The Matt Walsh Show - Ep. 250 - Another Failed Bombshell

00:00:00.000 Today on the Matt Walsh Show, they've got Trump this time. They've really got him.

00:00:03.760 The left now claims that a Washington Post report confirms that the Attorney General

00:00:07.740 obstructed justice for Trump. Except the only problem is that the Washington Post report

00:00:12.840 confirms exactly the opposite of that. We'll talk about it. Also, does the President's love

00:00:18.040 for tweeting help or hurt his re-election chances? We'll try to figure that out. And

00:00:24.480 schools in Virginia claim that there are thousands of transgender students enrolled

00:00:28.860 in their classes. Thousands. Now, if that's true, what does it actually tell us? And finally,

00:00:35.760 the worst movie trailer in history was just released, and it's hilariously bad. So we will,

00:00:42.300 I'll have to show that one to you today as well on the Matt Walsh Show.

00:00:50.580 So Eric Swalwell, Swalwell, who is technically a presidential candidate and also I think maybe

00:00:58.180 he's a congressman or something like that. I don't know. Anyway, he tweeted this last night. He said,

00:01:03.960 do you know how many times the word woman is mentioned in the Constitution? Zero. That is 1.00

00:01:10.400 unacceptable. Women must be equally represented and equally protected. Now, okay, this is just more 0.88

00:01:20.440 striking evidence that Eric Swalwell is, I'm trying to put this delicately, a moron. The word woman 1.00

00:01:31.000 does not appear in the Constitution. That's true. Neither does the word man. That's because the

00:01:36.100 Constitution is a legal document which enumerates the powers and responsibilities of the government.

00:01:41.720 It doesn't get into specifics about man, woman, boy, girl. It doesn't say those words.

00:01:46.140 Um, there are actually a whole bunch of words that are not in the Constitution. I mean,

00:01:51.820 comparatively speaking, almost every word is not in the Constitution. Really, there are only a few

00:01:57.460 words that are used when you compare it against, I mean, the word, uh, the word futon isn't in the

00:02:03.480 Constitution. Uh, banjo, kangaroo, shoe, zealous, flabby, parmesan, waddle, globe,

00:02:15.160 tree, lamp, door. I mean, there are so many words that are not in the Constitution. Uh, I mean,

00:02:23.660 seriously, like I said, the word parmesan is not in there. I, I, we have spaghetti once a week

00:02:28.540 in my family and, uh, uh, we have spaghetti night, you know, and, and I always use parmesan.

00:02:34.720 Millions of Americans use parmesan, yet this is not acknowledged in the Constitution, uh, which is

00:02:41.340 despicable. Despicable, I say. So, very good point. Actually, I, I take it back. Eric Swalwell's not a

00:02:46.120 moron. Uh, an excellent point, I think, that he made. All right, um, a lot to talk about, but, but

00:02:52.060 first, you know, it's springtime. That's the time of year when seeds grow into flowers and, and, and you

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00:03:58.720 nipping life insurance in the bud. All right. Um, okay. Speaking of tweeting, I did want to mention

00:04:06.500 that the president of the United States tweeted, uh, like 65 times this morning, not hyperbole.

00:04:13.420 He tweeted 65 times. I mean, a number of those were retweets, but, but, but still, um, he went on

00:04:19.560 a tear, uh, because some people claim that firefighters are going to vote for Joe Biden and Trump believes

00:04:27.980 that firefighters are going to vote for him. So he went through and retweeted about 50 different random

00:04:31.860 people who say that, uh, that no, actually firefighters like Donald Trump, not Joe Biden.

00:04:37.160 Now, look, this is what I always say. Okay. I, you know, I'm a broken record. I'll say it again.

00:04:41.000 If you're a diehard Trump supporter, um, I think you need to, to try to see this through the lens

00:04:48.040 of someone who is not a diehard Trump supporter, because most people aren't, which isn't a knock

00:04:54.720 on Trump. I mean, most people are not diehard supporters of any particular politician,

00:04:58.940 right? Uh, the diehard supporters of any politician are always going to be in the minority. No one has

00:05:04.680 ever had, no politician has ever had 51% of the population as diehard fans of theirs. It's just,

00:05:11.460 it doesn't happen. Um, so what that means is there aren't enough diehard fans of Trump to get him

00:05:18.160 elected again. Um, there, the diehard fans are not the ones who got him elected the first time. You

00:05:24.780 know, it's because he attracted a lot of people who are kind of in the middle. Um,

00:05:28.940 so you're going to need the non diehards too. And the non non diehards are not nearly as excited 1.00

00:05:35.060 about all the tweeting as you might be if you're a diehard. Um, in fact, the non diehards get the 0.97

00:05:42.680 impression that the president cares more about trolling on Twitter than he does about governing.

00:05:46.580 The non diehards also believe that you as a diehard would definitely criticize literally any other 0.83

00:05:53.860 politician who spent all day tweeting, especially if it was like Barack Obama or someone like that.

00:05:58.620 So if Trump is going to win in 2020, and I hope he does, he's going to need to start operating in

00:06:04.500 a way that does not just, that does not just appeal to the diehard fans while repulsing everybody else.

00:06:11.260 Um, he's going to need to broaden his appeal just a little bit. I mean, that's my advice. I know it

00:06:15.260 won't be followed by the way. I, I looked it up right before I went on the air just to see what

00:06:19.400 the polling says on this. And it turns out that I'm, uh, what do you know? Exactly. Right. Uh,

00:06:23.860 from, from Politico, it says nearly half of voters, 46% in a Politico, uh, slash morning

00:06:29.900 called consult poll say that yes, Trump's Twitter use hurts his reelection campaign more than twice

00:06:36.380 the number who say his direct to voters Twitter account is an asset. Seven in 10 voters say Trump

00:06:41.380 uses Twitter too much. Um, while 14% say he uses it the right amount. 1% say that he doesn't tweet

00:06:47.860 enough. Okay. But, uh, but again, a small minority now this does matter. Okay. I know you're

00:06:55.000 going to say, Oh, it doesn't matter. It does matter because it's the kind of thing that helps to form

00:07:00.000 a visceral impression of a person. And the visceral impression matters a lot. And the visceral impression

00:07:08.320 that a lot of people have of Trump is negative. That's just the fact, whether or not, even whether

00:07:13.500 or not you like it doesn't matter. It's the fact. And I think when you encourage the president

00:07:17.820 to do more of the thing that helps to generate that viscerally negative impression, you're

00:07:25.620 encouraging him to lose, which isn't good. Uh, all right. Attorney general, William Barr will

00:07:33.260 testify today before the Senate judiciary committee. Um, and this is great because it's been, you

00:07:43.580 know, a couple of days since someone testified in front of a committee and I I've really been

00:07:48.740 jonesing for another fix. I don't know about you. I, you know, it's, I, I need to get these Senate

00:07:53.160 committees. I need, I need to see more of them. Um, I, this is what I live for, right? Don't we all?

00:07:59.120 Um, but in the lead up to that testimony, the, I was being sarcastic. I feel like I need to clarify

00:08:04.740 these days. Um, in the lead up to that testimony, the Washington post published a report

00:08:09.840 claiming that Robert Mueller, um, complained to Barr about Barr's summary of his report,

00:08:17.860 a summary that as you remember, Barr released, uh, weeks before the full report was actually

00:08:23.340 released. Now, of course the media and the left, they've gone crazy over this claiming that, you

00:08:28.900 know, Barr is in on it. Barr is a coverup artist. Uh, Barr has to be impeached too. Now Barr has to be

00:08:34.680 arrested. He's obstructing justice. He's blah, blah, blah. He's a criminal. So on and so forth.

00:08:39.420 Um, the headline on CNN says, William Barr is in deep trouble. The Huffington post said, uh,

00:08:46.180 Barr spin too much for Mueller. Then Joe Scarborough, uh, you can always count on him to have

00:08:51.700 the most nuanced and thoughtful take on a subject. He said, breaking the attorney general actively

00:08:59.340 engaged in a coverup was called on it and continued to cover up the truth about Trump's obstruction of

00:09:04.340 justice. Now, the problem with all this is that it isn't true, which I know for the media, they don't

00:09:11.720 really consider that to be a problem when they're reporting something, but I think it is, uh, because

00:09:16.180 the same report in the Washington post report, that very same one clarifies that Mueller did not think

00:09:25.560 that Barr lied or mischaracterized or misrepresented anything. So ironically, it's, you know, the media

00:09:34.520 is mischaracterizing this by saying that Mueller claimed that he was mischaracterized. Um, Mueller in

00:09:45.560 fact admitted that Barr did not say anything that was inaccurate. Um, he was upset rather by the media

00:09:52.440 coverage. Uh, he did take issue with the, with, with the summary itself, but not in a way that he

00:09:57.640 was accusing him of lying. This is what he here's in part, um, what Mueller said. He said, the summary,

00:10:03.380 the summary letter, the department sent to Congress and released to the public late in the afternoon

00:10:07.220 of March 24th did not fully capture the context, nature, and substance of this office's work and

00:10:13.520 conclusions. There is now public confusion about critical aspects of the results of our investigation.

00:10:18.600 This threatens to undermine a central purpose for which the department appointed the special

00:10:22.420 counsel to ensure a full public confidence in the outcome of the investigations. Uh, he then

00:10:28.720 requested that the full report be released. And he suggested that, you know, he suggested a few

00:10:33.360 redactions that should be made. And then guess what? The full report was released and you can go and read

00:10:40.460 it right now. It's out there. You can go read it. The idea that this is a coverup when the report is out

00:10:47.460 there for anyone to read is of course, ridiculous. So the left is once again, way, way, way, way overstating

00:10:56.400 the case. And they're hurting themselves in the process because they could say, you know, they could

00:11:03.580 just say, well, it looks like Mueller, you know, would have preferred that the whole report was released.

00:11:08.400 He didn't, he didn't, he didn't like a few of the aspects of it. He thought it was, you know,

00:11:11.600 it didn't get the full context. Um, and that's true. Okay. So you could just say that,

00:11:17.940 but that isn't a bombshell and everything has to be a bombshell these days. Everything has to be

00:11:24.840 huge breaking news. Oh my God, we're all going to die. Right. That's what everything has to be.

00:11:28.660 There are no boring news stories anymore. I don't know if you've noticed that nothing's allowed to

00:11:33.800 be boring. Everything has to be dramatic and, and, and catastrophic. Um, and I think we have to

00:11:41.280 understand that about, about the media, uh, that for the, it's important to understand the media's

00:11:48.320 motivations, um, that it's not for them just about hating Trump. I mean, they do hate Trump obviously,

00:11:57.740 but that's not all that this is about. It's also, and I would say primarily it's about news

00:12:03.780 as entertainment. Um, it's about getting people to watch the news like they're watching house of

00:12:11.240 cards. Um, and, and, uh, it's, it's, you know, they want people to follow along with the news,

00:12:19.720 like they're binging something on Netflix. Um, and that's why I'm not really at all convinced

00:12:25.620 that these media people really do want Trump to lose in 2020. In fact, I'm, I'm pretty

00:12:33.480 convinced they don't because he's been great for them. They've got this whole fantasy narrative

00:12:39.440 going about him, this whole storyline, and it's great for ratings. They lose if he loses. Um,

00:12:46.340 so I, you know, I don't think they want him to be voted out, which is why it's probably not a

00:12:51.620 coincidence that they're, everything they're doing is only helping him when they try to make, uh,

00:12:58.300 they take something like this. They, they misrepresent it. They make it into a whole

00:13:02.080 big bombshell story, embarrass themselves over and over and over again. It only makes Trump look

00:13:08.440 better by comparison. And it makes people arrive at the conclusion that, okay, well, there's obviously

00:13:14.500 there's no, there's no smoke or fire here. I mean, this is, this is, uh, you know, and then if the

00:13:21.240 media ever does get their hands on an actual scandal or, you know, evidence of actual, uh,

00:13:27.960 malfeasance of some kind, that's going to be the boy who cried wolf. No one's going to believe it.

00:13:34.120 So I don't, you know, now I'm not saying that they're, that they're conspiring to get them

00:13:38.020 elected. I just think that, um, if the media really wanted to work hard to make sure that Trump

00:13:45.060 didn't get reelected, I think they'd be doing things a little bit differently, but for them,

00:13:52.160 it's all about ratings and Trump still, uh, is, is a bonanza for them for ratings. I mean, just look

00:14:00.040 at, just look at MSNBC's ratings in the, in the Obama years compared to what it's been in the Trump

00:14:05.660 years. It's been great for them. Um, so it's their, their need for ratings combined with their

00:14:14.640 hatred of Trump. Um, and all of that together leads to this. All right. This is interesting

00:14:20.920 from CBN. Um, reading from CBN right now, it says four schools in Northern Virginia claim that there

00:14:28.560 are quote thousands of students in Virginia public schools who identify as transgender and they should

00:14:34.600 be allowed to use whatever bathroom they choose. Um, the Washington post reports that the Alexandra

00:14:40.420 Arlington Falls church and Fairfax County school boards filed a friend of the court brief

00:14:44.540 on behalf of Gavin Grimm, a biological girl who sued her school board in, in, uh, in Virginia in 2015

00:14:51.700 after being denied access to the boys restroom. Grimm claimed that the school violated title nine

00:14:58.700 and the equal protection clause of the constitution. Um, and, uh, the case made it to the Supreme court,

00:15:05.200 but was returned to a lower court after the Trump administration abandoned the Obama era rule

00:15:09.580 on transgender students. Uh, and then it goes on from there. The thing that I'm latching onto here,

00:15:16.940 the thing that's, that jumps out at me is, uh, it says thousands of transgenders, thousands.

00:15:25.280 Now, what do we do with a number like that? What does that mean? It seems to me that it must mean

00:15:31.840 one of two things. Either the number is completely bogus, which of course is possible, or it means

00:15:40.120 that transgenderism is a fad and kids identify as gender fluid or transgender because that's what 0.99

00:15:46.840 their friends are doing. And that's what society encourages. And it's the fashionable, trendy thing.

00:15:51.300 Now it could really mean, you know, it could mean both of those things, but it has to mean one or

00:15:57.080 one or both. Um, because if transgenderism is a real thing, if it's naturally occurring, 1.00

00:16:05.200 then there's no reason why there should be a spike in transgenderism, which happens to coincidentally

00:16:12.100 coincide with media attention to transgenderism. Like if there was a rash of media coverage about

00:16:18.620 people with red hair, if all of a sudden we were all talking about gingers all the time, 0.89

00:16:22.880 then, um, you know what? You would not see a spike in red haired people being born. The percentage of

00:16:30.160 red haired people has, I would imagine, remained basically static throughout human history because

00:16:36.140 it's not affected by society. Um, that's not the case with transgenderism. In fact, there was a study

00:16:44.840 done, uh, on this a couple of years ago. Uh, the CNN report says a team examined data from a 2016

00:16:52.740 survey of almost 81,000 Minnesota students in the ninth and 11th grades. Um, nearly 2,200 of those

00:17:00.260 students, about 2.7% answered yes to the question. Do you consider yourself transgender, genderqueer,

00:17:06.260 gender fluid, or unsure of your gender identification? Um, that's a big jump from a UCLA study,

00:17:13.960 which was published in January, 2017 and estimated that 0.7% of American teens, uh, age 13 to 17

00:17:20.900 identifies transgender. That study was based on government data, um, uh, on adults collected by

00:17:27.720 27 U S States in 2014 to 2015. So according to that, the number of gender fluid teens has nearly

00:17:35.800 tripled in a couple of years tripled. I mean, why is that? Again, if this is, if, if this is a naturally

00:17:47.560 occurring thing, if you can actually be transgender because of, you know, your physiology, because of

00:17:55.400 how you were born, if you're born that way, um, well, then why would you happen to see this spike?

00:18:02.880 Of course, it doesn't make any sense. And the reason why we see it is because it has become

00:18:06.980 fashionable in the meantime. Um, and so kids are, and, and by the way, fashionable, not just

00:18:18.540 for the kids, but for parents too. So you've got high school kids, impressionable high school kids

00:18:24.440 are looking around and seeing that this is, this is the new popular trendy thing. And then you've got

00:18:29.180 parents also who are, who are seeing the same thing and they decide that, Oh, we're going to

00:18:32.680 raise our kid, uh, to be transgender. That's, that's what's happening here. Um, you know, the 1.00

00:18:39.560 leftists like to laugh and say that, uh, you know, when we criticize all of this transgender hysteria, 1.00

00:18:48.560 they'll say, Oh, what do you think? We're trying to turn your kid into a transgender? Well, yeah, 1.00

00:18:53.460 actually that is what I think that is basically what you're trying to do. And, um, that is what

00:18:58.020 you have succeeded in doing for apparently thousands of kids. All right. The, uh, United

00:19:04.660 Methodist Church is being protested in Nebraska because it affirmed biblical views on sexuality.

00:19:12.500 Um, a group of teens now will not be taking part in the Omaha first United Methodist Church

00:19:18.500 confirmation ritual because the church considers the homosexual act to be sinful. And they reaffirmed 1.00

00:19:24.600 that view recently. So in a letter, um, this group of teenagers, they wrote in part, we are concerned

00:19:33.060 that if we join at this time, we will be sending a message that we approve of this decision,

00:19:37.360 the decision to affirm biblical sexual morality. We want to be clear that while we love our congregation,

00:19:43.340 we believe the United Methodist policies on LGBTQ plus clergy and same-sex marriage are immoral.

00:19:49.320 We are not standing just for ourselves. We are standing for every single member of the LGBTQ plus

00:19:53.660 community who is hurting right now because, because we were raised in this church. We believe that if we

00:19:58.340 all stand together as a whole, we can make a difference. So you notice that as usual, those who

00:20:06.100 are advocating for LGBT inclusion or, you know, whatever, um, they, they don't bother making a

00:20:13.260 theological argument. Have you noticed that? The argument is always based around their personal

00:20:19.900 beliefs and convictions. Um, they always frame the argument as, oh, this is hateful. This is bigoted.

00:20:27.380 They don't bother trying to cite chapter and verse or, or to make any argument on a theological basis at

00:20:34.020 all. Um, and, and that of course is a problem because the Bible does clearly condemn the homosexual 0.99

00:20:41.180 act, whether you like it or not repeatedly. Um, it does also define marriage as between a man and a

00:20:48.220 woman. It does so at the very beginning in Genesis. And then Jesus reaffirms and reasserts that definition,

00:20:55.400 uh, in, in the gospels, Matthew 19, four, go check it out for yourself. Now, if you're going to say

00:21:02.360 that there should be gay marriage in the church and there should be gay clergy and there should be

00:21:06.360 gay acceptance and all of that, well, you have to do something with those verses because they're,

00:21:13.220 the verses are there, the teachings are there and you have to address them. You need to have some kind

00:21:20.800 of answer for them, right? You can't just pretend they don't exist. I mean, if you're an atheist,

00:21:24.940 then sure, you can wave them off and say, well, who cares? But if you're retaining your Christian 1.00

00:21:32.340 identity or trying to retain it, um, then that option is not available to you. You can't wave it

00:21:39.160 off. You, you have to have some answer for it. And the people in this camp, they have no answer. They

00:21:45.380 don't bother answering it. Now, uh, the, the most, on the rare occasion that someone who's advocating

00:21:56.960 for LGBT inclusion in the church and gay marriage from a Christian perspective, on the rare occasion

00:22:02.300 that someone like that does try a theological argument, um, well, they, they, they can't, they

00:22:08.880 don't make a, a positive theological argument like saying, well, the Bible actually, uh, promotes

00:22:15.580 homosexuality in gay marriage. They, they don't do that because they know they can't, you just can't 1.00

00:22:21.280 make a case for it. But instead they'll try to look at individual verses that seem to condemn the

00:22:28.640 homosexual act. And they're, they'll say, well, no, that's not really about homosexual. Generally,

00:22:32.600 that's about prostitution or that's about, uh, you know, any sex outside of marriage or it's about 1.00

00:22:39.600 paganism and so on. And there are, there are a few verses in the Bible where you can maybe make that

00:22:45.720 argument, but you certainly can't do it with all the verses. And what you, what you definitely cannot

00:22:53.880 qualify out of existence would be these very clear passages right at the beginning of the

00:23:02.580 Old Testament and right in the gospels that define marriage. Um, there's, there's just no getting

00:23:09.580 around that. It's right there. And if you believe that God is, uh, omniscient, then you can't say,

00:23:23.460 well, yeah, it says marriage between a man and a woman, but, uh, but you know, it doesn't say anything

00:23:27.860 about gay marriage. And so maybe that it should, what God didn't, didn't know that this would be an 0.54

00:23:32.680 issue. So I didn't think to mention it. That of course makes no sense. Um, so it seems to me that

00:23:42.100 the only way to kind of diffuse those verses is to, uh, diffuse the entire Bible and say that,

00:23:51.020 well, you know, it's not really the word of God at all. So we don't have to abide by it.

00:23:55.880 And as I said, as an atheist, you can do that, but as a Christian, you can't. 0.77

00:24:01.660 So if you want to be a Christian, you have to accept that whether you like it or not, it's right 0.94

00:24:06.240 there. Um, all right, before we get to emails, I need to play this for you. Uh, there's a,

00:24:13.040 there's a Sonic the Hedgehog movie coming out, apparently coming to theaters soon for some reason.

00:24:18.740 And the trailer was released and it's, it's maybe the worst trailer I've ever seen. It might really

00:24:26.800 be the worst movie trailer of all time. It's so cataclysmically bad that I think you just have

00:24:32.760 to see it if you haven't yet. So watch this.

00:24:34.560 Gotta go fast.

00:25:03.360 20 minutes ago, an energy surge knocked out power across the entire Pacific Northwest.

00:25:15.080 This needs someone who can figure out exactly what we're dealing with.

00:25:18.000 You're not suggesting who I think. You're suggesting. We have no choice.

00:25:25.100 What the?

00:25:26.760 Are you in charge here?

00:25:27.980 Yes, I am.

00:25:28.440 Nope!

00:25:29.820 I'm wrong.

00:25:31.260 I'm in charge.

00:25:32.420 Allow me to clarify.

00:25:33.320 In a sequentially ranked hierarchy based on a level of critical importance, the disparity

00:25:38.260 between us is too vast to quantify. Agent Stone?

00:25:40.500 The doctor thinks you're basic.

00:25:42.560 Listen, pal. I don't know if you realize who-

00:25:44.220 I'm sorry, Major. What was your name?

00:25:46.420 Benny-

00:25:46.720 Nobody cares!

00:25:51.160 SFPD!

00:25:51.480 Uh, meow?

00:25:59.660 Oh, come on. 0.87

00:26:01.820 Okay, pal. I want answers.

00:26:03.440 Basically, it looks like I'm going to have to save your planet.

00:26:05.620 Oh, is that all you got?

00:26:15.240 Okay, we'll just cut it off there. I don't need to watch the entire-

00:26:18.480 It goes on for another two minutes.

00:26:20.480 There are so many questions I have.

00:26:22.300 Like, for instance, why?

00:26:26.300 Why? Why are we doing this?

00:26:28.900 What is it about Sonic the Hedgehog?

00:26:32.100 I mean, what is it about Sonic, the video game Sonic, that made a screenwriter say,

00:26:37.020 oh, well, that's a great story.

00:26:38.320 We need to mine that story for all we can.

00:26:41.600 Also, is there a man standing off set pointing a gun at Jim Carrey?

00:26:47.000 Or was a family member kidnapped or something, and the kidnapper demanded that he star in

00:26:52.580 Sonic the Hedgehog, or he'll never see his family member again?

00:26:55.460 There's got to be an explanation, because I don't understand.

00:26:58.220 I mean, Jim Carrey, he's fallen off recently, but he could still probably star in any movie

00:27:04.000 he wanted to, and he chooses Sonic the Hedgehog.

00:27:09.880 Although, I guess, of course, Jim Carrey hasn't been in a good movie in like 20 years.

00:27:14.060 20 years ago, it seems that he decided, he pledged 20 years ago, that he's only going

00:27:19.380 to star in crap movies from then on out, and he has admirably remained loyal to that

00:27:25.760 pledge.

00:27:26.180 We got to give him credit for that.

00:27:28.160 So, well, Sonic the Hedgehog, which, you know, it may be so bad that it's actually good.

00:27:36.760 There's a chance.

00:27:38.740 So it might be worth watching when it comes out.

00:27:41.040 All right, let's go to emails, mattwalshow at gmail.com, mattwalshow at gmail.com.

00:27:44.980 This one is from Matt, says, would you apply the same moral culpability argument, which I

00:27:51.340 made yesterday on the show, backward as you do forward?

00:27:54.520 For example, biblical immodesty slash gluttony are immoral, but in today's society, these 0.95

00:27:59.220 sins are generally considered less serious than they were in the past.

00:28:02.860 Would you consider gluttons or teases less morally culpable today than in the past?

00:28:07.820 Great thought exercise either way.

00:28:09.400 Keep up the good work.

00:28:10.140 Yeah, we were talking about the moral culpability yesterday on the show of people in the past

00:28:16.240 for things like racism, even slavery, which were both totally accepted and taken for granted

00:28:25.240 as facts of life for much of human history across the entire world.

00:28:29.360 And so I would argue that for our ancestors, they have less moral culpability for being racist than we do today.

00:28:38.180 So would that apply today as well?

00:28:40.080 Well, I would say it does.

00:28:41.520 I mean, the point is that every society has certain sins, certain moral foibles that are taken for granted,

00:28:48.440 that are just a given and not seen as being immoral, even though they are.

00:28:54.600 It's not that they're not immoral because people don't see it as immoral.

00:28:57.940 It still is immoral, but people don't see it.

00:29:01.680 And so a person can accept that behavior and they can adopt that behavior more out of a sort of intellectual laziness

00:29:09.580 than out of abject evil on their part.

00:29:13.940 They're just going with the flow, you know, and that's not an excuse.

00:29:18.260 And it doesn't mitigate the guilt down to nothing, certainly.

00:29:21.840 There still is guilt, but it does mitigate it to some extent, I would think.

00:29:25.800 I think the fact is this, and it's a sad fact, that there are few people at any given moment in history

00:29:34.520 who really have the wherewithal and the insight and the wisdom

00:29:39.620 and the intelligence, moral intelligence, to see beyond their own time and to see evil as evil

00:29:51.500 just because it is, even if everyone else accepts it.

00:29:56.760 That, it would seem, is a relatively rare quality, which is why, I mean, it is a fascinating thing to think about,

00:30:07.100 that for thousands of years, basically everyone in the world was racist.

00:30:13.780 And, and, and nobody thought not to be.

00:30:17.860 I mean, the idea of not being racist, which is not, it didn't, it didn't come in anyone's head.

00:30:22.320 They just, they took it for granted.

00:30:23.480 It was like tribalism.

00:30:24.900 They, they saw people that look different from them that lived in different places at a different culture.

00:30:28.680 And they said, yeah, those people are, you know, inferior to us.

00:30:32.940 Of course they are.

00:30:35.240 Now, nowadays it's, it's, we can't even, most of us anyway, at least in the West,

00:30:41.960 we can't even understand that because we can't even, we can't wrap our head around it, right?

00:30:48.500 Because we take it absolutely for granted that all people are, are equal in dignity and worth

00:30:53.800 and that the color of your skin has no bearing on your worth as a person.

00:30:58.140 We just take that for granted as well.

00:30:59.860 We should, but, um, that is a very new thing in, in human history.

00:31:06.280 It only recently became obvious that racism is bad, like really recently, um, up until,

00:31:14.020 you know, the last 60 or 70 years, it was not so obvious, um, which I think,

00:31:23.800 when we recognize that fact, it should cause us to stop and think, now, wait a second.

00:31:30.920 What are, okay.

00:31:32.400 So this is a moral evil that everybody in the world took for granted for thousands of years.

00:31:37.100 I wonder what moral evils we are taking for granted today.

00:31:42.360 And then we can go and do an inventory of all the things that we take for granted and we think

00:31:47.120 are normal and just reevaluate them and think, is that actually okay?

00:31:52.040 I think that's a, a, a, a, a self-assessment that we all should perform.

00:31:59.260 Um, let's see.

00:32:02.780 This is from Kaya says, Matt, I'm listening to Monday show.

00:32:07.600 As you discussed this controversy over Robert E. Lee, I won't drawn on, drawn on and on about

00:32:12.540 it, but I'm wondering if there's hope that people will ever stop being so stupid.

00:32:16.820 Why can't people see that we can call Lee one of the greatest generals and also discuss

00:32:21.360 his downfalls of, uh, uh, of, uh, of morality?

00:32:25.220 Why is that so hard to understand?

00:32:27.040 Thank you for helping my sanity on a daily basis.

00:32:29.280 Uh, Kaya, I am plagued by this question myself.

00:32:33.200 Why are people so stupid?

00:32:34.880 It's a good question.

00:32:35.760 It's an important question.

00:32:36.840 It really is.

00:32:37.540 Uh, I mean, you could write volumes trying to dissect this question.

00:32:41.780 There's no easy answer for it.

00:32:43.760 Um, there are many culprits.

00:32:46.320 I think there are many stupidifying forces at work.

00:32:50.900 Uh, and if I had to sum it up, I would say that people are getting stupid or people are

00:32:57.300 stupid and getting stupider. 0.89

00:32:59.300 And that is definitely happening because I think that our, our brains are atrophying from

00:33:07.360 lack of use.

00:33:08.180 I think that's kind of what's happening.

00:33:09.480 Um, intellectual laziness leads to stupidity.

00:33:13.600 Um, intellectual laziness is not itself stupidity.

00:33:17.260 You can be intellectually lazy and also a genius.

00:33:20.480 Um, just like you could be physically lazy and also physically fit at the same time.

00:33:25.300 But the two conditions cannot coexist forever or probably won't.

00:33:31.040 Eventually the lack of activity will translate into obesity in the one case and idiocy in the

00:33:37.120 other.

00:33:37.320 Um, the problem is that we don't really have to think in modern culture.

00:33:45.980 Like you can get away with not thinking.

00:33:48.640 You can get away with, uh, living your, your whole life basically on a, on a day-to-day basis

00:33:54.760 and not really thinking about anything because there are so many things that can do your thinking

00:34:00.620 for you.

00:34:01.160 You can always ask Siri or, or Alexa.

00:34:03.460 If you have any question, um, you can Google whatever.

00:34:07.840 Uh, if you want to, you know, if you want to learn about something, you just Google it.

00:34:12.520 You can look at Wikipedia, but you're not really learning.

00:34:14.740 You're just getting random bits of information and stocking them in your head so that you can

00:34:19.400 spit them out whenever the subject comes out.

00:34:21.620 But you have, you, you haven't actually learned anything.

00:34:24.040 You've just, you've just memorized a few key points.

00:34:26.780 That's not learning.

00:34:27.520 That's not thinking.

00:34:29.020 Um, and as far as thinking about issues and controversies and politics and so on, well,

00:34:33.960 there's, there's a whole army of pundits like me who will happily think for you and tell

00:34:40.460 you what to think.

00:34:41.160 And not because we ourselves are great thinkers.

00:34:44.260 No, we, we are part of a hive mind, a pundit class.

00:34:49.020 And we just say, whatever our hive happens to be saying, um, we unthinkingly repeat talking

00:34:55.640 points and then you unthinkingly absorb them and nobody is thinking about anything.

00:35:02.720 Um, and if at night you ever feel, you know, if you're sitting there at night and, uh, you're

00:35:08.840 a little bored or something and you feel, oh my gosh, a thought coming on, you know, you

00:35:13.940 actually, you start to feel yourself thinking about something well, uh, and, and you feel

00:35:20.320 like you're, you're teetering dangerously close to developing an original thought on

00:35:25.060 a subject.

00:35:25.900 Well, then you can always turn on Netflix and binge for six hours until your brain is leaking

00:35:31.220 out of your ears and you could put a stop to it that way.

00:35:34.020 Um, you never really have to have a quiet moment of contemplation.

00:35:40.060 You never have to have silence or stillness in your life.

00:35:44.400 Um, you never will by necessity find yourself in an environment that is conducive to thinking.

00:35:55.220 And of course we don't read anymore either.

00:35:57.280 Uh, we read memes and we read tweets and we read Wikipedia articles, but, um, we don't read

00:36:01.860 entire books and not reading books, but trying to be smart is like trying to get in shape,

00:36:07.780 but never going for a jog.

00:36:09.020 It's just, um, it probably won't, you could try it, but it probably won't work.

00:36:15.060 So we don't read, we stare at screens.

00:36:16.980 We have all the answers spoon fed to us.

00:36:18.680 We have no silence, no contemplation.

00:36:20.720 And, um, and then we turn into, to, to morons.

00:36:24.560 I think enormous morons, it really, it's, it's, you know, if you go and, um, I mean, we've

00:36:33.340 been talking about the civil war, uh, on the show over the, this past, the past few days.

00:36:39.300 So speaking of the civil war and I, you know, it's, as I have mentioned, I am interested

00:36:43.600 in it.

00:36:44.000 I won't call myself a civil war buff.

00:36:45.640 I'm not quite at that level.

00:36:46.640 Um, I'm more of a, I would, I would say I'm an enthusiast, which that's the rung below

00:36:52.480 before you get to buff.

00:36:53.980 And then from buff, you get to expert.

00:36:55.520 So I've got a while to go before I get to expert, but anyway, I am interested in it.

00:36:58.980 And, um, one thing that I find fascinating is, um, all of these guys, you know, these generals

00:37:07.480 and even the, the, uh, infantry soldiers, they would, you know, they didn't have phones back

00:37:13.840 then or emails.

00:37:14.900 So they would, uh, they would write letters back home to their wives and their mothers

00:37:19.080 and fathers and everything.

00:37:21.660 And so if you, if you read the letters that these guys would write, and these were, you

00:37:28.800 know, uh, I mean, the, the generals were most of them well-educated, but, um, these weren't

00:37:34.060 scholars we're talking about.

00:37:35.940 And it's certainly the, the, you know, just average soldier was, was many of them were not

00:37:41.380 really educated at all.

00:37:42.380 But what strikes me when I read, when I read these letters of these really kind of average

00:37:48.000 men intellectually for their time, very eloquent, they just, they, they very thoughtful, very

00:37:55.080 eloquent.

00:37:55.660 They would, they would be, they would be sharing these, these really penetrating insights into

00:38:03.480 the nature of war and battle.

00:38:05.200 And, and they would just write it in a letter and ship it off to their, send it off to their, 0.84

00:38:09.760 or to their wife or whatever.

00:38:10.720 Um, and so I think it gives you an idea of how deeply people used to think about things

00:38:18.980 and how eloquent they were kind of naturally.

00:38:22.760 Um, and how good they were at using language and, uh, and describing things.

00:38:29.960 And we can't do any of that anymore.

00:38:33.480 Like if we want to describe our emotions these days, we, what do we do?

00:38:36.740 We use an emoji.

00:38:38.100 Uh, we use like a smiley face.

00:38:39.860 We have devolved back into cavemen writing hieroglyphics on the cave wall.

00:38:46.440 You know, if we want to say we're happy instead of, instead of describing our happiness, like a,

00:38:50.900 like a, like a, like a man writing his, his letter back to his wife after a big battle,

00:38:56.040 he would, he would, he would describe his elation in these eloquent terms.

00:39:00.240 But we, we, what we do is we just send a smiley face, which is basically saying me happy,

00:39:05.120 smiley face, me happy.

00:39:07.620 Every time you send an emoji, that's what you're doing.

00:39:09.740 Me sad, tears, me sad.

00:39:13.000 Um, that's how we communicate now.

00:39:16.560 And part of the problem is if you think about it,

00:39:19.460 people that lived in the 19th century or the 17th century, the 15th century, um, they,

00:39:25.080 they, there was a lot of quiet in their life.

00:39:29.520 They couldn't just spill every waking moment with noise because they didn't have TVs and

00:39:34.080 the internet and all that.

00:39:35.540 Um, so they would have many moments in their life of just quiet.

00:39:39.780 Like at night, what do you think, what do you think of an average person did in 1840?

00:39:45.640 Um, when it was, you know, seven o'clock at night and they were back from, from work in

00:39:49.720 the fields or whatever, and a dinner had been served and what do they do?

00:39:53.520 There was a lot of just kind of like sitting around, they'd read a book, they'd talk, they,

00:39:58.140 they, you know, and they, they just had that moment, there's moments of reflection that we

00:40:02.420 don't have anymore.

00:40:05.660 Um, all right.

00:40:06.600 I, so that was a 20 minute answer.

00:40:09.240 Uh, you probably weren't expecting that.

00:40:12.420 Let's see.

00:40:12.880 I'll read one more.

00:40:14.020 Um, okay.

00:40:18.080 I had a short one, but now I can't find it now.

00:40:22.700 Um, this is from Patrick.

00:40:27.460 I don't think I've done this one before.

00:40:28.540 It says future, future Supreme overlord and ruthless dictator of the world.

00:40:32.700 I, your humble and future servant have a question for you.

00:40:35.680 I listen to your show every day and notice you speak about the importance of religion.

00:40:39.040 I understand the importance of community and morals.

00:40:42.020 Um, but you don't need religion to have those things.

00:40:45.940 Did I answer this question?

00:40:47.040 I think I did.

00:40:50.380 This is professionalism folks.

00:40:51.640 All right, we'll do this.

00:40:52.200 I didn't answer this one from Rebecca.

00:40:53.960 Uh, hi, Matt.

00:40:54.480 I really enjoy your show.

00:40:55.320 I want to say thank you for doing what you do.

00:40:57.380 I have a question for you on today's show.

00:40:59.840 You talked about your stance on the death penalty and mentioned that you have questions about

00:41:03.880 whether or not society should ask someone to put someone else to death.

00:41:07.680 I have to ask, isn't that exactly what we ask of our military every day?

00:41:11.480 Someone on death row has at least been convicted of a horrible crime against society.

00:41:15.860 Whereas someone fighting on the side of our enemy may never have committed any crime at

00:41:19.740 all.

00:41:19.920 How is it acceptable to ask so many, uh, to take the lives of people who usually have

00:41:24.640 done, not done them any harm and yet give pause to the idea of someone being asked to

00:41:29.540 end the life of a person who has been convicted of committing a horrible crime against society.

00:41:33.020 It is true that war does take its toll on those who are asked to fight it, but as the wife of a retired

00:41:38.920 Green Beret, I can assure you that not all of our soldiers are returning home irreparably damaged.

00:41:44.660 I mentioned this only as a point, um, that being asked to take the life of another person does not mean

00:41:49.960 the destruction of one's spiritual, mental, and emotional well-being.

00:41:53.400 I'd be very interested in hearing your thoughts on this.

00:41:55.480 Uh, yeah, I talked to, I think last week about the death penalty.

00:41:58.920 I said, I, I'm in favor of the death penalty, but the one hangup I have, the one reservation

00:42:04.800 is, and this is something that I don't hear people address often when it comes to this subject.

00:42:11.140 Uh, I'm concerned about the psychological damage and spiritual damage that's done to the people

00:42:18.980 who are tasked with carrying out the execution. I think it, I think it, and maybe you could argue

00:42:25.420 that that is a job that nobody is equipped to do or handle. And thus it's a job that society should

00:42:35.120 not ask anyone to do. And if we can't ask anyone to do that job, then that means that it's a job

00:42:41.420 that can't be done. So we can't, we shouldn't be executing people. I, you know, I'm not entirely

00:42:45.280 convinced by that argument myself. Like I said, I'm in favor of the death penalty, but it is,

00:42:48.980 you know, it is something that does trouble me. And, um, so that's what Rebecca's responding to.

00:42:55.620 And you make a good point, Rebecca, certainly war does have a profound impact on those who are

00:42:59.980 tasked with fighting it. But as you say, I don't think it's guaranteed to do irreparable damage.

00:43:05.680 And I don't think that it's the kind of job that society can't ask anyone to do. Um, clearly we need

00:43:12.000 some people to do this job just as we need people to deal with death and misery in other contexts as

00:43:17.520 policemen or shock trauma doctors or EMTs or whatever else. Um, but I would argue that there's a

00:43:24.740 fundamental difference between all of these jobs and the job of an executioner on death row.

00:43:30.720 The difference is first of all, the aim of the job. So doctors and EMTs and police officers,

00:43:37.700 they are supposed to be preserving life in that capacity. They deal with death. Um, but they don't

00:43:45.940 deal death. They aren't dealers of death. Well, abortionists are, and they, but they aren't, 1.00

00:43:51.680 they don't count as doctors. Um, for the most part, they aren't now, even in the military. And I mean,

00:43:58.520 this is police officers also have, do sometimes have to shoot people. Right. Um, and in the military,

00:44:04.940 uh, obviously that involves in combat shooting people, but, and the, and the shooting is done

00:44:11.420 with the intent of killing the enemy, obviously, but the overall point of combat is, or should be

00:44:18.860 to defend something. So you're defending your country, you're defending freedom, you're defending

00:44:24.500 the innocent, um, in a just war. Now, a lot of wars have been conducted that have nothing to do with

00:44:30.400 defending anything. And those are bad wars, but in a just war and a good war, um, the aim is to preserve

00:44:36.220 life. And so that's what soldiers are doing just like that's what police officers are doing.

00:44:43.240 Uh, now you could argue that the executioner in some roundabout way is defending society or

00:44:50.140 preserving life, but it's a very roundabout way. Uh, because at the end of the day, the person being

00:44:56.360 strapped to the gurney is no longer a threat to anyone, um, with the way that executions are done

00:45:03.060 these days, he's probably been sitting in a cage for 15 or 20 years. He hasn't been a threat to

00:45:08.380 someone, to anyone for decades. Um, he is now basically a neutered dog, uh, who's, who's, uh,

00:45:15.260 who's, you know, just in a cage, um, and, uh, being fed a few times a day. And, and, and,

00:45:22.620 and that's what he is. He is, he is, he is not in that moment, a threat to anybody. Um,

00:45:28.080 so the point of the execution is just to kill him, to get rid of him. The executioner deals death

00:45:36.920 in a way that seems much more direct and much less obscured, um, and much less self-defensive

00:45:48.080 than the soldier or the police officer or any other similar job that you could name. So it does,

00:45:56.400 it does seem different to me. It's, it's just not the same. Uh, and I say this as someone who's

00:46:01.820 never killed anybody. I, you know, I've, I've never been an executioner. I've never been a soldier,

00:46:05.700 but it seems to me that there is a difference between shooting somebody often from a distance

00:46:13.780 on a battlefield in the midst of combat, someone who was shooting at you as well. Uh, there's a

00:46:20.300 difference between that and taking an unarmed neutered caged person, strapping them to a gurney 0.55

00:46:30.340 and injecting poison into their veins. Um, and so I think that probably, um, the people who are doing

00:46:40.440 that the latter thing, I think they are going to be, uh, harmed by it psychologically in ways that

00:46:51.600 maybe these other people would not be. And, and so that is, again, it's, it does, it doesn't

00:47:00.160 convince me to be against the death penalty, but it is a consideration that I find troubling.

00:47:07.320 All right. We'll leave it there. Thanks for watching everybody. Thanks for listening. Godspeed.

00:47:24.420 I'm Michael Knowles, host of the Michael Knowles show. Venezuela descends into further chaos as people

00:47:29.700 starve and tanks crush protesters, but socialists in the U S like Bernie Sanders and AOC won't admit

00:47:35.680 that Venezuela is their utopia. We will examine that. We'll talk about Bill Barr before the Senate

00:47:41.120 and we'll talk about how professors are trying to turn pedophilia into a normal activity. Check

00:47:46.300 it out at dailywire.com.

The Matt Walsh Show - May 01, 2019

Ep. 250 - Another Failed Bombshell

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