The Matt Walsh Show - Ep. 277 - Burning The Flag Is Stupid And Grotesque. It's Also A Protected Form Of Speech.

00:00:00.000 Today on the Matt Walsh Show, some Republicans are trying to ban flag burning again,

00:00:05.500 but is burning the flag a form of speech? Should it be protected free speech? Is it covered by

00:00:10.000 the First Amendment? I say yes, obviously, on all three counts, but we'll talk about it. Also,

00:00:15.020 we'll look at a very powerful yet heartbreaking video of an incident that transpired outside of

00:00:19.420 an abortion clinic recently. And finally, Taylor Swift has a new song out. It's at once incredibly

00:00:25.740 boring and obnoxious at the same time, which is an impressive combination that Taylor Swift has

00:00:30.840 seemingly perfected. So we'll take a look at that song today on the Matt Walsh Show.

00:00:39.480 Okay, well, I hope you had a great weekend, great Father's Day to all the dads out there. I don't

00:00:44.040 mean to brag, but I have been awarded. It's no big deal. But as you can see, and I don't know if

00:00:51.520 you can read in the camera, it's the best dad bod trophy. And I got two of them. So I'm a two-time

00:00:59.940 champion. You see, my wife took the twins out to the store to get me a... Oh, they left the price

00:01:07.740 tag on too. Disappointing. My wife took the twins out to the store to get me something for Father's

00:01:17.780 Day. And they ended up in the aisle with all the souvenir trophies. And my kids really wanted to

00:01:24.440 get me a best dad trophy, but they can't really read. So they chose a best dad bod trophy unknowingly.

00:01:32.160 And my wife decided not to correct them, which I respect. And so this is what I got. Now, you know,

00:01:38.400 kids are known to speak a lot of truth accidentally. And so I think this is yet another example of that.

00:01:44.460 Although I did also, again, I mean, I'm just the most, probably best. I also have the best dad,

00:01:50.640 the best dad ever. That's what that says. So I'm the best dad ever. I've got the best dad bod. I mean,

00:01:57.880 this is just something that I can put on my resume, I suppose. All right. A lot to talk about today.

00:02:04.480 But before we get to any of that, I want to check in with our friends over at Lightstream. Are your

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00:03:09.540 lightstream.com slash Walsh, lightstream.com slash Walsh for more information. All right. Let's talk

00:03:17.900 about, first anyway, let's talk about flag burning. Always a fun topic. And it's been back in the news

00:03:24.720 because some congressional Republicans introduced yet again a proposal which would ban flag burning.

00:03:32.900 Um, actually it's a, it's a proposed constitutional amendment, which would give Congress the authority

00:03:40.960 to ban the burning of, of the flag. And they have to do it that way because the Supreme Court has

00:03:46.800 ruled several times that desecrating the flag is a form of protected speech. And this isn't just

00:03:52.720 liberal justices who have said this, by the way, uh, Scalia was, was of this opinion as well. He did an

00:03:58.040 interview, I think of shortly before he died. And, uh, he said that burning the flag is stupid and 1.00

00:04:04.140 offensive, but also of course it's free speech. Still, some Republicans are taking another stab at 0.99

00:04:10.480 making it illegal, um, a stab, which will fail because this is obviously just a publicity stunt. It's

00:04:17.160 not, you know, to get a constitutional amendment passed, uh, you know, you need a two thirds vote. It's

00:04:22.020 very difficult. I, I mean, I don't think with the way that the way things work now, uh, and, uh, with

00:04:28.880 how sort of divided everything is, uh, you're not going to get two thirds approval on anything,

00:04:33.220 especially not a subject like this. So this is a, this is a PR thing. It's a PR move, some red meat

00:04:39.680 for that section of the conservative base, which always seems to fall for red meat. And there is that,

00:04:45.880 you know, I don't know what I'd say maybe 20 to 25% of the conservative base that they will just

00:04:50.780 gobble up any red meat you throw at them with, with just, uh, without discern, undiscerning. 0.96

00:04:57.500 Um, president Trump, of course, not one to miss an opportunity to join in the red meat fest also 0.91

00:05:04.380 came out and endorsed this proposal. Candace Owens went a step further. Uh, she tweeted yesterday.

00:05:11.080 This is what she said. If I were president, the punishment for burning the U S flag would be the

00:05:15.920 renunciation of citizenship. No jail time, no fines, simply one year to liquidate your assets and get

00:05:20.760 the hell out of our country. In exchange, we'd, we'd extend citizenship to a hardworking legal

00:05:25.480 immigrant. Of course, there are many issues here. Um, with that idea, starting with the fact that the 0.99

00:05:33.260 president doesn't have the authority to just unilaterally remove your citizenship because,

00:05:38.560 because he doesn't like something that you did. Uh, now this is the kind of thing. If you listen to

00:05:44.240 the show regularly, this is the kind of thing that I often threatened to do, uh, to remove citizenship, 0.98

00:05:49.520 uh, ban people from the country, deport them, send them to the moon, execute them. 0.98

00:05:54.740 These are threats that I often dole out, but I say that I'm going to start doing these things when 0.85

00:06:00.020 I become dictator, which I will eventually be dictator because I realized that I need to be

00:06:05.500 dictator in order to do stuff like that. Uh, in order to run the country, like a dictator,

00:06:09.520 you really need to be one. I guess some people think presidents can or should act the same way.

00:06:14.640 I tend to disagree. So let's, um, because I do find this interesting. Let's look at the arguments

00:06:20.720 presented in favor of banning flag burning. Now, Trump made no arguments as usual. He just called

00:06:29.620 it a no brainers as a no brainer. Okay. Owens makes no argument. Really. She just says that, uh,

00:06:36.360 you should get the hell out of the country. Fine. Okay. It's that's a statement. It's not an argument.

00:06:40.420 Um, representative Womack, one of the people behind the legislation offered this justification.

00:06:47.180 Um, our flag is more than a cloth painted red, white, and blue. It is a symbol of worldwide

00:06:52.420 freedom, unity, and liberty. It has guided troops into battle flown during our triumphs and challenges

00:06:57.340 and is placed over the caskets of those who have paid the ultimate sacrifice. Generations have fought

00:07:02.380 to defend our stars and stripes and the American people have simply given too much for the flag to

00:07:06.720 not have the ability to protect it. Okay. Our flag is a symbol of freedom. Therefore,

00:07:14.120 if you desecrate it, you should go to jail. Uh, can you really not see the irony there?

00:07:20.840 You're going to jail for desecrating freedom. If you don't respect freedom, you can go to jail,

00:07:25.360 buddy. Uh, you know, there's, I, I don't think I need to explain the self-contradictory nature

00:07:35.460 of something like that. Now let's back up for a minute and go and go through this because, uh,

00:07:42.780 I do think it's important. We're dealing here with free speech, which is one of the essential

00:07:48.260 foundational principles of our country. And it kind of appalls me, frankly, to see so many conservatives

00:07:54.560 who have no interest in conserving free speech. I mean, if you don't want to conserve free speech,

00:07:59.600 then what, what do you want to conserve? Why do you call yourself a conservative? What are you

00:08:05.160 trying to conserve exactly? Now, I think that there are other things worth conserving as well as free

00:08:11.300 speech, but when it comes to a list of things that we need to conserve in this country, I would think

00:08:16.460 that free speech is definitely, at least in the top five, um, arguably the number one, because if we,

00:08:23.320 if we don't have the ability to do that, then we can't really do anything else. Whatever else we have

00:08:28.380 on our agenda as conservatives, um, it kind of relies on us having the ability to make these arguments and

00:08:34.520 fight for that cause. If we don't have that, then we don't really have the rest of it. So it's certainly

00:08:39.500 a really important thing. If we're going to throw that out, then I think we've cut ourselves off at the

00:08:46.400 knees. Now it should go without saying that I personally do not support burning the flag. This

00:08:55.220 is not an argument about, should we burn the flag or not? If that was the argument, it would be 98,

00:09:00.180 you know, it'd be like a 98 to two, uh, ratio here of, uh, it's like 98% of probably all Americans,

00:09:07.140 if not more would say you shouldn't burn the flag. And probably 99.9% of all Americans have never burned a

00:09:13.220 flag and never will. So I don't think we should burn the flag. I don't, I don't support it. I think

00:09:17.820 it's a stupid thing to do. I have never done it. I would never do it. I think it's gross and 1.00

00:09:23.040 gratuitous and offensive. So again, this is not a discussion about whether or not we should do it.

00:09:29.900 So if you respond to what I'm saying now by describing all of the reasons why it's offensive

00:09:36.140 and horrible, you're missing the point because I agree that it's offensive and horrible. That's not

00:09:42.040 what we're talking about. But I think there are a lot of offensive and horrible things,

00:09:47.920 ideas that are said or otherwise expressed that, um, that I think should not be expressed

00:09:55.500 yet. I still think are protected by the first amendment. So there are a whole lot of things

00:10:00.400 that people say or do, or, you know, ideas they express where I would say, yeah, I don't think you

00:10:04.980 should be saying that, but that doesn't mean that I think that there should be laws against it.

00:10:12.760 When I say should not do, I mean, you should make the choice as a free American to not do or say

00:10:20.160 that thing. It doesn't always mean that I think you should go to jail or be fined or penalized

00:10:25.360 legally for doing it. Um, let's face it. We live in stupid times. So 90% of all speech these days is,

00:10:33.780 is stupid. It seems yet it is, it's free because we live in a free country and I'd like to keep it that 0.99

00:10:39.800 way. Is there a coherent argument, um, in favor of banning flag burning, um, in spite of the first

00:10:49.500 amendment? I think it's possible to make an eloquent and, uh, emotionally compelling argument,

00:10:55.780 but it's, but not necessarily an intellectually coherent one. Justice Rehnquist, one of the, um,

00:11:02.560 in, in, in, in one of the flag burning cases, um, offered a dissent. He was in favor of banning

00:11:10.880 flag burning. This is, this is part of what his dissent said. And this is, so I'm, let me give an

00:11:15.380 eloquent, uh, defense of that position. So I'm not just doing, you know, engaging in straw men here.

00:11:20.760 So he says the American flag then throughout more than 200 years of our history has come to be the

00:11:27.340 visible symbol embodying our nation. It does not represent the views of any particular political

00:11:32.540 party, and it does not represent any particular political philosophy. The flag is not simply

00:11:37.420 another idea or point of view competing for recognition in the, in the marketplace of ideas.

00:11:43.400 Millions and millions of Americans regard it with an almost mystical reverence, regardless of what sort

00:11:47.720 of social political or philosophical beliefs they may have. I cannot agree that the first amendment

00:11:52.740 invalidates the act of Congress and the laws of 48 of 50 States, which make criminal the public

00:11:58.680 burning of the flag. Um, now I want to respond to that, but, uh, before we do, before we go any

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00:13:33.040 Justice Rehnquist offers his reasons for banning the flag and, you know, it's eloquent, uh, eloquently

00:13:41.640 stated, but this again is just talking about, about what an important symbol the flag is, which

00:13:49.980 I agree. It is an important symbol. So, but what's the principle then here? So we're saying

00:13:54.480 you can't desecrate important symbols. Well, how is that not an infringement on speech and

00:14:01.400 how far does it go? There are many important symbols out there. There are some symbols that

00:14:05.880 I think are quite a bit more important than the flag. The cross, for example, I personally think

00:14:10.540 is not only an important symbol, but in terms of symbols, it's the most important symbol on earth.

00:14:17.680 As I said, certainly more important than the flag, which the flag represents the United States of

00:14:21.500 America. America is a country, uh, that has not always existed and will not always exist 500 years

00:14:28.180 from now. America probably it's a good chance. America won't exist anymore. 500. Most, most 0.87

00:14:32.660 countries don't last that long. Uh, whereas the cross indoors for all time, but can you desecrate 1.00

00:14:39.820 those other symbols? It seems that if you say, well, you could desecrate any symbol you want,

00:14:45.620 just not the flag. Your position is arbitrary. It's not grounded in any principle at all. The

00:14:51.200 principle is just, you can't, you know, you can desecrate important symbols unless they're really,

00:14:55.740 really important to me, in which case you can't. So you could desecrate symbols. Yes.

00:15:00.760 Important symbols. Yes. But really, really important symbols that I find very emotionally,

00:15:06.020 um, you know, uh, uh, uh, compelling. No, you can't desecrate those. That's not, that's, that's,

00:15:13.320 as I said, that's arbitrary. But if we outlaw the desecration of all important symbols,

00:15:18.480 then how can we be said to live in a country with free speech at all? It just doesn't make sense.

00:15:23.440 These arguments, including the one made by Rehnquist really boil, boil down to this. They

00:15:28.240 say, I personally find burning the flag to be very upsetting and very offensive, which again,

00:15:33.540 I agree. I do too. But the whole point of the first amendment is to protect that speech,

00:15:40.040 which is very upsetting and very offensive. Um, we don't need the first amendment to protect

00:15:46.160 non-offensive speech. You know, you can engage in non-offensive speech in, in countries that you

00:15:55.080 can, you can go to North Korea and engage in speech, which is not, um, which is not considered

00:16:01.940 offensive to North Koreans or at least to the North Korean government. Uh, non-offensive speech is

00:16:07.080 non-offensive. What is supposed to set America apart is that here all speech is protected. Uh, uh,

00:16:14.860 even the kinds of speech that would be banned almost anywhere else in the world.

00:16:21.520 One of the things that's supposed to set America apart is that you can come here and burn our flag 1.00

00:16:27.040 legally. Now that's, that's not the, that's not what makes America. That simple fact alone is not

00:16:33.000 what makes America great. But I think that is a really profound, you want to talk about a symbol.

00:16:37.920 That is a profound symbol of how much we cherish free speech, that you can even do that.

00:16:46.600 And you're going to do that. People are going to shout at you. You're going to be shamed and shunned

00:16:49.980 probably by society. Rightly so. Uh, because that's the consequence of speech and just free

00:16:56.300 speech does not mean speech that is free of consequence, but you could do it legally.

00:17:01.840 Um, of course, while respecting laws against public burning in general, which, which those are there

00:17:10.820 for safety. So, you know, you can't, there are a lot of places where you can't go and just burn,

00:17:14.500 you can't burn anything. A lot of, you got to go to a place where public burning is allowed

00:17:17.980 for safety reasons. But if you're in one of those places, then, um, then you can do it.

00:17:23.900 Uh, let's consider this. What is it

00:17:26.780 that makes burning the flag so offensive? Those who favor laws, banning flag burning would say,

00:17:34.480 uh, uh, that, you know, by burning the flag, you are disrespecting the sacrifice made by our troops.

00:17:41.000 You're showing disrespect and ingratitude to our country and so on. And again, I would agree with

00:17:46.760 all of that. That's all true. Um, that's what makes it offensive and that's why I'd never do it. But

00:17:52.780 then, uh, what if someone just came out and said, okay, so if that's what makes burning the flag

00:17:59.180 offensive, um, what if somebody just came out and said, uh, I hate our troops and I don't care about

00:18:08.820 their sacrifice and I don't care that they died. Um, our country is evil and terrible, et cetera.

00:18:14.580 What if someone just said all of that? What if someone said all of those idiotic and repulsive 1.00

00:18:19.980 things? Should that be banned? I mean, the whole reason you think flag burning should be banned 1.00

00:18:27.400 is it is because it expresses those very ideas, right? So what if those ideas are expressed without

00:18:34.140 burning the flag? If you say that they should be banned, even in that case, even when they're just

00:18:39.680 said, then you may as well argue for the first amendment to be repealed because you clearly disagree

00:18:45.160 with it. But if you say, no, that shouldn't be banned. Um, it's just, if you say it by burning a

00:18:50.900 flag, that's when it should be banned. On what basis can you justify that? It seems yet again,

00:18:56.960 the word I keep going back to is arbitrary. Is there some mystical quality to the flag itself?

00:19:02.940 Rehnquist talked about the mystical reverence that Americans have for the flag. Well, I don't think we

00:19:07.000 should have mystical reverence for the flag. Frankly, I think mystical reverence for a flag,

00:19:12.460 it's one thing to respect the flag, but to have mystical reverence for an object like a flag,

00:19:18.780 I think comes dangerously close to idolatry. But, um, it would seem that you are imbuing mystical

00:19:26.780 properties to the flag itself. If you think that burning a flag should be banned, but saying the

00:19:32.520 ideas that burning the flag expresses should not be banned. And there really isn't, think about this for

00:19:41.200 a second. There is no, um, precedent really that I can think of for a law like that. You know, in,

00:19:52.360 back in the middle ages in Europe, for instance, uh, there were all kinds of laws against blasphemy.

00:19:58.940 So if you were to take out a crucifix and stomp on it, you would face very harsh punishments for

00:20:05.780 that up to and including death. But if you were to not involve a crucifix and just say the ideas that,

00:20:15.600 that stomping on a crucifix expresses, if you were to just blaspheme vocally, um, or through the

00:20:22.860 written word, you would also face very harsh punishments because either way, the point is

00:20:29.540 blasphemy is illegal. And so no matter how you do it, you're going to be in trouble.

00:20:35.680 So the idea of, of, of, uh, you know, and, and, and really the laws against burning the flag,

00:20:43.540 they're kind of like anti-blasphemy laws. It's sort of the same idea. In fact, that's exactly what it 0.91

00:20:49.380 is. We're saying that this is a sacred symbol. And if you, you know, it's, it's not because you're

00:20:54.680 not, you know, if you, if you do it in a safe environment and we're public burning, it's not,

00:20:58.560 no one's safety's in danger. Um, you're not physically hurting anybody. Um, it's not like

00:21:05.740 slander or something where you're, where you're, you know, saying things that are untrue and causing

00:21:09.880 damage to another person. All we're saying is it's a sacred symbol and you are desecrating the

00:21:15.380 sacred symbol. And so that's why it's illegal. It is like a blasphemy law, which is another thing

00:21:19.680 that makes me uncomfortable because it gets dangerously close to idolatry because that's

00:21:24.100 the only comparison that I can come up with. But it's a very weird blasphemy law, because as I

00:21:30.940 said, in any other case, blasphemy in any form is illegal. The idea that it's only illegal when it

00:21:37.560 involves this particular symbol just doesn't make any sense. So if you're going to advocate for these

00:21:44.120 laws, you may as well go all the way, be intellectually consistent and say, yeah, you know what? I don't think

00:21:49.440 you should even be allowed to go out and say that you don't respect our troops or, uh, that you hate

00:21:54.200 America. Um, so it doesn't make any sense. Uh, now there are those last point I'll address here.

00:22:03.780 There are those who say that, uh, will say that burning a flag is not speech, um, that it doesn't

00:22:10.120 count as free speech because it isn't speech. Well, now they'll say, well, speech must be spoken or,

00:22:15.180 or written. Uh, it must involve actual words. Well, again, the Supreme court has repeatedly

00:22:20.360 disagreed with that. I, with that claim, which is good because of speech only includes spoken and

00:22:25.940 written words. Uh, you've given the state a very wide censorship brush and that makes me pretty

00:22:31.060 uncomfortable, but I don't believe that the people who make this argument really believe it themselves

00:22:37.520 because where they say, well, you know, if it is the flight, it's not speech with the flight.

00:22:42.480 What if a local township were to pass an ordinance banning flying the flag? And we have seen cases

00:22:50.180 like this where they say, Oh, you're not allowed to put a flag on your, on your front porch because

00:22:54.580 it messes with the, you know, the aesthetically, it just doesn't work with what the other houses are

00:23:00.360 doing. Well, in those cases, what you find, uh, especially among people on the right is that

00:23:06.460 that's a violation of free speech. I should, if I want to fly a flag and express my love for the

00:23:11.620 country, I should be able to do that. And I would basically agree that it is a free speech issue.

00:23:16.680 So hold on a second. Flying a flag is speech, but burning one isn't. Of course it's when you burn a

00:23:24.240 flag, you're, it is speech, which expresses the exact opposite sentiment that flying one expresses.

00:23:30.140 That's the whole point of someone doing it. Right. And again, that's the whole reason people want to

00:23:36.020 ban it. Okay. If I burned a flag because I was disposing of it, according to proper flag code

00:23:42.620 regulations, which does stipulate that you should burn a flag, um, respectfully if it's old and

00:23:48.400 tattered and all that. So if I burned it in that context, you'd have no problem with it. If I burned

00:23:55.640 it because I'm protesting something the government's doing, you would have a problem with it. Both are the

00:24:01.320 same act, literally speaking, but you disagree with one because of the idea that it expresses,

00:24:08.040 which proves conclusively that it is speech. And so when you, when you say that we should ban it,

00:24:14.140 you are trying to restrict speech and you are trying to restrict it because you personally find

00:24:18.880 it repulsive. And that is obviously a very, very dangerous road to go down. Um, and, and, you know,

00:24:26.480 when you want to talk about slippery slopes and all that, um, I can see a slippery slope with

00:24:33.480 laws against banning the flag because of the effect it has on free speech allowing it. I don't really

00:24:39.160 see the slippery slope. You know, you're going to have a couple of wackos every year who burn a flag 1.00

00:24:42.860 doesn't hurt anybody else. Um, all they're really doing is advertising that they're stupid wackos. 1.00

00:24:48.300 So the rest of us know it, which is great. Actually, it's good for us to know. Um, and, uh, 1.00

00:24:53.040 and then we all go on with our lives. You know, it doesn't, I don't, there's no real slippery slope

00:24:56.520 there, but there is on the other end. All right. Um, let's see what else I wanted to, uh,

00:25:07.160 I want to play some, well, I don't really want to play it, but there is some very upsetting

00:25:11.260 video, uh, that was, uh, it's going viral online right now, but I'm going to play it for you. A

00:25:17.140 Twitter user named Kay Fellows posted this video of something that happened. I assume,

00:25:22.940 outside of her local abortion clinic, it is outside of an abortion clinic. I don't know

00:25:27.100 if it's her local one. Um, and it, it kind of speaks for itself. So watch this.

00:25:32.200 Help her to listen. No, don't do it.

00:25:35.840 Oh my gosh. It isn't right. I'm such a good dad. I know, honey. I took care of her kids too. And the

00:25:49.720 guy that she's left back in her life doesn't even take care of his own kids.

00:25:55.640 No matter what happens, Siler, you've done the right thing, man.

00:25:58.980 What you saw there, um, a man begging for his child's life as the mother goes to kill the child.

00:26:07.780 That is not a unique situation. Now it may be somewhat unique to have it play out that way

00:26:12.900 dramatically at the clinic. Um, that's not something that you see every day, but many,

00:26:18.740 many men have been in this same situation. Um, they are the silent, um, one of the silent victims

00:26:28.180 of abortion. Of course, the primary silent victim is the baby who is killed, but, um, men are also

00:26:35.240 victims of it in many cases, uh, certainly not in all cases and probably not in the majority of cases,

00:26:42.620 but, um, in, in, in plenty of, there are plenty of situations just like this. And I mean, think about

00:26:51.760 just trying to put yourself in that. And there are probably men watching this who have been in his

00:26:58.880 shoes before, so I don't need to describe it to you, but to anyone else, you try to put yourself into

00:27:04.700 that man's shoes where you're going to lose your child, not because of any disease or illness,

00:27:13.980 but because the mother is going to kill him. And there's nothing you can do to stop it.

00:27:20.240 You know, you can't call the police because it's legal. Uh, you can't even go into the clinic

00:27:25.440 because they won't let you in. Um, and this is what abortion laws have 1.00

00:27:34.160 created or situations like this. The powerful thing about that video is that it just blows to

00:27:43.180 pieces. The whole idea of abortion being simply a woman's issue. And of course, if you're a smart 0.90

00:27:51.280 person, you've always known that that is total BS. The idea that it's a women's issue. 1.00

00:27:56.480 No, it takes two people to create a child and every single child that has ever been killed

00:28:01.800 through abortion, all 60 million of them have had fathers. And those fathers either 0.92

00:28:07.500 supported the abortion or pressured it, or they, or they were horrified by it and tried to stop it

00:28:13.500 or whatever the case is, they all had fathers and those fathers are affected.

00:28:18.000 So it is not just a woman's issue. No woman has ever gotten pregnant on her own.

00:28:26.460 That is biologically by definition, that child is as much the man's as it is the woman's. 0.94

00:28:37.120 Now I know that, um, you know, if you go on, on Twitter and you look up that video and you make

00:28:43.920 the mistake of reading some of the comments, you're going to find, uh, pro-abortion people

00:28:49.800 supporting the woman and, and, and, and basically insulting this man and say, well, how dare he try

00:28:55.160 to control a woman's body? And that also just shows, I mean, if you, I don't care where you stand on the 0.97

00:29:00.920 abortion issue. When you see that video, if you feel anything other than pity and, and, and, and

00:29:10.320 compassion and sadness for that man, then you are a, you, you, your soul is just dead. You are a cruel 0.99

00:29:18.880 inhuman person. And what you find is that so many pro-abortion people, they just, they, they have 0.99

00:29:25.980 dead, they're dead inside. There's just nothing going on inside. They don't have the ability to

00:29:31.240 feel compassion for human beings. And that's the effect that supporting abortion has after a while.

00:29:36.780 I, you know, I, I bring them kind of often this comparison between a pro-abortion people. And if

00:29:40.940 you think about the Nuremberg trials, um, if you've ever seen any footage of that or read any accounts

00:29:48.100 of the Nuremberg trials, uh, of course, after world war II, the Nazi high ranking Nazis were tried,

00:29:54.140 many of them executed for their horrific crimes against humanity. But the Nuremberg trials is,

00:30:01.200 that's where, uh, the, the, the phrase, you know, the banality of evil comes from because many people

00:30:09.420 noted as they watched these Nazis up there describing what they did. And it wasn't even like they were

00:30:18.800 laughing maniacally while they described it, or, you know, like they were comic book villains or

00:30:23.300 something. Um, so there wasn't, there certainly wasn't remorse in their voice or guilt. And it wasn't so

00:30:32.840 much pride. It was just like this, just nothing. They just described it like as if they, they were

00:30:38.900 describing a trip to the post office, sort of bored and casual and just say, whatever, like that kind of

00:30:45.100 attitude. And that is someone whose soul has just died inside them as an empty husk of a person. And I

00:30:51.400 think you find the same thing with abortion and it happens inevitably. If you, if you're going to

00:30:55.580 spend your time defending the murder of 60 million people, um, there's just no way that you can retain

00:31:01.920 your conscience while doing it because your conscience is going to eat at you. It won't allow

00:31:07.420 you to do it. So you kind of have to choose after a while between your pro-abortion convictions or your

00:31:12.060 conscience. You got to make a choice. It's mutually exclusive. You can't have both. And pro-abortion people

00:31:17.420 have chosen the ideology, that position over their conscience. And that's how they could see a video

00:31:23.820 like that and, um, and feel nothing for that man, nothing at all for him except disgust.

00:31:31.380 All right. Um, let's see. Last thing here, just to maybe lighten the mood a little bit. Taylor Swift,

00:31:42.900 uh, released a new single a couple of days ago and it's, it's, it's woke. It's a very woke single,

00:31:50.360 not woke enough. Okay. Apparently it's a pro-gay song with a lot of pro-gay lyrics. Um, including one 0.93

00:31:56.540 of the lyrics, just, just to give you an idea of the poetry in this song, one of the lyrics is, um,

00:32:02.300 why be mad when you can be glad, but except it's glad G L A A D the gay and lesbian alliance against 1.00

00:32:08.580 defamation. So it's, that's the, uh, I think that's the lyric of the song. It's, it's a cliche,

00:32:15.540 but it's also, isn't that literally the, the, the slogan for glad, what is it? Glad, uh,

00:32:22.100 isn't that a trash bags or something or Ziploc baggies? I don't know. They, they make kids.

00:32:27.520 I think it's a slogan for that company as well. So, but, um, she put a lot of pro-gay stuff in 0.96

00:32:33.280 there and in the song, but liberals are still upset, upset because it's not pro-gay enough.

00:32:38.780 It's just, it's, I don't know. Uh, you know, Taylor Swift, she just, she can't win. Taylor Swift

00:32:44.220 had been, had become kind of a meme that Taylor Swift would, uh, was get criticized by liberals for

00:32:50.280 not being political enough. And now she's gotten political and it's still not good enough because

00:32:55.400 you just can't win with these people. But anyway, to me, the real headline of the song is not the

00:33:00.840 political leanings of it because I don't care about that. It's just, it's just how aggressively bad

00:33:06.720 this song is. It's a song that, that smacks you upside the head with its awfulness and screams at you.

00:33:15.760 I'm awful. Um, don't take my word for it. Here, take a, take a listen to the song.

00:33:33.160 You are somebody that I don't know, but you're taking shots at me like it's Patron. And I'm just

00:33:38.760 like, damn, it's 7 a.m. Say it in the street. That's a knockout, but you say it in a tweet. 0.99

00:33:48.680 That's a cop out. And I'm just like, Hey, are you okay? And I ain't trying to mess with your

00:33:57.300 self-expression, but I've learned a lesson that's stressing and obsessing about somebody

00:34:00.940 as there's no fun. And snakes and stones never broke my bones. Okay. Stop. Stop. Um,

00:34:29.080 it here's the thing about that that song and so many others it sounds exactly like a million other

00:34:37.340 songs it's it sounds completely derivative and indistinguishable from everything else on the

00:34:42.200 radio yet at the same time amazingly it's also uniquely bad so with each new pop song um that

00:34:49.260 you hear you're bored to tears by it because like on the rare occasion when i'm flipping through the

00:34:56.140 radio uh which i rarely do but as i'm as i'm driving and i i stumble across a pop song uh it

00:35:03.700 it becomes a danger to my health because it puts me it puts me to sleep you know within within five

00:35:09.220 seconds i've just my eyes are getting droopy it's just so boring i've heard this so many times it's

00:35:13.380 exact just the musical accompaniment the melody just everything about it we've heard a billion times

00:35:18.640 we've heard this um so it's it's it's it's like that because it's so unoriginal yet you're also

00:35:23.720 nauseated because it's it sounds like the worst thing you've ever heard yet you've heard it 40

00:35:28.860 billion times before so this is really weird you hear a song like that you're falling asleep you're

00:35:33.560 bored you're also nauseous so it's almost like you want to fall asleep and vomit at the same time which

00:35:39.260 is also really dangerous by the way because then you could uh you know it's it you could you know

00:35:44.580 that's not it's not a good situation uh it's strange in that way to be both boring and horrifyingly

00:35:49.940 awful at the same time is is sort of impressive by the way speaking of things sounding the same

00:35:56.120 how many songs is taylor swift gonna make where she just tells off the haters because that's what 0.97

00:36:04.460 this song is about right she's telling off the haters you need to calm down haters but that's that's

00:36:09.940 the only subject she writes about i i feel like i haven't followed taylor swift's career that closely

00:36:14.960 but i think what back in you know 2006 or 7 she would make these country songs old love love love

00:36:21.060 songs and stuff um and that was fine but then eventually she made this transition and for the

00:36:27.360 last 10 years every single song she comes out with is just about the haters she's just going after the

00:36:32.480 haters telling off the haters taylor listen the haters are told off you've done it okay you mission

00:36:40.500 accomplished maybe find another subject i feel like you've explored the subject of haters as much as

00:36:49.840 is possible you've made 150 songs over 10 years about the haters and i there's not much else to be said

00:36:57.240 so maybe i don't know i just feel like there are other subjects out there you could talk about

00:37:02.220 this this is taylor swift's way of writing songs these days it's just to find some cliche uh

00:37:13.840 you know slogan or or or or phrase that people use when they're telling off haters like shake it off or

00:37:23.580 you need to calm down and uh and just to turn that into it i said just take that phrase and put it in a

00:37:30.520 hook and that's your song that's taylor swift's songwriting all right um has she made a song yet

00:37:40.880 called uh i just can't even or i just can't it seems like taylor swift needs to that's that's here's

00:37:49.040 my prediction taylor swift's next song is going to be called i can't even and it's going to be exactly

00:37:54.720 that song except in the hook it'll be i can't even that she's like that's my prediction i guarantee

00:37:59.520 she's going to write that song one day folks and it'll be a huge hit and uh she'll sell 50 million

00:38:05.360 albums because people still buy albums somehow all right um you know what we're going to leave it

00:38:11.960 there got a bunch of emails but i think i'll save the emails for tomorrow and um i think we all need

00:38:18.460 to take a break after that taylor swift song and recollect you know recuperate collect ourselves

00:38:22.860 and we'll talk again tomorrow godspeed

00:38:25.160 today on the ben shapiro show harvard participates in the worst persecution of a student i've ever

00:38:43.320 seen that's today on the ben shapiro show

00:38:45.080 you

The Matt Walsh Show - June 17, 2019

Ep. 277 - Burning The Flag Is Stupid And Grotesque. It's Also A Protected Form Of Speech.

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