The Matt Walsh Show - Ep. 424 - Time For A 100 Dollar Minimum Wage

Episode Date: February 11, 2020

A Democratic candidate has upped the ante and called for a 22 dollar minimum wage. Why not 30? Why not 100? Also, leaked Bloomberg audio has everyone including conservatives calling him "racist." But ...is he? And Andrew Yang says that abortion shouldn't be celebrated. Then he learned a lesson about leftism in modern America. Check out The Cold War: What We Saw, a new podcast written and presented by Bill Whittle at https://www.dailywire.com/coldwar. In Part 1 we peel back the layers of mystery cloaking the Terror state run by the Kremlin, and watch as America takes its first small steps onto the stage of world leadership. If you like The Matt Walsh Show, become a member TODAY with promo code: WALSH and enjoy the exclusive benefits for 10% off at https://www.dailywire.com/Walsh Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript
Discussion (0)
Starting point is 00:00:00 Welcome to the show, everybody. So there's this guy, Tom Steyer. I don't know if you've heard of him. According to some reports, he's been running for president since December. And he was having a campaign block party over the weekend. A campaign party that was attended by some of his most high-profile supporters like his mom and his cousin. And during this campaign event, he announced, apparently, that he wants to raise minimum wage, just like every other Democrat. But most Democrats want to raise it to 15. What he's saying is, forget about it. a measly $15 an hour, I'm going to raise it to $22. He wants to raise the minimum wage to $22 an hour. If you're keeping track at home, that works out to about $42,000 a year at a minimum. That's the starting guaranteed minimum amount you can make for full-time work. Now, if you're a small
Starting point is 00:00:47 business that can't afford to pay full-time employees that amount of money, well, to bed. Guess you don't get to have any full-time employees in that case. And if you can't have a business without employees, well, then you don't get a business. Your business goes out of business, and that's just the way it is. You see, we're going to make sure that everybody has a living wage by shutting down businesses. We're going to make sure everyone has a living wage by making sure that lots of people don't have any wage at all. It makes sense when you think about it. Actually, when you think about it, it doesn't make sense.
Starting point is 00:01:19 So don't think about it at all. That's the key. Why am I talking about the campaign pledges of a man who will get fewer votes for the Democratic nomination than I will. Well, because his plan proves a point, not the point that he wants to make, that if we had a real news media, which we don't. But if we did with real journalists, all the Democratic candidates would be asked if they support Steyer's plan. And if not, why not? See, if they say, no, that's too much. I don't support that. Then they're admitting that you can't just shout living wage
Starting point is 00:01:57 and demand that employers pay a certain amount to their employees. It's not that simple. They'd be admitting that it's not that simple. They don't want to admit that. After all, 22 an hour is a much better living wage than 15 an hour. So if this is just about making sure people have a living wage, which is all the Democrats want to talk about
Starting point is 00:02:15 when it comes to things like minimum wage, they want to talk about all the benefits, all the good things they want to do, they don't want to talk about the cost, They don't want to talk about the practical implications, logistics, or any of that. This would force them to talk about that. If it's all about the living wage, then they would have to support Steyer's plan. But if there are other practical economic concerns to take into account here,
Starting point is 00:02:37 then they're admitting that there are other practical economic concerns to take into account. And now we're having the minimum wage discussion on that playing field, which is on a field they don't want to be on. Because if they admit, look, if you force employers, to pay 22 an hour, lots of them won't be able to do it, jobs will be lost, positions will be automated. If they admit that, then the obvious rejoinder is, yes, and that will happen with 15 an hour, and it is happening, so what about that? So it brings the minimum wage discussion into a realm where the Democrats don't want it to be, which is the realm of reality. But then what if they
Starting point is 00:03:14 say, okay, sure, 22 an hour, let's do it. First of all, the question is, why didn't you propose 22 an hour to begin with? Do what, does Steyer care about low-wage employees more than you do? Second, well, if we can do 15, nay, 22, then why not 25? Why not 30? Why not 45? Why not 15? All of a sudden it becomes like an auctioneer thing where you just keep going up and up and up, the price keeps going up. Why not? Most small businesses are just as able, to do $50 an hour as they are 15 an hour, which is to say, not at all. They aren't able at all. So why not? Why not keep raising it? It's all very uncomfortable for the Democrats. It's an
Starting point is 00:04:02 uncomfortable position for them to be in, which is why the media won't put them in that position by asking them the question. But I do appreciate Steyer doing his part. Anyway, speaking of uncomfortable positions, I'm sure you've heard the blue. Bloomberg audio already, but I'll play it again for you if you haven't. There's leaked audio of Bloomberg that's making the rounds online, going massively viral, talking about stop and frisk and violent crime and all these things, and here's what Bloomberg said. 95% of the murders and murderers and murder victims.
Starting point is 00:04:42 It's one at home. You can just take the description of Xerox and pass it up all the top. They are male, minorities 15, 25. That's true in New York. It's true virtually every city. And that's where the real crime is you've got to get the guns out of the hands of the people to get you killed. She's done if you want to spend the money, a lot of cops in the street. Put those cops, we have a crime in which means a minority neighborhood.
Starting point is 00:05:07 So this is one of the unintended consequences is people say, oh my god you are arresting kids from marijuana they're all minorities yes that's true why because we throw all the cops in the minority because yes that's true why we do it because that's where all the find is and the way you get the guns on their kids hands is to throw them against the wall and brisk them and then they start they say oh i don't want that i don't want to get caught so they don't bring the gun they still have a gun but they leave those Now, this is, of course, trending on Twitter with the hashtag Bloomberg is racist. And that is not the kind of hashtag you want to see as a candidate.
Starting point is 00:05:49 There's my searing political insight. That's why I should be a professional political analyst because of analysis like this. You don't want to have a hashtag calling you racist as a political candidate. That's all I'm saying. Bold, bold suggestion. And Bloomberg has spent a ton of money cultivating a, a bunch of money. cultivating a brand online, and it has now been undone almost completely in one fell swoop by this. Is it actually racist, though?
Starting point is 00:06:18 Is Bloomberg really a racist because of what he said there? Of course not. Of course not. He's saying that violent crime disproportionately happens in minority neighborhoods, and that's true. That's an accurate statement. You could argue that stop and frisk is, You could argue against that. You could say it's unconstitutional.
Starting point is 00:06:42 You could certainly argue against the general tone that Bloomberg is displaying there. But the basic point he's making can't be racist if it's based in statistical realities. Now, he says 95%. I don't know if it's that high in New York, but it's certainly disproportionate in terms of the violent crime and which neighborhoods that happens in. He probably could have gotten away with all of this if he just, had not brought up the racial element of it. If he kept it just speaking in geographic terms, then probably it would have been fine. But he said the other part out loud, and that's where the problem comes from. And it's obviously not going to fly in the Democratic Party in 2020.
Starting point is 00:07:29 And Bloomberg decided to try and win the Democratic Party, Democratic nomination in 2020. And that was his choice. And so here's the thing. I'm, It's not like I'm going to go to the mat for him to defend Bloomberg and defend his honor. No, Bloomberg is a wonderful man. He's a wonderful man. You people, leave him alone. I'm not going to do that because I don't think he is a wonderful man. I think he's an awful person and would be an awful president.
Starting point is 00:07:55 I think he's a megalomaniac, billionaire nanny statist. And I have really nothing good to say about him. However, I'm not going to jump into the fray and say, this is racist. I don't think it is. And there's been a lot of conservatives who are taking part in the Bloomberg is racist hashtag and have jumped on that bandwagon. And I understand why they're doing it strategically because they're trying to take Bloomberg out. Okay, I get that.
Starting point is 00:08:26 But in the process of trying to take out this particular guy who was never going to win anyway, in the process of taking him out, you're agreeing with the left that it is racist to talk about the statistical realities of violent crime. So you're giving up the argument in order to beat one guy. That is not a good strategy. And this has been my gripe with a lot of conservatives for a while now, where in order to, when they get a chance to score a point against somebody, they'll forfeit their entire position.
Starting point is 00:09:03 They'll completely agree with the left in order to, in order to win this one little battle here. But you're giving up the greater war in order for the sake of winning this battle. That's not a good strategy. So when you give up the argument for the sake of taking down a person, then fine, you've taken down the person, but you've lost the argument. And the thing that separates the left from the right, and oftentimes the separation is not.
Starting point is 00:09:38 not always obvious, especially these days. But if anything separates those, if these two sides mean anything, it comes down to the arguments. We're making different arguments. We believe different things. Well, if you give up the argument and get rid of the people you don't like, then what happens in the end is that you've replaced the people you didn't like with people you do, but it's all leftism. Anyway, and I don't think that's a good strategy. So what do we say about Mike Bloomberg, well, I don't think we have to say anything. As I said, I don't think we have to come out stridently to defend him at all. But I also don't think we agree with the left on things like this, on points where they're wrong. And we know that there are terms of service that come with
Starting point is 00:10:38 trying to win the Democratic nomination. And according to those terms, when all the Audio like this comes out, you're branded or racist, and that's it. Bloomberg played the game and lost. He knew the fine print. He knew what was in it. And that's it. And he loses. Okay, fine.
Starting point is 00:10:55 I'm not crying any tears for him. All I'm saying is I'm not going to come out now for the sake of getting my shot on Bloomberg and say, oh, yeah, that's totally racist. To say that kind of stuff, totally, totally racist. Oh, I'm so offended. I'm offended by this racism. The problem is especially as a Trump supporter, it gets kind of awkward because if Trump's, they're coming here,
Starting point is 00:11:27 they're bringing drugs, they're rapists line, you know, that he was kicked off his campaign in 2016. If that line was not racist, and I don't think it was, but if that line wasn't racist, then there's no way this is. And I know that as, you know, a lot of times when it comes to Trump, we've gotten used to this notion that he exists in this kind of bubble where he's immune to everything. And so you can have a double standard with him and it's okay. But I don't think you want to get too comfortable with that.
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Starting point is 00:12:28 Celebrate Mom with Whole Foods Market. And it's not hard for people to say if you come out as a conservative and say, yeah, Bloomberg is a racist for this, well, it's not a hard connection for people to make. They're going to say, now, wait a second. Okay, that's racist. Then, okay, let's look at the stuff that Trump said. So now you're saying that's racist too? And your response is, oh, no, no, no, no, no, that's different.
Starting point is 00:12:50 That's totally different. How's it different? It just is. I don't know. It just is. Not a compelling argument. All right. Moving on, we were talking before about small businesses.
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Starting point is 00:13:42 business from the things that you really want to be doing. So don't let that happen. LegalZoom's network of independent attorneys and tax professionals can provide advice to address these things and more, and you'll never get charged by the hour since legal zoom is not a law firm. Go to legalzoom.com today and enter promo code Walsh in the box and check out for special savings. That's legalzoom.com code Walsh, legal zoom, where life meets legal. Okay, so we're talking about things that aren't going to fly in the modern Democratic Party. Here's another example of such a thing coming from Andrew Yang. this time. Over the weekend, Yang was at an event talking about so-called reproductive justice, so-called reproductive rights. And this is what he had to say. Listen, I think we have to get
Starting point is 00:14:28 back to the point where no one is suggesting that we be celebrating an abortion at any point in the pregnancy, that there was a time in democratic circles where we used to talk about it being something that, like, you don't like to see, but that should be within the freedoms of the woman and the mother to decide. And so to me, I think there is a really important tone to set on this, where you don't just say, like, we're absolutist about it. Though I have to say, I am relatively absolutist on this. Like, I think that it should be completely up to the woman and her doctor in the state
Starting point is 00:15:02 should not be intervening all the way through pregnancy. But it's a tragedy to me if someone decides that they don't want to have a child and they around the fence and that maybe at some point later, I mean, it's a very, very difficult personal decision. And it should be something that we're very, very sensitive to. I think that celebrating children, family, like, these are universal human values. And if we managed to lead on that and then say, but we also stand for women's reproductive rights, I believe we can bring Americans closer together on a really, really important personal issue. Yang is, unsurprisingly getting a lot of grief for that from the left. And the response from the left
Starting point is 00:15:51 seems to be there are two responses, as always, when this kind of thing is brought up. One is to say, nobody celebrates abortion. What are you talking about? That's crazy. Saying we shouldn't celebrate abortions. Nobody does. So this is a right-wing talking point that you're engaging in. Nobody celebrates it. That's one strategy. The other strategy is to say, yes, we should celebrate it. This is horrible for you to say we shouldn't celebrate it. Of course we should celebrate it.
Starting point is 00:16:23 And so if you go on Twitter where this video is, this clip has gone viral, it's pretty funny, actually, in a very irritating sort of way. To look at the comment thread under the video clip, because it's kind of this rotating, it rotates between the two talking about it's where you have one person. saying, no one's celebrating it, and then right below them, you have someone saying, yes, we should celebrate it. The left can't get their talking points straight when it comes to abortion. And they don't, they feel like they don't need to because it's not really about making a rational argument. It's all about emotion and deception. So it's not about being reasonable, rational, consistent. That doesn't matter. Of course, the reality is that people do celebrate abortion. That's what they shout your abortion hashtag is all about.
Starting point is 00:17:11 out. It's about people celebrating it. But there was a time, as Yang points out, there was a time when the motto on the left with respect to abortion was safe, legal, and rare. Safe, legal, rare. Well, they still talk about the mythical safe abortion, which doesn't exist because there's no such thing as a safe abortion. In every abortion, at least one person is killed. And the other person, the mother is damaged sometimes physically in obvious ways, oftentimes physically, but every time, emotionally, psychologically, even if she doesn't experience that damage or realize it or she's able to suppress it for a time. But they still say, we need a safe abortion. They still obviously want abortions to be legal. They want all abortions to be legal. But the rare part,
Starting point is 00:18:06 you don't hear that anymore. Now, if the last to say that, well, we never celebrate abortion. If they're right that it isn't celebrated, then why don't you hear most Democrats or most abortion advocates on the national stage? Why don't they talk about rare abortions, reducing the number of, they don't talk about it? And the reason is that they're saying, this is nothing to be ashamed of. This is something to celebrate. This is an expression of a woman's autonomy. This is an expression. This is an expression. This is an expression of a woman's power over her own body and her own life and her own reproduction. And so should there be fewer abortions? No, if anything, there should be more abortions.
Starting point is 00:18:54 It should happen more often because it is this glorious, beautiful expression of this woman, of a woman's liberty and freedom. That's the attitude now. So Andrew Yang is discovering, and it always shocks me when Democrats, when you see Democrats learn this, like they didn't know it already, especially when it's a Democrat running for the Democratic nomination. But he's just now learning that this attempt to be somewhat reasonable as a pro-abortion person, which isn't really possible because the pro-abortion position is inherently unreasonable. But he's trying to inject a little bit of reason and sanity into it, even as he advocates for killing babies legally. So he wants to do that, but he also wants to say, okay, guys, all right, fine, I'm with you on that,
Starting point is 00:19:50 but let's not take it too far now. He's trying to do that, and what he's discovering is that doesn't work anymore. It may have worked back in the 90s, okay, but times have changed, and it just doesn't fly. That's what Andrew Yang is discovering. All right. Before we move on, a quick word from ZipRecruiter. I hear from employers all the time. It's hard to hire people.
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Starting point is 00:21:27 Try ZipRecruiter for free in our web address, ziprecruiter.com slash Walsh. That's ziprecruiter.com slash walsh. So Beto O'Rourke, if you remember him, he said the other day that this is what he said, though this is the darkest of times for our country, we cannot give in to despair. We must be honest about the unprecedented threat we face and then do everything within our power to overcome it.
Starting point is 00:21:58 I wanted to mention this because this kind of rhetoric were in the darkest times, darkest times, the worst times. It's never been worse. Unprecedented. This kind of rhetoric is obviously very common, but I really wish that we could develop some perspective. I understand the inclination to want to say that we're living in the worst time ever, everything is the worst it's ever been, et cetera, and so forth. And no doubt, I've been guilty of that myself on plenty of occasions.
Starting point is 00:22:37 And I think that you can legitimately look at certain individual facets of modern life and say about that particular thing that it's unprecedented or for better or worse. The Internet is an example of that, certainly. Nothing like the Internet has ever existed before. And society has been reshaped around this technology. many volumes could be written and will be written and some have been written, analyzing the effects that it's had on us, and I think that those effects in the end proved to be a net negative,
Starting point is 00:23:07 in a pretty profound net negative. But that's not the same as saying that generally speaking, these are our darkest times as a country. Yeah, this is what people want to do. People want to always be living in the worst times, the end times, the end of all things, the apocalypse is upon us. this is an impulse not just among religious people but against but among non-religious people too as the climate doomsayers clearly show people want the time that they're living in to be the worst
Starting point is 00:23:40 and in fact be the end be the with with armageddon around the corner why is that well i think partly of course there's a political motivation the the opposing party always wants things to be terrible under the president they're trying to get rid of. Republicans do this too. Obviously, Trump did this, you know, the way he described America sometimes under Obama, although things weren't great, but the way he described, it made it sound like a post-apocalyptic hellscape, like the road or something, Cormac McCarthy. And this is what? So part of it's just standard politics. Okay, fine. But there's an even baser impulse, something under underneath that. And I think a lot of it is a simple kind of vanity where we don't want to look
Starting point is 00:24:33 at things, take things into perspective, into historical context, and say, eh, we're living in moderately bad times. Things have been much worse than this. They've also been better, but we're sort of in the middle. No one's going to remember our struggles, really, because there's nothing to write home about. It's just, they're not great, but eh, not the worst. Nobody wants to think that. Nobody wants to think that we could, that we're going to get like a C plus on our suffering report card. We want our plight to be one of deep, earth-shattering importance.
Starting point is 00:25:08 We want our experiences to be unprecedented in a bad way. And we can't settle for the aspects of our experience that actually are unprecedented. We want the whole thing. We want all of it to be unprecedented. You see this on a personal level, too. It's like when you see it even in really petty ways. I'm sure you've had the experience before where you're in a group of people and you happen to mention, just as an aside, you say something like,
Starting point is 00:25:36 oh, man, I didn't get any sleep last night. Right? I didn't sleep much unless I'm pretty tired. And then what happens? It immediately becomes a contest to see who has slept the least. So the next person goes to tell me about it. I haven't slept. I haven't slept in two days.
Starting point is 00:25:51 Someone else, I haven't slept since last. Wednesday. Funny story, I haven't slept since the Carter administration. Oh yeah, well, I'm a vampire. Okay? I turned into one back at 1783. I've been up every night since then sucking blood. It's pretty exhausting. For some people have this, they can't stomach even admitting that they get enough sleep. They want it, they get, they don't get any sleep. They're so busy. They're so stressed. Everything's the worst. It's so terrible. It's this competitive martyrdom that we all do. It's the weirdest thing. And at the same time, we hate suffering. We do everything in our power to avoid it, but we also crave it and we envy it. We see something sexy in suffering, something enticing.
Starting point is 00:26:39 We figure it's a personality enhancer. It's a, it's a resume builder. And then, of course, the thing is, you meet someone or you read about someone who has really suffered. I mean, really, really suffered. Been through the worst sort of thing a person can experience. You read like night or a man's search for meaning about concentration camps. Or you talk to someone who's lost a child to cancer or something like that. Unimaginable suffering. And you see very quickly that it's not what we make it out to be when we trivialize it with our martyrdom act.
Starting point is 00:27:21 real suffering is bleak and dreary and it can break you it's not true that this idea that whatever whatever doesn't kill you makes you stronger if you suffer you'll come out stronger at the end of it it's not true there are people that come out a lot of most probably most people who really suffer come out worse in the end because of it it breaks them it wears them down
Starting point is 00:27:49 they come out as a shell of themselves. Real suffering is the kind of thing that at the end of it, you're probably not going to say, it was super hard, but I'm glad I went through it because I'm a stronger person now. Concentration camp survivors aren't saying that. People who lose children certainly aren't saying that. Now, you do hear this from cancer survivors themselves sometimes
Starting point is 00:28:16 and having advanced stage cancer obviously qualifies as real serious suffering, some of the worst suffering I imagine a person can experience. But that I've also heard from some cancer survivors who say, in their opinion, that the way that we talk about cancer, the sort of rosy tint that we put on it, and we say things like,
Starting point is 00:28:37 he's fighting, he's a fighter, he'll beat cancer, he'll kick cancer's butt, is wrong. I've heard from some cancer survivors. who say that. That cancer, you know, they'll point out that cancer is something that happens to you and it's miserable and it's horrible and it's horrible and it's not necessarily a matter of fighting. And I was actually, I was talking to somebody recently about this. And they
Starting point is 00:29:03 were saying this to me and I thought, yeah, you know, I have always felt a little bit uncomfortable with people saying stuff like, he beat cancer. You know, he fought it. He kicked cancer's butt. Because what about the millions of people who die from it? Were they weak? Were they not fighting hard enough? Is it their fault? In fact, we do often put it like that. We say, and you read it in the headlines,
Starting point is 00:29:31 after a famous person dies of cancer, it'll say, so-and-so lost his battle with cancer. Putting this oddly, oddly victim-blaming sort of spin on it. No, he didn't lose. He just, he died. Like we all will. He wasn't bested on the field of battle. He is mortal, and he died because he had no choice.
Starting point is 00:29:56 Anyway, I'd be interested to know how cancer survivors feel about this kind of rhetoric, because I've heard both sides of it, and I've never been through it myself, so I can't speak to it. In any case, the point is that maybe we collectively, in modern culture, don't need to win the suffering Olympics all the time. maybe we can admit that things generally speaking, and on an individual basis, there certainly are people in this country that are going through the worst kind of suffering imaginable,
Starting point is 00:30:27 but generally as a culture, as a society, we can admit that things aren't nearly as bad as they could be. And they've been a whole lot worse. When people talk about how divisive our politics are, things are so divisive and hostile and the way people are to each other. There's just no dignity anymore. Well, if these people would open a history book
Starting point is 00:30:55 and skim through it for three seconds, you would see how completely, almost laughably tame things are in comparison to how they've been throughout the entire course of human history, leading up to modern times. It wasn't all that long ago when as a matter of course, you would settle a dispute with someone by shooting at each other, having a duel.
Starting point is 00:31:23 It wasn't long ago that politicians would beat each other with Keynes in Congress. These days, a couple of mean tweets are exchanged. There are some mean gifts. And we say, this is unprecedented. This last lack of decorum. The country's never seen this before. Oh, come on. It's actually not that bad at all.
Starting point is 00:31:49 But we don't want to say that. It has to be the worst. It always has to be the worst. And I'm not saying we should be complacent or contend, and we shouldn't try to improve things. We should. But we could do it with some perspective, is my point. All right. Last week, I told you all about this terrific new podcast, the Cold War, what we saw.
Starting point is 00:32:06 Over the weekend, this podcast reached number one in history podcasts, number five on all of Apple Podcast. So you don't have to take my word for it because there are hundreds of reviews. reviews out right now that'll tell you the same thing. Go read them for yourself. Be sure to check out the Cold War, what we saw. Not only is it a very compelling story, but it's also an important reminder of what it's like to live with no future, which is where we end up if when the far left takes the presidency. The Cold War, what we saw captured is what was like to live through major events like the Berlin airlift, the Korean War, the Cuban Missile Crisis, the Space Race. And the story ties all of these milestones together to create this picture of the apocalypse that never happened.
Starting point is 00:32:47 The story is so well told and the setting is so brilliantly descriptive that as you go through these events, you start to understand the battle, not just for capitalism, but for civilization itself. They've released two episodes of this 12-part series already. So this is a perfect time to catch up. Just go to Dailywire.com slash Cold War and start listening to this incredibly important story. That's dailywire.com slash Cold War. One other thing I wanted to mention very important I had been thinking about this dealing with it internally praying about it and I just need to talk about it with someone I have to tell you what what I witnessed I was on a flight yesterday flying home last night on a
Starting point is 00:33:34 on a prestigious Spirit Airlines flight and I'm in the exit row window seat which I have paid a $6,000 upcharge for there's a woman about my age in the aisle seat there's nobody in the middle about 30 minutes into the flight she suddenly gets out of her seat and then she gets on her knees
Starting point is 00:34:01 on the plane facing her seat if you can imagine picture this and so she's like in praying position on her knees facing a seat in sort of praying position, which I would never begrudge anyone praying, especially on a flight, but it did make me a little nervous. It's like the time I was not long ago was on a flight, and the woman next to me was clutching a rosary and muttering all throughout the flight, oh, Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, oh Jesus, like that.
Starting point is 00:34:32 And I got a little nervous because I thought, do you know something? I don't know. Have you had a premonition or a vision or something? Anyway, she wasn't praying because she then rested her head directly on the seat. On the butt of the seat, her head on it, rested. And she went to sleep. And she slept like that for an hour. Knees on the ground, head on the seat.
Starting point is 00:34:57 On the seat were literally thousands of butts. Thousands upon thousands of butts. Just think of all the butts, all the butts, all of the many diverse and all, often quite large butts that have been pressed with a person's entire body weight against that seat. And she is breathing that in. She's inhaling that. Think of the, excuse me, but butt fumes that have soaked into the cushion over the years. You think they ever wash it? You think after you get off the flight, the flight attendants come by with chlorox and clean all the seats? No, they don't. They never wash the seats. There are things on planes that are never washed.
Starting point is 00:35:37 But just for years, the germs accumulate. And there are other things that are washed sparingly every couple of months. The tray tables, by the way, the tray tables that you eat on, they rarely wash those things, just so you know. So she's got her head in the butt fumes and in the flight attendants are walking by and, you know, never say anything. belt sign is on. There's turbulence. She's in the exit road. On her knees with her head in the seat, flight attendants are walking by, say nothing to her. How is that allowed? Could I just,
Starting point is 00:36:20 could I stretch out in the aisle if I wanted to? Could I, could I get a, like a pillow and a sleeping bag and just, and maybe, maybe crack the door open a smidge just to let some breeze in? Can I do that? Make yourself at home, I guess. Apparently the inmates are running the asylum and the asylum is 30,000 feet in the air going 500 miles an hour, that's not concerning at all, is it? I was, of course, horrified by this. But then I also, this weird, because this whole flight, I was thinking about it. And by the way, I also had the distinct urge. And I am steadfastly opposed to the thing that people do online where they take pictures of strangers
Starting point is 00:36:57 who are doing weird and awkward things and then post those pictures online to shame the person. I'm steadfastly opposed to that. I've never done it. I was very tempted here to do it because I felt like there needed to be documentation of this. Anthropologists in the future are going to want to see this and study it so they can understand our period of history. But I resisted the urge. Plus, I also thought that what if I forgot to take, it was dark on the plane. What if I forgot to take the flash off? And then it would be obvious I took a picture and you don't want to deal with that. So anyway, didn't take a picture, but I had a lot of time to think about this. And I was, I was
Starting point is 00:37:35 I was revolted, I was horrified, I was confused, I was scared, honestly. But then I also had this weird admiration that I felt for this person. And there are people in airports and planes. And this is the worst I've ever seen. But it's common that you see people who seem to have just given up on life. They've given up on life. They've given up on society. They're sprawed out in the terminal, you know, sucking their thumbs, pajamas on, sleeping.
Starting point is 00:38:03 hundreds of strangers are milling about. And they're just, they're just camped out, you know. And this is weird, emotionally stunted behavior, but it's also strangely confident. These are people who have utterly disregarded the judgments and opinions of the public. They do not care what anybody thinks. So the woman next to me on the plane
Starting point is 00:38:26 with her face implanted in the, excuse me, but rectal ejections of so many of thousands, of people. The statement she was making to me was I could not possibly care less what your opinion of me is. It is of no consequence to me. I know that you're going to judge me for this. I don't care. And though I'm horrified and traumatized by it, I did have a strange respect for it to because she's exactly right. What I'm sure she knew was going to happen was definitely happening. I was judging the hell out of her. But what does it matter? And she was comfortable, and she slept. So jokes on me, I guess. Let's go to emails. This is an email address is
Starting point is 00:39:17 Matt Wallshow at gmail.com. Matt wallshow at gmail.com. This is from Tyler says, Hey, Matt, love the show. What's your opinion on the morality of eating meat? Or as some people like to put it, killing and devouring innocent animals. Most people like myself say that it's okay to eat meat, given that God is granted us dominion over animals. I believe God created animals for our work, our work-related uses, enjoyment, and consumption. Some people on Twitter will argue that God gave certain commandments in the past
Starting point is 00:39:46 that aren't applicable today, such as treating your slaves kindly and the fact that God specifically told us not to eat bacon. Pork, they also point out that some animals are more emotionally complex than others. The pig, for example, is just as mentally and emotionally aware as a dog, and yet we eat pigs but not dogs. What would you say to someone that argues that it is more morally appropriate to go vegan
Starting point is 00:40:06 than to eat meat? Thanks again. The way I see it, the only system of thought, the only belief system, the only worldview that really provides a foundation for claiming that eating meat is immoral objectively would be some of the Eastern religions like Hinduism.
Starting point is 00:40:24 Now it depends on which Hindu you talk to because there are different branches of it like there are in Christianity. But some Hindus are vegetarian, according to their faith, on the basis that, as I understand it, you know, there's kind of a life force, a life energy that pervades all, you know, man and animal alike. And so there's an equality that we have with them. And so it would be wrong for them for us to kill them. I may be wrong in my explanation of their belief, but that's how I understand it. My point is, in the West, where vegetarianism and veganism are gaining ground, there really isn't any available philosophical justification for it.
Starting point is 00:41:07 Now, if somebody wants to refrain from eating meat for health reasons or for personal reasons, that's fine with me. I'm totally fine. I have no problem with that, of course. And I'm obviously not arguing that we have a moral obligation to eat meat. but the problem is that here in our country in the west generally most people are either going to be believers in the Judeo-Christian god or they're going to be basically secular atheist that's the vast majority that's almost everybody with with with some exceptions Judeo-Christian people have no foundation to claim that eating meat is objectively immoral because as you point out scripture clearly gives man dominion over the animal's authority to use them for meat and labor. God even commands that animals be killed frequently
Starting point is 00:41:57 in the Old Testament as sacrifices. Now, we don't sacrifice animals anymore, but there's nothing in the Old or New Testament or in the development of Christian thought, generally, or, as far as I understand it, Jewish thought, that would lead us to the conclusion that all meat is suddenly murder, whereas it wasn't before. Now, obviously, Muslims and Jews have dietary restrictions,
Starting point is 00:42:17 but that's got nothing to do with the rights of the animal. Far from it, that has to do with the animal not being, not being clean. That has to do with the animal being unclean. And then there's the atheist view. And I'm stereotyping here, but I guess that most vegans are probably atheist. Or at least a great number of them are. But here it makes even less sense philosophically, because first of all, there's no basis to say that we are in any way intrinsically superior to other animals. We all evolved out of the same soup.
Starting point is 00:42:48 And there hasn't been anything additional added to humans to make them better. or superior. You know, there's no immortal soul or anything like that. Now, the fact that we evolved out of the same soup and we're essentially equal, I suppose, is exactly what atheist vegans would point to as a reason not to eat animals, except that the problem is other animals eat animals. And if we're just like them intrinsically, why should we hold ourselves to a higher moral standard? Or maybe why aren't we holding them to a higher moral standard? How can we say that it's arbitrarily wrong for us to do this thing that most other animals do. Now, you could try to argue that we have the capacity to rise above these primitive ways and to do things a better way, but
Starting point is 00:43:32 who's to say that this is a better way? Better according to whom? Seems to me that on atheism, we are products of evolution, nothing more, and the highest good, the only purpose really, is to propagate our own species. That's the only thing that other animals are worried about. So why should we be any different? How are we different? We're not different on the atheist view. So I don't see, you know, on the atheistic, Darwinistic view,
Starting point is 00:44:06 this idea that we should not eat animals who we have the power to eat and subjugate, just as other animals do, It just doesn't make any sense. It seems to be entirely subjective, which, like I said, if you want to argue that it's not even really an argument. If you're saying subjectively, I don't like it, fine, great. But when you try to go from there to making an objective moral argument, well, now I need to know what is the philosophical foundation, the basis for this objective moral claim? and whether you're going atheism or Judeo-Christian,
Starting point is 00:44:48 I don't think there is a basis. This is from Paul says, as a retired dairy farmer who has artificially inseminated many thousands of dairy cows and stolen too many baby cows from their mothers to count over a long dairying career, I was mortified listening to Joaquin Phoenix's, is that his real name, Oscar speech last night?
Starting point is 00:45:05 In my defense, can I tell you that I did what I did in ignorance? I had no idea that my cows were suffering so appallingly, and all this so that I was. could sip a latte each morning and pour milk all over my corn flakes. Well, actually, so that you could enjoy a latte and pour milk over your corn flakes, Matt. In my defense, can I tell you that I just didn't realize what I was doing to my cows because, you see, every cow I ever stole a calf from was distressed right up until she shoved her nose in the bucket of grain that I offered her as a trade for her loved one. And every calf I ever stole from a cow happily adopted me as its
Starting point is 00:45:39 new mother from the first feed I gave it. Also because every cow I ever stole a calf from produced about seven times as much milk per day as her calf was capable of consuming anyway. I thought she wouldn't miss the other 45 liters that her baby couldn't use. Not fully realizing the anguish I was causing, I relentlessly pursued my objectives, whilst consoling myself that to the extent that there may have been any anxiety experienced by my cows about their loss of babies, this was balanced by the knowledge that I was allowing you and your friends to enjoy a latte each morning. So, Matt, you are as much to blame for the suffering of my cows as I am.
Starting point is 00:46:11 Well, not actually, well, not you actually because I was an Australian dairy farmer and I don't think my cow's milk was finding its way to your breakfast table necessarily, but you know what I mean. Funnily enough, all the cows I milked had four teats. I found this interesting because apart from camels, cows are the only mammals with far more teats than the average number of offspring they produce and far more ability to produce milk than their offspring. Because of this fact, I always assumed that God must have created cows to produce milk from more than just their own offspring. So I did not feel too badly about drinking lattes or milkshakes, eating cornflakes, ice creams, cheeses, or yogurt. Why, putting cream on my peaches was a luxury I was until last night still happily enjoying too. I will have to think deeply about Joachian's concerns and reassess my impact on my environment in the light of his heart-rending speech last night. And when I think that I have only touched on but one of his well-articulated talking points in that speech,
Starting point is 00:47:01 well, the mind simply boggles with renewed determination to make the world a happier, more equitable, cleaner, greener, rainbow-colored, accepting, tolerant, peaceful, victimless, and secure place for cows as well as people, I undertake to never again steal a calf from its mother and to encourage all who crossed my path to consider the feelings of all cows before they too decide to steal their calves. That brought a tear to my eye. That was a work of art. Well done. Best email of all time. That was the sarcasm dripping like milk over the cornflakes from every sentence of that email was a thing of beauty. And, sir, you have inspired me, Paul.
Starting point is 00:47:46 And I thank you for that. And I won't attract from it by rambling myself. So we'll wrap things up here. But before I do, I did want to mention that January has been a crazy year so far. And the election race hasn't even started yet, I hate to say. Best way to stay informed on top of all of it as well is to become a daily wire member with 20% off your membership. This promotion will be going away tomorrow.
Starting point is 00:48:12 So that's tomorrow. You have it until tomorrow. So you can join now before it's too late. This is 20% off all DailyWW membership when using promo code DW 2020. Members get our articles ad free, access to all of our live broadcast and show library, the full three hours of the Ben Shapiro show,
Starting point is 00:48:31 select bonus content, access to the mailbag, and now Ben Shapiro's election insight op-eds as well. Plus, our new All Access Tier gets you into live online Q&A discussions with me, Ben Shapiro, Andrew Claven, Michael Knowles. By the way, they've asked me to do a Q&A for Valentine's Day. I have been the one selected. They selected me as the Valentine's Q&A guy. So that should be fun. But you got to be a member.
Starting point is 00:48:58 So if you have a question, you can get an answer and download the Daily Wire app, a member exclusive. So you can get push notifications straight to your phone. Again, if you want 20% off your membership, you have to act now before it goes away tomorrow. That's promo code DW 2020 for 20% off. Trust me, you don't want to miss this. And we will leave it there. Have a great day. Godspeed.
Starting point is 00:49:19 If you enjoyed this episode, don't forget to subscribe. And if you want to help spread the word, please give us a five-star review and tell your friends to subscribe as well. We're available on Apple, podcast, Spotify, wherever you listen to podcasts. Also, be sure to check out the other Daily Wire podcast, including the Ben Shapiro show, Michael Null's show, and the Andrew Claven show. Thanks for listening. The Matt Wall Show is produced by Sean Hampton, executive producer Jeremy Boring, senior producer Jonathan Hay, supervising producer Mathis Glover, supervising producer Robert Sterling, technical producer Austin Stevens, editor Donovan Fowler,
Starting point is 00:49:52 audio mixer Robin Fenderson. The Matt Wall's show is a Daily Wire production, copyright Daily Wire 2020. Alexandria Ocasio Cortez, who studied economics in college and writes economic policy in Congress, can't name the most prominent. economists of the 20th century. MSNBC's Katie Turr doesn't know how senators get elected. And Joe Biden wants to ban guns that don't exist. The problem isn't that our alleged elites are ignorant. It's that they know so much that isn't so. We examine the root of their confusion. Then Biden collapses in the polls, Bloomberg surges, and Snoop Doggy Dog gets the media to expose themselves.
Starting point is 00:50:28 Check it out on the Michael Knowles show.

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