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Michael Knowles
5:00Am I'm up with a crisp Celsius energy drink running 12 miles today. Grab a green juice, quick change, and head to work. Meetings, workshops. One more Celsius.
Ben Shapiro
No slowing down.
Michael Knowles
Working late, but obviously still meeting the.
Ben Shapiro
Girls for a little dancing. Celsius live fit.
Michael Knowles
Go grab a cold, refreshing Celsius at.
Ben Shapiro
Your local retailer or locate now@celsius.com.
Matt Walsh
It may be just this angle, but I feel like Walsh is. Is somehow even more beardy than usual. I think that, yeah, it's that guy.
Drew Hernandez
You turn him upside down and it becomes his ear.
Matt Walsh
He's got, like, the full Michael Shannon as James Garfield in Death by lightning beard going.
Ben Shapiro
Now it's so dark on my screen that it looks like someone just took out the pixels of Matt's face into, like, a black abyss.
Drew Hernandez
I've been trying to do that for years.
Michael Knowles
It's cold here, man. It's cold. Oh, we're live.
Drew Hernandez
Oh, we're live.
Matt Walsh
Cool. That's it. That's. That's exciting.
Drew Hernandez
I just hope Allie Beth isn't hearing us curse like this. There's still. Gentlemen, enough. She is. Look, she's naughty. This is terrible.
Matt Walsh
It's okay. Has known me long enough to know that this is a reality. The reality behind the scenes. Friends like these coolies.
Ben Shapiro
Enemies of friends like these goonies. Enemies. Listen, we have a lot to do today, guys, okay? We need to talk about the Spanish maxing skurt cell who showed up to the Super Bowl. And then we also have to talk about clavicular. Of course, then there's a topic that all of us have touched on. Some of us have even made big hit movies on. There was a school shooting, horrible incident in Canada where we all know exactly what happened, but the media don't want to talk about the thing that everybody knows happened. And we have to talk about the biggest news story in the country that I know absolutely nothing about. And it's the weirdest one yet, which is that Savannah Guthrie's mother has been kidnapped. So anyway, there's a lot that we have to get to on this very special episode of Friendly Fire. But before we get to any of that, I need to explain something. I look haggard and I sound haggard right now. The reason that I look and sound haggard is because I was out all night drinking and smoking. But the only reason I look even somewhat present is I have a beautiful Helix mattress. In fact, I have multiple Helix mattresses in my home. I'm such a good father. I gave my kids Helix mattresses. It is magnificent. And all the mattresses are different because no one is exactly the same. No one sleeps the same. So you can take the Helix sleep quiz and you can match in just a few moments to the perfect mattress for you. In a rare poll that has not been rigged or skewed by the Lib media, 82% of happily sleeping participants in a recent study saw an increase in their deep sleep cycle after switching to to a Helix mattress. They'll ship it to you for free. You get 120 night trial to sleep on it. It could be 120 year trial. You're not going to return it. It's so beautiful. Start sleeping right right now by ordering a helix mattress today. Helixsleep.com friendlyfire 27% off sitewide that is helixsleep.com friendly fire 27% off site wide. Make sure you enter our show after checkout so that they know that we sent you. That is helixsleep.com FriendlyFire okay, I think that's all the English we should speak.
Drew Hernandez
Absolutely.
Ben Shapiro
Donde estala biblioce? You all think of football Americano.
Drew Hernandez
I, I want to comment first because I have the best comment on this. I've heard everybody else's comments and mine are the best. My comment on the super bowl halftime show every year is the same. I don't watch it. And the reason I don't watch it, no, you know, I'm not, I'm not absconding from my duty. The reason that is my commentary. I don't watch it because I feel it's a setup. It's a setup where they put on some stupid left wing thing, dissing the audience of white males basically who watch football like me. And then we come out and we complain about it. We sound like a bunch of cranks. So I just don't watch it. I turn it off. I either I usually have dinner with my wife. This time I was pounding on my grandson, beating up my grandson while that went on. And then I turned the game back on, which is what I came there to see. On top of which I really believe that the arts belong to people who love them. And I don't love popular music, so I don't comment on it that much. Ever since the Beatles replaced Frank Sinatra singing Cole Porter songs, I was out. And I just continue to remain. I like, I like the game of football. I boycotted it when they knelt at the flag. I'm not boycotting it over crappy music because it's all crappy.
Matt Walsh
This is, this is. That was the best take. That Right. There was the best take. You insisted on going first so you could explain that you don't like pop music and that you're old. That was. That. That's like. That was the best of all the days.
Drew Hernandez
Everybody sounds old. Everybody sounds old when they. When they talk about this.
Michael Knowles
I have my best take on this. Can I. Can I. Can I go as. I actually. I have the actual best take on this because I am. I am mad about it. I am grumpy about it.
Matt Walsh
Shock me, Matt.
Michael Knowles
I know. I know no one expects it. Listen, I do. It's this weird. This weird thing has happened with the halftime show this. This time around, which is that the thing happened. Some conservatives complained about it, I think rightly so. So there's backlash, and then there's backlash from other conservatives against those conservatives saying, well, what are you doing complaining about it doesn't matter? Well, I kind of think, like, if that doesn't matter, then what. Then what are any. Why are we talking about anything like the. The end. This is. This is one of our preeminent cultural events. You know, this is an iconic cultural event. It's an American event. The Super Bowl. I do watch the super bowl, and I like the NFL because I like. I like football. You know, it's. It's an American pastime, and I don't want to give that up. And so when they turn that into this celebration of not just any foreign culture, but, by the way, a foreign culture that has nothing to do with football at all, okay? Hispanic culture has not contributed to the NFL, to American football at all. I mean, right now, there are more Hispanics in the NFL than there have ever been. And there's, like, one per active roster in the. There's 32 on the active rosters in the entire. In the entire league, and that's. And that's at the peak. So this is. This is. This is. You might as well have a halftime show that's devoted to celebrating women. Women.
Matt Walsh
Women who represent zero percent of the rosters.
Drew Hernandez
Does anybody remember those magnetoids where you moved filings to make a beard on a guy? Just say, I just have enough flat.
Michael Knowles
Yeah, I like. I like football to have a beard. You know, it all comes together. So my. My point is that this. That what they did with the halftime show, I think is. Is more deliberately offensive, Not. Not in the sense of, like, I'm not. I'm not crying about it. I mean, like, deliberately. It's meant to be offensive to the actual fans of the game because it's. It's it's inaccessible. It's in a language that we don't speak. And then on top of it. And this is the part that I think, like, if you're a conservative trying to. Trying to take the contrarian view, it's actually. It was good. It. You know, that's absurd.
Ben Shapiro
As soon as you get to the end of it, the actual worst take is the one you're describing. And it was John Kasich and there were other squishy types who were backing it, and it was all these kind of like wannabe cool, you know, boomer establishment Republicans, you know, Actually what Kasich said was, actually, that was great. Bad bunny. A home run grand slam. And I couldn't tell if that was ironic, if he was throwing some shade or.
Michael Knowles
No.
Ben Shapiro
I think he actually was that tone deaf that this guy gets up there, a Puerto Rican transvestite, sings exclusively in Spanish. Finally at the end, he says, God bless America. And then it says, God bless America, you know, Chile, Argentina, Cuba. And you think, well, you want. At America's preeminent sporting event. You can't even say God bless America without throwing shade at this country that you manifestly hate. And you get John Kasich clapping like a seal saying, please get another three pointer, fellas.
Michael Knowles
It was not just John Kasich, though. It's easy enough. It's not just John Kasich. There's, like, plenty of people that are on the. That would pretend to be even on the far right that have decided that actually the halftime show is perfectly fine.
Drew Hernandez
Absolutely. And then on top of that, something new to be wrong about.
Michael Knowles
Yeah, we're flip around and say and criticize that TPUs halftime show. By the way, the TPOSA halftime show was a huge gamble that they took. If they had asked me and took and gotten my opinion ahead of time, I would have told them, don't do it because you're, you know, you're. You're counter programming the NFL, the Super Bowl. It's going to be a huge failure. I was wrong. Was a huge success. And. And even if you don't like Kid Rock, even if Kid Rock is not your jam, well, guess what? The point is, they've established this. They got tens of millions of viewers. So next year, well, now it's actually going to be appealing potentially to some bigger stars because they know they'll get a big audience. So they've set something up for the future, I think, in a really smart way, can I say we can't celebrate that as conservatives, I don't Know what we're doing.
Matt Walsh
I have to say, both those takes were mediocre. And now here comes the best take. Okay?
Drew Hernandez
So thank heaven. I know we're all dying here.
Matt Walsh
We're all waiting. So I'll get to the TPUSA of it in a little bit because I think that the TPUSA thing is really, really fascinating because on a. On a cultural level, I totally agree with Matt that it was a huge success. Obviously, the numbers were gigantic. There was a hunger for something that wasn't what was being shown on the super bowl, and TPA proved it on a sort of aesthetic level. Obviously, you hope that the future is better than Kid Rock, who has not been musically relevant, in my opinion, ever, but certainly for the last 20 years. And so that kind of is what it is. But as far as the Bad Bunny show, so I think, first of all, that the. That I want to say a couple of things since it's been unmitigated just bashing of the super bowl halftime show. And I'm happy to join in on that because I also despise music. That is this music. I didn't. I will say this one. Everybody was upset. It was all in Spanish. This is like, the third time I haven't understood a word somebody said during the super bowl halftime show. I mean, I will freely admit that Kendrick Lamar rapping. I had no idea what the hell he was saying the entire halftime show. So the fact that it was in Spanish or whether it's in Ebonics makes no difference to me if I don't know what you're saying. I know what you're saying. As far as the actual production value, just from, like, a pure production value standpoint, it is pretty incredible what they were able to build on the field. Like, just from. In terms of. They built, like, out an entire sugar cane field, and then apparently one of the glories of Puerto Rico failing telephone lines. And then they built an entire, you know, casita. Like. Like that stuff. Honestly, like, on an aesthetic level, that. That was kind of cool. I did appreciate that they actually held a straight wedding on the field. Right. I mean. I mean that. Like that. That's. I like.
Ben Shapiro
The little marriages are good.
Matt Walsh
Yeah, exactly. I'll take the little win. I'll take the. I thought it was kind of cute when there was the kid who was falling asleep on the. On the chairs and. And grandpa comes over and, like, picks him up like that. That's fine. The part of it that really ticks me off, and it's not even that It's. It's all in. In Spanish. Although, again, I. I would appreciate if you did something in English, because we should all speak English. It's America. The part at the very end was the tell, right? And this is all a bit of gaslighting what is happening here. And they do it every year. And this is what Drew, I think you were alluding to is they do a thing, they call it extremely important. And then when you say, oh, I agree, it's important and bad, they go, why are you even noticing it's not important? Right? And that's the part that's truly galling because at the very end, when he, when he, you know, decided that he was going to go through every single country in the. In the Americas and say, we are all America, as though there's nothing special or unique about the country that gave you fame, fortune or wealth, the opportunity to be on the biggest stage that exists for any musician. And somehow Peru is getting mentioned. And by the way, it wasn't just Latino, right? Because you mentioned Canada. I'm not sure what the Canadians have to do with any of you mentioned Greenland.
Ben Shapiro
I thought that was a huge omission.
Matt Walsh
I know, if we're not going to include Greenland, what are we even. What are we even doing here? But when he said, you know, we are all Americans and we all understand, no, we're not. Like, we're not Americans means like from the United States, that was the part that I found insulting. And also obviously a way of gaslighting every. Everybody and driving them half mad and crazy and then. And then trolling off of that. And. And so, of course, the President sounded off on this and said that he didn't like it. By the way, one of the great things about the Kalshee markets, they're one of our sponsors, is that you actually can place. You can actually predict whether the President is going to call out Bad Bunny by name this month. That was up at like 80% right before the Super Bowl. That is. That is down at like 25% right now. But, you know, my overall take on it is that of course, Americans who are insulted are right to be insulted, and the left meant for it to be insulting. Also. I think that it was a. It was a game. It was a game. The game was to try and get the right to sound off in extremely loud fashion about this particular thing. So then they can go back to Latino voters, particularly, and Latinos in the United States and say it's not that they are upset that they didn't get any English. Or that you're equating somehow Haiti in the United States as we're all Americans, or that what, all those flags belong in America as equivalent to the American flag. Like that. The thing that they really hate about you is that you're Latino. And that's the game the media are playing now. And they're taking the stupidest form of the argument being made by the right. And of course, using it that way.
Michael Knowles
I know.
Drew Hernandez
One good note, though, we have to say it was the only 20 minutes of the show in which Drake May wasn't sacked. So I think that. That, you know, that's something we can say positive about the performance.
Michael Knowles
I actually. I disagree with this. I disagree with that. I don't. I don't think, you know, the idea that while they're trying to provoke conservatives into having some kind of reaction, and so then the right answer is to not. It's to have a reaction. I know you didn't say that second part, Ben, but that's. That's the implication. Like they're trying to provoke us to react so we look like grumpy old men, and so we should therefore not react. I don't think that's the case at all. I think. I think the gamble. There was a gamble they were taking. The gamble was that they would just kind of get away with it and there wouldn't be much of a backlash. Because what. What has actually been proven is that. Is that in fact, when conservatives, if we're, like, united about something and we all decide basically as one voice that we're not okay with this, this is not okay. We can actually get concessions in the culture. We can. Rather than abandoning these iconic institutions like the NFL and iconic American institution, rather than abandoning it, say, I'm not watching that, or I'm just gonna take it and not complain. You can actually extract concessions. You can get them to come back our way, but that doesn't happen if we end up fighting with each other and we've got people on our own side saying, oh, actually, this is fine. I mean, we already. That happened with the NFL. Okay, Right. Maybe. Maybe we've all noticed that these. These players, they don't kneel during the anthem anymore.
Drew Hernandez
That's right. We boycotted it.
Michael Knowles
They did that. And conservatives, unanimously, were pissed off about it. Rightly so. And so the NFL sent the message to the teams, okay, you need to have your players stand. We're not doing this. We, I mean, famously stopped watching Matt.
Drew Hernandez
This is like crap music. That is. You're absolutely right. It's geared to make us offended and make us sound like grumpy old men. I think it' idea to go over and watch the TPUSA show. I just don't watch any of it.
Ben Shapiro
Because I hate the music show. Look, I totally agree with Matt. It was a huge risk. And I had multiple fears about the TPUSA show. One, I thought it could flop just because you're going up against the NFL. And it didn't flop. It was a huge success, got tens of millions of views. It was a big, big win. The second fear I had was that it was going to be a cringe fest and love Charlie. Eric is a national hero. I love our friends at tpusa. They do great stuff. They put on great shows. But I kind of thought it was gonna be a huge cringe fest. So I'm watching it with, you know, white knuckling it, and I thought, I don't know. And maybe Kid Rock is gonna be a little over the top or whatever. So Kid Rock comes out and he does the thing that we were all expecting. Flag pyrotechnics. 1. It was impressive that a guy who's, I think 57 years old was moving around like that. I don't move around like that at 35, and I didn't move around like that at 25. But. So that was physically impressive. But I thought, okay, here's this song from 1999. We've all heard it.
Matt Walsh
I don't even know he's Social Security Rock now. He's no longer Kid Rock.
Ben Shapiro
But, you know, he actually leaned into that. And I thought this was the point where. And conservatives are kind of dissing some of this stuff. But I thought there was actually real artistry. I thought there was actually some real beauty in that show because he comes out, they say, introducing Kid Rock, and he does the Kid Rock bit. And then it shifted to a cello and a violin. And I thought, oh, God, okay, man, we're in it now. They're really catering to me because the right is split up between, you know, the, like, I wanna go fishing kinda guys and the more like, rocky, edgy face tattoo guys and people like us who like classical music and Cole Porter and whatever. And so they. It's actually kind of hard to cater to all of them. TPUSA did that. You had this transition with the cello and the violin. And then they reintroduced Kid Rock by his Christian name, by. I think it's Rob Ritchie, actually didn't even know what his real name was. And they introduced him and he did this song till you can't. And it was this song about how, you know, you plan to go see your dad, but you get a rain check. And you can always get a rain check until you can't, you know, until he dies and you. You plan to play with your kids or whatever. Til you can't, they're out of the house. And he added this. This verse that Kid Rock himself wrote, and it was about Jesus. And even there, I thought, okay, this could be kind of cringy, you know, like just Bible thumping, you know, low hymnody. But I thought it was actually much tougher than that. It was more thoughtful than that. He said, you can give your life to Jesus until you can't. You know, there are actually eternal consequences of our actions. There was a little bit of hellfire in there. There was a little bit of reality that crept in, and it had this beautiful tie in with Charlie. Of course, you know, until you can't. We all thought we had so much more time with Charlie, and he struck down in the prime of his life. We all think we have a big shot in our political order. Everything's gonna go hunky dory until you can. And it even showed his evolution as an artist from this guy who's like rapping and bopping around as a kid to this older, more mature feeling. It actually really struck a chord with me. I don't love modern music either, but I thought this was a moment where, yeah, conservatives had the guts to offer an alternative. They succeeded in getting tens of millions of views, but they did something conservatives never do. They did it, at the very least, a little bit, which is they offered something that was artistically interesting and kind of bold. Maybe I'm too glass half full here by the end of it. I thought that was actually a really beautiful choice and a fitting way to end the show.
Michael Knowles
Yeah. And then we also got the other thing that we're used to from conservatives, which is you get this huge win, this, like, unprecedented that you counter program the super bowl, and it pays off. One of the, I think the biggest, top three streams in the history of YouTube they had. I mean, it's huge. And. And then immediately, what do you have on the right, which you never have on the left, is all these conservatives that you have to start. Well, I don't. You know, I. I don't. It seems like that was a big win, but actually it's bad. Let me explain why this thing that seems really good is actually bad. Let me explain why. Yeah, they went out and did something that had a big success, but it would have been better if they didn't do that. Or, or, or, you know, having these critiques that are totally useless. Like, you know what I think would have been better? What? If they had an even bigger star than Kid Rock that would have been better. Oh, you think they didn't think of that? Like, do you, do you. I, like, you know, I got no problem with Kid Rock. Do you think that the people at TP USA thought that Kid Rock is the biggest star in the world? No, but they, they wanted to put on this show, and you get the biggest star that you can. They're dealing with the fact that, number one, they're tpa. They're seen as a conservative. They're. They are a conservative organization. And so that rules out a lot of, you know, big, big stars already. And then on top of that, you have other big stars who maybe would do it. But they're thinking the same thing you were thinking, Michael, that I was thinking, which is like, this is, this is not going to work. You're counter programming the super bowl. And so they don't want to be, because what if you get 500,000 live viewers or something, and then it's blamed on you? And so you do what you can. You put on as good a show as you can. You take the swing, you go for it, and then if it's a hit like it was now, in the future, you've done something for the long term. It just, it just pisses me off that for so many conservatives, and we all know that, it's, it's, it's really just competitive, competitiveness. It's like envy. It's. Well, they went out and did something, were successful, and I wasn't a part of it. So I have to find a reason to pick holes in it. And I think that's also the reason.
Drew Hernandez
We lose, that our celebrities tend to be older, because if you're young, they crush your career. I mean, we see with Sydney Sweeney, she didn't. I don't even know what her politics are, but all she had to do was hint that there was MAGA in her family. And they, she hasn't gotten a good review since. They're making fun of her and all this stuff. And that's why young people don't do it. They, you know, I have seen, I have seen Jon Voight, probably the, the bravest guy in Hollywood. I've seen him counsel young actors. You know, don't, don't be doing this. Don't, don't do it because you're not going to get to the place where you can do it. That doesn't happen to left wingers. You know, that actually is a boost up if you come out and curse.
Ben Shapiro
Yes. And you know, speaking of the envy that people feel and the resentment and the need to. I, I just want to put it on the record here. They should have invited me to play ukulele and it was a huge miss for tpusa. We'll move on cuz there will be a year I was watching you play. You're just watching my, my YouTube videos playing ukulele. You know one thing you can watch right now only, only if you are a Daily Wire plus member, which you should right now.
Michael Knowles
Stop.
Ben Shapiro
Hey.
Michael Knowles
Hey. Stop.
Ben Shapiro
Get your phone out. Download the Daily Wire plus app on your TV. Load up the Daily Wire app on your Commodore 64. Plug it into the back of your TV. Download the Daily Wire plus app. Get the Pendragon cycle. Do we have a teaser?
Michael Knowles
Men of the island of the mighty, you have only known peace when it was given to you. You've only known unity when it was forced upon you by stronger kings. But today you stand together.
Matt Walsh
You stand as Britons.
Michael Knowles
You stand as warned. Ride forth against the barbarian and lead.
Ben Shapiro
Your high king to victory. I've seen what you can do. Great light, preserve our king.
Michael Knowles
Great light, great darkness. We are not so different, you and I.
Ben Shapiro
The Pendragon cycle, Rise of the Merlin.
Michael Knowles
Now streaming only on Daily Wire Plus.
Ben Shapiro
What else can they watch, Matt?
Michael Knowles
Well, also Real History with Matt Walsh is available on Daily Wire. You know, we put out our episode about slavery, the real history of slavery, which did really well. A lot of people are talking about it. We have coming out in a couple of weeks our next episode that I'm very excited about because it's the real history of the, of the American Indian and the actual story of the conflict between, you know, European settlers and then Americans with the, with the Native Americans. And we all know the story that we're often told and we're told in schools about the smallpox blankets and the Trail of Tears. All of that is fake. It's all a myth. And we expose that. But you gotta become a subscriber to watch it.
Ben Shapiro
That's absolutely true. Now what I wanna do is I want to beauty and eloquence Max our conversation right now and I wanna have a little John Calvin mogging to weigh in on the latest trend of meth addicted face smashers, namely my former guest clavicular. And we should do that with Our friend, Ali Beth Stuckey. Allie, hello.
Allie Beth Stuckey
First of all, I just want to say thank you for introducing me as John Calvin. I was not expecting that, but I appreciate it. Your audience probably doesn't even know who John Calvin is. I am like your audience's introduction to evangelicalism, so you are welcome for that. You asked about someone. Clavicle. Clavicular. I can never think of what his name is because I hadn't heard of him until I saw him go viral on your show, Michael. And I don't know any of the words that you said. I don't know. Mogging. I don't know looks. Maxine, I think you said that. He's in jail. I'm gonna need to get an update on who this person is and why I should care. And the audience might need that too.
Ben Shapiro
So clavicular. Just for those who haven't caught my extended sit down. We're kind of joking about him because he uses goofy language and he's a 19 year old. I think now he's 20 and he gets into all sorts of trouble. But I actually think he's qu an interesting cultural figure because he's apolitical. He was kind of mocking me for caring at all about politics. He said he wanted to vote for Gavin Newsom over J.D. vance. Cause he finds Newsom sexier. He said he doesn't care about the transgender issue because transvestites are just another person to mog. And he doesn't wanna spike his cortisol by stressing out about politics. And I'm sure he's joking about some or all of that. But there is a reason why he's caught attention and I think some of that is because it's swing. Everything is so politicized and he is this kind of decadent Nietzschean figure. And in many ways it's funny he was talking about the transvestite issue because he himself kind of openly embraces a right wing form of body dysmorphia where he says that all that matters is how you look. And he brags about how he injected himself with illegal testosterone starting at age 14. He made himself infertile because of it. But he wants to look smacks because all that matters in this world is appearances. So we need to be decadent, hedonistic, create our own meaning and then basically take a dirt nap and turn to worm food.
Matt Walsh
So the reason that he is important is because he has 700,000 TikTok followers, I believe, and he has an enormous following on Kik. Like his kickstream is worth A fair bit of money. And that means there are a bunch of young people who are watching this kind of crap and treating it with. With seriousness. And again, this is a person who says that he takes crystal meth in order to make sure that he does not gain weight. And. And that in order to maximize his jawline, he hits himself in the face with. With hammers. A thing he has actually recommended to people. And Michael somehow decided that it was important to bring this to the mainstream. And so now I was clearly right.
Ben Shapiro
People are talking about it.
Matt Walsh
That. That is fair. But were you the cause, or were you simply a symptom of the decline of Western civilization? Michael, that's.
Ben Shapiro
I've been examining my conscience. I'm not sure the answer.
Matt Walsh
And so he. He was arrested this week because he was carrying and he had a bunch of drugs on him. And so he was arrested being underage at a bar and all the rest of it. He'd also gone to a pretty well noticed, I would say, Nazi influencer. Get together with some of our other.
Drew Hernandez
Friends, sort of the Milo Yiannopoulos of the future is that we can say about him. He's like.
Matt Walsh
I don't know if he's gay or if he's just, you know, spending way too much time on his beauty regimen, you know, legitimately.
Ben Shapiro
I actually think that it's not a great comparison, because Milo, whether you love him or hate him or feel indifferent to him, Milo does talk about politics. He does think about politics. He has read a lot of books. And Clavicular is like the opposite. Clavicular is very provocative and everything, but he assiduously avoids anything with real meaning. In fact, that's kind of his pitch to the audience is, I'm just gonna be nothing but a pretty face. And, you know, that in itself is kind of meaningful.
Drew Hernandez
I think I only meant in terms of future irrelevance. I'm sorry.
Matt Walsh
Anyway, so, Ali Beth, we have now lectured you about the majestic importance of clavicular. So. So your thoughts?
Allie Beth Stuckey
Okay, I still have more questions. I know he has a lot of followers, but it's kind of like just following something because it's bizarre and you have that kind of odd interest in it. I do wonder how much of this is actually a pervasive trend among boys. I mean, previously, I'm a girl mom. The concerns that we had for girls is that they're comparing themselves to unrealistic expectations in magazines and now on social media, eating disorders, things like that. Is this something that is actually being latched onto by Boys who are so obsessed with their jawline that they're breaking it with a hammer or that they're taking these drugs in order to be skinny, they want to be empty headed, not really care about what's going on in the world. Like, is this something that we should really worry about when it comes to the men that are coming of age?
Ben Shapiro
Yes. And the reason why is that. And the reason why I think Clavicular, oddly enough, is an important and interesting figure is that he is a symptom specifically of our age and his gener. And he's an extreme version of it. But he was raised entirely on the Internet. This was the through line that I kept trying to poke at and figure out in our long conversation was that every aspect of his life, from getting the illegal drugs when he was 14 to even coming to the idea that he should be injecting himself with illegal drugs, to falling into the subcultures that suggest that all that matters is how you look to the way that he lives his life, which is entirely in a fishbowl for live streams. The most extreme 247 version of reality. All of it is because he was raised on the Internet in a way that none of us were. You know, I had a computer and the Internet since I was 5 or 6 years old. So even, even we had some touch of that. And this is a completely different level. And so Clavicular himself creates a kind of a hyperreality where it's so meta. His political views are meta political. His views of what a man is are kind of meta views. It's like this totally abstracted image of what a man could be that nothing to do with fertility, for instance, virility. You know, where the word man comes from, Veer? It has nothing to do with actually finding a woman, getting married, doing anything, contributing to your community, getting a job. It's all just appearances without substance beneath it. But he's aware of that. Like he'll talk about that in a way that, I don't know, it's a Nietzsche for 2026, I think.
Michael Knowles
Yeah, I think, Look, I think that it's not so much that young men will follow everything that this guy does. I mean, maybe some of them will. But what he is, or to Michael's point, I think he's one of the first celebrities of. He's one of our first true, you know, brain rot celebrities. One of our first true slop celebrity celebrities. Doom scroll celebrities in that he doesn't it. And it's a. It's a new kind of Celebrity, too. We're also dealing with a kind of like a new kind of celebrity, a new kind of fame, where the stars of this. Of this generation, the generation he's a part of, are people who, unlike previous generations, they don't do anything. It's like he doesn't sing. He's not really good at a sport. He's not an actor. He has. He doesn't have an art. He's not even a compelling, charismatic figure. To Michael's point. He has nothing to say. He's not like. He doesn't have interesting ideas. There's just like nothing there at all. He's just kind of of a guy who lives his life on the Internet for all to see. And I think people. And it's kind of hard to. Yeah, it is hard to get inside the mentality of someone who says, I. I think about these streams, these, like 24 hour streams. I mean, we do streaming because we're doing a show, we're sitting at a desk, and it's like, hey, I've got some opinions I want to share with you today. Here's what the show's about. But there's a whole other kind of streaming where it's just like nothing is happening. I'm not doing anything. I have nothing to say. I'm not going to do anything interesting. I'm not an interesting person. I'm just going to kind of like exist for you to watch. And. And there's a whole generation of people that grow up on that. They just. They like to watch other people exist. And I don't know what to say about that exactly, but I think it's. I don't think it's a good thing. I don't think it's a good thing.
Drew Hernandez
Why is it different, though, in terms of what Michael was talking about? Why is it different than all the stupid crap that young people have always done? Tie pods or whatever the hell they were chewing on the other day from. From eating goldfish back in the 20s, you know, I mean, people. I mean, young people do stupid stuff. And in terms of celebrities who are famous for being celebrities, I mean, how we had those for like 50 years.
Matt Walsh
I think what's different here? So, Dre, I do think that there speaks to something different. It's not just about the celebrity culture. It's about the. The utter nihilism. Oh, that's different of the moment. I think that that's. That's the thing that strikes me about the clavicular of it. And by the way, not just about clavicular I think it strikes me about. About Andrew Tate. I think it strikes me out in a Quentin. I think that at the root of a lot of what's going on right now is people latching on to the fact that young people particularly are feeling unmoored. They're feeling their civilization has somehow betrayed them on the most fundamental level, and that there is no recipe for success. And so the people who are finding success in this moment are people who are selling you a black pill in order to sell themselves. And so what they're basically saying is there's no way to fix your life. Your life is. Is tremendously meaningless. And the only way that you're going to see success in anything like what young men want. So Clavicular's real pitch. His real pitch in the end is you can't get a chick. Women are all. Women are all terrible. Everybody is a. Is a porn star or, or unavailable or unattailable. So you have to mog everybody in order for you to. I believe this is his actual theory of life, Michael, if I'm not mistaken, is that basically there's a small percentage of men who are going to get all the women. So you need to be at the top of that food chain. And the only way to do that is to hit yourself on the face of the hammer and take crystal method death. But the, but the promise is basically that civilization is so broken that your shortcut is abandon everything except you have to look as good as you possibly can. There's no meaning, there's no happiness, there's no joy, there's no fulfillment. There's no possibility of civilizational uplift or change. All that there is is your looks. And if you're, if you're Andrew Tate, then it's the same sort of thing. You're going to stand around shirtless, smoking a cigar, and telling people that all of civilization is corrupt and terrible, which is why you are being targeted for your. For your truth telling. And meanwhile, the only way to get out of there is to sell is to spend 50 bucks a month on his. On his scam artist university or whatever.
Ben Shapiro
There's a distinction. Yeah, I think you're diagnosing the cultural milieu for sure. But I think there's a distinction between all three of those guys. I don't think they're all nihilists. I think with someone.
Matt Walsh
By the way, I will point out that Fuentes was partying with Clavicular Laurentate. And I have to say that it was the first time that I realized that God's justice comes in many forms, because Fuentes, for all of us, are, I think, merited critiques of Nick Fuentes is. Fuentes is not a stupid person. And I think the definition of hell is probably being stuck in a van listening to Kanye West Nazi songs with Clavicular, Andrew Tate and Sneo for Nick Fuentes, and then having to go to a club where Clavicular tries to introduce you to girls. So. So, you know, everyone gets what they deserve, even. Even sometimes in this life.
Allie Beth Stuckey
That doesn't sound like a good time to you, Ben. That's shocking.
Ben Shapiro
On the distinction here. You.
Allie Beth Stuckey
You've.
Ben Shapiro
You've got Fuentes, who is. I don't think he's a nihilist. I think he's a reactionary. And so I disagree.
Matt Walsh
I think he's a nihilist. I think he's a nihilist masquerading as a reactionary, possibly.
Ben Shapiro
He certainly comes out of a nihilistic sort of milieu, but I think he has at least a somewhat coherent and reactionary view of politics. Someone like Andrew Tate, I think is a hedonist, and that's what he's selling to people. But with Clavicular, I also don't think he's selling nihilism. I think he's selling vitalism. You know, I think he's selling that he's gonna be the Ubermensch. I mean, the way that he talks about how people are supposed to behave is he says, we're gonna ascend or descend. So it's even kind of the language of the Uber mention and the untermenschen. And he says that I don't think he sees a lack of meaning in the world so much as maybe there is a lack of meaning, but we're going to create our own meaning. And the only way you're gonna do that is by mogging people through sheer tyranny of will and by perfecting your physique. In some ways, I think clavicular is bo. Bronze Age pervert. Bronze Age pervert, kind of bringing up Nietzsche for the modern age. So I'm not even totally joking when I make the Nietzsche reference. They're all offering something a little bit different. And I think that, you know, look, I'm an old, stodgy conservative. Everyone flirts. They're on the right, they're on the left. They like Nietzsche, they like this, they like that. Me, I stay pretty consistent about it, but that, too, is a different kind of approach. So they're all offering something. And in a time of great Political shifting and confusion. I'm really not surprised that. That different guys like that are popping off.
Allie Beth Stuckey
Yeah, man. I was thinking about the aspect not just of like the mogging, which I'm still trying to understand exactly what that is and the looks maxing, but in particular this aspect of being streamed all the time. And I thought about the Truman show and the reason why that concept is so disturbing to us is because he didn't know that his life wasn't real. But in this case, this person knows that his life, life is not real because he's playing a character. All of his friends are playing a characters and they're actually consenting to that. He actually is consenting to his life not being real and just being a part that he is portraying and performing for an audience. And there's something that is much darker about that to me than the whole like, looks Maxine, superficial part of his worldview. It's that you actually don't care that you are not a part of reality. And you are curating every single mundane moment for something to be monetized and for something to be put out into the world. And you could have a whole conversation about family influencers and things like that who do the same thing. But this is that on steroids, no pun intended. And that is what is very disturbing. If other boys latch onto something like that, the monetizing and the like performative aspect of reality, that is very, very dark.
Michael Knowles
You know that. That's a good point. But one thing I wanted to mention was, you know, Michael, you said that Clavicular has sterilized himself. Is that true?
Drew Hernandez
True.
Ben Shapiro
That's what he said. I. I don't know though. And I heard reports to the contrary, but I followed it closely.
Michael Knowles
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Ben Shapiro
You were transition maxing without a question.
Michael Knowles
You know, unexpected pregnancy can leave many young parents panicked, scared and feeling. And they also gave me this copy on my phone. I can barely read it. But that's where our. That's where our sponsor Preborn comes in. Preborn Clinic offers compassion and support and helps parents with honest conversations, accurate information, because we know that. Look, the abortion industry, they prey on confusion. They prey on fear. And that's the reason why, you know, they don't want it. They don't want the women to see the ultrasound. But we all know, especially those of us and everyone here has had kids, so we know the power of, like seeing the ultrasound image. I still remember, I'll never forget seeing the ultrasound image. A baby on the ultrasound and then there's another. Another little. And then that's another baby. So there was two of them when we had our twins, and then. And then the second time we got the ultrasound and there was two babies again. So I'll never forget that. And it's one of those. One of those things that when a. When a mother sees that, that she is much more likely to choose life. And that's what preborn is all about. And all donations to preborn are tax deductible. 100 of your donations goes directly to saving babies and building families. To donate securely, which I would very much recommend that you do, dial pound250 and say the keyword baby. That's pound250 baby. Or go to preborn.comfire that's preborn.com fire.
Matt Walsh
That was the best ad transition we've ever had on this show, man.
Drew Hernandez
Yes, I agree.
Michael Knowles
I thought so too. I appreciate that.
Matt Walsh
It was really good. I mean, really.
Drew Hernandez
It gives you an award for that, Like a trophy or something.
Ben Shapiro
Well, there's also a transition because the next topic we have to talk about is, I guess it's sort of in all of our wheelhouses, but only one of us made a global hit movie about it. There was this shooting in Canada, awful shooting, nine people dead, plus the shooter, you know, a bunch of kids and then some people who were next door. And if you read the Canadian media reports about this, they just have no idea what the motive could be. If you listen to the authorities, the Mounties are saying not only that they don't know the motive, but hours after the shooting, they said, we will probably never know the motive of the shooter. So right off, that sets off your bells and you say, all right, let me Google this for three seconds or actually look on X. You're not gonna find it on Google. You'll find it on X with citizen journalists. And what do you know, the reports that we have right now, Again, maybe it's changing in real time, but from everything we know, it is the sort of person that you most expect, Matt.
Michael Knowles
Yeah, well, and we expect it for a reason. I mean, this is the thing. We have to realize that, you know, I think if we look, if we look at the data, trans people account for more mass shootings than anyone per capita over the last couple of years. I Don't even think it's close. And there's a reason for that. I mean, by definition if you are a trans identified person, then you are divorced from reality by definition, number one. Number two, you're radicalized because, because trans ideology is a, is a radical ideology. So we know, we know those two things going in. And then number three, you know, I, I've said many times, and I think it's true that the trend, the trans ideology is basically defeated at a cultural and political level, which I think that it is now the fight continues. It's not like we can just, just put our feet up at the desk and, and, and call it a day, but it's basically defeated at those two levels. But what that means is that actually that's going to make trans identified people potentially an even greater threat going forward. Because now you've got a lot of people that were sold a lie and, and now they're starting to realize that it was a lie and, and, and society has moved on from them. And now on top of everything else, on top of being radicalized, being self destructive by definition, being confused, now they're feeling humiliated and betrayed and you know, left behind. And I think we're gonna see more and more people lashing out violently and unfortunately, you know, it's only gonna get worse from, from here.
Drew Hernandez
I have to say, I wanna go back to something, link this back to something Ben was talking about. When Ben was describing why nihilism is attractive to people, he was talking about their sense that the, that the civilization has betrayed them, that there's nothing they can get at, there's no path to happiness, there's no path to success. I think a lot of that stuff is true. And you know, I think their sense that is, it's worse than it's been, I think is actually true. And the sense that they were never given a sort of spiritual target or something, an inner identity that they could move toward that is not, you know, who they are. They've been told that their identity is their race or their sexuality. Instead of that person that we all know that we should be, but we're not that kind of God made person that we, you have to become and work to become. And I think a lot of this links into that. And I think that, you know, we're in a transitional period and transitional periods feel like that, especially when we have a journalistic class that no history in the mind of a journalist is Rome fell and then Hitler came. Those are the two things they know happened in history. So whenever so whenever there's a transitional moment, it must be right before, you know, Caesar or Hitler or some. Some journalists know that there were two falls of Rome, the Republic and then the empire. So there might be a thousand years of darkness brought on by the Catholic Church. This is the. That the. The journalists know. But I think, you know, so much of this transgender stuff, It's. It does speak to something in a society that's not having babies, in a society that feels that, you know, what are women. They can't. Not only do they don't know what. What a woman is, they don't know what a woman is for. Women themselves don't know what they're for. You know, what. What matters about them, what makes them so important, what makes them precious in a civilization. So all of that stuff is true, I think. And the question is, who is going to come forward? And by the. The answer is us. But who is going to come forward with a vision of the future way we get back, get it through this transition without destroying ourselves and without destroying everything that we hold dear, which, namely, is freedom and life and God. You know, I. I don't. That that's the issue on the table. And when I see a thing like this where they don't tell you, it's. It's not the press on this in this case, it's the police who aren't telling people that this is a transgender person.
Matt Walsh
They.
Drew Hernandez
And when they. Just like they did in Nashville, in the Nashville Christian school shooting, they just held it back. That lying is at the heart of this disillusionment that you see in the young. And I think that truth and telling the truth, even if you get accused of being a bigot or whatever, is our first step in winning people back.
Matt Walsh
Well, you know, Internet has made so much of this possible and prevalence. I mean, some of the information that seems to be leaking out about this particular shooter is that he may have been trans radicalized at the age of 15, seen by people who are on message boards. And. And this goes back to something you were saying, Michael, which is that when people spend their entire lives online, it really does wreck your brain. Our brains were not built for this. And we've built an entire system that people have created. It's a virtual reality, and you find echo chambers of people who are willing to say back to you things that are utterly false and to encourage you down paths that are really quite dark, either for their own sick pleasure or because they themselves don't know which paths to take. Yeah, Drew, I will say that I think that the myth that people don't have choice in a way that they had choice in the past, I think that is a myth, but I think it is a pervasive myth because people. The feelings are real. The feelings of lack of choice are real. I'll say the lack of choice itself is not real. I think people do have choice, but I think that the. The feeling of a lack of choice has become all pervasive. And some of that has actually been spurred by, in some ways, the. The economic prevalence that we see around us. I mean, there's a. There's a fascinating section in Dostoyevsky's Notes from the Underground Ground in which the. He. The narrator is talking, and he says, you know, there may come a point where amidst plenty, amidst, like, things going really well, a man steps forward with arms akimbo and says that we. We should just tear everything around us down because we have no choice. We must exercise our choice. And better we should exercise our choice to destroy things than that we should have no choice in a civilization in which everything around us is built. And I think you're seeing that. I think that the choices that you're talking about, Drew, which are still in the hands of individuals, we've been told you can't make that choice. I don't like when politicians do do it. I. I think politicians do it all the time. I think commentators do it a lot too. The biggest choices we make in life, the really important ones, like, should I get married? Should I have kids? Should I join a church? Take those. Those three. Let's take those three as a start. All three of those are available to you. The idea that these are unavailable to you in a way that they've never been unavailable to anyone in. In history is a lie. But when enough people start to believe that, then you have a network of factive people who stop associating with. With each other. Stop going to church because no one's. Why do you go to church? There's no one else to there. Stop dating because no one else is dating. And nobody's at the. Nobody's meeting each other. And that all breaks down into this sort of bizarre, atomistic individualism that eventually results in people with fragmented psyches. And I think that's incredibly dangerous.
Drew Hernandez
There is a difference. I completely agree that there's. First of all, there's always a choice. But you're making the choice in a. In a situation where the powers that be are against you, which was not true. That's true for you and me and for you and me, you know, you joined the church. Everybody was like, hooray. You're in a church. We have a place for you. You're part of a bigger community. I think in this moment, people feel that the great weight of the culture comes down on their heads. Now, look, people have to have courage. That's just a fact of life. You have to have courage to live well. You have to have courage to live free. And so I'm not accepting the whining part of this, but the sense that they've been betrayed by the power, the people in power, the people who have the power. I think there's a certain veracity to that. I think when they're closing your churches, but encouraging people to riot and then telling you that the riots are mostly peaceful. I think a sen. Betrayal has a reality to it. You know, listen, I'm not in favor of whining. I'm just in favor of seeing what's there.
Ben Shapiro
Ben mentioned fragmented psyches. The only person on this panel who doesn't have a fragmented psyche is Allie, who is the only person who hasn't weighed in on this. Allie, were you surprised by the reports of the shooting?
Allie Beth Stuckey
Yeah. A couple thoughts. Talking about a fragmented psyche, there is this great book by Nancy Pearcey called Love Thy Body. If y' all have not read it, you should. And she talks about this concept of dualism, the separation of the spirit from the body. Body. And this idea that who you identify as on the inside, your spirit identity is stronger than physical reality. And she talks about the purpose of. Or the importance of understanding your telos or your purpose. And that. I think, Claven, what you were talking about is what we've really lost sight of. Not just who we are and what we do, but our purpose, why we are here. You mentioned that women have forgotten what we are for. And I think the same is true of men. Whether you're talking about this guy who spends his whole life streaming and trying to look a particular way. He doesn't realize what men are for. You are not just supposed to perform or consume. It's not even just about what you produce. There is a purpose in masculinity and being able to procreate and being able to protect and being able to work hard. There is a purpose in womanhood and being a female that a man can never fulfill. But when we have kind of elevated these two values of autonomy and authenticity, and we have decided that those are the two highest things that we can achieve and the two highest goals that we can attain to well, then you do have this identity crisis. Then you are trying to find worth and meaning and value in all of the wrong places. And then you have someone like this who not only convinces himself that he is a woman, but also convinces himself that he is completely justified and taking vengeance against the people in society and family who have done him wrong. It really all goes back to an understanding of the self and not just who we are and who made us. Of course, I believe that's really important, but what we're for and why we're here. So, anyway, that's my long winded way of saying I agree with you.
Ben Shapiro
Well, this is a great point. You know, it does go back to the man that Drew calls Uncle Aristotle. Because the way Aristotle saw the world was through four causes. The material cause, the formal cause, the efficient cause, and the final cause. And we don't need to get into all of those things, but the final cause is what the thing is for, what its purpose is. And I think if you were to present that to most people today, even on the right, they would be drooling and scratching their heads. The idea that we can know from a thing that it's for something like the leftist tears. Tumbler is for the leftist tears, or the cigar is for smoking. And they don't really seem to get that now. It led to this confusion of the transgender movement, which I thought was kind of over, but then you're still seeing these spurts of it. You get Gavin Newsom saying, I want to see more trans kids. Ali, did you see Andy Beshear? It was going viral. I don't know if it was a recent interview. Andy Beshear comes out and he's promoting the trans kids again in the year of our Lord 2026.
Drew Hernandez
He said the Gospel supports them.
Ben Shapiro
Yes. Do you see that as a Bible believing Christian? What's your take on that?
Allie Beth Stuckey
This is the only downside side to not having a Pope, because I wish that I were the Protestant Pope so I could excommunicate Andy Bashir. And all of these people who identify as evangelicals who claim that loving your neighbor is legally allowing a child to be brutalized because they've been told that they are born in the wrong body. Of course, we don't actually know what Andy Bashir believes because a lot of progressives will say that they follow Jesus just by loving their neighbor, but they identify like love how the secular progressives identify love, which is just the affirmation of sin. That's why I wrote a whole book on this toxic empathy they exploit your compassion by telling you that you can only be a good person by affirming these destructive policies and validating lies and affirming sin. Or else you're not compassionate, you're not loving, you're not empathetic. And that's exactly what he's doing here. He is emotionally extorting you. He's religiously extorting you. Gavin Newsom does the same thing. A lot of these leftists who suddenly identify as Christians, Hillary Clinton, they're all doing the same thing, saying, well, Christians like me know what Jesus really meant when he said, love your neighbor. And what he really meant is that you should allow a child to be chemically castrated because they've been told that they can switch sexes. And so it's the same thing that they do with immigration. They do the same thing with abortion. They do the same thing with the definition of marriage. They say, Christians have always believed this, and here's why. When you push back against them, suddenly you're the bigot. When we're just echoing what Jesus said 2000 years ago.
Drew Hernandez
You know, I think we have, we actually, we four have the power to elect Ali Beth the Pope of the Protestants.
Matt Walsh
Yeah. Can it be?
Drew Hernandez
I believe that's legally in our.
Allie Beth Stuckey
Can we do that right now?
Matt Walsh
Andy Beshear is absolutely, of course, going to run for president. According to our sponsors over at Kalshee, 80% shot that he runs for president in 2020. I don't know why he, he thinks that he's going to get anywhere in, in those primaries. He, he's second only to our, our old friend Gavin Newsome in, in that, in that betting market, by the way. But, you know, one of the things that, that I think is fascinating about all of this, and, and Drew, you brought this up, and Ali Beth, you were saying it as well. The. We've been focusing a lot on young men, like, what's wrong with young men. And one of the things that you'll constantly hear from young men particularly, is, I can't find a girl. It's hard for me to find a girl. They're the, the, the women of the past just aren't there anymore. And this is one that I just, statistically speaking, it is more true than many of the other complaints that are out there, because when you look at the polling data right now, women, for example, are saying that they want to have kids at a lower rate than men do, which is historically not only an aberration or an outlier, it is an extreme outlier. It's Totally insane. And, and when you have a. Women who don't know that a defining characteristic of being a woman is, is the ability to have children. That this is in fact fact the reason for the, the, the actual biological. The answer to Matt's question, what is a woman? Is a large egg producing. It is a large gamete producing specimen of the human species. Right. It, this is actually how you define biological sex is by the type of reproductive material produced. Men are small gamete producing sperm. Women produce for yourself.
Ben Shapiro
Speak for yourself. Small gametes.
Matt Walsh
All right, but this is, but, but the fact that, fact that, that women have taken this and they've put it to the side. Of course men think that they can be women or women can be men because if you take away literally the most distinctive part of, of human existence in life and then you say that it's completely irrelevant, then what you're going to get is men either wanting to be women or just to exploit women and treat women as though women are men. Right. And, and treat women as though. And, and this is one of the, I think fundamental characteristics that maybe old fashioned men like, I think all four of us who are, who are men here on the panel, like we, we see women as things to be treasured and protected. But if women see themselves as just men with different frames, then you, you can see why terrible, toxic men would actually treat women like they treat men. Right. As, just as, as, as though, you know, you go to the bar and you treat a woman the same way that you would treat a dude. And it's, it's, you know that that is a fundamental break that I think has not been rectified yet.
Ben Shapiro
Yes. You know, women will never frame MOG men because women have smaller frames. And that's just a fact of biology. You know, you have to acknowledge that. Ali, wonderful as always to see you. Thank you for degrading yourself by joining us. I'm sorry for you and for your dignity. Yes. But I'm very pleased for us that you would join us here.
Drew Hernandez
You elevated us. I think that was the important.
Ben Shapiro
Without question. By the way, if you want more Ally Stuckey and who doesn't want more Ally Stuckey? You can go catch her at the Share the Arrows Christian Women's Conference. They didn't invite me. Tickets go on sale tomorrow. Had 7,000 women there last year and now it could be 7,001 if you show up. Sharethe arrows.com Also, Ali's gonna be moderating the Texas Republican Attorney General debate next Tuesday. A woman of many talents and many interests.
Michael Knowles
Okay?
Ben Shapiro
Now, what I wanna talk about. And I know what you wanna know about, is the most tantalizing, bizarre story in the country right now, which is that Savannah Guthrie, the, like, Today show lady, her mother was kidnapped and no one seems to know anything about it. And then they said they think they found the guy, but then they didn't find the guy. So I really, really want to get into that, and I want you to hear about it, but you can't unless you subscribe to Daily Wire. Plus, how you like that mogged? You have to download the app. You have to put it on your tv. You have to join. You have to become a member. You need to follow Michael Knowles on the app. You can ignore everybody else, but you gotta follow Michael. And then you can also watch his show. And you can hear about it in the secret super member block that's totally cut off to all of you hoi polloi ruffians. We will see you over at the Daily Wire website.
Date: February 12, 2026
Host: Ben Shapiro (with Michael Knowles, Matt Walsh, Drew Hernandez, Allie Beth Stuckey)
This episode of Friendly Fire on The Ben Shapiro Show focuses on cultural battles at America’s biggest pop culture event: the Super Bowl. The hosts critique the Bad Bunny halftime show for its leftward cultural signaling and consider the success of TPUSA’s alternative, conservative-leaning halftime event. The conversation also delves into youth culture, nihilism, internet celebrity, masculinity, the aftermath of a Canadian school shooting, and the ongoing crisis of meaning in modern Western life.
Discussion Begins: [03:19]
Discussion Begins: [08:03]
Discussion Begins: [23:11]
Discussion Begins: [38:52]
Discussion Begins: [47:16]
Discussion Begins: [50:01]
This episode takes on the leftward tilt of American popular culture, particularly live events like the Super Bowl, and proposes (sometimes optimistically) that the right can and should create its own cultural moments. Through the lens of TPUSA’s counter-halftime event and the rise of bizarre online microcelebrities like Clavicular, the hosts paint a picture of generational alienation, despair, and radicalization—contrasting it with calls to rediscover meaning, purpose, and traditional understandings of gender. The conversation is marked by a blend of cultural critique, self-deprecating humor, and urgent, sometimes dire, warnings about the trajectory of Western society.
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