Dinesh D’Souza Talks Left vs. Right, the Sydney Sweeney Controversy, Gynofascism & More!

Adam Carolla Show

Adam Carolla hosts Dinesh D'Souza to discuss his upcoming book on biblical archaeology and the intensifying ideological divide in America. T

Key takeaways

• Dinesh D'Souza details his transition from working at the Hoover Institution and AEI to becoming a documentary filmmaker.
• The discussion posits that progressive movements rely on identity-based narratives regarding race and gender to maintain social control.

Main topics

• Biblical Archaeology
• Political Polarization

Notable quotes

The way to beat Mike Tyson is not to stay away from Mike Tyson. It's to rush toward Mike Tyson.

Conclusion

The episode offers a critical look at the breakdown of political conse

Transcript preview

Speaker 7 (0:00) Well, in this episode, Dinesh D'Souza joins me, also news with Andrew, and we'll do that right after this. BetOnline, hey, it's Adam Carolla from The Adam Carolla Show. Football season is here, and BetOnline is where the action lives. Competitive odds, spreads, totals, player props, and same-game parlays. Live betting keeps you in it from the opening drive to the final whistle. And... When the clock runs out, hundreds of slots, table games, and live dealers, well, they're waiting. Enjoy the freedom of online gaming where the action moves with you and every moment is yours. Visit BetOnline today and discover where the action never stops. Speaker 5 (0:47) Hello and welcome to Pluto Phone. If you know the name of the movie you'd like to see, just stream it for free on Pluto TV where all your blockbuster favorites are landing all summer long. Catch Anchorman, The Legend of Ron Burgundy. Speaker 8 (1:00) Fantastic. Speaker 5 (1:01) The Matrix Trilogy. Welcome to the real world. Mean Girls. Speaker 8 (1:05) Shut up. Speaker 5 (1:06) Titanic. I'm the king of the world. And so much more. For showtimes, press nothing. They're free 24-7. That is so fetch. On Pluto TV. Stream now. Pay never. Speaker 5 (1:24) From Corolla One Studios in Glendale, California, this is The Adam Corolla Show. Adam's guest today, Dinesh D'Souza. Plus the news with Andrew Hobson. And now, Adam Corolla. Speaker 6 (1:37) Yeah, get it on. Got to get it on. No choice but to get it on. A mandate to get it on. Thanks for tuning in. Thanks for telling a friend, Dinesh Speaker 7 (1:44) D'Souza, back after a long layover. But we're glad to talk to Dinesh. Interesting guy. Got a book out. The Stones, Cry Out, not out quite yet, but coming out October 13th. It's a biblical archaeology, prophecy, and the last days. Dinesh, I find a very fascinating guy. It's kind of hard to put you into a category, I guess. But let's just set the table with a little history for you. Born in India, right? Speaker 1 (2:22) Right. I came to America at the age of 17 as an exchange student. I lived in Arizona with four different American families. Very important because that was my kind of period of really starting to assimilate to American life, living in families. Then I went to Dartmouth, graduated in the early 80s, caught the Reagan bug, came to Washington, D.C., and spent... 20 years, more than that, really, in these think tanks, the American Enterprise Institute, the Hoover Institution, later at Stanford here in California, wrote a bunch of books. And then about 2012 is when I pivoted into documentary filmmaking. So today, I'm kind of known as an author and filmmaker. And the film stuff is more recent, started about a decade and a half ago. Speaker 7 (3:16) I know there's certain personalities that really bring out the ire in the other side, like progressives and lefties. Some they're a little more agnostic about. Others get them more angry. I feel like Dinesh D'Souza makes people angry on the other side. Speaker 1 (3:34) Just going back over the last 25 years, there are certain... kind of nerves on which the whole progressive movement rests. Yes. So, first of all, the idea that America is a racist society. Yes, they love it. They love that. They depend on that. They depend on it. Yes, Speaker 2 (3:52) you know, you're correct in that. I say they love it or they like it, but they depend on it. They need it. Speaker 3 (3:58) And a lot of other things Speaker 1 (4:00) are built on top of it. So, you know, for example, the women's movement is built on top of the civil rights movement. The gay rights movement is piggybacking on top of that. The trans on top of that. So they've got a whole pyramid going. So that's one big theme. The other big theme, which is kind of connected to the race issue, is... that the two parties switch sides. This is absolutely critical for them because otherwise all the most vicious crimes of American history fall squarely on the back of the Democratic Party. So they've got to kind of say those crimes are now mysteriously transferred to the Republicans. Right. Speaker 7 (4:36) We're the slavery. And they're the side that were the Jim Crow side, where the slavery side, Abe Lincoln was one of them, you know, that kind of stuff. Speaker 1 (4:46) That kind of stuff. The 2020 election was, it's a very strange election, right? Because let me just put it this way. Obama got about 68 million votes in 2012 and 2008, roughly that amount. And then Hillary got about the same. Now, the demographics were different by 2024. So Kamala got about 75 million votes. So this is sort of the top range of the Democratic Speaker 3 (5:17) Party. But in 2020, and only in 2020, Biden got 81 million. So millions of votes like... materialized for Biden and promptly disappear thereafter. Speaker 7 (5:28) Right. Speaker 3 (5:29) Right. That's inherently odd. Yes. And so but the left dug in really early on this. It's the most secure election in history. So that's another raw nerve for them. So I think the problem is my specialty is sort of raw Speaker 1 (5:45) nerve detection. Yes. And I think this is why they're like, this man needs to be. And this is, I think, why I was prosecuted by the Obama people, because I don't think they cared about whether I went Speaker 3 (5:57) to jail or not. I think their main thing was, how do we put a wrecking ball in this guy's career? That was their goal. Speaker 7 (6:04) Well, they must smear anyone who has information or an opinion that battles with their narrative. So what they do, I mean, we all just saw it through COVID. You have a whole bunch of scientists, guys who worked at Berkeley and Stanford and stuff like that. And it was one big fat smear Speaker 2 (6:25) campaign. So what we have to do is it's essentially like somebody saying there's a village town crier or something. And he says something's Speaker 7 (6:37) happening. You know, the volcano is going to go off. And you think to yourself, I don't want the town to panic. I don't want that information. So I'll just say that guy's drunk. And then we won't listen to him. And then I can get on with my agenda. And so there's a version of that that they did. They did it with COVID. They took all Speaker 2 (6:54) the scientists who had all the training and they just basically called them nutcases and quacks and then dismissed them. And then we immediately got back to, you know, Joe Rogan was nuts. Anybody on the Internet who said something different than what they were saying is nuts. And it's one thing to dismiss. A guy is doing a podcast. It's another thing to dismiss clinicians who've been at these institutions for 30 years applying their trade with all the training in the world. But they were all nut jobs, dangerous, and we just moved on to the next thing. And now we just moved on to AI. Anyone who's pro-AI is nuts and dangerous. So the first thing they do is they smear the person. And they hate you probably more because the people they hate the most especially when they're talking about race, are people that they Speaker 7 (7:47) look at as people of color who are competing with their narrative. That's the worst for them. Speaker 1 (7:53) Right. I mean, the worst thing for them is a person of color plus very well informed on these issues because they cannot afford. Speaker 3 (8:12) Right. Speaker 3 (8:26) But it wasn't Speaker 1 (8:27) the case that they had run us off the campus. But by the time my daughter went a generation later, you would have to go hunting to find a single outspoken conservative. There might have been one or two, but they were hiding under their desks. So the left was successful in moving from—and this is the same thing in Hollywood, right? They moved from domination and imbalance to sort of the ability to hound you out. if they thought that you were making their narrative uncomfortable. Speaker 7 (9:01) Yeah. You know, it's kind of interesting. I had somebody say to me, they were talking about... Sweeney, the actress, and she's getting everyone upset over her sexy campaign and all that stuff. And a woman said to me, she just said, they just can't stand a beautiful blonde. And I said, no, that's not why the left is going after her. The left is going after her because they think she's a Trump voter because she's never said anything pro-Kamala. You know, Taylor Swift. talks about Kamala. Speaker 2 (9:40) If you, you can get on a list and you don't, you don't even have to put your name out there. All you have to do is not be pro all the crap Speaker 7 (9:50) they're for. And you de facto get on onto that list. So they don't hate her and they don't hate the other blonde from the WNBA because they're blonde or beautiful or outspoken or anything. When they start talking about sort of conservative values, they immediately go, that person voted for Trump and we're going after that person. And Speaker 2 (10:12) that's what happened with COVID. If you said, I don't think I should wear a mask, they didn't hear anything about a mask. They heard you're for Trump. And then they would go after you because otherwise. you'd go, I don't want to wear a mask. And they'd go, who cares? I'm wearing a mask. And then they'd get on with their day. But the reason they singled you out and went after you is because they heard I'm voting Speaker 1 (10:34) for Trump. There's a scene in Orwell's 1984 where they're trying to get this guy Winston. They've got him kind of all tied down to admit that two plus two is five. Right. And he's reluctant at first, but eventually he goes, well, this is too much. He goes, all right, there you go. Two plus two is five. And he thinks, well, that's going to satisfy them. But of course it doesn't. Now, why doesn't it? Because they know that inwardly he doesn't believe it. And so they want to stamp out that inward resistance. Speaker 3 (11:07) And Speaker 2 (11:08) I Speaker 3 (11:08) think it's so telling about the left. You'd think they'd be like, all right, well, you know, a bunch of these actors who maybe are more moderate or more conservative aren't saying a word about it. Well, that's a win for us because they could be out there preaching the right-wing message, but they're staying silent. But no, that doesn't satisfy them. They're like, we got to go hound these people unless they are explicitly on our side. We're not satisfied. Speaker 2 (11:31) They never say anything. But you always can tell where the ladies of The View are going to come down Speaker 7 (11:37) on whoever we're talking about, whoever's in the news by sort of how they vote. You know, I'm looking at you, Andrew, but there's a woman. She was an attractive woman. She ran a nail salon or a salon. And I think she just got one, some sort of house seat or some whatever political thing. This was a woman Speaker 2 (12:00) who was a small business owner, a female small business owner. And she defied the laws and said, I'm staying. I'm keeping my salon open. And she was a guest on The View. And all the women from The View who are for women empowerment all attacked her. Because she wasn't perceived as a strong woman business owner who was doing what was right for her community, her clients and her employees. She was a potential Trump voter to Speaker 7 (12:32) the women on The View. And that's how they saw her. And that's why they attacked her. They didn't attack her for keeping her salon open. And that's how they work. Absolutely. Shelly Luther. That's her name. Sorry. That's right. Speaker 1 (12:45) No, no. I know the case. And look, I mean, the left is even more apoplectic when somebody who is a small fry challenges them. Yes, they hate Speaker 6 (12:56) that. Speaker 1 (12:56) Because they're like, listen, Speaker 6 (12:57) you Speaker 1 (12:57) know, we can swat really important people and take them out. So for you, little intrepid Texas business owner, to take us on. you know, guess what we're going to do to you right here. And so you've got this giant show, The View, you've got all these people who do this all the time going up against someone who's not used Speaker 3 (13:17) to the public limelight in the same way. And their idea is let's terrorize you into submission. And as in the case with Orwell, the target isn't even really her, is it? It's, you know, whether it's the masterpiece cake baker or whether the idea is to send a message. Yes. We want to discourage anybody else from aspiring to be her. Right. Yes. We don't want that kind of unspokenness. You've got to recognize our – you need to be in a subordinate position. It's a bit like Islam. You've got to be a demi. Yeah. Well – Speaker 7 (13:49) You we just do a couple of Charlie Hebdo situations and we'll shut you all up pretty fast. And the word will get out and you won't talk any shit about Islam because you will get stabbed, beheaded, what have you. And the Masterpiece Cakebaker thing. I mean, that story. It's the most insane story of all time. He's literally just a Christian guy who wouldn't bake a cake for Speaker 3 (14:15) a Speaker 7 (14:15) gay couple. He's Speaker 3 (14:15) like, Speaker 7 (14:15) let's go across Speaker 3 (14:16) the street. Right. But Speaker 7 (14:17) that thing went to the Speaker 2 (14:19) Colorado Supreme Court. And then the heterosexual couple pulled in and won a transition cake. And that poor guy got his life destroyed because he simply said, I'm Christian. This doesn't. I'll jive with my beliefs and I'll be happy to bake you any Speaker 7 (14:42) other kind of cake. And the next thing you know, he's tied up in legal proceedings for the next 10 years. Speaker 1 (14:48) The marvel is that you've got an ordinary guy running a small cake shop who had that kind of guts because that's not normal. Actually, the normal guy is going to say, well, listen, you know. I don't want to be sued. It's going to ruin my whole business. I'll just bake the cake. I'll do it under duress. I don't want to do it, but I'll make an accommodation. But this guy is made of a different cloth. I agree. Yeah. But that's Speaker 2 (15:17) what happened with COVID. Too many people not Speaker 7 (15:20) being this guy. We should have stood up. Every place should have stayed open. Every restaurant in California. When they said, now we're going to cancel outdoor dining, should have said, no, we're staying open. And they all should have done it. And that's the sad part about the situation we're in is I believe there was a time when we would have done that. And we didn't do that. When Newsom shut the beaches, we should all went to the beaches. Speaker 1 (15:46) Yeah, I think what happened is even going back when I think to the Reagan days, you know, we. Conservatives. There are certain institutions we distrust it, right? Like the liberal arts colleges, the elite colleges. We distrust certain elements of the media. But we trusted the FBI. We trusted the health authorities. And so— There was a lot of deference when these things started, you know, political targeting, COVID. We're like, well, I mean, why would a bunch of hospitals and doctors be putting out Speaker 3 (16:20) lies? I mean, that doesn't make any sense. So, you know, initially I was kind of on board. I thought, well, Fauci has done this since Reagan. You know, this can't be that he can't Speaker 1 (16:30) be that ideological. But then you begin to realize the kind of machinations that these guys were doing behind the scenes, where Fauci would call up these virologists and basically go, listen, you're on the government dole. We've got all these government grants going your way. I need you to write a paper that says that COVID had Speaker 3 (16:47) a natural origin. And then, of course, he has a press conference and he holds up the very paper he commissioned. He's already read in advance and he's like, oh, a very interesting paper has just come out. Speaker 1 (16:57) This kind of stuff is... Really shows you the depth of where we went under COVID. Speaker 7 (17:03) What's the difference between that and 52 intelligence experts took a look at Hunter Biden's laptop and think it has all the earmarks of Russian collusion? You know, it's an insane proposition. You go get somebody to write a paper for you with a bunch of experts' names on it, and then you hold it up. I mean, if you watch that, debate with Biden and Speaker 2 (17:32) Trump and Trump's bringing up China and he's bringing up Russia or whatever. And Biden's like 52 experts just told us that this had all like, first off, you want to talk about election interference? That's election interference. I was always like, and I don't know where you stand on this, but I know this is a subject that's near and dear to your heart. You know, there was a lot of discussion, like the Dominion boxes, they were hacked or whatever it was. I was like, maybe they were. I'm sure there was a lot of that. But the real election interference was the FBI and the CIA and the 52 people that signed on and the Russian collusion and CNN and everyone else and big tech not running the laptop store. That's that's interference. That's election interference. Speaker 1 (18:22) And that one we can substantiate. Right. I mean, when Jane Fonda said COVID is God's gift to the left. I mean, that statement requires a little bit of dissection. Right. I think she meant, number one, COVID has wrecked the Trump economy. One cheer Speaker 3 (18:40) for that one. Number two, COVID has given us an opportunity to do the kind of social control that we otherwise could only dream of. That's number two. And number three, COVID gives us a way to change all the election rules. So whether or not the fraud occurred at scale, the opportunity for it was there. Suddenly you have all these mail-in drop boxes. You've got all these dubious voter rolls. Nobody's checking signatures. So look, and then to say in the face of Speaker 1 (19:12) that, the chutzpah, that it's the most secure election in history. I mean, I've never heard a more nonsensical statement in my life. Well, the most like all Speaker 7 (19:23) that was is it's like somebody. You know, it's your wife accused you of cheating. And your answer was, I've never, ever looked at another woman ever in my entire life or even thought of one. You know, you're just going, you can't go, no, I didn't cheat. That wasn't me. You go, the Speaker 2 (19:42) most, that was compensation for what they were doing. The most secure election. Speaker 1 (19:47) You Speaker 6 (19:47) go Speaker 1 (19:47) to the other extreme. Speaker 6 (19:49) Yes, the most secure election ever. That was just because it wasn't a secure election. They don't, see, they don't, they Speaker 2 (19:57) never do that. They never go, look, sure. People that sneak into this country illegally, they commit some crimes and some murders and some rapes. Yeah, they do some of that stuff. Not all of them, obviously, but yeah, some Speaker 7 (20:12) of Speaker 2 (20:12) them do. And we agree. We don't want it. They go, those people pay taxes. They ask for less. They give more. Statistically, they don't commit any crime. You know, it's like they go hard. Always the other. They don't get any benefits. You know, they're the best Americans. They're Speaker 1 (20:28) the Speaker 2 (20:28) best Americans. They can't even. You sneak into this country from Guatemala and you become better than a family from Nebraska. Now, what they again, if they can't just go, look, I get it. They're not supposed to be here, but they do some jobs that we don't want to do. So they're better. They're better. They do less crime. They pay more. They ask for less. Like that's what they do with everything. Speaker 1 (20:54) Yeah, and that's the – and they've done that with the crime statistics. In other words, again, you'd think they'd be like, hey, listen, all right, we admit that – Most of the jails have a lot of black guys in them. Right. We admit that, you know, even though blacks are 12 percent of the population, they're far more likely to commit violent crime. Black and white crime is much greater proportionately than white and black crime. They'll never admit any of this. No. They go to the, as you say, their formula is white man evil. Right. Black man. Speaker 3 (21:28) And what I find really remarkable, and it's, again, a testimony to their audacity, is that they will make a hero of George Floyd. Oh, my Speaker 1 (21:38) God. Speaker 3 (21:38) In other words, they don't mind taking the worst guy in society with a lengthy record, and they're like, this guy is the new Martin Luther King. Almost as if they're saying, like, you know, we dare you. We have the power to make George Floyd into Martin Luther King. Speaker 6 (21:56) Yeah, it's very interesting. Speaker 7 (21:58) You're right, because, like, you could say, you know, you bring up, I always bring up white guy, straight guy, my age, where you go, Joey Buttafuoco. And I'd go, I don't want to hang out with that guy. I'm not going to defend that guy. I mean, I don't want him. I executed, but not a good dude. They're in this weird position where they have to take criminals. violent Speaker 2 (22:22) criminals oftentimes, and turn them into deities. And it's all part of the same thing we're talking about. If you could just be intellectually honest, you'd go, look, George Floyd wasn't paying a lot in taxes. George Floyd Speaker 7 (22:37) was, you know, he did some drugs. He was wandering around. He was probably high. He was trying to. hand off a counterfeit bill. Speaker 2 (22:45) So it wasn't exactly like he was at work that day. But he doesn't deserve to be killed. They can't do that. They have to turn him, they have to build statues and turn him into saints. And then they have to go desecrate the Charlie Kirk statue and bring that guy down or Ben Franklin or whatever it is. Because it's kind of a weird all-in thing for them. What they cannot. They cannot have any nuance. They can't have any subtlety. They have to just go cartoon character all in. They'll go cartoon in the good department. Obama, man, that guy, superhero. Obama can do no wrong. Trump is evil. And by the way, Trump's evil like a cartoon character because that's what he likes. He likes pain. He likes to see little man suffer. He likes fear. And it's like, do you guys see everything through the lens of a cartoon? Because that's how they shape everything. Speaker 3 (23:44) Yeah. I mean, and it's global. You know, look at this Jason Arday case where you have this. First of all, there are plenty of black guys in America, in Great Britain. If they were trying to find some guy and maybe he's maybe he's not the smartest, but nevertheless, he's a perfectly competent academic. We're going to bring him into into Cambridge. We're going to give him a chair. No. They're going to find some guy who's like a plagiarist, who's made up his entire life story, who's evidently autistic, who talks like a fifth grader. Okay, we're going to make this guy, we're going to put him in the Isaac Newton chair at Cambridge. It's like we're defying all of England to say that he's not the sort of African answer to Newton. And everybody's like, actually, he's not. And so then when you speak out, it's like, how dare you speak out? Speak out. You're the villain. And so this sort of mild-mannered academic who points all this out goes, really, guys? He becomes the bad guy. Speaker 7 (24:43) Yeah, I mean, you know, 10 minutes ago they wanted Michael Avenatti to run for president. That's right. Speaker 1 (24:51) You forgot about that one. Speaker 2 (24:52) First off, you know what I want to say? Do you ever get tired of being wrong? Do you ever? Does it ever? Do you ever hit your saturation level for what you can be wrong about? You just go from Russian collusion Speaker 7 (25:05) right to COVID, right to Michael Avenatti, right to George Floyd. Like, do you have any capacity? You know, oh, there's Speaker 2 (25:12) now we got a lynching problem in this country. There are people being lynched. So we need a bill. It's an interesting process, though, that they do. So it's a kind of a. When's the last time you beat your wife kind of question? It's like it's like we need a bill. We need an anti lynching bill. We do. Why? You're for lynching? No, I'm saying isn't that a crime already? No, we need a specific anti lynching bill. Why? Well, once we get this bill across, it'll suggest that we have a huge problem with lynching so much so