The Matt Walsh Show - Ep. 345 - True Communism

00:00:00.100 All right, we have several things to talk about today. Elizabeth Warren is telling stories again.

00:00:05.180 She's making up fables. It's become its own genre now of Warren fables. She loves to tell them.

00:00:10.940 And so we're going to talk about that. Also, a group of parents are suing a video game developer

00:00:15.940 because they say that their kids are addicted to video games. We're going to discuss this,

00:00:20.840 and what we'll try to get to the bottom of is this question. If you're a parent and your kids

00:00:25.860 are playing too many video games, what's the best way to handle that? Yeah, you could sue the video

00:00:31.980 game company, but is there a more direct and possibly less expensive path you could take

00:00:37.500 to control how much time your kids spend playing video games? Well, we'll talk about that. Also,

00:00:44.600 Justin Trudeau, you know that I love Justin Trudeau videos on this show. He is a source of never-ending

00:00:49.740 hilarity, and I have now what I think is not just the most hilarious Trudeau video yet,

00:00:55.860 but I think that may be the most hilarious video to ever be posted on the internet. And I don't

00:01:01.080 think I'm hyping that up too much. Maybe a little bit too much, but not by much. So we're going to

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00:02:26.780 Hear About Us box so that they know that we sent you. Again, that's RockAuto.com. Okay, so before we

00:02:33.760 get to the Warren thing, just another thought on this issue with the NBA and China. At this point,

00:02:40.960 all of the NBA's Chinese partners, according to CNN, all of them have now cut ties with the NBA

00:02:48.380 because of one tweet sent by one guy that works for one team. One tweet saying,

00:02:56.820 fight for freedom, sent by one employee on one basketball team, has led to all this. I read

00:03:01.500 somewhere that the NBA stands to lose like a billion dollars, a billion dollars they stand to lose

00:03:07.860 because of this one tweet. Now, I want you to think about that for a second. Think about

00:03:13.660 how China is reacting to one tweet sent by one guy in Texas. They're just coming down like an avalanche

00:03:25.340 of bricks. They're coming down on the NBA for this. And even though the NBA is groveling and apologizing

00:03:30.900 and licking their boots, it's still, they're, they're, they're being punished. Now you think

00:03:37.140 about that. Now consider what it must be like to actually live as a citizen in this country,

00:03:47.700 entirely subject to the whims of the communist government. Imagine if you were a citizen

00:03:54.520 who sent out that tweet. China has, has brought all of its forces to bear to punish the NBA

00:04:04.480 multi-billion dollar American company. Um, now think about if you're just a lowly Chinese citizen 1.00

00:04:12.140 expressing your free speech rights, which, which of course you don't actually have free speech

00:04:17.400 rights in China. And that's exactly the point. So in conclusion, communism is bad folks. Communism

00:04:24.200 is very, very, very bad. Not just bad in practice. Um, not just bad when instituted incorrectly,

00:04:32.020 which just so happens to be every single time it's been instituted. According to some people,

00:04:36.640 it's always incorrect. It's never the real communism, but no, that's not, see, communism is bad to its core.

00:04:42.140 It is bad in theory. It is bad in practice. It is bad as an idea. It is bad as a policy. It is bad

00:04:49.220 all around because there is no room for freedom in communism. And that's the point as we are clearly

00:04:54.920 seeing freedom and, and communism are in two different directions. Freedom is that way. And

00:05:00.880 communism is that way going in two different directions. Now I know that this should all be

00:05:04.460 obvious. It's, it's, it's, it's not, I'm, I'm not the first person to point out that communism is

00:05:10.560 bad, but it, it does unfortunately need to be pointed out because, um, it seems that it's not

00:05:18.660 obvious to a lot of people in this country. According to any survey that's been done recently on the

00:05:25.060 subject, a large percentage of millennials, I read one survey that claimed it was like half of

00:05:29.900 millennials, 50% around there have a positive view of communism. So that's why we have to point to this

00:05:40.380 and state the obvious that here's what communism is. This is why it's a terrible thing. That doesn't

00:05:48.160 mean that capitalism is flawless, that there are no problems with it that you could point out. Of course

00:05:54.700 there are. It is a human system. It's a human economic system. And so it's going to be flawed.

00:06:00.440 And there are going to be downsides to it. That's the way it is with any human institution or human

00:06:04.680 system. Um, but communism is evil to its core. Yet people, a lot of people, my generation, they have 0.88

00:06:13.540 faith that communism is a beautiful and wonderful thing. And that faith endures despite all evidence.

00:06:20.120 Every example we have of communism throughout history and in the world currently, it's all terrible.

00:06:24.960 Um, but there's this faith that people have that they say, well, no, it's still, you know, it's,

00:06:33.180 it's, it's still this great idea. We're just waiting for, uh, it's, it's, it's, it's full and

00:06:39.280 correct manifestation. No, this is Chinese communism is communism. This is the, this is the correct 1.00

00:06:45.280 version. This is real communism. And, um, this is what communism is in all of its glory or lack thereof.

00:06:51.440 I think it's important for us to realize that. All right. So Elizabeth Warren is, um, up to her old 0.99

00:06:56.500 tricks again, it seems possibly telling stories that are possibly not altogether true. Um, lies

00:07:04.300 would be another way of putting it a less polite way. Warren on the campaign trail likes to claim

00:07:10.740 that she was fired from a teaching job in 1971 for being visibly pregnant. And she's told this story

00:07:18.420 countless times. Turns out shock of the century, maybe not exactly true. There are two things that

00:07:26.260 contradict her story. The first thing is herself. She herself has contradicted the story because she has

00:07:31.560 told this story of leaving the teaching job very differently in the past. There are kind of two

00:07:37.020 different versions of it. So, um, let's look at this students for Trump put out, uh, they put

00:07:42.440 together a comparison of how Warren tells the story now in 2019 verse how she told it 10 years ago. And

00:07:50.320 there's a, there's a not so subtle difference. Watch this. So my first teaching position was as a

00:07:57.020 special needs teacher. There we go. Uh, I worked, it was in a public school system, but I worked with

00:08:05.400 the, the children with disabilities. I loved that job. But by the end of the first school year, I was

00:08:13.780 quite visibly pregnant. And I was pregnant with my first baby. So I had a baby, uh, and stayed home for a

00:08:23.340 couple of years. And I was really casting about thinking, what am I going to do? Um, and, uh, my

00:08:31.380 husband's view of it was stay home. And the principal didn't invite me back for the next school year. And, um, I

00:08:38.360 did that for a year. And then that summer, uh, I, I actually didn't have the education courses. So I was on an

00:08:47.560 emergency certificate, it was called. And I went back to graduate school and took a couple of courses

00:08:53.060 in education and said, I don't think this is going to work out for me. Okay. Two versions here in both

00:08:59.520 versions, she ends up not having the job. So that's the conclusion. Um, and that's the same in both

00:09:04.500 cases, but in one case she's fired or at least not invited back because she's pregnant. And in the other 1.00

00:09:08.760 case she leaves on her own accord. Um, there's a principle here that is, that's very helpful. I think

00:09:16.120 which says that if a story changes over time, you can generally be confident that the earlier version

00:09:23.320 of the story is going to be correct because that's how stories stories usually grow in the telling and

00:09:29.080 they become more dramatic and more elaborate, not the other way around. And so if we have to choose

00:09:33.940 between the two versions of the story, it seems like probably the one she told 10 years ago is the

00:09:37.240 correct one, but we don't even need to guess. There's no guesswork here because the Washington

00:09:41.700 Free Beacon, um, has come with receipts. They have, uh, let me read a little bit of, of their report.

00:09:48.480 Um, uh, the Washington Free Beacon says minutes, minutes of an April 21st, 1971 Riverdale Board of

00:09:56.040 Education meeting obtained by the Washington Free Beacon show that the board voted unanimously on a

00:10:01.060 motion to extend Warren a second year contract for two, uh, days per week teaching job.

00:10:06.320 That job is similar to the one she held the previous year, her first year of teaching minutes from a

00:10:11.780 board meeting held two months later, uh, on June 16th, 1971 indicate that Warren's resignation was

00:10:18.660 quote, accepted with regret. So that would seem to be pretty conclusive. The story she told 10 years

00:10:25.920 ago matches the documentation. The latest story does not. Um, I'm not going to say she's lying though.

00:10:31.860 Let's just say that it is a loose interpretation of an event or an L I E for short. Let's just say that

00:10:41.580 now, um, here's really what I want to talk about. Let's, let's put Warren's fibs to the side here for

00:10:50.540 a moment because what the issue we're talking about here is, is how pregnant women are treated in the

00:10:57.180 workforce and, and, uh, and how much they are accepted in society and how much we accommodate and

00:11:01.960 all of that. I totally agree that pregnant women should be accepted and accommodated as much as

00:11:08.200 feasible. We should make it as a society easier, not harder for people to have kids and to grow their

00:11:14.900 families and so on. You know, we pro-lifers, we on the right who, who, uh, are pro-life. We're the ones

00:11:24.600 who are all about welcoming and accepting pregnancy, new life, mothers, families, you know, that's our

00:11:32.000 thing. We, we're all about that. Um, we, we can't let the left claim that as their own. Like this is

00:11:39.280 their hobby horse. It isn't. You see, the left pretends to care about pregnant women, but really

00:11:44.960 what they're doing is they're using pregnant women, much like Elizabeth Warren uses this story 1.00

00:11:49.100 that she, it would seem made up. Um, they use it as a means to an end. And on the left, it, it,

00:11:57.060 everything is a means to an end, especially women and especially pregnant women. Most of all, 1.00

00:12:03.400 of all the people they enjoy using politically, probably there's no group that they enjoy using

00:12:10.300 more than pregnant women. Um, because for the left, it's all about control for the state and 1.00

00:12:17.940 everything comes back to that. And that's the end, um, that everything for which everything is being

00:12:24.340 used. So, whereas I would say, I think it's very good for companies if they can to offer maternity 0.99

00:12:30.620 leave and the more generous to leave the better, I think that's a great thing. Um, that's what I

00:12:36.560 would say. And that's what most people on the right would say, but then the left comes in like

00:12:41.000 Kamala Harris a few days ago. She said, this is literally her plan. She said that, um, there should

00:12:47.700 be six months of paid family leave that all companies should be required to offer. She wants the 0.73

00:12:55.420 state to impose as mandatory six months of paid family leave. Now that obviously is absurd.

00:13:05.180 And when we say that that's absurd, we're going to be accused by the left of, Oh, you don't care

00:13:08.980 about families and pregnant. You say you're pro-life, but no, um, because many companies simply cannot

00:13:14.020 afford that. They simply cannot afford to pay someone to not work for half a year. There are basic

00:13:23.360 financial realities here. And they can't afford to hire someone. If you leave, if you're going to

00:13:28.860 leave for six months and come back, that means they need to hire someone for six months to do your job

00:13:33.820 that they're going to pay. And then they're also paying you to not do the job. And so they're paying

00:13:38.240 the job for the job twice. It's double the pay for six months. They can't afford it. But the left

00:13:46.080 likes plans like that because it represents an enormous amount of control by the state over private

00:13:51.320 enterprise. And because of course, companies can't afford this, that means that they're going to

00:13:56.140 need to rely on the state. There's going to need to be a, you know, a subsidy kind of situation where

00:14:00.940 the state is subsidizing this. And that's even more control for the state. And that's what it always

00:14:06.520 comes back to. Pregnant women are a means to an end and the end is state control. That's it. 1.00

00:14:13.480 That's always it. That's what it always comes back to. Because on the basic point that, again,

00:14:26.060 we should be accommodating and accepting as much as possible of pregnant women, we should be welcoming

00:14:31.220 of that and celebrate that. There's no disagreement. In fact, we're the ones, again, we're the ones

00:14:35.960 as pro-lifers. That's how we really feel about it. We really do see pregnancy as a beautiful and

00:14:43.280 miraculous thing. It's the left that says that a pregnant woman is basically, a pregnant woman is,

00:14:49.460 she basically has a tapeworm infestation because what she has is a parasite in her body that she 1.00

00:14:55.260 could expel or destroy at any time and it wouldn't matter. That's what the left says. That's not us. 0.66

00:14:59.780 Yet, we also recognize certain realities. And although it would be nice, I mean, look,

00:15:08.460 it would be nice if when a woman gets pregnant, has a kid, it'd be nice if she could take off for 1.00

00:15:15.260 five years and get paid and take off until the kid goes into kindergarten, spend those five years

00:15:21.600 with her family and get paid the whole time. That would be fantastic, right? I mean, who wouldn't

00:15:26.640 like a deal like that? It'd be really great. But it's not possible because there is this thing

00:15:32.600 called reality and it just wouldn't work because that money has to come from somewhere. Someone has

00:15:37.980 to pay it. As my dad always told me, money doesn't grow on trees. And so there's no magical money tree

00:15:43.780 that money's got to come from somewhere. Either you're going to be bankrupting a company by forcing

00:15:48.680 them to pay it for someone who's not working, or it's the state's going to come in and basically take

00:15:54.480 over. Okay. A couple of funny videos to play for you real quick before we get to this video game

00:16:03.020 topic. First, well, I'm not really sure what this is. I think it's another environmentalist protest,

00:16:12.740 a climate protest in London, I believe. But the video, I guess, speaks for itself. Watch this.

00:16:24.480 Press yourself. Pull your heart into the gun. This is our practice. This is our practice.

00:16:44.320 You know, I watch that and I'm really concerned because those people are clearly having seizures

00:16:51.220 and everyone else is just standing around rather than calling an ambulance. But I guess they can't

00:16:55.020 get the ambulance there because they're also blocking the road when they're having their

00:16:58.260 seizures. So that's sort of disturbing to watch. But if you keep playing the video,

00:17:06.120 so, you know, you saw their dance moves, but you keep playing the video for a few more seconds.

00:17:11.560 And I was really surprised when this happened.

00:17:41.560 So there you go. Great, great dancing all around. Who do you think is a better dancer,

00:17:48.420 Spicer or the hippies? That's a tough call. I guess if I had to choose, maybe technically Spicer is a

00:18:00.360 little bit of a better dancer. He is choreographed at least. I wouldn't go anywhere near close to saying

00:18:07.500 that he's a technically good dancer because he's not. But I think technically he's got it over the

00:18:12.540 hippies. But, you know, the hippies are also there's more life to what they're doing, mostly

00:18:18.560 because of all the drugs they're on. But, you know, to me, it feels freer, more in the moment.

00:18:27.400 So I don't know. It's a tough call between those two. All right. Forget about all that,

00:18:31.320 actually, because without further ado, I want to I'm going to finally play what I think is maybe

00:18:35.140 the funniest video ever recorded. And I I hope I'm not overselling it too much. But this is

00:18:43.780 brilliant. Watch. And Salara, you want to stand up and ask a question? What did you paint your face

00:18:50.240 down? Oh, it was something I shouldn't have done because it hurt people. It's not something that

00:18:58.000 you you should do. And that is something that I learned. I didn't know it back then, but I know it

00:19:04.620 now. And I'm sorry I hurt people. But did you paint your note in your hands, man?

00:19:10.540 Mm hmm. Yeah. And it was the wrong thing to do.

00:19:17.980 I just I I I love everything about that video. I I love the awkward pause at the end. It's like

00:19:24.520 something out of the office, but in real life, it's it's great. And you know what I think happened

00:19:29.700 here? Because a lot of people I posted this video last night on Twitter. A lot of people were saying,

00:19:34.100 oh, this is staged. It's clearly he staged it. He had these two young girls ask this question so he

00:19:41.020 could give his canned response. And I I think probably that is what happened. I think the first

00:19:47.800 part was staged, which is but it's still hilarious. It actually makes it funnier because he comes off

00:19:53.580 like a clown. He staged he staged this thing where somebody would ask him an embarrassing question and 0.88

00:19:59.400 he still came off really awkward and funny. But then it seems to me if I I don't want to speculate

00:20:06.920 too much, but it seems like the follow up question from the girls was off script. So that's that's my

00:20:13.840 guess is that they were coached. OK, stand up, ask this question of the nice prime minister and then

00:20:19.120 sit down. And but they're kids. So, you know, they stood up, they asked the question they were told to

00:20:24.040 ask. And then they started ad libbing a little bit. And that's where Trudeau got flustered. That's

00:20:28.540 where the awkward pause came in, because when they said, but did you paint your nose and hands brown

00:20:33.560 too? And that's where you get the pause where he's going. Mm hmm. No, sit down, sit down. It's just

00:20:44.440 it's amazing. I love that. So that's great. That brings a smile to my face. And not many things do

00:20:49.960 these days. All right. I almost I got to say, because I don't live in Canada and it's no skin

00:20:58.660 off my nose. So no offense to Canadians, but I really hope that Justin Trudeau stays in office

00:21:03.760 for as long as as possible. I just I hope that he's in office for the next 50 years because he's

00:21:12.260 such a source of of joy for me personally. OK. Now, I want to I want to read now from a little

00:21:22.980 bit from the US from from USA Today dot com an article about a about a certain lawsuit that

00:21:30.460 brings up an interesting question. The article says roughly a quarter of a billion mostly obsessed

00:21:36.600 gamers are battling it out on Fortnite. There's a darn decent chance kids, you know, are among them.

00:21:43.160 This again is a this is a USA Today article and and it says there's a uses the word darn darn decent 0.97

00:21:50.240 chance in a USA. OK, anyway, this is journalism for you. A Montreal based law firm launched a 0.73

00:21:55.560 proposed class action lawsuit in Canada on behalf of two Quebec parents who claim that Fortnite publisher

00:22:01.660 Epic Games needs to pay the price for a third person shooter they allege is as addictive and

00:22:06.800 potentially harmful as cocaine. The firm Calix Legal represents plaintiffs who are identified

00:22:12.800 only by their initials FN and Jay Z. Not that Jay Z, a different Jay Z. They're they're the parents

00:22:19.280 of a 10 and 15 year old respectively. Written in French, the legal action alleges that when a person

00:22:25.000 is engaged in Fortnite for a long period, the player's brain releases the pleasure hormone dopamine and that

00:22:30.940 Fortnite was developed by psychologists, statisticians and others over four years to develop the most

00:22:35.340 addictive game possible. Also, Epic could reap lucrative profits. So the accusation here.

00:22:42.960 Very startling accusation. What they are alleging. Get this.

00:22:48.000 Is that the developers of Fortnite tried to make a game that people would really want to play if you can

00:22:57.280 believe it. Now, I've heard stories. I can't confirm this, but I've heard stories that, you know,

00:23:06.120 clothing companies will oftentimes get together and come up with schemes of, you know, how can they make

00:23:15.580 clothing that people are really going to want to wear? I've even heard fast food companies that

00:23:21.120 they'll sit around, I imagine, in darkened rooms with smoke billowing from their cigars and and they

00:23:28.980 they're sitting there and then they're saying they're they're concocting these plans to come up with food

00:23:33.900 that people will really want to keep eating. So that's anyway, that's the allegation. I'm not sure

00:23:39.100 if it's true or not, but it does raise this question of, OK, you're a parent.

00:23:46.580 And your kid plays video games way too much. He's 10 years old as one of these kids is.

00:23:54.160 What can you do about it? And this is a relevant question, because although there's only two parents

00:23:59.780 right now involved in this proposed class action lawsuit, there are lots of other parents out there

00:24:04.240 who complain about this. In fact, I get emails sometimes. I talk about video games sometimes

00:24:08.460 and the pros and cons of video games. Mostly I talk about the cons, really. But and I'll sometimes

00:24:15.620 get emails from parents talking about how their kids play video games way too much and they don't

00:24:19.520 know what to do about it. So this is a this is a problem a lot of parents have. So what do you do

00:24:25.060 if your kid plays is playing video games all day? Here's my idea. I mean, yeah, you could file a lawsuit.

00:24:33.080 You could complain, you know, to somebody like me. You could shake your fist at the heavens.

00:24:42.740 You could cry yourself to sleep. All of these strategies could work, maybe. But here's a

00:24:49.680 different idea. Maybe your kid's playing video games all day. Maybe we could do is stop allowing him

00:24:58.780 to play video games all day. There's an idea. So all these parents are like, I don't know what to

00:25:05.980 do. I don't know what to do. My kids, they play video games. They they've they're on their phone

00:25:09.160 all the time. What do I do about this? You know, maybe be a parent, possibly just do a little

00:25:16.580 parenting. Have you considered that just as has that thought? Have you sat down maybe with your spouse

00:25:23.160 and talked about this? Have you said, hey, maybe do you think we should do some parenting actually

00:25:27.060 for a change here? I mean, we've had this kid for 10 years. We haven't parented him yet. Do you think

00:25:33.280 maybe it's time? I OK, all sarcasm aside is as as difficult as it is for me to do. I really don't

00:25:41.560 understand. I just I don't get parents who act like these neutered puppy dogs, like the ineffectual,

00:25:50.940 impotent. They have no ability to you are the parent. You control everything in your house, 0.78

00:25:58.860 everything that's in your house you bought with your money. Your kid doesn't have anything

00:26:05.380 unless they're much older, they have a job or whatever. But that's not that's mostly not what

00:26:10.840 we're talking about here. They want to take the example of the 10 year old kid.

00:26:16.920 Everything that 10 year old child has, it's because you bought it for him.

00:26:22.900 Or for a few of those things, maybe someone bought it as a gift or whatever.

00:26:27.420 Almost everything you bought it. Probably the TV you bought, the video game system you bought,

00:26:33.580 the video game you bought, the clothes on his back you bought, the couch that he's sitting in when he

00:26:38.440 plays the games you bought, the electricity that feeds the TV that allows him to play the video games.

00:26:43.860 You bought all of that. You control all of it. Just exercise your control as a parent.

00:26:50.800 It's not hard.

00:26:54.480 What is this? Oh, I told him not to and he still does it. How is that an option? He's 10. How is it

00:27:00.660 even an option for him to do it if you told him not to? Take the you know what? Take the video game,

00:27:05.900 remove it from the system, throw it in the garbage can or break it first. So he can't. So just take

00:27:16.280 it and smash it if you have to take the TV outside. And if there's really, if there's no other way,

00:27:21.160 if he really is addicted and you can't stop him, take the freaking TV and smash it in the driveway. 0.98

00:27:27.680 I mean, you could do that. It's legal. It's yours. You can do whatever you want with it. And it's fun 0.99

00:27:34.760 too to smash a TV. Have you ever tried it? It's a lot of fun. I just don't get this. I really don't.

00:27:44.760 I mean, I understand that kids don't always listen to us as parents and we can't control everything

00:27:52.120 they do, especially when they're not around us. They go to school or whatever. They're with their

00:27:55.680 friends. They're not our puppets on a string, right? They have free will. They make choices

00:28:00.140 and decisions and all of that. So I, I, I, I understand all of that, but, but when it comes

00:28:05.600 to the things that they spend all day doing in your home and when it comes to the products that

00:28:12.600 they use, you have so much control over that. I mean, forget about smashing the TV or taking the

00:28:19.160 video game away. You could just not buy it in the first place. That is also an option.

00:28:24.560 And I know that the kid will say, Oh, but all my friends are playing it. Who cares? Why is that a

00:28:29.380 convincing argument for my kid? I hear this from parents, parents who are really concerned that

00:28:34.400 they have to buy their kid, the latest gadget or phone or video game because all their friends have

00:28:39.080 it. How are you as a parent concerned about that? Why do you care? You're telling me that your,

00:28:44.820 your child goes to you and says, Oh, I want this. And you say, no, I don't know. And your child goes,

00:28:49.540 well, all my friends have it. And that convinces you. You're convinced by that. You say, Oh, well,

00:28:54.820 all your friends have. Well, okay. Well, in that case, go ahead and go. I will. Let me,

00:28:58.480 let me go right now. I'm going to drop everything I'm doing right now. And I mean,

00:29:00.900 why didn't you say earlier, your friends do it too? Well, geez. Hey dad, I want to go shoot up

00:29:07.120 heroin in a back alley. Well, no, you can't do that. Well, my, my friends are doing it though. Oh,

00:29:11.680 they are. Okay. Well then go ahead. I'll drive. Which back alley? I'll drive you.

00:29:16.740 Oh, you want to hitch a ride with someone first? Let's go ahead. Are your friends doing it too?

00:29:20.300 Oh, well then go ahead. What? I, what is that? I just, I don't understand it. I

00:29:24.600 just have some control over your pain, over your freaking kids. Okay. Do society a favor. 0.99

00:29:34.740 Just say no every once in a while, you know, every once in a while, at least just start with that

00:29:44.420 every once in a while when they want to do something, tell them no.

00:29:50.700 Just for the sake of it. Sometimes I think sometimes it's good to say no to a kid just,

00:29:54.740 just because you don't even have a good reason. Maybe sometimes my kids will come to me and say,

00:30:01.000 Hey, can I have a snack? And I'll say, no, not right now. And they'll say, Oh, why can't I have

00:30:07.000 a snack? Well, just because, just because you can't, I don't know. You just can't because I'm

00:30:11.360 the father. And I decided that right now you're not having a snack because this is my house and my

00:30:15.880 kitchen and my food. And I've decided that right now you're not eating it. You can eat it later,

00:30:20.540 but right now you're not. That's my entire reason. I have no other reason. And you're going to

00:30:25.500 respect that because you're my child. And that's the way this relationship works.

00:30:31.820 I don't have to explain myself to you. I don't have to justify myself. I am the adult. You are

00:30:36.700 the child. That's the relationship. All right. Let's, um, let's go to emails.

00:30:45.240 MattWallShow at gmail.com. MattWallShow at gmail.com. Uh, this is from Travis says,

00:30:52.700 Dear fearless bearded dictator, congratulations on the birth of your fourth child. I too am in the

00:30:57.660 four kid club. Here's my advice. When things get crazy, fall on the floor and play dead. The kids

00:31:02.160 will then start to crawl all over you. Other option is to run out of the house and start screaming.

00:31:06.320 You may want to put tape over your mouth. If you live in town, otherwise the neighbors will think

00:31:09.740 you're nuts. The best part of having four kids is each child has a play playmate. Congratulations

00:31:13.760 again. Um, yeah, all of those strategies I have already tried and, uh, to varying effect.

00:31:19.480 This is from Allison says, hi, Matt, congrats on the new baby. My family is very excited for your

00:31:24.440 family. Actually, my family also consists of two girls and two boys, plus me and my husband.

00:31:29.240 Have you started to get the comments yet? I never got comments or looks until we had our fourth.

00:31:34.160 And some people, uh, react almost disgusted that we have so many kids. Has that been your experience?

00:31:40.780 Yeah, I was just taught, I was talking about this last night. Um,

00:31:44.320 and I was talking about this with my wife too. And, and, and she was saying that she already is

00:31:48.140 getting looks and comments. Um, and she actually did use the word disgusted. 0.98

00:31:55.540 And I think that this just shows you why the West is dying, honestly, because four kids is not a lot.

00:32:04.060 And I do believe this is, this is somewhat geographically based. It kind of depends on

00:32:08.080 where you live. There are some places in the country you could live and have four kids. And if

00:32:13.100 anything, people are gonna look weird at you because you don't have enough kids like in Utah,

00:32:16.020 for example. But, um, depending on where you live, it can change. And I think in a lot of places,

00:32:21.540 certainly more liberal kinds of places, uh, yeah, having four kids, people look at you like

00:32:26.940 a Ripley's believe it or not exhibit. And, uh, but four kids is, that's not a big family.

00:32:33.560 Really? I don't think you count as a big, and I have, you know, so I don't think I wouldn't,

00:32:38.400 I would say that I have a moderately sized family at this point with four kids.

00:32:41.780 I think a big family, you, you reach big family, uh, territory when you can no longer fit inside a

00:32:50.260 standard minivan. Once you've gotten, once you have to go buy a special van to fit all your,

00:32:55.520 your kids, that is a big family. I think that's the, um, that's the cutoff. So that's not, you know,

00:33:01.120 my, my sister has nine kids. Um, my brother's wife, my, my sister-in-law comes from a family,

00:33:08.380 I think of, of 12 kids, I believe. And there are much bigger families out there than that.

00:33:13.240 Even, um, a family of six is not that big, but we've gotten so used to families that are below 0.98

00:33:19.920 replacement rate. The families with their 1.7 kids or whatever it is now that we really,

00:33:24.600 that we see a just normal sized family as somehow bizarre. Um, and that is, uh, not a good sign for

00:33:32.580 the future of our civilization. Actually, it's been kind of interesting because everyone told me

00:33:37.320 that this is what I heard from many people that when you hit four kids,

00:33:42.500 that's when you start hearing the classic comments like, Oh, it looks like you got your hands full

00:33:48.080 or, uh, well, you need to get a TV. Um, or do you know what causes that? Or, you know, all of those,

00:33:55.140 any, any family with a lot of kids, you, you know, you know, all the comments you get from people.

00:33:59.280 And I always heard that once you hit four, that's when the comments start coming in.

00:34:05.220 And that has been exactly my experience. It's actually been pretty amazing. I've had four kids

00:34:09.700 for a week and I've already heard all of those comments. In fact, I, the, um, the, you look like

00:34:15.020 you have your hands full one. I got that eight hours after the fourth kid was born in the food

00:34:20.660 court of the hospital. I got the, it looks like you got your hands full. And I never got that one

00:34:25.180 time with three kids, not once, all of those comments. I never heard once directed at me.

00:34:30.520 Fourth kid comes and immediately it's like a, it's like the, uh, uh, you know,

00:34:35.160 turning on a tap or something and all the, they all come, um, doesn't offend me or anything. I

00:34:41.000 actually, I'm impressed by how on the money those predictions were. So also coming, I, you know,

00:34:47.340 I come from a family of eight. I had five, uh, siblings, four sisters, one brother. And so,

00:34:53.400 uh, we grew up in a pretty liberal area. So, uh, the comments and the looks and everything,

00:34:58.920 I, I got used to that as a kid. So I'm kind of impervious to it now. It doesn't bother me that

00:35:02.780 much. And of course, also we should remember that not every comment that a person, people can make

00:35:10.320 comments that are kind of awkward and might be annoying because you've heard them a million times.

00:35:16.820 It doesn't mean they're malicious. So when someone says, looks like you got your hands full, I don't,

00:35:20.580 that's not an insult necessarily. It could be, it could be a passive aggressive way of telling you,

00:35:26.180 Hey, control your kids. Uh, but maybe not necessarily. So not all those comments are,

00:35:31.540 um, in any sense malicious, but the fact is, and people who don't have a lot of kids or,

00:35:36.620 or don't come from large families when they hear this, sometimes they don't believe it,

00:35:41.020 but the, it is true that big families, again, depending on where they live, you do get actual

00:35:50.660 dirty looks and malicious mean comments from people. It's, it's kind of amazing. If you've

00:35:55.600 never experienced it, you think, ah, would someone really come up to you? Some stranger come up to you

00:36:00.780 and make a, make a, a malicious comment about how many kids you have. Yeah, people do that. They

00:36:05.420 actually do it, believe it or not. Um, but who cares? All right. From, uh, Nate says, uh, I like

00:36:15.780 your show when you stick to the issues, but when you go on and on about some story related to your

00:36:19.640 kids or wife, I tune out. I don't care enough about your personal life to listen to that stick 1.00

00:36:24.060 to the topics people care about. Well, Nate, thank you so much for that email and that feedback.

00:36:29.460 I want to assure you that your feedback means a lot to me. Um, I'm going to take it into account

00:36:36.880 and make sure to do the exact opposite of what you have suggested. Um, I have to assume, Nate,

00:36:44.800 that this is reverse psychology. I have to assume that you actually want me. You can't get enough

00:36:49.980 of me rambling about my kids and wife and you want me to do it more because you must know that

00:36:55.460 the number one way to ensure that I talk more about something is to send me a snide email

00:37:02.280 demanding that I talk less about it. The moment someone says to me, don't talk about this. I'm

00:37:09.700 going to talk about it even more. Is that a mature way to respond on my part? No, but I'm not a mature

00:37:17.300 person. You should know that by now. So yes, now I'm going to tell more stories about my family out of

00:37:24.140 spite, out of spite against you personally. That's the way this goes.

00:37:31.940 Or, you know, you could just stop listening entirely. That also is an option. I welcome

00:37:37.140 you to explore that option. It always amazes me when I get emails from people saying, I don't like it

00:37:45.100 when you spend too much time talking about this or that. Well, then don't listen. I don't, it's never

00:37:50.200 occurred to me. Look, there are so many podcasts out there. And, you know, these, it's a wonderful

00:37:56.520 thing. There's so many podcasts, so many options. There's a podcast on any topic imaginable. It's

00:38:03.380 never occurred to me to listen to a podcast with content that I don't find interesting and then

00:38:10.660 write an email to the host of that podcast telling them to change the content because I personally

00:38:17.320 don't like it. It's just, I, I would never do that. It's such a weird thing to do. You know,

00:38:24.180 there are, there are home improvement podcasts out there. I don't personally care to listen to a home

00:38:28.440 improvement podcast. I would never write an email to somebody with a home improvement podcast. Like,

00:38:33.300 stop talking about this. I personally find it uninteresting. I just wouldn't do that.

00:38:38.620 Um, okay. From Lewis says, hi, Matt, honest question. How do you justify going to see a

00:38:47.600 movie like Joker when you're a Christian? Why expose yourself to that debauchery and violence? I don't

00:38:53.940 get it. That movie, like most Hollywood movies exists only to glorify sin. And yet you encourage

00:38:58.900 people to go see it. You are not being a good shepherd of souls. Just being honest.

00:39:02.840 Well, Lewis, you say that, and I got a few emails like this after talking about the Joker yesterday.

00:39:09.300 Um, you say that the movie exists to glorify sin. Did you come to that conclusion from seeing it?

00:39:18.160 Did you actually watch it before deciding that it only exists to glorify sin? That's quite an

00:39:23.000 indictment of the movie. Um, it could be true. I, I'm not saying that there are movies that like that

00:39:29.160 out there, but I did agree with you on, on that score. But how do you know that this movie is one

00:39:35.220 of them? I assume that you haven't seen it since you're taking issue with the fact that I saw it at

00:39:41.060 all. So I, I, the very fact that I watched it, you're saying I, I, that can't be justified as a

00:39:46.280 Christian, which tells me you haven't watched it, which tells me that you have come to the conclusion

00:39:52.200 about, about the, the main purpose of this movie based on what the name of a preview. Did you even,

00:40:01.320 did you watch it? You saw a two minute preview when you came out? What are you basing us on? I'm

00:40:05.100 really, I'm perplexed. Um, and it sounds like you're taking the position based on your email

00:40:13.620 that Christians should just never expose themselves to violence and debauchery in any context. 0.98

00:40:22.200 That seems to be your point. Not trying to make a straw man here because, but I, but, but if you

00:40:27.640 thought that there could be a context where it's okay to, for Christian to expose themselves to this

00:40:33.480 kind of content, then you wouldn't be making these judgments about a movie you haven't seen. So I can

00:40:38.380 only assume that what you know about this movie is that there's violence in it and debauchery,

00:40:46.060 as you say, although I don't, I don't know if debauchery is really, well, I guess there is

00:40:48.900 debauchery. Yeah, there is. Um, so you know that about this movie and you're saying based on that

00:40:54.060 alone, don't watch it, which seems to be mean what you're arguing is that we should just not expose

00:40:58.740 ourselves to that stuff at all. Um, and, and you're not alone in that view, by the way, a lot of

00:41:06.520 Christians feel that way, but I disagree with it. First of all, I'll tell you why I disagree.

00:41:14.680 Uh, first of all, I know it's not exactly the same, but it should be mentioned that the Bible,

00:41:20.100 um, the old Testament in particular contains a lot of very bloody and gory violence and sex

00:41:27.620 and debauchery and rape and incest and so on. Um, I mean, if, if you were to make the Bible

00:41:34.380 into a movie, it would be a very long movie, but if you were to make it into an accurate movie,

00:41:40.180 um, it would be NC 17 at a minimum because of the content in it. And that's the truth.

00:41:48.420 Yet you would say, and I agree. Okay. You would say, well, that's different. Um, because you know,

00:41:56.620 it's okay to expose yourself to the violence and debauchery and gore and death and blood and incest

00:42:03.380 and rape and everything in the Bible. It's different to expose yourself to that is okay because of the 0.84

00:42:07.600 context. Now I'm not suggesting that the Joker is like the Bible or something. I'm not saying that

00:42:14.020 I'm simply establishing that context matters. And, and, and so it would seem like you actually

00:42:20.160 would agree with that because you know, it's okay in the Bible context. It's all about the context.

00:42:25.440 And that would mean that a statement like Christians shouldn't expose themselves to violence 1.00

00:42:29.960 is actually a meaningless statement. It's a silly statement because of course there are some contexts 0.80

00:42:36.020 where it's okay to do. So I think you have to abandon that general position that you seem to be taking

00:42:41.740 and find a more nuanced one. And here's the more nuanced one, which you did touch on.

00:42:48.860 Christians should not engage in the glorification of violence and sin. And that's true. You know,

00:42:55.440 I, they shouldn't, I agree with that, but not every movie that depicts violence glorifies it.

00:43:02.580 And, and I think there is a place for art that deals with and depicts and discusses and wrestles with

00:43:09.380 very serious adult things like violence and sex and, and all of that. Um, kids should not be watching

00:43:16.960 that. But as adults, as mature adults, if we can handle it, um, there can be a value in it as long

00:43:24.400 as it is not the glorification. But you, you seem to be conflating as again, a lot of Christians do.

00:43:29.180 I've found you're conflating the depiction of violence with the glorification of it. And those are not the same

00:43:35.460 things. And, you know, why would you depict violence, uh, in art? Well, because it's part of life, right?

00:43:45.520 And, and art at its best helps you to understand life more. Um, art, if it is art has to reflect

00:43:54.180 life in some way. And, uh, and, and hopefully if it's really good art, you, you, after being exposed

00:44:03.280 to it, whatever kind of art it is, you leave with a somewhat greater insight, um, into certain facets

00:44:09.860 of life. Now, uh, I'm not going to try to flip this around and say that, uh, you know, no, actually

00:44:17.880 Christians have an obligation to go see Joker. That's how good it is. No, I'm not. I wouldn't go quite 0.99

00:44:22.060 that far. Um, in fact, I would put this movie aside for a minute because there's a discussion

00:44:27.440 that can be had about whether or not, uh, this movie does engage in glorification or, or of violence.

00:44:34.400 I don't think it does, but it is at least complex enough that you would have to watch it before,

00:44:40.200 before arriving at any sort of informed conclusion. But putting this aside for a minute, um, I just,

00:44:46.780 I think it's a mistake for Christians to retreat entirely from forms of art that deal with difficult

00:44:52.940 things. I think this is a trend in Christianity that's been going on for decades now. I think it's

00:44:58.020 a very bad trend. The attitude that, you know, you should only watch Kirk Cameron movies, uh, or wait

00:45:03.660 for the next, uh, God is not dead installment and watch that sort of thing. Um, we should, you should

00:45:08.760 only listen to the, to the sorts of music that you would, you would hear at a mega church.

00:45:12.060 That attitude is, I think, very damaging, uh, to the faith because it makes Christians, 1.00

00:45:19.080 frankly, more shallow, um, and more bland, not to mention less engaged in the culture.

00:45:28.200 Yeah. As it turns out, um, there are actually non-Christian artists out there who have insights 1.00

00:45:36.560 to offer, um, who actually have wisdom and artistic brilliance. Even I've, it's no secret that I think

00:45:45.320 Breaking Bad is, uh, the best television show ever produced in history. And, um, Vince Gilligan,

00:45:53.580 the creator of, of that show is not a Christian. I think he might be an atheist actually, um, or

00:45:58.520 agnostic. I'm not sure exactly, but he's certainly not a Christian.

00:46:01.400 And yet, um, he brings more moral insight into that show. And he says more about human nature

00:46:10.620 than any Christian movie ever has. And it's not close. I mean, there, there simply is no Christian 1.00

00:46:18.620 movie or show that comes anywhere even close to the depth of moral insight offered by a show like

00:46:24.380 Breaking Bad. Now it doesn't have to be this way. Uh, Christian artists used to have more depth 1.00

00:46:33.360 and that was because they, they didn't always try to keep everything PG. And they understood that,

00:46:40.100 um, that not all art has to be appropriate for everyone between, just between the ages of eight

00:46:45.160 and 80. You know, it doesn't have to be that way. There can be adult oriented art that is, is meaningful

00:46:52.180 and good, but deals with difficult things. Dostoevsky, greatest novelist of all time,

00:46:57.220 in my opinion, his books are not for kids. They deal with death and murder and betrayal and adultery

00:47:03.620 and sex, crime and punishment. One of the best novels ever written period, a great Christian novel 0.55

00:47:12.000 as well. But it, it starts the very first chapter. It starts with the protagonist on his way to go

00:47:19.320 murder an elderly woman. And the book, uh, describes the, that murder in, in, in gory detail.

00:47:27.760 And it's very upsetting and disturbing and it's supposed to be, but the whole point is you're not

00:47:33.280 going to read that book and come away from it thinking, Oh, I'd like to be, uh, yeah, I I'd be,

00:47:38.440 I'd like to be more like him. I'd, I'd like to do what he did at the beginning. No, that's not,

00:47:42.260 that's you're, you're going to come to the exact opposite conclusion.

00:47:44.560 And, um, so that's, I think that's the important thing. It's after you read the book or watch the

00:47:54.100 movie or watch the show, um, if, if it depicted and dealt with evil things, does it make those evil

00:48:05.160 things seem appealing? Does it make you feel like you want to try that stuff yourself because it looks

00:48:11.420 so cool and everything and sexy and everything based on, uh, based on the way that it was

00:48:15.360 portrayed. There are a lot of movies that do have that effect, which isn't to say that, you know,

00:48:20.960 watching a movie that glorifies violence will cause someone to go and commit violence. It's not a,

00:48:26.140 as I said yesterday, it's the causal relationship is not nearly that clear if there even is any kind

00:48:31.900 of causal relationship, but still it, it, it, it will have a negative influence influence on us

00:48:36.320 psychologically and spiritually to watch things that glorify violence and sin and everything.

00:48:39.980 Um, but if at the end of it, you have the opposite feeling where you feel repulsed

00:48:49.160 and you feel even more determined to avoid making the mistakes and doing the things that you saw the

00:48:55.120 people in the show or the movie doing, then that means that it was not glorified.

00:48:58.460 Um, you know, I, I don't think that anyone could get to the end of Godfather part two

00:49:06.540 when Michael Corleone is, is, is standing there looking out the window as his brother is being taken

00:49:13.720 out, you know, into the lake to be murdered. Uh, and, and, and, uh, you know, and then he's looking

00:49:19.620 over his, his empire that is of just death and destruction where his family's gone. His wife hates

00:49:26.020 him. His kids hate him. His brother's dead. He killed his brother. The other brother's dead. 0.95

00:49:29.720 I mean, everyone's dead. Um, I don't think anyone watches that and says to themselves,

00:49:34.980 Oh, I would really like to join the mafia. So not glorification. All right, we will,

00:49:43.020 but thank you for, uh, that email. It's definitely, it's a, it's an interesting discussion. Um,

00:49:47.540 but again, you gotta, you can't really meaningfully participate in this discussion. If you've never

00:49:53.860 watched any of these things, you just don't know what you're talking about. And, um,

00:49:59.500 and that's part of the problem. All right. Thanks everybody for watching. Thanks for listening.

00:50:03.360 Godspeed.

00:50:03.720 If you enjoyed this episode, don't forget to subscribe. And if you want to help spread the

00:50:10.600 word, please give us a five-star review and tell your friends to subscribe as well. We're available

00:50:14.500 on Apple podcasts, Spotify, wherever you listen to podcasts. Also be sure to check out the other

00:50:19.660 Daily Wire podcasts, including the Ben Shapiro show, Michael Knowles show, and the Andrew Klavan show.

00:50:24.480 Thanks for listening. The Matt Walsh show is produced by Robert Sterling, associate producer,

00:50:28.660 Alexia Garcia del Rio, executive producer, Jeremy Boring, senior producer, Jonathan Hay.

00:50:34.100 Our supervising producer is Mathis Glover and our technical producer is Austin Stevens edited by

00:50:39.420 Donovan Fowler. Audio is mixed by Mike Coromina. The Matt Walsh show is a Daily Wire production

00:50:44.500 copyright Daily Wire 2019. Hey everybody. It's Andrew Klavan, host of the Andrew Klavan show.

00:50:49.540 You know, some people are depressed because the American Republic is collapsing. The end of days is

00:50:53.980 approaching and the moon has turned to blood, but on the Andrew Klavan show, that's where the fun just

00:50:58.360 gets started. So come on over to the Andrew Klavan show and laugh your way through the apocalypse with

00:51:02.960 me, Andrew Klavan.

The Matt Walsh Show - October 09, 2019

Ep. 345 - True Communism

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