Kevin Freeman: Why are so many young people embracing socialism

Kevin Freeman: Hey, if you were alive in the 70s or the 80s, you know what a threat communism is. Growing up, we were taught that the Soviet Union was inevitable. Communism was winning, America was waning. We were even afraid to name communism for what it really was until President Reagan came along and called it the evil Empire. And still the State Department tried to tone down his rhetoric. Now it seems fashionable, unfortunately, to promote socialism. But it's an incredible lie. The goal of socialism is communism according to mass murdering communists. Who took over Russia? Vladimir Lenin. You, can see it. That's even brainy. What smart things did Lenin, you know, look up the list of his quotes and you'll find right there, the goal of socialism is communism. If this is true, and I believe it is, why are so many young people embracing socialism? This isn't a theoretical question. We're watching the largest city in the United States ready to elect a known socialist who embraces communism as mayor. And a large part of his base is young people. To help answer the question and to determine how we ought to respond to this, I'm joined by a dear friend, Ryan Helfenbein. Ryan is the Executive Director of the Standing for Freedom center and the Vice President of Communications and Public Engagement at Liberty University. He hosts the Give Me Liberty weekly podcast.

Kevin Freeman: Have young people actually embraced socialism

Welcome, Ryan, to, Pirate Money Radio. Almost said economic war room.

Ryan Helfenbein: Hey, it's great to be on with you on Pirate Money Radio. And, Kevan, this is my first time being your guest on this platform, and so I'm thrilled to be on today. this is a worthy topic for discussion.

Kevin Freeman: Well, and you're perfect to do this because you've been in the political realm and you've worked with politicians, you've been in the church realm, and you understand the church and you've been in the education room. You understand education, you've got a grasp of all of them, and all three converge on this issue. And you have even an economics background, undergraduate, in economics. Have young people actually truly embraced socialism?

Ryan Helfenbein: I would say in terms of all of the various ends. No, I would say in terms of what they believe that it's going to deliver on. Sure. that's the, that's the problem. So it's a great question. Do they actually know where, where this primrose path goes to? It's the slaughterhouse, and they don't know that. What they do know is what they've all been promised in that Wouldn't life be better if things could be more affordable? Like, wouldn't it be better if we had rent controls in New York City, for example? Because Zoran Mamdani is promising them that. Wouldn't it be great to have universal basic income? That would be wonderful too, because we could then be free to be artists and we don't have to worry about paying for things.

Kevin Freeman: Free health care, college, this. We guarantee you this. And by the way, society will continue to advance. We'll all have new technologies all the time that will make our life better and better and better.

Ryan Helfenbein: You know, it's in perpetuity.

Kevin Freeman: Why haven't they read George Orwell, M. And Animal Farm?

Ryan Helfenbein: Right? Or actually just looked at the history of the 20th century?

Kevin Freeman: Oh, yeah, well, you have to pull up a history book that you actually. So I've got U.S. news. This is not, this is not, you know, just Kevan and Ryan lamenting that kids are turning socialists. No, this is a major commentary this year in U.S. news. why is Gen Z embracing socialism? Trendy campus slogans. Ignore the oppression, suffering and slaughter by communist regimes. It's time to get real about history. That's what we're facing. My daughter, she. I remember back in, in 2016, probably. so, you know, gosh, that's. I can't believe it's almost a decade ago.

Ryan Helfenbein: It's crazy, isn't it?

Kevin Freeman: Yeah.

Ryan Helfenbein: Don't think about it too hard. It'll make you cry.

Kevin Freeman: It will. But 2016, and she's. She's in elementary school and she', says, to her classmate, who does your family support? I don't care who my family supports. I want Bernie Sanders. As what her classmate said in a small, private Christian school.

Ryan Helfenbein: Right.

Kevin Freeman: Why do you want Bernie Sanders? What about M. He's going to give me free college.

Kevin Freeman: Okay, her next question is, it's not free. Who pays for it?

Ryan Helfenbein: Right.

Kevin Freeman: Well, the government. Okay. She asks, where does the government get their money? And that's the key question. I was so proud of her. She came home and told me that story and I'm like, you are so awesome.

Ryan Helfenbein: Yeah.

Kevin Freeman: I love you so much. Because she got it.

Free college is never free; the government pays for it

Ryan Helfenbein: Yes.

Kevin Freeman: Socialism. Free college is never free. I mean, all right, so what, everything. You're Liberty University, everything's made free. does that mean you take no salary?

Ryan Helfenbein: No, exactly. That's, that's actually, actually indentured servitude. That would be like slavery. Right. And, and, and that. No. Take a salary. And of course education costs money. And of course, just as we have this biblical principle that you don't muzzle the ox while it threshes the grain. Every person is, is worthy of their due when it comes to their labor. It's not free. And so professors have to be paid, you have to pay administrators. And, and it's okay so somebody can pay for it.

Kevin Freeman: So, so where, where is it going to be paid for if it's free? The government pays for it. So where's the government get its money?

Ryan Helfenbein: Taxpayers or they borrow against the future.

Kevin Freeman: Yeah, so it's taxpayers or future taxpayers.

Ryan Helfenbein: Right.

Kevin Freeman: That's the only place the government gets this money. And when you stop and you think about that, whether you go to college or not, you'll be paying for somebody going to college if, if it's free across the board. And so everybody should get it and everybody. What would that do to the, to the system if everybody has to go to college? And pretty soon you're going to have to have a government run school.

Ryan Helfenbein: Yep.

Kevin Freeman: And next thing you know, you have, you're working and you're working as indentured servitude. But that's okay because the government's giving your stipend and then they'll give you a little food and then you'll stand at a bread line and then, you know, I mean, this is.

Allen west says socialism is nothing more than economic slavery

So Allen west was our first guest, I think, in the economic war room, and he used a phrase that he can certainly use and maybe it would be wise for some of us not to use it. He says, socialism is nothing other than slavery, economic slavery. And it's like. Explain that one, Alan. And his answer was, okay, my ancestors were slaves brought over here, and as slaves they didn't get to own the output of their work, of their labor. Well, isn't that where socialism heads? You don't own it. From each according to his ability, to each according to his needs. But yet it sounds like a Christian idea. Haven't Christians adopted this? It, ah, was in the early church. Right. They all brought everything that they had and they shared it in common. How long did that last in the church?

Ryan Helfenbein: Not very long. Because that, I mean, that's in Acts chapter two, Right. not very long, actually. And that, by the way, this is in the theological world, but there's moments in scripture you say, is this a prescribed way that we need to do it, a model? Or is this a description of what happened at a certain moment in church history? It's merely descriptive, it's not prescriptive. But that was in Acts chapter two.

Kevin Freeman: Well, and There's a corollary to that in that, there was a couple, they had a piece of land, and, they said, oh, we gave all the proceeds, we sold everything and brought it in here. And it didn't go so well for.

Ryan Helfenbein: Them because they lied about it. Yes, that's right.

Kevin Freeman: But their sin was not failing to turn it all over. Their sin was lying about it.

Ryan Helfenbein: That's right.

Kevin Freeman: And they lied to the Holy Spirit. But didn't they say back, hey, you know, it was yours. You could have done with it anything. So the issue of private property is actually illustrated in Scripture. In Scripture, that's right, with Ananias and Sapphira. Okay, so why don't you want to go? Here's. I remember in college, my economics professor, first day in there, he looked at me and he actually looked at the whole class and said, where are these words found? If any man shall not work, neither shall he. Where's that found? I said, that's the Bible. He said, you think it sounds kind of like the Bible? You know, a little bit to me, but no, it's in the Soviet Constitution. I said, well, I'm pretty sure the Bible predated it, but okay, it's in the. That's interesting. It's in the Soviet Constitution. I get why it's in the Soviet constitution. Because what happened in the Plymouth when they came over Bradford, the whole. What happened?

Ryan Helfenbein: Yeah, I mean, so you did have mass starvation, but the Plymouth Brethren actually had common property at the time. And so you didn't. You know, they wanted to share everything in common. It didn't actually work. They wanted to do a commune and it didn't work.

Kevin Freeman: They tried it and it didn't work. And we shared this, earlier we talked about this. I believe in socialism, communism, for a limited time with people who love one another, but it can't last forever. And that's called a family. Or it worked in the very early church for a very limited time as an act of love, but in the end, it's not progressive. You don't grow. You need free market capitalism. All right, so we'll talk about this more. I did a query on Grok and asked about how many people were murdered under communist regimes. And the amount in the 20th century is about 100 million. People were killed. Why? Because people aren't doing what the government wants. And to make it work, the government has to control everything. The means of production, they've got to control the output. Who gets what, when, where and how. All right, we're Enjoying a great conversation with Ryan Helfenbein of Liberty University. We're talking about why young people are embracing socialism. We'll be back with more right after the break.

Kevin Freeman: Liberty University educates America's youth and the Liberty University students

Mike Carter: Welcome back to Pirate Money Radio with.

Kevin Freeman: Your host Kevan Freeman, joined by the great Ryan Helfenbein from Liberty University's long term friend. He's just a really smart guy and Liberty's blessed to have him, but he's blessed also to be at Liberty because they're educating America's youth and the Liberty University students, I bet if you did a poll among them, you would not find a massive support, for Zoram Mandani in New York to be the next mayor. You might be surprised. I don't know. But I'm guessing that they would not match up the average typical voter under 35, who according to, a report I pulled up again, I asked Grok, who supports Rahman Dami overwhelming support voters under 35. Would that be the case? You think of the typical.

Ryan Helfenbein: No, that's not typical. And I would, I would love to poll. What is the, what is the religious worldview makeup of that under 30 age? And so Liberty University is literally the antithesis of that. This is a, you're talking about a faith based institution that specifically, in our doctrine, ah, we are all about the lordship of Jesus Christ, the gospel and about training champions, to take on the world for this next generation. So yeah, you're seeing this support for Mamdani and socialism, but it comes from a secular humanist worldview.

Kevin Freeman: Yeah, no question it does. And the secular humanist means I value. I only have this life.

Ryan Helfenbein: That's it.

Kevin Freeman: I gotta make the best out of this life. So you'll never have a martyr among that viewpoint. Because no, you might have suicide from despair, but you will never have a martyr for a greater cause. Because if you really think that through a secular humanist, there's no reason to sacrifice.

Ryan Helfenbein: Yeah. In the long run we're all dead. So get what you can while you can.

Kevin Freeman: Yeah. Quoting the John Maynard Keynes. Great. John Maynard Keynes. Great. I say because he's famous, by the way, he had no economics degree, imagine. But he's known as an economist. All right. So Keynes would say, in the long run we're all dead. So we eat, drink and be merry, Right?

Ryan Helfenbein: Yeah. Because tomorrow we're going to die.

Kevin Freeman: Tomorrow we're going to die.

President Reagan sent troops over to Russia and we beat them economically

All right. We were talking about a little bit earlier on when communism fell back in the old days when we knew that there was a communism and it fell back in 1989, people think, what caused it to fall? Well, President Reagan sent troops over to Russia and we beat them. No, that didn't happen.

Ryan Helfenbein: You know what it is? if you've seen Rocky iv, it was when Rocky defeated Ivan Drago. I'm kidding, though. Some people will get that.

Kevin Freeman: Yeah. Ah, maybe they'll say Hollywood. And there are a lot of reasons that have. And I'll give President, you know, Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall. So we get this big chunk of the Berlin Wall here at Liberty Hawk. No, what actually, happened was we beat them economically. It was the Pope and it was Maggie Thatcher, and it was President Reagan and, the Saudis, and we literally ramped up our economy and we lowered oil prices and it crushed them, and they couldn't keep up defense. And all that was true, but they weren't sure they were defeated. And in 1989, President George H.W. bush puts out an order. We've got to convince them that we've got. They need to focus on economy and development and give up this warlike stuff. And we've just got this one. So come bring over Gorbachev and Boris Yeltsin. Bring them to NASA in Houston, and we're going to show off our great rockets. Right? And we're going to show off. And Yeltsin came. Gorbachev, did not. But Yeltsin came. And he wasn't impressed. He's like, we can build rockets. I mean, they had a bunch of German rocket scientists that got taken, and they had great, great technological capability. And the Russians are very smart, engineers. They're very creative. but Yeltsin, on his way out, he says, basically, I'm not impressed, but I gotta go home. anything else you want to see while you're here? And he said, yeah, I'd like to see how Americans live. I'd like to see a grocery store and maybe get some good American liquor. Literally. I mean. And Yeltsin had a problem with alcohol. There's no doubt he drank a lot of it. But I'd like to see a grocery store. And so he picked. He got to pick. He picked on a map. He picked a Randalls. And now you grew up in the area, so you know, Randall's, Randall's, Tom.

Ryan Helfenbein: Thumb, all of that. Yep.

Kevin Freeman: Now Safeway, now. Now, Albertsons, they're all tied together and almost was merged into Kroger, but it was very uniquely Texan then.

Ryan Helfenbein: Yeah.

Kevin Freeman: and he goes, and he's just astonished at all the food that he Sees and he says, now I've never seen this. Young people who don't know the Lord are in large cases saying, I want to have more food and better food and more available food and cheaper food and all that. So Mamdani is saying, in New York City, we're going to have city run grocery stores.

Ryan Helfenbein: Oh, yeah. That is a brilliantly stupid idea.

Kevin Freeman: Yes. But it sounds good up front, like the free college did to my daughter. Okay. So Yeltsin says he writes in his diary, I didn't know America had won until I saw the grocery store and I saw the amount of food and what free markets could deliver. Because Yeltsin was familiar with Soviet style grocery stores. And you read in the New York Post, socialist New York City mayor, mayoral candidate Mamdani's plan for city run grocery stores is Soviet style disaster in waiting. I know you've seen these grocery stores.

Ryan Helfenbein: Yeah, no, I mean, I just tell you, look, if they're going to serve Alpo, it might work, you know, but at the end of the day, this is, this is not where you go pick up Purina or something like that. This is. All of a sudden you're going to see box cereal gone, you're going to see Nabisco gone, You're gonna. Fresh fruit, fresh fruit. M. All of it. Right? There is no way that you can deliver those goods on a planned centralized schedule. It doesn't work. And that's what Soviets relied on was seven year planning cycles.

Kevin Freeman: They would tell you what you should be eating. M. And we get a little bit from the US Government. This is what you don't eat meat that comes from cows, Right? Eat meat we've made in a lab. And there's this new edict. Even our animals need to eat lab produced meat. It's frightening. So you'll see empty shelves and you'll also see out in front of the empty shelves, you'll see long lines of people, bread lines, getting in and getting.

George Will: Rent controls are great for the renters, terrible for the property

Ryan Helfenbein: Can I. I'm going to jump in on one other thing, please. So in. And in Soviet Russia, they had plenty of rubles. They never ran out of money. That wasn't their issue. Their issue with the centralized economy was they had plenty of money. They had nothing that they could go buy. That was the issue. So imagine you, you had to go to the black market. If you wanted milk, you'd have to pay seven times as much. Because on the plan cycle, all of a sudden now you're like, okay, we're going to make it affordable for everyone. Now there's Scarcity. Okay. Because they're. They're price fixing. And this is what Mamdani doesn't understand.

Kevin Freeman: Or he does understand.

Ryan Helfenbein: Right.

Kevin Freeman: But what are they going to do? All right, so we're going to put rent controls on. And so if you build an apartment building in New York City, it's too expensive to charge what you're charging for rent. So we're going to limit it to $500 a month, and that's all you can charge. What would happen to rent?

Ryan Helfenbein: Well, all of a sudden, you've got issue within. You're not going to have any new development. You're going to see. You're going to see all of a sudden buildings that'll go under because they can't afford to keep up with the lease m. The taxes, maintenance, insurance, all of it. And so, yeah, it's great for the renters, but it's terrible for the property.

Kevin Freeman: Great for the renters. For two minutes.

Ryan Helfenbein: Yep.

Kevin Freeman: And then it's terrible. This is what we are seeing instituted in communities across the country, in states across the country, and people are leaving those states. I just saw our mutual friend Rod Martin talked about all the Californians leaving California and coming to Texas.

Ryan Helfenbein: Totally.

Kevin Freeman: That's in his X post today. That's what you'll see is you'll see a flight. And if you do that everywhere across the United States, you'll see a flight from the United States.

Ryan Helfenbein: And we're already seeing this with the electoral map. I know you guys are covering this, but we're talking about 20 electoral votes shifting from blue states to red states for that reason. People are voting with their feet. They're moving literally from a blue state to a red state. Texas alone is looking to get five.

Kevin Freeman: Right. And now think about this. And you've got Governor Newsom. We're coming right back and say, well, Texas, if you redistrict according to your population, we're going to do it again. We're going to gerrymander ourselves. And then you look at his map. Where are you going to squeeze? Republicans are 40% of California, approximately. Where are you going to squeeze out? Because they've got like 18 or 12%, you know, less than 20% of the seats. How many more can you take away? You're going to run out.

Ryan Helfenbein: Yeah. And that whole strategy backfires. He's got nothing to really leverage. And at the end of the day, look, this guy has aspirations for higher office in 2028. He does not want Azura Mamdani proving that socialism has failed. And the Other thing is, he does not want to stress test this whole system while trying to run for president. I think he flinches.

Kevin Freeman: That's a great point. Because the two, the two groups that most fear Mamdani's success, there's two of them. One is socialism survivors. Those that have left foreign countries that have come here to wait, you're going down the same stupid path we went down. And the second one is Democrat politicians who want to take over.

Ryan Helfenbein: Right.

Kevin Freeman: Hey, please don't mess it up. It's like Muslims, after 9, 11 that were mad at bin Laden. Wait, why did you expose our desire for world domination? Why did you expose that we weren't ready yet.

Ryan Helfenbein: Yeah, it's a PR crisis because as much of this truth gets out, it was George Will that said this, recently on Bill Maher. And George Will is formerly, you know, conservative, he's now independent. And I'm very frustrated with George Will. But he said, you know, I would love to see. This is Will's words, not mine. He said, I would love to see a controlled experiment in socialism so the American people can watch it fail and listen. That sounds great for like a nuclear test site out in the middle of like, you know, New Mexico or Arizona where you just blow up a bomb on a fake thing. But you don't want to do that in the, in the premier capitalist city of the United States, New York City, where the New York Stock Exchange is, where Wall street is, where you've got, you know, 10 million plus Americans all clustered together. You do not want your socialist experiment to happen in New York City. That's ridiculous. You can do it in Milwaukee. You can't do it. There's. It's a total disaster.

Kevin Freeman: I don't even want to give them Milwaukee. I agree. Tiny suburb of San Francisco. Sure. although San Francisco itself is an experiment in that same. And you look where it's gone. It's not improved. Detroit was an example of that experiment for a while, and we've seen it happen. Where's capitalism?

Every time socialism has been tried, people have shot their. Right. Where socialism and communism succeeded

not capitalism. Where socialism and communism succeeded.

Ryan Helfenbein: Nowhere.

Kevin Freeman: Oh, no, no. Somewhere. Where is it? Just because they haven't done it. Right. That's what they'll say.

Ryan Helfenbein: Right, Right. Sure.

Kevin Freeman: They never did it. Right. It was greedy people doing it.

Ryan Helfenbein: It'll work this time.

Kevin Freeman: Yeah.

Ryan Helfenbein: You know, and that's the definition of insanity. Right. It's repeating the same thing, expecting a different result. And so I think ultimately this is, this is a, you know, we can get into the spiritual aspect. And, you often do But I mean, this is a Luciferian deception. It is a free people's suicide. And so when they voted in, you can't just vote out socialism. And every time in which socialism has been tried, people have to shoot their.

Kevin Freeman: Way out of it, which is not what young people want. They don't want the mass murders of communism. They do not want the war that would inevitably follow to regain freedom. But you know, in the end of the day, what we're talking about is the difference of whether or not you control your own money. Allen west said, socialism a form of economic slavery. If you don't get to keep or control your economic output, how are you different from an economic slave? That was Allen west speaking.

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Mike Carter: Pirate Money Radio helping you give, spend and invest in ways that align with liberty, security and values.

Kevin Freeman: What would it be like in a modern surveillance state

Welcome back with your host, Kevan Freeman.

Kevin Freeman: And our guest, Ryan Helfenbein. Liberty University. Brilliant guy. trained in economics at university. He's studied politics. He studied the Lord and theology. He understands against the church today. and he also studies, communism versus free markets, and he also studies the emerging technologies. So here's a question I'll pose to you. a lot of people, recognize that Soviet Union was an analog world in that you were, you know, you could hide and you could whisper in your bedrooms and you could talk about how much you hated the state. You couldn't say it in public, but you had your privacy at home and you could talk about that. there were no social credit scores or anything like that. You just kind of kept yourself, kept your head under the radar and you could live fine. What would it be like in a modern surveillance state? What will they tell us it'll be like? And what do you think it really will be like?

Ryan Helfenbein: Well, what they're telling us is things like, you know, look, Universal Basic Income, ubi, you know, we can create all of this. What they're going to push us towards is a, is a digital monetary system. So digital currency and create a closed feedback, feedback loop. It's basically a circular economy. And what they're going to tell us is, is that, well, it didn't work because that was the analog world. But in the digital world, we're going to have so much more freedom. We can even, we can leverage cryptocurrency, we can leverage AI, we can, we can leverage the blockchain. And all of a sudden we can optimize this in such a way to deliver on equal never seen before. And that's just fool's gold. You, remember just a few years ago, the non fungible token, right? It's because there is no such thing as digital sovereignty. When I go buy some real estate, I've got a real commodity, a real asset. If the Internet crashes, it's still mine. In fact, the value probably even goes up even more. The problem with this entire thing is it's, it's based on a fiction, not on reality. And so you want to buy stuff in digital spaces, that's fine. You know, go to GoDaddy.com and purchase a URL and you own that, that's fine. But at the end of the day, there is no such thing as digital sovereignty. And I think that's what a lot of people are missing most.

Kevin Freeman: But, there is digital control.

Ryan Helfenbein: There is digital control, but no one has digital freedom. You are always entering in someone else's space. You don't, you can't own the Internet. That's the problem.

Kevin Freeman: so China's figured this out and they've created social credit scores and they have digital control. So people were complaining, they heard their bank was failing and they went to show up at their bank to get their money out and they picked up their phone and boom, it's blinking red. They're in line on a run on the bank and it blinks red. Why is it blink red? It says, well, you've been exposed to Covid, you must go home right now. And so they had to leave. And they left the line. That's how they saved the bank. They ended the bank run with a. Is that a good thing or a Bad thing.

Ryan Helfenbein: It's a terrible thing. I mean, and so by the way, you just illustrated, the Great Wall of China is not that wall that was erected over, you know, 2,000 years ago. The Great Wall in China is a digital wall in which the CCP controls the information, the flow of information. They, they control banking, social credit, everything that goes in and out of China.

Kevin Freeman: Pretty soon it will all be controlled by artificial intelligence of some kind.

Ryan Helfenbein: Right?

Kevin Freeman: And people are already preparing to worship an AI God, which is just insanity to talk about a worthless, useless idol. making the combined knowledge that's put into artificial intelligence just because you can access it, you don't get God's wisdom. You get human knowledge at best and you get a skewed version of it based on an algorithm that's written by a human.

Ryan Helfenbein: Right? That's right. And by the way, I have a Bible app and this is, this is a perfect example of why I would advocate for always have a printed version of something. Because at the end of the day, you know, you don't know Christopher Nolan, who's a producer, Hollywood producer, he's not a political actor. He was saying, hey, there is a vested interest in owning your own blu rays and DVDs and not just holding on to digital product because there could be a day in which that is all reversed and re engineered by AI and you no longer have the authentic article.

Kevin Freeman: Oh, I get that every time. And I love my Bible apps, but you have to have a regular Bible too, a printed Bible. I love my Bible apps, but occasionally I'll turn it on, open up and it won't open for me and it says updating. I'm like, what is God saying? New stuff. I mean, how is the Bible updating? And is that a heavenly download?

Ryan Helfenbein: Sure.

Kevin Freeman: And no, of course we know from the Bible that there is no updating. The canon is closed. We know that and that's clear. and people have tried to add on to it and well, I don't buy into to the Prophet Muhammad's add.

Ryan Helfenbein: Ons but, but to your point earlier, the Communist Party in China literally did this in the revolution. After Mao's revolution they had the church in China, the Christian church, come together and sign on to the Communist Manifesto. And then they changed. You've heard of the Jefferson Bible, where things were omitted and things were changed. The Communist Party in China literally took the sacred scriptures and changed it in order to fit within their paradigm for the communist revolution in China. And so this, you know, when you think about digital, it Is scary how much tyranny can happen.

Kevin Freeman: Oh, it can. And when you literally take and add to the scriptures, that's dangerous. I mean, this is a Christian radio program. It's dangerous. Muhammad did that, by the way.

Ryan Helfenbein: Yeah.

Kevin Freeman: And was warned against. But when, you know, the early church thought of Mohammedism as a cult, as a sect of Christianity, Christian sect.

Mamdani: New York mayoral candidate is Twelver

And we've got a mayor of New York candidate, mayoral candidate, who is not just, Muslim, which would be, you know. Well, London has a Muslim mayor. Richardson, Texas, I think, has a Muslim mayor. And so it's happened in Dearborn, Michigan and so forth. But he is a Twelver. And you're familiar with the Twelvers, the Sunni, Shia difference.

Ryan Helfenbein: He's like an intifada, proponent, basically. I mean, he's a radical, but with a smile.

Kevin Freeman: Radical with a smile. So it's a Wall street journal. Has an opinion, Mamdani, in the left's alliance with radical Islam. He won't impose Sharia on New York. I'm not so sure about that. But his views give plenty of reason for legitimate concern. And they start off and he. Their example for why he's not a true radical Muslim. Why he's not is because he's getting support from the LGBTQ group and he's supporting them. And therefore he can't be a radical Muslim because a radical Muslim would throw him off from a building, throw him off from the top of a building, so he can't be a radical Muslim. And I'm thinking to myself, how many times have we seen someone come to town and say, I'm not that? And then when they get power, they're exactly that. That.

Ryan Helfenbein: Absolutely. By the way, you're tapping into something historically happened in the 1970s, when the Shah of Iran was being overthrown and the Ayatollah was being supported. It was actually left wing feminist groups, Marxist groups that were supporting the Ayatollah. And so this whole thing of a color revolution with red and green, where you get the Marxists together with. With it, with extreme forms. Radical Islam merging together. Yeah, they are. They have been, strange partners for decades now.

Kevin Freeman: Where are the feminists? where's their building of the feminist club in Tehran? I'm not sure where that is.

Ryan Helfenbein: That's exactly right. Yeah.

Kevin Freeman: No, no burqa required. No face covering required. You go, no, it doesn't exist.

Ryan Helfenbein: And so, funny enough, is that one of the things that they were saying, the reason why you can trust the Ayatollah is because he's against capitalism. And we got to overturn capitalism because we can then bring about a whole new, spring here in Persia of freedom under the Ayatollah.

Kevin Freeman: And they had incredible freedom. You look at the old Pictures from the 60s and 70s of women in, Iran, and you see they had all kinds of freedom. They were attending universities and so forth.

Ryan Helfenbein: Yes.

Kevin Freeman: the same thing happened in Tahrir Square. And I watched it live on television. I watched live on television where the reporters were coming in. Why are you chanting and working with the Muslim Brotherhood? It's a lesbian couple. Why are you doing that? And they said, because they're such good organizers, they've helped us organize. We would never get to remove, the president without the good organizers. And I sat there and said to myself, you know what? You will be thrown off the top of a building when they come to power or you will be attacked. You will not live as a lesbian openly under the Muslim Brotherhood authority. You will not. And I thought, oh, that's. And you know, that very time now, good dear friend of ours, was, a reporter, her at 60, minutes, Lara Logan. And she was in that crowd interviewing people and a group of Muslim Brotherhood tore her from her security detail.

Ryan Helfenbein: That's right.

Kevin Freeman: And took her off and did horrible things to her.

Ryan Helfenbein: That's right.

Kevin Freeman: And so she, by the way, brilliant journalist and understands the risks and the threat here. And anybody who's come from, a socialist background, a socialist nation, or a Muslim controlled, Sharia controlled nation, and anyone's come from there said, don't do it, don't go there.

Ryan Helfenbein: So you're.

Pirate Money Radio host Rein Helfenbein says Christians need economic justice

So this is the thing for those who are listening, this is the thing right here. Why are they together? Why have they aligned, together? It's because they want to end not just capitalism, but they want to end and topple the Western system, which is, in which is actually the foundation of that is Christianity itself. So some it might be, let's overturn the patriarchy. Or it might be capitalism, private ownership or property.

Kevin Freeman: Or eliminate family.

Ryan Helfenbein: Or eliminate family. But at the end of the day, it is about the common enemy actually is Christianity. That's why they work together.

Kevin Freeman: And in fact, if you start with, in the beginning with Genesis, and you go all the way through Genesis and read, they will argue every single line. God made them male and female. No, he didn't. God made marriage between a man and woman. No, he didn't. God created the heavens and the earth. No, he didn't. Everything is an argument. but you know, they're getting an appeal and a wide number of people are listening and I'll tell you why. Starting in 1970, we've got a household income, the gaps in income between upper income and middle income and lower income house. the gap is rising and the share held by the middle income household is falling. In other words, this is the wealth gap.

Ryan Helfenbein: Right.

Kevin Freeman: And it's widened. And you can see the beginning date on that. what's it show is? 1970.

Ryan Helfenbein: Yeah.

Kevin Freeman: Which is when we ended the gold standard. To the gold standard.

Ryan Helfenbein: That's right. And so, by the way, these grievances are real. I'm going to say this. The younger generation not having ownership in the American dream, that is problematic. That, that, that, that's, that's for everyone. And so at the end of the day, capitalism didn't fail. What ended up failing was the monetary system in which the government, you know, taxes all of us at a high, high threshold and then borrows 40, 50% beyond that and continues to increase the debt and the deficit and devalues the dollar.

Kevin Freeman: That's the real selling out the next generation. A good man leaves an inheritance to his children's children. So what does a bad man do? He takes the inheritance from his children. Children. Or another way to put it in Deuteronomy, I lay before you life and death. A blessing, a curse. Choose life. What's on the curse side? Well, the alien who lives among you rise higher and higher. And you borrow from every nation and lend to none. A nation under blessing is one who lends to other nations and borrows from none. where are we here in the United States?

Ryan Helfenbein: Yeah, we're borrowing from everyone and we're borrowing from ourselves. We're definitely borrowing from the next generation. And they have no. Just like, the baby in the womb can't speak for itself in this country. Neither can the debtors.

Kevin Freeman: There's no question. All right, so we're facing economic injustice. We need to bring about economic justice. How do we do that? There is a biblical answer to it. Is it free market capitalism unfettered? Maybe not. We're going to learn more with Rein Helfenbein right after this break. We'll be right back.

Mike Carter: Pirate Money Radio, helping you give, spend and invest in ways that align with liberty, security and values.

Kevin Freeman: Though we financialize the economy, it's hurt the average person

Welcome back with your host Kevan Freeman.

Kevin Freeman: We'Re having a great conversation with Ryan Helfenbein. we ended the last segment talking about economic injustice happening. And where did that happen? Where did it start? every chart that you can look at it started about 1971. And you go back to 1971. What was the seminal moment right about this time in 1971, in August, we had Richard Nixon take us off the last vestiges of the gold standard.

Ryan Helfenbein: We're all Keynesian now.

Kevin Freeman: We're all Keynesian now. Life, you know, what you could do, is eat, drink and be merry, for tomorrow you shall die. Or he said, that's what the Bible says to the heathen. and what he said was, in.

Ryan Helfenbein: The long run, we're all dead. John Maynard Keynes. That's right.

Kevin Freeman: So here's the problem. In 1971, we decided that we can make more money off money than we can off producing things. Let the Chinese slave laborer, let them make stuff for us in India where it's cheaper. Let them build m. I want to be above that. I want to make money from money. And so the politicians and the people in New York, where they have the financial capital of the world, and the politicians in D.C. and some of the technologists in Silicon Valley, they all said, you know what? We need to be the brains of the world and manufacture and design, and we can export, Hollywood and things like that, but we don't need to actually manufacture. They forgot to ask the family in Michigan or in Kansas or in Mississippi, hey, do you mind if we, throw that all away and give it to foreign countries and import foreigners to do all that work, or that's okay with you, right? They didn't ask.

Ryan Helfenbein: We went platonic. We abandoned the Aristotelian approach in America, which was always grounded in reality that we have to make things and that the wealth of nations is about producing. And so, you know, we thought, oh, we'll outsource and we'll, you know, the, the, the orthodoxy in most economic schools was about free trade, free trade, global, global, global. And, what ended up happening? Ross Perot, by the way, in 1992, when he was the independent running against both parties at that time. He ended up being very prophetic, and he said, look, this will be. It'll be a giant suck hole in the United States.

Kevin Freeman: Sucking sound.

Ryan Helfenbein: Sucking sound, exactly.

Kevin Freeman: Yeah. My aunt, My Aunt Tilly used to teach me down. Yeah, he was great. He was, he was an amazing populist.

Ryan Helfenbein: But I hate to say it, and I'm a lifelong Republican, both parties betrayed us on this one. At the end of the day,

Kevin Freeman: Ross did, told us the truth. Ron Paul told us he did.

Ryan Helfenbein: also Uncle Ron. I love Uncle Ron.

Kevin Freeman: And he's just celebrated a birthday. The point is, though we financialize the economy, it's hurt the average person. I wrote about chapter eight of my book Pirate Money has an entire chapter on economic justice and the problems of financializing. It's the Cantillon effect. Richard, Cannellon, Irish French economist, he told the king in France, he said, guess what? You're printing so much money, it's okay for the people here in Paris, but the people out in the farms, they're going to be hurt by this. And they were ignored. And eventually, you know the old saying, the peasants have no bread, well, let them eat cake. You know, that was Marie Antoinette probably never said it. I looked it up and I said, did she really say that? And the answer is probably not. But it was a common theme that she had said it because that was the attitude they portrayed. And guess what? It was soon to be off with their heads.

Ryan Helfenbein: Yes, absolutely. This was the French Revolution, which was the humanist revolution. Nothing like the American Revolution, but it was like the last. The last king tyrant to be strangled by the guts of the priest. They hated both the church and they also hated the monarch at the same time. But the people had real grievances. And it was. It was all the Louis, the lines of the Louis that were driving them into debt. And then the revolution happens. And then all of a sudden you have Napoleon Bonaparte, who comes as the revolutionary in Carney, and he takes over, and he is the tyrant and he is the emperor, and he is far more bloody, far more tyrannical than any of the kings ever were.

Kevin Freeman: So the French Revolution, are you telling me it didn't spread the gospel of Jesus Christ?

Ryan Helfenbein: It absolutely did not. Nor did it spread human reason. Nor did it. Did it prolong itself. You know, they really thought that they were going to set the year back to zero and start a whole new. A whole new revolution that would lead to human flourishing.

Kevin Freeman: Now, let's contrast that. There was a revolution about the same time here in the United States of America. What was that revolution based on? On? And how did it fare?

Ryan Helfenbein: Yeah, so, you know, the American revolution started really 40 years before in revival. I mean, the. The difference there was that it was about. It was about, essentially the American people saying, no taxation without representation. But the king is playing the role of a tyrant. He is going against his own laws. And we have a biblical basis for the revolution found in scripture. And so the irony of the whole thing is that what we saw in that, it was an orderly revolution. It was not a Revolution based on m, man being the measure of all things. But ultimately it was a revolution that was done where we recognized that God had vested the rights with the people, with the individuals. And so life, liberty, the pursuit of happiness. And these are inalienable rights, but these are, this understanding came from Scripture. Totally different.

There is a built into humanity that God created a seven day workweek

Kevin Freeman: All right, so I'm going to jump from there, which was, there is a built into humanity that God created a seven day workweek. And the French said, no, we're going to make it a 10 day work week. 10 is the number of man. We have 10 fingers and 10 toes. 10 days that didn't work out. so we're going to take everything that God created and we're going to change it. Wait a minute, we're doing that right now? We're doing that right now. God said this in Genesis. Marriage between. No, we're going to remake marriage because we want it to be this way.

John Wesley: God made money as gold and silver originally

All right. One of the other things that we did, and we did this in, 1971. I'm going to go back to that period originally, God made money as gold and silver. You start in Genesis, go to Revelation, and you hear about three types of gold, silver and copper. Gold is the greater money, silver is the lesser money, and the least money is copper. It's so ingrained in humanity that when you get an Olympic medal, you get gold, silver or bronze. If you're the best, you get gold. If you're second best, you get silver third best. It's so ingrained that in scripture, the widow who put in the least amount she could put in, she put in two copper coins, right? And so the gold is mine, the silver is mine. It's all throughout scriptures of what money is. And we lived on that in the early days we had money that was printed that was exchangeable. Even the Federal reserve notes, the first Federal Reserve notes after passed in 1913. I've got one. It looks like a $20 bill today. It's got Hamilton's picture on it. No eyepatch, but Hamilton's picture on it. And it says this is exchangeable for lawful money at the treasury of the United States. So you could walk in with that $20 bill and you can get one ounce of gold in exchange for it. But we decided, no, no, no, we're mentioning we're humans, I shouldn't say men. We're humans and we can do how we want to. We decide. So we'll create modern monetary theory so that we can print as much of this money as we Want to or digitally create it. We can do everything that we want to. And what has that led to? Because we're going to bring social justice. We're going to print all this money. And Lyndon Johnson said, we're going to give it to the poor and social welfare programs and solve poverty. Poverty. We've actually increased. The poor are still with us.

Ryan Helfenbein: Right.

Kevin Freeman: Like Jesus told us they would be. The poor will always be with you. But it did not solve poverty. It just indebted us.

Ryan Helfenbein: Yeah, that's right. You know, let me just throw one other thing out there. you know how all these policies ultimately rob the poor and they hurt the poor. The irony is what you just said earlier. Gold, silver and bronze. Copper. You mentioned copper. What is the one thing they can't afford to print anymore? Pennies. You know, there were so many things you used to be able to buy with a penny, and that denomination is the smallest for a reason. But there were things that you could get of real value that were valuable to all Americans. What that says to me is this monetary system is failing the least of these. It actually doesn't deliver on the very thing it promises. You promise to take care of the poor socialists. You're destroying them. You're leading them to the slaughterhouse. They have no value, in the market, no commodity that they can use with which to buy things. That's what it does.

Kevin Freeman: That's exactly what it does. And so we created an alternative. We call it pirate money. We passed it in five states, and now transactional gold and silver can be used. And we would have added copper, except the Constitution doesn't mention copper. Article one, section 10, that says the state shall make nothing other than gold and silver coin 10 for payments in the state. But we can use gold and silver. Now, a company in England learned about, the name of our program, Pirate Money Radio is based on that initiative. And a company in England learned about what we're doing, and they chose to sponsor our efforts. Let me read, a little on air. Read. Support for this program comes from Glint, a financial technology service provider offering a debit card and mobile app that enables users to access their gold holdings for everyday purchases. With Glint, users maintain ownership of allocated physical gold, which is stored in a managed vault. At the time of transaction, gold is sold in real time to cover the purchase amount in local currency. Glint offers an alternative way to store and use the value. Combining gold and silver with modern payment infrastructure, Glint clients can monitor their gold balance, view transaction history, and manage their account through the Glint app available on major mobile platforms. More details about how vaulted physical gold can be used as money are [email protected] Gold247 Again, that's glintpay.com Gold247, Glint providing access to gold for modern spending. We're going back to a more biblical system, and what's driving us is the Bible. I'll tell you something else. I've studied John Wesley a little bit and went to the first church he had. It's not far, by the way, in Sea Island. It's not far from Jekyll island where the Federal Reserve is created. There right now, next to each other, Savannah. It's Sea Island.

Ryan Helfenbein: Sea Island. Okay.

Kevin Freeman: And so John Wesley had something that he would say. he quoted from, Luke, I tell you, use worldly wealth to gain friends for yourself, so when it is gone, you'll be welcomed into the eternal dwellings. And he said, gain all you can, save all you can, give all you can. In 30 seconds, sum up the Christian view of economy.

Ryan Helfenbein: Well, the Christian view, ultimately, look, this is a blessing. The Lord shows no favoritism whether, whether rich and rich or poor. But we have to recognize that there is a stewardship to as m. To whom much is given, much is required. And so in the parable of the talents, whether it be one talent or ten, we're all responsible for doing something as unto the Lord with that talent.

Kevin Freeman: Absolutely. And it is not socialism where they take a gun, stick it in your face, and say, give to the poor. It is instead 2 Corinthians 9, 7. So let each one give as he purposes in his heart, not grudgingly or of necessity, for God loves a cheerful giver. Thank you, Ryan, for being a part of Pirate Money Radio. If you have questions or comments, email [email protected] pray for us. This is Kevan Freeman, joined by Ryan Helfenbein for Pirate Money Radio.

Pirate Money Radio confronts the renewed appeal of socialism among younger Americans, contrasting historical failures—from Soviet breadlines to modern surveillance states—with the prosperity enabled by free markets and property rights. Kevin Freeman and Ryan Helfenbein argue that “free” promises like rent control, UBI, and city-run grocery stores create scarcity, dependency, and economic stagnation, citing 20th-century atrocities and real-world examples. They trace rising inequality to the abandonment of sound money in 1971, advocating a return to gold- and silver-based transactions as a path to economic justice and personal stewardship. The discussion links secular-humanist and radical alliances against Western foundations, urging biblically grounded freedom, voluntary charity, and responsible monetary policy.