The Matt Walsh Show - Ep. 324 - Walmart Solves Mass Shootings

00:00:00.000 Okay, so this picture has been floating around Twitter. I don't know if you've seen this.

00:00:03.580 Let me just show it to you. Take a look at this. It's from a reporter in Texas,

00:00:06.860 and it shows a man. Billy is his name, apparently. Billy is voluntarily turning in his gun to police,

00:00:14.400 turning in his AK-47. And of course, the left applauds this kind of thing and says,

00:00:22.040 well done. Well done, my child. Well done. Pats him on his head. Very good, Billy. Very good.

00:00:27.700 But I really don't get it. I mean, was the guy planning a mass shooting? If he was planning a

00:00:33.400 mass shooting, then yeah, it's good that he turned in his gun. But in that case, he shouldn't just turn

00:00:40.380 in his gun and say, you don't want a guy to come up and say, here's my gun, officer. I was going to do

00:00:45.800 a mass shooting. I've changed my mind. Here's the gun. See you later. No, there needs to be a follow

00:00:51.160 up, right? Like maybe send him to a mental health institution at a minimum or something. But if he

00:00:55.300 wasn't planning a mass shooting, which I assume that he was not, then what's the point of turning

00:01:03.000 in the gun? The gun wasn't going to hurt anybody. It was only going to hurt somebody if you were

00:01:07.760 going to hurt them with it. If you weren't planning on that, then the gun poses really zero risk to

00:01:13.240 anyone. I can say that I know for a fact that I am not going to commit a mass shooting. I can say

00:01:19.960 that about myself. I can't say it about anybody else for a fact, but I can say it about myself.

00:01:25.480 Therefore, there is pretty much a 0% chance that my gun will be used for a mass shooting. It's

00:01:32.120 pretty much zero. There's always, I guess, the possibility that it could be stolen or something

00:01:37.840 by someone who then carries out the mass shooting. But if I'm practicing safe and responsible gun

00:01:44.180 ownership, the chances of that are very, very small. So it's effectively a 0% chance that my gun will

00:01:49.720 be used in a mass shooting, which means that I'm not going to give up my gun in response to a mass

00:01:55.820 shooting. It just doesn't make any sense. Why would I? This is like, it's like, I don't know, if

00:02:02.660 someone cut off their right leg, amputated their healthy right leg because they heard of a case

00:02:09.020 somewhere else of a guy getting gangrene in his right leg and then dying. So it's like,

00:02:13.660 it's sort of like that. It just, it doesn't make a lot of sense.

00:02:16.420 Um, if you know that you're a responsible gun owner, you're not going to hurt anybody,

00:02:21.140 then keep your gun. There's no reason to get rid of it. Um, speaking of things I don't get,

00:02:28.980 Walmart is the latest company to surrender to the left on the gun issue, which if I could just say

00:02:37.320 from the outset, um, before we even look at the, before we even look at the specifics of this case,

00:02:42.600 it makes no sense in general for Walmart to cave on anything. This is Walmart we're talking about.

00:02:52.080 Okay. This is Walmart. They've got 90 million stores across, across the world. They've, they,

00:02:57.300 they're worth $65 trillion. These, these numbers are rough estimates, but you get the idea.

00:03:02.580 Um, this is a very big company with lots of money and lots of power. And there is really

00:03:09.680 nothing the left can do to it, especially in Walmart's case. When you consider that the primary

00:03:14.240 customer base for Walmart is not going to be wealthy urbanites. Okay. It's not going to be

00:03:19.400 liberals from, um, you know, in New York or Los Angeles or San Francisco, the primary customer base

00:03:26.600 for Walmart is middle-class blue collar Americans. And so if every liberal in the country boycotted

00:03:33.060 Walmart, which they've already done on a hundred different occasions, it would amount to what,

00:03:38.000 maybe 60 bucks of lost profit. I'm making up a lot of figures to start the show, but, uh,

00:03:43.760 I've made up like 800 figures probably, but you understand my point. There's just no reason for

00:03:48.780 Walmart to cave yet. It did. And we'll talk about that in just a minute. But first, um, you know,

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00:05:14.240 money. All right, back to Walmart. Um, reading now from the daily wire, it says on Tuesday,

00:05:20.280 Walmart announced that after its current inventory is depleted, it will cave to the demands of far

00:05:25.420 left activists and stop selling handgun ammunition and ammunition commonly used in other popular

00:05:30.200 semi-automatic firearms. Walmart also stated that it was requesting that customers skew, uh, uh, um,

00:05:37.380 carrying guns openly in their roughly 47. I know I pronounced that word wrong, but that's how I pronounce it.

00:05:42.520 I pronounce it askew, uh, roughly 4,700 stores, as well as it's Sam's club stores and states that

00:05:49.480 permit open carry Walmart CEO, Doug McMillan issued a memo to employees on Tuesday, uh, in which he

00:05:54.920 started by citing the mass shooting in El Paso and, and, uh, in Dayton in August, as well as further

00:05:59.620 mass shootings. And he said, well, we'll also be, we've also been listening to a lot of people inside

00:06:04.580 and outside our company. As we think about the role we can play in helping to make the country safer.

00:06:08.600 It's clear to us that the status quo is unacceptable. Um, McMillan noted that Walmart had already ceased

00:06:15.320 selling AR-15s, raised the age limit to purchase a firearm or ammunition to 21, required a green light

00:06:21.020 on a background check for purchase instead of, instead of the absence of a red light, which is required

00:06:25.620 by federal law, among other steps. So they've already done all this stuff, but now they're going to take it

00:06:30.440 even further and, uh, stop selling the ammunition for semi-automatic weapons. And they're asking

00:06:36.300 customers not to open carry in the, in the store. So we've got two different things. We've got the

00:06:42.260 discontinuation of the sale of ammo for semi-automatic firearms. And then Walmart, not exactly

00:06:48.980 banning people from open carrying in their stores, but requesting that they don't. A request that by the

00:06:55.600 way, no matter how I feel about it, I will still say that all gun owners should respectfully follow

00:07:04.040 a request like that. That's definitely my view. I think part of being a responsible gun owner is

00:07:10.040 that if someone asks you not to bring your gun into their home or into their business, you respect

00:07:17.540 that those wishes and either don't bring it in or don't bring yourself in. If you really can't

00:07:22.800 part with it for a few minutes, um, you know, I think as gun owners, it's very important.

00:07:30.480 And there are gun owners who make this mistake where they try to make a statement with their gun,

00:07:37.260 uh, or make a spectacle of themselves with it. And I don't think we should do that. I think that's a

00:07:45.040 mistake. There was, this was a few years ago, but just, uh, one, one case I remember, I think it was

00:07:52.680 a Chipotle, uh, Chipotle few years ago, um, announced that you can't open carry in their

00:07:59.580 stores anymore because there had been a group, I think it was in Texas of gun rights activists

00:08:04.200 who were sort of making a point, uh, of, of, of, of carrying, you know, AR-15s and so on

00:08:10.780 into Chipotle so they could eat their burritos, not doing just, just for the spectacle, just to

00:08:16.140 make a point. And so Chipotle said, no, you can't do that. People are uncomfortable. And so no,

00:08:20.960 you can't bring it in. And they had every right to say that. I think actually that was a reasonable

00:08:25.200 response. When you have customers that are disrupting things and making people uncomfortable

00:08:31.080 for no reason, not because they're exercising their rights, but just because they're trying to

00:08:35.160 make a spectacle of themselves. Then I think the company not only has every right to respond,

00:08:39.720 but is reasonable in responding. And so it really annoys me as a lawful gun owner myself,

00:08:45.560 when I do see gun owners making, making spectacles of themselves on purpose and treating their guns

00:08:52.560 like toys, which does happen. It's not common, but it happens. That really, really annoys me

00:08:58.000 because you're making it worse for the rest of us. The ammo thing on the other hand is just

00:09:02.820 silliness. It's absolute silliness. Uh, there are many things in a Walmart store that could kill you

00:09:08.460 or kill someone else if you abuse them. Okay. If you're walking into a Walmart and thinking to

00:09:15.180 yourself, I want to buy something that's going to hurt somebody or hurt myself. You don't need to

00:09:20.580 go to the gun counter. There are many other places you could go knives, hammers, ropes, cleaning supplies,

00:09:27.200 prescription pills, uh, pesticides. I mean, there are a lot more people

00:09:32.560 abusing some of those things, especially pills than there are people abusing guns. In fact,

00:09:38.460 here's the real comparison we need to do. And I don't know the exact answer, but I have an educated

00:09:43.180 guess. Here's what we need to compare, compare the people who purchase prescription pills legally

00:09:50.880 and then abuse them to the people who purchase guns and bullets legally and then abuse them.

00:09:59.960 My educated guess is that there are a lot more people in the former category with the pills than

00:10:07.180 there are in the latter category because the vast, vast, vast majority of legal lawful gun owners are not

00:10:15.220 hurting anybody. Um, yes, Walmart has the right to make this decision, but it's a dumb decision with

00:10:24.700 no practical benefit in terms of reducing gun violence. And not to mention, you know, you could

00:10:33.040 say that, well, some customers are uncomfortable now being in a Walmart store with when there are guns

00:10:39.720 and so on around, but I think there are a lot of other customers who are uncomfortable with the

00:10:45.040 idea of being in a Walmart store and being disarmed and unable to defend themselves considering what

00:10:50.240 just happened at a Walmart. But the worst thing about it is that it represents a cave to the left,

00:10:57.080 as I said at the top, which is symbolically very damaging, especially when Walmart is so uniquely

00:11:02.840 positioned to flip the bird to the left and say, we don't care what you guys think. It doesn't matter

00:11:07.580 to us. You can't, you can't touch us. You can't do anything to us. You have no power over us.

00:11:13.080 Um, that's what we all need to start saying. And Walmart is able to say it, but they didn't hear,

00:11:18.400 um, on the issue of open carrying in the stores and Kroger, the grocery store also just announced

00:11:25.140 this as well, that they don't want you to open carry in the store. Um, and this again is stupid

00:11:31.360 on a number of levels. First of all, and this is the main thing, the shooting in El Paso,

00:11:37.580 was not carried out by a Walmart customer open carrying in the store. Yes, there was a shooting

00:11:46.580 involving a man with a gun in a Walmart, but he was not a Walmart customer who was open carrying.

00:11:52.840 That's not what that was. It wasn't like, you know, someone who open carried in the store,

00:11:57.880 then got into an argument in the self checkout line and pulled out the gun and went on a massacre.

00:12:02.540 Okay. If that's what had happened, then at least the open carrying policies would be relevant to

00:12:08.300 the, uh, to the situation. But that's not what happened. This is someone who walked into the store

00:12:15.940 with the intention of killing people, not shopping. And then he proceeded to do it.

00:12:22.760 So once again, stopping people from open carrying in the store, that's not going to prevent that.

00:12:27.700 You're not going to stop. So just because there's a sign saying, don't open carry in the store. It's

00:12:32.220 just like the gun free zone thing. It's a cliche to point it out, but it's true that the gun free

00:12:37.880 zone don't open carry. All you're doing is you're stopping the people who are the sorts of people

00:12:42.520 who would respect rules like that. And those are all the good, decent people. But if you're a psychotic

00:12:48.620 killer and you want to kill people, you're not going to care about the policy and politely asking you

00:12:54.780 not to open carry. In fact, if anything, you are more likely to target a place like that because

00:13:00.960 you know that it's unlikely anyone's going to shoot back. This is really basic logic. The left,

00:13:06.620 they, they claim that this is an unconvincing argument, but, but where's the flaw in it?

00:13:13.360 If someone is a potential mass shooter and they're looking to carry this out and they want to maximize

00:13:18.760 casualties, are they going to choose a place where there is likely to be other gun owners there who

00:13:26.940 could return fire? Or are they going to choose a place where it's likely people are disarmed?

00:13:31.260 It's, it's, it's really obvious. They're going to choose the latter in that case.

00:13:35.960 All right. Um, moving on. I wanted to talk briefly about this. Uh, first take a look at,

00:13:44.980 at this image. There you go. That's the picture there. That is a, a horse, a miniature horse named

00:13:54.280 flirty. And, uh, you guessed it. Yes. That is someone's emotional support animal. A woman

00:14:00.580 brought a horse on a flight. She bought a, brought a horse on a flight on an American airlines flight

00:14:07.200 out of Chicago, uh, because it's a service animal. She claims this really is. I say it all

00:14:14.940 the time. Slippery slope arguments are constantly vindicated in our culture, which is itself

00:14:22.880 slipping down a very, very big and steep slide. Uh, and so this is one of those, you know, five

00:14:29.600 years ago, people like myself were saying, Hey, with these emotional support, next thing you know,

00:14:32.900 people are gonna be bringing horses on planes. And of course, a lot of people say, I'm not going

00:14:38.200 to do that. Well, here we are. They're bringing a horse on a plane. Uh, she has depression and

00:14:42.440 anxiety. And, uh, this is her service animal for those conditions. The woman, Abrea Hensley

00:14:47.740 is her name says that she brings her emotional support horse everywhere to restaurants, grocery

00:14:53.420 stores, movies. Only a couple of times has she encountered an establishment owned by someone

00:15:00.620 with the audacity to say, Hey, would you mind not bringing your horse inside? Can your horse

00:15:06.320 wait outside? You have to bring it inside. And of course, uh, this, this person, Abrea, just

00:15:12.420 a wonderful person is looking at suing those places. She says that almost everywhere she

00:15:18.640 goes with her horse, she's able to walk around inside and nobody complains and everyone's

00:15:23.060 fine. A few places in her life, she's encountered that where they say, we'd prefer if you don't.

00:15:28.560 And so what she got, she's going to sue them. Of course. Right. Cause she's going to sue them.

00:15:32.520 Um, a wonderful person, obviously, right? Not at all an egomaniac with no regard for anyone

00:15:38.280 else who expects everyone around her to accommodate the utter absurdity of a horse walking around

00:15:43.100 inside. Oh wait. Yeah. That's exactly what she is, right? That's what the emotional support animal

00:15:49.740 stuff really is much of the time. That's the real condition these people have. That's what they

00:15:55.540 suffer from. I know she says, Oh, I have anxiety, depression, PTSD, panic attacks, so on. She might have

00:16:02.420 all that. I'm not her therapist, but even as I'm, even, even though I'm not her therapist or her

00:16:08.740 doctor, I can still diagnose her with this egomania. She is a narcissist. She is an egomaniac.

00:16:14.100 Now I don't deny that, um, service animals are a real and necessary thing for some people.

00:16:23.580 There are people with real conditions who really do need a dog with them.

00:16:28.500 I think dogs are the only legitimate service animals and they perform specific functions for

00:16:35.380 people who have real conditions and that's fine. A blind person, for example, needs a seeing eye dog.

00:16:43.600 Obviously the dog performs a specific function. Um, and it's necessary for the person who suffers from

00:16:52.640 this disability to have the dog so they can participate in society and, and, and the, the

00:16:59.500 animal helps facilitate that. So that's great. That's fine. Uh, and I think it's wonderful that

00:17:05.180 I think it's amazing actually that dogs can are able to do that for people, but the idea that you

00:17:11.460 need your favorite animal with you at all times, uh, just emotionally, even if the animal is a horse or

00:17:19.480 an iguana or a three toed sloth or an ostrich, the idea that you need that medically for emotional

00:17:27.140 reasons is absurd. I'm sorry. It just is. If you can't emotionally deal with being separated from

00:17:35.740 your pet for a few hours, you need to grow up. Okay. That's what, that's the real problem here.

00:17:41.860 You need to be an adult. Um, I mean, I had to go through this with my children and a lot of kids

00:17:49.460 go through this where they have their favorite, uh, stuffed animal, their favorite toy or whatever.

00:17:55.580 And it's sort of an, uh, uh, uh, security blank and they like to bring it everywhere. But at a certain

00:18:00.880 point as a kid gets older, you know, if a kid's two years old and he likes to drag his teddy bear

00:18:05.740 around everywhere for the most part, that's fine. But when a kid is six or seven, they need to be

00:18:12.480 able to go out in public and go to school and do whatever else without having that with them.

00:18:16.620 And so, and it can be a difficult adjustment, but you, but you need to teach them that so that they

00:18:21.740 can be, uh, so they can grow up and mature and it's difficult, but kids can learn it. If kids can learn

00:18:29.520 it, then so can an adult. So can, uh, uh, a Brea or Adrea, whatever her name is. She can learn it too.

00:18:36.440 She really can. This, you know, this is, this is like emotional blackmail and I'm really sick of it.

00:18:43.120 I'm really sick of the emotional black. Well, where you have someone like this saying,

00:18:46.740 well, if you don't like, let me have my horse with me, I'm going to freak out and panic and sob

00:18:51.180 and scream and cry on the plane. And so what would you rather have? Well, here's an option.

00:18:55.840 Just don't act like that. Control yourself. I know you can.

00:19:00.000 Just don't. How about a third of it's not, let me bring my horse or I'm going to freak out and be

00:19:04.300 a maniac. No, there's a third option, which is that you just function like a normal, like every

00:19:10.320 other adult, everyone else in the world. We can somehow manage to walk around and board planes

00:19:15.600 and do things without a horse. You can too. You really can. I know you can, you can do it. I believe

00:19:22.400 in you. Um, look, mental illness is a real thing. Obviously it's a real thing people deal with and suffer

00:19:28.460 from, but I don't like how in, in so many cases these days, it's become a cover to just be a

00:19:35.940 self-absorbed jerk. Now I know I say that and it's going to be misconstrued a million different

00:19:39.920 ways, but if you're listening to me, honestly, you understand what I'm saying. Mental illness is a real

00:19:45.700 thing. But also there are people who use the claims of mental illness as emotional blackmail

00:19:55.720 and as an excuse to just act however they want. And we're not allowed to question it. That also

00:20:01.700 does happen. And it's a problem. And I think a prime example of that are these people who say,

00:20:06.400 I'm going to take this, this animal and bring it with me everywhere. And you're not allowed to say

00:20:13.500 anything. Even if, even if it's your business and you own it, you can't tell me I can't bring it with

00:20:19.500 me. Um, now I did see on Twitter in fairness, how this woman claims that the horse is, uh, is not an

00:20:27.540 emotional support animal. Actually it's a service horse. Okay. It's a sir. It's a service miniature

00:20:33.500 horse and the main service it provides is mobility assistance. I'm not kidding. Okay. Uh, this is

00:20:41.000 what she claims that that miniature horse. In fact, let's put the picture up again. That miniature

00:20:48.200 horse is mobility assistance for her. I, you know, I, I don't think I need to explain why that is

00:21:00.320 ridiculous. Have you heard of a cane or a walker or crutches? I was on crutches for two months. I had

00:21:08.120 a real condition and I needed mobility assistance. So I used crutches or I had one of those knee

00:21:12.820 scooters. Okay. Uh, I, it never occurred to me to bring a horse around or a camel as much as I would

00:21:20.800 like to. Maybe now I would. Next time I have an Achilles injury, I'm just going to get a camel and ride

00:21:25.820 my camel everywhere. And you're not allowed to say anything. I will bring my camel into your home

00:21:32.080 and you cannot stop me or I'll sue you. How exactly is a miniature horse going to stop you from falling

00:21:40.320 down? What is it going to do? Pad your fall? Really? What is it going to do for you? There are

00:21:47.860 dozens of other things that would be much better suited for mobility assistance than a miniature

00:21:53.360 horse than a three foot tall horse. Um, but you know, we're all supposed to just go along with it

00:22:03.320 because, uh, the moment someone claims disability or emotional distress, we all have to shut up and

00:22:09.000 nod our heads and say, okay, you do whatever you want. No, no, you know, no, I'm not, I'm not going

00:22:14.060 to play that game. We need to stop playing this game at a certain point. We can draw a line and just

00:22:18.320 call BS and say, no, you don't need that horse, but I do. I have, no, you don't. You really don't.

00:22:23.340 I don't care what you say. You don't need it. You just don't stop. Grow up. Stop. Um, all right.

00:22:31.160 Here's a, one other thing before we get to emails and I want to leave time for the emails because I

00:22:36.160 got a, uh, I got about 30 different emails on one particular subject, which if you listen to the show

00:22:43.960 yesterday, maybe you can guess what the subject is, but we'll do that in a second. Uh, here's one

00:22:47.900 other thing before we talk about that. Uh, another picture I want to show you. This has been the,

00:22:52.860 the, the, the day of pictures rather than video clips. Um, this is a new Calvin Klein marketing

00:22:59.220 campaign. It's a, it's a billboard. If you're, if you're listening on iTunes, um, I'll just tell you

00:23:06.740 and I'm not, I'm not trying to be rude, but, but this is a, well, it's a large woman, um, apparently

00:23:13.120 named Chika, C-H-I-K-A, uh, an indie rapper, it seems. And she's sitting there in her underpants

00:23:20.340 and the message says on the billboard, it says, I speak my truth in my, in my Calvins. I speak my

00:23:26.940 truth in my Calvins. Um, which first of all, if you are going to speak your truth, do you need to do

00:23:36.180 it in your Calvins? It's okay to have your Calvins on, but can you also wear pants? I mean, do you need

00:23:42.360 to speak your truth in your underwear? I don't understand that. Why do you need to have your

00:23:46.520 underwear on? I mean, it's okay to have it on. That's good. But you could also have clothes over

00:23:50.200 top. It is what I'm trying to say. Um, and all, all I'm going to say here, and I could go in the

00:23:54.700 direction of how this is the normalization of morbid obesity, uh, which is a continued problem

00:24:00.020 in our society. And it is dangerous because, uh, morbid obesity is, is, it will kill you. And it's

00:24:05.860 not a good or healthy thing. It doesn't mean that if you're morbidly obese, doesn't mean that

00:24:09.040 you're a bad person or, or, you know, or anything like that. It's just, it's just, it's an unhealthy

00:24:13.220 physical condition. And so we shouldn't go out of our way to normalize it or to celebrate it. I

00:24:18.920 think that's a very reasonable point of view that some of us have been trying to express for a while

00:24:24.600 now, but I'm going to leave that aside. What I just want to say briefly is that the phrase

00:24:31.180 speak my truth is terribly, terribly stupid. And if I could ban one phrase from being spoken,

00:24:43.240 that would probably be it. It would either be that or the term clap back, which you see even in

00:24:51.700 headlines. Now, so-and-so claps back at critics, really terrible. Um, but, uh, speak my truth is

00:24:59.540 even worse for a number of reasons. Uh, first of all, it's, it's just, it's cliched and nonsensical

00:25:05.580 and vapid and shallow and dumb. Um, secondarily, there is no such thing as my truth. So if you're

00:25:18.520 speaking, if you're saying something, you're either saying something that is true or it isn't.

00:25:26.520 I think every thought expressed in the human language, in any human language is either true

00:25:33.580 or not. Um, there is no my in front of it. It is either the truth or even a truth or it's not,

00:25:45.560 or you could be, you could be lying. You could be mistaken. You could be deluded, whatever. There's

00:25:50.220 a, you could be wrong for any number of reasons, but it's either wrong or it's right. You don't own

00:25:55.880 the truth. So there could never be a scenario where you say, okay, well, that's, that's not

00:26:04.600 the truth, but it is my truth. See, that's just another way of saying I'm wrong. If you're drawing

00:26:13.560 a distinction between the truth and your truth, and you're noticing that your truth is at up in

00:26:20.700 opposition with the truth, then that's just, you're wrong. That is a very convoluted and long

00:26:27.780 and, and confusing way of saying I'm wrong. So there is no, my truth. That's all not going to

00:26:35.960 linger on it. Just wanted to establish that. All right. Um, Matt wall show at gmail.com Matt wall

00:26:40.700 show at gmail.com is email address. As we get to emails, I, I, uh, yesterday, if you listen to the

00:26:46.600 show, I spoke for maybe five, six minutes or so about Harry Potter, Harry Potter books had been

00:26:55.340 banned from a Catholic school. And, uh, I said that, look, I'm not a Harry Potter fan at all.

00:27:00.960 I don't really care about the books. Um, but I don't think they're spiritually dangerous.

00:27:08.240 Uh, I don't think that they need to be banned from Christian schools. I don't think they're going to

00:27:13.400 cause kids to be possessed or anything. I don't think they're going to cause kids to,

00:27:17.760 you know, become Wiccans or, or witches or warlocks or wizards. Um, I think they are fantasy

00:27:24.420 stories for kids like Lord of the Rings, but skewing younger and not nearly as well-written.

00:27:30.520 That's what I think of Harry Potter. So I was not approaching this as some rabid Harry Potter fan

00:27:37.440 being very passionate and defensive defending Harry Potter. No, I think I took a pretty moderate view,

00:27:43.060 which is, I mean, I don't really care about the books. I don't think that they're terribly well

00:27:47.400 written or anything, but, uh, I just, I don't think they're going to cause your kid to, you know,

00:27:53.300 start to getting into the occult or anything like that. I, that's, that was kind of my position.

00:28:00.000 In response, I received dozens of emails about Harry Potter, um, dozens. And those are just my

00:28:07.320 emails, not counting Facebook messages and Twitter messages, because then it would be triple that.

00:28:11.160 Um, and most of the messages, uh, from people who strongly disagree with me and strongly, strongly,

00:28:18.540 strongly believe that kids should, should not read the books because of the spiritual dangers.

00:28:24.020 And, uh, I can't read all those emails. I just kind of selected two at random and I'll read those

00:28:30.140 and, um, and then I'll respond. Okay. This is from Nikki says, Matt, your discussion of Harry

00:28:36.640 Potter was very disappointing. I thought you were a Christian question mark. Harry Potter influences

00:28:41.920 children towards the occult. The spells in Harry Potter are real Wiccan spells that the author

00:28:47.020 learned. It is demonic. That's why the school banned the books. Do your research. Uh, this is from

00:28:53.920 Cheryl says, Matt, sorry, but totally disagree with your take on Harry Potter. A well-known exorcist

00:28:59.200 priest, father Ripperger, uh, spoke about it. It's on YouTube, how a house was set, set fire after

00:29:05.060 reading the HP books and declared that they have real spells in them. Beyond that, if you don't

00:29:10.580 believe those words, she went to school and studied witchcraft in preparation for writing the books and

00:29:14.740 described her experience as receiving the story plot, i.e. it just came to her. So now I have to ask

00:29:20.740 from whom, who inspired her writings. As with many modern day portrayals of human adults in TV and

00:29:26.700 fiction, they, uh, muggles, AKA non-magical people are portrayed as bumbling, blundering, stupid, and

00:29:33.320 incapable of understanding their child. Only the magic people have any redeemable characteristics.

00:29:38.120 I also have a real problem with HP as a hero in literature. He is an anti-hero. He lies. He puts his

00:29:43.340 life and the lives of his friends repeatedly at risk. He disobeys authority. And although the threat is

00:29:48.220 there, he is never punished for his lack of virtue. In fact, it is contrary. His lack of virtue is

00:29:52.400 rewarded in these books. So I ask you, what message is that sending to our young reader? Are we not,

00:29:57.040 uh, to encourage the true, the good, and the beautiful in the formation of a children's

00:30:00.300 character? Lastly, the devil does not knock at your door looking like Krampus. He takes on what many,

00:30:07.300 on many disguises. So why invite the father of lies into your home? If there is even a might of truth,

00:30:12.560 uh, to these books being tainted, why would you allow them past your threshold? Why, when there are

00:30:18.200 so many virtuous alternatives like George MacDonald? Have you read to your children,

00:30:21.840 the princess and the goblin and my favorite, the princess and the Kurt and critic, the princess and

00:30:26.420 Kurti. Okay. Um, so, uh, and those were two, you know, relatively reasonable emails, especially the

00:30:38.600 second one. Uh, the first one questioning my faith and so on, not very reasonable. Second one was

00:30:43.520 reasonable, but so there's, there's a few different things going on here. First of all,

00:30:49.840 if you make the argument that Harry Potter doesn't belong in schools because it's bad literature,

00:30:56.600 uh, you know, totally apart from the morality and spirituality, just, it's just not very well

00:31:02.660 written and it's sort of vapid and shallow and, and all of that. Um, and Harry Potter is,

00:31:08.480 is not a worthy hero of literature and just not the guy. If that's your argument, then I say,

00:31:15.240 fine. I'm, I haven't really read the books myself. So I, I, I, it, that, that seems my impression of

00:31:22.120 the books is that they're not terribly written, well-written, uh, certainly not at the level of

00:31:26.040 something like Lord of the Rings. And so if that's your criticism, great. Um, I'm, I'm on board with

00:31:32.780 that. That's fine. It's similar to, uh, you know, I would say that, um, I don't think there should be

00:31:37.780 comic books in schools, in the school library or whatever. I don't know if schools have comic

00:31:43.340 books, but if they do, I would say, no, not because I think that there's anything wrong with

00:31:46.700 them. Not because I think kids shouldn't be reading them. My kids love, uh, my, my son loves

00:31:51.440 superheroes, but just, I don't think they're good enough literature to be in schools. I think schools

00:31:58.020 should be a place for better literature than that. And when the kids are at home, if they want to

00:32:02.620 spend their time reading a comic book or reading Harry Potter, that's fine. That that's my impression.

00:32:07.420 So that's, I'm, I'm going to put those criticisms to the side because I agree with those. And that's

00:32:12.940 a totally different conversation. The conference, the, the, the claims though, about the spiritual

00:32:19.080 aspects, um, that's where I just, I don't buy it. First of all, a house was set fire after reading

00:32:28.040 the Harry Potter books. What does that mean? Was it, did it just burst into flames on its

00:32:32.600 own? Or was the child inspired to set the house on fire? Um, I haven't heard of this

00:32:38.400 case. You know, what I do know is, and I did look it up. I did, I didn't see any support

00:32:45.400 for that other than the fact that this one guy claimed it. That's the kind of look, if

00:32:50.680 you're going to claim that a, a house spontaneously burst into flames because someone read Harry

00:32:57.200 Potter, I, I just, I need a lot of evidence for that. I'm not, I'm not going to just believe it

00:33:02.980 because somebody said it mainly because first of all, it's, I don't see the connection, how reading

00:33:09.140 a book could make a house be set on fire. So there appears to be a, just sort of metaphysically

00:33:15.120 here, there's a disconnect. Um, but second, secondly, billions of these books have been sold.

00:33:23.260 And so if they had that effect, shouldn't we see houses bursting into flames all over the place?

00:33:30.500 Yet that's not what we observe. In fact, what we observe in almost every case is that people read

00:33:37.960 Harry Potter and they go and live their lives and nothing happens. And so that would seem to

00:33:42.780 indicate that there's probably not much of a problem here. At the very least, if you're going

00:33:49.080 to claim that it has this magical power to it and it can cause things like that to happen again,

00:33:54.120 I'm going to need real evidence of that. And, um, and, and the claim of one person is not to me

00:34:00.660 evidence just isn't because that person could be wrong. They could be exaggerating. They could be

00:34:05.540 lying. They, I mean, there are any number of things they could be believing a rumor. They heard

00:34:09.800 a lot of different ways. A person could be wrong. So we have to ask ourselves, what's more likely

00:34:14.380 that this father Ripperger is just mistaken about the house being set on fire because of Harry Potter

00:34:22.140 or that it actually happened? I don't know. Um, so there there's that the idea that these, uh,

00:34:32.780 that they're real magical spells in Harry Potter. I did look that up also. I found no support for that

00:34:39.560 claim other than the fact that this particular priest and a couple other people have asserted

00:34:44.500 it. So I saw the assertion that these are real magical spells. I didn't find any other support

00:34:48.980 for that anywhere. Maybe it's there. I didn't find it. All I found is this, this assertion repeated,

00:34:55.760 and there's a difference between an assertion being repeated and actual evidence of it. Now in,

00:35:01.820 in what I would consider to be slightly more objective sources, what I found is that the spells in Harry

00:35:08.220 Potter consist of faux Latin and gibberish, and then also magic wands being waved around. Isn't it,

00:35:15.940 aren't the, don't you need the wand for the magic in Harry Potter? I don't know. Um, that's what I saw.

00:35:22.040 And that is not, uh, what you find among Wiccans. And I don't pretend to be an expert of Wiccans. I

00:35:28.760 don't want to be an expert, but that's, that's, it's not, these are not actually Wiccan spells. That's

00:35:32.720 what I saw. I saw no evidence to the contrary. In fact, I did read a couple of things from actual

00:35:38.120 Wiccans saying, that's not true. That's not what we do. I don't like citing Wiccans as experts,

00:35:44.100 but if we're looking for an expert on Wiccanism, then probably they're the place to go. They'll

00:35:48.040 probably tell us. And they're saying, that's not what we do. That's not how spells work with Wiccans.

00:35:54.100 Um, the other thing is, you know, the very idea of a real magical spell. Now I believe that there are

00:36:01.880 actual evil forces, uh, at work in the universe and that they do exist, but that's, that's quite

00:36:13.860 apart from claiming that a magical spell is real. The idea that certain syllables just have this power

00:36:23.420 that if you put them together, things are going to happen physically in the world. Um, I'm not sure

00:36:30.320 that I believe that. In fact, I don't believe that. Uh, I think that, you know, something like

00:36:37.600 prayer. Okay. Obviously you can pray and that can have a real physical effect, but that's not a magical

00:36:42.880 spell. And even someone who is trying to conjure, you know, get in touch with demons and so on. And

00:36:52.160 that's a real thing. I wouldn't call that a magical spell either. So when we talk about magical spells,

00:36:57.500 I think we're, we're specifically talking about, you know, like in a, in a movie or a book where

00:37:01.580 someone reads certain syllables and it doesn't matter the intent, it doesn't matter anything.

00:37:06.880 It just, if you, if you read those words, this happens. I don't think that exists, period. Doesn't

00:37:12.860 exist. Um, and if it does exist, then again, I would need real evidence of that. And, uh, I don't,

00:37:19.280 not aware of any evidence. So my main contention with Harry Potter that I don't think, and I did,

00:37:26.420 I didn't read every email. I read a lot of them, but my main contention with Harry Potter was that

00:37:31.340 I, I just, I don't see it as that much different from Lord of the Rings. I think it's the same kind

00:37:36.800 of thing, except for it's not as well-written and it's just not as good of a story. So there's that

00:37:41.020 difference. But in both cases, you have evil, you have good and evil forces. You have magical spells,

00:37:48.660 you have witches and warlocks and wizards. It's the same kind of thing.

00:37:52.920 And as I said yesterday, what would make for me, Harry Potter morally troubling is if the,

00:38:01.640 the evil spirits were portrayed as good, or if it was a nihilistic kind of situation where there

00:38:07.940 was no difference between the evil and good that then I would say, yeah, that's a problem. And, uh,

00:38:13.520 I wouldn't want my kids reading that. So that's, that's the difference,

00:38:17.600 but I don't think that's what you'll find in Harry Potter. Now, the other attempt at a response that

00:38:25.080 I saw from, uh, some people is they said, well, the difference is in Lord of the Rings, uh, the, uh,

00:38:32.360 the magical people are wizards, not humans. And so, uh, so it's, it's less of a problem because if

00:38:41.400 kids are reading Lord of the Rings and they understand that these are wizards, not human beings.

00:38:44.580 And so real humans can't do that. And so I, but again, I, I just don't, that's a distinction.

00:38:50.140 I don't understand the significance of that distinction. Harry Potter is a book where in

00:38:55.520 the world of that fantasy book, some human beings can do these things. I think children,

00:39:02.680 if they're old enough to read Harry Potter, they're old enough to understand that it's a fantasy.

00:39:05.980 It's not real. And in the real world, people can't do that. It's, it's, it's just like with

00:39:09.820 superheroes in a superhero story, some human beings have the power to do, uh, to do, you know,

00:39:19.380 magical things. I think children are capable of understanding that that's not real. It's not

00:39:23.820 the reality. It's just a story. So I just, I, I'm going to have to maintain. It's weird that I'm here

00:39:31.900 defending Harry Potter because as I said, I'm not even a fan of it, but I don't see the,

00:39:37.420 I just don't see the, um, significant moral difference between Harry Potter and other fantasy

00:39:45.200 stories. Um, all right, let's see what else. Is there anything else, anything not Harry Potter related?

00:39:53.840 Um, no, not really. Everything's Harry Potter. So I think I've, I think I've kind of addressed that.

00:40:04.100 Well, here's one agreeing with me. I wanted to find, is there at least one person who agrees?

00:40:07.880 Yes. Uh, this is from Melissa says, hello, Matt. Just wanted to say, I totally agree with your take

00:40:11.820 on Harry Potter. We have two sons, 23 and 19. We are devout Christians. And when our old son,

00:40:16.740 older son was of the age where he became interested in reading the Harry Potter series,

00:40:20.400 I was leery because of the bad press the series had received in Christian circles.

00:40:23.820 I decided to read them myself first in order to formulate an opinion based on firsthand knowledge

00:40:28.040 and not hearsay. I enjoyed the books and really didn't understand what all the hubbub was about.

00:40:32.080 My husband and I did make sure they understood that the magic wasn't real and that books are

00:40:36.120 fantasy, but they knew that already. If kids can understand the difference between fact and

00:40:41.140 fiction, the school and parents have, uh, have more to worry about than Harry Potter. Enjoy your show.

00:40:46.380 Appreciate your voice for conservative principles. Yeah, that's, that's it. If your kids get,

00:40:49.900 so that's the whole thing about, well, in Lord of the Rings, it's, you know, in Harry Potter,

00:40:54.400 the problem is it's real people doing this. And so kids are going to think, I think your kid can

00:40:58.320 understand that it's just a story. You can't really do that. So if you teach your kid that it's not a

00:41:04.240 problem. And I don't think it's a significant problem where kids are going to read Harry Potter

00:41:11.640 and then say, Oh gee, I want to go become a Wiccan or I want to, I want to, you know, get into a cult

00:41:16.620 things. Um, now that I'm sure you could find me examples. I'm sure you could find me anecdotal

00:41:21.600 examples of people who read Harry Potter and then became Wiccans. I, I absolutely expect that you

00:41:29.240 can find those examples and I'm sure that now people will send them to me, but, um, I'm sure

00:41:34.060 you'd also find examples of people who read Lord of the Rings and then went off and said, I want to be

00:41:38.300 a real warlock or witch or wizard or whatever. I'm sure that also has happened. Are we sure that

00:41:43.440 Harry Potter more often has had that effect than has say Lord of the Rings? It seems to me with most

00:41:51.980 of the criticisms, criticisms of Harry Potter, even if the people making the criticisms try to draw a

00:41:59.540 distinction, it seems to me that most of these criticisms are really just criticisms against the

00:42:04.880 entire fantasy genre where you're saying, look, I don't think there should be any stories that deal

00:42:10.520 with evil spirits and conjuring black magic and all that. I don't think there should be any of that.

00:42:15.720 Now, if that's your argument, I think it's a very puritanical and frankly, kind of silly argument,

00:42:21.680 but then at least make it consistent. I think when you try it, when you, when you make the argument

00:42:27.980 on those broad terms of saying, well, it's just better not to mess with this stuff, it's evil spirits

00:42:33.420 and so on. If you say that, but then say, oh, but Lord of the Rings, sure, that's fine. Now to me,

00:42:38.660 it appears to be a kind of special pleading and it's, it's just, it's, it's not consistent.

00:42:45.460 I think to be consistent, you have to make that argument and rule out all of those kinds of books,

00:42:50.620 which there are some Christians who feel that way. And especially historically that has been

00:42:55.780 a, you know, there have been a significant number of Christians historically who have felt that way and

00:43:01.820 have said that there shouldn't be any of that kind of stuff. So if that's your argument, then,

00:43:06.780 then, you know, make that your argument. All right. So, so much for Harry Potter. We'll leave

00:43:13.740 it there. Thanks everybody for watching. Godspeed.

00:43:15.680 We'll be right back.

00:43:22.640 Please give us a five-star review and tell your friends to subscribe as well. We're available on

00:43:26.420 Apple podcasts, Spotify, wherever you listen to podcasts. Also be sure to check out the other

00:43:31.380 Daily Wire podcasts, including the Ben Shapiro show, Michael Knowles show, and the Andrew Klavan show.

00:43:36.380 Thanks for listening.

00:43:36.960 The Matt Wall show is produced by Robert Sterling, associate producer, Alexia Garcia Del Rio, executive

00:43:42.620 producer, Jeremy Boring, senior producer, Jonathan Hay. Our supervising producer is Mathis Glover,

00:43:48.000 and our technical producer is Austin Stevens, edited by Donovan Fowler. Audio is mixed by Mike

00:43:53.700 Coromina. The Matt Wall show is a Daily Wire production, copyright Daily Wire 2019.

00:43:57.680 Hey, everybody. It's Andrew Klavan, host of the Andrew Klavan show. You know, some people are

00:44:02.040 depressed because the American Republic is collapsing. The end of days is approaching and the moon has

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The Matt Walsh Show - September 04, 2019

Ep. 324 - Walmart Solves Mass Shootings

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