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Transcript

This Lesbian Bar In Massachusetts Ended Their Mask Mandate. All Hell Broke Loose. · The Matt Walsh Show

0:05
Speaker 1: We've established a pattern on this show, as I'm sure
0:07
Speaker 1: you've noticed, and the pattern goes like this. I bring
0:10
Speaker 1: up some kind of current event or cultural issue. I
0:13
Speaker 1: explain the event or issue, and then I offer my
0:15
Speaker 1: analysis of said event or issue. And that last step,
0:19
Speaker 1: the analysis, is typically very important because without it, I
0:21
Speaker 1: would just be reporting on things that are happening.
0:24
Speaker 2: And that would make me a reporter.
0:25
Speaker 1: Or a journalist, which is somehow a species even more
0:28
Speaker 1: debased than podcaster. And so to avoid any specious charges
0:31
Speaker 1: of journalism, I like to color my recounting of events
0:35
Speaker 1: with my own opinion, as opposed to journalists who come
0:37
Speaker 1: to think of it, do the exact same thing. However,
0:40
Speaker 1: on rare occasion, there is a circumstance so momentous or
0:43
Speaker 1: bizarre or extraordinary that it leaves almost no room for
0:47
Speaker 1: subjective analysis. All I can do in these cases, if
0:51
Speaker 1: I'm going to speak of it at all, is simply
0:53
Speaker 1: relay it to you in stupefied amazement. So for example,
0:57
Speaker 1: if aliens landed in my backyard, or if I went
0:59
Speaker 1: hiking in the woods and I happened to see Bigfoot
1:01
Speaker 1: dash through the trees, riding a unicorn or something, all
1:04
Speaker 1: I would be able to do is just report the event.
1:07
Speaker 1: And all you'd be able to do is listen and
1:09
Speaker 1: conclude that I'm a schizophrenic lunatic, just as you'd always suspected.
1:12
Speaker 1: But the point is, I wouldn't have much of a
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Speaker 1: take to offer. The event would speak for itself. And
1:18
Speaker 1: that is a situation that we find ourselves in today,
1:22
Speaker 1: thanks to a now infamous article this week in the
1:24
Speaker 1: Boston Globe. Now, this article is not about Bigfoot, although
1:28
Speaker 1: it does feature a number of people who one can
1:31
Speaker 1: assume probably bear a striking resemblance. Instead, the article has
1:34
Speaker 1: this title. A Western Massachusetts lesbian bar required KN95 masks.
1:40
Speaker 1: When it changed the rules, all hell broke loose. Last
1:43
Speaker 1: Stitch Bar in Greenfield wanted to build community They got
1:47
Speaker 1: a firestorm instead. Now, I'll reiterate here that this article
1:51
Speaker 1: is from this week, and this week did occur in
1:54
Speaker 1: the year 2026. We have not entered a time warp
1:57
Speaker 1: that sent us barreling back to 2021. So this is
2:01
Speaker 1: a firestorm over a relaxed mask mandate in the current
2:05
Speaker 1: year AD. So already we have a situation that's obviously
2:09
Speaker 1: quite funny, but it gets so much better. Or so
2:13
Speaker 1: much worse, depending on whether you're cynical enough to find
2:15
Speaker 1: the collapse of Western civilization somewhat amusing, as I do.
2:19
Speaker 1: I fear that if I try to summarize the article,
2:21
Speaker 1: you'll be deprived of the Alice in Wonderland journey that
2:25
Speaker 1: those of us who read the entire thing experienced. And
2:28
Speaker 1: so we're going to go through this piece by piece.
2:32
Speaker 2: Bear with me. Here goes. Quote.
2:35
Speaker 1: The August 31st Instagram post from Last Ditch Bar and
2:39
Speaker 1: Arts Venue, a lesbian bar in Greenfield, was upbeat, teasing
2:42
Speaker 1: a new DJ lineup and a volunteer meetup. But partway
2:46
Speaker 1: down the rainbow-hued post labeled Updates was a sentence that
2:49
Speaker 1: would splinter the queer community in this small Pioneer Valley
2:53
Speaker 1: city and beyond. It's with love we inform our immunocompromised
2:58
Speaker 1: disabled divas We'll be opening Saturday nights as mask optional,
3:02
Speaker 1: wrote Last Ditch. Previously, patrons were required to wear a
3:05
Speaker 1: well-fitted KN95 mask or better at all times. The new
3:10
Speaker 1: policy was not received with love. Now, I know what
3:13
Speaker 1: you're thinking. You're thinking that immunocompromised disabled divas sounds like
3:17
Speaker 1: the worst 70s disco band of all time. You're also
3:20
Speaker 1: wondering what KN95 or better means.
3:24
Speaker 2: What would be better?
3:26
Speaker 1: A gas mask, a hazmat suit, a full scuba diving outfit?
3:30
Speaker 1: Maybe those are all safer alternatives. I don't know. Of course,
3:32
Speaker 1: if you're really serious about public health, then another option
3:35
Speaker 1: is to have your lungs surgically removed so that you
3:38
Speaker 1: aren't expelling or breathing in any infected air at all.
3:42
Speaker 1: And those are all perfectly valid points, but let's stay
3:44
Speaker 1: on task. We've barely started reading on. The new policy
3:47
Speaker 1: was not received with love. Just say you're being complicit
3:50
Speaker 1: in a mass disabling event. And get it over with,
3:54
Speaker 1: wrote one commenter. People like you kill disabled people in
3:57
Speaker 1: the name of your own leisure and convenience, posted another.
4:00
Speaker 1: Just to scrape extra revenue from ableists, wrote a third.
4:11
Speaker 1: The thread grew to 442 comments, some supportive, but many furious.
4:15
Speaker 1: People running the bar were accused of being ableist, eugenicist even,
4:19
Speaker 1: for relaxing their signature policy in the face of what
4:22
Speaker 1: commenters consider an ongoing pandemic. Greenfield has not reported any
4:26
Speaker 1: COVID cases in more than two months. I will say
4:29
Speaker 1: that mass disabling event is a much better band name.
4:33
Speaker 2: So there's that.
4:34
Speaker 1: But that aside, keep in mind, as we continue, that
4:36
Speaker 1: the illustrious last-ditch lesbian bar had only announced a relaxation
4:40
Speaker 1: of the mask policy for one day of the week.
4:44
Speaker 1: And even then, masks are optional, not prohibited. So according
4:49
Speaker 1: to the let's be polite and call it strained logic
4:52
Speaker 1: of these let's be polite and call them fanatically delusional
4:55
Speaker 1: whack jobs, they're only being potentially exposed to deadly COVID
4:58
Speaker 1: fumes on one night of the week. And then only
5:01
Speaker 1: if they choose to go to this bar, which they
5:03
Speaker 1: don't have to. And then only if they also are
5:06
Speaker 1: forgoing their own mask and hazmat suit.
5:08
Speaker 2: Which they don't have to.
5:10
Speaker 1: So it seems that even if we make the astronomical
5:13
Speaker 1: leaps of logic required to grant them their underlying premises,
5:17
Speaker 1: you know, that there is a COVID pandemic currently happening
5:19
Speaker 1: and that masks are necessary to protect against it. And
5:22
Speaker 1: that COVID aside, there's any personal protective equipment in the
5:25
Speaker 1: world that can save you from the hellish primeval diseases
5:28
Speaker 1: and afflictions that must cover every square inch of a
5:32
Speaker 1: seedy lesbian bar in Massachusetts. There still wouldn't be any
5:35
Speaker 1: reason to be overly upset at this lesbian bar with
5:38
Speaker 1: its slightly relaxed mask policy on one day of the
5:41
Speaker 1: week out of seven. And yet these people are upset.
5:45
Speaker 1: In fact, they're so upset that they think the bar
5:47
Speaker 1: should be burned down with everyone inside it. In the
5:51
Speaker 1: name of public safety, of course. Note, too, how the
5:54
Speaker 1: person who makes the firebomb threat isn't even trying to
5:57
Speaker 1: justify it using any kind of like tortured self-defense argument. Instead,
6:01
Speaker 1: they wish a fiery death on everybody associated with the
6:04
Speaker 1: bar for interfering with, quote, their Saturday plans. I mean,
6:09
Speaker 1: at least the other angry commenters have the decency to
6:11
Speaker 1: pretend that the bar is actively eradicating the entire disabled
6:15
Speaker 1: population or whatever. This one, on the other hand, is
6:18
Speaker 1: just casually saying that anyone who causes them to have
6:20
Speaker 1: to shift around their weekend schedule deserves to burn alive.
6:25
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6:28
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6:32
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6:35
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6:39
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6:43
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6:46
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6:48
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7:41
Speaker 2: Exclusions apply.
7:44
Speaker 1: Now, the saving grace for the bar is that this
7:46
Speaker 1: commenter is, we can assume, a woman who is, we
7:48
Speaker 1: can assume, morbidly obese and who we can assume wouldn't
7:52
Speaker 1: know how to make or deploy a firebomb, even if
7:54
Speaker 1: she had an IKEA instruction manual, and we can assume
7:57
Speaker 1: would probably just blow herself up in the process accidentally anyway.
8:00
Speaker 2: So that's the good news.
8:02
Speaker 1: Continuing, two days later, Last Ditch posted an apology. We're
8:06
Speaker 1: sorry for our passive and dismissive tone of our change
8:09
Speaker 1: to the norms and schedule impacting the most intersectional among us,
8:13
Speaker 1: management wrote on Instagram. We understand everyone faces different intersections,
8:17
Speaker 1: and we are always working to consider all needs fully.
8:20
Speaker 1: Instead of diffusing the situation, the apology seemed to make
8:23
Speaker 1: things worse. The bar had aired. It posted an Instagram
8:26
Speaker 1: card without providing alt text for the visually impaired. This
8:30
Speaker 1: set off a fresh round of accusations of ableism. This
8:33
Speaker 1: is not an accessible post, wrote one user. It indicates
8:36
Speaker 1: the lack of care or interest in disability intersectionality. Now,
8:41
Speaker 1: I don't want to break up the momentum here right
8:43
Speaker 1: as we get into the second act, but I'll just
8:46
Speaker 1: clarify a couple of things. First, in case you aren't
8:48
Speaker 1: up on the lingo, the phrase everyone faces different intersections
8:54
Speaker 1: is not, as far as I know, a reference to
8:57
Speaker 1: a city with a confusing and chaotic street layout. She's
9:01
Speaker 1: not talking about Boston or Washington, D.C. Intersections here refers
9:05
Speaker 1: to the places where all of your personal victimhood identities meet.
9:10
Speaker 1: And the goal, if you're on the left, is to
9:12
Speaker 1: have an intersection that is as busy and frantic and
9:16
Speaker 1: poorly marked and congested and convoluted as possible. So your
9:20
Speaker 1: personal victimhood intersection should resemble like a traffic intersection in Nairobi.
9:27
Speaker 1: No traffic lights, no signs, 12 different roads converging at once.
9:32
Speaker 1: pedestrians wandering into the road and getting flattened one after another.
9:36
Speaker 1: That's how you win on the left. Now, meanwhile, as
9:39
Speaker 1: a straight white male, my intersection doesn't exist.
9:44
Speaker 2: It's just one.
9:45
Speaker 1: Straight, well-maintained, well-lit road, everything humming along smoothly. And so
9:52
Speaker 1: in the leftist view, I lose. They all point and
9:54
Speaker 1: laugh at me and say, you're normal and functional and
9:57
Speaker 1: not in a state of constant crippling self-obsession.
10:00
Speaker 2: Loser.
10:01
Speaker 1: Second and related, if you're wondering what alt text is,
10:06
Speaker 1: it's a written description of an image which makes the
10:09
Speaker 1: content more accessible for blind people. Now, you might be
10:12
Speaker 1: slightly confused by this because you're thinking, or at least
10:15
Speaker 1: I was thinking, if blind people can't can't see the image,
10:18
Speaker 1: then how can they see the written description of the image? Well,
10:22
Speaker 1: the answer to that question is to begin with, how
10:24
Speaker 1: dare you ask for any explanations about the lived experience
10:27
Speaker 1: of disabled folks? They don't have to explain themselves to you,
10:31
Speaker 1: you disgusting bigot.
10:33
Speaker 2: You should be.
10:33
Speaker 1: Stabbed in the stomach and thrown into a pit of scorpions. Also,
10:37
Speaker 1: the answer is that blind people use screen reading technology
10:40
Speaker 1: that can read the image description. Now, if you're next
10:44
Speaker 1: going to ask why the screen reader can't itself just
10:47
Speaker 1: describe the image, well, then I refer you back to
10:50
Speaker 1: the Pit of Scorpions. Now, of course, even if the
10:52
Speaker 1: last-ditch lesbian bar had included alt text, that may have
10:58
Speaker 1: been more accessible for the blind, but it would have
11:00
Speaker 1: done nothing for the Helen Keller-style blind and deaf community. Indeed,
11:05
Speaker 1: the alt text just assumes that those who are visually
11:08
Speaker 1: impaired aren't also intersectionally hearing impaired. which itself is an
11:13
Speaker 1: ableist and bigoted and colonialist assumption that is morally tantamount
11:17
Speaker 1: to genocide, if you ask me.
11:18
Speaker 2: I mean, at the very.
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Speaker 1: Least, the bar could have provided the alt text, but
11:22
Speaker 1: then also mailed a description of the text in Braille
11:26
Speaker 1: to everybody in the community. Is that so much to ask?
11:30
Speaker 1: That seems like a logical compromise. Although even that raises
11:34
Speaker 1: its own intersectional problems, because what about disabled people who
11:38
Speaker 1: are blind and deaf and also have no arms or legs?
11:42
Speaker 1: How are they supposed to hear the text description or
11:45
Speaker 1: feel the Braille?
11:48
Speaker 2: What do you want them to do?
11:50
Speaker 1: Smack their head against the Braille, dragging their forehead across it?
11:53
Speaker 2: Is that what you want? Do you think it's.
11:56
Speaker 1: Funny to imagine a blind and deaf lesbian with no
11:59
Speaker 1: arms or legs flailing her head against a piece of
12:01
Speaker 1: braille in order to understand the new masking guidelines at
12:04
Speaker 1: the local lesbian bar? Would you like that? Okay, would
12:07
Speaker 1: that be amusing to you, fascist? This is, again, why
12:11
Speaker 1: you should be killed, with all due respect. Anyway, let's
12:15
Speaker 1: jump forward a few paragraphs and continue. Quote, nevertheless, Last Ditch,
12:20
Speaker 1: which opened last year as a bar for dykes, transsexuals,
12:23
Speaker 1: gender freaks, workers, and their friends, is struggling. Three housemates
12:27
Speaker 1: in their mid-twenties opened it together, hoping to fill the
12:30
Speaker 1: void left by two local queer bars that had shuttered.
12:33
Speaker 1: One of the trio, Asa Rosario, a drag performer who
12:36
Speaker 1: uses it, its pronouns, envisioned a venue where it and
12:41
Speaker 1: its friends could perform. Quick time out here just to
12:44
Speaker 1: say that although I'm very firmly on the record as
12:47
Speaker 1: someone who doesn't care about your personal pronouns, it is
12:51
Speaker 1: is one personal pronoun that I might actually respect. I
12:55
Speaker 1: never thought I'd say that. But if you want me
12:57
Speaker 1: to call you it or that or that thing or
13:02
Speaker 1: my God, what is that monstrosity?
13:05
Speaker 2: Then you know what? I'm on board. I can do that.
13:08
Speaker 2: I am willing to do that.
13:10
Speaker 1: Continuing, quote, the three were intentional about the kinds of
13:14
Speaker 1: values they wanted to bring to the divy basement bar,
13:17
Speaker 1: which they decorated with discoveries from Facebook marketplace and pieces
13:20
Speaker 1: from local artists. No one would be turned away from
13:23
Speaker 1: the space for lack of funds. Poor and unhoused people
13:26
Speaker 1: are welcome in the space. The police were not. Our
13:29
Speaker 1: mission is to create systems of care and action and aid,
13:33
Speaker 1: says Jackie Mattelian, one of the founders. When it first opened,
13:36
Speaker 1: Last Ditch did fairly well. Customers fondly remember a raucous
13:40
Speaker 1: opening night with a clothed simulation of a lesbian sex act,
13:44
Speaker 1: masks in place, on the dance floor. But over time,
13:49
Speaker 1: foot traffic to the bar slowed. More and more visitors
13:51
Speaker 1: said they didn't have the cover fee. The bar let
13:54
Speaker 1: them in anyway. The owners fell behind on bills and
13:56
Speaker 1: couldn't pay themselves or the people who worked there. So
13:58
Speaker 1: after consulting with the Massachusetts LGBT Chamber of Commerce, they
14:01
Speaker 1: came up with a plan to bend one of their
14:03
Speaker 1: rules and hopefully attract more customers. But by the time
14:06
Speaker 1: of Last Ditch's monthly community meeting on September 11th, only
14:10
Speaker 1: one of the original founders, Mattelian, is still involved. The
14:14
Speaker 1: two others stepped back from the daily operation months before,
14:17
Speaker 1: Mattelian says. citing various pressures and health issues, one had
14:21
Speaker 1: enrolled in clown school. Now, there's obviously quite a lot
14:25
Speaker 1: going on in these couple of paragraphs. I am particularly
14:28
Speaker 1: fascinated by that last sentence. And the article doesn't dwell
14:33
Speaker 1: on it or tell us anything else. It just tells us, oh, yeah,
14:36
Speaker 1: they went off to clown school. No other information. But
14:40
Speaker 1: I want to know more. One of the queer lesbian
14:43
Speaker 1: founders of this bar has stepped away from the business
14:45
Speaker 1: in order to enroll in clown school. You know, there
14:48
Speaker 1: are a lot of insulting and sarcastic remarks available here,
14:52
Speaker 1: which I am far too polite and mature to make. OK,
14:56
Speaker 1: you could, for example, observe how for a woke LGBT
14:59
Speaker 1: person to become a clown is to become paradoxically less
15:04
Speaker 1: creepy and bizarre. Gay leftists are the only people in
15:08
Speaker 1: existence who go to clown school and come out more
15:11
Speaker 1: normal and presentable than they were going in. You might
15:15
Speaker 1: say that. I'm not saying that. I'm not saying that
15:19
Speaker 1: because it's insulting and beneath me. I'm saying that you
15:21
Speaker 1: might say that. And again, how dare you say that? Instead,
15:26
Speaker 1: I find myself focused on the fascinating fact that clown
15:29
Speaker 1: school is a thing that actually exists. I mean, I'd
15:33
Speaker 1: heard of it before. I always thought it was more
15:35
Speaker 1: of like a figure of speech. But it turns out
15:37
Speaker 1: that it's a literal, physical reality. You know, I had
15:42
Speaker 1: to look it up and I discovered that indeed there
15:44
Speaker 1: are many clown schools. There are like a lot of them.
15:48
Speaker 1: In fact, you can go to the website Clowns Without Borders,
15:52
Speaker 1: which is again real, and find a list of dozens
15:55
Speaker 1: of clown schools all across the country and even the world.
16:00
Speaker 1: When's the last time anyone's even seen a clown?
16:05
Speaker 2: There's like thousands of clown schools.
16:06
Speaker 1: I mean, we're just churning out millions of clowns. I've
16:08
Speaker 1: never even, I haven't seen a clown in 35 years.
16:13
Speaker 1: Where are all these clowns? That's my question. Like I've
16:16
Speaker 1: never been one to be, oh, clowns are scary. But
16:19
Speaker 1: the fact that we're creating so many clowns and no
16:22
Speaker 1: one knows where they are.
16:25
Speaker 2: That's kind of terrifying. What are they all doing? Where
16:29
Speaker 2: did they go?
16:31
Speaker 1: Now, one of the more prestigious institutions appears to be
16:34
Speaker 1: the Northeast Clown Institute, whose website offers many academic resources
16:38
Speaker 1: for clowns and prospective clowns, including the 2026 Northeast Clown
16:42
Speaker 1: Institute course schedule, which covers topics such as the business
16:46
Speaker 1: of clowning, kids shows, juggling for fun, and where to
16:51
Speaker 1: hide the bodies. That last one is not really a
16:54
Speaker 1: listed topic, but I assume they covered it at some point.
16:57
Speaker 1: I should also note that the Northeast Clown Institute has
17:00
Speaker 1: a board, I look deeply into this, okay?
17:03
Speaker 2: It has a board of directors.
17:04
Speaker 1: With 20, 20 members on their board of directors, all
17:09
Speaker 1: with names like Woohoo, Boohoo, Beeboo, Rascal, and Disco. Now, helpfully,
17:16
Speaker 1: Disco the Clown also has a video linked on the
17:18
Speaker 1: website where he provides a brief lecture on the legal
17:21
Speaker 1: issues of clowning.
17:23
Speaker 2: I'm here to tell you that clowning is not all
17:25
Speaker 2: fun and games or laughs and giggles.
17:27
Speaker 1: Apparently, Disco the Clown is a lawyer. He's been in
17:29
Speaker 1: the practice for 40 years, serving clients who either don't
17:32
Speaker 1: know he's a clown or were specifically looking for legal
17:35
Speaker 1: representation that knows how to make a poodle out of
17:38
Speaker 1: a balloon.
17:39
Speaker 2: I don't know.
17:40
Speaker 1: I watched his lecture because I have no life, and
17:43
Speaker 1: I discovered that some of the legal pitfalls clowns face,
17:46
Speaker 1: according to Disco, are the possibility that a balloon breaks
17:50
Speaker 1: and a child chokes on it, or that a child
17:52
Speaker 1: might develop a skin infection from face paint, or that
17:56
Speaker 1: the clown might be accused of, quote, unwanted touching. Disco
18:02
Speaker 1: notes that this latter issue may not be covered by insurance. Anyway,
18:05
Speaker 1: none of this is directly relevant to the matter at hand,
18:07
Speaker 1: but if you were wondering about the intricacies of clown
18:09
Speaker 1: higher education.
18:10
Speaker 2: Or if you were not wondering at all, now you know.
18:14
Speaker 1: We move now to the climactic scene in this saga.
18:18
Speaker 1: I mean, the saga of the lesbian bar, not the
18:20
Speaker 1: clown school. Distinction is subtle, admittedly.
18:24
Speaker 2: Here it is.
18:25
Speaker 1: Quote, there are some 10 people seated in a circle
18:27
Speaker 1: on the dance floor, all wearing masks, Mattelian, a handful
18:30
Speaker 1: of volunteers, some bar patrons, and two designated mediators who
18:34
Speaker 1: will facilitate conversations between parties who disagree. Another 10 or
18:39
Speaker 1: 15 people join the meeting via Zoom. The plan is
18:42
Speaker 1: to go clockwise, sharing views on the masking decision and
18:45
Speaker 1: the financial future of the bar. Each person has two
18:47
Speaker 1: minutes to speak. It begins with a calming breath exercise.
18:51
Speaker 1: Almost immediately, the proceedings are derailed. One of Last Ditch's
18:55
Speaker 1: most vocal critics, the head of another queer COVID-conscious collective
18:58
Speaker 1: in Western Massachusetts, a performer and artist who goes by
19:01
Speaker 1: Soey Noir, has been posting complaints about Last Ditch for days.
19:07
Speaker 2: Now Noir joins the meeting on Zoom.
19:09
Speaker 1: He and other critics begin to flood the Zoom chat
19:11
Speaker 1: with irate messages, which are dutifully read aloud to the group.
19:15
Speaker 1: Quick note, Noir identifies as he. I'm not sure if
19:19
Speaker 1: he actually is a he. In fact, I'm not sure
19:21
Speaker 1: if any of these people in the article are actually
19:24
Speaker 1: female lesbians.
19:26
Speaker 2: I don't know.
19:27
Speaker 1: It's possible that this lesbian bar is staffed and populated
19:29
Speaker 1: entirely by dudes in dresses.
19:31
Speaker 2: I don't know. I'm not sure.
19:33
Speaker 1: I'm too busy to investigate the matter any further, especially
19:36
Speaker 1: now that I wasted 45 minutes researching clown schools.
19:39
Speaker 2: So we'll just have to move on.
19:41
Speaker 1: Reading on, quote, when it comes time for one of
19:43
Speaker 1: the mediators, a licensed therapist, to speak, she takes a
19:46
Speaker 1: conciliatory tone. I love that you're here on she says,
19:51
Speaker 1: but these platforms alienate us from each other. I'm talking
19:54
Speaker 1: about social media. She asks whether participants can try to
19:57
Speaker 1: remove themselves from, quote, places of righteousness. I'd love to
20:01
Speaker 1: get to a place where we all know each other's face,
20:03
Speaker 1: where we all know each other's names.
20:06
Speaker 2: Well, how are we And you can't know each other's faces.
20:08
Speaker 2: You're all wearing masks. That's sort of the whole point
20:10
Speaker 2: of the thing.
20:11
Speaker 1: But anyway, it's messed up that the mediator is dismissing
20:14
Speaker 1: those attending virtually. That's not accessibility. Someone responds in the chat.
20:18
Speaker 1: A lot of people are calling for an acknowledgement of harm.
20:21
Speaker 1: And I'm hearing a white therapist centering the feelings of
20:24
Speaker 1: a majority white and white adjacent staff, writes Noir, who
20:28
Speaker 1: is black. Moreover, the Zoom attendees speculate that the mediator's
20:31
Speaker 1: license status makes her a mandated reporter, an agent of
20:35
Speaker 1: the state akin to the police. One person going by
20:38
Speaker 1: Moss asks if the mediator could have them hospitalized against
20:41
Speaker 1: their will, adding that her presence is, quote, wildly unsafe. Now,
20:47
Speaker 1: I don't want to be judgmental, far be it from me.
20:50
Speaker 1: My audience knows I am not one to make judgments
20:53
Speaker 1: about people, especially harsh judgments. But I will just say
20:57
Speaker 1: that if you're the kind of person who has to
20:59
Speaker 1: worry about being hospitalized against your will, that's a pretty
21:03
Speaker 1: good sign that you're the kind of person who should
21:06
Speaker 1: be hospitalized against your will. But there were no hospitalizations
21:10
Speaker 1: to come out of this meeting, sadly. That would have
21:13
Speaker 1: been productive. Instead, all that was learned, apparently, is that
21:16
Speaker 1: the woman who owns the place not only wants to
21:20
Speaker 1: murder the entire disabled community, but is also, of course, racist.
21:24
Speaker 1: We're told that Mattelian tried to engender some sympathy from
21:26
Speaker 1: the group by pointing out that the business is going
21:28
Speaker 1: under and she's in debt and she's doing whatever she
21:31
Speaker 1: needs to do to keep her head above water, keep
21:34
Speaker 1: the doors open. But as the article reports, her critics were, quote, unmoved.
21:39
Speaker 1: They chastised her for centering her feelings and spilling her
21:43
Speaker 1: white tears and forcing black heroes like Noir to, quote,
21:47
Speaker 1: do emotional and physical labor. Now, Noir never explains how
21:52
Speaker 1: exactly attending a Zoom call involves physical labor. Maybe he
21:57
Speaker 1: or she or whatever has an Internet connection that can
22:00
Speaker 1: only be powered by physically running on a wheel like
22:03
Speaker 1: a giant hamster.
22:04
Speaker 2: I'm not sure.
22:06
Speaker 1: And these are questions that just cannot be answered because
22:09
Speaker 1: they cannot be asked because asking a black person anything
22:12
Speaker 1: or expecting them to explain or justify any claim they
22:14
Speaker 1: make at any point for any reason is racist. And,
22:18
Speaker 1: you know, and more ethically problematic than the Holocaust, I
22:22
Speaker 1: would even say. The article finally ends on a melancholy note,
22:26
Speaker 1: recounting the very sparsely attended mask optional Saturday night that
22:30
Speaker 1: followed this meeting. And here's what it says. Quote, just
22:34
Speaker 1: after midnight, one patron is left at the bar, a
22:36
Speaker 1: regular who works at the Mexican restaurant next door. She
22:40
Speaker 1: wonders aloud about holding a Lady Gaga themed night. But
22:44
Speaker 1: Mixie demurs. Gaga is canceled, she says. Gaga is Zionist.
22:51
Speaker 1: I don't know who Mixie is or why she sounds
22:52
Speaker 1: like a caveman here. Gaga canceled. Gaga bad. Gaga Zionist.
22:58
Speaker 1: Gaga make Mixie sad. Maybe that was just a transcription error.
23:02
Speaker 2: I don't know.
23:04
Speaker 1: Maybe there really is a missing link and you can
23:06
Speaker 1: find it at a lesbian bar in Massachusetts, which actually
23:09
Speaker 1: wouldn't be all that surprising.
23:10
Speaker 2: Who knows? But here's the final paragraph.
23:13
Speaker 1: Quote,' The DJ is still playing EDM and Mattelian is
23:16
Speaker 1: alone on the checkered dance floor making pensive, graceful loops
23:20
Speaker 1: on the stripper pole. KN95 mask in place. Mattelian doesn't
23:25
Speaker 1: expect the conflict at last ditch to end soon. She
23:28
Speaker 1: plans to cooperatize the bar so she doesn't bear so
23:31
Speaker 1: much financial liability.' but that will come with its own challenges.
23:34
Speaker 1: And the discord about masking is unlikely to go away.
23:37
Speaker 1: But it comes with the territory, she says. There's conflict,
23:40
Speaker 1: but we just hope that there's more repair than conflict.
23:43
Speaker 1: That's the price you pay to be in community, Battalion says.
23:48
Speaker 1: I have to say, there's something depressing about all of this.
23:54
Speaker 1: Not because I feel bad for this woman or anyone
23:56
Speaker 1: else involved in the story, but because the picture of
23:59
Speaker 1: a sad lesbian in a COVID mask Tears streaming from
24:04
Speaker 1: her eyes, somberly gyrating on a stripper pole in an
24:09
Speaker 1: empty lesbian bar while EDM music blasts from the speakers
24:14
Speaker 1: is maybe the funniest single image that it's possible to imagine.
24:20
Speaker 1: That mournful stripper pole performance may in fact be the
24:23
Speaker 1: most hilarious event to ever occur. Have you ever heard
24:27
Speaker 1: of anything funnier than a depressed lesbian in a surgical
24:30
Speaker 1: mask weeping because the other lesbians accused her of genociding
24:35
Speaker 1: the disabled as she performs a doleful routine on a
24:38
Speaker 1: stripper pole in the middle of an empty dance floor
24:41
Speaker 1: at midnight?
24:44
Speaker 2: I haven't.
24:46
Speaker 1: I don't think I ever will. Which means it's all
24:49
Speaker 1: downhill comedically from here. And it demonstrates again that satire
24:54
Speaker 1: is impossible. I cannot satirize these people because in my
24:57
Speaker 1: wildest and most demented imagination, I never would have thought
25:02
Speaker 1: to end.
25:03
Speaker 2: The story that way.
25:04
Speaker 1: In fact, I don't think I could have invented most
25:06
Speaker 1: of the details of this story. It's not possible to
25:10
Speaker 1: exaggerate these people for comedic effect. It's not possible to
25:13
Speaker 1: take their logic to a more cartoonish extreme than they
25:16
Speaker 1: have already taken it themselves. And there's something kind of
25:20
Speaker 1: tragic about that. In a weird way, I now know
25:25
Speaker 1: how our friend Mattelian must have felt while she was
25:29
Speaker 1: grimly twirling on that sad, forlorn stripper pole. The sense
25:34
Speaker 1: of mourning, of confusion, of not knowing where to go
25:37
Speaker 1: from here. I feel a kinship with her. We've both
25:42
Speaker 1: lost something through all of this. She lost her dreams
25:45
Speaker 1: of having a bustling lesbian bar filled with vibrant and
25:48
Speaker 1: strange and unsightly creatures resembling the Star Wars cantina scene.
25:53
Speaker 1: And I lost my dream of ever being able to
25:55
Speaker 1: mock these people more hilariously or effectively than they already
25:59
Speaker 1: mock themselves. So we are in the same boat in
26:03
Speaker 1: many ways. It almost makes me want to perform a
26:07
Speaker 1: grieving ritual on the dance floor, but I fear that
26:10
Speaker 1: would be an act of ableist appropriation. So instead, I
26:13
Speaker 1: will just say that the last ditch lesbian bar and
26:16
Speaker 1: its owner are and its other owner off in clown school,
26:20
Speaker 1: and Noir, the black lesbian who's maybe or maybe not
26:23
Speaker 1: actually a man, and for that matter, Disco the Clown,
26:26
Speaker 1: God bless him, and everybody else involved in this story
26:29
Speaker 1: at any level are all today canceled.