The Matt Walsh Show - Ep. 394 - A Historic And Irrelevant Day

00:00:00.320 Welcome to the show, everybody, on this historic and somber day.

00:00:05.200 Somber and historic.

00:00:07.340 Historic and somber.

00:00:09.460 Somstoric day.

00:00:11.960 A day that is so somber and so historic that I decided to wear my more muted and restrained and mature reindeer cardigan.

00:00:21.900 I had flashier options I could have chosen, but I decided on a day such as this,

00:00:26.580 I should wear this cardigan, a cardigan that also looks a little bit like something that a 76-year-old man would wear to the Christmas party at the Elk Lodge.

00:00:36.780 And I even decided to place my Santa hat tastefully off to the side rather than wearing it on my head, which was my first option.

00:00:45.760 And this, again, is just to note, to pay respects to the historic and somber nature of what has happened.

00:00:54.600 Absolutely historic.

00:00:56.580 So historic.

00:00:57.960 Historic, historic, historic.

00:01:00.060 Did I mention that this is historic?

00:01:02.420 That's what the media says, anyway.

00:01:04.220 And they're right.

00:01:05.320 You know, it is.

00:01:06.240 It was.

00:01:07.220 A president is impeached.

00:01:08.960 It's only happened a few times in America.

00:01:10.720 It's happened four times in American history.

00:01:12.840 And so it is historic.

00:01:14.160 And we're all going to remember where we were and what we were doing when this vote was made, when this happened.

00:01:22.860 And I know that I can tell you exactly what I was doing.

00:01:25.400 I was on my couch, drinking a beer, watching the Celtics play the Mavericks on ESPN.

00:01:31.600 Good game, by the way.

00:01:32.420 The Celtics won 109 to 103.

00:01:35.260 But that's what I was doing.

00:01:36.500 Because, honestly, I just don't care that much about the impeachment thing.

00:01:41.240 I didn't watch one second of coverage.

00:01:42.740 I'm being honest with you.

00:01:43.240 I didn't watch one second.

00:01:44.740 I don't think through this entire thing I've watched one second of media coverage, of any of it.

00:01:48.540 And it's been great.

00:01:49.320 It's been very liberating.

00:01:51.080 And here's the dirty little secret.

00:01:53.200 Here's the reality that you won't hear people in the media acknowledge because it undermines the effort to get clicks and hits and views and everything.

00:02:00.380 Because you always want to pretend in media that everything is earth-shattering, that everything is amazing and incredible and unprecedented.

00:02:07.900 And everything is a game-changer.

00:02:09.840 So they're not going to admit this.

00:02:11.720 But the truth is that this whole impeachment thing will not matter come election time.

00:02:17.720 It actually won't matter.

00:02:19.400 That's my prediction right now.

00:02:20.780 Come election time, nobody's going to care about this on either side.

00:02:25.100 I know there are conservatives who are saying, well, this just sealed the election for Trump because there's going to be a backlash of voters and people are so mad about the impeachment.

00:02:35.940 It's not going to matter on that.

00:02:37.140 And it's not going to matter either way come election time.

00:02:40.260 I guarantee you.

00:02:41.240 Why?

00:02:41.780 Because the election is a year away.

00:02:43.600 It's almost a year, 11 months.

00:02:46.400 And a year in modern American culture, a year in our information-saturated, news-saturated, overstimulated culture, might as well be a decade.

00:02:55.760 It might as well be a century.

00:02:56.800 Honestly, it might as well, by the time we get to the election, everything that happened right now, today, and last night, and that's happened over the last month or two, may as well have happened in the 18th century.

00:03:11.020 That's how far in the distance it will feel.

00:03:14.120 All that matters in politics anymore is what happened, like, in the 12 hours leading up to people going to the polls.

00:03:20.640 If people are swayed by news events at all anymore, they have to be news events from that day or the previous day.

00:03:30.640 If it was a week ago, it's already a fading memory.

00:03:33.300 If it was a month ago, it's teetering on irrelevance.

00:03:36.400 If it was a year ago, then the event has essentially fossilized and been buried under six miles of sediment.

00:03:43.680 It doesn't matter.

00:03:45.560 Now, I'm not saying that things should be like this.

00:03:48.020 They shouldn't be.

00:03:51.120 You know, we should be able to care about things for more than 35 minutes.

00:03:55.340 We should be able to care about something that happened a year ago, but we don't.

00:03:59.340 We just don't.

00:04:00.840 So I guarantee you 11 months from now, nobody's going to care about this.

00:04:04.920 No one's going to be talking about it.

00:04:06.600 No one is, the exit polls will show that nobody on either side was voting based on impeachment.

00:04:12.920 They're going to be voting based on something that happened that week.

00:04:15.620 Or more likely, they're just going to vote based on the decision they made that they've been committed to all along, based on their party affiliation and the tribe they belong to.

00:04:25.360 That's what most people vote based on.

00:04:26.560 So people who talk about impeachment 11 months from now, they're going to sound like your grandfather in his rocking chair, smoking a pipe on the porch, reminiscing about stories from his childhood.

00:04:41.180 It will sound distant, irrelevant, and we'll all go, oh, yeah, yeah, okay, I kind of remember that.

00:04:47.980 But I do have to say, if there's any big news to come out of this impeachment, it's that we need to start teaching civics in school again.

00:04:58.540 I think that's the main thing we learned from this, which isn't really news, because I think we already knew that.

00:05:03.220 But I saw a lot of people on social media last night, a lot of people who seem to be under the impression that Trump is now kicked out of office just because he was impeached.

00:05:11.980 There was a lot of, yay, we're free of Trump, football spiking going on, which is kind of like a receiver breaking free on a long pass, but then stopping at the 25-yard line and spiking the football in celebration.

00:05:25.280 You know, you're not there.

00:05:26.180 You're not in the end zone yet.

00:05:27.320 And in this case, there's a big wall in front of the end zone, and you're never going to get in because Trump is not going to get kicked out of office.

00:05:34.760 It ain't going to happen.

00:05:35.960 He's not going to get convicted in the Senate.

00:05:37.420 That's just simply not going to happen, which is another reason, yet again, why this story is not going to matter 11 months from now.

00:05:45.480 As soon as the trial, whatever ends up happening in the Senate, as soon as that happens, no one's going to care anymore about this.

00:05:52.040 We are all going to move on from this so quickly.

00:05:55.560 All right.

00:05:56.300 And so I'm going to as well.

00:05:57.860 And let's move on.

00:06:00.300 Before we do that, a word from Quip.

00:06:02.860 Quip, the makers of the Quip Electric Toothbrush want you to know that the one single discovery that matters the most for your dental care is simply this, that if you have good habits, you're good.

00:06:15.040 It's as simple as that.

00:06:16.160 That means brushing for two minutes twice a day, flossing regularly, no matter what brand you use.

00:06:20.920 You know, the main thing is just developing those habits.

00:06:23.900 Quip makes that simple, starting with an electric toothbrush, refillable floss, and an anti-cavity toothpaste.

00:06:28.560 Quip's electric brush has sensitive sonic vibrations with a built-in timer and 30-second pulses to guide a full and even clean.

00:06:36.820 And again, this is all about developing those good oral hygiene habits.

00:06:40.340 The Quip Floss Dispenser comes with a pre-marked string to help you use just enough.

00:06:44.600 Plus, Quip delivers fresh brush heads, floss, and toothpaste refills to your door every three months.

00:06:49.520 So it keeps you in that routine.

00:06:50.760 You're not breaking the routine, and you keep that habit going.

00:06:52.700 Join the over 3 million healthy mouths and get Quip today, starting at $25.

00:06:58.160 $25.

00:06:59.580 That's it.

00:07:00.300 And if you go to getquip.com slash walsh right now, you'll get your first refill for free.

00:07:06.280 That's your first refill free at getquip.com slash walsh, spelled G-E-T-Q-U-I-P dot com slash walsh.

00:07:15.340 Quip, the good habits company.

00:07:18.840 All right.

00:07:19.820 Comedian Michelle Wolfe.

00:07:21.120 You may remember her.

00:07:22.700 Well, probably you don't, actually.

00:07:24.080 I'll refresh your memory.

00:07:24.960 She was that lady at the White House Correspondents' Dinner a year ago who gave a super cringy, unbearably unfunny performance. 0.89

00:07:36.060 And everyone on the left pretended it was funny, like they do a lot, especially with liberal female comedians like Samantha Bee and this woman and so many others.

00:07:46.460 We have to deal with people on the left pretending that these people are funny and have wit when they're not funny and they have no wit whatsoever.

00:07:54.360 But she's one of those comedians who tries to compensate for the lack of wit by going for the shock factor, which is yet again a common flaw among liberal female comedians. 1.00

00:08:08.360 Where they have no punchlines, they have no jokes, so they just try to shock you.

00:08:13.460 And the whole joke is, well, did you hear the inappropriate thing that lady said? 1.00

00:08:19.640 That's the whole joke.

00:08:20.540 That's their whole act.

00:08:21.240 Case in point, in her recent Netflix comedy special, she goes into a rant about her abortion. 0.99

00:08:29.720 A rant that is pathetic, gross, sad, but completely forgets to check the funny box. 0.97

00:08:38.060 Watch for yourself. 0.99

00:08:39.700 And we don't talk about abortion in a real way.

00:08:42.240 We talk about it in a very legislative way, but not in a real way.

00:08:45.560 So I think a lot of women have a lot of apprehension surrounding it. 1.00

00:08:49.180 You know, we talk about it so negatively that you feel like you should have this sense of shame after you get an abortion.

00:08:56.000 Well, you can feel any way you want after you get an abortion. 0.77

00:08:58.780 Get one!

00:09:00.040 See how you feel!

00:09:03.160 You know how my abortion made me feel?

00:09:05.980 Very powerful.

00:09:07.780 You know how people say you can't play God?

00:09:09.640 I walked out of there being like, move over, Morgan Freeman.

00:09:19.880 I am God.

00:09:22.980 And then I crossed the street very carefully.

00:09:24.940 First of all, can you imagine sitting in an auditorium for an hour and listening to that?

00:09:35.200 My God, the voice, the delivery.

00:09:38.240 It's grating.

00:09:39.580 It's leaving aside the content for a moment.

00:09:42.980 Everything else is torturous.

00:09:44.580 It is, I mean, you look up shrill in a dictionary, and you find that, what I just played for you.

00:09:53.500 My God.

00:09:54.120 Michelle Wolfe is, I will tell you this, she's not doing female comedians any favors. 1.00

00:09:57.780 I can tell you that.

00:09:58.840 She certainly isn't breaking down or dispelling the stereotypes about women not being funny.

00:10:02.820 And when you think about it, Netflix comedy specials, think about Netflix comedy specials this year.

00:10:08.740 You had Bill Burr and Dave Chappelle, which were brilliant.

00:10:13.740 A lot of really funny, smart material.

00:10:16.620 Actual jokes, if you can imagine, in the comedy special.

00:10:20.480 Things to laugh about.

00:10:22.420 And then you have this.

00:10:25.700 Ouch.

00:10:26.960 Female comedians, when they go to Netflix, they're not sending their best, I guess, as Trump might say. 1.00

00:10:33.200 At any rate, as for the joke itself, if that's what it is, I want to be clear about something.

00:10:39.820 My reaction to this, and I think the reaction of every pro-lifer, any pro-lifer I've seen so far reacting to it,

00:10:46.780 it's not a reaction of outrage.

00:10:49.880 I'm not mad about this.

00:10:51.720 We're not foaming at the mouth in anger, the way some leftists on Twitter were when Neil Gorsuch said Merry Christmas on Fox and Friends.

00:10:59.040 There was some foaming at the mouth anger going on there.

00:11:02.820 That's not what we're doing.

00:11:04.700 Our overwhelming feeling with this kind of thing is one of sadness.

00:11:09.840 It's sad to see a woman who murdered her child try so desperately to rationalize and justify it that way.

00:11:18.660 She's lying to herself, and she's lying to us, and we all know it.

00:11:22.340 I can guarantee you she did not come out of that abortion. 0.70

00:11:25.600 She didn't leave that facility feeling like a god, feeling powerful.

00:11:28.720 That's not how she felt.

00:11:29.900 Because here's the thing.

00:11:31.380 Here's the really important point.

00:11:32.540 If a woman feels powerful, maybe not like a god, we'll get to that in a minute, 0.76

00:11:38.520 but if a woman feels powerful, confident, in charge, that woman is not going to get an abortion. 1.00

00:11:45.860 She's not going to have her child killed.

00:11:48.460 Because that woman is going to be excited about her baby and about the future and confident in her ability to have a baby and still pursue her dreams and have a career. 0.98

00:11:59.260 That's why a confident, powerful woman, that's how she's going to approach a pregnancy. 1.00

00:12:06.340 No, what drives women to the abortion clinic and the feeling that the clinic tries to inculcate, 1.00

00:12:12.020 the feeling they try to, they go out of their way to create and stir up within the women who come is one of fear and helplessness and desperation.

00:12:21.520 Now, you go to a pregnancy center, a pro-life pregnancy center, and the message there is going to be,

00:12:26.100 you can do this, you got this, we'll help you.

00:12:29.500 We're here for you, don't be afraid.

00:12:31.200 That's the message from the pro-life pregnancy center. 0.98

00:12:33.100 The message from the clinic is, be afraid, be very afraid, your life is over, unless you kill a child.

00:12:38.780 It's a choice between your life or your child's. 1.00

00:12:41.280 You can't do both, you just can't, you don't have it in you, you got to kill the child. 0.99

00:12:46.400 You have to choose, but you really have no choice. 1.00

00:12:49.780 You got to kill a child. 1.00

00:12:52.080 So, a woman leaves that feeling empowered? 1.00

00:12:55.040 I mean, this is how confident, okay, this is how much confidence, really, the clinic wants the women to have. 0.96

00:13:03.720 When the women are walking into the clinic, if a sidewalk counselor tries to approach them and just hand them literature, 1.00

00:13:10.140 I mean, they said, the clinic sends people out, often men, as like bodyguards, okay, not because these women's, not because the women, their safety is being threatened in any way, not at all.

00:13:23.240 No, it's just to protect, to protect them from being given literature, to protect them from being spoken to and told about their other options.

00:13:34.880 Is that confidence?

00:13:36.380 Is that power?

00:13:38.560 Do you have to protect a powerful and confident woman from being handed a brochure with information on it? 1.00

00:13:45.640 Information about her own pregnancy and what's going on biologically? 0.95

00:13:49.520 No, there's no power, and it's all about breaking the woman down, and she leaves broken. 0.96

00:13:58.280 She's broken, and now she's guilt-ridden, and that's how she leaves.

00:14:02.640 That's the state the clinic leaves her in, and leaves her to it, leaves her to a life of brokenness and guilt.

00:14:08.620 Doesn't care.

00:14:10.120 Once they get what they want out of you, which is the 400 bucks for killing the baby, that's it. 0.98

00:14:16.840 They're done with you.

00:14:17.740 It's transactional.

00:14:19.300 They don't care.

00:14:21.400 That's the other thing, by the way. 0.93

00:14:23.140 Speaking of, you know, paying $400 or whatever the price is going to be, what's empowering about a woman paying a man 400 bucks to go inside her body and kill her baby? 1.00

00:14:36.420 What's empowering about that?

00:14:38.020 Keep in mind, very often these abortion, quote-unquote, doctors are men.

00:14:45.580 Yet, she says, Michelle Wolf says she felt like a god.

00:14:48.760 She was playing god.

00:14:49.680 Well, that part is true.

00:14:50.960 You know, as to that part, I believe her.

00:14:52.540 And there's a paradox here, though, isn't there?

00:14:54.020 Because I'm saying she was playing god, yeah, but I don't think she really felt powerful.

00:14:59.860 That only seems like a paradox.

00:15:02.960 If, you know, that may seem like a paradox, but really it makes a lot of sense.

00:15:06.880 Because we are not gods.

00:15:08.420 We cannot be gods.

00:15:09.420 So, our attempt to play god will fail.

00:15:14.080 And we'll be left feeling even more powerless than we did before.

00:15:18.300 So, to be more specific, Michelle Wolf felt like a failed god. 0.90

00:15:22.260 A god who, in the end, actually forfeited the most profound power that she had.

00:15:27.180 Because think about that. 0.99

00:15:28.020 Killing someone. 0.93

00:15:30.120 You say you felt powerful because you killed someone. 0.99

00:15:32.180 Anyone can kill somebody.

00:15:33.800 Especially a baby. 0.76

00:15:35.500 What's powerful about killing a baby?

00:15:37.080 The most helpless, innocent, defenseless being on the planet. 0.82

00:15:44.660 And you killed him.

00:15:46.940 Power?

00:15:47.680 That doesn't take any power.

00:15:49.700 Anyone can do that.

00:15:52.080 Now, when I say it's easy, it's not easy to do morally or emotionally if you're a decent human being.

00:15:56.820 In fact, if you're a decent human being, it's impossible to do. 0.67

00:16:00.800 But if you're a morally bankrupt, self-absorbed, cold-blooded narcissist like Michelle Wolf, 0.99

00:16:05.320 then sure, yeah, murder is easy. 0.99

00:16:07.140 No problem.

00:16:09.000 There's no power in it, though.

00:16:11.300 Creating life.

00:16:12.880 Okay?

00:16:13.100 Bringing life into the world.

00:16:14.520 Now, I mean, that is power.

00:16:17.400 There is, in fact, almost something like a god-like power in it.

00:16:23.780 A god-like power that God gives to us.

00:16:26.220 The power to make life.

00:16:28.660 Think about that.

00:16:29.340 What is more powerful than that?

00:16:32.900 To create life, to harbor that life in your body, and then bring that life out into the open, wide world.

00:16:42.040 Now, that's power.

00:16:43.700 And what women are told is, by rejecting that profound, amazing power, a power that only women have. 0.94

00:16:58.280 Now, men do, of course, help in creating the life.

00:17:01.860 They have a 50-50 role there.

00:17:03.180 But in terms of, women have, obviously, a unique and powerful role in that process that men don't have. 1.00

00:17:12.260 And so, the left says, by rejecting that power, a woman is powerful. 1.00

00:17:19.120 By doing the thing that anyone can do, by doing the thing that any murderous, selfish person can do, which is kill somebody, a baby, that's what makes you powerful?

00:17:31.920 No.

00:17:33.000 Not at all.

00:17:35.680 All right.

00:17:38.420 I wanted to tell you, we've got a couple days left before the holidays, before Christmas kicks off in earnest.

00:17:45.680 And this holiday season, you could do your friends and family a solid by getting them a Daily Wire gift membership.

00:17:50.880 And the good news for you, from now until January 1st, all Insider Plus gift memberships will be 25% off.

00:17:56.080 That means your loved one will get all the fantastic perks, plus the majestic Leftist Tears Tumblr, and you'll get all the savings.

00:18:02.180 That's 25% off all Insider Plus gift memberships.

00:18:04.920 This holiday season, go to dailywire.com slash gift to get your 25% off.

00:18:09.660 Again, that's dailywire.com slash gift to get your 25% off.

00:18:14.220 Give them a gift that they'll thank you for all year long.

00:18:18.160 By the way, I wanted to get into emails here in a second, but the reviews for this new Star Wars movie have come out.

00:18:25.960 And right now, last I checked on Rotten Tomatoes, I think it's got like a 58%, which is bad, rotten, according to Rotten Tomatoes.

00:18:32.740 And so it's just being abysmally rated.

00:18:35.040 I think it's going to end up being perhaps the worst rated, reviewed Star Wars movie yet.

00:18:41.180 Even worse than Phantom Menace, which was an abomination in so many ways, as most people know.

00:18:46.620 But this should not be surprising.

00:18:49.680 I think what we're learning here is that there's only so much story to be told.

00:18:57.320 So this is what, the ninth Star Wars movie?

00:18:59.800 And I'm not even counting all the other peripheral things and the offshoots and the other spinoffs and the TV shows.

00:19:08.560 So there's even more than that.

00:19:09.860 But just in the primary film franchise, we're now on the ninth movie, right?

00:19:15.600 And if they're each about two hours long on average, let's say, so you're talking about 18 hours.

00:19:20.800 18 hours, 18 hours, is there really 18 hours worth of story to be told based on this?

00:19:28.460 You think about that first Star Wars movie, which I have to tell you, and look, this is not me.

00:19:33.760 I'm not, I'm honestly not trying to be contrarian when I say this.

00:19:36.440 I am guilty sometimes of being contrarian, I admit.

00:19:39.260 But this is not an attempt at a contrarian take.

00:19:42.320 I'm telling you, if you watch that first Star Wars movie, New Hope, I mean, chronologically,

00:19:48.140 at least in terms of when they were produced, the first one.

00:19:49.840 Although I know it's really episode four in the storyline.

00:19:52.800 But if you watch that one, and without the nostalgic attachment.

00:19:58.020 Now, I know that if you saw it first when you were a kid and you've grown up with Star Wars,

00:20:01.900 then you're not capable of looking at these things objectively because of your nostalgic attachment to them.

00:20:08.440 And I understand that.

00:20:09.300 I don't begrudge you that.

00:20:11.400 But I had, I guess, a strange childhood because I never saw Star Wars growing up as a kid.

00:20:15.860 I just never, I had no interest in it.

00:20:17.400 I could have watched it, but I didn't, I wasn't interested in it.

00:20:21.340 So I watched when I was an adult, I watched Star Wars for the first time.

00:20:27.560 Starting with New Hope, the first one made.

00:20:30.760 And it is really not a good movie.

00:20:33.360 It honestly isn't.

00:20:34.720 If you go in, if you go in cold, you have no attachment to the movie.

00:20:39.180 You're not rooting against it.

00:20:42.360 You don't dislike it without, you're just, you're like, okay, let me turn on this movie.

00:20:47.400 If you look at it like that, it's really not that good.

00:20:52.180 The acting is bad.

00:20:55.460 Mark Hamill is not a good actor, especially in that movie.

00:20:59.360 Maybe he gets a little better as the series goes on, but he is not good in that movie.

00:21:02.780 Um, so it is, it is like D-list level acting.

00:21:08.820 The script is not good.

00:21:10.760 The dialogue is clunky and, and everything.

00:21:13.160 It's, it's kind of campy and kind of fun, I guess, but it's not.

00:21:15.920 My point is, it's really not a great film.

00:21:17.940 And then you have to look at that and ask yourself, it is, so based on that first movie, is there 18 hours worth of material to be mined from that?

00:21:33.940 It's, it's not that inventive.

00:21:36.400 Okay.

00:21:36.880 George Lucas didn't really come up this.

00:21:38.660 He didn't, he didn't invent this idea of a space opera.

00:21:42.180 Um, it is, it's, it's actually pretty derivative in parts.

00:21:46.700 So I don't know.

00:21:47.540 I, I think that's what we learned that even, even you see all these movie franchises that go on forever and ever and ever, even a great film.

00:21:57.400 Okay.

00:21:57.880 Even a really, really great film, which with, with, with the, that is complex and dense and with great characters and everything.

00:22:07.000 You're probably not going to find 18 hours worth of material from it, but the first Star Wars movie isn't even that great.

00:22:15.460 And it just goes on and on and on.

00:22:18.360 Which is why each, which is why each new Star Wars movie, it just repeats just over and over.

00:22:23.080 It gets the same story repeated over and over and over and over and over again.

00:22:27.480 And yeah, the, the, the special effects get a little better each time, but that's it.

00:22:32.860 How many times do we have to see the same story?

00:22:34.940 And what annoys me about it is that while the Star Wars universe, I don't think has enough in it to justify 18 hours of story.

00:22:48.900 Um, the Star Wars universe doesn't, but the, the actual universe does.

00:22:57.000 What I mean is, look, if you want to, if you want to make a movie, a sci-fi movie about things happening in space,

00:23:03.560 where it involves aliens and spaceships and adventures, I say, great, do that.

00:23:09.100 That's fantastic.

00:23:11.180 There's, there's, there's, there's, there's, and, and, and literally endless possibilities for telling stories set in space.

00:23:16.780 but all of the um all of our all the resources in hollywood everything is focused on well if

00:23:25.940 we're going to tell a space story it has to be star wars that's what annoys me it's like just

00:23:31.500 can we get away from the star wars thing and if we if we have filmmakers and and and script writers

00:23:37.220 and actors who uh want to you know be in a do a movie about space just let them do that we just

00:23:43.900 it doesn't need to be star wars can we just put that aside fine we've done star wars we get it

00:23:47.840 and uh let's just let's just move on there's there's there's a there's a lot of space left in

00:23:54.420 space for other stories it's the same thing with all these marvel movies and avengers it's like

00:24:00.280 if you want to tell a story about someone with supernatural powers there's there's a lot you

00:24:07.660 could do with that there's a lot of really interesting stories you could tell it doesn't

00:24:11.300 have to be doesn't have to involve spider-man or iron man like we we understand we've seen

00:24:17.080 those stories we've seen everything those guys can do we get it create a new character

00:24:22.060 with supernatural abilities have them do something completely different

00:24:25.980 all right but i know the movie will make a billion dollars on its first weekend for some reason i i at

00:24:35.340 this point at this point you've seen you've seen uh 16 hours of star wars like people are just itching

00:24:44.020 i gotta go i gotta go see it again i've seen this same movie eight times already and now i gotta go i

00:24:50.520 gotta go on opening weekend to watch it again one more time i uh i'm just gonna i'm gonna hand my

00:24:54.580 money over to disney they have no respect for me as a as a as a fan as a viewer because they're just 0.98

00:24:59.760 they're just they're just shoving tripe into my mouth just garbage no respect for me they're not 1.00

00:25:05.260 even trying to make an original story it's just reheated leftovers it's like going to a restaurant and 0.98

00:25:13.240 you know that they're serving you the leftovers from the previous night microwaved and you go and

00:25:20.180 you give them their money and they literally shovel it into your mouth i mean who would do that

00:25:23.720 this is what we do with hollywood i don't understand it all right let's go to emails

00:25:28.440 mattwallshow at gmail.com mattwallshow at gmail.com this is from patrick says hello matt i was having a

00:25:34.840 conversation with a friend and i was wondering where are you stood on a particular issue do you

00:25:39.140 think gambling is a sin obviously people can become addicted to gambling it can ruin lives but that is

00:25:43.780 also true with alcohol and in moderation there's nothing wrong with a couple beers do you have any

00:25:48.120 prop further opinion on the matter is playing poker every couple weeks totally acceptable

00:25:51.720 yeah it's totally acceptable as long as you aren't wagering your life savings or something

00:25:55.760 i can't see how putting down a little bit of money in a poker game every once in a while

00:25:58.800 could it all be considered an act of evil provide again that it's your money and it's not too much of it

00:26:04.140 now certainly anyone who takes the position i know that some people do take the position that all

00:26:08.900 gambling is sinful but if you take that position you must realize that rules out the lottery

00:26:14.320 obviously bingo night okay uh the stock market and many other things many things fall

00:26:21.640 into the realm of gambling gambling is a game of chance where you could win money and and that

00:26:28.480 encompasses a lot of stuff i don't i don't see how it could be considered intrinsically immoral to do

00:26:34.720 it why would it be who cares now maybe you could argue that it's a waste of money it's a frivolous use

00:26:39.680 of money but so is going to the movies so is buying tickets to disney world uh so is many other

00:26:45.680 things many things it's it's a form of entertainment so if you've if you've spent money on entertainment

00:26:54.460 it may it might not count as gambling but i don't see the difference

00:26:57.340 so i say don't worry about it uh gamble away well don't gamble away i mean you get my point that's

00:27:06.460 that gamble away with the opposite of the point i was trying to make but you know anyway moving on you

00:27:10.160 get it this is from bev says matt i agree with your stance on pornography but how can you fail to see

00:27:14.560 how it applies to alcohol and tobacco those things are just as bad as porn you defend alcohol and

00:27:18.580 tobacco constantly on your show especially on wednesday's show which i found very disappointing

00:27:22.920 bev i don't know if it's true that i defend alcohol and tobacco constantly on my show uh i am fans of

00:27:29.060 both i admit so maybe i do i don't know you say they're as bad as porn do you really think that though

00:27:35.500 is that really so let me ask you a married man

00:27:38.960 uh imagine a married man who drinks a a bottle of beer every night just one bottle with dinner very 0.66

00:27:46.160 normal a lot of a lot of people do um now imagine a man who watches hardcore porn every night you're

00:27:53.780 telling me that those are morally equal that those two guys are in the same moral state and that if

00:28:00.440 you were the the wife you know if you if you're the wife in that scenario you would have no preference 0.96

00:28:06.120 between the two you would be just as offended and upset and troubled if your husband had a glass

00:28:12.500 of beer with dinner as you would be if he after dinner every night went up to his to his room on

00:28:17.740 his laptop and watch porn i it's hard for me to believe you really see it that way maybe you do

00:28:24.280 now i'm not going to take this in a theological direction but if you're a christian

00:28:29.700 i should mention and i don't know if you are or not but that that if you are your view on this

00:28:35.700 i have to say is totally untenable theologically jesus jesus christ drank alcohol he provided

00:28:44.040 alcohol to a party as his first miracle on earth please don't give me any stuff about how it was

00:28:48.860 non-alcoholic that is nonsense it's i'm sorry that is total nonsense there is no interpretation or

00:28:55.880 translation of that story that it all supports that assumption it was alcoholic wine it even says

00:29:01.740 so in the passage it says so in effect where the the the the party goers the attendees of the wedding

00:29:10.180 remark on how this was the finest wine they'd had so far and usually now they say usually you serve

00:29:18.240 um you know you serve the the good stuff first and then you serve the bad stuff well why do you serve

00:29:26.600 the bad stuff later because people have already had the good stuff and they're they're feeling good

00:29:30.620 i.e a little tipsy and uh and then that's when you throw the bad stuff what the people were remarking

00:29:36.940 on is well now you you just serve the finest wine later clearly indicating that this is alcoholic wine

00:29:44.560 when you talk about the finest or best wine you're not talking about grape juice now this is a this is

00:29:51.520 really important this actually this is why you know christians who if you're uncomfortable with

00:29:58.960 alcohol if you don't want to be around it as a personal preference totally fine i understand i'm i

00:30:03.820 have no issue with that but to take the position that it's intrinsically immoral or evil in any dosage

00:30:12.040 similar to pornography or as bad as or worse how could you possibly take that view if you are in fact a

00:30:21.300 christian it makes no sense because then you're accusing jesus of engaging in intrinsically moral

00:30:27.540 activity and and and you're also accusing him of the sin of scandal for providing it so what you're

00:30:35.080 saying is that jesus in providing wine it would be the same as if he provided pornography to the wedding

00:30:40.600 guests okay but putting that to the side because i don't even know if you're a christian i just wanted

00:30:46.040 to say that for the record uh what makes alcohol immoral in and of itself i say porn is immoral

00:30:53.600 in any dose in any amount and harmful in any amount and i say this because it is by definition the

00:30:59.960 commodification of sex it is sex reduced to spectacle it is the degradation of women for the pleasure of 0.77

00:31:05.360 men and sometimes the degradation of men for the pleasure of women it is debased and perverse again by

00:31:10.740 its very nature by definition studies show that any amount of exposure any amount has a traumatic

00:31:15.840 effect on children and psychologically damages them and all porn again in any amount has a profoundly

00:31:21.380 negative effect on everybody on families on men on women on marriages porn has no positive application

00:31:27.200 no neutral application it is only harmful and that's what pornography is now let's talk about alcohol

00:31:32.980 let's take a very common scenario the one that i just the one that i just mentioned very common

00:31:36.880 okay this is not some far-fetched thing someone who who has a glass of beer once a night or a couple

00:31:42.220 few times a week or whatever most people who drink that's how they drink most people aren't binge drinkers

00:31:48.180 so um what about a guy in that situation he's having the beer it's not damaging him physically it's not

00:31:55.880 the amount of alcohol that amount of alcohol for a grown man who is in good health is not damaging

00:32:01.100 he could do that his whole life and suffered no serious side effects at all now most research

00:32:07.340 suggests that two drinks a night for a man two drinks is moderate that's that's what that's what most of the

00:32:12.380 medical advice now is um that's what most doctors will tell you that if you drink if you're a man grown man

00:32:18.740 healthy you have two drinks a night that's considered moderate and there's not going to be any significant

00:32:24.300 harm done to you uh i'm not aware of any research that suggests that one or two drinks a night for a

00:32:32.100 man would have significant damaging effects on his health i'm not aware of any study that says that

00:32:38.060 so in moderate consumption it isn't harmful it may actually carry some benefits now that's

00:32:44.460 controversial but and it's sort of beside the point but the fact is it it could possibly have some

00:32:49.860 positive benefit we don't even need to talk about though the fact is it has no negative side effect

00:32:54.440 in moderation it also isn't intoxicating so your health is not impaired your mind is not impaired

00:33:01.540 your judgment is not impaired what's the problem i mean what's what's the argument exactly in this

00:33:09.640 scenario what how is it evil why because it could be harmful if you drank it too much well yeah but

00:33:18.140 anything can be harmful if you consume too much of it water can kill you if you drink too much of it

00:33:22.760 so that can't possibly be the reason just because something can be harmful in in in moderate dosages

00:33:30.640 doesn't mean that it's automatically wrong in moderate dosages right obviously so then what is it

00:33:38.160 you could say well a lot of people do struggle with alcoholism yeah that's an argument for not drinking

00:33:43.680 around people who struggle with alcoholism but if you're by yourself and there's no one around who

00:33:49.820 struggles with alcoholism and it's not hurting you and it's not intoxicating you um and it has no

00:33:55.640 no significant health drawbacks what does it matter who cares um i have explained now multiple times

00:34:05.500 why porn in any dosage is harmful i i know no one has has has so far explained why that should apply to alcohol

00:34:14.560 a lot of people have said oh it's the same as alcohol i mean you can assert that but no one's explained how it is

00:34:20.440 i think i've now multiple times explained how it definitely is not the same you may personally dislike it

00:34:27.300 that's fine but i you need to give me an argument for why a man drinking one beer at night by himself

00:34:35.880 is doing something wrong i guess that's the argument i want to hear okay um

00:34:41.860 let's see what else uh this is from griffin says hello matt my fiancee 25 and i 21 are getting married

00:34:51.420 in january she has an eight-year-old son we're also in the process of buying a house together

00:34:55.540 we're thrilled but also apprehensive because it's a bit of a leap of faith financially i have one year

00:35:01.580 of school left before i get an engineering degree from a respected and demanding school my fiancee makes

00:35:05.500 a good hourly wage but for the first year of our marriage she will have to be the provider financially 0.95

00:35:09.320 as i won't be able to contribute a whole lot because of the commitment that my school will require

00:35:14.320 my question to you is this would it be morally wrong for us to apply to receive food stamps while

00:35:20.020 i'm finishing school with the new mortgage utilities and the like we will be under a lot of stress

00:35:24.600 money-wise until i'm done with school and can enter the working world that's not to say that

00:35:28.220 we won't be able to feed ourselves um and my soon-to-be stepson but there's no doubt that

00:35:33.800 monthly food stamps would ease the burden and allow us a bit more freedom to save for the future and pay

00:35:38.620 off minor outstanding debts that we have can i in good conscience call myself a conservative if i'm

00:35:43.300 getting food stamps well griffin you asked for my opinion so i'll give it whether you can call yourself

00:35:49.140 a conservative or not i who cares i i don't even know what that word means anymore nobody does so

00:35:53.160 who cares about that but is it the right thing to do well i would say i i would say in your case

00:35:59.960 no now i i can only go based on the description of the situation that you provided and you say you

00:36:08.080 can afford food you you seem to indicate you could afford it rather easily uh but using food stamps would

00:36:15.140 give you more financial freedom and it would allow you to save some money and also pay off your debts

00:36:19.160 i mean the problem is anyone could justify food stamps on that basis it would give anyone

00:36:25.960 financial freedom it would allow anyone more more of an ability to pay off debts and save some money

00:36:31.660 um i just think that food stamps is supposed to be for people who can't afford food that's my now i

00:36:37.580 know that's not how it's used but you asked for my opinion and so i'm giving you my my opinion is that

00:36:42.800 if you can afford food you shouldn't be on food stamps if you can't then that's it's there for you

00:36:47.860 um that's how it should be used but you have to follow your own conscience and perhaps you perhaps

00:36:54.480 it's quite possible your actual situation is more dire than it comes across in your email maybe you

00:37:00.040 were being you know more reserved and describing so i don't know so so who really cares what i have to

00:37:05.780 say you have to do what you think is right i think the fact that you're questioning it like this and

00:37:11.940 you feel the need to ask the question might again be an indication that you know you know it's a

00:37:18.220 little iffy so i don't know but that's that's just that's my that's my own that's my own personal

00:37:24.880 feeling about it um let's see from lucas says hi matt philosophical question for you is morality innate

00:37:34.760 or is it the result of cultural conditioning if so why do we see differences in moral systems across

00:37:40.280 the world yeah i think it's innate there's there's there's a lot of evidence for that

00:37:44.660 but let me just mention let me mention just one one piece of evidence that i think is pretty

00:37:50.100 interesting and and that is that people we talk about morality being innate well we know that

00:37:56.380 in part because people are able to make instant and intricate moral distinctions without even

00:38:03.820 thinking about it okay so one example and uh john the writer jonathan height talks about this in one

00:38:10.580 of his books and i was reading another book recently that mentions this example i can't remember the name

00:38:15.480 of the book but if i think of it i'll say it um anyway the example touches on the the trolley

00:38:22.180 problem which i've mentioned before on this show and the trolley problem asks what you would do

00:38:28.100 if you saw a trolley headed towards a group of five people on on the tracks and there's a switch you

00:38:35.020 can flip if you flip it the trolley will change tracks and but there's one there's one guy walking

00:38:42.180 on the other track so if you flip the switch the trolley will go that way and hit the one guy rather

00:38:47.380 than the five and so the thought experiment is would you flip the switch now most people you ask and

00:38:55.040 they've done surveys and studies with this and most people say yeah i'd flip the switch because you

00:39:00.860 know it better to save the five now here's another scenario trolley on the tracks five people on the

00:39:08.900 tracks but there's no switch instead you're standing on a bridge overlooking the scene and that guy who

00:39:15.860 was on the track well now he's actually up standing next to you and so you could push him onto the tracks

00:39:23.700 and thereby stop the trolley but kill him in the process now in that case would you push him

00:39:31.580 most people say no okay now the effect is the same in both cases one man dies instead of five 0.70

00:39:39.200 so you could say for all intents and purposes what comes down to it it's the same thing the guy's dead

00:39:46.240 either way yet most people you talk to say i would flip the switch i wouldn't push the man

00:39:51.340 why is that well i think the difference is so innately obvious to us that we don't appreciate

00:39:59.020 how interesting it is that people can make that distinction so easily a computer program program

00:40:05.000 couldn't make it if you fed that problem into a computer program the computer program is going to

00:40:10.360 tell you it's the same because a computer isn't going to recognize any moral distinction between those

00:40:15.420 two things all the computer is looking at is the is the result but um and the computer is going to

00:40:22.780 say well you know push push him or pull the switch he's dead either way you save the five who cares

00:40:27.840 so um you could ask someone that question you could try this yourself ask someone about those scenarios

00:40:35.980 get their answer and then ask them why they answered that way and they probably can't tell you why

00:40:43.560 even though they answer confidently and they answer almost automatically and i think they answer

00:40:49.700 correctly a lot of people when you ask them why they would they'd struggle to explain even though

00:40:55.920 they're right so what's happening here well the philosophical distinction has to do with the

00:41:02.780 principle of double effect which states that you can do a good act with a good effect

00:41:08.040 with a good effect effect intended even if a bad thing will also happen as a result as long as

00:41:15.320 that bad thing is not being done as a means to the good so it's a difference between double effect

00:41:22.540 and ends justify the means double effect you can do it and justify the means you can't morally

00:41:28.560 pulling the lever is double effect good at pulling the lever good intent saving the five people

00:41:34.540 killing the man is not the means to that effect it's just it's a it's a sort of a side effect it's a

00:41:40.200 it's it's a it's an unintended and tragic unfortunate although foreseen result but pushing the man onto the

00:41:49.140 track is a bad act because you push the man you murdered him and it's a it is the means by which

00:41:55.140 you save the five so that's wrong now here's my point and this is fascinating when you think about it

00:42:02.020 most people can automatically without even thinking and without knowing that they're doing

00:42:09.280 it and without being able to explain it after the fact most people can identify even like a 10 year

00:42:15.540 old can identify this very fine delicate philosophical distinction between double effect and ends justify

00:42:24.380 the means that is really fascinating when you think about it because when you when you really stop and

00:42:30.660 consider it and contemplate it it's a it's a it's a difficult thought experiment um now how is it how are we

00:42:40.680 able to reflexively and instantaneously make correct and profound moral distinctions that we can't even

00:42:49.760 explain i would say it's because it's innate you know it's almost for the same reason that our livers can

00:42:58.400 function even when we even if we can't explain how our liver functions and if we're not conscious of

00:43:03.560 it functioning it still does it no it's not exactly the same thing but a similar sort of you know the

00:43:08.240 way that we morally recognize these these distinctions is is is almost instinctive in in in in that kind of

00:43:14.000 way um which tells me i i just i don't think something like cultural conditioning can explain that um

00:43:22.960 because i don't i actually don't think the culture does condition us to recognize the difference

00:43:30.420 between double effect and ends justify the means in fact the culture even i think the culture especially

00:43:39.660 these days militates against this innate moral understanding so if you answer correctly on that

00:43:47.860 thought experiment identifying even if you don't know it the difference between ends justify the means and

00:43:52.580 double effect you are doing it um despite actually i would say your cultural conditioning not because

00:44:01.360 of it so that's one of the reasons why i think morality is innate but we could talk about it for

00:44:06.700 three more hours which i won't do because we're gonna leave it there thanks everybody for watching

00:44:10.180 thanks for listening on this historic and somber day godspeed

00:44:13.800 if you enjoyed this episode don't forget to subscribe and if you want to help spread the word please give

00:44:20.640 us a five-star review and tell your friends to subscribe as well we're available on apple podcast

00:44:25.140 spotify wherever you listen to podcasts also be sure to check out the other daily wire podcasts

00:44:30.100 including the ben shapiro show michael mull show and the andrew clavin show thanks for listening

00:44:34.760 the matt wall show is produced by sean hampton executive producer jeremy boring senior producer jonathan

00:44:41.560 hay supervising producer mathis glover supervising producer robert sterling technical producer austin

00:44:47.780 stevens editor donovan fowler audio mixer mike coramina the matt wall show is a daily wire production

00:44:53.680 copyright daily wire 2019 democrats impeach president trump as elissa milano leads a rally chant that this 0.96

00:45:01.320 is what democracy looks like we examine what happens now we remember what the founders thought about

00:45:07.560 democracy because if this is what democracy looks like i'm out check it out on the michael knowles show

The Matt Walsh Show - December 19, 2019

Ep. 394 - A Historic And Irrelevant Day

Episode Stats

Summary

Transcript