When I've been in Europe this past year, year and a half, I run into people in the former

communist countries and they inevitably say to me, what happened to you Americans?

We used to look up to you as a beacon of freedom, as a place of hope for us, and now we look

at you and you're sending us gender ideology.

At the 2022 National Conservatism Conference, I sit down with Rod Dreyer, author of Live

Not By Lies, Emmanuel for Christian Dissidents.

He said communism is a lie, but it speaks to this deep craving people have inside themselves

for meaning, for purpose, and for solidarity, and unless people in the West understand

that appeal of communism, they're never going to be able to fight it.

At a time of rampant propaganda and disinformation, how do we get at the truth?

This is American Thought Leaders, and I'm Janja Kellek.

Rod Dreyer, it's such a pleasure to have you back on American Thought Leaders.

It's great to be here.

Well, Rod, the last time we spoke on camera, we were talking about your book, Live Not By Lies,

you know, a book that was, you know, profoundly valuable to me.

Why don't you recap for the benefit of our audience, you know, the core of Live Not By Lies,

and why you think it's had such an amazing resonance here in America, and frankly from

an hearing in Europe as well, where you've been the last year.

Well, the book came about when people who came to America escaping communism started telling

me that the things they were seeing happen in the U.S. today, cancel culture, identity

politics, all of this remind them of what they left behind under totalitarianism.

Well, I thought as an American, that's really an exaggeration, but the more I listened

...