The Michael Knowles Show - Ep. 125 - No Evidence Austin Bomber Was A Terrorist

00:00:00.000 The Austin bomber is dead and one imagines eternally ensconced in the burning hot metaphysical

00:00:05.940 bomb down below where there is wailing and gnashing of teeth. Up here, lefties, desperate

00:00:11.060 to point to a non-Muslim terrorist, are calling the Austin bomber a terrorist. But there's no

00:00:17.060 evidence that he was one. We will discuss why and why the distinction matters. Then, Frank Ferretti,

00:00:22.640 author of Populism and the European Culture Wars, The Conflict of Values Between Hungary and the

00:00:28.180 EU, joins the show to discuss another terribly abused-ism, Populism, and what it means for

00:00:34.800 the democracies of the West. Finally, some news and one of the great poems ever written

00:00:40.140 by Rudyard Kipling on World Poetry Day. I'm Michael Knowles and this is The Michael Knowles Show.

00:00:52.260 Before we get to any of that, I know there's a lot to talk about today and this matter of

00:00:56.180 language is extremely important and lefties are trying to abuse language as they always do. We

00:01:01.320 need to be precise about this. But before that, how can I be precise in my diction if I don't have

00:01:05.920 beautiful teeth? Well, listen, if you want beautiful teeth, you've got to make sure that you brush and

00:01:11.080 floss and take care of them so that when you go to your dentist, for me, like once every 10 years,

00:01:15.880 or for most people, once or twice a year, he doesn't yell at you and say, hey, when was the last time

00:01:19.860 you flossed? And you say, I don't know, the last time you flossed me is probably the last time I flossed.

00:01:23.060 So do you use an electric toothbrush? You say, no, I use a stick or my fingers. I don't know what I

00:01:27.140 use. You need to use an electric toothbrush. They are much better than that old manual thing. You

00:01:33.000 know, guys, it is 2018. Allow technology to make your life easier and to keep your teeth better.

00:01:40.600 When it comes to your health, brushing your teeth is one of the most important parts of your day.

00:01:45.100 Quip knows that. They have combined dentistry and design to make a better electric toothbrush.

00:01:50.840 Quip is the new electric toothbrush that packs just the right amount of vibrations into a slimmer design

00:01:56.860 at a fraction of the cost of bulkier traditional electric brushes. If you use a more traditional

00:02:02.700 electric brush, they cost about $7 million and they're gigantic and they're hard to travel with

00:02:07.400 and they're bulky in your bathroom. Quip, it's sleek design, very nice, very easy. It doesn't cost

00:02:13.980 you a gazillion dollars to do it. They take care of everything. Guiding pulses alert you when to switch

00:02:18.940 sides, making brushing the right amount of time effortless. Because sometimes people brush too

00:02:24.180 hard. They brush too much over in one place. My dentist has told me about that. This is a real

00:02:27.940 thing. So you want to make sure you do it the right amount. Quip also comes with a mount that

00:02:32.420 suctions right to your mirror and unsticks to use as a cover for hygienic travel anywhere,

00:02:37.880 whether it's going in your gym bag or carry-on. For me, more the carry-on. Not so much the gym bag,

00:02:42.660 but carry-on, you know, you can throw it in there. Because the thing that cleans your mouth should be

00:02:46.520 clean also, Quip's subscription plan refreshes your brush on a dentist-recommended schedule,

00:02:52.820 delivering new brush heads every three months for just five bucks. That includes free shipping

00:02:57.920 worldwide. That is nothing. Then you don't have to go to the pharmacy or the drugstore and you walk

00:03:02.500 down the aisle, you know, and you go to the wrong aisle and then you feel kind of awkward about it

00:03:05.940 and you can't find anything. Don't do that. Make it easy. Make it cheaper. Save some money. Save some

00:03:10.000 time. Quip is backed by a network of over 10,000 dental professionals, including dentists,

00:03:14.660 hygienists, and dental students. And me, dental professionals and a blank book author. Most

00:03:19.840 toothbrushes don't get named one of Time Magazine's Best Inventions of the Year, but Quip did. Find

00:03:24.440 out why. Quip starts at just $25. That is a lot less than a gazillion dollars, which is what all

00:03:29.400 those other traditional electric brushes cost. If you go to getquip.com slash Knowles, K-N-O-W-L-E-S,

00:03:37.120 right now you will get your first refill pack free, free with a Quip electric toothbrush. Don't say I

00:03:43.920 never did anything for you. This is a great deal. You'd be foolish not to do it. Your first refill

00:03:48.340 pack free at getquip.com slash Knowles, K-N-O-W-L-E-S. That is G-E-T-Q-U-I-P.com slash Knowles,

00:03:56.920 K-N-O-W-L-E-S. Do it right now. D-O-I-T-R-I-G-H-T-N-O-W. Do it right now. All right.

00:04:06.400 The Austin bomber is dead. We are all very pleased to hear that. President Trump tweeted out the good

00:04:11.200 news. Governor Abbott did the same thing. Unfortunately, this kid didn't blow himself

00:04:15.680 up until he had already killed two people and injured six. He didn't start with him, unfortunately,

00:04:21.520 but at least he's dead now. Bombing started a few weeks ago. They started on March 2nd.

00:04:27.260 They've been terrorizing the Austin area, but there's a distinction between terrorizing and

00:04:33.440 terrorism. That's a specific term. The bomber is a 24-year-old Austin resident who was only caught

00:04:39.180 because he used a FedEx store. This is pretty good press for FedEx, as you might imagine.

00:04:44.800 I was, when I was thinking about this this morning, there were a lot of post office jokes I could make

00:04:48.840 here. I think they would be in poor taste. I think it is too soon. I'm just going to move on. Maybe at a

00:04:53.380 later date we can revisit and I'll make all of the very funny jokes that went through my head.

00:04:57.460 This is a replay of the Unabomber and now he's dead. Good. Unfortunately, the illiterate left cannot

00:05:03.480 just be happy that the bad guy is dead. They are desperate to point to a non-Muslim terrorist.

00:05:10.060 And so now they're calling this kid a terrorist. The problem with that is that there's no evidence

00:05:15.360 that he's a terrorist. Here they are. They're losing their minds on this. Some guy named Rollins

00:05:20.900 Martin tweeted, white domestic terrorist, not Muslim, not a Black Lives Matter activist,

00:05:27.300 but Donald Trump's DOJ doesn't want to admit this is a problem. I don't, I think Donald Trump admits that

00:05:32.600 someone blowing up Austin is a problem. From some ex-NFL person named Matthew Cherry,

00:05:38.780 literally the template they use to describe white terrorists shaking my head. And that's because

00:05:44.160 the Reuters or the AP reported that the kid was quiet and introverted and reserved, which is true.

00:05:50.080 All these serial killer types, it's always like, oh, I didn't, not him. He was always so quiet. He was

00:05:54.080 always so nice. And then from a Hillary campaign alum known as Charles or Charlotte Clymer, depending on

00:05:59.880 when you started following his Twitter account, Mark Anthony Condit was a white male terrorist and

00:06:05.680 likely white supremacist. He perpetrated terrorist attacks against a community resulting in death

00:06:10.580 and destruction. This is not quiet, reserved, a nice boy, or whatever the hell else whitewashing

00:06:16.040 nonsense. First of all, there's no evidence he's a white supremacist. That's completely made up.

00:06:21.140 And one can both be quiet and reserved and a terrorist. That's true. Also, there's no evidence

00:06:26.700 that he's a terrorist. This from Kumail Nanjiani, who is from the show Silicon Valley. The bomber

00:06:32.380 is not a terrorist. Got it. Because people are pointing this out. Finally, from some musician

00:06:36.940 named Michael Jolet, lots of white people saying, well, let's slow down and figure out motivation so

00:06:42.260 that we're using the term terrorist properly. Seriously, you need to understand that black men

00:06:47.340 are routinely murdered by police at one gazillionth the scrutiny you are pretending to give this term.

00:06:53.100 So, okay, I don't know how that factors in. We're just talking about what does terrorist mean?

00:06:59.100 What is the term terrorism? Does it apply to this kid? According to the illiterate left,

00:07:03.960 the Austin bomber is clearly a terrorist. What did Mark Twain say about this? It ain't what you don't

00:07:09.340 know that gets you into trouble. It's what you know for sure that just ain't so. Terrorism has a

00:07:15.720 meaning. I know we blur words a lot. Words have meaning. Terrorism has a meaning. Terrorism is

00:07:22.480 targeting civilians with violence to achieve political ends. I'll say it again. Terrorists

00:07:29.300 target civilians with violence to achieve political ends. When terrorists target the military,

00:07:35.900 that isn't terrorism. When people target civilians and just blow them up because they want to kill

00:07:41.920 people, that also isn't terrorism. It requires political ends. Now, I will say this is a relatively

00:07:47.720 new word. Terrorism really only was invented in the 1970s. It's only been in the popular culture for

00:07:54.040 about 50 years now. So, I understand people are trying to debate what does this word mean? What

00:07:58.400 doesn't this word mean? So, that's fine. Let's ask. What definition of the term is the most useful,

00:08:06.380 is the most meaningful? What distinguishes it from other acts of war or acts of violence? Not all acts

00:08:13.660 of violence or terrorism. Murder isn't always terrorism. You can go down the street and kill

00:08:17.980 somebody. That doesn't make you a terrorist. But you can also go down the street and murder

00:08:23.260 somebody and that is terrorism. Rape isn't always terrorism. You can rape people for reasons that are

00:08:28.340 not terrorism. Sometimes rape is used for the purpose of terrorism. The left really, really wants

00:08:35.180 to point to a terrorist who isn't Muslim because virtually all of the terrorists we see today are

00:08:40.480 motivated by Islam and a vision of Islam. So, they try to blur the words. They actually already have

00:08:48.100 a kid who isn't a Muslim terrorist. This happened recently. That kid in Charlottesville who shot up

00:08:53.920 the black church, that is terrorism. That qualifies as terrorism. He targeted civilians to affect his

00:08:59.480 white supremacist political agenda. He wrote about his political agenda. He was affiliated with political

00:09:04.260 groups. That counts as terrorism. There you go. There's your non-Muslim terrorist left. You can be happy

00:09:08.580 with that. They always try to blur the words here. That is what political correctness is. Political

00:09:13.800 correctness is taking clear terms and precise language and then muddying it all up so that they

00:09:19.140 can try to confuse different categories. It's really insidious because we don't even know what

00:09:25.760 we're debating at that point. Should terrorists be entitled to Geneva Convention protections? We need to

00:09:31.600 be precise in our language if we're going to figure that out. The reason that we have a definition of

00:09:35.880 terrorism in one part is so that we can protect civilians in times of war. There was this big

00:09:42.640 debate about 10 years ago. Should we torture terrorists or should we give them, I don't know,

00:09:47.120 all American constitutional protections and three hots and a cot and eggs benedict for breakfast?

00:09:52.540 Should we give terrorists Geneva Convention protections? The answer is no, we shouldn't.

00:09:56.320 We should torture terrorists. I think Andrew Klavan said it should be an Olympic sport.

00:10:00.180 We should torture terrorists to protect civilians. The Geneva Convention protections exist to protect

00:10:06.240 civilians in times of war. Terrorists specifically target civilians. The deal basically goes like this.

00:10:13.900 If you decide, if you agree not to target civilians, we will give you certain conveniences and nice

00:10:22.040 regulations when we deal with you in times of war. If you extend those same protections to terrorists,

00:10:29.880 that you do to lawful actors who don't target civilians, you take away any incentive not to

00:10:35.200 target civilians. It's very insidious. I know it seems nice. Oh, well, let's just, wouldn't it be nice

00:10:40.720 if terrorism didn't imply certain things? No, no. The road to hell is paved with good intentions. We

00:10:46.300 need to be precise in our language also so that we know who our enemies are. More on this in a second.

00:10:50.920 But before, you know, every time I think about these really negative things, I need something to just

00:10:55.020 make me feel all good again. And one of those would be delicious home-cooked meals delivered to my

00:10:59.120 door. We got to keep the lights on, folks. This is, that's really the way that we can make sure our

00:11:03.960 foes don't win is by pursuing our capitalist impulses and keeping the lights on and talking

00:11:09.340 about a great product, which is Blue Apron, the leading meal kit delivery service in the U.S.

00:11:13.980 While many people know what they do, many do not know all the types of meals you can eat

00:11:19.220 with Blue Apron. You're probably thinking you just get different hamburgers delivered to you every

00:11:24.820 three seconds or something. No, not, not quite. You could be getting short rib burgers with a

00:11:31.000 hoppy cheddar sauce on a pretzel bun. You could get seared steaks and thyme pan sauce with mashed

00:11:36.360 potatoes, green beans, and crispy shallots all in under 45 minutes and without a trip to the grocery

00:11:41.440 store. Blue Apron is the number one fresh ingredient and recipe delivery service in the country.

00:11:46.180 Its mission is to make incredible home cooking accessible to everyone. And there's a great way to use it,

00:11:50.820 by the way. When it comes, you give it to sweet little Elisa and then she cooks you delicious

00:11:55.020 meals. Comes on ice and all ready to go and then sweet little Elisa will cook it for you. It's

00:11:58.520 really nice. Sweet little Elisa does not come with the meal plan. You can get the two-person meal plan

00:12:02.440 that serves two people. You can choose from eight recipes per week with a choice to receive two or

00:12:08.180 three recipes any week. It serves two people or one gavon. Family meal plan serves four people. You can

00:12:13.380 get four recipes per week with the choice to receive either two, three, or four recipes any week. That serves

00:12:18.380 four people or one gavon. And the wine plan, six bottles of wine from renowned winemakers delivered

00:12:23.620 monthly. Again, that serves about two hours for a gavon. Really convenient. It's really flexible. I'm

00:12:31.660 eating it tonight. I'm looking forward to that. I already got that text. Don't say I never did

00:12:36.900 nothing for you. Blue Apron is treating the Michael Knoll Show listeners to $30 off your first order. If

00:12:42.080 you visit blueapron.com slash covfefe, C-O-V-F-E-F-E, that is this week's menu. Go there

00:12:49.560 right now. You get $30 off blueapron.com slash covfefe, C-O-V-F-E-F-E. Eat free food. Don't be

00:12:55.480 foolish. Do it. Blue Apron, a better way to cook. I want to wrap this up because we have to get to our

00:13:00.860 guest who's got really interesting things to say about populism. But one of the reasons we need to

00:13:05.340 be precise in language is that in statecraft, we need to be able to ascertain who our geopolitical

00:13:10.060 foes are. The imagination of man's heart is evil from the beginning. We can, there are plenty of

00:13:15.560 murders and atrocities that are going to go on in the world. We can categorize those murders however

00:13:19.640 we like. Some of those categories are more useful than others in forming a coherent picture of the

00:13:24.060 world. Think about guns. There are 32,000 deaths each year involving guns. Is that it? That's all?

00:13:29.920 Is that, that's the murder weapon? Is that the only thing that matters? Are all other distinctions

00:13:33.480 trivial? 60% of those deaths involving guns are suicides. Is that detail important? Does that give us a

00:13:39.320 better picture? 80% of the remainder are gang-related. Does that give us a better picture of these deaths

00:13:44.720 from gun-related incidents? Of course. The only way we can solve problems is by gathering all of the

00:13:51.480 information, excuse me, that we can, and forming a picture and narrative of what happened. The right

00:13:57.660 uses precise language, blunt language, clear language. The left hates clear language. They want to blur

00:14:03.940 these things because they already have a picture of the world. They already have a narrative. They don't

00:14:08.040 want to solve problems. They want to vindicate their incorrect vision of the world. Who cares if

00:14:13.000 it works in reality? Does it work in theory? If we want to solve problems, you need to see clearly.

00:14:18.720 If you want to see clearly, you need to use clear and precise language. Some evidence may turn up that

00:14:24.320 this Austin bomber was secretly an ISIS sleeper cell or a communist trying to overthrow the government

00:14:29.660 or whatever. Right now, there's no evidence that he was a terrorist. I know the left is angry. They want

00:14:34.160 their non-Muslim terrorists so they can validate their false narrative that different religious

00:14:38.200 visions and different moral frameworks and different ideas matter. They have different

00:14:44.940 effects on the world. They want to be able to deny all of those differences. Too bad. Don't let them

00:14:50.620 scream you into saying things that aren't true. Use clear language. Speaking of being shouted down by

00:14:55.680 mobs, let's get to populism. We have got to bring on Frank Ferretti. Frank is a sociologist and

00:15:01.480 social commentator, formerly professor of sociology at the University of Kent in Canterbury, and is the

00:15:07.520 author of 17 full-length books. Frank's work largely focuses on fear, risk, and uncertainty, and how

00:15:15.140 Western societies respond to all those things. So it's a fitting topic for today as we talk about

00:15:20.540 terrorism and now the anxiety of populism. Frank, thank you for being here. It's a pleasure.

00:15:25.500 Frank, Trump, Brexit, the Italian elections, on and on and on. Among self-appointed elites on both

00:15:32.420 the left and the right, there is no dirtier word than populism. Europe, to a lesser degree, the U.S.

00:15:39.240 have embraced mass migration with open arms, yet they wring their hands over popular elections.

00:15:45.620 Why does the West seem only to fear its own people?

00:15:48.920 I don't know. It's a very new development where increasingly the elites feel very comfortable

00:15:56.000 in talking about ordinary people as if they're uneducated, as if they're very simple,

00:16:02.160 as if they haven't got the intellectual resources to deal with complicated issues. And I think the

00:16:08.540 reason why that is, is because in many ways they've lost the capacity to communicate, to talk, to engage

00:16:14.680 with people in everyday life. And because they haven't got that ability to communicate,

00:16:21.060 they've kind of almost drawn in on themselves. And one of the things that I find quite interesting

00:16:25.860 as a professor is that a lot of my colleagues in universities have more or less come to the

00:16:33.220 conclusion that the only way they can get by is that they talk to themselves, people like themselves,

00:16:39.360 people who are very educated. And whenever they make an attempt to break out of that,

00:16:45.360 they usually find that it just isn't working. So you've got this real segregation that has occurred

00:16:50.940 where in their eyes, ordinary people are often seen as just somehow a bit of a threat.

00:16:57.480 They feel very uncomfortable with the passions of everyday life. And particularly in Europe,

00:17:03.780 you've got this new development where anti-populism has almost become its own ideology,

00:17:10.120 where being anti-populist is almost seen as a sign of respectability, that you are a sensitive,

00:17:16.140 aware person. Well, that's always what we hear, the unwashed masses and all of this preening and

00:17:23.840 looking down your nose. You pose your book as a battle between the European Union and Hungary.

00:17:30.180 And I want to get to that specifically. What does Hungary get right that Europe gets wrong?

00:17:36.020 I think Hungary has got a lot of problems like every society, but it's very good on

00:17:41.660 standing up for very basic values. So for example, if you go to Hungary, you go to Budapest,

00:17:48.000 it's a very modern city, but people have got a very clear sense of what is right and what is wrong.

00:17:53.700 They're quite able to sort of avoid what I see as being the plague of non-judgmentalism,

00:18:00.980 which exists in American society or in England, where I live, where you basically say, well,

00:18:06.540 I'm not sure what is right. I'm not sure what is wrong. You decide. I got my views. You got your

00:18:11.120 views. And when we do that, we kind of give up on making important decisions and calculations about

00:18:17.680 the world. Hungary is also very good at standing up for sovereignty, basically saying that we're a

00:18:23.660 sovereign nation. What that means that we're not allowing ourselves to be pressurized from forces

00:18:30.280 outside. We take into account what our electors want to do. And there's a kind of accountability

00:18:35.500 element, which I think a lot of people appreciate that their leaders are standing up for Hungary's

00:18:41.980 interests and not pretending that they're just like, you know, the same as any other European

00:18:47.040 country. And I think finally, what I love about, what I really love about Hungary is that it's the

00:18:53.020 most anti-politically correct country in the world. And therefore, you can make jokes. You can be

00:18:58.080 yourself. You can talk normally. You don't have to watch your words. The other day, I was talking to

00:19:03.640 a Hungarian professor and she looks at me and says, you know, Frank, unlike you people in England,

00:19:08.880 you know, we in Hungary still know the difference between a man and a woman. We don't need a million

00:19:14.980 pronouns in between. And she was absolutely right because what she was really getting at is that once

00:19:19.640 we change our language and once we have Z and D and all these different pronouns, then basically what

00:19:26.140 we are saying is that the old distinction between man and woman, which was historically the underpinning

00:19:33.220 of human relationships just goes out the window. And I just like that kind of blunt down to earth

00:19:39.280 kind of quality of Hungarian cultural life. It's so important because it's a question of

00:19:45.220 a clarity. It's a question of bluntness. When you use this mealy mouth language that we use in the UK

00:19:50.900 now, especially, and that we use in the United States, everyone is walking on eggshells. Everyone is

00:19:56.100 so anxious and so nervous. But if you just speak clearly and call things like you see them, life is a

00:20:01.680 little easier. You can breathe. It's a little lighter. It's you can see things more clearly.

00:20:06.180 And this does get down to the people. Ronald Reagan used to point out that it was really only

00:20:11.420 communists who would use terms like the masses or the unwashed masses to refer to their fellow

00:20:17.020 citizens. You quote in your book, pro European union commentators who use words like swarming to

00:20:23.580 refer to the people. Now, if I'm a reasonably smart person and you're a reasonably smart person

00:20:29.060 and all of the people we know are reasonably smart people from our butcher to our colleague at

00:20:34.040 whatever university, how did the bureaucrats of Europe come to conclude that the people on the

00:20:41.220 whole are idiots? Well, I think that there's a kind of sense in which they basically believe that

00:20:49.820 people who haven't got their outlook, who somehow don't share their particular values,

00:20:55.700 do do not share those values because they don't get it. And it's it's it comes from America,

00:21:01.980 actually, because I don't know if you remember in America, a lot of feminists used to use the

00:21:06.160 expression. They just don't get it. Right. Right. Right. And actually, we got it. We absolutely got it.

00:21:13.520 We got it. Yeah, I promise. Absolutely. We got it. But we disagreed with them. And they cannot

00:21:18.640 simply say, well, they disagree with us. They have a different view. Particularly, they cannot say that

00:21:24.040 they have a legitimate point of view that's different to us. They just say, well, these

00:21:27.780 people don't get it. And once they say they don't get it, they say, well, the reason why they don't

00:21:31.560 get it is because they're a little bit thick. They're a little bit slow. They haven't got the

00:21:37.200 education. They are disadvantaged. And really, they're like a second class citizen. Right. And

00:21:42.580 what's what's very interesting is if you examine the language very, very closely, it almost has a

00:21:47.980 racial characteristic. I mean, if you talked about another race using that kind of language,

00:21:53.140 you'd be called a racist. But when it comes to these people, the populists, you can use the kind

00:21:59.960 of intemperate language that you would never use in a polite kind of company. And it's really

00:22:07.260 a question of putting people down and dehumanizing them. I think it's a language of dehumanization

00:22:13.200 that I find very disturbing when anti-populists talk about the people as if they're just simply

00:22:19.420 swarms or just deplorables or all the other words. Irredeemable. It is clearly dehumanizing.

00:22:27.560 It is one of those things. And you bring it right home with the idea that they don't get it. Oh,

00:22:33.880 they just don't get it. Because what that is to say, these people who have such a clear

00:22:38.080 utopian vision, such a progressive vision as they use, if you were to stand in the way of progress,

00:22:44.280 which is so clear, it's so evident to anybody who gets it, then you can only be one of two things.

00:22:49.160 You have to be either incredibly stupid and probably incapable of self-government,

00:22:54.040 or you have to have ill intent. You have to have malevolence. You have to have bad intentions.

00:23:01.080 Otherwise, anyone can see clearly the road to progress. And if you're either of those things,

00:23:05.680 if you're cruel and vicious and have bad intentions, or you're profoundly stupid,

00:23:09.380 you can't govern yourself, we can't have you governing us. That is exactly their rationale.

00:23:15.940 Now, I will push back a little bit against the populists. You write in defense of the tradition,

00:23:22.340 as well as in defense of popular sovereignty, traditionalism or the great traditions that

00:23:27.920 we've inherited from our forefathers. What happens when those two things come into conflict?

00:23:32.740 50 million Frenchmen can be wrong and frequently are. Pre-European Union Europe tore itself apart.

00:23:39.080 And its traditions apart, most spectacularly in the world wars. Even today, the popular culture in

00:23:45.140 Europe and the U.S. absolutely hates itself, hates its own traditions. What happens when a good,

00:23:51.600 solid, patriotic admirer of tradition can't trust the people or feels that he can't trust the people?

00:23:58.720 Well, you raise a very important question because obviously the world changes and traditions are not

00:24:07.380 always appropriate in all circumstances. I think there's a difference between being traditionalist,

00:24:12.540 which is to make an ideology out of traditions and become very dogmatic about it, or to see

00:24:19.440 traditions as a living phenomenon that's continually alive and can engage with new experience and new

00:24:25.580 reality. So there are many things that have happened that are really good that weren't around in the old

00:24:31.800 days. So we have to be very selective. And this is the challenge that you and I have, which is,

00:24:36.960 we look upon our past, we see what was wrong and needs to be fixed. And we look at what was really

00:24:43.200 important, the clear underpinning of our civilization that we need to take forward and make sure that our

00:24:48.780 young kids are socialized into. And I think for me, the big tragedy when I go to American campuses,

00:24:55.580 when I visit educators is that they are extremely scared of the past and they're very, very bad

00:25:01.520 at, uh, at kind of communicating traditional values, you know, to their young, to young people.

00:25:08.000 It's almost like they've given up on that and instead are making it up as they go along.

00:25:12.940 That's, that's true. This is the big worry that I have. You see it on, you saw when I was on campus,

00:25:17.760 not that long ago, and you see it among young people is a, uh, not only an ignorance regarding the,

00:25:24.420 their own culture and their own traditions and their own form of government, but, uh, a real

00:25:28.980 hatred of it, a real contempt and disdain. What, uh, Harold Bloom, uh, the literary critic calls the

00:25:35.460 school of resentment. You no longer approach a text and say, oh, what can I gather from Virgil or

00:25:40.900 Cicero or Thucydides? You look at it and you say, I hate these guys. These are racists, these bigots.

00:25:46.440 How can I teach them? How can I teach Thucydides about, about, uh, ancient Athens or something?

00:25:51.920 It's a, it's a real fear because I think among conservatives, we say, look, we trust the people,

00:25:57.800 we trust individuals, but what happens if they become so ignorant of their own culture that they're,

00:26:03.900 they, that that is what prevents them from self-governance, not their, uh, insufficient

00:26:08.560 progressivism, but their insufficient understanding and love for their own culture. That's a real worry.

00:26:15.720 I, I, now speaking of the future, what does the future look like for populism in Europe and

00:26:20.900 America? Right now, we've just had these Italian elections where the, the populist parties were

00:26:26.060 able to make a big dent. Uh, you wrote that it's the, really the end of the European union or it

00:26:31.180 signals that. Are we headed as a Western culture irreversibly into decadence and decay and technocratic

00:26:38.540 exhaustion, or is there hope for a cultural resurgence?

00:26:41.580 Well, I hope there is, there is hope. There's always hope. Uh, I just been to Italy recently

00:26:47.920 and I was fascinated by the way in which young people in Italy are looking for new solutions and

00:26:55.000 they're experimenting with new ideas. They're rejecting the old order. And many of them are

00:27:00.180 saying, look, we've had a, we had this, uh, European union breathing down our necks. We had all

00:27:06.080 these rules and regulations, uh, that kind of, uh, emptied our life of meaning. We're looking for

00:27:11.920 something new and you get that in England. I think one of the nice things about England

00:27:14.920 was that after Brexit, you had all these young kids and, and, and young and kind of young adults

00:27:20.620 saying that for the first time, they've actually understood, you know, what it means to be a citizen

00:27:25.820 when you vote counts and you don't have to simply pretend that, uh, you know, that you're just like

00:27:31.160 everybody else because there's a lot of pressure on you to conform. So there's a, there is something

00:27:35.400 in the air, but the problem is, is that both old school liberals and also I would say old school

00:27:41.860 conservatives are at the moment very hesitant about knowing how to deal with this. So for example,

00:27:47.580 uh, uh, you mentioned how conservatives are able to say this and that, but a lot of conservatives that

00:27:53.820 I know are very insecure. They often tell me that, uh, good on you, Frank, I'm glad you opened your mouth.

00:28:00.560 Thank you for knowing it. Yeah. Yeah. The thing we, I said, well, well, look, why don't you open

00:28:05.180 your mouth? Cause we're not living in Nazi Germany or Stalinist Russian. You could easily open your

00:28:09.580 mouth, but they're extremely wary. And I had this experience the day after Brexit, you know, sort of,

00:28:16.020 I had about 20 emails from other academics saying, Frank, we're very glad you spoke out on Brexit as

00:28:21.800 an academic. That was very, very important. But we feel that we're not able to do that because,

00:28:26.380 you know, we're very insecure. We're worried about our jobs and everything else. I emailed back to them

00:28:31.480 and saying, actually speak out because at the end of the day, the more of us that speak out,

00:28:37.040 the more we create a milieu where our political foes and our enemies become insecure. So my,

00:28:43.840 the way that I look at it is that if we are able to, um, be a bit braver, have a bit more courage,

00:28:49.580 open our mouth and give voice, particularly to young people who think like, like we do,

00:28:54.240 there's no reason why we cannot create a counter-cultural force that takes up this very

00:29:00.260 powerful political culture, uh, that dominates, uh, most aspects of everyday experience.

00:29:06.840 That's so true. That is such a good point. We can take heart and because we are the counter-culture.

00:29:11.200 We, for the first time in my life, we're the pro-liberty guys are the cool guys. That's a wonderful

00:29:18.780 thing to, uh, a wonderful bit of hope to end on. Even if our culture is irreversibly in decay,

00:29:24.020 you know, hope springs eternal in the human breast. We'll at least get a few more good days

00:29:27.920 out of it. Thank you so much for being here, Frank Ferreira. The book is called Populism

00:29:31.940 and the European Culture Wars, The Conflict of Values Between Hungary and the EU. I really

00:29:37.060 encourage everybody to read Frank's writing. He writes regularly. Uh, you can find it online

00:29:42.560 because we don't get a great view of Europe from the United States and it's, it's really important

00:29:47.560 to see what's going on and what, what we're witnessing here that are global trends. All right,

00:29:51.220 Frank, thank you for being here. We have got to say goodbye to Facebook and YouTube. I said goodbye

00:29:56.580 to YouTube a long time ago, but we got to say goodbye to Facebook. I tried to hold it out a

00:30:00.100 little longer today so you could hear from Frank, but what, what is coming up is it's worth subscribing

00:30:05.720 just for what is coming up. I will read to you for world poetry day. One of my favorite poems of all

00:30:11.620 time, a poem that has really shaped my life, a view of the world. Go over there. I'll tell you what,

00:30:17.200 go over there right now. I'll give you five seconds after I finished the pitch. Subscribe just so you

00:30:21.000 can see it. It's very important. This will change your life. If you subscribe, it's 10 bucks a month,

00:30:25.340 $100 for an annual membership. You get me, you get the Andrew Klavan show, you get the Ben Shapiro show,

00:30:29.220 you get the conversation, you get to ask questions in the mailbag, which you should do right now so

00:30:34.220 you can get your mailbag questions in today and I can answer them tomorrow on the show. Forget all

00:30:38.920 that. Doesn't really matter. The leftist tears tumbler. Here it is. Here it is when the people of

00:30:45.200 Europe decide that no Angela Merkel doesn't get to destroy that continent. Germany has tried to

00:30:50.460 destroy that continent basically since the dawn of history, since the fall of the Roman empire,

00:30:55.480 Germany has tried to ruin it. And now they're doing it through mass migration and putting down

00:31:00.120 national sentiments throughout Europe. Well, tough. It ain't going to happen guys. If Frank's

00:31:04.860 predictions are right, that EU is headed for nowhere. You're going to need this leftist tears

00:31:09.220 tumbler because they're going to be coming out from all over the world. It is going to,

00:31:12.520 the Atlantic is going to be much saltier by the time all is said and done. You're going

00:31:16.200 to need this to protect you and your family. Go to dailywire.com. We'll be right back.

00:31:30.780 It's world poetry day. And I actually really like poetry. I, I, you know, I write a lot of poems

00:31:37.620 that are similar to my book. They have similar content, you know, but I, I really enjoy poetry.

00:31:43.100 And unfortunately, poetry is dead. It is a dead art. It doesn't exist anymore. There are a couple

00:31:47.780 poets that you can still read. And that's kind of interesting. Dana Gioia is one of them. He writes

00:31:53.340 sort of nice poetry, but the great era of poetry is over. There are a number of reasons for this,

00:32:00.440 which maybe we'll go into some other time. Cultures go through periods. At some points,

00:32:05.960 different art forms come up and down and up and down. Our art has really decayed. Obviously you

00:32:11.220 see this in popular music. You see it in popular film. It's just, there's less stuff there. There's

00:32:17.120 less beauty. There's less rigor. There's less form and there's less depth of content. So we have to go

00:32:23.220 back in time and I want to read to you. This might not be the, this might not be the deepest poem ever

00:32:28.360 written, but it really is profound. It stirs my soul. And especially as I prepare to get married,

00:32:33.300 I think it's important to share this with you. It's a poem by Rudyard Kipling called The Betrothed.

00:32:39.560 It begins with a little line. It says, you must choose between me and your cigar. Breach of

00:32:45.780 promise case circa 1885. Open the old cigar box. Get me a Cuba stout for things are running crossways

00:32:54.020 and Maggie and I are out. We quarreled about Havana's. We fought or a good cheroot. And I know

00:32:59.920 she is exacting. And she says, I am a brute. Open the old cigar box. Let me consider a space

00:33:06.220 in the soft blue veil of the vapor musing on Maggie's face. Maggie's pretty to look at. Maggie's

00:33:12.560 a loving lass. But the prettiest cheeks must wrinkle and the truest of loves must pass.

00:33:18.440 There's peace in a lorignaga. There's calm in a Henry Clay. But the best cigar in an hour is finished

00:33:24.340 and thrown away. Thrown away for another as perfect and ripe and brown. But I could not throw away

00:33:30.400 Maggie for fear of the talk of the town. Maggie, my wife at 50, gray and dour and old. With never

00:33:37.320 another Maggie to purchase for love or gold. And the light of days that have been the dark of the

00:33:42.960 days that are. And love's torch stinking and stale like the butt of a dead cigar. The butt of a dead

00:33:49.240 cigar you are bound to keep in your pocket. With never a new one to light, though it's charred

00:33:54.840 and black to the socket. Open the old cigar box. Let me consider a while. Here is a mild manila.

00:34:02.180 There is a wifely smile. Which is the better portion? Bondage bought with a ring? Or a harem

00:34:08.260 of dusky beauties? 50 tied in a string. Counselors cunning and silent. Comforters true and tried.

00:34:15.420 And never a one of the fifty to sneer at a rival bride. Thought in the early morning. Solace in

00:34:21.680 time of woes. Peace in the hush of the twilight. Bomb ere my eyelids close. This will the fifty give

00:34:28.780 me. Asking not in return. With only a suttee's passion to do their duty and burn. This will the

00:34:35.920 fifty give me. When they are spent and dead. Five times other fifties shall be my servants instead.

00:34:42.320 The furrows of far-off Java. The isles of the Spanish main. When they hear my harem is empty.

00:34:49.080 Will send me my brides again. I will take no heed to their raiment. Nor food for their mouths withal.

00:34:55.840 So long as the gulls are nesting. So long as the showers fall. I will scent them with best vanilla.

00:35:02.060 With tea will I temper their hides. And the Moor and the Mormons shall envy who read of the tale of

00:35:07.740 my brides. For Maggie has written a letter to give me my choice between the wee little whimpering love

00:35:14.800 and the great god Nicotine. And I have been servant of love for barely a twelve-month clear.

00:35:22.160 But I have been priest of cabanas for a matter of seven year. And the gloom of my bachelor days

00:35:28.120 is flecked with the cheery light. Of stumped that I burned to friendship and pleasure and work and

00:35:33.860 fight. And I turn my eyes to the future that Maggie and I must prove. But the only light on the marshes

00:35:40.540 is the will-o'-the-wisp of love. Will it see me safe through my journey or leave me bogged in the mire?

00:35:46.660 Since a puff of tobacco can cloud it. Shall I follow the fitful fire? Open the old cigar box.

00:35:52.600 Let me consider anew. Old friends. And who is Maggie that I should abandon you? A million

00:35:58.600 surplus Maggies are willing to bear the yoke. And a woman is only a woman. But a good cigar is a smoke.

00:36:04.780 Light me another Cuba. I hold to my first sworn vows. If Maggie will have no rival, I'll have no

00:36:10.900 Maggie for spouse. Oh, does that stir the soul? Or does that stir? That is a real, that is one of the

00:36:16.440 great poems ever written. I'm going to get in trouble for that tonight, I think. That is our show

00:36:22.520 today. I'm Michael Knowles. This is The Michael Knowles Show. Get your mailbag questions in. I will

00:36:25.840 see you tomorrow.

00:36:52.520 Did you know that over 85% of grass-fed beef sold in U.S. grocery stores is imported? That's why I

00:37:01.080 buy all my meat from GoodRanchers.com instead. Good Ranchers products are 100% born, raised,

00:37:06.580 and harvested right here in the USA from local family farms. Plus, there's no antibiotics ever,

00:37:11.860 no added hormones, and no seed oils. Just one simple ingredient. That's meat. Best of all,

00:37:17.080 Good Ranchers delivers straight to your door for added convenience. So lock in a secure supply of

00:37:21.400 American meat today. Subscribe now at GoodRanchers.com and get free meat for life and $40 off with code

00:37:26.840 DAILYWIRE. That's $40 off and free meat for life with code DAILYWIRE. Good Ranchers, American meat delivered.

The Michael Knowles Show - March 21, 2018

Ep. 125 - No Evidence Austin Bomber Was A Terrorist

Episode Stats

Length

Words per Minute

Word Count

Sentence Count

Misogynist Sentences

Hate Speech Sentences

Summary

Transcript