The Kids Who Will Win Back America: My Speech to TPUSA's New Hires
Every year, Charlie delivers a speech to all the new employees of TPUSA, and the class of 2024 is by far the most important cohort yet. In this year's speech, Charlie lays out the principles of Turning Point and why it has become the most important organization in America. Charlie also fields questions from the new hires on gun control, the goals of Marxism, and more.Support the show: http://www.charliekirk.com/supportSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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New Hire Speech at Turning Point00:14:15
Hey everybody, a new hire speech.
That's right.
What I share with the new employees at Turning Point USA.
Get involved with Turning PointUSA at tpusa.com.
That is tpusa.com.
Start a high school or college chapter today at tpusa.com.
We very much appreciate all of you that support Turning Point USA.
This is how we train our Turning Point employees.
Enjoy this discussion.
Email us as always, freedom at charliekirk.com.
Buckle up, everybody.
Here we go.
Charlie, what you've done is incredible here.
Maybe Charlie Kirk is on the college campuses.
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.
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Hi, how are we doing, everybody?
Great to be here.
I'm early, believe it or not.
It's hard to believe.
Welcome.
For those of you that are now working for the most important organization in America, welcome aboard.
And I think you're going to learn this is the most fulfilling thing you could do with your career.
And I want to say you're being led very, very well.
They know what they're doing.
Andrew, Amy, Nick, Brandon.
Nick, you've been around for what, seven, eight years?
I ask you every time, right?
Brandon, eight years, right?
Eight years.
It's amazing.
And Andrew and Amy and all of them.
And what's so cool about our field program is that everybody who's running our field program, from Chris and everyone, they all used to have your job.
So they know what it takes.
And look, it's a very fulfilling job.
Not always easy, but it's definitely going to make a very big impact.
In fact, Turning Point USA started because I once had your job too.
I used to go around to college campuses with just a card table, literally, trying to start chapters.
And it learned a lot about what it's necessary to build a field program and what it takes.
And you look around and you see what we're building here.
It's unique and it's extraordinary.
We very well could be taking it easy and coasting.
We're hiring you for a reason because we have bold and ambitious goals to hit.
And we feel like our country is falling apart.
And honestly, there's a lot of work to, not just a lot of work to be done, but I don't know if you saw the poll, but young boys, more conservative than ever since 1975.
And that's really great.
Young ladies, we got some work to do.
So we'll talk about that.
But a couple things that I want to just make sure is clear.
And then we're going to go through this a little bit more informally than in years past, but I want this to be a discussion, you know, not just about the topics and ideas, but also just any questions you guys might have, things that I might be able to answer.
You're on the front lines.
The most important thing that we do at Turning Point USA is that we invest in our students and we believe that our chapters, which we say chapters change the world, and the development of leaders is what's going to help save Western civilization.
And we're starting to see the fruit of that.
We have Turning Point alumni in Congress, Ana Paulina Luna, who's doing an amazing job.
We have Austin Smith, who's the youngest member of the Arizona legislature.
We have a member in the Florida legislature.
You're starting to see all of a sudden Turning Point and the fruit of the Turning Point work really pay off.
But even in the more immediate, it's just amazing.
And you're going to see this as you get deep into the high school work and the college work.
I know we have both here.
It's so incredibly fulfilling for me to see now after 11 years the types of leaders that are gravitating towards our work, but also how much work has left to be done.
Typically in the conservative movement, what you are doing is not been done because it's gritty, it takes hustle, but also it's not in DC.
Like the DC framework is just like write papers no one is going to read and complain.
Like we believe in being in the country to save the country.
And we do a pretty good job of it at Turning Point USA, if I may say so.
So we're so thrilled that you're part of this.
How many of you are former chapter leaders or involved in one way?
That's the coolest of all thing.
That shows that we are, you know, now having people involved in the staffing side of things that were involved in the programmatic side.
So I want to go through a couple of these slides rather informally.
And we're just going to kind of take questions and I'll ask some questions of you guys.
And the slides are going to be parallel to the activism weeks that you guys are doing this fall, right?
So understand as a field rep, your job is multifaceted.
Richard knows this very well.
Richard did a lot of great work in the Pacific Northwest and screamed at by a lot of people, right, Richard?
And University of Oregon, Go Ducks, right?
And got like three Ducks fans here.
Yep.
And your job is not just about organizing, but it's also about equipping people to persuade.
You'll learn that part of your job is you're going to have thousands and thousands of conversations with people, right, Michaela?
Lots of conversations.
So you have to know your stuff.
Now, for those of you that enjoy listening to podcasts, that enjoy watching videos, this is going to become really easy.
For those of you like, oh boy, I don't know.
This is something that we hope we can help you with in the next hour, right?
And give you resources.
You might say, well, what do you mean?
Well, if you're setting up a table at UW-Madison or University of Illinois or University of Florida and somebody comes up and they think they know everything because you have some signs that are rather, let's say, pointedly written, that's a conversation starter.
That's a spark.
That's how you find students that agree.
That's how you find students that disagree.
That's how all of a sudden you gain attention on campus.
And this has been really one of the secrets to our success at Turning Point USA.
And we'll go through some of those activism weeks here, kind of around what we believe, you know, why we believe it at Turning Point USA.
Super simple.
What do we believe at Turning Point USA?
We believe in the promises of the Declaration of the Constitution.
That's it.
And you might say, well, Charlie, that's a little short.
That's a lot deeper than you might think, okay?
We believe that things can be self-evidently true and false.
We believe that there is a truth in the world.
We do believe that government should be restrained.
We believe people have a moral right to be free.
We believe that you have a moral right to own handguns, to speak, that government can't raid you without a warrant or a good reason.
We believe in the founders' promise for our country.
There's a lot to that, right?
We believe in a private property, free market-based system.
And so that's the best way I could organize it.
And every single one of those things is totally against the universities that you guys are going to be trying to be going to, right?
They believe that there is no truth, that you can come up with your own truth, that you could see, that all there is power.
America's a terrible country.
So we're going to walk through that.
So first one is register to vote.
I don't know if there's that much to color in on this one, but mass voter registration drive that we're going to be doing this fall.
Try to register as many students as possible.
And especially through, it's a great thing to get your chapters to deploy.
So I think Nick gave me a very handy thing here.
Thank you, Nick.
Okay, let's get into this one, which is one of my favorites.
The Second Amendment.
So we're unapologetically pro 2A at Turning Point USA.
And if that is a surprise to you, sorry, I guess.
I don't know what to tell you.
There is no First Amendment without the Second Amendment.
The Second Amendment is unbelievably unique.
And it's something that we not just advertise, but is a great conversation starter on most of your campuses.
And by the way, it's also a way to find conservatives really, really quickly and also generate a lot of disagreeable conversation amongst Marxist-italitarian progressives, right?
So I could go as deep as you guys want on this, right?
Second Amendment of the United States Constitution is basically a promise that you have a right to be able to not just defend yourself.
The ultimate reason for the Second Amendment is to be able to challenge government authority.
I'll get to that in a second.
This is considered to be a huge thought crime on many of the campuses that you guys go to, right?
Why?
Now, this is the deeper point that you have to understand.
It's more philosophical and psychological.
There is this like fear of anything that you can't control to exist amongst a lot of college kids.
I think it's a neurotic fear of death.
And these are people that are afraid to live because they're always afraid of dying.
And they're the people that wear masks while they're alone in a car.
And you think about it, it's like, oh, there might be a gun that might end up killing me.
I was like, okay, yeah, there also could be other things that end up harming you.
There are any benefits from having firearms.
There's a lot of benefits from having firearms in a society.
But more than that, and we understand this, it's not about personal protection.
It's not about hunting.
It's not about any of those things.
It's about a free people being able to defend themselves and, God forbid, having to use those weapons against a potentially tyrannical government.
That is an argument that most people do not want to make because they're afraid to make it.
I'm happy to make it over and over again.
We are 75 years removed from 60 million people being murdered of Mao's China and Stalin's Russia and Hitler's Nazi Germany.
And so what is the purpose of the Second Amendment?
To protect all your other God-given rights and freedoms.
And boy, is there a pathological campaign to take away your weapons right now, right?
So this is a great conversation starter.
I could go through all of the different statistics and figures.
They're changing a little bit year over year.
A lot of misleading ones.
But I actually find this is a great one, especially for those of you that are on campus and they're like, oh, I'm a libertarian.
I'm a conservative.
It's a great unifying issue, right?
It's a really good one to kind of bridge students together that might have, and if they're libertarian, they'll grow up eventually.
And I used to be really libertarian too.
And then you're not.
And if I offended you, that's fine.
I love it because I've read all the libertarian literature.
I know it like the back of my hand.
And we could have that dialogue if you guys want.
There's some things I love about libertarianism, some things I don't, obviously.
But this is one that I love about libertarianism.
We need less gun laws, not more gun laws in America.
So that's a great point of agreement that I have with staunch libertarians.
And I think that as government becomes more tyrannical, people should be able to easily own weapons because of what's coming next.
Anybody questions about this one?
I know this one is probably one that gets the most heated excitement, passion, disagreement, thoughts, questions, disagreements.
Yes?
So one of my professors was very, very liberal, but not when it came to gun laws and things like that.
And he worked for the FBI and has all this research on how gun statistics are actually way wrong.
We're being totally misinformed.
School shootings are not at an all-time high.
People are not being murdered in the street.
Whatever.
How is it that conservative people, conservative authors and things, why is that not being put out there as much?
Do you think?
You know, that is right.
There's actually a great Washington Post article.
I'm trying to think of the headline.
She said, I used to be for gun control.
Then I looked at the numbers and it turns out it wouldn't do anything.
And I'll just give you one thing.
These are approximations off the top of my head.
So they'll say, oh, there's 33,000 gun deaths every year.
You've heard this before, right?
We're the only country that counts death by suicide as a gun death, okay?
Now, death by suicide with a gun is a tragedy, but I think we can all agree there's other things at play there than just guns, right?
And there's other ways people commit suicide.
So that's two-thirds of all ways we count gun death is death by suicide, two-thirds.
That number now goes on to 11,000.
Okay, so you have a country of 330 million people.
You got 800 million guns, 11,000.
What is the number one driver besides that?
Pistol, or let's just say, less than semi-automatic pistol, gang-related urban violence.
That accounts for like 6,000 to 7,000 of the 11,000.
So now you're down to like 4,000.
Now I'm approximating the numbers.
Then there's like accidental discharge, family dispute, like, and you're talking about a very low number, statistically macro.
You're talking like 2,000 gun deaths.
That is still bad, but you would think it's 200,000, right?
And so that's 2,000 gun deaths.
It's a fact that 110,000 people are overdosing on fentanyl and opioids every single year, right?
So that is a factor of almost 80 of a difference versus gun deaths, right?
I see that there's plenty of upsides to firearm ownership.
I see no upsides to allowing opioid or opioids or fentanyl coming into our country, right?
And I could go, and whether it be heart disease, you know, so like suicide's a tragic thing in our country.
The number one way people commit suicide is not even by firearm, even though the volume is so much.
And yet it gets all the attention.
You have to ask the question why.
I think there's malevolent and innocent explanations.
The malevolent is that they want to take the guns because once they take the guns, you become a much easier population to control, period.
The innocent explanation is it's driven by neurotic suburban voters that are like constantly trying to create a safe society instead of a virtuous or a decent society.
See, we as conservatives, or if you're a libertarian, that's fine, whatever.
We as like rational people, right, we understand that there's evil in the world and we're not going to eradicate all of it and that we could try to minimize it, create good people, but the eradication of all evil is utopian.
It's never going to happen, right?
I've obviously very strong religious views on that.
And therefore, if evil is going to continue to exist, wouldn't it be rational to have good people have ability to defend themselves?
And you have violent crime going up in nine out of 10 of the largest cities, and we're trying to take people's guns away.
It will only cause more damage, more carnage.
And so, but you're right, the numbers that the government pushes, again, I hate to be like that guy, that like if the government is lying to you, but it's like totally true, the government is lying to you.
That should be our new shirt, by the way, new activism.
The government, instead of big gov sucks, the government is lying to you.
Defending Yourself Against Evil00:02:28
I love that.
It's totally true.
And by the way, never before has big gov sucks been more true than in 2023.
I'll tell you what, it's just unbelievable.
So I could go on at length about that.
Other thoughts on guns, firearms, Second Amendment objections?
You might hear that it's only meant for a militia.
That's an improper, poor reading of the Second Amendment.
Militia means all people ages 18 to 30, all males when the actual is written.
They should say well-regulated militia.
That's actually the wrong interpretation of the word regulated.
Well-regulated means well-armed or well-supplied.
It's just the way that we use the word regulated is different than back then.
But then, of course, they ignore the last couple words shall not be infringed, right?
They don't like that.
Just to get an idea, I mean, obviously, you guys are sympathetic to the Second Amendment cause.
And by the way, if you're not, I always tell people, if you don't, if you're not pro 2A, go to a shooting range, learn how to shoot, and then tell me you're against it, right?
I think a lot of it, I mean, look, I grew up in the suburbs of Chicago.
I didn't fire a firearm until I was 18, 19 years old.
I always felt like uneasy about the topic until you realize that it's a tool, it's a technology that could be used for good or evil, right?
It's in the hands of the person who actually ends up using it.
That's my encouragement to you guys.
And also, you know, when done appropriately, I think we've had chapters go to gun ranges and be walked through stuff.
I think it's actually a great way to teach responsibility and self-sovereignty and a lot of other great things with that.
Hey, everybody, Charlie Kirk here.
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Other thoughts, questions, objections?
Entrepreneurs Backbone Free Society00:02:57
Okay, let's get to the next one here.
Know your rights.
By the way, who wants to?
We can go through all.
I mean, we can go through the Bill of Rights, right?
First Amendment, ability to speak and petition against the government.
Second Amendment, ability to defend yourself, Third Amendment, no soldiers in your home.
Fourth Amendment, government can't spy on you and illegally wiretap.
They break all these rules, by the way.
It's just ridiculous, right?
Right?
Fifth Amendment, Sixth Amendment, Seventh Amendment, Fifth Amendment is obviously about pretrial detention, about your Fifth Amendment rights.
Eighth, basically, five, six, seven, eight is all about trials.
Ninth Amendment is really goofy, which is that if it's not mentioned, it doesn't mean it's not here.
It's actually really much deeper than that.
And the 10th Amendment, all rights left to the states or the people.
I wish we had more 10th Amendment energy right now.
Okay, I will do this one very quickly.
Entrepreneurs are the backbone of a free society.
I hate the word entrepreneur-only sense.
I love it and hate it at the same time because most people just think of, like, I don't know, pick, what's that guy that always swears on Instagram that doesn't say anything really insightful?
Yeah, Gary Vee.
Yeah, that guy is a waste of time.
So, yeah, like, oh, wow.
Entrepreneurs are problem solvers.
It's that simple.
Okay.
Entrepreneurs are problem solvers in any sort of industry.
A free society means you're going to have problems.
Free society also allows you to solve those problems.
Entrepreneurs are more efficient than government.
Entrepreneurs are the future of America.
I think far too many colleges destroy the spirit of entrepreneurialism.
And our life is made better by entrepreneurs.
And that does allow you to the three P's of a market system: right?
Private property, the price system, and obviously a profit, right?
So price system is how we communicate, value one another.
I care about this so much.
The price goes up, goes down based on that.
Prices are our silent way of communicating value in real time.
Profit.
If there's no profit, no one will do it.
And then finally, private property, which is a nice segue to Marxism.
The number one thing that all of you are fighting against is Marxism.
Okay?
I could do a 45-minute speech on Marxism, where it comes from, where it's going, or I could tell you a 10-second way that you'll never forget for the rest of your life.
Okay?
Marxism must destroy the family, religion, and property.
That's it.
That's what you're fighting against.
Everything the Marxists care about is to destroy family, religion, and property.
Marx wrote extensively about those three things.
It's a fact.
So those three things can be eliminated: your ability to own private property, the ability to have beautiful and strong families, ability to have freedom of religion, and/or a religious people, gone.
That's it.
And entrepreneurs stand against one of those, multiple of those verticals, especially the ability to own property.
Any thoughts on that?
Questions?
We could talk about Marxism if you want, which is the kind of enemy that you guys are fighting against every single day.
Marxism is ascendant on many of the campuses and high schools that you guys work at because Marxism plays to the lowest level of human existence, resentment.
Marxism channels people's jealousy, resentment, and greed, and envy.
Envy is a bad trait.
So Marxism takes people's naturally broken, envious spirit and channels it into a political movement.
Why The American Dream Is Dead00:11:54
You don't have this, they do.
You're not this, do this.
Take this, take that.
Instead of creation, risk-taking, understanding value allocation, it's they have this and you don't.
You should be angry.
Let's go take it.
That's Marxism in a nutshell.
So it's a lot deeper than that, but that's good.
Okay.
I Love America Week.
Is this sequential, guys?
Or is this just all is this meaning?
Like, is this the actual order of the semester?
Cool.
So I want to make sure this is this distinction is made.
I actually didn't have to do this before, even though it was somewhat true.
Now it's totally true.
I love America.
I can't stand our government.
So when I talk and brag on America, I am not bragging on our government.
Does that make sense?
Okay.
I'm bragging on our people, our tradition, our history, our customs, our decency, our generosity, our sacrifice, our bravery, not the cartel of criminals that's currently running the federal government and most of our state government and all the intel agencies and other things.
America is the greatest nation ever to exist in the history of the world, period.
Why?
It's because the three things Marxists want to destroy, we've always prioritized.
Ability to own private property, having strong families, and a belief in the divine.
The divine is mentioned in the Declaration four times.
We can go through that if you so choose.
But more than that, America has always prioritized what you can change more than what you can't change.
Okay?
So most societies, Hindu, Indian caste system, Mesopotamian river civilization cultures, Egyptian, whatever it is.
Like you can go through 99% of all societies ever to exist, they would organize society based on things you cannot change.
How you look, who was your daddy, you know, and whether or not they were involved in like the religions of the time.
America said, nah, we don't really care as much about that.
In fact, we don't really care at all.
All men created equal, not that you have equal talents or equal skills or even equal opportunity.
That's a nice thing to strive for, but you're equal being.
You have the equal rights.
You have an equal, you're made in the equal image.
It does come from a Christian idea.
And wow, look at the result.
The best country ever.
And we are losing it.
We are losing it rapidly.
Honestly, it's amazing how long we've held on.
And it goes to show how I think we're actually stronger than people give us credit for.
I think there's a lot of fight left in this country.
And I by no means think it's a death sentence.
I think we can turn it around.
That's your job, is to save this place.
And it starts with young people fighting against these idea toxins of post-modernism and post-structuralism and totalitarian nonsense that honestly is creating so much of the misery we see in this generation.
The promise of America is really simple.
It's that if I work hard and play by the rules, my life will improve over a period of time, and so will my kids' life.
That is not a promise guaranteed to most countries.
It's not.
That American dream, as we call it, is in jeopardy, but it is not dead.
That's something that the cynics will tell you.
If you still work hard and you could still succeed in this country, it's harder than for your parents.
It is not that it's not dead at all.
And what are the American ideas?
America is not an idea.
It is our home.
It's a nation.
It's a people, but we do have great ideas as well.
It's all those things simultaneously.
If I had to summarize what is the American idea, it's that we are a country, not a colony.
We are a nation, not a temporary project.
And we believe in a small R Republican style of government.
And something that drives me nuts is: we're not a democracy.
We're not a democracy.
We're not a democracy.
If I hear you guys say we're a democracy, I'm going to lovingly correct you.
We are not a democracy.
I could tell you the difference.
If you guys are interested in that, we can walk through a long explanation of it.
You should love this country.
You should be thankful that we live in this country.
And we need to do everything we possibly can to save it.
The amount of anti-Americanism and outright America hatred on campuses, it's widespread.
And my goodness, we have a society full of ingrates.
Ingrates are ungrateful people that have no gratitude.
I think gratitude, gratitude and the lack thereof is really the division of whether or not you have a decent or civil society, right?
So if you're thankful for your nation, well, then you're going to be less likely to revolutionize it or tear it apart.
If you are not thankful, then you're going to be more likely to engage in envy-driven, resentful-driven politics like Marxism and totalitarianism to just tear down the entire system.
And so we have to try to teach gratitude.
It's hard when they have been told that we're a colonialistic, racist, misogynistic type country, all of which is not true.
I mean, you have broken people.
Of course, you're going to have elements of things that are less than desirable.
This is the least racist country, most generous country, most forward-thinking country ever in the history of the world.
And you guys should proclaim that every day.
Thoughts, questions, disagreements?
Yes, hello.
How would you explain we are not a democracy to a high school student?
Because they learn that in government class.
Like, how would you put that in their language?
That is a great question.
So, let's first just go through the technical side of it.
Democracy is not in any of our founding documents.
So, there's just, it's just a created word.
Not that it was not around.
Actually, the word democracy appears in the Federalist Papers negatively, saying that we are not a democracy, we are a republic.
So, let me just explain it to you guys, and then I'll try to high schoolify it.
Is that a word?
High schoolify it?
Or TikTok it, right?
Or whatever.
So, yeah, geez, what a messed up generation.
So, all right, let me try to explain it, okay?
So, a democracy believes the majority will rule always, okay?
Democracies move fast, immediate, and to the impulses of a people, okay?
Now, that sounds really interesting and good, right?
Now, a republic is different.
A republic does believe in consent to the governed, but a republic has rules for the road that is much more slow and deliberate with eternal truths that do not change, that govern the rules of what the government can and cannot do.
So, for example, the majority does not just get to come together immediately overnight and say that Second Amendment is gone.
No, because you have a Bill of Rights that supersedes all of that.
Now, you can get rid of amendments we have, but it's a ridiculously long, drawn, intentionally so process, right?
We can add amendments like to abolish slavery, but you need not just 51% consensus.
You need multiple states, you need measures, you need time, it takes years, and then we can agree.
That's how you know you have a good idea, right?
It takes a long period of time to get it done.
So, here's the best way I could describe democracy.
Here's how I would say it to a 16-year-old or 17-year-old: say, hey, do you think that if I say, you know, 51% of Americans say all black people should go to jail?
Do you think that's a good idea?
But hey, the people agree.
51%, man, we're a democracy.
Let's do it.
Why not?
51%?
No, because the Constitution says in the 14th Amendment, you can't do that.
That's a republic versus a democracy.
51% of Americans say that we should be able to take money from the 49%.
Is that okay?
That's immediately what it is.
Founding Fathers rejected democracy.
I think democracy is a really bad idea.
I've said it over and over again.
People attack me for saying that.
I don't care because they don't understand what it actually is, right?
Democracy is playing to the hordes and the masses and the impulses.
And as James Madison would say, it was a beautiful quote.
You guys could look it up and we'll send it to you later.
It's the immediate desires of the mob to like and not playing to the prudence or the rationality of the actual policies.
Does that make sense how you would, I don't know if that's helpful at all.
Understand when you say this, you're going to be attacked by these super low IQ teachers that think like democracy has become the golden calf of the Marxist left, right?
Like you can't question it.
Our democracy has become like a church, right?
It's like, by the way, you can insult Christianity way more freely than our democracy, right?
You can make fun of Christianity.
You could defecate on the cross, like no one would care.
But if you said like anything negative on our democracy, like they'll put you in jail, literally.
It's just unbelievable.
Because that's like the holy right now.
Every society has something they consider to be holy.
The holy thing in society is our democracy, which is not even what we are, which is what's so unbelievably frustrating about this entire thing.
Also, Republican-style governments, small R republics, they're intentionally decentralized.
So local and states tend to have outsized voice than in a democracy.
And a great example is during COVID, right?
Let's just go to a recent example when the German government came out and were like, we are doing lockdowns.
Everyone said, okay.
Like there's no provincial government.
There's nothing.
It's like top-down done.
It was a different story in America, right?
Like we had all these sorts of different federal government edicts, but we had states that were like, I'm not going to go along with this.
We had counties.
It was all over the place.
That actually keeps you free because then the government is much more responsible and reflective closer to the people, if that makes sense.
So republics tech traditionally are more decentralized.
Yes.
How do I explain to my students that the American dream is not dead?
Yes.
So, boy, that's a good question.
How do you explain to your students the American dream is not dead?
I would actually answer that more morally, which is to ask them, are you able to make choices for yourself?
This is one of the things, if you had to ask me, like, one of the great venoms of identity politics, right, is this hypnosis that kids fall under, that they're part of like this pre-described identity group.
Like, the game is rigged against me because I have black skin color or, you know, I'm a lesbian in a wheelchair or whatever thing that they teach.
It's like, no, you are a sovereign being that can make choices, right?
So here's a way that I would explain it to like an 18 or 19 or if they're receptive, right?
Say, if you get blitzing drunk, okay, like blackout drunk, how will you feel at 7 a.m. the next morning?
Okay?
And like, so what you're doing is what they should learn when they're four, which is called cause and effect.
Right?
And they'll be like, well, I won't feel well.
Okay, so you make a conscious decision to overdrink and you don't feel well.
Okay?
So what if you then made a conscious decision to not drink?
Then you would probably feel better and your life could potentially improve.
You won't have as many calories.
You won't be as whatever.
I'm not making a moral argument on drinking.
I'm just saying that's something that a college kid would definitely, you know, attach to really quickly.
And then say, okay, if that is true, extrapolate that to other parts of life.
If I start saving money instead of spending money, maybe my life will improve a little bit, right?
And then you can also say there's no guarantee the American dreamer is alive, but if you believe it's dead, it is dead.
That's 100% guaranteed.
It's like Pascal's wager, right?
Anyone familiar with Pascal's wager, sort of, yes?
Pascal's wager is like, okay, to believe in God is much more rational because if you don't believe in God, it's a guarantee that something bad will happen.
So I might as well wage, because there's no downside to believing in God, right?
There's no downside to not believe in the American dream.
What you're really saying is you don't believe in yourself because you've fallen into this toxic victim heavy weightedness.
And I could go into a lot of deeper parts to that of what I think is kind of the psychological and philosophical cancers that are and the tumors that need to be removed.
But man, we have a society that is just like so driven on complaining.
And it's like, go be a better version of yourself.
Like stop putting those neurotoxins in your body.
Like stop eating like trash.
Start working out.
Start telling the truth.
And I think there is a revival with young men, young women, not as much, in like, this is why Jordan Peterson is popular and Joe Rogan is popular.
And despite all of his shortcomings, Andrew Tate is popular and what he's saying is popular because the essence of a lot of their messages is like, I'm going to cut it to you straight.
Like no one's coming to save you, man.
Like get your freaking act together, right?
Stop complaining.
And honestly, it creates a happier people.
The very same people who say the American dream is dead are people that do not make their bed in the morning.
Stop Complaining And Get Your Act Together00:14:21
There's like 100% correlation.
Like one to one.
They're like, they don't shave.
They're sloppy.
They're like slovenly and they're like, oh, the American dream is dead.
Yeah, for you it probably is, man.
The world is in flames and biodynamics is a complete and total disaster.
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All right, next question.
Yeah.
Today's students typically have a PhD in TikTok before they do have their high school degree.
So how do you think that we, as being on the front lines, can combat that total misinformation?
This is what I saw on TikTok, so it's fact and that kind of thing.
Yeah, I actually have never had TikTok, and I think our team runs one for me.
I have other social media.
I actually have deleted all social media from my phone.
So the TikTok thing is really amazing.
I have a whole thesis on it as to why it's so popular, but that's not as relevant.
If you were to design an app that inherently plays to the dark aspect of narcissism, I would design TikTok.
So just as an you're like shocked.
No, I'm sorry.
It's true.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Is he viral on TikTok?
How many?
Oh, it's congratulations.
It's good.
It's great.
No, I'm not trying to insult you.
I'm just being honest.
And hear me out.
So if I could ban it, I would.
It's a terrible toxin.
It's a terrible thing, all that stuff.
Whatever.
Fine.
Okay, but it's not going to happen.
I don't get what I want, and you don't either.
Welcome to life, right?
So hear me out on this.
So most school shooters and most really evil people that do things right now, do you think they suffer from too much guilt or too much narcissism?
Yeah, narcissism.
And that's interesting, right?
Because it never actually used to be that way.
In the 70s and 80s, all the bad people said that they felt guilty for things that they weren't able to reconcile.
So something's changed.
So if you had to choose, would you rather have a society that has a guilt problem or a narcissism problem?
I'd rather have a guilt problem.
I mean, guilt can be dealt with.
I think the best way to deal with it is called Christianity, but narcissism is a real, real tricky beast, right?
Because you think about a guilt is that you feel as if you're falling short of a standard.
Narcissism is that I am the standard.
It's like, whoa, that's not a good idea, right?
So don't think TikTok is healthy because it creates, I mean, you're literally looking at yourself if you're creating the content most of the time.
It's all about yourself.
It's fine.
Like, I do stuff on social media.
So you have to fight that beast every day.
The PhD in TikTok is totally true.
How do you fight it?
I mean, point them to our voices that are pretty viral and talented.
But also, it's just like, I don't know.
I think that it would be really wonderful and lovely to remind kids that you could spend time without your phone.
I do 36 hours a week without my phone.
It's great.
I encourage you guys to do the same.
I turn it off Friday night, turn it on Sunday morning.
It's amazing.
It actually makes me work harder the other days.
I'm not saying you have to do that.
I'm just saying you're missing out if you're not.
The phone is a toxin.
It is making you unhappier.
It's probably control.
If you're depressed, you're probably depressed because of your phone, I'll be honest.
If you're on antidepressants, take your phone out of your life.
Almost every study shows that phone is the driver of Prozac, Xanax, benzodiazepins, suicide.
But we're like, oh, I must have my phone.
You really don't, actually.
Like, I mean, I grew up in a world where we didn't have phones everywhere, and it was a happier place, honestly.
I think they make us miserable, more neurotic, more paranoid, less connected, less human.
But obviously, this is a hard message, right?
Because Gen Z needs their digital pacifiers.
Okay, other thoughts?
And if I offended you, again, I'm not really, I really, really don't care.
Why do you think that young men are turning more conservative and young women are not?
It's a great point.
So, a great question.
Not a great point.
Okay, so the entire society's gone too feminine.
You can go too masculine, you can go too feminine, okay?
Mussolini's Italy went too masculine, okay?
America's gone too feminine, okay?
Way too feelings-based, way too the literature we read, how we organize education.
By the way, if you're a young lady and you find this objectionable, you should actually want society to be equally balanced, masculine or feminine, okay?
When it gets out of whack, it's bad for everybody, okay?
You want strong men, you want leaders, you also want, you know, you want equilibrium, okay?
You want to try to have some sort of balance.
We're way out of balance.
But you think about it, young men, especially young white men, I hate to racialize it, but it's just true.
It's just there is this undercurrent told them from a young age that you're terrible, you're awful, you're bigoted, problem with whiteness, University of Chicago class, right?
The transgender thing, like the hyper-feminists saying they're like, no.
And they're looking for anything and they're gravitating towards a content stream that thankfully exists.
Matt Walsh, Shapiro, you know, what we're trying to do, Tate, Rogan, Huberman, Peter Attia.
There's like this mass reservoir of basically like masculinity is good.
Improve your diet.
Like you don't have to become this like former metrosexual version of yourself.
And it's incredibly popular for young high school boys because they don't get that anywhere, right?
And so the identity politics, I hate identity politics, but it makes sense because the conservative message is inherently rooted in saying no to really bad ideas.
And the masculine role in society is to say no, right?
And you might say, oh, no, we as women say no all the time.
Okay, that's not actually totally true.
But like it's, it's okay because, I mean, again, if you want a masterclass in like how I believe God made men and women, like get married and have kids, like you'll see it really quickly, how God created you for one another and how different you are.
Like this idea that men and women are the same is literally one of the stupidest things.
That you have to get like a PhD to believe it.
It's against everything that is self-evident.
You don't need like a study.
You don't need some sort of like poll.
Just look, right?
Just observe, notice, see patterns.
You're like, wow, okay, way different, right?
My wife is amazing, like from how she nurtures to the baby.
I was like, wow, where did that come from?
I'm like clumsy, making a big mess of myself, right?
But if there's like an intruder through the door or there's a noise at night, like, okay, like, let's go.
And that's the way it should be, by the way, okay?
And that's okay to believe in a natural harmony to that.
Young men in becoming more conservative are basically getting a middle finger to a hyper-feminized society and being like, I'm going to go to the one place that says it's okay.
I can be who I actually biologically am, right?
Young ladies, I think the abortion thing, you know, I'm very pro-life.
I'm 100% pro-life, but we're not even going to get into that today.
But I don't think it helps for 18 or 19-year-olds.
I'll just be very honest.
A lot of young ladies gravitate towards left-wing politics because of the abortion issue.
And then you think about it, like young women, from the stuff they consume to the, you know, not just the products, but the podcast and all this, it's very, very, it's like an automatic, you have to be like a card-carrying social justice warrior.
And I'm going to say something that might offend you guys, again, not totally, but like, you know, my heart.
It's like young, like 16, 17, 18-year-olds, they complain all the time, okay?
And like left-wing politics, they love people who complain, okay?
Their whole political movement is built on complaining, okay?
And it's not like there's something right or wrong about it.
It's like, okay, you're 17 or 18 years old.
It's like, oh my goodness, what about this?
It's gossip culture and all that.
And here's a political movement where it's like you're validated for, like, pick your complaint, any complaint.
You want to complain about race?
You want to complain about the environment?
You want to complain about birth control?
You want to complain about trans thing?
You want to complain about income levels?
Like, take your seat.
What's our thing?
We're like, yeah, you're probably wrong.
It's a bad study.
Like, wake up earlier, stop doing drugs.
America's great.
Like, okay.
Like, our message is completely different than I'm going to validate your concern, which is just you being a perpetual child, right, in an adult's body.
So, yeah, you have a follow-up?
Yeah, do you think that, like, the introduction of like OnlyFans and like you don't need no man kind of thing has contributed to women being more liberal?
So, the introduction of the OnlyFans culture, you know, it's interesting.
I don't, I don't know if it's anything that new.
I just think it's manifested itself differently.
I mean, look, if you read, if you read Betty Friedan's feminist mystique, are you anyone familiar with that?
Yeah.
I'm sure if you guys went to college, you had to read it.
It was kind of like considered to be, how do I, what's in modern equivalent?
It was like the eat-prey love of like the 60s, 70s.
Now you guys, that it was so important that like everybody, is it prey, eat, love?
I always get it wrong.
Love, eat, prey.
Love, pray, eat.
I got it right, though.
The first time.
Okay.
I got the words right?
Okay, good.
Never read it.
Don't know what it's about.
Saw it everywhere.
It's not that good.
Got it.
It's so bad.
It's cringe.
Okay.
Self-journey.
Yeah, like super narcissism.
Yeah.
Yeah, okay, got it.
You don't need anybody else.
Got it.
So Betty Friedan, it was that important back then, right?
Feminist mystique, you can read it.
And what's sad about feminism 60s and 70s is actually their argument was to make men, women more like men.
And that's why I make a very provocative argument that the trans thing makes sense, where people say, like, wait, where are the feminists?
I'm like, the whole feminist argument is that you should stop being like an anchored woman and you should become more masculine in your behaviors and your habits.
And then eventually you actually then become men and everyone's like, where are the feminists?
Like, they wanted this transformation for a while, right?
What people are really saying is, where are the people who believe in women?
That's what people are saying, right?
Which, again, is a strange thing.
The OnlyFans thing, I don't know.
I mean, I don't want to dive too.
I mean, I have very strong opinions about all that stuff.
But how widespread is that in college?
I mean, what percentage of very consumption or production?
Both?
Really?
You're like a oh, wow.
Okay.
They do it out of their dorms.
Yeah.
Wow.
I mean, I'm so out of touch.
I mean, I know what OnlyFans is.
Besides that, it's like, that's where I.
I think that's...
That's good.
Do you have a thought?
Yeah.
Okay.
Interesting take.
So one of my conservative friends and I had a debate about this.
Like, we as conservatives want to ban porn and we want to ban OnlyFans.
But at the same time, like, obviously I find it disgusting.
Like, it's porn.
But isn't that like, okay, I'm not like an advocate for OnlyFans or porn, but like, isn't that like capitalism?
And like, we don't want big tech censorship.
We don't want the government to tell us what we can post on the internet and what we can't post.
But wouldn't that be like contradicting ourselves if we start banning porn and we start banning OnlyFans and all that kind of stuff?
Yeah, I mean, I totally think we should ban those things.
I'm not even here to talk about that today, but if you guys want me to, I could talk about that.
I just want to let you know.
But yeah, look, it's kind of my argument with weed, which is like, okay, we have an unbelievably polluted society.
Am I going to keep the gutter going or am I going to do what I can?
Like, there's not a virtuous argument where you can say America's free or happier or more decent because 19-year-old college girls are posting naked pictures themselves for $6 a month.
So the question is, what do you want, right?
And this is an interesting question.
So why do we like capitalism?
Do we like capitalism because it points towards something good?
Or do we worship capitalism itself and hard stop and whatever happens happens, right?
So a libertarian view would be like, Charlie, come on, who are you to say?
No, I am going to say that like posting naked pictures of yourself is disgusting, awful, and immoral.
And honestly, it's demeaning to you and demeaning to the consumer.
And it cheapens society and it creates depressed people.
And if we can't have a consensus against that, then I think we've fallen a lot more than we want to willing admit.
And again, I don't know the complexity.
I thought it was more rare.
You guys are making it seem it's actually more commonplace.
Yeah.
Every girl has it in their bio.
Wow.
So some people here have it in their bio?
Oh, okay.
Oh, wow.
That's really telling.
So is it all naked pictures or is it also scandalous?
Yeah, look, I mean, this is the same argument.
Again, this is nothing new, right?
It's just digital prostitution is what it is.
It's morality versus money.
Yeah, I mean, so I don't have to like overthink it.
I'm not trying to, I mean, and you say, oh, Charlie, you're being like moralizing.
Like, no, actually, they're the ones that are like imperializing society with, you know, let's just say polluted air.
So yeah, this is funny.
I got in a debate with a liberal once, and I wish it was filmed.
But it was, you know, they were so worried about environmental climate change.
So worried about it.
Oh, my gosh, blah, So, okay, so I said, let's just take a pause.
You're like, you hate pollution, right?
And I said, do you believe the soul could become polluted?
And they said, no, of course not.
I was like, okay, but your whole idea is that something that's pristine and nice could be contaminated, right?
Like, don't you think if everyone's swearing all the time and like public nudity and pornography everywhere, that same concept could metaphorically apply?
Never thought of it, right?
I think it's hilarious that the left-wingers want like a perfectly clean environment and a totally polluted soul.
I think we should have clean both.
So, okay, but that's a fun question we could keep on discussing, but I'm not here today to say we should ban pornography.
I do believe that, but you guys can disagree with that.
So, okay, taxation is theft.
Human Beings Naturally Want Freedom00:15:09
Don't have to overthink that.
We way overtax society.
Honestly, the best way that you could talk about taxation is the hidden taxation of inflation.
Inflation is taxation by the means.
Love the libertarians on this.
This is probably one of my favorite things that they've made it a dent on.
Talking about how we do our money is a corrupt, unelected group of bankers that slowly but deliberately deteriorate our purchasing power and make all of you poorer and harder to get, pay your rent, harder to save money.
So don't have to do a long speech on the Federal Reserve.
I would actually talk about the hidden taxation of inflation, okay?
It is a fact that inflation is theft.
Forget like income tax and all that stuff.
That stuff's that obviously.
But it is immoral and wrong that you have become 20% poor without any say in the last two and a half years just because the Federal Reserve Bank wants to put more dollars out there.
Are you guys tracking what I'm saying?
Yeah.
Inflation makes you poor.
You didn't vote for it.
It's not by consent.
There's nothing you could do about it except you have to try to out-earn the rate of inflation, right?
Which is unjust, honestly, and it's central planning at its worst.
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Okay, think it's not illegal yet.
Free the first.
I love the First Amendment.
So here's an interesting question, and there is a right answer, but if you're wrong, that's okay.
We'll correct you.
Raise your hand if you think human beings naturally want to be free.
Raise your hand.
Okay.
One, two, three.
And then how about if you think that people do not want to be free?
They'd rather be taken care of.
Okay.
What if you have no idea?
It's okay.
So does anyone that thinks that human beings want to be free wants to tell me why?
Or either way.
We can go either way.
Where is the mic, by the way?
I lost track of the mic.
Okay.
Let's go back there.
Yeah.
Well, when I say it, I think people believe that they want to be free.
They like the idea.
But then practically, they do want to be taken care of.
And they might think that that's their idea of freedom.
Their idea of freedom is safety because they say, oh, let's ban the guns because now I could be, you know, safe at school and I'm free to live my life because, you know, nobody's going to come shoot me.
So it's a very free by being less free.
Exactly.
Exactly.
So it's like this warped sense of freedom.
So people will say, everybody, if you ask them, do you want to be free?
They'll say yes.
But they don't know what freedom is.
That's the problem.
And that's why I say most people want to be free.
They say they want to be free.
You want to chime in really quick?
I would say if you observe a baby, babies immediately start crawling, they start, you know, crying or yelling or whatever.
They start like walking around all over the place.
And then they were taught that they can't do it by themselves.
And then they become clinging to their mother or their parent or whatever.
But naturally, freedom comes first.
Are you a parent?
No.
Okay.
Interesting, though.
I'll have to think about that.
So, yeah.
Okay, so coming from like a Christian standpoint, being created by God and having to rely on Him, I would say we're naturally wanting to be taken care of just because of the presence of God and what He provides to your life.
You have to rely on Him to get through the tough times.
Cool.
So let's get to the next question.
Raise your hand if you think human beings are naturally good.
Anybody?
Okay.
Naturally, not so good.
Or how about inherently blank and it's a neutral in the middle?
Okay.
So no one thinks naturally.
That's really good.
You guys have, you're here for a reason.
Okay.
Almost every single college professor thinks human beings are naturally good.
Okay.
And so why, why, what does all this matter, right?
I firmly believe people do not want to be free.
They want to be taken care of.
Okay.
Now, freedom is a value.
Once you taste it and you have a memory of it, certain people then develop an attachment of it.
The reason we know people do not naturally want to be free is that in totalitarian countries, they don't even know the concept because it's not natural.
Yanmi Park was the most incredible teacher of me on this.
I had her on the podcast.
She grew up in North Creek.
She said, we don't have the word.
It's not even a word.
Free?
It's like I didn't have to.
She said, when I first went to Japan, you guys should listen to my podcast.
I've done three podcasts with her.
It's unbelievable.
And I only promote my stuff.
I promote myself all the time, but this stuff's really good.
Okay.
But she says, Charlie, when I went to Refugee South Korea, she said, I sat in this apartment and she said, I had to take a six-hour nap because I had to think for 10 minutes.
And she's like, I didn't ever have to do that.
And she's like, I had the same way as if, like, you have to learn how to lift boxes after being in the hospital for like six months and redevelop muscles.
She's like, I never had to actually reason.
And so that's really like the extreme example.
And don't believe me, you could watch it.
So this idea is more, even more provocative than that when you are on a campus.
You will encounter a large portion of people that refuse to entertain ideas that might make them uncomfortable, right?
And that is the, I think, honestly, the question in front of whether or not America will succeed or not succeed is can we convince people to care even if it makes them uncomfortable?
That's a really hard question, isn't it?
I mean, how many times do you have to hear from people where like, no, no, no, that's not true?
I'm like, oh, nope, it's perfectly fine.
Everything's great.
It's like that meme where everything's burning around, you know, and that's what it is.
So think it's not illegal yet, free the first.
You have to constantly be, and here's the cool thing, though, is that once you do engage, once you do have some form of freedom, it comes at a cost, right?
When you are free, you have to be responsible.
It can come with tragedy, it can come with harm, but it is a deeper life.
It's a better life when you are free than if you are controlled, right?
And then if you are constantly being, you know, told to do something or not.
Now, this is an even more provocative question that I don't think we have time, is that if you actually go into, that's kind of ties into the big tech thing, but it's the Constitution one.
I'll go back to big tech.
Yeah, okay.
The Constitution one is that if you talk to some of these kids on campus, and you touched on this, and this is why, you know, I am no longer a libertarian.
I'll tell you why.
Again, no, I'm not trying to make you feel bad.
It's just the way it is on my beliefs.
That they'll say that freedom is doing weed, only fans, and less sentencing, right?
And so, like, is that freedom or is that what the founding fathers would call as license, right?
Licentiousness, right?
So, the question, that's a question.
You guys could come up with your own answer.
Like, has America become more free the more public nudity, public defecation, and shooting up on the side of the streets of San Francisco?
Is San Francisco a better place, more free, better private property rights?
Like, is that a flourishing society, a virtuous society, a place people want to visit, right?
But the ideal is like, hey, man, freedom, who are we to judge?
You got to think about that, right?
And so, is it freedom or is it license, right?
But at the same time, the very same people that are like heroin everywhere, they don't want you to be able to have a nine millimeter.
Think about that.
Okay, so America's Roots, Constitution Week, 10 Amendments to the Constitution, the Bill of Rights, and then how many articles anybody can tell me?
Anybody over under?
It's not a true question.
Anybody?
No?
Seven articles, the U.S. Constitution.
Article 1, which is what?
Legislative branch.
Article 2, executive branch.
Article 3, Supreme Court.
Okay?
Please read the Constitution, guys.
Okay?
It's important.
It's what we all try to defend.
The Declaration and the Constitution are tied together.
One of the course human events becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bans that have tied them to another.
Goes on to say that we find these truths to be self-evident.
What does that mean?
All people can come across this wisdom.
There is not a secret knowledge, a secret gnosis, a secret society.
You don't need to halt, you know, like a secret passcode.
All people can come to this conclusion.
That is the great leap forward.
What makes America different?
They wrote that down.
They believe it.
Most countries to this day still don't believe that.
Unbelievable that they designed a project that all people can come to that knowledge.
Because if you think about it, what do we hear now?
Trust the experts.
What does that mean?
That means secret society, we're in charge, you're not.
You don't get to know what we know.
Just we have to tell you, it's unbelievable totalitarian.
Founding fathers put it on his head.
They're like, no, no, no, all people can come to the knowledge because we believe all people are created equal.
It's self-evident.
You can figure out that it's not right to live under King George.
You can figure out the best way to live.
Totally different, right?
Not trust Fauci, trust the experts, trust Jim Comey, trust John Brennan, right?
Trust the scientists.
It's completely at odds with the promise of the U.S. Constitution, right?
So the Constitution, greatest political document ever written, because it's written for the times, not written, it's not written for the times, written to stand the test of time.
Because the founding fathers believed human nature does not change, and they were right.
Human nature does not change if you believe people are naturally bad or evil, or at the very least, blank slate, right?
Therefore, you have to design a project that makes it the hardest possible way to screw up.
Here's an interesting provocative question: what's the worst thing a human being can do?
Anybody?
Let's ask.
Anybody want to?
This is what they should be teaching in most colleges, by the way.
But yeah, anything, what's the worst thing a human being can do?
Okay.
Murder.
Anyone disagree with that?
What's worse than murder?
Yeah.
I would say not care.
Be apathetic.
Apathetic?
Okay.
Yeah.
So that's interesting.
Was the guy who ran the concentration camp did greater evil than the guy that just sat idly by and just kind of yeah.
So being a spectator.
So that's really actually invigorating that you guys believe apathy and being a spectator is more evil than actually doing the act.
I don't agree, but that's actually a really good sign that you guys want to do something because that's actually a great sign.
So the worst thing the founding fathers believe you could do is murder is up there, but it's collectivizing it.
Okay?
So it's bad enough that you do something evil.
It's worse to institutionalize an entire government around that evil.
That's the worst, outside of blasphemy-nulling spirit.
Or I could actually go even deeper if you want religiously, and I'll second and I will.
It is collectivizing an entire government around these ideas, because then you're not just harming one person, you're harming an entire society.
Now, you obviously, Ten Commandments, I know we have all different religious views here, but just interestingly, what is the, so do not take the Lord's name in vain, right?
So does it say, I can't say, oh, my, whatever, or does it mean you can't carry the Lord's name and do evil in his name?
Think about it.
I think that's actually what it's saying.
It's you can't carry the name of God and do evil in the name of the divine.
What does the Constitution say?
Constitution says we must decentralize power, make it slow, make it arduous, because you have rights given to you by God, as it says in the Declaration, laws of nature, nature's God, not by government.
Okay?
This, I cannot, I mean, I'm a super nerd on this stuff.
I can't tell you how beautiful the Constitution is.
Like, in words that can suffice, we are so unbelievably blessed to have the system still in place.
And we are losing it every day.
But it's so profound.
It's so deep.
It's so exceptional.
It's so beautiful.
Do you guys have questions on it at all?
Criticisms, questions, things you hear?
Objections?
Yes?
What would you say to people that I've heard a lot of people that are really hesitant to talk about how the founding fathers, like they did believe that our rights were God-given.
And I hear some people get a little hairy with that because then others will say, oh, well, then our Constitution's a theocracy.
And oh, we have to get rid of that because it goes against our First Amendment rights of freedom of religion.
And if you have this, you know, these God-given rights and this Constitution that was written under the name of God, then people can't, like, fulfill their First Amendment right of freedom of religion.
So how would you kind of deal with that argument?
Sure.
So a couple things.
The founders were very clear.
They believe in ethical monotheism.
Okay.
So that is Judaism, could be Christianity.
It could even be Benjamin Franklin, which would just kind of be, I believe there's an unmoved mover, but there is a way to live.
Okay.
So every founder was an ethical monotheist.
Every single founder.
Not every single founder was a Christian, but they were all ethical monotheists.
That's a very important distinction.
Number two, the objection that you were telling me is they were saying, well, freedom from religion, that's nowhere in the Constitution, okay?
You have freedom of religion, which says Congress shall pass no law, right, prohibiting the free exercise they're establishing or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.
But at the same time, they conflate that with that God should not be mentioned anywhere in our government or in our founding documents.
That's a concept completely.
It's totally out of anything with the American founding.
55 out of 56 said that signers of the Declaration were Bible-believing church attending Christians, right?
Thomas Jefferson wanted to put a picture of the Exodus on the American, the American seal.
Now, no one's arguing for a theocracy.
What we are saying is, though, where did these ideas come from?
And shouldn't we be able to mention it and remember it?
And we still do, by the way.
If you go to Congress, which I'm Moses is right there in the hall of Congress, right?
Just wait till they take that one down.
I can't wait.
Moses owned slaves.
No, he didn't.
You know what they will say?
Moses killed a man.
He did kill a man.
Yeah.
And he buried him, ran away.
Murder, take him down.
Like, Moses is coming.
I'm telling you, these statue people are coming for Moses, right?
Bunch of freaks.
So all throughout, I mean, whether it be the Ten Commandments, whether it be, so I'll just give you another great example, okay?
Deuteronomy was quoted more than more than any book, religious or secular, in the founding of our nation, okay?
That's done by a secular Harvard historian who ranked John Locke, Rousseau, Voltaire, all that, Deuteronomy, the book of Deuteronomy, which is not exactly an easy book to read, right?
Deuteronomy means second law.
It's like Moses' farewell address.
Breaking Historical Patterns Of Slavery00:03:38
If you read it, he's just like all over the place.
And I got problems with you people and you people and you guys complain too much and I'm mad at you and do this and all that.
And like all of a sudden he's like, in honor of your God, you're like, what is all this?
And it's literally the entire book of Deuteronomy is like a super long complaining session of Moses.
And by the way, I can't go into Israel.
It's all your fault.
Joshua, you know, good luck.
That's the book of Deuteronomy.
But he establishes moral and civil law, which is the most important thing, right?
The founders decide, oh, wow, this is really important.
They apply it because Moses was basically giving the farewell address to the people of Israel entering Canaan, which then established the nation of Israel.
But the founders found something interesting with that.
This is what I love about what Jordan Peterson is doing recently, is he approaches it not even a religious way, just a fast, he's wondered by it.
Like he has wondered by it.
It's like, wow, like every generation seems to find something beautiful in this book.
Maybe I should too, right?
He doesn't even look at it as like from a divine standpoint.
And I wish our academics and our current society had that kind of approach, too.
I think we have time for one or two more, but I do want to, yeah, we'll go there.
Big tech sucks for the same reason.
Big government sucks.
I can go ahead and that.
And then Constitution.
But Constitution, my favorite socialism is a menace.
I actually kind of talked about that one.
So, yes.
Okay, so obviously the Constitution is a big one that we should probably memorize and stuff and get very familiar with.
But are there any other documents or important things that you think that we should also familiarize ourselves with before we go out and do this job?
Yeah, it's a great question.
So you could listen.
I've done dozens of podcasts on this.
If you guys want to listen on Two Times Speed and try to do that, the Hillsdale online courses are amazing.
Charlie for Hillsdale.com.
Look, Declaration, Constitution, those are the big two, right?
That's what this whole organization is about.
Okay, these are calls for freedom, calls for self-government, calls against tyranny.
What does turning point stand for?
Self-government.
We hate tyranny.
We hate Marxism.
We call for human beings to be able to be free.
That's what those two documents are.
The traditional academic view is that the Declaration of the Constitution is at odds with one another.
That's wrong.
They lock together.
One answers the other.
Every complaint in the Declaration is answered in the Constitution.
There's a great book called The Founder's Key by Dr. Larry Arn.
He's the president of Hillsdale College.
He writes about this.
It's beautiful.
It's not an easy read, but it's an unbelievably fulfilling read.
And yeah, I mean, And what's incredible is like if I would have hired you for this job 20 years ago, and I would tell you, like, go argue for the Constitution Declaration, you'd have like 85% agreement on campus and be like, okay, Charlie, we've signed up the whole school.
Now it's like incredibly divisive.
Like it's so tragic.
It's so sad.
These are not even nothing here is necessarily political.
It's not like right-wing or left-wing.
This is moral stuff, right?
Like who are you?
Why are you here?
What kind of government is best, right?
And yeah, I mean, I'm an unapologetic defender of what the founders established because I don't think any of its critics are even remotely understanding of the genius, the brilliance, or I think the divine inspiration that went into it because there has not been a government structure even close to it, even close, right?
And how did they do it?
Well, it's because there are a lot of reasons, but the simplest one I can give you is they studied every single government before it and they saw a pattern, which is smaller and smaller groups of people getting more and more power over the rest of it, over the rest.
And we just broke away from this.
Like, how do we break this pattern, right?
How do we break this pattern?
And they're the first winners of a war that made themselves less powerful.
They could have had the Jeffersonian, Washingtonian republics, and they're like, nope, we're not going to do that.
This is insane.
And yeah, that's worthy of an unbelievable appreciation.
We're all beneficiaries of it.
But we have to be lectured that they're evil.
Okay.
Yeah.
Saving The Republic For Grandkids00:04:14
What advice would you give someone who's running for office?
Like a student running for office or like, oh, you're running for office?
What are you running for?
I'm running for state rep. State rep?
Good for you.
Well, keep your 501c work separate.
That's my first piece of advice.
Right?
That's right.
Everyone knows that's correct.
We do not endorse candidates or talk about political issues.
So I would imagine you're running as a Republican.
Yes.
Tough guess.
So yeah, show up as many Lincoln Reagan Day dinners as you can.
Honestly, like the grassroots is what's going to matter.
And I would encourage you to go spend time with Austin Smith.
He's around here somewhere.
He won as a kind of a young insurgent candidate.
And like the local politics goes to people who show up, right?
It's like just show up at the dinners, ask for support, and then you have to outwork your competition.
So you have to track your competition and say, I'm going to put in twice as much time as them.
So twice as many events, twice as many speeches, and yeah, it's going to suck.
And it's like you're going to be driving at 5 a.m. to something and like for four people.
And then you have to just constantly, relentlessly follow up and know that in politics, if you're young, they're going to be looking for a reason to discount you.
So you have to be over polite, you know, over humble, listen more than you talk.
Don't give them a reason to hate you.
And if you don't, then also there is this amazing community of people in politics that want to support the younger candidate because they're like desiring to make the party younger.
So, all right, we'll do one more.
So, Charlie.
Yes.
If you were to be a high school rep today, because I'm the Arizona high school rep. Okay.
So, if you were in my shoes, what would you do to build out the territory?
Well, I would use the headquarters to your great advantage, right?
I would invite people in as much as possible.
You kind of have a built-in advantage because we do so many events here and we have so much fun stuff here.
So, if I was an Arizona high school rep to hit my goals, like, I mean, you have AmFest, like, oh, my goodness.
And then I would just constantly be trying to, you know, build up leaders throughout the valley, throughout the state, and make them feel close to the HQ.
And just like anytime, Freedom Night in America, you know, it's extra speakers trying to create roundtables and stuff like that.
So, I mean, you have a built-in advantage here that other states don't have because there's just more attention and more stuff happening here.
So, and finally, like, there's a massive amount of potential in the charter schools here in Arizona, I think.
I know we have some really good chapters up in Scottsdale and the East Valley and many more coming.
So, in closing, guys, that was just a small taste of what I wish I could have shared with you today.
The big tech thing, we'll send out a podcast.
You guys can listen to if you want.
A lot of you guys understand it.
Socialism, I talked about the Marxism stuff.
But I'm very thankful for you, and we want to have the biggest semester ever, okay?
And it's going to really start with you guys.
And we got AmFest coming up.
We got some huge goals to hit everybody.
And it's really going to start with you guys.
And I know we got org fairs coming up soon.
Really blessed by all of you.
I'm going to be seeing a lot of you.
I'm going to be seeing you at Chaparral, right?
September 27th, if I remember.
And I don't even know if you guys know the tour schedule or not yet.
It's like a state secret around here, right, Chris?
We don't tell anybody.
But no more than two per region.
I know that.
That's for sure.
And it's going to be really great.
And so if you have questions, ask questions.
There's places for you guys to work hard and move up through the ranks here at Turning Point USA.
And look, I know you guys are here for a reason.
You're here because you'll be able to tell your grandkids that you worked hard to save the Republic.
That's a big deal.
I get letters.
We have 270,000 donors at Turning Point USA that pay your salary, that pay for you to be here.
It's 270,000 people, right?
Soon to be 300,000.
We get letters every day.
Charlie, I work at JP Morgan and I earn a lot of money, but I'm miserable because I can't speak my mind and I have DEI seminars and transgender stuff.
You're actually richer than they are because you get to be free and you get to make an impact.
So be grateful for that and I'm grateful for you.
Thank you guys so much.
Thanks so much for listening.
Everybody, email us as always freedom at charliekirk.com.
Thanks so much for listening and God bless.
For more on many of these stories and news you can trust, go to CharlieKirk.com.