Ep. 243 - The Dangers Of Cultural Relativism
Episode Stats
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Summary
The media has stopped talking about collusion after Trump was vindicated of colluding with the Russians. Also, a horrific story out of Bangladesh proves yet again that all cultures are not created equal. And Netflix says the term chick flick is now offensive.
Transcript
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Today on the Matt Wall Show, the media has coincidentally stopped talking about collusion.
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As soon as Trump is vindicated of collusion, they stop talking about it.
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Also, a horrific story out of Bangladesh that I think proves yet again
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that we should not engage in cultural relativism.
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All cultures are not created equal, it turns out.
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And Netflix says that the term chick flick is now offensive.
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And their reasoning is quite long and complicated and also hilarious.
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So we'll talk about that as well today on the Matt Wall Show.
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Well, I hope you're all having a blessed Good Friday.
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I do say blessed Good Friday, not happy Good Friday.
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I cringe a little bit when someone says happy Good Friday.
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But today is more of a somber remembrance than a happy occasion.
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And it's a day that, for me, brings to mind my favorite story in the Gospel,
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which is, as I think I've shared before, which is the one of the penitent thief on the cross.
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Three of the Gospels don't even think to mention it, but Luke does.
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And I've always found it to be especially powerful,
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because it's this image of repentance on the cross,
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And the way that the penitent thief is assured of,
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You just imagine the joy that he must have felt.
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and reflect on the entire passion narrative today on Good Friday.
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I'm not going to harp much on the Mueller report today.
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I think all that needs to be said about it has already been said
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He's not being charged with obstruction either.
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He is guilty of being reckless and dishonest, as the report does show.
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But all that is baked into the cake at this point.
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I think that's something that maybe some people still don't understand,
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anyone who's been paying even a little bit of attention
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over the last two or three years knows what Trump is all about.
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So the political damage will be minimal here, I think.
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But as we discussed yesterday, the goalposts are being rooted out of the ground
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Whereas before it was all about collusion, now it's not about collusion anymore
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because Trump has been vindicated on the collusion score.
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And notice how, you know, no one is really arguing about that.
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Now, they're arguing about obstruction and should there be impeachment?
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the word collusion has fallen out of the media's lexicon.
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And instead, what we're hearing is obstruction and impeachment.
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But it's really interesting that nobody's even bothering to dispute the collusion thing
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because Trump was so thoroughly absolved on that score
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that even his enemies are not even trying to claim anymore
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But instead, they're saying, no, he obstructed.
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So, for example, let me pull up the, where'd it go?
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The Washington Post's front page of their print edition,
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which honestly, I'm shocked that physical newspapers even still exist, but they do.
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And so this is what they're, if you went for some reason
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these are all of the headlines on their front page, okay?
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Mueller details Russian interference, Trump's attempt to disrupt probe.
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again and again, president's aides refuse to carry out his orders.
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Question of obstruction seemingly tossed to Congress.
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but it's a damning portrait of Trump's presidency.
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Trump's efforts to obstruct were clear, Democrats say,
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Offers from Russia were not reported or forcefully rejected by campaign.
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Okay, so those are all the headlines that the Washington Post offers.
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They don't even think to mention in any of their articles on the front page,
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oh, by the way, he actually was not colluding with Russia.
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He was not a secret Russian agent, it turns out.
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Has been since the beginning of his term, of course,
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If you thought that it had already gotten as ugly as it was going to get,
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But they just might salvage this thing for the president.
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The media, against all odds, might salvage 2020 for Trump.
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Trump faces the very real possibility of not just losing in 2020,
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but of a landslide, historic, and historically embarrassing loss.
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because he won in 2016 with 3 million fewer votes than Hillary.
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And the reason why that happened was because Hillary ignored the Rust Belt.
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She didn't focus on those states like Michigan, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania.
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And the urban voters in those states did not show up.
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Uh, they didn't show up in great numbers in Philly and in Detroit,
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Pennsylvania and Michigan is by, is by getting the turnout in those, those cities.
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Um, and the reason that those voters didn't show up and, and why, you know,
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a lot of Hillary's voters didn't show up for is because number one,
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they weren't excited about her because she's Hillary Clinton.
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And number two, because few people took Trump seriously and they figured,
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Trump is not going to have those advantages anymore.
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He will not be running against Hillary, unfortunately.
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Uh, they will show up in force because they hate Trump's guts and it really doesn't even
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Now, I mean, he could actually run against Hillary again.
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And I think this time it would be completely different because it almost doesn't matter
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They'll have their biggest turnout ever for sure.
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Um, so what that means is that Trump cannot win if he simply has maintained the same voters.
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He certainly can't, if he's lost any voters, then he can't, he's doomed.
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Um, he needs to have not only maintained, he needs to have gained a whole bunch of new voters
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And then we have to ask the question, has he really done anything in office to attract
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I know that if you, if you're a diehard supporter, then you're still a diehard supporter.
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But, um, you might not be a good judge of this because your, your, uh, support of the
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president has maybe, uh, clouded your ability to, to look at it objectively a little bit,
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because the fact is while maybe you love the things that he's done in office and the way
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that he's generally carried himself, um, I don't think it has necessarily attracted new
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Um, so at a minimum, he's, I think he's kind of flatlined as far as that goes, but he's
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probably lost people as well, which is bad news.
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Um, but the point is the media may pull this out for him again, like they did in 2016.
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They might just do it because the one thing that could manage to actually, uh, give Trump
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a bigger turnout than he got in 2016 would be, um, people just completely disgusted with
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And so they're turning out in mass against that group.
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Now, I, I think that that's Trump's best hope at this point.
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And with the way that the media has, I mean, the way, with the way it's conducted itself
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over the last two years, but especially now with this, with this Mueller thing, they're,
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Um, and if they continue with that, and maybe if the Democrats move forward with impeachment,
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trying to impeach, even though there was no underlying crime, well, maybe they'll alienate
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just enough people to put, put Trump over the top.
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Uh, so, you know, I guess, I guess our message to them is, uh, uh, continue right along, you
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know, continue, continue with, uh, as you were basically.
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All right, now let's turn to an absolutely horrific story out of Bangladesh.
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Uh, I'm going to read a part of the report from the BBC reported by Mir Sabir.
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This is a, just a terrible story that I'm trying to pull up.
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It says Nusrat Jahan Rafi was doused with kerosene and set on fire at her school in Bangladesh.
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Less than two weeks earlier, she had filed a sexual harassment complaint, camp complaint
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against her headmaster, her courage in speaking out against sexual assault, her death five days
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after being set alight and everything that happened in between has gripped Bangladesh and brought
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attention to the vulnerability of sexual harassment victims in this conservative South Asian country.
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Um, Nusrat, who was 19, was from a small town, a hundred miles, um, south of the car.
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She was studying at a madrasa or Islamic school on the 27th of March.
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She said that the headmaster called her into his office and repeatedly touched her in an
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inappropriate manner before things could go any further.
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Um, and it goes on a little bit later, says at the local police station, she gave a statement.
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She, uh, should have been provided with a safe environment to recall her traumatic experiences.
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Instead, she was filmed by the officer in charge on his phone.
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So the officer was, was filming her in the video.
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Nusrat is visibly distressed and tries to hide her face with her hands.
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And telling her to move her hands from her face.
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So this scumbag guy made sure to get her face on camera and then immediately sent it to the media.
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Um, then, um, after she went to the police, they arrested the headmaster.
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A group of people gathered in the streets, demanding his release.
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The protests had been arranged by two male students and local politicians were allegedly in attendance.
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People began to blame, uh, the, the woman, her family say that she started to worry about her safety.
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Um, then she went back to school, regardless of, of, of this, fearing for her safety.
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She still went to school because she wanted to finish her final exams.
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According to a statement given by Nusrat, a fellow female student took her to the roof of the school,
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saying one of her friends was being beaten up when Nusrat reached the rooftop,
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four or five people wearing burqas surrounded her and allegedly pressured her to withdraw the case against the headmaster.
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When she, when she refused, they set her on fire.
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Uh, and it goes on from there in the ambulance, um, fearing that she might not survive.
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She recorded a statement on her brother's mobile phone.
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Uh, so the first thing that jumps out of the, uh, out at you about the story is the incredible courage of this young woman.
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I mean, she obviously knew the risks involved in reporting the conduct of her alleged abuser.
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Um, when you think about how hesitant, you know, we can be even in this country to report inappropriate conduct by people who are in authority over us,
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not just sexual misconduct, but any kind of misconduct.
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Uh, you think about how hesitant we can be because of the consequences we might face.
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Well, the risks that she faced were a hundred times greater than anything we face.
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And then even as she was dying after being set on fire, she still was standing her ground and, um, demanding justice.
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I mean, you, you just don't encounter this kind of courage every day.
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The second thing is we have to realize that in fundamentalist Islamic countries, this is what women face.
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Um, they're not only required to walk around in bags, essentially covered from head to toe, but if they're raped or abused, they can be punished for it.
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They can be set on fire or stoned to death or attacked in some other equally gruesome way.
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And, and, and this is why it's so dangerous, I think, to engage in the sort of cultural relativism where we say, oh, well, all, you know, all cultures are equal.
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We can't judge, you know, everything is, it's all, it's all equal.
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This is why it's dangerous to condemn people who celebrate Western culture as objectively superior to other cultures, which it is.
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Our Western culture is superior to the culture that, um, that this woman lived in.
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It's dangerous because when you do that, when you do this relativistic thing, when you insist that even, even this culture where this happened is equal to our own, you are denying or downplaying or dismissing the horrific treatment suffered by women.
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And, and, and, and homosexuals and many other groups in these countries, what you're saying is, yeah, it's not cool, but you know, it's not so bad.
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I mean, it's not, it's not so bad that we should make any statements about the overall culture, but we should, we should, there is something deeply disordered about a culture where women are treated like this, where a woman is not even allowed to show her face in public for fear of being killed.
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I mean, uh, there's something deeply wrong there.
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The point is when we say that Western civilization is better than the cultures that essentially enslave women, we are not saying that the individual human beings themselves are better.
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We are saying that our system of treating women with respect and dignity is better.
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We should be putting that forward as an objectively better system and, and saying, you know, this is a better way to be.
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You really can't, you cannot claim that you are, uh, you know, fighting for equality for women across the globe.
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And then in the next breath say that, well, you know, cultures that treat women like cattle are equal to ours and we can't make any judgments.
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No, in our culture, you know, Western civilization is not perfect.
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And I'll be the first one to say that, listen, through abortion, uh, we've, we, we have killed 60 million babies through abortion.
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And so that is a historic atrocity that is certainly holding us back morally from being the kind of moral light to the world that we could otherwise be.
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Uh, so there are, there are serious problems in our own civilization.
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And interestingly enough, most of the people who engage in this cultural relativism who say that, you know, hey, our, uh, we're not much better than them.
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They're the same ones who defend this, this atrocity that is, that is preventing us from being that moral light.
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So we have our own issues, but the fact is, um, in this country, you know, despite what feminists say, I mean, women are free in this country and they can walk around in public and they can get jobs and they can live lives just like any man can.
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Um, and you're not going to hear stories like this in America.
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Um, so we, you know, it's easy enough to say that, well, we condemn this particular incident.
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But we also need to condemn the, uh, aspects of that culture that allow this sort of thing to happen.
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I wanted to, uh, mention something on a much lighter note.
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A guy posted a picture of his son's math test to Facebook a couple of days ago.
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He was, he wanted to call attention to the, uh, some of the comments that the teacher made on his second grade son's math test.
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So this is, this is why there's the image of the test and, um, what the teacher allegedly wrote.
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Now we have the image that he put on Facebook, but the teacher on this image, the comment says,
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Uh, now, first of all, I, I wouldn't take this at face value.
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Maybe it's legitimate, but that by no means is established.
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And just because you see a picture of something on the internet doesn't mean that it's true.
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I think hopefully by now we all understand that.
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So, you know, it might be a hoax or something like that.
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But if it isn't, I mean, is it wrong of me to laugh at this?
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Maybe, maybe this pathetic, uh, maybe this is the kind of feedback that our kids need.
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And I don't know, there might not be anything wrong with that.
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Finally, Netflix launched into a hectoring tweet storm a couple of days ago, complaining
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And I want to share this with you, uh, for a couple of reasons, but first of all, because
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you, you see here a stark contrast between the sorts of things that feminists are worried
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about in this country, uh, versus what, what women face in other, other parts of the world.
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And, and, and you start to think, you know, maybe feminists should be less concerned about
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this sort of thing and should be spending, I don't know, all of their time and efforts
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calling attention to women who are being set on fire and killed, uh, for being sexually
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But in this country, this is what they're worried about.
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So this is what, this is what Netflix said in their feminist, uh, screed.
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They said, for starters, chick flicks are traditionally synonymous, synonymous with romantic comedies.
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This suggests that women are the only people interested in one romance and two comedy, which I can
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promise from the men I've come across in my life simply isn't true.
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Uh, these aren't sweeping categories specific to men.
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You don't hear people asking to watch man movies.
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Instead, pretty much every intersection of genre is on the table and, and seen as for
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men, except of course the aforementioned rom-coms.
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The term also cheapens the work that goes into making these types of films.
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Romantic comedies and or films centered around female leads go through just as much editing,
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consideration, and rewriting as any other film.
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And nicknaming films chick flicks drives home that there's something trivial about watching
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But what's trivial about watching a film that makes you feel a thousand emotions in 90 minutes?
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Overall, there's nothing inherently gendered about liking a lighthearted film with a strong
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So next time you call something a chick flick, you better be referring to chicken run.
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So the first problem here is just the triviality of it.
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The second thing is you do hear people talking about man movies or movies for men.
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But here, here, here's the, here's the, the double standard because, okay.
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If we call something a chick flick or a woman, a movie for women, that's offensive to women
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But if we were to say of a Bruce Willis action movie, that it's a man movie, that's offensive
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So I thought if we gender a movie and say it's only for a particular gender, then it is
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offensive to the gender that we have assigned it to.
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But no, that's not, that's apparently not the case.
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No matter what you do, it's just going to be offensive to women in the end.
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Um, but of course, in the end, it doesn't matter because it's just, it's, it's still,
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it's a lighthearted way of referring to, uh, a movie.
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And this really reminds me of this clip that's making the rounds online right now of Brie Larson
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reacting to, uh, a lighthearted joke that one of her, one of her, um, fellow castmates
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I did, I did my stunts because I thought that that's what everyone did.
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No, I'll be the first me, not the next Tom Cruise.
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And that's what, that's what feminism has become.
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I guess if we were to sum up feminism in one kind of line or one phrase, I think that's
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It's women who take themselves way too seriously and have no sense of humor whatsoever.
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Um, let's go to emails, mattwalshowatgmail.com, mattwalshowatgmail.com.
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What's your favorite type of beer, ale, lager, amber, et cetera.
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What's your favorite mass produced beer, like Coors, Sam Adams, et cetera.
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If I'm going to sit down and have only one beer, which I mean, why would I ever do that?
00:24:20.720
Obviously you'd have more than one, but in that case, I'll probably go with a porter.
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You can't beat the richness and complexity of a porter in my opinion, but I'm not going
00:24:33.760
So if I'm going for higher volumes, then I'll go with an ale, probably an IPA, you know,
00:24:48.800
Um, so I would say best mass produced probably be Sam Adams or, or, uh, Sierra Nevada, Sierra
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That's a tough one because I think they're all great.
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I've never had, I've never encountered a craft brewery that doesn't make good beer, but I
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guess I got to go with the OG of craft breweries.
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Um, this is from Brian says, Matt, I love your show, but I disagree with your assessment
00:25:23.720
I think he's, he's, he says what's on his heart.
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Well, Brian, I get that you find it refreshing and you know, I respect that.
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But what you have to understand is that the vast majority of people don't feel that way.
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And I think there are also a lot of people who used to feel that way and don't anymore.
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And I think that there's probably nobody who, you know, really didn't like that style, but
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recently has decided, you know what, that's, that's great.
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I love it when Trump's constantly running his mouth and, you know, just saying whatever happens
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to pop into his head, um, whether it's true or not, whether it makes sense or not, whether
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it's relevant or not, whether it matters or not, you know, I don't think there's anyone
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who has recently decided they actually love that.
00:26:11.820
I think there are a lot of people who have, um, in the last few years have just gotten sick
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of it and would like to see maybe a little bit of presidential behavior, maybe just a
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Um, so that's my point that, you know, you might personally like it and that's fine.
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But as a supporter of the president, when you encourage more of it, you're not doing yourself
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You're not doing his reelection chances, any favors.
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You're just not, I'll tell you, think about in the last, I mean, really throughout his
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presidency, what are the moments when Trump seems to, you know, really almost verge on
00:27:02.980
the, on the edge of even getting some good press.
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And, um, you know, what, what are, what are the Trump moments that you can think of where
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at least pretty much all conservatives seem to rally around it and, and, and be energized
00:27:20.100
Uh, well, the last example I can think of is a state of the union speech.
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It seems like a million years ago now, but a state of the union speech, uh, it was a great
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speech that all conservatives seem to be energized by it and loved it.
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And he was even, even got a little bit of credit outside of the conservative circles for
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Um, and I think any other example you can name would be something like that, where he delivered
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a scripted speech and he had what appeared to be a presidential moment where he really seemed
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like a president, like a dignified kind of guy up there in charge, in command.
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Um, it's, those are the moments that appeal to, that appeal beyond Trump's hardcore fans.
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He, he, he never has moments like that because of what he tweets or because of one of his rambling
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pep rally speeches that he gives that appeals to the people who he doesn't need to appeal to.
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Because they're on his side, no matter what his most hardcore fans.
00:28:29.020
I think to win in 2020, he needs fewer of those moments where he is winning people who will
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vote for him literally no matter what he says or do does.
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He needs a lot more of the state of the union type moments.
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Uh, and I think if you're interested in him getting reelected, that's what you would be
00:28:53.280
I just want to let you know that your show is definitely the worst on the daily water.
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You're not as thoughtful as Ben or as funny as Knowles or as entertaining as Clavin and
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your long wandering rambles about theology and biblical history and whatever other topic
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you feel like babbling about are not interesting.
00:29:09.780
I'm just trying to be honest and I'm not in all caps sending this so that you'll read
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You know, I don't, I mean, I don't even care what you, what you think.
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I can't get the, you know, I really feel like I could, I was thinking about this the other
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day when I was watching TV that I could be a Hollywood actor.
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Uh, I, I think I could act, you know, I think almost anyone could.
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It doesn't seem like that hard except for the fake crying thing.
00:29:53.780
I don't know how they do that when you've got the scene where someone's really emotionally
00:29:56.840
distraught and you know, they're just the waterworks that I could not do.
00:30:01.080
That's the, that is the one, that's the most impressive element of acting in my opinion.
00:30:13.480
Uh, now my glasses are getting fogged up for my fake tears from Tina, uh, says very disappointed
00:30:19.700
in your presentation related to the gifts of the Holy spirit.
00:30:22.420
I would have thought you would have done a better job with that in particular, in the
00:30:25.920
way of understanding the dynamics of those gifts and the use of them, especially in the
00:30:31.380
Yes, it is a gift that is given to only particular people.
00:30:33.620
And just like any gift that's given to you or me, we can abuse that gift.
00:30:37.480
I would highly encourage you that, uh, when you do any kind of commentary on something this
00:30:41.860
specific in regard to the spirituality of those in the Catholic church, that you give it
00:30:49.820
I was very offended personally by your cavalier approach to a very important topic and a very
00:30:54.360
important part of the spirituality of many faithful Catholics like myself.
00:30:57.880
Um, I, she's referring, I believe to when we talked about speaking in tongues and I said
00:31:02.580
that people who babble in gibberish are not really speaking in tongues.
00:31:06.680
And, uh, that is not a gift of the, you know, speaking gibberish is not a gift of the Holy
00:31:17.720
Well, Tina, I, I never objected to the concept of Holy spirit of the Holy spirit giving gifts.
00:31:25.200
Um, we all have gifts from the Holy spirit in one form or another, but the question is
00:31:29.320
whether babbling in gibberish is a gift from the Holy spirit, or if it's just a man-made
00:31:33.620
thing and something that people do because it's a trend in modern Christianity.
00:31:37.300
And I emphasize a modern trend, uh, nobody was babbling in gibberish in the church prior
00:31:45.520
So that's really the question is, is, is gibberish a gift of the Holy spirit?
00:31:50.980
Now, when you babble gibberish and nobody can understand you and nobody on earth recognizes
00:31:56.020
it as a language, um, am I supposed to take your word for it?
00:32:00.780
That it's some kind of mysterious angelic language that no one can understand.
00:32:05.740
Like when my, when my son starts babbling gibberish and says, I, I made up a new language,
00:32:13.060
Am I supposed to take that seriously as an actual real language?
00:32:17.680
Um, well, you know, I, I guess I, I don't, to be honest with you, I guess.
00:32:26.420
And I don't mean this in an offensive way, but I just don't see any reason to believe
00:32:31.440
that your gibberish is really some kind of miraculous event and not just gibberish.
00:32:40.960
According to everyone around us, it's just, no one understands.
00:32:43.540
I mean, you know, it seems by all accounts to be gibberish.
00:32:48.960
Um, there, there simply is no reason to believe anything other than that.
00:32:52.360
And considering how detrimental this stuff is to the church and how it serves no functional
00:32:56.960
purpose whatsoever, unlike when the early disciples did it and they were doing it so that other
00:33:01.260
people could understand them so that they could evangelize to those people.
00:33:06.880
It doesn't really seem to seem to serve any purpose other than to embarrass, um, Christians.
00:33:13.420
So I'm led even more to the conclusion that there's no reason to believe it's miraculous.
00:33:17.360
Uh, do you really think that God is evangelizing?
00:33:20.420
God is drawing people to himself by inspiring Christians to babble nonsensically?
00:33:28.200
You're going to, you know, babble nonsensically and blame it on the Holy spirit.
00:33:32.520
I mean, of all the miracles that God can perform, you think, you think making people babble is
00:33:41.720
Well, I don't honestly, and I'm not going to believe you just because you say it.
00:33:48.160
Uh, and again, no offense there, but like, if you told me you had the ability to heal
00:33:53.580
the blind, now that's a real miracle that, and maybe there are people in the world today
00:34:01.580
I'm not going to say that they don't exist, but I'm not going to take your word for it.
00:34:05.480
If you come up to me and say, yeah, I can heal blind people.
00:34:12.940
And see my reluctance in believing you is not a reluctance in trusting God.
00:34:20.200
I'm just not, I'm not going to implicitly trust what you tell me because you're a person.
00:34:29.340
I'm not just going to believe it because you say it.
00:34:32.560
And so if you say you can perform that kind of miracle, you can heal the blind.
00:34:38.400
Bring a blind person in here and let me see you heal them.
00:34:40.900
Um, but if you can't do it, or if you heal a blind person, but by all appearances, they're
00:34:51.260
still blind and they can't see at the end of it, uh, then I'm going to say that, no,
00:34:57.540
You're either confused or you're a charlatan lying.
00:35:02.720
I'm not accusing you of lying, but I think that people can, by the power of suggestion,
00:35:08.200
come to sincerely believe that they're in the midst of a divine trance when really it's
00:35:12.760
just an ecstatic kind of hysterical, but totally earthbound phenomenon.
00:35:20.320
I think people really believe that they are hypnotized.
00:35:23.320
You watch a hypnotist on TV and you see people go up there and say, oh, I'm going to ring the
00:35:33.480
Nothing has happened there other than he's been convinced to play along without realizing
00:35:41.180
I'm afraid to say, um, so once again, the issue is that nobody has provided me one single
00:35:49.040
substantive reason to believe that gibberish is a miracle and you insisting on it and saying
00:35:56.000
And, uh, and that's just it and, and quoting the Bible and say, well, it says here in the
00:36:00.740
Bible that, yeah, I know it says that, but that doesn't prove that that's what you're
00:36:04.860
The Bible recounts many miracles, but that doesn't mean that you can do it.
00:36:09.800
And if you say you can, again, I'm going to need evidence.
00:36:15.880
Uh, and I think that's the approach that we all should have.
00:36:19.220
And that's the other thing as, as Christians, we don't want, I think we undermine our faith
00:36:27.860
Like if, if it, if it seems that we'll just believe anything anyone tells us, then you
00:36:34.840
know what people on the outside, they're going to start to think they're going to say, oh,
00:36:37.120
well, so is maybe their whole religion is just that.
00:36:39.920
It seems like this is a gullible person who just believe anything.
00:36:43.880
So, man, that's, I guess that's all the Bible is just another story that this gullible person
00:36:52.420
Now, I think we want to show some discernment and show that, no, we do have some standards
00:36:56.160
here and we're not going to fall for any story someone tells us.
00:37:06.660
Uh, hope you guys have a great, not just a great weekend, but a great, uh, Easter weekend,
00:37:11.220
the most important weekend of the year for, for Christians everywhere.
00:37:29.600
Today on the Ben Shapiro show, we recap the Mueller report Democrats call for impeachment and the
00:37:34.160
media changed their tune from collusion to obstruction.