Oscar-winning actor Richard Dreyfuss said he gave up his “blessed life” because his country needed saving, telling radio personality Glenn Beck that he was infuriated by the number of Americans who “don’t understand what this place means.”

Dreyfuss joined Beck in an interview to discuss his book — “One Thought Scares Me… We Teach Our Children What We Wish Them to Know; We Don’t Teach Our Children What We Don’t Wish Them to Know” — and the state of his country, which he believed was dire.

WATCH:

.@RichardDreyfuss tells me he gave up acting "ONLY for something I loved as much, which was saving my country…It infuriates me that people don't understand what this place means." pic.twitter.com/Zxshkqa0aJ

— Glenn Beck (@glennbeck) January 16, 2023

“I gave up something I loved, and had loved since I was nine years old,” the “Mr. Holland’s Opus” star began. “Only for something else I loved as much, which was saving my country.”

“And I firmly believe that if we don’t revive the study of civics, we will be dead before 2050,” Dreyfuss continued. “We’ll have the same name —”

“Long before,” Beck agreed.

“— and it will be a nightmare,” Dreyfuss concluded.

“So I had led a blessed life,” Dreyfuss said — and by all accounts, he did. At 29 years old, he was the youngest to win a Best Actor Oscar for his turn as a struggling actor in the 1977 film “The Goodbye Girl.” He received another Best Actor nod for 1996’s “Mr. Holland’s Opus,” but lost to Nicolas Cage — who earned the nomination for his role in “Leaving Las Vegas.”

“And I gave it up for a blessed life,” the actor said of his transition to activism of sorts, going on to say that while his book may have fallen short with regard to saying everything that needed to be said, he felt like it was the best possible snapshot of where he was.

“It infuriates me that people don’t understand what this place means,” Dreyfuss added, his voice breaking. “What an advance on human progress this country is all about, and how quickly we can abandon it without — without a second thought.”

Dreyfuss went on to explain that one of the many things that concerned him was the attitude so many people had toward opposing views – namely that any opposing view was an attack and even more than that, was unAmerican.

“They don’t know that opposing views are entwined and threaded through the Constitution, the Bill of Rights, and what we show to the world we believe in,” Dreyfuss said. “You know, there’s a very simple thing, and it’s – these documents tell the world who we are and why we are. And we say because they are works in progress, they tell us who we want to be when we grow up.”

WATCH the full interview:

A failed New Mexico political candidate allegedly paid men to shoot up the homes of other lawmakers after he lost his 2022 election bid, according to police.

Solomon Peña, who ran for the state House as a Republican, was arrested on Monday in connection with a string of shootings that the Albuquerque Police Department said targeted the homes of various Democratic lawmakers, according to the Alburquerque Journal. The victims include two county commissioners and two state lawmakers, all Democrats. No one was injured.

“Peña, an unsuccessful legislative candidate in the 2022 election, is accused of conspiring with, and paying four other men to shoot at the homes of 2 county commissioners and 2 state legislators,” said Police Chief Harold Medina.

Police said five people were involved in the string of shootings, at least two of which were allegedly committed by others and one of which was allegedly committed by Peña. His alleged involvement was deciphered, in part, using cell phone records.

Peña has been relatively quiet since he failed to win the 14th district, which has historically been Democratic but was recently redrawn. His last tweet from his campaign account was posted on November 15. It said he was “researching my options.”

According to the Albuquerque Journal, Peña has been in trouble with the law before, having served nearly 7 years in prison for theft beginning in 2008. His conviction was the subject of scrutiny during the campaign, and his political opponent, Rep. Miguel P. Garcia, tried and failed to have him disqualified over it. Garcia ended up winning by 3,600 votes.

Peña disputed the election results, and according to the Associated Press, confronted some county and state lawmakers over the results. The conversations didn’t go anywhere, and the shootings started in the following weeks.