"Americans also don't need to be taught how to give. We don't need to be taught how to take care of each other or how to be charitable"
About this Quote
The subtext is a defense of voluntarism as both virtue and policy. By insisting “we don’t need to be taught,” the sentence converts charity into a proof of independence: we give because we choose to, not because institutions organize us to. That’s an emotional pivot Beck often uses in a post-2008, Tea Party-era media ecosystem: resentment of “lecture culture” (academia, government, technocrats) recast as pride. The repeated “we don’t need” builds a chant-like immunity to persuasion, a rhetorical vaccine against the idea that social outcomes might demand coordinated public solutions.
It also smuggles in a convenient absolution. If Americans already know how to “take care of each other,” then failures of care can be blamed on individuals rather than systems. The sentence doesn’t argue against specific policies; it argues against the legitimacy of being asked to change at all. In that sense, it’s less about charity than about authority: who gets to define what “taking care” requires, and whether that definition ever obligates us beyond what feels voluntary.
Quote Details
| Topic | Kindness |
|---|---|
| Source | Help us find the source |
| Cite |
Citation Formats
APA Style (7th ed.)
Beck, Glenn. (2026, January 17). Americans also don't need to be taught how to give. We don't need to be taught how to take care of each other or how to be charitable. FixQuotes. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/americans-also-dont-need-to-be-taught-how-to-give-60835/
Chicago Style
Beck, Glenn. "Americans also don't need to be taught how to give. We don't need to be taught how to take care of each other or how to be charitable." FixQuotes. January 17, 2026. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/americans-also-dont-need-to-be-taught-how-to-give-60835/.
MLA Style (9th ed.)
"Americans also don't need to be taught how to give. We don't need to be taught how to take care of each other or how to be charitable." FixQuotes, 17 Jan. 2026, https://fixquotes.com/quotes/americans-also-dont-need-to-be-taught-how-to-give-60835/. Accessed 17 Feb. 2026.





