Ep. 263 - The Moral Incoherence of Veganism
Summary
You can lead a horse to water, but you can t force feed a goose to give you foie gras. PETA wants us to stop bringing home the bacon and start bringing up the bagels. No more can we beat a dead horse, now we must feed a fed horse. We will analyze how left-wing vegans want to destroy language with vegan-friendly idioms, presumably because they re a few fries short of a Happy Meal. Plus, Bob Dole and Alan Simpson dazzle at George Bush s funeral, a Never Trump magazine goes under, and a brand new MAGA dating app.
Transcript
00:00:00.000
PETA wants us to stop bringing home the bacon and start bringing home the bagels.
00:00:11.380
We will analyze how left-wing vegans want to destroy language with vegan-friendly idioms,
00:00:16.660
presumably because they're a few fries short of a Happy Meal.
00:00:19.900
Then Bob Dole and Alan Simpson dazzle at George Bush's funeral,
00:00:23.960
a Never Trump magazine goes under, and a brand new MAGA dating app.
00:00:28.600
I'm Michael Knowles, and this is The Michael Knowles Show.
00:00:37.520
I wonder how many more idioms we can break out there.
00:00:40.660
You can lead a horse to water, but you can only force feed a goose to give you foie gras.
00:00:44.800
I don't know. There are very many, and PETA is going after it.
00:00:49.700
We will analyze why the left is always trying to control our words and to control our culture.
00:00:56.020
It's time for you to do all of your holiday shopping.
00:00:59.520
And how are you going to know the time? Using Movement.
00:01:03.260
With the holiday season coming, gifting is easy.
00:01:05.340
With Movement's versatile line of watches, glasses, and accessories.
00:01:08.780
I have never gotten more compliments on any watch than I do on my Movement watch.
00:01:15.440
If you're looking to get me a gift for Christmas, get me the new Arc line.
00:01:19.280
It's Movement's new automatic mechanical watch.
00:01:22.220
It's beautiful, beautiful technology, beautiful mechanism inside, and it looks really sleek, as do all of their products.
00:01:29.360
They're all about looking good while keeping it simple.
00:01:32.920
It's crowdfunded by these two college dropouts.
00:01:35.100
Now they've sold a million and a half watches in over 160 countries.
00:01:44.220
Especially when you're talking about these automatic watches, the new Arc line.
00:01:48.840
Movement did all the hard work this holiday season, so you don't have to.
00:01:51.720
They have also awesome gift boxes and packages.
00:01:55.340
I am giving people on my list Movement watches.
00:01:59.140
I am not only a client of Movement, I am also a regular customer.
00:02:03.560
They've curated all of their favorite styles into special gift boxes for you,
00:02:07.200
so you can absolutely crush it this holiday season without the added stress.
00:02:16.700
Movement's launching new styles on their site all the time.
00:02:27.320
How long before we're going to have to start changing all of these words, too?
00:02:32.180
This is the new line coming out of PETA and left-wing academics.
00:02:43.720
You know, that's where I get all of my tips about the English language expressions at Swansea University.
00:03:07.080
We're not allowed to use bringing home the bacon anymore.
00:03:09.100
We're supposed to say bringing home the bagels.
00:03:11.500
The other one is putting all your eggs in one basket.
00:03:16.460
We're not even allowed to reference animal products.
00:03:19.040
So you can't say putting all of your eggs in one basket.
00:03:22.460
Another one is killing two birds with one stone.
00:03:32.040
If it were one wacko academic saying this, I would say, oh, I would kind of laugh it off.
00:03:36.120
I mean, that's what academics do is they say crazy things and we ignore them.
00:03:39.640
But PETA, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, is now tweeting about this.
00:03:44.080
By the way, PETA is the most ironically named organization probably in the country.
00:03:49.040
PETA for the Ethical Treatment of Animals has killed, in the last two decades, just about 96% of the animals in their care.
00:03:58.500
On any given year, the animals in their care, this is well over 30,000 animals since 1998, 96% of them are killed by PETA.
00:04:06.540
Even the ones that could be adopted out, they just kill them.
00:04:08.860
But they call it People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals.
00:04:15.220
And the tweet read, stop using anti-animal language.
00:04:22.580
Just as it became unacceptable to use racist, homophobic, or ableist language,
00:04:27.720
phrases that trivialize cruelty to animals will vanish as more people begin to appreciate animals for who they are
00:04:34.680
and start bringing home the bagels instead of the bacon.
00:04:37.080
This is my thesis on the culture, is that the left uses language to affect their political agenda.
00:04:52.940
So by the time we get to the political fight, we've already lost because they've already changed the language through the culture.
00:05:05.420
What they're using social justice as a stand-in for is morality.
00:05:10.560
They're saying that we now in our enlightened moral standards realize that it's wrong to kill animals.
00:05:17.920
It's wrong to wear animal skins and use leather and whatever.
00:05:23.160
Where do we find that in any sane moral standard?
00:05:31.220
The trouble with these new suggestions, by the way, is that the new idioms don't make any sense.
00:05:39.160
Okay, I guess that one's the most defensible of them.
00:05:42.160
Putting all your eggs in one basket, they now want us to say putting all your berries in one basket.
00:05:48.960
If you've got all your eggs in one basket and you drop the basket, all your eggs are gone.
00:05:52.320
Because you crack the egg and then they're gone.
00:05:53.880
If you put all your berries in your basket and then you drop the basket, nothing happens.
00:06:01.300
You drop them, you pick them up, you can eat them.
00:06:12.560
You can lead a horse to water, but you can't make it drink.
00:06:14.760
So they're getting very confused about all of their idioms.
00:06:22.260
And they want to change it to feed two birds with one scone.
00:06:32.920
Because it is difficult to kill two birds with one stone.
00:06:38.160
And what you were saying with that idiom is that you are going to be efficient in your use of tactics.
00:06:44.240
You're going to take care of two things in one fell swoop.
00:06:47.540
In an efficient way where usually you'd only take care of one thing.
00:06:50.240
To feed two birds with one scone is very easy because birds don't eat very much.
00:07:07.660
I don't really care about the rise of veganism.
00:07:11.200
Veganism is up 360% in the UK over the last decade.
00:07:15.500
It's up 500% in the US over just the last four years.
00:07:18.920
And the issue with veganism, the reason they're so whacked out about the language here, is that veganism is a morally incoherent ideology.
00:07:27.720
Veganism, it's not just that you can't eat animals.
00:07:42.840
Does anyone really believe that an oyster is more conscious than a carrot?
00:07:46.600
I was on Fox News this morning talking about this very topic.
00:07:49.840
And I got actually a lot of letters and tweets and things in, not just from left-wingers, but from right-wingers, too, who say,
00:07:59.620
And it's so much better and it's so much more moral.
00:08:04.480
An oyster is not in any way more conscious than a carrot.
00:08:10.440
Why is it okay to eat the carrot but it's okay to eat the carrot but not eat the oyster?
00:08:14.380
And further, I mean, the big example here is abortion because every vegan I know, every single one, I know a number of vegans,
00:08:21.740
and I've had to sit through terrible lunches when they take me out to them.
00:08:26.920
So they're so, they weep for the little oyster.
00:08:38.180
And what it does is it inverts the natural order.
00:08:49.200
So this is why we don't want to torture animals.
00:08:53.200
But the reason that we shouldn't torture animals or be cruel to animals is not because the animals have some rights,
00:08:59.020
some consciousness, some spiritual life, some soul, or anything like that.
00:09:04.060
The reason that we shouldn't be cruel to animals is because it deadens our compassion.
00:09:09.080
It deadens our humanity to be needlessly cruel to some innocent little animal.
00:09:14.380
The reason that we need to conserve animals is not because animals are good and humans are bad or that animals have some right to exist in nature and, you know, prance around the forests.
00:09:28.840
The reason to conserve the deer is so that we can go kill more deer or, you know, hunt them and have a good time.
00:09:35.180
There was just, there was a wolf that was killed in, I think it was Yellowstone.
00:09:44.820
And they said, a beloved wolf was killed by a trophy hunter.
00:09:58.720
They did this when a guy bought a very expensive permit, that dentist, to go kill Cecil the lion in Africa.
00:10:11.280
And actually, the reason that they sell permits to these trophy hunters is because they cost a lot of money.
00:10:16.400
And then all of that money is put toward conservation efforts.
00:10:21.600
They're just crafting this narrative to tug on your heartstrings.
00:10:24.740
Also, last time I checked, Cecil is not a particularly African name.
00:10:28.520
They're trying to make it sound like it's the Lion King or something, this beautiful natural environment.
00:10:34.080
I guess the dentist killed the wrong lion or something.
00:10:41.640
And it's true of the entire environmentalist left.
00:10:44.060
They think that we are here to serve animals, which is true only in the sense that we serve them on our dinner plates.
00:10:51.500
We are here to conserve them and then serve them to each other because they taste very good.
00:10:55.200
But we are not here to give them honor or to give them fealty or anything like that.
00:11:02.640
And we love them because they provide a lot of nice things for us, like a good veal piccata on a good Saturday night.
00:11:12.260
And they're constantly flipping and inverting major issues.
00:11:17.960
You know, I love Orrin Hatch, a Republican senator.
00:11:20.520
He celebrated PETA's tweet in precisely the right way.
00:11:39.460
I was at a wedding in New York over the weekend.
00:11:45.040
And the one cool thing that the Harvard Club has that other clubs don't have is they have a giant elephant head on the wall.
00:11:52.500
And actually, I'm a little nervous about this because in my mind, you know, elephants might demonstrate certain aspects of consciousness.
00:12:01.740
But still, we get to honor this cool elephant head on the wall.
00:12:04.340
It's being enjoyed so much more than if it were just ravaged by some predator in its natural environment.
00:12:10.420
And we have more nature worship, more bizarre left-wing nature worship, which is torching the streets of Paris right now.
00:12:17.740
And it's even being heralded by Arnold Schwarzenegger, the Terminator at the UN.
00:12:23.700
But first, let's talk about something really, really nice and comfortable.
00:12:28.680
We are never going to agree on everything, but we can agree we could all use more sleep.
00:12:32.920
I only got about 18 hours last night because I had to wake up early for that TV show.
00:12:38.220
Luckily, you can maximize your sleep using bowl and branch sheets.
00:12:48.280
Everything bowl and branch makes from bedding to blankets is made from pure 100% organic cotton,
00:12:52.780
which means they start out super soft and they get even softer over time.
00:12:56.180
You can buy directly from them, so you're essentially paying wholesale prices.
00:12:59.560
Luxury sheets can cost up to $1,000 in the store.
00:13:02.480
Bowl and branch sheets are only a couple hundred bucks.
00:13:06.400
They feel categorically different than the cheap sheets that you bought at your local store.
00:13:10.900
Three U.S. presidents sleep on bowl and branch sheets.
00:13:14.560
One blank book bestselling author also sleeps on those sheets.
00:13:19.180
If you don't love them, send them back for a refund.
00:13:24.980
The trouble with my sponsors is I love them so much that I just spend a bunch of money
00:13:28.600
buying their products and bowl and branch is one of them.
00:13:31.680
To get started right now, my listeners get 50 bucks off your first set of sheets at
00:13:34.780
bowlandbranch.com, promo code Michael, M-I-C-H-A-E-L, bowlandbranch.com.
00:13:43.860
B-O-L-L-andbranch.com, promo code Michael, M-I-C-H-A-E-L.
00:13:49.980
That is the natural order, is lying down on those comfy sheets.
00:13:53.720
The inverting the natural order is this bizarre nature worship.
00:13:56.960
And we're seeing this now from Arnold Schwarzenegger.
00:13:59.600
He was at a UN climate conference in Poland, and he said that if he could, he would time
00:14:05.540
travel, travel back in time to terminate fossil fuels, which is such, that is the most privileged,
00:14:16.340
Because it's true, Arnold Schwarzenegger living in a zillion dollar mansion, he doesn't think
00:14:25.900
Fossil fuels and free market capitalism has virtually eliminated poverty around the world.
00:14:36.660
That is the magic thing that allows for industry.
00:14:39.280
It allows for people to be mobile, to travel enormous distances virtually immediately.
00:14:44.620
It allows for people to heat their homes, to cook their food.
00:14:48.760
It is so essential to raising people from dire extreme poverty into a good standard of
00:14:55.480
But people who are zillionaires, elitists like Al Gore or Arnold Schwarzenegger, they write
00:15:02.980
He says, quote, the biggest evil is fossil fuels.
00:15:12.400
That is what they're all saying, that pollution, carbon dioxide, fossil fuels are evil.
00:15:20.640
And the reason that they have to make fossil fuels evil and they have to pretend that is
00:15:25.240
because they want to feel morally virtuous, but they're not virtuous people.
00:15:32.260
Does anyone really believe the greatest evil is gasoline?
00:15:35.420
If that's the greatest evil, stop using gasoline.
00:15:42.540
I assume you take trains and turn your lights on.
00:15:46.880
If you really think it's the greatest evil, stop it.
00:15:50.540
The imagination of man's heart is evil from the beginning.
00:15:53.100
We know that there is a natural, original sin in us.
00:15:57.680
What are some things that are more evil than gasoline?
00:15:59.980
Murder, for one, rape, fraud, adultery, infanticide.
00:16:23.920
And it becomes this bizarre obsession for Hollywood types who are usually hollowed out on the inside.
00:16:31.480
These are people who do bad things all the time.
00:16:35.160
I mean, the secret is, especially for actors, even A-list actors, very successful actors, most of them are miserable.
00:16:43.540
And they're miserable because they're not working very much.
00:16:46.020
Even if you're working all the time, you're still not working that much in the arts in Hollywood.
00:16:52.500
It's virtually impossible to sustain a marriage in show business, in industries that Arnold Schwarzenegger's been in.
00:16:58.740
It's virtually impossible to act in a moral, productive, good, virtuous way.
00:17:04.640
And so people feel this brokenness and they feel this need to be virtuous.
00:17:09.080
But they don't want to actually practice virtue.
00:17:11.320
So they practice a pantomime of virtue, which is what environmentalism is.
00:17:16.600
Environmentalism is a separate religious system.
00:17:19.500
It's a parallel religious system to our traditional religions like Christianity or Judaism.
00:17:28.120
You can buy indulgences in the form of carbon tax credits.
00:17:33.420
It has atonement in the form of recycling or in the form of reducing your use of fossil fuels.
00:17:42.360
It has proselytizers like Arnold Schwarzenegger and Al Gore.
00:17:45.460
And it offers them a sense of getting off the hook for their real moral failings by pretending to act virtuously and to reject false moral failings like using gasoline.
00:18:00.000
But the more that people stop paying attention to their metaphysical selves, to their souls, they're going to pay attention to these physical pantomimes of virtue.
00:18:10.880
Now, if you want to look at actual virtue, if you want to look at real men practicing virtue, look no further than the funeral for George W. Bush, or pardon, God forbid, not for a long time, George H.W. Bush, Bush Sr.
00:18:26.460
There was a big, beautiful funeral in the National Cathedral today.
00:18:32.880
And there was a great moment yesterday when Bob Dole, a United States senator, 1996 GOP nominee for president, was wheeled up there.
00:18:47.520
He's alone in front of the casket, the American flag draped over it, and his guard physically lifts Bob Dole out of his wheelchair.
00:19:00.800
He raises his left arm, and he salutes President Bush.
00:19:06.720
And then he stands there, and then his guard sits him back down.
00:19:13.240
But you might be asking, first of all, why did Bob Dole salute with his left hand?
00:19:18.280
He saluted with his left hand because Bob Dole served in World War II with the 10th Mountain Division.
00:19:22.940
And he got gunned up by a German machine gun in Italy, in the Appanini Mountains.
00:19:28.740
And it got his back, and it took down much of his right arm.
00:19:36.360
So he had very, very limited use of his right arm.
00:19:42.400
They said at the time, they quote, they gave him the largest dose of morphine they dared.
00:19:48.260
And they wrote M for morphine on his forehead in his own blood so that nobody else who found him would give him a second dose of morphine, which would have killed him.
00:19:58.200
I really love this guy, even though he was sort of a moderate Republican or a liberal Republican.
00:20:03.700
He ran in 76 for vice president with Gerald Ford.
00:20:08.140
He ran for the presidency in 1980 against Ronald Reagan and George Bush.
00:20:12.020
He ran again in 1988 against George Bush, same guy he just saluted.
00:20:20.140
He was the first presidential candidate that I really loved.
00:20:23.140
My first campaign that I ever volunteered on was to campaign for Bob Dole in my first grade classroom.
00:20:30.580
And I tried to convince all my friends to get their parents to vote for Bob Dole.
00:20:35.800
He wasn't a terribly exciting candidate, and he lost ultimately to Bill Clinton.
00:20:42.420
He was the only GOP former nominee to endorse Donald Trump in 2016.
00:20:53.320
And then there's Bob Dole there saluting George Bush, who himself was the youngest Navy pilot during World War II.
00:21:03.360
I bring this up to show a little episode of virtue, of duty, of loyalty, of overcoming political differences, of a genuine bond between these men.
00:21:15.480
And just to remind you that the Democrats forced us to have President Bill Clinton over George Bush and Bob Dole, two virtuous men.
00:21:25.620
They rejected those virtuous men twice in a row for a draft-dodging, degenerate, possible rapist, Bill Clinton.
00:21:39.420
You know, we talk about restoring honor to the White House, to the Oval Office, how awful Trump is.
00:21:46.180
Even if you didn't love their politics, George Bush was kind of a moderate, squishy Republican.
00:21:51.540
But they were loyal Republicans, they were good guys, and they were loyal Americans who fought for their country, who were wounded for their country.
00:21:58.980
And we had to deal with Bubba Clinton, who ran away like a coward to avoid the draft.
00:22:07.340
Then Alan Simpson gets up there, the former GOP senator, Alan Simpson.
00:22:12.100
I think he's about 115 years old at this point.
00:22:14.480
He gets up there and delivers one of the best eulogies I've ever seen.
00:22:38.280
Those who travel the high road of humility in Washington, D.C. are not bothered by heavy traffic.
00:22:49.080
He knew what his mother and my mother always knew.
00:22:57.520
Such powerful words and such a powerful eulogy that touches on so many points.
00:23:04.940
What I really loved about Alan Simpson's eulogy here is that it was delivered with strength and with balance and with humor and with seriousness and with sincerity and with earnestness.
00:23:16.340
It really took the life of George Bush and it really took a view of life and a life well lived that we could all learn from.
00:23:25.260
First of all, hatred corrodes the container it is carried in.
00:23:29.260
Such a true statement that we have to remember as people.
00:23:33.020
I can't believe it when I go to these campuses or I look on Twitter or something how vitriolic and angry and nasty and mean people can be.
00:23:46.180
I love taking the fight to the left wing and pushing really hard and never giving back and punching right back and not being a squish.
00:23:55.640
If you are getting angry all the time and irritated and you hate people and you're doing politics wrong, get out of politics.
00:24:06.120
This is not the place for you then if you're going to really hate people and get so riled up all the time.
00:24:11.760
And the reason for that is not because the other guy doesn't deserve it.
00:24:15.440
There are plenty of people who deserve our scorn and our derision and our anger and our righteous anger.
00:24:21.180
The reason not to become filled with hatred is because hatred hurts you.
00:24:26.680
It is not what goes into the mouth that defiles a man but what comes out of the mouth.
00:24:30.820
Sometimes you say things that can't be unsaid and it's so vile and corrosive to what you are.
00:24:35.840
And that's why Alan Simpson rejected it and George Bush too.
00:24:44.240
Alan Simpson I guess in 2012, George Bush, they had been friends for decades and decades.
00:24:51.460
And George Bush thought he might be dying in 2012.
00:24:53.760
And the Bush family asked Alan Simpson to give the eulogy.
00:24:58.020
And that was when they said to him, all right, Alan, you only get 10 minutes.
00:25:03.620
But apparently at that same time, Bush said, I want you to cry when you write the eulogy so that you don't cry while you say the eulogy.
00:25:14.480
I see this in, I've given eulogies, I've given best man toasts.
00:25:20.180
I think we've all given some version of these things that we have to say in public at events.
00:25:26.420
Either joyful events or bittersweet events or sad events.
00:25:33.000
They're much trickier than giving a podcast or a lecture or something like that because they have to take a bigger view, a broader view of the human life.
00:25:41.160
And a lot of times I've seen eulogies where people are weeping and sobbing and they're angry and they're cursing.
00:25:54.440
What Alan Simpson is showing us is that George Bush lived a life well.
00:26:05.180
He was dignified when his country threw him out of office.
00:26:16.440
We were talking a little while ago, a few days ago, about how confused we all are about death these days.
00:26:23.580
We're trying to cure death in Silicon Valley and do anything we can to extend life even one moment further.
00:26:32.240
I don't think George Bush was afraid of natural death.
00:26:34.480
I think George Bush looked forward to seeing his wife and daughter again.
00:26:38.360
His daughter Robin who died decades and decades ago.
00:26:45.240
Not that he was despairing that he wanted to kill himself.
00:26:47.160
But he was ready to go meet his maker to his home in eternity.
00:26:55.980
And the trouble with a country that is increasingly atheistic is that it's a country that increasingly is full of despair.
00:27:03.440
We see this reflected in drug addiction and we see this reflected in suicides, both of which are surging beyond the imagination.
00:27:12.460
That's what happens in a country without hope, with despair.
00:27:17.340
And you can see it when you die in a life well lived, in a life where you have hope in heaven and in your savior.
00:27:29.080
I remember during when those Dallas police officers were killed a few years ago.
00:27:37.100
George Bush went there and he was singing along.
00:27:41.380
He was swaying to, I think it was the battle hymn of the republic.
00:27:44.460
Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord.
00:27:50.140
And they said this was inappropriate that he was happy at a funeral.
00:27:54.220
He believed that the glory of the Lord was there and the truth was there and the truth goes marching on.
00:28:00.700
It certainly seems George Bush did and Alan Simpson did.
00:28:06.120
And we should always try to keep that balance in times of great celebration and in times of bittersweet, even sadness, while we say goodbye to somebody.
00:28:17.060
Now, speaking of protecting your life and a life well lived,
00:28:24.220
Brownells is a big proponent, supporter of the Second Amendment.
00:28:30.300
This is very, when you want to protect your life and your liberty,
00:28:33.100
you need to make sure that you exercise your rights and your right to bear arms that will allow you to do that.
00:28:44.760
And I know that if you're watching this show, you or your friends or family probably would love to open up a Brownells gift card for Christmas.
00:28:54.120
There are a lot of new people coming in who are taking an interest in firearms.
00:28:58.020
Young people, women, people living in the cities.
00:29:01.500
There was, after that shooting at the gay nightclub in Orlando, there were a bunch of signs that went up around the country that said,
00:29:08.320
on a rainbow flag, it said, we fight back, and a huge surge in demographics that traditionally have not had an interest in firearms,
00:29:17.960
Brownells is the world's leading supplier of firearms, ammunition, firearm accessories, reloading components, and more.
00:29:23.240
They offer an industry-exclusive, guaranteed forever warranty on all parts and accessories.
00:29:27.960
Offers nearly 120,000 items, from guns and ammo to nearly any gun part imaginable.
00:29:33.040
Has more than 5,500 partner FFL around the country to make your online gun purchase go smoothly.
00:29:39.920
They've been doing business in the country's heartland of Iowa for nearly 80 years.
00:29:44.020
Do not forget about the gun guy or gun gal on your Christmas list, like me.
00:29:51.940
Brownells gift cards make great stocking stuffers.
00:29:54.360
Go to brownells.com and put some freedom in your loved one's Christmas, like me, like your beloved Michael.
00:30:02.640
I want to buy more firearms and firearm accessories.
00:30:11.580
George W. Bush, George Bush's son, former president, also gave a beautiful eulogy as well.
00:30:20.900
That's the right note to hit during all of these funerals.
00:30:24.360
Who could take a dignified, beautiful expression coming together in a little bit of grief, but in a happiness and joy at a life well lived and a guy who served his country?
00:30:37.160
Watch as the Clintons snub President Trump while he sits down to the funeral.
00:30:42.400
Here he is, he sits down, he shakes hands with Barack Obama, shakes hands with Michelle Obama.
00:30:49.360
President Trump shaking the hands of the Obamas.
00:30:52.620
The Clintons did not acknowledge President Trump.
00:30:59.440
Hillary there looking even colder than usual, which I think makes her about zero degrees Kelvin at that point.
00:31:05.120
I think that basically is what stops time and space entirely.
00:31:08.780
You know, it's as cold as the universe will tolerate.
00:31:11.620
And then there's Bill next to her who won't even look at him, which is really hard, I think, for Bill Clinton.
00:31:15.820
Because Bill Clinton's whole persona is just being a really nice guy.
00:31:24.640
Even he won't turn and acknowledge Donald Trump.
00:31:29.580
We're told by Democrats and by squishy Republicans, we want the good old days.
00:31:34.260
We want to, you know, fight with our opponents and then go get drinks with them at 6 p.m.
00:31:47.700
Have you heard what the Obamas have been saying about Donald Trump recently?
00:31:51.880
They've been calling him awful, racist, bigoted, terrible person.
00:31:55.800
He goes there and shakes their hand and they politely acknowledge him and shake his hand as well.
00:32:00.980
They can't do it because they believe in nothing other than themselves.
00:32:05.020
They are just a shameless, solipsistic, egotistical black hole of civility.
00:32:13.900
That's who the Democrats nominated in 2016, nearly nominated in 2008.
00:32:23.500
We've got to get to how this breakdown in civility between the left and the right is leading to bad sex and to new dating apps.
00:32:30.180
We also need to say goodbye to a Never Trump magazine, which looks like it's going under.
00:32:36.960
But if you are on dailywire.com, thank you much.
00:32:54.200
You get to ask questions in the conversation, in the backstage.
00:33:08.840
It says that young Republicans are having more sex than young Democrats.
00:33:17.160
This is leading to the next story that we'll talk about.
00:33:20.580
Can you imagine the tears that must be provoked by that simple, terrible, sad fact for the left?
00:33:27.040
Get your leftist tears tumbler before it's too late.
00:33:29.620
It's, it's the, and it's the only way to safely enjoy those leftist tears.
00:33:35.060
Be very safe about enjoying those, those sad leftist tears.
00:33:49.520
Before we get to why the left is having bad sex, we need to say adieu, probably, to a conservative magazine,
00:33:55.980
which has taken a very negative, anti, never Trump stance, The Weekly Standard.
00:34:07.120
It's really one of the pillars of conservative commentary, and it looks like it is going out of business.
00:34:17.380
The Weekly Standard went to war with Donald Trump, and Donald Trump won.
00:34:21.900
I should preface this and say I like Bill Kristol personally.
00:34:25.740
Bill Kristol was the guy who founded it and editor-at-large.
00:34:30.440
He was a professor of mine at a fellowship that I once did.
00:34:33.240
He's helped me out on certain political campaigns.
00:34:37.760
I listened to his podcast conversations with Bill Kristol.
00:34:46.000
He made a huge mistake, and the magazine made a huge mistake, and now the magazine is paying for it.
00:34:51.080
And what they're specifically paying for is not making the mistake.
00:34:57.200
It's not acknowledging their mistake, and it's having the readership question their judgment.
00:35:05.020
To be fair, there's a broader trend that's going on right now in certain online magazines.
00:35:14.740
They're all left-wing outlets, and the Weekly Standard has taken, it was a right-wing outlet,
00:35:20.400
and then it took this very negative anti-Trump stance.
00:35:23.600
Now it looks like the Weekly Standard is joining them, and it might not just be that they're cutting staff.
00:35:30.660
The Weekly Standard, for those who don't remember it, was founded in 1995,
00:35:34.020
strongly supportive of the Bush administration, and then a strong opponent of the Trump administration.
00:35:41.120
The Weekly Standard says it's not going out because of dwindling subscribers.
00:35:44.140
They say there are more nefarious forces at work.
00:35:48.300
I just even look at the attitudes of my own conservative friends and myself.
00:35:54.020
The people I know who are conservatives, who are constantly devouring this stuff,
00:36:04.400
It's not just that one or two of the editors hate Donald Trump
00:36:07.500
and point out all the flaws in Donald Trump's character and administration.
00:36:11.880
And I read a lot of things that are critical of Donald Trump.
00:36:16.360
They wouldn't give it to him when he did things right.
00:36:19.220
They wouldn't admit that they predicted this guy would be a Democrat, a left-winger, an awful president.
00:36:27.480
He's fulfilled more of his promises than any president in the modern era.
00:36:30.920
He's been more conservative than any president in the modern era.
00:36:35.500
What's not okay is not to admit that you got it wrong.
00:36:40.040
Jonathan Last, writing in the Weekly Standard, implied that Brett Kavanaugh was, quote,
00:36:45.340
a Supreme Court justice of questionable moral worth.
00:36:50.800
Does anyone on the left or the right really believe that Brett Kavanaugh is some moral degenerate?
00:36:59.520
There was a totally contrived attack against him with no evidence whatsoever.
00:37:06.300
But some people became so crazed by their opposition to Donald Trump, Trump derangement syndrome, TDS,
00:37:13.660
that they would even attack a guy like Brett Kavanaugh.
00:37:16.100
Brett Kavanaugh, a staff secretary to President Bush, a federal judge for a dozen years.
00:37:20.640
If he's such a moral degenerate, why didn't you voice your feelings on that a little sooner?
00:37:25.900
He was an assistant to Ken Starr during the Starr investigation.
00:37:34.600
I don't want to beat up on the Weekly Standard because I do like the people there,
00:37:41.020
What this really is, is a warning to other magazines and other commentary outlets.
00:37:47.960
In politics, it's very easy to get things wrong.
00:37:54.700
You go and you watch a bunch of sports analysts and they make all of these predictions
00:37:58.520
about what's going to happen in the football game and then none of them happen.
00:38:01.260
And then they're all on TV the next day making more predictions.
00:38:05.200
You just have to, at a certain point, correct your predictions to adhere with reality.
00:38:12.600
Because if you get to a place where everything that you're describing is only true hypothetically
00:38:18.700
or is only true theoretically or is neglectful of reality, people are not going to tune in.
00:38:26.260
And unfortunately, it seems what's going on at the Weekly Standard.
00:38:30.900
And I hope that other outlets on the right don't fall into that same trap.
00:38:37.560
When you say that the conservatives fall into this too, because conservatives sometimes fall into pessimism.
00:38:43.300
If you say that the whole world is going to go to hell in a handbasket and then things actually turn out pretty well for the time being,
00:38:51.500
It's okay to celebrate the fact that you were wrong.
00:38:56.800
And all of those people, all of those despondent right-wingers, I've got even more good news for you.
00:39:05.620
There is a new dating app just for right-wingers.
00:39:10.980
It's an online dating app started by Christy Edwards Lawton.
00:39:14.640
And this app is only for right-wingers, only for people supportive of right-wing politics.
00:39:20.180
And if a leftist tries to join, the app will sue you to make sure that the lefties stay off.
00:39:28.900
Apparently, if you're on this app and you go out on a date and the man doesn't pay for the first date,
00:39:35.740
And then there will be consequences for him because they don't want squishy, vegan, herbivore men to go and say that they want to go Dutch on their first date.
00:39:49.340
The man's got to pay because this is a right-wing app.
00:39:57.280
I should point out that actually, I'm saying that right-wingers can now get laid.
00:40:02.400
Republicans are already having sex at a much higher rate than Democrats.
00:40:04.920
This was shown in a survey by Skin Condoms Millennial Sex Survey.
00:40:10.340
77% of young Republicans are apparently having sex at least once per week.
00:40:21.640
This is what happens when you're angry all the time and you deny that the sexual difference exists
00:40:26.700
and you say that baby it's cold outside is rapey and you say that men can't ever kiss women.
00:40:34.920
Before you allow yourself to buy these absurd left-wing lines.
00:40:38.800
But why does there need to be an exclusively right-wing dating app?
00:40:42.980
The reason isn't that right-wingers only want to date right-wingers.
00:40:47.640
The reason is that Democrats won't date right-wingers.
00:40:53.040
According to one recent survey, this was a survey of 4,000 people.
00:40:57.120
82% of Democrats said that they would not date a Republican.
00:41:04.620
That's compared to just 43% of Republicans who said that they would not date a Democrat.
00:41:09.520
So about half as many Republicans say they wouldn't date a Democrat as Democrats say they wouldn't date a Republican.
00:41:16.520
And we know this too because on the other dating apps, Tinder, Grindr, that's the gay one, Bumble is the other one.
00:41:27.780
Unfortunately, well, maybe fortunately, I missed online dating.
00:41:32.700
I was already dating by the time online dating really came around, so I didn't ever have to deal with all of this.
00:41:37.660
But apparently in online dating apps, the majority of Republicans hide their political affiliation.
00:41:44.460
So if it's asked on OkCupid or whatever what your political views are, they hide it because they know that Democrats won't date them.
00:41:55.120
And the reason for this is because Democrats own the culture.
00:42:01.600
The culture makes it socially unacceptable to be a conservative.
00:42:06.060
So if you are a conservative, you could lose your job.
00:42:16.700
The other reason is that conservatives have other things to talk about than politics.
00:42:20.200
On their first date, they might talk about anything from the weather to sports to religion to...
00:42:25.120
How good the soup is to whatever, another round of drinks or something.
00:42:29.140
But because for the left, politics is religion, and therefore it is culture, and therefore politics dominates so much of the social space, it really matters to them.
00:42:40.380
We know this from another number of surveys over the last few years.
00:42:46.200
The left is much more likely to unfriend right-wingers on social media than right-wingers are to unfriend left-wingers.
00:42:54.260
So this makes it very difficult for conservatives to get along in the dating apps.
00:43:03.720
Would you date a Democrat if you're a Republican?
00:43:06.460
Or if you're a Democrat, would you date a Republican?
00:43:16.100
And it's because, one, I don't need to lead with politics.
00:43:18.540
I mean, my politics stem from the way I see the world, and my culture, and my reason, and my premises about metaphysics, and what the world is for, and what our lives are for.
00:43:35.460
I understand why Democrats think what they think, broadly speaking.
00:43:40.260
I don't want to sound like I'm being prideful or something.
00:43:41.840
I think, basically, I understand why some left-wingers support abortion, or support high taxes, or want socialist health care.
00:43:52.100
But, as John Haidt pointed out in his work a number of years ago, the left, broadly, doesn't understand conservatives.
00:43:59.120
So they don't really understand where we're coming from.
00:44:01.100
So if you say, if we were on a date, and some Democrat says, well, I'm a Democrat, I might laugh.
00:44:07.840
We'll talk for a few weeks, and then we'll see if you're still a Democrat.
00:44:12.060
Yeah, let's talk about the basis of your ideas.
00:44:15.480
And, by the way, if some girl doesn't change her ideas, that's fine.
00:44:22.700
We know that conservatives appreciate diversity of thought much more.
00:44:28.720
So, unfortunately, now we've got to totally segregate ourselves by politics.
00:44:32.880
It's really shallow, because it does make an idol of politics.
00:44:38.600
I think it's a good idea, because the left has made us do it.
00:44:44.100
It's sort of like in war, if you say, well, I'm opposed to war.
00:44:48.900
And then some other nation declares war on you.
00:44:53.620
You're not the only one who gets to decide if you're at war.
00:44:57.660
And so Republicans and conservatives can say, well, I want to date people on the other side
00:45:03.200
But if the other side of the aisle says they won't date you, then they have a say in that, too.
00:45:12.580
So it seems like a good app, but it seems like a bad sign for our culture.
00:45:16.520
And maybe in the spirit of the season of unity, of coming together, go out and date a Democrat.
00:45:22.800
Spread a little romantic joy this holiday season.
00:45:27.060
If not, you've always got writer there to go, and you can swipe right, right, right, right some more.
00:45:36.360
Put your mailbag questions in the mailbag so that we can answer them tomorrow.
00:45:42.760
The Michael Knowles Show is produced by Senia Villareal.
00:46:07.160
The Michael Knowles Show is a Daily Wire Forward Publishing production.
00:46:12.760
Hey everybody, I'm Andrew Klavan, host of The Andrew Klavan Show.
00:46:15.460
Come over today, we'll be talking about the FBI collusion investigation, the Me Too movement,
00:46:19.600
the Khashoggi incident, how it all revolves around one thing, the corrupting influence of power on the left.
00:46:25.880
There's also the mailbag, so all your problems will be solved on The Andrew Klavan Show.