The Ben Shapiro Show - Tear Down This Walmart | Ep. 853

00:00:00.000 The left finds a target-rich environment in corporate cowards.

00:00:03.000 The woke scolds come for Dave Chappelle. 0.61

00:00:05.000 And Brexit's fate remains unclear.

00:00:06.000 I'm Ben Shapiro.

00:00:07.000 This is The Ben Shapiro Show.

00:00:09.000 We have an enormous amount to get to today, and we will get to all of it We'll just move straight through it.

00:00:19.000 We begin today with the new crusade by the left.

00:00:22.000 So the left is attempting to use pressure politics in virtually every area of American life.

00:00:27.000 We're going to talk about how it is that the left uses these pressure politics in areas of American life to make American life a lot worse.

00:00:33.000 Because normally, if you're going to use pressure politics, you use it in, you know, politics, right?

00:00:38.000 You direct it politically.

00:00:39.000 You're going to pressure your senator.

00:00:40.000 You're going to pressure your congressman.

00:00:42.000 You're going to organize phone banking or you're going to nominate somebody to primary somebody or run against somebody.

00:00:47.000 But we are now moving into an era where so many people in America now believe that government is ineffective and ineffectual.

00:00:53.000 But instead, they're going to go to the commanding heights of our culture and of our business.

00:00:58.000 And they're going to try to use those commanding heights against their fellow citizens.

00:01:02.000 Now, that's not illegal, obviously.

00:01:04.000 That doesn't violate prescriptions on limited government.

00:01:06.000 But it does change the natural tone and tenor of how it is to live as an American.

00:01:11.000 If you are simply going after the commanding heights of Hollywood and using it to cram down cultural stereotypes about people you don't like, that does have an impact on American life.

00:01:19.000 If you are going to the commanding heights of corporate America and demanding that corporate America do your political bending, that does have an impact on how we live.

00:01:28.000 Again, there's a difference between the government doing something like that and a corporation doing something like that.

00:01:34.000 We'll talk about that difference and why it actually opens up some market opportunities for conservatives as corporations make themselves less competitive on the American stage in order to cater to the whims of the far left.

00:01:45.000 It's very short-sighted corporate policy, but nonetheless, it does polarize us in heretofore unseen ways in America.

00:01:52.000 Okay, so we begin today with the failure of political blackmail.

00:01:55.000 Political pressure politics have been used, obviously, throughout the history of the United States.

00:01:59.000 You try to pressure your senator.

00:02:01.000 And the newest goal for the left is to try and push Mitch McConnell.

00:02:04.000 Maybe they can shame Mitch McConnell.

00:02:06.000 into passing some sort of gun control legislation.

00:02:10.000 Now, there's a solution to this for folks on the left.

00:02:12.000 You could elect a majority.

00:02:14.000 You could just elect a majority of Democratic senators.

00:02:16.000 In fact, you had a majority of Democratic senators all the way up through, what, 2014?

00:02:21.000 And you could elect a Democratic House, which you already have.

00:02:23.000 You could elect a Democratic president.

00:02:24.000 In fact, you had all three of those branches.

00:02:27.000 You had the Congress, and you had the Senate, and you had the presidency from 2009 all the way through 2011, early 2011.

00:02:35.000 And you didn't do anything on gun control.

00:02:36.000 So now, you see the press trying to push Mitch McConnell into doing something, and they're trying to use President Trump's vagary on gun control as sort of the lever to get McConnell to do something.

00:02:47.000 So you got the Washington Post editorial board writing a full-page editorial, I mean, an extraordinarily long editorial, today, trying to push Mitch McConnell, suggesting that it's Mitch McConnell's fault that mass shootings are taking place.

00:02:59.000 Which is a rather large absurdity, considering, again, that mass shootings have been taking place in the United States for decades at this point.

00:03:06.000 Columbine happened in the 1990s.

00:03:08.000 Mitch McConnell was not the Senate Majority Leader when a bevy of mass shootings happened in 2009-2010.

00:03:13.000 And Mitch McConnell is not solely responsible for the gun control policy in the United States.

00:03:19.000 We had an assault weapons ban in the United States.

00:03:21.000 The same assault weapons ban Democrats are now pushing.

00:03:23.000 From 1994 through 2004, it accomplished precisely nothing.

00:03:27.000 So for all of the talk about Mitch McConnell, it ain't about Mitch McConnell.

00:03:29.000 But this is normal pressure politics.

00:03:31.000 OK, this is just the way politics works.

00:03:33.000 And there's nothing particularly wrong with this.

00:03:35.000 I mean, the people who are pushing the agenda have the wrong agenda.

00:03:38.000 They're pushing policy that is impractical.

00:03:40.000 But this is sort of normal politics as politics, I guess, is supposed to work.

00:03:43.000 So The Washington Post writes an editorial.

00:03:46.000 Again, titled, How many more names will be added to the list before Mitch McConnell acts on guns?

00:03:51.000 And they just list a bunch of people who were killed Saturday in Midland and Odessa.

00:03:55.000 They said, add those seven individuals randomly slaughtered Saturday by a shooter in the West Texas cities of Midland and Odessa to the toll of those lost to America's gun insanity.

00:04:04.000 And then pose this question.

00:04:05.000 First of all, again, they are wrong on the politics.

00:04:08.000 There's no such thing as quote-unquote gun insanity.

00:04:10.000 There are just insane people with guns or evil people with guns.

00:04:14.000 Me owning a gun is not insane.

00:04:16.000 You, a law-abiding citizen, owning a gun to defend yourself is not insane.

00:04:19.000 That's not gun insanity.

00:04:21.000 Again, a gun is just a tool.

00:04:23.000 To suggest that it's a part of America's quote-unquote gun insanity is to create this miasmatic evil that descends on America randomly when that is not in fact the case.

00:04:33.000 But that's not where the editorial board is going, obviously.

00:04:36.000 They say, let's pose this question.

00:04:37.000 What if there was a mass shooting in the United States, not once or twice or four or six times monthly, but every single day, a big one, the kind that electrifies social media and squats for days on page one?

00:04:46.000 Would that be enough to move Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell from his insistent inertia on gun safety?

00:04:52.000 Would any volume of bloodshed convince the Kentucky Republican that Congress faces a moral imperative to act?

00:04:58.000 38 people were slain in three such shootings in August, and still Senate Republicans and President Trump refuse to act.

00:05:03.000 Again, this is the old Democratic saw, which is that if you don't agree with them on policy, it's because you don't care if people get shot.

00:05:09.000 And that's a lie, and it's nasty, but it is normal politics if you're directing it at an elected senator.

00:05:14.000 And then they just list off all of the people who have been killed in a variety of mass shootings.

00:05:19.000 They don't seem to care about all the people getting killed in Chicago because that is Democrat governed.

00:05:23.000 They say the list below, far from comprehensive, is tragic in part because it is so far from inevitable.

00:05:28.000 No, no single law would end gun violence, but there are reasonable, obvious measures that would help.

00:05:32.000 For example, ban the sale of military grade assault weapons.

00:05:36.000 Again, they say that's reasonable and obvious.

00:05:38.000 Didn't really have an impact on mass shootings in the United States.

00:05:43.000 Again, you can't just assert this sort of stuff.

00:05:49.000 You actually have to explain why.

00:05:51.000 And then they just list off a bunch of names, and the names themselves are supposed to be proof that the policy is somehow workable. 0.89

00:05:58.000 Which, of course, is very silly.

00:05:59.000 Okay, but, again, this is normal political pressure.

00:06:03.000 And it's not working.

00:06:05.000 It's not working.

00:06:06.000 And so many in the media have now upped their game when it comes to normal political pressure.

00:06:10.000 Many on the left have upped their game when it comes to normal political pressure.

00:06:13.000 It's not just pressuring Mitch McConnell to do what you want.

00:06:15.000 It turns into concerted attacks on people in deeply unfair ways.

00:06:20.000 So here is an example.

00:06:21.000 Yesterday, Yesterday, there was an article from Bloomberg that resulted in a Texas conservative named Leif Olson leaving the Department of Labor.

00:06:31.000 Why exactly was he forced to leave the Department of Labor?

00:06:34.000 Because he posted a couple of times on Facebook, making fun of the alt-right and mocking anti-Semitism.

00:06:40.000 And Bloomberg took that out of context to suggest that he was alt-right and supported anti-Semitism.

00:06:45.000 I'll get to that story in just one second.

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00:07:52.000 So as I say, the political pressure tactics start off in the realm of normal, and now they have moved to the extreme.

00:07:57.000 So you have Bloomberg printing this piece about Leif Olson.

00:08:00.000 Here's how Bloomberg reports this.

00:08:01.000 And that sounds pretty bad, doesn't it?

00:08:03.000 Bloomberg reports this.

00:08:04.000 A recently appointed Trump Labor Department official with a history of advancing controversial conservative and faith based causes in court has resigned after revelations that he wrote a 2016 Facebook post suggesting the Jewish controlled media protects their own.

00:08:17.000 And that sounds pretty bad, doesn't it?

00:08:20.000 Except for it's obviously not what he is saying.

00:08:23.000 He is obviously mocking all of the people on the alt right who were suggesting this 2016 that Paul Ryan, then the Speaker of the House, was going to lose his congressional primary to Paul Nalen, an open white supremacist. 0.88

00:08:35.000 And he wrote this mocking, this mocking, ridiculous Facebook post making fun of the alt-right.

00:08:41.000 He wrote, establishment insider rhino corporate tool Paul Ryan was finally brought to heel in tonight's primary election by an uprising of the conservative masses of real America, eager for an authentic voice in Washington, instead of the same tired globalist open borders pap they've been pushing on us since the elites abandoned the people.

00:08:56.000 The guy just suffered a massive, historic, emasculating 70 point victory.

00:09:01.000 Let's see him and his Georgetown cocktail party puppet masters try to walk that one off.

00:09:05.000 As obviously he is mocking people who said that Paul Malin was going to beat Paul Ryan.

00:09:10.000 And then somebody wrote back to him as a humorous reply.

00:09:12.000 He's a neocon, too, you know.

00:09:14.000 And Lee Folsen wrote back.

00:09:15.000 No, he's not.

00:09:16.000 Neocons are all Upper East Side Zionists who don't golf on Saturday, if you know what I mean. 1.00

00:09:21.000 Right.

00:09:21.000 Meaning, again, this is all making fun of white supremacists and the alt-right.

00:09:24.000 All of it.

00:09:25.000 All of it.

00:09:26.000 OK, so Bloomberg reported this as though making fun of the alt-right and anti-Semitism was actually anti-Semitic so they could get this guy fired.

00:09:33.000 The guy did end up resigning.

00:09:35.000 OK, so this is the shift from normal political I'm like Mitch McConnell, to going out of your way to deliberately read something wrong in order to target somebody.

00:09:45.000 So that's bad enough.

00:09:47.000 And then it goes even further.

00:09:48.000 And that is the maligning of people you disagree with.

00:09:52.000 Not just by taking them out of context, but by literally calling them terrorists.

00:09:55.000 So this is what's happening in San Francisco.

00:09:57.000 Within the last 48 hours, the San Francisco board of supervisors declared the NRA a domestic terrorist organization.

00:10:05.000 You getting this?

00:10:06.000 An organization that is a lobbying organization on behalf of American citizens who wish to protect their Second Amendment rights is now a domestic terrorist organization.

00:10:14.000 So what does that mean?

00:10:15.000 Presumably you can raid an NRA member's home?

00:10:17.000 You can surveil an NRA member?

00:10:20.000 I mean, I really wonder why so many gun owners are uneasy about red flag laws when you have the San Francisco legislative body passing a resolution officially labeling the NRA a domestic terrorist organization.

00:10:31.000 This is the equivalent of labeling EMILY's List a domestic terrorist organization on the right.

00:10:36.000 District 2 Supervisor Catherine Stefani, whose district includes the Marina and Presidio, wrote the declaration stating that the NRA, quote, spreads propaganda that misinforms and aims to deceive the public about the dangers of gun violence.

00:10:47.000 In other words, they exercise their First Amendment rights.

00:10:50.000 Therefore, they're a terrorist organization.

00:10:53.000 They say that the NRA, quote, musters its considerable wealth and organizational strength to promote gun ownership and incite gun owners to acts of violence.

00:11:00.000 There's no evidence that the NRA incites gun owners to acts of violence.

00:11:03.000 That's absurd.

00:11:04.000 And yes, they do promote gun ownership.

00:11:06.000 So do I. I'm not a terrorist.

00:11:09.000 If San Francisco is now in the business of labeling people terrorists who disagree with them, now we are getting into the realm of the dangerous.

00:11:15.000 So you move from normal political manipulation, that is bad stuff, the Mitch McConnell stuff, To abnormal political manipulation, members of the media attacking people for precisely the opposite of what they're saying, to openly labeling everybody who you don't like some sort of terrorist.

00:11:37.000 The declaration, according to the San Francisco Board of Supervisors, reads, quote, All countries have violent and hateful people, but only in America do we give them ready access to assault weapons and large capacity magazines, thanks in large part to the National Rifle Association's influence.

00:11:50.000 I mean, how delightful.

00:11:53.000 Okay, so all of this is incredibly divisive.

00:11:55.000 And then we get to the final step.

00:11:57.000 So that one is bad because that is an actual board of government labeling fellow citizens terrorists on the basis of their belief system, which is really nasty.

00:12:05.000 And let us not forget that the entire left has suggested that if you use inflammatory language, about the positions of people on the left, that you're inciting violence against them.

00:12:15.000 So if you say that Ilhan Omar is a bad person and an anti-Semite, she says that you're inciting violence against her.

00:12:19.000 If you suggest that Rashida Tlaib's belief system is wrong and nasty, then you're inciting violence against her in some sort of way.

00:12:26.000 If you label everybody in the United States who supports the Second Amendment a terrorist, apparently that's totally okay in San Francisco. 0.99

00:12:32.000 If you label the NRA, which is again, a law-abiding, First Amendment exercising organization, a terrorist organization, That's totally fine.

00:12:42.000 Not inciting violence in any way.

00:12:44.000 So all of that is bad.

00:12:45.000 But, here's the thing, all of that is also unsuccessful.

00:12:48.000 The fact is, no matter how much the San Francisco Board of Supervisors yells at the NRA, that is not going to be an effective pressure tactic because the NRA is the NRA.

00:12:56.000 The fact is that Bloomberg could have reported this about Lief Olsen, and if Lief Olsen and the Trump administration had just stood strong and fought back, they really couldn't have gotten anything done.

00:13:05.000 Olsen shouldn't have resigned.

00:13:06.000 The fact is that the Washington Post can write as many editorials as it could possibly want about Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, and he's not going to do their bidding.

00:13:14.000 He is not going to care.

00:13:15.000 He is not going to do their bidding because those are not his constituents.

00:13:18.000 None of the people who write for the Washington Post editorial board are voters in his state of Kentucky.

00:13:24.000 So this has pushed the left to a new form of power politics, and that is the exercise of power politics in the corporate sphere.

00:13:32.000 Now, there are times when the exercise of power politics in the corporate sphere is actually good or justified, right?

00:13:39.000 So let's take an example.

00:13:40.000 So back in the 1960s and 1950s, there were segregated businesses, and private people decided to boycott those businesses in order to end segregation.

00:13:49.000 So for example, the Woolworths counter, In the early 1960s, the Woolworth's lunch counter was segregated.

00:13:55.000 And a bunch of civil rights activists, young black students for the most part, went into Woolworth's and sat down at the counter and then were abused at the counter.

00:14:04.000 And this was such a national scandal that Woolworth's actually voluntarily desegregated its counters because they didn't want the blowback.

00:14:11.000 Right now, those people were acting in courageous ways.

00:14:14.000 I don't have any problem with that.

00:14:16.000 And as a general rule, It is quite possible that you can pressure a corporation to quote-unquote do the right thing.

00:14:23.000 But what we have now seen is that that tactic has been expanded beyond its use in specific situations to simply castigate anybody who disagrees with you on matters of politics and to change corporate policy from above.

00:14:38.000 And to change corporate policy from above from the commanding heights of business.

00:14:43.000 And this has grown beyond specific instances of fighting against discrimination and into we need to get our political preferences done by any means necessary, including activating corporate bosses to do our bidding for us.

00:14:55.000 Today's example comes courtesy of Walmart.

00:14:57.000 We'll explain why this is actually quite divisive and polarizing and why the end result is not going to be exactly what the left thinks it is.

00:15:04.000 We'll get to that in just one second.

00:15:05.000 First, Let's be real about this.

00:15:07.000 You're not getting enough sleep.

00:15:08.000 I'm not getting enough sleep.

00:15:09.000 Nobody's getting enough sleep.

00:15:10.000 It's a pressure-filled time.

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00:16:18.000 Okay, so.

00:16:20.000 As I say, there is a difference between private businesses and government.

00:16:24.000 So, if government were to cram down policy from above, this would be a constitutional problem.

00:16:29.000 When corporations do it, it's a cultural problem. 0.90

00:16:32.000 It's not a constitutional problem.

00:16:33.000 It's a cultural problem.

00:16:34.000 It's not a constitutional problem because corporations can do whatever they want.

00:16:37.000 Lots of corporations disagree with me.

00:16:39.000 That is their prerogative.

00:16:40.000 It's America.

00:16:41.000 They can do what they want.

00:16:43.000 Walmart can disagree with me on policy.

00:16:45.000 That is their prerogative.

00:16:46.000 Walmart can disagree with me on policy.

00:16:47.000 That is their prerogative.

00:16:49.000 I'm not calling for the regulation of Walmart or Facebook or any of these other corporations.

00:16:53.000 I am saying that the left's use of corporations as a cudgel is dangerous for the nature of American political discourse.

00:17:00.000 And this is what the left is increasingly doing.

00:17:02.000 Now, it started off in the realm of secondary boycotts.

00:17:04.000 So you saw the left do this originally with Rush Limbaugh, and they did it with Sean Hannity, and they did it with Tucker Carlson, they've done it with Laura Ingraham, they've tried to do it with my show.

00:17:12.000 What they do is they go to corporations, and they try to say to those corporations, how dare you sponsor and subsidize speech with which we disagree?

00:17:20.000 It doesn't matter that you run your advertising on a wide variety of political shows.

00:17:25.000 If you sponsor Ben Shapiro's program.

00:17:27.000 That means that you must endorse everything Ben Shapiro says.

00:17:30.000 Now, of course, that isn't true.

00:17:31.000 But the goal is to remove the profit incentive for programs like mine by going after advertisers.

00:17:36.000 Now, all of this is nonsense, right? 0.99

00:17:38.000 The fact is that those who claim they're going to boycott You know, the coffee makers who are on Sean Hannity's show are totally full of crap. 0.99

00:17:45.000 They were never going to boycott those companies. 0.96

00:17:47.000 The people who sound off from Media Matters, they really are not wielding enormous amounts of power.

00:17:52.000 They can create a problem for your HR, for your PR department for like three days and that's it.

00:17:57.000 But a lot of corporations started caving to this sort of stuff when they went after Rush Limbaugh's advertisers, when they went after Sean's advertisers or Tucker's.

00:18:04.000 They can create all sorts of problems.

00:18:06.000 And the left saw that this was successful.

00:18:08.000 So they've decided that they are going to rely on corporate cowardice in order for them to push their agenda now on a broader level.

00:18:14.000 Not just by going after advertisers on programs like this one, which, by the way, is why you should subscribe to the programs you like.

00:18:19.000 You can subscribe to this program over at dailywire.com.

00:18:22.000 They've decided they are going to go after corporations more broadly and use those corporations to cram down policy that affects the entire country.

00:18:29.000 Again, perfectly legal, but it is a sign of corporate cowardice that so many corporate CEOs are falling for this.

00:18:35.000 So corporate CEOs do control an enormous amount of American life.

00:18:40.000 We have these big businesses.

00:18:41.000 They employ literally millions of people.

00:18:42.000 I've been a big defender of Walmart over the years.

00:18:45.000 The left has been attacking Walmart, saying they pay insufficient wages, which is not statistically true.

00:18:49.000 The left has been attacking Walmart, saying they want to tax them out of business.

00:18:51.000 That's Bernie Sanders' proposal.

00:18:53.000 I've been over here defending Walmart, right?

00:18:55.000 But Walmart does control an enormous amount of America's industry, obviously.

00:19:00.000 And this is true for a wide variety of corporations.

00:19:02.000 So, if the left cannot capture government, if they cannot get elected to positions of power, instead they figure they will capture the boardrooms by threatening action against CEOs, by threatening action against corporations, by threatening to make a PR stink if they do not get what they want.

00:19:16.000 Now, all it would take is corporations to just say, no, not gonna do it.

00:19:21.000 Oh, you know what we're here to do?

00:19:22.000 We're here to sell product.

00:19:22.000 That's what we do.

00:19:23.000 And if you don't like those products, that's on you, man.

00:19:26.000 If you don't like the products that we sell, you can feel free to shop elsewhere.

00:19:30.000 But now, because of the media pressure, because of the left's pressure, political pressure, the threat of legislation from the government, what you're starting to see is corporations seeking safety behind the shield of either government regulation or positive PR from the press.

00:19:46.000 That is what they're doing.

00:19:47.000 Now, that is a business-driven decision in the short term.

00:19:50.000 In the long term, it's a bad business decision, and it's bad for the culture.

00:19:53.000 So in the short term, that decision is driven by a desire to avoid scrutiny, a desire to avoid political blowback.

00:20:00.000 In the long term, you're removing faith in our corporate institutions, which are not designed to do good.

00:20:05.000 They're designed to provide product.

00:20:07.000 They're designed to provide you products and services.

00:20:09.000 You're the one who's supposed to do good with the products and services.

00:20:13.000 It's not up to a paternalistic CEO to decide exactly which products you should consume.

00:20:18.000 It is up to you to decide which products you should consume.

00:20:22.000 And again, this is different from Woolworth's counter-boycotts, which were designed to stymie actual discriminatory policy by corporations.

00:20:30.000 That, I think, is morally justifiable.

00:20:32.000 I think that if you are going after Walmart and suggesting that Walmart cannot distribute or sell ammunition because it makes you mad, I'm having a hard time understanding what that has to do with them discriminating against black people, how that's comparable in any way, for example.

00:20:45.000 OK, so why is this relevant?

00:20:47.000 Well, because on Tuesday, Walmart announced that after its current inventory is depleted, it will cave to the demands of far-left activists and stop selling handgun ammunition and ammunition commonly used in other popular semi-automatic firearms.

00:20:58.000 Now, again, let me reiterate, this is their decision.

00:21:01.000 They can do this.

00:21:02.000 Legally, they can.

00:21:02.000 I'm not calling for regulation of Walmart.

00:21:04.000 I'm not calling for a boycott of Walmart.

00:21:06.000 I am suggesting that Walmart is making a corporate-driven decision that is driven by PR.

00:21:11.000 It is not driven by good business.

00:21:13.000 And it's not going to be good for the culture in the long run.

00:21:15.000 Walmart also stated it was requesting that customers issue carrying guns openly in their roughly 4,700 stores, as well as at Sam's Club stores in states that permit open carry.

00:21:25.000 According to CNN, this is Daily Wire reporting.

00:21:27.000 Walmart CEO Doug McMillan issued a memo to employees on Tuesday, in which he started by citing the mass shooting in El Paso and Dayton in August, as well as further shootings in Midland and Odessa, Texas.

00:21:36.000 He continued, quote, we've been listening to a lot of people inside and outside our company as we think about the role we can play in helping to make the country feel safer.

00:21:44.000 It is clear to us that the status quo is unacceptable.

00:21:46.000 McMillan noted that Walmart had already ceased selling AR-15s, raising the age of limit to purchase a firearm or ammo to 21, required a green light on the background check for purchase instead of the absence of red light, which is required by federal law, among other steps.

00:22:00.000 Then he wrote, quote, Today, we're sharing the decisions we've made that go further.

00:22:04.000 After selling through our current inventory commitments, we will discontinue sales of short-barrel rifle ammunition, such as the .223 caliber and the .556 caliber, that, while commonly used in some hunting rifles, can also be used in large-capacity clips on military-style weapons.

00:22:19.000 Again, no definition of what a military-style weapon is here.

00:22:22.000 He says, we will sell through and discontinue handgun ammunition.

00:22:25.000 We will discontinue handgun sales in Alaska, marking our complete exit from handguns.

00:22:31.000 McMillan acknowledged that the stores would still offer long-barreled deer rifles and shotguns, cited incidents where individuals have entered Walmart stores attempting to make a statement and test our response, and then says we are respectfully requesting that customers no longer openly carry firearms into our stores or Sam's Clubs in states where open carry is permitted, unless they are authorized law enforcement officers.

00:22:51.000 McMillan stated he was sending letters to the White House and congressional leadership, encouraging them to implement stronger background checks and the removal of weapons from those who have been determined to pose an imminent danger.

00:23:00.000 He concluded the status quo is unacceptable.

00:23:02.000 OK, so this is corporations that are now being activated in political ways.

00:23:08.000 Don Bartlett, who is the Walmart executive VP of corporate affairs, told reporters, quote, We feel like we are striking a responsible balance between the interests of law abiding citizens who are exercising their legal rights and the safety concerns of our associates and customers.

00:23:20.000 Again, this is their prerogative.

00:23:22.000 However, it is important to note a couple of things.

00:23:24.000 One, they will not escape the woke scolds.

00:23:27.000 The left will come after them anyway.

00:23:29.000 Two, they are doing heavy damage to our culture in a general way, which I will explain in just one second.

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00:24:41.000 Okay, so.

00:24:44.000 There are a few things that Walmart is not thinking through here.

00:24:47.000 One, they're not thinking through whether the left is going to leave them alone.

00:24:49.000 The answer, of course, is no.

00:24:51.000 A bevy of Democrats then went on Twitter after this announcement and suggested that Walmart needed to do more.

00:24:57.000 Kamala Harris said that she thought Walmart should stop selling guns utterly.

00:25:00.000 She said, yeah, I do.

00:25:01.000 It's not that everyone needs to stop selling guns, but there need to be checks and balances.

00:25:05.000 Well, she's going to have to explain why it is that Walmart shouldn't sell guns, but other people should. 0.75

00:25:09.000 Presumably, she would like for everybody to stop selling guns. 1.00

00:25:12.000 Congressman Tim Ryan of Ohio said, I think if you keep it to hunting rifles and those kind of things, I think that's appropriate.

00:25:17.000 How long is that going to last?

00:25:18.000 Five moments?

00:25:19.000 Exactly five minutes?

00:25:21.000 There had been a bunch of Democrats who had called on Walmart to change its policy.

00:25:26.000 So, that is not going to stop the woke skulls from coming for Walmart. 0.99

00:25:30.000 So this is Walmart trying to buy off, in the short term, all of the Democrats to basically stop criticizing them and leave them alone.

00:25:36.000 They don't want the PR hit of continuing to sell guns.

00:25:39.000 And that is, again, their prerogative, but it is short-sighted because it ain't gonna stop.

00:25:43.000 You can keep feeding that alligator, it will eat you.

00:25:45.000 You will be eaten.

00:25:46.000 Okay, so that is point number one.

00:25:49.000 Point number two, if you continue along these lines where major corporations are expected to insert themselves in hot button political debates and then take sides in hot button political debates, the predictable and more than that, where the policies that they cram the predictable and more than that, where the policies that they cram down from above on customers are policies that favor one political side, what you will end up with is an entire other side of

00:26:15.000 So for every Walmart that fails to sell ammunition as they used to, there will be another store that crops up that sells ammunition.

00:26:22.000 And this is why, again, I'm not going to pretend that government regulation and Walmart doing this are the same.

00:26:27.000 They are not.

00:26:28.000 Obviously, I've made that distinction several times here.

00:26:30.000 But what you are going to end up with inevitably, and this is the direction we are moving as a country, is separate stores for conservatives and liberals.

00:26:36.000 Is separate TV channels for conservatives and liberals.

00:26:39.000 Separate everything for conservatives and liberals.

00:26:42.000 All the common spaces we once used to inhabit will go away.

00:26:45.000 Because once you expect corporations to become the leading political players because they have enormous power to shape American life, you should not be surprised when other corporations form to fight back against all of that.

00:26:58.000 The former Walmart CEO, Bill Simon, he said yesterday that in the end, the only thing that will solve the problem is gun control and D.C.

00:27:06.000 And this is why when people say that big business is Republican or big business is conservative, it's not true.

00:27:12.000 Big business is profit-seeking.

00:27:13.000 Okay, what that means sometimes is they are rent-seeking from D.C.

00:27:18.000 And so they don't want to have to take a position on this.

00:27:20.000 And so they're going to call on Washington, D.C.

00:27:22.000 to change policy just so that they don't actually have to make decisions about any of this or leave it to the customers to make decisions about any of this.

00:27:29.000 Here's Bill Simon, former Walmart CEO.

00:27:31.000 When you do see a major retailer like Walmart take a move like this though, do you think it does add pressure to lawmakers to try and come to the table and have discussions?

00:27:40.000 I think that's the only thing that's going to solve the problem.

00:27:43.000 We have a crisis that has to be dealt with, and it has to be dealt with by sitting down petitions to retailers.

00:27:51.000 Gosh, maybe they make some people feel good because they feel like they need to take action, but they won't solve the problem.

00:27:56.000 Okay, now that's true, but it didn't stop Walmart from, quote unquote, trying to solve the problem by inserting itself into the issue.

00:28:01.000 And so that really should be the normal answer of CEOs.

00:28:05.000 Now, I understand that what the left has been trying to do is suggest that capitalism is itself the problem.

00:28:10.000 There's this real push over at the New York Times, a bunch of other major publications suggesting that capitalism and free markets themselves are the problems.

00:28:17.000 and that we need a new type of capitalism, a quote-unquote responsible capitalism, What they mean by that is they want retailers not to give customers choice.

00:28:25.000 They want retailers to act as sort of guardian angels toward the American public.

00:28:31.000 Not to stop selling products that inevitably do damage to people, like cigarettes, for example, but products that can be used for good or can be used for ill.

00:28:40.000 They want the corporations to decide.

00:28:42.000 Well, they're not going to like it if the shoe's on the other foot, right?

00:28:44.000 I mean, if the corporations decide the other way, to ban a bunch of products the left loves, then all of a sudden it'll be, well, how could these corporations be cramming down their politics on us?

00:28:52.000 But when it comes to them cramming down their politics using the commanding heights of the economy, then they are not only fine with it, they are very much in favor of it.

00:29:02.000 Again, the predictable result is going to be a massive, large-scale division in American life.

00:29:07.000 And it's not going to stop at Walmart.

00:29:08.000 So Andrew Ross Sorkin, who writes for the New York Times and also is a commentator on CNBC, he has a column in which he praises Walmart's CEO for injecting themselves into this gun debate.

00:29:19.000 And then he suggests that this should happen with all businesses.

00:29:23.000 Right, he says, Midday Tuesday, Doug McMillan, Walmart's chief executive, sent me a surprise email.

00:29:27.000 He shared a series of policies the company was about to make public about combating gun violence since the mass shooting that killed 22 people at one of his El Paso stores last month.

00:29:36.000 Mr. McMillan's email was a reply of sorts to an open letter I had written to him, along with the outcry he heard from scores of Americans calling on him to use his leverage as leader of the country's largest retailer to create a model for more responsible gun selling practices.

00:29:48.000 Now, McMillan and Walmart were not breaking the law in the first place.

00:29:52.000 They were abiding by the law, but the idea was that they were supposed to do more.

00:29:55.000 They were supposed to be our leaders, the corporations.

00:29:58.000 It's always amusing to hear folks on the left, who are constantly ripping on big business and corporations, talk about these people being our moral leaders.

00:30:04.000 Weird how that morphs really quickly, right?

00:30:06.000 Elizabeth Warren moves from, corporations are the evil scourge of our society to, but they really should be setting gun policy, shouldn't they? 0.90

00:30:13.000 It's a pretty amusing about face.

00:30:16.000 But Ross Sorkin wants more, not just from Walmart.

00:30:19.000 He says, until now, many top executives in corporate America, with some notable exceptions, refused to acknowledge the roles they could play in curbing the epidemic of gun violence.

00:30:27.000 They invariably pointed to politicians in Washington as the ones who are responsible for solving the crisis.

00:30:32.000 For example, now listen to this example.

00:30:33.000 It's an amazing example.

00:30:34.000 He says, for example, Al Kelly, the chief executive of Visa, whose network has been used repeatedly to carry out mass murders, Really?

00:30:42.000 Visa's been used repeatedly to carry out mass murders?

00:30:45.000 How?

00:30:46.000 Were people, like, slicing each other's throats with the actual credit cards?

00:30:50.000 Because if Visa did not engage in illegal transactions, I'm not sure how you blame them for mass murder.

00:30:55.000 It is Al Kelly, the chief executive of Visa, has ducked any attempt to even discuss what his company could do to help.

00:31:01.000 Mr. Kelly likes to say, as he did earlier this summer, we are in the business of facilitating legal commerce.

00:31:05.000 That's what we do.

00:31:06.000 Our job is not to set or interpret, but to follow the law.

00:31:10.000 This is the proper answer.

00:31:11.000 This is what the economy is set up to do.

00:31:13.000 This is what free markets are supposed to do.

00:31:15.000 Give you the choice as to the products and services you wish to consume.

00:31:18.000 Make you the consumer responsible for where you shop.

00:31:22.000 Make you the consumer responsible for the kind of products that you decide to buy.

00:31:26.000 Instead, what many on the left would like to do is lobby the heads of these corporations to set policy for you.

00:31:34.000 And they want to do so not at the behest of the consumer, because there was not vast consumer outcry against Walmart.

00:31:38.000 Its stock was not dropping.

00:31:40.000 Instead, what they would like to do is create manufactured media controversy, and then suggest that the CEOs should step in where the political bosses have failed to act.

00:31:48.000 So, these are the new pressure tactics.

00:31:51.000 Basically, you use a form of corporate blackmail to go after corporate figures, and then use them to culturally cram down what you could not achieve politically.

00:31:59.000 As I say, all of that is perfectly legal.

00:32:01.000 Is it good for the country?

00:32:02.000 No, it's not good for the country.

00:32:04.000 Why?

00:32:04.000 Well, imagine a world in which Visa sets policy for exactly who they will do business with.

00:32:09.000 Imagine a world in which Visa says, we are just not going to process your transaction.

00:32:13.000 All the credit card companies, the left gets what it wants.

00:32:15.000 All the credit card companies say, we are not going to process your transactions if they're not transactions with which we agree.

00:32:23.000 That's going to get into some really dicey territory incredibly quickly.

00:32:26.000 Because let's say, for example, that you want to give charity to your synagogue or your church.

00:32:31.000 And your synagogue or your church does not perform same-sex marriages, for example.

00:32:35.000 And Visa says, OK, well, we are not going to allow you to give charity using our credit card because we disagree with your church's policies.

00:32:45.000 OK, is that a good thing or a bad thing?

00:32:49.000 What you will end up with is separate chains of commerce, politically speaking.

00:32:53.000 The biggest problem in the country right now, everyone talks about it, is political polarization, but the left's solution for political polarization is to not let you engage in any business, in any commerce, unless you agree with them.

00:33:05.000 Let's not pretend that they just want Walmart to stop selling ammo.

00:33:08.000 What they want is for everyone to stop selling ammo and everyone to stop selling guns.

00:33:11.000 Well, that's not going to happen.

00:33:12.000 Instead, what you're going to have happen is people who set up entire chains of commerce that are based outside of the common system we currently hold.

00:33:19.000 I'll tell you what will happen.

00:33:20.000 People like me will set up a conservative credit card that is designed and oriented so that conservatives can patronize conservative businesses and get points back to conservative causes.

00:33:30.000 And we'll do this, not because we want to, but out of necessity.

00:33:33.000 What you will end up with is not people failing to buy guns.

00:33:36.000 You'll have people buying guns in cash, which actually makes it a lot harder for people to track the transactions.

00:33:42.000 So if you're on the left and you like gun control, that ain't smart.

00:33:44.000 What you're going to end up with is a world in which we have entirely separate spheres of life based on your political orientation because we force corporations into taking sides.

00:33:55.000 That is where we are going, and that is the future that a lot on the left want.

00:33:59.000 They're very excited that corporate CEOs are now getting involved in these fights.

00:34:03.000 Now, in the long term, what's going to end up happening is that these corporations are going to cut themselves off from half the American public.

00:34:08.000 Because there will be a reaction, and the reaction will be, I'm not going to shop there anymore.

00:34:12.000 So in the moment, they're figuring that conservatives will be sanguine about all of this, and they'll just continue to shop at Walmart.

00:34:18.000 And that's probably true.

00:34:19.000 But here's the reality.

00:34:20.000 If they had not stopped selling ammo, leftists would have continued shopping at Walmart.

00:34:24.000 They like to bitch and moan about Walmart, but then they go and shop there every day. 1.00

00:34:28.000 But the corporations in injecting themselves into these sorts of scenarios are going to create an alternative line of commerce.

00:34:34.000 And that's not actually, it may be fine on a free market level.

00:34:36.000 Again, free markets work, but it ain't gonna be great on a cultural level for people to shop separately, to go to different stores.

00:34:45.000 Things are gonna get nastier and nastier, more and more polarized.

00:34:48.000 We'll talk more about this in just one second.

00:34:50.000 First, listen, it's really tough to find good people to staff your company.

00:34:54.000 For example, we have a producer here, Austin.

00:34:56.000 And Austin is good at a great many things, but he also happens to be a Cubs fan.

00:34:59.000 Now, would I prefer to employ a Cubs fan?

00:35:02.000 Of course I would not prefer to employ a Cubs fan.

00:35:04.000 I'm a White Sox fan.

00:35:06.000 Also, Austin has a deep and abiding level of calm and patronizing cynicism that alienates everyone who works within a 30-foot sphere of Austin.

00:35:15.000 Now, he's not actually really cynical.

00:35:17.000 He's actually a really nice guy, but he's so quiet that you feel like he's judging you all the time.

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00:36:08.000 Alrighty.

00:36:10.000 In just a second, I want to get to more cultural polarization because the attempts to polarize us using politics, those are pretty much going to fail in the political sphere.

00:36:20.000 But then to do it on the corporate level, that is succeeding.

00:36:22.000 And then there's another area where the left seeks to polarize, and that is in the entertainment arena.

00:36:26.000 We'll get to that in just one second.

00:36:28.000 First, you have to go and subscribe over at dailywire.com.

00:36:30.000 So as you may have been hearing during this show, It is deeply important that you subscribe to the programs that you like.

00:36:35.000 Why?

00:36:36.000 Because the left would like to remove all profit incentive from those programs by going after advertisers, by going after corporations, by suggesting that we cannot work in the normal business sphere.

00:36:47.000 Right? 0.84

00:36:47.000 And it's disgusting and it's absurd. 0.84

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00:37:12.000 So go check us out right now at dailywire.com.

00:37:14.000 We are the largest, fastest growing conservative podcast and radio show in the nation.

00:37:17.000 So as I say, what we're going to end up with is a cultural polarization.

00:37:27.000 And the CEOs think that they can buy off the left.

00:37:30.000 And they are so wrong here.

00:37:32.000 They are so wrong.

00:37:32.000 So MSNBC yesterday was cheering Walmart's decision.

00:37:35.000 It's a big victory.

00:37:36.000 I mean, imagine a supposedly First Amendment press organization cheering a corporate decision to crack down basically on some of its own consumers.

00:37:46.000 Here's MSNBC cheering this.

00:37:48.000 This is a massive move.

00:37:50.000 If you consider what an enormous retailer Walmart is, what an enormous employer it is, and we can sit here in a newsroom and say this is a very clear-cut issue, it's not a clear-cut issue.

00:38:02.000 Gun culture is a really important part of America. 0.97

00:38:05.000 Right, and Walmart sees more of America than any other business in this country.

00:38:09.000 Without a doubt.

00:38:09.000 So to see Doug McMillan, the current CEO, sort of stand up and step up at a time like this, this is a massive move.

00:38:16.000 Oh, they're so happy about this.

00:38:18.000 They're so happy about this.

00:38:19.000 You know, pressuring corporations into doing their bidding.

00:38:21.000 This is what the left would like to do.

00:38:23.000 And again, they can do this because if you're a corporate boss, what you want is no controversy.

00:38:28.000 That's really what you want, is no controversy, and you want to piss off the fewest number of people.

00:38:31.000 Now, what they mistake is that everybody in the media who talks has any real impact on who shops at Walmart.

00:38:35.000 If that were the case, Walmart would have been bankrupt 15 years ago.

00:38:38.000 But CEOs are risk averse and they figure the easiest way to avoid risk is how much money do they make off selling ammo?

00:38:46.000 Maybe a few million bucks a year.

00:38:47.000 What's the risk of the media coming down on us?

00:38:50.000 Maybe a few million bucks a year.

00:38:51.000 What they don't understand is that when you shape the overall culture so that people feel alienated from your business because they feel like you're taking sides, Your long-term risk is actually pretty significant.

00:39:01.000 And if you think that the Democrats are going to lay off you, you are totally wrong.

00:39:03.000 So, let's take an example.

00:39:05.000 Facebook has been attempting to make nice with a lot of folks on the Democratic side of the aisle.

00:39:10.000 And in helping, Senator Ron Wyden suggested today that he wants to send Mark Zuckerberg to prison.

00:39:17.000 He said that he wants to send Mark Zuckerberg to prison.

00:39:19.000 For what?

00:39:19.000 What exactly would the crime be?

00:39:23.000 Unclear.

00:39:23.000 He just knows he doesn't like Mark Zuckerberg.

00:39:25.000 He says, Mark Zuckerberg has repeatedly lied to the American people about privacy.

00:39:28.000 I think he ought to be held personally accountable, which is everything from financial fines to, and let me underline this, the possibility of a prison term.

00:39:36.000 If corporate CEOs believe that there will not be a push by members of the Democratic Party to jail CEOs who do not do what they want them to do, they're wrong.

00:39:47.000 The far left is not going to stop with, oh, we're so happy that Walmart stopped selling ammo.

00:39:52.000 Do you really think that that's the only problem the left has with Walmart?

00:39:54.000 Because if so, you haven't been watching very closely.

00:39:57.000 Now, this has also infected the cultural sphere.

00:39:59.000 So, the left, there are several major institutions in American life where there are commanding heights.

00:40:06.000 Now, again, for the ninth time this show, there's a difference between the government, which is an elected body with delegated powers to defend our rights, Invading those rights and the cultural decay that happens when other common institutions break down.

00:40:20.000 I'm talking about the latter.

00:40:20.000 This is not a question of regulating Walmart or regulating Hollywood or anything like that.

00:40:26.000 But when the left decides to weaponize cultural institutions, that alienates a lot of people.

00:40:32.000 It creates polarization.

00:40:33.000 It makes it impossible for us to have conversations together.

00:40:35.000 So the latest victim of this is Dave Chappelle.

00:40:38.000 So I don't know if you've seen Chappelle's special, but Chappelle's new special is insanely politically incorrect.

00:40:43.000 I mean, incredibly so.

00:40:45.000 He mocks his own audience for being too woke.

00:40:48.000 There's one point where he says, in the middle of the special, he says, I'm going to do an imitation.

00:40:53.000 And then he says, you tweeted something bad five years ago, and now I'm going to come after you and destroy your career.

00:41:00.000 Who am I?

00:41:01.000 And everybody thinks, oh, well, you know, that's the media.

00:41:03.000 And he says, that's you.

00:41:05.000 That's all of you.

00:41:06.000 And that's right.

00:41:07.000 I mean, Chappelle is correct about this.

00:41:09.000 Chappelle also calls out, in specific, I mean, he specifically calls out the LGBTQ lobbying organizations for going after comedians and for trying to destroy their careers.

00:41:18.000 And he specifically cites the Kevin Hart situation.

00:41:21.000 He very hilariously states that Kevin Hart, who's known for years, is basically a perfect human being.

00:41:25.000 Well, four tweets shy of perfect.

00:41:27.000 And he talks about Kevin Hart's career basically being destroyed.

00:41:31.000 Or at least significantly damaged at the height of his career aspirations, I host the Oscars, by the woke skulls.

00:41:38.000 And then he talks at length, he does a riff about abortion.

00:41:40.000 And his riff about abortion ends up being kind of pro-life.

00:41:43.000 And he says that he doesn't care whether a woman has an abortion, but if it's the woman's choice, and only the woman's choice, then men shouldn't have to pay for the child support, which is a very common argument that is made by sort of cynical pro-lifers.

00:41:56.000 And then he says, or maybe we have the logic of this whole thing entirely wrong.

00:42:00.000 The left has gone absolutely ape bleep about this.

00:42:03.000 I mean, they have gone insane about this.

00:42:06.000 And the critics hate this Chappelle speech.

00:42:07.000 Now, Chappelle used to be the sort of consensus best comedian living.

00:42:12.000 And there are a lot of great comedians.

00:42:13.000 Chappelle was loved by everybody.

00:42:14.000 Everybody enjoyed his routine.

00:42:16.000 Now, however, he has done something, something very bad.

00:42:19.000 And the reviewers are very, very angry about it.

00:42:21.000 And so Chappelle must be punished.

00:42:23.000 Don't you understand?

00:42:24.000 The commanding heights of Hollywood must prevent the accession of people like Dave Chappelle.

00:42:30.000 Because Dave Chappelle has crossed too many lines.

00:42:33.000 Now, Dave Chappelle is intersectional, right?

00:42:35.000 He is a black man, and this means that he also makes jokes about white people that are very, very harsh jokes about the heroin epidemic and white folks and all the rest of this. 0.91

00:42:45.000 But he is a gun-toting black man who makes jokes about abortion and LGBTQ lobbying organizations, and this means he must be excised. 0.98

00:42:55.000 Hollywood has to be, the commanding heights of Hollywood have to be used on behalf of one particular point of view. 0.95

00:43:01.000 And if they are not, then the woke scolds in the media and in Hollywood will come after them.

00:43:06.000 So Dave Chappelle is now the target of these woke scolds.

00:43:08.000 So Vice reviewed Chappelle's special like this, quote, now he chooses to blatantly ignore the historic criticism against his style of comedy and new loud and clear criticism from the trans community. 0.93

00:43:21.000 Pace Magazine called his special boring, hypocritical, and out of touch. 0.54

00:43:26.000 There's a bunch of it.

00:43:27.000 Basically, he had for a long time zero percent at Rotten Tomatoes from critics.

00:43:32.000 Why?

00:43:33.000 Because critics are no longer reviewing the quality of an act.

00:43:35.000 Instead, they're reviewing the wokeness of an act, which is how Hannah Gadsby, who is the least funny person who has ever lived.

00:43:42.000 I mean, I'm talking about the least funny human being who has ever lived.

00:43:47.000 There are There are human beings who live in caves, in isolation, who have never heard a joke and are not properly socialized, who are more funny than Hannah Gadsby.

00:43:59.000 She has 100% ratings on Rotten Tomatoes.

00:44:02.000 Dave Chappelle was at 0% on Rotten Tomatoes.

00:44:06.000 Why?

00:44:07.000 Because he violated the rules.

00:44:09.000 He violated the rules.

00:44:11.000 On Rotten Tomatoes, Slate, right, Nkou Kang of Slate wrote, like dropping in on a rascally uncle who doesn't know or doesn't care how much he's disappointing you.

00:44:20.000 Alison Herman of The Ringer said Sticks and Stones is designed to generate inflammatory coverage.

00:44:24.000 It's a symbiotic cycle with no end in sight.

00:44:26.000 It's become the last thing a beloved provocateur should ever want to be predictable.

00:44:32.000 Okay, they are reviewing him for his proper acquiescence to the struggle session Maoist left views of comedy. 0.99

00:44:42.000 He must be destroyed. 0.99

00:44:43.000 He must be destroyed. 1.00

00:44:47.000 It's really quite pathetic. 0.99

00:44:49.000 And now the audience reviews of the special are very high. 0.95

00:44:52.000 People who like Chappelle like Chappelle.

00:44:54.000 And people who don't even watch Chappelle all that often are looking at this and going, I can't believe that dude said that out loud.

00:44:59.000 But the fact is that Hollywood will not allow this sort of thing to go forward.

00:45:03.000 And so Chappelle must be destroyed.

00:45:05.000 So Chappelle is now on the target list, the same way that Kevin Hart was on the target list.

00:45:10.000 It's the same reason why you saw in the last 48 hours attempts by folks in Hollywood to try and out everybody in Beverly Hills who is going to a Trump fundraiser because everyone must think alike or be excised.

00:45:20.000 The commanding heights of the culture, the commanding heights of corporate America, and the commanding heights of politics must all be occupied by folks who agree with the left.

00:45:28.000 Now, in the political realm, The good news is we have things called elections, and so we can just say no.

00:45:33.000 In the corporate realm, it is very difficult to convince corporate CEOs that they ought to listen to their own customers as opposed to the woke-schooled, check-marked crowd on Twitter.

00:45:43.000 And in the entertainment media, that is particularly true.

00:45:46.000 So here I must stop and say good on Whoopi Goldberg.

00:45:50.000 Whoopi Goldberg actually said the right thing yesterday on The View.

00:45:53.000 She was talking about this push by Deborah Messing and Eric McCormick, the stars of Will & Grace, to out all of the donors to President Trump in the Beverly Hills area.

00:46:01.000 And Whoopi Goldberg says the right thing.

00:46:04.000 Your idea of who you don't want to work with is your personal business.

00:46:09.000 Do not encourage people to print out lists, because the next list that comes out, your name will be on, and then people will be coming after you.

00:46:16.000 In this country, people can vote for who they want to.

00:46:20.000 That is one of the great rights of this country.

00:46:23.000 You don't have to like it!

00:46:24.000 We don't go after people because we don't like who they voted for.

00:46:29.000 We don't go after them that way.

00:46:30.000 We can talk about issues and stuff, but we don't print out lists.

00:46:34.000 Okay, good for Whoopi Goldberg, and we need more of this from the left.

00:46:37.000 Now, it's funny.

00:46:39.000 I said basically all of this on Twitter this morning, and the left went nuts.

00:46:42.000 How dare you?

00:46:44.000 How dare you?

00:46:44.000 You are suggesting that this is just like government action?

00:46:48.000 You're trying to cram down on CEOs what you want?

00:46:50.000 Okay, absolute sheer horsepucky.

00:46:52.000 I'm suggesting that these CEOs can do precisely what they want, but there will be ramifications to it, and it will not be good for the country.

00:46:58.000 Will Wilkinson, who writes for, I believe, Huffington Post sometimes, he said, the complaint here is really that businesses cater to customers, but the hard-right minority is accustomed to political institutions rigged to stymie majority opinion, and they want everything to be like that.

00:47:10.000 Really?

00:47:11.000 Is the majority opinion in the United States that Walmart should not be able to sell product that's legal?

00:47:14.000 Is that the majority opinion in the United States?

00:47:16.000 Or is that a minority opinion in the United States that is using the power of social media and blue check marks and MSNBC to cram down their preferred policy on CEOs?

00:47:24.000 Again, my big concern here is that at least politics is built so that we can have conversations.

00:47:30.000 And then we can decide how those conversations turn out because we do this thing called voting.

00:47:33.000 It's really great.

00:47:34.000 And then we have checks and balances to prevent people from simply running roughshod over other people's rights.

00:47:39.000 But the realm of corporate America is not designed for that.

00:47:41.000 The realm of Hollywood is not designed for that.

00:47:43.000 And when people wonder why it is that Republicans, conservatives focus so much on politics, the answer is, at least we have a voice there.

00:47:50.000 At least we can push back there.

00:47:52.000 In Hollywood, which is universally staffed by Democrats, there is really no way to push back there.

00:47:58.000 Dave Chappelle will find himself on the outs.

00:48:00.000 Or he will change.

00:48:01.000 Or he will do what Aziz Ansari has done and say some politically incorrect things, but say them in politically correct ways.

00:48:08.000 He will either cave to the crowd or he will be destroyed.

00:48:10.000 And in corporate America, as long as corporate CEOs decide that they are going to cower in fear at the woke left, Then there's not much the conservatives can really do about any of that, which is why I say that corporations need to stand up on their hind legs and say, our job is to provide goods and services to willing customers.

00:48:28.000 If you want to change the law, change the law, but we are not going to change policy based on your policy preferences today.

00:48:33.000 That is not what we are doing as a general rule.

00:48:37.000 If they don't do that, then things will get more polarized, and it will become more and more important for Republicans to keep the levers of government.

00:48:43.000 You wonder why Republicans are so rabid about elections these days?

00:48:47.000 That would be why.

00:48:47.000 They feel like the government is the only area of life where they still get a say, and they feel like if the left takes over the government, they're going to use precisely the same logic that they have used with corporations and with Hollywood, and they are going to cram down their opinions on everybody else using the power of the government gun this time, not just the power of a few loudspeakers in the faces of abjectly craven CEOs.

00:49:07.000 Okay, time for a quick thing I like, and then a quick thing that I hate.

00:49:11.000 So, things that I like today.

00:49:13.000 So, in my spare time, my copious free time, I am a fan of fantasy novels.

00:49:17.000 Somebody in the office had recommended Terry Goodkind's Wizard's First Rule.

00:49:21.000 I'll admit it took me a little bit of time to get into it.

00:49:24.000 This book, I believe, is from the early 90s, I think?

00:49:27.000 And it took me maybe 150, 200 pages to get into it.

00:49:30.000 I have not finished the book yet, so I don't know if it ends well.

00:49:33.000 But I will say that it is entertaining and it definitely carries you.

00:49:37.000 So the book is Wizard's First Rule by Terry Goodkind.

00:49:40.000 The writing style takes a little bit to adjust to because at the beginning it's kind of awkwardly written, but then it definitely gets better and more interesting as it goes on.

00:49:46.000 So if you're into good fantasy novels, then try that one out.

00:49:49.000 Wizard's First Rule by Terry Goodkind.

00:49:50.000 And thanks to producer Anthony for that particular recommendation.

00:49:54.000 Okay, time for a quick thing that I hate.

00:50:00.000 Alrighty, so, today, the New York Post is reporting that Representative Ilhan Omar's husband wants a divorce after this bombshell report about her having an affair with D.C.

00:50:09.000 political consultant Tim Minette.

00:50:11.000 Now that, in and of itself, is a thing to hate.

00:50:13.000 Whenever families break up, regardless of whether you like the people involved, that is really terrible for the kids.

00:50:18.000 She has three kids.

00:50:20.000 That cannot be good for her.

00:50:22.000 I will point out that if a Republican congresswoman were involved in this sort of scandal right now, it would be on the front pages of every newspaper in America.

00:50:28.000 Because Ilhan Omar is a beloved figure on the left, however, then everybody sort of ignores this or pretends that it's politically incorrect to talk about it.

00:50:36.000 The fact is that it raises serious moral questions about her character, obviously.

00:50:42.000 She is a married woman, still.

00:50:44.000 They allegedly separated in March, and Omar asked Hersey to divorce her around that time because she didn't want to file the papers, but Hersey refused, telling her if she wanted a divorce, she should do it herself, according to sources talking to the New York Post.

00:50:58.000 And then, after Tim Minot's wife filed bombshell divorce papers claiming that her spouse was having an affair with Omar, Hersey was angry, and he said that he was made to look a fool, and he is considering filing for divorce.

00:51:10.000 Again, the media coverage of this, I mean, the New York Post is covering it.

00:51:13.000 I've not seen it covered in any mainstream publication.

00:51:15.000 Again, imagine this were Nikki Haley.

00:51:17.000 Imagine that this were Sarah Palin. 0.97

00:51:20.000 I imagine the media would be covering this story incredibly, incredibly differently.

00:51:23.000 Okay, we'll be back here later today with much, much more.

00:51:25.000 We didn't get a chance to get to Brexit.

00:51:26.000 We didn't get a chance to get to the developments in Hong Kong.

00:51:29.000 So we'll get to those later today.

00:51:31.000 That's why you should subscribe over at dailywire.com.

00:51:33.000 Otherwise, we'll see you here tomorrow.

00:51:34.000 I'm Ben Shapiro.

00:51:35.000 This is The Ben Shapiro Show.

00:51:36.000 The Ben Shapiro Show is produced by Robert Sterling.

00:51:44.000 Directed by Mike Joyner.

00:51:46.000 Executive producer, Jeremy Boring.

00:51:48.000 Senior producer, Jonathan Hay.

00:51:50.000 Our supervising producer is Mathis Glover.

00:51:52.000 And our technical producer is Austin Stevens.

00:51:55.000 Edited by Adam Sajovitz.

00:51:56.000 Audio is mixed by Mike Koromina.

00:51:58.000 Hair and makeup is by Jesua Olvera.

00:52:00.000 Production assistant, Nick Sheehan.

00:52:02.000 The Ben Shapiro Show is a Daily Wire production.

00:52:04.000 Copyright Daily Wire 2019.

00:52:07.000 Hey folks, it's Andrew Klavan, host of The Andrew Klavan Show.

00:52:10.000 Whether it's about race, about guns, or the climate, Brexit, or the economy, the left has learned to tell simple stories to get what they want, power.

00:52:18.000 We'll talk about that, plus solve all your problems in the mailbag.

The Ben Shapiro Show - September 04, 2019

Tear Down This Walmart | Ep. 853

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