Citation
From the May 8, 2024, edition of Daily Wire's The Ben Shapiro Show
BEN SHAPIRO: Now speaking of institutions that have been completely hollowed out and destroyed, the Boy Scouts have now decided they're going to rename themselves to be more inclusive. And this is just the final step in the hollowing out of the Boy Scouts as an organization, which is truly really sad because the Boy Scouts used to be, again, one of those social institutions outside of government, one of those social fabric building institutions that allowed people to know their neighbors, make friends, develop actual values. The values of the Boy Scouts were good religious values. The founder of the Boy Scouts was a was a religious Christian, and one of the actual things that Boy Scouts had to abide by was duty to God. That was actually in the original kind of oath that you would take as a Boy Scout.
Well, over time, they've gotten rid of a lot of that. They've secularized it. They've gotten rid of all of the original values. And now they're getting rid of the name Boy Scouts because after all, they wouldn't want to feel non-inclusive for girls who think they're boys and stuff like that. By the way, if you're the kind of person who thinks Boy Scouts is not inclusive, may I recommend that you get your head examined? Like, what's wrong with you? Why can't there just be a group where boys can get together and learn how to, like, build a campfire or something? Hell's wrong with you people?
You wanna know why so much of red state America is getting redder? It's because of crap like this. As a famous person once said, Boy Scouts is for boys. It's in the name Boy Scouts. In any case, here's Roger Krone, the CEO of the Boy Scouts of America, they're renaming themselves.
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Okay. This is exactly what's wrong with institutional America. That last line right there is the problem. This is true for churches. It's true for the Boy Scouts. It's true for synagogues. It's true for everyone. Every traditionalist institution, when they say our job is to lower the barriers of entry so you can enter, so everyone can bring their authentic selves, you wanna know why no one wants to join your organization? It's because of that. The reason people join institutions and organizations is to be shaped by those organizations and institutions. The reason you become a Boy Scout is to cultivate the skill set necessary to become an Eagle Scout, to become better at things. That is literally the reason. Not because the Boy Scouts are seeking your authentic self, but because you are supposed to conform to certain roles.
You are supposed to learn things from people who know things because the set of values that is promulgated by the institution is supposed to be taken in and integrated into your life. This is also true for churches. You hear this from churches all the damn time, failing churches, I should say. You heard from pastors and priests, people who will say things like, well, you know, the reason I put this gay pride flag on the outside of my church is because I wanna say that you should come as your authentic self because we welcome everyone. We wanna get rid of the barriers to entry. So, I have a question. If a gay couple has the choice between going to a really nice restaurant with some nice guitar music, with a gay pride flag out front, or to your church on a Sunday morning, which one do you think they're going to do? Which one? The reason people engage with institutions is because the institutions have value to them, and that means that their values cannot shift and change in order to get more butts in the pews or more seats around the campfire.
The reason the Boy Scouts has been withering away over the course of last several decades has nothing to do with the Boy Scouts' conservatism. It has everything to do with the fact that the Boy Scouts have been destroyed by progressivism. It has to do with the fact that courts decided that Boy Scouts couldn't even have standards for their own scout masters. It's because the Boy Scouts decided there could be girls in the Boy Scouts. If you want a successful institution, you stick to your guns, and you hold to those guns no matter what.
Again, the middle management of American life has decided that it's very important to cater to the new tolerant and diverse worldview of the United States, which by the way, does not give a -- you think a bunch of lib kids are gonna start coming to Scouts of America or whatever the hell they're calling themselves now? You think all of a sudden this place can be filled by San Francisco trans kids? That's not the next step here. The next step is that the organization just doesn't exist. Just another pathetic attempt to empty out traditional historic American institutions. That's what that is.
And then you wonder why there's a backlash in the form of things like Trump? Because when people feel so panicked about institutions being destroyed, they go to the great destroyer himself who threatens to just break every piece of China in the China shop. That's how you end up with all of this stuff.