The Matt Walsh Show - Ep. 349 - Lebron Is The Real Victim

00:00:00.000 Well, LeBron James, who I have been a fan of as a basketball player anyway, he had remained conspicuously silent about the whole China thing up until last night.

00:00:12.640 And then finally, he decided to open up and share some thoughts about it.

00:00:16.820 And listen, we use words like amazing way too often, and so much so that I think the word has lost all meaning.

00:00:24.660 But his response to the controversy with China and the NBA, it really is amazing for a number of reasons.

00:00:34.480 So right off the bat here, I want to play this clip for you of what LeBron James said last night.

00:00:39.940 And it is, well, just watch.

00:00:43.060 We all talk about this freedom of speech.

00:00:45.060 Yes, we all do have freedom of speech.

00:00:46.680 But at times, there are ramifications for the negative that can happen when you're not thinking about others.

00:00:53.060 And you're only thinking about yourself.

00:00:54.920 So I don't believe, I don't want to get into a word or sentence feud with Darryl, with Darryl Morey.

00:01:04.200 But I believe he wasn't educated on the situation at hand.

00:01:08.020 And he spoke.

00:01:10.100 And so many people could have been harmed, not only financially, but physically, emotionally, spiritually.

00:01:17.720 So just be careful what we tweet and we say and what we do, even though, yes, we do have freedom of speech.

00:01:23.880 But there can be a lot of negative that comes with that too.

00:01:28.080 All right.

00:01:29.740 So there you go.

00:01:30.900 Now, this is sort of beside the point.

00:01:32.560 But what is a, he said, he doesn't want to have a word, I think I heard him right. 0.99

00:01:36.700 He said he did, I don't want to have a word or sentence feud with Darryl Morey.

00:01:41.800 He doesn't want to get into a word or sentence feud.

00:01:47.020 Darryl Morey is the assistant coach in Houston who originally sent a tweet supporting the pro-democracy protesters in China.

00:01:55.900 But LeBron wants to avoid a word feud.

00:01:58.160 So he doesn't want to play Scrabble with Darryl is what he's saying.

00:02:00.760 I don't even know what that means.

00:02:02.780 But that's not the headline here, I suppose.

00:02:05.420 The headline is everything else he said, which we'll get to in just one minute.

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00:03:53.260 Okay, so LeBron, while trying to avoid a word and sentence feud, is that why he was rambling incoherently?

00:04:01.860 So as to avoid forming a complete sentence, that way you don't have a sentence feud?

00:04:06.440 I don't know.

00:04:06.740 But LeBron says that coming out in support of democracy and freedom in communist China is a sign that you're not educated.

00:04:14.520 He's not educated.

00:04:15.920 He hasn't been educated on the wonders of communism.

00:04:19.800 Well, he hasn't been re-educated, I suppose, is what he means to say.

00:04:23.520 And he cautions that, you know, exercising your free speech can have ramifications.

00:04:28.460 Sorry, what he actually said was, there are ramifications for the negative that can happen, as opposed to the ramifications for the positive that can happen.

00:04:38.620 There are ramifications for the negative that can happen.

00:04:42.260 And remember, LeBron James is the one telling the rest of us to get educated.

00:04:45.560 Okay.

00:04:47.440 LeBron also says that Moray's pro-freedom stance caused a lot of harm, financial harm, of course.

00:04:57.260 He mentioned that first, because that's what this is really all about, but also emotional and spiritual harm.

00:05:07.200 LeBron is emotionally and spiritually harmed by the people in China who don't want to be oppressed. 1.00

00:05:14.200 Basically, what LeBron is saying to those folks is, hey, guys, you're really hurting my feelings here.

00:05:22.020 You're really hurting my feelings.

00:05:23.920 Why don't you think about me is the question.

00:05:26.300 Now, I'm trying to sell shoes over here, and you guys are whining about oppression.

00:05:31.200 It's just, you're harming my spirit, bro.

00:05:34.320 My spirit is totally harmed right now.

00:05:37.900 Then LeBron sent some follow-up tweets after that little powwow with the reporters.

00:05:45.920 And he said, here's one of his tweets.

00:05:47.620 He said, injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.

00:05:52.040 Okay, so it sounds like he's, I guess he's seen the light and is, oh, wait, no, sorry, that, sorry, I'm mistaken.

00:06:00.220 That, no, that's a tweet that he sent last year.

00:06:02.480 Okay, he sent that last year unrelated to any of this.

00:06:05.000 Last year, he was saying, you can't have injustice anywhere, it harms justice everywhere.

00:06:10.900 But he seems to have changed his mind, I guess, on the issue of injustice.

00:06:14.700 He's now, before he was anti-injustice, and now he's sort of pro-injustice.

00:06:19.880 And he's saying, hey, you know what?

00:06:21.100 Injustice isn't so bad.

00:06:23.460 Maybe there's something to be said for it.

00:06:25.200 Injustice is underrated.

00:06:26.960 That's his position now.

00:06:29.240 You know, here's what LeBron really tweeted last night.

00:06:31.300 He said, let me clear up the confusion.

00:06:35.280 I do not believe there was any consideration for the consequences and ramifications of the tweet.

00:06:40.500 I'm not discussing the substance.

00:06:42.280 Others can talk about that.

00:06:43.480 My team and this league just went through a difficult week.

00:06:46.220 I think people need to understand what a tweet or statement can do to others.

00:06:49.720 And I believe nobody stopped and considered what would happen.

00:06:52.840 Could have waited a week to send it.

00:06:54.340 Now, when I first read this, you know, I read that first sentence, let me clear up the confusion.

00:07:00.680 And I thought he was going to do some damage control and kind of backpedal a little bit,

00:07:04.220 where he's saying, okay, let me clear up the confusion.

00:07:06.140 And you think, oh, okay, well, now he's going to.

00:07:08.140 But then, no, you keep reading.

00:07:09.960 And, oh, my Lord, he's still complaining about the tweet.

00:07:13.420 Dear God, he's still going on about this tweet.

00:07:16.720 He's sticking with it.

00:07:18.500 And now he wants us to feel sorry for the NBA because the league went through a difficult week.

00:07:23.580 We just had a really difficult week.

00:07:26.220 You guys don't understand.

00:07:28.880 Oh, you did, LeBron?

00:07:29.940 You had a difficult week?

00:07:31.040 Well, let me tell you what the oppressed citizens of China are going through.

00:07:35.880 Let me tell you a little bit about their week.

00:07:37.640 The dictator of China yesterday said that, well, the quote, unquote, president of China,

00:07:42.320 big, big scare quotes around that, he said that people who are trying to separate China,

00:07:50.120 i.e. those who want to be free, he says that they will, quote, perish with their bodies smashed 0.89

00:07:56.700 and bones ground to powder.

00:07:58.460 That's a direct quote from this guy.

00:08:03.280 The great thing is the news of that quote, that statement from the dictator of China,

00:08:09.220 came out just minutes after LeBron had himself come out and backed communism in China.

00:08:16.280 But this is what the oppressed masses in China are dealing with.

00:08:22.880 This is their tough week.

00:08:24.820 This is their tough year, their tough life.

00:08:27.780 They might get their bones ground to powder if they try to resist oppression.

00:08:32.320 LeBron, on the other hand, has been annoyed by some questions by reporters.

00:08:37.440 So, you know, it's bones ground to powder on one hand, annoyed by questions on the other.

00:08:42.640 It's a tomato-tomato kind of situation, I suppose.

00:08:46.760 But I'll tell you the thing that is most amazing about all of this.

00:08:53.140 I said it was amazing.

00:08:53.980 Here's what's amazing.

00:08:55.200 This is really amazing to me.

00:08:57.660 LeBron's statement to reporters, his tweets, all of it, he had, it's been a week, right?

00:09:05.680 It's been a week of this whole discussion.

00:09:08.600 So he had a week.

00:09:09.880 He had an entire week to come up with a tactful, intelligent, good, ethical response.

00:09:21.960 Now, it would be nice if some of these guys would have some guts and they would have just come out

00:09:27.280 immediately and put their foot down and said, you know, here's the deal.

00:09:34.340 LeBron didn't want to do that because he wants to be more diplomatic or something.

00:09:38.360 At least that's what I assumed, is that way he hadn't said anything yet.

00:09:42.440 He's trying to come up with how he's going to navigate this and, you know, that's what you assume.

00:09:49.920 And then a week later, this is what he says?

00:09:54.820 This is what he came up with?

00:09:56.320 Now, you know that he must have sat down with his people over the last week, his PR team and everything,

00:10:02.780 and they were talking about how do you handle this, what do you say, you know, you're the biggest star in the league,

00:10:07.600 everyone's looking to you to see what you're going to say.

00:10:09.740 Let's come up with something good for you to say, something that kind of walks the line and everything.

00:10:15.220 And so they sat down and this is what they came up with, this, for him to say that, of all things.

00:10:23.820 So I guess they said, hey, you know, you should go in there and I know what you should say.

00:10:28.760 His team, this is his PR team, I assume.

00:10:30.860 They said, LeBron, what you need to do, here's what we came up with.

00:10:33.960 This is why you're paying us.

00:10:35.300 This is why you're paying us $6,000 an hour.

00:10:37.300 What you need to do is you need to go in and say that you have been spiritually hurt by all of the calls for freedom in China.

00:10:44.900 Now, yeah, that's what you need to do.

00:10:46.220 It spiritually hurts you.

00:10:47.900 That's, yes, that's it.

00:10:50.540 I am flabbergasted by that.

00:10:53.040 I am literally flabbergasted.

00:10:55.980 My flabber has never been so gasted, frankly.

00:10:58.860 It's just, I, it's not just the cowardice, okay?

00:11:03.920 We get the cowardice of it.

00:11:05.060 It's also just the being so totally out of touch.

00:11:08.960 Like, you don't understand how you're coming across to everybody else.

00:11:13.820 Although the cowardice is really the most disgusting thing, of course.

00:11:17.140 And you see that courage is something that's just in very short supply in our culture.

00:11:23.240 And a lot of people get credit for being courageous and taking courageous stands on things when really there's no courage involved.

00:11:31.440 Like we talked about last week, in order for it to be courage, okay?

00:11:34.980 For you to take a really courageous stance means that you're putting something on the line.

00:11:39.380 It means that, you know, you are potentially sacrificing something.

00:11:44.000 It means that you are, you know, you could lose something by taking whatever stand you're taking.

00:11:50.440 That's courage.

00:11:51.420 And that's why, you know, for these guys to come out and complain about Trump or whatever, that's, there's no courage in that.

00:12:00.980 Now, I'm not, I have never been one of those shut up and dribble types.

00:12:08.600 I've never been one of those who thought that, well, athletes should never chime in about politics and should never give their opinion.

00:12:15.720 No, I mean, these guys have a platform.

00:12:17.340 If they want to use it, if they want to use it to express their points of view, then they can do that.

00:12:22.740 This whole idea that, and it kind of annoys me too sometimes when you've got people saying to athletes, ah, shut up and stop talking about politics.

00:12:29.740 Well, you talk about politics, okay, whatever your job is, I'm sure that whatever you do for a living, I'm sure it doesn't include talking politics, yet you still talk politics, don't you?

00:12:39.160 So they can do it too.

00:12:40.740 You know, you can't sit there and tell them to shut up. 0.71

00:12:42.440 They could tell you to shut up.

00:12:43.360 How you'd feel about that?

00:12:45.380 So I've never had a problem with that.

00:12:48.140 But all of this, this stuff with China has just exposed how fraudulent they are. 0.98

00:12:53.940 You know, and, you know, this idea that they're going to use their, yeah, you want to use your platform to take a stand.

00:13:05.560 I'm in favor of that.

00:13:07.880 As long as you do it consistently.

00:13:10.360 Now, you use your platform to take a stand.

00:13:11.920 Sometimes you're going to take a stand I disagree with.

00:13:14.120 Okay, it's America.

00:13:15.800 We do have free speech.

00:13:16.740 But now is your chance to use your platform to take a stand that is really meaningful and really important and that will require some courage because, yeah, you could lose.

00:13:30.880 You're not going to lose much.

00:13:32.820 Your life's not on the line.

00:13:34.120 You're still going to be rich at the end of it.

00:13:36.980 Even if you sell less shoes and even if the NBA loses some money, you're all still going to be millionaires at the end of it.

00:13:42.480 But, yeah, you are putting a little bit on the line.

00:13:44.700 And they're not even willing to do that because when it comes down to it, a lot of people just are not willing to make any sacrifice whatsoever.

00:13:54.880 They'll say anything and take any stand up until the moment when they're required to make the smallest little sacrifice.

00:14:01.240 And then all of a sudden it's, oh, no, never mind.

00:14:05.820 Just completely disgraceful and shameful across the board, but not surprising in the least bit.

00:14:11.660 Okay, I don't want to be a broken record, but, you know, as we talked about my man Christopher Columbus yesterday, my good buddy Columbus.

00:14:20.300 But I had to mention this.

00:14:22.180 Predictably, statues of Christopher Columbus were vandalized yesterday on Columbus Day, which I think we all saw coming.

00:14:29.820 And this happened in several cities around the country.

00:14:32.480 Here's a – let me give you a – I'll show you a shot of what they did in Providence.

00:14:36.940 Here's a picture of that.

00:14:38.600 So they've got red paint all over the statue with a message that says, stop celebrating genocide.

00:14:43.720 Now, I know there's no room for actual facts in this discussion, okay, when we talk about Columbus committing genocide.

00:14:51.720 I realize that the people who throw paint on a statue have probably never read even one page of one book about this subject.

00:14:59.660 Okay, I very much doubt that they've sat down and said, let me actually research the history of Columbus, his voyages, what actually happened.

00:15:06.860 Let me research it for myself.

00:15:08.340 I realize that these people, the kinds of people who would throw paint on a statue, they're getting their information from internet memes.

00:15:14.360 So I understand that.

00:15:15.780 So to try and correct them in the midst of their hissy fit is sort of pointless. 1.00

00:15:19.680 But then again, I spend my life trying to pointlessly correct stupid people who can't be reasoned with. 1.00

00:15:23.940 So why stop now? 0.99

00:15:24.840 And so I will say, no, Columbus did not commit genocide, okay?

00:15:29.740 That claim is absurd on its face.

00:15:32.500 It's not true.

00:15:33.380 Not at all.

00:15:34.460 Columbus was not genocidal.

00:15:37.060 It is tragically true that a huge percentage of the native population died as a result of the European settlers.

00:15:46.120 But almost all of them died by disease, okay?

00:15:49.980 And disease brought accidentally, not intentionally.

00:15:53.300 And that's an important point here.

00:15:57.680 The diseases, now sometimes you'll hear from people who even think that diseases were spread intentionally.

00:16:04.520 Well, they couldn't have done that even if they wanted to because back in the 15th and 16th century, people didn't understand how diseases were spread in the first place.

00:16:14.000 Spreading diseases by germs was not something that people understood.

00:16:16.920 It'd be another 250, 300 years before the germ theory of disease was formulated. 0.79

00:16:21.440 So to call the accidental spreading of disease genocide is just ridiculous and factually inaccurate.

00:16:29.800 So it just is not true.

00:16:31.600 Now, did the Europeans engage in slavery?

00:16:34.700 Yes.

00:16:36.060 Did they intentionally kill people?

00:16:39.740 Yes.

00:16:40.060 Were they violent?

00:16:40.920 Yes.

00:16:41.160 All of that is true.

00:16:42.280 But to say that Christopher Columbus himself was genocidal is just a factually incorrect statement, and that's all there is to it.

00:16:50.420 But what I keep having to say about this in general is, yes, we can acknowledge the evil, bad things that were done by people in the past.

00:17:02.520 We can do that.

00:17:03.240 And I think we have done that.

00:17:04.800 I think everyone understands that the European settlers, some of them engaged in atrocities and horrible things happened, and some of them were bad people.

00:17:13.320 I think we have fully and probably sufficiently acknowledged that, and I don't think anyone denies it, right?

00:17:22.160 So I think that's all, that's sort of been covered.

00:17:26.500 Okay, good.

00:17:27.960 And that's fine.

00:17:29.300 But we also have to, you know, this whole thing of judging historical people, especially people that lived centuries ago, 500 years ago or more, by modern standards is so absurd.

00:17:45.780 And the problem is, when you do that, if you're going to do that, and this is what I think people don't understand.

00:17:51.260 If you're going to judge historical people by modern standards, then here's the result.

00:17:57.920 Every single person, without exception, okay, every single person who existed anywhere on earth at any point up until about, I don't know, 50 years ago, will be a bigot by our standards today.

00:18:15.580 If we are taking modern standards and applying it to historical people, then all of them, we have to basically write off all of them, all of our ancestors.

00:18:23.620 It doesn't matter where you live, what your race is, religion, doesn't matter. 0.99

00:18:26.920 All of our ancestors were all scumbag bigots, all of them across the board. 1.00

00:18:31.700 And that's the conclusion we come to. 0.99

00:18:33.520 Now, if we realize that there's something wrong with that conclusion, you know, yes, our ancestors did bad things.

00:18:41.800 They had views that were incorrect.

00:18:45.360 They had views that we find even reprehensible today.

00:18:49.020 If we realize that, but at the same time, we say to ourselves, well, but we can't, what, are we going to say that the entire world was populated, but there was just nothing good about them?

00:18:56.220 They were all horrible?

00:18:57.340 That doesn't make any sense. 0.93

00:18:58.340 Not only that, but that is, on top of being an absurd view, it's also incredibly arrogant and egotistical, you know, talk about, I think it was C.S. Lewis talked about chronological, maybe it was G.K. Chester, one of them, one of those guys, talked about chronological snobbery and this idea that, well, because we're the most recent people to exist, we are so much better than everyone who existed before us.

00:19:21.380 And because we can, with the benefit of hindsight, we can see their flaws.

00:19:27.140 We can't see our own flaws, but we can see theirs as we look back in time.

00:19:31.140 So that's, it's chronological snobbery and it's B.S. to do that.

00:19:35.180 I think we have to come up with a more nuanced perspective and not a perspective that excuses things that were obviously evil and wrong.

00:19:43.620 So, Europeans who just slaughtered Native Americans, and that did happen, obviously that's evil and wrong.

00:19:51.300 And they knew it too at the time.

00:19:53.780 It's not like people in history had no concept of right versus wrong.

00:19:58.940 That's not the point.

00:20:00.040 But they did live in a different time.

00:20:02.660 And here are the main things, okay?

00:20:04.620 Here are the main differences I think we have to keep in mind when we look and analyze events in history.

00:20:12.260 The first is that people who lived a long time ago, they did not have the same compunctions about violence that we do today.

00:20:24.180 Now, again, I'm trying to look for a more nuanced perspective here.

00:20:28.060 So you can't, my point is not that every violent thing they did was fine because they didn't know any better.

00:20:34.560 That's not the point.

00:20:35.140 It's just that in our modern society, we tend to see violence as just objectively wrong.

00:20:42.880 You know, we say things like violence is never a way to solve a problem or whatever.

00:20:48.340 Our ancestors didn't feel that way.

00:20:51.000 That's not how they saw it.

00:20:52.200 And they saw violence as a perfectly legitimate way to sometimes solve a problem.

00:20:56.940 And I would say that they weren't necessarily wrong about that.

00:20:59.560 Now, the violence that they used, you know, in certain situations was wrong.

00:21:04.680 So they applied that incorrectly in some cases, in many cases.

00:21:09.300 But I think that we're not exactly always correct that violence is always wrong.

00:21:13.740 Of course, there are situations where violence is okay.

00:21:16.540 I think, you know, maybe our ancestors were too far on one end of that spectrum to sometimes too eager to settle problems through violence.

00:21:26.600 Whereas we've gone too far in the other direction with this idea that it's never okay, there's never any situation, it's totally wrong all the time. 0.50

00:21:33.260 I think that that is a sort of ridiculous view as well.

00:21:39.400 But that's the first thing we have to keep in mind, okay? 0.83

00:21:41.240 It's a cultural fact.

00:21:42.760 They did not quite have the same compunctions about violence that we do today.

00:21:47.480 The second thing, and this is really important, is that our ancestors did not have this concept of universal human equality.

00:22:01.440 We have that concept today.

00:22:04.000 Our ancestors did not.

00:22:05.560 So if you had said to someone in the 14th century, for example, all human beings are equal, they're all exactly, they are all worth the same, they're all equal in moral worth and dignity, probably doesn't matter who you're talking to.

00:22:22.460 It doesn't matter what country you're in, what culture, what race you're saying that to.

00:22:26.440 So that would have seemed, it wouldn't have meant anything to them.

00:22:31.280 It would have seemed like it just, it would not have processed.

00:22:36.220 Because that is a, the idea of universal human equality is very modern.

00:22:42.780 In fact, it's so modern.

00:22:44.020 Think about, think about this, that, you know, all humans are created equal, endowed by their creator, so on and so forth.

00:22:51.580 But even when that was written into the Declaration of Independence, as we know, it was so far ahead of its time that the men who came up with this idea and who wrote that down, they themselves didn't even fully apply it.

00:23:06.040 Because, of course, they still, you know, Thomas Jefferson owned slaves.

00:23:10.540 Washington, George Washington owned slaves.

00:23:13.060 So, in fact, from when that was written to when it would actually be fully enacted in our country, that was, you know, that's like 180, 190 years or something.

00:23:23.900 It would be a very long time from when that was originally conceived of and written down to when we actually lived in a country where everybody was legally equal.

00:23:32.940 So, it is a very, again, it's a very modern concept.

00:23:37.460 And that's just not a concept that people, you know, 300, 400, 500, 600, 700 years ago had.

00:23:46.240 And that's one of the reasons why slavery was an acceptable practiced institution all across the world in nearly every culture and civilization.

00:23:58.440 It was just a way of life.

00:23:59.960 It's just what you did.

00:24:00.840 You know, in many Indian cultures, you fought a war with another tribe, you beat them, you took some of them as slaves. 0.56

00:24:07.920 It's just what you did.

00:24:09.020 It's just, that's just how it was.

00:24:13.900 It's hard for us to wrap our heads around that now or understand that, but that's the fact.

00:24:22.660 And so, now that we have, we live in a more peaceful time, partly because, at least in the West, we can afford to be more peaceful.

00:24:32.740 And that's the third difference.

00:24:33.720 So, there's actually three, I think.

00:24:35.800 There's the, didn't have the same compunction about violence, didn't have this concept of universal human equality.

00:24:40.080 Also, they didn't live in a world that was settled like we do now. 0.95

00:24:48.260 You know, and our world, of course, is not completely settled.

00:24:51.740 But it certainly is more than it has been at any other point in history.

00:24:56.040 They lived at a time where, you know, the lines had not been completely drawn.

00:25:05.500 And so, people fought over land.

00:25:07.500 It just happened all across the globe.

00:25:10.100 And if you wanted land that you didn't have, you fought for it.

00:25:14.280 It's just, that's the way the world worked at the time.

00:25:18.720 Which maybe is one of the reasons why they didn't have that compunction about violence.

00:25:22.840 Because they couldn't afford to.

00:25:23.980 And the other thing is, if you had land, you realized that you would have to fight to protect it.

00:25:32.780 And you didn't have, you couldn't spend time, you know, feeling sorry for yourself about that.

00:25:37.060 You just, you had to fight to protect what you had.

00:25:39.500 And if you couldn't, then you weren't going to keep it.

00:25:43.620 And it's very easy for us now, especially in the West.

00:25:47.420 And it's not like this for everybody in the world, of course.

00:25:49.500 But for us in the West, as we live in this luxurious, comfortable world, for us, you know, we're living this comfortable lifestyle.

00:25:59.100 And we have the benefits now of hindsight.

00:26:03.940 And we were born into a world where the truth of, for instance, the equal worth and dignity of all human beings has been, had been passed down to us and taught to us from childhood.

00:26:13.880 We didn't come up with that.

00:26:14.960 We didn't fight for it.

00:26:15.940 We didn't, you know, we didn't earn that.

00:26:18.160 It was just, we were told that from children.

00:26:19.820 And so, we were born into that world.

00:26:21.880 And it's very easy for us to look back at our ancestors now and just write them all off.

00:26:29.340 But I think that's a mistake to do.

00:26:32.000 And even the bad things that they did, I think we have to, it's not excusing it, but it is seeing it within its context.

00:26:43.080 All right, let's go to this.

00:26:44.680 So, Pharrell is on the cover of GQ, and they're calling it the new masculinity issue.

00:26:52.980 And it's all about how guys like Pharrell are redefining masculinity.

00:26:56.380 Here's what the new masculinity looks like.

00:26:57.820 Take a look at this.

00:26:58.920 Yes, the new masculinity looks like a jacket made for an octopus who is also a crossing guard.

00:27:05.520 That's the new masculinity.

00:27:07.480 A crossing guard octopus.

00:27:10.120 And then here's some more of the new masculinity, some more pictures you see there.

00:27:14.680 Of what masculinity looks like now, apparently.

00:27:18.380 I mean, it looks like he just dove into the clearance bin at Goodwill.

00:27:22.680 And just a random assortment of ugly clothing that don't fit.

00:27:28.080 He looks like my daughter playing dress up.

00:27:29.880 Especially the one with the huge jacket, the huge leopard print jacket.

00:27:35.340 That's the new masculinity.

00:27:36.380 The new masculinity is a six-year-old girl playing dress up. 0.98

00:27:39.920 So, when my six-year-old daughter plays dress up, she is now the example of masculinity for men everywhere, apparently. 1.00

00:27:47.660 Now, again, I know there's no point, as I said, in introducing logic into this discussion.

00:27:52.700 But I can't help but point out that these efforts to redefine masculinity make no sense in light of the fact that the very concept of manhood is supposedly subjective and effectively meaningless now.

00:28:05.980 If it doesn't really mean anything to be a man, then what's the point of coming up with a new masculinity?

00:28:11.760 In other words, in order for a biological female to identify as a man, which is a thing now that she can do, doesn't manhood then have to be masculine in order for that to make sense? 0.75

00:28:23.700 Isn't the whole damn point of identifying as a man, isn't that the whole point of it?

00:28:32.580 Isn't that effectively what you're saying? 0.97

00:28:35.260 In other words, aren't you basically saying, you say, I identify as a man.

00:28:38.520 What you're really saying is, I identify as a masculine person.

00:28:42.640 If masculinity is now feminine, then what does it mean for a woman to identify as a man?

00:28:50.300 So she identifies as a man, but men are like women. 0.85

00:28:53.980 So she identifies as a man who's essentially a woman.

00:28:57.460 She's a man who's a woman who's a man who's a woman. 0.96

00:28:59.740 It just doesn't make sense.

00:29:01.340 So this is the problem.

00:29:03.780 That's the contradiction.

00:29:04.740 The whole concept of identifying as a man or identifying as a woman depends on those things being distinct and defined.

00:29:13.820 You know, it really depends on men being masculine and women being feminine.

00:29:18.640 But if we're tearing down masculinity and femininity, then everyone might as well stay their own genders because we're all just sort of meeting in the middle anyway, right? 0.96

00:29:27.420 We're all just getting together, meeting in the middle, swapping clothes, and it's a free-for-all.

00:29:30.980 And then in that case, if everything is fluid and it's all sort of, hey, it's whatever, you're a woman, then, okay, if that's what it is, you kind of have to choose is the point.

00:29:42.700 We're either doing that or we're doing a thing where being a man is something objective and definable, but sometimes a woman could identify as one.

00:29:55.800 So you could do one or the other, but you can't really do both.

00:29:59.120 Or here's a better idea.

00:30:00.820 We could do neither of those things and just men are men, women are women, and you're never going to cross from one to the other. 0.97

00:30:07.380 That's also an option.

00:30:10.000 All right.

00:30:11.120 Let's go to emails.

00:30:13.500 MattWalshow at gmail.com.

00:30:15.100 MattWalshow at gmail.com.

00:30:17.260 This is from Stephen.

00:30:18.660 Says, hey, Matt, my name is Stephen, and my parents spanked me growing up.

00:30:22.820 I'm 20 and don't have kids yet, so I'd like to point out that I contradict the case you had explained yesterday where people think fondly on their spankings because they spank their own kids.

00:30:31.280 As a kid, I hated spankings. 1.00

00:30:32.920 I was far more deviant than my siblings and got significantly more spankings because of it.

00:30:36.520 However, I'm grateful that my parents spanked because it did teach me discipline and ultimately taught me to respect my father in a way that I don't know I would have if they used other disciplinary methods.

00:30:47.020 My parents also never hit out of anger.

00:30:49.340 If I was in trouble, they'd send me to my room, and before they spanked, they'd go pray in their room to make sure they were making the right decision.

00:30:55.140 And then they'd talk through what I did wrong, and afterwards, they'd have me pray for forgiveness.

00:30:59.740 I may be an outlier in that my parents never once hit me out of anger, but I just thought your argument didn't take into perspective an experience like mine where I don't look back fondly but could easily be misunderstood as such.

00:31:11.380 Yeah, well, that's not – I think my argument did take into account exactly your situation, Stephen.

00:31:15.940 That's what I was saying is that I think that although we don't spank our kids, it's not – we just decided that's not right for our family.

00:31:24.000 I think if you are, as a parent, doing it not out of anger, not because you're unleashing your frustration, not because you're just pissed off, but you're doing it – you're taking, as I said, kind of a business-like approach.

00:31:39.560 And this is also important, which I didn't talk about yesterday, but that you have spanking as a penalty for certain things, and the child knows ahead of time that that is the penalty for that thing, whatever it is, okay?

00:31:55.640 And then in that case, then that takes the anger out of it even more.

00:31:59.460 It's just, okay, that was the penalty.

00:32:01.960 You did it.

00:32:03.280 Now, here's the punishment.

00:32:05.920 And they might not like it as a kid, but at some level they understand that, okay, I did this thing and that's a penalty.

00:32:12.620 So if spanking is being approached that way, then I think it can be a perfectly valid and effective form of discipline. 0.79

00:32:19.840 It's certainly not abuse.

00:32:21.680 I disagree with the people who say that all forms of spanking are abuse.

00:32:24.980 I just – I don't – I think that that's silly even.

00:32:27.700 I don't agree with that.

00:32:29.220 My only – so that's fine, Steve.

00:32:31.280 It sounds like your situation was what we're talking about here, a valid form of discipline.

00:32:37.320 I just wonder of all the parents who do spank their kids, and of course, any parent you talk to, they're going to say that they never spank in anger.

00:32:48.000 I don't think any parent's going to come out and say, oh, yeah, I hit my kid all the time because I'm ticked off.

00:32:52.680 No parent's going to say that.

00:32:54.980 But I do wonder, of all the parents who spank their kids as a form of discipline, what percentage of them do it sometimes or even regularly out of anger.

00:33:05.980 And I suspect that it's probably a rather large percentage.

00:33:08.660 And in the case of those parents, they are physically abusing their kids.

00:33:13.620 They may not feel like it.

00:33:16.120 You know, you never want to stop and say to yourself, oh, my gosh, I am a physical abuser of my children.

00:33:22.620 But they are, you know.

00:33:26.100 And I'm not saying – a parent who one time spanked their kid out of anger, I'm not saying that they are a terrible parent and they should lose their kids and, you know, or their kids are ruined for life or anything.

00:33:36.300 I'm not saying that I'm just – but it is a serious – that's a serious issue.

00:33:40.720 And that's a line that you just never want to cross.

00:33:48.620 Okay, this is – let's see here.

00:33:51.420 This is from Steve says, Matt, really enjoy your show and everything on Daily Wire.

00:33:57.140 Shapiro brings intellect to bear, Clavin, humor, and you, a lot of heart and a lot of dad.

00:34:01.280 Okay, so I don't have intellect or humor.

00:34:04.820 I have heart.

00:34:05.840 That feels like – Steve, I know you meant that as a compliment.

00:34:10.260 It feels like a backhanded compliment a little bit.

00:34:13.060 But Shapiro's a smart one.

00:34:14.520 Clavin's really funny.

00:34:15.800 You got heart.

00:34:17.340 You put in the effort, kid.

00:34:18.900 You're doing well.

00:34:19.440 No, I appreciate it, though.

00:34:20.680 Thank you.

00:34:21.760 This is not so much a question for the mailbag as it is a comment on one of today's questions, specifically the one regarding priestly celibacy.

00:34:27.600 As a convert to Catholicism from evangelical Protestantism, I had similar views regarding celibacy.

00:34:32.460 To me, it seemed too much of a burden to be placed on men that might otherwise have chosen the vocation.

00:34:37.040 Since then, my opinions have become more nuanced.

00:34:39.020 I will certainly agree that allowing priests to marry won't solve the pedophilia problem.

00:34:43.280 Pedophiles are attracted to any situation where they have authority, trust, and privacy with young boys.

00:34:47.640 Scout leaders, athletic coaches, church youth group leaders, these are all fertile fields for pedophiles.

00:34:52.340 But you make the case that desire to have a family is a noble and natural thing

00:34:55.520 and that priestly celibacy is an unnecessary denial of those basic and good instincts.

00:34:59.640 What I have come to believe, however, is that celibacy is not a burden.

00:35:02.300 It is a grace that God grants those called to the priesthood.

00:35:05.220 The Apostle Paul even says that it would be better for his followers if they were more like him, celibate,

00:35:10.160 but it is better to marry than to burn with lust icing.

00:35:13.300 He makes it clear that a married man cares for the needs of his family,

00:35:16.480 but a celibate priest is free to take care of the things of God.

00:35:19.860 After all, Christianity is a religion of self-denial. 0.98

00:35:21.960 Jesus tells us that if we are to follow him, we must deny ourselves and take up our cross.

00:35:25.700 That a priest is called celibacy is a gift and an opportunity to mortify the flesh in the service of a higher spiritual goal.

00:35:31.480 In spite of the paucity of vocations, I would rather have fewer committed priests than lower the bar to get the numbers up.

00:35:39.100 I think that's a perfectly valid argument.

00:35:41.080 That certainly is the argument in favor of it.

00:35:43.320 I think you eloquently expressed it.

00:35:45.400 Um, and, uh, I think it's a powerful argument in many ways.

00:35:49.940 And I see, I can, I, I see it from, I can see that perspective.

00:35:54.740 That's the perspective that I had.

00:35:56.660 I just, um, I just, there are two things I have to, we have to take into account.

00:36:02.480 Uh, one is the reality of the situation.

00:36:07.380 So we could say, yeah, it would, it's great if priests can carry this cross and, and, and exhibit this kind of self-control and on top of all the other benefits.

00:36:20.020 Now, the thing about, you know, if you're a priest, if you're a pastor, you've got your flock, that's really a full-time job.

00:36:26.760 And so if you've got your own family, then of course your family has to come first and you have to put your flock second. 0.98

00:36:33.340 One of the advantages of having celibate priests is that you focus a hundred percent on your, um, on your priestly duties.

00:36:40.520 And I think that's a, that's a, that's maybe the, in some, even though, even though that's the practical argument, I think maybe that's the best argument for priestly celibacy.

00:36:48.320 Because it's a, it's, you know, you talk to, um, people in Protestant denominations, for example, and they'll tell you that this is, this can be a real problem.

00:36:56.120 And this is why it's a real issue in some Protestant churches, Protestant churches, where, uh, the pastors, you know, they have problems in their own families and with their marriages because they're being torn by these two demands.

00:37:09.960 Um, and so I, I think that practically speaking, that's a very good reason to have celibate priests.

00:37:18.640 But again, now we run up against the reality and the reality is that a very large percent, I don't know what the percentage is, but it's clear that a very large percentage of priests are simply not living up to that.

00:37:33.760 And, um, so do we just charge on ahead and say, yeah, you know, they'll figure it out eventually.

00:37:40.080 Or do we say, maybe it's time to consider making a change?

00:37:45.900 Um, and then the other part of it is, like I said yesterday, I really feel like the desire to have a family and have a wife is good and natural and noble.

00:37:59.420 I don't think it's any lesser.

00:38:01.420 I don't think it's a lesser vocation than celibacy at all.

00:38:05.180 I think that they're just different and there's a place for both, I suppose.

00:38:12.660 But, um, we are ruling out, as I said yesterday, you, the, the, the Catholic church is excluding, is in principle ruling out men who have a very strong, healthy, natural, and noble desire to have a wife and a family.

00:38:32.480 And that, that, that is a whole category of men that we're saying, nope, you're, we don't have a place for you in the priesthood.

00:38:39.800 And I'm just wondering if that's in the end, uh, a good strategy.

00:38:45.840 I think maybe it's not.

00:38:47.380 I think maybe those men have something to offer.

00:38:50.700 Even though there are those very real practical difficulties, as I mentioned, I still think those men have something to offer and, and maybe we should welcome them.

00:38:59.660 But, um, there are, you know, there's, there's a, I still, I don't know.

00:39:06.620 I'm, I'm a little torn on it, I guess, as you can see from Carly.

00:39:09.300 This is, hi, Matt.

00:39:09.960 I have a simple question.

00:39:10.880 What is your new daughter's name?

00:39:12.160 I don't think you've mentioned it.

00:39:13.760 Well, thank you, Carly, for asking that question.

00:39:16.140 Um, funny story, actually, our daughter's name as it stands right now is Emma Grace.

00:39:22.500 Okay.

00:39:22.900 First, first name, Emma Grace.

00:39:25.840 But here's the great thing.

00:39:27.220 All through my wife's pregnancy, okay, we debated this.

00:39:31.280 And, um, I liked Emma as the first name, Grace as the middle.

00:39:36.100 My wife wanted Emma Grace as the whole first name, like to do a two name, first name deal. 1.00

00:39:41.600 And I told her again and again, again, I made the point that if we do that, we're going to have to spend our whole lives clarifying to everyone that Emma Grace is her first name.

00:39:51.680 You know, one, it's the whole first name, two names, not first in the middle, two name, first name.

00:39:56.800 Every time we're at an appointment, we're anywhere, you know, someone asks us her name.

00:40:01.980 Every time we're going to have to go, they're going to say, what's her name?

00:40:04.920 We're going to say, Emma Grace.

00:40:06.060 Is that first in the middle?

00:40:07.400 Or no, no, no, first name.

00:40:08.540 Is that one word or two?

00:40:09.980 Two words.

00:40:11.620 Capital E and G.

00:40:13.920 It's on our whole lives and her whole life.

00:40:16.460 We're going to have to have this conversation over and over and over and over again, millions of times, literally.

00:40:24.120 We will have consigned her to a life of explaining her name to people.

00:40:28.340 And that is, there are some people who live a life like that.

00:40:30.740 And if you have a name, you know, if you have a name that's confusing, confusing spelling, whatever, for any, whatever reason, you know what it's like.

00:40:37.920 Your whole life, you have to explain your name.

00:40:40.440 And that is the life of a two named person.

00:40:42.600 She will wander the countryside, ostracized, abandoned by society, while people point their fingers at her and say, here comes the two name.

00:40:51.340 Get out of here, two namer. 1.00

00:40:53.180 No two names allowed.

00:40:54.500 I mean, that's what's going to happen.

00:40:56.000 And my wife said, oh, stop it. 1.00

00:40:57.300 It'll be fine.

00:40:58.400 Well, guess what?

00:40:59.740 A week after she was born, a week after she was born, a week, seven days, my wife came to me and said, man, this is really getting annoying after having to explain the name thing to people.

00:41:10.720 And I said, ha, I told you so.

00:41:13.660 I told you.

00:41:14.560 This is the greatest I told you so moment of my life.

00:41:17.640 This is amazing because we're going to have to change her name now, legally, a week after she was born.

00:41:25.460 And this is amazing.

00:41:27.660 I get this.

00:41:28.960 But, of course, my wife tries to act like I hadn't been arguing this all the time. 0.94

00:41:32.240 When she came to me and said, oh, this is getting annoying, she didn't say, she didn't preface it with, oh, it turns out you were right.

00:41:39.880 She said it as if no one had brought this up before, trying to underplay, which I understand, okay, because she can't let me have this I told you so moment.

00:41:50.680 It's too good.

00:41:51.420 It's just strategically, in a marriage, you can't let your spouse have one like this because you're always looking for the I told you so, which is a healthy thing to do in a marriage, by the way.

00:42:03.120 It's a little competition.

00:42:04.340 People always say, oh, never say I told you so.

00:42:06.140 I disagree.

00:42:07.060 It's just you got to keep the competitive spirit alive in a marriage, I think.

00:42:11.960 It's a little bit of the chess match that goes on.

00:42:14.220 And so, you know, you stack your chips.

00:42:16.100 And now I'm mixing metaphors, but you get it.

00:42:18.140 So anyway, but so she doesn't want to give it to me, but we are going to have to officially change her name.

00:42:25.960 I think we are going to change it.

00:42:27.080 So it was Emma Grace's first name.

00:42:28.960 We're going to officially change it and make it so Grace is the middle name.

00:42:35.660 And no matter how my wife tries to downplay it, the fact remains that for the rest of our lives, I will have this story about the week that our daughter spent with a different name than the one she ended up with.

00:42:46.960 And how it was changed because I was right and I told you so.

00:42:52.180 We might as well change her name. 0.89

00:42:53.620 I think her middle name should be I told you so.

00:42:56.180 Emma I told you so Walsh.

00:42:57.760 That's my, I think that's what I'm going to do.

00:42:59.020 That's going to be her name now.

00:43:00.840 So this is, it's fantastic.

00:43:02.320 But I'm really happy about it.

00:43:03.720 It's just, you know, especially at, look, everyone knows, not to be stereotypical, but in a marriage, the husband doesn't get as many of the I told you so's.

00:43:11.620 So when you get one as a husband, you got to grab onto that one.

00:43:16.080 Just don't let it go.

00:43:17.360 Okay.

00:43:17.820 I'm not saying you throw it in her face all the time.

00:43:19.720 Just put it in a, put it in a, put it in a satchel and just kind of keep it in the closet somewhere.

00:43:24.380 Just nice and safe.

00:43:25.620 Maybe store it, store it in a safe, actually a lock box.

00:43:28.040 And every once in a while, when you need to pull it out, you pull it out and you just say, see, remember the I told you so.

00:43:36.360 All right.

00:43:38.120 That's my, don't take my marriage advice, folks.

00:43:40.140 Don't take it.

00:43:41.800 I will, we'll leave it there.

00:43:43.280 Thanks everybody for watching.

00:43:44.580 Godspeed.

00:43:44.860 We'll see you next time.

00:44:14.860 Our supervising producer is Mathis Glover.

00:44:17.440 And our technical producer is Austin Stevens.

00:44:19.780 Edited by Donovan Fowler.

00:44:21.560 Audio is mixed by Mike Coromina.

00:44:23.900 The Matt Wall Show is a Daily Wire production.

00:44:25.580 Copyright Daily Wire 2019.

00:44:26.860 Hey everybody, it's Andrew Klavan, host of The Andrew Klavan Show.

00:44:30.420 You know, some people are depressed because the American Republic is collapsing, the end of days is approaching, and the moon has turned to blood.

00:44:36.840 But on The Andrew Klavan Show, that's where the fun just gets started.

00:44:39.780 So come on over to The Andrew Klavan Show and laugh your way through the apocalypse with me, Andrew Klavan.

The Matt Walsh Show - October 15, 2019

Ep. 349 - Lebron Is The Real Victim

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