The Matt Walsh Show - Ep. 1 - Never Apologize To A Pitchfork Mob

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. 0.97

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 0.97

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, 1.00

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 0.91

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 0.97

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, 1.00

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. 1.00

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. 0.99

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.

The Matt Walsh Show - April 02, 2018

Ep. 1 - Never Apologize To A Pitchfork Mob

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