Ep. 908 - Biden Gives The Gift Of Death, Disease, And Inflation
Biden warns of a “winter of severe illness and death,” a CDC panel raises more vaccine risks, and the President can’t remember the name of his Defense Secretary. .
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As you deck the halls with boughs of holly, Joe Biden wants you to know that we are not headed into the season to be jolly, but rather into a winter of severe illness and death.
It's here now, and it's spreading, and it's going to increase.
For unvaccinated, we are looking at a winter of severe illness and death for unvaccinated.
For themselves, their families, and the hospitals, they'll soon overwhelm.
So lest you think that Joe Biden is just projecting here, what he's saying is it's a winter of severe illness and death specifically for the unvaccinated.
And the thing is, none of that would appear to be true from the evidence we have right now.
So far, according to the CDC, just 43 people in the United States have come down with the Omicron variant of coronavirus.
Nearly 80% of them were vaccinated.
Not unvaccinated, vaccinated.
One briefly went to the hospital.
No one so far has died.
Never mind that all available evidence suggests that the Omicron, or whatever the next one is that we're going to call it, is significantly milder than Delta, Alpha, Phi Beta Kappa, all the other ones that we know about.
No, no, no.
You need to be afraid.
Because otherwise, Joe Biden won't have as much power.
I'm Michael Knowles.
This is the Michael Knowles Show.
Welcome back to the show.
My favorite comment yesterday is from Philippe Potter, who says, If you say that a teacher can teach whatever he wants in the classroom because he has freedom of speech, you also have to go wherever a bus driver wants to take you because he has freedom of movement.
This is such a great analogy for so-called academic freedom.
The teacher, I guess, has the right to...
Think about whatever he wants to think about.
I guess he has the right to read the kind of books he wants to read, generally speaking.
But he doesn't have the right to teach whatever he wants.
He has to do his job, and his job involves teaching certain things and giving his kids a certain kind of education.
It means teaching the truth.
It means teaching things that are good.
It means exposing students to things that are beautiful and not the opposite of all that.
Just like a bus driver might have the right to go wherever he wants, but not while he's on vacation.
The job.
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Be afraid.
Be very, very afraid.
That is the message from Joe Biden.
This is the kind of fear-mongering I have never seen in my whole life in American politics.
Having lived through 9-11...
The wars in the Middle East.
Trump talking about immigration.
There's been a lot of...
I guess you'd call it fear-mongering, I guess.
And then on the other side, you've got the Democrats fear-mongering about the Russia scandal and Ukraine and all that other stuff.
I've never seen anything like this.
The president of the United States saying, if you don't do exactly what I tell you to do and inject yourself with some experimental drug, then there's going to be severe pain, illness, death everywhere.
Fa la la la la la la la la.
By the way, on the vaccines, Turns out, the vaccines might not be quite as safe as some of the establishment wants you to believe.
Before you take me off the air, YouTube and Facebook and Twitter or whatever, I'm just quoting the CDC. At yesterday's meeting of the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, CDC officials went into detail on the blood clotting related syndrome that was identified in 54 people in the United States who got the shot before the end of August.
Okay, the FDA earlier this week said basically the same thing.
I'm just reading directly from the FDA report here.
Cases of TTS, cases of blood clots, following the administration of the Johnson& Johnson COVID-19 vaccine have been reported in males and females in a wide age range of individuals 18 years and older, with the highest reporting rate, approximately one case per 100,000 doses administered in females ages 30 to 49 years.
So first of all, that's not nothing.
One in 100,000 is not nothing when you're talking about giving this vax to 330 million people.
Overall, approximately 15% of the TTS cases have been fatal.
So you've got 330 million people just about getting the vaccine.
In this specific age group, you're looking at one in 100,000 are getting this complication.
And then 15% of that, you die.
That's not good.
Currently available evidence supports a causal relationship between TTS, the blood clots, and the Janssen COVID-19 vaccine.
That's just from the FDA. If you're going to take me off the air for saying that, then at least let's be honest, you are going to take me off the air for quoting directly from an FDA report.
Obviously, there are risks from the vaccine, from the vaccines, plural.
Despite all of the establishment propaganda that this is 100% safe and there's no risk whatsoever, that's BS. There is risk in any vaccine, basically any medical intervention you take.
And sometimes the risks are higher and sometimes the risks are lower, which is why from the beginning on these vaccine issues, I have pointed out that there are Some prudential arguments to get the vaccine, despite the medical and religious and moral complications of it.
And there are some prudential arguments for not getting the vaccine, and it might vary even person to person.
But the FDA and the CDC saying, yeah, actually, maybe this is a little bit worse than we thought.
Now, both bodies might say, but you should still get the vaccine.
But they're just explaining the facts.
Maybe there is more risk here.
Even the New York Times covered this, right?
So the New York Times covered it, and then they realized they had a little too much truth in their headline, so they had to change the headline.
So the original headline was, A CDC panel weighs the risks of blood clots linked to the J&J vaccine.
Okay, that's pretty honest, right?
The CDC panel is looking once again, because there's more people who have gotten these blood clots and died from the blood clots.
Okay, so they're going to weigh the risks of that vaccine.
New headline.
The CDC recommends that other vaccines be preferred over J&J. So they take out the idea of risk.
They take out the idea that maybe these things aren't going to be totally safe for you.
And they say, just maybe go look at the other vaccines.
But there are risks from the other vaccines as well, as the CDC has admitted.
Risks of myocarditis, risks of pericarditis in different groups of people, specifically in younger men.
But the establishment doesn't want...
Too much truth to get out there trying to hide this story.
And this is why, when you don't believe the legacy media, when you don't believe Dr.
Fauci, when you don't believe Big Pharma, who the hell ever thought it was a good idea to just blindly accept whatever Big Pharma tells you?
Remember when people on the left thought that Big Pharma was maybe a little corrupt and maybe there were some conflicts of interest here and maybe we shouldn't just accept every single one of their press releases as gospel truth?
And then COVID happened, and now we're told that Big Pharma is the greatest, most wonderful, innocent industry in America.
You remember that?
My friend Ryan Long, the comedian, made this point.
It was the left saying, I hate Big Pharma, except for Pfizer.
I love, Pfizer's amazing, Pfizer's one.
But all the rest of Big Pharma is really terrible.
So they're all trying to hide the story, which means you've got to do your own research, and you've got to make your own decisions, and you've got to use your own faculties of reason and judgment and prudence.
And I'm not sure you're even allowed to say that anymore.
No consequences whatsoever for the people who misled and lied about the safety and efficacy of certain vaccines.
No consequences at all in the federal government, in its associated entities, and in the deep state.
Great example of this.
There was a drone attack.
There have been many drone attacks in the Middle East.
So there was a drone attack that the United States carried out that killed a bunch of civilians.
And the attack should not have been launched.
And there was an investigation into it.
And yep, that's bad.
We killed a bunch of civilians.
So the Pentagon press secretary was brought onto a news show, credit where credit's due, onto Morning Joe, and was asked, is anyone going to be held accountable for this?
Here's his answer.
How does it strike you that no one is held accountable?
Because I know how it strikes a lot of people around the world, that you can get away with murder and nobody's punished for it.
I do understand that.
We appreciate that not everybody is going to support this decision.
What I can tell you is we looked at this thing very, very comprehensively.
And again, we acknowledge that there were procedural breakdowns.
Processes were not executed the way they should have been.
But it doesn't necessarily indicate that an individual or individuals have to be held to account for that.
But look...
Is there discipline inside the Pentagon at all?
I mean, maybe there are no charges brought up, but is anyone demoted or disciplined for what happened that day?
What we are going to do, there's not going to be individual discipline as a result of this, Willie.
But what we are going to do is learn from this, and we're going to enact and improve our procedures and our processes to try to make sure this doesn't happen again.
There aren't going to be any consequences whatsoever for anybody, but we're going to learn from this.
You're not going to learn anything if there's no consequences.
What are you talking about?
Like when your kid keeps stealing the cookies from the cookie jar.
You say, okay, well I'm not going to punish little Johnny, but he's going to learn.
He'll learn anyway.
No, he won't, of course.
And I'm not suggesting that the people who didn't follow the procedures that led, therefore, to this murder of civilians.
Not murder, I guess, just homicide.
It was in the unintentional killing of civilians.
I'm not saying they need to be brought up on criminal charges.
I'm not saying they need to be thrown in prison.
In any military operation, there is a risk of civilians being killed.
That's just what happens in war.
This is one of the reasons to be a little more circumspect maybe when you're talking about going to war, whether it's an outright full frontal war or whether it's some of these sort of little wars of empire that the United States has been engaging in recently.
But surely someone has to be held to account, right?
Surely someone or multiple people who didn't follow the rules, they need at least a slap on the wrist, don't they?
They need at least to acknowledge fault, don't they?
Or no.
Because the blob, because the liberal establishment never, never faces consequences.
Really makes you think there's something wrong in America.
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Speaking of the Pentagon, Joe Biden...
Was just giving a little update on what's going on over at the Pentagon, and he appears to have once again forgotten the name of the Secretary of Defense.
I want to thank all of our distinguished guests that are here today.
The Chairman of the Joint Chiefs, the Secretary of the, of the, Secretary Austin.
So, it's even worse than just forgetting the name, which he did.
He forgot the name of his own Secretary of Defense.
He also forgot the name of the Pentagon.
He also forgot the name of the Department of Defense.
He said, well, the Secretary of...
What's the, huh?
What's the fun is it?
It's the, not Secretary of War.
It's not the Secretary.
Oh, yeah.
And then he said Secretary Austin, which he also had forgotten.
So we all make fun of Joe Biden's memory slips and obvious senility.
I'm beginning to think this is more sad than funny.
In that, if you've ever dealt with a loved one who is going through senility, whether it's formally diagnosed as dementia or not, or just age-related memory slips, or just, you know, a lot of people, a lot of older people go through this.
It's extremely sad.
It's heart-wrenching to watch.
I don't know how advanced Joe Biden's problems are.
Obviously, they hide him a lot from the public, so we usually don't see these sort of things.
They hid him for the entire 2020 election, practically.
But for anyone who's ever dealt with a loved one who is in cognitive decline, it's really sad, and it's kind of unpredictable, and you don't know when they're really capable or not.
This should worry even Republicans, who we make fun of Joe Biden.
We don't like Joe Biden.
He's always been a doofus from his earliest, most lucid days.
But we have a president who is very clearly not all there.
I don't mean this in the way that each party always attacks the other party and says the president's an idiot.
They did this to George W. Bush.
They did it to Trump.
They do it to all the presidents.
But I think for the Democrats listening out there, even the Biden supporters listening out there, you can't tell me that the man is not in a cognitive decline.
And so this raises a question.
The question is, do we need a president?
There are now some conservatives who are saying, we need a basic level of competence to run the government, and if your president's not competent, that's a grave threat to national security.
You've got some disingenuous liberals saying, our president's totally competent, it's not a big deal, don't worry about it.
But I'm actually kind of open-minded on this question.
I don't know that we need a president, really.
I wonder if the administrative state is so firm and set and bloated at this point that it can just kind of run itself.
Maybe it can.
I don't know.
I mean, obviously you need the president to appoint certain people, but really even those appointments are just made by advisors.
And as long as the president puts his rubber stamp on it, as long as they can lift his arm up with a pen in it and just kind of scribble a name on there, then I guess he can sign off on it.
Do we need a president?
I don't know.
Going back all the way to Woodrow Wilson, you have seen this notion develop on the left that the presidency is too big for one man, and so therefore we need to create this federal bureaucracy that's just going to run itself even if the president is totally incapacitated.
Maybe that's the case.
Now, if that is the case, it tells us that our constitutional order has changed dramatically from what it was in the beginning and for, I guess, most of our nation's history to right now.
But it may well be the case that Joe Biden can go sit and watch episodes of Matlock, and it won't matter.
The establishment is pretty effective on its own.
You see this not just within the administrative agencies.
You see it with the media, too, because the media are just the propaganda arm of the liberal establishment.
And so, for instance, when gas jumps an incredible amount over the past year, it's up, I think, what, 56% or 57% over the past year.
And then it drops down 4 to 10 cents.
An honest news media would come out and say, gosh, gas is so high.
This is really a big problem.
It's way, way up.
But because the news media are not honest, because they're the propaganda arm of the liberal establishment, they go in lockstep with the exact same talking points and say, oh, wow, gas is down less than 10 cents.
Huge win.
Great news.
Wonderful great leader Biden doing wonderful.
All praise to Biden.
Here at home, Americans are finally getting some relief.
Finally, right?
Good news, people.
We talk so much about bad news.
Oh my gosh.
This is good news.
Gas prices are heading south, down.
A government forecast says that they could drop below $3 a gallon.
Whew!
Finally some economic relief, however minor.
Americans are paying a little less at the pump after weeks of rising energy prices.
Relief for the United States as energy costs drop.
That pain that you've been feeling at the pump, it may be short-lived.
There is finally some relief at the pump.
Good news at the pub.
Finally getting some relief, as you mentioned.
The national average price of gas dropped four cents in the last week.
Gas dropped nearly a nickel in the last week.
It's a seven-week low.
It's moving in the right direction.
The average is now at a seven-week low.
Actually, a seven-week low.
Slightly lower gas prices, so that's good news.
This is the kind of positive news we've wanted.
Really good economic news, including dropping gas prices.
Gas prices will tumble below $3 a gallon soon, so that's good news.
Soon.
It's going to happen soon.
That's the news.
The news is a thing that I'm predicting will happen in the future because the news of what's actually going on is so bad and devastating for the liberal establishment that I can't even report on that.
But in the future, I bet it'll be better.
So that will be good news when that happens.
My favorite one there is gas prices down almost a nickel.
Wow, really great news, huh?
Almost a shiny nickel down.
The only one there who even has the impulse to try to be kind of honest is Jake Tapper.
But he's still got to read all the talking points because he still works for the corporate media.
So he just goes, gas prices are down.
You know, it's only a little bit.
Mr.
Zucker, do I really have to say?
Okay, I do.
I guess I do because I'm the propaganda arm of the liberal establishment.
The media are becoming more brazen in their attacks and their defense of the establishment and their attacks on the, on us, the people that they perceive to be their enemies.
So Joy Reid on MSNBC is really upset at Elon Musk.
She's upset because Elon Musk was attacked on Twitter by Elizabeth Warren.
And so Elon Musk just keeps trolling Elizabeth Warren.
She says, you know, you haven't done anything.
You're not productive.
You're a leech on society.
And so that sort of thing.
And Elon responds and says, hey, stop projecting, lady.
And then they keep going back and forth.
And he's like, hey, listen, Senator Karen.
And he just keeps trolling this lady.
But...
Joy Reid is very upset because Elon Musk is not allowed to use Karen, which is a racial slur against white people, white women specifically, because Elon Musk, even though he's an African American, Elon Musk is not black, and so he's not allowed to say that.
Elon wasn't happy, so he did what he always did and stomped his little feet and insulted Senator Warren, calling her an angry mom and referring to her as Senator Karen.
So for so many reasons, being a freeloader and a selfish and disrespectful one, and for misappropriating black vernacular for misogynistic purposes, Elon Musk is the absolute worst.
Meanwhile, Senator Warren has better things to do than fight with Junior Birdman on Twitter.
She's angry with him for appropriating black vernacular.
The black vernacular being a slur against white people.
Her response to this is actually, hey, you can't use that.
That's our word.
That's our word.
This would be like a white person getting angry at a black person for using the N-word.
And saying, hey, black people, you can't use the N-word.
That's our word for you.
That's our derisive and derogatory term for you.
You can't do that.
And that is what she's saying about Karen.
And she's saying it to an African American, which is even more outrageous.
Shows you also that...
Racism, if the word means anything anymore, I'm not sure that it does, but racism against white people is the only acceptable form of racism.
And it's not only acceptable, and it's not only legal, and it's legal to discriminate, but it's also encouraged.
Which shows you that white privilege is quite the opposite.
And it shows you that the races that we think are oppressed and the races that we think are the oppressors, actually it's probably the opposite, right?
At least in terms of the culture and even in terms of the law.
When you think about the races that it's legal to discriminate against in, say, college admissions, it's white people.
And Asian people too, because they get lumped in for whatever reason.
But that is some brazen stuff.
We can't test it out.
We can't test out the theory and do it in the other way because if any white person did that, of course they would lose their job.
Speaking of race-baiting hypocrites, Maxine Waters is really, really pushing the limits.
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Maxine Waters is really upset when people don't wear face masks.
She's really upset by that.
You'll remember last year, she tweeted out, quote, take a chance, remind an unvaccinated person to put on a mask, and if they get angry, you know, just tell them, get six feet away from me, keep going.
She went on TV, made the same exact point.
I tweeted something that said, if you see someone without a mask, ask them if they would like to wear a mask.
Should they be wearing a mask?
And I said, you're taking a chance.
And if they get angry, just walk away and say six feet away.
And so...
I know that not everybody believes that they should wear a mask.
And the President of the United States has not helped by not wearing a mask.
Pence, the Vice President, has not helped doing tours and not wearing a mask.
But now I understand that someone close to the President who serves the President in a staff capacity is infected.
And I'm wondering if this is going to encourage him more to wear a mask and be a good example.
Be a good example that, you know, not only are you asking others to wear a mask, but you're doing it yourself.
To be a good example.
You've got to be a good example.
And you know exactly where this story is going.
I don't...
You know exactly where this is going.
Someone yesterday texts me a picture of Maxine Waters on an airplane not wearing a mask.
And so we break the story.
Daily Wire breaks the story.
You can see it.
It's all over.
It's gone viral.
There she is.
She's a hypocrite.
She's not wearing a mask.
I try not to wear a mask on airplanes.
Unfortunately for me, often the stewardess will come down and say, put your mask on or I'm going to throw you off the airplane.
So we have to do it.
But we're the little people and then the big people like Maxine Waters, they can do whatever they want.
She obviously doesn't believe what she's saying about the masks.
She's obviously not afraid of the virus.
She just wants you to wear the mask.
Now, There are a few levels here to what the masks are.
And the further you go, the more clear the understanding you will have of what the masks are about.
The basic, most shallow level is that the masks are about protecting public health.
I just don't think that's true.
I think that our rulers have contradicted themselves on masks constantly.
Dr.
Fauci did that.
He said, don't wear the masks, the masks don't work.
At the height of the pandemic, he said, don't wear the masks, the masks don't work.
Then five seconds later, he says, no, actually you have to wear the masks.
Then he admitted that he lied about his beliefs on the masks.
Then he went and tried to throw out a pitch at the Nationals baseball stadium.
And he dribbled the pitch.
You know, it kind of dribbled to the first baseline.
And then, but he wore the mask on the pitcher's mound when there was no one around him.
And then when he was sitting up in the stands with his buddies, he took the mask off and was just kind of hanging out.
He wasn't really eating.
He wasn't really drinking.
He just had it off because the masks are extremely uncomfortable and dumb.
So, and there have been plenty of other photos of Dr.
Fauci getting caught with a mask off when he thought the cameras were not around him, and then the cameras are on him, and he puts the mask back on.
You see this in San Francisco.
Mayor of San Francisco tells everyone they've got to wear the masks, and then she goes to a nightclub and just starts dancing and doesn't wear the mask.
Pelosi got caught.
Liz Warren got caught.
Maxine Waters has been caught multiple times.
So I don't think it's about public health.
I don't think these people believe anything that they're saying.
It's also not just about making people wear the masks.
I don't think it's quite that they themselves want to exempt themselves from a rule that they want all the other people to follow.
I don't think they care if all the other people wear the masks.
When BLM was rioting, no one was checking the masks.
In fact, there were a number, over a thousand public health officials, who came out and said, That despite shutting down all large gatherings, despite having previously said that all large gatherings were really bad and going to spread coronavirus and were potentially deadly, they said BLM protests are good.
They'll actually help the public health because white supremacy is a public health problem that predates and contributes to COVID-19.
They wrote a whole letter about this.
Over a thousand of them signed it.
So it's not just about making people wear the masks.
It's about making you wear the masks.
They don't care if their friends and supporters wear the masks.
They don't care at all.
They care if you, their opponents, the people that they perceive as enemies wear the masks.
And they are doing it to make you comply and submit to their capricious and arbitrary rule.
That's what it's about.
That's what it's always been about.
Some of us have been pointing that out from the very early days.
And some people didn't totally believe that.
And I get it.
This is a novel phenomenon.
But I think now, at this point, I don't know how many pictures of Maxine Waters and Pelosi and Fauci and Biden and all these other people not following their own rules and not enforcing their own rules on their supporters.
You need to see before you realize the true nature of the mask as a political symbol.
Almost entirely divorced from public health at this point.
To make you submit.
You have to submit.
This is what they are now telling us openly, explicitly.
Jim Cramer, the eccentric stocks guy on CNBC, he has become more vocal about his leftist political views recently.
He tweeted out just a couple days ago, quote, Government has a right to force you to obey and has always exercised it, especially under the GOP. There are two main reactions to this tweet, both of which are wrong.
The libs are retweeting it and saying, yes, yes, slay queen, yes, you're so right, Jim.
Government can make you obey whatever they want, you better do it, and that's that.
The libertarians, and I guess a lot of people on the right, but really because of some of the libertarian premises that we've taken on over recent years, They say, no, the government has no right to make you obey.
Not a right at all.
And they shouldn't exercise, and that's wrong to my body, my choice, or whatever they're saying now, even though we don't believe that when it comes to abortion and other things.
Or drug laws, even, or any other number of issues.
The real answer here, I'll just edit Jim Cramer's quote.
Government sometimes has a right to force you to obey and has sometimes exercised it.
Sometimes under Democrat administrations, sometimes under Republican administrations.
There are just laws and there are unjust laws.
First of all, going back to Romans, going back to Paul's letter to the Romans, the government is there for our own good.
The rulers are there...
If you're a Christian, you believe the government is placed there by God for our own good.
And that's very hard sometimes for especially libertarians to get around to.
But they are there for our own good.
You do need rule.
You do need law.
You do need systems of government.
And that's a good thing to have them.
Also, there are just laws and unjust laws.
And it's not always exactly clear quite where it falls.
And sometimes a law can be bad and not great, but still you are obliged to follow it.
But sometimes you are not obliged to follow it.
This is Thomas Aquinas 101.
This is Political Theory 101.
And sometimes laws are so egregious that you are obliged to...
Not to follow it.
You are actually obligated not to go along with unjust laws.
And so it requires prudence.
It requires thought.
It requires judgment.
You can't put that ideology on the back of a napkin.
And you can't put it in a tweet from a CNBC shrieking lunatic.
But that's the way it really is.
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We'll be right back with The Mailbag.
Welcome back to The Mailbag.
First question up from Philip.
Dear, an author has no words and holds, Shapiro did a video listing off the greatest Christmas movies of all time.
As someone who actually celebrates Christmas, what do you think are the best movies to watch this Christmas season?
Sincerely, all I want for Christmas is to never hear Mariah Carey again.
Fair enough.
The greatest Christmas movie of all time.
Miracle on 34th Street is very good.
Everyone always says it's a wonderful life.
It's actually not.
That's not my favorite Christmas movie, but, you know, fine.
That's fine.
Home Alone, I think, was the last great Christmas movie.
I'm not saying it's the greatest, but it's the last really, really great magical Christmas movie.
And then, of course, I've got to give you the only Christmas movie that I have watched this year, re-watched this year, with my wife.
And that would be Jingle All the Way.
An amazing movie.
You've got Arnold Schwarzenegger, Sinbad at the height of his powers, Phil Hartman.
It's a great movie.
It's genuinely funny.
Phil Hartman is a scream, as he always is.
It's actually heartwarming.
It's a great movie.
Highly, highly recommended.
From Mircea.
I hope I'm pronouncing that right.
Dear Michael, I'm a big fan of your show and your book Speechless, and your podcast has actually made me return to Christianity, in particular Orthodox Christianity.
Wow, that's cool.
That's great.
We'll get you over to be Catholic soon enough, but I'll tell you, Orthodox, that's a good place to get to, a good place to start.
While I'm very happy with my personal turn toward faith and conservatism, I am more skeptical about seeing something similar at a social level against progressivism, I'm not sure.
Maybe we're missing a few words here.
I'm not quite sure.
Is conservatism just delaying the inevitable slippery slope to more extreme liberalism?
Is tomorrow's Republican just today's Democrat, or are there reasons to hope for broader social restoration?
Respectfully, yours, the Orthodox Christian, Michael.
Sometimes people misunderstand what Bill Buckley said when he said in the first issue of National Review that a conservative is one who stands athwart history yelling stop at a time when few, if any, are inclined to do so.
That gives the impression that all we're doing is standing athwart the tides of progressivism and usually getting kind of run over or at least backed up into a corner, but we're saying stop, stop, stop, and we're at least slowing it down.
But what I believe he's referring to there is the communist idea of history, capital H. You hear versions of this when leftists use the phrase the right side of history.
This idea that history is unfolding along a very specific logic and we basically have nothing that we can do to stop it.
We can accelerate it, but we can't stop it.
And I think Buckley is mocking this communist concept of history as such.
So, no, I don't think conservatives are merely just saying stop, stop, stop, and then losing because there's no way to stop time.
To use a Chestertonian analogy, when you leave white picket fence alone in a field, you're not going to come back two years later to a white fence.
You're going to come back to a very dirty fence, actually a black fence probably, because of all the dirt and the soot and all the stuff that's going to be on it.
Things are always changing.
There's no way to just freeze time.
But I do think that conservatives can offer an alternative.
Right now it's a little tough because what passes for conservatism in America is really usually just a form of liberalism.
We accept the same premises as the libs and the progressives and the leftists.
For instance, that the individual is the basic unit of society.
That's what the libs believe.
That's what the leftists believe.
They think that the individual is the basic unit and individuals ought to be able to do basically whatever they want.
And the way to arrange society is by taking all those atomized individuals and clumping them together.
And what the libertarian types on the right believe is just that we shouldn't clump them together.
Yes, the individual is the basic unit of society, but just don't clump them together.
And what the conservatives believe is that the individual is not the basic unit of society.
Actually, the family is the basic unit of society.
The left believes you're born into society...
We're known primarily by our abstract rights, and they usually list a bunch of positive rights, like the right to healthcare, and the right to education, and the right to whatever.
The libertarians believe we're born with a bunch of abstract rights, and that's the primary way of viewing our politics, and those are mostly negative rights, right to life, and liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.
Conservatives believe that we are born primarily with obligations.
I'm not saying we don't have rights, but it's primarily obligations and duty and loyalty and filial piety.
And we didn't create ourselves in this world.
We're not going to decide, hopefully, when we leave this world.
And we have obligations to our families and our communities and ultimately to our God.
You'll notice that the leftists and the libertarians agree on a lot of basic stuff, which is why we keep losing.
Because if we're just following the libertarian strain of things, then we're just going to end up where the left wants us to.
But, if we follow the conservative way of viewing things, we're going to have very different premises, and we're going to end up in a very different place.
And so my suggestion here is that American conservatives need to become much more conservative.
And stop unwittingly buying into the premises of the libs.
From Sarah.
Hi, Michael.
I have a childhood friend who was also my next-door neighbor.
As young girls, we played almost every day and grew up together.
After high school, we grew apart but still remained friends.
We're now in our 30s, and over the last five years or so, she has come out as transgender.
She now refers to herself with male pronouns and has changed her name to a masculine one.
Rest's removed.
Oh gosh, it's awful.
I feel like I'm in mourning.
It feels like she died and this guy is the one who killed her.
I know I'll see her this Christmas when I visit my mom's house.
I know on the inside that she's still the kind and fun person I grew up with, but I'm having a hard time with who she is now.
Should I keep this friendship or should I let it go?
I would never suggest abandoning your friends when they're in the throes of mental illness, or physical illness for that matter.
Your friend is suffering from delusions and psychological problems and probably spiritual problems that are being compounded by a mass societal delusion that is reinforcing all of her fantasies.
And so that's bad.
I mean, that's really bad.
I have friends who have, a number of friends who have dealt with mental problems, a number of friends who've dealt with physical problems, and I don't think it's good to just abandon them and say like, ah, well, you know, you had a brain injury, well, now I'm not going to talk to you.
Ah, well, you got into a car accident, well, now I'm not going to talk to you.
That's probably not a good idea.
Now, some of this might not be up to you because I don't think that you should indulge the delusion that I don't think you should say, oh, how wonderful it is that you've mutilated yourself and are laboring under this false idea that you're actually a dude.
You shouldn't do that.
And your friend may be so far gone that she will not be friends with you if you won't indulge her fantasies.
So you may end up losing your friend, but I wouldn't be the one to do it.
I wouldn't recommend saying, okay, see you, darling.
I would speak the truth with love.
That's all we can do.
From Nigel.
Hey Michael, I'm a newer listener to your show and I was wondering what are some theological and philosophical literature books that you find inspiring or helped shape your worldview?
Oh, where do I begin, man?
Where do I begin?
Edmund Burke was very important.
Reflections on the revolution in France.
Michael Oakeshott, a little essay, Rationalism and Politics and On Being Conservative, was really good.
Roger Scruton is great.
He's got a ton of great books.
He has a great movie that the BBC is suppressing, but you can watch the ripped Portuguese version on either YouTube or Vimeo.
It's called Why Beauty Matters or something like that.
Owen Barfield wrote Poetic Diction.
He was one of the inklings that converted C.S. Lewis to Christianity.
That was a great book.
Good Old Uncle Aristotle and Plato.
Those are very important writers.
Dante, maybe more than any writer.
Dante, all of his writing, but especially the Divine Comedy, really shaped my thought.
The Bible.
Can't forget about the Bible.
Thomas Aquinas, certainly.
St.
Augustine.
Chesterton.
C.S. Lewis.
I'm just throwing out, not random names, but I'm throwing out names seemingly haphazardly.
Because I think if you want to begin to form or advance in forming your political or theological thoughts...
I don't think it's necessarily the best way to go about it, to just have a list of books that you have to go down, boom, boom, boom, one after another.
I think what you might want to do is, you're reading C.S. Lewis, right?
You pick up Mere Christianity or Abolition of Man or something, or whatever from C.S. Lewis, and you see that he references G.K. Chesterton.
You say, that's interesting, and then you go read...
G.K. Chesterton.
For instance, right now, I just finished reading Drew Clavin's new book.
His new book is on the Romantic poets and how it relates to Christianity.
It's an excellent, excellent book.
So I'm reading it, and he's referring to the Romantic poets, who I have not read very deeply.
So then I go and I order some of the books from the Romantic poets, and then I can go read them.
So that's what I recommend doing if you want to expand your thought.
From Sophia.
Dear Michael, I've fallen in love with the most amazing man.
We haven't been dating long, but I know I want to marry him and have all the babies God will bless us with.
All right, calm down, lady.
No, maybe that's good.
That's good.
It's wonderful to know what you want.
He's serious and wants a family.
I want four, but he wants six.
The thing is, I'm 33 and he's 45, so time is not on our side.
Oh, yeah.
Six, I guess, probably won't happen, even if you get started right now.
But maybe you can get to four.
Depends how quick you churn them.
His business has suffered tremendously.
I know he's waiting until things get better financially before moving forward.
I worry that he may use this as an excuse not to get married and start a family.
What is your opinion on the long-standing practice of women starting a family without...
necessarily...
planning it with the man first...
Oh, goodness.
Oh, boy.
I've always been taught that this is trapping, which is wrong, because it's dishonest.
I think the risk that he would not step up and marry me if I got pregnant is basically zero, but I feel it may be morally wrong, even though I know it is something he wants, just not right now.
Yes, that is wrong.
That is wrong.
It's wrong for a few reasons.
The reason that this should not be an issue in the first place is...
You shouldn't be sleeping together before you are married.
I know.
It's a fallen world.
We all do lots of bad things.
I'm not sitting on my high horse here and judging you.
I'm just saying this is why this shouldn't be a possibility even in the first place.
And by the way, if you guys weren't sleeping together, there's probably a pretty good chance he would hurry up along with that proposal.
But as the age-old wisdom goes, he is getting the milk for free, and so why would he buy the cow?
Especially if he's maybe got some commitment issues or he's delaying his maturity.
But you shouldn't trap the guy anyway.
So you're doing this thing.
You should probably stop doing it.
But if you're going to keep sleeping together, no, I don't think you should lie to him about using birth control and then trap him.
I don't think it's great to start a marriage on deceit and coercion.
Okay, I don't think that's a good idea.
One, I would recommend...
Cutting that out and then there was a natural inducement to get married.
But then two, if you're not going to do that or even if you are, I would sit him down and say, listen, Buster, you're not getting any younger.
Neither am I. We both want kids.
We want to get married.
So piss or get off the pot.
Sorry for the blunt language.
That's actually the letter.
That's a letter that my grandmother wrote to my grandfather.
And they were pretty young.
I think they were 22 or something at the time.
But it's good advice.
It's good advice.
And so I will say it again, despite the slightly salty language, because I think the situation calls for it.
Piss or get off the pot.
That's what you should tell them to do.
From Verinder.
Dear Michael, as a conservative, what are your views on parents smacking their children?
I'm not totally opposed to it, in theory.
I was spanked.
Maybe a couple of times as a kid.
Not a lot.
It wasn't a habit.
So I'm not totally opposed to it.
But in practice, I don't plan on doing it.
I hope I don't do it.
If I do, I think it would be very rare.
I don't think it's the most effective parenting strategy, but not totally opposed to it either.
From Kyle.
Hey, Mr.
Knowles.
I know people usually write in to complain about their love life or the Israel-Wakanda conflict.
Fair enough.
But I have a much more contentious and divisive question to ask you.
What is the best fast food joint in America?
If you were on a road trip and only wanted to see one fast food restaurant at the rest stop, what would it be and what would you order?
Sincerely, came for Shapiro, stayed for Nick in the mailbag.
Well, it's a really astute observation that people write in about their love lives and anything from their love lives to the Israel-Wakanda conflict because...
The peace in the Middle East is often probably much easier to settle than some of these questions about people's love lives.
Where would I stop?
Arby's.
Not even a question.
We'll do one more question.
Jessica.
Dear Michael, so many millennials and Gen Z constantly talk about not worrying about the future and having faith that things are meant for you, that they won't pass you by.
There rarely is any mention of God, but it seems a little bit like faith, and I believe there's a similar Bible verse.
Generally, people are referring to relationships or opportunities when they mention the things that are meant for you.
What are your thoughts on the sentiment of the things that are meant for you will find you?
And if the phrase is true, settling in, this is a long question, settling in any aspect of life out of fear seems like a slap in the face of God and your faith in him.
Sincerely, the waiting is the hardest part.
God is sovereign.
Providence is extremely real and things will unfold according to God's plan.
And, uh, things will unfold according to And God can't drive a parked car.
And you have free will.
And you have a right and an obligation to use your free will for the good.
And you have an obligation not to be slothful.
And you've got to do stuff, Buster, and use your reason and your moral conscience and your courage.
I'm Michael Knowles.
This is The Michael Knowles Show.
See you Monday.
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