The Matt Walsh Show - Ep 260 - The Tide Is Turning

00:00:00.000 Today on the Matt Wall Show, a law in Alabama would outlaw abortion in almost every case,

00:00:04.920 making no exceptions for rape. The left, of course, is panicking over this. I sense that a tide might

00:00:10.680 be turning in America. Am I being too optimistic? Well, that would be a first, but we'll talk about

00:00:16.020 it. Also, someone emails and asks whether conservatives are putting their heads in the

00:00:20.480 sand when it comes to gun violence. Are we? Is that true? I'll address that question today on

00:00:26.620 the Matt Wall Show. Welcome to the show, everybody. Thanks for being here. Thanks for

00:00:32.640 listening. I'm in Chicago right now because I was at Northwestern University last night for an event

00:00:40.420 there speaking to the students, and it was a great event. It was a lot of fun. I thought it was a good

00:00:46.020 turnout even though there was some, I'm sure, totally coincidental issues with the university

00:00:54.440 approving the event. I mean, they had been trying to get approval. YAF had been trying to get approval

00:00:58.780 for weeks, and the university coincidentally didn't approve the event until like three days before it,

00:01:06.400 which meant, again, totally coincidentally, that they weren't allowed to advertise it until right

00:01:11.000 before the actual event. But we still filled the room, and it was a good time. What I want to talk

00:01:17.080 about is, speaking of good times, the tide is turning, I think, in America. Now, I don't want

00:01:23.240 to be, I don't want to jump the gun here. I don't want to be overly optimistic. I'm not someone who's

00:01:28.320 known for being overly optimistic, but I think that maybe the tide is turning and people are waking up,

00:01:34.060 and we're going to talk about that in light of this new law that was just passed through the

00:01:38.920 state senate in Alabama. So we're going to get into that. But first, I got to tell you about

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00:03:10.260 code MATT. All right. Now, from LifeNews.com, an Alabama bill that would make aborting unborn

00:03:15.400 babies a felony passed in the State House on Tuesday. State House Bill 314, sponsored by

00:03:20.520 Representative Terry Collins, would make an abortion and attempt an abortion a felony. 0.61

00:03:25.780 Exceptions would be allowed if the mother's life is at risk. Mothers would not be punished for

00:03:29.300 having an abortion under the legislation, which would make killing a baby in an abortion a Class

00:03:33.180 8, or Class A, I should say, felony, punishable by life or 10 to 99 years in prison for abortionists 0.99

00:03:39.540 who kill them. Lawmakers approved the ban on a 25 to 6 vote, and it now heads to pro-life

00:03:43.980 Governor Kay Ivey, who's a Republican. The legislation will take effect six months after it gets signed.

00:03:51.280 So, this is just on the heels of the law in Arkansas. So, we've got two major pro-life

00:03:57.020 legislative wins in the span of a week, which means, among other things, that probably Roe v.

00:04:05.180 Wade is going back to the Supreme Court. I think that's where this is headed. And pro-abortion people 0.93

00:04:11.500 are terrified of that. That's the last thing they want, because they know that the Roe v. Wade

00:04:15.660 decision was, they know, if they have any knowledge at all about that decision, and they understand how

00:04:24.740 the Constitution works, they know that the Roe v. Wade decision is a total travesty and a joke, a really

00:04:32.180 bad joke. But no matter how you feel about abortion, the idea that they were able to find a right to 0.84

00:04:37.560 abortion in the Constitution is obviously absurd. So, that's where it's going. Now, I don't, I talk about

00:04:46.200 being optimistic about the tide turning, and I am. Am I optimistic that the Supreme Court,

00:04:52.240 with its current makeup, would actually vote to overturn Roe? No, I'm not. But there's a chance

00:04:58.780 anyway. There's more of it, there's at least a chance if it makes it there. But as I said, the pro-death

00:05:04.000 crowd is growing very afraid. Cosmo had a headline yesterday. Their headline was, they put it very

00:05:09.320 simply. It was, it's time to freak the F out about abortion. And NARAL's abortion extremist group put

00:05:18.340 out a tweet, said, this is not a drill. The goal is not just to outlaw abortion in certain states,

00:05:23.260 it's to outlaw it everywhere, all caps. Yes, you're damn right. You are damn right. We are going to

00:05:29.900 outlaw it everywhere. That's the goal. And you should freak out. If you are pro-death, you should

00:05:34.320 definitely be freaking out because the tide is turning. I'll tell you what seems to be happening

00:05:39.660 here from my perspective. This is just my sense of things. All right, this is not, this is not based

00:05:44.120 on any survey data or poll data, just my own observations. Do with them what you will. It seems

00:05:52.340 to me that there has never really been a point when a majority of the country was avidly pro-abortion.

00:05:58.780 I don't think that's ever existed. I don't think there's ever been a majority pro-abortion

00:06:04.200 you know, country. The avidly pro-abortion crowd has always been small. They've been small,

00:06:12.540 but powerful. Powerful because they're in positions of power and because they have the indifference of

00:06:18.980 the American public on their side. So no matter what people say when they're surveyed by, by pollsters,

00:06:25.880 the fact is that most of the country is, has been, still is indifferent. Most people just don't care

00:06:33.900 that much. So when the pro-abortion people shriek and demand their right to kill babies, everyone in

00:06:38.880 the middle just goes, eh, sure, yeah, whatever. And that's the dynamic that has allowed abortion to 0.93

00:06:44.740 continue in this country. That's what has protected the so-called right to abortion. The problem 1.00

00:06:50.040 pro-lifers have faced is that they have this indifferent mass to deal with. And then even,

00:06:57.640 even the ostensibly pro-life people on their own side, relatively active and aware and involved

00:07:04.660 conservatives, people who are pro-life, but even a lot of those people haven't really considered

00:07:11.560 abortion to be an important topic. Now they agree with the pro-life cause, but they just don't feel

00:07:15.820 like fighting for it. And that's what pro-lifers have been contending with. Here's what seems to be

00:07:22.320 changing. The rabidly pro-abortion people are still rabidly pro-abortion. Uh, that, that hasn't

00:07:28.540 changed. That's not going to change. But what I sense is that people in the middle and then the

00:07:34.100 disinterested conservatives, I think some of them are starting to wake up. That's what I see happening.

00:07:41.220 That, uh, finally, some of those other people who have always been up for grabs by pro-lifers,

00:07:47.980 finally, they're starting to come into the light. I got a sense of that in Philly at the rally. Um,

00:07:55.000 even though, you know, it's a thousand people compared to the entire population of the country

00:07:59.100 isn't much, but I really believe that what we did in Philly, we would not have been able to do that

00:08:06.320 five years ago or 10 years ago. I think this is a reflection of a change. Um, and much of it,

00:08:14.300 as I said, is, um, is among conservatives, conservatives, you know, for, for, for decades,

00:08:20.240 there has not really been a wide conservative pro-life coalition. Pro-lifers have always been

00:08:28.040 sort of a subset of conservatism. While mainstream conservatism, most conservatives would look at the

00:08:34.940 pro-life cause and say, eh, you know, yeah, I agree with you, but I don't feel like arguing about that.

00:08:40.600 I think that is really changing now. And conservatives are starting to see, uh, they're

00:08:46.640 starting to see two things. Number one, this really does matter because life, uh, human life is at stake.

00:08:54.320 And I think they've been helped to that realization in seeing the increasing radicalism of the pro-abortion

00:09:01.180 side. When you've got these other laws in other States where we, okay, we can kill babies through all 0.96

00:09:06.000 stages of pregnancy. And you've got, you've got Democrats coming out and saying, uh, okay,

00:09:10.400 let's kill babies after they're born. Or, uh, you know, we're going to kill, we're going to kill the 1.00

00:09:15.000 kids either way. Remember that's what that one Democrat said, we're going to kill them either 1.00

00:09:18.840 way, put them in the electric chair, kill them in abortion, either way. So that kind of stuff, 1.00

00:09:23.120 I think has jolted some conservatives out of their stupor. And they're saying, wow, I mean,

00:09:27.900 this is really a, these people really just want to kill babies. We, we, we can't allow this. This is,

00:09:32.700 this is horrible. Um, it, when, when the pro-abortion case is stated honestly and taken to its logical

00:09:45.080 conclusion, which is what we've been seeing a little bit more frequently recently, it shocks

00:09:51.000 the conscience. And so it's good that pro-abortion people have been doing that because I think other,

00:09:57.080 I think conservatives and some of the folks in the middle have had their consciences shocked

00:10:00.780 and that's what's happened. So that's part of it. The other part of it is that I think also

00:10:05.320 conservatives are starting to realize that this is a winnable, it's a very winnable issue

00:10:09.780 because our argument is so unassailable, is so self-evident, um, is so just plain right

00:10:20.760 that we're standing up and saying, don't kill innocent human beings. That's our point.

00:10:26.100 It's, it's, it's the most simple and, um, unbeatable argument you can possibly make.

00:10:36.820 And that, that I think is how things are changing. Now, a couple of things about this Alabama law.

00:10:41.300 First, uh, much is being made to the fact that it was passed through the state Senate by exclusively

00:10:45.680 white males, which of course is irrelevant. Um, you know, I always wonder when people say,

00:10:50.560 oh, these pro-life laws are passed by a bunch of men. Well, what's your point that,

00:10:53.880 are you saying that men are the only ones with the moral intelligence to see that killing babies

00:10:58.000 is wrong? Well, here's the good news. We're not the only ones. Um, now if we were the only ones,

00:11:03.820 that would not really be an insult to us, would it? It'd be an insult to everybody else,

00:11:07.380 but we're not the only ones. Millions upon millions of women are pro-life. Um, and as I pointed out many 0.99

00:11:15.180 times, the pro-life movement is led by women. You know, I've been in this movement a long time.

00:11:20.640 I've been to pro-life events in dozens of different States. I've done, you know, countless rallies and

00:11:28.160 fundraisers and everything else. Uh, I've met and talked to thousands of pro-lifers. I can say

00:11:34.720 from experience, I can tell you for sure that this is a movement led by women. Uh, you know, 0.99

00:11:40.940 as a man in the movement, I take a back seat and I'm fine with that. This is a movement led by women. 0.54

00:11:47.720 Um, but at any rate, the, the gender of the person making the argument is of course irrelevant 0.76

00:11:54.700 because those awful sexist men are making the case that it's wrong to kill innocent and 0.94

00:12:01.860 defenseless human life. So, uh, you know, once you get past, once you get done with your tantrum 0.99

00:12:06.340 about their gender, maybe you could try to engage with the argument. Yeah, I get, oh, well, 0.89

00:12:11.800 they're men, they're men. Okay, whatever. Fine. Yeah. They're men. All right. We've established that.

00:12:15.900 Oh, the bad, bad men, tsk, tsk. It shouldn't be men. That's bad to be men. Okay, fine. I'll agree

00:12:22.240 with you there. Let's for a sake of argument, let's agree. They're men. They're terrible.

00:12:25.720 They're sexist, blah, blah, blah. Fine. Good. Okay. We've established that. Now let's talk about 0.99

00:12:31.260 what they're actually saying though. Can we, can we, can we engage with that? Second, the other point

00:12:37.540 being harped on is that this law does not allow exceptions for rape. And so the pro-abortion

00:12:43.800 side is, is making this all about that. They're, um, this is all they want to talk about this. Oh,

00:12:48.360 the law forces women to carry their rapist baby. Now, as if this law was specifically designed with 1.00

00:12:56.860 that in mind, which of course it wasn't, but that's all they want to do. They want to talk

00:13:00.680 about the hard cases. They don't want to talk about the 98 or 99% of cases that have nothing at all to do

00:13:04.820 with rape. And that's what we should be talking about mainly because that is mainly what this law deals

00:13:11.000 with. And the vast majority of cases are, uh, have, have nothing to do with rape. Now, as for the

00:13:18.140 cases of rape, which are rare and in a very small minority, but as for them, there are two things to

00:13:23.860 keep in mind. Number one, abortion helps rapists cover up their crimes. Abortion, rapists love abortion.

00:13:32.020 Rapists love, Planned Parenthood is the, is, is, is a rapist's best friend. Um, because 0.99

00:13:38.600 you, if when a rapist rapes someone and creates a baby, most of the time they didn't, that's not

00:13:46.140 what they had in mind. They, they weren't trying to create a baby. And if this is a, you know,

00:13:50.660 uh, uh, what here, the, the people that are coming up with these, you know, hard case hypotheticals,

00:13:57.560 well, what if a 13 year old girl is raped and now she's forced to carry your baby? Well, if a 13 year 0.70

00:14:02.580 old girl is pregnant, that's a very good indication that probably a crime occurred. Um, and once you 1.00

00:14:14.200 have the baby, you know, you can do a DNA test and find out who the father is. And if that father

00:14:21.640 is a, is an adult, then that person is going to jail. So now we can prove, we can prove that a, that a

00:14:28.920 rape occurred. That's why rapists would rather just send the victim off to Planned Parenthood, 1.00

00:14:36.420 have the pregnancy taken care of, and the evidence thrown into a medical waste dumpster. 0.99

00:14:42.300 And Planned Parenthood, by the way, is more than happy to help with this. They're more than happy

00:14:46.780 to just take the money from the rape victim, throw out the evidence, not call the cops are more than

00:14:50.900 happy to do it. They do it all the time. So that's the first thing. Second thing is, it's a very simple

00:14:57.040 concept here. Um, I of course have nothing but compassion for rape victims and I have nothing 0.98

00:15:05.120 but contempt for rapists. And if you wanted to talk about a law that enacts abortion for rapists,

00:15:13.580 if we're talking about executing rapists, then I'm all ears on that discussion. We could talk about

00:15:19.020 that. Um, but it is immoral to punish an innocent third party. Uh, that child didn't do anything.

00:15:32.620 The child's not guilty. So punish the rapist, but to punish the rapist child is completely and totally 0.85

00:15:42.360 immoral and wrong. Obviously. Um, and it's not going to help anything. It's, it's not going to 0.99

00:15:51.780 help the woman heal. It's not going to undo what is done, what was done. And it's not going to help 0.98

00:15:58.000 bring about justice. It's going to make it harder to achieve justice. All right. Uh, so that's,

00:16:05.100 that's the law in Alabama. Um, let's see here. I wanted to share this with you yesterday. I wrote

00:16:14.040 something, uh, trying to explain the left's gender theories. And I tried to put myself into the

00:16:21.440 mindset of a leftist and, uh, which is, it's a, it's a very weird place to be, but I wanted to kind

00:16:26.640 of explain gender, gender dynamics from their perspective. It's bewildering and it makes your 0.88

00:16:33.160 head hurt. But, um, if you didn't see that piece, let's, let's try to go through this. Okay.

00:16:38.700 Let's, let me see if I can do this from their perspective, because there are a lot of seeming

00:16:43.520 contradictions and people are very confused about, you know, what, what is, what, what exactly is the

00:16:48.940 left's gender theory now? It seems like they, they, they say a lot of first they're saying one

00:16:52.980 thing, then they're saying something else that contradicts the thing they just said. So let's see if

00:16:56.000 we can, let's see if we can go through this. All right. Um, again, from, from their perspective,

00:16:59.960 just explaining it to you, right-wing bigots. So the first thing that we have to understand

00:17:05.920 is that gender is a social construct, right? Uh, woman and man are concepts that are arbitrarily 0.80

00:17:12.280 invented by society. They have nothing to do with reality. Um, a child is assigned one of these

00:17:17.800 labels randomly at birth by primitive backwards thinking doctors who for no good or objective 0.99

00:17:23.780 reason have decided that a human child with a penis must be a boy and a human child with a vagina 1.00

00:17:28.720 must be a girl. These words are interchangeable. The body parts are interchangeable. None of it means 1.00

00:17:33.520 anything, but remember that the generic people we meaninglessly call women are beautiful and 0.99

00:17:41.360 powerful and their arbitrary womanhood should be constantly celebrated all the time. Uh, women 1.00

00:17:47.000 have to band together and lift each other up. Women must be represented equally in all of our 1.00

00:17:51.560 institutions. Women are truly wonderful, splendid, special creatures, but remember there is nothing 0.91

00:17:58.700 special about women. Literally anyone can be a woman. A woman is not anything in particular. A 0.99

00:18:03.040 person with a penis can be a woman. A person with a vagina can be a woman. If a bucket of sand came to 1.00

00:18:07.240 life and wanted to be a woman, it could be a woman too. Anyone could be a woman. So there is no aspect of

00:18:12.340 womanhood that is ingrained or biological or inaccessible to males. And womanhood certainly has nothing at all 0.98

00:18:18.340 to do with your body parts. That's the most important thing. But if you don't have a uterus, then you 0.99

00:18:23.640 shouldn't be giving your opinion on abortion. Uh, no uterus, no opinion. That's the motto, right? 1.00

00:18:28.700 We're tired of men making decisions about women's bodies, but there is no such thing as a woman's 1.00

00:18:34.880 body. Trans women are women. Uh, remember a trans woman is just as much a woman as a, as, as any other 0.63

00:18:40.160 woman. There's absolutely no difference between the two and to suggest otherwise is the height of

00:18:45.140 bigotry. Okay. But anti-abortion laws are sexist because they specifically target women, uh, who are

00:18:52.060 the ones having the babies. If men could have babies, abortion would be completely legal everywhere, 0.99

00:18:57.660 right? But men can have babies and women can be fathers and fathers can be mothers and mothers can 1.00

00:19:04.420 be men and a man can be a woman and women can be men who are mothers. I mean, what's so confusing

00:19:09.480 about this? How many times do I have to say it? It's, it's, it's, it's very simple. Men and women are

00:19:14.040 exactly the same in every way. And anyone who belongs to one group can just as easily belong

00:19:18.920 to the other because there is absolutely nothing at all that objectively distinguishes these two

00:19:23.060 categories. And therefore you cannot say something about the one category that does not apply just

00:19:27.980 as much to the other. But women are especially oppressed in our society. Men don't know what it's 1.00

00:19:33.800 like for women in this country. Uh, men have privilege and institutional power and they can't 0.95

00:19:38.740 possibly relate to the struggles of women. That's why it's so important to make sure that women 1.00

00:19:43.880 are given every chance to succeed without being hampered by the, you know, by the unfair advantages

00:19:48.840 that are given to men. But males should be allowed in female sports. It is unthinkable to oppress a 1.00

00:19:55.760 biological male by refusing him entry into female sports. If the other girls don't like it, then you 1.00

00:20:00.580 know what? They should check their privilege and shut their bigoted mouths. But women must stand up and 1.00

00:20:07.640 speak out against unfairness. They must be able to claim their own spaces. What belongs to them

00:20:13.080 must not be appropriated. But drag queens are gorgeous and amazing. There are few things more 1.00

00:20:21.080 beautiful than the sight of a man in women's clothing and fake breasts dancing around on stage. But men are 0.97

00:20:27.720 scum. But men are women. But patriarchy. But social construct. But girl power. But I'm confused. It's all 1.00

00:20:40.940 very confused. It's all incoherent. Do you know why? Because coherence is for bigots. Okay, that's what this

00:20:48.540 comes down to. Now, do you understand? Hopefully you do. I'm glad that I could clear that up for you. All right.

00:20:58.220 Before we get to emails, I was planning on talking about this story. I had set aside like 20 minutes for it

00:21:07.260 because it's so great. But I feel like the rug's been pulled out from underneath me there. Maybe you saw this

00:21:12.560 online. It was kind of going viral over the last few days. There's a story out of South Africa about a

00:21:17.560 man who reportedly had been going to KFC. I don't know if it was the same KFC or different KFCs, but

00:21:26.120 he had been going to KFC for a year, eating for free, claiming to be a food inspector from the head

00:21:32.940 office who had been sent there to inspect the chicken and taste it. And that was the story anyway.

00:21:40.260 And it is apparently the guy had been arrested, which is totally unjust. But then as I was just doing a

00:21:46.960 little bit of background research to talk about it, I saw that apparently this story has been called into

00:21:52.340 question. And now KFC has denied that such a thing ever happened or that such a person exists. Now, I don't

00:21:59.100 know if that's just them covering their tracks because they're so humiliated. I don't know. Maybe we'll never

00:22:04.780 know. But we can only just hope that this man is out there somewhere. This mythical legend of a man

00:22:14.060 who, you know, you could say all you want that it's dishonest, it's stealing. And yeah, it's all

00:22:19.880 those things. But this is a man who believed in something. You know, this is a visionary.

00:22:28.140 This is someone who had an idea and where other people would say, oh, that's crazy. You can't do

00:22:34.840 that. He said, I'm going to do it. And he did. Unless he doesn't exist. But let's just assume

00:22:41.800 that he does. Wonderful and inspiring story. All right, let's get to some emails. MattWalshow

00:22:46.700 at gmail.com. MattWalshow at gmail.com. This is from Michael. Says, hi, Matt. I'm 23 years old

00:22:51.080 and have been a type one diabetic since I was 17. I work in an office buying parts and find my job

00:22:56.720 absolutely miserable. Since I was little, I've dreamed of serving my community and putting my

00:23:01.340 body on the line in order to protect my community and the country I love. I spoke with three different

00:23:04.900 military recruiters during my time in college, but the conversation never lasted longer than a few

00:23:08.680 minutes. Once they found out about my condition, I plan on applying for my local fire department in

00:23:13.420 the fall, but I'm worried I'll have the same result. I know I will find value in raising and

00:23:19.220 practicing raising and protecting a family someday, but I don't know how much longer I can work in an

00:23:24.400 office. Do you have any advice about vocation or about finding meaning in remedial jobs that don't

00:23:29.540 seem to impact the greater good? I'm struggling to see how I'm making a difference. You're incredible.

00:23:34.540 Thanks for all you do. First of all, I think your desire to have a job where you're protecting your

00:23:41.900 community is very noble. And so you should be commended for that. And, you know, I don't know.

00:23:48.000 Maybe I'm not sure what the rules are in fire departments, as opposed to the military, what

00:23:52.460 their, you know, uh, what their physical standards are or whatever, but, uh, it's quite possible that

00:23:58.420 that could work out. Um, but as for the job that you have now, I think that it is, and I'm not,

00:24:06.480 I'm not just, I'm not just saying this. I really do believe that to go into an office and work,

00:24:12.560 what you refer to as what are you, a remedial job, um, which isn't the word I would use for it, but

00:24:19.760 to work a job like that in an office, working a job you don't really like that, that also is a noble

00:24:26.460 pursuit. And, um, that takes, that takes, uh, determination that takes, um, you know, I would

00:24:37.220 even say, you know, it takes courage in a way to, to go doing a job that you really don't like

00:24:44.120 and that you hate doing, but to go in every day and do it anyway, because you know, it's your

00:24:49.280 responsibility. And because you want to have a family one day. And then when you have a family,

00:24:53.080 you continue doing it to, to protect them and, and to provide for them. Um, because there are a

00:24:59.600 lot of people, there, there are plenty of people in our country today who will say, ah, you know,

00:25:02.500 I don't want to do this job. I don't want to do that one. So I'm not gonna do any job. I'll just

00:25:05.360 live off the government or I'll live off my parents or whatever. I don't want to, because if I don't

00:25:09.700 want to, I don't want to spend my time doing something I don't want to do. So I have a lot

00:25:14.160 of respect for someone who says, okay, I'm going to go, I don't like doing it. Um, but I'm going to

00:25:18.220 go in and do it anyway. And so I think you can find, I think you can find some real nobility in that.

00:25:24.460 Um, and I think that you are impacting the greater good in that sense.

00:25:32.500 Uh, that you're fulfilling your obligations. You know, you're doing your duty and that certainly

00:25:39.500 contributes to the, to the greater good. And that also provides an example to others around you. So

00:25:44.680 what I would say is obviously keep, keep doing that job for now. Um, but how old did you say you

00:25:52.220 say you're 23 years old? Well, look, I mean, you're doing that job. You have the sense of duty. So

00:25:56.880 that's a great sign. Um, there's no reason to assume though, that you're going to be in this

00:26:03.620 job for the next 40 years. I mean, these days, nobody stays in one job for 40, even if you like

00:26:07.680 the job and want to stay there, you probably won't. So yeah, your whole life ahead of you.

00:26:11.460 And I would say, keep doing this job and, uh, keep whatever your dream sort of job is and whatever

00:26:16.760 you really want to do, keep pursuing that. In the meantime, don't give up on the job that you have,

00:26:21.060 keep that, but also pursue, um, the sort of job you want. So don't give up on that dream.

00:26:28.000 I think that you'll, you'll find it. You're only 23. I mean, it's, you, you still got, uh,

00:26:32.580 quite a lot of time to find that job and, um, you know, and invest yourself in a vocation that

00:26:40.440 is really meaningful to you. And I have confidence that you will, you will find that.

00:26:46.040 This is from Gareth says to the future, unquestioned King, Emperor, and Grandmaster of this and all other

00:26:50.400 worlds. Recently, I've been asking questions about what will happen when you take your power

00:26:54.020 rather than add to the growing list of your, of those incurring your wrath by questioning your

00:26:58.440 plans. I'd like to offer my service as your Lieutenant and helping you to subdue the masses

00:27:02.320 and setting up your theocratic dictatorship. I vow to crush your enemies, to drive them before you

00:27:07.200 and fill your ears with the lamentations of their women. Thank you for reading this, this, uh, 0.99

00:27:11.440 unworthy letter. Okay. May you live forever. Gareth, um, your desire to serve beside me makes me

00:27:18.560 concerned that you are planning to sabotage and overthrow my regime. Now, of course,

00:27:23.360 if you did not want to serve me, then I'd be concerned that you're disloyal and rebellious.

00:27:27.280 So basically either way, you're off to the gulag. Sorry about that. Um, fortunately in my abounding

00:27:32.680 mercy, first time offenders will only have to serve 35 years of forced labor, uh, unless you've been

00:27:39.380 accused of treason, which is what I'm accusing you of, in which case it's a hundred years. So, um,

00:27:44.480 you know, but those are the rules. I really, I can't do anything about it. Well, I could do

00:27:49.900 something about it, but I don't want to because of my cruelty, um, uh, cruelty and mercy. You know,

00:27:55.800 it's a, it's an interesting combination. Let's see. It says, dear Matt, I would first of all,

00:28:01.240 like to thank you for the work you do and especially for the clear and helpful arguments you make about

00:28:04.260 why abortion is evil. As a new mother and human being, that issue was especially close to my heart

00:28:08.220 and it's been sickening to watch the events in New York and Virginia unfold. So thanks for fighting

00:28:12.500 the good fight. Um, I'm from Hungary and moved here last July to join my husband, who's an American.

00:28:19.000 I say all this to give a little context. I'm a Christian and a conservative, and I've really

00:28:24.080 enjoyed listening to podcasts about American politics. And I found my views line up with most

00:28:28.340 of those professed by the, by the smart, thoughtful, and well-read conservative thinkers I look up to.

00:28:32.880 However, the one area in which I feel there's a lack of nuanced solution finding is gun violence.

00:28:37.560 What I see is what we call ostrich politics because apparently ostriches, when sensing danger,

00:28:44.400 dig their heads into the sand, not realizing that just because they can't see the danger anymore,

00:28:48.380 it hasn't evaporated. Um, how they're still not extinct is beyond me, but I digress.

00:28:53.980 That's kind of what, you know, two-year-olds will do also when they're playing hide and seek,

00:28:57.360 they'll cover their eyes and they think that they, they have disappeared and you can't see them

00:29:01.200 anymore. So it's a similar sort of thing. So what I see is slightly disappointing to me because

00:29:05.300 every time the topic comes up, the right seems to restate their stance and then use the

00:29:08.800 aforementioned tactic and end the discussion. I have no idea what solution, what a solution might

00:29:12.760 be, but I'd like to at least hear conservatives discuss the issue. Wouldn't it be our duty to try

00:29:17.260 to find ways to minimize the chance that a horrific incident like a school shooting might occur?

00:29:21.660 Even if we think perpetrators can turn their knives, turn to, turn to knives or other means of

00:29:26.160 inflicting harm. The analogy that came to mind for me is this. You have electrical outlets in the

00:29:30.980 house and also a child who routinely starts crawling towards them and poking at them. What do you do?

00:29:34.780 You clearly can't remove the outlets. They're a given, they're here to stay. But do you say,

00:29:38.800 meh, if I stopped the kid from poking this one, he'll still find another one. And even if I stopped

00:29:42.640 every attempt, he would still fall down the stairs and hurt himself that way or get hit by a car,

00:29:46.340 whatever. If it's going to happen, it's going to happen. I would hope not. And if it's mental

00:29:50.040 illness and not the guns, there's got to be something that could be at least attempted to try

00:29:53.720 to address that. By the way, I cannot believe that the reason there's basically no gun violence in,

00:29:58.080 for example, Hungary is because there just aren't as many mentally ill people. The country has been 1.00

00:30:02.100 completely ravaged by the world wars and Soviet rule. It was just emerging from communism when I

00:30:06.800 was born and healthcare is a mess. I have to think guns have something to do with it. But let's say

00:30:10.680 that that's even beside the point because of the second amendment. So guns are here to stay. Okay.

00:30:15.060 Is there really nothing further to be said after that? If there, is there nothing we can try to do

00:30:19.300 as a society, even if it falls way short of stopping every single shooting? Is it really more guns? I feel

00:30:24.220 very uneasy about that solution. Also just an added question, because I hear this a lot. If the government

00:30:28.660 comes for you, you have to be able to protect yourself. Students in Budapest led an uprising

00:30:33.940 against communist rule in 1956, and they did quite well, right up to the point where the Russians sent 0.83

00:30:38.560 in their tanks. If the government wants to get you, they will not be deterred by any arsenal of guns you

00:30:43.140 might have, however impressive. Or am I not seeing something? I hope the letter isn't too long to get

00:30:48.880 tossed in the spam right away. No, I have no problem with long letters. I don't mind reading.

00:30:56.660 Either way, I very much appreciate your integrity and spine, something that's a very rare trait these

00:31:01.080 days. Best wishes that I give this person's name. Lilla from Lilla, I think is how you pronounce it.

00:31:06.920 All right. Lilla, hopefully I'm pronouncing your name right. I appreciate that email. And I think

00:31:13.900 what you express is very coherent and intelligent and thoughtful. And there's nothing wrong with

00:31:20.680 saying. And I think that there are some, there are probably many conservatives who are so dogmatic

00:31:27.780 about guns that even what you just said there, they're just going to shut you down and say,

00:31:33.240 I'm not even how, you know, you're a heretic for even saying that. I don't take that approach.

00:31:38.420 And I believe in gun rights. I am a pretty hard line on that, but I'm not dogmatic in the sense that

00:31:44.540 we can talk about it. I mean, I can understand there are, it's, it's not like it's unreasonable

00:31:50.160 to make an argument and say, well, maybe we should restrict that or this or that gun. 0.98

00:31:54.320 I'm probably going to disagree with the argument you make, but it's not an unreasonable argument.

00:31:59.720 And, uh, I think this is one thing we have to just, I don't want to get sidetracked and not

00:32:04.200 address your question, but you know, one of the reasons why discussions, our discourse in this

00:32:12.120 country is so fruit, often so fruitless is that we treat every opposing argument as totally

00:32:18.880 unreasonable. And we don't realize that it's possible to be, to be reasonable and wrong.

00:32:25.000 And if someone is reasonable and wrong, then we need to, we should just talk to them and have a 1.00

00:32:29.400 human discussion and we don't need to treat them like they're, like they're morons. Right. 1.00

00:32:34.460 So that's the issue. Now there's, there are some arguments that really are completely

00:32:39.040 unreasonable. Like the argument that a man can be a woman. Well, 1.00

00:32:41.900 that's an unreasonable, ridiculous argument. And so we can't treat it like it is reasonable. 0.96

00:32:46.920 We should engage with it and try to explain why the person is wrong, but we cannot treat that

00:32:50.620 argument like it's intelligent or reasonable, or like we understand their point of view because

00:32:55.060 it's not intelligent. We don't understand it. Um, it's, it's because it's not understand. It's,

00:32:59.580 it's, it's not a coherent, rational argument. There is nothing to understand.

00:33:04.440 So that's, that's the point there. Um, as for the issue of guns,

00:33:09.480 here's, here's, here's where I stand on this. I agree with you that we do need to do something

00:33:17.280 focusing in on the school shooting thing. I do get uncomfortable when you have conservatives who

00:33:23.820 will constantly point out that, Oh, you know, actually there aren't really, there, there hasn't

00:33:30.260 been an uptick in mass shootings. That's just a kind of a figment of our imagination because of the

00:33:34.880 way the media reports this stuff. And if you look at the statistics, it's, you know, it's not any more

00:33:38.520 common now than it is that it was back then. And kids aren't any, aren't at any more risk today for

00:33:43.420 the school shooting than they were say 30 years ago. I mean, statistically that might be true, 1.00

00:33:48.180 but it's, we're not imagining things. I mean, you do have these school shootings that happen every

00:33:55.840 single year now. And I don't think it's always been that way. I remember when, when Columbine happened

00:34:03.340 and the reason why Columbine sticks out to us, why it was this, this event, this kind of history

00:34:11.380 changing event is because no one had really seen anything like that before. Uh, now it's, it seems

00:34:18.280 like every couple of years, there's a, there's a shooting like that. And that's not normal. And if it

00:34:24.840 is normal, it shouldn't be. So we do need to accept that there's a very real problem here.

00:34:32.780 Um, we need to do something in my opinion, and you might not like this answer based on what you're

00:34:39.540 on your email there. My opinion is the most direct way to address that problem is to protect our

00:34:47.960 children in school. Because the fact, what you said there about, well, guns are reality. They're there

00:34:53.200 anyway. That really is true. Now you do have the second amendment, which is not a small thing.

00:34:58.740 It is, it's the, it's the second, it comes right after free speech. Obviously our founding fathers

00:35:02.960 found it to be very important and you can't just toss it out the window. Even if you could prove to

00:35:08.700 me in a crystal ball that, well, if we could just get rid of the second amendment, then it would cause 0.92

00:35:13.260 mass shootings to go down. Well, still the amendment still exists. We still have that liberty. We still have

00:35:18.820 that freedom. It's just like, if you could prove to me that, well, if we get rid of, uh, free speech, it would,

00:35:24.540 it would have this and that positive effect. Uh, yeah, but we still have that freedom and it's still there.

00:35:31.860 So we can't, we can't ignore it. We just can't do that. It's law. It's liberty. We can't ignore it.

00:35:38.340 But even aside from that, um, the fact is there are tens of millions of guns out there. And it is

00:35:45.560 true that if somebody gets it into their head, that they want to kill mass numbers of people,

00:35:52.940 they have the desire to do that. We talked about this last week about desire and opportunity.

00:35:58.060 The reason why most of us are never going to do a school shooting is because we have absolutely no

00:36:04.360 desire to do that. And we never will. There are people, whether through spiritual evil or mental

00:36:11.300 illness, whatever you want to say, who find in themselves that desire to kill mass numbers of

00:36:16.860 people. And then once they have that desire, all they're looking for is the opportunity.

00:36:22.800 And there simply is no law that's going to deprive them of that opportunity. That's the fact,

00:36:30.760 which it seems like, you know, so do we say, Oh, well, they're going to do it anyway. There's

00:36:36.300 nothing we could do. Absolutely not. I think we need to be taking proactive steps to defend and

00:36:42.120 protect our children in these schools. We need to be doing real things, real active measures.

00:36:50.260 Um, and one of those things is to make sure that every school in America has armed security.

00:36:56.340 And I know we might like that. We might say, well, we, we shouldn't have to live. We shouldn't live

00:37:01.060 in a country where you need armed security in a school. Yeah, we shouldn't, but we do. And so we

00:37:05.500 should have it. There's armed security in pretty much any other government building you can think

00:37:10.440 of. Public schools are government buildings. And in pretty much any other government building you

00:37:14.120 can think of, there's armed security. You go to the social security office. Uh, I went there with,

00:37:18.820 you know, I, when I got married, we went there for, with, uh, my wife and I went there and, uh,

00:37:25.160 just a little small office with a few people sitting there in the waiting room. And there's

00:37:28.660 an armed guard sitting there and to protect what documents, papers. So if we've got armed security

00:37:37.680 to protect documents and papers and armed security to protect politicians in Washington, then I think

00:37:44.160 we, our children who are in government buildings also deserve that same protection. So that's what I

00:37:50.760 would do. And that's not, that's not an ostrich in the sand that is taking real active steps

00:37:56.200 because going back to opportunity. Now there's nothing we could do about the fact that people

00:38:01.560 are going to develop this desire. Um, that's going to happen. We can't stop that from happening

00:38:06.920 as far as depriving them of opportunities. Well, a law is not going to take the opportunity

00:38:13.860 because a law is just a, it's just a concept, right? Um, in terms of from a preventative

00:38:21.180 perspective, like if I want to kill someone, you say, well, there's a law against killing

00:38:25.960 people. Okay. But I, it's not, it's not going to physically stop me from doing it. That will

00:38:30.780 allow you to punish me after the fact, which is good, but it's not going to physically stop

00:38:35.580 me. I think what we need to do on top of having laws is we need to have actual physical barriers

00:38:42.040 that may prevent, may hinder my opportunity to do the bad thing. And that physical barrier

00:38:52.540 in this case would be armed guards. I think it would be very difficult to argue that, you

00:39:01.780 know, a school shooting where there's an armed guard is, is likely to be just as deadly as

00:39:07.520 a school shooting where there is no guard. I think about Sandy hook. I mean, those kids,

00:39:13.960 those poor kids were just sitting there in the classroom, utterly defenseless until the

00:39:21.280 police arrived. I think it's, I think it's immoral and wrong to leave our kids defenseless

00:39:27.600 like that. And so that's what I would, that's how I would address it. Um, and I think that,

00:39:33.920 I think that is a proactive step that we can take. Thanks for the email. Uh, I guess we

00:39:41.460 will leave it there. Thanks for watching everybody. Thanks for listening. Godspeed.

00:39:45.880 Hey everybody. It's Andrew Klavan, host of the Andrew Klavan show. You know, repealing Roe v. Wade

00:40:03.880 would be a good thing because it might be a step on the way to not killing so many babies,

00:40:07.960 but it would also be good for the left. And I'll explain why on the Andrew Klavan show.

00:40:12.920 We've also got the mailbag. I'm Andrew Klavan.

The Matt Walsh Show - May 15, 2019

Ep 260 - The Tide Is Turning

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