The Matt Walsh Show - Ep. 317 - Huddled Masses Yearning To Breathe Free

00:00:00.000 Okie dokie. I apologize for beginning the show by saying okie dokie that. But we can't go back now. We can't undo it. It happened. And we now both have to live with that.

00:00:13.200 All right. So moving past that, what's the latest fake, stupid controversy that we can waste our time talking about? 1.00

00:00:18.920 For that, we go to Ken Cuccinelli, who is one of the one of Trump's top immigration officials. 1.00

00:00:24.280 A little background here before we get to the to the fake, stupid controversy. A little background. Recently, it was announced in the past couple of days, it was announced by the Trump administration that they would be taking steps to better enforce public charge policies. 0.99

00:00:40.680 Now, these are policies that Trump did not invent. They don't originate with him. Nobody in the administration came up with this. These are policies that have existed in some form or another for 100 years.

00:00:52.040 It's just that they haven't been enforced very well or at all. And what the Trump administration is saying is, hey, let's let's actually enforce these laws.

00:00:58.640 The idea behind public charge policies is that we, you know, we don't generally want to accept immigrants into the country, even legally, who are or are likely to be on public assistance. 0.69

00:01:13.980 In other words, we don't want to bring people here just so that they can live off of the taxpayers who are already living here. 1.00

00:01:19.800 Why don't we want that? Well, because we can't afford it, for one thing.

00:01:23.980 Our nation is already famously in a lot of debt and we just we can't keep adding to it.

00:01:30.060 At a certain point, you have to you have to cut it off. And it's not fair to the taxpayers.

00:01:35.480 The taxpayers have their own families to take care of, first and foremost.

00:01:38.840 And so to keep adding more and more people from all across the world, say, yeah, take care of them, too.

00:01:43.020 And then and then and then, as I said, we've got to cut it off somewhere and there's no real benefits to the nation or to society, to our society.

00:01:54.080 Immigration should not be a one way street.

00:01:57.080 It's always been the idea has always been you benefit because you get to come here and we benefit because because you come here.

00:02:03.180 It should be a two way beneficial arrangement. And it's not if you're just coming here to live off of us.

00:02:09.940 And we want people motivated by a desire to come and contribute, not to come and exploit the system.

00:02:15.560 So it makes a lot of sense, a lot of sense to encourage immigrants who will be able to care for themselves and to discourage immigrants who are not able to care for themselves or are not interested in caring for themselves. 0.98

00:02:29.400 America is not a giant daycare center. It's not a big, a big boarding school.

00:02:35.440 It's a it's a country and countries only function when people are caring for themselves and standing on their own two feet.

00:02:42.480 Now, we do have things like soup kitchens in America, which is great.

00:02:47.760 But America itself is not a soup kitchen and it can't be one.

00:02:53.180 And that goes for every other country on Earth.

00:02:55.320 The only difference is for every other country on Earth, well, I should say every other non-Western, non-predominantly white country, it's understood that they have the same attitude about immigrants.

00:03:09.500 In many cases, they have much harsher attitudes towards immigrants and nobody criticizes that. 0.78

00:03:14.760 Everyone understands, hey, it's your country. Do what you want.

00:03:17.460 It's only with our country that, well, we're not allowed to see it as our country.

00:03:20.820 It's not ours. So we just have to throw the doors open to anybody who wants to come.

00:03:26.900 Well, Cuccinelli was on NPR talking about this perfectly logical, unassailably sensible policy

00:03:33.940 when he was asked how this policy squares with the poem on the Statue of Liberty.

00:03:42.320 Of course, this is irrelevant anyway. We don't make laws based on poetry.

00:03:50.400 The Fish and Wildlife Service doesn't make its laws based on what it says in, I don't know, The Raven by Edgar Allan Poe.

00:04:01.860 Individuals may be inspired by poetry, but that's not how we make laws.

00:04:04.920 The poem on the statue is not a law, but he was asked about it anyway, and so we'll play.

00:04:11.380 This is from NPR. This is how that little conversation went. Watch this.

00:04:15.560 Would you also agree that Emma Lazarus' words etched on the Statue of Liberty,

00:04:19.560 give me your tired, your poor, are also part of the American ethos?

00:04:23.880 They certainly are. Give me your tired and your poor who can stand on their own two feet

00:04:28.300 and who will not become a public charge. That plaque was put on the Statue of Liberty

00:04:34.460 at almost the same time as the first public charge law was passed. Very interesting timing.

00:04:40.240 Although you mentioned the American dream is built on this idea that this is a place where you can come and build a life.

00:04:46.980 It's part of it.

00:04:47.820 Okay, so what's his point? Well, it's pretty obvious.

00:04:49.840 He's simply saying that this policy of looking for immigrants who can contribute

00:04:57.780 rather than ones who will drain our resources and give nothing in return

00:05:02.060 is, in fact, perfectly consistent with the poem.

00:05:04.860 Not that, once again, not that it really matters, but it is consistent with what the poem says.

00:05:09.660 That's his argument anyway. That's what he's trying to say.

00:05:13.100 Well, then what happened?

00:05:14.180 And after Cuccinelli was asked about the poem, remember, he didn't bring it up.

00:05:20.600 He didn't come in and say, hey, listen, you know, I've been thinking about this poetry and this poem.

00:05:25.860 And no, he was asked about it. He answered the question.

00:05:30.200 Well, then the media headlines start pouring in.

00:05:34.180 Let me read a couple of headlines.

00:05:35.740 These are headlines referring to that little tidbit you just listened to from CNN.

00:05:40.660 Ken, Cuccinelli rewrites Statue of Liberty poem to make case for limiting immigration.

00:05:46.040 Politico, Trump immigration official offers a rewrite for Statue of Liberty poem.

00:05:51.300 Washington Post, historians bash Ken Cuccinelli's revised Statue of Liberty poem.

00:05:57.480 Time Magazine, Trump immigration head rewrites iconic Statue of Liberty poem to justify new immigration restrictions.

00:06:06.220 And so on.

00:06:06.800 This is, I feel like a broken record, but this is just utterly, utterly dishonest and fraudulent.

00:06:16.540 The media is lying as usual.

00:06:19.000 This, this is fake news.

00:06:20.760 Here it is.

00:06:21.260 This is total fake news.

00:06:22.940 He didn't rewrite anything.

00:06:24.880 And he isn't the one who brought it up.

00:06:27.580 He was asked a question and he answered it.

00:06:30.920 This is, this is one of the most, this is one of the pettiest little tricks that the media pulls.

00:06:38.960 And you got to watch out for this because they do this all the time.

00:06:41.340 This is one of their favorite things to do.

00:06:43.280 And a lot of times people miss it.

00:06:45.100 What they do is they ask somebody a weird and irrelevant question.

00:06:51.260 That person answers the question.

00:06:53.260 And then they report the answer to the question as if that person had brought it up on his own, unprompted.

00:07:01.300 So based on those headlines, those headlines are wrong, number one, because he didn't rewrite anything.

00:07:05.520 There's no rewrite.

00:07:07.040 Based on the headline, you would think, if you didn't know any better, that he literally rewrote it.

00:07:11.740 And they're going to, they're going to, you know, attach that to the Statue of Liberty instead.

00:07:15.880 He didn't rewrite anything.

00:07:17.040 So that's not true.

00:07:17.760 But you would also think, based on the headline and the way these, these stories are framed, that, you know, he had this idea on his own.

00:07:26.300 And then he went to the media and said, hey, I've been thinking about the Statue of Liberty poem.

00:07:29.300 Here's my thought.

00:07:30.160 No, he was asked about it in any answer.

00:07:32.160 So it'd be like if the media asked me, if they came to me and they said, Matt Walsh, if you had to choose, would you bash a baby kangaroo to death with a shovel?

00:07:41.560 Or would you drown an old lady in the ocean? 0.99

00:07:44.740 And then I said, I mean, I guess I would, if I had to choose, I guess I'd bash the kangaroo. 0.98

00:07:52.560 But then the headline is, Matt Walsh goes on unhinged rant, fantasizes about bashing baby kangaroos to death with a shovel. 0.98

00:08:00.420 It's such a lame move. 0.96

00:08:02.860 But it works. 0.99

00:08:04.760 It works on people who are too dumb or too lazy to read past a headline or sometimes even to read in between the lines, which is what you need to do. 0.98

00:08:14.740 And we're not done yet. 0.98

00:08:17.060 OK, so that's just how the day started with Cuccinelli making this point and then being disingenuously, intentionally misinterpreted, mistranslated.

00:08:27.880 Cuccinelli then goes on CNN to talk about this little dust up and to clarify what he actually meant.

00:08:37.060 And so let's watch how that went.

00:08:38.460 You say this is about self-sufficiency and you say that proudly.

00:08:41.400 You heard me play you this morning when you quoted the Emma Lazarus poem on the Statue of Liberty.

00:08:46.280 Oh, I wasn't quoting it.

00:08:47.220 I was answering a question.

00:08:48.540 Right.

00:08:48.780 OK, I'm sorry.

00:08:49.340 But you were giving your version of what you thought the poem should say, right?

00:08:52.100 No.

00:08:52.820 No, I was not.

00:08:53.740 You said, give me your tired and your poor who can stand on...

00:08:54.780 I was answering the question.

00:08:56.120 I'm not rewriting poetry.

00:08:57.740 OK, well, what you said is, give me your tired and your poor who can stand on their own two feet and who will not become a public charge.

00:09:04.600 I just played you saying it.

00:09:06.020 Right.

00:09:06.460 I listened.

00:09:07.320 OK, OK.

00:09:07.820 So I'm just making sure you're not disputing you said it.

00:09:09.180 OK.

00:09:09.620 So obviously the actual poem is quite different.

00:09:12.100 I'm going to read it.

00:09:12.680 Right.

00:09:12.920 I was answering a question.

00:09:14.420 I wasn't writing poetry, Erin.

00:09:16.200 Don't change the facts.

00:09:17.620 I'm not changing the facts.

00:09:18.500 I'm just saying...

00:09:19.000 You're twisting this like everybody else on the left has done all day today.

00:09:22.020 It's important.

00:09:22.680 You're saying that it's very important to be able to stand on your own two feet.

00:09:26.140 A lot of people may support you and respect you're saying that.

00:09:28.800 But the poem doesn't say that.

00:09:30.520 Right?

00:09:30.800 The poem that's on the Statue of Liberty...

00:09:32.620 I didn't bring up the poem.

00:09:33.740 An NPR reporter did, and now you have.

00:09:36.220 I didn't bring it up.

00:09:37.300 I'll answer your substantive, intelligent questions.

00:09:39.760 So I'm going to give you a substantive...

00:09:40.800 OK, stop there for just a minute.

00:09:43.180 I have to say that this isn't really the point, but I have to say I kind of love this guy.

00:09:47.800 Because he's really calm.

00:09:49.880 He's collected while calling her out on her bullcrap at the same time, which is great. 0.98

00:09:54.400 That's exactly what needs to be done.

00:09:57.500 And where he says, you know, I'll answer your substantive and intelligent questions.

00:10:01.020 Please ask one.

00:10:01.960 That's...

00:10:02.400 See, this is exactly...

00:10:05.400 This is like a training manual for how to deal with these hacks in the media.

00:10:10.860 But let's get to the point here.

00:10:12.660 Let's go back to the clip.

00:10:13.780 However it came up, you said, give me your tired and your poor, OK, who can stand on

00:10:20.380 their own two feet and who will not become a public charge.

00:10:22.000 That's what you said.

00:10:22.640 I just played it.

00:10:23.680 The poem reads, give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe 1.00

00:10:27.040 free, the wretched refuse of the teeming shore.

00:10:30.320 Send these, the homeless tempest tossed to me. 1.00

00:10:33.260 I lift my lamp beside the golden door. 0.95

00:10:37.080 Wretched, poor refuse, right?

00:10:39.360 That's what the poem says America's supposed to stand for.

00:10:41.440 So, what do you think America stands for?

00:10:45.820 Well, of course, that poem was referring back to people coming from Europe where they

00:10:50.520 had class-based societies where people were considered wretched if they weren't in the

00:10:55.440 right class.

00:10:56.560 And it was introduced...

00:10:57.840 It was written one year, one year after the first federal public charge rule was written

00:11:03.580 that says, and I'll quote it, any person unable to take care of himself without becoming a

00:11:09.860 public charge, unquote, would be inadmissible.

00:11:13.200 Or, in the terms that my agency deals with, they can't do what's called adjusting status,

00:11:19.060 getting a green card, becoming legal permanent residence.

00:11:22.000 Same exact time, Aaron, same exact time.

00:11:25.840 In the year it went on the Statue of Liberty, 1903, another federal law was passed expanding

00:11:31.620 the elements of public charge by Congress.

00:11:35.280 Okay, we can cut it there because then Aaron Burnett goes into some irrelevant story about

00:11:39.540 her grandfather coming to this country or whatever.

00:11:41.620 Can I just say, as a side note, I'm so tired of people doing this with the immigration thing.

00:11:47.220 I, you know, it's, yeah, we get it.

00:11:48.840 Everybody's grandparents came here and, you know, I'm sure that they, blah, blah, so on

00:11:53.160 and so forth.

00:11:53.380 I mean, I'm not, I'm not trying to diminish what your grandparents did or the struggles

00:11:58.340 they had, but can we just, every conversation about immigration turns into, well, it turns

00:12:02.660 into some, you're spinning some yarn about your grandparents coming over here.

00:12:05.800 It's not relevant.

00:12:06.480 Okay, great.

00:12:07.020 Good for you.

00:12:07.540 It's just, what does that have to do with anything?

00:12:09.840 It has nothing to do with anything.

00:12:12.100 But that's, that's how she wastes the remaining minutes of this, of this interview talking

00:12:17.060 about her grandparents.

00:12:18.000 Who cares?

00:12:19.080 No offense.

00:12:20.020 Who cares?

00:12:21.740 But you notice what Cuccinelli said there in an effort to explain why the Statue of Liberty

00:12:27.120 has that language about wretched refuse, which is pretty harsh language, actually.

00:12:32.260 And it makes you, it makes you wonder why liberals love this poem so much.

00:12:35.240 They were referring to immigrants as wretched refuse. 1.00

00:12:38.220 That's calling them trash, basically. 1.00

00:12:40.360 That's what it is. 1.00

00:12:41.580 Refuse is trash. 1.00

00:12:42.440 Wretched garbage is what this poem refers to immigrants as. 1.00

00:12:48.760 I mean, can you only imagine if Trump, if Trump were to even quote the poem, if Trump 1.00

00:12:55.560 were to quote that poem, the headline would be, President Trump calls immigrants wretched 1.00

00:13:02.600 garbage. 0.99

00:13:03.240 But in an effort to explain why that language is in there, what that is referring to, where 0.96

00:13:12.500 that comes from, in an effort to explain that, he says that it refers to the class-based societies

00:13:19.380 of Europe.

00:13:21.220 That's where the language comes from.

00:13:23.440 So then what are the headlines about this interview?

00:13:25.560 USA Today, Immigration Official Ken Cuccinelli, Statue of Liberty Poem Refers to Immigrants

00:13:31.900 from Europe.

00:13:34.400 Another headline, Cuccinelli, Statue of Liberty Poem Refers to People from Europe.

00:13:39.980 Huffington Post, Ken Cuccinelli, Statue of Liberty Poem About People Coming from Europe.

00:13:44.100 And then sub, sub, you know, the subheader, Trump's citizenship and immigration chief followed

00:13:50.220 up his earlier comments about the famous Emma Lazarus poem with a racist clarification. 0.98

00:13:57.120 Oh my gosh, these people, these are such dishonest hacks.

00:14:02.840 It's amazing.

00:14:04.760 It's amazing that a person can be this dishonest.

00:14:08.080 Like when you're, when you're writing that headline, you know that you're lying.

00:14:12.280 You know what you're doing.

00:14:14.980 Don't you ever catch a glimpse of yourself, a reflection of yourself, maybe in a, you know,

00:14:19.680 in a, in a, in a rear view mirror on occasion and just stop and say, what am I?

00:14:24.940 What kind of person am I that I'm doing this?

00:14:27.880 This is what I do.

00:14:30.040 I just slander people with, with dishonest headlines.

00:14:35.660 Obviously, and Huffington Post was pretty explicit about it.

00:14:38.440 These other headlines though, and there were, you know, dozens of them across mainstream

00:14:42.260 media saying that Ken Cuccinelli claimed that the Statue of Liberty poem refers to immigrants

00:14:46.940 from Europe.

00:14:47.400 Well, yes, that is what he said, but obviously the implication, which Huffington Post made clear,

00:14:54.780 what they're trying to imply is that Cuccinelli was saying that only European immigrants are

00:15:00.840 welcome, which isn't what he was saying.

00:15:03.880 He was trying to explain why that kind of language is in there, which derives from the bigoted

00:15:10.080 class-based societies of Europe.

00:15:13.820 Now, as for the poem itself, is our immigration policy, including, you know, this stuff about

00:15:22.860 public charges, does it conflict with the poem?

00:15:25.960 Again, for the fourth time, it doesn't matter because we don't make laws by engraving them

00:15:30.460 in bronze and putting them on a statue.

00:15:32.420 That would be a pretty interesting legislative system.

00:15:34.760 When I am the theocratic dictator of the hemisphere, that's probably how I will make laws, but the

00:15:45.180 thing is, no one else, it's just me.

00:15:46.840 I'll engrave things in stone, put them on a statue of myself.

00:15:51.340 And probably in every town, there will be big statues of me holding, you know, the tablet

00:15:58.280 with all the laws.

00:15:59.260 And there'll be a lot of laws, a lot of laws.

00:16:01.520 So we're going to keep adding to it and adding to it.

00:16:02.820 So that's going to be the legislative process for me.

00:16:05.780 But right now, that's not how it works.

00:16:08.100 We have a legislative branch of government.

00:16:09.540 They have a process by which bills become law.

00:16:12.200 You can watch the Schoolhouse Rocks video if you want clarification on that.

00:16:16.920 So it has no, this has no bearing on anything.

00:16:19.720 But with that said, if we want to say that, well, the poem is much like the Declaration of

00:16:26.980 Independence, you know, Declaration of Independence is not law either.

00:16:29.980 But it is a poetic document sort of talking about the philosophies that underpin the American

00:16:40.440 system.

00:16:41.480 And so it's sort of aspirational in that way, talking about what we aspire to.

00:16:46.720 And so you could make the same case as the poem is to say, yeah, it's not a law, but it's

00:16:50.180 kind of like that's how America is basically, that's our philosophy.

00:16:55.360 It's what our philosophy is supposed to be.

00:16:56.980 Okay, fine.

00:16:58.860 Well, let's look.

00:16:59.600 Here's the full poem.

00:17:01.120 Okay, here's the full poem with both verses.

00:17:03.740 It says,

00:17:04.300 Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame, with conquering limbs astride from land to land, 0.92

00:17:10.220 here at our sea-washed sunset gates shall stand, a mighty woman with a torch whose flame 0.98

00:17:15.840 is the imprisoned lightning, and her name, mother of exiles, from her beacon hand, glows

00:17:21.580 worldwide welcome, her mild eyes command, the air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame.

00:17:27.560 Keep ancient lands your storied pomp, cries she, with silent lips.

00:17:31.720 Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, the wretched 1.00

00:17:36.800 refuse of your teeming shore.

00:17:39.020 Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed to me. 0.99

00:17:41.940 I lift my land beside the golden door.

00:17:44.280 Okay, it's a beautiful poem.

00:17:46.440 Nobody knows.

00:17:46.860 I think it's a beautiful poem.

00:17:47.980 I don't think anyone denies that.

00:17:50.160 And as Americans, we could be proud of that.

00:17:53.240 But the reason I read the full poem, notice something in the poem.

00:17:58.700 It says,

00:18:00.660 Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free. 1.00

00:18:07.100 So there is sort of a qualifier in there, isn't there?

00:18:12.580 It's not just, hey, you know, dump all the wretched refuse on our shore.

00:18:18.620 No, it's give us those who yearn for freedom.

00:18:23.680 And I totally agree.

00:18:26.260 That's exactly who we want.

00:18:29.120 Those are exactly the sorts of immigrants that we want. 0.85

00:18:32.180 Those who yearn for freedom.

00:18:34.400 Those are the kinds of citizens we want. 0.96

00:18:37.440 Even if they were born in this country.

00:18:38.860 As far as I'm concerned, even if you were born here and you don't want freedom, we don't need you.

00:18:42.380 I wish you would leave.

00:18:44.480 Okay, you're not helping.

00:18:47.620 You should go to a, if freedom isn't what you want, then I think this country isn't for you.

00:18:52.080 You should seriously leave and go somewhere else.

00:18:57.300 Well, and that's the point.

00:18:59.460 We're looking for people who are yearning to breathe free, yearning for freedom.

00:19:03.180 How does this relate to the whole public charge thing?

00:19:05.400 Well, if you're coming here with the primary intention of living off of the government and being on these social welfare programs and being a charge of the government, then you're not yearning for freedom.

00:19:22.820 What you want is actually the opposite of freedom.

00:19:26.800 And that's really the main problem.

00:19:30.220 Even aside from the financial burden of having to care for all of these people from all across the globe.

00:19:36.420 Even aside from that, it's just sort of philosophically.

00:19:40.340 It shows that someone comes here for that purpose.

00:19:44.400 They're not buying into the American idea.

00:19:48.660 And that's the biggest problem.

00:19:50.720 I think we want everyone who comes here and everybody who lives here, we all need to buy into the basic American idea.

00:19:56.700 We can disagree in so many other ways, and that's great.

00:19:59.080 But the basic principles and the most basic of all is that of liberty and freedom.

00:20:04.820 If you're not buying into that, then this country is not for you.

00:20:08.720 And that should be our message.

00:20:10.600 And again, if you're coming here because you want to live off the government, that's not freedom.

00:20:15.400 So, I think Cuccinelli had it exactly right.

00:20:21.820 Okay, let's moving on here.

00:20:25.080 There's a prominent Harvard professor named Lawrence Tribe, who maybe you've heard of.

00:20:32.280 He recently attempted, he sent out a tweet where he attempted to draw a connection between the pro-life movement and white supremacy.

00:20:41.000 And he's not the first leftist to try to pull this move.

00:20:44.100 It's pretty common, especially recently.

00:20:47.140 But in a tweet that he posted on Sunday, he said,

00:20:49.420 White supremacists oppose abortion because they fear it will reduce the number of white infants and thus contribute to what they fear is non-white replacement.

00:20:56.220 Never underestimate the way these issues and agendas are linked.

00:20:59.180 This turns intersectionality on its head.

00:21:01.780 Now, I wanted to address this because you'll notice that abortion advocates frequently, this is what they do.

00:21:07.200 They malign the alleged motives of pro-lifers rather than engaging with the actual arguments that pro-lifers are making.

00:21:15.720 That's because the pro-life argument, which very simply is that human babies are human and thus directly killing them is murder.

00:21:22.600 And because directly and intentionally killing any innocent human life is murder.

00:21:28.120 That's our argument right there.

00:21:30.120 It is logically, morally and scientifically airtight.

00:21:33.920 To defeat it, you have to either argue that humans aren't always human, which science disproves,

00:21:40.820 or you have to argue that intentionally killing an innocent human isn't always murder, which is morally abominable.

00:21:50.020 Whichever option you choose, you're walking out onto a very precarious limb.

00:21:54.260 And I think, therefore, it's much easier for abortion proponents to forgo arguments altogether

00:21:59.680 and to simply declare that pro-lifers really hate women or they really hate poor people, 0.98

00:22:04.400 or according to tribes' variation of the theme, they really hate black people. 1.00

00:22:07.700 This is an easy claim to make, but it is, unfortunately, an exceedingly stupid one as well. 1.00

00:22:13.320 And so I just want to, for a moment, reflect on the stupidity of this claim. 1.00

00:22:18.360 First of all, it should be noted that avowed white supremacists are famously pro-abortion. 1.00

00:22:28.260 Okay?

00:22:29.540 Among white supremacists, white nationalists, whatever,

00:22:32.840 these are not people who feel passionately pro-life.

00:22:37.420 It's quite the opposite.

00:22:38.820 And as someone who myself has been labeled a cuck-servative by many an alt-right person

00:22:44.600 for my pro-life advocacy, I can personally attest to this.

00:22:48.720 I have encountered this argument from that crowd many times.

00:22:56.700 I mean, at most, among white supremacists, what you're going to hear is,

00:23:01.800 well, abortion's irrelevant. 0.99

00:23:03.080 We should be talking about it.

00:23:04.000 That's the most pro-life they'll get.

00:23:08.620 But very often, in fact, they will be explicitly pro-abortion.

00:23:14.300 Richard Spencer has endorsed abortion, arguing that, quote,

00:23:17.900 smart people use it to get rid of Down syndrome babies or to protect the life of the mother.

00:23:23.680 And in that way, his argument for abortion is pretty indistinguishable from just the standard leftist argument for abortion.

00:23:32.880 And he has explicitly disavowed the pro-life movement and has told his supporters to be suspicious of anyone affiliated with it.

00:23:40.100 Again, indistinguishable rhetoric from what leftist pro-aborts say.

00:23:46.740 It's not difficult to see why white supremacists would support rather than oppose the practice of murdering children in the womb. 0.86

00:23:58.380 Black babies comprise a grossly disproportionate number of abortion victims in this country. 0.98

00:24:04.200 Black people make up only about 13% of the overall population, yet they account for close to 40% of all abortions. 0.98

00:24:14.080 In some major U.S. cities, okay, black children are more likely to be aborted than born. 0.97

00:24:20.200 That's the way this is working out. 0.94

00:24:26.760 Now, a white supremacist may not prefer to see white babies aborted, but he will certainly support legalized abortion

00:24:35.500 because he knows that the black population would be significantly larger today if not for the work of Planned Parenthood and its ilk. 0.78

00:24:41.860 More black people have died by abortion than by cancer, heart disease, accidents, violent crime combined.

00:24:51.960 Why would a white supremacist want to give up a tool as potent as that? 0.78

00:24:56.720 He wouldn't.

00:24:57.760 Now, speaking of Planned Parenthood, its founder, Margaret Sanger, was a passionate eugenicist, as I think most informed people know.

00:25:08.380 She once presented her ideas at a Klan meeting.

00:25:11.860 Um, there's a, there's a picture floating around out there of Margaret Sanger speaking to a Klan meeting.

00:25:17.820 That picture is fake.

00:25:19.600 It's a Photoshop.

00:25:20.980 Um, but she did speak to a Klan meeting. 0.99

00:25:24.100 It's just that there's no picture of it, but she did, in fact.

00:25:26.200 So what it's depicting is true, but the picture's fake.

00:25:29.560 Historically, Planned Parenthood has been, has been quite open about its real intentions.

00:25:33.320 It's only in recent years that they've gotten shy about their goal of, uh, exterminating society's supposed undesirables.

00:25:41.860 In 1969, a lot of people don't know about this, even pro-lifers.

00:25:46.320 The vice president of Planned Parenthood, Frederick Jaffe, in 1969, produced a memo called the Jaffe Memo,

00:25:55.240 outlining his organization's long-term goals.

00:25:58.700 He was, he was asked by, uh, the government to come up with a way of, of limiting the population and, um, and, you know, uh, staving off the supposed overpopulation crisis, which is a myth.

00:26:14.640 But the government, at the time, was, wanted to do that, and they knew, they knew who to talk to, talk to Planned Parenthood.

00:26:23.320 And so Planned Parenthood came up with this, with this, uh, memo, uh, suggesting some things that should be done.

00:26:28.260 These things include, uh, reduce slash eliminate paid maternity leave, compulsory, compulsory sterilization, compulsory abortion of out-of-wedlock pregnancies, 0.54

00:26:42.200 limit slash eliminate public finance, medical care, scholarships, housing loans, uh, housing and loans for families who have too many children.

00:26:49.840 And it goes on from there.

00:26:52.020 Now, the Jaffe Memo doesn't specifically mention black people or racial minorities, but the goal is very clear,

00:26:56.860 to reduce the population of the poor and economically disadvantaged by any means necessary. 0.95

00:27:01.800 And it just so happens that a disproportionate number of people who are poor and economically disadvantaged are black. 0.84

00:27:08.960 So, on this point, as on so many others, white supremacists are in substantial agreement with Planned Parenthood and with the abortion industry.

00:27:19.840 And it should also be noted that, um, Jaffe's and Margaret Sanger's plans have been carried out with great success by the abortion industry.

00:27:28.020 In that, you know, over half of all abortions are had by, by, uh, by people who are, uh, you know, below the poverty line or near the poverty line, at least.

00:27:40.720 So, to support abortion, here, I think this is what it comes down to.

00:27:47.600 In order to support abortion, you must see life on a hierarchy where some life is less important and more expendable than others.

00:27:58.660 That's the only way to support abortion. 1.00

00:28:00.360 It has to, in some way, be based on that idea, that not all life is equal.

00:28:07.640 Some life is less important, more expendable, uh, especially if it's dependent and, and weak and, and vulnerable.

00:28:15.640 Then, then it's going to be especially expendable.

00:28:18.840 Now, it just so happens, again, that's exactly how racists see the world, which is why racism and abortion have always fit together so perfectly.

00:28:30.420 To oppose abortion, on the other hand, you have to see life as possessing inherent worth and dignity.

00:28:36.840 That's really the only reason to oppose abortion. 0.70

00:28:39.140 And it's a pretty good reason.

00:28:43.140 You have to see that life is inherently valuable.

00:28:48.460 But a recognition of all human life as inherently valuable, having inherent worth and dignity, is not a good place to start if you want to be an effective racist.

00:28:58.760 That's racist, that's not the view that racists are going to have.

00:29:01.480 And that's why this idea that there's any relationship at all between white, so-called white supremacy and racism and, and, you know, pro-life advocacy is just, it could not be more wrong.

00:29:12.280 These are literally two opposite views of the world.

00:29:17.400 All right, before we get to emails, um, let's check in briefly with, with Jeffrey Epstein.

00:29:26.040 And I haven't even, I just saw this article on the Daily Wire.

00:29:28.660 I haven't even read it myself yet, but just quick, quick, quick details on this.

00:29:32.820 Um, the report on the Daily Wire says the two prison guards in charge of monitoring convicted pedophile and alleged sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein on the morning that he committed suicide reportedly fell asleep, did not check on him for hours, and then falsified prison records to hide their actions.

00:29:49.220 The new developments in the investigation into Epstein's suicide come after the Justice Department announced on Tuesday that the two guards had been placed on administrative leave and the warden of the prison was being temporarily reassigned.

00:30:00.280 Um, the New York Times reports, the two correctional officers in the housing unit where Mr. Epstein was held, nine south is the housing unit, falsely recorded in a log that they had checked on the financier who was facing sex trafficking charges every 30 minutes as was required.

00:30:17.120 But they lied.

00:30:18.120 But they lied.

00:30:19.140 Such false entries in an official log could constitute a federal crime.

00:30:22.640 All right, so that's the latest.

00:30:24.340 Um, we've got these people, you know, the people surrounding this issue are being sent away.

00:30:33.300 And now we're told that the two prison guards simultaneously fell asleep.

00:30:38.780 They both fell asleep and just so happened not to check on Epstein.

00:30:43.400 I find that hard to believe.

00:30:45.400 Now you tell me one of them fell asleep.

00:30:47.140 The idea that they both fell asleep is, um, is difficult to believe.

00:30:53.600 So I don't expect that this update will do much to quell the other theories of the case.

00:31:01.160 All right, mattwallshow at gmail.com.

00:31:02.960 Mattwallshow at gmail.com.

00:31:04.860 His email address, this is from Nick, says, Matt, you are the Fredo of the Daily Wire.

00:31:10.880 Well, you know, at least that means I make it to the end of the second movie.

00:31:13.180 So I'll, I'll take it.

00:31:14.960 This is from Ryan, says, Matt, if your take on what happened with the Cuomo heckler is the way it actually happened, then I agree with you about defending Cuomo's reaction.

00:31:24.000 However, there's a crucial element to the story I believe you are overlooking.

00:31:27.800 The heckler was an admitted avid listener to Rush Limbaugh.

00:31:30.520 Rush has been calling Chris Cuomo Fredo for years.

00:31:34.260 A term of endearment, as he puts it.

00:31:36.400 Sure.

00:31:37.000 In fact, Rush basically never uses Cuomo's real name, nor does he often explain why he calls him that.

00:31:42.620 The heckler actually stated in the video that he really thought Chris Cuomo's name was Fredo.

00:31:47.320 I'm sure he just overlooked that, as Cuomo also did, as some sort of BS claim.

00:31:51.980 But I believe there's a high likelihood that heckler was actually telling the truth.

00:31:55.660 And if that's the case, the way this all started wasn't heckling at all, but simply a guy who saw a famous person and asked him for a photo together and called him by the name he genuinely thought was Cuomo's name.

00:32:05.100 If that's the case, the whole thing was just a big misunderstanding and the heckler was not really heckling or trolling at all.

00:32:09.460 Ryan, I admire your optimistic view of this person, but I just don't believe for a second that he really thought the guy's name was Fredo.

00:32:25.820 I don't believe that for a second.

00:32:27.740 I mean, come on.

00:32:28.480 If the only way he knew about Chris Cuomo was because he listens to Rush Limbaugh, how did he know what Chris Cuomo looked like?

00:32:40.320 If he knew what Chris Cuomo looked like, that he could even pull him out of a crowd when Cuomo was there, he had a hat on.

00:32:45.460 I've seen Chris Cuomo plenty of times.

00:32:48.200 I'm not even sure that I would immediately recognize him if he walked down the street in a ball cap.

00:32:52.960 Maybe I would, but if you picked him out of the crowd and recognized him,

00:32:58.480 how did you do that if you've only ever heard him referred to by Rush Limbaugh on the radio?

00:33:05.720 That would seem to imply that you've seen the show.

00:33:09.200 And if you've seen the show, you have seen him identified as Chris Cuomo many times.

00:33:15.460 Isn't that even the name of his show, Chris Cuomo Live or something like that?

00:33:18.820 Maybe it isn't.

00:33:19.380 I don't know.

00:33:19.840 I don't really, I don't watch it that often, but that's the thing.

00:33:22.620 I don't, I'm not sitting around watching Chris Cuomo, but I know what his name is.

00:33:26.020 I know that it's not Fredo.

00:33:29.040 I mean, that would be like if, you know, there was some celebrity out there who's, who's, you know,

00:33:37.200 whatever, got, who people think resembles Frodo from, from, from Lord of the Rings.

00:33:45.740 And people called him Frodo.

00:33:47.160 And then, and then, and then you went up to him and say, hey, Frodo.

00:33:49.600 Oh no, I thought that was really your name.

00:33:51.000 I'm sorry.

00:33:51.560 I thought your name really, I thought your parents actually named you after the, uh,

00:33:55.440 the fictional Dorf from, from Lord of the Rings.

00:33:58.220 I mean, come on.

00:33:58.880 No, no, no.

00:33:59.200 I don't believe that for a second.

00:34:00.260 That's, that's, that's absurd.

00:34:02.760 There's no way.

00:34:03.380 Again, he, he would not, if he recognized him, it means he's seen him.

00:34:07.000 And if he's seen him, he's probably seen the show.

00:34:08.760 And so he's heard Chris Cuomo, um, not to mention he actually said, or one of the guys

00:34:14.420 in the video, um, said something like, uh, you're much more reasonable in person than

00:34:20.300 you are on TV.

00:34:23.500 Uh, which, which, what does that tell us?

00:34:25.440 Number one, he's, this is someone who's seen Chris Cuomo on TV.

00:34:29.420 Um, number two, this is someone familiar enough with Chris Cuomo to have, to have this notion

00:34:34.900 that he's not reasonable.

00:34:35.700 Number three, this is someone who doesn't like Chris Cuomo.

00:34:38.060 No, if you think, if you think he's unreasonable, you don't even like him.

00:34:42.160 So the idea that he was just a fan is, Hey, I want to, let me get a picture with you.

00:34:46.500 I'm not, I'm just a fan.

00:34:47.600 I mean, I mean, in a friendly way, he insulted him.

00:34:50.600 That's, that's an insult.

00:34:51.420 Oh, you're much more reasonable in person.

00:34:53.020 That is of course an insult, which would imply that you're not a big fan of this person,

00:34:57.180 but it's an insult based on apparently your impression that you've gained from watching

00:35:02.040 him, which means, you know, his name.

00:35:03.240 So no, um, I don't believe that for a second.

00:35:05.700 And he's lying about that.

00:35:06.880 Uh, and, uh, and which, which just makes me want to take this guy's side even less.

00:35:13.700 This is, this is not about taking Chris Cuomo side.

00:35:15.800 This is about not taking the side of a trolling heckler.

00:35:19.760 He's coming up to a guy when he's out in public with his family and, uh, and bothering him.

00:35:25.260 Just leave people alone.

00:35:26.640 Just leave him alone.

00:35:27.680 You don't need to go up to the guy.

00:35:29.000 Just he's out with his family, leave him, but you go up to him where he's with his family

00:35:32.320 and you call him Fredo.

00:35:34.220 And then, and then you don't even have the guts to stand by it and say, yeah, I called

00:35:37.380 him Fredo. 1.00

00:35:38.520 This guy is such a coward. 1.00

00:35:39.920 You don't even have the guts to stand by what you said. 1.00

00:35:43.540 Now you're back.

00:35:44.280 It was, Oh no, I really thought that's what he meant.

00:35:45.940 And then he attacked me.

00:35:47.140 Oh, boo hoo. 1.00

00:35:48.440 Come on, man up for goodness sakes.

00:35:51.260 You know what you did.

00:35:52.340 At least admit it.

00:35:54.760 No, that's, that's the thing.

00:35:56.000 People accuse me.

00:35:56.720 Oh, you're taking Chris Cuomo side.

00:35:57.860 No, I'm just not going to take the, I don't take a, a heckling trolls side.

00:36:01.780 I never, ever will.

00:36:03.220 I don't care who's, I don't care what their politics are.

00:36:06.560 You go up, you harass the guy and he's with his wife and you would try to emasculate him. 0.54

00:36:10.600 But hey, Fredo, come here and take a picture.

00:36:12.660 That's obviously an attempt to emasculate the guy.

00:36:14.820 And if you do that, when a guy's with his wife, when he's, when he's with his woman, 0.57

00:36:18.640 you're going to get an aggressive response.

00:36:20.860 Any guy would respond that way.

00:36:22.640 I mean, any self-respecting guy would, would respond with some level of, of aggressiveness.

00:36:27.560 Not necessarily physically assaulting him, but like if a guy comes up to you with your

00:36:30.800 wife and tries to emasculate you, are you just going to take it? 1.00

00:36:35.200 You're just going to sit there and say, Oh gee, yeah, I'll take a picture, sir.

00:36:39.680 You can call me whatever you want to call me.

00:36:42.040 No, no, no, no, no, no.

00:36:45.700 Um, okay.

00:36:47.320 From Audrey says, Hey Matt, my name is Audrey, long ish time listener.

00:36:53.640 I'm in need of some advice.

00:36:55.040 My brother's getting married soon.

00:36:56.380 And we, uh, me and my five month old and two year old went to visit him recently.

00:37:00.460 While we were there, I asked about what they plan for family wise.

00:37:03.720 And his fiance replied, having kids is the worst thing you can do for the environment.

00:37:07.160 I sat there absolutely dumbfounded while nursing my youngest.

00:37:10.840 I honestly didn't know how to respond to her.

00:37:13.460 Any words of advice, seeing how this is a topic that will likely come up again.

00:37:16.940 Thanks.

00:37:17.440 And thanks for all the wonderful podcasting.

00:37:20.800 Um, well, okay.

00:37:21.700 How would you respond to that?

00:37:22.780 How would I respond?

00:37:23.700 I, how should you respond?

00:37:24.940 I would say smile, nod, and slowly back away.

00:37:28.120 Um, you know, I, well, in all seriousness, that is kind of the right response.

00:37:33.000 I think actually, of course, if you wanted to get into a philosophical debate with your

00:37:37.140 soon-to-be, uh, sister-in-law, you could point out that this is, this, this view of the human

00:37:42.600 person is grossly materialistic and reductionist, making people into simple commodities like vehicles

00:37:48.520 and assessing their impact on the environment in that way, which doesn't take into account

00:37:53.140 the transcendent aspects of human nature and of humanity itself, things like love and beauty,

00:37:57.640 things that make all life worthy and, and, uh, and, uh, and, and worthwhile, regardless

00:38:03.220 of their supposed impact on the environment.

00:38:04.840 So you could make that point if you wanted to, but, um, if you don't want to have a

00:38:12.020 philosophical debate with this person about their decisions on whether or not they're going

00:38:16.780 to have kids, then maybe the best thing is just to say, oh, okay, well, good for you.

00:38:20.560 Because really, look, if someone doesn't want to have kids because they're worried about

00:38:24.860 the environment, then, I mean, that's their choice and whatever, uh, you know, maybe it's

00:38:29.140 best if they don't, if that, if, if, if their primary concern is, you know, CO2 levels, uh,

00:38:35.920 over family and kids, then that may be as someone who's it's best that they don't anyway, have

00:38:40.740 kids.

00:38:40.980 So, um, all right, somewhat related question here.

00:38:47.940 This is from Sarah says, hi, Matt, you tend to mock vegetarianism on your show.

00:38:53.380 I wonder if this is meant as a joke or if you really find the vegetarian argument absurd.

00:38:57.700 I am a vegetarian myself, and I think you should take our point of view more seriously

00:39:01.900 than you do.

00:39:04.360 Um, no, so it's, it's, I don't mean it as mockery. 0.99

00:39:09.580 You know, when I say that vegetarians are, uh, communist, sociopathic, anti-American lunatics, 1.00

00:39:19.680 that's not an insult. 0.99

00:39:21.660 You see, I don't mean it as an insult.

00:39:23.280 In fact, I mean it as a compliment.

00:39:25.020 No, I, no, I don't really think that about vegetarians.

00:39:27.440 That is a joke.

00:39:29.380 Here's what I'll say about the, the veg.

00:39:30.900 And when you say the vegetarian argument, uh, I assume you mean the moral argument because

00:39:35.640 there are two parts of it, right?

00:39:36.900 There's the moral argument.

00:39:38.560 There are people who are vegetarian because they think it's wrong to kill animals.

00:39:41.900 And then there are people who are vegetarian because they think it's the healthiest thing.

00:39:45.080 And then I'm sure there's a lot of crossover there, but, um, I'm not going to address the

00:39:48.740 health aspect of it.

00:39:50.580 The moral aspect.

00:39:51.920 But here's what I'll say.

00:39:53.540 No, I, I don't think in all seriousness, I don't think that the vegetarian moral argument

00:39:58.600 is crazy or absurd.

00:40:00.200 Of course it's not absurd.

00:40:01.580 It would be absurd to say that it's absurd.

00:40:04.060 Now, I don't agree with it, obviously, because otherwise I'd be vegetarian, but it's not absurd.

00:40:08.980 Your point is that, um, you know, animals are human or not human, but animals are, are life.

00:40:16.200 And so to, they are complex life.

00:40:20.140 And so to, to, you know, take a life like that when, when, when you have other options

00:40:26.160 and you could live without it, as many people do is wrong.

00:40:30.520 That's basically your argument, right?

00:40:31.840 And I think that that's a perfectly reasonable argument.

00:40:35.540 So that's my, that's my answer to that.

00:40:37.600 What I would say though, in response is, it seems clear to me that human beings are meant

00:40:48.420 to have animals as part of their diet, just as many other animals have animals as part

00:40:55.460 of their diet.

00:40:56.880 Now, it doesn't really matter how you approach this.

00:40:59.680 If you, if you're, if you believe in God, um, and if you are a follower of the Judeo-Christian

00:41:06.340 tradition, then you could point to the Bible and you can see that clearly we were given

00:41:12.740 domain over, um, the animals and the plants.

00:41:15.900 And, and, uh, and so that gives us the, not the license to abuse animals or to be cruel,

00:41:22.260 but certainly to use them in a certain way, including for fuel for, for ourselves, biological

00:41:29.100 fuel.

00:41:30.420 Or if you, let's say are not a theist and you approach from a secular evolutionary perspective,

00:41:36.260 then it's even more the case that it's clear that we evolved, uh, to eat other animals, uh,

00:41:42.740 as omnivores, uh, just like, uh, and there are plenty other animals in the animal kingdom

00:41:46.600 who do as well.

00:41:47.280 And so we're, we're no different from them either way.

00:41:50.820 I don't see how, how I think the absolute moral, the absolutist moral argument vegetarians 1.00

00:41:56.200 make, although it's not absurd, there is a certain sense to it.

00:41:59.220 I don't agree with it for that reason.

00:42:01.280 It's just clear to me, whether you're coming from a theistic theological perspective or just

00:42:05.940 a biological evolutionary perspective, either way, it seems clear to me that we were meant

00:42:10.220 to eat animals.

00:42:12.220 Now, on the other hand, if you want to get into talking about factory farming and how

00:42:20.440 we just produce animals now by the billions simply to eat them, and we have them locked

00:42:26.460 in these tiny little cages and they live lives of suffering and misery and just utterly pointless

00:42:31.640 and they're only there to be eaten.

00:42:33.640 And, you know, um, you look at how animals are treated in the factory farming environment.

00:42:37.980 Now there, I think you have a very, very good case.

00:42:40.960 In fact, I, I really, even though I eat food, I readily admit that I eat food that is produced

00:42:47.140 by factory farming.

00:42:48.740 I, I couldn't make a moral argument to vindicate factory farming.

00:42:54.860 I don't, I don't see how anyone could.

00:42:57.320 It's, I mean, it's pretty clear that animals in that environment are, it's, it's, this is

00:43:02.740 cruel and not right to treat animals that way, uh, because it's just a total disregard.

00:43:08.060 Now I, I do believe there's a hierarchy here and human life is more important than animal

00:43:11.880 life, but we can't say that animal life is utterly meaningless and it has no value at

00:43:17.640 all.

00:43:17.920 But in the factory farming environment, they are, their lives are treated as totally meaningless.

00:43:23.760 No point at all, except to be eaten by us and that their own experience is, is completely

00:43:29.700 irrelevant.

00:43:30.100 And there's a complete disregard for that.

00:43:32.080 And I think that that's wrong.

00:43:34.680 So yet I continue to eat that food. 0.82

00:43:36.880 Does that make me a hypocrite? 0.85

00:43:38.140 Um, yes, it does. 0.65

00:43:41.640 All right.

00:43:42.360 Uh, let's see.

00:43:46.280 This is from Mark says, Matt, I was having this discussion with a friend and thought you'd

00:43:51.500 maybe have something interesting to say about it.

00:43:53.940 What is a genius?

00:43:55.000 How would you define the word genius?

00:44:00.420 Well, first of all, Mark, I love that you're sitting around with your friends, having an

00:44:03.420 abstract discussion like that, which I, which, which is much better than small talk in my

00:44:07.140 view.

00:44:07.320 I think that's great.

00:44:08.740 Um, what is a genius?

00:44:09.980 That is an interesting, you know, I think, well, I think a genius is not simply someone

00:44:18.200 who has a high IQ.

00:44:19.440 I think that, um, IQ tests do tell us something.

00:44:23.860 It's probably unlikely that a person would get say a 50 on an IQ test and yet be a genius.

00:44:28.560 So I think IQ tests do measure something, but I don't think they get the whole story.

00:44:32.100 And of course, being a genius also has really almost nothing to do with what, how much stuff

00:44:37.760 you know, you know, what kind of, what information you have in your head that has nothing to do

00:44:41.560 with genius whatsoever.

00:44:42.180 There can be, there can be, there can be probably are, and certainly have been geniuses across the

00:44:48.060 world who knew very little just because they had little access to information.

00:44:53.680 So knowing something, just what that reflects is how much information you have access to.

00:44:59.320 We live in a culture today where we all know a lot of stuff.

00:45:03.800 Our knowledge doesn't go very deep, but we have access to a ton of information.

00:45:08.660 So we're ingesting information all the time.

00:45:11.100 Yet most of us are certainly not geniuses. 1.00

00:45:13.400 And in fact, I think there are quite a lot of very stupid people in the modern Western world. 1.00

00:45:18.060 Stupid people who know a lot of stuff just because they can't help but know it. 1.00

00:45:22.900 So those things have nothing to do with genius. 1.00

00:45:24.560 I think that genius really is someone who doesn't take his reality for granted.

00:45:34.140 I think if you, if you had to really find what's the common thread between all the great

00:45:39.400 geniuses of history, these are people who don't take their reality for granted.

00:45:42.680 What I mean is a genius is someone who doesn't just passively accept everything that's told

00:45:47.820 to him.

00:45:48.720 He doesn't just accept things as they are presented.

00:45:51.800 A genius truly appreciates what is really remarkable in the world, doesn't take that for granted,

00:45:57.840 and has an ability to think beyond our current reality, has an ability to think in revolutionary

00:46:03.880 terms.

00:46:04.740 That to me is a genius.

00:46:05.780 So we could see this, for example, in music.

00:46:09.780 What's the difference between a really talented musician and a musical genius?

00:46:14.180 Are they the same?

00:46:15.120 No, I don't think so.

00:46:15.660 I think there are a lot of talented musicians who aren't geniuses, but guys like Elvis Presley,

00:46:20.600 Bob Dylan, you know, even Kurt Cobain and Tupac.

00:46:23.300 I mean, these, these were geniuses because they changed music because they were able to

00:46:26.960 see something.

00:46:27.760 They were able to do something different with it.

00:46:29.480 They didn't take it for granted.

00:46:30.580 They were able to go in a different direction.

00:46:31.960 I think that, I'm trying to avoid the outside the box thinking cliche, but that's basically

00:46:36.120 what I'm talking about here.

00:46:37.960 Einstein was obviously a genius.

00:46:39.760 Newton was a genius.

00:46:40.800 Da Vinci was a genius.

00:46:41.820 These were men who were beyond smart.

00:46:43.920 I mean, they just, they thought about the world differently and they changed the world

00:46:47.500 because of it.

00:46:48.400 Einstein, with his relativity theory, he, he just thought of that, right?

00:46:54.920 That was the crazy thing about Einstein is that he, he, he wasn't, he was building on

00:46:58.680 prior research and things too, but more than that, it was just, it was just pure thought.

00:47:03.880 He just came up with things about the world by thinking about them and, uh, and changed

00:47:10.240 our view of the world immeasurably through his own thoughts.

00:47:15.580 That is genius.

00:47:18.440 Um, so that's what, I think that's what genius is.

00:47:21.320 I mean, if you think about it, every smart person, you know, maybe not all historic geniuses,

00:47:28.880 but, uh, certainly the people who are maybe minor geniuses or, or at least intellectually

00:47:33.600 gifted.

00:47:35.100 One of the main ways that, you know, they're very smart is that, um, they're, they're able

00:47:42.260 to say things or present things that make you go, oh man, I never thought of it that way.

00:47:47.260 Um, I think that's the mark of at least an intellectually gifted person.

00:47:51.780 If they have the ability with whatever they're doing or saying, whatever they're presented,

00:47:55.100 whatever idea they're presenting to you, if they have this ability to make you go, I

00:47:58.880 just never thought of it like that.

00:48:00.480 When you read a book from an author and you think, wow, that's, that's an interesting way

00:48:03.620 of thinking of it.

00:48:04.120 I never thought of it that way.

00:48:07.200 In fact, I'm reading a book now.

00:48:09.000 Um, not, I don't know what I did with it.

00:48:11.560 Uh, it's a, oh, it's down there.

00:48:12.940 Uh, it's a book called, uh, Sapiens, but hold on a second.

00:48:15.900 I forget the guy's name.

00:48:16.780 Um, a book called Sapiens, uh, by Yuval Noah Harari.

00:48:22.920 And, um, I picked this up at the airport and I, I'm almost through it.

00:48:26.680 I think that, and I'm not going to call it a work of genius.

00:48:28.860 And the thing is, I, I, I disagree profoundly with a lot of the stuff in the, in the book

00:48:34.500 that I'm reading now, which is kind of supposed to be a history of humankind going from, you

00:48:39.140 know, uh, from primitive days to, to today.

00:48:42.540 I disagree profoundly with a lot of it.

00:48:46.560 Um, and this is someone who is certainly anti-religion for one thing, and that becomes very clear,

00:48:51.760 but there are some sort of genius elements of it because there are, because in the book,

00:48:56.720 he, for instance, a lot of the book is basically a, a, almost a polemic against the agricultural

00:49:02.700 revolution, which is, so I'm reading that.

00:49:05.580 And I was like, I don't really agree.

00:49:07.000 You know, I think the agricultural revolution 10,000 years ago was a good thing and it made

00:49:10.520 human civilization possible, which is no, no small perk either.

00:49:14.440 But I don't think I've ever heard anyone actually criticize the agricultural revolution.

00:49:17.820 That's just something we all take for granted.

00:49:19.720 Well, yeah, agriculture, of course that's good.

00:49:21.560 We need that.

00:49:23.100 So in this book, at least through part of it, he, um, he's basically arguing that we'd be

00:49:28.340 better if it never happened and giving his reasons.

00:49:30.160 Again, I don't agree with all the reasons, but I think that's sort of a, a, a genius move

00:49:35.360 in a way to be able to take something that everyone else takes for granted, make some

00:49:40.180 observations about it that other people hadn't thought of, and then make people go, oh, I

00:49:46.080 just, I hadn't thought of it that way.

00:49:48.440 All right.

00:49:49.140 Um, so we'll leave it there.

00:49:52.320 Thanks everybody for watching.

00:49:54.420 Godspeed.

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00:50:11.720 Michael Knowles show, and the Andrew Klavan show.

00:50:14.200 Thanks for listening.

00:50:15.940 The Matt Wall show is produced by Robert Sterling, associate producer, Alexia Garcia del

00:50:20.140 Rio, executive producer, Jeremy Boring, senior producer, Jonathan Hay.

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00:50:33.260 The Matt Wall show is a daily wire production, copyright daily wire, 2019.

00:50:36.820 In the wake of Fredo Cuomo's meltdown, many prominent conservatives are taking CNN side,

00:50:41.660 and President Trump is furious about that.

00:50:44.040 Then another CNN scandal, this time involving Don Lemon, and it takes place at one of my favorite

00:50:49.480 bars in New York.

00:50:50.340 We'll go into that, an evangelical musician loses his faith, and finally, more details

00:50:55.240 emerge in the Jeffrey Epstein saga.

00:50:57.900 Check it out on the Michael Knowles show.

The Matt Walsh Show - August 14, 2019

Ep. 317 - Huddled Masses Yearning To Breathe Free

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