The Matt Walsh Show - Ep. 481 - The Cost Of The Government's Failure To Protect Nursing Homes

00:00:00.000 Today on The Matt Wall Show, a huge portion of COVID-19 deaths across the world have been

00:00:04.040 in nursing homes. So why didn't the government focus especially on protecting those vulnerable

00:00:08.580 groups in those homes rather than shutting down all of society? And why did New York

00:00:12.360 actually force nursing homes to take coronavirus patients, which is a huge scandal, by the way,

00:00:17.540 we'll talk about that, and five headlines, including a heroic salon owner who now faces

00:00:22.540 jail time for refusing to close her business. And she had some words for the judge during

00:00:28.720 her sentencing that you have to hear. So we'll play that for you. But first, on this issue of

00:00:33.640 nursing homes, it was obvious very early on that nursing homes were especially and uniquely

00:00:38.260 vulnerable to COVID-19. Remember back in March when the virus was running roughshod through

00:00:43.560 nursing homes in Washington state, killing hundreds of elderly people. And this was after it had

00:00:48.080 already been made known based on data in China and Italy and other places that this is a virus

00:00:53.720 that particularly affects the elderly. And that's not a fact that anyone, especially anybody in

00:01:00.440 government, can claim to be surprised by. In fact, that's maybe the one fact about COVID that everyone

00:01:07.400 knew early on and that hasn't changed. There are a lot of things about COVID-19 that have changed,

00:01:13.280 a lot of things we thought we knew that turned out not to be correct. This is the one thing that has

00:01:17.860 remained a constant, is that it is something that inflicts especially the elderly and especially

00:01:23.720 those who are nursing homes. This is an important point because when you look around the country 0.98

00:01:28.420 and around the world after many weeks of this, months of this, nursing homes still stand out as

00:01:35.080 hot spots for the disease. So here are some facts to put this all in context. The Guardian reported

00:01:39.800 back in April that, quote, about half of all COVID-19 deaths appear to be happening in care homes in

00:01:44.720 some European countries, according to early figures gathered by UK-based academics who are warning that

00:01:50.660 the same effort must be put into fighting the virus in care homes as in the NHS. Snapshot data from

00:01:56.640 varying official sources show that in Italy, Spain, France, Ireland, and Belgium, between 42% and 57%

00:02:04.860 of deaths from the virus have happened in homes, according to the London School of Economics.

00:02:11.880 Half of all deaths. What about in the United States? A report in Business Insider on April 18th

00:02:18.660 says that up to that point, one in every five deaths, 20% of deaths from COVID in the United

00:02:25.080 States have been in nursing homes. When you break this down and look at individual states,

00:02:29.840 it becomes even clearer. Okay? And as I said, it's not like this is getting better either.

00:02:36.180 In Connecticut, last week, nearly 90% of all deaths in Connecticut from COVID were in nursing homes.

00:02:44.080 In Pennsylvania, overall, 80% of deaths have been in nursing homes. In New Hampshire, 75% of deaths have

00:02:51.300 been in nursing homes. In Maryland, it's 50%. In Texas, it's 40%. Okay? The data is very, very clear.

00:02:57.760 If you are in a nursing home, your chance of dying from this disease are astronomically higher than almost

00:03:04.200 anywhere else. And the advantage to that, the good thing about that, should be that nursing homes are

00:03:13.860 contained and isolated, and they are small areas. They aren't cities. They aren't metropolises. They

00:03:20.200 aren't, they don't have populations of millions of people. What that means is that it should be very

00:03:25.500 possible to clamp down, take whatever measures are necessary. This is already a controlled environment

00:03:31.720 in a nursing home. It's already a, at least a semi-medical environment. And so you should be

00:03:39.220 able to clamp down, take necessary measures, protect these vulnerable populations. It's not like these

00:03:45.460 people that are nursing homes are going out into society that often anyway. So you would think it 0.95

00:03:52.040 should be very possible to do that. But the bad thing, the very bad thing, the tragic thing, the terrible

00:03:57.400 thing, the outrageous thing, is that the government, state governments around the country failed to do

00:04:03.040 that. They failed. They could have, in some cases, cut their fatalities in half, or cut them by 70%,

00:04:11.980 or 80%, or 90%, just by focusing obsessively on protecting the nursing homes, whatever means

00:04:20.100 necessary. Okay? They didn't do that. They were too busy arresting salon owners and sending SWAT teams

00:04:28.120 to take down peaceful protesters outside of bars in Texas. And it's worse than that, actually. Okay?

00:04:35.320 It's worse than a mere failure to protect. It's a lot worse than that. I want to play something for

00:04:42.400 you. But before I do, some context on this. The AP reports. New York State reported more than

00:04:49.840 1,700 previously undisclosed deaths at nursing homes and adult care facilities in a tally that

00:04:55.720 included, for the first time, people believed to have been killed by the coronavirus before their

00:05:00.620 diagnoses could be confirmed. The tally released late Monday emerged as state officials faced scrutiny

00:05:07.280 over how they protected vulnerable residents from the coronavirus. At least 4,800 people have died

00:05:12.240 from COVID-19 in the state's nursing homes since March 1st, according to the new totals. Okay,

00:05:18.440 now, that's almost 5,000 deaths in nursing homes in New York that we know of, which means at least

00:05:23.600 25% of their deaths, as far as we know, could be a lot higher, have been in nursing homes. 0.99

00:05:31.240 Mayor Bill de Blasio, who is, I'm not sure if I've mentioned this before, a piece of garbage, 0.96

00:05:36.960 was asked about all of this, and here's what he had to say. 0.96

00:05:43.160 As you look at going forward now and you say improving conditions for seniors in nursing homes,

00:05:47.660 would it be a good idea to no longer send elderly patients who've tested positive for coronavirus

00:05:53.680 or are suspected to have coronavirus, would it be a good idea to not send them back into their

00:05:59.160 nursing homes where they then expose other vulnerable people?

00:06:02.200 Well, again, if the better care in that individual case is a hospital, of course,

00:06:07.340 that should be the go-to option. But there's going to be times where the nursing home is the 1.00

00:06:12.040 place that can better care if it's set up that way. Remember, a lot of these are for-profit

00:06:15.940 organizations. I think there's going to be a lot of questions about whether they

00:06:18.940 put their residents first or whether they put profit first. But I don't like what's happening in

00:06:26.580 the nursing homes. I want to see change. But I think in terms of each individual, it's a case

00:06:31.760 by case. You got to figure out what's right for each senior.

00:06:34.220 Just look at that smarmy doofus. I absolutely can't stand him. But listen to what the smarmy 1.00

00:06:40.940 doofus is saying. He's trying to blame the fact that someone said that this is happening. They're

00:06:46.140 trying to, he's trying to blame it on for-profit organizations because he knows, you know, as a,

00:06:52.440 as a, as a leftist, all he has to do is say the word, oh, they're profit. This is for-profit

00:06:56.380 capitalists. That's what this all is. Well, it's interesting because a report in the city,

00:07:01.580 which is a local news site in New York, says that a state-run nursing home in Queens, just as one

00:07:06.560 example, run by the health department, failed to follow coronavirus protocols, failed to isolate

00:07:12.520 the infected, even kept coronavirus patients in rooms with roommates who didn't have coronavirus.

00:07:19.220 But then many of them, I'm sure, quickly got coronavirus. That's in a state-run facility,

00:07:24.360 not a for-profit facility. But it's worse even than that. Nursing homes in New York were forced

00:07:31.200 by the state to take coronavirus patients. The state sent coronavirus-infected people into nursing

00:07:39.040 homes intentionally. And do you know what they sent alongside, along with those coronavirus patients?

00:07:45.640 Body bags. Okay, I'm not kidding. Let me read. This is from the New York Post. This is from a few

00:07:51.740 weeks ago. But this should be all over. I mean, this should be the biggest story, I think, in the

00:07:56.900 country right now. It says, the first coronavirus patients admitted to a Queens nursing home under a

00:08:04.020 controversial state mandate arrived, along with some grim accessories, a supply of body bags, the Post has

00:08:10.060 learned. An executive at the facility, which was previously free of the deadly disease, said the

00:08:16.860 bags were in the shipment of personal protective equipment received the same day the home was forced

00:08:20.880 to begin treating two people to discharge from hospitals with COVID-19. The exec told the Post

00:08:26.780 Thursday, my colleague noticed that one of the boxes was extremely heavy. Curious as to what could

00:08:31.840 possibly be making that particular box so heavy, he opened it. The first two coronavirus patients were

00:08:35.980 accompanied by five body bags. Within days, three of the bags were filled with the first of 30

00:08:42.340 residents who could die there, who would die there after Governor Andrew Cuomo's health department

00:08:46.580 handed down its March 25th directive that bars nursing homes from refusing to admit medically stable

00:08:52.700 coronavirus patients, according to the executive. Like clockwork, the nursing home has received five

00:08:59.840 body bags a week, every week from city officials. Cuomo has blood on his hands. He really does.

00:09:05.560 There's no way to sugarcoat this, the health executive added. And then later on, it says the

00:09:10.320 Queen's story is painfully repeating at a Manhattan nursing home. Administrators there told the Post

00:09:15.320 they'd also received body bags and weekly shipments of supplies, which City Hall confirmed the Department

00:09:20.940 of Health and Mental Hygiene was distributing to nursing homes. One of the Manhattan administrators

00:09:26.080 said the state's admission mandate came with no warning or even time to prepare facilities for an

00:09:32.420 influx of coronavirus patients, who the state says must be quarantined inside nursing homes and treated

00:09:38.220 by separate staffers. By the time I even, this administrator said, by the time I even got to work

00:09:45.300 the next day, I had phone calls, emails from just about every hospital in the area. Previously, the person

00:09:51.780 added the facility had required two negative test results before we'd even consider taking somebody

00:09:56.520 into the building. And then it goes on from there. This is a shocking scandal. Not only did New York

00:10:06.620 fail to protect its nursing homes, but it sent the virus, literally directly sent the virus into these

00:10:15.360 homes with extra body bags in a direct admission that they knew what the deadly impact would be of

00:10:20.800 this decision. These politicians, these bureaucrats, these incompetent lying, murderous bastards, pardon my 1.00

00:10:29.280 French, are trying to blame everyone and everything else. For-profit organizations, the American people, 1.00

00:10:37.160 small businesses, freedom. You know, they're pointing the finger at everything all over the place.

00:10:43.000 Meanwhile, it was their job, their job to protect the most vulnerable people. And they could have done it

00:10:50.560 and they didn't. Now, reverse the clock, okay? Go back in time. Imagine things going differently.

00:11:00.540 Imagine our governments across the country, state governments. Imagine that they're not populated

00:11:08.300 and staffed and run by nitwits and narcissists and petty tyrants and morons. And imagine instead 1.00

00:11:16.480 that they do the smart thing. And they fully lock down nursing homes. They go into, I'm talking DEFCON 1

00:11:24.180 to protect the nursing homes while encouraging for everybody else, social distancing, masks for the 0.59

00:11:30.880 general public, keeping schools open. Because all the data says that kids are all but immune from this.

00:11:38.440 I mean, not completely, but the chance of a child dying from this is vanishingly low. And the chance

00:11:46.240 of them spreading it is vanishingly low. And again, by the way, that's not new information. We knew this

00:11:52.680 from almost the beginning. There are two things we knew about this all along. The elderly are dying from

00:11:58.620 it and kids are not. In fact, young, not just kids, young and healthy people are generally not dying

00:12:04.800 but the elderly are dropping like flies. We've known that from the beginning. So they can't claim 0.99

00:12:09.660 we didn't know. And when I say we knew, I meant idiots like me, okay? And just normal peons like 1.00

00:12:18.480 the rest of us. We knew out in the general public this stuff about the virus. We have to assume that

00:12:24.380 the government knew everything we knew and probably some additional stuff too.

00:12:28.120 So what if they had done that? Shut down the nursing homes, totally shut them down. 1.00

00:12:36.560 Anybody has coronavirus, you get them out of there, okay? You certainly don't send coronavirus

00:12:41.900 patients into them. You don't let anybody in from the outside, so on and so on and so forth. What if

00:12:48.920 they had done that? Keep the economy going, tell people, encourage people to wear masks where

00:12:53.740 appropriate, you know, isolate the infected, keep the schools open. What does a death toll look like

00:13:01.120 if they had done that? Is it worse? I mean, could you possibly argue that it would be worse than it

00:13:06.120 is now? No way it's worse. What about the economy, the jobless rate, the suicide rate, the overdose rate,

00:13:11.660 domestic violence, all of that, all of that which is tied to the economic collapse. What about all that

00:13:18.900 stuff? This is something they could have done and didn't. We should be way angrier at the government

00:13:31.660 than we currently are, most of us anyway. Because there are a lot of people in America who are still

00:13:40.560 looking at Americans who are, you know, at the beach or sitting outside in a park in New York or something.

00:13:48.280 They're still pointing at them. All of their anger is pointed and directed at those kinds of people.

00:13:54.020 Or like we'll talk about in just a second here, business owners who dare to open up their business

00:13:59.700 so that they can make a living and feed their families. There are a lot of Americans, all of

00:14:05.500 their ire and anger and outrage is directed at those people. What about the bureaucrats and politicians

00:14:12.480 who could have prevented so much of this and failed to do it?

00:14:22.220 That's what we should be looking at. And this thing about the nursing homes, them sending patients

00:14:28.040 into nursing homes. Like I said, this is a scandal that should be the front pages everywhere.

00:14:33.700 But not only is it not front page news, Governor Cuomo, who came up with this mandate,

00:14:44.200 he still hailed as like the hero of the coronavirus. Why? Even before I knew this stuff about the

00:14:51.920 nursing home, I never understood why everybody is kissing Cuomo's butt. What has he done that's so great? 0.98

00:14:59.300 He's got the worst death toll of anybody in the, of any state in the country. I'm not saying that's

00:15:06.000 all his fault, but where's the evidence that Governor Cuomo has been some sort of brilliant

00:15:11.600 coronavirus fighter? I don't see it. You have these morons who are so smitten with, they see him in

00:15:19.660 press conferences. He's so great in the press conference. Who cares what he does in the press 1.00

00:15:23.380 conferences? Yeah, he's great in the press conferences. And then on the other hand,

00:15:29.720 he's sending coronavirus patients into, into nursing homes. All right, let's move on to news.

00:15:36.920 As referenced just a moment ago, a salon owner in Dallas, Shelly Luther was sentenced to jail time,

00:15:42.640 a week in jail for operating her salon for the crime of being a salon owner, for the crime of cutting

00:15:48.280 people's hair, for the crime of doing her job, for the crime of feeding her kids in America. 1.00

00:15:53.500 She's now going to jail, but Shelly Luther, and I don't say this lightly, she is a hero. I don't

00:15:57.920 mean it ironically. She is actually a hero standing up to tyranny, standing up for her rights, standing

00:16:02.940 up for her right to feed her kids. Um, and I want you to listen to her. She's talking to the, 0.99

00:16:08.060 she's at the, in court at sentencing. And she's told that if she simply apologizes

00:16:14.580 and admits that she's wrong and promises not to do it again, okay, admits that she's wrong,

00:16:20.920 like a bad little girl and, and, and, uh, says she'll never do it again. She won't have to go to

00:16:24.860 jail, but she refuses. And her refusal, uh, must be heard. Listen to this judge. I would like to say

00:16:31.800 that I have much respect for this court and laws and that I've never been in this position before.

00:16:40.860 And it's not someplace that I want to be, but I have to disagree with you, sir. When I,

00:16:49.200 when you say that I'm selfish because feeding my kids is not selfish. I have hairstylists that

00:16:57.380 are going hungry because they'd rather feed their kids. So, sir, if you think the law is more important

00:17:04.620 than kids getting fed, then please go ahead with your decision, but I am not going to shut the salon.

00:17:10.140 That woman is a, is a badass. And every word of what she said is true and right and moral and good.

00:17:20.480 Her defiance is moral and good. So I think that's great. Uh, number two, New York city is very proud

00:17:29.680 of itself because for the first time in 115 years, it shut down overnight service to do a thorough cleaning

00:17:37.140 of, uh, of the trains. So here they are cleaning. You can see the footage. Uh, now speaking of

00:17:44.720 for-profit organizations versus government run organizations, for-profit institutions clean

00:17:51.620 on a daily basis, sometimes on an hourly basis, depending on the establishment. But the New York

00:17:57.540 city subway system is doing a good thorough cleaning for the first time since the Wright brothers took 1.00

00:18:03.340 their first flight and they're so proud of it that, you know, they're, they're putting the propaganda

00:18:08.740 video out so they can show, look at what we're, look what we're doing. I mean, there's another simple

00:18:15.620 thing. Speaking of simple things that New York could have done. How about clean your, how about clean?

00:18:22.040 How about that for an idea? Or even why not shut down the subway system? I mean, the subway system

00:18:28.780 is still operating. It's been a vector for this disease this entire time and they keep it going.

00:18:35.820 You know, they get mad at people for going to the park and meanwhile, they've got these cramped,

00:18:41.360 poorly ventilated capsules where they're cramming people in.

00:18:45.220 Number three, here's a headline in New York magazine that I love. Um, it says Joe Biden is at his best

00:18:57.600 when he's neither speaking nor appearing in public. Will his campaign have to abandon its most effective

00:19:03.840 strategy? This reminds me of, uh, what I said to my high school principal when I got in trouble for

00:19:10.440 skipping class. I said, you know, I'm at my best when I'm neither completing assignments

00:19:15.560 nor attending school at all. Are you really going to force me to abandon my most effective strategy?

00:19:22.340 Of course, that tactic didn't work for me and I don't think it worked for Biden either.

00:19:25.820 Number four, put your conspiracy hats on. The Daily Wire reports, uh, a well-respected scientist at the

00:19:31.180 University of Pittsburgh Medical Center who was on the verge of making quote, very significant findings

00:19:35.980 in the fight against the coronavirus was murdered over the weekend inside his home.

00:19:39.660 Dr. Bing Liu, 37, who's from China, was shot multiple times around noon Saturday inside his home

00:19:45.900 in the 200 block of Elm Court, says the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Police believe that Mr. Liu was

00:19:52.520 shot by another man, identified later by, uh, the Allegheny County Medical Examiner's Office as

00:20:00.260 Hao Gu, 46, of Pittsburgh, who then got into his car, parked about 100 yards away, and killed himself.

00:20:06.760 Um, now police are saying that he was home by himself, the two men knew each other, law enforcement

00:20:16.600 says there's investigation still going. I mean, uh, murder, suicide, they knew each other. I don't think

00:20:23.480 there's, uh, reason for conspiracy theories, but you know, you know they're going to definitely be,

00:20:31.780 be coming on strong with, with something like this. Number five. And finally, Science Times tells us,

00:20:37.620 um, it says researchers from the Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis

00:20:41.420 have successfully disabled a gene in specific mouth cells, preventing mice from becoming obese,

00:20:47.620 even after being fed a high fat diet. Um, and then it gets into a lot of sciencey stuff with words that

00:20:54.420 I can't pronounce. So basically what they're saying is that scientists may soon be able to disable the

00:20:59.560 obesity gene, curing obesity for good. But you know, I hate to be that guy, but there is another

00:21:07.260 way to disable the obesity gene and cure obesity. Uh, that's called going for a jog, uh, skipping the

00:21:15.300 Cinnabon stand at the mall when the mall's open again. I mean, things like that, eating a few

00:21:25.860 salads, stuff like that, I think can cure obesity. We're going to go on to emails in just a second,

00:21:31.300 but before we do, um, I want to take a moment to tell you about daily wires, newest, most exclusive

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00:22:50.880 to join daily wires, all access club with a new membership or, or an upgrade to get 10% off with

00:22:56.480 coupon code Walsh. That's daily wire.com slash subscribe coupon code Walsh. See you there. Okay.

00:23:04.280 We're going to do some, um, emails and you can always email the show. Uh, if you become a daily

00:23:11.480 wire member, it's another, even if you're just a regular daily wire member peon, uh, you know,

00:23:16.760 not, not even an all access to your person, you could still have access to the mailbag. So this is

00:23:22.140 from Seth says, Matt, I very much enjoyed your coronavirus music reviews and would like to suggest

00:23:26.640 that you review music every week on your show as a weekly segment, but I'm also very much disappointed

00:23:31.360 that you neglected to review the new Drake coronavirus video that just came out. Here's

00:23:36.620 the link. I think you'll enjoy it. Okay. Let's, um, I did neglect. We did, we did some coronavirus

00:23:40.500 music reviews last night because a lot of bands have put out coronavirus songs. And so we went

00:23:43.800 through some of them and, uh, you know, I was, I was largely disappointed as I am with most things in

00:23:49.080 life, but, um, there were a few, a few, uh, a few bright spots and I got several emails actually

00:23:55.440 saying that Drake had a music video and how could I not include that? This is Drake we're talking

00:24:01.120 about. So let's, uh, take a listen to that black leather glove, no sequins buckles on the jacket.

00:24:18.460 It's a leash Nike crossbody got a piece and got a dance, but it's really on. So street. I'm a show

00:24:26.400 you how to get it. It go right foot up, left foot slide, left foot up, right foot slide. Basically

00:24:33.960 I'm saying either way we about to slide. Hey, can't let this one slide. Don't you want to dance

00:24:39.860 with me? No. I could dance like Michael Jackson. I could get you the passion. It's a thriller

00:24:47.820 and a trap. Where we from? Baby, don't you want to dance with me? No. I could dance like

00:24:53.860 Michael Jackson. I could get you satisfaction. And you know, we out here every day with it.

00:25:01.260 I'm a show you how to get it. It go right foot up, left foot slide, left foot up, right foot

00:25:08.020 slide. Basically I'm saying either way we about to slide. Can't let this one slide.

00:25:14.680 Okay. Stop it right there. Let's, let's stop right there. Uh, what does this have to do with

00:25:19.640 coronavirus? He's in his mansion dancing. I understand he has a mask on. That's how Drake

00:25:28.820 addresses the pandemic by dancing in a mask. I thought this guy was supposed to be some sort of

00:25:33.680 lyrical genius. This is what he comes up with. The cha-cha slide essentially is what that that's his

00:25:39.460 coronavirus. That's, that's it. And the dance itself is the most, is the most pitiful, lazy thing I've

00:25:48.100 ever seen. Let me tell you, here's a, here's a general rule for dances. Um, if you're coming up

00:25:55.280 with a dance, if it's one that I could easily do, then it's a bad dance. You need to add some more

00:26:01.460 bells and whistles to it. I can't even do the hokey pokey without twisting my ankle. All right.

00:26:06.460 I tried to do the electric slide at a wedding and people thought I was having a seizure. They called

00:26:09.740 9-1-1. So if I can, I'm the most uncoordinated person on planet earth, bar none, I could do that

00:26:17.200 dance. So what is it? What is he teaching preschool? That's like a, that's like a dance

00:26:22.840 that a preschool teacher comes up with before nap time so that the, all the preschoolers get all

00:26:27.720 their energy out and then they can go take a nap on the alphabet rug. In fact, I skipped the daily

00:26:33.120 cancellation today. Uh, I realized so this, this is it right here. We'll do it. Drake is canceled for

00:26:39.040 that. I'm canceling Drake. Um, he's my cancellation today. I mean, if you're gonna, that's totally

00:26:47.060 unacceptable. I would expect much more from him. Uh, let's go to Hannah says, Matt, I just watched a

00:26:52.760 video by breaking in the habit on YouTube about why protesting during the lockdown is anti-Catholic

00:26:57.980 and selfish. I think his heart is in the right place, but as a, but he has a distorted view of

00:27:02.560 freedom. Um, I was just wondering if you could take a look at this and offer your opinion on this

00:27:07.280 view. Thanks for all you do. Your human perspective has been a great relief for my husband and me during

00:27:10.820 the situation. Um, okay. So Hannah, thanks for passing this along, Hannah. We'll, we'll take a look

00:27:15.360 at this video. I hadn't seen it before, um, until you had passed it along, but I'm always interested

00:27:21.380 in engaging with the other side of this and with their arguments. Um, and so here's an,

00:27:29.100 seems like an intelligent person making an argument about why you shouldn't be protesting

00:27:33.780 the lockdown and, um, why you should just, you know, stay home and listen to the government.

00:27:39.200 And I'll, I can't play the whole thing cause it's like eight minutes long, but here's a,

00:27:42.580 here are some of the relevant portions of it right here. This has got to be the most reckless,

00:27:48.360 dangerous, selfish thing I've ever seen in my life. Thinking about all those hospital workers

00:27:53.780 and public servants, putting their lives at risk and seeing this, it really just makes me sick.

00:28:00.400 But it goes deeper than that. I hope that none of them are Catholic because what's causing people 1.00

00:28:05.580 to protest in this way, the core ideology that they're expressing is a sense of freedom that

00:28:10.820 is far more individualistic, even anarchist than it is Christian. And so I think it's worth addressing 1.00

00:28:16.880 for the rest of us. What does it mean to be free? To get at that, let me pose a hypothetical scenario.

00:28:23.460 Two people are dying of thirst. Without a drink in the next few minutes, they're going to pass out

00:28:28.380 and ultimately die. The first person can choose between drinking motor oil, hydrochloric acid,

00:28:33.600 the liquid inside of a lava lamp, a bottle of Windex, and a leaky battery. Five options.

00:28:38.900 The second person has clean water and that's it. Just one choice, take it or leave it.

00:28:43.680 Based on your definition of freedom, which of the two people is more free?

00:28:49.080 Most people are willing to give up some freedoms to live in society, agreeing to laws like not to

00:28:54.140 murder each other or steal each other's property. But there's only so much one can take. Which is why

00:28:59.780 some people are protesting today. They are being told that they have to wear masks, that they can't go

00:29:05.000 to church, that they must stay six feet apart in small groups. And that's just too much for them.

00:29:10.240 Their choices are too limited and so they don't feel free. They're like the person given only one

00:29:15.660 choice of a glass of water. But given the scenario, isn't that actually the better choice? At that

00:29:22.460 moment, we would want the water, even if it is our only choice, right? The point of the hypothetical

00:29:27.780 scenario is to show that the quantity of choices is not the only thing that matters to freedom.

00:29:33.200 The quality of choices is equally, if not more, important.

00:29:36.600 If you're thirsty, having five toxic liquids doesn't make you free. Heck, having a hundred

00:29:41.920 toxic liquids doesn't make you free. When all of the choices are bad, against the thing that you

00:29:46.800 actually want and need, it doesn't matter how many choices you have, you are not free to make

00:29:52.200 the right one. As odd as it may sound, the person given only one choice of water is infinitely more

00:29:58.160 free than the other because that person has the ability to choose what is good.

00:30:02.440 Okay, a lot of problems here. Where to begin? First, the example he gives of the water and

00:30:10.980 poisonous liquids has nothing to do with freedom in either case. Okay, the people are dying of thirst,

00:30:17.960 right? So you give them water. Yeah, they could decline it, I guess, but really their body will

00:30:24.740 compel them to drink. So that's not much of a choice there at all. And also in the case of the poison,

00:30:29.820 telling someone they can choose which poison to drink is not freedom. And yes, that was his point,

00:30:35.300 of course. But my point is that the whole example misses the point because it has little to do with

00:30:40.580 freedom in either case. In both cases, the choice of what to drink was made really by the person

00:30:47.820 offering the drink. The choice was made for the thirsty person. They can simply decline or accept.

00:30:56.540 That's the only choice they have. There's some freedom in that, but not a whole lot.

00:31:01.880 And then he relates that to the coronavirus. And in this analogy, the people protesting

00:31:05.820 and wanting to open the economy are drinking poison. And the people who listen to the government

00:31:10.960 very obediently and stay home are drinking nice, fresh, life-preserving water. And he says that

00:31:17.880 the people protesting are only protesting because they don't want to socially distance and they don't

00:31:22.880 want to wear masks. And that alone destroys his entire point, destroys it. And this is the part

00:31:30.260 where many of the arguments against the protests and against ending the lockdowns, this is where many

00:31:37.420 of those arguments fall apart, just explode in a blaze of glory. Because the people making these

00:31:46.260 arguments invariably, like this person here, refuse to engage with the actual reason people are

00:31:53.660 protesting. The main thing people want to do, you heard it from the salon owner just a minute ago. 1.00

00:32:02.140 What did she say? She didn't say, your honor, I'm upset I have to wear a mask. I don't want to wear a

00:32:07.380 mask. Or I don't want to have to stay six feet from people. No, she said, I want to feed my kids.

00:32:12.860 I, I, and I've got employees and they need to feed their kids. So I want to take care of my kids and

00:32:19.240 I want to take care of my employees. That's the main reason people are protesting.

00:32:26.340 And so if you're trying to engage with the argument and you don't, you don't even acknowledge that

00:32:30.360 and you pretend that all, all of this is just about people not wanting to wear masks.

00:32:37.040 Well, then it's just, um, it's, it's a straw man. There's, there's no argument there.

00:32:42.860 You know, what's really at stake here is economic collapse and the protesters want to stave off

00:32:52.480 economic collapse, both their own personal financial collapse and the financial collapse

00:32:57.620 of the entire society. This video, again, doesn't engage with that concern at all,

00:33:02.320 or even acknowledge it. Um, to him, these are idiots who are mad that they have to stay six feet 1.00

00:33:08.020 apart from other strangers. And I assure you that is not what protesters are mad about. In fact, 1.00

00:33:13.520 personally, that's the only part of this. I like, I prefer my personal space. So the six feet apart

00:33:18.860 from other people, I'm fine with that. I could do that forever. Um, it's everything else that I don't

00:33:25.820 like. And I think that's the case for most of the protesters, but the real issue is that in this

00:33:29.980 analogy, again, the people who want to open the economy are choosing poison and the people who don't

00:33:36.420 are sipping nice, clean, refreshing water, which is saving their lives. But the whole point here is

00:33:41.920 that the people who want to open the economy are arguing that opening the economy is not poison.

00:33:48.380 That in fact, the poisonous path ultimately is to remain shut. So, so making the protesters into

00:33:55.360 poison drinkers begs the question. This is what begging the question is. Begging the question,

00:34:01.200 by the way, doesn't mean raising a question. That's a pet peeve I have when people say,

00:34:03.980 when people say, beg the question, but what they really mean is that something raises it. Anyway,

00:34:08.440 um, this begs a question and it begs a question because, um, it only, it only works. The argument

00:34:13.740 only works if we accept the premise that opening the economy is bad. So this is an argument,

00:34:20.080 you know, they're trying to make an argument by embedding the premise into the argument itself.

00:34:27.360 Um, but that's the very premise that the guy in the video has to defend.

00:34:35.220 You can't just have us assume for the sake of your argument that opening the economy is poisonous.

00:34:42.300 That's exactly the thing we're arguing about. I'm saying it's not in re and I've given many,

00:34:47.500 many reasons for that. So here's an analogy that gets a little closer to reality.

00:34:52.040 Let's say a guy is thirsty, um, stumbles upon a, I'm going to say he's dying of thirst even.

00:35:03.280 And he stumbles upon a somewhat shadowy figure on the road. And, uh, the figure says here,

00:35:08.920 drink this and puts a glass of liquid, not even a glass. Let's say it's a container. So you can't

00:35:14.420 even tell really what the liquid looks like, uh, puts a container of liquid in front of,

00:35:18.580 in front of the guy's face. It might be water. Um, it might be life-saving life preserving,

00:35:24.940 but let's say that the guy has reason to believe plausible reasons, maybe even good reasons to

00:35:33.840 believe that the shadowy figure might be trying to poison him. Um, that the liquid being offered

00:35:41.460 might actually do more harm than good. So the choice that this person's dying of thirst has

00:35:49.980 is to take the mystery liquid or to decline it and forge on ahead, hoping for a better,

00:35:57.540 more reliable source out there in the great beyond. Okay. That's a, a, an analogy that gets closer to,

00:36:06.600 um, to the situation because yeah, there's a risk. Maybe you die of thirst in the meantime.

00:36:16.020 Maybe you don't, um, maybe you find what you're looking for, you know, uh, and maybe the people

00:36:22.980 who accept the liquid end up worse off than you. That's the choice. That's the freedom.

00:36:28.860 The protesters are saying their whole point here is that the stuff we're being told that we're being

00:36:34.500 told is life-saving and life-preserving this, this stuff we're being told is life-sustaining water.

00:36:39.060 It's not actually that it's an imposter. Okay. It's, it's, it's, it's water that it's poison that

00:36:48.200 merely looks like water. The shutdown is an imposter. It purports to be saving our lives, but actually

00:36:56.420 for reasons that I have presented and many others have presented many times, it is doing more harm than

00:37:02.200 good. That's the argument. So he's right. You know, a choice between different kinds of poison

00:37:10.600 is not freedom, but when two paths are presented and it's not entirely clear, which is best

00:37:17.080 and you're able to choose whichever one you think is best, you're able to weigh the risks,

00:37:24.840 make a calculation, decide which way you want to go, um, and then take the risk. Now that is freedom

00:37:33.660 by any definition.

00:37:39.480 Or really, you know, as I'm thinking about it, maybe, maybe the, maybe an even better analogy

00:37:43.640 because with, with the shutdowns, right, there's actually no denying. I mean, nobody,

00:37:49.900 no rational person can deny that the shutdowns are having catastrophic effects in many aspects,

00:37:56.920 you know, in, in many facets, facets of our society. No one can deny that. Um, the argument

00:38:03.040 though, and I think it's a bad argument is that those catastrophic effects are worth it, that those

00:38:07.960 are bad, really bad side effects, crashing the economy, really terrible side effect, but it's worth

00:38:13.380 it for the benefit. So, um, you know, in this case, what the government is offering us is in fact

00:38:21.860 poison. It's, it's poisoning the economy. It's poisoning our civil liberties. There's no question

00:38:30.040 about that. But what the government says is yes, it's poison, but, um, in the end it will do more

00:38:37.700 good than harm. So you just have to, you have to choke it down and deal with it. Yeah. It's going

00:38:43.820 to kill 30 million jobs. Yes. This, that, and the other thing, but, uh, it's also going to have this 0.61

00:38:48.620 positive effect. And so freedom would be able to choose would, would be a choice between, am I going

00:38:55.820 to take that poison? Am I going to trust the government? Am I going to trust that it's doing

00:38:59.800 more good than harm? Or am I going to decline and choose a different path? That's freedom. Okay.

00:39:07.700 And so, yes, this is, this is a matter of freedom. Absolutely. Telling somebody that they can't go to

00:39:15.120 work and feed their families, telling Americans that they cannot worship publicly and go to church,

00:39:22.560 telling pastors that they cannot hold worship services, even outside, even when people are in

00:39:27.700 their cars, um, that is absolutely a matter of freedom. And you are absolutely taking people's,

00:39:34.240 people's freedoms away, not just their freedoms, not, not, not like privilege freedoms. Okay. Um,

00:39:39.600 but, but taking away their essential human liberties. All right. Thanks for passing that

00:39:47.440 along. Interesting argument, but a bad one for reasons I've explained. We'll wrap it up there.

00:39:53.000 Thanks for listening, everybody. Have a great day. Godspeed.

00:39:55.360 If you enjoyed this episode, don't forget to subscribe. And if you want to help spread the

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00:40:06.580 Apple Podcasts, Spotify, wherever you listen to podcasts, we're there. Also, be sure to check out

00:40:11.160 the other Daily Wire podcasts, including The Ben Shapiro Show, Michael Knowles Show, and The Andrew

00:40:14.500 Klavan Show. Thanks for listening. The Matt Wall Show is produced by Sean Hampton, executive producer,

00:40:19.400 Jeremy Boring. Our supervising producers are Mathis Glover and Robert Sterling. Our technical producer is

00:40:24.720 Austin Stevens, edited by Danny D'Amico, and our audio is mixed by Robin Fenderson.

00:40:30.220 The Matt Wall Show is a Daily Wire production, copyright Daily Wire 2020.

00:40:34.980 Hey, everyone. It's Andrew Klavan, host of The Andrew Klavan Show. Donald Trump says we have to

00:40:39.100 be warriors to reopen our economy. The media says we have to be cowardly wimps and hide in our homes

00:40:43.720 forever. Time to choose on The Andrew Klavan Show.

00:40:54.720 Thank you.

The Matt Walsh Show - May 06, 2020

Ep. 481 - The Cost Of The Government's Failure To Protect Nursing Homes

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