The Matt Walsh Show - Ep. 269 - Donald Trump Caused Chernobyl

00:00:00.000 Today on The Matt Wall Show, I've been called racist because I did a segment on the show yesterday

00:00:04.700 talking about some very troubling allegations about Martin Luther King Jr.

00:00:09.220 So I want to address that accusation.

00:00:11.680 Also, the HBO series Chernobyl is a damning indictment of socialism,

00:00:16.720 but the left says that it's actually more about Donald Trump.

00:00:19.440 So we'll try to talk about that.

00:00:21.040 And also, Old Town Road is the worst song ever recorded, but it's a huge hit.

00:00:26.320 But is everyone just pretending to like it as some kind of joke?

00:00:30.900 We'll try to get to the bottom of that as well today on The Matt Wall Show.

00:00:40.260 Welcome to the show, everybody. Thanks for being here.

00:00:42.940 A lot of ground to cover today.

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00:02:06.280 All right.

00:02:07.180 To start with here, I want to follow up on something from from yesterday.

00:02:13.560 I began yesterday the show talking about this Martin Luther King Jr.

00:02:18.820 story, a story that very few people in America have shown any interest in talking about.

00:02:24.400 And I simply don't believe that this disinterest is due to any real belief that the story isn't newsworthy.

00:02:34.060 OK, I don't I don't believe that.

00:02:35.780 I don't think that's why people are avoiding it.

00:02:37.760 I think people are avoiding it because it's well, it's just cowardice.

00:02:41.620 People don't want to touch it with a 10 foot pole because they're afraid.

00:02:45.120 Well, they're afraid that they'll get the kind of reaction that I have gotten for that segment that I did yesterday on the show and also the piece that I wrote, which you can find on TheDailyWire.com right now.

00:02:55.780 But, you know, the thing about me as as a as a stubborn SOB, the thing about me is when I get a really negative reaction to something that I talk about and people insist that I shouldn't be talking about it, then that's only going to ensure that I talk about it more.

00:03:14.380 That's that's that's the best way to make sure that I talk about if I talk about something on the show and you don't like it.

00:03:19.860 The best way to make sure that I talk about it again the next day is to send me an email saying never talk about that again.

00:03:25.780 So here we are. And and that's just out of principle. It's a principle to me.

00:03:31.860 So to review briefly, there's a new report published in a British public publication because no American magazine or no American outlet would go near it.

00:03:41.380 The report is written by a respected Martin Luther King biographer by the name of David Garrow.

00:03:48.360 And it's based on FBI documents, which themselves are based on summaries of tapes or the FBI documents are summaries of tapes of Martin Luther King, tapes that are under lock and key and and won't be released to the public until 2027.

00:04:05.780 But these documents depict Martin Luther King, apparently as a violent drunk, a serial adulterer, a man who abused women, exploited them.

00:04:16.160 And on one occasion, allegedly cheered on a rape of a woman. 0.97

00:04:21.780 He was in the room while a woman was being raped and he cheered and applauded and gave advice to the rapist as it was ongoing. 0.54

00:04:28.420 It's very upsetting stuff. Now, not all of this stuff is from FBI documents.

00:04:32.700 It's it's well, all of that is in there, but the FBI isn't the only source telling us, for instance, that King abused and exploited women.

00:04:41.900 We kind of already knew that. We've heard that from other sources, eyewitnesses, friends, acquaintances of King.

00:04:47.780 The FBI just corroborates that that stuff. It's the bit about the rape.

00:04:52.220 That's the new piece of information. I don't think that existed anywhere outside of this.

00:04:57.180 These documents. And it's it's very striking information.

00:05:02.700 I suppose you could assume it's not true. You could assume it's just made up, but there isn't much basis to assume that.

00:05:12.140 I mean, you could there's basis to suspect that that could be a possibility as one explanation of how that information ended up in the documents.

00:05:20.780 But the problem is that the tapes match up so much with what we already knew.

00:05:29.680 And what other people have said. And that so that's that's the problem with the it's made up theory.

00:05:36.920 There's just not a lot of reason to think that it's made up.

00:05:40.100 And why do you think the tapes have been sealed by court order?

00:05:44.120 You know, if they were just tapes of King, you know, playing board games or something, then I don't think they'd be sealed for 60 years until 2027.

00:05:51.920 In any case, in terms of what we do know, this information, you know, or in terms of what we do with this information, I suggested that the one that the option that I favor for what we do with this information

00:06:09.280 is that we develop a single standard that can be equally applied to all historical figures.

00:06:16.660 That we don't try to recast Martin Luther King as a villain or start tearing down his statues, but that we we also don't make him some sort of exception.

00:06:26.800 Where we demonize the other historical figures, you know, our our other national heroes that we've been demonizing and tearing down their statues.

00:06:34.580 I don't think we can make King an exception to that.

00:06:39.280 But. I also don't think that we should canonize people or Martin Luther King or other national heroes.

00:06:46.560 That doesn't make sense either. So rather than canonize our heroes on one hand or demonize them on the other, I don't like either of those options.

00:06:53.220 I think what we should do with this information and with and with the with the difficult facts about our other national heroes is we should use that information to humanize them,

00:07:03.760 to see them as human beings, to see them as real people, not caricatures.

00:07:07.860 And to and to strive to understand and appreciate them that way.

00:07:12.100 I think that's what we should do. We shouldn't hide from the darker elements of their personalities.

00:07:17.620 We shouldn't try to justify their sins or rationalize them or assume that it's all made up.

00:07:24.300 We should discuss them openly and honestly.

00:07:27.940 And but we also don't want to turn them into cartoon villains either and say, oh, well, they did this and that bad thing.

00:07:34.220 Apparently they were just terrible people and nothing that they did was ever any good.

00:07:37.400 And so we shouldn't honor them at all. No, not that either.

00:07:39.820 We just see them as men, nothing more or less than that.

00:07:43.960 If they achieved great things, if they managed accomplishments that few people could could do, if they altered the course of history, as Martin Luther King did, then we honor those accomplishments.

00:07:56.180 And perhaps we even build statues to remember those accomplishments.

00:07:59.180 We don't erase anyone from the history books. Instead, maybe what we do is we add a few extra pages to the history books to to also include these other pieces of information.

00:08:09.660 So we keep the monuments because the monuments are part of our history and culture.

00:08:18.400 But we keep in mind that the person commemorated by the monument was just that a person.

00:08:24.300 And that's how we think of them. That's how we remember them.

00:08:27.420 If if if this is where our reassessment of our historical heroes ultimately leads, then I think it'll be a positive change because we'll finally be remembering and studying history like adults rather than children.

00:08:39.660 And it's through that more nuanced lens that I think we can continue to honor Martin Luther King Jr.

00:08:46.580 And other heroes with flaws, even very terrible, serious, awful flaws.

00:08:54.480 It's through that lens, through that kind of nuanced, mature, grown up lens of seeing these as people.

00:09:01.560 But the point is, with Martin Luther King, is that he's not a special case. He's not an exception.

00:09:05.960 So we can't say, oh, well, yeah, let's do that with all the other historical figures, but not him.

00:09:13.040 He's an exception. He's not. And that's my thought about this.

00:09:17.440 You know, that's that's kind of what I think we should do with it.

00:09:21.500 But I've been told by a lot of people that I'm racist just for having this conversation.

00:09:27.440 So let me give you just one example of an email expressing this point of view in this.

00:09:33.820 Many other people said similar things to me. So here's one says, Matt, your slanderous attack on Dr.

00:09:39.580 King is beneath even you. He he was a hero and he achieved more than you will ever achieve in your miserable life.

00:09:45.900 Well, that's probably true. I've always suspected you were a racist, but I never thought you'd be so blatant about it. 0.98

00:09:51.980 The king of state should sue you for this. Seriously, you are a racist puke. F you. 1.00

00:09:57.780 I hope you get fired for this. I'm completely disgusted. It goes on from there. 0.99

00:10:03.520 First of all, there's there's I am reporting what is has been published based on FBI documents.

00:10:11.880 So there's no basis, of course. It's what I'm doing is not slander. There's there's nothing libelous about it.

00:10:17.260 I'm just telling you the information that's out there. I'm not telling you that if it's true or not.

00:10:21.160 I don't know. Just telling you what the information is, what the claims are.

00:10:25.080 But there's been a lot of feedback like this. And you see, this is why I talk about it, because I believe a few things fundamentally.

00:10:34.740 Number one, no subject is off limits. No subject, period.

00:10:38.680 So the solemn pledge that I make to you is that I will never, ever avoid a subject simply because I'm afraid that it might upset the audience.

00:10:52.760 I'm never going. I never have done that. I never will do that.

00:10:56.680 Because the way I see it is, if I'm going to start doing that, then what's the point?

00:11:00.060 If I'm just going to sit here and tell you things you already think, then what am I even doing?

00:11:05.420 It's just it's a waste of time. I'm wasting my life and I'm wasting your time.

00:11:09.500 And so there's no point to it.

00:11:11.380 Number two, I also believe that no human being is above criticism.

00:11:14.580 You know, no human being, not me, not you, not Martin Luther King, not Mother Teresa, not Gandhi.

00:11:22.100 Now, we shouldn't look to tear people down just for the sake of it.

00:11:25.360 And if somebody is honored as a great person, we shouldn't go looking for reasons to hate them, which I think is an instinct some people have.

00:11:32.520 That's that's I don't think we should do that.

00:11:34.900 But if any person is guilty or possibly guilty of horrible acts of evil, they deserve for those acts to be discussed and condemned.

00:11:41.820 I don't care who they are. I don't care. I don't care if they're living, dead.

00:11:46.500 Because that doesn't change. If an evil act was committed, that doesn't change it.

00:11:50.600 It still happened. And it's still evil.

00:11:55.700 Because the only other option is to treat them like gods, right?

00:11:59.160 To say they're above criticism, to criticize them as blasphemy.

00:12:02.620 But once you start treating someone like that, you've deified, you've made them into a god.

00:12:07.120 And there is only one god. Martin Luther King is not god.

00:12:09.600 I'm not. You're not. Nobody is. Except for God. God is God.

00:12:14.220 And number three, I think the truth matters.

00:12:17.700 You know, I can't say that what's reported about King is true.

00:12:21.180 It's possible that it's not.

00:12:22.680 But it's true that the reports are out there.

00:12:25.240 And it's true that the reports are credible, at least.

00:12:28.400 And so it matters. It matters because it's true.

00:12:30.540 But as I said, my goal is not to tear apart anyone's legacy or villainize anyone.

00:12:38.080 The goal is to start to actually study history and to see people for who they were.

00:12:45.200 You know, there are people who, you know, with the founding fathers, there obviously has been a movement recently to villainize them and just see them as racist goons.

00:12:55.640 So that's happening.

00:12:57.480 But then there's a reaction to that on the other side where there are people who do this with the founding fathers, with like Thomas Jefferson.

00:13:03.340 They say, basically, you can't criticize.

00:13:06.540 This is a national hero.

00:13:07.760 How dare you criticize him?

00:13:09.760 There are people who see our founding fathers that way.

00:13:11.820 There are people who have deified our founding fathers.

00:13:15.720 And I don't agree with that either.

00:13:17.020 Thomas Jefferson was a great man who did great things like Martin Luther King.

00:13:20.460 But Jefferson was also deeply flawed.

00:13:23.240 I mean, he owned human beings, for one thing.

00:13:26.000 I don't think we need to go beyond that.

00:13:27.660 He owned people.

00:13:28.580 He wrote that beautiful document, the Declaration of Independence, and he excluded an entire race from it. 0.98

00:13:35.000 So all of that beautiful and profound, those beautiful and profound words that he put into the Declaration of Independence,

00:13:43.220 there is sort of an asterisk next to it because he didn't mean for it to apply to non-white people.

00:13:54.420 Arguably, he didn't even mean for it to apply to non-white men.

00:13:57.660 I mean, that was just the mentality that he was coming from. 0.94

00:14:00.240 It's an evil mentality.

00:14:01.240 So we should acknowledge that, and we should talk about that, and that's okay because it's just true is all.

00:14:12.560 It doesn't matter how you feel about it.

00:14:14.160 It's just true.

00:14:16.800 All right.

00:14:17.440 Stephen King sent out a tweet yesterday going from one king to another.

00:14:22.980 Now we're going to a much less impressive king.

00:14:25.940 All right.

00:14:26.200 So Stephen King sent out a tweet yesterday about the new miniseries Chernobyl.

00:14:31.160 I don't know if you've been watching this show, Chernobyl.

00:14:33.660 It is a masterpiece, by the way.

00:14:35.260 I really recommend it.

00:14:36.560 It's tense.

00:14:37.300 It's terrifying.

00:14:38.540 It's very insightful.

00:14:41.340 It really reminds me of something that Soljan Easton would have.

00:14:44.580 If Soljan Easton was alive today and making movies and TV shows, I think this is the kind of story that he would have told.

00:14:51.540 But Stephen King, along with, I think, other people on the left, have missed the point of the story.

00:14:58.880 And so here's what he said.

00:14:59.720 He said, it's impossible to watch HBO's Chernobyl without thinking of Donald Trump, of course.

00:15:06.620 Like those in charge of the doomed Russian reactor, he's a man of mediocre intelligence in charge of great power, economic, global, that he does not understand.

00:15:14.760 It's been interesting to see the reaction to Chernobyl from liberals like Stephen King here, because in truth, of course, the show is a damning indictment of socialism.

00:15:28.600 The story is all about the incompetence of the socialist Soviet government and the ways that it was able to use its absolute power to instill fear and quiet dissent and prevent people from doing the right thing.

00:15:42.140 That's what the story is all about.

00:15:45.980 But I think this is how we end up with socialists in America.

00:15:51.780 Because, you know, on one hand, it seems very odd.

00:15:55.160 Those of us who are not socialists, we look around and we see all of these horrifying examples of socialism and what happens in socialist countries.

00:16:03.180 And so we say to the socialists in this country, we say, hey, just look.

00:16:06.960 Look at what this system does.

00:16:08.540 Look where it leads.

00:16:09.440 All you have to do is look.

00:16:10.360 It's right there.

00:16:11.000 I mean, pick any example that you want, currently or from history.

00:16:17.160 What's wrong?

00:16:17.940 Why can't you see this?

00:16:20.840 It's like, I'm not even saying that you have to think that capitalism is the best thing ever.

00:16:26.460 This isn't even about defending capitalism.

00:16:29.540 Maybe there's some other system you can come up with.

00:16:31.820 But as far as socialism goes, it's very clear that it just doesn't work.

00:16:36.980 It leads to horrifying results.

00:16:38.980 All you have to do is look.

00:16:41.660 So that's what we say, right?

00:16:43.960 But they have this defense mechanism because every failure of socialism in their mind is never a failure of socialism.

00:16:51.360 It's always about something else.

00:16:52.920 It's always, oh, well, that's not really socialism or, yeah, it's socialism, but it's got nothing to do with socialism.

00:16:58.700 So Chernobyl, and Stephen King is not the first person to say this.

00:17:03.600 Chernobyl is somehow now about Donald Trump.

00:17:06.840 I mean, Donald Trump, when Chernobyl happened, he was still a real estate developer in Manhattan.

00:17:12.920 I don't think it's his fault.

00:17:18.580 But that's what they think.

00:17:19.920 It's about Donald Trump.

00:17:21.660 It's not about the socialist government.

00:17:25.300 It's not about that.

00:17:25.940 This is the cognitive dissonance that's required in order for someone to maintain their socialist convictions.

00:17:35.880 Those who want to preserve the good name of socialism have said that, you know, Chernobyl isn't about, isn't so much about the political system that was in place.

00:17:46.620 It's about the ineptitude and corruption of the individuals within that system.

00:17:51.540 Which, okay, fine, sure.

00:17:54.340 Yes, the system did not create the disaster.

00:17:57.020 The political system itself did not make it so that thousands of people would be exposed to lethal levels of radiation.

00:18:04.480 A system is just a system.

00:18:05.780 A system by itself, if you just put a system over there, it's not going to do anything.

00:18:11.260 A political system needs people.

00:18:13.920 And so if you want to deflect, you can.

00:18:15.420 You can always say, well, it's not the, the system didn't do it, the people did it.

00:18:19.360 Fine, sure.

00:18:21.540 But here's the question.

00:18:24.860 Which system exacerbates the problem?

00:18:30.600 Which system? 0.84

00:18:31.680 Now, we know that corrupt and incompetent people exist. 0.85

00:18:35.620 We know that.

00:18:36.920 And we know, unfortunately, that corrupt and incompetent people very often want to be in power.

00:18:44.520 That, unfortunately, just human nature, often these are exactly the kinds of people who pursue power.

00:18:51.540 So then the question is, which system best enables those corrupt and incompetent people to inflict the most amount of damage?

00:19:03.960 And which system most shields those people from accountability?

00:19:11.940 And which system makes it most difficult for the average citizen to be heard and to have a voice and to have a say?

00:19:24.380 Like, that's the question.

00:19:26.320 And see, that's the problem with socialism.

00:19:29.200 That's the problem with giving all the power to the state.

00:19:32.680 No, nobody thinks that socialism in and of itself makes people bad.

00:19:41.100 No, what we're saying is that human nature is flawed to begin with.

00:19:47.620 And so our founding fathers, that we just talked about, though they did have these flaws, they were brilliant men.

00:19:53.260 And one of their fundamental insights was that, okay, human nature is very flawed, you can't trust people with power, and so we've got to figure out a system so that we can, as best we can, you know, shield ourselves from those pitfalls.

00:20:13.160 And we need to come up with a system where if someone does get in there and they become power-obsessed and corrupt and they're going crazy, there are ways to get rid of them.

00:20:23.780 There are ways to hold them accountable.

00:20:26.920 That's the point.

00:20:29.520 And that's the problem with socialism.

00:20:32.040 And that's what you see when you watch Chernobyl, which, of course, it's a TV show, but I think from what I've read, it's pretty accurate.

00:20:38.740 It takes some liberties here and there, but as far as these sorts of shows go, it's pretty accurate.

00:20:45.580 And what you find is that the state was, among other things, was able to instill so much fear in the minds of people who knew better and who could have done something about it, but they were afraid.

00:21:02.980 Or even if they did try to speak up and say something, they could easily just be scooped up and thrown in prison, just like that, with no questions asked.

00:21:15.700 And that's what socialism brings.

00:21:17.740 All right, Meryl Streep was on a panel promoting her latest show or movie or whatever it was, and she said something.

00:21:27.860 And I can't believe that I'm going to give her credit for something, but she said something that I thought was very good.

00:21:34.120 She was talking about toxic masculinity. 0.66

00:21:36.180 That came up in the conversation somehow.

00:21:38.500 And this is what she said.

00:21:39.680 I'll read it to you.

00:21:40.280 She said, sometimes I think we're hurt.

00:21:44.780 We hurt our boys by calling something toxic masculinity. 0.99

00:21:50.880 Because women can be pretty effing toxic. 1.00

00:21:53.540 So it's toxic people. 0.98

00:21:54.960 We have our good angles and we have our bad ones.

00:21:58.000 I think the labels are less helpful than what we're trying to get to, which is a communication direct between human beings.

00:22:04.580 We're all on the boat together.

00:22:06.140 We've got to make it work.

00:22:08.600 There's Meryl Streep.

00:22:10.160 Now, Meryl Streep is about to be dethroned as the queen of Hollywood for these comments, unfortunately, because the left is not going to tolerate that. 0.93

00:22:20.760 You're not allowed to question something like toxic masculinity.

00:22:23.280 But, of course, what she's saying here is so obviously true.

00:22:27.700 Of course we hurt our boys by calling something toxic masculinity.

00:22:31.140 And as I've pointed out many times, if you want to understand how that might be hurtful, especially to young boys, then just imagine going around and telling young girls about toxic femininity.

00:22:45.820 We would never say that.

00:22:47.800 We would never, ever say that.

00:22:49.280 That phrase never comes up. 0.77

00:22:51.980 We would never lecture girls for their toxic femininity. 1.00

00:22:56.580 We don't do it.

00:22:57.400 Why is that?

00:22:59.580 Because you don't want to attach those two concepts.

00:23:03.560 Because there's nothing toxic about being feminine.

00:23:09.240 Just like there's nothing toxic about being masculine.

00:23:12.520 No, the toxicity comes if this thing that we call toxic masculinity, the reason why it's toxic is because it's not masculinity.

00:23:21.900 It is a caricature of masculinity.

00:23:28.360 It's a parody of masculinity.

00:23:30.400 So if, you know, I think the people who propose this toxic masculinity thing, one example of toxic masculinity that they might give is like the kind of, let's say, the frat boy culture in schools.

00:23:44.960 Where we're going to go and just get drunk and we're going to, you know, disrespect women and so on and so forth.

00:23:52.080 Okay, well that's, no, that's not toxic masculinity.

00:23:55.800 That's just not masculinity.

00:23:57.260 Because a masculine man doesn't behave that way. 0.90

00:24:04.140 So those are men who are deficient in masculinity.

00:24:09.340 So I would propose, rather than talking about toxic masculinity, maybe a better term would be deficient masculinity.

00:24:16.980 Because every example of toxic masculinity is actually deficient masculinity.

00:24:21.520 The problem is they are deficient.

00:24:23.020 They don't have enough of it.

00:24:24.020 And it's the same thing with femininity. 1.00

00:24:29.200 There are, Meryl Streep mentions, there are, that women can be pretty effing toxic. 1.00

00:24:34.680 Her words.

00:24:35.520 And that's true.

00:24:36.980 But when you think of stereotypically toxic female behavior, let's say, you know, when women gossip about each other in hurtful and destructive ways. 1.00

00:24:49.100 Okay, that's a stereotypical female behavior. 1.00

00:24:51.200 But that's not, that's not feminine.

00:24:54.020 You know, when you're, when you're being callous and dishonest and, and, and cruel, and, you know, trying to tear other people down, I don't think of that as femininity.

00:25:06.480 That's not what femininity is. 1.00

00:25:07.460 It's kind of the opposite.

00:25:08.920 So that is deficient femininity. 0.84

00:25:11.860 That's what I propose.

00:25:12.880 I think that's the term that we should start to use.

00:25:15.300 All right.

00:25:16.400 Before we get to some emails, I have to talk about one other thing.

00:25:23.080 And this is an important conversation.

00:25:27.700 It's really more of a question, actually.

00:25:29.840 I guess I'm going to pose a question to you.

00:25:31.880 So, this song, this song that's maybe the biggest song of the year, huge hit.

00:25:41.240 I mean, you hear it all over the place.

00:25:43.160 This Old Town Road by Lil Nas X.

00:25:46.100 Well, here's a clip of that, of that song.

00:25:50.040 If somehow you need to be reminded of it.

00:25:51.800 Here's a, here's a quick clip.

00:25:52.680 Yeah, I'm going to take my horse through the Old Town Road.

00:25:57.280 I'm going to ride till I can't no more.

00:26:00.820 I'm going to take my horse through the Old Town Road.

00:26:04.340 I'm going to ride till I can't no more.

00:26:07.780 I got the horses in the back.

00:26:10.260 Horse stock is attached. 0.87

00:26:12.040 Head is mad at black. 0.98

00:26:13.340 Got the boosters black to match. 0.95

00:26:15.520 Riding on a horse.

00:26:16.880 You can whip your Porsche.

00:26:19.000 I've been in a valley.

00:26:20.420 You ain't been up off that Porsche.

00:26:22.060 Now, can't nobody tell me nothing.

00:26:26.120 You can't tell me nothing.

00:26:29.260 Can't nobody tell me nothing.

00:26:33.180 You can't tell me nothing.

00:26:36.740 Okay.

00:26:38.040 Now, as I said, this is a huge hit, right?

00:26:40.500 And there was that controversy a few weeks ago about whether this counts as a country song or not.

00:26:45.380 And, of course, it's not a country song.

00:26:47.500 I mean, it's not at all in the slightest bit a country song.

00:26:50.040 But I guess we're pretending that it is because apparently it's racist or something to say that it isn't.

00:26:55.480 I hope it's not also racist for me to then say this, which is that this song is the worst song ever recorded.

00:27:03.840 It is extremely, extremely bad.

00:27:08.080 There is nothing good about it.

00:27:10.640 It has no redeeming qualities.

00:27:13.700 None.

00:27:14.400 And that's why I say that it's, I mean, arguably the worst song ever recorded.

00:27:17.460 I know that there's a lot of competition for that title.

00:27:19.400 So, but I think arguably because even in most bad songs, there's like some, there's one or two things about it that you could say, okay, well, that's not so bad.

00:27:31.120 Everything about this song is terrible.

00:27:33.400 Everything.

00:27:34.640 If you like this song, then you're just wrong.

00:27:38.040 You're wrong for life.

00:27:38.860 You are factually wrong.

00:27:40.040 If you say, oh no, but I think it's good.

00:27:42.020 Well, okay.

00:27:42.540 You think it's good, but you're wrong.

00:27:44.220 You're just wrong.

00:27:45.480 It's, it's, it is, you're objectively wrong.

00:27:48.800 I mean, just listen to the lyrics.

00:27:52.340 I'm going to read the lyrics to you just so that we can all digest.

00:27:56.980 I think it helps to digest the awfulness if we hear the lyrics spoken.

00:28:02.720 So here's a, here's a little bit of a spoken word poetry.

00:28:09.780 I'm going to take my horse to the old town road.

00:28:12.300 I'm going to ride till I can't know more.

00:28:14.940 I'm going to take my horse to the old town road.

00:28:17.680 I'm going to ride till I can't know more.

00:28:20.300 I got the horses in the back.

00:28:22.320 Horse tack is attached.

00:28:24.360 Hat is mate black.

00:28:26.380 Got the boots.

00:28:27.320 That's black to match. 0.73

00:28:28.940 Riding on a horse.

00:28:30.440 Ha.

00:28:30.660 Ah, you can whip your Porsche. 0.62

00:28:33.880 Ah, I've been in the valley.

00:28:36.660 You ain't been up off that porch now.

00:28:39.360 Can't nobody tell me nothing.

00:28:40.960 You can't tell me nothing.

00:28:43.540 Riding on a tractor. 0.83

00:28:44.960 Lean all in my bladder. 0.84

00:28:46.560 Cheated on my baby. 0.84

00:28:47.920 You can go and ask her.

00:28:49.640 My life is a movie.

00:28:50.880 Bull riding and boobies.

00:28:52.860 Cowboy hat from Gucci. 0.79

00:28:54.640 Wrangler on my booty.

00:28:56.620 Can't nobody tell me nothing.

00:28:58.280 You can't tell me nothing.

00:28:59.220 Can't nobody tell me nothing.

00:29:02.720 I'm going to take my horse to the old town road.

00:29:04.960 I'm going to ride till I can't know more.

00:29:09.640 So that's the song.

00:29:10.580 Um, I think my beautiful rendition right there made it sound 10 times better, but it's still

00:29:18.000 terrible, right?

00:29:19.240 You need to have the IQ of a sea sponge to think that these are good lyrics.

00:29:24.100 This is like something that I imagine.

00:29:25.680 I imagine you took a six year old and you locked him in a room and you forced him to listen

00:29:33.500 to bad hip hop and pop country.

00:29:35.860 Imagine that you, you, you just, you force fed him a diet for about five days of rap music

00:29:41.720 and like, uh, who's that?

00:29:44.100 Luke Bryan.

00:29:45.000 Okay.

00:29:45.320 Just, just one after another.

00:29:46.840 You're just, you're, you're forcing this down this six year old's throat.

00:29:50.440 And, uh, and then, and I think at the end of it, he would write that song.

00:29:54.200 That's what he would come up with.

00:29:55.260 And it's not like the musical accompaniment is good either.

00:29:59.800 This is, I was talking about this yesterday and people said, oh, well, it's got a good

00:30:03.000 beat.

00:30:03.420 No, it doesn't.

00:30:04.580 The beat is something that I could have made on a Yamaha keyboard when I was in middle school.

00:30:09.240 It's a, everything, as I said, everything about it's terrible.

00:30:12.040 There's no good thing about this song.

00:30:14.080 So I said, I had a question.

00:30:18.380 Here's my question.

00:30:19.140 Are you all just pretending to like it?

00:30:24.640 It occurred to me yesterday.

00:30:27.240 Maybe, is this all ironic?

00:30:29.720 Am I, is there a joke?

00:30:31.180 Is this all a big joke that we're all playing?

00:30:34.140 Are we all, is this kind of an inside joke that we're all sharing as a country?

00:30:37.840 Only I got left out because if so, let me know, please let me know.

00:30:42.320 Because I, I would, that's pretty funny in that case.

00:30:44.940 If we're all just pretending, if we all know this is a terrible song and we're just pretending

00:30:48.480 to like it ironically, and we've gone along with this joke ironically for like three months

00:30:53.080 now, um, and we're so committed to this joke that we'll actually listen to the song, right?

00:30:58.420 Then, okay, that's pretty funny.

00:31:00.000 So I, I would give all of you credit for taking part in that joke together.

00:31:03.460 I just wish you would have told me because I would have liked to be, I like ironic jokes

00:31:06.880 too.

00:31:07.160 Why didn't you tell me?

00:31:08.360 So if that's the case, let me know.

00:31:10.080 I'll feel a lot better about that because if people actually like this song and they really

00:31:15.620 listen to it because they really like it, genuinely like it and sincerely like it, then, uh, it's

00:31:22.200 going to make me concerned that the average IQ in this country is now 25, which is, which

00:31:27.520 is barely living. 1.00

00:31:30.360 I mean, that means that we've gotten so stupid in this country that we're barely alive. 1.00

00:31:34.820 I want to, if we drop five more points collectively, we will all die. 1.00

00:31:38.420 I don't think you can live with a 20 IQ.

00:31:40.140 I think that you, you, you can't like, you don't have enough IQ to even run your bodily 0.51

00:31:45.500 organs.

00:31:47.060 So, but I'm hope, I hope, and I pray.

00:31:50.900 I said a prayer last night.

00:31:52.520 I did.

00:31:53.680 I said, God, please, please tell me people don't really like this song.

00:31:58.200 Send me a message.

00:32:00.820 So now I ask you, uh, if you are one of the people who has caused this song to be top of

00:32:08.600 the billboard charts for, for months now, uh, is it just a joke?

00:32:15.320 Please tell me it's, in fact, tell me it's a joke regardless, even if it's not, just tell

00:32:19.380 me it is so that I can sleep easy at night.

00:32:22.440 Oh man.

00:32:23.320 Uh, just awful.

00:32:26.420 I know, you know, it's, it's, it's such a cliche, right?

00:32:29.660 I sound like an old fogey when I say, oh, you know, back in my day, people didn't listen 0.98

00:32:34.180 to crap like this. 0.97

00:32:35.540 No, back in my day, um, there was a lot of really terrible music. 0.99

00:32:41.300 Definitely.

00:32:42.040 And there were a lot of, I'm sure this, this little Nas X is going to be a one hit wonder.

00:32:45.900 I doubt he's going to, uh, because he's got no talent whatsoever.

00:32:49.240 So I don't think he's going to be able to, I mean, he could make another bad song that

00:32:54.000 turns out to be a hit, but I, you know, I think you only get to go to that well once.

00:32:57.100 Like you, you, you can have zero musical talent and have one big hit if you just, if

00:33:03.280 you end up being a one hit wonder, I, I, it's, it's hard to do it again.

00:33:06.420 But, um, yeah, so back in the nineties growing up, there, there were one hit wonder songs that

00:33:13.560 were really, really stupid and bad, but even those, at least they were kind of catchy and 0.80

00:33:18.860 there was a weird charm to them. 1.00

00:33:21.240 They were just, they didn't make any sense.

00:33:23.900 And, uh, I think about, well, okay, like, uh, tub, what's a tub thumping, Chumba Wumba.

00:33:29.160 Okay.

00:33:29.940 I get knocked down.

00:33:30.760 I get up again. 1.00

00:33:32.280 It's a really stupid and bad song, right? 1.00

00:33:35.500 But it's catchy. 1.00

00:33:37.700 It's weird.

00:33:39.740 Uh, it's got that one hook.

00:33:41.200 I get knocked down.

00:33:41.820 I get up again.

00:33:42.700 Never going to keep me down.

00:33:43.800 Uh, you know, it's, it's, it's at least got, it's got some kind of strange charm to it.

00:33:47.740 The thing about this on the thing about a lot of the really bad music today is that it seems

00:33:52.760 to me, I don't hold it against it that it's bad.

00:33:55.380 What I'm saying is there's no charm or anything to it.

00:33:57.800 It's just a, it's just all around bad.

00:34:01.100 And that's the problem.

00:34:02.340 All right.

00:34:03.080 Uh, Matt Walsh show at gmail.com, Matt Walsh show at gmail.com.

00:34:07.640 This is from Chase says, hello, Matt.

00:34:09.800 You asked yesterday about how many victim points you get as a cripple. 1.00

00:34:13.280 I'd like to throw in my two cents.

00:34:14.940 You clearly are of a mistaken mindset that you could ever cash in any kind of victim points

00:34:19.500 as a straight white male, trying to cash in your victim points in any circumstance is

00:34:23.420 like trying to store coins in a broken piggy bank.

00:34:25.600 You are fundamentally seen by society as an apex oppressor on the victim hierarchy.

00:34:30.900 And therefore any misfortune you've received is deserved.

00:34:33.460 And any opinion you have is invalid.

00:34:35.400 Of course, being myself a straight white male, I cannot be certain that this is itself the

00:34:39.660 correct opinion, not because it's not what the left believes, but because it was me who

00:34:43.160 said it.

00:34:43.900 Hope this clears things up for you.

00:34:45.120 So, yeah, I think you're basically right about that.

00:34:51.020 But remember, Chase, uh, you were, this was Chase, right?

00:34:57.240 Everything's on a spectrum with the left, everything.

00:35:00.220 There is nothing just exists on its own.

00:35:02.540 Everything is on a spectrum.

00:35:04.100 So even among the white male oppressor, I, I know that I'm always going to be a white male

00:35:10.080 oppressor no matter what I do, unless now, if I, that's not exactly true because I could

00:35:15.100 come out as a woman.

00:35:16.920 And the really fascinating thing is that I could be straight white male.

00:35:22.740 I could be, I could be straight white male.

00:35:24.800 I could be rich.

00:35:25.660 I could have everything going for me in the, in, in the world.

00:35:28.880 Um, and so I'm way at the bottom, right?

00:35:33.120 Of the hierarchy.

00:35:34.680 All I have to do is say, I'm a woman, three words, and I rock it all the way to the top.

00:35:41.520 It's that easy.

00:35:42.840 It's pretty incredible.

00:35:44.480 But if I remain a, a self-professed male, then you're right.

00:35:48.000 I'm at the bottom.

00:35:48.620 But I think among the straight white male oppressors, we're not all equally as, we're all oppressive 0.99

00:35:56.660 and evil and terrible. 1.00

00:35:59.440 And we're all scumbags. 1.00

00:36:00.720 I get that. 1.00

00:36:01.400 But some of us are more terrible and more worthless than others.

00:36:06.280 What I am suggesting is that due to my, uh, disability, which I remind you of, I am slightly

00:36:14.260 less oppressive and less worthless than you.

00:36:19.580 So that's all. 0.78

00:36:20.700 And which means that you can victimize me.

00:36:24.540 You know, I, I cannot be a victim of, of anyone else on the hierarchy, but I can be a victim

00:36:30.560 of you because my disability, I think, gives me a few, just a few victim points, whereas

00:36:35.380 you have none.

00:36:38.140 So through that email, you have just, and through disagreeing with me, you have just victimized

00:36:43.680 me.

00:36:44.480 Uh, congratulations.

00:36:45.180 Now, this is from Greg says, responding to, uh, anyone who lobs the Hitchens razor, what

00:36:52.620 can be asserted without evidence can be dismissed without evidence at me during debate.

00:36:56.180 I'd say, um, with tongue firmly lodged in cheek, show me the evidence for Hitchens assertion.

00:37:02.400 Hitchens is actually correct though. 1.00

00:37:03.840 Accidentally, he stumbled upon a little something called deductive reasoning and related concepts

00:37:08.340 of valid versus sound arguments.

00:37:09.940 So many materialist atheists fall victim to the assertion that a claim can only be proven

00:37:15.620 true via evidence and science.

00:37:17.400 The simplistic thinking is part and parcel of scientism and positivism, something I've

00:37:22.840 written, uh, I'm writing about and many from, uh, Aristotomist Catholic philosophers to Hayek

00:37:28.260 have found, fought against it over the years.

00:37:31.680 Scientism still infects the brains of everyone from Neil deGrasse Tyson to economic planners

00:37:36.160 to your garden variety, undergrad atheist.

00:37:38.380 Um, yeah, I would have, I would agree with everything you said there.

00:37:44.320 Although, well, okay.

00:37:47.520 You say that the, you're saying that it's a, it's a fallacious assertion that you can only

00:37:54.600 prove something true with evidence and science.

00:37:56.980 So it sounds like that's what you're taking issue with.

00:37:58.940 Now I would agree when it comes to science, there are, there are a great many discussions

00:38:04.540 that we have where science really settles it.

00:38:09.120 Like for instance, can a man be a woman? 0.90

00:38:11.080 Well, science settles that one.

00:38:12.560 No, that's a scientific question.

00:38:13.760 So a lot of our debates are scientific questions and therefore science can settle the debate.

00:38:19.460 There are some debates that go beyond science.

00:38:23.540 And so I would agree with most theists who say that, well, there's a lot of science involved

00:38:28.780 in this and you can use science and find evidence of God, find, find sort of arrows that point

00:38:36.720 towards the creator God through science.

00:38:40.020 But ultimately, fundamentally, it's not a scientific question because it goes beyond that.

00:38:46.760 And science is all about sort of the rules of the road, right?

00:38:50.300 Science is about the way things work in our universe.

00:38:54.520 Well, God created the universe and he created those rules and decided how it would work.

00:38:59.200 So he is beyond those rules, which means you cannot use those rules.

00:39:03.640 Those rules cannot be the end of the discussion.

00:39:05.500 You can use them, can't be the end of the discussion.

00:39:07.680 So I agree with you there.

00:39:08.340 Evidence, though, I would say that, of course, to prove anything, it does require evidence.

00:39:14.780 By definition, there has to be, if you offer no evidence at all for your assertion, then

00:39:21.540 there is no reason for anyone to believe your assertion, right?

00:39:28.160 It's just that what I would say is not all evidence is scientific evidence.

00:39:32.480 And there is evidence of God that is not scientific or is, I would say, beyond scientific.

00:39:38.340 For instance, our internal experience of God, of the Holy Spirit, I think that is valid evidence.

00:39:52.020 It's not scientific evidence, but it is evidence.

00:39:56.980 So I would just be careful with that.

00:39:58.700 You know, as theists, we don't want to come across like we think that, you know, we're above evidence and we don't even have to give you evidence.

00:40:06.380 Because if we're going to say that, then the atheist is going to say, well, then why am I even talking to you?

00:40:11.420 Why would I even discuss this with you?

00:40:13.660 Because then you're just making an assertion, I'm supposed to believe it just because you said it?

00:40:18.720 No, I think we do present evidence.

00:40:20.340 It's just that not all evidence is scientific.

00:40:23.180 Finally, from Marcy says, hi, Matt, I agree with what you said about Martin Luther King, but you forgot something.

00:40:30.220 He was also a plagiarist.

00:40:35.600 Then she claims that he plagiarized his doctoral thesis and then also that I have a dream speech.

00:40:40.940 I got this email.

00:40:42.460 I also got this email from a lot of people as well.

00:40:46.400 This is about Martin Luther King was a plagiarist and then other things also.

00:40:49.180 Well, he also did this.

00:40:50.020 He did that.

00:40:50.380 He did this terrible thing and I'm glad you brought that up because I wanted to address it.

00:40:57.480 First of all, there is a claim that Martin Luther King plagiarized the I have a dream speech.

00:41:02.640 I think that that, I'm not an expert on this.

00:41:04.680 I didn't spend a lot of time researching it, but from what I looked at, that seems to be a very weak claim.

00:41:10.160 In fact, I just think it's not true.

00:41:11.400 He obviously was inspired in giving that speech by people that he knew and other figures in his life, other speeches he'd heard, which is fine.

00:41:21.900 You can be inspired.

00:41:23.060 Of course, we all have inspiration.

00:41:25.220 I mean, if you wanted to sit down and find Abraham Lincoln's inspiration for the Gettysburg Address, I'm sure you can find things.

00:41:33.660 Not a problem.

00:41:34.160 But the doctoral thesis, I think, pretty well been established that he did plagiarize large parts of that.

00:41:41.160 But I didn't bring that up.

00:41:44.940 Why didn't I bring it up?

00:41:45.720 Because I think this is a very good example of the kind of thing that, the kind of sort of detail, unflattering detail of a historical person, historical hero that is not relevant.

00:41:59.800 I actually think that that's not a relevant detail.

00:42:01.500 And so it's important to, you know, I would present it now just as a way of contrast, because I don't think, this is my whole point here, when we're talking about our historical figures, historical icons, I don't think that we should just be pouring through every single thing they did and trying to bring out every skeleton out of the closet.

00:42:26.140 I don't think we should do that.

00:42:28.620 What's the point of that?

00:42:31.500 I mean, OK, well, he got a speeding ticket, too.

00:42:34.400 I mean, right.

00:42:35.400 What if you find something like that?

00:42:36.740 Who cares?

00:42:37.480 There has to be a there has to be a cutoff.

00:42:39.860 Like there are certain things that really are just not relevant.

00:42:44.620 And same with Thomas Jefferson.

00:42:46.580 If you want to talk about Thomas Jefferson sins, there are there's going to be relevant things to talk about and irrelevant things.

00:42:51.500 The fact that he was a slave owner, that's relevant because it's very serious.

00:42:55.760 It's it's it's it's something that speaks to his character as a person in, unfortunately, a bad way.

00:43:05.960 And because it does so seriously contradict so many of the things that he said.

00:43:16.480 So if we're going to talk about Thomas Jefferson's zeal for equal rights, you can't avoid bringing up that.

00:43:26.520 Yeah.

00:43:26.960 But also, by the way, he didn't think that applied because it just it puts it into context.

00:43:31.280 It puts into context what he actually believed.

00:43:33.720 So you can't get around it.

00:43:36.460 Right.

00:43:39.400 Martin Luther King.

00:43:41.400 You know, if he was abusive of women, if he condoned rape, if he exploited women, that sort of thing.

00:43:47.580 Very serious.

00:43:48.900 Speaks to his character as a as a person.

00:43:52.740 It's relevant to a lot of the things he said.

00:43:55.880 A lot of very beautiful things.

00:43:58.040 Well, if these claims are true, then apparently he thought that a lot of this stuff doesn't apply to women because he.

00:44:03.720 Had no problem exploiting them.

00:44:06.040 So that's relevant.

00:44:08.760 But if he didn't properly cite when he was doing a doctoral thesis, I just don't think that that's I don't think that rises to that level.

00:44:15.580 So that's the kind of thing that.

00:44:17.380 OK, it's, you know.

00:44:18.080 All right.

00:44:18.900 Fine.

00:44:19.380 That happened.

00:44:20.440 Then you can move on.

00:44:21.320 It doesn't.

00:44:21.840 And I just don't think it matches up.

00:44:25.740 In terms of severity.

00:44:28.480 So there is a.

00:44:30.000 You know, there is a.

00:44:31.040 There is a balancing act.

00:44:35.420 That we have to strike.

00:44:37.180 And sometimes it can be difficult to find what the balance is.

00:44:39.560 And that's sort of why I'm talking about this.

00:44:40.780 So we can figure out what is the balance.

00:44:43.420 We know we don't want extreme ends.

00:44:45.440 We don't want the one extreme end of.

00:44:48.260 We're going to ignore all the bad stuff and just treat them like gods.

00:44:52.040 Then we don't want the other extreme of they're terrible.

00:44:54.060 And let's only talk about the bad stuff somewhere in between.

00:44:58.160 And figuring out where that middle ground is, I think, is sort of the point.

00:45:02.360 All right.

00:45:02.920 We'll leave it there.

00:45:03.840 Thanks for watching, everybody.

00:45:04.740 Thanks for listening.

00:45:05.660 Godspeed.

00:45:05.960 Today on the Ben Shapiro Show, President Trump prepares to drop massive tariffs on Mexico to stop illegal immigration.

00:45:24.700 Will it work?

00:45:25.280 That's today on the Ben Shapiro Show.

00:45:26.540 We'll be right back.

The Matt Walsh Show - May 31, 2019

Ep. 269 - Donald Trump Caused Chernobyl

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