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July 24, 2021 - The Michael Knowles Show
41:32
YES or NO | Real Answers and Real Drinks with FREEDOMTOONS

Seamus Coughlin of FREEDOMTOONS 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
- It's 10 o'clock in the morning.
My friend Seamus Coughlin from Freedom Tunes is here.
He doesn't have a lot of time.
Everybody's busy.
So I said, I need Seamus to be able to play the game here at Daily Wire Studios.
We're not changing the rules.
He's going to have a big pint of Guinness.
I'm going to have my standard martini.
Yeah, I hadn't anticipated throwing back at 10 in the morning.
You know the benefit of that, though, is it gets the shakes to go away.
Yeah, exactly.
It's a nice way to open the eyes up.
Honestly, I was trying to hide my embarrassment here.
This is any other Wednesday for me, brother.
I'm glad that I can enter into you.
Exactly.
I'm like, I'm going to bring him to my turf, and I'm going to beat him there.
Now, you're familiar with the rules of the game.
Yes.
So there's very simple, we're going to read the prompt, we'll go back and forth, and you have to answer how you think the other person would answer.
Okay.
Should we get started?
Yeah, absolutely.
Should we have a little toast just to kick it off at, you know?
Pour some out for the holidays.
It's 5 o'clock somewhere.
Can I pour some out for the people who can't be here?
Yeah, just right on.
Especially since the PA. The PA has to clean it up.
I'll be good at the PA. That's fine.
No, I don't want to make the PA's life more difficult.
I was actually going to pour it out for them.
I was hoping they could do that.
So you could lap it up.
That's their pay.
Soccer sucks.
I'm assuming you have taste.
So I'm going to give the kind of standard answer.
The only reason that I even hesitated is because you're a Catholic man.
Catholics tend to favor poverty ball, I've noticed, around the world.
I've heard this.
Yes, but I'm glad.
I'm an American.
You're an American.
So we answered yes, so we drink.
Is that correct?
Well, you drink if you get it wrong, or right, or kind of whatever.
Okay, cool.
Yeah, my kind of game.
Wow.
Okay, so now you read the prompt.
All right.
Okay.
The Michael Knowles Show is at best the third best show at The Daily Wire.
Oh, wow.
You know, I'm actually...
So I'm answering yours, yes.
I'm just gonna...
You know, I mean, because I have due humility.
You're a humble human being.
I'm a humble man.
That's what I was thinking.
As a Catholic, you brought my last answer to my faith.
I'm bringing yours to your faith.
Now I think you're wrong.
You think I got this wrong about you?
No, no, you're correct.
I think you have the best show at The Daily Liar.
Oh, thank you.
I appreciate it.
This was a gimme, though, because I was thinking, I was like, okay, third best.
So now you're telling me...
That a devout Catholic named a practicing Catholic.
I always prefer that term because I'm going to keep on practicing until I get it right.
Well, and also, what does devout mean?
What does it mean?
That's not a technical term.
Practicing Catholic actually means something.
It's not a subjective identity.
Grounded in reality, yes.
There are requirements you have to fulfill.
It's like there's no way you've got Clavin.
Mm-hmm.
He's an Anglican.
Exactly.
Exactly.
Thank you.
You got Ben.
I'm beginning to think he's not a Catholic.
Yeah, I'm pretty sure he is.
Okay.
So then it's just I'm competing against Walsh, but that still puts me in the top three.
Yeah, exactly.
I mean, only one of the other podcasters here submits to Rome, so I've got to pick you.
So I'm going to take a drink?
Sure.
Why not?
Yeah.
It's 10 in the morning.
10 in the morning.
That's the game.
Okay.
Comic book fans have a deep understanding of culture.
This is I'm answering for you?
Yeah.
Do we do it at the same time?
Comic book fans have a...
You mean generally?
I assume some of them.
Generally?
Okay.
As a whole.
You were correct.
Okay, that's how you feel.
To be honest, I haven't really given that question much thought, so I don't have an answer, but I thought no would be an unpopular response, so that's the one I gave you.
I'm trying to get you in trouble here.
Because I guess comic book...
I hate the comic book movies.
I can't watch them.
With the exception of Logan, which is not a comic book movie.
It's a Western.
What about The Dark Knight?
Or The Dark Knight is another one, right?
It's not really a comic book movie.
I hate the movies.
I guess in the pop culture...
The comic book fans are much more cultured than I am, because I don't know anything about it.
But generally, there is more to life than, like, invincible people smashing buildings.
There actually is more.
Yes.
You can...
Here's the thing.
Actually, my answer probably would be yes, so that my friend Eric July wouldn't come in here and smack me.
There you go.
You were wrong, which means I have to drink.
Yes, and I have to drink.
And you have to drink.
Yeah.
All right, there we go.
It's horrible.
Alright.
This next one is mine.
This is you.
Okay.
Cartoons are the lowest form of art.
So you have to answer for me.
I have to answer for you.
And of course I know what your answer is, Noles.
I know.
I guess I would.
I'm trying to figure out your humility here.
But I'm going to say no.
Here's the thing, Knowles.
Humility is knowing your place and taking it.
Not necessarily denigrating what you do.
It's not a humiliation.
Exactly.
And it's obvious.
Look, I don't put cartoons on a very high level in terms of the hierarchy of art, but...
Based on some of the liturgical art that I have seen, like bad liturgical art, abstract modernist art that's trying to pass itself off as Catholic is probably the lowest form of art.
You know, compared to, first of all, cartoons can be very, very beautifully artistic.
I'm not saying that yours are.
No, obviously not.
I'm just saying that they can be.
Yes.
Compared to other forms of art, let's say slam poetry, then the...
Which is how we met.
At the slam.
Yeah, we were giving a slam poem on how we're spiritual but not religious.
We both had the exact same topic.
It was really great.
It's like, why don't people get that?
Why don't people understand that I'm unique and quirky?
Yeah, that's the thing.
It's like, why don't they understand I'm really interested in me?
Maybe not in God, but in me.
In me.
I'm very fascinated.
My favorite response to that is you have to be more specific because the devil's a spirit.
Boom.
Yeah, mic drop.
I owned that person who isn't here, who was just sincere about their beliefs and then got dumped on me.
Now I'm feeling bad.
It's like how to own every freshman philosophy major with facts and logic.
Oh man, I'm almost starting to feel bad.
We should be more kind.
Charitable?
Yeah.
We should have a drink probably.
We should have a drink.
Yeah, that'll help me.
Given the mass movement of voters from blue states to red states, traditionally Republican voting states will soon flip for Democrats.
All at once?
Yeah.
You are right.
Yeah.
I think they will soon flip to Democrats.
Yeah.
Was I right?
I'm not exactly...
So this is another one where I wouldn't say that I'm on the fence here entirely.
I lean towards yes, but I have some hope that there could be a significant backlash.
So you're saying...
Okay.
Yeah, okay.
That's fair enough.
Because here's my...
I don't think that the people moving to Tennessee with the Daily Wire are going to flip this state.
No?
Blue?
No.
I mean, they're all conservative, mostly conservatives.
I would hope so.
You would hope so.
You know, some were ecumenical.
We're very open.
We're just, if anyone's watching from the NLRB, we are not discriminating against people.
I don't know, like, when I was in the waiting room, people were, like, walking up to me and whispering their left-wing opinions into my ear.
Like, don't tell Knowles.
I poisoned Knowles' drink.
Exactly.
I was like, sweet.
I'll make sure we, I was like, I'll encourage him to drink regardless of what the answer is.
Yes.
He takes that in.
Here you are.
You've walked right into my trap.
But do you see the problem here?
Even if all the conservatives move to these states, frankly, Daily Wire is going to make Nashville more red than it was.
There's just the fact of urbanization.
As cities grow, things get more dim.
Yeah.
That's just what happens.
I've said this.
This is sort of a line I've taken about progressivism.
It's basically just a label that we've given to social decay, and unless our country embraces Christ and starts living the natural law, even without embracing Christ in its supernatural sense, then we're going to continue to fall apart.
And so...
It seems, from my perspective, we'll keep going to the left and a lot of these red states will flip blue.
But part of the reason I was hesitant to give myself a specific answer is because I'm wary of making predictions.
Because any prediction I would have made five years ago would have turned out to be completely wrong.
It's been an insane couple of years.
True, but Seamus, hold on.
Are you telling me that what people do in their totally private personal lives might have some effect on the public?
Yes.
Hold on.
I know.
It's going to blow your mind.
It's insane.
Are you saying we live in a country, in a society?
I think that when you live with people, sometimes things that people do affect you.
What?
Yeah.
Isn't that crazy?
I'm going to have to think about that.
Yeah, I know.
I'm sorry.
I hope I haven't shocked you too much.
Is this mine?
Is it my turn?
This is yours, I believe.
Like degenerates who drink at 10 in the morning?
It's really everything in their private life.
Oh, we have to.
It's for the Daily Wire.
More virtue, you know?
We have to make this video.
This is horrible.
Mm-hmm.
Libertarians are the best hope for bringing liberals to a less radical, more conservative political belief system.
Well, let's answer this one.
I was trying to think of the other side of the argument, but no, it's just not.
I was thinking of moving a TS just to embarrass you.
Yeah.
No, there's absolutely no way.
We have to be honest about what we believe.
I don't like this idea that there's a more pragmatic approach and you want to bring people to something close to the truth or closer to the truth but not quite there and just have them stay because that's the best they can handle.
Again, I believe leftism is fundamentally just social decay embodied, but...
We have to have respect for individual human beings and say, if I'm going to engage with you in dialogue to try to persuade you of something, clearly I have faith in the idea that you can recognize the truth.
So why would I only try to bring you halfway?
That's stupid.
And not just halfway.
Also, halfway is the wrong way of looking.
It's either true or it's not true.
So why would I try to lead you on truth to make you a little bit less terrible than you are right now?
And in some ways, by the way, the left...
I'm not saying they're more correct.
They have better intuitions than some of the lolbertarian types.
I hesitate even to call them libertarian.
This idea of just do whatever you want sexually and bomb the Middle East.
I think that is kind of what it comes down to.
Abortion or birth control or whatever.
The fact is the left, I think, understands something like free speech better than the libertarians do.
I think that can be the case.
Part of my thing with libertarianism here is that it would be obviously significant improvement from my perspective if a lot of these left-wing people became libertarians.
They wouldn't be as a power obsessed.
They wouldn't be trying to silence us quite as often.
And I know some libertarians who really are crazy consistent.
And even though I don't agree with them anymore, I admire their consistency.
And I think they have a good take on things every now and again.
Just like the madman in the asylum who says he's Henry VIII. You say, I admire his consistency.
Well, no, but there are also some libertarians who I think do a fantastic job speaking about the disaster that the United States' foreign policy has been over the past several decades.
Like, they're fantastic on that.
And over the past several years, the Republican Party has adopted the worst parts of libertarianism and basically none of the good stuff.
So they've adopted all of the social libertarianism, but they don't critique American foreign policy the way they should.
They don't really care that much about the Federal Reserve as a banking system or the fact that we're essentially a command economy and everything's been centralized.
It's just, I'm fiscally conservative and socially liberal, which is this really melt-toast, not even quite libertarian position.
Yeah, right.
It's actually why I knock the libertarians a lot, but I'm not really knocking Ron Paul.
Yes, exactly.
I will also criticize Ron Paul for specific reasons, but that's actually not the phenomenon that we're really talking about here.
And it just doesn't work.
I think that the left recognizes, the radical left even recognizes, that there is such a thing as an aim of society.
They recognize that individuals have something to do with one another when we are living in society.
They recognize that...
Not only is it legitimate to legislate morality, but you necessarily legislate morality.
morality, all laws do that.
And they recognize that all speech regimes have limits and standards and taboos, and they're basically trying to pervert it to their own ends.
I can talk to that guy.
It's kind of like the ardent atheist.
I can kind of talk to the ardent atheist because he's thinking about religion instead of the milquetoast guy who's just like, eh, whatever.
Yeah, or the person who was raised religious.
You know, I went to 12 years of Catholic school.
Basically, I'm the Pope now because I went to 12 years of Catholic Yeah, so there are a lot of people who have stepped out of their faith or don't take it very seriously, but don't really identify as atheistic or non-religious, and it's more difficult to have a conversation with them because they haven't staked out a position.
So I agree with you on that.
All right.
In a world where I am single...
This is about you?
This is about you.
So you're interpreting it to yourself.
Okay.
I'm answering for you, answering for me.
Yeah.
That's what's happening here?
It's like, yeah, what's the name of the guy on first base is what I want to know.
Okay, yes, yeah.
Who?
Who?
That's what I'm asking.
Yeah.
Who's on first?
Uh-huh.
Yes.
Let's put these back to the middle.
I think you need a drink.
I need a drink.
I need a drink to understand this question.
I'm very confused.
So, okay, I'm going to make this statement, and you're going to answer the way that you think that I would answer that statement for me, and I will answer the way that I think you would answer that statement for you.
In a world where I am single, if a female fan asked me out through a super chat or a mailbag question, I would consider the invitation.
Would Knowles consider the invitation?
Let me think about this.
Hmm.
Of course.
Yeah.
And I'm not saying it's a prudent thing.
Yeah.
I'm not saying we would end up...
Together.
Together.
I'm just saying...
You're a guy.
You're single.
I am.
Ladies, if you're watching, you actually are single.
You're there.
It's just a descriptive statement.
You would have to consider it.
Yeah, of course.
I guess when I was struggling to answer the question, I was more thinking, is Knowles a long-distance guy?
But then again, maybe the woman is in his town.
Yeah, I know.
I have been.
I've done long-distance.
I've I've done close distance.
Now my wife and I, we're even considering moving into the same house.
That's fantastic.
Good for you.
That would be a really big...
You should probably talk about that with the spiritual director first.
You should.
Big step.
It was a huge step.
All right.
Here we go.
Kamala Harris is worse than Joe Biden.
Okay.
Kamala Harris is worse than Joe Biden.
I'm actually going to need to think for a second about my own answer.
Why not?
First of all, did I get it right?
Yeah, I think so.
It's complicated, but yes.
The reason I answered is the reason I would assume you would answer no to the question, which is basically that we have seen Joe Biden acting politically with a high degree of executive power.
He was the vice president for years.
And so we know what the values of the Obama administration were.
We also know that Kamala Harris is a slimy character and has done some really awful things.
But for every horrible thing she's done, Joe Biden has also done many horrible things.
Plus, he...
Pretty much came close to destroying America under the Obama administration.
And he's more effective.
He's a more, you know, Kamala Harris.
Would you say so?
Yeah, because she's very unlikable.
You don't like her laugh?
What?
You don't hear that?
If she wants to win in her own right, she needs to ditch the cauldron and the broomstick, I think.
I mean, that's really not attractive.
She was one of, if not the first person out in the 2016 Democrat primaries.
That's fair.
They don't like her.
That's a very good point.
But old Uncle Joe, who wakes up in the morning, licks his finger, puts it in the wind, and says, which way is politics blowing today?
Okay, I'll agree with that.
He is a snake, that guy.
And it's even particularly insidious for a couple of mackerel-snapping papists, such as you and me.
Yeah, exactly, for you and me.
Because he's really so scandalous in the way that he's transforming people's understanding of Catholicism.
Well, I've heard he's devout, though.
He's devout.
Yeah, I've heard him described as devout.
Maybe not practicing, but devout.
Well, it's funny because we were touching on this earlier.
In order to be a practicing Catholic, there are a certain set of standards you actually have to meet.
So you have to fulfill the six precepts of the Church.
You have to get full assent to Catholic teaching.
You have to abide by the Ten Commandments and attempt to repair your life when you violate one of them.
Joe Biden very explicitly does not give full assent to Catholic teaching, and yet he's described as a practicing Catholic, and he's referred to as one by left-wing media as if they're not contradicting the facts because they actually think it's just a subjective label of identification.
No, but Seamus, they went to 12 years of Catholic school.
They went to 12 years of Catholic school, exactly.
They're basically the prefect for the Congregation of the Dr.
Patrick.
What am I thinking?
Due to the current state of policing in America, abolishing the police is a discussion that should be had.
I'm trying to think if there's like a trick to this question.
Yeah.
I know.
I know that you really want to abolish it.
Yeah, I do.
Yeah, yes.
I guess it's a yes.
Do you know why this is a confusing question?
I know exactly why.
It's a confusing question for me as well.
Part of the reason is because the police are sort of equally enforcing the law, but then as it happens, conservatives are selectively prosecuted after the police arrest them.
So they're not really helping the people who have been standing up for them.
The police are, because of bad DAs, many of whom were installed by radical leftists.
I know you're not allowed to call out people like George Soros.
Who?
I don't know that name.
I've never heard that name before.
What are you talking about?
They are in many ways...
The enforcement wing of the liberal establishment.
So did we get it right?
I still come down on the side of the left is using abolish the police.
I think I would still say no in the sense that the left is infiltrating the police just like they're infiltrating the intelligence community and the military with all these woke commercials.
We want to hollow it out from within so we take over all the institutions.
Did I get it right or not?
And I'm not actually sure that they want to hollow out the police force.
I just think they want to use the police force for their own goals because all they care about is power.
They don't have actual principles.
So when you look at how militarized the police have come over the past several decades and the fact that the Department of Education and the Department of Fish and Wildlife have SWAT teams.
I don't think that anyone on the left would really, in the long run, walk any of those back if they could use it to advance their own agenda.
Yeah, that's right.
And so I'm not even entirely convinced that they wanted to fund the policing.
No, no.
They want a robust police force made up of people who agree with them or who are cowered into going along with their agenda.
Absolutely.
And are capable of doing social work, ideally.
Yeah, right.
Social workers.
Yeah, exactly.
Social workers.
Okay.
I think we're both going to have to drink on that one.
I think we are.
I don't even know who was right and wrong, but we certainly have to drink.
We both have to drink.
I remember these rules.
I watched the episode with Walsh.
This is what happened.
Alright.
I think you're up.
Doodling a three-dimensional cube is more impressive than writing a blank book.
I'm answering for you, and you're answering for me.
Doodling a three-dimensional cube is more impressive than writing a blank book.
You flatter yourself.
No, no, you're actually correct.
Thank you.
Yes, you're correct.
You're a man of discernment and taste.
Of course.
Yeah, exactly.
Well, and part of the reason I have sympathy for this.
When I'm making cartoons, It's much easier to animate something short, but you don't get ideas for short cartoons quite as often.
It's actually more difficult to write something really short.
So it stands to reason that it's extremely difficult to write the shortest possible thing, which is nothing.
No, in all honesty, it's a really funny idea to write this book where you say reasons to vote for Democrats, and there's nothing in it.
So that's a funny idea that came to you.
And that's not as straightforward or entertaining an idea as just drawing a cube.
So I actually think it requires more creative intelligence.
Thank you very much.
You're totally right on this, too, though.
We all know brevity is the soul of wit.
Yes.
So then stop.
Just stop talking.
But I want to explain...
You're a comedian, right?
A cartoonist, yes.
A cartoonist and a comedy writer.
Comedy writer, yeah.
So you know that the funniest thing Is to explain a joke.
Yes, it's hilarious when you do that.
There's nothing funny.
It's like an improv.
I try to do it as often as I possibly can.
When you improvise, you always want to say, no, but.
No, but.
No, but.
And then explain why the thing the last guy said was funny.
Yes.
It works really well.
Now, I am up.
Okay, brother.
A Guinness to an Irishman is the equivalent of a pumpkin spice latte to a white girl.
Without question.
Yeah.
Do you know what?
I think that's kind of a degrading way of putting it.
Do you know the only difference is a Guinness is less caloric.
Yeah, that's awesome.
Everyone thinks a Guinness is a very caloric drink.
It's not.
It's got the same calories as like a Bud Light.
No, there is a difference.
What's the difference?
I don't drink my pumpkin spice lattes at 10 a.m., Michael.
All right.
That's a very good point.
All right, here we go.
The host of the Michael Knowles Show does a better impression of Dr.
Fauci than Tim Pool.
I'm answering for you.
Yeah, I actually, I don't know that I've heard Tim's impression.
Are you kidding me?
Did you not see my, I did a cartoon where Tim voices Fauci?
Oh, really?
Had you seen, so here's the thing.
You said you haven't seen it, so maybe I'm going here, but had you seen it, you'd absolutely be here.
Yeah.
I'm sorry.
No offense to your Fauci impression.
You think Tim does a better Fauci than me?
Yeah, he does.
He does.
The droplets, Andrew!
The droplets are going to get all over your grandmother!
When I do my Fauci, my Dr.
Fauci, he goes up and down like this, you sheep.
When I'm doing Dr.
Fauci, I'm actually doing an impression of a Jewish woman that I know from Queens.
Seriously, I am.
But it sounds to me, there's a similar kind of joke about it.
What does Tim get that I don't get?
Oh, man.
Where do I begin?
Yeah, I know.
I mean, we could be here for hours.
Well, when I was recording with him, I'll be honest, in part maybe it's difficult for me to discern because I have never been in studio with you while you have recorded Dr.
Fauci for a cartoon about Dr.
Fauci.
But Tim knocked it out of the park, man.
And we have behind-the-scenes footage uploaded to my Patreon.
If people want to support it, patreon.com slash freedom tunes.
A little plug.
But he crushed it.
And people listening had no idea it was Tim.
They're like, oh wow, Tim did that Dr.
Fauci?
He crushed it.
He's actually really good at cross acting.
I'm sorry, Noles.
And I thought you knew that because I thought you watched my videos.
But evidently not.
You just invite me over for drinks at 10 in the morning and don't watch my cartoons.
That's okay.
I'm going to see Tim tonight.
And I want to battle.
Have a Fauci off.
A Fauci.
On his show.
Everyone loses in that game, I think.
Okay, I'm up.
I've seen Tim Pool without a beanie.
So we're answering for the other person.
Has Noel seen Tim Pool without a beanie?
I'm actually going to say, I mean, you're tighter with the guy than I am.
But I still...
He's pretty protective with the beanie thing.
He wears that beanie all the time.
Yeah.
Was I right?
We're pretty good friends.
Wow!
Oh my gosh!
I've seen him without the beanie.
Is there like a second head under there?
I cannot confirm or deny that there is a second head under Tim Pool's hat.
Maybe I'll try later on tonight.
It's a gigantic exposed brain.
It's just like that cartoon.
I'll take a drink because I got it wrong.
Once the left's boogeyman of white supremacy exhausts itself, the church will become the left's primary focus of blame and animosity.
It already is.
That's why I answered no, because it already is.
That's fair enough.
The church, by which I mean the Catholic church, Of course.
It is always the object of the left's utmost enemy.
Always.
I talk about this quite a lot when people try to say that Catholics can support leftism or agree with it or that they're somehow fellow travelers on issues of helping the poor.
The left came to exist during the French Revolution.
This is where we get the term, and their entire purpose was to counter the Catholic Church and its interests.
Was to chop off the hands of priests.
And it's not as if they started being nice to Catholics in the 20th century.
I mean, leftism has always been aggressively anti-Logos.
It's also worth pointing out...
Because they hate God.
Yeah, right.
They hate God.
And they hate those of us made in the image of God, namely people.
Yes, exactly.
They're entirely misanthropic.
Yes, but...
We have to remember, you think of Pope Leo XIII, when we hear the Catholic Church is actually very pro-socialism.
No.
Leo XIII, he said, socialists are a pest, a plague, a wicked confederacy that seeks to steal the very gospel itself.
You heard the same thing from Blessed Pius IX, Saint Pius X, Pius XI, Pius XII, even Saint John XXIII. Yes.
Who was actually sort of a liberal pope.
He was a church liberal, for sure.
He was a church liberal.
He said no Catholic could subscribe even to a moderate form of socialism.
Yes, and this is something I was talking about.
I did Matt Fradd's show yesterday and we got a super chat.
Would you rather live in an economically left-wing society but with cultural conservatism where people are virtuous or a liberal open economy?
More people are completely degenerate.
And my answer was, I just have to reject the framing.
Obviously, I'd rather live in a virtuous society, but the headship of the father and the household is almost entirely contingent upon property rights.
It just doesn't happen in your society.
The father has to provide for the family.
He has to be free to do so.
If he isn't, if the government is providing for the family for him, it undermines the entire structure.
So you cannot have a socially conservative.
And that is most embodied when you have a complete command economy where workers own the means of production.
Then dad has no property to provide with the family for.
It's up to somebody else's whim.
Some bureaucrat thousands of miles away is making the decisions for the family rather than the father.
How to allocate resources.
But...
Even though we know that as Catholics we cannot embrace a full-on total seizure of the means of production because it's beneath the dignity of man to not own property, it's not as if once you're not at that position, things are great for families.
It's just the closer you get to it, the worse everything is.
I'm so glad because there are some people today, I think, who are reacting against this kind of insane, very, what would you call it, neoconservative or libertarian or something, idea.
Of the radical individual autonomy that we're all free-floating atoms.
And they're reacting against that and they're saying, socialism, sign me up.
That ain't it, chief.
That ain't it either, actually.
And it's for precisely the reason you've described.
The relationship between these economic matters and our social, cultural matters of virtue, you can't just separate them.
You can't just compartmentalize.
And they kind of all speak to the same thing.
So what is the answer?
Is the answer the D word?
Distributism?
Oh, no.
See, I'm still a market guy.
Yes.
I'm still a market guy, entirely.
I don't know.
I mean, I'm open-minded.
I'd like to learn more about distributivism.
A lot of people who I respect buy into it, so I'm sure even if I don't end up agreeing with it, there's got to be some merit there, something to take away, but I am a free market guy.
For those who aren't the mackerels, those who are not like the crazy sort of Totally in the weeds Catholics out there.
Distributism is this economic idea that was advanced really in the early 20th century by ice.
It was thought to come from Catholic social teaching, and it's a little hard to pin down exactly what it is, but it would be a sort of alternative to what we would call capitalism or to socialism.
But you're saying, give me some markets.
Yeah, so I believe in the market economy, and I understand that there can be a time and place for regulation.
So F.A. Hayek put the Austrian school on the map, and he believed in antitrust laws.
I believe the Austrian school of economics provides a beautiful descriptive model of how economies work, even though I don't necessarily agree with all of the prescriptive claims.
I'm not completely libertarian on economic issues.
Of course sometimes there's a role for the government to step in.
But I would say that if you look at an economy, even if as a Catholic you're looking at the economy and saying X, Y, and Z about capitalism absolutely has to be regulated as a matter of faith, if you can pick out some specific non-negotiables from Catholic teaching with respect to what economic regulation should be, it doesn't get you to this hardline distributivist position.
You can just have a sort of modified capitalism at worst if you do have to change the system all that much.
Plus, we have Pope St.
John Paul the Great, who says in Centesimus Annus that free markets are the most efficient way to allocate resources in an economy.
Yeah, yeah, absolutely.
Coming back from Rerum Navarro.
Yeah, yes.
Is the entire audience Catholic by this point?
They better be.
If they haven't converted now.
If they haven't converted, seeing us drink at 10 in the morning.
I know.
We're being good examples of virtue.
First of all, please don't drink at 10 in the morning at home if you don't have a reason to.
Don't do it on five hours of sleep.
I'm on five hours of sleep here.
Oh, you got five hours?
Are you bragging?
Are you bragging by how much sleep you got?
Are we doing the college thing where we brag about how much sleep we don't have to one-up each other?
I got three hours.
All right, Knowles.
Oh, okay, this is actually an important question.
In America, the Italians have historically been more persecuted than the Irish.
It's not even close.
It's not even...
Wow, I agree.
That's big of you.
Oh, wait.
No.
No.
Yeah.
Oh, yeah.
You believe the Italians were more persecuted?
There's no question.
Largest mass lynching in American history.
Was it of the Irish?
Here's the thing, though.
There are a lot of parts of Irish history that we don't discuss because it's not considered politically correct because only certain groups are allowed to have victim status.
So when you look at indentured service, the fact that most indentured servants are Irish, they were often treated worse than slaves because you had to buy a new slave if they died.
If an indentured servant died...
You just didn't have to pay him.
You're good, yep.
That's a fair point.
I actually, I don't look at...
I have a quarter Irish to me.
I have a little more of the swarthy side.
The Italians, because when they came...
I'm glad there's something good in this cocktail.
In this human cocktail.
Something that works.
When the Italians came here...
There was some question in parts of the country.
Are they white or are they black?
Same with the Irish.
Not exactly white or black, but the Irish were not considered white.
Yeah.
I remember once I was talking to my English grandfather and my Irish grandmother.
My grandfather was very into ancestry and genealogy.
And he discovered there are actually some Irish in his line too.
Thank goodness.
That some of the Knowles' went over to Ireland.
And my grandmother said, see, I told you, I knew there were some Irish there.
And my grandfather, I believe the line was, someone had to tame the savages.
Oh my gosh!
Okay.
Well, first of all, he's absolutely wrong, but now I understand where you get your brains.
I don't believe you're up.
Yes.
It's just because you have some Irish DNA. Yeah, there's something.
My life has been shaped by the immense amount of Catholic guilt I feel on a daily basis, clearly.
You'd be a much better person, Michael.
I'm just, I'm worn down.
The thing about shame, just a plug for shame at the moment, because, you know, shame is very unpopular now.
You know, fat shame, or slut shame, or shame shame.
Shame is shame.
Shame is shame.
Every day this guy...
Life is rough, constantly.
The thing about shame is it's usually right.
Usually it's kind of on to something.
It's called your moral conscience.
You don't want to hate yourself.
You want to have an appropriate love of yourself.
You can't love your neighbor.
You're made in God's image and likeness.
There's something worthy of love there.
There's something worthy of love.
You ought to know.
When you do something wrong, you'll know that.
Instead of embracing it and being really happy about it and dancing around for it, you should maybe repent of that and feel kind of bad.
What was the line?
I think it was from Niebuhr who said that today religion is a God without wrath leading a people without sin into a kingdom without judgment through the ministrations of a Christ without a cross.
Oh man!
That is beautiful and it's true.
I'll say this.
I would define shame and guilt differently though I agree with you that as a social mechanism shame is absolutely indispensable.
So shame is when your primary concern is what other people think of you.
So guilt is actually better.
Because guilt is your own conscience bothering you, you coming to terms with that, and ideally rectifying your life.
Shame's a little bit different.
But, of course, guilt has gotten this really bad rep.
There's this idea of Catholic guilt and how horrible is it?
First of all, there are some things you should feel guilty about.
Would you rather have to deal with a person who feels too guilty or not guilty enough?
It's an easy question to answer.
You have to moderate, too.
I'm not saying the answer is to feel too guilty, but what our culture considers too guilty is unbelievable.
It's like feeling bad about anything you do ever, no matter how horrible it was.
It's like you're being too hard on yourself.
Hey, come on.
You deserve it.
It's like I deserve to burn in hell forever, and I accept Jesus Christ so that won't happen.
Seriously.
We've all sinned.
We've all sinned.
And we deserve to go to hell.
And God has given me an incredible life.
So the answer isn't necessarily shame.
It's gratitude.
But we should feel guilt when we've done wrong.
I'm glad you're making this sort of public distinction here with shame versus guilt.
Because the thing about shame is...
All cultures shame.
It's like just how all cultures have standards and taboos.
All cultures will shame.
The question is, what are you being shamed for?
Bingo.
Like, we should be shamed for drinking at 10 in the morning.
For drinking at 10 in the morning.
But we would be celebrated for that.
We would be shamed for...
I don't know, like, diligently doing our work, if we were to ever do that.
Like, if either of us ever could do that.
I mean, like, but no, it's doing something very solid and worthwhile, praying outside of an abortion clinic, trying to convince women to choose life.
You'd be shamed for that, absolutely.
Yeah, of course.
And so they understand it's a social mechanism.
They just don't want it directed towards behaviors that they consider to be positive or, more cynically, behaviors which they know are going to destroy society so they can reconstruct something new.
Yep.
All right.
All right.
Enough shame.
Enough shame.
Okay, so this...
Listen to the entire prompt before you react in any way.
Excuse me?
Am I accused of being emotional?
This is very...
This is important.
We could...
This could end the whole thing.
Okay, alright.
Some people with information that could lead to the arrest of Hillary Clinton were most likely indirectly or directly killed by Hillary Clinton.
Due to YouTube rules...
You have to 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.
Some people with information that could lead to the arrest of Hillary Clinton were most likely indirectly or directly killed by Hillary Clinton wearing a mustache at the Manhattan Correctional Facility.
No, I would never say anything that could get anyone demonetized.
How do we say this without saying it?
I'm not going to say anything.
I'm not going to say anything.
I just...
I just...
And then I'm the guard.
I'm the cell guard.
I think we answered the question.
Yeah, I think we deserve a drink for that one.
I think we deserve a drink for that one.
Pour one out, man.
Pour one out for that guy.
Oh.
No, I think I'll just drink that.
I think I'll save it for myself before I waste it on him.
Yeah.
Ben Shapiro is the only host at The Daily Wire who deserves to have a freedom to sketch.
I think we answered the question.
Well, I mean, the answer for you is apparently just descriptive.
Oh, okay.
I just am saying...
Somebody a little salty here is somebody a little bit salty.
You've voiced characters.
I've put you in cartoons.
I literally put you in a cartoon about the question we just answered.
You were in a cartoon.
About the gentleman who we were just discussing.
Oh, that global sex trafficker who committed suicide before he could tell us which of the most powerful humans on the planet were pedophiles?
If you ask me, the whole thing is pretty suspicious.
If you're some kind of crazy conspiracy theorist, that is!
But I guess it wasn't about you.
Oh, I'm sorry, Michael.
Was that not good enough?
Was spending hours of my time animating your face not enough for you?
Did it have to be all about you, Knowles?
Unbelievable.
Take a drink.
I'll take a drink.
You should be ashamed.
I should.
I should be ashamed.
This is the last one.
Is this the last question?
This is my question.
Okay.
No, no, it's not.
This is the second last one.
Oh, beautiful.
Mmm.
Mmm.
Okay, well I actually, I guess I have the answer for you on this.
Drawing cartoons is a great way to meet single Catholic women.
So I'm going to have to...
I thought you were smarter than that, Knowles!
I thought you were still single.
I am.
Yeah.
I am.
You're right.
I guess you got me there.
Yeah, exactly.
Exactly.
Look, Knowles, right now, currently, I am single.
That is correct.
Incidentally, I am single.
I'm making cartoons on the internet.
It's a great way for Catholic girls to know who you are.
Look at it.
Who does every girl want to date?
An animator, man.
It's a whole thing.
Ask any girl, who's your dream guy?
Walt Disney.
No, I know.
Even when girls are in elementary school and they're saying, you know, you're dreaming.
Who do you want to be with?
Who do you want to be with?
I want to be with an animator.
I can't tell you how jealous the football stars are.
They always were, yeah.
When you were just giving them swirlies, you were like, yeah, take that, Chad.
Doesn't even want to do a motion tween, bro.
Yeah, yeah.
You know, another great way to meet single Catholic women?
Show up on the Michael Mull Show.
Oh, yeah.
Ladies.
You're going to make me blush, Knowles.
You're making me blush right now.
Because you're Irish.
You've got that fair skin.
Exactly.
It's true.
You've got the last question.
I'm going to be insulted.
Reasons to vote for Democrats, a comprehensive guide, is more informative than speechless, controlling words and controlling minds.
I'm answering for you.
I suppose so.
Hmm.
I'm gonna say no, too.
It may be more profound.
It may be pithier.
It may contain more wisdom.
Of course.
But there's just more stuff in the other book.
Yeah, exactly.
There's literally just more information.
I've said it once and I've said it again.
I don't think you have to read the book, but Knowles would appreciate it if you bought it.
Yes, that's the main thing.
I really don't...
As long as you buy it.
I said this to a friend of mine.
A friend of mine had bought multiple copies, actually, for relatives and things.
I said, but, you know, I just haven't had time to read it.
I said...
In fact, you don't even have to read every copy.
You don't even have to read one of the copies.
You gave me the money.
You know what I really...
It's not even the money.
Yeah, I'm sure.
The way publishing works, you get an advance, and then the publishers always just make up a bunch of accounting, and then you never get any money afterward.
But, maybe you get a little touch, a little taste.
But you know what I really want?
Actually, seriously, more than the money...
I want...
People to think you're cool when they read this book.
I want them to think I'm a cool guy.
And I want the New York Times editors...
Oh!
I want them to sit down at their little meeting.
I don't know what they usually meet for.
They talk about, you know, how Trump is leading an insurrection.
They talk about this.
And I want them, in the midst of this, to say, Michael Knowles' book about us libs has to be on the libs.
That's what I want.
That's all I want.
That's pretty good.
Out of this...
And that's so he wants to make the New York Times bestseller list has nothing to do with wanting money.
No, I never...
I just want to show everyone at home nothing to do with...
No money.
He doesn't even like money.
No, money is the root of all...
He doesn't even want to get paid.
Actually, money is not the root of all evil.
Love of money is the root of all evil.
We should not be attached to anything but our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
And to that, I will drink.
- Cheers brother. - Cheers brother. - Weren't we finishing?
I thought we were finishing.
I thought that was the thing.
We finished the game.
Alright.
Well, now I'm just embarrassed.
Now I just look like a hoodlum.
Absolute degenerate.
It's 10 in the morning, Michael.
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