The Matt Walsh Show - Ep. 214 - The Victimization Flow Chart

00:00:00.180 Today on the Matt Walsh Show, why are Democrats reluctant to condemn anti-Semitism?

00:00:05.380 Well, it all has to do with the left's victimization flowchart, their equation of victimization.

00:00:12.160 And it's all very complicated, but we'll talk about that today, try to sort through it.

00:00:15.020 Also, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez thrives on false narratives, and she was pushing another one yesterday, a pretty absurd one. 1.00

00:00:21.420 We'll discuss that.

00:00:22.280 But finally, I'll answer some interesting emails from listeners tackling subjects like the draft, atheism, introversion.

00:00:30.460 So a lot of interesting stuff to talk about today on the Matt Walsh Show.

00:00:39.420 Well, today is the day, folks.

00:00:41.300 This is the day.

00:00:43.540 Captain Marvel is finally coming out.

00:00:46.500 I've been waiting for this moment.

00:00:48.460 I've been waiting for this moment my whole life, actually.

00:00:52.280 Captain Marvel is without question, and I can say this as someone who has not seen it and never will,

00:00:59.420 but it is without question the most significant human achievement of the last 2,000 years at least, aside from Black Panther.

00:01:07.720 So it's, well, Black Panther and Moonlight, and then it's third.

00:01:11.580 It's the third most significant human achievement in 2,000 years, and that's pretty good.

00:01:15.980 I can't wait to not see it.

00:01:17.240 By the way, my favorite genre of tweet, speaking of Captain Marvel, my favorite genre of tweet is the one where people invent conversations that they had with their woke kids.

00:01:32.500 So you see this on Facebook sometimes, too, where someone will make up this conversation that they had with their very enlightened, you know, 5-year-old or 8-year-old.

00:01:43.780 I don't know exactly why people do this, but you see it all the time.

00:01:47.700 And it's not meant to be, it's hilarious, but it's not meant to be hilarious.

00:01:50.640 Like, we're actually supposed to believe that the conversation happened.

00:01:54.040 So here's one that someone just posted.

00:01:56.500 I just saw this.

00:01:57.380 A guy named Kasim Rashid tweeted this.

00:02:01.920 Verified account on Twitter.

00:02:03.180 Must be an important person.

00:02:04.840 This is a conversation he claims that he had with his 10-year-old son.

00:02:08.260 So, 10-year-old son.

00:02:09.760 All these Marvel movies, this is the first one with a female lead.

00:02:14.040 Me.

00:02:14.680 Yep.

00:02:14.960 10-year-old, shaking my head.

00:02:18.560 I wish women didn't have to wait till 1920 to vote.

00:02:22.100 Me.

00:02:22.680 Why?

00:02:23.860 10-year-old.

00:02:24.740 I bet if they could vote sooner, we'd have more women superhero leads by now. 1.00

00:02:29.600 And then him with a mind-blown emoji.

00:02:33.040 My favorite part of that made-up conversation where a 10-year-old connects Captain Marvel to women's suffrage,

00:02:41.220 my favorite thing is that he claims that the 10-year-old actually said SMH, shaking my head.

00:02:48.520 He actually said it.

00:02:49.920 Now, my kid's not a 10-year-old, but is that how 10-year-olds speak now?

00:02:54.040 Are they actually shaking my head?

00:02:56.320 Are they narrating what they're doing?

00:02:58.420 Maybe they do.

00:02:59.300 I don't know.

00:02:59.640 Who knows?

00:03:00.560 All right.

00:03:00.880 So the House yesterday passed a resolution condemning hatred.

00:03:10.740 What is the point of such a resolution?

00:03:14.920 Well, there is no point.

00:03:15.820 There was a point to it originally, but that point was lost.

00:03:19.620 So originally, it was supposed to be a resolution condemning specifically anti-Semitism and even more specifically,

00:03:27.520 the anti-Semitism of Ilhan Omar, the freshman Democratic representative who seems to have a real problem with Jews.

00:03:37.200 But Democrats or fellow Democrats didn't want to condemn the views of a Muslim woman.

00:03:42.700 So instead, the resolution ended up, and this is just such a perfect illustration of the nature of politics these days and especially of the Democrat Party.

00:03:54.000 So originally, it was supposed to be a resolution condemning Ilhan Omar's anti-Semitism.

00:03:59.480 But then it became a resolution condemning all kinds of hatred.

00:04:06.240 So this is what the actual language says.

00:04:08.380 It condemns the hatred of, quote, African-Americans, Native Americans, other people of color, Jews, Muslims, Hindus, Sikhs, immigrants, and others.

00:04:18.540 They just throw them all in there, you know, throw in the whole, the whole, the whole kit and caboodle.

00:04:25.380 But it didn't mention Omar by name.

00:04:27.060 In fact, Omar celebrated the resolution pretending that it was a big win for her.

00:04:31.480 You know, she came out and said, finally, we passed this resolution condemning hatred because I, the hatred is, is, is, I hate hatred myself.

00:04:40.860 When originally it was supposed to be a resolution condemning her specifically.

00:04:44.060 And she knows that, but she's trying to turn it into a big win for her.

00:04:48.180 Now, there are some people who, who are, who seem to be confused about why the Democrats would be so hesitant

00:04:54.840 to simply come out and, and register officially their disapproval of Omar's comments about Jews.

00:05:02.060 It seems like, seems like a pretty easy thing to do.

00:05:07.260 Especially when, and this is, I think the thing that confuses people is that most Jewish Americans are Democrats.

00:05:15.140 So you're, it's, it's, it's not like, um, they would be defending some demographic that isn't part of their constituency,

00:05:25.580 because of course they would never do that.

00:05:27.620 But the American Jews are, are in their constituency, yet they won't, they don't want to come out and do it. 1.00

00:05:34.300 And why is that?

00:05:35.520 Well, this becomes less confusing.

00:05:38.940 If you understand the victimization flow chart.

00:05:43.680 Okay. Now in the past, I've talked about this before.

00:05:46.140 In the past, I have called it, and I think I've contributed to some confusion, unfortunately,

00:05:51.060 because in the past I've called it the, the victimhood pyramid.

00:05:55.960 But I think that terminology is a little bit confusing.

00:05:59.100 It's really a flow chart.

00:06:00.820 Okay.

00:06:01.500 On the left, they have a flow chart of victimization.

00:06:05.540 So not so much of victimhood, but of victimization.

00:06:09.220 Um, literally charting the flow of victimization from one group to another.

00:06:14.740 So it goes like this.

00:06:15.680 All right.

00:06:16.620 Uh, so just, just, just imagine this in your mind.

00:06:19.460 Uh, first you have white men.

00:06:22.320 Okay.

00:06:23.040 And then the victimization flows to white women and then non-white men and then non-white women 0.87

00:06:31.740 and then gay men and then lesbian women and then transgenders. 0.90

00:06:37.480 Now the flow of victimization starts with white men, uh, which means that they victimize everyone. 0.94

00:06:45.420 They cannot be victimized by anyone and they victimize everyone. 0.74

00:06:50.000 And then on the other hand, and you have, uh, transgenders who are victimized by everyone

00:06:54.440 and can themselves victimize no one.

00:06:56.920 So think of it like a waterfall.

00:06:58.400 It can never be reversed.

00:06:59.700 You got white men at the top, the oppression, the persecution, the victimhood, uh, victimization,

00:07:04.260 it all flows down and you can never reverse the flow ever.

00:07:09.380 Um, it always goes, it's, it is a one way street.

00:07:13.760 It can never go the other way, which means that, uh, white, you know, as I said, white 0.97

00:07:19.880 men cannot be victimized by anyone. 0.97

00:07:22.480 White women cannot be victimized by nine, by non-white women. 0.99

00:07:26.200 Uh, black men cannot be victimized by gay men. 0.99

00:07:29.740 Uh, it, it always goes, goes the other way. 0.99

00:07:31.960 Right now.

00:07:34.260 So in this chart, uh, Jews are counted as white for the purposes of the oppression Olympics 0.70

00:07:43.240 and for the left's, uh, victimhood equations, they're going to basically count Jews as white,

00:07:49.620 which means that if you're a Jewish man, then you get lumped in with a white man.

00:07:54.640 And, uh, and that's what you are.

00:07:56.360 So you're in that category and it's just, you can't, according to the left's way of looking

00:08:01.780 at things, you, you can't be a victim, uh, of, of, of bigotry.

00:08:08.940 Ilhan Omar as a non-white woman is several steps away on the flow chart from, especially 0.59

00:08:16.720 a Jewish man, uh, from the left's point of view.

00:08:19.920 And so she can't really be guilty of bigotry against Jews.

00:08:24.320 That's what it comes down to.

00:08:25.600 She, she, it just cannot happen.

00:08:28.040 And I'm not making this up, but this is not me just being flippant.

00:08:32.040 And well, it is also me being flipped, but, but it's not just that this is, this is really

00:08:36.500 what the left, this is what they teach in college.

00:08:38.760 You send your kid to college.

00:08:40.120 If you're spending it, you know, a hundred thousand dollars to send your kid to college.

00:08:43.020 This is what he's learning.

00:08:45.380 Okay.

00:08:45.500 This is what you're paying for him to learn.

00:08:47.740 You know what?

00:08:48.320 Give me the $100,000 and I'll tell you a kid about this.

00:08:51.440 Let me, I can brainwash your kid into leftist, um, into leftist orthodoxy.

00:08:56.720 If you want, if you give me a hundred thousand, I would do that for you.

00:08:59.160 Uh, because you know what?

00:09:00.460 I'll do it for 50 grand.

00:09:03.740 So only now if, when they teach it in college, they don't teach it as a victimization flow chart.

00:09:10.280 They would talk about it in terms of privilege.

00:09:13.160 All right.

00:09:13.600 So what they would say is that white men are the most privileged.

00:09:18.340 And then it goes on from there.

00:09:21.020 And each person, if you, each person with more privilege cannot be victimized by someone with

00:09:27.420 less this, yeah, this is literally what they teach.

00:09:31.880 White men have all the privilege. 0.86

00:09:33.800 And so they cannot be victims of bigotry.

00:09:37.660 They can be victims of, you know, of, in, in, in other senses, they can be the victim

00:09:45.280 of a carjacking or something.

00:09:48.100 Um, but they cannot be, uh, it's impossible to be racist against them.

00:09:54.360 It's impossible to be sexist against them.

00:09:56.280 It's impossible to be bigoted against them.

00:09:57.780 Impossible.

00:09:58.340 That's what they say.

00:09:58.940 Um, so now this gets a little bit more complicated because you might point out that Muslims are

00:10:08.060 rarely condemned for homophobia.

00:10:10.640 So doesn't that put them at the end of the victim flow chart as the victimiest victims

00:10:16.120 of all?

00:10:17.440 Um, instead of, as I, and I put transgenders at the, at, at the end of it, but wouldn't 0.98

00:10:21.840 it actually be Muslims because it seems like no matter, you know, they don't, they're never 1.00

00:10:26.780 condemned for, um, for homophobia, even though you see, especially in Muslim countries, not 0.63

00:10:32.360 just homophobia, but you see violent, um, anti-gay, uh, bigotry.

00:10:39.660 So, well, this becomes kind of an intense debate.

00:10:42.880 This, this is a subject of intense debate among victimologists on the left.

00:10:46.820 And I think that there's a, there's a difference of opinion.

00:10:49.400 I'm not going to wade into it.

00:10:50.560 I'm not an expert on this.

00:10:52.200 Uh, so I can't really, I can't decree on that, except I will say that I think, I think the

00:10:57.080 reluctance to condemn Muslims, uh, especially when it comes to the anti-gay stuff, that that's

00:11:03.320 more about the left's determination to keep the homophobia claims focused on white Christians.

00:11:10.280 So it's, that's really what it's about.

00:11:12.560 It's, it's not that they categorically refuse to condemn homophobia, uh, in the Muslim world.

00:11:20.220 It's just more that if they're going to talk about homophobia, they want to talk about the 0.54

00:11:24.840 ultimate villains who are white Christians. 0.96

00:11:27.560 If white Christians didn't exist, uh, if all white Christians were, were to evaporate, which 0.96

00:11:35.420 I'm sure would be a, um, a reason for, for, for great celebration among many on the left, 0.86

00:11:42.340 if that were to happen, then I think maybe they would, maybe, maybe then they would find

00:11:46.460 some time to talk about all the gays being thrown off roofs and, uh, Saudi Arabia and 0.94

00:11:51.360 so on. 0.84

00:11:52.220 So that's, that's just how it works.

00:11:53.940 And the chart, the chart can change by the way.

00:11:56.920 All right.

00:11:57.200 Now white men will always be on that end of it, incapable of being victimized by anyone, 0.80

00:12:02.640 but the other positions can move around and shift.

00:12:05.280 And so there's, there's a little bit of jockeying.

00:12:07.060 There's a competition within, within these groups to be more victimized than the other.

00:12:12.000 And so, so that's, that's always going on.

00:12:14.060 It's very fascinating to watch that soap opera play out.

00:12:17.600 And so you see how from, from this, um, there are many forms of actual oppression and many

00:12:25.160 oppressed groups that just don't count.

00:12:28.680 Uh, they aren't noticed.

00:12:29.960 Jews are arguably, uh, the most oppressed group in history, period.

00:12:38.300 Yet that oppression doesn't really register on the left.

00:12:41.780 It doesn't really, they don't really count it.

00:12:44.540 Um, the Irish, uh, I mean, are, are also a very historically oppressed group.

00:12:51.680 There aren't many groups that have had a harder time of it than the Irish, but again, it doesn't

00:12:56.360 really count.

00:12:56.840 It doesn't register.

00:12:57.620 They don't really count that because their skin color is, uh, just way too light. 1.00

00:13:04.220 There, there are, in fact, there are, there are whole historical events and eras that have

00:13:11.180 to be wiped from the history books because they so contradict the victimization flow chart.

00:13:16.640 The Barbary slave trade, for instance, where 200, for 200 years, um, hundreds of thousands of white

00:13:22.840 Europeans were kidnapped, bought and sold as slaves by Africans. 1.00

00:13:27.860 And that whole 200 year slice of history has been erased.

00:13:31.180 They don't talk about it in school.

00:13:32.320 You're not going to find it in the history books because it is such a complete contradiction of the

00:13:37.400 victim narrative.

00:13:38.120 And so they can't, they cannot talk about it.

00:13:40.580 They have to, they have nothing they can say about it.

00:13:42.660 They have to pretend it never happened.

00:13:44.580 And, uh, that's basically how intersectionality works.

00:13:47.600 And it requires you to make all of these omissions and to censor this and to forget about that.

00:13:54.440 And it, it, it becomes very, very confused.

00:13:56.960 And it's why it's best not to adopt that mentality.

00:14:05.140 And, um, instead to just, instead of having this, uh, complicated ideology of victimhood to

00:14:14.960 look at things on a case-by-case basis.

00:14:19.600 All right, let's see.

00:14:22.080 Um, okay.

00:14:24.940 I wanted to, I wanted to mention this.

00:14:26.040 This is kind of a comparatively small and petty thing, but I think it's, it's worth noting.

00:14:32.220 Um, it's, it's pettiness is what makes it so revealing and therefore worth noting.

00:14:39.960 There was a, there was something that happened yesterday that I thought was a very revealing

00:14:43.840 moment.

00:14:44.520 Okay.

00:14:45.040 So the, the far left, there's a website called raw story.

00:14:50.560 It's a far left website.

00:14:51.980 And it, it, it, they very often publish misleading, dishonest articles about conservatives.

00:14:58.580 Um, and, uh, yesterday they published one of their typically dishonest hit pieces and they

00:15:05.440 were claiming that a conservative is boycotting, boycotting girl scout cookies because Alexandria

00:15:13.080 Ocasio-Cortez used to be a girl scout.

00:15:15.220 That was the claim.

00:15:16.160 And that's the claim that they make right in the headline.

00:15:18.380 They say the headline is from raw story.

00:15:20.760 The headline is conservative calls for cookie boycott because AOC used to be a girl scout.

00:15:28.080 Now the conservative is a columnist for a world net daily.

00:15:32.000 And her name is a Jane Chastain.

00:15:34.140 If you actually take a brief look at her piece that is being referred to here on, uh, on world

00:15:41.160 net daily, it, you see that the raw story headline and the article is a rather predictable

00:15:47.620 distortion.

00:15:48.360 In truth, um, what the, what the author is saying is that she's not going to be buying

00:15:53.060 the cookies and she never calls for a boycott.

00:15:55.120 She never uses the word boycott or calls for everybody to stop by.

00:15:58.500 She just says she's not going to buy the cookies because of the overall political and ideological

00:16:04.100 shift that the girl scouts have undergone over the past several years.

00:16:08.700 And she's, this is, it's, it's very true.

00:16:12.180 She, she accuses the organization correctly of pushing God and country and those values

00:16:17.880 to the backseat in favor of left-wing causes and ideas.

00:16:21.840 And she cites, for example, the girl scouts, well-known affiliation with Planned Parenthood.

00:16:25.300 We talked about that yesterday.

00:16:26.020 Um, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is, is mentioned, uh, only because the girl scouts celebrated

00:16:33.000 her election on their website.

00:16:34.500 So this author uses that as an example of, of, uh, the girl scouts political bias.

00:16:41.260 And then at one point she says, you know, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez was a girl scout and, uh, she,

00:16:49.080 Cortez represents sort of the ideological shift of the girl scouts.

00:16:54.260 And so if you don't want your daughter to end up like her and have her values, then don't

00:16:58.840 send her into the girl scouts. 0.95

00:17:00.340 Um, but she never calls for, she never calls for a boycott at all.

00:17:05.860 And she certainly doesn't call for a boy, for a boycott because Cortez used to be a girl 0.97

00:17:11.400 scout.

00:17:11.700 That's not at all what happened.

00:17:13.100 So it's a dishonest headline in a leftist online rag.

00:17:19.260 And, uh, certainly not the first, won't be the last in and of itself, not a big deal.

00:17:22.580 If it weren't for the fact that Cortez herself seized on that headline, that lie, and she

00:17:30.140 amplified it, which is what she does all the time. 0.86

00:17:31.980 So Cortez posted a screenshot of Raw Story's headline on Twitter with her own snappy little

00:17:40.800 caption where, you know, she mocks conservatives for boycotting, uh, Girl Scout cookies for such 0.98

00:17:47.240 a dumb reason. 0.58

00:17:48.340 And her followers, of course, jumped on the bandwagon. 1.00

00:17:51.000 They were heaping scorn on all the stupid conservatives who are boycotting the Girl Scouts 1.00

00:17:56.100 for such a stupid reason. 1.00

00:17:58.320 Meanwhile, in realityville, no conservative is boycotting anything for that reason. 0.99

00:18:04.120 Nobody is saying we're going to boycott this or that organization because Alexandria Ocasio

00:18:09.000 Cortez used to be in it.

00:18:10.860 Nobody is saying that.

00:18:13.120 Um, but notice the effort on Cortez's part, because the most natural thing would be if you

00:18:22.820 see an article online and there's something about it that you want to share, what do you

00:18:26.320 do?

00:18:26.520 You just share the article.

00:18:28.660 That would be the most natural thing.

00:18:30.220 But notice how instead she takes a screenshot of the article's headline and then crops it

00:18:36.700 down, you know, takes that little bit of effort and posts the screenshot to Twitter.

00:18:40.780 Why did she do that rather than just posting the article? 0.99

00:18:42.720 Because she knows that the headline is dishonest.

00:18:45.900 And if you're able to actually click on the headline and go read the article, you're going to quickly

00:18:49.540 discover that it's dishonest and she doesn't want anyone to do that. 0.86

00:18:52.520 So instead, she just put the screenshot there, knowing that most people aren't going to take

00:18:57.160 the effort to actually go to Google and investigate.

00:18:59.700 They're just going to take it at its, at its word.

00:19:02.240 Um, like I said, it's a smetty, uh, a, a small petty thing, um, or smetty is what I just

00:19:10.500 combined.

00:19:11.280 That's a small and petty.

00:19:12.600 Uh, it is a small petty thing, but this is the small pettiness that Alexandria Ocasio Cortez

00:19:21.760 thrives on this kind of thing.

00:19:25.060 She's obsessed with the idea that conservatives are, are, are constantly attacking her for 0.99

00:19:31.760 dumb reasons. 0.88

00:19:32.500 Uh, she's constantly looking for opportunities to make herself into the victim of unfair, 1.00

00:19:39.060 ridiculous attacks by conservatives. 0.89

00:19:42.080 And in, in almost every case, not every case, but in almost every case, the attacks are either 0.98

00:19:48.080 absurdly exaggerated or invented out of whole cloth, but she's always looking for this to

00:19:53.900 do this.

00:19:54.820 Uh, and this is another case where she's, she's promoting this lie to try to make conservatives 0.98

00:20:01.940 look stupid and also to, to, uh, continue the narrative that everyone's talking about her 0.99

00:20:08.980 and it's all about her. 1.00

00:20:10.960 So to put it more directly, Cortez is a lying propagandist. 0.92

00:20:15.480 Uh, she's not the first of that type to walk the halls of Congress. 1.00

00:20:18.460 She won't be the last, but her lies and propaganda tend to be more damaging than usual because of 0.99

00:20:23.240 her platform and because she so successfully plays the kind of, uh, fun, innocent, idealist, 0.90

00:20:30.760 unfairly maligned by petty right-wing lunatics card.

00:20:33.900 That's the card that she's always playing and she plays it well and dishonestly. 0.85

00:20:38.780 And, uh, and so it's very effective.

00:20:41.120 And in the process, all she's doing is creating more division, sowing more suspicion and contempt

00:20:46.320 into the culture, into a culture that has more than enough of those things already.

00:20:50.520 And, and so that's just the latest example.

00:20:53.160 And I found it to be, yeah, I just found it to be contemptible.

00:20:57.680 And the fact that it's such a small thing is what makes it even more contemptible.

00:21:02.360 It's like, you couldn't have really, you had to latch onto that.

00:21:06.080 You couldn't have just let that go.

00:21:08.320 You saw your name in a headline and it was attached to this.

00:21:11.160 So you had to put it out there.

00:21:12.360 You couldn't, you couldn't have moved on from that.

00:21:17.300 All right.

00:21:18.080 Um, let's start.

00:21:20.520 Answering emails a little bit earlier, because there are a few good ones that I want to have

00:21:23.360 a chance to, to get into Matt wall show at gmail.com, Matt wall show at gmail.com.

00:21:27.740 So we'll go to the inbox.

00:21:29.020 Uh, this is from Jesse.

00:21:32.160 He says, Matt, I listened to your show from a few weeks ago, a few days ago, when a listener

00:21:36.740 asked about your opinion about women being drafted.

00:21:40.220 I agree with both of your opinions.

00:21:41.900 However, it struck a chord with me when you said, I'm paraphrasing that since he had lived

00:21:46.180 through it and is an expert, his opinion is what matters, not mine.

00:21:49.800 Why does that same response not ring true for kids who've lived through, say, say, for example,

00:21:54.340 a school shooting and want to abolish the second amendment because they're now experts since

00:21:58.380 they've lived through it.

00:21:59.600 I should be asking myself the same question because these kids are not experts.

00:22:02.800 What say you?

00:22:03.640 Um, yeah, that's an interesting question.

00:22:06.320 This is actually one of my, one of my many pet peeves is when people act like personal

00:22:10.860 experience automatically confers special knowledge or wisdom and makes them an authority on a certain

00:22:16.800 subject.

00:22:17.640 Um, experience does not always confer knowledge or, or, or, you know, wisdom.

00:22:23.560 Um, now in the case of the draft, yeah, that was an email from someone who fought on the front

00:22:29.400 lines was a veteran and was of the opinion of the same opinion of, of almost every veteran

00:22:36.040 I've spoke, I've, I've ever spoken to about, about this issue.

00:22:38.560 His opinion was we should be drafting women and we shouldn't have women, um, on the front 0.90

00:22:43.340 lines.

00:22:44.160 Now, in that case, I said his, his experience does make him an authority because I think

00:22:52.320 being on the front lines of combat does give you, um, special relevant knowledge when it

00:22:57.460 comes to this issue.

00:22:58.140 You're going, you're going to know more about modern combat, how it works, uh, the practical

00:23:04.140 considerations, the psychological effects, et cetera.

00:23:08.040 And, uh, and so if a bunch of people who've all had that experience are all saying, no,

00:23:13.880 we shouldn't draft women. 1.00

00:23:14.900 No, we shouldn't have women on the front lines of combat. 1.00

00:23:17.640 Then I think that carries a lot of weight because yeah, if you've, that's one of those things

00:23:22.600 where if you've done it, then you're, you are going to know a thing or two about it and

00:23:27.820 you're probably going to know more than people who've never been there.

00:23:32.060 Um, that doesn't end the conversation.

00:23:36.420 Their word is not the first, last, and only word that anyone can speak.

00:23:40.480 Everyone else has a right to contribute to the discussion and you could have plenty of

00:23:44.360 valuable things to contribute to that discussion, even if you've never been to war.

00:23:47.520 But I think this is a case where experience, because of the nature of the experience does

00:23:52.660 involve knowledge, uh, creates, confers knowledge, right?

00:23:56.700 On the other hand, being in the proximity of a school shooting does not confer knowledge

00:24:04.160 about the second amendment, uh, or about constitutional law or about guns or about anything really,

00:24:10.540 except the emotional impact and psychological, personal trauma of being involved in something

00:24:15.940 like that.

00:24:16.540 And, and that's, uh, so that is a perspective that's, uh, it's, it's a valuable perspective,

00:24:21.460 but, uh, but it's not a perspective that really has anything to do with gun rights.

00:24:27.820 Um, it's a non sequitur to say, it's a non sequitur to say, well, their school was shut up.

00:24:37.480 Therefore, we should listen to them about the second amendment.

00:24:41.560 Um, no, being in war requires knowledge about war.

00:24:47.880 Being involved in a school shooting does not require any knowledge about anything.

00:24:51.120 It's something that happens to you.

00:24:52.820 Um, tragically in much the same way that, uh, getting cancer doesn't make you a doctor.

00:25:00.760 Um, but as I said, this is something people do a lot where they try to shut down a conversation

00:25:07.780 by saying, oh yeah, well, I've been through this.

00:25:10.380 Have you been through it?

00:25:12.020 Listen to my experience.

00:25:15.520 And often I would say most of the time their personal experience doesn't really make their

00:25:21.880 opinion more credible at all.

00:25:23.420 Sometimes it makes it, sometimes it actually can arguably make it in some ways less credible.

00:25:30.060 Like for example, when, when, when we've had debates about ADHD, um, and I make certain

00:25:37.700 philosophical points about the human condition, the sort of flawed methodology involved in calling

00:25:42.700 something a disorder.

00:25:44.040 Um, I make points about neuroscience and so on.

00:25:46.660 I'm not an expert in any of those things, but I'm making points about them.

00:25:49.080 I can study them and think about them just the same as anyone can.

00:25:53.080 And, um, and I always get people, uh, in fact, the conversation always, every time, always

00:25:59.500 devolves into people shouting at me that, well, my son has ADHD and you don't know what you're

00:26:04.540 talking about.

00:26:04.880 I've been through it.

00:26:05.920 You don't know what it's like.

00:26:09.140 Okay.

00:26:10.300 What does that have to do with the objective realities we're discussing?

00:26:13.220 That doesn't make me wrong.

00:26:14.320 That it doesn't make you right just because your son has ADHD does not make you an expert.

00:26:21.960 Um, it simply doesn't.

00:26:24.220 And in fact, it could make you, it, it could cloud your ability to judge this objectively

00:26:31.580 because if you, if your kid has it and you've already got them on drugs, well, then now you've

00:26:35.960 got a, an incentive to, to justify the decision you've already made.

00:26:40.640 So there's going to be a bias.

00:26:41.760 There doesn't mean that we shouldn't listen to your perspective.

00:26:43.480 I'm not saying that.

00:26:44.000 I'm just saying that there's also a clear bias that you have now as well.

00:26:47.820 So whatever, whatever knowledge your experience might confer, I think it's sort of canceled

00:26:52.500 out by the bias that you have in trying to justify decisions you've already made.

00:26:58.160 Um, so, you know, another one is talking about abortion and someone says, well, you've never

00:27:03.500 had an unwanted pregnancy.

00:27:04.700 You don't know what it's like.

00:27:05.880 Again, not relevant.

00:27:07.040 It's simply not that that has nothing to do with the objective issues we're discussing.

00:27:11.980 So bringing up your person, this is why I don't like it is that when people do it in

00:27:15.980 many cases, um, what it really amounts to nothing more than emotional blackmail.

00:27:21.460 They're trying to shut that. 0.91

00:27:22.980 It's, it is not about enhancing the discussion or advancing the discussion.

00:27:26.520 It's about shutting it down and using their own personal issues as a kind of sledgehammer

00:27:32.340 to bludgeon everyone with and to say, you're not allowed to talk about this.

00:27:36.540 I'm the one who's been through it.

00:27:38.080 I have suffered.

00:27:39.120 So your opinion doesn't count.

00:27:42.000 And I really, I, I, I just, I have come so much to, uh, dislike that strategy.

00:27:50.600 I really do.

00:27:52.160 And I, I, I, again, there are exceptions, but I, I, I just, I can't stand it.

00:27:57.280 Anytime there are people that you can't, anytime you try to have a conversation about anything,

00:28:01.520 there's always someone who ruins it by getting into the, getting into some emotional, personal

00:28:06.260 story that it doesn't, it doesn't advance the discussion.

00:28:10.580 All it means is that now the rest of us can't be honest about our opinions anymore because

00:28:14.200 you have emotionally blackmailed us and said that, well, just so you know, guys, if you're

00:28:18.840 honest about your opinions, you're going to hurt my feelings because here's my personal

00:28:21.320 experience.

00:28:22.640 Uh, I really, I, I don't like it.

00:28:25.080 Um, all right.

00:28:28.800 From Connor, he says, Matt, I think, uh, hi Matt.

00:28:32.000 I think in your show yesterday, you confused atheism with agnosticism.

00:28:35.800 You said that atheism doesn't require faith because atheism is just the lack of faith.

00:28:41.300 Um, that's not correct.

00:28:43.320 Agnosticism is a lack of belief.

00:28:45.280 I don't know.

00:28:46.260 Atheism is a belief that God does not exist.

00:28:49.940 Hope this helps clear things up.

00:28:52.380 Uh, hi Connor.

00:28:54.060 I think you're mistaken actually.

00:28:56.360 And this is a common misunderstanding that people have.

00:28:59.520 Um, I, and I'm in the weird position now of, it's almost like I'm defending atheism or something.

00:29:06.380 I'm not defending atheism.

00:29:07.460 What I'm doing is I'm trying to define our terms.

00:29:09.900 I think it's important to define our terms, to know what we're dealing with.

00:29:13.500 Um, so, um, most people think that agnosticism is, as you said, I don't know.

00:29:21.000 And atheism is, I know that God doesn't exist.

00:29:24.420 That's not really true.

00:29:25.880 And if you listen, um, to pretty much any sophisticated, thoughtful, intelligent atheist,

00:29:32.300 they will absolutely not say, I know God doesn't exist.

00:29:36.700 Uh, they're not going to say that.

00:29:38.940 They're going to be more careful than that.

00:29:42.040 Um, they might say in regards to a particular, uh, theological system or, or particular God,

00:29:51.680 they might say, I know that God doesn't exist.

00:29:54.020 But, again, these are the thoughtful, sophisticated, I'm not talking about the atheists in a comment

00:29:59.460 section on YouTube.

00:30:00.240 I'm talking about the, you know, the ones, the Sam Harris's of the world.

00:30:04.760 Um, they are, so they might say it about, uh, about, about a particular theological system.

00:30:12.060 Um, they're not going to say it about the kind of general concept of God, to include the deistic concept

00:30:20.460 of a sort of, uh, first mover who's got everything going and is now somewhere not paying attention, right?

00:30:30.900 So, um, now they may, they may think that or feel that way, that they know that God doesn't exist,

00:30:36.200 but that's not the way they formulate their argument.

00:30:38.700 They're going to speak in terms of probabilities.

00:30:40.540 And so they're going to say something like, based on current evidence, it seems improbable

00:30:45.360 that God exists, or something along those lines.

00:30:47.940 Now, again, I, I think they're probably being more cautious in their wording of the argument

00:30:51.880 than they actually are in their convictions inside their heads.

00:30:54.840 But we can only engage with the arguments as they're presented, not as we think the presenter

00:30:59.940 really means them, which is, which is the point that I made about people do that to us,

00:31:05.460 as theists, atheists do that to us all the time, where they, um, they act like the claim 0.91

00:31:11.980 we're making is that God is a bearded man in the sky, um, who is sitting up there with

00:31:19.060 his big staff or whatever on a, on a, on a literal, literal throne in the clouds looking

00:31:23.380 down on us.

00:31:23.900 And so that's the argument that they often engage with, but that's, that's, that's not

00:31:29.100 the argument that a sophisticated, intelligent, thoughtful Christian or theist makes.

00:31:35.420 There may be some more immature Christians who do think of God in those terms, but as

00:31:42.860 an atheist, your responsibility is to engage with the sophisticated arguments that your opponents

00:31:50.080 are actually making, not the argument that you think they're thinking, right?

00:31:54.200 So I, I, I think on both sides, that's what we have to do.

00:31:56.900 So here's how it really breaks down.

00:31:58.500 Eighth, um, agnosticism has that root, uh, gnosis or, or gnostic, right?

00:32:04.740 So think of the ancient gnostics, the Christian gnostics who believe that spiritual liberation

00:32:09.920 was attained through divine knowledge, not through atonement, but through knowledge.

00:32:15.220 That's what they believe.

00:32:15.980 So, um, and there's still strands of, uh, of gnosticism around today.

00:32:21.320 I mean, uh, uh, uh, I have a friend who's a Kabbalist and, you know, he, I talked to

00:32:26.780 him about, it's not, it's not Christian.

00:32:28.280 It's more of a, that's an offshoot of Judaism.

00:32:31.220 But, and, uh, and I, I've talked to him about Kabbalism many times and, uh, I've always

00:32:35.200 tried to pin it down with him.

00:32:36.540 Like, what is this exactly?

00:32:37.440 What are you saying?

00:32:37.980 Is it pantheistic?

00:32:39.060 Is it, what is it?

00:32:40.700 Um, but as I've studied more about gnosticism, I've realized that, oh, okay, he's an, he's a

00:32:44.420 gnostic is what he is. 0.55

00:32:45.140 Anyway, so it's, so, uh, gnosticism is all about knowledge, right?

00:32:51.060 Gnosis, knowledge, gnosis means knowledge.

00:32:53.100 A true agnostic believes not only that God, God's existence is unknown, but this is what 0.79

00:33:00.800 a real agnostic, okay, believes that God's existence is unknowable.

00:33:06.060 It cannot be known.

00:33:08.380 It is outside of our comprehension.

00:33:10.340 We cannot know it.

00:33:11.160 So in that way, agnosticism is actually more dogmatic than atheism in a sense.

00:33:17.540 An atheist, on the other hand, is a non-theist.

00:33:20.400 That is the literal definition of the term, a non-theist, someone who is not atheist.

00:33:25.380 That's what an atheist is.

00:33:27.160 An atheist, um, doesn't believe in theism, is not a theist.

00:33:31.820 There is no positive truth claim necessarily involved in atheism.

00:33:38.660 Now, every atheism does make positive truth claims, but just the, the generic form of atheism

00:33:45.900 does not make a claim.

00:33:47.280 It rejects a claim.

00:33:48.100 Um, so an atheist is, is, is seeking to shift the burden of proof back to the theist saying,

00:33:55.880 you simply haven't proven your, your assertion.

00:33:58.460 Therefore, I don't believe it, right?

00:34:01.200 The common, uh, thing that you hear from atheists all the time is they'll say that, uh, well,

00:34:05.860 you know, referring to atheism, it's like, it's like calling someone a non-stamp collector.

00:34:11.180 You know, it's like defining someone by a hobby they don't have.

00:34:17.280 And, you know, I think that that's, that's a reductive and oversimplifying on their part.

00:34:23.840 But again, just the absolute generic form of atheism, that is kind of what it is.

00:34:29.520 It's, it's, it is a not, it is a non.

00:34:32.280 Um, so it's all about the nature of knowledge.

00:34:35.380 It's kind of an epistemological discussion, uh, ultimately.

00:34:38.380 So an agnostic says, we cannot know of God.

00:34:41.980 A theist says, we do know of God.

00:34:44.780 An atheist says, we don't know of God.

00:34:47.820 So you look at it like this, take a non-theological claim.

00:34:50.860 Um, say that I, say that I claimed that the universe is exactly 100 trillion light years across.

00:34:58.140 Okay.

00:34:59.020 The whole universe, let's say I said, is exactly 100 trillion light years across.

00:35:02.360 The atheist response to that claim is to say, I don't believe your assertion because

00:35:07.000 I don't think you have evidence for it.

00:35:08.620 And it seems like you made it up.

00:35:09.840 Maybe you're right, but I don't, I, there's no reason to believe it because you don't have

00:35:13.780 sufficient reasoning for your belief.

00:35:15.520 The agnostic response is to say, nobody can ever know exactly how big the universe is.

00:35:20.120 It's simply outside of our scope of knowledge.

00:35:21.740 We'll never know.

00:35:22.880 Uh, and I have nothing else to say about it other than that.

00:35:25.460 The theist response is to affirm the claim.

00:35:27.440 Now, in that particular example of the size of the universe, I, I'm more of the agnostic.

00:35:31.920 I, I don't, I don't think we could ever know how big the universe really is.

00:35:34.680 Um, when it comes to God, I'm a theist because I think there is good evidence, good evidentiary

00:35:44.500 reasoning for believing, but more importantly, I also believe because, and this is where faith

00:35:49.860 comes in.

00:35:50.940 I believe because of the internal witness of the Holy Spirit, which is faith, um, and

00:35:55.960 which has, we must admit, no evidentiary value to anyone outside of myself.

00:36:01.200 So the fact that I have this internal conviction that I believe is granted from the Holy Spirit,

00:36:06.980 I can't give that to you.

00:36:09.620 I experience it within myself, which doesn't mean that it, that it, that it has no, um,

00:36:16.060 value in affirming a claim.

00:36:18.100 I believe that it does, but it isn't, it's internal.

00:36:21.300 Um, in such, in much the same way that my internal conviction about the love I have for my wife

00:36:27.960 is extremely evidentiary for me, but not for anyone else.

00:36:32.580 So for anyone else, uh, if I tell them that, uh, I love my wife and they ask for proof for evidence,

00:36:41.300 well, I cannot put them inside my head so that they, or inside my heart, my, my soul,

00:36:46.520 so that they can experience the love that I have for my wife, which is an experience more than an emotion.

00:36:53.880 Um, but I could provide some evidence.

00:36:56.360 I could show them that, okay, I've done this and that for my wife, but you know, I could,

00:36:59.800 I could show her the things that I could show this person, the things that I've done to prove it.

00:37:03.720 And so that is some good evidence that I love my wife, but it doesn't tell the whole story.

00:37:09.560 Um, because the whole story of love is not external.

00:37:13.280 It is external and internal.

00:37:17.760 And so I would be diminishing and cheapening love if I claimed that I could completely and totally prove it

00:37:24.360 through external things, because I would be removing the entire internal experience of love.

00:37:30.920 Um, and I think God who is love is like that in my view.

00:37:34.220 Uh, there's the external

00:37:35.880 indications, experience, evidence of God.

00:37:42.140 God, which I find to be compelling, uh, quite compelling.

00:37:46.760 But then there is also the internal experience, which is faith.

00:37:51.400 Um, and which is not something that we should be embarrassed by.

00:37:56.660 So that's where this all, this all came from.

00:37:58.320 This thing where Christians do where they say, oh, atheists have more faith than us. 0.77

00:38:02.900 Why are you treating faith like a dirty word?

00:38:04.900 Why are you, why are you embarrassed by it?

00:38:06.600 You shouldn't be.

00:38:07.120 No, they don't have more.

00:38:08.920 We have more faith than them.

00:38:10.140 Our view requires faith.

00:38:12.580 Theirs does not. 0.98

00:38:13.640 And that's okay.

00:38:14.740 If you think there's something wrong with that, then I, then I, it seems to me that

00:38:18.100 that's kind of a, you need to work that out.

00:38:21.800 That's a problem, right?

00:38:22.900 Because faith is a virtue.

00:38:25.500 Faith, hope, and love, right?

00:38:29.640 Um, so I, I, you know, I don't, I don't understand.

00:38:32.360 I don't understand why many Christians are dead set on this idea that atheists have to

00:38:37.940 have faith.

00:38:38.400 What's, why can't you admit they don't?

00:38:41.660 Unless you think that there's something wrong with faith.

00:38:44.600 Um, which in that case, why are you a Christian? 0.81

00:38:47.740 All right.

00:38:50.300 Um, finally from Maria says, hi, Matt, love the show.

00:38:53.520 I've been wanting to write to you about a show you did months ago about introversion.

00:38:57.760 It was such a huge help to me as an introvert myself.

00:39:00.280 I always feel very out of place in the world.

00:39:01.860 I was fascinated to find out that you are also an introvert because you're so outspoken.

00:39:06.040 And I know you go around giving speeches as well.

00:39:07.860 I could never do that as an introvert.

00:39:09.540 My question is, how did you overcome your introversion in order to do what you do for a living?

00:39:14.220 Um, Maria, thanks for the message.

00:39:18.080 You know, I, I didn't overcome it at all.

00:39:20.080 And I don't think of it as something that needs to be overcome.

00:39:22.980 Um, I think it's awesome that you're an introvert and I don't think you need to look at it as

00:39:28.040 something that you have to get past or overcome or whatever.

00:39:31.860 I, so I, I wouldn't look at it like that.

00:39:34.520 It's not like there's something wrong with you.

00:39:36.200 It's, there isn't something that needs to be fixed or changed because of this.

00:39:39.180 So introversion, as I said, in that show, I did, it's not the same thing as shyness.

00:39:47.100 You can, you can be a non shy introvert, just like you could be a shy extrovert.

00:39:54.160 Um, my wife is kind of like, my wife is a huge, my wife is a quintessential extrovert in every 0.99

00:40:02.500 sense, but she also has a certain shyness to her, which is, which is, which would, which 1.00

00:40:05.960 would shock anyone who, who, uh, anyone who doesn't know her very well will be shocked

00:40:10.360 by that to, to find out that she has a certain shyness to her, but she does in that she can

00:40:15.520 be apprehensive sometimes in a social situation.

00:40:19.940 But then once she gets into it, you know, she's a social butterfly and she's talking and

00:40:24.640 she, and she loves it and she, and she just enjoys the experience.

00:40:28.260 She's very energized by it.

00:40:29.820 Uh, but there is that little bit of sometimes apprehension leading into the situation.

00:40:34.120 Um, so, you know, I, I, I, I'm, I'm not shy at all.

00:40:40.620 I don't, I'm, I'm not, I, I, uh, not only can I get up in front of a crowd of people and

00:40:46.240 speak to them, but I enjoy it.

00:40:49.080 And in fact, the bigger the crowd is, the more I enjoy it.

00:40:52.240 I am more comfortable.

00:40:54.040 I've, I've spoken in front of a group of a thousand people.

00:40:56.720 I've spoken in front of a group of 10 people and I really prefer the thousand, the 1000, the

00:41:01.760 smaller groups make me less comfortable and the least comfortable, comfortable at all

00:41:05.440 of all for me is when I have to have an individual small talk conversation.

00:41:09.660 I would much prefer to be up in front of everybody and talking.

00:41:13.180 So that's not shyness.

00:41:14.700 That is because yeah, shyness is, you don't want to get on the stage.

00:41:18.000 Um, that's just introversion is what that is.

00:41:20.320 Being an introvert simply means that you feel energized by, um, not so much by small talk

00:41:26.940 and social interaction, but by time alone, um, time to yourself, you enjoy being in your

00:41:33.840 own head, thinking, contemplating, whatever.

00:41:37.740 This is definitely me.

00:41:39.000 Again, my wife is not like this. 1.00

00:41:40.380 She does like, you know, time to herself, but a lot of times she'll say, uh, you know,

00:41:44.360 can I get a break?

00:41:45.200 Can I get some time to myself?

00:41:46.300 And of course she needs that as well.

00:41:48.640 But then a lot of times she'll spend that time, uh, on the phone talking to her friend

00:41:52.580 or something.

00:41:52.880 She'll call up one of her, one of her girlfriends and talk on the phone.

00:41:56.040 And now to me, that's completely, I can't even, it's mind boggling to me.

00:42:00.880 Like you want time alone.

00:42:02.620 You want a break.

00:42:03.260 It's you're on the phone.

00:42:04.140 To me, being on the phone is the worst thing.

00:42:06.200 It's the most draining thing.

00:42:07.280 I hate talking on the phone.

00:42:09.200 Uh, but for her, that's what she enjoys. 0.87

00:42:11.240 So that's extrovert, introvert.

00:42:13.640 Um, as an introvert, it's draining to be in a social situation.

00:42:18.800 Doesn't mean you, you fear it.

00:42:20.400 Doesn't mean you hate it.

00:42:21.440 Um, but it is draining.

00:42:23.520 It zaps your energy and it's not where you feel the most at home and the most comfortable.

00:42:28.240 And, uh, and okay.

00:42:30.100 So that's, there's nothing wrong with that at all.

00:42:31.860 It's okay to be that way.

00:42:33.080 It's great to be that way.

00:42:34.380 Uh, you don't need to overcome it.

00:42:36.360 You don't need to change it or fix it.

00:42:38.780 The world needs introverts.

00:42:40.200 Okay.

00:42:40.520 The world needs, uh, I mean, we can't all be talking 24 seven, right?

00:42:44.400 So the world needs, I think the world needs both types.

00:42:47.920 Um, and just to make that point, I, I, I talk to people all the time.

00:42:52.900 It seems like it's a, it's a very common, uh, setup apparently to have introverts and extroverts

00:42:58.400 getting married.

00:42:59.140 And because then there's, you know, opposite attract and all that, but there's also, uh,

00:43:06.000 kind of the, uh, you know, you kind of get both, you get both, you get both bases sort

00:43:13.020 of covered in, in that way.

00:43:14.280 And so it, it, it, it works.

00:43:15.840 And I think it shows that we need that in society as well, even though I think society

00:43:19.140 is skewed to be more, um, accepting and encouraging of extroverts, which means that we are victims.

00:43:29.020 Okay.

00:43:29.520 I think we belong to, we should be on the victimhood flow chart somewhere.

00:43:34.040 We are persecuted.

00:43:35.900 All right.

00:43:36.560 Uh, thanks everybody for watching.

00:43:38.080 Thanks for listening.

00:43:39.240 And I'll talk to you next week.

00:43:41.160 Godspeed.

00:43:44.280 I'm Michael Knowles, host of the Michael Knowles show.

00:43:56.480 A federal judge rebukes special counsel, Robert Mueller and springs Manafort from life in the

00:44:01.140 clink.

00:44:01.500 Hide your kids, hide your wife. 1.00

00:44:02.940 We will analyze the Trump legacy 20 years down the road and how international women's day

00:44:08.080 destroyed the 20th century.

00:44:09.540 Check it out at dailywire.com.

The Matt Walsh Show - March 08, 2019

Ep. 214 - The Victimization Flow Chart

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