Late last month, Anthropic, the artificial intelligence company behind the chatbot Claude, agreed to a whopping $1.5 billion settlement resolving copyright claims over its acquisition and use of millions of pirated books to develop its AI models, making it the largest copyright settlement in U.S. history.

According to court documents, Anthropic’s Project Panama involved the purchasing of millions of physical books in bulk, which hydraulic cutting machines then sliced the spines off of so that the pages could be fed into high-speed scanners to train Claude.

The remnants of the books were then shredded — and that’s the part that disturbs Glenn Beck the most.

“The book is not discarded; it’s shredded. … It’s destroyed on purpose because now the digital copy is now considered enough,” he warns.

On this episode of “The Glenn Beck Program,” Glenn imagines a future where physical books are a thing of the past and the terrifying implications of such a dystopia.

Digitally preserving all books is a “fine goal” as long as it doesn’t involve the destruction of physical books, says Glenn.

But Project Panama did not appear to share that restraint. Not only did internal Anthropic planning documents that surfaced in court filings describe the operation as an “effort to destructively scan all the books in the world,” but employees were also explicitly told: “We don’t want it to be known that we are working on this.”

And the books they went after weren’t just any titles sitting on a Barnes & Noble shelf. Reporting shows Anthropic heavily pursued older, used, and out-of-print volumes, including obscure and hard-to-find titles.

“These rare, rare bookstores started getting phone calls [asking] … ‘Do you have these titles? … We’ll buy all of them,” Glenn summarizes.

A judge later ruled that Anthropic’s destructive scanning of lawfully purchased books qualified as fair use under copyright law. The court reasoned that converting legally acquired print books into digital copies for internal use was transformative, with the destruction of the original books supporting that conclusion because Anthropic was not retaining both physical and digital libraries.

While destroying books may be legal, it’s certainly infuriating to a great many bibliophiles and history buffs.

“Men and women who have dedicated their lives to protecting books, to protecting history, these rare books — they were obviously outraged. When I read the story, I was outraged,” says Glenn, noting that some of the titles Anthropic destroyed “were the single remaining [copies] left … in the world.”

While Glenn wants American AI companies to build “the smartest systems on Earth” using books, he doesn’t want tangible copies destroyed, especially when those copies are rare or out-of-print titles.

“Books are civilization’s memories. Scan them, learn from them, preserve them — but never confuse scanning with shredding,” he pleads.

The destruction of physical books is something Glenn has warned about for years, which is why he always urges his audience to “buy paper copies.”

“A book is a witness,” he says. “Once it’s printed, it can’t quietly change overnight. Nobody can sneak into your library at night and rewrite page 247; nobody can update chapter 5 while you’re asleep.”

Not so with digital files.

“I’m not claiming Anthropic is secretly changing books. I’m saying something more simple and much more dangerous: Without the original, there is nothing left to check against the file,” says Glenn. “The original is the referee. You destroy the referee and eventually somebody else decides what the score was.”

“That’s not paranoia. This is history. You cannot destroy the original because any digital copy can be changed, and you have nothing to check it against.”

To hear more, watch the video above.

Want more from Glenn Beck?

To enjoy more of Glenn’s masterful storytelling, thought-provoking analysis, and uncanny ability to make sense of the chaos, subscribe to BlazeTV — the largest multi-platform network of voices who love America, defend the Constitution, and live the American dream.

​Glenn beck, Artificial intelligence, Anthropic, Claude, Book burning, Blazetv show 

Yet another white woman who devoted her time and energy to welcoming third-worlders into Europe has wound up dead, apparently at the hands of the very sort of military-age foreigner she was trying to help.

The corpse of a 38-year-old Scottish woman who was volunteering with a refugee support group in Greece was discovered on July 18, stuffed into a suitcase in an abandoned building in Athens.

‘The testimony of the wife has been crucial.’

The Hellenic Police announced on Sunday that investigators were able to lift the victim’s fingerprints despite the body being found in a state of advanced decomposition. With the fingerprints and the help of both Interpol and American authorities, police identified the victim as Elisabeth-Jane Ross of Edinburgh.

Ross, who previously volunteered with the refugee assistance group One Heart, entered Greece on June 26 and was staying in the port city of Piraeus until July 10, when she left for an unknown destination.

On Thursday, police arrested Sharif Ahmadzai, a 26-year-old Afghan national, on suspicion of robbing and murdering Ross. They seized a replica pistol and a knife at his residence.

The Afghan — a super lightweight boxer who made his way by boat to Greece in 2016 after first making stops in Pakistan, Iran, and Turkey — allegedly used Ross’ bank cards to make withdrawals and used her phone to contact her friends and family in an apparent attempt to mislead them about her whereabouts and demise.

Ahmadzai, who with his Christian wife runs a refugee-support ministry, was allegedly also caught by surveillance camera leaving Ross’ address and wheeling around what appears to be the same suitcase in which the victim’s body was discovered.

RELATED: Asylum-seeking boyfriend of American mother flees Ireland after her brutal murder

Afghan and Syrian migrants descend on the Greek island of Lesbos in October 2015. Nicolas Economou/NurPhoto/Getty Images.

The suspect’s wife, an American named Alaina Hall, is said to have reported Ahmadzai to the police after Ross was identified as the victim, reported the Independent. After becoming concerned about Ahmadzai’s absence from their home on the evening of July 15, Hall — who has a child with the suspect — checked a shared location tracking app and discovered that he was at Ross’ apartment, where the victim is believed to have been killed, according to the Daily Mail.

A police source told the Times (U.K.), “The testimony of the wife has been crucial. Without her and CCTV evidence, we would not have been able to find this man.”

According to the now-scrubbed website for the couple’s refugee support organization, Hall met Ahmadzai in 2016 when volunteering in a migrant camp.

The Afghan, whom the Hellenic Police claim has admitted to killing Ross, is scheduled to appear in court on Wednesday.

Ross’ body was discovered just days after the discovery of the remains of 43-year-old American mother Jamey Carney in Ireland. The prime suspect in the murder of Carney is 28-year-old Ahmad Al-Saqar, Carney’s romantic partner and a Middle Eastern asylum-seeker who fled the country on a plane bound for Turkey.

Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!

​Afghanistan, Migrants, Asylum-seekers, Murder, Greece, Politics 

Recently, someone on X.com said that Japan was the last “first world country” left on earth. I felt an instinctual agreement when I read this statement. America no longer feels very “first world” to me. Not lately.

When the three worlds concept was first invented — in 1952, during the Cold War — America was the definition of “first world.”

Everywhere you looked you saw competence, excellence, and cultural cohesion.

America, most of Western Europe, Japan, Korea, and a few other prosperous nations were “stable capitalist countries with the highest literacy rates, life expectancies, and living standards.”

Communist countries, especially those controlled by the Soviet Union, were considered “second world.” They had modern amenities but limited freedoms. Living conditions were significantly lower. And the governments were coercive and authoritarian.

Poor countries in places like Latin America and Africa were “third world.” These countries suffered entrenched poverty and deeply corrupt, criminal governments.

Which way, Western man?

It seems that America and most of the other first world countries have begun to slide downhill toward second world status.

The citizens of Western nations have watched helplessly while their homelands have been transformed by mass immigration. Can you be a first world country if a large portion of your population just arrived from the third world?

Not to mention the growing presence of Soviet-style socialist/communist ideologies in many of these countries.

In America, we might be one election cycle away from having a Mamdani-style socialist running for president.

Land of the Rising Sun?

Japan has problems too. But having visited there in 2023, their problems are nowhere near our problems.

From the moment I arrived in Tokyo, I felt a sense of safety and order as well as an uplifting feeling of civic and cultural pride.

The city itself was spectacular. The arts were thriving. The technological advancement was instantly apparent. You felt like you were in a science-fiction movie.

At the same time, the past was celebrated and preserved: shrines, torii gates, beautiful parks. Everywhere you looked you saw competence, excellence, and cultural cohesion.

Plus, Tokyo natives were friendly and helpful. If you were lost, were on the wrong train, or had accidentally deviated from some local custom, a Tokyo-ite would appear and cheerfully assist you.

The ‘Japanese Wives Club’

In Kyoto, I met a bunch of male, English-speaking expats. They called their group the “Japanese Wives Club,” as most of them were married to local women.

I expressed my admiration for Japanese society to these guys. They assured me there were plenty of difficulties and drawbacks to living in Japan.

But when I asked them if they would eventually leave, they all said no. They liked their Japanese wives. They liked their adopted home.

One guy said he’d recently returned to his hometown of Denver to visit family. Denver was a dump. He wouldn’t even consider moving back there.

RELATED: Japanese soccer fans show Texas what being a good foreign guest actually looks like

Charlotte Wilson/Getty Images

Oh thank heaven …

Later in my trip, I stayed in a small village outside Tokyo. Here, there was one grocery store, one café, a few restaurants. And a 7-Eleven.

Being American, I mostly frequented the 7-Eleven. It was immaculately clean and full of exotic snacks and beverages.

But I couldn’t figure out the coffee machine. The first time I tried it, I made such a mess the proprietor — a very old, very skinny Japanese man — came out from behind his counter and began scolding me in Japanese.

After more harsh words, he demonstrated step by step how to work the coffee machine.

The next morning, I returned to the 7-Eleven. When I approached the coffee machine, that same old man watched me with deep suspicion.

But I had paid attention when he showed me which buttons to push. It was actually quite easy. And when I brought my coffee to the counter, he smiled approvingly. So I wasn’t a complete moron! Good for me!

He and I developed a relationship. He was very helpful. He gave me discounts. Not personal discounts, that would be dishonest. But the posted discounts I wasn’t aware of because they were written in Japanese. Two mini pizzas and a Hello Kitty soda … only 400 Yen!

After four days, I had barely scratched the surface of the most colorful and technologically advanced 7-Eleven I’d ever seen.

Return to the darkness

When it came time to go home, I packed my bag and went to the train station in the center of the town. I had been in Japan a total of three weeks, and I had loved every second of it. But now I had to leave!

I stood in the tiny village square, where I felt TOTALLY SAFE, where everyone wanted to HELP ME, where I had become FRIENDS WITH THE CRANKY 7-ELEVEN guy. There was no #metoo, no BLM, no Antifa, no cries of “racism,” no protesters, no nose rings, no LGBTQ flags. Everything worked, nothing was graffiti-ed, no vending machines had been kicked in or destroyed …

I sat down on a little bench, in that little square, which had been lovingly constructed to create a sense of peace and serenity.

I sat down on that bench, and I started to cry. I had to go back. I had to go back to broken America. And all I could do was cry.

​Antifa, First world, Japan, Mass immigration, Racism, Lifestyle, Culture, Blake’s progress, Communism 

Too many people scare themselves into silence by making courage more complicated than it is.

For years, women such as Jennifer Sey and Riley Gaines have carried the hopes, safety, and opportunities of girls on their shoulders. We applaud them, share their interviews, and call them brave. Then we tell ourselves that we could never do what they do.

The next voice does not have to be famous. It may have to be yours.

That’s easy. Speaking when the consequences belong to us is much harder.

Only four years ago, Gaines was a college swimmer preparing to graduate and attend dental school. She had no national platform, political résumé, or plan to become one of the country’s most recognizable advocates for women’s sports.

Hundreds of female swimmers were forced to compete against and share a locker room with Lia Thomas. Gaines became the name people remember because she decided that what happened required more than private disapproval.

Now we see the television appearances, speeches, photo shoots, merchandise, and crowds. We see a confident and articulate woman who has become exceptionally good at public advocacy.

What we forget is that she had to begin before she felt ready.

I know that temptation.

Nearly five years ago, at 18, I helped pass Iowa’s Save Girls Sports law, which bars male athletes from competing in women’s sports. I wrote articles, gave interviews, posted information online, and spoke at the state Capitol.

I also felt overwhelmed and badly underqualified. I was called a bigot and a transphobe. I received harassment and death threats. Being compared to a Nazi was not how I expected to spend my senior year of high school.

Over time, I learned to make peace with the insults. If someone cannot acknowledge the difference between a man and a woman, that person’s condemnation says more about his relationship to truth than it does about me.

But my 18-year-old self had not learned that yet.

During one of my first interviews, on BlazeTV host Allie Beth Stuckey’s “Relatable” podcast, I admitted that something had to be done but insisted that plenty of people were better equipped to do it.

Stuckey answered with a sentence I have carried ever since: “God doesn’t call the equipped. He equips the called.”

That is what I love about Sophie Cunningham. The WNBA guard did not deliver a complicated manifesto when she defended women’s spaces. She stated a basic truth plainly.

“I think that I am here to extend love,” Cunningham said. “But I also think with that love is truth, being honest. And I want to protect young girls in a locker room, or young girls in sport who shouldn’t have to go against biological men.”

When reporters pressed her, she did not retreat into qualifications or issue the ritual apology expected of public figures who violate progressive etiquette.

“I think I said what I said.”

That’s it. It’s that simple. And the answer resonated because it stripped away the excuses people use to stay silent.

RELATED: How the WNBA’s hottest star became the left’s newest headache

Michael Hickey/Getty Images

Men and women are different. Girls deserve privacy, safety, and fair competition. Saying so may provoke anger, but the argument itself is not difficult.

Cunningham’s example is more than a headline or slogan. It reminds ordinary people that public courage does not begin with a perfect résumé, a media strategy, or complete confidence.

It begins when someone decides that fear of criticism cannot carry more authority than the truth.

Games will end. Records will fall. Statistics will be forgotten. Cunningham’s willingness to speak when silence would have been safer may outlast all of them.

She was not obligated to speak because she is famous or because her platform is large. She was obligated because girls were being asked to surrender their rights to a lie.

The same obligation does not belong only to athletes, activists, or people with television audiences.

You do not have to be Riley Gaines, Jennifer Sey, or Sophie Cunningham. You do not have to consider yourself the smartest, bravest, or most articulate person in the room. You do not have to feel qualified.

You do have to stop using those doubts as permission to do nothing.

God does not ask for perfection. He asks for obedience. Again and again, He accomplishes more through willing people than they imagined themselves capable of doing.

Thank you, Sophie Cunningham, for showing how simple the first act of courage can be: Tell the truth, withstand the reaction, and refuse to take it back.

The next voice does not have to be famous. It may have to be yours.

​Activists, Advocacy, Ainsley erzen, Allie beth stuckey, Female athletes, Iowa, Riley gaines, Save girls sports, Sophie cunningham, Truth, Wbna, Women’s sports, Opinion & analysis 

Texas state Rep. James Talarico (D) recently held a town hall in Houston where he discussed what black voters would supposedly get in return for supporting him over Attorney General Ken Paxton (R) in the Texas U.S. Senate race.

During the town hall, Talarico appeared to agree that convicting the person who murdered Austin Metcalf was a “tragedy.”

‘It’s a satanic strategy to deny truth in all aspects of life.’

“What is a tragedy is that James Talarico would rather side with dangerous criminals than keep Texas communities safe,” National Republican Senatorial Committee regional press secretary Samantha Cantrell told Blaze News.

Talarico — the Democratic Senate candidate and part-time Presbyterian seminarian who has attempted to use Scripture to justify abortion, fought to keep the Bible out of school, taken money from an associate of dead pedophile Jeffrey Epstein, and championed keeping male athletes in women’s sports — fielded several questions during the recent town hall, including one from a black identitarian named Amanda Meredith.

Meredith, who said she is a Navy veteran, complained about perceived “over-policing” in black neighborhoods, claimed that police shut down her Juneteenth event prematurely, and suggested that the “craziness in this country has gotten worse” under the Trump administration.

“Our people getting killed left and right. Karmelo Anthony’s case is just a f**king tragedy,” Meredith said while Talarico nodded in apparent agreement.

At no point did Talarico challenge the identitarian speaker.

Karmelo Anthony, a black teen, savagely murdered Austin Metcalf, a white teen, at a high school track meet last year. In early June, Anthony was convicted of murder and sentenced to 35 years in prison. A month later, Anthony’s attorney filed an appeal and requested a new trial.

RELATED: Female attackers yelled ‘free Karmelo’ according to alleged assault victim; 3 suspects arrested

The identitarian whom Talarico nodded along with at his town hall said in a video shared to Instagram after Anthony’s sentencing, “To the mother of Karmelo Anthony, I’m so sorry that the system failed your boy.”

In the video, Meredith also accused local authorities, including police and prosecutors, of being “hateful”; claimed that Anthony was “simply defending himself” when he fatally stabbed his unarmed victim; suggested “we don’t get justice here”; and said that she was preparing to leave the U.S. with her son to avoid being “terrorized by the white people in this country.”

After Meredith concluded her rant at his town hall — in which she also suggested that her life in America is more traumatic than the time she spent in Afghanistan and other Middle Eastern nations — Talarico thanked her, apologized on behalf of law enforcement for supposedly shutting down her Juneteenth event an hour or two early, and criticized police.

“Thank you. Thank you for your question, and thank you for your service. This is unacceptable,” said Talarico.

“Too often, we see law enforcement weaponized against black and brown communities in this state,” said Talarico. “We have a deeply broken justice system. We have a deeply broken approach to policing.”

Neither the Talarico nor the Paxton campaign responded to requests for comment.

Rep. Brandon Gill (R-Texas) was among the many critics puzzled by Talarico’s response to Meredith’s commentary, asking “why it was a tragedy for a black kid to go to jail for murdering a white kid?”

“There’s an incredible hostility to truth in a world this secular. It’s a satanic strategy to deny truth in all aspects of life. Men can be women and have babies. We have a Supreme Court justice who can’t define the word woman,” BlazeTV host Jason Whitlock told Blaze News. “When a teenager murders another teenager in front of multiple witnesses, the approved lie is to call the dead teenager the villain and the murderer the victim. Lying is a qualification for politics. Talarico clearly seeks a more important political office.”

Jeff Metcalf, the father of the murdered teen, told Whitlock in mid-June that he has been inundated with death threats and disgusting messages from the murderer’s supporters.

“Just the vile statements from everyone, and ones who are in denial of the truth. That’s the hardest part. It’s like now that the truth has been shown, all the facts have been presented. So all your lies have been debunked, but they still refuse to accept the verdict, the truth, and they’re all hanging their hat on this appeal,” said the bereaved father.

Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!

​Austin metcalf, Brandon gill, James talarico, Jason whitlock, Karmelo anthony, Texas, Anti-white, Politics 

China has a dirty little habit of swiping tech that doesn’t belong to it and passing it off as its own. Why should AI be any different? Latest accusations claim that China stole intellectual property from American AI companies to use in its own platforms, and the Trump administration is poised to take swift retaliatory action.

The whole hubbub started over the prevalence of open-source AI models originating from China. As the costs of major platforms, including Claude, ChatGPT, Gemini, and Grok, continue to rise in the States, U.S. companies that have already integrated AI into their workforce, or that plan to add AI in the future, are looking for new ways to cut costs without sacrificing capabilities. One solution is to fall back on Chinese-made open-source AI, like DeepSeek and Kimi.

‘We have the ability to sanction them because of this theft.’

Open-source AI is more appealing than closed-source platforms for several reasons: It’s publicly available with fewer or no licensing fees. It’s customizable to fit a wider range of applications. It can work on local hardware (laptop, desktop, or servers) without the need to pay for cloud compute. Its local capabilities make it much cheaper and more private. Lastly, although these models are usually slightly less sophisticated than closed models, their open nature gives third-party developers the power to adjust the code themselves and bring it on par with closed offerings.

In other words, open-source models are more affordable and adaptable, and if widely adopted, they could put a financial strain on the frontier AI market or even put it out of business.

Where does Chinese open-source AI come from?

So far, China has been a major proponent of open-source AI, largely for the threat it poses to America’s AI dominance, while platforms in the States have leaned harder into closed-model options.

Here’s the kicker, though. Most of China’s AI models were built on the backs of American AI companies. DeepSeek, for instance, reportedly used OpenAI’s ChatGPT (and other unnamed models) as the basis for its platform through a process called distilling, where answers from larger platforms are reverse-engineered to design smaller, more efficient models that mimic the original. Meanwhile, the newly more capable Kimi K3 was distilled from Claude Fable 5 by Anthropic.

Essentially, Chinese AI platform makers took a shortcut by training off of American frontier AI models and are now trying to flip the script so that American companies rely on their Chinese “innovations” instead of the original platforms that created these AI advancements in the first place.

RELATED: Tired of password hell? Do this now

Rawf8/Getty Images

Why open-source Chinese AI is a problem

This is an issue for American companies and American security for several reasons:

Theft: Although distillation operates in an ambiguous gray area of legality, what China’s platforms have done equates to theft directly from OpenAI, Anthropic, Google, and SpaceXAI (formerly xAI).Regulation: Open-source makes AI harder to regulate. Especially now that some advanced AI models can hack into legacy systems without any trouble at all, open-source versions of these would make them dangerously accessible to bad actors.Leadership: Companies that pay for AI platforms essentially fund their future development, ensuring that AI platforms are sustainable as America leads the AI race. Without this funding, American-made AI development slows down, stalls, or flatlines entirely, surrendering the lead to China.Security: Anyone can tamper with open-source code, potentially making companies that use these platforms more vulnerable to sneak attacks, hacks, and malicious code injections.

What’s next?

Reports on what to do about the alleged IP theft are mixed. Axios says that President Trump may ban companies from using Chinese-developed open-source AI models wholesale, immediately cutting off the potential threat these models pose to the nation. However, United States Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent proposed another way, stating, “We’ve seen a lot of talk about open-source models coming and threatening the large language models in the U.S. This administration supports open-source models, but what we do not support is IP theft. If we see, especially, that overseas models are stealing from our great companies, we have the ability to sanction them because of this theft.”

Sanctions appear to be the answer to get China to back off. Whether or not it will work, though, remains to be seen. So far, China is pushing back with the Ministry of Commerce holding firm: “These actions lack factual basis and legal support and constitute double standards in practice, representing typical acts of AI hegemony. China will take all necessary measures to firmly safeguard its legitimate rights and interests against any actions that substantially harm China’s interests.”

A tug-of-war over AI sovereignty will no doubt ensue in the coming weeks.

​Open-source ai, Tech 

A father who shot a man suspected of raping his 11-year-old daughter was arrested and charged with felonious assault and weapon under disability charges.

Grove City police said they were called to the apartment on July 15 over the report of a sexual assault on an 11-year-old girl.

‘I can see why he went after him. I’m not saying it’s right, but that at least makes some sense.’

The mother of the girl called police after allegedly seeing a video of a sexual assault at their home on her daughter’s phone.

The next day, the alleged victim’s father lured the rape suspect back to the home by pretending to be his daughter on the TikTok app.

Police were called back to the residence to find Diego Montoya Gonzalez shot twice.

The father told police that he intended only to beat up Gonzalez and then call police but that the suspect reached for a gun and precipitated the shooting.

A neighbor named Terrie Shirkey described the father as visibly upset after finding out about the allegations.

“[He] had checked the phone, and he saw texts,” Shirkey said to WSYX-TV. “Whatever he saw on the phone, he just couldn’t calm down. He just kept pacing, pacing.”

Investigators allegedly found several videos of child abuse on Gonzalez’s phone, including one involving an infant or toddler.

“I can see why he went after him,” Shirkey added. “I’m not saying it’s right, but that at least makes some sense. It wasn’t a senseless thing. If it’s not, that means we’ve got a predator, and that scares the crap out of me.”

RELATED: ‘Depraved’ serial child molester barricaded himself in bathroom with 1-year-old and tried to commit suicide

Gonzalez was later arrested and charged with rape, pandering sexually oriented material involving a minor, and obstructing official business.

On Monday, he pleaded not guilty in a Franklin County Common Pleas Court. He was given a $20,000 recognizance bond as well as a $50,000 cash/surety bond.

If released, he was ordered to stay off the internet except for work and restricted from contacting the alleged victim’s family.

WSYX also reported that the father had previously been charged with strangling his girlfriend, but that was dismissed. He also was convicted for misdemeanor attempted breaking and entering. He is being held on a $100,000 bond.

Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!

​Child rape, Online predators, Tiktok, Shooting, Pedophile, Crime 

Joseph McCarthy, Richard Nixon, George W. Bush, and Andrew Jackson have little in common beyond one striking fact: Young Americans are revisiting reputations that schools, media, and popular culture once treated as settled.

The trend is not a wholesale endorsement of every decision these men made. It is a rebellion against inherited verdicts.

TMZ may fret that McCarthyism is returning. It isn’t. Institutional deference, however, may be gone for good.

As democratic socialists such as Francesca Hong and Zohran Mamdani have gained traction with voters, some young conservatives have revived interest in McCarthy’s campaign against communist influence in the United States. The slogan “Joseph McCarthy was right” has circulated online alongside renewed discussion of Soviet espionage and foreign political influence from countries such as Cuba and China.

McCarthy’s record remains contested, and the abuses associated with his name should not be waved away. But younger critics are increasingly unwilling to accept the textbook version in which he appears only as a paranoid bully who invented a threat that did not exist. One widely used history resource, for example, describes his methods as bullying tactics that created a climate of fear.

McCarthy is not alone.

Richard Nixon became a viral figure this summer through “Nixon-maxxing,” an online fascination that mixes irony and style with a serious effort to reconsider his foreign-policy record and political downfall. George W. Bush, once a permanent punch line for late-night comedy, now appears in nostalgic images as a cowboy from a more confident American era. Andrew Jackson has also returned to online debate as younger people reassess his nationalism and tariff policy.

None deserves automatic vindication. McCarthy, Nixon, Bush, and Jackson were consequential men with real failures, bitter controversies, and legacies that remain open to dispute.

But their reputations were shaped by institutions that many members of Gen Z no longer trust.

Black Lives Matter activists tried to tear down Jackson’s statue in Washington. Legacy outlets treated Nixon’s name as shorthand for betrayal and corruption. Late-night television and “Saturday Night Live” spent years reducing Bush to a caricature.

When those same institutions lose credibility, their historical judgments lose authority with them.

That loss of trust is measurable. Confidence in higher education fell from 57% in 2015 to 36% in 2024. Gen Z reports the highest levels of mistrust toward colleges of any generation, and 59% of students say they fear expressing “right-wing” political opinions in class.

RELATED: The once and future Nixon

Photo courtesy of the Richard Nixon Foundation

Young people therefore approach official narratives with a suspicion earlier generations reserved for propaganda. If they want the truth, they need to uncover it themselves.

COVID taught us the hard way.

Most members of Gen Z were in high school, college, or the opening years of adulthood when governments closed schools, restricted work, separated friends, and imposed sweeping health rules. They were told that officials possessed reliable answers, then watched many claims change, collapse, or become subjects of bitter dispute.

The vaccine debate supplied one example. Research identified an increased risk of myocarditis after some COVID vaccinations, particularly among adolescent and young adult males. That finding did not prove every warning about vaccination correct, but it complicated the insistence that skepticism itself was irresponsible or morally wrong.

The release of Anthony Fauci’s diary reinforced the belief among many young Americans that officials presented more certainty in public than they privately possessed.

The result was not merely disagreement over masks, vaccines, distancing, or school closures. It was a broader lesson in institutional fallibility.

Young Americans learned that credentials do not eliminate self-interest, consensus does not guarantee truth, and a confident official narrative may later require substantial revision.

That lesson now shapes how they view both contemporary politics and American history.

Donald Trump’s return to the presidency after Russiagate, two impeachments, criminal prosecutions, and years of predictions that his movement would collapse reinforced the idea that establishment condemnation can increase rather than settle public doubt. Young men voted for him heavily in 2024 and extended the same instinct to figures such as JD Vance, Marco Rubio, and Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

The same appetite has helped independent journalists like Nick Shirley build audiences by pursuing stories local governments and established newsrooms neglected.

RELATED: Two Americas, under Fauci, with liberty and justice for none

Alex WROBLEWSKI/AFP/Getty Images

This impulse can go wrong sometimes. Contrarianism is not the same as truth, and a historical figure does not become virtuous merely because liberal institutions despised him.

But the refusal to inherit conclusions without question is healthy.

Gen Z is treating history less like a museum exhibit and more like a cold case. It wants the documents, the motives, the context, and the arguments omitted from the standard account.

That approach will not vindicate every accused man. It may confirm some old judgments and overturn others.

The larger significance lies in who now claims the authority to decide.

Schools, television networks, universities, and political movements once expected younger Americans to accept their moral rankings of the past. A growing number of young people now insist on reopening the file themselves.

TMZ may fret that McCarthyism is making a comeback. It isn’t. Institutional deference, however, may be gone for good.

​Black lives matter, Covid, Democratic socialists, Donald trump, Francesca hong, Gen z, George w bush, Joseph mccarthy, Marco rubio, Richard nixon, Right wing, Zohran mamdani, Opinion & analysis 

Opponents of the SAVE America Act have reached for the oldest smear in the election-law playbook: racism.

Sunny Hostin of “The View” recently said she opposed the bill because it would “disproportionately affect African-American voters.” She compared proof-of-citizenship requirements to Jim Crow devices such as literacy tests and jelly bean counting.

Election reform cannot proceed honestly while racial demagoguery substitutes for argument.

The comparison is historically illiterate.

Poll taxes, literacy tests, and arbitrary guessing games were designed to keep black Americans from voting. Requiring voters to prove identity and citizenship applies a neutral rule to everyone.

The SAVE America Act would require applicants for federal voter registration to provide documentary proof of citizenship, such as a passport, a REAL ID indicating citizenship, or qualifying military records. Related provisions would require photo identification at the polls.

Those are not instruments of racial exclusion. They are ordinary safeguards meant to ensure that only eligible citizens participate in federal elections.

Democratic politicians and media figures have spent years describing voter-identification laws as “Jim Crow 2.0.” Joe Biden, Kamala Harris, Stacey Abrams, and others have portrayed routine verification as a deliberate attack on minority voters.

The claim insults the people it supposedly defends.

Polls consistently show broad support for voter identification, often above 80% overall, with strong majorities among black and Hispanic voters. Millions of minority Americans already use driver’s licenses, state identification cards, and other government-issued documents because modern life requires them.

Americans need identification to board a commercial flight, open a bank account, cash a check, buy alcohol or tobacco, rent a car, enter many offices and government buildings, collect some prescriptions, and check into a hotel.

Even New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani, an opponent of voter-identification requirements, recently announced that his taxpayer-funded grocery stores would require identification for entry.

RELATED: Mamdani rejects voter ID, but his grocery stores may ask shoppers for proof

Spencer Platt/Getty Images

The country accepts identity verification for countless transactions carrying far lower stakes than choosing its leaders. The idea that voting alone must remain exempt from basic verification makes no sense.

Critics next argue that noncitizen voting is rare and therefore unworthy of concern. Recent examples show why prevention remains vital.

In New Jersey, Governor Mikie Sherrill (D) disclosed last month that a software error at the Motor Vehicle Commission improperly registered roughly 6,600 noncitizens between June 2023 and June 2024. About 400 of them cast ballots. The Trump administration believes the number may be much higher.

In North Carolina, authorities previously charged 19 foreign nationals with voting unlawfully in the 2016 elections. In Philadelphia, an illegal immigrant was arrested after allegedly voting in several federal elections.

None of those cases proves that noncitizen voting determines every election. They do prove, at a minimum, that registration systems make mistakes and that ineligible people sometimes vote. One can only imagine the depth of election fraud a DOGE-style investigation into all 50 states’ practices would uncover.

The most revealing feature of the opposition is its refusal to separate legitimate access concerns from the basic question of eligibility. Lawmakers can provide free identification, mobile enrollment services, and reasonable procedures for citizens who lack standard documents while still requiring proof that applicants are citizens.

That would expand lawful access and protect lawful votes at the same time.

Instead, critics invoke the ugliest chapters of American history to shut down discussion. They treat any identity or citizenship requirement as presumptively racist and imply that minority voters are uniquely incapable of complying with ordinary rules.

Americans of every race deserve elections in which every lawful vote counts and every unlawful vote is excluded. Proof of identity and citizenship is not an attack on democracy. It is the minimum a democracy owes its citizens.

Election reform cannot proceed honestly while racial demagoguery substitutes for argument. The people using Jim Crow as a shield against neutral safeguards should be shunned, not indulged.

​Election fraud, Election reform, Jim crow, Kamala harris, Noncitizen voting, Philadelphia, Save america act, Stacey abrams, Zohran mamdani, Opinion & analysis 

In a recent appearance on Michelle Obama’s podcast, Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson explained that she refuses to do anything that might appear biased.

“When I get invitations to do things, I always have them screened by the legal office, the public information office, just to make sure that there are no ethical conflicts, that it’s not a fundraiser. You know, there are lots of limits on what judges can do,” Jackson told Obama.

“And I try to be very, very mindful and scrupulous with respect to that because, as you say, our obligation is to be unbiased in our approach. And so, you have to then navigate all the sources that could make for an appearance of partiality, which you want to avoid,” she continued.

“So, there are lots of things that I end up not accepting for that reason,” she added.

BlazeTV host Sara Gonzales can’t help but point out the glaring issue with her statement.

“It’s just that you’re on Michelle Obama’s podcast,” Gonzales comments.

“I’m just going to say, nothing says impartial and unbiased like appearing on Michelle Obama’s podcast. Like what?” Gonzales asks.

But Jackson isn’t the only one Gonzales is tired of hearing from, as Rep. Jasmine Crockett (D-Texas) recently made a “wild claim about DEI.”

“When they decided to go after quote, unquote ‘DEI,’ black women, the most educated demographic in this country, somehow ended up the most unemployed out of everyone,” Crockett said.

“So, black women are the most educated demographic in this country,” Gonzales comments. “I think we need a fact check here.”

According to the Emerald Pages, 56.7% of Asian women hold bachelor’s degrees, making them the most educated in the country. Following closely behind them are white women at 52.9%.

Meanwhile, only 29.3% of black women have bachelor’s degrees.

“I don’t know where you’re getting your information,” Gonzales says. “Once again, I’m very uncomfortable with the way they keep passing out these law degrees like candy to all of these people who seem to be dumber than a box of rocks.”

Want more from Sara Gonzales?

To enjoy more of Sara’s no-holds-barred takes on news and culture, subscribe to BlazeTV — the largest multi-platform network of voices who love America, defend the Constitution, and live the American dream.

​Jasmine crockett, Kentaji brown jackson, Michelle obama, Sara gonzales, Supreme court, Black women, Dei, Blazetv show