The Matt Walsh Show - Ep. 296 - Why 'The Squad' Refuses To Condemn Antifa

00:00:00.000 Today on the Matt Wall Show, an Antifa member over the weekend staged a terrorist attack on a government facility.

00:00:07.780 Prominent Democrats have refused to condemn the act.

00:00:10.660 They have been asked about it explicitly, directly.

00:00:13.360 They refuse to condemn Antifa terrorism.

00:00:16.220 This, of course, is horrifying.

00:00:17.820 But why do Democrats refuse to condemn Antifa?

00:00:20.340 The answer to that question is even more horrifying.

00:00:22.540 We'll talk about that today. 0.96

00:00:23.500 Also, Joe Biden reveals his stunning historical ignorance.

00:00:27.340 And I'll explain why I think we should all stop watching Disney films.

00:00:31.860 Don't call it a boycott.

00:00:33.060 This is not a boycott.

00:00:33.900 It's about self-respect.

00:00:35.220 And I'll explain that today on the Matt Wall Show.

00:00:41.180 Okay, I have to say, first of all, the squad, that can't happen.

00:00:47.460 That cannot be a thing.

00:00:48.820 I am, I forbid it.

00:00:50.180 I will not allow it.

00:00:51.920 I do not permit it.

00:00:53.340 We are not, it's just, the squad, no.

00:00:58.240 Okay, the group of freshman Democrats, Cortez, Omar, Tlaib, Presley, have somehow adopted this name, the squad.

00:01:07.740 And the media is just going with it, of course.

00:01:10.200 And putting it in headlines and news reports.

00:01:13.440 And everyone's, even conservatives are going with it.

00:01:16.740 We're just, okay, we're going to call them the squad now.

00:01:18.140 It is just so corny and lame and bad and not good that I can't, I can't stand it.

00:01:27.440 I mean, the squad sounds, it sounds like a pop group that would have tried out on the X Factor back in 2005 or something.

00:01:34.220 It sounds like, or maybe more like a, like a girl group from 1998 that had one hit and then one, you know, kind of minor hit.

00:01:43.360 And then they disappeared from the face of the earth.

00:01:45.720 There are much cooler names that they could have chosen.

00:01:48.880 How about something like the contingent or the faction or the coalition?

00:01:57.360 You know, those are all corny too, but slightly less so.

00:02:00.360 All I can say is if we're doing the squad thing, then I hope that a group of young Republicans get together and form a group called the clique.

00:02:12.920 And then, of course, the clique and the squad will have breakdance competitions on a bimonthly basis.

00:02:20.840 Okay, so there's, that's just at my, at my this point now, that's, that's my, that's my dream.

00:02:26.760 Actually, we're not far from that.

00:02:28.340 I, I, this isn't really a breakdance competition, but I just saw that Joe Biden said today, or maybe it was yesterday, that if he is, if he's the nominee and he's challenged at a debate by Trump on his age and his mental agility, he will challenge Donald Trump on the spot to a pushup competition.

00:02:50.520 He actually said that.

00:02:52.460 And so this, I mean, I, I really hope that Biden is the nominee in that case, because I, I, I have no doubt that Biden actually would challenge Trump to a pushup competition.

00:03:03.500 And I think if Trump is challenged to that, he's not going to be able to say no.

00:03:06.460 So we're going to get the spectacle of two men in their seventies doing a pushup competition.

00:03:10.720 Um, and so I'm, I'm, I'm on board for that.

00:03:14.500 All right.

00:03:16.100 So a couple of things here.

00:03:17.640 Um, there's something from yesterday that's getting a lot of attention and something else that's not getting as much attention, but I think it should be flipped.

00:03:26.580 I think the thing that's not getting as much attention should be getting more than the other thing.

00:03:29.560 So the first thing, the thing that everyone's focusing on, um, is the press conference that was held by the spice girls, uh, or sorry, that's the wrong girl group.

00:03:38.620 The, uh, the, the, the squad, um, they, they held a press conference to respond to Trump's tweets, the tweets that we discussed at length yesterday on the show.

00:03:46.960 We don't need to get into that again.

00:03:48.800 They made a lot of accusations against Trump.

00:03:51.480 Um, many of those accusations, especially the ones from Omar are, were false or misleading.

00:03:57.140 She said, for example, among, among other false accusations, she said that Trump, she accused Trump of calling people from other countries, um, s-holes.

00:04:11.760 Well, no, that's wrong.

00:04:13.720 He called the other countries s-holes and there, but there's a very clear difference between saying that about a country and saying it about a person from that country.

00:04:25.100 So that's just one example of something that she lied about. 0.75

00:04:28.100 And, uh, in fact, I've been told that I don't want to get into the tweets again, but, um, people have been telling me that you'll, you'll see that this is why Trump, this is why Trump tweeted that to begin with.

00:04:38.040 That's why, this is why the tweet was a genius ploy on his part part, because he prompted them to get up at a press conference and, uh, tell a bunch of lies and embarrass themselves.

00:04:47.640 So, you see, it all worked out for him.

00:04:50.820 Well, I'm not sure that giving your enemies a forum to lie about you is really a win for you.

00:04:58.020 Sure, to those of us who are already right wing, we're going to see a press conference with the Spice Girls, and we're going to think that it's embarrassing and everything.

00:05:07.300 But not everybody is a committed right winger.

00:05:10.840 My whole point that I was trying to make yesterday is that, you know, if Trump is focused just on appealing to the most committed and, uh, and sort of, uh, entrenched right wingers in the country, he's going to lose.

00:05:23.780 You need more.

00:05:24.820 There aren't enough of those, uh, to win.

00:05:27.780 And there especially aren't enough of those in places like Pennsylvania and, and, and Michigan, those, those, those states that he really is going to need to win again.

00:05:36.960 All right.

00:05:37.700 Um, so no, I don't think that the press got, even though from my perspective, the press conference was a disaster for that, for them, that doesn't actually mean that it was in the, in the minds of the people that you need to appeal to.

00:05:50.280 For me, as a, as a far left, far right, far left, as I am a far left, well, I criticize Trump.

00:05:57.280 That makes me a far leftist Freudian slip there. 0.82

00:05:59.980 Um, as a far right extremist myself, anytime Cortez or Omar or, or one of the Spice Girls says anything, I, to me, it's embarrassing because these people are, are so absurd.

00:06:15.700 But what I have to realize is that I am seeing things through a lens that not everybody shares.

00:06:25.040 So not everyone is looking at it like from the way that I am.

00:06:29.860 Um, okay.

00:06:31.320 So that was a press conference.

00:06:33.160 There was a moment at, at the press conference where Omar was asked to respond to another Trump tweet, wherein he accused her of being pro Al Qaeda.

00:06:43.400 And, uh, she refused to deny the charge.

00:06:47.080 She, she, she said she wasn't going to dignify it with an answer.

00:06:49.660 So she didn't say, no, I'm not pro Al Qaeda.

00:06:52.060 Come on.

00:06:52.740 She just said she was not going to dignify it with an answer.

00:06:54.880 This again is a moment that conservatives are making a big deal about, um, uh, saying, well, look, she's, she's not denying it.

00:07:01.920 But, and, and I agree that again, from my perspective, that's a very embarrassing moment for her and troubling one for the country.

00:07:10.000 Um, but I don't think it's going to be a problem for Omar.

00:07:13.640 I think she can get away with acting like it's such an absurd question and such an insulting question that she's not going to dignify it with an answer in the same way that if a, if a, if a reporter asked Trump, um, are you pro Nazi or are you pro KKK?

00:07:27.360 I think that he could, and probably should answer, I'm not going to answer that question.

00:07:33.840 I'm not going to dignify that with an answer.

00:07:35.760 So I think that a lot of people are going to see it in, in the sort of the same vein.

00:07:39.600 Um, the Al Qaeda moment, that's going to be a lot of play on Fox news and stuff, but I don't think it's going to make waves outside of right wing circles.

00:07:47.120 And for the record, I think Omar obviously doesn't want to talk about Muslim violence.

00:07:53.900 She doesn't want, she, she wants to minimize it as she did famously with, uh, some people did some things, which is how she described nine 11.

00:08:03.160 And that is morally abominable on her part, but I don't think she's a Muslim fundamentalist herself.

00:08:10.520 She herself is not a, you know, Sharia law loving, uh, Muslim.

00:08:16.500 And I know that because she's a left wing radical. 0.70

00:08:19.540 That's what she is.

00:08:20.360 You can't really be both.

00:08:22.160 Those are the two diametrically opposed viewpoints.

00:08:25.560 So you can't be both.

00:08:26.800 They're only similar in being extreme, but other than that, that's where the similarities end.

00:08:31.540 Oh, and they, and, and, and in both cases, you're going to hate Christians.

00:08:34.700 So, I mean, you have those two things in common, which I do think is why radical left leftists, um, do have some sympathy for Muslim fundamentalists, even though the Muslim fundamentalists would kill them, the radical leftists, but they have some sympathy because both of them, it's kind of enemy on my enemy, uh, sort of thing. 0.59

00:08:54.660 So, uh, they do have that in common, but other than that, the ideologies are worlds apart, literally.

00:09:00.320 Um, but there was something else.

00:09:06.000 I think this, this brings us, remember, uh, Omar is a radical left winger.

00:09:12.340 Same for Cortez, same for Presley, same for Tlaib.

00:09:16.320 And that brings us to the, to the moment, which I think is a much bigger deal.

00:09:20.940 This wasn't at the press conference, but I guess it was walking from it or, um, going to it.

00:09:27.700 Uh, the squad members were, were, I can't even say it without, I, I, the squad.

00:09:35.960 Um, they were asked very directly if they condemn Antifa and especially if they condemned the terrorist attack carried out by an Antifa member at a government facility just this past weekend.

00:09:48.340 Now, Omar can act like questions about Al-Qaeda, uh, are too absurd to answer.

00:09:54.520 She can't do that with this because Antifa is a radical left-wing group. 0.65

00:09:58.620 She is a radical leftist.

00:10:00.200 It is a perfectly valid and important question to ask.

00:10:03.640 Um, and it is something that she obviously needs to condemn. 0.51

00:10:06.980 So let's see how this moment goes.

00:10:09.480 And this, this, by the way, is a journalist who you can find on Twitter at the real keen K-E-E-A-N is how that's spelled.

00:10:16.760 I want to give him a shout out because I think he did great work here.

00:10:19.620 And he's asking a question that of course, no one in the mainstream media is going to ask.

00:10:23.480 So we'll go through.

00:10:24.280 He, he got to, um, I'm not sure if he got to the fourth member, but he asked Omar, AOC, and Presley.

00:10:30.120 If they would condemn Antifa and, um, here, how, here are how those moments went.

00:10:36.400 First, let's, uh, let's watch Omar.

00:10:39.940 Antifa firebombed a facility in Tacoma over the weekend.

00:10:43.220 It's an ice facility.

00:10:44.460 Will you condemn them for that?

00:10:47.200 I mean, can firebombing a concentration camp is kind of a laudable thing. 0.99

00:10:51.240 If it actually is a concentration camp, you must be happy that they did it. 0.99

00:10:55.120 No.

00:10:57.340 Are you pleased?

00:10:58.260 Should more people do it?

00:11:02.600 It's easy to say no.

00:11:07.480 It's really easy to say no.

00:11:10.880 Okay.

00:11:11.300 So you see her kind of smiling and giggling there a little bit.

00:11:14.480 She didn't, she wouldn't, she refused to condemn.

00:11:16.980 Um, now here is AOC.

00:11:19.500 Will you be condemning Antifa?

00:11:22.180 They firebombed an American facility.

00:11:25.580 Will you condemn them?

00:11:28.260 Excuse us, we have to get to the menu.

00:11:32.220 Will you be condemning them?

00:11:35.600 Do you feel like you have some responsibility in the attack with your rhetoric about concentration camps?

00:11:41.280 Are you responsible?

00:11:42.540 Do you feel ashamed?

00:11:43.160 Okay, and here's Presley.

00:11:45.620 Will you tell Americans not to attack violently ice facilities?

00:11:51.440 Just say no.

00:11:53.980 It would be a very simple thing to say, and it would go a long way to tell Americans that you're not sympathetic to Antifa.

00:12:01.800 Thank you.

00:12:02.580 Are you sympathetic to Antifa?

00:12:04.340 Excuse me, sir.

00:12:05.280 I'm trying to walk over here.

00:12:06.360 Why, why is it a hard thing for you to say?

00:12:08.380 Are they your base?

00:12:09.240 Are you worried that they're not going to vote for you?

00:12:11.920 Can you stop?

00:12:13.040 Are you ashamed at all?

00:12:14.220 Trying to get through here.

00:12:14.840 I mean, this, this is a pretty simple answer.

00:12:17.160 Excuse me, sir.

00:12:17.660 So there, there you go.

00:12:19.520 There you go.

00:12:21.780 That's the moment, or those are the moments, I should say, that need to be amplified and shown everywhere.

00:12:30.000 This is what we should be talking about, because this question was not like some kind of cheap gotcha question.

00:12:39.000 It's not an absurd question.

00:12:41.140 This isn't like, excuse me, Congresswoman, do you support cannibalizing the elderly?

00:12:46.080 Excuse me, answer the question.

00:12:48.200 Why won't you answer the question?

00:12:50.180 No, that's not what, this is a legitimate and fair question.

00:12:53.940 Antifa, again, is a left-wing terror group, and they are now staging attacks on ICE facilities, which Cortez has described as concentration camps.

00:13:02.840 So it is obviously important that AOC and the other members of the Spice Girls stand up and condemn this

00:13:11.240 and, and urge their followers not to be a part of this kind of thing.

00:13:18.800 Antifa also was out a few weeks ago, smashing people in the head with crowbars.

00:13:24.720 As I said a few weeks ago, you can, and very pathetically, some liberals have tried to defend Antifa by saying, 0.63

00:13:31.740 well, they haven't killed anybody yet, they haven't, let's compare the death toll, white nationalists versus Antifa. 0.76

00:13:39.240 Yes, they haven't killed anybody, but it's not for lack of trying.

00:13:42.500 They have tried to, they just haven't successfully done it yet. 0.97

00:13:45.280 When you hit somebody in the head with a crowbar, you're trying to kill them. 0.99

00:13:48.320 If they survive, it's only because you are such an effeminate weakling that you can't even, 0.99

00:13:53.900 you could hit somebody with a crowbar and still, all they end up with is a, is a bump in that. 0.92

00:13:58.480 I mean, you know, you give a four-year-old a crowbar and give them a couple swings at someone's head, 0.99

00:14:02.740 they'll probably kill them. 0.99

00:14:03.780 So that just shows you how, how weak and ridiculous these people are, but still, they're, they're dangerous. 0.99

00:14:09.460 Even, even these people with, with, you know, biceps, the size of toothpicks, 0.98

00:14:15.100 biceps, when you give them a crowbar, they're still dangerous.

00:14:17.980 And now that they've graduated to guns and explosives, well, it doesn't matter how weak you are, 0.99

00:14:23.600 when you're shooting a gun at somebody, you could kill them. 0.97

00:14:26.660 So they're still very dangerous and they are terrorists. 0.93

00:14:30.840 Yet, um, you have AOC and the others refusing to condemn.

00:14:36.320 And notice, I think it was AOC who said something like, I'll issue a statement or whatever.

00:14:40.620 Well, she still hasn't issued a statement, but that's the kind of thing.

00:14:45.260 So again, this was not, their response was not a sort of, I'm not going to dignify that.

00:14:50.640 You know, of course I can, I'm not going to even talk about it.

00:14:53.760 That wasn't their response.

00:14:54.860 Their response was, they didn't want to talk about it at all.

00:14:58.860 To say, to refuse to talk about it, say, I'll issue a statement.

00:15:02.340 That's what you do when this is a topic you don't want to go anywhere near.

00:15:05.600 But as the questioner said, this is very easy.

00:15:10.880 I mean, just to condemn terrorism, to condemn shooting at a government facility,

00:15:16.360 to condemn smashing people in the head with crowbars, that should be a very easy thing to do. 1.00

00:15:21.740 It's not a trick question.

00:15:24.340 All you have to say is, I condemn it.

00:15:27.020 Absolutely.

00:15:27.900 This cannot happen.

00:15:28.920 The people who did it should be prosecuted to the full extent of the law.

00:15:32.380 They won't say it.

00:15:33.480 Why won't they say it?

00:15:37.000 Well, the thing is, when you get, when you're silent in a matter like this,

00:15:43.660 you leave everyone else to fill in the blanks because you've given us silence.

00:15:48.900 So we can only assume, we can only speculate.

00:15:52.760 And my speculation, which I think is totally accurate, is that they're silent about it because they agree.

00:15:59.600 Well, there are two reasons.

00:16:00.580 One is, and both are very troubling and disturbing.

00:16:05.620 One is, they know that a large section of their base consists of radical leftists who are either in Antifa or are very sympathetic to Antifa.

00:16:18.640 So they know that.

00:16:20.120 They don't want to upset their base.

00:16:21.060 Also, on a personal level, I believe they totally agree with what Antifa does.

00:16:26.740 They're fine with it. 1.00

00:16:28.400 From their perspective, if you disagree with them, then you're a bigot, you're a racist, you're a homophobe, you're a Nazi, you're a fascist, you're KKK. 1.00

00:16:36.820 You're all of those things rolled up into one. 1.00

00:16:38.700 You don't deserve to live.

00:16:40.340 I mean, you have no right to anything. 1.00

00:16:43.740 You are utter scum and your life is meaningless. 1.00

00:16:47.280 That's the perspective that these people have. 1.00

00:16:49.880 And you would have to have that perspective if you're at all hesitant to stand up and say, listen, I disagree with the people who are being attacked by Antifa, but no, of course you shouldn't smash them in the head with a crowbar. 0.84

00:17:05.560 If you're at all hesitant or reluctant to say that, then that means that you must agree, that you must think that these people deserve to be smashed with crowbars or to be shot at.

00:17:18.080 So this is where we are.

00:17:19.420 It's very, it's, it's, I mean, it's, it's horrifying. 0.99

00:17:22.120 And it may, I mean, just imagine if and when these people control the country, again, if they get somebody in the White House, one of their, one of their own in the White House, given their opinion about us, those who disagree with them, given that they feel that we deserve to be hit in the head with crowbars and to be shot at and to be killed. 0.87

00:17:48.860 And, I mean, you could just imagine what happens when they're in control. 0.97

00:17:56.660 All right.

00:17:58.180 By the way, quick history lesson from Joe Biden.

00:18:02.520 This is, this is history 101 with Joe Biden.

00:18:06.380 Watch this.

00:18:06.840 Look, there has never been a president in American history that has been so openly racist and divisive. 0.85

00:18:18.860 It's this man.

00:18:20.660 Imagine what it says around the world.

00:18:23.660 I mean, I really mean it.

00:18:25.660 The United States is always led by the example of our power.

00:18:28.780 And for this president, after what happened in Charlottesville, continuing to hear, was he wanting to go home to Brooklyn?

00:18:37.440 You know, I mean, go home to Michigan?

00:18:38.980 Go home to your countries. 1.00

00:18:40.880 It's sickening. 1.00

00:18:42.500 It's embarrassing. 1.00

00:18:42.860 The most racist president in American history. 0.98

00:18:54.540 Yeah. 0.86

00:18:54.720 In American history. 0.99

00:18:56.160 He's the most racist president. 0.55

00:18:57.220 But that is just the kind of statement that, and, you know, many of his supporters are going to hear that and say, yep, that's right. 0.97

00:19:05.180 Most racist ever. 0.97

00:19:07.640 I mean, you have to be so ignorant of American history to make a statement like that. 0.98

00:19:12.020 I could point to so many, but just one example. 0.99

00:19:15.640 Abraham Lincoln said that black people are inferior to white people. 0.97

00:19:19.260 He opposed legal and social equality explicitly and said so. 0.99

00:19:22.820 And he proposed sending black people back to Africa. 0.99

00:19:25.600 Okay. 0.96

00:19:25.740 These were all things that he explicitly said.

00:19:28.300 Now, so you're telling me that that's less racist than any tweet that Trump is?

00:19:32.820 Show me a Trump tweet that's more racist than that.

00:19:35.240 And that's just what, I mean, really, any president for the first, you know, 100 plus years of American history was certainly extremely racist. 1.00

00:19:54.020 Meanwhile, as I said yesterday, even though I think Trump's tweet was stupid, I don't think that he's racist. 0.99

00:20:02.760 I think that he just is, he says whatever's going to get him attention, and he, you know, if you criticize him, then he hates your guts. 0.99

00:20:11.960 If you compliment him, he loves you, and that's what he decides.

00:20:16.000 That's how he judges people.

00:20:17.300 It's really got nothing to do with race.

00:20:19.220 All right.

00:20:21.220 So let's move away from politics for a minute.

00:20:23.420 I've been wanting to talk about this.

00:20:25.680 The live-action Lion King.

00:20:27.860 This is a more important subject.

00:20:29.200 The live-action Lion King remake comes out, I guess it comes out this weekend, right?

00:20:34.860 Came out in China last weekend, comes out this weekend here.

00:20:39.180 Of course, it's being referred to as live-action, but it's not really live-action because it's still a movie about talking lions.

00:20:46.320 So this is, these are, they didn't train real lions to talk for the movie and to sing songs.

00:20:51.180 It is a, it is a cartoon still.

00:20:53.740 This is a cartoon remake of a cartoon.

00:20:56.120 It's just a slightly more realistic looking cartoon because, of course, the original Lion King was great, but the one thing holding it back from being really, really great and from you really enjoying it is that the singing warthog didn't look enough like a real warthog, right?

00:21:09.360 Isn't that, when you're watching the, when you watch the original Lion King, isn't that what you always think to yourself?

00:21:14.340 Oh, you know, this Pumbaa character, I mean, if only he looked more realistic, I think I'd really be able to enjoy this more.

00:21:20.920 Now, I'm sure the movie, this movie, the new Lion King is going to make 15 quadrillion movies, dollars at the box office because these movies always do.

00:21:30.300 But the reviews have been actually lukewarm, which is good, I think, but surprising.

00:21:36.060 Good because these lifeless, charmless, pointless, redundant cash grabs should be recognized as such, but kind of, and condemned as such, in my view.

00:21:46.860 But kind of surprising because usually critics don't recognize when something is a redundant, pointless, charmless, lifeless cash grab.

00:21:55.300 But that's why, you know, almost every Marvel superhero movie that comes out gets glowing reviews.

00:22:01.700 They all get like 98% on Rotten Tomatoes.

00:22:04.900 Even though they're all exactly the same, nothing new or interesting has been done with a superhero movie since The Dark Knight, you know, back, whatever it was, 10 years ago.

00:22:14.180 And for a decade, there's just been nothing interesting or new, just the same thing over and over and over again.

00:22:19.940 Critics always love it.

00:22:21.060 In this case, though, it seems like maybe some of them are finally, I mean, this is what they do for a living, right?

00:22:25.020 They criticize movies.

00:22:27.220 They critique movies, I should say, for a living.

00:22:30.380 They should be able to recognize when something is just, when something exists just to make money and for no other reason.

00:22:39.800 Maybe finally they're waking up to it.

00:22:42.160 Now, this Lion King remake is just the latest Disney remake of a Disney film that came out less than three decades previous.

00:22:49.600 There's also been Beauty and the Beast, of course, and Aladdin and Little Mermaid, and they're coming out with Mulan.

00:22:56.960 They're going to have a Mulan live-action remake.

00:22:59.760 They did Cinderella already, I think.

00:23:01.660 They did Alice in Wonderland.

00:23:03.700 They did Dumbo.

00:23:04.500 Some of those are older Disney movies, originally.

00:23:09.460 Now, I call these remakes, and that's what everyone calls them.

00:23:14.140 They're not really remakes.

00:23:15.600 They are reenactments.

00:23:17.720 They are, with a few exceptions, I think Alice in Wonderland, Dumbo, they actually did something different with them.

00:23:22.900 But with the rest of them, these are just reenactments.

00:23:25.980 These are shot-for-shot reenactments, for the most part, mirror copies of the original films.

00:23:31.880 Same character, same lines, same songs, same everything.

00:23:37.000 Just beat for beat.

00:23:38.400 The exact same thing.

00:23:41.180 I mean, the Lion King even hired some of the original voice actors to play the same cartoon again, which makes you wonder, why even do that?

00:23:50.380 Why not just take the original dialogue from the original movie?

00:23:53.200 And dub it into the new movie.

00:23:56.620 How about a remake where it's just literally the same movie again?

00:24:01.260 Nothing has changed at all, not even the animation.

00:24:03.380 You just re-release it and call it a remake, because that's what this is.

00:24:08.420 The original, okay, the original movies, what we consider to be the original movies, those are the remakes.

00:24:18.120 All of these stories, of course, already existed.

00:24:20.960 Most of them are based on old fairy tales.

00:24:22.860 Lion King is kind of a Hamlet and Bambi mashup.

00:24:26.300 Of course, The Beauty and the Beast is an old story.

00:24:28.840 These are remakes in the sense, the 90s versions are remakes, in the sense that they took existing stories, existing ideas, and they kind of did their own thing with them.

00:24:39.640 Oftentimes taking darker, more mature stories and making them into kind of funny, kid-friendly musicals, which is cool.

00:24:46.720 Beauty and the Beast was originally written in the 18th century, I believe.

00:24:50.300 It's an 18th century French fairy tale.

00:24:55.280 The Beauty and the Beast from Disney in the 90s takes this old, dense, mature French tale and turns it into this beautifully animated, whimsical family movie.

00:25:06.480 Now, that's what a remake is because that takes imagination and wit and creativity where you're taking the original thing.

00:25:13.420 It's not a carbon copy.

00:25:14.700 You're just basing your version on this version.

00:25:18.320 You're inspired by it and then you do your own thing with sort of the elements of the story.

00:25:23.620 These new things, though, they just attach themselves to the 90s versions parasitically and try to profit off them without doing anything new or interesting whatsoever.

00:25:34.840 It's just for the profit and no other reason.

00:25:38.040 And that's why I resent it. 0.98

00:25:40.140 I resent even more that people still go and mindlessly consume this garbage that Disney is just shoveling into your mouth because they have no respect for you as a viewer. 1.00

00:25:50.720 I went into a whole thing last week about how I think the boycotts are stupid. 1.00

00:25:54.900 We should be boycotting so much. 0.97

00:25:56.220 Everyone's boycotting everything.

00:25:58.180 Well, so I'm not talking about here about a Disney.

00:26:00.700 I'm not promoting or proposing a Disney boycott.

00:26:03.680 It's more just we should recognize that Disney, they ran out of new ideas decades ago.

00:26:10.020 They're not even trying anymore. 1.00

00:26:11.900 And now they're just shoveling this garbage into your mouth. 0.97

00:26:15.520 Maybe we should stop eating it. 0.80

00:26:16.880 I mean, when they have so little respect for their viewers that they're going to just give you the exact same movie again with the only difference is it's just it's less whimsical and less creative.

00:26:30.880 We shouldn't go out and give them a billion dollars in return.

00:26:33.940 It's just self-respect is what I'm talking about here.

00:26:37.640 Think about what they could have done with this latest round of movies.

00:26:40.580 They could do what they did the first time, not literally exactly what they did the first time, which is what they're doing now, but they could take the stories and just do another variation, another take.

00:26:53.480 I mean, even the original Beauty and the Beast, the real original, the one from the 18th century, even that isn't really original because at its core, right, it's a story about a beautiful person learning to love an ugly person and that love bringing out the beauty in that ugly person.

00:27:12.460 It's a story about the elevating, edifying power of love.

00:27:15.920 G.K. Chesterton, I believe it was, who said that the lesson of Beauty and the Beast is that a thing must be loved in order to be lovable.

00:27:22.660 The point is that love lifts us up, brings us up.

00:27:26.480 Okay, so that's what the Beauty and the Beast, the story, is about.

00:27:30.980 The latest, and there's hundreds of stories out there that all center around that truth, and many of the stories are great, whether it's a book or a movie.

00:27:40.040 I mean, you can tell that basic story a million times in a million different ways, and it could be compelling every single time.

00:27:47.580 It's just that you can't tell in exactly the same way that it's already been told.

00:27:51.240 You should do your own thing, because there are a million different ways of telling that basic truth.

00:27:56.200 The latest Beauty and the Beast could have told that story, could have focused on that truth in a different way.

00:28:03.000 I just said truth.

00:28:04.460 I did.

00:28:05.300 I can't get around it.

00:28:06.540 Could have focused on that truth in a different way, telling a different but still fun and memorable and family-friendly story.

00:28:13.020 That would be interesting.

00:28:14.300 That would be worthwhile.

00:28:15.080 But instead, they just took the 90s version and just did the exact same thing.

00:28:19.560 They're doing basically cover versions of the 90s versions, which, in fact, not even cover versions.

00:28:25.360 Because, I mean, the great cover songs.

00:28:27.940 You think about Jeff Buckley's Hallelujah or Janis Joplin's Me and Bobby McGee.

00:28:31.680 Any of the great cover versions, cover songs, what they do is they're always distinct from the original.

00:28:39.300 They take the original song.

00:28:40.920 They do the original song.

00:28:41.740 But they bring something different out of it.

00:28:44.040 You think about Johnny Cash's cover of Trent Reznor's Hurt.

00:28:47.880 It's like a totally—it sounds like it's Johnny Cash's song.

00:28:50.380 It sounds like it's a song that he wrote about himself.

00:28:52.160 He makes it his own, as they say in the musical singing shows, and he just does his own thing.

00:28:59.600 And it becomes a story about him, about this old man at the end of his life who's thinking back on his regrets and so on.

00:29:09.460 That's what a good cover song is.

00:29:13.320 These new Disney movies are not good cover songs.

00:29:16.220 They are more like karaoke cover songs.

00:29:18.280 They are just—it's exactly the same as the original, but just worse.

00:29:22.160 Without the spontaneity, without the surprise, without the talent, without the depth, without anything.

00:29:27.800 Just a dumbed-down, blander version of what we already saw.

00:29:35.020 And so I'm just saying we should stop dignifying this stuff with our money.

00:29:44.120 Let me get—I'll move on a second.

00:29:46.800 But one—so I—over the weekend with my kids, I watched—just because—I mean, I feel like I can watch a preview and I can read a description of a movie.

00:30:00.760 And nine times out of ten, I already know if it's good or not.

00:30:03.740 I don't actually need to watch it.

00:30:04.940 I can just already tell.

00:30:06.480 So I do that with these Disney movies.

00:30:08.100 I don't need to go and watch the new Aladdin. 0.99

00:30:10.260 I can tell it's garbage. 0.99

00:30:11.580 There's no chance it's not garbage. 0.99

00:30:13.180 I already know that I don't need to watch it. 0.91

00:30:15.120 But I said, yeah, maybe I should watch one of these just so I can say that I did so I can be fair about it.

00:30:20.460 So I—with my kids, I watched the latest Beauty and the Beast, the live-action Beauty and the Beast, which I hadn't seen before.

00:30:25.800 Of course, like anyone else, I—you know, I grew up with the original Beauty and the—the original in the 90s.

00:30:31.440 I liked it as a kid, of course.

00:30:34.800 And so I watched it, and it was exactly what I thought.

00:30:37.480 It was just—it was just—like, the whole time I'm thinking, why are we watching this?

00:30:41.220 We could just put the cartoon on it.

00:30:42.180 It's so much better.

00:30:43.360 It's just—this is—what's the point of this other than to make money?

00:30:46.960 I understand that, but what's the point of me watching it?

00:30:49.720 I'm not profiting off of it.

00:30:50.880 And there was one—there's one scene in the—in the new Beauty and the Beast, because there are a few different.

00:30:59.820 They do make a few changes, but the changes that they make in these live-action things, the changes are usually just—it's not creative changes.

00:31:08.300 It's not that they're improving or they're doing their own thing.

00:31:10.380 It's just that they have to—they have to do certain things to compensate for the fact that it's not a cartoon anymore.

00:31:15.140 So there's one scene that I think perfectly encapsulates the problem with these live-action reenactments.

00:31:23.200 There's a scene in the 90s Beauty and the Beast where Gaston goes to propose to Belle, right, in the beginning of the movie.

00:31:31.040 He goes in.

00:31:31.440 He goes to her house, barges in, proposes in his way.

00:31:35.280 She shoots him down.

00:31:37.180 She was pretty rude about it, frankly. 0.91

00:31:38.400 And then she basically shoves him out the door, and he falls into a big puddle of mud, and then somehow there's a pig that ends up on top of his head.

00:31:46.560 And he brought his little henchman along with him, whatever his name is, and also a marching band, because he expected he would go in, propose.

00:31:52.960 She would say, yes, he'd come out.

00:31:54.060 The marching band would play and celebrate, and they'd get married that day.

00:31:57.120 Doesn't go that way. 0.99

00:31:57.820 He ends up in the mud, pig on the head. 0.99

00:31:59.300 Okay. 0.97

00:31:59.940 Now, I've watched that movie with my kids.

00:32:01.960 It gets a laugh every time from the kids.

00:32:03.240 It's a funny cartoonish, because it's a cartoon, wacky, silly kind of scene.

00:32:08.400 Well, I guess in the live-action version, they figured they can't really do that, because it's with real people. 0.98

00:32:13.340 It would just look too ridiculous to have him in the mud with a pig on his head, a real pig. 0.99

00:32:18.400 It wouldn't look right. 0.99

00:32:19.360 So instead, it's the same basic scene, but instead it's just he goes, he proposes, she says no, and then he just walks blandly away.

00:32:26.840 And as he's walking away, he steps in a puddle of mud briefly and kind of shakes it off his shoe and keeps walking.

00:32:33.040 That's the change.

00:32:33.980 So that's the create.

00:32:35.160 That's the, oh, that's worth a billion dollars, right?

00:32:38.240 That change. 0.62

00:32:40.600 You take this fun, silly scene, and you turn it into something boring.

00:32:45.440 Those are the only changes made for these movies.

00:32:49.060 And so, again, I believe that we should, not a boycott.

00:32:53.940 This is a call for self-respect. 0.97

00:32:55.800 And we're just saying to Disney, we're not going to keep watching this garbage. 0.97

00:33:00.480 Give us something new, okay? 0.97

00:33:01.780 We have standards.

00:33:02.800 We're not just going to, we need our, you know, movies are expensive.

00:33:07.420 We got other things we could spend our money on.

00:33:08.900 I'm not just going to hand over 40 bucks to you so you can just give me that.

00:33:13.440 You got to give me something better.

00:33:14.620 All right, let's move on to emails.

00:33:17.740 MattWallShow at gmail.com.

00:33:19.340 MattWallShow at gmail.com.

00:33:21.000 This is from Andy says, I think it's funny how you think that Trump is more racist than Democrats.

00:33:29.820 I won't bother describing your fallacy.

00:33:32.420 Sorry you had no, you had to experience such humiliation today.

00:33:35.560 Pick up a book every once in a while.

00:33:37.180 The Democrats will never not own racism in America.

00:33:40.660 You know history proves you wrong.

00:33:42.280 Don't bother replying, and please don't humiliate yourself on air again.

00:33:45.440 You'll only regret it.

00:33:46.340 Please don't reply for your own sake.

00:33:51.680 Yes, because that's, I spoke probably for 30 minutes on this, going into great detail about

00:33:59.380 my perspective on this, trying to explain my point in probably too much detail, and that's

00:34:08.320 what Andy, that's what Detective Andy, that's what insightful Andy takes away, is that I said 0.78

00:34:13.020 that Trump is more racist than the Democrats.

00:34:14.760 I mean, that's what, that's what he takes from this.

00:34:17.240 I, I just, people who, there's a, and it's, there's a thing these days with people that

00:34:25.520 I, I just, I can't wrap my head around.

00:34:28.560 I don't get it.

00:34:30.960 When, when, when you can convey your point very clearly, you can even repeat your point,

00:34:38.240 as I tend to do 10 or 15 times, just going back to it.

00:34:41.580 Here's my point.

00:34:42.140 Here's my point.

00:34:42.580 And someone can listen to that and still miss the point.

00:34:47.400 I, how is it possible?

00:34:50.720 Especially for me, I, I repeat myself so much.

00:34:56.020 Um, how could you possibly miss my point? 0.57

00:34:58.380 I'm like hitting you over the head with it. 0.97

00:35:01.440 Like I'm an Antifa member with a crowbar. 1.00

00:35:03.300 I'm hitting it.

00:35:03.700 Here's my point.

00:35:04.640 Are you listening to me?

00:35:05.920 And still people like Andy's like, well, I don't understand your point.

00:35:09.300 Oh, so you think Trump is racist.

00:35:11.620 I said exactly the opposite, Andy.

00:35:13.740 Andy.

00:35:16.640 Okay.

00:35:17.400 Um, I mean, I literally said, I, I, there was like a seven minute digression yesterday where

00:35:24.140 I said, no, I don't think Trump's racist.

00:35:25.720 And then I explained why I don't think he's racist.

00:35:28.120 And Andy hears that.

00:35:29.340 So you think Trump is racist? 0.97

00:35:30.960 Good Lord, Andy, for your sake, I'm going to assume that you are raging alcoholic and

00:35:41.260 you were completely drunk, um, when this show aired yesterday.

00:35:45.320 And that's why you, you missed the point.

00:35:48.120 I'm for your sake, I'm going to, I'm going to see the best in you and assume that's what

00:35:51.840 happened.

00:35:53.140 This is from Phil says, uh, I agreed with you on your podcast yesterday until I talked

00:35:57.440 with a number of my Republican friends.

00:35:58.780 They all feel Trump's weekend tweets were, were intentional and brilliant.

00:36:02.260 He forced Pelosi to stand with the squad and move to the radical left.

00:36:05.960 The only, that only benefits the Republicans.

00:36:08.040 Well, Phil, um, yes, I'm sure your Republican friends did say that, but the problem again

00:36:12.880 is it's not your Republican friends that I think are the issue here.

00:36:16.920 Republicans are going to committed.

00:36:19.080 Republicans are most of the time going to side with Trump, going to see the best in everything

00:36:23.540 he does and says, and, um, uh, you know, are, are, are going to try to spin it in the

00:36:28.120 most positive way.

00:36:28.760 That's what Republicans are going to do fine.

00:36:30.420 Right.

00:36:30.720 But not, not everyone's a Republican.

00:36:33.700 Um, and there aren't enough committed, active Republicans to get you reelected.

00:36:40.960 You're going to need to appeal to other people as well.

00:36:44.160 Now, of course, far left Democrats, you're not going to get them.

00:36:46.900 There's no point in even trying, not saying that.

00:36:48.740 I'm just saying, you also need to be able to appeal to people who are not necessarily

00:36:52.840 totally committed to the right wing agenda.

00:36:56.460 Right.

00:36:57.720 Um, and so the opinion of people who are committed to that agenda isn't really relevant to this

00:37:03.420 discussion because of course we already know what they're going to say about a Trump thing.

00:37:06.920 I also think, look, he forced Pelosi to stand, not, he, he unified them.

00:37:12.500 Um, it's not that they're all standing around Ilhan Omar.

00:37:15.500 It's not the point.

00:37:16.040 They're all, they're, they're all just standing around together talking about how racist Trump 0.95

00:37:20.220 is. 0.79

00:37:20.820 That's the unity.

00:37:22.360 And I, I just, I, I don't see how that benefits him.

00:37:25.240 I, it's just, it's at best you could say he won't be harmed by it.

00:37:30.000 Maybe he won't, but it's, it's not a benefit.

00:37:32.520 It's, that's not better than what was happening last week when they were all fighting with each

00:37:36.160 other.

00:37:36.360 That was better.

00:37:38.980 Um, okay.

00:37:40.500 From, uh, from anonymous, I enjoyed your show until yesterday.

00:37:44.680 Now I can't listen anymore.

00:37:45.840 You've lost a fan and follower.

00:37:47.420 You've revealed yourself to be an un-American liberal in disguise. 0.99

00:37:50.640 F off.

00:37:53.000 Again, this is another, another very, uh, intuitive person who could listen to all that.

00:37:59.660 Yeah.

00:37:59.840 I mean, of course, because that's, everyone knows it's not even look anonymous.

00:38:04.000 It's not even a disguise.

00:38:05.360 I mean, everyone knows that I am a far left liberal.

00:38:08.760 It's, I, I, I think I'm well known for that.

00:38:11.140 I don't hide it.

00:38:11.900 I don't disguise it.

00:38:13.980 It's just, it's, I'm, I think I'm, I think if I'm known for anything, I have to say, I

00:38:18.160 think I'm known for being a liberal, which is why I, my inbox all the time is filled with

00:38:23.420 glowing reviews from liberals.

00:38:27.180 It's constantly, they're always emailing me to tell me what a great guy I am.

00:38:30.940 And Hey, they wish good fortune and health on, on myself and my family.

00:38:33.820 It's all the time because I am such a liberal.

00:38:36.240 So great, great point.

00:38:37.820 And yes, um, uh, if you criticize a politician, then you're un-American.

00:38:42.860 That's a great perspective.

00:38:44.400 You know, it's not like that perspective is itself disgustingly un-American.

00:38:48.020 No, no, no.

00:38:48.300 You're right.

00:38:48.760 I mean, because that's, it's, it's loving America is not about loving America.

00:38:52.060 It's just about loving Trump, right?

00:38:53.380 Trump is America.

00:38:54.460 Trump is God.

00:38:55.240 Trump, Trump is everything.

00:38:56.400 Trump is life. 0.81

00:38:58.080 And, uh, if you criticize him even a little bit, then you're un-American, you're terrible, 1.00

00:39:01.740 you're awful, F off. 1.00

00:39:02.620 I'm never going to listen to you. 0.99

00:39:03.480 That's a great, great, I mean, it, let me tell you something.

00:39:06.340 You're not at all, um, in, in, in, in embarrassing, sycophantic cultist when you have that perspective.

00:39:14.600 Not at all.

00:39:17.180 This is from Brittany says, hello, Matt.

00:39:19.380 Uh, I desperately need advice about my mother-in-law.

00:39:23.140 She is kindhearted, giving, but completely lacking a sense of self-awareness.

00:39:27.860 Aren't they all?

00:39:28.940 And doesn't respect boundaries.

00:39:32.020 Um, it's a strange combination.

00:39:33.880 My husband and I have gotten by and dealt with her weird and sometimes manipulative antics, 0.68

00:39:38.100 but now having two young children complicates it.

00:39:40.660 The most recent issue, we let my oldest three, three years old, spend the night with her this

00:39:44.740 weekend and go to church with her on Sunday.

00:39:46.100 I'm admittedly a bit of a control freak when it comes to my kids.

00:39:49.980 I prefer the term high standards and my mother-in-law has a habit of never listening to anything 0.74

00:39:54.380 we tell her.

00:39:54.980 So I had a very hard time allowing this.

00:39:57.780 She lets my three-year-old run the show.

00:39:59.720 Uh, she also gets an idea in her head and will call us 15 times to say we need to change

00:40:03.320 how we do things.

00:40:04.100 Um, I wrote out very specific notes for her, most of them pertaining to the digestive issues

00:40:09.440 my daughter has.

00:40:10.300 I told her about bedtime, nap time the next day, told her we don't want, we don't mind

00:40:13.800 if she goes to church with them, but we don't want her to sit in the sanctuary, uh, not go

00:40:18.320 to the nursery.

00:40:18.860 My daughter stays with us at our church, so she's perfectly capable of that.

00:40:23.200 Uh, or we, we want her to sit in the sanctuary, not go to the nursery. 1.00

00:40:26.580 Okay.

00:40:27.860 Uh, I'm sure you're smart enough to see where this story is going.

00:40:30.500 She did literally the opposite of everything we said. 0.90

00:40:32.880 I mean, every single thing.

00:40:34.220 She went to bed at midnight.

00:40:35.480 She ate all of the foods that I told her, uh, mess up her stomach. 1.00

00:40:38.620 She went to the nursery at church.

00:40:40.100 She didn't take a nap.

00:40:41.040 I was livid.

00:40:41.960 I'm looking for advice on how to deal with this.

00:40:43.580 I want to confront her right then and there, but decided it was wisest not to my, but my

00:40:48.640 husband and I have decided the next time she asked to babysit or have a sleepover, we

00:40:52.720 will tell her no, because we can't trust you to respect our wishes.

00:40:55.640 I don't want to keep my kids away from their grandparents, but I also know I can't trust them

00:40:59.460 to follow our rules.

00:41:01.180 There's so much more too, but I can't tell you all of the woes in an email.

00:41:05.280 Please give me some advice on how in the world I should deal with this crazy lady. 1.00

00:41:09.120 That is my mother-in-law. 0.66

00:41:10.380 Well, Brittany, um, you're, you probably won't like, probably won't like my answer.

00:41:16.900 And, uh, let's begin with my answer is basically irrelevant because I'm, I'm no more of an expert

00:41:22.020 on how to deal with mother-in-laws than you are. 0.99

00:41:23.580 So there's no reason why, whatever I have to say, you should trust more than your own

00:41:27.760 intuition.

00:41:28.420 But since you asked for it, uh, I'm always eager to give my opinion on, on, uh, everything.

00:41:35.580 So I, I tend to think, um, and this is something, you know, it comes up with us.

00:41:42.980 I think it comes up with everybody, right?

00:41:44.640 I tend to think that this is just what grandparents do.

00:41:49.080 It's just what they do.

00:41:50.540 They let the kids stay up.

00:41:52.320 They give them junk food.

00:41:53.460 They, you know, whatever they, they let them watch, but it's just, this is what, this is

00:41:57.520 the grandparent thing.

00:41:58.720 It's sort of, there's no way around it.

00:42:00.480 You can't avoid it.

00:42:02.740 And, um, so in, in my situation, our family, I tend to be, my wife is a little bit more like 0.91

00:42:10.320 you.

00:42:10.560 She's, she's less relaxed about it.

00:42:12.980 And she, you know, she feels like, look, this is what we want for our kids or our kids.

00:42:16.540 You should follow our rules.

00:42:18.340 I tend to say, yeah, we're, we're, we're giving them the grandparents.

00:42:21.940 They're watching them.

00:42:23.920 Um, so maybe we should, as long as here's, here's my thing, as long as it's something

00:42:31.340 truly dangerous is not happening.

00:42:32.920 Okay.

00:42:33.200 Obviously, if your mother-in-law is putting your kids in danger in some way, then that's

00:42:39.440 a problem and you need to talk about it.

00:42:41.060 And you probably shouldn't let her watch the kids anymore.

00:42:43.920 But if she's just being the grandmother, spoiling the kids, letting them stay up and

00:42:48.560 all that.

00:42:48.900 I mean, I did that with my, when I, that's why I loved visiting my grandmother when I was

00:42:52.980 a kid.

00:42:53.780 Uh, it's because, yeah, she would let us stay up as long as we wanted.

00:42:56.440 We could watch whatever we wanted on TV.

00:42:57.740 She would just, she would just shove sweets and junk food in our mouths constantly. 1.00

00:43:02.960 And it was great.

00:43:04.860 And so I think that that's, it's almost like, I feel like I'd be, we'd be depriving our kids

00:43:10.340 if we don't allow them to have that relationship with their grandparents when that's what grandparents

00:43:15.000 are supposed to do.

00:43:16.060 It's not really a big deal.

00:43:17.860 Uh, it's not like she's undoing everything you've done.

00:43:21.000 They said, send them to the nursery or whatever. 0.93

00:43:22.940 Well, all the work you've done to make sure the kids can sit in church, it's not undone

00:43:27.280 by that one experience.

00:43:28.940 So that would be my, I tend to be more relaxed about it.

00:43:31.420 And I would say, yeah, you're, yes, you have your rules, but also at the same time, when

00:43:38.340 you're entrusting your kids to someone else, really it's, it's their rules.

00:43:43.540 They're the ones watching your kid.

00:43:44.980 You're not there.

00:43:45.700 So in, in, in, in some ways, their rules are going to supersede your own because they

00:43:54.340 are the ones watching them.

00:43:57.700 Um, you know, that's, that's, it's like if, if you send your kid to daycare and, uh, the

00:44:08.080 kid might say, yeah, well at home, my mommy lets me do this and that.

00:44:11.400 Well, the daycare provider is going to say, okay, well, you're not at home though.

00:44:14.160 And, uh, and I'm in charge right now.

00:44:16.180 And in, in, in, in our situation, we don't do that.

00:44:21.060 And I think as parents, when we entrust our kids to someone else, our job is to say to

00:44:26.020 our kids, look, they're the mommy and daddy for right now, as far as you're concerned,

00:44:30.640 listen to them, their rules go.

00:44:33.280 Of course there are in extreme circumstances, you might have to step in and your rules are

00:44:38.920 going to supersede again, if someone is putting being put in danger, but I don't think you

00:44:43.620 can give your kids to someone else and then expect that everything is going to happen

00:44:48.940 exactly as you do it in your own home.

00:44:52.960 And the last thing I'll say is, uh, I tend, uh, my, my kids have their grandparents on,

00:45:00.800 on both sides of the family, fortunately that are all alive still.

00:45:04.340 And, um, they're all very helpful.

00:45:06.640 They watch the kids all the time and I tend to be very grateful for that.

00:45:11.060 And so I also think that sometimes there's a lack of gratitude when we try to be too controlling

00:45:15.120 about how our kids are cared for when grandparents are stepping in to help us out.

00:45:21.580 Sometimes it comes off as a lack of gratitude.

00:45:23.540 We should be grateful.

00:45:25.620 You know, the fact is your mother-in-law was taking the kid for a night so that you could

00:45:29.040 go out with your husband, right?

00:45:30.080 And have a date night, do whatever you wanted to do.

00:45:31.720 So I think your first reaction should be, well, I'm really grateful that she didn't

00:45:35.240 have to watch them.

00:45:37.920 It's not, it's not like you're doing her a favor by letting her watch the kids.

00:45:41.520 She's, you know, she does want to see the kid, but really she's doing you a favor first

00:45:44.980 and foremost.

00:45:47.240 All right.

00:45:48.000 Um, let's do one, one more.

00:45:53.080 This is from Henry says, hi, Matt.

00:45:54.860 First of all, thank you for being a voice of reason on the ocean of insanity that we live

00:45:58.200 in today.

00:45:59.320 Um, your show is the best daily wire podcast by far.

00:46:03.160 And I agree with most of what you say, except that God exists.

00:46:06.660 That's quite a, it's quite a stipulation.

00:46:09.340 So I'd like to know what are your top three or more books that you would recommend an atheist

00:46:14.600 read except for the Bible greetings from Brazil.

00:46:18.100 Uh, Henry, thanks so much for listening to the show.

00:46:20.540 And I appreciate that you listened, even though we differ on this obviously fundamental question.

00:46:25.600 Um, so, uh, you, you didn't specify, I assume you mean what are books I recommend that you

00:46:32.920 read that will help you get an understanding of my belief system and why I think God exists.

00:46:38.500 I assume that's what you mean, not just books in general, but specifically spiritual or theological

00:46:42.700 books.

00:46:43.380 Okay.

00:46:43.780 So as far as that goes, I would, uh, so, okay, three, I would recommend, uh, well, first I

00:46:49.540 would recommend if you want to understand Christian theology, what we actually believe at a basic

00:46:54.580 level, then I think mere Christianity is a good place to start now. 0.98

00:46:59.680 Mere Christianity by C.S.

00:47:01.240 Lewis, of course, is, um, it's a very simple book.

00:47:05.780 And so you're not going into complex theological concepts.

00:47:09.540 I'll get to that in a minute, but I think this is a good entry point just to give you,

00:47:15.220 as I said, a basic understanding of what most Christians believe across all the denominations

00:47:20.680 and why they believe it.

00:47:23.340 So that would be my first recommendation.

00:47:25.700 Then I would recommend something by Dostoevsky.

00:47:27.780 I, I, I, I'll go with crime and punishment.

00:47:30.420 I think is his most, um, his, his easiest one to read is most accessible, which isn't to

00:47:37.760 me.

00:47:37.980 And when I say easy read, I just mean that it kind of moves quicker.

00:47:41.080 And, uh, and it's just, it, it, it's, it's, it's his closest thing to a real page turner

00:47:46.980 that you just can't put down.

00:47:48.100 His other books are great, but they have denser parts that are harder to get through sometimes.

00:47:53.260 So I would recommend crime and punishment that I think, although it's a novel, it's, it's,

00:47:58.540 it's not an explicitly theological or apologetic work.

00:48:01.980 Uh, it still is giving you a lot of Christian philosophy, uh, is going to give you a real insight

00:48:08.260 into that.

00:48:09.540 So I'd recommend crime and punishment.

00:48:10.980 And then finally, if you're looking to really be intellectually challenged and you want something,

00:48:15.240 I don't know where you're at, you know, in terms of, uh, uh, you know, uh, your, what

00:48:20.620 kind of books you normally read, but if you're looking for something that's a little bit more

00:48:23.680 scholarly and, and, and denser, um, that's going to really get into the weeds of Christian 1.00

00:48:30.920 theology, then I would recommend, um, something by Alvin Plantinga and, uh, and Richard

00:48:38.120 and, or Richard Swinburne and really anything.

00:48:40.780 I just Google those two names, pick anything and read one of them.

00:48:46.260 So that's what I would, I would say start there.

00:48:49.400 And then, uh, once you've done that, come back.

00:48:51.720 If you're still interested, I could give you three more books, three.

00:48:55.460 And you know what?

00:48:56.220 Here's what I'll say too, because people ask me for reading recommendations all the time

00:49:00.260 and I'm always happy to give them.

00:49:01.300 If you want to give me three books of your own, not of your own that you wrote, but three

00:49:07.300 books as an atheist that you think are very compelling and, and, and make a great argument.

00:49:12.700 Um, and that will give me an insight into your point of view, then feel free to offer those

00:49:18.100 and I will, I'll read them.

00:49:20.320 Okay.

00:49:20.840 We'll leave it there.

00:49:21.680 Thanks everybody for watching.

00:49:22.800 Thanks for listening.

00:49:23.600 Godspeed.

00:49:31.300 Today on the Ben Shapiro show, president Trump at war with the squad.

00:49:41.480 That's today on the Ben Shapiro show.

The Matt Walsh Show - July 16, 2019

Ep. 296 - Why 'The Squad' Refuses To Condemn Antifa

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