Daily Wire panel defends Florida's new curriculum on slavery
Michael Knowles: “Many of the moments when we most grow, when we become edified and sanctified, are in our moments of suffering”
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From the August 1, 2023, edition of The Daily Wire's Backstage
MATT WALSH (HOST): Part of it is, obviously, this is an attempt to attack DeSantis. That's what it's about. But it's also, when it comes to slavery in particular, we've gotten to the point now where it's just you're not allowed to say anything about it at all, other than it was very bad. White people did it. It was bad, and that's the end of the conversation about slavery. And if you attempt to expand it beyond that in any amount whatsoever --
BEN SHAPIRO (HOST): In tribute to the slaves. In tribute to the slaves.
WALSH: Right.
SHAPIRO: Then it's super duper bad.
MICHAEL KNOWLES (HOST): Also to say, It was a Black historian who wrote the standards.
SHAPIRO: Yes.
KNOWLES: I'm just saying.
SHAPIRO: Dr. William Allen, that's correct. It's really a point of high irritation. But the media are so invested in the gaslighting at this point. The other Republican candidates who went after this are so -- it's so disreputable. It's so gross to try and prop up -- and what I find amazing about this is that, apparently, it's okay to do against any other Republican. You can't do it against Trump. Right? You can't even say true things about Trump. But if you say false things about Ron DeSantis, then everybody just kinda goes, well, that's the name of the game. That's totally okay --
KNOWLES: You know?
SHAPIRO: And I find that -- I find it really difficult.
WALSH: Imagine if Tim Scott came out and called and accused Trump of being, essentially, racist.
SHAPIRO: Oh my god.
WALSH: Everybody on the right would -- he'd be killed by everybody on the right.
ANDREW KLAVAN (HOST): Yeah, that's a good point.
WALSH: But you could do it against DeSantis.
KNOWLES: But part of that -- look, if it's a campaign and a campaign is lobbying an attack on another campaign, you know, all is fair in love and war and politics. But my fear is if any Republicans are sincerely making this attack, it's so preposterous. And it cuts at a deeper level too, which is something that has been accepted by the left and, unfortunately, maybe parts of the right too, which is this idea that suffering is just always the worst thing ever. Morally evil --
KLAVAN: The worse thing.
KNOWLES: You know, many of the moments when we most grow, when we become edified and sanctified, are in our moments of suffering. In all of our own lives.
KLAVAN: That doesn't make the evil good.
SHAPIRO: It doesn't alleviate the responsibility for the evil --
KLAVAN: That's right.
SHAPIRO: It doesn't mean the person who is doing the evil to you is somehow doing you a favor.
KLAVAN: Of course.