ETHAN LINDENBERGER'S FAMILY SPEAKS OUT

Video Transcript:

Ethan Lindenberger. There he is, super kid, super kid, 18 years old, and he should be who we bring to the Congress. His opinion is what matters. We combed over 320 million Americans to find someone that was upset that their mother did vaccinate them, and we found them in Ethan Lindenberger. And he got flown in to speak before the Senate this week. Well, no scientists from our side, nobody else, but this 18-year-old child's opinion is what mattered. Honestly, does it start feeling like the nation is being run by children when they make decisions like this? Well, everyone was excited. You saw it in the news here is what it looked like. A teenager who feels that they have to defy their parents in order to undergo what they consider to be potentially life-saving measures. Ethan Lindenberger says his parents misguided beliefs about his health and the health of his younger siblings put them at risk. He turned to Reddit, an online message board, to help him find the truth about vaccines. My parents are kind of stupid, he wrote, God knows how I'm still alive. I knew that, you know, Walgreens gave out flu shots, but I didn't know what shots I needed. Hepatitis B, tetanus, HPV, and an influenza shot. I went on my first visit and I have a few more later this month. We talk about the dangers of the internet and now the power of it too with Ethan being able to do this research on his own. Exactly. Does the hypocrisy is stounding? I mean, all they do is say all the time, don't go to the internet for your information. It ends with, on the news say, isn't it great he could find the information about vaccines on the internet? I mean, they just, what it works for them, they want it when they don't. I mean, like, it's just, it's all over the map. But, you know, Ethan Lindenberger blew up on the scene, he got his information on Reddit. I don't know why he didn't just go to, like, a doctor's office and say what vaccines I need. Apparently, Reddit is where you go when you need medical advice. And by the way, I'm never going to give you medical advice. What I'm doing is trying to give you the science that I'm finding and my opinions on the subject, please, please let this be known. I don't ever want you to make a medical decision based on something I'm saying. I want you to go out and do your own studying. If you just shift from trusting your doctor implicitly without questioning it over to trusting Dell or Bobby Kennedy or something without questioning us, then you really haven't solved the problem. Ethan Lindenberger is critical thinking in this country and we've all got to start using our own brains and coming to our own conclusions by doing our own work. So I just want to make that clear, not Reddit, not the highway or nobody. You've got to be getting your information wherever you can and doing your own investigation. Well, Ethan Lindenberger was flown in to speak to the Senate. Here's an excerpt of what he had to say and what was about a 15-minute speech. Take a look. Good morning, everyone. I was stated my name is Ethan Lindenberger and I'm a senior in Iraq High School. And my mother is an anti-vax advocate that believes vaccines cause autism, brain damage, and to not benefit the health and safety society despite the fact such opinions have been debunked numerous times by the scientific community. I went my entire life without numerous vaccines against diseases such as measles, chicken pox, or even polio. It's important to understand that as I approached high school and began to critically think for myself, I saw that the information in defensive vaccines outweighed the concerns heavily. I began leading debate clubs in my school and pursuing through the above all else. And I realized one certain quality to debates and to conversations in general when it comes to controversial discussions, which is that there seems to always be two sides to a discussion. There always seems to be a counterclaim or a bottle and always something to strike back with in terms of debate. Though this may seem true in all instances, this is not true for the vaccine debate and I approach my mother with this concern that she was incorrect. To combat preventable disease outbreaks, information is in my mind the forefront of this matter. My mother would turn to anti-vax-seemed groups online and on social media looking for her evidence and defense rather than health officials and through credible sources. This may seem to be in malice because of the dangers that not vaccinating imposes, but this is not the case as my mother came in the sense of loving her children and being concerned. For certain individuals and organizations that spread this misinformation, they instill fear into the public for their own gain selfishly and do so knowing that their information is incorrect. For my mother, her love, affection and care as a parent was used to push an agenda to create a false distress. And these sources which spread misinformation should be the primary concern of the American people. Well, there you have it, Ethan and Merger giving his testimony in front of the Senate. And by the way, first of all, there's been a lot of talk about this young man in this movement, obviously on the news. I am sure it's very intense for him. It's something like what happened when I came out with Bax. You never really ready for that amount of attention. So I just want to say my heart goes out to him. I'm sure there's a lot of thoughts going on. I'm sure it's very exciting. And there's some people that have been saying some nasty things about him and I definitely want to say do not agree with that. This is just a person's opinion. It's one opinion out of 328 million Americans in the country today. Why they decided to focus on this one, obviously there's an agenda and he fit right into it. But I think for those of us out there, I've said it before. I'm not vaccinating my two kids right now and I'm asking the radio all the time why would you avoid this life saving product? And I said, well, because they've never been through a safety study. Ever. And I think that's the thing is that my children that don't go through safety studies, that's just a general rule. I mean, I do read ingredients of the food I give them. I take a lot of care and not my wife's probably shaking her head saying I actually do most the reading. That's true too. She does a lot of the work and choose the bottles and things like that. But we as parents have been very concerned about all of the different industries that are providing the things that we give our kids. Vaccines should be no different for you. You have to come to that conclusion on your own or whatever conclusion you're going to come to. But I wonder what it would be like if I raised my children the way I have. And then suddenly they do it about face and then step in front of all the televisions of the world. And in front of the US government and a Senate hearing and started saying that my dad, I'm unhappy with how I raise or something like that. Luckily I have Jill and his brother Isaac Jill, the mother of Ethan and Isaac joining me. So I really appreciate you coming to California to talk about this. Definitely. I'm sure it's been a whirlwind couple of weeks, right? It has been. It's been crazy. It's been very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, how did this start? No. What happened? When did you first find out your son was the new superhero of the pharmaceutical industry? Wow. I did. He told me that he was going to get vaccinated. And I was very upset when I'm getting into a pretty big argument about it. And it was more than he didn't come to me and talk to me about it than it was. You know, it was just he had decided on his own. I think a lot of that was stemming from him turning 18, finally getting his license. He didn't wait until he was 18 to get his license. And I think it was part of just filling independent for him. And he's not one to go out and get a tattoo. So I guess this was one of the avenues he found that he could kind of explore out. And fill his independence of making his own decisions, which seems kind of crazy to do something like that. But I think also there was also outside influence from people that knew that he was not vaccinated within his church, when other places that were saying, I can't believe you're not vaccinated. I can't believe your mom never gave you these. You need to go get vaccinated. And Ethan was like, well, what do you mean? I can do that. He's like, you're 18. You think you'll get your own self vaccinated. And so he did. Now, how many kids do you have that are not vaccinated or four kids in our vaccines? So you just one of them. Why did you first start not vaccinated your children? How did you come about this decision? I was young when I had my first. She is now 26, my oldest daughter is 26 now. I had him. This was my second oldest Isaac. And he was about two years old when I was going through the series of getting his vaccinations. I just assumed was the thing that you just did. I didn't know any different. Again, I was very, very young. And I remember going in and getting the chicken pox vaccine. And after they had it administered it, they said, well, you're going to have to come back in about 10 to 15 years to have it read read on. He's got to get it again. Well, wait a minute. I thought that these vaccinations were forever. And they're like, well, no, you're going to have to get it again in 10 years. And probably every 10 years after that. And I said, well, then why don't I just let them get the chicken pox? I had it. All my sisters had it. Everyone I know has had the chicken pox. Why don't I just let them get the chicken pox? Oh, no, you don't want to do that. Come every 10 years. And I was like, well, I know too, even at a young age, I knew that as an adult, getting the chicken pox can be much more dangerous than getting it as a child. And I'm like, well, this is crazy. Why don't just let them get the chicken pox. And that's when I went home and said, something's not adding up. Something's not adding up. I was always under the assumption that vaccines were a forever thing. You got them. And that's how it worked. You're healed from any sicknesses ever again from these diseases. And I started researching, not on the internet, not on, not on, I think he said in his interview on Facebook, which is funny because that was 20 plus years ago. Oh, right. Facebook is new. That is how my mom used Facebook and the internet to come to a conclusion. Yeah. And I was like, no, actually, that is crazy. I read books. I was. I was in it. Yeah. I read books and it was ironic because I wanted to know everything. And that was the big thing is I wanted to educate myself. I wanted to know the who was saying that it was great to vaccinate. Who was saying that it wasn't good? Who was in between? I wanted to know all of it. I wanted my answer. And whatever I decided for my children, I wanted to be educated. I wanted to know that ultimately what I decided for my kids was what I felt best from researching. I didn't want to be ignorant to it. And so that's what I did. I read. I read a lot. I talked to people and then I read some more. And then I talked to more people. And then I read some more. And when it was all said and done at the end of very long, I would say the end of the day, but it took a long time because at that point I said, this is not best for my child. It's not best. It's hard too, right, to override doctors. I mean, we're trained to believe what our doctors are saying. All of medicine is saying vaccines are great to deny that and decide to go the other way. I think you do have to do a lot of work to get over. Like am I really going to override the established medical knowledge? Right. Was there a single thing that really hit you the most in your research that just said, that's it? I'm not doing it. I think the biggest thing is that nothing added up. I think that's what really bothered me more than anything is that I was only getting half truths on all of this. The stories that I would read, the information I would get and I would find was like, I never knew that. I never knew that either. Well, wait a minute. I didn't know this could happen. I didn't know this could happen. And again, being so young, I was always told and given the assumption that vaccines were so safe, nothing's going to happen to your child. And it should line up. I mean, if it's that good of science, it's real boom, boom, boom, boom, that makes sense. Obviously, I've been investigating this for three years and none of it. I mean, it's beyond, it's worse than I could have ever imagined. So Isaac, you're the older brother of Ethan, correct? Yes, that's correct. All right, there's a lot of times. I had two siblings. Were there signs? Were there things that you was Ethan pulling you aside? Were the discussions happening that weren't involving mom or he was starting to question this? Or were you blindsided by this shift in his thinking, too? It really came out of nowhere. We found out that Ethan had been vaccinated pretty much after it had already happened. So I don't think that he really cared what the rest of his family thought when it came to this decision. He just wanted to make the decision on his own, which I think was heavily influenced by the people that he was around at times. I think that's true. Sounds like a kid that goes off and starts smoking pod and shooting heroin. That's what I'm saying. Instead of that, he just went and got vaccinated. That's how you rebel. Right. Take your pharmaceutical product. I could get hooked on OxyContin, but I'm going to go with vaccines. I'm going to go with vaccines. Right. And we're going to celebrate that. We're going to celebrate. Imagine if he's trying to be on the Senate saying, yeah, I got hooked on OxyContin because the CDC said this stuff wasn't a victim. Great Ethan. He's our superhero, though. But as long as it's vaccines, we don't care that it rebelled against his family. In fact, it does seem to me that there's some sort of rebellion there. Right. I think that that's natural. I think we have to. I've discussed this with my friends a lot when we talk about parenting. Think you do have to rebel. It's part of coming in age. You've got to push back some way. I was a pretty wild kid. My sister was even crazier than I was. And I think my brother came along. And he decided the only way he could rebel was by getting straight A's becoming an honor student and just being totally different than us. Everyone does it a different way. I think there's only one vaccine that a parent would love to have. It would be like a vaccine for Revella. All right. Get up. Anyway. So how did he, how did this happen? In December, he starts getting caught up in his vaccination. And then who found him? How did the pharmacy of the industry find him? No idea. No clue. All I know is everything definitely moved very fast. The next thing I knew was he was telling me, oh yeah, I'm getting interviewed. And I'm like, for what? Is like for getting my vaccinations. And I'm like, what? They didn't make no sense at all. I'm like, why would they interview you because you got your vaccinations, Ethan? That doesn't make sense. Well, I don't know. And I'm like, okay. Within it happened again. Within like a day. He was getting another one. And I'm like, what are you saying? Because you know I'm against this. And I'm like, well, if you're going to talk, I'm going to talk. I want to talk to you. Tell them I want them to interview me. So you said, I want to be interviewed. I want to do my side of the story. Yeah, I said, I want them to hear my side of the story. I want them to know why I chose not to vaccinate you. I want them to know why I did it. Because then I was starting to see even on the Reddit post and the Washington Post. I think it was a second thing. Post it. It portrayed me in the light of this crazy mom, this lunatic bomb that was denying the vaccinations to her children. And there were more children to come that might be denied too. Oh, gosh. What a terrible mother. And I'm like, oh, no. Oh, no, you're not going there. No, you want to interview him? You're going to interview me too. I'm going to give my side, which was all of three seconds. Three seconds. Okay. I think Jill is your mom. The other kids are other siblings in your family considering vaccinations are going through this discussion right now. Well, my six-year-old brother is kind of put in the middle of this. Right. He doesn't really know what to choose because he's a really emotional kid. But the rest of my family has been really split by this whole thing happening. And I think it's really unfortunate that the media and the government have decided to take my brother and use him as a pawn PR stunt for propaganda. But honestly, they picked the wrong kid. Because if they had picked a kid from a single family, maybe without a mom like my mother, they'd be fine. But since they picked my brother, her son, they're really going to regret it because it's going to backlash on them harder than they ever could have imagined. Oh, so. Well, I think that us taking a voice against what my brother is doing is going to be able to make an effort towards the Liberty Movement to make sure that this lies an individual decision. Thomas Jefferson, as a quote, he says, he who sacrifices liberty for security deserves neither. And I think that's really important that's something that's fundamentally true because vaccines have risks. The National Vaccine Injury Compensation Program didn't pay $4 billion in damages because it was completely safe. And that's just a portion of that that was actually reported to the program. So many more people are actually injured. And with risk requires choice. That's one of the foundations of individual liberty that we need to maintain. And they can't suppress these ideas and they can't mandate vaccines because good ideas don't require force. Well, I can say this, Jill, is that at least both of your kids that I've heard speak now are eloquent dynamic speakers and dynamic individuals, which I think is a testament to good parenting. So are you worried? I mean, let's just talk about the family side. Do you think that Ethan will build? They'll use him. He'll burn out. He'll have this moment of fame probably. Are you worried about your relationship with your son into the future? Is there a strong enough bond there you think he comes back? I do. I absolutely do. And I can't say that he's going to come back to the way I've raised him all these years and be, you know, have children and not vaccinate them. But I do know that I have raised my children where we do have a very, I feel a very strong foundation of love. And we can get mad at each other. We can take our foot and dab it off, you know, that foundation and circle it in the water and be like, oh, yeah, oh, yeah. But yeah, we're always going to be family. And I don't think that anything can break that even if we absolutely disagree. What's your relationship right now? Like in this last week, he was just flying. Are you talking about all of that? He will not talk to me at all. No. I've tried texting him. He will not talk to me at all. I think he's overwhelmed with everything. And I think he knows how strong I am against it and that I'm speaking my mind now as well that I'm not going to stay silent. And I think that he fears that as far as he knows that I'm not one to settle and just sit. You're going to come at my kids. You're going to come at me. I'm going to fight back and I'm going to fight hard. And that's one thing that I am really upset about is that they're saying, let's mandate this, let's mandate this. And they also have come very openly said there are dangers to vaccines. They have not denied that. The CDC, the FDA have absolutely said. The guys on panel and the Senate do. But yeah, and some of those scientists, the shills there for the industry are lying. But you're right. And a lot of the person knows you cannot enjoy it with everybody with a product and someone is not going to have a word of action or something. So they mandate this. And like I said, I've got seven kids. My four youngest have never been vaccinated. Let's use my three-year-old, for example. A vibrant three-year-old. She's precious. Absolutely. Adorable. Bright, smart, cute, fun. She's everything I could ever dream of a child. She's absolutely amazing. Never been vaccinated. So I see this life in her. I see this, this vibrance, this beautiful, sparkly, wonderful child. And they say, you are mandated to go get vaccinations. So let's say I'm forced. I am forced to take my little three-year-old that I've seen for three years, how she really is. And let's say that she happens to be one of those children that have that adverse reaction. So an hour goes by. Two hours go by after getting her vaccinated. She starts seizing. She starts having all these reactions to this vaccine. A day goes by. Now she's not talking to me. A week goes by. And now there's my child. Every doctor says you're crazy. You're crazy. You get out of the office. It's just a coincidence. Well, and here's what gets me. I can say, look at this. Look at my child. Three years. I've had this healthy, beautiful, wonderful, vibrant child. Look what you've done. And you know what they're going to look at me and say, oops, that wasn't us. Next, next, come on next. I don't think they say you should all. I think they say that's the coincidence. I was going to have it anyway. I mean, everyone in the timing of vaccines, it just happened. What's your greatest concern for your brother? Is he a little brother? He's out there. Do you have concerns for them? You think he's doing what he's going to do just fine? Well, no, I think that my greatest concern is he's going to be able, he's going to be continued to be used as a pawn. He's told me before personally that he wouldn't support government mandates to take away individual liberty and personal choice. However, when they decide to start running with that program, like healthy people 2020, they have a mandate to where they need to get all adults and home-schoolers and private schoolers vaccinated by 2020, which is where this starts because when the government is given an inch, it takes a mile. And I don't want them to be used for that. We can see that in history when the government is given some ability to violate our individual liberties. They continue to take it further, like the Patriot Act, the Military Commission Act of 2006, with gun laws. It's just something that is a historical president that's going to follow vaccinations. And I'm afraid that my brother is going to be used by the government to take away our individual rights because their whole plan, even within my own family and with anti-vaxx pro-vaxx is divide and conquer, separate us into distinct groups. What we need to do is we need to work together. And so one of the ways I think that we could work together is because the people that manufacture vaccines are not how liable for damages that are made against them. If they were so safe, they wouldn't care about being liable because there's nothing to be liable for. We're too much logic in that argument by the way. Right, so if you got to back that up a little bit. Right, exactly. Logic has no place here. Right, it's all antidotal. It's all, you know, that's why they brought my 18-year-old brother. He's not a doctor, he's not a scientist. He's a PR stunt. So if we make these people liable, then they will be accountable for the risks that vaccines have, then they'll really investigate the risks and hopefully actually make them safer. And I think that's one of the ways that we can actually make the concerns that anti-vaxxers have taken seriously in the pro-vaxx community. Amen. Well, you know, I want to say that, you know, there has been some people saying harsh things about Ethan out there. I never can donate any of that. I think we all have to recognize that on all sides of this issue are people that care about children. I think Ethan believes he's doing the right thing. Right, I did too. I did too. But what I find ironic actually, and to me, and the point I wanted to make today, is Ethan was dynamic. I mean, he was absolutely eloquent, clear, spoken, didn't seem nervous sat in front of a panel, televisions, you know, he's taken this opportunity, he sees the bull by the horns, he's shot himself into the public eye. And to me, in many ways, instead of sort of rebuking you or him, I want to say, I think that's the result of great parenting. I really do. I mean, we are going to rebel. We are going to make different decisions, but, you know, look at how Isaac speaks. Look how well Ethan did. That is what happens when you don't vaccinate your kids. I mean, that's what I want to say. Ethan just started vaccinating. So unfortunately, we may see the demise of that firing brain that is so clear and those clear eyes and what's going on with him. So you gave him the ability by how he was raised to be that fantastic and dynamic. There are pro-vaxxers all across the country going, cheese, I wish my son could sit up there and speak like that. We're not going to see the results of the vaccination program, not wishing anything upon him. I hope that his body does have the ability to clear all those toxins out in a very healthy way. I'm sure you will probably send him information on how to at least detoxify. So what I want to say is, you know, I am raising my children to question authority. To be free thinking, critical thinking people. That's what I talk about on this show all the time. That's how I was raised. My parents, you know, always said, you must question authority. There is no authority that overrides your own intuition. And that's how I was raised to think. And when you do that, the opposition, the man or the system that you're against while you're in that house is your parents. And when you raise your kids with the idea that you must question authority, who's the authority for the first 18 years or a life we are. And so I think it's natural that someone is rebelled, that Ethan's rebelled. I hope that, you know, that he sees clear to see how what an advantage he's been given. But instead of sort of rebuking it, I want to tell people, that's what an unvaccinated kid acts like. That's what happens. And they do think for themselves. And they do leave their parents. They do jump out of the nest. They aren't afraid to fly. They aren't afraid to go out and be dynamic and be their own people. And I think that's what Ethan is doing in his own way. And so I celebrate that, you know, I celebrate that. I hope that my children decide to continue to not put toxic chemicals and abortive fetal cell lines and things like that in their bodies. But at 18, it will be their life to live. And our discussion here that is really scary in this country is the idea that the government wants to step in and be the parent of that child. That they are going to decide the only way you parent a child is with vaccinations, is with ridlin, is with psychotopic drugs. That is where this is all going. What makes the government more capable than every parent? And what about diversity? What about raising our children diversity? So you have diversity in your family. You have one kid that's clearly coming out and becoming a strong libertarian, it seems. And you have another son that's standing with a group of senators who want to force vaccinate the world. But those are dynamic kids. I think you did a great job. And I wouldn't be too hard on yourself. He'll come around. He'll find his way and isn't that what we wanted. Isn't that what we want for our kids? Is we do the best we can. And now it's his life to lead from him on out. Right. So I want to make that point to everyone out there. That's what a vaccinated kid looks like. It's dynamic. And I hope that he maintains that. I hope he doesn't hurt himself too bad. If you had something that Ethan hasn't been responding to you, he hasn't been calling. So I'm sure that he's going to be watching this. So where's the best camera for? Is it right there? Yeah, look right into that camera. Over here. Look over here. I want you to talk to Ethan. I want you to whatever message you want to share with him. What is it that you want him to know? That I love you. I love you with all my heart. I always will. No matter your decisions, I will always love you. That's all there really is. Is there? I mean, in the end, he's my boy. He's your boy. I have making big choices. I'd like to say something to Ethan. Right. He's watching this right now. Ethan, you consider yourself a libertarian. And when Rand Paul spoke at the Senate hearing, he thought for individual liberty and the reduction of mandates. And instead, we should have education. So if you really call yourself a libertarian, we need to stand by that concept and make sure that we don't allow the government to make these decisions for our individual bodies. We need to allow the parents and the individual people make those decisions for themselves. And that's libertarianism right there. And that's actually, I think, just good old American freedom. Right. Absolutely. I mean, it really shouldn't be some party agenda to say that having the right to raise your children the way you were raised or in your own way. Right. That should be every party. I mean, Ethan should be allowed to vaccinate these kids if he wants or not vaccinate them if he wants to. Absolutely. You know, he had a background. He's seen all sides. He's seen all kinds of research. He's coming to his conclusions just as you have. That is the beauty of a free country. And I've been saying, I've been speaking at big events all over the world and saying, this is going to be the biggest issue of our time. Nothing is going to pressure our idea of freedom more than this vaccine issue because it's got all the fear. They're drumming up the fear that measles are somehow the black plague and they say we're drumming up fear of the dangers of vaccines. So it's a battle of fear. I wish we could get to love. Right. I hope we maintain the love and I certainly hope your family holds together on this and I want to thank you for joining us. Yes. Absolutely. Thank you. It's a pleasure to be here.