VLAD THE IMPALER WAS A CHRISTIAN HERO: Plus a boxers wig flies off during bout.

We move from a flying toupee and bald confidence to a deeper look at Dracula’s roots, asking whether a Christian defender was turned into a monster by modern myth and cultural taste. Along the way we test Stoker’s influences, Hollywood morality, and a stark Bible warning about deceptive authority.

• Pickleball takeover and entering a tournament
• Boxer’s wig incident as a mirror for image and ego
• Choosing baldness over denial and costly fixes
• Vlad the Impaler’s context versus the Dracula myth
• How stories shape faith, heroes, and public memory
• Bram Stoker’s milieu, science, and occult-adjacent circles
• Hollywood’s golden age and Catholic guardrails
• 1 Kings 13 and the danger of false prophets
• Discernment as a way to navigate culture and belief

Let me know: shave your head, transplant, or team hat? Bram Stoker’s Dracula, Vlad the Impaler, Christianity—what is it? Whatever. Let me know.

Chapters

• 0:16 Opening And Pickleball Obsession
• 1:46 Boxer’s Toupee And Bald Confidence
• 6:49 Setting Up Today’s Topics
• 8:29 Dracula, Vlad, And History
• 13:17 YouTube Takes And Romanian Perspective
• 16:55 Propaganda, Faith, And Culture
• 21:43 Bram Stoker’s Beliefs And Influences
• 26:55 Hollywood’s “Golden Age” And Morality
• 30:40 1 Kings 13 And False Prophets
• 35:01 Wrap-Up And Listener Questions

Transcript

SPEAKER_02: 0:09

What's up? This is the Objective Jerk, and I am said jerk. How you guys doing? Hope everybody's staying out of trouble. I've been kind of busy with like my wife. Dude, pickleball has taken over my life mainly because of my wife. She's gotten into it, and which is great because I've, you know, for a couple years now, I've been telling her that she needs to find some sort of physical activity that she's that she enjoys doing. Doesn't have to be, you know, she doesn't have to be a marathon runner or anything like that, but but something, right? And so she's found that in pickleball, which is awesome. She, you know, she plays almost every day, and she's losing weight, she's getting, you know, in better shape and all that stuff, and it's all good. But generally, when a woman is or a spouse, a wife in a marriage, when you know, they take up something, the husband usually takes it up too. It's not the other way around, generally, you know what I mean? A husband, I mountain bike, she don't care. You know, I I do lots of other stuff. She don't, you know what I mean? And so now I would go occasionally and I would play just for my benefit. But now here we are, we're we're signed up to play a tournament this weekend, and I'm just like, what the crap, dude. So it's kind of, I don't know. It's it's nice, it's good. I'm not complaining, it's just I think it's kind of funny. But I had like I got my little bullet points here for kind of like when things are going on, like I'll use this as an example. I don't think I'm gonna really talk about, but I'm just gonna kind of do I was thinking I was gonna do two podcasts based on the information I got that I'm gonna talk about, but I'm just gonna I'm gonna do it all in one. And I'm gonna cut some stuff out. But anyway, so I have bullet points, and I'm making sure I'm recording video.

SPEAKER_00: 2:27

Yes, okay.

SPEAKER_02: 2:30

Of just different topics, just stuff for me to kind of go over and talk about that I kind of feel like talking about. Like something comes up, like for example, boxer loses his hair during a fight. I don't know if you saw it, but a boxer while boxing gets a freaking uppercut from from hell and his toupee flies up, you know, like right out of a some kind of slapstick movie. It was pretty funny, and then he rips it off and continues the fight. He goes on to say that he washed his hair with something. It's like, dude, whatever. I don't know. I was gonna talk about that because obviously I have the same, you know, hair follicle problem. But I don't know, I just kind of think in this day and age, if you're that self-conscious about like I'm I still have hair that grows, but it grows really thin. So I feel more self-conscious when my hair grows than having it, you know. I shaved my head at a young age because I saw it was thinning. I mean, I still had a full head of hair, but I was like, you know, I like many people freaked out. Oh my god, I'm gonna go bald. But I just I was like, you know what, I'm gonna shave my head just to kind of get it, just to to do it, to kind of, you know what I mean? I don't know if it was to like, you know, what's the just head first, you know, learn by not learn by what's the the thing I'm trying to think of, but instead of like d delaying the inevitable and just stressing about it, I'm like, I'm just gonna shave my head and be bald now to kind of get the shock over with. And I actually kind of liked the way it felt. Now I have I have a funky shaped head, kind of, so but whatever, you know. And then I would grow my hair, so I shaved it once, and then you know, my hair grew, or I let it grow out again, and then I shaved it again one time during the summer, and then not long after that, I joined the army and you had to shave your hair, and then it was just instead of getting a haircut all the time, I just shaved it and it was just easier. And I still had a full head of hair because I would see pictures from when I was in the army, you know, when I would let it grow, and I was like, man, I still had a lot of hair, and I think I had a lot of hair up until I would say my mid-30s, and then it really like most of it. I mean, there's still hair, but it's pretty thin now, and it's you know, back here there's a is a really good, it's not bald, but it's pretty close, you know. But anyway, it's just like in this day and age, man, like so many people shave their heads, so many people are bald. I mean, Michael Jordan, you know, he he's he made it cool to be bald, you know what I mean? And so when people are like in denial or men are like, oh my god, like I don't know, just I think that kind of tells you a lot about somebody. And again, I'm not trying to toot my own horn or anything, but it's this is just my opinion that it's just it seems like you kind of have a weak self whatever you know what I mean. Like, just shave your head, dude. It's like if you want to go and get the really expensive whatever and you got the money, okay, fine, whatever. You know, I mean, if somebody offered me, or if like if I want a coupon, hey, you can get, you know, this is$30,000 hair transplant and blah blah blah blah. Would I do it? I I probably would, honestly. But I'm not gonna like save up my money and spend my own money, you know, and spend that kind of money just to have hair. It's like, I don't know. Sometimes, like, I don't know. It's just to me, it just seems stupid. Anyway, but so I have you know, the boxer getting his hair knocked off, his wig split literally, and some other stuff, and then you know, the rest of Don Lemon, more on that, but I'm gonna focus on Dracula, right? So I you guys know who Dracula is, right? We all know who Dracula is, we all know who created Dracula, Bram Stoker, right? And most of us know the story from Bram Stoker's and you know, Vlad the Impaler, who's based on a real person, right? And so in the Bram Stoker's universe or whatever, you know, Vlad was Christian and he was fighting the Ottoman, and then his girlfriend kills herself, and he's like pissed off, so he blames God and he denounces God and he becoming you know, he becomes the demon, whatever. Dracula, right? And they did a remake of Dracula, and I thought it was pretty good. It has man, I don't know what his name is. The guy, he's in a lot of stuff. He's in uh he's a gay guy, I guess, which was he's not the typical. I remember learning that and being like, what this dude's gay? He's like old school 50s Hollywood gay, you know. I can't think of his name, but I know he was in a Fast and Furious movie. He was like the bad guy. He played Jason Statham's brother, and he's in a lot of other stuff, but The Murder Mystery, Adam Sandler movie, he was in that. But anyway, so he plays Vlad, Vlad, Vlad, however you say it. And it actually, so it's taken the the Bram Stoker's story, but it's rooting it more in historical truth. You know what I mean? As far as like the history with Vlad and the Ottoman Empire growing up in an Ottoman family, and how they would take the kids and this and that, and how he was fighting against, you know, the Ottomans, poisoning the whales, doing all the stuff because they knew the attack was imminent, and then they and then he got his name as the impaler because he was, you know, soldiers that he would impale him, probably alive and dead, and put them all over the place to kind of and it wasn't to like be mean to that that individual soldier, it was to ward off and scare the Ottoman Empire, you know. I mean, it was a time of war. And so, but yeah, I didn't really know too much about Vlad other than those two movies, right? And then so there's this guy I follow on YouTube, he's a content creator. The Alpha what's his thing?

SPEAKER_00: 9:38

Hold on, he's so big I can't even see it. What's the alpha path? So Alpha melt up, but it's a Christian, you know.

SPEAKER_02: 9:54

And he's talking about it. I actually like because I don't like sometimes I like just quick, I don't know. This guy does the kind of content I kind of want to do, but I'm not gonna. But basically, so this the video that he has with Dracula was a Christian hero. And so in you know, Romania and everything, they know Vlad as that, that he was, you know, a warrior against the Ottoman Empire, and he was trying to save his people from destruction, and that's the way he did it. Now they didn't attack civilians, women, and children like the Ottoman did. They attacked soldiers, they killed soldiers, they impaled the soldiers and everything like that as a tactic to, you know, because it was out of desperation. It wasn't because he was, you know, a sick, maniacal, evil person like what is portrayed in you know, film and shows and everything like that, right? And I didn't really know that. And I think most Americans don't because we're we all grow up and are influenced by books and and and movies and everything. And the thing is, is those like novels were and authors were the Hollywood of today, you know what I mean? So a lot of fiction books was propagandized and made to be certain ways and whatever this and that, right? And you might be thinking, Oh, I got an appointment today. That's right. Got my VA appointment right here. And you're like, what? How is this how are you how are you thinking that the Dracula book is is propaganda? And it's like, well, everything kind of is throughout the world. I mean, there's propaganda with everything, but there's there's always been propaganda against Jesus and against Christianity, and specifically the Catholicism, right? And you see it everywhere. Once you kind of notice it, man, you you do kind of start seeing it everywhere. And Bram Stoker's book was one of those things, you know what I mean? You have so you have all these different I guess events or people or you know, that be that was very influential that occurred that really was an attack on Christianity. And things like, you know, the first big one was Islam. I'm not gonna go into like a huge debate with whatever, but you know, that was like the first major kind of antagonist to Christianity, right? And then I mean, I don't know like as far as an order, but then you have you know the uh Luther, Lutheran separating Christianity basically, because that was a schism too, you know. And well, it is a schism. That's what and then so then you had Christianity, which was Catholic back in the day. If you were Christian, that means you were Catholic. Now it's like you have to specify, right? But that was a huge blow to Christianity or Catholicism, and then and then you had like the Freemasons and all that kind of stuff, right? All of this stuff is is created, whether the people involved, and and people always think like, oh my gosh, were these people, these people weren't like, you know, demons and devil worshippers, and it's like, no, most people they're not, but they are influenced. And if you don't think that the devil exists, he's already got you. So people are influenced, yes, there are evil sick people out there, and then they they relish in it and they they accept, you know, atheism and Satanism and all that kind of stuff. But there are some people that think they're good people and they're doing the right thing, but they're still influenced, not realizing they're actually working for the devil when they work or yeah, they're working for the devil when they think they're you know they're a warrior for God or just for you know good overall.

SPEAKER_00: 14:55

And those are the ones that Satan really wants, man.

SPEAKER_02: 14:59

He don't want the the person dressing as a demon, eating children and this and that, running for president or something, because no one's gonna vote for that, right? But I mean, I'm just using it as an example, but it's the people that don't really realize it, and it's just and it's like you know, a lot of people I think are involved with a lot of these societies and kind of cult type things like Freemasonry, and and a lot of them don't really do, you know, it's all community, and they're not really involved in anything that's like anti-Christian, but a lot of it is, you know, if you look up a lot of the stuff and just research it, you kind of even on Wikipedia, which is surprising, you know, some stuff still comes out, and that's what you know, like a lot of the YouTube channels I watch, they're historians, you know, they're they actually have an education and they know things. I I I know how to open up Wikipedia, so you know it's not the same. But yeah, check out this guy, the Alpha Path. I like his stuff so far. I just started following him a little bit ago. But anyway, so with all of that kind of in mind, right? So I'm thinking, so this me being, I mean, it's been a couple years now, but I've been a Christian for a few years. I've been baptized a Catholic for a year now, almost a year. And so I see these things now, and that's the kind of the first thing I think about is like so. This guy, he's talking about, you know, Vlad and this and that, and then how you know, so then you had Bram Stoker who was creating, or maybe he saw the headline and he was influenced and inspired, and then generally they kind of change a lot of the backstory, but because there's I guess because it you know it happened so long ago, he could just use the name, the historical name Vlad. But it is kind of so I was kind of thinking, I was like, I wonder, you know, so you have a guy who writes a fiction story about an actual like Christian hero, you know, at that time probably, or at least in Romania, and then basically turn it on its head, and it becomes like some evil demon thing, you know what I mean? That everybody associates with. So immediately I'm like, dude, what was Bram Stoker? Like, what was his deal then? So it's like I was kind of curious, like what you know. So I got him open here on Wikipedia. I'm not gonna read all his stuff. He I mean, the guy did a lot of stuff, but I'm gonna go down to beliefs and philosophy. Okay, we're just gonna kind of read a little bit of that, and then we'll go from there. Let's see. So Stoker was raised in a Protestant as a or raised a Protestant in the Church of Ireland, so that's already part of the you know separation of Christianity. He was a strong supporter of the Liberal Party and took a keen interest in Irish affairs. Now, Liberal Party doesn't mean back then what the same as it does now. I think kind of it does, but this is over in England, Ireland. Here, I'll read the thing. The Liberal Party was one of the two major political parties in the United Kingdom, along with the Conservative, well, maybe a Conservative Party in the 9th and early 20th centuries, beginning as an alliance of Whigs, free trade supporting P lights and reformist radicals. Well, maybe it was a little it was close to current day liberalism. But anyway, well, so right there, that's that's you know, that tells you a little something, right? As a fiss as a f man, I cannot say the philosophical home ruler. He supported home rule for Ireland. Home rule movement was a movement that campaigned for self-government for Ireland within the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. It was the dominant political movement of Irish nationalism. Don't know much about that, but he supported home rule for Ireland, brought about by the peaceful means. He remained, yeah, but see, then it's like when you read knowing what you know today, when you read stuff brought about by peaceful means. Peaceful protest. You know, they label stuff now makes you kind of wonder about, you know, back then. Anyway, he remained an ardent monarchist who believed, so a monarchist believes in, you know, having a king, that believed Ireland should remain with the British Empire. He was an admirer of Prime Minister William Gladstone, whom he knew personally and supported his plans for Ireland. Stoker believed in progress and took a keen interest in science and science-based medicine. So a lot of people think that, like, oh, when you're religious and they think like Catholicism was anti-science and anti-all that stuff. And it's like they're the ones that kept this stuff. They created everything. Catholicism. Now there are some Christian sects, I guess you'd call them, that kind of believe in, you know, the the power of prayer and faith and healing and all that kind of stuff, and not modern medicine.

SPEAKER_00: 20:49

But that's not, you know, Christianity. Oh gosh.

SPEAKER_02: 20:54

He supported oh, he read that. Okay. Some of Stoker's novels represent early examples of science fiction, such as The Lady of the Shroud. I never read that. He had a writer's interest in the occult. Okay, that's another clue. Notably, mesmerism. Animal, also known as is a pseudoscientific theory promoted by German physician Franz Somthing. It posts the existence of an invisible natural force possessed by all living things, including humans. So it's kind of like oh, and animals there. So it's like the Holy Spirit, but it's in everything. But despised fraud and believed in superiority of the scientific method over superstition. And a lot of people, so that so that right there is telling me that he didn't believe in God so much. He believed in science. But science and God is one and the same, really. But they try liberals try and separate, oh no, you know, science is real and you can touch it, and and you know, God is fantasy and and and you know fake superstition crap. That's what they say. Stoker counted among his friends J.W. Brody Innes, who was a leader of the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawns. Amunra Temple. So that doesn't sound a member. Okay, here we go. Of the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawns was commonly the Golden Dawn, was a secret society like Freemason. All that kind of stuff from the Western esoteric tradition that was heavily based on Rosekur. I can't say half these words. Rosekuriscanism. Man. And inspired by Freemasonry. There we go. Freemasonry. Chiefly devoted to the study of the practice of a cult. Her mendicism. So it's like, so here we go, you know? And I mean, this was so he was friends with this guy. He wasn't a member, per se. But no evidence suggests that Stoker ever joined the order himself. He did, I bet. Like Irving, who was an active Freemason, Stoker also became a matter of a member of the order. So Freemasons are basically anti-Christian.

SPEAKER_00: 23:19

They just don't it's not put on the door, you know. Okay, so that right there, see? So that kind of that kind of tells you a lot right there. At least it does me. So that tells me that the same ant you know, I mean, it's been it's been anti-Christian just forever, you know?

SPEAKER_02: 23:49

And you know you know, one thing too is also that I didn't know this as well, but when people refer to the golden age of Hollywood, when are they referring to? It's like the 50s, right? Late 40s, 50s, maybe early 60s, but then that's it. And that's the golden age of Hollywood. You know, you had all the the classic great movies, Citizen Cain, you had what's the Christmas movie, which I guess at the time wasn't that popular, but it got really what's the one with with what's his face where he wants to die and then he sees the world without him. Oh my gosh. I can't think of the name of it. But anyway, movies like that were made during this time, and you know what else was going on at that time? The Catholic Church was heavenly? The Catholic Church was used as a guide for Hollywood. So this was before you know R Rating, PG 30. They had their own rating system that they got rid of, like nudity, because there were some films in the 20s that were pretty raunchy. All the stuff that goes against Christianity, they were getting rid of, and they had all these movies that were rated and were sent through because they got okay. Yes, they passed the rating system. I don't remember what's called exactly, but it was all Catholic ran, and that was the golden age, the golden age of Hollywood. So that it's like that's kind of crazy right there, too, to think about. But now, did Bram Stoker summon Satan and sell his soul so he could you know be a successful novelist, maybe, but probably not. I don't know. I don't, you know, that's not the point. You don't have to literally like be involved in that to be involved in it. You know what I mean? That's the thing, is like people just think that I mean you look around in the world and you see all the craziness and all the evil, and you think like, why would somebody do that? That is why. That is why. So whenever you can't understand why somebody would be so horrendous, Satan. People, oh, that's easy. It's like, no, it's it, I mean, yes and no. But it's like, and it all kind of goes back to it's all involved. I know it sounds superstitious, but man, when you look at history, and the more you learn about certain things, and you see, like this right here, like immediately, like I I had the feeling that he was a Freemason or he was whatever something, right? And then lo and behold, there we go, part of you know the Hermetic Order of Golden Dawn, all this kind of stuff. And people, oh, it's just art, it's just a story. But it's like, yeah, but so now you had a person who was a Catholic Christian hero, but now if you ask anybody today, and you ask, hey, who's Vil, you know, Vlad, you know, Emperor, what oh, the impaler, oh, it's Dracula, you know what I mean? So like it does, so it it it hurts, it hurts God, it hurts Christianity, it hurts, you know, and even like little stuff today, the same kind of crap is going on. And like I said, it was you know, it was Islam, and then it was Lutheran. Look at here, so this is one of I I I brought it up briefly, but I didn't have it listed really. But this this chapter in the Bible, it really kind of it really kind of I don't want to sound cliche, but it it opened my eyes or made me really kind of see things and realize some stuff. And what's funny is that's not what this chapter is mainly known for. But anyway, so King First Kings chapter 13, right? I'll just read it. Okay, in the biblical narrative found in 1 Kings chapter 13, we encounter a profound and sobering account involving a lion and a disobedient prophet. This account serves as a poignant reminder of the seriousness of obedience to God's commands and the consequences of deviating from his instructions. See, that's not what I got from this. I will tell you what I got from it, but I'm gonna I'm gonna read the rest of it. It's not that long. The account begins with a quote unquote man of God from Judah who was sent by the Lord to Bethel to deliver a message of judgment against King Jeroboam, and the altar he had erected for idolerous I idolat I can never say this word either. Why do I have a podcast? Idolatrous worship. The prophet faithfully delivers the message, and as a sign, the altar is miraculously split apart, and its ashes ashes are poured out. After delivering the prophecy, the man of God is instructed by the Lord not to eat bread or drink water in Bethel, so he can't eat or drink while he's there, nor return by the way he came. However, as he departs, an old prophet from Bethel deceives him. See, this is the part that I remember, and this is what open this is what you know the old prophet deceives him. The old prophet claims that an angel instructed him to bring the man of God back to his house to eat and drink. Trusting the old prophet's word over the direct command of God, the man of God returns with him and partakes of the meal. As a result of his disobedience, the word of the Lord comes to the old prophet, declaring that the man of God will not be buried in the tomb of his fathers. After leaving Bethel, the man of God encounters a lion on the road which kills him. Remarkably, the lion does not devour the body nor harm the donkey on which the prophet was riding, but stands by the corpse, serving as a testament to the divine judgment that had been pronounced. So, like I said, when you kind of like when I was pulling it up, that's what it kind of talks about is it it a reminder of you know obeying God, and when you don't obey stuff that can happen. But that's not, I mean, yes, you know, that's obviously an important aspect of it. But the thing that drew me to this, and that really was the the old prophet, the prophet who lied to him. So this prophet, it doesn't say it here, but there's he learns of this man's journey and is you know, because other people had offered, hey, would you like to eat? And he's oh, I can't. And then he explained why, you know, God said I can't, whatever. So this prophet learned of that, and then so then he goes and tells this new prophet, hey, God told me that you can come and eat and drink with me. So you have this guy who believes this prophet who talks to God and said, Hey, you can eat, drink with him me. And but then he and so he does, and then he ends up you know dying from the lion. So to me, that represents all these other religions that came after Christ, you know, after Christianity. So you have this prophet, oh hey, you have you know Muhammad, oh I in the cave, you know, God told me this, and blah blah blah blah. You know, it's the same, you know, old prophet, false prophet. You have Luther and then they separate in Protestantism and all this kind of stuff, you know, all of the all the different religions and church and it's all it it all comes down to this to me, you know what I mean? Like, so the fact that you know when this so when this story came about, there was you know, it was before Jesus, and I, you know, and am I saying that this was a true, it's probably not even a true account. It's just more of it's more of a story than actual, you know, because there's lots of actual history in the Bible, but there's also lots of stories, too. And this one though really kind of it was impactful to me, you know what I mean? And that's how I kind of and it wasn't because okay, you gotta you know, you're if you disobey God, you're gonna die. I mean, we all die, but it's not about that necessarily, but it's I mean, it is about that, you know. You can't just, oh, I believe in God and still live the way, live the life that you want sinfully and think that you're okay, because you're not gonna be, even if you're a Catholic, you know what I mean? But the the point that, or the thing that I took from it was just following all these different other religions. Jesus didn't write a book, he created a church, the Catholic Church. That's what he created. So then all these people deviating, they were influenced by this old prophet, and then they're all gonna be succumbed to the lion. You know what I mean? That's but how'd I get to this? But it just it's you know, you know, Satan attacks uh Christianity in many ways, not just directly at the church. I mean, Freemasons have infiltrated the the Catholic Church for decades and lots of other, you know, but it also the Satan influences art, books, movies, you know what I mean? And it's just it isn't just one little thing, it's just it's just it's a bunch of little stuff. It's just kind of crazy. But anyway, kind of went on a little tangent there at the end. Yeah, it's been 34 minutes, so I don't know. What do you think? Do you like Bram Stoker's Dracula? What did I talk about at the beginning? I don't remember now. Oh, the wig, the hair falling off. Anyway, do you shave your head? Are you in denial? You know, I don't know. I don't think it's a big deal. I mean, if you gotta really I mean there are some people with some funky shaped heads that they still shave their head, you know. To me, that's like they're they're they're comfortable, they don't care, you know. I mean, I guess if I was single, maybe I'd be different. I don't know, but I was shaving my head when I was in the army though. Anyway, I don't know. So let me know. Shave your head, hair transplant. Bram Stoker's Dracula, Vlad the Impaler, Christianity, what is it? Whatever. Let me know. Thanks for hanging out. I appreciate your time, and I'll see you guys next time. All right, God bless. All right bye.