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Nov. 27, 2019 - The Matt Walsh Show

44:35

Ep. 380 - Rules For Thanksgiving

We can all be thankful this year because the media is here to tell us how to talk to our families on Thanksgiving. Also, we revisit one of the most egregious examples of the cancel culture, and one that few people seem to be outraged about. And speaking of Thanksgiving rules, what does an appropriate Thanksgiving spread look like? I will break it down in precise detail. Date: 11-27-2019 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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	Welcome to the show, everybody.
	Happy Thanksgiving as we get ready for Thanksgiving, the big day tomorrow, the final exam.
	Hope you've studied because, you know, the media realizes that we're all a bunch of incompetent, helpless, Morons.
	And we don't know how to speak to our own families around the dinner table without precise instructions.
	And so fortunately, our betters in the media are always eager to help us out in this regard and to give us those tutorials, which is why around this time every year, We are treated to a slew of conversational instruction manuals from the media telling us how to talk to our family, not just what to talk about, but also how to talk about those things.
	So this year, as it happens, our white knights, our knights in shining armor have gone above and beyond the call of duty.
	And here's just a quick sampling.
	I looked on Google, and here's just a quick sampling of the How to Talk to Your Family articles, which is a...
	A burgeoning genre.
	A quick example.
	These are some that have been published recently.
	So, we have how to talk about the economy with your family on Thanksgiving.
	Here's how to fact-check your family at the Thanksgiving dinner table.
	How to deal with climate skeptics at Thanksgiving dinner.
	How to talk about race at Thanksgiving.
	How to talk about politics at your Thanksgiving table.
	How to talk about the truth and Trump at Thanksgiving.
	How to talk about reproductive freedom with your anti-choice family members at Thanksgiving.
	How to talk about impeachment at Thanksgiving.
	How to talk to your misogynistic family members this holiday season.
	How to talk about gun control with your family at Thanksgiving dinner.
	How to talk about your career during the holidays.
	How to talk about medical cannabis at Thanksgiving dinner.
	How to talk about TikTok with your family this Thanksgiving.
	How to talk to your family about anime at Thanksgiving.
	Vegan?
	Here's how to talk to your family at Thanksgiving.
	How to handle money conversations on Thanksgiving.
	Thanksgiving in the age of Donald Trump.
	Nine ways to avoid political food fights.
	Five ways to talk to your pro-Trump family on Thanksgiving.
	Five things to talk about at Thanksgiving that aren't politics.
	How to have constructive conversations at a divisive Thanksgiving.
	Fifteen things you should never discuss at Thanksgiving dinner.
	Why you should talk about feminism with your family over the holidays.
	Seven ways to talk to your racist uncle this Thanksgiving.
	And finally, men are lonely, men are angry, men fear death.
	Thanksgiving's the time to talk about it.
	Don't worry, because if you're wondering, okay, but how do I talk about Thanksgiving on Thanksgiving?
	Well, CNN has an article about that.
	They have that base covered.
	They have a, how to talk to kids about Thanksgiving so that they really get it.
	So, I know that's a lot to take in.
	This is a lot of material to study.
	Precise instructions for every imaginable topic, lists of what to talk about, what not to talk about.
	It's very confusing, especially when they contradict a little bit because on one hand it's, you know, how to dominate your family in a politics debate and how to avoid politics.
	So how do you do both of those things?
	I don't know.
	And that's what you really need to sit down, you know, draw up a Venn diagram.
	I mean, you just got to work through this.
	And for me, This is why I'm always up until 3 a.m.
	or 4 a.m.
	the morning before Thanksgiving, cramming.
	You know, I'm popping Adderall, and I'm trying to do as much studying as I can.
	I've got flashcards and everything.
	Because this is normal, right?
	This is how normal people are.
	We need a writer at Vox or NPR.com to tell us how to talk to our own families, because I have no idea how to do it.
	And so the first thing I do is I Google it, which is what I did here.
	I think the main thing is this.
	You want to make sure, and this is so crucial, you want to make sure that nothing spontaneous, or sincere, or lively, or interesting, or real, or alive happens when you're with your loved ones.
	Okay?
	This is not a time for sincerity.
	You wouldn't want to You know, just talk to your family.
	You wouldn't want to do that.
	It's important that you have the bullet points, the script, in fact, and, and, and don't, don't feel like there's anything wrong with this.
	I know in a traditional test, you're not allowed to bring your notes with you, but this is a test where you're allowed to bring your notes.
	So I will bring, I'll have a folder or a binder, uh, with all of my notes and I've got it carefully organized.
	And so if somebody brings up climate change or they bring up gun control, uh, all I say is just hang on a second.
	I flipped through, you know, I start flipping through and I find my notes.
	And then I make my 12 pre-approved points, and then I say, discussion terminated.
	And I stand up and I walk immediately out of the room.
	And this is just, this is how you spend time with your family.
	And you have a lovely, lovely Thanksgiving that way.
	Okay, a few other things to talk about as we get ready for the holiday season to officially kick off here.
	But first, before we do, a word from The Last Coat.
	You know, the thing about the holidays, is we all look forward to it, but it holidays, they come
	with winter time, right? It's kind of, it's sort of a package deal. And I know for me, especially
	during the winter, things are getting cold, muddy, slushy, snowy, and it makes it really hard to
	keep that car looking nice. And that's why I want to talk about the last coat.
	It's a proprietary, versatile, durable, all-in-one, easy-to-use, all-surface, do-it-yourself coating that gives cars a slick, mirror-like finish in just minutes.
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	So this is, you want to talk about versatile, this thing does it all.
	Now, of course, this is a great gift idea, especially if you have a car lover in the family.
	But if you're a selfish son of a gun like myself, then you're going to give this gift to yourself, which is what I do.
	Because like we talked about yesterday on the show, you can't rely on your family to get you good gifts.
	So you got to just get gifts yourself.
	A pre-holiday gift to myself, and I would recommend that as well.
	It creates a protective shell on your car that protects it from UV rays, road salt, abrasive soaps, stream temperature is much more. It's protection and
	coating. It lasts for up for six months.
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	for a limited time, my listeners can get a 25% discount on a 16 ounce bottle of the last coat.
	It's the most durable all-service DIY coating technology on the market.
	For reference, an average-sized car only takes one or two ounces for full coverage.
	So, you're getting a lot of bang for your buck.
	Take advantage of this 25% discount.
	Go to thelastcoat.com slash Walsh.
	Type in Walsh 25 at the checkout.
	Again, that's The Last Coat.
	Alright, by the way, here is PETA claiming that the Georgia Bulldog mascot is being abused.
	to get 25% off. The Last Coat is an awesome gift idea for the car enthusiast in your family.
	That's thelastcoat.com slash Walsh and Walsh 25 at checkout to take advantage of this limited time
	offer. All right, by the way, here is a PETA claiming that the Georgia Bulldog mascot is
	being abused. You see the tweet here and you see the dog there in the rain and PETA says,
	he looks miserable.
	No dog deserves to be packed up, carted from state to state, and paraded in front of a stadium full of screaming fans.
	Animals are not mascots.
	Georgia must retire, retire, what's the dog's name?
	Ooga?
	Is that what they call him?
	He should be at home with a loving family.
	First of all, Bulldogs always look miserable, okay?
	That's sort of their look.
	They've got resting, depressed face.
	So, you can't really judge a book by its cover as far as that goes.
	Second, though, more to the point, what you see here is a dog in his own private air-conditioned tent, taking a nap, while a bunch of humans stand in the rain.
	So, who has it better here?
	You see the dog in his air-conditioned tent just hanging out, and all the miserable people in the rain, and PETA's concerned about the dog.
	Not to mention the dog travels around the country, has legions of adoring fans, is fawned over by everyone, has a diet better than me, gets better accommodations than I do when I travel.
	If you're looking for an example of a neglected or abused animal, you couldn't possibly choose a worse example than this.
	This dog is like the Kardashian of dogs.
	He's a pampered celebrity.
	So I'm just not sure that this is a good example.
	Okay, here's something else that annoyed me a little bit.
	Remember John Schnatter?
	I think that's how you pronounce his last name, or Schnatter.
	Papa John, we'll just call him.
	Used to be a ubiquitous presence on TV, especially during the football season.
	And he's the guy who founded Papa John's.
	Well, he got ousted from his company a year ago, you may remember, for alleged racism, and we'll get back to that in a second.
	We'll talk about why he was actually ousted.
	But Papa John did an interview with WDRB in Louisville, and clips from that interview went viral yesterday, with everybody sort of cackling and mocking him for it, especially because of this part right here.
	Listen.
	I've had over 40 pizzas in the last 30 days, and it's not the same pizza.
	It's not the same product.
	It just doesn't taste as good.
	The way they're making the pizza, the way they're putting the pizza together is just not fundamentally sound to what makes a Papa John's pizza a Papa John's pizza.
	It sounds like you're saying that it's taken a huge hit since your departure.
	Would you ever consider or do you want to go back?
	Right now, I don't want to go back.
	But this is still your baby.
	It's got your name on it.
	It's hard to watch this.
	I mean, every single thing you can possibly do wrong to mismanage this company, they're doing.
	Schnarter says he still loves the company he built.
	But he has sold millions in stock and is no longer the largest individual shareholder.
	My metaphor is, there's no reason to be in the car when the car crashes, even if you love the car.
	If you were to walk back in as CEO, what do you think the employees would say?
	If the managing team was out, and I went back in, they'd be cheering.
	They'd be doing backflips.
	They'd be bouncing off the walls.
	OK, so he says he ate 40 pizzas in a month, which Yeah, it's weird.
	I don't know if we're talking about 40 full pizzas or 40 slices of pizzas throughout a month.
	Because, you know, 40 slices, that would be about a slice and a third per day.
	That's not too bad.
	Still a lot of pizza.
	If we're talking 40 entire pizzas, then that's just deadly.
	But, and yeah, he looks a little bit sweaty there and everything, and that's the reason this went viral, because everyone's snickering and pointing and laughing, saying, oh, he ate 40 pizzas, he looks so sweaty, what a freak!
	That kind of thing.
	But this is just an example, I think, of our stupid, frivolous, perpetually adolescent culture.
	The real story here is that this guy, John Schnatter, he got railroaded, smeared, and tossed under the bus by his own company, the company he founded.
	These people, they just threw him to the wolves and stole his company from him.
	So remember what happened.
	He was on a conference call with people in his company and a marketing agency, and the conference call, the subject of the call was about how to navigate racial controversies as a company.
	So during the course of that discussion, apparently, this is, I guess, according to him, but I don't think anyone else, anyone ever denied that this was the context of it.
	So during the course of that discussion, he used the N word, but he used it while quoting racist things that other people had said.
	As an example of the sorts of controversies that they're trying to navigate, right?
	So he was basically saying, as an example of what they were talking about, remember when so-and-so said, said blank.
	So it was a quote or paraphrase.
	He did utter the syllables, okay, he did say the word, but the context was totally innocuous.
	And traditionally, right, intent and context are important facets of human conversation.
	You need to take those into account.
	So, if you say a bad thing, if you say a bad thing, and I repeat the bad thing you said by way of informing others that the bad thing was said, I am not myself guilty of the bad thing.
	Right?
	With the N-word, however, it has been decided that the word itself, just the actual word, those letters put together and the syllables, somehow transcend intent and context completely.
	So that intent and context make no difference at all.
	If the word is said by someone with the wrong skin pigmentation, it doesn't matter why it was said.
	It makes no difference.
	They're going to lose their job.
	They're going to lose everything.
	That obviously is insane.
	I was about to call it silliness, but it's a lot more than silliness.
	When a person loses his livelihood and his reputation, it becomes something much more than silliness, I think.
	Because we must realize that a word is not a magical spell.
	A word itself, the power of a word, all depends on the intent and the manner in which the word is used.
	There is not a single word in existence where there could never be an innocent or innocuous reason to use it.
	Because the reason could be something as simple as, I'm telling you what someone else said, or I'm reading it.
	Right?
	And besides, you might say, well, he shouldn't have said the word, he should have just said N-word.
	Okay, yeah.
	In terms of self-preservation and navigating our crazy politically correct culture, then yeah, that's what he should have done.
	I think we all know that.
	But if he had said N-word rather than just saying the word, he would still be communicating the words.
	That's what doesn't make any sense to me.
	You're still communicating it.
	Everyone knows what you mean.
	You're still putting the word into someone else's head.
	You're causing them to think about the thing that you're conveying.
	That's what communication is.
	So, practically speaking, it's not really any different.
	I mean, what if he had spelled the word?
	What if, rather than say n-word, or rather than say the word, what if he had spelled the entire word?
	Is that racist?
	To spell a word?
	Well, I think we would all have to agree, no.
	Or is it?
	Maybe it is.
	So you could say the first letter, maybe the second, but you can't say the last three.
	How far does this go?
	And what if you spell the word, then you again have communicated the word and put the word into
	someone else's head, which is the same thing, practically speaking, as just saying it.
	So this guy loses his job and his reputation is destroyed because of this.
	and And the reason why that happened is that someone on the conference call went and leaked it to the media.
	And his company threw him under the bus.
	He's kicked out of the place that he built.
	And he's remembered now as a racist, even though there's no evidence that he is.
	And the headline that most people take from this is that it's funny because he said he ate a lot of pizzas.
	He said in that interview how the people that threw him under the bus, he made into millionaires.
	He made the millionaires and then they set out to destroy him.
	And that sounds accurate.
	Sounds like that's exactly what happened.
	So, shouldn't we be defending this guy?
	I mean, isn't this... I never understood this.
	As concerned as everybody is about, not everybody, at least people who aren't on the far left, So as concerned as people aside from far leftists are about the cancel culture, this seems to be one of the most egregious examples of it, and no one really cared when it happened.
	I never quite got that.
	I mean, this guy got completely railroaded.
	In a situation where it's obvious.
	I mean, they're having this conversation.
	Everybody on the conference call understands what they're talking about and understands what he's saying.
	And then one of them went, at least one of them, went and decided to take this and just destroy the guy.
	How evil is that?
	But yeah, it doesn't matter because he ate a lot of pizzas and he looks sweaty in the interview.
	And you know, that's all that matters.
	It's crazy to me.
	All right.
	Listen up, by the way.
	I think you need to do something very simple.
	If you're planning on buying a Daily Wire membership today, you're gonna be surprised to hear me say this, but don't do it.
	I know it sounds counterintuitive, and it is, but trust me, we don't want your money today.
	We'd love your money, but just not today.
	Remember, this Friday is Black Friday, and I've been told that we're offering amazing deals Like you would kick yourself in the pants.
	I don't know how you would kick yourself in the pants.
	That's what, that's, that's what my script says here.
	You would kick yourself in the pants.
	If you miss these deals, you kick yourself.
	How would you kick yourself in the pants?
	Well, anyway, you don't want to miss these deals.
	That's the point.
	So, um, you want to get the deals on black Friday, on black Friday, there's gonna be crazy deals.
	If you want to, uh, become a daily wire member.
	And so I'm just warning if you do it today and then you could have saved all that money in two days, so wait till Friday.
	But then on Friday, you want to go and sign up, become a Daily Wire member.
	All kinds of deals, all kinds of perks that come with it on Friday.
	Okay, there was an article in The Economist a few days ago titled, The Roots of the Gender Pay Gap Lie in Childhood.
	And it's all about the child penalty, about how having children lowers a woman's lifetime earnings.
	And the article seems to bemoan that fact.
	So here's the first paragraph.
	It says, it is well known that parenthood tends to hurt women's careers but not men's.
	Numerous studies have shown that as a group, having children lowers women's lifetime earnings, an outcome known as the child penalty.
	A wide range of individual decisions account for this effect.
	Some women work fewer hours or not at all when their children are young.
	Others switch to jobs that are more family-friendly but lower paid.
	There's also a substantial variation in the size of the earnings decline, ranging from zero all the way up to 100%.
	In the case of women who stop working altogether.
	And then it goes on from there.
	Just two quick points I wanted to make about this.
	Number one, calling it the phrase child penalty.
	To me, it's just another example of the sort of scorn and disregard that we heap on children, which I'm hesitant to use the word because it's so overused, but I would almost call it a sort of bigotry that we have against children in this culture.
	People are very open in talking about children as burdens or how they hate being around kids in public and so on.
	I don't think that's the right phrase to use, child penalty.
	And I think that the women who choose to have kids And then make adjustments to their lives.
	Maybe they get a lower paying job so they can be home more.
	Maybe they leave their job and they stay home with the kids.
	I don't think that these women feel like they're being penalized.
	This is what they want to do.
	And it makes sense, really.
	Because as much as the media might bemoan the loss of earnings that comes from Having kids, you have to think when you're on your deathbed, I very much doubt that there's ever been someone on their deathbed looking back at their life and regretting that they hadn't earned more income.
	I just, I don't think that's the kind of thing that you're going to be worried about.
	And we all sort of know that, right?
	And there are many things that we spend our days worrying about and caring about that we know when we are on our deathbed, unless we die suddenly in a car accident or something.
	But if we're on our deathbed and we have that moment, we know that we're going to regret spending all that time worrying about those things.
	And so lifetime earnings is one of those things.
	On the other hand, when you're on your deathbed, I don't think you're going to regret having children.
	In fact, your regrets will be not that you had kids, but that you didn't spend more time with them.
	That's where the regrets are.
	And I'm certain that no one's ever been on their deathbed and regretted and wished that they had spent less time around their family and their kids.
	I don't think anyone's ever been lying there.
	Hours before death and said, oh man, I wish I had taken more hours at work so that I would have been away from my kids more.
	Right?
	No one is saying that.
	So I think the decision to spend more time with your kids rather than, even if it means sacrificing money, that's a decision that most people will, and ultimately will not live to regret.
	And even if you do regret, I mean, if you're on your deathbed and you're worried about your lifetime earnings and how much money you made, that's only going to be because you want to leave something for your kids, which means you have to have them.
	If you had no kids and you spent your entire life focused on yourself and on attaining material goods for yourself, well, that's not going to mean anything to you.
	You're going to see how empty and hollow that actually was.
	Alright, before we get to some emails and we wrap it up for the week, speaking of Thanksgiving rules, I thought it would be helpful and necessary to review, as we head into Thanksgiving, the rules and restrictions for Thanksgiving as they apply to the food.
	These are, as of now, unwritten rules.
	But, of course, upon my ascension to the throne, they will be engraved in stone.
	Literally engraved in stone.
	In fact, I'm going to have all my laws carved to the side of a mountain, so everyone can see it.
	It's going to have to be a pretty big mountain, because I've got a lot of laws and rules.
	And this will be one of them.
	So, Thanksgiving, a few guidelines here.
	I think I've got maybe five rules for how you handle the food on Thanksgiving.
	Number one, no seafood is permitted.
	Seafood in general is overrated, but I'm not going to stop you from eating it if you want to tonight, or if you want to on Friday.
	If you want to waste your time having shrimp or salmon or something, then go ahead.
	I don't know why you would do that when beef exists, but knock yourself out.
	But Thanksgiving is not a time for that.
	And really, none of the holidays are.
	We're talking about Thanksgiving, we're talking about Christmas, we're talking about Easter.
	None of those are times for seafood.
	It's just, it's not substantial enough of a dish Uh, to have a place on the table.
	And I know when I go through this because my wife's family, they're big seafood fans and I've got to watch them like a hawk because every holiday occasion they're looking, they're looking for an excuse to put some seafood on the table.
	And so this is something, this is something I struggle with and I go through in my own personal life.
	Number two, absolutely no pasta on Thanksgiving.
	This is America.
	Pasta on Thanksgiving is wildly inappropriate and unethical.
	Thanksgiving is a time for American foods.
	Not pasta.
	And don't give me the whole, what about mac and cheese?
	Okay?
	First of all, mac and cheese?
	Macaroni and cheese on Thanksgiving?
	How old are you, four?
	And it is pasta.
	And besides, and here's the main point with the pasta.
	Number one, not American.
	Thanksgiving is a time, when it comes to the side dishes, this is a time for potatoes to really shine.
	And you're not going to put pasta and potatoes on the same plate.
	Okay, you're not going to put macaroni and cheese right next to your mashed potatoes.
	That doesn't make any sense.
	So, this is about the potatoes, it's not about the pasta.
	Again, you can have the pasta any other time.
	Except on holidays.
	Number three, I will allow multiple proteins at the table.
	You want to have ham in addition to turkey, that's fine.
	But turkey is the star.
	Turkey gets the prime place on the table.
	It's at the center of the action.
	If there's only one protein, it damn well better be turkey.
	Ham has Christmas.
	Ham also has Easter.
	Okay, so it gets two holidays.
	And ham can take a back seat.
	We can't let it steal the spotlight on Thanksgiving.
	It needs to learn its role and know its place.
	Number four, all side dishes, green beans, potatoes, stuffing, cranberry sauce, et cetera, must be cooked in a traditional way.
	This is not a time for experimentation.
	This is not a time for showboating.
	Thanksgiving is, it's kind of like a Rolling Stones concert, okay?
	If you're going to a Rolling Stones concert, you don't want to hear the song they cooked up in 2016.
	You want to hear the same stuff they've been playing for 50 years.
	If you went to a Rolling Stones concert in 1972, and you want the concert you go to in 2019 to sound exactly like that concert in 1972, and it's the same thing with Thanksgiving.
	We want the same dishes that our grandmothers made, basically.
	Unless your grandmother was a communist who put marshmallows in sweet potatoes, in which case she and you are getting shipped to the gulag because her reign of terror is finally coming to an end and she will answer for those crimes.
	Number five, pumpkin pie.
	And we're getting to the dessert.
	And I'm shocked that this is even controversial.
	There are people that try to argue with this and I find it just stunning.
	Pumpkin pie is the primary dessert at Thanksgiving with homemade whipped cream.
	If you put Cool Whip on that table, that's 15 years of hard labor.
	So you want the homemade whipped cream with the pumpkin pie.
	Now, if you want, again, it's kind of like the turkey.
	You've got the turkey as the star.
	You want to put something else along with it?
	That's fine.
	You want to put an apple pie down?
	That's fine.
	I'm not going to have an issue with that.
	You want to put some other kind?
	You want to put brownies down or cookies?
	Yeah, that's fine.
	They're around the peripheral, around the edges.
	But you got the pumpkin pie right there in the middle.
	Cherry pie is a disgrace.
	Doesn't belong on any table for any occasion.
	Chocolate pies are not pies.
	That's just pudding with crust.
	Okay?
	It's not elevated enough.
	I've got no problem with pudding with crust, but it's just not elevated enough for the Thanksgiving occasion.
	And I think those are the basic rules.
	And if you stick with that, you'll be fine.
	Upon my ascension, how would I enforce these rules?
	In order to enforce them, wouldn't it be necessary that I basically abolish everyone's privacy rights completely?
	And the answer to that is yes, of course, absolutely.
	That's the whole point of being a tyrannical dictator.
	And I've always been consistent about this.
	I believe in constitutional rights and liberties for me.
	And the most important thing.
	For me, right now, as a person without power, yeah, I want everyone to have those rights so that I can have them.
	But, obviously, when I'm in power, I have all the power, so I don't care about the rights anymore.
	So that's going to go out the window.
	Here's going to essentially be my strategy.
	I'm going to have my military activated, of course, on Thanksgiving, and they're going to go into... they'll be in every town, basically, and they're going to do random checks.
	They're just going to come into a random house, do a check of the dinner table, make sure everything's in working order.
	They're not going to be able to look at every house, but this is where my reign is going to be very much a reign of terror.
	So I'm going to make it clear that if you observe infractions at your dinner table by your family members and you report them, you'll get a $10,000 reward.
	If you don't, you'll be executed.
	And I think with that terror, along with the military, I think we could really Basically snuff out all of the Thanksgiving infractions, which for me, from my observations, have become far too widespread.
	So that's what you have to look forward to.
	But you might as well, even before I'm dictator, you might as well start now and just start following the rules ahead of time.
	So that by the time I'm sitting on the throne, you know, you've kind of gotten into the groove of things.
	All right, let's go to emails.
	MattWalshow at gmail.com.
	MattWalshow at gmail.com.
	This is from Nathan.
	Says, Mr. Walsh, I'm a freshman in high school, and we were having our first AP Human Geography debate in a few weeks on whether English should be the official language of the U.S.
	I feel like I know what your opinion is, but I was trying to get some good counterarguments to the whole diversity is our strength shtick, because the counterarguments I come up with sound cruel and unfeeling, which brings into question why I'm asking you, theocratic fascist, but I would love your input.
	Yeah, I guess if you're looking for answers that are not cruel and unfeeling, then you're talking to the wrong guy.
	But here's what I would say.
	Well, it's more of a question, Nathan, that I would pose to anyone who goes with the diversity is our strength thing.
	All you have to ask them is, why is it our strength?
	So you're saying diversity is our strength.
	Okay.
	Why?
	What's so great about it?
	Now, I'm guessing that most people who use that line will be defeated right there.
	You've already beat them because they probably can't explain why it matters.
	They're just going to start stumbling around and they won't be able to come up with an answer.
	And that's because they're so used to the assumption that diversity matters that they've never actually stopped to think about why it does or if it even does.
	But if they come up with an answer, I assume it will have something to do with how we are all enriched by the input and the influence of
	other cultures, and how it makes for a richer and more vibrant culture, and
	so on.
	But here's the issue.
	It's really hard to be enriched by the influence of other people.
	It's really hard to even have a culture that can be improved by diversity in the first place
	if we can't understand each other.
	So, communication, the ability to communicate is one of the most fundamental, most essential ingredients in any culture and in any country.
	You literally cannot have a country or a culture if the people aren't able to communicate, and that's what this is about.
	So, whether diversity is our strength or not, communication is still essential.
	So you don't need to argue on diversity.
	Maybe that's what you're worried about.
	Well, how am I going to... You don't have to argue that point.
	Grant the point and say, OK, well, in order for that to make a difference, we need to be able to communicate.
	I mean, how am I really going to be influenced and enriched and all of that by someone else if I can't understand what they're saying to me?
	Let's see, this is from... well, there's no name here.
	here says, I understand your position on this, but our family has always really
	enjoyed getting Christmas ornaments, particularly handcrafted one. One notable
	example is how my sisters and their friends have given each other ornaments
	from time to time, generally with some sort of particular meaning, such as a
	clear ball with elvish runes painted on the side. We have a tradition in our
	family where we pray for the people who gave us the ornament, since nearly every
	ornament on our tree is from someone, and many of them are handmade. I have a
	bead craft that I make that I have used to make ornaments for my family, such as
	a 3D wreath or a Christmas tree.
	One year my dad and I carved a Christmas tree and a wreath out of a nice block of ash wood for my mother.
	While I certainly understand not wanting to get a red bauble for Christmas, sometimes an ornament can have a meaning or worth above its material value.
	It goes back to the saying, it's the thought that counts, but in a good way.
	The meaning behind the gift is what is important about it.
	Well, I just disagree.
	The thought doesn't mean anything.
	You know, what do I care what thought was in your head when you got me a gift?
	Do I like it?
	Can I use it?
	Can I eat it?
	Okay, these are the questions that I'm asking myself.
	This is from Alex, says, I share your perspective that sex ed should not be taught in schools the way it is.
	Uh, and in the case of schools in England, teaching primary school kids how to masturbate is horrifying, but I was wondering how you feel on STD education in schools.
	It seems that to me that this also should be left to the parents, but considering there are many parents that feel uncomfortable talking about stuff like this with their kids, would it not be beneficial for schools to teach students about STDs?
	Obviously this should wait until the kids are at least 13 to 14, but it seems clear to me that it's better for all students to know the dangers of STDs before any of them are sexually active.
	Thanks and love the show.
	Yeah, Alex.
	Well, yeah, they should know about STDs the same way we teach them about any other disease.
	So this is a fact that's relevant to biology and that's how I would approach it.
	That was my point with sex ed that you don't need a specific sex ed subject.
	You want to teach the biology of human reproduction.
	Okay.
	You do that in science class.
	You want to teach anatomy.
	You have, there's, that's also a scientific topic.
	Uh, STDs again, That's a topic that is covered in an academic environment.
	It's when they get into their own ideology, their own perspective on sexual activity and everything, that's when we have a problem.
	Finally, this is from Tony.
	Says, Hi Matt, I'm not a parent myself, but I respect the fact that you don't seem to follow new age slash liberal methods of parenting.
	I'd love to hear you go on a rant about parents who let their kids misbehave in public.
	I was out the other day and saw a kid acting out majorly while his mother wasn't doing anything about it.
	Terrible parents are why we have multiple generations now of spoiled brats.
	What do you think?
	Well, Tony, I agree there are a lot of bad parents these days.
	I agree that a lot of parents let their kids get away with everything, and that those kids go on to inflict society with themselves, being generally spoiled, lazy, entitled, and so on.
	I agree this is a problem, and much of it goes back to parenting, so I wouldn't deny that.
	I'm with you there.
	But maybe I'll throw a curveball at you today by not giving you the rant you asked for, because there's another side to this.
	That you as a non-parent, I think, especially probably need to hear.
	You didn't really give me any details about this situation that you witnessed with the mom and their child.
	I don't know where you were.
	I don't know what the kid was doing.
	I don't know what his mom was doing or not doing.
	It's possible that what you saw was totally egregious and inexcusable.
	And I'd certainly believe that.
	I've witnessed things like that.
	We all have.
	But, um, So I don't know if what I'll say here applies to this situation or not.
	Maybe it does or doesn't.
	But it does apply to many situations that you're likely to see.
	So here's what I would caution you.
	You can't judge a parent based on one short snapshot, okay?
	You can't, and we all do this, but we shouldn't.
	You can't look at a parent in one brief, isolated, stressful moment, see how they're acting, see how they're reacting, See how they're handling it, and then make sweeping judgments, calling them terrible and so on.
	Because that's not fair.
	Unless the parent is doing something really, really, as I said, egregious, really harmful and awful, in which case, okay, but barring that, I don't think you can dismiss a parent based on how you see them react in one isolated incident to a child that's misbehaving when you don't know the context, you don't know anything about them, So parenting is really hard.
	It is.
	And it's unrelenting.
	Kids don't give you a break.
	They don't take your stress into account, really, especially at a certain age.
	They're not going to look at you and say, oh, hey, you know, looks like dad's having a tough day.
	Maybe I'll go easy on him.
	The kids aren't going to say that.
	I don't mean to make parenting sound like nonstop misery.
	It isn't, but it is hard.
	And so you see a parent out in public, um, Not really being Johnny on the spot with the discipline.
	And you could assume that that's a terrible parent, fine.
	But maybe it's been a really tough day with that kid.
	Or a tough week.
	Or a tough year.
	And the mom on top of that maybe is dealing with problems at work.
	Maybe there's a sick family member.
	Maybe there's financial problems.
	Maybe she's just taking the child out to spend some time with him, making an effort.
	The kid's not cooperating.
	Mom really doesn't want to yell.
	She doesn't want to punish.
	She feels like she's been doing too much of that already this week and today.
	So she tries to be patient.
	She tries to be lenient.
	Because she's emotionally worn out and she feels like she's been coming down too hard on the kid lately and she feels like patience and lenience right now is the best approach.
	And so what you interpret as lazy parenting and bad parenting and terrible parenting, maybe it's actually heroic restraint on her part.
	Maybe this is actually a mother who desperately loves her son and her family and is just trying as much as she can to do the right thing.
	And she knows you're watching and she knows that you're heaping this judgment on her, but she's doing what she thinks is right.
	I mean, who knows?
	Maybe that's the case.
	Maybe it's not.
	I've just created a scenario out of whole cloth, who knows?
	Maybe, as I said, maybe she really is a terrible parent.
	Neglectful mother.
	The kid's a snot-nosed brat destined to be a societal leech.
	Maybe that's the case.
	But I don't know, and you don't know either, and that's the point.
	So why not extend the woman and her child a little bit of grace and just assume that she's a good mother doing her best?
	Why assume the worst in someone that you don't even know?
	That's my point.
	And I'm not lecturing you.
	I do this myself.
	Even though I am a parent myself, and I know how it is.
	And this is something parents do to each other, and it's crazy.
	Because, you know, you as someone who's not a parent, at least you have an excuse that you don't really know how it is because you've never had kids.
	But as parents, we know how it is.
	And we've all been in tough spots with our kids, and we've all had kids that have acted out at some point in public.
	And we've all felt overwhelmed.
	We've all been through that.
	All of us.
	Yet we still will even judge each other when we see parents doing things that we have done and being in situations that we've been in.
	We'll still judge them.
	I just the other day I was out.
	At the store.
	I was in the parking lot about to pull out of the grocery store.
	This mother comes out and she's got her kid by the arm and she could tell she's furious.
	I don't know what happened.
	Something happened in the store, obviously.
	She's screaming at the kid and she puts him in the car, slams the door, walks around, and she's just fuming, right?
	And I happen to see this and for a moment I thought to myself, oh, that woman needs to get her act together.
	This is embarrassing.
	You don't act like this in public.
	And it's true that we should refrain from public scenes of that sort, and screaming at your child really is not the right approach.
	But then I had to stop myself and think, you know, I have no idea.
	I have no freaking clue what's going on in that woman's life.
	I have no idea.
	I mean, her husband may have just died of cancer.
	Again, I don't know.
	It's possible.
	Probably not, but maybe.
	All I've seen of this woman, I don't know her name, don't know anything about her, all I've seen is this one snapshot, this one 60 second clip of her at her absolute worst, furious at her kid.
	We've all been furious at our kids before, we all have.
	And so I happen to see that, just that one glimpse, her angry, her feeling obviously overwhelmed and helpless, and I'm gonna presume to make any judgments or assumptions about her at all based on that?
	So I had to stop myself there.
	I just feel like we can choose to cut people slack or not.
	We can choose to see the worst in them or not.
	We could choose to give them the benefit of the doubt or not.
	And that's a choice that we make.
	And especially when it comes to parents, I just think that sometimes we should stop and say, look, This is not excusing everything, but sometimes we stop and say, listen, maybe this is just a rough time.
	Maybe it's just a rough day.
	And this could be a great parent 99.9% of the time.
	Maybe you caught the 0.1% where they don't really have it together.
	And I say all of this maybe somewhat selfishly because as a parent myself, I do, I would want people to extend that grace to me if they ever caught me in public in the moment, you know, not reacting exactly how I'm supposed to react, which I have been guilty of in the past, I admit.
	All right, so we will, I'll leave it there with that sappy note for the holidays.
	That was a glimpse of humanity and generosity from me.
	It's a holiday miracle already.
	It is possible, folks.
	Thanks, everyone, for watching and listening.
	Have a happy Thanksgiving.
	Godspeed.
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	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, Audio Mixer Mike Coromina.
	The Matt Wall Show is a Daily Wire production, copyright Daily Wire 2019.
	It's Thanksgiving, and you know what that means.
	Pumpkin pie and mashed potatoes and a bunch of insufferable leftist think pieces preparing liberals to suffer the torture of speaking to a single conservative, even once, even one they're related to, even for just a couple of hours.
	We will examine how liberals talk about talking to us.
	That, and the history of Thanksgiving.

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