The Matt Walsh Show - Ep. 1213 - Trump's Mugshot Backfires Massively On The Left

00:00:00.180 Today on the Matt Wall Show, it's a picture that will live in infamy.

00:00:02.980 Donald Trump's mugshot was released as he was officially arrested on bogus charges after another bogus indictment.

00:00:08.080 An indictment filed by a DA who has her own history of questioning the legitimacy of elections.

00:00:12.440 I'll explain.

00:00:13.360 Also, the media and trans activists yet again baselessly blame me for violence.

00:00:16.960 This is perhaps their most outrageous smear yet.

00:00:19.300 We'll talk about that.

00:00:20.140 And in our daily cancellation, we were told we had to use paper straws to save the environment.

00:00:24.240 Now it turns out that the paper straws have toxic chemicals that are a whole lot worse for the environment and for us.

00:00:29.040 The experts were wrong.

00:00:30.320 Again, we'll talk about all that and more today on the Matt Wall Show.

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00:01:42.920 Last night, for the first time in American history, we all collectively laid our eyes on a mugshot of a former president.

00:01:50.140 Donald Trump was officially arrested at Fulton County Jail in Georgia.

00:01:53.480 Unlike with the other 900 indictments, this time they decided to take and publish his mugshot.

00:01:58.780 Now, there was, of course, no legitimate reason to take a mugshot of a former president.

00:02:03.840 The whole purpose of a mugshot is to provide law enforcement with photographic documentation of the suspect so that they know what he looks like.

00:02:12.660 And it makes sense that police, you know, the jail needs to know that.

00:02:15.620 But Donald Trump happens to be the most recognizable and famous person in the world, possibly in the history of the world, arguably.

00:02:23.340 When he shows up for trial, they aren't going to, you know, have to refer back to his mugshot to make sure it's really him.

00:02:29.040 There isn't going to be anyone saying, wait, is that Donald Trump?

00:02:31.380 It's hard to tell.

00:02:31.860 Pull up his mugshot.

00:02:32.660 So, why did they take this step?

00:02:35.780 What was the point?

00:02:37.140 The point, of course, was pure humiliation and vengeance.

00:02:40.900 It was also to give the DA, Fannie Willis, a political trophy to put on her wall.

00:02:45.740 It's something that she wants to use when she inevitably runs for Senate or governor in a few years, which, of course, we all know she's going to do. 0.99

00:02:51.500 And that's a big part of the reason why all this is happening right now.

00:02:54.560 Of course, it all backfired, as it was always destined to.

00:02:57.380 The mugshot instantly became an iconic image.

00:02:59.880 And in all the ways that the left doesn't want it to be an iconic image.

00:03:04.100 And it had exactly the effect that any half-conscious political observer knew it would have, which is rallying the base around Trump.

00:03:11.860 Trump is now fundraising off of the image, and smartly so, and will likely raise many millions of dollars just from the mugshot alone.

00:03:18.960 He already has raised millions.

00:03:21.120 In fact, we can say that if Donald Trump does manage to get elected to the presidency again, Fannie Willis will be largely responsible for it. 0.53

00:03:28.480 She is the most effective campaign manager Trump has ever had, even if unintentionally.

00:03:34.020 But even if this all obviously works to Trump's advantage, that doesn't make it any less outrageous or infuriating.

00:03:40.960 Nor should we be distracted from the lessons that this moment is trying to teach us.

00:03:45.440 The most obvious one is that the left is, they are beyond caring about even the pretense of legitimacy.

00:03:51.940 Something they used to pretend to care deeply about.

00:03:54.920 In fact, through this whole ordeal, they're not even acting like they've stopped some grave threat to democracy because they know they've done the exact opposite of that.

00:04:02.920 But they are just wielding raw political power for the sole lawless purpose of incarcerating someone who stands a very real chance of winning the presidential election in a little over a year.

00:04:13.760 And that's all this is.

00:04:14.760 And they're not even pretending otherwise now.

00:04:16.760 In fact, many on the left don't want Trump incarcerated. 0.99

00:04:19.800 They want him killed. 1.00

00:04:20.660 They want him dead. 1.00

00:04:21.760 This happened last night. 0.94

00:04:22.720 Watch.

00:04:24.020 Just a few minutes ago, Donald Trump, the disgraced ex-president, the frontrunner for the Republican nominee for president, four times indicted,

00:04:31.720 departed his golf club in Bedminster, New Jersey.

00:04:35.260 He's on route to Fulton County, Georgia, via Newark Airport, we believe.

00:04:39.240 He will surrender himself for processing at an overcrowded jail with a reputation for violence and neglect.

00:04:45.320 A jail that is accustomed to holding defendants facing charges up to and including violent crimes where stabbings are frequent.

00:04:53.840 Actually, three people have lost their lives over the last month.

00:04:57.060 That jail is where the disgraced ex-president of these United States is heading right now.

00:05:04.760 She can't contain her glee.

00:05:06.280 She really can't.

00:05:06.900 She's so excited.

00:05:07.720 She's openly laughing about people getting shanked in jail as she fantasizes about maybe that will happen to the former president.

00:05:16.360 We've played a lot of demented clips on this show over the years.

00:05:18.960 That one is way up there.

00:05:20.760 Not long ago, Nicole Wallace was running comms for the White House during the Iraq War. 0.93

00:05:25.520 And back then, she had to pretend to care about the deaths of innocent people at the hands of establishment Washington. 0.93

00:05:30.120 Until that happens, these people will do everything they can to silence Donald Trump.

00:05:33.440 MSNBC and CNN, after obsessively covering Trump's trip to Georgia all day, made a point of cutting away from his remarks when he was leaving yesterday.

00:05:42.880 Watch.

00:05:43.180 Regular people's lives are destroyed just by the charge.

00:05:48.400 Just by the charge.

00:05:49.540 Just the mere...

00:05:50.420 Oh, here we go.

00:05:50.940 It's a very sad day for America.

00:05:53.520 It should never happen.

00:05:54.980 We challenge an election.

00:05:57.020 Keep going, Ben.

00:05:57.920 So we're just going to be monitoring his remarks and bring them to you.

00:06:00.720 I'm just saying, you can begin to understand how some people, they don't have a lot of exposure to the system.

00:06:06.320 Other people, because of the zip code they live in and the circumstances of life, they're exposed to it a lot.

00:06:10.620 And those lights that are there, which was not the sort of thing that you usually see on an airport tarmac, we did think that this was a possibility tonight.

00:06:19.340 We didn't know for sure that it was going to happen.

00:06:21.260 But it looks like Trump may decide to make public remarks before he gets back on his big private plane and flies back to New Jersey.

00:06:29.420 If he does that, we're not going to take those remarks live, but we will cover them for their newsworthiness.

00:06:34.120 As we've said in the past, there is a cost to us as a news organization of knowingly broadcasting untrue things.

00:06:41.180 And given his previous remarks on the subject that we are almost sure he will speak on, we will not carry those remarks live.

00:06:47.540 And you can be mad at us about it.

00:06:49.040 We can take it.

00:06:49.840 We're big.

00:06:51.260 But we'll cover it for newsworthiness.

00:06:52.980 And we'll turn it around and let you know what he says after he has made those remarks.

00:06:56.340 You know, later on, they say in that clip that they'll get sued if they air the remarks of the former president after his indictment.

00:07:02.980 And if that was, in fact, remotely accurate, then any self-respecting journalist would air the remarks anyway.

00:07:07.620 They'd fight any consequence for it in court.

00:07:10.340 If the First Amendment protects anything, it's airing the words of a former president at a time like this.

00:07:16.560 But MSNBC's statement isn't true, of course.

00:07:18.820 It's a dumb jab at Fox News over the Dominion lawsuit.

00:07:21.500 And it protects their viewers from hearing about the substance in these indictments or lack thereof. 0.58

00:07:26.340 And that's why they do it.

00:07:28.060 Here's what they're not telling viewers at MSNBC.

00:07:30.340 Speaking of newsworthy things.

00:07:32.860 The Fulton County DA, Fannie Willis, has indicted Donald Trump, along with 18 co-defendants, for the following crimes.

00:07:39.900 Offering legal advice to the president.

00:07:42.360 Tweeting things that Fannie Willis doesn't like.

00:07:44.840 And in one particularly egregious case, getting someone's phone number.

00:07:50.840 Quoting from the indictment, quote,

00:07:52.120 On or about the 21st day of November 2020, Mark Randall Meadows sent a text message to United States Representative Scott Perry from Pennsylvania and stated,

00:08:01.840 Can you send me the number for the speaker and leader of PA legislature?

00:08:06.140 POTUS wants to chat with them.

00:08:08.460 This was an overt act in furtherance of the conspiracy.

00:08:13.220 Now think about what a remarkable paragraph that is.

00:08:15.840 Mark Meadows, in his capacity as chief of staff to Donald Trump, was seeking to obtain the phone number of some politicians in Pennsylvania.

00:08:23.840 He asked for a phone number.

00:08:26.540 And because the reason for that request was investigating potential voter fraud, Fannie Willis says Mark Meadows needs to go to prison.

00:08:33.820 They're going to send him to prison for asking for a phone number.

00:08:38.200 Along with more than a dozen other Trump advisors.

00:08:40.320 One of those advisors is John Eastman.

00:08:42.920 What's his offense?

00:08:43.980 Well, he advanced the legal theory that alternative slates of electors could be ceded if election fraud was found.

00:08:52.000 And that's apparently criminal now.

00:08:54.140 Which is interesting because it wasn't illegal in 1960 when JFK's electors from Hawaii met secretly and submitted their own certificates to Washington saying that he had won the state.

00:09:03.380 As Politico reported, quote, the Hawaii Democrats use virtually the same language that Trump electors in five states used in their effort to upend the 2020 race, quote unquote.

00:09:13.760 Ultimately, Kennedy's electors turned out to be the legitimate ones after a recall determined Kennedy had won the state.

00:09:19.560 Now, anyone looking at that episode in 1960 would say it's a good thing that alternative electors can be sent to Washington in the case of a recount that actually changes the result of the election.

00:09:29.120 But now that's criminal, apparently.

00:09:31.180 It's a RICO violation, supposedly.

00:09:35.240 John Eastman and several other lawyers are now facing several years in prison because they did exactly what JFK's electors did and were vindicated for doing in 1960.

00:09:44.840 David Schaefer, who was one of Trump's alternate electors from Georgia, has also been indicted.

00:09:51.200 Ray Smith is facing jail time, too.

00:09:53.480 And what was his offense?

00:09:54.220 Well, per Axios, quote, he, quote, gathered witnesses to testify in hearings before Georgia lawmakers in December 2020 about alleged problems with the state's election.

00:10:04.700 That's not allowed anymore.

00:10:06.200 I mean, they're just like looking into it to see if something happened.

00:10:09.160 They're trying to investigate.

00:10:10.120 And that's a crime somehow.

00:10:14.880 Also, a crime is apparently tweeting about hearings while they're happening.

00:10:18.720 Quoting from the indictment, quote, on or about the third day of December 2020, Donald John Trump caused to be tweeted from the Twitter account at real Donald Trump, quote, Georgia hearings now on OANN.

00:10:29.880 Amazing.

00:10:31.560 This was an overt act in furtherance of the conspiracy.

00:10:35.260 So for the crime of tweeting about a hearing about election fraud and related offenses, Fannie Willis wants to send Trump and 18 of his associates to prison. 0.99

00:10:43.960 For tweeting and just saying that, hey, this hearing's on right now.

00:10:48.320 It's amazing.

00:10:50.040 That's a crime.

00:10:50.760 That's a felony.

00:10:53.280 And not only does she want to send him to prison, she wants to do it very quickly.

00:10:55.320 Willis just filed a request with the court for this trial to take place in just two months, beginning on October 23rd.

00:11:01.820 So for this unprecedented criminal trial of 19 defendants, including a former president, based on a completely novel and insane legal theory, she wants the defense to have a total of two months to prepare.

00:11:14.320 Is that constitutional?

00:11:17.360 Well, no one in the DA's office seems to care.

00:11:19.800 And it's at this point that it's fair to look into the Fulton County DA, Fannie Willis, and see what she's all about.

00:11:26.960 Because it's long been known that she's a Democrat and she's an opponent of Donald Trump.

00:11:30.560 And in itself, that's not necessarily disqualifying.

00:11:34.620 Everyone, even DAs, have a right to their own political opinions.

00:11:38.100 But Fannie Willis has gone far beyond that.

00:11:41.340 Just a year ago, she hosted a fundraiser for a Democratic candidate running against one of the targets of her election investigation.

00:11:47.460 It was a state senator named Burt Jones.

00:11:49.500 Jones was one of Trump's alternate electors.

00:11:52.140 And here's how the judge responded when he found out about this fundraiser.

00:11:56.640 Watch.

00:11:57.900 Using the title of your office and having on social media that you, as this political office holder, are holding a fundraiser for the opponent of someone that this political office is investigating.

00:12:12.440 I don't know that it's an actual conflict, but I use that phrase, what were you thinking, where the prosecutor thought I could prosecute the co-defendant of someone I defended.

00:12:25.540 It's a what are you thinking moment.

00:12:27.660 The optics are horrific.

00:12:30.240 If you are trying to have the public believe that this is a nonpartisan, driven by the facts, and I'm not here to critique decisions, the decision was made, but if we are trying to maintain confidence that this investigation is pursuing facts in a nonpartisan sense, no matter who the district attorney is, we follow the evidence where it goes and ignore the fact that I hosted a fundraiser for the political opponent of someone I've just named the target.

00:12:58.620 So this is a judge that's not exactly using an iron fist here.

00:13:03.760 Well, you know, it's probably not appropriate.

00:13:07.160 I don't know.

00:13:07.840 You're investigating someone and you go to a fundraiser.

00:13:12.140 You host a fundraiser for the political opponent of a person that you're actively investigating.

00:13:17.080 I'm not saying it's a conflict, but geez, you know, maybe you don't want to do that next time.

00:13:21.680 So the judge is a coward, but the point is that this is a DA who has to be told by a judge not to host fundraisers for the political opponents of politicians she plans to prosecute. 1.00

00:13:33.860 She's that dumb and corrupt. 1.00

00:13:35.560 By the way, Jones ultimately was not indicted along with the other 19 defendants, probably because Fannie Willis knew the judge would throw it out. 1.00

00:13:43.660 She blew that prosecution. 1.00

00:13:45.600 But if you look at Fannie Willis' social media feeds, as Benny Johnson, conservative commentator, did the other day, then you'll come to the conclusion that she actually she's blown all 19 of these prosecutions.

00:13:55.380 Willis' feed is littered with posts casting doubt on the legitimacy of the 2020 election before the vote total suddenly shifted against Trump.

00:14:02.260 Quote, Georgia could determine who is our next president, she wrote on November 4th, 2020.

00:14:07.160 A team of lawyers needs to watch them count every single vote.

00:14:11.400 They can start in Fulton where we are having water leaks.

00:14:13.640 What ballots are they throwing out?

00:14:15.040 Georgia, let's Georgia, let's give an honest accounting. 0.96

00:14:17.960 No stunts.

00:14:20.480 Again, this is the DA now prosecuting Trump for questioning the legitimacy of the election in Georgia.

00:14:25.500 And she was questioning its legitimacy.

00:14:27.640 In 2018, Willis said that it was suspicious that local election commissioners hadn't approved a recount of some votes in Fulton County.

00:14:35.460 Quote, you all better start paying attention to what's really going on.

00:14:38.660 She also argued that the Secretary of State, quote, controls elections, adding, quote, I wonder if we yet realize that is an important role.

00:14:45.680 She also posted a lot of BLM propaganda.

00:14:47.660 Of course, she worships Kamala Harris.

00:14:49.620 She owns a mug saying she's a proud Democrat.

00:14:51.940 So we can conclude that Fannie Willis is something of a politically motivated election denier. 0.99

00:14:59.100 As always, the left is guilty of doing exactly what they accuse their opponents of doing.

00:15:03.880 The obvious point is that Donald Trump's social media posts, if they're criminal, then so are Fannie Willis' social media posts.

00:15:10.420 If he can go to jail for tweeting stuff, questioning elections, then she should be in jail right beside him.

00:15:14.620 Her prosecution of Donald Trump, based on her posts, is an overt act in furtherance of her conspiracy to keep Donald Trump out of the White House.

00:15:24.320 Now, will Republicans indict Fannie Willis? 0.71

00:15:27.700 If Republicans retake the federal government, will they jail her for election interference? 0.99

00:15:33.040 Well, you ask any conservative right now, and they'll tell you that that'll never happen.

00:15:36.780 And they're probably right.

00:15:38.500 We're seeing a vast difference in tactics right now, let's say, between the two major political parties.

00:15:43.320 Because conservatives would never dream of doing any of this.

00:15:46.680 They would never dream of dragging, say, George Soros into court on some pretext, you know, for the sole purpose of harassing him.

00:15:52.800 Liberals, on the other hand, have no problem suing Elon Musk for not hiring enough refugees. 0.73

00:15:58.540 They relish every opportunity to use state power to punish their opponents.

00:16:03.020 Republicans, on the other hand, don't have the backbone for it.

00:16:06.360 They don't have the backbone to play this kind of game, to fight fire with fire.

00:16:10.260 They never have.

00:16:10.760 They're not doing it now.

00:16:13.880 And that just means that with each passing month, the left is getting more comfortable.

00:16:18.600 They're getting more comfortable being the only ones who are fighting this way.

00:16:23.800 First, they target grandmothers walking around the Capitol. 0.83

00:16:26.280 Then they jail Douglas Mackey for some memes.

00:16:29.200 Then they go after Donald Trump for his tweets and his, quote, unquote, classified documents.

00:16:33.060 And now in Georgia, they're targeting not only Donald Trump, but more than a dozen of his advisors and associates.

00:16:40.520 And this will continue until Trump and all of his associates are in jail or all their opponents are.

00:16:48.340 After this latest indictment, it's time to stop pretending otherwise.

00:16:51.040 Now let's get to our five headlines.

00:16:54.320 Well, if you want some good, positive news in the culture war, since Roe v. Wade was overturned, the left has lost their mind.

00:17:05.560 They've made abortion their official sacrament. 0.68

00:17:07.520 The pro-life efforts, which are now more important than ever, are booming.

00:17:10.820 You heard that right.

00:17:11.360 Despite the narrative pro-lifers didn't go away, they have increased in number.

00:17:14.900 As one of the largest pro-life organizations in the world, no one is in a better position than 40 Days for Life to end abortion in each state in a post-Roe America. 0.97

00:17:21.900 40 Days for Life is changing hearts and minds in the most blue pro-abortion states.

00:17:25.360 They've had a record number of locations since Roe was overturned, and they grew in both volunteers and locations.

00:17:31.360 With about a million volunteers in 1,500 cities, they hold peaceful vigils outside abortion facilities.

00:17:35.840 You can help them fight the ongoing legal battles by protecting free speech for their volunteers,

00:17:39.860 by giving a tax-deductible gift of any amount at 40daysforlife.com.

00:17:45.060 That's 40daysforlife.com.

00:17:48.240 Guys, I want to start with this.

00:17:49.600 A few days ago, a California shop owner named Laura Ann Carleton was shot and killed, allegedly, by a man named Travis Ikugichi,

00:17:58.420 who was allegedly upset about a pride flag that she had hanging outside of her business. 0.99

00:18:02.880 And we're told that they got into an altercation over the pride flag,

00:18:05.660 at which point the assailant shot and killed the woman.

00:18:10.180 That's the official story.

00:18:12.280 There's a lot we still don't know about this case.

00:18:14.880 Oddly, it took police a long time to release the assailant's name and information.

00:18:19.660 And he's dead.

00:18:20.880 He was killed by police when they tracked him down after the shooting.

00:18:23.680 They say that he shot at them first.

00:18:25.400 This is the story.

00:18:26.220 Much of the story still, you know, much of what happened still isn't known or confirmed.

00:18:31.760 And frankly, when it comes to a situation like this, you can't immediately believe really anything you're told.

00:18:37.860 That's just the situation that we're in now with the relentless avalanche of propaganda and fake news.

00:18:44.640 But we do know, at least, that a woman was killed, which, of course, is a very sad thing.

00:18:49.600 And it's sad, at least, to those of us with souls, which, unfortunately, does not include the media and many leftist activists

00:19:00.040 who could hardly contain their excitement over this tragedy.

00:19:03.080 I mean, they are happy about it.

00:19:05.080 They couldn't be more thrilled, which is why they immediately turned around and used it as a political cudgel,

00:19:11.520 used the dead body of this woman as a sledgehammer to beat their ideological opponents, as they always do. 0.87

00:19:17.860 And they did this shamelessly, without even the pretense of actually caring about the woman or her family.

00:19:24.780 Trans activists, of course, blamed me.

00:19:28.420 They blamed libs of TikTok and a few others, but mostly us.

00:19:32.560 I started appearing in headlines alongside the shooter, even though I never knew the guy existed or had anything to do with him, obviously.

00:19:40.040 Supposedly, this guy had retweeted me once a while ago or something like that, and this was worthy of headlines.

00:19:46.220 Now, I've been retweeted millions of times.

00:19:50.040 Apparently, if any of those many millions of people then proceed to commit a crime, it's my fault.

00:19:57.720 There were many posts and articles smearing me along these lines, linking me to the shooting in truly insane and completely defamatory ways.

00:20:06.640 But I want to give just one example.

00:20:09.860 OK, it's one example.

00:20:11.800 This is from NBC News.

00:20:14.120 And the headline is, Killing Over Pride Flag Follows Far-Right's Years of Criticism of the LGBT Symbol.

00:20:20.320 That's the headline.

00:20:20.940 And it's written by a guy named Matt Levates.

00:20:26.240 And we'll have more on him in a second, some more details about it.

00:20:28.480 But here's the article.

00:20:29.140 I want to read from the article.

00:20:30.800 Rainbow pride flags have become as common on storefronts in some metropolitan areas as help-wanted signs,

00:20:36.200 as LGBTQ people increasingly gain visibility and acceptance in American society.

00:20:40.800 The prevalence of the decades-old symbol of unity and equality is arguably part of the reasons Friday's fatal shooting of a California business owner,

00:20:49.260 allegedly for displaying a pride flag at her shop, was met with overwhelming shock,

00:20:53.980 as well as an outpouring of grief from LGBTQ advocates, politicians, and celebrities from across the country.

00:21:00.040 So you notice quite a bit of equivocation, by the way.

00:21:01.960 Arguably part of the reason, allegedly.

00:21:05.220 So the whole premise here, he admits, is arguable, alleged, only part.

00:21:09.580 That doesn't stop him with going on for the rest, of course.

00:21:12.900 And he says,

00:21:14.720 But in parallel to the pride flags having become commonplace,

00:21:17.780 the symbol, which was introduced at the 1978 Gay Freedom Day March in San Francisco,

00:21:22.160 has increasingly been smeared by conservative media and right-wing online personalities.

00:21:26.540 The far right has repeatedly linked the flag to the decades-old trope that links gay and transgender people to child abusers 0.72

00:21:32.300 who want to groom or sexualize children, a trope that has recently had a resurgence. 0.83

00:21:36.980 Quote,

00:21:37.420 The pride flag does not deserve our respect or deference. 0.98

00:21:40.200 Right-wing provocateur Matt Walsh declared in March to his 2.4 million followers on X, formerly known as Twitter.

00:21:45.720 Nearly all of the most depraved attacks on children, tradition, and common sense in modern society

00:21:49.020 happens under the hideous banner of the pride flag.

00:21:51.140 Quote,

00:21:51.560 That's me.

00:21:52.740 A day later,

00:21:54.360 Walsh dedicated an over-hour-long episode of his podcast, The Matt Walsh Show,

00:21:58.500 which is produced by the media company Daily Wire, to the pride flag.

00:22:00.980 The episode was titled,

00:22:01.920 The Pride Flag Deserves Our Disrespect.

00:22:03.840 Chaya Reitschik, who runs the far-right account, X account, Libs of TikTok, has repeatedly prompted conversations among her nearly 2.5 million followers that appear to take aim at the pride flag.

00:22:15.520 She wrote on X in June,

00:22:17.620 Quote,

00:22:17.860 Imagine walking into your kid's elementary school, and this is what greets you.

00:22:21.640 And wrote that along with an image of what appears to be teachers wearing rainbow pride clothing and a person dressed in drag.

00:22:27.500 What do you do?

00:22:28.040 Alejandra Caraballo, a transgender advocate and clinical instructor at Harvard Law School's Cyber Law Clinic,

00:22:34.800 who has researched hate speech against the LGBTQ community,

00:22:37.740 said Friday's killing of Laura Ann Carleton in Cedar Glen, California,

00:22:41.240 didn't surprise her in light of the online rhetoric from far-right figures.

00:22:45.660 Put air quotes around her.

00:22:47.040 I'm just reading from the article.

00:22:47.980 This is what it says.

00:22:50.040 Quote,

00:22:50.940 Yes, I'd like for Caraballo to explain what are the, what do you think are the reasonable criticism?

00:23:10.640 Have you ever heard a criticism of trans ideology that you find reasonable? 1.00

00:23:14.980 Of course you haven't.

00:23:16.920 Tell me, what's the, what's the reasonable?

00:23:18.100 What, what, what, if we wanted to follow your, your rules,

00:23:21.140 which of course I couldn't care less about your rules at all,

00:23:23.360 but let's say that someone did want to, for the sake of argument,

00:23:26.540 want to follow your rules of what would be considered a reasonable criticism of the trans ideology,

00:23:32.300 trans activists, the trans movement.

00:23:34.240 What would that reasonable criticism be?

00:23:35.520 Well, what do you consider to be the, well, you just acknowledge,

00:23:37.820 well, of course there are some reasonable criticisms you can make.

00:23:39.600 What would those be?

00:23:40.560 Tell me.

00:23:40.940 Well, of course you can't explain that because literally any criticism of you is genocidal hatred.

00:23:49.520 That's what you actually believe or pretend to believe.

00:23:52.380 Continuing, he says,

00:23:53.080 Walsh and Fox News didn't immediately respond to requests for comment.

00:23:56.340 Travis Ikugichi, the 27, the man who police say shot and killed Carlton,

00:23:59.840 appears to have a years long history of posting disturbing and often violent anti-LGBTQ messages on social media.

00:24:04.900 Accounts on X and Gab that appear to have belonged to Ikugichi,

00:24:07.740 who was killed in a shootout with law enforcement,

00:24:09.600 shared dozens of posts criticizing the LGBTQ community.

00:24:13.800 And then we hear more from Carabayo.

00:24:16.820 And so that's the article.

00:24:18.300 Okay.

00:24:19.260 So there are a few points to make here.

00:24:21.760 First, you'll notice the line saying that I didn't respond to a request for comment.

00:24:27.240 And that's true.

00:24:28.900 And it's because the author, Matt Levites, Matt Levites, L-A-V-I-E-T-E-S, however you pronounce that,

00:24:35.940 DM me asking for comment on the hit piece he was writing.

00:24:40.120 He asked for comment at 4.45 p.m. on August 23rd.

00:24:44.460 The article was published at 6.50 p.m. on August 23rd.

00:24:48.180 So he was planning and writing this article for at least a day, probably longer.

00:24:53.820 And yet he waited until two hours before it went live to ask for comment,

00:24:58.720 under the assumption that I wouldn't see it in time because I get a lot of DMs and I don't check them every two hours.

00:25:04.180 This is the kind of game that gutless smear merchants play. 0.91

00:25:07.140 And the funny thing is that this is actually the second time that this particular guy has done exactly this to me.

00:25:13.300 Last year, he wrote a hit piece about me, kind of along the same lines.

00:25:17.520 And he messaged me asking for comment in that case after it had been published.

00:25:21.280 So he published it and then said, would you like to comment on the thing I already published?

00:25:26.000 And I called him out for it publicly at the time.

00:25:27.800 So this time he at least pretended to give me a chance to respond.

00:25:30.880 But he did it again in a way where he knew that probably I wouldn't respond because I wouldn't have time.

00:25:34.180 I wouldn't see it in time.

00:25:34.740 Second, I'm talking about this story because I want you to see the tactics that these soulless ghouls use. 0.52

00:25:44.420 But of course, I'm not going to dignify this garbage by actually giving some kind of lengthy explanation 0.51

00:25:49.920 about why I have nothing to do with a local crime story in California involving two people that I've never met. 0.89

00:25:56.680 Everyone knows that I've never encouraged violence.

00:25:58.940 I've obviously never told anyone to go kill people over pride flags.

00:26:01.660 If that is actually what happened in this case.

00:26:05.660 It also goes without saying that NBC News and corporate media and trans activists like Alejandra Caraballo, 0.97

00:26:12.460 who is, by the way, one of the most vile, loathsome, deceitful trans activists in the country. 1.00

00:26:16.920 And that is really, really saying something. 0.98

00:26:19.700 It goes without saying that they absolutely do not hold themselves to this same standard.

00:26:24.120 Where is the article from Matt Levates talking about the heated rhetoric that led to the execution of Christian children by a trans person in Nashville?

00:26:32.840 Did we ever pour through her social media to see who she liked and retweeted?

00:26:39.440 Of course not.

00:26:40.600 Her social media was all deleted immediately.

00:26:44.480 And nobody in corporate media questioned it because they didn't want to know.

00:26:48.880 This guy's Twitter account, I mean, last I checked, it was a couple of days later, was still up and active.

00:26:55.080 Funny thing is that someone on the left does something like this.

00:26:57.120 The social media is gone.

00:26:58.500 It is gone immediately before anyone even hears the name.

00:27:03.280 Now, in fact, there is violence carried out by left-wing activists, Antifa, BLM, trans people all the time.

00:27:08.560 And there is never any attempt to link any of this violence to the insane, deranged rhetoric of LGBT activists. 1.00

00:27:15.220 And again, this kind of violence happens all the time.

00:27:17.440 It happens in cases that you never hear about.

00:27:19.360 Like, just pulling one at random.

00:27:20.820 Did you happen to hear about the trans-identified male a few years ago who walked into a 7-Eleven and randomly brutalized two innocent people with an axe because he was angry that a Tinder date rejected him when they found out he was really a man?

00:27:36.560 You hear about that one?

00:27:37.220 It's on video.

00:27:38.280 There's video of it.

00:27:39.440 Walks to the CNN, walks into a drugstore with an axe, into a 7-Eleven with an axe, and starts brutalizing two people.

00:27:49.680 Did you hear about it?

00:27:52.640 Probably not.

00:27:54.280 Now, my question is, what trans-activist did that guy follow on Twitter?

00:27:57.580 Who did he retweet?

00:27:59.000 Was he encouraged to lash out violently because he believed what he was told by trans-activists like Alejandro Caraballo, which is that he has the right to be seen as a woman by everyone and anyone who doesn't affirm him has violently attacked him?

00:28:10.980 Did that thought process contribute to this attack or any of the others that we could name?

00:28:15.040 See, the difference here is that trans-activists really do say things that directly encourage violence.

00:28:24.140 Okay?

00:28:24.360 They say things that they know will encourage violence.

00:28:29.340 They say that they're the victims of a completely fictional genocide that they have made up in their heads.

00:28:34.560 They say that anyone who doesn't affirm them is directly killing them. 0.63

00:28:38.120 If you do not affirm them immediately, you are killing them.

00:28:40.880 They say this all the time.

00:28:41.900 So they say things that would, if they were true, actually justify violence.

00:28:47.620 Because if it was true that by me saying men aren't women, I am, with that very phrase, somehow magically enacting a genocide against trans people, then I guess the victims of that genocide have a right to self-defense. 0.94

00:29:01.560 If the words themselves can kill them, then I guess they should kill me to stop me from talking. 0.51

00:29:06.680 Like, that's the logical conclusion if you buy the premise. 1.00

00:29:12.740 Now, trans-activists say this garbage knowing that there are people out there crazy enough to take it to heart. 0.99

00:29:18.700 They really are trying to provoke violence, and they do provoke it successfully. 0.99

00:29:22.240 As you know, this is the reason I have 24-hour security at my house.

00:29:25.320 They very openly want me to die.

00:29:27.300 And if it were to ever happen, Alejandro Caraballo and all the rest of them, they will be dancing in the street.

00:29:36.420 And by the way, that's not something I lament.

00:29:38.220 I take great pride in that. 0.98

00:29:39.120 I take great pride in the fact that whenever I leave this mortal coil, that people like that disgusting person will celebrate.

00:29:47.540 The fact that they will celebrate my death, I consider that's a good indication that it's a life well-led.

00:29:51.640 Now, I, on the other hand, have never said that people who fly pride flags are carrying out a genocide or that by flying a pride flag that you are directly killing people simply by flying it.

00:30:04.380 So what have I said?

00:30:05.540 Well, what I've said is that the LGBT movement, which that flag represents, is a far-left ideological movement which stands for many horrid, terrible, evil things. 1.00

00:30:19.140 It stands for the sexual grooming of children at drag shows and at school. 0.97

00:30:25.420 It stands for the mutilation and castration of children and adults.

00:30:30.020 It stands for the rejection of basic reality and a war on the family and common sense and sanity.

00:30:37.520 I have said all of that.

00:30:40.180 And I still say it because it's true.

00:30:43.520 If you have a problem with this fact being pointed out, don't blame the people pointing it out.

00:30:52.960 Blame the people who have made it a fact.

00:30:56.600 Okay?

00:30:57.040 Blame the people who bring kids to drag shows. 0.96

00:30:59.940 Blame the people who castrate and mutilate children.

00:31:02.700 Blame the people running around claiming that biology isn't real. 0.62

00:31:05.040 Blame the ones that say that the nuclear family is a patriarchal construct that should be destroyed.

00:31:08.760 Okay, the people going around doing and saying those things under the banner of the pride flag, if you're worried about the pride flag having a bad reputation, talk to those people.

00:31:21.020 They're the ones who have created this association between the rainbow flag and this extremism. 0.70

00:31:25.920 I didn't create the association.

00:31:28.300 I don't want the association to be there.

00:31:29.780 I wish none of this stuff was happening.

00:31:31.460 I very much wish it wasn't happening.

00:31:32.660 I mean, jeez, I wish we could still associate the rainbow with God's promise in the Old Testament.

00:31:40.060 That's the association I wish there was still.

00:31:41.660 I wish when we saw the rainbow flag flying, that's what it meant.

00:31:46.440 If it were up to me, that would be the case.

00:31:47.640 But that's not the case.

00:31:51.220 I don't make those decisions.

00:31:53.480 I don't create the association.

00:31:54.960 I just notice it.

00:31:56.920 And I don't apologize for noticing.

00:31:58.740 And what I want is for LGBT activists to know that your smear campaigns have never stopped me from saying what we all know is true.

00:32:13.020 From noticing what is true and saying it.

00:32:16.620 It has never stopped me.

00:32:18.360 It's not going to stop me now.

00:32:20.040 It just won't.

00:32:21.540 I don't back down one bit.

00:32:22.740 I don't apologize for any of it.

00:32:25.180 I don't apologize for saying what is true.

00:32:28.740 And I never will.

00:32:31.740 All right.

00:32:33.720 So that's the first headline.

00:32:35.540 Let's go to the second one.

00:32:39.260 Very much related, in fact.

00:32:42.300 A federal court in Maryland ruled on Thursday that parents don't have the right to...

00:32:47.600 Read now from Daily Wire, by the way.

00:32:49.740 A federal court in Maryland ruled Thursday that parents don't have the right to opt their children out of a curriculum that includes books about radical gender theory.

00:32:56.660 By an appointed judge, Deborah L. Boardman, said that parents, quote,

00:33:00.920 Asserted due process right to direct their children's upbringing by opting out of a public school curriculum that conflicts with their religious views is not a fundamental right.

00:33:09.820 So, in other words, according to this judge, you, despite what you may think, do not have a fundamental right to decide on your children's upbringing and to take them out of programs that conflict with your own personal values.

00:33:39.800 Religious views and how you want to bring your kids.

00:33:42.220 You don't have that right.

00:33:43.120 You do not have that right.

00:33:43.980 You don't have that right over your child.

00:33:45.840 You don't have that right over your family, according to this judge.

00:33:50.620 Last year, Montgomery County Public Schools introduced 22 new books into elementary age classrooms that featured LGBTQ characters and radical gender theory topics and stopped parents from opting their children out of gender and sexuality instruction in March.

00:34:04.540 The move sparked outrage from many religious parents who, along with Beckett Law, filed a lawsuit challenging the district's decision in May, concerned parents requested a preliminary injunction that would allow them to opt their children out of the LGBTQ curriculum when school begins next week.

00:34:21.060 The district's LGBTQ curriculum is intended to be taught to pre-K through eighth grade students and includes references to sex change procedures, drag queens, intersex identity, gay pride parades, and preferred pronouns, according to National Review.

00:34:33.900 One of the books also says that doctors simply guess a baby's sex when it's born.

00:34:39.160 Beckett Senior Counsel Eric Baxter posted on Thursday, quote,

00:34:43.520 Today the district court decided parents have no right to notice when extreme ideology is pushed on their elementary age children during story hour, with the new school year beginning, the case is on the fast track to the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals and the parents' planned appeal decision.

00:34:56.700 So you notice, as always, the trajectory of these things that I'm always pointing out, but it's very important that we do notice this.

00:35:07.280 But how does it always begin, right?

00:35:08.860 The left does something horrific, and then we point out that they're doing this horrific thing, and then initially they deny it, and they say, well, we're not doing that, that's crazy.

00:35:22.180 And then eventually, very quickly, and sometimes again, I mean, this is a process that can play out over, these days, this process, it used to take decades for this process to play out, now it can play out in like 10 minutes.

00:35:31.580 So initially, we say, oh, you're doing something horrible, don't do that.

00:35:36.940 And they say, we're not doing that, that's a conspiracy theory.

00:35:39.600 And then quickly after that, they'll say, okay, yeah, we're doing it, but it's good.

00:35:43.740 And then, immediately they follow that with, okay, yes, we're doing it, it's good, and it's mandatory.

00:35:52.260 You have to participate.

00:35:53.580 So rapidly, it goes from, we're not doing that, it's a conspiracy theory, to, yeah, we're doing it, and it is mandatory.

00:36:02.520 Sit your kids down, they have to be here for it.

00:36:05.260 That's exactly what's happening here.

00:36:07.120 It wasn't all that long ago that the left would say, I mean, think back to the fight in Florida over the parental rights bill that was named by a propagandist that don't say gay bill.

00:36:20.060 Even though it had nothing to do with that at all.

00:36:23.340 But, you know, initially their response to that is because that was a bill, is a bill, legislation, that forbids, you know, sexual instruction, instruction on sexuality, gender identity for kids in pre-K through third grade.

00:36:40.960 As I said all along with this bill, the only problem with this bill is that it stops in third grade.

00:36:45.020 And initially they said, well, this is, no one is doing that.

00:36:52.680 No one is trying to talk to pre-K kids about sex. 1.00

00:36:56.000 Yeah, you're crazy. 0.93

00:36:59.880 And now in Maryland they're saying, yeah, we're going to talk to your pre-K student about, you're going to talk to your pre-K child, your four-year-old, about these topics, and you don't have the rights to stop us. 0.98

00:37:11.980 That's what they're saying.

00:37:17.060 And when they say, what's the other side of that coin?

00:37:21.960 When they say you don't have the right as a parent to opt out of sexual instruction for a four-year-old,

00:37:31.540 the other side of that coin is you don't have the right to opt out because we have the right to talk to your kids about whatever we want to talk to them about.

00:37:39.020 And these parents in Maryland, all they're saying, you know, all they're saying is, look, you want to talk about this stuff in school, go ahead and do it.

00:37:54.180 Just don't, just let us pull our kids out.

00:37:56.440 Okay, they're being much more moderate than I am, than I would be. 0.54

00:38:04.620 My view is they don't talk to us about any kids, you freaks.

00:38:08.820 Don't have this conversation with any kids.

00:38:11.200 You should be banned from talking about it at school.

00:38:12.860 The parents are just saying, okay, we're not even challenging you talking about it.

00:38:17.020 We just want to pull our own kids out.

00:38:19.180 That's it.

00:38:19.900 And that's not good enough.

00:38:23.240 Remember the trans activists in the last story said, well, there are reasonable criticisms.

00:38:27.480 Well, we would certainly be okay with reasonable criticisms.

00:38:32.760 But you think if there was any kind of position or criticism on the other side that they would be willing to admit is at least reasonable, it would be something like this.

00:38:41.220 You know, it's this kind of like compromised position.

00:38:43.080 Yeah, you could talk about all this disgusting stuff with kids.

00:38:46.480 Just, you know, but if I have a parent and I don't want my kid to be a part of it, just let me pull them out.

00:38:52.200 You know, if they were willing to agree that anything is reasonable, then you would think that they would say, okay, fine, that's reasonable.

00:38:57.140 I don't agree, you know, but I think that the public school should groom all the kids.

00:39:01.700 But yeah, okay, it's reasonable if you want to pull your kids out.

00:39:03.760 But they're not willing to accept that even that is reasonable. 0.99

00:39:05.800 Because like I just said, you go along with everything they do and say all the time in every case, and you are 100% obedient, or you are a genocidal, transphobic, bigoted, maniac killer. 0.97

00:39:22.180 Like, those are the two options. 0.98

00:39:24.860 You bow before them, you offer your children up to them as sacrifices on their altar. 1.00

00:39:30.480 Or you're a transphobic, bigot, and you should be dead. 1.00

00:39:38.940 Two options. 1.00

00:39:42.220 Those are the two options that they leave.

00:39:45.860 Which is why all the alleged radicalization that they pretend to care about on the right, if it is happening, guess whose fault it is?

00:39:54.080 It's your fault.

00:39:54.940 Because you've left, you know, for people, for conservatives, you've only left two options. 0.83

00:40:02.880 You've said, we've got to go along with your entire agenda, or we're transphobic, bigot extremists.

00:40:08.440 And so a lot of us are saying, okay, well, I guess I'm a transphobic, bigot extremist then.

00:40:12.840 And then there are people who say, well, if I'm already that, no matter what, then, well, okay.

00:40:17.500 Here's the crazy thing.

00:40:25.820 When you label everything extremism, then you end up getting a lot more actual extremism.

00:40:37.540 How many of these parents are now going to be radicalized by this?

00:40:44.860 There'll be a radicalizing moment for a lot of these parents.

00:40:48.460 Who didn't start with any kind of radical position.

00:40:51.140 All they wanted to do was opt their kids out.

00:40:53.400 Now they're being told they don't have the right to.

00:40:55.820 It's going to radicalize a lot of them.

00:40:57.160 And it should, frankly.

00:41:00.620 Radicalize them in favor of the truth.

00:41:03.120 Being radically in favor of the truth.

00:41:09.720 All right.

00:41:11.680 One other quick thing here.

00:41:15.260 If I can find it.

00:41:17.500 This is from the Daily Wire.

00:41:18.500 Emergency room doctors and pediatricians are pleading for help with a flood of children and teenagers showing up in emergency rooms due to mental health issues.

00:41:25.820 A surge of mental health emergencies among children has overwhelmed emergency rooms, according to a joint paper released Wednesday by the American Academy of Pediatrics, American College of Emergency Physicians, and Emergency Nurses Association.

00:41:36.920 The children showing up in crisis are often suffering from emergencies related to anxiety, depression, suicidal thoughts, or attempts, the group said.

00:41:44.880 Lead author, Dr. Mohsen Sidinejad, I think I got that right, says, quote,

00:41:52.460 But the ER has become a de facto referral center for all of these problems, and there's too many of them for the emergency department to manage.

00:41:59.000 This is not who we are as ER physicians.

00:42:00.680 We're not mental health professionals.

00:42:02.160 We cannot provide definitive care.

00:42:04.420 About a half a million children with mental or behavioral health problems show up in emergency rooms each year, according to the joint paper.

00:42:09.640 That number was already rising before the pandemic, but the pandemic exacerbated the crisis, according to the physicians group.

00:42:15.820 So this is in keeping with the kind of stories we've been talking about a lot on the show recently and in general on the show.

00:42:22.240 And now we're being told that, you know, that you've got half a million kids going to emergency rooms with issues like anxiety, depression, suicidal thoughts, and all the rest of it.

00:42:35.500 And this is, we have to always emphasize, this is not normal, or at least it shouldn't be.

00:42:46.800 It might be, it's becoming normal, it's been normalized, but it shouldn't be.

00:42:51.940 To have kids, having children who are feeling crippled by anxiety and depression, that's not, that shouldn't be a part of childhood.

00:43:05.500 And for thousands of years of human history, it wasn't.

00:43:09.980 That's not to say that no kid was ever depressed, but things like childhood suicide, kids feeling just like utterly crippled by it, there's no point in living, and these sorts of things.

00:43:22.320 This was never part of childhood.

00:43:24.400 This is all a very new phenomenon.

00:43:25.840 All the statistics bear that out.

00:43:27.420 Which is why at some point we have to have a, we have to make a serious attempt to figure out what's going on here.

00:43:40.700 And what lies at the root of it.

00:43:42.360 And all the answers that we get from the media, and all the kind of common mainstream answers make no sense.

00:43:52.560 Because they always tie it back to things that, they say, well, okay, well, the cause of it is this.

00:43:59.300 But the cause is always something that's, like, always existed.

00:44:03.880 And yet, we didn't have so many kids who are crippled by depression, anxiety, and considering suicide, or, God forbid, committing it.

00:44:12.020 You know, they tie it to things like bullying, for example.

00:44:15.060 I mean, there's always been bullying.

00:44:16.140 There's always been kids that get rejected, kids that get made fun of.

00:44:18.860 Like, that's always existed, ever since the dawn of human civilization.

00:44:21.900 That's just existed.

00:44:22.680 And yet, we didn't have this crisis.

00:44:28.860 So, what is it about modern society in particular that brings this out?

00:44:35.280 That's what we need to think about.

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00:46:11.440 Now let's get to our daily cancellation.

00:46:14.220 A few years ago, as you may recall, the world faced an apocalyptic threat.

00:46:20.640 It was a moment of existential crisis for all of civilization.

00:46:23.580 We found ourselves on the verge of planetary destruction and it was all because of plastic straws.

00:46:28.920 To this day, the images of Strawmageddon are still stamped indelibly on our minds.

00:46:34.080 We saw pictures of sea turtles with plastic straws shoved up their noses.

00:46:38.860 You know, a situation that we decided to blame on the straw and not on the sea turtle for being clumsy, frankly.

00:46:43.580 There were beluga whales with straws jammed into their eyes.

00:46:46.480 Great whites with straws coming out of their gills.

00:46:48.700 An entire family of bottlenose dolphins were killed by one single straw.

00:46:52.460 It was a catastrophe.

00:46:53.940 The media insisted, all of a sudden, that we had to ban plastic straws.

00:46:57.200 We had to get rid of them.

00:46:57.920 They told us about the giant garbage patch in the Pacific, which was evidently comprised almost entirely of plastic straws from Starbucks and McDonald's.

00:47:05.200 They gave us a lot of other shocking information, but none so shocking as this.

00:47:09.400 Apparently, countless media reports insisted Americans use and discard 500 million plastic straws a day. 0.82

00:47:15.560 That's about 182 billion straws in a year, which means that every single American goes through well over 500 straws annually.

00:47:22.120 Actually, every American uses and throws away at least one straw every single day without fail, we were told.

00:47:28.880 And that means that if we were to take all the straws we use in a day collectively and lay them out one by one on the ground, they would wrap around the world twice.

00:47:37.520 If we were to take all the straws we use collectively in a year and stack them end to end, we would reach the moon 90 times.

00:47:44.920 By the way, I haven't done these calculations myself.

00:47:46.640 I found them on a random WordPress blog, and I'm just assuming that they're correct, which, as it happens, is exactly what the media did with all of this strength anti-straw information.

00:47:57.180 Specifically, the media was repeating data first gathered and reported by a nine-year-old boy.

00:48:01.160 The child had come up with the 500 million straws a day figure by randomly calling a few straw manufacturers on the phone and taking whatever information they gave him

00:48:09.440 and running some mathematical calculations that nobody ever checked and extrapolating that Americans somehow use half a billion plastic straws in a single 24-hour period.

00:48:18.580 This kid was an authority figure on the subject of plastic straws for whatever reason, and we were supposed to listen to him and make adjustments according to what he said.

00:48:27.760 CNN even brought him on for an interview several years ago, and here's what that looked like.

00:48:32.900 My next guest thinks America has a bit of an addiction to straws.

00:48:37.760 That's right, these little plastic pieces of plastic that we use every day here.

00:48:42.780 Yep, we were unable to confirm the exact number of straws used annually, but it's easily in the billions.

00:48:48.480 And he says, get this, 500 million straws are used in the U.S. every day, an average of 1.6 straws per person.

00:48:56.760 And most straws are not biodegradable.

00:48:59.200 When they go to the dump, they stay there.

00:49:01.180 These facts encourage 10-year-old Milo Kress to go on a one-man crusade, to press restaurants, to do one simple thing to help the environment.

00:49:09.380 Only give customers a straw if they ask for one.

00:49:12.620 His idea has changed businesses from his home state of Vermont to Tennessee and California.

00:49:17.480 He's even met the governor and testified before the House Natural Resources and Energy Committee.

00:49:22.500 The amazing founder of Be Straw Free joins me now from Newton, Massachusetts, for today's Big Eye.

00:49:29.640 Milo, thank you so much for joining us.

00:49:31.860 Well, let's talk about this.

00:49:33.560 What inspired you to get folks to be straw free?

00:49:38.640 Well, sometimes I think we forget that every straw we use, every piece of plastic, will be here on Earth, somewhere on Earth,

00:49:48.180 even when my grandchildren are born, long after that.

00:49:53.260 Okay, now, needless to say, I have nothing against this kid.

00:49:56.260 As a parent, in fact, I can appreciate that he's focusing his energies on this.

00:49:59.700 There are certainly less productive ways that a child that age could spend his time.

00:50:04.100 But the question is whether any adult, any major corporation, any government should actually take marching orders from a third grader.

00:50:10.840 And it wasn't just this one third grader.

00:50:12.140 There was another nine-year-old child standing at the forefront of the anti-plastic straw struggle.

00:50:16.920 Well, here's nine-year-old Molly Steer in 2017, founder of the Straw No More campaign, giving a TED Talk to a group of adults. 0.95

00:50:25.800 Hi, my name's Molly Steer, and I'm nine years old, and I've just found out that straws really do suck.

00:50:36.560 Earlier this year, my mum and I went to see a movie called A Plastic Ocean.

00:50:40.560 It was the first time that I had been told that plastic never, ever breaks down.

00:50:46.680 Like, actually, never goes away.

00:50:49.320 The movie said that all over the world, oceans are filling up with our plastic rubbish.

00:50:54.160 This plastic gets into our oceans and it hurts the marine animals.

00:50:59.320 But not only that.

00:51:01.420 When humans eat fish and seafood, we're eating the plastic that they have eaten.

00:51:05.840 Birds are eating broken up bits of plastic and then starving because there is no room left with their stomachs for real food.

00:51:14.340 Turtles think that plastic bags are jellyfish, which is their favourite food.

00:51:18.640 And we've all seen that plastic straw stuck up a poor turtle's nose.

00:51:23.560 It's not fair.

00:51:25.480 On my way home from watching the movie that night, I started thinking about what I could do to help.

00:51:30.780 I started thinking about plastic straws.

00:51:32.980 Now, look on the bright side here.

00:51:36.280 Even if you feel that you've hit rock bottom in your life, even if, you know, it seems like things couldn't possibly get worse,

00:51:42.040 at least you've never attended a nine-year-old's TED Talk.

00:51:45.700 Now, I don't blame Molly for not understanding this point.

00:51:48.940 She's a child after all.

00:51:50.160 But the plastic in the ocean is not really our rubbish, quote-unquote.

00:51:55.700 Actually, 95% of the plastic in the ocean comes from third-world countries in Africa and Asia.

00:51:59.900 Outside of those countries, Brazil accounts for the most.

00:52:02.880 So Western countries account for a comparatively minuscule amount of the plastic pollution.

00:52:08.300 In fact, there are many countries with a fraction of the U.S. population that nevertheless produce exponentially more pollution in the ocean.

00:52:15.220 And of the 5% of the problem that all of Europe, North America, and South America, and Australia contribute to, an even tinier fraction is from plastic straws.

00:52:23.800 So, so tiny that you could ban all plastic straws in all Western countries, and it would have basically no effect on the pollution problem at all.

00:52:31.880 Not while places like Sri Lanka are still dumping all of their garbage directly into their rivers, which then go out into the ocean.

00:52:38.980 Now, children don't understand these sorts of things, or have this kind of perspective, which is understandable.

00:52:45.700 And it's why when a child says, we should get rid of all the plastic straws and save the earth, the appropriate response is to pat them on the head and say, sure, little guy, that sounds great.

00:52:55.120 And then proceed to ignore whatever they said.

00:52:58.080 But that's not how our leaders responded.

00:52:59.600 Instead, over the course of a few months, at the behest of a group of confused elementary school children, states and cities around the nation banned plastic straws.

00:53:06.320 Many restaurant chains joined the party and pledged to get rid of all their plastic straws and move instead to paper straws.

00:53:12.620 This switch was made all over the country, and now today, paper straws have mostly supplanted the plastic variety.

00:53:19.040 Now, paper makes for a terrible straw on the merits.

00:53:22.880 They dissolve in liquid, which is the opposite of what you want your straw to do.

00:53:25.640 But at least we were told it's healthier and more eco-friendly.

00:53:30.480 Even if plastic straws aren't really a huge problem, what's the harm in making the switch if it'll make, you know, the planet a better, you know, cleaner place?

00:53:40.400 Even if in a very minuscule way.

00:53:42.620 Well, as it turns out, the harm that it does might be considerable.

00:53:48.680 The Daily Mail reports today, quote,

00:53:50.340 Quote,

00:54:20.340 The synthetic chemicals are used to make everyday products from outdoor clothing to nonstick pans resistant to water, heat and stains.

00:54:28.540 They are, however, potentially harmful to people, wildlife and the environment.

00:54:32.380 The substances break down very slowly over time and can persist over thousands of years in the environment.

00:54:37.180 A property that has led to them being known as forever chemicals.

00:54:41.400 They've been linked to a number of health problems, including lower response to vaccines, lower birth weight, thyroid disease, increased cholesterol levels, liver damage, kidney cancer, and testicular cancer.

00:54:52.440 Well, there you go.

00:54:53.740 You might die of kidney cancer, but at least no sea turtles will have straws jammed up their noses. 0.99

00:54:58.920 Instead, they'll just get cancer, too.

00:55:01.060 It gets even better, reading, quote,

00:55:02.260 Analysis revealed the majority of the brand, 69%, contained PFAS, with different PFAS detected in total.

00:55:08.480 Paper straws were most likely to contain the synthetic chemicals.

00:55:11.240 The most commonly found PFAS has been banned globally since 2020.

00:55:15.520 Also detected were another thing I can't pronounce, TFA, we'll call it, and TFMS.

00:55:21.200 Ultra short chain PFAS, which are highly water soluble and so might leach out of straws into drinks.

00:55:27.460 Since the PFAS concentrations were low, and since most people tend to only use straws occasionally, pose a limited risk to human health.

00:55:34.200 However, PFAS can remain in the body for many years, and concentrations can build up over time.

00:55:39.280 So, that's the good news.

00:55:41.640 Sure, the paper straws have lethal chemicals in them that are actually dissolving into your iced coffee as you drink it.

00:55:47.840 But as long as you only use the straws occasionally, then the risk will be limited until it builds up in your body over time and kills you.

00:55:54.840 Of course, if we really go through 180 billion straws a year, then we're in trouble.

00:56:01.760 You know, because what we were told to begin with is that we don't use straws occasionally, we use them every day.

00:56:07.080 So, that's what we're left with.

00:56:08.540 The only way that the paper straws won't do severe damage to our health is if the logic for using paper straws in the first place turns out to be false.

00:56:16.520 But then if that's the case, there's no reason to use them at all.

00:56:21.760 Now, look at the silver lining, though.

00:56:23.160 As Molly said in her TED Talk, the plastic straws that you use, they can harm you.

00:56:28.740 If marine animals eat those straws, and then you eat the marine animals, then, you know, indirectly you're ingesting the plastic.

00:56:36.140 Well, now we've cut out the middleman so that we can just be harmed directly by the straw instead.

00:56:42.120 So, you can ingest the straw by throwing it in the ocean, waiting for a fish to eat it, then eating the fish.

00:56:48.400 That's one way.

00:56:49.580 Or you can just ingest the straw by having it dissolve into your beverage and drink it, which is what we're doing now.

00:56:57.520 A brilliant strategy.

00:56:58.620 What this means is that the people who banned plastic straws never checked the data to confirm that plastic straws were actually a problem,

00:57:05.900 and never did any studies to make sure that the alternative straws would be better for people and the environment.

00:57:11.500 That's because the plastic straw panic never had anything to do with data or facts,

00:57:16.020 and it was driven by, nor was it driven by any sincere desire to protect our oceans.

00:57:20.360 It was all just another giant virtue signaling exercise,

00:57:23.440 another petty power grab by the collection of meddling little tyrants who look for every conceivable way, 1.00

00:57:29.400 no matter how small, to control our behavior.

00:57:31.480 And when I say meddling little tyrants, to be clear, I'm not talking about the nine-year-old kids.

00:57:34.640 I'm talking about the people who use those nine-year-old kids as a pretense to control yet another seemingly small aspect of your life.

00:57:42.420 And that's really why you're using paper straws.

00:57:46.040 Something to remember when you're diagnosed with thyroid disease because of it.

00:57:50.000 And that is why paper straws are today canceled.

00:57:54.020 That'll do it for the show today and this week.

00:57:55.720 Talk to you on Monday.

00:57:56.780 Have a great weekend.

00:57:58.360 Godspeed.

00:57:58.720 Godspeed.

The Matt Walsh Show - August 25, 2023

Ep. 1213 - Trump's Mugshot Backfires Massively On The Left

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