Ep. 1 - Never Apologize To A Pitchfork Mob
Episode Stats
Words per Minute
160.09492
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
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All right. So Laura Ingram is taking a vacation, um, vacation amid the advertiser boycott and all
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the outrage that's still growing. It hasn't died down. You know, here we are four or five days
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later because of this, you know, unnecessary and dumb tweet that she sent about David Hogg,
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unnecessary and dumb, also completely innocuous. In fact, let's just, you know, just to frame this
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and in case you're, um, in case you forget, let's just, um, let's remind you what the tweet was,
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what this offending tweet was. And this is the tweet that has potentially destroyed her career
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and has had, you know, over a dozen advertisers flee and all these people coming after. And this is the
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tweet. Okay. Um, that she sent on March 28th at 11 45 AM. Um, she, the, the tweet is linking to an
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article. It says David Hogg rejected by four colleges to which he applied and whines about
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it. Dinged by use, dinged by UCLA with a 4.1 GPA, totally predictable given acceptance rates.
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That's the tweet. That's the tweet that everyone is. People are accusing her of she's mocking a child.
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She was, she was ruthlessly attacking and mocking this child. There's nothing mocking in here except
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up for the part where she says, um, whines about it. You know, she's not even really making fun of
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him for, as far as I could tell, based on the tweet, she's not saying, ah, this kid didn't make
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it into college. She's saying he was rejected by four college and he whines about it. Um, which he
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has been whining about it. I mean, that's both of those things are true. He was rejected by four
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colleges. He was whining about it. We only know that he was rejected by the colleges because he was
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complaining about it publicly, you know, in front of the world, he was complaining about it. Uh,
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so all she's doing is pointing that out. And now she's got everyone coming after before going to
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further. I just, I, you know, one thing I think I need to admit and address is that I wrote a piece
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on Friday saying that we all need to just ignore David Hogg from now on and not talk about him. And
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here I am two days later, three days later talking about David Hogg again. And I realized that's kind
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of hypocritical, but it's not David. I don't want to talk about David Hogg. Uh, there's a, there's a,
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a greater point here that needs to be made. And unfortunately, in order to make that point,
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it's necessary that I use David Hogg as an example. Okay. So going back to Laura Ingram,
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she's got all these advertisers fleeing from her Expedia, TripAdvisor, Hulu, Office Depot,
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a bunch of others. And Ingram quickly apologized for this, for that, you know, this tweet that I
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just read to you, this is the one she apologized for it. Um, she sent out two, two tweets, you know,
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apologizing for it, but the left and David Hogg and the outrage mob altogether, they're not satisfied.
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Um, they're saying it's, you know, it wasn't a sincere apology. It's not a sincere enough.
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And so they haven't called off the dogs. They haven't called off the advertiser boycott.
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And now David Hogg is demanding that, um, she also issue apologies to all the other people that
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she's wronged in her life, including LeBron James, because she said something rude about LeBron James
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a few, a few weeks ago. LeBron James has never asked for an apology. Uh, but David Hogg has it.
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David Hogg is the, is the, the, the, the knight in shining armor for LeBron James saying,
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apologize to him too. So what we find is that Laura Ingram bowed before the pitchfork mob,
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but they refuse to drop their pitchforks. They refuse to just let it go. Even though she bowed
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before them, she apologized and yet they're still going. Why is that? I mean, it would seem like
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they're all supposedly, they're all very upset and very outraged. And so what they would want her to
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do, usually when you're upset and outraged at a person for saying something, um, what you want them
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to do is you want them to acknowledge that it was bad and then apologize for it. Right. And once they've
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done that, then you just move on with your life, but they're not doing that. Why? Well, because,
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and here's the important thing we need to understand about outrage mobs, the outraged mob
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isn't really outraged. Okay. That's why the pitchfork mob, what they're doing is they're
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putting on an elaborate show. They're putting on a spectacle, a charade. That's all they're doing.
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This is a, they, they, they sniffed an opportunity. Laura Ingram gave them an opportunity, which is why
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the tweet was so stupid in the first place and they took it. So Ingram's petty little tweet about
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David Hogg, it didn't, it didn't hurt anyone. It didn't offend anyone. It didn't upset anyone.
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It didn't cause any damage to anyone at all. Least of all, David Hogg himself, who's made it pretty
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clear since then that he's grateful for the opportunity that it afforded him to cause some
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damage to this woman he despises. It seems like he's ecstatic about the tweet. He couldn't be happier
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about it. Which goes back to, you know, this is my biggest problem with the tweet is it never should
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have been sent because why do you care about whether or not David Hogg got accepted to a college?
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Why are you even commenting on it? Whether it's offensive or not, whether it hurts anyone's feelings
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or not, it's not newsworthy. There's no reason to comment on it. Now, again, he's the one who put this
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out in the public. He's the one who did that. It was his choice. He's put himself in the public eye
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and he's put this fact about him in the public eye and complained about it. He has complained about it
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publicly. But still, you know, this, you know, this kid, he wants attention. He desperately wants
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attention. The last thing we should do is give it to him. David Hogg did. I mean, Laura Ingram did,
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and that's the mistake. But then she apologizes and they don't leave. They don't leave her alone
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because this is how the game works. This is how the game always works. And we should understand by
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now. Laura Ingram, of all people, should understand. This is how it works. Somebody says or does
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something uncouth or supposedly uncouth or slightly uncouth and the opportunist who reside on the opposite
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end of the spectrum from where that person, from where that offending person resides. And I'm not
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saying this is just on the left. The right can do it too. But, you know, all the opportunists who are
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on the opposite end of the spectrum from where that person resides, they seize upon it, whatever the
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remark was. Nobody actually cares. Nobody's upset. Nobody's offended. Nobody cares. But they seize
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upon it, they grab hold of it, and they just squeeze it dry of every advantage they possibly
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can. They get every last drop of advantage out of this dumb, irrelevant statement or tweet or whatever
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that nobody in the country actually cares about. This is how it works. And this is also exactly why
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you don't apologize to the outrage mob. Never apologize to them. Never apologize to the outrage
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masses. Never go in front of the pitchfork mob and issue an apology. Never do it. Now, I do believe
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that we should always repent as a Christian. If we do something wrong, we should always repent.
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We should repent to God if we do something wrong. Jesus is pretty clear about that. But Jesus,
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there's another interesting fact about Jesus that we overlook, I think, sometimes when we read the
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Gospels. Jesus, who, of course, never had a reason to apologize to anybody, he also had a habit
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of giving the cold shoulder to disingenuous people. He was not going to waste his
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time with disingenuous people. He wasn't going to explain or justify himself to those who were
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insincere in their requests. He wasn't going to be baited. He wasn't going to be used. He wasn't
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going to be backed into a corner. He wouldn't engage with people who aren't really interested
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in engaging. And I think, you know, that right there, just that aspect of it, that's a great lesson
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for us. We could all learn something from that. If you've committed an offense that's, you know,
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actually very bad and horrible, and you actually have done damage to a large number of people,
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or you've hurt a lot of people, or you've scandalized people in some way, and that does
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happen, then in that case, sure, you issue a public apology. But in that case, you're not bowing
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before the outraged mob. You're just, you're doing the right thing because you truly have,
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in that case, you are issuing an apology to a group of people who you actually have hurt.
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But if you're just guilty of getting slightly carried away in your speech, or making some rude,
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but basically harmless comment, or just saying something kind of dumb on Twitter,
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if that's all you've done, and the offended masses are coming after you, then, you know,
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and they're acting like, they're acting as if, they're not treating you as if you just made a
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dumb comment. They're treating you like you were just caught skinning puppies, or beating old ladies,
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or something. That's how they're treating you. If that's what's going on, then the worst thing that
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you could do is issue a public apology. In that case, the public apology is counterproductive,
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unwise, and cowardly. If your conscience is truly stricken by this dumb, harmless thing you said on
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Twitter, then repent to God for it. Okay, go and repent to God. If you're Catholic, go to confession.
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If you're rude towards some individual person, and you really feel broken up about it, and you feel
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like it was a terrible thing to that person, then talk to that person privately. But you don't apologize
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to the mob, or in front of the mob, because they don't deserve it. They are not the aggrieved party.
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They are not hurt. They were not injured by you. They are making these demands because they want you
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to submit to them. That's all. It's just an opportunity, and they are taking it. And nothing
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is gained by offering your submission to these people who just want power over you. All you've done
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is vindicated their unfair and dishonest tactics. That's why we have to be very careful with these
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public apologies every time everyone's pretending to be upset, because you're vindicating them. You're
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vindicating the mob. Now, in Laura Ingram's specific case, I think what she should have done
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after simply sending a tweet saying, oh, David Hogg is doing this thing that he's doing. Okay.
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But maybe just delete the tweet, and then just say nothing else about it. Just that's it. Just delete
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it and live your life. I'm not suggesting that she should go out and defend it or justify it or get
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into a whole long debate about David Hogg and his admissions to colleges. No, that's not what I'm
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saying at all. But she shouldn't bow. She should not have bowed before the throne and paid homage to
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their theatrical, ridiculous, fake outrage. And you might say that, oh, well, it's the right thing to do.
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It's always the right thing to do to issue an apology. But it is most certainly not the right thing to do
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in this case. It's the thing people do because they're afraid and they're bewildered and they're worried
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about the backlash. It's cowardice is what it is. It's not something they do because they're driven by this
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deep feeling of guilt and regret. There's no reason for a deep feeling of guilt and regret.
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Anyway, because her breach of ethics in this case was so extraordinarily minor and harmless.
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And here's the thing that according to the left, the only reason she's apologizing is because of
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the advertiser boycott, just because she wants to save her advertiser. And they're absolutely right
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about that. That's why the apology never should have been offered, because it's a disingenuous
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apology to disingenuous people. I mean, think about it. If you, I don't know, if you, if you walk
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through a door, okay, and you, and you don't hold the door for the person behind you, that's, that's a
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rude thing. It's a thoughtless thing. Then good manners would dictate that after doing that, you quickly
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turn around and apologize to the person. But if, before you even get an apology, get a chance to
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apologize. If this person comes bursting through the door and just starts screaming at you and
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berating you and getting in your face and they, and they rile up a mob to come after you and try to
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destroy you because of this just slight breach in manners, then what should you do? Do you offer the
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apology in that case? No. Whereas otherwise you would have, in this case you don't. Because who would
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you even be apologizing to? And what about? The mob, they don't care about the door. This isn't
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about the door. They're just happy for an opportunity to rip somebody to shreds. That's
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all this is about for them. So do you, just because they're reacting this way, now you have to fall to
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your face and flagellate yourself in public because the mob decided to make a mountain out of a molehill.
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You have to go along with it and pretend like the comment was something or, or pretend like the,
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the breach in manners was, was more than it actually was because they're pretending.
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No. And it doesn't matter anyway. There's nothing you can say to them. There's nothing you can do.
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And so all you can really do is just move on with your life and be done with it.
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Let them go and find some other carcass to eat. Okay. Let the vultures go somewhere else.
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Just keep, just keep walking through the door and just ignore them and just go, just go do your
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thing. Here's, here's, I mean, it's, it's, it's kind of what you're doing is you're, you're,
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you're cooperating with dishonesty. When you bow to the outraged mob, you're, because what they're
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doing, as I said, it's all dishonesty. Nobody actually cares. Nobody's upset. Nobody in America
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actually cares about Laura Ingraham's tweet. It brought no tears to anybody's eyes. It did not
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cause any pain to anyone's heart. Nobody cares. Nobody, not a single person in America actually
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cares about the tweet. And in fact, most of the people who are coming after Laura Ingraham,
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they don't even know what the tweet was. They just heard, they saw a headline that, oh,
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she's attacking. So that's all they need. It doesn't matter. They're saying, oh, well,
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thank God this is a chance to go after Laura Ingraham. I hate her. So it's dishonest. We
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cannot cooperate with dishonesty. Now here's the other thing we should remember. The, the outrage
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doesn't matter. It won't last. Do you think that's why now the mob, they really have no power
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over you, except unfortunately these days they do have some artificial power because these companies
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will, once the advertisers start pulling out, well, okay, that, that's a, that's a real thing
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that causes damage to, but there's no reason. Once the mob starts, oh, we're going to start boycotting
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all these advertisers. There's no reason for the advertisers to actually pull their ads or anything
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like that because these people, they're not actually boycotting. How many actual, now there
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are boycott threats in this country five times a day, but how many actual real boycotts have there
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been in America since like the Montgomery bus boycott? I mean, how many actual real, how many times
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have a large group of people actually changed their consumption habits because they're upset at a
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company for this or that reason? There's the Montgomery bus boycott. Um, and then what else
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do we have? Maybe the NFL, maybe the, maybe the people fleeing the NFL, maybe that's another example.
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So that's like two examples I can think of, but all of these other people say, oh, we're going to
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cancel our Hulu subscriptions because we're upset about it because they advertise on Laura Ingram.
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And she sent a rude tweet to David dog. How many of these people are actually canceling their
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subscription? Like five of them. The vast majority of the time, these boycotts aren't really boycotts.
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They're just threats of boycotts. They're just hashtags of boycotts. They're just people talking
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about a boycott, but there's no actual boycott. So, um, there's no reason to bow to it and everybody
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will just move on. That's the other advantage of not apologizing is that you don't, you don't extend
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the story anymore. And eventually very quickly, people just move on and they talk about something
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else. They go look for someone else to, they look for a new outrage of the day. They get bored with
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this outrage. They look for a new one. There's very little follow through. So who cares?
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Well, a lot of people care apparently, but they shouldn't because outrage is nothing but a game
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in our culture and it's a game you can't win. So it's a game that we shouldn't play.
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That's my point. All right, guys, have a great day.