Breaking Points with Krystal and Saagar - DEBATE: Michael Knowles CHALLENGED On Feminism, IVF, Trump

Episode Date: October 25, 2024

Ryan and Emily are joined by Michael Knowles to discuss Trump, abortion, IVF, feminism and MORE!   To become a Breaking Points Premium Member and watch/listen to the show AD FREE, uncut and 1 hour ea...rly visit: www.breakingpoints.com   Merch Store: https://shop.breakingpoints.com/See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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Starting point is 00:00:00 This is an iHeart Podcast. Camp Shane, one of America's longest-running weight loss camps for kids, promised extraordinary results. But there were some dark truths behind Camp Shane's facade of happy, transformed children. Nothing about that camp was right. It was really actually like a horror movie. Enter Camp Shame, an eight-part series examining the rise and fall of Camp Shane and the culture that fueled its decades-long success. You can listen to all episodes of Camp Shame one week early and totally ad-free on iHeart True Crime Plus. So don't wait. Head to Apple Podcasts and subscribe today. Have you ever thought about going voiceover? I'm Hope Woodard, a comedian, creator,
Starting point is 00:00:51 and seeker of male validation. I'm also the girl behind voiceover, the movement that exploded in 2024. You might hear that term and think it's about celibacy, but to me, voiceover is about understanding yourself outside of sex and relationships. It's flexible, it's customizable, and it's a personal process. Singleness is not a waiting room. You are actually at the party right now. Let me hear it.
Starting point is 00:01:18 Listen to voiceover on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. The Medal of Honor is the highest military decoration in the United States. Recipients have done the improbable, the unexpected, showing immense bravery and sacrifice in the name of something much bigger than themselves. This medal is for the men who went down that day. On Medal of Honor, Stories of Courage, you'll hear about these heroes and what their stories tell us about the nature of bravery. Listen to Medal of Honor on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
Starting point is 00:01:57 Hey guys, Ready or Not 2024 is here, and we here at Breaking Points are already thinking of ways we can up our game for this critical election. We rely on our premium subs to expand coverage, upgrade the studio, add staff, give you guys the best independent coverage that is possible. If you like what we're all about, it just means the absolute world to have your support. But enough with that, let's get to the show. If Donald Trump loses the November election, what do you think went wrong? How is it possible that Biden could get 10 million more votes in 2020 than Democrats had done it in 2016?
Starting point is 00:02:30 One answer to that is, well, because all the rules changed. So you got a new game, and you've got new results as a consequence of that. I would just point out, I was down in DC on January 21, 2017, covering the Women's March. Something like 5 million people, most of them women, came out and marched that day against Donald Trump. Continue with a historically inaccurate analysis
Starting point is 00:02:51 and you're going to have an improper kind of strategy out of it. All right, welcome to CounterPoints Friday. We're now about a week and a half away from the November election. And Ryan and I are joined today by Michael Knowles, the host of The Michael Knowles Show, who also has a candle line. Michael? You know, I only sell combustibles now. So I have my Mayflower cigars. I wasn't sure if I'd become a candle mogul.
Starting point is 00:03:17 But I guess a lot of the audience is a kind of live, laugh, love, suburban, feminine type because we are selling bazillions of candles at thecandleclub.com. They're a great product. I'm not surprised. Ryan, maybe it's time for you to get into candles. Everyone needs a good candle. Yeah, that's for sure. Well, Michael, one thing we wanted to start off with, just putting all of our cards on the table, I can't think of two people that probably disagree more than you and Ryan Grimm. So we're hoping for a lively conversation. But one place to start could be if Donald Trump loses the November election, what do
Starting point is 00:03:53 you think went wrong? Who would deserve the blame? It is basically a tied race right now. So that's not outside the realm of possibility. Kamala Harris, despite all of the flaws that you and I might ascribe to her, and I think reasonably so, is still popular among some swath of the flaws that you and I might ascribe to her, and I think reasonably so, is still, you know, popular among some swath of the American people, significant swath among the American people, looks like an even swath compared with Donald Trump. So if Trump actually
Starting point is 00:04:14 loses in November, who's to blame? I think the blame would have to lie in the way that the system has been changed. So, you know, in 2020, the election rules were largely changed to extend election day to election season and to encourage widespread mail-in ballots, which makes ballot harvesting a little bit easier. I'm not even really getting into the shenanigans that sometimes crop up in the city machines. I'm just talking about the actual now legal
Starting point is 00:04:42 and official modes of conducting the election that obviously radically changed the nature conducting the election, that obviously radically changed the nature of the election in 2020. A lot of people said, how is it possible that Biden could get 10 million more votes in 2020 than Democrats had done it in 2016? And one answer to that is, well, because all the rules changed. So, you know, you got a new game and you've got new results as a consequence of that. I think that would be really the only way to explain it. You know, I love Trump, not a big Kamala fan.
Starting point is 00:05:13 I'm a conservative Republican. But even trying to take some distance here, it seems to me that the issues basically all cut for Trump right now. The economy cuts for Trump, foreign policy cuts for Trump, immigration cuts for Trump, some of the social issues cut for Trump right now. The economy cuts for Trump, foreign policy cuts for Trump, immigration cuts for Trump, some of the social issues cut for Trump. Probably the one issue that the Democrats are getting- Before you get into that, because I think that's an interesting
Starting point is 00:05:35 point to make, I did want to flag one point you made there, that access to the ballot is the only explanation for why there were so many more people voting in 2020 than 2016. I would just point out, I was down in D.C. on January 21st, 2017, covering the Women's March. I have never seen a march that big in my life in Washington, D.C. Something like 5 million people, most of them women, came out and marched that day against Donald Trump. This is the day after he was inaugurated. Democrats themselves, the Democratic leadership, was hostile to or skeptical of that Women's March. They were flat on their back.
Starting point is 00:06:18 This was an organic kind of Facebook-generated reaction to the election of Donald Trump. And it was it was real, like the anger at and the shock that Trump had become president was a real thing. And you saw that energy for four straight years and you saw it metastasize in some really interesting ways that we can talk about. And I think that that played a significant role in why so many people voted in 2020, like they were just living. I'm not so sure. I'm not denying that the left is good at street organizing. They do it a lot. But I don't think the Women's March was unique. You saw similar street protests with the George Floyd riots. Even before that, you saw it with Occupy Wall Street. Even before that, you saw it with the
Starting point is 00:07:01 anti-Bush War protests. Occupy Wall Street, I covered that too. There were dozens of people at Occupy Wall Street, hundreds at the most. But there were Occupy protests throughout the country too. There was even in New Haven. I was in college at the time and they'd Occupy New Haven, which I agree was pretty pitiful. But even going back to the Bush era, you know, you had Code Pink, you had all of these kinds of protests. So the left does that. The left takes to the streets throughout the 1970s. That doesn't always translate to votes. It was like substantially different numbers of people that 5 million people, the most in American history, came out against Trump.
Starting point is 00:07:34 I'm just saying it's just worth understanding that as like know your enemy, know your adversary. Like they were pissed and it was real. Yeah, maybe. The left gets very angry and they do it in different numbers at different times. My only contention is I don't know that street protests always translate to success at the ballot box. If that were the case, I think probably Kerry would have won in 04 and I think probably Hillary would have won in 16.
Starting point is 00:07:58 So what changed here was not that the Democrats were especially angry or that, you know, a certain segment, you know, women were especially angry. I think what changed and what accounts for 10 million new votes is that they changed the election rules. And so you describe that as access to the ballot. I suppose certain people who otherwise would not be motivated to vote, who weren't paying attention to the election, might have cast a ballot because of ballot harvesting. But it also does open up the system to older voters. I don't want to get bogged down. And I'm just saying you can't compare the Women's March and the amount of energy that pulsed into the streets in 2017 to the Iraq War.
Starting point is 00:08:37 I was actually participating in that. That was before I was a journalist. There were a couple hundred thousand at the peak that came out for that. Code Pink is like six people in a group house in DC. These are not remotely comparable movements. You don't have to absorb any of this that I'm saying, but your analysis is going to continue to be confused if you really believe, if you really believe that Code Pink during the Iraq war is the same as 5 million women coming out of the streets in 2017. I think every four years or so, I think the libs come out every four years or so,
Starting point is 00:09:16 and they yell and they scream. Okay, but they don't. It's just historically inaccurate. But good. Continue with a historically inaccurate analysis analysis and you're going to have an improper kind of strategy out of it. Well, Michael, maybe here's a good question. I don't know. It kind of looks like we're winning the election right now. So I think the Republican strategy has played pretty well. We'll see if the Republicans can overcome the new rule changes that the Democrats crammed in everybody's throats.
Starting point is 00:09:43 But as of right now, the polls are looking very, very good for Trump. So if anyone needs to rethink strategy, I think it would probably be the party that ran a guy who obviously had dementia, lied about it, swapped out the candidate at the last minute for a woman who never got a primary vote while she was running for president
Starting point is 00:09:58 on issues that she can't win other than maybe trying to promote infanticide, even then probably not gonna push her over the finish line. Well, let's talk about that because to your point, now Donald Trump has never been, this is a weird figure, but he's actually never been more or less unpopular. If you look at his favorability ratings, they've gone up since like 2020, which is baffling. And if you had told me on January 7th, that would happen. The only way I would believe it is if the media continued to react very poorly to legitimately objectionable things that Donald Trump was doing, but having
Starting point is 00:10:30 the exact opposite of what made sense of a reaction from the media, not understanding his voters, not understanding why people continue to like him, that was the only way that it would make sense to me. But the point that I wanted to ask is, as you mentioned, it looks like a lot of the issues that are front of mind for voters are cutting in Republicans' favor, cutting in Trump's favor. But even so, this is basically a statistically tied race, meaning there's a lot of support for Kamala Harris. And I guess maybe to Ryan's point, what do you make of that? Why are so many people, if all of those issues are cutting in Donald Trump's election? The media right now is asking, why isn't Kamala Harris running away with the election? But maybe the question is,
Starting point is 00:11:07 why isn't Donald Trump running away with the election if the issues are so in his favor? Well, I think that there are a lot of historical issues with it, but I think that the big, the chief issue right now is the way that the election is being conducted. So we talk about new voters being brought in. Obviously, the Biden-Harris administration has flooded the country with foreign nationals, many of whom are planning to vote in the election. You don't need to take my word for it. The Heritage Foundation, I got video interviewing illegal aliens who admitted on camera, I'm an illegal alien. I have been registered to vote and I intend to vote for Kamala Harris. So this is all available online.
Starting point is 00:11:50 You've seen some pushback against that in various states, but it's just a fact that when you have 8 million new border encounters over a three and a half year period, foreign nationals who overwhelmingly identify with Democrats, that's going to have downstream demographic effects, especially because we know that the children, even the grandchildren of these immigrants, many of whom are illegal immigrants, identify as Democrats and they will have the right to vote. But she's at 49% in the RTP average. Just one final point on this. This is after the largest movement of people in recorded history, which is immigration into the United States since 1965. So I think that's part of the reason is that the Democrats have explicitly campaigned on changing the demographics of a country in a cynical way that actually often harms the people
Starting point is 00:12:30 they're bringing in, but will help them electorally. I think that's why this election looks different than if it were taking place, say, 20 years ago. Walk us through how somebody who is here illegally would vote. And why have we failed to catch anybody other than like one or two people in the past? No, we've caught more than one or two people. Like maybe six. Yeah, I think it's probably more than six.
Starting point is 00:12:54 The way that we- Seven? It's nothing. It's like minuscule. And then they're all in Texas. Yeah, no, they're not. They're actually throughout a number of states, including some liberal states like California. But California actually throughout a number of states, including some
Starting point is 00:13:05 liberal states like California. But California would be a good place to start because of motor voter laws. So that's the easiest way. When illegal aliens in states with liberal policies go to the DMV, they're allowed to get driver's licenses and other identification forms. And at the DMV, they're allowed to register to vote. Now, of course, officially speaking, they're not supposed to register to vote. But if everyone is automatically being offered the opportunity to register to vote when they're getting their driver's license, then the people who don't have that eligibility, but nonetheless can get a driver's license, sometimes fall into that pile. You're seeing a big issue right now in Arizona, because there's a difference between the federal
Starting point is 00:13:41 law and the state and the local law. So for state and local elections, people have to show proof of citizenship to register to vote. For the federal level, they don't, which to me is pretty crazy. It seems to me that if anything, it ought to be flipped, and the federal elections are the more important ones. But in any case, that's the rule right now.
Starting point is 00:14:00 So now Arizona has to deal with hundreds of thousands of people who are potentially ineligible to vote, and they're probably going to be able to vote anyway, and it will be fought after the election, which is why- If this is so widespread, why don't- Just one final point on this. This is why the establishment media right now are trying to normalize the notion that we won't have the results on election night, which is preposterous. PBS had a headline. They said, not only will we not have the results on election night, which is preposterous. PBS had a headline. They said, not only will we not have the results on election night, but it's normal not to have the results
Starting point is 00:14:28 on election night. Every election in my lifetime, including Bush v. Gore, when Democrats tried to overturn the results of that election before it became unpatriotic to try to overturn the results of an election, even in 2000, we had the results on election night. So I'm not sure when it became normal. I guess it's just when the Dems waved their magic wand four years ago.
Starting point is 00:14:47 Well, they didn't have the results until December when the Supreme Court decided, right? Because Al Gore challenged the election. But they actually did call the election that night. But they had needed a recount. But Kamala Harris is up 49. Well, they needed Al Gore pushed for it and then tried to overturn the election. But there are laws that allow for a recount. That was back, though, when Democrats enjoyed an overturning election. But okay, so in the RCP average, Kamala Harris
Starting point is 00:15:10 is at like 49%. So basically, the thing I would disagree with that you're saying is that the amount of, I mean, there's obviously been a huge flood of both legal and illegal migration into the country over the course of the Biden administration. But if I were to ascribe a percentage point of like the RCP average that is boosting Kamala Harris to 49.4%, I think they have Trump around 48%. I just don't know how significant that would be, to be honest. I mean, it seems like the American people are genuinely torn between Trump and Harris. Do you disagree with that? I think the American people are torn between the right and the left. That's certainly true. And I think that the left controls basically all of the institutions at this point.
Starting point is 00:15:48 And so America has liberalized significantly. I mean, whatever you think about the so-called social issues, it's simply a fact that when Hillary Clinton was running in 2008, she ran on abortion being safe, legal, and rare. She ran on abortion being a bad thing. Now the Democrats shout their abortion. When Barack Obama was president during his first term, he believed that marriage was a sacred union between a man and a woman. That was as recent as 2011. And then Joe Biden blabbed that they were going to change position, and they finally did. But it was pretty recent. You're talking about 13 years ago. So the country has
Starting point is 00:16:21 moved significantly to the left, and that gives an advantage to Kamala. She just happens to be so weak a candidate. And Trump happens to be more sympathetic than he's ever been because after years of the Democrats justifying his assassination, someone actually pulled out the gun and tried to do it and nearly succeeded the first time and tried again a second time. So he, as you say, he's the least unpopular that he's ever been right now. And also all of the issues are cutting in the Republicans' favor. So I agree with you, this is bad news for Republicans, that even with all of the headwinds working for Republicans,
Starting point is 00:16:57 it's still a close election. But that's what happens when the Democrats have succeeded at reshaping the country and the laws that shape cultural attitudes. Camp Shane, one of America's longest-running weight-loss camps for kids, promised extraordinary results. Campers who began the summer in heavy bodies were often unrecognizable when they left. In a society obsessed with being thin, it seemed like a miracle solution. But behind Camp
Starting point is 00:17:27 Shane's facade of happy, transformed children was a dark underworld of sinister secrets. Kids were being pushed to their physical and emotional limits as the family that owned Shane turned a blind eye. Nothing about that camp was right. It was really actually like a horror movie. In this eight-episode series, we're unpacking and investigating stories of mistreatment and re-examining the culture of fatphobia that enabled a flawed system to continue for so long. You can listen to all episodes of Camp Shame one week early and totally ad-free on iHeart True Crime Plus. So don't wait. Head to Apple Podcasts and subscribe today.
Starting point is 00:18:08 Have you ever thought about going voiceover? I'm Hope Woodard, a comedian, creator, and seeker of male validation. To most people, I'm the girl behind voiceover, the movement that exploded in 2024. VoiceOver is about understanding yourself outside of sex and relationships. It's more than personal. It's political, it's societal, and at times, it's far from what I originally intended it to be. These days, I'm interested in expanding what it means to be voiceover, to make it customizable for anyone who feels the need to explore their relationship to relationships. I'm talking to a lot of people who will help us think about how we love each other. It's a very, very normal experience to have times where a relationship is prioritizing other parts of that relationship that aren't being naked together.
Starting point is 00:19:04 How we love our family. I've spent a lifetime trying to get my mother to love me, but the price is too high. And how we love ourselves. Singleness is not a waiting room. You are actually at the party right now. Let me hear it. Listen to Voice Over on the iHeartRadio app,
Starting point is 00:19:21 Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. The Medal of Honor is the highest military decoration in the United States. Recipients have done the improbable, showing immense bravery and sacrifice in the name of something much bigger than themselves. This medal is for the men who went down that day. It's for the families of those who didn't make it. I'm J.R. Martinez. I'm a U.S. Army veteran myself, and I'm honored to tell you the stories of these heroes on the new season of Medal of Honor, Stories of Courage from Pushkin Industries and iHeart Podcast. From Robert Blake, the first black sailor to be awarded the medal, to Daniel Daly, one of only 19 people to have received the Medal
Starting point is 00:20:05 of Honor twice. These are stories about people who have distinguished themselves by acts of valor, going above and beyond the call of duty. You'll hear about what they did, what it meant, and what their stories tell us about the nature of courage and sacrifice. Listen to Medal of Honor on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. And Democrats would say that the reason that they're competitive or the reason that why they might even have a slight advantage at this point is Trump's success in overturning Roe v. Wade, and that the country has kind of recoiled at that. What's your assessment of that? And tell me, for people who... Our ecosystems don't overlap enough.
Starting point is 00:20:54 So a lot of our viewers might not know what exactly your politics are, where you are on this site. My understanding is you're pretty hardcore on the life side. I prepped it, Michael. Down the line. She prepped me a little bit. You're down the line as out there as you can get on it, right? Yeah, I think we ought to protect babies. I think it's bad to kill babies. I guess that's an extreme position now. I used to be kind of a moderate, common sense position. I'm for protecting babies, too. You want to elaborate on that? We agree. Yeah. I don't think we really need to elaborate. I think it's bad to kill babies.
Starting point is 00:21:27 So that would inform my election choices. I agree with you that Roe v. Wade's overruling is an issue in the campaign. I think it's really the only issue that helps Democrats at all, and then only in certain places. But conservatives have debated how to react to this. You've seen a lot of Republicans just basically trying to downplay the issue on the campaign
Starting point is 00:21:50 trail, which is probably fine as a matter of prudence. I think what happened with Roe v. Wade being overruled is not that pro-lifers merely won a victory. It's not that Democrats won a political victory, as some of them claim. It's that the whole conversation changed. So now the Supreme Court says, in the Dobbs ruling, that the issue has to go back to the states. The Supreme Court could have said that the 14th Amendment provides equal protection, and so you can't kill babies anywhere.
Starting point is 00:22:18 That's certainly an argument. Professor Robbie George, John Finnis made that argument in an amicus brief to the court, but that's not what they said. They said the issue goes back to the states and people can vote on it. And so the issue for pro-lifers is that when abortion has come up as a ballot initiative,
Starting point is 00:22:30 the pro-abortion policies have succeeded. They've prevailed pretty much every time. So Republicans are in a bad position right now because we're in a whole new ballgame. And so what is required is to win hearts and minds and persuade people that it's wrong to kill babies and it's good to protect life at the state level. But that's, you know, not really a federal matter right now. The Supreme Court has ruled on it. So when Trump and J.D. Vance downplay the issue of abortion, I think they're doing so as a matter of political prudence,
Starting point is 00:22:59 but it's also just common sense. They really have nothing to do with that issue right now, unless the Supreme Court is going to reverse its position, which it's not, then that's really a matter for the states and it's a matter for gubernatorial candidates and state legislature candidates to fight. And not to debate the point, but just on the definition of babies again, do you think that an IUD kills babies? Well, an IUD is a contraceptive device, right? So in principle, I'm not the biggest expert in contraception. I have three kids under four. But from what I understand, that would prevent the conception of a baby. No, it in general prevents the implantation. Oh, well, in as much, I suppose this would be similar to certain abortive fashion drugs,
Starting point is 00:23:51 where the nature of it, like Plan B, is debated. And some people, you're being, I suppose, a little bit more blunt about it than many pro-sexual revolution types on the left. But many people argue that things like Plan B or things like IUDs are merely contraceptive and not abortive fashion. But if they are contraceptive, then they prevent contraception. If they're abortive fashion, they obviously involve abortions. Yeah, it's just a matter of basic fact that sometimes they prevent implantation. Right, right. So you would consider that a baby. So you would say IUDs, if that's the case, if I'm right about that,
Starting point is 00:24:22 that you think that IUDs, a woman with an IUD is like killing babies. The question you're asking me, I guess the question you're asking is, when do I think human life begins? And so my answer is, I think it begins at the beginning. I don't know what else you would say it begins. Now, of course, no one's really campaigning in this election. Well, they're not even campaigning on abortion, but no one's really campaigning in this election. Well, they're not even campaigning on abortion, but no one's really campaigning against IUDs or any contraception or anything like that. We're pointing out that the Democrats have taken their safe legal rare position. Well, the reason is because the Democrats have moved the goalposts so far. They used to campaign on safe, legal, and rare. Now they campaign on abortion at any moment up till birth and including after birth.
Starting point is 00:25:10 So I know the Democrats are trying to run away with this because it's unpopular. But Andrew Cuomo, when he was governor of New York, was one of the first Democrat governors to change the law to say there will be no restrictions on abortion, even change the penal code such that if you killed a woman who was pregnant, it would no longer be double homicide. It would only be a single homicide. And then he lit up the Freedom Tower pink to celebrate. Tim Walz, as governor of Minnesota, repealed legal protections for babies who are born alive, who survive abortions. Babies can survive outside of the womb now as early as 24 weeks, 23 weeks, 22 weeks, even 21 weeks. So it's very, very young.
Starting point is 00:25:46 Abortions take place up until the moment of birth. And so previously in Minnesota, there was a law that required doctors to provide medical care to babies who survive abortions, just as you would provide medical care to anybody who needed it. Tim Walls removed those protections. Tim Walls then also removed the reporting requirements. Now we know the number is disputable. We We know some way at least five, maybe eight, maybe more babies actually were born alive and they were callously left to die without any medical care. So that's where we're fighting the issue right now because it clarifies the issue so much. And it's where Democrats have brought the issue. It's not Republicans who have done that. Well, Ryan, I saw your reaction to the afterbirth thing. Did you want to follow up on... I mean, Michael explained what happened in Minnesota, for example, which is it's a matter of not providing
Starting point is 00:26:33 care, legalizing the declining to provide care. Do you... I mean, is that not... I mean, that is a real thing that both Cuomo... it was something that Ralph Northam advocated for. I guess, why don't we leave this to doctors? Like, who am I to, like... Because we're citizens of a self-governing republic and we have laws against murder. You know, it's so amazing that the Democrats who have been campaigning for socialized medicine
Starting point is 00:27:00 for decades now say, on this one healthcare issue, we just need to get the government out of it. What are you talking about? We're citizens. We live in a self-governing republic. We have something to say about the laws. That's why we're all talking about an election here. And we're talking about a matter of life and death, even if you take the babies out of it. For some reason, you don't like the babies. But let's say you're just talking about, I don't know, a disabled woman or something, just an adult who is in the room, who requires desperate medical care
Starting point is 00:27:26 in an emergency room, would you say that doctors should just ignore her? Wouldn't you say that the law ought to impel medical providers to provide that urgent medical care? We have plenty of those laws on the books right now. Why is it just the case that when it comes to the most vulnerable little babies, that for them, we, in the words of Ralph Northam, we just kind of put them on a table, you know, maybe make them a little comfortable and have a conversation between the doctor and the mutter to see if you want to kill them. Yeah, I don't, I don't want babies to die either, but we're also, but I think it becomes very difficult to talk about when there's an entire movement that thinks that having an IUD is killing a baby. So at that point, you're trying to change the subject from the real political issue to a contrived political issue, because you know that the real political issue,
Starting point is 00:28:12 as it's being fought, the Democrat position is completely indefensible and abhorrent to anyone who has even a modicum of a conscience. So you try to move to a contrived political issue that nobody's debating right now. Why not argue around the final trimester and supporting if a fetus is viable? Well, hold on. There's a big difference between the final trimester and an IUD or something, right? There's a lot of space in the middle. And right now, the issue is that abortion is effectively legal at any point, including in some places after birth, which is just called murder. So I think what the Democrats are trying to do is really blur this issue. And I'm all for having, you know, bioethical debates over
Starting point is 00:28:59 the origin of life and all the rest. I find that all very interesting. But we're in an election season. And what I'm observing is the actual political issue, the actual political policies that are being advanced by the Democrats right now, all concern those latter stages, the much clearer point of this. You know, up until the moment of birth, shout your abortion, changing the penal code, for goodness sakes, in New York. Why is it that the Democrats, why is it that you, Ryan, when we're debating this right now, you are desperately trying to avoid that part of it? Because you know that that's a losing issue for people. Well, I mean, I'll tell you the reason. My view on this is I don't even want to have a view on this. Like, I don't want to have anything to do with it. Like, I want this
Starting point is 00:29:43 decision to be left between women and their doctor. That's an issue for the southern states. Forget about that. It's not the southern states. It's for women and their doctors. Just work this. Like, I trust them to make the decision that is best for them. And there's so much to think about in this world that, like, why do I need to think about? I'm curious.
Starting point is 00:30:00 Why do I have to talk about infanticide or the law or elections or politics? I don't know, bro, because you're a citizen in a self-governing republic. And this is a deeply important moral issue. There's a lot of deeply important moral issues. Why do you care so much about this? I'm just curious. I don't even necessarily want to debate the question because I'm not sure there's even that much point.
Starting point is 00:30:17 But what? I'm happy to tell you why. Because the right to life is not just one right among many. It's not like the privilege to drive a car or the right to smoke a cigarette at the age of 21. The right to life is the fundamental right on which all of the other rights rely. It cuts down to the very core of our being. So this is why we have very serious laws against murder. It's why we take murder laws and murder trials more seriously than laws about jaywalking or tickets about parking. So this is obviously a really important issue. Cuts to the heart of who we are, how we think about all of
Starting point is 00:30:50 morality and all of the law and all of the human person. And the people who we're talking about here are the most vulnerable people among us who don't have a voice, who are innocent little babies. So to me, that seems kind of important. I know there are a lot of big issues in the world, but I think I would put jaywalking or even tax rates at a less significant part of this debate than, say, the right to life. Yeah. Again, pursuing that question, when in your life did women's pregnancies become something that you were like, this is the thing I really am going to make my... Well, it's not women's... Women's pregnancies became important to me when my wife was pregnant for the first time
Starting point is 00:31:30 because I had to go get her snacks and things at night. But life, the question of human life, morality has been a question for a long time. I mean, if you're interested in politics and you're not interested in practical morality, well, I don't really know what you're doing because the law, by definition, is a codification of practical moral views. And I, by the way, was in favor of abortion for a lot of my... But I mean, I guess for you, is this like an always thing? Like, was this an always thing?
Starting point is 00:31:57 Like the first time in like middle school you learned about it, you're like, this is, I need to fight for these... I mean, he's Catholic, right, Michael? No, no. I'm Catholic, but I was an apostate for a long time. So I was, from the age of 13 to 23, I was pretty irreligious. And so I was in favor of legal abortion. I had no problem with it.
Starting point is 00:32:14 I didn't understand why pro-lifers believed in it. And I was having a lunch one day during a summer fellowship with a bioethicist. And she was asking me my views on things. And I said, oh, you know, I'm a Republican, I like low taxes, but I don't care about abortion, I think it's fine. And then we had a lunch, a long conversation about it,
Starting point is 00:32:32 and she persuaded me that I was wrong. So I know in our modern day, it's unusual for people to be persuaded by arguments, but she persuaded me that there's really no argument for abortion and that the argument in favor of life and defending the pre-born is pretty much rock solid. You were 23? No, I was 21 during that lunch.
Starting point is 00:32:56 I was 23 when I reverted to the church. And so you're 21 and you got argued into being anti-abortion? By a very intelligent bioethicist. Well, so on that point, now, Ryan asked a question earlier that to all of this, at the heart of all of this, he said, well, when is the beginning? When does the beginning begin? And an issue where that question is incredibly salient is on IVF, which has become something of an election issue because Donald Trump is now campaigning on being, what did he say, the father of IVF, something to that extent. And Michael, you're
Starting point is 00:33:29 a staunch opponent of IVF for a lot of the reasons that we've already talked about. So how do you sort of square that circle? How do you justify support for Donald Trump, somebody who's even walked back prior pro-life statements and seemed to, at least for the sake of political expediency, I don't actually know what's in his heart or what he really believes, kind of moderate on that particular issue and then extend it to him calling himself the father of IVF, campaigning on free IVF, like universal IVF access by the federal government or through some combination of federal grants and state grants. How does that, how do you sort of rationalize supporting Trump if, as you say, human life is really the fundamental question
Starting point is 00:34:10 of our politics? Sure. Well, there are two parts to that. One, on President Trump speaking more ambiguously about pro-life. I actually think that's probably a good idea. I would encourage him to be a little more ambiguous, just as a matter of political prudence. I wouldn't encourage him to lie. It would be immoral to lie. But in terms of downplaying an issue, the one issue that the Democrats seem to be winning on, I think that's probably a good idea. Because to quote cocaine Mitch McConnell, the winners go to Washington to make laws and the losers go home.
Starting point is 00:34:39 So I really don't have a problem with prudence in politics. When it comes to in vitro fertilization, there's another reminder that politics is the art of the possible. It's the art of the second best and the art of inclusion. A lot of arts in politics. And in vitro fertilization is a relatively novel technology that poses complex bioethical questions that most people have never considered
Starting point is 00:35:04 because it's not their job to consider it. And it's just, you know, they go about their lives and it's kind of a new idea. This is true even among pro-lifers. So when we're talking about a relatively small subset of the population that views IVF to be morally unacceptable, you know, you're talking about a small number of people. Add on to that that many people know someone or know someone who knows someone who was conceived via IVF. And though that would not be morally dispositive, just as you'd say, I know people who have been conceived in the case of rape. Their lives are, of course, as valuable as anyone else's life. They have a
Starting point is 00:35:38 right to life. But that's not to justify rape, of course, like that, you know, good ends don't justify immoral means. But it's difficult to overcome that emotional hurdle, that hurdle of pathos. So I think probably the prudent thing to do here, the Catholics have always been opposed to IVF because the Catholics take bioethics very seriously. But it's not just the Catholics. The Southern Baptist Convention just came out, it's the largest Protestant denomination in the country, just came out and said IVF is probably morally unacceptable. Most people just don't know why. They don't realize that IVF creates lots and lots of embryos that will be destroyed or frozen indefinitely. They don't consider that
Starting point is 00:36:18 IVF commoditizes human life. It turns human life, humans from proper subjects with rights, into objects, commodities to be bought and sold, traded at the baby store. It raises all sorts of questions over who has rights in reproduction. Traditionally understood, the only people who have rights in reproduction are babies to be the product of the specific conjugal act of their parents joined together in marriage. Now we have this notion that people have a right to a baby, just like, I don't know, a wealthy woman has the right to a handbag or something. That's obviously not acceptable. But people haven't really considered all of this. I mean,
Starting point is 00:37:00 this is kind of new stuff. And so I give people a lot of grace on it. And I just think we need to work this out. I really agree with the Baptists in their statement. People need to work this out, consider this issue. I hope they do it before some of the negative consequences emerge because IVF, no matter what fine effects come as a result, IVF establishes the domination of science and technology over the origin and destiny of human life. All that said, 13 days to a presidential election, you are not going to radically persuade hundreds of millions of people of a complex and nuanced bioethical point with regard to a novel technology that most people consider to be an unmitigated good.
Starting point is 00:37:36 It's just not going to happen. So if some political candidates want to, you know, kind of dance around the issue or not address it. Although Trump's leaning all into it. Trump's leaning fully into it. He's like, I'm the father of IVF. Other Republican senators have done that too. And, you know, the thing is, I don't think he's being cynical about that. I don't think he's being opportunistic. I fully grant, as somebody who takes this matter very seriously, and I think about bioethics a lot, it's complex. It requires, you know, some nuanced understanding and an examination of first principles. And so I bet Trump is right, and I bet,
Starting point is 00:38:12 you know, if he could have a conversation with a bioethicist like I had, I don't know, maybe he might be persuaded like I was. Trump being persuaded of something is funny. Trump talking to a bioethicist is funny. All of that's pretty amusing to think of. Let me run something past you, get your reaction to it. From the feminist perspective and also broadly from a left-wing perspective, there's always a lot of skepticism of people who say that they are opposed to abortion because they are out to protect babies. The idea is like, okay, maybe some of the people who are marching in the streets believe that, but the leaders of the movement, they actually have a much bigger agenda at play here. And that agenda is pushing back against women's rights, against the entire sexual revolution, which they think was a mistake in the 60s and the 70s.
Starting point is 00:39:07 Maybe modernity itself was a giant mistake. All these women in the workplace. You want to go back to a different time. Make America great again. Maybe even back to before America. Emily was telling me you had a funny quote of like, you don't want to go back to the 1950s. Not 2012, 1220. 1220, yeah. Okay, right. So people hear that and they're like,
Starting point is 00:39:30 oh, okay, I get it. This guy's just against all of modernity, basically, and women's liberation that came along with it. So is it a coincidence that those things align and that they just happen to be separate? Or do you see your mission against abortion rights as part and parcel of a kind of cultural counter-revolution? I think you're thinking about it too deeply. I just think it's wrong to kill babies. Now, when you're talking about cynical or opportunistic motivations among leadership, I don't know. I see more cynicism on the side of the men who say that they're totally in favor of abortion. I think that allows men to use women for their sexual pleasure and then to not have any
Starting point is 00:40:17 accountability. And I think it's just men saying, hey, honey, don't worry. I'll pay for the abortion. Please allow me to use you without any accountability. So I find a lot more cynicism there. In terms of women's liberation, I don't know. It doesn't seem to have worked out very well. There was a study that came out of Yale, I think in 2008, somewhere around there, that
Starting point is 00:40:36 measured female happiness. The study is the paradox of declining female happiness. And it observed that since women's liberation, so-called, in the early 1970s, women's happiness, self-reported happiness, has declined both in objective measures and relative to men. So they've become significantly less happy than men have over that time.
Starting point is 00:40:57 Now you have huge swaths of American women. Although men have also become, yeah, men have also become significantly unhappy. So I think we should go back to the kitchen. What do you think? Well, that would be a... That's where we would find happiness, right? We could be cooking clean, take care of the kids.
Starting point is 00:41:13 Well, no, I think probably your point here is making my point, which is that men also are becoming less happy. Maybe there's something going a little bit wrong in the modern world. To bring us back to our first point, we used to conduct elections neatly and easily. We don't do that. Maybe something's going wrong in the modern world. By the way, I'm just skeptical of a lot of those surveys. I wrote a book.
Starting point is 00:41:37 It's actually, is it back here? Yeah, there it is. On social history of drug use. There was a thing in the 40s and 50s called Mother's Little Helper. All of the women's magazines were heavily marketing amphetamines to women throughout the country. They're absolutely miserable and just hopped up on this speed that they were getting. Now we just put them on Xanax. There's so much progress we've had. It seems to me that when people say it's a paradox of declining female happiness because of all of the advantages of the women's lib, I don't think there have been advantages. I think it's robbed women of a lot of things they like. And you can see this in a debate, not between conservatives,
Starting point is 00:42:13 but among feminists. There's a famous debate between Betty Friedan, an American feminist, and Simone de Beauvoir, who's a French feminist and the strumpet of Jean-Paul Sartre. And they were debating whether or not women should be permitted to stay home and of Sartre. Yes. They were debating whether they, women ought to be permitted to stay home and, you know, keep house and raise a family. And Betty Friedan being the American, she said, yes, of course women should have that choice, but they should also have the choice to go into the workplace if they want. And Simone de Beauvoir, who I think is a more intelligent and insightful feminist, she said, no, women cannot be given the choice to stay home because if women are given that choice,
Starting point is 00:42:57 too many of them will take it. Most women will be inclined to do something like that, and that will inhibit women's liberation. So I take the feminists at their word. I think they really did want to weaken the family structures, diminish women's opportunities to stay home, to raise a family. You've seen, obviously, declining family sizes. We've now been below replacement birth rate in America since the beginning of this era and since 1971 or so. So I don't know.
Starting point is 00:43:19 It just hasn't really worked out that well. And I think people are becoming really sad and really angry all the time. And I think anger is a consequence of sadness because people don't know how to deal with their sorrow. And so that just seems objectively true. And if things are really fraying and have been fraying over the past 50 years,
Starting point is 00:43:35 it doesn't seem so crazy to me to say, hey, how about we avail ourselves of the wisdom of the ages? Not the stuff that worked in the 1950s or the 1220s or whatever, but the things that have consistently worked throughout all of history. That seems like the common sense position. Camp Shane, one of America's longest-running weight loss camps for kids,
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Starting point is 00:47:07 Listen to Medal of Honor on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Ryan mentioned, or you mentioned, Occupy Wall Street earlier. And I think, I don't want to put words in Ryan's mouth, but I think a lot of the left would posit that this decline in happiness came alongside deindustrialization and heightened predatory capitalism, essentially. And I actually think there's probably something to that. And you and I probably agree on a lot of these cultural questions, Michael. I know we agree on a lot of these cultural questions. I think people's misery and selfishness is reflected in the business community. And then I see, you know, Donald Trump campaigning
Starting point is 00:47:45 with Elon Musk. And, you know, I think Elon Musk is amusing, but I also wonder how that's hitting people in, you know, the Rust Belt. I was at Butler when Elon Musk was there and people were going crazy for him. They really liked him. Granted, those were people at a MAGA rally. But anyway, all that is to say, to what level do you think actually predatory industrial capitalism run by, as you and I would describe them, like secular business predators or just secular businessmen, to what role or at what level do you think that's contributed to declining happiness? Yeah, I think Elon is sort of the exception or he's a contrarian, which is why people who
Starting point is 00:48:25 otherwise would despise these, you know, zillionaires, people like Bill Gates, say, are applauding for him, because he's saying, look, there's something that's really gone wrong in our society, and he's trying to fix it. But I totally agree. I think there are perfectly legitimate right-wing conservative criticisms of modern capitalism. I mean, and I think Trump would make that point. I think this is why Trump also was able to bring the head of the Teamsters Union over to the RNC, you know, and have major labor unions not endorse Kamala. Kamala still has that guy who's like Tony Soprano and Archie Bunker from the Longshoremen, you know, but she's really lost support among labor.
Starting point is 00:49:08 So, you know, this is a critique that's come up through Trump, but also beyond that. And what is it? Well, it's that markets are great and, you know, we support economic prosperity, but you can't put the cart before the horse. You have to recognize, to the point we were discussing earlier with Ryan, that there are moral considerations here.
Starting point is 00:49:26 And if you untether the market from any moral considerations, you're going to be sunk and everybody's going to be miserable. And maybe your GDP ticks up, but it's not even reflecting economic health because you can game the system very easily. I mean, if drug dealers are trading fentanyl or people are going to brothels, I guess that could be reflected in a higher GDP, but it doesn't mean your country is really healthier. So to the point, I think Ryan made a really good point earlier that we have to take into consideration, which is when our friend here waved the white flag on talking about later
Starting point is 00:49:59 term abortion, he said, look, I just don't want to think about it. Why do I have to think about these moral questions? And the answer is, well, because you're a citizen and we're supposed to have a self-government here. And when John Adams says the Constitution is built for moral and religious people, that's not just some nice platitude that you hear at evangelical camps and brunches. He's really warning you of something. John Adams was not the most orthodox Christian in the world by any stretch. He was making an empirical observation that our
Starting point is 00:50:29 constitutional system and things like markets and things like free enterprise do not work if people are not constrained by morality. What could happen then is you could have something that is used for a great good, like markets, be used for terrible evil, for the exploitation of workers, which if you're a Christian, that's one of the four sins that cries out to God for vengeance, you know? I mean, that's a really awful and evil thing to do. People who are putting mere profits
Starting point is 00:50:55 over the common good and the health of their country. That's something that the conservatives have to watch out for too. But I think really the rise of the Trump movement and populism and the MAGA movement, whatever you want to call it, over the old stale chamber of commerce kind of republicanism, I think it's responding to that need.
Starting point is 00:51:13 And I think it's why you're seeing labor come over. I think it's why you're seeing a Kennedy, for goodness sakes, come over. I think it's why you're seeing people like Tulsi Gabbard come over. The Republicans, bizarrely, you wouldn't have predicted it 20 years ago, have become the party that are responding to the real moral crisis brought about by markets and
Starting point is 00:51:29 labor. I mean, it's just funny that Donald Trump is the guy leading that party to its, you know, so its moral victory. So, I mean, I think... I don't know why it's funny. You know, the guy has probably promised to pay for for i don't think he's paid for any abortions because he doesn't pay his contractors or subcontractors why would he actually go through on paying for an abortion but i'm you don't think he you don't think he's like suggested to somebody that he would pay for their abortion i mean look at the guy like the guy. The guy's life is a caricature of immorality. It's fine. You can do whatever he wants. I don't care. I don't know. I don't really speculate. The idea that this is the guy that would be a role model for this moral rectitude is kind of
Starting point is 00:52:18 comical. Ryan, if you were religious, you wouldn't find it comical. You might find it delightful, but you wouldn't find it comical because God uses all sorts of imperfect people for his ends. If you're Christian, you certainly believe that. And so the left, ironically, I was speaking with a very close left-wing friend of mine who said she really hated Trump and she just is a good person, you know, unlike Trump. And what's funny is that was Trump's answer. He says, I try to be a good person. You know, I try not to commit sins. But of course, all sin and fall short of the glory of God. So you're speculating without any basis on all sorts of private sins that Trump in principle
Starting point is 00:52:56 could have committed, even though, again, there's no evidence for it. Unfortunately, we don't have to do as much speculation as I wish we did. I mean, he's definitely an open adulterer, that much is. He's lived a very flamboyant life and he's done all sorts of terrible things, and he's been totally open about a lot of those things. But I suppose the point here, from my perspective as a Christian, is, yeah, right, that is how God works. God uses flawed vessels. And believe it or not, Donald Trump, because he's had the spotlight on him for a long time, you know, it's very easy to say he did that terrible thing
Starting point is 00:53:26 and he did that awful thing and he did that evil thing. But believe it or not, Ryan, you've done very evil things too. And if you think that God can use you to do good things, if God can use me to do good things, it shouldn't be surprising that God can use Trump. But what Christians say on Easter Sunday is they say, oh, happy fault
Starting point is 00:53:41 that one for us so great, so glorious a redeemer. They actually celebrate the fall of man, the original sin, because it can, not that it's a good thing in itself, but it actually brought about this great glory and redemption. So I don't know. I think Americans like a comeback story. I think Americans like redemption and they like grace. And I think the gracelessness of the left,
Starting point is 00:54:01 the total lack of charity of the left has repelled a lot of people. A redemption story, though, requires somebody to be seeking redemption. Is there any evidence that you've seen? I think there's a lot of evidence that Trump is seeking redemption. Yeah, I think so. I think he's recanted a lot of his previous views
Starting point is 00:54:15 and behaviors, and I think he's owned up to being kind of a rough guy. I remember one time he was asked if he had a beer, and he said, no, you know, I'm the only president that's never had a beer. It's the only good thing you can say about me. Can you imagine if I had a beer, if I were a drinker, I'd be the worst. That's called humility. And I think Donald Trump, ironically enough, exhibits a lot more humility than most people in our political class,
Starting point is 00:54:37 certainly than the sanctimonious left, which ironically is totally bereft of sanctity. Pretty sure you just said that Trump betrays a lot of humility. Yeah, I think Trump demonstrates humility, ironically, yeah. A lot more than the left, yeah. I think there is something that people miss with why Trump appeals to normal Americans, because he is self-deprecating sometimes. It's his humility. He does make fun of himself. He does make fun of himself, yeah. He let Fallon ruffle his hair, something like that. But I'm curious what you made of Michael's answer about essentially predatory capitalism or the excesses of it. Yeah, there's a good book on this subject that was actually controversial
Starting point is 00:55:20 among some feminists at the time by Elizabeth Warren and her daughter, you've probably read it, called The Two-Income Trap. And it was controversial because it suggested, as you said, there are some who would say, no, both parents ought to be in the workforce. There shouldn't be a choice, necessarily, because if there is a choice, then the patriarchy is going to dominate and the woman's going to be pushed out of that. What Elizabeth Warren pointed out in her book is that what we did is we reduced wages along the way. We drove up the cost of doing all this. We broke up families in a way that there wasn't the same help from aunts and uncles and grandmothers and grandparents and raising a family. So all of a sudden now you have less money, less family help, and two of you are now working for the same amount of wages. And it shouldn't surprise anybody that
Starting point is 00:56:18 out of that comes just complete collapse in people's happiness and well-being, even as quality of life by all other measures is growing. That, you know, we're living in better houses, there's more access to food, more access to clean water, environment. But think about that. I mean, I love this point, because yes, I agree with that analysis pretty much entirely. I just love this point where they say, yeah, so people are working all the time and they're making way less money for their work and their families are falling apart and they're getting married later and they can't have kids and they can't really do anything. But their quality of life is so much better. And all the other measures, you think, well, on everything that matters, their quality of life is worse.
Starting point is 00:57:01 I guess now they have an iPad, so that's nice. But other than that, it looks like their quality of life is diminished. I think the points are in concert because what you're saying is like, despite the fact that like, if you look at like an average house, just the house itself, the average house today versus the average house in 1955, like houses are much nicer. Cars are much nicer. Like things are much nicer. Yet people are still suffering in a much more significant way. What I'd say is everybody ought to be working 20 hours a week. 20? Yeah. 20? Yeah. Let's start with 20 and see how that goes. There's not that much work to be done. We don't actually all need to be driving ourselves into the ground like this. So Ryan,
Starting point is 00:57:39 I actually agree. Just having worked at businesses, a number of businesses now, I think- You don't need 40 hours to do that job. Well, even just 60% of the time, people are kind of just twiddling their thumbs and popping sins and like going to the coffee break. So yes, I agree. The question is, though, I remember when this issue came up during the Obamacare debates, Nancy Pelosi, that was Freudian slip. Nancy Pelosi was asked what people would do with all the extra time that they had
Starting point is 00:58:07 now that they didn't have to work to keep their health insurance. And she said, well, you know, they can write poetry or they can go take an art class. I think, you know, actually- That's great. Most people are not very good poets and most people aren't that good at art.
Starting point is 00:58:18 And so the question then becomes what- Most people can play softball. They can do basket weaving. Like they can do things that are like enjoyable and meaningful. They can volunteer basket weaving. Like they can do things that are like enjoyable and meaningful. They can volunteer. And what's funny here, I think it's what's summing up some of our disagreement,
Starting point is 00:58:32 but oddly kind of agreement is on this point of the realignment. It used to be that the left talked about the common good and the Republicans just talked about individualism and making money and driving up GDP. And now it seems like it's kind of flipped. You hear the Republicans just talked about individualism and making money and, you know, driving up GDP. And now it seems like it's kind of flipped. You hear the Republicans, especially the conservatives and the Catholic conservatives, speaking constantly about the common good. And it's the left talking about radical individualism, to choose one's own gender, to have an abortion, to do this, to do that, to leave the family, to do whatever.
Starting point is 00:59:01 And so, you know, I think it's important to care for the common good. And when you talk about what people would do, I think it would be nice. I think something people are yearning for is to feel like we're doing something together, that we're all kind of in it together. We have a common purpose as Americans. Barack Obama said this on the campaign trail the other day. He said, when did we become so nasty and divided? We need to be much more unified. Well, I think if you're debating which side to vote for in this election and you rightly recognize that we're divided,
Starting point is 00:59:30 we don't have common purpose and we don't know what we're gonna do, this go around at least, it's the Republicans who are talking about the common good and a common purpose and unity. It's the Democrats who are totally ignoring that. I think you should cast your votes accordingly. And you-
Starting point is 00:59:44 Yeah, Bernie Sanders, that's right, yeah. Like, he talks about the common good and in a way that is like a representative of the best values of the left. I'll give a little credit to Bernie Sanders. A little credit to Bernie in the same way that Chesterton gave credit to George Bernard Shaw. Chesterton, a conservative Christian,
Starting point is 01:00:01 was friends with George Bernard Shaw, who was an atheist socialist. And he said, George Bernard Shaw is who was an atheist socialist. And he said, George Bernard Shaw is a man with a very great heart, but his heart is in the wrong place. And that's what I'd say about Bernie Sanders. The man does have a great heart and he's like kind of trying to get at something, but it's totally in the wrong place.
Starting point is 01:00:17 So he ends up a commie, which is not good because that's a pale imitation of the true common good. And thus we have reached the impasse between Ryan Grimm and Michael Knowles. And I Googled strumpet. You had to Google strumpet? I thought I kind of had heard that word before. Deployed accurately.
Starting point is 01:00:34 Yeah, that'll be the title of your next book, Michael. Right. Our new Daily Wire documentary. My new candle. Not beating the charges that the obsession with abortion is actually about, just pushing back on feminism. Feminism is bad. We're not pushing back on abortion because we don't like feminism.
Starting point is 01:00:54 We don't like feminism in part because of abortion. They're overlapping issues, but they're different. Feminism is bad. It's made women miserable, and we should cut it out. Because the reason is it's wrong about human nature. Well, yeah. I mean, we could do another hour on that, actually. Might as well.
Starting point is 01:01:12 Might as well. A couple of dudes debating feminism. Yeah, I'll just... That's what we need. Well, what I'll do is I'll serve you guys drinks and you guys will hash it out. A couple of dudes and Emily and we'll figure it out. Lighter cigars.
Starting point is 01:01:22 Yeah. All right. Well, Michael Knowles, host of The Michael Knowles Show. Thank you figure it out. Lighter cigars. Yeah. All right. Well, Michael Knowles, host of the Michael Knowles Show. Thank you so much for joining us. Great to be with you, bud. Thanks very much. Appreciate it. We'll be back with more Counterpoints on Wednesday. Camp Shane, one of America's longest-running weight-loss camps for kids, promised extraordinary results. But there were some dark truths behind Camp Shane's facade of happy, transformed children. Nothing about that camp was right. It was really actually like a horror movie. Enter Camp Shame, an eight-part series examining the rise and fall of Camp Shane and the culture that fueled its decades-long success.
Starting point is 01:02:08 You can listen to all episodes of Camp Shame one week early and totally ad-free on iHeart True Crime Plus. So don't wait. Head to Apple Podcasts and subscribe today. Have you ever thought about going voiceover? I'm Hope Woodard, a comedian, creator, and seeker of male validation. I'm also the girl behind voiceover, the movement that exploded in 2024. You might hear that term and think it's about celibacy, but to me, voiceover is about understanding yourself outside of sex and relationships. It's flexible, it's customizable, and it's a personal process. Singleness is not a waiting room.
Starting point is 01:02:52 You are actually at the party right now. Let me hear it. Listen to voiceover on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. The Medal of Honor is the highest military decoration in the United States. Recipients have done the improbable, the unexpected, showing immense bravery and sacrifice in the name of something much bigger than themselves. This medal is for the men who went down that day. On Medal of Honor, Stories of Courage, you'll hear about these heroes
Starting point is 01:03:24 and what their stories tell us about the nature of bravery. Listen to Medal of Honor on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. This is an iHeart Podcast.

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