The Matt Walsh Show - December 29, 2025


Why Did Fun American Neighborhoods Vanish？ This Might Be The Reason


Episode Stats

Length

19 minutes

Words per Minute

181.34854

Word Count

3,604

Sentence Count

231

Misogynist Sentences

6

Hate Speech Sentences

8


Summary

We live in a wonderful world of ubiquitous statistics, where virtually everything is tracked from real-time biometrics of NFL players to the precise amount of time you spent listening to Spotify while on the toilet last year. And one inevitable side effect of this development is that we ve all developed a real blind spot for massive signs of civilizational decay that are very difficult to measure in a scientific way. I m talking about ways in which our life is clearly getting worse, and everybody knows it, even though there s no widely recognized, peer-reviewed metric to prove it.


Transcript

00:00:00.660 Everyone's story sounds different. We get it. So when it comes to finding a life insurance plan
00:00:06.420 that's in tune with yours, we got you. Co-operators financial representatives take the time to
00:00:11.760 understand your full financial picture from insurance to investments so you can get coverage
00:00:16.460 that sounds good wherever your story takes you. Get your whole story heard. Start your life
00:00:21.180 insurance conversation with a local co-operators financial representative at cooperators.ca.
00:00:26.360 Life insurance is underwritten by Cooperators Life Insurance Company.
00:00:30.000 Now that we live in a wonderful world of ubiquitous statistics where virtually everything is tracked
00:00:35.960 from the real-time biometrics of NFL players to the precise amount of time you spent listening to
00:00:40.920 Spotify while you were on the toilet last year, it's easy to fall into the trap of worshiping
00:00:47.180 data and raw information. At no point in American history have we been able to quantify so many
00:00:53.240 different aspects of day-to-day life, which is probably not a healthy thing. Prediction markets,
00:00:59.320 draft kings, AI assistants, they all contribute to the quantification of everything.
00:01:05.280 And one inevitable side effect of this development is that we've all developed a real blind spot
00:01:09.840 for massive signs of civilizational decay that are very difficult, if not impossible, to measure
00:01:16.400 in a scientific way. I'm talking about ways in which our life is clearly getting worse,
00:01:21.600 and everybody knows it, even though there's no widely recognized peer-reviewed metric to prove it
00:01:27.320 exactly. Now we've talked in the past about various manifestations of this decline, including the
00:01:31.680 quality of restaurant food and the quality of children's entertainment all going down, but maybe
00:01:35.940 the best example of what I'm talking about is the death of neighborliness and fun neighborhoods.
00:01:41.000 It's a very real issue that's almost never talked about. When did neighborhoods, even suburban
00:01:46.680 neighborhoods and nice areas, become such cold, uninviting, antisocial places? Why is it that if
00:01:53.280 you're a typical American living in a suburb, you probably don't have a great place to take your
00:01:56.880 kids to hang out? You don't have good friends on the block. You don't spend a lot of time at local
00:02:02.200 events. You might not even know your, you might have never even spoken to your neighbors.
00:02:06.020 Now it was more than 25 years ago that a political scientist named Robert Putnam wrote the book
00:02:10.240 Bowling Alone about the decline of social capital and meaningful relationships in America.
00:02:14.560 And to this day, that's still the book that's always brought up when people try to have this
00:02:19.540 conversation. University professors are still citing Putnam's findings about how Americans
00:02:24.440 aren't joining civic groups and bowling leagues and so on. But the decline has only gotten much,
00:02:29.580 much worse over the past 25 years. And remember, he wrote this before things like social media,
00:02:34.880 before our life, before our lives had migrated fully to the internet. He had already spotted this
00:02:43.560 problem. So think about how much worse it's gotten. And although you won't find the evidence
00:02:48.220 in a sociology textbook, it's all over the internet that this has gotten a lot worse. Consider the very
00:02:53.480 sad but increasingly popular TikTok genre of lonely Halloweens. This is something I noticed in my own
00:03:00.540 neighborhood as well over the past few years. Trick-or-treating in a lot of places is all but dead.
00:03:07.960 A lot of people have stopped putting up decorations or hosting gatherings entirely.
00:03:12.920 But even households that do want to participate in Halloween are coming to the realization that kids
00:03:17.260 aren't nearly as interested anymore. Watch.
00:03:20.540 They do this every year.
00:03:25.020 Why? Doesn't anyone love me?
00:03:27.560 How long is this going to take?
00:03:33.800 It's the full-size candy for trick-or-treaters.
00:03:38.480 Only three kids have showed up.
00:03:42.200 At least the house looks cool.
00:03:45.080 For my monster from his slab began to rise.
00:03:48.560 And suddenly, to my surprise,
00:03:51.640 he did the match.
00:03:52.540 My mom finally can afford to hand out candy to trick or treaters,
00:04:04.360 but no one cups that face still.
00:04:08.840 Another year with no trick-or-treat...
00:04:11.180 Oh, no.
00:04:13.160 Are you so sad?
00:04:15.580 No trick-or-treaters again this year?
00:04:17.860 So even the cat is depressed by the state of Halloween.
00:04:22.460 Can't take it anymore, right?
00:04:23.680 You know that this is a common issue
00:04:25.160 because some of the most popular videos on TikTok and YouTube
00:04:27.400 are about the fact that kids don't trick-or-treat anymore.
00:04:29.740 This video has more than 10 million views, for example.
00:04:32.640 Watch.
00:04:33.360 Instead of partying on Halloween, we give out candy every year.
00:04:35.700 Trick-or-treaters.
00:04:36.560 We haven't lived in this house long enough,
00:04:37.840 so we don't know if anyone's coming tonight.
00:04:39.240 I just bought a lot in case.
00:04:41.340 I even got healthy options.
00:04:43.360 What are you doing?
00:04:44.340 I'm setting up lights.
00:04:45.460 Why?
00:04:45.900 So they know where to come.
00:04:47.860 It's been an hour, and there's still no one.
00:04:50.080 We have all our candy still.
00:04:52.020 Can I have a piece of candy?
00:04:53.080 No.
00:04:53.520 Why?
00:04:54.100 The kids need the candy.
00:04:55.320 I don't think anyone's coming to our house
00:04:56.880 and Cobra's stress-baking.
00:04:58.840 I'm making snacks.
00:05:00.200 Okay.
00:05:00.960 It looks really good.
00:05:02.140 Whatever happened at Halloween spirit?
00:05:04.220 This very simple and straightforward 30-second video
00:05:06.380 is half the viewership of the finale of Game of Thrones,
00:05:09.360 and that's because it resonates.
00:05:11.120 It's an experience everybody relates to.
00:05:13.440 Everyone knows this kind of thing is happening at scale.
00:05:15.880 We can all detect it,
00:05:18.180 even if there are no studies that bear it out.
00:05:20.380 We can all see it, but we don't really know why.
00:05:22.560 Now, for Halloween specifically,
00:05:23.660 there are a lot of theories as to why young people
00:05:25.900 aren't interested in trick-or-treating anymore.
00:05:28.620 Maybe they're more interested in spending time on their cell phones
00:05:30.860 than interacting with anybody in the real world.
00:05:33.380 The COVID lockdowns, which forced children to become antisocial,
00:05:36.280 obviously didn't help in that regard.
00:05:38.300 There's also the fact that our culture has been trending heavily
00:05:40.720 towards irony and cynicism,
00:05:42.840 and therefore insecurity is at an all-time high.
00:05:46.180 Goofy traditions,
00:05:47.940 traditions like where you go out in public
00:05:49.620 in a ridiculous costume and interact with strangers,
00:05:52.280 have fallen out of favor
00:05:53.660 because they're considered embarrassing or uncool.
00:05:56.020 So kids would rather stay inside,
00:05:57.560 play video games, watch TikTok and YouTube videos,
00:06:00.040 where they can watch an infinite number of other people
00:06:02.440 being torn down and judged and ridiculed
00:06:05.120 for one reason or another.
00:06:07.200 Now, if you don't spend a lot of time in the world of TikTok,
00:06:10.180 then you really have no idea how bad things have gotten.
00:06:13.200 There's a whole genre of video called
00:06:15.420 Pop the Balloon and Find Love, for example.
00:06:18.640 It's like speed dating mixed with a game show.
00:06:21.360 And in one incarnation of this concept,
00:06:23.120 a preppy-looking host interviews a student,
00:06:25.400 usually a guy, outside of his dorm room.
00:06:28.100 And there's a bunch of girls lined up against the wall
00:06:30.020 watching the interview with balloons,
00:06:31.640 which they pop as soon as they hear something they don't like.
00:06:34.040 The idea is that if any girl is holding a balloon by the end of it,
00:06:37.580 then the guy gets the chance to go out with her.
00:06:39.960 But invariably, the guy says something extremely inconsequential
00:06:42.400 that his audience doesn't approve of,
00:06:44.260 and the girls pop the balloons
00:06:45.740 and make some judgmental comments and walk away.
00:06:48.500 That's the entire concept.
00:06:50.300 Every one of these videos gets millions of views,
00:06:52.200 if not tens of millions.
00:06:53.780 The audience is predominantly children.
00:06:57.440 And here's just one of the videos.
00:07:04.040 Welcome to Pop the Balloon.
00:07:06.120 Can I have you stand right here?
00:07:07.160 We're here with?
00:07:08.200 Zach.
00:07:08.800 Zach, all right.
00:07:10.560 All right, we're all good so far.
00:07:11.960 What's your job?
00:07:13.120 My job?
00:07:13.860 Yeah.
00:07:14.620 Do you have one?
00:07:15.160 I'm unemployed.
00:07:17.080 Oh my God, wrong eye out.
00:07:18.500 Okay, okay.
00:07:19.340 Why'd you pop?
00:07:20.100 Because we need an employed man.
00:07:22.220 Okay, why'd you pop?
00:07:23.480 Because he has to be employed.
00:07:25.340 Can we have the final three come right here?
00:07:27.140 Um, what's your dream date?
00:07:29.040 You know, we go to downtown.
00:07:30.620 Oh, okay.
00:07:31.160 A little early.
00:07:31.960 You know, get something to eat.
00:07:32.880 Oh.
00:07:33.500 And then after, we go to, um, Sunset Cliffs.
00:07:36.600 Oh.
00:07:37.100 Watch the sunset.
00:07:38.840 Okay, why'd you pop?
00:07:40.460 It's just so, like, cliche romantic, like, boring.
00:07:43.280 Okay, well, you're cliche too.
00:07:44.420 You need something more unique than that.
00:07:46.220 Okay, you can get out of here too.
00:07:47.220 All right, we have our winners.
00:07:49.740 No kiss, no kiss.
00:07:51.120 Oh, yeah.
00:07:52.260 Any culture in which trashy videos like this
00:07:54.360 get 10 million views or more,
00:07:55.780 which this one did,
00:07:57.140 is not going to have many kids dressing up
00:07:59.320 in silly little costumes
00:08:00.260 and going out with their parents
00:08:01.600 and knocking on doors for candy.
00:08:03.440 Videos like this are a sign of a culture
00:08:05.000 that's preoccupied with being judgmental
00:08:07.680 and sarcastic at every opportunity.
00:08:10.140 And it used to be that
00:08:11.120 if you wanted to watch garbage like this,
00:08:13.140 it meant that you were unemployed
00:08:14.220 and sitting on your couch at 10 a.m.
00:08:15.640 watching Jerry Springer
00:08:16.580 or something like that.
00:08:18.120 Now children and young adults
00:08:19.320 are watching this kind of stuff
00:08:21.420 all the time in huge numbers.
00:08:22.860 And when you zoom out
00:08:23.560 beyond the context of Halloween,
00:08:24.760 that's a very bad omen
00:08:25.760 for neighborhoods in general.
00:08:27.400 Overly judgmental and sarcastic people
00:08:29.360 usually aren't good friends.
00:08:30.820 They don't want to spend time with you
00:08:31.940 and you don't want to spend time with them.
00:08:34.520 But these observations
00:08:35.100 still don't answer the fundamental question
00:08:36.640 of why our culture
00:08:37.620 has transformed like this
00:08:38.820 and why neighborhoods
00:08:39.540 have become so antisocial.
00:08:41.260 Why is it more common than ever
00:08:42.620 for everyone,
00:08:43.880 especially young people,
00:08:44.980 to hunker down
00:08:46.080 and watch dumb videos on the internet
00:08:47.480 rather than engage
00:08:48.260 with their communities?
00:08:48.980 Recently, I came across this video
00:08:50.360 from a man returning to his hometown
00:08:52.480 in Pomona, California
00:08:54.980 and he identifies the problem immediately.
00:08:57.400 Watch.
00:08:58.360 So this is the home
00:08:59.860 that I spent most of my childhood in.
00:09:04.320 When I lived here,
00:09:05.640 none of these fences were here.
00:09:08.160 My neighborhood now
00:09:09.660 is not like it used to be.
00:09:13.440 All these fences and palm trees weren't here.
00:09:16.140 You could run from yard to yard
00:09:17.820 through each another's yard.
00:09:19.660 All my friends,
00:09:20.500 we just run right through each neighborhood.
00:09:23.380 As you can tell,
00:09:25.260 this is what immigrant progress is.
00:09:29.600 This is where,
00:09:31.100 this is totally Hispanic now.
00:09:34.040 It's not even close to being
00:09:35.480 when I grew up.
00:09:37.680 This is where it is.
00:09:39.280 You see the screen doors with iron?
00:09:44.780 That's how they're living
00:09:46.140 in my old neighborhood.
00:09:47.680 They're locked in.
00:09:48.780 They're caged in.
00:09:50.160 They're living in a prison.
00:09:53.240 This is where my,
00:09:54.680 this is where my grandmother lived.
00:09:59.660 And all of this,
00:10:03.800 there was bushes in between each house,
00:10:06.240 but none of these gates,
00:10:07.860 none of the dogs,
00:10:09.540 this is a totally Latino neighborhood now.
00:10:12.040 Now, you don't see,
00:10:14.220 you don't see a neighborhood
00:10:17.100 that's welcoming now.
00:10:19.320 Certainly not like it was
00:10:20.900 in the 70s and 80s.
00:10:22.800 It's changed quite a bit.
00:10:25.060 Now, his firsthand observation
00:10:26.660 that higher immigrant populations
00:10:28.260 have made his community
00:10:29.560 more insular and more antisocial
00:10:31.640 is actually something
00:10:33.560 we do have data to support.
00:10:34.960 This is data that's fallen out of favor
00:10:36.520 in modern academia,
00:10:37.600 but 20 years ago was the consensus.
00:10:39.560 Earlier, I mentioned Robert Putnam
00:10:40.820 in his book, Bowling Alone.
00:10:41.880 But separate from that book,
00:10:42.660 Putnam also published findings
00:10:44.120 that clearly demonstrate
00:10:45.000 the effect of diversity
00:10:46.760 on community engagement.
00:10:49.000 And the New York Times,
00:10:49.740 of all places,
00:10:50.380 promoted his work.
00:10:51.400 Here's what they wrote.
00:10:52.700 Quote,
00:10:53.000 Harvard political scientist
00:10:54.100 Robert Putnam has found
00:10:55.280 that the greater the diversity
00:10:56.700 in a community,
00:10:57.940 the fewer people vote
00:10:59.100 and the less they volunteer,
00:11:00.760 the less they give to charity
00:11:01.740 and work on community projects.
00:11:03.000 In the most diverse communities,
00:11:04.660 neighbors trust one another
00:11:05.960 about half as much
00:11:06.840 as they do
00:11:07.160 in the most homogenous settings.
00:11:08.300 The study,
00:11:09.440 the largest ever
00:11:10.060 on civic engagement
00:11:10.820 in America,
00:11:11.700 found that virtually
00:11:12.160 all measures of civic health
00:11:13.860 are lower
00:11:14.680 in more diverse settings.
00:11:17.040 Now, Putnam
00:11:17.480 conducted his research
00:11:19.500 by sending surveys
00:11:20.660 to 41 different U.S. communities
00:11:23.140 and he asked residents
00:11:24.740 about, you know,
00:11:25.820 how much they trusted
00:11:27.100 their neighbors.
00:11:28.060 He found that people
00:11:28.680 living in more diverse communities,
00:11:30.220 quote,
00:11:30.960 tend to distrust
00:11:32.080 their neighbors
00:11:32.520 regardless of the color
00:11:33.360 of their skin
00:11:33.900 to withdraw
00:11:34.800 even from close friends
00:11:36.220 to expect the worst
00:11:37.840 from their community
00:11:38.440 and its leaders
00:11:38.960 to volunteer less,
00:11:40.780 give less to charity
00:11:41.460 and work on community projects
00:11:42.500 less often,
00:11:43.180 to register to vote less,
00:11:44.520 to agitate for social reform more,
00:11:46.880 but have less faith
00:11:47.680 that they can actually
00:11:48.220 make a difference
00:11:48.700 and to huddle unhappily
00:11:50.140 in front of the television.
00:11:51.880 You ever feel too busy
00:11:53.060 to make healthy choices?
00:11:54.440 Do you find yourself
00:11:55.080 too tired at the end of the day
00:11:56.220 to cook a healthy meal
00:11:57.100 and find yourself
00:11:57.800 frequenting your favorite
00:11:59.320 drive-thru
00:12:00.000 more than you would like?
00:12:00.980 Well, you're not alone.
00:12:02.260 Life can make it hard
00:12:03.100 to make healthy choices sometimes,
00:12:04.880 but there is one option
00:12:05.840 that even the busiest person
00:12:07.220 can make time for
00:12:08.360 and that is
00:12:08.740 Balance of Nature.
00:12:09.500 Balance of Nature's
00:12:10.100 whole health system
00:12:11.780 supplements make it easy
00:12:12.920 to eat the fruits,
00:12:14.220 veggies,
00:12:14.600 spices,
00:12:14.960 and fibers
00:12:15.360 that you're supposed to eat
00:12:16.260 on a daily basis.
00:12:17.300 You can take them
00:12:17.900 however you like,
00:12:18.540 swallow them with water,
00:12:19.640 chew them,
00:12:20.140 or open the capsules
00:12:21.240 and mix the powder
00:12:22.000 into your meals
00:12:22.720 or drinks inside.
00:12:23.800 You'll find 47 ingredients
00:12:25.020 from 100% real,
00:12:26.340 whole fruits,
00:12:26.900 vegetables,
00:12:27.320 spices,
00:12:27.580 and fibers,
00:12:28.220 everything from cinnamon
00:12:29.000 to turmeric,
00:12:29.960 mango to pineapple,
00:12:31.220 and spinach to mushrooms.
00:12:32.560 Simple way to give your body
00:12:34.160 the nutrition it needs
00:12:35.020 every day.
00:12:35.500 I personally love it
00:12:36.200 because of its convenience.
00:12:38.000 When I'm traveling for work
00:12:38.860 or trying to keep up
00:12:40.060 with the kids,
00:12:40.500 it gives me a simple,
00:12:42.120 no-mess and no-stress way
00:12:43.760 to make sure I'm getting
00:12:44.520 all the essential nutrients
00:12:45.700 in my diet.
00:12:47.120 New and existing customers
00:12:48.240 can get 50% off
00:12:49.520 the whole health system
00:12:50.600 for life
00:12:51.240 with this limited time offer.
00:12:52.620 Go to balanceofnature.com
00:12:53.900 to claim this offer.
00:12:55.260 As Putnam worded it,
00:12:57.220 quote,
00:12:57.380 people living in ethnically
00:12:58.540 diverse settings
00:12:59.360 appear to hunker down,
00:13:00.620 that is,
00:13:01.500 to pull in like a turtle.
00:13:03.880 And it wasn't just Putnam
00:13:04.720 who came to this conclusion,
00:13:06.580 quote,
00:13:07.060 economist Matthew Kahn
00:13:08.360 of UCLA
00:13:09.640 and Dora Costa
00:13:10.460 of MIT
00:13:11.340 reviewed 15 recent studies
00:13:12.780 on a 2003 paper,
00:13:13.820 all of which linked diversity
00:13:14.900 with lower levels
00:13:15.740 of social capital.
00:13:17.040 Greater ethnic diversity
00:13:18.080 was linked, for example,
00:13:19.060 to lower school funding,
00:13:20.820 census response rates,
00:13:22.000 and trust in others.
00:13:23.040 Other research documented
00:13:24.720 higher desertion rates
00:13:26.180 in the civil war
00:13:27.300 among Union Army soldiers
00:13:29.000 serving in companies
00:13:29.880 whose soldiers varied more
00:13:31.480 by age, occupation,
00:13:32.620 and birthplace.
00:13:34.540 Now, again,
00:13:35.060 all these studies
00:13:35.980 are from 2003 or so.
00:13:37.240 It's become extremely
00:13:37.880 unfashionable
00:13:38.660 to make this kind of point
00:13:40.340 in public.
00:13:41.720 But recently,
00:13:42.460 as you may have seen,
00:13:43.360 J.D. Vance
00:13:44.040 went ahead and did it anyway.
00:13:46.400 Watch.
00:13:47.440 Let's say a family of five
00:13:49.400 that you've known
00:13:49.900 for five years,
00:13:50.840 10 years,
00:13:51.680 moves out of a house,
00:13:52.600 is actually evicted
00:13:53.480 from the house
00:13:54.100 because there are people
00:13:54.960 who are going to pay
00:13:55.580 more for rent.
00:13:56.740 And then what happens
00:13:57.540 is 20 people
00:13:59.280 move into a three-bedroom house,
00:14:01.480 20 people from
00:14:02.240 a totally different culture,
00:14:04.040 totally different ways
00:14:04.960 of interacting.
00:14:06.320 Again,
00:14:06.640 we can respect their dignity
00:14:08.240 while also being angry
00:14:10.200 at the Biden administration
00:14:11.360 for letting that situation happen
00:14:13.180 and recognizing
00:14:14.340 that their next-door neighbors
00:14:15.540 are going to say,
00:14:16.040 well, wait a second.
00:14:16.920 What is going on here?
00:14:18.200 I don't know these people.
00:14:19.600 They don't speak
00:14:20.220 the same language
00:14:21.000 that I do.
00:14:21.680 And because there are 20
00:14:23.580 in the house next door,
00:14:24.820 it's a little bit rowdier
00:14:26.120 than it was
00:14:26.840 when there was just
00:14:27.380 a family of four,
00:14:28.340 a family of five.
00:14:29.280 It is totally reasonable
00:14:30.860 and acceptable
00:14:31.960 for American citizens
00:14:33.340 to look at their
00:14:34.560 next-door neighbors
00:14:35.240 and say,
00:14:35.880 I want to live next to people
00:14:37.580 who I have something
00:14:38.900 in common with.
00:14:39.860 I don't want to live next
00:14:41.060 to four families
00:14:42.480 of strangers.
00:14:43.560 There's a reason
00:14:44.320 that pretty much
00:14:44.720 every population,
00:14:45.680 whether they're in the suburbs,
00:14:46.840 in prison,
00:14:47.660 on a battlefield,
00:14:48.500 or anywhere,
00:14:48.900 tends to self-segregate
00:14:50.940 along the lines
00:14:51.600 of race,
00:14:52.200 national origin,
00:14:52.840 and all of that.
00:14:54.220 It's not because
00:14:54.700 they have some irrational
00:14:56.080 hatred of anyone else.
00:14:57.660 It's because they have
00:14:58.100 a rational preference
00:14:59.100 to be around people
00:15:00.080 who speak their language,
00:15:02.460 share a common history
00:15:03.300 and culture,
00:15:03.900 and behave in ways
00:15:05.340 that they expect
00:15:06.300 people to act.
00:15:07.640 But for most Americans,
00:15:08.540 it's impossible
00:15:09.180 to find a community
00:15:09.880 like that at the moment.
00:15:11.720 And it's especially
00:15:12.360 hard for children.
00:15:13.960 Only around 20%
00:15:14.880 of the students
00:15:15.320 in California public schools
00:15:16.380 are white.
00:15:17.600 Only around 30%
00:15:18.500 of the children
00:15:18.860 in Texas are white.
00:15:19.880 Not too long ago,
00:15:20.620 those numbers
00:15:21.000 were north of 90%.
00:15:22.360 So it's harder
00:15:23.200 for kids to make friends
00:15:24.480 due to demographic change,
00:15:25.660 and it's harder
00:15:26.080 for their parents
00:15:26.880 to connect
00:15:27.440 with other parents
00:15:28.180 as well.
00:15:29.820 So what Vance said
00:15:30.600 should be completely
00:15:31.360 uncontroversial,
00:15:32.200 but it wasn't.
00:15:32.680 It sparked a week-long
00:15:33.560 outrage cycle,
00:15:34.600 which included this response
00:15:35.940 from Zoran Mamdani,
00:15:37.220 the Muslim socialist
00:15:38.120 who has now taken over
00:15:39.320 the city of New York.
00:15:41.000 This language
00:15:41.880 from the vice president
00:15:43.060 of this country,
00:15:44.260 it betrays so much
00:15:47.420 of the promise
00:15:48.080 that we have
00:15:48.760 as a nation.
00:15:50.580 And I stand here
00:15:52.420 in Diversity Plaza
00:15:53.440 proud to be
00:15:56.000 an immigrant New Yorker.
00:15:57.560 Proud to call
00:15:58.800 this borough my home.
00:16:00.340 A borough where
00:16:01.220 there are more languages
00:16:02.100 spoken than most cities
00:16:03.260 in the world.
00:16:04.320 And proud to be
00:16:05.800 on the precipice
00:16:06.420 of becoming
00:16:06.800 our first immigrant
00:16:07.540 mayor of the city
00:16:08.440 in generations.
00:16:09.760 And the fact
00:16:10.600 that the vice president
00:16:11.620 would view
00:16:12.680 someone speaking
00:16:14.140 a different language
00:16:14.900 in this country
00:16:15.580 as something
00:16:16.120 that
00:16:17.020 should be avoided,
00:16:21.520 as something
00:16:22.060 that
00:16:23.000 could be pushed
00:16:26.700 out of our reality.
00:16:28.660 It is
00:16:29.260 so emblematic
00:16:32.060 of the politics
00:16:32.800 that we are trying
00:16:34.060 to show a contrast
00:16:35.000 to a politics
00:16:35.800 that has room
00:16:36.520 for each and every person
00:16:37.640 who calls the city off.
00:16:38.780 What Mamdani
00:16:39.360 doesn't want to say,
00:16:40.120 although he clearly
00:16:40.640 believes it,
00:16:41.620 is that he's also
00:16:42.660 a proponent
00:16:43.540 of homogenous neighborhoods.
00:16:45.840 He just wants
00:16:46.480 homogenous neighborhoods
00:16:47.560 without white people,
00:16:49.040 which is why he plans
00:16:50.080 to raise taxes
00:16:50.800 on white people
00:16:51.420 to force as many
00:16:52.360 of them out
00:16:52.920 of the city
00:16:53.400 as possible.
00:16:54.520 We went on your website
00:16:55.840 and realized
00:16:56.720 there's a policy proposal
00:16:57.880 that says your plan,
00:16:58.900 and I'm going to
00:16:59.600 quote it for folks,
00:17:00.640 is to shift
00:17:01.200 the tax burden
00:17:02.040 from overtaxed homeowners
00:17:03.780 in the outer boroughs
00:17:05.000 to more expensive homes
00:17:06.740 in richer
00:17:07.400 and whiter neighborhoods.
00:17:09.160 Explain why you are
00:17:10.880 bringing race
00:17:12.040 into your tax proposal.
00:17:13.960 That is just
00:17:14.420 a description
00:17:15.420 of what we see
00:17:16.400 right now.
00:17:17.100 It's not driven
00:17:17.680 by race,
00:17:18.200 it's more of an assessment
00:17:19.020 of what neighborhoods
00:17:19.900 are being undertaxed
00:17:20.860 versus overtaxed.
00:17:21.880 So no plans
00:17:22.780 to change that language
00:17:23.660 on your website?
00:17:25.500 The focus here
00:17:26.740 is to actually ensure
00:17:28.000 a fair property tax system,
00:17:29.540 and the use of that language
00:17:30.660 is just an assessment
00:17:31.360 of the neighborhood.
00:17:32.080 All right.
00:17:32.380 This is how Mom Donnie
00:17:33.720 is planning to sell
00:17:35.020 the large-scale replacement
00:17:36.300 of whites in New York,
00:17:37.440 which has already been
00:17:38.660 well underway
00:17:39.260 for the better part
00:17:39.940 of a century.
00:17:40.640 According to data
00:17:41.260 from the mayor's office,
00:17:42.500 one in five New Yorkers
00:17:43.400 can't speak the English language.
00:17:44.780 40% weren't born
00:17:45.820 in this country.
00:17:46.900 If you encounter
00:17:47.420 a random New Yorker
00:17:48.240 on the street,
00:17:48.680 there's a good chance
00:17:49.240 he can't understand
00:17:49.800 a word you're saying,
00:17:51.220 hates everything you stand for,
00:17:53.060 and survives off
00:17:53.920 your tax dollars.
00:17:55.440 And yet in New York,
00:17:56.240 40% of people living
00:17:57.220 in rent-controlled housing
00:17:58.260 are foreign-borns,
00:17:59.540 and so Americans
00:18:00.420 are paying for these people,
00:18:02.380 who despise us,
00:18:04.060 can't relate to us
00:18:04.940 in any meaningful way,
00:18:06.700 yet we're paying for them
00:18:07.440 to take our property from us.
00:18:09.180 If you're an American
00:18:10.020 who wants to rent
00:18:11.060 a tiny one-bedroom apartment
00:18:12.240 in New York,
00:18:13.060 you'll easily spend
00:18:14.420 more than $2,000 a month,
00:18:16.200 and many tenants
00:18:16.860 in rent-controlled units
00:18:17.760 pay less than half of that.
00:18:20.220 This phenomenon
00:18:20.800 is not just playing out
00:18:22.520 in New York.
00:18:22.940 We've talked at length
00:18:23.640 about communities
00:18:24.160 like Dearborn and Minneapolis,
00:18:25.620 but it's far more
00:18:26.260 widespread than that.
00:18:27.100 Patients and Somalis
00:18:27.960 have seized control
00:18:28.740 of entire communities
00:18:29.480 in Ohio and Washington State,
00:18:31.000 for example,
00:18:31.500 and in southern states
00:18:32.220 including Tennessee,
00:18:33.100 Kentucky,
00:18:33.620 North and South Dakota,
00:18:34.980 Maryland, and so on.
00:18:36.060 The population of Hispanics
00:18:37.420 has grown drastically,
00:18:39.240 often by more than 200%,
00:18:41.100 just the last two decades.
00:18:43.120 The trajectory is bad,
00:18:44.460 and it's getting worse.
00:18:46.000 Whites are no longer
00:18:47.280 the majority of births
00:18:48.200 in many states.
00:18:49.280 Leave it to Meaver
00:18:49.880 is basically a foreign concept
00:18:51.400 for a foreign country now.
00:18:54.260 Who voted for that,
00:18:55.080 by the way?
00:18:56.200 Well, we all know
00:18:56.960 the answer to that question.
00:18:58.500 More than any other
00:18:59.400 single factor,
00:19:00.080 this is the reason
00:19:00.920 that neighborliness has died.
00:19:03.060 This is the reason
00:19:03.640 that communities have decayed
00:19:04.880 and neighborhoods
00:19:05.380 have become insular.
00:19:07.220 We have much less in common
00:19:08.400 with one another
00:19:09.040 than ever before.
00:19:10.640 And it's not simply
00:19:11.460 that we're importing
00:19:12.140 more immigrants.
00:19:13.000 It's that the foreigners
00:19:13.760 we're importing
00:19:14.400 are nothing like the Irish
00:19:16.280 or the Germans
00:19:16.820 or the Brits.
00:19:17.340 They're people who harbor
00:19:18.100 a deep and abiding disdain
00:19:19.600 for this country
00:19:20.180 and come from cultures
00:19:20.940 that are completely alien
00:19:22.640 to our own,
00:19:23.500 that have nothing in common
00:19:24.340 with ours.
00:19:25.980 And therefore,
00:19:26.560 more Americans,
00:19:27.160 including children,
00:19:27.680 are turning to the internet
00:19:28.500 and social media
00:19:29.200 for a faint proxy
00:19:30.680 of real social interaction
00:19:32.920 and community.
00:19:34.240 25 years ago,
00:19:35.020 Robert Putnam
00:19:35.620 sounded the alarm about this.
00:19:37.400 He predicted exactly
00:19:38.220 what would happen.
00:19:39.460 And rather than address
00:19:40.420 what he said,
00:19:41.060 his more controversial conclusions
00:19:42.700 were memory hold.
00:19:44.580 As a result,
00:19:45.380 everyone in this country,
00:19:46.960 particularly people
00:19:47.640 who wish they lived
00:19:48.660 in a better neighborhood,
00:19:49.960 are now suffering
00:19:50.780 the inevitable consequences.