know he takes things serious. I don't want to say he doesn't take things seriously, but that's his go. To move is to mock is mockery and cynicism. There are things that deserve mockery. [00:26:00] You know, Anthony Fauci deserves mockery. Kamala Harris deserves mockery. I'm not saying we don't mock things. I do it at times on social media myself. [00:26:09] But when it's always mockery and cynicism, that's not healthy for the soul and it's not healthy for people listening to that constantly as well. Another example, and this is another example, and I know people can be like, ah, this isn't a big deal, but I kind of feel like it does say something about the person. [00:26:26] Somebody was talking about asking about Lord of the Rings vs. Game of Thrones and he went off railing on gain on. On Lord of the Rings, saying how much better Game of Thrones is. And he was basically saying, is all. He was kind of mocking again, mocking Lord of the Rings as, you know, the power of friendship and hobbits and things like that and like Game of Thrones. So it has people getting their heads cut off, stuff like that. [00:26:47] Now, you don't have to like Lord of the Rings, you don't have to dislike Game of Thrones. [00:26:54] But I do think this does say something about the person. If you mock Lord of the Rings, as a Catholic, as, you know, the power of friendship, I think that's like, you're missing something very deep here. And I wonder if you have the ability right now to see something deeper. [00:27:12] I mean, are you. And it does make me question, like the maturity of somebody who. Because it actually has very deep moral themes of loyalty and friendship and things that are all virtues that a very devout Catholic wrote. You know, I saw a criticism. This was. It kind of set off a whole debate on X about Game of Thrones vs Lord of the Rings. And Critical Drinker, who is a commentator on pop culture that I like, he. He was responding to somebody else, not. Not Nick Fuentes, who's saying that Game of Thrones is. Is better than Lord of the Rings. He's saying, saying you like Game of Thrones over Lord of the Rings is basically a self report. That's what they said about. The guy was saying about Nick Fuentes. He's saying it's a self report that you like Game of Thrones better than Nick Fuentes. So Critical Drinker saying you like Game of Thrones over Lord of the Rings is basically a self report that you would rather mock heroic virtue, self sacrifice, loyalty and bravery than dare to aspire to them because you know, you could never reach them. [00:28:12] It's nothing but envy, bitterness and bleak nihilism cloaked in smug postmodern intellectualism, desperately trying to position yourself above the very things you can never hope to achieve. And I really think he nails it there. Like I say, he wasn't responding directly to Nick Fuentes here, but I think it, it does take. Tell us something here. You know, this idea of you'd rather mock heroic virtue, self sacrifice, loyalty and bravery than dare to aspire to them. [00:28:37] And frankly, when you mock Lord of the Rings, saying it's just about the power of friendship, I mean, you're mocking virtue, you're mocking things that are, you know, are very important and important for Catholics and it shouldn't be something that you should mock. Like I said, you don't have to like Lord of the Rings, but you shouldn't. You know, mocking it like that I think does kind of show something about you. It is a self report. [00:29:05] Another thing I would say about a criticism of Nick Fuentes is his followers. Now, I want to be careful what I mean here so people understand. [00:29:14] I'm not saying everybody who likes Nick Fuentes is a problem. [00:29:18] I'm not saying everybody listens to him or, you know, defends him on some occasions is a problem. But I am saying it's well known in social media world that his followers are some of the. Can be some of the worst people on the Internet, and they are some of the Nastiest people on the Internet, and they are just disgusting and vile, and they take themselves as being his most devoted followers. Now, I don't blame him entirely for this because it's not like everybody's responsible for their own actions. So somebody posts something vile on the Internet, it's your responsibility, the person who posts it. But at the same time, I don't think it's a coincidence that a lot of his followers are like they are, because he can kind of tend towards that. He encourages that behavior by the way he's acted as well. [00:30:04] And so, you know, maybe he has a line that he draws where he says, you know, where he's like, I'm not going to go further than this. But he pushes people who might not be where he is, might not be as mature as he is over that line. And he doesn't seem to. I know at times he will rein them in, but honestly, over the years, he's kind of trained them and, you know, and so I do think this is a legitimate criticism against him, his followers. I don't think it means, you know, I'm not saying he's at fault for every single action of theirs, but I do think it matters. Now, I would say, though, let me move on something else. The biggest criticism, the biggest underlying problem, I think, with Nick Fuentes is his confusion of race and culture. [00:30:49] His confusion of race and culture. Race and culture are not the same thing. And I think Fuentes confuses this. I think it's a major problem for him. I do think they are related. Race and culture are interrelated. I'm not claiming that race has nothing to do with culture and culture has nothing to do with race. But I do think. But I do know they're not the same thing. [00:31:09] I mean, just an example of how he kind of just has. This is like when he was on Easy, I think it was on Dave Smith's show, they were talking about Matt Walsh, the commentator for Daily Wire, Catholic Guy. And he was saying, you know, I like Matt Walsh in a lot of ways. You know, he's. He's got this idea and this idea he's white, and it's something else. And so it's like, I think, you know, I think it's true that, like, when he threw out that he's white, that's a confusion of race and culture. Because what he's saying he, like. I mean, why is he like Matt Walsh? [00:31:45] He didn't really like white Walsh. Why does he say positive things on him? Because he has white skin. [00:31:50] That's really not relevant to the point. I know what he means more than just the fact his white skin, but it really is. He is saying. He's saying he has white skin. So just saying he was Catholic, he's conservative, he has some of the same values I have that he's white. And I know that's kind of a code for some of saying that, but it's a confusion of the two. [00:32:11] Now, one of the reasons that Nick Fuentes is so popular is because he's been willing to criticize the bad aspects of certain cultures in our country. [00:32:23] When the mainstream media, the government institutions, Hollywood, everything has basically made it like you're not allowed to do that. And they've been telling young people, particularly you are a racist if you even consider the idea that maybe perhaps African American culture in this country isn't perfect, isn't immaculate. Now, I've written myself criticism of African American culture, so I'm not one to think that either. [00:32:46] So I'm not saying he's wrong in his criticism. And he was one of the first to do it publicly and he got killed for it. So I get all that. At the same time, though, it's a confusion because if you know history well, you know that races are not bound to a single culture and races mix in a single culture. I mean, look at the example of his own ancestry. His father is Mexican, Fuentes is Mexican. Look at the difference, for example, between South America, Central America culture and the history there and North America. South America and Central America was Catholic in, in the. When the New World, it was Catholic, that influenced it. And up here in North America, Canada, it was Protestant, mostly in America, Protestant. [00:33:38] Well, down in Mexico and other places, they did a ton of intermarrying between races, between the peoples who were here, the native peoples and the people coming in the Spanish and various cultures that were races that came. [00:33:53] But they had, because of our thanks be to God, Our Lady, Guadalupe, they had an overriding umbrella culture of Catholicism that they embraced. [00:34:04] And so that. But here in, in North America, in, in in America, Protestants didn't do that. They basically tried to wipe out the Native Americans. Yeah, there was efforts to convert them, but mostly like this just pushed them off to the side, but pushing the reservations, get rid of them. Whereas down in Central America, South America was much more of an integration between the two. And so I really have a problem. Call me a boomer, I don't care in equating race with culture, they're not the same thing. I think it's very important that we defend our culture. [00:34:39] I don't think culture is, though, the number one thing that we're supposed to defend, number one thing we're supposed to, is Catholicism. [00:34:46] And any culture that's not 100% Catholic can be critiqued and should be improved and shouldn't be defended as the ultimate. I mean, Western civilization is the greatest culture that ever lived. But note, within Western civilization, there's multiple different cultures. It's possible to have multiple cultures within. [00:35:04] Under the umbrella of Catholicism. That was Christendom. That was Christendom. You had, you know, Spanish culture, English culture, German culture, all this Austrian culture, all this stuff back in the Middle Ages, all under the umbrella of Christendom. And these are different races, but they're. They're united under that banner of Christendom. And I think that's the case. It should be the case that we should be trying to do today. So I really do think that his. And honestly, this could be an entire podcast, could be multiple podcasts where we break this down. [00:35:34] But I do think that the equation of race and culture, which he does, maybe he even would explicitly say, I'm not trying to do that, but. But he does, in his way, he talks, is a. [00:35:46] Is. Is a. Is a major problem. [00:35:49] And so ultimately, like, you know, just when I think of Nick Fuentes, like I said, I have good things to say about him. I think he's done, you know, he says some very important things. But ultimately, I don't think Catholics should really support him blindly. In fact, I don't really think we should be that much of fans of him. And I say that not because I disagree with some of the things he says, but because I think some of the things he does are poisonous. I think, you know, the constant mockery, the cynicism, the cursing, the attacking of people who disagree with him in really kind of nasty ways, all those things, I think they're a poison. Like, you could have a wonderful glass of wine, but if there's a little poison in it, it's still going to kill you. [00:36:35] And so he might have some very good things to say and truthful things to say, but if there's poison in there, it's still going to kill you. And again, remember, what I am saying is the most important thing is that we live a life of holiness. We try to be like Christ as much as we can, and if there's things that keep us from that, if my podcast, for example, you believe it keeps you from being holy, drawing close to Christ, do not listen to me anymore. And I Do think that the way Nick Fuentes does things, does. Can turn people away from Christ? [00:37:10] Not in the sense of like they're. I think they would still claim to be Christian. They still would maybe even believe and do many Christian things. But it puts that poison in there that is going to ruin the whole, the whole spiritual life. And it's, this is not about, you know, anti Semitism or racism primarily. And I do think there are cases where he perhaps fosters that. But that's not what I'm saying here. What I'm saying is it's an uncatholic way of behaving and looking at the world, and it's not spiritually healthy. I think that's the biggest problem. [00:37:42] And I think there are better alternatives out there. I mean, I get that he's very popular among young people because the way he does things, I mean, he's very, like I say, he's very talented and he knows how to kind of address young people in a way they would understand. I get all that. And so. [00:37:57] But at the same time, though, the poisonous part, aspects of what he does, I just think are very dangerous for people. [00:38:05] And honestly, I'm not saying, okay, people, you listen to the influencers. [00:38:11] It's okay to have people like that that you listen to. I do that. We all do that. [00:38:16] But the models we should be trying to live out are the saints. That's what we should be looking to, like blessed Carl today. That's who we should be looking to emulate. And what I see too often is people begin to emulate Nick Fuentes. The way he behaves and way he acts when he acts in un Catholic manner. [00:38:36] They imitate that. [00:38:38] Sure. Agree with him on certain political points, but don't imitate the ways he acts that are contrary to the faith. I feel the same way, honestly, about Donald Trump. I mean, I think a lot of good things have come out of Donald Trump's presidency. I voted for him. I think, like I said, he's done many good works. But I do think it's a problem how people thought that the way he acted that we should imitate like Catholics thought. Okay, we're going to imitate the way he acts now. I. No, just because he might be right about some politics doesn't mean we act like he does when he acts in unchristian manner. I, I don't think that that's, you know, I, I don't think that's, you know, legitimate. So. [00:39:16] One final thing I want to say before I get to the, to the, to the live chat and, and get some of your comments about this. [00:39:22] The real problem here, by the way, is not Nick Fuentes. [00:39:26] The real problem is not Nick Fuentes. [00:39:29] The real problem is a whole bunch of effeminate Catholic leaders. [00:39:38] And so what's happened is we have heard our Catholic leaders, particularly our bishops, for decades, speak and act in very effeminate ways. They just refuse to stand up to evil. They refuse to call out when things are wrong in the world. They refuse to say the hard truths because they want to be liked. [00:39:58] You know, they've completely embraced the open borders attitude towards immigration. [00:40:03] That's the real problem because we don't have them to look towards. And so people need to find somebody. That's why Taylor Marshall is very popular and that's why Nick Fuentes is very popular is because it's like, well, we're not hearing it from our Catholic bishops, not hearing from our Catholic leaders. And so that's the. This is a reaction to that Nick Fuentes, his popularity is a reaction to so many decades of effeminate leaders, particularly in the Catholic Church, that people rightly are like, I want to find somebody who speaks, you know, more forthrightly, more boldly, more honestly than these, you know, wolves in shepherd's clothing. So that's the real problem. I want to make sure that clear. You know, I have all these criticism. Nick Fuentes, let's be honest. That's where the real problem lies. Okay, let me get some of the comments here. I appreciate everybody who joins us on Tuesday afternoons for the live chat. [00:40:49] Okay. Fred says we are not loser online kids. We represent a large demographic of well intended young men who have faith in God. Yeah, I don't think you're loser online kids. I do think, to be clear, a lot of his followers act like loser online kids in the sense that I see it, you know, whenever I've said anything about like, you know, pro interracial marriage or even slightly, you know, positive towards Jews, before I kind of lock down some of my comments, I would just get most vile and nasty things said by people who obviously were following him. [00:41:21] So, yeah, there are some loser online kids in his movement, but I'm not claiming, you know, make that very clear. I'm not saying everybody who likes things about him are our problem. Our problem. Stephen says, isn't he Christian? Yeah, he's Catholic. I mean, he makes very clear he's Catholic, but doesn't mean necessarily. Everything he does is something we should emulate. [00:41:38] Jetro Jack04 I like Nick, but he knows very Very little about Vatican II and the differences in teaching and approach before and after. Yeah. It's funny when you listen to Nick Fuentes talk about like Vatican II and like about the papacy and about like more theological areas like that, he's clearly out of his depth. I mean, like I said, the guy is very intelligent. He knows a lot, he's very smart, but he's not studied those issues at all. I mean, he just doesn't know what he's talking about when it comes to, for example, our duties towards the Pope, about Vatican ii, about the differences between the liturgies. He really is ignorant and I'm going to assume ignorance. I don't think he's like bad intention about. I think he's really just ignorant about that. He knows very little about that. So. [00:42:16] Okay. Which is why it's funny that people consider him have called. Can't kind of lump him with the trad Catholics. He's definitely not a trade Catholic and he would never claim to be one. [00:42:25] Kristen says Nick for me is a political leader, not a preacher, though I love when he talks about being chased being Catholic. Yeah. Again, he says good things about being Catholic, you know, being chaste. Those are good things. And I'm not, I'm not criticizing for that. And I think you have the right attitude there of him being a political leader, not a preacher. And our political leader looks Donald Trump is not somebody we should emulate. I'm worried that people try to emulate him and they shouldn't. He's a political leader. Nick Fuentes is the same. Now, I do think Nick Fuentes claims to be this, this strong Catholic. And so he should recognize that the way he behaves and acts does come across as this is how Catholics are allowed to act. I don't know if he knows that, but that's, that's exactly how it does come across with a lot of people. [00:43:07] Escape Velocity says Nick Fuentes is a consequence of the larger Catholic abdication of the role in politics is there's just hardly anyone else out there like him. Yeah. And that's kind of what I was saying at the end, probably before you made this comment. You're absolutely right that Nick Fuente has filled a void. He filled a void that should not have existed. There should have been no void that he had to fill, but he filled it. And so, and again, I'm, I'm assuming good intentions on his part. I think he's, you know, he saw a major problem like first with the Israel problem, with some other problems, and he's like immigration, all that. And he tried to fill it the best he could as a young person. And, and so I commend him for that effort. But I do think there are things we need to be careful about when we're kind of evaluating what he does. [00:43:51] Okay. Will Smith, 2049 says I really think the only valid criticism of him is that he is pretty mean spirited. Besides that, he is fantastic. Yeah. I don't think that's the only like I think that he's wrong about race and culture. [00:44:03] I think he, you know, and the cursing I guess is part of the mean spirit is. But he is pretty mean spirit. You listen to him, he's pretty nasty. [00:44:10] Maybe it's all an act. But again that's not. That doesn't excuse it or justify it, make it mean. It's okay. It still is mean spirited. So okay. Cave bear says Most importantly, Nick is 100 honest. No matter what you think about Nick, you can't deny he speaks his mind without fear. Yeah, I would agree. 100. If I'm listening to things that are good about Nick Fuentes, I do think he's honest. I don't think he's, he's. He's an act and what he says, what he believes. I would say though, I think there's a lot of people out there who are honest. If you don't like what they say doesn't mean they're not being honest. [00:44:40] Like, you know, so other like Matt Walsh. I think Matt Walsh is 100% honest. People don't like that he won't commit to the Israel issue. [00:44:47] But I think he's being honest. I think it's his, his actual views on these things. I don't think we don't. We always want to say, oh, that's just because he's afraid because his boss has been shapir. Stuff like that. I think that's unfair to people. So I think there's more people out there who are honest than we think. I mean I think most politicians are not honest. I think most. A lot of Catholic leaders, bishops aren't always honest. But nick is definitely 100 honest. [00:45:08] Cigar mode says we can't get around the reality that young men are flocking to watching him telling them not to isn't a solution. So what else can be offered? Need a better option. Yeah. And I agree. That's exactly what I'm saying is like just saying don't listen to him. It's not good to listen to him because he is a bad example A, you know, I'm not trying to say that. What I am trying to say though, is as Catholics, we need to be careful about the content we consume. Does it lead us closer to Christ or away from Christ? And I think it can be very, something very subtle and over time like for example, you might start off being like, oh, you know, I just listen for his political commentary. I don't really, you know, listen to the mean spiritedness, the cursing and the vileness and stuff like that. [00:45:47] It seeps into you. It seeps into you whether you want to believe it or not. It does. It's kind of like why you shouldn't watch a movie with nude sex scenes in it. Because even if it's like a regular mainstream movie because it seeps into you and it will lead to worse stuff. And so you don't want that to happen. I do think, though, I mean, I don't, I'm not a big listener to political commentary. I listen to Dave Smith and a few others, but not very many. So I don't necessarily have an alternative right off the top of my head. [00:46:17] But I do think that it's not. Doesn't help me just say, oh, don't listen to him. Okay. Ann Burns, I think we've lost sight of what is a Catholic way of behaving. Yeah, and you're absolutely right. I think that's something like I'm always surprised when I hear good Catholics either wave away or justify some of the things like Fuentes does, the way he says things like, do you really think that's how our Blessed Mother wants us to act? Do you really think that's how the same our Lord wants us to act? Do you really think that's something that we should just act like is no big deal? Sure, if you want to say I agree with him on certain points. He makes some very insightful political commentary. But I really, you know, think that what he's doing is mean spirited and cruel and, and, and vile and all that. I think that's wrong. Well, say that and be willing to say it publicly. Because what I find is when you say that you'll just get attacked a lot of times by his followers and you know, they will defend him just like the Trump followers do sometimes. I don't think we should be following any person here on Earth blindly 100% without exception. I think Fuentes has a lot of followers of his are like that. So does Donald Trump. So do other people. I don't think that's healthy. You should always be willing to be critical of any person here. On earth who is putting themselves out as a leader or as a commentary or anything like that. Obviously, we can follow the saints, we can follow our Blessed Mother, we can follow our Lord most of all. [00:47:35] Okay, I think it was the last comment. Yeah. Rosemary says Catholic commentary. John Z. Merrick thinks Nick F. Is an FBI plant meant to split the conservatives and make them look crazy. I have, and he's not the only one. I've heard that as I think. [00:47:48] I think Tucker Carlson has insinuated that he's an FBI plant. I'm not buying it. I just don't think that's the case. I mean, I think what happens is we're a little too cute about all our, like, you know, conspiracies. And, and anytime something doesn't. We don't agree with somebody or they do something we think kind of harms our moods like that, we want to find a conspiracy behind it. [00:48:10] I think Nick Fuentes is just a sincere guy. It's his person. He's putting himself out there. And he really does think what he, you know, thinks and he says what he said. I don't think he's an FBI plant. And I don't think most of these people. I hear this all the time. FBI plant here, CIA plant there. I just don't think. And people accuse Chuck Carlson of that. Others. I don't think that's the case. I think he's. I think he's a legitimate person, like personality, and he's tapping into legitimate concerns of particularly young men on the right. And I think as long as the. The right kind of tries to act like those concerns don't exist, it just will make Nick Fuentes more popular. And so what I hope is that Nick Fuentes really continues to mature. I think he has matured over the years. I think OBI continues mature. He. I'm hoping he drops a lot of the behavioral issues he has. [00:49:00] He has. And he has a deeper understanding of like, the faith and piety and Lord of the Rings and, you know, and I. I think that's possible. I mean, it's a crazy thing that people, their lives are lived out on the Internet for everybody to see. [00:49:15] I mean, I did stupid things, you know, when I was 19 and, you know, and I was 20 and 21, something like that. It wasn't all on the Internet for everybody to see. So I do think. I do think we should give a bit of a understanding of that. So I think we should pray for Nick Fuentes that he continues to comment well on the good things, attract people to the Catholic faith, but drops and kind of measures his tone and starts getting rid of some of the. The mocking and the vileness and things like that, so. And also the deeper understanding of race and culture. I think, like I said, it's one of his biggest problems. I really think he has to look into that a little more deeply, so. Okay, well, that's it for now. I appreciate everybody in the live chat. I think we had a pretty hopping live chat today. I appreciate that. Until next time, everybody. God love you.