Ep. 284 - The Compassionate Answer To The Border Crisis
Episode Stats
Words per Minute
172.71593
Summary
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez went to the southern border for a photo op, and now she's doubled over. Also, a liberal film critic says Toy Story 4 is racist because there are no black toys in it.
Transcript
00:00:00.000
Today on the Matt Wall Show, there is a crisis on the southern border, but what can we do about it?
00:00:04.580
Well, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez's answer is to go down there for photo ops,
00:00:09.120
but what's a better answer? What's a compassionate answer to the problem on the border? We'll talk
00:00:14.000
about that today. Also, and this is not a joke, folks, but a liberal film critic says that Toy
00:00:20.840
Story 4 is racist because there are no black toys. Yes, she really said that. We'll talk about that
00:00:27.480
today and other interesting topics on the Matt Wall Show. Okay, so a guy named Ivan Pierre Aguirre
00:00:40.500
posted some photos to Twitter yesterday. These are photos of a trip that Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez
00:00:47.300
took to the border a year ago, apparently, and we're told that she took the trip to the border
00:00:53.000
not for publicity. In fact, she took a break from campaigning, a break from campaigning to go to
00:00:59.720
the border to protest our immigration system, basically. The photos are so transparently
00:01:06.720
staged and phony that it's almost physically painful to look at them. It's difficult to look
00:01:15.780
because they are so contrived. But let's take a look at them anyway. So here you go. Here are the
00:01:22.100
photos that were posted. You got a lot of retweets and likes, and people were saying that, oh, well,
00:01:27.260
in fact, some people were very touched by these photos. But there are a lot of people, even
00:01:32.580
apparently AOC supporters, who said, come on, I like you, but this is ridiculous. So there's AOC.
00:01:40.100
You see her standing next to a fence, looking right into the camera, a very sad, disappointed,
00:01:44.760
kind of concerned look on her face. That look right there, you see right now, that is a look that I get
00:01:50.380
for my wife a lot, especially when I make puns. So it's a very familiar look. And then we have her
00:01:57.180
right after she looked into the camera. Now she's covering her face in despair. And then now she's
00:02:04.980
doubled over. Okay, so now she's really going in for the, this is the dramatic moment, the climax.
00:02:12.160
She's utterly overcome by despair. Now she's doubled over, covering her face. This actually looks like,
00:02:18.300
this looks like me when I go to a bar and find out that they only have Miller Lite and Coors on tap.
00:02:23.580
It's a very similar, like, no, why, why, why? Those beers taste like watered down goat urine.
00:02:30.040
So it's a, so I do the same kind of thing. I understand that, actually. Okay, and now here
00:02:34.260
she is again. Now she's regained her composure. But she's still looking quite sad. And now though,
00:02:40.600
angry and disturbed. This is the look that I give when I'm stuck in the car with all three kids,
00:02:45.660
and they started singing songs from the Wiggles. This is the look. Actually, no, that's go back to
00:02:50.600
the, to the one I've heard doubled over. No, that's me. That's actually me when I'm in the car
00:02:54.900
and the kids are singing. So it's difficult to drive. It's a little bit dangerous for me to be
00:03:00.040
doing that while, while driving. Anyway, so there, those are the pictures. I mean, it's, it's
00:03:06.940
just a joke. Now, the crisis down on our border is not a joke. That is a serious problem. We're
00:03:16.080
going to talk about that today. But she is making a joke out of it by using it as a, as a, you know,
00:03:22.600
this is very similar. Remember those stories a couple of weeks ago of the Instagram influencers
00:03:26.820
who were showing up at Chernobyl to take selfies, sometimes half nude selfies. This is very similar
00:03:34.300
to that. This is an essentially a glorified Instagram influencer, um, going to the site of
00:03:40.940
a real human travesty, uh, for, for a photo opportunity. Uh, just disgraceful. Well, as I
00:03:50.600
said, there's more that needs to be discussed about our border, but first a word from Wives Company.
00:03:55.340
You know, Wives Company freeze-dried food is very easy to prepare. And the best part is that it can be
00:04:00.380
stored for 25 years, uh, 25 years. That is longer than I've been alive. I'm only 20 years old in case
00:04:07.380
you didn't know. There are a lot of practical benefits of that, but, but I think maybe the
00:04:11.920
greatest benefit, um, to having that 25 years is the peace of mind that comes with being prepared with
00:04:18.200
food, um, in case of an emergency. Emergencies come in many forms, you know, hurricanes, tornadoes,
00:04:24.040
earthquakes, flood, wildfires, wildfires, uh, power outages, even job loss, something like that.
00:04:29.780
You may need to be prepared for all of those. Wives Company takes an innovative approach in
00:04:34.400
providing dependable, simple, and affordable freeze-dried food for emergency preparedness
00:04:38.160
and outdoor use. You can't know what tomorrow is going to bring. You don't know what the future
00:04:42.040
is going to hold. Um, but you can have peace of mind knowing that you'll be ready for whatever
00:04:47.240
is on the way. This week, my listeners get any wise emergency or outdoor food product at an,
00:04:53.440
at an extra 25% off the lowest mark price at wisefoodstorage.com when entering Walsh at checkout,
00:05:01.840
or if you call 855-475-3089. Plus shipping is free. So this can't get any better. Wise has a,
00:05:11.320
uh, well, in fact, it does get better because wise has a 90 day, no questions asked return policy.
00:05:15.460
So there's no risk in taking the initiative to get yourself and your family more prepared today,
00:05:20.020
but I don't think you're going to want to prepare, return it because I don't think you're going to
00:05:23.420
get the food and then say to yourself, you know what? I don't actually want to be prepared for an
00:05:26.820
emergency. I'll send it back. Um, if you love your family anyway, you wouldn't do that.
00:05:32.160
That's wisefoodstorage.com promo code Walsh to get any wise emergency or outdoor food product at an
00:05:37.940
extra 25% off and free shipping. All right. The company Wayfair has been the target of protests
00:05:45.100
and outrage by the left because it's selling furniture to migrant detention centers. Uh,
00:05:50.020
in fact, a bunch of employees of the company, over 500 of them are planning to walk out today
00:05:55.780
in, in protest of it. But, but, uh, wait a second. I thought we were upset
00:06:01.500
that the kids at these centers don't have beds to sleep in. And that is upsetting. I agree because
00:06:07.820
they should have beds, right? So, um, now the centers are getting beds
00:06:12.900
and that's a problem too. You're protesting that they don't have beds and then they get beds and
00:06:19.800
you're protesting also. Um, it, it just, it doesn't make any sense. Over 500 employees signed a letter
00:06:26.860
to the company. The letter says in part, this particular order for over $200,000 worth of bedroom
00:06:32.580
furniture is destined for Carrizo Springs, Texas to a facility that will be outfitted to detain up to
00:06:38.320
3000 migrant children seeking asylum in the United States. So it sounds like this, this detention
00:06:45.980
facility is trying to be prepared. It's, it's, it is outfitting itself. Um, knowing, you know,
00:06:52.240
the people running the facility know that there's going to be an influx of children. So they're trying
00:06:55.980
to prepare and make sure that they've got places for the kids to sleep and stay. That's good.
00:07:00.960
That's what we want, right? Um, it continues. The practice of detaining children and adults
00:07:08.000
on our Southern border has been condemned since its inception, but the, but since the acceleration
00:07:12.460
of the practice in 2018 and the increase in death and injury that has come with that acceleration,
00:07:16.600
we have seen more vocal condemnation of the practice. We, the undersigned are writing to you
00:07:21.120
from a place of concern and anger about the atrocities being committed at our Southern border.
00:07:26.000
They said condemned since its inception. No, it has not been, it has not been condemned since
00:07:30.480
its inception because the left was not condemning it during the Obama administration. And it was
00:07:35.180
happening then also. Now the way they get around it is they try to say, Oh yeah, it was happening
00:07:39.880
during Obama's administration. We didn't talk about it then we didn't care. Um, in fact, not only did
00:07:45.560
we not talk about it, but it wasn't just that the left wasn't talking about the crisis on the border
00:07:51.540
back in the Obama administration is that they were actively denying that there was a crisis.
00:07:59.080
So now they're condemning it. The way they get around it is they say, well, uh, you know, it's,
00:08:04.100
it's, it's, it's, uh, the problem's gotten worse since then. Okay. The problem's gotten worse. You
00:08:08.180
claim. Um, but so you're more concerned now than you were before that, that would justify being more
00:08:15.320
concerned, except that you weren't concerned at all before you went from zero to a hundred.
00:08:19.360
There was no 25 or 50 in between like there should have been, which really makes it seem like this
00:08:25.760
is political partisanship. And the only reason you're pretending to care now is that Trump is
00:08:30.320
president. Um, and they also say that, uh, that, uh, why do they phrase it? The practice of detaining
00:08:37.300
children is condemned. Well, uh, the mere fact that we are detaining people is obviously not a
00:08:47.080
problem and you didn't think it was four years ago and you were right. The, the, the, the simple
00:08:53.060
act of detaining people is, is there, there are scenarios where you need to do that. Um, it's a
00:09:00.640
problem when the conditions at these facilities aren't up to par and sometimes they're not, but
00:09:05.480
that, but that's where getting furniture, getting food and all that. Um, that means that we're
00:09:09.940
improving conditions and that's what we're supposed to want. The hypocrisy on this issue, the partisanship,
00:09:17.320
the lack of real concern, um, is infuriating because there is a real crisis down there, as
00:09:29.580
I said, and that crisis comes with a significant human cost. In fact, there's a photo, um, that
00:09:36.880
has been all over social media for the past day that really shows that cost. I think it shows two
00:09:44.720
immigrants from El Salvador, El Salvador, uh, excuse me, um, uh, father and daughter apparently.
00:09:54.000
And, uh, they're washed up on the shores of the Rio Grande. Both have died, um, lying face down in
00:10:00.440
the water. The young girl, two years old has her arm around her father's neck. It's just a, it's a,
00:10:06.320
it's a devastating gut-wrenching photo that, uh, you can't, I mean, if you're a human being, you
00:10:13.840
can't help, but be moved when you see it. Um, especially as a father myself. Well, even if I
00:10:20.760
wasn't a father, obviously I know I would still know that it's tragic for people to die, especially
00:10:25.080
children. But as a father, I, I see this kind of stuff and inevitably I'm going to think of my own
00:10:31.460
kids and imagine my own kids in that situation. It's unspeakable. I'm not going to show you the
00:10:36.420
photo here because it's extremely upsetting and not everyone wants to see something like that.
00:10:39.960
But if you do want to see it, you can easily find it online. Um, now this photo is being used
00:10:46.760
and we could stop right there. The problem is that the photo is being used. Uh, it shouldn't be used
00:10:55.020
for anything. It's not a political tool. This is real life. This is real death. This is something
00:11:01.000
real that's happening. It's not, it's not a ammunition to be used in an argument or it shouldn't
00:11:07.700
be, but that's how people are treating it. So it's being used to, of course, make the case against
00:11:12.580
Trump's immigration politics, uh, or policies, even though, again, the problem didn't start with
00:11:18.120
Trump. But aside from that, Trump is not responsible for this poor child's death. He didn't,
00:11:23.500
he didn't do that. Um, there are many authorities, many, uh, uh, entities that you could point the
00:11:32.980
finger at. Trump is not one of them. So how do we prevent more of these tragedies? We need to do
00:11:41.960
everything we can to discourage illegal border crossings. Crossing the border illegally is incredibly
00:11:49.900
dangerous, especially for children. Children. You have to deal with the elements, dehydration,
00:11:54.780
starvation, gangs, bandits, wild animals. I mean, everything you can imagine. You're trying to cross
00:12:01.640
a desert, um, to sneak across the borders of a country. It's a very hazardous undertaking.
00:12:10.840
And the best way to protect human life is to discourage people from undertaking it in the first
00:12:15.840
place. There are a lot of ways to do that. For one thing, people, uh, I think the first thing that
00:12:21.420
needs to happen and that this is not something that we can primarily do, but people should be working
00:12:27.800
within the central American countries to improve conditions and punish crime, thus encouraging people
00:12:34.720
to stay. Uh, I mean, rather than having everyone abandoned ship and leave their countries, which I
00:12:44.960
understand the instinct to do that. And as, again, as a father, um, you know, if I had kids and I happen
00:12:51.780
to have the bad luck of being born in one of those countries and living in one of those countries,
00:12:55.760
uh, I'd want to leave too. I think I would, yes, on one hand, if everyone leaves that it makes it
00:13:02.700
difficult to clean up the problems within the countries. Um, but so that's a problem. But if I
00:13:12.860
was a father, I think I would say, you know what, I'm more concerned about taking care of my own
00:13:16.920
children than I am about enacting change generally in the country. My first responsibility is to my
00:13:24.920
kids. Uh, so that's the case. And I understand that, but the fact remains that it's a self
00:13:32.700
perpetuating problem because these, these countries are in terrible shape. Everybody wants
00:13:37.860
to leave, but everyone's leaving. So there's no one there, there's no one sticking around to fix
00:13:43.060
the problems. And so then it just perpetuates itself. Now, when, when Trump famously said back
00:13:48.820
in, uh, back when he launched his campaign, that they're not sending their best, um, which is true
00:13:54.360
in, in some cases, in some cases we are getting criminals and drug dealers and so on. Not, not all of
00:13:59.840
them, of course, but there is some of that and it's a problem. But when he said that leftists
00:14:05.100
were very outraged and they insisted that, uh, no, they are sending their best. They're sending good
00:14:09.980
law-abiding, uh, hardworking people. And I agree that a certain significant portion of these people
00:14:17.840
fall into that category, but you see the problem here. Those people are coming here. If they are good,
00:14:25.540
law-abiding, hardworking, then those are exactly the kinds of people that these countries need
00:14:33.160
in order to clean themselves up. Especially when you've got, now we talk about the kids and the
00:14:40.380
families coming over and because that's what, uh, affects us emotionally the most. But the fact
00:14:48.240
remains, when you look at these caravans of people and everything, many of them are, are single,
00:14:53.480
um, young men. And those people especially are the kinds of people. They're physically healthy,
00:15:03.080
strong, capable, don't have any dependents, young men, people like that. Those especially are the
00:15:09.120
people who need to stay or, or whose countries need them to stay, to stay there and help, um, rebuild it.
00:15:21.280
So, uh, but how do we get people to stay? It's a self-perpetuating problem. People are leaving,
00:15:31.940
makes the problem worse. How do we get people to stay? Well, we'll talk about that, but, but before
00:15:37.960
we get into that, um, I want to thank our sponsors over at Dynatrap. Dynatrap is the leading manufacturer
00:15:44.880
of, uh, of outdoor mosquitoes and insect traps. And now they've come up with a solution for indoor
00:15:51.220
pests because, you know, when, when in the, in the summertime, this is one of the most annoying
00:15:56.600
things you have to deal with. Summer's great. I'm not actually a big fan of summer, but, um,
00:16:01.200
some people like the summertime for some reason. If you like it to be hot and you're sweating all the
00:16:05.280
time. And, uh, and, and if you, if you enjoy that, and also if you like insects inside your home,
00:16:10.060
because that's another thing that comes with summer, it's a very annoying problem. Uh, and
00:16:13.860
when you have those insects flying around, especially flies, you know, flies, when they,
00:16:17.980
when they land on your food, they vomit on your food. Did you know that? I'm pretty sure that's
00:16:21.660
true. I saw it on Wikipedia. I think either way, you don't want them on your food. So what do you do
00:16:26.740
about that? Well, that's where the Dynatrap fly light comes into play. Forget those disgusting fly
00:16:33.100
strips, the little sticky things where the flies land. Uh, forget about that. The Dynatrap fly light
00:16:38.840
looks like a subtle nightlight that plugs into any indoor outlet. I've been using the Dynatrap fly
00:16:43.940
light for a couple of days now, a couple of weeks now, really. And it's just insane. The number of
00:16:48.800
insects that these things catch. Um, and, uh, and they really do clean up the problem. Um, get yours
00:16:56.320
at Dynatrap.com. That's D Y N A T R A P.com. Enter the promo code Walsh and receive 15% off any of their
00:17:04.060
products. Uh, Dynatrap is the safe, silent, simple solution to household insect control.
00:17:11.960
All right. So we're talking about what can be done, uh, to minimize the human cost, uh, the human
00:17:24.340
tragedy crisis on the border. And one of those ways, I think the main way is to get people to,
00:17:31.820
to, to discourage illegal immigration in the first place. And the way that you do that is we shut
00:17:37.000
down the border. Um, we, we enforce our immigration laws. We deport people. Yes. Uh, we stop offering
00:17:46.720
entitlements to illegals. We, in fact, we make it clear that if you come here illegally, you're not
00:17:51.220
going to get entitlements. We make it clear that if you come here illegally, it's not going to work.
00:17:56.000
You won't be able to sneak in. Um, yes, we build a wall. We build a physical barrier that's going to
00:18:03.020
make it even more difficult. It's just yet another roadblock in the way we do all of that. That's how
00:18:08.940
we preserve human life. We want people to think that this, this is to try to come here illegally is a
00:18:16.900
dangerous, potentially fatal, um, decision. If we care about human life. And if we're compassionate,
00:18:25.880
if we care about these people, then we want to discourage them from doing that.
00:18:31.360
And this is how we discourage them. Um, but if we insist on keeping the borders open,
00:18:42.380
on, on just welcoming anyone, not enforcing our immigration laws, saying anyone can come in,
00:18:49.040
then all you're doing is you're encouraging more people like that father, uh, to try to bring their,
00:18:59.060
their children on, on such a dangerous journey and more people are going to die.
00:19:02.440
All right. Um, let's, uh, let's talk about this as we have established repeatedly. The left is
00:19:13.940
now beyond parody at this point. Impossible to be, you can't satirize them anymore. It's just
00:19:18.920
impossible to do. Uh, and here's exhibit 45,000, um, in, uh, to, to demonstrate that BBC radio four's,
00:19:27.660
uh, Saturday review show did a segment on toy story four, which just came out last week and
00:19:34.340
which I'm, which I'm looking forward to taking my kids to. Um, but apparently maybe I shouldn't
00:19:40.000
take my kids because it is a racist, sexist movie that also discriminates against disabled people.
00:19:47.260
Apparently that's according to Stella Duffy, who's a film critic, I guess she came on the show to share
00:19:52.260
her thoughts on the film. Um, a film that in case you didn't know is animated. It's an animated
00:19:57.520
children's movie about talking toys. In case you were unaware of what toy story is, that's what it
00:20:03.280
is. And, um, this is what she had to say about it. Listen to this. Hello, my name is Stella Duffy
00:20:09.260
and I didn't like toy story four. Um, I'm the Grinch who hated it. Seriously. It's 2019. What on earth
00:20:17.960
are Disney doing? Having a film that for a start has no leads that are black characters. Yes,
00:20:25.780
there are black actors here, but we do not. They're yellow and they're green and they're
00:20:29.600
plush. How can they possibly think it's all right now? I mean, yeah, maybe 1995, which was
00:20:37.400
also wrong then as well, actually. But now to be seriously, every single humanoid toy is
00:20:44.280
white. It's just shocking. Then let's talk about the white feminism on display here. Oh, look,
00:20:50.560
Bo Peep's a feminist. No, she's not. She's still going to fall in love. She's still going to
00:20:54.460
get all happy. Not spoiling. Still going to get all happily ever after. That's not feminism.
00:21:00.280
That's a woman kicks off her skirt to reveal bloomers, has a couple of thoughts, does some
00:21:05.580
high wire acts and it's disablest. Okay. So it's covering every base. Okay. So there you
00:21:13.460
go. It's, it's racist, sexist, disablest, disablest. I thought ableist was the term. So ableist
00:21:22.600
is when you discriminate against disabled people. So then disablest, I guess, is when
00:21:27.460
you discriminate against non-disabled people. Um, I, well, anyway, she's upset that, uh,
00:21:33.440
there are also no black leads. Okay. But all the leads are toys, which means they're all
00:21:39.600
Chinese, either Chinese or they have no race at all because they're toys. I mean, one of
00:21:45.460
the lead characters is a toy slink is a, is like a slinky dog. Um, another is a green
00:21:51.000
dinosaur. Another is a, is a pink piggy bank. Um, another is a Mr. Potato head. What, what
00:21:56.960
ethnicity is a Mr. Potato head Irish? I mean, what, that doesn't make any sense. Um, should
00:22:03.700
the film, what do you want? Do you want the film? So even though we've got all these toys
00:22:07.160
who have no race, no ethnicity, you're saying there should be a black lead in the film. So do
00:22:12.720
you want, uh, should the film feature like a miniature real life black person? Should this
00:22:17.560
suddenly become honey, I shrunk the kids and, uh, and a black person, the size of a, of a doll
00:22:23.700
walks on and, and, you know, interacts with the toys, uh, just so we can check off that demographic
00:22:28.920
box. It's obviously absurd. And this is, this is really mental illness. Um, this, that person you
00:22:36.740
just heard is mentally ill clearly. And I mean that sincerely. I mean, I'm concerned about her.
00:22:42.720
And she, she has a problem because little Bo Peep falls in love. The characters fall
00:22:49.820
in love. Imagine how bitter and sad and, and lonely you have to be to get ticked off that
00:23:00.180
the characters in an animated children's movie fall in love. But this is, you know what?
00:23:09.620
I, I like to write satire articles. Sometimes I'll write satirical pieces for the daily wire.
00:23:18.620
And, um, if someone had suggested to me two weeks ago that I write a satirical article complaining
00:23:27.500
that toy story is racist because there are no black leads, I would have said, uh, no,
00:23:32.800
I'm not going to do that because that's, that's obviously too absurd. Like that's, that's too far
00:23:37.400
out there for a satire to work. You want it to be, it has to be, it has to be a little
00:23:42.600
absurd. Like whatever you're satirizing, you're taking that line of thinking that, um, uh, you
00:23:49.740
know, philosophy, and you're just taking it to an sort of absurd extreme to demonstrate
00:23:54.160
the inherent absurdity of that, uh, that line of thinking. But I would have thought, well,
00:23:59.580
that's too extreme. You know, that's, I mean, they wouldn't read it. Come on. Like that's a
00:24:03.340
straw man. They wouldn't really, but no, they, they really are complaining that toy story is racist
00:24:07.280
because there are no black, there are no black toys. By the way, toy story four, um, you might
00:24:13.640
try to justify this by saying, well, maybe she means that there are no black voice actors, but that
00:24:18.980
isn't true. Um, uh, key and peel are, are, uh, are in, they are voice actors in this movie. They voice
00:24:26.700
two plush, plush dolls. But the problem is that the dolls are not black. The dolls are like blue and
00:24:33.060
pink or something. Just absolutely ridiculous. All right. Um, so one other thing to mention before,
00:24:43.420
but we get to emails, San Francisco, a city that resembles a large outhouse at this point has
00:24:49.200
decided to really focus on the important issues. It has banned the use and sale of e-cigarettes and
00:24:55.820
vape pens. Now I'm pretty sure that you can essentially legally shoot up heroin in San
00:25:02.820
Francisco. I don't know. I mean, I don't know if that's actually a law in the books. I'm not
00:25:06.280
recommending it. I'm just saying that people do that anyway, and it's no, they don't seem to be
00:25:12.680
arrested for it. Uh, they also, you know, defecate on the sidewalks. So you could do all of that
00:25:18.160
without much fear of legal repercussion, but no, you can't, uh, you can't smoke a e-cigarette or vape.
00:25:25.060
Um, the mayor, this is the reason the mayor gave for the ban. The mayor said, there's so much we
00:25:31.720
don't know about the health impacts of these products, but we do know that e-cigarette companies
00:25:35.700
are targeting our kids and they're advertising and getting them hooked on addictive nicotine
00:25:39.040
products. Okay. So did you catch that? We don't know the health impacts and that's why we're going
00:25:45.560
to ban it. Hey, we don't know much about this better ban it just in case. Yeah. You know, there,
00:25:51.040
there could be a problem with it. We have, we don't know. Uh, so let's, uh, I will just ban it.
00:25:58.440
Ban it and ask questions later. That's, that's the philosophy now of, of the nanny staters.
00:26:03.680
Listen, um, I don't smoke e-cigarettes. I don't vape. I, I, I, I do tend to think that, uh,
00:26:11.920
vaping, it's not for me. I think vaping looks kind of ridiculous. Um, if you're going to smoke,
00:26:18.480
I think, you know, smoke like a man, smoke a cigar, that's not a real recommendation kids.
00:26:22.940
I'm going to don't smoke at all. I'm just saying that if you, I mean, if you had to choose,
00:26:26.460
if someone put a gun to your head and said, smoke one of these, I would say, go for the cigar.
00:26:30.640
Um, so, you know, this is not, it's not like I'm trying to defend something that I do because I
00:26:36.120
don't, I don't use these cigarettes, but it's just, when are we going to get it through our heads
00:26:41.480
here? That this kind of nanny state, um, approach does not work. You're only, when you do this,
00:26:53.900
um, you're only making whatever you're banning, you're just making it seem cooler.
00:27:00.500
And maybe at a certain point, we have to just accept the fact that we're not going to ever stop
00:27:06.520
all the teenagers from smoking something. It just, it's the reality. It seems like,
00:27:11.260
I mean, just looking at the human history, uh, at least modern human history, the teenagers,
00:27:16.940
some of them are always, there's going to be something that they're smoking. So yeah,
00:27:20.160
we got them, we got them. So it used to be back in the seventies and eighties that all the
00:27:25.060
teenagers smoke cigarettes. And then we, we embarked on this 20 year campaign to stop people from
00:27:31.320
smoking cigarettes. Um, and that kind of worked. And so then they just graduated to EC
00:27:36.500
cigarettes and vape pens. Like there's always going to be something. And I think at a certain
00:27:40.500
point we have to just realize that and accept it. It doesn't mean we, it doesn't mean we stop
00:27:45.160
discouraging it. It just means we stopped trying to stop it by force of law with regulations and fines
00:27:51.740
and penalties and all that. Because really at the end of the day, that's regulations and fines and
00:28:00.440
penalties and laws. That's not actually what, what, uh, stopped kids from smoking cigarettes.
00:28:08.100
I think the main thing, uh, you know, well, the, the, the main thing was just, was just
00:28:13.760
discouraging it just by pointing out like, yeah, you can do it, but it causes cancer. It's going to
00:28:20.980
make your teeth yellow, so on and so forth. Just hammering on that. Then people chose not to.
00:28:25.580
Um, and also I think when, uh, when it, it, it, it did have an effect when you stopped seeing so
00:28:34.760
much smoking on TV and the celebrities weren't doing it quite as much that it didn't seem as cool
00:28:39.300
to the kids. And so they didn't do it. But what I'm trying to point out here is that the, there's
00:28:43.320
the cool factor is big with kids. And that's the reason why they, why they were all smoking in the
00:28:49.820
eighties because it was just a cool thing to do. The problem is, and trying to make something less
00:28:55.320
cool is difficult. That's a, that's a, when you are an uncool adult and, uh, which we all are uncool
00:29:03.360
as adults, and you notice something that kids are doing that is destructive yet they think is cool.
00:29:10.580
And you're saying to yourself, I want to make that thing uncool. It's really difficult to do because
00:29:14.980
you're uncool. So whatever you say about it, the more you complain about it, you're just making
00:29:19.660
the thing cooler. You see, that's the way the equation works. So it's a difficult trick to
00:29:24.360
pull, pull. I think that it was basically pulled off with cigarettes. It took a long time.
00:29:30.140
But one thing I know for sure is that you're not going to make something less cool by making it
00:29:36.640
illegal. That I'm a hundred percent certain. All right. We're going to talk about, we're going to
00:29:41.580
get to some emails here in a minute. Um, but before we do a quick word about shaving,
00:29:48.640
did you know that the average guy spends 3000 hours of his lifetime shaving, which is an
00:29:55.380
interesting statistic. I don't know where they get it from. I've always thought to myself that
00:29:59.840
this is one thing that I hope that when we die and we're, you know, kind of in that big waiting
00:30:05.180
room in the sky, waiting to go in and talk to the big man and find out which direction we're headed.
00:30:09.600
Right. Um, and we're all just kind of soon as I imagine it being like a big dentist, like
00:30:13.880
waiting room. There's a couple of old magazines. So maybe out of date magazines from 1730 or
00:30:19.380
something. Um, but I, what I hope is that while we're there, maybe they give us a fun little packet
00:30:24.040
that has a bunch of just interesting statistics about our life. Like this is how many hours you
00:30:30.080
spend shaving. Uh, this is how many days you spent sleeping, that kind of thing. This is how many
00:30:35.800
gallons of orange juice you drank in your life. Just random things. So I always hope that,
00:30:39.520
um, anyway, 3000 hours of, uh, of the life shaving don't, don't waste four months of your
00:30:46.240
life overpaying for poor, for poor performing razors. Uh, that's where Harry's comes in. Get
00:30:51.920
Harry's a razor. That's so sharp. You can shave less often and you'll save money. It's just $2 per
00:30:56.660
blade. I use Harry's myself, uh, because I do shave contrary to popular belief. I got to shave the
00:31:01.880
neck and you know, around here. So I don't look like Chewbacca. And the thing I love about Harry's
00:31:06.720
is that number one, the price, um, razors are ridiculously expensive. Usually these are not
00:31:11.680
number two, it's a very smooth and close shave. I don't even have to use shaving cream when I do it.
00:31:16.500
Um, you could join the 10 million people who have tried Harry's claim your special offer by going to
00:31:21.900
harrys.com slash Matt Walsh. You know, Harry's founders were two regular guys tired of getting
00:31:27.600
ripped off, paying for overpriced gimmicks, vibrating heads, flex balls, um, handles that look like
00:31:34.000
something from a sci-fi movie or whatever. Harry's makes quality durable blades at a fair price.
00:31:39.360
That's just $2 a bit a blade. You can get a trial set that comes with everything you need for a close
00:31:44.100
comfortable shave. Um, weighted ergonomic ergonomic handle for an easy grip, a five blade razor with
00:31:50.980
laser razor with a lubricating strip, uh, a trimmer blade for a closeup shave. Listeners of my show can
00:31:58.720
redeem their trial set at harrys.com slash Matt Walsh. And if you prefer to shop and store, you
00:32:05.160
can go to a Walmart and target and get Harry's there as well. All right. Let's, uh, answer some
00:32:11.720
emails, mattwalshshow at gmail.com, mattwalshshow at gmail.com. This is from, uh, Denise says, hi, Matt.
00:32:20.180
Thank you for the witty sarcasm you add to my life every day. I am wondering if you believe in spanking
00:32:25.460
young children as a form of discipline, do you spank your own children? Well, Denise, that's a tough
00:32:31.980
question because I'm of two minds when it comes to this. Well, I can tell you what we do. That's not
00:32:37.720
tough. We don't spank. Um, am I against spanking on principle? I suppose I'm not. Uh, the Bible does
00:32:46.880
say spare the rod, spoil the child. And people use that as a justification for spanking, or even people
00:32:53.840
will use that to make the case that we are morally obliged to spank. But the problem though, is that
00:33:02.440
if you're claiming to take that verse totally literally, then that means that you must hit
00:33:09.520
your kid with a rod. Uh, do you use an actual rod? Do you take out like a metal rod to spank your kid?
00:33:18.160
Because if you don't, and probably you don't, hopefully you don't, then you are literally
00:33:24.380
sparing the rod. I mean, in a literal sense, you are defying that particular passage because you are
00:33:30.260
not using a rod to hit your kid. Um, so I, my point is that I think even those of us who spank,
00:33:37.240
I think we all kind of take that passage in a more general way to mean don't, don't spoil your kid.
00:33:44.320
Don't coddle your kid too much. Instill discipline. You know, that's, that's the way that I take it.
00:33:49.140
Um, I don't take it as we are somehow committing a sin if we don't spank our kids. Um,
00:33:55.680
I'll just tell you my, my thing with it. I could never quite bring myself
00:34:00.920
to see violence as a parenting technique. And I know that calling it violence is,
00:34:09.840
is going to upset people who spank their kids. Uh, it seems extreme. Maybe it is an extreme way
00:34:15.720
of putting it. I mean, it is, but it is, you're physically hitting someone, right? Um, so that
00:34:22.880
are there, I don't know. I mean, it is violence, technically speaking now spanking, if it's really
00:34:30.420
spanking and not beating, um, spanking is, and this is where maybe you say, well, it's not really
00:34:35.140
violence because it's not about inflicting physical pain. Uh, now there may be a little bit of
00:34:39.280
physical pain, but that's not the point. The point isn't look, if you're just grabbing your kid
00:34:43.540
because you're ticked off and you're just looking to let out your aggression. And so you start spanking
00:34:49.520
him. Well, then that's physical abuse. You're abusing your kid. You're a physical abuser in that
00:34:53.980
case. Um, in fact, I would go so far as to say, just if you spank your kid angry, you are physically
00:35:01.660
abusing. That is you're hitting your kid because you're, you're pissed off. That's what that is.
00:35:06.840
And that is definitely wrong. But what about a scenario where you're not angry? You're calmed
00:35:14.740
down. Um, you're not doing this because you're trying to make your kid hurt, but it's just,
00:35:20.860
it is a form of discipline and you approach it yourself in a disciplined way, in a sort of
00:35:25.420
business-like way. Like, look, this is the penalty. So I'm going to spank you. Um, I'll give you a hug
00:35:31.180
afterwards because I love you, but this is the penalty. Um, I think if we talk about the non-abusive
00:35:38.100
spanking, that's what it has to be. Unfortunately though, just from talking to people, it seems like
00:35:44.660
a lot of parents, that's not really what spanking is for them. They may say that it is, but really
00:35:51.000
it's, they're ticked off. And that again is abusive. Um, so, you know, but, but let's,
00:35:59.260
let's talk about the spanking where it's, you're, you're approaching it from a disciplined
00:36:03.040
point, uh, perspective and, and it's, it's not just anger. Well, no, I don't think that the parents
00:36:10.940
that spank that way are abusing their kids. Um, but I still just choose not to do it.
00:36:16.880
And I think because I could never, for me, it always seemed like if I spank and I get the kids
00:36:24.600
to behave based on that, then, then basically the, the implied threat is do what I want or I'll hit
00:36:31.700
you. And again, I know that's not what parents are literally saying to their kids. At least I hope
00:36:36.720
they're not. Um, that's not the intention, but I personally couldn't get past seeing it that way.
00:36:42.140
And one thing that I've learned as a parent is if something just doesn't feel right to you,
00:36:48.120
if it, if it doesn't, if it doesn't feel right for your family, um, for your situation,
00:36:54.240
then listen to your gut, follow your instincts. I think if you follow your gut,
00:36:59.800
um, if you follow your instincts, you'll be right about 98% of the time as a parent,
00:37:06.480
it seems to me. So I'm, um, uh, I'm not sitting in judgment of parents who do use corporal punishment.
00:37:16.480
My parents did not that much, but they used it. I'm not traumatized by it. I don't feel like I was
00:37:20.860
abused. I, you know, I survived. I'm fine. Um, but still, it just didn't seem right to me. So it,
00:37:26.900
it, I don't do it. Uh, I have my reasons for not doing it, which I've tried to sort of in a babbling
00:37:32.380
way explain. Um, but I think I do believe that there is a, an appropriate way of going about it.
00:37:40.360
And parents who do that have my blessing, not that they need it.
00:37:46.540
All right. From Rebecca says, hi, Matt, do you believe in ghosts? Just curious if it's a belief
00:37:52.180
that clashes with our Christian faith. Yeah, I think it does clash with our Christian faith. Now,
00:37:56.380
if by ghosts, you mean demonic spirits, then yeah, I believe in that. That doesn't clash.
00:37:59.980
But if you mean the souls of dead people who are just sort of wandering around on earth randomly,
00:38:05.260
um, then I think it does present a contradiction or at least a problem theologically because
00:38:10.220
you're, you die and, uh, you stand before God and, and then it's decided which direction you're
00:38:19.800
going to head. Um, it's hard for me to see how God would allow some souls to just walk around on
00:38:25.480
earth, scaring people. Like what's the point of God, does God really do that? Because there could
00:38:30.740
be, there can't be any ghosts who are here by accident. That has to be through God's will. So
00:38:36.040
does God really send a soul back to earth, back to some old creepy house to walk around and scare
00:38:44.000
children. Um, you know, if I was God, then maybe I would do that just for fun, but I'm not God. And
00:38:54.640
I think that God is not nearly as petty as I am. Thankfully. Uh, this is from Johnny says,
00:39:04.440
hello, Mr. Lord Walsh. Well, you don't have to call me that. Lord Walsh is fine. This is a very upfront,
00:39:10.280
but difficult for me question. It's something that I've been struggling with for a while.
00:39:13.820
And I think it's something that might've ruined my past relationship of three years.
00:39:17.680
What is love? Is there an objective definition? Can scripture back it up? Well, if you want an
00:39:24.820
answer to that question, I think share, listen to that share song. What is love? She really provides
00:39:28.840
the answer. If I had to elaborate on that answer, I would say, uh, I would second secondarily, I would
00:39:34.720
quote after share Thomas Aquinas, who said that love, uh, to love is to will the good of the other.
00:39:41.760
And I think that's the best definition that anyone has ever come up with. And I think that if you read
00:39:46.180
scripture, uh, you're going to find that that's the, that's the definition offered, not a direct,
00:39:52.000
not directly, but all throughout scripture, you know, and that's one as, as I, as I, as I sometimes say
00:39:57.740
about quoting from the Bible or using the Bible. Um, we can't always look for one sentence, which
00:40:05.940
just sort of parrots, whatever point we're trying to make. I think that, um, I think we have to,
00:40:13.060
we have to look at the totality of scripture. We have to look at the whole sort of story that's
00:40:17.060
being told and we have to take a more comprehensive view of it. And so with a question like, what is
00:40:22.500
love? I think you're going to find that this answer, love is to will the good of the other.
00:40:27.620
That is all throughout the Bible. That's the answer that you get. That's how love is portrayed.
00:40:35.000
Um, and what that means is, I mean, it's pretty straightforward. It means that if you love someone,
00:40:41.180
then you want what is best for them. And you not only want it, but as Aquinas says to will it,
00:40:49.580
meaning you're going to do what you can to help bring about what is best for them.
00:40:55.020
Now, in order for your, for you to have a properly ordered and healthy and, um, good love,
00:41:04.940
then you have to have a correct understanding of what is best for someone. I think there are people
00:41:10.720
who have an incorrect understanding of what is best. So they love people, but in, but they have a
00:41:16.440
incomplete, a sort of misdirected love, uh, because they don't understand what's actually best for the
00:41:23.040
human person. The ultimate goal of the human person is to go to heaven. So ultimately, if you
00:41:28.040
love someone, that means you want them to go to heaven, uh, and you're going to do whatever you can
00:41:32.920
in your own way to help them in that quest. That's what it means to love someone. Now we can get into
00:41:39.760
the Greek and start breaking down the different, are we talking about agape love? Are we talking about
00:41:45.200
arrows? So, you know, what, what kinds of love are we talking about? There's the charitable love.
00:41:50.400
There's the erotic romantic love, uh, brotherly love. You know, the Greeks had different words for
00:41:55.660
love, which is good because we only have the one and they can get confusing sometimes, but the common
00:42:01.400
thread that ties together all of those forms of love is that you are willing the good of the other.
00:42:07.820
As a follow-up to that, I think the sad reality is that
00:42:17.640
there are a lot of people out there who don't love anyone because I think there are a lot of people
00:42:25.760
who really don't will the good of anyone but themselves. They really don't, at the end of the day,
00:42:32.280
I think there are a lot of people who really don't care that much. Um, if anyone else,
00:42:37.400
you know, uh, is, is, ends up going to heaven or, or gets, or, or, you know, gets, gets the good
00:42:47.180
things in life. I think there are a lot of people who just don't care about that. They're focused on
00:42:50.640
themselves. And so they might will the good for you insofar as it will help them. So in a, you know,
00:42:59.880
if you're, if you're a selfish person in a marriage, you may sometimes act in a way that
00:43:06.080
looks loving. It has the appearance of love, but really what you're doing is you're just trying to
00:43:12.500
make the other person happy because it's easier for you if they're happy. So you're trying to sort
00:43:16.440
of satiate them because it's going to be easier for you, or you're doing them a favor. You're doing
00:43:20.680
a good thing for them because you want them to do you a favor or because you just want credit for it
00:43:26.200
or because you want to emotionally blackmail them later. And you can say, you remember when I did
00:43:30.420
that thing for you and now you're doing this to me? How dare you? Um, so there's a lot of that
00:43:34.500
that goes on marriages. I think there are a lot of marriages where really there is no love
00:43:37.380
because neither spouse is really willing the good of the other for the sake of the other.
00:43:43.620
Maybe that's the addendum we should add to that to will the good of the other for the sake of the
00:43:48.080
other, not for your own. Um, so that is, uh, I think love. Thank you for the question though. And
00:43:55.320
thanks for watching everybody. Thanks for listening. Godspeed.
00:44:11.260
Today on the Ben Shapiro show, we prepare for the first democratic debate and the media get
00:44:15.640
hypocritical about illegal immigration and crisis today on the Ben Shapiro show.