The Matt Walsh Show - Ep. 1390 - Major Polling Firm Changes Its Own Results After Left-Wing Activists Complain

00:00:00.920 Today on the Matt Wall Show, the term Orwellian is overused these days, but no other word

00:00:05.000 can describe what just happened with a Pew survey finding that a vast majority of black

00:00:08.840 Americans believe in racial conspiracy theories.

00:00:11.300 The findings were so upsetting to activists that Pew went back and changed the report.

00:00:15.760 It's a crazy story that few people are talking about.

00:00:17.780 We'll talk about it today, though.

00:00:19.020 Also, Donald Trump reportedly floated the idea of abolishing the income tax.

00:00:22.600 That's a great idea that should garner a lot more enthusiasm than it does.

00:00:26.140 And a Democratic congresswoman claims that she miraculously cured cancer.

00:00:30.400 Where are the fact checkers on that one?

00:00:31.920 We'll talk about all that and more today on the Matt Wall Show.

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00:01:39.440 One of the criticisms you often hear about polls is that they're agenda-driven and therefore

00:01:45.700 unreliable.

00:01:46.720 And very often, that's true, but it's usually difficult to prove it.

00:01:50.000 Pollsters understand that if they want to have any credibility whatsoever, they need

00:01:53.380 to project an image of neutrality.

00:01:55.920 They know that they can't buckle under political or social pressures and retract or modify their

00:02:00.360 own findings, at least not in public.

00:02:01.860 If they did that, then they'd be exposed as activists instead of pollsters, and nobody

00:02:05.640 would take them seriously ever again.

00:02:07.020 That's why it's very notable that the other day, the Pew Research Center heavily revised

00:02:11.580 a report that it had released just last week.

00:02:14.660 Under pressure from left-wing activists, Pew completely changed major sections of their

00:02:19.580 report, including the meaning of their polling results in some cases.

00:02:23.640 Now, in case you're not familiar with them, Pew is one of a handful of supposedly reputable

00:02:27.820 major polling organizations.

00:02:29.600 You've almost certainly seen their data being cited on cable news, social media, many times

00:02:34.120 in the past.

00:02:34.600 They have a reputation for being a serious nonprofit focused on communicating accurate information

00:02:39.820 to the public.

00:02:40.440 But in this case, Pew caved.

00:02:42.780 And it's important to understand why they caved, because it shows how a lot of this country's

00:02:46.360 most serious problems, the ones that cost a lot of people their lives every year, are

00:02:51.240 going entirely unaddressed because they're considered impolite to talk about.

00:02:55.920 So what I'm going to do is read you Pew's original report.

00:03:00.100 And then I'm going to show you the revised report, which Pew issued after activists shouted

00:03:04.920 them down on social media.

00:03:06.660 Pew's original unedited report found that, quote, most black Americans believe racial conspiracy

00:03:12.380 theories about U.S. institutions.

00:03:15.120 That was the headline.

00:03:16.520 Originally.

00:03:17.860 Here was the second paragraph of the original report.

00:03:20.660 Quote, most black adults say that the prison 74%, political 67%, and economic 65% systems

00:03:28.860 in the U.S., among others, are designed to hold black people back.

00:03:33.640 The report continues, quote, about two-thirds, 67%, of black Americans say racial conspiracy

00:03:39.340 theories in business in the form of targeted marketing of luxury products to black people

00:03:43.960 in order to bankrupt them are true and happening today.

00:03:47.300 82% of black adults say that they have heard the following racial conspiracy theory about

00:03:51.900 the prison system.

00:03:53.140 Black people are more likely than white people to be incarcerated because prison wants to

00:03:57.240 make money on the backs of black people.

00:03:59.720 Many black adults, 74%, say that this racial conspiracy theory is true and happening in the

00:04:05.240 U.S. today.

00:04:07.200 Additionally, the report found that, quote, 76% of black adults say the racial conspiracy theory

00:04:11.940 that black public officials are singled out and discredited in a way that doesn't happen

00:04:16.760 to white public officials is true and happening today.

00:04:20.060 The report adds that, quote, 55% of black adults say the racial conspiracy theories in

00:04:24.780 the form of secret and non-consensual medical experiments like the Tuskegee study are true

00:04:30.500 and happening to black people today.

00:04:32.960 Now, the report goes on, but already these findings are extremely troubling.

00:04:36.600 If the data is even remotely accurate, it would mean that an overwhelming majority of black

00:04:40.300 Americans are, frankly, paranoid to an almost comical degree.

00:04:44.360 The idea that businesses sell luxury products to black people in order to bankrupt them as

00:04:51.240 opposed to, oh, I don't know, in order to make money is so incoherent and just insane

00:04:57.200 that you would hope at most 1% of the population would believe something like that.

00:05:01.480 But Pew found that 67% of black Americans believe that.

00:05:05.340 These are staggering numbers.

00:05:06.560 Now, sure, you might accurately say that businesses sell luxury products and don't care whether

00:05:13.240 their customers are bankrupted by purchasing them.

00:05:16.040 That's true.

00:05:16.740 That's business.

00:05:17.420 But the idea that the point of selling the products is to bankrupt a certain relatively

00:05:22.140 small percentage of the customer base is completely asinine.

00:05:27.120 Meanwhile, 8 in 10 black Americans apparently believe that the prison system is expressly designed

00:05:33.980 for the purpose of incarcerating black people for profit.

00:05:37.520 The report also finds that 55% of black Americans think the government encourages single motherhood

00:05:42.560 in order to make black men obsolete.

00:05:44.860 And that 75% of black Americans think that they need to work harder than other races to

00:05:49.300 get a good job.

00:05:50.460 There's also the finding that a majority of black adults think the media is engaged in

00:05:53.480 a racist plot to hold them back.

00:05:55.540 And I can go on and on, but you get the point.

00:05:57.360 Every single finding from Pew suggests, if the findings are accurate, that millions of people

00:06:03.020 in this community think that essentially they have very little agency or control over their

00:06:07.780 own lives.

00:06:08.340 They believe that every institution in the country is deliberately designed to sabotage

00:06:13.320 them.

00:06:13.560 Not even just that the institutions do end up sabotaging them, but that they were all explicitly

00:06:18.580 designed for that purpose.

00:06:21.980 The implications of these findings are pretty clear.

00:06:24.340 All these years after the civil rights movement, paranoia and self-pity have given rise to fantastically

00:06:31.320 false theories about how society works.

00:06:34.860 Decades after the entire federal government and most of the private sector has deliberately

00:06:38.760 restructured itself to hire and promote more black Americans, often by lowering standards,

00:06:43.360 the result is that millions still think the entire system is stacked deliberately against

00:06:47.800 them.

00:06:48.660 The people who gave these answers in the poll have fully internalized the left's narrative

00:06:53.220 of racial grievance to a crippling degree.

00:06:56.780 I mean, you just cannot function.

00:06:58.820 You cannot be a properly functioned person in society if you really walk around every

00:07:03.500 day thinking that every single institution is engaged in a conspiracy against you and was

00:07:08.920 designed for that purpose alone.

00:07:12.340 Now, if as a country wanted to improve living standards in black communities, we'd read this

00:07:18.100 report and realize that what we're doing isn't working.

00:07:21.640 Telling black people that the police are deliberately murdering them, that America is systemically racist

00:07:26.660 and so on, has led to a feeling of mass helplessness so pronounced that it's turned into full-blown

00:07:32.340 delusion.

00:07:33.660 This is the kind of thing that you would think so-called disinformation experts would be

00:07:37.960 concerned about.

00:07:39.320 People who think they have no control over their own lives and that far more powerful forces

00:07:43.020 are out to get them have no incentive to improve themselves or their communities because,

00:07:47.840 you know, part of that belief is that you can't anyway.

00:07:49.880 And so then you stagnate, and that's exactly what's happened to black communities all over

00:07:54.480 the country since the civil rights era, from Baltimore to Detroit to Selma to Oakland and

00:07:59.280 everywhere in between.

00:08:00.400 Of course, nobody in power actually wants to improve black communities.

00:08:03.480 Activists certainly don't care.

00:08:04.620 They thrive on victimhood.

00:08:05.700 So predictably, Pew's report was met with outrage on social media.

00:08:09.560 Pew was called shockingly offensive by random social justice groups like Just Leadership USA

00:08:16.100 was one of the groups.

00:08:17.280 So within just a couple of days, Pew backed down.

00:08:22.320 They pulled down their original report entirely.

00:08:25.080 I was only able to access it using an internet archiving service.

00:08:28.660 And Pew replaced the report with a new version, which, to their great shame, accepts as fact

00:08:35.240 the very beliefs that they correctly described as false and conspiratorial just a few days ago.

00:08:42.200 So here's Pew's new revised headline and second paragraph.

00:08:46.020 See if you can spot the difference from what I just read a few minutes ago.

00:08:50.740 Quote,

00:08:51.060 Most black Americans believe U.S. institutions were designed to hold black people back.

00:08:55.960 A new analysis suggests that many black Americans believe the racial bias in U.S. institutions

00:09:00.880 is not merely a matter of passive negligence.

00:09:04.240 It is the result of intentional design.

00:09:06.200 Okay, so what's happened here already is that Pew has gone from labeling these beliefs as conspiracies

00:09:12.580 to full-on accepting them as fact, right?

00:09:16.860 That's the way it's phrased.

00:09:18.460 There is racial bias in U.S. institutions, Pew declares.

00:09:23.120 They didn't in their original report.

00:09:24.720 Now they're declaring that.

00:09:26.200 And the only question is whether passive negligence or intentional design is the explanation.

00:09:30.900 In their revised report, Pew also introduces this brand new paragraph.

00:09:36.520 Quote,

00:09:37.120 Black Americans mistrust of U.S. institutions is informed by history from slavery to the

00:09:41.620 implementation of Jim Crow laws in the South to the rise of mass incarceration and more.

00:09:47.300 So instead of labeling these insane views as conspiratorial and inaccurate,

00:09:51.460 Pew now says they're informed by history.

00:09:54.400 And they don't stop there.

00:09:55.620 Remember that the paragraph I quoted earlier about how an overwhelming number of Black Americans

00:09:59.480 think that luxury brands only sell them goods in order to bankrupt them.

00:10:03.220 Well, that paragraph changed too.

00:10:05.500 Here's the new version.

00:10:06.620 Quote,

00:10:07.480 67% of Black Americans say businesses today target marketing of luxury products to Black people

00:10:12.200 in order to put them into debt.

00:10:14.960 Now changes like this are especially striking because they alter the meaning of Pew's original results.

00:10:20.020 The original report said that Black people feared that they were being bankrupted on purpose.

00:10:23.920 The new report says that they're being put into debt on purpose, which is it?

00:10:28.740 And that may seem like a small difference, but it really isn't.

00:10:31.460 It's two different things.

00:10:33.720 And they are going based on the same results, but have changed their conclusion because people were upset about it.

00:10:43.960 Why should anyone take another word from Pew seriously if they're willing to slap

00:10:47.920 haphazard edits like this together in response to political pressure from activists on social media?

00:10:55.460 Like if they will change that, if they do an analysis, if they do a study, you know, a poll and find certain results.

00:11:03.840 And then some people in the public say, I don't like those results.

00:11:06.620 They're upsetting.

00:11:07.200 And then Pew will go back and change the results and say, oh, never mind.

00:11:11.320 That's not what it said.

00:11:13.980 Well, once you do that one time, how can, again, how can anyone ever take you seriously ever again?

00:11:20.560 Ever.

00:11:22.380 And all of this is to disguise a real problem that Pew's original report had exposed.

00:11:26.760 I mean, there is indeed a massive problem with racial conspiracy theories in this country.

00:11:33.340 And I'm talking about actual conspiracy theories in the sense of baseless claims about shadowy forces conspiring against certain groups.

00:11:41.580 So let's go through some more of them.

00:11:44.440 It was just a few years ago that the vaunted author of the 1619 Project, the New York Times,

00:11:49.080 endorsed a claim that fireworks are a government plot to disrupt black communities.

00:11:54.540 This theory was first advanced by a different writer on social media who said that fireworks are, quote,

00:12:00.000 part of a coordinated attack on black and brown communities by government forces,

00:12:03.320 an attack meant to disorient and destabilize the Black Lives Matter movement through sleep deprivation and desensitization

00:12:09.320 so that when they start using their real artillery on us, we won't know the difference.

00:12:13.860 After that thread was posted, Nicole Hannah-Jones, the 1619 Project writer, directed her followers to read it.

00:12:20.280 Now, again, this is a woman who invents history about racial grievances for the New York Times.

00:12:24.540 Telling her followers to learn about how fireworks are a secret anti-black conspiracy.

00:12:31.000 There was also this episode from just a few weeks ago when Tony Fauci was testifying at Congress.

00:12:36.700 Maryland Congressman Kawaisi Fume, I think that's how it pronounced, spread this lie about the Tuskegee experiment.

00:12:44.140 Watch.

00:12:44.400 Now, let me just say a couple of things.

00:12:47.620 I sound a little outraged just because, you know, we sit here and we watch one conspiracy theory after another get debunked.

00:12:55.620 And if I might, on a point of personal privilege, to the gentlewoman from New York who wanted to argue that we should be worrying about testing of human medicines on animals,

00:13:04.740 if this committee really wants to do something, let's talk about the most infamous biomedical research study in the United States,

00:13:12.000 the Tuskegee study, where 400 black men in this country were injected deliberately with syphilis

00:13:17.800 and allowed to die slowly over a 40-year period without any attempt to help them at all.

00:13:24.080 It was condoned by the U.S. Public Health Service.

00:13:27.260 And if we want to talk about testing, let's talk about that as well.

00:13:31.320 Now, other than Michael Schellenberger, I don't think anyone even bothered to correct this.

00:13:34.940 All of the fact checkers went silent.

00:13:36.700 But the truth is that blacks were not deliberately injected with syphilis during the Tuskegee experiment.

00:13:41.280 Some black people did not receive the proper treatment, and that was horrific.

00:13:44.900 But the idea that the government injected people with syphilis on purpose has no factual basis whatsoever.

00:13:49.780 And yet a sitting U.S. congressman has no problem making that claim out loud, and nobody will correct him on it.

00:13:55.880 Conspiracy theories like this are common.

00:13:57.880 These are not one-off instances.

00:13:59.960 And it's been like this for a long time.

00:14:01.260 In 2005, a telephone study of black Americans found that, quote,

00:14:04.520 53% agreed that there is a cure for AIDS, but it is being withheld from the poor.

00:14:09.380 And this is not some distant conspiracy theory.

00:14:11.620 A lot of people still believe it.

00:14:13.120 Just two years ago, the Washington Free Beacon found that U.S. Congressman Tim Ryan, quote,

00:14:16.780 made a promise to investigate whether the U.S. government created the HIV-AIDS virus

00:14:21.240 with the intention of murdering the nation's black population.

00:14:25.820 That sounds a lot like the kind of insanity that Pew unearthed, but Pew had to muzzle itself.

00:14:31.920 And in that respect, Pew isn't alone.

00:14:33.800 Many scientific journals have done the same.

00:14:36.180 Nobody ever talks about this, but just a couple of years ago, the journal Neurology,

00:14:39.760 maybe the leading journal in neuroscience in the entire world,

00:14:43.000 published a field report from a physician named William Campbell.

00:14:45.880 And the report was called Lucky and the Root Doctor.

00:14:49.480 It was about Campbell's time serving mostly black patients in the Deep South

00:14:52.520 who had immigrated here from West Africa.

00:14:55.120 And these patients, Campbell wrote,

00:14:57.100 often brought superstitions to this country that made it difficult to treat them.

00:15:01.420 Campbell specifically described one patient, a 60-year-old black man named Reggie,

00:15:05.340 who had a serious medical condition that required long-term care.

00:15:07.840 A gun that Reggie had been holding blew up in his face many years earlier,

00:15:11.360 and now he had developed a neuromuscular disorder.

00:15:13.520 But Reggie ultimately refused treatment.

00:15:16.900 He said that he would instead go see a root doctor.

00:15:20.100 Here's how Reggie explained the concept.

00:15:22.200 Quote,

00:15:22.360 Root doctors do spells, man.

00:15:24.840 They're not witches, but they're like witches.

00:15:26.500 If you get in for somebody, and if you got the money, you can get roots put on them,

00:15:30.140 and bad things, real bad things, will start happening.

00:15:32.600 I knew a woman once.

00:15:33.560 She had roots put on her husband.

00:15:34.880 Next day, man, the next day he stepped out in front of a truck.

00:15:37.960 I saw a man one time vomit frogs from having roots put on him.

00:15:41.580 Hundreds and hundreds of tiny frogs.

00:15:43.660 He just kept on vomiting and kept on vomiting.

00:15:45.440 It was terrible.

00:15:45.940 I've been sick so long, and you ain't been able to make me well,

00:15:49.620 so I figure someone had put roots on me.

00:15:51.880 Only way I can get better is to get them roots off.

00:15:55.680 End quote.

00:15:56.980 Campbell never saw Reggie again after that.

00:15:59.380 He documented this firsthand account in order to educate other physicians in the Deep South

00:16:03.200 about challenges they might face when treating black patients,

00:16:06.840 especially ones that had come from West Africa.

00:16:09.380 But it's relevant information, right?

00:16:11.880 It's like stuff you need to know if you're in the medical community.

00:16:15.400 But within days, Neurology pulled the article entirely.

00:16:19.000 You can't find it anywhere on the internet anymore.

00:16:20.680 It's gone.

00:16:21.460 Instead, you'll find this note from the journal.

00:16:23.420 Quote,

00:16:24.320 The journal retracts the article, Lucky and the Root Doctor.

00:16:26.920 We sincerely apologize for our error.

00:16:29.140 This story, a recollection by a doctor of a former patient,

00:16:31.560 contains racist characterizations.

00:16:34.280 This has prompted a reevaluation of our peer review process for Humanities articles,

00:16:37.980 and we are redoubling our efforts to make sure such material is never published again.

00:16:42.040 We deeply regret this error and offer our sincerest apologies to those who have been offended.

00:16:46.260 We promise to do better in the future.

00:16:49.320 In other words, you're not allowed to discuss conspiracies and superstitions in black communities

00:16:54.760 for any reason.

00:16:56.660 You just can't talk about it.

00:16:58.080 Even in the context of a niche medical journal, which is read only by doctors

00:17:03.380 and where the only purpose is saving lives, informing them about stuff they need to know,

00:17:07.740 it's still not allowed.

00:17:09.460 And it's certainly not allowed in a polling outfit like Pew.

00:17:12.740 You're just not supposed to talk about the fact that a majority of black Americans,

00:17:16.640 according to their own findings, think variations of the Tuskegee experiments

00:17:20.420 are still happening today, or that luxury businesses exist for the purpose of bankrupting them.

00:17:27.380 Meanwhile, black communities can continue to self-destruct in a bottomless pit of self-pity.

00:17:31.860 That's the idea.

00:17:32.540 It's what the left wants to happen.

00:17:34.640 It's why they conceal stuff like this.

00:17:37.020 Like, this is the actual conspiracy.

00:17:40.240 Well, another one, in fact.

00:17:42.140 Another conspiracy to cover up the fact of all the conspiracy theories.

00:17:45.200 But we shouldn't accept it.

00:17:49.700 These are not only conspiracy theories in the purest sense of the term,

00:17:52.740 they're also the most pervasive, most damaging, and most absurdly false of all conspiracy theories.

00:17:59.480 Which means that, for once, conspiracy theory is used in an accurate way,

00:18:05.260 like the way that Pew used it.

00:18:06.880 The term conspiracy theory is used all the time in ways that are not true,

00:18:11.860 like all kinds of things that are actually true are labeled conspiracy theories in a pejorative way

00:18:17.660 in order to, you know, shame people for believing them or talking about them.

00:18:21.820 That happens all the time.

00:18:23.920 But in this case, it was like things were correctly labeled a conspiracy theory

00:18:28.380 because that's what they are.

00:18:30.820 But in this case, immediately we see a correction and an apology for being honest and truthful.

00:18:37.600 So what just happened at Pew, even though, like, nobody is talking about it,

00:18:41.140 is one of the more Orwellian episodes we've seen in recent months.

00:18:47.440 But it's also just the latest in a long line of efforts to convince approved victim groups in this country

00:18:53.320 that they have no agency whatsoever.

00:18:57.520 At the same time, you know that these efforts are fragile and tenuous

00:19:01.060 precisely because you can't talk about them.

00:19:03.060 If we actually want black communities to move forward and take ownership of the problems they're facing

00:19:10.020 and solve the problems, all of that needs to change.

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00:20:18.820 Now let's get to our five headlines.

00:20:24.280 All right, you know, before we get to headlines,

00:20:28.440 I wanted to mention one thing that is important.

00:20:31.920 Well, it's not important at all, but I'm going to mention it anyway.

00:20:33.900 I just want to acknowledge that, you know, I may have gone too far.

00:20:38.000 Maybe. Maybe. Maybe a tad too far, if you can believe it.

00:20:42.180 Like a little bit. A little bit too far with my anti-birthday stance.

00:20:48.260 I may have overdone it.

00:20:50.300 I didn't think I was overdoing it.

00:20:52.820 Maybe I did.

00:20:54.660 And I'm realizing that.

00:20:56.380 I'm having this realization moment because yesterday was my birthday.

00:21:00.300 Just a normal workday for me.

00:21:02.200 No party or anything at work.

00:21:03.680 No kind of like, and that's, which is good.

00:21:05.680 It's like, that's what I wanted. And it was fine.

00:21:08.520 But then also,

00:21:09.420 I was noticing throughout the day,

00:21:12.740 like people seemed afraid to even wish me a happy birthday.

00:21:17.320 Like multiple people throughout the day came by

00:21:20.160 and like prefaced with an apology.

00:21:23.060 They'd say, sorry, I know I'm not supposed to say this,

00:21:25.340 but happy birthday.

00:21:26.780 And this happened like multiple times.

00:21:28.880 And so it seems that,

00:21:31.660 which of course makes me come off like an insane person.

00:21:34.780 It makes me look totally insane that you feel like,

00:21:37.700 if someone else witnessed that interaction

00:21:39.460 and they didn't have any context,

00:21:41.220 they would go, well, you're crazy.

00:21:42.460 That people feel like they have to apologize.

00:21:44.280 So it seems something was lost in translation.

00:21:46.560 All I said,

00:21:48.200 all I,

00:21:48.620 I just passed a long word

00:21:49.820 that I don't need any kind of like cake or anything.

00:21:53.440 That's all.

00:21:53.880 I'm low maintenance.

00:21:55.200 I'm a simple man.

00:21:56.040 I'm just a normal,

00:21:56.980 you know,

00:21:57.260 that's it.

00:21:58.060 I don't,

00:21:58.380 you know,

00:21:58.860 I don't need anything special.

00:22:00.300 That's it.

00:22:00.580 I don't need like a special thing.

00:22:02.500 But somehow this was translated as,

00:22:05.600 Matt will be angry

00:22:06.860 if you so much as mention that it's his birthday,

00:22:09.800 which is not true.

00:22:12.000 I mean,

00:22:12.300 Jeremy came by my office and said,

00:22:14.440 I was told not to acknowledge your birthday.

00:22:16.780 So this is me not acknowledging it.

00:22:18.380 And then walked away,

00:22:19.660 which I appreciated,

00:22:20.840 but also you can't acknowledge it.

00:22:22.240 And this is what I,

00:22:22.880 this is,

00:22:23.320 it gets worse

00:22:24.120 because what I realized

00:22:25.060 much to my horror

00:22:26.200 is that

00:22:27.640 people have interpreted

00:22:29.520 my anti-birthday stance,

00:22:31.300 which I've been very vocal about.

00:22:35.100 The way it's interpreted

00:22:36.220 is that I must be embarrassed

00:22:38.480 about my age or something.

00:22:40.780 Because I also had multiple people say to me,

00:22:42.620 like,

00:22:43.100 oh,

00:22:43.220 I hate birthdays too.

00:22:44.320 I wish I could stay 25 forever.

00:22:46.480 Right?

00:22:47.540 No,

00:22:48.000 that's,

00:22:48.340 that's not the point.

00:22:49.320 I'm not,

00:22:49.820 I'm not embarrassed about getting older.

00:22:51.940 I think it's,

00:22:52.540 it's embarrassing

00:22:53.440 to be embarrassed

00:22:55.500 about getting older.

00:22:57.880 That's crazy.

00:22:58.600 There's nothing embarrassing

00:22:59.280 about the fact

00:22:59.820 that I'm 38.

00:23:00.840 I turned 38.

00:23:02.140 I thought I was turning 39.

00:23:03.360 I could check with my wife.

00:23:04.140 She said,

00:23:04.440 actually,

00:23:04.580 I'm turning 38.

00:23:05.260 I have to check with her

00:23:05.840 about how old I am.

00:23:08.400 I don't want to be 25.

00:23:10.280 25 year olds are stupid.

00:23:11.440 I don't want to,

00:23:11.860 why would I want to be that?

00:23:12.760 I'm quite happy to not be 25.

00:23:15.200 So,

00:23:15.740 it's just a very strange thing.

00:23:17.700 Am I a diva now

00:23:19.740 because I'm not demanding

00:23:21.360 a birthday celebration?

00:23:22.600 Now I feel,

00:23:23.240 am I so low maintenance

00:23:25.560 that it's become high maintenance?

00:23:27.540 Is that what's happened?

00:23:28.580 I don't know.

00:23:30.260 I didn't think it was that strange.

00:23:32.260 I'm just,

00:23:32.560 it's a,

00:23:32.860 I'm an Irish Catholic man

00:23:34.880 who comes from a long line

00:23:35.940 of Irish Catholic men.

00:23:36.860 It's part of our culture,

00:23:38.440 I think,

00:23:39.020 that we don't want you

00:23:39.940 to make a big deal out of us

00:23:41.260 ever.

00:23:43.460 Like,

00:23:44.000 under any circumstance.

00:23:45.620 I could,

00:23:46.160 I could go and be the first person

00:23:47.380 to land on Mars

00:23:48.300 and when I come home,

00:23:49.720 I would not want

00:23:51.060 any kind of

00:23:52.260 welcome home reception,

00:23:54.160 nothing.

00:23:55.580 Now you could say,

00:23:56.300 oh,

00:23:56.460 congrats,

00:23:57.120 you know,

00:23:57.260 and that's it.

00:23:57.700 That's all I want.

00:24:00.640 I don't know.

00:24:01.320 Maybe I'm the weird one.

00:24:02.800 Maybe the problem is me.

00:24:05.060 No,

00:24:05.440 that can't be it.

00:24:06.340 It's everyone else.

00:24:09.020 Anyway,

00:24:09.380 so I've generally avoided

00:24:10.680 talking about tax policy

00:24:12.280 on the show,

00:24:12.960 not because it's unimportant,

00:24:14.000 but because,

00:24:14.740 but because it's nearly impossible

00:24:16.440 to discuss the topic

00:24:17.760 without boring,

00:24:19.040 you know,

00:24:19.320 99.9% of the audience

00:24:20.800 to death.

00:24:22.200 So hopefully we can do

00:24:23.420 the impossible here

00:24:24.220 because Trump

00:24:25.120 has floated

00:24:26.880 two tax proposals

00:24:28.640 over the past

00:24:29.420 several days.

00:24:31.340 And one idea,

00:24:33.120 in my opinion,

00:24:33.620 is bad

00:24:34.400 and yet has gained

00:24:35.800 lots of traction

00:24:36.680 on the right.

00:24:37.580 And the other idea,

00:24:38.880 in my opinion,

00:24:39.900 is great

00:24:40.500 and yet has gained,

00:24:42.020 from what I can tell,

00:24:42.740 basically no,

00:24:43.360 no traction at all.

00:24:44.520 So,

00:24:46.220 and that's,

00:24:46.500 that's the way

00:24:46.900 these things go,

00:24:47.540 of course.

00:24:48.860 The bad idea

00:24:49.620 is to get rid

00:24:50.480 of federal taxes

00:24:51.580 on tips.

00:24:53.120 The Daily Wire reports,

00:24:54.340 quote,

00:24:54.920 a pair of House Republicans

00:24:56.520 introduced legislation

00:24:57.440 on Tuesday

00:24:57.980 that would slash

00:24:58.740 federal taxes

00:24:59.520 on tips

00:25:00.140 after former President

00:25:01.120 Donald Trump

00:25:01.660 promoted the idea

00:25:02.520 earlier this month.

00:25:04.240 The bill,

00:25:05.060 spearheaded by

00:25:05.580 Representatives Thomas,

00:25:06.760 Massey,

00:25:07.360 and Matt Gaetz,

00:25:08.520 would amend

00:25:08.920 the Internal Revenue Code

00:25:09.900 of 1986

00:25:10.460 to provide that

00:25:11.240 tips shall not be subject

00:25:12.980 to income

00:25:13.580 or employment taxes.

00:25:15.800 It takes,

00:25:16.440 its inspiration

00:25:17.960 and its name,

00:25:18.640 the Tax-Free Tips Act,

00:25:20.260 from a legislative

00:25:21.160 push by Ron Paul,

00:25:22.540 a former congressman

00:25:23.340 candidate for president,

00:25:24.540 to nix federal taxation

00:25:26.200 on tips.

00:25:26.820 So,

00:25:28.320 and Trump had said,

00:25:29.720 I think it was

00:25:30.160 at a campaign stop

00:25:31.340 in Las Vegas

00:25:32.000 recently,

00:25:33.940 last few days,

00:25:35.020 that this,

00:25:35.620 that he thinks

00:25:36.060 that we should exempt

00:25:36.980 tips from taxes.

00:25:39.280 Now,

00:25:39.960 I'm not naive.

00:25:41.400 obviously I know

00:25:42.320 why he's suggesting

00:25:43.160 this a few months

00:25:44.020 before an election.

00:25:45.820 But taken on the merits,

00:25:47.100 the idea makes

00:25:47.740 no sense to me.

00:25:49.400 If we have a federal

00:25:50.380 income tax

00:25:51.220 and taxes

00:25:52.180 and tips

00:25:54.400 are income

00:25:55.280 for people

00:25:55.900 in service jobs,

00:25:57.400 why should they be

00:25:58.540 granted some kind

00:25:59.500 of special exemption?

00:26:01.340 I know it's

00:26:01.660 an unpopular view here,

00:26:03.280 I get it,

00:26:03.840 but if tips,

00:26:06.040 and here's the thing,

00:26:06.640 if tips are not income,

00:26:08.940 right,

00:26:09.100 the argument for this

00:26:10.140 is that,

00:26:10.600 well,

00:26:10.680 they're not really income.

00:26:13.360 Okay,

00:26:13.840 but,

00:26:14.300 well,

00:26:14.420 then the whole logic

00:26:15.260 for tipping

00:26:15.740 goes out the window

00:26:16.540 because Americans

00:26:18.240 have been guilted

00:26:19.280 into tipping

00:26:19.840 for decades

00:26:20.880 on the basis

00:26:22.540 that service workers

00:26:23.640 rely on tips

00:26:24.780 as their income.

00:26:26.960 Right?

00:26:27.360 This is what we're

00:26:27.700 always told.

00:26:28.280 Well,

00:26:28.380 they're not even

00:26:28.740 really paid.

00:26:29.240 They're hard to get

00:26:29.740 any hourly wage at all.

00:26:30.860 So,

00:26:31.260 this is their wage.

00:26:34.160 This is what we're told.

00:26:35.040 We're told,

00:26:35.320 it's like,

00:26:35.500 it's our responsibility

00:26:36.520 to pay these notes.

00:26:39.600 Apparently,

00:26:40.240 it's not the employer's

00:26:40.920 responsibility

00:26:41.280 to pay the workers.

00:26:42.320 It's our responsibility

00:26:43.420 to provide them

00:26:44.900 with their paycheck,

00:26:46.280 essentially.

00:26:47.780 And,

00:26:48.180 okay,

00:26:49.460 well,

00:26:50.260 if that's the case,

00:26:51.260 then,

00:26:52.040 yeah,

00:26:52.880 you should,

00:26:53.280 if there's an income tax,

00:26:54.260 you should pay it.

00:26:56.660 Like,

00:26:57.120 why,

00:26:57.920 if it's their income

00:26:58.860 and we have an income tax,

00:26:59.900 they should be taxed

00:27:00.580 the same as anyone else?

00:27:02.200 If it's just a,

00:27:03.020 if it's just kind of a bonus

00:27:04.240 or a gift,

00:27:05.720 right,

00:27:06.020 this is,

00:27:06.360 we call it a gratuity,

00:27:07.160 and this is the,

00:27:07.620 this is the argument I've heard.

00:27:09.360 Well,

00:27:09.520 it's a gift.

00:27:10.100 That's what it is.

00:27:10.540 It's just a gift.

00:27:11.000 It's a gift.

00:27:11.660 And we don't tax,

00:27:12.600 you don't tax someone,

00:27:13.400 you get a gift.

00:27:14.360 If somebody walks up to you

00:27:15.440 and,

00:27:16.800 you know,

00:27:17.100 if somebody hands you

00:27:17.920 a birthday card

00:27:18.500 with $10 inside of it,

00:27:20.400 you shouldn't have to pay

00:27:20.980 a tax on that.

00:27:23.060 Well,

00:27:23.440 fine,

00:27:23.780 but again,

00:27:24.140 if it's just a gift,

00:27:26.160 then why are we pressured

00:27:28.000 into tipping

00:27:28.560 as like a matter of course?

00:27:30.320 Why is it,

00:27:31.840 it's like,

00:27:32.160 what,

00:27:32.340 so we have to give a gift?

00:27:33.620 That's what you're telling me?

00:27:34.460 Every time we go out to eat,

00:27:35.620 we have to give a gift

00:27:36.720 to the waiter?

00:27:41.460 Either way,

00:27:42.060 it seems like we're setting up

00:27:43.020 people in the service industry

00:27:43.960 as special

00:27:44.940 in a way that no one else is.

00:27:47.060 Like,

00:27:47.220 I don't,

00:27:47.440 do I have to give a gift

00:27:48.140 to anybody else

00:27:48.800 that I encounter?

00:27:49.680 Every time I got,

00:27:50.380 I got to give a gift

00:27:51.340 to the person who's,

00:27:53.800 so is it a gift

00:27:54.540 or is it just income?

00:27:57.020 It can't really be both.

00:27:58.160 And you see where we are.

00:28:01.940 So,

00:28:04.100 this,

00:28:04.700 but this is one of the worst things

00:28:06.160 about the federal income tax,

00:28:07.800 that it gives the federal government

00:28:09.420 an extraordinary power

00:28:11.260 to arbitrarily select

00:28:12.940 winners and losers.

00:28:15.680 That's,

00:28:16.180 that's part of the problem here.

00:28:17.080 That's what they're,

00:28:17.540 that's,

00:28:17.860 that's what this plan would do.

00:28:20.180 And they already do this

00:28:21.620 with the federal income tax.

00:28:23.280 There are lots of people

00:28:24.240 who really,

00:28:24.800 who already don't pay

00:28:25.840 any federal income tax at all.

00:28:27.080 There are many,

00:28:28.360 there are other people

00:28:28.880 who pay like exorbitant amounts

00:28:31.000 of taxes,

00:28:32.120 crushing,

00:28:33.100 crushing amounts.

00:28:35.160 There are people

00:28:36.080 who,

00:28:37.480 people who I,

00:28:38.860 who I know quite well,

00:28:40.300 in fact,

00:28:41.580 people who are,

00:28:44.000 the one who is,

00:28:44.940 who is in this room right now,

00:28:46.940 who pay,

00:28:47.920 who pay so much in taxes

00:28:48.980 that it's almost,

00:28:49.580 it's like,

00:28:49.880 it's a demoralizing amount.

00:28:51.640 It's almost like,

00:28:52.160 what's the point of working

00:28:53.460 if I have to give the government

00:28:55.060 this much?

00:28:56.220 It's crazy.

00:28:57.080 So already,

00:29:00.380 that's already the way

00:29:00.940 the system is set up,

00:29:01.820 that they use the income tax

00:29:03.640 to select winners and losers.

00:29:05.120 And the government says,

00:29:05.980 well,

00:29:06.340 you,

00:29:06.640 you,

00:29:06.960 you guys are special,

00:29:08.140 and so you don't have to contribute,

00:29:10.080 but you guys do.

00:29:11.580 And,

00:29:11.940 and,

00:29:12.400 and we don't have to morally justify that.

00:29:15.280 It's just the way it's going to be.

00:29:18.160 That's why I much prefer

00:29:19.620 Trump's other proposal,

00:29:21.940 which is to abolish taxes on tips,

00:29:25.860 along with taxes on all other forms of income.

00:29:30.240 That I can get on board with.

00:29:32.520 CNBC reports,

00:29:33.560 quote,

00:29:33.640 Donald Trump on Thursday

00:29:34.620 brought up the idea of imposing

00:29:35.860 an all-tariff policy

00:29:37.260 that would ultimately enable the US

00:29:38.720 to get rid of the income tax,

00:29:40.660 sources in a private meeting

00:29:41.540 with a Republican presidential candidate

00:29:42.560 told CNBC.

00:29:43.420 Trump in the meeting

00:29:43.980 with GOP lawmakers

00:29:45.380 also talked about using tariffs

00:29:47.240 to leverage negotiating power

00:29:48.620 over bad actors.

00:29:51.460 And the idea is to,

00:29:52.620 to replace the income tax

00:29:56.120 with tariffs.

00:29:57.060 So,

00:29:58.520 that's,

00:29:59.040 according to the reports,

00:29:59.820 Trump wants to eliminate

00:30:00.740 the income tax

00:30:01.280 and replace the income tax

00:30:02.140 with tariffs.

00:30:03.440 Now,

00:30:04.480 yeah,

00:30:04.820 this is,

00:30:05.600 I say this is a good idea.

00:30:06.600 I guess I really mean

00:30:07.260 that it's half of a good idea.

00:30:08.920 I love the first half,

00:30:10.160 which is to abolish

00:30:11.000 the income tax.

00:30:12.120 The second half,

00:30:12.820 replace it with tariffs

00:30:13.840 is less exciting.

00:30:15.840 I mean,

00:30:16.140 it's better than an income tax

00:30:17.460 because any form of tax

00:30:18.900 pretty much

00:30:19.400 is better than an income tax.

00:30:21.800 But I do reject the idea

00:30:23.400 that the income tax

00:30:24.180 needs to be replaced

00:30:25.100 with anything.

00:30:27.320 You know,

00:30:27.560 there have been many schemes

00:30:28.760 floated for replacing

00:30:29.920 the income tax.

00:30:30.840 All of them would be

00:30:31.660 better systems

00:30:32.520 than what we currently have,

00:30:34.400 but I'd really like to see

00:30:35.980 the income tax eliminated

00:30:37.360 and replaced with nothing.

00:30:39.440 Which doesn't mean

00:30:40.480 that the government

00:30:41.360 would not get,

00:30:43.500 would not receive

00:30:44.260 any tax revenue

00:30:45.180 at all.

00:30:46.200 In fact,

00:30:46.500 without the income tax,

00:30:47.300 they'd still receive

00:30:48.360 hundreds of billions

00:30:49.880 every year

00:30:51.040 through other forms

00:30:54.020 of taxes.

00:30:56.200 But it would be

00:30:57.160 a massive chunk

00:30:57.980 they're not receiving anymore,

00:30:59.320 which I think

00:31:00.380 would be a good thing.

00:31:02.780 But

00:31:03.060 whatever it takes

00:31:05.760 to eliminate

00:31:06.100 the income tax,

00:31:07.440 we should do.

00:31:08.920 And probably,

00:31:09.560 like,

00:31:10.000 it's never really

00:31:10.820 going to happen,

00:31:11.300 right?

00:31:12.320 It's just,

00:31:12.800 it's too good

00:31:13.320 of an idea,

00:31:13.980 it's too obviously

00:31:14.740 good of an idea

00:31:15.580 to really happen.

00:31:17.140 But if there was

00:31:17.860 any chance of it happening,

00:31:19.020 the only way

00:31:19.620 it would happen

00:31:20.200 is if you had

00:31:20.700 some sort of plan

00:31:21.740 for replacing

00:31:22.400 that revenue

00:31:23.000 with something else.

00:31:24.080 And so,

00:31:25.420 you know,

00:31:25.640 that's what,

00:31:26.220 I'm fine with working

00:31:27.480 with that being

00:31:28.560 the proposal.

00:31:29.120 again,

00:31:32.060 anything that gets

00:31:32.980 rid of the income tax

00:31:33.700 because the income tax

00:31:34.600 as a concept

00:31:35.680 is,

00:31:36.980 it's an abomination

00:31:38.400 before God.

00:31:39.760 I mean,

00:31:40.280 it is,

00:31:41.080 it's evil.

00:31:42.880 There's just no question

00:31:44.180 that we now live

00:31:45.340 under a system of taxes

00:31:46.660 far,

00:31:48.140 far,

00:31:48.720 far more

00:31:50.060 tyrannical

00:31:51.080 and onerous

00:31:51.960 and overreaching

00:31:52.860 than the one

00:31:54.320 that our founding fathers

00:31:55.240 fought a war

00:31:56.200 to free themselves from.

00:31:57.580 That's just,

00:31:59.400 there's no question

00:32:00.080 about that.

00:32:01.380 The income tax

00:32:02.520 and its enforcement

00:32:03.100 mechanisms

00:32:03.680 gives the federal

00:32:04.900 government

00:32:05.300 extreme,

00:32:07.460 basically limitless

00:32:08.720 power

00:32:09.280 over our lives.

00:32:11.500 And the very idea

00:32:12.920 that we owe

00:32:13.680 the government

00:32:14.200 a portion

00:32:14.980 of our salaries

00:32:16.220 even before

00:32:17.180 we spend it

00:32:18.220 is indefensibly

00:32:20.640 ridiculous.

00:32:21.340 We only accept it

00:32:22.340 because it's been

00:32:23.000 the system

00:32:23.480 that's been in place

00:32:24.320 since all of us

00:32:26.020 were born.

00:32:26.720 And so we,

00:32:27.260 it's just,

00:32:27.940 it's been part

00:32:28.740 of our reality

00:32:29.460 for as long

00:32:30.160 as any of us

00:32:31.220 have been alive.

00:32:33.080 Right?

00:32:33.520 It's the Truman Show line.

00:32:34.560 People accept

00:32:35.120 the reality

00:32:35.640 of the world

00:32:36.200 that's presented

00:32:36.640 to them.

00:32:37.500 And this is

00:32:38.440 the reality

00:32:39.000 of the world

00:32:39.380 that's been

00:32:39.620 presented to us.

00:32:41.020 And so most people

00:32:41.860 just kind of accept,

00:32:42.700 I mean,

00:32:42.840 nobody likes

00:32:43.340 paying income tax,

00:32:44.920 but,

00:32:45.500 and everyone

00:32:46.400 hates the IRS

00:32:47.280 sort of in theory,

00:32:48.080 but most people

00:32:48.980 just accept it.

00:32:50.080 which is why

00:32:53.180 it,

00:32:53.760 somehow

00:32:55.180 getting rid

00:32:57.580 of the income tax

00:32:58.480 is not

00:32:59.240 a major issue

00:33:00.440 that voters

00:33:01.280 care about,

00:33:01.900 which is crazy

00:33:02.840 to me.

00:33:03.800 I get why

00:33:04.500 the government

00:33:04.860 doesn't want

00:33:05.300 to do it.

00:33:05.960 I get why

00:33:06.280 the politicians

00:33:06.700 don't want

00:33:07.080 to do it.

00:33:08.740 Because again,

00:33:09.440 it gives them

00:33:10.120 extraordinary power

00:33:11.540 over our lives.

00:33:12.220 Of course they don't

00:33:12.680 want to relinquish

00:33:13.160 that power.

00:33:13.840 The only way

00:33:14.420 we could ever

00:33:14.920 see this happen

00:33:15.520 is if there was

00:33:16.100 an overwhelming

00:33:17.180 outcry from the public

00:33:18.620 saying we've got

00:33:19.200 to get rid

00:33:19.460 of this income tax system.

00:33:21.440 And if that went

00:33:22.000 on for long enough,

00:33:23.080 maybe eventually

00:33:23.940 there's a chance

00:33:24.620 of it,

00:33:24.820 but somehow

00:33:25.320 it's not even,

00:33:26.660 like most people

00:33:27.360 don't even act

00:33:28.580 like they want

00:33:29.180 that to happen,

00:33:29.840 which is nuts.

00:33:30.740 I mean,

00:33:30.980 it would improve

00:33:31.680 all of our lives

00:33:32.700 so much,

00:33:33.980 and it would give us

00:33:35.100 so much more freedom

00:33:36.060 and agency

00:33:36.780 over our lives

00:33:37.740 if we got rid

00:33:38.720 of this system

00:33:39.260 and we all live

00:33:40.240 under this crushing

00:33:41.500 tyrannical system

00:33:42.860 with an IRS

00:33:44.000 that again

00:33:44.640 has basically,

00:33:46.380 you know,

00:33:47.460 I know we have

00:33:47.920 the Constitution

00:33:48.520 technically exists,

00:33:49.540 but it essentially

00:33:50.400 doesn't as far

00:33:51.400 as the IRS

00:33:52.080 is concerned.

00:33:52.720 They can essentially

00:33:53.020 do whatever they want.

00:33:56.320 And we just

00:33:57.520 accept it.

00:33:58.800 It's Thomas Jefferson

00:34:00.000 would line us

00:34:02.160 all up

00:34:02.640 and bitch slap

00:34:03.900 us one by one

00:34:05.120 for putting up

00:34:05.840 with a system

00:34:06.400 this insanely unjust.

00:34:08.580 And we would

00:34:09.240 deserve it.

00:34:10.040 We would all

00:34:10.520 deserve it.

00:34:12.300 But if we are

00:34:14.200 not going to

00:34:14.840 abolish the income

00:34:15.640 tax for everyone,

00:34:16.800 then we should

00:34:18.220 abolish it

00:34:18.800 for no one.

00:34:19.420 Either we all

00:34:20.180 pay it

00:34:20.600 or no one

00:34:21.200 does.

00:34:22.080 The latter

00:34:22.780 system,

00:34:23.760 no one

00:34:24.140 pays it,

00:34:25.180 is by far

00:34:25.920 the best option.

00:34:26.600 That's what

00:34:26.800 I would like

00:34:27.160 to see.

00:34:28.320 The former

00:34:29.040 is bad

00:34:29.620 where everybody

00:34:30.080 pays it,

00:34:30.760 but it's at

00:34:31.240 least fairer

00:34:32.140 and more

00:34:32.660 sensible than

00:34:33.500 randomly

00:34:34.160 exempting

00:34:34.960 certain groups,

00:34:35.760 not to mention

00:34:36.200 changing the

00:34:37.560 percentage that

00:34:38.500 you have to

00:34:39.080 pay based on

00:34:39.940 how much

00:34:40.460 you earn.

00:34:40.900 you could

00:34:45.180 say,

00:34:45.420 well,

00:34:45.500 earning more

00:34:46.000 means that

00:34:46.340 you should

00:34:46.580 pay more.

00:34:47.620 I think most

00:34:48.140 people would

00:34:48.480 agree with

00:34:48.780 that,

00:34:48.980 if we have

00:34:49.400 to have

00:34:49.580 an income

00:34:49.860 tax,

00:34:50.220 that that's

00:34:50.500 the way

00:34:50.740 that it

00:34:50.960 should go.

00:34:53.640 But pay

00:34:54.260 a higher

00:34:54.740 percentage

00:34:55.480 of your

00:34:56.020 overall

00:34:56.360 income

00:34:56.860 based on

00:34:58.120 how much

00:34:58.500 it doesn't,

00:34:59.160 it really

00:34:59.700 doesn't make

00:35:00.260 any,

00:35:00.520 it's obviously

00:35:01.220 not fair,

00:35:01.840 and it doesn't

00:35:02.380 make any

00:35:03.120 sense.

00:35:03.980 There's no

00:35:04.360 reason why

00:35:05.020 it should be

00:35:05.520 that way,

00:35:05.880 it just is.

00:35:06.660 So the

00:35:09.240 income tax

00:35:09.700 system is

00:35:10.180 bad and

00:35:10.600 unfair,

00:35:11.060 no matter

00:35:11.280 how you

00:35:11.620 set it

00:35:11.920 up.

00:35:12.880 We've

00:35:13.320 just

00:35:13.560 happened to

00:35:14.460 set it

00:35:14.820 up in

00:35:15.460 a way,

00:35:15.940 like we've

00:35:16.680 taken this

00:35:17.040 really bad

00:35:17.420 system,

00:35:18.380 and we

00:35:19.600 have one

00:35:20.880 of the

00:35:21.240 worst

00:35:21.820 possible

00:35:23.100 versions of

00:35:24.240 this

00:35:24.880 terrible

00:35:25.660 system.

00:35:29.840 And again,

00:35:30.540 people just

00:35:30.880 accept it.

00:35:31.280 Now one

00:35:31.520 other note,

00:35:31.900 lots of

00:35:32.200 people have

00:35:32.760 insisted to

00:35:33.840 me that

00:35:34.220 this proposed

00:35:35.780 policy of

00:35:36.640 exempting

00:35:38.280 tips from

00:35:38.760 income is,

00:35:40.040 exempting tips

00:35:41.160 from income

00:35:41.480 taxes rather,

00:35:42.640 is an

00:35:42.960 incremental

00:35:43.440 approach,

00:35:44.200 right,

00:35:44.500 to abolishing

00:35:45.160 the income

00:35:45.480 tax.

00:35:45.800 So this is

00:35:46.160 incrementalism.

00:35:48.040 We exempt

00:35:48.700 tips,

00:35:49.140 and then next

00:35:49.540 thing you know

00:35:49.820 we're exempting

00:35:50.460 other things,

00:35:51.240 and what do

00:35:52.140 you know,

00:35:53.080 look at that,

00:35:54.160 presto change,

00:35:55.140 oh,

00:35:55.240 there's no

00:35:55.520 income tax

00:35:56.020 anymore.

00:35:57.720 And if

00:35:59.120 that's what

00:35:59.400 was happening,

00:35:59.900 I'd be on

00:36:00.260 board with

00:36:00.520 it.

00:36:00.660 I'm all,

00:36:01.100 I'm all,

00:36:01.720 I am in

00:36:02.120 favor of

00:36:02.520 incrementalism.

00:36:03.500 It's really

00:36:04.180 the only way,

00:36:05.120 practically speaking,

00:36:05.800 to actually get

00:36:06.560 anything done.

00:36:07.360 So I don't

00:36:08.100 take an all-or-nothing

00:36:09.180 approach to

00:36:10.980 most things.

00:36:13.900 Because it's

00:36:14.500 better to get

00:36:14.920 5% of what

00:36:15.780 you want than

00:36:16.340 0% of what

00:36:17.080 you want,

00:36:17.360 of course.

00:36:18.300 The problem is

00:36:19.080 that I simply

00:36:19.540 don't believe

00:36:20.360 that this

00:36:21.620 kind of

00:36:22.120 proposal is

00:36:24.260 an incremental

00:36:24.760 step towards

00:36:25.420 abolishing the

00:36:25.900 income tax.

00:36:26.620 As I said,

00:36:27.160 the federal

00:36:27.440 government has

00:36:28.060 been using

00:36:28.480 the income

00:36:28.740 tax to

00:36:29.200 choose winners

00:36:29.800 and losers

00:36:30.260 ever since the

00:36:30.980 system was

00:36:31.660 first established.

00:36:32.840 That's part of

00:36:33.640 the point of it,

00:36:34.200 it's part of

00:36:34.580 why it

00:36:34.900 exists to

00:36:35.660 give them

00:36:36.000 that power.

00:36:37.540 So there is

00:36:38.200 zero reason to

00:36:38.800 believe that

00:36:39.160 this is

00:36:39.440 anything but

00:36:40.300 more of

00:36:41.040 the same.

00:36:43.160 All right.

00:36:45.980 And it's not

00:36:46.600 going to happen

00:36:46.860 anyway,

00:36:47.240 but still.

00:36:52.420 Here's something

00:36:52.980 from the

00:36:53.240 Postmillennial.

00:36:55.400 This is an

00:36:56.040 interesting report.

00:36:56.880 A new poll

00:36:57.400 out from

00:36:58.240 Rasmussen

00:36:58.920 asks Americans

00:37:00.320 what they

00:37:00.780 really think

00:37:01.260 of those

00:37:01.620 who were

00:37:01.900 bullied as

00:37:02.500 kids now

00:37:03.120 that they're

00:37:03.360 all grown

00:37:03.800 up.

00:37:04.040 The answer

00:37:04.320 was surprising.

00:37:05.080 45% of

00:37:05.980 Americans

00:37:06.360 believing that

00:37:07.620 once they

00:37:08.100 became adults,

00:37:08.980 those once

00:37:09.480 bullied children

00:37:10.300 spend the

00:37:11.180 rest of their

00:37:11.520 lives trying

00:37:12.020 to get

00:37:12.240 revenge by

00:37:12.940 bossing other

00:37:13.540 people around.

00:37:14.920 College-educated

00:37:15.600 adults are less

00:37:16.280 likely to agree

00:37:16.860 with that

00:37:17.140 statement,

00:37:17.560 Rasmussen reports.

00:37:19.240 They also said

00:37:19.700 at 59% that

00:37:20.740 getting bullied

00:37:21.400 in school is a

00:37:22.180 traumatic experience

00:37:23.160 for children

00:37:23.600 compared to

00:37:24.100 only 31% who

00:37:25.080 think getting

00:37:25.500 bullied in school

00:37:26.160 is just a

00:37:27.120 normal part of

00:37:27.780 growing up.

00:37:28.240 10% of

00:37:29.880 those surveyed

00:37:30.480 are not

00:37:31.220 sure.

00:37:34.260 Well,

00:37:34.740 the answer

00:37:35.080 here is that

00:37:35.600 it's both.

00:37:36.220 Bullying is a

00:37:36.860 normal part of

00:37:37.560 growing up.

00:37:38.600 It's also

00:37:39.160 these days a

00:37:39.880 traumatic

00:37:40.260 experience for

00:37:41.180 kids.

00:37:42.780 And this is

00:37:44.100 the problem

00:37:44.440 with the way

00:37:44.880 that we talk

00:37:45.480 about bullying.

00:37:47.920 We're sort of

00:37:48.580 talking past

00:37:49.320 each other like

00:37:50.060 we do on so

00:37:50.540 many other

00:37:50.880 issues because

00:37:51.960 you've got one

00:37:52.580 side saying that

00:37:53.480 bullying is an

00:37:54.100 epidemic, it's

00:37:55.280 having a

00:37:55.620 devastating effect

00:37:56.340 on children,

00:37:56.880 and the

00:37:58.540 other side

00:37:58.960 saying, no,

00:37:59.560 bullying is a

00:38:00.080 normal thing

00:38:00.560 that kids have

00:38:00.960 always dealt

00:38:01.460 with.

00:38:02.260 We went

00:38:02.680 through it as

00:38:03.040 kids, our

00:38:03.500 parents went

00:38:03.920 through it, our

00:38:04.200 grandparents did,

00:38:05.500 and so on.

00:38:06.580 But these are

00:38:07.620 actually not

00:38:08.240 mutually exclusive

00:38:09.040 options.

00:38:10.060 These are not

00:38:10.640 two opposing

00:38:11.600 theories, right?

00:38:12.440 They can both be

00:38:13.400 true, and they

00:38:14.060 are.

00:38:14.980 So it's true that

00:38:15.780 many kids these

00:38:16.540 days become

00:38:17.620 basically emotionally

00:38:19.340 crippled by

00:38:20.900 bullying.

00:38:21.300 bullying, it's

00:38:25.520 overwhelming to

00:38:26.560 many kids when

00:38:27.460 they experience

00:38:28.520 bullying in

00:38:28.980 school, like

00:38:29.460 they can't deal

00:38:30.280 with it.

00:38:31.680 It actually does

00:38:33.080 traumatize them,

00:38:34.640 and I do not

00:38:35.460 use that term

00:38:36.300 lightly, as you

00:38:37.880 know.

00:38:39.040 But the fact

00:38:39.840 that we have

00:38:40.280 suicide, for

00:38:41.580 example, among

00:38:42.300 very young

00:38:42.880 children is

00:38:44.060 clearly evidence

00:38:44.800 of that.

00:38:45.860 On the other

00:38:46.560 hand, it's also

00:38:47.100 true that kids

00:38:47.840 have always been

00:38:48.600 bullied, and kids

00:38:49.780 have always bullied

00:38:50.360 each other.

00:38:50.720 You could even

00:38:51.360 make the argument

00:38:51.900 that 50 years

00:38:52.680 ago, the bullying

00:38:53.400 that kids

00:38:53.960 inflicted on

00:38:54.560 each other was

00:38:55.460 probably in many

00:38:56.340 ways worse than

00:38:57.400 it is now.

00:38:57.880 I mean, just ask

00:38:58.420 your dad or your

00:38:59.140 grandfather sometime

00:39:00.500 about the ways

00:39:01.320 that kids would

00:39:02.240 torment each other

00:39:03.100 back in the old

00:39:04.080 days, and it

00:39:06.400 becomes very clear

00:39:07.280 that it was pretty

00:39:09.980 rough back then.

00:39:12.320 At the very least,

00:39:13.200 bullying is not a

00:39:13.800 new problem.

00:39:15.840 So it's, you

00:39:17.040 know, in substance,

00:39:18.360 it's sort of the

00:39:18.800 same as it's

00:39:19.220 always been, but

00:39:19.940 our kids are

00:39:20.560 less capable of

00:39:21.440 coping with it

00:39:22.120 than they used

00:39:22.560 to be, and

00:39:23.560 that's the

00:39:24.280 nuance here.

00:39:26.040 That's the

00:39:26.840 issue.

00:39:27.960 That's the

00:39:28.420 middle ground, I

00:39:29.440 suppose.

00:39:31.820 Bullying is a

00:39:32.560 normal part of

00:39:33.160 growing up, and

00:39:34.800 our kids are

00:39:35.360 traumatized by it

00:39:36.420 in ways that kids

00:39:37.360 in the past never

00:39:37.960 were, because kids

00:39:39.460 are less able to

00:39:40.420 deal with this

00:39:41.540 normal part of

00:39:42.500 growing up.

00:39:44.120 Why is that?

00:39:44.900 Well, we've talked

00:39:45.560 about parts of the

00:39:46.140 answer in the past.

00:39:46.960 You know, the big

00:39:47.300 thing, the fundamental

00:39:47.880 underlying thing is

00:39:49.040 is what we've

00:39:49.560 discussed with the

00:39:50.220 phenomenon of

00:39:50.820 peer orientation.

00:39:52.000 Kids are more

00:39:52.580 emotionally and

00:39:53.500 psychologically dependent

00:39:54.580 on their peers for

00:39:56.180 affirmation and

00:39:57.000 approval than they

00:39:57.880 were in the past,

00:39:58.980 which makes bullying

00:40:00.460 far more devastating

00:40:01.540 than it used to be.

00:40:03.460 Kids rely on each

00:40:04.400 other entirely for

00:40:05.620 approval.

00:40:06.060 They orient

00:40:06.600 themselves to the

00:40:07.240 world based on what

00:40:08.380 their peers are

00:40:08.900 doing, and they do

00:40:10.160 all this to an

00:40:10.740 extreme degree.

00:40:11.560 The internet, social

00:40:12.220 media, public school

00:40:13.060 all combine to create

00:40:14.060 this inescapable peer

00:40:15.120 culture that breeds

00:40:16.480 this kind of

00:40:16.980 dependence, and when

00:40:17.760 the kids are

00:40:18.200 dependent on, emotionally

00:40:19.740 dependent on each

00:40:20.600 other for, you

00:40:22.920 know, to have their

00:40:24.720 very existence sort

00:40:25.960 of affirmed all the

00:40:26.800 time, and then when

00:40:27.800 that affirmation is

00:40:28.860 rescinded by the

00:40:30.340 group, it becomes

00:40:31.360 like it's the end of

00:40:32.440 they don't know what

00:40:33.000 to do.

00:40:33.200 It's like their world

00:40:34.000 has collapsed.

00:40:37.000 So that's a really

00:40:38.220 big part of it.

00:40:38.700 It's not just that,

00:40:39.860 because there's more

00:40:40.440 going on.

00:40:41.780 Another big factor is

00:40:43.120 that, and this is

00:40:45.340 something I think is

00:40:45.960 discussed even less, is

00:40:48.580 that we don't have any

00:40:49.660 concept anymore of how

00:40:52.140 to restore honor, okay?

00:40:55.880 And this probably

00:40:56.400 applies more to boys

00:40:57.340 than it does to girls,

00:40:58.080 but at least I can

00:40:58.780 speak to it how it

00:40:59.840 applies to boys more

00:41:00.820 than I can to girls.

00:41:02.380 But in the past, it

00:41:03.300 was always understood

00:41:03.960 that if somebody

00:41:06.140 humiliated you, if they

00:41:07.440 treated you

00:41:07.920 disrespectfully in

00:41:08.900 public, if they, you

00:41:11.140 know, mocked you, if

00:41:11.820 they bullied you, right,

00:41:13.500 that your honor had

00:41:14.640 been called into

00:41:15.200 question.

00:41:16.500 And that's, your

00:41:18.100 sense of honor as a

00:41:19.580 man, as a boy, if

00:41:21.160 you're younger, has

00:41:22.140 been called into

00:41:22.600 question.

00:41:22.920 You had to restore

00:41:23.620 it.

00:41:24.680 And in many cultures

00:41:25.520 for many centuries,

00:41:26.340 among adult men, they

00:41:27.540 had some form of a

00:41:29.380 duel for such

00:41:30.240 situations.

00:41:30.740 That's what duels

00:41:31.260 were about.

00:41:32.820 And it was about

00:41:33.920 restoring your honors.

00:41:35.220 Your honor had been

00:41:35.900 injured and you have

00:41:36.480 to do something

00:41:37.220 publicly.

00:41:37.820 There's a ritual, a

00:41:39.060 public ritual in place

00:41:40.380 for you to go and

00:41:41.820 restore your sense of

00:41:42.760 honor.

00:41:42.920 Even among kids in

00:41:45.960 school, until the past

00:41:46.860 few decades, they had

00:41:47.680 their own version of a

00:41:48.880 duel.

00:41:49.220 No guns involved,

00:41:50.260 hopefully, but it was,

00:41:51.840 you know, meet me at the

00:41:52.660 bus stop after school.

00:41:54.540 Meet me on the

00:41:54.980 playground after school.

00:41:55.880 It was that kind of

00:41:56.460 thing.

00:41:57.280 And that's kind of a

00:41:58.000 cliche now, but like

00:41:59.080 back in the day, that's

00:42:00.040 what kids did.

00:42:01.140 That was a real thing.

00:42:02.560 If you had a beef with

00:42:04.240 someone, if you felt like

00:42:04.780 they disrespected you, it

00:42:05.880 was like, meet me here and

00:42:07.420 we're going to fight.

00:42:08.440 And then you showed up and

00:42:09.340 you fought.

00:42:09.700 Or one of you didn't

00:42:10.980 show up.

00:42:12.100 In either case, as the

00:42:13.460 aggrieved party, you had a

00:42:14.860 chance to restore your

00:42:16.200 honor.

00:42:17.160 You know, you didn't need

00:42:17.680 to dwell on it.

00:42:18.480 You didn't need to walk

00:42:19.500 around feeling emasculated.

00:42:21.180 Here was your chance to

00:42:22.260 even the score, to prove

00:42:23.960 your toughness, to make it

00:42:25.640 okay.

00:42:26.280 But these days, boys and

00:42:28.220 also grown men, when they

00:42:31.280 have their honor injured,

00:42:32.300 they don't understand what

00:42:34.320 they're going through the

00:42:35.140 same way.

00:42:36.580 Bullied kids had their

00:42:37.800 honor attacked, their

00:42:39.460 good name, their

00:42:40.240 reputation attacked, they

00:42:41.940 don't understand it that

00:42:43.160 way, or at all.

00:42:44.280 They don't really

00:42:44.720 understand.

00:42:45.760 Like, they feel injured in

00:42:51.300 some way by their

00:42:52.360 treatment, but they don't

00:42:54.020 understand the injury or

00:42:55.860 why they feel injured.

00:42:57.580 They don't know why they're

00:42:59.380 feeling the way that

00:43:00.100 they're feeling.

00:43:01.560 Because we don't have the

00:43:02.720 cultural language anymore

00:43:03.920 to help bullied kids,

00:43:05.600 bullied people, understand

00:43:07.460 why they feel so bad

00:43:08.840 about it.

00:43:09.100 Instead, we sort of

00:43:09.900 limply insist that words

00:43:12.160 can't hurt you, right?

00:43:13.900 Sticks and stones and all

00:43:14.880 that.

00:43:15.180 Like, this is what we've

00:43:16.480 come up with.

00:43:17.280 We tell the kids when

00:43:20.420 they're being mistreated,

00:43:21.300 we tell them, oh, well,

00:43:22.120 it doesn't matter what

00:43:22.760 they say.

00:43:23.420 You don't have to be, you

00:43:24.560 don't have to feel, you

00:43:25.860 haven't, they haven't

00:43:26.920 really hurt you, right?

00:43:28.200 Because they haven't

00:43:28.580 hurt you physically and

00:43:29.360 you could just, just

00:43:29.900 no, it doesn't matter

00:43:30.580 what they think.

00:43:32.660 And we say that to kids,

00:43:33.880 but it's a lie.

00:43:34.600 Like, we all, it's this

00:43:35.880 fiction that we've all

00:43:38.020 decided that we're going

00:43:39.560 to pretend that we live

00:43:40.960 in and we're going to

00:43:41.980 impose this fiction on

00:43:43.140 kids.

00:43:44.420 Because we all know that

00:43:45.240 it's not true.

00:43:45.840 When a kid is bullied and

00:43:47.540 we say, it doesn't matter

00:43:48.120 what they think, you

00:43:48.560 shouldn't care what they

00:43:49.380 think.

00:43:50.700 Well, of course you care

00:43:51.800 what people think.

00:43:52.920 Everyone cares what

00:43:53.640 people think.

00:43:54.720 And when you're in a,

00:43:55.400 when you're, you know,

00:43:56.220 when you're at school and

00:43:57.560 that's your whole social

00:43:58.760 environment, yeah, losing

00:44:01.660 your reputation, having

00:44:02.880 people not respect you,

00:44:03.800 not like you, that's a

00:44:04.660 big deal.

00:44:05.560 The same way it would be

00:44:06.200 for any of us as adults

00:44:07.320 to walk around in society

00:44:09.040 feeling totally rejected

00:44:10.500 and humiliated.

00:44:11.820 It's a major deal.

00:44:12.940 There's no point in

00:44:13.820 telling someone, oh,

00:44:15.040 don't, you shouldn't

00:44:15.540 even worry about it.

00:44:16.040 It doesn't hurt you.

00:44:17.300 It does actually hurt

00:44:18.440 you.

00:44:18.920 Yes.

00:44:20.320 To be disrespected,

00:44:21.360 humiliated, all of that,

00:44:22.700 it hurts.

00:44:23.500 It does.

00:44:24.000 It's a real thing.

00:44:24.720 It's not imaginary.

00:44:26.180 There are other forms of

00:44:27.480 being hurt by someone that

00:44:28.560 are, that go beyond the

00:44:29.680 physical.

00:44:30.360 People have always

00:44:31.020 understood this.

00:44:31.700 It's only recently that

00:44:32.460 we decided to pretend

00:44:34.040 otherwise, and we know

00:44:35.740 that we're pretending.

00:44:36.640 We know that we're

00:44:37.300 lying.

00:44:39.200 The advice we give to

00:44:40.380 kids about how to deal

00:44:41.060 with bullies these days,

00:44:42.120 we know it doesn't work

00:44:43.180 because we were kids

00:44:44.060 once, and we know it

00:44:44.800 didn't work for us.

00:44:46.420 Oh, tell the teacher,

00:44:47.400 you know, people say the

00:44:50.020 dumbest things to kids

00:44:51.000 about it.

00:44:51.380 Sometimes, you know,

00:44:54.680 if they insult you, you

00:44:56.660 can agree with them, and

00:44:57.680 that'll really, that'll

00:44:58.780 disable them.

00:44:59.400 They won't know what to

00:44:59.960 do.

00:45:01.420 I've actually heard that

00:45:02.260 kind of advice.

00:45:03.840 Right?

00:45:04.080 Kill them with kindness.

00:45:05.200 Make a joke.

00:45:07.580 Well, yeah, most of the

00:45:08.640 time, that doesn't

00:45:09.060 actually work, and it'll

00:45:10.460 probably make it worse.

00:45:11.800 We all kind of know that.

00:45:13.460 We were kids once.

00:45:15.560 We know that from our own

00:45:16.540 lives now.

00:45:20.740 But we don't have any,

00:45:22.680 the idea of, like, your

00:45:24.240 honor, your reputation was

00:45:25.580 injured, that we don't,

00:45:26.560 we don't even talk about

00:45:27.640 that.

00:45:27.880 We don't use those words

00:45:29.080 anymore, and so we have

00:45:30.380 no way of even explaining

00:45:32.660 to kids or to ourselves

00:45:35.500 what's actually going on

00:45:37.320 internally.

00:45:38.640 And even if we do

00:45:39.700 understand it, there's no

00:45:40.980 way for someone to restore

00:45:42.560 their honor anymore.

00:45:43.820 We don't have that.

00:45:44.840 It doesn't exist.

00:45:46.420 It's not accepted.

00:45:48.240 You just can't do it.

00:45:49.260 As an adult in society,

00:45:50.880 there's really no way to do

00:45:52.160 it without going to

00:45:52.820 prison.

00:45:53.780 You know, if you try to,

00:45:54.640 you'll go to prison

00:45:55.260 forever.

00:45:56.040 It didn't used to be that

00:45:57.040 way in society, but now

00:45:57.940 it is.

00:45:59.060 In schools, you can't,

00:46:00.500 like, zero-tolerance

00:46:01.640 policy for fighting.

00:46:02.860 You'll get expelled.

00:46:03.920 Like, your life will be

00:46:04.700 ruined.

00:46:07.680 And so we've taken away

00:46:09.120 these methods for men

00:46:12.020 and for boys to, like,

00:46:14.760 reclaim their manhood

00:46:15.820 and feel good about

00:46:17.640 themselves again.

00:46:19.340 Reclaim a sense of

00:46:20.460 agency, a sense of

00:46:21.440 control over their lives.

00:46:23.380 Prove their courage.

00:46:24.540 Prove their mettle.

00:46:25.220 Right?

00:46:26.800 All these things.

00:46:27.320 We've taken away those

00:46:28.100 things.

00:46:29.380 We've taken those

00:46:29.860 methods away.

00:46:30.340 We've taken those

00:46:30.760 rituals away

00:46:33.400 and replaced them

00:46:35.180 with nothing.

00:46:37.520 And so now kids are just

00:46:39.580 hopelessly sort of

00:46:41.240 floundering

00:46:41.840 and not understanding

00:46:44.080 their feelings,

00:46:44.680 not knowing what to do

00:46:45.500 with them.

00:46:47.800 And that's the

00:46:49.320 situation.

00:46:50.520 I wish that I could

00:46:51.300 wrap this up with some

00:46:52.500 suggestion of a solution.

00:46:56.560 But there really isn't

00:46:57.600 one in the current

00:46:58.260 climate.

00:46:58.720 The only solution is

00:46:59.860 the one you've heard me

00:47:00.520 say a million times,

00:47:01.480 which is, and this is

00:47:02.100 not a perfect solution,

00:47:03.600 but the best thing,

00:47:07.300 the best single thing

00:47:08.400 we can do about it is

00:47:09.700 to just get your kids

00:47:10.440 out of the public

00:47:10.820 school system.

00:47:12.640 Because the honest to

00:47:13.700 God truth is that if

00:47:15.580 you send your kid to

00:47:16.260 public school and they're

00:47:18.420 rejected by their peers

00:47:20.840 for whatever reason,

00:47:22.340 because kids can be

00:47:23.380 vicious to each other

00:47:25.220 and they could just

00:47:26.000 select someone and say

00:47:26.940 you're not part of the

00:47:27.880 in-group.

00:47:28.940 And that label can stick.

00:47:31.160 And that really hurts

00:47:32.480 a kid badly,

00:47:33.680 especially these days,

00:47:34.520 but it always has.

00:47:37.800 And it's just too much

00:47:40.220 actually to expect a kid

00:47:41.640 to endure that

00:47:42.760 for years on end.

00:47:44.540 You can't say to him,

00:47:45.600 well, this is what your

00:47:46.240 life's going to be for

00:47:46.920 the next 10 years,

00:47:49.060 depending on how old he is.

00:47:49.940 And because you can't,

00:47:55.340 you might like to say to

00:47:56.700 him, hey, if somebody

00:47:57.200 bullies you, find him on

00:47:58.120 a playground,

00:47:59.160 punch him in the nose.

00:48:01.340 That'll work.

00:48:02.740 And actually, it will work.

00:48:04.140 But many times that will

00:48:05.200 work to, again,

00:48:07.200 restore your honor and

00:48:08.280 get the bully to back

00:48:09.560 down.

00:48:11.420 But if he does that,

00:48:13.320 he might get expelled,

00:48:14.200 like the schools have a

00:48:14.880 zero tolerance policy for

00:48:15.920 and so what do you do?

00:48:21.580 You just have to get your

00:48:23.200 kids out of these systems

00:48:24.220 entirely.

00:48:25.280 These systems that are

00:48:26.080 completely rigged against

00:48:27.740 them every step of the

00:48:30.220 way.

00:48:30.680 It's just designed

00:48:32.180 at every level to make

00:48:35.360 things as hard as possible

00:48:36.400 for them.

00:48:37.100 Next Thursday night is a

00:48:38.840 pretty big deal, in case

00:48:39.640 you hadn't noticed.

00:48:40.420 On June 27th, Donald

00:48:41.900 Trump and Joe Biden will

00:48:43.000 square off in the first

00:48:44.100 presidential debate of

00:48:45.140 2024.

00:48:46.180 Part of the rules for the

00:48:46.860 event is that these

00:48:47.720 candidates will occasionally

00:48:48.820 have their mics muted.

00:48:50.620 But rest assured, the Daily

00:48:51.440 Wire will not be silenced.

00:48:52.780 We'll be bringing you

00:48:53.340 exclusive uncensored coverage

00:48:55.100 and commentary during a

00:48:56.840 special Daily Wire

00:48:57.780 backstage.

00:48:58.360 Our nation is hurtling

00:48:59.060 towards total disaster.

00:49:00.580 Inflation is through the

00:49:01.320 roof.

00:49:01.580 The border is being

00:49:02.260 overrun.

00:49:03.120 Our cities are rotting

00:49:04.060 from within.

00:49:05.000 Violent crimes continue to

00:49:05.960 spike.

00:49:06.280 That's why the Daily Wire

00:49:07.080 is bringing you front row

00:49:08.180 access to watch every

00:49:09.240 single second of this

00:49:10.340 presidential debate live

00:49:11.380 on Daily Wire Plus.

00:49:12.580 I'll be joined by Ben

00:49:14.020 Shapiro, Michael Knowles,

00:49:14.880 Andrew Klavan, and Jeremy

00:49:15.640 Boring as we eviscerate

00:49:16.760 all the nonsense and lies

00:49:18.220 in real time.

00:49:19.560 You're going to get a

00:49:20.440 clear window into what's

00:49:21.760 actually unfolding on

00:49:23.480 that stage and what it

00:49:24.320 means for the future of

00:49:25.080 the country.

00:49:25.900 So join for the live

00:49:26.940 debate coverage that only

00:49:27.980 the Daily Wire can

00:49:28.560 provide next Thursday

00:49:29.780 night starting at 8.30

00:49:31.080 Eastern on Daily Wire

00:49:32.660 Plus.

00:49:33.140 Now let's get to our

00:49:33.920 daily cancellation.

00:49:35.960 We have something

00:49:42.840 miraculous today for our

00:49:44.320 daily cancellation.

00:49:45.120 The New York Post reports

00:49:45.920 far-left squad member

00:49:47.040 Representative Cori Bush

00:49:48.060 performed multiple

00:49:48.940 miracles as a religious

00:49:50.300 faith healer according to

00:49:51.620 her autobiography.

00:49:53.180 Quote,

00:49:53.400 As I learned how to

00:49:54.080 apply God's word to my

00:49:55.120 life in new ways, I

00:49:56.000 better understood the

00:49:56.740 power that was already

00:49:57.600 residing in me.

00:49:58.900 Bush wrote of her

00:49:59.340 abilities in The

00:50:00.100 Forerunner, a story of

00:50:01.180 pain and perseverance in

00:50:02.080 America.

00:50:03.280 It was there waiting for

00:50:04.340 me to acknowledge it, to

00:50:05.520 use it.

00:50:06.200 I had the confidence to

00:50:07.160 heal others with God's

00:50:08.740 power.

00:50:10.480 Now, any savvy media

00:50:13.380 consumer who also

00:50:14.160 happens to be Christian

00:50:14.900 may be expecting this

00:50:16.000 story to go a certain

00:50:16.660 direction from here.

00:50:17.440 We've seen this before.

00:50:18.300 The media reports that

00:50:19.180 somebody claims to have

00:50:20.120 miraculous supernatural

00:50:21.340 abilities, but in

00:50:22.900 reality the person is

00:50:23.860 simply a Christian who

00:50:24.860 spoke about the power of

00:50:25.980 prayer and faith and so

00:50:27.000 on, and they are making

00:50:29.420 a caricature of it in the

00:50:32.300 way they're reporting

00:50:32.840 it.

00:50:33.820 Is that what's going on

00:50:34.780 here?

00:50:35.580 Did Cori Bush really

00:50:36.820 claim to have miraculous

00:50:38.960 powers?

00:50:40.200 Is that what she really

00:50:41.000 said?

00:50:42.680 Well, yes, it is.

00:50:44.380 Reading on.

00:50:45.720 Bush relayed a story of a

00:50:47.020 toddler she met during a

00:50:48.240 prayer service in St.

00:50:49.240 Louis.

00:50:49.740 The child had a bleed in

00:50:51.520 her brain shortly after

00:50:52.460 she was born, and she

00:50:53.920 couldn't walk.

00:50:54.800 She had never taken a

00:50:55.700 step in her life, Bush

00:50:56.780 recalled.

00:50:57.820 I carry the child from

00:50:58.680 the prayer room in the

00:50:59.340 back of the church out

00:51:00.240 into the sanctuary.

00:51:02.260 Walk, I said gently to

00:51:03.480 the three-year-old.

00:51:04.380 You will walk.

00:51:05.800 And this girl took her

00:51:06.720 first step, then another

00:51:07.980 and another.

00:51:08.660 She walked.

00:51:09.580 Her grandmother walked

00:51:10.520 in the sanctuary just in

00:51:11.320 time to see the child

00:51:12.000 take about two dozen

00:51:13.000 steps.

00:51:13.860 She screamed, then she

00:51:15.040 kept screaming, Bush

00:51:15.960 continued.

00:51:16.940 When she caught her

00:51:17.460 breath, she looked at me

00:51:18.640 in wonder and said,

00:51:19.360 praise God.

00:51:20.580 She grabbed her

00:51:21.160 granddaughter and walked

00:51:22.400 with her out of the

00:51:22.980 church.

00:51:24.160 There you go.

00:51:25.200 You thought that Cori

00:51:25.740 Bush was just an uber

00:51:26.660 woke, far-left, useless

00:51:27.840 politician who's wronged

00:51:28.660 about everything all the

00:51:29.360 time.

00:51:30.280 But no.

00:51:31.340 Well, yes, I mean, she

00:51:32.120 has that, but also she has

00:51:33.900 supernatural powers.

00:51:35.580 In an interview with PBS,

00:51:36.720 Bush offered some more

00:51:37.740 details about these mystical

00:51:40.220 capabilities.

00:51:41.820 Listen.

00:51:43.320 You're a pastor.

00:51:44.660 Yes.

00:51:45.720 You write about healing

00:51:46.780 through faith.

00:51:48.260 At one point, you came

00:51:49.320 across a woman with, quote,

00:51:51.740 several visible tumors on

00:51:53.260 her torso.

00:51:53.760 So, tell me what happened.

00:51:57.520 So, at that time, I, along

00:52:00.620 with a group of friends, we

00:52:03.840 would go out on the street

00:52:04.960 and just meet with people and

00:52:07.860 pray with people and offer

00:52:09.320 them food.

00:52:10.140 And this lady came to us and

00:52:12.280 she had these tumors.

00:52:13.780 I mean, she wanted us to, like,

00:52:14.840 feel them.

00:52:15.800 And I just remember I put my

00:52:17.820 hand on her and my hand just

00:52:20.820 began to move.

00:52:22.360 And the lumps that were there

00:52:25.780 were no longer there.

00:52:26.960 And she was so happy and she,

00:52:29.240 like, went on about her day.

00:52:32.080 And I never saw her again.

00:52:33.860 So, you think the tumors

00:52:34.780 disappeared?

00:52:35.520 I do.

00:52:36.100 I do.

00:52:37.240 Now, look, I'm a Christian.

00:52:40.640 I believe that it is possible

00:52:41.840 for diseases to be

00:52:42.780 miraculously healed.

00:52:43.840 I believe that such things have

00:52:45.120 happened many times, in fact.

00:52:46.160 But there are three big

00:52:47.980 problems here.

00:52:48.780 First, Cori Bush, who calls

00:52:50.460 herself an ordained pastor and

00:52:52.000 apparently, in that capacity,

00:52:53.280 performed these miraculous

00:52:54.160 healings, is a false teacher.

00:52:56.440 She's a wolf in sheep's

00:52:57.420 clothing.

00:52:57.800 And I know that because she is

00:52:59.140 a charlatan in general who

00:53:00.620 pushes an evil agenda.

00:53:01.820 She supports and facilitates

00:53:02.820 the murder and mutilation of

00:53:03.920 children, for one thing.

00:53:04.820 Also, I know this because she's

00:53:06.480 a woman.

00:53:07.140 And women cannot be pastors.

00:53:09.240 Any woman who claims to be a

00:53:10.580 pastor is a false teacher.

00:53:12.080 This is very clear in

00:53:13.040 scripture.

00:53:13.420 Jesus selected only men to be

00:53:15.020 his apostles.

00:53:15.460 He could have selected women,

00:53:16.860 but he didn't.

00:53:18.220 Don't like it?

00:53:19.020 Don't find it progressive enough?

00:53:20.180 You think Jesus should have done

00:53:21.140 more to smash the patriarchy

00:53:22.380 instead of explicitly upholding

00:53:23.740 it at every turn?

00:53:25.100 Which is what he did?

00:53:27.520 Well, too bad.

00:53:29.240 Too bad.

00:53:30.420 So you might think, you might

00:53:31.480 wish that it had been set up so

00:53:33.080 that women could be pastors.

00:53:34.200 It wasn't.

00:53:35.240 It just wasn't.

00:53:37.360 So, Cori Bush is a false

00:53:38.960 teacher.

00:53:39.420 Every female pastor is a false

00:53:40.980 teacher.

00:53:41.280 Second, God does not give

00:53:43.520 miraculous healing powers to

00:53:45.340 evil charlatans.

00:53:47.400 Second, even among spiritual

00:53:49.400 leaders who are not evil

00:53:50.640 charlatans, this is not how

00:53:52.060 miraculous healings work.

00:53:53.160 You pray to be healed.

00:53:54.300 You submit yourself or the

00:53:55.500 person who's sick to the will

00:53:56.980 of God.

00:53:58.360 And you could certainly,

00:53:59.660 obviously, pray for someone to

00:54:01.220 be healed.

00:54:02.000 Any Christian has done that many

00:54:03.500 times.

00:54:04.580 The healing is done by God if it

00:54:06.840 is done at all.

00:54:07.800 And it may not be done.

00:54:08.740 But what you don't do, what you

00:54:10.300 can't do, is command that a

00:54:13.080 sickness leave a person's body

00:54:14.840 as if the authority rests with

00:54:16.400 you.

00:54:17.760 Like, Cori Bush claims that she

00:54:18.920 said to the girl, walk, and she

00:54:21.320 just did.

00:54:21.940 You will walk.

00:54:23.880 That's not how it works.

00:54:25.920 Okay?

00:54:26.400 It's how it worked for Jesus.

00:54:28.080 But she isn't Jesus.

00:54:29.680 She's about as far from Jesus as

00:54:31.060 a person can be.

00:54:32.460 You don't put God on the spot and

00:54:33.860 demand that he perform this

00:54:34.960 supernatural act on your timing

00:54:36.900 right then and there.

00:54:39.540 God doesn't do magic tricks.

00:54:41.360 It's not how it works.

00:54:43.200 If it did work that way, like,

00:54:44.960 if Cori Bush could really just

00:54:46.140 summon these powers to, for

00:54:49.380 example, heal cancer on the spot,

00:54:52.260 which is what she's claiming,

00:54:54.840 if that's true, then she's even

00:54:56.680 worse than I thought she was.

00:54:57.940 If she herself possesses the power

00:54:59.560 to cure cancer with the touch of

00:55:01.700 her hand, why isn't she touring

00:55:04.320 the country and, like, doing just

00:55:06.380 that, why hasn't she, why has she

00:55:08.160 never visited a children's

00:55:09.340 hospital and cured all the

00:55:10.440 children?

00:55:10.740 The fact that she has this power

00:55:12.340 but instead chooses to spend her

00:55:13.540 time angling for the spotlight on

00:55:15.460 Capitol Hill just means that she's

00:55:16.600 a negligent narcissist.

00:55:18.820 Indeed, she's arguably criminally

00:55:20.080 culpable for the death of every

00:55:21.260 single person who perishes from

00:55:22.380 cancer.

00:55:22.740 I mean, she could easily cure them

00:55:23.660 all, and yet she chooses not to.

00:55:27.000 This woman's evil, which, again,

00:55:28.600 raises the question of why God

00:55:30.060 chose to give her this power, so

00:55:31.560 it's a good thing that it's all

00:55:33.240 nonsense.

00:55:33.740 He did not give her this power.

00:55:35.760 In fact, any human being walking

00:55:37.060 the earth today who claims to have

00:55:38.360 the power to heal people instantly

00:55:40.560 with the touch of a hand is a wicked,

00:55:44.180 evil scam artist in league with

00:55:45.740 Satan.

00:55:47.220 Okay?

00:55:48.100 God does heal people.

00:55:49.480 Miraculous events do occur.

00:55:51.240 We can pray for them.

00:55:52.460 We should pray for them.

00:55:54.380 But that is not how it works.

00:55:57.400 Okay?

00:55:57.600 And she's far from the only person

00:56:01.520 who's claimed to have this kind of

00:56:02.900 power.

00:56:03.280 We know that.

00:56:04.720 But if you want to know, like,

00:56:05.840 who's, which ones you can trust,

00:56:07.360 which ones you can't, if somebody

00:56:08.720 says, oh, you're suffering

00:56:09.920 affliction, I will pray for you,

00:56:11.460 that's someone you can trust.

00:56:12.460 That's someone who has your best

00:56:13.180 intentions in mind.

00:56:14.540 If somebody says, come here, I'm

00:56:15.700 going to put my hand on you and

00:56:16.780 cure you on the spot, that is a

00:56:19.180 charlatan.

00:56:19.720 That is a con artist.

00:56:21.080 That's a scam artist every time.

00:56:23.280 Third, finally, even putting all

00:56:28.020 this aside, we know for damn sure

00:56:30.080 that these corporate media

00:56:31.240 journalists don't believe in

00:56:33.220 miraculous events, least of all

00:56:34.980 faith healings.

00:56:35.900 And yet, here is this supposedly

00:56:37.520 serious journalist asking a

00:56:40.420 politician about her supernatural

00:56:41.840 powers and expressing no

00:56:43.840 skepticism.

00:56:45.300 Watch how she follows up.

00:56:46.620 Watch this.

00:56:48.200 What do you say to people who are

00:56:50.440 likely to disbelieve that story?

00:56:52.140 You know, they're not the woman

00:56:54.240 that had the tumors.

00:56:57.120 That was it.

00:56:58.220 That was the only follow.

00:56:59.600 And by the way, you're right,

00:57:00.940 Corey, true enough.

00:57:03.080 I don't believe you.

00:57:04.660 And I'm not the woman who had

00:57:06.040 the tumors.

00:57:07.200 Speaking of which, say, since

00:57:09.500 you bring it up, can we hear

00:57:11.240 from the woman who had the

00:57:12.100 tumors?

00:57:13.140 Like somewhere walking the earth

00:57:14.320 today is a woman who was

00:57:15.540 supernaturally healed on the spot

00:57:17.520 by somebody who is now an elected

00:57:19.920 official in Congress.

00:57:21.040 Why hasn't that woman come

00:57:21.980 forward?

00:57:22.940 Why isn't she campaigning for

00:57:24.300 you?

00:57:24.560 I mean, it's the least she could

00:57:25.620 do.

00:57:25.900 You made her tumors disappear and

00:57:27.820 she can't even show up to a

00:57:28.680 campaign rally.

00:57:30.440 I mean, talk about ungrateful.

00:57:31.980 What ungrateful brat this person

00:57:33.560 is.

00:57:34.900 Unless the woman doesn't exist,

00:57:36.380 which would be a valid excuse for

00:57:37.900 not showing up.

00:57:39.960 These are follow ups that the

00:57:41.260 journalist Margaret Hoover, who's

00:57:43.140 there in the interview.

00:57:45.040 These are follow ups that she

00:57:46.100 could have used.

00:57:47.580 She could have asked these

00:57:48.240 questions.

00:57:48.640 Any follow up at all would have

00:57:50.860 been nice.

00:57:52.340 Instead, we get the whole, what do

00:57:53.940 you say to the people who don't

00:57:55.200 believe you thing?

00:57:56.720 And that's it.

00:57:58.340 Can you imagine?

00:57:59.980 Can you imagine if Lauren

00:58:02.800 Boebert or Marjorie Taylor Greene

00:58:05.620 claimed to have faith healing

00:58:07.900 powers?

00:58:09.420 Can you imagine if Marjorie Taylor

00:58:12.440 Greene said that she cured cancer?

00:58:14.660 Can you imagine the response by

00:58:18.560 the media?

00:58:19.160 The manic, hysterical screeching

00:58:21.520 about misinformation?

00:58:23.680 The fact checks?

00:58:25.680 Snopes would have a field day.

00:58:26.820 It would be the greatest day in,

00:58:28.620 for people working at Snopes, it

00:58:30.440 would be the greatest day of

00:58:31.040 their lives.

00:58:31.700 This would be like Christmas and

00:58:33.380 New Year's and all wrapped up

00:58:35.060 into one times a hundred.

00:58:37.220 That they would get to debunk

00:58:38.400 something like that coming from

00:58:40.580 Marjorie Taylor Greene.

00:58:41.460 They would love it.

00:58:42.260 It would be the greatest thing

00:58:43.000 that ever happened to them.

00:58:45.240 But what does Snopes have to say

00:58:46.620 about a black Democrat woman who

00:58:48.680 said that she discovered the cure

00:58:50.160 for cancer but has only given it

00:58:51.660 to one random woman?

00:58:54.180 Nothing at all.

00:58:55.340 They say nothing.

00:58:57.040 Not a thing.

00:58:59.000 Look, I don't blame Cori Bush for

00:59:00.480 making up these stories.

00:59:01.500 She's a pathological liar.

00:59:02.840 Lying pathologically is what

00:59:04.200 pathological liars do.

00:59:05.840 Besides, if you have no moral

00:59:07.120 compass and you know that you can

00:59:08.400 make up anything, you can get

00:59:09.840 away with making up anything at

00:59:11.060 all, why not claim that you can

00:59:13.120 cure cancer?

00:59:13.720 I mean, you might as well have

00:59:14.560 fun with your superhuman ability

00:59:16.040 to lie without consequence.

00:59:18.940 Maybe next Cori Bush can tell us

00:59:20.300 that she invented time travel.

00:59:22.360 Maybe she'll claim that she

00:59:23.040 traveled to the center of the

00:59:24.020 earth through a volcano and

00:59:25.180 found a T-Rex, Santa Claus, and

00:59:26.480 Elvis living down there.

00:59:28.300 Why not?

00:59:29.340 You have no integrity.

00:59:30.480 The media that's supposed to

00:59:31.660 hold you accountable has no

00:59:33.280 integrity and they'll just amplify

00:59:34.960 anything you say.

00:59:37.840 Might as well just go to town.

00:59:39.100 And that is why the people

00:59:42.100 letting Cori Bush get away with

00:59:44.120 telling whatever lies she feels

00:59:45.900 like, along with Cori Bush

00:59:47.700 herself, are all today

00:59:49.680 canceled.

00:59:50.720 Happy birthday to you.

00:59:56.020 Happy birthday to you.

01:00:00.460 Happy birthday, dear man.

01:00:04.760 It's not my birthday anymore.

01:00:06.200 Happy birthday to you.

01:00:13.720 Happy birthday, you diva.

01:00:16.480 Did you guys just decide to do

01:00:19.200 this now because of what I said?

01:00:21.480 Yes.

01:00:22.140 Oh, my gosh.

01:00:22.940 I've got to keep my mouth shut.

01:00:25.180 Well, thank you so much,

01:00:26.240 everybody.

01:00:27.040 It's just what I was.

01:00:27.860 How did you get a cake

01:00:28.540 together this quickly?

01:00:29.920 Baked on eight.

01:00:32.660 Wow.

01:00:33.480 That is fast-moving trolling

01:00:35.540 right there.

01:00:36.440 I respect it.

01:00:38.260 Okay.

01:00:39.660 There we go.

01:00:41.780 Thank you.

01:00:43.760 Everybody came.

01:00:44.480 Thanks so much.

01:00:45.800 All right.

01:00:46.280 We'll actually go back to work now.

01:00:47.520 We'll bring this into the kitchen.

01:00:48.680 Okay.

01:00:50.460 That'll do it for the show today.

01:00:51.320 Thanks for watching.

01:00:51.840 Thanks for listening.

01:00:52.440 Talk to you tomorrow.

01:00:53.640 Have a great day.

01:00:54.740 Godspeed.

01:00:55.020 Godspeed.

The Matt Walsh Show - June 19, 2024

Ep. 1390 - Major Polling Firm Changes Its Own Results After Left-Wing Activists Complain

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