Last week conservative pundit and political commentator Michael Knowles was splashing the headlines for his CPAC speech. CPAC, or Conservative Political Action Conference, took place in Washington, DC, earlier this month.
The Daily Wire media host was a speaker and got the general media (liberal media?) in a tizzy for his comments on transgenderism, which you can watch here.
Huffington post responded, “the Republican campaign against trans kids isn’t just a mere ploy to energize its base — it could also be the beginning of an insurgent fascist campaign to erase trans people from public life altogether.”
NYMag, in an article which somehow brings up “Communism and Nazism” and “authoritarian measures” says, “Knowles may or may not be smart enough to realize that a word like eradicate inherently carries a hint of physical menace.”
The Los Angeles Times didn’t waste too much time in its coverage of the CPAC speech when it jumped straight to holocaust comparisons: “Had he said, ‘Judaism must be eradicated’...nobody would mistake the murderous intent of such a message.”
RollingStone and Daily Beast were also predictable in their outrage and certainty that Knowles was ready to lead the next awful human genocide atrocity.
But, alas, it’s worth putting the safety on our trigger warnings and evaluate what he actually said. It was this:
“There can be no middle way in dealing with transgenderism. It is all or nothing. If transgenderism is true - if men really can become women - then it is true for everyone of all ages. If transgenderism is false—as it is—if men really can’t become women—as they cannot—then it’s false for everybody too. And if it is false…then for the good of society and especially for the good of the poor people who have fallen prey to this confusion, transgenderism must be eradicated from public life entirely. The whole preposterous ideology.”
To eradicate entirely a false, preposterous ideology actually sounds kind of appealing! As in, go back to the good old days of “just” men and women. You know…like the animals?
If you want a cherry on your cake, check out Knowles’ exchange with Charlie Kirk where he explains how those news outlets had to change their headlines to more closely match what Knowles actually said.
Have a great week!