Ep. 471 - There Is No Such Thing As A Non-Essential Business
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Summary
On this episode of The Matt Walsh Show, host Matt Walsh talks about why there is no such thing as a non-essential business. He also talks about a mother who was arrested in front of her kids for bringing them to a playground, and airline seating reconfiguring due to the coronavirus outbreak.
Transcript
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Today on The Matt Walsh Show, we hear a lot about non-essential businesses these days,
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but I want to talk about why I think there is no such thing as a non-essential business.
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I think that's a category that doesn't actually exist. I'll explain why. Also, five headlines,
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including a mother arrested on a playground in front of her kids for bringing her kids to a
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playground, and airlines are coming up with, it looks like, a pretty horrifying way to reconfigure
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their seating arrangements in response to the coronavirus, plus the daily cancellation and
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your emails, and a lot more all coming up on the show. But first, I want to tell you about our
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slash Walsh. Expressvpn.com slash Walsh to learn more. Okay, so, well, first of all, this isn't what I
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originally wanted to talk about to begin the show, but I did want to just mention this controversy
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involving the lieutenant governor of Texas, Dan Patrick. Now, if you didn't hear, he's getting a
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ton of criticism and blowback for something that he said on Tucker Carlson a few days ago
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when he was discussing the coronavirus response. He was advocating, you know, as he's been an advocate
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all along for opening the economy up. He made the point that the mortality rate, especially in Texas,
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is very low and we're killing the economy and there's going to be serious consequences from
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that. So that's his point. And in the process of making that point, he said this.
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We're crushing small business. We're crushing the markets. We're crushing this country. And what I
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said when I was with you that night, there are more important things than living. And that's saving this
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country for my children and my grandchildren and saving this country for all of us. And I don't want to
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die. Nobody wants to die. But man, we got to we got to take some risk and get back in the game and get
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this country back up and running. Now, there's been a huge freak out over this because he said there are
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more important things than living. And to a lot of people these days, apparently that is a scandalous
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thought. So so people are very upset about that. Of course, meanwhile, he's exactly right.
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Of course, of course, he's right. Yes, there are more important things than living
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without even knowing the context. If you just told me he said that and I had no idea of the
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context, even without the context, I would I would I would agree. I would say, well, of course,
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there are more important things than living. I can rattle off a list of things right away
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that are more important than living faith, integrity, dignity, love. You know, I mean,
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basically anything you would rather die than forfeit, anything you would hold on to until
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death. Like if somebody put a gun to your head and said, give up this or I'll kill you.
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If there's anything that even in that scenario, you would say, well, then kill me.
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That means that you believe there are more important things than living. Now, if you have no such
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things, if somebody put a gun to your head and you would give up anything at all that they ask for
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and do anything that they want you to do for the sake of just continuing to breathe, then yes, for you,
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there is nothing more important than living. And that isn't that's an understandable attitude from a
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sort of primal self-preservation standpoint. But it's also cowardly and pathetic. OK, so there's
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nothing wrong with this statement. This is ideally, you know, I mean, we can never know exactly how we
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would respond if we had a gun to our heads. But ideally, I think most of us should be able to
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agree that in an ideal scenario, there are going to be things more important to us than living.
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And it becomes so. So the statement is not wrong. The statement becomes even less wrong and more right
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when you look at the context, because what he's saying, he's saying as an older man,
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somebody in a vulnerable group, he would rather risk death for himself for the sake of preserving
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our civilization for his children and grandchildren and everybody else's children and grandchildren.
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And that is also the right attitude. In fact, I would say if you're a parent and you don't have
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that attitude, if you are not willing to risk death for yourself for the sake of preserving your child's
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future, then you're a bad parent. You don't love your kids enough in that case.
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I'm not saying you have to agree with him about the shutdown if you love your kids, but you should
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at least agree with the basic principle that you're willing to take on a risk for yourself for the sake
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of your kids. In principle, you should agree with that or you're not a good parent.
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And that's all he's saying. So what's the controversy here? What are people freaking out about?
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Uh, well, they're freaking out because they're stupid, because we live in a very stupid time
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and even very basic, easy to understand points become a reason for people to panic.
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Uh, now, so, so what are you saying for, for him, the preservation of his own life is not the most
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important thing. It's important, but it's not the most important. And in his mind, we are doing
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something with these shutdowns that will cause enormous damage to future generations and, and,
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and to him, that is not a price worth paying to preserve his life. And yes, the life of, of many,
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you know, of, of the lives of people in his peer group, his age group, what he's saying is
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that's not worth the cost of destroying our civilization for our kids and grandkids.
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Um, and again, that I, I, how do you see that as anything but an admirable attitude?
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Now, the only problem with this line from the, from the lieutenant governor is that it sounds like
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he's sort of conceding that the lockdowns are saving lives, but, uh, and, and what he's saying
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is that even if they are, it's not necessarily worth the price. And he would still be right,
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even in that case, but it's actually not true necessarily that the lockdowns are saving lives.
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Um, they may in fact be doing more harm than good, even with respect to fighting the virus itself,
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they may be doing more harm than good. So it's not a choice between saving lives or not. It's a
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choice between, between a dubious method of saving lives that will also be certain to crash the
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economy and bring with it all sorts of horrific consequences, uh, as well, or it's a choice between
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that or keeping the economy going, continuing to live our lives while taking precautions and, and
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thus trying to stave off the worst case scenario with the virus, as well as the worst case scenario
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with an economic collapse. So those are the two choices. It's not true at all that if you're in
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favor of the lockdowns, you're necessarily in favor of the method that will save more lives because it
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may in fact not. And in fact, I've got some stuff coming up in the, uh, in the headline section
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that I think shows that there, the consequences of this shutdown may well kill not just more people
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than will die from the virus, but a lot more people, exponentially more people speaking of
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exponential growth. So we'll, um, we'll talk about, we'll, and we'll talk more about that in the, uh,
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in the, in the headlines, but I do have something else I wanted to talk about at the, at the front
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front. Before we do, um, a quick word from rock auto. You know, if you're having car trouble right
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now, this is a, it's a kind of a bad time for it. I've gone through this already with both of our
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cars. Uh, you might not be able to go out to get out of the house. Uh, maybe the places around you
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that sell the auto parts aren't open, whatever the case may be. Well, the good news is, uh, rockauto.com
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is there. The rockauto.com catalog is unique and remarkably easy to navigate. Rockauto.com is so much
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easier than walking into a store. So even if you could go to a store, uh, it still is better to go
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to rockauto.com. And, uh, besides when you go to the store, you know, they're going to ask you a lot
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of confusing questions. They probably don't have what you need. They're going to end up ordering
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it online anyway. Why not just cut out that whole middleman process and go there yourself.
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Rockauto.com has everything from engine control modules and brake parts to tail lamps, motor oil,
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new carpet, whatever you need, uh, for whatever kind of car you have, they're going to have it there
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at rockauto.com always offering the lowest prices possible rather than changing prices based on what
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they think the market will bear. And these days, especially, right? We all need to save money,
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um, as much as possible. So go to rockauto.com right now, see all the parts available for your
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car or truck, right? Walsh in there. How did you hear about us box? So that they know that we sent you.
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Um, now one other point I wanted to make or idea I wanted to, um, uh, talk about, I, I thought about
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this when I drove to, I had to run some essential errands over the weekend and, uh, had to specifically
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go to an essential grocery store to buy some essential food. And on the way there, I noticed,
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and I hadn't noticed this before, but Best Buy was still open. There's still people, a ton of people
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actually in the, in the parking lot at Best Buy, going to Best Buy. Um, I also passed a Dunkin' Donuts
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still open. Um, I passed a Dairy Queen still open, all of these open. So apparently donuts, ice cream,
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TVs, these are all considered essential services and essential businesses, which, which doesn't
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surprise me in modern America, nor do I necessarily disagree. I mean, these donuts, ice cream, and TV
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have certainly been essential components of my own life. I will, I will certainly admit, but it does
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raise a question about what the government actually means when it declares a business essential, thus
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allowing it to stay open or inessential, thus forcing it to close and possibly driving it
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irretrievable, irretrievably into ruin. Um, now I'm not arguing that the stores that I mentioned
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Best Buy, Dunkin' Donuts and stores like it, or for that matter, the liquor stores that are open
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or any of the other businesses that are benevolent overlords have allowed to stay open. I'm not
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arguing that they should be closed. That's not my point. I'm glad they're open. I'm happy about that.
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My point is that every other business should be open too. Um, because the government's system of
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designate, designating something essential or inessential is arbitrary, unjust, absurd, and subjective.
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And I don't think it's a coincidence that the wealthy and politically connected big corporations
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are so often allowed to stay open while it's the small businesses that don't have a lot of money
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and don't have connections that don't have power that are, uh, are being, are being destroyed,
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being wiped out. You know, I don't think that's a coincidence. So I think we've accepted this
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essential versus non-essential designation without, without much question. We should have questioned
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it a lot more and ask the question of very basically, what, what do you mean by that?
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If the term essential has any objective meaning when applied to a business, it would have to be,
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as far as I could tell, that an essential business is one that people depend on for survival.
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Right now, I, and, and the government must be taking a pretty broad view of that
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because no one's going to die without Dunkin' Donuts or Best Buy, uh, or, or Dairy Queen or Taco Bell.
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But, you know, the fast food places, they sell food and Best Buy sells stuff that you might need
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for work. So in it, from a very, understanding this in a very broad way, they sell things that
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you might need, you might depend on, right? Okay. Um, but then every other business fits that bill as
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well. That's the point. Every business has people depending on it. Even if a business is expendable
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as far as the customers are concerned, and even that might not be the case. I mean, to, to whatever
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extent customers depend on Best Buy, I bet there are people who depend on, you know, even like
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barbershops just as much. I would put those, as far as the, the, the products and services they provide,
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I would put those about on the same level in terms of how essential they are. But taking a broader view
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of it, uh, what, whatever the customer, however the customers look at it, the fact is that any
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business is going to have people depending on it. Uh, certainly the employees and the people that run
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the business depend on it. And that is why every business is in a very real and urgent sense,
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essential to somebody. So it's obviously ludicrous to suggest that Walmart and Target are essential to
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me because that's what they're saying, right? When they, when the government says this, this business
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is open because it's essential. What they're really saying is it's essential to you as a member
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of the community. Target, Walmart are essential to you. Whether or not that's the case, your job
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and your income are more essential to you. It doesn't make any sense to say that Walmart is
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essential to you, but your own job is not essential to you because the essentialness of a product is
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kind of irrelevant. If you don't have the money to buy it, which means that your income will always
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be more fundamentally essential than anything you might find at a store. So as we speak, there are
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thousands of people across the country waiting in line for hours at food banks because they can't
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afford the so-called essential services that these businesses are providing. Their source of income has
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been declared less essential than the items they would use their income to purchase. That doesn't make any
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sense. The insanity of that kind of system, I think should be readily apparent to everybody.
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If a product or service is essential, then the means by which I purchase that product or service
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must also be essential. If you remove the latter, then you've also removed the former. If you deprive
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me of the latter, you deprive me of the former. Because again, the word essential doesn't mean
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anything if it doesn't, if we're not talking about essential to people. And nobody can deny that one
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of the most essential things to a person is his job. So all businesses are essential, which means that
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it's time to open them up again. And I'm glad that some states are starting to do that. We're going to
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go to, we have a number of important news stories we're going to go to in just a second. But speaking of
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important before we do that, uh, you know, even during this time when people are locked at home,
00:16:17.680
uh, your beard hygiene and the, your facial hair appearance are still very important. You can let
00:16:25.220
everything else go to hell, but at least have as a man or a woman, if you have a beard, you know,
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I don't, I don't judge. You got to have enough self-respect to keep the beard in tip-top shape.
00:16:35.660
If you're sitting at home, giving the quarantine beard a shot, um, you, you probably already know
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that it's, uh, it's not as easy a look. It's not as easy as it looks to have. I mean, this beard that
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I have here, and I've got it trimmed a little bit short right now, but there's a lot of work that
00:16:50.480
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that's BeardSupply.com, promo code Walsh. So this is going predictably viral. So we go to our first
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story here. It's a footage of a mom at a playground in Idaho arrested for being on the playground with
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Okay, this is not officer. You don't want to do that. Officer, you don't want to do
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that. Officer, you don't. Am I being arrested or detained? Am I arrested or detained? Someone call
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Idaho Freedom Foundation right now and get them on the phone. Call now. I'm recording. Someone else
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call. Okay, can you call? Her kids are here. That again is in Idaho, where there have been
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less than 2,000 confirmed or probable cases, as the Idaho.gov website puts it, and about 50 deaths.
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Yet, they don't want you to go on the playground. Now, the defense I've seen of this, of the cop
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anyway, the defense that some people have offered, is that he's doing his job. He didn't make the rule.
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He tried to be nice. The woman was being difficult. All of that is true. But what happens,
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let's say, if all or most of the cops in a department just said, to stand up and say,
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we're not going to enforce these kinds of rules. Okay, we're not going to go and put a mother in
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handcuffs for having her kid on a swing. What if the cops say that? Are they going to fire all the
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cops in the town? I think what we need is police officers to step up here, do the brave thing in
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these cases, and simply refuse to enforce policies like this. Because as we know, following orders
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is not always a sufficient excuse. Number two, here's a fascinating case. Speaking of kids,
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you know, on playgrounds and elsewhere, this is interesting. From The Guardian, reading now from
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The Guardian, says, a nine-year-old boy who contracted COVID-19 in eastern France did not pass
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the virus on despite coming into contact with more than 170 people. According to research that
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suggests children may not be major spreaders of the virus. The boy was among a cluster of cases linked
00:20:23.140
to Steve Walsh, the businessman who became the first person in Britain to test positive for
00:20:30.500
coronavirus. After attending a sales conference in Singapore in January, Walsh, unwittingly, as far
00:20:38.240
as I know, as I know, but who knows, passed the infection on when he joined 10 British adults
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and a family of five at a chalet in a ski resort region. It goes on from there. But anyway, the
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point is, just summarizing, we don't need all the details. This was a young child, showed moderate,
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you know, mild symptoms. He wasn't very sick. Came in contact with 170 people, didn't pass it on to
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anybody, apparently. Now, this is just one case, but it is very interesting. And if it holds true,
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then this would mean that we already know that kids are not personally affected by this very,
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very much or very often. And if they also are not likely to spread the virus, then you have to start
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to wonder why the school is still closed. Why are the playgrounds closed, right? Number three,
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I hope you're ready to be severely creeped out. Because here's a poll that was posted by Morning Joe,
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Morning Joe on MSNBC. They posted a poll. The poll question, should non-essential workers be allowed
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to move freely outside? Results, 75% of the respondents to the poll say no, they should not.
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How much of a bootlicking submissive do you have to be to say no to that question? Should they be
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allowed to move freely outside if they're non-essential? What an absolutely creepy question.
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Everything about that. It's not even just, should non-essential workers be allowed to go to work?
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Saying no to that, in my view, is bad enough. Another thing, should they be able to move freely
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outside? No. Now, let's go to something a little bit more inspirational and positive. Mayor Bill
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de Blasio of New York set up a tip line, a phone number, where people could call or text to report
00:22:32.480
any violations of social distancing that they observe in their communities. A snitch line,
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basically, for godforsaken tattletales. That's not the inspirational part. The inspirational part
00:22:43.100
is that people really stepped up to the plate, did the right thing, and flooded the tip line with
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obscene pictures and prank calls. Beautiful. I mean, God bless America. This is the America that
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I know and love. This is not all the people snitching on their neighbors, but this is what
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America is all about. So reading from the Daily Wire says, the New York Post reports that New Yorkers
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and other assorted de Blasio critics flooded his new tip line with crank complaints, including
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photos of genitalia and people flipping the bird. Photos of extended middle fingers, the mayor dropping the
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Staten Island groundhog, and news coverage of him going to the gym have all been texted to a special
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tip line that de Blasio announced Saturday, according to screenshots posted to Twitter.
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The outlet adds that it is not immediately clear whether the offenders, the offending texters all
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live in New York. Some of the mayor's detractors took particular delight in reporting de Blasio
00:23:38.660
himself to the tip line, especially given that the New York mayor dragged his feet in instituting
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shelter in place orders and so on. And he was like, they say he was going to the gym. He's driving
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whatever it is, 12 miles to go to walk in a park. So it looks like he was the main, he was the main
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one reported to his own tip line. Beautiful stuff. Now we go from that to very tragic again, reading
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now from CNN, it says the world is facing multiple famines of biblical proportions, quote unquote, in just
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a matter of months, the UN has said, warning that the coronavirus pandemic will push an additional 130
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million people to the brink of starvation. Famines could take hold in about three dozen countries in
00:24:21.860
a worst case scenario. The executive director of the World Food Program said 10 of those countries
00:24:28.980
already have more than a million people on the verge of starvation. He cited conflict, economic recession,
00:24:34.100
a decline in aid, and a collapse in oil prices as factors likely to lead to vast food shortages and
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urge swift action to avert the disaster. So 100 million people on the brink of starvation because
00:24:46.840
of this. And by the way, remember the collapse in oil prices. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez said she loves to
00:24:55.360
see, she absolutely loves it. She loves that the oil prices are collapsing. And yet millions of people
00:25:00.640
will be on the brink of starvation because of it. So she loves that. But beyond that, I mean, this is
00:25:06.820
a large part of the reason here is because of the shutdowns, not just in America, but across the world,
00:25:14.300
the disruption in the supply chain. And that's going to spur on potentially mass starvation.
00:25:23.180
It's like we were talking about before. It is by no means a foregone conclusion that the shutdowns
00:25:31.980
have actually saved lives. There seems like a pretty significant likelihood that it will lead to
00:25:39.800
many more deaths. This is one aspect we haven't talked about. We've talked about suicide rates going
00:25:45.300
up, drug abuse going up, domestic violence, things like that. And just even people in this country who
00:25:53.160
are not able, you know, homelessness and all of these factors on the rise, and that puts lives
00:25:58.860
at risk. And then when you look, when you step back and you look at it on a global scale, and you
00:26:02.900
think about the potentially tens of millions, hundreds of millions of people who could be on the brink of
00:26:06.940
starvation, it's looking like the shutdowns could be a humanitarian disaster, unlike anything we've seen
00:26:15.780
in recent times. Six, finally, a bonus story here that I wanted to mention. Airlines are trying to
00:26:23.100
figure out how to reconfigure their seating arrangements in a post-corona world. And here's
00:26:28.380
what one manufacturer came up with. This is a potential model that could be used by airlines.
00:26:34.420
So take a look at the picture. You see there, you've got, I mean, my God in heaven, I would,
00:26:43.420
you get the middle seat. Middle seat was already bad enough. And now it already dehumanizing and
00:26:51.820
claustrophobic enough. Now they want to imprison the middle seat in a plastic case so that there's
00:26:58.440
definitely no space for your elbows or anything. And then even worse than that, I mean, that's bad
00:27:02.920
enough. But then now they want to flip the middle seat around so that you're directly facing the
00:27:08.180
people in the aisle, in the aisle and window seat behind you. And then what happens if you have to
00:27:14.720
cough? Now you're coughing towards other people. This is their solution. Now, I would say that at
00:27:25.380
least this works out if you're on an aisle or a window seat, because then the person next to you is
00:27:30.000
encased in glass. So that would avoid, you think, okay, that's going to avoid unwanted conversation,
00:27:35.220
which is great. But the problem is that the middle seat in front of you, now you've got their dumb
00:27:41.920
face looking at you for the entire flight. So this is going to mean that the most coveted seat on the
00:27:47.260
entire plane will be the window seat at the very front of the plane. Because now you've got the privacy
00:27:54.440
because you've got the glass case on one side, you've got the window on the other, no one's talking to you,
00:27:58.740
no one can. And then there's nobody in front of you facing you. So that's going to be a very coveted
00:28:05.040
seat. There's going to be violence, riots over that seat. Plus, there's going to be an upcharge,
00:28:11.220
of course, it's going to be $700 upcharge just to sit in that one in that one good seat left on the
00:28:15.340
plane. Of course, if the airlines really cared about reducing transmission of diseases and everything,
00:28:22.980
rather than finding ways to keep people crammed together, what they might consider doing is like
00:28:28.060
removing the middle seat even, in some cases, to give people more space. And now we could be
00:28:33.600
socially distanced on the plane. But they don't want to do that because that means they're going
00:28:36.880
to sacrifice money. All right, let's go to our daily cancellation. I'm going to be canceling
00:28:43.280
the brand Burt's Bees, which I think makes lip balm and some other stuff. Actually, this specifically is
00:28:51.260
the Burt's Bees Baby brand. And they make, I don't know, lip balm for babies. I'm not sure.
00:28:57.040
But anyway, Burt's Bees Baby posted something on Instagram. Now, especially on Instagram,
00:29:04.260
brands will often attempt to be inspiring, you know, relatable, encouraging. And these attempts,
00:29:11.080
as the kids would say, are cringe, almost always. Now, here's the thing, brands, if you are a brand,
00:29:17.380
brand, just be a brand. Sell your product. Don't try to inspire me. I'm not going to a brand for
00:29:25.220
inspiration. I'm not looking at an advertisement to be inspired. Just sell what you came here to
00:29:32.340
sell and be on your way. All right, just get to it, sell your product, and be done with it.
00:29:37.380
But the reason Burt's Bees Baby is getting canceled in particular is because they went,
00:29:41.720
when it comes to trying to inspire people, they went way, way, way, way over the top.
00:29:47.380
In this desperate attempt to be encouraging and inspirational. So I want you to look at this
00:29:52.460
post. Here's the picture. This is on Instagram, their Instagram page. This is the picture.
00:29:57.680
Then the caption from the brand, this is what it says.
00:30:01.340
This is not what you had planned. This is not what you'd envisioned. There are no visits from friends,
00:30:07.520
no loving doula bringing you soup, no mommy and me yoga classes, no coffee dates, no stroller walks
00:30:14.120
through the park. There is empty space where you had planned comfort and company. There are long days
00:30:19.560
with no one but your little one to talk to, and this big transition to navigate all alone.
00:30:24.940
I know it's lonely, mama. I know the... Mama. Isn't that creepy to have a brand talking to you this way?
00:30:31.480
I know it's lonely, mama. I know the walls of your house feel tight and the days feel so long and you
00:30:38.460
crave a warm hand on your knee and the soft embrace of a friend. You wish for someone by your side to
00:30:44.480
marvel at this beautiful baby of yours and to wrap an arm around you when the feelings get too big and
00:30:49.980
scary. I remind you, this is a brand that makes lip balm, okay? We were never meant to do this alone.
00:30:55.460
Motherhood has never been a solitary sport, and yet here we are in this odd chapter of isolation
00:31:00.720
and distance with no choice but to do it by ourselves. But mama, know this. We are alone
00:31:06.160
together. You are surrounded by all the other mothers who are navigating this tender time in
00:31:11.040
isolation. You are held by all of us who have walked the path before you and who know how much
00:31:16.800
you must be hurting right now. You are wrapped in the warm embrace of mama earth as she too settles
00:31:22.800
into this time of slowness and healing. This too shall pass, and when it does, hugs and coffee dates
00:31:30.000
and visits from friends will taste so much sweeter. Soft kisses on your cheek and arms around your waist
00:31:36.020
and gentle laughter in your ear will be the joyful medicine after this trying time. Until then,
00:31:43.220
hunker down, mama. Find the coziest, warmest spot on the couch. Sink into the pile of unfolded laundry
00:31:49.320
and spend this spring with that sweet babe, warm, on your chest.
00:31:56.840
Jeez, Burt's Bees. Take it down a notch. Take it down several notches. Just calm down a little.
00:32:03.880
You sell lip balm, okay? This is what we're talking about here. Take it easy.
00:32:07.480
By the way, crave a warm hand on your knee? Is that? Now, look, I'm not a woman as far as I know.
00:32:17.360
But who knows? I mean, anybody could be these days. So, but maybe I'm a little bit ignorant of this.
00:32:22.440
I tend to doubt that, I guess you tell me, ladies, do you crave a warm hand on your knee? Is that a
00:32:29.260
thing that, I mean, is any woman sitting around craving a warm hand on the knee? I mean, any kind
00:32:37.440
of hand at all would be bad enough, but a warm hand? We know you want a warm, sweaty, clammy hand
00:32:43.600
creepily caressing your leg. Who, did Joe Biden write this thing? Now, in fairness to Burt's Bees,
00:32:51.160
I looked at the comments on this Instagram post, and there were, I have to admit, a lot of women
00:32:56.440
commenting with stuff like, wow, I needed this today. Thank you. Or, I'm in tears. Thank you so
00:33:03.600
much. But I refuse to believe that those people are real. I think that they're bots, or they work
00:33:09.920
for Burt's Bees. I refuse to believe. Who goes to Burt's Bees' Instagram account looking for solace
00:33:17.640
and comfort? I really needed to feel a human connection, so I went to a brand's social media
00:33:24.600
page to find it. I guess that's a sign that you really are lonely. Maybe you could use a warm hand
00:33:29.720
on the knee. Who knows? So, Burt's Bees is canceled, and so is anybody else who got inspired by what I
00:33:36.880
just read there. You're all canceled. Okay, let's go to emails. But before we do that, you know,
00:33:45.140
during this quarantine, we've been trying to find ways to, little ways to keep people entertained and
00:33:52.340
help people out a little bit. Well, here's a great deal. When you become a Daily Wire Insider Plus
00:33:58.340
or All Access member, right now, you will get not one, but two of the highly coveted Leftist Tears
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00:34:09.120
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00:34:39.180
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00:35:02.800
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00:35:09.340
fun. I'll be stopping by virtually for that as well, and so tune in for that. Now, let's go to
00:35:15.980
emails, and you can also email if you become a Daily Wire member. You can email using the mailbag.
00:35:20.580
This is from Mike. It says, can a guy cry during a movie while you are supreme and ultimate emperor?
00:35:27.860
For example, I couldn't help but shed a tear during the movie Crash, specifically when the little girl
00:35:32.640
was shot and the dad cried in pain. Couldn't help but think, what if that happened to one of my
00:35:37.240
children? That's a sign from Mike. Okay, well, Mike, we've talked about this, and it is acceptable
00:35:43.720
for a man to cry during a movie, but that movie has to be, I mentioned Rudy. Okay, Rudy's an example.
00:35:50.580
You could cry during that movie. There might be a few other examples. Some people say Old Yeller.
00:35:55.460
Now, I think crying over an animal as a man is not acceptable. When my pets die, I don't cry. I
00:36:00.980
harvest them for meat and fur like a real man. Okay, that's how a man should respond to that. But there
00:36:05.720
are movies, is the point where you could cry. Is Crash one of them? Absolutely not. In fact,
00:36:12.580
you could not have chosen a less manly movie to cry over. This is probably the worst movie
00:36:19.020
that you could possibly cry over. I can't think of a worse, I mean, maybe a worse one would
00:36:24.240
be if you cried over like the Devil Wears Prada because Meryl Streep is being so rude to her
00:36:32.240
employees and you cried over that. That might be a little bit worse, but only a little bit.
00:36:37.080
This is pretty bad. Crash? Come on. This is a permanent revocation of the man card. You're
00:36:44.820
never getting it back. You might as well transition at this point because the man card's never coming
00:36:50.000
back to you. Sorry. From Brian says, despite often agreeing with you, I have to say I disagree
00:36:54.360
with your take that our elected officials are implementing these extreme lockdown measures
00:36:57.720
simply out of greed. I believe it is out of a fear of appearing to not take the coronavirus
00:37:03.280
seriously enough. I live in Pennsylvania, so let's use that as an example. Once all is said and done,
00:37:08.040
the governor of PA is going to be judged by the public and the media by the statistics in the state,
00:37:13.480
number of deaths, death rate, hospitalizations, etc. Therefore, whether or not these lockdown
00:37:18.240
measures work, he's implementing them so that he can point to all of these extreme policies and at
00:37:22.540
least say, hey, look, we tried our best. Sure, some politicians may be power hungry,
00:37:26.540
but it is more out of a risk aversion than anything else. Yeah, Brian, I don't disagree.
00:37:30.480
It's not an either or here. Anytime you've got disastrous policies from the government,
00:37:37.520
there are going to be multiple things going into it. And the various bureaucrats and politicians
00:37:43.420
involved in bringing that plan and that policy to fruition are going to be motivated by different
00:37:48.200
things. So I don't think it's an either or. I do believe there's a huge element of, as you're
00:37:53.560
talking about here, a CYA cover your ass move here by the politicians who they see everybody else
00:38:00.680
locking down and say, figure, I got to do it too. And they also think, okay, let me do this. And then
00:38:07.680
I won't be liable for the deaths. And then also you can't blame me for destroying the economy because
00:38:13.260
everybody else is doing it too. And so there's this security they find in numbers, basically.
00:38:20.800
So that's part of it. But it's also very clear that a lot of these bureaucrats and politicians
00:38:25.920
are having a power, are power drunk, are high on their own power, are enjoying all the power they've
00:38:32.760
been given and want to exert that and express it for its own sake. So I think that's also happening.
00:38:40.300
Let's go to Julia, also my daughter's name, by the way.
00:38:43.160
Hi, Matt. This isn't really a why you're wrong thing, because I'm only partially sure that you
00:38:48.220
are wrong. But in your diatribe defending homeschooling, you seem to avoid the best
00:38:53.260
argument against it and for formal schooling, and that is socialization. What would you say to
00:38:59.160
the argument that parents should send their kids to school to be socialized?
00:39:03.640
Okay. Yeah, we talked about homeschooling a few days ago on the show because Harvard had
00:39:10.740
published, Harvard Magazine had published an article advocating banning homeschooling. They're
00:39:15.460
also doing a summit on the dangers of homeschooling, where they're going to talk about regulations that
00:39:19.980
should be put on homeschooling to protect kids from the horrible dangers of homeschooling.
00:39:24.300
You bring up the socialization argument. Well, first of all, not to get into semantics here,
00:39:29.000
but I don't agree with your dichotomy between formal schooling or homeschooling. Homeschooling
00:39:38.520
is a form of formal schooling. It is formal. Now, there is something called unschooling,
00:39:43.960
which I'm not an expert on it, so I can't speak very intelligently about it. But from what I
00:39:49.860
understand of the unschooling strategy, that is essentially informal schooling, where there's
00:39:55.660
no formal structure. But that's not what homeschoolers do. If somebody is an unschooler,
00:39:59.960
then they're unschooling, and that's what they'll say. So homeschooling is formal. That's the first
00:40:06.420
thing. In terms of being socialized, what I always say about that is if the public school system
00:40:15.720
is the best way to socialize your kid, then I say the proof should be in the pudding.
00:40:25.880
So show me the pudding. Let's take a look. We've got multiple generations of kids,
00:40:32.820
many of them now grown adults, multiple generations of people who were largely shaped and formed by the
00:40:39.100
public school system. They were public schooled, right? Or at least they were in the private school.
00:40:42.540
They were in the education system in some capacity. So let's just look around at society,
00:40:46.760
and you tell me, does it appear that people are very well socialized? I would say no.
00:40:55.200
So we don't need to theorize about whether or not the public school environment is a good way to
00:40:59.860
socialize kids. We don't need to theorize about it. I could say we have enough data at this point
00:41:04.200
that you can look around and see. Clearly, it's not working. And then when you look in the schools,
00:41:09.560
and you see the bullying problem, I mean, it's the media, the people who are advocates of the
00:41:14.180
public school system, they're the ones who are constantly telling us about the bullying epidemic
00:41:18.800
and so on. So according to them, there's a bullying epidemic. There's peer pressure. There's,
00:41:24.940
I mean, we know that things like suicide, the suicide rate among kids is way higher now than it's been in
00:41:31.240
the past. And we, you know, and, and so I just, I don't see the evidence that kids are becoming
00:41:40.960
well-adjusted, quote, socialized people through the public school system. I don't see the evidence for
00:41:48.240
it. And I don't see the evidence that homeschooling is turning kids into weirdo recluses. I know that
00:41:55.500
that's the stereotype, but in my experience, that is simply not the case. So there's just,
00:42:01.580
there's no evidence for this. And when you get beyond that, it's, I think it's pretty clear
00:42:08.200
that the public school system is not a great way to socialize kids. And here's why. Because
00:42:13.800
when we talk about socializing our kids, what do we mean? I guess we could, maybe we need to define
00:42:20.660
our terms a little bit. We could mean different things by it. But when I think about socializing a kid,
00:42:24.740
what I mean by that is helping them to become mature, well-adjusted people who can function
00:42:34.340
in society. That's what I mean. Well, what's the best way to do that? I mean, or maybe a better way
00:42:42.480
of putting it, who is best equipped to socialize a kid, to get them to a point where they are mature
00:42:51.120
and well-adjusted and ready to be functioning members of society. My answer is adults. Adults
00:42:58.360
should be the ones socializing kids, teaching them how to become well-adjusted people. Problem
00:43:05.860
though, in the public school system is you're throwing kids into a school. There's 30 kids in
00:43:09.520
a class. You know, the kids way outnumber the adults. And so who is doing the socializing in the
00:43:17.780
public school environment? The answer is other kids. So the kids are being socialized by other kids,
00:43:24.240
by that sort of peer culture. They're being oriented to the world by their peers. And the thing is,
00:43:31.840
they're looking at their friends for social cues and for cues on how they're supposed to act and what
00:43:37.900
kind of person they're supposed to be, while their friends are looking back at them. So they're just
00:43:42.080
running in circles and nobody has a, it's a classic blind leading the blind scenario.
00:43:47.140
In homeschool, even if you have a big family, which a lot of homeschoolers do, the fact is,
00:43:53.000
you know, the ratio of kid to adult is much lower. And on top of that, it's also, you know,
00:44:00.760
it's a parent rather than being some stranger, a teacher who has the kids for 45 minutes for a
00:44:05.240
period. And then they go for, and you know, they have another teacher. So I think there's a much
00:44:11.100
better chance in homeschooling of a, of a child being socialized and oriented to the world and to
00:44:17.740
society by an adult taking cues from adults. And so it's, and I know this is anecdotal. Okay. I don't
00:44:24.800
have any studies in front of me. Although I'm sure I could probably dig some up, but in my experience,
00:44:30.720
it seems like homeschooled kids are way more mature, way more mature than public school kids are.
00:44:36.840
And this is, and I've got a lot of experience. You know, I went to public school myself.
00:44:41.880
I've met, I know plenty of public school families, but I've also been in the homeschool
00:44:46.240
environment for a long time. Even before I homeschooled my own kids, I've been to tons of
00:44:51.180
homeschool conferences and conventions and everything, speaking at them or attending them myself.
00:44:56.340
And so, you know, pretty, pretty big sample size. My experience is homeschool kids are way more
00:45:02.420
mature. Um, even things like I've noticed things that are subtle or maybe not so subtle, but things
00:45:09.700
like homeschool kids, it seems to me much more likely to shake your hand and look you in the eye
00:45:14.520
or just in general, look you in the eye when you speak to them. Whereas other kids, often when you talk
00:45:20.220
to them, they've got, they're looking down like this. They don't want to look at you. So things like
00:45:23.580
that, uh, public homeschool kids tend to be better at it. And I think my anecdote, my anecdotal evidence
00:45:30.120
probably holds true because of this reason that I'm giving that it is. You think about the environment
00:45:35.140
that they're in, they're learning from their parents. They're being oriented to the world by
00:45:38.800
the parents. They're taking social cues from the parents. They're learning from adults rather than you
00:45:43.700
throw them into, uh, this sea of other kids. And they're just caught up in all that chaos and trying
00:45:50.260
to figure out, you know, um, what kind of person to be based on, on, uh, their peers. And they also
00:45:56.020
become, because they're in this peer culture, they become very desperate, uh, to be accepted by their
00:46:04.720
peers. And they're going to do whatever they can to be accepted because to be in public school
00:46:09.180
environment, you know, if you're a young kid in public school, you know, you're going to be in this
00:46:13.160
environment for 12 years, uh, uh, starting in kindergarten or 13 years, starting in kindergarten
00:46:18.440
longer than that for some kids, but you know, you're going to be in this environment for a long
00:46:21.160
time. And so if you're ostracized, if you're not accepted, then that's going to be very hard to deal
00:46:28.060
with for, for, for, through your entire formative, the formative years of your childhood. And so kids
00:46:33.940
become desperate to become accepted. And when they're not accepted, that's why we have the suicide
00:46:40.880
epidemic. And it's not as simple as a kid is bullied and they feel bad about themselves and
00:46:45.480
they go home and kill themselves. It's not that simple at all. What it is, is kids are,
00:46:51.320
uh, their entire world becomes their peers. And when they are not accepted, when they're rejected,
00:46:59.500
then it feels to them like they're being rejected by the entire world. And they don't know how to handle
00:47:04.680
that. They don't know how to cope with it. And sometimes they resort to horrific things.
00:47:10.880
Um, and even if it's not suicide, drug abuse and other things, you know, as in that desperation
00:47:15.560
to be accepted. So that's what the socialization process involves in public school. And I, I just
00:47:19.400
don't see it as superior at all to homeless school, homeschool. In fact, it is this, for me, the number
00:47:25.480
one argument for homeschool. You asked me what's the, what's the, if I could give you one reason why
00:47:30.540
you should homeschool your kids, it would be exactly this. Socialization is the reason that I
00:47:35.460
homeschool, uh, more than anything else. All right. But thanks for that question. Uh, very interesting
00:47:40.840
topic and we'll leave it there. Thanks for watching everybody. Thanks for listening. Godspeed.
00:48:15.280
Edited by Danny D'Amico. And our audio was mixed by Robin Fenderson.
00:48:20.180
The Matt Wall Show is a Daily Wire production. Copyright Daily Wire 2020.
00:48:25.140
Hey everyone. It's Andrew Klavan, host of the Andrew Klavan Show. Donald Trump has become
00:48:29.180
the smartest man in America. I know I, even I can't believe I'm saying that, but it's true.
00:48:33.580
And I'll tell you why on the Andrew Klavan Show.