The Michael Knowles Show - Ep. 956 - The Collapse Of The Civilized World

00:00:00.000 Gas prices are through the roof. The national average for a gallon of gas is now $3.73,

00:00:06.480 according to data collected by AAA. For the first time ever, average gas prices have surpassed

00:00:12.780 $5 per gallon in multiple American cities. San Francisco, Los Angeles, Napa, San Luis Obispo,

00:00:21.660 a couple others as well. Oil spiked to more than $116 per barrel earlier this week,

00:00:27.860 the highest it's been since 2008. And that number is only poised to go up as the war in Ukraine,

00:00:34.780 a war largely of Joe Biden's own making, rages on and disrupts global oil supplies.

00:00:41.880 So what does the White House plan to do to give Americans relief at the pump? Why buy oil from

00:00:49.660 Russia, of course. During those years where it would take to bring down prices, as you're saying,

00:00:56.140 we should just continue to buy Russian oil? Well, again, Jackie, I think you're familiar

00:01:00.380 with a number of steps we've taken, a historic release from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve.

00:01:05.060 Well, we can, well, let me finish. What we can do over time, and what this is all a reminder of in

00:01:09.960 the President's view, is our need to reduce our reliance on oil. The Europeans need to do that.

00:01:15.380 We need to do that. If we do more to invest in clean energy, more to invest in other sources of

00:01:20.240 energy, that's exactly what we can do to prevent this from happening in the future.

00:01:24.080 We welcome any Republicans from joining us in that effort. Go ahead.

00:01:27.260 As long as we're buying Russian oil, though, aren't we financing the war?

00:01:31.160 Well, Jackie, again, it's only about 10% of what we're importing. I've not made any announcement

00:01:37.440 about any decision on that front. But our objective here and our focus is making sure that any step we

00:01:42.860 take maximizes the impact on President Putin and minimizes it on the American people.

00:01:47.720 So just to recap, Russia invaded Ukraine because Joe Biden gave the go-ahead to Putin's Nord Stream 2

00:01:57.020 oil pipeline, which gives Russia direct access to the European oil market and took away all of

00:02:02.360 Ukraine's leverage. Conservatives knew this would happen and have been talking about it for years. 0.93

00:02:07.700 For years, Ted Cruz warned that this would happen, and he successfully got sanctions placed on the

00:02:13.620 pipeline under the Trump administration, during which time Putin did not invade Ukraine until Biden

00:02:19.720 took office and removed the sanctions, at which point Putin did invade Ukraine. Even the liberal

00:02:25.440 New York magazine admits that this is true, that Biden's green light of the pipeline led to the

00:02:30.960 invasion, which, by the way, Biden himself literally encouraged when he assured Russia that America

00:02:37.220 wouldn't retaliate against any invasion if it were only a quote-unquote minor incursion. So Russia 0.88

00:02:43.260 invaded Ukraine because Biden gave the go-ahead on the Russia oil pipeline. At the same time,

00:02:50.160 Biden shut down American oil pipelines in the name of fighting climate change. Apparently,

00:02:55.240 Russian oil doesn't harm the climate. Russian oil doesn't anger the sun gods like American oil does.

00:03:01.540 Now, Americans are still consuming the same amount of oil. So the only practical effect of crippling

00:03:07.920 the American energy industry is that now we need to import the oil from overseas, including from our

00:03:14.220 enemies, including from Russia, which relies on oil exports to fund the war in Ukraine, which means 0.95

00:03:20.420 that Joe Biden's stupid energy policy not only started the war in Ukraine, but is currently funding it 0.98

00:03:26.780 with your taxpayer dollars. Dollars that you now need to stretch because his stupid energy policy 1.00

00:03:33.160 is also emptying out your wallet at the pump. I'm Michael Knowles. This is The Michael Knowles Show. 1.00

00:03:46.100 My favorite comment yesterday is from Louis Shemilton, who says,

00:03:50.680 I'm starting to feel bad for Michael. He keeps having to say, I told you so.

00:03:55.080 It has to be taking a toll on him. It is. Look at me. I'm exhausted. I'm worn out from being this

00:04:03.900 right. I am, as Donald Trump said, sick and tired of winning. I'm winning on the predictions. We're not

00:04:09.340 winning politically. We're losing politically because of bad leadership in Washington. You got to do

00:04:16.060 whatever you can in these difficult days to protect yourself, notably to protect your identity,

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00:05:31.940 slash K-N-A-W-L-E-S for 25% off. That's their answer. Their answer to the American oil and gas 0.99

00:05:40.120 problem is buy it from overseas, including from our enemies. We didn't need to buy it from overseas.

00:05:49.560 We didn't need to buy it from our enemies. We could just make it ourselves. That's what we were doing.

00:05:54.520 Things were looking great on the energy front during the Trump years.

00:05:57.360 And then the Libs voluntarily shut down American energy. And they did so because they said that if

00:06:04.520 we continue to produce energy and really to consume energy, then we're going to harm the environment

00:06:10.880 and get the sun gods really angry at us. And they're going to shower us with all sorts of plagues

00:06:16.080 to punish us for the sin of driving automobiles. So they attack the American energy industry.

00:06:22.700 They go after coal. They go after gas. They go after oil. But the thing is, we still need all that stuff.

00:06:30.140 So nothing changed in terms of what we're emitting and polluting and driving and moving around.

00:06:36.200 We just, instead of making it ourselves, we now import it at a premium from overseas,

00:06:40.580 including from our enemies who are using that money then to fund wars that oppose American interests.

00:06:46.240 And they're not just talking about buying oil from Russia, which we're doing. I love Jen Psaki. 0.89

00:06:51.140 She says, no, no, no, don't worry. It's only 10% of our oil imports. 10% of the American oil imports

00:06:57.000 are coming from this country that relies almost exclusively on energy to fund its imperial wars

00:07:02.600 that we're now also kind of fighting in. Are you kidding me? Oh, good. It's okay. I was worried it was 15%.

00:07:08.100 Okay, it's 10% though. That's fine. They're not just talking about Russia. They're now talking about

00:07:11.880 buying oil from Iran. There was a, some left winger, blue check named Ryan Cooper tweeted out, quote,

00:07:18.600 Iran has 103 million barrels of oil loaded up on tankers and ready to go. CC Joe Biden.

00:07:29.360 As if to say, look, we don't do business with state sponsors of terror and people who chant death to America.

00:07:35.700 Yeah, well, but they got the oil ready to go. And Iranian oil doesn't cause climate change.

00:07:41.340 It's, it's got the magic of the Russian oil. They've got magic genies over there in the Middle

00:07:45.860 East and the magic Iranian oil that doesn't have carbon emissions. Only the American domestically

00:07:51.180 produced oil does. Okay. It's not just Ryan. It's not just these random leftist blue checks

00:07:56.540 who are trying to buy oil from our enemies. And Pete Buttigieg, our, our transportation secretary,

00:08:03.920 I think he's back from paternity leave. His C-section scar has healed up very nicely. And the energy

00:08:09.700 secretary or the transportation secretary rather is, is back at work. He, he goes on to MSNBC. He's

00:08:15.480 asked about what we're going to do to give relief to people at the pump. And he says, look, all options

00:08:20.420 are on the table, but we don't want to be too hasty. We don't want any permanent solutions.

00:08:26.200 Could the president possibly consider authorizing the Keystone pipeline, uh, working something out with

00:08:32.400 Iran? I mean, uh, look, the, the president has said that all options are on the table, but we also need

00:08:37.940 to make sure that, uh, uh, we're not galloping after permanent solutions to immediate short-term

00:08:44.120 problems where, uh, more strategic and tactical actions in the short term can make a difference.

00:08:50.760 So he says, yeah, maybe we'll, okay, Keystone, except the White House already shut that down.

00:08:54.680 They said, no, Keystone pipeline, that's going to take too long to build in America. So that's off the

00:08:58.420 table. And he says, what about buying from Iran? Yeah, that's on the table.

00:09:02.400 Okay. I'm not surprised when Democrats want to buy oil from our enemies. What does surprise me

00:09:07.220 though, is that second part, the philosophical part that Buttigieg put in there. Because Buttigieg,

00:09:13.340 say what you will about him. He's a fairly intelligent guy. He's got all the credentials,

00:09:17.700 checks all the boxes, brand name, brand name school, rather worked at McKinsey, very polished,

00:09:23.620 right? He's got, he knows all the hip, cool lingo that all the elites are using. But then he says,

00:09:29.740 we don't, we don't want to find a permanent solution to short term problems.

00:09:37.000 Why not? So first of all, the energy issue is not a short term problem. It is exacerbated

00:09:44.900 at different periods. Sometimes it's a lot worse than at other times. Right now with war breaking

00:09:50.520 out in Europe, yeah, it's pretty bad, but it's a, it's a problem generally. We don't want to be

00:09:55.540 reliant on our enemies for our energy consumption. Why wouldn't we want a permanent solution? I want

00:10:02.220 a permanent solution. Give me, oh, here's a permanent solution. Produce American energy. 0.77

00:10:07.720 And what the Buttigieg's of the world and the Jen Psaki's of the world and the Joe Biden's of the

00:10:12.840 world, what they say is, well, that's what we're going to do. But we're not going to do it from coal

00:10:17.800 and we're not going to do it from oil and we're not going to do it from gas and we're not going to do

00:10:22.000 it from nuclear for some reason. So we're going to do it from windmills. We're going to do it from

00:10:29.540 solar. We're going to do it from, from the hopes and dreams of unicorns prancing around the plains.

00:10:37.060 That's where we're going to get our energy from. We're going to get American energy for the world's

00:10:41.420 superpower for now, for a country of 330 million people with effectively a global empire for now.

00:10:48.320 We're going to get energy from windmills. But you're not. You're not. That's never going to

00:10:56.860 happen. The so-called green sources of energy are extraordinarily inefficient. They're extraordinarily

00:11:02.520 ineffective. They're also not great for the environment, by the way. That's the secret.

00:11:07.180 I forget the comedian's name. There was a comedian many years ago who made the point. He said,

00:11:10.920 okay, you're all switching from gas cars to electric cars. Do you know where electricity comes from?

00:11:16.540 It doesn't come from magic, okay? It comes from dirty, filthy energy sources. And even so,

00:11:22.680 the production of the batteries is very bad for the environment. Even so, it's not, that's not an

00:11:27.180 answer. So really what the answer is, is we don't have an answer. The answer is shrug your shoulders.

00:11:33.400 We don't want a permanent solution. We're just going to keep buying oil from our enemies. We're just

00:11:37.980 going to move from crisis to crisis to crisis. Then we're going to create some more crises. And then

00:11:42.800 we're going to respond to the crises that in many cases we created. And we're just going to keep

00:11:48.480 doing that and keep everyone on the edge of their seats at our beck and call in perpetuity. That is

00:11:56.200 the Democrat liberal way of governing. Not a good way to govern. These people who are working for the

00:12:06.640 administration, they are not the best. They are not the brightest. They are not very competent.

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00:13:14.360 slash K-N-O-W-L-E-S. ZipRecruiter, the smartest way to hire. One of the many unique aspects of this war 0.99

00:13:23.200 in Ukraine, as I have noted and gotten in trouble for noting, this is the first major war to break out

00:13:28.760 in my lifetime between civilized nations. That's why it's a little different than the various

00:13:32.880 minor conflicts and wars of empire that we've seen around the world in the last quarter century.

00:13:37.720 One of the strange things about this war is military maneuvers matter. And I think we forget that

00:13:47.620 because the wars have been, for instance, the war in Afghanistan. The United States,

00:13:54.920 the world superpower, goes into a backwater of largely illiterate goat herders. I 1.00

00:14:02.100 really don't mean to be offensive, but we're talking about asymmetries of power here that are

00:14:06.900 basically unimaginable. And we just dominate it. We conquer Afghanistan in five seconds. 0.51

00:14:13.840 And then politically speaking, we don't know what to do with it. We don't know whether to hold it.

00:14:17.140 We don't know whether to make it imperial territory. We don't know whether to try to prop up some fake

00:14:22.140 Afghan army and government that's really just a client state for the United States. And then we've

00:14:27.280 got a lot of domestic political pressure to pull out. And then we just voluntarily give up the

00:14:30.820 thing. It's not as though they were, the Afghanis, the Taliban were actually going to take it back

00:14:35.660 until we signaled that we're going to pull out. And then they reconquered it in two seconds. We

00:14:40.740 forget that the physical matters, battles, places, military tactics. Here, you've got a Ukrainian army,

00:14:49.040 which is fighting back reportedly quite strongly. And you've got the Russian army, which is not nearly

00:14:54.080 as strong as a lot of the world expected it to be. And they're in a little bit of a stalemate right

00:14:59.360 now. I think that Vladimir Putin probably thought this entire military operation would be over by

00:15:04.000 now, would have been over within 72 hours. And it really hasn't been. The Russian army seems to be

00:15:08.820 stuck a little bit. And they're calibrating some of what they're doing to not incur too much

00:15:13.660 international condemnation. Now that they've got the condemnation, they seem to be ratcheting up

00:15:18.220 the attacks. And it's really, it's a bloody mess. But we here in the West, I think these days,

00:15:24.400 we don't think that space and time really matter all that much. We think our bodies don't really

00:15:29.980 matter. That's what transgenderism is. We think the community doesn't really matter. That's why 1.00

00:15:33.440 we're all working from home on our laptops. If you're part of the laptop set, right? That's why

00:15:37.600 the ruling elite said, oh, who cares about the pandemic? You can all just telecommute to your

00:15:41.720 consulting job on your laptop, right? It's not a big deal. No one needs to be in person. That's we're

00:15:46.440 all, we're all going to go live in the metaverse, right? We forget. No, actually borders matter.

00:15:51.280 Land matters. People, peoples matter. Okay, this is something our ruling elites,

00:15:58.080 they think that America is just an idea. The West, it's just kind of an idea, right?

00:16:03.540 It's not a people. It's not institutions. It's not real rituals and customs. It's all just kind

00:16:12.240 of floating in the ether, man, except it's not. It's not. And Americans have woken up against that.

00:16:16.980 And this is a large backlash against the Davos, globalist, liberal, cosmopolitan set.

00:16:26.420 We forget that. Now, one update from Ukraine that is pretty astonishing, it's from Elon Musk.

00:16:32.780 Elon Musk is apparently single-handedly providing internet to parts of Ukraine right now. Elon Musk

00:16:39.560 has this Starlink system. He's got lots of satellites up in the sky. The satellites are able to provide

00:16:44.320 internet almost anywhere. And so he's got Starlink set up to provide internet to Ukraine. So after

00:16:50.320 the Russians went out and hit some Ukrainian telecoms, Starlink is just providing that.

00:16:55.740 And Musk sent out a tactical warning. He said, important warning, Starlink is the only non-Russian 1.00

00:17:01.620 communication system still working in some parts of Ukraine. So probability of being targeted is high.

00:17:06.320 Please use it with caution. Turn on Starlink only when needed and place the antenna away,

00:17:10.720 as far away from people as possible, place light camouflage over the antenna to avoid visual

00:17:15.160 detection. Because not everything just turns on with a flip of a switch in the smart world.

00:17:22.340 Tactics matter. Placement matters. Geography matters. That's what's playing out. And it's shocking

00:17:27.000 the world. We are seeing the collapse of the post-Cold War order of relative peace and stability,

00:17:33.220 at least in the civilized world, at least in the Western world. It's all set. It's all good.

00:17:38.560 No more big wars. We're just going to have wars of empire. Well, not so much. And if the Bidens of

00:17:46.200 the world are in charge, if the liberal establishment that led us to this point is in charge,

00:17:50.400 we are headed in a very different direction. And we are headed for much more conflict,

00:17:56.500 much more strife, a place in which traditional nationhood and tactics and militaries are going

00:18:04.400 to matter. Some good news from overseas, better news from overseas, is France is suspending its

00:18:10.660 COVID passport. France has just said, Emmanuel Macron, who is the liberal technocrat who runs

00:18:16.820 France, he said that now, even though the passport was only introduced in January, the pass system

00:18:24.740 is now going to be done away with. The vaccine pass system dates back a little earlier. It had been

00:18:32.460 floated. It actually first went into effect on the last day that I was in Paris last year.

00:18:42.860 So the implementation kind of got stalled and muddled and paused and rolled out. But so when it

00:18:46.900 first went into effect, I actually didn't know if I was going to be able to go to France

00:18:50.420 because you were going to have to show your medical papers, basically, anywhere you went.

00:18:55.520 And then they delayed it, delayed it, delayed it. The first day it went into effect was as I was

00:18:59.720 flying back out of France. And a lot of people said, why do you want to go to France? Those crazy

00:19:04.480 French, they just, they're so COVID nuts. They're all afraid. They're neurotic about it. That's not 1.00

00:19:10.240 true. The French government was neurotic about it. The French people were not. The French people

00:19:14.880 were chiller about COVID than most American people I talked to, certainly in the big cities.

00:19:19.100 The Parisians, they didn't care. I'd get into a cab, I'd say, do I have to wear the stupid mask? 1.00

00:19:25.740 They'd say, well, no, that's why I have the vaccine. I have vaccine. I don't care. You do 1.00

00:19:29.280 whatever you want. I do not need, oh, oh, oh. Pep and Le Pew were my drivers, actually, in Paris.

00:19:36.340 No, the French people were pretty normal about it. There was a big gulf, just like we see here in 0.99

00:19:41.320 America. Frankly, perhaps even more so. There's a big gulf between the French people and the 0.76

00:19:47.360 government. The government's finally waking up to this and they're saying, okay, no more,

00:19:50.840 show me your papers when you try to go get a croissant in Paris. You're seeing this spread

00:19:57.360 throughout the West. The West's ruling class, by which I don't just mean whatever party happens

00:20:04.040 to be in power, but I mean the whole edifice. We talk about the deep state, the transnational,

00:20:07.960 international institutions. They're losing their grip on the common sense and they're losing their

00:20:12.260 grip on power. A lot of what you're seeing happening right now in Eastern Europe is a

00:20:17.480 reflection of that. There's a huge chasm between the elites and the people, specifically over this

00:20:23.660 issue that I was just talking about, this issue of nations being real places with real borders

00:20:28.860 and borders really do matter. People fight over borders, by the way, and there are wars over borders

00:20:33.960 and there are wars between peoples who view themselves distinctly with different language and

00:20:37.900 different customs. And not everyone is just replaceable. Okay? Not everyone, it's not just

00:20:42.900 that you can swap out the people of one country and replace them with a totally different people and 0.84

00:20:47.040 it's going to be the same country. Okay? But that is what elites in our country have been experimenting

00:20:52.080 with for a long time. Elites in the Democrat and Republican parties. This is the effect of mass

00:20:58.760 migration. Mass migration. Over the past 60 years or so, we've seen what, 60 million some odd people

00:21:05.940 move from other parts of the world into the United States. This is the largest mass migration of

00:21:13.760 people ever, ever in the history of the world. Last year, it was three million immigrants came into

00:21:20.280 America. Two million illegal immigrants came into America last year, just last year, just in the first

00:21:26.840 year under Joe Biden. Sometimes the libs, they get upset. They talk about the great replacement

00:21:32.540 conspiracy theory, which is a heinous white supremacist neo-Nazi conspiracy theory. Well,

00:21:40.200 what's the theory? The theory is that liberals are using mass migration as a political tool

00:21:46.160 to alter the voting demographics in a country in their favor. Not only is that obviously true, 0.99

00:21:51.700 but the liberals have been bragging about this for 10 years. So they're doing it, they're saying

00:21:56.360 they're doing it, and then they're telling you that you're not allowed to say that they already

00:21:59.400 told you that they're doing it. And it's not just Democrats. I've got here a letter to Nancy

00:22:05.700 Pelosi, to Schumer, to McCarthy, the Republican leader, to Mitch McConnell, calling for more

00:22:12.980 migration. The Alliance for a New Immigration Consensus. And who signs it? You got a bunch of 0.99

00:22:19.700 lib groups that sign it, sure. But then you've got the George W. Bush Institute. You've got

00:22:28.600 Koch-backed enterprise. The Koch brothers were a big force behind the Tea Party. They're usually

00:22:35.240 considered more on the right, but they do support mass migration. You've got the U.S. Chamber of

00:22:40.520 Commerce, used to be sort of right wing. Now it's really more considered firmly on the left.

00:22:47.160 Lots of different groups signing on to this.

00:22:49.060 According to the last Gallup poll, only 9% of Americans say they want more immigration. 9% of

00:22:59.260 Americans. According to that poll, 35% said they want less immigration total. There have been other

00:23:05.360 polls. There was a Harvard-Harris poll now four or five years ago, showed that when you actually get

00:23:10.120 down into numbers on immigration, the vast majority of Americans want to drastically reduce all immigration,

00:23:15.300 legal and illegal. And yet the elites from both parties want to increase it. That is wrong. It's

00:23:23.160 wrong to do that, first of all. It's wrong to flood a country with foreigners against the will of the 1.00

00:23:26.800 people, especially in a self-government where the people are supposed to rule and where citizens can

00:23:32.100 vote and those votes determine who rules. That's wrong. That's wrong to do. And it's completely tone

00:23:38.340 deaf. I think that Kevin McCarthy has finally realized this is no good. He said that the Chamber of

00:23:42.700 Commerce is no longer a Republican group. It's firmly on the left. We need to get that right

00:23:49.060 ourselves. People who are backing this sort of thing, the elites, they're not on our team. Okay? The

00:23:57.420 people are on our team. If we're going to have a team at all, it's got to be a team with the people.

00:24:02.140 He who pays the piper calls the tune or should. This is a general rule of politics. This is why we get

00:24:10.340 so worried when we find out that corrupt Ukrainian energy companies are paying off members of the

00:24:16.800 Biden family or the Clinton Foundation. We get a little worried because that implies a certain

00:24:22.800 degree of corruption. When individual donors make huge donations, then they start making demands of

00:24:29.680 politicians. That's why we have laws about donations in politics. And when people who want mass 0.87

00:24:37.340 migration are the ones paying for all the conservative activities, what's going to happen?

00:24:42.040 Those conservatives are going to go soft on immigration. That's what happened for decades

00:24:45.160 and decades. Now, there's only one area where he who pays the piper has not been able to call the

00:24:52.040 tune. And that would be an immigration or an education rather. We pay for the education system. 0.99

00:24:58.280 We, the taxpayers, pay for the education system. It is administered by the state in most cases.

00:25:03.540 And yet, even when it's conservatives who are voting and paying and administrating,

00:25:09.580 administering, for some reason, the left dominates these schools. And we got to stop that. There's

00:25:14.820 great news that came out of Wyoming. The Wyoming Senate just passed an amendment to the state budget

00:25:21.280 that would defund the University of Wyoming's gender and women's studies program. This amendment will

00:25:26.860 be sent to the House for approval. Republican State Senator Sherry Steinmetz was responsible for this. 0.80

00:25:30.780 Good on you, Sherry. This is awesome. The Wyoming Republicans should totally get behind this. 0.99

00:25:35.860 Is this cancel culture? Sort of. But as we've said in the past, cancel culture is a wonderful thing

00:25:41.060 when it's applied to cancel that which is false and ugly and evil. We want all societies cancel.

00:25:48.340 All societies have taboos and standards and things that are off limits. That's inevitable. That's

00:25:54.240 always going to be the case. The question is, what is off limits? What's bad? What do we ostracize?

00:25:58.080 What do we censor? What do we cancel? And conservatives have adopted this kind of

00:26:02.080 neutral-sounding language of, oh, I'm for all ideas. I'm for, don't censor anything. But it's

00:26:06.140 BS. It's not true. That is language from the left in the 1960s, which they too knew was instrumental

00:26:12.240 and not real. The minute they got power, they implemented their own standards. We would too.

00:26:16.940 That's just the nature of politics, okay? And so when you look at a department like women's and gender

00:26:22.540 studies, really all of the critical studies departments, you realize this is not about a

00:26:27.400 classical liberal education. This is about radical political indoctrination. It's really bad. We

00:26:32.760 shouldn't be paying for it. It has no place at a university and you got to cancel it and you got

00:26:37.020 to kick it out. Speaking of canceling teachers, there's a fourth grade teacher in Indiana who was

00:26:41.500 just exposed for owning a satanic temple. Fourth grade teacher teaching little nine-year-olds

00:26:49.440 is a practicing high-level Satanist. Now, look, I'm tolerant. I'm a tolerant guy and everything,

00:26:59.120 and we should be tolerant. But I think that's a little too far. I think the Satanists teaching

00:27:05.140 your nine-year-old, that's too much. But Michael, some people would say, what about freedom of religion?

00:27:10.580 Religion. That's not what freedom of religion means, okay? Freedom. First of all, freedom of

00:27:19.460 religion, as we understand it, really refers to the First Amendment, which says that the federal

00:27:23.480 government will not have an established church. Okay, that's a very different thing from saying

00:27:27.620 Satanists can teach your nine-year-olds, right? And frankly, one of the reasons that there was no

00:27:32.320 state established church at the federal level is because there were established churches at the

00:27:36.780 state level for decades after the Constitution was ratified. I don't think the founding fathers,

00:27:41.920 if they found out that their words and documents were being used to defend Satanists teaching nine-year-olds,

00:27:47.620 I don't think that they would applaud this as some wonderful blessing of liberty, you know,

00:27:51.820 hold a parade for this woman. Probably they wouldn't even argue about it. They would be too busy 1.00

00:27:55.780 gathering kindling to burn her at the stake, okay? This is not the sort of thing that is acceptable.

00:28:02.700 And the school's defending her. They say, we do not ask our teachers or any employees about their

00:28:06.340 religious beliefs. Well, yeah, but if you're worshiping the dark lord of the underworld,

00:28:11.820 that's a little bit too far, okay? Religious liberty, too, has limits. I'll give you an example of

00:28:19.100 this. If a teacher at a, certainly at an elementary school, but even at a college, were found to be a

00:28:25.760 Nazi, that teacher would be fired in two seconds and everyone would support it. What does it mean to 0.86

00:28:31.260 be a Nazi? It means you hold certain political views, I guess, but those views are a little deeper

00:28:36.040 than just politics, right? They're kind of cultural. They're actually kind of religious.

00:28:40.720 Their views about the nature of man and the nature of races and the human dignity and worth of

00:28:47.100 different races. Nazism, when you really follow it down to its bottom, has a deeply occult element to 0.76

00:28:54.480 it. All of the leading Nazis were practicing some, to some degree, paganism or occult rituals.

00:29:01.580 It's religious. At bottom, all politics is religious, okay? We have, in the last few decades,

00:29:11.300 gotten to a place where we will tolerate Satanists teaching our kids. I won't. I won't do that. I will

00:29:16.960 not send my kid to be instructed by Satanists. I will not send my taxpayer dollars, if I have any say

00:29:21.620 of it, to have Satanists teach our kids. This is a wonderful use of the political power of parents

00:29:28.640 to shape their students' education. Before we go, I do want to get to Katanji Brown Jackson.

00:29:38.560 I've been meaning to get to her all week and we just haven't had time to do it. She is the Biden

00:29:42.760 Supreme Court nominee. The reason I want to call her to your attention, we'll go more into her next 0.99

00:29:50.060 week, but she's a formidable Supreme Court nominee, okay? I don't think we can just, people were going

00:29:55.280 to write her off as a diversity hire because Joe Biden said she was going to be a diversity hire,

00:29:59.120 but this is a bright woman and she's very, very clever. She's a double Harvard person, 0.98

00:30:04.600 Harvard undergraduate and Harvard Law School. Not that that's necessarily a recommendation these days,

00:30:08.900 but at least it used to be. She was a judge on the US District Court for DC and the Court of Appeals 0.51

00:30:14.680 for DC. She was put on the Court of Appeals for DC one year ago, less than one year ago. She's a big

00:30:20.380 lib. She's had her decisions reversed even by left-wing courts, but she's very clever. She had an exchange 1.00

00:30:30.500 with Senator Ted Cruz. Again, maybe we'll be able to get to the clips of this next week. Maybe,

00:30:37.000 maybe not. We'll see. We'll see how, we'll see how well you behave over the weekend. Maybe we'll

00:30:40.700 try to get to that. But what she, what she said here, she was asked, do you believe there's a

00:30:45.260 living constitution like all the liberals do? Or do you believe the constitution means what it says

00:30:49.080 it means? And she was able to evade the question. She told Senator Cruz, well, you know, look, I haven't

00:30:53.960 had to make any decisions in that regard in the lower courts. And then she said, well, I believe the

00:30:58.880 constitution's an enduring document. She did very well. She did very well. She's a very convincing

00:31:03.720 candidate. I doubt that Republicans are going to be able to shoot down her nomination. On the one

00:31:08.580 hand, I guess you want intelligent people on the Supreme Court. On the other hand, I don't know that

00:31:13.420 I want a very intelligent, liberal, radical judge on the Supreme Court. In many ways, a dumber liberal 0.99

00:31:21.340 judge would be better because it would be easier to undermine that sort of person's jurisprudence. 0.98

00:31:28.200 It's not just the intelligence we're after. It's where you want it aimed. It kind of gets back to what

00:31:32.460 we were talking about. You want that intelligence used for good things that are edifying, that will

00:31:37.580 build up the country. Some of the greatest saints in history could have been the worst sinners in the

00:31:42.780 world, such as the power that they've got. The question is, are you going to use that power for

00:31:47.180 good or for evil? Mark your calendars, folks. March 10th, the premiere of our latest film,

00:31:52.540 The Hyperions, is out. It's not woke. It doesn't have any underlying pedantic political message.

00:32:00.380 It's just an excellent film. When it comes to entertainment, that's really what we're after.

00:32:04.220 Check out the trailer.

00:32:05.500 Good day, Hyperion Club members.

00:32:11.100 We've come for one thing, our Titan badges.

00:32:15.180 This Titan badge can grant an individual superhuman power.

00:32:19.480 Perhaps it's time for someone else to take on the responsibility.

00:32:23.420 On my way.

00:32:23.980 She's trying to destroy me. 0.99

00:32:35.820 We will be streaming the film once and for all on March 10th for everybody on YouTube.

00:32:43.100 But then that's it for everybody. That's the last time we're going to premiere that movie

00:32:47.440 on YouTube. So be sure, if you want to watch the movie after that, that you head on over to Daily

00:32:52.220 Wire's YouTube channel. And then head on over to dailywire.com slash subscribe so you can become

00:32:57.380 a member, watch that movie, our whole growing cache of content that we've got to offer. Also,

00:33:02.080 we've got a great book coming out with Jonathan Isaac. Terrific patriotic basketball player.

00:33:06.700 Really nice guy. Go pre-order that today. It's on his political stances, his career,

00:33:13.060 his religious beliefs. The book is Why I Stand. It's available for pre-order at Amazon.

00:33:17.600 Reserve your copy today. We will be right back with the mailbag.

00:33:20.000 Welcome back. My absolute favorite time of the week when I get to hear from you,

00:33:36.480 answer your pressing questions in the mailbag. First question up is from Miguel. Hola, Miguel.

00:33:42.160 He says, Hey, Michael. So I just got into a small debate recently about abortion and my opponent brought

00:33:47.980 up a very good point that has caused me to lose the debate overall. Okay. It's very complicated and

00:33:53.720 with a lot of nuance and such, but simply put, with the non-religious view of the world and humanity,

00:33:58.940 there is no way to justify intrinsic human value or even objective morality. I tried going through

00:34:05.360 all the small nuances like asking when a human has value or where morality stems from, and he had an

00:34:10.100 answer for everything. He said that the way he sees it, the fetus becomes valuable enough not to kill

00:34:14.900 once it has received sentience. And in the case of someone not being sentient, they had previous

00:34:20.900 sentience, so they do still have value. How do I, a Christian, debunk this view in a secular sense?

00:34:26.860 It's hard to debunk it because it's so stupid and incoherent. It doesn't, the first part that he said 1.00

00:34:35.580 is coherent. And so I guess that's where I would begin. He said that, or you said maybe summarizing

00:34:43.020 his point, that if the world were such that God did not exist and morality does not exist and,

00:34:51.320 you know, if reality were completely different than it is, then you couldn't say that human

00:34:56.040 beings have value and so you couldn't argue against abortion. That's true. So in that world, 0.99

00:35:01.560 in that bizarro world that is not real, not the world that we actually live in, that's true. You

00:35:07.800 couldn't argue against abortion. You also couldn't argue against murder laws. And you also couldn't

00:35:13.280 argue, or argue for murder laws rather, and you couldn't argue for laws against armed robbery. And

00:35:18.120 you couldn't argue at all actually because the world would not have logic and so it would not

00:35:23.040 have meaning or truth and you couldn't convey anything to anyone else. So that would be difficult

00:35:27.860 to make any sort of argument at all. Now, your friend has said that he believes that human life

00:35:34.000 gets value when it becomes sentient. And he believes this because, I don't know, why does he

00:35:43.820 believe that? He would have to make an argument for that. You're saying that he made the argument that,

00:35:50.160 you know, you shouldn't kill people in a coma, for instance, because they were previously sentient,

00:35:54.180 but now they're not. But because they were previously sentient, you shouldn't kill them

00:35:59.240 because why? Because he says so. Well, okay, but you need to make an argument as to why

00:36:04.120 human life becomes valuable with sentience. That is not self-evident. He's just stating that as a

00:36:12.000 premise and then coming to a conclusion from his own premise. But speaking of premises,

00:36:14.880 sometimes people ask me this, they say, Michael, I want you, can you make a totally secular atheist

00:36:21.360 argument for pro-life or for anything else? And I say, well, no. Why, or even if I could, I mean,

00:36:30.040 you can't really make an atheist argument for anything because, because the very fact that our

00:36:35.780 language has meaning implies that God exists. But moreover, why would I? Well, why would I,

00:36:42.240 why would I make an argument from the basis of my opponent's wrong premises? That would seem to be

00:36:50.300 a very foolish thing to do. But we say this on the show all the time. All human conflict ultimately

00:36:57.400 is theological. So you are going to have to get down to first principles. And if his first principle is

00:37:01.920 that God doesn't exist and human life doesn't have any value, and I'm just going to say completely

00:37:06.460 arbitrarily that life, that I value life that is sentient, but not, but, and then some life that's

00:37:11.480 not sentient when I feel like it, well, okay, then I guess that's that. But the premise is off. We do,

00:37:17.620 life does have value. Human beings do have value. There is a moral order. The fact that we have civil

00:37:22.540 laws and that we recognize that it's wrong to commit murder and wrong to commit armed robbery

00:37:26.180 and wrong to kill babies when we're being honest with ourselves, the reason we recognize that is

00:37:30.680 because we, there is objective truth and a moral order. We have faculties of reason and moral conscience

00:37:35.840 that allow us to make some sense of that. And we are valuable creatures made in the image of God.

00:37:41.340 That's why. And so if you say, well, make an argument, but without any of those beliefs,

00:37:46.240 well, I'm sorry. You're out. You know, if, if my aunt had cojones, she'd be my uncle. You know,

00:37:50.400 if wishes were horses, beggars would ride. If I had some ham, I'd have a ham sandwich. If I had

00:37:54.340 some bread, you get the picture. If I had ifs, if, ifs, ifs and buts were candy and nuts, we'd all have a

00:37:58.700 Merry Christmas. But the premises are wrong. And so you should begin with correct

00:38:02.660 premises always from Alex. Dear Michael, I'm a freshman in high school and I love the show.

00:38:08.540 Thank you. I'm having some love troubles and I'm looking for advice. I went to a school dance

00:38:12.680 recently and was flirting with a girl who I like. We were already friends after the fact. I found out

00:38:17.720 that she already has a boyfriend, but she was still being perfectly amicable toward me. So I wanted to

00:38:22.560 ask, where do I go from here? I don't know how to proceed because I really like this girl,

00:38:26.320 but want to respect her relationship. Thanks for the advice.

00:38:28.940 Just because there is a goalie, my friend, does not mean you cannot score. Very important advice.

00:38:38.860 Now look, if you were in your 20s or 30s, if this girl that you had a crush on were married,

00:38:44.460 I would say back off. Respect the marriage. You're 14 years old. This girl presumably is a teenager as 0.98

00:38:53.340 well. She's got a little teenage fling and she's obviously thinks you're attractive. 0.98

00:39:00.800 Make it happen, Buster. When, you know, sweet little Lisa and I were high school sweethearts.

00:39:05.220 We've known each other since we were 10 or 11 years old. And when I was in, I think we were in

00:39:11.300 eighth grade, sweet little Lisa had a crush on me, but I had a different girlfriend. She was very 1.00

00:39:16.980 upset. When we were in ninth grade, I had a big crush on her. She had another boyfriend. I was very

00:39:22.780 jealous. I was very angry. I thought, oh no, this is awful. But you know, you just kind of,

00:39:27.500 you stick around. You maybe put on your, to quote the former Italian prime minister,

00:39:32.780 Silvio Berlusconi, you put on that, the playboy charm. You know, you, you chatter up. Don't do

00:39:37.400 anything immoral, but you know, chatter up, maybe be a little flirtatious. The rest is history.

00:39:43.840 Best of luck. Do not, you don't need to be overly scrupulous here, my friend. The girl is not

00:39:48.460 married. You're in high school. She's talking to boys. Feel free to woo the girl. From Megan,

00:39:55.740 dear Michael, I'm a woman in my early twenties. I've been venturing this barren landscape we call

00:40:00.600 the dating world. I know that you should be yourself when dating and look for a good man,

00:40:05.140 but I'm curious if there are any major turnoffs that guys, to guys that are easily avoidable

00:40:09.300 early on while going on dates with someone would love any advice you may have. Feminism is the one 1.00

00:40:15.200 thing I will say. Feminism is a major turnoff. If you're listening to this show, something tells me 0.99

00:40:19.080 that you have not been infected by that particular disease, so I wouldn't worry too much. If you're

00:40:24.220 worried about, you know, little behaviors that you do or kind of quirks of your personality, don't,

00:40:29.740 don't, you don't worry about that too much. One, because women pretending to be someone that 1.00

00:40:35.320 they're not is unattractive all the time. At least if you're looking for a long-term sort of

00:40:41.460 relationship, love affair, marriage, that sort of thing. But, but also you'll be in a situation where

00:40:49.340 you'll go on a date with a guy and you're going to be yourself and the guy's just not going to like

00:40:53.560 you and maybe you're not going to like him and you're just not going to click. There are girls 0.96

00:40:57.400 that are objectively gorgeous that I would not be able to date for more than two seconds because I

00:41:06.520 would put a drill in my head. It would just be, the personalities just wouldn't clash. It would clash.

00:41:11.940 We're just not made for each other. You know, sweet little Elisa and I, you know, go together like

00:41:18.160 salt and pepper. You know, I don't know, we go, we go together very well, not only because, you know,

00:41:24.140 she's the whole package, right? She's a hot, foxy lady, but also because of her personality. Now, some guys 1.00

00:41:30.260 might not like her personalities because she's very funny. She's very, very shrewd. She's very, 1.00

00:41:37.620 she's got a very conservative perspective about things. And so that might be a turnoff to people

00:41:43.320 who might want more of a bobblehead or something like that. I understand people are attracted to

00:41:47.860 different things, but I wouldn't try to pretend to be someone that you're not. I don't, I don't think

00:41:52.260 that's going to work for the guys that wouldn't like the real you. And I don't think that it would

00:41:56.820 work for the guys that would like the real you either. From Sam. Hi, Michael. As I've gotten

00:42:01.620 older, I realized I struggle with anxiety. I don't believe in taking pills unless it's utterly

00:42:05.560 necessary. And I'm beginning, I'm, I am looking into going to therapy, but want to see if you have

00:42:10.540 any advice on how to deal with generalized anxiety and overthinking all the time. Thanks and love the

00:42:14.420 show. I agree with you. I think pills should be a last resort. I think therapy can be a very good

00:42:19.360 thing if you get a good therapist. You know, if you get a therapist who sees the world in the wrong way,

00:42:24.620 who doesn't recognize certain basic truths about the world in the human person, then that therapist

00:42:30.220 probably isn't going to be very good. But a good therapist can be great. I mean, Drew Klavan says

00:42:34.460 that his life was saved by a good therapist. When you get a therapist too, also make sure there's an

00:42:38.480 end date. Some people go to their therapist for years and years and decades and decades and then

00:42:42.780 never stops and they never get cured. Make sure you, there's an end here, you know, and then that's it.

00:42:47.660 I do think also, not denying there are certain physical psychological problems. I'm not denying

00:42:55.700 that there are other psychological problems that are more easily treated with therapy. But a lot of

00:43:01.460 what we would call psychological problems, like anxiety, can also be philosophical and ultimately

00:43:07.760 can be theological. If you are laboring under a really confused philosophy and theology,

00:43:18.540 I could understand why that would induce a great deal of anxiety. If you are really struggling

00:43:24.260 with who you are, what your identity is, whether you're going to just turn to worm food when you

00:43:28.900 die, what the purpose of life is, I mean, that can lead to a great deal of anxiety. I'm not saying

00:43:34.160 that accounts for all or even a majority of cases of clinical anxiety, but I think it accounts for some

00:43:39.100 of it. And so I would also recommend you try to treat the philosophical and theological aspects too.

00:43:45.680 I don't think you're going to cure yourself. Just as you've got to take care of your body,

00:43:49.880 you do also have to take care of your soul and your mind. And you're not going to be able to

00:43:56.400 treat your whole person because you're not just a body. You're not just a meat bag. So you're not

00:44:00.860 going to be able to treat your whole person if you ignore your mind and your soul. So I would recommend

00:44:05.320 a little philosophical and theological inquiry as well, as well as finding a good therapist. I think that

00:44:11.660 could be a good idea. From Jesse, hi, Michael. My whole life, I thought it was better to be more

00:44:16.200 on the modest side and not simply flirt to get everything you want. I'm seeing a trend here

00:44:19.840 today. Sure, use your personality to accomplish things, but not soft core pimping themselves out

00:44:24.700 like girls who wear low cut shirts to get more views on their YouTube channel. Have I just not

00:44:28.900 been using my assets as a woman as much as I should have? Or is it better to be a bit more demure?

00:44:33.680 Sincerely, maybe I should have flirted my way to the top.

00:44:35.780 There's a difference between flirting and stripping. So you think about the Victorian era.

00:44:45.680 The Victorian era on the surface, very buttoned up, but brimming with sexuality. And that's

00:44:52.240 where you see jokes about the Victorian era. A woman would show her ankle and men would start

00:44:57.820 sweating. They'd be so turned on. Why is that? That really did sort of happen. It's because

00:45:02.380 seduction and attraction and flirtation is not just about our naked bodies. You'll notice

00:45:09.800 most people don't look great naked, okay? But this is why people wear lingerie. The point of

00:45:15.740 lingerie is not what it shows, but what it covers up. And this is true. I'm not suggesting you wear

00:45:20.220 lingerie in the workplace. I'm saying quite the opposite, actually. You can be quite flirtatious

00:45:25.000 in what you withhold. A well-placed smile or remark or glance even can be far more attractive than

00:45:35.780 just some hussy parading all of her jiggly bits out for everyone to see. From Chris, 1.00

00:45:41.620 Michael, propaganda has been a huge theme this week, not only on your show, but also in the media

00:45:46.160 more broadly. Reminds me of the story of Nathan Hale's alleged last words. I only regret that I

00:45:50.880 have but one life to lose for my country. Some say that Washington used this as propaganda and

00:45:55.720 that the quote was plagiarized from Joseph Addison's play Cato. How beautiful is death

00:45:59.820 when earned by value? Who would not be that youth? What a pity it is that we can die but

00:46:04.360 wants to serve our country. Isn't propaganda just the mythology of the victors? Sure. And at the

00:46:10.140 moment, it's the mythology of both the victors and the losers. I mean, there's plenty of mythology

00:46:14.900 surrounding the losers in war. So you think in the case of the Civil War, in the American South,

00:46:19.840 there's a mythology that's grown up around that too, just like there is among the victors.

00:46:23.580 You're right about Nathan Hale. He almost certainly never said that phrase. I think there's basically

00:46:27.220 zero evidence he ever said it. I think his last comment on the scaffold was something to the

00:46:32.100 effect of it's good for officers to do what their commander in chief tells them to do. So I,

00:46:37.860 yeah, that is part of the mythology of war. I don't begrudge the Ukrainians or the Russians for

00:46:45.160 that matter, their own propaganda. That's what happens. But I strongly recommend that we,

00:46:48.840 who are trying to understand the conflict and who may well be, be pulled unwittingly into this

00:46:53.560 conflict. We need to be able to discern between propaganda and reality. And that's very, very

00:47:00.040 difficult when virtually all of the media are, are propagandists themselves. I'm Michael Knowles

00:47:06.620 this is The Michael Knowles Show. Have a good weekend. I'll see you on Monday.

00:47:08.940 The Michael Knowles Show is produced by Ben Davies.

00:47:38.000 Executive producer, Jeremy Boring. Our technical director is Austin Stevens.

00:47:42.880 Supervising producer, Mathis Glover. Production manager, Pavel Vidovsky. Editor and associate

00:47:48.180 producer, Danny D'Amico. Associate producer, Justine Turley. Audio mixer, Mike Coromina.

00:47:54.420 And hair and makeup by Cherokee Heart. The Michael Knowles Show is a Daily Wire production.

00:47:58.840 Copyright Daily Wire 2022.

00:48:00.460 Hey everybody, this is Andrew Klavan, host of The Andrew Klavan Show. You know, some people are

00:48:05.420 depressed because the republic is collapsing, the end of days is approaching, and the moon's turned

00:48:10.000 to blood. But on The Andrew Klavan Show, that's where the fun just gets started. So come on over

00:48:14.680 to The Andrew Klavan Show and laugh your way through the fall of the republic with me, Andrew Klavan.

00:48:19.080 on The Andrew Klavan Show.

The Michael Knowles Show - March 04, 2022

Ep. 956 - The Collapse Of The Civilized World

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