The Michael Knowles Show - Ep. 7 - ‘Gender Fluid’ Toddler? Send Zer To Trans Camp!

Episode Date: August 9, 2017

Is your 4-year-old ‘gender fluid’? Well now you can send him or her or zim or zer to transgender summer camp for kids in, where else?, the San Francisco Bay Area. Plus, Roaming Millennial, Amanda ...Prestigiacomo, and Jacob Airey join the Panel of Deplorables to discuss, speaking of the youths, social media depression among kids, President Trump’s tough talk on North Korea, and the urgent need for the government to regulate sex robots. 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 Is your four-year-old gender fluid? Well, now you can send him or her or Zim or Zer to transgender summer camp for kids in where else, the San Francisco Bay Area. Plus, we'll have roaming millennial Amanda Presto Giacomo and Jacob Erie joined the panel of deplorables to discuss, speaking of the youths, social media depression among kids, President Trump's tough talk on North Korea, and the urgent need for the government to regulate sex robots. I'm Michael Knowles. This is the Michael Knowles Show. later too because we're going to have a final thought that is identifying as stuff I like because today is book lovers day so I'll be giving out some book reviews as a bestselling non-writing
Starting point is 00:00:47 author I think it's my place to tell you all what you should be reading for the next over the rest of the summer rather so we have to talk about rainbow day camp it is a camp in the San Francisco Bay area for transgender toddlers the ages of the people who go are four to 12 the parents of the people who go are obviously abusive and very confused. So this camp is not new. This camp's been around for three years. It just made big headlines recently because the enrollment has increased by three times just this year. So obviously transgenderism is in the air. We're talking about it all the time in the culture. And apparently this has been good business for transgender youth camp. One of the directors said it has been a sea change. Maybe we can even call it a
Starting point is 00:01:33 tsunami in the number of little kids showing up with their families. And so when the kids show up, even when they're four years old, they are asked when they register which pronoun they would prefer to be called by. And it's either she or he or Z or whatever. And for the record, Marshall, I would only like to be referred to with the pronoun sir, sir or master in the accusation. Sir and well, make a note and we'll talk about it later. Luckily, we have obtained a letter from one of the attendees of this camp. We get access to great stuff at this show. We have obtained a letter.
Starting point is 00:02:06 Can we play it? Take me home. Oh, mother-fada. Take me home. I hate Grenada. Don't leave me out in the forest where I might get eaten by a bear. Take me home. I promise I will not make no...
Starting point is 00:02:31 So Trans Camp is apparently like band camp. You know, it's just like any, it's much more socially isolating, obviously, and confusing. But it's just like any other camp. You go to basketball camp, you go to baseball camp, whatever. It is a little interesting in that most summer camps that we think of are camps to do something. So I had to go to basketball camp when I was a kid one time. It turned out about, as you would expect, I think. But this is a camp about who you are.
Starting point is 00:03:01 imagining yourself to be who you deeply think yourself to be. And obviously, adolescence is a very confusing time. We take on a lot of different identities that we try out. No joke, when I was four years old, I did identify as Batman for about a month. I had people call me Batman. Seriously. And that's just at a very imaginative time. These parents are obviously taking it to be some deep, profound, immutable fact of their child's existence. And sending this to their camp, it can't possibly be good.
Starting point is 00:03:30 But, you know, even the founder of this camp, Sandra Collins admits, quote, a decade ago, the camp wouldn't have existed. Eventually, I do believe it won't be so innovative. She's probably right. She said, I didn't know you could be transgender at a very young age, but my daughter knew for sure at two. I don't know if that's exactly right. What could go wrong with allowing your two-year-old to deny the facts of their biology and to deny reality to their parents? Well, there are a lot of scientific data on this that I think the mainstream media are ignoring. And I'm sorry if I know.
Starting point is 00:04:02 These scientific data are. That is called hate speech if you're at Google or you work for the mainstream journalist outlets. But we know there are high rates of post-op regret. People who transition from one gender to another. They undergo surgery to look more like the other sex. And they regret it later. Some of these studies put the number at 20%. So one in five people who undergo this process and these circumstances.
Starting point is 00:04:26 in these surgeries, according to some studies, regret it ultimately go back or they are just upset that they made that decision. Most children who identify as transsexual or as the other sex, the vast majority of those kids will change their mind by the time they become adults. They go on to lead perfectly normal lives. One study puts that number as high as 80%. 80% of kids who identify they're a boy but they think they're a girl will change their mind by the time they pass through puberty and enter into adulthood. Now, there was a review of more than 100 international medical studies. So this is a meta-analysis of all these studies that found, quote, no robust scientific evidence that gender reassignment surgery is clinically effective.
Starting point is 00:05:11 And this is why Paul McHugh, who was a pioneer of this surgery at Johns Hopkins, he was chair of psychology at Johns Hopkins, he stopped doing the surgery because, quote, there's little scientific evidence for the therapeutic value of interventions that delay puberty or modify the secondary sex characteristics of adolescence, there is no evidence that all children who express gender, atypical thoughts or behavior should be encouraged to become transgender. And that's what, you know, trans is in the news all the time. You can't escape it. For some reason, an issue that affects a vanishingly small percentage of the population is all anybody wants to talk about anymore, especially on the left. But what is really worth talking about here is that we're talking about
Starting point is 00:05:55 kids. So if you put a kid on this road, you tell a four-year-old boy that he's really a girl, that's going to lead to a lot of confusion. But if you tell a prepubescent kid that you indulge in these delusions and that the boy is really a girl and you suppress their puberty hormones, you're mutilating them for life. I mean, that damage is not easily undone if it's possible to fix at all. And, you know, there are people who have gone through this when they were children who have come to regret it. We have their testimonies. They talk about it. Here is one example. Hi. My name's Carrie. I'm a 22-year-old detransition woman. I was a pediatric transitioner, so I started medical transition when I was underage, and I stopped transitioning nearly a year ago.
Starting point is 00:06:42 And for me, detransition involves a lot of thought and a lot of unlearning of what I understood about myself. When I was transitioning, I felt a lot of intense, a very intense body dysphoria that felt very innate and very integral at the time to the way I perceived myself in the world. And what I came to realize eventually was that this was not the case, that there were all these factors that played into my dysphoria, dissociation, and feelings of inferiority. for being female and depression, body dysmorphia, you know, all of these things contributing to this kind of general sense of alienation, sense of otherness from the people around me and specifically from other women. And there are these conditions that go along with gender dysphoria. There is a two to three times increase in likelihood if you're, if you have gender dysphoria, that you'll suffer from
Starting point is 00:07:37 some other mental affliction, including anxiety or depression or so on and so. forth. Obviously we know that the suicide rates, according to most studies, are identical pre and post-op. And the left and people who support the transgenderism movement would say, well, that's social stress. The kids are bullied at school. If we just stop bullying them, those rates go away. There's very little evidence of this. That might be a factor, but there's no reason to believe that that's the main factor or the, you know, the sole factor when it comes to all of these other conditions that accompany gender dysphoria. Let's let's like Carrie keep going on.
Starting point is 00:08:17 So when I was transitioning, every step of transition really felt like this huge high of relief from dysphoria. But sooner or later, you know, it would come back in another form. So, you know, once I was on testosterone, I wanted to change my name. Once I changed my name, I wanted a mastectomy. Once I had a mastectomy, I wanted a hysterectomy, I bought him surgery and so on, so forth. This is a really common topic in trans circles, you know, shifting dysphoria. And at some point, I realized that that wasn't going to stop.
Starting point is 00:08:49 Transition didn't really make my dysphoria better. It just kind of kept moving the goalposts. So moving the goalposts is exactly the point. The issue here is that Carrie, this girl, was treating the symptoms of her psychological condition. She wasn't treating the root cause of it. if there is a even is a way to treat the root cause of it. And so it just kept moving. The more she transitioned, the more she did, the more she had to do.
Starting point is 00:09:13 The more she felt that she had to do. And Carrie started transitioning, going through this process at 17. She was underage. Now, you know how crazy 17-year-olds are. You know how crazy you were at 17? How different you were at 17 than you are as an adult. No, Michael, I'm exactly the same. Well, this kid, Marshall's exactly the same.
Starting point is 00:09:33 Marshall hasn't matured physically or emotionally since he's. was seven. But for most people, they do change over time. And imagine if she wasn't 17. Imagine if she were seven. Imagine if she were four years old, which is what's going on at this camp in San Francisco, cannot be good. There's another example of not just people who went through this as kids, but also people who went through the transition and changed their gender when they were adults, regretting it not long after. Here's an example. He's pretty prominent. He's talked about this and written books about it. Walt Hire. who went through the surgery and experienced regret years later.
Starting point is 00:10:09 Do we have them? Here with us now by Skype is speaker and author of several books addressing sex change regret, Walt Hire. Walt, thanks for joining us today. Yeah, thanks for having me on. Now, first of all, not only have you done extensive research on sex change surgery, you've been through the process yourself, but you say it fixed nothing.
Starting point is 00:10:29 What can you share with us about that? Yeah, you know, when people go through this gender change, there's very high expectations that, you know, their life is just going to be wonderful and everything's going to be great. And I can tell you the way it starts, that was true for me. But then there's a time what I call when you kind of begin to sober up and realize that gender reassignment surgery really doesn't make you a female. It's much more to being a woman than just having some cosmetic surgery and hormones. So it didn't fix the problem for Walt. And he lived for eight years as a woman, appearing to be a woman and wearing women's clothing.
Starting point is 00:11:11 But it didn't fix the problem. And this surgery that he's now reversed or tried to fix by other surgical means has really damaged his life. He talks openly about that. And he was encouraged by others to do it. And that's what we're seeing a lot in the culture now. Bruce Jenner was encouraged by a lot of people to transform into Caitlin Jenner. kids are being encouraged by their parents at age four to indulge in this delusion.
Starting point is 00:11:35 And it is, it pulls on the heartstrings a little bit because it's a real affliction. And also because men and women don't look that different, especially like someone like Marshall, you know, I mean, if you put a normal Marshall next to a woman, it would be very different. Well, I'll use another example. If I put on these glasses, I am indistinguishable from Rachel Maddow. But, so obviously men and women are of the same species. They share a lot of physical traits.
Starting point is 00:12:00 Just ask Google about that. But the psychological problems and therefore the philosophical problems that come up with it are a little clearer when you look at other forms of body dysmorphia and delusion. There is an extreme example, a guy whose name is stalking cat, Dennis Abner. Do we have it? Dennis never considered himself human. In Dennis' eyes, his transformation is only a formality. Everything I see and do I relate to as a cat.
Starting point is 00:12:28 I'm told I purr in my sleep, so... But there's this guy, a stalking cat. He is a man who, I think he was in the Navy, and then he decided to get $200,000 worth of surgery to tattoo his face, pull up his cheeks, have whiskers sticking out, cut off parts of his ears, all so that he could appear more like a cat, because he was under the impression
Starting point is 00:12:52 that he really, deep down inside somewhere, is a cat. He has cat-like abilities and what have you, And it's a funny story. Obviously, it is out there. It looks kind of ridiculous. But it's really sad because this is a real human being. And we can see much more clearly what happens when we indulge delusion when it's not just a boy becoming like a girl, when boys and girls can look like each other. But when it's a boy trying to look like an animal or something to that effect.
Starting point is 00:13:21 This is ultimately, I think, what brings up the central flaw in the left's embrace of transgenderism. contradiction, which is that the left on the one hand says men and women are exactly the same. They're indiscernible. That just talked to Google fired a guy for contradicting this yesterday. Men can do everything that women can do and vice versa. There are no categorical differences. On the other hand, they're saying that the sexes are so totally different that if you feel that you are a certain way metaphysically or you really want to be a different way metaphysically,
Starting point is 00:13:52 you should undergo costly, painful and extensive surgery just to have the cosmetic appearance of looking like that other sex. They've never been able to resolve this conflict, and I think that's why, I think it has shown one of the major paradoxes at the heart of leftist intersectional hierarchies. But now that we've talked about the transgender camp, now that we've talked about leftist hierarchies,
Starting point is 00:14:16 we have to get to the exciting part of the show. Our panel of deplorables, we have with us again, roaming millennial, you know her from all the YouTubes, The Daily Wires favorite, Amanda Presta Giacomo, and for some reason, Jacob Berry is back. Roaming, are we being unfair here? These children can suffer intensely.
Starting point is 00:14:34 They get bullied. Why shouldn't we ship them off to transgender camp? Well, I think, you know, to answer the first question that you posed at the beginning of the show is your child gender fluid. Regardless of how you feel about the transgender issue, I think we could all agree that nobody is gender fluid at all. It's just not a real thing. I always try not to talk about gender fluids. I find it very impolite. but I agree with you probably that's true.
Starting point is 00:14:58 Right, and you know, when it, I mentioned this the last time I was on with you guys, but when it comes to children, I think, trying to impose these sort of gender ideologies, it is child abuse. And, you know, a lot of people say, no, you know, it's just we want what's best for the kids. This isn't, you know, any sort of indoctrination. They're actually, they're well-documented instances. Anytime you hear about these, you know, these transgender children activists, I mean, you know what I mean.
Starting point is 00:15:25 A lot of them are either themselves trans or have been trans activists before their children were born. And you've got to think to yourself, okay, wait, only a fraction of a percent of people in the general population is actually trans. So what is the likelihood of a trans person or someone who is already a trans activist, then having a trans child? It's like, no, I think there's definitely a case where as a parent, these people are inflicting their ideologies and their views on gender onto their children. And it's something that I think a lot of children are going to have issues dealing with. as they grow up. It has become very ideological. I mean, that is why, just as you said, there are not a lot of these people in the world. There are a handful of these people around, and yet it's all we hear about. It's all we're talking about. There are TV shows about it. It's
Starting point is 00:16:08 always in the news, but there doesn't appear to be a cure. So Amanda, if there isn't a cure for this at the moment, if there's really doesn't seem to be an effective way to reduce suicide rates or depression surgically, then why shouldn't we just tell these people to call themselves whatever name they want and pretend to be whatever sex they want. Yeah, I mean, it's particularly we shouldn't and it's because you know, this is really tied to depression. This is a psychological disorder. So like mutilating your body, I mean, it's like getting a knee surgery when you popped
Starting point is 00:16:42 out your shoulder. It's not addressing the issue at all. We should not be encouraging this especially, I mean, particularly with children who as you said, grow out of this confusion. I mean, we're just basically indoctrinating, you know, time. Tommy the two-year-old who says he's a dinosaur on Wednesday and then on Thursday he's a girl. Now he's Tammy the two-year-old. Right. You'd actually parent your child. And, you know, I think, I mean, 80% of these kids,
Starting point is 00:17:07 that's the low number grow out, you know, for these studies, grow out of this confusion. We should not be pushing this on them. I mean, kids are being mutilated. They're a lot of victims of this. It's really vile stuff. And anyone who speaks out against it, this is the worst part. You're labeled as transphobic that you hate, you know, people who suffer from this mental disorder. No, I mean, there's actual real damage to this. And this is a political movement. You know, they hate the nuclear family. They hate, you know, they kind of are contradicting feminism because they want sameness.
Starting point is 00:17:38 But then all of a sudden, you know, men and women are so different. You can transition. It's just, it's a hot mess. And it's a really nasty political movement that is hurting people and creating a lot of victims. Stunning bigotry from Amanda Presta Giacomo. But that is a real. You both bring up this interesting point, which is that it's child abuse. It looks like child abuse.
Starting point is 00:17:58 It is parents mutilating their children before not only before they can consent, but before they go through puberty. And they're making a decision that will impact the rest of their lives. Jacob, we conservatives are very skeptical of government interference. Should the government step in here? Should the government come in and stop parents from encouraging this in their children? I think it depends on the situation. and in some cases where the parent is just like, oh, you think you're a girl, go along with it.
Starting point is 00:18:26 But maybe in the circumstances where, as Amanda points out, that they're actually causing physical harm to their kids, then yes. I think that is where the government needs to step in. It's like, hey, is your child actually feeling this way? Or is this just a phase they're going through? I had a friend who was a skater girl. She wore T-shirts and ripped blue jeans and skateboarded, all the way. the time, but she was about as girly girl as you could get. Could you imagine if she had these trans activist parents, she was like, oh my gosh, you must be a boy. Did you imagine what that would
Starting point is 00:18:59 have done to her? But instead, they just let her go and she grew out of her skateboarding phase. What happened to Tompenter? I was basically like a boy growing up. I, like my dad was a wrestling coach, like I went to all the practices. Like if I was being, if I was born like, you know, five years ago, they would have told me I was a boy. Like it's insane. I mean, whatever What happened to the tomboy? Is that not allowed? It's like gender stereotypes are amplified on the left, the people who condemn them. It doesn't make any sense. Yeah, it's mind-blowing. That's true. Like, at one point, gender is nothing, but also gender is everything. Like, at one point, gender is a social construct, but it's also something biologically that we are and we can tell through our different brains. Like, you have to pick one. I mean, you could go for either one, but just be consistent.
Starting point is 00:19:44 That's right. I also have a very hard time believing Amanda was ever a tomboy, but I will take your word for it. Okay, we need to move on now. We need to get to the news, which means that all of you, dirty cheapskates who don't pay for the Daily Wire, you don't get to hear the rest. You don't get to see the panel. You don't get to engage with us on the news unless you go to DailyWire.com and pay $10 per month, $100 a year,
Starting point is 00:20:06 and you will get also the Leftist Tears Tumblr. Keeps your leftist tears hot or cold, always salty and delicious. Not only do you get my show and the wonderful panel of deplorables, but you get the Ben Shapiro show, which is, I think right now the number two highest ranked podcast in the country. What number we, Michael? We're at number 10 news and politics, I think, 10 or 11. But Ben is one spot behind Oprah, so you've got to go help and push him over.
Starting point is 00:20:32 And you get the Andrew Claven show, which is also ranked very high. I think all three of the shows are ranked in the top 25. So what a deal. What a $10 a month. Unbelievable. Go to DailyWire.com. Right now, subscribe. We'll be right back. Now we have important news to get to.
Starting point is 00:20:58 Trump warned yesterday, quote, I love him so much. He warned North Korea best not make any more threats to the United States. They will be met with fire and fury like the world has never seen. This may be the greatest international threat since the Gipper. I just want to pull this up. This is my favorite one. Do we have it? My fellow Americans, I'm pleased to tell you today that I've signed legislation that will outlaw Russia forever. We begin bombing in five minutes. almost as good as the gipper himself. He was kidding Ronald Reagan was, or was he?
Starting point is 00:21:33 He did outlaw Russia forever. Roaming, was Trump's threat reckless and rash, or was it pitch perfect and very enjoyable? Well, something that I think it's great that you included was the fact that he prefaced that phrase with a, you know, if North Korea continues to make threats against the United States, right? Because I feel like a lot of the reporting about this quote has forgotten to mention that conveniently and sort of try to paint Trump as the aggressor in the situation. And look, I'm not sure I would ever use phrases like, you know, fire and power, just from a, I don't know, hyperbolic, this is real life, not over the rings, sort of approach.
Starting point is 00:22:10 I'm not convinced it is anymore, but sure, go ahead. But I think if there's ever a time to have a strong hand when it comes to international relations, North Korea and the possibility of, you know, nuclear escalation is one of them. And I think that people who are trying to paint this as a necessary instance of aggression from Trump, they're like I said, not looking at the entire quote in context. And they're also not realizing just how bad things have gotten over the past eight years. And look, regardless of how you think Trump is handling this at the moment, you definitely can't say that he's the one who created this situation, right?
Starting point is 00:22:46 This ongoing hostility between North Korea and the United States is something that's been happening for a long time since Clinton. Absolutely, yeah. Bill Clinton ignored it. George W. Bush was otherwise occupied. Barack Obama obviously did nothing about it. I think Ben Rhodes was, he tweeted out something the other day to the effect of, you know, this all started before us, even though we had time to fix it, because no one in the Obama administration can take responsibility for any single thing at all. Now, Roman, you're over there in Asia. And Amanda, you are up in Canada, New York, safely ensconced in the woods. But we're in L.A., Jacob, I'm in New York. Yeah. What is going to happen?
Starting point is 00:23:22 Are we about to be incinerated? What's the threat level from them actually shooting some missiles over? Well, I'm in New York, so I can't escape to Canada. No, but you're in Canada, New York. You're up in like, you know, a stone's throw. Oh, okay, I get it, I get it. Ellen didn't land. They can't all be winners, folks.
Starting point is 00:23:40 You know, sometimes things go over my head. But no, I don't think we're any, so a couple things. Like, I don't think Trump's rhetoric or anything like that is put us at, you know, heightened danger or anything like that. I think that Kim, Little Kim, is crazy, yes, but he's not stupid and he knows that he will be annihilated. I think people who study this have the consensus
Starting point is 00:24:06 that basically he just doesn't want regime change and he's flexing his muscles. He knows that he will be annihilated if he does something. I think that's kind of the consensus around this. But at the same time, we don't want him to keep making advances. So we need to find a way to make this challenge. China's problem because, you know, they don't want refugees coming in there. I mean, they have, they do have some stake in this. So I think Trump's saying that he's going to continue with
Starting point is 00:24:30 China to, you know, kind of stop their funding and not let them keep advancing their, you know, their nukes. And then, you know, we can, we can just kind of handle that until them. But I don't think the danger is heightened. I think that I think they kind of know that they'll get annihilated by America and her allies. to disagree with your analysis not in the take of the threat level but in your pronunciation of Jaina it is a hard chid jina Jacob why hasn't Dennis Rodman straightened this out yet well because he was an overrated basketball player and he's an overrated ambassador but in all seriousness I hate speech what
Starting point is 00:25:10 disgusting hate speech why do we have them on but in all seriousness I actually I actually think that President Trump was totally appropriate appropriate and fire and fury because not moments, I think hours before even. Kim Jong specifically said we're going to bomb. I believe it was Guam. So yes, of course, if I was president, I would absolutely say, hey, we are going to meet this with fire, fury, and power. And also, you know, if President Obama or Hillary Clinton was still, or if Hillary Clinton, God forbid, was president, what would she say? Oh, that naughty little Kim. I mean, you know, what is she going to do? She's going to, you know, I hear she's going to pursue a career in ministry, obviously, you know, not foreign policy, right?
Starting point is 00:25:58 Yes. I think the threat on Guam was after. Oh, was after? Oh, okay. Yeah. Okay. But there's like a Wapos story that said that they were like, you know, they had a warhead, like a miniature warhead or whatever.
Starting point is 00:26:09 And then they were making threats because we sanctioned them. And then Trump made those comments. And then they said they were going to attack WOM and they never, they won't. Of course they won't because he's a coward. I mean, it's just like he's just like said, he's just going to flex this. Well is he'll get annihilated. Yeah, absolutely. My main takeaway from this whole discussion is the phrase, Little Kim.
Starting point is 00:26:27 Roman, go ahead. Well, I just, in any case, it's not as if, you know, Kim Jong-un's administration was a rational actor before this, right? Maybe they're actually, you know, North Korean state-run propaganda pieces of, I don't know if you guys have seen this, but the piece where the little kid is dreaming of a nuke being sent over to the U.S. Right, I mean, this is one country that is obviously an aggressor. Absolutely.
Starting point is 00:26:51 Well, that makes me unhappy. You know what else might be making people unhappy? Smartphones. The Atlantic just ran a feature article titled, Have smartphones destroyed a generation? Quote, more comfortable online than out partying. Post-millennials are safer physically than adolescents have ever been, but they're on the brink of a mental health crisis.
Starting point is 00:27:10 They don't go out, they don't go on dates, they stay in the house. My question, why would a 13-year-old go on dates when he can interact with roaming millennial on YouTube from the comfort of his own smartphone? is roaming, is interacting behind a digital wall so different from interacting in person? Well, you know, this is something that I feel conflicted talking about because, you know, on the one hand, I love ragging on millennials as much as anyone, right? They're awful, but on the other hand, I'm also this massive introvert who loves the fact
Starting point is 00:27:39 that you can kind of be interacted with people and be social online while at the same time, you know, being at home not wearing any pants. It's an amazing mix. Roaming millennial not wearing any pants. You heard it on the Michael Noel show. This is, by the way, this is why we're number 10. It's all these kind of cheap tricks like that. Sorry to interrupt. Go ahead.
Starting point is 00:27:58 Well, that's why cameras always from like, you know, but, you know, I think it's the fact that, you know, not only are we seeing an increase in technological advances, but we're also seeing sort of, I feel, a more hands-off approach to parenting that we haven't seen before. So I wouldn't necessarily say that this is technology's fault. I just think it's the fact that, you know, when I was younger, I used to get kicked out of the house
Starting point is 00:28:19 and get told to play outside. I could have still been playing, you know, well, at home on TV, right? I mean, the fact that outside is still there, I think, is being ignored by a lot of parents who are probably also on their own smartphones and electronic devices. Fair enough. That's true. There's a lot of candy crush to play. Jacob, is it just curmudgeonly old people who don't understand the Utes? Or is there a real threat of social isolation here? I think it's a mixture of both.
Starting point is 00:28:45 And we have to be very careful about how we categorize this because there are just truly introverted people who prefer interaction online and there's absolutely nothing wrong with that. But again, we also need to monitor how that is done because we want, I mean, by we, I mean, whoever, parents, siblings, guardians, they need to be monitoring these kids and like, okay, is this person really an introvert or are they getting, are they getting trapped into this big web? Do they only identify as an introvert? Yeah, exactly.
Starting point is 00:29:14 Because, you know, there are predators online who take advantage of some of these people who have social anxieties. You seem to know a lot about this, Jacob. Well, you know, what can I say? You know, I read the I read the mainstream media. This is what they're telling me. But, you know, we do have to, we do have to be careful about this because I believe that there's a gang going around called the Blue Well Challenge where they manipulate people with social anxiety who are online and then they ask them to commit suicide. And it's a growing problem in Europe and it's even reached the United States. So yes, parents, guardians should definitely be monitoring. their kids online activity. That's yeah, I'd read about that about these Russian girls who were
Starting point is 00:29:54 killing themselves because of some lunatic that they just arrested. That now that's not good. Amanda, should we be blaming the social media here? Is it the social media that causes the isolation? Or is that just an instrument like a telephone or you know, two cans and a string? Is it just a medium and an instrument or is it really the cause of the problem? I mean, I think with any technology you're going to have pros and cons. And I mean, it is a lot to do with, parenting as Roman and and Jacob were talking about. I mean, you got to let, I mean, social interaction, face-face interaction is valuable. I mean, we have a lot of kids who don't have these skills just on that level. And then also, I mean, if you looked at that Atlantic piece,
Starting point is 00:30:35 even just with millennials and the generation, you know, right after us, it's a huge discrepancy and with depression based on just the screen time. I mean, it does really affect these kids. I get depressed. The more screen time I have with Jacob, a berry the more depressed I get I should write a study about it sorry go ahead yeah but I mean like even I mean even as a millennial like I'm really addicted to you know being on for my job of course but I'm always on social media and you can kind of get not depressed but you can get you know caught up in that and not interact with with people and that's that's not helpful so we have to just learn how to use these things in moderation
Starting point is 00:31:14 parents need to really be aware of this sign your kids up for sports just dance, whatever, like they need to actually interact. It's just it's not healthy. It doesn't teach them any skills that are actually valuable for future employment and things like that. So, yeah, sign them up for a sport or buy them a sex robot. There is, this brings us to our next story. There is a professor at GW Law who insists that the time has come for the government to regulate that gigantic problem, sex robots. Now, if you're unfamiliar, I think a lot of people are probably unfamiliar with sex robots. We have a clip from one of the factories. You can't resist us, Mr. Powers. You can't resist us, Mr. Powers.
Starting point is 00:31:56 Oh, contrary, baby. I think you can't resist me. Are you ready, boo? Stop walking. Wow, maybe those should be regulated. That's a pretty good case. We should regulate them. Amanda, what is so dangerous about sex robots other than the guns that are shooting out of their bosom. Yeah, I mean, it's really sad that we're at this point. This kind of ties into technology too and how we're so isolated and that we're going to, you know, people are delaying marriage. They're not getting married, so we need sex robots now. It's really sad. But the whole
Starting point is 00:32:35 regulation argument was really interesting to me. She said that you could possibly rape a robot. And like, yeah, it's great a lot of fun. It's a great hobby. Just because they're not saying no, doesn't mean they're saying yes. That's right. Yeah. How can't a robot consent? Like, if that's the case, like, I'm not going to, you know, be profane here,
Starting point is 00:32:58 but isn't there a lot of rape going on to the sex toy industry? Like, it's the, I don't understand. Well, you know, a four-year-old kid can consent to radically changing his body forever, but a doll can't consent to sex? Can't you just read a blog every once in a while, Amanda? Get, whoa. This professor was trying to give rights to a robot. I'm like, can we focus on maybe rights of the unborn first and then tackle robots?
Starting point is 00:33:22 I don't know. Hateful bigot. Hateful bigot you are. Rumbing, there is a legitimate question here. I mean, you could have, I don't know if you can rape a robot, but you could make a sex doll that looks like a little kid or like a rape victim or something. Is there any legitimate reason to regulate this industry? Similar to say child pornography or something like that?
Starting point is 00:33:42 Or are we just talking about absolutely nothing? Well, I think there, like, when you mentioned anything to do with children, I think there definitely is a reason for this to be regulated. I know I've heard the argument be made that, like, child dolls might be helpful as a way of sort of releasing any urges without actually bringing a real child into it. But I think, you know, if you are someone who's suffering from that affliction, therapy is what you need, not a child sex doll. So definitely, yeah, yeah, when it comes to... I don't know which is more expensive, though. Right, that's sadly through.
Starting point is 00:34:17 There is a public health and public cost issue. Good point. But on a larger scale, I think the whole idea of regulating sex robots, it kind of begs the question like what exactly qualifies as a sex robot versus just, you know, a run-of-the-mill sex toy that has mechanical operations. I can't believe I'm talking about this. Or a run-of-the-mill robot, by the way. We had a little Roomba vacuum cleaners, you know.
Starting point is 00:34:44 Yeah, I mean, Rumba with like some, I don't know, alluring eyes painted on, right? Like, where would they draw the line? Be still my beating heart. I'm not necessarily, I'm not pro-sex robot. I'm just, you know, anti-government intervention. I'd have to side with that in this case. Fair enough. Jacob, the essential question here, though, is why would anyone want to have sex with a robot when there are people?
Starting point is 00:35:08 You can also, it's not just robots, you can also have sex with people. What is the basis for this? Why are people trending toward this? I think it's a way of just disconnecting from reality. So everyone goes in because of left-wing propaganda, you're told, oh, you can have this, you can have that, and there won't be any consequences. And then they go out into the real world and it's like, oh, man, there are real consequences. So then they turn to robots, which are complete frauds. And so I think that's what it has to do with it.
Starting point is 00:35:37 It's just a way to escape from real-world consequences when you make a mistake or when you find out that life is tough. than your lesbian dance therapy professor tells you it is. That's interesting. And there's also no social skills. Nobody has any social skills. They can't even go on a date. They can't even hit on a girl. So it makes sense that robots are the next thing because, you know,
Starting point is 00:36:00 this has to do with all the new technology too. People are so isolated and secluded. It's sad stuff. Exactly. I think that's a good point. And it's interesting how so many of these sex robot things are coming out of Japan, a culture that is well documented for the first. fact that fewer and fewer people are getting married, going on dates. So I definitely think
Starting point is 00:36:19 there's an element, you know, I mean, no judge me here, but there is an element of people not being able to interact with each other like we used to be able to. And there was a study that came out of Japan a little while ago that a number of teenage boys would prefer to look at pornography than to have sex with a woman. They actually preferred sitting in their rooms alone. That's crazy. Oh my gosh. It does play into this culture, to quote a great man sad. It does play into this culture of objectification, though. It does play into this materialist culture where, believe it or not, there are spiritual and emotional aspects to sex. It's not just all playing with a doll or something, but for a materialist culture and a materialist generation, maybe the physical is all that is being
Starting point is 00:37:01 considered. Well, and to the irony here is one of the biggest criticism of homeschooling is the children don't get interaction, right? Well, in public schools, they get plenty of interaction, and they're buying sex robots. So, you know, I think that's just kind of a ridiculous narrative, you know. How about that? All right. On action and sex robots, I have to say goodbye to you. Get out of here because we have a trans final thought that we need to talk about.
Starting point is 00:37:25 Now, do we have the trans final thought montage? This is a final thought, but it's because it's Book Lovers Day, we're going to turn it into a sort of stuff I like. I'll tell you about the books that I've been reading over the last couple of years, and I highly recommend them. The first one is Poetic Diction by Owen Barfield. He was an inkling, a friend of C.S. Lewis and all of those other guys. It's a great book.
Starting point is 00:37:54 It's a theory of knowledge and a theory of language. This was recommended to me by Andrew Claven, who actually reads books. I read like two books a decade, and he's read all of the books. So we've been evangelical about recommending this book to people. It's really good, I think especially conservatives and people who, prefer traditional culture and have an interest in history and philosophy would really like it. So run out there and get poetic diction. The next book I have to recommend is, of course, speaking of Andrew Claven, the great good thing.
Starting point is 00:38:24 A secular Jew comes to faith in Christ. I read this book right when it came out. I got an advanced copy of it. It's an amazing story of Andrew Claven's conversion from a secular intellectual Jew in New York to a Christian and he talks about his politics as well and the literature that brought him along that journey. It's really a profound book. I myself am a revert to Christianity. It was very edifying to read that. And then when you're going to the beach, this book, we got to give a little love to Ben Shapiro. You all know that Ben can type about 120 words per minute. He also, as you
Starting point is 00:39:00 know, speaks about 190 words per minute. And this book flies by. It is such a page turner, true allegiance. It is a fever dream of Armageddon from a conservative standpoint. It's really entertaining. It's terrific. So when you're going to the beach, I recommend reading that. I promise you, you won't be able to read it as fast as Ben typed it. And speaking of typing books really fast, the final recommendation I have to make a little self-serving, the reasons to vote for Democrats, a comprehensive guide. The most exhaustive Democratic Party apology. Sell out. It's really good. I can't. Even the president endorsed it. He said it's a great book for your reading enjoyment. Even Ben Shapiro endorsed it. He called it thorough. I really think,
Starting point is 00:39:39 as you gear up for the school year, as you gear up for the fall, you want to edify yourself, you want to learn more about our political systems and American history and American political philosophy. Go out there. You also have to get reasons to vote for Democrats. Happy book lovers day. I'm glad that we had this lovely trans final thought segment. I'm Michael Knowles. This is the Michael Knowles show. Come back tomorrow. We'll do it again.

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