I'll admit that as much as I find it carnally satisfying to watch some conservative like Ben Shapiro "own" a progressive on a matter of public policy, I have never been as convinced as I am now that those moments do little more than fuel bitterness, envy, and stoke a divisiveness that is an enemy to the kind of unity that will be necessary for the preservation of our way of life.
Don't misunderstand. I don't mean that I find no value in argument or debate. I wouldn't be writing for Not the Bee, or creating videos, or publishing my Memo, or preaching, or doing pretty much anything that I do, if I felt that way. It's certainly not biblical to believe there is no value in intellectual and philosophical confrontation.
Acts 17 talks about the Apostle Paul's habit of going to synagogues and arguing with them why Jesus was their long-awaited Messiah. It's affirmed there that, "some of the Jews were persuaded and joined Paul and Silas, as did a large number of God-fearing Greeks and quite a few prominent women." No, I am all about vigorous, thoughtful debate.
It's the gotcha-moments, the made-for-YouTube snippets and podcast soundbites that I'm talking about – the ones that often seem designed to embarrass or humiliate rather than enlighten, challenge, or convert that I just don't find overly effective. I don't know too many people with the humility necessary to react to a public shaming by a proud adversary by saying, "Great point, I want to join you."
I feel this way often about the work of conservative writer and podcaster Matt Walsh. I have followed Walsh for at least a decade, from the early days of The Matt Walsh Blog, to The Blaze, to his current gig at the Daily Wire. He's smart, articulate, and unafraid…all qualities that set him up nicely to be a star for conservatives in a social media-driven culture.
Few are as capable of picking the scabs of progressivism quite like Walsh, a talent that draws the ire of equally provocative left-wing voices, all of whom seem to come up short whenever they combatively engage him.
But it isn't Walsh's skill at partisan and ideological bickering that has me fascinated. No, you can keep all the Walsh-inspired Twitter tantrums, I'll take the philosophical bomb he makes in this clip all day. And he does it passively, with questions, no less:
Does anyone actually see what Walsh has done here? I'm confident he knows it, and honestly, he may even point it out in the full "What is a Woman?" documentary that I haven't seen yet. But the cultural poignancy of this small segment cannot be overstated as it has devastating consequences for the left's paradigm.
These African tribesmen are stating glaringly obvious scientific facts that mankind has known and collectively acknowledged up until about five minutes ago. They represent the world outside the West. Whereas the West's prosperity has led it to invent its own problems and crises so that it can feel good about itself and have a "cause" to champion, most other civilizations have legitimate problems to deal with in reality, leaving them no time to battle imaginary wars over feelings.
These African men laugh – they literally laugh – at the notion a woman might have a penis. They laugh because it is a laughable premise (again, to everyone outside the West and its fabricated gender enlightenment). So how can the American Left respond to this?
Obviously what these men are saying and doing makes a mockery of the left's gender ideology. If said by a white American male, it would be considered the height of bigotry. But these aren't white American men. These are black men (and women) of a different culture.
Progressives may worship the idol of gender, but they also worship the idol of diversity and multiculturalism. By their own rules, their dismissal of, or disagreement with the lived experiences of another people group – particularly black-skinned groups – is racist and Anglo-centric.
If they discount what these tribesmen are saying, how are they not guilty of imperialistic ideology – deigning to sit on their privileged perch of white, euro-imperalism and lecture African tribes over their ignorance? This isn't cultural appropriation, this is cultural rejection. Who do these lily-white liberals think they are to belittle the minds of black Africans?
Of course, if they don't rebuke them, they are admitting to the embarrassing sham the gender revolution is outside the privileged walls of the West – that it's all a political crusade born more out of boredom than anything else, including social justice.
So what's your play, progressives? Do the dark-skinned Africans know what they're talking about? Or are they ignorant dweebs needing a Westernized lecture to see the world through our eyes in order to be truly enlightened?
Give me 100 of these gentle, obvious un-dressings of progressive thought through simple questions over those mic drop insults any day, Matt.
As for the progressives, what say you about your African detractors?
