Ep. 4 - Goo-Goo Ga-ttacaļ¼ The Dawn of Designer Babies
Episode Stats
Words per minute
188.18704
Harmful content
Misogyny
22
sentences flagged
Hate speech
30
sentences flagged
Summary
In the wake of CRISPR gene editing being used to edit human embryos, some fear that it s the beginning of the end of the era of smart monkeys. What are the dangers of designer babies, and who are the potential winners and losers? Guest: bioethicist Leon Cass.
Transcript
00:00:00.680
The tweets are in. Dawn of the designer baby. Scientists safely use gene editing to delete a
00:00:07.240
mutation from a human embryo, bringing back ethical debates. Scientists have edited human
00:00:12.340
embryos to safely remove diseases. What could go wrong? Great question. Trump is the designer baby
00:00:18.000
of the GOP. Good point. Stoked for those who may benefit, but scared this might be the beginning
00:00:24.020
of the end of the era of smart monkeys. Who are you calling a monkey? Last week, the MIT Technology
00:00:29.740
Review reported that scientists in Oregon successfully modified the DNA of human embryos using the
00:00:35.420
gene editing technique CRISPR to edit out a heritable heart condition, signaling perhaps
00:00:40.100
the dawn of designer babies. Start saving your pennies, or you might wind up with one of those
00:00:44.660
outdated, imperfect babies. Plus, roaming millennial Amanda Prestigiacomo and Paul Bois join the
00:00:50.480
panel of deplorables to discuss Rosie O'Donnell's new women-only political party, White House
00:00:55.980
aide Stephen Miller's smackdown of CNN, and the prospect of President Zuckerberg. Oh my.
00:01:01.660
Stick around at the end because I will answer your questions from our first ever mailbag.
00:01:05.660
I'm Michael Knowles, and this is The Michael Knowles Show.
00:01:16.420
Now, this is a major news story that scientists have now successfully edited the human genome and
00:01:23.080
deleted a mutation for a heart disorder, which is called hypertrophic cardiomyopathy. Luckily,
00:01:28.280
we at The Michael Knowles Show, we have so many great live feeds. We have a live feed from the
00:01:32.340
laboratory where this advance occurred. Can we cut to it? Genetics. What can it mean? The ability
00:01:38.000
to perfect the physical and mental characteristics of every unborn child.
00:01:43.100
The ability of genetic enter to choose the genes of the society.
00:01:54.020
Oh no, that was the trailer for the 1997 sci-fi epic Gattaca. That was not the, we've got to fix that live
00:02:02.100
feed. So it's a very good movie. Now, of course, left-wing outlets predictably are denying that
00:02:08.960
this is the age of Gattaca. They're denying even not only the moral hazard, but even that this is
0.95
00:02:13.540
happening in the first place. The Atlantic has a big piece out today, quote, the designer baby era is
00:02:19.080
not upon us. American scientists have now used CRISPR to edit embryos. Doesn't mean we're entering
00:02:24.040
into Gattaca dystopia. Steven Pinker out of Harvard has been denying that this is happening
00:02:28.560
for a decade now. He wrote 10 years ago, 15 years ago, I think. The prospect of designer babies is
00:02:33.900
very much in doubt. We can deal with the ethical conundrums if and when they arise, but thinkers
00:02:38.620
should acknowledge the frailty of technological predictions and base policy recommendations on
00:02:43.420
likelihoods rather than fantasies. But not all of the experts agree. Not even all of the experts on
00:02:48.980
the left agree. There is a left-wing pro-abortion genetic study center. It's called the Center for
00:02:54.320
Genetics and Society. And they're firmly against this. They're saying that what's being reported
00:02:59.780
as research here is deeply misleading and, quote, there's no need to manipulate the genes
00:03:04.680
of children to remove the risk of disease. So in this debate, it's very confusing. Let's
00:03:09.740
turn to the foremost expert we have in channeling scientific technology to perfect human nature.
00:03:15.860
Marshall, how many times do I have to tell you I don't speak German? I'm sorry. No, we don't all
00:03:35.640
speak German, okay? Okay. Now, we're lucky that we also have an English-speaking analyst. I guess
00:03:41.500
we'll have to listen to him on this. It's an expert out of the University of Chicago, Leon Cass. He's a
00:03:46.620
brilliant humanist. He was also the chairman of President Bush's Presidential Council on
00:03:50.820
Bioethical Inquiry. And he breaks down this issue a little more in depth for those of us who don't
00:03:56.980
speak Nazi. Most of us cheerfully believe that we can both enjoy the promise and escape the perils
0.82
00:04:03.260
of the coming biotechnological age. Most of us also believe that there is little connection between
00:04:09.500
the promise and the peril or between the humanistic aspirations that fuel the scientific enterprise
00:04:16.140
and the deadly or dehumanizing uses to which new technologies might perversely be put.
00:04:22.540
But a powerful challenge to our complacent opinion is provided by an important exhibit prepared by the
00:04:29.100
United States Holocaust Museum entitled Deadly Medicine Creating the Master Race. This exhibit
00:04:35.980
documents the abominable uses that the Nazis made of science and medicine. But even more relevant for
0.82
00:04:42.380
us, it also presents the scientific outlook on life and the aspiration to human perfectibility
00:04:49.260
that the Nazis inherited and exploited. An outlook and an aspiration that dwell robustly in American
0.79
00:04:56.300
cultural life today. So who said it better, Michael?
00:05:00.140
Well, I certainly understood it better from Leon Kass. And I think that's why I'm always
00:05:06.140
reluctant to make comparisons to the Nazis. But I don't think it's out of place here,
00:05:09.980
because this is a disturbing trend that's happened for a while. But it is a break from Western
00:05:14.860
civilization, the quest to perfect human nature scientifically and not merely socially. You know,
00:05:21.900
it was put, I don't remember who put it this way, but it was put that previously in Western
00:05:27.020
civilization. We had a God made man who saved us from sin through his suffering. And now we have
00:05:34.220
man made God who is saving us himself from the sin of suffering. That is a really radically different
00:05:40.460
way of approaching our lives and approaching the world. And it raises a number of ethical questions
00:05:45.980
that we have not even come close to answering yet. And probably we should answer before we start
00:05:50.940
creating these supermen, these little super babies. Will designer babies create radical inequality?
0.99
00:05:56.940
If we are already selecting out through abortion, the people who have mental illnesses or who are
00:06:04.220
mentally retarded, while they're still in the womb, the number of people with Down syndrome has
0.93
00:06:08.780
decreased dramatically, because people are selecting against it. There is this radical inequality that
00:06:14.940
could be created. And there's also the question of who has access to it. So if this technology exists
00:06:20.300
to get rid of certain heritable diseases, or to augment intelligence, or so on and so forth,
00:06:26.540
who's going to have access to them? It's going to be people who have the money to pay for it.
00:06:30.460
And now, even if this is highly regulated by the government, of course, a black market will exist.
00:06:35.980
And when we're talking about something as important and fundamental as human nature and as the human
00:06:41.260
brain, that black market could breed a lot of chaos and trouble. Some other questions are the
00:06:47.500
unintended consequences. Do we really want to unbound ourselves from our human nature? And when I say that
00:06:53.820
this technology has the prospect to change human nature, I'm not speaking hyperbolically. The word
00:06:59.580
nature is referring to how we are born, how humans are born into this world. So if we can eliminate
00:07:06.860
suffering, and early death, or disease, or what have you, would we really want to? It's suffering and
00:07:12.780
enriching an inherent part of the human condition. And if we say, well, we'll just get rid of the really bad diseases,
00:07:18.860
how do we determine what these really bad diseases are? This heritable heart condition that affects
00:07:22.780
athletes that we've selected against or edited out using this technology, is that the threshold or
00:07:29.020
certain other diseases? I sneeze a lot. Will that someday be edited out? I joke a little bit, but it's
00:07:35.500
really hard to draw that line. And also, does this affect the commoditization of life? We've seen that
00:07:42.940
life can have a money value in the modern world, and life that's more costly to create will have a
00:07:48.540
higher price tag on it. Do we want to further degrade life in the material world? And does it
00:07:53.900
undermine concepts that are essential to our country and our civilization? Universal equality, equality
00:07:59.260
before God, all men are created equal and have natural rights. Will we create men intentionally who
00:08:04.940
are decidedly unequal, who have huge variability in IQ, or resistance to disease, or so on and so forth?
00:08:12.460
And there's a generational ethical question, which is, you're not only affecting the genome for one
00:08:17.900
person, you're affecting it all the way down the line. If you're taking out heritable diseases,
00:08:22.700
then his children will not inherit them and his children and his children and so forth.
00:08:26.140
And who gets to make that call? You know who I think gets to make that call? Our panel of
00:08:30.300
deplorables. We bring on Roaming Millennial, you know her from the YouTubes. The Daily Wire is very
0.99
00:08:35.740
on Amanda Prestigiacomo, and for some reason, Paul Bois, the voice of the Lord himself. Roaming,
00:08:42.300
does this mean that one day we could even make an embryo that was destined to look like Paul Bois
00:08:48.220
end up looking like you or Amanda? Because then very possibly I could get on board with it.
00:08:53.980
Yeah. You know, this is an issue where honestly, I'm torn. I mean, you know, obviously when we start
00:08:59.980
talking about steps to perfect the human race, I mean, yeah, that is, you know, Nazi whispers kind
00:09:05.820
of start going off at the back of your head. But that was Paul's nickname in high school,
00:09:09.340
by the way, was the Nazi whisperer. But I'm sorry to interrupt. Go ahead.
0.87
00:09:11.820
That's a good one. But I mean, yeah, you know, at the same time, people are saying like, hey, look,
00:09:16.700
we have the chance of eradicating a lot of these more serious diseases. And, you know, as someone who
00:09:21.580
hopes to be a mother someday, I'm trying to put myself in that position. Or like, if I'm about to have a
00:09:26.060
kid and, you know, this is a possibility, I can ensure that they are going to be healthy growing
00:09:30.780
up. It's a really honestly, it's a hard decision to make. And I think it's something that,
00:09:35.820
you know, we as a public should have more input on, right? I don't think we should just,
00:09:39.740
you know, let this happen and kind of on the sidelines.
00:09:43.020
And I think this, right, exactly. I think we do need to be having this conversation
00:09:47.260
as a culture, because like you said, there's a ton of implications that we've never had to deal with
00:09:51.180
before. And you bring up a great point. I think everybody wants it for their child. I want it for a
00:09:55.340
little, little Michael Jr. for sure. I just don't want it for anyone else's child. And,
00:09:59.820
and this raises the moral, this moral hazard. So Paul, to you, moral hazard, moral hazard,
00:10:05.740
why shouldn't we just make our kids pretty and smart and wonderful?
1.00
00:10:09.740
I mean, well, we can go on all day about what kind of world this opens up. I think the movie
00:10:15.660
Gattaca really successfully explored the kind of caste system that would develop with genetically
00:10:20.780
enhanced human beings. But I think an interesting point is one that was made by Dr. David King,
00:10:29.100
when he said that by genetically enhancing people, we would therefore be forcing them
00:10:34.060
to perform according to the way that we designed them to. So essentially, we're eliminating people's
00:10:38.380
free will. So let's take, for example, you take a person who's born, and we design them to be like
00:10:44.460
Ben Shapiro, a superhuman IQ intelligence. God forbid. God help us. That's the name of my show,
00:10:49.660
actually. And let's just say this Ben Shapiro clone, he just decides one day he wants to sit
00:10:55.100
all day on his butt and watch Brady Bunch. Who's to say that a government or an agency can't force
00:11:01.660
him to live according to the way that he was designed to do so? So that's an interesting point.
00:11:06.140
I think we just got a window into polls Saturday afternoons, just sitting on that couch,
00:11:10.780
watching the Brady Bunch. Sounds good to me. Amanda, the secular left is always harping on
1.00
00:11:17.260
inequality. They imagine inequalities, they create new inequalities, but they seem to be embracing this,
00:11:23.420
at least a good percentage of them. Isn't there a disconnect here?
00:11:27.660
Yeah. And you see the same thing in abortion, as you were talking about earlier. It's the same thing
00:11:31.980
where they're eliminating Down syndrome babies. They talk about all this inequality, income inequality,
00:11:37.420
that's what they're fixated on. When it comes to things like this, we are literally eliminating
00:11:41.980
Down syndrome children through abortion. And again, this would be the same thing where you would
00:11:47.820
eliminate whatever quality or whatever. I mean, I know they're talking about genetic diseases right
00:11:52.300
now, but you know, where does this, where does this end? It's all in the name of compassion,
00:11:56.860
isn't it? Just like the compassion to let little child. As always.
00:12:00.860
As always, the same with abortion of compassion for the mother, but no compassion for the child.
00:12:04.700
And again, like Paul said, no free will as well. That's a great point. Roaming,
00:12:08.620
Leon compared this to the Holocaust, compared it to Nazi eugenics. Is that outrageous? Were the
00:12:17.580
Nazi eugenics a bastardization of science, or is it the logical conclusion of this sort of scientific
00:12:23.900
inquiry? Well, I mean, if we take the assumption that there are groups that we are as a society
00:12:31.420
prejudiced against, I, I don't know, let's say, let's say gingers, because that's a pretty
0.99
00:12:35.500
inoffensive way to go. It's not crazy to think that when we have to bleep this out,
00:12:40.300
Richard Spencer back here again, with all her racist clap. I'm sorry. Go ahead, Roaming.
00:12:45.420
But you know, it's not crazy to think that when we do have the ability to select which genes and which
00:12:51.260
traits we want to pass on to our children, that these traits that we find less desirable will be
00:12:56.140
eliminated from the gene pool. And you know, if you're, you know, if you're someone who is,
00:13:01.980
I don't know, of a, you know, let's say again, let's go with gingers, let's say for gingers,
0.99
00:13:07.660
right? I mean, I don't think it's crazy to make that leap and say like, hey, yeah, you know, maybe
00:13:11.660
this is something we should be concerned about. Do we want to give people the power to, you know,
00:13:16.940
kind of take these genes out of, out of our society, out of humans based on, I don't know.
00:13:22.860
The answer is, of course, yes. We're probably going to get blocked on YouTube for all of this
00:13:26.380
anti-ginger talk, but proceed. Right. To me, it's a lot of control to be giving to people,
0.98
00:13:31.500
to scientists. Absolutely. Absolutely. And Paul, you're the more Catholic than the Pope.
00:13:36.540
Would you say that people here are looking now towards science for their salvation? Questions
00:13:42.940
that they might've prayed for or accepted suffering with acceptance and patience, they're now looking
00:13:48.540
for science to fix. Is there something wrong with this? Is it going on? What do we do about it?
00:13:52.940
Oh, absolutely, Michael. There's tons of things wrong with here. So, I mean, what you have here
00:13:58.700
is really, it's a multi-pronged situation with different theological implications. Like,
00:14:03.500
one is a conchable good, you know, which is the healing of certain diseases,
00:14:07.420
while the other is a violation of natural law. And that's the enhancement of humans beyond their
00:14:11.660
natural state. And so the church makes a clear distinction between genetic enhancement and genetic
00:14:18.380
therapy. Genetic therapy essentially restores nature. I mean, as long as it restores the
00:14:23.420
dignity upon a person, um, and genetic enhancements, uh, imposes upon them, uh, something that wasn't
00:14:32.220
there already. Naturally, you know, you make them super smart or you make them super athletic. Um, and
00:14:36.620
that is very clearly defined as, uh, morally defunct and to be avoided.
00:14:41.100
An important distinction from Cardinal Bois. We have to move on. The DCCC, the Democratic
00:14:46.540
Congressional Campaign Committee has signaled that there will be no litmus test for candidates.
00:14:51.100
Just speaking of eugenics, they are suggesting that they'll allow pro-life Democrats to run and
0.52
00:14:56.460
still fund them. Rosie O'Donnell is very upset about this. She's threatening to form her own all
1.00
00:15:01.420
women political party if the Democrats don't kick out all of the pro-lifers from their party. For
1.00
00:15:06.460
reaction, we go to president Trump. Well, Rosie O'Donnell is disgusting. I mean,
1.00
00:15:10.780
both inside and out, you take a look at her. She talks like a truck driver. Rosie personally,
00:15:18.140
because I was very happy when her talk show failed. The other thing that failed, and this was a real
00:15:22.540
monster and everybody was suing her. Maybe her party will fail too. Amanda, it seems fair to say
00:15:28.620
that Rosie O'Donnell will never need an abortion. Why does she care about this so much?
1.00
00:15:36.540
Yeah, she, first of all, I'm just, I'm glad that she's speaking up and coming to the forefront of
00:15:40.860
the Democratic Party as much as we can get her out there. I'm cool with it. She makes Lena Dunham
0.99
00:15:45.900
look sufferable. So I'm okay with Rosie being as loud as she can. She's always loud. So it's,
00:15:51.180
you know, it's a given. Well, I just, it's just so funny though, because this is, this is the
00:15:57.260
Democratic Party. This is what they're up against right now. They're trying to move to the center
00:16:01.180
because they know they keep getting their butt kicked and they want to win those voters that
00:16:04.140
Trump won, those, those, that white working class. And they're not being allowed to because of crazies
0.98
00:16:09.260
like Rosie who have taken over their party and pull them to the left. I mean, they're just saying,
00:16:13.500
we're going to be open to the idea of someone who, who's, you know, not pro-Sacrament abortion,
00:16:19.900
and they're losing their minds. She wants to start a whole new party of just women. By the way,
1.00
00:16:23.900
women are not monolithic. They're not all pro-abortion. So, I mean, I think it's 40% of
00:16:29.900
women aren't for abortion. That's right. Almost half of women are pro-life. They don't support
1.00
00:16:34.700
abortion. And the numbers get even, even more interesting when you break it down by second
00:16:39.500
trimester or late abortion, what have you. Oh, exactly. Paul, is, is Amanda right? Is the DCCC
00:16:44.700
signaling that it should back away from the sacramental view of abortion? It might not play in Peoria?
00:16:50.220
Yeah, I think they realize that it's been hazardous to them in the long run. I mean,
00:16:54.860
this is a litmus test that was actually imposed upon by the Clintons. The last major pro-life
00:17:00.860
democratic figure was Governor Robert Casey, who was disinvited to speak at the DNC in 1992 because
00:17:07.820
of his pro-life views. And I think that after the election of Trump and the fall of the Rust Belt and
00:17:13.740
the Midwestern states sort of going into the Republican party, I think they see a serious
00:17:20.220
problem on their hands. And there are a lot of pro-life people that I know personally and out
00:17:24.780
there voicing themselves who identify politically with the Democratic party, but they just are very,
00:17:30.220
very uncomfortable with their pro-abortion views. So I think it's starting to hit them.
00:17:35.500
It also seems like a bad strategy to keep killing the next generation of your political activists.
00:17:40.220
That can't last for very long. Roaming- That's why they open borders.
00:17:44.620
Yeah, that is why they open borders. Right, they want important ones.
00:17:46.700
Exactly, yes. Roaming, if Rosie starts an all-women political party,
1.00
00:17:52.060
will you be its nominee for president? And if so, what will be your first act in office?
00:17:58.620
Well, absolutely, I would join the party and wanna be head of that movement. Because as we all know,
00:18:03.020
the only thing women care about as voters is abortion. That's right.
1.00
00:18:06.540
Obviously, just throw abortions at us, we will come a running. No, but seriously,
0.97
00:18:11.020
I've never understood these left-wing feminists who try to make abortion something that all women
1.00
00:18:17.820
should care about all the time. So I'm personally pro-life, but I know a lot of my friends who are
00:18:22.300
pro-choice. And even for them, they understand that, hey, I may or may not have an abortion
00:18:27.340
throughout my lifetime. And hopefully, Lord willing, it's never going to happen. But you know what I do
00:18:32.700
do every day? I do go to work every day. I do pay taxes every day. I do live in a society that is
00:18:37.740
influenced by immigration every day. Maybe those are more important to me. And when it comes to
0.89
00:18:42.140
abortion, I've actually been shamed as a woman for actually saying that I'm pro-life, but I don't
00:18:47.660
know if it's necessarily something I would withdraw support from for a candidate if they came out in
00:18:53.500
a different position. I've been shamed by pro-life women for not caring- sorry, pro-choice women for not
0.82
00:18:58.620
caring enough about this topic. I shame you too. For shame, Roaming, for shame.
00:19:02.860
Right. But I mean, shouldn't the point of abortions be, even if you're for them to,
00:19:08.060
I don't know, have as little of them as possible? So Rosie O'Donnell just seems one of those people
0.98
00:19:12.380
who, I don't know, the sort of shout-your-abortion type of feminist who's trying to glorify it,
1.00
00:19:17.740
make everyone wants one, just abortions on the street corner. And I just don't get it.
00:19:22.140
Lena Dunham said she's sorry she hasn't had an abortion because she can't be a good ally for the pro-choice
0.93
00:19:27.900
movement. And there is this conflation too of abortion with women's health. So all of women's
00:19:33.500
health is abortion. I think someone else said it, but when you call up your grandmother and you say,
00:19:38.700
hey, grandma, how you doing? Well, you know, my hip hurts and I don't walk as well, but at least I
00:19:44.620
still have my right to have an abortion. At least I still have that. That's not what I hear from my
00:19:48.940
grandma. Okay. You know what? We have to say goodbye to Facebook and YouTube. You can keep watching all of
00:19:53.980
these great panelists, but only if you're not so cheap. You have to go to TheDailyWire.com
00:19:59.420
and subscribe. It's only $10 a month, $100 a year. Plus you get the Leftist Tears Tumblr. The very
00:20:04.940
famous Leftist Tears Tumblr keeps your Leftist Tears hot or cold, always salty. I will say I used my
00:20:10.700
Leftist Tears Tumblr the other day. I had iced coffee in the morning. No joke, I brought it in at
00:20:15.580
7 a.m. or something like that. By the time I left at 6 p.m. in a hot office, it still had two ice cubes in it.
00:20:21.660
It is a really good Tumblr, perfect for such a precious commodity as Leftist Tears. Go there
00:20:26.540
right now, DailyWire.com. We'll see you to talk about the news and the mailbag.
00:20:42.060
CNN's Jim Acosta recently got into a heated exchange with White House aide Stephen Miller over
00:20:47.180
immigration. The Statue of Liberty says give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses,
1.00
00:20:53.420
yearning to breathe free. It doesn't say anything about speaking English or being able to
00:20:58.940
be a computer programmer. Aren't you trying to change what it means to be an immigrant
1.00
00:21:04.620
coming into this country if you're telling them you have to speak English? Can't people learn how to
1.00
00:21:10.700
speak English when they get here? Well, first of all, right now, it's a requirement that it'd be
00:21:15.980
naturalized. You had to speak English. So the notion that speaking English wouldn't be a part
00:21:19.900
of our immigration systems would be actually very ahistorical. Secondly, I don't want to get off into
00:21:24.620
a whole thing about history here, but the Statue of Liberty is a symbol of liberty enlightening
00:21:29.340
the world. It's a symbol of American liberty lighting the world. The poem that you're referring
00:21:33.420
to was added later is not actually part of the original Statue of Liberty. Jim, I appreciate
00:21:41.260
your speech. Jim, I appreciate your speech. So let's talk about this. Jim, let's talk about this.
00:21:46.940
In 1970, when we let in 300,000 people a year, was that violating or not violating the Statue of
00:21:52.460
Liberty law of the land? In the 1990s, when it was half a million a year, was it violating or not
00:21:59.340
violating the Statue of Liberty law of the land? Brutal. It goes on like that for about seven
00:22:04.060
minutes. I actually couldn't cut it anymore. Paul, I'm not familiar with international law,
00:22:09.420
but did Stephen Miller technically commit a war crime in his Smackdown of CNN?
00:22:14.060
Oh, lock him up, Michael. Lock him up. Lock him up. He triggered me. He, you know, he, I,
00:22:20.220
my safe space was violated, you know, by the idea, the very idea that a government can put up standards
00:22:26.780
as to who they can let in and let out of their borders is just extremely offensive. I mean,
00:22:32.540
I mean, call UN, you know, call the courts. Yeah, absolutely lock him up.
00:22:36.060
Roaming, this issue, illegal immigration has been a major issue for the last 10, 15 years.
00:22:41.100
And they've even accused those who want to limit illegal immigration of bigotry. But the issue of
00:22:45.820
limiting legal immigration hasn't really been discussed very much since maybe the 90s, maybe the
00:22:50.780
early 90s. And now I think it's clouded over with a great sense that if you want to limit legal
00:22:56.140
immigration, you're a bigot. Is it a legitimate opinion to say that a country should decide who
00:23:01.660
comes in and who comes out? I mean, legitimate opinion is, is such a,
00:23:07.500
such a broad term, right? I think it's not a racist opinion.
00:23:11.500
That is what I'm asking. Is it, is it racist? Is it bigoted to say we don't want as many people
00:23:16.540
from this country? We want more people from this country and more people with these degrees?
1.00
00:23:20.220
Absolutely not. And actually, you know, I'm, I'm an immigrant myself. I went to the US as an
00:23:26.620
international student for college after that, you know, student visa. After that, I got my OPT visa.
00:23:31.100
Then I did the long, arduous and expensive process of applying for a green card. You know, I've,
00:23:35.660
I've been through the system. And so, you know, what really bothers me is when people try to make it
00:23:40.860
seem like caring about immigration and wanting more skilled immigrants is somehow like racist or
00:23:46.860
anti-immigrant. It is neither of those things. And I think, you know, immigrants who actually
00:23:51.020
want the best for the United States and want to be, uh, you know, economic benefits to the United
00:23:55.340
States, they should understand that, hey, you know, this, this is a, this is a country where,
00:24:00.620
you know, welfare is already high. Uh, you know, the, the number of unskilled laborers is, is already
00:24:05.980
perhaps higher than the number of jobs for them. So, you know, do, do we want to bring in more people
00:24:10.460
who are going to compete with the most economically vulnerable people in the society? And, you know,
00:24:14.540
the answer is no. And what's so funny is that the people who are, who are against any sort of
00:24:19.020
skills or means testing for immigration, what they're actually in favor for is bringing in
00:24:23.500
people who are going to, again, compete with people who are the most vulnerable in American
00:24:27.580
society. So, you know, if you actually care about the American poor, this is a great policy.
00:24:32.940
If it were all roaming millennials coming across that Mexican border, I think we would all be Democrats.
1.00
00:24:37.820
Is that fair to say? I think that's fair to say. Amanda, a CNN reporter says that the poem that he
00:24:43.020
references is at the Statue of Liberty, but CNN is fake news. So is it possible that there's no poem at
00:24:49.420
all? Oh, that's, that's probably actually right. But I was unaware that poetry was, uh, U S law.
00:24:58.140
Whenever that, whenever that, yes. So whenever that happened, like, I wish I knew that during the
00:25:02.700
Obama years, I have, I have, you know, I can write some poetry. Um, but it's just, it's unbelievable.
00:25:08.140
First of all, Miller for president, Stephen Miller. He's tremendous. He is my favorite guy in that
00:25:14.060
administration. Oh, just so smart. Annihilated Acosta. And this is, this brings up one other
00:25:19.900
point that's kind of not that relevant, but there should not be cameras in these press briefings,
00:25:25.100
because this is what happens. This is just more confirmation that we should get those cameras out.
00:25:28.940
The grandstanding showboating. Absolutely. Yeah, it's ridiculous. But as opposed to,
00:25:35.260
I mean, just with regard to policy, this is actually really good policy. And this has to
00:25:39.740
do with green cards. So all like the agricultural stuff they're talking about is like a different,
00:25:43.740
it's not even with this policy. So I don't even know if they, if he understands what he's talking
00:25:47.820
about. And when it comes to speaking English, it's on a point system. So if you don't speak English,
00:25:52.380
you can still get in. You just don't get that point. So he's just wrong on so many levels.
00:25:56.860
He must've gotten lost in that beautiful, beautiful poetry. Sorry, go ahead.
00:25:59.980
Is he even pretending to be a reporter and objective at all at this point? Because you're,
00:26:05.420
you're literally an open border advocate at this point, right? You're arguing that they shouldn't
00:26:09.900
need to speak English. Like what, how is that? How's that journalism? How is that reporting?
00:26:14.460
You know, it's funny. I spent an afternoon one time with Jim Acosta. He came up to Yale because he was
00:26:19.740
covering a campaign that we were running there and he wasn't like this. He was actually just kind of a
00:26:25.020
TV newsman. He didn't seem to care at all about politics. Uh, I would say a little bit like that
00:26:31.100
Will Ferrell version of an anchor man in that movie. And now he's the biggest political activist in the
00:26:35.580
world. Who knows what a Trump derangement syndrome must be. Yeah. He got a taste of fame.
00:26:40.140
He got, that's right. Speaking of the presidential politics and endless immigration, Mark Zuckerberg,
00:26:47.180
the CEO of Facebook has hired Joel Benenson, a democratic pollster and the chief strategist for
00:26:53.020
Hillary 2016 to, uh, fuel rumors that the Zuck will run for president roaming. If Mark Zuckerberg
00:26:59.260
is so smart, why would he hire the strategist of the worst campaign ever?
00:27:05.260
Well, you know what? I, I believe in multiple intelligences, right? I think he's probably,
00:27:09.340
you know, gifted program or stuff like that. I think if the social network or whatever that movie
00:27:13.660
was taught us anything is that he may not be the best read on people. That's a very diplomatic way
00:27:19.500
of putting it. Amanda. Yeah, he may, I mean. Sorry, go ahead. Gender may not be on a spectrum,
00:27:25.260
but there's a good chance he might be. And you know, just like the decisions he's made about this.
00:27:30.380
I mean, I think we found the Zuck 2016 slogan. That's the, that's the bumper sticker slogan.
00:27:36.700
Amanda, what do you think we can look forward to in a Zuckerberg administration?
00:27:40.300
Uh, there, there won't be one. He, Hillary Clinton is more charismatic than Mark Zuckerberg.
1.00
00:27:48.620
A rock has a better personality than Mark Zuckerberg. It's, it's going to be tough for
00:27:52.460
him to win anything. He does have a ton of money and a ton of power. I understand that,
00:27:56.380
but he has a ton of data too. He knows everything about us. Yeah. Yeah. That's why it'd be terrifying
00:28:02.060
if he was, uh, if he actually did win. Um, but I think luckily I think we can bank on his terrible
00:28:07.900
personality and his zero charisma that he, he's not going to go anywhere. And then he's relying
00:28:12.300
on Hillary people. Has he not read Shattered? I mean, did he not know who won the election?
00:28:17.340
Who knew big brother would be so dweeby by the, probably everybody, I guess. Paul,
00:28:21.260
could Zuckerberg defeat Trump? Does he stand a chance or no?
00:28:25.340
Uh, no way. No, no way. I mean, it's pretty much just like, he represents everything that,
00:28:30.540
that Hillary represents, uh, in many ways. I mean, he's a Silicon Valley elitist. Uh,
00:28:36.060
he has no relationship whatsoever to people in the Midwest, uh, or especially, uh, Donald Trump's,
00:28:43.580
uh, working class base. Uh, no, I think he'd get creamed in election. I almost think he'd probably
1.00
00:28:48.220
lose in an even bigger landslide than Hillary. You heard it here first. Vox Dei, Vox Populi.
0.73
00:28:53.260
Paul Bois has settled it. All right, you get out of here. It's been great to have you. Amanda
00:28:56.860
Presto Giacomo, Romney Millennial and Paul Bois. Now for the first time ever, we're going to do the
00:29:01.660
Michael Knowles show mailbag. This is great. Okay. So some of these came in tweets cause we
00:29:07.900
didn't have it set up on the website yet. So they'll be kind of quick, uh, from Joel.
00:29:12.460
What are staff meetings like when a papist, a Jew and a Protestant all have their own podcasts?
0.77
00:29:17.740
I don't know, but we have them in a bar. Hmm. It's a lame joke. Adrian says,
00:29:23.500
can you give me some tips for the SAT? I'm assuming you had a near perfect score. Thank you
00:29:27.980
very much for the compliment. I can give you some, it's kind of funny. So now the SAT is two parts,
00:29:32.780
math and verbal, and it used to be two parts, math and verbal. But when I took it for like five
00:29:36.940
minutes, they had a third part and I did get a perfect score on two parts on math and verbal,
00:29:42.220
but I didn't get a perfect score on, on the third part, which was writing, which, uh, depending on how
00:29:46.860
you look at it is either ironic or manifest and obvious given my literary endeavors, uh, from Madison
00:29:54.620
Han. That question was intentionally left blank. I think you really get us here at the Michael
00:29:59.660
Knowles show. Great, great question. Uh, from Kristen, Mr. Knowles, first of all,
00:30:04.620
the show is great. Thank you very much. My question is simply to satisfy my curiosity.
00:30:08.700
What tweet is in the frame behind you? It has to be a good one to be in such a beautiful gold frame.
00:30:14.140
I will tell you what that tweet is. It is the moment that I knew we were living in a matrix
00:30:19.180
esque simulation. It's the tweet from president Trump endorsing my book, a great book for your
00:30:24.380
reading enjoyment reasons to vote for Democrats. Thank you, president Trump. And thank you for
00:30:28.300
the question. This question from beer belly. My name is beer. Sheltiel, bell Kennessy, AKA beer belly.
00:30:36.700
Hello MK. Do you mind if I call you MK? That's what I imagined calling you. If we were close friends,
00:30:40.940
I'm in dire need of help. I look like a regular guy, but in reality, I'm a transgender,
00:30:45.980
cross-dressing homosexual female. I've been happily married for a long time,
1.00
00:30:50.060
but my wife has decided she is now a transgender, cross-dressing homosexual male. She still looks
0.99
00:30:55.100
the same, but identifies as male. Now this has created an obvious problem. Of course, I identify
00:31:00.620
as female, but she, I mean, he now identifies as male. And since I'm a homosexual and she, I mean, he
00:31:05.260
is homosexual. We no longer have an intimate relationship. Help me figure out what to do.
1.00
00:31:10.220
I think I have to defer to the expert on this from everyday feminism, Riley J. Dennis.
1.00
00:31:14.380
Would you date a trans person? Honestly? Think about it for a second. Okay. Got your answer?
0.99
00:31:20.940
Well, if you said no, I'm sorry, but that's pretty discriminatory.
00:31:24.940
Get over your bigotry beer belly. Disgusting. I can't believe these people listen to our show.
00:31:29.660
Dear Mikeliest of Knowles from Mark. I'm curious about my general date, any general dating and
00:31:35.500
relationship advice you have. Also, did you win over your fiance's love before or after you became
00:31:40.940
world famous as one of the greatest authors of all time? How important is becoming famous overnight
00:31:46.620
in having a successful relationship? I'm very glad you asked this question. I think there's a lot of
00:31:52.060
misinformation out there about this. I did not win over sweet little Elise's heart before I became famous.
00:31:57.900
I did purchase her. It was very expensive. And I think that if you're going to ground a relationship
00:32:03.900
on something that isn't as fundamental as fleeting fame or a modest windfall of money,
00:32:09.340
you're destined for failure down the road. So remember to keep the important priorities
00:32:13.260
at the top. Thank you for your question. From Asa Hoffman, why are you Catholic instead of Protestant?
00:32:19.260
Because I want to go to heaven, of course, and it's the one true church. It's a good question.
00:32:24.620
We do have here podcasts with a Jew, a Protestant, and a Catholic. I was an atheist for a long time.
00:32:30.060
I was an atheist or practical atheist until I was about 20, 22. I was actually an atheist at the
00:32:37.500
time. I was confirmed in the Catholic church, which is why I chose Thomas as my confirmation
00:32:42.140
name. I'm convinced of the Catholic church for a few reasons. I do think Peter is the rock on which
00:32:48.540
Christ built his church. I do believe in the primacy of Peter and the Petrine line. And I do think that
0.99
00:32:54.140
Christ said to Peter, you have the kingdom, the keys to the kingdom of heaven. Whatever you bind on
00:32:58.540
earth will be bound in heaven. Whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven. The apostles would
00:33:03.340
replace themselves. And I do believe in a clergy in the church. The other reason, which is, I think,
00:33:08.860
a little less rote and heard of before, is the idea that Christianity, unlike other world religions,
00:33:17.820
is a series of facts. It's not philosophy. It's not poetry exactly. It's a series of facts. A man was born
00:33:25.100
at a time in a place with bones. He wore clothes. He did things on earth. He was killed. He was
00:33:31.100
resurrected. And so it seems he had specific apostles. It wasn't a sort of simply generalized
00:33:38.460
ethereal spirit that he loosed on the world. He does talk to real people in real time. And so it seems
00:33:44.940
perfectly reasonable to me that that Messiah and that Lord would have a real church with real buildings
00:33:51.900
and real artwork on the walls and a real clergy that administers it. So that's one of the reasons,
00:33:57.100
and we can talk more about religion later on. That is all of the mailbag questions. That brings us to
00:34:08.220
The leftist project for centuries has sought to perfect human nature, and each social experiment
00:34:13.500
to that end has failed and left varying degrees of misery in its wake. Scientific experiments to achieve
00:34:19.580
that goal may prove more effective, but by no means any more desirable. Winston Churchill warned of
00:34:25.340
another scheme to craft the master race that we might sink into the abyss of a new dark age made more
00:34:31.340
sinister and perhaps more protracted by the lights of perverted science. Perhaps we should take a moment
00:34:37.340
to unpervert our philosophy and culture before we embrace a science with the potential to destroy our humanity
00:34:43.660
itself. I'm Michael Knowles. This is the Michael Knowles Show. No more shows this week. Tune back in Monday and we'll see you then.