The Matt Walsh Show - July 08, 2019


Ep. 290 - The Truth About The ＂Gender Pay Gap＂ In Soccer


Episode Stats

Length

40 minutes

Words per Minute

171.825

Word Count

6,873

Sentence Count

427

Misogynist Sentences

43

Hate Speech Sentences

19


Summary

The U.S. Women's team won the World Cup, and now the media is crying out for equal pay for the women's team because they are being paid less than the men. Is it a sexist conspiracy? Or is it just bad economics? Also, if we have the right to an attorney, then why don't we have a right to a doctor? What's the difference between those two things?


Transcript

00:00:00.000 Today on the Matt Wall Show, the U.S. women's team won the World Cup, and now they're saying that they deserve equal pay, that they're underpaid, they're paid less than the men, they should get equal pay.
00:00:09.040 And I want to talk about that claim, which is actually extremely absurd.
00:00:13.100 In fact, if you look at the numbers, and I'm going to explain this, the women's team, they're actually paid too much.
00:00:18.900 They're overpaid. That's what the stats show, and I'll talk about that today.
00:00:22.280 Also, the media invented another controversy to try to make conservatives look stupid.
00:00:26.920 This one has to do with the Little Mermaid.
00:00:28.700 They invented an outrage. They invented a controversy surrounding the Little Mermaid, of all things.
00:00:32.900 We'll talk about that. And finally, if we have the right to an attorney, then why don't we have the right to a doctor?
00:00:38.840 What's the difference between those two things? We'll discuss that as well today on the Matt Wall Show.
00:00:47.140 So the U.S. women's team won the World Cup this week, which is great news.
00:00:53.220 It's a job well done. It's a nice accomplishment. If only soccer was not a communist conspiracy, I think I could celebrate it even more.
00:01:01.860 I mean, it's a fine little game, okay? Don't get me wrong. It's just that I prefer sports, and I love America.
00:01:08.740 So those are the two things that prevent me from really appreciating and enjoying it more is just the fact that I'm a patriot and also a sports fan.
00:01:17.660 But if I wasn't any of those, then I think I would like it more.
00:01:21.500 And I'm not criticizing soccer. Just because I'm calling it a fake sport loved by commies and traitors doesn't mean that I'm – it's not a criticism.
00:01:27.700 It's just a – you know, it's just an observation. So don't – I don't want you to take it the wrong way if you're a sports fan.
00:01:35.080 But, you know, we're told that the success of the women's team means that they should finally have equal pay, right?
00:01:44.300 That they should finally be paid equal to the men.
00:01:46.960 That they're paid a lot less than the men's soccer players, supposedly.
00:01:50.440 And this is a sexist conspiracy is what we are being told.
00:01:57.720 I want to deal with that claim today to start with because there's just – it's this whole thing about equal pay in sports of all places.
00:02:09.540 It's just so emblematic, I think, of where we are as a society because the whole conversation is so cartoonishly stupid and off-base.
00:02:20.480 So we're going to talk about that.
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00:04:15.620 Okay, now equal pay for soccer players.
00:04:20.340 I think that if people were better educated, maybe they'd have a better understanding of these kinds of conversations.
00:04:27.340 Some presidential candidates have also called for this.
00:04:30.240 Kamala Harris, I think, or Kirsten Gillibrand or Bernie Sanders.
00:04:34.940 They're all the same.
00:04:35.620 I don't know.
00:04:37.800 The women's players have made the same point, saying that they should get equal pay.
00:04:42.200 And then the crowd there at the stadium in France, after the victory during the celebration, they started chanting, equal pay, equal pay.
00:04:49.820 So I want to, just for a few moments, focus on this issue, which, as I said, it just shows you where we are.
00:05:05.260 And I think it kind of reveals why our conversations about controversial issues oftentimes don't go anywhere, because things like facts and logic just aren't allowed to enter into the discussion.
00:05:21.820 So, first of all, I keep hearing this claim that, and this is one of the things that the equal pay discussion is based on, this claim that the women's team is better than the men's team, because the men's team doesn't win anything, and the women's team keeps winning the World Cup.
00:05:37.480 And all joking aside, I do respect their success.
00:05:40.580 I think it's, I mean, they're good at what they do, and I respect anybody who's good at what they do, as long as what they do is morally appropriate.
00:05:49.480 And, I mean, arguably, soccer is morally appropriate, though.
00:05:52.940 There's a discussion to be had there.
00:05:54.160 We won't get into it.
00:05:56.140 The men's team, I guess, is not very good in comparison to other men's teams across the globe, because that's how we're judging this.
00:06:06.200 If you say, oh, the women's team is better than the men's team, you must mean by that, when you say it, that the men's team is not as good compared to their competition as the women's team is against their competition.
00:06:21.260 And one of the reasons for it is, in this country, I think the best male athletes end up going into different sports.
00:06:27.920 I mean, well, I should say they end up going into sports, like soccer, I mean, sorry, football.
00:06:35.080 I apologize for that slip.
00:06:36.460 It was offensive.
00:06:37.220 They end up going into sports, like football, basketball, baseball.
00:06:41.200 And that's where I think the best athletes go.
00:06:43.800 Whereas in other countries, the best male athletes almost all play soccer.
00:06:47.360 So, in other countries, their Kevin Durant's and their Odell Beckham's go to soccer, whereas ours go to basketball, baseball, football.
00:06:58.760 But even so, there's no question at all that the men's team is better pound for pound than the women's team.
00:07:06.500 They may not be better against their competition, but when you say the women's team is better, if you actually mean that you think the women's team would beat the men's team, like they actually are better athletes, period, they're just better at playing soccer, well, then you must be drunk or high or brain damaged.
00:07:23.220 There's just no way you could actually think that.
00:07:25.520 Now, if you were to put, if the men's team, as bad as they are against other men, if you were to put them on the women's circuit, they would win every game 50 to nothing, including beating the women handily.
00:07:38.880 And one of the ways we know that is that, number one, they're men.
00:07:43.640 And so, they're just, they're male, they may not be the best athletes that, the best male athletes that America has to offer, but even so, they are relatively successful male athletes in soccer, which means that they're just going to be better than the women.
00:08:00.160 And it's as simple as that.
00:08:01.440 As I pointed out before, the women's team a couple of years ago lost to a bunch of 14-year-old boys.
00:08:07.820 And the only, and look, it's not, this is not mockery.
00:08:10.940 The only reason I bring that up is because there are people out there claiming, and they do appear to actually think that the women's team is literally better than the men's team.
00:08:19.920 And when you hear that claim, then you have to say, okay, yeah, but they lost to, they lost to 14-year-old boys.
00:08:25.480 And you could say all you want, oh, it was a scrimmage, they weren't trying that hard.
00:08:28.300 Okay.
00:08:29.160 I mean, do you think this men's team, is there any chance they would lose to 14-year-old girls?
00:08:33.100 They could be out there on, they could be hopping around on one leg, and they would still beat 14-year-old girls.
00:08:37.820 And so, and that just shows you.
00:08:41.100 All it does, it just shows you the biological difference between men and women.
00:08:45.300 That's all that is.
00:08:48.220 And so it's, you know, when we say that men are better at a sport than women, that's not like, all that means is that men just have a biological advantage.
00:09:00.260 They didn't really do anything to earn that inherent biological advantage.
00:09:04.620 If they become great athletes, then they've done a lot to earn that.
00:09:08.360 But just the very fact that they are men provides them with advantages.
00:09:11.260 This is one of the reasons why myself and every other sane person were all against the idea of putting biological men into women's sports.
00:09:20.180 Biological men who claim to be women were against putting them into women's sports just because of that incredible biological advantage they have.
00:09:27.540 It's just not fair.
00:09:29.560 Now, the other side of this is the matter of revenue.
00:09:35.380 As for that, let me read from Forbes, an article written by Mike Ozanian a few months ago.
00:09:41.900 Here's what he says.
00:09:42.500 He says, reading from his, he says,
00:09:44.280 As Dwight Janes pointed out four years ago, after the U.S. women beat Japan to capture the World Cup in Vancouver, there's a big difference in the revenue available to pay the teams.
00:09:53.960 The Women's World Cup brought in almost $73 million, of which the players got 13%.
00:09:58.600 The 2010 Men's World Cup in South Africa made almost $4 billion, of which 9% went to the players.
00:10:07.760 The men still pulled the World Cup money wagon.
00:10:11.500 The Men's World Cup in Russia generated over $6 billion in revenue, with the participating teams sharing $400 million, less than 7% of revenue.
00:10:21.420 Meanwhile, the Women's World Cup is expected to earn $131 million for the four-year cycle, 2019 to 2022, and dole out $30 million to the participating teams.
00:10:35.420 Okay, that's what Forbes says.
00:10:40.480 So let's think about these numbers for a minute.
00:10:43.660 The men will share $400 million from the $6 billion they brought in.
00:10:51.160 The women will share $30 million from the $131 million they brought in.
00:10:57.280 So that's what, for the women, that's what, 20% or something like that, 20-some percent?
00:11:01.340 20% versus 7%.
00:11:03.120 By that figure, it's not, if women want to be paid equally, then they should be paid less.
00:11:11.860 Women are actually overpaid.
00:11:14.140 Equal pay should mean that they get an equal share in the revenue they generate.
00:11:20.840 Which means they should get 7% or 8%.
00:11:24.300 Or I should say, they should get, yeah, if they, if they, so it's $131 million, the women, the men got 6%, 7%.
00:11:34.040 So equal pay would mean the women would get 6% or 7%, which means that they would share, I don't know, $8 or $9 million.
00:11:43.580 But if they want equal pay in terms of just the pure amount they get to share, which would mean they also get to share $400 million, then that would mean that they are paid almost four times the amount that they generate in revenue.
00:12:03.680 So where's that extra money even coming from?
00:12:06.900 The entire, you know, Women's World Cup, it only generates $131 million.
00:12:11.280 If they want equal pay, they want $400 million.
00:12:14.200 Where's the extra almost $300 million coming from?
00:12:18.880 It's just, it's a claim that does, that's why I call it a, a cartoonishly stupid discussion.
00:12:26.380 It, it has no basis in reality.
00:12:30.180 The, the men and women in terms of revenue and also skill are in two different universes.
00:12:38.940 And, uh, that explains why women, women are paid less in sports.
00:12:42.140 It's, it's the same thing in basketball.
00:12:44.000 Uh, and we hear this sometimes this complaint that WNBA players are paid much, much, much, much, much less than NBA players, which is true.
00:12:52.260 Now I don't have the, I don't have the averages in front of me.
00:12:55.180 Um, the average amount that a NBA player is paid versus a WNBA player, but I'm sure that the differences are, are huge.
00:13:03.960 Um, but that's because the difference in revenue is huge.
00:13:07.260 The whole league, okay, WNBA, the whole league generates $60 million in a year, the whole league, WNBA, the NBA with men generates $8 billion, okay?
00:13:23.720 The NBA generates significantly more in a week than the WNBA generates in a year.
00:13:29.900 So that's why the men get paid more.
00:13:33.820 There's more money to share.
00:13:35.460 There's just more money to go around.
00:13:38.260 I mean, if, if men, if we were to get, give equal pay in the WNBA, well, giving them the women an equal amount to the men by raising their salary would just be impossible because the money doesn't exist.
00:13:51.380 It's just not there to give them.
00:13:53.260 So the only way to really give them equal pay would be to, to give the men a lot, lot less.
00:13:58.280 But then the question is who gets all the extra money?
00:14:01.020 I guess it just goes to the owners or excuse me.
00:14:03.960 We're not supposed to call them owners.
00:14:05.260 Now they're, uh, they're governors because owner is racially insensitive.
00:14:09.260 So the rest goes to the governors.
00:14:12.420 It sounds so stupid.
00:14:13.600 So I can't even say, even if I wanted to be politically correct, I can't say it.
00:14:16.680 I can't refer to NBA team owners as NBA governors.
00:14:20.260 Uh, it's just so creepy and weird.
00:14:22.840 So that's the thing.
00:14:24.100 The money is there because there's so much interest in the NBA.
00:14:28.280 And that's why the men get paid more.
00:14:30.580 There is almost no interest in the WNBA.
00:14:33.280 That's why the money isn't there.
00:14:35.300 And the reason why there's no interest is because it's just not that fun to watch.
00:14:39.820 I mean, these are, you're watching basketball with players who can't even dunk.
00:14:43.520 And again, that's not an insult.
00:14:45.500 It's just a fact.
00:14:47.300 Um, it, one of the, one of the exciting things about watching basketball, uh, is to watch the,
00:14:54.940 you know, the high flying acrobatics, the dunks and all that crazy stuff.
00:14:58.420 Well, the women can't even do that.
00:15:00.880 So, uh, many of them anyway.
00:15:02.660 So it's just not as fun to watch.
00:15:06.320 How do you account for that gap?
00:15:08.000 The, the, the gap in interest, the fact that there are more people interested in men's sports
00:15:13.460 than are interested in women's sports.
00:15:15.080 Is it patriarchy?
00:15:16.520 Is it because of the internalized misogyny of sports fans that we all prefer to watch
00:15:20.620 men play sports?
00:15:22.220 Well, no, men are just better at sports.
00:15:24.560 Uh, and therefore they're more exciting to watch faster, stronger, they jump higher.
00:15:30.040 They dribble faster.
00:15:30.920 They're quicker.
00:15:31.840 Uh, everything is more exciting.
00:15:33.680 Same for soccer.
00:15:34.760 Now, while I hesitate to call soccer exciting in any context, it certainly is more exciting
00:15:39.680 when men play it than when women play it because they're just better at it.
00:15:42.320 And that's all there is to it.
00:15:43.940 Um, now so that I'm not accused of being a sexist, well, too late for that.
00:15:48.720 I will be accused of being a sexist, uh, which, which is, you know, just another,
00:15:52.540 another day in the neighborhood for me, but let's, let's look at a different comparison
00:15:58.180 and one that works out in, in favor of women.
00:16:01.500 Okay.
00:16:01.920 Let's look at a different industry, the modeling industry.
00:16:06.800 Um, I had to look this up because I don't know it off the top of my head, but apparently
00:16:11.460 from what I read, the top 10 highest paid male models in the country made $8 million
00:16:17.160 collectively last year.
00:16:18.780 Those are the top 10 highest paid.
00:16:20.160 So that's less than a million bucks a piece.
00:16:23.700 Um, meanwhile, the single highest paid female model made three times that amount just by
00:16:31.040 herself.
00:16:33.260 Okay.
00:16:35.540 The top 10 female models made collectively 10 times what the, uh, what the, what the men,
00:16:41.640 what the top 10 men made.
00:16:43.040 Is that a sexist conspiracy in the other direction?
00:16:45.840 Is there some kind of gender pay gap in the other direction where now we have to equal
00:16:49.980 things out so that male models make the same as female models?
00:16:53.220 No.
00:16:53.900 Female models earn more because they're worth more.
00:16:56.880 And why are they worth more?
00:16:58.140 Well, for one thing, women are more beautiful than men.
00:17:01.700 Okay.
00:17:02.180 It's, it's a little bit harder to quantify beauty beauty than it is athletic talent.
00:17:06.160 But, um, there's no question that women generally are more beautiful than men.
00:17:12.520 If you think of all the people you've ever seen in your life or met who just had, just
00:17:17.380 had a stunning earth shattering beauty, right?
00:17:22.020 Probably all of them are women.
00:17:24.740 If you go out in public or if you're watching TV or whatever, and you're just, and you see
00:17:29.240 someone who's just so incredibly beautiful, then most of the time, that's going to be a
00:17:35.700 woman.
00:17:36.160 And the thing is, even if you're a woman yourself, that's probably true in your experience, where
00:17:44.460 you yourself, if you're out in public and you happen to notice that somebody is extremely
00:17:49.820 beautiful, probably that somebody who you're noticing is a woman.
00:17:55.460 Um, and because it's just sort of, we say beauty is in the eye of the beholder.
00:18:00.120 Well, it's really not.
00:18:00.860 Uh, a beautiful woman is just a beautiful woman.
00:18:04.080 It's just, it's just a, it's a fact that you recognize nothing more, nothing more to
00:18:09.520 it than that.
00:18:10.180 Um, not only that, so that's one thing that women have in the modeling industry.
00:18:16.480 It's an advantage that they have that they're just more beautiful.
00:18:20.240 Uh, the, you know, I, I don't know who the top 10 female models are, but I imagine that
00:18:24.780 if you saw them, it's just, well, those are beautiful women.
00:18:27.280 It's extremely beautiful.
00:18:28.760 That's why they make all that money.
00:18:30.860 Um, also there's more for a female model to do.
00:18:37.200 She can model clothes.
00:18:38.760 She can model jewelry.
00:18:39.840 She can model makeup.
00:18:41.160 Um, male models can model clothes mostly, but men don't buy nearly as much jewelry and
00:18:47.120 thank God they don't buy nearly as much makeup.
00:18:49.260 Although I think the left wants to change that disparity, but as it stands right now,
00:18:52.940 most men don't buy makeup.
00:18:54.540 So, uh, if you're looking for, if you're a jewelry company or a makeup company and you're
00:18:59.340 looking for a model to show off your product 90 times, 99 times out of a hundred, you're
00:19:04.180 going to pick a female model.
00:19:05.400 And that's why female models make more.
00:19:08.180 And that's all, that's it.
00:19:09.620 They're just, they're worth more for those reasons.
00:19:11.920 They have biological advantages and, uh, they have, they have, uh, which translate into advantages
00:19:18.620 in the marketplace.
00:19:19.320 There you go.
00:19:21.620 Now going back to the soccer thing for a minute, we have to realize that there's two conversations
00:19:26.300 here because there's, there's the amount that the women get paid, um, by FIFA, which
00:19:30.940 is the international soccer organization, the organization that, that gives out the,
00:19:35.240 the world cup money.
00:19:37.400 Um, and that's where that big gap is the 30 million versus 400 million.
00:19:41.140 And that's where the big revenue gap is the 6 billion versus 131 million.
00:19:45.940 And then there's also a discussion of what's what U S soccer players are paid here by U S
00:19:51.320 soccer.
00:19:52.960 And that's where the revenue gap is, is, is actually it's, I think from what I read, um,
00:19:59.940 just when you look at U S soccer alone, historically men generate more revenue, but that gap has been
00:20:06.740 closing in recent years.
00:20:09.040 Um, so, okay, fine.
00:20:10.700 But then if you look at what U S soccer pays their athletes, the, the pay gap is also not
00:20:17.600 very large.
00:20:18.180 Like if you look at the top five, um, highest paid male soccer players versus female, yeah,
00:20:24.740 the men are paid a little bit more, but it's not, it's not an enormous gap.
00:20:28.720 The big gap is with FIFA.
00:20:30.980 It's with the world cup money.
00:20:32.480 Okay.
00:20:32.920 And we should be clear that, uh, when, when people talk about the pay gap and they want
00:20:38.500 to check, they want to close the gender pay gap in soccer, they are referring to FIFA.
00:20:42.700 Also, Megan Rapinoe, she's been in front of cameras specifically calling out FIFA for the
00:20:48.700 pay gap.
00:20:49.380 Uh, the FIFA president apparently was, was booed at the world cup, um, largely over this issue.
00:20:55.340 Even though the men in the world cup generate 40 to 50 to 60 times the amount in revenue.
00:21:04.600 And so that's how absurd this discussion is.
00:21:07.500 All right.
00:21:08.400 Um, speaking of absurd, speaking of absurd discussions, uh, and fake controversies, I wanted to mention
00:21:18.460 this, so Disney is a company that has, well, ran out of original ideas probably 25 years
00:21:26.620 ago.
00:21:26.900 And so they just announced that, um, there's another live action remake of a popular cartoon
00:21:32.700 in the works.
00:21:33.180 Actually, there's a few.
00:21:34.160 So they're doing a Mulan remake, apparently live action.
00:21:38.160 And, um, and now they're also doing a little mermaid, uh, live action thing.
00:21:43.120 I mean, just think about, think about how bereft of creativity, the creative trust at Disney
00:21:50.620 is where now they're reduced to staging these literal shot for shot reenactments of their
00:21:56.180 own films from only a few years.
00:21:57.800 These are films from the nineties, sometimes the late night.
00:22:00.540 I mean, when did Mulan come out the late nineties?
00:22:02.940 It wasn't even that long ago.
00:22:04.480 And now they're doing a shot for shot reenactment of it.
00:22:07.140 It's not even like they're, they're giving us, um, a new interpretation of the original
00:22:12.720 material.
00:22:14.340 Uh, uh, you know, it's, it's not even that it's just, they're taking the, the cartoon
00:22:20.280 and just redoing it almost all the same dialogue, everything redoing it with real people.
00:22:27.440 We've got this lion King thing coming out and, uh, they call it a live action lion King.
00:22:32.280 Well, it's not live action because all the characters are animals.
00:22:34.720 So this is really just, this is, this is a, this is an animated remake of an animated film.
00:22:41.220 Um, the only difference is that the animation is more realistic, but who cares if the animation
00:22:46.460 is realistic?
00:22:47.040 These are talking animals.
00:22:48.640 It's not a realistic situation.
00:22:51.120 In fact, I think if you, if you, if you have a, it just, it looks somehow even more ridiculous
00:22:57.420 to have a realistic animal talking.
00:23:00.340 If you're going to have talking animals, just make it a cartoon because that's what it is.
00:23:05.140 But even in that they're, they're hiring some of the same voice actors.
00:23:10.100 So they're getting, um, they're getting, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, now I'm blanking on his name.
00:23:18.240 Anyway, they're getting the same.
00:23:19.540 How am I blanking on his name?
00:23:20.820 Uh, they're, they're getting the same actor for who, who voiced Mufasa, a very famous actor,
00:23:25.080 uh, to, they're getting him from the nine to, to voice Mufasa again.
00:23:30.340 So in this case, it's going to be a shot for shot remake with even some of the same voice actors.
00:23:36.700 And it's just, what's the point of this?
00:23:38.940 Well, the point is it's a, it's a soulless cash grab and they're doing it because they
00:23:43.120 don't have any original ideas anyway.
00:23:45.560 Um, so the little mermaid, a little mermaid is coming out and they announced last week that,
00:23:51.500 um, the Ariel, the, the person who's going to play Ariel is, uh, an R and B singer named
00:23:59.460 Hallie Bailey, Hallie Bailey.
00:24:04.300 And she's going to take on this challenging role of a, of a mermaid and she's a black woman.
00:24:09.000 Okay.
00:24:09.800 And the news of this casting, uh, arrangement was, was greeted mostly with mild shrugs from
00:24:17.040 the vast majority of grownups who really are too busy paying bills and taking care of their
00:24:21.400 kids to worry about which actress is portraying a fictional fish woman in the next Disney film.
00:24:26.740 Um, but in some quarters of society, it, uh, the news prompted exuberant celebration as
00:24:32.560 it finally, you know, explodes the pernicious and harmful myth that all aquatic creatures
00:24:37.180 are Caucasian because this is apparently something that people thought, I guess, and now we're
00:24:40.960 learning that's not the case.
00:24:41.920 So little girls of all races can now dream of one day living in a coral reef and doing
00:24:48.900 battle with an evil octopus who communicates her dastardly plans by singing spontaneous, uh,
00:24:56.740 musical numbers.
00:24:58.140 Uh, now I guess any girl of any race can dream about that.
00:25:02.460 Most people don't care about any of this, right?
00:25:05.020 I mean, it's a Disney film.
00:25:06.100 They can have whoever they want, who cares, but that's not the story.
00:25:09.860 If you were, if you were paying attention to the, to the news and you were online last
00:25:15.180 week, especially late last week, that's not the story that was being told.
00:25:19.420 In fact, if you were to go right now and Google Ariel or the little mermaid, you're going to
00:25:25.340 be greeted with dozens of articles reporting on an alleged outrage among racists who were
00:25:31.560 supposedly very angry that their favorite cartoon mermaid has changed colors.
00:25:37.580 Apparently there was this huge outrage.
00:25:39.080 All these races were like, Oh no, we can't have a black woman playing a mermaid.
00:25:42.220 Oh no, I'm racist.
00:25:43.520 And I don't want that.
00:25:44.780 That's what people supposedly were saying, according to the media.
00:25:47.140 In fact, um, there was a hashtag trending on Twitter, a hashtag, not my Ariel was trending
00:25:53.900 on Twitter with a hundred thousand people or over a hundred thousand people tweeting about
00:25:57.760 it on whatever it was Wednesday or Thursday.
00:26:00.520 The problem though, is that easily 95% of the tweets in the hashtag, not my Ariel hashtag
00:26:08.880 were, um, we're from, we're, we're not from people outraged about the casting, but we're
00:26:14.400 from people outraged at the people who were outraged about the casting.
00:26:19.260 So you go now, you can look through it yourself and you'll be hard pressed to find a single
00:26:23.540 person who appears to be authentically angry that Ariel is not white.
00:26:27.780 Almost everybody is angry that people are allegedly angry that Ariel isn't white.
00:26:33.180 And this is one of the things that Twitter specializes in.
00:26:36.300 It specializes in people being outraged about an outrage that doesn't appear to actually
00:26:44.300 exist.
00:26:46.680 Uh, BET, uh, put an article out on their website declaring in their headline, racists are big
00:26:53.360 mad that a black girl is playing Ariel and a little mermaid.
00:26:56.440 That was the headline now, leaving aside the phrase big mad, which is very annoyingly stupid,
00:27:03.540 um, to prove that these quote, big mad racists do in fact exist.
00:27:08.960 BET provides precisely six tweets.
00:27:11.800 Two of those tweets are from anonymous accounts with less than 10 followers.
00:27:15.240 It don't appear to be real people.
00:27:16.900 Two are from non white people who for whatever reason thought that Ariel should still be white.
00:27:22.500 Um, and then there was another tweet from, and this is actually one that, um, uh, the website
00:27:29.540 complex, the website, the daily dot, a few other websites, they did entire articles about this
00:27:34.920 one supposedly racist tweet from a now suspended account.
00:27:39.200 And it appears that that account, which I think sort of started all this is a sock puppet with
00:27:44.820 a stolen profile photo, which is probably why it's suspended.
00:27:48.440 In other words, a sock puppet account is a, it's a fake account.
00:27:50.940 So somebody using a fake account with a stolen profile photo of a sort of generic looking
00:27:58.120 blonde chick, but white blonde chick, um, someone using that account started this, pretended
00:28:06.160 to be outraged about the fact that Ariel is not white and started this whole thing.
00:28:10.560 Now I have noticed a few real people, um, annoyed, not that, that Ariel's black, but just annoyed
00:28:18.680 by the double standard.
00:28:20.940 Uh, because a white cartoon character could be portrayed by a black actress, actress, but
00:28:26.220 of course a black character could never be portrayed by a white actress.
00:28:30.800 So that's the double standard.
00:28:33.120 Um, in fact, the, uh, they, they came out with the remake of Aladdin, which apparently was,
00:28:38.200 uh, horrible.
00:28:39.480 And I remember that there was some grief that that movie caught because the woman playing
00:28:46.600 Jasmine was not Arab enough.
00:28:49.340 Like she was, she was Arab, but not Arab enough.
00:28:51.980 She was a little bit too white looking.
00:28:53.640 And so that created some outrage.
00:28:56.760 Um, you know, you now, you now find people upset when gay characters in films are portrayed
00:29:03.140 by straight actors.
00:29:04.340 So when there's, when there's a switch in that direction, it does create actual legitimate
00:29:12.460 outrage, mostly from liberals.
00:29:14.140 And they've got this Mulan remake coming out.
00:29:18.060 Can you imagine if a non-Asian woman was cast in, you know, as the, as in the protagonist
00:29:24.260 role of the Mulan movie?
00:29:26.160 Can you imagine if they had, uh, like, I don't know, Amy Adams or something playing?
00:29:29.860 No, no, it could never happen.
00:29:32.780 Or the, um, what's it?
00:29:34.500 Princess and the Frog, Tiana, which the, the, you know, a black, uh, uh, princess.
00:29:39.880 Can you imagine when, when they do that remake, which they will, can you imagine what would
00:29:43.860 happen if they had a white actress playing Tiana?
00:29:47.840 That again would be legitimate, real outrage from the left.
00:29:52.740 So I have seen a few people pointing this out and saying, Hey, look, you know, I don't
00:29:58.440 really care who plays Ariel, but the fact is you're switching her race.
00:30:03.800 You're telling me I can't be upset about that.
00:30:05.920 I'm not.
00:30:06.640 But the fact is, if we were to switch it in the other direction with a different movie,
00:30:10.000 you would really be upset about it.
00:30:11.640 So that's a double standard.
00:30:12.700 That's hypocrisy.
00:30:15.240 So I have people point that, but that's, that's not out again.
00:30:18.160 That's not outrage over the casting.
00:30:19.720 That is just annoyance over hypocrisy and double standards, which is totally justified.
00:30:24.760 Now, personally, you know, I think people of any race should be able to play fictional
00:30:29.660 characters of any race.
00:30:30.740 I don't think it matters.
00:30:32.080 It's all imaginary.
00:30:33.080 So make James Bond black.
00:30:34.540 Doesn't matter.
00:30:35.220 You can make Shaft white.
00:30:36.560 Who cares?
00:30:37.620 Make them both Chinese, make them green with purple stripes.
00:30:40.420 I mean, what does it matter?
00:30:41.340 They don't exist.
00:30:42.000 It's fiction.
00:30:44.000 The Little Mermaid is also fiction, but so is the outrage surrounding it.
00:30:49.160 This is yet another phony backlash invented by people who are ideologically invested in the
00:30:54.120 idea that America is so racist that we can't even have black mermaids without the racist Nazis
00:30:59.600 getting upset about it.
00:31:00.820 So this is an invented outrage.
00:31:02.340 It's like the Starbucks cup thing.
00:31:03.620 You remember a few years ago, we were told by the media that conservative Christians were
00:31:09.860 outraged and were very upset that the Starbucks cups were not Christmassy enough.
00:31:15.700 And then when you looked into it, as I did, you found that there were maybe like two or three
00:31:20.420 actual conservative Christians who are really, for some reason, dumb enough to be upset that
00:31:24.980 there weren't enough snowflakes on the holiday cups at Starbucks.
00:31:31.040 Everybody else didn't care.
00:31:33.140 This was mostly a controversy and outrage invented by the media to push a narrative and to make
00:31:40.840 conservatives and Christians look stupid.
00:31:42.980 And they do it all the time.
00:31:44.640 And they did it again with this little mermaid thing.
00:31:48.000 And that's another reason why you have to be very careful when you're consuming news or
00:31:53.320 when you hear about some outrage.
00:31:54.520 Oh, you're apparently everyone's outraged about this or that.
00:31:57.480 Well, you should always stop and ask, are they really outraged about this?
00:32:01.520 Go look into it yourself.
00:32:02.880 And many times you'll discover that now actually nobody cares.
00:32:09.180 Let's see.
00:32:09.840 One other, uh, one other thing there was, maybe we'll save this for tomorrow.
00:32:20.660 Uh, there was this incident at a, at a Starbucks in Arizona where some police officers say they
00:32:26.480 were asked to leave the store or move to a different location, um, because their presence
00:32:32.220 was upsetting to some other customers who felt unsafe around police officers.
00:32:35.700 Uh, and I think that this, this is something that needs a lot, a longer coverage.
00:32:40.260 I think we'll save this for tomorrow.
00:32:42.040 But the thing I want to talk about tomorrow with this issue is, um, the comparison that's
00:32:48.500 being drawn between this and the time that you may, you remember a couple of years ago where
00:32:54.500 there were some black customers or they weren't customers.
00:32:57.860 That's the point.
00:32:58.480 But some black men at a Starbucks in Philly who were asked to leave, refused to leave.
00:33:02.600 Then the cops were called on them.
00:33:04.860 Um, and I defended Starbucks in that case.
00:33:11.060 I'm not going to defend them when it comes to them asking the police officers to leave.
00:33:15.960 And of course I'll be accused all because you're racist.
00:33:18.480 Is it, you know, those are black men.
00:33:20.060 So of course, well, no, there's a key difference between those two situations.
00:33:23.120 And we'll talk about that tomorrow.
00:33:24.700 Let's get to emails.
00:33:25.700 Actually, Matt wall show at gmail.com, uh, Matt wall show at gmail.com is the email address.
00:33:31.780 This is from, uh, Phil says, Matt, I see you've had several successes fishing.
00:33:40.480 Please tell us if your son was present and how he reacted.
00:33:42.960 Well, I had to just read this email because I was bragging on Twitter about the fact that
00:33:47.440 I did catch a five pound and then a six pound bass last week.
00:33:51.660 Um, we were staying at a lake, you know, at an undisclosed location and I won't disclose
00:33:57.560 it because I don't want anyone else taking my bass from that location.
00:34:01.360 And, uh, anyway, yeah, my son did do a fair amount of fishing with me and, um, they were
00:34:05.940 very excited by, by those successes.
00:34:08.560 Five and six pound bass, you know, no big deal.
00:34:10.500 Um, actually it is kind of a big deal.
00:34:12.540 So you should, I just wanted you to know that this is from.
00:34:17.440 Lisa says, greetings, Matt.
00:34:19.460 A common point people will raise when refuting, refuting the idea of universal healthcare is
00:34:24.920 that nobody has a right to another person's labor.
00:34:27.220 In this case, the doctors, I agree with this point, of course, but I was watching a crime
00:34:32.180 documentary recently and heard the words right to an attorney.
00:34:35.960 I was then reminded that everyone has the right to an attorney, even if they can't afford
00:34:39.780 one, the government will pay for one.
00:34:41.840 In that case, the words right to an attorney are not, uh, contested at all in this country.
00:34:46.120 This isn't a controversy anywhere.
00:34:48.340 Isn't this the same concept?
00:34:49.860 How can we say that nobody has a right to a doctor's labor?
00:34:52.320 If everyone has the right to an attorney's labor, I haven't been able to figure this one
00:34:55.960 out.
00:34:58.040 Um, that's, uh, that's a really interesting point that I hadn't thought of before.
00:35:04.340 So I had to think about this for a minute when I got your email, Lisa, uh, yesterday.
00:35:07.520 And so I think that this is the way to sort through it.
00:35:13.760 Um, the right to an attorney, we should be clear, doesn't cover all types of attorneys.
00:35:21.200 There are many different types of attorneys that are in different, um, avenues of law and
00:35:26.880 deal with different things.
00:35:27.600 So for instance, if you're suing Walmart, because you slipped on a banana peel at the,
00:35:33.020 in the produce section, uh, you don't have a right to an attorney to represent you for
00:35:37.140 that case.
00:35:38.300 And if you get sued by someone because they're walking through your kitchen and they slip on
00:35:42.600 a banana peel, then you don't have a right to an attorney to defend you.
00:35:46.840 You're on your own.
00:35:47.720 You got to do that on your own.
00:35:48.760 Um, the right to an attorney applies only to a defense when you're being prosecuted by
00:35:57.020 the state.
00:35:58.740 So that's when you have the right to an attorney.
00:36:02.160 And in that case, the attorney that is compelled to help you as a public defender, someone who
00:36:07.900 chooses to work for an agency whose role it is to provide defense for people who can't
00:36:13.220 afford to pay.
00:36:13.780 Um, so it's not even, it's like, you know, there are, there are private, uh, there are
00:36:18.180 defense attorneys who are in private practice and they cost a lot of money.
00:36:22.920 Um, and they're the ones who can, you know, help you get away, literally get away with
00:36:27.560 murder, but you don't have a right to them because yeah, that would be essentially slave
00:36:33.180 labor.
00:36:33.640 The government can't come into, uh, some, you know, high profile, private, expensive, uh,
00:36:39.740 defense attorney and say, Oh, you have to help this guy.
00:36:43.140 That's specifically public defenders.
00:36:44.820 And if you choose to get into the role of being a public defender, well, this is what
00:36:48.880 you do.
00:36:50.720 I think that the key difference though, and the reason for that is that if, if the state
00:36:58.660 brings a case against you, then the way our laws work, and I think it's a good, this is
00:37:05.100 good.
00:37:05.360 But if the state brings a case against you, the state should also have to provide you
00:37:09.720 the means to defend yourself in that case.
00:37:13.560 So that's why, that's why you have the right to an attorney.
00:37:17.600 Um, because the state, they're the ones coming in and saying, Hey, you know, uh, we're going
00:37:23.780 to put you on trial.
00:37:24.560 We're going to try to lock you in prison.
00:37:26.700 And, um, and if, if, if we didn't have that right to an attorney, then the fear is that
00:37:34.420 there would be major abuses and the state could just with impunity, just lock people away and
00:37:39.020 they'd have no chance of defending themselves.
00:37:40.880 So that's, that's the point.
00:37:43.440 I've often said, um, and I'm not the only one who's made this point, but I think sometimes
00:37:49.660 we, we are focusing on the wrong R word.
00:37:53.260 We talk a lot about rights.
00:37:54.780 I have the right to this.
00:37:55.600 I have the right to that.
00:37:56.640 I think maybe we should be talking more about responsibility.
00:38:01.040 I think we should think of rights in terms of responsibility.
00:38:03.880 And when we think of it in those terms, it starts to clarify issues to a large extent
00:38:10.040 because every right has a corresponding responsibility and we don't talk enough about that.
00:38:16.960 So another way of looking at this is, um, okay, you have a right to an attorney.
00:38:22.060 Well, that's true, but it's more that the state has a responsibility to provide you with
00:38:30.280 the means to defend yourself if they're the ones who are trying to put you in prison.
00:38:35.160 So you have a right to it, but you have a right to it because of the responsibility that's
00:38:39.200 on the state.
00:38:42.520 That's how we should look at it.
00:38:43.600 I've said the same thing when we talk about the right to life with the, uh, with, with
00:38:48.640 abortion.
00:38:50.480 And, uh, well, it's true that we do have a right to life, but I think maybe a sort of
00:38:55.980 clearer way of looking at this is that as a parent, you have a responsibility to your
00:39:01.920 children.
00:39:04.360 And that's what this comes down to.
00:39:06.160 That's your child.
00:39:07.200 You have a responsibility to them.
00:39:08.560 And, uh, and so you, you can't kill them.
00:39:11.680 You have to take care of them or you have to find someone who can take care of them.
00:39:16.420 So that's how I would look at that.
00:39:18.080 And that's, uh, that's an interesting question, though.
00:39:19.800 Thanks for bringing up, bringing up an angle that I hadn't thought of before.
00:39:22.440 And I think we'll leave it there.
00:39:23.460 Thanks everybody for watching.
00:39:24.360 Thanks for listening.
00:39:24.900 Godspeed.
00:39:38.560 The U S women's national soccer team, which two years ago was beaten five to two by a
00:39:43.480 team of boys under the age of 15 has won the world cup or something.
00:39:48.040 We will analyze what the rise of soccer means for American politics.
00:39:51.200 Then president Trump parades tanks through DC, a 2020 Democrat may drop out of the race
00:39:56.220 and Nancy Pelosi snipes at AOC.
00:39:58.580 Check it out on the Michael Knowles show.