The Matt Walsh Show - Ep. 1264 - Blue State Decriminalizes All Drugs. Total Societal Breakdown Immediately Follows.

00:00:00.000 Today on The Matt Walsh Show, the advocates for drug decriminalization have gotten what they wanted across the country, especially in the state of Oregon.

00:00:06.980 But a new report reveals that what they wanted, apparently, was the total breakdown of society.

00:00:12.060 Also, a pop star plans to give out banned books at her concerts in Florida, which is a problem considering that no books are banned in Florida.

00:00:18.360 And the NSA goes fully woke.

00:00:20.240 Finally, Marvel's new feminist superhero movie is their biggest flop of all time.

00:00:24.820 We'll talk about all that and more today on The Matt Walsh Show.

00:00:30.000 The Matt Walsh Show

00:01:00.000 Now, more important than ever, are booming.

00:01:01.780 Despite the narrative, pro-lifers have not gone away.

00:01:03.820 In fact, they're getting more and more active.

00:01:06.180 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 state by state.

00:01:12.520 They've opened a record number of locations since Roe was overturned, and they continue to grow in volunteers.

00:01:16.980 They now have one million volunteers in 1,500 cities.

00:01:19.900 40 Days for Life holds peaceful vigils outside abortion facilities in an effort to change hearts and minds in the most blue pro-abortion states.

00:01:26.300 You can help 40 Days for Life fight ongoing legal battles to protect free speech for their volunteers by giving a tax-deductible gift of any amount at 40daysforlife.com.

00:01:35.120 That's 40daysforlife.com.

00:01:37.120 Shortly after an 18-year-old opened fire on children at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas last year, killing 19 students and two teachers,

00:01:46.000 the New York Times published a lengthy front-page article on the killer's background.

00:01:49.640 And one line in the Times report didn't last very long before an editor deleted it from the article without explanation.

00:01:55.760 The sentence in question quoted one of the gunman's co-workers at Wendy's as saying that, quote,

00:02:01.320 he would often talk about how much he despised his mother and grandmother, whom he told her did not let him smoke weed or do what he wanted.

00:02:09.260 It was never clear why that particular line was deleted.

00:02:12.280 Most likely they wanted to push gun confiscation instead, and it kind of confused the narrative.

00:02:16.680 But in any event, the New York Times didn't want to talk about the shooter's marijuana use.

00:02:22.100 If the blogger Alex Berenson hadn't spotted the change, it's likely no one would have ever noticed it.

00:02:28.080 What we do know is that if the shooter in Uvalde was indeed a pothead, then there are a lot of other examples just like it.

00:02:34.220 Many other mass shooters from Parkland to Aurora to Tucson to Sutherland Springs were reported marijuana users.

00:02:40.640 That dovetails with research showing that young people who used marijuana were more than twice as likely to commit acts of violence.

00:02:46.300 To just give one example, the American Journal of Psychiatry published a meta-analysis of several large-scale studies three years ago.

00:02:53.640 The conclusion was this, quote,

00:02:55.240 These results demonstrate a moderate association between cannabis use and physical violence.

00:02:59.160 Cannabis use in this population is a risk factor for violence.

00:03:03.700 Now, you never hear about these studies, probably for the same reason that the New York Times censored itself for mentioning marijuana in the context of the Uvalde shooting.

00:03:11.020 In elite circles, talking about the consequences of marijuana use is unpopular.

00:03:17.320 Anything that discourages people from smoking more weed is also disfavored.

00:03:22.120 It's almost like they want the masses to be drugged and passive, which might explain why the cigar tax in New York is 75% while the marijuana tax is less than 15%.

00:03:33.260 Regardless of what exactly explains that discrepancy, the PR effort to push marijuana has obviously been successful over the past decade.

00:03:42.120 Two dozen states have passed some form of legalization or decriminalization of marijuana.

00:03:47.600 And because slippery slopes are real, and anybody who uses the term slippery slope fallacy is lying to you, the decriminalization movement did not end there.

00:03:58.600 Instead, it progressed far beyond marijuana, as it was always destined to do.

00:04:03.700 Three years ago, on the heels of the race riots following the overdose of George Floyd,

00:04:07.920 Oregon became the first state in the country to decriminalize the possession of all illegal drugs.

00:04:14.500 Not just marijuana, but every illegal drug.

00:04:18.120 Nearly 60% of voters in the state approved this measure.

00:04:21.500 It was Measure 110, along with a separate measure that legalized the use of hallucinogenic mushrooms for therapy.

00:04:27.780 And the idea was that the laws against heroin and meth and other drugs were counterproductive and oppressive and, of course, racist.

00:04:34.800 So they had to go.

00:04:36.320 And hopes were high.

00:04:37.140 As Vox reported at the time, quote,

00:04:39.120 Given that decriminalization is so far untried in the U.S., it's difficult to say how it would play out.

00:04:44.040 In that sense, Measure 110 would create a real-time experiment for Oregon and the rest of the country.

00:04:49.960 Well, not long afterwards, though, we started to see the results of this experiment.

00:04:56.280 Problems began to emerge, we might say.

00:04:58.720 In 2022, a local news station embedded with the head of a Portland drug interdiction task force.

00:05:03.640 And here's what they learned.

00:05:05.180 Watch.

00:05:05.420 Back at the office, Ferguson is willing to show us drugs and guns seized recently in two separate cases.

00:05:12.280 Those little blue pills are fentanyl.

00:05:14.580 And it's everywhere.

00:05:15.580 It's everybody we contact.

00:05:17.520 I have a couple of cases that are back-to-back cases we did this week.

00:05:21.480 And in each case, it's fentanyl possession and stolen handguns.

00:05:25.880 And this is almost everything we do right now.

00:05:29.020 How much does Measure 110 have to do with it?

00:05:31.860 Measure 110 has everything to do with it.

00:05:33.980 Ferguson said because Measure 110 reduced possession for small amounts of drugs, including oxycodone, the drug business has flourished.

00:05:41.440 The fentanyl pills are counterfeit oxycodone pills.

00:05:45.460 And by decriminalizing that, it's basically legitimized criminal organizations.

00:05:50.420 And the drug possession use and sale is just rampant with very little consequences.

00:05:57.440 And it's taken away our tools as police officers to sort of interdict that.

00:06:00.940 Reported drug offenses in Portland dropped from 880 the year before Measure 110 went into effect to 364 the year after.

00:06:09.780 Police still do have some tools.

00:06:11.580 And Ferguson was involved in a bust last June in which investigators found 500 fentanyl pills along with 44 firearms,

00:06:19.100 two of which were machine guns and 1,000 grams of methamphetamine.

00:06:24.080 Okay, so Measure 110, the officer says, is the reason that fentanyl and stolen handguns and machine guns are flooding Oregon.

00:06:29.940 And Measure 110 has everything to do with it, he tells the reporter.

00:06:33.780 Well, now three years after Measure 110 was passed, voters are tired of it.

00:06:39.020 It only took three years.

00:06:40.820 Polls now show that a majority of residents in Oregon want to recriminalize hard drugs.

00:06:45.620 After they just decriminalized it, now they want to recriminalize it.

00:06:49.140 And a ballot measure doing so is expected next year.

00:06:51.640 And that's because, predictably, decriminalizing cocaine and heroin and everything else has led to nothing less than a breakdown of society in Oregon,

00:07:01.040 to the extent that there was a society there before this.

00:07:04.100 This week, the Wall Street Journal published an extensive analysis into the effect of Measure 110 on the state.

00:07:09.400 It's a report that everybody should read as it just, I mean, it entirely annihilates the case for drug legalization.

00:07:16.240 I don't think there's ever been a side of an issue that has been this thoroughly and completely debunked using not just studies or speculation, but real world.

00:07:26.700 Now we see in the real world what actually happens when all drugs are legalized, and it is a disaster.

00:07:33.820 And yet still, almost all the pro-drug legalizers are simply ignoring it.

00:07:37.880 They've gotten what they wanted in Oregon and to a lesser extent all across the country.

00:07:42.020 But you notice that they're not out, like, touting the success of the policy they advocated for.

00:07:48.080 Maybe you notice that.

00:07:49.120 And that's because there is no success.

00:07:51.640 It has been a catastrophe.

00:07:54.440 The paper reports that as a result of the law, quote,

00:07:57.120 Police in Eugene, Oregon report that this year there have been 858 calls for overdoses.

00:08:21.760 In 2020, the number was 438, which was already high.

00:08:26.200 And now it's like double.

00:08:28.040 The whole point of Measure 110 was to force these people to go to rehabilitation services instead of jail.

00:08:35.400 But, of course, that hasn't worked either.

00:08:38.360 Quote,

00:08:38.560 So, in sum, Oregon's decision to decriminalize all drugs has been an abject and totally predictable disaster.

00:09:03.540 It turns out that when you invite people to do drugs whenever and wherever they want,

00:09:09.480 you end up with a lot more people doing drugs whenever and wherever they want.

00:09:15.160 You know, advocates for decriminalization have always claimed that somehow decriminalizing drug use will not lead to more drug use,

00:09:22.660 as though the law has no effect on people's behavior.

00:09:26.440 But that flies in the face of everything we've observed about human behavior since the dawn of civilized society.

00:09:32.140 To put it simply, laws matter.

00:09:37.520 When the law allows a certain behavior, you get more of that behavior.

00:09:42.960 Like, it's not hard to figure out this equation.

00:09:45.340 It's actually very simple.

00:09:47.420 And that's why, unless we want a lot more overdose deaths and illegal guns in major cities,

00:09:52.080 we should be taking a very close look at all forms of drug decriminalization,

00:09:56.520 including the more limited efforts that we've seen across the country.

00:10:00.960 As I mentioned earlier, weed is legal in most places now.

00:10:05.620 How is that working out?

00:10:07.360 Is there any evidence that it's making anything better?

00:10:10.760 Can we look at, like, the promises that were made by the weed legalization side?

00:10:16.800 Look at their promises.

00:10:18.080 Like, has any of that panned out?

00:10:19.340 I mean, by the naked eye, it certainly seems to, rather than helping anything,

00:10:25.080 it seems to be contributing to our social decay.

00:10:27.600 It has a demoralizing effect, at the very least, to walk through any city in America now

00:10:32.280 and smell the stench of weed everywhere with people walking around stoned anywhere you go.

00:10:37.740 And I say this, by the way, as someone who, for a time, believed that weed, not any other drug,

00:10:44.740 should probably be, you know, just be legalized or at least decriminalized,

00:10:48.100 as much as I personally don't like the drug.

00:10:51.740 There was a time when I bought into that same idea,

00:10:54.140 but I can look around at our cities and smell the stench everywhere

00:10:57.780 and see people high on drugs everywhere,

00:10:59.640 and I can ask myself, has this made society better or has it made it worse?

00:11:06.660 I mean, that's the question everyone should be asking themselves.

00:11:09.940 Now, aside from the naked eye test, what does the data say?

00:11:13.180 For a lot of reasons, it's hard to measure the precise impact

00:11:15.800 of marijuana decriminalization on people's quality of life.

00:11:19.120 There are so many variables, including the decision by leftist DAs

00:11:22.180 to stop enforcing a bunch of other laws.

00:11:24.880 And because of that, you know, it's difficult to ascribe any particular blame

00:11:29.260 to one specific policy or another.

00:11:31.740 It's all kind of like a jumbled mess.

00:11:34.400 Now, to be sure, a lot of jurisdictions that have legalized or decriminalized marijuana

00:11:38.080 have seen significant increases in crime.

00:11:41.100 New York legalized cannabis in 2021, for example,

00:11:43.500 and then immediately saw its overall crime index jump by more than 22%.

00:11:47.940 Along the same lines, after Washington's Supreme Court struck down the state's drug laws,

00:11:52.820 effectively legalizing all drugs until legislators could fix the problem, crime spiked.

00:11:59.260 Washington's rate of violent crimes jumped from 337 per 100,000 people in 2021

00:12:05.140 to more than 375 per 100,000 people in the following year.

00:12:10.440 Now, there's no easy way to determine with absolute certainty at this stage

00:12:15.560 what role drug legalization is playing in all of these numbers specifically.

00:12:20.940 There have been some attempts at drilling this down.

00:12:23.460 A couple of years ago, analysts at the Justice Research and Statistics Association

00:12:26.900 looked at the impact of marijuana legalization or decriminalization in 11 states,

00:12:31.780 including Washington, Arizona, California, Colorado, Nebraska, and others.

00:12:35.800 And they did this by speaking to local officials and law enforcement personnel

00:12:39.820 and hearing what they had to say.

00:12:42.680 And the researchers found that after Washington state legalized recreational marijuana use in 2020,

00:12:48.860 arrests for both the possession and distribution of heroin

00:12:51.560 and methamphetamine increased significantly.

00:12:55.860 And remember, we were always told that the whole thing about the gateway drug is a myth.

00:13:00.060 It's a fallacy.

00:13:00.860 It's a myth.

00:13:02.960 It's not what the numbers show.

00:13:05.100 Meanwhile, in Colorado, which also decriminalized POT a decade ago,

00:13:08.200 the researchers found that, quote,

00:13:09.460 In Oregon, there were similar concerns, quote,

00:13:27.440 An Oregon respondent reported a 55% to 60% increase in marijuana-related DUIs

00:13:31.960 following marijuana decriminalization.

00:13:34.560 Along the same lines, a separate research team from the University of Utah

00:13:37.220 scrutinized crime data from Oregon, and they found that, quote,

00:13:40.560 results provide some evidence demonstrating a crime-exacerbating effect

00:13:43.940 of recreational marijuana legalization as reflected by substantial increases

00:13:47.100 in the rates of multiple types of serious crime in Oregon

00:13:50.020 relative to non-legalized states following legalization,

00:13:53.580 including property and violent crime overall,

00:13:55.680 as well as other crimes such as burglary, motor vehicle theft,

00:13:58.920 larceny, and aggravated assault.

00:14:01.260 Now, none of this is really particularly surprising

00:14:05.160 given that marijuana is a psychoactive drug

00:14:07.580 that's been linked to violent behavior.

00:14:10.160 What is perhaps surprising, though, is that given what we know and don't know,

00:14:15.060 several states are still pushing the decriminalization agenda.

00:14:18.820 Ohio, for example, is set to decriminalize the drug in just a few weeks,

00:14:22.620 and I want you to watch how local news is covering this.

00:14:25.500 Well, marijuana will be legal to buy and sell in the Buckeye State in just 24 days,

00:14:31.320 but that doesn't mean that marijuana shops will be open just quite yet.

00:14:35.940 Our Michael Sandlin, he joins us live from the Eastside tonight.

00:14:39.900 And, Michael, I understand you spoke to a professor who kind of broke down the timeline

00:14:43.720 until people can actually buy marijuana?

00:14:46.140 Yeah, Jeff, I spoke to Professor Brandon Cohen,

00:14:50.800 who teaches multiple cannabis management classes at UToledo.

00:14:54.700 He said looking at how things went in Michigan and Colorado,

00:14:57.960 he expects it will be a little over a year before we start seeing marijuana shops

00:15:01.300 pop up in our local neighborhoods.

00:15:03.160 He walked me through the process it's going to take to get there,

00:15:06.320 saying that once issue two makes it through the legislature,

00:15:08.840 it's passed off to the Department of Commerce,

00:15:11.200 the same group that regulates and works with legal medical marijuana and liquor.

00:15:17.420 They sent all the rules and regulations for sale,

00:15:19.500 which will take at least a few months.

00:15:21.620 Once that's finished, they'll ask the public to submit proposals for businesses.

00:15:25.200 And once those are reviewed and the best candidates are selected for licenses,

00:15:28.500 we just start seeing businesses for recreational use start to pop up around Q4 of next year.

00:15:33.340 Now, if you voted for issue two, you know on the ballot it says

00:15:36.640 these new businesses will bring in hundreds of millions of dollars in tax revenue.

00:15:42.040 And the report goes on like that for a few minutes longer,

00:15:44.740 where you notice that they're not talking about how decriminalizing marijuana

00:15:48.660 is going to make everybody more productive and happier members of society.

00:15:53.340 They're not claiming that it's going to make the state a better place to live,

00:15:56.920 which is really what every law ultimately should be designed to do.

00:16:01.040 Every law ultimately should have the objective of making life better for people.

00:16:08.720 Before you talk about rights and freedoms, that ultimately is supposed to be the goal.

00:16:14.060 And if there's a law that's going to make life worse for people, then it's a bad law.

00:16:19.580 That's the number one way that you know it's a bad law, if it's making life worse.

00:16:23.140 It's really not. It's actually a pretty simple test.

00:16:26.220 So they're not talking about how safe the schools in Ohio will be

00:16:29.720 after young children with mental disorders are granted even easier access to psychoactive drugs.

00:16:34.440 Instead, they're talking about tax revenue.

00:16:37.220 You know, they're telling you how much money the state will make.

00:16:39.900 That's the whole pitch.

00:16:41.280 They're not even pretending otherwise.

00:16:43.680 And that tells you something that even left-wing voters in Oregon are now realizing,

00:16:47.540 which is that the more recreational drugs you legalize,

00:16:50.140 the more crime and urban decay you have to deal with.

00:16:53.480 This really should not be a surprise.

00:16:55.300 People are, again, more likely to do something when there is no legal ramification for doing it.

00:17:01.420 That doesn't mean everyone stops doing drugs when you make it illegal.

00:17:04.260 It just means that the fewer obstacles in the way, the fewer consequences,

00:17:08.520 the more of that behavior you get.

00:17:10.420 And so before you legalize drugs, you should ask yourself,

00:17:12.700 is it going to be good for society if more people are doing this?

00:17:16.400 Do we want that?

00:17:17.220 Is that a positive?

00:17:18.240 Is that something we want to facilitate that as voters?

00:17:21.020 And if you answer no to that question, then you don't legalize it.

00:17:26.200 And it's not just because of the practical obstacles put in place when something is illegal.

00:17:30.340 It's also because the law is a teacher, as the saying goes.

00:17:34.620 A thing begins to seem less objectionable to people when the law endorses it.

00:17:40.880 That's the problem.

00:17:41.920 And also, there's something else that's been revealed by the decriminalization across the country,

00:17:46.720 especially in Oregon.

00:17:47.320 So the other thing that we hear from the libertarian types is that,

00:17:51.080 well, if you could decriminalize drugs, and it only, it just affects the people.

00:17:55.900 When someone decides to do drugs, it just affects them.

00:17:58.240 It just affects their life.

00:17:59.580 Let people do what they want to do with their own lives.

00:18:01.600 If they want to poison themselves, it doesn't affect anybody else.

00:18:04.660 Okay, well, it's very clear that that is not the case.

00:18:07.080 See, it turns out when you've got a bunch of people who are all deciding to poison themselves,

00:18:12.080 it has an enormous impact on everybody else.

00:18:17.880 The breakdown of society actually affects everybody.

00:18:22.440 So ultimately, there's no upside for anyone but the state treasury,

00:18:25.940 and also the politicians who desperately need voters to be as stoned and submissive and out of it as possible.

00:18:33.060 Otherwise, if voters aren't high out of their minds,

00:18:35.840 they might realize what these politicians are doing to their communities.

00:18:39.380 They might realize that destruction and decay are a choice.

00:18:44.620 And then, like the voters in Oregon, they might decide they finally had enough of it.

00:18:50.460 Now let's get to our five headlines.

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00:19:48.400 So there's a big exclusive report from Daily Wire today.

00:19:51.820 It says the National Security Agency, responsible for monitoring threats, both foreign and domestic, from the U.S. military,

00:19:57.500 assumed a new responsibility under the Biden administration, creating a massive glossary of woke terms for employees,

00:20:03.480 ranging from anti-racist to the gender-neutral pronouns Zay and Zer.

00:20:07.740 A copy of the NSA's Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Glossary, obtained and verified by the Daily Wire,

00:20:13.060 shows that the agency now provides definitions for terms such as queer theory and white fragility

00:20:18.420 as part of its expansive guide for 327 social justice terms that blame white Europeans for engaging in settler colonialism

00:20:25.500 and warns of transmisogyny.

00:20:28.640 And all of those are in quotes.

00:20:30.860 White Europeans, settler colonialism, transmisogyny. 0.85

00:20:34.580 The 34-page document, published internally on May 6, 2022, but never released publicly before the Daily Wire's investigation,

00:20:43.420 pushes blatantly left-wing views on race and sex.

00:20:46.040 It explicitly endorses the tenets of critical race theory and queer theory, both of which are included as terms on the glossary.

00:20:52.560 The leaked, unclassified NSA document identifies itself as a glossary of terms and language commonly used in dialogue

00:20:58.880 regarding diversity, equity, inclusion, and social justice.

00:21:01.980 It also cites Robin DiAngelo and Ibram X. Kendi as sources.

00:21:08.500 The DEI glossary goes on to list a plethora of different vocab words associated with queer theory,

00:21:13.200 like transmisogyny, which is defined as the intersection of transphobia and misogyny.

00:21:20.580 Now we hear about Zzer and so on and so forth. 0.85

00:21:25.100 There's also demigender, demiboy, and demigirl. 0.88

00:21:28.580 All this is in the glossary.

00:21:30.720 Okay, so this is the NSA we're talking about.

00:21:34.020 So what we're seeing is the, of course, the further ideologizing, which isn't a word, but I'll make it one,

00:21:41.880 the further ideologizing of what are supposed to be non-political, non-partisan areas of government.

00:21:50.120 And now I realize that non-political area of government is like an oxymoron.

00:21:57.680 It's kind of an impossibility.

00:21:59.900 But even so, the idea is that agencies like the NSA are supposed to be non-ideological.

00:22:07.800 Yet as we see the Biden administration, because they're Democrats, because they are modern leftists,

00:22:12.900 they do not believe in allowing anything to be non-ideological.

00:22:16.600 They don't even agree that that should be a goal, even if it's ultimately an unachievable goal,

00:22:22.780 because people individually are political and ideological.

00:22:26.640 And so you put them together in any context, and that's going to be a part of it.

00:22:30.860 But they don't even see that as an ideal goal.

00:22:35.440 For them, everything and everyone must not only conform to leftist doctrine,

00:22:41.480 but must make the spread and promotion of leftist doctrine into their primary goal and their primary function.

00:22:51.360 And this is one of the defining features of modern leftism,

00:22:55.640 that everything and everyone exists primarily to spread the ideology of leftism.

00:23:02.820 That that's what, you know, every institution, no matter what it is, whatever, no matter what its charter is,

00:23:11.020 no matter what its function is supposed to be,

00:23:14.760 coming before that always is the spread and promotion of modern leftism.

00:23:18.860 But there's also a deeper strategy at work here that we have to understand,

00:23:23.700 which is that Democrats are continuing to ensure that they control the government whether or not they win the presidency,

00:23:33.080 whether or not they control the House or the Senate, that they still control the government.

00:23:38.060 Day by day, year by year, they work to make elections effectively irrelevant.

00:23:43.980 Everyone talks about the need for election integrity, which is an extremely important issue.

00:23:50.340 But I think what's missed is that the ultimate kind of like rigging that they're up to right now

00:23:57.940 is making it so that the elections don't even really matter.

00:24:01.460 Because it doesn't matter what, essentially the elected officials become like figureheads

00:24:07.480 standing sort of at the top of this bureaucracy that is fundamentally to its core left wing.

00:24:17.420 That is the goal here.

00:24:20.340 And they have succeeded wildly here.

00:24:24.000 The federal government is far left.

00:24:25.540 It is ideologically captured, no matter who is running it.

00:24:29.520 Even if Trump wins the White House in 2024, he still will have a national security agency

00:24:35.080 staffed by ZZERS and centered around DEI, just like the rest of the federal government.

00:24:43.040 You know, if the bureaucracy is left wing, then it will advance left wing causes 0.98

00:24:46.320 no matter what figurehead sits at the top of it.

00:24:50.820 That's the ultimate goal here.

00:24:53.120 And that is also why draining the swamp, which I've noticed has not been a phrase used as often

00:25:03.640 this time around.

00:25:04.820 We don't hear it as much among Republicans, which is troubling because that should still

00:25:11.080 be one of the primary goals of any Republican is to, quote unquote, drain the swamp.

00:25:16.820 But it's a massive, massive undertaking.

00:25:19.980 It requires extreme measures.

00:25:22.620 We talked a few days ago about Vivek Ramaswamy's plan to fire half of the federal government

00:25:29.800 immediately at random, just based on their social security number.

00:25:33.320 Fire half of them.

00:25:33.920 And that is the kind of thing, that's the kind of plan that's needed here. 0.96

00:25:40.000 Just take a hatchet to this thing. 0.88

00:25:41.320 Take a buzzsaw to it.

00:25:42.900 And when we talked about a couple of days ago, we were focused on the fact that the government's

00:25:45.740 too big.

00:25:46.240 It's too expensive, too costly.

00:25:47.660 And all those things are true.

00:25:53.140 But what is more important is that the government is also a radically left-wing, behemoth, blob-like

00:26:03.380 organism.

00:26:05.360 And radical solutions are necessary for that.

00:26:08.440 And firing half of them right out of the gate, that's still a good place to start.

00:26:16.440 It certainly makes the whole thing more manageable.

00:26:20.440 So the question to ask all the Republican candidates is, what exactly are you going to do?

00:26:30.000 Explain in detailed terms what you plan to do to deal with this problem, to deal with

00:26:38.420 an enormous bureaucracy of astronomical size, that is fundamentally left-wing to its core,

00:26:47.100 ideologically captured by the left, that will work against you every step of the way,

00:26:52.280 and is also working, more importantly, against the people every step of the way.

00:26:57.280 What will you do about that?

00:26:59.500 We've heard Vivek's plan.

00:27:03.420 We've heard Ron DeSantis speak in detail about this.

00:27:09.720 Like, what are some practical things that can be done?

00:27:12.380 We've heard him speak in detail about it.

00:27:14.280 We need the detailed plans.

00:27:16.860 Daily Wire has this.

00:27:18.080 Pink posted a list of what she said, the singer Pink, posted a list of what she said were banned

00:27:23.980 books that she planned to give away during her four concert stops in Florida.

00:27:29.340 This was a few days ago.

00:27:31.060 But the problem is that they aren't really banned in the state.

00:27:33.400 The 44-year-old pop star recently announced that she's teamed up with a nonprofit called

00:27:36.780 Penn America to hand out 2,000 banned books while touring the Sunshine State.

00:27:42.580 Pink said in a press release,

00:27:43.540 And she mentioned some of the books that she would be giving out

00:28:13.060 that were banned in Florida, To Kill a Mockingbird, A Catcher in the Rye, The Kite Runner,

00:28:17.400 The Bluest Eye, The Diary of Anne Frank.

00:28:21.560 She's claiming is banned in Florida.

00:28:26.320 But all that is just a lie.

00:28:27.940 So it's the banned book narrative, as always, is a lie.

00:28:31.860 And here's what's really happening here.

00:28:34.620 If Pink is giving out banned books at her concert,

00:28:38.880 then she won't be giving out any books at all,

00:28:40.620 which is probably the best strategy because I don't know who's going to a pink concert

00:28:44.720 in the year of our Lord 2023,

00:28:46.360 but I don't think these are people that do a lot of reading anyway.

00:28:49.720 And second, the list of banned books is zero books long.

00:28:54.640 So you're giving out zero books.

00:28:57.860 And which kind of makes sense because if they were banned in the state,

00:29:03.620 then you wouldn't be able to announce ahead of time,

00:29:07.060 hey, I'm going to this state to hand out this banned substance.

00:29:12.040 And if it's true, as Pink and anyone on the left would say,

00:29:15.300 that not only is Florida banning books, 0.79

00:29:17.720 but also Florida is run by a fascist dictator named Ron DeSantis,

00:29:24.220 then that's all the more reason why you wouldn't be able to do that.

00:29:28.700 You wouldn't be able to just say,

00:29:29.800 hey, fascist dictator, I'm going to come into your state and break your laws.

00:29:33.960 So the fact that the left feels perfectly comfortable saying that, 0.99

00:29:40.840 I think kind of proves that they don't believe their own nonsense.

00:29:45.320 Because you could, I mean, look at any country in the world 0.80

00:29:48.660 that we could accurately say is run by a dictator,

00:29:51.500 and you aren't going to do that.

00:29:53.580 You aren't going to say, hey, dictator,

00:29:55.400 I'm coming in to break your laws.

00:29:57.720 Get ready.

00:29:58.200 No, in fact, Florida has not banned any books.

00:30:02.000 No state anywhere in the country has banned any books.

00:30:05.680 You know, banning a book would mean passing a law prohibiting the book from being sold.

00:30:11.140 That is what a ban means.

00:30:13.980 And that doesn't exist anywhere.

00:30:16.400 It's not happening.

00:30:17.820 The book banning narrative is a total fabrication.

00:30:20.580 It is a complete lie.

00:30:21.640 It is something invented by the left.

00:30:23.000 It has no basis in reality.

00:30:24.240 It's not happening.

00:30:24.860 I mean, it's about as real as the noose that was in Bubba Wallace's garage.

00:30:28.520 I mean, it is in the same vein as a hate crime hoax.

00:30:32.440 It's that sort of thing.

00:30:33.540 This is Jussie Smollett level stuff.

00:30:36.380 That's how fictional and absurd it is.

00:30:39.420 But there are some books that have been removed from schools.

00:30:45.000 That's not a book ban.

00:30:47.120 You know why?

00:30:47.440 Because there are thousands of books in the world that have been,

00:30:52.660 I mean, probably millions.

00:30:53.900 How many books exist in the world?

00:30:57.020 How many individual titles exist in the world?

00:31:00.640 Many, many, many thousands.

00:31:04.260 Only a relative few of those many, many countless thousands are available in schools.

00:31:11.740 Right?

00:31:12.220 Because a school cannot make every single book that's ever been written available.

00:31:15.840 They can't stock it all in their library.

00:31:17.660 They can't put it all in their curriculum.

00:31:18.880 So decisions are made about which books to assign in schools or to make available in schools.

00:31:25.940 And guess what?

00:31:26.580 The vast majority of books that have ever been written will not be in the schools.

00:31:31.640 You could say that you take any school in any state.

00:31:37.260 And you could say that almost none of the books that have ever been written are in this school.

00:31:44.200 Because there are so few books in the school compared to all the books that have been written.

00:31:48.100 Only the smallest little sliver of a selection will be in the school.

00:31:53.320 And all the rest will not.

00:31:54.500 So does that mean that every school has banned almost every book ever written?

00:32:01.000 No.

00:32:01.440 It just means that only a small selection in a school of books are judged to be appropriate, one, and relevant to school-aged children.

00:32:12.940 And some states and districts have arrived at the obviously correct conclusion that, for example, gay pornography is neither relevant nor certainly appropriate for school-aged children.

00:32:24.160 So books like Genderqueer and other books like that have either been removed from schools or not put in schools to begin with.

00:32:31.600 And when the left talks about book banning, that's what they're referring to.

00:32:35.220 Those books. 0.99

00:32:37.060 Which means that Pink, I guess, is apparently planning to give out gay porn at her concert. 1.00

00:32:42.840 And she should be arrested for that. 0.96

00:32:46.240 Now, does that mean that book banning isn't happening at all?

00:32:50.600 Well, I guess it kind of depends on how you look at it.

00:32:54.160 But I would say, yes, book banning is not happening anywhere.

00:32:58.500 But does that mean that all is well and good in the land of books, in literary land?

00:33:06.540 No.

00:33:07.160 Because something worse than book banning is actually happening.

00:33:10.780 There is a worse form of quote-unquote book banning.

00:33:14.200 And it's all being done by the left.

00:33:18.440 And for the left, for the most part, they're not trying to ban books.

00:33:21.680 Because, you know, banning a book would be too honest.

00:33:25.020 It would be too forthright.

00:33:27.280 It's too transparent.

00:33:29.740 If you just flat out say, this book is not allowed because we don't like it.

00:33:35.680 That, in fact, would be much better than what the left is really doing.

00:33:39.100 Instead, they are keeping the book on the shelves.

00:33:42.480 You know, the title, the cover.

00:33:44.320 So all the books are allowed to stay on the shelves.

00:33:46.880 But they're changing the content inside the book.

00:33:50.780 That's the game.

00:33:52.000 And this is what we've talked about on the show before.

00:33:54.980 Which is a topic that should get a lot more attention than it does.

00:33:58.600 Especially in response to the left constantly screaming about book banning.

00:34:02.040 The answer from the right should be, no, book banning isn't happening.

00:34:07.940 But let's talk about what you guys are doing.

00:34:10.240 What they call quote-unquote sensitivity readers.

00:34:13.940 And as I said, we spent plenty of time on the show talking about this phenomenon.

00:34:17.820 Which is far more insidious than book banning.

00:34:20.400 And that is when you have publishers hiring radical leftists to come in and rewrite books according to leftist sensibilities.

00:34:34.160 And they are doing this oftentimes to dead authors who obviously have not consented to having their own writing.

00:34:41.040 I would much prefer, I would much prefer if the left came along and said, you know, in this state, you can't, those books are not allowed.

00:34:49.300 Because we don't like them.

00:34:50.640 I wouldn't approve of that.

00:34:51.960 I wouldn't like that.

00:34:53.040 I would much prefer that.

00:34:55.540 Over them saying, oh yeah, you want that book?

00:34:57.480 Here it is.

00:34:58.060 This is that book that you want.

00:35:01.800 But little do you know that they have changed the content of the book.

00:35:06.460 And put words in a dead author's mouth and on his pen.

00:35:12.480 According to their sensibility.

00:35:14.580 Because that is what's happening.

00:35:15.580 And it's happening all over the publishing industry.

00:35:18.300 It's extremely common.

00:35:19.300 So that's what we should be talking about.

00:35:22.980 Another report from Daily Wire says, Target is once again under fire for offering over-the-top leftist merchandise in its stores.

00:35:30.820 The company faced criticism and boycotts earlier this year for its pride merchandise, which included tuck-friendly female swimwear.

00:35:37.020 And a children's merchandise emblazoned with pride messaging.

00:35:41.240 Now they're back at it with their Christmas decor section.

00:35:45.680 And the account NWokeness shared some images, apparently from a Target.

00:35:50.880 I think we have those images.

00:35:51.700 Let's put those up. 0.99

00:35:52.900 So we've got a gay trans nutcracker. 1.00

00:35:56.800 Trans nutcracker, which is, I'm just now processing that for a second. 0.99

00:36:01.380 A trans nutcracker. 1.00

00:36:03.780 It's so, so on the nose that it's, how is that even real?

00:36:07.320 Apparently that's real.

00:36:09.180 I mean, okay.

00:36:11.180 And then next we have the disabled Black Santa as well. 0.84

00:36:15.640 So, you know, Target is fully still embracing the trans nutcracker. 1.00

00:36:24.780 I almost intended to not object to that because, like, it kind of, it actually makes sense in a certain way.

00:36:30.880 But just be careful what kind of nuts you're cracking with that nutcracker.

00:36:34.880 This is obviously a crazy woke nonsense at Target.

00:36:37.300 I don't shop at Target.

00:36:39.620 They've decided to stay in this lane and take the sales hit, I guess.

00:36:43.440 They're too far in at this point.

00:36:47.080 They're too bought in and they can't get out.

00:36:50.760 So we could talk about that.

00:36:51.940 But, you know, I'm more focused on the fact that Santa is disabled.

00:36:56.120 I know there needs to be more of a conversation about that.

00:36:58.600 There's got to be a whole backstory to that.

00:37:01.580 Like, how did that, did he fall off a rooftop?

00:37:03.580 Did he have some kind of collision in his sled?

00:37:07.620 It's like, that's a tragic story, really.

00:37:10.000 So I'm not, when I see the disabled Santa, this doesn't make me mad.

00:37:16.440 I'm concerned.

00:37:17.640 I was like, what's the story here for Santa?

00:37:21.680 And also, I think maybe even a greater concern is, like, how does this work logistically?

00:37:26.960 How does Santa get on and off of his sleigh?

00:37:30.700 Or does the wheelchair fly? 0.98

00:37:32.480 How does he go down chimneys in his wheelchair? 0.65

00:37:36.800 Do we need to build wheelchair ramps to make our chimneys handicap accessible?

00:37:42.960 It's all kinds of questions.

00:37:44.420 And I'm just trying to understand.

00:37:45.640 So, you know, I believe in, we should always ask questions.

00:37:49.860 And those are the questions I have there.

00:37:51.380 All right, finally, you've probably already seen this, but I've had it on deck here for

00:37:54.520 a few days and haven't mentioned it.

00:37:55.700 And it's, I'm not going to say it's worth mentioning, but we are, anyway, Megan Rapinoe

00:38:01.620 tore her Achilles, apparently in the last game of her career.

00:38:06.680 And this happened a few days ago, and she was asked about that.

00:38:10.080 And she finds kind of a cosmic significance in that event.

00:38:12.960 Let's watch.

00:38:14.360 This is a long one, although I'm going to get the Aaron Rodgers treatment, whatever that

00:38:18.940 is, so I'm going to be calling him or whoever did his surgery, because we need to speed

00:38:24.740 this up.

00:38:25.380 But yeah, I thought about it a little bit.

00:38:27.660 I mean, you know, I'm not a religious person or anything.

00:38:30.740 And if there wasn't God, like, this is proof that there isn't. 0.98

00:38:33.880 This is f***ed up. 0.91

00:38:36.700 So, yeah, it just, it's just f***ed up, you guys. 0.99

00:38:40.320 It's like six minutes in, f***ing eat my Achilles. 0.99

00:38:43.820 I mean, what the f***? 0.98

00:38:44.580 It's kind of amazing, this, to someone who is so, just so dedicated to being as viscerally 0.99

00:38:54.400 unlikable and unappealing as she can possibly be.

00:38:58.380 Like, everything, always, anytime you see her on camera, before you hear what she's saying,

00:39:04.540 when you take one look at her, you're already annoyed.

00:39:06.180 And then you hear what she has to say, and she's just, there's a level of consistency

00:39:10.720 to that, that you almost find impressive.

00:39:16.100 Like, she's like the Cal Ripken Jr. of being unlikable.

00:39:19.500 She just keeps putting in the hours every single day, and she doesn't take a break from

00:39:23.880 it.

00:39:25.300 You know, it also doesn't make any sense.

00:39:26.580 If there was a God, this is proof that there isn't.

00:39:28.820 Doesn't make any sense.

00:39:30.000 And of course, as many people have pointed out, if anything, her injury is proof of the

00:39:37.840 opposite proposition.

00:39:38.980 If anything, it is proof of divine justice.

00:39:43.380 And actually, if anything, you know, like, if anything in her career would call into question

00:39:49.340 divine justice, it is that she had a career in the first place.

00:39:55.660 So if you're going to pull anything from Megan Rapinoe to say that it calls into question

00:39:58.940 anything, it's like, how did a person like this, how were they allowed to be prominent

00:40:04.020 and financially successful in the first place?

00:40:06.140 But I think ultimately, Rapinoe's unearned prominence and financial success does not

00:40:10.420 disprove God or his justice, because we live in a fallen world.

00:40:15.500 And it's just, that's a symptom of it.

00:40:17.980 Though it is a world where, in the end, justice prevails.

00:40:21.880 And I think we've seen that in this case.

00:40:24.160 So, God bless us all.

00:40:28.320 Let's get to what's Walsh wrong.

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00:41:41.920 A Waynesboro observer says, Matt, be careful wishing for more involuntary commitments to

00:41:45.940 insane asylums.

00:41:46.680 I think today's government would put Americans believing in traditional gender norms there 0.78

00:41:50.360 before schizophrenics.

00:41:53.020 I share the same concern.

00:41:54.500 I don't know if this is one where you win the game here, if it was Walsh wrong.

00:41:59.300 No, ultimately, you don't, because I share your concern, but, and I think that you're, I mean,

00:42:06.040 I'm worried about the exact same thing, which is why, you know, it took me maybe a little

00:42:10.000 bit longer to jump on the bring back insane asylums bandwagon because of this exact concern. 0.97

00:42:18.660 Because we know who the powers that be consider to be insane.

00:42:22.180 And we also know that there is this considered process that's been happening for decades now

00:42:28.880 to slowly but surely medicalize and kind of psychologize the entire human condition.

00:42:40.600 And so that eventually everybody counts as being insane.

00:42:44.540 And so you combine that with, if they did bring back insane asylums and you worry about it. 0.98

00:42:49.460 So it is a real concern, but it's also, we have discovered the other option is untenable.

00:42:57.440 The other option is to have actually insane people just walking everywhere in society.

00:43:04.060 And we've seen what that means.

00:43:06.880 And it's just not tolerable.

00:43:09.880 Terry says, you are complicit in the incivility in political and social discourse.

00:43:18.440 You and all your colleagues make a living on spreading hatred and divisiveness.

00:43:22.480 So the fact that right-wing zealots are trying to start fistfights in the Senate

00:43:26.060 is a direct result of people like you.

00:43:29.180 I don't think I deserve, Terry, the credit for that.

00:43:31.760 I don't think I deserve the credit for that wonderful, quite wonderful moment that we played

00:43:35.520 on the show yesterday of a fistfight almost breaking out during a Senate hearing.

00:43:40.440 I don't think I deserve credit for that, but I'll take it.

00:43:44.700 I mean, I'm happy to take the credit for that.

00:43:46.800 As far as spreading divisiveness, you know, I'm going to guess that that is a charge you

00:43:53.320 have, you know, interestingly enough, fascinating to think that that's a charge that you probably

00:43:58.020 have never leveled at anyone you disagree with.

00:44:00.960 And so like most people, Terry, when you say divisive, when you complain, oh, you're being

00:44:05.420 divisive, all you mean is that, is that I am disagreeing with you that.

00:44:10.740 So that's what divisive is to you.

00:44:12.480 It's anything you disagree with.

00:44:14.880 And finally, shaking my head says, Matt, the federal government can already trace any post

00:44:20.180 to a specific computer and address.

00:44:21.960 They already did that to Douglas Mackey.

00:44:23.440 The story of how they found him via a chat room stunk up my whole house.

00:44:27.360 She wants to legalize, she being Nikki Haley, wants to legalize what they're already doing. 0.93

00:44:32.820 Um, yeah, we, we don't need to follow the Nikki Haley path of forcibly unmasking, uh, every

00:44:40.860 anonymous account on the internet so that she can know what was her exact phrase.

00:44:45.360 I want their names.

00:44:46.980 I think she said that exactly talking about anonymous accounts.

00:44:49.140 I want their names.

00:44:49.880 Uh, even if you don't do that, yes, the federal government can find out if you've ever, whatever

00:44:56.700 you've ever done on the internet, uh, the federal government already knows about it.

00:45:00.400 And, um, and if they don't, they can find it out.

00:45:04.060 And, uh, and so we know that's true, but it just goes to show that Nikki Haley, that, you

00:45:10.400 know, that, that is a problem.

00:45:11.560 The lack of privacy, the fact that, um, we have this politicized apparatus tracking people

00:45:19.560 down, putting them in jail for memes and jokes, depending on their political persuasion, that

00:45:24.680 is to put it mildly, a major problem.

00:45:27.340 And Nikki Haley is not interested in solving it.

00:45:29.220 In fact, she just wants to make it worse, which is what she's talking about doing.

00:45:32.340 Black Friday sales are coming.

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00:45:47.740 list of companies going woke continues to grow.

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00:46:36.180 You know, the world can be a bleak place and getting bleaker by the day, which is why it's

00:46:44.860 all the more important to celebrate the good news when it comes.

00:46:47.680 Rejoice in the victories, which brings us to this past weekend and the opening of the

00:46:52.660 latest installment in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, a phrase that I prefer not to use

00:46:57.220 because the universe itself is vast and varied and fascinating.

00:47:01.140 But the Marvel Universe, on the other hand, is repetitive and dull and tedious and pointless.

00:47:07.360 Not really a universe at all, it turns out.

00:47:09.040 It's just a series of films where each film exists only to set up the next film, which

00:47:12.940 exists to set up the next one.

00:47:14.360 And the whole thing altogether primarily exists to sell merchandise.

00:47:17.400 The only similarity between the actual universe and the Marvel Universe is that the actual

00:47:23.300 universe has lots of black holes, and the Marvel Universe is a black hole.

00:47:27.720 It is a giant, gaping vacuum that has expanded by consuming the rest of the movie industry

00:47:32.860 so that at this point in 2023, nobody in the movie industry knows how to make a movie unless

00:47:38.460 it involves people in rubber suits kicking each other.

00:47:40.980 All that to say, the latest Marvel movie, creatively titled The Marvels, was a massive,

00:47:46.740 humiliating flop.

00:47:48.480 And thank God for that.

00:47:50.080 We should also note, as this is likely not a coincidental factor, that the film is a

00:47:54.100 female-led girl power fest starring a team of women superheroes headlined by feminist actor

00:47:59.860 Brie Larson.

00:48:01.240 The abysmal numbers show just how thoroughly uninterested audiences seem to be in this kind

00:48:05.540 of content.

00:48:05.940 One, the Marvels opened with a $47 million weekend, which is a number that might seem high

00:48:13.360 given that $47 million would be enough to feed 9,000 African villages for 100 years or

00:48:19.000 something.

00:48:19.680 But in terms of Marvel movies, it is a catastrophic failure.

00:48:22.940 Easily the worst opening weekend in the history of the Marvel franchise generally.

00:48:27.820 And made all the worse when you compare the box office receipts to the production budget.

00:48:31.300 Reportedly, the Marvels cost something like $275 million to make.

00:48:36.620 And that is just the production budget of the film.

00:48:38.560 It doesn't count the many millions spent on marketing.

00:48:41.660 Yet, just to recover the production budget, the Marvels would have to earn somewhere just

00:48:46.180 south of half a billion dollars at a minimum.

00:48:49.380 And based on the opening performance, it is extremely unlikely that that will happen.

00:48:53.800 The film is doomed to go down as yet another recent big-budget Hollywood flop.

00:48:57.880 In fact, the performance has been so bad that according to The Hollywood Reporter, it has

00:49:02.320 Marvel Studios rethinking their whole strategy for making and releasing films.

00:49:08.900 Watch.

00:49:09.880 This isn't the first warning sign that something's been amiss within Marvel in terms of quality

00:49:13.940 control, as Kevin Feige's team has been in overdrive producing shows for streaming.

00:49:18.660 Features Eternals and Ant-Man and the Wasp Quantumania also received B-Cinema scores, while

00:49:23.820 audiences began complaining about keeping up with an increasing number of shows on Disney

00:49:27.940 Plus to understand the overarching MCU story.

00:49:31.060 Behind the scenes, Marvel Studios and Disney were well aware the Marvels was in trouble

00:49:34.640 before it hit the big screen.

00:49:36.320 Sources tell The Hollywood Reporter there was also a recognition that Feige and his team

00:49:40.140 needed time to take stock of their theatrical tentpoles.

00:49:43.040 On November 8th, Bob Iger said on an earnings call that Disney's movie empire is, quote,

00:49:47.060 lost focus because of an emphasis on quantity over quality in the rush to feed Disney Plus

00:49:52.000 under the Bob Chapek regime, though it was Iger himself who initiated this push before

00:49:56.360 Chapek's reign. 0.96

00:49:57.460 Sources say Feige and his team felt this mandate keenly to the detriment of Marvel's movies.

00:50:01.900 The next day, Marvel and Disney revealed they were scaling back the number of superhero

00:50:05.260 films they will release in 2024 from three to just one.

00:50:08.840 Well, if I could offer some solace to audiences, you don't need to keep track of the overarching

00:50:15.200 Marvel story because there is no story.

00:50:17.040 You're watching a series of extended toy commercials, and the narrative is very much a secondary concern

00:50:22.880 if it ranks even that high, which I don't think it does.

00:50:26.200 But this leads to the question of why a redundant, lifeless, big-budget, but weirdly cheap-looking

00:50:31.420 feminist superhero girl power movie would perform so poorly. 1.00

00:50:34.840 Now, that's not a question that any sane person has to think very hard to answer.

00:50:40.080 You know, I just kind of answered it in the question itself.

00:50:42.900 The question answers itself.

00:50:44.640 The media isn't thinking very hard either.

00:50:46.500 They've, of course, decided that it must be sexism.

00:50:49.760 So here's an article in The Stylist laying the groundwork for this excuse before the box

00:50:54.400 office receipts were tallied.

00:50:55.500 That's how you know, right, that a movie is good, is that before it comes out, they're

00:51:00.300 already telling you that if you don't watch it, you're a bigot.

00:51:02.880 Um, quote, fresh off the back of first reviews, fake takes about the film have sadly started

00:51:09.120 to circulate on X, formerly Twitter, from people who have not yet seen the movie.

00:51:13.220 This might sound familiar.

00:51:14.580 The first trailer stirred the sexist trolls from their slumber, and after they review-bombed

00:51:19.120 Captain Marvel, it was almost inevitable that they would return to do the same for the

00:51:22.140 sequel.

00:51:22.800 Within two days of its release, the teaser became the most disliked video on YouTube,

00:51:26.400 with one user labeling it Captain Feminist and the Patriarchy Stone, which is great. 0.67

00:51:33.640 It seems that the toxic underbelly of the comic book franchise is back on display as

00:51:38.220 some misogynistic fans attempt to slander a brilliant film simply because it's led by

00:51:44.540 three women.

00:51:45.100 Slander. 0.96

00:51:48.300 Yes, the toxic underbelly is slandering again. 0.93

00:51:52.460 Got to watch out for that toxic underbelly. 0.99

00:51:55.040 And of course, this has to be the explanation. 0.93

00:51:57.080 Why else wouldn't people flock to see a movie where a bunch of annoying women run around 1.00

00:52:02.560 punching people?

00:52:04.060 That's the conclusion shared by the director of the film, too, Nia DaCosta.

00:52:07.340 As Breitbart reports, she was making these kinds of excuses well ahead of time.

00:52:11.340 As Disney's The Marvel goes down as the biggest flop in Marvel Cinematic Universe history,

00:52:17.540 the movie's director, Nia DaCosta, has played her final three cards, race, gender, and sexuality.

00:52:22.540 The Marvel's director lashed out at haters, calling them bigots in a recent interview with

00:52:26.340 Variety.

00:52:27.360 But the irony is that her movie's largest group of ticket buyers has turned out to be

00:52:30.860 male and white.

00:52:32.080 Nia DaCosta sounded off on the negative fan buildup to the Marvels during the interview.

00:52:37.080 Quote,

00:52:37.620 There are pockets where you go because you're like, I'm a superfan.

00:52:40.880 I want to exist in the space of just adoration, which includes civilized critique.

00:52:45.340 Then there are pockets that are really virulent and violent and racist and sexist and homophobic

00:52:50.200 and all those awful things.

00:52:51.600 And I choose the side of light.

00:52:54.160 That's the part of fandom I'm attracted to.

00:52:59.080 So did you catch that?

00:53:00.160 It is not only racist and somehow homophobic to dislike the Marvels.

00:53:04.300 It is also violent.

00:53:05.540 Not paying 30 bucks for two tickets to the Marvels this weekend is an act of violence.

00:53:11.820 Choose the side of light, the director implores you.

00:53:14.100 Choose goodness.

00:53:14.980 Choose love.

00:53:16.940 Choose to give her your money.

00:53:18.020 Now, the problem with blaming the movie's horrible performance on sexism and racism, one of the

00:53:23.680 dozens of problems anyway, is that, as it said in the article, by far the largest demo who went to

00:53:28.960 see the film were men.

00:53:30.540 And most of them were white men. 0.57

00:53:32.280 Presumably blind and deaf white men. 0.73

00:53:33.980 But those details aren't recorded.

00:53:35.280 So perhaps Nita Costa needs to take this up with all the women and racial minorities who arrogantly 1.00

00:53:42.180 and violently declined to go see the movie in theaters.

00:53:46.500 I mean, they're the ones who failed her.

00:53:48.580 Or maybe, alternatively, she is the one who failed by failing to make a movie that anyone wants to see.

00:53:57.120 Now I think maybe we're on to something here.

00:54:00.120 So why did the movie actually flop?

00:54:01.860 I think there are two reasons, both of which we've already alluded to.

00:54:05.280 The first is that, for the most part, the truth is, nobody really wants to see female-led action movies.

00:54:15.040 People are not that interested in female action stars. 0.85

00:54:19.240 Hollywood insists that we should be interested, but we just aren't.

00:54:23.700 Female audiences are, it turns out, especially not interested in female action stars.

00:54:29.440 Now, there are some exceptions to this rule.

00:54:31.020 There are a few iconic female action heroes, like Sigourney Weaver as Ripley in the Alien films, and a couple of others.

00:54:37.540 But as a general principle, action movies are a man's domain.

00:54:42.240 They are for men. 1.00

00:54:43.540 They are about men.

00:54:44.580 And that's just the reason.

00:54:45.420 You could be sad about it.

00:54:47.920 You can insist that it should be different.

00:54:50.180 But it is what it is.

00:54:51.500 And that's why, if you look at a list of the top 50 highest-grossing action films of all time, maybe two of the top 50 were led by women.

00:55:00.140 And one of them was Captain Marvel, coming in at 19 on the list, which grossed about a billion dollars.

00:55:06.420 But that film was sandwiched in between Avengers Endgame and Avengers Infinity War, both in the top five.

00:55:12.680 And it rode their coattails to box office glory.

00:55:15.340 So Captain Marvel is kind of like the WNBA of superheroes.

00:55:19.120 Her existence depends on the success of her male counterparts. 0.99

00:55:23.080 Although, in fairness, people did actually go to see Captain Marvel, but literally nobody in history has ever seen a WNBA game.

00:55:29.620 In any case, the point is that audiences aren't generally interested in female action films.

00:55:35.940 It's not because of sexism, given that female audiences are also uninterested. 0.87

00:55:40.360 It's more that men, by and large, just they make more compelling, more convincing, more entertaining action heroes.

00:55:48.740 That's not my opinion.

00:55:50.460 I mean, it is my opinion, but it's not just my opinion.

00:55:52.580 All of the objective evidence suggests that it is the opinion of almost all moviegoers, men and women alike, whether they put it so bluntly or not.

00:56:01.400 Also, the audience for action movies is primarily male, especially superheroes.

00:56:06.120 So, like, when an eight-year-old boy goes to see Spider-Man, he likes to imagine himself as the hero.

00:56:11.620 No eight-year-old boy is running around the house with a bath towel made into a cape, shouting,

00:56:16.640 I'm Captain Marvel!

00:56:17.860 That's not happening.

00:56:19.580 Hollywood has tried to turn the action genre into a woman's domain. 1.00

00:56:24.560 They've tried to feminize it.

00:56:26.500 Like, they've tried to feminize everything. 0.97

00:56:28.040 But the social engineering just hasn't taken hold and probably never will.

00:56:31.560 And second, as I've already covered, female-led or not, the superhero genre is, it has long since grown stale.

00:56:40.060 Now it is moldy and decomposing on the counter.

00:56:43.300 There is just a limit, right, to how long you can convince the audience to come back and watch the same story over and over again.

00:56:52.680 It turns out that the limit is about 20 years.

00:56:55.640 That's the limit.

00:56:57.020 Now, for me, it was like 20 minutes.

00:56:58.600 I saw 20 minutes of one superhero movie.

00:57:01.840 I said, yeah, I kind of get it.

00:57:02.740 Like, I guess, fine.

00:57:03.600 I get it.

00:57:04.060 I understand.

00:57:05.480 I understand superhero movies.

00:57:07.200 I understand what you're doing.

00:57:08.520 I get it.

00:57:09.240 I don't need to rewatch it a million times.

00:57:12.480 I don't need to spend two decades of my life watching this same thing over and over and over again.

00:57:17.280 But a lot of audiences, apparently, they needed to do that.

00:57:20.360 But even those audiences are the ones that have a much greater tolerance for repetition,

00:57:25.880 even though they have grown tired of it.

00:57:29.600 I would say that their tolerance for repetition is too great.

00:57:33.680 But at least now, most of them seem to agree that if Marvel wants us to watch their movies,

00:57:38.140 they need to start making actual movies rather than, as Martin Scorsese would say,

00:57:43.160 amusement park rides that go around in circles forever, never ending, never saying anything,

00:57:48.900 never bothering to tell a story.

00:57:50.540 Or they can keep on their current track and continue losing money, which is perfectly fine with me.

00:57:59.240 Either way, it's not just me saying, but all of America apparently saying,

00:58:03.760 that the Marvels is today canceled.

00:58:07.920 That'll do it for the show today.

00:58:08.840 Thanks for watching.

00:58:09.480 Thanks for listening.

00:58:10.240 Have a great day.

00:58:11.420 Godspeed.

00:58:11.720 We'll be right back.

The Matt Walsh Show - November 16, 2023

Ep. 1264 - Blue State Decriminalizes All Drugs. Total Societal Breakdown Immediately Follows.

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