Most Americans don’t think Biden will finish his presidential term, California Dems may be trying to rig the recall election for Newsom, and Apple is about to start scanning the pictures on your phone.
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The bad news for Joe Biden is that most Americans blame him for the collapse of Afghanistan.
The worst news for Joe Biden is that most Americans don't think he can even finish his presidential term.
Some people say this is the end of the road for Biden.
Some say it's the end of the road for America.
And still other people, myself included, say it's the end of the world as we know it.
I'm Michael Knowles.
This is the Michael Knowles Show.
Welcome back to the show.
My favorite comment yesterday from MJ, who says, Breaking news!
Biden demands whoever the president is to take full responsibility for this mess.
I could not possibly agree more with Joe's statement.
We have got to track down whoever is running the country.
I don't know who it is.
Joe don't know who it is.
But whoever it is is not doing a great job.
If you want something done right, you've got to do it yourself.
Which is why I would recommend Rock Auto.
When you want to part for your car or truck, you can either do it yourself, rockauto.com.
Super easy, reliably low prices.
You can always, you know, you don't have to wait on Tuesday afternoon is going to be the special deal, or Wednesday, or it's a different price for pros and do it yourself.
So you can either do that, or...
You can go to the auto parts store, brick and mortar.
You pull up.
You get out of your car if your car is still driving.
You walk in.
You wait in line.
You're waiting.
Then you get up there.
The guy says, hey, what year?
What make?
What color?
What model?
What this?
What that?
What that?
And so like 10 minutes goes by.
Okay, let me go see if I got the part.
He goes in the back.
They probably don't have any parts in there, frankly.
There's too many parts to stock.
So he goes on rockauto.com, he orders the part, he charges you twice as much, he comes out, says, yeah, okay, that'll be, you know, whatever, however much money, it's overpriced.
And you're going to have to wait a few weeks, and okay, bye, then you go, walk out, back out, get in your car, drive home.
Why would you do that?
You've just wasted so much time and money.
Go to rockauto.com right now.
See all the parts available for your car or truck, and then write Knowles in there, how did you hear about us, box, so they know that we sent you.
Poll just came out from the Daily Wire.
So this is an exclusive poll we commissioned with SurveyMonkey.
We have discovered here at DW... And by the way, I know some people think, oh, you know, it's a Fox News poll, that's right-wing, or it's a CBS poll, that's left-wing.
I mean, these polls follow pretty rigorous methodology, and we are making sure that we, if anything, are being a little generous to the Democrat side of the aisle so that we're not being accused of bias.
And our poll has just discovered that Americans believe the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan is It's Biden's fault, not Trump's fault.
A lot of people are trying to blame Trump now.
They're saying, he made the deal with the Taliban.
He set Biden up, or whatever.
They're just trying to avoid responsibility.
Joe Biden has at least ostensibly been president for eight months now.
But the American people aren't buying it.
it.
36% of Americans believe that Biden is responsible for the current crisis in Afghanistan.
That's compared to 21% of Americans who fault Donald Trump.
And then this is important too, 29% of Americans say it's neither Trump nor Biden's fault.
I put a somewhat longer piece up yesterday at the Daily Wire with my take on Afghanistan, which is a little bit different than the take of my colleagues here at the Daily Wire.
And I think it's a little bit different than you're hearing really anywhere else in the conservative movement.
But it gets to that question.
Is it Trump's fault?
No.
Is it Biden's fault?
A little bit, but there's a broader problem in Afghanistan.
Independence, by the way, and this is really bad news for Biden come 2022 and 2024, if he's even still president.
Independents are twice as likely to blame Biden than to blame Trump for the debacles.
That's really bad news because assuming the voter integrity laws are somewhat reinstituted, at least, that means that Democrats are really going to have to win over the middle and the independents.
And right now, especially on this issue, they are breaking heavily for the Republicans.
But Now the question of 2024 raises the specter of who's going to be the Democrat nominee.
We don't know.
Nobody believes that Joe Biden is fully lucid, okay?
I'm not taking cheap partisan shots here.
I'm not trying to be an armchair psychologist.
For those of you out there, I know there are some of you who support Joe Biden.
Do you really believe that this guy is totally with it?
He's totally lucid all day long?
I don't think so.
I don't think anyone believes that, especially after the way he handled the Afghanistan communications.
Not even the lead up to pulling out, but the communications afterward.
Afghanistan collapses and then Joe Biden disappears.
He's at Camp David.
No one hears from him.
No one talks to him.
He finally gives an address to the nation and it's at three o'clock in the afternoon.
These sorts of addresses to the nation are usually in prime time.
They're usually from the Oval Office, but they're certainly in prime time.
You think of addresses from Obama, from Trump, from Bush.
Basically, every major presidential address on a topic such as this for my lifetime and further back has been during prime time, 7, 8 o'clock at night.
And yet, the Biden press conference Three o'clock in the afternoon, what's that about?
Is he maybe not all with it later on in the day?
Is that why they had to wait a few days?
It's not just me who's raising these questions.
Rasmussen asked a thousand likely voters, how likely is it that Joe Biden will leave office and be replaced by Kamala Harris before 2024?
It's not even that a plurality said that it's very likely.
It's a majority.
51% of likely voters said that it is very or somewhat likely that Biden will leave office before 2024.
That's compared to just 37% who say that it is not very or not at all likely.
Not a good place.
This is why you're going to see Democrats continue to double down on COVID. It's the only issue that Biden has any positive numbers on.
So he's going to lean into that.
He's going to try to ignore immigration.
He's definitely going to try to ignore Afghanistan.
And then they're going to try to cheat, which is what they always do.
And I know we're not allowed to raise the prospect of voter fraud because our big tech overlords, who are proxies and instruments by which Democrats cheat at elections like they did the last time, They don't want us to say that there's ever any question of fraud, but look at what's happening in California right now.
I probably received a ballot in California, even though I moved out many months ago, because they're sending ballots to everybody.
I've heard from multiple friends in California that they're getting not just a ballot, but multiple ballots.
They're getting ballots that weren't supposed to be sent to them.
So it's a complete mess by design, one suspects.
But then there was a video that just came out from a California voter on the recall.
Now, the recall election of Gavin Newsom has two questions.
Should the Democratic governor be recalled?
Yes or no?
If 50% plus one voter says yes, he should be recalled, then it goes to the second question.
Who should replace him?
And you just answer both.
So, take a listen to this woman's description of what her ballot looks like.
Make sure that you put yes.
That means that yes, you want Gavin Newsom to lose his job.
The next thing you're going to check is who you're going to vote for to replace him.
I am going to vote for Larry Elder and his box is on the back of the page.
I think that it is important that we unite around one candidate, but like I said, the most important thing is that we get him out.
This is the sketchy part.
This is the crazy part.
So when you fold up your ballot, more than likely, it seems natural, you're just gonna slip this in.
But you have to pay attention to these two holes that are in the front of the envelope.
You can see if someone from the outside of the mail-in ballot, you can see if somebody has voted yes to recall Newsom.
This is so freaking clever.
It's so wrong, but it's so clever.
So on the mail-in ballots, there were two holes, just like you took a little hole puncher.
And I guess this is for sorting purposes, or I don't know.
I've seen them on the envelopes before.
There are two little holes right on either side of where you sign your name to say, this is my ballot.
The only question that matters on this ballot is just one question.
It says, should we recall Gavin Newsom?
And it's placed kind of bizarrely on the ballot.
It's placed in kind of the middle column, a little up toward the first top half of the page.
And then you saw all the way on the right and all the way up and down.
You say, who should we replace him with?
But the question, should we or should we not recall Gavin Newsom?
So you can either darken the circle yes or darken the circle no.
And just coincidentally, the circle for yes lines up perfectly with the hole on the envelope.
Meaning, you can see with a great degree of certainty from the outside of the envelope whether or not this ballot is to recall Gavin Newsom.
And you know, if that circle happens to be a little dark, I wonder what happens to that ballot.
Does that ballot, does something happen?
Does it disappear?
Is there an error with it?
Is maybe the signature not quite right?
I don't know.
This is a very long ballot.
Of all the places that the only question that matters could possibly be on that sheet of paper, front or back, It just so happens to line up perfectly with the hole in the envelope.
What are the odds?
What are the odds?
It's so typical.
It's clever, but it's typical.
You see things like this a lot before.
And this is why we neither trust nor like our government.
And this is why we want to recall the people who are running our government like Gavin Newsom.
Which brings me to some of the news from yesterday.
You may have heard there was a threat at Capitol Hill.
There was a bomb threat on Capitol Hill.
And there was a video, a live stream from the person who made the threat.
Take a listen.
They sitting in cars all over this f***ing place around here because you thought the South wasn't coming.
Well, Joe Biden, the South's come.
The roads are blocked.
And I'm waiting on your phone call.
It's your call.
You got an option.
You can shoot me and kill me right here and blow up two and a half city blocks and let all the patrons out in the country know because I ain't here to blow nobody up.
I ain't here to hurt nobody.
If I was, I wouldn't have told them to tell people to leave.
I would have gunned this motherfucker and wrote it right up in your front door.
But I'm here for a reason, Joe Biden.
I'm here for a reason.
I'm here for the American people.
Thankfully, this guy was taken into custody.
He was disarmed.
Nobody got hurt.
There was no horrible consequence of this.
Most interesting, though, is not what he did or what the cops did.
It's that a lot of people don't believe that any of this is real.
So, the big trending news all of yesterday is the Capitol bomb threat Even as Afghanistan is in the news, major, probably the worst debacle so far of the Biden administration.
I guess compared to the immigration problem, it's their neck and neck.
One is a major domestic debacle, one is a major foreign debacle.
But a really bad week for Joe Biden.
And then this is in the news, that this may be right-winger.
I mean, he doesn't like Joe Biden.
He's from the South.
There's a chance that he's a right-winger.
That he's there trying to blow up the Capitol.
So, the cops disarm him.
They take him into custody.
We haven't heard very much since.
To me, what's much more interesting is if you look in the comments section on people on the video, on articles about the video, it's a lot of people saying, yeah, this looks staged.
This looks fake.
This isn't real.
This isn't op.
This is just, they're trying to pull another one over on us.
Now, I'm not saying that's the case.
I think he's just a guy who was a kook and now he's been taken into custody.
But I understand why people don't think this is real.
They don't think it's real for the political reason that our leaders lie to us and they cheat and they rig things and they try to pull a fast one.
And our administrative state, the bureaucracy, the deep state, the surveillance state has gotten completely out of control.
And we know that not only do they perform clandestine activities on Americans, but they lie about it too.
I mean, we know this from the fact that the surveillance state spied on Donald Trump at the behest of Barack Obama during the 2016 election.
We know that they continually tried to subvert his presidency.
We know that they spy on Americans.
They were spying on Tucker Carlson, for goodness sakes.
So we know these sorts of things happen.
So that would be one reason.
That'd be the political reason.
We just don't trust these guys.
But there's the technological reason too.
It all seems like a movie.
I mean, it literally is a movie.
The only reason anyone knows about this is because this guy is live streaming it from his truck and we're all inside his truck with him.
And we know that technology can be very deceiving with the advent of deep fakes, with the advent of just streaming technology generally.
These sorts of things can be produced and cultivated and curated for our consumption, for a particular end of communications.
We don't This is much deeper than just, we don't like our government and we don't trust them.
I mean, that's a big problem too.
But it's a technological revolution that's taken place that is challenging our belief in reality itself.
We just don't...
I can no longer believe my lying eyes.
In a world with the ability to manipulate media and push it out to millions and millions and millions of people as we have, we can no longer just believe the things that we see even with our...
It used to be don't believe everything you see in newspapers.
Now it's don't believe everything you see on video or hear or perhaps even with your own eyes.
Which brings us to another...
Aspect of this from the so-called private sector, which is from Apple.
You may or may not have heard about this story, but very shortly, Apple is going to start scanning the images on your phone and on your iPad and on other Apple products to see if you have any illegal content.
They're just the images that you keep on your phone, just whatever, you know, your kid or your baby or maybe some things that are less savory than that.
I guess that's actually what Apple's going after.
They're just going to scan it, and they're going to upload it to servers, and they're going to scan it through machine learning.
And then if you have images that are deemed illegal, then individuals are going to review them.
And then if the individuals confirm that they're illegal, they're going to send them to the authorities.
And you might get a knock on your door from the men in black without even knowing that anyone was looking into you.
Now, what's the good part of this?
The good part of this is it's aimed to go after child pornography.
That's at least the reason that Apple is giving.
And we all agree, if some guy is downloading lots of child pornography or selling it or trading it or whatever, then he's a sick puppy and he ought to go to prison.
He ought to face consequences for that.
But is stopping those guys worth this?
Because something tells me that when we give big tech...
And by the way, Apple is the best of all of the big tech companies in terms of privacy.
Famously, Apple is infinitely better than Google, Facebook, all the rest of them.
Apple has refused to crack open the phones of terrorists to federal authorities.
That's how seriously they take privacy.
So now...
They're going to go in and scan your images.
Okay, if there were some way to guarantee it were just restricted to child pornography, I bet maybe not everyone would go along with it.
Maybe some people, like a ton of privacy rights groups, would even say even that is too far.
Even that is a law enforcement measure that is too invasive and we can't go along with it.
But I think a lot of Americans would say, okay, that's fine.
If you're just going after...
Pedophiles and child abusers, okay, that's fine.
But there's no limiting principle.
We know this.
We know that big tech companies do not stop at illegal content.
They banned the sitting president of the United States.
On January 7th, the duly elected sitting president was deplatformed for saying things that contradict the political narrative.
You and I were not allowed to send damning information about the Biden family in the run-up to the 2020 election.
We weren't even allowed to privately message it on social media platforms.
They shut that down.
When we post on Instagram or Twitter or whatever some infographic about how maybe the official narrative about the coronavirus in terms of lethality, in terms of mitigation measures, maybe it's not totally right.
Maybe actually the experts have gotten something wrong.
You'll see a big disclaimer covering up the image.
So do we really think that giving Apple...
The ability to scan our phones for the putatively, ostensibly good reason of stopping child abuse.
Do we think it's going to end there?
I don't believe that for a second.
I don't believe that for a second.
I have no problem taking away the privacy of child abusers and throwing them in prison.
But I think that's an excuse.
I don't think that's actually what this is going to be used for.
Speaking of creepy sex stuff, by the way, there is some good news on the creepy sex stuff front.
OnlyFans.
OnlyFans, which is a...
I guess it's a social media network for porn.
I mean, you know, I covered this when it first got into, sort of cropped up in the popular culture.
Because it was, to me, it was so shocking.
Not that girls are posting, you know, naked images.
It's the world's oldest profession, first of all.
And second of all, that's what the internet is, right?
It's like 150% pornography and then like 2% business.
But...
What was so creepy about it was it's not...
The reason OnlyFans succeeded is not because men wanted to see naked women on the internet.
You can already do that for free, right?
You can already find any naked lady you want or any type of naked lady or just type it into Google.
What was creepy about OnlyFans is...
What was so perverse about it was that the men did not just want to see a naked lady.
They wanted a relationship, I think.
That's my read on OnlyFans.
They wanted to subscribe.
They wanted to pay money to feel as though they have a relationship with someone.
They'll get special perks and it's exclusive and not everyone gets to see the lady.
And that to me is very sad because it's a channeling.
It's a recognition that guys who are looking at a ton of porn want something more than that.
They want something more substantial and relational.
But instead of just going out and getting a girlfriend or a wife or something that's a little healthier, they'll just channel that into a different kind So a lot of people have been going after this also because it suckers in girls who want to make a quick buck and it has them make decisions that will affect the rest of their lives and that they certainly will come to regret.
So OnlyFans is banning sexual content.
You never hear of something getting better in the culture.
But OnlyFans, and they're doing this because they recognize that their regulation is coming.
That people are turning against this sort of thing.
The licentious, you know, do whatever you want, like whatever you want, you know, just don't scare the horses in the street.
That attitude is going away.
And the attitude of the internet is the complete Wild West.
That's going away too.
And so OnlyFans is trying to secure...
A more stable platform.
I mean, this is what they said in order to ensure the long-term sustainability of our platform and to continue to host an inclusive community of creators and fans.
We must evolve our content guidelines.
There's so rarely good news in the culture on this front, but good stuff.
Good stuff for the culture, good stuff for the guys who subscribe, good stuff for the girls who are making a buck on it right now and will come to regret it.
Speaking of gainful employment, There was a story out of Capitol Hill.
This was probably a couple weeks ago now, and we didn't have time to get to it on the show, but I don't want to let this go because it shows you what's wrong with the Republican Party.
Senate Republicans helped greenlight this infrastructure bill.
It mostly was not actually an infrastructure bill.
It was mostly just a bunch of It wasn't just Democrats here, because Democrats could have held it up.
19 Republicans went along with it.
I'm going to say their names.
Dan Sullivan, Shelley Morcopito, Mike Crapo.
Is that his name?
Roy Blunt, Richard Burr, Deb Fisher, Lindsey Graham, Rob Portman, Tom Tillis, Lisa Murkowski, John Risch, Chuck Grassley, Bill Cassidy, Kevin Kramer, Roger Wicker, Mitch McConnell, Joe Hoven, Susan Collins, and Mitt Romney.
So even if you don't recognize every name on that list, I don't recognize every name on the list, but these are the squishes, right?
These are generally the squishier Republicans.
And they've gone along with this infrastructure bill.
Okay, well, they want to pass something, that's fine.
A provision of this bill will provide giant carve-outs for industries to bypass the Buy American rules that were particularly pushed by the Trump administration.
This idea that, okay, if the government wants to Spend a jillion dollars.
They've got to spend it here.
They've got to employ American workers.
They've got to employ American factories and producers.
Yes, it's going to cost a little bit more money.
First of all, they're spending trillions of dollars already, so give me a break.
But now you're worried about cutting costs when you have to employ Americans.
Now you're worried.
Now you want to pinch pennies.
But this is a sort of America first provision that we'd finally brought back in.
And this is typical of countries that are serious about About growing their stature, their manufacturing, their position in the world, taking care of their workers.
This is something you see as far back as Louis XIV and Versailles.
This idea that you've got to buy French, wear French, support the French people.
That there is a loyalty beyond the almighty dollar.
That there is a loyalty beyond getting the best deal.
I remember this when I was a kid.
People would buy American cars because they said, we want to put food on Americans' tables.
We want to support our country.
Ronald Reagan talked about this stuff.
Now you just don't see it anymore.
It used to be, if you were on a political campaign, Democrat or Republican, And you wanted to buy bumper stickers or lawn signs.
You had to buy made in America, union made, both parties.
They did this.
Because they were appealing to the American worker and a sense of patriotism and loyalty to the country.
Now I'm not sure that either party does that.
Or at least not consistently.
But we don't care anymore.
No one seems to have all that much loyalty.
To America, the nation, or Americans more broadly.
Speaking of American interests overseas, the AP has revealed yesterday up to 15,000 Americans remain in Afghanistan after the country's collapse.
No plan whatsoever to take them out.
Other countries are using special forces to get their people out.
Joe Biden says, yeah, we can't do it.
We don't know.
We're trying.
I don't know.
Well, hopefully the Taliban will let the Americans out.
Absolutely pathetic.
Speaking of contempt for Americans, there's an article in the Washington Post we can't miss.
This sums it all up.
Quote, an Alabama doctor watched patients reject the coronavirus vaccine.
Now he's refusing to treat them.
That's it.
Jason Valentine, he's a doctor in Alabama, he says, look, I'm telling them they can get the vaccine, but, you know, if they don't want to get the vaccine, then I'm not going to treat them.
I'm not going to provide them medicine.
They're not doing everything I told them to do to prevent the infection, so no, I'm not going to treat them anymore.
Sorry.
He says, if they asked, I told them COVID's a miserable way to die and I can't watch them die like that.
Sorry.
Wow, yeah, that'll show them, right?
A lot of left-wingers cheering this on.
I even hate to say, what if it were on the other foot?
What if, hypothetically, because that conservatism is going to die with the what-ifs and the imagine if this were on the other foot.
But, but, still, imagine if it were AIDS. Just imagine if it were AIDS. Yeah, a doctor says you should not engage in homosexual behavior because that dramatically, dramatically increases your chances of contracting AIDS. So, you know, if you do, if you're a gay guy, then I'm just not going to treat you if you have AIDS. I'm not going to treat you.
I told you not to do it.
And so, look, AIDS is a miserable way to die, and so I'm just not going to treat you.
Sorry, just don't do it.
Can you imagine?
Can you imagine?
Forget even AIDS for a second.
A doctor's not going to treat fat guys.
Look, actually, if you're fat, that dramatically increases your risk of dying from coronavirus and a myriad of other health conditions.
Sorry, buddy.
No, you've been eating too many burgers.
You're no longer my patient.
No, of course not.
The reason that they can do it with the non-vax issue is because it tends to be conservatives who are a little more skeptical.
Conservatives and black Americans who are generally not conservative, but the Democrats sort of forget that they're resistant to the vaccine.
But conservatives say, ah, you know, I'm not that worried about the virus and, you know, I don't really trust Dr. Fauci or anybody.
So yeah, maybe I'm not going to get the vaccine.
And because we're now permitted to other, we're now permitted to scapegoat, we're now permitted to publicly deride and ostracize conservatives.
They can now even be denied medical care.
And the Washington Post will cheer them on.
Contempt for Americans.
Right now in the largest county in Virginia, that county, this is Virginia, one of the true home places of America, George Washington State.
For America's 250th birthday, which it is this year, This county will not celebrate America's birthday.
They will commemorate it.
The reason is Fairfax County's semi-quincentennial working group, how's that word?
Say that five times fast.
Said that events in, I'm sorry, in 2026, not this year, in 2026 should be a commemoration of America's Of America's birthday.
And not just 1776, but also 1607, Jamestown, and 1619, the new true founding of the country.
Now why?
The government commissioned a survey that said that 65% of respondents thought it should be called a celebration.
So the vast majority think it should be called a celebration.
But the researcher ignored the results of this survey because the people who wanted it to be a celebration skewed traditional Rather than neoteric.
Those are fancy words to say.
It was the conservatives who wanted the celebration and the libs wanted it to be called a commemoration.
And so because a minority, a distinct minority of liberals don't want to celebrate America, we're not going to celebrate America anymore.
That's the way the country works.
That's the way.
It's not just the end for Joe Biden.
If we can't get it together, if we don't have any faith in our institutions, if we don't like our country, if we think that our country is basically a tragedy, and even if the majority of Americans don't agree with that, if the people in power think that our country is a tragedy, barely, if it must be to be commemorated, certainly never celebrated, then it's not just the end of the line for the Biden administration.
It's the end of the line, period, for the civilization.
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Also, if you're a fan of The Matt Walsh Show, then you probably heard of his Sweet Baby Gang.
I just heard of this the other day.
What a title.
What a beautiful title.
The Sweet Baby Gang is in need of a Sweet Baby Anthem.
The Daily Wire is opening up for submissions.
All submissions should be in the form of YouTube video links.
It will be judged American Idol style by Matt and all of us Daily Wire hosts.
But you, the viewer, will be voting on which song wins.
So go to dailywire.com slash SBG. Submissions end on August 25th.
Voting will take place on Labor Day, so tune in to the Matt Walsh YouTube channel to watch the judging of submissions.
The winner will be announced September 8th on The Matt Walsh Show.
Go to dailywire.com slash sbg.
Anything else to plug, guys?
We good?
All right.
We'll be right back with the mailbag.
First question from Camille.
Michael, do you believe in ghosts?
In my Catholic high school, I had one teacher tell us that ghosts are, in fact, real.
But if they are trying to interact with us, they're most likely bad because good souls would not be in limbo in our physical world.
What are your thoughts on this?
Sincerely, who are you going to call?
Yes, ghosts are real.
They are.
It's undeniable that ghosts are real.
There is more...
Twixt heaven and earth than is dreamt of in our philosophy, Horatio.
Ghosts appear in the Bible.
Sometimes you will hear Christians say, ghosts, if you think you see a ghost, you can say with 100% certainty it's a demon.
It's not really a ghost.
Ghosts are in the Bible.
Ghosts are in the first book of Samuel.
Ghosts are in, I believe, second Maccabees.
Ghosts are in the New Testament.
You see Moses and Elijah.
In the transfiguration.
But they have not yet been resurrected.
What is a ghost?
It comes from the word geist.
It means spirit.
Are spirits real?
Yeah, spirits are real.
And do we have evidence of them appearing to humans?
Yeah, we do actually.
I know that the scientific materialists are going to laugh at me, the secularists are going to laugh at me when I say that.
But yeah, we have a lot of evidence.
One, we see it in the Bible, so if you're a Christian or a Jew, then certainly you would have to admit that ghosts are real.
But even if you're a hardened, stone-cold agnostic or atheist, we have reports of people seeing ghosts, seeing spirits of strange phenomena, Everywhere for all of history.
In every single culture, in every single place on earth, up to and including the present day, we have these unexplained phenomena.
We have anecdotal tales of people seeing spirits, things that cannot be explained.
So it just seems to me as a cultural matter, I know that you probably can't see the ghost under a microscope, but it just seems to me, first of all, there is more between heaven and earth than is dreamt of in our philosophy.
If you have even the slightest modicum of humility, you have to admit that.
And it seems as a cultural matter, we can infer that, yes, there is something going on here.
We know that we have spirits.
Again, unless you're the most hardened materialist of all, you have to admit that we have something like a spirit.
I mean, transgenderism, the whole transgender ideology is based on the idea not only that we have spirits, but that our spirits are entirely our true selves, and our body is not our true self, right?
So even people who are maybe atheistic or think that they're atheistic or agnostic in modernity, Even they believe that there is such a thing as a spirit, and that the spirit and the body are distinct, and that spirits are around sometimes.
You should not seek out mediums or things like that to communicate with ghosts.
That's a bad idea.
You should not engage in necromancy.
The Bible also says don't do that.
That's not good stuff.
And also, demons are real, too.
We'll wait for another question to go into how, obviously, angels and demons are real.
But, yeah, I mean, sometimes demons can mess with people, so don't seek them out.
But are ghosts real?
100%.
From Noah.
Dear Michael, this question is about relationships again.
Here we go.
I'm pursuing a relationship, and things seem promising with the one woman I mentioned earlier.
However, I can't help but feel guilty that I'm a porn addict while in pursuit of her.
I'm just going to pause it here.
It's good of you to write in this question because it's an embarrassing topic to talk about.
How many questions do I get?
This is like half my mailbag is guys writing in that they're dealing with porn.
And then we'll discuss on the show how maybe we should regulate pornography.
And then we're told by the libertarian types that this would be the greatest tragedy in American history.
Just listen to the number of young men, even who just write into this one show.
Clearly a problem.
Ties in also with the OnlyFans talk today.
Okay, question goes on.
This guilt is basically like when one receives the Eucharist in an unworthy state.
There are times where I feel that I need to take the time to make myself worthy of her hand, but I fear that I might lose this chance during that time.
What should I do?
Yeah, if you wait until you're perfect, buddy, you're never going to get married, and definitely this chicky's going to move on, because it's going to take you a while, okay?
But I don't mean to make light of your problem.
This is a serious problem, and you really ought to stop it, and you need to stop it.
The thing that you need to remember is that Virtue and vice are habits.
Contrary to what we are told in modern theories of the mind that liken the mind to a steam engine or to a computer or something like that, your vices are not alleviated by blowing off a little steam or by just changing a few lines of code or something.
Your mind is more like a muscle.
Virtue becomes easier the more you do it.
Just like lifting weights becomes easier the more you do it.
So I'm told.
I don't have a ton of direct experience with this.
Or vice becomes easier the more that you do it.
And harder to break the more that you do it, actually.
So what I would recommend you do, sounds like you're Catholic because you're talking about receiving the Eucharist outside of a state of grace.
What I would recommend you do is go to confession regularly.
Obviously, I think there's great spiritual benefit to this, but even for people out there who are not Catholic or they don't believe that much...
There is also just a psychological effect.
There is a physical effect to getting on your knees, to confessing this sin to a guy that's very awkward, that's very embarrassing.
It forces you to confront the reality of the sin when you say it out loud to another guy.
And then the psychological effect of that, not just with porn, but with any other sin, actually, is that the next time you are tempted to commit that sin...
You're going to think twice about it because you don't want to go through the rigmarole of having to go and confess this sin because it's embarrassing because it forces you to confront your own shame.
That's the first thing I would do.
Then, I was just talking to my friend Matt Fradd.
Matt Fradd has famously dealt with a pornography addiction, and he said one of the ways out of this is there's sort of software that you can put on your devices if you want to be held accountable, where you can, you know, if you try to search for a porn website, it'll send an email or a text or something to, you know, you can put your girlfriend on, probably that's too much, but you can put a buddy of yours or a family member or something to get the email.
So that would be another way of holding yourself accountable.
I think you should keep dating the girl.
But I think that you...
Obviously, your heart's in the right place.
You want to break this addiction.
Just like people want to break addictions to drugs or booze or overeating or whatever.
So that's good.
That's the first step.
Now you have to set concrete, tangible measures in place to force you into that.
And it will be very difficult.
Just like breaking any addiction will be very, very difficult.
And you should give yourself a little bit of grace, by the way.
You know, you don't want to turn one slip up.
You don't want to turn one sip of whiskey into a week-long bender.
And the same holds true of drugs or porn or whatever.
You know, if you slip up, then it's a slip up.
And then you get right back on the wagon and you just keep working on this.
Because it's just like working out.
It's just like building up any other muscle or building up any other skill for that matter.
The same is true of virtue.
And I don't think you need to...
Lay all of this at the feet of your girlfriend.
I think that's actually kind of weird.
That's a weird conversation.
You're sitting down saying, oh honey, what a lovely dinner this is.
By the way, I'm a porn addict and I do all these things.
By the way, all I'm craving is a drug right now or something like that.
No, I wouldn't do that.
I would just work on this steadily.
You're not alone.
90% of men are dealing with this.
But you're not going to get anywhere.
If you just keep it all vague and you keep it all in your mind and you just think about it and you think, I'm going to really try really hard in my mind.
You've got to put it in your body when you confess, when you have strictures put on your computers and things like that.
That's the only way you're going to do it.
I remember one time when I was coming back into the faith, I went to confession.
And I confessed my sins in these really vague terms.
You know, Father, I gave in to wrath.
You know, Father, I gave in to these real...
I was just kind of listing off the seven deadly sins.
And the priest sighed and he said, I need numbers.
I need dates.
I need specifics.
Otherwise, if you don't keep track of this stuff, you're just going to keep doing it and you're not going to get better.
And so you've got to really take it seriously, as you would training for a marathon.
But best of luck.
From Brandon.
Michael.
I had a question regarding a Bible.
Again, you know what?
Did you ever notice this?
That even if the show is almost entirely political, the mailbag is almost entirely religious, this is because...
Even agnostics and atheists, I think, recognize that at bottom, all human conflict is religious.
And, you know, if we say that politics is downstream of culture, culture is going to be downstream of religion.
So he writes in, Michael had a question regarding a Bible verse.
And how we as Christians are to abide by it.
The verse I'm referring to is Matthew 7, chapter 7, verse 1, where Christ says, Judge not lest ye be judged.
How are we to comment on relevant cultural issues, such as transgenderism, casual adultery, the glorification of abortion, much more without judging.
This is one that sometimes stops me in my tracks when I'm being critical of modern degeneracy, but maybe I'm looking at it the wrong way.
Your insight's appreciated.
P.S. I'm almost done with Speechless.
It was a great book.
Thank you.
Oh, thank you so much.
That's very kind.
Judge not, lest ye be judged.
The measure that you mete out in your judgment is the measure that will come back to you.
This is not Christ saying, do not ever judge.
In fact, he tells his apostles, judge with right judgment.
He tells people that if you have a problem with your brother, go to your brother and confront him about it.
And if he doesn't listen to you, go get three other people and hash it out among all of you.
And then if he still remains unrepentant, then don't deal with him anymore.
He will be to you as a tax collector.
He'll be anathema until he rights his wrongs.
He's not saying that.
He gives his apostles the keys to the kingdom of heaven.
He says, whose sins you forgive are forgiven, whose sins you retain are retained.
What he is saying is, one, have a touch of humility, and two, if you are going to judge, make sure you've got your own house in order first.
Make sure that before you take the speck out of your brother's eye, you take the log out of your own eye.
He's not saying that we can't correct our brothers in love.
He's not saying that we shouldn't judge with right judgment as he tells people to do elsewhere.
He's saying you've got to hold yourself to this standard.
You've got to get yourself in order as well or you will not have credibility and you will be hypocritical and your judgments in love won't even do what they're supposed to do.
For Marissa, Michael, I have told my mom and sister about the law of attraction.
How many questions am I going to get about the law of attraction?
This is that New Age-y thing where people believe that if they just demand something of God and of the universe, that they will get that thing.
It's very popular in that book, The Secret, and kind of other New Age heresies.
So, Michael, I told my mom and sister about the law of attraction and what you said.
However, they keep saying that it is just positive thinking bringing positive things.
I have argued that that thought process is fine, but the law of attraction is not just about positivity.
How can I explain to them that positivity is great, but the law of attraction is not, and those positive things are not from it?
And if I am wrong, let me know.
Sincerely pass the positivity.
Yeah, you're right and your family's wrong.
The power of positive thinking is a really seductive idea that you should not fall into.
If...
The power of positive thinking means be confident and hopeful.
That's good.
Yeah, you should do that.
Hope is a theological virtue and confidence is an important thing.
It's attractive and we ought to do it.
If we mean manifestation and the laws of attraction and this new age Gnostic heresy, what we're saying is that we can make demands of God.
And they will be fulfilled.
We can bring God, force him into accord with our own will.
That is wicked.
I mean, that's a really evil idea.
You should not do that.
And that won't work, by the way.
I mean, if it does seem to work for a time or two, that should have you even more worried.
No.
Have confidence, have hope, but recognize it rains on the just and the unjust alike.
Don't pervert your vision of the world anymore.
One last question from Charlie.
Hey Michael, question regarding American culture.
I was wondering if you think that America has a singular culture, a multi-culture, or no culture.
I came across this question from school and wanted to know what you thought.
Found myself stuck when I heard, but I knew you could answer because you're the man.
Thanks very much.
By the way, huge fan of the show, blood speechless, love it.
Very important on current issues from Wickety Way.
Have a great day.
Thank you, Wickety Way.
America has neither a culture nor a multi-culture nor any of these other cultures.
America has an anti-culture.
It's an anti-culture right now that is attacking the traditional American culture.
So it's a culture of debunking.
It's a culture of deconstruction.
It's a culture of tearing down everything that has made up the culture.
It is an anti-culture.
And many other thinkers and writers have talked about this.
Jacques Borsen talks about this very well in Dawn to Decadence, wonderful history book of modernity.
But you don't need a history book to tell you this.
You're seeing it happen all around you.
It's an anti-culture tearing down everything.
That's why we need to, I think, eschew the culture of debunking and deconstruction and ruthless criticism and critical theory.
And we need to have constructive thinking.
In a culture that doesn't just debunk, but edifies.
I'm Michael Knowles.
This is The Michael Knowles Show.
See you Monday.
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