The Matt Walsh Show - Ep. 1106 - The Growing Epidemic Of AI Pornography

00:00:00.000 Today on the Matt Wall Show, AI pornography is spreading like wildfire on the internet.

00:00:04.080 What are the dangers of this technology and where does this all lead?

00:00:06.680 We'll discuss. Also, a strange object is hovering in our skies.

00:00:10.060 It's not aliens, or so they claim, but a Chinese spy balloon.

00:00:13.320 So why hasn't the Biden administration shot it down by now?

00:00:16.040 AOC puts on her most over-the-top acting performance yet.

00:00:19.000 NBC News publishes yet another lengthy hit piece on me and the Daily Wire.

00:00:22.880 An alleged conservative publication suggests that we should find a middle ground

00:00:26.180 in the war over gender ideology.

00:00:28.160 But does any middle ground exist?

00:00:30.260 In our daily cancellation, we tackle the subject of no-fault divorce.

00:00:32.960 All of that and more today on the Matt Wall Show.

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00:01:55.640 Well, we truly live in a brave new world.

00:01:58.360 Well, not really brave anyway, but it is new, I guess.

00:02:01.300 And it's new in ways that threaten to make obsolete that old adage that there's nothing new under the sun.

00:02:07.440 Because in our day and age, we have managed to create some new things.

00:02:10.940 I think things without precedent, things without historical analog.

00:02:14.320 The problem is that nearly all of those things are, well, terrible.

00:02:19.300 Take, for example, the burgeoning industry of AI pornography.

00:02:22.780 This is porn generated by artificial intelligence.

00:02:26.220 It encompasses both deepfake porn, which is fashioned to look like some actual specific human being,

00:02:31.540 and then totally artificial porn, whose images are created entirely by a machine.

00:02:35.940 There's been a lot of discussion about this subject this past week due to a controversy in the world of Twitch streamers.

00:02:41.780 And this is a world that remains mostly foreign to me, and perhaps to you.

00:02:47.440 But I think we can both get the gist from this write-up in Vice.

00:02:50.600 It says, quote,

00:02:51.540 On Monday, Twitch streamer Brandon Ewing, who goes by Atriok Online, admitted to buying and watching deepfakes from an account that makes non-consensual, sexually explicit, AI-generated videos of his colleagues in the streaming world.

00:03:05.340 In a live stream on Monday, Ewing inadvertently showed browser windows open to a website that hosts non-consensual, AI-generated images.

00:03:13.200 The window showed that he was viewing images on the account of someone who specialized in making deepfakes of popular streamers.

00:03:18.560 Viewers of the stream caught the leak and screenshotted the site, then shared the site, images from it, and names of the women who were deepfaked.

00:03:24.120 At first, reported by Dextero, Ewing said during his Monday stream in a tearful, now viral apology, that he clicked an ad for deepfake porn while browsing Pornhub.

00:03:33.780 That ad took him to another subscriber-only website that he said, where he paid to view the images of popular female streamers.

00:03:38.880 He said that he was driven by morbid curiosity and that his watching non-consensual porn is not a pattern of behavior.

00:03:45.260 His wife, cosplayer Arianna Ewing, I don't know what any of these words mean, sat in the background of the stream and cried.

00:03:53.740 Here's some of whatever that is.

00:03:56.500 Stream to, like, create a pattern of behavior where I really want, especially women on Twitch, to feel safer.

00:04:03.500 Like, we call booba spam cringe, we don't do that there, I've never made, like, a weird, I don't know, seat-sniffing joke.

00:04:11.680 I've never done anything like that.

00:04:12.740 I've never done anything like that on the stream.

00:04:15.260 And we don't tolerate any sex behavior in the chat, we ban it on site.

00:04:20.360 And, like, I've done this consistently, over and over and over. 0.97

00:04:23.720 And then, f***ing at 2 a.m., you know, I've been watching so much, I've been reading so much f***ing AI stuff.

00:04:30.980 I've been reading all this f***ing stuff about AI and, uh, defake music, defake art and everything. 0.96

00:04:38.180 And I'm in these f***ing discords. 0.92

00:04:40.280 And I was, I just feel so embarrassing to admit. 0.98

00:04:43.600 But I was on f***ing Pornhub, dude. 0.99

00:04:45.360 I was on a regular-ass normal f***ing website. 0.99

00:04:47.640 And there was an ad. 0.99

00:04:49.000 There's an ad on every f***ing video for this f***ing video. 0.98

00:04:51.320 So I know other people must be clicking it, because it's on every f***ing video. 0.97

00:04:55.200 Now, to me, the real problem, one of the real problems here is that this guy is a professional,

00:05:00.360 I mean, he's a professional broadcaster.

00:05:01.720 This is what qualifies as professional broadcasters these days.

00:05:04.520 He has a large audience, people who sit around and watch him and listen to him.

00:05:08.180 And yet he's incapable of stringing three words together without an F-bomb.

00:05:11.680 I mean, he has the rhetorical skill of, like, a college freshman who just downed three beer bongs.

00:05:16.820 And yet he has 320,000 followers on a streaming platform.

00:05:22.040 That, to me, is the issue.

00:05:24.200 Or it's an issue.

00:05:25.360 The bigger problem, of course, is the AI porn itself.

00:05:29.780 And some have made an attempt to defend this guy, claiming that, well, he isn't hurting anyone by watching deepfake porn.

00:05:35.920 But, of course, any rational and even just nominally decent person understands that using someone's image without their permission,

00:05:44.340 using their face, their likeness, to create pornography is a moral abomination.

00:05:49.040 And consuming such pornography, knowing how it was created, is also morally abominable.

00:05:53.580 Yet whether deepfakes or other forms of AI porn, the trend is becoming so prevalent so fast that internet platforms are scrambling to figure out how to handle all this.

00:06:02.380 This is just a couple weeks ago in the New York Post.

00:06:06.360 This article says,

00:06:07.280 The internet group that creates pornographic images using artificial intelligence was kicked off fundraising platforms Kickstarter and Patreon

00:06:13.260 after raising nearly $60,000 following complaints from social media users.

00:06:17.720 Unstable Diffusion described itself as an online community of artists dedicated to creation and sharing of AI-generated NSFW, not suitable for word content.

00:06:27.940 The group uses open-source text-to-image generating systems that were popularized by online groups such as Stable Diffusion and Dance Diffusion.

00:06:36.760 Last year, the AI-powered technology DAL-E, which generates digital images from text descriptions, took the internet by storm.

00:06:44.960 Quote,

00:06:45.260 Unstable Diffusion is a group dedicated to spreading free and expressive AI usage born out of a grassroots community effort

00:06:50.700 to reject the limiting rules of corporate AI companies, the group says on its website.

00:06:55.940 AI porn has become, it's become a point of debate on Twitter as well this week,

00:07:00.820 where an image of four blonde women went viral because people were arguing about whether the image was AI or not.

00:07:09.960 Here's a photo, it's a blurred photo because women are mostly naked, but here it is. 1.00

00:07:13.820 And I think that this is AI based on the fact that the faces all look creepily the same.

00:07:20.000 But the fact that we can't tell for sure that there's any debate about whether the women in that image actually exist

00:07:26.960 is precisely what makes this so terrifying.

00:07:29.980 Because we are rapidly getting to a point, we've already reached the point, probably,

00:07:35.100 where you simply cannot be sure whether an image, a voice, even a video that you watch is real or not.

00:07:41.700 Even if it features someone who you know exists, that doesn't mean that it actually is real.

00:07:47.060 Well, this new reality or unreality has far-reaching implications that I don't think we've even begun to scratch the surface of.

00:07:55.940 But those implications are perhaps the most disturbing in this realm, in the realm of porn.

00:08:00.960 Now, some real flesh-and-blood internet prostitutes, like OnlyFans model Laura Lux, 1.00

00:08:07.940 have spoken out about the possibility that the entire porn and cyber prostitution industry

00:08:12.680 will soon come crashing down as the people in that field can all now be replaced by artificial intelligence.

00:08:19.360 Lux says that she's not worried about that, however, because as she tweeted,

00:08:22.920 quote,

00:08:23.860 Anyone who thinks AI-generated images of hot, naked women is going to ruin the OnlyFans economy for real-life women 1.00

00:08:29.560 has a fundamental misunderstanding of what OnlyFans is.

00:08:33.460 People don't subscribe to my OnlyFans because they want to see a random naked woman. 1.00

00:08:37.420 They subscribe to my OnlyFans because they want to see me naked,

00:08:40.740 specifically based on a parasocial connection formed by following me on other social media platforms.

00:08:47.920 Now, I'm not really, I confess, concerned about the job security of OnlyFans prostitutes. 0.75

00:08:54.140 When I mention the horrific implications of this technology, that's not exactly what I was talking about.

00:08:58.480 In fact, if anything, putting porn stars out of work is maybe the one single benefit of this technology

00:09:04.820 because at least it might force these women to do something productive and valuable with their lives instead. 1.00

00:09:12.340 And I do think that day is coming because despite the reassurance Ms. Lux offers to us,

00:09:20.460 but really to herself, there's a reality here, which is that, you know, she's correct that OnlyFans customers

00:09:27.640 are looking for something that resembles a human connection, human affection, romance.

00:09:33.520 It's just that the porn consumer has given up on finding the genuine thing

00:09:38.760 and instead settles for its digital imitation.

00:09:42.000 That's precisely the problem for Ms. Lux. 1.00

00:09:45.840 They've already decided to forfeit genuine human connections in favor of an image on a screen.

00:09:51.160 They choose you as the OnlyFans model because you're not real to them.

00:09:57.240 You're not human to them.

00:09:59.300 You are accessible.

00:10:01.000 You are usable, reusable.

00:10:02.980 You are an object that they can make use of and then discard until they want you again. 0.99

00:10:08.220 You are a masturbatory aid. 1.00

00:10:10.100 You are to them nothing but a collection of body parts. 1.00

00:10:13.540 You're not a human being to them.

00:10:15.420 You have been dehumanized and you are taking part in your own dehumanization.

00:10:21.340 You might as well already be a robot, which means that you could easily be replaced by a robot.

00:10:26.640 And as far as the porn consumer is concerned, nothing at all would be lost.

00:10:30.840 That's the harsh truth.

00:10:33.180 And this is the fear with AI porn.

00:10:35.200 And it's the same fear with regular porn, actually, only accelerated once artificial intelligence is added into the mix.

00:10:41.720 Because increasingly people are rejecting human connection, human relationships, human romance,

00:10:48.580 and all that traditionally comes with it, including marriage and family, in favor of images on a screen.

00:10:54.520 And this is dehumanizing, not just to the person on the screen, unless that person is already not human,

00:10:59.800 but also dehumanizing to the consumer.

00:11:01.960 And that's also why our criticism of the porn industry cannot focus just on the fact that the porn industry is fueled by sex trafficking, for example.

00:11:14.880 And that is a major problem.

00:11:17.020 It's not the only problem with porn.

00:11:19.320 Just as our criticism of AI porn cannot focus just on the fact that people are often being used in deepfakes without their consent.

00:11:26.140 Again, that's a major problem with that technology.

00:11:29.140 But it's not the only problem with it.

00:11:31.300 In both cases, we cannot neglect to acknowledge the harm that's also done to the consumer.

00:11:39.060 As the consumer, the viewer, is driven further into self-isolation, cut off from meaningful relationships,

00:11:46.320 and destroying the ones that he already has, while spending his time ingesting depraved filth.

00:11:54.680 He is lessened by it, made into a smaller, less happy, less interesting, less productive,

00:12:01.880 all-around, less impressive and fulfilled person.

00:12:05.500 And now with AI adding fuel to the fire, the situation is only going to go from bad to worse.

00:12:12.900 Unless we do something about it.

00:12:15.740 Now let's get to our headlines.

00:12:22.800 So here's the big story people are buzzing about today.

00:12:27.000 The Washington Post.

00:12:28.180 A Chinese surveillance balloon is collecting intelligence over the continental United States right now,

00:12:32.860 U.S. officials disclosed on Thursday, acknowledging that the Pentagon has been monitoring the craft for several days

00:12:38.440 and briefly considered shooting it down before concluding that doing so posed a safety risk.

00:12:44.180 The balloon is traveling at an altitude well above commercial air traffic

00:12:47.000 and does not present a military or physical threat to people on the ground.

00:12:50.560 This is according to Brigadier General Patrick Ryder, a Pentagon spokesman,

00:12:53.660 who told the reporters in a hastily arranged news conference where he addressed the ongoing situation.

00:12:57.680 The North American Aerospace Defense Command, NORAD, continues to track the balloon's course,

00:13:03.960 but officials would not specify its present whereabouts.

00:13:07.060 The striking development comes at a time of peak tension between the world powers

00:13:09.960 and just hours ahead of Secretary of State Anthony Blinken's expected departure to Beijing,

00:13:15.140 where he's to hold a series of long-scheduled meetings with senior Chinese officials.

00:13:21.340 Maybe he'll at least bring this up to them.

00:13:23.120 Hey, gee, folks, would you mind not putting spy balloons right over our country?

00:13:29.300 Would you mind not having spy balloons right in our airspace? 0.90

00:13:33.820 I mean, it is incredibly pathetic that, well, there's a couple things.

00:13:37.520 First of all, there's no reason to believe anything that we're told about this story, okay? 0.80

00:13:44.740 There's no reason to believe anything we're told about anything these days from

00:13:47.440 the administration or the corporate media, but especially in a story like this where there's

00:13:51.940 some kind of strange thing hovering in the sky, and they tell us that it's a Chinese spy balloon.

00:13:56.820 Maybe it is, but there's no reason especially to believe that, assuming that it's a Chinese spy balloon.

00:14:06.000 Well, then that does raise the question of why wasn't this thing shot down immediately?

00:14:12.100 I was just looking, someone had a map showing the alleged trajectory of this balloon,

00:14:18.520 and it was floating over Alaska before it made it down into the continental United States

00:14:23.680 and then over Montana.

00:14:25.980 You're telling me you couldn't shoot it down over Alaska without worrying about casualties on the ground?

00:14:31.960 Because that's the excuse they're giving us.

00:14:33.340 Well, if we shoot it down, then you'll have a debris field and people might get hurt.

00:14:36.820 But at some point from Alaska to Montana, you could not have selected a time when it was

00:14:45.440 above an area that's not heavily populated.

00:14:49.580 Most of the entire state of Alaska and all the way down to Montana, along that entire path,

00:14:58.360 you're probably not going to hit any densely populated areas at all.

00:15:01.900 Montana itself is not especially densely populated.

00:15:04.680 And they're telling us that they can't shoot it down.

00:15:09.940 It is just the perfect image of this ineffectual, impotent administration that there is, according

00:15:15.920 to them, a, you know, a spy vehicle hovering above our country.

00:15:26.200 And we're just sitting there.

00:15:27.540 It's like, well, we don't have to do about it.

00:15:28.520 It's a balloon.

00:15:30.820 It's not like it's going so fast that we can't.

00:15:32.640 It's a balloon.

00:15:33.240 It's just sitting there.

00:15:34.680 And we have the entire federal government sitting around debating, what should we do

00:15:39.440 about this thing?

00:15:40.020 I don't know.

00:15:42.240 Maybe we should shoot it down.

00:15:44.080 Is it too late to shoot it down?

00:15:47.240 And I'll tell you the other thing that annoys me about this story, okay, is that this is

00:15:52.600 a story about a mysterious object floating in the sky.

00:15:56.980 And so far as I can tell, nobody has even brought up the possibility that it might be aliens.

00:16:03.740 No one's even talking about that.

00:16:05.960 It's a story about an unidentified craft hovering in the sky, and I'm looking at all the buzz

00:16:16.480 about it on social media, and there are no conspiracy theories involving alien technology involved

00:16:22.720 in this discussion.

00:16:23.360 Is this who we've become as a society?

00:16:29.380 I don't even recognize this anymore.

00:16:33.280 So if no one else is going to bring up that possibility, then I will at least.

00:16:36.460 That's the other thing.

00:16:37.280 Maybe it's aliens.

00:16:38.740 Maybe that's why they don't shoot it down.

00:16:40.140 Why would aliens be flying around in a balloon?

00:16:45.820 How would they even get here in a balloon?

00:16:47.240 I mean, I don't have answers to those questions, but they are questions, and they're valid ones. 0.60

00:16:54.300 Now, for the other latest drama in D.C. that nobody outside D.C. actually cares about,

00:16:59.380 Ilhan Omar was booted from the Foreign Affairs Committee, and the reason that she was booted

00:17:05.580 from the committee, and it's just like Eric Swalwell was kicked off of his committee,

00:17:10.140 and, you know, because he slept with a Chinese spy, and there's been a few other Democrats

00:17:15.880 that have lost their committee assignments, and this has been a big story in the D.C. media.

00:17:21.300 Once again, nobody outside of that bubble cares at all.

00:17:24.880 But the reason that we're given for her being ousted from the Foreign Affairs Committee is 0.99

00:17:29.460 that she has made anti-Semitic comments in the past.

00:17:34.160 And don't get me wrong.

00:17:35.960 That's a fine reason to kick her off the committee. 1.00

00:17:38.440 But I'd prefer if they kicked her off because she's just sort of generally anti-American 0.97

00:17:45.860 and shows no loyalty to or love for the country that took her in and gave her a life

00:17:52.520 and made her successful and all of that.

00:17:55.560 She came here as a refugee.

00:17:57.560 We brought her in, took her in, and she has shown no gratitude at all

00:18:03.600 and is bitter and resentful to the country that saved her life.

00:18:08.780 So I would like to kick her off for that reason.

00:18:13.380 I mean, whatever the reason is, it's fine.

00:18:15.560 But to me, that's the reason.

00:18:18.600 AOC feels differently, though.

00:18:20.740 She's very upset that her friend Ilhan Omar lost the committee assignment.

00:18:23.980 She wants the rest of us to be upset about it.

00:18:26.960 And here she is doing her best black preacher impression on the House floor as she discusses this.

00:18:32.160 Watch.

00:18:33.260 Don't tell me that this is about a condemnation of anti-Semitic remarks

00:18:38.600 when you have a member of the Republican caucus who has talked about Jewish space lasers

00:18:43.520 and an entire amount of tropes and also elevated her

00:18:47.500 to some of the highest committee assignments in this body.

00:18:50.160 This is about targeting women of color in the United States of America. 0.52

00:18:54.800 Don't tell me because I didn't get a single apology.

00:18:57.440 Time has expired.

00:18:58.260 My life was threatened.

00:18:59.360 Thank you.

00:19:02.700 You have to understand, these are all performers.

00:19:05.120 Okay.

00:19:05.520 She's AOC, obviously, is a performer. 0.99

00:19:09.500 I've seen some people describe her as a theater kid, you know, in high school.

00:19:13.560 And that is what she is.

00:19:14.660 And that's, you know, Congress is full of people like this who are simply performers.

00:19:21.360 And I know you might say that that's always been the case with politics.

00:19:25.260 Politics has always attracted performers.

00:19:28.160 It's always attracted people who were too ugly to be actors.

00:19:33.160 And so they end up becoming politicians.

00:19:36.800 And I think that's a pretty good theory for why people end up becoming politicians, many of them anyway.

00:19:41.160 Because really what they want to do is they want to be actors and they want to be in Hollywood. 0.85

00:19:44.800 But they're too ugly for that. 0.87

00:19:46.060 And so they end up doing this. 0.99

00:19:47.700 And that's true.

00:19:49.100 And to a certain extent, that's always been the case in politics, even before Hollywood and movies existed.

00:19:54.060 But the difference now is that there is the opportunity to perform all the time.

00:20:00.300 Because of 24-hour cable news, because of the internet and social media, and they're always going for that viral moment.

00:20:06.760 That's what she was doing right there.

00:20:08.640 Waving her hand around, doing this whole, all the theatrics and everything.

00:20:12.800 And she knows that she can do that.

00:20:14.680 And anytime she does it, it can go viral online, which it did.

00:20:17.740 So while politics has always attracted these empty performer types, the problem is now that they can perform all the time.

00:20:27.320 The cameras are always on them, 24-7.

00:20:30.640 And so there's always this invitation to perform.

00:20:33.760 And then you end up with people like AOC.

00:20:36.320 Here's an article in NBC News.

00:20:39.260 I found myself, in fact, my own picture in one of the top headlines in NBC News yesterday.

00:20:44.560 But not because, not for anything good.

00:20:46.940 Not because they wanted to congratulate me or say, hey, nice job.

00:20:50.240 Or, I don't know, wish me well with the new babies.

00:20:53.740 Or anything like that.

00:20:54.700 Instead, it's this.

00:20:55.520 Here's the headline.

00:20:56.820 How Tennessee axed millions in HIV funds amid scrutiny from far-right provocateurs.

00:21:02.660 And the article goes on.

00:21:03.540 Tennessee's recent decision to reject over $8 million in federal funds to combat HIV was motivated, at least in part, by right-wing provocateurs stoking anti-LGBTQ sentiment, according to four sources within the state health department.

00:21:17.160 The move by Republican Governor Bill Lee will hamstring, if not cripple, efforts to combat one of the country's most poorly controlled epidemics of the virus, HIV advocates say.

00:21:25.360 The announcement followed a political crisis in Tennessee that began in September when conservative media personalities, including Matt Walsh and Ben Shapiro, launched attacks on Vanderbilt University Medical Center over its care of transgender minors, which they alleged was barbaric.

00:21:38.020 In October, the pressure wound its way to the unit that combats HIV, sexually transmitted infections, and viral hepatitis at the Tennessee Health Department.

00:21:45.920 On October 24th, the unit's director, Dr. Pamela Talley, told employees that because of the social media firestorm over Vanderbilt, information about the Tennessee Transgender Task Force and other trans resources had been scrubbed from the department's website.

00:21:58.060 A leading voice in the right's opposition to the treatment of gender dysphoria in minors, Matt Walsh, a columnist from the conservative media outlet Daily Wire, published a series of widely read tweets on September 20th targeting Vanderbilt University Medical Center's treatment of minors at its transgender health clinic.

00:22:14.460 Quote, they now castrate, sterilize, and mutilate minors as well as adults, Walsh said.

00:22:17.940 The next day, Walsh appeared on Tucker Carlson's Fox News show to publicize his investigation, and Ben Shapiro, a conservative commentator who co-founded Daily Wire, further amplified Walsh's attacks on Vanderbilt on his YouTube channel and podcast, decrying the, quote, nonsense garbage that a boy can be a girl and a girl can be a boy.

00:22:34.120 Now, I'm reading through this whole thing, and they used my picture, again, at the top of the article, and on their homepage, it was right there, Tennessee getting rid of HIV funds, and then the picture of me.

00:22:47.540 It's actually a pretty good picture, though. I'll give them that. I appreciate that much, at least.

00:22:53.200 But then the interesting thing, of course, is that I have nothing to do with this HIV funds thing.

00:22:58.500 So this is a story about HIV funds being taken away, I guess, and they make me the centerpiece of this story, and they put my picture there.

00:23:08.920 The first I heard about this is in the article.

00:23:12.920 So the first I heard about me apparently being involved in pulling HIV funds was in the article about it, which is always a strange thing.

00:23:22.360 It's a strange day when you find out on NBC that you were involved in a conspiracy to deprive people of HIV treatment, because I had no idea that I had done that, because I didn't.

00:23:31.880 But at least they acknowledge my work against child mutilation, and that's really what this is about, obviously.

00:23:43.240 What they're actually upset about, and the guy, I'm trying to remember his name. I don't have the article pulled up right in front of me.

00:23:48.500 Benjamin Ryan's his name. Benjamin Ryan, he's obsessed. He's writing articles about me all the time.

00:23:53.720 He's constantly tweeting things and everything, and he's very, very upset that myself and The Daily Wire, that we're engaged in this campaign to protect children from being mutilated.

00:24:06.240 He's really upset about that, but he knows that he can't engage with us on that issue directly, because he'll lose.

00:24:17.340 What he's not going to attempt to do, what none of these people will actually attempt to do, is stand up and say,

00:24:24.280 yes, I think it is a good idea, it is the right thing to chop the breasts of a 15-year-old, to a physically healthy 15-year-old girl. 0.97

00:24:32.460 I think that's a good idea, and here, I will tell you why.

00:24:35.780 None of these people will do that, because they know they can't.

00:24:40.120 At some level, and not even that deep down, they know that this is a horrifying, grotesque practice. 0.96

00:24:47.340 And that there's no way for them to defend it without sounding like absolute lunatics.

00:24:52.180 And so instead, they constantly look for workarounds.

00:24:55.020 They look for indirect ways.

00:24:56.760 And usually, there are going to be stories about how these reports that we're putting out,

00:25:04.200 and the work that we're doing is causing death threats, and bomb threats, and putting people's lives at risk.

00:25:10.160 And you notice that even in those articles, even if it were true that we were responsible for saying things that were encouraging bomb threats and death threats,

00:25:23.320 which we aren't, but even if that was the case,

00:25:28.300 well, you still haven't explained how we're wrong about what we're saying,

00:25:31.240 because they can't explain it.

00:25:35.960 And this is probably the most desperate attempt of all, as he goes for this really desperate workaround,

00:25:44.120 where he's trying to tie this all into HIV funds and whatever else.

00:25:48.020 On a similar topic here, this is the bulwark.

00:25:54.760 Just put out this article with this headline.

00:25:56.860 Trump's escalation in the gender war.

00:25:59.660 Even as the former president tries to energize his tired campaign by pushing on trans issues,

00:26:04.480 is a window opening for a moderate approach.

00:26:07.320 This is something you can always count on alleged conservatives,

00:26:12.000 especially the ones that write for the bulwark,

00:26:13.980 to come along and start talking about, well, we need a more moderate approach,

00:26:19.160 especially when the right is winning, okay, and we're being effective,

00:26:26.060 and we're achieving actual wins on the battlefield.

00:26:29.620 We're putting points on the scoreboard.

00:26:32.000 That's when we can always count on people from the bulwark and other similar publications

00:26:36.260 to come along and say, let's dial it back a little bit.

00:26:39.000 This is too effective.

00:26:40.380 You're winning a little bit too much.

00:26:42.120 Let's dial it back.

00:26:43.980 Find a moderate approach.

00:26:46.280 Let's find a moderate approach between mutilating children and not mutilating them.

00:26:51.040 I'm sure there's middle ground we can agree on.

00:26:53.960 So this is an article from Giselle Donnelly.

00:26:56.360 I'll read a little bit of it.

00:26:58.000 It says, two months into the lackluster start of his 2024 presidential bid,

00:27:01.860 Donald Trump rolled out the most reliable weapon in the MAGA arsenal,

00:27:04.500 a full-scale attack on transgender Americans and the medical and therapeutic communities

00:27:09.080 that care for them.

00:27:10.240 In a three-and-a-half-minute video, Screed, which we played some of it on the show yesterday,

00:27:13.880 first posted on his Truth Social platform,

00:27:16.660 Trump announced an onslaught of gender war measures going far beyond the questions raised

00:27:20.360 in recent years about bathroom use, trans participation in women's sports,

00:27:23.740 or the prescription of puberty blockers or hormones for adolescents.

00:27:28.520 On day one, vowed Trump,

00:27:30.000 I will revoke Joe Biden's policies on so-called gender-affirming care. 0.87

00:27:33.540 Ridiculous.

00:27:34.900 On the right, gender-affirming care has become synonymous with premature prescriptions 0.95

00:27:38.900 of cross-sex hormones, puberty blockers, and surgeries.

00:27:41.600 In reality, it is the common language phrase that marks a kinder, gentler approach to what

00:27:46.000 is now known as gender dysphoria, as opposed to previous treatments for gender identity disorder.

00:27:51.520 Trump announced that he would ask Congress to pass legislation that recognizes only two

00:27:55.500 genders, male and female, that they're assigned at birth.

00:27:57.740 However, he vowed that he would sign a new executive order instructing every federal agency

00:28:02.960 to cease all programs that promote the concept of sex or gender transition at any age,

00:28:07.200 and to ask Congress to outlaw the use of federal funds to pay for transition procedures.

00:28:13.100 By the way, just a sidebar here, a couple things.

00:28:15.640 Good and bad, from what Trump said.

00:28:18.740 Bad part, and I know this seems like splitting hairs.

00:28:22.680 I think, yes, we want Congress to recognize, we want the government at every level to recognize

00:28:30.560 the reality of male and female, that there are only two sexes.

00:28:34.560 We need this to be officially recognized now.

00:28:37.700 We shouldn't need to officially recognize it.

00:28:39.820 It shouldn't be an issue, but it is.

00:28:42.000 And so, yes, that's what we want.

00:28:43.280 But we don't want Congress or any other government body to recognize sex, quote, assigned at birth.

00:28:51.620 That is certainly not the language we want, because sex is, when you say assigned at birth,

00:28:57.700 you are already agreeing with the ideologues, because you are agreeing that sex is the kind 0.85

00:29:03.000 of thing that can be assigned, and that this assignment happens sometime after the conception

00:29:08.780 of the person in the womb.

00:29:11.500 No, sex is not assigned at birth.

00:29:12.900 It is observed at birth.

00:29:13.980 It is noted at birth.

00:29:15.220 It is, you know, it is present at birth, whatever you want to say, although it's present before

00:29:19.440 birth, too.

00:29:21.120 But on the positive side, and this is something that other people have noted, and on the left

00:29:25.840 they note it with great alarm, is that when Trump is talking about this, he is not only

00:29:30.900 referring to the trans agenda as it targets kids.

00:29:36.360 He is also referring to, he is referring to the entire thing.

00:29:40.040 I mean, he is referring to transgenderism as a concept, which is exactly what we need 0.99

00:29:45.240 to be doing.

00:29:46.960 And yes, ultimately, we need to be protecting both children and adults from this, from these

00:29:55.460 barbaric procedures.

00:29:57.600 It makes sense to, as we are doing, to start with protecting kids.

00:30:01.620 They need our protection the most.

00:30:04.440 But I don't think it should end there.

00:30:06.360 As I've always said, it should not be legal for doctors to do this to anyone.

00:30:13.960 I don't care how old you are. 0.76

00:30:16.220 If somebody is confused about their identity, a doctor saying, okay, well, we'll, you know, 1.00

00:30:23.100 we'll chop your penis off. 1.00

00:30:24.920 We'll chop your breasts off. 1.00

00:30:26.420 We'll start chopping parts of your body off until you feel better about yourself. 1.00

00:30:31.480 That is barbaric and insane and abusive, no matter how old the person is. 0.97

00:30:37.520 It doesn't magically become ethical for the doctor because the person's over the age of

00:30:42.540 18.

00:30:42.880 So I think Trump is noting that, which is good.

00:30:47.480 Anyway, back to the Bulwark article.

00:30:50.760 It says, whether this ploy is enough to help revitalize Trump's presidential effort is difficult

00:30:54.480 to assess.

00:30:55.060 The Republican bench is deep with aggressive culture warriors in Florida.

00:30:58.000 Governor Ron DeSantis, Trump's top rival, has until now dominated the lineup.

00:31:01.860 But now that Trump has spoken, what MAGA candidate will want to be seen to be more moderate than

00:31:06.220 he on transgender issues?

00:31:08.700 And I'm just scrolling along here to get to the end, because what I'm trying to figure

00:31:13.740 out, what's allegedly being pitched here is a moderate position, is that we don't want

00:31:21.400 the extremes of one side or the extremes of the other.

00:31:24.480 Well, what is the moderate position exactly?

00:31:26.820 To the degree that this sort of radicalism has become the face of the movement for preserving

00:31:32.480 citizenship liberties for gay, lesbian, bisexual, and trans Americans, it's hardly a wonder

00:31:36.840 that it provokes an ugly reaction.

00:31:38.560 Okay, so now this person's talking about the extremism on the other side, saying that's no

00:31:42.380 good.

00:31:44.720 But then I scroll along, I get to the bottom.

00:31:47.720 When I began to transition, it was not that long.

00:31:49.740 Oh, this person is trans, so that's no surprise.

00:31:52.180 It seemed possible to hope that at some point, that would not be the thing that defined me.

00:31:56.820 I wanted re-assimilation into mainstream society, not revolution against it.

00:32:01.000 I thought that the trans rights movement would take the path charted by the marriage equality

00:32:04.380 movement.

00:32:05.080 The road to normality is now blocked from both left and right, but perhaps a middle way

00:32:09.240 can be cleared.

00:32:09.960 Okay, so this whole article is written, it's in the bulwark, and you read it, it's proposing

00:32:16.900 a middle way, a compromised position.

00:32:19.980 And you read the entire thing, and you get to the end, and it never even stipulates what

00:32:26.640 the moderate approach is.

00:32:28.540 It never suggests what is the moderate position.

00:32:32.260 You've got one side that says, you know, gender is fluid, there are a million of them, and

00:32:41.460 there's countless numbers of them.

00:32:44.080 Biological sex is essentially imaginary. 1.00

00:32:46.820 There is no, like, objective reality when it comes to sex. 0.99

00:32:50.740 And if a 12-year-old child's boy says that he's a girl, then he should be chemically castrated. 0.99

00:32:57.320 Like, that's what one side says. 0.95

00:32:59.800 Then you've got the other side saying, no, absolutely not to all of that.

00:33:05.160 And then you've got this person saying, well, what about in the middle?

00:33:08.700 Okay, what is the middle between those two positions?

00:33:14.900 And the reason why they never stipulate the middle ground is because there isn't one.

00:33:20.320 It doesn't exist.

00:33:21.620 Okay, you cannot have a middle ground between horrific falsehoods on one side from the gender 0.98

00:33:31.240 ideology crowd and the truth on the other side.

00:33:35.440 Because that's all you're getting from the other side.

00:33:37.000 It's just the truth.

00:33:38.760 There are only males and females.

00:33:40.060 Sex is binary.

00:33:41.340 You shouldn't mutilate kids.

00:33:42.520 You shouldn't mutilate anyone.

00:33:43.900 This is our position.

00:33:45.100 And it is scientifically true.

00:33:46.960 It's morally true.

00:33:48.020 So you've got falsehood and truth, any kind of middle ground.

00:33:52.880 Here's why there's no middle ground.

00:33:55.320 Because if you stray even one inch from the truth and towards the falsehood, well, now it's

00:34:04.020 a falsehood.

00:34:04.920 Now we're just like degrees that there's the truth and then there's the falsehood.

00:34:09.080 It's not a spectrum.

00:34:10.500 It's not like there's a spectrum where you go along and like suddenly the falsehood kind

00:34:14.840 of blends with the truth and right there in the middle is the sweet, lukewarm spot.

00:34:19.480 No, there are many different versions of falsehoods, some more extreme than others, and then there's

00:34:25.580 the truth.

00:34:26.840 And if you venture away from the truth, then you are in the realm of falsehood.

00:34:30.880 That's not a compromise.

00:34:32.280 That is a surrender.

00:34:33.200 And it's a surrender of something that we absolutely cannot surrender.

00:34:40.380 Right.

00:34:43.000 This is maybe Biden's finest moment.

00:34:45.220 We've heard a lot of alleged gaffes from Biden, but this one, I really appreciate it.

00:34:49.800 Listen.

00:34:50.780 More than half the women in my cabinet, more than half the people in my cabinet, more than 0.98

00:34:54.720 half the women in my administration are women. 1.00

00:34:57.420 What I love about that is that he does correct himself, but then he goes back to the wrong

00:35:05.420 way because he says more than half the women, I mean, more than half the people, no, more

00:35:10.200 than half the women are women.

00:35:12.400 So he caught himself, but then he went back to the wrong way of saying more than half the

00:35:18.600 women in his administration are women, which people assume that that's a gaffe and he's just

00:35:25.800 stumbling over his words because he's senile.

00:35:28.180 And of course, that's usually the case.

00:35:30.880 But in this administration, there may be some reality to that.

00:35:37.240 Half of the women in the administration actually are women. 1.00

00:35:42.320 The other half of the women are men, I guess is what he's trying to say.

00:35:46.000 All right.

00:35:46.180 Let's get to the comment section.

00:35:47.300 As members of the SBG, you're well acquainted with my affinity for pop culture and old school

00:36:07.320 hip hop, you know about this, as well as the undeniable street cred that I've garnered through

00:36:12.180 my life as an accomplished gang leader.

00:36:14.360 As a true rap mogul, all I could ever ask is to make my greatest influences and hip hop

00:36:19.540 role models who's shiesty and spot them, got them and Tekashi69 proud.

00:36:25.140 That being said, I'm proud to announce the newest Sweet Baby album t-shirt, which is we unveiled

00:36:30.600 yesterday and it is the Notorious SBG.

00:36:34.920 This latest edition to my swag check is available now at dailywire.com slash shop.

00:36:40.840 And we just keep, we keep putting, I mean, there are so many great things on the shop.

00:36:45.700 If you haven't been to swag check recently, this shirt is great, but we have so many other

00:36:49.880 great things there.

00:36:50.660 And you can celebrate my long established roots in the hip hop world with yet another instant

00:36:54.140 classic.

00:36:54.860 If we sell enough of these, it's not completely out of the question that I, they want me to

00:36:59.140 say, they want me to again promise that I'm going to freestyle rap for you if we sell

00:37:02.500 enough of these.

00:37:03.020 And I will not make that promise.

00:37:04.880 So I'm not going to even talk about that because then that'll be the, my life the next six months

00:37:08.960 will be people harassing me.

00:37:10.660 Hey Matt, when are you going to do the freestyle rap for us?

00:37:12.760 So I won't do that.

00:37:13.840 But if you buy a lot of these shirts, I will give you a hearty thank you.

00:37:19.300 If you buy a lot of them. 0.99

00:37:21.180 If you don't, you can go to hell. 0.64

00:37:22.720 Go to dailywire.com slash shop to get your Notorious SBG t-shirt today. 0.96

00:37:27.680 Well, for our comment section today, we must unfortunately, once again, move away from responding

00:37:32.200 to comments from the SBG so that I can instead defend the validity and dignity and honor of

00:37:38.020 the SBG itself.

00:37:39.720 And especially of myself, your trusted cult leader.

00:37:43.020 As you know, Candace Owens, my colleague and apparent sworn enemy at the Daily Wire, has

00:37:47.700 launched a campaign to overtake the Sweet Baby Gang.

00:37:49.840 She wants to come up with her own gang, all with the intention of supplanting the SBG as 0.66

00:37:54.880 the Daily Wire's preeminent and most prestigious cult.

00:37:58.880 And she's even solicited suggestions for gang names, but all the suggestions were corny as

00:38:03.840 hell and didn't come close to capturing the spontaneous poetic charm of the Sweet Baby Gang.

00:38:11.220 So, so far, this campaign is off to a rather pitiful start.

00:38:16.840 But now she's taken it a step further, and she's even now enlisted the help of AI voice

00:38:21.960 generating software, speaking of AI stuff, which has, this has now turned into like an

00:38:27.780 information war, I guess.

00:38:29.780 And this is from her show watch.

00:38:31.440 You know, Matt Walsh, my colleague, my non-friend, my arch-nemesis, Matt Walsh, you know, he's

00:38:39.100 got that Sweet Baby Gang, and I would like to have the Sweet Baby Gang. 0.95

00:38:44.020 And guess what, guys?

00:38:45.120 Matt Walsh agrees that it's mine.

00:38:47.140 Let's hear Matt Walsh, maybe not, but definitely do say that the Sweet Baby Gang is mine.

00:38:53.740 Today on the Matt Walsh Show, I'll be telling you why I'm formally stepping down as the leader

00:38:58.500 of the Sweet Baby Gang.

00:38:59.620 I've searched long and hard for a successor, and have finally found one.

00:39:04.340 She is the host of my favorite podcast ever, and has the best taste in bottled water.

00:39:09.600 First, I have to admit that I was wrong. 0.99

00:39:11.320 Dasani is absolute trash. 0.97

00:39:13.500 Secondly, I am announcing that I am formally handing control of the Sweet Baby Gang to my 0.99

00:39:17.800 dear friend, Candace Owens.

00:39:19.620 I mean, is that not incredible and terrifying, but also amazing that Matt Walsh has renounced

00:39:26.120 himself as the leader of the Sweet Baby Gang, and that's actually mine?

00:39:28.620 And he admits that I'm his dear friend and also admits that I'm right about how disgusting

00:39:32.440 Dasani water is.

00:39:33.780 All that actually happened, or did it happen?

00:39:35.600 Did he actually say that?

00:39:36.640 Was that from Matt Walsh's podcast?

00:39:39.140 Okay.

00:39:39.580 First, I am glad to find out that for Candace Owens, her greatest dream in her career is

00:39:47.320 to be my successor.

00:39:49.020 So I do appreciate that.

00:39:50.920 Second, I never said that Dasani water is good bottled water.

00:39:54.340 I said that it's just, it's bottled water, and that's all it is, and it tastes like every

00:39:58.380 other bottle of water.

00:39:59.520 And I proved that beyond a shadow of a doubt in a blind taste test that we did on her show,

00:40:04.300 which I won.

00:40:04.660 Third, I might not be as concerned about AI technology now as I was at the beginning of

00:40:10.000 the show, because that did not impress me at all.

00:40:12.440 That didn't sound like me in the slightest bit.

00:40:16.820 Wasn't even slightly convincing.

00:40:18.760 I mean, that robot could never capture the soul and gravity of my voice.

00:40:26.140 I have the voice, I've been told, of like an ill-tempered grizzly bear who smokes too

00:40:33.180 many cigarettes.

00:40:33.980 And I take that as a compliment.

00:40:35.840 I don't know if it's intended that way, but that's how I take it.

00:40:38.700 And the AI didn't come close to that.

00:40:40.840 Also, by the way, she began that segment by announcing ahead of time that the clip was 0.98

00:40:46.660 made using AI, which kind of defeats the purpose of the bit when you tell people that

00:40:52.660 that's what it is.

00:40:53.420 That's like calling somebody up on a prank call.

00:40:56.060 And when they pick up, you say, hi, I'm about to prank you.

00:40:59.060 Get ready for this prank.

00:41:00.280 This is a prank we're about to do.

00:41:01.980 And here it goes.

00:41:04.080 So a little bit of a concept problem there.

00:41:06.480 Once again, I feel that the sweet baby gang is secure and safe and we have nothing to worry

00:41:11.400 about.

00:41:12.380 Jeremy's Razors is offering a great deal that ends at midnight tonight.

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00:41:27.820 After a 6-3 ruling in our favor at the Supreme Court, the mandate was dead. 0.99

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00:42:09.120 today.

00:42:09.400 That's jeremysrazors.com today.

00:42:11.960 Now let's get to our daily cancellation.

00:42:17.460 Well, if you've been listening to the show over the past month or so, you know that we

00:42:20.560 have returned frequently to a discussion about the situation that young men face in our culture,

00:42:25.020 and in particular, as it relates to marriage.

00:42:27.520 And you know, not only if you've been listening to this past week, but if you listen really at

00:42:30.860 any point, that I'm a major advocate of marriage, that I especially encourage young men and women

00:42:36.400 to embrace marriage and family life.

00:42:38.360 But there's been a significant cultural shift away from marriage in recent years with an

00:42:41.660 increasing number of young people, men and women, giving up on the institution altogether.

00:42:46.700 And for men, this shift has become its own movement with its own name.

00:42:50.480 Men go their own way is what it's called.

00:42:52.140 And the logic behind the movement is that our culture is hopelessly corrupted and the system

00:42:55.920 is hopelessly rigged against men.

00:42:57.160 And so that they're left with no choice, but to give up on the system, give up on marriage,

00:43:00.880 give up on the family and strike out on their own, focusing instead on their own independence

00:43:04.660 and sovereignty.

00:43:06.260 As I've argued, I understand the logic.

00:43:08.880 I sympathize with those who are isolated and lonely and feel that this is the only path

00:43:13.280 available to them.

00:43:14.460 But I don't think that surrender is the right response.

00:43:17.380 A man cannot give up on what he was made to do and to be.

00:43:21.840 To truly go your own way, alone and isolated, is to give up on your duty, your legacy, your

00:43:27.740 ancestors, your bloodline, your civilization, your happiness.

00:43:31.340 The movie Into the Wild tells the story of a man, Christopher McCandless, who went his

00:43:35.420 own way to the extreme, you know, burned his Social Security card, left his family, hiked

00:43:39.160 into the Alaskan wilderness, and he died there alone.

00:43:43.280 And as he was dying, he wrote in the margins of a book the words, happiness is only real when

00:43:48.480 shared.

00:43:48.820 This is one of the most essential truths of human nature.

00:43:53.180 Most of us are meant to share our happiness with others.

00:43:57.520 And for most of us, that's going to be with a spouse and children.

00:44:00.540 All of that said, there are systemic problems with the way that we approach and govern marriages

00:44:06.780 in our country.

00:44:08.100 And it is important that we deal with and address those problems, which we usually don't.

00:44:14.560 This is one of the central points that a great many men have made to me as they've

00:44:18.400 given feedback on the topics we've discussed on the show in recent weeks.

00:44:21.800 I've read many messages like this one, just choosing this one at random.

00:44:24.500 It says, Dear Matt, I absolutely agree with your message about the importance of marriage.

00:44:27.180 I agree that men should become fathers and care for their families.

00:44:30.080 I even generally agree with your take on Andrew Tate.

00:44:32.000 But you talk about these things while never addressing these systemic issues.

00:44:35.760 You push for marriage but pretend that no-fault divorce doesn't exist.

00:44:39.380 Your message will fall on deaf ears as long as you refuse to acknowledge the whole picture.

00:44:44.100 Now, for the record, it's definitely not even close to true that I never talk about divorce

00:44:50.020 or no-fault divorce.

00:44:50.880 In fact, I've been talking about it for as long as I've had a national platform to talk

00:44:54.160 about these things at all.

00:44:55.800 But if I'm being teed up to talk about it again, I'm happy to oblige, which is why the

00:45:00.820 cancelee for our daily cancellation today is no-fault divorce.

00:45:04.640 Now, for those who aren't familiar with the concept, no-fault divorce laws, first adopted

00:45:09.000 by California, of course, and then by every other state in some version, allow couples

00:45:14.800 to break up their marriage without any specific cause or reason.

00:45:18.140 They don't need to prove that anybody was at fault.

00:45:21.040 They simply tell the court that they don't want to be married, and that's it.

00:45:25.140 Now, in some states, no-fault divorce is the only choice. 0.91

00:45:28.700 An at-fault divorce is an unavailable option in these states.

00:45:32.080 In the rest of the states, no-fault is an option that can be chosen, among other options.

00:45:38.140 But here's perhaps the most important detail.

00:45:41.400 In most situations, it only takes one spouse to file for no-fault divorce.

00:45:48.420 This means that one spouse can break the marriage contract without citing any reason except irreconcilable

00:45:55.400 differences, even if the other spouse doesn't consent.

00:45:59.320 And this is where the gender disparity comes into play.

00:46:01.260 The vast majority of divorces are initiated by women. 0.65

00:46:04.140 Studies have also shown that women are more likely to get divorced after getting promoted 0.99

00:46:08.320 at work, achieving greater financial success.

00:46:12.600 That's what the, you know, as their financial situation improves, the likelihood of divorce 0.75

00:46:18.540 becomes even more significant.

00:46:21.660 Meanwhile, women are far more likely to make it out well in the divorce, receiving alimony, 0.99

00:46:26.800 other forms of, quote-unquote, spousal support.

00:46:29.920 Now, in theory, gender is not supposed to factor into who gets alimony or how much they receive. 0.98

00:46:34.120 But in reality, it almost always does.

00:46:36.380 Even the New York Times has acknowledged this.

00:46:37.900 An article last year remarking on how rare it is for women to be forced to financially support 1.00

00:46:42.140 their ex-husbands reports this, quote,

00:46:43.860 So women are more and more becoming the breadwinners in their families, and yet the family court system 1.00

00:46:58.540 said that despite an increase in stay-at-home husbands, far more women than men seek and receive

00:47:03.880 spousal support.

00:47:06.100 So women are more and more becoming the breadwinners in their families, and yet the family court system 1.00

00:47:10.560 doesn't seem to have noticed that.

00:47:12.500 Alimony payments are still doled out like it's, you know, 1953.

00:47:15.580 What this means is that a woman, this is what can happen, a woman can marry a man, leave him 0.80

00:47:22.620 for any reason she wants, even after cheating on him, and still take half the assets and be 1.00

00:47:28.580 awarded with an allowance from her ex-husband in perpetuity.

00:47:31.960 It's not only outrageously unjust, but it also purposefully disincentivizes marital fidelity

00:47:38.340 while incentivizing disloyalty and infidelity and divorce.

00:47:42.460 There are many reforms that should be enacted to stop the bleeding here.

00:47:47.440 The alimony system, for one thing, has to be drastically changed.

00:47:50.460 Most alimony laws were created under the assumption that most women would be housewives and they 1.00

00:47:55.380 would be stay-at-home moms, and most divorces would be initiated by men who are the sole

00:48:00.400 breadwinners in the family.

00:48:02.860 And in a case like that, where a man chooses to leave a wife who was staying at home to raise

00:48:07.960 the kids and take care of the house, and he decides that he wants to leave, it makes

00:48:12.440 sense that he should have to pay.

00:48:13.840 She structured her entire life around the assumption that he would provide for her financially

00:48:18.880 so that he could, you know, so that she can care for the children and he can go to work.

00:48:23.740 If the man decides to go shack up with his secretary or whatever, he should still have to provide

00:48:29.560 the support that he promised.

00:48:32.240 But this doesn't describe all or even most divorces in modern America.

00:48:37.100 Given that, again, most divorces are initiated by women, and also most women have careers. 0.99

00:48:43.520 There's no reason why a woman with a job who decides to leave her husband and break the 1.00

00:48:48.320 marriage vows should then be rewarded with a monthly stipend from the man that she wants 0.99

00:48:53.360 nothing to do with.

00:48:55.280 I think a fairer system would require the person who destroys the marriage to pay, regardless

00:49:00.900 of the gender.

00:49:01.740 And yeah, can it be difficult to decide who's at fault for destroying the marriage?

00:49:06.340 Yeah, it's difficult.

00:49:07.060 But that's what needs to happen.

00:49:10.380 This is why these courts exist, to make these determinations.

00:49:14.660 And if the divorce really is a mutual decision, which, I mean, almost never really is, but

00:49:18.720 if that's what they're claiming, then neither should expect an allowance from the other,

00:49:23.020 if they both have mutually decided this.

00:49:26.080 But I think the reform to no-fault divorce is far simpler.

00:49:28.220 It should be reformed by simply ceasing to exist.

00:49:32.180 Marriage is much more than a contract.

00:49:34.560 It's a covenant.

00:49:36.120 But to the extent that it is also a contract, it's hard to think of any other situation in

00:49:40.740 which a contract can be broken for no reason by either party without the consent of the

00:49:45.780 other and entirely without cause.

00:49:49.740 You know, it's hard to think of any other contract that would work that way.

00:49:53.420 But by treating marriage this way, we have downgraded the marital contract to something

00:49:59.500 less binding than, like, the agreement you have with your cell phone carrier.

00:50:03.600 We've made it into something cheap and worthless.

00:50:06.760 And that's how it's therefore treated.

00:50:09.460 When you make divorce easy, and for at least one party concern, profitable, you get more of

00:50:15.340 it.

00:50:16.040 In fact, shockingly, when you make divorce easier and more profitable for one sex at the expense

00:50:21.960 of the other, you get a greater number of the members of that sex initiating divorces.

00:50:27.000 You don't need a crystal ball to predict an outcome like this.

00:50:30.420 People respond to incentives.

00:50:33.160 If you incentivize disloyal, selfish behavior, you get more of it.

00:50:38.220 However, if you make divorce difficult and potentially costly for everybody involved, not for one spouse,

00:50:42.920 but both, then you've given couples an incentive to find another solution for their supposedly

00:50:48.420 irreconcilable differences, and you've sent a message on a cultural level that the marital

00:50:53.480 vow is meaningful and important and not something that can be just discarded on a whim.

00:50:58.700 Now, no-fault divorce advocates will argue that the alternative, divorce without the no-fault

00:51:04.240 option, can tend to be traumatic and it could get really ugly.

00:51:08.260 But there's no way around that, and we shouldn't look for one.

00:51:13.680 Like, divorce is an ugly thing, no matter what.

00:51:16.880 A promise was made, a vow was made, now it's being broken.

00:51:20.180 That's an ugly thing.

00:51:21.460 There's no way to make this ugly thing not ugly.

00:51:25.100 Besides, no-fault divorce doesn't mitigate the trauma or ugliness of divorce.

00:51:29.080 Instead, too often, it simply shifts the trauma so that one party is made to carry most of its

00:51:35.120 burden. And that is the problem. And for that reason, and so many others, no-fault divorce

00:51:42.420 is, or should be, canceled. And that'll do it for the show today and for the week.

00:51:48.280 We'll talk to you on Monday. Have a great day. Godspeed.

The Matt Walsh Show - February 03, 2023

Ep. 1106 - The Growing Epidemic Of AI Pornography

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