The Charlie Kirk Show - March 07, 2024


Four Years Since "15 Days To Stop the Spread," with Dennis Prager


Episode Stats

Length

46 minutes

Words per Minute

140.75204

Word Count

6,613

Sentence Count

626


Summary

Summaries generated with gmurro/bart-large-finetuned-filtered-spotify-podcast-summ .

Transcript

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00:00:00.000 Hey, everybody.
00:00:00.000 A wonderful episode here with a dear friend and teacher, Dennis Prager.
00:00:04.000 We cover many topics here, including four years since 15 days to saw the spread.
00:00:10.000 This is an insightful, wisdom-filled conversation.
00:00:13.000 Text it to your friends and enjoy it.
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00:00:50.000 Buckle up, everybody.
00:00:51.000 Here we go.
00:00:52.000 Charlie, what you've done is incredible here.
00:00:54.000 Maybe Charlie Kirk is on the college campuses.
00:00:56.000 I want you to know we are lucky to have Charlie Kirk.
00:00:59.000 Charlie Kirk's running the White House, folks.
00:01:02.000 I want to thank Charlie.
00:01:03.000 He's an incredible guy.
00:01:04.000 His spirit, his love of this country, he's done an amazing job building one of the most powerful youth organizations ever created.
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00:01:50.000 It's a great honor to have for the full hour a friend and a mentor and a teacher of mine, Dennis Prager.
00:01:57.000 Dennis, welcome back to the program.
00:01:59.000 Well, I am honored to be in that category in your life.
00:02:04.000 And I mean it from the bottom of my heart.
00:02:07.000 I listen to you frequently.
00:02:08.000 I will say I know you have spoken with more people than anybody alive.
00:02:15.000 But I think I have the honor of listening to more of your non-radio content than anybody alive.
00:02:22.000 I think that I might win that award.
00:02:25.000 To the best of my knowledge, that would be accurate.
00:02:27.000 I would like to see a contest, actually, but to the best of my knowledge, that is correct.
00:02:33.000 And again, I'm honored.
00:02:35.000 Really?
00:02:37.000 I want people to understand this is not a problem.
00:02:40.000 If I have touched Charlie Kirk, then I have touched millions of people.
00:02:44.000 I mean, aside from my affection for Charlie, it means that my ideas will now go to so many more people.
00:02:55.000 I will not be on this earth forever.
00:02:59.000 He is much younger than I am.
00:03:00.000 It is a wonderful sense that what I stand for will be carried on.
00:03:06.000 So you mean a lot to me, Charlie.
00:03:08.000 Thank you.
00:03:09.000 And Dennis, it is you were at the top of my mind because I was going through some memories, and it's been four years since the lockdown craze.
00:03:09.000 Thank you.
00:03:20.000 And I really believe you never, and you still haven't received the credit you deserve for your courage and moral clarity.
00:03:27.000 Because a lot of people look back and they say, oh, you know, I was against the lockdowns.
00:03:32.000 And my question is always, when were you against the lockdowns?
00:03:36.000 Dennis, I pulled up this article.
00:03:38.000 It's not easy to find, by the way, on Google.
00:03:41.000 Go figure, but I found it.
00:03:43.000 The worldwide lockdown may be the greatest mistake in history.
00:03:48.000 Dennis, you were early.
00:03:50.000 You were clear on the lockdowns.
00:03:53.000 Four years later, what date does it show?
00:03:57.000 It says May 5th, 2020.
00:03:59.000 For the record, you were saying it, though, at least a month before.
00:04:03.000 That's right.
00:04:03.000 Yes.
00:04:04.000 So the publication date is actually deceiving, in my opinion.
00:04:09.000 Thank you.
00:04:11.000 But Dennis, you deserve great credit.
00:04:13.000 Please.
00:04:14.000 And walk through that chapter because we should not forget it.
00:04:20.000 It's actually an important question you're asking because if I can explain, and I can, how I arrived at that conclusion, if people adopt this methodology, they're much more likely to find truth because it's very hard today to know what is true.
00:04:42.000 So in no order of importance, but I will begin with this.
00:04:48.000 I always ask, what is the price?
00:04:53.000 That, by the way, is a defining characteristic of conservatism as opposed to leftism.
00:05:01.000 And I'm not the first to make that point, but it is very deep in my psyche.
00:05:07.000 When you ask, is there a price?
00:05:10.000 What is the price?
00:05:13.000 You are immediately saying, wait a minute, as good as it may sound, what's the downside?
00:05:20.000 Everything has a downside.
00:05:22.000 I mean, even the greatest things in the world, I am passionately pro-marriage.
00:05:30.000 I am passionately pro-children.
00:05:32.000 But to deny that there are downsides, there are prices paid, of course, there are prices.
00:05:39.000 And personal freedom, as just one example.
00:05:42.000 Is it worth it?
00:05:43.000 Of course it's worth it.
00:05:44.000 But a mature person does not deny prices paid.
00:05:50.000 So I asked, wait a minute, we are closing down societies all over the world.
00:05:57.000 Are there prices paid?
00:05:59.000 And then I did research.
00:06:01.000 And I have no ability to find things that the regular person cannot find.
00:06:09.000 I did go on the same internet that anybody else does.
00:06:13.000 And I read about starvation.
00:06:15.000 And I read about massive unemployment.
00:06:17.000 And I read about massive boredom.
00:06:19.000 And I wrote about kids having no interaction with other kids.
00:06:23.000 And I thought, whoa, is that worth it?
00:06:28.000 For what exactly?
00:06:29.000 After all, you can go to Target.
00:06:32.000 You can go and buy marijuana.
00:06:36.000 So, oh, and by the way, do you remember?
00:06:39.000 I mean, this should have been the giveaway, Charlie, when the medical community announced, ah, we don't want anybody to be close to one another, let alone in the tens of thousands.
00:06:51.000 But if they're demonstrating against racism, that's a health benefit.
00:06:55.000 Remember that?
00:06:56.000 I think that is where some people started to ask questions, but you were before that, though, Dennis.
00:07:02.000 Yes.
00:07:02.000 So number one, I asked the price, right?
00:07:05.000 Number two, very long ago, you were probably in kindergarten when I began to, you may not have been bored, actually, when I began to be completely unintimidated by the word expert.
00:07:25.000 Generally speaking, experts say triggers in me the following.
00:07:32.000 It's probably not correct.
00:07:37.000 And by the way, oh God, God knows I stand justified in that tragically because experts have been taken over by ideology, not by expertise.
00:07:52.000 So that combination made me realize the price paid is so much greater.
00:08:01.000 It's like what we're doing to prevent global warming.
00:08:05.000 The price is so much greater than whatever good will be accomplished.
00:08:10.000 Yes.
00:08:10.000 So those were among the things that led me to believe this.
00:08:20.000 And by the way, the starvation issue, because I wrote about that, it's like people don't seem to care much about what policies will hurt people in the third world, like all the environmental policy.
00:08:33.000 They're crushing the third world.
00:08:35.000 They need cheap energy, just like we did to develop.
00:08:39.000 And we're telling them, don't utilize fossil fuel, the cheapest energy that exists while we do.
00:08:46.000 And so, Dennis, when you wrote this article, I remember you say that some people attacked you and criticized you because your language was well, people you care about.
00:09:00.000 Let's say fellow intellectuals, because you say worst mistake in history.
00:09:06.000 Can you explain that title?
00:09:09.000 Because that is quite a statement.
00:09:10.000 Yeah.
00:09:11.000 Well, I did explain it.
00:09:12.000 In fact, I wrote a column immediately after the tweet.
00:09:16.000 I wrote a column and I spoke about it and I made it clear and I made it clear on my radio show over and over and over.
00:09:25.000 By mistake, I mean mistake.
00:09:27.000 I don't mean evil.
00:09:29.000 I didn't say it was worse than the Holocaust.
00:09:32.000 I didn't say it was worse than Mao's slaughter of 60 million Chinese.
00:09:37.000 I said it was the worst mistake.
00:09:39.000 The Holocaust wasn't a mistake.
00:09:41.000 It was an evil.
00:09:42.000 Mao was not a mistake.
00:09:44.000 It was an evil.
00:09:45.000 Stalin was an evil.
00:09:47.000 So people conflated the two, whereas I think any normal person understands that there is a difference between mistake and evil.
00:09:58.000 So that's number one.
00:10:00.000 I want to make that clear now.
00:10:02.000 And I made it clear then.
00:10:03.000 One just has to read what I wrote at the time or have access to my radio show, which is accessible, actually.
00:10:12.000 Program called Prager Toby at all my shows since 2010.
00:10:16.000 And I made it clear.
00:10:19.000 Also, I added the word international.
00:10:25.000 There was no equivalent international error like the international error over lockdowns.
00:10:33.000 Oh, and by the way, I think I should add there was another factor, but I don't know at what point it became clear to me.
00:10:41.000 And this was dispositive for me, Sweden.
00:10:45.000 If you'd have told me at any time in my life, I would look to Sweden as the moral model on earth, I would have thought you had been really imbibing a great deal of substance.
00:10:59.000 But Sweden, I have to give credit where it is due.
00:11:06.000 They never locked down.
00:11:08.000 They never closed the school for kids under 16.
00:11:11.000 Yes.
00:11:12.000 Not one day.
00:11:14.000 And I thought, well, wait a minute.
00:11:16.000 If lockdowns are saving lives, why aren't Swedish teachers and children dropping dead?
00:11:24.000 Hey, everyone.
00:11:24.000 Charlie Kirk here.
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00:12:27.000 So Dennis, I have, as you know, carefully studied and listened to every fireside chat.
00:12:34.000 There is a fireside chat a couple years ago.
00:12:37.000 I'm looking for the number where, and I'm paraphrasing, and I think you'll allow me to paraphrase, but the essence was that you were bragging on the American medical system.
00:12:46.000 In particular, you said that, you know, free markets and competition are good.
00:12:50.000 And I know you still believe in that, but you were careful not to criticize the American healthcare system.
00:12:56.000 This was well before COVID.
00:12:59.000 I know your views might have changed, and I say that with some hesitancy.
00:13:04.000 Have they changed, Dennis, your view of American healthcare?
00:13:08.000 There are two specific issues.
00:13:10.000 First, my view of the American medical profession has radically changed and entirely for the worse.
00:13:21.000 And I can't tell you how painful this is, A, because my brother, whom I love, is a professor of medicine.
00:13:30.000 So there are personal reasons.
00:13:33.000 This is a painful statement.
00:13:35.000 I know how what a man of honesty and integrity he is.
00:13:40.000 But the profession writ large, it's been taken over by the left.
00:13:46.000 American Medical Association, as I point out all the time, announced a few years ago that no birth certificate should list the sex of a newborn.
00:13:57.000 That's mind-boggling.
00:14:00.000 That the AMA has bought the lie, that you're not a boy or a girl when you're born.
00:14:08.000 The pediatrics Academy of Pediatrics, I think it's called, how they have gotten on board, mutilating children, hormone blockers at the age of 10, 12.
00:14:25.000 The profession has, I'm sure you've seen Charlie.
00:14:30.000 Did you see the University of Minnesota Medical School?
00:14:33.000 The oath that they took.
00:14:36.000 It was like an oath that the Communist Youth League would have taken in the Soviet Union.
00:14:41.000 The medical profession, the way they came out against ivermectin and hydroxychloroquine, at worst, they're useless.
00:14:48.000 At best, they could save millions of lives, which is, I came to believe the latter.
00:14:54.000 A great, great man who has passed away from cancer, Victor Zelenko, Vladimir Zelenko, an Orthodox Jewish doctor in Brooklyn, New York.
00:15:06.000 I had him on at the height, the very beginning and at the height of the COVID crisis.
00:15:12.000 And he told me, and I believed him, he was saving lives with hydroxychloroquine and zinc.
00:15:20.000 It was inconceivable to me that he was lying.
00:15:23.000 Inconceivable.
00:15:25.000 Because he had no reason to, he had no, there was no money for him to make.
00:15:29.000 There was no fame or fortune in it.
00:15:32.000 And given that he was a bearded Chabad, it's a wonderful sect.
00:15:37.000 I know these people.
00:15:38.000 And treating his fellow believers, might I add.
00:15:41.000 Yes.
00:15:42.000 That's right.
00:15:43.000 Yes.
00:15:43.000 Obviously, anybody who came to him, but generally he was within the ultra-Orthodox community.
00:15:51.000 And so that opened my eyes.
00:15:53.000 And by the way, I went on ivermectin and I went on hydroxychloroquine and zinc.
00:15:58.000 And I never got vaccinated.
00:16:02.000 COVID, which I had twice, was much, much less than a bad cold.
00:16:07.000 It was less than, I continued broadcasting.
00:16:10.000 I don't know how he came to my attention, but this bearded Orthodox Jewish, I think he was also a rabbi, but it doesn't matter, doctor in New York was saving lives.
00:16:25.000 I think the vast number of people who came to him with COVID, I think one, literally one, might have died.
00:16:33.000 And in the meantime, they were intubating people in hospitals.
00:16:37.000 They were having people die with nobody allowed to visit them.
00:16:41.000 It struck me.
00:16:42.000 See, I'm a big believer in common sense.
00:16:46.000 I don't know as much about molecules and mitochondria and Golgi bodies as a doctor.
00:16:51.000 I fully acknowledge that, but you don't have to.
00:16:55.000 God or nature has granted the human being the ability to think clearly without a level of expertise of the detail.
00:17:05.000 Otherwise, none of us could think about anything except people in that profession.
00:17:10.000 But by the way, oh, I didn't mention this.
00:17:12.000 You'll love it.
00:17:14.000 As soon as I hear the word epidemiology, I assume if they go public, they're not telling the truth.
00:17:22.000 I assume it.
00:17:24.000 I know that that's not always true.
00:17:27.000 And I learned it from secondhand smoke.
00:17:30.000 The gigantic lie about secondhand smoke killing, not hurting people with asthma, that I accept.
00:17:39.000 Killing 50,000 Americans a year.
00:17:42.000 I knew it was a lie the day I heard it.
00:17:44.000 I know it is a lie today.
00:17:46.000 Epidemiologists are people with dogma.
00:17:52.000 I don't even know how much epidemiology itself is a science.
00:17:57.000 It's sort of a study of data.
00:18:00.000 So when I heard, oh, epidemiologists say this about COVID versus a guy who's saving lives about COVID, who do you think I'm going to believe?
00:18:08.000 The guy who's saving lives.
00:18:10.000 That was Zelenko.
00:18:11.000 So that opened me up to another.
00:18:16.000 The medical profession is a catastrophe.
00:18:19.000 It has been my motto in life.
00:18:21.000 Everything the left touches, it destroys.
00:18:24.000 And the medical profession and science generally is the latest victim.
00:18:29.000 Let's play this piece of tape that you mentioned.
00:18:34.000 Minnesota.
00:18:35.000 This is University of Minnesota.
00:18:36.000 This is some sort of a ceremony of them becoming medical professionals.
00:18:40.000 Play Cut 64, please.
00:18:42.000 Our institution is located on Dakota land.
00:18:46.000 Today, many Indigenous people throughout the state, including Dakota and Ojibwe, call the Twin Cities home.
00:18:53.000 We also recognize this acknowledgement is not enough.
00:18:57.000 We commit to uprooting the legacy and perpetuation of structural violence deeply embedded within the healthcare system.
00:19:06.000 We recognize inequities built by past and present traumas rooted in white supremacy, colonialism, the gender binary, ableism, and all forms of oppression.
00:19:18.000 As we enter this profession with opportunity for growth, we commit to promoting a culture of anti-racism, listening, and amplifying voices for positive change.
00:19:29.000 We pledge to honor all Indigenous ways of healing that have been historically marginalized by Western medicine.
00:19:37.000 Knowing that health is intimately connected to our environment, we commit to healing our planet and communities.
00:19:44.000 We vow to embrace our role as community members and strive to embody cultural humility.
00:19:51.000 We promise to continue restoring trust in the medical system and fulfilling our responsibilities as educators and advocates.
00:20:00.000 We commit to collaborating with social, political, and additional systems to advance health equity.
00:20:06.000 So, Dennis, what is so chilling about that clip for me is that I thought for years that the woke, the left, they would not be overly successful in capturing the American medical system because there are built-in defense systems where you have to go where the data leads you.
00:20:28.000 But it seems as if no one is immune from the left's takeover.
00:20:32.000 Dennis, please continue.
00:20:34.000 Look, as you know, and many know, but not everyone, certainly not even all your listeners.
00:20:34.000 That's correct.
00:20:43.000 My field of study, which I almost now think is sort of divine stroke of good fortune, was leftism.
00:20:52.000 I was one of seven students in all of Columbia University to major in what was called communist affairs.
00:20:58.000 I learned Russian in order to read the Soviet communist newspaper.
00:21:03.000 I went to communist countries regularly.
00:21:06.000 And I never, ever dawned on, literally didn't, in other words, I didn't even imagine it, that what I'm learning now about communism will be applicable in the United States of America.
00:21:23.000 It just didn't dawn on me anymore than there's an old Jewish saying, if my grandmother had wheels, she'd be a trolley car.
00:21:33.000 But she didn't have wheel.
00:21:35.000 It wasn't a trolley car.
00:21:37.000 America loved freedom.
00:21:40.000 It can't go the way the Soviet Union and other communist countries go.
00:21:45.000 But sure enough, it has.
00:21:50.000 And we have an exit.
00:21:52.000 The only existential, I know of two existential threat to the West because of the left and to Israel because of its neighbor.
00:22:02.000 Those are the two real existential threats.
00:22:04.000 I don't believe global warming is an existential threat.
00:22:07.000 I don't believe Donald Trump is an existential threat to democracy.
00:22:12.000 So pick your existential threat.
00:22:14.000 Dennis, reflecting on the last four years since 15 days or so the spread, it was shocking to me how long it took for us to push back against the lockdowns and then the vaccines.
00:22:31.000 What did that confirm or teach you about human nature?
00:22:36.000 Confirm.
00:22:37.000 It taught me nothing.
00:22:40.000 You know me well.
00:22:41.000 I know.
00:22:42.000 That's why I asked it, though.
00:22:43.000 That's why you added confirm.
00:22:45.000 You know you and you know me.
00:22:48.000 Other people I would have said teach, but.
00:22:52.000 No, there are things that I've learned in the last four years, but it confirmed.
00:22:58.000 So first it confirms that courage is the rarest of the good human traits.
00:23:07.000 I've said all of my life.
00:23:09.000 How many churches, how many synagogues bent their knee to secular authority?
00:23:15.000 And they're paying the price because they all acknowledge.
00:23:19.000 I was with a pastor the other day, people aren't coming back.
00:23:22.000 Yes.
00:23:23.000 I mean, obviously some are, but a lot are not.
00:23:26.000 Oh, you know what?
00:23:27.000 It's pretty relaxing to stay in bed on Sunday morning.
00:23:30.000 I learned that during COVID because my wimp of a pastor shut the church.
00:23:36.000 I'm very angry about that.
00:23:37.000 I'll tell you why I'm angry about it.
00:23:39.000 If we can't rely on rabbis, priests, and ministers to have courage, we're doomed.
00:23:45.000 They're supposed to answer to God.
00:23:47.000 That's their task.
00:23:48.000 That's their only task.
00:23:49.000 I mean, that's frankly, it's my only task too, and your only task.
00:23:53.000 But nevertheless, they get paid to answer to God.
00:23:57.000 And they answer to Fauci and to Newsom and to whatever governor or mayor told them, shut down.
00:24:06.000 Oh, Target's open.
00:24:08.000 Marijuana stores are open, but churches have to shut down.
00:24:12.000 Okay, of course.
00:24:14.000 Of course.
00:24:15.000 Health uberalis.
00:24:16.000 That was my motto.
00:24:17.000 That's why it confirms.
00:24:19.000 I have been saying health uberalis for 25 years.
00:24:24.000 It comes from the German fascist line Deutschland Überalis.
00:24:30.000 Germany above all, we have health above all.
00:24:34.000 Gesunt Überalis, to keep it in German.
00:24:39.000 So, number one, it confirmed that the lack of courage.
00:24:44.000 There were obviously some rabbis, priests, and ministers who were not wimps, but very few.
00:24:52.000 And look, it is what it is.
00:24:54.000 But let's not deny it.
00:24:56.000 Let's not rewrite history.
00:25:00.000 They fooled around with their divine calling, which is a disgrace.
00:25:07.000 Eric Metaxas has written about this.
00:25:10.000 I think it's a sin of the Ten Commandments to carry evil in the name of God.
00:25:10.000 God bless us.
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00:25:58.000 Dennis, would you agree that they carried the name of God in vain when they did that?
00:26:04.000 Yeah, yes.
00:26:06.000 First, I think people need to understand what you're referring to.
00:26:09.000 Oh, okay.
00:26:10.000 Sorry.
00:26:11.000 It's sort of an elevated doctorate level of Tragerism.
00:26:15.000 So let me just quickly explain.
00:26:17.000 So I've written a commentary on Genesis, Exodus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy.
00:26:24.000 I'm working on Leviticus, and Charlie has listened to 240 hours of my teachings on this.
00:26:30.000 Now, I've now done it in principle, the rational Bible.
00:26:35.000 So I know Biblical Hebrew, certainly pre, there are two, really two Hebrews in the Old Testament.
00:26:42.000 They're very related, but they're different.
00:26:45.000 The vocabulary, the prophetic and the pre-prophets.
00:26:51.000 So I know pre-prophetic biblical Hebrew like English.
00:26:55.000 And that obviously helped.
00:26:57.000 So when the translation of the 10th and the 10 commandments of the third commandment, depending on how you enumerate them, is do not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain.
00:27:12.000 The literal Hebrew is do not lift or carry.
00:27:16.000 It's clear.
00:27:17.000 The Hebrew is clear.
00:27:18.000 That's the word.
00:27:19.000 Esau.
00:27:23.000 But it means to carry.
00:27:25.000 Who carries God's name in vain?
00:27:28.000 Someone who does the opposite of what God wants, evil, in God's name.
00:27:34.000 And that is the only sin that God says he will not forgive when you do bad in his name.
00:27:43.000 An atheist who does evil is not as bad as a religious person who does evil.
00:27:50.000 I believe that, by the way.
00:27:51.000 And I think your argument.
00:27:52.000 No, keep going, please.
00:27:53.000 Yeah, I agree with you.
00:27:54.000 No, no, no, go ahead.
00:27:54.000 Go ahead.
00:27:55.000 No, I think the book of Leviticus proves the point that if you're in the administration of the holy, there's different rules and you must be separate.
00:28:03.000 That it's, you're not like the rest.
00:28:04.000 You wear different clothes.
00:28:06.000 You have different rituals.
00:28:07.000 You have different diets.
00:28:09.000 I mean, it's the idea.
00:28:11.000 Well, and there's another reason.
00:28:13.000 That's absolutely correct.
00:28:15.000 But there is another reason.
00:28:17.000 When the atheist commits evil, he doesn't destroy the possibility of the good world, which is only available by taking God's morality seriously.
00:28:33.000 When the religious person does evil in God's, he not only does the evil, which is bad enough, but he destroys people's ability to take God seriously.
00:28:48.000 It's a double whammy, as it were.
00:28:51.000 Anyway, so you're asking about the clergy who shut down their churches and synagogues, they, of course, thought they were doing good.
00:29:02.000 But it was overwhelmingly a lack of courage.
00:29:07.000 Because all they had to say was, hey, listen, I'm not even going to go to synagogue.
00:29:12.000 I won't even go to church because I don't want to endanger my family, my parents, my community.
00:29:19.000 But we are not closing down.
00:29:22.000 Yes.
00:29:23.000 This place will be open for those of you who wish to come and pray and study the Bible.
00:29:30.000 But to shut it down, you can't come.
00:29:34.000 That was really bad.
00:29:36.000 And Dennis, I think you were and are uniquely positioned to speak about this for many reasons.
00:29:43.000 You love freedom and not just passive.
00:29:45.000 You love, I mean, you rent a car every time you land, for example.
00:29:48.000 You can't stand, you know, taxis or Ubers.
00:29:53.000 But not being picked up.
00:29:55.000 No, that's right.
00:29:57.000 I know.
00:29:57.000 I know it very well.
00:30:00.000 And so, Dennis, but not everybody loves freedom.
00:30:03.000 You make a very astute point that people don't naturally want to be free.
00:30:08.000 The Bible makes this point repeatedly, as you have, as you taught me.
00:30:14.000 And during the lockdowns, which is an important distinction, lockdowns versus COVID, and they get conflated far too often, we learned that unfortunately in America, we might be past the 50% mark.
00:30:28.000 I don't know, where more people will value comfort over liberty.
00:30:32.000 That's right.
00:30:33.000 Yeah.
00:30:34.000 Well, talking to you, I feel like you're just the gentleman because you know exactly what I'm going to say.
00:30:43.000 But the audience might not.
00:30:46.000 Yes, that's right, which is obviously, yes.
00:30:49.000 But as you point out, that I point out, again, it's why I've written this commentary on the first five books, because everything is there.
00:31:00.000 And if you understand those five books, you understand Judaism, Christianity, the West, human nature, men and women.
00:31:08.000 And here's just one example.
00:31:10.000 So the Israelites leave Egypt.
00:31:13.000 God brings 10 plagues.
00:31:15.000 God splits the sea.
00:31:17.000 God gives them manna from heaven or from wherever to feed them in the wilderness.
00:31:26.000 And what is the first thing they do?
00:31:29.000 They say, let's go back to Egypt.
00:31:31.000 The food was better.
00:31:34.000 But they were slaves in Egypt.
00:31:35.000 They had meat.
00:31:36.000 The lesson is staggering.
00:31:38.000 People prefer to be well-fed slaves than they do to struggle to get food.
00:31:49.000 I don't mean starve, God forbid.
00:31:51.000 Of course you don't want to starve.
00:31:53.000 But they rather have an effortless life as a slave.
00:31:59.000 Free health care, free food.
00:32:02.000 Hey.
00:32:03.000 What's so bad?
00:32:04.000 And that's what they have opted for.
00:32:06.000 Because the more you allow the state to take care of you, the less free a human being you are.
00:32:13.000 This country was founded on this rare idea that the individual wants to take care of himself and his family and his community and not have the state take care of him.
00:32:26.000 Because it's a deal with the devil.
00:32:30.000 You take my soul.
00:32:32.000 I get your benefits.
00:32:35.000 When schools announced in California they were going to give kids lunch and breakfast at school, I adamantly opposed it.
00:32:44.000 It's a parent's task to feed their children.
00:32:48.000 Damn it.
00:32:50.000 What kind of parent are you if you can't give your kid breakfast and lunch?
00:32:54.000 That's right.
00:32:55.000 And it's the goal of the leftists and the state to try to weaken parents and to have them not do their job or have to be involved.
00:33:03.000 Dennis, to go back to how we started the conversation about your column, the worst mistake in history, you were right.
00:33:12.000 And I want to go through the list here.
00:33:14.000 And it's the damage that we are going to have to recover from will be multi-generational.
00:33:20.000 We don't have to spend too much time on this, but the amount of debt that was incurred because of the lockdowns, anywhere between $10 to $12 trillion in debt, the political issues from mail-in ballots and the distrust of our election system, the economic displacement of the businesses that went under that will never come back, the once great cities that were already tipping, but were completely obliterated, like Seattle and Portland and San Francisco and LA and New York.
00:33:47.000 Dennis, I'm confident I could predict how you will answer this, but I want you to humor at least me and our audience.
00:33:54.000 Has anyone ever apologized?
00:33:57.000 And I think that's an important question.
00:34:00.000 So I wrote in the 1980s, it's in print.
00:34:06.000 I wrote a column called Being on the Left Means Never Having to Say You're Sorry.
00:34:14.000 Does that answer your question?
00:34:16.000 Well, but tell us why.
00:34:17.000 But that's what is it about being, is it because they're in power because they control everything?
00:34:23.000 Or is it?
00:34:23.000 No, it is because it is because the self-image of a left is of a kind and wise.
00:34:32.000 And their image of those who oppose them is that we're threats to democracy.
00:34:38.000 We're fascists, racists, xenophobes, homophobes, transphobes, Islamophobes.
00:34:45.000 We're everything bad.
00:34:47.000 So if they apologize, that means the bad guys were right and the good guys were wrong.
00:34:54.000 That's too much cognitive dissonance.
00:34:56.000 Despite obviously the damage, the destruction, the horror.
00:35:01.000 And let's focus on one element of it.
00:35:03.000 Dennis, you predicted that the millennial Gen Z generation will be the most alcohol-addicted, drug-addicted, suicidal, and depressed generation in history, and it will only get worse because of the lockdowns.
00:35:14.000 That is true.
00:35:15.000 And it shows no signs of improving.
00:35:18.000 Can you separate for our audience how you think of the COVID versus lockdowns?
00:35:22.000 I think that distinction is very important.
00:35:26.000 So when you asked me that question, what do you have in mind?
00:35:30.000 The lockdowns were ostensibly because of COVID.
00:35:33.000 Is that what you're saying?
00:35:34.000 No, but the lockdowns were unnecessary, but the language still to this day.
00:35:38.000 If you read, for example, I'll be more clear.
00:35:40.000 CNN says the last couple of days, young people are committing suicide at record rates.
00:35:45.000 Experts say COVID is to blame, right?
00:35:47.000 Because of COVID.
00:35:49.000 Oh, God, that's right.
00:35:50.000 So you get what I'm saying now.
00:35:52.000 Yes.
00:35:52.000 Yeah, totally.
00:35:53.000 Yes.
00:35:54.000 So please understand.
00:35:56.000 And I'm saying this, I know you do, but I want all your listeners do.
00:36:01.000 Conservatives have adopted their language.
00:36:04.000 They say because of COVID.
00:36:07.000 Never say that.
00:36:08.000 Always say because of lockdown.
00:36:12.000 That's critical.
00:36:15.000 These things are not happening because of COVID.
00:36:17.000 They're happening because of lockdown.
00:36:20.000 You're right.
00:36:21.000 I mean, now I understand your original question.
00:36:24.000 There is a huge distinction.
00:36:26.000 COVID was the reason for the lockdown, but lockdowns were not a necessary response, as Sweden proved.
00:36:34.000 But it is worse than that.
00:36:35.000 I didn't know, although I knew not to take the vaccine and I never did.
00:36:41.000 Thank God.
00:36:44.000 A dear person in my life dropped dead from it.
00:36:48.000 The number of healthy young people dying from this.
00:36:52.000 And now just the latest report, the massive increase in cancers in young people.
00:36:59.000 Dennis, it's everywhere.
00:37:00.000 And doctors, they can't figure out why.
00:37:03.000 Colon cancer payments.
00:37:04.000 They don't want to figure out why.
00:37:07.000 That's what I see, the corruption of the medical profession.
00:37:10.000 Doctors should be announcing to the American people, we made a mistake.
00:37:16.000 We should never have pushed you to give kids vaccines.
00:37:20.000 It was a horrible mistake we made.
00:37:22.000 And for the sake of your trust in us as doctors, we want you to know we blew it.
00:37:30.000 Then people will have respect for them.
00:37:32.000 But they're still hiding it.
00:37:34.000 Not only are they hiding it, they're still forcing it at over 60 universities.
00:37:38.000 You must get the shot, including the booster and all the updated rollouts from the CDC and the FDA.
00:37:46.000 And they're adamant.
00:37:47.000 And it is growing.
00:37:49.000 Dennis, I will say it is harder and harder for them to cover this up.
00:37:53.000 The turbo cancers, the fatality rate, the amount of young people that are suffering.
00:38:01.000 Hey, everybody, Charlie Kirk.
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00:38:07.000 And no, I don't mean the radical AARP.
00:38:10.000 It's because preserving the foundation of our nation and promoting conservative values isn't just for seniors.
00:38:14.000 It's for all Americans regardless of age.
00:38:16.000 That's why I want to talk to you about the other organization, AMAC.
00:38:20.000 Yes, they champion issues that are critical to the senior community, but their mission and impacts go way beyond that, offering incredible benefits and opportunities for conservatives of every age.
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00:38:47.000 The bottom line is that our fight for conservative values need fresh energy and wisdom and experience.
00:38:52.000 So whether you're young and looking to make a difference or a seasoned patriot with an undying passion for freedom, AMAC is your home.
00:38:58.000 Join today at amac.us slash Kirk.
00:39:01.000 Go and get a membership for your parents too and your grandparents for only $16 a year.
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00:39:14.000 Dennis, I want you to comment on one element.
00:39:18.000 You say at the beginning, you always ask the question, what is the price?
00:39:21.000 That is the sign of a mature conservative individual.
00:39:24.000 What is the price?
00:39:24.000 What is the price?
00:39:25.000 Some people during the lockdowns, they claimed they were asking the price.
00:39:30.000 In fact, quote, one person on television said, if only one person dies, that is too much.
00:39:36.000 It is a tragedy.
00:39:38.000 Dennis, you found great, correctly, a great objection to this line of argumentation that if one person passes away, we all must sit at home.
00:39:47.000 Can you elaborate on it?
00:39:49.000 Because it's not just the question of what is the price, it's how we think about the price.
00:39:54.000 Well, that was Andrew Como's, right?
00:39:57.000 He was the line.
00:40:01.000 He was the hero of the American left, presidential timber.
00:40:08.000 If everything I am doing will save one life, it is worth it.
00:40:14.000 And as soon as he said it, I mean, this was at the height of massive death reports from New York City.
00:40:23.000 I said, that is beyond belief absurd.
00:40:29.000 As I pointed out then, just to give one simple example, theoretically, if you enforce a 30-mile per hour speed limit on all highway, you will have fewer debt.
00:40:42.000 Is it worth it?
00:40:45.000 When do you make policy based on if we can save one life?
00:40:51.000 Perhaps if we abandon the automobile altogether, we will save a life.
00:40:56.000 But this is the health uberalis.
00:40:58.000 But this is, let me say something.
00:41:02.000 It is fundamental to know this.
00:41:04.000 You cannot think clearly and be a left.
00:41:07.000 It is not possible.
00:41:08.000 You can be a liberal.
00:41:09.000 You can be a conservative.
00:41:10.000 You cannot be a left.
00:41:14.000 Their coherent thought is unavailable.
00:41:18.000 It is an immature statement.
00:41:20.000 If everything we have done has saved one life, it is worth it.
00:41:25.000 Then you basically have to end everything that causes a debt.
00:41:32.000 Right?
00:41:34.000 Wouldn't you have to do that?
00:41:37.000 If we abandon the airplane, nobody will die in an air crash.
00:41:44.000 So what can one say?
00:41:48.000 I resort, I return to my philosophical outlook on life.
00:41:55.000 I have such small expectations of human beings that I don't go crazy.
00:42:01.000 I am, it's in my book on happiness, a chapter on expectation.
00:42:06.000 The fewer your expectations, the happier you will be.
00:42:10.000 Happiness is a serious problem.
00:42:11.000 Dennis, I do want to plug the book and talk about it.
00:42:14.000 Please continue, Dennis.
00:42:15.000 In terms of personal happiness and sanity, even my expectations of human beings of human beings is essentially zero.
00:42:25.000 Andrew Como didn't disappoint.
00:42:28.000 He confirmed my belief that Cubans are unimpressive, but there are some terrific human being individuals.
00:42:36.000 So I've been to 130 countries, been abroad every single year since I was 18 years of age, and except for 2020, because it was not possible to do so.
00:42:49.000 It was not even easy in 2021, but I went to Hungary and to Slovakia and the Czech Republic to give speeches.
00:42:59.000 How I got in is you'll crack up if you need to hear a funny story another time.
00:43:05.000 But in my very early travels, I came home and I told my close friend that, you know what?
00:43:15.000 I have contempt and compassion for humanity.
00:43:19.000 And it's never changed.
00:43:23.000 The ease with which people deceive and are deceived, the lack of courage, lack of seriousness, lack of inquiry, the lack of self-control, these don't surprise me.
00:43:40.000 So what I saw happening, I'll tell you the only thing that really was sad, really sad, I said that's always true.
00:43:53.000 What was really sad was that it was America.
00:43:57.000 Charlie, I've had a love affair with this country since my point, since I could really think seriously.
00:44:04.000 I mean, a love affair.
00:44:06.000 Whatever love entails emotionally and psychologically and intellectually, I have had for this country.
00:44:17.000 So I fell into a trap, my own trap.
00:44:21.000 I expected more from my fellow American.
00:44:26.000 This was a painful period.
00:44:29.000 And it remains a painful period.
00:44:31.000 45% of young people don't believe in free speech or hate speech.
00:44:36.000 That means they don't believe in that.
00:44:37.000 I want you to end this a very pointed question.
00:44:40.000 How did you maintain your happiness during it?
00:44:44.000 I know that it might be a simple question for you to answer, but it's a very important question.
00:44:49.000 It is.
00:44:50.000 So one thing I have prepared myself for disappointment because of my view of human nature.
00:44:57.000 That's a very big deal.
00:44:59.000 I wasn't hit over the head.
00:45:01.000 I was only hit over the head with the American failure.
00:45:05.000 I expected more from Americans.
00:45:07.000 I did too.
00:45:08.000 That was a big factor.
00:45:09.000 Number two, I have tremendous amount of happiness in my personal life with my wife, my children, my friends, my religion.
00:45:23.000 I have shock absorbers that are really strong and thick.
00:45:29.000 And between those two, macro lack of expectations and micro joy, I was able to do it.
00:45:40.000 But it's watching this great experiment in human liberty move towards the Soviet model, watching judges act like Soviet judges, saying that a candidate whom they don't like cannot be on a ballot.
00:46:01.000 This is scary stuff.
00:46:04.000 So let me just say to those of your lucky listeners, you're a real asset to this country.
00:46:13.000 I hope they will read my Bible commentary.
00:46:16.000 It's life-changing.
00:46:17.000 I don't say that lightly.
00:46:18.000 It is life-changing.
00:46:19.000 Yes, it is life-changing.
00:46:20.000 It is meant to be.
00:46:21.000 It's called the Rational Bible.
00:46:22.000 There are three volumes out.
00:46:24.000 The fourth volume is coming out here, fifth volume, Nick.
00:46:27.000 Thank you, Mike.
00:46:28.000 Dennis, God bless you.
00:46:29.000 And I will end by how I started.
00:46:31.000 You deserve credit.
00:46:32.000 And that should build your credibility moving forward when people are looking for guidance, when it looks as if it's super confusing.
00:46:40.000 But go back to see who got it right when almost everybody got it wrong.
00:46:45.000 Dennis, thank you so much.
00:46:46.000 Thanks so much for listening, everybody.
00:46:48.000 Email us as always, freedom at charliekirk.com.
00:46:51.000 Thanks so much for listening, and God bless.
00:46:54.000 For more on many of these stories and news you can trust, go to CharlieKirk.com