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July 22, 2023 - The Matt Walsh Show
09:21
"My Friend Is TOO NICE At The Gym." - Matt Walsh Answers AITA Questions

Matt Walsh Answers AITA questions from his listeners. Go to https://expressvpn.com/walshYT and find out how you can get 3 months of ExpressVPN free!

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I've been accepted into your culture.
Your chief inscribed his name on me.
Wow!
Well, I must get back to repairing my ship.
Alright, let's get into some Am I the A-Hole questions here.
Beth says, Here's an interesting question for you.
I have a straight guy friend who said that he would be open to dating a bisexual woman.
It's not that he's seeking a bisexual partner, just that if the right girl came around and she happened to be bisexual, it wouldn't be a showstopper.
As a conservative and a Catholic, I think this is wrong and a recipe for disaster.
My friend is not strong in any religious or political beliefs, so instead of using that basis to defend my position, I said that if his partner is fond of intimate relationships with other women, then he alone will never be able to fulfill her desires.
In his opinion, a straight woman can have impulses for other men, just like a bisexual woman can have impulses for both men and women.
He thinks as long as they don't act out on the impulse, there's no difference between the two.
Am I the a-hole for telling my friend he's slightly psychotic for being open to dating a bisexual woman?
No, you're not.
You're not the a-hole because you're right.
And in my opinion, in my opinion, you can't be the a-hole when you're right.
You're not the a-hole.
That's your automatic get out of, well, I was gonna say it's your automatic get out of the a-hole free card.
Stop right there, I can't hear this.
I keep going!
Get out of being the a-hole free card is what I should say.
That gets you out of that jam every time.
Now a lot of people disagree with that.
They say that it's possible to be right but also a jerk about it.
So I realize I'm a minority there.
That said, psychotic is maybe overstating the case slightly.
I think misguided is what I would say.
Ian says, I'm an avid gym goer.
A few months ago, I was approached by a friend who wanted me to teach him how to lift and to help him get in shape so he could be a better man, father, husband.
He's a good friend, so I agreed, and we've been working out every morning since.
Here's my dilemma.
This man is the nicest person I've ever met.
He's constantly smiling and talks like he's a librarian or a kindergarten teacher.
He'll walk up to guys who have just finished a set and tell them, good job, that was amazing.
Some guys are cool about it, but some I can see are starting to avoid him.
He doesn't care.
He'll wave and smile, get openly eye contact, dodged, and then he'll just walk himself into the guy's direct line of sight to wave and smile again.
At this point, he's unavoidable, and the conversation is usually, how long have you been working out?
How can I look as good as you do one day?
How's your mom?
Well, I'll just take a sidebar there.
I understand he's a nice guy, but that could really be taken the wrong way.
If you're going up to someone at the gym and you don't know them, and you say, hey, how's your mom doing?
Who invited that kid?
That could really be misinterpreted, so I'd be careful with that.
He's clearly starting to bother people, and I'm clearly affiliated with him.
Am I the a-hole for wanting to tell him to lock it up and just be normal?
Normal.
It's my opinion that the gym is a place where you just get in, get your stuff done, and get out.
It doesn't feel like it needs to be a social event.
Well, your opinion is the correct one.
You're not the a**hole.
The rule for gyms, you know, it's not quite as strict as the rule for a men's bathroom.
Like, I don't know about women, you know, they go into the bathroom together and it's like a social event.
For men, that's not the case.
We don't talk to each other, we don't look at each other.
No small talk, no acknowledgement.
I don't care if you're in the bathroom and you see, like, your long-lost brother who's been stranded on a desert island for the last three years, like, in Castaway, and you see him in the bathroom, like, you can't acknowledge him there.
Wait till you get outside.
So what I'm saying is, it's not quite to that level when you're out in the gym itself, but it's close.
It's, like, it's almost there.
You don't want to get unsolicited advice.
Unless you see someone doing something that's dangerous and they could hurt themselves, you feel like you need to.
Especially if the gym has become a big part of this guy's life, you want to talk to him about it.
The other thing is people in the gym are nice.
You know, I think if you've never been to the gym before, you have this maybe some impression that people are going to be, I don't know, people are going to be aggressive or judgmental.
Planet Fitness, their whole deal is, oh, it's the judgment-free zone.
But that's like any gym you go to.
Nobody cares.
No one's paying attention to you.
Unless you go to one of these gyms where there's a woman on TikTok who's filming and setting a trap.
Aside from those kinds of situations.
But you still want to leave people alone, basically.
Let them do their thing.
So I would communicate that to them.
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From Anonymous.
Hello, Matt.
About a year ago, I was talking with this girl, but we stopped being friends because we had a fight.
We were talking over text and I forgot how it came up, but she said that she believes that fairies exist.
I don't remember her argument exactly, but I believe that she said that fairies are actually invisible like ghosts.
The only way you can see them is if you know how to see people's auras.
And she said that she trained herself to read and see people's auras, so I guess she's seen these fairies before.
How can you prove there could be invisible fairies?
You can't prove that.
She explained how you would see the fairy's auras, but I didn't really understand her explanation.
She started talking about the Earth's vibrations during her explanation.
Like I said, I wasn't really following.
We then awkwardly moved on to reincarnation for some reason.
She asked if I believed in it.
I said, no, I don't.
I'm Christian.
She said, I'm also Christian, but I believe in reincarnation.
I asked her how she believes in reincarnation while claiming to be a Christian, and she said she thinks God gives you a second chance if he thinks you still have a lesson to learn.
This quickly turned into an argument.
She started to get very upset with me.
She told me that I was being a jerk and that I was being too critical about her beliefs.
In her defense, I was being a little harsh, but my patience was pretty much gone at that point.
The next day, she didn't want to be friends with me anymore because it seemed like I didn't see the whole picture.
She then proceeded to say that I'm a nice guy with good qualities, but I need to work on myself still.
The person who believes in invisible fairies that you can see with the aid of the Earth's vibration is saying, you need to work on yourself.
She's crazy.
I'm currently in my senior year of high school and I sometimes see her on campus.
One time we were walking past each other and she glanced at me and then quickly looked away, trying to ignore me.
It was very awkward.
What are your thoughts on all this?
Am I the a-hole in this situation?
If you were me, what would you say to this girl?
Well, I wouldn't say anything to her at this point.
Like, maybe you were a little aggressive in how you responded to these claims of hers.
And your only mistake really was to even get into the argument.
It's like, if someone's talking about invisible fairies and auras and everything, you're not going to be able to.
This is totally unfalsifiable and there's probably not a lot you could say.
You're not the a**hole.
It's hard enough to be respectful of someone's viewpoint when you have a disagreement, even when their viewpoint is even, like, vaguely respectable.
But when they believe the craziest thing you've ever heard, especially in the moment, you can't be held responsible for reacting.
There's a good chance that this is only the tip of the crazy iceberg with this girl.
And so, you know, it's probably for the best to just move on.
Finally, from Ray, he says, "My husband and I recently moved our four children under five to Utah from Alaska.
My husband grew up in Alaska and his parents and one sister still live there.
His family is very nice, but his mom and him don't get along and his mom is a big lib.
She was only vaguely approving when we had our third child and outright asked, 'Weren't you going to wait?'
We moved because the extremely long, dark winters were really getting to me
and my husband makes more money here so I can stay home with the kids."
But before we left, she screamed at me in front of my kids that I'm a child abuser for disciplining my four-year-old.
She went on a rant about time out being traumatizing, and that she was smart enough to use daycare when she was young so she wouldn't need to resort to time out.
Oh, real smart.
Oh, you know, I farmed all the childcare out to somebody else, so I didn't have to do anything.
That's how smart I was.
I was good and told her firmly but kindly that she was out of place and that we would be leaving as this event took place at her house.
She now constantly is messaging us for my husband and my oldest to come and visit.
I won't let my son go up without me to visit because I don't know if she'd be whispering poison in his ear, and I know he really likes her.
My husband thinks I might be overreacting, but I'm still extremely hesitant.
Am I the a-hole for refusing to let my four-year-old go see her in another state without me?
She's on board with the crazy transgender train for kids, so I get so terrified she's gonna try something insane.
If you're wondering, I don't know that my husband would even notice if she was whispering crazy stuff to my little boy, since he tries to be in a different room from her when they're in the same house.
No, you are also absolved.
You're absolved of all a-hole guilt.
You're not the a-hole.
Yelling at you and accusing you of child abuse is maybe not an unforgivable offense, but it's a serious offense.
Doing that in front of your kids, so she's undermining you already in front of your kids, undermining your authority and your punishment, and calling you a child abuser in front of your children.
That alone, you know, you would be justified for not wanting to be around her at all.
If that were me, family members screamed at me in front of my kids and called me a child abuser, I don't think I'd be around that person maybe ever again.
And I'm not saying that should be the case for you, you need to cut her out of your life completely, but that is the kind of thing that, it's just a line, it's a line you don't cross.
So I don't think you're wrong.
And then you add in the trans stuff, that's a real concern as well.
It does mean that if someone is on board with that, certainly for me, it means I know I can't trust them around my kid.
So, you're not the a-hole.
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