The Michael Knowles Show - Trans-Ally Rally: Speaker Meets Protestors | Cross The Picket Line

Episode Date: May 4, 2024

At a campus YAF speech, Michael Knowles sits down with one of the students protesting his speech at The University of Utah. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Political writer Michael Knowles spoke at the University of Utah's College of Social Work to the excitement of many students but to the outrage of others. Hey, hey, ho! Transpobia! Is it a safe place for your conservative students? Of course. How would they know that coming in here when there's a sign that literally says they are not welcome? Now why on earth would conservative students not feel welcome on a public university campus?

Radicate Michael Walls from public guys! What is your sign saying? So respect existence or expect resistance. We all belong to the university, so we're all organizing this resistance. It turns out the welcome party for my event was not an organic phenomenon organized by Lib students with too much time on their hands. Rather, it was sponsored by the dean of the College of Social Work, Philip Osteen, who made sure that everyone who attended my speech

knew exactly with the University of Utah thinks of conservatives. His College of Social Works sponsored the protest balloons in the entryway of an event that wanting the students is hosting. So we sponsored for them to put balloons in flag tub. It's one thing to have the weird pride flag obnoxiously placed on your taxpayer-funded desk. Not ideal. Probably shouldn't be permitted. But it's quite another thing to use department funds to ensure that every person who wishes

to attend my speech is forced to walk through a C.E. of symbols promoting eccentric sex stuff. Now in fairness, I suppose it could have possibly been a coincidence, right? Apparently not. I think someone had told me that you extended Pride Week for a week so that it overlapped with this event specifically. We created Pride Week in this college for this week. It's a continuation of what happened when the university left. Despite the university's best efforts to discourage sensible and sound-minded students from attending my lecture. The unfortunately modest venue that the administration offered us was totally filled in a matter of minutes, leaving hundreds of students out in the cold. Some of those attendees

had traveled across the country to hear the lecture. And unfortunately, the only thing they were able to hear at my speech were the protesters outside. The protesters were nearly all students in the College of Social War. It seems very few of them had ever listened to a word that I've said. From what I know about him, he has promoted the annihilation of trans people. I don't want to say that for sure. When my producer, Mr. Davies, gave them the chance to discuss their views with me, pretty much all of them declined. Personally, I have a really hard time staying cool, calm, and collected when talking to someone like that. So I think I'm going to take the high road, not even go there.

However, after the TikToks were posted, and the mob felt that it's objective. was complete, one student decided to peek his head in. Like most students, Daniel had never actually listened to my show or to any of my speeches. He simply came to protest because his friends said he showed because they said the speaker was a bad guy. Happily, Daniel decided to investigate the matter himself and crossed the picket line to hear what I had to say. Daniel. Daniel, thank you for sitting down. Thank you for having me. So you were not in the lecture? No.

You were not in the old, but you were outside with the protesters? Yes, sir. Okay. So did you catch the lecture by any chance? Did you get to watch it? No, sir. No. You want to give me a brief run now?

It was like a probably a 20-minute lecture, but basically my point was that not only is transgender ideology wrong, but not only is it harmful to the people who fall into it, but that it's a particularly American problem. particularly prominent and growing in America. And so I kind of went through some of the reasons that I think that is. America is the land of opportunity. The land of freedom. The land of freedoms. And so that's a lovely thing and can be a wonderful thing. But no one can be free from the truth.

We should never wish to be free from the truth because it is the truth itself that sets us free. And so this kind of unrestrained, unbridled sense of freedom is leading people. to destroy themselves and to destroy their own identity. What is the problem if males can transition to females and do the same exact thing? They can't, is the problem. A man can't actually transition to be a woman. So even, for instance, if a man undergoes a surgical procedure to make his... Say he cuts it off, right? You cuts it off? Actually, what usually happens is they kind of chop it up and invert it, so it kind of more resembles. It's not a...

actually the female anatomy. He can't actually, like, give birth. He's not actually going to have a womb. He's not going to have ovaries. He's not going to have ovaries. He can't, he might be able to look a little bit more like a woman, but he can't actually become a woman. So say if that's who he truly believes she is, you know what I'm saying? What is the problem with that in your mind? That he's wrong about that. Why is that wrong to you, though? Well, it's not that it's wrong to me. I perceive that it is wrong because I have faculties of reason. And, you know, we all have eyes. You can see like a big dude and a dress, you know, is that probably a man, right? And also because I have faculty as a reason. I know that a man can't actually become a woman. He can't, he won't be

able to give birth. His chromosomes won't magically change. He, he won't have had the development from the moment of his conception, certainly through his childhood and teens, actually to be a woman. So it's not that I have anything against the guy. It's not that I wish him ill, quite the opposite. I hope that he can flourish, but he's not going to flourish by pretending to be something other than what he is. So do you necessarily have a problem with a man identifying as a woman, as of like a man truly believing he is a woman? Well, both would be wrong and unfortunate, right? But in the case of public life, you know, if a guy has some crazy idea in his head, but it doesn't affect other people, then, you know, I guess he can keep that idea in his head, and it's not much skin off my nose.

But the moment that he does this in public, it does start to affect other people. So if the man, for instance, says that he's a woman, and now he wants to go into the women's bathroom, that is infringing on the legitimate rights of women to have their own bathroom that men can't go into. So then I guess I ask, my follow-up is, what, is there a problem with gender-neutral bathrooms? or like, what's the feeling on this? Call me old-fashioned. I don't like to use the bathroom with a lot of women around me. Call me a fuddy-duddy.

But even beyond my preferences, there are a lot of women who do not want to use the bathroom or undress in a changing room around men. Say I was in there as a straight white male, right? Granted, I am an ally. I am whatever. I don't think a lot of my friends would be comfortable with me being in the bathroom. Right, right, exactly.

But if someone truly, like, gets it inverted, whatever, you know, cancel me if I said it wrong. But if they do that, what is the problem with them going into a female bathroom if they look like a female? Well, they're not actually women. And so they're still physically much stronger than women. They still have the same kinds of drives that men have, that women don't exactly have. There's no rule that says that they have to, you know, chop it off or inverted. it. So actually, a lot of the trans-identifying men who say that they're women, they still have all the appendages, you know, and they're practically still men, because they are still men. And so

the question then is, who has a more legitimate claim to a right, the man who's pretending to be a woman, which he actually is not, or the woman who wants to just be safe and have a little privacy in her own bathroom that is intended only for women, or in a changing room, for instance? No, I get that because I went through like swim team. I went through hockey locker rooms. Like I've been through all. But if a man truly believes like he is transgender, I don't, I guess, see a problem. But what if the woman doesn't truly believe that he's a woman because he's not a woman? Doesn't the woman have some right to reality? I mean, I guess I couldn't say reality because what like what is real?

reality. It's what we perceive. Is it not? Well, some people incorrectly perceive reality, but you're right that it is a thing that we perceive that is outside of us. It's an individual thought process. No. Well, the perception would be individual, but the reality would not. So reality is... That would be an objective. Yes. Yeah. Right. I don't know. To be honest, I feel like I should support as a Jewish person, right, with all this stuff going on with Palestine and Israel, like, I'm in favor. I'm in favor of of human rights. And if someone wants to identify as something that they biologically should not be, I don't have a problem with it, right? Right, but what about the woman who might? Well, I can't really speak on that because, like, I'm not, I'm not a woman. I don't identify as a

woman. Sorry to interrupt, but I've been thinking. You know how it's scientifically proven that watching a movie is more enjoyable when paired with popcorn? Well, after years, of my very own scientific experiments, the results are in any and all activities become much more enjoyable while smoking a Mayflower cigar. You can get yours at Mayflowercigars.com. You must be 21 years or older to order. Some exclusions apply. Back to the show. Since we grant that there's, there is such a thing as reality, which is objective, and that we perceive it, and that's individual, and some of us can perceive things a little differently, and sometimes things, you know, go a little funny with our perception. But if we grant that we, we can perceive it, and that's individual, and that's

that the reality still exists, then that is going to, either the reality is going to be the basis of our lawmaking and the rules that governs society, or it's just kind of a battle of preferences, right? And so if we agree that there is such a thing as this objective reality, and if we agree that, you know, the woman is a woman and the man, he might perceive himself to be a woman, but, you know, he is a man, don't you think we ought to give some case? Don't you think we ought to give some care and consideration to the views of the woman, which happened to be in line with reality? We're trying to throw everyone into category of acceptance, right? So where I come from, like, I'm 21. Like, freshly 21, I was born in February, like, 2003. A lot of my friends, like,

they are gay, stray, bisexual, whatever, you name it. And going through, like, wilderness therapy, I went through wilderness therapy and I went through... What is wilderness therapy? So, funny you ask, actually. When I was 16, I was living in Boston, Massachusetts with my parents. I had gone into a lot of, like, drugs, you name it, whatever, like stupid behavior. My parents had me sent to Utah to a wilderness therapy camp, which is where, like, you know Moab. Yeah.

The Moab Desert, I was out there for 11, 11 and a half week, 77 days, something. like that, right? And they taught us all about, like, therapy and blah, blah, blah, and, um, like, you should accept people for who they are regardless of what they think. Yeah, well, I agree with that. I think that we should accept people for who they really are, not for who they might pretend to be. And, and in the case of the man who kind of pretends to be a woman or identifies as a, if you know, I mean, you know, we're talking about the reality, you should accept him with love, with compassion, with charity. But you should accept him for who he really is,

because that's going to be better for him, and it's certainly going to be better for everybody else. Okay, but if I take that into a therapeutic mindset, which I was taught for three and a half years doing adult residential, adolescent residential and wilderness, we were told to, if someone wants to accept and be who they think they are or who they actually are, we're supposed to sit there and be like, yeah, like, I agree with that. But what if you disagree with that? What if you know that that's not true?

I would get a consequence. I would be sat out of the group if it will wilderness. I'd be. So if I told you right now, I said, Daniel, I'm a black man. Do you believe that? I don't have any ancestry DNA report to say not. So you agree that I'm a black man? I couldn't tell you that you aren't, but I couldn't tell you that you are. Well, I thought you said you have to affirm whatever I say. That's what you were taught in the therapy. Do I agree with therapy? No, but... Well, there you go. You say, yeah, I don't really agree with what I was taught. Because they were telling you to lie. And that's wrong to lie. We know... That's kind of like a basic one, right? Is it wrong to tell a lie?

It's wrong to tell a lie, but a lie you believe is that truly a lie? No, a person who unintentionally is saying a lie is an intentional falsehood. So a person who is a person who is, like, let's say a trans-identifying. Some of them are unintentionally saying something that's false. But it's not that they're intents. So they're not lying. They're just wrong. But you know that it's false. And so if you are taught that you need to affirm something that you know is not true, it's not about the other person being a liar. It's that they're trying to make you into a liar. And that's wrong. But within that fact, my whole therapeutic experience in residential and adult transitionales in wilderness, that whole thing was a lie. So did my parents

send me here for a lie? Probably they wanted to help you, most likely. But sometimes, you know, the best laid schemes of mice and men gang after and leave us not but grief and pain for promised joy. You know, sometimes the road to hell is paved with good intentions and things just don't work out. And so if you know now that was a bad lesson, maybe you learned other good lessons here, but that was a bad one and it's bad to tell a lie, then shouldn't you just live according to that true statement? I think I should live according to my morals. And so if my morals tell me not to be unjust to the people I call family, right?

And so I don't take the word like family light. I don't say love lightly. Like if I truly like love someone and they are my friend, then I don't think I should tell them they can be something, you know. that they're not really that thing. I totally agree with you. So, so, but I think the way maybe you intended is you're saying, look, I got, let's say I have this friend and he thinks he's a woman and we know he's not a woman, but he thinks that, so I, to be just to him, to be caring to him, I'm just going to pretend he's a woman. But then my question to you is, is that really being a good friend? Is it, is it good to, to, to encourage a friend to do something that you know is not true? I think you misinterpret what I say and what, and what, which I wouldn't tell a friend, no, you're like, you're wrong about it. And because I'm your friend, I'm going to tell you you wrong. If my friend truly believed that, say, she thought she was a man,

I'm not going to, like, go up against her and be like, no, you're not a man. Yeah, that's what I'm... I'm going to support you 3,000 of the way through. So I think I did, I think I did accurately interpret what you were saying. But that's what I'm questioning. Because if you know, you know, you just said she's a she, right? she's a woman, but she thinks she's a man, then if you say you are a man, actually, then you're telling her something that you know isn't true, and you're encouraging her to live out of accord

with reality. And you might be doing it for the best of intentions because you think it'll protect her feelings or something. But what I'm saying is, isn't the more caring, the more loving thing to do to tell your friend the truth even when it's hard? I don't know if you've heard the term ride or die for my friends. And so if they truly believe something, I'm not. I'm I'm going to back that 100% of the time. So if your friend jumped off a bridge, would you do it to? It depends. On the cause.

I mean, if we were jumping off the bridge and we were trying to, like, that Navy SEAL, you know, that burned himself in front of the capital or whatever. The Marine, the pro-Palestine Marine in front of the Israeli embassy. Yeah. If my friend were to do that, would I necessarily burn myself? No. would I be in the crowd with, like, watching him? Yes, I 100% would. You just stand by and let your friend kill himself? It doesn't seem very friendly. If he wanted to do it for a pro cause, 100% I would.

Huh. And call me messed up with my morals or whatever. If my friend true... You are messed up with your morals. If my friend truly put his heart or her heart or their heart to something, I'm going to stand behind them 1,000% of the time because that's who I was raised to be. You were raised to be whatever your friends want you to be. No, I was raised to be supportive

and to back the people I love. We're kind of friendly, right? I may not say we are. We are. So if I said, Daniel, I really believe that objective truth exists and it's wrong to tell a lie, and the friendly, loving, charitable thing to do

is to tell people the truth. and I really hope that you would support me in that belief and that you would follow along and do that as well. Would you do that? Would you pay my bail if I got put in jail? If you got put in jail for misgender, you know, for like calling a guy the right pronouns, I would pay your bail.

What if it was a DUI? Say hypothetically. I might let you sit in the can for a night or two just to sober up, but I would consider it. Daniel may not have been completely convinced by my arguments yet, But he deserves more credit than his lib friends and the Utah administrators for actually sitting down and talking. As my Yaff campus tour continues on, I hope to find more students like Daniel

who are willing to cross the picket line to hear what conservatives have to say and maybe even muster the courage to sit down face to face. I just did a thing with Michael Knowles, if y'all know who that is. For his YouTube-type shit. you know um so i'm gonna be on youtube