 Matt Walsh. Here's another conservative, another guy on the right, and I know I'm gonna be criticized for criticizing conservatives. You're on. Why don't you criticize the left? All you do is criticize the right. But Scott isn't here today, so maybe I can get away with this and nobody will call me on it. But so let's talk about this particular video of Matt Walsh's. It's truly stunning, really stunning in its stupidity more than anything else. It's kind of stupidity you don't expect to encounter from somebody like Matt Walsh, or anybody really who's been as successful as Matt Walsh has been, and he has been super successful. This is beyond ideological. This is just, yeah, there's no ideological issue here. This is just plain stupidity. Stupidity. All right. Oh, there, Scott is here. Well, there we go. I was wondering why nobody was defending Tucker Carlson, so maybe he's here after all. Maybe he decided not to defend Tucker Carlson today. All right, let's, where is it? Let me find Matt Walsh. There's Matt Walsh. All right. So this is Matt Walsh talking about slave reparations. Reparations of slavery, which he's against, which I'm against, and he starts it off about lots of reasons for it, and then he goes into this other reason why slave reparations should be opposed. And all of this from the context of, I can't think of a more immoral, irrational idea than today paying slave reparations. One could argue about right after the Civil War where the reparations should have been paid, but today to pay slave reparations is to buy into so many fallacies and is a purely collectivistic view that I reject completely. But let's listen to at least one of the reasons Matt Walsh thinks that slavery reparations are wrong. Of course, that's only one argument against the reparations idea. There are many more and better ones. I've outlined most of them on the show at various points in the past, but today I'd like to talk about and call attention to a different argument against reparations. One that is by our culture standards, rather unspeakable, which doesn't mean that it's wrong. In fact, it normally means precisely the opposite. Really? So things that unspeakable are usually the opposite in our culture? That's a very scary position to take back and wrong. Just plain wrong. Luckily, we're still not in a not in a world in which in which the unspeakable is right. Not yet. We might be one day, but not yet. A guy named Wilford Riley, who's a college professor with a decent social media following who also happens to be a black man, made this point on Twitter yesterday. Here's what he tweeted. An awkward historical fact, which genuinely complicates the reparations debate, is that black Americans are just obviously better off on average than we would have been had our ancestors never come to United States. Pointing out something this self evidently true isn't justifying slavery, which was obviously terrible for slaves and existed globally in 1850. But no one arguing for that $5 million today in LA is or has ever been a slave. Alright, so I want to talk about a couple of things here, but I want to make a small point and then and then a bigger point. The small point is we're talking about slavery. We're talking about slavery in America. We're talking about slavery of blacks in America. It's I don't know. It seems so underhanded and wrong. And I don't know. I don't know what we go with this. But to say, which was obviously terrible, terrible, right? Justifying slavery, which is obviously terrible for slaves. Terrible. It's terrible the words you would you would actually come up with. Terrible. I don't know. You know, think about being a slave. Think about the number of slaves who were tortured, beaten, killed, murdered, raped. You know, all the things that happened to slaves torn away from their families and the kids and their parents separated, lived under slavery for several generations. Think think about think about that is that terrible? I mean, there's something there's something understated about calling that terrible. It's it's one of the great evils. One of the great evils that men have done to other men. It's it's pretty bad. It's pretty bad, right? So it terrible seems like an understatement. And then he says for for slaves and existed and any ads globally in 1850 globally. I mean, yeah, a lot of countries had slavery globally Chinese as far as I know did not had slaves, not the kind of slaves that we in America had. The Arabs had slaves. The I don't think in India in I don't think British India had slave. We indeed by 1850, the English had banned slavery not only in all of their colonies and but they banned trade and they were in the high seas stopping whatever trade they could. So yes, the Arabs had a particular evil and awful form of slavery. The Ottomans before them had it but by 1850, you know, I guess the Ottomans probably had some slavery. And but but this idea that it existed globally in 1850 as if, well, yeah, so we were just the same as every other country. And don't make too big of a deal out of it, because it's just a global phenomenon that's existed since 1850. It existed in 1850. Everybody was doing it. Again, the British were way ahead of us. Yes, it existed in Brazil, pretty pretty bad. In other parts of Latin America, Brazil was was the worst, I think. And the last one really to eradicate slavery. But why do you have to add existed globally? Who are you trying to appease here? The people who say, Oh, well, slavery wasn't a big deal for American history. No, it is a big deal. To a large extent, it's a big deal because of the kind of country America claim to be the kind of country, the funny the country was established as it was a country of individual rights. It was a country of equality. It was a country of freedom. And this is a slap in the face of those principles. So it's a big deal for America that we had slaves. And we should acknowledge that it doesn't diminish the greatness of the country. It doesn't diminish the fact slavery is an evil should have never been part of this country. It was not part of capitalism, never part of capitalism. Indeed, it was negation of capitalism. The reason what North was so much richer than the South is because it didn't have slavery. We'll get to that point later again. So I just want to point that out. But I think that the more interesting part is earlier, right? It's this argument that is made that Matt really latches on to and existed globally in 1850, but globally and globally are just obviously better off. So this idea, black Americans, obviously better off an average than they would be had our ancestors never, their ancestors never come to America. Really? Because what this does is it really posits two alternative scenario, two alternative scenarios. One is that they stayed in Africa and the other is that they are slaves in America. And yes, the generation today is better off for being in America than being in Africa. But are those the only two alternatives? I mean, there's a third alternative, which is if we're going to rewrite history is my favorite alternative. And that is that blacks would have emigrated to America. In the late 19th century, early 20th century, maybe even mid 19th century, as labor was required in this big country that was growing and hard labor workforce was needed. And maybe they would have gone to Africa and paid them well in order to bring them over. And what would they be today? They'd be much better off. Why are there only two alternatives? Stay in Africa come to the United States as slaves. How about come to the United States as workers, citizens, immigrants, because that's unthinkable. That is not a possibility. Only Europeans really were welcome to come to the United States as workers, although we did bring in Chinese for a while until we stopped bringing in the Chinese because the cubs, right? So this whole idea of, you know, but the whole framing of it is, they're better off than they would have stayed in Africa, as if this somehow makes their experience, the experience of the ancestors not the experience of people today, right? Now again, this is all in the context of something wrong, evil, which is reparations. This is why reparations don't make any sense. But the whole framing of it, the whole framing is wrong here. It's collectivistic. And it's so limiting historically. Pointing out something in 1850. But no one arguing for that $5 million today in LA is or has ever been a slave. That's the key pro POC affirmative action has been the law since 67. Now he's not the first person to make this point. I remember I remember hearing Dinesh D'Souza articulating the same point years. Just as stupid when Dinesh D'Souza makes it in years ago. And the only thing that makes the point controversial is the insistence by disingenuous idiots to misconstrue it. They will say, as was referenced, that you're justifying slavery or defending it, perhaps even advocating for more of it. I'm not advocating for more of it. Not saying you're justifying, you're not saying any of that. I just think it's a stupid way of looking at the world. It's a collectivist way of looking at the world. And it's a you're limiting the historical possibilities. If we're opening history up to alternatives, then there should be an alternative where they emigrate here. And they do just amazing as other immigrant groups have done is as blacks who have come to America as immigrants have done very, very well. Look at the Caribbean blacks who've come here. Look at the Nigerian blacks have come here as immigrants. And they've done phenomenally well. That is obviously not the point. The point is that the push for reparations rests on the notion that black Americans are in a considerably worse spot today than they would have been had their ancestors never been brought here as slaves. They know that's not the point. And that's that's dishonest to claim that the point is that they are worse off for having been slaves and that they would be far better off had they been in this country, not slaves. Nobody is comparing them to what they would have done in Africa. What they're comparing them to is what they would be in the United States. Had they not been slaves? Imagine if in 1776, there were lots of slaves in America already in 1776, not 1770, when was the Constitution passed 1789? Imagine if as part of the Constitution convention slaves have been freed, then those slaves that had been freed would be a lot better off today than blacks are today because they would have had all those decades being free and accumulating capital and accumulating property and living a good life and and all of them, they wouldn't have suffered the consequences. So imagine if they had been free when the Constitution was ratified, which is what should have happened historically. But why is this such a hard point? Why is this convoluted? You'll see he'll get really convoluted in a minute. Why is this convoluted stuff? And the whole argument on reparations is easy. This isn't the point. Scott, stop being dishonest yourself. Say that we must repair this damage, damage that black Americans are currently experiencing, they say. But they are experiencing damage today as a consequence of of slavery. It doesn't justify reparations, but of course they are. And Jim Crow laws, those had no effect and they have no effect on people today. Of course they did. It's no excuse for the black community. It shouldn't be an excuse for them, but they don't deserve any reparations because the harm was not done to them as individuals. But are they worse off if they'd been free, freed in 1789? With the blacks who are the ancestors of those blacks who were freed, be better off or worse off today? I mean, that from an economic perspective is a no brainer. Of course they'd be better off if you believe freedom matters. If you don't believe freedom matters, then okay. But of course they'd be better off. That doesn't justify your operations. But let's acknowledge that at least. The tune of $75 million or maybe $75 million. Black Americans today are the furthest removed from that historic atrocity and yet should be paid the most in restitution for it. That's the claim. But this is a false notion. In fact, it seems rather clear that black Americans are doing better here today than they would be had their ancestors generations ago never been brought to these shores. But that is not the alternative. That is an alternative you are postulating for, you know, completely randomly and arbitrarily given the history of the United States and given the history of slavery in the United States. We can prove this point by simply asking which African country anyone asking for operations would prefer to live in. The answer, of course, is none of them. Now, you might offer the rebuttal that if slavery never existed, if we're reimagining history without that institution at all, then Africa itself would be in a better shape, better place and better shape and maybe indeed black Americans would be better off there. But this seems highly unlikely and it also ignores the fact that Africans participated in slavery and the slave trade as much as they were victims of it. Not to really as much. They participated as much as they were victims of it. You know, maybe, but that's a pretty strong statement to make without some strong evidence. Mention, if we're reimagining the world without African slavery, then we have to also imagine it without all other forms of global slavery since wouldn't that be cool if we could imagine a world without any slavery anywhere? That's kind of the world for the most part we live in today. I mean there's still some slavery in a few places. We'd like to eradicate that and we'd like to live in that world. Isn't that a good thing? Wouldn't that be a reimagined world in which we're all better off somehow? African slavery was merely one variety, one offshoot of this global institution. And now we have totally, at that point, rewritten the history of the world in a way so dramatic that it's absolutely impossible to say which individuals today would end up worse or better in this alternate universe. I mean wouldn't you have to say that if in this alternate universe there'd never been slavery, we'd all been free from the beginning and there was this recognition of slavery being bad, which means a recognition of the value of the individual, then wouldn't you say that we'd all be better off? Isn't that pretty strong statement? Is that a really awful statement to make? By the way, Mark Thomas says there's quite a bit of evidence for what? For the fact that blacks participate in the slave trade? Of course, I know that, but it is that it's just as much that they're just as guilty as anybody else always have been. You know, really, I mean they participated, huge, big, no question, but really do we really want to make that equivocation exactly? Do we know that? For a fact, I don't think we know that. If you go back in time and get rid of slavery from the entire world, this is so stupid, you have just, it's impossible to say what the world looks like right now. Yeah, okay, there's some truth to that because everything is different. Yeah, okay, what's your point? Actually, what we can say is that we'd all end up worse, all of us today would be in a worse spot if slavery never existed at all across the entire globe. All of us are worse off, all of us are worse off. Now you'll get why in a minute, it's unbelievable, right? Because a change that's significant would likely shift the course of events in a way that would mean none of us will even exist, it would be a world full of other people who are not us. Did you get that? So if history had been different, none of us would have been born, right? Our parents would have married other people and their great, great, great, great, great, great, great, grandparents would have married other peoples, their parents wouldn't even exist because everything would have been different. So it's good that the Holocaust occurred because it generated some of the people that it gives us today. It's good that communism and Mao Tse-tung, they killed tens of millions of people, God forbid those people might have been alive, they might have married some of the people that got married anyway and they would have been different people in the world. I mean, how does this guy, how do you get away with this stupidity? It's not even evil or wrong, it's just stupid. How do you, how do you, why would you even go there? Don't you see how stupid this is before you say this stuff? Don't you self-edit? Don't you monitor what's going to come out of your mouth? I mean, yeah, if anything in history would have been different, different people would be around today. Okay, so what? These are talking points that are prepared, this is clearly prepared, this he's got a script, this is not a stream of consciousness, this is just stupidity on steroids. So I know that I benefit today from virtually everything my ancestors did and everything. Everything, he benefits today from everything his ancestors did including the rape, pillaging, murder, destruction, everything, everything because he wouldn't be here if those things hadn't happened. Everything did to them because if any of that had not happened, there's a very good chance that I never would have come into being and as I see it, I benefit from being if the other option is not being. So we should, we should have a celebration of every event in history equally because all those events, the good events, the bad, I don't think you can say bad events because if those bad events haven't happened, I wouldn't even be here. I don't know, I mean when you go with this kind of nonsense, I have no idea. So where do we land after all of this? You know, it's absurd once you get into this conversation, well let's get rid of this whole huge part of history. It's absurd man, you got into this kind of figure out the equation. You did it. It becomes immediately ridiculous. Yes. And what does that mean for the reparations discussion? Well it means that the discussion is totally incoherent and stupid. It means that yes, but not for this reason. Any reparations plan is an arbitrary policy resting on a whole series of totally unsupported and wildly speculative assumptions about the way things would be right now if they weren't the way that they actually are. And the best we can say about that assumption, the assumption that blacks in this country are worse off today because of slavery, is that it is a base. Of course they're worse off today because of slavery. I mean, I don't know. You know, if Matt's ancestors had been slaves, he would not be where he is today probably. It's less theory, but what we can really say about it is that it's a dubious conclusion based on fanciful and pointless hypotheticals. Yeah, which you are supporting and promoting and arguing for while doing this. All you have to say is reparations are an evil idea because they reject the idea of individual agency, individual responsibility. They are penalizing individuals who are innocent and benefiting individuals who did nothing to deserve this benefit. And who are who are not victims. Force was not imposed on them. So reparations for what? For the fact that a hypothetical, I want reparations. You know, I'm Jewish. I'm sure without the Holocaust and without pogroms in Eastern Europe, I would be better off today because my family would have built up some capital than I would be otherwise. So hey, I mean reparations are a stupid idea, but that doesn't justify going into these ridiculous arguments that people like Matt engage in. I don't know. It just seemed, it just seemed the whole thing is just absurd. Why spend? I mean this guy, I'm sure this video is being seen by hundreds of thousands of people because hundreds of thousands, just like a Tekka Carlson. You know, people watch the stuff, they embrace the stuff, they engage in the stuff. They really love the stuff and I don't get it. I don't get it. And so I'm here just to point out the stupidity and the fact that this is all just wrong. Thank you for listening or watching The Iran Book Show. If you'd like to support the show, we make it as easy as possible for you to trade with me. You get value from listening, you get value from watching. Show your appreciation. You can do that by going to iranbrookshow.com slash support by going to Patreon, subscribe star locals and just making a appropriate contribution on any one of those, any one of those channels. Also, if you'd like to see The Iran Book Show grow, please consider sharing our content and of course subscribe. Press that little bell button right down there on YouTube so that you get an announcement when we go live and for those of you who are already subscribers and those of you who are already supporters of the show, thank you. I very much appreciate it.