Dr Shea Bradley-Farrell - Last Warning to the West: Hungary’s Triumph Over Communism and the Woke Agenda

Shownotes and Transcript

Dr. Shea Bradley-Farrell joins Hearts of Oak to discuss Hungary's triumph over communism and the importance of nationalism in preserving sovereignty.  
She draws parallels between Hungary's history and current US events, emphasizing faith's role in preserving societal values. 
Dr. Shea discusses the conservative gap in foreign policy, her book, "Last Warning to the West," and the significance of faith in upholding principles. 
She highlights Hungary's resistance against the EU's narrative, praises CPAC Hungary for conservative collaboration, and calls for a revival of faith to counter liberal agendas, stressing unity in upholding fundamental principles. 

'Last Warning to the West: Hungary's Triumph Over Communism and the Woke Agenda' available in paperback and e-book on Amazon  https://amzn.eu/d/02lNB8Ma

Shea Bradley-Farrell, PhD is President of Counterpoint Institute for Policy, Research, and Education (CIPRE) in Washington, D.C.  Dr. Shea is an expert in foreign policy and aid, national security, international development, and women's issues. She is the author of Last Warning to the West: Hungary's Triumph Over Communism and the Woke Agenda, published in December 2023. 
Dr Shea worked directly with the Trump administration, including Sec. Mike Pompeo and Senior Advisor Ivanka Trump, on multiple issues while serving as the VP of International Affairs for Concerned Women for America. Most recently she was professor and subject matter expert for the Defense Security Cooperation University (DSCU) of the U.S. Department of Defense. Dr. Shea possesses an active U.S. security clearance.
Dr. Shea publishes Op-eds in outlets such as RealClear Politics, Human Events,  NewsMax,  National Review,   Daily Signal,  The Washington Times, The European Conservative,  Daily Caller, The Hill, Washington Examiner,  the Federalist and many others.  She is a weekly contributor to SiriusXM Patriot Stacy on the Right (Wednesdays 10 p.m.), and a contributor to Victory News TV. She is a regular guest on multiple TV news and radio shows. Dr. Shea presents at conferences all over the world such the Wilson Center for International Scholars, U.S. Department of State, the Foreign Services Institute,  the Heritage Foundation, CPAC Hungary 2022 and 2023, and the Gulf Studies Symposium.
Dr. Shea holds a Ph.D. and M.S. from Tulane University, where she was Adjunct Lecturer in the International Development Studies Program in 2015. In 2014, she was Visiting Research Fellow at the Center for Gulf Studies at the American University of Kuwait.  
She is a member of the Texas Public Policy Foundation's Border Security Coalition and former Affiliated Faculty and Policy Fellow at George Mason University Schar School of Policy and Government. 
As an international development professional, Dr. Shea has traveled extensively throughout the Middle East, Africa, and Latin America delivering capacity building and training assistance to international partners. She has hands-on experience with project design and management, budgeting, curriculum design and development, recruitment, and grants management. She is well-schooled in USAID programming and policies has worked with a variety of international donors including World Bank, Exxon, FedEx, and Kuwait Foundation for the Advancement of Science.

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Interview recorded  18.6.24

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TRANSCRIPT

(Hearts of Oak)

I'm delighted to have Dr. Shea Bradley-Farrell with us. Shea, thank you so much for your time today.

(Dr Shea Bradley-Farrell)

It's an honor to be with you, Peter. Thanks for having me.

Not at all. Lots to talk about. And of course, your book to start off with. Let me just, actually, let me ask you a little bit about yourself. And then we will bring up the book. And this last warning to the West, all the links are in the description. Hungary's Triumph Over Communism and the Woke Agenda. because you've got some phenomenal recommendations on the back that I read those and thought, actually, I'll just give the recommendations and then that's enough. That's literally enough. With Tucker, with Lou Dobbs, with Lieutenant General Michael Flynn and Congressman Paul Gosser so much. We will get into that in a couple of minutes.

And don't forget, Kari Lake wrote the foreword.

Trust me, we're getting to Kari Lake. She's not on the back, but she's on the front. We're getting to Kari Lake. I read that and thought, wow.

But we'll get into the book. And the warning that is, I think, to the West, and I've been to Hungary many, many times. But, Shea, firstly, with you, you are, I mean, you're an expert in so many areas. In the foreign policy and aid, international development, you work directly with the Trump administration. You're regularly in the media with video appearances and lots of op-eds. And you've been instrumental, I think, in setting up CPAC Hungary, which is so needed. And of course, you head up Counterpoint Institute for Policy Research and Education. We'll get into all of those. The links are there @drshea__dc is your Twitter handle and counterpointinstitute.org is the website for the work you do. And our US audience, Shea, will know who you are from your many media appearances. Our UK side probably don't. So could I ask you to take a moment and introduce yourself, especially to our UK audience?

Yeah, absolutely. You know, I actually, my background is as an international development professional. You mentioned that and a professor, an academic, traveled throughout the Middle East, Africa.

Some in South America, doing development work, mainly focused on helping women better their businesses, whether it was a very small business of maybe harvesting salt, you know, once waters receded in Africa to a very big multi-million dollar companies because economic development is the best, in my opinion, the best form of foreign aid because then people really learn how to take care of themselves.

And it builds great relationships between our country and other countries. So anyway, when I came to D.C., that's what I was doing. But being here just for a very short time is when I finally figured out that if I did not get myself into this real battle for our freedom, that I was going to eventually lose my country and lose my freedom. So the story kind of goes on from there. But yes, I worked with an organization called Concerned Women for America. It's the largest public policy organization run by women in the US. And I built an international affairs department there. And I worked alongside, as you said, the Trump administration in that position, working with Secretary Pompeo and Ivanka Trump on different issues having to do with economic development and human rights. And it was a great learning place for me and continued with policy. And I decided to start my own organization, Counterpoint Institute, because there are so few conservatives in the foreign policy realm. I only know one other development professional who is a conservative, which is very interesting.

But there was a real hole there in our policy, in our country, in the guidance and leadership of our country. And so I have focused on myself on foreign policy and national security as is my background. And we're doing quite well, Peter. So thanks for having me on again.

We want to get on the book. And at the beginning, your image was mirrored. We're not going to stop it because I know your time is short, Shea. You're in very big demand because of all the work you're and especially the book. And you mentioned Kari Lake did the foreword. Let me bring up... And this is an image of the book, Last Warning to the West, Hungary's Triumph over Communism and the Woke Agenda. As I said, you've got Tucker Carlson on the back. You've got Lou Dobbs, Lieutenant General Michael Flynn and Congressman Paul Gosser, all household names recommending what you're putting in as a call, as a warning call to the West on what Hungary has been in over its thousand year history. And, of course, you mentioned Kari Lake has written the foreword.

Maybe you begin the book talking about your trip to Hungary. You were there 2019. You talk about the first time and your experiences.

I was actually, because I worked in Bulgaria for two and a half years, and I actually was in Hungary for the first time in 1998 and many times since. And I shared the experiences you mentioned of driving through the suburbs, seen that communism blocks and think, wow, in Bulgaria, I got that 10 times to that degree. But you've traveled extensively. Why has your heart settled on Hungary?

Well, you know, the Hungarians have a real will to survive and I'm a survivalist also, a survivor. And so I take great pride in that, in them. I think that they've, they're amazing. They became a Christian country over a thousand years ago, and since then they've had the Ottoman Turks in, the Mongols, the Habsburgs, you know, the Nazis occupied them, the Soviet Union, and still they retain their very unique Hungarian identity. I mean, that is even reflected in the fact that no other country in the world, no other people in the world speak Hungarian.

But Hungarians, right? It's very interesting. And I think that they're a real example of holding on to their true nationalism. And nationalism in the purest sense of the word means just pride in your own country. It's a collection of people who come together and agree on the same sort of laws and economic systems and the way we're going to do our society. That's what nationalism is. And it's been perverted, of course, by Nazis, for one.

But the sense of nationalistic pride in its purest form is not a bad thing. It's a good thing because it strengthens a country. And that's a real reflection of what Hungary is and the people. And they have fought for their survival for so long. And I'm sure you know, to reference somebody probably that you know well, Peter, is Sir Roger Scruton, who is well-loved in Hungary. Because during the Soviet occupation, you know, he worked in the underground bringing information and books to people in those Soviet satellites. He was arrested, actually, also during that time. He helped bring networks together of communication. And anyway, I quote him in my book, and I can't remember the quote. Maybe I could pull it around and read it to you. But it pointedly says, you know, this is a big paraphrase, Hungary went through occupation, and then the wall came down after 46 years of the Soviet Union being in there telling them what to do, being that authoritarian power, right?

Well, what he says in this quote is, you know, just because the wall came down, it doesn't make it any less true if the EU is doing the same thing to Hungary. This top-down decision-making, telling them that they must accept this radical gender theory nonsense and teach it to their children, telling them that they must accept mass influx of immigration into their country. They must enter, you know, in their way of thinking, giving money to the Ukraine war to weapons is entering the war. And there are many reasons they don't want to do that. And the EU has sanctioned Hungary for all of those, all of those things, keeping money, billions of dollars away from them because of their sovereignty and what they believe is right for their own country. And we can talk about that and explain it. But the point is, is that the EU has become, you know, what it was never meant to be. It wasn't meant to be a decision making body over the sovereignty of other countries in the EU. And Hungary has fought back against that. And I think that they're a real example to the United States. And that's where the book ended up coming from. Oh, last point. This is what kicked it off. I was over there doing research about the national identity and the survival of the Hungarians, not really knowing where the book was going to go.

And people kept saying to me, Shea, you understand that the rhetoric coming out of the United States reminds us of our Soviet era, right? I mean, what a gut punch. No, really.

And walking that back, and I'd love to talk more about this, but I'm going to shut up and pause for a minute, Peter. But walking that back, you know, for the past hundred years, the Marxism coming out after the Bolshevik Revolution, the communism that the U.S. was fighting in the 50s. Everything is very much parallel to what's going on in the United States today. And so that's why the book became a warning, the last warning to the West, and written specifically for Americans, really, and others from Western nations that are dealing with the same things we are.

Right. There are so many threads to pick up from there. Let me start with, I mean, Hungary should be an insignificant country. It's just got 10 million people, and I love your mug. (Shea shows her British Union Flag drinking mug)

It's beautiful. It's beautiful. Mine is a spitfire, so I go…

This was actually not on purpose, but I'm hoping it gets me a few points.

Oh, it does. You don't need any more, trust me. But I mean, Hungary should be insignificant. Small country, 10 million people on the edge of the Balkans in Eastern Europe, yet everyone knows who Victor Orban is. It's taken a position which is much larger than it actually should have. I mean, as an American, how do you see that as actually happened?

You know, and I started the book out talking about that, because who, really, Americans are so isolated. Most of them had no idea where Hungary was, right, or anything about them. And all of a sudden, they're on the world stage. Victor Orban is a friend of Trump. Trump is shaking his hand and inviting him to have meetings. And it's really because of, really the bullying of the EU, I believe, is where it started, because there were so many articles and news stories written that maligned Hungary and these sanctions. And Hungary stood up and fought back. I mean, Orban was part of the movement that pushed the Soviets out of Hungary. He started the Fidesz party back then, before the Soviets ever left. He was actually a youth alliance at that time, a youth party, a party of the youth that was anti-communist. So he is a real fighter and he has a lot of people in his administration who are real fighters and they don't want the woke agenda. They feel like, hey, we just got our freedom back in 1991. Stop telling us what to do. So I think it has a lot to do with the press maligning them and then Trump hugging them, embracing Orbán and looking at Hungary as an ally in this fight against Marxist nonsense.

This woke Marxist cultural nonsense.

And that has increased because our own administration now under the Biden administration.

Our ambassador in Hungary is very antagonistic against Hungary. So I just think their will and their will to do what they believe is right for their own people. And on all three of those issues I mentioned earlier, they've done a citizen referendum. Do you want to be involved in the war? Do you want mass immigration? Do you want radical gender theory in your schools? And the overwhelming majority of people voted no.

So in my way of thinking, that is real sovereignty, respecting the sovereignty of your people, of your country, if the EU would stop this. But the Biden administration continues this antagonizing, I call it, because it truly is. And I think that's had a lot to do with it.

We'll touch on your ambassador and it kind of shows where America currently sits. But you mentioned the EU and Orban's stand, I think, against cultural Marxism and the woke agenda has made him an absolute enemy of the EU, like no other figure I've seen within the EU. And I think he's now getting fined so much per day because of the stand against mass migration. And he's a target of the Western media and of all the organs of the deep state. And you see them working across. I mean, tell us how you view that. This is one man, small country, standing up against the EU. 10 million people in Hungary, half a billion in the EU. And everything that Orbán stands for is different than the entity of the European Union. I think that's a lesson for Americans to learn to be very careful who you actually place yourself under.

Yeah, that's exactly Exactly right. And, you know, it really goes back to something that you mentioned, you know, this guy Daniel Frund, I believe is how you say his last name, in the EU. I mean, he's taken it on himself. It's made...

He's made it his business to post things on his social media that are clearly very discriminatory against Hungary.

And he's made it, he's an example, I think, of the anger that many on the liberal left, the radical left get simply because you don't do what they want you to do, simply because you don't believe what they believe. And Hungary was perfectly fine with not trying to change them, but they're trying to change Hungary. And as I said before, they've had the Ottoman Turks, the Habsburgs, the Nazis, the Soviets. They want to protect their beliefs. Like I said, they respect God. They're a Christian country. They respect the family. They actually put in their constitution a few years ago that the woman is the mother and the father and the man is the father, you know, against this gender nonsense.

And it made the EU extremely angry. And that's been part of the problem. And yeah, so a lot of this comes from anger. But I will touch on something else you said that I worked a lot against, during the Trump administration, trying to unravel the Obama years on this. The United States got way out of line on foreign aid. And what we've ended up doing, I believe it started under Obama. I don't know that it went a lot further back, but we've begun pushing our own progressive social agenda through our foreign aid with things called like being LGBT in Asia, being LGBT and whatever. And so, I wrote an article a couple months ago and it was in Peru, that's where it was, that we are funding transgender ballroom dancing in Peru. I mean, this kind of nonsense instead of real help, real development help, humanitarian help.

We are pushing our social progressiveness, I always do this because it's actually backwardsness, onto other countries. And in my job, you know, for years now, I've had people come from Africa, from the Middle East, from Eastern Europe, from South America, come and say to me, can you help us? Because your country has told us we can't have this money unless we do this, which is against our religion, whether it's something that's promoting abortion, promoting homosexuality. It's not what our people want to do. But your country is pushing this. And it's a real problem. And we're doing it again under the Biden administration. And that's what's going on in Hungary and other countries, for sure, all over the world. And I'm sorry, I apologize.

Well, actually, that fits into what the EU and the UK are doing, that we tie a lot of our aid, especially to abortion being healthcare, and you need to abort as much as you can, and the whole LGBT agenda, especially in the education and media. So we are doing exactly the same. But you mentioned the ambassador, and you talk about him being a big advocate and representative of LGBT community. And that must be a slap in the face to a country that is a conservative Christian country. And the left put that in place, obviously Biden put them in place purposefully, knowing that we are going to push our agenda as America and it's irrelevant to what you think. But we have exactly the same issues in the EU and UK, pushing that agenda on developing countries.

Yeah. And it's stepping out of line. It's stepping over the sovereignty of other countries, over their religious freedom, over their scientific freedom when you get down to the transgender stuff. Our ambassador, David Pressman is his name.

Evidently, there was a small story about it. It was part of Obama's LGBT. Obama promised to spend millions and billions on promoting ideology. And I, can I make this clear? Because this is something I've worked on as well. Obama and Biden are spreading an ideology, teaching children in some of these programs, you know, here's the color purple, we're celebrating transgender stuff. It's ideology they're pushing. What they should be doing is looking and seeing in the countries, if homosexuals, if whatever, are being imprisoned or persecuted for some, you know, in some way. That should be addressed as a human rights issue. You know, ISIS beheading homosexual men. This is where the U.S. should be involved, not in spreading an ideology.

And I was going to tell you something else, Peter, but I've gotten off on that tangent. What was..

It's like the Matt Walsh documentary, What is a woman, talking to people in Africa and they're saying, what do you mean a man can be a woman, it's madness,

It's madness, yes and I had a friend who spoke at the UN from Africa who grew up in this village, you know, where, here was her point at the UN, we need roads so I can get my children to the doctor, we need hospitals. We need water where we live. We don't need abortion. That's not development. Going back to our ambassador. So first of all.

He helped Obama with this. Second of all, in his confirmation hearing, he was already calling Hungary a democratic backsliding country, aligning them with China and Russia. And if you look at his social media, most of this is because of the LGBT thing. And he promotes that agenda far more than anything else on his social media. He's militant about it. He's hung up and obsessed on it. He is married to a man. He has two little boys, I believe, with this man. Now, I've spent lots and lots of time in Hungary, been there many times at this point. I've seen homosexuals walking around. Nobody cares if that's what you want to do. But he was put in there as an antagonizing aspect for his beliefs alone and, you know, his obsessive promotion of it. And the real thing that clinches this is that he uses that to say that Hungary is backsliding in democratic values, that Hungary is a human rights abuser.

There is no put your finger on anything that Hungary has done to abuse human rights. In fact, you know, ironically, I think this was on the Human Rights Council Committee, whatever the name of the organization website, this uprising of LGBT people in Hungary. So, oh, it's terrible because Hungary is oppressing them because here's this uprising. Well, the point, you know, that I was trying to make during this time was these people have the freedom to uprise and say we don't like things. That's a democratic society.

So what's happening is the Biden administration wants everybody to agree with them. You know, that's the real issue. If you don't agree with them, then you're a human rights abuser. And that's wrong. It's deceptive and it's taking the focus off of real needs, you know, around the world that the U.S. could be focused on.

I know, exactly. A key part of, if you go go through Hungary's history from its establishment in the 9th century, so you've got 1,000 years of history, all the way up to the Ottoman Empire, 1800s, you go up to communism in the 1900s and how Hungary was able to overthrow that, along with the rest of Eastern Europe.

And that's 1,000-year history. It's, I mean, four times longer than the US has been there, and they fought for their national identity over that time. It does seem as though Hungary is a kind of roadmap for successfully preserving your national identity. Is that what you've seen in your time looking at Hungary?

Yeah, I believe so, Peter. And, you know, I did interviews for the Bucs, some with senior government officials and some with just regular people out in the country. And there was an older gentleman I talked to in his late 80s that had been there during the Soviet siege of Budapest, where they fought against the Nazis and pushed the Nazis out. He was just a little boy at the time. And he and his family were in one of the basements there where the castle is, now where the castle is in Hungary. And, you know, he recounts some really terrible things like the soldiers raping women just as a matter of method even to keep the people pressed down. But, you know, I asked him, in fact, he had this great attitude and he had lived most of his life up until 1991 under Soviet occupation. And I asked him, how is it that Hungarians are still so positive?

How is it that they hold so fast to their family because the Russians, the communist ideology, was to divide people from family, to divide people from religion, to divide people from their national identity. They took Hungarians' holidays away from them, their national holidays.

They told them they had to take crosses down off the walls and put the communist leader pictures up there. These are are just some small examples, but they tried to recreate Hungarian history and identity according to what the communists wanted it to be. And I said, how are you guys still so Hungarian, so family oriented, so focused on God and your country? And he said it really went back to Christianity and their families, that when he was a little boy, his mother, you know, would teach them in the house about their religion, about their faith, about right and wrong, freedom and liberty.

And then they would go to school and under the eyes of the communists, they would act a different way. But always at home, it was still being imparted to them, you know, the national identity of the Hungarians, their freedom, the importance of their sovereignty. And I had some other gentlemen that were older say pretty much the same thing. So I think it's something, I think it's that, and I think it's this will to survive. They've been through it for centuries, and they keep having to do it. And as somebody said to me, a few people said to me, is that America doesn't remember what it's like not to be free. We've been around like you said a lot less time than Hungarians have and they were dealing with this until recent history in 1991. So there are many people still alive that remember what it was like under the sovereignty of the Soviet Union.

You talked about faith, and I think the position of God is quite central. And of course, the EU have rejected God, and whenever they wrote the Constitution, they specifically and purposely removed any references to Christian history in Europe and any reference to God. And that puts it at odds with Hungary. I mean, there are many nations in Europe that are still very strongly, devoutly Christian. You've got Malta, Finland, Austria, Bulgaria, where I lived, and the Orthodox Church there is very strong. Italy, well known for their strong faith. Slovakia, you go to Greece, and the Orthodox Church is so strong, Greece.

But sadly, I guess none of those countries have an Orban. But how do you look on it as an American where Christianity is still a central part? I know times are changing. How do you look on it in not only Hungary, but many of those countries across Europe where faith, where your relationship with God is quite central in culture, not necessarily in politics? I mean, how did you see that as an American, as a Christian?

In relating it to Hungary, you mean, or in Europe?

Yeah, just generally your time there and how you as a Christian, as a conservative, and your parts of Hungary and Europe that are traditionally Christian, and yet the leadership doesn't necessarily represent that. But Hungary does seem to be different.

You know, they say that they're a Christian nation. I mean, even the government will say that. It's not, you know, it's not like a theocracy or anything like that, but they're very proud of the fact that a thousand years ago, King Istvan made them the easternmost western country of the empire, a Holy Roman Empire, and they took on Christianity. He thought it would be good for the alliances and the economic prosperity of Hungary, and they've continued to hold on to that.

You know, my experience going through Europe is sometimes I'm very surprised at how there are many people there that still have a real relationship as Christians with Jesus Christ. They have a real relationship as Jews with God, and they're really holding fast those principles. In other places that I've been, I think I've been a little bit disappointed that the religion has has turned in sort of this secular kind of religion. Like this is what our morals are based on, yet we're not really practicing any sort of religion where we are saying there is a power that's more important than we are. And while I still think that it's good that some societies are still based on this moral approach, understanding of Christianity or Judaism, I'm concerned that generations will go by if people are not actually practicing that religion, reading their Bibles, praying, that generations will go by and even that moral foundation will slip away. Am I explaining that right?

No, you are. You're right. There is a disconnect between the history and people's personal relationship with Jesus. And you see the church, especially in the Nordic countries, in Germany, and many parts, have become woke and have abandoned that clarion call they should have. But yet many parts of Eastern Europe still hold on to that. And Christianity, whether that's a personal relationship with Christ, part of it is cultural Christianity, but that is still embedded in the culture, where in many other parts of Europe that's been rejected.

That's exactly right. But what I'm concerned about is that in those places where it's still based on Christianity, if people still are not praying and reading their Bibles and learning what their religion is and what it should mean to them in their lives, that eventually that moral fabric will leave. And I think that is what is happening in America, is so few people are going to church now as generations ago. So few people think about praying when they have a problem, you know, before they go off and do whatever it is. And we've gotten to the point where cutting children's body parts off is okay.

That is moral depravity. So that's what I'm concerned about, Peter. I've seen it happen here. And I actually, I was talking to, I think it was an official, a government official, yes, about this. Like, are you concerned that the secular, because this person even said to me, it's more of a secular religion, secular Christianity. It's like a foundation of it. That was just his point of view. There are other people that were practicing. But I said, you know, aren't you concerned that eventually this moral fabric will be broken up? And he didn't seem to be too concerned about it, but I am.

I agree. Whenever the church begins to promote and advocate abortion and sexualization of children, you know that we are in a difficult, dangerous pit. And I get that. We need a huge revival.

Tell me how it's been welcomed in America, this book, because there are many books about, you know, Republicans, Red Wave, MAGA. You've got thousands and thousands of them. This book is quite different. It's looking outside, which maybe is different from the traditional conservative books that are available in the US. Tell me how it's been received and some of the conversations you've had with people as you've gone around and promoted the book.

It's actually been received very well. I've been on tons of media for it. People reaching out to me such as yourself that wanted to hear more about it. I think because they're fascinated by the fact that I'm showing the parallels of Hungary under communist control.

And actually, I want to go go back to that in just a second. But even like C-SPAN, C-SPAN came and recorded my, I had a book launch in New York and a book launch in DC in February. The New York one was December, 2023. But in February at the Hungarian embassy, C-SPAN came and recorded it and put it on, you know, their book TV, their Washington journal, and even on their radio. Because I think that, I'm an academic, I'm a researcher. So some people find the book a little daunting, a little heavy because of all the sources and citations and documentation that I use in it. But that's what I do. There are many people that appeal to a different crowd, I think, in America that just say, they're more like someone who impart a message that people need to hear. But I'm trying to say, look at the history, look at the history, and you know that we're in trouble. I put in the book, Peter, the 11 points of communist psychological warfare, which were written, published by our Department of Defense in 1959, so that our professionals would recognize communist psychological warfare and combat it, 1959. I put these in the book because every point is parallel to the United States today. And I wanted to show that, you know, the fact that the Hungarians were saying that we are, the rhetoric coming out of the U.S. reminds them of the Soviet days. If you even just walk that back to the Bolshevik revolution and the Marxism during that time, even I did not know that they were pushing abortion at that time as health care. This is not anything new, that that was coming out of their division between, parents and their children, was coming out of that, the Marxism at that time, between people and religion. But looking, just let me give you a couple of points from the communist psychological warfare points. Like I said, they're all in my book, and then I put up just a little brief description underneath of how it relates to the United States. One of the points is using a crisis to gain control. And we saw during the COVID pandemic, vaccine mandates where thousands of people lost their jobs because they wouldn't put an unknown substance into their body, their own body.

Vaccine mandates, lockdowns all over the world, actually. The detention camps in Australia were the ones that really freaked me out. But other examples, the government gaining control of propaganda bodies, that was actually one of the first steps of Sovietization that the Soviet Union would do in satellite countries. But it's also one of those points where the government will control the information going out. And certainly in the United States, the mainstream media is led and influenced by our administration. It is so far left. It is so, in my lifetime, it's never been so un-journalistic. But even farther than that, you know, the Biden administration is going through litigation right now because it's been accused of suppressing entire bodies of ideas of Americans on social media, collaborating with with Facebook and X or Twitter at the time, and other platforms to suppress people's views on the 2020 election, COVID-19, on Hunter Biden's laptop.

And we find out just a couple of weeks ago that they're doing it again. So I'll stop there. Those are just two examples of the points.

But it's really concerning.

I find it actually is an easy read. It is 350 pages, but you've got a thousand years of history to touch on. So you go through, I think, marvellously well. And it is available. I read it as an e-book. It is available as a paperback. Let me just... That is Last Warning to the West, Hungary's Triumph over Communism and The Woke Agenda, with a foreword by Kari Lake, as you mentioned. Just very last point on CPAC Hungary, because it's been fascinating your involvement with that, and I think that brings what is, it's a fascinating connection between Hungary and the US, because it's the first time CPAC has launched in Europe. I think Hungary is a fantastic country to start that in. And maybe just to end off, just mentioning that, because that brings up to the current present tense and also shows that bridge between Hungary and America, which I think can be key whenever, whenever Trump regains the White House.

Yeah, I think it's a good point. So CPAC Hungary started three years ago. I spoke the first two years. I wasn't able to go this year. But the organization that started CPAC Hungary is the same organization that published my book, the Center for Fundamental Rights. They're a conservative think tank there in Hungary. And I was a fellow for them for about a year and a half, senior fellow. And it was a great experience. And they have done a fantastic job with CPAC Hungary. Strange that there's no other CPAC in Europe. But they really set out to build collaboration between countries and certain aspects of the countries that were conservative. And they've done a fantastic job with that because, you know, they've also built relationships in Spain, in Italy with different conservative organizations.

And we see that all over the world now. In fact, we go back a couple of weeks ago. It seemed that the EU in the elections for the European Parliament went a bit to the right. So I do believe that things going on like CPAC Hungary help influence that. And, you know, I have conservative friends now down in Argentina and in Italy. And like I said, Spain and Hungary and all these different places. And we collaborate together, help each other, support each other. And I believe, this is my theory, that in many countries, the majority of the people are still wanting to support family, are still respecting their religion, still love their homeland. And I think the liberal left in the form of the European Union and the Biden administration and the media all over the world is announcing to the world that they don't matter. The political and media elites of the left have the power, the control. So it makes it seem like the whole world is that way. And we do have a lot to fight against on legislation and crazy things that are going on in the EU and in my own capital where I am here. But I just believe that people all over the world need to know there are sane people out there working for these foundational principles, because Europe was also founded on Christian principles.

And the United States most certainly was, you know, like you said, the EU is voting this constitution to take that out. But that's not what the original fathers of the EU were doing. So I'm sure you know more about that than I do. And I talk about that some in my book. But it's this real change from, you know, humility before a higher power in your lives, to thinking that you can do it all yourself. You know, you're giving yourself your rights now, these rights that God have given us, he didn't give them to us. In fact, we had a commentator in the United States about a month or so ago say that, that Christian nationalists, Christians who love their country, were crazy because we thought that our rights were God-given, and how silly that was. And we're like, well, lady, it's actually in our founding documents.

So anyway, it's this real reliance on self, Peter, And that's dangerous. And there are those of us that are fighting for the right kind of principles like you, like yourself. And it's good that outlets such as you are getting that word out there. I think it encourages people is what I'm trying to say with a lot of words.

Well, 100%. We'll bring it last warning to the West. Fantastic read and counterpoint institute I encourage your viewers listeners to make sure and click on that and follow and sign up to all you're doing and I just saw that Hungary take over the commission, EU commission and their tagline is Make Europe Great Again so you're going to have MEGA and MAGA together, MEGA MAGA for the second half of this year, but Dr Shea thank you so much for coming on and sharing about your experiences, your work with Counterpoint Institute.

It's fascinating. So thank you so much for your time today.

Thank you, Peter. And if your listeners would like to follow our work, just sign up for our newsletter on counterpoint.institute.org. It only comes out a couple of times a month, but it just gives the basics on all these issues that you and I have talked about in the work we're doing. So thank you so much for having me.

Not at all. Sign up counterpointinstitute.org make sure and sign up to that newsletter Shea thank you so much for your time

Thanks Peter.