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June 5, 2021 - The Michael Knowles Show
46:32
YES or NO | Real Answers and Real Drinks with MATT WALSH

Matt Walsh sits down with Michael Knowles to see how well they think they know each other. They must choose "Yes" or "No" when it comes to aliens, The Pope, and if all parties involved in Porn should be arrested. Check it out! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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Time Text
*Music* My friend Matt Walsh and I have known each other for a long time at this point.
However, only recently have we moved to the same town, spent a little more time together.
And so now I want to test how well we really know one another.
The game, very simple.
Each of us has a drink.
I'll let you guess whose is whose.
I think it's pretty obvious at this point.
I've got the martini.
Matt, you've got the beer.
We're going to read a prompt and then guess how the other person would respond to that prompt.
I think I got it.
You think you got it.
And then if you get it wrong, you got a drink.
I mean, I... Well, that's fine.
That's fine.
They were trying to get me to go just straight whiskey for this game, and I thought, it's 3 o'clock in the afternoon right now, so we're going to be a little bit more...
3 o'clock in the afternoon in Nashville.
Yeah, that's true.
But what time is it in Dubai?
I don't know.
It's like in the middle of the night over there.
That's a good point.
So you could do that.
I also feel I might be at a bit of a disadvantage, because this is basically...
You know, the way I make a martini is I pour cold gin into a glass while looking at a bottle of vermouth on the other side of the room.
So this is a very boozy...
Cocktail.
Well, I'm at a disadvantage because I would probably do poorly in this game with anyone because I don't know anything about anyone or pay attention to anyone because I'm a narcissist and a sociopath.
So that's the disadvantage I'm at.
Cheers to that.
Shall we have a little sip just to begin?
What, to being a narcissist and a sociopath?
To being a narcissist and a sociopath.
So I don't have to chug the entire thing for each wrong answer.
No, no.
That would make it interesting.
Yes, that would.
Okay, I'll go first.
Wearing glasses makes people appear more intelligent.
Oh, so what am I supposed to do?
So you've got to guess.
I'm already drunk.
You've had one sip of beer.
You have to guess how I would respond to that prompt, and I will guess how you would respond to that prompt.
So, for instance, you are wearing glasses, so I think it's safe to say you would agree that With that prompt.
So I've moved yours to the yes part.
Now you've got to move my...
Oh, do you agree with that prompt?
Yes.
Let's start over, explain the whole game again.
Yeah, so basically these are glasses of alcohol.
So, okay.
I'm going to say, you'll say no because you're...
Because you could wear glasses, but you don't wear glasses most of the time.
You know what?
Yeah.
I think absolutely glasses do make you look smarter.
Now, do you know why I don't wear them all the time?
Why?
Because when I wear the glasses, I look exactly like Rachel Maddow.
And this is no joke.
Ben Shapiro came up to me one time.
He goes, Michael, you got to lose the glasses.
I said, what are you talking about?
He said, conservatives don't wear the glasses.
I said, yes.
What?
I said, yeah.
This is actually, it didn't even occur to me at this point, because you were still stuck in the car in the middle of the woods.
I said, no, plenty of political people on TV wear glasses.
He said, who?
I said, you know, Rachel Maddow, Lawrence O'Donnell, Chris Matthews, Chris Hayes.
It was all the libs.
I couldn't name a single conservative on TV. You might be the one exception.
Only the libs wear glasses.
I never thought of it like that.
Only the libs, because we can see so clearly ourselves.
So that means I got it wrong.
You got it wrong.
You have to drink.
I'll drink in solidarity.
All right.
You got to reset over here.
You have context?
Oh, yeah.
I can barely see.
Everything's blurry, but I just want to look like a conservative, so I just throw them out.
I don't care.
That's fine.
I drive like a maniac.
Ben Shapiro likes me more.
Me as in me.
But it could be...
Just to clarify, right?
Because we're talking about me.
No, but it's how what I... So are we each talking about ourselves?
Is the me relating to both of us?
You are going to answer whether I think that Ben likes me more than you.
Why didn't the card just say Michael?
Well, because then I'm going to answer if you think that Ben likes you more than me.
I quit.
I'm good.
Um...
Yes, so I'm going to say, you think that Ben likes you more than me, yes.
Do I think that Ben likes me more than you?
I think that you think that Ben likes me more than you, yes.
No, me.
Me more than you.
Okay, so no.
So no.
Yeah, I think that was correct.
I don't even know what we answered.
I think we both got that one right.
We both got that one right.
We should drink.
You're right.
I agree.
Who wrote, can you write it a little clearer?
For God's sakes.
Alright, let's see.
Maybe this one will be clearer.
Leviticus 19 verse 28 was more of a chill suggestion, making tattoos completely acceptable for Christians today.
Acceptable is going to be doing a lot of work here.
So Leviticus 19 verse 28 says no tattoos.
Well, yeah.
Now I can't help but notice.
Got a little ink there on there.
That's just, that's henna.
That's fake.
I redo that every morning before I come out.
Nice henna cairo, yeah.
The permanent marker.
Yeah, the Hindu artist, or more likely some, like, lib woman artist doing henna tattoos, she must be very confused every morning when you say, I need the cairo on my arm.
Yeah, well, and see, again, the question...
Is not framed exactly correctly because...
Well, I don't want to give my answer until you've guessed.
Okay.
So the question...
Acceptable.
Are we talking about...
Chill suggestion.
Yeah.
Is it unfair framing to begin with?
Yeah.
As far as I know, God, particularly in the Old Testament, does not generally make chill suggestions.
Right.
Neither chill nor suggestion would apply to the Old Testament at any point.
So...
But the question is, today, do those specific laws still hold today?
Right.
And I'm confident that you would say no, that they don't hold.
Yes, I suppose.
Okay.
Now, yes, I think the substantive read of the question is true.
Yes.
However, the word acceptable.
Right.
It is my opinion.
That the only people who should have tattoos are convicts and sailors.
Not body shame me, first of all.
How dare you?
I will say, you've got a kind of burly demeanor.
And it's a strange tattoo because it's...
It's an ancient Christian symbol.
Oh, is that what it is?
I thought it was Japanese for water.
I was going for RX prescription.
You've got to go back in.
I'm just a big fan of Tylenol.
So we both got that right.
So I guess we should drink.
Are those the rules?
By the way, I totally respect the view of hating tattoos.
Yeah.
And I should be a guy who hates them, so it's very confusing for people.
Yes.
But in terms of the Old Testament argument, I find it absurd.
Clearly those are ceremonial Jewish laws that don't.
And there is a difference between moral laws, ceremonial laws.
Sometimes people get tripped up on this, but there are.
And especially tattoos in that context would have been pagan symbolism.
Right.
But also, if you get the little Japanese for water, like the 20-year-old white girls do, that is immoral.
That is a damnable offense.
I will agree with you there.
Yes.
Okay.
Okay.
I would rather be stuck in an elevator with a bleeding heart, burning bro communist than a libertarian who thinks we can all get along if people just let you do you.
Okay, now it's your answer to this.
I'd rather be stuck with a burning bro than a libertarian.
Alright, I'm just going to go for it.
I'm going to say yes, you would rather be stuck with a burning bro.
Oh, I misunderstood the question.
You would rather be stuck...
Yes, I'm switching my...
Yeah, yeah.
Yes, I think yes.
You would rather be stuck with the Bernie bro than the Libertarian.
And I certainly would rather be stuck with the Bernie bro than the Libertarian.
We're on the same page.
Yes, there's no question.
Libertarians probably annoy me more than any other humans on Earth at this point in my...
Yes.
It is...
In college, we used to sing a song.
It's not a joke.
We'd sing, God wrought ye libertarians, ye fill me with dismay.
Your anarchistic tendencies, your...
I forget.
I was usually even a little more lubricated when I was singing it in college.
But the point is, yeah, libertarianism, super lame.
Yeah.
Agreed.
Let's see.
So now I'm up.
Generally speaking, America should not get involved with conflicts in Taiwan or Israel.
So we've got to reset.
What you're going to answer on this, generally speaking, America should not get involved with conflicts in Taiwan or Israel.
I think you're going to say...
I'm going to give you a yes, should not.
Yeah, I think that's about right.
Because generally speaking here is the key.
Right, exactly.
I think when it is in America's interest, and there can be times when it's in America's interest to...
Push back China or to push back certain Arab states, then we certainly should.
But as an ongoing matter of constantly managing these places, probably not.
Probably that would be an intangling alliance.
Generally in favor of allowing countries to handle their own affairs.
We keep getting them right, but we're just still drinking, so I guess that's fine.
Sounds like we're winning.
Alright.
There are a lot of questions, too.
Matthew McConaughey is more likely to win a governor race in Texas than Caitlyn Jenner in California.
So it's more likely, not who would you rather see win.
More likely?
Yeah, okay.
I'll answer.
Yeah, I'm going to assume that you'd say yes to that.
Totally.
Yeah.
I mean, I know that right now it's fashionable for conservatives to say that, you know, Democrats are the real transphobes or whatever, but it, I don't, Caitlin's not going to win, right?
I don't think so.
He is polling at like 2%.
Wow.
He's polling at, so conservatives are buying into the left's Basically giving up on reality for the sake of this trans candidate who's not even going to win.
Wait, I thought when you said he, I assumed you were referring to Matthew McConaughey.
Oh, yeah, just to clarify.
You were calling Bruce Jenner the guy in the weediest box that he?
Caitlyn Jenner.
Caitlyn, I'm sorry.
I'll respect the name.
You know, I've long respected the name.
I'm getting to the point where I don't know that I will.
Here's why.
Yeah, you can change your name, whatever.
Prince can become a symbol, right?
And he's the artist who only knows Prince.
But Caitlyn is a woman's name.
I don't think that a dude should go by Caitlyn.
I agree with you there, but a name actually is a social construct.
It's something we come up with.
It is a symbol to represent a person.
It's an arbitrary symbol, so it could be anything.
If you change it legally, then that's your name.
Yeah, I don't know.
I think I might be more of a theocratic fascist than you are in this case.
Now I've got to recalibrate my position.
Yes, because here's what I think.
I have to scramble to get to the right of you on this.
No one gets names anymore.
Right, yes.
It's illegal to have a name.
Yes.
Because I think it's a symbol, right?
They're symbols, but you get a name at birth, right?
It's your Christian name, we say.
I don't think you should be able really to change it.
And also, by the way, if we can call men Caitlin, then Johnny Cash's song, A Boy Named Sue, it was never funny, but it's no longer even ostensibly funny.
We have destroyed that song.
Yeah.
I don't agree with what you're saying, but I don't want to be in the position of arguing.
The liberal side of it.
Right, so I'm just going to move on from that.
Fair enough.
Am I up now?
Yeah, okay.
I have confidence that the 2022 midterms will bring a relative red wave.
A relative red wave.
What the hell?
What is that?
It took me a second for that to sink in.
It's redundant.
A relative red wave.
Okay, maybe you'll be more optimistic on this one.
Drink.
Drink.
I'm firmly in the no category.
I'm not saying no, it won't happen.
I'm saying I'm not confident.
And I'm not confident because Democrats rewrote all the election laws and gave themselves a lot of advantages.
I wish I could be confident, but I'm not...
Yeah, my lack of confidence is more just a general pessimism to life, and to the Republicans.
They are very good at clutching defeat from the jaws of victory.
They're expert at that.
And we would need to know a little bit more about what a red wave would even mean, but I think they'll pick up some seats.
Yeah, they sort of have to, right?
If they didn't pick up some seats, something would have gone seriously wrong, but maybe something would have gone seriously wrong.
Of course I know what you're saying.
All parties involved in the production and distribution of pornography should be arrested and held criminally liable.
So it's just...
It's like, cool.
Let's drink to that.
Yeah, absolutely.
Let's drink to that.
It's my criminal justice reform, by the way.
That's my first step act.
First step to recovering a sense of true liberty.
I actually...
A little bit of optimism there.
It seems to me that there's...
A growing sense on the right to treat pornography in this way.
Because five, six years ago, even when this first subject really came up a few years ago when we were talking about it, And the backlash from the right was intense.
Well, just from like the boomer libertarian right.
They were like, what?
Thomas Jefferson loved porn.
George Washington had a subscription to OnlyFans.
This is what our founders envisioned.
This is a blessing of liberty.
Yeah, right.
But it seems to be, especially among younger conservatives, it seems to be a little bit of a shift there.
Totally.
Well, you know, the irony is...
All the kind of boomer con, you know, libertarian types.
They'll say like, guys, come on, what?
You're not going to look at porn all the time?
And, you know, I bet a lot of those Zoomers, those like 18-year-old conservatives who are super anti-porn, I bet they've looked at porn.
Hypocrites?
It's like, yeah, I bet they have.
I bet they realize how horrible it is.
And that's why they're so opposed to it.
They've grown up.
A lot of these kids have grown up.
They were exposed to it when they were like seven.
And they just see how empty and gross and disgusting it is.
Yeah.
That's good.
I have something to celebrate.
This is me.
Vegans should not be allowed to vote.
Vegans should not be allowed to vote.
Should not be allowed to vote.
I'm going to assume that you would probably say no to that.
Vegans should not be allowed to vote.
You know, I'm going to say that you're going to be pretty moderate here, kind of more of a liberal.
That's a risky move.
You're going to say that maybe the vegans should be allowed to vote.
Well, okay, there's a little bit of a nuance here, because...
I believe strongly in greatly reducing the number of people who can legally vote.
Of course.
Greatly reducing it through any number of means.
Yes.
And I think that through the means that I have in mind, most vegans will be ruled out.
Yes, I agree.
I'm with you.
But it probably wouldn't be determined based on their veganism.
Yes, this is the issue.
The Venn diagram of people who should be disqualified from voting and vegans, it's almost exactly a circle, but I don't think it's totally synonymous.
So we can take care of them without having to directly...
Target them.
Because that would raise constitutional issues.
I think just in the same place that you had a constitutional right to look at weird porn and stuff, you have the constitutional guarantee that vegans can vote.
Yeah.
In the same penultimate.
Exactly.
The Crusades were unprovoked aggression towards the peaceful Muslim world.
That's the funniest prompt that we've had yet.
Not much to talk about there.
Defeating the Saracens and retaking the Holy Land.
I'm going to run out, by the way.
Did we get more?
We've refilled Mr.
Walsh's stein here.
Now we continue.
Vaccine passports seem more like a prophecy from revelation than a public health concern or benefit.
Yeah, I'm assuming you say yes on that.
Yeah, that's not a tricky one, I find.
I think it's a little strong.
I mean, prophecy from Revelation, I don't know if I'd put it that way.
I'm not saying they seem like a prophecy, but I'm saying more like.
Yeah, I'll go with that.
You know, the thing is, I don't think we're living in the end times.
They're always worried about this is the mark of the beast or that's the mark of the beast.
But, you know, someone's going to be living in the end times, right?
Yeah, it's got to be someone.
I don't think it's me.
I don't think I am.
But you can think of plenty of periods through history where they would have had a better case.
Black kids.
Things like that.
Vaccine passport, I'm very much against.
As far as whether people get a vaccine, I don't care.
That's my thing.
I don't get it if you want or don't if you don't.
I'm not hardcore enough to say definitely don't get it.
But I am prudential enough to think like, hey, if you make a risk calculation and you say that the risk is better for me to get the vaccine, then just do it.
You know, if you're in an at-risk group or something, okay, cool.
But if you're a healthy 28-year-old or something and you just think, well, I face statistically like no risk from this virus.
Yeah.
The creepy kind of vax or mask or vote or die or whatever.
I just think it's so creepy.
It makes me less likely to want to do it every time I say it.
Yeah.
That's why I just let people make their own decisions.
Here we go.
Aliens more than likely exist.
This does not include illegal or naturalized aliens, Michael Knowles.
I saw my card just so you know.
Guatemalans definitely exist.
Okay.
So I think you're going to say no on that.
I think you're going to say yes.
You're absolutely right.
You're right.
You're totally right.
I don't...
If you asked me today, put...
$50,000 on do aliens exist or not?
I'd say they do not.
But that determination on your part is almost entirely theological.
It has a theological aspect.
Part of it is...
I never got into aliens, even when I was an atheist.
I was like, I don't really think there's aliens.
They'd always be like, but the universe is big.
And I was like, well, okay, whatever.
It's big and sterile, mostly.
But it's just so...
I know you don't find the universe's big argument to be compelling.
I think it is because of just how we're talking about 100 billion galaxies or more in the observable universe.
Yeah.
100 billion galaxies, 100 billion stars in each galaxy, give or take.
Yeah.
You know, let's say five or six planets on average around each star.
Yeah.
How many planets does that make?
Yeah, no, I mean, let's say there's like a gazillion planets.
Right.
The fact that there's a bunch of rocks does not, to me, imply that there's life on any of them.
Well, but if you were to take...
Okay.
Because we don't know anything about the origin of life as a sort of scientific matter.
Certainly, if you were to take religion completely out of it, which you can't, but if you were, then you're looking at it as a matter of pure statistics.
Yeah.
What's the statistical likelihood of there being life on other planets?
But I think in order to do the statistical analysis, you've got to know...
How you go from not life to life, right?
Because that's the...
I have no doubt that if there's some kind of life, that you could get some kind of other life.
I'm kind of there.
I think that's...
But if we have truly no scientific understanding of how life starts, then...
And there are some theories on it, but there's no good evidence for them.
Then even, let's say there's a million places, a zillion places...
What do the statistics matter if we don't know that fundamental process?
Well, that's what I'm saying.
If you were to take religion out of it, and you were saying even as an atheist you have this view, so then it's a matter of, I guess, a planet is like a chemistry set, and a bunch of chemicals are being mixed randomly, and then that's how you start life.
That's the hypothesis, I guess.
Right.
Well, if you take religion out of it, that's what it has to be.
It has to be something like that.
So then it's just a matter of if you have enough of those chemistry sets going...
At the same time, it's just likely, you know, a certain number of them are going to land, are going to, you know, the die is going to be cast.
This is very interesting.
So what you're saying is, absent the existence of God.
Right.
Absent the existence of God, which I don't, it's like, to me, everything that follows from that is just like gobbledygook.
Right.
Because it's like, how do you, true.
It's like, this is the sustaining essence of the universe.
But, so, absent the existence of God, the only way that life could develop has to be from non-life in some kind of primordial soup.
Without God, right, yeah.
So, therefore, because that's obviously just nonsense, because that, like, because that, we just don't have any evidence that that happened.
Therefore, God exists.
That's like another argument for God.
Right, I would agree with you, but I'm talking about, so there's that part of it.
And then, okay, but let's get back into reality.
We bring God back into the equation.
That makes it a little more interesting, but I think it actually makes the case for intelligent life on other planets more compelling.
Because now we're talking about...
Whereas without God, all these planets exist for really no purpose.
They just happen to be there, including our own.
Now all these planets have a...
There's a reason all those planets are there.
God intentionally created every single one of them.
So if there are a gazillion planets...
Right, there are a gazillion planets in the universe...
God individually made every single one of them for a reason.
Yeah.
And so it just becomes harder for me to understand.
Now this, C.S. Lewis was open to aliens, right?
So there are plenty of prominent Christians who are open to aliens.
However, does this not raise the problem of...
Monogenism.
Monogenism, the fancy term for the idea that we all descend from a common ancestor.
And this is very important to make sense of original sin, broken human nature, human solidarity, human dignity, all the way down to why racism is bad, right?
Racism is bad because we're all part of the same family and on the same line.
If we aren't, then it raises issues of even what a human being is.
So does that, do the aliens not raise a problem for the Adam and Eve of it all?
Yeah, and now we're drinking and we're talking about this.
I'm worried that I'm going to venture into heresy.
I will drink more, yeah.
Yeah, but I think that I like C.S. Lewis' thoughts on this.
I don't know exactly how this works with salvation history, but first of all, the fact that I can't figure out how to work it within the theological framework that I understand doesn't...
That is definitive that it's not possible.
Right, exactly.
But it's not actually definitive, so that's the point.
But also, maybe this is why the universe is so vast and there's so much space in between all these different planets, because...
God does not actually want these different races of intelligent beings intermingling because they're at different places in their salvation journey.
It would seem to me that assuming that the Trinity is true, sort of the central mystery of Christianity, then you have the second person of the blessed Trinity is Christ, is the Logos of the universe, incarnate, dies once on the cross to redeem mankind and redeem the fallen world.
Okay.
So it would seem difficult for me to understand how there's another sort of salvation on some other planet with the second person of the Trinity who dies once for all.
So that would seem very hard.
So then it would seem to imply that the other creatures are not fallen.
That's possible, yeah.
So that could be possible.
C.S. Lewis speculated about that.
And that goes back to why...
Our nearest solar system is four light years away, which is 25 trillion miles.
And that's our next door neighbor.
That's like a hop skip and a jump it away in galactic terms.
So that's close.
So why is there so much space in between each?
Maybe it's because of this problem of you can't have a fallen race interacting with a non-fallen race.
Because the interesting thing there then is that the fallen race now becomes sort of like the snake in the Garden of Eden playing that role.
Right, right.
So, maybe that's the reason why.
I mean, it's all speculation, but for me, it just comes down to it.
The universe is very big.
There's lots of planets in it.
They serve some sort of purpose.
And we are a bunch of snakes.
And we are a bunch of snakes.
We are.
At least know a bunch of snakes here, especially in politics.
Yeah.
Yeah, okay.
That's good.
Am I up?
You're up.
I think so.
I don't know.
We've talked about that for 45 minutes.
Oh, man.
I know the names of more than half of the people who work here.
So now we're answering.
So definitely for you.
That's like not even a question.
Of more than half.
I don't know.
We hire like 27 people an hour here.
Yeah, it's hard to keep up.
I'm going to say for you also.
Well, I wouldn't put it past you to know everyone's name in this whole damn building.
But I'm going to say no.
You know what the trick is here?
I actually don't know the answer to this, because seriously, we hire a dozen people a day, but the real trick is, like, oh, hey, buddy.
You know, hey, pal.
It's like, is it like...
Matt?
Is his name Matt or Mickey?
I don't think any individual person in this building knows the name because we're hiring so many people.
That's true, yeah.
Except for the good people who actually care about their co-workers.
Unlike the bad fallen snakes such as us.
Exactly.
Okay, we should probably drink for that.
Frankly, I don't even think our boss Bill Shapiro knows.
Whatever his name is.
Something like that.
Bill Gates isn't Jeffrey Epstein.
Why is there an apostrophe there?
Was the person who wrote these questions drunk already?
You guys trying the drinks?
They were tipping into the boodles.
Bill Gates and Jeffrey Epstein just happened to have been really good friends.
No funny business.
That's obviously a no.
As persuasive as that sounds, no.
I like the claim that Bill Gates was consulting Jeffrey Epstein for marriage advice.
If you're having problems in your marriage, of course you're going to consult an international sex trafficker.
An international sex trafficker pedophile who's never been married.
He's the guy that you're going to...
Hey, what do you think?
Do you think Melinda and I are going to work out?
I don't know.
Alright.
When people recognize me in public, it genuinely warms my heart.
I've never been recognized in public, so...
No, yes you have.
I'm kidding.
You've been recognized.
Now, the only question is, can Matt Walsh's heart be warmed?
I'm going to say for you the answer is yes.
It absolutely is for me.
For you, you know, I'm going to say yes.
It does.
I was hoping I could surprise you if you put it on note.
No.
Beneath that gruff, burly, bearded exterior, there is a very sweet, warm cauldron of sympathy and humanity.
I don't know if I'd go that far, but...
It almost warms my heart, but then it, because I'm Catholic, it verges quickly into guilt and shame.
Because then I start thinking, like, why does this person care?
I'm such an insignificant piece of dirt of a person.
But there's a little bit of a warming of a heart that happens.
And then when you flagellate yourself, the stimulated blood flow literally warms your heart.
That's true.
Oh no, is it your turn or my turn?
Is it mine?
Okay.
On a scale of 1 to 10, the current Pope is not super great.
This is where I go back to my theory that the person who wrote the questions was drunk because I'm not sure what...
Not super great.
But the 1 to 10...
Oh yeah.
Why do we need the scale of 1 to 10 if the statement is the current Pope is not super great?
Yeah.
Yeah, that's, well, I guess there's one name we don't need to learn around these parts.
Probably not going to be here very long.
Yeah.
Okay, so the Pope is not super great is the prompt.
Yeah, well, I... It's not, wait, it's not super great.
Yes.
So you're saying, you're saying I would agree with the statement the Pope is not super great.
And I'm saying you would disagree with the statement, the Pope is not super great.
So you're saying this, I'm going to say that you say that the Pope is super great.
And you're saying that I don't think the Pope is super great.
Yes, but now that you put my drink over there, I'm rethinking my decision, but I've already made it.
He's the Pontifex Maximus.
He's literally super great.
Yes.
Hold on a second.
But we're talking about I assume we're talking about the personality, the actual individual.
Well, this is the issue, of course, yes.
I would never denigrate the Holy Father.
I couldn't do it.
Now, when one says things that are unfortunate, when one says things that raise a lot of confusion, when one says things that are outright heresy in some cases, this is very confusing.
And this would raise filial questions and dubia and doubts.
But I would never say, look, I'm not some lib who thinks that I can just start mouthing off about the Pope.
And start accusing people outright of saying things that are, sometimes it seems kind of heretical, you know?
I would argue that saying heretical things is not super great.
It's not a super great thing to do.
I totally agree with that.
I think we both answered wrong.
But maybe we both answered right.
At the same time, yes and no.
Okay, now I go.
On a scale of A to 17...
No, that's not what it is.
Radical Islam is still more dangerous than radical leftism.
Oh, I'm...
Radicalism is more...
I'm pretty sure you're gonna say no.
Radical Islam is still more dangerous than radical leftism.
I'm going to say no for you as well.
For me, that's an easy one, personally.
My only problem with the question is the still, because I don't think that it ever was.
It's just because leftism has only been a real political problem in the last few hundred years.
Whereas Islam's been a political problem for like 1,500 years.
Of course, you have to think about, what do we mean by danger?
Are we talking about a physical danger?
Well, then that might sway it slightly, but...
It's tricky in the sense that leftism is just an inversion of Christianity.
It comes out of this Christian civilization, and it just inverts everything.
So in a way, you know, it's the same way that it's easier to talk to the ardent atheist than it is to the agnostic.
Because the ardent atheist is really thinking about these issues.
So, you know, the radical leftist, maybe you can kind of get him.
But the argument is even truer for Islam.
Islam derives out of a Christian heresy.
And this is not even really disputed by Muslims, right?
That Muhammad meets a heretical Christian monk and then goes on and develops this Islamic religion.
But I think, if I'm talking to some kook, you know, atheist, or even worse, some decadent, just agnostic lib...
It's very, we don't, we're not even talking about the same thing.
Whereas if I'm talking to some radical Islamic person, that guy's thinking about the same things I'm thinking about.
We're actually speaking kind of the same, I don't speak Arabic, but we're speaking the same language.
The question is just about the answers to those questions.
So yeah, I mean, I think that's certainly right.
Yeah, I guess I would look at it like this.
I don't know that there's any person who has ever not made it to heaven, or any Christian who's ever been not made it to heaven because of Islam.
Islam can persecute and kill them, but at the end of the day, that actually expedites their trip.
Whereas with leftism, I think that the attack is much more internal, and I think it has a far different effect.
That is really good.
You very rarely hear of Christians converting to Islam.
Right.
But you do hear of Christians converting to leftism.
In this country, millions.
Yeah, yeah.
Millions and millions.
Much of the country.
That's a very good point.
I make those on occasion.
Every once in a while.
Okay.
After a couple beers.
Mm-hmm.
So you're up.
All right.
Having facial hair covers insecurities more effectively than the lack of facial hair hints at impotence.
Wait a second.
We gotta get that phrase.
Having facial hair covers insecurities more effectively than the lack of facial hair hints at impotence.
It...
Let me see.
I can't.
So, having facial hair covers insecurities more effectively...
Did a literate person write these questions?
I don't know.
Let me rephrase this to make it even semi-plausible to interpret.
Facial hair...
Having facial hair...
Is aimed more at covering insecurities than the lack of facial hair suggests or implies impotence.
That doesn't clarify it for me, but...
Yeah, okay.
Okay, I don't want to give my...
I'll just say that you're going to say yes.
Yeah, I get...
I mean, I'm not a, you know...
I have a kid.
I have a baby.
Yeah.
Yeah.
So I'm going to say that you're going to say no.
You're correct, because I just reject the entire premise of the question.
You're just going to say no to the question.
I say no to the question, to the whole premise.
Having a beer is not about...
It's covering insecurity.
What does that even mean?
It also, I mean, there is no meaning to that prompt because it doesn't obey sort of basic rules of grammar.
Right, so I just reject it on principle.
And you know, man, a guy with a beard probably doesn't give a damn about grammar rules.
You know, that guy, he's going to go chop down trees and whatever.
Well, here's what I hate about so many things, but...
That facial hair has become...
Like, I'm accused of being a hipster all the time for having facial hair.
Yeah, yeah.
Oh, yeah.
Like, you're making a statement.
It's like, this is...
Since time immemorial, men have grown beards.
I'm not trying to say anything.
Yeah.
It's just being a man.
I know.
I started to grow over Christmas.
I was saying, you know, I'm going to grow a beard.
Everyone's got a beard, right?
Drew's got a beard.
Jeremy's got a beard.
Matt's got a beard.
I'll grow a beard.
I mean, I don't know if I would call theirs beards, but...
Yeah, it's not quite...
So I start growing.
It's, you know, it's whatever.
I'm looking a little scraggly, but it's a little bit on the patchy sort of stuff.
But I can grow a mustache in about four hours.
That is the one.
It takes me ten years to grow a beard.
I can grow a mustache in a blink of an eye.
But some guys are not meant for mustaches.
And I give a lot of talks at schools.
And if I grow out this mustache, I will not be permitted within 300 yards of a school.
I just reject that.
I think that you should do it.
I'm very pro-mustache.
Okay.
I think it's a great look.
And mustaches are back, as far as I know.
I mean, I love them.
I love a good mustache.
Yeah.
And you could probably get the whole...
Because you've got to go the whole...
Oh, yeah, I do.
I can get it.
Mine's like a slug.
Mine's like a disgusting slug on my...
A little crumb catcher.
It's what it needs to be.
Yeah, a little soup strainer is what it is.
How would your wife feel about it?
She would come around to it, I think, given this timescale of eternity.
Maybe.
Maybe.
If you give her no choice, I mean...
Alright.
The masks did nothing to help the public at large and were merely a political tool to frighten voters into believing a new administration was needed.
Now, hold on.
Due to YouTube rules, make your guess, but do not verbally confirm if the other person guessed correctly.
Give only an ambiguous, non-verbal confirmation.
So I'll read that prompt again, knowing that rule.
The masks did nothing to help the public at large.
And they were merely a political tool to frighten voters into believing that a new administration was needed.
So now we have to guess how the other person would answer.
That's very interesting theoretical prompt.
Well, by the way.
Yeah.
Race hustlers who intentionally mislead and stir up riots should be held criminally responsible if violence breaks out.
Clearly.
To their future prosecution.
Well, that's never going to happen, but sure.
It's like next year in Jerusalem, right?
It's like waiting for Elijah.
Yep.
Okay.
We should go back to spreading our original American ideals to other countries and involving ourselves in their business if they are not preserving freedom and democracy.
I guess I kind of tipped my hand on that one.
No.
I have zero interest.
I don't have any interest in spreading democracy here, so...
What do I want?
Democracy?
I don't even want it here.
It's also the idea of democracy, you know, or the idea of freedom.
I don't like those things floating around in outer space.
I like the real, enacted, enfleshed Lived experience of those things.
The American tradition of freedom?
Oh, yeah, I'll get into that.
The American government and system?
Yeah, traditional.
I'll get into that.
But it's like that meme.
It's like my democracy or my freedom.
No, I don't want that floating in the abstract.
Also, the idea that democracy is this universally...
Yeah.
Great thing that works for everyone in every culture, everywhere in the world throughout time and history is absurd, obviously.
Also, the idea that the cycle of regimes is not a fact of the political world and the idea that democracy is the only in any case legitimate form of government does raise this observation, which is the kingdom of God, not a democracy.
So what do you think is the most ideal form of Government.
I'm not like anti-Republic.
I'm not one of these totally reactionary anti-Republic people.
But I think they're perfectly legitimate monarchies, and I think there's quite a lot about a monarchy, certainly a constitutional monarchy, that gives itself credit.
And by the way, I don't know if you've noticed this, but, you know, the libs always talk about our democracy, especially these days.
It's always the libs and then the kind of squishy Republicans.
They say, this is a threat to our democracy.
And I think it was Angelo Cotevilla at the Claremont Institute who pointed out that every time these guys refer to our democracy, They are, without fail, referring to their oligarchy.
It's always the people who are the most sort of elite, anti-democratic people in the world.
Yeah.
Yeah, that's true.
That's the irony.
I've spent more time hanging out with my producer than you have with yours.
Now we're getting personal.
Yeah, so I'm going to assume...
I'm going to assume you've not hung out with your producer.
I can't answer the question.
You can't?
Yes.
I'm going to say...
But it's like...
Hold on.
So again, we have the problem of the I. So the I refers to the person who is answering.
No, no.
I'm sorry.
It doesn't.
It refers to the opposite.
I'm trying to answer if you would say I've hung out with my producer more than you, Michael, have hung out with yours.
It...
Wait.
Okay.
What?
Yes.
Yeah, I think that's fair.
Because I got to tell you, ever since we moved here, I had this little kid.
So my social life went from cool guy hitting the club every night to just suburban dad taking the grill pill outside, hanging out at home.
But I have hung out with my producer.
We've traveled.
We've done these things.
I'm going to guess you have not.
I have, but only recently because I've only recently been in the office.
But I think you probably have more.
Because I've got a longer time scale.
Right, yeah.
I think that's fair.
Okay.
Alright.
Probably still drink.
Do you need a top off?
Do I need a top off?
I think I'm good.
So now it's my go.
Reading The Church of Cowards left me speechless.
Sure.
Yeah, why not?
Let's just go with yes or not.
That's great.
A little book plug from...
Speechless.
Hmm.
Hmm.
Let's go to have one sip later.
And when does that come out?
It comes out June 22nd.
It's available now for pre-order.
You can get it on Amazon.
You can get it at Premier Collectibles for a signed first edition copy.
You can text some number that I totally forget.
But whatever you do, make sure you get it.
The act of going fishing is not really a thing.
It's merely a ploy to leave the house and finally get some peace and quiet.
Hmm.
Hmm.
I have a definite opinion for myself about this, but I'm going to say that you would probably say yes.
Yeah, you're correct.
I'm very much...
For me, the act of going fishing is all about fishing.
I'm in the new camp as well.
I've just recently...
I'd occasionally gone fishing as a kid.
I recently went fly fishing in Utah.
It's a transcendent experience.
It is.
It really is.
It's great.
I did not know that.
It's weird because if you said to someone, hey, you're going to put on boots, you know, sort of silly boots, and stand in cold water, just stand for like five hours, and that's going to be very beautiful and fun.
You would not anticipate that to be true.
What I like about fishing, I've been an avid angler, as we call ourselves in the business, for several years now.
But what I like about fishing is that some people say that, yeah, it's an excuse to get out of the house, you're drinking, or whatever.
And that's fine, too.
But really, for me, it's...
Or, you know, you can think about it.
It's a time to think about things.
But when I'm fishing, I'm just thinking about fishing.
That's all I'm thinking about.
And that's what I like about it.
You're focused on this one...
This one simple act.
You've got to find the fish.
You've got to catch them.
And I think in that way it's sort of liberating.
Winston Churchill said this about painting.
He said you've got to take up painting because it's the only way to get your mind on something else.
He said if you want your mind to relax, you can't just do nothing because then you just think about all your stresses.
And you can't read because it's using the same muscles that you use all the time.
But if you paint, it's using different muscles and you're so focused, then you'll...
And I think the same thing is true about fishing.
You're just casting it out there.
You're watching very closely.
You're trying to feel whatever.
Five hours goes by.
It's like two seconds.
Yeah.
That's how I feel about it.
And you know what I also have in common with fish?
Drinking.
Absolutely.
I think I won this.
Did I win?
We can defer to the, let's see, I'm trying to see what I'm hearing from the judges.
I think I won.
You don't have any piece in, but okay.
I'll go with that.
Thanks for joining us.
We'll see you next time on this game.
Frankly, in a sense, I think we all won.
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