A little over a year ago, Matt tweeted that men shouldn't cry in public. Little to our surprise, the twitter outrage mob did not take too kindly to that and unironically cried about it for days. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
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| Yesterday was a big day for performatively emotional displays by henpecked men. | |
| During the January 6th hearing, one man after another took turns bawling his eyes out, weeping openly and without shame. | |
| The most grotesque and nauseating spectacles came, as always, from the politicians. | |
| Here is Representative Adam Schiff getting choked up for unclear reasons. | |
| We deem elections illegitimate merely because they didn't go our way, rather than trying to do better the next time. | |
| God help us. | |
| And if we're so driven by bigotry and hate that we attack our fellow citizens as traitors, | |
| if they're born in another country where they don't look like us. | |
| And God help us. | |
| But I have faith because of folks like you. | |
| And Adam, I didn't expect this would be quite so emotional either, but it must be an Adam thing today. | |
| But I'm so grateful to all of you. | |
| And with that, Mr. Sherman, I yield back. | |
| He's got to work on his acting a little bit. | |
| I appreciate the timing. | |
| So he timed his emotional breakdown for when he mentioned bigotry. | |
| That's when he's, we have to be nicer to people who don't look like us. | |
| The bigotry is so upsetting to me. | |
| So he timed it well, but the acting needs a little bit of work. | |
| He wasn't the only Adam to carry on this way. | |
| Adam Kinzinger, a Republican, sobbed even louder. | |
| It was an inspiring moment of bipartisan emasculation. | |
| Let's watch that. | |
| Thank you, Mr. Chairman, and thank you to my colleagues on the committee. | |
| Thank you to our witnesses. | |
| I never expected a day to be quite as emotional for me as it has been. | |
| I've talked to a number of you and gotten to know you. | |
| I think it's important to tell you right now, though. | |
| You guys may, like, individually feel a little broken. | |
| You guys all talk about the effects you have to deal with and, you know, you talk about the impact of that day. | |
| But you guys won. | |
| You guys held? | |
| You know, democracies are not defined by our bad days. | |
| We're defined by how we come back from bad days. | |
| How we take accountability for that. | |
| And for all the overheated rhetoric surrounding this committee, our mission is very simple. | |
| Let's define the truth, and it's to ensure accountability. | |
| Sorry, I'm getting a little emotional, too. | |
| Little misty-eyed. | |
| Now, it goes without saying that neither of these men have shed any tears, as we discussed earlier, for any of the victims of any of the horrific BLM riots last year. | |
| Police officers were bashed over the head with bricks, beat, attacked, berated. | |
| This is all on video. | |
| Their precincts were burned to the ground. | |
| A retired police officer was murdered in cold blood and left for dead in the street. | |
| Neither of the crying Adams have ever shed any tears. | |
| For those officers. | |
| By the way, that should be a band name, The Crying Adams. | |
| That's because their tears are fake and manipulative. | |
| Fake and manipulative tears from anyone are disgraceful, but from a man, even more so. | |
| Even leaving aside the rank dishonesty here, this is also part of a larger problem. | |
| A symptom of an endemic disease. | |
| The fact that grown men will now cry to get what they want, like my eight-year-old daughter, only shows, again, that masculinity is in a dire state in this culture. | |
| There was a time when that sort of display would have been considered embarrassing and weak. | |
| But now we're meant to take a man seriously when he cries in front of us, even more seriously, if anything. | |
| I think this is wrong, to put it mildly. | |
| And I've said so many times, I reiterated this point on Twitter yesterday. | |
| This is what I wrote, simply, I said, men should not cry in public. | |
| It is unmanly and dishonorable. | |
| Rare exceptions can be made to this rule, but we make far too many exceptions. | |
| And the exceptions are pretty obvious. | |
| A loved one dies, your child is born, your bride is walking down the aisle at your wedding. | |
| In the latter two cases, a dignified tear or two may be acceptable, but please don't turn the faucet on. | |
| There's no reason to go overboard. | |
| Don't try to prove a point. | |
| Other exceptions can be imagined. | |
| We've talked about some of them before. | |
| Perhaps, for example, you're saying goodbye to your family before embarking on a three-year voyage to Mars. | |
| Maybe you're watching the end of the movie Rudy. | |
| Aside from those rare occurrences, the point is that men should comport themselves with a certain level of stoicism and dignity, learning to control their emotions and projecting an image of strength, of someone who is composed and in control. | |
| Yeah, it's possible to go overboard in that direction, becoming an emotionless robot entirely unaffected by suffering, your own or anyone else's. | |
| But there aren't very many men in our society who are at any risk of falling into that trap. | |
| The problem, in most cases, lies way at the other end of the spectrum. | |
| Men today are encouraged to put their emotions on display at all times, to be vulnerable, to be soft and feminine and gentle. | |
| Men are encouraged to be women, in other words. | |
| In fact, some of the responses to my tweet were pretty enlightening. | |
| Lots of people, of course, were scoffing at the opinion that I expressed, even though it's an opinion shared by most people in the world, whether they'll say it out loud or not. | |
| Most women naturally want a man who will comfort them when they cry. | |
| They don't want to be doing most of the comforting. | |
| I'm not a woman myself, so I will allow the ladies to correct me on this point, but I can't imagine that most single women are searching for the kind of man who will break down in tears at the slightest disappointment or setback. | |
| Few women, I'm guessing, dream of the sort of man who will come home from work, tears dripping down his cheeks, sobbing and saying, I just had a really bad day. | |
| Hank at the office was super rude. | |
| I'm so frustrated. | |
| I would also theorize that the typical woman wouldn't marry a man at all if she knew that he'd be the type to shake her awake in the middle of the night, teary-eyed and trembling and saying, I just heard a noise outside. | |
| Can you go out and check? | |
| I'm so scared. | |
| Few women want men who are like this. | |
| Few boys want to grow into men like this. | |
| And yet our culture produces men like this. | |
| This may not be something that the average person desires, but it is the agenda all the same. | |
| An agenda shared by, for example, a woman named Rachel Barabow. | |
| She's not any great cultural force by any means, but she is a former sportscaster turned, it seems, into some kind of motivational speaker for students and young men. | |
| I know of her existence because she tweeted at me in response to my thoughts about men crying, and she said, two words, shut up. | |
| Yep, I've got my sassy pants on today. | |
| We are changing the narrative on what masculinity means, despite what this guy says. | |
| Now again, this is not any kind of a person of any great importance, but there is something so apt about this. | |
| Here is a woman, who likely doesn't represent the views of most women, we should know, but a woman all the same, telling me, a man, to shut up on the subject of masculinity and to defer to her expertise. | |
| She, not only a woman, but a person who uses the phrase, sassy pants, has decided that she should be in charge of changing the narrative on masculinity. | |
| As for me, a man, a husband, a father of four, I have to pipe down and allow her to dictate terms. | |
| Sadly, many men have decided to obey these kinds of demands from these kinds of women. | |
| Our culture has indeed allowed women to take the lead, even to the extent of defining masculinity. | |
| We see this in our schools, in our churches, in Hollywood, in media. | |
| We live in an increasingly feminine world. | |
| Though, ironically, men are once again reasserting their dominance by identifying as women and bringing everything full circle. | |
| It is a confused situation, to say the least. | |
| Now, into this confusion, as a way of clearing the fog a little bit, I'd like to offer a clarifying image of what masculinity is actually supposed to be and how it is supposed to act in the world. | |
| This is a story I've mentioned a couple of times on the show, but it's worth mentioning again in this situation. | |
| It comes from Solzhenitsyn's Gulag Archipelago, his magnum opus about the Soviet labor camp system. | |
| In one of the volumes, volume one, I believe, he recounts the story of a man who had been arrested on trumped-up charges and shipped off to prison. | |
| And when he was at prison, he was sentenced to death. | |
| But by the time the sentence had been handed down, his wife was already on a boat on the way to visit him. | |
| And so he begged the guards to delay his execution for a few days so that he could see his wife one last time. | |
| They agreed, on the condition that he doesn't tell her about his impending execution. | |
| And he didn't. | |
| He was with her for three days, never mentioned it, never hinted at it. | |
| And once she left, he was taken immediately before the firing squad and shot. | |
| Now, that is stoicism and manliness beyond the capacity of most mere mortals, but it points us in the direction that we should be striving towards. | |
| We are meant, as men, to carry our burdens with dignity, and not to expect everyone else, least of all the women in our lives, to lighten our loads by always sharing in them. | |
| That, at least, is one way to be a man. | |
| The other is Adam Schiff. | |
| Weeping like a schoolgirl, using his tears to manipulate and exploit. | |
| You could choose that option if you want, but you have to sacrifice your dignity and your masculinity and your self-respect in the process. | |
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| The next day. | |
| As I mentioned yesterday, I tweeted that men should not cry in public because it's dishonorable and unmanly. | |
| Though I allow for certain exceptions, which I have outlined in further detail in the past. | |
| Perhaps I should publish an official list, you know, with an index and a glossary and a bibliography and everything, so that any man, if he's considering crying, can quickly consult the rulebook and find out if his upcoming sobbing fit meets the requirements. | |
| You know, is this going to be sanctioned crying or not? | |
| But that's a project for another day. | |
| For now, I can tell you that people have been very, very, very upset about this. | |
| Ironically, thousands of men have cried publicly over the fact that I said they shouldn't cry publicly. | |
| There have also been some unexpected voices chiming in to castigate me, including one of the guys from Blink 182, which was funny. | |
| And speaking of funny, there have been lots of responses like this from a guy named Andy Ostroi, who described himself as a filmmaker and a proud Democrat. | |
| He said, I cry. | |
| I cry often. | |
| And I'm more man than you'll ever be. | |
| Now, it's not often that you hear someone unironically use the phrase, I'm more man than you'll ever be. | |
| And you certainly don't hear it said right after the words, I cry often. | |
| But these are the kinds of landmarks, like landmark occasions that Twitter has made possible. | |
| And we should be grateful for that. | |
| I should note that some of these crying men have made physical threats, including a guy named Ronnie Ficarro, some kind of musician. | |
| And he said, quote, I don't know who the F you are, but I don't like you at all. | |
| Actually, I'd love to punch you in your stupid little face and make you cry, you little b**ch boy. | |
| Toxic waste of space. | |
| Immediately after writing that, Ronnie deleted the tweet and blocked me. | |
| I'm gonna punch you! | |
| Runs away crying. | |
| Now I have to say, I have never felt less threatened by physical threats. | |
| Look, it's easy to mock and make fun of these people, and to point at them and say, ha ha, you're crying. | |
| And frankly, it's a lot of fun. | |
| And we should do that. | |
| But what I'd really like to respond to are the accusations leveled repeatedly at me over the past day or two. | |
| That I only say things like this, like it's dishonorable for men to cry in public, because I'm trying to shock and offend. | |
| Someone actually called me a shock tweeter, which, incidentally, is how I describe myself on my resume. | |
| Shock tweeter. | |
| Is that true, though? | |
| Do I say these sorts of things merely to cause shock and outrage and offense? | |
| The answer is yes. | |
| At least partly. | |
| The first reason that I say what I say is that it's true, and it's always worth saying true things. | |
| But I am aware that a statement like the one I made about crying in public will provoke a reaction. | |
| I know that. | |
| I say it anyway, not in spite of the reaction it will cause, but yes, partly because of that reaction. | |
| The point is not simply to selfishly profit off of the outraged mob's anger, though that is one perk that I quite enjoy. | |
| The greater point is that most of the things I say, including the idea that men should usually refrain from crying in public, That's all that is really being said here. | |
| Usually, men should try not to cry in public. | |
| That's it. | |
| These are completely common sense, completely unobjectionable things. | |
| The kinds of things that if I had said at any other point in history, in front of almost any other audience, anywhere, people would have yawned and said, well, yeah, what's your point? | |
| It would have seemed utterly obvious to almost everyone who has ever lived And yet now, we're supposed to believe that these obvious, common-sense statements are not only wrong, but absurd, outrageous, insane. | |
| I have actually been accused of insanity, literal insanity, for saying that men shouldn't go around crying all the time. | |
| We can think of many other common-sense statements that provoke this kind of reaction. | |
| A statement like, for example, men can't get pregnant. | |
| That will even shock people in medical school now. | |
| Or women are weaker than men. | |
| Plenty of other examples come to mind. | |
| It's not simply that the mob will disagree with these claims now. | |
| It's that they will treat the claims as outright lunacy. | |
| They will react to a man speaking common sense as if he is a raving maniac. | |
| And this tactic is extremely effective. | |
| Because after a while, if you're not careful, you're going to be browbeat into thinking, well, if everyone thinks that the idea is that offensive, I must be wrong. | |
| But you're not wrong. | |
| You have not only rationality and logic on your side and common sense, but the near universal consensus of all mankind until about 12 seconds ago. | |
| Only now, you know, is it that you're not supposed to say those things anymore. | |
| And that's exactly why I say them. | |
| The more that people scream and cry in the face of normal, inoffensive statements, the more I will say them. | |
| The more we should all say them. | |
| Simply out of principle. | |
| And because it's true. | |
| And because it's funny to see you so mad. | |
| I had a segment on with Laura Ingraham on Fox News last night. | |
| I don't know if you got a chance to watch it, but if you didn't get a chance, you should go find that segment somewhere and watch it because it was really important. | |
| I was brought on to talk about the issue of men crying, which has been a theme on this show this week, something I've dealt with repeatedly. | |
| And it's great that I'm always brought... If I'm doing a cable news hit, you know it's going to be the important issues. | |
| That's what they bring me on for. | |
| Abuela, men crying, like that's... | |
| There's something really important going on. | |
| That's when they say, we need to get Matt Walsh in here to talk about this. | |
| And so I did appreciate that. | |
| And it was, you know, I thought it was a worthwhile conversation. | |
| Just on that note, I, you know, you already know, I've talked about the tweet that I sent out where I said, men should cry. | |
| It's unmanly and undignified. | |
| And that's what a lot of what has sparked this reaction from people. | |
| And it hasn't stopped yet. | |
| It has the outrage mob. | |
| They have not usually. | |
| Like, I've been through this many times, and I've got the mob coming after me on the internet. | |
| And the reason I don't get upset about it, like so many people do, well, I'm used to it, it's also funny, and who cares what these people think. | |
| But I also know that the mob will—usually about 24 hours. | |
| Like, if it really bothers you what they're saying, which it shouldn't, then put your phone down for a day. | |
| And you go live your life while all these people are obsessively messaging you, I hate you so much, and you don't. | |
| Usually it's 24 hours. | |
| This has been, we're going on like three days and they haven't let up. | |
| And so many of the responses are just so funny. | |
| I cannot recommend highly enough. | |
| If you want to entertain yourself, just put something out on your own social media channels about how men shouldn't cry because the responses are unintentionally hysterical. | |
| I want to just share one more with you, okay? | |
| This was someone last night after my Fox News hit. | |
| This is a woman, and here's what she said to me. | |
| She said, "'Widdle Baby' can't handle your feelings, so you'll stuff them." | |
| As a therapist, I like to encourage people to express their emotions in a healthy way. | |
| A man crying in public means he's very sure of himself and comfortable with his feelings. | |
| What does that say about you? | |
| I love everything about this. | |
| Starting with, "'Widdle Baby'..." "'Widdle Baby' can't handle your feelings." | |
| As a therapist, I disagree with that. | |
| You're a therapist and that's how you talk to people? | |
| I would almost respect that. | |
| I've never been to therapy. | |
| A lot of people say that I should probably go. | |
| But I would really respect, I guess, a therapist where you sit down and you start telling them all your problems and your life story. | |
| And they go, oh, Widow Baby, are you upset about that? | |
| Your childhood trauma? | |
| Widow Baby, you want some tissues? | |
| So I thought that was pretty great. | |
| Although, widdle baby can't handle a feeling so you stuff them. | |
| Are babies renowned for stifling their emotions? | |
| Is that what babies are all about? | |
| That hasn't been my experience with babies. | |
| Babies are very bad at controlling their emotions and cry constantly. | |
| My whole point is that men should not be like babies. | |
| That is my radical suggestion. | |
| Okay. |