Live July 14, 2026 | Yaron Brook Show
(Season 12, Episode 123)
Knowles; Iran; ICE; Immigration; antitrust; Intel; Woke; HK; Bezos; Achievement | Yaron Brook Show

The Right's War on Progress? Michael Knowles, Iran, ICE & Why Achievement Is Under Attack

Has the political right become as hostile to capitalism and progress as the left?

Michael Knowles' attack on the Industrial Revolution raises a much bigger question: why are so many conservatives abandoning the values that created modern civilization? Yaron Brook examines the growing alliance between populism, anti-capitalism, and anti-technology—and explains why defending reason, innovation, and individual achievement has never been more important.

The conversation expands into the latest developments on Iran, immigration and ICE, antitrust attacks on Intel, DEI's retreat, Hong Kong's future, Jeff Bezos on wealth creation, medical breakthroughs, AI, philosophy, art, psychology, and much more—followed by an extensive audience Q&A covering Objectivism, morality, physics, education, music, constitutional rights, and today's cultural decline.

If you value reason, freedom, and human achievement, this episode is for you.
Watch now: https://youtube.com/live/zm1efvYAFvg

Main Topics:
00:00 Introduction: Spain vs. France, episode preview
03:09 Michael Knowles attacks the Industrial Revolution
07:36 Political violence, immigration & fact-checking Knowles
12:17 How industrialization transformed civilization
16:00 Why conservatives increasingly reject capitalism
19:23 Technology, innovation & cultural change
22:56 The Unabomber argument—and what's fundamentally wrong with it
28:09 The Industrial Revolution: humanity's greatest achievement?
29:06 Populism and the conservative abandonment of responsibility
30:15 The collapse of pro-capitalist conservatism
32:26 Freedom, capitalism & individual responsibility
34:07 Left-wing vs. right-wing anarchism
39:53 Iran, military strategy & American foreign policy
46:27 ICE, immigration enforcement & political incentives
54:08 Smithsonian history battles & antitrust politics
59:44 Intel, industrial policy & government intervention
1:04:03 DEI retreats while Hong Kong reinvents itself
1:08:59 Jeff Bezos explains wealth creation
1:13:12 Breakthroughs in cancer & Alzheimer's research
1:16:52 The semiconductor boom
1:18:38 Crime statistics, Super Chats & updates
1:21:40 Ayn Rand Institute conference preview

Live Audience Questions
1:28:04 Does morality require survival—or merely intelligence? AI, emergence & ethics
1:28:18 Did America's 1953 Iran intervention create today's Middle East crisis?
1:40:43 What truly makes a genius like Newton or Ayn Rand?
1:40:45 Why haven't we produced another Einstein?
1:46:18 Why do philosophers question whether reality exists?
1:46:24 Nuclear power's comeback: freedom or AI necessity?
1:47:45 Can justice be achieved after irreversible wrongs?
1:49:23 Why does humanity need art?
1:54:55 Losing family and friends to irrational ideas—what should you do?
1:56:05 Immigration enforcement, rights & moral responsibility
1:57:58 Is empathy selfish?
1:59:36 Celebrating political deaths—is nihilism becoming mainstream?
2:00:34 Does the Constitution protect illegal immigrants?
2:02:20 Are destructive philosophies rooted in low self-esteem?
2:04:31 Is 1980s music objectively better than today's?
2:06:41 Should ARI buy Yaron a private jet?
2:07:25 Why do intellectuals ignore the human cost of bad ideas?
2:09:56 Will Yaron watch Christopher Nolan's The Odyssey?
2:12:10 What does "working class" actually mean?
2:13:42 Why is Tamara de Lempicka so overlooked?

#Objectivism #Capitalism #IndustrialRevolution #MichaelKnowles #Iran #Immigration #JeffBezos #Technology #AynRand #Inflation #OilPrices #Greedflation #Economics

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Yaron is the executive chairman of the Ayn Rand Institute and a world class speaker. He is the coauthor of the national best-seller Free Market Revolution: How Ayn Rand’s Ideas Can End Big Government, Equal is Unfair: America's Misguided Fight Against Income Inequality and In Pursuit of Wealth: The Moral Case for Finance. He speaks around the world on a variety of topics including the morality of capitalism, Ayn Rand and her philosophy, finance and economics, and the value of inequality.