All Episodes
July 25, 2023 - The Matt Walsh Show
01:06:46
Ep. 1190 - Media Celebrated ‘Historic’ First Trans Lawmaker. Turns Out He’s A Child Predator.

Today on the Matt Walsh Show, the historic first trans lawmaker elected in the United States has now been arrested for being a depraved child predator. That is his latest, and by far worst, crime. But not his only one. What conclusions might we draw from the fact that the very first trans lawmaker in America is a pedophile? We'll talk about it. Also, the Carlee Russell saga comes to its incredibly unsurprising conclusion. Big Pharma comes up with a pill to empower people to be even more reckless in their sex lives. And a country star stops her concert to scold a few fans for taking selfies. She has been criticized sharply for this response, but I think it was entirely justified. Ep.1190 - - -
 Click here to join the member exclusive portion of my show: https://utm.io/ueSEm 
 - - -  DailyWire+: Become a DailyWire+ member to watch shows, documentaries, movies, and more : https://bit.ly/3JR6n6d  Shop all Jeremy’s Razors products here: https://bit.ly/3xuFD43  Represent the Sweet Baby Gang by shopping my merch here: https://bit.ly/3EbNwyj   - - -  Today’s Sponsors: Ruff Greens - Get a free Jumpstart Trial Bag at http://www.FreeRuffGreens.com/Walsh, or call 844-RUFF-700. Genucel - Extra 10% Off Summer Skincare Essentials Bundle Featuring the Dark Spot Corrector + FREE SHIPPING for new customers! https://genucel.com/Walsh Hallow - Try Hallow for 3 months FREE: https://hallow.com/MattWalsh Cynch - Download the Cynch app and get your first tank exchange for just $10 with promo code WALSH. Visit http://cynch.com/offer for details. - - - Socials: Follow on Twitter: https://bit.ly/3Rv1VeF  Follow on Instagram: https://bit.ly/3KZC3oA  Follow on Facebook: https://bit.ly/3eBKjiA  Subscribe on YouTube: https://bit.ly/3RQp4rs

| Copy link to current segment

Time Text
Today on the Matt Wall Show, the historic first trans lawmaker elected in the United States has now been arrested for being a depraved child predator.
That is his latest and by far worst crime, but not his only one.
What conclusions might we draw from the fact that the very first trans lawmaker in America is a pedophile?
We'll talk about that.
Also, the Carly Russell saga comes to its incredibly unsurprising conclusion.
Big Pharma comes up with a pill to empower people to be even more reckless in their sex lives.
Hooray!
And a country star stops her concert to scold a few fans for taking selfies.
She's been criticized sharply for this response, but I think it was entirely justified.
We'll talk about all that and more today on The Matt Wall Show.
And part of doing that is keeping this freeloader as healthy as possible, which is why I give my dog Rough Greens.
Dr. Dennis Black, the founder of Rough Greens, is focused on improving the health of every dog in America.
Little did I know before I got Rough Greens, dog food is dead food.
Everybody knows that nutrition is not brown, it's green.
Well, let Rough Greens boost your dog's food back to life.
Rough Greens is a supplement that contains all the necessary vitamins, minerals, probiotics, omega oils, digestive enzymes, and antioxidants that your dog needs.
You don't have to go out and buy new dog food.
You just sprinkle Rough Greens on their food every day.
Dog owners everywhere are raving about Rough Greens.
It supports healthy joints, improves bad breath, boosts energy levels, and so much more.
We are what we eat, and that goes for dogs, too.
Dr. Dennis Black is so confident Rough Greens will improve your dog's health, he's offering my listeners a free Jumpstart Trial Bag so your dog can try it.
A free Jumpstart Trial Bag can be at your door in just a few business days.
Go to roughgreens.com slash Walsh or call 844-ROUGH-700.
That's free.
RUFF Greens.com slash Walsh or call 844-RUFF-700 today.
This is one of the darkest and most disturbing stories you'll ever hear.
Last week, a former state representative in New Hampshire, a male who identifies as a woman and now uses the name Stacey Marie Lawton, was charged in federal court with sexually exploiting children.
Authorities say that Lawton conspired with an accomplice who worked at a daycare to photograph the genitals of young children in a private bathroom.
Lawton also discussed his interest in raping a three-year-old.
There are text messages that prove all of this, and we'll get back to that in a moment.
For the most part, the media would prefer that that's all you heard about this story, if you had to hear about it at all.
They want you to think that, out of the blue, a state lawmaker committed horrible crimes, but fortunately he was caught.
Move along, nothing to see here.
What you're not supposed to talk about, and what everyone knows is true, is that Stacey Lawton didn't rise to power despite being a sexual deviant.
He rose to power precisely because of it.
Lawton first attracted national attention about a decade ago.
At the time, Lawton was living with his parents with no achievements in life whatsoever, but he decided to run for state office in New Hampshire anyway.
He sensed an opportunity because following the election of Barack Obama, the Democratic Party was all in on identity politics.
Even profoundly mediocre candidates could win, Lawton realized, as long as they claimed to belong to one of the party's preferred demographic groups.
And so, this was Lawton's pitch.
As brazen as it possibly could have been.
I mean, literally, this was his pitch.
Quote, Nashua is where I was first inspired to get involved in politics, Lawton wrote when he launched his campaign.
I live at home with my family and my miniature dachshund, Winston.
I'm also the first openly transgender to run for state office.
Inspired yet?
It's not quite Yes We Can or Make America Great Again.
It's, um, I live with my mom and I'm pretending to be a woman.
Vote for me!
Whether you're impressed or not, that pitch thrilled Democratic Party voters in New Hampshire.
And soon, Lawton became the first self-identifying trans lawmaker elected in the United States.
History was made.
Media outlets and top officials in the Democratic Party celebrated Lawton's election.
The Huffington Post, for example, praised Lawton for making history.
The chair of New Hampshire's Democratic Party, Ray Buckley, promised Lawton would bring unique experience and perspective to the office.
But just a few days before he was set to take office, Lawton resigned.
Because it turned out that he had hidden his criminal record from voters, and that because of his criminal record and the fact that he hadn't paid restitution, he was unable to serve in office.
It was not legal for him to serve.
He spoke about his resignation briefly in an interview with a local news station at the time, blaming it on his past, quote, turmoil.
Now, here are the details about Lawton's past turmoil.
In 2002 and 2003, Lawton was arrested for charges like criminal mischief and simple assault.
In 2006, Lawton faked a medical emergency in order to get a free ride in an ambulance.
And that same year, Lawton slashed the tires of a resident in his apartment building.
Then in 2007, Lawton opened a credit card in someone else's name and began buying merchandise with it.
So, up to this point, while all these crimes were being committed, Lawton's name was Barry Charles Lawton Jr.
He was not pretending to be a woman yet, as far as anyone knows.
But in 2010, when he was in his mid-twenties, Barry decided on a new identity.
He began calling himself Stacy Lawton.
He formally changed his name in court documents, which helped him hide his criminal record from reporters.
Because in the past, you know, a political candidate running under a new name that he only recently assumed would raise all kinds of questions.
But because he was a man assuming a woman's name, nobody was allowed to ask any of those questions.
And so nobody went back and looked.
And so, well, here's Stacey Lawton.
Not a lot of history for Stacey Lawton.
What was Barry Lawton like?
What was Barry Lawton up to?
Nobody asked that question.
Nobody looked into it.
Now, what Lawton did not do is make any real attempt to pass as a woman, even after he took on this identity.
He just decided, like so many adult men with autogynephilia, that everybody needs to call him a woman because he gets some kind of satisfaction out of it.
After Lawton resigned his seat in 2012 because of his criminal history, he continued to break the law by committing various felonies.
In 2015, for example, he called in a bomb threat against a hospital.
Now, at the time, the media excused this bomb threat as a symptom of Lawton's mental illness.
Listen.
She said she felt extreme impulsivity when she made the alleged call.
She also said she was not under the influence at the time.
Of a substance.
Right.
Now, Stacey gave a statement to my producers.
Here's part of what she said.
Quote, I suffer from bipolar disorder and PTSD and at the time of the incident I was going through a mental health break.
One problem was that I was not being properly treated.
I was untreated for nearly two years.
And Judy, back me up here, untreated bipolar for two years, you can get really, really goofy, really, really crazy, and do all kinds of impulsive, intense, over-the-top things.
If you remember the guy that wrote the series about, was it Pony, the African, yeah, and he went down to San Diego in a manic state and threw his clothes off and did all kinds of crazy stuff, that's what mania looks like.
People can call him bomb threats and not be bad people, they're just not being properly treated.
Yeah, people get a little goofy.
They call in bomb threats to hospitals.
You know, just things like that.
Goofy stuff like that.
A little goofy.
Yeah, that's goofy, apparently.
Calling in a bomb threat to a hospital.
Yeah, stop being goofy, you big goof with your bomb threats.
So, by the time that clip aired on HLN in 2015, Lawton had slashed other people's tires, he'd faked a medical condition to get an ambulance ride, he'd assaulted someone, he'd committed credit card fraud, and now he's threatening to blow up a hospital.
But according to Dr. Drew and his panelists, Lawton is the victim.
Now also remember, keep this in mind, that Stacey Lawton, otherwise known as Barry Lawton, called in a bomb threat and blamed his mental illness in that he was saying he's so mentally ill he can't stop himself from calling in bomb threats.
That's his excuse.
So keep that in mind as we continue along.
Shortly afterwards, maybe because he realized he could do absolutely no wrong, Lawton decided to run once again for a seat in the New Hampshire legislature.
Okay?
After all those crimes, and after saying, I'm mentally ill, I'm so mentally ill that I can't stop myself from threatening to blow up hospitals, hey, vote for me!
This was in 2020.
And of course, Democrats in New Hampshire lined up to support him.
Manny Esposito, a two-term New Hampshire representative, endorsed Lawton in a Facebook post, calling it one of the most consequential elections of our lifetime, and saying that people should vote for the convicted fraudster and hospital bomb threat maker.
The state Democratic Party distributed flyers urging voters to support Lawton.
And he ultimately won the seat.
Two years later, in 2022, Lawton won re-election with the help of national Democrats this time, including Eric Swalwell and Beto O'Rourke, who campaigned for him.
They even took photographs with him, which you can see here.
Now, this time around, history repeated itself.
Lawton resigned before taking office because, once again, it emerged that Democrats had hidden Lawton's past criminal history from voters.
According to Yahoo News, it turns out that in September, just before the election, Lawton was arrested for stalking.
So these are new crimes now.
We got all those old crimes.
He was elected anyway, then re-elected.
At least commits some new crimes.
This time it's stalking.
And the year before that, he was arrested for sending false emergency messages to 911.
The key point is that none of this criminal behavior was disqualifying to New Hampshire Democrats until Lawton was arrested once again for stalking after the election and then missed his swear-in ceremony.
Once that happened and the media coverage was impossible to ignore, Democrats called on Lawton to resign, and he did.
Now, Lawton has not been shamed by any of this, and not that you would expect him to be.
Someone like this is not capable of shame.
Narcissism and gender ideology are effectively synonyms, as we know.
So, Lawton has instead used his free time to shoot videos, like this one from a month ago.
In this clip, because parody is now indistinguishable from reality, Lawton endorses, you guessed it, Bud Light.
Listen.
I don't care about the Dylan Mulvaney controversy.
I think Anheuser-Busch is all American beer.
So is Bud Light.
So you know what?
I'm a trans woman here in America.
I believe a good beer when I see one.
So real women, real men, real Americans, real foreigners, real everybody are welcome to have Bud Light.
And I'm going to tell you what, so am I. It's the holiday weekend, folks.
Grab a cold one and enjoy the festivities for Memorial Day this weekend.
Ah, there you go.
What a woman.
That's a woman for you.
I'm a trans woman here in America, he says.
Sounds so feminine.
So you notice how, once again, he's not remotely attempting to pass as a woman.
But Democrats in the media, to this day, insist that you call that guy a woman or else you're a bigot.
And they still insist on it, by the way, even now that he's been revealed to be a child predator and a pedophile.
They still want you to respect the pronouns.
This is the humiliation ritual that they demand you subject yourself to.
You must look at the pedophilic Peter Griffin there, a large man with a five o'clock shadow, and pretend that you see a woman.
Wadden has shot a lot of videos like this one recently.
Here he is, just as one more example, posing as a minister with religious affiliations that include Buddhism, Protestantism, Methodism, Rastafarianism, Tibetan Buddhism, and Unitarian Universalism.
It's like something out of a horror movie.
Here it is.
Well, hello everyone.
It's your favorite new minister, Reverend Stacey Marie Lawton.
And today I have a little bit of a preview of what's to come for the ministry work that I'm, you know, working on.
And like I said, it's about praising Him even when it's uncomfortable.
and And even when you're going through a dark time.
You know what I'm saying?
Like, we all go through different things.
Whether it's a breakup.
Whether it's, you know, getting set up.
Somebody did you wrong.
Say you landed yourself in jail.
And it's the part of the heart of the sermon.
It comes from, you know, it, you know, like take, for example, because we're going to talk about jail.
When we're sitting in a jail cell, most of the time we think, how did we get here?
Can I go?
I'll help you with that.
How did you get there, Barry?
Well, let me help you.
Credit card fraud, stalking, bomb threats, assault.
You know, and then of course being a pedophile.
Here's just a few of the ways that you've gotten there.
I like how he tries to make this into some sort of universal experience.
You know, sometimes we all were sitting in a jail cell because we threatened to blow up a hospital.
We've all been there before.
Thinking, how did I get here?
Now, everything about that little performance where the child predator plays a reverend, including his she-her pin, is intentional.
Lawton understands that trans ideology and Christianity are fundamentally incompatible, so he's mocking Christians, basically, with a parody of their religion.
And now we know that, as Lawton was shilling for Bud Light and pretending to be a Christian minister, he was also exchanging images of children with an accomplice.
That accomplice was his, I suppose, girlfriend at the time, a woman named Lindsay Groves, who worked at a local daycare.
According to a federal indictment, Lawden would ask Groves to take children to a private bathroom at the daycare, have them lift their clothes over their faces, and then photograph their genitals.
And then he would instruct Groves to send those pictures to him.
In some cases, Lawton would instruct Groves to physically molest the children, to touch their genitals.
In one text message, one of many like it, Lawton talks about his desire to rape a particular child.
In response, Groves writes, she's not even three yet.
And Lawton replies, yeah, I know.
Now, I had initially planned to read some of the documentation the prosecutors have compiled proving that Lawton is a depraved child predator, the conversations he had with Groves, the text messages and so on.
But after reading an article with some of these details laid out, I find it far too disturbing and upsetting to repeat.
The details are all there in the affidavit if you want to See for yourself, just suffice it to say that this man is a true monster, I mean a demon straight from hell, a predator who preys on toddlers in the most horrific ways imaginable.
It's unfortunate that the quote-unquote reverend didn't read the passage in the Gospel of Matthew about drowning in the sea with a millstone around your neck, because it was written for people like him.
Now, if you can, try to take a step back from how revolting all of this is, which is impossible to ignore that.
But I want you to consider the probabilities at play here.
The very first trans lawmaker in the country turns out to be a pedophile.
What are the odds?
If there truly is no correlation at all between gender ideology and sexual perversion, then what are the chances that the first trans-identified lawmaker in American history would just so happen to be a child predator?
Well, in fact, as we've seen, the chances are pretty good.
Here's a thing that everyone knows, but many will not say.
It is, to put it mildly, all ready to begin with, A giant red flag when a man likes to go around dressed as a woman.
A great many of these adult quote-unquote trans women are not really confused about who they are.
They don't really think that they are women.
They're acting out a sexual fetish.
They get a fetish.
They get a thrill out of presenting as women and forcing everyone to play along.
And if they are engaging in these fetishes in public, you have good reason to wonder what's going on in privates.
By calling a guy like this she, as virtually every media outlet has done for a decade, and continues to do even now, you're not only participating in a falsehood, but again, you're also participating directly in a fetish.
You're taking an active role in this weird role-play game.
I'm not just theorizing about this.
The fact that many trans-identified adult males are autogynophiles is well-established.
I mean, that's not up for debate.
They don't think they are women.
Rather, they like to think of themselves as women.
They get pleasure out of the idea, which is not the same thing.
Either way, they're not women.
Either way, we shouldn't be required to feed into it, but we should be clear about what's really going on here.
The point is that, in Lawton's case, these latest revelations really come as no surprise.
The left might pretend to be surprised, but they aren't.
I mean, nobody is.
Especially in Lawton's case, as he is a serial criminal, a useless, degenerate scumbag who committed one crime after another, and yet was still elected to public office multiple times.
What that demonstrates, what Barry Lawton's whole sordid life story demonstrates, is that the media-democrat complex will enthusiastically endorse and praise anyone who falls into one of their magical protected categories.
They hold these people not just to low standards, but to no standard at all.
The praise for them only dries up once the protected person gets caught doing something so unbelievably heinous that even the media can't ignore it as much as they would like to.
Lawton's rise in New Hampshire politics, orchestrated by the Democrat Party and the media, who, again, all knew, at a minimum, that he was a fraudster and a crook.
They at least knew that.
It proves, once again, that leftist ideology encourages and embraces evil in very direct ways.
They truly don't care who they hurt.
Even if, especially if, their victims are among the most vulnerable people on the planet.
Now let's get to our five headlines.
[MUSIC]
Picture, if you will, the perfect summer night.
The warm breeze on your face as you lounge in your favorite chair outside.
The grill is sizzling with juicy burgers.
The aroma of the food is irresistible and your mouth waters as you wait for it to be cooked to perfection.
Now imagine what this perfect summer night would look like if you went to turn on the grill and your propane tank was empty.
Dear God.
That's where my friends at Cinch come in and save the day.
Cinch is a propane grill tank home delivery service.
They deliver propane tanks right to your door.
Cinch delivers on your schedule and does not require any long-term commitment or subscription.
Plus, delivery is completely contactless, so you don't have to wait around at home.
Just track the order on the Cinch app from anywhere.
Whether you're grilling for the Sweet Baby Gang, camping with your family, or lighting up your fire pit on a cold summer night, Cinch's propane delivery service ensures that you have the fuel that you need to make the most of every moment.
Go online to cinch.com or download their app to order.
New customers can get their first tank exchange for just $10 with promo code WALSH.
That's C-Y-N-C-H dot com, promo code WALSH.
This is a limited time offer and you must live within a Cinch service area to redeem it.
Visit cinch.com slash offer for details.
Here's a shocking update from the Daily Wire.
Carly Russell, the 25-year-old nursing student who claimed that she was kidnapped earlier this month while allegedly checking on a toddler on the side of the road in Alabama, admitted to law enforcement that she fabricated her entire story.
I can't believe it.
Who ever saw this coming aside from everyone?
Who besides everyone saw this coming?
Russell attorney Emery Anthony had originally made an appointment for investigators to speak with Russell, but shortly before the interview was set to begin, Anthony provided a statement to law enforcement and asked that authorities read the entire statement at their press conference.
The statement said, There was no kidnapping on Thursday, July 13th.
My client did not see a baby on the side of the road.
My client apologizes for her actions to this community, the volunteers who were searching for her, to the Hoover Police Department and other agencies as well as to her friends and family.
We ask for your prayers for Carly as she addresses her issues and attempts to move forward.
Understanding that she made a mistake in this matter, Carly again asks for your forgiveness and prayers.
Hoover Police Chief Nick Derzis said that investigators are still going to meet with Anthony because they have more to discuss in the case, including the possibility that criminal charges will be filed.
Which, of course, they absolutely should be.
I mean, it would be a disgrace if they weren't.
They were filed against Jussie Smollett, as well they should be.
This is worse, in a lot of ways, just in the amount of law enforcement resources that were taken up because of this.
It was fake.
The story that was the most obvious fake story of all time turns out to be fake.
The thing we all knew was fake is fake.
That's the big headline.
Russell, you know, Carly Russell, she made some missteps here.
There were some mistakes.
Some classic fake-your-own-kidnapping mistakes.
The first mistake is to do it in the first place.
So that's mistake number one.
The first mistake that you make when you fake your own kidnapping is that you're faking your own kidnapping.
But if you're going to do it, and I'm not Encouraging anyone to do it, certainly, and I don't mean to give advice on how to do it properly, but, like, some basic... I've never done it myself.
I've never even considered faking my own kidnapping.
But even I would know, like, don't Google kidnapping movies the day before you're faking your kidnap.
Don't stop for snacks on your way to being kidnapped.
That's generally not how it works.
Because for one thing, if you're being kidnapped, you wouldn't know it usually.
And even if you did know it somehow, the kidnappers are not going to let you bring snacks.
I've never been kidnapped, so I don't know, but I'm pretty sure they won't generally.
Like if you're getting kidnapped, they won't.
And you say, wait a minute, I got some trail mix in my car.
Can I go grab it?
Oh yeah, sure, grab it.
We don't want you to get hungry.
So don't stop for snacks like she did.
Here's a big one.
Don't stage the kidnapping on the side of a major highway.
You know, the list goes on, but that last part is a very common mistake by hoaxers.
Think about Jussie Smollett.
He staged his whole thing on a street corner in the city with his security cameras all over the place.
Think about Althea Bernstein, the girl who claimed that she was set on fire by a group of white supremacists in Hawaiian shirts while she was waiting at a stoplight.
Some Hawaiian shirt white supremacists rappelled down from a helicopter or something and set her on fire in the car.
But she claimed this happened at an intersection in a city.
And then you've got Carly Russell.
So they're always faking these things in really well-populated areas where there are witnesses who would be able to see it happen if it did happen, and there are cameras and all the rest of it.
So if you're gonna do it, go out into the country somewhere.
Like, go out into the woods.
Claim that you were on a camping trip or something.
Claim that it happened out on the Appalachian Trail, because at least then there's always plausible deniability.
Nobody will be able to prove that you're lying.
So if you say that you were on the Appalachian Trail, and you were taken, you were kidnapped by a gang of whoever, and taken to a shack in the woods somewhere, I think a lot of people will doubt the story, but prove it didn't happen.
You can't.
Happened in the woods.
What do you know?
The thing is, if you stage it on the side of a highway or on a busy street corner, people can actually prove that it didn't happen.
They can prove the negative.
So, those are all some things to keep in mind.
But the best thing you could really do is not go this route at all in your life.
Just find whatever you're looking for, attention, sympathy.
There are other ways to achieve that goal, which even that goal you shouldn't be pursuing.
So what happens next?
Well, we know what's going to happen next.
In fact, Carly's boyfriend has already sort of set the stage.
I want you to listen to this report from Good Morning America.
Listen.
And now to new questions about Carly Russell's disappearance.
Her boyfriend is talking about what happened and asking people to stop bullying her.
Eva Pilgrim joins us now with the latest.
Good morning, Eva.
Good morning, Lindsay.
There are a lot of questions this morning, and police say they think only one person can provide those answers, Carly Russell herself.
They are urging her to speak with them.
The theories as to what happened, growing.
Now one of those closest to her coming out on her behalf.
This morning, as questions swirl around Carly Russell's disappearance, her boyfriend speaking out, defending her.
Russell claims she was kidnapped, but escaped to return home 49 hours later.
To Marla Trell Simmons, telling the New York Post, I want everyone to stop bullying her.
I know what it seems like, what she did.
Just stop bullying on social media.
Adding, think about her mental health.
Nobody deserves to be cyber bullied.
Oh, on the contrary, sir.
Some people do deserve to be cyberbullied, and your girlfriend is one of them, or your ex-girlfriend, I guess.
Now, I will say that that was his statement yesterday, I believe, but this morning he came out with another statement where he denounces her and basically says, you know, he's horrified by it and he had no idea.
I don't believe, like, I don't believe that her family and her friends didn't know that she was faking it.
You know, her boyfriend came out defending her, her parents did a tearful interview talking about how traumatized she was.
And I just don't buy, no way for me to know, I don't know what was going on inside their heads.
I personally don't buy at all that they didn't know that she was faking it.
Which isn't to say that they were in on it or helped her stage the hoax, but I certainly think that they knew, even when they went out claiming that it was real.
Now, Admittedly, if you have a close family member or friend who does something like this, they've put you in a really difficult spot because you might not want to go out to the media and denounce your own family member or your child.
I can understand that.
But then what you do, see if this was me, and I had a child who did something like this, I'm probably not going to immediately go out to the media and say, this person's a liar.
Don't listen to him.
No, I'm going to go to my child and say, you need to go and tell the truth, you know, or I will.
But you need to do it.
But what you don't do is go on, do media interviews, repeating the lie that you must know, or at least strongly suspect is a lie.
So, uh, but the bit you heard there about mental health, you know, that's where this is going to, uh, that's, that's where they're going to take this, right?
Is that, uh, you already heard kind of a, there was an allusion to that in the statement from the lawyer.
She has to work through her issues and the boyfriend talks about mental health.
And so that's what they're going to say.
This is a mental health, like very similar to the, the, the excuse for Stacy Lawton, Barry Lawton calling in the bomb threat we heard from Dr. Drew.
It was a mental health episode.
No.
Like, we're not doing that.
This is where they always take it.
Blaming poor mental health.
It's a mental health episode or whatever else.
But mental health is not an excuse for bad character, for bad choices, for being a liar and a cheat and a hoaxer and being manipulative.
It's not an excuse.
Mental health becomes this catch-all excuse for everything.
And no matter what anyone does, they can always fall back on, oh yeah, I was suffering from bad mental health.
So it's never something that you did.
It's something that you're suffering from.
It's something that's happening to you.
So, externally, it seems like very much you are making deliberate choices.
Carly Russell planned this out.
She planned it dumbly.
She planned it stupidly.
It's very bad planning, but she did plan it.
It's an extremely deliberate act with forethought put into it.
So this was not some sort of full-on psychotic break where someone loses their grip on reality and thinks that they're a space alien or the Queen of England or something.
No, it's a deliberate choice.
And more and more what you find is that we are taking choice out of the equation.
We're taking character out of the equation.
Because every bad choice is because of bad mental health.
All bad character traits, character flaws, all that's just a product of bad mental health.
Put them on drugs and they'll be fine.
That's going to be the excuse here, guaranteed.
Okay, New York Post has this British environmental activist demonstrating on the roads of West London Friday blocked a desperate mother who claimed that she needed to cut through the crowd to take her child to the hospital.
And despite her pleas, the protesters continue to stand directly in front of her car while other stalled vehicles honked at the crowd to disperse.
We have footage of this altercation.
Let's watch it.
I'm not f***ing scared of you!
Move!
I need you to move!
Now!
Now!
Move!
I need that car!
Now!
Move, I've been in that car, I'm going to walk, now, move!
[HORN BLARING]
What kinds of people are you, guys?
It's illegal, eh?
What kinds of people are you?
What kind of people are you?
This woman has a real newborn baby, guys.
Okay, so you see there, they're not getting out of the way for the car.
The mother's saying she has to get her baby to the hospital.
They don't care.
I think there are two points that I want to make here, two important points.
The first is, well I think it's a pretty obvious point, that you are fully morally justified in plowing these people over and running over them to get your child to the hospital.
They are a direct threat to your child's health and safety and life.
And if they're not going to get out of the way, you are fully justified.
So if she had just plowed right over them, And killed five of them in the process, it would have been 100% justified.
Now, is that the way that the court system in the UK would look at it when they're stacking this mother up against these environmental activists?
Probably not, but that's a reflection of how broken the court system is both in the UK and here.
But from a moral standpoint, totally morally justified.
And the people that are blocking traffic, they have no right to be there in the middle of the road.
Whatever happens to them, when you've got protesters standing in the middle of the street, in the middle of the highway, blocking traffic, whatever happens to them, that's on them.
And I'm not going to shed a single tear.
I don't care at all.
You get in the middle of traffic, that's completely on you.
You've made your choice.
You live with it or die with it.
But what you really see from these environmental activists, and I think this particular video demonstrates it in a really profound way, which is that they are concerned, these protesters are, They're deeply concerned for humanity, right?
They care about humanity.
They're worried about human life on Earth, supposedly.
But they don't care about individual humans.
You notice.
So they're worried about life on Earth, and about climate change, and the fact that they claim there's an extinction-level event coming, and it's always 10 years away somehow.
It was 10 years away 10 years ago, and now it's another 10 years away.
It always works that way.
But that's what they're worried about.
The whole human species, and not just human beings, but animals, and plants, and trees, and all life.
They're so deeply concerned about all life.
But they don't give a damn about individual humans.
Because then when they're presented with, here's an actual human being in the flesh, a real person, a distinct human entity, and what you are doing is putting them in danger.
They can't even be bothered to move to the side of the road for five seconds for that person.
So this is environmentalism in a nutshell.
It cares deeply about humanity, but not about individual people.
Which is another way of saying, they don't really care about humanity at all.
They care about it like in the abstract, as a kind of concept, as a slogan, as something that you put on a poster, on a bumper sticker.
Okay?
It's only in the abstract do they care.
But when it comes to the health and well-being and safety of actual, real, live people, they don't care.
This is a slightly less drastic example, but still really terrible, is when you see these same kinds of protesters defacing great works of art.
That's something that if you actually cared about individual people, if you cared about human beings, not humanity, In the abstract, as some sort of concept, but human beings, if you cared about human beings, you wouldn't destroy great works of art.
And you wouldn't do that because, number one, that great work of art was made by a human being, who you should respect.
And respecting them, even if they're long since dead, means respecting what they've created, the beauty they've created.
But also, great art brings joy and happiness to human beings.
It brings beauty into the lives of actual humans.
And so if you cared about actual humans, you would never do that.
You would never deface what is beautiful and good.
You especially wouldn't do it in the name of humanity.
So when it comes down to it, they don't really care about anyone but themselves.
These are full-on sociopaths.
And I'm probably doing them too much of a favor by saying they don't care.
You know, they pretend to care about humanity, but they don't care about individual people.
It's actually worse than that.
It's not just they don't care about individual people.
They actually hate individual people.
They despise human life.
Many of them.
Perfect example of it there.
Talk about this briefly.
Washington Post has an interesting headline.
The headline is this.
There's a new way to avoid getting some STDs without wearing a condom.
Now, so there's a new way.
This is Washington Post.
They're very excited about it.
Headline story.
There's a new way to avoid getting STDs without wearing a condom.
They have a new and innovative approach to this.
Now, You already in your head, you might be able to think of a way to achieve that.
But we'll get to that in a minute.
You might have an idea in your head about, hmm, how can I avoid getting an STD while still being sexually active, but I'm not using contraception?
How can I do that?
So maybe you have an idea, but let's see what the Washington Post says.
Let's see if they arrive at the same conclusion that perhaps you have.
Here's what they say.
Okay, well that's their answer.
are deploying a powerful new weapon in the war against rising sexually transmitted infections,
a common antibiotic that works as a morning-after pill.
Okay, well that's their answer.
Probably wasn't yours, but that's theirs.
It's the latest advancement as the sexual health field shifts to preventative medicine,
not just condoms, abstinence, and pests, as the best hopes for quashing the pathogens that can
spread during sex.
For the past decade, people have been able to have unprotected sex with a low risk of contracting HIV thanks to daily pills known as pre-exposure prophylaxis, but they were still susceptible to bacterial bugs, including the recent spike in syphilis, gonorrhea, and chlamydia, until now.
Recent studies show the antibiotic Doxycycline, taken after sexual encounters, works as a post-exposure prophylaxis to prevent those infections.
But experts are also worried about unintended consequences.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention plans to release guidelines later this summer for deploying the treatment known as DoxyPEP in hopes of addressing fears among medical professionals that preventative use would fuel antibiotic resistance and the rise of drug-resistant superbugs.
Okay, so this is great.
We're gearing up to have another STD superbug, right?
This is like monkeypox and COVID and all of that combined turbocharged.
That's what they're cooking up for us with this drug.
Jonathan Mermin, who leads SDI prevention for the CDC, says it's the first major intervention we've had for SDI since the vaccine for human papillomavirus, but it's a new intervention and because of that there are potential benefits and potential risks.
Doctors, public health officials, and sexual health clinics have embraced preventative pills as a realistic way to curb STIs because they preserve pleasure while protecting partners.
Some doctors have started prescribing it to a narrow segment of the gay community considered at elevated risk for STIs.
Jorge Roman, Senior Director of Clinical Services at the San Francisco AIDS Foundation said,
"Just like PrEP was a game changer, this empowers individuals to make choices about their sexual health.
It doesn't always have to be about condoms."
Oh, this pill empowers you to make choices about your sexual activity.
So prior to this pill, you didn't have the ability to make a choice?
Really?
So these, as we're being told, these members of the gay community who are at elevated risk, they don't have the ability to make choices right now?
What are they?
Are they animals acting on instinct?
They can't make choices?
They can't control their own sexual behavior?
I mean, is that what you're saying?
That you need a pill to empower you to make a choice?
What is this choice pill?
So choice, the free will.
So I thought free will is what enables you to make choices.
But you're telling me that it's in a pill.
You got to take the free will pill.
And now you can make choices.
No, what he means is it's not that it empowers individuals to make choices.
I mean, individuals have always had that power.
Gay, straight or otherwise, you always have the ability to make a choice.
So what he really means to say is that it empowers individuals to make choices about their sex life while, he hopes, being shielded from some of the consequences.
Which is not the same thing as being empowered to make a choice.
You always had that.
But now it's, how do we escape these consequences?
Okay, well, I guess this is a good time to get to what may have been your answer to that riddle in the headline, and what certainly is my answer.
They're talking about magic pills, we gotta find another magic pill, and yeah, it might create a superbug, but it's worth the risk so that gay men can have more sex.
This is what they're telling us.
There's another way, though.
A way to avoid getting some STDs without wearing a condom.
Well, the other way to do it is to be in a monogamous marriage.
It's to get married, and stay married, And to practice monogamy within a marriage, as all marriages are supposed to be monogamous.
If you do that, you don't have to worry about STDs.
You know something?
I'm married for 11 years.
I don't have to worry about STDs at all.
Never think about it.
Never think once about it.
It's not something in my life that I have to worry about.
I don't ever have to go to the doctor and have an embarrassing conversation where I talk about getting checked for an STD.
Never have to do that.
You know what else?
I don't have to worry about pregnancy, which isn't to say that my wife hasn't gotten pregnant.
She has.
Obviously, we have six kids.
I don't have to worry about it, though.
It's okay.
It's good.
It's wonderful.
We have a family.
We're building our family.
If she gets pregnant, it's a wonderful thing.
It's not a fear.
I don't have to fear it.
It's going to destroy my life.
If the woman I'm with gets pregnant.
So that's a fear that is not part of my life at all.
STDs, a fear that's not part of my life at all.
While you've got other people who apparently live in terror, live in fear, and they need pills, and they need to go to the doctor and get prescriptions, and they got to keep going back to the pharmaceutical industry to bail them out time and time again.
One way about that.
One way around that.
Man woman true monogamous marriage that that is that is the solution to this problem.
What we're really doing though by you know as always trying to get around what is that one solution like monogamous marriage is the solution to so many STDs Unwed pregnancy, you know, it's maybe not the ultimate, maybe not the final solution to things like poverty.
You'd still have poverty and drug addiction, even if everyone was getting married and staying married, but there'd be a lot less of it.
Because we know that unwed pregnancy and all these sorts of things contribute to those factors.
So, that is one way to solve a lot of these problems, and then for the ones that it can't perfectly solve, because we live in a fallen world, it will certainly make those problems a lot better.
That's one way to do it, but when you're not willing to go with that solution, you end up looking for these other solutions that ultimately only make the problems worse, because they are finding ways to facilitate bad choices.
That's what this pill is really for.
It's like saying, if you want to have a reckless sex life, where you're hopping in bed with random strangers, here's a way to do that.
Here is a safer way to do that.
It's all part of the safe sex myth, which it is a myth.
Most of the time, because when we talk about safe sex, what is really meant, the context is, what's a safe way to have random sex with strangers?
I want to have safe sex with strangers.
It's impossible.
I don't care what kind of contraception you're using, that's never going to be a safe thing to do.
That is a high-risk activity, no matter how you go about it.
You might as well talk about, what are safe ways to drive drunk?
Now, I suppose if you want to put it this way, there are safer ways to drive drunk.
Like, if you're going to drive drunk, it's better to wear a seatbelt than not.
Wear a seatbelt and a helmet and drive drunk.
You're going to be better off than if you were not wearing a seatbelt at all and had no helmet.
But would anyone call that safe drunk driving?
Just because it's marginally safer than the even more reckless options, does that make it safe?
What if somebody came up with, what if some company came up with a special helmet that you can wear that will decrease, and if you put it on and you drive drunk, it will decrease your chances of dying in a drunk driving accident by 60%.
Would that be a good thing if somebody were to make that helmet, this magical helmet, and release it to the public?
Would we celebrate this?
Now, on one hand, you could argue it might actually save lives.
You know, there are a lot of people that are going to drive drunk no matter what, and maybe if they have this magical helmet available to them, they'll put it on, and a certain number of those people would have died if they hadn't had it, and now they're not going to.
And so, you know, you could really argue that it actually will save lives in the short run anyway.
But no, everyone would recognize that as a horrible thing because even though in individual cases in the short run arguably it might save lives, ultimately you are facilitating horrifically destructive choices and encouraging more of it.
You're making it easier for people to do really bad things and that is not good ultimately.
So I see the same thing with something like this.
A magic morning-after pill to cure your STDs.
In the short run, there may be people who would have had an STD, and now they won't.
But in the long run, all you're doing is facilitating reckless, destructive behavior, thereby ensuring that there will be more of it, which is not a good thing.
But it does mean more money for the pharmaceutical industry, which is really all that matters, as we know.
Let's get to the comment section.
Do you know that name?
They're the Sweet Baby Gang.
Our friends over at GenuCell sold out of their Dark Spot Corrector and our listeners have been begging for a restock.
Well, I have great news.
Just in time for the summer, it's back in stock.
Well, it's August now, but just in time for the last part of the summer.
GenuCell's famous Dark Spot Corrector has not one, but three cutting-edge ingredients and goes to work fast to target sunspots, dark spots, liver spots, And even old discoloration, both on your face and your hands.
You can now enjoy your summer sun, beach, and barbecues without embarrassing spots.
GenuCell's most popular package also features their summer essentials, like the best-selling Ultra Retinol Moisturizer with a powerful retinol alternative for safe use in the sun.
You'll be amazed at how quickly you'll see results or 100% of your money back guaranteed.
Go to GenuCell.com slash Walsh right now to get your dark spot corrector in the GenuCell most popular package.
That's GenuCell.com slash Walsh right now and save over 70% off GenuCell's most popular package.
All orders will include a mystery luxury gift while supplies last.
GenuCell.com slash Walsh now.
Critter Refuge says, imagine having a little girl who just wants to see an innocent movie about her favorite doll and she gets bombarded with this adult woke nonsense that she's too young to understand.
Yeah, but true, and that there's probably a lot of that happening with the Barbie movie, but at the same time, as a parent, And I have heard from plenty of parents and especially mothers who took their daughters to see this and then were shocked and appalled by how woke and how political and how anti-man it is and all the rest of it.
And we talked about this yesterday and how this was obviously a decision made by the marketing company to hide the real nature of this film and what the plot actually is and what it revolves around.
And that's a bad thing, but also you should know better than to bring your daughter to a movie like this.
Like, what did you expect?
It is a PG-13 rated Barbie movie being made by Hollywood in the year 2023.
Did you think there was any chance it wouldn't be intensely political and woke and everything else?
Was there any chance of that in your mind?
Because if so, then you really need to wake up and Figure out what's going on in the world around you.
Pam says, there was also an insane amount of advertising money that went into the Barbie movie.
It was on my Echo Show screen for what seemed like weeks.
That's another reason why I'm never impressed with the box office haul of any of these big blockbuster films.
Because, yeah, when you spend hundreds of millions of dollars marketing something, and then you make hundreds of millions of dollars, That's good for you.
You needed to make at least that much to make the marketing investment worthwhile, but it's not impressive.
There's nothing impressive about that.
Sound of Freedom is actually impressive because the whole budget of the film was $10 or $15 million, and they made over $100 million.
It's like you're 10x.
When you get 10x on your money, that's impressive.
But hundreds of millions spent on production and marketing, hundreds of millions made on the box office, eh, okay.
But you had to do that.
You had to do at least that, or it would be a failure.
And speaking of Sound of Freedom, TheFanWithoutAFace says, I've talked about Sound of Freedom, as I just did.
I haven't talked about it in detail because I haven't seen it yet.
And the reason I haven't seen it yet is because, well, as you're aware, I have six kids.
So getting to the movie theater is an extremely difficult feat to pull off.
Are rarely able to do it.
So we are relegated to waiting for these things to be available and streaming.
And so that's what we're what we have to do here.
Another comment says, man, it's good to see Matt attack feminism.
It took a deceptive box office smash to do it, but got to give credit where credit is due.
Let's see how this monumental unprecedented movie does in the following weeks.
Yeah, you're right.
It's good to see me finally attack feminism.
Something I've never done before.
Some of these comments I get, I read from people sometimes, it's, what show have you been watching?
I guess the answer is you don't watch the show at all, but you're presenting the comment as if you did.
You say, well, it's finally Matt's talking about this.
Yeah, up until this, I guess I've been pretty shy about my feelings on feminism, right?
The audience, before the Barbie movie came out, My audience had no idea whether I was in favor of feminism or not.
They thought maybe I was a feminist.
They weren't sure.
Because I had been totally silent on the subject up until right now, right?
You know, another topic I never talk about is trans ideology.
Never talk about that.
So, no one knows.
It's not like these are the subjects I mostly talk about.
And finally, Lorraine says, I went to watch it in Texas, exclamation point.
No children were there.
Adult couples cried together because the message was so profound, exclamation point.
You people who are being threatened by the message aren't gentlemen.
It's PG-13, not PG or G, exclamation point, exclamation point, exclamation point.
So those parents who took their really young children are stupid, exclamation point.
My sister didn't want to go and I asked her to so she did!
And she loved it!
It's a beautiful movie!
So yes, Matt Walsh, you have to see it first before judging a book by its cover.
We all walked out of there laughing and having cried together!
In Texas where the gentlemen I've grown up with say yes ma'am because this is a man's world and men are supposed to be helpful and supportive of women!
But we still have manners and beat up our own bullies and don't get brainwashed by any of the mass media nonsense that we're all That was a comment.
There are a lot of exclamation points in the comments.
I don't know if you noticed.
I'm not quite sure what's being said here, but I was distracted by the exclamation points.
was the comment. There are a lot of exclamation points in that comment, so I
don't know if you noticed. I'm not quite sure what's being said here, but I was
distracted by the exclamation points. Except that you're claiming, Lorraine,
that adult couples were crying.
We're walking out of the theater crying because they were so moved by the movie.
Were these lesbian couples that were crying?
I certainly hope you're not claiming that men and women, like a husband and wife, went and they were crying at the Barbie movie, at the profound message of the Barbie movie.
Listen, Lorraine, the Barbie movie, yeah, it's Feminist claptrap.
It's all of that.
Woke messaging.
But it's also primarily a toy commercial.
It's a feminist toy commercial, but that's mainly what it is.
That's why the movie exists.
Okay, this is like Mattel.
This movie was made by Mattel, for all intents and purposes, a toy company.
So, a Barbie movie is a two-hour long toy commercial.
Every Marvel movie is a toy commercial.
That's why they exist.
That's really why they exist, is to sell merchandise.
And so, if you're saying that you were profoundly moved by it, then you were moved by a Barbie toy commercial.
Well, alright then, in that case.
It's clear that the left is giving up their morals and any common sense.
There's no better time than to build a daily habit of prayer and meditation.
Building a habit of prayer can help you cultivate an attitude of gratitude.
Focusing on what you're thankful for can increase positive emotions and improve overall well-being.
Hallow is the number one Christian prayer app in the U.S.
It's helped me maintain a daily prayer routine and can help you too.
Download the app for free at hallow.com slash Matt Walsh.
You can set prayer reminders, track your progress along the way, Not sure where to start?
Well, check out Father Mike Schmitz's Bible in a Year podcast for brief daily Bible reading and reflections, or you can pray alongside Mark Wahlberg, Jim Caviezel, and even some world-class athletes.
With Hallow, you can customize a personal prayer plan that works for you.
Listen wherever you are with downloadable offline sessions.
Using Hallow to connect with others who share your beliefs and values can provide a sense of belonging, support, and foster a sense of community as well.
Ultimately, we'll learn how we can become better individuals in spite of today's broken world as we strive to become more Christ-like in our daily lives through prayer, fasting, and giving.
Download Howlow at Howlow.com slash Matt Walsh and get an exclusive three months free.
That's three months absolutely free at Howlow.com slash Matt Walsh.
Sick of old corporations dragging your values through the mud?
Well, wash your hands of it all with Jeremy's brand new Hand Soap.
Jeremy's Hand Soap is the perfect solution for everyday grit and grime.
Not to mention it smells amazing as it's scented with green tea and citrus.
Jeremy actually cares about you, so he didn't put any of the paraben crap in his Hand Soap.
Not only is it paraben-free, but it's also free of sulfates, DEI, and ESG for that matter.
Plus, It's not tested on animals and it's made right here in the USA.
What more could you want from your hand soap than to get hands clean while keeping a clean conscience also?
So do yourself a favor and wash your hands of hypocritical leftists once and for all.
Jeremy's Hand Soap is the ideal addition to your bathroom or kitchen sink as you liberate your home from the influence of woke companies.
Go to jeremysrazors.com, order your green tea and citrus hand soap today.
Now let's get to our daily cancellation.
For our daily cancellation today, I feel I must say something about the major controversy that erupted last week involving a country singer.
And I'm not talking about Jason Aldean.
I'm talking about Miranda Lambert, who ignited a fierce and important debate when she made the decision to stop in the middle of her concert in Las Vegas to lecture some fans in the front row who were taking selfies.
If you haven't seen this clip yet, here it is.
I'm going to stop right here for a sec, Danny.
I'm sorry.
These girls are worried about their selfie and not listening to the song.
It's pissing me off a little bit.
We're here to hear some country music tonight.
I'm gonna piss him off a little bit.
(audience cheering)
I don't like it, I don't.
I'm here to hear some country music tonight.
I'm singing some country-style music.
(audience cheering)
Shall we start again?
(audience cheering)
So apparently these fans were busy taking pictures of themselves instead of watching the show, and so Lambert decided to shame them in front of thousands of people, a decision that many on social media and in the media decried as excessive and bullying, but one that I fully and enthusiastically support.
And I'll explain why in a moment, but first, we have to get to the other side of the story from the selfie culprits themselves.
What do they have to say for themselves?
Well, they were interviewed about the traumatic incident on Good Morning America, and here's what they had to say.
Adela Kalin says she and her friends were taking these pictures when Miranda told them they should be paying attention to the show instead of taking photos.
She said these girls are more interested in taking selfies.
And then she said, sit down.
I thought, I feel like I'm being back in school and me and my friends did something that annoyed the teacher and she scolded us and she told us to sit down.
After the incident at the 7,000 person venue, Planet Hollywood, where Lambert is doing her Las Vegas residency, she restarted the song from the beginning.
Shall we start again?
Everybody was having such a great time.
We would stand up at times and dance.
It was great energy.
But after that happened, it was just, it was not the same.
A representative for the singer telling ABC News overnight Lambert had, quote, no statement to add.
Experts saying fans snapping pictures at concerts is typically all a part of the show.
Taking photos at concerts seems to be like a very normal occurrence, but I do think that as a performer, these sorts of incidents do happen all the time.
And it seems like Miranda just took this a little bit too personally.
Well, I'm glad that we heard from the experts.
The experts on phone usage at concerts.
Good Morning America brought in the licensed, credentialed concert selfie experts to give us the news that people take selfies at concerts a lot.
We could not have known this without them.
We needed their guidance and insight.
We need the experts to help us navigate through every facet of life and answer every question, no matter how seemingly obvious and banal.
Thank God for the experts.
All hail the experts.
Trust the experts.
Trust in them.
God be with them.
But this still leaves the question about whether Miranda Lambert was right to publicly scold a group of women for taking a few selfies, and the answer is that yes, she was.
It is about time that somebody in a position of influence, however mild that influence may be, stands up and speaks out against the selfie scourge that has gripped hold of our society for decades now.
It has become so endemic, so inherent, that it seems pointless to complain about it, but the pointlessness of a complaint has never stopped me before, and it won't now.
You do not need to take a picture of every single thing you experience in your life.
You really don't, I promise you.
You do not need documentation of every moment.
You especially do not need documentation of yourself experiencing every moment.
See, I've never understood the motivation here, which is why I never take selfies unless someone stops me in public and asks for one.
And even then, I only do it because I'm afraid that if I refuse, they'll call up TMZ and complain about how rude Matt Walsh is, at which point TMZ will respond, wait, who is Matt Walsh?
And that will make the whole thing even more embarrassing.
So I just take the picture.
But the point is that selfies, selfies are pointless.
Millions of people carry around phones stocked with hundreds of pictures of their own faces.
Just think about that for a moment.
And do any of them actually go back and scroll through those pictures, reminiscing about how their faces looked?
Yep, that's my face at Disney World.
Oh, there's my face at Applebee's.
I remember that.
I'll never forget the time that my face went to Applebee's.
And wow, there's my face at Grandma's funeral.
Is that what people do?
Of course, I realize that they aren't primarily taking pictures in order to store them away as keepsakes, but rather to post them on social media so that everyone else can see.
But that's even more pointless.
Okay, because nobody cares that you were at a Miranda Lambert concert.
But if anyone does care for some reason, they probably want to see a picture of Miranda Lambert up on stage.
They don't need to see you in the stands.
Recently, I saw a picture of a guy, a guy posted of himself on vacation and on social media, and he was visiting the pyramids in Egypt, and the picture was a selfie with a pyramid in the background.
Post it to social media for all to enjoy.
But if the rest of us want to see a picture from your vacation at all, and we don't, we'd rather just see the pyramids without your face crowding up the frame.
How egotistical do you have to be to think that these magnificent 3,000-year-old structures can be improved by adding your face to them?
See, this is the real tragedy of selfie culture.
It encourages you to experience life with your back turned to it, putting yourself at the center of something that you aren't even paying attention to.
Our obsession with documenting everything we do, and worse, documenting ourselves doing it, rather than documenting the thing itself, has ironically made it so that we miss out on the very things we're documenting.
This is a familiar observation, even cliched, but it's true.
We are so obsessed with creating digital proof that we were there, that we aren't really there at all.
We need to learn how to simply occupy the space that we are standing in, right?
Existing in and absorbing each present moment as it comes.
Personally, I would never go to a Miranda Lambert concert, but if you do go, if you buy the tickets, if you spend the money, too much money, to have that experience, then have that experience.
Be there for it.
Which means not being on your phone.
Now, you might argue that taking one quick selfie while a pointless act is not going to significantly intrude on your or anyone else's ability to enjoy the moment.
But we all know that these girls were not taking one quick selfie.
That doesn't exist, especially for women like that.
They were taking a series of shots from different angles.
They were posting on Instagram.
They were doing little videos for TikTok.
Then they were taking more selfies and on and on and on.
I mean, we all know.
I wasn't there, but I know just from looking at that woman and listening to her speak for five seconds that that's the way it went.
Even if I'm wrong, even if it was just one brief selfie incident, I would still defend Lambert's response.
Because what you have to understand is that some of us have grown exhausted with all of this, with the fact that people can't look up from their phones, with the constant need to document and take pictures and videos.
And so we react in what some might consider disproportionate ways when somebody pulls out a phone or takes a picture.
My wife will tell you, That I have only grown more and more resistant to being involved in any picture or selfie activity as time has gone on.
If we go on vacation, we go anywhere, and she pulls out the phone, we gotta take a picture.
I'm very resistant, and only more so as time goes on.
It's not that I flat out refuse to be in a picture, or even to take one on occasion.
In fact, I just took a picture a few days ago of a nice bass that I caught.
It was probably about 6 pounds.
I mean, arguably 7 pounds.
It was probably about 23 inches, but it was a fat fish.
It was a great, great fish.
Anyway, obviously, I'm going to get a picture of that.
Actually, most of the pictures in my phone are not photos of my own face, but are photos of various fish that I've caught.
And that's different because I need documentation of the behemoths that I'm landing, or else nobody will believe me.
Anyway, aside from these exceptions, generally I'm resistant to posing for pictures of selfies, much to my wife's chagrin.
But my point to her is that we don't need photographic evidence of every moment.
It is good enough that we live those moments, we immerse ourselves in those moments, and hold the memories in our hearts, as people have always done.
We don't need any more selfies.
Nobody does.
We need to put down the phone, turn our gaze back upon this great wild world, And these wonderful experiences that are so much larger than a screen, if only we would look up and see it.
And yes, I will give this whole speech to my wife, rather than stop for five seconds to take a picture.
Because someone has to take a stand.
I'm glad to see that I'm not totally alone, which is why Miranda Lambert certainly is not cancelled today.
Instead, it is the perpetual selfie takers who are, with a vengeance, today cancelled.
That'll do it for this portion of the show.
Let's move over to the Members Block.
Hope to see you there.
If not, talk to you tomorrow.
Export Selection