Ep. 457 - Talking Turkey At Thanksgiving
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Summary
It's Thanksgiving and you know what that means? Pumpkin pie and mashed potatoes and a bunch of insufferable leftist think pieces preparing liberals to suffer the torture of speaking to a single conservative even once, even one they're related to, even for a couple hours. However, can we possibly expect liberals to talk to their crazy conservative uncles at the dinner table?
Transcript
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It's Thanksgiving and you know what that means. Pumpkin pie and mashed potatoes and a bunch of
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insufferable leftist think pieces preparing liberals to suffer the torture of speaking
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to a single conservative even once, even one they're related to, even for just a couple hours.
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However, however, can we possibly expect liberals to talk to their crazy Republican uncles at the
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dinner table? Well, as a crazy right-wing uncle myself, we will examine how liberals talk about
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talking to us. Then President Trump pardons turkeys and CNN spreads lies about our brave
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forefathers who sailed on the Mayflower and founded America. We will correct the Thanksgiving record.
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And as if Thanksgiving weren't hard enough for her already,
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Liawatha Liz Warren gets some bad polling news heading into the holiday.
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All that and more. I'm Michael Knowles and this is the Michael Knowles Show.
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How are they going to do it? How are our poor left-wing relatives possibly going to endure
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the torture and suffering of having to speak to conservative relatives at the Thanksgiving table?
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That is the question posed by left-wing outlets every single year. This year from Alternet,
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how to talk impeachment with your right-wing uncle over the holidays. That's me, by the way,
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that right. That entire piece is about me. The Independent, how to deal with your Trump-loving
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uncle this holiday season. Market Watch, this is from Market Watch Opinion, how to win every economic
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and political argument with your family this Thanksgiving. Now, Market Watch, in their
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headline, they try to make it seem like it's balanced, like it could go either for the left
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or for the right. But then you read the article, you realize it's all just about how to deal with
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your crazy conservative uncle. It's all just about how to refute right-wing arguments.
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Also from Market Watch, how to talk about the economy with your family at Thanksgiving.
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Same thing. It seems like it's balanced, but it's actually just about how to refute
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conservatives. That piece begins, if your uncle corners you at Thanksgiving dinner, you know,
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corners you, like all us conservative uncles do, and starts talking about how the U.S. economy
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is the best it's ever been. What should you do? How should you respond? Beyond the think pieces,
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Bernie Sanders himself has some advice on how to deal with your conservative uncle at Thanksgiving.
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If you're going home and getting nervous about arguing with your mom or your dad or your aunt
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or your uncle, I think the point to be made is that what we are fighting for, the values that we
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are fighting for, are really not new values. I mean, they go back literally thousands of years.
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The right that we treat each other the way we want to be treated.
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That's what we want to do. We want to treat each other the way that we want to be treated. But it's
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all, think about the premise of this. The premise is you're nervous about talking to your mom or your
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dad or your uncle because they might be conservative. And you've never talked to any conservatives. So
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how on earth are you possibly going to do that? Well, you've got it so, so important. How about in
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the past from the LA Times? What to do if your crazy right-wing uncle comes to Thanksgiving? What to do
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if he comes to Thanksgiving? You're hoping that the conservative relatives don't even show up. They're
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not even expected in polite society. They shouldn't be here at all. But if they do, oh, you got to deal
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with that. You got to deal with having a relative who has a different political view than yours. Here's
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how you can talk to him. Salon Magazine. How to argue with your right-wing relatives. How to argue
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with them. That's what Thanksgiving is all about is picking fights with your right-wing relatives.
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Mother Jones, you won't change your cranky conservative uncle in one dinner conversation. That
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old crank, you know, that old cranky conservative. New York Times, how to have a conversation with your
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crazy uncle over the holidays. Are conservatives really the angry ones here? Are conservatives really
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the crazy ones, the crazed ones? Because if I, if all I had to go on were just those headlines from all
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those newspapers and magazines and Bernie Sanders, if that's all I had to go on, I would say it's
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actually the leftists that are the angry ones. I would say the only people who seem crazed here
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are the left-wingers. You'll notice that you never see articles the other way around.
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I have seen scores, if not hundreds of articles, probably hundreds that say how to deal with your
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crazy Republican uncle. I don't know that I've ever seen an article that says how to deal with your
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crazy liberal niece. If maybe one or two, maybe I don't even have any recollection of that. It only
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goes in one direction. It's advice for liberals on how to deal with their conservative relatives.
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And it always describes the conservative relatives as crazed and angry, but that's because the left
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projects, whatever's true of them, they project onto others. Why all the articles? Why do the
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articles only go in one direction? They need the articles because they actually can't refute our
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arguments. We will get into this a little bit more. We'll get into the real studies on whether
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advantage of this limited time offer. Why do leftists need all of these think pieces? Why do
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they need help talking to their conservative uncle at the dinner table? The reason is they don't know
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how to refute our arguments. We don't need articles about how to talk to leftists because
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we talk to leftists all the time. We talk to leftists every single day in corporate America,
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at the university, when we go to the movies, when we go watch TV, when we read the newspaper. We are
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aware of left-wing arguments. If we persist in our conservatism, it's because we've answered them.
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We know how to refute them. The left doesn't do that. And actually, moreover, the left needs the
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articles because they don't even understand our arguments. They don't know what our arguments are.
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John Haidt, the social scientist, did a study a number of years ago which showed that conservatives,
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generally speaking, understand liberal arguments. But liberals do not understand conservative
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arguments. They just don't really get where we're coming from. And so, to the left, we seem cranky
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and crazy and angry. It just doesn't make any sense to them. Therefore, they can read these articles
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and try to figure out at least some way how to even grasp what we're getting at. Obviously,
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they're not going to do a very good job at refuting our arguments. That's why they need a new article
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every single year. But then the question is, why bring it up at all? Who wants to talk about
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politics at the Thanksgiving dinner table? These hardcore leftists have to talk about politics
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at the dinner table because they don't have religion. What is Thanksgiving? We'll get into
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the history of Thanksgiving in a second. Thanksgiving is when you come together as a family and you
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give thanks to God for all of the blessings that you share. The first Thanksgiving was shared
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by the Native American Indians in America and the pilgrims who came from England through Leiden
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to Plymouth and they were giving thanks to God. These were Christian zealots for all the blessings
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that they had. That's what we are recreating every year on Thanksgiving. The left doesn't have
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traditional religion and so for the left, politics is religion. And so, just as we would practice our
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Christian religion at the Thanksgiving table and give thanks to God and to Providence and just
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enjoy all the blessings we have, so too the left must proselytize their own false and political
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religion. But despite all the left-wing think pieces, it turns out most people don't get into
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fights at the Thanksgiving dinner table over politics. There was a study that came out just a
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couple years ago, Huffington Post, YouGov survey showed that, do you know how many Americans
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say that they get into fights at the dinner table? 3%. 3% of Americans say that it is very likely that
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they will get into a political fight at the Thanksgiving dinner table. 8% say it's somewhat
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likely. That's it. That's all. 3% at the most, 8%. Most of us are having a good time, but the people
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who are not having a good time, the people who are getting into these fights are the most hardcore
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leftists who write at Alternet and the New York Times and the LA Times and Huffington Post.
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Very sorry for them. Very sad sort of state of affairs for, for them. But the rest of us are
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going to have a very good Thanksgiving. Speaking of a good Thanksgiving, you know, I caught a little
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bit of flack yesterday because I opposed President Trump's decision to turn animal cruelty from a state
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crime to a federal crime and I opposed it on federalist grounds and I just thought it was kind
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of an inverted way to look at the moral order. So I caught some flack. People said, I don't like
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animals. Well, let me tell you something. I'm a big fan of animals, especially the ones I get to eat at
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the Thanksgiving table. But I actually support President Trump's decision yesterday to have some
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leniency on animals and to pardon the two Thanksgiving turkeys, bread and butter. He did an absolute great
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job at the pardon. Here he is. Thankfully, bread and butter have been specially raised by the Jacksons
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to remain calm under any condition, which will be very important because they've already received
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subpoenas to appear in Adam Schiff's basement on Thursday. It's true. Hundreds of people have.
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It seems the Democrats are accusing me of being too soft on Turkey, but bread and butter. I should note
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that unlike previous witnesses, you and I have actually met. It's very unusual.
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Very unusual. In any event, I expect this pardon will be a very popular one with the media.
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After all, turkeys are closely related to vultures. I don't know if I like that line, but there is a
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little truth to it. I love him. I just love him. I can't help it when he does things like that. I just
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love the guy. Even down to, he's got all these lines, right? The making fun of Adam Schiff,
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making fun of the whole impeachment inquiry, how at least he's met the turkeys, unlike most of the
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other witnesses. And then he gets that last line about the media being like vultures. And that
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classic show business of Trump kicks in. He says, I don't know if I like that line. That's a little
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bit weak, but whatever. I guess it's true. He's just so, what you see is what you get. It's so authentic,
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really funny, great way to use the turkey pardoning tradition. So I not only support the pardon
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for the turkeys, for these turkeys, bread and butter. I do support the tradition overall. We'll
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get into a little bit of how that started, what it means, why it's great for politics. Then so much
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So, Trump pardoned the turkey, part of a great tradition. This began, the turkey pardoning at
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the White House began, actually, as part of a lobbying campaign well over half a century ago
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because the Truman administration wanted to conserve resources, so they were promoting
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meatless Tuesdays and poultry-less Thursdays. That last one doesn't really roll off the tongue,
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does it? It could have done meatless Mondays. That at least has alliteration, but they didn't.
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Meatless Tuesdays, poultry-less Thursdays, and poultry-less Thursdays coincides with Thanksgiving,
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so people were very upset. So, the industry in 1947 presented Truman with a turkey as a gift to
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promote the industry. Now, this didn't technically begin the turkey pardon tradition because Truman
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did not pardon the turkey. He killed the turkey and cooked it and ate it because back in those days,
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Americans were real men. JFK then, well, actually, Eisenhower then continued the tradition. So,
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Eisenhower continued the tradition of receiving the turkeys. He also did not pardon them. He ate
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the delicious turkeys. You get to JFK. JFK, Democrat, started the tradition of not eating the turkey
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in 1963. Interestingly, he pardoned the first turkey. He didn't call it a pardon, but he decided not to
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eat it four days before his own assassination, and that was the beginning of this trend. But it was not
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a pardon because what JFK did was he took the bird, sent it back to the farm, and he said, quote,
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we'll let this one grow. So, it wasn't a part, it was a reprieve so that he could fatten the turkey
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up more and eat it next year. Unfortunately, he never had the chance to. Then Nixon administration
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comes along. Nixon let a few turkeys go. Then Carter refused to even accept the turkeys. He was so
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hoity-toity. He thought it was a ridiculous tradition. He wouldn't even accept the gift.
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The first president to pardon a turkey, the Gipper, good old Ronald Reagan. He obviously had a good
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relationship with the animal kingdom. He was friends with Bonzo from that wonderful movie
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Bedtime for Bonzo. So, he let the turkey go, and this was all show business, just like you saw with
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President Trump. Trump uses the turkey pardon and the media circus around him to push his agenda on
00:17:14.360
impeachment. Reagan started that tradition, that show business tradition, by using the turkey pardon
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to take attention off of the Iran-Contra scandal. This was in 1987, I guess, and he joked about the
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turkey pardon because there was a question over whether he would pardon Oliver North during that
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time. So, he used a sort of lighthearted pardon to take attention off of that. So, Reagan pardons
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the turkey. Bush, one, enjoyed the turkey pardoning tradition. Clinton pardoned a couple turkeys. And then
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since Bush, two, Bush, Obama, and Trump, they've all pardoned a turkey every single year. I think it's
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great. I love the tradition. You know, I tend to be a little old school. I like things that are old
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more than things that are new. I think modernity is really rotting out society. But sometimes,
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traditions grow over time, and the newer idea is better than the older idea. I love the idea of
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pardoning the turkey once a year. It's one way to come together in politics and not just be shrill and
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angry all the time and get a few good digs in at your political opponents. Not everybody loves
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Thanksgiving, unfortunately. I love it because I'm an American. Four of my ancestors sailed on the
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Mayflower. One of them was a pilgrim. I love the holiday. CNN doesn't love it. The left doesn't love
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it. CNN actually ran a piece about how everything we think we know about Thanksgiving is wrong and how
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actually the leftist revisionist history is right. And what they're banking on is that nobody knows the
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actual history of Thanksgiving, but they're wrong because I've been very interested in the history
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of Thanksgiving for most of my life. It's not just CNN. I mean, various universities have been
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teaching classes on this in recent weeks. Here is the revisionist history being pushed by CNN. Let's
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see why it's wrong about our forefathers on the Mayflower. Most of American history depicts a
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hospitable first Thanksgiving. 1621 grateful pilgrims in the new world offer a warm invitation to Usamequin
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and members of his Wampanoag tribe. But the chairman of the Mashpee Wampanoags calls that depiction a myth.
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You know, we sent 90 men over to the first settlers to see why they were shooting guns and practice in
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arms to say, hey, what are you preparing for? And they were preparing for some kind of war to take our
00:19:31.680
people down. And so we sat down with them to have a discussion and let their letter feast.
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None of that is true. None of that is true. I also love the whole idea. We sent our people over to
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the Mayflower. I don't know. Did we send our people over to Plymouth from Leiden? I don't know. I don't
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think so. We're talking about historical experiences and what they're setting up here,
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what CNN and this speaker is setting up here is the idea that the natives were so terrified. They were
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so afraid. They were just trying anything to broker a peace, but then pilgrims wouldn't give
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them a peace. And it was a tense, fraught Thanksgiving. Total BS. Not true. The Wampanoag
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Indians allied with the English intentionally and out of their own interest. Actually, without the
00:20:16.020
English, there would have been no such thing as the Wampanoag nation. So our best ally that we had,
00:20:22.140
our best ally, when we sailed on the Mayflower and landed at Plymouth, the best ally of the Englishman
00:20:28.000
was a Poconocet sachem named Massasoit. Massasoit was a Poconocet and his tribe had been devastated by
00:20:36.660
smallpox in years before that. When the English arrived, Massasoit sent Squanto. Squanto was a
00:20:44.700
Patuxet Indian who was being held as prisoner by Massasoit. He sent Squanto to help broker an alliance.
00:20:50.900
Why did Massasoit send Squanto? Because Squanto, talk about the hand of Providence on the sailing of
00:20:58.060
the Mayflower and the founding of America. Squanto was possibly the only Native American in the entire
00:21:04.120
Western Hemisphere to have a command of the English language. Why is that? Because Squanto had lived in
00:21:11.080
Spain and England and he had been captured by, by explorers, brought to Spain. He was a slave in
00:21:20.100
Spain. Franciscan monks bought Squanto, freed Squanto, almost certainly baptized him a Catholic,
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which is very funny that a Catholic Indian would be the one to help save the Puritan pilgrims.
00:21:32.740
Story for another time. He's freed. They then put him on a ship, get him to London. Squanto lived in
00:21:38.960
London, actually talked with the pilgrims about the various streets of London, sails back to the
00:21:43.880
New World, somehow hops a ship, makes it back to his old people, the Patuxets. The Patuxet tribe is
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totally wiped out. He makes it down to the Poconoke at Massasoit. He's then held captive there. And then
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the pilgrims land at Plymouth accidentally. They were trying to sail to Manhattan. They get blown off
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course. They land exactly where the only Indian who speaks English fluently, who is a Catholic,
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who understands their religion and their native country, happens to be, and Squanto brokers a
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peace. If you don't believe in Providence because of that, I don't know what other evidence I could
00:22:17.200
possibly show you. But Squanto brokering that peace was a huge advantage to Massasoit because Massasoit
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and the Poconocan Indians were not just some helpless victims here. They were not being just absolutely
00:22:31.500
destroyed and oppressed by the English. Massasoit used the English to his own advantage. He created an
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alliance to help him oppose the Narragansett Indians. And he actually established through that alliance
00:22:42.100
with the English, the Wampanoag nation that this guy on CNN is pretending was a victim of the English
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pilgrims. The Wampanoag nation would not have existed without the English. How did the peace break down? How will CNN try to
00:22:56.920
break down the history? We'll get to that in a second. First, I got to thank our friends over at
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00:25:01.900
So, unlike what CNN is telling you, unlike what the leftists are telling you,
00:25:05.580
the first interaction of the English with the Native Americans is quite fruitful. It's quite
00:25:13.460
an important alliance. Actually, the peace that they had brokered almost broke down. It almost
00:25:20.960
broke down because the English were too nice to Squanto. Massasoit wanted to recapture and kill
00:25:28.580
Squanto. The English protected Squanto from being killed by Massasoit. This almost destroyed their
00:25:33.840
alliance, but it survived. And then, by the way, the Pilgrims saved Massasoit's life too.
00:25:38.720
So, Massasoit would have died in 1623 because he became very, very ill. He was on his deathbed.
00:25:44.480
The Pilgrims, to save their friend Massasoit, sent Edward Winslow. Winslow went to visit him.
00:25:49.620
Massasoit called out. This is recorded with great trustworthiness. He called out,
00:25:55.560
is it Winslow? Winslow, I shall never see you again. So, Winslow comes in. The guy's on his
00:26:01.500
deathbed. He can barely speak. He's losing his sight. And Winslow gave him some Western medicine.
00:26:08.220
He then scraped out Massasoit's mouth and he made him a chicken broth.
00:26:14.200
After a few days, Massasoit recovered. As thanks for this, Massasoit told the Pilgrims that the
00:26:19.880
Massachusetts Indians were going to attack them and they were going to attack the English colony at
00:26:23.900
Wessagusset. So, as a result of this, Miles Standish of the Plymouth colony and Massasoit's
00:26:30.620
forces united, fought off the Massachusetts Indians and expanded Massasoit's power considerably and
00:26:36.900
saved the English colonies. You know, the left-wing history of this makes it seem like the Indians
00:26:41.980
were just like these helpless children. They weren't. They were real people. They were real
00:26:46.280
adults. They had real political strategies that worked out very well with the Pilgrims. CNN goes on.
00:26:52.680
Some elders say the so-called first Thanksgiving is not worth celebrating.
00:26:57.340
It's the one day out of the year when all of America bows their head and gives thanks for
00:27:02.280
everything that was taken from us. 83-year-old Tall Oaks, Rhode Island home is an archive of Native
00:27:08.200
American history. Amongst the books and pictures and relics is a copy of a 1970s speech written by
00:27:14.320
his late friend, Huam Sutta. This is what we were talking about yesterday, the difference between
00:27:18.240
an attitude toward the world of entitlement and an attitude toward the world of gratitude,
00:27:24.360
of duty, of obligation. Obviously, the people making the CNN hit have no idea about the real
00:27:32.100
history of the Mayflower or the real history of those early days. But even consider the silly
00:27:37.400
understanding of history to say, today is a terrible day. Thanksgiving is an awful memory.
00:27:45.240
And the way that we commemorate this awful memory when the Indians lost everything and the pilgrims
00:27:51.180
gained everything is we read about it in books. There wouldn't be any books without the English
00:27:58.040
settlers. There wouldn't be any American history. The person who's saying this would not be speaking
00:28:03.440
in English. There would be no television. There would be no world as we see it. This is not to excuse
00:28:09.240
everything the English did. This is not to vilify the Native Americans. This is not to excuse periods
00:28:14.820
of history. This is to point out that history is complicated. The history we're living right now,
00:28:19.100
the history that our ancestors lived 400 years ago. And to just sit and whine that history happened
00:28:25.900
is absurd. I mean, it is ridiculous. It is laughable. That is a surefire way to live a miserable
00:28:33.800
life. In fact, the way that that CNN is describing this is that it was the beginning of the end.
00:28:40.660
We, the Wampanoag, Wamsata wrote, welcomed you, the white man with open arms,
00:28:45.820
little knowing that it was the beginning of the end. He said he wasn't going to change it.
00:28:50.820
And so he withdrew from that. And Wamsata, Tall Oak and other activists of the American Indian
00:28:56.160
movement created their own event for the following Thanksgiving day. We decided that
00:29:00.280
we would declare it a national day of mourning for Native people.
00:29:05.460
How disrespectful to those Indians, to the Wampanoags and Massasoit, to suggest that they
00:29:11.380
were just these naive idiots who didn't understand that various different peoples might have interests
00:29:16.080
in the new world. It's not that he just, the Massasoit welcomed the pilgrims with open arms.
00:29:21.920
It's that he created a strategic alliance, an alliance that endured for generations afterward.
00:29:28.140
And that actually was only broken by the Native American Indians. And this is where they get to
00:29:33.260
their real point. The leftists always drive this point home. It has no basis in the reality of the
00:29:38.380
Pilgrim experience. They call the history of Thanksgiving genocide.
00:29:44.120
We're still fighting with our very own trustee, who we had treaties with, that we agreed to
00:29:49.040
have a relationship back in the 1700s. And we're still fighting that fight today to have our lands.
00:29:54.760
This Thanksgiving, Tall Oak, the only surviving co-creator of the National Day of Mourning,
00:30:00.440
hopes that you think less about the Native's contribution to a meal nearly 400 years ago,
00:30:05.380
and more about, as the plaque on the monument reads, the genocide of millions of their people,
00:30:11.200
the theft of their land, and the relentless assault on their culture.
00:30:15.180
It was a terrible way to show your gratitude after you've been given everything to make you,
00:30:23.540
Again, completely fictitious history. Massasoit died a friend of the Pilgrims.
00:30:29.480
This alliance between the Pilgrims and the local Native Americans, at least the Wampanoags,
00:30:34.060
obviously not the Massachusetts that the Wampanoags and the Pilgrims united to fight off,
00:30:39.260
the Massachusetts, or the Massachusetts, rather, we weren't very good friends with.
00:30:42.120
But this alliance between the Wampanoags and the Pilgrims endured not just for Massasoit's lifetime,
00:30:47.460
not just for Squanto's lifetime. When Squanto died, he said,
00:30:51.000
please, Englishmen, pray to me, to your God. Pray for me, to your God, your English God.
00:30:57.220
He was a baptized Christian. Not just for the lifetime of Massasoit's son, Alexander.
00:31:03.820
That's right, Massasoit gave his son an English name, a Christian name.
00:31:07.840
It actually endured all the way through to Massasoit's grandson, Philip.
00:31:11.760
And Massasoit's grandson, Philip, decided to wage war on the English based on a misunderstanding
00:31:18.620
because he thought that the English had killed one of his men. He actually, the English had not
00:31:23.220
done it. There was no historical evidence that they did it. And Philip waged a war that was opposed
00:31:27.120
by many, many Native Americans in the region. And that war permanently ruptured the relationship
00:31:32.900
between the English and the Native Americans in the region. But that was a war waged by King Philip.
00:31:39.740
It's called King Philip's War. You can look it up. You can read about it. You're definitely not going
00:31:43.280
to hear about it on CNN. You're definitely not going to hear about it in the mainstream media,
00:31:47.640
which wants to obscure the real history of Thanksgiving, for which we should be, all of us,
00:31:52.200
exceedingly grateful. Grateful not just for the wonderful partnership between the Wampanoags and
00:31:58.360
the Pilgrims, not grateful merely for the voyage of the Mayflower, but grateful to our God that we have
00:32:04.040
all of these blessings since that year in 1620 when the Pilgrims sailed across the ocean and began this
00:32:11.540
American experiment. We've got a lot to get to. Before we get to the mailbag, I have got to point
00:32:18.660
out some really good news that the president should be thankful for and conservatives should
00:32:23.600
be thankful for going into Thanksgiving. There's new testimony that was released on the Ukraine issue,
00:32:29.240
on the Ukraine phone call that's apparently going to get this president kicked out if the Democrats
00:32:33.980
have their way. Mark Sandy, who worked at the Office of Management and Budget under President
00:32:38.180
Trump, was told to withhold aid to Ukraine. Now, he was asked what reasons he was given for withholding
00:32:46.720
aid from Michael Duffy, who was a Trump appointee at the Office of Management and Budget. We now have
00:32:51.500
the deposition. It just came out and Sandy recalls that the president was concerned, quote, about other
00:33:00.240
countries not contributing money to Ukraine, that the reason for the withholding of aid was because,
00:33:07.460
as President Trump has said from the beginning, he didn't want to contribute aid alone. He wanted
00:33:11.520
other countries to chip in as well. No word of a quid pro quo. I think that's why the Democrats dumped
00:33:16.680
this deposition right before Thanksgiving when no one's paying attention. Speaking of bad news for Democrats
00:33:22.000
this Thanksgiving, Elizabeth Warren. Elizabeth Warren always has a tough time on Thanksgiving. It brings back
00:33:28.320
bad memories for her. She got some more bad news. Her poll numbers are collapsing. She went from 28% in
00:33:36.260
Quinnipiac's last poll of the Democratic primary, that's good enough to be the top of the pack, to 14%. Half of
00:33:43.220
her support is gone. Now that's just one poll, but that's the poll that we've got. Why is it? It's
00:33:48.160
because Americans hate her health care plan. You can see that in the cross tabs. She may have doomed
00:33:53.700
her candidacy. Very, very sad news for her, but something to be thankful for all of us. We'll get
00:33:59.000
to the mailbag. First, we got to say goodbye to Facebook and YouTube. And I have to tell you right
00:34:03.200
now, go to dailywire.com and do not purchase a membership to Daily Wire. Do not purchase. Why not?
00:34:10.180
Is this my final stand? Am I just going to walk out of here, kick in Ben's studio door and say,
00:34:16.060
I'm out of here. I don't want anyone to buy a subscription to the Daily Wire. No,
00:34:19.140
that's not what I'm saying at all. But you should not buy a membership today. Why? Because I have
00:34:25.560
gotten word from the Daily Wire, they are going to be running some incredible deals on Black Friday.
00:34:31.800
And I don't want you to go there now and spend all your money. And then in two days, figure out that
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you could have saved a lot of money. I'm talking about incredibly good deals. I'm talking about
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could bankrupt the company deals. What that means for you is you should wait until,
00:34:44.740
not Good Friday, you should wait until Black Friday to join. And then you will reap the amazing
00:34:50.820
rewards. I'm telling you, you won't be disappointed. The amount of money that you can save on Black Friday
00:34:56.340
is wild. So make sure you wait until Black Friday and then buy your membership then. We've got a lot
00:35:03.500
more coming up in the mailbag. Head on over to dailywire.com and then just wait until Black
00:35:08.800
Friday. We'll be right back. All right. First question from Calvin. Hi, Michael. You mentioned
00:35:26.520
in a tweet a few weeks ago about how Catholics shouldn't practice yoga since it is part of the
00:35:31.760
Hindu religion. Why is that if it's just meditation and poses? I'm not sure it actually poses a threat
00:35:38.440
to the Catholic faith, but I trust your insight and judgment on the subject. Sure thing. Not just
00:35:43.340
the Catholic faith, but Protestantism and other faiths as well. If yoga were just about stretching
00:35:52.020
out your body, that would be perfectly fine. If it were a neutral sort of meditation, that would be
00:35:57.820
fine. You could do it. That does exist. That is called Pilates. Yoga is something different. Yoga
00:36:03.320
involves aspects of Eastern religion. So there are all these various religious things that come with
00:36:10.400
it. The om's and the ah's and the various salutations to various sort of Eastern ideas and
00:36:17.280
religious concepts. So it's very bizarre that people do that. And I have friends of mine who say
00:36:22.520
that going to yoga for them is like going to church. That's true in a secular society. Anything
00:36:28.620
you do that's even vaguely spiritual would be a substitute for church. There's nothing wrong with
00:36:35.400
stretching your body. I don't do it because I don't really enjoy physical exercise. But there's
00:36:40.140
nothing wrong with you stretching your body or engaging in meditation. I strongly recommend
00:36:43.920
meditation. I more strongly recommend prayer. And I especially like the rosary. So there are certainly
00:36:50.020
plenty of options here for that. But if you're going to engage in prayer and meditation and
00:36:55.840
contemplation and you are not a Hindu or let's say you are a Christian, I would just recommend doing
00:37:01.960
it in a Christian way. And if you want to stretch your body, just stretch it out and do Pilates. But
00:37:06.120
I think the, for what many people in the West engage in as a sort of pseudo-spiritualism of yoga
00:37:13.480
is a poor substitute for religion. And it gets you involved in certain theological concepts that
00:37:19.900
just don't, don't go along with your stated religion. Okay, John, liberals make the argument
00:37:25.880
that we should ban guns because people may be killed, while conservatives make the argument that
00:37:30.940
we need to strengthen our borders because people may be killed. What do you think is the best argument
00:37:35.440
to differentiate between these two? Thanks. I agree that that's the argument the liberals make
00:37:40.340
for banning guns, but I don't think that's the argument that the conservatives make primarily for
00:37:44.680
the border. It's a secondary argument. It is true. Killers and drug dealers and people like
00:37:49.760
that will cross the border if it's porous. But the primary argument conservatives make for
00:37:54.860
closing the border is that it's the law. Illegal immigration is illegal. It's not that complicated.
00:38:01.000
And a country has a right to decide who comes and who goes. And a country has a right, especially
00:38:05.540
in self-government, to decide who gets to use its resources, who gets to vote in its elections,
00:38:09.660
and who gets to be here, who gets to be part of that society. Conservatives go wrong when we primarily
00:38:17.760
make utilitarian arguments. You know, a good example of this is on socialism. You'll sometimes hear
00:38:23.360
conservatives say, socialism is bad because it doesn't work. People don't have a lot of money under
00:38:28.260
socialism. Sure, that's all true. Feel free to make that secondary argument. Socialism is wrong because
00:38:34.200
it's evil. To quote Pope Leo XIII, it's a pest. It's a plague. It tries to steal the very gospel
00:38:39.920
itself. To quote Winston Churchill, it's the gospel of envy and the creed of ignorance. It is intrinsically
00:38:45.620
wrong, bad, evil. That's why socialism is so bad because it deprives you of your own property. It
00:38:53.800
deprives you of your own agency. It deprives you of your own freedom. Also, it's very inefficient.
00:38:59.560
Also, people will have less money. Everybody will have less money under socialism. But you've got to
00:39:04.760
make the essential argument first because if you make the utilitarian argument, then you're arguing
00:39:10.900
on the left's premises and then you're going to end up in this sort of confusion where you're doing
00:39:15.520
leftist calculus and you'll end up at leftist policy solutions. From Moe, Michael, I see this push for
00:39:22.360
anyone being able to go into whichever locker room, depending on if you feel like a man or a woman at
00:39:26.620
that time. Do you think it will push in the direction of simply having co-ed restrooms and
00:39:31.700
locker rooms thoughts? Yes, it probably will. And that is gross. Gross things happen in bathrooms.
00:39:38.960
I don't want ladies around while men are doing them and I don't want men around while ladies are
00:39:42.920
doing them. It's just yucky. It's gross. We should be civilized. Come on, people. We're not animals.
00:39:49.200
You don't have men and women's restrooms for pigs. You don't have men and women's restrooms for
00:39:53.900
cows. You do for people because we're humans. We're civilized. Have some dignity. But we are
00:39:59.220
probably moving in that direction. We've been moving in that direction for decades. Initially,
00:40:03.280
you had the unisex bathroom. Unisex. That term doesn't make any sense because there are two sexes.
00:40:10.720
But we've had unisex around all our lives. Then, now you have the gender neutral bathroom.
00:40:16.280
If it's a single restroom, this makes perfect sense. But what's happening now increasingly,
00:40:19.980
especially in even high-end places, is you will have one generic restroom with individual stalls.
00:40:28.480
Gross. And people get rid of urinals in those restrooms because there's a war on masculinity and
00:40:34.760
manliness. So there's no urinals at all. It's a very bad idea. Men and women are different. We should
00:40:41.420
enjoy those differences. Sexual difference makes the world a lovely place. Vive la différence. From Scott.
00:40:47.360
Dear Michael, I was recently invited to go hunting for deer with a friend. I have always found that
00:40:53.460
prospect intriguing. And I agree with many of the points in the pro-hunting debate. But I also
00:40:58.360
understand the case that anti-hunters make. I'm interested in seeing what your view is on this
00:41:03.240
topic, especially when it comes to Christianity. My fiance and I love your show. Thanks. I don't
00:41:09.560
understand the case that anti-hunters make. So I would love you to enlighten me on this. I guess the case
00:41:16.080
that people who don't like hunting make is that we shouldn't eat animals. Because if you go out and
00:41:21.300
hunt your own food, it is much more ethical than partaking in factory farming. If you're going to
00:41:27.160
make an ethical argument at all, certainly it's the case that killing an animal in the wild is nicer for
00:41:31.560
that animal than just raising it on a factory farm where it can barely move around. So then the argument
00:41:37.800
becomes about eating meat. Is it wrong to eat meat? No, it's not. We can tell from nature, from our own
00:41:44.480
bodies, that we were made to eat meat. Our bodies function much better when we eat meat. Human beings
00:41:49.500
thrive when we eat meat. Also, animals aren't people. This was the topic of my show yesterday.
00:41:56.160
We anthropomorphize animals. We now treat animals better than we treat people in many instances.
00:42:01.280
I mean, now it's a federal offense to kick a puppy, but you can kill a human baby at virtually any point
00:42:07.800
of development anywhere in the country without any issue. And if you kill a human being, it's a state-level
00:42:13.820
crime, not a federal crime. Some people say, well, torturing animals is evidence that you'll grow up
00:42:20.760
to be a serial killer. Sure, but you kick the puppy, you get a federal offense. If you start killing people,
00:42:27.140
it's a state crime. We've totally inverted this. Animals are not people. Human beings have intellect
00:42:33.180
and will. Animals do not. They have their own sort of vague shade of intellect. They're not totally
00:42:42.740
inanimate objects, but they don't have free will in the way that we do. They don't have dignity in
00:42:47.020
the way that we do. We should be stewards of animals. We should be kind to animals. We should
00:42:50.360
never abuse animals because it dulls our own humanity. It's so undignified. It's so cruel.
00:42:54.960
And that reflects poorly on us, but we should not extend to them rights. They are animals. They are
00:43:01.220
made to be eaten and they are very, very delicious. From Scott, when it comes to Hong Kong, I know left
00:43:06.660
wing sports reporters are excusing NBA woke jerks like Steve Kerr, Greg Popovich, and LeBron James for
00:43:12.300
supporting China. But I want to know, is there any truth that the Hong Kong protests are merely
00:43:16.960
about the extradition of a man who murdered someone in Taiwan? Thanks. Nope. It's about China clamping down
00:43:22.920
on possessions that it does not have total control over. Don't forget, Hong Kong was ruled by the
00:43:28.580
British until 1997, I think it was, 1997 or 1999. At that point, it reverted back to the control of
00:43:35.120
China. This was a very sad day, certainly for Hong Kong, but for the whole world. Since then, China has
00:43:40.180
been trying to encroach on various territories that are around it that it doesn't have total control of.
00:43:46.680
They've been trying to make incursions into the South China Sea. They want to grow. They
00:43:52.860
are on the rise. Their economy is exploding. They're in the WTO, the World Trade Organization.
00:43:57.920
They are posing a major threat to the United States. We should oppose them. It is not the
00:44:02.980
Cold War anymore. Russia is not our number one geopolitical foe. It's not right after 9-11
00:44:09.660
anymore. The Middle East is not our number one geopolitical foe, whether that be in the Taliban
00:44:15.280
in Afghanistan or Saddam Hussein, who no longer exists. It's China. China is our number one
00:44:21.180
geopolitical foe. We should treat them as such. And those little, little quizlings over in the NBA
00:44:28.420
are, are a shame to, to sporting and also to the United States. Final question from Benedict.
00:44:36.040
Michael Brickhouse Knowles. Can you please give some commentary on Elizabeth Warren saying she
00:44:40.640
prefers Netflix and chill over Broadway and dinner? I feel it says a lot about our current culture and
00:44:45.540
politicians' willingness to pander. It does. Obviously she's quite a panderer. She pretended to be
00:44:50.620
Native American to get professional advantage for 30 years. But that does say a lot. I think most
00:44:55.420
people prefer Netflix and chill over Broadway and dinner. Broadway and dinner is better. Netflix and
00:45:01.240
chill is lazier. It's more slothful. It's dumber. It's, it's more about the self. It brings you into
00:45:12.180
yourself more because you don't have to leave your couch. Broadway and dinner brings you out into society.
00:45:16.440
You see people. You interact with other people. You see a new show. Live theater conveys more than
00:45:23.080
television does. You then maybe go get a drink afterward and talk about the show. It's much
00:45:28.940
bigger. And life is big. Life flourishes when life is big. We have made everything just about
00:45:35.500
ourselves. And when it's not just ourselves, it's our partner next to us who comes over to Netflix and
00:45:40.180
chill. And usually they don't even watch the movie that much if you know what I'm talking about.
00:45:43.440
It's, it's, our life now is about our screens. It's about hunched over looking at these tiny
00:45:49.200
little screens. It should be big. The world is a big, beautiful place. Life was more beautiful
00:45:53.900
when you would go to Broadway and dinner rather than just Netflix and chill. Because Netflix and
00:45:57.780
chill, by the way, also just means go have sex. Sex is a great thing, but it's not all there is in
00:46:01.840
life. But it's all we want to focus on. We should open ourselves up to the beauty of our country,
00:46:07.540
the beauty of the world, and the grandness of life. Maybe we'll be able to do that and give
00:46:13.000
thanks for that tomorrow on Thanksgiving. In the meantime, I'm Michael Knowles. This is The
00:46:17.820
If you enjoyed this episode, and frankly, even if you didn't, don't forget to subscribe.
00:46:28.840
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00:46:39.240
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00:46:43.900
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00:46:46.680
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00:46:51.340
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00:46:56.200
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00:47:08.300
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00:47:15.960
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00:47:20.460
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