From the Kitchen Table: The Duffys - The Slap: How Far Will You Go To Defend Your Wife?

Episode Date: March 31, 2022

This week, Sean and Rachel sit down at The Kitchen Table to discuss various hot topics such as that moment at the Oscars and Disney's woke agenda. The Duffy's weigh in on Will Smith and Jada Pinkett Smith's marriage, stating that there was more to The Slap than a simple act of defense. Later, they criticize Disney for 'pushing a progressive LGBTQ agenda.' Follow Sean and Rachel on Twitter: @SeanDuffyWI & @RCamposDuffy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This NFL season, get in on all the hard-hitting action with FanDuel, North America's number one sportsbook. You can bet on anything from money lines to spreads and player props, or combine your bets in a same-game parlay for a shot at an even bigger payout. Plus, with super-simple live betting, lightning-fast bet settlement, and instant withdrawals, FanDuel makes betting on the NFL easier than ever before. So make the most of this football season and download FanDuel today. 19-plus and physically located in Ontario.

Gambling problem? Call 1-866-531-2600 or visit connectsontario.ca. Hey everyone, welcome to From the Kitchen Table. I'm your host, Sean Duffy, along with my co-host for the podcast, but also my partner in life, Rachel Campos Duffy. Thank you, Sean. And I'm so happy to be back here with you at our kitchen table. And there's a couple of hot topics that we're just going to break down for everybody today. So one of them is what's happening with Disney.

Sean, you and I love Disney. Our kids love Disney. And we've kind of seen the writing on the wall with Disney. And we've tried to believe it wasn't really happening. Well, this week, we got news that it really is happening. So I want to break down those secret videos, not so secret videos of all the indoctrination and ideology that's being promulgated on our kids over at Disney. But first, we're going to talk about the slap heard around the world, the incident at the Oscars between Chris Rock and Will Smith, and of course, Jada Pinkett was part of that. And I think a lot of people are focusing on the violence of it. But I thought, Sean, it would be interesting for us to talk about the marriage side of this. I mean,

there's a lot of layers to this story, Sean. Yeah. So as you and I both met on reality TV, we met through culture, but I've kind of left culture and dove into politics and you drag me back into culture all the time. All the time. I love this stuff. I can't get away from it. Why don't you lay out what happened and then let's talk about it. Yeah, Rachel. So at the Oscars, which I didn't watch, I'm boycotting because they're so fucking liberal, but I saw the next morning we had Chris Rock tell a joke. And by the way, if you go to the Oscars and you're going to,

and you're up for one of the big nominations, like, you know, the actor of the year, if that's what they're even called, or movie of the year, they tell jokes about you. Right. So, and, and Chris Rock is incredibly funny and tells a joke about Jada Pinkett starring in GI Jane too, right. Because she, she has a medical condition with her hair. So she shaved her head. Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, Sean.

Wait, no, no, no, no. So I don't think- Wait, are you trying to make me tell cultural stories? Is that what this is about? You like want to see me struggle through the story? You like make me tell it. Is that what this is about? Well, he made a

joke about about jada pinkett looking like gi jane no if it's not clear whether chris rock knew that jada pinkett had alopecia and had been suffering from alopecia which is a condition that makes your hair fall out and obviously women are really sensitive about that um and it can it can make people really self-conscious. And so she shaved her head saying, I'm not going to hide this, made a joke about it. And we don't know whether he knew that she was suffering from that or that was just a fashion choice of hers, right? And so Jada Pinkett was hurt. Her husband knew that she was going to be hurt by that comment. And all of a sudden, he jumps up on stage

sean and he clocks chris rock i think chris rock thought it was a joke at first right yeah so i thought it was interesting when i re-watched the video when the joke was told will smith was actually laughing at the joke right like you're supposed to do right they're making fun of you you're getting roasted they, oftentimes not so favorable things in these jokes. Will Smith is laughing, but I think shortly thereafter, you could tell that Jada Pinkett didn't take the joke very well. And so Will Smith throws the stage and, and totally open, open hand slaps Chris Rock. I mean, it's like Will Smith is like back in his Ali stage when he's playing Ali in the movies and totally clocks him. And it's a great, great form. But here's I think it's

for our conversation. I think it's interesting, you know, men defending their women. Right. Or even a woman defending their husband. And this is this is a hard one one because obviously you don't want to have your wife made fun of. But when you agree to go to the show, that is part of the deal. And some of the jokes can be offensive. They can be hurtful. Listen, if I had to punch everybody out that offended you or tried to offend you on social media and other places, Rachel. You would be fighting everybody, everyone on Twitter. I would fight all day long, right?

And at some point when you're in the public sphere, you accept this and you have to roll with it. And so, again, there are times that you have to, you know, you defend your partner, you defend your spouse, you defend your family, you defend your kids. But this is not the place to do it. And I think this sends a really bad message to America or people that look up to Will Smith to say, if someone says something offensive at an event where they're going to say offensive things, the appropriate response is violence.

I mean, he could have yelled out from, you know, from from his front row seat. He could have cast as Chris Rock. He could have done a number of things, but to resort to violence. Last as Chris Rock. He could have done a number of things, but to resort to violence. And I think the classiest thing he could have done, Sean, was just give a stone face look at him. But that said, I think what's interesting about the story, and I don't think he's, you know, promoting violence. I think you're taking it too far. I think that this story is very layered. First of all, Will Smith was, you know, has issues as a child. Childhood trauma is real.

It's real stuff. And he was raised in a violent home where he watched his father while he helplessly watched his father beat up his mother. And he wrote in his memoir or one of his books, he wrote about guilty as a kid, because he could not defend his mom and feeling like a coward, because he didn't, he wasn't able to jump in and protect his mother. And so he's carrying that wounding with him. Again, he's a grown ass man, I get it. But still, these are real things that people deal with. On top of that trauma, he's been re-traumatized by the affair and the open marriage situation that his wife, it appears that his wife wanted for their marriage.

And so Jada Pinkett, and by the way, there are also rumors that Jada and Chris Rock had an affair. I don't know how true that is, but that could be another layer to this whole thing. But what we do for sure know about is that there is this rapper, August Alsina. He was friends with the Pinkett's son and a 17 year old son. He's kind of a youngish guy. I think he was born in 1992. How old does that make him right now, Sean? I believe he's 27, 28 right now. Yeah. So I don't know when this affair was, how long ago,

but this is a youngish guy. Jada is probably Jada and Will are our age. You know, I think Will is even older than us um but anyway yeah august had an affair um with jada pinkett he talked about it on a very popular morning radio show and then jada and will were forced then to acknowledge it and admit it which they did on jada's um has a uh social media show. I forget the name of it. It's kind of interesting where she talks about different issues, personal issues in her life.

Red Table. Thank you, Sean. See, you do know pop culture, Sean. Thank you. I almost said Red Pill. You made me read a couple of articles. I did. It's not Red Pill.

It's not. These people aren't being red pilled. It's red table. And so they admitted it on that, Sean. And they said, well, listen, we were separated at the time. August says that he had Will's blessing, which Will's like, not exactly. We were separated. I didn't give you my blessing to sleep with my wife. But they had't, you know, there's a question. Was it, was this something that

happened during a separation? Was, did they have an open marriage? Um, whatever, just so you know, by the way, August, August, I'll see in a famous song is called. I love this. Um, So in any case, that's the situation that's coloring this entire incident. And so I wonder if he is Will Smith was acting out on a lot of emotions that he had in that moment. You are way too graceful giving him a pass. Right. So this has been going on for some time and right he's i i don't know the all the history that you do of his uh child rearing and the pain he went through which is i'm sure very real if you watched his mother be abused i i mean it's it's you don't get over that you don't get over that but he's a but but he's a 50 year old man and i'm sure there's

been jokes told about him not just in his wife's hair but about their open sure there's been jokes told about him, not just in his wife's hair, but about their open relationship. There's a lot of things that have happened that he's had to endure. And what do men do, right? They have to restrain themselves, number one. But everybody makes mistakes. And if he was in the front row seat and go, listen, I overreacted. I made a mistake. I made a mistake shortly thereafter he's given this award and gives us tear he's crying on stage and you know gives us a dress that would have been the appropriate time to go listen I didn't act

well and I want to apologize to Chris Rock I shouldn't have done that I'm sorry I love you brother and you know that was inappropriate and because there's two things here. One, let's not, I mean, words are not violence. Okay. The words that Chris Rock used were not violence. And that doesn't excuse Will Smith to act violently. But then again, everyone makes mistakes. What a great lesson if he overreacted to then go, no, I'm not going to, he apologized to the Academy and he apologized to his castmates. He didn't apologize to the one guy who he hit and he should have apologized to him. And I think that could have been a redeeming moment in what happened at the awards. It sends a right message to go, we're not perfect.

But when we're not perfect, we actually take responsibility for it. And we apologize for our bad actions. That's my takeaway. But unless Jada had an affair with Chris Rock and Will Smith knows that. And so this thing is much more layered. All of us are human. And I think it goes back to their relationship. And listen, everybody's marriage, you know, in Spanish, we say,

cada patrimonio es su mundo, which means every marriage is their own world, right? And so it's really, you know, it's not good to judge other people's marriage because you just don't know all the shit that's going on in that marriage. Sorry, excuse my French. But we don't know what's going on in people's marriages. The difference here is this couple has been very open talking about their marriage and their struggles and their ups. And they've had a lot of them and they're down. And in this case, I think what's really interesting about this whole conversation is the marriage and the commitment and the impact that it's clearly having on Will Smith's mental state.

So one of the things that they tried to promulgate, I think, and is like, hey, marriages are complicated and marriages, you know, they talked about open marriages. And, you know, anytime I hear the word reinventing anything, my red flags go up. Reinventing law enforcement, reinventing, you know, everything else, reinventing marriage. Marriage is commitment. No one is going to feel good over the long haul about a relationship where they know that their spouse is sleeping with someone else. This is not what marriage was intended to be. And people will end up very unhappy in those situations. And I think that, you know, it seems very modern and avant-garde to say, see, we're grown adults, we're so modern,

and we can handle this kind of new way of having a relationship. But in the end, to me, what I saw, not just in the moment that he clocked Chris Rock, but also the emotional mess he kind of was during his speech, his acceptance speech, is this is a man who's very hurt. And I think that the childhood wounding that he had, which is very real, maybe could have been healed through his marriage. through his marriage. But I don't think the way they're going about marriage, in my humble opinion, is going to help him, is going to make him happy. He's clearly somebody who's having a mental breakdown. We'll be right back with much more after this. Your teen requested a ride, but this time, not from you. It's through their Uber Teen account.

It's an Uber account that allows your teen to request a ride under your supervision with live trip tracking and highly rated drivers. Add your teen to your Uber account today. So can I give you my take on this open marriage? Well, obviously, I don't think open marriages work. Why? We both agree with that. We're reinventing marriage, an institution that goes back to

probably the start of human beings. We find mates and we mate for life and we have families and kids and we live in clans. That's what we do. But here you have this couple that's confronted with a problem. Jada Pinkett wants to see other people, and she wants to act upon these urges. And so what normally happens is couples will separate.

They'll get a divorce. They will leave each other, and they'll go their separate ways, and a lot of pain comes from that separation, right? Not just for the couple, but for their children as well. separation, right? Not just for the couple, but for their children as well. And what in this scenario, instead of divorcing, which again, leads to these things, when you have a spouse that wants to do this, they get divorced, they chose a different path to go, okay, how do we work through this? We do love each other, you have these urges, we can walk down this path and still try to stay together. So is this Will Smith showing incredible love and affection for Jada Pinkett when she's going through these bad desires? Or are they trying to sell America and sell the world on open relationships and that they're

healthy? Because I would tell you that I don't think Will Smith would ever tell you that he thinks that this was the right kind of relationship for his marriage. He's talked about monogamy and how monogamy was good for his marriage. They transitioned into this new open concept when she wanted to go other places with other men. And then he did the same thing. Again, I don't think it works out well. It creates a lot of pain. However, the other, the flip side of that is the alternative is divorce, right? And so I don't know which one is better, Rachel. I don't have a thought on that, but they've chosen to stay together. So their children have weighed in on it. Their daughter has said on social media and on the mother's show that she's grateful that they're not divorced. And I

think most kids want their parents to be together. And maybe that, that, you know, this situation was worth it to them so that they could end up together. I'm just saying the whole thing, he, he does not look happy. Um, so if they are, if, if this is, uh, um, uh is an advertisement for open marriage, it's not selling it to me. He looks very unhappy. He looks very disturbed. And there's just a lot of pain that's caused from that. And I think that while it's admirable that they're still together and they clearly have a very deep love and friendship and the basis of a marriage, this this is clearly affecting, you know, listen, his male pride.

It's affecting him. And he and I think he's having to act out in these macho ways in order to sort of compensate for how emasculated he feels by the fact that he, order to sort of compensate for how emasculated he feels by the fact that he, you know, in a very public way, his wife is saying, this man is not enough for me. I think that's really hard for men. I think it's really hard for a couple to survive. I believe that, you know, going back to our original idea here, Sean, reinventing marriage not probably not a good idea. Our marriage is complicated. Our marriage is hard work. Of course they are. Um, can people recover from not with you? Oh, it's easy with you. We had, yeah, sure. We had, um, we had the Robertsons on, um, and they were so awesome. Lisa and Al. And if you haven't seen this or heard this podcast that we have, go back and find it.

This podcast with Lisa and Al Robertson was amazing. And this was a couple that dealt with infidelity, but dealt with it in a Christian, through a Christian framework, if you will, and they found their way back to each other and through forgiveness. It's a beautiful, beautiful story of a marriage that was broken and came back. Now, Will and Jada were dabbling in Scientology. I don't know if they still are Scientologists. And I don't know the theology behind Scientology. I'm sure I would not understand it and I don't want to be part of it. But in the Christian framework, of course, there's forgiveness. I mean, the reason Jesus died on the cross was forgiveness and reconciliation and redemption. And so all of that is present in Al and

Lisa's beautiful, beautiful broken love story. And I hope, again, that people look to that, listen to that podcast as a better model for how to deal with these kinds of very complicated and traumatic situations in marriages. and traumatic situations in marriages. But again, Sean, I think the bottom line is Will Smith, the moment we saw hit rock, I think was one of the most loaded moments. It was about Chris rock and perhaps these rumors true or not about Chris rock and his wife. It was about his, his, his upbringing. It was about the open marriage.

It was about the alopecia and the health issues that they're dealing with. It was about, and there were tinges of even the character he was playing, this tough, protective father of Serena and Venus Williams, which, you know, could also, you know, sometimes actors, you know, take on these characters. I think there's a lot of layers to this. I think that's why it was the most fascinating moment in Academy Award history.

Yes. It's a couple of comments on what you said. When the movie was out, he was out of character. He didn't have to play the dad any longer. You're so mean, Sean. Right, he was. There's that point. I think you bring up a really interesting comparison between the Robertsons and Will Smith and Jada Pinkett,

because both had similar situations and they both dealt with it in very different ways. And I imagine the appropriate approach, like the Robertsons would have been for Jada Pinkett to go, listen, I have these issues and I have some things from my childhood. And she talked about how she grew through this, these affairs and matured. Maybe a better way would be to go to counseling. Maybe a better way would be is to kind of navigate those issues with the person that you love. Will Smith and Jada Pinkett? Well, it didn't work.

You need a new counselor. Well, it didn't work because they had an open marriage. They need a non-scientology counselor. I want to bring it back. I think when I look at what he did, you're confronted with an instantaneous decision. And again, so at what point do I step up and defend you? Right. At what point do I resort to violence? If, if someone's coming after my wife and again,

if you're walking to the park and someone attacks you, someone uses violence against my wife, obviously I'm going to stand up and defend my wife. Right. But if someone's, again, if someone's using the words to, to, to, to offend you and especially at an award show, is that the appropriate time? And I think everyone is confronted with this idea of when is it right to stand up and defend? And, and when is it right to step back? And you don't want to get that wrong, Rachel. If, if you want, if you're like, listen, this would be a huge fight. If you were like, you should have defended me and you didn't defend me, you would have a week long fight over that. Right. I mean, so the guy can't get it wrong, right. You got it. Or if you overreact in defense and you look like a jackass, excuse my language. You don't want that either. And you're making an instantaneous

decision. You're so right. So right. And's which why i come when you get it wrong that's that's when you say i got it wrong and i apologize and i'm sorry when you when you look at a culture that says um this is okay we're going to celebrate what will smith did and by the way we're not going to prosecute him we're not there's there and i'm not advocating that that he should be prosecuted uh chris rock took the higher road no no listen he got pushed in the in the head now i'm not saying he should be prosecuted i think i think chris rock did the right thing to go listen i i'm gonna let this go i'm gonna be the bigger man i'm gonna do what what uh what will smith should have done which is i'm gonna walk away and sometimes the bigger man is to walk away and that's what chris

rock did in this situation. And I, and I look at that and go good on good on him for being a big man to go. Yep. I took the blow. Yes. I was open hand slapped at the awards for telling a joke, which I'm supposed to, I'm paid to tell jokes. That's what I do. And I'm going to be the big man here, even though I was embarrassed. That's my, that's kind of my take anywhere. I look there on the one hand, you could say, you know,

being a man is controlling your emotions. Right. And so I hear you on that. On the other hand, you know, there were a lot of black women that weighed in on this situation and a lot of them said, Hey, you know what? A lot of black women don't get a lot of men to stand up for them. Right. A lot of black women feel disrespected in the culture or even through their men. And so, you know, you had Jamal Hill and a few other prominent black women saying, we respect that he stood up for his woman. And I can see that. And, you know, I think it would be difficult, Sean,'t know what i would i mean every woman wants her knight in shining armor to to to defend her you know and so it's complicated that certainly was

not the venue for it um and again i think he was acting out on a lot of things including the the hurt that he has that he's carrying from jada herself right he's carrying that and and so this is a very complicated situation. It's not black and white. It's not black and white, like the sexiest moment in my marriage from Sean. Can I tell everybody what happened to us in Spain? When you, when you defended me, we have our own moment. Okay. So every, so I'm very fortunate that in my marriage, I have a moment. So Sean and I were in Spain. We were actually traveling with a friend, Congressman Jim Sensenbrenner. And Sean was who we love.

And he was, Sean was checking us in at the hotel. We, we, our flight was late. So we were, we arrived like really late at night. It was like, I don't know, like two or two in the morning or something crazy and i was walking around the lobby and i did notice there were some weird guys like some guys some guys that just seemed kind of shady that were in the lobby but i didn't think anything of it wait by the way this was not the ritz-carlton this was not the four seasons we just were traveling a bad hotel it wasn't a bad it was't a bad hotel. It was not a bad hotel. It was a nice hotel. It was not bad at all. It was a normal hotel.

And the lobby was nice and large. And these guys were sitting there. And Jim Sensenbrenner was also checking himself in. And he had a briefcase next to him. And at one moment, we weren't looking, one of those guys got up, grabbed the briefcase and ran out of the hotel. And Jim and I noticed that at the same time, we were like, oh my God, these thieves. Without even thinking, Sean, without even thinking, because actually you go again, the type of that instantaneous decision,

this could have been a deadly decision that you made. But Sean ran out, attacked the guy, wrestled the suitcase back out of his hands. And then that wasn't enough. He grabbed the guy's jacket. And the only way he was going to punch him. And the only way the guy could escape was he had to remove himself from his jacket. So by the time this altercation was over and it happened so fast, Sean was left in front of this

hotel holding the briefcase, which had he lost it, it would have been terrible. That briefcase had all of Jim's medications and everything. And the guy's jacket, which ended up having his wallet and his identity in it as well. So it was like, that was a very sexy moment, Sean, when you just kind of took a lot of, I don't know, you defended my honor and Jim said some runners. So, you know, now we, we, we, we didn't lose the briefcase and we gained a jacket in that runners. So, you know. Now, we didn't lose the briefcase and we gained a jacket in that incident. So, but it goes to the point that you make a split second decision, right?

You make a split second decision. You could have had a gun. You could have had a gun. I mean, and again, you don't want to make the wrong decision. You want to make the right one in a split second. But again, in the aftermath, you can reevaluate and say,

hey, wrong decision. I can apologize. Right decision. Your wife tells a story on your podcast, and she's happy with you. So that one turned out well for us. Anyway, let's close this out by let me just saying this. One, the moment was fitting because of all the layers of it. The Will Chris Rock slap across the world that we heard. And to open marriages, no bueno, don't work, don't make anyone happy, don't reinvent marriage. Marriage is about commitment and love and forgiveness. And that's my take of it, away from it.

I take away from it. Can I make one last point before we leave this topic, Rachel? Yeah. And you, you mentioned this all the time. The most important decision you will ever make is the person you decide to marry and marry in someone who shares your values. That's, that's not good. You're not going to be confronted with a situation where you pick the spouse. Who's like, I have a new idea. Let's remake marriage. Let's make this, let's make this an open relationship. Yeah. going to sleep with someone. Yeah. I'll come back to you. In a marriage, Rachel, we talked about this. It's a crapshoot. Oftentimes, we're always on our best behavior when we date. You don't know what you're going to always get in a spouse. And so you have to go to the fundamentals. Do you share your faith? Do you share similar values,

a similar upbringing and, you know, picking someone who shares those values, I think are the, are the, is the best recipe for success in a marriage. Um, and picking someone who might, you know, be a whole bunch of different factors, but don't have those basic traits that you have can end in disaster and a lot of pain. So if any young kids are listening, listening, listening to you're about to get married, pick the right person. Most important decision of your life. I did. Well, you don't know. You don't. Well, thank you. I did. I picked you. I think I picked well, but you know, in the end, you don't know it is a crapshoot,

but it is the most important decision you make. And if your spouse thinks, believes in an open marriage, boy, I don't know if you're going to end up happy. We'll have more of this conversation after this. What do Ontario dairy farmers bring to the table?

A million little things, but most of all, the passion and care that goes into producing the local high quality milk we all love and enjoy every day with 3200 dairy farming families across ontario sharing our love for milk there's love in every glass dairy farmers of ontario from our families to your table

everybody milk visit milk.org to learn more let's move to another topic which has been you know rallying up the country which is this disney uh situation so disney we love disney our family is a disney family we have gone to disneyland so many times we love it our kids love it um i have such fond memories of going as a kid uh sean and i just love watching our kids in Magic Kingdom and the rides and the princesses and just the wholesomeness of it all. But over the years, and we've had that advantage

of having gone when we were young all the way up until recently with our kids. And so we have seen some changes and always worried that they're going to take down the American. My, one of my favorite parts is the, is, is the whole American history area,

the Liberty square area and all the pro-America patriotic stuff that Walt Disney included in the park. But also, you know, I've wondered when, you know, they've, they've now put warning trigger labels on Peter Pan. And so how long is the Peter Pan ride going to be there? And so anyway, long story short, we have started to see in Disney movies, a lot of progressive ideas, you know, interjected in there. And now this week, Chris Ruffoo who i think has been doing such an amazing job of exposing um this this very um i think dangerous um grooming and an ideological um project by the left to infuse childhood and child entertainment with their progressive ideas.

And so these videos came out, they were like Zoom videos between people in the company and they were leaked out by a whistleblower. And in these meetings, some creative directors talked about how they have a very open agenda to inject and infuse LGBTQ and gender ideology into all of the storylines. The president or CEO of the company talked about how she, you know, wanted to make sure that there were always enough, you know, racial and gender and LGBTQ storylines as well and characters and all the movies. And so we see that there's this really, they're not trying to tell stories, Sean, that kids and parents who want wholesome Disney entertainment want, they want to use the brand of Disney, which we all think is wholesome in order to sort of interject their ideas

and, and tuck them into the storylines to indoctrinate essentially. So do, do kids want themes of gay storylines or transgender storylines in kids' movies? Does, does that make them want to watch a movie? No, it doesn't. of gay storylines or transgender storylines in kids' movies, does that make them want to watch a movie? No, it doesn't. Does it make parents want to buy the movie or rent the movie from Disney? No.

I mean, these are the traditional stories that were told by Disney. You mentioned a couple of them. That's what families want. It's wholesome. It's traditional. And that's why we go to Disney, because we know that's what families want. It's, it's, it's wholesome. It's traditional. And that's why we go to Disney because we know that's what we get. They have a brand that, um, tells me as a parent, listen, this is, this is a, this is a safe place for my kids to watch, uh, a movie or a cartoon. that they've built over the course of almost 100 years since Walt Disney first came up with Mickey Mouse, they're using that trust that we have in the company and now violating that trust to say, we want to push a different agenda that I would argue is not wholesome. Because talking to kids

about sex or pushing sexual topics to kids is not wholesome. And by the way, I don't want Disney and kind of the, it's a weird bunch, I think, that's wanting to push these themes. I don't want these themes from these weird people pushed on my kids. And so what do I do as a consumer? So you and I have Disney Plus, right?

We got stories a year ago that this was happening. And so what did I do? I canceled my Disney plus, and I was very proud of it. But the problem with that Rachel was all of a sudden a good Disney movie comes out or a classic Disney is out there and I was paying to rent it right for the kids to watch and it got to be expensive. So what did I do? I went back and I re-upped my subscription to Disney Plus, where it's what, seven bucks a month. And they get the whole library of Disney to watch at their disposal. But now I'm confronted to go,

I think we have to cancel it again because I don't want to give my money to people who do not share my values, that want to violate my trust and want to push these themes of my kids that I don't want pushed. And again, if I listen, we love going to the parks. I mean, and for kids, it's so cool. It's such a great, I mean, I never went as a kid. I went as an adult. My parents never took me to

Disney. I loved it. A few times we've been able to take our kids to the park, but it's expensive. It's over a hundred dollars a ticket. And by the way, we buy a lot of tickets. So if you go for a couple of days, it's an expensive trip. The hotels are expensive. The food's expensive. Do I want to support a company that doesn't support my values? I think the answer has to be no. And we're confronted with this conversation of,

we know our kids are going to love it. And they're going to have fun. But do we want to support a business model that doesn't support us? And I think the only way that companies like Disney change is when there is a rejection from the consumers that have funded them over the course of decades and generations that say no more. Only when that happens do they change course and go, we should go back to our our our roots which is again traditional family value entertainment exactly i think that that's absolutely true and i do think they are they are really living off the fumes of our nostalgia right sean um mean, my favorite movies from Disney and why I love the theme parks are the old movies, right? I love Snow White. I love Peter Pan. I love Dumbo and Alice in Wonderland.

I'm still living off of that. I wonder how many little kids even watch Snow White. I mean, our kids do, right? Because I love it and I make sure we play that and we love it. But, you know, and Cinderella, but so many of these things are considered misogynistic or sexist or racist. And, you know, there's different storylines now that they don't like. And, you know, that don't fit the politically correct agenda. And so what will that park be anyway in like, you know, five or 10 years? And I think what I see is, I don't know if we can, I mean, I'm grateful to Chris Ruffo for exposing this. I'm grateful for the kind of pressure that Disney should be under, by the way, Disney, who, you know, is so concerned about the so-called, don't say gay bill in Florida, which is a complete lie, but have no problem shooting Mulan

right next to a concentration camp where people are having, we did a whole segment on this, Sean, on our Facebook page once about the atrocities that the Uyghur minority population is undergoing. It's not just forced labor. They separate children from their parents, force them to be raised in basically Chinese foster homes so that they can be detached from their culture, forced abortions, forced organ donations. I mean, the list goes on, rapes, abuse, the list goes on and on

and on. It's just awful. And they have no problem with that. But then they're going to, you know, take a stand on this, on this very popular legislation in Florida. So, yeah, I'm glad that Chris Ruffo is exposing all that, Sean. But at the same time, I think about that we need to create as conservatives, as a movement, our own culture. We need to, you know, where's the theme park that we can really and the company that we can really trust to be truly wholesome and to be truly about family entertainment and not about indoctrination and not about grooming kids and not about sexualizing kids and injecting sexualized storylines into into entertainment? into entertainment because it's not just the Disney movies, the Disney shows that kids get. It's those sitcoms that are actually some of the most pernicious.

Well, I think you make a good point with the, with the quote, don't say gay bill, which is a bill, which many of you guys all know this, but it's a bill in Florida that says you can't teach about sex in kindergarten, first, second, and third grade. So that means you're not talking about gay. You're not talking about transgender. You're not talking about heterosexual. You're not. Sex has no place in, you know, five, six, seven-year-old kids, right?

So that was the law because what we've seen across America, which we see this in our home state of Wisconsin, in Eau Claire, Wisconsin. They're bringing all of these themes into the schools to pressure our kids. They get them for eight hours a day, and they want to use the government classroom to indoctrinate our kids. And so in Florida, Ron DeSantis and his legislature said, we're not going to allow that in our schools. By the way, in fourth grade, it's okay. I mean, it's not okay in fourth grade, but he said, okay, we're just going to do it up till third grade. You can't talk about these themes. It has no place. Teach them their numbers and the alphabet, how to read and how to add. That's your job.

Sex has no place. But Disney says, oh no, we're opposed to that because we want to talk about sex with little kids, not only in Florida in the school system, but with the movies that we make, the videos that we make, we want to talk about sex to your children. What a bunch of sickos in schools and in movies, they think this is the right theme. They've lost their minds. And I, this is what, this is what gets me. I'm a, I want to be an informed consumer and I'm grateful for, for Rufo, for,

for blowing the whistle on this, because as a consumer, I want to know what choices I make with my money and what my kids see on the TV screen and the values behind the movies that are being made. But we see Disney and every other Hollywood production company come up with themes that are okay in China, right? They don't care about necessarily America, but they got to have storylines that don't offend the communists in China because they want to sell their movies in China. It's a big market for them. I wonder how well China would receive the themes that Disney wants to promote in their movies. They want to sell them here in America. Do I think that China is going to allow those themes in China? I highly doubt it. So I think they're going to be confronted with not just

blowback from conservative parents, but also in a global marketplace where they want to promote these movies and make a ton of money. I think they're going to get pushback in places like China as well. On top of the point you made, Rachel, with the Uyghurs, that they don't care anything about the concentration camps of an oppressed group of people. They don't care that they're doing business and making huge amounts of money with a communist repressive regime. But they're going to stand up and push back on public legislation. Run your company, make your movies, make your money, and then vote. But enough of Disney having an opinion on smart legislation that's coming out in Florida.

Shame on them. Yeah, I'm not going to take any moral lectures from Disney and their agenda of grooming kids and injecting what should be wholesome entertainment with their progressive leftist ideology. I'm just, I'm kind of over it. And to be honest, Sean, I'm really in a tough spot. You know, our older kids love Disney. We've taken them and now we have a few little kids who either don't remember the last time

they went to Disney because they were so little. And now they would really get the full experience. And then we have little baby Valentina, who, who both you and I, I mean, when we first had her, one of the first things we said is we can't wait to take her to Disney. And so it's a really tough thing that it's a really tough position that Disney is putting parents, their core customers in. And, um, it's, it's bad business. I think we ought to make it bad business for them to do this to us. And, you know, I get that they have some pretty loud employees that care about these issues. But in the end, you have a customer base. And I think if the customer base, parents who want just clean entertainment for their kids and and sort of nostalgic Disney experience that we had as kids.

If that's we're going to have to make our voices clear, we're going to have to be that squeaky wheel just like the others. It's a great point you make. So so there's I don't know many people that are more conservative than you and more outspoken than you are. So there's, I don't know many people that are more conservative than you and more outspoken than you are, Rachel. Sometimes I'm like, oh, she's saying what? I agree at the kitchen table. We talk about this and you have no problem saying exactly what you think. And so if Rachel is torn up about, do I go to the Disney parks? They bet on that.

They bet that even you are torn up about, do I go to the park or not? Do I give Disney my money? By the way, that's more than just the movie. I mean, as I mentioned, it's an expensive adventure for any family, but specifically our family, because there's so many of them. You're confronted with the possibility of, do I go or don't I go? So people that are less engaged than you are probably like, you know what? That's fine.

I'm still going to go to the park because my kids are going to love it. And you know what? I'll let someone else fight the battle and not go to the park. They bet on that. And they then know that they can push their agenda and also take your money. And so I'm of the opinion, I'm too cheap.

I'm way too cheap. I'm like, we've had this fight. I'm like, it's way too much money. Let's not go. And they're awoke and I don't want to give my money. And you're like, you go back to the nostalgia. You're back. You're like, but it's so great. And I have such great memories. And the older kids have these memories and I want the younger ones to have it. We should go. Every time we go, you love it. You love it. You love it. And you know it.

I do love it. You do love it. And we both love it. But here's the deal. It's not just the customer. So there was a great story that came out in Fox News this week. There's a guy who's running for Congress in Florida who is also an employee at Disney. And he's speaking out. And he's saying, listen, I know the people who work there. They do not agree with any of this. But they're afraid to talk about it.

They're afraid that if they say this is wrong, they're going to be called transphobic, homophobic, racist, that their careers will be stunted. This is a terrible pressure campaign by the left. And it is because they have the, somehow they've been able to capture the corporate heads and the corporate heads are so afraid of these pressure groups that even though the majority of employees disagree with the direction that Disney is going in, And according to this guy who's running for Congress, who works at Disney still, I guess, says that the employees just are afraid to speak up. Now, they talk to each other and they tell each other this is wrong, but they're not speaking up.

And so what we have, Sean, I think, is a lack of courage or we have a system that's so punishing that, you know, people just can't stand up. I mean, it's easy for you and I to stand up. We're paid to give our opinion. Our livelihood does not, you know, if you have four kids and you work at Disney and you stand up and say, you know, what you think about these woke policies and this, you know, really insidious agenda to indoctrinate children through entertainment with progressive ideas that are

totally contrary to their parents' values, you might not get promoted. Your career might be over at Disney. Yeah, it might be. And it's a tyranny of the minority, a small minority that can silence you and push these views into the company, but also into America. And again, I think that's happening all over the country. But to say that I can't have an opinion or I shouldn't have an opinion, that again, you can have a debate when kids are in high school, which I think is still too young, but okay, high school and college and have that conversation.

But this has no place on the TV screens of little children or in the classroom of little children, that that has become an unacceptable concept that there's things that are appropriate for kids to talk about and hear about. And sex is not one of them. And they're like, no, no, we want, we want to make sure we get these themes in their minds early on to indoctrinate them early on. And good Americans can't stand up and go, hell no, we're not going to do that. You're weird and you're a sicko and you're a pervert if you want to push these themes on any child. And again, America is silenced because to your point, you're called homophobic or transphobic when you go, you can

have the conversation all over America go, you can have a conversation all over America. I don't have that conversation, but don't have it with my kids. I mean, I don't know that these are parents of children. Maybe they're single. Maybe they don't know what it's like to raise young children to go, there are appropriate themes and inappropriate themes. And again, this is a theme that doesn't belong in the minds of little kids.

They're just too little. Not true, the CEO of the company was one of the people caught on that video, Sean. And she said, I have the LGBTQ and a pan. She was a president. She's a president. Yes. And she said, and I have a pansexual child and I just want to make sure. So these are people who are, um, very committed to these. Now, who knows, maybe this woman, you know, also understands that there's, you know, it, it helps her career to, to, I mean, listen, I don't go on, I don't talk about my kid's sexuality on zoom calls for work. Um, clearly she thinks this is beneficial to her, you know, credibility in the company with all these wokesters who these CEOs are totally afraid of, petrified of, because they could me that question, you brought up an interesting concept that the Disney is this wholesome American valued company. And it has been that since Walt started it.

And if you have that kind of a company, you have to target it. You have to take it down. So you want to get people infiltrated inside the company that can start to reform the company and get promoted from within to which then you have this president who is like, these are great themes and we should put these themes inside our shows. So kids are exposed to them at three, four, five, seven years old. It was a deliberate effort, I think, to make this transition. What you're saying is that the left knew that Disney was this very wholesome, all-American company where middle America aspired to go on vacation to and be part of this experience. And so it was specifically targeted by the left for infiltration at the corporate level. specifically targeted by the left for infiltration at the corporate level. And, and, and that this is one of the companies that was captured by the left. And so they have little by little been infiltrating it and putting it out

into their entertainment and woke a fine the park. And now they can't say little boys, welcome boys and girls. They have to say welcome what do they say now welcome friends welcome friends dreamers welcome friends yeah um have a magical experience dreamers yes yes have a magical experience dreamers so yeah i mean this was captured so what's the bottom line sean we know We know Disney is not the Disney of our childhood. Disney is not from the very, very top. They have an agenda to indoctrinate our children with gender ideology and the LGBTQ agenda. So then what is the answer for conservative parents who just want to have good, clean, wholesome fun at the park and let their kids just enjoy princesses

and all these things that you and I think and associate with Disney? Keep your money. Don't go to the park. Don't buy their movies. Cancel Disney Plus like I'm going to do for a second time now. I'll do it again. And again, if we can't make this stand, if we can't make a stand against a company like Disney that wants to do this to our children, what hell are you going to die on? What fight are you going to engage in to try to say, I don't have a whole lot of power, but I do have the power and

autonomy of my hard-earned dollar, and I'm not going to give it to you. Because if I give it to you, this is only going to get ramped up even further. And there's a consequence for making products that families don't want. Maybe you'll change your behavior. I mean, we have to do that. And if you don't, what they're betting on is Rachel won't care. Sean won't care. America won't care. They're still going to come to my park. They're still going to buy my movies.

I'm still going to get their money, and I get to push my agenda on them. That can't be our future. There has to be consequences. And it's our movement that I think will deliver those consequences. There's one other theme here, too, that they have copyright protection for their old movies. There was an extension of the copyright law about 20 years ago to make sure it didn't come into the public domain.

So Disney still gets to sell those old movies and make money on those old movies. It's coming up again. And a Republican Congress should say, you know what? We're letting these old movies come into the public domain. Your copyrights are going to expire. And sorry, Disney. That's such a great one, Sean.

You can't defend America. You can't defend America. You can't defend values. We're not with you. Let it go to the public domain. I love that. I love that. Because I'm not going to stop watching Snow White with my kids and I'm not going to stop watching Peter Pan. And I do hate giving my money to them. Listen, I like your idea. I think it's well-intentioned, Sean. Boycotts don't work. Just like you canceled Disney and then you put it back and you canceled Netflix and you put it back. You're kind of BS about this too. Boycotts don't work. The real answer is long-term and it is about creating our own cultural ecosystem

that matches our values. It's about us using our dollars towards not just criticizing or boycotting things we don't like, but the real effort and the real work has to be done in supporting culture and, and entertainment that we like. I just heard this week that, um, uh, the daily wire has a $100 million investment in children's entertainment.

Every conservative should be rooting for that should be, um, you know, subscribing to whatever, you know, things that, that those companies that are trying to do that are, are, are putting out there and let's see what they produce. Sometimes, you know, Christians try and put me together and they're super cheesy and no one wants to watch them. So let's see if, if, if the daily wire or other people will be inspired to do something else, but that is the answer. Just like you bought, you know, you got rid of your, you got rid of Gillette razors, then you moved to Harry and then Harry got woke. And now you're at

the Jeremy's from Daily Wire, a co-founder who has his own shaving company. That's the answer. It's about putting forward what we like, not just criticizing what we don't. I love it, Rachel. I say let's cancel and let's engage in culture ourselves and make our own content. So we could both be winners. Build and create. Cancel and create. That's my theme. Cancel and create. All right. I love you, honey. I love you too. All right. Well, thanks everybody for joining us as we rant at our kitchen table this week about Disney and open marriages, whatever. If you enjoyed our conversation, let us know. Subscribe, rate, review this podcast at foxnewspodcast.com or wherever you download podcasts.

We hope to see you around the table next week. cut low on fox business is now on the go for podcast fans get key interviews with the biggest business newsmakers of the day the cut low podcast will be available on the go after the show every weekday at foxbusinesspodcasts.com or wherever you download your favorite podcasts