The Matt Walsh Show - April 02, 2018


Ep. 1 - Never Apologize To A Pitchfork Mob


Episode Stats

Length

18 minutes

Words per Minute

160.09492

Word Count

2,991

Sentence Count

222

Misogynist Sentences

6

Hate Speech Sentences

2


Summary

Laura Ingram is taking a vacation amid the advertiser boycott and all the outrage that s still growing. Why is the pitchfork mob so angry at her for her tweet about David Hogg? And why is she still going after it even though she apologized?


Transcript

00:00:00.000 All right. So Laura Ingram is taking a vacation, um, vacation amid the advertiser boycott and all
00:00:10.740 the outrage that's still growing. It hasn't died down. You know, here we are four or five days
00:00:15.100 later because of this, you know, unnecessary and dumb tweet that she sent about David Hogg,
00:00:22.860 unnecessary and dumb, also completely innocuous. In fact, let's just, you know, just to frame this
00:00:29.840 and in case you're, um, in case you forget, let's just, um, let's remind you what the tweet was,
00:00:37.180 what this offending tweet was. And this is the tweet that has potentially destroyed her career
00:00:42.100 and has had, you know, over a dozen advertisers flee and all these people coming after. And this is the
00:00:48.880 tweet. Okay. Um, that she sent on March 28th at 11 45 AM. Um, she, the, the tweet is linking to an
00:00:59.560 article. It says David Hogg rejected by four colleges to which he applied and whines about
00:01:05.380 it. Dinged by use, dinged by UCLA with a 4.1 GPA, totally predictable given acceptance rates.
00:01:15.760 That's the tweet. That's the tweet that everyone is. People are accusing her of she's mocking a child.
00:01:22.340 She was, she was ruthlessly attacking and mocking this child. There's nothing mocking in here except
00:01:28.780 up for the part where she says, um, whines about it. You know, she's not even really making fun of
00:01:33.660 him for, as far as I could tell, based on the tweet, she's not saying, ah, this kid didn't make
00:01:39.300 it into college. She's saying he was rejected by four college and he whines about it. Um, which he
00:01:44.820 has been whining about it. I mean, that's both of those things are true. He was rejected by four
00:01:48.880 colleges. He was whining about it. We only know that he was rejected by the colleges because he was
00:01:53.340 complaining about it publicly, you know, in front of the world, he was complaining about it. Uh,
00:01:58.700 so all she's doing is pointing that out. And now she's got everyone coming after before going to
00:02:05.640 further. I just, I, you know, one thing I think I need to admit and address is that I wrote a piece
00:02:11.100 on Friday saying that we all need to just ignore David Hogg from now on and not talk about him. And
00:02:16.600 here I am two days later, three days later talking about David Hogg again. And I realized that's kind
00:02:21.420 of hypocritical, but it's not David. I don't want to talk about David Hogg. Uh, there's a, there's a,
00:02:26.440 a greater point here that needs to be made. And unfortunately, in order to make that point,
00:02:32.020 it's necessary that I use David Hogg as an example. Okay. So going back to Laura Ingram,
00:02:38.580 she's got all these advertisers fleeing from her Expedia, TripAdvisor, Hulu, Office Depot,
00:02:43.520 a bunch of others. And Ingram quickly apologized for this, for that, you know, this tweet that I
00:02:51.320 just read to you, this is the one she apologized for it. Um, she sent out two, two tweets, you know,
00:02:58.700 apologizing for it, but the left and David Hogg and the outrage mob altogether, they're not satisfied.
00:03:06.840 Um, they're saying it's, you know, it wasn't a sincere apology. It's not a sincere enough.
00:03:11.280 And so they haven't called off the dogs. They haven't called off the advertiser boycott.
00:03:15.500 And now David Hogg is demanding that, um, she also issue apologies to all the other people that
00:03:21.640 she's wronged in her life, including LeBron James, because she said something rude about LeBron James
00:03:26.700 a few, a few weeks ago. LeBron James has never asked for an apology. Uh, but David Hogg has it.
00:03:33.580 David Hogg is the, is the, the, the, the knight in shining armor for LeBron James saying,
00:03:37.240 apologize to him too. So what we find is that Laura Ingram bowed before the pitchfork mob,
00:03:44.520 but they refuse to drop their pitchforks. They refuse to just let it go. Even though she bowed
00:03:53.440 before them, she apologized and yet they're still going. Why is that? I mean, it would seem like
00:04:01.000 they're all supposedly, they're all very upset and very outraged. And so what they would want her to
00:04:07.640 do, usually when you're upset and outraged at a person for saying something, um, what you want them
00:04:13.200 to do is you want them to acknowledge that it was bad and then apologize for it. Right. And once they've
00:04:19.580 done that, then you just move on with your life, but they're not doing that. Why? Well, because,
00:04:27.900 and here's the important thing we need to understand about outrage mobs, the outraged mob
00:04:34.400 isn't really outraged. Okay. That's why the pitchfork mob, what they're doing is they're
00:04:43.080 putting on an elaborate show. They're putting on a spectacle, a charade. That's all they're doing.
00:04:48.900 This is a, they, they, they sniffed an opportunity. Laura Ingram gave them an opportunity, which is why
00:04:54.640 the tweet was so stupid in the first place and they took it. So Ingram's petty little tweet about
00:05:01.420 David Hogg, it didn't, it didn't hurt anyone. It didn't offend anyone. It didn't upset anyone.
00:05:05.640 It didn't cause any damage to anyone at all. Least of all, David Hogg himself, who's made it pretty
00:05:11.780 clear since then that he's grateful for the opportunity that it afforded him to cause some
00:05:16.120 damage to this woman he despises. It seems like he's ecstatic about the tweet. He couldn't be happier
00:05:21.720 about it. Which goes back to, you know, this is my biggest problem with the tweet is it never should
00:05:28.580 have been sent because why do you care about whether or not David Hogg got accepted to a college?
00:05:36.480 Why are you even commenting on it? Whether it's offensive or not, whether it hurts anyone's feelings
00:05:42.080 or not, it's not newsworthy. There's no reason to comment on it. Now, again, he's the one who put this
00:05:48.320 out in the public. He's the one who did that. It was his choice. He's put himself in the public eye
00:05:54.400 and he's put this fact about him in the public eye and complained about it. He has complained about it
00:06:00.020 publicly. But still, you know, this, you know, this kid, he wants attention. He desperately wants
00:06:07.520 attention. The last thing we should do is give it to him. David Hogg did. I mean, Laura Ingram did,
00:06:13.620 and that's the mistake. But then she apologizes and they don't leave. They don't leave her alone
00:06:20.500 because this is how the game works. This is how the game always works. And we should understand by
00:06:25.980 now. Laura Ingram, of all people, should understand. This is how it works. Somebody says or does
00:06:31.520 something uncouth or supposedly uncouth or slightly uncouth and the opportunist who reside on the opposite
00:06:39.320 end of the spectrum from where that person, from where that offending person resides. And I'm not
00:06:43.900 saying this is just on the left. The right can do it too. But, you know, all the opportunists who are
00:06:51.280 on the opposite end of the spectrum from where that person resides, they seize upon it, whatever the
00:06:56.900 remark was. Nobody actually cares. Nobody's upset. Nobody's offended. Nobody cares. But they seize
00:07:02.280 upon it, they grab hold of it, and they just squeeze it dry of every advantage they possibly
00:07:08.280 can. They get every last drop of advantage out of this dumb, irrelevant statement or tweet or whatever
00:07:15.840 that nobody in the country actually cares about. This is how it works. And this is also exactly why
00:07:23.000 you don't apologize to the outrage mob. Never apologize to them. Never apologize to the outrage
00:07:34.800 masses. Never go in front of the pitchfork mob and issue an apology. Never do it. Now, I do believe
00:07:44.060 that we should always repent as a Christian. If we do something wrong, we should always repent.
00:07:49.420 We should repent to God if we do something wrong. Jesus is pretty clear about that. But Jesus,
00:07:57.060 there's another interesting fact about Jesus that we overlook, I think, sometimes when we read the
00:08:01.020 Gospels. Jesus, who, of course, never had a reason to apologize to anybody, he also had a habit
00:08:08.420 of giving the cold shoulder to disingenuous people. He was not going to waste his
00:08:19.420 time with disingenuous people. He wasn't going to explain or justify himself to those who were
00:08:26.620 insincere in their requests. He wasn't going to be baited. He wasn't going to be used. He wasn't
00:08:32.660 going to be backed into a corner. He wouldn't engage with people who aren't really interested
00:08:37.800 in engaging. And I think, you know, that right there, just that aspect of it, that's a great lesson
00:08:43.460 for us. We could all learn something from that. If you've committed an offense that's, you know,
00:08:50.580 actually very bad and horrible, and you actually have done damage to a large number of people,
00:08:57.820 or you've hurt a lot of people, or you've scandalized people in some way, and that does
00:09:03.380 happen, then in that case, sure, you issue a public apology. But in that case, you're not bowing
00:09:09.680 before the outraged mob. You're just, you're doing the right thing because you truly have,
00:09:15.720 in that case, you are issuing an apology to a group of people who you actually have hurt.
00:09:25.440 But if you're just guilty of getting slightly carried away in your speech, or making some rude,
00:09:36.680 but basically harmless comment, or just saying something kind of dumb on Twitter,
00:09:44.720 if that's all you've done, and the offended masses are coming after you, then, you know,
00:09:52.600 and they're acting like, they're acting as if, they're not treating you as if you just made a
00:09:58.760 dumb comment. They're treating you like you were just caught skinning puppies, or beating old ladies,
00:10:04.400 or something. That's how they're treating you. If that's what's going on, then the worst thing that
00:10:09.000 you could do is issue a public apology. In that case, the public apology is counterproductive,
00:10:14.140 unwise, and cowardly. If your conscience is truly stricken by this dumb, harmless thing you said on
00:10:24.780 Twitter, then repent to God for it. Okay, go and repent to God. If you're Catholic, go to confession.
00:10:30.220 If you're rude towards some individual person, and you really feel broken up about it, and you feel
00:10:37.520 like it was a terrible thing to that person, then talk to that person privately. But you don't apologize
00:10:44.140 to the mob, or in front of the mob, because they don't deserve it. They are not the aggrieved party.
00:10:51.740 They are not hurt. They were not injured by you. They are making these demands because they want you
00:11:00.560 to submit to them. That's all. It's just an opportunity, and they are taking it. And nothing
00:11:07.420 is gained by offering your submission to these people who just want power over you. All you've done
00:11:15.440 is vindicated their unfair and dishonest tactics. That's why we have to be very careful with these
00:11:22.300 public apologies every time everyone's pretending to be upset, because you're vindicating them. You're
00:11:28.020 vindicating the mob. Now, in Laura Ingram's specific case, I think what she should have done
00:11:37.480 after simply sending a tweet saying, oh, David Hogg is doing this thing that he's doing. Okay.
00:11:48.900 But maybe just delete the tweet, and then just say nothing else about it. Just that's it. Just delete
00:11:54.360 it and live your life. I'm not suggesting that she should go out and defend it or justify it or get
00:12:00.980 into a whole long debate about David Hogg and his admissions to colleges. No, that's not what I'm
00:12:07.880 saying at all. But she shouldn't bow. She should not have bowed before the throne and paid homage to
00:12:19.060 their theatrical, ridiculous, fake outrage. And you might say that, oh, well, it's the right thing to do.
00:12:28.400 It's always the right thing to do to issue an apology. But it is most certainly not the right thing to do
00:12:35.520 in this case. It's the thing people do because they're afraid and they're bewildered and they're worried
00:12:44.400 about the backlash. It's cowardice is what it is. It's not something they do because they're driven by this
00:12:50.460 deep feeling of guilt and regret. There's no reason for a deep feeling of guilt and regret.
00:12:58.400 Anyway, because her breach of ethics in this case was so extraordinarily minor and harmless.
00:13:07.120 And here's the thing that according to the left, the only reason she's apologizing is because of
00:13:12.080 the advertiser boycott, just because she wants to save her advertiser. And they're absolutely right
00:13:15.740 about that. That's why the apology never should have been offered, because it's a disingenuous
00:13:20.860 apology to disingenuous people. I mean, think about it. If you, I don't know, if you, if you walk
00:13:28.920 through a door, okay, and you, and you don't hold the door for the person behind you, that's, that's a
00:13:33.880 rude thing. It's a thoughtless thing. Then good manners would dictate that after doing that, you quickly
00:13:41.480 turn around and apologize to the person. But if, before you even get an apology, get a chance to
00:13:47.260 apologize. If this person comes bursting through the door and just starts screaming at you and
00:13:52.060 berating you and getting in your face and they, and they rile up a mob to come after you and try to
00:13:57.800 destroy you because of this just slight breach in manners, then what should you do? Do you offer the
00:14:04.300 apology in that case? No. Whereas otherwise you would have, in this case you don't. Because who would
00:14:11.900 you even be apologizing to? And what about? The mob, they don't care about the door. This isn't
00:14:18.620 about the door. They're just happy for an opportunity to rip somebody to shreds. That's
00:14:23.540 all this is about for them. So do you, just because they're reacting this way, now you have to fall to
00:14:29.460 your face and flagellate yourself in public because the mob decided to make a mountain out of a molehill.
00:14:35.560 You have to go along with it and pretend like the comment was something or, or pretend like the,
00:14:42.260 the breach in manners was, was more than it actually was because they're pretending.
00:14:49.280 No. And it doesn't matter anyway. There's nothing you can say to them. There's nothing you can do.
00:14:54.520 And so all you can really do is just move on with your life and be done with it.
00:14:58.360 Let them go and find some other carcass to eat. Okay. Let the vultures go somewhere else.
00:15:06.920 Just keep, just keep walking through the door and just ignore them and just go, just go do your
00:15:12.680 thing. Here's, here's, I mean, it's, it's, it's kind of what you're doing is you're, you're,
00:15:19.440 you're cooperating with dishonesty. When you bow to the outraged mob, you're, because what they're
00:15:25.800 doing, as I said, it's all dishonesty. Nobody actually cares. Nobody's upset. Nobody in America
00:15:31.400 actually cares about Laura Ingraham's tweet. It brought no tears to anybody's eyes. It did not
00:15:37.780 cause any pain to anyone's heart. Nobody cares. Nobody, not a single person in America actually
00:15:45.560 cares about the tweet. And in fact, most of the people who are coming after Laura Ingraham,
00:15:50.100 they don't even know what the tweet was. They just heard, they saw a headline that, oh,
00:15:53.840 she's attacking. So that's all they need. It doesn't matter. They're saying, oh, well,
00:15:58.100 thank God this is a chance to go after Laura Ingraham. I hate her. So it's dishonest. We
00:16:02.900 cannot cooperate with dishonesty. Now here's the other thing we should remember. The, the outrage
00:16:10.540 doesn't matter. It won't last. Do you think that's why now the mob, they really have no power
00:16:23.400 over you, except unfortunately these days they do have some artificial power because these companies
00:16:29.260 will, once the advertisers start pulling out, well, okay, that, that's a, that's a real thing
00:16:34.100 that causes damage to, but there's no reason. Once the mob starts, oh, we're going to start boycotting
00:16:40.520 all these advertisers. There's no reason for the advertisers to actually pull their ads or anything
00:16:45.040 like that because these people, they're not actually boycotting. How many actual, now there
00:16:51.960 are boycott threats in this country five times a day, but how many actual real boycotts have there
00:16:58.580 been in America since like the Montgomery bus boycott? I mean, how many actual real, how many times
00:17:04.740 have a large group of people actually changed their consumption habits because they're upset at a
00:17:11.360 company for this or that reason? There's the Montgomery bus boycott. Um, and then what else
00:17:19.060 do we have? Maybe the NFL, maybe the, maybe the people fleeing the NFL, maybe that's another example.
00:17:24.600 So that's like two examples I can think of, but all of these other people say, oh, we're going to
00:17:29.560 cancel our Hulu subscriptions because we're upset about it because they advertise on Laura Ingram.
00:17:34.000 And she sent a rude tweet to David dog. How many of these people are actually canceling their
00:17:37.660 subscription? Like five of them. The vast majority of the time, these boycotts aren't really boycotts.
00:17:46.000 They're just threats of boycotts. They're just hashtags of boycotts. They're just people talking
00:17:50.800 about a boycott, but there's no actual boycott. So, um, there's no reason to bow to it and everybody
00:17:59.320 will just move on. That's the other advantage of not apologizing is that you don't, you don't extend
00:18:05.380 the story anymore. And eventually very quickly, people just move on and they talk about something
00:18:09.740 else. They go look for someone else to, they look for a new outrage of the day. They get bored with
00:18:14.840 this outrage. They look for a new one. There's very little follow through. So who cares?
00:18:23.880 Well, a lot of people care apparently, but they shouldn't because outrage is nothing but a game
00:18:30.640 in our culture and it's a game you can't win. So it's a game that we shouldn't play.
00:18:38.060 That's my point. All right, guys, have a great day.