Reviewing a Conservative Young Adult Novel 

I find it really interesting that even in a piece of conservative schlock, the villain is still a corporation that used its political power to exempt itself from government regulation

I love how the idea of designing a city in a way that you don't have to spend an hour in traffic to get from place to place is dystopian to conservatives. It's such a self-flagellating political position.

It's always so funny when conservatives bring up banning books as something negative and yet they are the ones banning and burning books.

I really do love the fact that in this secret society of truth tellers, their historical knowledge only really resembles the glossary of a middle school US history textbook.

Hilarious that Mom's for Liberty would financially back a project where the villains are the ones banning books. Irony much?

5 minutes in and Glenn Beck has already referenced the ONLY MLK quote Conservatives know 😂 Instant classic

The difference between Chasing Embers and Fahrenheit 451 is that one was written by a gibbering baboon and the other was written by one of the seminal sci Fi authors of our time.

"15 minute cities are dystopian" Why do so many Americans (including conservatives) go on vacation to European cities like Rome, London, and Paris if they're so dystopian? They could vacation to the middle of nowhere USA but prefer to go to touristy spots that let you walk and use public transit. Makes no sense! Obviously they're not that horrible if you're spending tons of money to visit them.

The dystopia of purchasing at the corner store instead of a mall a highway away.

Conservative should never stop writing novels it is the funniest stuff ever

He thinks "15 Minute Cities" means little pocket dimensions people aren't allowed to leave! Priceless.

Imagine if you started a "Hunger Games" video by saying. "We meet our protagonist, 'Hunger' as she...". God I love Conservative stories, just always on the nose. 💀

Ironic how a book that claims to be against historical revisionism engages in the most egregious historical revisionism.

There's a 2003 YA book called The City of Ember which was a condemnation of post 9/11 nationalism. I don't know if Glenn Beck radically misinterpreted City of Ember's message, or wanted to create a conservative alternative; but I don't think the similar titles are a coincidence. Especially since there are some plot similarities (dystopian future, planned city, historical knowledge being hidden, one girl and one boy protagonist). The kids in the City of Ember are around 12 or 13, so a rip-off would even explain the age weirdness.

I don't understand what the point of this book is. If you give this to Christian youth to read, they will ALL grow up to deconstruct once they encounter ANY amount of mainstream news or discussion, because it's teaching that: 1. Censorship of literature is bad 2. Organizations that try to suppress dissent are bad 3. Control youth by forcing them into conformatist youth programs is bad 4. Ratting out your friends to adults is bad 5. Authoritarian measures to suppress unrest are bad ...and literally ALL OF THOSE THINGS are stuff that the conservative Christian Right does. Like, I was taught ALL OF THIS growing up, and it made me deconstruct because I put it together that Conservative Christianity was full of bull once I learned a basic amount of knowledge about history/news. The only way to prevent that is to forcibly censor what your kids access, but your kids will immediately note the hypocrisy. This is ridiculous, this is just gonna make young people think Glenn Beck is full of bull.

"The only reason why he's popular is because it's cool to be different." He genuinely believes that people who have different opinions than he does only think those things because they want to be "cool." He doesn't believe that they have put any thought or contemplation into them. He thinks that if they used their brains they would agree with him, but instead they close their minds and have certain beliefs simply because they're "popular." He really believes this stuff. It's wild. Like, he just plain doesn't believe that two people can be familiar with the same exact idea and come to two different conclusions about it. I don't understand this mode of thinking.

Finally Glenn Beck address the youth of the nation, but it’s hot now.

what fresh hell...

"Oarsmen" being an acronym - and learning what that "acronym" stands for - caused me so much pain. I guess I shouldn't be surprised that the guy who infamously misspelled "oligarch" isn't very good at handling words, but my god.

"fifteen minute cities" is such a triggering concept for conservative conspiracy theorists. when they come up, I've started calling them "large cities made out of small towns" and unsurprisingly they seem to like that idea far more, despite it being the same concept.

the scene with the Oarsmen reciting ‘banned history’ is ironically a very succinct illustration of the problems with conservative historiography as it’s just a bunch of factoids and slogans utterly removed from context and history to try and work its audience into a patriotic fervor

OARSMEN might be the single dumbest acronym I have ever heard in my entire life

I love fiction by conservatives because I like to think they’re bad because they didn’t want to pay attention in their liberal arts classes.

I'm really struggling to understand how conservatives hear "urban planning that emphasizes the wellbeing and convenience of its citizens over needing a car," and think "DYSTOPIA!"

Also remember that borrows from libraries give authors royalties. So even borrowing this book for laughs will support its creators. Source: I am an author, and I've made most of the money from my book through the public lending right (PLR) program. I make between $500 and $1000 per year this way, and I am not a known or popular person. Obviously, Jose needed to read it somehow to give us all this analysis, so he took one for the team. He did it so none of us have to.

I'm absolutely losing it that a 15 minute city is somehow a dystopia in Glenns mind.

I hope u kno u have the best voice ever to help my insomnia and get me sleepy.. i never fall asleep but listening with my eyes closed is a big comfort

“We don’t organize like that… when WE organize, there are tiki torches!” -Glenn Beck, translated for clarity

Historical sidenote: It would be unfair to paint the Pilgrims and Plymouth Plantation as the same as other English colonists and colonies. Plymouth had far better and cooperative relations with the local indigenous communities than that of neighboring Massachusetts Bay Colony. It wasn’t until 1675, more than a half century after the initial settlement, that Plymouth warred against the Wampanoag in King Philip’s (Metacomet) War. In fact, the Wampanoag and Plymouth fought together in the Pequot War, one of the myriad colonial conflicts that combined Old World antagonism and native rivalries.

With every new quote you read I said to myself, "Wow, that is some of the worst writing I've ever heard, surely the rest of the book isn't as bad as that." And I was wrong every time. I do hope that the writer is truly messing with us and is just making a quick buck on Glenn Beck's dime. Otherwise... yikes. Great video, though. I especially liked the dedication to using Tisquantum's real name. That idea you brought up about the cop-out narrative device of Providence makes a lot of sense to me, though, because it reflects the way that conservatives in general just don't understand Capital-H-History. What I mean is that History isn't a collection of distinct facts and events that had to happen or could only have happened that way. Our puny human brains can only grapple with and understand the immensity of Time through narratives and selective omission. Who writes the narrative and chooses what gets included and what doesn't has a big hand in how that story can be understood. There is entirely too much information that goes into even just a singular historical event, and that's why getting any degree other than an undergraduate in history means you have to turn yourself into a specialist in a singular theme, event, or sector of time. That's why I was laughing so ridiculously hard at the section you read where Ember's parents were shouting out random facts because it displays such a rain-puddle sized view of history, where you can see and observe specific things as simple thoughts. Columbus sailing to the """"new"""" world in 1492 was the result of THOUSANDS of interlocking events and complex power struggles between nations, trading companies, and individuals, and had a multitude of cascading effects on its own. The founding fathers weren't divinely guided to revolution by God, they were wealthy land owners who didn't like paying taxes and wanted a system of government where they wrote the rules. History is happening **all the time**, but frequently the only way to make sense of it is to pare it down to individual stories (like the one about Tisquantum) or to simplified series of events. Glenn's note at the end about the writing's of Thomas Jefferson being cool or not based on whether you 'can't read them' is also so laughably small-minded. It's not that modern day people don't find his writings 'cool', and as someone who has two history degrees I can tell you that they are still widely read and discussed and are, in fact, pretty cool. We just understand them from a more evolved viewpoint: he was a racist hypocrite who slept with his slaves. Smart guy? Yeah, at some stuff. "Brilliant"? Ehhhhh, not really.

As an aside, its probably the least important aspect, but I notice how we in the US never call the "Allied Powers" in WW2 by the alliance's actual name. Why might conservatives not want to say the **United Nations** won WW2?

It’s really interesting listening to this after listening to the Behind the Bastards ep on Curtis Yarvin. Considering that Yarvins ideal is a corporate controlled city-state is the bugaboo for his co-ideologue beck.

I feel like those lines after Columbus were chosen to make Columbus not sound like a monster by chaining sentences that aren’t actually linked right after some that are.

Glan Beck would replace convenience stores with inconvenience stores if he could

The idea that Beck couldn't see a reason that Marx could be popular aside from it being rebellious is both insane and fascinating.

So the people that ban books, write a book where banning books are bad..?

They're preserving American mythology, not American history. Of course Glenn Beck thinks that this is endangered. It's like they came up with a list of "teenage dystopian novel" tropes and just went down the list, checking them off.

Fun fact in the midst of tragedy. It is not known for sure, but likely that Tisquantum and Amonute (also known as Matoaka and Pocahontas) likely knew each other at least a little. They were both in England at the same time and were literally the only two people there from their continent. And they were both traveling in similar high society circles of those who had the luxury to be curious about such foreign people. There is no record of them meeting, but it is likely to have happened.

Those acronyms are hilariously tortured. Its bringing to mind Codename: kids next door, where the acronyms being tortured was a joke...you know, because the people making them up were all under the age of 13. Except I feel like KND's dumb acronyms still actually made more sense then these ones. Like the creators were making a deliberate joke, but at the same time were considering what words would still make some tenuous sense. BRA stands out in my mind: battle ready armor. I'm sure the creators of the show wanted to have something that sounded innocuous but turned out to be a dangerous weapon and so they picked the word 'bra' deliberately because they knew they could make it stand for 'battle ready armor'. It feels like Glen Beck (or his writer) put in not even half that amount of effort. They started with the word they wanted to use and worked backwards then said "good enough" and hit "publish"

'The Tuttle Twins' reads like it was written by Andrew Ryan.

The cover art is really good though, makes it look really badass. I can imagine a 14-year old who has no idea who Glenn Beck is picking this up because of the cover.

True to form for conservatives to jump on a bandwagon-dystopian ya fiction-about 10 years after it was popular

I think it might be pronounced Aylo as in Reylo because then her full name would be more heavy handedly pronounced like Azazel

Can't believe he said the "Teek" slur in a RU-vid video. He's gonna get banned.

I would love to be an Oarsman! For no other reason, other than the fact that I just love coming up with what random spiel, I would yell when I get captured. "my friends are my power, and I'm there!" "if you threw a party, and invited everyone you knew…" "Guess what day it is?....HUMPDAY!"

Azaz Aylo must be an allusion to the fallen angel Azazel, according to the book of Enoch.

seeing they also seemed to grab stuff from The City of Ember & the Wool series. dear lord 😅😅😅

You'd think lying to save a life would be an easy moral problem. Yet Immanuel Kant came down on the other side nonetheless.

Whoa! I thought for a sec the characters were saying Columbus was endowed by his creator... <a href="#" class="seekto" data-time="295">4:55</a>

I would be surprised to learn that there were any Black characters in this book but the name Lincoln Freeman has real "Neal Adams trying to explain to the writers that they can't name a Black superhero Lincoln Washington" energy.

Skip this, read Fahrenheit 451 instead, have a better time.

Jose videos are always making my day better.

I'm going to assume that the Azaz Aylo character is more of a reference to Azazel, the demon who introduced forbidden knowledge to humans in the Bible, since it's got them Christian undertones. But it is funny that they picked that surname in particular.

Being a conservative at a young age is just ghoulish

I like your analysis of the epilogue. However, given the foreshadowing of "Aylo" (yes, I googled it) and the uh, themes that are reportedly very common in such works, I suspect that these characters who are certainly in the same family structure and possibly in the same bloodline may end up in a romantic relationship in future books. My condolences on your newfound pain and I hope you heal well and quickly.

"...Frogs gay--" "...away christmas--" "Inside Job--"

Americans love cruise ships and walking holidays then don't want well planned cities

Great video my favorite part was when I commented in order to increase it's engagement (Te amo josé)

The 'hidden knowledge' part is fun because i think it shows Glenn Beck never really left the headspace of the Tea Party movement. Nowadays this sort of patriotism is seen as a bit gauche even in those circles I feel, Russia is the hero now.

I shouldn't be surprised that Beck put his name on slavery apologia, but here we are.

fahrenheit 451 except it's just the people who are actively banning books fantasizing about being the victim because they aren't irl

The conservative explanation of "why its okay to lie sonetimes" is way dumber than the one ive seen. Which is, you dont have to answer the spoken question, you can answer the implied question. For instance, say your best friends worst enemy comes to your house and asks if your friend is hiding in your house (which they are). And thus its implied that you would be a liar if you continued to hide them. However, the question itself is a lie. They arent asking where your friend is, theyre asking if they can come inside your house and beat up your friend. And the answer to that true question, is no.

sorry to hear about your injury, get well soon

My ex was secretly reading a Glenn Beck "novel". She kept it in her car like contraband.

I gotta good idea for a book.. the people I don't like are running a dystopian version of our society.. ENOUGH!

Love this. Please keep reading "conservative lit" so we dont have to!

Drop everything, a new Jose video just dropped

I haven't got very far into this, but this book is being told from the POV of a child, whose parents are being dragged away by oppressors. And her father is described as "the husband". Now, maybe that makes sense in the context of the book, but more likely, it's telling me that it's very clunkily written.

I'm glad that Mom's for Liberty realized that book banning is bad. Great development arc for them.

Please Please Please make sure you are registered to vote. My life will objectively get worse if Trump wins. I don't think I'll survive it. This is a cry for help.

Azaz Aylo? Like Azazel? Subtle, Glenn.

My first reaction seeing this is, "Damn you, damn you, damn you".

Just hearing this, I suppose the Beck-insert is called "Mr. Amos" and not what I understood (and would be quite fitting).

A group of book-banning moms financially supporting a Fahrenheit 451 rip-off? That's not ironic at all 🥴

That acronym..........it broke me.

So, according to this book, "Squanto" is one to blame for the creation of the US.

I honestly must commend Glenn for being so self restrained when it came to attacking the left besides the imaginary 15 minute cities.

if you live at a 15-minutes city, you won't live in a house, you'll live in an apartment at the 15th floor (either above or below the ground). and that map would have a lot more roads leading to the center.

Going straight into the discount bin

Disagree. Hat keys are cool. It's harder to remove someone's hat than pick their pocket, and if someone manages to sneak in they would be noticed by lack of hat. Plus you can make jokes about the etymology of falsehood and I like that. Dear Christian Nationals please don't take hat keys from me.

New Jose video just dropped!

MFL can also be found in Indiana Jones The Last Crusade.

love how big brother is just mr house

I wonder if the slur was included because thats also a thing in harry potter used for world building.

I think the interpretation of quotes presented is the important part. Corporations controlling society is what Trump & Beck support at the cost of American citizens. Mixed up ideas and story like Beck & Trump are.

Your accident that affected your performance? Boom: Providence

Everything about this plot feels like Glenn Beck dumbed down tropes from like 5 other YA series and replaced all the world building with his stupid ideology. This is the most "hello fellow kids" book I've ever seen. When Divergent has better world building than your book you've failed.

Glenn Beck is really bad at acronyms. Reminds me of Oligarh

This feels like it was written by Matthew Reilly, but trying to argue for conservatism, instead of just appeal to them.

Oh, for the halcyon days... when a dry-drunk, bearded Mormon was the only grifter on offer....?

Feel better Soon Jose

I wish I could bottle the dopamine rush I get when i see a Jose video in my feed

I have laugh out loud when the Oarsmen acronomym is reveal. This is so dumb lol.

I think he has a ghost writer. Maybe he writes them, but at the very least, I think he has help on all of them.

For a really good dystopian future novel, see Riddley Walker by Russell Hoban. Not an easy read but worth it!

This garbage is a wonderful example of how a lot of conservatives are severely disconnected with not only human nature but how society as a whole develops. I mean that or just an overpowering willingness to push/go along with propaganda because it brings a sense of order and certainty to a reality which is anything but. While deserving of pity given the sort of things they often inflict on those who don't agree with makes a strong case how they should be met with ridicule and scorn.

If you want some insights into the mind of teen girls, you should ask Matt Gaetz, I hear he's an expert.

So, how compelling would a pro-Oasis read of this book be?

"Glenn Beck's Chasing Embers is the sort of dystopia you get when you no more than an hour trying to figure out what that world would look like,", am I just incredibly tired or is something missing in that sentence?

Does it really describe a world in which the banning of physical paper books is significant? If so, surely as dumb an idea as an evangelical-fiction book set in a dystopia where Bibles are banned. But I guess it's okay to ban books that describe things like slavery.