What is culture?

That is a big question. It trips up a lot of people. Often, we tend to think of high culture when attempting to answer. Art, literature, and the stuff of the academy are what comes to mind. Yes, of course, that is culture and very important culture. But it is not all of culture. There is also folk culture and the ways of your people. That sounds hokey or old-fashioned in our day and age, but it doesn’t need to be, and that is not how it’s meant, at least not in this case.

The cake you make because your grandmother used to make it was everyday culture for her, just like the way you and your son go fishing every Friday afternoon.

Folk culture can mean a lot of things, but in the most general sense it is taken to mean the ways of the common people. The things they eat, the things they do, the things they believe, the way they speak, the way they marry, the way they die, the things they are afraid of, the things they valorize, and anything else that isn’t so much taught or studied.

Family matters

At the most basic level, your culture is what you consider to be normal.

That is a very simple definition that is easy to understand, and it is applicable at just about every level. The definition applies equally to rich and poor, big countries and small ones, the hinterland and the metropolis. It applies to even smaller units like families. Certainly, a family’s culture is related to its broader people’s culture, but it is also distinct. Each family is different, and each family has its own culture.

This is important to consider, because when we think of culture as only being high and academic, we separate ourselves from our own folk culture. We turn ourselves into spectators or passive observers rather than active participants. We downgrade ourselves and think of ourselves as “culture-less,” when in fact, every single person on earth, by virtue of having grown up somewhere with some family, has a culture — that which they consider to be normal.

Rooted in routine

When you wake up in the morning, how do you greet your wife? How do you say good morning to your kids? What do you do after that? What is the routine you have kept up for the past 20 years? What is the prayer you say before you sit down for breakfast? What kind of clothes do you wear?

How about the way you talk to the people you work with? Do you open the door for women? Do you insist that someone you just met should go first, just to be polite? What do you say and what don’t you say? What do you think is nice and what do you think is rude?

At home, what do you do for dinner? What does your wife make? Or perhaps what do you make? Do you eat together? Do you pray before? What is the rhythm of the meal? Do you sit and talk afterward? Do you have coffee or dessert? Or is that only on the weekends?

Afterward, do you read a book or watch television? Do you work some more, or are you done for the night? Do you listen to music? If so, what kind? Do you have a drink, or do you abstain? When do you go to bed? And when do you wake up and start it all over again?

All these things are so small and mundane that you probably don’t even think of them as anything other than your daily routine. And they are that, of course, but they are also little points of culture. It is these mundane things — and 10,000 other ones — that add up to what we know as life.

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Home truths

Often, we don’t realize how potent these little points are until we leave home at 18. We move away from mom and dad and meet other people with other ways, and we realize the obvious fact that everyone doesn’t eat the same things on the holidays, wake up at the same time, eat dinner the same way, have the same manners, or live the same way. It is often in close contact with others that we fully realize who we really are, who we aren’t, and what little things make us that way.

The reason all this talk of mundane routine and family culture matters is because we very easily forget how important these little things are. We focus all our efforts on high, hard-to-reach culture and forget that it is the everyday moments that come to shape the world our children consider normal.

The cake you make because your grandmother used to make it was everyday culture for her, just like the way you and your son go fishing every Friday afternoon or the way you all have dinner together every Sunday evening no matter what.

These traditions may seem too ordinary to be worth thinking about. But the things your children grow up considering normal are the very things they may one day pass along to their own children. That is how culture survives, and it is something every family takes part in, whether they realize it or not.

​Cultural identity, Culture, Family traditions, Lifestyle, Tradition, Family, Children, The root of the matter 

It was after church Sunday when I saw the news alert about a plane crash in South Florida. Nine people had died. For a moment, even the election predictions dominating the news gave way to the tragedy.

Several things made the crash stand out. It happened only miles from President Trump’s Mar-a-Lago home. A dashcam captured the impact, giving the disaster a shocking image.

Just because technology allows us to hear someone’s final words, does that mean we have a moral right to listen?

Plane crashes command our attention. Fatal car crashes are more common, yet we imagine them differently. A car crash can be sudden. A plane crash can leave passengers and crew with time to realize that death is approaching and nothing can prevent it.

Those moments of awareness are terrifying. What would you think about? Could you overcome panic and pray?

That brings me to a question. It is personal, but as an ethics professor, I also believe it is an ethical question: Should we listen to a stranger’s last moments? Just because technology allows us to hear someone’s final words, does that mean we have a moral right to listen?

In Sunday’s crash, the pilot’s final radio communications with air traffic control were recorded and shared publicly. We can hear the moment when the pilot realizes the plane cannot be saved. Those words, spoken in the face of imminent death, are now available for strangers to replay.

I don’t think I should listen. Not because it would be horrifying to hear or because I didn’t know the pilot. Certainly not because I don’t care.

RELATED: Is ASU going to fire a Christian professor for being too Christian?

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The radio calls were made to air traffic control, not in private. Investigators have good reason to hear them. But that doesn’t settle whether the rest of us should listen out of curiosity.

The moments before death are among the most personal in our lives. We are leaving this world whether we want to or not. The things a person thinks and says at such a moment seem to belong to God and perhaps to their closest family and friends. Turning those words into a social media clip for strangers to gawk at seems wrong to me.

Perhaps I am wrong. The public has reason to know what happened in a disaster. But do we need to hear a dying person’s last words? Is that understanding or what used to be called morbid curiosity?

For me, the crash is a reminder that our lives are incredibly short. The time will come when each of us is taken from this life and asked to give an account before God. How will you conduct yourself in those last moments? Are you ready to meet God?

​Plane crash, South florida, Panic, Radio communications, Air traffic control, Public opinion, Death, God, Morbid curiosity, Technology, Car crashes, Pilot, Opinion & analysis 

Donald Trump carried Wyoming by 46 points in 2024. If conservatives cannot get the governor they want in the reddest state in America, what exactly is the conservative movement for?

That is the question raised with Tuesday’s gubernatorial election. Eric Barlow, a former Wyoming House speaker whom many grassroots conservatives regard as a lukewarm Republican in name only, won the August GOP primary with about 45% of the vote. State Superintendent Megan Degenfelder, endorsed by Trump, and Brent Bien, backed by the state Republican Party, divided most of the remaining vote. Barlow now has the coveted R next to his name.

What is the point of pouring donor money into primaries if the movement is forbidden to hold the winner accountable afterward? A party label is a useful shorthand, not a lifetime warranty.

Imagine the reverse in Massachusetts. Suppose a candidate opposed to abortion, gay marriage, and the climate agenda slipped through a divided Democratic primary. Would the left’s donor network, activist groups, and party leaders dutifully fall in line? Of course not. They would wage war over the meaning of their own party’s label. Yet in Wyoming, too many conservatives treat that label as the end of the argument.

We’re not talking about a swing state where choosing the lesser evil may be the only realistic option. Wyoming is Trump +46 territory. A Republican nominee here ought to make Ron DeSantis look like a squish, not invite comparisons to Lisa Murkowski.

Barlow’s record gives conservatives plenty of reason to question what they would get. He supported Obamacare’s Medicaid expansion, voting for the 2021 measure that passed the Wyoming House before dying in the Senate. He had previously worked on expansion proposals as a legislator. That policy record should mean something, especially to voters who spent years demanding an end to Obamacare. Since when does a primary victory wipe the slate clean?

His energy views are even more troubling. In testimony before Congress in 2003, Barlow said America must move beyond nonrenewable energy and that fossil fuels should have a role of “transition and not reliance.” In America’s leading coal-producing state, the Republican nominee once argued that fossil fuels should be a transitional source of energy. Why pretend that tells us nothing?

The broader legislative record contains more disputes over which bills Barlow advanced and which he stalled as speaker. Those fights should be argued from actual votes, not slogans. One thing is beyond dispute: The Wyoming GOP chairman says his party will not endorse its own gubernatorial nominee. Barlow refused to participate in the party’s vetting process, which he considered “improper.”

So why should conservative voters automatically fall into line?

RELATED: A ballot is no substitute for a backbone

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They have another choice. Rebecca Bextel, a longtime conservative activist and donor, is running on the Constitution Party ticket. She campaigns on limited government, immigration enforcement, property rights, gun rights, and opposition to abortion. Her candidacy offers voters a way to register a conservative objection to the Republican nominee without voting for the Democrat.

Immediately the usual suspects howl about “splitting the vote.” In a competitive state, that concern would be serious. But the Democrat running for governor in Wyoming in 2022 received just 15.8% of the vote. Wyoming isn’t Massachusetts. That doesn’t make a three-way contest risk-free; it makes the reflexive spoiler argument far less persuasive.

And yet where are the major conservative PACs? Where is the donor machinery that spends fortunes electing people who promptly surrender the movement’s priorities? Bextel can secure an alternative place on the ballot, but she cannot manufacture the institutional support that conservative organizations claim to exist to provide.

Rep. Harriet Hageman (R), who backed Degenfelder in the primary and is now running for the Senate, endorsed Barlow in the closing weeks. Sens. John Barrasso and Cynthia Lummis joined her in supporting the Republican ticket. That is precisely the establishment reflex I’m talking about: fight over the primary, then insist the letter after the winner’s name settles everything.

RELATED: Conservatives demand competition — except in their own primaries

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Tucker Carlson, whatever disagreements I have with him, was willing to interview Bextel. Too many better-funded conservative personalities and institutions have been conspicuously absent. They should not be surprised when activists seek out the few people prepared to challenge Republican orthodoxy — and begin listening to those people on other questions too.

What is the point of pouring donor money into primaries if the movement is forbidden to hold the winner accountable afterward? Primary voters choose a nominee, but they do not acquire ownership of every conservative’s conscience. A party label is a useful shorthand, not a lifetime warranty. If the movement’s only measure of success is keeping that label in office, it can preserve the party while losing every principle that supposedly justifies its existence.

Here is the central irony: In a state where Democrats rarely win statewide, the greatest obstacle to an unapologetically conservative agenda can be the Republicans who wear the party’s name. A politician can deliver Democratic policy results without Democrats paying the political price.

At some point, conservatives must stop confusing party loyalty with fidelity to their own cause. If we cannot support our own principles in Wyoming, of all places, what exactly are we fighting for?

​Opinion & analysis, Donald trump, Wyoming, Republicans, Rinos, Governor, Eric barlow, Rebecca bextel, Split vote, Conservatives 

Apparently artificial intelligence has officially entered the crime-reporting business — but it apparently doesn’t need an actual crime to do it.

Anthropic has acknowledged that its Claude Haiku 4.5 model submitted a tip to the Philadelphia Police Department claiming to have personal knowledge about an unsolved murder. However, the information was entirely fabricated, and the false report was flagged as spam.

“Why would it do that?” BlazeTV host Pat Gray asks.

“Because his friends in the chat room said, ‘Dare ya,’” Jeff Fisher jokes.

While funny, Gray points out that it’s “very strange that it’s doing these things supposedly on its own” without anyone programming it.

“The AI claimed to have personal knowledge of who committed a murder, and it was just a case of AI hallucination,” he continues. “That’s what they’re blaming it on.”

“So the false tip got flagged as spam, and investigators never followed up on it. So that’s good. At least they didn’t waste time on it,” he adds.

However, Fisher doesn’t think that’s actually a good thing, calling the police department’s response “a little concerning in and of itself.”

“We get stuff all the time here from people that we get emails from every day, and yet, every once in a while, their email goes to spam. Why? Because the algorithm picked it up as something wrong with it. But it’s still a legitimate email that we want to see,” he explains.

“So that’s another problem,” he says.

“Maybe the police department, here’s an idea. Check your spam once in a while.”

Want more from Pat Gray?

To enjoy more of Pat’s biting analysis and signature wit as he restores common sense to a senseless world, subscribe to BlazeTV — the largest multi-platform network of voices who love America, defend the Constitution, and live the American dream.

​Artificial intelligence, False report, Philadelphia police, Claude, Anthropic, Blazetv show 

The U.S. Supreme Court rejected the request from the Department of Justice to force California officials to segregate ballots from people on a list of “likely noncitizens.”

Democratic California Gov. Gavin Newsom excoriated the administration and accused it of trying to influence the midterm elections by pushing for ballot segregation so close to Election Day.

‘The Court rejected Trump’s emergency request without even asking the other side to respond — a first.’

The court issued a one-line, unsigned response with no dissents noted on the eve of Election Day.

California officials have argued that inaccuracies in the list would lead to some legal voters being disenfranchised.

“This latest decision should put an end to the administration’s attempt to disrupt California’s elections through emergency court orders,” said California Attorney General Rob Bonta, a Democrat. “But our work is not over. We will remain vigilant and keep fighting back against federal efforts to undermine our democracy.”

Newsom also praised the ruling in a statement on social media.

“California just secured a HISTORIC Supreme Court defeat against Donald Trump,” he wrote. “The Court rejected Trump’s emergency request without even asking the other side to respond — a first. Democracy won.’

RELATED: 9th Circuit rejects Trump DOJ’s emergency motion over 20,000 questionable voters in California

Some interpreted the court’s swift response as a show of disdain for the request.

While California is reliably left-leaning, numerous contests in the state could help determine who controls Congress after the midterm elections. Voters will also determine whether the next governor of the state will be Democrat Xavier Becerra or Republican Steve Hilton.

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​Election day, Likely noncitizens, Us supreme court, California, Politics 

A former New York Times op-ed contributor is getting mocked and ridiculed after he threatened a “reckoning” if Muslim candidate Abdul El-Sayed doesn’t win.

El-Sayed will become the first Muslim in the U.S. Senate if he is able to defeat Mike Rogers (R) on Tuesday for one of Michigan’s seats.

‘This will be a watershed moment in Democratic politics.’

El-Sayed represents yet another victory of the far-left extremist fringe of the Democratic Party against the centrist establishment leadership.

The day before the election, Wajahat Ali promised “fire” and a “reckoning” regardless of whether El-Sayed wins or loses.

“If, God forbid, Abdul loses, this will be a watershed moment in Democratic politics,” he wrote on social media.

“The fire will rise. It’s over. People will be radicalized against corporate, pro-Israel Dems,” he added. “There will be a reckoning. If, when, he wins, it will be a watershed moment. And that reckoning will still come.”

Ali’s threat was disdained by many online.

“You gonna strap on the suicide vest yourself, tough guy?” Dave Rubin responded.

“Democrats now appear to be threatening us with violence if they don’t win,” the Libs of TikTok account replied. “Believe them when they tell you who they are.”

“To be clear … are you threatening a caliphate? Because if you are, I AM READY for that war … careful what you promise from your keyboard,” responded Carl Higbie, Newsmax host and former U.S. Navy SEAL.

“He just threatened jihad on American soil over a Senate race. Americans do not play that game. Come get some. I dare you,” another critic said.

RELATED: Trump blames violent rioting in France on Islam, ‘out of control mass migration’ — and a French official has responded

“My main question is how will the fire rise with all the watershedding, and so forth,” online raconteur David Burge joked.

Ali was among those who condemned then-President Joe Biden in 2021 for daring to opine that Israel had a right to exist.

El-Sayed is narrowly beating Rogers, according to the Blaze News Poll Watch average of polling.

Michigan Senate polls 2026: El-Sayed vs. Rogers

pollwatch.theblaze.com

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​Election day, Wajahat ali, Michigan, Us senate, Abdul el-sayed, Mike rogers, Islam, Politics 

Protesters at President Donald Trump’s midterm rallies have found innovative ways to get paid and grab clout.

After multiple outbursts at his midterm campaign stops, Trump accused protesters of being paid to stir up trouble, and he may be right.

‘Trump says I got $250 as a paid protester. Prove him wrong!’

At least two protesters have used crowdfunding to profit off their five minutes of fame, and two others are Democrat candidates for state House seats supported by wealthy left-wing organizations.

Indivisible, which organizes the No Kings protests, has ties to some of these protesters. The group itself has accepted over $7.6 million from George Soros’ Open Society Foundations since 2017, according to public grant records.

The biggest haul belongs to “absurdist activist” Rob Potylo. Potylo, also known as “Robby Roadsteamer,” burst into a Jeffrey Epstein-themed protest song at Trump’s rally in Chillicothe, Ohio, on Wednesday.

Potylo posted the uncut video to YouTube the next day. Its description links to a GoFundMe titled “Robby Roadsteamer has been detained by ICE in Portland!” Though the fund predates that rally, Potylo implored his supporters to donate after the rally disruption.

At least 4,600 supporters donated $127,831 total as of Monday.

“Folks this ain’t easy! Please donate!” Potylo posted on X on Wednesday after being ejected from the event. “Trump says I got $250 as a paid protester. Prove him wrong!”

Potylo told HuffPost that he raked in donations after his viral protest video. The professional activist also accepts payment via PayPal, Patreon, Venmo, and Cash App, according to his personal website.

RELATED: George Soros foundations fund No Kings protests against Trump

Brevard County

Two other hecklers are using their rally protests to campaign for state legislature.

Alan Buckalew was among about a dozen people removed from Trump’s Oct. 21 rally at Clemson University’s T. Ed Garrison Arena in Pendleton, South Carolina.

“Why are you selling us out to the Soviets?” Buckalew shouted, according to the Greenville News.

Buckalew is the Democrat nominee for South Carolina House District 28. Indivisible Upstate SC endorsed him in October.

Ben Braver, a Democrat Florida state House candidate, took things a step farther.

Lakeland, Florida, police arrested Braver at Vice President JD Vance’s Oct. 1 rally and charged him with trespassing and resisting arrest without violence, according to Fox 13. He was later released on a $2,000 bond.

Braver “planted his foot in opposition to the direction he was being escorted,” an officer wrote. The officer took him to the ground with a leg sweep. Braver told Fox 13 he did not intend to resist. His video of the arrest has drawn 381,000 likes on Instagram, captioned “Was this police response appropriate?”

Vance called him a “Democratic plant.”

“I was practicing our inalienable First Amendment rights to free speech against pedophile protectors like JD Vance and had absolutely no intention of resisting the officer,” Braver told Blaze News.

Braver is challenging state Rep. Karen Gonzalez Pittman (R) in House District 65 in Tampa, Florida. He lost a 2024 state Senate race to state Sen. Danny Burgess (R) by about 21 points, according to Florida Politics.

Emgage Action lists Braver among its endorsements. Open Society has given Emgage Action, a Muslim-American political organization, and its corresponding partner, Emgage Foundation, at least $5.5 million since 2018, grant records show.

Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.) and Florida NOW PAC also support Braver’s campaign. The candidate urged his X followers to “share” an Indivisible event about Rep. Laurel Lee (R-Fla.) in August 2025.

Braver also promoted No Kings rallies as campaign stops on Instagram and vowed in July to “end our agreements with the dangerous and murderous ICE.”

Braver’s activism predates his campaigns. As a University of South Florida junior in 2023, he led Stand for Freedom FL, a statewide campus walkout demanding that the DeSantis administration “restore DEI initiatives” and stop its “attack on LGBTQ+ students,” Them reported.

Timothy Matthew McDaniel is yet another activist who, in some way, has profited off of his anti-Trump protests.

RELATED: Ilhan Omar resurfaces for first time since federal raid in tearful cash grab

South Carolina Public Index

McDaniel, who goes by Matthew on social media, yelled, “You’re the criminal!” when Trump mentioned “criminal aliens” at his Oct. 21 Pendleton, South Carolina, rally. Attendees subdued him, and he later filed a police report alleging assault with the Anderson County Sheriff’s Office, according to the Greenville News.

McDaniel, a 46-year-old Navy veteran, wore a “Foxtrot Delta Tango” shirt — seemingly code for “F**k Donald Trump” — to the rally and calls himself an “independent who happens to support Democrats,” according to the New Republic.

He launched a GoFundMe three days after his rally outburst. The fund seeks $15,000 for “medical bills, legal expenses, reward offers, and security needs” and calls Trump a “mad ‘wanna-be’ king.” It had raised $3,815 at the time of this report’s publication.

“Hopefully, the reward money will loosen some lips,” McDaniel wrote in a Facebook comment under the fundraiser.

His Facebook page leaves little doubt about his antagonism toward the president.

He made Comey’s “8647” seashell image his profile picture in April, shared a meme last December casting Trump as the Antichrist and attacking evangelical Christians, and slammed a local bar as a place to “hang out with neo-na$is or the usual MAGA maniacs.”

McDaniel also promoted an Indivisible “Vote Early Block Party” in Pendleton, South Carolina, in September.

A Timothy Matthew McDaniel of South Carolina with the same birth year as the protester has a lengthy rap sheet.

McDaniel pled guilty to public drunkenness in Clemson, South Carolina, in 2005 and was found guilty of reckless driving in 2004 and hit-and-run property damage in 2005 in neighboring Oconee County, according to South Carolina Public Index records. He was also found guilty of driving under suspension in 2010.

Potylo, Buckalew, McDaniel, Indivisible, Emgage Action, and the Open Society Foundations did not respond to Blaze News’ requests for comment.

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​Donald trump, George soros, Open society, Paid protesters, Politics, Resisting arrest