The Michael Knowles Show - Ep. 8 - FLECCAS TALKS Why The Right Wins Online

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00:00:37.580 We are joined today on the Michael Knowles Show by Fleckus Talks, the YouTube star, the Dartmouth graduate, the troller of lefties all over the Internet.

00:00:47.320 Plus, we'll also have Antonia Okafor and Zoe Rachel to join the panel of deplorables. 1.00

00:00:52.080 We'll be talking about the giant Trump chicken, a 13-million-year-old ape, and gay seatbelts. 0.93

00:00:59.240 I'm Michael Knowles. 0.96

00:01:00.000 This is the Michael Knowles Show.

00:01:07.680 So we've got our first in-studio guest ever, Fleckus Talks, Austin Fletcher.

00:01:12.660 If you haven't seen this guy, he's put up like three videos on the Internet, and he's just the biggest thing on YouTube.

00:01:17.420 He's put up 24 videos. He's been on Tucker Carlson. He's been all over the place.

00:01:22.020 Let's take a look. We have a little super cut.

00:01:24.700 We're at the March for Truth here, June 3rd, Pershing Square, downtown LA.

00:01:29.820 We're heading down to town hall, and we're going to yell about why we don't like Trump, so he hopefully quits.

00:01:33.960 Kathy Griffin actually spoke for all of us and took the hit for the entire planet. 1.00

00:01:38.280 She didn't speak for me.

00:01:39.720 She spoke for me.

00:01:40.960 That's not all of us. Did you speak for you?

00:01:42.960 No.

00:01:43.160 Hey, guys, it's Fleckus. We're out here at Hollywood Boulevard, Walk of Fame, protecting Donald Trump's star from these people trying to deface it.

00:01:52.220 I hate Donald Trump. I'm a socialist, a true socialist, and he is nothing but a fascist. 0.99

00:01:58.220 I'm very against Trump.

00:01:59.580 Why are you against Trump?

00:02:00.520 Because Trump is against everybody who's not in his class.

00:02:04.100 I look at it like anybody that's not, like, I don't know what's Trump's situation because he's friends with Kanye West, so you can't really say he's racist.

00:02:13.220 What are we mad about?

00:02:14.780 Everything. Everything.

00:02:16.320 What do you think his most...

00:02:17.920 I think that sums it up.

00:02:19.140 We can probably get it off here.

00:02:20.960 Just mad about everything.

00:02:23.120 So, Austin, man, thank you for coming.

00:02:24.640 Thank you for having me.

00:02:25.160 Welcome to our illustrious studios in our little cramped closet, the broom closet of the Ben Shapiro show.

00:02:32.900 So, the first question I have to ask, why are conservatives so much better at the Internet?

00:02:37.620 Why are we so much better at YouTube and trolling the left?

00:02:42.100 It seems like we're outpacing them by miles.

00:02:45.040 I agree, and you're absolutely right.

00:02:46.480 We are better at the Internet.

00:02:47.820 I think it's kind of coming down to the cultural fight.

00:02:50.400 I think the left and the right are fighting for the culture right now, and I think we're really doing a better job online.

00:02:56.700 I mean, the left's kind of been controlling the mainstream media.

00:02:59.260 They've been controlling, like, movies and films and TV, but we're kind of slowly taking it back, and the next frontier is the Internet.

00:03:05.980 So, it kind of makes sense.

00:03:07.600 You're right.

00:03:08.360 There's this whole deck stacked against us.

00:03:10.460 We're out here in Hollywood.

00:03:11.840 You know, the Hollywood mainstream media are totally stacked against conservatives.

00:03:15.640 We also found out Google and YouTube are stacked against conservatives.

00:03:18.560 They've cut conservative revenue.

00:03:20.580 They're going to start censoring the videos, apparently.

00:03:22.940 Google is firing people for putting common sense into a memo, but we're still dominating.

00:03:28.960 Like, is YouTube a conservative platform, or are we going to need to look for other places once they shut us down?

00:03:37.440 I think at one point, YouTube was a conservative platform, but right now, we need to, I think, find a different platform because of the recent, you know, the ADL is doing the censorship of certain YouTube profiles.

00:03:48.820 Of extremists.

00:03:49.860 Of speech and extremists.

00:03:51.320 Yeah.

00:03:51.380 And someone tagged me in one of the things on Twitter and was like, hey, you've got to watch out, man.

00:03:55.940 They're trying to, you know, stifle our voice.

00:03:58.200 I was like, don't tag me in this.

00:03:59.820 I don't want to be part.

00:04:00.880 I'm sure they're going to look at whoever they're talking to about it.

00:04:03.360 Like, don't tag me in it.

00:04:04.680 It's the Taliban beard. 1.00

00:04:06.500 That's why.

00:04:06.960 It's not because of your conservative views.

00:04:08.640 It's got to be the beard or something.

00:04:10.140 I think it might be, yeah, one of the problems.

00:04:11.840 So you're from Dartmouth.

00:04:13.780 You're clearly a smart conservative guy, and you're out here doing comedy.

00:04:18.180 What is it about Dartmouth?

00:04:19.240 Dartmouth produces all of these great conservatives.

00:04:22.780 Dinesh D'Souza, Laura Ingram, our buddy Josh Riddle and the Young Cons guys, Peter Robinson, George Rutler, so on and so forth.

00:04:30.740 What's in the water up there?

00:04:31.700 I think it has a lot to do, I mean, on campus, especially lately, it's been very divisive when it comes to the left versus the right.

00:04:40.420 And I think it's an extreme amount of leftists, like movements, leftists, classes, professors.

00:04:49.780 Everything is so left that it makes people that are going to head to the right head there sooner.

00:04:53.720 So I think when you're up there and, you know, Cinco de Mayo, the party gets canceled because they were planning on serving tacos, and you're like, okay, wait a minute, that's kind of BS.

00:05:03.380 And then it makes people wake up and have, like, their, you know, red pill moments, if you will, sooner.

00:05:07.960 Were you always a conservative?

00:05:09.840 I actually wasn't.

00:05:10.680 I only became conservative in the last couple years.

00:05:13.480 In college, I mean, I didn't know how much I supported Obama because I didn't actually do anything political at all.

00:05:18.800 But I thought Obama was a good president.

00:05:20.060 I saw him give a speech, and he cried, and I'm like, this guy cares for the people.

00:05:23.560 You know, his whole thing was pushing change when I was in college.

00:05:26.120 I'm like, yeah, change.

00:05:27.180 Like, that's what we need.

00:05:28.340 But realistically, I didn't participate in politics.

00:05:31.040 I barely scanned headlines.

00:05:32.940 And it wasn't until, I mean, the campaigns this last year where I really woke up and saw what was going on.

00:05:38.040 I saw how the left and the mainstream media is pandering to these people who don't actually know what's going on.

00:05:43.360 And they just pushed this idea of, oh, yeah, you're morally superior.

00:05:46.500 If you're moral, you know, you'll support Hillary Clinton.

00:05:49.080 And that was the red flag for me because they're politicizing morality, which is completely inappropriate.

00:05:54.080 And it's very divisive.

00:05:55.700 But now it's a war.

00:05:57.320 That's interesting, especially on the Dartmouth front.

00:06:01.320 Being at Dartmouth, I guess, moved you more to the right.

00:06:05.180 Do you find that there's any – Dartmouth always had the reputation of being the more conservative Ivy League school.

00:06:11.360 Do you think that is true?

00:06:12.980 Do you think the professors were targeting conservatives, as has happened in a lot of other schools?

00:06:18.460 I think when I was there, I graduated in 2012.

00:06:21.480 So I think when I first started in 2008, it was pretty okay.

00:06:24.660 But then in the last 10 years or so, it's really heading in a direction where there's no more debate.

00:06:30.960 There's no more dialogue.

00:06:32.060 And I think, you know, Ben Shapiro made a great point.

00:06:34.180 You know, he said 10 years ago he used to go do speeches.

00:06:36.040 And he didn't have security.

00:06:36.880 He'd just walk in, do his speech.

00:06:38.140 He either liked it or he hated him, and he walked out.

00:06:39.720 But now they're shutting down the streets.

00:06:41.620 They're destroying campuses, flipping over cars because people want to come talk.

00:06:45.580 So the room for debate has gone away.

00:06:48.160 And with that, I think the silent majority needs to be less silent.

00:06:52.020 And I think we need to kind of take a stand and show that we're proud to be conservative,

00:06:56.700 show our values are actually more in line with what a self-proclaimed college liberal would think.

00:07:01.680 We're not as bad as, you know, the old Republicans they think we are.

00:07:04.640 There has been a shift.

00:07:06.100 I even noticed that we graduated in the same year, in 2012.

00:07:09.020 And I noticed it from my freshman year to my senior year.

00:07:13.060 Maybe it was because it was an election year.

00:07:15.380 When we got there, Barack Obama had just won.

00:07:18.080 Everybody was jumping for joy, except for the five of us Republicans on campus were swinging vodka in one of the freshman dorms.

00:07:26.220 That shift, it really did happen.

00:07:27.700 It's really gotten mean.

00:07:28.580 I went back up for my reunion.

00:07:30.600 It seems much more vicious, much more tense than it was.

00:07:34.180 Because a lot of times people will write in for the mailbag or whatever and say,

00:07:38.920 if I'm a conservative at college, should I speak my mind or should I hide and get good grades?

00:07:45.000 What do you think?

00:07:46.600 Oh, there's a fine line.

00:07:47.920 I think the answer used to be you kind of hide and get good grades because get the good grades, that's going to help and whatever.

00:07:55.360 But now I think, I mean, I'm starting a movement myself.

00:07:58.460 I have some people who are going to go out to college campuses this fall and start interviewing protesters and events at liberal, you know, liberal events at their local colleges.

00:08:08.340 And interview the people and just have a discussion and then send me the footage and then I'm going to chop it up and make like a, you know, best of the fans of Fluckus Talks.

00:08:17.120 So I'm trying to take back the colleges.

00:08:18.720 I think that's the next frontier.

00:08:20.660 I think people are being indoctrinated.

00:08:23.480 There's no better word than that.

00:08:24.800 And we need to get in the faces of the liberals nonviolently and say, what are you doing here?

00:08:31.120 Why do you disagree with Trump?

00:08:32.760 Why do you disagree with this policy?

00:08:34.040 And ask questions where people need to explain themselves because we need to stop the politicization of morality.

00:08:39.740 It's not where the game's headed.

00:08:41.440 So what is the moment?

00:08:42.940 What is the Fleckus on the road to Damascus?

00:08:45.300 You're at Dartmouth.

00:08:46.400 You're up there in Hanover.

00:08:47.820 Is there some big event that happens?

00:08:50.220 Is it just you're reading certain things, you're talking to certain people, or you're just getting progressively disgusted by the lefties?

00:08:57.660 So it's a combination of, yeah, getting constantly disgusted by the left.

00:09:02.120 All these social justice warriors and everything they're pushing is just so soft.

00:09:06.960 Like what happened to toughness and grit?

00:09:08.920 That's what America was all about a few years ago.

00:09:10.780 That's like when my grandparents came here and they were tough.

00:09:13.560 And my grandma came here and she worked in a factory and sewed dresses and took care of her family and saved all the money she could to help, you know, her daughter.

00:09:20.220 Which is my mom.

00:09:21.060 And then it keeps, you know, those values need to be instilled.

00:09:23.820 And they're not.

00:09:24.940 And I think it's just like the universities have become this safe space and it's too safe.

00:09:30.280 It's too soft.

00:09:31.120 And it's about time we take it back.

00:09:33.700 This is a little bit of a tangential point, but you're also of Italian descent, as I am.

00:09:39.340 Italians tend to trend Republican.

00:09:41.900 Of immigrant groups, Italians tend to be quite Republican.

00:09:44.440 And my family on the Italian side is because of that toughness, that I don't know how to put it, that je ne sais quoi, they tend to vote Republican.

00:09:54.460 They're a little tougher.

00:09:55.860 What is it about the Italian culture that does that?

00:09:59.240 I think, yeah, it's the toughness.

00:10:00.780 It's just they, for me at least, my mom came from a family where they came from nothing. 0.92

00:10:07.360 And they came from Italy with a few dollars in their pocket.

00:10:09.240 They got in a boat.

00:10:10.100 They came here, dropped out of high school, and just worked.

00:10:13.200 And she remembers the lessons she learned for her parents.

00:10:16.040 And I think it's, Italians have, it's like a little toughness. 1.00

00:10:20.440 They really appreciate toughness.

00:10:22.700 They really appreciate grit and hard work and not making excuses.

00:10:25.640 And that's where my wooden spoon microphone comes from.

00:10:28.040 I have the wooden spoon with the mic.

00:10:29.860 Yeah, I was going to ask you about that.

00:10:30.420 So you have, so for those who haven't seen it, Austin's microphone is a wooden spoon with a tape recorder taped to it.

00:10:37.520 So, yeah, what brought that idea?

00:10:39.920 So it's kind of just bringing the wooden spoon back to these leftists because growing up, if I misbehaved, my mom would pull the spoon out and whack it on the table and, you know, calm down.

00:10:49.600 And I listened because I don't want to hit the wooden spoon.

00:10:52.020 And now these protesters, mostly millennials, are out in the streets having a big temper tantrum.

00:10:56.780 And it's because no one gave them the wooden spoon.

00:10:58.940 No one gave them a tough structural upbringing.

00:11:01.020 And now they, you know, they're calling for socialism.

00:11:04.200 They want it their way.

00:11:05.120 They want everyone to be, you know, equal outcome.

00:11:08.160 And it's not where it's headed.

00:11:09.620 Do you think, we talked about this a little bit yesterday, millennials have this reputation of being snowflakes, of being coddled. 1.00

00:11:15.620 They're helicopter parented.

00:11:17.640 They haven't been exposed to the realities of the world.

00:11:23.380 Do you think that's fair?

00:11:24.400 It's a fair criticism of them?

00:11:26.740 They also have a lot of student debt.

00:11:28.500 They've also got a ton of divorced parents.

00:11:30.620 They've also, they're going to inherit a lot of big national debt.

00:11:33.700 Do you think, do you think we're being too hard on millennials or is it just a fact of life and we got to straighten them out?

00:11:39.900 I think, I think the millennial group is still forming.

00:11:42.940 And imagine it being like clay and we're still deciding who these people are going to become, what the culture is going to be, what the main message of this generation is going to be.

00:11:50.600 So I think we're in a point now where we can kind of decide, you know, who the millennials are in a few years from now.

00:11:56.160 Right now, they're coming across as a little soft, a little entitled.

00:12:00.800 They're more educated than ever, but they're sitting in student loan debt with no job.

00:12:04.480 A lot of them live at home.

00:12:05.640 And they're trying to tell us how the country should run, how the government should be run, how the economy should be run.

00:12:10.760 And it's kind of like, just because you're educated and took a class about this doesn't mean that you should be in charge.

00:12:15.660 Like, there's a system here and it involves being tough.

00:12:18.840 It involves, you know, failing and getting back up and going again.

00:12:22.500 And that's what these people lack.

00:12:23.900 And they're very credentialed, but just because they took a class doesn't mean they're educated at all.

00:12:27.860 I mean, education has decayed a lot.

00:12:29.800 I don't know that these people, they might have higher SAT scores, but I don't know that they are more educated than a class from the 1940s or 50s.

00:12:37.240 I totally agree.

00:12:38.440 But they're more entitled than ever, which is a huge issue because, I mean, years back, not everyone went to college, you know?

00:12:44.740 So either, you know, graduate high school, did you do good enough in high school and care about certain stuff?

00:12:48.700 You go to college, cool, get a job.

00:12:50.100 If you don't, get in the workforce.

00:12:51.940 Now everyone goes to college.

00:12:53.300 Everyone thinks, oh, I go to college.

00:12:54.680 $4 million of debt.

00:12:55.600 $4 million of debt.

00:12:56.900 And it's for what?

00:12:57.500 To party for four years and drink a bunch of beer?

00:12:59.580 I would pay a quarter of a million.

00:13:00.540 It is a lot of fun partying for four years.

00:13:02.140 It was great.

00:13:04.960 But, you know, here we are.

00:13:06.560 These people now are, I don't know, why should we give them credibility?

00:13:10.980 Why should they be in charge of anything?

00:13:12.360 I really don't get it.

00:13:13.420 Well, so you're at Dartmouth.

00:13:14.880 You graduate Dartmouth.

00:13:16.020 As is your Ivy League birthright, you immediately go to Wall Street.

00:13:19.700 Just like, you know, when I graduated, they had, I got three emails from Yale's employment office or office of God knows what.

00:13:28.100 And the first one said, a career panel about finance.

00:13:31.920 And the other one said, a career panel in the law.

00:13:34.140 And then the third one said, alternative career paths.

00:13:37.960 Those are the two that you can do.

00:13:39.980 And then you have to.

00:13:40.720 So you go down to Wall Street.

00:13:41.840 What makes you go down there?

00:13:43.520 So growing up, I had a strict upbringing.

00:13:46.440 And my mom had a plan for us.

00:13:48.200 She told all the kids, you know, go to good college.

00:13:51.260 Get a good job.

00:13:52.200 Go move out of the house. 1.00

00:13:53.760 And just make something to yourself.

00:13:54.800 Make something to yourself.

00:13:56.240 So I knew that was, like, my goal at the time.

00:13:59.360 So I got internships.

00:14:01.320 I really built up my resume.

00:14:03.380 I played football.

00:14:04.040 So I reached out to some alumni football players and got hooked up with an internship, which led to a full-time job.

00:14:09.300 And that was basically just following my parents' path, which I'm so happy I did because it was a great experience.

00:14:14.500 I learned about waking up at 5 in the morning every day.

00:14:17.160 I learned about staying late until, you know, you're the last one there.

00:14:20.160 Working 100-hour weeks.

00:14:21.400 Oh, brutal.

00:14:21.700 A number of my friends were working on Wall Street.

00:14:23.540 Exactly.

00:14:24.120 And then they make you go out for drinks with people, and you can't leave until everyone's done.

00:14:27.620 So, you know, you're out until 2, 3 in the morning. 1.00

00:14:29.780 No, you're not going out for those damn drinks. 0.99

00:14:31.340 It's so frustrating. 1.00

00:14:32.480 It's the worst.

00:14:33.040 And you have to come back to work, like, three hours later.

00:14:34.800 Sometimes I went straight to work from, like, you know, hosting clients or whatever.

00:14:38.260 So I learned a lot, though.

00:14:39.320 And then from there, I learned what I didn't want to do.

00:14:41.940 And I learned that I wanted to create my own content.

00:14:45.040 I want to create my own brand and just get out there and create something that can affect people in a bigger way.

00:14:50.340 So you've got a career ahead of you.

00:14:51.680 You're on Wall Street, Dartmouth graduate, king of the world.

00:14:54.520 You're guaranteed to make a lot of money, have a good life.

00:14:57.040 And then you decide to make the very wise decision to throw all of it away to go piss off lefties at airports and on the Internet.

00:15:05.280 I'm not being facetious.

00:15:06.500 I think it was a great decision.

00:15:07.820 But what gave you the guts to do that?

00:15:10.380 I was sitting in my promotion meeting.

00:15:15.520 I was going to get promoted to associate.

00:15:18.320 They were really happy.

00:15:19.340 And I said, actually, I was going to give you guys a two-weeks notice next week.

00:15:22.040 When my contract was up, I'm planning on moving to California.

00:15:24.840 And everyone laughed.

00:15:25.660 They thought it was hilarious.

00:15:26.900 And then I was like, no, seriously, I am.

00:15:28.720 And then some people said, you're making the worst mistake of your life.

00:15:30.580 You can't do this.

00:15:31.300 No one has a job right now.

00:15:32.480 Like, 10,000 people applied for 35 spots.

00:15:34.820 You got one and you're leaving.

00:15:35.920 And I was like, so I moved to California.

00:15:38.260 I bought a 1999 SL500 convertible.

00:15:40.880 Oh, nice.

00:15:41.980 Really cool.

00:15:42.860 I drove that around for a little bit.

00:15:44.380 And then, yeah, and then after a couple of years of making comedy, before this, I wasn't huge into politics until this past election.

00:15:53.940 And I'm so happy I became passionate about it because it's my favorite thing in the world right now.

00:15:58.720 It is amazing.

00:15:59.420 You leave your Wall Street job to go do comedy in Hollywood.

00:16:02.520 But not just to do comedy in Hollywood.

00:16:04.020 To do comedy as a conservative in Hollywood.

00:16:06.760 These are really niche paths you're following here.

00:16:09.720 But it's, you know, you don't look like a banker.

00:16:12.580 You don't.

00:16:13.020 You clearly.

00:16:13.560 And this brings me to my other question.

00:16:15.400 Why are these people talking to you?

00:16:17.000 Why do these guys at these protests allow you to humiliate them on video?

00:16:22.000 Well, I think a lot of the conservative interviewers, like Jesse Waters and those types, they'll come at you with the suit and the microphone and the, you know, production crew.

00:16:30.180 And they're hitting you with questions.

00:16:31.680 And everyone kind of just clams up.

00:16:33.120 And they do a lot of post-production sound effects.

00:16:35.780 And they cut to a, you know, Jack Nicholson clip where he goes, what are you talking about?

00:16:39.360 And then they're like, all right, this guy got roasted.

00:16:41.700 But I think that there's more to it.

00:16:43.340 If we can actually hear these people out, then we can decide really if they make sense.

00:16:48.280 So I sneak up on them, you know, wearing clothes like they wear.

00:16:51.400 This is just stuff I like to wear.

00:16:52.560 But I have my spoon microphone. 1.00

00:16:54.260 I look like an idiot. 1.00

00:16:55.080 I have, like, this dumb, fat face and a beard. 1.00

00:16:57.160 So they just think I'm a nobody. 1.00

00:16:59.180 I go up to them.

00:17:00.080 Hey, what are you doing here?

00:17:00.800 My questions are really easy.

00:17:02.120 What are you doing here?

00:17:03.220 Who did you vote for?

00:17:04.060 What does your sign say? 1.00

00:17:04.920 And they'll be like, oh, I'm here because Donald Trump's worse than Hitler and he's going to kill all the Jews. 1.00

00:17:08.880 And I'm just like, all right, keep going. 1.00

00:17:10.660 Like, that happened last video.

00:17:11.800 That's what someone was saying.

00:17:12.640 And I was like, okay, cool.

00:17:13.700 You know, very cool.

00:17:14.460 Very cool.

00:17:14.980 And what else about this, this, and this?

00:17:16.720 And they just open up to me for some reason.

00:17:18.860 Well, you know, you don't look like a smart conservative.

00:17:21.800 And then you are a smart conservative and it catches them off guard.

00:17:24.620 A lot of great politicians talk about this. 0.99

00:17:26.560 They talk about playing dumber than their mark. 0.98

00:17:28.500 Bill Clinton does it. 0.99

00:17:29.440 George W. Bush does it.

00:17:30.560 Do you think that is the way to engage lefties?

00:17:34.460 You play a little, you don't try to slam them.

00:17:36.540 You don't.

00:17:36.840 Yeah.

00:17:37.300 I think 100%.

00:17:38.340 And I think that's what Trump does too.

00:17:39.860 I agree.

00:17:40.760 Because people look at Trump and you look at Trump in either one or two ways. 1.00

00:17:44.180 You either think he's a brilliant, you know, mastermind savant, or you think, oh, he's some real estate idiot who's in charge of the country. 1.00

00:17:51.460 I can't believe it. 0.98

00:17:52.020 Who's just coincidentally succeeded in like four different industries and reached the top of all of them.

00:17:55.740 You know, exactly. 0.97

00:17:56.960 And if you look at him like he's, so if you're here and you look at him like he's dumb, he knows that. 0.95

00:18:01.160 And he embraces that, kind of embraces his like, you know, his Queens, New York. 0.74

00:18:05.660 And he lets you think that because now when you're looking at him down like this, he's really up here making moves, you know, and he has your reaction to him planned for.

00:18:14.040 He knows what you're going to think about all the stuff he does.

00:18:16.160 And he's like a step ahead.

00:18:17.220 It's the 4D chess they talk about.

00:18:18.660 Right.

00:18:19.080 So you're an adherent of the 4D chess.

00:18:21.100 Oh, yeah. 1.00

00:18:21.940 I don't think the guy's an idiot. 1.00

00:18:23.520 I think it is really hard to imagine that a guy would succeed in television, real estate, casinos. 0.99

00:18:32.740 And he has succeeded in all of them.

00:18:34.380 He's had bad deals.

00:18:35.200 He's had things go bankrupt.

00:18:36.780 And then obviously politics.

00:18:38.100 He comes in his first race ever. 0.99

00:18:39.540 He beats 16 of the most prominent politicians in the country and then takes out the Clintons. 0.81

00:18:44.980 It's hard to imagine that guy's a dummy.

00:18:47.180 Do you think conservatism is ascendant right now?

00:18:49.960 Do you think in the age of Trump we're just winning, winning, we're getting sick and tired of winning?

00:18:54.720 Or do you think, you know, some of the never Trump people say really it's a Pyrrhic victory.

00:18:59.720 We're losing the culture.

00:19:01.580 We're becoming too much like the left.

00:19:03.500 Do you think we're winning?

00:19:04.360 Do you think we're losing?

00:19:04.940 Is Trump a net positive or a net negative?

00:19:06.720 I think right now it's net positive.

00:19:10.440 The way I watch the news now, which is, it's actually been working out.

00:19:14.200 I watch the mainstream news like CNN, for example, and I watch it backwards.

00:19:18.880 So I'll see the leaking of, oh, Manafort's house got raided a month ago and that gets leaked.

00:19:25.620 I see that as, okay, some big news is coming for the right and that's their preemptive thing 0.84

00:19:29.460 to kind of like eat up the news cycle when it's happening.

00:19:31.800 That's an interesting theory and not, probably not far from the truth.

00:19:37.420 I would not put it past them at all.

00:19:39.260 I mean, the lies that have been published.

00:19:41.220 New York Times just got caught in this big climate change report lie.

00:19:44.760 Their whole report was inaccurate.

00:19:46.840 CNN, one story after another.

00:19:48.560 Washington Post, same thing.

00:19:50.300 They're clearly, they've become activists.

00:19:52.720 If ever they weren't activists against the Republican Party.

00:19:56.200 Wouldn't be surprised at all.

00:19:57.100 I think we've got to try to, I've got to try your strategy.

00:20:00.460 Yeah, it works.

00:20:01.600 Yeah.

00:20:03.360 That, so you're, you're reaching out to these college kids.

00:20:07.100 Do you think, we're talking about post-millennials, really.

00:20:09.960 We're not talking about 28, 29 year olds.

00:20:12.700 We're talking about these kids who are in college now.

00:20:15.200 If we were the Obama generation, do you think there's a chance that the dominant culture among

00:20:20.500 these young people, the, or not dominant, but the subversive and cool culture is finally

00:20:25.920 on the right?

00:20:26.600 Are we finally seeing that or are we kidding ourselves?

00:20:28.640 Yeah, I absolutely believe that.

00:20:30.800 And I think the strongest movements are kind of like these cult followings and these like,

00:20:34.800 you know, very niche specific.

00:20:38.000 And that's right where we're falling into here.

00:20:39.720 Um, I think the younger generations, generation Z, right?

00:20:45.060 They're more conservative than ever.

00:20:46.760 And they don't like getting their news from TV.

00:20:49.280 They like to go online.

00:20:50.120 They go to research.

00:20:50.780 They like the Reddits and 4chan and all that kind of stuff.

00:20:53.320 So it's like these people aren't going to just take what's fed to them and say, oh,

00:20:57.320 like, that's what I believe.

00:20:58.280 Oh, Obama's great.

00:20:59.420 Trump's bad.

00:21:00.160 They're actually, they desire the truth.

00:21:02.320 And the ways of the old Republicans where it's kind of in your face, America, guns, all

00:21:07.380 these things, that's getting adjusted and the parties are rebranding.

00:21:11.260 The Democrats aren't doing a good job of it.

00:21:12.760 They keep pushing Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer, Hillary Clinton, it's like so bad.

00:21:17.300 But the right is rebranding and the new young conservative movement is going to take pride

00:21:22.840 in knowing the facts.

00:21:23.800 They love knowing the facts because then they can go debate anybody and say it pretty much

00:21:27.660 however they want if they're based in truth.

00:21:29.980 And they're slowly fighting back and taking back the culture.

00:21:33.540 And I think we're coming into a really cool nonviolent war here.

00:21:37.240 That's going to be exciting.

00:21:38.280 And they're fighting this sentimental PC hogwash that we've been imbued with for decade upon

00:21:47.100 decade.

00:21:47.560 It is an exciting time, almost as exciting as bringing on the panel of deplorables.

00:21:53.200 We're very lucky today.

00:21:54.440 We've got Zoe Rachel and Antonia Okafor, and Fleckis is going to stick around.

00:21:58.580 So we've got all of these internet-y people here.

00:22:02.020 I've got to ask, all of us in our political lives, every person here is sort of a product

00:22:06.400 of the internet.

00:22:07.360 That was our entrance into politics.

00:22:09.780 So, Zoe, is it because the internet as a whole leans right, or is it because everything else

00:22:15.720 leans left or some combination?

00:22:17.260 Well, the conversation is about, I got the email for a conservative culture, and I was

00:22:25.080 like, conservative internet culture, we got one?

00:22:27.520 Really?

00:22:30.220 No, but in terms of it leaning right or leaning left, it's a foundation of leftism that the

00:22:37.280 right is using and trying to use it.

00:22:39.980 Now, let me just kind of do this from the lens of my own experience, because I don't

00:22:43.920 want to make this about me and make it sound self-absorbed.

00:22:47.480 But as I'm examining it, I know that it's a leftist foundation, because when it comes

00:22:52.000 to people like me, they don't want people to see people like me at all.

00:22:55.940 That's right.

00:22:56.360 Because my work isn't trying, I'm not trying to make, I'm not trying to make leftists angry.

00:23:02.460 I usually make them laugh, and the leftists can't have that.

00:23:05.800 You make me laugh at leftists.

00:23:07.780 I, I, I'm getting confused in our, yeah, I'm sorry.

00:23:10.680 The world view is absurd, and it's easy to make jokes out of.

00:23:13.680 So, but the thing is, is what, what, what they'll do is that they'll try to mask my work

00:23:17.940 to make it look uninterested.

00:23:19.280 They don't even send trolls after me anymore, because trolls equals views.

00:23:23.460 They don't want my views to go up, and sometimes when the trolls come, they end up reconsidering

00:23:28.740 what it is that they thought, so they can't have that either.

00:23:31.240 So, basically all that to say is, when you, to your question of, does it lean right or

00:23:35.160 does it lean left?

00:23:35.860 No, it's on a leftist foundation.

00:23:37.400 Google, YouTube, this is their platform, this is their foundation that we're making use

00:23:41.140 of, and I think that kind of has to stop.

00:23:43.520 And, you know, speaking, I've lived under the bridge for a very long time, and I can say,

00:23:46.940 while the internet and these platforms might be left, those trolls definitely lean right.

00:23:51.040 There is no question about that.

00:23:52.200 Antonia, do you think this right-wing online activism, the, the laughs and the serious commentary

00:23:58.800 and the facts and all of that, does it translate into real political results, or are we all

00:24:03.680 just babbling into the air?

00:24:06.060 Yeah, no, I definitely think that it, there has results, definitely.

00:24:10.140 I think that really, like I said, like you said, I started out with the internet culture,

00:24:16.100 like being able to spread my message that way.

00:24:18.360 And I think because people, just like he was saying, like Zoe just said, that because

00:24:22.260 they, when they do see people like me and they're like, oh my gosh, that's not what I think of

00:24:25.860 as the traditional conservative.

00:24:27.380 Well, now their, their stereotypes have changed.

00:24:31.560 And really, basically their whole, their whole foundation has changed because the left has

00:24:35.600 made it so much about race and sex and gender.

00:24:38.940 So, um, I think, yeah, the more, and that's why we don't see people like us because it

00:24:44.180 really is changing people's minds and making people, I mean, that's what changed me.

00:24:47.940 I saw someone else who was a black conservative and I was like, whoa, they exist.

00:24:51.700 And then I was like, okay, well, I guess I could come out of the closet now.

00:24:54.880 So, uh, yeah, I think it does make a difference.

00:24:57.040 It just, it smashes this whole vision that we've been presented with.

00:25:01.320 I don't think anybody on the screen right now is what people think of when they think

00:25:05.220 of the young Republican.

00:25:06.880 Maybe even, you know, my jacket's a little too loud.

00:25:08.880 Usually it's the Brooks brothers buttoned up, the hair parted, all of that, that, and

00:25:13.060 also you've actually had some very real results in, in your activism on guns.

00:25:17.820 And, uh, and obviously, you know, we were talked about last week, the number of black

00:25:22.020 women in particular who are, who are purchasing guns and getting permits is way up. 1.00

00:25:27.200 So we're, at least with you, we're seeing real results when you have mugs, like the

00:25:30.780 three of us, probably not as effective, but at least Antonia Okafor is. 1.00

00:25:34.880 Michael, you need to give yourself credit.

00:25:36.380 I mean, you went to Yale and you are still a conservative.

00:25:40.420 So I think you should give yourself a law marker.

00:25:43.180 I appreciate it.

00:25:44.260 The thing that Yale can do is either make you into a kind of left-wing automaton, or it

00:25:49.060 makes you such a reactionary that you'd go completely in the other direction.

00:25:53.620 All right. 0.97

00:25:54.280 You know, on that, I have to address all you cheapskates out there because you cheapskates 0.99

00:25:58.960 who want to keep watching this panel of deplorables, discuss all the news of the day and get the

00:26:03.920 mailbag even later on.

00:26:05.420 You can't do it unless you go to dailywire.com right now and subscribe.

00:26:08.840 It's $10 a month, $100 a year, and you get everything.

00:26:12.600 You get my show.

00:26:13.840 You get the Andrew Klavan show.

00:26:15.280 You get the Ben Shapiro show.

00:26:16.560 All three of which are in the top 25 on news and politics in the entire world.

00:26:20.920 Go there right now.

00:26:21.960 Don't be a cheapskate, and you get all the rest. 0.80

00:26:23.760 Dailywire.com.

00:26:36.840 Forget about all of this internet news, this culture, this politics.

00:26:40.640 We need to talk about the really important issues. 1.00

00:26:42.940 According to the Washington Post, some idiot assembled a giant inflatable chicken with 0.99

00:26:48.340 golden Donald Trump hair outside of the White House on Wednesday. 1.00

00:26:52.140 Do you get it? 0.99

00:26:52.920 Because Donald Trump is a chicken. 0.99

00:26:54.860 Do you get it? 0.99

00:26:55.540 Isn't it so funny?

00:26:57.320 Austin, President Obama's strategy in Libya was called leading from behind.

00:27:03.080 His strategy on North Korea was called strategic patience.

00:27:06.600 And yet they're accusing our side of being chickens.

00:27:09.560 Are they just projecting?

00:27:11.200 Where are they getting this from?

00:27:12.720 I think it's, yeah, definitely partially projecting.

00:27:15.040 But anything the guy does, they have to hate.

00:27:18.180 So if he comes out and says, you know, everyone's great, and I love the left, I love the right,

00:27:22.800 and all people are equal, they get mad about it.

00:27:25.300 Kim Jong-un comes out and threatens to nuke us or nuke Guam, you know, one of our provinces.

00:27:32.040 What's wrong with what he said?

00:27:33.400 He took a strong stance.

00:27:34.760 Something we haven't done in the past, and now it's, you know, he's being offensive or

00:27:39.300 he's being irrational.

00:27:40.820 The guy can't get it right.

00:27:42.780 That's absolutely right.

00:27:43.900 Whatever he does, they have to do the opposite, I guess.

00:27:45.840 And on this kind of psychobabble thing, Zoe, the Democrats called Bush a chicken hawk.

00:27:51.720 They called, same thing about Dick Cheney.

00:27:54.160 They said that George W. Bush had daddy issues and was trying to resolve what his father didn't

00:27:58.740 resolve.

00:27:59.260 It's all of this psychobabble.

00:28:01.500 Why do they love making these insinuations instead of talking about real issues and real

00:28:06.960 policies?

00:28:08.800 Well, if we're going to use the term psychobabble, let's toss in the word projection because that's

00:28:13.120 what they're doing.

00:28:13.680 They're projecting their own disposition onto somebody else.

00:28:16.700 And if they want to call Donald Trump a chicken, man, have you guys seen that viral video, man,

00:28:22.120 where he has this cat, like, batting this little mouse around, right?

00:28:26.440 And I imagine this cat, have you seen it?

00:28:28.220 You know what I'm talking about?

00:28:28.800 I do, yeah.

00:28:29.200 Because this cat is batting this mouse around, just playing with it, and this chicken comes

00:28:33.400 out of nowhere, man, and snatches up this mouse and just starts bashing it on the floor,

00:28:37.660 man, and just runs off with this mouse.

00:28:39.400 Now, if you're going to call Donald Trump a chicken, that's what it's like.

00:28:42.040 Because it's like Hillary's the cat, like, batting around CNN, saying, you guys are going

00:28:45.800 to do my bidding, right?

00:28:46.860 I'm going to be the next president, right?

00:28:48.360 I'm going to be the next president.

00:28:49.200 And then Donald Trump the chicken just comes and says, nope, mine.

00:28:52.200 I'm running off with it.

00:28:53.160 Just batting the CNN around.

00:28:54.280 It's a president.

00:28:55.040 It's fine.

00:28:55.400 Marshall, we need to make a note.

00:28:56.580 You need to animate that immediately.

00:28:57.820 We need to get that as exactly the right image.

00:29:01.240 Right away, Michael.

00:29:05.940 Now, Antonia, we're lucky that we have Antonia here because your reputation and your motives 0.99

00:29:11.740 are constantly impugned, too.

00:29:13.680 People insinuate all sorts of cycle babble on you.

00:29:16.380 How do you respond to those people?

00:29:17.860 Do you respond to those accusations?

00:29:20.300 Or do you just ignore them and move on and keep doing what you're doing?

00:29:23.660 Oh, no.

00:29:25.340 Yeah, I completely, I always just ignore because I'm better than everybody.

00:29:29.560 No way.

00:29:30.020 I definitely, I definitely.

00:29:31.320 It is true, though. 0.81

00:29:32.140 It's certainly true.

00:29:34.640 I definitely talk to them and I definitely respond.

00:29:37.760 I try to, depending on my mood, actually, like, have a coherent conversation that's not 0.93

00:29:42.860 just, well, you suck back or, you know, something like that. 0.97

00:29:46.460 But most of the time. 0.99

00:29:48.680 No, you don't shoot them.

00:29:49.320 Oh, I should have, right?

00:29:50.460 I use my graduate degree, I guess, kind of.

00:29:53.600 And no, I don't.

00:29:55.720 It's really just student loan money that I'm going to have to pay back later.

00:29:58.560 But really, when I do come down to it, I tell them, especially, like, when it comes to the

00:30:03.000 race issue, they'll be like, oh, you're a token. 0.67

00:30:05.580 Oh, you're an NRA.

00:30:06.520 I mean, I'm doing stuff with the NRA.

00:30:08.060 Like, oh, they're just using you, you know.

00:30:11.140 Basically, they're telling me that because I'm a black person, another black person is 0.51

00:30:14.860 telling me as a black person that because I am a black person, that's the only, like,

00:30:21.020 credibility that I have in order to succeed.

00:30:23.980 And then yet they're like, oh, well, you know what?

00:30:25.600 We really need, like, affirmative action and we need all these different things because

00:30:28.220 I just don't understand this culture that does not think that black people are able

00:30:31.900 to actually have thoughts outside of being controlled by somebody.

00:30:36.100 That's right. 0.71

00:30:36.420 You only have brains. 0.65

00:30:38.080 You only have brains if you parrot what everybody else is saying. 1.00

00:30:41.060 But if you think for yourself, then you're totally brain dead. 1.00

00:30:43.520 You're a puppet. 1.00

00:30:44.200 You're being used.

00:30:45.440 And, of course, it makes total sense.

00:30:46.860 If you think for yourself and it's not the problem, exactly.

00:30:49.680 You need to learn to think for yourself.

00:30:51.240 And that means thinking just like me.

00:30:53.820 Yeah, exactly.

00:30:54.700 I got to say, it's that beard, man.

00:30:56.300 It's never been asked.

00:30:58.360 Thank you.

00:30:59.540 It's going to get them on that YouTube watch list.

00:31:01.580 Now, KLM, the Dutch airline, has recently gotten into the news because they tweeted out

00:31:07.520 a photo for Pride Month.

00:31:09.320 It was three rainbow seatbelts in a row.

00:31:12.120 And they had one where it was the male buckle and the female buckle.

00:31:14.840 And then they had one where it was the male buckle and the male buckle. 0.96

00:31:17.720 And then one where it was the female buckle and the female buckle. 1.00

00:31:19.640 And the tweet read, it doesn't matter who you click with.

00:31:23.900 Happy Pride Amsterdam.

00:31:25.620 Now, there is just one issue with this image that only one of them clicks.

00:31:30.460 Only the male and female actually click. 0.99

00:31:32.780 Now, Zoe, is this the stupidest tweet of all time? 1.00

00:31:35.780 Or is this 4D chess? 1.00

00:31:38.020 You know, we are talking about KLM on the show today.

00:31:41.440 Maybe they're just masterminds.

00:31:43.180 Probably not.

00:31:43.800 You know, the law of nature itself dictates that you can't connect poles to poles and

00:31:53.200 holes to holes, man.

00:31:54.880 You know, it's like, that's not the...

00:31:57.220 I'm going to have to edit that out.

00:31:58.600 Thank you, Zoe.

00:31:59.000 That is about as accurate an analysis as I've heard of this.

00:32:04.600 You know, I mean, wow.

00:32:06.360 Talk about this is Twilight Zone type stuff, man.

00:32:09.140 It's just by the laws of nature, that doesn't work.

00:32:12.940 It's like, this is pride?

00:32:14.040 That pride ain't going to work if you...

00:32:15.340 Adam, man, I don't even know how to respond to that.

00:32:18.320 That's just funny.

00:32:19.380 Maybe it was really...

00:32:20.280 Maybe it was anti-gay marriage.

00:32:21.720 You're saying it doesn't matter whom you click with.

00:32:23.480 It just has to click.

00:32:24.660 It has to click or it's an abomination.

00:32:26.520 Maybe that's what they...

00:32:27.280 That could have been the esoteric message.

00:32:29.720 You can't naturally make that click, man.

00:32:31.560 It's like, what you going to hold that together with?

00:32:33.080 Duct tape?

00:32:33.580 That just doesn't work, man.

00:32:36.240 Doesn't matter who you click with.

00:32:37.500 And if it doesn't click, roll it up and duct tape.

00:32:39.380 Antonia, why is an airline tweeting about sex?

00:32:43.040 Why do I care?

00:32:44.340 I've flown KLM.

00:32:45.400 It's fine.

00:32:46.100 Why do we care what KLM thinks about homosexuality or Pride Month or whatever? 1.00

00:32:52.540 Well, why is Teen Vogue writing articles about how you can have anal sex? 1.00

00:32:57.560 I mean... 0.98

00:32:58.220 I canceled my subscription, so I haven't read the article.

00:33:00.740 Well, I mean, as I'm telling you, it was just day and age that anything goes, apparently.

00:33:08.260 I mean, yeah.

00:33:08.880 But the funny thing, too, is that at first I was like, oh, man, that social media intern

00:33:12.860 is totally, like, not getting any school credit on that.

00:33:16.280 I just can't.

00:33:16.880 But then I was like...

00:33:17.680 But then they had the picture with it.

00:33:19.660 If it was just the text, it would have been, like, a social media intern.

00:33:22.840 But then they actually put thought into it, had a picture, you know, displayed it,

00:33:26.480 and made a campaign.

00:33:28.180 That's right.

00:33:28.560 They probably had a meeting about this.

00:33:30.740 They probably had several meetings about this.

00:33:33.020 Yeah.

00:33:33.480 So I'm just like, yeah, I'm not flying with that airline, obviously.

00:33:38.400 They can't even put those two things together.

00:33:40.600 Oh, God.

00:33:41.020 I mean, the fact that I was, like, looking at it, and people were thinking, well,

00:33:45.220 but that doesn't actually click, and then they say it in the actual text.

00:33:49.060 That's when you're just like, wow.

00:33:49.660 I wonder what the safety demonstration looks like.

00:33:51.800 Excuse me.

00:33:53.880 I'll show you how it works. 1.00

00:33:55.080 Now, Austin, you make leftists say stupid things on video. 1.00

00:34:00.580 But KLM is showing us that leftists will just say stupid things themselves, 1.00

00:34:05.140 completely unprovoked. 1.00

00:34:06.460 Is there a place for us in this world?

00:34:08.880 Or have they transcended parody?

00:34:12.940 I think there is a place for us.

00:34:14.700 I think this is a perfect opportunity.

00:34:16.920 And I've realized, too, in the last, especially the last year,

00:34:20.600 if you're going to put something on the Internet,

00:34:22.940 it better be what you really believe.

00:34:24.740 Because the trolls are going to tear it apart.

00:34:27.120 So once I saw this come up, I was like, all right, here it comes.

00:34:30.660 And sure enough, all the conservatives went right after it.

00:34:34.100 And I'm sure KLM will be out with, like, a, you know, some, you know, an amendment to it.

00:34:39.800 They'll come out with some sort of, like, retraction down the road.

00:34:43.760 They'll have to.

00:34:44.340 Because anything you put out right now, if it doesn't line up with certain groups,

00:34:48.640 we'll play their own game at it.

00:34:49.900 And we'll just, the trolls will tear it up.

00:34:51.540 Absolutely.

00:34:52.340 Now, another important story.

00:34:54.420 There has been a discovery of a 13-million-year-old ape skull that shows what human ancestors may have looked like.

00:35:01.900 Question goes to you, Austin.

00:35:03.400 Why was it necessary for God to put this fake skull on earth to test our faith?

00:35:07.260 Why did he have to do that?

00:35:10.340 Yeah.

00:35:11.020 It's a great question.

00:35:12.820 It's just a perfect opportunity to continue to be faithful, though.

00:35:15.940 We have to ignore this.

00:35:17.180 We have to ignore science, selectively, of course.

00:35:19.680 Of course.

00:35:20.100 And we have to kind of, you know, decide what we believe and what we don't believe.

00:35:23.740 I don't believe it.

00:35:24.380 Well, now you sound like the left, because we need some science, but we need to selectively ignore science.

00:35:30.240 You know, the same people who tell us that men are really women if they say they're women, but not if they don't say they're women.

00:35:35.800 They accuse us, conservatives, of denying science.

00:35:39.080 Antonia, do you think there is a conflict between faith and science?

00:35:43.680 Well, first of all, I remember specifically that Zodos said that he was going to identify as a woman,

00:35:48.720 so there would be half an equal representation of genders in this panel, but fine, I'll have to tweet about it later.

00:35:55.520 I know.

00:35:55.880 He's denying science, denying it.

00:35:57.600 It's getting very confusing.

00:36:00.640 I'm really sick of it, actually.

00:36:02.400 I'm definitely sick of it.

00:36:04.260 Yeah, so faith and science.

00:36:08.400 I mean, for me, I mean, I'm a woman of faith, and I definitely believe that.

00:36:12.740 I think all of the stuff that's happening is really just showing, is just backing up our faith.

00:36:18.020 I mean, I'm a Christian, so I still believe, though, that God has had a plan for people, and this is part of his plan.

00:36:26.160 And we're just, science is uncovering what he already has done.

00:36:29.340 It's giving evidence for intelligent design.

00:36:32.060 Right, yeah, yeah.

00:36:32.760 Absolutely.

00:36:33.240 A lot of people, they'll say, well, do you believe in Genesis, or do you believe in the Big Bang?

00:36:38.600 And people forget, because not only are they science deniers, but they're history deniers, that it was a Catholic priest who discovered the Big Bang.

00:36:46.000 It was George Lemaitre who discovered it.

00:36:48.280 And the more that we learn about science, the more light that's been shown on our faith, it seems to me.

00:36:53.800 Zoe, what do you think?

00:36:54.420 Are you a science denier, a God denier, or both?

00:36:57.360 I bet you're both.

00:36:58.000 Oh, man, I'm a denier of neither, and I'll tell you what, man.

00:37:03.320 You know, the things that they claim to, you know, come up with in science, you know, these are all discoveries.

00:37:08.400 That's all you can really do in science is discovery.

00:37:10.160 And the things that they discover are things that the Bible has already talked about.

00:37:12.960 You know, when they talk about even the Big Bang, right, or when they're talking about how the universe is expanding.

00:37:17.240 You know, they say that the universe is contracting.

00:37:19.380 Then they say that the universe is expanding.

00:37:20.860 Not only is it expanding, it's speeding up.

00:37:22.780 Well, the Bible already told us that the Lord spreads out the heavens like a tent.

00:37:25.840 That has to start from a compressed point and then open up.

00:37:28.760 In terms of the ape skull, I don't know how they tie that to us.

00:37:33.220 If they want to go ahead and see themselves as descendants of apes, go ahead, you know, be my guest. 0.98

00:37:36.880 It was a descendant of Joe Biden, or an ancestor, rather, of Joe Biden, I think.

00:37:40.100 There you go, there you go.

00:37:41.360 That facial structure seems to add up somehow, but I guess they're trying to put a date on Earth.

00:37:46.360 And the thing is, if you read the Bible, the Bible lets you know quite clearly that there was an Earth before the Genesis account.

00:37:54.400 All you have to do is read the thing.

00:37:55.720 The reading, though, reading is tough.

00:37:57.300 We don't do that so much anymore.

00:37:59.920 At most, I'll read a text or two.

00:38:01.740 Okay, panel, thank you so much for being here.

00:38:04.720 We have Zoe Rachel, Antonia Okafor, and Fleckis Talks.

00:38:07.320 Now it is time for the mailbag.

00:38:09.960 We have got a lot of mailbag questions today, so we are going to fly through these.

00:38:14.440 The first one comes from Johnny.

00:38:16.600 Dear MKUltra, thank you.

00:38:18.140 That's very nice.

00:38:19.100 Should a conservative walk through a hyper-leftist school unseen to survive, or should they try to explain their beliefs to their peers?

00:38:25.820 Austin, I guess we talked about that a little bit.

00:38:28.040 I take a different view than I think most people.

00:38:31.500 I think a lot of people say, put your head down, get the good grades, get out of here.

00:38:35.720 I personally am convinced, at least on one occasion, my grades were hurt at Yale because of my views.

00:38:42.680 Only on one occasion, though, which says a lot about the school.

00:38:45.940 I did not do that.

00:38:46.980 I was very open about my politics.

00:38:48.780 I was the head of every conservative Republican thing.

00:38:51.800 I trolled every lefty that I saw.

00:38:55.100 We did Occupy, Occupy New Haven.

00:38:57.940 We did all these things.

00:38:59.400 And I've enjoyed it.

00:39:00.280 Same thing in Hollywood.

00:39:02.200 Since I've been, you know, I was an actor in New York and theater, film, TV, out here as well, and I was always open about my politics.

00:39:09.860 Has it hurt me?

00:39:10.480 Did it hurt me at Yale academically or socially?

00:39:13.060 Did it hurt me in show business?

00:39:15.200 Maybe it has.

00:39:16.380 I never wanted to hide my own views.

00:39:19.080 I don't think it's worth doing that.

00:39:21.540 I don't think that you should be denying what you think.

00:39:24.340 But that said, there are huge risks to it.

00:39:27.260 So you've got to really weigh it out.

00:39:29.480 There are risks to both sides, and I don't think there's an easy answer on it.

00:39:33.600 But what I would do is be honest about your point of view.

00:39:36.680 Next question from Joe.

00:39:38.660 Grandmaster Knowles, thank you.

00:39:40.580 A lot of talk over this NASA planetary defender position.

00:39:43.940 Is there any chance that a certain best-selling author, Ivy League-educated, Sicilian provocateur will be applying?

00:39:50.120 Just show them the framed tweet.

00:39:51.280 The thought of you being the only line of defense between me and the threat of alien annihilation makes me truly believe in Trump's America.

00:39:57.960 Looking forward to the sequel.

00:39:59.420 I am convinced I am the planetary protector.

00:40:03.120 I'm convinced I'm Neo in The Matrix.

00:40:05.320 Ever since my blank book became the number one bestseller, I now know this isn't the real world.

00:40:10.080 This is only a simulation.

00:40:11.500 So maybe I'm Keanu Reeves.

00:40:13.580 I'm glad that I got the position.

00:40:15.000 Didn't even have to apply.

00:40:16.340 Next question from Alistair.

00:40:18.040 Hi, Michael.

00:40:18.780 Yay, finally a podcast.

00:40:20.040 So happy for you.

00:40:20.800 I'm looking for the most comprehensive definition of what conservatism is.

00:40:24.540 Would it be fair to say that the most comprehensive guide would be the entirety of the Federalist Papers?

00:40:29.200 Would there need to be anything added to that?

00:40:31.260 Or does the Federalist Papers delve outside the scope of what conservatism is?

00:40:35.320 I'm happy to give a definition.

00:40:37.260 I think conservatism evades definition, though.

00:40:40.700 In my view, it would be three things.

00:40:43.140 Ordered liberty, human dignity, and a skepticism of ideology.

00:40:47.980 So I love The Federalist.

00:40:49.040 Everyone should read The Federalist cover to cover.

00:40:51.340 If you're in this country, you should have read The Federalist.

00:40:54.040 There are also other people to read.

00:40:55.880 Edmund Burke, Russell Kirk, Conscience of a Conservative, Bill Buckley.

00:41:00.120 All of those great writers who contributed.

00:41:02.740 Tocqueville.

00:41:04.460 Also, I think people ought to read.

00:41:06.060 Michael Oakeshott gave a definition of ideology in the essay Rationalism and Politics.

00:41:11.540 It was so influential to my political view that I memorized it.

00:41:15.740 He defines ideology as the formalized abridgment of the supposed substratum of rational truth contained in the tradition.

00:41:22.620 And that's why the rationalists always get a bunch of cockamamie ideas and ignore reality in front of them.

00:41:29.380 A lot of times college professors seem to be saying, who cares if it works in practice?

00:41:33.940 Does it work in theory?

00:41:35.540 And so I recommend reading those guys and always having a healthy skepticism of ideology, of checklists, of political tests one way or the other,

00:41:47.460 and taking it as a whole, institutions, the institutions of the West, and the ideas that have guided them and that have come out of them.

00:41:55.040 Next question from Silas.

00:41:56.280 This is a much more serious question than that.

00:41:58.480 Dear Mr. Knowledge, I meant Knowles.

00:42:00.220 Well, it's the same thing, I guess.

00:42:01.640 I think you're right.

00:42:02.700 Hail to you, Sir Trolls, a lot.

00:42:04.660 Right-hand man to Commandant Klavan, beater of Shapiro in a game of chance.

00:42:07.680 Both true.

00:42:08.480 I will ask you one more time.

00:42:10.100 Can you confirm or deny that Andrew Klavan, the master of the multiverse and slayer of PC dragons, is an extraterrestrial shapeshifter?

00:42:17.600 Silas, come on, man.

00:42:18.700 Can I confirm or deny that fish swim or that birds fly?

00:42:22.820 Use your mind.

00:42:23.460 Open your eyes, man.

00:42:24.380 Wake up, sheeple. 1.00

00:42:25.300 Next question comes from Rosemary.

00:42:27.860 One, please distinguish Sicilian from Italian.

00:42:30.360 Yes, it matters.

00:42:31.320 About seven shades of color is the difference.

00:42:34.460 And the second question is, please expand on your reversion to Christianity.

00:42:39.880 I'm happy to do that.

00:42:40.780 We talked a little bit about this last week.

00:42:42.300 I was an atheist, agnostic, practical atheist from 13 to 20, 21, 22.

00:42:50.020 And one thing that was strange is everyone at Yale was an atheist, but the smartest people at Yale were Christian, particularly Catholic or Eastern Orthodox in my experience.

00:42:59.020 And so I started to contemplate the arguments for God.

00:43:02.780 I think a lot of people come to religion and Christianity in particular because of a religious experience, a numinous experience of some sort, ineffable.

00:43:11.260 It wasn't that way for me, primarily.

00:43:13.080 That came later.

00:43:13.680 I considered the arguments for God.

00:43:15.700 There were about a dozen good ones, and I was just convinced.

00:43:18.960 I thought the arguments for God were better than the arguments against God, in particular, rather, the ontological argument, which was formed by St. Anselm of Canterbury and then later reformulated by Leibniz and Gödel.

00:43:31.640 And the one that got me was the modal ontological argument, which was put forth by Alvin Plantinga, a Calvinist out of Notre Dame.

00:43:38.800 The argument, I'm not doing it justice, but the simple argument is this.

00:43:42.800 God is the maximally great being.

00:43:44.500 That's the definition of God.

00:43:45.720 He has all the great-making characteristics, none of the corrupting characteristics.

00:43:50.240 It is better to exist than not to exist.

00:43:53.060 Therefore, God must exist.

00:43:55.020 It's much more elegant when you read it, but that's the gist of the argument.

00:43:58.120 It convinces no one, but it did convince me, and I think C.S. Lewis, too.

00:44:01.600 I think it convinced him.

00:44:02.860 And after that, the ineffable experiences come,

00:44:06.720 particularly coincidences, the Christian view of the world is semiotic.

00:44:11.240 It's very symbolic.

00:44:12.680 And then I found a church, coincidentally St. Michael's Church in New York,

00:44:16.860 where Fr. George Rutler is the pastor, and I recommend reading him as well.

00:44:20.760 And that might bring you to a reversion or conversion, too.

00:44:24.080 Next question from Tad.

00:44:25.540 Hey, MK, I listened to your defense of Christianity and Catholicism in episode four.

00:44:29.200 With admiration, I have to wonder if you're more Catholic than the current pope.

00:44:33.080 I don't think I'm more Catholic than the pope, but I do understand where you're coming from.

00:44:37.820 The pope has been saying some things that have raised eyebrows.

00:44:41.940 You know, there have been plenty of bad popes, generally speaking.

00:44:45.020 Dante put some of them in hell.

00:44:46.860 And the pope, there's a confusion over papal infallibility.

00:44:50.480 The pope is fallible, except when he's infallible.

00:44:53.900 And by some counts, the pope has only invoked infallibility, speaking ex cathedra seven times, ten or eleven times.

00:45:01.720 So perhaps the Lord gives us bad popes.

00:45:04.800 Not that I'm calling Francis a bad pope, but perhaps he gives us bad popes to show us that they're fallible,

00:45:10.160 except when they're infallible.

00:45:12.640 Letter from Marie.

00:45:13.880 Dear Michael, loved the riveting read on reasons to vote for Democrat.

00:45:16.540 Thank you for reading it.

00:45:17.660 It's on the coffee table for anyone who wants to be enlightened.

00:45:19.760 My super serious question is, does the Donald let you borrow his tanner or do you glow naturally?

00:45:25.600 No, my mother was Sicilian, though, which does explain why I look like I was on the face of the sun.

00:45:31.360 Next question from Wayne.

00:45:33.020 I'm feeling trans, Michael Knowles.

00:45:35.360 Go see a doctor immediately.

00:45:37.040 Run, do not walk to the hospital.

00:45:39.060 Question from Jackson.

00:45:40.840 Michael, I've been following Roaming Millennial for a while now,

00:45:43.900 and I was not only surprised, but very happy to see you bring her on your show.

00:45:48.040 Can you tell us why you chose Roaming for your panel of deplorables,

00:45:51.500 and can you tell us if you plan on bringing her on for a while?

00:45:54.100 I'm so glad you asked this question.

00:45:55.700 You know, I am getting married to my wonderful fiancée, sweet little Elisa, soon,

00:46:00.120 and so I've been bringing Roaming on as a sort of audition for when we do finally form our right-wing,

00:46:06.780 apocalyptic, polygamous cult, and she could be a sister wife. 1.00

00:46:10.020 So that's been, I'm really glad you asked.

00:46:11.880 I think there's been some confusion about it.

00:46:13.560 That is the whole mailbag, and that takes up all of my time with Fleckis Talks.

00:46:18.160 Fleckis.

00:46:19.300 Thank you so much for being here.

00:46:21.240 It's been great to talk to you.

00:46:22.260 It's been great talking to you.

00:46:22.940 Come back.

00:46:23.560 I guess this is the end of this week, so come back on Monday, and we'll do it all again.

00:46:26.520 We'll be right back.

00:46:29.620 See you next time.

00:46:29.900 Bye-bye.

00:46:31.340 We'll be right back.

00:46:37.640 Bye-bye.

00:46:38.800 Bye-bye.

00:46:40.140 Bye-bye.

00:46:40.540 Bye-bye.

00:46:45.180 Bye-bye.

00:46:54.100 Bye-bye.

The Michael Knowles Show - August 10, 2017

Ep. 8 - FLECCAS TALKS Why The Right Wins Online

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