The Matt Walsh Show - Ep. 219 - Why Lowering The Voting Age Is A Terrible Idea

00:00:00.000 Today on The Matt Walsh Show, I will predict who will be the Democratic nominee for 2020.

00:00:05.080 I'll put on my Nostradamus hat and try to predict it.

00:00:08.380 And we will ask and answer the question, should 16-year-olds vote?

00:00:12.860 Also, I finally watched a classic of the Christian film genre, God's Not Dead,

00:00:18.940 after many people recommended it to me. 0.97

00:00:20.480 It was utter and total garbage, and it exemplified everything that's wrong with the Christian film industry. 1.00

00:00:25.940 And I'll explain why. All of that and other topics as well today on The Matt Walsh Show. 0.98

00:00:34.860 Okay, I'm not going to talk much about politics today, except to say, by the way, I hope you had a great weekend.

00:00:43.920 Nice to see you again. Okay, that's enough pleasantries.

00:00:46.900 I'm not going to talk much about politics, except to say that I think I can predict who is going to win

00:00:52.100 the Democratic primary, the Democratic nomination for 2020.

00:00:57.900 And I make this prediction not based on any polling data or anything like that.

00:01:02.560 I'm not even basing it on any qualities of the candidate, but just based on the fact that this is the candidate

00:01:09.180 that the other side, the Republicans, are obsessed with.

00:01:13.760 And that, of course, would be Beto O'Rourke.

00:01:15.660 As I pointed out many times, I think he's going to win the nomination because of this.

00:01:20.660 As I pointed out many times, and I'm sure I'll point out many more times in the future.

00:01:25.280 This is the way it works now. This is the pattern in modern politics.

00:01:29.760 Each side, the stars of each side are chosen by the other side.

00:01:36.800 The other side becomes obsessed with one of their personalities,

00:01:40.880 personalities, and then that person becomes an even more well-known and powerful figure because of it.

00:01:45.640 So the left basically made Donald Trump president by obsessing over him during the primaries.

00:01:53.320 He was the guy that got all the media attention, was getting all the attention from Republicans,

00:01:58.160 from Democrats. It was negative attention, but it was still attention.

00:02:03.320 And he became president.

00:02:04.560 The right turned Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez into the biggest star in politics right now 0.94

00:02:10.420 by obsessing over from day one.

00:02:13.380 Now, she's at the point now where we have to talk about her because she has all this influence and power. 1.00

00:02:19.260 So now it matters what she does and says.

00:02:23.540 But it wasn't like that at the beginning when she was just some unknown person running

00:02:27.560 for a congressional seat in New York.

00:02:30.360 But from the very beginning, when she first appeared on the scene,

00:02:35.140 the right just latched on to her and wouldn't stop talking about her.

00:02:38.540 They did the same thing with David Hogg, turned him into this big household name.

00:02:43.660 And so it goes.

00:02:45.160 And now we're doing it again with Beto O'Rourke.

00:02:48.640 No other Democratic candidate provokes quite so much focus and attention and hand-wringing

00:02:53.840 among conservatives, which gives O'Rourke a distinct advantage.

00:02:57.000 I mean, look at this tweet.

00:03:00.820 I think this is the moment, right?

00:03:02.560 This is the moment right here when I knew that O'Rourke was going to be the Democratic nominee.

00:03:08.240 It was when the GOP sent this tweet on Sunday.

00:03:11.340 Look at this.

00:03:12.940 So you've got, if you're listening on iTunes and you can't see it,

00:03:16.580 you've got, it's a picture of Beto's mugshot from his DUI arrest 20 years ago or whenever it was

00:03:23.820 with a little leprechaun hat photoshopped onto his head.

00:03:28.900 And the caption says,

00:03:30.100 On this St. Paddy's Day, a special message from noted Irishman Robert Francis O'Rourke.

00:03:35.180 Please drink responsibly.

00:03:36.640 Now, first of all, it just shows you what thick skin we of Irish descent have,

00:03:46.320 that we are never offended by this kind of thing.

00:03:48.940 But can you imagine pretty much any other nationality,

00:03:53.320 if any other nationality were the butt of that kind of joke?

00:03:58.040 Like, can you imagine if that were a sombrero on Ocasio-Cortez's head 0.99

00:04:03.200 and there was a little message about happy Cinco de Mayo from their butt? 0.97

00:04:07.700 Can you imagine the nuclear reaction or something like that? 0.99

00:04:10.420 But you do it to Irish people and nobody cares. 1.00

00:04:13.080 Okay, that's not the point.

00:04:13.920 The point is just that O'Rourke has, for whatever reason,

00:04:17.800 burrowed into the heads of many Republicans and he's living there.

00:04:21.360 And that means that he is the most talked about.

00:04:25.220 And these days, if you're the most talked about candidate,

00:04:29.800 well, that's pretty much all that's needed to win.

00:04:33.560 And, you know, this past weekend, Republicans were going on about how,

00:04:38.060 you know, this bombshell news that O'Rourke,

00:04:42.060 when he was a teenager, was part of a hacking group.

00:04:45.200 And they think that that's going to make people like him less.

00:04:48.280 But all you're telling is, okay, so he was a punk rock hacker in the 90s.

00:04:52.620 Like, that just makes people think, oh, you know what?

00:04:54.740 You just made his cool points about double or triple with that.

00:04:58.340 It's just, it's not working.

00:05:01.160 This obsessing over a little, every little detail of him,

00:05:03.680 it's not going to work and it's just going to make him even more powerful.

00:05:08.440 Okay.

00:05:09.680 Now, let me, let me step to the side for a moment.

00:05:13.160 A lot to talk about today, but I want to first mention Freedom Project Academy.

00:05:20.020 Look, I could be here all day complaining about public schools.

00:05:24.420 In fact, I have, as you know, spent entire shows complaining about public schools.

00:05:28.840 And I, and I don't regret that at all.

00:05:31.140 I have a good reason to.

00:05:32.340 Right now, there are 50 million kids in the system and the left is not trying to hide the fact.

00:05:40.100 They've made it very clear that their intention obviously is to indoctrinate the next generation

00:05:44.640 into their ideology and to do it primarily, especially through, through the formative years

00:05:50.900 of a child, primarily through the school system.

00:05:53.200 So real world skills like reading and writing and arithmetic and American history.

00:05:57.340 Well, who needs any of that, right?

00:05:58.840 Because now we've replaced that with social justice, gender confusion, test-driven regurgitation type 1.00

00:06:06.020 instruction in the classroom.

00:06:08.400 Thankfully, though, you do have a choice.

00:06:11.800 You have a real choice.

00:06:13.240 And that is why Freedom Project Academy was created.

00:06:16.320 Everyone seems to love choice, right?

00:06:17.880 You know, we're supposed to, we're all supposed to favor choice.

00:06:22.680 Well, here is an area where you ought to have choice in the area of education.

00:06:26.880 You ought to have a choice about the kind of education that your child receives.

00:06:30.680 Freedom Project Academy is an accredited classical online school built on Judeo-Christian values

00:06:35.520 for students in kindergarten through high school.

00:06:37.780 Freedom Project Academy has taken the interaction of the traditional classroom and it's created

00:06:44.740 an online atmosphere where, so it's kind of the best of both worlds, where you've got

00:06:49.640 the, that instruction that you get in the live classroom, but you're also, you're online

00:06:53.980 with live teachers in small classes who are going to teach students how to think, rather

00:07:00.700 than just what to think, it's how to think.

00:07:02.580 This is about critical thinking skills.

00:07:04.220 That should be the objective with education.

00:07:07.100 So go to freedomforschool.com and request a free information packet today.

00:07:12.280 That's freedomforschool.com.

00:07:14.020 Enroll by March 31st to take advantage of the best early bird discounts.

00:07:18.100 So you have a couple of weeks left, but go right now.

00:07:21.180 And don't forget to subscribe to their weekly podcast, The Dr. Duke Show, available on iTunes

00:07:25.780 and more.

00:07:26.680 Take back control of your kid's education.

00:07:28.920 Freedomforschool.com.

00:07:30.020 Freedomforschool.com.

00:07:31.960 Freedomforschool.com.

00:07:33.400 All right.

00:07:35.720 Nancy Pelosi had a press conference late last week.

00:07:40.420 And here's an interesting exchange.

00:07:43.020 Listen to this.

00:07:44.380 Criticism from the ACLU about it in regards to the freedom of speech issue.

00:07:49.160 And as far as 16-year-olds voting, where do you see that going into the future?

00:07:53.340 Well, I disagree with the ACLU on this.

00:07:56.660 In terms of legislation, we couldn't be prouder than H.R. 1.

00:08:00.720 This is about reducing the role of big, dark, special interest money in politics and empowering

00:08:08.980 small donors.

00:08:09.940 It's about ending voter suppression.

00:08:12.380 It's about making redistricting fair.

00:08:14.780 It's really a source of joy and hope to so many people in the country.

00:08:20.640 I, myself, personally, am not speaking for my caucus.

00:08:24.700 I, myself, have always been for lowering the voting age to 60.

00:08:28.340 I think it's really important to capture kids when they're in high school, when they're interested

00:08:32.880 in all of this, when they're learning about government to be able to vote.

00:08:37.140 That is, that is not necessary.

00:08:40.000 You know, in other words, some of the priorities in this bill are about transparency and openness

00:08:45.340 and accessibility and the rest.

00:08:47.760 That's a subject of debate.

00:08:49.780 But my view is that I would welcome that.

00:08:52.960 But I've been in that position for a long time.

00:08:55.060 So, uh, she wants to capture kids in high school. 0.76

00:09:01.220 Capture.

00:09:02.360 What an, what an apt word choice.

00:09:05.240 And notice the gesture she made while she said, so we got to capture them, capture them.

00:09:10.040 She made this gesture like she wanted to grab them by the throat and drag them into the polling 1.00

00:09:14.700 booth, which I'm, which I'm sure she would, she would do if we let her do it. 0.98

00:09:18.400 Um, this is, uh, an idea that is becoming increasingly popular, um, among Democrats,

00:09:26.600 a Democrat, as was being alluded to in the clip I just played, a Democrat proposed an amendment,

00:09:32.720 um, to, um, the bill that Pelosi was talking about, an amendment that would allow 16 year

00:09:38.640 olds to vote, it would lower the voting age to 16.

00:09:41.740 And, uh, it was 120 some Democrats signed on to the idea.

00:09:47.000 So this is something that I suspect as time goes on will become, um, even more popular

00:09:52.740 among Democrats.

00:09:56.220 Why, you know, why would a Democrat want 16 year olds to vote?

00:10:00.780 Well, obviously because 16 year olds are more likely to vote Democrat than Republican.

00:10:06.440 But what does that tell you, right?

00:10:08.460 What does that tell you about the Democrat party that they're saying, well, we got to get

00:10:13.600 in and capture them while they're young, because if we wait too long, you know, by the time

00:10:19.320 they grow up and get a little bit older, they might not be Democrats anymore.

00:10:21.900 So what does that tell you about, uh, about the leftist ideology and what the Democrats are

00:10:28.080 pushing?

00:10:29.500 That a person is much more likely to support it when they're 16 than they are when they're

00:10:34.580 at like 36 and they have a family and they've lived, uh, you know, they've, they've lived

00:10:40.040 a little bit and they've had some experience and they've grown and gotten wiser.

00:10:43.820 They're less likely to support it.

00:10:45.860 Uh, well, you know what it tells you that, uh, leftist ideology is among other things, 0.99

00:10:52.600 um, silly and, uh, childish and ridiculous. 0.98

00:10:59.820 So what about allowing 16 year olds? 0.97

00:11:02.940 Because, because, you know, although that's the case, I also don't think, I think it's,

00:11:11.140 it's of course, ethically wrong to support, um, you know, expanding the voting age just

00:11:20.060 because you think it will help your political party, which is what all these Democrats are

00:11:23.840 doing.

00:11:24.320 But at the same time, it would also be ethically wrong to oppose, um, expanding the voting age

00:11:31.360 just because you think it will hurt your favorite political party.

00:11:35.500 You got to have a better reason than that.

00:11:37.700 And, uh, I, I think we do have a pretty good reason for not wanting 16 year olds to vote. 0.99

00:11:44.100 And that is, uh, well, first of all, 16 year olds.

00:11:48.720 Parents have no, uh, it's not just that they haven't lived very long and they don't have

00:11:55.100 that experience and that wisdom.

00:11:56.980 They have no responsibility.

00:11:58.740 Okay.

00:11:59.220 They, they, they, they don't have any skin in the game.

00:12:02.240 They're almost every 16 year old is still going to be living at home with their parents.

00:12:08.500 Uh, most of them don't have jobs.

00:12:11.760 Hardly any of them are going to have full-time jobs.

00:12:14.220 Uh, they're, they're not paying bills.

00:12:16.140 They're not doing, they're just living at home and see the idea with voting is it's

00:12:20.060 supposed to be people who actually have skin in the game and have something to lose.

00:12:26.980 And so they're going in and they get a voice.

00:12:29.860 But when you give a voice to people who have, who have really nothing to lose because they,

00:12:34.060 you know, they're, they're not really paying any taxes.

00:12:35.760 They have no responsibilities.

00:12:37.580 Most of the laws that are passed don't really affect them directly.

00:12:40.460 Well, that's a big problem.

00:12:43.380 And of course you could point out that, well, yeah, a lot, but a lot of 18 year olds don't

00:12:47.760 have any skin in the game and are still living in a lot of, a lot of 23 year olds.

00:12:51.660 Well, yeah, that's true.

00:12:52.840 Which is why if we're going to do anything with the voting age, we should be moving it 0.98

00:12:55.620 back some.

00:12:56.360 Um, the idea originally with voting was the idea that our founders had was, well, we're

00:13:03.900 going to let landowners vote because these are the people who are really contributing.

00:13:09.920 And these are the people that are going to be most affected by the laws.

00:13:12.720 Now, obviously that had the, um, not unintentional effect of disenfranchising all black people,

00:13:20.960 all women at that time, which, which, which of course was wrong. 1.00

00:13:23.720 Um, but now, uh, it's, we don't discriminate in the voting booth based on gender or race.

00:13:29.560 So, which, which is great.

00:13:30.900 So now no matter what your race is, no matter what your gender is, you can vote.

00:13:33.620 So we're all on the same page there.

00:13:35.540 Um, but I think that means we can go back now and sort of, and look at some of those

00:13:40.920 ideas and maybe adopt a few of them now that we've taken the racist and sexist angles

00:13:46.880 out of it.

00:13:47.380 So that's great.

00:13:48.100 And, but is there something to be said for the idea of only letting people vote if they

00:13:54.020 are contributing members of society?

00:13:56.800 Well, there's nothing to be said for it.

00:13:58.780 If you have entire races and genders who are not allowed to contribute to society, but as 1.00

00:14:02.620 long as everyone's allowed to contribute, then I think we could say, well, if you're not

00:14:05.960 a contributing member, maybe you shouldn't be voting.

00:14:07.480 Um, and especially at 60, like when you, here's the thing about 16, when you reach 16, that 0.79

00:14:17.160 is when you first, when you really start to enter into, uh, what I would call peak dumb 0.89

00:14:22.700 phase. 0.92

00:14:24.680 That is when you, when you start to enter into your phase, especially if you're a guy where 1.00

00:14:28.840 you are going to be your dumbest and most reckless self. 0.99

00:14:32.720 And you're going to stay at that phase. 1.00

00:14:34.620 In fact, you're going to keep climbing for a little bit and you'll, you'll hit really

00:14:37.820 the, the zenith probably around these days, you know, maybe 22 or 23, and then you'll

00:14:43.580 start a very slow descent into maturity.

00:14:47.080 Um, but I think the idea is probably it's, it's best to keep people out of the voting booth

00:14:51.360 for as long as possible while they're in that phase.

00:14:54.420 Although I will say this, although I think it's crazy to allow 16 year olds to vote, I would 0.98

00:15:01.080 be okay with it.

00:15:02.600 I would support it.

00:15:04.620 Um, I would support allowing 16 year olds to vote.

00:15:07.880 And in fact, I would say, let's even, we could even lower the voting age to 12 for all, we

00:15:12.360 can lower it to seven for all I care.

00:15:14.780 If, uh, all voters were required, as I have suggested in the past, if all voters were required

00:15:22.100 to take a simple civics test, just confirming that they have a basic rudimentary understanding

00:15:29.920 and knowledge of the system in which they are participating.

00:15:34.260 If we required everyone of all ages to take that test in order to vote, then I would say,

00:15:38.200 fine, you know what?

00:15:38.860 We don't even need a voting age.

00:15:40.840 If you've got a toddler who can pass that test, then absolutely let them vote.

00:15:44.900 I'd rather have that toddler voting than, than the majority of 40 year olds who vote these

00:15:48.540 days.

00:15:49.560 Um, so if we wanted to go that route, I'd be all for it.

00:15:53.080 But of course, um, of course we're not.

00:15:56.260 So it's a terrible idea.

00:16:00.500 All right.

00:16:03.080 Here's something else I wanted to talk about taking a step back from politics or anything

00:16:08.040 like that.

00:16:08.920 I have been, um, I have been known to criticize Christian films.

00:16:17.060 Generally, I find the offerings of the faith-based genre to be exploitative, emotionally manipulative, 1.00

00:16:24.560 shallow, um, theologically suspect, and embarrassing on a number of levels.

00:16:31.020 Um, the bad acting and, and the bad writing would be perhaps a surmountable problem if it

00:16:37.460 were actually true that, as people sometimes claim, the people who make these movies have

00:16:42.400 their hearts in the right place.

00:16:43.860 You know, it's, it's, it's well-intentioned.

00:16:46.960 But I think in many cases, the thing that really bothers me about the Christian entertainment 0.98

00:16:51.120 is that I don't think it's well-intentioned, and I don't think the people who make these

00:16:55.280 things do have their hearts in the right place, unless the right place is their wallet, because

00:17:00.180 I think that's what they're focused on.

00:17:01.680 There's a lot of money to be made in Christian entertainment because it caters to an audience

00:17:06.140 that will consume literally anything that carries the Jesus tag.

00:17:10.580 Um, there is a, there's a, a, a large audience of, there are millions of people out there who

00:17:16.540 they have no standards, they have no artistic standards whatsoever.

00:17:20.460 Um, no standards in terms of, of quality if, but if it's, if it is faith-based, if it's

00:17:27.600 Christian, uh, I'm doing the scare quotes way too much.

00:17:30.960 I gotta, I gotta just, well, I'll put the scare, just, you can do the scare quotes in your

00:17:35.400 mind every time I use the phrase Christian entertainment from here on out, but there are

00:17:41.360 people that, uh, as long as it has that tag on it, they will consume it, which means that

00:17:48.360 it's a very profitable industry to be in, uh, because there's no need to spend money and

00:17:53.460 time producing something with emotional, intellectual depth, theological insight, artistic value, what

00:17:59.580 have you, uh, you don't need to do that.

00:18:01.480 Just hit the right notes, repeat the right lines, pander in the right way, and you'll

00:18:05.780 make millions of dollars.

00:18:07.120 I don't think this is a good state of affairs.

00:18:09.820 It isn't good because for two reasons.

00:18:11.940 Number one, it makes Christians look shallow to the rest of the world. 1.00

00:18:17.280 And worse, it makes Christians actually become shallow because their religious and philosophical 1.00

00:18:23.360 ideas are being shaped by the empty, um, rhetoric they get from Christian movies and, and,

00:18:31.220 and even a lot of Christian music.

00:18:33.540 Now, so I say all this, many Christians will agree with, with what I've said so far, uh,

00:18:40.020 for the most part, they'll agree, but then they'll insist that, well, there are some good

00:18:44.360 ones, right?

00:18:45.460 Um, there are Christian movies who are, who are, that are, that are actually good, that

00:18:50.600 are high quality.

00:18:52.960 And generally the movies that tend to make it into the good ones category are movies like,

00:18:59.180 um, well, the passion of the Christ, which is not only good, but great.

00:19:03.900 Uh, the movie risen, uh, I can only imagine came out, you know, just last year, the case

00:19:09.980 for Christ, a few others.

00:19:12.740 And, uh, as I said, the passion of the Christ is legitimately great.

00:19:15.400 The other ones I've seen most of them, they're, they're, they're pretty good.

00:19:19.080 They're decent.

00:19:19.540 Um, not, not great, but, but, but, but okay.

00:19:23.520 Another film that has often been suggested to me as a good ones candidate is the movie

00:19:29.820 God's Not Dead.

00:19:32.000 Um, and there are now, I think, I think there are three films in the God's Not Dead cinematic

00:19:37.360 universe, uh, as they, as they sort of pop up every spring around Easter time, like Dandelions.

00:19:43.320 Now the original starring Kevin Sorbo came out in 2014 and it's been recommended to me

00:19:49.800 periodically, uh, and sometimes very enthusiastically over the last five years with a Christians 0.97

00:19:56.260 insisting to me that it is actually one of the good ones.

00:19:59.300 And, uh, I've even been told many times that it is a, um, it's a, it's a good, it's an effective

00:20:04.100 apologetic tool is this movie.

00:20:07.340 So finally, uh, although I'm five years late, I decided to watch the movie over the weekend.

00:20:13.320 Uh, and it was much, much worse than I could have ever imagined.

00:20:25.380 It, it, it, it was possibly the most torturous thing that any Christian has ever contrived, 1.00

00:20:32.040 at least since the Inquisition.

00:20:34.540 Uh, but God's Not Dead so perfectly encapsulates everything wrong with Christian entertainment, 1.00

00:20:41.140 with the Christian entertainment industry, that at various points in the film, I really thought

00:20:47.060 that maybe it was a parody.

00:20:48.840 Like I really had to stop and think about, wait, is this real?

00:20:52.180 Is this, is this, this has got to be some kind of satire.

00:20:55.460 Um, you could actually make a, a movie.

00:20:59.620 You could make, you could make that movie into a hilarious parody of Christian films and 0.99

00:21:04.360 you wouldn't have to change a single scene or a single line of dialogue.

00:21:07.720 You just, just, it's, if you wanted to make a parody of God's Not Dead, well, it would

00:21:13.000 just be God's Not Dead.

00:21:14.280 It would just be that movie done over again.

00:21:16.920 Um, and when I say it's bad, it's not just bad in the sense of being hokey, although it

00:21:20.980 is that, or in the sense of being poorly scripted and poorly acted, although it is that as well.

00:21:26.580 But it's bad in the sense of being actively harmful because it does so much insulting and

00:21:32.640 demeaning and demonizing and exploiting.

00:21:35.220 And it does it all beneath this Jesus-y veneer, uh, which is what Christian movies very often 0.98

00:21:43.540 do.

00:21:44.320 And so it's for that reason that although I'm five years late, I thought it might be worthwhile,

00:21:48.280 um, to examine just what makes this particular movie so malignant, because I think that this

00:21:54.200 movie, as I said, kind of encapsulates everything that's wrong with Christian entertainment. 1.00

00:21:58.200 So let me give you a quick review of this, if you haven't seen the movie, um, before I

00:22:04.820 summarize the plot of God's Not Dead, I'll, I'll, I'll begin with a quick disclaimer that

00:22:10.000 I'm not going to bother naming any of the characters in the film, uh, when I talk about it.

00:22:14.920 I won't, I won't give you their names and I won't bother giving them their names because

00:22:17.960 the filmmakers didn't bother giving these characters anything in the way of personality

00:22:21.840 or motivation or believable dialogue.

00:22:24.300 So, uh, they're all just caricatures, they're archetypes.

00:22:27.820 You've got the, um, the earnest Christian student, the grumpy atheist professor, the ditzy 1.00

00:22:34.780 secular girlfriend, um, the bratty liberal blogger, uh, the wise pastor, the self-absorbed atheist 0.99

00:22:42.880 lawyer, the fundamentalist Muslim father, the, um, uh, all kinds of characters like that. 0.57

00:22:49.060 So we also get a, we get a cameo appearance from cool black guy who, and I swear I'm not 0.98

00:22:55.640 making this up, but there's a scene where you've got, uh, this black student who introduces

00:23:00.860 himself as G dog. 0.55

00:23:02.660 And I actually, I had to stop the movie movie on my computer at that moment and just collect

00:23:08.860 myself and say, did that?

00:23:10.980 Yeah, that really happened.

00:23:11.860 They, they, they actually put that scene into the movie.

00:23:13.900 The one black guy that appears in the movie and his name is G dog.

00:23:19.440 Um, and then there's also the, uh, slacker classmate in a ball cap who, uh, he just appears

00:23:25.180 in one scene, but it was a great, so one of my favorite scenes in the movie when the professor,

00:23:29.620 um, on the first day of class, the grumpy atheist professor comes out and he gives us

00:23:34.620 a little spiel about how it's going to be a tough class.

00:23:36.620 And he says, uh, he says, you know, this isn't just going to be an easy A you're going

00:23:40.080 to have to work hard in this class.

00:23:41.300 And then the slacker student goes, I'm not, I'm not kidding.

00:23:44.640 The slacker student goes, I'm out of here.

00:23:47.100 And he gets up and he leaves the classroom.

00:23:49.660 And, uh, and then they didn't show this part, but then I, I assume he skateboards down to 0.54

00:23:54.340 the local park and spray paints school sucks on the half pipe.

00:23:59.560 Um, you know, I, I, they didn't show it, but I think we're supposed to fill in those blanks. 0.99

00:24:03.880 So needless to say, um, every atheist in the film is selfish and miserable. 0.98

00:24:11.020 Um, every Christian is well-adjusted and generous and cheerful and nice. 0.64

00:24:16.140 There are no shades of gray in these characters whatsoever.

00:24:19.860 At one point, the, um, the eighth, the, the atheist lawyer is at dinner with his bratty 0.98

00:24:26.580 liberal blogger girlfriend. 0.95

00:24:27.720 And, uh, she tells him that she has cancer.

00:24:32.340 And so the atheist lawyer, his response is this couldn't wait till tomorrow.

00:24:38.920 And, uh, and then he responds and then he lectures her for ruining his day.

00:24:43.160 And then he dumps her on the spot for getting cancer.

00:24:45.280 Uh, and you know what, that was actually one of the subtler scenes in the film.

00:24:49.300 That was, that was actually maybe the most nuanced scene in the entire movie was that.

00:24:54.960 Um, so the basic plot revolves around the struggle between earnest Christian student

00:25:00.620 ECS for short and grumpy atheist professor or a JAP gap. 0.97

00:25:06.100 So on the first day, uh, gap requires all students to write the phrase, God is dead on a sheet

00:25:13.420 of paper and sign it. 1.00

00:25:14.880 And they're supposed to do this gap explains because, uh, God is lame and stupid and religion 1.00

00:25:20.580 is dumb. 1.00

00:25:21.160 And so that's why they have to do this. 0.99

00:25:23.140 Uh, and so he gives this assignment and of course he passes out the paper.

00:25:28.520 All the students in the class are prepared to immediately sign this pledge, swearing off

00:25:33.680 God for all time, except for earnest Christian student. 1.00

00:25:38.600 You know, he has a, uh, he has a bit of a moral crisis and he takes a brave stand and says,

00:25:43.620 I'm not going to sign the paper because I'm earnest and Christian.

00:25:49.180 And so grumpy atheist professor tells him that, okay, well, if you don't want to sign the paper,

00:25:53.140 you don't have to, but that means that you're going to have to prove that God exists or you'll

00:25:57.700 fail the class.

00:25:59.100 This is all very realistic, right?

00:26:00.780 This is how it really goes.

00:26:01.780 I've never been to college, but I, I admit I didn't go to college myself.

00:26:05.540 Maybe this is how the classes actually work.

00:26:07.600 I don't know.

00:26:08.120 I tend to doubt it.

00:26:09.760 So, uh, he's given this assignment that he has to, over the next few weeks, prove that

00:26:13.460 God exists or he'll fail the class.

00:26:15.580 So after researching the, the, the question and praying for it a little, uh, praying a bit

00:26:20.820 and, um, getting a little bit of a pep talk from the wise pastor character, he finally

00:26:25.940 comes up with three arguments, um, for the existence of God, which he presents in three

00:26:32.120 separate scenes dispersed throughout the film.

00:26:34.160 He argues first that God exists because the universe had a beginning.

00:26:39.760 Second, that God exists because of the diversity of life and the suddenness with which it came

00:26:44.840 into existence.

00:26:45.580 And 30, he argues that God exists because without God, there are no moral absolutes.

00:26:50.520 So the first two arguments, um, as given are among the weakest in the theistic arsenal,

00:26:56.060 I think, yet the atheist professor has no response for them whatsoever.

00:27:00.280 He's, he is completely flummoxed by them.

00:27:02.400 He has no response.

00:27:03.280 You can't think of a single response.

00:27:05.240 Um, when, uh, when the Christian student says that the creation account in Genesis was vindicated 0.63

00:27:11.420 by big bang theory, the grumpy atheist professor somehow didn't think to observe that.

00:27:17.640 Well, yeah, but Genesis has the earth preexisting the universe, which is not a sequence of events

00:27:24.040 that modern cosmology, uh, confirms, which I would say is a point that we as Christians

00:27:29.820 can deal with, but it's not a point that the movie had any interest in dealing with whatsoever.

00:27:35.200 So instead, the atheist professor has no response except to just say, oh yeah, well, Stephen Hawking

00:27:40.000 is an atheist.

00:27:40.980 And then he storms out of the room and that's the end of that exchange.

00:27:43.560 Um, and then, uh, so he makes the argument about the, the, the, you know, the life coming

00:27:49.180 onto the scene so quickly.

00:27:50.260 And the atheist professor has no response to that except to quote the book of Job and

00:27:55.080 then to admit that, um, he is only an atheist because his mom died of cancer and he has no

00:28:00.500 other responses.

00:28:01.840 Uh, finally, um, the Christian student wins the argument and the day by shouting, uh, well, 0.95

00:28:08.700 he makes the moral argument and says, well, there are no moral absolutes.

00:28:11.500 Uh, again, the atheist professor has no response to that.

00:28:15.360 Now this is, this is supposed to be a, this is supposed to be a philosophy professor who

00:28:20.920 has no response for the moral argument for the existence of God, which is an argument

00:28:27.440 that if you talk to Christians, it's a good argument.

00:28:29.560 I think Christian argument.

00:28:30.300 So we bring it up all the time.

00:28:31.860 It just, it's an argument that every atheist has a response to because they hear it so often.

00:28:36.400 Yeah.

00:28:36.840 This atheist had no response to it. 1.00

00:28:38.280 But finally, the Christian student wins, wins the day by, um, shouting at his professor, 0.60

00:28:44.020 why do you hate God?

00:28:45.320 He shouts it at him like three times.

00:28:46.980 And finally the professor breaks.

00:28:49.220 It's supposed to be, I guess, the kind of a few good men scene where, uh, the professor

00:28:54.480 breaks down and admits that, yes, I, I, I know that God exists, but I hate him because

00:28:59.300 he took my mother from me.

00:29:00.800 Um, and then a few scenes later, uh, the professor gets run over by a car on his way to a Christian 1.00

00:29:06.620 rock concert and lies there in the rain with the wise pastor kneeling over him praying.

00:29:11.460 And the, the atheist professor, uh, comes to Jesus in that moment with his dying breath.

00:29:17.020 And that's the end of the movie.

00:29:19.740 Um, remarkably, the movie leaves the strongest theistic arguments on the cutting room floor.

00:29:30.400 It never mentions the fine tuning argument or the argument from consciousness, which I

00:29:34.540 think are very strong.

00:29:35.580 The cosmology, the cosmological argument is given a very weak showing.

00:29:38.880 Um, the argument about the origins of life is also framed in a very weak way.

00:29:44.340 Um, and then, and meanwhile, the atheist side was presented as being entirely bereft of any

00:29:52.260 logical reasoning whatsoever.

00:29:54.640 Uh, it, it, it, it's, it's presented as if atheists have no arguments at all on their

00:30:01.140 side.

00:30:01.340 They, they have nothing.

00:30:03.220 Um, the atheist professor even allowed the Christian student to neutralize. 0.60

00:30:08.880 The problem of suffering by bringing up free will, which free will is part of the answer.

00:30:16.580 But if an atheist brings up the problem of suffering to you and you say free will, well, 0.99

00:30:21.140 what's their next move going to be?

00:30:22.660 They're going to say, okay, yeah, but what about cancer and earthquakes?

00:30:25.980 What does free will have to do with that?

00:30:29.160 And, but this atheist, this particular atheist, although he's a philosophy professor, never

00:30:33.600 thought to bring up that point.

00:30:35.120 Um, the, the student just brought up three free will and the professor said,

00:30:38.520 okay, yeah, well, you win that point.

00:30:42.740 Um, this is, uh, uh, there's, there's one other scene I liked I have to mention.

00:30:48.220 Um, the, the bratty liberal blogger confronts one of the guys from duck dynasty who of course

00:30:54.340 appears in the movie because obviously he's going to appear in a movie like this.

00:30:57.280 And, uh, she, she says, uh, she tells him that she's offended that he openly prays to Jesus

00:31:03.480 so much.

00:31:05.440 And then he has this very eloquent response ready for it.

00:31:08.240 But once again, um, yes, it's, it's, it's, it's perfectly believable that an eight, that

00:31:14.120 a liberal blogger would confront someone from duck dynasty, but they're the liberal blogger

00:31:19.300 isn't going to say, I'm offended that you pray to Jesus.

00:31:22.980 What she's going to say is she's going to bring up homophobia and accuse you of being

00:31:27.460 homophobic.

00:31:28.580 And, uh, and, and that's the tack that she's going to take.

00:31:31.560 But in this movie, she doesn't bring that up because every atheist in this movie always 1.00

00:31:38.300 presents the weakest possible version of their argument and does so in the stupidest imaginable 0.99

00:31:43.780 way. 0.99

00:31:44.840 So what's the point of a movie like this?

00:31:48.860 It's not a good primer for Christian apologetics because it sets the best apologetic arguments 0.92

00:31:53.460 to the side.

00:31:54.660 And it also studiously avoids all of the intellectual and theological challenges for which a Christian

00:32:00.020 might need to be, uh, prepared.

00:32:02.920 Now, sure.

00:32:03.660 If a liberal ever tells you that they're offended, that you pray to Jesus, or if an atheist ever

00:32:08.180 argues his case by shouting Stephen Hawking at you five times and then storming out of

00:32:11.980 the room in tears.

00:32:13.060 Yeah.

00:32:13.320 You'll be well prepared for that confrontation if you saw this movie.

00:32:16.880 But then again, you don't need to be equipped for a confrontation like that, um, because it's

00:32:20.840 fictional and that's not the way it goes in real life.

00:32:23.680 As for real discussions and real challenges, this movie has absolutely nothing to offer whatsoever.

00:32:28.040 So what, what is the point?

00:32:30.380 You know, what, what's a movie like this trying to achieve?

00:32:33.060 Um, it's also not going to help you understand the other side because in this film, the other 0.90

00:32:40.300 side is exclusively populated by psychotic brain damage narcissists with, with IQs of about 0.97

00:32:47.000 45. 0.97

00:32:48.460 Um, so it's not going to help you with that.

00:32:50.080 And, uh, it won't help you better understand the difficulties of living a Christian life because 1.00

00:32:54.400 Christians in this, in this movie have no difficulties.

00:32:56.680 They're all happy, satisfied, smart, attractive, well-adjusted, well-spoken, supremely confident

00:33:02.800 in their faith at all times.

00:33:04.540 Um, although everyone does seem to get cancer in the end, but aside from that, it is a, it's

00:33:09.360 a, it's a, it's, you know, Christians are just wonderful and amazing and awesome.

00:33:13.540 And if you think that's the way it is in reality, we'll just take one step inside a real church

00:33:18.760 in real life and you will be disabused of that notion rather quickly, uh, because Christians 1.00

00:33:24.460 are, um, also very flawed, troubled, broken, um, people as well.

00:33:32.060 Um, so then what is the point is the question.

00:33:35.880 As far as I can tell, this movie is basically spiritual pornography.

00:33:41.100 Uh, it exists first to turn a profit and second to make Christians feel good in the cheapest 1.00

00:33:47.180 and most debasing manner possible.

00:33:49.720 Uh, you are meant to walk out of the movie, not with wisdom or understanding or knowledge

00:33:54.500 or information or edification or anything like that.

00:33:58.860 Um, but with an entirely empty satisfaction and with that sort of sick feeling of superiority

00:34:04.540 that you always get when you set up a straw man and burn it to smithereens, which is all

00:34:10.300 this movie does.

00:34:11.180 Uh, and it does so with such cynicism, um, that I, I, I really hate it. 1.00

00:34:20.880 It's really, it's really just a garbage, trash, worthless, awful movie in every way. 1.00

00:34:26.980 Uh, and I really would encourage Christians to reject garbage like this. 1.00

00:34:31.240 Read Dostoevsky instead. 0.99

00:34:32.720 Okay.

00:34:32.900 The brothers care him as a, uh, Dostoevsky is a devout Russian Orthodox, but in that movie,

00:34:39.240 he makes his atheist character, a brilliant, layered, tragic, nuanced, interesting figure

00:34:47.400 who presents some of the most compelling arguments against God that you will ever read anywhere.

00:34:53.240 Some of the most compelling arguments against God you will ever read are in that book,

00:34:56.700 which is a Christian book written by a Christian.

00:34:59.580 But he confronts the, the hardest arguments that an atheist can possibly present. 0.87

00:35:05.740 And he faces those arguments down and he comes up with some kind of it, not a perfect answer

00:35:10.500 because there is no perfect answer, but he comes up with some kind of way to deal with

00:35:14.040 it.

00:35:14.520 And that's what, that's what that book is all about.

00:35:17.020 Uh, so read that book instead or read, uh, the power and the glory Graham green, you know, 0.91

00:35:22.600 the protagonist, the Christian protagonist in that movie is a cowardly, drunken, uh, scoundrel who, 1.00

00:35:30.040 who finally discovers his faith and courage at the end after a, a long and devastating journey. 0.88

00:35:37.840 Um, but it's, it's, it's, it's real, you know, you feel like this is a real person, right?

00:35:44.100 Um, so there, there are plenty of, of, of great Christian books that do what God's not dead

00:35:52.280 and other Christian movies pretend to do. Um, and I would recommend that you go to those instead. 1.00

00:36:02.340 All right. Uh, and there, there, you know, the movie Calvary, um, is a, a recent movie, uh, made

00:36:12.840 not by a practicing Christian. Um, but it's a film about a small town priest in modern Ireland

00:36:19.200 who's pastoring his, uh, flock of broken and flawed sheep. Uh, one of whom he is informed

00:36:26.600 in the confessional is planning to kill him in revenge for, um, the, the crimes that the church 0.94

00:36:32.160 has committed, sex abuse crimes, not, not crimes that this priest committed, but, uh, the church 0.99

00:36:36.660 itself. So in, in, in that movie is, it has more truth and more subtlety and more nuance and more

00:36:43.720 depth in one scene than God's not dead could muster collectively during its entire two hour

00:36:49.920 runtime. And as I said, the director is not even a practicing Christian and he was able to do that. 0.95

00:36:58.200 All right. Let's see here. Um, let's move on. So I, okay. I only spent about 30 minutes on

00:37:03.680 a movie that came out five years ago. Um, you know what we, I think I'm going to skip emails for the day.

00:37:12.840 I'll save these emails for tomorrow because there's one other thing I wanted to mention.

00:37:15.800 And, uh, I, I didn't want to end the show without getting to this. An Australian politician,

00:37:22.340 um, Senator Frazier Anning made some pretty repulsive comments in the wake of the, um,

00:37:31.420 mosque shootings in New Zealand last week. And, you know, he blamed the shootings on, on policies

00:37:39.140 that allow Muslims to enter the country in the first place. So there's really repulsive comments.

00:37:44.360 And then the next day he was in front of reporters, talking to reporters, and this happened.

00:37:56.100 Now, uh, a lot of people on social media were outraged that Anning assaulted a child is what 0.93

00:38:04.840 they said. Now the kid is 17, by the way, not a child. And, and, and, you know, the people that

00:38:09.120 were freaking out about this, these are the same people who most of them who want 16 year olds to

00:38:14.600 vote as we talked about earlier. So you can't say that 16 year olds should vote. And then in the next 0.84

00:38:20.560 breath, say that a 17 year old is just a helpless child. If he's just a helpless child who, who doesn't

00:38:25.980 know that you're not supposed to break eggs over people's heads, then, um, they don't belong in the

00:38:30.640 voting booth. So anyway, so he gets punched in the face for egging, um, this Senator. Uh, as I said,

00:38:39.500 I don't support what this guy said about the mosque shooting, but I totally support his right 1.00

00:38:45.440 to punch someone in the face when they smack him in the head with an egg. Uh, you break an egg on a 0.94

00:38:52.840 man's head and you get your nose broken. That, that it's a pretty simple formula and it is a completely

00:38:59.600 justified response. I mean, what, what was he supposed to do? Was he supposed to say he gets

00:39:05.100 hit in the head with egg? Was he supposed to say, well, yeah, I deserve that. You know what? You can 0.52

00:39:09.240 hit me with another one. Turn the other cheek, right? You know, if someone hits you in the head 0.98

00:39:14.180 with an egg on one side of your head, turn the other side. Um, maybe in a perfect world that is,

00:39:20.880 you know, that, that is how, uh, someone would respond. Um, I'm sure that's how Jesus would have

00:39:26.200 responded, but at the same time, from the perspective of the person smashing the egg,

00:39:34.700 you have no right to not be punched. Okay. Uh, at that point, you have the right to be punched.

00:39:42.140 There's another way of putting it. Once you, once you do that, it's, it's, it's very simple.

00:39:48.500 I really, well, I'm not going to say I can't believe, but I was, I guess I was even somehow,

00:39:55.740 uh, this is how naive I still am. I was somehow actually a little bit surprised that so many

00:40:01.200 people were criticizing this guy and not the kid who, the kid who broke an egg over his head.

00:40:07.640 Um, and you know what, um, I, I, I could even be convinced that that guy deserved to have an egg

00:40:19.660 broken over his head. Maybe he deserved it. But the problem is if you're the one who breaks the egg,

00:40:25.980 you also deserve to get punched. So maybe this is a situation where both sides got what they deserved

00:40:32.260 and we can just leave it at that. We can leave it at that kind of nice compromise, that, that

00:40:38.020 kumbaya moment. And, uh, we'll leave it there for the day. Thanks for watching everybody. Thanks

00:40:42.560 for listening. Godspeed. Today on the Ben Shapiro show, the media turned the New Zealand white

00:41:00.120 supremacist anti-Muslim terror attack into a referendum on the entire right. That's today

00:41:05.040 on the Ben Shapiro show.

The Matt Walsh Show - March 18, 2019

Ep. 219 - Why Lowering The Voting Age Is A Terrible Idea

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