The Matt Walsh Show - Ep. 434 - The Criminalization of Childhood

00:00:00.000 Welcome to the show, friends, neighbors, colleagues, associates.

00:00:07.380 Today we're going to talk about what I call the criminalization of childhood, both the

00:00:12.700 criminalization and the medicalization of childhood, which is happening in our school

00:00:16.800 system.

00:00:17.560 We'll discuss that.

00:00:18.320 Also, I'm excited today to be canceling Elizabeth Warren, finally, and I'll explain why.

00:00:22.660 And we'll go over five headlines, several of them coronavirus-related, fun times as

00:00:27.920 always.

00:00:28.160 And in the news segment, we're also going to talk about a bill that just passed making

00:00:34.060 lynching illegal on the federal level.

00:00:37.340 But wasn't it illegal already everywhere?

00:00:41.200 Yes, it was.

00:00:42.900 But, which of course is why this bill, though it sounds like something that nobody could

00:00:47.200 possibly oppose, there are actually very good reasons to oppose it, and I'll explain that

00:00:51.880 as well.

00:00:52.400 All of that coming up.

00:00:53.460 First, a word from Ring.

00:00:55.840 You know, this isn't about being paranoid or anything like that, but it is about protecting

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00:01:01.060 And the reality is, you never know when a break-in could occur.

00:01:04.340 And if you live in high-crime areas, then you know that there's that elevated risk.

00:01:11.720 But even if you don't, even if you live out in the middle of nowhere, kind of like I do,

00:01:16.860 still, it could always happen, which is why you want to protect yourself.

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00:01:45.120 You know, my, that's what I've found to be so great about Ring is both the convenience

00:01:51.000 of it, but also what we're talking about, just the security of knowing that you have

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00:02:16.840 Okay, so criminalization of childhood.

00:02:20.460 Footage was released this week showing a police officer in Orlando walking into an elementary

00:02:26.320 school and arresting a six-year-old girl.

00:02:29.140 The child, accused of having a tantrum and hitting her teachers, had her hands zip-tied

00:02:37.100 and was put in the back of a squad car as she was crying and trembling with fear and pleading

00:02:43.560 to be given another chance, put in a squad car, taken to jail.

00:02:47.460 In fact, let me play for you the footage right now.

00:02:49.520 This is the footage of the actual arrest as it happens.

00:02:54.340 I think there's an important point to note here as you're watching this, that it's not

00:03:00.640 like the police came in and the young girl was in the middle of a hysterical freak out

00:03:06.900 and she was hitting people. 1.00

00:03:07.940 No, by this point, she had calmed down.

00:03:09.540 She was just sitting there and then they come in and cuff her.

00:03:13.620 So watch this.

00:03:14.500 Let's go.

00:03:27.000 Your grandma can come pick you up, okay?

00:03:28.540 Hello.

00:03:29.400 Hello.

00:03:29.860 I was here to go.

00:03:31.440 I just got you.

00:03:33.100 All right.

00:03:34.220 Come on.

00:03:34.640 Let's go.

00:03:35.840 No.

00:03:36.900 Please let me go.

00:03:38.240 Okay, come on.

00:03:38.940 You can tell me what happened on the car, okay?

00:03:53.400 I don't want to go with a police car.

00:03:56.640 You don't want to?

00:03:57.900 Don't wait.

00:03:59.160 You have to.

00:03:59.820 Don't wait.

00:04:01.440 Give me a second to ask.

00:04:03.200 That, you know the expression, makes my blood boil?

00:04:09.680 Well, that, when I watch something like that, I can feel, I think I can literally feel my

00:04:15.720 blood boiling within me.

00:04:17.500 And it just makes me very angry.

00:04:19.640 Maybe part of the reason might be that I have a six-year-old daughter myself, and the idea that she could be arrested for anything at all is, first of all, simply ludicrous.

00:04:31.960 Okay, if you know anything about six-year-olds, if you've ever met one, then you should understand how ridiculous this is.

00:04:41.020 And my blood boils even more, because as I've been talking about this issue, I wrote something about it yesterday.

00:04:48.220 We talked about it on social media.

00:04:50.120 A fair number of people, maybe it won't surprise you, defending the police officer.

00:04:56.320 Now, as we'll talk about in a minute, even his own police department doesn't defend him.

00:05:00.600 They fired him for this, and rightfully so.

00:05:03.500 But there are still people who I think are, when it comes down to it, such bootlickers of the state, you know, refuse to criticize police officers for any reason whatsoever, no matter what they do, that they'll even defend this, which his own bosses would not defend.

00:05:21.640 His police chief came out and was horrified by it.

00:05:24.380 And yet there are people that will see that.

00:05:26.400 You know, I saw some comments like, teach that spoiled brat a lesson, those kind of comments. 1.00

00:05:32.200 She's six, you animal, you beast. 0.96

00:05:36.180 I mean, she's six.

00:05:39.000 Do you understand what that means?

00:05:40.520 Now, the courageous cop, valiantly defending society from ill-tempered first graders, can be heard later on in the body cam footage bragging about the fact that this six-year-old that he arrested breaks his record for the youngest child that he's ever arrested.

00:06:02.080 There's no sense of seriousness here at all, just callous indifference for the child.

00:06:07.660 And to him, it seems like it's just all a big joke.

00:06:10.920 Watch this.

00:06:11.940 She's eight, isn't she?

00:06:13.340 Six.

00:06:14.020 She's six.

00:06:15.280 Now she has broken the record.

00:06:16.760 Absolutely no concern from this guy about the trauma that the child suffered.

00:06:23.880 And that is trauma, okay?

00:06:25.980 Yes, the word trauma is way overused.

00:06:29.580 College kids encountering opinions they don't like say they're traumatized.

00:06:34.900 That's not trauma.

00:06:36.620 Doing this to a child, that is actually literally traumatic.

00:06:42.340 Now, keep in mind, he says he arrested a seven-year-old.

00:06:45.600 What was the reason he gave?

00:06:46.440 He said he arrested the seven-year-old because the seven-year-old, I guess, stole something and didn't think it was serious.

00:06:51.380 And that's why he was arrested.

00:06:52.960 So he was teaching him a lesson.

00:06:55.340 Yeah, well, of course he didn't think it was serious.

00:06:57.180 He's seven.

00:06:58.960 Seven-year-olds don't think anything is serious because they're seven.

00:07:02.420 Now, this girl was taken to a detention center where her mugshot was taken. 1.00

00:07:08.340 I want you to imagine that.

00:07:09.160 A mugshot of a six-year-old girl.

00:07:12.360 And she was officially brought up on charges of criminal assault for hitting somebody.

00:07:18.340 I want to reiterate again.

00:07:21.120 This is a six-year-old girl taken to a jail, given a mugshot, brought up on charges of criminal assault.

00:07:29.640 To emphasize for the fifth time, she's six.

00:07:33.420 Now, we should mention that this officer, Dennis Turner, apparently has a history of being a power-drunk scumbag.

00:07:40.140 He was investigated back in 2015 for tasing a man five times, even though the guy wasn't actively resisting, just kept tasing him anyway.

00:07:48.840 Yeah, why not?

00:07:49.940 Might as well keep doing it.

00:07:51.560 And reportedly, he, the officer, that is, was also arrested himself back in 1998 for aggravated assault of a child.

00:07:59.300 So maybe he has some kind of problem with children.

00:08:01.080 I'm not sure.

00:08:02.420 Now, Turner, as I said, has been fired for his actions at the school.

00:08:05.980 But serious questions remain.

00:08:09.100 For instance, how did a callous incompetent like this guy, who's twice been put under investigation by his own department for abuse of force,

00:08:20.980 How did he end up as a resource officer at an elementary school?

00:08:26.540 And more broadly, is it really a good idea to criminalize childhood misbehavior?

00:08:32.580 That's the fundamental question I want to ask.

00:08:34.560 This may be an extreme example of it.

00:08:37.240 But grade schools all across the country have increasingly been treating discipline problems as legal infractions.

00:08:44.460 This is a trend that we are seeing with increasing regularity.

00:08:49.720 Kids who lack emotional maturity, not because there's something wrong with them, but because their kids, now face the possibility of a criminal record for behavior that, you know, for our parents and grandparents would have simply landed them in detention.

00:09:03.900 But now we say, no, not detention, the detention center.

00:09:07.460 The criminalization of schoolyard bullying is another example.

00:09:13.140 There are many states across the country that have passed actual laws against bullying that affect even elementary schools.

00:09:21.500 So a third grader who's bullying another third grader could be breaking the law now, and we're going to get the courts involved.

00:09:31.100 So what you saw in the footage there is extreme, but not that extreme.

00:09:37.460 Here's the issue, though.

00:09:40.920 Children, especially in the elementary school ages, are not reasonable creatures.

00:09:46.720 They do not possess the psychological capacity to control themselves, their actions, to express their emotions the way that we can.

00:10:00.660 So that's why a six-year-old might freak out and cry in all of these things.

00:10:05.060 It's because they just, they don't have the wherewithal, they don't have the capacity to express themselves yet.

00:10:18.900 I mean, they have some capacity for it, but not a fully developed capacity.

00:10:23.580 This, again, is not their fault.

00:10:25.040 It's just a natural facet of childhood.

00:10:26.900 We were all unreasonable and emotional children once.

00:10:31.460 All of us were.

00:10:32.780 Many of us still are.

00:10:35.820 Now, does this mean that misbehavior, disrespect, et cetera, should be tolerated, or that disruptive children should be given free reign to do whatever they want?

00:10:44.820 No, of course not.

00:10:45.760 But there's, see, to me, it seems like there's a lot of real estate in between letting a kid do whatever they want and arresting them and throwing them in jail.

00:10:56.200 It seems like there's a lot of room in between that we could explore.

00:10:59.440 It seems to me.

00:11:04.880 Now, if an adult hits another adult, that's assault.

00:11:11.780 When a six-year-old hits somebody, it's not assault any more than it's theft, it's legal theft if a toddler steals a Barbie doll from her daycare center.

00:11:24.200 Does anyone think, I mean, if we're putting six-year-olds in jail for hitting somebody, then is it that crazy to put a three- or four-year-old in jail for stealing a Barbie doll from the daycare center?

00:11:34.820 Bring them up on criminal charges of theft?

00:11:37.540 There's only a two- or three-year difference between the three- or four-year-old and the six-year-old.

00:11:44.060 But this is a matter of culpability, and we used to understand that children have very little of that.

00:11:50.560 Very little culpability, that is.

00:11:52.020 In fact, a child's culpability is so negligible that even if that girl, even if she killed somebody, okay, let's, I mean, let's take the absolute worst-case scenario we could possibly imagine,

00:12:06.500 where this girl, rather than slapping somebody, which, by the way, there was no, no one went to the hospital, there was no injuries sustained, okay?

00:12:15.180 I mean, if you're seriously injured by getting slapped by a six-year-old girl, then you're like Mr. Glass and unbreakable.

00:12:22.460 That would be quite impressive.

00:12:23.900 So there's no injuries, but let's just say the absolute worst-case scenario you could ever imagine, six-year-old girl somehow gets her hands on a gun, shoots somebody on purpose.

00:12:33.020 Even then, I would say it would be crazy to throw her in jail and charge her with a crime. 0.85

00:12:41.260 Why is that?

00:12:42.000 Because if a six-year-old girl is doing something like that, it is 100% guaranteed that her mind has been warped by severe, severe physical and emotional abuse at home.

00:12:53.800 And now she quite literally cannot control herself and doesn't know what she's doing.

00:12:59.160 That's a guarantee.

00:13:00.200 If you have a kid doing that, then you know that for a fact.

00:13:03.460 And, in fact, even if she hasn't been abused, six-year-olds still don't really know what they're doing and aren't actually capable of intentionally killing someone the way that we can

00:13:12.500 because they don't really understand what death is.

00:13:14.940 They don't understand the permanence of death.

00:13:16.440 So they couldn't possibly appreciate what it actually means to kill somebody the way that you or I can.

00:13:21.800 So a six-year-old kills someone even in that case.

00:13:25.280 Yeah, you might have to take them to a facility to protect themselves and others.

00:13:31.340 But the goal there would be to treat them, to treat the very severe psychological and emotional problems that they clearly have.

00:13:40.580 The goal is not to put them in a jumpsuit and throw them in the clink.

00:13:43.880 That's not what we do with six-year-olds.

00:13:47.320 Or at least we didn't used to.

00:13:48.780 But we're not just criminalizing childhood.

00:13:52.960 See, this issue goes beyond, goes even deeper than that.

00:13:58.720 Where childhood is not criminalized, it's medicalized.

00:14:03.560 And that's why over 7 million children in this country have been placed on psychiatric medication for mental disorders.

00:14:10.460 7 million children.

00:14:11.840 You actually think there are 7 million children in this country that are mentally ill?

00:14:16.980 7 million kids?

00:14:19.080 Mentally ill?

00:14:21.660 Well, we know that's not the case because half of those cases of kids that are on psychiatric drugs have, quote-unquote, ADHD.

00:14:29.640 All in all, about 6 million children, over half of them under the age of 11, have been diagnosed with this phantom disorder of ADHD.

00:14:40.500 Now, as I've argued extensively elsewhere, and I won't get into the whole spiel again,

00:14:45.160 but the ADHD diagnosis turns normal childhood behavior into symptoms of mental illness.

00:14:52.600 Now, it may be true that these behaviors, a child who fidgets a lot, can't pay attention, has a lot of energy, you know, can't do busy work,

00:15:03.360 that may be inconvenient, it may be difficult to deal with, but that doesn't mean that it's a symptom of a disorder.

00:15:12.660 It doesn't mean that the child is mentally ill.

00:15:17.300 If the school system's proper functioning depends on drugging millions of kids,

00:15:24.220 if you're telling me that's the only way that this will work is if we drug these kids,

00:15:29.760 then I would say it's the system that's disordered, not the kids.

00:15:34.860 The sickness is not in our kids, but in our attitude towards them and our expectations of them.

00:15:41.140 If millions of nine-year-old boys have a lot of trouble and seem incapable of sitting at their desk for eight hours a day,

00:15:48.660 performing busy work and regurgitating information onto Scantron sheets,

00:15:52.660 well, then maybe we should consider the possibility that this is not a very good way of educating nine-year-old boys.

00:15:58.780 Or we could keep shoving drugs in their face or sending them to jail until they shape up.

00:16:05.000 You know, that's one option.

00:16:06.020 No, our children are not mentally disordered.

00:16:12.180 They aren't criminals.

00:16:14.360 And this generation of children, not very different from any other generation before them.

00:16:19.360 I know we like to say, oh, kids today are so much worse.

00:16:21.980 Back in my day, we didn't act this way.

00:16:23.880 Well, you know what?

00:16:24.860 If you go back through history, literally every single generation of adults has said that about the current generation of kids.

00:16:32.220 They're a contemporary generation of kids.

00:16:34.900 Maybe we should consider the possibility that this whole thing of back in my day, people didn't do this.

00:16:39.500 Maybe we should consider the possibility that this is an illusion.

00:16:43.320 It's not actually like that.

00:16:44.500 That actually back in your day when you were a kid, you were doing the same stuff.

00:16:47.980 You just don't remember it now.

00:16:49.600 Or you have a romantic view of your own behavior as a kid.

00:16:52.640 No, you were a little brat too.

00:16:54.100 It's just that you could be a little brat without getting drugs shoved in your mouth.

00:16:59.980 Or have the possibility of getting your mug shot taken at the age of six down at the juvenile detention center.

00:17:08.720 No, see, you were given space to be a kid.

00:17:12.160 You were allowed to make the mistake of acting your age when you were a child.

00:17:16.280 You were allowed to do that.

00:17:19.220 But not, no, our kids today, we don't let them.

00:17:20.820 I, I, it, it, here's, here's the, here's the thing.

00:17:30.220 And I, I, I say this again.

00:17:33.560 Because anytime I talk about this kind of thing, what I'm told is, um, well, what do you expect the schools to do?

00:17:42.400 What, what can they do?

00:17:43.600 This is the only choice they have.

00:17:46.520 Well, if that's the case, then tear down the system.

00:17:50.820 Then, then, then, then tear down the entire system.

00:17:54.500 The system is broken fundamentally.

00:17:57.980 And it needs to be destroyed completely and rebuilt from the ground up.

00:18:02.920 If you're telling me this is the only way the system works, is to drug kids, to criminalize them, to throw them in jail, to arrest them.

00:18:12.240 To give them criminal records.

00:18:15.360 To treat them for mental illnesses. 0.56

00:18:19.040 To treat them like they're crazy, like they're psychotic.

00:18:21.920 Just because they're normal kids.

00:18:23.660 If you're telling me that's the only way that the system can function, then there are serious, serious problems with the system.

00:18:31.720 And what I would say is, uh, if we can't tear down the entire system, which is what I would like to see happen.

00:18:37.020 Because I think our entire way of educating kids, our entire approach is completely wrong in my view.

00:18:42.500 But, if we can't do that, then at a minimum, if you're a parent like me with young kids, get your kids the hell out of this system.

00:18:50.480 Before your kids are destroyed by it.

00:18:52.140 Because they will be.

00:18:55.540 All right.

00:18:57.580 Moving on.

00:18:59.200 Let's check in with some, some news.

00:19:01.560 Here are five headlines worth knowing about it.

00:19:03.040 Number one, Pope Francis yesterday suggested, uh, during his general audience in St. Peter's Square, that we give up trolling for Lent.

00:19:11.000 So, if you're thinking of, um, you know, if, if you haven't thought of something to give up for Lent yet, he said that, um, that now would be a good time to give up trolling the internet.

00:19:18.920 And look, here's the thing.

00:19:19.580 I, you know, I, I believe in making sacrifices for Lent.

00:19:22.100 I think it's a good practice, certainly.

00:19:23.460 But some sacrifices are just too much.

00:19:25.900 You have to be realistic.

00:19:27.520 And if we give up trolling, what exactly are we supposed to do with our time?

00:19:31.520 You know, you tell people not to troll, next thing you know, everyone's doing heroin.

00:19:35.540 Because that, those are really the only two options that I can think of.

00:19:38.780 By the way, speaking of, of the Pope, as a Catholic, um, I am pleading with the Pope during this time of the coronavirus to finally get rid of the sign of peace during Mass.

00:19:52.020 Now, if you're not a Catholic, uh, maybe you're not familiar.

00:19:54.400 That's the part of the service, about two-thirds of the way through, where randomly, uh, the, the congregants are required to exchange awkward and perfunctory greetings with the people around them.

00:20:05.100 Um, so we take a break from, from the sacred moment, take a break in the middle of the service to exchange forced pleasantries with our, our neighbors immediately around us.

00:20:16.220 Which, which, which of course makes no sense.

00:20:18.220 It's a very silly and pointless ritual, in my view.

00:20:21.160 Um, and, and also a great way to spread illness.

00:20:23.840 So, maybe with the, you know, possibility of a pandemic, this would be a good catalyst for getting rid of that.

00:20:30.100 And, if, if you gotta do it, look, you go to, um, there are many other churches.

00:20:34.720 You go to, uh, Protestant churches.

00:20:37.100 Many times, and, and, and I've been to plenty, plenty of those churches.

00:20:40.320 In many cases there, they'll do a greeting type of thing before the service starts.

00:20:45.820 Now, okay, that can make sense.

00:20:49.020 Why are we doing it in the middle, randomly?

00:20:51.680 It makes no sense.

00:20:54.320 Number two, Donald Trump, speaking of the coronavirus, had a press conference with Mike Pence and the CDC last night to talk about the virus.

00:21:02.560 And, uh, uh, President Trump was taking an approach of, of essentially downplaying it.

00:21:10.320 This is, this is a little bit of what he had to say.

00:21:12.420 Because of all we've done, the risk to the American people remains very low.

00:21:18.380 We have the greatest experts in the world, really in the world right here.

00:21:22.680 Uh, the people that are called upon by other countries when things like this happen.

00:21:28.500 We, uh, we're ready to adapt and we're ready to do whatever we have to.

00:21:32.900 As the disease spreads, if it spreads, uh, as most of you know, the, uh, the, uh, the level that we've had in our country is very low and those people are getting better.

00:21:46.640 Or we think that in almost all cases, they're, the better we're getting, we have a total of 15.

00:21:52.720 We took in some from Japan.

00:21:55.400 You heard about that because they're American citizens and they're in quarantine.

00:21:59.900 Uh, and, uh, they're getting better too, but we felt we had an obligation to do that.

00:22:06.520 It could have been as many as 42.

00:22:09.060 And, uh, we found that we were, it was just an obligation.

00:22:13.700 We felt that we had, we could have left them and that would have been very bad, very bad.

00:22:19.900 I think American people, honestly, I, I can't quite figure this out because it seems to me that the coronavirus is a perfect example of why we need strong borders.

00:22:33.460 Why we need to control who comes in here.

00:22:35.360 In fact, we'll talk more about this in a minute when we're canceling Elizabeth Warren.

00:22:38.740 Um, so it's, it's, it's something that, that touches on that.

00:22:43.020 It also touches on the need to not be so reliant on foreign, foreign manufacturing, because if there's a pandemic and major disruptions and we're reliant on China for all of our goods, that's a problem.

00:22:54.040 So that would be an angle, a perfect angle for, for, for president Trump to take on this, given that those are two issues that he's talking about all the time.

00:23:05.840 And instead, he's gone the angle of saying that, you know, this is no big deal.

00:23:09.000 Don't worry about it.

00:23:10.000 I understand not wanting to foment a panic.

00:23:12.800 I'm all about that.

00:23:13.960 You know, I, I, I also believe there's no reason to panic and we shouldn't be panicking, but, uh, we, we, you know, you, you, you don't want to err on the side of appearing lackadaisical and unconcerned.

00:23:26.880 Number three, related to the previous item, uh, Trump put Mike Pence in charge of heading up the coronavirus response.

00:23:34.060 And this move has provoked the expected reaction.

00:23:38.180 Here's what AOC had to say.

00:23:39.700 She tweeted, Mike Pence literally does not believe in science.

00:23:43.100 It is utterly irresponsible to put him in charge of us coronavirus response.

00:23:47.160 As the world sits on the cusp of a pandemic, this decision could cost people their lives.

00:23:51.300 Pence's past decisions already have.

00:23:55.120 Speaking of science of not believing in science, uh, Alexandria, just a quick question, quick science question.

00:24:02.460 You know, since you say he, he denies science and you believe in science.

00:24:05.980 Um, so quick science question.

00:24:08.420 Can men get pregnant? 1.00

00:24:11.500 I mean, as someone who believes in science, I'd be interested to hear your answer on that.

00:24:15.820 Number four, the house yesterday voted 410 to 4 to pass a bill making lynching a federal hate crime.

00:24:22.800 Now, of course, it was already illegal everywhere in the country to lynch somebody.

00:24:28.940 If you lynched someone prior to this bill, even if you had lynched someone anywhere, you'd be going to jail for probably the rest of your life if not facing the death penalty, as you would deserve.

00:24:39.200 So, this bill doesn't make lynching illegal, um, but it does make it a federal crime, which means that, rather arbitrarily, this one particular method of murder will be a federal matter, whereas other methods are not.

00:24:52.620 So, if you, for example, are trying to decide how to kill somebody, and you decide, okay, I'm going to stab them or beat them to death or shoot them, well, the feds have no interest in that.

00:25:02.260 If you lynch them, okay, now the feds are interested.

00:25:05.720 Does that actually make sense?

00:25:07.020 The person is just as dead either way.

00:25:10.280 Does it make sense to arbitrarily say, okay, well, this kind of murder, that's, but this over here, no.

00:25:16.620 No, it doesn't make any sense.

00:25:17.660 But then the whole category of hate crime is itself absurd and also makes no sense.

00:25:23.420 The hate crime designation does two things.

00:25:25.460 Number one, it puts the government in the position of trying to read the mind of a criminal.

00:25:30.240 The government determines whether that person was hateful, whether they had hate in their heart when they committed the crime, which, of course, is actually impossible to determine because you can't read somebody's mind.

00:25:42.240 And then, um, number two, the hate crime designation declares that crimes that are motivated by hatred are somehow automatically worse than crimes motivated by other things.

00:25:54.980 But why would that be the case?

00:25:56.580 You know, a person may murder out of hatred, or they may do it out of jealousy, or anger, or greed, or indifference.

00:26:06.680 Are those other variants of murder not as bad somehow?

00:26:12.000 I don't see why that would be the case.

00:26:14.140 Take on one hand, a man who kills another man because he wants to steal his wallet.

00:26:23.220 And then, on, um, and then, and then consider a man who kills another man because he hates him for his race, the color of his skin.

00:26:31.560 Is the second man worse than the first?

00:26:34.480 Is he more dangerous?

00:26:35.520 No, on, on, on, on both counts, I would say no.

00:26:39.360 I don't think so.

00:26:40.000 I think they're equally evil, and they're equally as dangerous.

00:26:45.700 And the victim, again, is just as dead in both cases.

00:26:49.160 And while in the second case, the victim is dead because of the color of their skin,

00:26:53.940 in the first, he's dead because the killer valued the $25 in his wallet more than his own life.

00:27:00.440 Is that better?

00:27:03.560 How so?

00:27:04.680 Why would it be?

00:27:06.280 And you can't say that hate crimes terrorize communities in special ways,

00:27:10.900 which, which justify the federal involvement.

00:27:14.020 I mean, they do terrorize communities, but communities are also terrorized by criminals who murder for money.

00:27:20.760 Many communities all over the country live in fear over people like that.

00:27:25.120 And you can't say that hate crimes inspire others in a special way.

00:27:32.000 They, that is, inspire copycats.

00:27:34.640 And so maybe you would say, well, they inspire copycats, and that's why you need the feds involved.

00:27:38.080 They might inspire copycats, but again, other kinds of murder also do that.

00:27:42.900 Somebody pointed out yesterday when we were talking about this,

00:27:45.880 someone pointed out, compare the Columbine kids, the Columbine killers, to Dylann Roof.

00:27:51.860 Now, the latter was a hate crime.

00:27:53.120 The former was not.

00:27:54.620 Which one of those do you think inspired more copycats?

00:27:58.320 I think very clearly the Columbine killers did.

00:28:01.760 They inspired a whole generation of school shooters.

00:28:05.000 Wasn't a hate crime, though.

00:28:07.200 You know, what they were doing, they were doing, it was just a crime of indifference

00:28:10.440 and a crime of sort of general disdain for the human race.

00:28:14.880 I don't see why that should be treated with less seriousness

00:28:18.000 than we treat a crime motivated by hatred.

00:28:21.100 All right.

00:28:24.000 Well, usually I do five, but I guess that's all I had.

00:28:25.900 I had four headlines.

00:28:26.900 Now, before we move on to canceling somebody,

00:28:30.700 I wanted to give a shout-out to all of our Daily Wire members.

00:28:33.940 You guys are the ones who keep us in business.

00:28:35.660 We love making content that matters, and while we're on the front lines of the culture war,

00:28:39.180 we can't do it without your support.

00:28:41.080 If you're still skeptical about joining the Daily Wire,

00:28:43.120 you're not sure if you want to spend the money,

00:28:44.300 a reader's pass is a great way to start.

00:28:46.680 A reader's pass will enable news junkies to read all of our articles ads-free,

00:28:50.540 including op-eds from Ben Shapiro, which are exclusive to Daily Wire members.

00:28:53.580 You can't get them anywhere else.

00:28:54.820 You get the upgraded experience, in-depth analysis from our editor-in-chief.

00:28:58.400 You also get access to our mobile app,

00:29:00.360 which has really become popular with all of our members.

00:29:02.600 And you can read all of our stories in mobile.

00:29:04.920 You don't have the ads.

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00:29:07.240 All of these bells and whistles come with it.

00:29:08.740 The membership tier is already a bargain at $3 a month,

00:29:11.660 but right now, for a limited time, we're offering that deal for 99 cents.

00:29:17.000 That's mobile, ad-free to all of our Daily Wire news,

00:29:20.280 exclusive op-eds from Ben Shapiro, breaking news updates,

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00:29:28.080 So give it a shot.

00:29:29.440 It's worth it.

00:29:30.160 Now, time for your daily cancellation.

00:29:33.320 And today I'm very excited to be canceling Elizabeth Warren.

00:29:36.300 Of course, there's a whole buffet of reasons.

00:29:38.240 There's a cornucopia of cancelable things that she has done and said when it comes to Elizabeth Warren.

00:29:43.700 But here's the latest.

00:29:46.080 I want to talk to you about this, because just tonight,

00:29:50.740 the president and President Trump detailed the administration's response to the spread of the coronavirus.

00:29:54.700 And I want to tell you what it includes.

00:29:55.980 It includes stopping non-U.S. citizens from coming to the U.S. from China,

00:30:00.540 screening people coming into the country from infected areas,

00:30:04.560 quarantining those infected, and developing a vaccine.

00:30:07.900 Do you think that response is sufficient, Senator?

00:30:10.680 No.

00:30:12.060 But let's start, because this really is serious, and we have a lot to talk about here.

00:30:18.900 We know that with any virus that develops, the most vulnerable will be our children,

00:30:24.980 seniors, people with compromised immune systems who are undergoing treatment.

00:30:29.940 So this one is tough.

00:30:33.560 So the way I think about this is first we think about allocation, kind of our overall approach.

00:30:40.220 I'm going to be introducing a plan tomorrow to take every dime that the president is now spending on his racist wall at our southern border

00:30:48.680 and divert it to work on the coronavirus.

00:30:54.900 Okay, a few problems here, a few things.

00:30:56.940 First of all, a wall cannot be racist.

00:31:00.320 Can we get that clear?

00:31:01.560 Walls are physical objects.

00:31:02.920 They are barriers.

00:31:03.740 They are not racist.

00:31:04.700 They can't be because they're walls.

00:31:06.120 The walls in this room that I'm sitting in right now, they have really no feelings, no prejudice.

00:31:12.040 They have no opinion of anyone's race.

00:31:15.260 I've never met a racist wall in my life.

00:31:17.820 I've never met a sexist wall, a homophobic wall.

00:31:21.160 I have met a few walls that, frankly, were a bit transphobic.

00:31:24.180 So I think transphobia can be a problem in the wall community.

00:31:27.980 But other than that, I don't think it's something we have to worry about.

00:31:30.700 But second thing, more importantly, perhaps, we're talking about a pandemic.

00:31:37.120 We're talking about a disease that potentially could sweep through the world across the globe like a forest fire.

00:31:42.560 Worst case scenario, of course.

00:31:44.280 And your solution is to make our borders more porous?

00:31:51.680 That's your solution?

00:31:53.260 That's the way you address a pandemic?

00:31:55.020 Your way to meet the pandemic head on is to not enforce our borders.

00:32:04.780 Open borders.

00:32:05.880 So your first thought when you hear, oh, pandemic, well, okay, we've got to open up the borders.

00:32:11.360 That's the first thing we have to do.

00:32:14.040 That's like saying your plan for combating obesity is to give out Arby's coupons.

00:32:18.880 It really makes no sense.

00:32:20.120 Now, of course, this is what I was saying before, and this should be Trump's messaging.

00:32:28.820 And he should be damned happy, by the way, that I'm not canceling him right now for not having this messaging.

00:32:34.200 But the message is, this is why we need to be able to control who comes into the country. 1.00

00:32:40.480 This is precisely why.

00:32:42.400 So Warren's position here is incoherent, reckless, dangerous, stupid, and she's canceled.

00:32:48.020 She's canceled times 10, times infinity, as my kids would say.

00:32:52.240 All right, let's move on quickly before we wrap things up to some emails.

00:32:58.840 MattWalshShow at gmail.com.

00:33:00.140 MattWalshShow at gmail.com is the email address.

00:33:02.640 This is from Maria, says, esteemed Mr. Walsh, I would like to thank you profusely for writing your incredible, thought-provoking, genuine book.

00:33:10.580 Which is the Church of Cowards right here.

00:33:12.800 Forget Shakespeare.

00:33:13.720 This needs to be required reading for all the West.

00:33:15.860 Also, I must say, your book came at the most opportune time.

00:33:18.800 I'm currently a high school student, and not only was your book the reason I didn't pay attention all day today, but, much less do my homework,

00:33:24.100 but more importantly, your book is immensely beneficial in the writing of my argument as to whether America can truly claim to be a Christian nation.

00:33:29.720 And it proved as an instrumental source for the sermon I will soon give to my youth group,

00:33:34.060 God is not convenient, fitting your faith into your lifestyle versus making faith a lifestyle.

00:33:38.340 Not only was your book instructive, but also hilarious, although, honestly, considering you wrote it, I don't know why I'm surprised.

00:33:43.560 I know that the appreciation of a teenager isn't much, but for what it counts, I think you did an absolutely phenomenal job.

00:33:50.900 This book stated what we all need to hear, the unpopular truth.

00:33:54.040 God bless you and your family.

00:33:55.500 Well, Maria, thank you for that.

00:33:58.660 And, of course, your check will soon be in the mail.

00:34:01.400 You did your part.

00:34:03.500 Thank you.

00:34:04.980 From, um, let's see here.

00:34:09.960 From Ryan says, I'd like to hear your response to this counterpoint.

00:34:13.080 You said a bachelor's degree only tells that the person could pay for college or was willing to take out a loan.

00:34:19.400 Seldom is the situation such that you only know their level of degree, though.

00:34:23.180 Generally, on a resume, you know their major, their GPA, and, of course, the school.

00:34:26.680 If you know someone had a marketing degree from Yale and a 4.0, are you really willing to say you still know nothing about them aside from the fact that they have a degree?

00:34:35.900 Well, Ryan, of course, a 4.0 GPA and a marketing degree from one of the top schools in the world would tell you something as an employer, of course.

00:34:46.000 But those are additional bits of information.

00:34:50.400 My point was that the simple fact that a person has a degree, that fact alone, just that, they have a degree, tells me nothing.

00:35:00.280 Tells me absolutely nothing about the person.

00:35:03.100 So if you tell me that Bob Smith has a college degree, and that's all you tell me, I know nothing about Bob Smith.

00:35:09.500 He could be dumb, could be smart, could be lazy, could be hardworking, he could be anything.

00:35:14.700 I don't know anything about him just by the fact that he has a college degree.

00:35:18.820 And this is why a college degree, in and of itself, shouldn't be a prerequisite for many of these jobs.

00:35:27.620 Because instead, the individual merits and experience of the individual applicants should be what we consider.

00:35:34.300 So imagine that. Revolutionary idea. Someone's applying for a job.

00:35:38.920 Why don't you look at them specifically and see what they bring to the table?

00:35:45.100 Now, if you consider Bob Smith's individual merits and experiences,

00:35:51.000 you might discover that he has a college degree, he has a 4.0, all that other stuff.

00:35:56.680 And obviously now you know you have on your hands a very promising candidate for pretty much any entry-level job anywhere.

00:36:03.300 But if you're willing to look at the specifics of Bob, then if you've got Jim over here, who has no college degree,

00:36:14.960 why don't you look at his specifics?

00:36:18.420 Because what if Jim has no degree, but he's 23, he's been working at the same retailer since he was 18,

00:36:25.540 started as a part-time cashier, now he's an assistant store manager,

00:36:29.100 he's been climbing up the ladder of success, being promoted.

00:36:35.420 What does that tell you about him?

00:36:36.740 Tells you he's a hard worker, he has management experience, he's reliable, he can work with people,

00:36:41.320 he has at least some skills in sales probably.

00:36:44.760 It tells you many things about him.

00:36:47.080 And Jim too would be a very promising candidate for an entry-level position at pretty much any company.

00:36:54.260 But with the way things work now, Jim's resume goes directly in the trash

00:37:00.240 just because he doesn't have that piece of paper.

00:37:05.380 Even though he has all that experience and all of that skill,

00:37:09.880 it goes right in the trash.

00:37:12.580 Even though he would probably be a better candidate for the job

00:37:16.760 than 90% of the college graduates who are coming in the door for interviews.

00:37:24.660 It just doesn't make any sense.

00:37:28.540 Finally from Josh says,

00:37:29.820 Matt, on your show you argued that we should lay some of the blame for student debt

00:37:33.600 at the feet of universities who charge a fortune in tuition because they can,

00:37:38.200 and employers who require degrees for no reason other than what you term laziness.

00:37:42.120 A bit of history and economics show why both of these are bad arguments.

00:37:45.180 Historically, these practices by universities and employers

00:37:47.960 are the result of increasing demand for an acquisition of college degrees.

00:37:51.820 They're the result rather than the cause of the problem.

00:37:56.480 Economics explains the phenomenon in both cases.

00:37:59.100 The first principle is simply supply and demand.

00:38:01.200 A corollary of this principle is that price is at bottom a mechanism

00:38:05.140 by which goods are rationed among all possible buyers.

00:38:09.460 So universities charge more because there are more dollars chasing fewer degrees,

00:38:13.500 and there has to be some method of reaching an equilibrium

00:38:16.420 where the number of buyers matches the number of things to be bought.

00:38:19.520 So in reality, universities are just responding to market forces.

00:38:23.100 The only reason prices are so high is that ultimately the government

00:38:26.160 has made it unnaturally easy to get funding for college,

00:38:29.300 this artificially increasing demand, which in turn drives up the price.

00:38:33.820 In the case of employers, the phenomenon is similar,

00:38:35.720 except that the degree is the price of getting the job.

00:38:38.740 You say this is due to laziness,

00:38:39.920 but I think this is an unwarranted assumption on your part.

00:38:42.460 True, a person with no degree but some work experience

00:38:44.720 might be a better fit, but not necessarily.

00:38:47.380 Thus, employers still have to consider all applicants,

00:38:49.840 and narrowing the pool by increasing the requirements

00:38:51.860 is not laziness, but rather a cost-saving measure.

00:38:54.620 The man hours required to sort through a list of applicants

00:38:58.000 represent an opportunity cost to the employer,

00:39:00.980 which it's perfectly reasonable to try to avoid.

00:39:03.260 I think you're also ignoring the fact that many employers

00:39:05.080 have alternate requirements, such as A, possess a degree,

00:39:07.940 or B, have a certain amount of experience.

00:39:10.380 Furthermore, I'm sure that in most cases,

00:39:12.340 even if an applicant lacks a degree,

00:39:13.980 he could still potentially get the job

00:39:15.440 if he can show that he has a history of relevant experience

00:39:17.340 that would be worth more than a degree.

00:39:20.180 Okay, well, Josh, I think all you've done here

00:39:23.360 is explain why universities and companies

00:39:25.360 can get away with doing what they're doing.

00:39:28.460 It doesn't prove that it must be this way,

00:39:30.480 that they must do it this way.

00:39:31.880 The cost of a degree has risen by 100%,

00:39:35.520 100% since I was born in 1986.

00:39:39.000 You know, the average cost of a degree.

00:39:41.080 Tuition rates are increasing eight times faster than wages.

00:39:44.720 This is exorbitant, grotesque, obviously.

00:39:49.400 The degree is worth, at this point,

00:39:52.440 a fraction of what it costs to obtain.

00:39:55.580 And almost nobody who walks in the door of a college

00:40:00.080 can actually afford the degree that they're getting.

00:40:04.580 Now, you say that market forces explain it.

00:40:07.380 Yes, they explain how the universities

00:40:09.320 are able to get away with bilking people like this,

00:40:12.580 but it doesn't explain why they need to or have to.

00:40:16.020 I get that they can.

00:40:17.360 I understand that.

00:40:18.540 They don't have to, though.

00:40:19.800 They don't need to do this.

00:40:21.780 They could charge half of what they charge.

00:40:23.640 They could charge a quarter of what they charge.

00:40:25.040 They could do that.

00:40:26.060 There's no reason why they can't.

00:40:27.340 Now, you say this is a way of rationing the goods.

00:40:30.540 But as you point out yourself,

00:40:32.020 the government has made it so that they can charge

00:40:34.160 whatever they want

00:40:34.800 because the loans are dished out like candy.

00:40:37.620 So this isn't really a way of rationing anything.

00:40:42.420 This is just a way for the universities

00:40:44.000 to take advantage of the situation.

00:40:47.140 I don't see it as rationing.

00:40:48.940 Everybody gets a degree.

00:40:51.140 It's just that they're charged a lot more.

00:40:52.800 They have to pay a lot more in the end.

00:40:53.940 How is that rationing?

00:40:55.000 Also, there are other ways of rationing the degrees.

00:40:58.860 There are other barriers of entry.

00:41:01.360 Grade point average, exams, test scores,

00:41:04.420 so on and so forth.

00:41:05.640 It's not as though, you know,

00:41:06.800 if tuition was cheaper,

00:41:08.480 the universities would have to throw open their doors

00:41:10.240 and any old person can wander in.

00:41:12.320 They can still control who they give admittance to.

00:41:15.940 But they could do it based on something

00:41:17.960 other than the person's willingness

00:41:20.120 to plunge themselves into three decades of crushing debt.

00:41:23.940 That's my point.

00:41:25.500 As for employers,

00:41:26.600 you say that narrowing the pool

00:41:27.740 by disqualifying non-college grads

00:41:29.320 is a cost-saving measure.

00:41:30.720 Well, even if that's true,

00:41:32.380 I would say that not all cost-saving measures

00:41:34.860 are automatically right or good.

00:41:38.420 You know?

00:41:39.960 And this is one that isn't.

00:41:41.800 But it's actually not a cost-saving measure

00:41:45.720 because you're ruling out many candidates

00:41:48.380 who could potentially be better,

00:41:50.220 more effective, more reliable employees.

00:41:52.480 You're limiting at the very start

00:41:54.460 your pool of candidates

00:41:55.480 only to those who are likely to have

00:41:58.560 very little real-world work experience

00:42:01.700 because they've been in college this whole time.

00:42:05.340 So you're limiting yourself only to them,

00:42:07.700 which means that they're probably going to need

00:42:11.220 more training in the end

00:42:12.540 and maybe less reliable in a working environment.

00:42:16.220 And all of that will cost you money in the long run.

00:42:19.680 So no, I don't think it actually is a cost-saving measure.

00:42:22.460 I think if they took a more hands-on approach

00:42:26.580 to their own hiring practices

00:42:28.480 and they were willing to actually assess

00:42:31.820 the merits of the people that come in,

00:42:33.140 yes, it may be a little bit more effort

00:42:35.080 in the short run.

00:42:36.020 But I think in the long run, you save money.

00:42:39.820 Why don't they do it?

00:42:40.780 Well, I go back to laziness.

00:42:42.960 I think it's just easier to do it this way.

00:42:45.440 It's also just what everybody does.

00:42:48.260 And so you figure if you're a company,

00:42:50.580 this is what people do.

00:42:51.620 And so this is how it is.

00:42:53.060 And so this is what I'm going to do.

00:42:54.700 It's a lack of imagination also.

00:42:58.440 And also, I think there's an element of

00:43:00.240 many of these employers,

00:43:03.180 the people that are in these HR departments and so on,

00:43:06.020 they all have college degrees.

00:43:08.960 And so I think there's a little bit of a snobbery to it.

00:43:15.440 And also, I think they don't want to start,

00:43:20.040 if all these employers with college degrees

00:43:21.760 start hiring people without college degrees,

00:43:23.880 now they've devalued their own college degree

00:43:26.240 and they don't want to do that.

00:43:27.880 So there's selfishness too.

00:43:29.800 So I think it's snobbishness.

00:43:30.940 I think it's selfishness.

00:43:31.800 I think it's laziness.

00:43:32.480 I think it's a lack of imagination

00:43:33.680 in so many cases.

00:43:36.860 And that is why we have $1.5 trillion in debt.

00:43:42.440 All right.

00:43:42.940 But thank you for that counter argument.

00:43:45.180 Very, very interesting arguments put forward.

00:43:47.640 We'll leave it there.

00:43:48.640 Thanks everybody for watching.

00:43:49.680 Thanks for listening.

00:43:50.300 If you enjoyed this episode,

00:43:54.720 don't forget to subscribe.

00:43:55.740 And if you want to help spread the word,

00:43:57.400 please give us a five-star review.

00:43:59.140 Tell your friends to subscribe as well.

00:44:00.620 We're available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify,

00:44:03.300 wherever you listen to podcasts, we're there.

00:44:05.000 Also, be sure to check out the other Daily Wire podcasts,

00:44:07.200 including the Ben Shapiro Show,

00:44:08.520 Michael Knowles Show,

00:44:09.540 and the Andrew Klavan Show.

00:44:10.920 Thanks for listening.

00:44:11.840 The Matt Wall Show is produced by Sean Hampton,

00:44:14.460 executive producer Jeremy Boring,

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00:44:26.300 The Matt Wall Show is a Daily Wire production,

00:44:28.620 copyright Daily Wire 2020.

00:44:30.860 Coronavirus reaches the U.S.

00:44:33.000 President Trump is playing it down,

00:44:34.860 Democrats are playing it up,

00:44:36.500 and we don't know whether we're all gonna die

00:44:38.580 or whether this is a big nothing.

00:44:40.580 We will examine the cause

00:44:42.580 of the mass media-generated hysteria.

00:44:45.580 Then, speaking of not knowing

00:44:47.260 whether or not you're alive and dead,

00:44:48.360 Joe Biden gets some very good news

00:44:50.200 from a poll in South Carolina.

00:44:52.300 Two different kinds of Republicans

00:44:53.660 are going to be voting for Bernie Sanders.

00:44:56.180 And finally, the mailbag.

00:44:57.460 Check it out on The Michael Knowles Show.

00:44:58.760 We'll see you next time.

00:44:58.880 We'll see you next time.

00:44:58.920 The Michael Knowles Show.

00:45:01.100 älary pundaloo is a podcast.

00:45:05.720 We'll see you next time.

00:45:07.400 So, we'll see you next time.

00:45:10.920 Bye-bye.

00:45:11.460 Bye-bye.

00:45:12.960 Bye-bye.

00:45:15.640 Bye-bye.

00:45:16.180 Bye-bye.

00:45:16.540 Bye-bye.

00:45:17.120 Bye-bye.

00:45:17.900 Bye-bye.

00:45:19.320 Bye-bye.

00:45:19.540 Bye-bye.

00:45:20.720 Bye-bye.

00:45:21.180 Bye-bye.

00:45:21.520 Bye-bye.

00:45:22.280 Bye-bye.

00:45:23.240 Bye-bye.

00:45:24.120 Bye-bye.

00:45:24.740 Bye-bye.

00:45:25.060 Bye-bye.

00:45:25.260 Bye-bye.

00:45:25.900 Bye-bye.

00:45:26.160 Bye-bye.

00:45:26.360 Bye-bye.

The Matt Walsh Show - February 27, 2020

Ep. 434 - The Criminalization of Childhood

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