The Matt Walsh Show - Ep. 548 - Netflix Sexualizes Children (again)

00:00:00.000 Today on The Matt Walsh Show, the sexualization of children in our culture continues with a

00:00:04.180 horrifying Netflix film about twerking 11-year-olds and five headlines, including last night's DNC

00:00:09.360 convention finale and a school system that wants parents to pledge in writing that they will not

00:00:14.140 eavesdrop on their children's virtual classes. What could go wrong there? And in our daily

00:00:17.740 cancellation, we're going to cancel a Christian publisher for its exceedingly cringy attempt to 1.00

00:00:22.980 connect with today's youth. All of that on the way. But starting here, September 9th,

00:00:27.960 streaming behemoth Netflix will debut a new film on its platform titled Cuties, the movie by French

00:00:34.380 writer and director. I'm not even going to try to pronounce the name, but French writer and director

00:00:37.680 follows the exploits of 11-year-old Amy, who hopes to break free from her conservative Senegalese

00:00:43.660 upbringing by joining a twerking dance troupe. The official synopsis tells us that Amy, through her

00:00:49.480 quote, sensual dancing, will quote, ignite awareness of her burgeoning femininity. But will the girls 1.00

00:00:55.660 successfully quote, twerk their way to stardom? You'll have to watch to find out. That is, if you're

00:01:00.780 on a registry somewhere and interested in watching that kind of content. Now, probably, though probably

00:01:06.820 not on registries, many film critics are indeed apparently interested in that kind of content.

00:01:11.680 The film currently has a depressing, around 80% fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes. Critics tell us that

00:01:18.540 the story of pubescent children dancing sensually is a, quote, compelling crowd pleaser that, quote,

00:01:25.720 heralds an indelible directorial voice and must be, quote, respected for its audacity. Now, much of

00:01:33.260 the backlash and discussion about this movie has been centered around the horrific promotional image

00:01:37.960 that Netflix put together and was, until a couple days ago, using on their site. Now, here it is right

00:01:43.700 here. You can see it. As you can see, 11-year-old girls scantily clad, striking their, quote, unquote, 0.69

00:01:48.520 sensual poses, one of them on all fours. As people became aware of the movie and a petition was formed

00:01:55.880 to get it tossed from the platform and outrage grew, Netflix decided to change the synopsis of the film

00:02:01.620 and get rid of this image. And they issued also an apology. Here's their apology. You tell me if it

00:02:07.720 really gets to the heart of the matter or not. It says, we're deeply sorry for the inappropriate

00:02:10.920 artwork that we used for cuties. It was not okay, nor was it representative of this French film,

00:02:16.300 which premiered at Sundance. We've now updated the pictures and description. Okay. By the way,

00:02:22.000 the fact that it's a French film that premiered at Sundance in no way indicates that it's not

00:02:26.140 horrible and exploitative. Sundance was co-founded by a man who's now in prison for raping children, 0.92

00:02:30.820 after all. But you notice how Netflix offers no apology for the content of the film itself,

00:02:36.520 nor do they promise to get rid of it. Instead, they just put up a different poster.

00:02:41.700 Defenders of the movie, and yes, it has defenders, it does, say that while you can't judge a book by

00:02:47.000 its cover, it's not fair to condemn a movie you haven't seen. What they don't understand is that

00:02:52.240 normal, well-adjusted, non-creepy adults have no interest in watching a movie that features 11-year-olds

00:02:58.900 twerking in any capacity or context, even if it was just one scene, much less a central plot point.

00:03:05.860 In fact, you can judge a book by its cover sometimes, and this is one of those times.

00:03:11.880 Other defenders, including some of those film critics mentioned before, claim that the film

00:03:15.660 is a commentary on the sexualization of children. Now, even if you're inclined to buy that rather,

00:03:23.220 in my opinion, dubious excuse, doesn't change how Netflix chose to promote the film through its

00:03:27.760 marketing material. I don't care if this is a movie about kids at a lemonade stand or something.

00:03:32.160 If the company distributing it is trying to sell it as quote-unquote sensual, that's a huge problem

00:03:39.520 in and of itself. But is the commentary excuse credible? Well, take note of the fact that according

00:03:45.560 to an interview in Variety with the Cutie's producer, they filled the lead role with an 11-year-old

00:03:51.280 actress. If they're looking to give critical commentary on the sexualization of children,

00:03:55.720 it's hard to understand why they would want 11-year-olds to provide the demonstration.

00:04:01.440 It seems rather counterproductive to decry something by actually doing the thing you are

00:04:06.240 decrying. There was an interview in The Wrap with the director of the film, and she explained her

00:04:12.800 reasons for making the film. I'm going to read now from The Wrap. It says, the director explained how

00:04:19.080 growing up in France with traditional parents from Senegal made her want to explore in Cuties the 0.96

00:04:24.000 question of whether we should, quote, have the right to choose which women we can be in this

00:04:29.320 world. In our culture, even today, I can say I'm not totally free, because I love to wear short

00:04:35.040 dresses, and at the same time, when I go to a religious ceremony, I wear a veil. Just choose as a 0.99

00:04:40.660 woman. What do you want to be? Okay, that was her reason that she gave. The point, as explained by the

00:04:46.160 director, seems quite different from calling attention to child sexual exploitation. This would seem to be

00:04:52.860 much more a display of that sexualization than a commentary on it. So perhaps Cuties will comment 0.91

00:05:00.040 on the sexualization of children in the same way that a film like The Purge comments on violence,

00:05:06.160 namely by going out of its way to appeal to the sorts of people who want to see the thing that the film

00:05:11.460 is allegedly criticizing. That's not commentary at all. It's exhibition. And here's the main thing we

00:05:17.260 have to understand. This is not an isolated incident. This movie is not happening in a vacuum

00:05:22.840 or out of the blue. This is part of a long-running trend in our culture towards the sexualization of 0.78

00:05:29.320 children and the normalization of pedophilia. It is a trend. Even just in the universe of Netflix,

00:05:37.280 it's a trend. For years now, the streaming platform has aired a cartoon aimed at teens called Big Mouth

00:05:42.480 that advocates masturbation, pornography, and things even more graphic than that. So they've

00:05:48.560 been down this road before. Plenty of times. Also, this isn't Netflix, but another example bears

00:05:54.560 mentioning. Just a few weeks ago, a film called Yes, God, Yes, another masterpiece, according to

00:06:00.040 critics anyway, was released to streaming and on-demand viewing. And according to The Stylist,

00:06:06.680 it, quote unquote, here's the quote, explores the joys and shame of female masturbation 0.93

00:06:12.060 through the adventures of its 16-year-old protagonist. The writer and director, Karen Main,

00:06:17.920 says that she's hoping the film helps her younger audience feel less weird about discovering their

00:06:23.880 sexuality. But really, the most egregious form of child exploitation and sexualization in our culture

00:06:31.760 has nothing to do with films about twerking. In fact, in this vein, Netflix aired something even

00:06:38.320 more objectionable not long ago. The reboot of The Babysitter's Club recently featured a storyline

00:06:45.560 about a nine-year-old trans girl, i.e. a boy who has been told by his parents that he's a girl.

00:06:50.820 And let's just look at, here's just one short scene from that episode. Look at this.

00:06:55.260 Okay, took a while, but we finally found a file for a Bailey Del Vecchio.

00:06:59.020 Is 32 Burnhill Road still the current address? Yeah. Have you been giving him fluids? If he's dehydrated,

00:07:04.340 we'll need to place an IV. Have him change into this. I don't want the blue one. Um, well...

00:07:10.940 I hear someone's not feeling well. Let's take a look at the little man.

00:07:18.480 Can I please talk to you two outside?

00:07:20.100 I know that you guys are busy, but as you would see, if you looked at her and not her chart,

00:07:35.280 Bailey is not a boy. And by treating her like one, you are completely ignoring who she is.

00:07:40.960 You're making her feel insignificant and humiliated. And that's not going to help her feel good or safe

00:07:47.660 or calm. So, from here on out, please recognize her for who she is. And if at all possible,

00:07:55.960 could you find me a non-blue hospital gown?

00:07:58.040 No, apologies.

00:07:58.520 Now, of course, leaving all the other issues aside here, there are many excellent reasons why

00:08:04.160 doctors might need to know your actual biological sex. It can affect what treatment they use, 1.00

00:08:09.680 because as it turns out, boys and girls are different, very different. But more to the point

00:08:14.360 here, um, this is a storyline normalizing the idea that young children can choose their own gender.

00:08:20.240 And you should know that the actor who goes by the name Kai is a biological boy who identifies as a

00:08:26.560 girl. According to his mother, he started showing signs of being a girl at 18 months. Yes, 18 months.

00:08:32.780 This mother believes that an 18-month-old baby has some sort of insight into his own gender, 0.79

00:08:38.920 which, of course, is stark raving lunacy. Kai completed his transition at four. Four. Now,

00:08:47.500 I have an almost four-year-old plus two other kids who were four at one time. Um, and I can report

00:08:53.760 unequivocally that four-year-olds have no idea what gender is, have no idea what boys and girls are,

00:09:02.720 really. If you don't believe me, just ask a four-year-old, what's a boy, what's a girl? They

00:09:06.300 won't be able to tell you. They have indeed no idea what anything is. They have no grasp on reality

00:09:11.180 whatsoever. There's a reason you can tell these kids that a giant fat man flies through the air at the

00:09:15.240 speed of light, climbs down their chimneys and brings them presents, and they won't even question

00:09:18.680 the claim or bat an eye. They accept it implicitly like they accept everything else because they don't

00:09:23.200 have the psychological capacity to distinguish between fact and fiction, reality and fantasy.

00:09:30.100 By accepting and promoting and imposing this absurd, grotesque, mind-boggling lie that four-year-olds

00:09:36.440 can choose their own gender, that they have somehow the maturity and agency and insight and

00:09:40.780 understanding and competency to make life-altering decisions for themselves at that age. We are

00:09:45.740 sending the message that, well, four-year-olds have maturity, agency, understanding, and competency.

00:09:50.360 We are sending the message that four-year-olds have enough psychological, neurological, and emotional

00:09:54.520 development to choose their sex, which is to say, according to this theory, they have quite a

00:10:00.200 significant amount of psychological, neurological, and emotional development.

00:10:04.360 The problem here, well, one of the countless problems is that the whole reason, you know,

00:10:12.620 what is the whole reason we say that adulthood starts at 18 and that, for example, a sexual

00:10:17.540 relationship between an adult and a minor is not a relationship at all but abuse? The reason we

00:10:24.000 give is that children are not psychologically, neurologically, and emotionally developed. The entire

00:10:30.420 basis for the laws that allow us to put adults who prey on children in jail is that children quite

00:10:37.380 literally cannot consent to sexual relationships because they don't understand what they're doing

00:10:43.540 or what the consequences are or what it means, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. And yet now we're

00:10:50.180 saying, oh, never mind. In fact, children even at the age of four actually are enormously mature and

00:10:55.000 developed, so much so that they can choose to alter their entire identity and make decisions that will have a

00:10:59.980 profound impact on their lives forever, even to the point of taking drugs that will chemically castrate

00:11:05.120 them. So you see where this leads, hopefully. What we have here is a developing narrative about

00:11:12.540 childhood and childhood psychology and the capacities of children that is extraordinarily dangerous

00:11:18.500 and can only lead to terrible things. And that is, we should emphasize, completely wrong on every

00:11:26.560 level. And contrary to science, common sense, morality, and basic human decency. So yes,

00:11:33.760 the movie about the twerking girls is bad, but it's a lot worse than that out there for our children,

00:11:39.420 which is all the more reason, if you're a parent, to keep your kids close and remain vigilant.

00:11:44.800 Let's go to five headlines.

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00:13:35.900 B-A-M-B-E-E.com slash Walsh. All right, let's go to, um, see what headlines we got here. Number one,

00:13:45.300 the DNC convention last night, we did our all access watch party for that. Hopefully you were

00:13:50.520 able to join. It was the worst thing that's ever happened to me personally. Um, I maintain though,

00:13:54.900 and I survived for three hours in one of the great feats of human endurance of all time.

00:13:59.480 The big headline from the convention, I suppose, is that there was no real headline. They successfully

00:14:03.660 avoided headlines, which I think is part of the point here. Certainly that's, that is the,

00:14:07.580 the strategy of the Joe Biden campaign is to not make it into the headlines. And, uh, I think they

00:14:13.340 basically did that last night. Anyway, the entire focus of the convention really was, uh, or at least

00:14:18.580 last night seemed to be that Joe Biden is a really nice guy, right? And that's why they told us he's

00:14:25.260 a nice guy again and again, and again, and again, and again, by my count, there were approximately 75

00:14:32.140 slow motion video montages, or at least felt like 75 slow motion video montages, piano music, uh, you

00:14:39.900 know, and it just telling us that Joe's a nice guy. At one point, his grandchildren showed up to talk

00:14:45.380 about his favorite flavor of ice cream and what toppings he likes. I'm not kidding. That's how vacuous

00:14:51.380 this thing was. And then Joe Biden got up there at the end. Uh, and when I was half dead at that

00:14:56.000 point, delivered a speech, um, all I could say is that the DNC is thanking God or, or Gaia or whoever

00:15:02.020 the divine spirits. Actually, they had their, their, uh, their nun, their fake nun give, uh, an invocation.

00:15:09.380 And she, she prayed to the divine spirit, but anyway, uh, whoever they're thanking someone that

00:15:15.060 the speech didn't have to be live. So I don't know how many takes it took to nail the speech,

00:15:19.240 but the final product was not bad much to my chagrin, you know, no flubs, no gaffes,

00:15:23.820 just a, just a fine speech. I don't think anyone's going to remember it. I don't think anyone remembers

00:15:29.520 it now, but, uh, uh, it was, it was okay. There was, there were a few moments of cringe though.

00:15:36.700 Uh, and I think probably the most extreme cringe came from this. So what did you think about Kamala

00:15:44.220 Harris's speech last night? It was tremendous. I was so happy for her. I know me too. She was

00:15:51.000 fabulous. I cannot wait to see her debate. Our current vice president, Mika Pints, or, uh,

00:15:57.260 is it Paints? It's pronounced Ponce, I believe. Oh, some kind of weird foreign name?

00:16:05.440 Yeah. Not very American sounding. Yeah. That's what people are saying strongly.

00:16:11.360 Well, uh, thank you, Andrew. And please give my regards to the gang.

00:16:16.500 I will. They're right in the next room. Have a great night, Julia. Thank you so much.

00:16:21.040 Yeah. All the comedy bits were about as effective as that. The comedy was so lame and bad that I almost

00:16:26.320 thought I was at a Republic that I was watching a Republican convention a few times. That's how bad

00:16:29.880 it was. But then I remembered that I wasn't because every speaker would carve out some time in their

00:16:35.500 remarks. Actually about 75% of their remarks would be allotted to informing us that orange man is

00:16:42.040 indeed bad. If you didn't know. Uh, so they did tell us that. So that's what we got. Joe Biden is

00:16:46.480 nice. Orange man is bad. That was, that was the message. Let's go on here. Number two, uh, 0.99

00:16:52.420 reading now from the daily wire says the Chicago police department has banned protesters from

00:16:56.100 demonstrating on the block where mayor Lori Lightfoot lives, ordering officers to arrest

00:17:00.440 anyone who won't leave. The directive surfaced in a July email from then Shakespeare district

00:17:05.480 commander, Melvin Roman to off officers under his command. It did not distinguish between the

00:17:10.220 peaceful protest or Lightfoot regularly says she supports and those who might intend to be

00:17:13.740 destructive. Chicago police have been blocking access to the area using barricades and police and

00:17:18.960 riot gear. Um, and Lightfoot told reporters on Thursday that she and her family have been

00:17:26.640 receiving threats daily. She says, I think that residents of the city understand the nature of

00:17:30.320 the threats that we are receiving on a daily basis on a daily basis. Understand I have a right. I have a

00:17:34.380 right to make sure that my home is secure, right? This is the same woman you may remember who banned 1.00

00:17:43.040 residents from getting haircuts under threat of imprisonment and then went on and got her own

00:17:47.380 haircut. So this is all par for the course. Uh, and, and the reason for getting the haircut, the reason

00:17:53.720 she gave was that she needed to look good, which well, no comment on that. But the point is that this

00:18:01.280 is one of the biggest hypocrites in the country. And the hypocrisy here really isn't even funny or 0.98

00:18:06.540 ironic or anything. It's just pure evil. In fact, she lets rioters destroy neighborhoods, terrorize 1.00

00:18:12.780 residents, uh, do what they want, but Oh no, not her house, not her house. Can't come there. And how

00:18:20.120 does she justify the double standard? You know, in her own mind, how do you think she justifies it?

00:18:25.480 Well, I'll tell you exactly how she's more important than you. Simple as that. That is what she believes.

00:18:31.120 And that's how she governs. Let's go. Number three, uh, back to the daily wire. It says a school

00:18:36.360 district in Tennessee is asking parents to sign a form agreeing not to monitor their children's

00:18:43.000 virtual classrooms over concerns that, that non-student observers could overhear confidential

00:18:48.660 information. The form, a copy of which was sent to the Tennessee star reads a quote, RCS strives to

00:18:54.680 present these opportunities in a secure format that, that protects student privacy to the greatest

00:18:59.560 extent possible. However, because these meetings will occur virtually RCS is limited in its ability to

00:19:03.920 fully control certain factors such as non-student observers that may be present in a home of a

00:19:09.340 student participating in the virtual meeting. The agreement goes on to strongly discourage non-student

00:19:14.340 observation of online meetings due to the potential of confidential information about a student being

00:19:18.820 revealed. Uh, the agreement of course raised parents' interest according to the Tennessee star,

00:19:23.180 particularly given that the agreement implied items of interest might be being discussed in

00:19:27.260 classrooms without parents' knowledge. In an email to parents sent earlier this week, the

00:19:31.020 Rutherford school district said that they, that are taking parents' concerns under advisement.

00:19:35.840 Uh, they said, we are aware of the concern that has been raised about the distance learning letter

00:19:39.460 that was sent out. The, uh, intent was not to prevent parents from being involved with their

00:19:43.600 children during distance learning, but it was intended to protect the academic privacy of other

00:19:47.740 students in the classroom who are visible during certain virtual class sessions. Yeah. Um,

00:19:52.740 listen, you know, you, you get a letter like that from your school and I don't know how you react in

00:20:01.340 any other way than just pulling your kid out plain and simple. They're confidential information.

00:20:10.660 No, no, no, there shouldn't be any confidential information being shared in a classroom.

00:20:18.160 There shouldn't be any information that you as a teacher know about your students that the parents don't know.

00:20:27.500 But like we talked about last, last week and we've talked about before, you know, they're just telling on

00:20:32.400 themselves here and what their real agenda is. So you just got to get your kids out of the school. I think it really is

00:20:37.180 that simple. Number four, the Washington post reports that Kansas city chiefs said Thursday that

00:20:40.720 they will prohibit fans from wearing headdresses and native American themed face paint to home games

00:20:45.300 at Arrowhead stadium. The team announced the measures as part of what it calls ongoing dialogue

00:20:49.560 with a group of local leaders from diverse American Indian backgrounds and experiences and recent

00:20:53.960 consultation with a national organization that works closely on issues affecting American Indian

00:20:57.780 people and tribes. Um, so even though they're the Kansas city chiefs and that's their mascot,

00:21:03.800 you're not allowed to dress that way for the, for the hungry. Nobody can explain why this is

00:21:08.340 offensive. It's just like assumed now that if you were to dress up as native American, it's

00:21:13.020 automatically. Why? What's offensive about it? Uh, if, if anything, it's, it's honoring a culture.

00:21:21.840 And of course, as many people point out, it's almost nobody worries about this

00:21:28.560 on St. Patrick's day. People are dressed up like leprechauns drinking green beer, getting drunk.

00:21:35.100 Like that's what you do. That's how you celebrate Irish culture. They dress up like a leprechaun and 1.00

00:21:39.700 get drunk. Nobody complains. Uh, and as a person of Irish ancestry, I don't complain either. It just

00:21:45.600 doesn't bother me, but this somehow is offensive for reasons that are not explained. Okay. Five,

00:21:51.640 finally a big news here. It's being reported that the band BTS has probably broken a record by getting

00:21:58.080 10 million views on their latest music video in 20 minutes, 10 million in 20 minutes, 10 million

00:22:05.300 people. That's, that's an incredible number for just 20 minutes. Now I have, um, never heard of

00:22:11.920 the band BTS. This is my first time ever. I don't, I don't know what they are. I think they're a boy

00:22:15.500 band. Uh, but you know, I think back in my back, but go, but go back to the old days, you know,

00:22:21.280 way back in ancient times, music videos were, were aired on, and kids don't know this. They were

00:22:27.640 aired on something called television. Uh, and there were these things called channels that you would

00:22:32.740 go to. And if you wanted to see a video, you had to just sit and watch the channel all day and hope

00:22:38.840 that they played it. And there would be these things called commercials in between. And it's,

00:22:44.120 it's very similar to the experience you'd have. There was also this thing called a radio that you

00:22:47.540 would listen to. And, uh, if you wanted to like make a mixtape, but you couldn't download it on the

00:22:51.520 internet cause it didn't exist. So what you do is you take a blank, uh, something called a cassette

00:22:55.880 tape and you put it in this thing called a boom box. And then you just listen to the radio all

00:23:00.980 day. And those of us who are avid mixtape makers, like I was, um, it was, you know, this, this would

00:23:06.340 be a, this would be hours long project. If you want to make a mixtape and get like 10 songs on a,

00:23:10.320 on a tape, but you wait for the song to play. You got your fingers on record. Soon as it plays,

00:23:15.120 boom, you hit record. Sometimes you get a little bit of the commercial beforehand in the, in the

00:23:19.120 recording, but that's fine too. And that's how it worked back then. But now, and so if you want,

00:23:22.980 if, if one music video was going to get 10 million views cumulatively, it would take probably about

00:23:30.660 19 months for that to happen. And now it happens in a little over 19 minutes. So pretty incredible,

00:23:36.940 but congrats to the, uh, to the guys over there at BTS, big fan, big fan of theirs. I just decided

00:23:43.600 that right now. Cause that's, I'm in touch with, uh, with the youth of today, of course, speaking of

00:23:48.260 which let's get to our daily cancellation. Now for our daily cancellation, this will be a short one

00:23:52.600 because I'm, I'm not intending to pile on, but I also can't possibly let this week come to an end

00:23:57.080 without mentioning it. And besides, I have no control over the daily cancellations. The cancellations

00:24:01.920 come to me as though in a dream and I can only accept them. So today we will be canceling Lifeway,

00:24:08.260 which some of you probably know is a major Christian publisher distributor. Uh, they teamed up with a

00:24:12.700 group called Sunday cool to put out a devotional for the youngins, the youth Gen Z. And it's called

00:24:18.040 the word according to Gen Z. Um, you hear that. And if you've been around the block enough,

00:24:22.900 you're probably thinking, Oh no, this is going to be bad. And yes, you're right. Your insight is

00:24:29.580 correct. It is. It, it certainly is. Now Lifeway has already pulled down the devotional. Um, they

00:24:36.000 aren't selling it anymore after the rather negative reaction to it. And they've apologized. They say that

00:24:40.960 what I'm about to read to you was meant to be playful, but they were, they regret it now. And, uh,

00:24:46.060 you know, that it was taken the wrong way. And so they pulled it down. And in fairness,

00:24:50.360 I'll tell you that this devotional does, or did, I guess, before it was removed from sale,

00:24:54.660 seemed to have plenty of perfectly fine sort of normal devotional stuff, meditations, reflections,

00:24:59.180 prompts, that kind of thing. And, um, all of that from what I saw, uh, though I didn't read the whole

00:25:05.360 thing seems to be unobjectionable and, and, and, you know, even, even some of it's pretty good.

00:25:10.600 The issue though, are the Gen Z Bible translations that are at the top of each new chapter.

00:25:16.500 Each new day in the devotional. And this is the part that Lifeway says was meant to be playful,

00:25:21.080 but let me read a few of these to you and, and, uh, just to give you an idea and you tell me what

00:25:25.640 you think. Okay. Hebrews 4.12 originally says for the word of God is alive and active, sharper than any

00:25:32.220 double-edged sword. It penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit joints and marrow. It judges the

00:25:37.960 thoughts and attitudes of the heart. The Gen Z translation, uh, this is, this is the way it's 0.58

00:25:43.940 translated. It says, Cap G's words are one hundo, straight up slicing and dicing and knowing it all.

00:25:50.240 Cap G is God, in case you were confused. Straight up slicing and dicing is supposed to be, I guess,

00:25:54.760 something that kids say. And admittedly, my kids are still young, but I've, I've never heard a

00:25:58.780 teenager ever use the phrase straight up slicing and dicing. It sounds like maybe something that

00:26:03.620 Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles might've said in 1996. I don't know. Um, moving on. Okay. This one really

00:26:10.620 got a rather negative reaction online. John 1.1, of course, one of the most famous and sacred lines

00:26:16.020 in the whole, the whole of scripture says, in the beginning was the word and the word was with God

00:26:20.500 and the word was God. Here's the Gen Z translation. Since day uno, there was Cap G. Big J was chilling 0.61

00:26:27.500 with Cap G and Big J was Cap G. You know, call me crazy, but I think kids are capable of understanding

00:26:33.460 a phrase like in the beginning. In fact, I think since day uno would sound as weird to them and as

00:26:39.160 confusing to them as it does to us olds. I don't know. Psalm 119.11 originally, and by originally,

00:26:45.300 I mean in English, of course, if I was reading the actual original translation, um, of any of these

00:26:49.580 verses, I'd be reading in Hebrew or Greek. But anyway, it says, I have hidden your heart in my,

00:26:54.200 I've hidden your word in my heart that I might not sin against you. Gen Zified, it becomes, 1.00

00:26:59.800 I got your holy scripts padlocked in my chest thumper. Yes, chest thumper, which sounds like what

00:27:06.980 perhaps a man raised in a cave by bears might call a heart. I'm pretty sure that kids just call it a

00:27:12.520 heart though. You know, Ephesians 6.17 is, uh, take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the

00:27:18.220 spirit, which is the word of God. And now for Gen Z, it's take that noggin guard of Savies and that 1.00

00:27:24.820 big old knife of Cap G, Cap G's words. Yes, noggin guard. Because you know, kids with their slang,

00:27:32.000 like noggin, noggin guard sounds at best, like what maybe the Fonz might've called a helmet in

00:27:38.540 an episode of Happy Days. Maybe. One more, just for good measure. Psalm 34.4 says, I sought the Lord

00:27:44.580 and he answered me. He delivered me from all my fears. But to connect with the youth of today,

00:27:49.160 it is now, I Marco Polo'd Cap G and he didn't leave me on read and snatched up all my scaries.

00:27:55.860 I have no idea what any of that means. Okay. So you get the idea. And as I said,

00:28:00.980 Lifeway has already retreated from this. They said it was supposed to be playful

00:28:04.220 and a parody even. Now you can decide if it makes sense to include parody versions of Bible verses

00:28:10.900 in your devotional. Uh, and, and, uh, and again, I, I feel no need to pile on, but an important lesson

00:28:17.040 can be found here because even if you want to claim parody or playful or whatever, uh, even so this

00:28:23.480 would seem to perfectly encapsulate everything Christians do wrong. We're trying to connect with 0.98

00:28:27.820 the youth. Um, a real learning opportunity here. One of the biggest mistakes and most common mistakes

00:28:35.480 is talking down to them, to younger people. When you assume that kids can't understand the most

00:28:41.520 basic words and concepts or that they need it repeated to them in language more appropriate

00:28:45.740 for cavemen, all you're doing is insulting the people you're trying to reach. You're also making

00:28:49.880 a false assumption. You know, kids, though they, as we discussed at the top of the show are not fully

00:28:54.780 developed psychologically, emotionally, or spiritually, they still have an enormous capacity to learn

00:28:59.560 and grow. That's all they do actually absorb things. They're like sponges and any, any parent

00:29:04.280 knows this. So what do you want them to absorb is the question, banal stupidity or beauty and depth 1.00

00:29:11.920 and meaning. We often deprive our children of beauty and depth and meaning substituting it for banal 0.99

00:29:19.540 stupidity on the assumption that they can't handle anything deeper than that, or they'll be bored by it. 0.96

00:29:24.780 And all that does is train them to reject the very thing we want them to embrace. 1.00

00:29:29.020 Feed stupidity to kids and they become stupid. Simple equation there. Another mistake is trying 1.00

00:29:36.780 to mimic what kids can already get out in the world. You know, see, the thing is, if kids want

00:29:42.060 irreverence and slang and vulgarity and so on, they can get that anywhere and they'll get a much

00:29:49.300 more authentic version of it anywhere else. When you try to give it to them in a church or

00:29:54.940 religious setting, it comes off as inauthentic, inauthentic. And by the way, kids have a very 1.00

00:29:59.320 finely tuned radar for authenticity. Even my seven-year-olds have an impressively sophisticated

00:30:05.040 ability to know when someone is being inauthentic with them, which is why kids laugh and roll their

00:30:10.100 eyes with the, you know, when the youth counselor turns the hat around backwards, starts using slang and

00:30:14.720 so on. Yet the church keeps employing these tactics, no matter how often they fail.

00:30:21.160 So look, it's the same thing I have to remember with my own kids. If I want my kids to be a certain 0.92

00:30:27.620 way, to have a certain characteristic, I have to demonstrate it. I can't expect to see from them

00:30:35.480 what I have not demonstrated. For example, when I look at my kids and I'm disappointed at their lack

00:30:40.740 of patience, that's when I have to, you know, have this really painful moment of self-reflection

00:30:45.940 where I go, oh, right, I'm not patient enough. They don't show patience because they haven't been

00:30:51.560 provided with an adequate and consistent demonstration. It's the same thing here. You

00:30:57.480 want kids to be reverent, to appreciate beauty, to understand difficult concepts, then they need it

00:31:04.460 demonstrated. Like it says in Proverbs, train up a child in the way he should go, and when he's old,

00:31:10.180 he will not depart from it. And I don't think we need a Gen Z version of that for the kids either. 0.91

00:31:16.380 And we'll leave it there for the week. Hope you guys have a great weekend. Enjoy yourselves. Godspeed.

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00:31:37.720 other Daily Wire podcasts, including the Ben Shapiro Show, Michael Knowles Show, and the Andrew

00:31:40.960 Klavan Show. Thanks for listening. The Matt Wall Show is produced by Sean Hampton, executive producer

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00:32:00.480 If you prefer facts over feelings, aren't offended by the brutal truth, and you can still laugh

00:32:05.800 at the insanity filling our national news cycle, well, tune in to the Ben Shapiro Show. We'll

00:32:10.000 get a whole lot of that and much more. See you there.

The Matt Walsh Show - August 21, 2020

Ep. 548 - Netflix Sexualizes Children (again)

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