The Great Replacement Conspiracy： Liberal Student DEBATES Michael Knowles
Episode Stats
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Summary
Learn English with Alex Blumberg a Yale University of Yale alum who was invited to speak at the Ivy League school on the first day of YAF's fall semester. Alex talks about what it's like to be a guest lecturer on campus, what it was like to give a speech, and what to expect when you're invited to give one.
Transcript
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How many migrants should America take in for you?
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There's a process, and we should lend everyone who abides by that process, right?
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You know, even after being screamed at, sprayed with fluids, burned in effigy, and nearly
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blown up on campus, I still love speaking at universities, which is why I was thrilled
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when this semester's YAF speaking tour brought me back to my old stomping grounds, Yale.
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Well, what most sensible guest lecturers do is either wing it or just give the same speech
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But I like to write a new speech every time because it lets me really focus in on the most
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pressing issues of the time, whatever's going on that week, what's going on at that place,
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and the current events angle gives me a greater ability to lure the audience into whichever
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obscure philosophical point or tradition I actually want to talk about.
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The principle is sort of like a little bit of sugar makes the medicine go down.
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I generally write them, if I can, before I am walking on stage.
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That is about the earliest that I write them, though.
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There have been times I've been pulling up to the school, still finishing it, but most
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of the time I have finished the speech before I had to give it.
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How did you think Yale would respond to your talk titled, An Open Mind Makes Your Brains
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Do you agree with the title of his speech today?
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And the main political divide on campus is between the Bolsheviks and the Mensheviks.
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I knew to expect a more clovable kind of protest than the humiliating left wing displays that
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So, you know, these kids, they don't want to lose their Goldman Sachs job.
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I knew they were going to be more subtle about it.
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The libs who showed up at Yale, though wrong, were polished and respectful, including the
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treasurer of a group that I once regularly would beat in beer pong, the Yale College
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I think it's great when we have prime individuals come to campus.
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And while I vehemently disagree with a lot of what Michael Knowles stands for, I would
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like the opportunity to have, you know, a sort of civil disagreement and see, you know,
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Unfortunately, my producer did not bring any solo cups or natty ice.
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But he did bring a couple of chairs so that this young liberal Yaley and I could sit down
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So you're the head of the Yale College Republicans, right?
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I'm the treasurer of the Yale College Democrats.
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I played a lot of beer pong with the Yale College Dems when I was here.
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Well, the thing is, I do go to a lot of conservative events, so I generally do hear some of the
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Well, I'd really like to talk about immigration.
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You know, I just saw there was an innocent man who was sent to El Salvador by Donald Trump,
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You know, and he was sent to El Salvador based on a crown tattoo.
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And it seems pretty clear now that he was not a gang member.
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But now you might also observe there was an innocent girl named Laken Reilly who didn't
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She was murdered by an illegal alien welcomed into another country by Joe Biden.
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But I would, it's not an either or proposition.
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Taking someone like the barber and sending him without due process to El Salvador is not
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I think you can have a moral immigration policy where you protect innocent people in the United
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States, and you also do not hurt innocent people by sending them to basically a forced
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But it occurs to me that we all only focus on the sob stories when they come out of the
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But when we look at mass migration, where under Joe Biden, we had millions and millions of
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illegal aliens come into the country every single year.
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This has been going on in Democrat and Republican.
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It seems to me we never focus on the sob stories of the Americans who, some were murdered,
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Some just had their society turned upside down.
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And so, okay, one guy during a mass deportation scheme, one guy falls through the cracks and
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maybe should not have been deported, but he was.
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You only have one mistake out of however many thousands since the inauguration.
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I think the alternative is, you know, first off, you need an immigration system, right,
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where people have a path to legally enter the U.S.
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Because we're a nation of immigrants, number one.
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Everyone, my grandparents fled here to flee the communists, right?
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But my great, great, great grandparents came here on the Mayflower, which is a great cigar
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And we've had long periods of American history where immigration was drastically reduced or
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So this notion that we're a nation of immigrants is a relatively modern notion, is it not?
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We'll get to more Cross the Line in just one moment.
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First, though, if you want the latest news, if you want to understand what the news actually
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means, you got to come check out and subscribe to The Michael Knowles Show every weekday at
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I will take you beneath the surface of daily political events to reveal their historical,
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I'm also, you know, I am Jewish, but I, you know, we have...
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Yeah, I mean, a lot of people wouldn't have guessed that.
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But there are actually 40 Asian Jews on campus.
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That's got to be like all the Asian Jews in the world.
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But I want to make this point because I think it's important, right?
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Which is that, you know, number one, I think you have a duty to help others.
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And even in, you know, Isaiah, it says, woe unto those who pass evil laws who hurt the poor.
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So, the second is the economic reason, which is that,
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immigration, in addition to being, I think, morally right,
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Undocumented immigrants alone pay $100 billion in taxes.
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for every undocumented immigrant you deport, you actually are losing American jobs.
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because of the net effect of people who are going to innovate in the economy,
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you know, work the jobs that a lot of Americans, you know, might not want to work.
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You know, that's how a lot of people get started.
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You might have to pay them higher wages than slave or feudal wages to Guatemalan peasants,
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My first job, I worked for a landscaping company.
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And hardworking, great people, you know, not all of them, you know, had immigration status,
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but we were out there cleaning people's yards, you know.
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No one says illegal aliens can't work, but they just aren't supposed to be here.
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Well, my point to you is that you asked me why I favor immigration.
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And I said there's a moral issue, but also the fact that economically we benefit as a nation.
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You know, again, $100 billion in taxes paid by undocumented immigrants.
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And in fact, they pay Social Security taxes, but don't get Social Security because they're not U.S. citizens.
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However, one can also pull up studies about the net drag on the economy because immigrants,
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both legal and illegal, are more likely to receive welfare benefits than native-born American citizens.
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Illegal immigrants the most, legal immigrants next, native-born Americans after that.
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So you're saying, I just want to make sure I'm getting you correct here.
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You're saying that undocumented immigrants are receiving more welfare benefits than no immigrants.
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And I actually would love for you to give me that study because I'd love to read it.
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If it were true, would that change your view of mass migration?
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It would make me like, I mean, it would be a really stunning fact, and it's definitely not true.
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So again, because I still have the moral argument here, which is that, again, I think you should help people in need.
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Okay, should Japan take in an unlimited number of migrants?
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Should Israel take in an unlimited number of migrants?
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So 3% of the U.S. population, and we can quibble over numbers.
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But the United States has 340 million people, right?
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And we have 11 million, maybe you say 18 million, undocumented immigrants.
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So the entire notion that we've been taking over by immigrants is just not true.
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So you're just talking about illegal immigrants, which are conservatively ranked between 11 and 16 million.
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But when you talk about all migration, when we're talking about all of mass migration,
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we presently have the highest foreign-born percentage of the population that we've ever had in American history.
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So you would grant that having foreign people in the country creates at least some social issues,
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Well, I look at the Fortune 500 CEOs, and I see tons of immigrants there.
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So how would you—so I'm actually very curious about this,
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because an issue I've seen people in your political lean talk about a lot is culture, right?
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Because to me, the American culture is always changing.
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We do things differently now than we did 20, 30 years ago.
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We used to speak English in this country, and recently we speak much less English,
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and you have to press 1 for English because of—
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Yeah, I think it's good for a nation to have a common language.
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First, though, go to hillsdale.edu slash Knowles.
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History, economics, classical literature, constitutional interpretation.
00:10:22.280
Probably not, if you've been educated in the last 40 years.
00:10:27.000
So, while our world constantly evolves through time and technology,
00:10:31.460
certain fundamental truths about humanity and our place in the universe remain unchanged.
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00:10:42.000
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00:10:45.200
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00:10:48.080
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00:10:52.820
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00:10:58.800
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00:11:04.040
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00:11:06.400
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00:11:10.140
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00:11:16.740
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00:11:21.160
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Go right now to hillsdale.edu slash Knowles, K-N-W-L-E-S.
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So, I think, you know, most people in the U.S. do speak English, right?
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And again, my first job was working with a Spanish-speaking crew of landscapers.
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That's a problem when a country doesn't all speak the same language.
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Because we all did speak the same language for all of American history until very recently.
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Where does the idea of the melting pot come from?
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It comes from a play in the early, I think it was the early 20th century.
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It was written by a Jewish playwright, and it was watched by Teddy Roosevelt.
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And Teddy Roosevelt loved the play, and he complimented the playwright there.
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And it's about a Jewish guy who wants to marry a Gentile girl.
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And this creates a lot of problems culturally, but they both decide that they're going to
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leave some of their old identity and melt in to the American identity to assimilate.
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So first of all, that means giving up one's cultural identity to a large degree, though
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But you're giving up a lot of your own culture.
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And you have seen this in waves of American migration that have caused problems, too.
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When it was the Irish, when it was the Italians, when it was the Jews, when it was other
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people, the problem with more recent mass migration from Latin America, especially illegal
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immigration, is you don't really see so much giving away of the native culture.
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You don't really see people hurriedly learning English.
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They didn't used to have press one for Italian back in the early 20th century.
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So the problems of assimilation have gotten much worse.
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And I guess the question I would ask to you, since you're unwilling to say whether Japan,
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Like, you know, any economist right now would tell you that Japan is actually in a lot
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of trouble because they don't have enough people there.
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Is Japan an immoral country because it doesn't take in a lot of immigrants?
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Well, the difference here is that we have millions of people who are fleeing harm and
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Yeah, because they know that we'll let them in because Joe Biden invited them.
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Now we don't have anyone really coming to our doorstep because Trump has made clear
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Well, I saw those photos of CBP, you know, the border app, people who had scheduled legal
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But I think you're evading the moral question because I'm not beating up on Japan and I'm
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not beating up on Israel and I'm not beating up on Italy, which doesn't enforce immigration
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And I'm not beating up on virtually every other country on earth.
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Do you think that those countries are immoral because they don't just...
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Again, so the analogy is a little bit flawed here because I'm saying there's millions of
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people coming to the U.S. who are asking for help.
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Japan doesn't have millions of people showing up their doorstep to the extent that we have
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Just this past week, CBP and NGOs at the border have closed up shop in certain places because
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so few people have come to the border since Trump's deportation policies.
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Well, the other Trump policies, right, with regard to the border, right, you know, the separation
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He's trying to do things to deter people from coming that are cruel, right?
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That's different than any other president's done?
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And again, we're two months into the admin and this really gets to me.
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I don't know how many innocent people were on the...
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But the point is, this speaks to, you know, I think we should hold our government to a
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How many migrants should America take in per year?
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You're asking me to make an immigration policy number?
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You're the one arguing that we have to take all these people.
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I can actually do this because I've done a little research on this topic.
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I think the U.S. used to accept something around like 100,000 refugees a year, right?
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So I could at least tell you right now that I think, you know, accepting those 100,000
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I'm talking about refugees specifically because the refugee acceptance program is...
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But I'm asking you about total migration, how many per year?
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I think there should be a process where, based on merit...
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Because the people come to the border, and there's actually law here, and it says when you request
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asylum, you have to meet a certain number of standards.
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Would you agree the vast majority of migrants are economic migrants, not asylum seekers?
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I think there's different motivations for people.
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And what is the motivation of most of the migrants?
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Because if you live in a society where there's no functional police, and, you know, and you
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stand up a little bit, and then you're threatened by the gang, and then you come here...
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You're telling me that the primary motive for millions of illegal aliens...
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Seeking a better life is very different than seeking asylum.
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They're trying to escape, you know, violence, right?
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The people who are seeking political asylum because they're under imminent danger in their
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But they can't get in now because Trump has stopped that, right?
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So my point to you is, I think it's really wrong when people who actually are meeting the
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You said 100,000 people, we're going to take...
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That's specifically the refugee acceptance program.
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Why won't you give me a number for total migration?
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Let's say the case of America, every year, how many migrants should we take?
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Again, I'm talking about the process for how people come into the nation, right?
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And that could be 2 million, it could be 3 million, but it's based on whether they
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I'm saying based on whether they have credible fear and they meet...
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Again, I'm not an immigration attorney, but I know there's a standard...
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Okay, so I'm asking your view as an American citizen.
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Yeah, and I'm happily giving it to you, which is that there's a process, and we should
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lend everyone who abides by that process, right?
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Since Reagan, we've had a process for the way that asylum seekers come to the US.
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So we've finally gotten to an answer, which is if people abide by the process, an unlimited
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So I'd say you go, there's 2 to 3 million, come through the process, and everyone who qualifies
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I'm completely fine with that, because again, the two arguments, morally, you help people
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in need, and number two, we benefit hugely from an economic level.
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I've been wanting to put in this fact, which is that if we were to increase the number of
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refugees we accept in this country by just 10%, we'd increase our GDP by a billion dollars.
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The average refugee we let in, once they've acclimated, of course, right, they actually have
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a higher income than the average American citizen.
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And the reason is, when you flee persecution, when you flee violence, when you flee with
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your family, you have a vested interest in working really hard and striving and living
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I'm a little skeptical that the Somalis committing crimes in Minnesota are really going to take
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But even if it were true, a country is more than GDP, we would admit.
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But a morality that only seems to apply to our country and not others.
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My question, the last question to you is, there was a Harvard-Harris...
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I hate to bring up Harvard at Yale, but there was a Harvard-Harris poll that said that most
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Americans, when you ask them if they support immigration, they say they do.
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When you drill down into numbers, the majority, a clear majority of Americans, would like immigration
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That's legal and illegal, which would represent a drastic reduction in migration.
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This was backed up in a survey that came out last year by Gallup polling.
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Harvard-Harris was the first one, Gallup was the first one last year, which also reflected
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that most Americans want to drastically reduce all immigration.
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So you want immigration to be, in principle, unlimited, and practically to be 2 to 3 million
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What I'm saying to you is there's a process, right?
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I can't give an exact number, but around 2 to 3 million is what I would expect for the
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I don't know how many of them will meet the credible fear, et cetera.
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But I'm just saying we need a legal process, and Trump has stopped that legal process.
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The border invasion declaration, again, I actually just made a presentation on this,
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so I know the facts, which is that he has stopped even the legal immigration.
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You keep going back to this point because you're evading the question that I'm asking
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you, which is if the majority of Americans want to drastically reduce migration, and
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you want to keep migration at multiples of that level and keep it there or even increase
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You know, there's a thought experiment where let's say everyone is watching a debate,
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And everyone will then come to a conclusion of the debate.
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If everyone's watching, and then I tell everyone, you know, I give them two arguments.
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Number one, the moral one that I've given to you, and number two, the economic one,
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Okay, so you're saying the majority of Americans in both of these polls have called for less
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migration, drastically less migration, because they just don't understand how great migration
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They haven't heard your beautiful arguments for it.
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I look into the polls and the crosstabs, and, you know, if you ask Americans, you know,
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their opinions on, like, helping others, on immigration, et cetera...
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No, yes, they love helping others, and they're way out of...
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But when you get into numbers, they don't like it.
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They completely disagree with what the Trump administration is doing.
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Because, again, there's horror stories out of nations, you know...
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But most voters voted for Trump campaigning on mass migrations.
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But I think people also voted because of prices, right?
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From that, a lot of it was the prices, which now are going up because of Trump's tariffs.
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If your argument is it was really just because of the terrible inflation under Biden or whatever,
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the price is going up, and the Democrats want to campaign on promoting
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mass migration in the midterms and in the next presidential election, I'm all for it.
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I'm talking about a campaign that is about fundamental values, about, first off...
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And ensuring, right, also in migration, right, that we treat the poorest of the poor well.
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And hopefully the next time we're back at Yale, you will be the treasurer of the Yale
00:21:51.220
I think that's a little unlikely, but we'll see.
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It's easy to join a protest and shout someone down.
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It takes a lot more courage and curiosity to sit down and talk, especially with little
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