The Charlie Kirk Show - How Normal Americans can Have Extraordinary Impact on Campus with Megyn Kelly
Aired: 2023-08-07
Duration: 19:03


=== Turning Point USA Leaders (01:55) ===

[00:00:00]  Hey everybody, happy Monday, an exclusive conversation I had with Turning Point USA chapter leaders and the great Megan Kelly.
[00:00:06]  This conversation will blow your mind.
[00:00:08]  I think you'll really enjoy it.
[00:00:10]  You can email me your thoughts as always, freedom at charliekirk.com and subscribe to our podcast by opening up your podcast app and typing in Charlie Kirk Show.
[00:00:19]  That's Charlie Kirk Show by opening up your podcast app.
[00:00:23]  You can get involved with TurningPointUSA at tpusa.com.
[00:00:27]  That is tpusa.com.
[00:00:30]  Start a high school or college chapter today at tpusa.com.
[00:00:33]  Megan Kelly, Turning Point USA chapter members, buckle up.
[00:00:37]  Here we go.
[00:00:38]  Charlie, what you've done is incredible here.
[00:00:40]  Maybe Charlie Kirk is on the college campus.
[00:00:42]  I want you to know we are lucky to have Charlie Kirk.
[00:00:45]  Charlie Kirk's running the White House, folks.
[00:00:49]  I want to thank Charlie.
[00:00:50]  He's an incredible guy.
[00:00:51]  His spirit, his love of this country.
[00:00:52]  He's done an amazing job building one of the most powerful youth organizations ever created, Turning Point USA.
[00:00:59]  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.
[00:01:08]  That's why we are here.
[00:01:11]  Brought to you by the Loan Experts I Trust, Andrew and Todd at Sierra Pacific Mortgage at andrewandTodd.com.
[00:01:20]  Okay, welcome everyone.
[00:01:22]  We are joined by Megan Kelly, legendary, to have a conversation with Gen Z campus activists.
[00:01:29]  We're told they don't exist by the media.
[00:01:31]  And what are they seeing and what are they hearing?
[00:01:33]  And Megan, welcome.
[00:01:34]  Thank you.
[00:01:34]  You guys have got to be the bravest people in America right now.
[00:01:36]  Thank you.
[00:01:37]  Talk about being in the belly of the beast.
[00:01:39]  It must have been so delightful when you found out that there was a group available to you with potentially like-minded people, right?
[00:01:45]  Like, how much of a comfort was that?
[00:01:47]  It was a huge, it was a huge comfort and a blessing because I made so many friends like getting involved with them that they're going to be my friends, I know, for even after Turning Point.

=== Finding Conservatives on Campus (15:36) ===

[00:01:55]  So when you first get to college, though, is it like, I would imagine it's something like you've got to be careful about disclosing, you know, like, how do you find out, you know, there are other potential conservatives there and you're not alone?
[00:02:06]  I think it's kind of, it's, it's difficult at times because you show up to a college campus and you have, you know, professors who are very outspoken on what they believe and then students who are.
[00:02:16]  And so I think conservative, I guess, minded people that are especially young in our generation is, they don't want to say.
[00:02:23]  And so it's just a matter of living your beliefs enough that people come to you.
[00:02:28]  How did you find, like, were you afraid to tell your roommate, to tell a teacher?
[00:02:32]  Like, did you ever, have you yet had to write a paper in which it was going to be clear you were not a lefty?
[00:02:37]  Yeah.
[00:02:38]  So I'm actually in nursing school at my, at my university.
[00:02:41]  So it's a little tricky navigating, you know, various topics like the facts and all that.
[00:02:47]  So I have found quite a few people that agree with me on a lot of it, which has been really comforting.
[00:02:52]  I'm not totally sure where they align politically because I don't really talk about it, but it's not something I'm hiding, but it's also not something I'm openly bringing up.
[00:03:00]  In nursing school, are you already getting the pressure of like, don't ask somebody what their gender is, you know, all that stuff?
[00:03:06]  Yeah, we get a lot of that.
[00:03:08]  Yeah.
[00:03:08]  Just being accepting of all and respect the pronouns.
[00:03:12]  And we have, it's actually funny when we look at charts, we're like treating some older people and it'll be like an 85-year-old woman and it'll say what their pronouns are.
[00:03:20]  And I'm like, this lady, you never asked this lady.
[00:03:23]  Like, she doesn't even know what you're talking about.
[00:03:25]  So it's, yeah.
[00:03:26]  Do you guys feel like your life would be easier if you were a liberal or a left-winger as far as like acceptability of friends, grades, treatment from peers?
[00:03:34]  Absolutely.
[00:03:35]  I mean, we see on campus all the time when I went in as a freshman, I had one of my suite mates come back who had discussed politics with me before and said, you know, my parents are conservative.
[00:03:46]  I don't know.
[00:03:46]  Do you get the, you know, all your beliefs are bigoted?
[00:03:49]  You're a racist.
[00:03:50]  You're part of the white supremacy patriarchy, all that?
[00:03:53]  Absolutely.
[00:03:54]  Does that work on you as like young people?
[00:03:56]  I feel like my age, we're like, okay, fine.
[00:03:59]  I'm all those things.
[00:04:00]  Not when you have a group like this.
[00:04:01]  When you have a group like this, it is so-I don't really like to use the word empowering, but empowering and inspiring and motivational because you have all these people that you know are on your side and will have your back and will stand for you in any situation.
[00:04:15]  So there's nothing really to be scared of.
[00:04:17]  These people would never come for you in any way because they only talk behind a screen, really.
[00:04:22]  I've only had one instance where professors, like kind of weird.
[00:04:25]  So it was my anatomy class, and we spent a whole class period talking about transitioning.
[00:04:30]  And we watched like a Bill Nye the Science guy clip of what transgender is and that gender is a spectrum.
[00:04:37]  And I'm like, we're in an anatomy class and we're talking about gender ideology.
[00:04:42]  And it's like, this is the class where we establish biology and we're still talking about this.
[00:04:48]  Do you feel like you can speak out?
[00:04:49]  Like, you know, I know a lot of students I've spoken to wrestle with: do I just go along to get the A so I can get into the best graduate school or get the best job?
[00:05:00]  Or do I make a thing out of it?
[00:05:02]  Do I challenge and stand up and say, no, it's not.
[00:05:05]  It wasn't a situation where I felt I could raise my hand and be like, what are we doing?
[00:05:10]  But I definitely, at my small table, I was like, guys, what is this?
[00:05:14]  Like, this is Bill Nye, the science guy, telling me that our genitalia and our biology doesn't determine our gender.
[00:05:21]  And they, of course, were like, well, this is all new and fluid.
[00:05:25]  And I'm just like, this is an anatomy class.
[00:05:27]  Like, we're all going to be healthcare professionals and we don't even know we came to establish gender.
[00:05:32]  Do you think amongst many of your classmates that might agree with you, there's a fear that if they speak out, they won't be able to get jobs or advance in their career?
[00:05:40]  I would agree with that.
[00:05:42]  Like, obviously, as you know, growing up, you always wanted, like, your dream is to go work for some, you know, maybe a Fortune 500 company or just, you know, make a lot of money, right?
[00:05:51]  And I think a lot of students see that the only way that they might be able to do that is if they just, you know, be quiet.
[00:05:57]  I can admit that to some extent I was brainwashed by the left to believe that separation of church and state are necessary to maintain life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.
[00:06:09]  Do you guys feel as if there's certain things you've caught yourselves like that or others where you realize that you were using language or behaviors that were not your own, but were imposed upon in like a totalitarian, tyrannical way?
[00:06:24]  I mean, I guess sometimes I've had moments where I'm like, I'll be saying, oh, I have to eat their own, like, it doesn't affect me, or just on various things.
[00:06:31]  And then I think, I'm like, no, like that's not good for the better of society.
[00:06:36]  Like, it's not to each their own.
[00:06:37]  Like, we have to look out for each other.
[00:06:38]  And there's, are there truths and there's morals and ethics?
[00:06:41]  And just because it doesn't affect me directly, it will eventually.
[00:06:44]  So it's important that we're firm on all across the board all the time.
[00:06:49]  Do you guys feel like there's secret rules that you don't know about, but when you violate them, you lose everything?
[00:06:53]  Yeah, I think a lot of times, like, you get on social media and you're looking at that, and all of a sudden you see some organization being canceled because they said they said something or they were, or maybe they're getting ridiculed because they used some new term that, like, I feel like there's so many terms now that I don't know what they are.
[00:07:09]  And so when I mess up, it's just like get yelled at kind of fixed.
[00:07:13]  Or even in the trans lane, it's like assigned male at birth.
[00:07:17]  Like, what?
[00:07:18]  It's all these words.
[00:07:19]  Born male.
[00:07:20]  Right.
[00:07:20]  It's a boy.
[00:07:23]  So, Megan, you've been amazing on the trans issue.
[00:07:26]  I'd love to explore that with everyone.
[00:07:28]  And like, I'd love from your perspective, Megan.
[00:07:30]  You now see college kids that are having debates about what is a man, what is a woman.
[00:07:34]  You think back to your college years, like what you were debating was probably like foreign policy or like, you know, the tax code, right?
[00:07:41]  Yeah.
[00:07:41]  How do you, how do you look at this?
[00:07:44]  You know, being removed from college now looking at current college kids, it's.
[00:07:48]  I'm sad for you guys that you have to spend your four years immersed in this nonsense.
[00:07:52]  I mean, especially that issue.
[00:07:54]  It is utter nonsense.
[00:07:55]  It's fake.
[00:07:56]  It cannot be done.
[00:07:58]  And yet we're devoting all this energy to how it should be done and how early it should be done and how we should all talk about it being done.
[00:08:05]  It's an impossibility.
[00:08:06]  Good luck to you in your future endeavors.
[00:08:09]  I hope you get through it.
[00:08:10]  That's really where I would like it to end.
[00:08:12]  I can't imagine having to devote this much emotional and intellectual energy to this issue.
[00:08:17]  But it's absolutely ridiculous because you're right.
[00:08:19]  There's no other word but nonsense.
[00:08:21]  It doesn't make any sense.
[00:08:22]  And people are being brainwashed to think, oh, it does make sense because you're not being inclusive all of a sudden because that's the new buzzword is inclusive.
[00:08:29]  But it's not true.
[00:08:30]  It's not true.
[00:08:32]  Exactly.
[00:08:32]  And that is the double standard.
[00:08:34]  We see that massive double standard in call everywhere.
[00:08:36]  We don't even see it in just colleges in America.
[00:08:39]  But you know, I will say the trans issue has crossed over now to a point at which even the left has to be able to hear our argument because it's turned into a woman's rights issue.
[00:08:49]  And they purport to be for that.
[00:08:52]  And on this particular one, they're going to have to choose.
[00:08:55]  And it's very hard, especially to look at a woman and say, you don't get your point of view.
[00:09:00]  Like, just watch me.
[00:09:02]  I do.
[00:09:03]  Listen, this is how it's going to go.
[00:09:05]  And I do think they're losing their power to shut us up on that issue.
[00:09:08]  Yeah, I think we're starting to win on it, Megan.
[00:09:10]  I see it in public opinion.
[00:09:12]  And I'm curious what you guys are saying.
[00:09:13]  Like, what is just the ordinary person on campus think about the trans thing?
[00:09:18]  I mean, are they indifferent on it or like live and let live?
[00:09:21]  Here's an interesting question: like, how well known is the Riley Gaines situation on your campus?
[00:09:26]  Is it at all?
[00:09:27]  Is that like discussed?
[00:09:29]  We've hosted Riley Gaines at Clemson.
[00:09:32]  It was fantastic.
[00:09:34]  It was amazing.
[00:09:35]  She had so many female athletes in that room who stood up and asked her a question at the end or just asked her advice, saying, I can't say anything about this issue at all because I'm going to get taken off of my student athlete advisory counsel or I'm going to get taken out of my sport.
[00:09:52]  Well, let's not forget Riley did not say anything in the beginning.
[00:09:54]  And I love Riley.
[00:09:55]  She's a heroine in this whole thing.
[00:09:57]  But even she was too afraid when it was going on.
[00:10:00]  And not a single member of the UPenn swim team spoke up at the time either.
[00:10:04]  Now one came forward in the daily.
[00:10:07]  Very powerful.
[00:10:07]  You know, it's the women who are on the front lines of this are definitely afraid.
[00:10:13]  They're young and they're afraid.
[00:10:14]  Let me ask guys, kind of on the trans issue, do you feel the men that you see on campus, do you think there's a lack of masculinity or do you think there's too much toxic masculinity?
[00:10:25]  That's a good question.
[00:10:26]  There is a lacking, for sure, a lacking.
[00:10:29]  You miss testosterone.
[00:10:30]  Yeah, I really do.
[00:10:32]  I really do.
[00:10:33]  It's tragic.
[00:10:35]  I think it's unique to see other men my age.
[00:10:39]  Like just, I think you see it in the apparel that they wear and just the way they talk and the way they carry each other.
[00:10:46]  They're like sexual type thing.
[00:10:47]  Can you expand on that?
[00:10:48]  I want to hear the DJs.
[00:10:49]  Tell us the brands.
[00:10:50]  Tell us the clothes.
[00:10:51]  I think you look like manhood.
[00:10:53]  Yeah, I mean, it's, I, I mean, it's, I, it's, they look like a woman.
[00:11:01]  And like my, like my father raised me to be very like masculine.
[00:11:04]  Like I, I wear, I wear cowboy boots and jeans to school every day.
[00:11:07]  Like I want people to see like my American flag belt buckle and be like, hey, I know where that guy stand.
[00:11:12]  Right.
[00:11:13]  And so like people, I'll get, I'll get made fun of just because of what I wear.
[00:11:16]  But it's like, well, I mean, I don't look like an idiot.
[00:11:20]  So do you think that there's a greater penalty or reward if you come out as an alpha or someone high testosterone driven purpose?
[00:11:29]  I think all with all the media and the propaganda, it is very centered on, you know, feminizing the man in a way that he fits in.
[00:11:37]  And so he doesn't like, because, you know, toxic masculinity, that's been a topic that's, you know, it's discussed all the time on campus, like, oh, right, because you're a white male, like, you're not allowed to speak on certain topics.
[00:11:47]  Like, we hear that all the time in different stories.
[00:11:50]  So it's if you if you be submissive and weak, then at that point, then you're allowed to speak.
[00:11:58]  I don't want a crier.
[00:11:59]  I don't want a soft man.
[00:12:00]  I don't.
[00:12:01]  I want somebody who's going to take care of me, who's going to fight fights on my behalf for somebody who offends me.
[00:12:07]  You know, it's not that I can't fight on my own.
[00:12:08]  Everybody knows that.
[00:12:09]  But I want a protector.
[00:12:11]  I definitely want in my personal relationship an alpha.
[00:12:14]  And that's what all women want deep down, even if they don't admit it.
[00:12:18]  Wait, can we talk about on that front, the sexual revolution and what's it like now?
[00:12:23]  Like, is it still free love?
[00:12:25]  And, you know, it's empowering to sleep, to use your hated word, with as many guys as you want.
[00:12:30]  You have to behave like a man in order to feel like you're equal.
[00:12:34]  There was one time we were tabling on campus at Sac State, and there was this girl wearing an Army t-shirt that walks by and she's just yelling at us, all this crazy stuff, and flipping us off across the quad and all this stuff.
[00:12:44]  And she says the most vulgar thing about sleeping around.
[00:12:47]  Or like, we asked her, we were like, oh, well, thank you for serving in our country, you know, thinking she was in the Army.
[00:12:53]  And she said something about how she stole it from the guy she screwed the other day.
[00:12:57]  And I was like, it's all just about getting the attention.
[00:12:59]  And like, I don't know.
[00:13:01]  It just seems like they're desperate for attention and it's not the good kind.
[00:13:05]  I found it very enlightening.
[00:13:06]  You know, we had the opportunity to listen to Dr. James Lindsay yesterday, right?
[00:13:10]  And he mentioned, he's like, we need to start calling it what it is.
[00:13:12]  It's wickedness.
[00:13:14]  You know, my grandpa, he, in talking with him about the craziness of the world, he shared a quote with me.
[00:13:19]  It was, wickedness does not promote rational thought.
[00:13:23]  And I think we see that very prevalent in today's society, right?
[00:13:27]  That with people are confused, right?
[00:13:30]  They're confused.
[00:13:32]  One of my favorite scriptures in the Bible, Isaiah, in the first chapter, he talks about they have forsaken the Lord their God and have gone away backwards.
[00:13:38]  I think that wickedness leads to retroaggression.
[00:13:40]  And I think that's something we're seeing in our society today.
[00:13:43]  Do you ever encounter that in a real way where you have some girl throwing herself at you and wanting to go back that night and you're like, whoa, wrong guy.
[00:13:51]  I don't misread the belt buckle.
[00:13:55]  I mean, I don't see that very often.
[00:13:57]  I do come from a, you know, a place.
[00:13:59]  I'm from Idaho, and so there's a lot more of, I think there's a pretty good religious presence, right?
[00:14:04]  That most people don't do that.
[00:14:06]  And I guess, you know, my friends say, I don't got game sometimes, so I don't know.
[00:14:09]  But you're probably also not putting yourselves in those situations.
[00:14:12]  We were talking, Benny was talking about that yesterday, you know, how it's both up to men and women.
[00:14:17]  When I was in college, this is a long time ago, as a woman, every place was a place where you'd encounter a man who was like that.
[00:14:23]  There was no avoiding men who wanted to sleep with you on the first night.
[00:14:27]  You just had to learn skills to effectively avoid that without potentially ruining the relationship, right?
[00:14:35]  Whether it's a friend or a budding boyfriend.
[00:14:38]  And I really think those are skills you have to develop for life.
[00:14:41]  College is a good place to start developing the ability to just laugh it off, like nice try, but not going to be.
[00:14:49]  Do you guys even feel men approach women naturally in a way in person, or is it like done through Tinder and like hookup acts?
[00:14:56]  I mean, do you feel as if like the normal way of like trying to be charming, even clumsily under inebriation, does that happen as much anymore?
[00:15:05]  Or is it just kind of like transactional?
[00:15:07]  I'm going to do it through a screen.
[00:15:09]  I have a pretty strong opinion on this, actually.
[00:15:13]  I think it's done some, like it's as if a lot of like the women that I like you try to interact with, I think if you approach them in person, like trying to be like more traditional style, it's as if you scare them and they don't.
[00:15:26]  They don't allow it.
[00:15:26]  So it's like if you don't reach out, if you don't play, you know, the games that exist through a screen, you can't find someone to do it.
[00:15:34]  Are you afraid you'll be accused of something?
[00:15:36]  Yeah, I think with, I think a lot of times it's like, oh, you just ask him on a date.
[00:15:39]  It's like, oh, if we go out somewhere, he's, you know, we live in it, we live in such a crazy world with crazy news stories and everything, right?
[00:15:45]  Especially in Idaho.
[00:15:47]  Oh, I give you all the things that you can do.
[00:15:48]  Exactly.
[00:15:49]  Yep.
[00:15:51]  So how then do you date?
[00:15:53]  You have to play the Snapchat games and the texting stuff.
[00:15:57]  Yeah, which is extremely difficult to do.
[00:16:00]  I think they took 10 minutes to text you, so you got to wait 10 minutes to text them back kind of thing.
[00:16:03]  And it's like...
[00:16:05]  And if you text too soon, you're considered needy.
[00:16:08]  They run away.
[00:16:10]  Even as the guy, because traditionally the men pursue.
[00:16:13]  And the woman gets pursued.
[00:16:16]  Is that still the rule generally or no?
[00:16:18]  I personally would prefer that.
[00:16:20]  Yeah.
[00:16:21]  I don't want to go up to a guy.
[00:16:23]  No.
[00:16:23]  Yeah.
[00:16:24]  No.
[00:16:24]  It's thousands of years of biology giving you that feeling.
[00:16:28]  You should go with that.
[00:16:28]  Did you guys see things get materially worse post-lockdowns with your peers and in your community and your school?
[00:16:34]  Yes.
[00:16:35]  Tell me this way.
[00:16:36]  I went to a church camp in 2021 in the summer.
[00:16:39]  And so a lot of people go every year.
[00:16:42]  And I remember some of the kids that skipped a year and didn't have that time with other Christians because they don't have good family lives and all that stuff.
[00:16:51]  They were so suicidal that year and depressed and all that stuff because they didn't have those interactions with like-minded people.
[00:16:58]  And someone almost, they're like this close to killing themselves.
[00:17:02]  And so.
[00:17:03]  How many of you in your school or your community know one person that's killed themselves?
[00:17:06]  Do all of you guys?
[00:17:07]  All of you?
[00:17:08]  I don't know.
[00:17:09]  I was homeschooled.
[00:17:09]  Well, Megan, I mentioned that because it used to be such a rarity.
[00:17:12]  Right.
[00:17:13]  And now it is the number one killer of young people under the age of 30.
[00:17:17]  That is shocking.
[00:17:18]  What is it?
[00:17:19]  I mean, do you, can you sum it up?
[00:17:21]  It's comparison on social media, and it is the absolute takeover of showing your best self when you're not at your best self.
[00:17:30]  So, Megan, any closing thoughts or questions?

=== Staying True Amid Pressure (01:31) ===

[00:17:32]  We're right up against time.
[00:17:33]  Well, I think your instincts are dead on to stay away from the fake world as much as possible and live in the real world, whether it's dating or figuring out what other people's lives are and to recognize what you just said, that it's all fake, that all of that is fake news, you know.
[00:17:46]  But I do think you are already doing everything right.
[00:17:48]  You found like-minded people, you found a home, you're finding your voice notwithstanding the enormous societal pressure on you.
[00:17:54]  And I would just encourage you that as you go through school and your beginnings of college, if you find somebody who pressures you to abandon your beliefs, that's a good clue to stay away from them.
[00:18:04]  That's great.
[00:18:04]  And don't be afraid to stand up to those professors because even if they downgrade you, you can wear that like a badge of honor when you go for your job interviews.
[00:18:12]  It'll help you land at the right employer when you say, I refused to sacrifice my ideals.
[00:18:17]  That's why I have this D, and I had straight A's and everything else.
[00:18:21]  And I wear this with honor.
[00:18:23]  And then you'll get hired in the right place, and you'll set yourself up for success.
[00:18:25]  You don't want to be hired by a super woke corporation who doesn't believe in any things you do.
[00:18:30]  Well, Megan, we're thrilled that you made time for us both here and also on stage.
[00:18:34]  You do an amazing job.
[00:18:35]  And I got to tell you, you have moved millions of people on the trans issue because you're so clear and courageous on it.
[00:18:41]  And you're making a huge impact.
[00:18:42]  So excited to talk on stage.
[00:18:43]  And God bless you guys.
[00:18:44]  Thanks so much.
[00:18:45]  Nice to meet you.
[00:18:49]  Thanks so much for listening, everybody.
[00:18:50]  Email us your thoughts as always, freedom at charliekirk.com.
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