Ep. 314 - Red Flags In The Red Flag Law The Matt Walsh Show
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Summary
Republicans and Democrats are both now pushing for gun control. They want something called a Red Flag Law and is it a good idea? Also, Joe Biden embarrasses himself and the left seeks vengeance. Talk about all that today and more on the Matt Warsh show.
Transcript
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Today on the Matt Wall Show, Republicans and Democrats are both now pushing for gun control.
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They want something called a red flag law. But what is a red flag law? And is it a good idea?
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We'll discuss that. Also, Joe Biden embarrasses himself and the left seeks vengeance.
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Talk about all that today and more on the Matt Wall Show.
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So I really I love this quote from Joe Biden. He said at a rally yesterday, he said,
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we choose truth over facts. And the crowd cheered. Of course, we choose truth over facts,
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truth over facts. I'm not sure I quite understand the distinction. I mean, is there such a thing as
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a truth that isn't a fact or a fact that isn't a truth? Is that can you really separate the two?
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It kind of reminds me of some great advice I got from my nutritionist once. He said,
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I'll never forget. He said he said he said, you got to make sure you drink water, not H2O water,
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not H2O. So really, really great, great insight there from both him and Joe Biden. But today,
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today on the show, we're going to go in a different direction. What we're going to do
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is we're going to choose facts over truth. So I'm going to switch things up a little bit
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just for a change of pace. So today, truth. No, I don't need it. Facts, though. We're doing truth
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instead of facts and or facts instead of truth. I'm getting confused already. And we'll start with
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a discussion about these red flag laws that people have been talking about. I'm sure you've heard
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about. So I want to discuss red flag laws, a gun control measure that is being supported by
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Republicans, including President Trump, who's pushing it, Democrats. So there is a bipartisan
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agreement somehow over gun control. And I guess maybe I'm different from a lot of people, but
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most people say, well, we need bipartisanship. When bipartisan agreements, that's when I get
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really nervous. It's bad enough when one party or the other suggests something, when they both like
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it. Well, then to me, it seems like, OK, that's just doubly bad if they both like it. So we'll talk
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about the red flag laws and gun control. But first, before we get into any of that, let's hear from
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the last weight loss program you're ever going to need. Okay, so gun control. You know, it looks like
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we may be headed into 2020 with Trump having given us no wall, no Planned Parenthood defunding,
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no Obamacare defunding, no, you know, fiscal responsibility, no reduction to the debt and
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deficit, but gun control. Amazing. Well, not really amazing. It's more like sort of exactly what I
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expected, to be honest. But in any case, the gun control measures being touted by Trump and other
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Republicans and Democrats as well, measures that may actually pass this time, those measures right
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now seem to be stronger background checks and red flag laws. As for the stronger background checks,
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I'm not going to focus on that today. I will say that there's no indication that a background check
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law would have done anything to stop the mass shootings this weekend or any other shooting that
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I can think of. So I think it's a political measure with no real positive impact that I can
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tell. Even CNN admitted that background checks, more background checks, would not have stopped the
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shootings this weekend. So even they're admitting that. I mean, that tells you what you need to know.
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I want to focus instead on this red flag law thing. Josh Hammer on the Daily Wire has an excellent
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piece about the red flag laws that I would recommend you go and read. I could just read it to you because
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I agree 100% with what he has to say. I won't read it because I probably should put a little more
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effort into this stupid show. So let me kind of summarize. A so-called red flag law would allow
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someone, a spouse, parent, sibling, police officer possibly, depending on how the law is written,
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to petition the court to take gun rights away from someone who might be contemplating murder or
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suicide. The idea, of course, is to get the gun away from the disturbed person before the fuse is
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lit, before they do whatever awful thing they might do. There are already laws like this in place in,
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I don't know, I think a dozen states or more, maybe more than a dozen states. The Washington Post
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ran an article yesterday saying that the results have been mixed in those other states.
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But a red flag law passed by Congress would, of course, be on the federal level, so this would
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be a national and nationwide thing. I understand the idea behind these laws. In and of itself,
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it's not a crazy idea by any means. If you live with someone and you know they're troubled,
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you know they're disturbed, you know that they might be violent, this would enable you to do
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something about it. And that's what everyone is saying. We need to do something, do something. Okay,
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well, then you could do something. In fact, it appears, in fairness, I should mention that the
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El Paso shooter's mother, a couple of weeks before the shooting, called the police and she was
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concerned about her son and the fact that he had all these guns. But she was told that, hey, he hasn't
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committed a crime and he owns the guns legally, we can't do anything. And that was it. Would a red
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flag law have prevented the El Paso shooting then? We don't know. Maybe, it might have, but we don't
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know. Yet there's an obvious problem here. And it actually has less to do with the Second Amendment
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than other amendments, like the Fifth. So though I understand the thought process behind the red flag
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law concept, I'm very, very wary of it because it seems to throw due process out the window. You would be
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depriving someone of their constitutional rights without first charging them with a crime. That would
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render some, that would mean that they are guilty until proven innocent. They're accused of being
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troubled and potentially violent. And they have to, what, prove that they, it's not even like they're
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proving a negative, like they're proving they didn't do something, which is already bad enough.
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Because what it's guaranteed in the Constitution is that you are innocent until proven guilty. You
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don't have to prove you didn't do a thing. The government has to prove you did do it.
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But in this case, you would have to prove that you weren't going to, in the future,
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potentially do something. You have to, so it's, this is like a negative of a negative. I mean,
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it would be impossible to do. We're then talking about the Second, Fifth, and Sixth Amendments
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would all be tossed out the window. And that seems like a problem to me.
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And oh wait, the Fourth Amendment too, because the Fourth Amendment protects against unlawful
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search in Caesar. So Second, Fourth, Fifth, and Sixth. Why not toss the Third out the window too?
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You know, what is that? The quartering of soldiers? We'll start doing that as well while we're at it.
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I mean, we might as well, we might as well get all of the, all of the top six.
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Now look, again, I understand the idea, but the law matters. And these amendments are law.
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We can't erase them because we're scared. I don't see how, if this does not constitute an
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infringement on innocent until proven guilty, due process, you know, protections against unlawful
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searches and seizures and in violation of the Second Amendment. If this does not constitute
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a violation of all of those principles and laws, then I don't know what would.
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And the law matters. Again, we cannot erase the law or undermine the law or put it to the side,
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put it on hold because we're scared. Now people say, oh, so we're going to give potential mass
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shooters, the benefit of the law, the benefit of the Constitution. Well, yes, we do.
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That's kind of the whole point. It reminds me of a great scene in Man for All Seasons that I think
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I've mentioned before. That whole, well, it's a play, then film. The film, especially what I'm thinking
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of, a classic about Thomas More. And the whole story is painfully relevant in many ways to our
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situation today. But this scene in particular has been on my mind a lot. I'll play it for you. Watch,
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And go he should if he were the devil himself until he broke the law.
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Yes, what would you do? Cut a great road through the law to get after the devil?
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Yes. I'd cut down every law in England to do that.
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Oh? And when the last law was down and the devil turned round on you, where would you
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hide, Roper? The law's all being flat. This country is planted thick with laws from coast
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to coast. Man's laws, not God's. And if you cut them down, and you're just the man to do
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it, do you really think you could stand upright in the winds that would blow then? Yes. I'd
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give the devil benefit of law for my own safety's sake.
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Roper's saying, hey, he's a bad guy. Who cares about the law? We got to do what we got
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to do. We got to go after this guy, go after the bad guys. Who cares about the law? And
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Thomas Moore is explaining, if you cut down the laws to go after the bad guy, you're left
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exposed. You're left with nothing there to protect you, to protect your liberty. And then
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what do you do when the wind starts blowing? Now, as with many unconstitutional ideas, if
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this was enacted in a really limited way and never went beyond those limits and was appropriately
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used all the time and was never abused and was never exploited in general, then in that
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case, the potential negative impact of the law, even if it is unconstitutional, would
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be negligible. I mean, the government could pass unconstitutional laws all the time if we
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had a guarantee that it would never be exploited, no one would ever take advantage of it, there
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would never be any abuses. Well, but in that case, we don't even really need any laws. Forget
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about all the laws. If we can guarantee that everyone's going to be great, it doesn't matter.
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But of course, we can't guarantee that. In fact, we can guarantee it in the other way. It
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will be abused. It will be used inappropriately. That isn't a guess. It is a guarantee. We know
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that's how it works. It's human nature. It's certainly the nature of the government.
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If somebody can just call up a judge and say, yeah, I think this person might be dangerous.
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Go take away his rights just in case. Just in case, take away his rights. The potential
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for ideologically based abuse, for abuse from personal grudges, political abuse, all of that,
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the potential is enormous. Of course it is. Here's my thing. If someone is actually plotting
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a shooting, if they are actively plotting to commit a crime, well, then that itself is
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a crime. It is illegal to plan a mass shooting. Now, if you're just planning it in your head
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and you haven't taken any active, tangible steps, then obviously there's no way to penalize it. There's
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no way to prove it because it's in your head. But if someone is taking active steps, then it's a crime.
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The shooter in, I think it was the Dayton shooter, had a hit list in high school of people he wanted
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to kill. Now, I'm not familiar with all the laws in Ohio, but I'm pretty sure it's illegal to have
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hit lists. That's illegal. That doesn't go under free speech. You write a list of people I'm going
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to kill, you are declaring your intention to commit a crime. So that's already illegal. And if it's not,
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then let's make it illegal. If somehow it's not illegal to make a hit list, I'm perfectly fine with
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making that illegal. If you're caught with an actual hit list, yes, you should go to jail for
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that. I'm perfectly fine with that. I think we can all agree. And if it's somehow not illegal to
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actively, tangibly plan a mass shooting, then it should be. My point is, rather than red flag laws,
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why not shore up those laws? Shore up the laws prohibiting people from planning mass shootings.
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If a parent goes to the cops and says, listen, I think my child might be planning to hurt people.
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Well, that's a reasonable cause to investigate. And absolutely, yes, investigate in that case. If you
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discover evidence, real tangible evidence that he's planning something, then arrest him. If there's
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no evidence, not enough to bring charges, well, then you can't arrest him. You just can't. You don't
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have the evidence for it. You don't have probable cause. So I think if we go about it that way,
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then it's not perfect. It's not going to solve all the solutions. It's not going to solve all the
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problems. But nothing we do here is perfect. As I said earlier in the week, when you're dealing with
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someone who wants to kill a lot of people and doesn't care about the consequences, doesn't even
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care if they live or die, when you've got someone like that out there, that's a very difficult person
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to deal with. Because as I said earlier, the thing that prevents you and me from going out and
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killing lots of people, the first thing that prevents us, it's not the law. It's not gun
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control. It's not anything. It's just that we don't want to do that. So you and me, we have no
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desire to do that. And so that's what, I've never been in a situation where the thing stopping me
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from killing someone was that it's illegal or that I couldn't get my hands on a weapon.
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I don't know about you. I've never been in that situation.
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Because I've never gotten to that point psychologically. I just, I've never had that desire ever.
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To kill somebody. But when, if that damn breaks, then I think the next thing, hopefully holding
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back the violence, is that even if you do somehow find yourself wanting to hurt someone or kill
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someone, God forbid, maybe the next thing preventing you is that you're worried about the consequences
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after the fact. You don't want to go to jail. You don't want to be killed in the process.
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But if that damn breaks too, and now you want to do the evil thing, you don't even, you don't care
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about your freedom or if you live or die. Now there is just no perfect way to deal with you.
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And there's, there's nothing we can do proactively that is going to 100% stop all of those kinds of
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people. Because in order for human society to function and work, we sort of rely on the fact
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that the vast majority of people are not crazy, violent lunatics. That's the only way that this
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whole society thing works is if 99.9999% of us are not that. If we get to the point where even like
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5% of us are in that category, there is no law in the world that's going to save society at that
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point. We're screwed. So there's no perfect solution. But given that there's no perfect
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solution, that's all the more reason to respect the law and to not throw out the constitution.
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Because if you do that, looking for the perfect solution, you're still not going to find it. And
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what you end up with is a situation where we still haven't stopped all the mass shootings. And now we
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don't even have our rights and liberties anymore. And we have, you know, tyranny.
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And that's another reason. Trump sent out a tweet today where he said that, I forget the exact
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wording, but he said that, or he said, guns should not be placed in the hands of people who are mentally
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ill. Which is a popular thing to say. But once again, if we're saying, oh, well, you know, yeah,
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we shouldn't let people who are mentally ill buy guns. Well, keep in mind, go take a look at the
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DSM-5 sometime, the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders that the APA puts out.
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And it's, you know, it's thicker than the Bible. There are thousands of mental disorders in there.
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According to the psychiatric industry, we all have a mental illness. All of us do. I mean,
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you could go to a psychiatrist today and you could be diagnosed with like seven different mental
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illnesses easily. So to make this blanket statement that if somebody is mentally ill,
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they shouldn't have a, they shouldn't have guns. You do realize that you are, you're, you're putting
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yourself then in line to lose your rights as well, because anybody can be, can have a mental
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illness label slapped on them. And even if somebody is legitimately mentally ill, since when does that
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mean that we can, uh, do this sort of summary removal of their constitutional rights,
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the simple fact of being mentally ill, and there are many mental illness, like, like I said, out
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there, the simple fact of being mentally ill doesn't mean that you don't have rights.
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If you are mentally ill in a way, in a way that where you have demonstrated that you are a danger
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to people demonstrated it, not like people think maybe in the future, but you've demonstrated you
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are an active danger. Well then yes, something can be done there, but then it's the point. Isn't that
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you're mentally ill. The point is that you're a danger, even if you weren't mentally ill, but you
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had demonstrated that you're a danger to society. Uh, then you can be locked away mental illness or not.
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So these kinds of blanket statements, I'm, I'm very uncomfortable with them and where they're
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going to lead. Um, even if they are well-intentioned, that doesn't make a difference.
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Well-intentioned tyranny is a still tyranny nonetheless. All right. Um, I, I also, I forgot
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about this from Joe Biden. I was talking about the other quote from Joe Biden, truth over facts.
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Then this was also good stuff for Biden. I think it was on the same day or at least maybe back to
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back days. So he's on a roll. Um, here's something else that Joe Biden, uh, had to say
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at a campaign stop. Watch this. And the other thing we should do is we should challenge these
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students. We should challenge students in these schools to have advanced placement programs in
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these schools. We have this notion that somehow if you're poor, you cannot do it. Poor kids are
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just as bright and just as talented as white kids, wealthy kids, black kids, Asian kids.
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No, I really mean it, but think how we think about it. Oh my goodness. Poor kids are just as bright
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and just as talented as white kids. Joe, Joe, Joe. Uh, that's not, that's not good. Now, Joe,
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you obviously can thank your lucky stars that you're not a Republican because if you were a Republican and
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you had said that this would be headline news for like six days, uh, as it stands, it'll probably be
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in the news for a day. Uh, but poor kids are just as bright and talented as white kids. Uh, you know,
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obviously insinuating that, uh, no white kids are poor and you know, poor is a race, uh, or, you know,
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being black is synonymous with being poor. I mean, this is, that's, that's, that's not good.
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Not good. Like I said, he's a Democrat, so he'll survive it. But that, wow. All right. Um,
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one other thing before we get to emails, Tommy Lee, who is, who's still alive, apparently posted a long
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diatribe on social media. That was a big hit with the left. And let me read it to you. Here's,
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here's what Tommy Lee had to say. Um, and he's getting, he was getting a lot of applause for this
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from the left says you Trumpsters better pray that liberals never gain control of the white
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house again. Oh, I do Tommy. I really do. Uh, what one step ahead of you there, uh, better pray
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liberals never gain control of the white house again, because we are going to pay you back. So effing
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hard for all this S planned parenthood, planned parenthoods on every damn corner, we're going to
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repaint air force one blank hat pink and fly it over your beloved Bible bet belt six days a week,
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tossing birth control pills, condoms, and atheist literature from the cockpit. We're going to tax
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your mega churches so bad that Joel Osteen will need to get a job at Chick-fil-A to pay his light bill.
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Speaking of Chick-fil-A, we're buying all those and giving them to an, any LGBTQ person,
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your sick cult leaders, torture with conversion therapy. Try the McPence. It's a boiled unseasoned
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chicken breast that you have to eat in the closet with your mother. We're going to gather up all
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your guns, melt them down and turn them into a gargantuan metal mountain emblazoned with the
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face of Hillary Clinton. All parks will be renamed Rosa Parks ASAP. We're replacing Confederate statues
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with black lives matter leader and Mexican immigrants. Every single public school renamed after a child
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that was kidnapped by this regime. And after we fumigate the white house, we're repainting the
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whole thing rainbow. Fox news will be taken over and turned into a family refugee shelter. Uh,
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we're turning Hannity's office into a giant unisex bathroom with, okay, blah, blah, blah, blah. This
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is a lot longer than I thought it was. I was waiting to get to the end of it. And this, it just keeps
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going on and on. Here's my point. Um, these are Tommy Lee's policy proposals. Very interesting.
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If he ever runs for president, this is the platform he'll run on. Of course, it doesn't
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really matter what Tommy Lee has to say, but it does show, it does demonstrate one troubling thing,
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which is, uh, this attitude appetite for vengeance. I think there's a real appetite for vengeance in
00:24:47.440
this country. And when you get to that point where people just want vengeance, it's not just that they
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want their ideas to be made into law, uh, that they want the culture to go in a certain direction.
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It's not just that they want vengeance. It's not good enough to win an election or to win an argument.
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You want to punish the other side. And, uh, I, I think increasingly over the months and years,
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we're seeing more and more of that where people want vengeance more than anything else.
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I think really more than any, more than winning the argument where they care about vengeance,
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even more than they care about their ideas and their philosophy, their worldview.
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It's like, forget about that. I just want to punish these people because I hate them.
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That's the attitude you see there. And even though it's coming from this frivolous and
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inconsequential person, it's still is a, I think it's indicative of, of, of a larger issue in the
00:25:54.360
culture. All right, let's go to emails. Matt wall show at gmail.com. Matt wall show at gmail.com.
00:26:01.640
Uh, let's see. This is from Paul says, I've recently started watching some of the content over
00:26:07.280
the daily wire. Typically your show and Ben's there are some fundamental differences between us for sure,
00:26:11.280
but overall, I find your take on cultural and political issues to be spot on in high school. I was
00:26:15.120
wrapped in a social media bubble. And rather than having my own thoughts, I just tended to say what
00:26:21.080
was perceived to be popular. My senior year marked the first time I could vote. And of course it was
00:26:26.120
the highly controversial 2016 presidential election. People on the left, like myself at the time have
00:26:30.480
been convinced that Trump could never win. And I remember a deep gut-wrenching fear on the, on that
00:26:35.260
night, watching the results on TV. Since then, I've spent most of my time at university working on
00:26:40.180
improving myself. And one realization I've come to is that the fear I once felt was misplaced. I've
00:26:45.060
now basically, I'm now basically a centrist who favors more libertarian options. And I've
00:26:49.440
genuinely reconsidered just about every major point or policy I once held. Some stayed similar.
00:26:54.660
Many of them have evolved. The point of this email is to ask a question. People often claim to believe
00:26:59.680
things that they haven't actually thought of or thought out, whether it's politics, morality,
00:27:04.740
religion, or whatever. I'm certain that a large reason is that social media dissolves the immediate
00:27:09.420
necessity to figure these things out. And people just sort of fumble around projecting ideas that mean
00:27:14.080
nothing to them. However, there's obviously a strong value in the long-term, um, in the long-term
00:27:19.140
to search for answers. I'm not religious by any stretch, and yet I still search for meaning of my
00:27:23.600
own, in my own absurd way. When you become dictator, what pathways would you promote, uh, to your people
00:27:29.760
that would encourage them to pursue these issues honestly and personally? Um, I think I'd start by
00:27:37.760
disabling, disabling the internet for an entire month every year, probably February. Thanks,
00:27:42.300
to keep up the good work. Uh, first of all, Paul, if, if, if even half of the people in the country
00:27:49.680
had the attitude that you have and had the, um, appetite for truth, the intellectual appetite,
00:27:59.500
I mean, if even half of the people did, we would be living in something so different from,
00:28:04.920
from our current situation that you would almost call it utopia. Um, being willing to look objectively
00:28:14.880
at your own viewpoints and change them. That is, that's something that should be commended. Now,
00:28:22.580
of course, when I'm dictator, that's not going to be allowed because you won't be able to question
00:28:25.780
me. So when you frame it that way, I mean, obviously, uh, when I'm dictator, you'd be executed
00:28:30.500
for that. But, uh, since I'm not dictator yet, I can, I can, I can applaud you for that. To answer
00:28:36.280
your question, you know, back in my childhood, there was a, there was a really popular bumper
00:28:40.620
sticker that said question everything. And you don't see those bumper stickers anymore. Um, it was
00:28:46.160
one of the only bumper stickers I like or liked at the time. And I think that those, those bumper
00:28:51.580
stickers were sort of a condensed version of a quote from Descartes. Uh, Descartes said,
00:28:55.920
if you would be a real seeker after truth, it is necessary that at least once in your life,
00:29:00.380
you doubt as far as possible, all things. Now, I think this is true. We all need to challenge
00:29:07.340
our preconceived notions as you have done. Um, so you ask what pathways we can use to pursue
00:29:14.260
the issues honestly. Well, the pathway is one of, uh, of, of doubt. First of all, it's one of
00:29:20.740
challenging your preconceived notions, being willing to consider the possibility that you might
00:29:25.900
be wrong. And then with that doubt, with that sense now of objectivity, looking back at your
00:29:32.180
own worldview, taking sort of an outsider's perspective of your own worldview, which I
00:29:37.740
think is a process that a lot of people live their whole life and they never undergo this process
00:29:42.640
where they step outside of their own worldview just for a moment. It just takes a moment just
00:29:47.800
for a moment. Pretend you don't have, you don't believe any of the things you, but just pretend
00:29:52.780
you don't just for a minute and, and, and, and step outside of it and look back at your worldview
00:29:58.180
from the outside in the same way that you look at everyone else's worldview.
00:30:08.100
and inspect it for flaws, find the weaknesses in it. And the whole idea here is, is to know
00:30:17.260
why you believe the things that you believe. I agree with you, Paul, that I think there are so
00:30:22.280
many people who quote unquote, believe any number of things and have any number of, uh, supposed
00:30:31.740
views and, and, and, and, and whatever philosophy they have, but it's not really theirs. They don't,
00:30:39.520
if you were to ask them, Oh, why do you believe that? Or why do you think that's true?
00:30:44.200
You know, why is that your view? They'd be thrown for a loop. They couldn't, they wouldn't be able
00:30:49.960
to answer it. They could give you a couple cliches and some talking points that they picked up on cable
00:30:54.460
news or on the internet. But other than that, they, they cannot really tell you why they believe it
00:30:58.980
because they don't really have a reason. They inherited it maybe from their parents. They
00:31:03.080
inherited it from the internet, from the, they just sort of soaked it in. Um, but it was not an
00:31:11.080
intellectual process of analyzing, um, all of the potential options and deciding what seems true
00:31:21.980
to them. I think most people, a lot of people have never gone through that process. And so that's,
00:31:27.860
that's what it is. You know what it starts with? It starts where it started with you, Paul, where it
00:31:33.780
seems like you at some point said to yourself, I might be wrong. You know, it's possible that I'm
00:31:43.920
wrong. And the minute you allow yourself to think that it's, it, I mean, it's revolutionary, isn't it?
00:31:54.960
Because everyone can pay lip service to that. They could say, Oh yeah, but, uh, sure. Sure. I've, I've,
00:32:01.300
I've considered that possible. I think most people have never considered it, never really considered
00:32:05.620
it because we have, we are, we are so stuck in our own heads. We have no problem thinking that
00:32:16.880
everybody else in the world could be wrong about everything. Everyone else can be wrong. We have no,
00:32:22.180
we have no trouble with that, but for us, well, no, I'm me. I mean, I can't be wrong. No way.
00:32:30.660
If we could just get out of that mindset for just a second, it's all it takes. Then I think your whole
00:32:39.440
world starts to change and you become a real critical thinker like you are, Paul. Uh, and like,
00:32:46.240
I wish we all were. All right. This is from Mitchell. Uh, okay. This is going to be my last
00:32:53.660
video game email. So I am, I'm capping it right here, but this one for Mitchell, I thought was,
00:32:58.200
was good. Uh, mostly because it agrees with me. Mitchell, I says, I agree with most of what you've
00:33:04.340
said in your recent episodes in regards to video games. I would like to add some perspective from
00:33:07.500
someone who has once, who was once a very avid gamer myself. I think any gamer is a fool to deny
00:33:12.200
that video games are influencing in some way. This influence like any media can be good or bad.
00:33:17.140
I've met and bonded with some of my closest friends through, through specific games, many of
00:33:21.300
whom I've never met in person, but still have the trustworthiness and companionship that comes with
00:33:25.140
real friends. Um, I speak with these internet friends on a regular basis, despite the fact that
00:33:29.720
I play video games much less often than I used to do. This is the positive influence of video games
00:33:34.580
that I wish was spoken of more in the media as many tight communities have been established as a
00:33:38.440
result of video games. However, the negative of video games can be just as equally destructive as
00:33:44.080
the positives are rewarding. There were times where I found myself on multi-day binges where I would
00:33:49.560
only stop playing to eat or use the restroom, sometimes playing at the same time. Other times
00:33:54.200
when I'm playing, I would get far too competitive and would feel real anger and rage if I lost a
00:33:58.740
multiplayer match. It took years before I realized how unhealthy it was to be feeling these emotions and
00:34:03.060
to allow video games to control my thoughts and behaviors the way that it did. In hindsight, my years of
00:34:08.060
being inside all the time playing video games was probably a factor as to why I was in the bottom
00:34:12.620
10th percentile in height and weight for most of my teenage years. Thankfully, I fell in love with
00:34:17.660
the sport of wrestling and my desire to play video games slowly diminished. Despite my wrestling career
00:34:22.140
being over, I would still much rather be exercising than inside playing video games. During my first year
00:34:27.900
of college, my roommate was obsessed with video games, specifically Fortnite. It was almost like
00:34:32.880
looking through a time machine when I would wake up on a Saturday morning to see him playing
00:34:37.600
and then he would still be playing when I returned to the room late at night. Microwave food boxes
00:34:42.220
stacked on his desk were a clear indicator that he did not leave the room all day. Over the year,
00:34:47.500
I saw him put on a noticeable amount of weight as he never exercised as video games were all he did
00:34:51.580
in his free time. Being on the other side, I can clearly see the addictive nature of video games,
00:34:55.620
and I believe everyone should limit the amount of video games they play. That being said,
00:34:59.200
I'm glad things worked out for me the way they did. As through one video game in particular,
00:35:03.560
I've made very few close friends, a few very close friends, and that I can turn to when I need
00:35:10.840
someone to talk to. Sometimes these internet friends are the best ones to vent to because all
00:35:14.700
they can really do is listen and offer advice. Thank you for reading. P.S. Today, August 9th is my
00:35:19.820
19th birthday. I'm not really a huge birthday guy, but it would be pretty cool if you did happen to
00:35:23.220
read this on the same day that I left my mother's womb. Well, there you go, Mitchell. That is your
00:35:27.520
birthday present. You couldn't ask for a better one. I'm not going to add anything to that. I think
00:35:33.900
your personal experience there gives us some valuable insight and goes into everything I've
00:35:41.760
been saying about the real problem with all forms of media. The real danger with them potentially is
00:35:48.260
the isolating potential they have and the addictive nature. And anyone who just spends all day inside
00:35:57.860
staring at a screen, I think that is psychologically unhealthy and will lead to bad things. Probably
00:36:03.540
not mass shootings, but certainly negative things of less severity, but still negative.
00:36:11.580
All right. Um, I'll do one more. This is from Shane says, Hey man, I just wanted to tell you,
00:36:18.860
um, you need to step it up. How can you go by the title of a theocratic bearded fascist? If you can
00:36:24.620
only get what two minutes of media matters highlights, I just expect more plain and simple.
00:36:29.280
All I'm saying is just be better. I guess you need more bigotry or something, uh, or, or something
00:36:34.260
wear some edgy outfits, you know, like a shirt that says men are not women or say some controversial
00:36:38.800
things. You know, I would give you some more examples, but that's your job. All I'm saying
00:36:43.020
is I watch you and I want to be like, wow, that's a bigot. But the media matters crew thinks you just
00:36:47.540
aren't up to par with Clavin's bigotry by the next highlight reel. I want you to be more prominent
00:36:51.840
or I'll tell Ben to put someone on there who will get the job done with real bigotry. Someone like
00:36:56.420
Mario Lopez. All right. You know what, Shane? Uh, I have to defend myself here. Uh, because no,
00:37:02.300
I, in fact, someone did tabulate who was featured the most in the bigot highlight reel by media
00:37:08.300
matters. And according to them, I had, I, I was number one. I had one second more than Clavin.
00:37:13.320
And I would also mention, and look, I don't mean to throw Andrew Clavin under the bus, but
00:37:18.120
he had two or three things in that highlight reel that I mean, were I, come on, they weren't bigoted
00:37:25.380
at all. He just, I feel like they were padding his bigot stats. Uh, and so that's not fair to the rest
00:37:33.260
of us. Okay. Uh, so no, I, this is a, this is a, this is an unfair. How dare you question my bigotry?
00:37:41.120
How dare you? You can attack anything about me, but not that. Thanks for the email though. Uh,
00:37:51.740
and thanks everybody for watching. Have a great weekend. Godspeed.
00:38:07.520
If you prefer facts over feelings, if you aren't offended by the brutal truth,
00:38:12.360
if you can still laugh at the nuttiness filling our national news cycle, well, tune on into the
00:38:16.540
Ben Shapiro show where you'll get a whole lot of that and much more. We'll see you there.