Joe Biden is boring.
I mean, he promised it, but, man, the guy has delivered.
This dude's favorite Netflix show is just the search menu.
Which is fine for most people. Right?
People don't want to be paying attention to their president
every day. But it's a big problem for right-wing pundits
and politicians, because, you see, they can't depend on him
to generate outrage, so they have to come up with
some weird culture war tangent to rile their people up.
Vaccine passports are Hitler!
Mr. Potato Head is brainwashing children!
Lil Nas X is behind you right now.
So, to keep up with all the latest skirmishes,
we're introducing a brand-new segment:
Culture Wars: Moral Kombat.
Culture wars in America come out of almost anywhere,
but one topic that's guaranteed to get people riled up is race.
That's why I knew we were in for a good time
when United Airlines announced
that to bring some diversity to a field
that is 94% white and male,
it's going to be starting a pilot school where at least half
of the students will be women and people of color.
Yes, it's a perfectly sensible step in the right direction,
which means it's just the perfect story
for a culture warrior like Tucker Carlson
to completely misrepresent.
United Airlines is mandating affirmative action quotas
in its flight schools,
and that's a big change for the country.
If 100% of United Airlines pilots were Black women,
or Malaysian Muslims, or for that matter,
white men from Alabama,
not a single sane person would complain about it,
as long as the airplanes didn't crash.
Safety is all that matters.
There is only one standard that matters,
and it is not race, and it's not gender.
It's competence.
The way people look is totally irrelevant.
How they perform is all you should care about.
Once you forget that, airplanes tend to crash.
(laughing)
Okay, wait, wait, wait.
Wait. No, wait.
I'm sorry.
My man over here just said that if we have...
if we have more Black pilots,
planes are just gonna start crashing?
I mean, I hate to admit it, but he's right.
You don't want Black people flying planes.
Because white people... white people fly like this,
but Black people fly like this.
I mean, everyone knows Black people cannot fly planes.
That's why Africa has no planes.
Yeah, it's true.
There's not a single plane on the entire continent.
-We use chickens to get around. -(clucking)
And as for women-- ooh, women pilots-- we can't have those.
They'll always be stopping to ask for directions.
Hey, Mr. Seagull, can you give me directions to Las Vegas?
Yo, for real, people,
I don't know that I need to tell you this,
but Tucker Carlson is lying to you, right?
He's straight-up lying to you.
Because he's saying it
like United is just making random Black people into pilots.
Yo, Jamal, it's your turn!
But any pilot still has to go
through all the training and pass all of the tests.
Trust me, planes aren't gonna start falling out of the sky
because of Black people.
They're gonna start falling out of the sky
because they were made by Boeing.
And you know that Tucker's argument is full of shit,
specifically because of where he took it next.
Imagine if we applied the same standard to other professions.
How about professional sports?
African American men account for roughly six percent
of the American population, and yet, about 75% of the players
in the National Basketball League are Black men.
So what if, to remedy that lack of equity,
the NBA announced tomorrow, that going forward,
at least half of its players, 50%,
had to be white, Asian, Hispanic or female
to better represent the fans in the stands?
How would we respond to that?
Okay, that would actually be the most amazing thing of all time.
I would love it if the NBA just forced
random, unqualified white people into the league.
Are you kidding me?
There is nothing I want to see more
than some dude from Wall Street just getting savagely dunked on.
Bam! That's for the housing crisis.
(crying): This is not my life.
Now, look obviously, the difference
between what United is doing with pilots
and what Tucker is talking about for the NBA is
that white dudes do have every opportunity
to become an NBA player.
And I'm not just talking about American white dudes, either.
NBA scouts will hike their ass to a remote village in Slovenia
just to bring home a seven-footer
who can barely dribble.
So, yeah, (bleep) Tucker Carlson.
That's nothing new.
"(bleep) Tucker" is like the motto of Tuesday.
But you know who deserves a bit of a (bleep) you, as well?
United Airlines. Yeah, I said it.
And this may not be a popular opinion,
but they shouldn't have announced this
in the first place, right?
If you want to do something good, just do it.
But no, they want to get a pat on the back
for shit that they should have been doing all along.
Hey, everyone, we've decided to help women and minorities deal
with the barriers that we put up for them to be pilots. (laughs)
Because now, you're feeding into the culture wars,
and you're undermining every new pilot
that you're gonna have.
I mean, think about it. Think about it.
Before this, if someone saw a Black pilot on a plane,
they would just assume correctly
that that person went through the full training
like every other pilot.
But now, someone's gonna get on a plane and be like,
"Oh, shit! It's a diversity hire!
I saw this on Tucker. We're screwed!"
And then, when there's turbulence, they're gonna be
like, "Oh, no! Oh!
"The Black pilot must have put the hydraulics on.
"You know how they do this with their cars.
They love this!"
And please, don't-don't get me wrong.
Don't try and misquote.
I'm not saying United Airlines shouldn't do this.
I'm saying, do it.
Just don't do it for the PR, right?
Don't go on social media with it just so you can get the likes.
otherwise, you're not helping your pilots.
You're helping assholes like Tucker Carlson.
(bleep) Tucker Carlson.
But look, Tucker Carlson is just one guy on a TV channel.
The other big culture war story right now is being pushed
by people with actual political power,
and it involves...
transgender people. (gasps)
Now, wait. I know what you're thinking.
Scary trans people?
Isn't that a throwback from, like, five years ago?
There was an outrage cycle around bathrooms.
You remember that?
They're gonna be kidnapping our children
and-and wearing dresses while they poop!
But even though none of that scary stuff actually happened,
they've already kicked off an exciting new sequel.
NEWSWOMAN: It has become a new front in the culture war.
Republicans across the country are pushing
to ban transgender students,
and often specifically, trans girls and women,
from competing in school sports.
It meant everything to me to be able to run, you know,
as the gender with which I identify
and to run as who I know I am.
I really just found who I am as a person, like, through sports.
NEWSWOMAN: More than 25 states across the country
now considering anti-trans policies in school sports.
Three of those states have already signed them into law.
Republicans pushing for the ban have been unable
to point to any evidence of a problem.
Will you cite any examples
where a young woman was denied a scholarship opportunity
or a title here in Arizona because they were competing
against a trans athlete who outperformed them?
-I can't at this point give... -So the answer was "no"?
At this point, no.
Um, but it's only a matter of time, in my opinion.
It's only a matter of time.
You know what I love about Republicans is
that When it comes to major issues with tons of evidence,
like climate change or coronavirus
or gun violence, they're like,
"Huh. Let's wait until we see more evidence."
But now, there's an issue that barely even exists,
and they're like, "We don't got time for evidence!
There's a plastic trophy at stake!"
Now, the one thing
that people making these laws always point to is
a single story from Connecticut a few years ago.
That's not evidence that trans kids are stealing opportunities
from everyone else.
Aunt Becky's kids have taken away more slots
on sports teams than trans kids.
Honestly, I think conservatives are missing the entire point
of youth sports in the first place.
Because it's not really about the tiny minority of kids
who will go on to get scholarships
and perform at an elite level. It's not about that.
It's about kids achieving their personal best,
developing good habits and self-esteem
and learning to bully the chess team.
And culture warriors say these laws about trans kids and sports
are just about being fair to the other children.
But the truth is, it's not stopping there.
STEPHANIE RUHLE: In the state of Arkansas,
the state just became the first
to ban gender-affirming medical care for transgender kids,
even with parental consent.
NEWSMAN: In Alabama, there's a bill that would make it
a felony, punishable by up to ten years in prison,
for a doctor to prescribe gender-affirming medication
for trans people under age 18.
NEWSMAN 2: A similar measure
before North Carolina's general assembly,
as some lawmakers look
to ban gender-confirming treatments for people under 21.
The bill would prevent doctors from providing
gender-confirming hormone treatment,
puberty blockers or surgery.
NEWSMAN 3: Senate bill 514 would also compel state employees
to notify parents
if their child displays "gender non-conformity."
No, man. You guys are playing.
So North Carolina is gonna make its school employees snitch
on kids any time that they don't "conform to their gender"?
What does that even mean? Conforming to your gen...
Like, like, I caught you up late with the other boys in school.
So, what, you're telling me
that if I was in the system today,
my gym teacher would be on the phone with my mom?
-(phone ringing through) -Hello, Mrs. Noah?
Uh, no, we need to talk, huh?
The way Trevor is throwing a ball.
No, no, no, no, no, no. More like Tracy Noah, huh?
Yeah, no. I have to snitch. Sorry about this.
Guys, this is not just transphobic.
It's also sexist and everything else, right?
Because these Republicans act,
they act like all they care about
is the health and well-being of the kids.
But... it kind of gives the game away
when they start adding on stuff that's basically just...
"And don't play with dolls, or we'll tell your mom."
And look, I'm not a doctor.
All right? As I found out
when I tried to take out my cousin's appendix.
(kiss) R.I.P....
But these Republican lawmakers are also not doctors.
And people who are doctors see things very differently.
NEWSWOMAN: Major medical organizations,
such as the American Medical Association
and the American Academy of Pediatrics,
-oppose the bill. -With alarm and dismay,
pediatricians have watched bills through state legislatures
across the country.
It threatens the health and well-being of transgender youth.
Young people, when they reach a certain age,
um, if they have gender dysphoria,
which means that they experience mental duress,
because they are, um, transgender,
might not want to go through puberty,
and so their doctors might prescribe them puberty blockers
so that they don't have to go through puberty
and can make a decision when they're older
about whether or not they want to medically transition.
Me turning into a man is just...
probably the most horrifying thing...
ever I could...
ever think of.
In the farthest reaches of my mind
is me not going on the hormone blockers anymore.
The hormone blockers are, like, my lifesaver.
So look, medical professionals and trans people themselves
say that treating kids early can be extremely beneficial.
Which makes you wonder:
What's really behind all of these laws?
If you ask me, it's hate.
Yeah. A lot of these people are angry,
because trans people don't conform
to a neat idea of gender, and as humans,
we like things when they are neat and organized
the way we want.
That's why people got so mad
when they said Pluto wasn't a planet.
Well, if it's not a planet, then what is it?!
Well, actually, it's a rocky, Kuiper belt body
that straddles the line between...
Aah! I'll kill you!
But as scared as some people might be
by the idea of a trans person,
it is nothing compared to how scared trans kids are
dealing with problems that they don't always understand
in a world that oftentimes does not accept them.
So if these states are gonna be passing laws
to help anyone feel safer, it should be them.