The Charlie Kirk Show - How to Stump A Nihilist, Save America, and Win the Culture War Live from the Texas Youth Summit

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Sept. 28, 2020 - The Charlie Kirk Show

01:29:12

How to Stump A Nihilist, Save America, and Win the Culture War Live from the Texas Youth Summit

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Crisis Among Young People 00:03:20
	Thank you for listening to this Podcast 1 production.
	Now available on Apple Podcasts, Podcast 1, Spotify, and anywhere else you get your podcasts.
	Hey, everybody.
	Recently, I had an amazing conversation in Texas with my friend Christian Collins at the Texas Youth Summit.
	I gave some opening remarks and then I took questions directly from students.
	It's basically AMA Monday, so you're hearing all sorts of back and forth and an opportunity where I was able to have a discourse with young people that were dealing with mental health issues, self-identity issues, and so much more.
	We dive into that in this episode and so much more.
	Before we get to it, I just want to say thank you for supporting our program that allows us to travel, hire more staff, produce this podcast at charliekirk.com slash support.
	Please consider supporting us at charliekirk.com slash support.
	Texas Youth Summit.
	I take questions straight from students.
	There is a crisis happening with young people in our country.
	It's one of the most positive feedback I've ever received from a speech is this speech.
	Buckle up, everybody.
	Here we go.
	Charlie, what you've done is incredible here.
	Maybe Charlie Kirk is on the college campus.
	I want you to know we are lucky to have Charlie Kirk.
	Charlie Kirk's running the White House, folks.
	I want to thank Charlie.
	He's an incredible guy.
	His spirit, his love of this country, he's done an amazing job building one of the most powerful youth organizations ever created, Turning Point USA.
	We will not embrace the ideas that have destroyed countries, destroyed lives, and we are going to fight for freedom on campuses across the country.
	That's why we are here.
	Look, we've got a very different kind of sponsor for this episode, the Jordan Harbinger Show, a podcast you should definitely check out since you're a fan of high-quality, fascinating podcasts hosted by interesting people.
	The show covers such a wide range of topics through weekly interviews with heavy-hitting guests, and there are a ton of episodes you'll find interesting since you're a fan of the show.
	And I recommend our listeners to check out.
	Jordan has somewhere he's talking to a professional art forger, someone who somehow made millions of dollars while being chased by the feds and the mafia.
	Each episode is a conversation with a different fascinating guest.
	And when I say there's something for everyone here, I really mean that.
	In one episode, Jordan talks to a hostage negotiator from the FBI who offers techniques on how to get people to like and trust you, which sounds useful and disturbing at the same time.
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	So look, Jordan's a friend.
	He gets it done.
	It's very interesting content.
	Jordan's always focused on pulling useful and practical insights out of his brilliant guests.
	And we're not talking about pop psychology or wishy-washy self-help here.
	The episodes are loaded with bits of wisdom that you can use to legitimately change your mind and improve your life right away.
	If you enjoyed this show, you'll enjoy Jordan Harbinger's show.
	So it's J-O-R-D-A-N, that's Jordan, Harbinger, H-A-R-B-I-N-G-E-R show.
	On Apple Podcasts and Spotify, wherever you listen to podcasts, help my friend out, Jordan Harbinger.
	Check out his podcast, They're Worthwhile.
	I want to speak to young people in particular here, and because there's a lot happening in this country that, quite honestly, the political elite are not talking about.
	And while I do talk about politics almost every single day in my podcast, I'm actually not going to really talk very much about politics.
	I'm actually going to talk about things that are kind of parallel to politics, but I think are actually much more important.
	And for adults out there, I want you to listen as carefully, if not even more carefully.
Responsibility vs Political Elite 00:08:22
	There's a crisis happening with young people in this country, the likes of which I can't even put into words.
	And the adults have absolutely failed young people in America.
	It's that simple.
	We shut down our country for nine months.
	We told them that you can't have prom, you can't have graduation, no summer sports.
	If you get even close to each other, you're all going to die.
	Now, no, seriously, one out of four of young people, according to the Centers for Disease Control, have contemplated suicide in the last 90 days.
	One out of four.
	There's an epidemic of suicide with young people in America.
	And if you're like me, you know friends that have committed suicide in just the last couple of months.
	Not to mention antidepressant medication is now the number one most prescribed medication for young people across the country.
	We now have seen alcoholism, marijuana use, cocaine, and of course pharmaceutical usage on exponentially up.
	And by the way, it wasn't good, it wasn't easy to be a teenager before all of this, but we made one of the dumbest decisions ever in the history of society to shut down all of society at once, especially when young people were at more risk of dying from the flu than from the Chinese coronavirus.
	That is not the same for every single age group, by the way.
	If you're over the age of 50 with pre-existing conditions, this threatens you greatly.
	But saying that we should shut down all the schools for six months, shut down every social activity, shut down all the sports, and you expect young people to just end up exactly the same, what an unbelievably dumb thing that was to do.
	It really was.
	And for any politician, I don't care if you're Republican or Democrat.
	It's actually irrelevant to me.
	It's an issue of right versus wrong.
	It's an issue of decency.
	And they say it's all about human beings.
	Yes, the human beings that are 16 years old that are committing suicide because they have no social contact with anyone, it's about them.
	For the small business owner that put their entire life savings into a hair salon in Houston or in Austin or in Dallas that is now being forced to close by some maniac politician, some power-hungry politician, I don't care if it's a Republican or Democrat, they're to blame.
	For any politician that says we must shut down the churches but we can keep the abortion clinics open, they should resign.
	I don't care if it's a Republican or a Democrat.
	It's that simple.
	And so for young people in particular, we're on pace to have 500,000 less children next year than this year.
	That's right.
	We're on the verge of a population collapse.
	52% of young people that are college graduates are living at home with their parents.
	We have 18 million unemployed young people in America.
	And then what adults do, and this is a mistake for conservatives.
	So adults got to start taking responsibility for this country.
	You just got to start doing it because you are leaving a worse country for your kids, everybody.
	And I'm saying this as lovingly as I possibly can.
	I'm not saying this rooted in condemnation, just very honestly, that if you think there's no consequences to this, you're wrong.
	Additionally, you look at the birth rate, I mentioned 500,000 less people next year than this year, the civilizational collapse that we're on the verge of.
	There are more single 30-year-olds than married 30-year-olds.
	Think about that.
	That you have more people that.
	And so what I was about to say is that we tell young people, just work hard and find a job.
	Well, what happens when you shut down our whole country?
	What jobs are we supposed to find?
	That's what adults are saying.
	That's kind of the conservative mantra, right?
	And I believe it, right?
	If we didn't decide to destroy our economy, which thank God that President Trump is finally trying to get it back on track.
	But for adults out there, the way you communicate to young people, and by the way, I'm going to talk to young people in a second because there's nuance to this.
	To the students out there, there's nuance.
	But for the adults out there, it has to be more than, oh, just go work hard and get a job.
	Because right now, we have completely ravaged the entire landscape economically in our country.
	However, for students out there, everything I've just said does not give you a hall pass to go play the oppression Olympics.
	Okay, let me be very clear.
	My speech to the adults for how dumb of the decisions that they made in political office and what they let happen does not give you an excuse to all of a sudden do the Alexandria Casia-Cortez thing.
	Where, no, it doesn't.
	Where all of a sudden you say, everyone before me is awful and give me free stuff and I deserve it.
	That's actually not true.
	In fact, you must admit that, yes, there's been some really awful mistakes.
	You must admit it's going to be harder for you to succeed.
	But then you're going to say, I'm going to double apply myself.
	I'm going to get creative.
	I'm going to find a way out of it.
	I'm going to continue to act responsibly, act morally and ethically, sit up straight with my shoulders back, as Jordan Peterson would say, get my goals sharp and clear.
	I'm not going to blame other people for my problems.
	And it's still possible to succeed in this country because it is.
	And so nothing what I've said, it's absolutely worthy of applause.
	Nothing I have said, nothing is an excuse for any young person out here then turn to your parent and say, see, Charlie said, no, no, no, no, that's not what I'm saying.
	In fact, it's extra motivation for you to start to take responsibility for yourself, for your sphere of influence, and then for your country.
	So here's the big point.
	Our parents have failed us.
	It's time for us to stake responsibility for our country.
	It's that simple.
	Okay?
	They have decided that they don't want to leave a better country for us.
	And I'm sure that some of you have good parents that have done a good job.
	But now this is the call to action for you to get involved and get engaged.
	Because now it's really on us, right?
	It's what kind of a country do we want to live in?
	The kind of country I want to live in is one where you can have many children responsibly, get married, live a normal life, have a country where we don't judge people on the color of their skin, have a country where you can speak your mind freely out of fear of getting kicked off of social media, losing your job, getting kicked out of a classroom, or getting punished because of your beliefs.
	Having a place where you can have some nuance, where maybe you might be, you know, fiscally liberal, but socially conservative.
	That's fine.
	Whatever it might be, right?
	Where you actually can have...
	By the way, I long for the days where people can actually respectfully disagree about things.
	Those days are now not happening in our country.
	We're now back into these tribal groups.
	And by the way, I'm not blaming it.
	It's actually not at all.
	It's the exact opposite what the media will say.
	This is because of Trump.
	It's actually not because of that at all.
	It's President Trump who's actually the guardian of freedom of speech, ending the endless wars and agree to disagree type politics, where it's the left that says, if you don't agree with us, if you don't post a black square, you're a bad person.
	Like, no, actually, you're a bad person for making me do something that is racist.
	So thank you very little.
	Like, that's actually what it is.
	And I'm going to talk about that for a second because this entire black square thing, and you guys know exactly what I'm talking about, young people in particular, was totalitarian at its worst.
	The test of totalitarianism is not what you do, it's what you don't do.
	Think about this.
	It's the test that if you don't take a knee, you're an awful human being.
	And now, by the way, I'm not telling you if you posted a black square, you're a bad person.
	I'm actually not saying that.
	I'm saying that if all of a sudden you went to other people and you bullied them because they didn't post it, then that's actually a problem.
	Because if all of a sudden you go out of your way and you're saying, if you don't do the same level of activism that I did, you're somehow less moral than I am.
	Like, wait, what are you talking about?
	Maybe I actually, true, I value all life.
	Maybe I think that BLM Incorporated wants to destroy the Western prescribed nuclear family, is chancing for cops to die outside of the hospital in Compton, Los Angeles when cops were fighting for their life, and is judging people based on the color of their skin.
	I don't think that's a good thing.
	Maybe we actually might want similar goals, but just because I don't post that singular black square when you tell me to, and you're not in charge of me, maybe you should stop making a value judgment against me.
	Maybe that would be nice.
	And so that's the actual future that I think we want in our country.
	And for this is a youth summit, and I think this is so important that we're all gathering because right now we are seeing for the first time in our country's history, our generation is going to have it harder than the parent, the generation that preceded us.
	And so this is where politics comes into it far too much.
	And it's just the reality of it.
	And so the question you have to ask yourself is, what am I willing to do to be able to live a life that I can get married, have a job, have children, and have some responsibility?
	And that's the key word.
	One of the major reasons that what's happening in our country is happening is that we have not said to young people, you must have some form of responsibility in your life.
	How many high schoolers are out there?
	Raise your hand, high schoolers.
Beef the Way It Used To Be 00:02:15
	It's awesome.
	You're more mature than college kids.
	Congratulations.
	It's true.
	And for college kids out there, I'm not saying this insultingly, you're probably fine because you're here, but generally, right?
	Generally.
	Why is that?
	High school seniors are far more mature than college seniors on average.
	Why?
	It's because your parents are around.
	That's why.
	It's because you're actually held accountable.
	You probably have to get up between 7 and 7:30.
	You can't stay up to 1 a.m. binge drinking every single night.
	And someone's looking over your shoulder all the time.
	You guys are probably driving home from work or maybe driving to work and you're like, what am I going to do for dinner tonight?
	I got the answer.
	It's very simple.
	American meat.
	And you're probably saying, well, then I got to go to the grocery store.
	No, you don't.
	That's what's so amazing about goodranchers.com.
	Goodranchers, I'm on their website right now.
	You're able to ask a rancher.
	You can order now.
	Look, if you guys want a real meal, no more of that frozen stuff.
	You need American meat.
	We have a beautiful country here.
	We have the greatest country ever to exist in the history of the world.
	Because of that, we need to have everyone rewarding American ranches and American ranchers.
	The reason why we've partnered with goodranchers.com is because I looked into it.
	Their vision was instilled into them from their grandparents that owned community grocery stores and believed in trust, charity, and American values.
	We talk about this a lot in our program.
	Buy American.
	One of the few things we still make in our country is meat.
	And we do it better than anyone else.
	Everyone wants our meat.
	The Chinese want our meat.
	The Taiwanese want our meat.
	The Vietnamese.
	So why don't we go to goodranchers.com?
	Because at goodranchers.com, you get 100% American raised beef right to your door.
	Beef the way it used to be and the way it should be.
	Get America's best grass-fed grain-finished beef delivered straight to your door.
	Don't forget that shipping is always free and the taste is delicious.
	I'm on their website right now.
	You can get chicken and beef combo, just beef, just chicken or chicken and beef.
	And it's amazing.
	The beef portion includes two pounds of bone and steaks, ribeyes, T-bones, and New York strips.
	And if you're not getting hungry just hearing this, come on.
	I mean, gourmet steak burgers, chicken portion includes two and a half pounds of Southwest chicken breast and two and a half pounds of lemon pepper chicken press.
Why We Need Gap Years 00:09:52
	I mean, hello?
	That's dinner for the next two weeks.
	And you guys could do it right now.
	And by the way, you can order it and just rest assured, you say, okay, I got what I need.
	Now I don't have to go shopping.
	It's goodranchers.com.
	They deliver your favorite meats right to your door.
	Perfect for grilling out or for dinners at home.
	Use the promo code Charlie, $20 off.
	Goodranchers.com to view all the American beef you can.
	Goodranchers.com with an S, goodranchers.com.
	It's a great website.
	And again, it's time to start buying ethically.
	Support our country.
	Support America.
	Goodranchers.com, promo code Charlie.
	Goodranchers.com, promo code Charlie.
	And I'm going to say some things that are awfully provocative here, and that's why I'm here.
	We have way too many people going to college in our country.
	Way too many people.
	And you have to applaud.
	You can say, oh, boo, oh, you're awful.
	Okay, fine.
	Let me tell you what.
	I don't care.
	I mean, it's just true.
	We have way too many people going to four-year college.
	Way too many people.
	For high schoolers out there, take a deep breath.
	It's okay if you don't go to four-year university.
	It's actually okay.
	I'm going to be the first one to tell you that.
	It's okay.
	Anyone who tells you that you need to go to four-year college to succeed is lying to you.
	I didn't go to college.
	You don't need to go to college.
	Now, by the way, if you're going to college, it might be a good choice.
	I don't know.
	The cool thing about liberty is that everyone can make the choices that they see fit.
	This idea that you must do something is what?
	We just covered this, that you must do it.
	It's not a good thing.
	So let's talk about college right now because I know a lot of you are wrestling with this.
	Just take a pause.
	And if you're being asked the question, hey, where are you going to school?
	Not, hey, why are you going to school?
	That's a problem.
	You should be able to have a very good reason to go tens of thousands of dollars into debt.
	A very good reason to go do that.
	No matter what it is, if you're going to go purchase a home or a car, going into debt requires a good reason.
	Here's my couple tests with college.
	Number one: are you going to get a skill or are you going to get a piece of paper?
	Two completely different things.
	If you're going to college for a very specific reason and you're working backwards from a goal, I want to be an engineer.
	I want to be a doctor.
	I want to be a lawyer.
	I want to go, I want to go be a business.
	I want to be in business and finance.
	And you say, this school will make that happen.
	That's a good reason to go to college.
	A bad reason to go to college.
	My parents are making me.
	Bad reason.
	And for parents out there, you got to break this entire landscape of how you communicate with it.
	Because when I talk to young people privately, it's the number one reason why they give.
	Because first of all, it's young people that are usually filling out the student loan debt forms.
	They're the ones that actually have to have the 80, 90, 100, $150,000 into debt.
	And I've really boiled it down.
	I'm going to say this is as kindly and softly as I can.
	If you're a parent out there and you are not willing or able, I should say, to look your neighbor in the eye and say, My kid is not going to college, going to college, and I'm okay with that.
	If that conversation scares you, then it's more about your ego than your children's future.
	It's that simple.
	We need more people in two-year technical schools.
	We need more people to be first responders.
	We need more people to work with their hands.
	We need more entrepreneurs.
	We need more people to take gap years.
	We need more people in the United States military.
	I employ 160 young people.
	I can tell you this: where you go to college means absolutely nothing to me.
	In fact, if you didn't go to college, you probably have an upper hand to probably get a job with me, probably.
	Seriously, because then I know you weren't totally brainwashed to hate our country.
	And so, and if you survive, terrific, that's great.
	However, break free of this hypnotic idea that you must go, that you must go instead.
	In fact, actually, if you go, it might be the right decision.
	I'm going to keep saying that.
	Instead, start from the default position of just a thought exercise tonight with your parents.
	I'm not going to go.
	I'm going to prove to myself I should go.
	For example, if you have more than $40,000 in debt, it will take you 20 years to pay that off with interest.
	Just so you understand, you're signing your life away of future earnings, future mortgage payments, future car rent, whatever it is.
	Your entire financial livelihood could be determined by the time you're 22.
	Just understand that.
	It's a really big decision to make.
	Here's the other thing about college: we have kids that are borrowing money they don't have to study things that don't matter to go find jobs that don't exist.
	So the national graduation rate is 59%.
	Understand that.
	That means that 59% of young people that go to college will graduate.
	41% that go to college will not graduate, but they will graduate.
	They will exit with one thing, and that's usually debt.
	So we send kids to college.
	Any college kids out there that know people that dropped out?
	Yeah, how about like a couple hundred, right?
	Happens all the time.
	If any business had a 59% success rate, they'd be shut down by the federal government for scamming parents and scamming their consumers.
	Instead, 59% graduation rate, we keep on sending kids to this mill of anti-American indoctrination.
	Okay, it would be one thing.
	But then people say, but they need to go to college to get the jobs, right?
	That's what parents say.
	44% of those that graduate 10 years later, according to the New York Federal Reserve, are employed in jobs that don't require a college degree.
	You guys ever been to Starbucks?
	I've never seen so many people with college degrees.
	Seriously.
	Everyone has college degrees that work there.
	It's true.
	44% end up in positions that don't require a college degree.
	So if you're out there and you have anxiety, you're like, I got to get a specific test grade.
	I got to get this done.
	Okay, maybe you do.
	That's fine.
	However, maybe you don't.
	Maybe what really matters in our country, what really matters is how you act, how hard you work, and if your aim is correct.
	That's really what matters in our country, right?
	Not if you went to Stanford or Yale.
	Who cares?
	Like, okay, whatever, fine, great.
	You learned Howard Zinn's history of the American people or whatever.
	Like, great, okay, sure.
	Which is exactly what they teach, right?
	And so I think what's going to happen in this country, and for those of you in college, you know exactly what I'm talking about here, because the fact that these universities, most of them, if not all of them, did not offer tuition adjustments for becoming nothing more than a Zoom call this semester, because it actually completely blows up one of the arguments that parents always give me about college.
	They say, okay, I get it, Charlie, but they're going to meet lots of people when they're in college.
	Well, they're not meeting anybody right now.
	So why exactly has tuition not been adjusted?
	This goes back to my guiding thesis of what I'm saying.
	Young people out there, take responsibility for your life and take responsibility for your country.
	Do you know what part of taking responsibility is?
	No more excuses.
	Excuses are awful.
	That's what the left does.
	They have an excuse for everything.
	Instead, you say, okay, life is really bad.
	Whatever.
	Our immigration policies are terrible.
	Our politicians don't represent us.
	By the way, I have a whole book about all that stuff.
	Okay, so I get it.
	But I never, ever want to see conservatives start to compete in the Impression Olympics.
	Ever.
	Because they will always win.
	Always.
	Instead, and by the way, that's a really miserable way to live your life.
	Instead, a much better way to live your life is all these things are challenges in front of me.
	And I'm going to continue to believe that if I improve myself, my future will be better.
	That is what has always made our country a phenomenal country, is this idea of earned success.
	And so the left is the exact opposite.
	They truly believe that if you apply yourself and if you work hard, then you can't succeed in this country.
	It's actually impossible, that the systems are so incredibly broken, so backward, you're going to keep on hitting a ceiling and you'll never be able to break through.
	This is complete rubbish, everybody.
	Do not believe this stuff for a second.
	When someone is trying to tell you that your dreams are not possible in America, what they're really trying to do is trying to create a culture of mediocrity and dream suppression.
	It is not the case.
	It isn't.
	And I'm saying with that, all the caveats of all the obstacles that are actually present in our country, which are quite a few.
	And so I say this kind of on the general landscape of kind of how we interact with education in our country.
	For any young parents out there that are listening that still have kids in grade school or high school, I highly encourage you to homeschool your kids.
	I'm a huge advocate of homeschooling.
	Very big advocate.
	I remember growing up in the suburbs of Chicago when homeschooling was not exactly a positive thing.
	Everyone would make fun of the homeschool kids.
	Now, my goodness, homeschooling should be the default option if anyone is able to do it.
	And if not, that's fine too.
	That's why we are a huge, that's why we're huge advocates of school choice and educational mobility.
	And the other thing is this, which, and I'll kind of talk to some, we'll have some question and answer time here, which I'm really looking forward to and diving into this.
	But if you kind of look at what decisions you want to make for your life, and if there's anyone out here, I'm going to speak because the law of averages, there's somebody out here right now who's going through a really tough time, whether through mental health issues or depression.
	This is a real thing, and our political class does not talk about it at all.
	You talk to the political elite, they just talk about tax cuts and all that.
	They completely miss what's actually going on in your life.
	Number one, can I challenge young people out there?
The Test of Responsibility 00:07:24
	Delete one social media app from your phone.
	One.
	Do it forever.
	Find one and delete it.
	Not a lot of applause for that.
	Everyone's like, yeah.
	I don't know.
	I'm telling you right now.
	Take it from someone who's deleted all the social media apps from my phone.
	I have an amazing staff that posts for me.
	These apps.
	I have that.
	By the way, I completely admit I am one of the biggest hypocrites when talking about this because I built my entire following on social media.
	Okay.
	I have 7 million combined followers on all the platforms.
	I get it.
	Okay.
	And I'm telling you right now, I actually have more of a standing to tell you.
	These things are designed to be addictive.
	They're designed to turn you into a worse person, to make you less human, and to make you, quite honestly, less nuanced in your thinking.
	The more that you guys engage, whether it be on TikTok or Snapchat, Instagram, whatever those ones are that you open up, and you can find it on your screen time, by the way, six hours, seven hours, eight hours.
	Think to yourself: am I a human being or am I a human that has some sort of sideboard capacity and I'm actually a slave to my phone?
	Think about it.
	Because if your phone dominates what you do and how you do and how you interact, then just take a pause and just say that's actually not how God made us.
	It's not.
	I mean, a phone should enhance your humanity.
	I'm not saying that you should get rid of it altogether.
	I think texting is kind of a good way to communicate generally.
	I think email is awesome.
	You know, I think that calling somebody is helpful.
	But if you're picking up your phone 685 times to check Instagram to see how many likes you have, that's not good.
	And that's the second thing.
	And this is mostly to young women out there.
	And then I'll talk to young men.
	And just very bluntly, what happens on social media is not real life.
	It doesn't matter how many likes you get.
	It doesn't matter what people say.
	They wouldn't say it to your face.
	And that's why I'm a huge believer that sometimes you just shouldn't have those apps altogether.
	And for young women out there, I get these messages a lot, your net worth is not, your value to society is not judged in how many Instagram likes you get.
	It's not.
	It's actually a really, really bad way to judge it.
	It's a huge issue.
	And people don't talk about it enough.
	For young men out there, and by the way, I do have to say that there is a war on men in our country.
	The hyper-feminization of our country is one of the most disastrous things that has happened.
	And it's bad for women too, by the way.
	It's bad for women and it's bad for men.
	A society can become too feminine.
	It can become too masculine.
	It needs to be a blend of both.
	That is how God made marriage.
	That is how God made us.
	You need the intuitive, calm capacity to reason out difficult problems of nurturing in females.
	And you need the seek to adventure capacity to protect in males.
	Those kind of attributes blend beautifully in any sort of functioning society.
	But we've hyper-feminized our society where young men in particular are told that you're awful by the time you're 15.
	We are in a hyper-feminized school system where young men learn by involvement and being physically active, yet you're sitting still for six hours a day, which is much easier for a young woman to be able to succeed in that.
	That's why young women get better grades than young men generally, not for any other reason than besides that.
	It's just young men, by the time they're 16, they cannot sit still for biochemical reasons that they cannot control.
	But for young men out there, here's one very specific thing that I'm challenging you to do, which is, and for parents out there, I want you to listen very carefully to how I'm saying this, which is that the reason why young men are more likely to commit suicide, engage in alcoholism, be jobless by the time they're 25, be homeless, die at work, all these sorts of different things that are like, oh my gosh, like we have a patriarchy.
	I don't think so.
	Every single number doesn't look like it is because we have not challenged young men to grow up by the time that they're 16.
	We have allowed a nation of boys to be permanently infantilized till the time they're 25 or 27 or 30.
	I'm going to prove this to you.
	If you guys can make a commitment today to never ever say this again, oh man, I have to go adult today.
	Guys heard this?
	It's now a new verb.
	This is like civilization ending stuff, okay?
	Where all of a sudden this idea of adulting is a negative.
	If you're all here, you're old enough to be able to hear all these sorts of different speeches.
	You guys are now in the cusp of actually becoming a recognized adult in America.
	It's a really good thing.
	It comes with a lot of freedom.
	Let me tell you the problem, though, that your school system will never tell you.
	Yes, you guys can go get endlessly drunk till 2 a.m.
	You can go make all these sorts of different morally questionable decisions.
	You will be a miserable person.
	I can guarantee you that.
	You will.
	Go try it.
	Go tell me how your life is in two years.
	Seriously.
	You will be unbelievably miserable.
	The school system won't tell you this, by the way.
	Saving yourself for one person for marriage is like heresy in the school system.
	Instead, they're like, oh, go take all these pills.
	Like, okay, no.
	Like, actually, maybe I won't.
	Maybe I'm going to actually save myself.
	And all of a sudden, you say that in a school system, they're like, well, we can't teach that.
	No one's going to listen to it.
	Well, let me tell you right now.
	The reason why we are the most miserable generation in American history is because we have not taught young people the true meaning of freedom.
	The true meaning of freedom is that you're responsible for something.
	Now, let me tell you what that means.
	Being responsible is that I will not stay up till 5 a.m. to play video games because I'm going to be a wreck the next day.
	And then all of a sudden I will be less able to serve other people.
	You see, the idea of responsibility comes from the Bible.
	It comes from the Christian ethic that I want to be able to serve others.
	Here's the test of responsibility.
	And I mean no way, by the way, to be like condemnation of anyone that might be in the other category.
	But if you wake up, if you do not show up tomorrow to anything, if you just sit in your basement all day, and if no one's life is impacted tomorrow by you sitting in the basement, no one.
	If no one's like, hey, where's Suze?
	Susie, where is she?
	Where's Billy?
	I miss him.
	Then you have no responsibility.
	If you spend all day in the basement and somebody has a harder day tomorrow, you have some responsibility.
	Go after whatever that thing is.
	Find more of that.
	That's why God gave us the rules, not because he hated us, not because he was the fun police.
	Well, actually, if you follow the Ten Commandments, you will actually be truly free.
	That's freedom.
	Freedom is not indulging yourself in a bunch of internet consumption things or putting substance in your body.
	No, that's actually a form of slavery.
	Like you do that, you're going to be an unbelievably miserable person.
	And take it from me, who I have lost dozens of friends from suicide since I graduated high school that thought that life was nothing more than putting the right substances in their body.
	Or they thought life was nothing more than pulling up the next funny thing on their phone that was completely gross and out of character.
	Instead, the people that applied themselves and actually cared much more about self-control than self-indulgence are leading very, very meaningful lives.
	And I know this is hard when you're young because when you are young and all of a sudden you're coming into adulthood, you want to be able to say, I'm going to just, I'm invincible.
	I can do anything you want.
	And by the way, if you go do that in a couple of years, you'll come back and say, Charlie, you're exactly right.
	And by the way, I didn't come from this.
Do It Right Now 00:02:57
	I don't know.
	It's a 5,000-year-old text that has been saying this for quite some time.
	It's not exactly a brilliant breakthrough.
	But I'm telling you that for us and our generation, we're going to have to grow up quicker than almost any other generation in recent memory.
	We're not able to have this little period where we can just not wait till 30 till we grow up, or else we're not going to have a country.
	So, the idea is that we have to take responsibility early and take it often.
	And so, and by the way, it's really hard.
	It's actually what I'm talking about is one of the hardest things you get to do in your life.
	It's hard because the temptations are all around you to do all these sorts of different things.
	And so, I want to take questions, but before I do, I just want to reinforce that if there's anyone out there that is dealing with self-identity issues or depression or anything, I want to tell you this: Number one, you're a lot tougher than you might think.
	It's a very important truth.
	Number two, that somebody out there needs you.
	You might not think that you need you, but somebody else needs you.
	So, instead of just all of a sudden saying like, no one needs me, you're wrong.
	That's not correct.
	And number three, challenge yourself before you even think of anything unthinkable of self-harm.
	Challenge yourself to an extent where I need to be pushed more.
	What happens a lot when this starts to this epidemic of suicide in our country that our political elite have decided doesn't matter, including politicians up and down the state level in this state and many other states, is very simple and very clear.
	We have not challenged our young people enough to take responsibility at a younger age.
	Okay, let's do some questions.
	So, look, we have so many American heroes in our country, and we need to support them.
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Gear You Deserve at Earned Prices 00:06:29
	So, Charlie, you know quite a lot about starting something, and you did it at such an early age.
	And one of the things that I love about you is you never looked at you never let anybody look down on you because of your youth.
	You went after it, you built something, and you have this entrepreneur spirit.
	So, what do you tell young people that want to start something and make something out of their lives and take some risks?
	Yeah, there's a lot of wisdom in a company I don't think very highly of, which is Nike, because they fund BLM and make their things in China.
	However, there's a lot of wisdom in those three words that they have on their shirt, which is just do it.
	If anyone is telling you that you need to do something before you take a risk or pursue the dream, they're lying to you.
	If you have something that you want to do, go do it right now.
	And I'm living evidence of that.
	I started an organization when I was 18 years old, suburbs of Chicago, no money, no education except high school, no connections, and no idea what I was doing.
	All I had was energy, I had work ethic, and I had my path somewhat straightened out in the sense like I kind of knew where I wanted to go.
	I had many variations, incredible amount of trials, sleepless nights, traveled over 330 days a year, most earning no money for the first five years, asking people for money, doing all sorts of different things.
	Where we are today, a kid from Chicago who didn't go to college, where I had to literally sneak into the Republican convention in 2012.
	Eight years later, I'm opening the Republican convention.
	Only in America is a story like that possible.
	And a couple thoughts on this.
	Number one, as much as I would like to take credit for it, I won't, because I had amazing people that believed in me early.
	And my mentor, may he rest in peace, Bill Montgomery being one of them.
	And that's the other thing is find someone that is multiply older than you are and listen more than you talk.
	It's kind of something we should teach every young person, right?
	And make sure they're out of the school system because whoever's in the school system will probably tell you something foolish.
	So find someone who's in the actual world, who has been steeped in wisdom, has actually been through something in their life, and just ask questions and listen to their stories.
	Understand that you probably don't know everything by the time you're 16 or 18.
	In fact, there's a phenomenal quote, which is, I only wish I would have known how little I actually knew when I thought I knew it all.
	It's a perfect quote, which is, you actually, if you think you know it all, just take a stop.
	Like, just time out.
	And then kind of the other thing is when you're trying to start something from nothing, the best way to move forward, and this is something we do not do enough of young people, is the capacity to endure opposition.
	We have created such fragile young people, it is incredible, that they have to start screaming in protesting because someone says an idea that they disagree with.
	The actual world, the non-collegiate world, is a brutal place.
	It's actually an awful place.
	There's tons of mean people.
	They will cut your throat.
	And what college should be, but it's not, what college should be is a place where you become a tougher person.
	It's not what college is.
	Instead, it makes you a weaker person.
	And it also makes you trained to try to say, I disagree with that.
	Take that thing away.
	That's why you're seeing this happen all across our country.
	That's why you're seeing the crisis of cancellation everywhere because the campus activists have gone from college campuses to run all of American society.
	Wow.
	That's such a great answer.
	What do you guys think?
	So many of you may want to be in Charlie's position one day doing something that everyone, the youth, the conservative youth are listening to, having the influence that he has, Instagram followers.
	But one thing I've learned is that the bigger the blessing, the bigger the burden.
	And there's something that goes with that.
	There's a weight that goes with that.
	And so first of all, I just want to say that, Charlie, we're praying for you.
	Thank you.
	And Charlie needs those prayers.
	So continue to pray for Charlie because he's really being used.
	He may not speak in religious platitudes all the time, but he's doing God's work and God is using him.
	So I want to encourage you to pray for Charlie.
	And I also want to ask you about, Candace said something so interesting the other day.
	She said she finds ways, you know, in the seriousness of politics to find some joy and laughter and finding humor in the situations.
	So what are some ways, I have a follow-up question to this, but what are some ways that you take some of the pressure off?
	Because I imagine there's some stress that goes with what you do.
	So what are some of the ways that you take some of the pressure off?
	Yeah, there's a little stress.
	I mean, that's the other lesson is that I just want to be very clear that if you want to achieve some form of success, you're going to have to work every weekend.
	You'll have to probably, you'll probably sleep five hours a night for the first five years of doing what you're doing.
	You're going to lose your closest friends.
	Your relatives will spite you as soon as you find some form of success.
	Now, if you want to be mediocre, then you won't encounter that.
	But all of a sudden, if you want the glam and fame, buckle up because it's hard.
	It's worth it, no doubt.
	It's absolutely worthwhile.
	But yeah, look, some pressure releases is everything becomes relative.
	I'm an evangelical Christian.
	It's the most important thing in my life.
	And actually understanding that we are made in God's image.
	Thank you.
	And actually understanding the truth of the Bible and understanding actually how awful of a person I actually am, which I am.
	Everyone is.
	And we need to tell that more clearly to young people is that you're actually really terrible.
	And you need Jesus.
	And, you know, seriously, it's that simple.
	Instead, we do the opposite.
	We tell young people, you're the greatest thing ever, self-esteem.
	And they're like, well, I'm 14.
	I'm still trying to figure this out.
	And it puts an unneeded amount of pressure, actually.
	And so I just want to kind of clear, I want to communicate that first and foremost.
	And secondly, kind of just, you know, I really don't do much besides this.
	People say, well, what do you do for fun?
	It's like, you know, traveling 330 days a year and, you know, doing all this is kind of my life, and I love it.
	I'm doing two podcasts a day, one on Saturday, one on Sunday.
	It's a 24-7 type of exercise.
	It really is.
	And the kind of the fight that we're in in our country warrants that right now.
	But yeah, look, I mean, there's always humorous moments.
Commitment to Truth and Journey 00:10:38
	There's things that, but I really enjoy reading every night and exploring big ideas.
	In fact, I love being able to wrestle with oppositional ideas and being able to find just the wisdom of people that came before me, right?
	Of Socrates and Plato and Aristotle, Descartes, Hume, Burke, the architects of our entire society is something that we've completely lost, I believe.
	He raises so many good points there.
	And I think he's doing what he's passionate about because he finds fun in doing what he's doing for work, too.
	So he's one of those types, and he's a higher achiever.
	So I'm sure he's energized by accomplishing a lot of the things that he does.
	So one of the things that I wanted to ask is when you get to the place that you're working so hard day in and day out for everything that you're doing, you've obviously had to work with all different types of people.
	How do you keep people around you?
	What does your inner circle look like?
	And how do you, as a leader, lead effectively in your position?
	Well, we have a great team at Turning Point.
	I have a phenomenal girlfriend that really supports me.
	And that's a very important thing is find someone that believes in you and supports you.
	And it's a very, it's probably the most important thing.
	And I'll tell you that my inner circle at Turning Point is three to four people.
	And we've been through a lot together.
	You have to know loyalty.
	You have to know commitment to truth.
	And I challenge to say that we're friends.
	We are friends, the people that I work with.
	But more than anything else, we are battle-tested together.
	And that's a very important thing.
	Look, dealing in politics, I deal with literally thousands of people that want me wiped off the face of the earth every single day.
	No, seriously.
	And I deal with dozens of reporters that their daily job is to destroy my life, that listen to every word I ever say anywhere at any time.
	Their full-time job, and it should just say, destroy Charlie Kirk, was my job between 2020 and 2024.
	And they're very well funded, and that's what they do.
	I want you to just imagine that if you had 24 people that chased your life around every day trying to destroy your life.
	Like, that's what I go through.
	And by the way, whatever.
	It's the price of our journey.
	But yeah, look, when you associate with people around you, the most important thing is loyalty and integrity.
	Those are the two most important things.
	The rest can kind of fill in the gaps, but you need people that will tell you the truth always, and you need people that are loyal to you.
	And unfortunately, we have a disloyal culture that has happened in our country.
	That's honestly just to kind of make it a little political.
	I think it is one of the most disgusting things when someone goes and gets the honor to serve around the president of the United States and then they go write a book a year later saying how awful that president was.
	I don't care if you hated him.
	I don't care if you didn't like him.
	I think it is one of the most disgusting things that someone, I really do.
	And here's one of the lessons I wanted to extract for you: is that leaders that are high achievers that are doing and accomplishing things, they're careful about who they associate with.
	And you as well should be careful about who you associate with.
	And maybe you're in high school now and come 10 years from now, five years from now, even the people that you're associating with now aren't going to be your closest friends.
	And so realizing pleasing the people around you maybe isn't always the most important thing.
	So bear that in mind.
	And so these are some practical life things that I've extracted from Charlie, and I'm excited that he's answered that.
	As far as policy goes, let's start with a question on this side, and then we'll go to that side.
	Hey, Charlie, huge fan.
	I listened to you in an old episode of the Candace Own Show like a year and a half ago, it must have been, and you said that you thought we shouldn't have been in Vietnam.
	And I just wanted you to elaborate on that opinion a little bit.
	Yeah, so I got an email.
	I don't know if you sent me an email this morning, actually.
	Someone emailed me on my podcast, and you guys can always email me, freedom at charliekirk.com.
	Look, this is something where I disagree with the traditional Republican establishment with all respect to prior speakers.
	I truly mean this.
	I've aired my differences with him on podcast form before, but I think that the Republican Party and the Democrat Party has, I think it's been a disservice to our country to believe that we can nation build in every corner of our planet.
	I think that this misadventures around the world is something that we should take an honest diagnosis of.
	Less about the Vietnam War, and I do think the Vietnam War was a total mistake, especially how we did it through draft form, and where I could make an argument for the draft.
	Geopolitically, I do not believe that the Vietnam invasion and prolonged conflict there was in the best interest of America or the American middle class.
	But let's just talk about the Iraq War.
	Is that okay?
	Because I think that one's more applicable to our country.
	The Iraq war will go down as one of the worst foreign policy mistakes in American history.
	We displaced the dictator, who was, of course, a bad person.
	There's lots of bad people around the world.
	But what is the proper role of American foreign policy?
	Is it to try to impose Western values to places that don't want it and will never believe it?
	Or is it to protect the homeland, preserve the people that we are elected to do so, preserve first principles, and then use force wherever necessary to eliminate enemies, foreign and domestic, such as Qassam Soleimani and al-Baghdadi.
	But the idea of a ground invasion in Iraq where we spend well over a trillion dollars, lose over 5,000 Americans, where a veteran commits suicide on average, I think the average was every couple hours a veteran commits suicide in our country from PTSD from the Iraq and Afghanistan war.
	I think that's a misapplication of American force.
	Look, here's the thing that I learned about American foreign policy: we are not an empire.
	We should not be an empire.
	We're actually really bad at trying to be an empire.
	Like, if we were an empire, then just admit it.
	And we're not.
	And so I think that American foreign policy over the last 20 years has been a very, it's been, by the way, it's been really bad for our generation, just so you know.
	The amount of debt that we've had to incur through these foreign invasions, the diminishment of our U.S. currency, and why is it that we're building bridges and roads and tunnels in schools in Iraq, and we have 15 schools in Baltimore where black kids can't read at grade level.
	Like, that sounds like a weird prioritization.
	Our elected leaders should say the first and foremost issues that impact our country is our citizens.
	Not the Iraqi people.
	And so While there are plenty of people in good spirit that will support the endless war in Afghanistan, that think we should be there for another 20 years, I think we should end the war in Afghanistan.
	I think we should never have gone into Iraq.
	And this is something that really pleases me about President Trump, is that the Republican Party, we are now able to have these conversations where we have to say we are not nation builders, nor should we be.
	We have huge problems in this country.
	We lose 70,000 people a year to opioids every single year.
	As I mentioned, 35,000 people to suicide.
	We have a fadless epidemic where 77% of black babies are born without fathers.
	We have wide open borders.
	Our infrastructure is the laughingstock of the world.
	Our airports are falling apart.
	Yet we're supposed to continue to spend hundreds of billions of dollars overseas.
	Why exactly?
	In a nation that may have had some terrorists passing through there at some point, the more that we are honest about the mistakes we made overseas, the better that we can chart our course in those kind of capacity.
	So yes, I am unafraid as a conservative to say that certain adventures overseas should never have happened.
	In fact, I think that kind of approach will actually make us a more prosperous country in the future.
	And that's awesome.
	So it's 22 veterans commit suicide each day.
	That's an astronomical number, and that needs to change.
	So we need to pray for our vets.
	And the great thing about President Trump is he wants a strong military, but he doesn't want to nation build and send everyone all across the world.
	We love that.
	All right, next question.
	Charlie, in the unfortunate event that Joe Biden wins on November 3rd, how do you think that would impact the future of Christianity in America?
	It's a great question.
	Thank you for being here.
	So, yeah, look, it will impact it terribly in a variety of different ways.
	First of all, so if Joe Biden wins, people say, let me just start this way.
	People say, Charlie, what are you going to do?
	And I'll say, I'm going to do exactly what I would do if Trump wins.
	I'm going to wake up at 6 a.m. the next day.
	I'm going to do two podcasts.
	I'm going to host my radio show.
	I'm going to get to work.
	No matter what happens, we're going to get to work, right?
	And so I want everyone to be very clear here that win or lose, you're going to be involved the day after the election, right?
	That victory or defeat, you're not going to allow that to say, we're giving up on America, we're done.
	Like, that's foolish.
	That's not going to happen.
	But look, just to be very honest with you, a lot is going to be determined in the next 45 days.
	And I mentioned this earlier.
	If the Republicans are able to fill the Supreme Court seat, that will positively impact the U.S. Supreme Court for generations to come, which is why I support that.
	With that being said, if Joe Biden were elected president of the United States, which will basically be a Harris administration because they've said that, you will have a war on Christianity, the likes of which we have not seen since the Obama administration, but it'll be much worse.
	It'll be the criminalization of churches.
	It'll be the forced contraception mandates.
	It'll be more and more judges, if they were to be able to get the Senate control to do so, that are hostile to the faith.
	And we saw this under Barack Obama with the little sisters of the poor that were forced to pay for contraception, which is absolutely diametrically against the Catholic faith and the tradition.
	And the other part is this, let's just talk about life.
	Let's just talk about the need to protect pre-born lives.
	You know, we have a million abortions every single year in our country.
	One million abortions.
	That's 3,000 abortions a day.
	So we were told early on, and the way that your public schools will probably talk to you about abortion, is they'll tell you that, oh, abortion is needed for the case of the rape or life of the mother.
	And so if Joe Biden gets elected, he won't speak at the March for Life like Donald Trump has.
	He'll restore Planned Parenthood funding, and it will be a crusade against pre-born lives where we're finally making steps in the right direction, thanks to President Donald Trump.
	Who, for Christians out there, they say, Well, I don't like Donald Trump.
Cultural Avalanche and Abortion Crisis 00:16:19
	I don't like his style.
	I'll say, first of all, if you're so worried about style over the amazing things that he's done for our country, like you're way too focused on pettiness, in my opinion, okay?
	Oh, I don't like his tweets.
	Okay, great, fine.
	That's the first thing.
	The second thing is this: so, let me, by the way, I'm gonna be so brutally honest here in the state of Texas.
	Why is it that Christian George W. Bush never spoke at the March for Life?
	Why is it that Christian George Bush give us John Roberts?
	Why did Christian George Bush never move the embassy to Jerusalem?
	Maybe because Christian George Bush didn't have a backbone, and Donald Trump does.
	And he's making a very good point.
	And Trump puts America first.
	He doesn't put other countries first.
	He doesn't apologize for America.
	And that's one of the things that we love about our president.
	Let's take the next question.
	Hello, my name is Mark.
	And you're talking about how a lot of youth need to start taking a lot more responsibility.
	What's like the one thing you think that society could change that could help that the most?
	It's a great question.
	Thank you.
	So let's just talk from a public policy perspective.
	I think the hyper-urbanization of our country has been a mistake.
	And you guys are seeing this here in Harris County.
	I think the Republican Party should say, we're not going to allow buildings over four stories to be built anywhere in America.
	The more vertical our buildings get, the more liberal our cities get.
	No, seriously, think about this.
	No one talks about this.
	It's a very interesting point.
	You see all those high-rises going up in West Houston, right?
	As that happens, all of a sudden, Houston becomes more liberal.
	It's very interesting because if you rent property and you don't own property, you're much less likely to care about what's happening around you.
	So our founding fathers recognize this.
	They said, go own land.
	Go get into the soil.
	Get into the roots.
	And so one of the reasons as to why Portland and Seattle and Los Angeles, they're all perpetually burning is they have young people that are $70,000 into debt.
	They have no jobs to be found anywhere.
	Their lives are not getting better when they're 27, when they're 28, when they're 29, and they own nothing.
	They're renting.
	All their money goes to hyper-inflated rent because they're all living in the same sort of cluster.
	And so from a public policy perspective, we should sell our federal lands out west to people under the age of 35 to married couples for like no money.
	That's what we should do.
	We should tell married couples, go out to Nevada, go out to Colorado.
	Here's a thousand acres.
	We're going to sell you an acre for basically no money if you're married and you're going to have at least three children.
	Like that's basically what we should do because we have a population collapse.
	We have a civilizational collapse.
	We have a responsibility collapse.
	It's that simple.
	It's that stop living in these inner cities.
	Start going, go re-embrace the rugged Western spirit.
	And people say, well, there's no land.
	Have you seen a map of the American West?
	I mean, it's all owned by the federal government.
	Nevada is 97% owned by the federal government.
	If they just sold a couple thousand acres, you could say, go, young families, and have a life that isn't in BLM-infested Harris County.
	Like, go, seriously, I'm not saying you guys should move, but get out of the urban areas.
	It's where really bad ideas all of a sudden start to translate into public policy really quickly.
	That's one of the reasons.
	And here's why.
	There's a great essay.
	You guys should read it.
	It's called The Tragedy of the Commons.
	It's very interesting, which is when everyone owns something, no one owns something.
	This is why public parks are doomed to get trashed all the time.
	Not on my yard, right?
	Your parents will say, my yard, I take advantage, I take care for.
	The public park, oh, somebody else's responsibility.
	When everyone owns something, no one owns it.
	And when no one owns anything, no one has any responsibility, and you'll get into chaos.
	So, from a public policy perspective, I tell young parents in particular, go start a mortgage as early as you possibly can, especially right now with interest rates so low.
	I mean, debt is bad.
	The only kind of debt that I support is mortgage.
	Really, because you're building equity, you improve your home, you touch it, you feel it, you use it.
	It's something that can actually improve your life year after year.
	And so, what can we do broadly a public policy way?
	That's one of the ways.
	The other way is this: when you have a culture of debt, when you have young people that are $70,000, $80,000 into debt because of student loans, when they can't find jobs, they're quickly going to dive into nihilism, which is a belief in nothing, okay?
	So, nihilism is a fancy academic term for a belief in nothingness.
	We're nothing more than clumps of cells, nothing matters, whatever.
	This is a very dangerous thing.
	And we have to be very serious and honest about the kind of public policy decisions that we are making where all of a sudden young people feel as if the country is not for them.
	And I just want to just be very kind of, I kind of want to have a bridge here.
	If you're out in this audience and you are a Bernie Sanders supporter, I actually kind of really get it.
	I do.
	And I know that might sound like, what are you talking about?
	I get it if you think the entire system is rigged against you.
	I get it if you think that the politicians are backwards and broken and corrupt, because most of them are, almost all of them are.
	The solutions of Bernie Sanders are evil.
	They're horrendous.
	When Bernie Sanders starts railing against how opportunities are being robbed from young people, I kind of get that.
	I do.
	I really do.
	And so if you have friends that are Bernie Sanders supporters, understand that they actually can be much more converted into being conservatives than Joe Biden supporters.
	It's actually a really interesting bridge, that the Bernie people actually have some very, they have some correct observations about some things that are going wrong in our country.
	And I think that one of the mistakes is that, like, oh, the Bernie people, they're always, like, actually, they're actually much more convertible than you might think.
	And actually, some of them hate war.
	They don't like corrupt politicians.
	They just, their solutions are just so awful, but they don't know anything.
	It's fine.
	Like, they're young, okay?
	I mean, that shouldn't be the, that shouldn't just be the end of the conversation.
	It should be the beginning.
	The final thing is this: that when you get older, your life is going to get more difficult but more meaningful.
	And so that it's really hard to find a meaningful life without having difficulty.
	Those things are usually tied together, right?
	So in order to find, if you want to live a good life, one that gives you some form of fulfillment, then you're going to have to do something hard every single day.
	The left has been trying to crack this code for 2,000 years.
	How can we have meaningful life with no responsibility?
	It's actually against the biblical truths that we know.
	You're going to have to endure a daily slog of responsibility.
	So I hope that helps answer your question.
	And I'm happy to go over if I don't know.
	That's a great answer.
	Yeah, I can answer.
	I could talk all day.
	Yeah, and one thing that we can remember is that President Trump in 2016, he won a lot of Bernie Sanders supporters.
	They were disenfranchised because, unfortunately, his opponent couldn't reach him.
	So there's an inroad there.
	Next question.
	I'm a huge fan of you and your podcast.
	And please announce your name, too.
	Oh, I'm David.
	I'm a huge fan of you and your podcast.
	Thank you so much.
	Yeah, I'm subscribed.
	You're subscribed.
	Yeah.
	My question is: you and other conservatives agree with Milton Friedman's libertarian views, right?
	But he also believed in legalizing drugs.
	So what is your...
	Oh, no, not even close.
	So, yeah, look, I actually, as I get older, I become less libertarian.
	I become more libertarian on guns, actually, and less libertarian on other things.
	No, it's interesting.
	I become more libertarian on guns.
	I think that firearm restrictions should basically go away and meaningful, like people should just be able to own weapons.
	I'm kind of on that way.
	So, however, when it comes to, and I'm more libertarian on speech, I'm probably more a libertarian on some foreign policy things.
	I'm way less libertarian at immigration, ridiculously less libertarian on any sort of thing of immigration, and also on markets.
	But let's talk about drugs, okay?
	This is a really interesting thing.
	I actually used to espouse a position when, so I went to high school in the suburbs of Chicago, and everyone who wanted weed could get weed, right?
	It was illegal, but everyone could get it.
	So that kind of was my framing.
	And so I used to go around the country and I'd say, what good does it do to keep it illegal?
	Let's decriminalize it.
	Let's let people have it at all times.
	We'll tax it.
	It'll be this like wonderful libertarian utopia, right?
	And so, but I'm an empiricist.
	What does that mean?
	That's a really fancy word for, I look at evidence, right?
	I don't care how people feel.
	I like data.
	I like facts.
	All of you should be empiricists, right?
	All of you.
	Right?
	If someone says, what is your political ideology?
	You'll make them, you sound so smart.
	I'm an empiricist.
	It's like, awesome.
	I'm an empiricist.
	I like data, right?
	So I like data.
	So then I asked after a couple years, because you guys should never be dogmatic in anything, by the way.
	Dogma is bad.
	Bad.
	Don't be dogmatic.
	Don't be like, oh, I'm against this always.
	Always challenge and say, does the evidence support my opinion?
	So I believe that, okay, decriminalization, legalization might be a good idea.
	Okay, maybe.
	So then I asked, how's it going in Colorado?
	Is it making Colorado a better state for young people to succeed?
	Is it making middle-class families more likely to be able to escape poverty and get into a higher level of socioeconomic income?
	Are there drunk driving rates going down?
	Are they seeing more incidents of it?
	Is it good for schools?
	And the answer was, it's a disaster.
	Now, the weed people, they'll tell you it's great, right?
	They'll say, oh, it's terrific.
	Like, we have tax revenue and all this sort of stuff.
	Like, it's a complete disaster, okay?
	They have people that are 12 years old that are getting admitted to the ER.
	And by the way, the marijuana that you parents were smoking in the 70s is not the weed that your kids are doing.
	It's laced with hallucinogens.
	It's laced with LSD sometimes.
	It's very, very dangerous.
	Now, I'm not trying to condemn anyone here who's done weed, okay?
	I'm not.
	Like, I'm not moralizing towards you.
	In fact, I would highly recommend you stop doing that, but that's a different thing.
	I don't think it will lead to a productive life, okay?
	But nothing I'm saying is like, you're a bad person if you do that.
	It's kind of indifferent, okay?
	Instead, what kind of laws do I want to have happen in my country that are going to make us more likely to be able to compete against China in the 21st century?
	So here's a really interesting, provocative way to think about it.
	Does China want more American youth on weed or less American youth on weed?
	Of course they want more American youth on weed.
	Of course they do.
	We know that it probably will make you less likely to be entrepreneurial.
	It will stunt productivity.
	It also has, and by the way, this idea that it's not a gateway drug, it's absolutely a gateway drug, okay?
	I know very few people in my life that have overdosed on opioids that just started opioids.
	Like, oh, let's just start with like heroin.
	Like, okay, no, you were doing weed when you were 12, okay?
	And that's not to say there's not medicinal things that I think are very valid.
	I know people that have CBD on it, but when it's laced in THC, I just don't think it creates a beneficial country.
	And by the way, and then it's this kind of culture where it is now being as pervasive as alcohol.
	And people say, well, what about alcohol?
	Don't you want to disallow them?
	Like, wait, hold on a second.
	I wouldn't necessarily make alcohol illegal, but if we act like alcohol is this victimless drug, like what kind of country are you living in?
	I mean, 50,000 people die every single year of alcohol-related death or vehicular manslaughter.
	It's not as if like we've conquered alcohol in our country.
	In fact, you know, you're most likely to die from a family member who's under the influence of alcohol.
	That's actually the most dangerous you are going to be in your life.
	That's the most dangerous from a sort of death in America of domestic death.
	And so, but also I think the alcohol example is making something that's currently legal illegal instead of making something that's currently illegal legal.
	So it's not exactly a perfect argument.
	But I also don't think that we can, anyone is just like, what about alcohol?
	I'm like, well, what about it?
	It's actually doing a lot of damage to our country.
	Like, I think it would be a really good thing if less people drank every single night.
	I think that would have more meaningful relationships.
	I think that domestic abuse would go down.
	I think that it's actually not a good thing to have a culture of intoxication at all times where you can't watch a cable news program without someone at a bar having something to ease up their conversation.
	I actually think that that's not a good thing.
	And I think the Bible tells us be very wary of drunkenness.
	It's very clear that drinking is okay in certain, it depends on your denomination.
	The Baptists say, like, you heretic.
	Like, okay, but like, some people believe that drinking is okay.
	By the way, I'm not a drinker, right?
	Like, it's been a long time since I've had anything to drink.
	Let me be very clear.
	But I also think that we have to have a pause of what kind of country do you want to live in and what are the trends that are making us less competitive and a less, I would say, free society.
	And I think that more people that are doing addictive substances is not a trend I want to go into, which is why I have vocally opposed the legalization of marijuana in the states, and I think you guys should too.
	And I came from a position where it was like, oh, it'd be okay, but I know that it has other, it makes people, in my opinion, less productive, less likely to succeed.
	To answer your question, I don't hold that view because I'm afraid that we have such a simultaneous cultural avalanche happening in our country.
	There's so many problems.
	Why would we add another one?
	Like, oh, yeah, by the way, people want to commit suicide.
	We have depression everywhere.
	Let's also legalize weed.
	Like, that's a really dumb idea, right?
	Especially when we already have all these problems.
	That's a really profound answer.
	And just to clarify, it's not anti-biblical to drink.
	I mean, Jesus turned water into wine.
	And so we don't have to have a legalistic mindset about that.
	But on the other hand, we just got to keep in mind that is it beneficial to human flourishing?
	So keep that in mind.
	And a lot of times what he's saying is definitely true.
	No, and I was just saying some churches do hold that view.
	So I don't mean to offend you if you are.
	Yeah, well, no, it's perfect.
	So, and I don't drink either, so, but I just, yeah.
	So, next question.
	My question is to you, or I'm just going to do a little backstory.
	I go to high school.
	I'm actually a junior in high school.
	I'm actually in my local theater department at the high school.
	And a lot of the other people don't normally agree with me, but I still wear my Trump mask anyways.
	Anyways, that's not part of the point.
	My question to you is: yesterday, Candace spoke about how the left uses linguistics to make their side sound more appealing until you read the fine print.
	Being surrounded by these people at school, how can I use the linguistics, use Republican linguistics to convey my thoughts respectfully?
	Well, first of all, I want to start with something you probably didn't come to talk about, which is more conservatives need to be involved in the arts, in theater, in music, in all of that.
	It's a very important thing.
	Very important.
	And this, look, the idea of Western beauty, of Bach and Beethoven and Shakespeare, should not be forgotten that that is part of the ethic and the worldview that we have.
	And it's very interesting that you mentioned your theater.
	You should stay in theater, right?
	You're probably surrounded by a bunch of communists, but that's okay.
	And that's fine.
	It's good.
	But you shouldn't leave.
	And conservatives, we should be more embracing of people that are in the theater, in the arts, right?
	That's a place that we don't contend enough for, okay?
	So I just want to say that.
	The other thing is linguistics.
	Thank you for listening to my podcast.
	I try to do part of that.
	The best piece of advice I have for you with liberals are people on the other side.
	Look at them as the opportunity, not as the obstacle.
	It's very important.
	Every liberal you talk to is someone that should be converted to the kingdom of Jesus Christ, hopefully eventually, could become a constitutional conservative.
	Come could become a patriotic American.
	Don't look at them as someone you're going to run over.
	Like, I'm going to go run through it.
	No.
	Okay?
	It's an opportunity.
	That's number one.
	Number two is ask questions.
	It's very important.
	Always be non-stop inquiry.
	Your dialectic should be one of inquiry.
	Don't tell them what you believe.
	Ask them why they believe what they believe.
	Did you ever think that maybe America is not as awful as you're articulating?
	Why is America so bad?
	Have you ever heard about how in the last 30 years, there's a waiting list of 35 million people that want to come into this country?
	If we were so bad, why is that the case?
	Have we done anything right as a country?
	Like, these are easy questions, right?
	And they're actually really good starting points.
	The third thing is this, is this is very important for all of you, and I know that a lot of you are in debates.
	A lot of you are in conversations, right?
	Your style will largely be more important than your substance and how people judge your debate.
	Not raising your voice, never ever engaging in ad hominem, ever.
	Never insult someone because they might look funny, because they might be wearing a weird shirt, ever.
	And if you do, you're wrong.
	That's not the way that you engage towards truth or you contend to truth, okay?
	You don't feel like, oh, you might get too excited.
	You have to learn, get the muscle memory to calm down your heart rate, right?
	Not get too excited.
	It's okay if someone disagrees.
	And if they say, you're a dumb, stupid person, you don't get too excited.
Adversity Makes You Tougher 00:05:54
	You say, well, thank you.
	I don't hold that belief, but let's keep on talking.
	And I have hundreds of hours of video that show exactly how to do that, of these apparatus coming up in my face and they're screaming at me and all that.
	It's a very important thing.
	And the final thing is this, which is it's the conversations, not the conversions.
	I can't tell you how many liberals have listened to my podcast and then they email me a couple months later and they say, Charlie, after listening to 20 of your episodes, I'm now a conservative.
	I'm now a Christian.
	You would never, never, never lose hope that what you are doing could be convincing and persuading people.
	So thank you for the question.
	What a great answer there.
	And there may be people that are triggered by what he's saying, but he's a happy warrior.
	We've used that terminology.
	Download it into your hard drive.
	Be happy warriors.
	Be positive.
	Don't call people names, but answer the questions.
	And that's what he's doing well.
	And we really appreciate him for doing that.
	Okay, so next question.
	What does a victory in the culture war look like?
	What does a victory in the culture war look like?
	My goodness.
	A generation of young people that are more thankful than angry to live in America.
	And that's the best, that's the shortest answer I can give.
	But I think that we have a gratitude crisis in our country.
	I think that all good things come from being thankful.
	If you think about it, when you are happier, you're usually thankful that something happened to you or something is around you.
	And you should be thankful every day.
	You live in a great country.
	Hopefully you're generally healthy.
	In fact, we're the least thankful country.
	That's also the wealthiest country.
	Go figure that one out.
	I mean, we're so unthankful, we're so full of ingratitude, yet we have things really, really well, really good in our country, I should say.
	Things are terrific.
	So that's an interesting point.
	So the culture war also is, I want a country where everyone can speak their mind without having some sort of cost against them.
	I think that we need to have a country where you can wear your MAGA hat without being kicked out of class, without being kicked off of social media, or being socially isolated.
	That would be a victory where the self-censorship crisis ends.
	And that's the other thing, everybody, is that do not self-censor.
	Do not shut yourself up.
	That's a very important thing.
	Somebody might be trying to shut you up, but then the moment that you're like, I'm not going to wear the Trump shirt because I'm afraid of how people are going to look at me in the grocery store.
	Or I'm not going to wear, you know, my Jesus Christ as Lord shirt because I'm afraid that I might get some funny looks.
	That is what self-censorship looks like.
	Now, if somebody else is making you do that, completely different thing.
	But if you're the one that's doing it and you have the right to do it, then that's a different terrain that we have to contest on.
	Thank you for the question.
	Appreciate it.
	Be bold and don't be afraid.
	I think that's the right answer there.
	Okay, could you announce your name and then ask your question?
	My name is David, and I just have some questions.
	When you started Turning Point, USA, what was your main goal and what inspired you to do that?
	It's a great question.
	I wish I could say that when I started Turning Point, I knew exactly how it was going to end and I had a perfect plan in mind.
	For any of you that want to start anything, it's okay if you don't have a plan.
	You have a talent, you have a passion, you go after it, and then it kind of just unfolds.
	Looking at where Turning Point is today with 160 people on staff, well over 2,000 campuses represented, and the incredible reach that we have, it's hard to be able to kind of backtrack and see how far we've been able to go.
	But I didn't have that vision from the beginning.
	I just wanted to save our country from the younger perspective.
	That was it.
	I just felt that we were in a crisis in America and doing nothing was not acceptable.
	That's really what I believed: I was not going to be a spectator when our country was deconstructed and disintegrated from within.
	That was my opinion.
	And it still is.
	Thank you.
	Thank you.
	Great question.
	Now let's go to you.
	And would you please announce your name and then ask your question?
	My name is Ruth Ellen.
	And I was wondering, what is the hardest obstacle that you have faced and how did you overcome it?
	Wow, that is a great question.
	The hardest obstacle that I faced was when people I thought I trusted betrayed me.
	That is a tough thing for anyone.
	And there is no playbook to go through that, but it teaches you a lot about yourself and a lot about who you surround yourself with.
	And that's why I encourage young people to get involved in taking risks, starting businesses earlier than not, because you're going to encounter that.
	Someone's going to tell you that they're going to do something and they don't do it.
	Someone's going to tell you one thing and a different thing happens.
	And that's a very hard thing for a young person in the process, is betrayal.
	It really is.
	And so that was hard.
	And also just the general adversity, right?
	Just generally just trying to get something started and having everyone tell you you're not going to succeed.
	You're going to fail.
	You're dumb.
	Stop doing this.
	You must go to college.
	You have no idea what you're talking about.
	And knowing why I was doing what I was doing and keeping my goals sharp and clear.
	Remember, that's how you keep your goals sharp and clear.
	There's a couple things you guys walk away with.
	That's one of them.
	Then I was able to get my path correct and aim towards the good.
	If you know why you are doing what you are doing, as I mentioned earlier, you're a lot tougher than you think.
	If you know the why, you'll figure out the how.
	If you know the why, you can get through almost anything, no matter what opposition.
	But all of a sudden, if you get in that moment of pressure and adversity and you can't tell someone why you're doing what you're doing, you'll probably shatter.
Hardwired Desire for Good 00:04:01
	So thank you so much for the question.
	It's terrific.
	And sometimes I'm sure it gives you thicker skin as you continue to go on and on and on and it makes you tougher.
	So that's a great, great perspective.
	I love the shirt.
	I recognize it because you listen to my podcast.
	So thank you.
	Police officers matter.
	Do we agree?
	Yes.
	Please announce your name and then ask your question.
	My name is Caitlin and I'm from California.
	I go to school at California State University, Fullerton.
	Yeah, there's a big controversy happening.
	I'm well aware of it.
	And so obviously a lot of my friends are super liberal and I live in a sorority house with a lot of girls who are super liberal and one of them in particular is very has a nihilistic worldview, atheist, super liberal.
	And how do I go about that, like trying to help her or combat that without still having to live with her as a roommate?
	It's a great question.
	So all of you are going to encounter nihilists at some point in your life.
	You probably already have, where there is no God.
	We're all just a clump of cells.
	Everything here is an accident.
	Why even be here?
	It's just a very dark, very hedonistic type view eventually, because then why not just stuff myself with all these substances?
	It's really, it's really a dangerous thing to believe.
	Number one, let's just talk about atheism really quick.
	And if there's any atheists here, by the way, God bless you.
	Thank you for being here.
	And exactly.
	So thank you for being here.
	So, and no, I mean that because I don't view atheists or people that are secular as the obstacle.
	I think of you as the opportunity.
	I want to be in heaven with you one day, and I pray that you will be.
	So that's the first thing is this: light will always triumph darkness.
	And when dealing with atheists, there's a couple just logical imperfections in their worldview that I'm going to give you a couple hard wires right now.
	I'm going to give you a couple cheat codes.
	You ready?
	So here's a couple cheat codes for atheism.
	They're going to say there's no such thing as absolute truth, right?
	That's one of their big things.
	And say, do you believe that absolutely?
	I mean, if there's nothing as absolute truth, and what you just said might not be absolutely true, then you're believing something that might actually not be true.
	So, which they're not, which they are.
	So that's the first thing.
	The second thing, and this really kind of drives them nuts.
	I wouldn't recommend using this, by the way, is that without God, there would be no atheists.
	Like, it really drives them out of control.
	And I mean, whatever.
	So the other thing is this: when you're trying to talk to a nihilistic person, I think that, and there's a lot of different ways to go about it, but there's one thing they can't answer.
	You ready for it?
	Here's the cheat code.
	The social Darwinists that believe that in Darwinism, there's one thing that always gets them confused.
	It's music.
	What is music?
	Now, they will say that music came from songbirds.
	Like, no, no, no, no, that's noise.
	What is music?
	Why do certain pieces of music make you cry?
	Why do certain pieces of music make you feel something that you just can't quite articulate?
	Why does some music sound better than others?
	Because we believe, those of us that believe in God, that music is something that is extra-spiritual.
	It's actually a connection to a higher power.
	That's why the longest book in the Bible is literally songs, psalms.
	The last chapter of the book of Psalms is about using trumpets and using instruments to glorify God.
	They can't explain music.
	They also can't explain beauty.
	Ask them, is there anything in this world that is beautiful?
	Go drive to Malibu and say, let's look at the sunset.
	Is that beautiful?
	Yes.
	Why?
	Why is it that when human beings see an open ocean, we all agree there's something good about this?
	It's because we all have hardwired in us a yearning to desire the good and reject the bad.
	A size in our heart that only God can fill.
Call to Action: Travel and Act 00:11:36
	Even the nihilists will admit this when they're confronted with it, and they don't have an answer for it.
	And so, my advice to you: maybe you'll play Mozart, maybe something like that, and you listen to that music, and all of us will agree there's something so sweet and harmonious about this.
	And those of us that believe in the Bible, we can explain it, right?
	We know what that is because we use music as a way to glorify God.
	That is why all of the great conductors and all of the great orchestra, all the great individuals of Mozart and Bach, and all of them, they all said on the top of their music, Glory be to God, always, because what they were doing to try to glorify God, always.
	So, that's there.
	I could go a lot deeper into that.
	But my advice to you is don't look at her as, how am I going to live with her?
	Instead, say, how am I going to live forever with her?
	How do I bring her to heaven?
	That's my advice to you with her, okay?
	Thank you.
	Thank you.
	Great question.
	We got time for just maybe one more.
	Sorry, I have long-winded answers.
	Hi, I'm Payton Mai.
	I'm 16 and I'm a senior in high school.
	Hi.
	I have two questions for you.
	Okay.
	Okay, my first one is, as you know, America seems to be split into two factions, one being the left and the other one being the right.
	The left believing that America's principles and Western ideology doesn't work and that it needs to change.
	A lot of my friends, because I'm not originally from Texas, sadly, I'm from Maryland.
	And I've discussed with my friends and they say, like, hey, like, I'm not on the front lines like true people are.
	And it just, to me, it seems like the left looks at like as the riots now as a revolution, you know?
	And so are we on the brink of a civil war?
	And what would that modern civil war look like?
	And when will we heal?
	Look, those are weighted words, civil war.
	I think that it's more like a revolution, though.
	I mean, I think there's a difference between civil conflict and a revolution.
	I think there is a legitimate form of insurrection that is being attempted in our country where people want to try to displace the people in power and try to find power themselves.
	I don't want any of that.
	I want to be very clear.
	I'm trying to bring down the temperature in the room.
	Like, I'm actually trying to say, can we have dialogue again?
	Well, one of the things they don't believe in is dialogue.
	They don't believe in freedom of speech, freedom of ideas.
	They don't.
	They don't want a marketplace of ideas.
	Just read their literature, read what they believe in.
	They do not believe in dialogue.
	And that's why I said I love nuance.
	That's why I want people that disagree to come to my events.
	And that's why I think that it's really healthy to continue.
	I mean, part of my whole shtick was don't be dogmatic.
	Be an empiricist, right?
	Follow the data.
	Follow the facts.
	Those sorts of things will make sure you never get to that kind of conflict.
	When you get away from empiricism, when you get away from Judeo-Christian values from the Bible, because understand the West is a blend of reason and revelation, right?
	Those two things together.
	And all of a sudden you just get to tribalism, which is where the left is trying to bring us, then yeah, conflict will come.
	And that's a really bad thing and we should reject it.
	You had a second part of the question, though.
	Yeah, I did.
	But also talking about the riots, like we haven't had, like, these riots that we're seeing, like every major city in America is being burned to the ground.
	When will this end?
	It just doesn't seem like nobody wants to talk.
	Well, look, I'm going to tell you guys right now, and I'm not trying to scare anybody, but man, this confirmation fight for Ruth Bader Ginsburg, the country's going to really go through a tough time right now.
	I'm telling you.
	And they have already said last night, their organizers, they will burn cities down to the ground.
	This is before the election.
	Now, I hate to look so just like simply politically at it.
	It's going to help the president politically probably if they start burning down every city.
	But I just, I actually think this is so bad for the country that if you disagree with something, you're going to go burn down Seattle.
	Like, really?
	I mean, we don't do that.
	I mean, if we, it's like, that's not, could you imagine for a second, if I could tell a quick story, I was at the White House for the Republican National Convention acceptance speech with the president, and all of us walk outside of the White House, and waiting for us were 3,000 BLM Inc. rioters that were pelting stuff at us and were assaulting senators and all of it.
	Could you imagine if there were 3,000 MAGA hat wearing people outside of the Obama White House or a Bernie Sanders event or a Joe Biden event?
	If Joe Biden could have that many people, which he wouldn't, but you know, that's the whole point.
	People say, well, we're really divided because the right's too far.
	I'm like, well, no.
	No, we're not doing that.
	We're not burning down cities.
	And I'm not trying to say we're better people or anything.
	I'm just basically saying on the moral landscape, we are not doing what they are doing.
	We're not.
	We are not waiting outside of their events.
	I mean, they're not sending death.
	We're not doing that sort of stuff.
	And if we are, if one person does, you better believe we hear about it on the front page of the New York Times, right?
	But when they have people that throw Molotov cocktails at police officers in New York City, it's considered to be a peaceful protest.
	It's outrageous.
	Thank you.
	And also the other thing is, this is a personal question of mine.
	I'm 16 years old and I'm a senior in high school.
	I'm about to finish high school in three years because I was homeschooled.
	Should I take a gap year or go right into school?
	So I really hesitate to give personal advice because I don't know everything about what you do.
	I'm really careful with that.
	So everything I give is general and you guys can pick and choose what you like.
	All my advice to you is ask yourself.
	In one year, what type of person do I want to be?
	What do I want to know that I don't currently know?
	What do I want to master that I'm currently not a master of?
	And how do I go about doing it?
	If college is the answer, then go do it.
	If a gap year of traveling, then go do it.
	If mission work, whatever it might be, I could tell you this, that if more people took gap years, our country would be a better place, 100%.
	Like, that's what I can tell you.
	Is that gap years are phenomenal?
	Young men in particular should absolutely take a gap year.
	Get that out of your system before you get into debt.
	Like, just go that gap year for young men in particular.
	So take what you want out of that.
	I know that's kind of general, and you're probably looking for, like, go do this, go do that.
	Not going to be the one.
	But I will say that a gap year can be a phenomenal thing.
	Okay.
	Truly.
	Thank you.
	Thank you.
	That's it.
	Want to do one more?
	Yeah.
	And it used to be that the left and right, when we say left, liberals and Republicans, conservatives at least agreed that this was a good country.
	But now these leftists, they hate America.
	We have nothing in common with them, which is very, very sad.
	And so with the last question, we're going to take it to you.
	Could you tell us your name and then ask a question?
	My name's Allison.
	What question would you pose?
	Something to us, the audience, something to make us think.
	What questions would you pose to us to, well, honestly make us think and maybe take to our family and friends and teachers to discuss those questions with?
	So your question is, what question would I pose to the audience as kind of just an action step?
	Yes.
	Yeah, look, I think that this is a very important, it's a great question.
	Thank you.
	The question is this, which is, what are you willing to lose for America?
	That's the question.
	And the answer for conservatives is we're not willing to lose a lot.
	That's been the answer.
	And we like to think that we're losing a lot, but we're not.
	We were founded by a country that they literally pledged their lives and their sacred honor.
	I mean, they died and they bled for this incredible experiment.
	We're worried about being kicked out of a class.
	I mean, give me a break.
	I mean, we're dealing on the fringes of societal privilege right now.
	I mean, by the way, there is no white privilege, but there is American privilege.
	Let me tell you what.
	We're so incredibly lucky to be living in this country.
	We have it so good.
	We have things so stable and so incredibly, we're so blessed.
	So that's the question is, what am I willing to lose?
	Because the left is willing to give everything to get back into power, right?
	They're willing to burn things down.
	I'm not saying that should be us.
	They're willing to spend more money than us.
	They're willing to infiltrate school systems.
	So the question is, what am I willing to do?
	And for young people out there, it's a different question than adults.
	For adults, my goodness.
	I mean, if you're not getting involved in school board races and you're not getting involved in local elections and all that, we're getting pummeled on every level.
	Harris County is incredibly Democrat now because Republicans sat by and did nothing while the Democrats out-organized us.
	That's just an honest truth.
	It's just true.
	And for young people out there, the call to action is, and this is kind of a wake-up call, it's now our country, okay?
	And so take responsibility for the country now.
	We know all the problems that have been made, all the mistakes.
	You run for office.
	You support people that run for office.
	You apply yourself.
	You do the right thing.
	That's now the call to action.
	Every single person in this room, if you feel more motivated today than you did beforehand, then all of a sudden you have a moral obligation to do something about it.
	You go volunteer for local elections, right?
	You go make phone calls.
	You go stand for truth in your classroom, whatever it might be.
	Start a Turning Point USA group, which I highly recommend, by the way.
	You'll have a lot of fun.
	And so, those are the types of things that I would like to post to everybody.
	So, can I have one call to action?
	Is that okay?
	So, as mentioned, thank you, by the way, and thank you for my podcast.
	Thank you guys for listening.
	I do two podcasts a day, one on Saturday, one on Sunday.
	If everybody in this room took out their phone and subscribed to the Charlie Kirk show, everyone has a podcast app.
	It takes literally 10 seconds, no cost at all.
	We could beat the New York Times by tomorrow morning, which I think is a moral thing to do, which is a good thing.
	Just type in and you press that beautiful subscribe button to no charge.
	I would consider it to be a phenomenal blessing.
	And the last, can I close this?
	You want a five-star review, too.
	Yeah, and a five-star review.
	But look, guys, we young people, I'm 26, I'm not that much older than you.
	We have been given an unbelievable gift, okay?
	We didn't ask for it.
	We just have been given this gift of a free society.
	And so now it's up to our generation, where most of our other generation are doing the Cortez-Bernie Sanders thing, whatever, right?
	Let that be.
	But now it's up to our generation to say, do we want to keep it or do we want to lose it?
	It's that simple.
	After all these generations, by the way, if you were a young person in the 80s, if you were a young person in the 80s, you could have gotten along by being like, oh, yeah, I'm not really different.
	Now you don't have that question.
	You don't have that opportunity.
	It's this simple.
	I want to keep this country a beautiful republic with Freedom Association, building families, being able to speak your mind, free enterprise, the American dream, all these things we talk about, where we judge people on character, not on the color of your skin.
	I want that country or not.
	So what do you do?
	You take responsibility for that country and you say, we are going to keep it.
	That's the call to action.
	It's our generation's chance to right the wrongs of the generations before us.
	I believe in you guys.
	I'll be fighting alongside you.
	Thank you guys so much and God bless.
	Thank you.
	Thank you guys so much for listening.
	And if you guys want to get involved with Turning Point USA, go to tpusa.com, tpusa.com, email us at freedom at charliekirk.com.
	Any questions you have.
	And if you want to win a Amy Coney Barrett shirt, just show us your subscribe to the Charlie Kirk Show.
	Type in Charlie Kirk Show, hit subscribe and give us a five-star review.
	Fill that seat.
	Stay focused.
	Hold the line.
	God bless you.
	Talk to you soon.

Chapters

00:00:00 Crisis Among Young People
00:03:21 Responsibility vs Political Elite
00:11:43 Beef the Way It Used To Be
00:13:58 Why We Need Gap Years
00:23:50 The Test of Responsibility
00:31:15 Do It Right Now
00:34:12 Gear You Deserve at Earned Prices
00:40:41 Commitment to Truth and Journey
00:51:20 Cultural Avalanche and Abortion Crisis
01:07:40 Adversity Makes You Tougher
01:13:34 Hardwired Desire for Good
01:17:36 Call to Action: Travel and Act