The Michael Knowles Show - Ep. 1983 - The Hidden Reason ＂Obsession＂ Is Breaking The Box Office

00:00:00.000 This episode is brought to you by Good Ranchers. You know what I had for breakfast? I had a Good

00:00:03.960 Ranchers filet mignon with my eggs. Support the American farmers and ranchers this grilling season

00:00:08.860 by going to GoodRanchers.com using code Knowles. Get free meat in every order and 100 bucks

00:00:12.980 off your first three orders when you start a subscription plan.

00:00:16.900 An inexpensive indie horror movie is breaking box office records, pulling in 112 times its

00:00:23.940 original budget in just 12 days, and the number only goes up. And Hollywood can't figure out why

00:00:30.280 this movie is running circles around all of the other movies. But I can, and the answer is pretty

00:00:37.000 simple. Obsession contains more taboo truth than anything Hollywood has released in years.

00:00:44.100 We will get into it without spoilers. I'll try at least. Then, speaking of taboos around the truth,

00:00:48.840 A Belgian politician is convicted of a hate crime for saying something that the judge admits is true, but he's still convicted for it.

00:00:59.780 And then on the flip side of that story, leftist streamer Hassan Piker cannot figure out why so many people think that he should go to prison for committing crimes.

00:01:08.080 I'm Michael Knowles. This is The Michael Knowles Show.

00:01:18.840 welcome back to this show a woman has just pulled the ultimate trump card on a cop who pulled her

00:01:34.900 over for using her phone here is one weird trick on how to avoid a ticket when you are driving down

00:01:41.700 the road and a cop sees you texting we'll get to that momentarily first though i want to tell you

00:01:46.180 about LeafFilter. Go to leaffilter.com slash Knowles, K-N-A-W-L-E-S. One of the more expensive

00:01:51.200 habits that people develop is trying to save money by buying cheap knockoffs of things that

00:01:56.060 actually matter. Everyone has had this experience at some point. You buy the bargain version of a

00:02:01.580 charger, a tool, a piece of equipment. Within six months, you're replacing it because it never

00:02:05.540 really worked properly in the first place. The problem is some things around your house are too

00:02:09.160 important to gamble on. That is why companies like LeafFilter exist. LeafFilter is not some

00:02:13.720 generic gutter guard system trying to imitate everyone else. They've spent more than 20 years

00:02:18.340 engineering and refining their product with over 50 patents behind the design. Unlike some of the

00:02:22.900 cheaper knockoff systems, LeafFilter is designed to handle heavy rain and keep debris out without

00:02:27.480 water pouring over the sides and collecting around your foundation. LeafFilter works because it uses

00:02:32.320 a surgical grade stainless steel micro mesh system that channels water into the gutters

00:02:35.980 while filtering leaves and debris out. This is one of the most important ones I saw when we bought

00:02:42.560 our house. They just did not have, their gutter game was weak. Okay. Very, very important to use

00:02:48.540 LeafFilter. Love it. And then you don't have to think about the gutters all the time. Start

00:02:52.600 protecting your home today with LeafFilter, America's number one gutter protection system.

00:02:57.300 Schedule your free inspection at leaffilter.com slash Knowles. That's up to 15% off at leafffilter.com

00:03:02.140 slash Knowles. Minimum purchase required restriction supply. See representative for

00:03:05.880 warranty and promotion details. Before we get into all the nitty gritty electoral politics,

00:03:11.860 I watched a movie last night. That alone is a major annual event. I don't go see a lot of

00:03:18.620 movies. Hollywood's producing garbage. All you ever see are a bunch of Marvel remakes and reboots 1.00

00:03:23.960 and remakes of reboots. But there is a movie that is making headlines everywhere. It's called

00:03:28.920 Obsession. It's this indie horror movie. And it's gone so viral. Mr. Davies comes to me and says,

00:03:35.260 you have to watch this movie. I looked at the reporting on it. This thing took three weeks to

00:03:40.060 shoot. It cost $750,000 to make this movie. It has so far grossed $84 million globally in just

00:03:47.180 12 days. On certain weekdays, it is beating Devil Wears Prada 2 and the Michael Jackson movie.

00:03:54.920 This is the first wide-release horror movie ever to have its second weekend box office beat the

00:04:02.560 first weekend box office. It is one of the best performing movies ever. I think the box office

00:04:08.960 in the second week rose by 39% and it just keeps shooting up. So I'm going to try to avoid the

00:04:14.540 spoilers, but this movie actually really matters because there's a pretty simple reason as to why

00:04:19.860 it's doing so well and Hollywood stupidly is never going to figure it out. Here, in case you haven't

00:04:24.200 seen it going around social media is one of the trailers i was gonna ask you um what

00:04:30.380 i i lost my train of thought i cannot what else why

00:04:37.560 one wish will only get one wish i wish nikki freeman loved me more than anyone in the entire

00:04:47.820 world

00:04:48.200 I love you so, so, so, so, so much.

00:05:01.980 A love only the branch of a willow tree could conjure.

00:05:10.260 It's weird how you two are dating all of a sudden.

00:05:13.780 Like, super dating.

00:05:15.000 i think the game is going through or something

00:05:19.660 like what is she okay no

00:05:24.100 okay so the movie is about a guy who has a crush on a girl and he doesn't know if the girl has a

00:05:38.460 crush on him and he's too nervous to just tell her his feelings and ask her out so he has this

00:05:43.820 novelty toy that he picks up, which is called the One Wish Willow. And you make a wish and you hope

00:05:49.500 your wish comes true. And the whole hook of the movie is he makes the wish and the wish comes

00:05:53.220 true and it's a horror movie. She all of a sudden completely falls in love with him. None of these

00:05:59.500 are spoilers. And she becomes the craziest, clingiest girlfriend you've ever seen. So why 0.59

00:06:05.500 is this movie doing so well? I'll give you the overview of what happens in the movie just for

00:06:13.440 context. This will not ruin the movie. It is unclear if she likes him. He's kind of friend

00:06:18.700 zoned, but it's a little unclear. And there are all these hints that maybe she does like him,

00:06:22.900 but she doesn't really say it. She says early on in the movie, she goes, when I have a crush on

00:06:27.040 someone, nobody knows. So there's some evidence that she doesn't have a crush on him and she

00:06:31.380 views him like a little brother. But then there's some evidence that she actually does like him and

00:06:34.760 she's just keeping it really close to the vest. And in any case, he can't man up. He can't man up

00:06:41.420 and just ask the girl out. So what does he do? He makes this wish. And in making this wish,

00:06:46.540 he's trying to play God. He's trying to control the desires of others.

00:06:53.020 And by trying to play God, he ruins everything. Because you see here a contrast between love

00:07:02.380 and infatuation. Anyone who's ever been a teenager knows this difference.

00:07:08.040 You say, I really, really love this girl.

00:07:09.960 I'm totally head over heels in love with her.

00:07:12.260 But there's this fine line.

00:07:13.580 It's very unclear if it's love,

00:07:15.440 love which is willing the good of the other

00:07:16.940 for the person's own sake, or infatuation.

00:07:20.660 Infatuation, which is really not about the other person.

00:07:24.060 Infatuation is about the self.

00:07:26.000 Infatuation is when you don't really love the other person

00:07:29.500 for who that person is.

00:07:30.780 You just project on your own desires,

00:07:33.740 your own wants, your own needs onto the other person.

00:07:36.240 So it's really a totally self-referential love. And it works. So it works so much so that the

00:07:43.920 woman becomes more like a pet dog than like a real girlfriend or a wife. And there's a scene 0.99

00:07:51.960 that makes this part really, really clear. Then you see all of these relationship dynamics play

00:07:59.600 out. So I think the reason why this is working, it's really twofold. One, it's an original story.

00:08:05.680 And Hollywood doesn't make original stories anymore.

00:08:08.320 Hollywood just makes Devil Wears Prada 2.

00:08:10.860 Just Cash Grab 2, 20 years after the last time we had a hit movie,

00:08:14.900 we're just going to do it again.

00:08:16.880 And it won't be as good, but you'll still go see it. 0.97

00:08:19.300 You'll still eat this slot, millennials. 0.99

00:08:21.040 Give us your money. 1.00

00:08:22.460 Devil Wears Prada 2, or more commonly what you get,

00:08:24.980 is just Superman 57 or Spider Girl or whatever.

00:08:30.520 Just this constant re-upping of the superhero movies,

00:08:33.260 the plots of which are all exactly the same. You know exactly what you're going to get.

00:08:36.800 There's very little that's artistic about it. They just add an extra explosion every movie.

00:08:42.900 Part of it is that it's an original movie. The other reason, I think the deeper reason why it's

00:08:46.900 working is because it's real. And it's a sad sign of our times that the most realistic movie that

00:08:54.920 any of us have seen in probably a decade or more is this kind of wacky, weird horror movie.

00:08:59.980 but it's real. And it's touching on something that's really central to the human condition,

00:09:04.280 which is the dynamic between men and women. And don't forget, we live in an age that is

00:09:08.340 particularly confused about the natural dynamic between men and women. We live in an age where

00:09:14.000 we redefine marriage for the first time ever in all of human history anywhere.

00:09:18.320 We live in an age where some people still believe that men can become women.

00:09:22.700 And we have this officially, ubiquitously enforced nonsense fiction about men and women,

00:09:29.620 something that we all know isn't true. This is why Republicans swept the elections in 2024.

00:09:35.640 This is why Democrats are still on their heels, even when the other party is in power,

00:09:39.540 is because of this problem of wokeness and these really fundamental issues.

00:09:43.600 By golly, these Democrats, I don't know, maybe they could manage the economy better,

00:09:46.880 but I don't think they could because they don't even know the difference between men and women. 0.82

00:09:49.540 They have this error in judgment. And this movie is all about the real dynamics between men

00:09:53.740 women. And so when this woman becomes just a totally crazy girlfriend, you see real dynamics 0.69

00:10:01.080 play out. If you've dated enough people, you've had this experience once or twice. Maybe some of 0.61

00:10:06.960 you are in this dynamic right now where the girl that you like, she's attractive, she's nice,

00:10:12.460 she's funny. You start dating, she gets a little bit clingy. She gets a little bit clingy. So one

00:10:17.060 of the moments in the movie, one of the real turning points is when the boyfriend gets invited

00:10:23.700 out to a boys' night. Any guy who's ever dated a woman, any guy who's ever been married knows

00:10:29.160 boys' night is kind of controversial these days where you say, no, no, look, I love you. It's

00:10:34.420 wonderful, but there's more to my life. And I want to go, sometimes I want to go hang out with the

00:10:38.460 guys. And some women don't really like that. Sometimes it's a little bit of a negotiation. 1.00

00:10:43.500 Part of the reason that the movie's working is because with this crazy now horror figure, 1.00

00:10:49.180 almost kind of demon-possessed clingy girlfriend, it's because women really do be like that 1.00

00:10:54.680 sometimes. So the movie is, in a way, I mentioned possession because it is kind of like possession, 1.00

00:11:01.020 but it's not just like a demon comes out of hell and possesses this woman. It's not the exorcist

00:11:05.520 or the exorcism of Emily Rose. It's even more interesting than that because this woman is

00:11:11.000 possessed by the desires of the man. But because the man is not God, because we're just men,

00:11:17.860 we're fallen men, when we project our desires onto other people, when we possess people with

00:11:22.440 our desires, things go haywire. You better be careful what you wish for. You get things that

00:11:28.500 you don't really want. It goes even further than this because you can see a little bit of conflict

00:11:36.740 within the kind of love mad possessed woman. And the guy who starts to regret his decision pretty

00:11:45.200 quickly, then there's even a correction where he says, well, do I really regret this? I mean,

00:11:48.680 I do really love this girl. I'm not going to go too much further into that because I don't want

00:11:51.980 to spoil the movie. But there's a line here that I'll clean up a little bit so I don't give away

00:11:59.120 a plot point. But the crazy woman, when she's totally going off the rails, and you can tell 1.00

00:12:03.920 is really second-guessing his decision. He says, we need each other. We need each other. And then

00:12:09.540 she tries to bring him in on some of the really bad stuff. And even this rings so true because

00:12:15.420 when a man and woman do that thing that husbands and wives are supposed to do, when a man and a

00:12:19.400 woman join together in matrimony, they really become one flesh. And so the movie is all the

00:12:27.640 all the kind of crazy, wacky, bad things that the mad woman does. They really are the fault 0.90

00:12:33.900 of the man. This harkens back to the book of Genesis, where Eve is the first one to eat the

00:12:38.400 apple, and yet the fall of man comes through Adam. It actually is the man's fault. It's all touching

00:12:44.420 on really real things. Another little more superficial reason why I think the movie is

00:12:49.620 doing really well is there's no DEI in it whatsoever. Okay, real friend groups generally

00:12:55.980 do not look like the United Nations. I know, you know, it's not, real friend groups are not like

00:13:03.500 in typical Hollywood, modern Hollywood movies, where you got the white guy and the black guy 0.98

00:13:08.340 and the Asian person and the Hispanic person and the gay guy and the tranny and the midget and the 0.96

00:13:13.780 this and the, it's not this perfect DEI forced woke representation. In this movie, the friend 0.97

00:13:20.960 group is two white guys, a white chick and an Asian chick. It's totally normal. And then they 0.91

00:13:26.180 go to the party and there's a black guy there and there's this and that, but it's not this forced

00:13:30.320 DEI representation. It just rings true. It rings real. And the fact that Obsession is doing so well

00:13:38.540 is a profound indictment of Hollywood. Hollywood, these guys are supposed to be really good at

00:13:44.880 making money on movies, but increasingly they're not so good at making money on movies. So much so

00:13:49.920 that some 26-year-old upstart director can spend three quarters of a million bucks and make a

00:13:55.000 gazillion dollars at the box office and totally pants all of Hollywood. I guess the significance

00:14:00.700 of this movie is that it really is marking the end of the woke era. Just like the 2024 election

00:14:08.080 marked the end of the woke era in politics for now, this movie is marking the end of the woke

00:14:14.160 era in Hollywood. Even as the Hollywood industry, all the different industry groups, were trying to

00:14:19.800 impose all these crazy woke requirements. The Oscars were doing this. You can't win best picture

00:14:25.060 unless you check a bunch of DEI boxes. The unions were doing this. The casting directors were doing

00:14:29.940 this. This movie kind of throws all of that out. It's really, really good. I'm never enthusiastic

00:14:36.120 about almost anything in the pop culture. It's terrific. If you like horror movies,

00:14:41.520 I don't want to make this out to be the Casablanca or the Godfather or something. It's a fun little

00:14:45.820 horror movie, but it's a fun little horror movie that touches on really basic, profound things.

00:14:50.700 And it rings true for people for the same reason that Aesop's fables ring true, for the same reason

00:14:56.240 that the Greek myths ring true, because they touch on parts of human nature that we all know.

00:15:01.420 And the reason it's playing so well right now is we live in a time when we're supposed to deny all

00:15:04.720 those basic parts. Highly, highly recommend. Mark this date. It's probably the last time for many

00:15:13.120 years or decades that I will say something coming out of Hollywood. Well, it doesn't really come

00:15:16.400 out of Hollywood. That's the irony of it. But it's good. I'd highly recommend going to see it.

00:15:21.100 Okay. Now, speaking of taboo truths, you see the flip side of this going on in Europe right now.

00:15:27.300 A Belgian right-wing politician has just been convicted of a crime again for telling the truth.

00:15:34.620 And not only was he convicted of a crime for telling the truth, the judge who convicted him

00:15:39.240 admits he was convicted for telling the truth. We'll get to that momentarily first, though.

00:15:44.440 I want to tell you about my breakfast, my lunch, my dinners. I want to tell you about Good Ranchers.

00:15:49.160 Go to goodranchers.com. Use code Knowles. Folks, I had a delicious breakfast this morning. I was

00:15:54.380 sitting, eating my nice omelet prepared by sweet little Alisa with American and cheddar cheese.

00:15:59.160 I said, this is weird. There's usually a little side dish on my, where's my, it's just egg and

00:16:03.240 cheese. That's okay. With my coffee, Alisa goes, oh no, Mac, you know, there's a leftover Good

00:16:07.260 rancher's steak in the fridge. And I said, I'm going to be eating better than most kings have

00:16:12.420 ever eaten in the West. I'm eating better than Louis XIV, the Sun King, because I get my delicious

00:16:17.160 good rancher's steak, which is from American ranchers. It's not pumped full of a bunch of

00:16:21.640 crazy stuff. It is extremely inexpensive. The prices just cannot be beat. Probably the worst

00:16:27.180 job in the world is to be the CFO of good ranchers. I don't know how they do it. And most importantly,

00:16:31.480 it's just so delicious. And I got it for breakfast today, and I feel awesome because of it. Their

00:16:36.200 Chicken is great, too, especially those little chicken nuggets.

00:16:40.140 They have little chicken nuggets without seed oils.

00:16:42.760 Very expensive to make, not expensive to buy for you somehow.

00:16:46.300 Start your plan today.

00:16:47.100 You'll get free meat included with every order,

00:16:48.620 plus $100 off your first three orders with my code Knolls.

00:16:51.220 Go to goodranchers.com.

00:16:52.300 Use code Knolls at checkout.

00:16:53.320 Free meat with every order and $100 off your first three orders

00:16:56.120 when you start your subscription plan this month only.

00:16:58.520 If you just want to try it out, get $40 off your first order with code Knolls instead.

00:17:03.340 Goodranchers.com.

00:17:04.140 American meat delivered. 0.93

00:17:06.200 Folks, smash that like button.

00:17:08.140 Subscribe.

00:17:09.300 Definitely do it on YouTube.

00:17:10.660 It's great.

00:17:11.200 Helps us kind of get over that algorithm

00:17:13.680 where sometimes people don't always want,

00:17:16.060 don't always want the commentary

00:17:17.820 to make it into the big algorithms.

00:17:20.560 Also, check us out on Spotify

00:17:22.040 where you can download full episode audio and video

00:17:25.300 to listen or watch whenever you want

00:17:28.060 without using your data.

00:17:28.960 Do not miss an episode.

00:17:31.660 Dries van Langenhoff.

00:17:34.200 I don't know if I'm pronouncing that correctly.

00:17:35.540 my Flemish is a little bit weak. He just posted yesterday that he has been convicted yet again of

00:17:42.400 a hate crime. Here's the background. He writes about this himself. He says, in February, 2024,

00:17:46.460 I gave a lecture at Catholic University, Leuven, wherein I linked mass migration to crime and a

00:17:53.240 deterioration of our quality of life. Every single point I made was 100% the truth and based on 0.99

00:17:59.940 scientific evidence. We all know this in America. We know this, definitely they know this in Europe.

00:18:05.540 I'm going to be speaking at the Oxford Union next week. I'm sure mass migration and crime will come 1.00

00:18:10.900 up a lot. If you're around Oxford next week, I think it's going to be next Wednesday. I hope to

00:18:16.120 see you out there. I've got to prepare for my trip to the UK. Let's see. Salamu alaikum. My Arabic is

00:18:24.740 a little weak, but I'm going to try to master it before I go to the oldest English university in

00:18:28.760 the world. What did this guy say? According to the judge, this is the judgment issued by the

00:18:37.280 judge convicting him, quote, even if all of the statements made by Van Langenhove are based on

00:18:43.720 scientific evidence and statistics, it makes no difference to the criminal intent. Van Langenhove

00:18:51.300 is not charged with spreading false information. He is charged with presenting facts in a way

00:18:58.320 that incites hatred against persons on the ground of one or more of the protected criteria

00:19:04.840 in the anti-racism law. This is chilling. The word Orwellian is overused, but this is what it is for.

00:19:14.560 We all know that in Europe, there are laws curtailing speech. And we contrast that with

00:19:20.380 America, where we say we have total free speech here in America. That's why we have our First

00:19:24.560 Amendment, by golly. And that actually represents a misunderstanding of the American free speech

00:19:28.540 tradition. As I mentioned in my book, Speechless Controlling Words, Controlling Minds, number one

00:19:31.680 national bestseller, which you can get wherever fine books are sold. Because we've had all sorts

00:19:35.520 of limits on speech in the history of the United States. You're not allowed to engage in threats.

00:19:41.260 You're not allowed to engage in obscenity, at least in principle. You're not allowed to engage

00:19:45.360 in fraud, fighting words, all sorts of speech that are not protected. But in America, at least,

00:19:54.560 You're protected when you tell the truth. When you just tell the truth, you cannot be prosecuted

00:20:01.360 for that. Of course, in Europe, you can be prosecuted, you can be convicted for telling

00:20:08.880 hate facts. That is horrifying, and that is a total undermining of the point of speech.

00:20:14.240 Because the reason that we don't allow certain speech in America is that there are certain uses

00:20:19.900 of our speech, abuses of our speech that actually undermine speech. I was doing this debate with

00:20:25.740 Mehdi Hassan, the left-wing pundit at Dartmouth, a debate that I won by six points, by the way,

00:20:30.620 just in case anybody was counting, anyone wanted to know. He's the author of the book,

00:20:34.800 How to Win Every Argument, How to Win Every Debate, which we'll have to have an asterisk now. It's

00:20:38.120 How to Win Every Debate Except Against Michael. But there was this very funny moment during that

00:20:42.800 debate at Dartmouth where Mehdi's debate style is to just constantly interrupt people. He tries

00:20:48.680 to debate like it's on cable news or something. But this happily was a formal debate where there

00:20:54.280 are actually rules and there's decorum. And so those tricks weren't really working. He was still

00:20:57.780 trying to speak over me a lot though. And I said, hey, what are we doing? And he said, well, no,

00:21:01.820 I'm exercising my First Amendment rights. I said, no, no, no, you can't use the First Amendment

00:21:07.680 to undermine someone else's First Amendment rights. On the specific point, he was talking

00:21:11.000 about how Don Lemon is now being prosecuted or was being prosecuted under the FACE Act

00:21:15.580 because he busted into a church

00:21:17.860 and he was interrupting a religious service,

00:21:19.700 which is explicitly against federal law

00:21:21.280 and it's not protected by the Constitution.

00:21:23.320 But a lot of the liberals misunderstand this.

00:21:24.880 They say, well, no, no, he's just,

00:21:26.320 Don Lemon was just exercising his First Amendment rights.

00:21:28.260 You say, no, no, you cannot claim First Amendment rights

00:21:31.180 in order to violate the First Amendment rights of others.

00:21:35.180 This is why you're not allowed to use a heckler's veto.

00:21:38.560 This is why other types of speech, a fraud.

00:21:41.360 When you use your speech to intentionally deceive people,

00:21:45.580 that is not protected because it is speech that undermines the very point of free speech.

00:21:52.000 Even obscenity. Obscenity is an abuse of speech because obscenity appeals to the prurient interest

00:21:57.680 and undermines our reason. The whole point of free speech is that we can use our reason to

00:22:01.640 deliberate and come to the truth. So when you have speech that is intentionally suppressing

00:22:08.120 the truth, contradicting the truth, trying to get people to misperceive the truth,

00:22:14.640 that speech is not protected. In Europe now, you have the opposite. You're allowed to engage in

00:22:21.020 all sorts of terrible speech, all sorts of riots. Sometimes you're allowed to engage in all sorts of

00:22:28.340 threats, which you get a lot from the migrants, but you're not allowed to tell the truth about it. 1.00

00:22:33.060 If you come out and say, hey, these Muslim migrants are raping a bunch of people, 1.00

00:22:36.120 you can be prosecuted for that, and you are. You are. You're suppressed by the government 1.00

00:22:40.660 in the UK and in Europe, really, really chilling. So Europe seems like it's fallen at this point.

00:22:48.900 This should be a big warning sign to the United States. Whenever you are on the side of suppressing

00:22:55.040 the truth, it's not as simple as the conservatives were saying in 2016. Whoever here is trying to

00:23:00.460 censor anybody, that's anti-American. That's terrible. No, no, no. America censors people

00:23:05.860 all the time. Censorship is good. Limits are good. Sometimes. We have to be more specific.

00:23:12.140 Whenever you are suppressing the truth, censoring the truth, that's the real threat.

00:23:19.840 And ironically, terrifyingly in Europe, that is precisely the kind of speech that is being

00:23:24.420 suppressed. And the Libs want to bring it here as well. So on this question of free speech and

00:23:31.300 censorship and being prosecuted for political activity. We now go to the flip side of this,

00:23:36.320 which is Hassan Piker, this left-wing streamer. He calls himself a communist.

00:23:39.920 I don't think he even rises to that level. Say what you will about Karl Marx and Alger Hiss.

00:23:43.380 These were at least serious people. Hassan Piker, a little bit of a less serious person,

00:23:47.580 and a Nepo baby, anchor baby, who just goes around mouthing off with a bunch of profanity 0.92

00:23:53.120 to threaten the lives of ordinary conservatives. Well, Hassan Piker received a subpoena from the 0.87

00:23:58.600 federal government because he committed crimes and then used his speech to admit to committing

00:24:03.240 crimes, like conspiring with the Cuban government, violating federal law on his trip to Cuba.

00:24:08.500 And so now he might be prosecuted. I'm not really holding my breath that he'll be prosecuted. I hope

00:24:13.240 he is. I hope he's imprisoned. But Hassan Piker cannot understand why he would be prosecuted 0.95

00:24:19.840 for committing crimes that he admitted to in public. But it's so strange because like

00:24:28.600 This is not even beneficial for any of these people, right?

00:24:32.040 It's not even beneficial.

00:24:34.660 And they don't get it.

00:24:36.280 They don't understand it.

00:24:37.960 Like, who is this for is the question.

00:24:40.140 Is it for you?

00:24:41.680 Is this helpful for you?

00:24:43.060 If I go to prison, no.

00:24:45.500 Okay, so we're going to put a pause here and just fact check, correct him.

00:24:51.160 That's 10,000 Pinocchios. 0.53

00:24:52.920 It would be beneficial to imprison Hassan Piker. 0.96

00:24:55.500 It would be beneficial in just about every way I can think of. I see absolutely no downside to it

00:25:01.540 at all. This guy is terrible for our country. He hates our country. He's working with our

00:25:05.920 adversaries allegedly to undermine our country. Well, I say allegedly, I should say admittedly

00:25:10.460 because he talks about it openly on air. And he's just awful. He's terrible. He really should not be 0.88

00:25:15.600 in this country anyway. And he's just dreadful. And if we could deport him, that'd be great. 0.94

00:25:19.480 At the very least, we can imprison him for the crimes he's committing. It would benefit us.

00:25:22.760 one less Hassan Piker in public life, send Hassan Piker back to private life,

00:25:28.860 ideally the privacy of a prison cell, that would benefit everybody. But with so funny,

00:25:34.400 what reveals his ignorance, at the very least a real blind spot here about Hassan Piker's view is

00:25:40.440 he doesn't even understand what the justice system is for. He's reverting to this utilitarian

00:25:46.720 calculus that is typical of so many leftists, where he says, well, how does it benefit you

00:25:51.680 to enforce the law? How does justice benefit you? First of all, justice benefits all of us

00:25:56.680 because justice advances the common good. But you don't punish someone because of some

00:26:02.100 utilitarian calculus of a cost-benefit analysis of increasing the utils and the happiness for

00:26:09.140 the greatest good of the greatest number of people. The law punishes you because you broke

00:26:14.060 the law, the chief aim of law enforcement is retribution. You did something wrong, so we

00:26:21.320 punish you. We think of it today, even many conservatives, as rehabilitation. The whole

00:26:26.560 point of the justice system is rehabilitation. We call it the correction system. But that's not

00:26:30.480 the chief aim of it, because we could all use some rehabilitation, but we don't all, therefore,

00:26:35.040 go to prison. It's a fallen world. We all commit sins. We're all sinners, all of us.

00:26:41.680 but we don't all go to prison. The thing that triggers you going to prison is when you break

00:26:46.600 the law. He says, well, how does this benefit you? Well, look, this is a guy who's calling

00:26:52.080 for the murder of Republican senators. I think it actually, there are a lot of practical benefits

00:26:55.600 to him being in prison and not speaking. He's allegedly, admittedly working with our adversaries

00:27:02.680 around to subvert our country. He says America deserved 9-11. He hates our country and wants

00:27:06.740 our country to be weaker. So we all benefit if he knocks it off. But the reason you are being

00:27:13.160 punished, potentially, Hassan, I hope he is, but I'm not holding my breath. The reason you would 1.00

00:27:19.840 be being punished is because you did something wrong. And there are laws which are relatively

00:27:27.080 objective. Laws are an ordinance of reason for the common good by him who is care of the community

00:27:30.780 and promulgated. Those laws, the civil laws, derive from the natural law. The natural law

00:27:38.300 is man's participation in the eternal law. And we have self-government, which allows us to craft

00:27:44.040 our own civil laws. It's one of the basic charges of American citizens. And you broke it, and you

00:27:50.500 bragged about breaking it, and now you're going to be punished. And it actually doesn't even matter

00:27:57.380 if your public podcast is the most beneficial thing to humanity.

00:28:03.760 It's certainly not, but that actually doesn't matter.

00:28:06.920 The libs fundamentally do not understand and do not want to understand

00:28:11.720 not just our constitutional system, but like even what the law is. 0.99

00:28:17.540 And I think with him, he actually is just ignorant. 0.97

00:28:21.280 But I'm reminded of this meme that goes around, 0.99

00:28:24.000 which is that so much of liberalism is just obtuseness.

00:28:27.380 It's just pretending not to understand basic things, thereby making communication impossible.

00:28:35.040 I'll use the most obvious example of this, but the fact that the libs insist that they don't 0.94

00:28:40.660 even understand why one might object to castrating little kids in transgenderism,

00:28:47.320 the fact that they pretend they don't even understand how anyone could hold the opinion 0.55

00:28:52.580 that everyone has always held everywhere for all of history

00:28:54.960 is a kind of obtuseness that makes communication impossible.

00:29:00.060 There is a thought that stops thought,

00:29:01.740 and as Chesterton says,

00:29:02.700 that's the thought that ought to be stopped.

00:29:05.360 And he should go to prison.

00:29:06.640 Okay, speaking of run-ins with the law,

00:29:08.300 a woman just pulled a double reverse UNO card

00:29:10.500 on a police officer. 1.00

00:29:11.860 This is one weird trick to get out of a ticket

00:29:14.140 if it looks like you're texting while driving.

00:29:17.060 We'll get to that momentarily first, though.

00:29:19.100 I want to tell you about Preborn.

00:29:20.320 Go to preborn.com slash Knowles,

00:29:21.700 K-N-A-W-L-E-S. One of the most extraordinary experiences in life is realizing your family

00:29:26.340 is about to grow. Very few moments that reorder your whole understanding of the future the way 0.94

00:29:30.720 that hearing your child's heartbeat for the first time does. For many families, that moment is

00:29:36.340 immediately one of excitement. I have three and a half kids. I got my three out and then one on the

00:29:41.560 way. But for some women facing unexpected pregnancies, it can also come with fear,

00:29:46.900 uncertainty, and the feeling that they're completely alone. That's why organizations

00:29:50.640 like pre-born matter so much. Pre-born connects women with free ultrasound, support, counseling,

00:29:54.900 and practical resources during one of the most important moments of their lives.

00:29:58.120 The ultrasound itself is extremely powerful. Seeing that baby, hearing that heartbeat often

00:30:02.460 changes everything, turns the abstract fear into a real human life. Don't forget, from the moment

00:30:07.140 of conception, that baby is a baby, is fully a baby, and it's your baby. When a mother sees her

00:30:13.360 child on ultrasound and hears that heartbeat, more than doubles the baby's chance at life.

00:30:17.140 For $28, you can get one ultrasound appointment. $140 provides five mothers with this kind of

00:30:23.100 support and care. If you want to help mothers, support families, protect innocent life,

00:30:26.120 give to Preborn Today. I personally support this organization. I encourage you to give what you

00:30:29.980 can. To get involved, I'll pound 250, say keyword baby. Pound 250, keyword baby. Or go to

00:30:35.180 preborn.com slash Knowles, preborn.com slash Knowles. Woman gets pulled over. She's going 1.00

00:30:40.000 viral for this, this according to the New York Post. The cop says that he saw her texting.

00:30:45.600 She had her phone in her right hand, and she shows the cop why that's not possible.

00:30:53.000 This is why you're being pulled over.

00:30:54.260 In the city of Lagos today, we're doing an operation for distracted driving.

00:30:56.980 You drove past me holding the phone with your right hand manipulating that phone.

00:31:00.420 I mean, I saw you with the phone in your hand.

00:31:02.240 Obviously not.

00:31:03.780 She raises her hand.

00:31:04.660 She doesn't have a hand.

00:31:05.100 So you want to just call this a day?

00:31:06.820 I don't want to call a day.

00:31:07.780 You had a hand up manipulating the phone.

00:31:09.320 You just said my right hand.

00:31:10.380 Well, I thought I saw you with the right hand.

00:31:11.740 You had a hand up.

00:31:12.500 So you didn't.

00:31:13.460 The right hand.

00:31:14.200 I saw you manipulating.

00:31:14.860 So you didn't.

00:31:15.600 With the right hand, perhaps not, right?

00:31:17.800 You didn't see me with my right hand.

00:31:19.900 You're saying that you saw me with my right hand.

00:31:21.340 I know what I just said.

00:31:22.180 I know what I just said.

00:31:22.760 I'm asking you now.

00:31:23.540 Did you not have fun with your hand?

00:31:25.720 I did not.

00:31:26.760 You did not have fun with your hand.

00:31:27.680 I did not.

00:31:28.160 Hand to God, you did not have fun with your hand.

00:31:29.580 Hand to God. 0.95

00:31:31.120 She raises this sort of stump of an arm because she doesn't have a hand.

00:31:35.780 And then he keeps going through with it.

00:31:37.540 And this, oh man, what an amazing scene. 1.00

00:31:41.240 This woman just plays it perfectly. 1.00

00:31:43.820 even the way i saw you you had your hand your phone in your right hand he goes i'm pretty sure 0.98

00:31:51.340 i you didn't see that raises the stump no hand and then she just goes so you want to just call

00:31:56.820 this a day and the thing i love about this interaction here is that the cop's reaction

00:32:04.800 is so human the cop's reaction is actually exactly what we just saw from the belgian judge

00:32:10.960 who convicted that right-wing Belgian politician for telling the truth.

00:32:16.600 She goes, yo, you want to just call this a day? He goes, well, no, no, no, I don't want to call

00:32:19.920 this a day. And she goes, you said you saw me holding my phone in my right hand. That's why

00:32:27.580 you pulled me over. We were just talking about Hassan Piker. You get pulled over, you get 0.65

00:32:32.420 arrested, you go to jail for specific actions that break the law. So the specific claim of the cop is

00:32:39.480 you were holding your phone in your right hand. She raises her arm. She says, I don't have a right

00:32:44.600 hand. And at that point, the cop just said, you know what? My bad. I was seeing things I didn't

00:32:50.020 see clearly. Sorry. My apologies. Have a good day. But what does he do? He doesn't do that.

00:32:56.240 He does the really human thing. He doubles down. In this way, it drives the implausibility,

00:33:03.340 the absurdity to its extreme. It was, whoa, whoa, whoa. Just because you don't have a right hand

00:33:08.020 doesn't mean that I didn't see you holding your phone in your right hand. She goes,

00:33:12.000 I'm pretty sure that's exactly what it means. Well, no, I mean, look, you said I was holding

00:33:16.600 my phone. I know what I said. I know what I said. But do you hand? And then it's unbelievable. I

00:33:21.940 mean, it's out of a Hollywood movie. It's out of not a Hollywood movie. It's out of a movie like

00:33:26.200 that horror director made because those are actually that's a good movie. You swear on your

00:33:32.480 hand up to God that you did not. And she raises her arm that lacks a hand. Yeah. Yeah. My hand to

00:33:37.320 god the hand that i don't have that you keep pretending that i have yeah hand to god i was

00:33:42.700 not holding my phone in my non-existent flesh are you okay well license and registration please

00:33:49.600 even then he can't give up on it he can't give up license and registration that is 0.84

00:33:55.560 that is the condition we all find ourselves in look at belgium says hey you said that migrants 0.86

00:34:03.120 are raping citizens of our countries 0.98

00:34:07.040 and committing crimes against them. 0.99

00:34:09.320 And the right-winger says,

00:34:11.720 yeah, that's true.

00:34:13.000 Look at all the statistics.

00:34:15.020 And the judge says,

00:34:15.820 yeah, yeah, yeah.

00:34:16.440 Well, hold on.

00:34:16.880 That's not the point.

00:34:17.480 I know what the statistics say.

00:34:18.500 That's not the point.

00:34:20.120 You don't, you can't.

00:34:21.640 But you said that.

00:34:22.920 Yeah.

00:34:23.200 Oh, I did.

00:34:23.840 Yes.

00:34:24.800 I said the truth.

00:34:26.540 But yeah, you can't,

00:34:27.660 you can't say the truth.

00:34:29.120 We need to learn this lesson.

00:34:30.080 if your premises are leading you to absurd conclusions you have to change your premises

00:34:38.160 if your premise that you you can never say anything naughty about migrants if your premise

00:34:45.660 that the migrants are all really really great and they're only benefiting society if your premise 0.78

00:34:50.760 is contradicted by all the facts the behavior of the migrants you can either punish people for 0.97

00:34:55.480 telling the truth, or you can change your premises. You can either punish the woman for 0.99

00:35:01.460 texting with her right hand, even though she doesn't have a hand, or you can say, you know

00:35:04.860 what? I was wrong, and we need to do something different. Which way, Western man? Which way?

00:35:13.140 This woman with an arm missing a hand, she's pointing us in two directions. Which way are 0.99

00:35:18.180 we going to do it? Are we going to follow the truth? The truth will set you free? Or are we

00:35:22.340 going to keep doubling down on all the lies, all the nonsense? Gets us right back to that movie

00:35:26.300 Obsession. Are we going to double down on all the DEI and the wokeness and the lies and the

00:35:31.740 fictions about human nature? Or are we just going to embrace the truth and recognize that the truth

00:35:35.460 is not hateful? The truth is not hateful. This was the argument. This was the chief premise,

00:35:42.680 really, the chief political premise of the transgender activists. They said that the truth 0.95

00:35:48.820 is harmful. If we tell the truth to people, that will lead them to kill themselves. It's cruel to 0.82

00:35:54.200 them. The truth is awful and lies will set you free. But our Lord tells us that it's exactly

00:35:58.820 the opposite. And our civilization, when it flourishes, says exactly the opposite. Which is

00:36:03.880 it? I say we follow the truth. Okay. Speaking of protecting the public, President Trump has finally

00:36:09.180 spoken out at this cabinet meeting yesterday about the shooting at the White House just a few days

00:36:14.700 ago. This after the attempted assassination of Trump at the White House Correspondents' Dinner,

00:36:19.940 this after the other attempted assassination of Trump at the Trump golf course, this after the

00:36:25.660 very near assassination of Trump in Butler, Pennsylvania. All of this in the context of

00:36:30.320 the successful assassination of Charlie Kirk. Trump speaking out on how it's affecting him.

00:36:35.120 We'll get to that momentarily first, though. I want to tell you about Hillsdale. Go to

00:36:38.320 hillsdale.edu slash revolution. We're talking about movies today. I got a great movie you

00:36:44.300 you go see. You should go see Revolutionary America by Hillsdale Studios in theaters narrated

00:36:50.660 by Tom Selleck, including your favorite podcast host. I never really counted on being in a movie

00:36:58.100 with Tom Selleck someday in theaters, but this is the movie to go see, especially in the 250th

00:37:04.820 anniversary year of our wonderful country. At this time, especially, history is so often distorted.

00:37:10.300 this is your chance to see the story as it truly happened. Ask yourself what you would risk for

00:37:15.860 freedom. Face the decisions that our founders grappled with in Revolutionary America. Hillsdale

00:37:21.300 Studios film only in theaters May 31st to June 2nd. Get your tickets right now by going to

00:37:26.300 hillsdale.edu slash revolution. You do not want to miss the opportunity to see this on the big screen

00:37:31.960 and take a picture when you see my big mug right there on the screen. Go to hillsdale.edu slash

00:37:36.380 Revolution. Locate a theater near you. Buy tickets now for Revolutionary America. One last time,

00:37:41.760 that's hillsdale.edu slash revolution. My favorite comment yesterday from Rat Boyd,

00:37:47.860 who says, Tim Hortons, the donuts are to die for. They are. They are to die for. They're really good,

00:37:54.440 especially those little munchkin-looking donuts. I forget what they call them. 0.78

00:37:57.260 Timos? Is that what that? I don't know. Whatever they call them, they're really

00:37:59.480 good. But you should not literally die for them. You should not allow the government to

00:38:03.440 sign off on your doctor-assisted suicide attempt. Just go for the donuts and the coffee.

00:38:09.240 Do not commit suicide. President Trump finally speaking out on the shooting at the White House

00:38:15.100 just a few days ago. Mr. President, on the shooting last weekend, it came barely a month

00:38:19.980 after the third assassination attempt against you during the White House Correspondents' Dinner.

00:38:23.980 What was your reaction when you first heard about the latest shooting and

00:38:27.120 what gives you the courage to really keep doing your job effectively without thinking about these

00:38:31.480 threats every day? Well, I can't think about it because if I thought about it a lot, you know,

00:38:36.320 I wouldn't be a very good president. I wouldn't be here, probably. I'd be up in some room with

00:38:41.780 a locked door and say, just leave me alone. So I can't really think about it. It's such something

00:38:46.840 that it's a sad part of life. It's a dangerous business. What I'm doing is a dangerous business.

00:38:53.960 And they say, and look, we have been maybe the most consequential, but we certainly have been

00:39:00.180 one of the most consequential. This group

00:39:02.020 has been a very consequential

00:39:03.880 administration. And they say

00:39:06.140 if you're not consequential, you don't have so much

00:39:08.160 problem. If you are consequential, you do.

00:39:10.320 So you have to look

00:39:12.260 at that. But

00:39:12.820 it's a shame. It's a sad

00:39:15.820 it's a very sad fact

00:39:18.140 of life. Look, anybody in office

00:39:19.840 not only in this country, in other countries

00:39:22.380 too, but when

00:39:24.200 you are a consequential president

00:39:26.080 your life is in grave danger.

00:39:28.380 I knew that. Mr. President?

00:39:30.180 Okay, so great point that I think we don't always totally appreciate, which is that

00:39:34.060 the reason people are trying to kill Trump all the time is because he matters.

00:39:39.000 No one ever seriously tried to kill Joe Biden as president.

00:39:42.580 The great threats to Joe Biden as president were slippery floors and time.

00:39:48.940 Those were the greatest dangers that Joe Biden faced.

00:39:52.420 You know, you get out of bed a little too quickly in the morning,

00:39:55.320 lose your balance.

00:39:56.140 That was a big danger.

00:39:57.120 I'm sure Secret Service had meetings about that.

00:39:59.840 And the passage of time, to quote Joe Biden's vice president,

00:40:03.740 the significance of the passage of time was a big danger to him.

00:40:08.240 But nobody was seriously trying to murder Joe Biden.

00:40:12.700 A lot of people keep trying to murder Trump,

00:40:15.020 and a lot of the domestic left, mainstream left, has supported that.

00:40:19.360 He says, yeah, because I'm changing things, because I'm consequential.

00:40:23.520 So then, do you think about that?

00:40:26.260 Is it working?

00:40:26.880 assassinations do work that's why people keep doing them a very sad fact that i've been pointing

00:40:32.880 out ever since charlie was assassinated and people tried to cope with that by saying well you know

00:40:38.120 you've struck down one of our great leaders but you know we're only going to be 10 times as strong

00:40:42.340 and i said that's not true now we're headed for a period of great trial and tribulation and division

00:40:46.940 and pettiness and we need to try to we need to try to overcome that if we can but you're not

00:40:51.920 just immediately going to unify that's not how it happens that assassinations work that's why

00:40:56.500 people keep doing them. So how does Trump get out of bed in the morning? Trump, who does keep his

00:41:01.460 balance, unlike other presidents, how does he do anything with this fear that people just keep

00:41:07.000 trying to shoot him? He says, I can't worry about that. And I think what's implicit here,

00:41:13.420 Trump seemed to get a little healthy dose of religion after the Butler shooting. He said,

00:41:17.980 it's all God. I mean, I just don't know how else you explain it when your head just at the last

00:41:22.280 minute unpredictably, implausibly turns to look actually at a chart about immigration.

00:41:27.160 And that last second twist of the head is the only reason that part of your ear blew off and

00:41:30.980 not the back of your skull. I said, that's God. And so when it's our time, it's our time. We want

00:41:36.240 to be prudent. We want to take care in our life. We don't want to be reckless. But ultimately,

00:41:41.400 our days are numbered and ultimately God is sovereign. It reminds me of this great observation

00:41:45.760 from one of the legendary cigar men. This is Richard Overton, a World War II veteran,

00:41:52.280 who smoked 12 cigars a day and had whiskey in his morning coffee,

00:41:55.420 lived to be, I think, 112,

00:41:57.800 continued to drive his old 1970s Ford pickup truck.

00:42:00.460 And Richard Overton, at the age of 109,

00:42:03.660 had a short little documentary made about him.

00:42:06.020 And he talked about what it's like to go out into battle,

00:42:09.420 how you can have the courage to keep advancing.

00:42:12.300 You see a soldier with a gun,

00:42:14.600 you don't see him turn around and go back this way.

00:42:18.400 He may go sideways,

00:42:20.300 but he ain't going to turn around and go back.

00:42:22.720 Uh-uh. 0.94

00:42:24.240 Don't care how hot them bullies are,

00:42:26.120 he ain't going to go back.

00:42:28.200 So when you go in there,

00:42:29.660 you just say, well, God has got me now.

00:42:32.960 See?

00:42:34.400 He's going to take care of you.

00:42:36.120 If it's your time to go,

00:42:38.600 that bully's going to get you.

00:42:39.780 If it ain't your time to go, 0.96

00:42:42.020 that bully's going over your head.

00:42:44.140 It ain't going to hit you.

00:42:46.000 I love quotes, proverbs, maxims.

00:42:48.580 I've memorized a lot of them.

00:42:50.720 I'm a simple man.

00:42:51.820 these kind of really simple moral rules, heuristics help to guide my life. This is one of my absolute

00:42:58.460 favorite ones. I've thought about it and recited it for years. You're in God's hands. If it's your

00:43:04.320 time to go, that bullet going to get you. If it ain't your time to go, that bullet going over 0.92

00:43:09.560 your head, it ain't going to hit you. And that's really how it is. We use our reason. We're

00:43:17.380 moderate, we're cautious, we're temperate, but we need courage. Courage is not only a virtue,

00:43:22.720 it's the prerequisite of all of the other virtues. And when we've done our part, all of the reasonable

00:43:28.660 preparations that we can make, it's ultimately up to God. There's a special providence in the

00:43:36.420 fall of a sparrow, and the days of our life are numbered just as the hairs of our head are

00:43:41.580 numbered. And that is what Trump is saying. He's not saying it with explicit direct reference to

00:43:46.280 to God, but that is what he's saying. And he has referenced God in, with regard to this issue

00:43:51.800 elsewhere, saying, look, I just got to go out there. I feel that I'm consequential. I feel

00:43:57.640 like I'm doing something that's important. And so I can't really think about it. If I allowed

00:44:00.760 this servile fear to overcome me, I wouldn't do anything at all. And the shooters would win.

00:44:05.940 So what do I do? The opposite of servile fear is not just braggadocio. The opposite of servile

00:44:11.740 fear is holy fear. It's humility and awe and wonder, which is the beginning of wisdom. So you

00:44:17.280 say, look, I fear, the only person I fear is God. I don't really fear the guys who are shooting.

00:44:22.400 If it's my time to go, the bullet's going to get me. If it's not my time to go, the bullet's going

00:44:25.180 over my head. And why would I fear some man who merely can kill the body when ultimately who I

00:44:33.080 should fear is God, who can throw the body and the soul into Gehenna? Now, speaking of Trump,

00:44:37.400 There's this line that Trump said from the Oval Office a few days ago, and I have to bring it up.

00:44:42.480 It's so unbelievably funny, and it was misinterpreted.

00:44:46.320 I think willfully misinterpreted in some parts, but I can't miss it on the show.

00:44:55.280 He'd like me to go, but it's going to be just a small little private affair, and I'm going to try and make it.

00:45:01.500 I'm in the midst.

00:45:02.780 I said, you know, this is not good timing for me.

00:45:05.500 I have a thing called Iran and other things. That's one I can't win on. If I do attend, 1.00

00:45:12.980 I get killed. If I don't attend, I get killed. By the fake news, of course, I'm talking about now. 0.99

00:45:18.480 But he's got a very person who I've known for a long time, and hopefully they're going to have

00:45:25.280 a great marriage. Okay, so Trump's asked a simple question. You're going to go to your son's wedding.

00:45:32.000 Don Jr. was getting remarried over the weekend and he did. And he said, I'd like to go,

00:45:36.400 but I don't think I can go. And the clip that went viral, he goes, the way that they were

00:45:40.580 cutting it out, it seemed like he was saying, look, and he's a person I've known a very long

00:45:44.440 time. I love that. Talk about a true traditional patriarch and father. Ah, yes, my son. Trump is

00:45:52.400 now pushing 80. His son is very much a grown man. He goes, my son is someone I've known for a long

00:45:58.200 time. But that's not actually what he said. He's referring to his son's now wife. He's got a person

00:46:04.000 that I've known for a long time, his wife Bettina. And anyway, great, great clip. I don't care. He's

00:46:09.540 the funniest. The White House posted this very lengthy tribute to Harambe yesterday. It was

00:46:14.240 great. Before we go, though, speaking of Trump's priorities, I do want to take us all the way full

00:46:18.260 circle. Republicans are already, now that this Texas primary is over and Ken Paxton beat John

00:46:24.080 Cornyn. Now they're turning their attention directly on James Tallarico, the Democrat

00:46:29.560 candidate. Some are calling him the gay Pete Buttigieg. Here is one of the ads being run 0.89

00:46:34.000 against him. This is from the Lone Star Liberty Pack on Tallarico. The Democrats have a weird,

00:46:40.340 a weird candidate. God is non-binary. There are many more than two biological sexes. In fact, 1.00

00:46:49.080 there are six. It is now existential that we try to reduce our meat consumption. The American flag

00:46:55.340 is such a complicated symbol for most of us. Prophetic voices like Jesus have helped me

00:46:59.800 reckon with my own whiteness, my own masculinity. Our southern border should be like our front 0.94

00:47:05.260 porch. There should be a giant welcome mat out front. No need to sit and cry over your whiteness

00:47:12.400 or your masculinity. They're going to call me a radical leftist. Something that you love that's

00:47:17.420 not family or friends.

00:47:19.340 I love, I'm just saying this because it's on my mind,

00:47:23.080 the trans children.

00:47:25.620 The Democrats have a weird, a weird candidate. 0.98

00:47:30.180 Lo T. Tallarico, too weak for Texas.

00:47:34.420 Lone Star Liberty Pack is responsible for the content of this ad.

00:47:37.500 And then it's just over, instead of over the Texas flag,

00:47:40.160 it's over a trans flag. 0.63

00:47:41.200 And it's so, so great because the Democrats still can't run away from wokeness. 0.77

00:47:49.280 They can't run away from wokeness because when you really press them, they still believe in it. 0.61

00:47:53.880 Even though the American public has firmly rejected it, it feels like we're beating a dead horse when we talk about the transgender issue or any of the other weirdness. 1.00

00:48:00.960 The whiteness and all of this really crazy stuff that Tallarico is talking about. 1.00

00:48:06.080 It feels like we're just beating a dead horse. 0.96

00:48:07.960 But the reason we have to keep beating the horse is because the Democrats still believe in it.

00:48:12.240 The Democrats are still trying to ride that horse into political power.

00:48:15.900 And so it was so awful.

00:48:18.980 It was so brutal.

00:48:20.520 It was so crazy that it still has legs.

00:48:23.840 Wokeness really peaked around 2023.

00:48:25.760 It still has legs three years later.

00:48:28.200 It would not necessarily have legs if the Democrats disavowed it.

00:48:31.060 But the Democrats can't totally disavow it because a lot of the Democrat base still believes in it.

00:48:34.240 so you just you just tie that around them i mean to bring it all the way back to the obsession

00:48:40.160 movie you have a movie that is fundamentally about how men and women actually get along

00:48:46.900 that's what that is what obsession is about it's a movie about the most basic dynamics between men

00:48:52.620 and women and it explodes it's doing so well at the box office because that is the dynamic that

00:49:00.500 the left has been denying overtly for years. And sex is just so fundamental to who we are as human

00:49:09.680 beings that it's so evocative. It's such a visceral kind of disgust that we feel when someone denies

00:49:18.980 it. I think that it's not too late. For the very online people, wokeness is kind of passe, outdated,

00:49:25.640 whatever. For voters, this is it. I want every ad. Every ad in the midterm should be about this

00:49:31.000 stuff. Okay. Today's Theology Thursday. The rest of the show continues now. You do not want to

00:49:34.940 miss it. Become a member. Use code KnowlesCanadaWLAS at checkout for two months free on all annual

00:49:38.160 plans when you travel well your klm royal dutch airlines ticket takes you to more than just your

00:50:00.260 destination it takes you to front row views voices lost in the music and new shared memories

00:50:07.640 And when the last song fades, the KLM Royal Dutch Airlines crew is here to ensure your journey home hits all the right notes.

00:50:20.160 KLM Royal Dutch Airlines. When you travel, travel well.

The Michael Knowles Show - May 28, 2026

Ep. 1983 - The Hidden Reason ＂Obsession＂ Is Breaking The Box Office

Episode Stats

Summary

Transcript