The Matt Walsh Show - May 28, 2024


Ep. 1376 - Trump's Showdown At The Libertarian Convention


Episode Stats

Length

57 minutes

Words per Minute

167.82864

Word Count

9,677

Sentence Count

688

Misogynist Sentences

10

Hate Speech Sentences

24


Summary

Today on the Matt Walsh Show, Donald Trump showed up to the Libertarian Party Convention where he proceeded to taunt them right to their faces. Also, Robert De Niro holds a press conference outside of Trump s trial in New York for some unknown reason, police in Florida are on a manhunt to track down a dangerous criminal who left tire marks on a rainbow-colored crosswalk, and one of the hit songs on TikTok right now is a cheerful ode to the meaninglessness of life and the pointless nature of human existence. We ll talk about all that and more on today s show.


Transcript

00:00:00.000 Today on the Matt Walsh Show, Donald Trump showed up to the Libertarian Party convention
00:00:03.480 where he proceeded to taunt them right to their faces.
00:00:05.920 It was a wonderful moment in the history of American politics.
00:00:08.140 Also, Robert De Niro holds a press conference outside of Trump's trial in New York for some
00:00:12.160 unknown reason.
00:00:12.900 It does not go well.
00:00:14.120 Police in Florida are on a manhunt to track down the dangerous criminal who left tire
00:00:17.540 marks on a rainbow-colored crosswalk.
00:00:19.820 And one of the hit songs on TikTok right now is a cheerful ode to the meaninglessness
00:00:23.060 of life and the pointless nature of human existence.
00:00:25.280 We'll talk about all that and more today on the Matt Walsh Show.
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00:01:42.780 When cable news channels announced the results of the 2016 election, for the most part, they
00:01:47.800 displayed the vote totals for the two major party candidates side-by-side, Hillary Clinton
00:01:52.260 and Donald Trump.
00:01:53.540 They simply left out the Libertarian Party ticket, which was led at the time by Gary Johnson.
00:01:58.120 It was as if Gary Johnson didn't exist.
00:02:00.240 Now, in a normal election year, that wouldn't be a very notable omission.
00:02:03.900 Outside of Ross Perot's run in 1992, third-party candidates don't exactly put up very big numbers
00:02:08.660 on election night, so they're not worth talking about.
00:02:10.660 And that's been especially true for Libertarian Party candidates, who are mostly known for
00:02:15.480 taking off their shirts at conventions and debating the merits of driver's licenses.
00:02:20.360 But in 2016, it was a very different story.
00:02:23.860 Libertarians had their best-ever showing in a presidential race, racking up nearly 4.5
00:02:27.560 million votes.
00:02:28.620 In 11 states, the Libertarian Party vote total exceeded the margin of victory, meaning that
00:02:33.780 you can make a case that Libertarians affected the outcome of the 2016 presidential election
00:02:39.460 by siphoning votes from Hillary Clinton.
00:02:42.080 And you don't hear that discussed very often.
00:02:43.840 It's a lot easier for Democrats to blame Russia or whatever, but it's true.
00:02:48.960 And eight years later, once again, there are signs that Libertarians might have a relatively,
00:02:54.460 by their standards, strong showing in the upcoming election.
00:02:57.360 Polls show that most Americans are ambivalent about this presidential race, in part because
00:03:01.860 both candidates have already served as president.
00:03:03.900 So there's not as much enthusiasm as there normally is.
00:03:07.580 And that gives an opening to third-party candidates to attract some new support.
00:03:12.320 Both the Trump campaign and the Biden campaign understand this dynamic very well.
00:03:17.120 They're looking at the same poll numbers.
00:03:19.280 But only Trump has decided to appeal to these Libertarian voters directly.
00:03:23.040 So on Saturday night, Trump spoke at the Libertarian Party's national nominating convention in the
00:03:28.680 nation's capital, becoming the first former president to ever do so.
00:03:33.040 And the speech marked another moment of stark contrast between Trump and Joe Biden, who, the
00:03:38.700 latter of whom, would never walk into a venue where he knew that a large portion of the audience would
00:03:44.160 oppose him.
00:03:45.100 I mean, we're at the point where Joe Biden isn't even allowed to give press conferences anymore,
00:03:48.960 much less deliver speeches before a hostile crowd.
00:03:51.500 But Trump had no problem facing his detractors at the convention, who, as predicted, heckled
00:03:56.820 him at various points during his address.
00:03:59.060 That was the side of the story that the media ran with.
00:04:01.360 There were dozens of headlines about how Trump was booed and jeered at the convention.
00:04:05.200 But there were quite a few Trump supporters in attendance as well.
00:04:08.300 And there were several moments where the Libertarians in attendance were clearly on Trump's side.
00:04:13.060 That makes sense, because Trump didn't deliver his typical stump speech.
00:04:16.720 Instead, he tailored his remarks for a Libertarian audience, hitting topics like lower taxes,
00:04:21.100 cryptocurrency, reducing the size of the federal government, keeping America out of foreign
00:04:25.740 wars, and so on.
00:04:27.520 Trump even promised to commute the sentence of Libertarian hero Ross Ulbricht, the founder
00:04:32.460 of the defunct dark web marketplace Silk Road.
00:04:35.540 And Ulbricht is serving a life sentence for facilitating the sale of narcotics.
00:04:39.320 But Trump said he'd let him out of prison on day one of his second term.
00:04:43.060 And Trump made a host of other promises as well, including a vow to appoint Libertarians
00:04:47.680 to his cabinet.
00:04:49.040 Watch.
00:04:50.440 Why isn't Joe Biden here speaking to you tonight?
00:04:53.740 You know why?
00:04:55.420 Why isn't he?
00:04:56.620 Because he can't put two sentences together.
00:04:58.960 That's why he's done it.
00:05:02.040 And I am proud to be the only president in 70 years who started no new wars.
00:05:09.860 I took on the military industrial complex.
00:05:17.840 I broke the stranglehold on neocons and warmongers on the Republican Party.
00:05:24.380 And I will also stop Joe Biden's crusade to crush crypto.
00:05:28.680 We're going to stop it.
00:05:29.460 I will ensure that the future of crypto and the future of Bitcoin will be made in the
00:05:35.400 USA, not driven overseas.
00:05:38.100 I will support the right to self-custody to the nation's 50 million crypto holders.
00:05:44.440 I say this with your vote.
00:05:46.180 I will keep Elizabeth Warren and her goons away from your Bitcoin.
00:05:50.440 And I will never allow the creation of a central bank digital currency.
00:06:00.580 I will also immediately end the humanitarian disaster on our southern border.
00:06:05.880 We will end it quickly.
00:06:07.600 You cannot have capitalism and also have open borders because you will soon be turned into
00:06:13.200 a socialist nation, then a poor nation, and finally you will be a failed nation.
00:06:20.760 Now, as you can hear during some of those clips, the crowd reaction was mixed at some
00:06:24.980 points and very positive at other points.
00:06:27.400 It was a lot more interesting than the traditional stump speech.
00:06:30.500 And the response was unpredictable at various points.
00:06:34.040 But for their part, the media pretended that it was an unmitigated disaster.
00:06:37.880 NBC News reigned this headline, trial taking its toll, Trump booed and heckled at Libertarian
00:06:43.220 National Convention.
00:06:44.680 The Washington Post reported Trump loudly heckled at Libertarian National Convention.
00:06:48.440 Politico reported that Trump had been jeered and CNN said he was loudly booed and on and
00:06:53.060 on and on.
00:06:54.000 Now, as you just saw from the clips I played, this is obviously a total misrepresentation
00:06:58.080 of what happened.
00:06:58.700 The media desperately does not want the Trump campaign bringing in new voters from the Libertarian
00:07:03.920 side.
00:07:04.820 So they're lying.
00:07:05.660 The so-called defenders of democracy want to shame a presidential candidate for reaching
00:07:10.880 out to people who disagree with him, which is what you think political candidates are
00:07:15.360 supposed to do.
00:07:16.400 But the truth is that even when there was booing during Trump's speech, it didn't always relate
00:07:21.540 to what Trump was saying.
00:07:22.920 There was, as others have pointed out, the equivalent of a Jerry Springer episode occurring
00:07:27.560 in the crowd at one point as Trump spoke.
00:07:30.400 Apparently, a Libertarian delegate by the name of, and this is apparently the name he uses,
00:07:35.620 Starchild, was holding up a sign calling Trump a dictator, and then security dragged him away
00:07:41.260 for some reason.
00:07:42.440 And Starchild's associates were not pleased by that development.
00:07:47.200 Watch.
00:07:47.500 Starchild, Starchild, Starchild.
00:08:00.360 What were the limiting healthcare expenses?
00:08:03.740 Trump signed right to try, terminally impatient.
00:08:06.760 Starchild!
00:08:07.560 Starchild!
00:08:08.560 Starchild!
00:08:09.140 Starchild!
00:08:10.180 Starchild!
00:08:11.180 Starchild!
00:08:12.180 Starchild!
00:08:13.180 And with an attempt, all of the three Supreme Court justices in one presidential.
00:08:19.460 He's a delegate to our convention.
00:08:21.460 He's a delegate to our convention.
00:08:23.460 He's allowed to be here.
00:08:25.460 Trump canceled and defunded federal diversity, equity, and employment.
00:08:31.460 He's a delegate.
00:08:33.460 He's a delegate to the Libertarian National Convention.
00:08:37.460 He's allowed to be here.
00:08:39.460 Let military veterans receive federally-funded medical care in the private spaces.
00:08:45.460 These fascists don't get to kick out Starchild.
00:08:49.460 So you can hear at the end there, he says,
00:08:51.460 These fascists don't get to kick out Starchild.
00:08:53.460 Free Starchild.
00:08:55.460 Presumably that's Starchild's father, Star, but it's hard to say.
00:08:59.460 Meanwhile, Starchild's wig falls off as he's dragged away,
00:09:03.460 while a very confused Secret Service agent looks on.
00:09:06.460 And, you know, is this what Ludwig von Mises had in mind back in the day?
00:09:10.460 Probably not, but it's the state of Libertarian Party in America right now.
00:09:13.460 And if nothing else, it's entertaining.
00:09:15.460 During his speech, Trump apparently recognized that and had some fun at the party's expense.
00:09:20.460 Watch.
00:09:21.460 D-Roy Murdoch, who I've become friends with through his writings in the American Spectator and numerous other places,
00:09:29.460 wrote an article yesterday in which he mentions just some of the things that make me a Libertarian without even trying to be one.
00:09:37.460 That's nice.
00:09:39.460 D-Roy wrote,
00:09:43.460 Donald J. Trump will address the Libertarian Party and his national convention on Saturday.
00:09:49.460 The Libertarian Party should nominate Trump for President of the United States.
00:09:55.460 Whoa.
00:09:56.460 That's nice.
00:09:58.460 Only if you want to win.
00:10:07.460 Only if you want to win.
00:10:08.460 Maybe you don't want to win.
00:10:09.460 Maybe you don't want to win.
00:10:11.460 Thank you, D-Roy.
00:10:14.460 Thank you, D. Roy. Thank you. No, only do that if you want to win. If you want to lose, don't do
00:10:20.800 that. Keep getting your 3% every four years. Now, again, this is something that Joe Biden
00:10:28.660 wouldn't have the balls or the brainpower to do. It certainly wasn't written in the teleprompter
00:10:33.820 to taunt libertarians to their faces at their own convention about the fact that pretty much
00:10:38.280 no one votes for them. That's not the kind of outreach that a campaign advisor would have come
00:10:42.960 up with. But it was honest and hilarious, which is why it works. And also a moment of, again,
00:10:49.860 just completely distinguishing Trump from Biden. If you could imagine Biden in that exact situation
00:10:56.640 with all that noise, getting heckled by some people, applauded by others, he would be, I mean,
00:11:04.300 he's flustered when he's in a room and everyone's on his side and they're being very quiet and
00:11:08.520 listening to him respectfully. Can you imagine how flustered you'd be in that situation?
00:11:12.960 But that was maybe one of my favorite Trump moments of all time, making fun of the libertarians
00:11:18.600 to their faces. That might actually be my favorite moment ever. Now, libertarians, except for
00:11:24.140 Starchild maybe, are under no illusions that they're going to win the White House. What Trump is doing
00:11:30.440 is something the left normally excels at, which is transactional politics. He's basically saying,
00:11:36.060 vote for me, even though you don't like me, and I'll give you more than the other party will.
00:11:39.680 So we can assume that Trump isn't passionate about Ross Ulbricht, for example, but he knows
00:11:46.200 the crowd is, so he says he'll get him out of prison. And in that context, it makes sense for
00:11:50.900 Trump to embrace the adversarial relationship that he has with the crowd. Trump knew going into the
00:11:55.400 convention that he wasn't going to win the Libertarian Party's nomination. Instead,
00:11:59.600 his plan was simply to present a viable alternative to the Libertarian Party's eventual nominee.
00:12:06.020 And in that respect, Trump's speech succeeded more than he probably even thought possible.
00:12:11.480 It now appears very likely that Trump will indeed win a very large share of the Libertarian Party vote.
00:12:16.060 And that's because on Sunday, after Trump was determined to be ineligible for their party's
00:12:20.600 nomination, Libertarians nominated an HR representative named Chase Oliver to be their
00:12:27.260 presidential nominee. Now, already right away, this is a win for Trump, because nobody in their
00:12:33.080 right mind would ever want an HR representative in the White House. It's probably the least sympathetic
00:12:38.520 and appealing profession for a politician that you can imagine. But it gets even worse once you start
00:12:43.880 looking at what Chase Oliver believes. For example, earlier this year, Oliver shot a video at the
00:12:49.500 southern border. Watch. First, if you ask people who live here or know the community here, people who
00:12:56.920 are coming to this country just want to work for the most part. They are not seeking to take our
00:13:01.200 welfare. And in fact, you're three times more likely to go into a welfare program as a native-born
00:13:06.180 citizen, as a migrant. And so the truth is, is a lot of these folks are actually working. They use a fake
00:13:11.240 social security number because they don't have documentation. So they pay into the system
00:13:14.380 and they never get those benefits back. And so when we're talking about immigration here, we need to
00:13:21.460 understand this, that these people are just trying to seek a better life. And when you see fences like
00:13:26.140 this, these kinds of things belong more in, you know, dystopian totalitarian states like East Germany that
00:13:33.000 would separate East and West Berlin. These walls prevent commerce. These walls prevent peaceful people
00:13:39.060 from being able to move freely about and spend their money or their labor or their time, either in
00:13:44.880 Mexico or here in the United States. And I think it's wrong to be denying anybody the ability to move
00:13:51.500 freely, unencumbered, without, you know, much difficulty. So according to Oliver, the United States has no
00:13:57.860 right to enforce its borders against anybody. We have to be open to illegal migrants, as well as hostile
00:14:03.240 invading armies, presumably, because otherwise we're basically erecting another Berlin wall.
00:14:07.840 Never mind the fact that the Berlin wall was intended to lock people inside and prevent them
00:14:12.760 from escaping, while the southern border wall is intended to keep foreigners from entering the
00:14:17.500 country illegally. That's not important to Chase Oliver. The point, in his mind, is that walls are
00:14:23.360 always bad for some reason, except presumably the walls that form his own home and keep intruders out.
00:14:29.340 Now, in that video, Oliver also lies and claims that illegals don't use more welfare benefits than
00:14:34.280 American citizens, which is just completely made up. As the Center for Immigration Studies has found,
00:14:38.740 quote, in 2018, 49 percent of households headed by all immigrants, naturalized citizens, legal
00:14:43.500 residents, and illegal residents used at least one major welfare program compared to 32 percent
00:14:48.820 of households headed by the native born. So this guy doesn't understand the impact of open borders
00:14:55.100 on the economy, but he wants to open borders anyway. And this is one of the least popular positions a
00:15:00.820 politician can have right now. But the Libertarian Party just picked a candidate who firmly believes
00:15:05.380 in unrestricted illegal migration. As it happens, Chase is also a big supporter of pretty much every
00:15:10.180 other left-wing agenda item. He doesn't want the government to prevent adults from getting naked in
00:15:14.940 front of kids, for instance. Watch. Right. You're not into it, Chase, but should it be legal to be
00:15:22.140 naked in front of children? I mean, it happens at every Mardi Gras. But no, I don't really think
00:15:28.780 you should be targeting kids with nudity. Does that make it okay?
00:15:31.080 But, you know, I think that ultimately a lot of states and cities have public indecency laws that
00:15:38.720 basically say you can be nude so long as you're not trying to be sexually suggestive. And, you know,
00:15:44.640 there's been naked bike rides that have happened over the last 50 years. It's not. And the main thing
00:15:48.340 I want to say is this is not just gay pride parades. That's the that's the biggest thing that I have a
00:15:53.380 problem with is that people are like, oh, gay pride parades are where there's public nudity. There's
00:15:57.100 public nudity in a lot of places. Right. But it just feels like you're up nearly every beach.
00:16:02.280 So Oliver goes on to say that he doesn't prefer to see nudity at pride parades where children are
00:16:06.600 attending, but only because it's not helpful to the message of the parade in his view. He doesn't
00:16:11.420 think it should be prohibited. And then the interviewer asks a few follow up questions about
00:16:15.900 drag shows for children. And once again, Oliver pretends that there's nothing sexual about these
00:16:20.300 shows. And we've all seen the footage of these shows and what kids are forced to watch. But
00:16:26.000 apparently Chase Oliver hasn't, or at least he's pretending he hasn't. Watch.
00:16:30.040 Why do you think that the drag queens want to read to children?
00:16:35.040 Because I think that they are performance artists and they want to be able to have
00:16:39.480 different levels of performance art. It's the same reason as why do the Wiggles sing to children?
00:16:43.860 Because they want to have a marketplace to kids. Chase, they want to be able to, they want to be able to.
00:16:48.800 The Wiggles is made for children. It's obviously family friendly material.
00:16:54.760 Drag queens are not what you call family friendly kind of entertainment.
00:16:59.800 But a man in a dress is what drag is, right? I mean, let's just be real. A man in a dress
00:17:05.880 or a woman in a suit is what drag is. That is not inherently sexual. There is inherently sexual
00:17:12.060 drag. And you're not going to convince me. I mean, I'm not going to defend otherwise. There
00:17:15.720 absolutely is. But there's also, there's also the ability to perform as a man in a wig without being
00:17:23.640 sexual. And that is what this is. I guarantee you, if you act like I said, I went for myself
00:17:29.160 because I was like, why are there people protesting this thing? I want to see what this drag queen
00:17:33.720 story time is myself. And I want to see what it is and nothing sexual was going on. And I think that
00:17:40.040 is the truth for 99% of this. And I think you would, would you take your kids to a drag drag queen
00:17:46.520 story hour or would you drop, would you, would you drop your, would you drop them off at a drag queen
00:17:52.200 story hour? And I don't think that's what happens. Most of the time, the parents are right there with
00:17:56.200 the kids, but I'm asking you, would you drop your kids off at a drag queen story hour and come back
00:18:02.280 an hour later? Uh, I mean, would you drop your kids off at a movie? Yeah. I think if there's
00:18:08.680 nothing inherently sexual going on. Yeah. So as the joke goes, the libertarians wanted Ron Paul,
00:18:15.800 but they got Ru Paul instead. But it's actually disturbing to listen to his reasoning. He compares
00:18:20.760 the Wiggles, the kids music group to grown men with a fetish for wearing women's clothing.
00:18:26.600 And he says he has no problem leaving children alone with these grown men. Parents, he says,
00:18:30.680 always know best. And if parents want to leave their children with these kinds of people,
00:18:35.640 then who are we to disagree? He says, his only defense is that these drag performers are engaging
00:18:41.320 in performance art, quote unquote. Therefore we have to accept it. Now, once again, it just so
00:18:46.520 happens that Chase's positions comport perfectly with mainstream democratic party orthodoxy.
00:18:51.400 There's plenty more where that came from. Chase Oliver also has voiced his support for banning
00:18:56.120 Donald Trump from social media, as well as for vaccine mandates, as long as they're implemented
00:19:00.220 by private companies and not the government. He also supports legislation that would overrule
00:19:04.220 the Supreme Court on abortion. So to recap, the Libertarian Party nominated a leftist,
00:19:09.500 essentially. They've picked a pride flag waving progressive who supports open borders,
00:19:13.180 has no problem with nudity at pride parades, loves seeing kids alone at drag queen story hours,
00:19:17.660 supports vaccine mandates for millions of Americans, and also supports abortions on the grounds of
00:19:21.740 bodily autonomy. This is pretty much the DNC's platform word for word. It's yet more evidence that
00:19:27.500 libertarians are just basically pot-scented Democrats. They fundamentally agree with Democrats
00:19:33.340 on most things because libertarians and leftists both subscribe to a consent-based morality where
00:19:39.340 anything is okay as long as the people involved choose to do it. And they both make exceptions even
00:19:45.900 to that flimsy moral framework when it comes to children who are often exposed to drag queens and public
00:19:50.780 nudity without their consent because they cannot consent because they're kids.
00:19:53.980 Now, Chase Oliver wouldn't be remotely out of place as a Democrat on San Francisco City Council.
00:20:01.980 Then again, of course, Republicans are also just Democrats driving the speed limit, to use Michael
00:20:06.220 Malice's phrase. Both parties agree on major issues like funding foreign wars, and they both tolerate
00:20:11.900 open borders. What this means is that there really is no real, true, significant political alternative
00:20:19.500 to leftism, at least not right now. Even the third party doesn't really provide it, as Chase Oliver
00:20:24.940 demonstrates. During his appearance on Sunday night at the, Saturday night rather, at the Libertarian
00:20:30.620 Convention, to the dismay of Starchild, Donald Trump didn't promise his audience everything they wanted.
00:20:37.340 But Trump did demonstrate that he's willing to break with the Republican Party establishment to win
00:20:41.500 over voters who have been ignored for decades. He's made it clear that he's willing to make promises that
00:20:46.620 Mitch McConnell won't be happy about in order to secure more votes and political power, which is what
00:20:52.060 the point is. Now, is that a tactic we normally see from the right? Absolutely not. But ultimately,
00:20:58.300 especially in this election year, it's what building a viable alternative to leftism will require.
00:21:04.780 Now, let's get to our five headlines.
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00:22:11.260 donation doubled. The Biden campaign held a press conference outside of the Trump trial in New York
00:22:16.380 today, and their featured speaker was, for some reason, Robert De Niro. This is the legal expert that
00:22:24.300 they brought in to pontificate on the subject. And we'll start with this. We have two clips here.
00:22:31.500 Well, we'll, we'll, we'll, we'll start here as he, as Robert De Niro is, is struggling. He's got
00:22:37.020 something to say, but he's, he's struggling to get it out. Let's listen. Thank you.
00:22:46.220 I mean, this is really, even these people over here,
00:22:49.100 it's kind of crazy. It's really crazy. And this, this thing, Donald Trump has created this.
00:23:02.060 He should be telling them not to do this, but he's just,
00:23:05.260 he wants to sow total chaos, which he's succeeding in some areas and places to do.
00:23:19.100 Anyway, beside all that, this is my neighborhood, downtown New York City. I grew up here and feel at
00:23:26.940 home in these streets. I feel comfortable. Some great insights there. Wow. It's really crazy.
00:23:35.500 It's, it's kinda, it's kinda really crazy. It's just, it's just crazy. The whole thing. The whole
00:23:40.700 thing is crazy. Just a crazy thing. This thing is. So they brought, they brought Robert De Niro in for
00:23:47.420 that kind of analysis. Trump is sowing chaos, he says. Full on chaos. And meanwhile, there are like
00:23:55.980 two people shouting in the background. That's the chaos. Two people. That's assuming that the
00:24:01.100 people shouting are actually Trump supporters, which they could easily, it could be the other
00:24:05.100 way too, of course, as we know. But, but that's what he says chaos is. Now, did Robert De Niro ever
00:24:12.300 accuse the BLM rioters of sowing chaos? I'm guessing not. Burning and looting is in chaos. A guy shouting
00:24:20.540 on a street corner is. Okay then. Overall, you know, a great strategy by the Biden campaign, because
00:24:27.980 you've got Joe Biden, who's a geriatric president, a guy who rambles incoherently. And so they choose
00:24:34.060 as his spokesman at this press conference, a geriatric actor who also rambles incoherently.
00:24:42.300 Now, the question is why, I mean, why Robert De Niro? Like if for some reason you need, you feel
00:24:50.700 like you need to get a famous celebrity actor to show up at this thing, which I'm not sure why you
00:24:55.300 need that. Um, why him? You couldn't even get a young, like relevant celebrity. Instead, they got a
00:25:03.300 guy that nobody cares about. A guy who has only been in maybe two good movies in the last 30 years,
00:25:09.640 which this is sort of a side note, I guess, but it really is remarkable how far this guy, uh, has
00:25:16.260 fallen artistically. Like leaving aside the fact that he's a woke Looney Tune. I mean, putting that
00:25:21.980 aside entirely, he was once a, obviously a tremendous artist. He's, he's, he's made some of the greatest
00:25:29.800 films of all time. And then, uh, that just stopped suddenly and everything he's done for the last
00:25:37.100 three decades has been schlock, just awful with a few bright spots here and there. And, and those are
00:25:44.200 movies that he's not the lead role in. Um, and most of those movies are overrated too. So, uh, but this is
00:25:54.420 who they, they decided to bring in this, um, I was going to say his star has faded, but it's like
00:26:02.120 that it's faded. It's just doesn't exist anymore. Nobody, nobody cares. Like no one's even going to,
00:26:09.140 not only do we not care about Robert De Niro's political opinions, if he is the lead, if he has
00:26:14.800 the lead role in a movie, like no one even wants, no one is going to a theater to see a Robert De
00:26:18.960 De Niro movie because it's Robert De Niro. Um, but there was another great moment where, uh, De Niro
00:26:26.640 offered a, a dire warning to America. Um, you don't want to hear this because, well, this is pretty
00:26:35.340 shocking. Listen, under Trump, this kind of government will perish from the earth. I don't
00:26:44.020 mean to scare you. No, no, wait. Maybe I do mean to scare you. If Trump returns to the White
00:26:49.480 House, you can kiss these freedoms goodbye that we all take for granted and elections. Forget about
00:26:56.880 it. That's over. That's done. If he gets in, I can tell you right now, he will never leave.
00:27:04.900 He will never leave. You know that he will never leave.
00:27:11.640 This, this government will perish from the earth. He says, well, don't threaten us with a good time.
00:27:19.900 Uh, Robert, but nobody believes this. No one actually believes this. No one actually thinks
00:27:28.060 that Trump will bring an end to the government and install himself as a military dictator.
00:27:33.720 No one thinks that. Okay. It doesn't even, even January, January 6th. Okay. Of course,
00:27:44.700 Robert De Niro would tell us that the darkest day in American history, and it was an insurrection.
00:27:49.380 He'll say all this crazy stuff, but guess what? Trump left office, didn't he? He did. He didn't,
00:27:55.080 he's, he's not still there right now. They didn't have to send the military in to drag him out. He,
00:27:59.860 he did in fact leave. Um, how would that even work? How would it, how would it work for Trump to say,
00:28:09.000 you know, now, cause if he, if he wins again, then it's not like he's going to lose it. He's term
00:28:14.800 limited. So he's done. Um, and he's just going to say, I'm not going to leave. I'm going to remain
00:28:20.600 president. How's that work? And then everyone says, okay, well, I guess he's still president.
00:28:27.080 Like it literally can't happen. Um, and Trump also, as I've said many times,
00:28:35.720 he, Trump has shown no interest in being a dictator, leaving aside jokey comments here and there.
00:28:46.900 When you look at what he's actually done, he's shown no interest in being anything approaching
00:28:53.380 a dictator. If anything, he has been shy about wielding when he was in office, he was shy about
00:29:00.840 wielding the, the legitimate legal authority he actually had. I mean, this is someone who he didn't
00:29:08.200 even, he didn't even fire Fauci when he could have, he could have, he didn't. So that, that is the
00:29:15.260 actual criticism, the legitimate criticism of Trump's, uh, first term in office is that he,
00:29:23.200 he would not wield his power in pursuit of what his agenda is. The agenda that he, um,
00:29:29.280 was elected to enact. So it is, it's the opposite of what these people keep saying
00:29:33.820 and nobody believes this. People on the left that pretend to, but it's all performance. No one
00:29:41.480 actually thinks this. And, um, and by the way, you talk about incitement in, in reality,
00:29:50.920 when you say this kind of thing that he's, he's not going to ever leave, he's going to be a dictator.
00:29:55.380 It's going to be the end of life as we know it, the end of our freedoms, everything you are actually
00:30:01.980 trying to incite violence against Trump. You're, you're basically trying to encourage someone to
00:30:06.760 assassinate him. That's what you're doing. You are providing an argument for someone to go and do
00:30:13.500 that. And you're doing it intentionally. And I can't think of any other reason to say this sort of
00:30:19.480 thing because you don't believe it. The idea that he's going to bring an end to the government,
00:30:25.940 De Niro, as kooky as he is, doesn't actually believe that. Uh, the American public doesn't buy
00:30:31.640 it. It's, it's not politically persuasive because no one buys it. So why are you even saying it?
00:30:41.320 I can only come to one conclusion,
00:30:43.800 which is that the various, there's a very small smattering of people out there who are crazy
00:30:51.100 enough to actually think that's true. And, um, and you are trying to inspire them to take drastic action.
00:31:01.640 That's what it would seem to me. All right. There's a major manhunt happening in, uh, Florida right
00:31:08.360 now. Police are pursuing a dangerous criminal and, uh, just prepare yourself for this. Cause I'm going
00:31:16.340 to show you this, uh, video, the news clip and you will see, I'm warning now, just a warning ahead of
00:31:23.300 time. You're going to see footage of this terrible, violent crime happening. And it's very, very disturbing.
00:31:29.620 Uh, but here it is. Police are searching for the driver caught doing donuts, damaging the progressive
00:31:37.420 pride street mural. Just after 2 40 Wednesday morning, a vehicle is caught on a security camera
00:31:42.980 doing donuts, damaging a pride mural on Central Avenue in St. Petersburg. Tire marks still visible
00:31:49.100 on the street. My reaction is, uh, disappointment, not surprise. Um, I think anytime we're in a
00:31:55.600 situation where we have public displays of pride, authentic cells, people are going to have a reaction
00:32:02.040 to it. Dr. Byron Green College is president of St. Pete pride. He feels someone targeted the mural.
00:32:07.940 He says the mural is visual representation that everyone is welcomed here. The mural is really a
00:32:14.800 public love letter to the residents of St. Pete being able to collaborate with the city and other
00:32:20.520 pride organizations here in the city really feels like love and home. St. Pete police say over the past
00:32:26.760 week, two different vehicles have left tire marks on the mural. One where a driver accelerated on Friday,
00:32:33.000 May 17th at around 9 30 in the morning. The second incident that vehicle doing donuts officers do not
00:32:39.080 believe the two cases are connected. Mayor Ken Welch posted on Instagram saying in light of the recent
00:32:44.600 vandalism and vandalism targeting the progressive pride flag mural there is no place for hate in St. Petersburg.
00:32:50.600 St. Pete police say the person responsible faces a criminal mischief felony charge since it will cost
00:32:55.800 the city $1,100 to restore the mural in time for pride month festivities. A massive thank you to the city
00:33:03.800 and being able to jump into action as quickly as they did. Anyone with any information regarding the
00:33:08.360 driver in the blue vehicle is asked to contact St. Pete police.
00:33:14.280 Yes, anybody with information, uh, any information about this crime? I actually do have information
00:33:19.880 from what I understand based on my sources, the suspect has fled all the way down to, um,
00:33:24.760 Antarctica. So, and is now hiding deep in the interior of the, uh, of the, of the continent. So
00:33:30.520 what I would suggest is that you send as many officials down there as possible to find,
00:33:34.680 send the whole city government to go find this guy. Uh, this is the most important thing you could
00:33:38.520 do. Just go all the way down there and don't come back until you find him. That's my recommendation.
00:33:44.520 Because this is obviously a serious crime. I mean, tire marks, tire marks on a street of all places.
00:33:53.960 How could that happen? How could this happen? This is like, um, next thing you know,
00:33:59.000 you'll tell me that you found, uh, I don't know, traces of water droplets in a sink.
00:34:04.120 Anything's possible. Now I will admit, based on the video, the tire tracks do appear to have been
00:34:10.600 left rather intentionally in this case. Uh, the car is, is, uh, doing donuts or donuts,
00:34:17.800 according to the reporter who kept pronouncing it donuts. Um, so the car is doing donuts, but,
00:34:24.280 but, but, you know, do we know that he was doing the donuts in a targeted way? Like in a negative way?
00:34:30.360 Do we know that? Maybe they were donuts of celebration. Maybe he was trying to celebrate
00:34:37.480 the LGBT community. Maybe he saw the pride flag and was overwhelmed by feelings of, of, um, of
00:34:44.520 happiness and pride. And, and, and he just started driving in a circle in a state of ecstasy.
00:34:49.720 That's possible, isn't it? You know, I mean, maybe he was, maybe he was trying to add, maybe he was,
00:34:57.640 um, uh, trying to add a, a, a design to it. Maybe he had a, he had an idea cause they keep,
00:35:03.000 they keep updating the pride flag and adding weird, like new designs to it. Maybe this was him. This is
00:35:09.000 like street art. He's, he's, he's adding another design to make, you know what he's doing? He was
00:35:14.600 actually making the pride flag more inclusive. That was his objective. I think from what, from what I,
00:35:19.640 from what I understand based on the assumption I'm making right now, at least if I was that guy,
00:35:26.440 which I'm not saying I was, well, I wouldn't put it past me. Um, no, it wasn't me, but if I was that
00:35:35.160 guy, that's what I would, that would be my, that's what I would say. That would be my argument.
00:35:39.000 I'd say I was making the pride flag more inclusive. I, what are you talking about?
00:35:42.280 It, you know, and the circles represent, um,
00:35:49.160 I don't know, represent polysexuals or if they're not already on there,
00:35:56.040 there's gotta be some kind of sexual that isn't on there. Whatever's not on there is,
00:35:59.320 uh, that's what I was trying to do.
00:36:02.360 Paul polyamorous are the polyamorous people on the pride flag yet.
00:36:05.560 LGBTQIA. I don't think there's a P is there a P there's probably a B
00:36:12.360 I don't know. Uh, that's what I would say. Well, so you're, oh, so you're telling me that the
00:36:16.920 polyamorous community shouldn't be on the flag. Is that what you're saying? Who's committing the
00:36:22.680 hate crime here? Me or you? Maybe he wanted the, you know, the, maybe, maybe he was, he was,
00:36:30.840 maybe that, look, there are plenty of LGBT people who, uh, who sell tires for a living that are in
00:36:37.160 the tire selling community that are in the tire industry, you know, work at Goodyear or whatever.
00:36:42.520 And so maybe this was his way of rep, of representing those people,
00:36:47.240 gay people who sell tires by putting tire tracks on the pride flag. Think about it.
00:36:53.400 That makes a lot of sense now,
00:36:56.440 or maybe short, like God forbid, God forbid, maybe I, to me, it's, it's, it's a far fetch,
00:37:03.560 but maybe, maybe this is someone maybe who had a problem with the pride flag being painted
00:37:09.160 in the middle of the street. That's also, it's possible. It is possible. Anything's possible.
00:37:15.560 And I'm sure I'll be told that it's, it's not unreasonable to pursue this guy for criminal charges,
00:37:19.880 given that they aren't charging him with a hate crime, but with criminal mischief
00:37:24.120 and doing donuts on a public street is, uh, is illegal. And yeah, that's true.
00:37:31.640 But of course we all know that if this guy had done the same thing anywhere else on the road,
00:37:36.920 there wouldn't be any manhunt underway and police would not be looking for tips to catch the suspect.
00:37:43.240 In fact, this guy could have committed a crime against an actual person rather than a crosswalk.
00:37:49.720 And they wouldn't be putting the same effort into finding. He could have robbed someone. He could
00:37:54.040 have committed burglary. He could have stolen a car and, and there wouldn't be anything close to the
00:37:59.880 same effort and the same emphasis on catching this guy. And we all know that. And that's the case in
00:38:05.800 every city in the country. Like I had my own, this is not in that, but in Nashville, I had my own car
00:38:11.400 stolen a couple of years ago and, uh, and the people that stole it crashed into a light pole.
00:38:18.200 And the cops basically told me up front, like, yeah, we're probably not going to catch the guy.
00:38:22.680 We're not going to, we're probably not going to catch them. And, uh, and I never heard another
00:38:27.160 word about it from the cops ever again. It's like, it never happened. So it, because that's the kind of
00:38:32.840 thing that gets put to the bottom of the stack and, um, stays there forever. It's just not
00:38:40.920 emphasized. So somebody leaving tire tracks on the streets under normal circumstances,
00:38:47.880 that wouldn't even be at the bottom of the stack. That's not even in the stack.
00:38:52.280 Okay. That's in the, the circular filing bin, as the saying goes, um, this is not a crime that anyone
00:38:58.600 would care about or any resources would be spent on pursuing ever under any circumstance, unless
00:39:05.480 there happened to be an obnoxious rainbow flag painted on that spot. And then they treat it like
00:39:11.160 they're hunting for bin Laden, right? Because, uh, as that one guy said, the pride flag is a love letter
00:39:17.960 to the gay people of the city. Well, here's a question. Should the city government be sending love
00:39:25.080 letters to any community? Is that what the government should be doing? Should taxpayers
00:39:31.960 be funding love letters? But of course we know that the pride flag is the symbol of the state religion.
00:39:38.920 That's what's really going on here. Uh, the guy in the truck committed a, an act of blasphemy
00:39:43.560 against a revered religious symbol. And that's why they're pursuing. All right. Um,
00:39:51.160 um, so the account end wokeness posted this video originally from NYU, actually NYU Gallatin
00:39:59.000 featuring some graduates telling us what they studied. And, um, that, that is, you know,
00:40:05.560 what did they spend many thousands and thousands of dollars on, uh, thousands of dollars they don't have.
00:40:11.640 And they had some very interesting answers. Let's listen. My name is Jacob and my concentration is
00:40:18.600 environmental science and sustainable business. Hi, my name is Lex and my concentration is the
00:40:23.800 performance of self. Hi, I'm Gabrielle. My concentration is creative direction production
00:40:28.360 and there to see the arts, um, performance and written work. Hi, my name is Karina Gomez
00:40:34.280 and my concentration is in journalism and Latin American studies with an emphasis in human rights,
00:40:40.120 collective memory, and political violence. Hi, my name is Stephanie Lee and I studied the sociology
00:40:46.280 of environmental communication. Hi, my name is Reed and I study music business and gender studies.
00:40:51.800 Hi, my name is Dominique and I studied care politics with a minor in disability studies.
00:40:57.480 My name is Elliot Wright and my concentration is art as a social mechanism.
00:41:01.800 Hi, I'm Georgia and my concentration is dramatic writing and theatrical adaptation.
00:41:06.520 My name is Noah Loyacano and my concentration is equilibrium or negotiated paradox.
00:41:12.600 Hi, my name is Sophie Lopez and my concentration is titled Queering and Decolonizing Theater Practice.
00:41:19.000 Hi, my name is Maya and my concentration is journalism, postcolonial studies and psychoanalysis.
00:41:25.480 Hi, I'm Eloise. I'm graduating with a concentration in philosophy of science and theater.
00:41:30.520 My name is Amina and my concentration is titled The Criminal Mind, which is surrounded on criminology
00:41:36.200 and applied psychology. Hi, my name is Juliana. My concentration is international business
00:41:41.960 and fashion through sustainable development. Yay!
00:41:47.240 There you go. Hi, my name is Rainbow Skylight and my concentration is the queerification of
00:41:54.040 decolonization practices among lesbian dog walkers in the vegetarian community from 1972 to 1975
00:42:04.360 on Jupiter. And the funny thing is that, you know, I can't even like make fun of these people in a way
00:42:09.880 that makes them sound any more ridiculous than they already sound on their own. And just to be clear here,
00:42:14.360 the issue is not that these subjects are obscure. There's plenty of value in learning about obscure
00:42:20.760 subjects. It's possible that a subject is obscure, but shouldn't be. You know, there are lots of
00:42:25.080 fascinating and important things that are obscure these days and their obscurity is not really a
00:42:30.680 reflection of the subject so much as a reflection of our society and what it values. So obscurity is
00:42:35.960 not the problem. The problem is that this stuff is totally fake. It's just completely fake and meaningless.
00:42:42.760 Disability studies? That's not anything. It's not obscure. It's nothing. It's not a real subject. It's not a real area of academic inquiry.
00:42:56.680 Queering and decolonizing theater practice? Again, that's fake. Doesn't mean anything. Performance of self? Again, meaningless.
00:43:05.160 And here's another important stipulation. You know, you'll hear that a lot of college students,
00:43:11.480 especially those college students especially, but so many others, you'll hear that they're spending their
00:43:18.200 money on or their parents' money earning an education that's useless, you know, that can't be used. But we
00:43:26.760 should be clear about what we mean by that. Because useless doesn't just mean that they won't be able to find
00:43:34.280 a job with that degree. Although that is also the case. Doesn't matter how woke our society becomes,
00:43:41.480 there will never be very many job openings for experts in how to decolonize theater practices,
00:43:48.440 okay? That's just, you know, you could become a DEI consultant with that, and that's pretty much it.
00:43:53.880 There's nothing else for you to do. Or you can go and teach that same useful subject. Those are your two
00:44:01.880 options. We have nothing to do with you. There's nothing for you to do.
00:44:10.760 And most jobs, when it comes down to it, they can't exist unless there's some kind of function.
00:44:18.120 There's some sort of justification for its existence, unless it's DEI or in academia.
00:44:28.520 Or I suppose, well, I suppose also the federal government, which opens up many more opportunities
00:44:35.240 as well. So that's a third area. So a few people with these kinds of degrees will get jobs in one
00:44:41.720 of those three areas. But everybody else, you're really in trouble. But it's not just about the job.
00:44:49.720 Education is supposed to be useful in a deeper way. It's supposed to make you
00:44:53.240 a better, more well-rounded, more interesting person. That's what education is supposed to do.
00:45:01.400 But this stuff does not improve you as a person or make you more interesting or more intelligent. In fact,
00:45:06.600 it has the opposite effect, very much so. You'll come out dumber and shallower and less insightful,
00:45:12.120 less wise, less interesting than you already were when you went in.
00:45:15.640 So it's worse than useless, is what this kind of stuff is.
00:45:24.760 You know the saying, blood is thicker than water? Well, this week on Judged, we find out the ink
00:45:29.640 on a lease agreement is more powerful than both of those things. These siblings bring their case to
00:45:34.840 my courtroom because, let's face it, if I can't mend the broken family bonds, nobody can. They're totally
00:45:40.520 screwed. Something else that's extremely difficult is working with magicians. Are they actually standing
00:45:44.760 there? Is it an illusion? What words are deception? What are truth? It's these kinds of issues that
00:45:50.360 only yours truly, the most honorable judge of the highest court in the land, can solve.
00:45:54.360 Watch the new episode of Judged by Matt Walsh exclusively on Daily Wire Plus to see how a
00:45:57.800 lease agreement breaks up two sisters and what happens when a magician breaks the sacred magician's
00:46:02.920 code of conduct. An all-new episode of Judged is streaming now on Daily Wire Plus.
00:46:07.560 Now let's get to our Daily Cancellation.
00:46:15.400 One of the hit songs on social media right now, especially TikTok, of course, is a nihilistic ode
00:46:20.280 to the supposedly meaningless nature of our empty and pointless lives. I know you're probably thinking,
00:46:26.040 wait, isn't that literally every pop song that's been made over the past 35 years? And yes, you're right.
00:46:30.520 The difference is that this song is much more explicit, and I would even say, arguably, perhaps,
00:46:35.080 eloquent in its nihilism. The song is from TikTok singer Ian McConnell, and it was posted,
00:46:41.400 or it seems posted again, actually, only a week ago. It already has nearly two million views,
00:46:45.240 tens of thousands of shares, and thousands of very supportive comments. This is in spite of the fact,
00:46:51.640 or probably more because of the fact, that it sounds like a very manic depressive episode of
00:46:57.320 High School Musical. Listen.
00:47:00.920 I'm pretty sure that life doesn't have a meaning. And if there's a God, then he doesn't look like me.
00:47:08.520 And I'm just a member of the current apex species. But there'll be another when the humans go extinct.
00:47:16.760 We've only been around 200,000 years of 13 and a half billion years. How can we think the pinnacle is
00:47:23.560 here? Isn't that arrogant? There's a couple hundred billion trillion suns, and we act like it all was
00:47:29.560 made for us. There ain't no way that we're the only ones. I'm not important, and neither are you.
00:47:38.440 So let's do whatever we want to do. Bask in our cosmic insignificance. So got this blip we're living in,
00:47:47.320 because nothing matters anyway. Isn't that great?
00:47:52.760 So there you go. It's a great song if you want to lament your very existence in a cheerful kind of
00:47:57.720 way. As I said, the song seems to have struck a chord on social media. That's no surprise as
00:48:01.800 nihilism is the dominant worldview in our culture. The belief that life has no inherent meaning is
00:48:07.080 shared by millions of people in our country, especially in the younger generations.
00:48:09.800 Now, in fact, anyone we would call a leftist is a nihilist by definition, and many more that we
00:48:16.680 would not call leftists are also nihilists, whether they know it or not. Recently, a new twist on this
00:48:21.320 belief system has emerged, although like most new things, it's not really new at all. It's called
00:48:26.540 optimistic nihilism. And TikTok is full of explainers on this particular brand of nihilism, a brand that
00:48:32.600 already has its theme song, as we just heard. So here's this random woman explaining what optimistic
00:48:38.220 nihilism is. Listen. Have you ever heard of the phrase optimistic nihilism? No? Well, let me rewind
00:48:46.140 just a little bit. Nihilism itself is the belief that nothing has any meaning in this life. Life is
00:48:51.880 meaningless and without purpose. Honestly, it's like a little bit of a buzzkill, but when weren't
00:48:56.040 we thinking that in 2020? Now, optimistic nihilism is the belief that if nothing matters, well, then
00:49:01.360 nothing matters. And if nothing matters, then it doesn't matter what you should or shouldn't wear.
00:49:06.420 You wear whatever the f*** you want. If nothing matters, then f*** whatever those bullies said to
00:49:11.180 you in high school. It doesn't matter. And if nothing matters, why do we care what society thinks
00:49:16.380 or tells us what we should be doing? Why does it matter what our bosses, our enemies, and our family
00:49:20.420 thinks? The only thing that matters is you. And when I stumbled upon this new way of thinking, I felt
00:49:26.040 freed. As someone with chronic people-pleasing problems, as well as chronic anxiety, this has been a
00:49:30.860 hard one to learn, but it has been the best thing for me. Now, I'm not really sure why we have to
00:49:36.580 throw out all meaning, the very concept of meaning itself, in order to arrive at the conclusion that
00:49:41.600 the opinions of bullies in high school don't matter. I'd arrived at that conclusion about pretty much
00:49:47.300 everyone in high school while I was in high school, and I didn't need to drain the universe of all meaning
00:49:52.620 to do it. But there's something else she said there that may have caught your ear even more. She said,
00:49:58.600 nothing matters except you. Now, that's one hell of a qualifier. But the thing is, nothing matters
00:50:06.340 except me is the mantra of a narcissist. Are narcissism and nihilism the same thing? That would
00:50:13.000 certainly explain why this worldview is so popular, but we'll return to that point in a moment. The first
00:50:17.100 and foremost problem with nihilism is that it's not true. In fact, the universe was made with a
00:50:22.540 purpose in mind, and each of us individually were made with purpose by an all-loving and powerful
00:50:26.740 God who imbues every moment of our lives with more meaning than we could ever comprehend.
00:50:31.400 Life is bursting with meaning. There is meaning everywhere you look and everywhere you don't look.
00:50:37.520 Nothing is meaningless. Everything you do or say brings you closer to God or farther away, and so
00:50:43.800 you have never done or said anything that's truly meaningless. So the depressed high school
00:50:50.300 musical guy says that our lives are meaningless because humans will one day go extinct and haven't
00:50:55.380 been on Earth all that long in the grand scheme, and Earth itself is just one planet orbiting one
00:51:00.160 sun out of the trillions of other planets orbiting trillions of other suns. But even taking his own
00:51:05.040 argument on its own terms, it doesn't make any sense. Why should the fact that we live for so short a
00:51:11.700 time on such tiny a planet in one solar system out of so many countless solar systems mean that our lives
00:51:16.960 aren't important and don't have meaning? Why shouldn't it mean it precisely the opposite?
00:51:22.980 Life is short. All the more reason to cherish it deeply. Humanity itself will one day go extinct. All the
00:51:28.360 more miraculous that you got to exist before it does. The universe is incomprehensibly vast and awe-inspiring.
00:51:35.500 All the more amazing is life then, and the fact that you get to be a part of it.
00:51:39.320 I've never looked up at the sky at night and felt anything like nihilism. To me, that's like
00:51:46.240 looking at a sunset over the ocean and feeling disgust, or looking at a newborn baby and feeling
00:51:51.740 hatred. Like it's a sickness to feel that way. Something is deeply wrong inside of you. Now, of
00:51:58.980 course, we know that a horrifying number of people have felt something like that last emotion about the
00:52:03.520 baby. So perhaps it is no surprise that the night sky makes them feel like life is pointless.
00:52:09.320 When it should inspire them in the opposite direction. But nihilism's falsehood is not even
00:52:15.860 really its biggest problem. Its biggest problem is its dishonesty. You know, it's one thing to be
00:52:21.440 false. It's another thing to lack the integrity to be honestly false. After all, I guarantee that
00:52:28.920 every single one of these TikTok nihilists, especially the optimistic variety, would very earnestly insist
00:52:35.200 that racism is a major problem. And homophobia is a terrible thing. And quote unquote, transphobia
00:52:41.880 is an epidemic. And the patriarchy must be smashed and all the rest of it. But if they were really
00:52:47.440 nihilists and really have the courage of their own convictions, they would happily say that racism,
00:52:52.140 homophobia, et cetera, don't matter any more than life itself matters. And if life doesn't matter,
00:52:57.900 then who cares about racism? White supremacists could stage a violent overthrow of the country
00:53:02.700 and enslave every racial minority in existence, and it wouldn't matter. Because nothing matters.
00:53:08.560 If nothing matters, then nothing matters. You cannot say that nothing matters and then turn around and
00:53:13.780 condemn any form of bigotry, real or imagined, or engage in any kind of activism at all of any sort.
00:53:20.580 Because condemnations and exhortations all rest on the assumption that stuff matters. And if no stuff
00:53:29.040 matters, then there is nothing to condemn and no reason to exhort anyone to do anything or not do
00:53:34.580 anything. Nothing matters, remember? I wonder, what if one of these supposed nihilists heard a conversation
00:53:42.780 like this playing out in the world? Person A says, black people are oppressed in this country.
00:53:48.960 Person B says, eh, doesn't matter. Person A says, what do you mean? Black people are suffering.
00:53:56.160 Person B says, yeah, but black people don't matter. Now, the nihilist must agree with person B.
00:54:02.720 You're not a nihilist if you don't agree. So if you claim to be a nihilist, you must wholeheartedly
00:54:07.980 concur with person B's conclusions. And yet we all know that the shirtless ginger guy with the keyboard
00:54:13.840 sure as hell isn't making a cheerful little tune called black people don't matter anytime soon,
00:54:19.900 or gay people don't matter, or trans people don't matter. Even though he allegedly believes none of
00:54:25.120 these people matter. Their lives don't matter at all. Like at all. They could not exist. They could
00:54:30.500 all cease to exist. Even a genocide that wiped all of them out wouldn't matter at all in the slightest.
00:54:36.800 A genocide of a million people is like stepping on a bug. That's the true nihilistic viewpoint.
00:54:44.400 If you don't have that viewpoint, you're not really a nihilist. A real nihilist would have
00:54:48.760 to shrug his shoulders at all that. It doesn't matter. They don't matter. Nothing matters. Who
00:54:52.740 cares? And yet these nihilists certainly would not shrug their shoulders at that. And I'm not saying
00:54:58.340 they should. I happen to actually oppose genocide and persecution and slavery and bigotry. But I'm
00:55:05.280 allowed to oppose those things because I think human beings do matter. I think they have inherent
00:55:10.980 worth and dignity. That's the fundamental basis for having any opinion about how any human being
00:55:16.960 is treated, including yourself. And that brings us to the greatest contradiction here of all, which
00:55:21.500 was illustrated by that nothing matters except you line. Because if nothing matters, then you don't
00:55:29.380 matter either. And if you don't matter, then nothing that happens to you matters. You have no reason to
00:55:35.660 ever feel offended, insulted, persecuted. You shouldn't really care if you're mistreated. You
00:55:41.260 shouldn't care if your rights are taken away. In fact, you should recognize that you don't really
00:55:45.100 have any rights to begin with, at least not any rights that should matter to anyone, because nothing
00:55:48.460 matters. Yet the very act of making a song to promote nihilism is a refutation of nihilism. You can't
00:55:56.140 even argue for it without refuting it. Because if nihilism is true, then it also doesn't matter
00:56:02.120 whether anyone knows that it's true. Like, taking your time to convince anyone to believe it is
00:56:08.280 absurd. It's totally meaningless. Putting your energy into anything at all under nihilism is absurd, but
00:56:17.060 putting your energy into the pursuit of advancing any sort of idea is especially absurd. Indeed, if there
00:56:25.280 can be any sin in this nihilistic worldview, the only sin is to care whether anyone else is a
00:56:31.400 nihilist. Because if nothing matters, then what could possibly matter less than convincing other
00:56:37.780 people that nothing matters? But hardly anyone actually believes that nothing matters. The nihilist
00:56:44.380 is, in the end, just a loser, disappointed in his own life, too lazy to pursue anything better,
00:56:51.120 and so narcissistic that he seeks to make himself feel better by pulling everyone else down into
00:56:56.260 his misery alongside him. That's what nihilism really is. And that's why nihilists, optimistic or not,
00:57:05.260 are today canceled. That'll do it for the show today. Thanks for watching. Thanks for listening.
00:57:09.500 Talk to you tomorrow. Have a great day. Godspeed.
00:57:11.620 Mm-hmm.
00:57:11.880 Bye.
00:57:13.320 Bye.
00:57:13.720 Bye.
00:57:14.560 Bye.
00:57:15.000 Bye.
00:57:15.340 Bye.
00:57:15.500 Bye.
00:57:16.000 Bye.
00:57:16.580 Bye.
00:57:24.540 Bye.
00:57:25.160 Bye.
00:57:27.360 Bye.
00:57:27.660 Bye.
00:57:28.000 Bye.
00:57:28.500 Bye.
00:57:29.920 Bye.
00:57:30.220 Bye.
00:57:31.840 Bye.
00:57:36.960 Bye.
00:57:38.960 näm earner.