The Michael Knowles Show - Ep. 418 - Hypocrisy Is More Offensive Than Blackface

Episode Date: September 19, 2019

Justin Trudeau get caught wearing blackface in several photos from the ‘90s and early 2000s, NBC launches a climate change confessional for the Left’s environmental religion, and finally the Mailb...ag! Date: 09-19-2019 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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Starting point is 00:00:00 Canadian Prime Minister and international leftist darling Justin Trudeau has been caught wearing black face in several photos from the 90s and early 2000s. Right, left and center, black, white, and brown, no one is actually offended by the photos. The problem is the hypocrisy. We will examine the surprising history of blackface and how all of us should react. Then, NBC launches a climate change confessional for the left's environmental religion. Of course, Protestant environmentalists are furious about this, preferring instead to confess to the earth directly. We will examine the new secular sacrament.
Starting point is 00:00:39 Finally, the mailbag. All that and more. I'm Michael Knowles, and this is the Michael Knowles show. I love this story so much. I want you to shoot it straight into my veins. I can't wait for even more pictures of Justin Trudeau and Blackface to come out. This is the funniest story in weeks. And yet, no one's actually offended by it.
Starting point is 00:01:06 it. We're all just pretending. So we will get into how to respond because on the one hand, conservatives say nobody really cares. Obviously nobody's actually upset about it. So maybe we should let it go. On the other hand, we say the left uses blackface as a cudgel. They would never let this go if this were conservative. And yet the left gets to play by their own rules. So we need to smack them over the head for it. We'll get to the real answer to that question. But first, I've got to thank our friends over at Optima tax relief. you owe the government back taxes, brace yourself because today may be the day that the IRS shows up at your home or work. You're not going to know when they're going to show up. They're not
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Starting point is 00:03:37 Trudeau. I was on an airplane when these came out. And obviously, you know, I had to get the Wi-Fi. I had to get on Twitter. It was so hilarious because the photos come out first of him dressed up in what the left was calling brown face wearing an Arabian costume. You know, the left, the left is so dishonest on blackface. When leftists wear blackface, they excuse it and ignore it. When conservatives even so much as talk about blackface, they take their careers away. from them. They wouldn't even say that Trudeau was wearing blackface. They called it brown face because they wanted to draw a distinction between blackface and some other category, brown face, even though they're exactly the same thing. So they came up ex post facto with this logic.
Starting point is 00:04:23 They came up with this logic and said, well, because Trudeau was only appearing as an Arab person, that isn't blackface, that's brown face. Really what the difference is, is that brown face is black face worn by leftists. That's the only actual difference. Why is that? By their logic, they say, no, no, no. Arabs are brown and black people are black, so that's why there are separate words.
Starting point is 00:04:46 Just a little correction here. Black people aren't black. They're brown. They're not like actual, just like the color black. They're different shades of brown. It's all the same thing. But they want to have a distinction without a difference because they don't want to admit
Starting point is 00:05:00 that a major leftist, darling politician, wore blackface. The Daily Beast right now, the Left Wing outlet the Daily Beast, is referring to this as face darkening. They couldn't even go into the brown face thing. They couldn't go into the brown face thing
Starting point is 00:05:16 because the brown face logic fell apart when it turned out later that Justin Trudeau had worn black face as well, meaning he was specifically dressing up as black people, one of whom was Harry Belafonte, who was a very famous Jamaican American musician. It's just so.
Starting point is 00:05:33 so disingenuous. For comparison, just a reminder, when Megan Kelly, who, you know, Megan Kelly was on a right-leaning news channel, Fox News, she then went over to a left-leaning news channel, the audience never forgave her for working with conservatives. So she was on a show on NBC, and she just discussed the question of blackface and wearing makeup that makes your skin look darker. She just discussed it. They took her entire show. They tried to take her entire career away from her. Here are the comments. What is racist? Because because truly, you do get in trouble if you are a white person who puts on black face on Halloween or a black person who puts on white face for Halloween. Like, back when I was a kid, that was okay as long as you were dressing up as
Starting point is 00:06:20 like a character. There was a controversy on the Real Housewives of New York with Luanne. As she dresses Diana Ross and she made her skin look darker than it really is. And people said that that was racist. And I don't know, I felt like, who doesn't love Diana Ross? She wants to look like Diana Ross for one day. I don't know how like that got racist on Halloween. That comment, which is pretty much as innocuous as it gets, got Megan Kelly's career taken away from her.
Starting point is 00:06:47 Just for comparison, here is Jimmy Kimmel's blackface performance, not comments about blackface, full-on black-faced, black-body performance that he did a few years before, before he got picked to host one of the largest late-night comedy shows on network television in the country. Sometime at night, Carl Malone look up in sky and say, what the hell going on up there? Do UFO live on other planet, phone and home like E.T? Carmelow read on TV about white people getting deducted by alien, sticking all kind of hell up their butt, and that's a damn thing.
Starting point is 00:07:25 Now, calm alone never seen no flying saucer himself, but if he do, that's going to be a spooky time. That's what call him alone say. Government got to step up and give 102% to keeping them little green man off this here earth. Because the day them dude stick something up calm alone butt, that's going to, well, that ain't going to be no good time for nobody, especially calm alone butt. By the way, the whole joke, the whole joke he's doing beyond just coloring his skin brown, the joke is that Carl Malone is an idiot and doesn't speak the English language well. What Jimmy Kimmel is doing is much, much closer to a minstrel show, which is the origin of Blackface, than any of the other examples.
Starting point is 00:08:12 But there are a lot of other examples because it isn't just Jimmy Kimmel. It's Jimmy Fallon. It's Ted Danson. It's Joni. know Joni Mitchell, they paved paradise, put up, she wore blackface, Billy Crystal, host of the Oscars, Cindy Lauper, Sarah Silverman, Fred Armisen from Saturday Night Live, all of them wore blackface, all of them, in all of those cases, worked out just fine. They didn't lose their careers, nor should they have. I don't think Jimmy Kimmel even should lose his career for doing this sketch. I don't think any of the
Starting point is 00:08:40 other ones should lose their careers for doing their blackface sketches. Some people have brought up the governor of Virginia, who in a yearbook photo from his medical school yearbook, was accused of having worn blackface because there was this photo of him, a photo of a man in blackface on his page. Now, he hasn't admitted that it was him. He could have been the other guy in the photo who was wearing a Ku Klux Klan uniform. That guy, Ralph Northam, still the governor of Virginia. Oh, by the way, Northam. Northam.
Starting point is 00:09:11 So he may have worn blackface. Okay. He may have worn a Ku Klux Klan outfit. That's worse. That's definitely worse. He also said on radio that we should kill babies after they've been born. That's probably worse than either of the first two. If you were just asking me, sitting governor, what's worse?
Starting point is 00:09:33 He wore blackface 30 years ago or he wore a Ku Klux Klan costume 30 years ago, obviously not to a clan rally, but just as a costume. or he says that right now, while he has political power, while he is making and enforcing laws in Virginia, that we should be able to kill babies after they've been born, I'm going to go out on a limb here and say that last one is worse. I've said this comment before. I've made this apparently controversial remark before. When I said that, last time I said that, media matters tried to get me fired for saying
Starting point is 00:10:07 that I'm pretty sure it's worse to kill babies after they've been born than to wear black. blackface. Which means, according to Media Matters, it's better to kill babies after they've been born than to wear blackface. I guess Media Matters wants us to change the laws in this country, make it legal to kill babies after they've been born, but make it illegal to wear blackface. We're going to have to change all the punishments. Now, of course, no one really believes that. No one, nobody really believes that. Obviously it is the case that there are some instances of wearing blackface that are not offensive to people. How do we know that? Because all those other people were blackface and all those other people still have their careers
Starting point is 00:10:53 and all those other people haven't been boycotted and all those other people are still perfectly popular. You know, the last time a blackface story was breaking, I think it actually was the Ralph Northam story, I had just gotten into an Uber with a black driver. The story had just broke. and I asked what he thought about it. Maybe it was on the radio or maybe it had just been all over the news that day. And he brought up the difference. He actually brought up the point that I just made, which is the difference between wearing blackface and wearing the Ku Klux Klan hood.
Starting point is 00:11:22 And he said, blackface, if it's all in good fun, doesn't bother him at all. The Ku Klux Klan hood, it's hard to wear that in good fun. So he didn't agree with that. He said that's different. Of course that's different. So the question is, how should we react to the photos of Trudeau? certainly as conservatives, maybe even centrists or regular old liberals.
Starting point is 00:11:44 Nobody cares about the photos themselves. Everybody cares about the hypocrisy. It's the same thing Matt Walsh tweeted this out today. It's the same reason that the left goes after a Republican senator like Larry Craig for trying to pick up men for sex in an airport bathroom. It's not because the left disagrees with having sex with men in airport bathrooms. They'll do all sorts of weird stuff. it's because of the hypocrisy,
Starting point is 00:12:10 Larry Craig, the alleged hypocrisy at least, Larry Craig says that he opposes redefining marriage, for instance, to include gay unions, and yet he engages in homosexual acts himself, and this is apparently hypocrisy. And so that's the same thing here.
Starting point is 00:12:26 The left talks a big game on blackface, but they don't actually care unless it's politically useful to them. So what we like in this case is to see the liberals hoisted on their own own petard. But I think there is a third way here. I actually think there's a way between just totally letting Trudeau off the hook and between trying to get him to resign. I think there is a third way. And what it has to do is the meaning of blackface itself and the history of blackface
Starting point is 00:12:53 itself, which nobody knows because no one cares about history or nuance or context anymore. We'll get to that in one second. But first, I have got to thank our friends over at Ring. Ring's mission is to make neighborhoods safer. You probably already know about their smart video doorbells and cameras that protect millions of people everywhere. Ring helps you stay connected to your home anywhere in the world. So if there's a package delivery or a surprise visitor, you will get an alert and be able to see here and speak to them all from your phone. That's thanks to the HD video and two-way audio features on ring devices.
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Starting point is 00:14:30 Get started today. Ring.com slash Knowles. That is ring.com slash knolls. Why is nobody actually offended by the Justin Trudeau blackface? By the blackface itself. Why is no one actually offended? It's because no one believes that Justin Trudeau hates black people. Nobody believes it. I don't like Justin Trudeau, but I get a kick out of him actually. I sort of think if he didn't exist, conservatives would have had to build him in a lab somewhere because he's such a caricature of a leftist politician, but no one thinks he hates black people. Nobody thinks Joni Mitchell hates black people. Nobody believes any of that. When Billy Crystal put on blackface to do an impression of Sammy Davis Jr., he darkened his skin. He couldn't have done the impression otherwise. Billy Crystal doesn't
Starting point is 00:15:21 look like Sammy Davis Jr. When you do impressions and impersonations of people, you've got to make yourself look and appear like them. That's what an impression is. That's what an impersonation is. same thing with Fred Armisen. Fred Armisen isn't black, but he darkened his skin to look like Barack Obama. He put on blackface to use the term. But he couldn't have done the impression otherwise. You can't go and be a white guy and do an impression of Obama. Then just don't do the impression because you're not going to look like the person. So are we then saying that white people can't imitate anyone else? We can't do impressions. We can't do impersonations unless they have exactly the same skin tone that you do. How about when the Wayne's brothers whitened their faces to play white chicks? Remember that movie White Chicks? I actually don't.
Starting point is 00:16:04 I mean, this was like 20 years ago or something that it came out. But they look like they whiten their faces and they play white chicks. Is that okay? Are they not allowed to do that? How about when the Jersey Shore came out? Jersey Shore TV show. All of a sudden you saw parties start cropping up. I went to a number of them where people were wearing, you know, the white tank top and gold chains and things that I actually just wear under my clothing every single day of my life.
Starting point is 00:16:30 But they did it to kind of look like Italian people. Sometimes maybe they darken their skin a little, or they make their hair look a little more slicked back or something. They physically made themselves resemble Italian people more. Is that not okay? The left objects. The left says, well, black people have been oppressed in America, and white people have not been oppressed.
Starting point is 00:16:48 So it's universally always terrible and never acceptable to wear black face, always offensive. But if a black person wears white face or, you know, dresses up like a, an Italian for a Jersey Shore party or something, that is okay. That's perfectly fine. First of all, everybody suffers. Everybody has experienced some pain and suffering in their life. Every people group suffers. The largest lynching in American history was of Sicilian people in the late 19th century. They suffered. That's a lot of oppression. So are you still going to say dressing up like the Jersey shore is okay? What about the Irish? Irish faced it.
Starting point is 00:17:31 plenty of oppression in America. I mean, there were signs on doors that said Irish need not apply for work. So when we go out on St. Patty's Day and wear green suits and go drinking and speak in fake Irish brogues is that, are we allowed to do that? The Irish have been oppressed. Everybody suffers, certainly. But let's even indulge the premises. Let's say that, okay, it's okay for some people to do it, but not okay for others. It's okay for, in the victim hierarchy, for the more oppressed class of people to dress up like the less oppressed class of people or the oppressor class of people,
Starting point is 00:18:06 but it's not okay vice versa. Then what about drag? What about drag? What about transvestitism? Because we're told by the left that men oppress women and have always oppressed women and only now thanks to feminism, do they not oppress women?
Starting point is 00:18:21 I take some issue with that history, but let's even indulge the premise. Then how on earth you? you're going to let men dress up like women. Put in long hair, paint their nails, put makeup on, wear a dress and high heels. That's just the black face of sex. And it's almost a direct analogy according to the left's premises because you have the oppressor group, the men, dressing up like the oppressed group, the women. So is it not okay to wear drag? Why are men allowed to dress up like women? Not only are they allowed today, actually, by the way, the left is encouraging
Starting point is 00:18:58 that to happen. They're celebrating that. They're holding whole parades to celebrate men dressing up like women. And none of us really has a problem with that. I mean, I was just in New York, which, I was actually down in Greenwich Village for a little bit of it. And in and around the village, there's a drag bar like every three blocks, walked by Stonewall in the very famous gay bar in New York. Plenty of people dressing up plenty of crazy ways. No one had a problem with it. What it all comes down to is context. Nobody knows the history of black. blackface anymore. It's actually a very interesting history. Blackface comes from the old minstrel shows. So this was a form of vaudevillian entertainment in the U.S. and arguably it's certainly
Starting point is 00:19:40 the first uniquely American form of theater. It's arguably the only uniquely American form of theater. And in the minstrel show broadly, you have white people dressing up like black people and specifically stock characters of black people. So one, one critical. One, one critical, Criticism of minstrel shows is they portray black people as stupid. And this is actually different from what Jimmy Kimmel did when Jimmy Kimmel did when Jimmy Kimmel dressed up like Carl Malone. Even though they might have said the same things and looked the same way, Jimmy Kimmel was making fun of a single person. He was calling one single person an idiot. Whereas in the minstrel shows, you're talking about whole stock stereotypes of people. So it's not just one individual, but it's black people generally or slaves generally. That's one difference. But what's funny is that the minstrel shows, aren't only attacked by people who support racial equality, for instance. They weren't even just attacked by integrationists, for instance, at the time. They were attacked by everybody and for opposite reasons. So it's funny because they were very, very popular in the 19th century
Starting point is 00:20:47 and very early part of the 20th century, but they still managed to offend everybody. So integrationists objected to menstrual shows because they portrayed black people as dumb and as happy slaves. So, almost sort of defending the institution of slavery because it falsely portrayed the slaves as really happy and content with the whole thing. But the segregationists opposed minstrel shows and objected to them because they portrayed
Starting point is 00:21:11 the black characters as sympathetic. And they humanized the black characters, and they exposed white audiences, rather, to some actual black songs. So some of the songs that were sung were just written by white people and they were sort of caricatures of black spirituals. Some of them were actual black songs, though, and black spirituals that were then exposing white audiences to some small aspects of black culture. I say small aspects because you'd only get that for like one or two acts of the show.
Starting point is 00:21:39 The rest of it, there was a sort of vaudevillian format. Our society does not object to non-Italians dressing up like Mike the situation. Our society does not object to men dressing up like women. Far from it, we actually encourage it. our society does not really even object to white people darkening their skin for costumes. We know they don't because all those other people have their careers. Jimmy Kimmel, Jimmy Fallon, Billy Crystal, all of them. What it all does come down to is context.
Starting point is 00:22:14 Justin Trudeau's Arabian costume is not funny because he was mocking Arab people and saying that he's so much better than Arab people and Arab people are dumb and terrible and racially inferior. That's not what he was doing, I don't think. The reason his Arab costume is funny is because it's so incongruous that it's ridiculous. You have Justin Trudeau, who is the whitest, Canadianist person that has ever walked the earth, and you have him dressing up as an Arabian prince. That's funny. Humor very often comes from incongruity and subverting expectations. Trudeau apparently darkened his skin on another occasion to look like Harry Belafonte. This is very funny because Harry Belafonte is a cool, suave Jamaican-American singer
Starting point is 00:23:00 who was very popular for a long time. And Justin Trudeau is a square, stiff, white as the newly driven snow Canadian. For the millennials and Gen Z in the audience, who might not recognize Harry Belafonte, Harry Belafonte is the guy who sang Daylight, come in me, want to go home? This is a clip of Harry Belafonte. Take a listen. Day light come and me want to go home. Stock banana till the morning come. Day like come and... De, me said day.
Starting point is 00:23:40 You know that song, you've all heard that song. Justin Trudeau singing that song is even more ridiculous than me singing that song because Justin Trudeau is whiter and more Canadian than I am. It's funny. It's funny to compare Justin Trudeau to Harry Belafonte. They're very different people. I don't think he was singing that song to disparate. all black people or all Jamaican people. He was wearing it because it's funny, because the
Starting point is 00:24:02 comparison is funny. So the question is, how should conservatives react? We'll get to that in one second because I have a different answer than a lot of other conservatives have. But first, I've got to thank our friends over at Vista Print. Vista Print is so great I've used them for so many years, long before the Daily Wire even existed. It's important to keep a business card on you. I don't do that a lot and then I look like an immature schmuck. You need a business card. Your next big opportunity could be coming around the corner and you need to be able to give out your information. Vista print will help you own the now with free shipping on any business card in any quantity. They're the best. They're the kings of this. They are the absolute top of the heap. That's why I've
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Starting point is 00:26:22 So what do we do about Trudeau? Some say it's none of our business. It's a foreign country. It's Canada. We don't need to get in their affairs. But that's the point. It's Canada. It's like America's hat.
Starting point is 00:26:32 Washington's greatest mistake. So the best case scenario here is to get the left to admit in writing and on camera that their attacks on people like Megan Kelly are completely disingenuous and that life and art are complicated. That's what we should be aiming for. I don't care if Justin Trudeau resigns. I get a kick out of him and he's kind of funny to read about in the news. That's the best case scenario.
Starting point is 00:26:51 Okay. and we should be perfectly honest about that. If they don't do that, then we need to make Trudeau resign. Some conservatives have trouble holding these two ideas in their head at the same time. The best solution is for the left to admit that they were wrong, that they're vindictive, that they're shallow, that they're small people, and that they're not going to do it again. Get them on record doing them.
Starting point is 00:27:11 That is the best scenario. If they won't do that, we have to make them resign. Because what that would mean is even though Trudeau did not commit some impeachable offense, the left won't respond to reason, and mercy and grace. And so then you've got to make them feel a pain and the consequence of their actions. There is news, by the way, from the left,
Starting point is 00:27:28 that is even more ridiculous than Trudeau wearing blackface. This, we have to get to before the mailbag. It's a new initiative from NBC News. It's called Climate Confessions. Climate Confessions. They've established a confessional. Here is the headline.
Starting point is 00:27:41 Climate Confessions, even those who care deeply about the planet's future can slip up now and then. Tell us, where do you fall short in preventing climate change? Do you blast the AC? Throw out half your lunch. grill a steak every week, share your anonymous confession with NBC News.
Starting point is 00:27:56 It's even an anonymous confession. They don't have the little boots, but they do it all online. Here are some examples. An energy confession. I sleep with the air conditioner on year round and justify it to myself by recycling. Here's a meat confession. I just can't get behind the impossible burger, I'm sorry. Here's a paper confession.
Starting point is 00:28:14 My work lunches are the worst, so much disposable everything. Those are real confessions from the website. You can read them. The way you do it is you go and you pick a category, then you write down your confession. I put out an energy confession. I said, I occasionally read NBC and watch NBC News. That's my confession, and I'm really sorry that I do that.
Starting point is 00:28:32 This obviously is going to create some sectarian strife among Protestant environmentalists who just want to confess their sins to Mother Earth directly. But listen, for me, being a little more in the Catholic side of the issue here, I like that NBC is at least creating this secular sacrament. We were just talking yesterday about this, about how climate change is the left's religion. It's not about science. It's about religion. Specifically, it's about false religion. And so, look, we don't need to get into that again. It's very clear. The left ditched real religion and they had to adopt these false religions because
Starting point is 00:29:04 everybody's got to serve somebody. I'm glad to be able to tell you, I was completely right, totally called it. I've been saying it for years. And now NBC proves that that is true. I mean, they're even creating these sacraments now, perfectly mimicking the Catholic sacraments, the traditional sacraments of our culture. But there's another aspect here, which we haven't touched on too much, which is environmentalism also fulfills the political usefulness of religion. Not just the religious longings themselves, man as a religious being, we are born naturally with a longing for God.
Starting point is 00:29:37 It also fulfills the political usefulness. So conservatives embrace the religious right at least 30, 40 years ago, and that has been very useful to us politically. It gives conservatives the moral high ground, if only because the left has ceded the moral high ground, and they've embraced and flaunted all sorts of inversions and perversions of moral norms. What the left, though, is doing now with the increasingly religious tenor of environmentalism is they're trying to counter that. They realize it's useful politically, and they want it themselves.
Starting point is 00:30:07 The clearest example of that is Pete Buttigieg. Pete Buttigieg is, just to compare him talking about climate change to abortion, tells you all you need to know about this. We'll get to it in one. second and then we'll get to the mailbag, but first I got to say goodbye to Facebook and YouTube. You know what you get. Ten bucks a month, $100 for an annual membership. You get everything and you get the leftist tears Tumblr, and that's the most important thing of all. Head on over to DailyWire.com. If people don't make all their climate change confessions and the world heats up and the ice caps melt, you are going to drown. More likely,
Starting point is 00:30:39 the ice caps aren't going to melt, but you're still going to drown because the leftist tears are going to flow everywhere. Go to DailyWire.com. We'll be right back with a lot more. Pete Buttigieg, my least favorite candidate running in the Democratic field, the biggest jerk out of all of them, has come out. He's been doing this now for weeks and weeks, taking what NBC News is showing us, taking the religious, or the political usefulness of religion. And most decisively describing this in terms of climate change and environmentalism. Here's Pete Buttigieg, using the word sin, using the concept of sin, to describe. climate change. If you believe that God is watching as poison is being belched into the air of creation and people are being harmed by it, countries are at risk of vanishing in low-lying areas, we suppose God thinks of that. I bet he thinks it's messed up. At least one way of talking about this is that it's a kind of sin. At the point I'm thinking, maybe just in my own faith tradition, but what kind of sin is it to blame God for something you did
Starting point is 00:31:58 and something you can do something about while other people are getting hurt? The way I see it, I don't imagine that God's going to let us off the hook for abusing future generations anymore than you would be off the hook for harming somebody right next to you. And with climate change, we're doing both. The key word there is imagine. As you notice, Pete Buttigieg can't really do a great job quoting scripture
Starting point is 00:32:19 or the tradition of the church because what he is, expounding on his heresy, what he is selling is heresy. It's a religion that he's saying is Christianity, but it is not Christianity. And so he always just talks about what he imagines, you know? Forget that it's very clear from the book of Genesis, man has dominion over the land and the sea and the beasts and the birds. Now forget about that. In Pete Buttigieg's made-up version, fictional, heretical Christianity, we are only here to serve the natural environment. But at least, you know, hypocrisy is the tribute vice-paste to virtue. He's at least pretending that he's talking about Christianity.
Starting point is 00:32:56 Now listen to the religious terms in which Pete Buttigieg discusses abortion. Now, right now, they hold everybody in line with this one kind of piece of doctrine about abortion, which is obviously a tough issue for a lot of people to think through morally. Then again, you know, there's a lot of parts of the Bible that talk about how life begins with breath. And so even that is something that we can interpret. differently and take up me too. But I think no matter where you think about the kind of cosmic question of how life begins, most Americans can get on the board with the idea of, all right, I might draw the line
Starting point is 00:33:36 here, you might draw the line there. But the most important thing is the person who should be drawing the line is the woman making the decision. Absolutely. All heretical nonsense. I mean all just absolutely demonic and hellish heretical nonsense to defend the slaughter of babies. We don't have time to get into it now.
Starting point is 00:33:53 Father Frank Pavone, the head of priests for life, has a wonderful article describing all of the scriptural references where we can see that God knows us from the very beginning when he formed us in our mother's wounds. And you see this throughout the Bible. And what Pete Buttigieg is talking about is really disgusting stuff. But there's a story that just came out of South Bend, an abortion clinic that Buttigieg has supported in the past in South Bend. An abortionist from there was found to have 2,200, more than 2,200 baby body parts found in his home. Buttigieg was finally asked about this. Here's his answer. Like everyone, I find that news out of Illinois extremely disturbing. And I think it's important that that be fully investigated.
Starting point is 00:34:35 I also hope that it doesn't get caught up in politics at a time when women need access to health care. There's no question that what happened is disturbing. It's unacceptable. He doesn't want it to get caught up in politics. This is Pete Buttigieg, who is specifically making this a political issue, who is running in part on this issue. Abortion, of course, is a political issue now, and it has been for at least 50 years. This guy is so in support of abortion, he's trying to twist the Bible for his sick crusade to kill babies. He is so the worst. Buttigieg is so the worst candidate.
Starting point is 00:35:07 Anyway, why is it disturbing? Because that's what he said. He said, this story is disturbing, the story that the abortionist has 2,200 baby body parts in his home. Why is that disturbing? What Pete Buttigieg is saying is it's not disturbing to murder little babies and chop them up, but it is disturbing to have the body parts. When somebody is murdered, the disturbing thing about that is not how the family handles the funeral. They pick this casket or that casket.
Starting point is 00:35:38 They serve chicken or beef at the funeral. What's disturbing is the murder. There is no way to get around this. says, oh yes, we need to defend. It is good, it is moral, it is Christian and biblical to chop up little babies, rip them into different parts, pull them limb from limb, discard them like they're nothing but meat. That's good and wonderful and virtuous and true and biblical. But then having the body parts is not. That's bad. That's disturbing. It's not disturbing. Totally backwards. That's the bizarre moral code, the bizarre logical consequence of the immoral code of these false
Starting point is 00:36:20 leftist religions, including environmentalism, which would have us, all you hear about from environmentalism is have fewer babies, live less, thrive less, be less productive. In some cases, kill your babies. Go, that would be good for the environment. Sacrifice your babies on the altar of the climate. No different than any other pagan religion. We've got a lot more to get to, but we've got to get to the mailbag, so let's just fly right through it today, and we'll get to some more stories next week. From Dave, dear St. Michael of the Blessed Coughfefe, do you have any suggestions about how to improve on speaking more eloquently in day-to-day life?
Starting point is 00:36:54 Yes, make a point of not saying a or um or like, and to a lesser degree, but also importantly, you know. just take those out of your speech. It's very difficult. I mess up on this sometimes too. I use those words on occasion, but some people use those words a lot, and you'll notice that you use it a lot more than you think you do. Don't do that.
Starting point is 00:37:22 One of the advantages is that you don't sound like a valley girl from the 80s. The other advantage is it will cause you to stop. You will stop speaking for a second, and that will allow you to think, which means that the things that you are saying are going to be more eloquent and better thought. thought out. I would recommend slowing down. I would recommend speaking on your breath. One way that millennials and Gen Z, I notice millennials do this though, is they'll speak in vocal fry. Vocal fry is
Starting point is 00:37:49 like when you talk like this, you know, so there's no real air supporting it, but it's just kind of in the back of the throat and it sounds really unpleasant and ugly. Speak on your breath. It will give off a sense of confidence. It will make you feel more confident about your ideas, be more persuasive. Those are just a few things you can do. Also, read poetry, read good language, read good books, and memorize poetry. Poetry is easy because you can memorize a poem in an hour or two. Memorize verses from the Bible. Memorize Shakespeare. Memorize good quotes that you like. We have gotten much worse about our memories because we have electronics in front of us all the time, so we don't recall anything. But so much of speaking publicly is about recalling quotes and
Starting point is 00:38:34 thoughts and ideas and who said it and citations. So just work on building up your memory. And when you do memorize things, do it with your mouth, do it on your voice. Don't just do it in your head. Big exaggerated movements from your mouth and from your vocal cords. This will make it much easier to memorize things and it will make you a better speaker. From Kyle. Michael, love the show. It's art in one of its purest forms. Thank you very much. With Democrats racing to see who you can, who can have the most radical policy by 2020, what hope do you have for true bipartisanship, or a renewal of agreement on common values between Republicans and Democrats when some of the most fundamental disagreements we have at this point seem irreconcilable.
Starting point is 00:39:14 I think bipartisanship is nonsense. I mean, it's a contradiction in a term. Partisanship means there is a disagreement, there is a separation, there is division, so bipartisanship is a contradiction in itself. And I don't even think we necessarily want that. I don't want a big liberal consensus in this country. I like that I get to stay my point of view and other people get to stay their incorrect points of view. And then I can persuade people to agree with what I think, to put it bluntly. So that's fine. I like a good rigorous debate. I don't like the censorship.
Starting point is 00:39:46 I don't like the constant character attacks. I don't like dredging up old tweets. Twitter is a little bit of the problem, though. I was on a Fox News show when I was in New York a couple days ago. And it was Martha McCallum's show. And I was on with Juan Williams. Juan and I disagree on an whole number of things. I'm sure we could easily go back and snipe at each other on Twitter all day long.
Starting point is 00:40:04 But when you're in the room looking at somebody face to face, you take them more seriously, you treat them more respectfully. That would be good. I think that we could do with a whole lot more respect and reverence in this country. But that's going to come from a place of humility and personal interaction. Unfortunately, we're losing humility because we now have a whole month that celebrates pride, which is the opposite of humility, and we have much less personal interaction because more and more and more we're just behind our screens and we're all keyboard warriors,
Starting point is 00:40:30 with the courage of people who never have to face consequences for what they say. So, in short, I don't think that the future of good civil discourse is looking very bright. And the only way that we can try to create that culture now with all of the technological and social challenges is to embody it and have a little reverence and have a little humility ourselves. From Brandon, dear Michael, if the 2020 candidates have their way and make college free, do you think we will see a dramatic drop-off in the quality of education? Yes, of course, we already have. As the federal government has come in and subsidized loans and under written college loans, the quality of the education has declined dramatically. As more and more people have gone to college, the quality of the education has declined dramatically. In the 1940s, about 5% of Americans had a bachelor degree. Today, 60% of high school graduates are going to go to college. They may drop out, but they're going to go. We have too many people going to college, and we have too much of a one-sized fits-all solution. Some people shouldn't go to get a liberal. education. Some people should go and get a trade education. And by trade education, by the way,
Starting point is 00:41:32 I mean study business or study accounting or study pre-law or study, because even law school is really a trade education, though usually you need a liberal education before that, or you study some aspect of the medical field, or, you know, learn how to buff hardwood floors, or become an electrician or become a plumber. You don't need, or go to seminary. I mean, that's a different sort of education. It involves liberal education and it involves something else. Education should be tailored to the individuals and we're losing that. And I think that's just a function of a democratic society which wants to level down and make everybody exactly equal. So that's a process that's already been happening. And once you make college into just 13th grade, you're going to see the colleges,
Starting point is 00:42:13 you're going to see happening at the colleges what was already happening in public school education from kindergarten through 12. And that's part of a long process that's been going on. It'll probably continue to happen whether or not Liz Warren gets her free college for everybody plan. It's a much bigger problem than this election. From Danielle, hi Michael, I listened to your show and I appreciate your perspective into all aspects of life. My boyfriend and I have been together for almost four years. I'm 32 and he's 47. Recently, the question of, are we ready to get married, came up again. The I'm not sure we're ready answer that I eventually received from him is obviously not what I wanted to hear. However, this day and age seems to complicate feelings and futures, and now so many
Starting point is 00:42:55 people aren't sure of anything. What sort of insight do you have on this given that you and your wife had a longer winding courtship and that dating and marrying for millennials is sort of a train wreck? This is sort of a train. That's an understatement. This is a heartbreaking question to have floating around in my mind, but how do I wait? But do I wait and work on the relationship or call it quits? Tell him to piss or get off the pot. Simple as that. It is true. I dated sweet little Elisa for so long, in part because we dated when we were little kids. We met when we were nine or ten and we were dating when we were 16. And we split for college and then got back together and in this very millennial way, waited a long time and moved all around the country and those sort of things.
Starting point is 00:43:36 I wish I'd gotten married sooner. It would have been better to do that. And I sort of wish she had told me what I just told you. My grandmother and grandfather dated for a while and eventually she gave him that ultimatum as well. Piss her get off the puck. That's what you should tell him to do, especially because, I mean, you're younger than he is, it seems. You're 32 and he's 47, but he's 47. He's no young boy. I'd cut him off. I'd take the Lysistrata strategy.
Starting point is 00:44:05 I would make him make a decision and make him act like a man. He's certainly old enough to be one. And there's no two ways about that. Don't wait around for even two seconds. Make him make a decision. You can move on with your life if he doesn't want to do it or he'll get married because sometimes men just need a little push. For Melanie. Hello, Michael. I'd love to know your opinions on the 26th president of the U.S. survey, Teddy Roosevelt.
Starting point is 00:44:24 He was a fascinating and inspirational man in his personal life, but I've heard conflicting views on his politics as president. And whether they help the U.S. in the long run or not, what do you think? Thanks. I love Teddy Roosevelt. Some libertarians don't like him because he'd liked national parks too much and called himself progressive, even though then that term had a certainly a different connotation than it does now. I think he's great. I think he's basically America. He's loud. He's boisterous. The guy got shot one time, finished giving a speech and only then went to a hospital. You know, the guy gets attacked and he attacks the people right back. He goes over to Africa and bags hundreds of large game. He's just terrific. He's just a great historical figure. John Millius, one of the great filmmakers who's still living today, has a good movie on Teddy Roosevelt, The Wind and the Lion. Go check it out. There's a great speech by the character playing Teddy Roosevelt of how the grizzly. bear is America. I think he very much embodies that spirit. Whether or not his policies in the early 20th century really matter or don't really matter whatever, look, politics is contextual and politics is circumstantial and it changes over time. So historical views of presidents change. But as an American character, I think he's just absolutely terrific. Final question from Samuel,
Starting point is 00:45:39 what are your favorite last words, either historical or fictional? It is said that Pope Benedict the 15th, his last words on his deathbed were, La Comedia E Finita, which is quoting, it's quoting an opera, Paliachi or something, which is, the comedy is finished. And I love these last words because they're funny. There's some wit there, the idea that obviously hit the comedy of his life is coming to an end, but also that it's a comedy. Life isn't just a farce. He's not saying it's a comedy like it's an absurd joke, a big cosmic joke. It's a comedy in that it has a happy ending. We have a happy ending. Our life has a happy ending.
Starting point is 00:46:17 This world has a happy ending. This is what the divine comedy is all about. And I think those are the perfect last words. And if I know that my end is coming, I hope I repeat them when my time comes up. All right, that's our show. Our time is up here. I'm Michael Knowles. This is the Michael Knowles show.
Starting point is 00:46:32 See, on Monday. If you enjoyed this episode, and frankly, even if you didn't, don't forget to subscribe. And if you want to help spread the word, please give us a five-star review. and tell your friends to subscribe. We're available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and wherever else you listen to podcasts. Also, be sure to check out the other Daily Wire podcasts, including the Ben Shapiro Show,
Starting point is 00:47:02 the Andrew Claven Show, and the Matt Walsh Show. The Michael Knowles Show is produced by Rebecca Dobkowitz and directed by Mike Joyner. Executive producer Jeremy Boring, senior producer Jonathan Hay. Our supervising producer is Mathis Glover, and our technical producer is Austin Stevens. Assistant Director Pavel Weidowski, edited by Danny Domeko.
Starting point is 00:47:22 Audio is mixed by Mike Coramina. Hair and makeup is by Jesua Olvera, and our production assistant is Nick Sheehan. The Michael Knoll Show is a Daily Wire production. Copyright Daily Wire 2019. Hey, everyone, it's Andrew Klaven, host of the Andrew Klaven show. Should we go to war with Iran? Should we care about Justin Trudeau wearing blackface? Should we go to war with Canada?
Starting point is 00:47:43 That'd make for an interesting afternoon. We'll talk about that, and also murder most Democrat. A shocking story out of California on the Andrew Claybridge.

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