The Matt Walsh Show - Ep. 382 - Fake Outrages Galore

00:00:00.000 So this is a weird experience for me, not something I would usually do, but I'm going to defend NBC.

00:00:07.160 And it feels very strange, but maybe defend isn't the right word. Instead, what I want to do is

00:00:11.140 lend some context. Maybe you've heard this story about Gabrielle Union, who was a judge on America's

00:00:17.620 Got Talent on NBC, and then was booted off the show after the season. She did one season and

00:00:22.980 then was, I guess, fired. And after being fired, she came back and claimed that she was the victim

00:00:30.320 of racism and sexism, and it was a toxic work environment. She said that the environment

00:00:36.200 backstage was racist and sexist and toxic, and she was a victim of it. And it was only because

00:00:43.640 of her efforts to be a whistleblower and clamp down on all the racism that she was fired. 1.00

00:00:50.700 So fired, and then claims racism, and that's the sequence of events. By the way, Julianne Hough

00:00:58.500 was another judge on America's Got Talent, also an actress, I think, but white. And she was also

00:01:08.880 booted from the show, apparently. So I'm not sure if there was racism against her as well, if there's 0.51

00:01:14.200 an anti-white and anti-black racism going on at NBC. Maybe they got all the bases covered, I don't know.

00:01:18.720 So this has been the story. It's a pretty big story, at least in entertainment media and on social

00:01:26.160 media. And the way that the story is reported and talked about, it's just Gabrielle Union was a victim

00:01:33.220 of racism, stated pretty much as a fact, with no one apparently actually looking at the claims

00:01:39.600 themselves to get a read on how legitimate they might be or might not be. And this is a lesson

00:01:46.060 that a lot of people in this country need to keep relearning over and over again, it seems like.

00:01:54.860 That a claim of racism or sexism or any other ism or phobia cannot be taken at face value these days.

00:02:03.540 Ever. Okay, I'm not saying that it's never true. Maybe it is true. Maybe we got ourselves a real

00:02:10.540 case of racism. Maybe this is a tried and true ism that we've got going on here. Maybe.

00:02:16.500 But you can never, ever, ever assume that. You have to look at it. And so let's do that with this

00:02:23.400 story, just because I think it's a good case study of how this stuff works. So let me read now from a

00:02:28.220 story in the LA Times. It says, it starts with talking about how she was fired. And then it

00:02:36.800 continues, initial skepticism turned to outrage when a new report from Variety revealed ahead of

00:02:43.520 the holiday weekend that unions split from America's Got Talent wasn't amicable, but forced

00:02:49.220 after the Bring It On alum allegedly reported toxic and racist behavior during production.

00:02:54.400 The most high-profile incident occurred when Jay Leno allegedly made a racist joke about Korean

00:03:01.840 restaurants while taping a segment for the show, prompting Union, an outspoken advocate for

00:03:07.620 minority communities, to file a complaint with producers who allegedly dismissed her but excluded

00:03:13.180 the joke from the final cut. The network also reportedly discouraged Union from wearing a variety of

00:03:18.680 hairstyles that it allegedly deemed too black for viewers, while Union expressed concerns that a

00:03:24.220 white contestant overstepped while impersonating celebrities of color, such as Beyonce.

00:03:29.740 NBC and series production company Fremantle said in a statement,

00:03:33.740 America's Got Talent has a long history of inclusivity and diversity in both our talent

00:03:38.220 and the acts championed by the show. The judging and host lineup has been regularly refreshed over

00:03:42.620 the years, and that is one of the reasons for AGT's enduring popularity. NBC and the producers

00:03:46.640 take any issues on set seriously. Okay. And that's pretty much it so far.

00:03:51.040 Those are the primary examples, the only examples, as far as I'm aware, of the racism and toxicity at

00:03:58.180 AGT. And I want to take a closer look at these claims. And we'll do that in just a moment. But

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00:05:15.020 All right. So the racism at AGT, according to Gabriel Union, began with a racist joke Jay Leno made

00:05:23.900 about Korean restaurants. Now let's stop there for a moment. How can a person tell a racist joke

00:05:31.100 about a type of restaurant? How can you be racist against a restaurant?

00:05:38.820 Is food-based racism a thing? If I go to a Mexican restaurant and I complain later that it was a

00:05:47.800 horrible place and the food was bad, have I just expressed that sentiment about all Mexican people 1.00

00:05:53.880 or have I said it specifically about the food at this place? And in fact, if I were to even go further

00:05:59.120 than that and say that I hate Mexican food in general and I think it's terrible and crappy,

00:06:03.260 which I don't, by the way, but if I did say that, is that racist against Mexican people?

00:06:11.840 Or is it bigoted somehow? Or is it just, I don't like the food?

00:06:18.120 By the way, the joke that made by Jay Leno was when he, I think he saw, maybe it was Simon Cowell

00:06:25.520 brought in his dogs or something, or he saw a picture and Leno said that they look like something

00:06:31.660 that'd be on the menu at a Korean restaurant. Now that's about as edgy as a Leno joke is ever

00:06:39.240 going to get. That's as, that's as edgy as it gets. And it's really not that edgy. Yes. It trades

00:06:44.640 in stereotypes about Korean cuisine. So what? Okay. If, if Leno had a picture, seen, I've seen a picture

00:06:51.060 of a rat and said that, Oh, that looks like something that they, you know, put on the menu

00:06:55.900 at Burger King. Okay. Would that be, who's that racist against in that case? If you were to trade

00:07:01.900 in the stereotype that these fast food burger joints don't use real beef and instead grind up cockroaches

00:07:07.940 and rats, that's a stereotype. Would that be racist? Who'd be racist against? And actually here's the

00:07:15.300 thing. Um, uh, they do eat dogs in Korea. Okay. That's they do a recent headline in USA today says

00:07:25.660 South Koreans eat more than 1 million dogs each year, but that's slowly changing. Here's why

00:07:30.080 young Koreans are leading an effort to end a centuries old practice. Okay. Centuries old practice. 0.94

00:07:36.700 It's the first centuries. They've been eating dogs in Korea. That's a fact. It's not racist.

00:07:41.800 That's it's just, it's a, it's a fact about something that happens in the world.

00:07:48.060 Now, personally, it doesn't bother me either. Just as a, as a side note, I don't, you know,

00:07:53.780 they, they want to eat dogs. It doesn't bother me. I mean, we eat cows, they eat dogs. There's no

00:07:57.860 reason why necessarily cows should be on the menu and dogs shouldn't. It's a cultural thing. 1.00

00:08:05.120 And, uh, this is an example, this is a, this is an example of, and not everything is when it comes

00:08:09.960 to cultures. I mean, there are, there are objectively bad things that can happen in a

00:08:14.340 culture and we can't excuse everything based on the fact that, oh, it's their culture. But

00:08:18.060 when it comes to cuisine, as long as you're not eating people, pretty much anything outside of

00:08:23.140 that, any, anything outside of people, um, if it's part of your culture to eat that, who cares?

00:08:28.260 It's just your culture. We don't do it here. They do it there. Fine. Um, so Leno made a joke

00:08:34.320 based on an actual fact about Korean culture, but actually a joke that was about a type of

00:08:41.840 restaurant and that's racist. And Gabrielle Union files a complaint with the producers about the

00:08:49.300 joke. Now we can all kind of imagine what's happening now because the producers get this

00:08:54.440 complaint about a joke that Jay Leno told. And, uh, and, and now they're thinking, oh my gosh.

00:09:00.220 Okay. We got, we got a diva on our hands here. Now this is how this is going to go. Oh man.

00:09:06.600 That's what they're thinking. And probably at that moment, they're already thinking, yeah,

00:09:11.060 we're going to get rid of her at once the season's over. Cause we can't do this. I mean,

00:09:15.720 you can't have somebody who's filing formal written complaints because they hear a joke

00:09:20.240 from Jay Leno of all. If you can get offended by a Jay Leno joke, that, you know, that's,

00:09:28.600 that's like quintessential snowflake territory. If you can manage to get offended by a joke told

00:09:35.500 by Jay Leno, um, that the only thing that could be more, uh, impressive than that is if you could

00:09:44.960 manage to get offended by like a Seinfeld joke, which in fact, people on college campuses do get

00:09:50.540 offended by Seinfeld jokes. That's why Seinfeld doesn't do college campuses anymore. So what's next?

00:09:55.240 Um, the claim then, then she, uh, she was allegedly told that her hairstyle is too black.

00:10:01.840 Well, Julianne Hough was also apparently lectured about her hair and outfits,

00:10:06.180 but so the idea that it's a racial thing seems to not hold up. An anonymous insider at NBC

00:10:14.260 explained that the complaints to these women about their hair and what they were wearing,

00:10:19.880 it wasn't racist. It wasn't sexist. The issue was continuity with how the show is,

00:10:24.700 is presented on the air. It's not explained what that, what that's meant exactly, but I can take

00:10:29.280 an educated guess. And that would be that the, they shoot these auditions over a period of days

00:10:34.540 and then they want to be able to sort of splice them all together when they air it to make it look

00:10:41.400 like it happened in one day, which means that you need to be wearing the same thing as a judge.

00:10:45.500 If you come in wearing all kinds of crazy different outfits, it's hard to, to, it limits you in, in

00:10:52.180 post, uh, during the production phase. So, um, they want the, the judges wearing the same thing

00:10:58.560 and looking the same for all of it. That's one version anyway. Uh, that's you, that's one version

00:11:03.620 of, of that. The other version is that someone came up to Gabrielle Union and told her that her hair

00:11:09.100 is too black. Uh, you could, you could decide who to believe there. And then the, there's the final 1.00

00:11:15.220 racism complaint, which is that a white contestant. Oh, uh, well the exact phrasing in the LA times

00:11:21.860 article, a white contestant overstepped while impersonating celebrities of color, such as Beyonce,

00:11:27.160 a different article at variety provides more context. It says sources also shared a related

00:11:33.100 incident that occurred during another audition taping this season where union and other staffers

00:11:37.900 expressed concern over a white male performer crossing a line and portraying people of color.

00:11:42.540 The contestants gimmick involved rapid costume changes inside a larger garment while impersonating

00:11:48.760 a multitude of famous singers. In one such quick change, the contestant emerged in the guise of

00:11:55.020 Beyonce Knowles. His hands appeared as black meant to be a character accent. Three witnesses to the

00:12:02.360 audition said. Okay. So the contestant, the claim is that the contestant engaged in black hands, not

00:12:10.740 black face, black hands. His, his hands appeared as black, whatever that means. He did a bunch of 0.68

00:12:19.400 costume changes. And then in, in one of the costumes, his hands were black. Now, wait a second. Did he

00:12:24.860 paint his hands in the middle of the costume change? You ever seen these quick change things they do

00:12:29.760 on these variety acts? Um, usually it's, you know, they've got multiple layers of costumes on and

00:12:35.000 they're just like ripping one off after another. So the, the hands being black, we can assume that it 0.95

00:12:41.740 wasn't painted. So what was he wearing gloves? Is this a racism complaint based on the color of gloves

00:12:51.220 a contestant was wearing? Now it's either that or something similarly frivolous. Either way, it's a

00:12:59.040 racism complaint based on the color of a contestant's hands during a quick change variety act. I mean,

00:13:08.040 come on, just, okay. And, and, and yet this, this is reported as Gabrielle Union being the victim of

00:13:17.820 racism and a toxic work, work environment because of a joke Jay Leno told the color of a contestant's

00:13:24.160 hands while singing a Beyonce song. And the fact that the producers didn't want her to change her

00:13:29.320 hairstyle, uh, every time she came in, look, maybe a bomb will drop or something. And some detail will

00:13:36.920 come out in the future with an actual example of horrid racism at, at AGT and an egregious explicit

00:13:43.440 example. I'm skeptical of that, but maybe, you know, I can't say what will happen in the future,

00:13:49.440 but this, as it stands right now is just embarrassing. And the fact that the media is

00:13:56.540 even reporting it is just absurd. There's nothing here. And yet, if you go on Google it, Gabrielle

00:14:02.400 Union, AGT, you're going to find just hundreds of articles reporting this. There's nothing, nothing at

00:14:09.020 all. But somehow, and, and, and you have people on social media that, uh, share this and, and, and

00:14:17.520 really take part in the spreading of fake news by propagating it and share without even taking a

00:14:23.000 second to read what the claim is. Because it should, it should immediately raise a red flag when you've got

00:14:33.940 something like this. Okay. You've got black woman, a judge on a show like AGT, um, is on, on, you know,

00:14:42.420 on the show for a season is fired, then comes back and says, and portrays it as if there's just,

00:14:47.920 just rampant racism behind the scenes. Well, that should make you stop and go, now, wait a second.

00:14:54.180 I mean, they've had other, they've, they've had other black judges. They've got their, the host is,

00:14:59.340 is, is a, is a black man. You're saying it's just rampant racism and no one's brought this up before.

00:15:05.980 So it doesn't mean it's, it's not true automatically. It just, it should make you go,

00:15:10.840 hold on, let me actually see what they're talking about here. And then if you do that,

00:15:16.080 you see that, Oh, okay. Well, this appears to just be total BS. Wow. Okay. Well, actually it's not

00:15:22.620 a while. That's pretty much what I expected. All right. Before we move on a quick word from

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00:16:55.120 company. All right. Speaking of fake controversies, I don't know if you've caught, have you caught wind

00:17:01.180 of this Peloton thing? There was a huge blow up on social media yesterday over an ad for an exercise

00:17:07.980 bike. And so, you know, that it's something serious when it's about an exercise bike. It's

00:17:13.080 an ad that is apparently supposedly creepy, weird, disturbing, sexist, of course, any number of other

00:17:21.580 things. Uh, the media has jumped in as usual. And let me give you a taste of some of the headlines

00:17:26.340 surrounding this Peloton ad for an exercise bike. Some of the headlines Peloton faces backlash and

00:17:32.580 ridicule over new holiday commercial. Peloton sparked sexism mockery over commercial called

00:17:38.920 the gift that gives back showing a husband surprising his wife with an exercise bike on

00:17:43.440 Christmas morning. The most disturbing horror film of the season is Peloton's new commercial.

00:17:49.740 People are so confused by this Peloton bike ad. Uh, and blah, blah, blah. Goes on from there.

00:17:57.100 So let's, I mean, this sounds pretty disturbing, right? Apparently there's a backlash, sexism,

00:18:08.340 horrifying, it's a horror film, confusing. I mean, it sounds pretty intense. What could possibly be

00:18:17.420 in this ad for a exercise bike that could justify this sort of reaction? Well, let's take a look at

00:18:25.000 the ad. Get ready. Watch this. Okay. You ready? Yes. Now. A Peloton? Give it up for our first

00:18:32.180 time riding. All right. First ride. I'm a little nervous, but excited. Let's do this. Five days in a

00:18:37.740 row. You surprised? I am. 6 a.m. Yay. Rising with the sun. That was totally worth it. Let's go,

00:18:45.320 Grayson Boston. 50 rides. She just said my name. A year ago, I didn't realize how much this would change

00:18:51.040 me. Thank you. This holiday, give the gift of Peloton. Hmm. Okay. Okay. I got to say, I'm not

00:19:06.720 seeing it. It's an ad for an exercise bike. When I, when I saw all this reaction on social media and the

00:19:12.320 headlines, and I went to look at the ad, I was looking forward to it. I thought, well, this sounds

00:19:16.500 like a pretty hilarious, whatever it is, it sounds funny. And then I watched the ad and I thought,

00:19:21.400 what, what? I don't even, what exactly is the complaint here? Where is the room for backlash?

00:19:29.560 If I wanted to do a backlash against this commercial, I wouldn't even know what to base it on.

00:19:36.300 Like if I saw that ad and I said to myself, I'd like to be outraged by that, which I guess is what

00:19:42.340 people do. I think this is what people do in our culture. So, but if I saw the ad and said, you

00:19:47.080 know, I I'm, I'm really in the mood for an outrage. And this, I just saw this ad. So this is as good a

00:19:52.400 reason as any, but I'd have to sit and brainstorm for hours to come up with the good, because off the

00:19:58.860 top of my head, I can't think of one single reason to be outraged by that. Maybe it's a lack of creativity

00:20:03.420 on my part. Is it that the husband gave an exercise bike to his wife as a gift? Is that the

00:20:10.260 thing? Is it, is that, that's, is that strange? I've done that before. My wife asked for a piece

00:20:17.840 of exercise equipment as a gift. Uh, she wanted it in elliptical in this case. She wanted that as a

00:20:23.120 gift. And so I got her one and she was happy. Was I supposed to, when she said that she'd like this

00:20:29.560 as a gift, was I supposed to say, no, honey, I refuse on principle. I cannot buy that for you.

00:20:35.440 I can't, I must not, it would be wrong. It'd be, it'd be immoral. And actually I was, I've been given,

00:20:42.800 I was given a weight bench once as a gift. Um, I was excited about that. I wanted one. I got one.

00:20:49.080 I can use it. You know, it's a very useful thing to have. Some people enjoy exercising.

00:20:54.820 Doesn't seem strange to me, but this is how internet outrage works. It gets, it gets kicked

00:21:00.620 off by a few people and then everybody else jumps on the bandwagon, not because they're also outraged,

00:21:06.300 but, but because they assume there must be some reason, even if they're not seeing it.

00:21:11.980 So the pitchfork mob shows up at their house and says, Hey, grab a pitchfork. We're mad about

00:21:16.160 something again. Oh, well, what is it this time? An ad for an exercise bike. What? I mean, okay,

00:21:24.180 I guess. Well, all right. Exercise bikes. I'm so mad. I, you don't even know why you're mad,

00:21:28.660 but you just, you, you figured there must be a good reason. Uh, someone else told me,

00:21:33.060 I was talking about this on online. Someone told me that the reason the ad is weird

00:21:37.800 is because the wife is so excited about the gift, about the bike. But I mean, everyone,

00:21:46.680 you, we do all understand what an advertisement is, right? It's some, it's just, I don't want to

00:21:51.840 scandalize anybody, but it's the, the, the company that makes the product, they, they, they create this

00:21:59.520 ad because they want you to buy it. And so it is propaganda for the product. So, so the fact that

00:22:06.160 the character in the advertisement is excited about the product being advertised is kind of how

00:22:15.940 advertisements work. Now, if you want to make fun of a dumb holiday themed ad, if you're really,

00:22:24.120 if you're, I think everyone, we're misdirecting our, our energy here. Um, because of course, in general,

00:22:30.560 being upset or, or focusing on a, on a, on an advertisement for a product around the holidays,

00:22:36.160 that obviously is a good use of our energy. It's just, what I'm saying is let's focus it somewhere

00:22:40.500 else. So how about, how about an ad like this? Watch this. Honey. No, no, no, no. How come I'm

00:22:54.440 always walking backwards? Cause you got young legs.

00:22:56.480 Only one thing's more exciting than getting a Lexus. Giving one.

00:23:06.220 This is unbelievable. It really is.

00:23:08.820 The Lexus December to remember sales event. Experience amazing at your Lexus dealer.

00:23:13.820 And so that's, that's one of the most recent of those kinds of ads for the season. You could sub in

00:23:19.680 any Mercedes or Lexus ad in December. Uh, and, and now here you have a real issue, which is that

00:23:26.900 that car is easily like 45, $50,000. Who buys their spouse a $45,000 Christmas gift?

00:23:38.580 If, if I got my wife a Lexus for Christmas, she would, she would have me committed. It would be a 0.72

00:23:44.680 crisis in our marriage. You spend $45,000 without talking to me first. That's first of all. So

00:23:52.080 what's the actual gift here? The actual gift is a $900 car payment. Congratulations, honey.

00:24:01.700 Um, the only people, the only way that it could be a gift to buy a brand new Lexus, a brand new Lexus

00:24:10.520 SUV for someone has a gift. The only way you could do that is if you're a multi multi-millionaire

00:24:16.160 because just being a regular millionaire still, I don't think would cut it. Like if I had $3 million

00:24:21.120 sitting in the bank and I bought my wife a $45,000 gift as a car, as a gift, I think she'd still be 0.95

00:24:29.600 very upset. So you would need to be, you know, you need to be $50,000,000,000 deep before I think

00:24:36.620 you can start buying gifts like that. Like it's no big deal. But then if that's the case, why are

00:24:41.600 you running an ad like that during a college football game? It just seems, I mean, that's

00:24:49.120 because it's a very, very specific and niche market that you're trying to reach. And I figure you'd

00:24:56.800 probably reach them through some other means because you don't see ads for private jets

00:25:02.120 or I don't know, Butler services on TV. I don't know the companies that make

00:25:10.000 like $10,000 tins of caviar. I assume they have some way of advertising their product.

00:25:17.780 I don't know how they do it, but they're not going to advertise it during a rerun for everybody

00:25:22.080 loves Raymond. They have some other means of reaching their climate client base. I don't know.

00:25:27.120 Maybe they set up a kiosk at Bilderberg. I don't know what they do. So the holiday ads with giant

00:25:33.480 bows on top of luxury sedans. Now that's something worthy of mockery in my opinion, but exercise

00:25:39.540 equipment is pretty normal. I don't know how much these Peloton bikes cost. Probably way too much.

00:25:45.920 If you want to get an exercise bike, you could get one, go to Craigslist. You can get one for

00:25:49.480 a hundred bucks on Craigslist. So this one's probably what, a couple thousand dollars. That's expensive,

00:25:55.380 but it's still something that normal people do. Probably shouldn't too much to spend on a gift,

00:26:01.240 but people do it. All right. One other thing before we get to emails and actually maybe staying

00:26:07.320 on the theme of fake outrage, that'll be the, that's the theme of the day. And also the theme

00:26:11.880 of me defending people I wouldn't normally defend. So on that note, here's this. You know who Madonna

00:26:18.440 is? I do know who Madonna is. You know, uh, can you name a Van Halen? Who? I'm going to start crying.

00:26:26.560 Now that there is the singer and I know who she is because I'm pretty in tune with the youth.

00:26:32.100 Um, pretty in sync with them, you might say. And, uh, so that's the singer, Billie Eilash.

00:26:39.160 And she's, uh, you know, very popular, very popular, uh, uh, pop singer, uh, that I, you know,

00:26:46.160 when I, when I'm, when I'm, when I'm connecting with the youth, when I'm trying to connect, I know

00:26:51.620 to, you know, I'll go to them and say, Hey, say, have you, have you kids ever heard of the popular

00:26:55.660 singer, Billie Eilash? And, um, much like Joe Biden with his, with his no malarkey. I don't know if

00:27:03.520 you've seen the picture of his, actually we'll show that just, just as another example of connecting

00:27:07.200 with the youth, here's Joe Biden's campaign bus. Yeah. No malarkey, putting an end to the malarkey.

00:27:16.180 And I know when the youth of today see that bus rolling down the street,

00:27:19.800 they're thinking to themselves, gee willikers, that is a swell campaign slogan. 1.00

00:27:25.580 Anyway, so she's on with Jimmy Kimmel and she reveals that she doesn't know who Van Halen is.

00:27:29.760 And this has put her in line for derision and mockery, uh, almost as intense as the, as the Peloton thing.

00:27:37.200 But this, I just want to say, this is one of the lamest boomer things. You talk about an okay 0.98

00:27:44.600 boomer situation. This is the classic okay boomer thing that people do in general, where we make fun

00:27:55.200 of younger people for not knowing about something that's before their time. You ever seen those 0.99

00:28:00.100 videos? I just saw one a few days ago, those videos online that crop up from time to time of,

00:28:05.800 uh, you know, some teenagers sort of very confused and trying to figure out how to navigate a rotary

00:28:12.380 phone. You ever seen one of those? And then you get all these comments online of, oh, look at these

00:28:16.900 idiots don't even know how to use a phone. Well, it's a rotary phone. They've, they've never seen

00:28:21.400 one. Why, why would they know how to use a rotary phone? They're 16 years old. No one's used one of

00:28:26.340 those things for 20 years or more, 25, 30. Um, so why would they know how to use that?

00:28:35.640 And why, how old is Billie Eilish? She's what? 16, 17. Why would a 17 year old girl, 0.66

00:28:41.440 why do you expect a teenage girl to, to be a Van Halen fan? In what scenario? Well, she,

00:28:47.320 she probably has gone her whole life and never encountered Van Halen. So what?

00:28:53.400 I just don't get this whole thing. It's not like, look, there are some things before your time that

00:28:59.120 you should know about. So if you talk to someone who doesn't know what century the civil war was

00:29:05.900 fought in, the American civil war, well, that's a problem. Even though it was before your time,

00:29:10.400 you need to know that as a matter of history. Now, whether Billie Eilish could explain what

00:29:16.000 century the civil war was fought in, I'm skeptical of that, but you know, we want, but we don't know.

00:29:22.460 But something like how to use outdated technology or facts about hair, hair bands from the seventies and

00:29:32.060 eighties. And I know Van Halen, talented musicians. I don't deny that. So don't come out

00:29:40.380 come at me about that. I don't deny very talented, very technically gifted musicians,

00:29:45.160 but I got news for you. If you didn't grow up with that, if you didn't grow up in the seventies

00:29:50.060 and eighties, you're not listening to that music probably because it's not great.

00:29:55.880 And I know if you did grow up with it, then it's, you've got the nostalgia and you grew up with it.

00:30:00.620 And I'm, I have no problem with that. I get it. I don't begrudge that,

00:30:05.240 but it's not like one of those things where

00:30:09.120 in order to be cultured, you have to know about Van Halen. Who cares? You could go your whole life,

00:30:16.520 never listen to a Van Halen song and you'll be perfectly fine. You'll, you'll live, you could

00:30:20.200 live a perfectly fulfilled life without ever encountering hot for teacher. In fact, I would

00:30:25.160 even argue that your life would probably be better if you go your whole existence without ever

00:30:29.860 encountering hot for teacher. And in fact, if you go your life and never encounter any hairband from

00:30:36.060 the seventies or eighties, I think actually your life will be, you'll be better for it.

00:30:42.800 All right. That's my defense of, uh, of her. Let's move on. Matt Walsh show at gmail.com,

00:30:50.680 Matt Walsh show at gmail.com. This is from Brozis says, hi, I literally just finished watching a video

00:30:58.880 on time travel and want to know your opinion of whether it's real or not. I know it's a bit

00:31:04.060 outside politics and more cultural problems, but was just curious if they really did time travel

00:31:09.480 from the future. How do we know whether they really did or not? I definitely don't support

00:31:13.880 it as it quite scares me, honestly, but who are we to say they are from the future or not? I'm a bit

00:31:19.180 gullible sometimes and do need support. Well, um, first of all, I don't, I'm not sure if I'd call time

00:31:26.880 travel a cultural problem. Let's focus on the very serious cultural problem of time travel,

00:31:32.740 but, um, it is, it is something worth, worth, uh, worth thinking about anyway. And as every high

00:31:39.440 school sophomore smoking pot in his friend's basement has at one point observed, uh, we are

00:31:44.620 all traveling through time, man. We're all traveling. We're all, when you think about it, man, we're all

00:31:50.280 time travelers. We're just traveling into the future at a rate of 24, 24 hours a day. The question

00:31:56.840 is whether the rate can be sped up or reversed. And, uh, as, as for the first sped up, I think

00:32:03.660 it's pretty well established scientifically, theoretically, in theory, it would be possible

00:32:08.760 to travel into the future faster than we are already traveling into the future. And, um, one way

00:32:15.620 is by traveling at an extremely high rate of speed. This is planet of the apes, you know, he's traveling

00:32:22.560 and came back and the, the earth had fast spoiler alert, but the earth had fast forwarded thousands

00:32:27.480 of years. Time is relative, remember? And it slows down when you're going very, very fast, like at the

00:32:32.300 speed of light, or if you're subject to extreme levels of gravity, that's like in the movie

00:32:36.200 interstellar where they were on the planet with, with very high levels of gravity. Um,

00:32:41.180 circling, I think it was a black hole. And so for every second they were on the planet,

00:32:46.380 the earth aged eight years or whatever it was. So, and that's all true theoretically. So theoretically,

00:32:52.640 if you were to, I don't know, travel around the earth a bunch of times at the speed of light.

00:32:56.560 And, uh, when you come back on, on earth, maybe for you, you've aged 12 hours, but everyone else has

00:33:01.600 aged 80 years or whatever it would be as to backwards time travel going at, going back in the past. I

00:33:08.040 don't see how that could be possible because once an event happens, it's happened. That's it. There's

00:33:15.380 no way to access it. It's not like it's saved on a hard drive somewhere to go back and revisit,

00:33:19.980 unless this is the matrix we're talking about. Plus there are all kinds of paradoxes and well-known

00:33:24.580 paradoxes. Like if tonight I built a time machine and then went back in time and gave, and, and, and

00:33:32.440 went up to myself at the age of 10 and gave myself a high five and then got back in the time machine

00:33:37.940 and came back to the, to the present. Um, that's a paradox because that, then that means that I've,

00:33:48.240 I should have already built it. I should have already given the high five to myself. You see?

00:33:54.880 So before I even build the time machine, I should have a memory of an older me giving myself a high

00:34:02.220 five because it happened in the past. So if I built the time machine tonight and I

00:34:07.920 go back and interact with myself as a 10 year old, then that event is already in the past.

00:34:13.440 So it should have already happened, but it hasn't happened yet. And so now we have an event that both

00:34:19.300 has not happened yet and has already happened. And so that's a, that's an issue, but thank you for

00:34:25.820 that very relevant question from David says, Oh, great and powerful overlord who reigns supreme.

00:34:32.260 I want to start by saying, I agree with the premise that abortion is murder and an act of evil. 0.99

00:34:36.040 And I agree with your analogy of the lottery ticket with winning numbers, essentially being

00:34:39.300 $50 million and how it translates to a baby in the womb, essentially being a human life.

00:34:43.600 However, one thought that I couldn't get out of my head was the pretty obvious response.

00:34:46.720 A pro-abortion person would come up with following this analogy. They would say something like,

00:34:51.940 well, the lottery ticket may have winning numbers and it may be worth $50 million,

00:34:55.080 but the winner can still decide to rip the ticket up and throw it in the trash. Although that would make

00:34:58.780 the person an idiot. Wouldn't this argument hold firm? I'd love to hear your thoughts. Also,

00:35:02.740 please have mercy and do not execute me when you take over a supreme fascist dictator in the future

00:35:06.360 to bringing, for bringing this potential flaw in your analogy to your attention. I am but a humble

00:35:11.360 servant seeking guidance. Well, that's true, but my analogy, it's, it's, that's why I said the analogy

00:35:21.320 is, and I think I said before I got into it, it's, it's a limited analogy. It doesn't address

00:35:27.120 every facet of the abortion argument. I don't think any analogy could. That's not what analogies

00:35:33.860 are meant to do. So this analogy was meant to simply address the issue of worth. And I was making

00:35:39.800 the point that even if I were to agree that a human in the womb is but a potential person and not an

00:35:47.880 actual person, even though I don't agree with that, but sake of argument, if I did, then wouldn't that

00:35:53.140 make this potential person analogous to a winning lottery ticket that hasn't been cashed in yet.

00:35:58.880 And which is only potentially $50 million, but for all intents and purposes, it's the same thing as

00:36:04.680 $50 million and you would value it the same. So that's what I was trying to do with the analogy.

00:36:10.400 I was trying to adjust, address the issue of worth and value and attempting to show that

00:36:16.260 if we're talking about potential worth or actual worth, it's basically the same thing.

00:36:25.940 Now, the issue of should you have a right to kill a child and now you're getting into bodily autonomy

00:36:32.520 and you're saying, well, it's, so is, don't I own this child the way that I own a lottery ticket in there?

00:36:37.900 Well, then now that's a totally separate argument. Now you're getting into bodily autonomy, which I've addressed

00:36:41.720 many times, I'd be happy to address again. I'm not going to do it right here, but, um, so you just have to

00:36:47.440 keep in mind, you know, that, that not, not every, when you're using an analogy to make a point, I think that

00:36:53.300 can be a strong way to make a point. It's just that it's always going to have its limits. It can't be expanded to

00:36:59.000 cover every potential objection. Uh, let's see from Rebecca says, Hey Matt, how's the new baby? Uh, Rebecca,

00:37:09.820 thanks for asking. The baby is, is, uh, ill-tempered, definitely a colic situation. I know all parents

00:37:17.860 think that their babies have colic and, uh, we, we thought that with our first three babies

00:37:21.840 because anytime they cry, you know, they must be colicky, but then you actually have a colicky baby

00:37:27.800 and you realize that, oh, okay, well that's what this is. So that's what, okay. So, so colic is this.

00:37:33.200 Now I see it. So a colicky baby does three things and three things only eat, sleep, and cry. That's it.

00:37:39.500 Now you might say that that's what every baby does, but that's not exactly true because

00:37:43.520 every baby has a fourth thing. They eat, sleep, cry. And they've also got this fourth stage or phase

00:37:48.720 where they'll just lie there quietly and not do anything. That's one of the reasons why with a,

00:37:56.580 with a, normally with a baby, it can be kind of easy to have a baby around after you get past the

00:38:01.060 first couple of weeks because they don't move, they don't talk, and they're going to spend a certain

00:38:06.680 portion of the day, just kind of hanging out. But when you got a colicky baby, they don't,

00:38:11.240 they cut that part out completely. They have no use for that. And if they're awake,

00:38:15.840 they're going to be vocalizing the fact that they're awake and they're going to be crying.

00:38:19.880 And, um, it, uh, you know, it gets pretty intense after a while. I've had a lot of time to reflect

00:38:24.080 and meditate upon the deeper philosophical meanings of, uh, of the screams and cries of a, of a baby.

00:38:29.380 And I haven't come to any conclusions on the deeper philosophical meaning of it because I can't

00:38:34.780 focus enough because, because I'm crying all the time. But I have realized that there is definitely

00:38:39.260 something programmed into our brain to be distressed by the sound of a crying baby.

00:38:44.960 Because I was thinking about this the other day when, when the baby was just crying nonstop.

00:38:48.480 And, uh, I was thinking, why is this sound, why is it so grating? Because yeah, it's loud,

00:38:57.540 but that's not it. It's not just that it's loud. There, there are, there are louder sounds that

00:39:02.160 are less annoying than this. There could be somebody in the next room with a jackhammer going off,

00:39:06.780 and that would be far less grating than the baby crying. So it, you know, it's not quite that it's

00:39:12.380 not quite the pitch. It's just, there's obviously something it's programmed where we, you know,

00:39:18.420 the sound of a, of a screaming infant. When you hear that sound, you want to make it stop by,

00:39:23.740 by meeting the infant's needs. And so there you see, obviously the, uh, the reason why,

00:39:31.080 you know, as parents, we would need to have that intense urge. Um, all right. Finally,

00:39:38.540 this is from Ann says, hi, Matt, I'm quite a bit older than you. So it may seem strange to be asking

00:39:43.320 your advice, but I'm hoping you can offer some insight into my son who's a few years younger than you.

00:39:48.420 We are essentially the stereotypical adult child living in mom's basement family. Although the,

00:39:52.880 the adult child in this case lives in his, in his room upstairs, we want him to move out and start

00:39:58.180 his life as a grownup, but he can't keep a job or save money to save his life. He just has no

00:40:02.960 motivation. I've heard you speak about the situation young men are in, in our culture. Maybe you can offer

00:40:08.240 some insight into what my son's mentality might be, why he might lack motivation or self-confidence in

00:40:14.200 this culture. Thanks for all you do. Well, and I have talked, uh, spoken many times about the

00:40:21.480 situation young men are in. And I've said that our culture is hostile to, to boys and to, to men

00:40:27.260 and even to boys, to men. Um, but I, I'm, I'm not, I don't know the specifics of your particular

00:40:38.000 situation with your son. I can only go based on what you've said. I'm not going to give your son

00:40:43.200 that excuse though, because yeah, there are challenges that men face in this culture, but

00:40:49.340 you still have to face them. Right. And we all face it. So what, what I would ask about your son,

00:40:56.300 and I'm not trying to be too harsh about this, but what I would ask about your son is, you know,

00:41:01.680 yeah, we all face the challenges in our culture, men and women, we all face different challenges.

00:41:06.300 And yet a lot of us are still able to get up every day, go get a job, go to work, take care of

00:41:12.320 ourselves. So why is your son special? Why is it so difficult for him? Why is it so much of more of a

00:41:19.100 burden for him than it is for anybody else? And the answer is that it isn't, it isn't more of a

00:41:24.200 burden for him. He's just lazy and he just doesn't feel like doing it. And I don't want to simplify it

00:41:31.760 too much, but, and I, you said he's your adult son. You didn't say how old he is. I don't think

00:41:37.480 you did. Did you? No. So I don't know. Are we talking about 19 or are we talking about 29 or wait,

00:41:43.340 did you actually say that a few years younger than me? Okay. So what he's in his late twenties,

00:41:47.800 early thirties, I assume. Well, then I think it's sort of a simple answer for you.

00:41:54.640 And the answer is, and I would do this right now. Like after you hear me say these words,

00:41:59.960 I would go to your son in his room doing whatever he's doing and say to him, okay, you are out of

00:42:09.200 this house by Friday, no matter where you have to go. You're done. You're out. If on Saturday

00:42:17.540 morning I wake up and you're still here, then you are trespassing in my home and I'm going to call

00:42:23.300 the police. That's what I would say. And it really is that simple. He has no right to be there and

00:42:30.320 still be living off of you as an adult. It's your home, not his. If you don't want him there,

00:42:36.240 then tell him to leave. Yeah. He's not nine years old. It's not like you've got a nine year

00:42:41.000 old. That's causing you a lot of problems. You can't say to the nine year old, get out of my

00:42:43.540 house. Right. But 28, 29, 30. Yeah. Uh, it's, it's past time for that. I mean, I would have said

00:42:49.960 it to him when he was 22 or 21. I would have said it to him when he was 20. I wouldn't have waited 10

00:42:54.500 years, but I, I, that's what I would do with him. He's just, you just got to kick him out. And I know

00:42:59.520 that maybe it'll be difficult and he's going to, it's going to be a tough adjustment, but at a certain

00:43:04.600 point, at a certain point, I think you got to toss a kid into the cold water and let him swim,

00:43:09.820 especially when it's not a kid anymore. And especially when you're tossing him in, you

00:43:16.160 know, especially when you're tossing a six foot man into five feet of water, the point is he

00:43:20.940 shouldn't drown. He should be able to walk in that water. It's not that hard. I mean, when, and you

00:43:28.980 didn't say, I assume you're, you're, you're child quote unquote, doesn't have any children of his own.

00:43:33.960 Sounds like doesn't have a family. Okay. You're a single man. You didn't say anything about physical

00:43:40.820 disabilities. So I'm going to assume that's not the case. Physically capable, single adult man

00:43:48.520 with no dependence, no kids. That's the easiest life you could possibly ask for. You could do any,

00:43:56.100 he could go anywhere and do anything and get any job he wants. Can't find a job here. Then move to,

00:44:02.540 move to Texas, move to North Dakota, move into California, move anywhere. You could go anywhere

00:44:07.500 and do anything. There is absolutely no reason for an adult who is physically, uh, for a physically

00:44:15.340 capable, mentally competent adult with no family to be unemployed for very long. There is no reason for

00:44:23.760 it at all zero because your life is so supremely uncomplicated and you have all the mobility in the

00:44:34.460 world. Come on. Can't keep a job. Hey, there's, there's, there are 16 year olds out there who have,

00:44:42.680 who managed to keep a job. It ticks me off. I don't mean to yell at you and I'm yelling at your son

00:44:52.900 on your behalf. Cause it just annoys me. The excuses people make, I can't find a job. Oh, shut up. Yes,

00:45:03.780 you can. You just don't want it. You don't want the job is what you don't. That's what, that's the

00:45:07.180 issue. I could, I could walk into town. I could walk into town right now and I could get 15 jobs

00:45:16.880 easily. I mean, they're not gonna be good jobs. You know, I mean, they're gonna, they're, they're,

00:45:22.120 they're gonna, it's gonna be fast food. It's gonna be working behind a cash register. It's not gonna be

00:45:26.520 fun. It's gonna be stocking shelves. It's gonna be working in the back at home Depot. It's gonna be

00:45:32.060 those kinds of jobs, but yeah, I mean, unless you're living in the middle of the wilderness.

00:45:40.040 Aside from that, if you're living in a place where there are stores and there are retail outlets

00:45:44.000 all around, like most people live these days, you could easily find a job easily. No problem.

00:45:52.160 So that's what I would tell your deadbeat son. All right. Thank you for the question. And, uh,

00:45:58.180 thanks everybody for watching and listening. Godspeed.

00:46:02.060 If you enjoyed this episode, don't forget to subscribe. And if you want to help spread the

00:46:07.520 word, please give us a five-star review and tell your friends to subscribe as well. We're available

00:46:11.420 on Apple podcast, Spotify, wherever you listen to podcasts. Also be sure to check out the other

00:46:16.580 Daily Wire podcasts, including the Ben Shapiro show, Michael Knowles show, and the Andrew

00:46:20.540 Klavan show. Thanks for listening. The Matt Wall show is produced by Sean Hampton, executive producer,

00:46:26.680 Jeremy Boring, senior producer, Jonathan Hay, supervising producer, Mathis Glover, supervising

00:46:32.380 producer, Robert Sterling, technical producer, Austin Stevens, editor, Donovan Fowler, audio mixer,

00:46:38.440 Mike Coromina. The Matt Wall show is a Daily Wire production, copyright Daily Wire 2019.

00:46:42.760 Cyber Monday turns into psycho Monday from the TV ads, selling cheap consumer goods to the politicians

00:46:50.100 trying to sell themselves. We will examine all the sociopathy. Then speaking of psychos, the deep

00:46:56.340 state goes on offense before the inspector general releases his report on the origins of the Russia

00:47:02.320 investigation. Can we, the people beat the bureaucrats? All that and more, check it out on the Michael

00:47:07.320 Knoll Show.

The Matt Walsh Show - December 03, 2019

Ep. 382 - Fake Outrages Galore

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