The Michael Knowles Show - Viral VICE Panel & The Danger of Woke Liberal Assimilation | Vince Dao

Episode Date: February 20, 2023

Conservative YouTuber Vince Dao joins the show to discuss the VICE Asian Panel video and what America needs to do moving forward. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Shenjamin Papiro gang says, Vince! Well, hold on, what are you saying? I haven't even introduced our guest yet. You may remember our guest, though, from this marvelous little clip from Vice. Statistically, it is true that Asians, right, on average, make more money, in terms of medium, make more money,

better test scores, getting into better colleges, all that stuff. I think the question is, why is that? And I don't know, model minority, whatever that label wants to mean. That's actually a myth, because we cannot be... Well, no, listen. Well, let me finish my point. We need to observe what makes people successful and unsuccessful.

I think when you look at trends that are generally true in the Asian community, not of everyone, but are generally true. Usually you have families that are sticking together. You have, you know, people are taught to work hard in school, not get into trouble. I think that translates to why Asians en masse are successful. And I don't think you have to be Asian or white for that matter to not have kids out of wedlock, not, you know, commit crime, not cause trouble or whatever it is. It's just a matter of like, well, common sense.

That's what makes people successful. And if that's so-called assimilation, having a nuclear family, buying a house, going to school, whatever it is, then, yeah, okay, call me a pro-assimulation then. I think there's a difference between assimilation and erasure. Yes. Yeah, Vince, how come you told people not to commit crimes and to get married and don't have kids at a wedlock?

You're trying to erase culture. You're probably a white supremacist. Vince Dow, for those who don't know. 19-year-old conservative YouTuber and influencer from Florida and just a destroyer of libs with both facts and logic in that vice documentary. Vince, thank you for coming on the show. Yeah, thank you for having me, Michael. It's great to be here. It's funny. I am 19. And it's kind of a trip because I grew up watching you and you were actually one of the people originally that kind of broke me out of my libertarian phase. And then now here we are on the show. So, you know,

they say never meet your heroes, but I think you're all right, Michael. I think you're all right. you. I am so pleased to hear that because when I saw your clip there, which was just absolutely phenomenal, and I look at some of your other commentary, I sensed that. I sensed that you were not just another young guy spouting the same platitudes that we've all heard for 30 years about, hey, do whatever you want, just don't make me, you know, pay for it and live and let live and all that. No, you actually seem to have more of a vision. I can't help but notice that you got a cross behind you there on your wall and that your focus is less on licentiousness and permissiveness and a little bit more on virtue and a little bit more on what allows people actually

to flourish. Absolutely. And like I said on that panel, societies don't come together and form because they have nothing in common. They share no values. They have no commonly accepted sense of morality. They form and we build communities and we make smaller covenants with their own lives. You know, we make friends, we get married, we build relationships based on things that we have together. And all I essentially said on that panel is, well, you know, this is ought to be the rule of the rest of society too. This is how every society has had to be built in human history. And it's really funny that that's the clip that went viral, that one you just played, because my comment about that being assimilation was semi-sarcastic in the same.

that we just had a whole prior debate about this very topic, you know, about, you know, the greater concept of assimilation. And because I think there's a lot more to assimilation than just saying, hey, be a functional member of society. Hey, don't commit crime, right? Like, assimilation is much bigger. You got to acclimate to culture, customs, things like that. But because we just had that debate, I kind of like, you know, casually say, well, that's assimilation. Okay, call me such an evil, bad person then. And you see how that one girl takes it 100% absolutely seriously and is like not committing crime, that's erasure, you know. Because you imagine that's a fairly low bar for assimilation is, um, yeah, right.

Respect the laws. Don't go to prison. Because there is, as you say, there's a little bit more. It's the language that we speak. It's the rituals that we engage in. It's the, the way that we view ourselves individually and the way we view ourselves as a culture. But that bar is so low. My main question watching that whole panel is they were all libs. They were some of the most expressive libs I've ever seen. I mean, they look like Jim Carrey in the 90s. Their eyes got so wide the moment. You said, oh my gosh, Asians do well on academic tests. Oh, how dare he say something that's manifestly true? And so I just wanted to know, how'd you even get on the panel? So they reached out to me via email, and it's kind of funny. Originally, we were supposed to

to do a masculinity panel. I assume they just found me because like conservative, social media, whatever. But they originally interviewed me to do a masculinity panel. It's really funny. Vice decided, well, because I was Asian, let's put you on the Asian panel instead, which is fine. I think it worked out for the best because I saw the masculinity panel they did. It was kind of not that interesting, whereas the one I was on, you know, very spicy a lot of people. So I think it worked out. But that, that was a funny part of it. And the other part was, I don't know if I'm supposed to say this, but whatever. If you look, the date the panel came out, it was December 14th.

Originally, it was supposed to come out on December 7th. You know December 7th, of course, the anniversary of Pearl Harbor. And they, at the last minute, noticed that and decided to pull it. But I was kind of hoping they put it out on December 7th because it'd be kind of funny and it would be. But yeah, that's what happened. So there are some backstories behind what I do. A day that would live in infamy for all of the lives who were on that panel. No question about it.

So you come out there, you make this point about just noticing, just observing that Asians, more than other immigrant groups, and I guess really more than any other demographic in the country, tend to succeed. And so maybe they're doing certain things that other groups should emulate. And this is totally shut down. So let's say for a second, you had people on the panel who were a little more sophisticated. Where would you then take that discussion about assimilation? Well, then I would, you know, take it further to suggest that I think when you look at the current state of America, there's this kind of debacle of, I say assimilation, but I think there's more to what I say than that, because you could also make the case that the people on the panel were assimilated, right? And what

are they assimilating to? Liberal culture, right? The cultural Marxism, Satanism, whatever, that currently runs our system. Hey, hey, hey, Vince, hold on. Are you observing, are you suggesting that at one of our largest cultural events of the year, many very elite people, including the First Lady of the United States, would clap at a literal depiction of Satan dancing around jiggling with transsexuals? Are you, is that the kind of thing you're suggesting you conspiracy theorist? Yeah, I know, that makes me a crazy conspiracy theorist, science denier, white nationalist, all of it, right? But no, yeah, as I was saying, so I think that

you know, to quote Donald Trump or paraphrase him, you know, I think in many ways we have to kind of shut down the system until we can figure out what the heck is going on, right? And I think this is the issue. And I think this is intentional that the left does is that they're bringing in, you know, millions of immigrants every year, legal and illegal. And either they don't assimilate to American culture and you just have a very divided nation, etc. Or they do assimilate to American culture, but most of them assimilate to mainstream American culture, which is like left wing culture. And so, you know, where I kind of was hoping to ultimately take the discussion is I think in many ways America needs a restriction or a pause on the current immigration levels, right? Obviously, the Southern Board, we talk about that all the time, but also, you know, in terms of the legal immigration system, we have very big numbers coming in, much historically higher than they were at other points in American history. And there's been no pause, right? Historically in America, we've had these waves of immigration, but then there's a pause, there's time to assimilate. Since 1965, it's just been mass, unrelented immigration, both legal and illegal. And it's creating this country where

nobody needs to assimilate. And if they do, of course, because our enemies are in power, they're assimilating to the things we don't want them to assimilate. And so if I were to have a higher level discussion, I would say, yes, obviously is true. In order for a society to stick together, we have to have common values and culture and all this stuff. But then I would also say, that can exist in the way the system is currently being structured, right? We need to, a, fix our culture and then maybe after that we can talk about what we do with immigration. But so long as we're bringing people into this country, then A, telling them not to assimilate, which is a problem, or B, telling them to assimilate to the culture of New York City and Hollywood, it's just a disaster.

And it's a disaster for us politically, culturally, spiritually, all of it. So that's a really great point because conservatives throughout my lifetime have always said, no, assimilate, assimilate, But if we're going to assimilate to Sam Smith, you know, dancing around like a sort of devilish-looking lesbian saying, go daddy to the body shop and do whatever. You know, I don't want that kind of assimilation. I actually, I think we need to assimilate to some of the cultures coming here as long as they're not worshipping the devil. So that's a really great point. And your point on legal immigration is so important too, because even President Trump, and you know I love the guy, and he did a lot to move the conversation on immigration. But he said, I want more legal immigration than ever. It just can't be illegal. It's got to be legal. And I sort of think of the three positions on immigration as tired, wired, inspired. You know, the tired version on immigration is open the border, let everybody come in. No human beings illegal. Borders are awful, right? Then the wired version is we got to stop the two million illegal immigrants that are coming into our country every year. But then the inspired version is, well, hold on, we're also taking

a million legal immigrants every year, and we have for the past 60 years, and it's the largest movement of people ever in recorded history, and nothing against those people, but how is a country supposed to just take in three million people a year without any assimilation and maintain anything representing a coherent nation? I just don't see how that's even possible. Yeah, and it's funny because people always say, well, you're like Vietnamese, and I'm also part Italian, so we share that brother. I can tell you, you just got that ethos to you, you know? I don't know, it's some of the spirit. You know, I always say, like, my brains probably come from the Vietnamese side and then just my speaking, you know, like my person, it's totally Italian. The hands. The hands are

Italian. But, you know, they always bring that up and, you know, it is true, right? Some of my family, not all of them. Some of them came as a result of the 1965 immigration system. But, you know, it's like, I'm an American, right? And I think it's actually incredibly. selfish to say, well, my family benefited from the system. Therefore, the rest of America has to deal with that system until the end of time. Like, people always frame it as, oh, you're like me, you're not compassionate. I am compassionate. I'm very selfless for my own country because I was born here, right? So I have no political ties to Vietnam or Italy. I have political ties to America. And so it's my job as an American patriot to look at what's going in our country and advocate what's

best for the people in this country, not some hypothetical characteristics. of, you know, people who might be like my family out there. I mean, you know, God bless them. But my duty as an American conservative, American patriot is to look out for Americans. And I think when you look at the current system objectively from that lens, it's very hard to make the case that this system works, right? The only case the Libs can ever make is like, well, but, but, you know, my family or immigrants, you're an immigrant. It's like, but that's not an argument, right? We're talking, we live in this country. We have to do what's best for this country, not what's best for our own in-group interest or what's best for, again, a hypothetical caricature of someone who's like us.

I love the way you flipped their slogan on its head, because I've heard this slogan too. Half of my family comes from the Mayflower. The other half comes from a sardine boat. And the sardine boat side, you will sometimes hear from my more liberal friends and family members. They'll say, Michael, it's so selfish of you. Some of your ancestors were able to come in through immigration. It's very selfish of you to say that other people can't come in through immigration. But what you're saying is, no, what is selfish is claiming that simply because you and your family have benefited from a policy and history that may at the time have been relatively fine, but now is having deleterious effects, that simply because of that, because of your own sense of privilege, that you therefore have to inflict a really harmful political agenda on the rest of the country. That's what's selfish. Yeah, absolutely. I mean, you said it best right there. I don't know what else to say besides that. That's a really, really good take. And I think a really way to shove it right back in their face.

I got a call the other day from a very prominent politician who I did not know before. I'd never spoken with him before. And he was just sort of calling some people to get a sense of what young Americans are thinking. And so I said one of the more surprising aspects of the youths that I meet going all around the country, college campuses. In my mind, I'm still a youth myself, but in reality, I've become an old man with two children and a wife living in the suburbs. And so when I talk to the real youths, I see a phenomenon that is the opposite of what a lot of people in Washington think. A lot of people, a lot of Washington politicians believe that the youth are very libertarian. They're much more libertarian on drugs, on immigration,

on sexuality, on family, just everything. They just do whatever you want to do. And I said, guys, you're really misunderstanding that. That may have been true 10 years ago. The young conservatives that I talk to, and especially the ones who are getting traction, who are having a voice, people like you, Vince, they tend to be a little more concerned with virtue,

not merely the freedoms that we could have in the abstract, but what we are called to do with those freedoms, less we undermine the entire political order. Is that a fair assessment? I think that your average kind of frat guy who maybe like votes Republican doesn't like, or not votes, but would be a Republican or doesn't like Biden, they're more libertarian, but I think there is your correct. The type of people that would show up to an event like yours and be engaged in the system,

there is just like 3%, 5% or whatever that, yes, is very concerned with virtue because we have grown up entirely in a society without it, right? And I think a lot of older people, they still remember the America of the 50s and the 60s with the white picket fence and all that. But we have been, we have been raised in a society so depraved of virtue that, yes, we are seeking virtue and order and morality in these things. And even if we're a minority in the generation, because we are the most active and the most passionate and some would say the smartest, I don't know. Many people are talking about it. Many people are saying this. That's really how political movements, revolutions, in a peaceful sense, begin, is they don't begin from the masses.

They begin from, like the founding fathers. They begin from a small group of elites who really have the right or sometimes the very wrong idea in mind that are like driven, committed, passionate, and they end up being the ones with the voice and the change. And this is the issue with the left, too, right? I don't think your average Gen Z is like the kids on that panel, but your average political, liberal Democrat one is because they're the loudest people. their most vocal, most passionate, involved people. But I think when you look at our side and, you know, the people in our generation who are most involved with conservative politics and things like that, I think they're absolutely the people you described.

And so when we talk about moving the Overton window and kind of what our generation of conservatives is going to push for, I think you're very accurate on that front. And I love the observation that the people who actually move the needle in politics, it's almost never the majority of people. I mean, for good and for ill. The Bolsheviks pretended that they represented the majority. That's why they chose the name Bolshevik. But they were a fringe minority of radicals, and they had a huge impact.

And you see this throughout history. You see this with the people who began the French Revolution. You see this with the people who began the American Revolution. You see this always with political movements. It's a very concentrated core of people who are committed to an idea who have a political vision. Because as you point out, a lot of frat guys, I'm not knocking frat guys. Some of my very best friends are frat guys, okay?

But a lot of people just don't pay very close attention to politics. If right now you are listening to this interview, you pay more attention to politics than probably 99.3% of people. Most people kind of want to do their jobs, see their families, maybe engage in a little recreation, go fishing, watch some TV, go grilling with their friends, and they don't want to deal with the intricacies of whatever stupid thing Elizabeth Warren is saying that day. It's fine. I'm not knocking that at all. It's probably a healthier way to live, frankly. But as a result of that, if you are not deeply engaged in politics, you are just not going to be the person who is

leading the revolution, right? Whereas when I go to college campuses, I agree. Obviously, there's a huge number of people who say, hey, what's the big deal with marriage? What's the big deal even with gender. But the people who are articulating coherent questions on the left and the right, for that matter, I mean, certainly on the right, but even the leftists, they have crazy views on all of this stuff. But at least there's a kind of coherence to their bizarre illogic. Those are the people who really have the clear vision. And they're the ones who have let the men into the women's bathroom. And they're the ones who are going to kick the men out of the women's bathroom if we're so lucky to have that. So we've only got about a minute left, Vince, but you're very young. You're very

articulate. You've got a very clear political vision. Now you have a little bit of prominence. What are you aiming at for the country? If let's say tomorrow, the 75 Republicans who are currently running for president drop out of the race, you find yourself in 1600 Pennsylvania. What would you do? That's a good question. I think the first thing I'd have to do, and maybe this is where we kind of, in a sense, agree with the small government types, quote, unquote, is I think in order for a conservative politician to get anything done at the federal level, we have to, like, destroy the deep state, the bureaucracy. And for a while, I kind of was like, well, maybe we could use it in our own favor. We could use it for ourselves. And then it's like, you know, the more I thought of it, like,

who built this stuff? FDR, LBJ, you know, the people, like, it was always designed to work against this. And I think in many ways, it's that federal bureaucracy that just causing a lot of different problems for this country. And so I would say, you know, the, There's a lot of like, I guess, powerful base things that I want to do. But I think the first thing we got to do is really like drain the deep state, fire all these people. And then maybe once they're all out of the way, then we can talk about using power in our favor to our advantage. That's what I'd probably say. And then at that point, you know, let's bring manufacturing back to this country.

Let's try to somehow solve the problem of fixing, you know, the family crisis. Let's, you know, cut immigration until we can figure out what the heck is going on. A lot of ideas. But I would say first thing I try to do is get rid of the deep state that's going to stop all those ideas. And very doable to people who are going to accuse you of being pie in the sky, especially on like the family issue. Well, how on earth is the government ever going to fix the family issue? I would say, look at Hungary. Hungary actually has done that. It's the one country left. We could start with just trying not to destroy the family. I mean, that's a good start, right?

Stop the bleeding. First do no harm. That's right. And to your point on the bureaucracy, you know, know, the federal bureaucracy is something like two million people. And so in order to have any effect on it at all, you would have to replace at least 50,000 people. And the actual replacements that occur in presidential administrations is about four to five thousand. So we're nowhere near that right now. The principle of subsidiarity of having decisions made at the most local level at which they can be done competently, it's very conservative principles, very Christian principle. And then even to the point of wielding the bureaucracy to our advantage. I'm not saying it can't be done. It has been done in the past. But to your point, you've got to fire like pretty much everybody to do it. And back when the

conservatives did wield the bureaucracy in a way that was sometimes successful, they did so through the spoil system. They did so through replacing that bureaucracy pretty regularly. And so I think you're absolutely onto something, Vince, and I think you've said it very, very well. And I think you totally owned those libs. Most important of all, I think you totally. And which is really important because, as I've always argued, when we own the libs, we have to own the libs for a purpose, and it's to show people that the ideas that they're offering are a total failure and that the vision that we have to offer is clear enough that it can knock down all that piffle pretty, pretty quickly. You did that very successfully. Vince, where can people find you?

You can find me on my YouTube channel. It's just my name, Vince Dow, D-A-O, and then you can find all my social medias, too, from there. But YouTube channel, probably the main thing. thing I plug. All right, go follow Vince everybody. I'm Michael Knowles. This is the Michael Knolls. We'll see tomorrow. USAA knows dynamic duos can save the day like superheroes and side tics or auto and home insurance.

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