Transcription
You're going to like this cat. I like this cat a lot. Give it up for my man, Taylor.
[Applause] [Music]
Maly, in case you hadn't realized, it has somehow become uncool to sound like you know what you're talking about or believe strongly in what you're like saying. Invisible question marks and parenthetical "you knows" and "you know what I'm saying" have been attaching themselves to the ends of our sentences, even when those sentences aren't like questions. Declarative sentences, so-called because they used to like, you know, declare things to be true, okay, as opposed to other things that are like totally, you know, not. They've been infected by this tragically cool and totally hip interrogative tone, as if I'm saying, "Don't think I'm a nerd just 'cause I've like noticed this, okay?" I have nothing personally invested in my own opinions. I'm just like inviting you to join me on the bandwagon of my own uncertainty.
What has happened to our conviction? Where are the limbs out on which we once walked? Have they been like chopped down with the rest of the rainforest, you know? Or do we have like nothing to say? Has society just become so filled with these conflicting feelings that we've just gotten to the point where we're the most aggressively inarticulate generation to come along since, you know, a long time ago?
So I implore you, I entreat you, and I challenge you to speak with conviction. To say what you believe in a manner that bespeaks the determination with which you believe it. Because contrary to the wisdom of the bumper sticker, it is not enough these days to simply question authority. You've got to speak with it too.
[Applause]