Ep. 1732 - Pope Leo XIV Elected: Everything You Need to Know
45:14 Share

Big Tech is a bull in a china shop.

Big Tech is taking advantage of outdated federal regulations that just might put local TV and radio stations out of business. It's time to modernize Washington's restrictions on TV and radio station ownership. Visit nab.org slash modernize the rules and tell policymakers to let local stations compete. This message paid for by the National Association of Broadcasters. Abemus Papam, the Cardinal electors have picked a new Pope. He is the first American Pope.

He has chosen the name Leo XIV. You know how much I hate to say I told you so. That is precisely the name that I called before it was announced. So what does it mean for the church? What does it mean for America? What does it mean for the rest of the world? No one saw this coming. So we'll get into it. I'm Michael Knowles. This is The Michael Knowles Show. ♪♪♪

Welcome back to the show. A lot to say about the Pope in non-Pope related news. Kanye West has a new song out. It's called Heil Hitler. So I guess that part actually probably was predictable. Interestingly, though, the song has a lot of artistic merit to it. It's actually an artistically very interesting song.

I have a lot more to say, but first you should go to balanceofnature.com, use promo code Knowles. You have heard me talk about balance of nature many times before. That's because balance of nature, fruits and vegetables is the best way, the most convenient way, the most Michael Knowles show way to get whole fruits and vegetables daily, especially if you're focused on creating a healthier, happier lifestyle. Nature is pretty good at giving us the ingredients that we need through our fruits and vegetables.

So balance of nature takes fruits and vegetables, freeze dries them, turns them into a powder, puts them into a capsule. You take your fruit and veggie capsules every day, then your body knows what to do with them. Balance of nature is just one ingredient of a balanced lifestyle, has no intention to replace a healthy diet, exercise, sleep, or any other healthy habits. It is intended to be used in concert with other healthy habits.

I love Balance of Nature because I can take the capsules with me when I'm on the road, and then I can know that I'm getting my daily fruits and veggies. And then I can become a big beefcake like Mr. Davies. Go on over to balanceofnature.com. Use promo code NOLSKIN, W-L-E-S, for 35% off your first order as a preferred customer, plus get a free bottle of fiber and spice. That is balanceofnature.com, promo code NOLS. No one predicted this.

I did predict the name. It's not even that I predicted the name. I said before the pope was announced, I said that I was hoping for the pope to take the regnal name. You know, popes take a new name. They're not their birth name anymore. They pick, you know, John Paul or Francis. I said I was hoping for Leo XIV. And then a little while later, the pope came out and announced in Latin that he had picked Leo XIV.

And we'll get into why I was hoping for that in a second. But I did predict the pope's name, which was cool. I did not predict who the pope was going to be. And no one predicted who this pope was going to be. They always say you go into the conclave of a pope, you come out a cardinal. Okay, the betting markets are really bad on picking the pope and the betting markets were terrible on picking this pope.

No one predicted an American pope. We didn't think we'd get an American pope for the next 500 years. And this guy is the first American pope. He's born in the U.S., U.S. citizen, also dual citizen with Peru. And he chose the name Leo XIV. He is Cardinal Robert Francis Prevost, born in Chicago. That raises some red flags for people. Augustinian. So he defines himself particularly as having been formed by the teaching of St. Augustine, which is...

a good sign. He's a canon lawyer, so that should be a good sign. He comes out, he gives the speech in Italian because this is his first Urbi et Orbi speech to the city and to the world.

And it is traditional to give this speech in Italian. I was actually thinking, I don't speak Spanish. I don't really speak French all that well. The one language other than English that I have a decent command on is Italian, which is almost entirely useless almost all of the time, except for in this moment, because I was actually able to understand what the Pope was saying. Here's just a little snippet from his speech. I'll give you a translation on the fly. I'm a child of St. Augustine.

who said, "With you I'm a Christian and for you I'm a bishop." In this sense we can all walk together.

to that country that God has prepared for us. Okay, then he starts speaking in Spanish, and my Spanish is not that good. He says, I want to say, you know, a little word, a little hello in Spanish. Okay, that's interesting. Francis did the same thing.

Because he worked in Peru, he was a Peruvian citizen. Now we want a synodal church that seeks always the peace.

And charity. To be close, especially to those who suffer. Okay, so what do we get from this? He spoke for longer. He spoke for about 10 or 11 minutes. But just from this, we can learn a lot. First of all, he's not using the royal we.

You know, when a king speaks and traditionally when a pope speaks, he says we and our instead of I and mine. The reason he does this is because he's speaking from the office, you know, as the representative of, as the kind of embodiment of the

the people. I'm not surprised. Popes haven't done that in a little while now. We're a little more populist with our language and you see I, me, and my. Okay. He uses Italian, Spanish, and Latin. Doesn't use English. He's the first American pope. So this guy, he wasn't born in Italy. He wasn't born in Peru. He was born in Chicago. So some people were disappointed by that.

That he didn't, why the first American Pope, he doesn't say anything in English. Why not? You know, he says, I want to say a quick hello in Spanish to my Spanish friends and my Peruvians. Why not a quick hello in English? Okay. Okay, fine. I'd prefer the whole thing in Latin or Italian, but okay. No one asked me. Really good sign here is that he comes out in the vestments, the formal vestments of the Pope. Francis did not do that.

Francis made a show of not wearing formal vestments, of not living in the papal palace. He lived in a little apartment, not driving the fancy pope car. He had these little fiats made for his papacy, for his pontificate rather. And this was supposed to be a sign of humility.

I, however, do not read that as a sign of humility. I read that, the breaking of tradition and a performed kind of simplicity, I read that sometimes, not to cast dispersions on Pope Francis, I'm not saying that's his intention, but the way it reads to me is a kind of false modesty. I think that to be truly humble in this office...

one has to diminish one's preferences. Even if one prefers simplicity, even if one prefers not to wear all the vestments and the smells and the bells, really the humble thing is to say, no, no, no, I'm no longer living for my own accord. I am taking on this office and all that it entails. So I took it as a very good sign that Pope Leo XIV came out in the vestments and spoke in Latin and all the rest of it.

The Pope then, just one other bit I'll play from his speech. He called on Our Lady. He spoke of Our Lady, of Mary, quite a lot. And he had everyone pray the Hail Mary in Italian. We ask for this special thanks

We ask the special grace of Mary, who's our mother, who's our Lord gives Mary to us when he gives her to St. John and says, Behold your mother. Hail Mary, full of grace. The Lord is with thee. Blessed art thou amongst women. Blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus. Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners now and at the hour of our death. Amen. And the crowd goes wild.

This is also a good sign. The church, from the very beginning and very traditionally, you know, gives a special veneration to Our Lady. I know some people in the audience, certain Protestants won't like that, but just saying from the standpoint of trying to ascertain what kind of pontificate is this going to be? Is this going to be more traditional? Is this going to be more innovative and modern and whatever? That's very traditional, very respectful, I think a very beautiful thing. The best sign is

is the name because he said very little in this speech. He didn't really indicate all that much what he's thinking of for his pontificate.

The phrase, the synodal way, this refers to, in particular, an initiative of Francis to make the church less about, you know, formal authoritative doctrinal teachings from the chair of St. Peter and more about dialogue and inclusivity and synodality in the synod of the synod of the synods. So that raised an eyebrow. That might not be great. He spoke quite a lot about Pope Francis. Now, that could be perfunctory or that could be because he really was pretty close to Pope Francis. That's...

Maybe not a great sign. He's previously said very little publicly. So we don't really know. And there are going to be people who say, oh, I know exactly what this is. There are going to be people freaking out and losing their minds. There are going to be people who are really celebrating. We don't know.

He's also a relatively young man. He's 69 years old. That's young by Pope standards. So he could be Pope for 20 years. The name is the great sign to me. The name calls to mind Pope Leo XIII, who is one of the great popes that we've had relatively recently over the last 200 years. In my mind, one of my favorite popes of all time. And the connection to Pope Leo XIII is really, really interesting. And I think tells you the most about maybe what we can expect. Do not go anywhere.

In this brief moment, when I am so excited to tell you about ExpressVPN.com,

slash Knowles. Your online activity, it's not safe. It's not private, not even close. Data brokers are constantly tracking your digital footprint, building profiles of what you do online, how you spend money, even what you believe. In the U.S., they can legally sell this information to anyone willing to pay. Companies buy this data to target you with ads. Social media platforms use it to control what content appears in your feed. During elections, your information becomes a tool to influence your vote and

All of this is going on behind the scenes, subtly shaping our choices without our knowledge. You can take back your control.

You can protect your privacy with ExpressVPN. ExpressVPN routes all your online activity through secure encrypted servers, making it impossible for your internet provider to see what you're doing online. No more feeling like someone's watching over your shoulder when you browse. It also makes your IP address, which is the unique number that identifies you online, it masks it. Without access to your IP or your browsing activity, data brokers cannot build profiles about you or sell your info to advertisers.

Best part, ExpressVPN is super simple to use with just one click, works across all your devices on up to eight devices at once. Right now, get an extra four months for free when you use my special link, expressvpn.com slash Knowles, K-N-W-L-E-S. Four extra months of ExpressVPN, E-X-P-R-E-S-S-V-P-N.com slash Knowles. The new Pope chooses the name Pope Leo XIV as I was hoping for, as I called, at least in my hope, if not prediction. Pope Leo XIII.

was Pope in the late 19th century. Pope Leo XIII is actually the first Pope ever to have his voice recorded, and he's the earliest person ever to have his image captured by a camera. Pope Leo XIII was born in 1810. In 1896, there's this motion picture that was filmed of him, and he's giving a blessing, which is this really beautiful thing. The first Pope to appear on film, and what does he do? He blesses everyone, as if we are receiving the Pope's blessing, even a century later,

Pope Leo XIII is known as the most prolific pope ever. He wrote all sorts of encyclicals. Actually, he apparently, according to reports, drank cocaine wine. It was this wine that was popular in the 19th century called Vin Marianis, and it was wine that had coca leaf in it, and the alcohol would act on the coca leaf, and it activated cocaine, basically. And so he took it as medicine, as did a lot of people of his age.

He said, you know, if he got a little drowsy, according to reports, he'd take it. And clearly it worked because he was quite prolific. He wrote a lot of really great encyclicals. You've probably heard me, one, say I'm hoping for a Pope Leo XIV to come up. And two, you've probably heard me cite his encyclicals before. In particular, quote Apostolici Munaris, that was an encyclical on socialism.

Leo XIII was really tough on socialism, very anti-socialism. That's a good sign for the new pope. He wrote Aeterna Patris on Christian philosophy. Leo XIII was big on restoring Christian philosophy, Thomistic philosophy in particular, the philosophy of St. Thomas Aquinas. That's a really, really good sign. His most famous encyclical is Rerum Novarum, which he wrote about Catholic social teaching.

And John Paul II, who everyone loves, John Paul II in his encyclical, Centesimus Annus, is writing about Rerum Novarum. And he's attacking communism and he's talking about how the church should relate to politics and to the economic order and to the world. So it's really, really good stuff. Another reason he might have chosen this name, Pope Leo XIII was the third longest serving pontiff ever. Other long serving pontiffs were Blessed Pius IX, John Paul II. But Pope Leo served a really, really long time.

And this Pope, since he's 69 years old, this Pope could be Pope for 20 years or more. Who knows? Maybe that's a sign there. Well, I'm a relatively young man that's tying me in. The other thing that Pope Leo XIII is really famous for, and obviously there were other Leos in the past. I'm just focusing on the most recent Leo because I think there's a real connection here. Pope Leo XIII composed the St. Michael prayer. Pope Leo XIII reportedly had a vision at the end of the 19th century that

And I think we know exactly when he reportedly had this vision. It was October 13th, 1884. And he says he had this vision of a conversation between God and Satan and Satan requesting 75 to 100 years to destroy the church.

and God granting that to him. And he was so shook by the vision that he wrote the St. Michael Prayer. St. Michael Prayer was then recited after every Catholic mass for many, many years around the world. In traditional parishes, it's still recited after most masses. And the prayer is, St. Michael the Archangel, defend us in battle, be our defense against the wickedness and snares of the devil. May God rebuke him, we humbly pray, and do thou, Prince of the Heavenly Host, by the power of God, thrust into hell Satan and all the evil spirits who prowl about the world seeking the ruin of souls.

I pray this prayer every day, sometimes multiple times a day. Really good prayer. Really strong masculine prayer, too. Cast into hell Satan and all the evil spirits who prowl about the world seeking the ruin of souls. So why the name? I think if he is kind of liberal, because there are all these old tweets. Now, we now live in the age where the Pope has tweets.

And there are these tweets where he was kind of attacking J.D. Vance over J.D. Vance's speaking of the Ordo Amoris, the hierarchy of love, the Ordo Caritatis, according to St. Thomas. You know, J.D. Vance using that to defend the Trump administration's policies on immigration. Apparently, the new pope doesn't like that.

where he seems to have been critical of Trump also. So there's some signs he was obviously very close to Francis. He seems to be very pro-mass migration. So there's some signs that he's kind of liberal. So if he's kind of liberal, if he's kind of progressive by Catholic standards, which is different than American standards, and we'll get to that in a second, then why the name? Why pick the name of a pope that conservatives love so much? I think maybe the tie-in here is

because of Catholic social teaching, which is really tough on communism, really tough on socialism, but also critical of capitalism. Also very focused on helping the poor and the marginalized and those who are suffering. So maybe it's a kind of a way to unite the church. Because one thing that the cardinals, I think, really wanted was a unity.

after the very divisive papacy of Pope Francis. Maybe that's a way of saying, okay, conservatives, you're getting your Pope Leo XIII callback. But also, maybe you think I'm calling him back because of how based and Thomistic and into philosophy and because he was tough on communism. But the liberals might like it too because he's...

He talks about the poor and the marginalized, and there's a real focus on Catholic social teaching, criticisms of capitalism. Maybe it's a way kind of bringing everyone together, and you just don't know exactly what you're going to get.

Now, Charlie Kirk, a lot of my friends who are Protestants and Jews and a lot of people were texting me yesterday to say, well, what do I make of this? What am I supposed to think of the new Pope? And so I was texting with Charlie Kirk and we were kind of going back and forth on how to make sense of it. And then Charlie pulled up with Turning Point Action, the Pope's

voting record or the Pope's voting registration, at least because he's American Pope. He's the first American Pope. So we actually can go in and see how he was registered politically. And according to Charlie and TPUSA,

This pope is a registered Republican. So Charlie says, you know, this is a big scoop and he's registered Republican. He's voted in Republican primaries when he's not living abroad. And our data show that he's a strong Republican and he's pro-life, which is good. That's all great. However, this gets to a point that I've been talking about since Pope Francis died, which is that the left-right spectrum of politics does not map neatly onto an institution that predates the left-right paradigm by almost 1800 years.

So you say, oh, he's a Republican. Yeah, he should be. You know, if you're a Catholic prelate or a priest or even a lay Catholic, you can't really be a Democrat today because the Democrats openly cheer on the mass slaughter of babies and the butchering of little kids according to an ideology that denies the sexual nature that God has given us and makes a mockery of marriage, which is the image of Christ's love for his church. So yeah, I...

I hope he was a Republican. I hope he's voted. I hope every Catholic prelate and priest is a Republican. No matter what you think of immigration or I don't know, some tax policy or something, talking about pretty basic stuff. When the alternative is a party that openly celebrates, not even just tolerates, openly celebrates the mass slaughter of infants and that mocks sexual nature and marriage and mutilates little kids, you can't be a Democrat.

If you are a serious Catholic, you can't be all in on the Democrat Party. Okay. So again, even that just doesn't tell you exactly what this pontificate is going to be. But we hope, you know, hope is a theological virtue and we are called to hope. And there are good signs, you know, the sign that he's chosen this name, that he's accepting these vestments, that

So we trust. I'm a Catholic, so I trust that the Holy Spirit will stay with the Holy Mother Church. If you're not a Catholic, then you don't think of it quite in that way, but I'm hopeful. And we're going to pray, and that's what we do as Christians, okay? And it ain't a democracy, man. The Catholic Church, Hiller Bello had a good line. He says, I'm bound to believe that the Church is divinely instituted because I'm a Catholic. But if you're not a Catholic...

One proof of her divine institution is that no other institution conducted with such naivete imbecility would have lasted a fortnight, much less 2,000 years. So we don't, the church does not, does not, just as the church doesn't map neatly onto the left-right paradigm, the church does not measure her, her history in weeks or years or administrations. The church measures her history in centuries and millennia.

So that's how it goes. That's all I have to say about the Pope for now, because there's really not much else to know or to say. And so we pray. Okay, now turning back to the administration and legacy, President Trump has gone viral, even amid everyone focusing on the Pope, because of these comments that President Trump made about the legacy of the former Transportation Secretary and the former mayor of South Bend, Indiana, former Democrat presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg.

And when they took over, Buttigieg, who has no clue, you know, he drives to work and has a bicycle with his, in all fairness, with his husband on the back, which is a nice, loving relationship. But he didn't have a clue. This guy didn't have a clue. And he's actually a contender for president between him and Crockett. You can have that party. This is exactly the right tone. And this is something I really love about Trump.

He's talking about Buttigieg and what a bad job he did as transportation secretary. And he gets a little joke in there about Pete Buttigieg's somewhat aberrant and interesting personal life. But when you're married, whether you're really married or even fake married, that's not just personal. That's a political action. It's a public action. It's the basic unit of politics. He says, yeah, Buttigieg was always awful, ever ridiculous. He drove to work on his bicycle with, in all fairness...

with his husband sitting on the back of the bicycle. And then, you know, look, that's a loving relationship, isn't it? Anyway, you guys hear about this? Get a load of this. This is my tone. I'm not talking about substantive views. I'm not talking about even attitude necessarily. I love this tone, which is we can make a little joke, okay? Trump is not saying Buttigieg, that damned blasted sodomite, the purity police will take him and throw him off a rooftop. He's not saying that.

Nor does he have this sort of liberal piety of, you know, how beautiful and brave and stunning and beautiful the LGBT LMNOP lifestyle is. And isn't that just so... He just makes a joke. He goes, yeah, you know, and he probably writes to work with his husband on the back, which isn't that great? He's got that husband, isn't that... That's a good tone. You say, you're not... It's not...

to totally, you know, banging your fist on the table condemning someone who's just saying, that's a little weird, right? I mean, we all admit they're not really married. It's two fellas. You can't be, a fella can't be married to a fella. I'm not saying we got to be like really mean to them, right? But come on, let's give me a break. That's a little weird, isn't it? I love that. I like that tone. That's a very normal tone. Got a bit of levity to it, but it's got a little reality to it. I, this is one of the things that's really attractive about Trump's political,

campaign and Trump's political persona. It's got so many layers to it. Speaking of layers, Kanye West

has just released a song called Heil Hitler. Maybe that shouldn't even be surprising. What is surprising, though, is the artistic complexity of the song, which I think a lot of people are missing. The Nazis who love the song are missing it, and everyone else who doesn't love Hitler, they're missing it, too. There's actually a lot of artistic complexity of this song. We'll get to it in one second. First, though, there's nothing more challenging, more profound, or more essential than being a parent.

This Mother's Day weekend, Dr. Jordan B. Peterson unveils the trailer for Parenting, a new series rooted in decades of clinical wisdom. Here is the trailer exclusively on Daily Wire+. There is nothing you'll do in life that's more challenging, difficult, and rewarding than being a parent. Nothing with greater highs or lower lows. You have little kids for a very short period of time. It is a major mistake not to notice that and not to appreciate it.

We're dealing with a pattern of misbehaviors with our son, who's three years old. Whenever we want to leave the house, he starts running away. We have to be places at certain times. When a disciplinary issue arises, you need to make space to master it. I have to not do what I thought I was going to do for ten minutes to set this right. Our 13-year-old throws tantrums quite often when he doesn't get his way. We spoiled the heck out of him.

When you spoil a child, so to speak, you take away from them the opportunity to develop their own competence by doing too many things for them. The consequences of his abdication of thought is that other people think for him. That's what will happen. Our daughter was bullied at her school. As this is happening, our son turned to some substance abuse.

Look for mood changes and behavioral changes and then you can tell your kid, "Look, it might be an unpleasant conversation that we have to have, but I'm not going to let you be miserable and drift away."

Discuss the disciplinary strategies. Discuss the rules. Discuss what it is that you want from your child. Talk that through so that you're the same person. The more effective you are in laying out these disciplinary rules, the more they'll like you.

Rules consistently applied with minimal force and plenty of patience. You don't want to let your worry destroy the pleasures of the moment. Just because children know less about the world doesn't mean they're not paying attention and certainly doesn't mean that they're stupid. They're not stupid and they're watching.

Parenting with Dr. Jordan B. Peterson premieres May 25th only on dailywareplus.com. Did you know that over 85% of grass-fed beef sold in U.S. grocery stores is imported? That's why I buy all my meat from goodranchers.com instead. Good Ranchers products are 100% born, raised, and harvested right here in the USA by local family farms. Plus, there are no antibiotics ever, no added hormones, and no seed oils. Just one simple ingredient.

Good ranchers, American meat delivered.

My favorite comment yesterday is from MattyC24, who says, maybe the... Oh, now, hold on. I didn't pick this. So those are the producers who picked this comment. We're going to see if it's a good one. Maybe the six to eight spam calls I get from India and Pakistan will finally cease. Okay, right. That's a little bit too much of a glass-half-full way to view the brink of nuclear winter. But okay. But hey, look, you're always looking for the bright side. That's fine. Kanye West has a new song out.

Heil Hitler. And it's going viral. Kanye West, say what you will about him. He's really good at getting attention. I'm just going to play you a little bit of the song because I think the Nazis who really love Kanye's turn to defurer and everyone else who's condemning Kanye, I think they're actually missing what this song is about. If you're just listening to it, it's opening up with a bunch of black guys shirtless wearing animal masks in a dark room, dimly lit.

Kind of ominous sound opening up while standing in a formidable position.

Put a pause here. Just notice how he's opening up. He says, I got so much anger in me. I don't know how to take it out. Then he talks about my nitrous.

Which Kanye West is reportedly addicted to nitrous, which is a very, very serious drug that really screws up your head. So right off the top, he's saying, I got so much anger in me. I don't know how to take it out. I'm not acting rationally. I'm not acting logically. I'm not acting... I'm just so full of wrath and anger, which are bad. Those are vices, deadly sins. And I'm hooked on drugs, which are poisoning my brain. That's really screwing up with my logical thinking. And so... And it's all because I can't get my kids back. And I'm just...

totally losing my reason and I'm just becoming a ball of wrath. Keep going. I'm the villain. I'm the villain.

And basically that's the rest of the song. And it closes out, it's actually like a Hitler speech in German at the end. But that's the lyric, the lyric of the song. Because we understand taboos on this show and we're a family show, you know, we don't like to use a lot of naughty words. I'll just say the word ninja. I think you know what word that refers to. So he says, they don't understand the things I say on Twitter, ninja. All my ninjas Nazis.

ninja Heil Hitler. This is a paradox, right? These are contradictory things. All my ninjas Nazis. Now, how are the ninjas, refers to black fellas, by the way, if you didn't interpret what the word was. How are ninjas Nazis? The Nazis view black people as subhuman. The Nazis viewed them as untermenschen. They're subhuman. So how could a Nazi, how could a ninja be a Nazi?

It's not possible. The exoteric meaning of the song is not possible. It doesn't make any sense. So Kanye is either a nut, yeah, maybe, or he's saying something else beyond the exoteric meaning. It seems to me that the introduction to the song actually sets that up. He's saying, I'm not in my right mind. I'm not thinking logically. I'm just full of anger and wrath and sin and vice, and I'm the villain.

So Heil Hitler, I'm a Nazi. I became a Nazi. I'm the villain. Right there off the top. He's not saying Hitler is good. That's how this is going to be reported in the press. That is how Nazis are going to take it. And that is how the Kanye haters are going to take it. But it's not what he's saying. Right there off the top, he's saying, I'm bad. I'm doing bad things. I'm not being smart. I'm not being logical. I'm not making any sense. I'm bad. I'm a villain. That's why I'm a Nazi. In other words, the Nazis are the bad guys.

And Hitler's the bad guy. And I'm the bad guy now. And then it goes into this pretty clever, by pop culture standards, kind of a clever rhyme, a crazy sounding rhyme. Twitter, Ninja, Hitler. Wow.

And it grabs your attention because he's saying the thing you can't say. We've been talking about how the N word is the unutterable word. Well, he goes to a taboo that's even more central to the culture, which is Hitler, like the worst guy ever. Even Hitler is not Hitler because Hitler is a stand-in in modern parlance for the devil. And the old understanding that we had of the Christendom

The Christian understanding, which is there's the incarnation of absolute good and evil as a privation of the good, is flipped on its head in secular modernity, which says there is no such thing as good. There's no absolute good, but there is absolute evil in the person of Hitler. Hitler is just a substitute for the devil.

I won't even call it Manichean. It's just totally flipping religious reality on its head saying there's only absolute evil and whatever you would call good is merely somewhat distant from absolute evil. You can never be good. The notion of God, Christ, the person of Christ, the Christian religion, that's just to be mocked according to the popular culture. The best you can hope for is not to be good. It's not to be holier. It's just to be less of a Nazi. But Kanye is saying here, the Nazis are bad and I'm bad.

I think, look, Kanye opens up by saying something that I think is true, which is he's lost his mind because of wrath and drug addiction. I think he's admitting that. I think that's pretty sincere. And that sets up the rest of the song to say, don't take this literally or, you know, don't take this sincerely. I think at a deeper level, too, the song is a commentary on popular culture and on technology.

The way he's grabbing attention here, he's grabbing everyone's attention. The song's going super viral. There are a zillion memes all over the internet. I'm talking about it on this show. A lot of podcasts are talking about it. He's kind of pointing out where the commentary is going. We are so desensitized because we're plugged into ever more radical, radical

media all the time. I mean, radical and extreme, not only in the message, though there's that, but also in the form of the media. We're not just reading newspapers anymore. We're getting lights and we're getting flickering images and we're not even listening on 1X anymore. We're listening on one and a half X and two X. And it's also extreme. And Kanye has now said the ultimate thing you can say to get attention. He said it on the Alex Jones show. I love Hitler. And now he's done a whole song about this. And there's nowhere to go.

You know, even you think about political commentary. 15 years ago, if someone said, I support the Constitution, I want to cut taxes. That was extreme. Then five years ago, if someone said, I don't know, I don't think a man can be a woman. That was extreme. Now this is all blasé stuff. People need more. If you are engaging with politics, not for to be civically engaged and to advance the common good, if you're just engaging in it for a dopamine hit, as many people do, then this is it. Now you've reached the end of the road.

My ninjas are Nazis. Heil Hitler. That's the end of the road. There's no more extreme thing you can possibly say. There's no more incoherent thing you can possibly say. There can be no coherence to this at all. As Kanye admits off the top of the show, he says, I'm not being coherent. I'm just pure wrath right now. I'm a villain. I'm the bad guy. I'm going to say something craziest, least coherent thing you can possibly say. And that's the end of it. So where do you go from there?

Where does popular music go from there? Where does Kanye go from there? His life is in shambles as this is what the song is about. How do you become a good guy again? This is the song that he says at the top, I've reached rock bottom. I'm a villain. I've lost my kids. I've lost my money. I've lost my everything. I'm a villain. So then how do you become good again? You got to give the guy a little bit of credit. He is artistically capturing people's attention and artistically interesting.

saying much more than a lot of pop music does. At this point, everyone's dopamine receptors or everyone's kind of stimulations could be totally blown out. What do you say? Okay, what if you don't want to be the villain? I don't want to be a villain. So then what do we do? And oddly enough, the two news stories from today actually kind of form a nice bookend. You've got looking toward God and looking toward the Logos and looking with reason toward the divine, which grace perfects nature.

Or you can go the other way. Which way, Western man? You can go the other way and just be a villain and give up your reason and give up virtue and again, just plunge into drugs and vice and wrath and Nazism. Which way? Which way do you want to go? There's nothing worse than realizing your neighbors can see right into your living room because your old blinds don't quite do the job anymore. It is 2025. Your blinds might still be from 2005.

That is why I'm so excited about Three Day Blinds. They're the leading manufacturer of custom window treatments in the U.S. They make the whole process super easy. You can do all the shopping right from the comfort of your home. And right now, if you use my URL, threedayblinds.com slash Knowles,

They're running a buy one, get one 50% off deal. Their design consultants have over 10 years of experience and come right to your home with thousands of staples. No more guessing what your blinds will look like. The best part, they handle everything. Design, measuring, and installation. Plus, they can even set you up with smart blinds that connect to your home automation system.

After helping over 2 million people get their dream window treatments in the past 45 years, they know what they're doing. Right now, get quality window treatments that fit your budget with 3-Day Blinds. Go to 3, the number 3, dayblinds.com slash Knowles for their buy one, get one 50% off deal on custom blinds, shades, shutters, and drapery for a free no charge, no obligation consultation. Head to 3dayblinds.com slash Knowles. That is buy one, get one 50% off. 3dayblinds.com slash Knowles.

Now we turn to the mailbag. Our mailbag is sponsored by Pure Talk. Switch to Pure Talk at puretalk.com slash Knowles, K-N-W-L-E-S, and get a year of Daily Wire Plus for free with a qualifying plan. Take it away. Hey, Michael. Ryan from Florida. Yesterday's show, you had a tongue-in-cheek joke about Trump's third, fourth, and fifth term, and you've made those jokes in the past, but I wanted to know how you would feel in earnest if they actually did change the amendment and allowed for that.

would you legitimately be for that? Or would you support just keeping it at a term limit of two terms? Thank you, buddy. The only thing that I like about the presidential term limit is that it pays respect to George Washington, who only served two terms. And Washington is the father of our country, is this political figure who, from a civic perspective, gets veneration. Other than that, I have no support for term limits. I know this

This will make me unpopular with certain branches, especially the more libertarian branches of the right. I'm with Reagan on this. Reagan, at the end of his second term and afterward, after he left office, campaigned to repeal the 22nd Amendment, which is the term limits. I'm much more on the side of letting people decide. There is a natural term limit. The natural term limit is at the ballot box. People can throw you out if they want or they can reelect you if they want.

And some really good presidents, maybe they'd give three terms to plenty of presidents that give one term to a lot of people. I don't want to give any terms to, but I'm, there's always a term limit. The question is how is the term limit going to be enforced? Is it going to be enforced by the law? Is it going to be enforced by the constitution? Is it going to be enforced by the people at the ballot box? So I have no great love of, of formal term limits because the power is going to go somewhere. This is the other thing. It's not that term limits restrain the power of the government. It just puts the power in different places.

If you term limit a president or a senator or a member of Congress, it's not that the power goes away. It just goes somewhere else. The power could go to the staff. The power could go to the deep state, the bureaucracy, which is really what's happened. The power could go to lobbyists. But it's going to go somewhere. So I just as soon give the people a little bit more power to elect their representatives, to allow them to be the arbiters of term limits and not an arbitrary rule. Next question.

Hello, Michael. My wife and I wanted your opinion on renewing our wedding vows. Now, I know you're generally against the idea, but this isn't something that we wanted to do because our marriage is on the rocks or anything like that. The reason we actually want to do this is our original ceremony was not in a church, and it was with a quote-unquote female minister. And as we've gotten a little bit older and a little bit wiser, and we've been

listening to you and the other hosts. We think that maybe we'd like to go do something a little more traditional. So like I said, we would love to get your input on that. And thank you so much. Okay. So you're not asking if you should have a renewal of vows. What you're really asking is, should you regularize your marriage? Should you sacramentalize your marriage? Make it proper in the eyes of the church?

and not just a civil marriage? That's a different question because the renewal of vows that sometimes people do is really, in my opinion, just a pre-divorce. You don't have to be too blunt about it, but I think it's the first right. It's the first ceremony in the right of divorce. You don't need to do it. You get married once. You get baptized once. We confess one baptism for the forgiveness of sins. You shouldn't be getting baptized two, three, four times. The Holy Spirit

worked the first time. You don't need to do it again. It's not dependent on your feelings. It's not dependent on the sanctity of the priest or anything like that. It works. Same with marriage. Marriage, once and done. One and done, baby. You're done. Then let what God has joined, let no man separate. But what you're saying is, should I sacramentalize my marriage and make it right in the eyes of the church? Yeah, you should do that. But it's not another marriage. That's not renewing your vows exactly.

And frankly, you could go do that in a nice private ceremony with a priest, you know, or sign some papers, basically get a blessing. That's what I would do. I wouldn't go out and have another wedding. And you might say, well, darn, you know, we just did this thing where we went and got married by justice of the peace, or we did it with an officiant, but it wasn't, it was like in a barn. It wasn't in a church. And we want to do the big thing again. We wish we had done it differently. Yeah, we all wish we'd done things differently. But you're married. You have the marriage. That's what really counts.

And now you go and you can have it raised up to the level of a sacramental marriage. That's good. But don't redo it. Just like you say, well, I wasn't a good student in college, but I was a better student as a master's student. I wish I could have gotten my bachelor's from a better school. Maybe I'll go back and get another bachelor's. No, don't. You can go on. You're married. You got the real thing. Now go and make it right in the eyes of the church. That's good. But you don't need to redo it. Just have a bunch of kids. That's what you should do. Next question.

Hi, Michael. A point about deportations that I don't ever hear. If we deport a person, that doesn't necessarily mean they're going to prison. So the fact that a guy gets deported and then ends up in prison in his home country means he has a reason to be in prison there. If we deport them, we're just sending them to their home country free as a bird in their own country. I don't understand why people think we put him in prison. All we did was send him home. He deserved to be in prison at his home. Why is this never talked about?

Yeah, that's a good point. And that's fair enough on a lot of deportations. You know, even if we wanted to say, let that deported illegal alien out of jail in Guatemala. Well, we don't run Guatemala. Guatemala is its own country. If the guys wanted for a crime in Guatemala, he's going to sit in the jail. However, we did cut a deal with Nayib Bukele, the president of El Salvador, to take some of our criminals. I mean, these people have committed crimes in America.

And so they get their due process. They're processed in America. And then we send them to prisons, at least one prison in El Salvador. So there we are kind of sending them to prison. But, you know, presumably they deserve it because they've been committing a bunch of crimes. So when you commit crimes, you go to prison. Next one. We all know how the left has been ruining the arts in the West for many years. We all know how they've sidelined Shakespeare in favor of slam poetry, Beethoven in favor of Beyonce, and Michelangelo in favor of Marcel Duchamp.

But I think we should be cautious about the conservative response now that the ball is in our court. With Trump at the helm, in the Kennedy Center, Dolly Parton is heralding what conservatives are calling a "golden age of the arts." Personally, I don't think we can call it that until the primacy of the Western canon has been restored, and I'm skeptical that right-wing populists are the ones to do it. I've been a conservative and a musician my entire life, and yes, my artistic peers don't seem to think clearly on political issues,

Conversely, however, my conservative friends don't seem to understand art. And a lot of people don't, I know. But I think the solution to restoring the arts is to make the Western canon and its aspects more popular rather than making populism more canonical. Your thoughts?

Yeah, there's a lot to that. We don't need to all be stuffy nerds, you know, and just only listening to Bach. But maybe you should be because it's a lot better for you. Because as Plato tells us, music, more than any other art form, cuts past the reason to the soul and it stirs the soul. This is my fear with Kanye's Hitler song. My fear with that is whether Kanye knows it or not, the song has an ironic message. The message of the song is the Nazis are bad.

But the song, because music cuts past the reason to the soul, to the more sensitive parts, I fear some people will just interpret it and hear like, oh, Hitler, Heil Hitler, that's good. That's a nice sounding song. And okay, I like Hitler. They're not thinking about it consciously. So they'd miss the real meaning of the song and they would interpret it in exactly the opposite way. So that's a danger. And there is a danger to all art.

And I think, you know, the libs and the libertarians would say, well, just let it all out there, man. The answer to bad speech is more speech. But I don't think that's true. I think standards are good. So I'm with you. We should elevate the kind of art and the culture. But we have to do it in a prudent prudential way where you're not just telling a bunch of people that they have to listen to really slow music all at once and they don't really know what to make of that. But a culture that listens to gangster rap

And a culture that listens to Bach will be very different cultures. And the culture that listens to Bach is going to be better and more reasonable and almost certainly more virtuous. And the culture that listens to gangster rap is going to be brutish because that music, that kind of percussive, you know, especially if the lyrics are really nasty, that's going to just form your...

your desires and your appetites and your habits in a way that's not going to be good. So, you know, I agree. We should elevate. I love Dolly. No knock on Dolly Parton. You might be knocking Dolly, but Dolly, you know, she's got some bops. But yes, we need to elevate the music, but we have to do so in a way that brings people along with it. If all of a sudden we just put on our monocles and say, well, you know, you're going to listen to Gustav Mahler or nothing, you know, then you're going to just totally lose the common sense and no one's going to listen to you anyway.

And they're not going to listen to Gustav Mahler. Airwick Essential Mist Diffuser transforms your space, creating your perfect ambiance with a wide range of inviting fragrances that make your guests go...

Oh!

Okay, today is Fake Headline Friday. The rest of the show continues now. You don't want to miss it. Become a member. Use code NOLS, K-N-O-W-L-E-S, at checkout for two months free on all annual plans. ♪