The Matt Walsh Show - April 26, 2018


Ep. 17 - Where The Real Cultural Battle Is Being Fought

Topics
spiritual and moral decay freedom vs. truth/morality
Hosted by
Matt Walsh
Mentioned
Donald Trump Kanye West Roseanne Colin Kaepernick Kim Kardashian Meryl Streep George W. Bush
Ep. 16 - Feminists Hate Men But They Also Want To Be Men Ep. 18 - What A Christian Should Do About Doubt

Episode Stats


Length

18 minutes

Words per minute

159.37

Word count

2,931

Sentence count

230

Harmful content

Misogyny

6

sentences flagged

Toxicity

20

sentences flagged

Hate speech

6

sentences flagged


Summary

Summaries generated with gmurro/bart-large-finetuned-filtered-spotify-podcast-summ .

Kanye West has a new album out, and he's been getting a lot of media attention for it. Is it a coincidence that he's getting all the attention because of his support for Donald Trump? Or is there some connection between Kanye's support for Trump and his support of free speech?

Transcript

Transcript generated with Whisper (turbo).
Misogyny classifications generated with MilaNLProc/bert-base-uncased-ear-misogyny .
Toxicity classifications generated with s-nlp/roberta_toxicity_classifier .
Hate speech classifications generated with facebook/roberta-hate-speech-dynabench-r4-target .
Topics generated with Qwen2.5-3B-Instruct.
Hosts, guests, and mentioned names generated with spaCy (en_core_web_sm), reconciled against Wikidata.
00:00:00.000 Well, some folks on the right are ecstatic with glee today because Kanye West is saying some things that they agree with.
00:00:09.260 Even Kim Kardashian has gotten favorable coverage from the right because of all this.
00:00:20.220 Now, let's remember something about the right, the right, of which I am a member. 1.00
00:00:25.180 Um, unless I'm imagining things, unless I've been hallucinating for the last 20 years or so, I'm pretty sure that the right has spent a very long time insisting that celebrities are dumb and stupid and they're morons and their political opinions don't matter. 0.99
00:00:44.380 And they need to just shut up and sing and entertain us because we don't want to we don't want to hear them injecting politics and everything. 1.00
00:00:50.860 Just shut up. Just shut up. Just shut up. That's what we've been saying. 1.00
00:00:54.220 We've said it a million times over and over and over again to these celebrities.
00:00:58.980 It's not. No, it has not been as much as we'd like to pretend otherwise.
00:01:02.900 Our message to celebrities and singers and pop stars, athletes, our message to them has not been, oh, I disagree with what you're saying.
00:01:14.080 Let's let's engage. Let's have a discussion. No, that's it hasn't been our message.
00:01:18.800 Our message has been very explicitly. You shouldn't be talking about this subject.
00:01:23.980 You don't know anything about it. Your job is to entertain us.
00:01:27.400 So just shut up. That's been our message. 1.00
00:01:30.220 But then what happens the moment one of these celebrities says something we agree with while we're in the midst of shouting, shut up, all you just stop talking about this.
00:01:41.940 And then one of them responds, oh, but wait a second. I actually agree with you on this one single point.
00:01:46.480 Well, that would be OK. Well, hold on. No, OK. You come here. You can talk.
00:01:50.960 You. Yes. You please stand up on this stage, this platform. Repeat it again so everyone can hear it.
00:01:56.560 No, no. You guys over there, you Meryl Streep and Colin Kaepernick, you still shut up. 0.99
00:02:00.720 You know what? No one wants to hear you. But you go ahead, please. 0.98
00:02:03.080 Yes, please talk. Please, please.
00:02:04.660 Please. I mean, Kanye West, a few years ago when you were talking about how George Bush hates black people, you needed to shut up then because nobody cares about your political opinions. 0.89
00:02:13.980 But now, oh, yes, please share your political opinions with everyone. This is huge.
00:02:18.320 Everyone listen to this person. Listen to this celebrity.
00:02:22.160 He's a celebrity. His opinion matters.
00:02:24.920 And then two seconds later, you're a celebrity. Your opinion doesn't matter.
00:02:27.980 Our perspective changes very quickly from shut up and sing to please be our president. 0.66
00:02:36.700 And I know. Listen, I know what I'm saying right now is not crowd pleasing.
00:02:41.920 It's not crowd pleasing because I'm criticizing us.
00:02:45.280 I mean, I'm criticizing you and me.
00:02:47.480 And I know that when someone watches a video on Facebook or listens to a podcast,
00:02:52.980 what they really want to hear is criticisms of everybody else.
00:02:58.760 What they're really looking for is a moment where you and I are talking about how terrible everyone else is.
00:03:03.360 I mean, you and I haven't figured out, but all those other people, let's talk about how terrible they are.
00:03:07.480 What I've noticed is that the moment I turn the mirror around on us and say,
00:03:12.760 oh, but look at this thing that we're doing. Maybe we have problems, too.
00:03:16.340 That's when there's suddenly a revolt.
00:03:18.240 And it's, oh, stop being negative. Stop judging.
00:03:20.300 Now, I've noticed that. I'm only negative and judging and all these things when I'm criticizing us.
00:03:27.780 But if I stick with criticizing everyone else, well, then there's no problem.
00:03:33.360 But I don't care because this is just, I mean, we are on the right.
00:03:37.240 We are blatantly contradicting ourselves, not just on this issue, but on so many issues, especially recently. 0.98
00:03:45.280 We have just turned into utter and complete hypocrites. 0.60
00:03:50.840 Just changing our tune on so many things all of a sudden, opportunistically, and forfeiting our integrity in the process. 0.97
00:04:00.140 And I don't really care if pointing that out turns everyone against me.
00:04:06.160 I don't really care because it's true.
00:04:08.520 Now, in Kanye West's case, he's been tweeting a bunch of controversial things.
00:04:14.180 And he does have, I think he has new music coming out soon.
00:04:16.960 So I'm sure it's just a coincidence that he's saying all this controversial stuff and getting attention while he's got music to promote.
00:04:24.800 I'm sure there's no connection there whatsoever, right?
00:04:27.000 And he's tweeted some nice things about free expression, free speech, etc.
00:04:32.640 But mainly, the thing that has gotten him attention and has gotten him favorable, has made him a darling of the right, is that he's expressed support for Donald Trump.
00:04:44.200 And Trump responded on Twitter, and there was this little exchange, this back and forth between Kanye West and Donald Trump.
00:04:49.420 And that is really what sent some folks on the right into rapturous seizures, is when they saw that.
00:04:57.000 And that's the only conservative thing he said, conservative thing, as far as I can tell.
00:05:03.300 And I'm not an expert on his tweets.
00:05:04.960 I haven't read them very carefully.
00:05:06.320 I only know what he's tweeting because a lot of conservatives in my Twitter feed have just been retweeting the heck out of him.
00:05:12.520 They've just retweeted everything he said.
00:05:13.960 And again, these are the same conservatives who have spent years, the exact same ones, who have spent years telling celebrities to shut up their political opinions don't matter.
00:05:23.520 And now they're just all day retweeting Kanye West.
00:05:26.660 And so I know that he's also, I mean, he's talked about how truth is subjective.
00:05:32.180 He's talked a lot about how the key to happiness is self-love and, you know, it's within yourself, self-affirmation, you know, the self-affirmation type of typical Hollywood tripe.
00:05:47.380 But with Kanye West's affinity for Trump, we're told that this is a sign that the right is winning the culture.
00:05:58.300 And this is how we win the culture, I'm told.
00:06:01.640 We win it through celebrities who like Donald Trump.
00:06:06.600 It was the same thing with Roseanne.
00:06:09.680 Roseanne, her show, whether we're talking about the new version or the old version, it promotes all kinds of far left propaganda. 0.90
00:06:18.760 It is a far left show.
00:06:21.040 Cross-dressing nine-year-olds, that is extreme left-wing degeneracy being promoted and mainstreamed.
00:06:29.240 And somehow they've convinced conservatives to not only watch it, but to applaud it incredibly.
00:06:38.900 The show in the past has also historically promoted abortion, gay marriage, on and on and on. 0.86
00:06:45.020 And Roseanne herself is a far left nutcase. 1.00
00:06:49.180 She wished death on everyone who eats Chick-fil-A. 1.00
00:06:52.220 She said she hopes they all get cancer because Chick-fil-A is anti-gay. 1.00
00:06:56.900 She hasn't changed her tune. 1.00
00:06:58.700 She's still a far left nutcase. 1.00
00:07:00.480 It just so happens that she also likes Donald Trump.
00:07:03.720 And we've decided that none of that other stuff matters.
00:07:06.360 The only thing that matters is that she likes Donald Trump.
00:07:09.800 Now, this may surprise you, but I'm going to be the odd man out here.
00:07:13.400 I don't agree.
00:07:15.540 This idea that Roseanne and Kanye West and all this stuff, they're the ones helping us win the culture.
00:07:21.280 I don't agree.
00:07:21.880 And in fact, I don't see the right winning the culture.
00:07:26.120 There's been a lot of talk on the right recently about, we're winning.
00:07:31.720 Our message is winning.
00:07:33.180 Yes.
00:07:34.680 No, it's not.
00:07:36.720 Look around you.
00:07:38.320 What are you talking about?
00:07:39.820 It's winning.
00:07:40.400 I'll tell you what's actually happening.
00:07:43.600 The right is not winning the culture.
00:07:45.400 The right is becoming more like the left.
00:07:49.280 The right is just fighting to be the new left.
00:07:52.140 The right thinks that it's making the culture more conservative, but all it's really doing is becoming more liberal itself.
00:08:02.120 Thus, it sees itself more reflected in the culture because it has stooped down and rid itself of most everything that used to differentiate it from the culture.
00:08:12.240 Let me try to explain my meaning a little more.
00:08:14.900 And I think first we have to ask a very simple question.
00:08:17.680 What is the culture war about?
00:08:20.320 What does it mean to win the culture?
00:08:21.860 What are we fighting for?
00:08:22.900 What are we fighting against?
00:08:24.280 How do we win?
00:08:25.960 What is winning?
00:08:27.800 As I see it, and as I think almost every conservative used to see it, the real problem with the culture and the central battle in the culture is spiritual and moral decay.
00:08:40.980 That is the problem.
00:08:43.060 And the collapse of the family is part of that.
00:08:45.360 The loss of the sanctity of life is part of that.
00:08:47.520 The destruction of marriage is part of that.
00:08:49.220 The abandonment of religion is part of that. 0.61
00:08:50.780 The proliferation of perversion and degeneracy, that's part of that. 0.84
00:08:54.060 Pornography is part of that.
00:08:55.600 Gender identity, that's part of that. 0.78
00:08:57.420 All of this is part of the main battle.
00:09:00.280 This thing, this spiritual and moral decay, which has emptied our civilization, hollowed it out, made it a shell of what it once was.
00:09:07.120 This is what's killing our civilization.
00:09:10.240 Other issues are important.
00:09:11.480 Other issues are important, but not as important.
00:09:13.840 Gun rights, taxes, immigration. 0.55
00:09:15.940 Those are crucial topics.
00:09:17.880 Yes.
00:09:18.140 But even if we had all the gun rights and the border was closed and taxes were low, which would be great, believe me, it would mean nothing at all. 0.88
00:09:28.600 If the culture is still in a state of moral rot, because then we would still just be wandering into the abyss.
00:09:36.960 Not sure of what sort of people we're supposed to be or what the point of life even is, and we're just wandering into destruction, only we happen to have a gun and more money in our wallet and fewer illegals walking next to us, which, fine.
00:09:51.040 But it means nothing if we've given up on the one thing that means everything, which is truth.
00:09:59.840 Yes, we need to have the right.
00:10:03.100 It's important to fight for rights because we need to have the, and why?
00:10:06.980 Why is it important to fight for rights?
00:10:08.600 Because we need to have the right to be the sort of people we should be.
00:10:13.060 But then the next level, more fundamentally than that, we need to know what sort of people we should be.
00:10:24.980 In other words, the fight for freedom is important only because freedom gives a person the ability to realize their God-given potential.
00:10:33.880 But if we take freedom and we do not pursue that potential, and indeed we reject that there is a potential, that there is a God or anything, that there is anything to strive for, then we're just going to end up even worse than we would have been without the freedom in the first place.
00:10:52.780 This is why it's not enough.
00:10:54.520 And as I've seen, this is something that conservatives have been doing more and more, is, as you've noticed, conservatives, more and more, they're not fighting for what is right, they're just fighting for rights.
00:11:11.600 I don't know if you've noticed that transition, because you're just getting rid of one little word there, is, but it's huge.
00:11:19.560 Not fighting for what is right, we're just fighting for rights.
00:11:22.080 An example of how this works is, you'll notice that pretty much any conservative will get up and they'll fight for the right, they'll fight for people's right to be against gay marriage. 0.51
00:11:38.060 They'll fight for the rights of bakers who don't want to bake gay wedding cakes. 0.91
00:11:43.240 They'll fight for those rights on the basis of free speech and freedom of religion, which is good, because that's really important.
00:11:50.280 But what they won't do is they won't then proceed to explain why it is right to fight for the protection of marriage.
00:12:03.140 They won't do that.
00:12:04.980 They'll fight for the right, but not for what is right.
00:12:08.580 And that's a big problem.
00:12:09.740 Because our main message should be, or take abortion, for instance.
00:12:16.520 Yes, we should have the right to voice our pro-life views.
00:12:22.200 So if you're standing up for our right to voice our pro-life views, thank you.
00:12:27.160 But more important than that is the fact that we are right about those views.
00:12:32.780 And so that's our main message.
00:12:35.500 Our main message is not, I have the right to say these things.
00:12:38.460 Our primary message should be, I am right about these things.
00:12:43.360 And that's why you should listen to me.
00:12:45.440 Not just because I have the right to say it, but because I'm right in saying it.
00:12:50.780 I think conservatives have just have not been as willing to make that point.
00:12:58.880 So then just look at what's happened in our culture over the last several decades.
00:13:04.920 We've taken all this freedom, all of this great and wonderful freedom, and we've used it to destroy the family, destroy marriage, destroy babies, destroy the church, destroy ourselves. 0.52
00:13:16.340 With our freedom, we've invented the drug epidemic, the divorce epidemic, the suicide epidemic, the porn epidemic, the depression epidemic, on and on and on.
00:13:23.240 We have the freedom to satisfy our desires, yet we don't know what we should desire, what will bring us true joy and fulfillment.
00:13:30.760 So we run around just indulging every whim, and we plunge ever deeper and deeper into despair and ruin because of it.
00:13:38.800 In fact, we have so much freedom to indulge our whims, and we have so many desires that now what we do in our culture is we plunge deep into the recesses of our subconscious, and we bring to the surface just every degrading, perverse desire we can find, and we present it to the world, and we fight for the right to indulge it.
00:14:03.980 Meanwhile, nobody's happy, nobody knows why we're even here, or what's the point of anything.
00:14:10.980 I'm not arguing against freedom here. This is not an argument against freedom. This is an argument for the thing that is deeper than freedom, and that thing fundamentally is truth, virtue, God, morality.
00:14:23.880 That's what we should be fighting for. And the problem is that the right is less and less concerned with fighting for those things, for truth, God, morality, virtue.
00:14:34.640 And so it only continues to lose the actual battle, the real battle, the battle for the thing that matters.
00:14:41.320 We're losing because we've surrendered it, and we won't even fight it anymore.
00:14:46.460 This is the left's primary objective is the destruction of truth and morality, the destruction of the moral fabric of our civilization.
00:14:59.500 That is the left's main primary objective. So if you are not fighting against them on that battlefield, fighting against their efforts to undermine the moral fabric of our civilization,
00:15:13.340 if you're not fighting them there, then you're not fighting them. You're really not doing anything.
00:15:17.800 You may be arguing with them on a million other topics, but if you will not dive in on that point and say, no, this is right, this is moral, we are fighting for this because of that, if you won't do that, then you're not fighting them.
00:15:33.220 You're not doing anything. In fact, I would say even you're a coward, and you're not really helping. 0.88
00:15:39.160 So how do Kanye West and Roseanne factor into this?
00:15:45.000 I mean, not in a very important way, but what I see here in the right's love affair with leftist celebrities who happen to like Donald Trump, I see a symptom of this problem.
00:15:54.160 The right will, you know, hold their affinity for Trump and maybe their affinity for free speech.
00:16:03.340 They'll hold those things up as the most important things, further marginalizing, further ignoring, further surrendering the battle for truth, virtue, morality, and God.
00:16:13.240 The right will embrace some figure who is fully a proponent of degeneracy and moral relativism and every other evil known to man, and the right will embrace them just because they said some positive stuff about Trump.
00:16:29.240 And on the other side, if there's a figure who is really fighting the battle against degeneracy and moral relativism and fighting for truth and fighting for those things, yet who is not sufficiently on board with Trump, well, they're going to be alienated and exiled.
00:16:49.580 That's what we've done.
00:16:51.300 We'll kick people out.
00:16:52.560 I mean, they could be engaged just down in the trenches on this central battlefield here.
00:16:59.900 But if they're not saying the right things about Trump, we say, get out.
00:17:03.140 We don't want you.
00:17:04.940 So I think you see, we are not winning.
00:17:10.040 We've surrendered.
00:17:11.760 We've given up.
00:17:13.800 We've given up.
00:17:15.260 And that's what allows us to, you know, celebrate.
00:17:20.600 Because some celebrity likes Trump.
00:17:22.560 As if that will have any bearing whatsoever on the one thing that matters.
00:17:31.000 But it seems the one thing that matters doesn't really matter to us anymore.
00:17:36.120 And so what I see happening right now is it used to be you had the moral relativists, and then you had those on the other side who fought for objective morality and truth.
00:17:49.360 And now what I think is going to happen is you have just two factions who are both moral relativists fighting for domination and control.
00:17:59.080 Not fighting for truth or anything, not fighting for anything beyond that, but just fighting for domination and control of the culture so that their brand, their variety of relativism may be supreme.
00:18:13.380 I don't see any kind of real victory in that, personally.
00:18:18.160 So I hate to be a party pooper, but there it is.
00:18:20.720 Thanks for listening, everybody.
00:18:22.780 I'll talk to you tomorrow.
00:18:23.420 I'll talk to you tomorrow.