The Matt Walsh Show - Ep. 314 - Red Flags In The Red Flag Law The Matt Walsh Show

00:00:00.000 Today on the Matt Wall Show, Republicans and Democrats are both now pushing for gun control.

00:00:04.240 They want something called a red flag law. But what is a red flag law? And is it a good idea? 1.00

00:00:09.380 We'll discuss that. Also, Joe Biden embarrasses himself and the left seeks vengeance.

00:00:14.980 Talk about all that today and more on the Matt Wall Show.

00:00:21.280 So I really I love this quote from Joe Biden. He said at a rally yesterday, he said,

00:00:25.920 we choose truth over facts. And the crowd cheered. Of course, we choose truth over facts,

00:00:34.540 truth over facts. I'm not sure I quite understand the distinction. I mean, is there such a thing as

00:00:41.780 a truth that isn't a fact or a fact that isn't a truth? Is that can you really separate the two?

00:00:46.940 It kind of reminds me of some great advice I got from my nutritionist once. He said,

00:00:51.260 I'll never forget. He said he said he said, you got to make sure you drink water, not H2O water,

00:00:59.240 not H2O. So really, really great, great insight there from both him and Joe Biden. But today,

00:01:05.080 today on the show, we're going to go in a different direction. What we're going to do

00:01:08.060 is we're going to choose facts over truth. So I'm going to switch things up a little bit

00:01:12.180 just for a change of pace. So today, truth. No, I don't need it. Facts, though. We're doing truth

00:01:18.020 instead of facts and or facts instead of truth. I'm getting confused already. And we'll start with

00:01:23.800 a discussion about these red flag laws that people have been talking about. I'm sure you've heard

00:01:27.800 about. So I want to discuss red flag laws, a gun control measure that is being supported by

00:01:35.520 Republicans, including President Trump, who's pushing it, Democrats. So there is a bipartisan

00:01:41.360 agreement somehow over gun control. And I guess maybe I'm different from a lot of people, but

00:01:49.460 most people say, well, we need bipartisanship. When bipartisan agreements, that's when I get

00:01:56.880 really nervous. It's bad enough when one party or the other suggests something, when they both like

00:02:02.580 it. Well, then to me, it seems like, OK, that's just doubly bad if they both like it. So we'll talk

00:02:08.500 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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00:03:48.740 the last weight loss program you're ever going to need. Okay, so gun control. You know, it looks like

00:03:57.120 we may be headed into 2020 with Trump having given us no wall, no Planned Parenthood defunding,

00:04:07.820 no Obamacare defunding, no, you know, fiscal responsibility, no reduction to the debt and

00:04:14.980 deficit, but gun control. Amazing. Well, not really amazing. It's more like sort of exactly what I

00:04:21.360 expected, to be honest. But in any case, the gun control measures being touted by Trump and other

00:04:26.960 Republicans and Democrats as well, measures that may actually pass this time, those measures right

00:04:32.920 now seem to be stronger background checks and red flag laws. As for the stronger background checks,

00:04:39.900 I'm not going to focus on that today. I will say that there's no indication that a background check

00:04:46.040 law would have done anything to stop the mass shootings this weekend or any other shooting that

00:04:52.100 I can think of. So I think it's a political measure with no real positive impact that I can

00:04:58.100 tell. Even CNN admitted that background checks, more background checks, would not have stopped the

00:05:04.120 shootings this weekend. So even they're admitting that. I mean, that tells you what you need to know.

00:05:08.040 I want to focus instead on this red flag law thing. Josh Hammer on the Daily Wire has an excellent

00:05:15.580 piece about the red flag laws that I would recommend you go and read. I could just read it to you because

00:05:22.220 I agree 100% with what he has to say. I won't read it because I probably should put a little more

00:05:27.980 effort into this stupid show. So let me kind of summarize. A so-called red flag law would allow 0.90

00:05:35.800 someone, a spouse, parent, sibling, police officer possibly, depending on how the law is written,

00:05:43.020 to petition the court to take gun rights away from someone who might be contemplating murder or

00:05:51.180 suicide. The idea, of course, is to get the gun away from the disturbed person before the fuse is

00:05:57.580 lit, before they do whatever awful thing they might do. There are already laws like this in place in,

00:06:05.800 I don't know, I think a dozen states or more, maybe more than a dozen states. The Washington Post

00:06:10.740 ran an article yesterday saying that the results have been mixed in those other states.

00:06:16.640 But a red flag law passed by Congress would, of course, be on the federal level, so this would

00:06:21.580 be a national and nationwide thing. I understand the idea behind these laws. In and of itself,

00:06:34.340 it's not a crazy idea by any means. If you live with someone and you know they're troubled,

00:06:42.020 you know they're disturbed, you know that they might be violent, this would enable you to do

00:06:47.620 something about it. And that's what everyone is saying. We need to do something, do something. Okay,

00:06:51.140 well, then you could do something. In fact, it appears, in fairness, I should mention that the

00:06:55.960 El Paso shooter's mother, a couple of weeks before the shooting, called the police and she was

00:07:02.440 concerned about her son and the fact that he had all these guns. But she was told that, hey, he hasn't

00:07:09.360 committed a crime and he owns the guns legally, we can't do anything. And that was it. Would a red 1.00

00:07:17.900 flag law have prevented the El Paso shooting then? We don't know. Maybe, it might have, but we don't

00:07:24.600 know. Yet there's an obvious problem here. And it actually has less to do with the Second Amendment

00:07:31.280 than other amendments, like the Fifth. So though I understand the thought process behind the red flag

00:07:38.400 law concept, I'm very, very wary of it because it seems to throw due process out the window. You would be

00:07:45.520 depriving someone of their constitutional rights without first charging them with a crime. That would

00:07:52.160 render some, that would mean that they are guilty until proven innocent. They're accused of being

00:07:57.740 troubled and potentially violent. And they have to, what, prove that they, it's not even like they're

00:08:07.280 proving a negative, like they're proving they didn't do something, which is already bad enough.

00:08:13.780 Because what it's guaranteed in the Constitution is that you are innocent until proven guilty. You

00:08:17.460 don't have to prove you didn't do a thing. The government has to prove you did do it.

00:08:23.240 But in this case, you would have to prove that you weren't going to, in the future,

00:08:32.660 potentially do something. You have to, so it's, this is like a negative of a negative. I mean,

00:08:37.460 it would be impossible to do. We're then talking about the Second, Fifth, and Sixth Amendments

00:08:46.980 would all be tossed out the window. And that seems like a problem to me.

00:08:53.360 And oh wait, the Fourth Amendment too, because the Fourth Amendment protects against unlawful

00:08:57.320 search in Caesar. So Second, Fourth, Fifth, and Sixth. Why not toss the Third out the window too?

00:09:03.160 You know, what is that? The quartering of soldiers? We'll start doing that as well while we're at it.

00:09:07.260 I mean, we might as well, we might as well get all of the, all of the top six.

00:09:10.680 Now look, again, I understand the idea, but the law matters. And these amendments are law.

00:09:20.540 We can't erase them because we're scared. I don't see how, if this does not constitute an

00:09:27.960 infringement on innocent until proven guilty, due process, you know, protections against unlawful

00:09:35.680 searches and seizures and in violation of the Second Amendment. If this does not constitute

00:09:41.280 a violation of all of those principles and laws, then I don't know what would.

00:09:46.660 And the law matters. Again, we cannot erase the law or undermine the law or put it to the side,

00:09:54.840 put it on hold because we're scared. Now people say, oh, so we're going to give potential mass

00:10:00.980 shooters, the benefit of the law, the benefit of the Constitution. Well, yes, we do. 1.00

00:10:09.320 That's kind of the whole point. It reminds me of a great scene in Man for All Seasons that I think

00:10:14.240 I've mentioned before. That whole, well, it's a play, then film. The film, especially what I'm thinking

00:10:22.280 of, a classic about Thomas More. And the whole story is painfully relevant in many ways to our

00:10:30.020 situation today. But this scene in particular has been on my mind a lot. I'll play it for you. Watch,

00:10:34.740 watch this.

00:10:36.740 Arrest him.

00:10:37.880 For what?

00:10:38.580 He's dangerous.

00:10:39.520 For libel. He's a spy.

00:10:40.520 Father, that man's bad.

00:10:41.520 There's no law against that.

00:10:42.620 There is God's law.

00:10:43.580 Then God can arrest him.

00:10:44.820 While you talk, he's gone.

00:10:46.360 And go he should if he were the devil himself until he broke the law.

00:10:49.260 So now you'd give the devil benefit of law.

00:10:51.860 Yes, what would you do? Cut a great road through the law to get after the devil?

00:10:55.640 Yes. I'd cut down every law in England to do that.

00:10:58.660 Oh? And when the last law was down and the devil turned round on you, where would you

00:11:03.260 hide, Roper? The law's all being flat. This country is planted thick with laws from coast

00:11:08.360 to coast. Man's laws, not God's. And if you cut them down, and you're just the man to do

00:11:12.960 it, do you really think you could stand upright in the winds that would blow then? Yes. I'd

00:11:20.120 give the devil benefit of law for my own safety's sake.

00:11:23.560 Roper's saying, hey, he's a bad guy. Who cares about the law? We got to do what we got

00:11:30.340 to do. We got to go after this guy, go after the bad guys. Who cares about the law? And

00:11:35.260 Thomas Moore is explaining, if you cut down the laws to go after the bad guy, you're left

00:11:40.320 exposed. You're left with nothing there to protect you, to protect your liberty. And then

00:11:45.500 what do you do when the wind starts blowing? Now, as with many unconstitutional ideas, if

00:11:52.480 this was enacted in a really limited way and never went beyond those limits and was appropriately

00:11:59.620 used all the time and was never abused and was never exploited in general, then in that

00:12:13.300 case, the potential negative impact of the law, even if it is unconstitutional, would

00:12:18.460 be negligible. I mean, the government could pass unconstitutional laws all the time if we

00:12:26.020 had a guarantee that it would never be exploited, no one would ever take advantage of it, there

00:12:31.240 would never be any abuses. Well, but in that case, we don't even really need any laws. Forget

00:12:35.600 about all the laws. If we can guarantee that everyone's going to be great, it doesn't matter.

00:12:41.420 But of course, we can't guarantee that. In fact, we can guarantee it in the other way. It

00:12:45.560 will be abused. It will be used inappropriately. That isn't a guess. It is a guarantee. We know

00:12:52.100 that's how it works. It's human nature. It's certainly the nature of the government.

00:12:56.020 If somebody can just call up a judge and say, yeah, I think this person might be dangerous.

00:13:01.860 Go take away his rights just in case. Just in case, take away his rights. The potential

00:13:07.980 for ideologically based abuse, for abuse from personal grudges, political abuse, all of that,

00:13:14.460 the potential is enormous. Of course it is. Here's my thing. If someone is actually plotting

00:13:24.100 a shooting, if they are actively plotting to commit a crime, well, then that itself is

00:13:31.900 a crime. It is illegal to plan a mass shooting. Now, if you're just planning it in your head

00:13:40.860 and you haven't taken any active, tangible steps, then obviously there's no way to penalize it. There's

00:13:48.380 no way to prove it because it's in your head. But if someone is taking active steps, then it's a crime.

00:13:55.740 The shooter in, I think it was the Dayton shooter, had a hit list in high school of people he wanted

00:14:03.000 to kill. Now, I'm not familiar with all the laws in Ohio, but I'm pretty sure it's illegal to have

00:14:09.820 hit lists. That's illegal. That doesn't go under free speech. You write a list of people I'm going

00:14:15.520 to kill, you are declaring your intention to commit a crime. So that's already illegal. And if it's not,

00:14:24.220 then let's make it illegal. If somehow it's not illegal to make a hit list, I'm perfectly fine with

00:14:28.500 making that illegal. If you're caught with an actual hit list, yes, you should go to jail for

00:14:34.280 that. I'm perfectly fine with that. I think we can all agree. And if it's somehow not illegal to

00:14:42.820 actively, tangibly plan a mass shooting, then it should be. My point is, rather than red flag laws,

00:14:50.860 why not shore up those laws? Shore up the laws prohibiting people from planning mass shootings.

00:14:55.960 If a parent goes to the cops and says, listen, I think my child might be planning to hurt people.

00:15:02.680 Well, that's a reasonable cause to investigate. And absolutely, yes, investigate in that case. If you

00:15:08.140 discover evidence, real tangible evidence that he's planning something, then arrest him. If there's

00:15:14.080 no evidence, not enough to bring charges, well, then you can't arrest him. You just can't. You don't

00:15:19.140 have the evidence for it. You don't have probable cause. So I think if we go about it that way,

00:15:26.400 then it's not perfect. It's not going to solve all the solutions. It's not going to solve all the

00:15:31.880 problems. But nothing we do here is perfect. As I said earlier in the week, when you're dealing with

00:15:39.340 someone who wants to kill a lot of people and doesn't care about the consequences, doesn't even

00:15:49.320 care if they live or die, when you've got someone like that out there, that's a very difficult person

00:15:57.340 to deal with. Because as I said earlier, the thing that prevents you and me from going out and

00:16:05.820 killing lots of people, the first thing that prevents us, it's not the law. It's not gun

00:16:09.980 control. It's not anything. It's just that we don't want to do that. So you and me, we have no

00:16:15.560 desire to do that. And so that's what, I've never been in a situation where the thing stopping me

00:16:22.800 from killing someone was that it's illegal or that I couldn't get my hands on a weapon.

00:16:27.440 I don't know about you. I've never been in that situation.

00:16:31.340 Because I've never gotten to that point psychologically. I just, I've never had that desire ever.

00:16:35.820 To kill somebody. But when, if that damn breaks, then I think the next thing, hopefully holding

00:16:45.220 back the violence, is that even if you do somehow find yourself wanting to hurt someone or kill

00:16:51.480 someone, God forbid, maybe the next thing preventing you is that you're worried about the consequences

00:16:58.380 after the fact. You don't want to go to jail. You don't want to be killed in the process.

00:17:01.640 But if that damn breaks too, and now you want to do the evil thing, you don't even, you don't care

00:17:09.420 about your freedom or if you live or die. Now there is just no perfect way to deal with you.

00:17:18.760 And there's, there's nothing we can do proactively that is going to 100% stop all of those kinds of

00:17:29.880 people. Because in order for human society to function and work, we sort of rely on the fact

00:17:36.240 that the vast majority of people are not crazy, violent lunatics. That's the only way that this

00:17:43.200 whole society thing works is if 99.9999% of us are not that. If we get to the point where even like

00:17:51.180 5% of us are in that category, there is no law in the world that's going to save society at that

00:17:56.040 point. We're screwed. So there's no perfect solution. But given that there's no perfect

00:18:05.620 solution, that's all the more reason to respect the law and to not throw out the constitution.

00:18:13.920 Because if you do that, looking for the perfect solution, you're still not going to find it. And

00:18:17.960 what you end up with is a situation where we still haven't stopped all the mass shootings. And now we

00:18:22.880 don't even have our rights and liberties anymore. And we have, you know, tyranny.

00:18:27.120 And that's another reason. Trump sent out a tweet today where he said that, I forget the exact

00:18:37.240 wording, but he said that, or he said, guns should not be placed in the hands of people who are mentally

00:18:43.400 ill. Which is a popular thing to say. But once again, if we're saying, oh, well, you know, yeah,

00:18:55.140 we shouldn't let people who are mentally ill buy guns. Well, keep in mind, go take a look at the 0.99

00:19:01.300 DSM-5 sometime, the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders that the APA puts out.

00:19:08.740 And it's, you know, it's thicker than the Bible. There are thousands of mental disorders in there.

00:19:13.120 According to the psychiatric industry, we all have a mental illness. All of us do. I mean,

00:19:19.660 you could go to a psychiatrist today and you could be diagnosed with like seven different mental

00:19:24.640 illnesses easily. So to make this blanket statement that if somebody is mentally ill,

00:19:31.520 they shouldn't have a, they shouldn't have guns. You do realize that you are, you're, you're putting

00:19:36.940 yourself then in line to lose your rights as well, because anybody can be, can have a mental

00:19:43.280 illness label slapped on them. And even if somebody is legitimately mentally ill, since when does that

00:19:49.600 mean that we can, uh, do this sort of summary removal of their constitutional rights,

00:19:56.420 the simple fact of being mentally ill, and there are many mental illness, like, like I said, out

00:20:03.080 there, the simple fact of being mentally ill doesn't mean that you don't have rights.

00:20:06.120 If you are mentally ill in a way, in a way that where you have demonstrated that you are a danger 0.99

00:20:14.000 to people demonstrated it, not like people think maybe in the future, but you've demonstrated you

00:20:18.920 are an active danger. Well then yes, something can be done there, but then it's the point. Isn't that

00:20:26.020 you're mentally ill. The point is that you're a danger, even if you weren't mentally ill, but you 0.93

00:20:29.520 had demonstrated that you're a danger to society. Uh, then you can be locked away mental illness or not.

00:20:35.500 So these kinds of blanket statements, I'm, I'm very uncomfortable with them and where they're

00:20:40.880 going to lead. Um, even if they are well-intentioned, that doesn't make a difference.

00:20:48.580 Well-intentioned tyranny is a still tyranny nonetheless. All right. Um, I, I also, I forgot

00:20:54.820 about this from Joe Biden. I was talking about the other quote from Joe Biden, truth over facts.

00:20:59.380 Then this was also good stuff for Biden. I think it was on the same day or at least maybe back to

00:21:04.600 back days. So he's on a roll. Um, here's something else that Joe Biden, uh, had to say

00:21:09.200 at a campaign stop. Watch this. And the other thing we should do is we should challenge these

00:21:13.760 students. We should challenge students in these schools to have advanced placement programs in

00:21:18.160 these schools. We have this notion that somehow if you're poor, you cannot do it. Poor kids are

00:21:24.280 just as bright and just as talented as white kids, wealthy kids, black kids, Asian kids.

00:21:31.000 No, I really mean it, but think how we think about it. Oh my goodness. Poor kids are just as bright

00:21:39.460 and just as talented as white kids. Joe, Joe, Joe. Uh, that's not, that's not good. Now, Joe, 0.98

00:21:52.240 you obviously can thank your lucky stars that you're not a Republican because if you were a Republican and

00:21:59.040 you had said that this would be headline news for like six days, uh, as it stands, it'll probably be

00:22:04.500 in the news for a day. Uh, but poor kids are just as bright and talented as white kids. Uh, you know, 1.00

00:22:10.480 obviously insinuating that, uh, no white kids are poor and you know, poor is a race, uh, or, you know,

00:22:20.260 being black is synonymous with being poor. I mean, this is, that's, that's, that's not good.

00:22:27.040 Not good. Like I said, he's a Democrat, so he'll survive it. But that, wow. All right. Um,

00:22:35.160 one other thing before we get to emails, Tommy Lee, who is, who's still alive, apparently posted a long

00:22:40.380 diatribe on social media. That was a big hit with the left. And let me read it to you. Here's,

00:22:45.260 here's what Tommy Lee had to say. Um, and he's getting, he was getting a lot of applause for this

00:22:52.180 from the left says you Trumpsters better pray that liberals never gain control of the white

00:22:56.880 house again. Oh, I do Tommy. I really do. Uh, what one step ahead of you there, uh, better pray

00:23:03.660 liberals never gain control of the white house again, because we are going to pay you back. So effing

00:23:08.600 hard for all this S planned parenthood, planned parenthoods on every damn corner, we're going to 1.00

00:23:14.700 repaint air force one blank hat pink and fly it over your beloved Bible bet belt six days a week, 0.98

00:23:21.980 tossing birth control pills, condoms, and atheist literature from the cockpit. We're going to tax 0.98

00:23:26.820 your mega churches so bad that Joel Osteen will need to get a job at Chick-fil-A to pay his light bill.

00:23:31.980 Speaking of Chick-fil-A, we're buying all those and giving them to an, any LGBTQ person,

00:23:36.600 your sick cult leaders, torture with conversion therapy. Try the McPence. It's a boiled unseasoned 0.99

00:23:42.780 chicken breast that you have to eat in the closet with your mother. We're going to gather up all 0.93

00:23:47.460 your guns, melt them down and turn them into a gargantuan metal mountain emblazoned with the

00:23:52.280 face of Hillary Clinton. All parks will be renamed Rosa Parks ASAP. We're replacing Confederate statues

00:23:58.460 with black lives matter leader and Mexican immigrants. Every single public school renamed after a child

00:24:03.800 that was kidnapped by this regime. And after we fumigate the white house, we're repainting the

00:24:07.720 whole thing rainbow. Fox news will be taken over and turned into a family refugee shelter. Uh, 0.96

00:24:12.940 we're turning Hannity's office into a giant unisex bathroom with, okay, blah, blah, blah, blah. This 0.78

00:24:17.680 is a lot longer than I thought it was. I was waiting to get to the end of it. And this, it just keeps

00:24:20.700 going on and on. Here's my point. Um, these are Tommy Lee's policy proposals. Very interesting.

00:24:25.120 If he ever runs for president, this is the platform he'll run on. Of course, it doesn't

00:24:31.840 really matter what Tommy Lee has to say, but it does show, it does demonstrate one troubling thing,

00:24:37.640 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

00:24:53.720 want their ideas to be made into law, uh, that they want the culture to go in a certain direction.

00:25:00.240 It's not just that they want vengeance. It's not good enough to win an election or to win an argument.

00:25:07.200 You want to punish the other side. And, uh, I, I think increasingly over the months and years, 0.97

00:25:16.320 we're seeing more and more of that where people want vengeance more than anything else.

00:25:21.820 I think really more than any, more than winning the argument where they care about vengeance,

00:25:29.180 even more than they care about their ideas and their philosophy, their worldview.

00:25:37.180 It's like, forget about that. I just want to punish these people because I hate them.

00:25:43.220 That's the attitude you see there. And even though it's coming from this frivolous and

00:25:47.060 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.

00:30:04.780 Take that same skeptical approach to your own

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.

The Matt Walsh Show - August 09, 2019

Ep. 314 - Red Flags In The Red Flag Law The Matt Walsh Show

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