The Matt Walsh Show - Ep. 284 - The Compassionate Answer To The Border Crisis

Episode Date: June 26, 2019

Leftists are finally realizing that there is a crisis on the southern border. But their solution only makes the problem worse. What's a real solution? We’ll talk about it. Also, a liberal film critic says that Toy Story is racist because there are no black toys in the movie. And San Francisco is banning e-cigs and vape pens. When are we going to realize that you won't stop kids from smoking by making it illegal? Date: 06-26-2019 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Today on the Matt Wall Show, there is a crisis on the southern border, but what can we do about it? Well, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez's answer is to go down there for photo ops, but what's a better answer? What's a compassionate answer to the problem on the border? We'll talk about that today. Also, and this is not a joke, folks, but a liberal film critic says that Toy Story 4 is racist because there are no black toys. Yes, that she really said that. We'll talk about that today and other interesting topics on the Matt Wall Show. Okay, so a guy named Ivan Pierre-Eguire posted some photos to Twitter yesterday.

These are photos of a trip that Alexandria Casey Cortez took to the border a year ago, apparently. And we're told that she took the trip to the border, not for publicity. It actually took a break from campaigning, a break from campaigning to go to the border, to protest our immigration system, basically. The photos are so transparently staged and phony that it's almost physically painful to look at them. It's difficult to look because they are so contrived. But let's take a look at them anyway.

So here you go. Here are the photos that were posted. Yeah, a lot of retweets and likes and people were saying that, oh, well, in fact, some people were very tight. touched by these photos, but there are a lot of people, even apparently AOC supporters who said, come on, you know, I like you, but this is ridiculous. So there's AOC. You see you're standing next to a fence, looking right into the camera, a very sad, disappointed, kind of concerned look

on her face. That look right there, you see right? That is a look that I get from my wife a lot, especially when I make puns. It's a very familiar look. And then we have her right after she looked into the camera. Now she's, now she's covering her face in despair. And, uh, and then now she's doubled over. Okay. So now she's really going in for the, this is the dramatic moment, the climax, that she's utterly overcome by despair. Now she's doubled over, covering her face. Um, this actually looks like, this looks like me when I go to a bar and find out that they only have Miller Light and cores on tap. Uh, it's a very similar like, no, why, why, why? Those beers tastes like watered down goat urine. So I do the same kind of thing. I understand that,

actually. Okay, and now here she is again. Now she's regained her composure, but she's still looking quite sad and now, though, angry and disturbed. This is the look that I give when I'm stuck in the car with all three kids and they started singing songs from the wiggles. This is the look. Actually, no, that's, go back to the one of her doubled over. No, that's me. That's actually me when I'm in the car and the kids are singing. so it's difficult to drive. It's a little bit dangerous for me to be doing that while driving. Anyway, so those are the pictures.

I mean, it's just a joke. Now, the crisis down on our border is not a joke. That is a serious problem. We're going to talk about that today. But she is making a joke out of it by using it as a... You know, this is very similar. Remember those stories a couple weeks ago of the Instagram.

influencers who are showing up at Chernobyl to take selfies, sometimes half-nude selfies. This is very similar to that. This is essentially a glorified Instagram influencer going to the site of a real human travesty for a photo opportunity. Just disgraceful. Well, as I said, there's more that needs to be discussed about our border. But first, a word from Wise Company. You know, why is company freeze-dried food is very easy to prepare, and the best part is that it can be stored for 25 years. 25 years. That is longer than I've been alive. I'm only 20 years old in case you didn't know.

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that the kids at these centers don't have beds to sleep in. And that is upsetting, I agree, because they should have beds, right? So now the centers are getting beds, and that's a problem, too. You're protesting that they don't have beds, and then they get beds, and you're protesting also. It just, it doesn't make any sense. Over 500 employees signed a letter to the company. The letter says in part, this particular order for over $200,000 worth of bedroom furniture is destined for Carrizo Springs, Texas to a facility that will be outfitted to detain up to 3,000 migrant children seeking asylum in the United States. So it sounds like this detention facility is trying to be prepared. It's, it is outfitting itself.

knowing, you know, the people running the facility know that there's going to be an influx of children. So they're trying to prepare and make sure that they've got places for the kids to sleep and stay. That's good. That's what we want, right? It continues. The practice of detaining children and adults on our southern border has been condemned since its inception, but since the acceleration of the practice in 2018 and the increase in death and injury that has come with that acceleration, we have seen more vocal condemnation of the practice. We, the undersigned, are writing to you from a place of concern and anger about the atrocities being committed at our southern border. They said condemned since its inception. No, it has not been condemned since its inception

because the left was not condemning it during the Obama administration, and it was happening then also. Now, the way they get around is they try to say, oh, yeah, it was happening during Obama's administration. We didn't talk about it then. We didn't care. In fact, not only did we not talk about it, but it wasn't just that the left wasn't talking about the crisis on the border back in the Obama administration. It's that they were actively denying that there was a crisis. So now they're condemning it. The way they get around it is they say, well, you know, the problem's gotten worse since then. Okay, the problem's gotten worse, you claim. But so you're more concerned now than you were before. That would justify being more concerned,

except that you weren't concerned at all before. You went from zero to 100. There was no 25 or 50 in between, like there should have been, which really makes it seem like this is political partisanship and the only reason you're pretending to care now is that Trump is president. And they also say that the practice of detaining children is condemned. Well, the mere fact that we are detaining people is obviously. obviously not a problem. And you didn't think it was four years ago, and you were right. The simple act of detaining people is there are scenarios where you need to do that. It's a problem when the conditions at these facilities aren't up to par, and sometimes they're not. But that's where getting furniture, getting food and all that, that means that we're improving conditions, and that's what we're supposed to want. The hypocrisy on this, issue, the partisanship, the lack of real concern is infuriating because there is a real crisis down there,

as I said. And that crisis comes with a significant human cost. In fact, there's a photo that has been all over social media for the past day that really shows that cost, I think. It shows two immigrants from El Salvador, excuse me, father and daughter, apparently. And they're washed up on the shores of the Rio Grande. Both have died lying face down in the water. The young girl, two years old, has her arm around her father's neck. It's just a, it's a devastating, gut-wrenching photo that you can't, I mean, if you're a human being, you can't help. but be moved when you see it, especially as a father myself. Well, even if I wasn't a father, obviously I know, I would still know that it's tragic for people to die, especially children.

But as a father, I see this kind of stuff and inevitably I'm going to think of my own kids and imagine my own kids in that situation. It's unspeakable. I'm not going to show you the photo here because it's extremely upsetting and not everyone wants to see something like that, but if you do want to see it, you can easily find it online. Now, this photo is being used, and we could stop right there. The problem is that the photo is being used. It shouldn't be used for anything. It's not a political tool. This is real life. This is real death. This is something real that's happening. It's not an ammunition to be used in an argument. Or it shouldn't be. But that's how people are treating it. So it's being used to, of course, make the case against Trump's immigration.

politics or policies, even though, again, the problem didn't start with Trump. But aside from that, Trump is not responsible for this poor child's death. He didn't do that. There are many authorities, many entities that you could point the finger at. Trump is not one of them. So how do we prevent more of these tragedies? We need to do everything we can to disqual. To disqualify. We need to do everything we can to discourage illegal border crossings. Crossing the border illegally is incredibly dangerous, especially for children. You have to deal with the elements, dehydration, starvation, gangs, bandits, wild animals. I mean, everything you can imagine.

You're trying to cross a desert to sneak across the borders of a country. It's a very hazardous undertaking. And the best way to protect human life is to discourage. people from undertaking it in the first place. There are a lot of ways to do that. For one thing, people, I think the first thing that needs to happen, and that this is not something that we can primarily do, but people should be working within these Central American countries to improve conditions and punish crime, thus encouraging people to stay. I mean, rather than having everyone abandon ship and leave their countries, which I understand the instinct to do that. And as,

again, as a father, you know, if I had kids and I happen to have the bad luck of being born in one of those countries and living in one of those countries, I'd want to leave too. I think I would, yes, on one hand, if everyone leaves, that it makes it difficult to clean up the problems within the countries. But so, so, that's a problem. But if I was a father, I think I would say, you know what, I'm more concerned about taking care of my own children than I am about enacting change generally in the country. My first responsibility is to my kids. So that's the case. And I understand that. But the fact remains that it's a self-perpetuating problem because these countries are in terrible shape.

Everybody wants to leave. But everyone's leaving. So there's no one, there's, there's no one's sticking around to fix the problems. And so then it just perpetuates itself. Now, when Trump famously said back in, back when he launched his campaign, that they're not sending their best, which is true in some cases. In some cases, we are getting criminals and drug dealers and so on. Not all of them, of course, but there is some of that. And it's a problem. But when he said that, leftists were very outrage and they insisted that, no, they are sending their best. They're sending good, law-abiding, hardwomenes. working people. And I agree that a certain significant portion of these people fall into that category.

But you see the problem here. Those people are coming here. If they are good law-abiding, hard-working, then those are exactly the kinds of people that these countries need in order to clean themselves up. Especially when you've got, now we talk about the kids and the families coming over. And because that's what affects us emotionally the most. But the fact remains, when you look at these caravans of people and everything, many of them are single young men. And those people especially are the kinds of people. They're physically healthy, strong, capable, don't have any dependence.

Young men, people like that, those especially are the people who need to stay or whose countries need them to stay there and help rebuild it. So, but how do we get people say? It's a self-perpetuating problem. People are leaving. Makes the problem worse. How do we get people to stay? Well, we'll talk about that. But before we get into that, I want to thank our sponsors over at Dinah Trap. Dina Trap is the leading manufacturer. of outdoor mosquitoes and insect traps. And now they've come up with a solution for indoor pests because, you know, when in the summertime, this is one of the most annoying things you have to deal with. Summer is great. I'm not actually a big fan of summer. But some people like the

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We enforce our immigration laws. We deport people, yes. We stop offering entitlements to illegals. In fact, we make it clear that if you come here illegally, you're not going to get entitlements. We make it clear that if you come here illegally, it's not going to work. You won't be able to sneak in. Yes, we build a wall. We build a physical barrier.

That's going to make it even more difficult. It's just yet another roadblock in the way. We do all of that. That's how we preserve human life. life. We want people to think, this is, to try to come hearing illegally, is a dangerous, potentially fatal decision. If we care about human life and if we're compassionate, if we care about these people, then we want to discourage them from doing that. And this is how we discourage them. But if we insist on keeping the borders open, on just welcoming anyone, not enforcing our immigration laws, saying anyone can come in, then all you're doing is you're encouraging more people like that father to try to bring their children on such a dangerous journey and more people are going to die.

All right. Let's talk about this. As we have established repeatedly, the left is now beyond parody at this point. Impossible to be. You can't satirize them anymore. It's just impossible to do. And here's Exhibit 45,000 to demonstrate that BBC Radio 4's Saturday review show did a segment on Toy Story 4, which just came out last week, which I'm looking. looking forward to taking my kids to. But apparently maybe I shouldn't take my kids because it is a racist, sexist movie that also discriminates against disabled people, apparently. That's according to Stella Duffy, who's a film critic, I guess. She came on the show to share her thoughts on the film. A film that, in case you didn't know, is animated. It's an animated children's movie about talking toys. In case you were unaware of what toy story is, that's what it is. And this is, this is what she had to say about it. Listen to this. Hello, my name is Stella Duffy, and I didn't like Toy Story 4.

I'm The Grinch who hated it. Seriously, it's 2019. What on earth are Disney doing? Having a film that For a start has no leads that are black characters. Yes, there are black actors here, but we do not. They're yellow and they're green and they're plush. How can they possibly think it's all right now? I mean, yeah, maybe 1995, which was also wrong then as well, actually. But now, to be seriously, every single humanoid toy is white. It's just shocking. Then let's talk about the white feminism on display here. Oh, look, Bo Peep's a feminist.

No, she's not. She's still going to fall in love. She's still going to get all happy. Not spoiling. Still going to get all happily ever after. That's not feminism. That's a woman kicks off her skirt to reveal bloomers, has a couple of thoughts.

does some Highwire Act, and it's Disabledist. Okay, so it's covering every base. Okay, so there you go. It's racist, sexist, disablest, disabledist. Disabled. I thought Abelist was the term. So ableist is when you discriminate against disabled people. So then Disabledist, I guess, is when you discriminate against non-disabled people.

Well, anyway, she's upset that there are also no black leads. Okay, but all the leads are toys, which means they're all Chinese. Either Chinese or they have no race at all, because they're toys. I mean, one of the lead characters is a toy slink, is like a slinky dog. Another is a green dinosaur. Another is a pink piggy bank. Another is a Mr. Potato Head. What ethnicity is a Mr. Potato Head?

Irish? I mean, that doesn't even make any sense. Should the film, what do you want? Do you want the film? So even though we've got all these toys who have no race, no ethnicity, you're saying there should be a black lead in the film. So do you want, should the film feature like a miniature real life black person? Should this suddenly become, honey I shrunk the kids? And a black person, the size of a doll walks on and, you know, interacts with the toys, just so we can check off that demographic box.

It's obviously absurd. And this is, this is really mental illness. illness. That person you just heard is mentally ill, clearly. And I mean that sincerely. I mean, I'm concerned about her. And she has a problem because little Bo Peep falls in love. The characters fall in love. Imagine how bitter and sad and lonely you have to be to get ticked off that the characters in an animated children's movie fall in love. But there's. But there's This is, you know what, I like to write satire articles sometimes. I'll write satirical pieces for the Daily Wire.

And if someone had suggested to me two weeks ago that I write a satirical article complaining that Toy Story is racist because there are no black leads, I would have said, no, I'm not going to do that because that's obviously too absurd. like that's that's too far out there for a satire to work you want it to be it has to be it has to be a little absurd like whatever you're satirizing you're taking that line of thinking that um you know philosophy and you're just taking it to an sort of absurd extreme to demonstrate the inherent absurdity of that that line of thinking but i would have thought well that's too extreme you know that's it i mean they wouldn't really come on like that's a straw man they wouldn't really come but no

They really are complaining that Toy Story is racist because there are no black. They're no black toys. By the way, Toy Story 4, you might try to justify this by saying, well, maybe she means that there are no black voice actors, but that isn't true. Key and Peel are in, they are voice actors in this movie. They voice two plush, plush dolls. But the problem is that the dolls are not black. The dolls are like blue and pink or something.

just absolutely ridiculous. All right. So one other thing to mention before, but we get to emails, San Francisco, a city that resembles a large outhouse at this point, has decided to really focus on the important issues. It has banned the use and sale of e-cigarettes and vape pens. Now, I'm pretty sure that you can essentially legally shoot up heroin in San Francisco. I don't know. I mean, I don't know if that's actually a law in the books. I'm not recommending it. I'm just saying that people do that anyway and they don't seem to be arrested for it. They also, you know, defecate on the sidewalks. So you could do all of that without much fear of legal repercussion. But no, you can't, you can't smoke a e-cigarette or vape.

The mayor, this is the reason the mayor gave for the ban. The mayor said there's so much we don't know about the health impacts of these products, but we do know that e-cigarette companies are targeting our kids and their advertising and getting them hooked on addictive nicotine products. Okay, so did you catch that? We don't know the health impacts, and that's why we're going to ban it. Eh, we don't know much about this. Better ban it just in case. You know, there could be a problem with it.

We don't know. So let's say, we'll just ban it. Ban it and ask questions later. That's the philosophy now of the nanny staters. Listen, I don't smoke e-cigarettes. I don't vape. I do tend to think that vaping, it's not for me. I think vaping looks kind of ridiculous. If you're going to smoke, I think smoke like a man, smoke a cigar. That's not a real recommendation, kids. I'm going to smoke at all. I'm just saying that if you, I mean, if you had to choose, if someone put a gun to your head and said, smoke one of these, I would say go for the cigar. You know, this is not, it's not like I'm trying to defend something that I do because I don't use these cigarettes. But it's just, when are we going to get it through our heads here? That this kind of nanny state approach does not work.

You're only, when you do this, you're only making whatever you're banning, you're just making it seem cooler. And maybe at a certain point, we have to just accept the fact that we're not going to be. ever stop all the teenagers from smoking something? It just, it's the reality, it seems like, I mean, just looking at the human history, at least modern human history, the teenagers, some of them are always, there's going to be something that they're smoking. So yeah, we got them, we got them. So it used to be back in the, you know, 70s and 80s that all the teenagers smoked cigarettes. And then we, we embarked on this 20-year campaign to stop people from smoking cigarettes. And that kind of worked. And so then they just grabbed.

graduated to e-cigarettes and vape pens. Like, there's always going to be something. And I think at a certain point, we have to just realize that and accept it. It doesn't mean we stop discouraging it. It just means we stop trying to stop it by force of law with regulations and fines and penalties and all that. Because really, at the end of the day, that's regulations and fines and penalties and laws. That's not actually what stopped kids from smoking cigarettes. I think the main thing, you know, well, the main thing was just was just discouraging it, just by pointing out like, yeah, you can do it, but it causes cancer, it's going to make your teeth yellow, so on and so forth, just hammering on that, then people chose not to. And also, I think when it did have an effect, when you stopped seeing so much smoking on TV and the celebrities weren't doing it quite as much that it didn't see. as cool to the kids, and so they didn't do it. But what I'm trying to point out here is that the cool

factor is big with kids. And that's the reason why they were all smoking in the 80s, because it was just the cool thing to do. The problem is, and trying to make something less cool is difficult. That's a, that's a, when you are an uncool adult, and which we all are uncool as adults, and you notice something that kids are doing that is destructive, yet they think is cool, and you're saying to yourself, I want to make that thing uncool, it's really difficult to do because you're uncool. So whatever you say about it, the more you complain about it, you're just making the thing cooler. You see, that's the way the equation works. So it's a difficult trick to pull.

I think it was basically pulled off with cigarettes. It took a long time. But one thing I know for sure is that you're not going to make. make something less cool by making it illegal. That I'm 100% certain. All right, we're going to talk about, we're going to get to some emails here in a minute. But before we do, a quick word about shaving. Does you know that the average guy spends 3,000 hours of his lifetime shaving, which is an interesting statistic. I don't know where they get it from. I've always thought to myself that this is one thing that I hope that when we die and we're, you know, kind of in that

big waiting room in the sky, waiting to go in, talk to the big man and find out which direction we're headed, right? And we're all just kind of serious. I imagine it being like a big dentist-like waiting room. There's a couple of old magazines. So maybe out-of-date magazines from 1730 or something. But what I hope is that while we're there, maybe they give us a fun little packet that has a bunch of just interesting statistics about our life. Like this is how many hours you spend shaving. This is how many days you spent sleeping. That kind of thing. This is how many gallons of orange juice you drank in your life, just random things. So I always hope that. Anyway, 3,000 hours of the life shaving. Don't waste four months of your life overpaying for poor performing razors.

That's where Harry's comes in. Get Harry's a razor that's so sharp. You can shave less often, and you'll save money. It's just $2 per blade. I use Harries myself because I do shave, contrary to popular belief. I got to shave the neck and, you know, around here so I don't look like Chubaca. And the thing I love about Harries is that, number one, the price. Razors are ridiculously expensive, usually. These are not. Number two, it's a very smooth and close shave. I don't even have to use shaving cream when I do it. You could join the 10 million people who have tried Harry's. Claim your special offer by going to harries.com slash Matt Walsh. You know, Harry's founders were two regular guys tired of getting ripped off, paying for overpriced gimmicks, vibrating heads,

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And if you prefer to shop and store, you can go to Walmart and Target and get Harry's there as well. All right. Let's answer some emails. Matt Wall Show at gmail.com. Matt Wallshow at gmail.com. This is from Denise. Says, Hi, Matt. Thank you for the witty sarcasm. You add to my life every day. I am wondering if you believe in spanking young children as a form of discipline. Do you spank your own children? Well, Denise, that's a tough question because I'm of two minds when it comes to this.

Well, I can tell you what we do. That's not tough. We don't spank. Am I against spanking on principle, I suppose I'm not. The Bible does say spare the rod, spoil the child, and people use that as a justification for spanking, or even people will use that to make the case that we are morally obliged to spank. But the problem, though, is that if you're claiming to take that verse totally literally, then that means that you must hit your kid with a rod. Do you use a? Do you use a an actual rod, do you take out like a metal rod to spank your kid? Because if you don't, and probably you don't, hopefully you don't, then you are literally sparing the rod. I mean, in a literal sense, you are defying that particular passage because you are not using a rod

to hit your kid. So my point is that I think even those of us who spank, I think we all kind of take that passage in a more general way to mean don't spoil your kid, don't coddle your kid too much, instill discipline. You know, that's the way that I take it. I don't take it as we are somehow committing a sin if we don't spank our kids. I'll just tell you my thing with it. I could never quite bring myself to see violence as a parenting technique. And I know that calling it violence is is going to upset people who spank their kids. It seems extreme. Maybe it is an extreme way of putting it. I mean, it is, but it is, you're physically hitting someone, right? So that are, I don't know, I mean, it is violence, technically speaking. Now spanking, if it's really spanking and not beating,

spanking is, and this is where maybe you say, well, it's not really violence because it's not about inflicting physical pain. Now, there may be a little bit of physical pain, but that's not the point. The point isn't, look, if you're just grabbing your kid because you're ticked off and you're just looking to let out your aggression and so you start spanking him, well, then that's physical abuse. You're abusing your kid. You're a physical abuser in that case. In fact, I would go so far as to say, if you spank your kid angry, you are physically abusing. That is, you're hitting your kid because you're pissed off. That's what that is. And that is definitely wrong. But what about a scenario where you're not angry, you're calm down, you're not doing this because

you're trying to make your kid hurt, but it's just, it is a form of discipline and you approach it yourself in a disciplined way, in a sort of business-like way, like, look, this is the penalty. So I'm going to spank you. I'll give you a hug afterwards because I love you, but this is the penalty. I think if we talk about the non-abusive spanking, that's what it has to be. Unfortunately, though, just from talking to people, it seems like a lot of parents, that's not really what spanking is for them. They may say that it is, but really, it's their ticked off. And that, again, is abusive. So, you know, but let's talk about the spanking where it's, you're approaching it from a disciplined perspective and it's not just anger.

well, no, I don't think that the parents that spank that way are abusing their kids. But I still just choose not to do it. And I think because I could never, for me, it always seemed like if I spank and I get the kids to behave based on that, then basically the implied threat is, do what I want or I'll hit you. And again, I know that's not what parents are literally saying to their kids, at least I hope they're not. that's not the intention, but I personally couldn't get past seeing it that way. And one thing that I've learned as a parent is if something just doesn't feel right to you, if it doesn't feel right for your family, for your situation, then listen to your gut. Follow your instincts.

I think if you follow your gut, if you follow your instincts, you'll be right about 98% of the time as a parent. it seems to me. So I'm not sitting in judgment of parents who do use corporal punishment. My parents did. Not that much, but they used it. I'm not traumatized by it. I don't feel like I was abused. I, you know, I survived. I'm fine. But still, it just didn't seem right to me. So I don't do it. I have my reasons for not doing it, which I've tried to sort of in a babbling way, explain. but I think I do believe that there is an inappropriate way of going about it. And parents who do that have my blessing. Not that they need it.

All right. From Rebecca says, Hi, Matt, do you believe in ghosts? Just curious if it's a belief that clashes with our Christian faith. Yeah, I think it does clash with our Christian faith. Now, if by ghosts you mean demonic spirits, then, yeah, I believe in that. That doesn't clash. But if you mean the souls of dead people who are just sort of one,

wandering around on earth randomly, then I think it does present a contradiction, or at least a problem, theologically, because you die and you stand before God, and then it's decided which direction you're going to head. It's hard for me to see how God would allow some souls to just walk around on earth, scaring people. What's the point of, does God really do that? Because there could be, there can't be any ghosts who are here by accident. that has to be through God's will. So does God really send a soul back to Earth, back to some old creepy house to walk around and scare children? You know, if I was God, then maybe I would do that just for fun, but I'm not God. And I think that God is not nearly as petty as I am,

thankfully. This is from Johnny says, Hello, Mr. Lord Walsh. Well, you don't have to call me that. Lord Walsh is fine. This is a very upfront, but difficult for me question. It's something that I've been struggling with for a while, and I think it's something that might have ruined my past relationship of three years. What is love? Is there an objective definition? Can Scripture back it up? Well, if you want to answer to that question, I think Cher, listen to that Share song, What is Love? She really provides the answer. If I had to elaborate on that answer, I would say, I would second, secondarily I would quote after share Thomas Aquinas who said that love to love is to will the good of the other.

And I think that's the best definition that anyone has ever come up with. And I think that if you read scripture, you're going to find that that's the, that's the definition offered. Not a direct, not directly, but all throughout scripture. You know, and that's one, as I sometimes say about quoting from the Bible or using the Bible, we can't always, look for one sentence, which just sort of parrots whatever point we're trying to make. I think that, I think we have to look at the totality of scripture. We have to look at the whole sort of story that's being told, and we have to take a more comprehensive view of it. And so with a question like, what is love? I think you're going to find that this answer, love is to will to go to the

other, that is all throughout the Bible. That's the answer that you get. That's how love love is portrayed. And what that means is, I mean, it's pretty straightforward. It means that if you love someone, then you want what is best for them, and you not only want it, but as Aquinas says, to will it, meaning you're going to do what you can to help bring about what is best for them. Now, in order for you to have a properly ordered and healthy and, um, good love, then you have to have a correct understanding of what is best for someone. I think there are

people who have an incorrect understanding of what is best. So they love people, but they have an incomplete, a sort of misdirected love because they don't understand what's actually best for the human person. The ultimate goal of the human person is to go to heaven. So ultimately, if you love someone, that means you want them to go to heaven, and you're going to do whatever you can, in your own way to help them in that quest. That's what it means to love someone. Now, we can get into the Greek and start breaking down the different, are we talking about agape love?

Are we talking about? What kinds of love are we talking about? There's the charitable love. There's the erotic, romantic love, brotherly love. The Greeks had different words for love, which is good, because we only have the one and they can get confusing sometimes. but the common thread that ties together all of those forms of love is that you are willing the good of the other. As a follow-up to that, I think the sad reality is that there are a lot of people out

there who don't love anyone because I think there are a lot of people who really don't will the good of anyone but themselves. They really don't, at the end of the day, I think there are a lot of people who really don't care that much if anyone else, you know, is, is, ends up going to heaven or gets, or, you know, gets, gets the good things in life. I think there are a lot of people just don't care about that. They're focused on themselves. And so they might will the good for you insofar as it will help them. So in a, you know, if you're a selfish person in a marriage, You may sometimes act in a way that looks loving. It has the appearance of love.

But really what you're doing is you're just trying to make the other person happy because it's easier for you if they're happy. So you're trying to sort of satiate them because it's going to be easier for you. Or you're doing them a favor. You're doing a good thing for them because you want them to do you a favor. Or because you just want credit for it. Or because you want to emotionally blackmail them later. And you can say, remember when I did that thing for you and now you're doing this to me?

How dare you? So there's a lot of that that goes on marriages. I think there are a lot of marriages where really there is no love because neither spouse is really willing the good of the other for the sake of the other. Maybe that's the addendum we should add to that to will the good of the other for the sake of the other, not for your own. So that is, I think, love. Thank you for the question. Oh, and thanks for watching everybody. Thanks for listening. Godspeed. Today on the Ben Shapiro Show, we prepare for the first Democratic debate and the media get hypocritical about illegal immigration and crisis. Today on the Ben Shapiro show.