The Charlie Kirk Show - From Bernie Backer to 'Right Wing Extremist' with Tim Pool

00:00:00.000 Hey everybody, today in the Charlie Kirk Show, a very powerful conversation with Tim Poole, who is the most popular live streamer on YouTube.

00:00:09.000 He talks about how at one point in his life, he did not believe in God, and now he knows there is a God.

00:00:15.000 Very powerful.

00:00:16.000 He considers himself a center-left libertarian, but he believes the right is essential to saving America.

00:00:23.000 It's an incredibly powerful episode.

00:00:25.000 Text this to your friends.

00:00:26.000 Think deeply about it.

00:00:27.000 And email me.

00:00:28.000 Freedom at CharlieKirk.com.

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00:00:35.000 That is charliekirk.com slash support.

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00:00:47.000 Buckle up, everybody.

00:00:48.000 Here we go.

00:00:49.000 Charlie, what you've done is incredible here.

00:00:51.000 Maybe Charlie Kirk is on the college campuses.

00:00:53.000 I want you to know we are lucky to have Charlie Kirk.

00:00:57.000 Charlie Kirk's running the White House, folks.

00:01:00.000 I want to thank Charlie.

00:01:01.000 He's an incredible guy.

00:01:02.000 His spirit, his love of this country.

00:01:04.000 He's done an amazing job building one of the most powerful youth organizations ever created.

00:01:09.000 Turning point USA. 0.65

00:01:10.000 We will not embrace the ideas that have destroyed countries, destroyed lives, and we are going to fight for freedom on campuses across the country.

00:01:19.000 That's why we are here.

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00:01:35.000 Everybody, Tim Poole is here.

00:01:37.000 Tim, welcome in.

00:01:37.000 How's it going?

00:01:38.000 Thanks for having me.

00:01:39.000 I finally get to interview you now.

00:01:40.000 Oh, all right.

00:01:41.000 That's very cool.

00:01:42.000 Because I've been on your show.

00:01:43.000 You've been, I think, three times now.

00:01:44.000 You've been nice enough to have me on.

00:01:46.000 Oh, yeah, yeah.

00:01:47.000 It's great to have you.

00:01:47.000 We got to get you another debate.

00:01:49.000 I'm totally on that.

00:01:49.000 Oh, totally.

00:01:50.000 We saw that poster downstairs with you and Vosh, like the MMA.

00:01:53.000 Do you think it's best to do it again with Vosh or maybe somebody else?

00:01:55.000 Somebody else.

00:01:56.000 I mean, Vosh is one of the few who's willing to consistently do it.

00:02:00.000 Yeah, got to give him credit for that.

00:02:01.000 Yeah, right.

00:02:02.000 Yeah, fair.

00:02:03.000 But somebody else.

00:02:06.000 You are the number one most viewed live streamer on YouTube.

00:02:11.000 For a live audience, apparently that's the case.

00:02:13.000 Media Matters was insulting me.

00:02:16.000 And that was one of their strong talking points, like, fear him.

00:02:19.000 He's the biggest.

00:02:20.000 And I was like, I didn't know that.

00:02:22.000 I knew we had some large presence when it came to live, but I didn't know that we average basically at the top on YouTube for live shows.

00:02:30.000 How'd you get to that place?

00:02:32.000 Started live streaming every day.

00:02:34.000 I think consistency.

00:02:35.000 We started doing a nightly show Monday through Friday, and we've always done it with very few days off, holidays and stuff like that.

00:02:42.000 But I think for the average person, it becomes a routine where it's you get back from work, you're cooking dinner.

00:02:48.000 And they watch on their TVs.

00:02:49.000 They watch on their smart TVs mostly.

00:02:50.000 That's been a big, big advance.

00:02:52.000 So tell us your story.

00:02:54.000 You grew up in Chicago.

00:02:55.000 Oh, yeah.

00:02:55.000 Now you're number one on YouTube.

00:02:56.000 How did that work?

00:02:58.000 Southside of Chicago.

00:02:59.000 We have that in common.

00:03:00.000 Well, you're Arlington Tonight.

00:03:02.000 I had some friends up there skating.

00:03:04.000 But yeah, south side of Chicago by Midway.

00:03:06.000 So it's like Southwest.

00:03:08.000 I don't know, man.

00:03:10.000 I got introduced to pop punk music, which introduced me into more punk music.

00:03:15.000 Skateboarding became very popular, which introduced me to a bunch of anarchists and very politically minded people.

00:03:23.000 My family risked everything to open a small business.

00:03:25.000 I'll put it that way, which ultimately, I think, destroyed my family.

00:03:30.000 My mom and dad happily married, three kids, you know, dog.

00:03:34.000 My dad's a firefighter.

00:03:35.000 My mom said she wanted to do something more.

00:03:37.000 She wanted to open a coffee house to actually build something she could leave to us, you know, when they're old or whatever.

00:03:42.000 So there could be a chain of cafes or something, something more, you know, entrepreneurial family.

00:03:46.000 So we took a lot of risks, put up the house as collateral, things like that.

00:03:50.000 And then when I was working at this coffee house, I was like nine to 11 years old.

00:03:55.000 It was in Wrigleyville slash Boys Town in Chicago, North Halstead.

00:04:01.000 And so everything there was very, very political because it was a gay neighborhood. 1.00

00:04:05.000 And I don't mean LGBTQ, like literally gay.

00:04:08.000 So it's like most people live there were men who liked men, but they're talking politics all day.

00:04:14.000 So if I'm making a coffee as like a 10-year-old kid or grabbing a muffin or something, there's people talking about policy, vote, things like that.

00:04:22.000 So it was kind of ancillary.

00:04:23.000 I didn't know too much, but I will tell you this as an aside.

00:04:26.000 My mom wouldn't let me go outside during Pride.

00:04:29.000 And you know why, right?

00:04:33.000 I could speculate.

00:04:34.000 Oh, yeah, everyone's naked.

00:04:35.000 There's like gratuitous sexual acts. 0.99

00:04:37.000 And so my mom was like, you can't go outside.

00:04:40.000 And so I was a little kid.

00:04:41.000 I couldn't go outside.

00:04:42.000 But anyway, we can talk more about that in a second.

00:04:44.000 So anyway.

00:04:45.000 Not allowed to say that, Tim.

00:04:46.000 Children should be involved in pride parades, right? 1.00

00:04:49.000 But I mean, it's funny that like my mom is this liberal who supports gay rights, but has her kid kept inside like it's not appropriate for children.

00:04:56.000 Like, hey, it's kind of like where I'm at these days where, you know, I've got friends who are LGBTQ and I don't think certain things are appropriate for children, especially what's going on in San Antonio. 0.93

00:05:05.000 But I'll give you the long story short, I guess, with that is when construction started happening and my family started falling apart, my dad is unhappy with the current situation because my mom's working all the time and he, you know, he's, there's no one watching the kids.

00:05:19.000 He ultimately just says, I can't do this.

00:05:21.000 And the bills were racking up.

00:05:23.000 People were stealing from the business.

00:05:24.000 It was brutal.

00:05:25.000 And so my mom decides we're going to shut it down, which brought us into bankruptcy, lost the house.

00:05:30.000 Family parents still ended up getting divorced because it was so messy.

00:05:30.000 Wow.

00:05:34.000 How old were you?

00:05:35.000 When it all fell apart, like 12.

00:05:37.000 Wow.

00:05:38.000 What year was this?

00:05:39.000 This is 1999, I think.

00:05:42.000 Got it.

00:05:42.000 Yeah, around 99 because I was born in 86.

00:05:44.000 But then a couple years later, right before I turned 14, I think my parents were like, we're getting divorced.

00:05:49.000 Like losing the house was bad.

00:05:52.000 Then we were living in a rental.

00:05:53.000 The fighting never stopped.

00:05:54.000 And eventually they're just like, we can't do this anymore.

00:05:57.000 And so, but, but, you know, throughout that is what basically gets me more active in politics, I guess, the experience I had with my family's business.

00:06:06.000 Then skateboarding became popular.

00:06:09.000 You skateboard as like a generic, you know, kind of trend thing.

00:06:13.000 But then a bunch of these skateboarders are anarchists who are listening to punk rock for some reason.

00:06:18.000 Don't ask me why.

00:06:19.000 And then I started listening to music that's more punk rock.

00:06:22.000 They start talking about things that are overtly political.

00:06:24.000 I start looking into those political things.

00:06:26.000 Then I become very political.

00:06:28.000 And then from there, that's like the trajectory into constantly being involved in some kind of political element of the world, be it activism or whatever.

00:06:37.000 So by the time I was like 20, I was actually doing fundraising for nonprofits like Greenpeace, the ACLU, Human Rights Campaign, Save the Children, Children International, et cetera, et cetera, homeless shelters.

00:06:48.000 So that was like me being, hey, you know, like I care about the world.

00:06:51.000 I care about politics.

00:06:52.000 I'm sick of the BS.

00:06:53.000 I'm going to actively get involved in these.

00:06:56.000 I'm going to find a career doing things that matter.

00:06:59.000 And the long story short of that whole career arc is all these nonprofits just want money.

00:07:04.000 If they actually were to solve the problems they complained about, they'd go out of business.

00:07:08.000 So in the end.

00:07:10.000 So you started as kind of like a social justice activist.

00:07:13.000 Is that fair to say?

00:07:15.000 I don't know about social justice because my dad was, you know, like my mom's half Korean, like Korean and Japanese.

00:07:24.000 My dad's this tall German white guy.

00:07:26.000 And so when I'm a little kid, the Chicago fire department basically tells my family, my dad is not entitled to a promotion because he's a white man.

00:07:33.000 My dad comes home upset, and I hear him talking to my mom.

00:07:37.000 And he's like, I've been fighting so hard for this.

00:07:40.000 We're upper lower class, right?

00:07:42.000 We are a family of five living on the south side of Chicago with like a $30,000 a year salary.

00:07:48.000 And so, and this is like early 90s.

00:07:50.000 And my dad's like, they're passing me up for this promotion, which would have given him a huge salary bump just because he was white.

00:07:57.000 So my dad then had to take a second job and a third.

00:08:00.000 He was detailing cars.

00:08:02.000 He was doing construction work and he was a firefighter because he couldn't make ends meet just on one of those jobs.

00:08:09.000 And then when he decided to work hard and pass the test and become a lieutenant, they said, you're a white man.

00:08:15.000 And because he missed that promotion, it meant he would never become a chief.

00:08:20.000 And this is how I remember.

00:08:21.000 I was a little kid at the time, but the general thing I remember was you have to, you become a firefighter, which is very hard.

00:08:28.000 You then have to pass the promotion and become a lieutenant.

00:08:31.000 The next opportunity, you must become a captain.

00:08:33.000 The next opportunity, you must become a chief.

00:08:35.000 If you miss any one of those steps, you will never make it in time by retirement.

00:08:40.000 So when they passed him over, he was pissed.

00:08:43.000 He said, this is just complete.

00:08:45.000 Yeah, my mom was also really angry because she was like, you know, he was really high up on passing the test.

00:08:53.000 He's a hardworking, poor man.

00:08:55.000 He came from humble beginnings, married to a mixed race woman with mixed race kids, but they said, too bad you're white, therefore you're privileged, and we're going to give it to somebody else.

00:09:05.000 So I'm like 12 and I hear that.

00:09:08.000 I'm angry.

00:09:09.000 Why is it that my dad, who's this progressive guy who is in an interracial relationship and me with, you know, part Asian background are being told that because he's white, he's racist or something.

00:09:20.000 And that happened to me very, very early on.

00:09:21.000 So when I'm getting into the activism stuff, not social justice, it was more like anti-authoritarian and more focused on, you know, when I, when I, the first company I worked for was Greenpeace.

00:09:37.000 They're talking about the wanton destruction of the environment by corporations who have, who face no regulation and are unimpeded.

00:09:44.000 And I'm like, I agree, that's a problem.

00:09:46.000 I think centralized power too much needs to have some pushback.

00:09:50.000 So at the very least, will be that pushback.

00:09:52.000 And then I learned very early on, like very quickly, these companies are all basically just like, say whatever you have to say to get the money from them and then lie about it.

00:10:00.000 So I'll tell you real quick what I ended up learning.

00:10:03.000 All of these nonprofits run 501c3s and 501c4s so that they can collect money through the 501c4, not report it, and then donate a small fraction to the 501c3.

00:10:14.000 Then the 501c3 issues its report saying we only brought in a million dollars this year.

00:10:19.000 That way they could use that talking point.

00:10:22.000 It's very clever.

00:10:23.000 You walk up to someone on the street and you say, last year we only made $1 million.

00:10:27.000 With your support, we can do better.

00:10:29.000 But what they don't tell you is you're donating to a 501c4, which doesn't have to disclose revenue, which brings in hundreds of millions.

00:10:37.000 Then the 501c4 just decides a million will go to our fundraising branch.

00:10:42.000 Very, very manipulative.

00:10:43.000 And I was like, I'm not doing it.

00:10:44.000 I'm out.

00:10:44.000 Then you learn a lot of these other fundraising companies are just that, for-profit enterprises that are paid a fee to fundraise on behalf of the nonprofit.

00:10:53.000 And then I was like, it's all a game.

00:10:56.000 So then how did you get from there into journalism or videoing?

00:11:01.000 So I had always been doing video, skateboarding.

00:11:04.000 You know, since I was probably 13 or 14, I was editing videos on Adobe.

00:11:09.000 Even before that, I was programming video games.

00:11:11.000 I was making Flash animations.

00:11:13.000 I made Flash websites.

00:11:14.000 I built my first computer when I was like eight or eight or so years old.

00:11:18.000 So I was always doing something with that.

00:11:20.000 Video editing came about because I was skateboarding.

00:11:23.000 You go skateboard, you film it, you got to edit it.

00:11:26.000 So then when I'm, you know, I'm doing all this political stuff, it's mostly in the background.

00:11:30.000 It's like it's a job I have.

00:11:32.000 And then eventually I say these companies are corrupt.

00:11:33.000 I quit.

00:11:34.000 I moved to California, work for a few more.

00:11:37.000 And then I'm like, hey, it wasn't a one-off with these companies in Chicago.

00:11:40.000 It turns out these big companies all basically do the same thing.

00:11:44.000 So I'm in California and I end up leaving one company rather acrimoniously, a nonprofit.

00:11:51.000 And my brother says, hey, if you're not doing anything, just come hang out in Virginia.

00:11:55.000 My brother was in the Army stationed at Fort Eustis.

00:11:59.000 So I was like, sure.

00:12:01.000 LA was boring.

00:12:03.000 I'd been there, done that.

00:12:04.000 I was there for like two years.

00:12:06.000 Go to Virginia and hang out with my brother, have a bunch of money saved up when Occupy Wall Street starts.

00:12:11.000 And I see this video on Facebook of a guy being dragged by his legs and his hands are bleeding because the cops were removing him from the park.

00:12:18.000 And I was like, whoa, that's crazy.

00:12:20.000 My brother runs in the room and he's like, did you hear people are like trying to storm Wall Street or something?

00:12:24.000 And I was like, yeah, I saw some video about it on Facebook.

00:12:26.000 And I was like, I'm going to go check it out.

00:12:29.000 I'm not doing anything else, right?

00:12:30.000 I had just come out to visit.

00:12:31.000 I was there for like a month or two, made a few skate videos, bought a round trip ticket for 20 bucks on a bus and decided to go up there.

00:12:40.000 So while I'm there, just to see what's happening, I started filming.

00:12:43.000 Zuccotti Park.

00:12:44.000 Zuccotti Park.

00:12:45.000 Started filming, but I didn't have anything to do with the videos.

00:12:47.000 And my phone filled up instantly.

00:12:49.000 So I was like, I don't know if this is working.

00:12:51.000 And then eventually, you know, I was working with this other guy I started talking to.

00:12:56.000 He wanted to produce something.

00:12:57.000 He called it the Other 99.

00:12:59.000 And then I was like, I can figure this out.

00:13:02.000 Let's start live streaming.

00:13:04.000 And so then I instantly switched.

00:13:06.000 I shouldn't say instantly, but I switched from video recording to streaming on the Ustream app because how did you even stream in 2012?

00:13:13.000 Mobile phone.

00:13:15.000 My phone.

00:13:16.000 This was the fall of 2011 is Occupy Wall Street.

00:13:19.000 Yeah, so Ustream.

00:13:19.000 I was there, actually.

00:13:20.000 You were at Occupy?

00:13:22.000 Long story.

00:13:22.000 I did my official visit at West Point because I wanted to go there.

00:13:25.000 Oh, cool.

00:13:25.000 And so I was staying the weekend in Manhattan.

00:13:26.000 I just walked by and spent a whole day.

00:13:29.000 We probably were there at the same time.

00:13:30.000 Hilarious.

00:13:31.000 Yeah, yeah, yeah.

00:13:31.000 I was there the whole time, basically.

00:13:32.000 Yeah, so I remember it vividly.

00:13:33.000 It was October 2011.

00:13:34.000 Yep, definitely was there.

00:13:37.000 You could stream in very low quality with Ustream.

00:13:40.000 And I think there was a couple others.

00:13:43.000 I can't remember their name.

00:13:44.000 But this was before sophisticated live streaming technology.

00:13:46.000 Yeah, yeah.

00:13:47.000 Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.

00:13:48.000 It was like super low.

00:13:49.000 There was no Periscope.

00:13:49.000 It was Facebook Live.

00:13:50.000 Nope, there was none of that.

00:13:51.000 Nope, it was Ustream.

00:13:53.000 And then once I started streaming there, within a week, I was getting 2,000 concurrents watching my live stream as I walked around.

00:14:01.000 This is kind of crazy, too, because I basically created this methodology of taking a mobile phone, plugging it into an external battery, and then live streaming for extended periods.

00:14:09.000 And then after about a month or two, everyone started doing it.

00:14:13.000 For me, it was just the easiest thing to do.

00:14:15.000 Before me, people would have a laptop and they would hold a webcam and they'd walk around with it.

00:14:20.000 It was crazy.

00:14:22.000 Yeah, but when the part got rated, I showed up, started streaming, and I streamed for 22 hours straight to, you know, it was like millions of people.

00:14:35.000 On the stream itself, I think it was like 70 or 80,000 concurrent viewers at any one time.

00:14:40.000 But it was being picked up by news networks and television networks around the world to rebroadcast and show.

00:14:46.000 So then Time magazine puts me on the front page of their website.

00:14:49.000 I get all these big media companies hitting me up, offering me jobs.

00:14:52.000 And I just didn't, I was like, no, I don't want to do any of that stuff.

00:14:55.000 But for about a year after that, I started just doing these streams around the country at various protests.

00:15:01.000 And then after about a year and a half, I was like, okay, this is starting to dry up.

00:15:06.000 Live streaming protests only works if there's big protests and there's news.

00:15:10.000 And the news was shifting into other areas, especially with like, you know, election stuff coming around.

00:15:15.000 So I ended up going to a couple different companies, ultimately going to Vice and being like, look what I do.

00:15:22.000 Let's like, I can't do this all day every day.

00:15:25.000 I can do it a couple times a month.

00:15:27.000 You guys can fill those gaps.

00:15:29.000 I can host content for you.

00:15:30.000 And then when there's big breaking news, live stream it.

00:15:34.000 So we get both the big live stream and the longstanding, like the evergreen documentary.

00:15:38.000 They agreed.

00:15:39.000 We did it.

00:15:39.000 It was great.

00:15:40.000 Worked there for about a year.

00:15:42.000 Could have been better.

00:15:44.000 I wasn't their biggest priority.

00:15:46.000 That's fine.

00:15:46.000 I don't need to be.

00:15:47.000 So I went to ABC News Univision company called Fusion.

00:15:52.000 They offered me a bunch of money and said, do what you're doing, but do it here.

00:15:55.000 We'll give you a budget.

00:15:56.000 You'll be in charge.

00:15:57.000 Went there, two year contract.

00:15:59.000 Within eight months, they went from nice vice to absolutely woke.

00:16:04.000 Trans kids, all that stuff.

00:16:06.000 This was 2014.

00:16:07.000 Wow.

00:16:08.000 So they hired me like, we're going to be nice vice.

00:16:11.000 We're going to do what Vice does on the ground reporting, but we're not going to be so, you know, crude and stuff.

00:16:16.000 And I was like, perfect.

00:16:17.000 A more professional angle.

00:16:19.000 I'll take it.

00:16:20.000 I was having some issues at Vice.

00:16:22.000 Like I said, I wasn't their priority.

00:16:23.000 So the things I was having problems with weren't getting resolved.

00:16:26.000 And so I just said, look, you guys do your thing.

00:16:27.000 I'm not here to step on your toes.

00:16:29.000 Granted, they were pissed that I left.

00:16:31.000 And then I went to Fusion.

00:16:33.000 It was like six to eight months later.

00:16:35.000 They fired their editor-in-chief, brought in another, another traditional journalist, told him to go woke.

00:16:40.000 He said, sure.

00:16:41.000 And then all of a sudden, the content they're producing was just nonsense.

00:16:44.000 I remember I was in an editorial meeting and they were like, the new Ghost in the Shell movie is coming out.

00:16:50.000 But the main character is being played by Scarlett Johansson and she's a white woman.

00:16:55.000 And the movie is an anime.

00:16:56.000 So this is racist.

00:16:57.000 And then I corrected them and I was like, I'm actually a big fan of Ghost in the Shell.

00:17:02.000 And having Scarlett Johansson, a white woman, play the major, the character from the show, actually makes sense because Ghost in the Shell is about transcending from your body to a different body, right?

00:17:12.000 The main character lives in a prosthetic body because she was basically dead and they put her ghost in a robot body.

00:17:19.000 So that actually fits the theme really well.

00:17:21.000 In fact, that at the end of the movie, Scarlett Johanss, like they reveal Scarlett Johansson, this white woman, her original body was a young Asian woman.

00:17:29.000 And I'm like, that's kind of the point of the sci-fi.

00:17:31.000 But they were like, nope, nope, nope, it's racist.

00:17:33.000 You're like, we're just going to run with it's racist.

00:17:35.000 And I was like, I'm going to say. 1.00

00:17:35.000 Shut up, racist. 1.00

00:17:36.000 Yeah. 1.00

00:17:36.000 I'm a fan of the show. 1.00

00:17:37.000 Like, why are you yelling?

00:17:38.000 And I just couldn't do it.

00:17:39.000 And I went to the boss and I said, I wanted to quit.

00:17:42.000 And he was like, no.

00:17:44.000 This whole other thing where they basically admitted they were lying to people, siding with the audience, they called it.

00:17:50.000 And that meant I asked the president, does that mean, I was in a one-on-one meeting and we were talking about it.

00:17:56.000 And he said, our job is to side with the audience.

00:17:59.000 And I was like, does that mean if there's a factual news story, but it would upset our audience, we won't report it?

00:18:05.000 And he said, yeah, I think that's fair.

00:18:08.000 I think the president actually was kind of more based, more middle of the road, religious, but he's a businessman.

00:18:16.000 So he was like, this is how we do the business.

00:18:18.000 So I'm like, less principled, but he knew what he was doing.

00:18:23.000 So I left.

00:18:24.000 They tried to keep me.

00:18:25.000 They tried paying me a bonus, but I was just like, when that contract is up, I'm out.

00:18:29.000 And so when I left, I just started, I'm like, I just make my own thing, I guess. 0.98

00:18:33.000 These companies, they're going to try and make you do whatever stupid agenda they got planned. 0.94

00:18:37.000 I did talk to a bunch of the other typical New York media companies. 0.99

00:18:42.000 I don't need to name all of them, but it's obvious the companies like Vice, to put it that way.

00:18:47.000 As well as like, I meet a couple meetings with NBC, a couple different meetings.

00:18:51.000 And I'm just like, they don't know what they're doing.

00:18:55.000 And it's like they want to hire people who are just going to sit there and say, yeah, whatever, I guess.

00:18:59.000 So I started doing my own thing and it slowly started getting bigger and bigger.

00:19:04.000 Within like a year, I went from burning my savings to actually starting to make a little bit of money.

00:19:09.000 And that for me was like, that's it.

00:19:11.000 I'm good.

00:19:12.000 The moment I was making a little bit of money, and this is like 2017, I think I was making, I got to the point where I went from negative to making maybe like 40 or 50K a year.

00:19:23.000 Granted, I was making hundreds of thousands with Disney, right?

00:19:26.000 With Fusion, but I'm like running my own business, so I'm investing in myself.

00:19:29.000 At that point, I was like, I'm fine.

00:19:32.000 If I sat right here and I've got enough money to pay my rent, to buy my equipment, to travel and cover the news and do these stories, I'm good.

00:19:38.000 But then like three months later, I was making the equivalent of like 100,000 a year.

00:19:42.000 And I was like, wow.

00:19:43.000 Year after that, I was making the equivalent of like a couple hundred thousand dollars a year.

00:19:46.000 And then like a year after that, we're running a massive eight-figure operation.

00:19:51.000 And it's just like, so I don't know, man.

00:19:54.000 I just work every day.

00:19:56.000 I get up and I just put another grain of sand in the heat.

00:19:59.000 It gets bigger.

00:19:59.000 I hire more people.

00:20:01.000 But you probably get it because like you're bigger than I am.

00:20:05.000 You know what I mean?

00:20:07.000 This is massive.

00:20:07.000 You got this crazy thing going on.

00:20:08.000 Yeah, we've been super blessed.

00:20:10.000 I just, I love that story.

00:20:11.000 So you start kind of doing the Greenpeace thing and then you move with your brother and you're like, let's go to Zuccotti Park.

00:20:19.000 And then you see that happen.

00:20:20.000 And you go to Vice and Fusion.

00:20:21.000 Then you start your own thing.

00:20:22.000 So 17, 18, were there any inflection points?

00:20:25.000 I mean, were you doing more stuff of like traditional live streaming or were you out kind of like covering stuff or a little bit of both?

00:20:32.000 If I remember correctly, you were on the front lines of something massive, like an 18 or 19. 0.99

00:20:36.000 A bunch of stuff.

00:20:37.000 I mean, like, you know, I got started with Occupy Wall Street, then I went to the Spanish protests.

00:20:43.000 Then what did I do?

00:20:44.000 I was in Brazil.

00:20:45.000 I was in Ukraine.

00:20:46.000 I was in Uzuela. 0.98

00:20:48.000 You just traveled like a crazy person, basically.

00:20:49.000 Yeah, yeah. 0.98

00:20:50.000 Oh, man.

00:20:50.000 I was flying twice a week.

00:20:52.000 It was crazy.

00:20:54.000 But something happens around 2016.

00:20:56.000 I leave Fusion.

00:20:57.000 I'm going on the ground and filming stuff.

00:20:59.000 In the beginning of 2017, I went to Sweden.

00:21:02.000 Donald Trump goes on TV and says, did you see what happened last night in Sweden?

00:21:05.000 And the media makes fun of him.

00:21:07.000 And so then I put up a GoFundMe.

00:21:09.000 I was like, I'll go to Sweden and I'll do a report like I normally do.

00:21:12.000 Like, you know, we'll make a documentary.

00:21:13.000 We'll do some live streams.

00:21:14.000 And that was really funny.

00:21:15.000 That was an inflection point because people who worked for Vice started messaging me saying, don't go.

00:21:20.000 And I was like, what do you mean, don't go?

00:21:22.000 And they were like, Trump's a bad guy.

00:21:24.000 Like, don't, don't defend him.

00:21:25.000 Don't tell the truth.

00:21:26.000 But I was like, wait, wait, wait, wait.

00:21:28.000 I think Trump's wrong.

00:21:29.000 Like, I'm going there to disprove him.

00:21:31.000 They're like, no, no, no, don't do it.

00:21:32.000 I had one guy tell me to take all the money I raised and give it to a charity for immigrants.

00:21:36.000 And I was like, bro, that's illegal.

00:21:38.000 Like, that's illegal.

00:21:39.000 I can't do that.

00:21:40.000 You can't do that.

00:21:41.000 But it was crazy to see people from Vice who know what I do all of a sudden be like, don't go and do the thing you do for political reasons.

00:21:48.000 What were you fine in Sweden?

00:21:50.000 I found that it was like a mixed bag.

00:21:52.000 A lot of people on the right, I think, here's what I think happens.

00:21:55.000 Was this the no-go zone thing?

00:21:57.000 Yeah, they're real.

00:21:58.000 No-go-zone is a colloquial term to represent areas where the police tell, like, basically try to avoid or whatever.

00:22:05.000 Crime skyrocketed.

00:22:06.000 Murder the year before was like, there was one murder and the next year there was like 13.

00:22:11.000 I'm probably getting the numbers wrong, but something like that.

00:22:13.000 Now, you go to someone and tell them that there were 13 murders in a city of 300,000 in the United States.

00:22:17.000 They're going to be like, that's all?

00:22:19.000 Because we got a lot of murder.

00:22:20.000 We have problems.

00:22:21.000 But for the Swedish people, it's terrifying to hear another murder?

00:22:25.000 Like, how is this happening?

00:22:27.000 So the Swedish people are going on social media and screaming, crime is up 1,000%.

00:22:32.000 American conservatives then hear that, but associate that with America.

00:22:37.000 So you think of Baltimore, you think of a 1,000% crime increase.

00:22:41.000 There wouldn't be any people.

00:22:42.000 There's no civilization's gone.

00:22:44.000 You're talking about like a, like, what would that be?

00:22:46.000 Like 800,000 murders? 0.92

00:22:48.000 Like some ridiculous number?

00:22:49.000 Because there's like 800.

00:22:50.000 Yeah, that's right.

00:22:51.000 You know, and so I go there and I find crime is way up.

00:22:56.000 It is because of the children of Somali refugees and migrants from the 90s, not because of Afghan migrants.

00:23:03.000 And the crime wasn't nearly as bad as people in America thought.

00:23:06.000 So it was like a mixed bag.

00:23:08.000 They got so mad at it.

00:23:09.000 But it wasn't a total lie.

00:23:10.000 And so there you go.

00:23:11.000 No, right.

00:23:12.000 Right.

00:23:12.000 Conservatives were rightly pointing out that crime was skyrocketing and it was partly due to failures of immigration.

00:23:19.000 And so I came and kind of just refined things, said, calm down, everybody.

00:23:23.000 It is still way worse in the U.S. and our cities.

00:23:25.000 We should probably fix those problems.

00:23:27.000 But I understand why the Swedish people are upset that crime is going up.

00:23:30.000 So you actually had like Slate, Huffington Post, and a bunch of leftist outlets.

00:23:34.000 All of a sudden, they were freaking out about me going.

00:23:36.000 Now, all of a sudden, they're like Tim Poole, a notable journalist, finds no strong evidence of rampant crime and violence until we went to Rinkabee and got threatened by a guy screaming at us and pulling masks up.

00:23:49.000 The police escorted us out.

00:23:50.000 Then all of a sudden, all the Swedish press was calling, they were calling us far right, conspiracy theorists, liars.

00:23:56.000 And I'm like, we just showed up.

00:23:59.000 We filmed what happened.

00:24:00.000 We left.

00:24:02.000 We told you what happened.

00:24:03.000 Like, you're lying.

00:24:04.000 The police never escorted you.

00:24:05.000 And I'm like, there's a video of the police escorting us to our car.

00:24:08.000 Nope, coincidence.

00:24:09.000 And I'm like, okay, I don't know.

00:24:11.000 That's weird.

00:24:13.000 I still was not pushing any strong narrative of like widespread rampant crime or anything like that.

00:24:18.000 But they, they just, they got so offended, I guess, and so scared of their narrative breaking.

00:24:24.000 But that was really big.

00:24:25.000 And that kicked off my YouTube channel where I wasn't just losing money.

00:24:30.000 I was making money, but I was still losing more money.

00:24:33.000 And then what ends up happening is a moment like that generates too much notoriety for me.

00:24:37.000 I covered Berkeley, the conflict in Berkeley, the fighting.

00:24:40.000 With Milo or with...

00:24:41.000 Not with Milo.

00:24:42.000 It was the battle for Berkeley.

00:24:43.000 So after the bass stick man emerged and people were fighting and stuff, I covered Berkeley a couple times.

00:24:49.000 But I started getting so much attention that after Portland, I had some guy chasing me, screaming at me, harassing me and laughing.

00:24:54.000 Like it was funny to him, you know?

00:24:56.000 But he was screaming, it's Tim Poole.

00:24:57.000 He's right here.

00:24:58.000 He's right here.

00:24:58.000 Come on, everybody.

00:24:59.000 Come get him.

00:25:00.000 And so I was like, okay, I can't do this.

00:25:02.000 And then there was another moment where I was in Boston where it was actually a right-wing guy who like pulled my hat off.

00:25:07.000 And then I got super angry because like some Antifa guy like started swinging at me and trying to hit me.

00:25:12.000 I'm standing there like as the dude's trying to make me flinch.

00:25:16.000 And then a few minutes later, I get a guy who's like this.

00:25:19.000 I don't know if it's, he's like a, I don't know how to describe him, but he's a more right-wing guy.

00:25:23.000 Takes my hat off and then starts, you know, dangling it in front of me or whatever.

00:25:26.000 And then I'm just like, I can't be on the ground anymore.

00:25:29.000 Too many people know who I am.

00:25:31.000 It's become a game.

00:25:32.000 It's become a joke.

00:25:33.000 So I made a video basically like, I'm going to chill out on doing this.

00:25:37.000 And I totally got triggered by the dude ripping my hat off.

00:25:39.000 Like I just had Antifa screaming in my face.

00:25:42.000 And then this dude comes behind and grabs my head. 0.97

00:25:44.000 If I wasn't surrounded by cops, I probably just went blood red and started beating the crap out of them.

00:25:48.000 But I'm surrounded by cops.

00:25:50.000 And so I'm like, I'm just, I can't go out here with people doing this to me.

00:25:53.000 I'm not doing my job anymore.

00:25:55.000 So I started shifting more into commentary and more like anchor level reporting and stuff.

00:26:01.000 And then I did that for a while, started growing my channels, launched a new channel, went from doing like a 10-minute video per day to two hours per day, then launched Timcast IRL in 2020.

00:26:13.000 The original plan for that was to be a vlog to like get in my van, drive somewhere, and then interview people and do a podcast on the street.

00:26:21.000 But COVID happened.

00:26:22.000 So I was like, all right, well, you know, I guess we're just going to do it in the studio.

00:26:26.000 And then that channel actually took over and displaced my monologue show.

00:26:31.000 So now the conversation show is way bigger.

00:26:33.000 And at some point, I guess it just consistently consistently, I'm sure last night we were the number one live show.

00:26:44.000 And then a half an hour in, a gaming channel jumps in front of us talking about the blizzard that's coming.

00:26:51.000 And so we had 47,000 concurrence.

00:26:53.000 They had 50,000.

00:26:54.000 And then after he wraps up, we jump back into first place.

00:26:56.000 So I'm not saying like we're always number one, but we're consistently.

00:26:59.000 So you're consistently there.

00:27:00.000 So you've been doing this for about fairly to say 10 years.

00:27:05.000 A little bit more, almost.

00:27:06.000 A little bit more.

00:27:07.000 How has this work, especially in the last five years, impacted what you believe?

00:27:14.000 You know, it's funny is my views float between like center left libertarian and then like center like and then like left libertarian back and forth.

00:27:23.000 But I don't think political views actually are what any of this is about.

00:27:26.000 Like you and I clearly disagree on certain core political issues, but we get along and we have cordial conversations about it.

00:27:32.000 Because I think what's really happened is, do you believe the truth or are you an occult?

00:27:37.000 That's really where we're at.

00:27:38.000 So one thing is I've definitely become more pro-2A.

00:27:42.000 I was always pro-free speech.

00:27:44.000 I was always, I always objected to the social justice wokeness of like race politics.

00:27:49.000 Yes, that poison.

00:27:50.000 Yeah, yeah.

00:27:51.000 Occupy was doing it.

00:27:53.000 And like I mentioned about being a kid and seeing it happen to my dad.

00:27:56.000 But 2A is probably the strongest shift for me.

00:27:59.000 And that's probably the only shift, to be completely honest, is that I went from, you know, there's probably some reasonable compromises we can have on gun rights to someone commented on a video, okay, I get it, Tim, but if you can have a compromise on my rights, then I want to compromise on speech.

00:28:15.000 And then I was like, well, you can't do that.

00:28:16.000 Oh, I get it.

00:28:18.000 Okay, fine.

00:28:19.000 If you want to change the gun laws, you got to amend the Constitution.

00:28:21.000 So then I basically, I'm just there.

00:28:23.000 I'm like, so long as the Constitution says it and it has not been amended, you can't take away someone's right to keep him bear arms.

00:28:28.000 Other than that, I've been fairly in the same place.

00:28:32.000 I've always been like, when I was a lot younger, I was probably far left anarchist.

00:28:37.000 And then I read a book, you know, and then became more moderate.

00:28:40.000 And I was like, oh, okay, I get it.

00:28:42.000 And then pay taxes.

00:28:44.000 Yeah, you know, but actually, I'll tell you the real things that changed my views.

00:28:49.000 One was I was hanging out with this, you know, a friend of mine, this young woman in the suburbs, and her family was pro-life, conservative, Republican.

00:28:58.000 And I am not, I may be arrogant, but I'm not like too stupid to where I won't listen to what someone has to say. 0.89

00:29:06.000 Right. 0.60

00:29:07.000 So when I'm hanging out with my friend and I'm at her house and they've got very religious stuff, you know, I grew up Catholic for a little while.

00:29:14.000 And so, you know, her mom's cooking dinner.

00:29:17.000 And then something came up relating to abortion and they said they were pro-life.

00:29:20.000 And I was like, oh, well, my family's always been pro-choice.

00:29:22.000 But I was just like, oh, tell me what that means to you.

00:29:25.000 And then I was really fascinated to discover that the arguments my family had and the arguments her family had, despite being pro-choice and pro-life, were very, very similar.

00:29:33.000 This is how it used to be.

00:29:35.000 It was my family saying abortion is wrong. 0.95

00:29:38.000 The elective abortion is wrong.

00:29:40.000 But there's a challenge of when the government has a right to intervene. 1.00

00:29:43.000 And should a woman have to get permission or permits or things like that? 0.99

00:29:46.000 We think it's got to be a medical decision.

00:29:48.000 And then I'm talking to this pro-life family and they said almost the same thing.

00:29:53.000 Abortion is wrong. 0.80

00:29:54.000 Elective abortion is wrong.

00:29:55.000 Yeah, we do understand it's a difficult challenge.

00:29:58.000 But in regard to the safeguards to protect the life of the child, we do think there should be some government intervention.

00:30:03.000 And I'm like, oh, the morality is very similar.

00:30:06.000 Nobody wants the baby to die.

00:30:08.000 Fast forward to today.

00:30:09.000 Now it's just like they want the baby to die.

00:30:11.000 Yeah, so that was a big point for me, but there's a few other moments.

00:30:14.000 One was I grew up Catholic.

00:30:17.000 When I'm a teenager, when I was like, I think nine or so, we leave Catholic school.

00:30:24.000 My family couldn't afford it.

00:30:26.000 And then I go to public school.

00:30:28.000 My family had some issues personally with the church we were at.

00:30:31.000 And so then I start growing up.

00:30:33.000 I get introduced to a lot of liberal secular ideas and punk rock stuff, skateboarding.

00:30:37.000 And so then I become very arrogantly 16 atheist.

00:30:42.000 I know what I'm talking about, Bill Maher, blah, blah, blah.

00:30:44.000 And then when I got a job, I was working at two big things happened.

00:30:48.000 I was working at O'Hare.

00:30:50.000 And these other guys who worked there were older, Hispanic guys, and they were talking about religion.

00:30:54.000 And I'm like, minding my own business.

00:30:55.000 I can't remember exactly why, but this one dude goes, hey, Poole, you religious or anything?

00:31:00.000 You Christian?

00:31:01.000 And then I was like, nope.

00:31:03.000 And he's like, you don't believe in God?

00:31:04.000 And all of that.

00:31:05.000 And I was like, nope.

00:31:06.000 And he was like, oh, okay.

00:31:08.000 Let me ask you something.

00:31:09.000 What are you breathing right now?

00:31:11.000 And I was like, air?

00:31:14.000 What are you talking about?

00:31:14.000 He's like, you're breathing air.

00:31:15.000 I was like, yeah.

00:31:15.000 And he's like, oh, how do you know that?

00:31:17.000 And I was like, I was like, there's air around us.

00:31:20.000 And you go, and you breathe it in.

00:31:21.000 He's like, yeah, yeah, but what is the air made of?

00:31:23.000 And then I was like, okay, I was like, oxygen, carbon dioxide, mostly nitrogen, actually.

00:31:27.000 Some trace gases like methane and water vapor.

00:31:31.000 Cause I know what I'm talking about.

00:31:32.000 But I read books.

00:31:33.000 And he's like, oh, so your body's using oxygen, right?

00:31:37.000 And I was like, yeah.

00:31:38.000 And he goes, yeah, how do you know that?

00:31:40.000 And then I was like, because what do you mean?

00:31:44.000 He's like, how do you know that your body is taking in the oxygen?

00:31:48.000 And I was like, I learned it in school.

00:31:49.000 And he's like, oh, you read it in a book?

00:31:51.000 And I was like, yeah.

00:31:52.000 And he goes, oh, I read in a book that Jesus was the son of God and that he came here to save us.

00:31:56.000 And I was like, yeah, but like, we know science.

00:32:00.000 And he was like, oh, you know science.

00:32:02.000 Oh, okay.

00:32:02.000 So you like got an electron microscope and then started analyzing the gases and looked down at that oxygen molecule and its atoms and the electrons and all that.

00:32:10.000 And I was like, no.

00:32:11.000 And he goes, oh, well, then how do you know that you know the science?

00:32:17.000 And I was like, because there are scientists and like the work they, the experiments.

00:32:20.000 And he's like, oh, okay.

00:32:21.000 So a guy in a white coat told you that you're breathing oxygen.

00:32:24.000 Okay, well, a guy in a white coat told me that Jesus is the son of God.

00:32:27.000 And I started laughing.

00:32:29.000 And I was like, I still don't believe in God, but you made your point.

00:32:33.000 And his point was, it's that famous proverb.

00:32:37.000 I can't remember who said, was it like Aristotle or something?

00:32:39.000 The only thing that I know is that I know nothing.

00:32:42.000 And that's what finally clicked in my mind.

00:32:44.000 I was like, he's right.

00:32:45.000 I did not test any of this stuff.

00:32:47.000 I kind of just believe it's true.

00:32:48.000 But my counter to him was, I have a cell phone in my pocket.

00:32:52.000 I have built computers.

00:32:53.000 I know how these things work.

00:32:55.000 That's why I lean more towards I know that I'm breathing oxygen.

00:32:59.000 But you made a really good point about religion and people blindly trusting people or choosing to believe things.

00:33:04.000 And so that was, that was, that was bigger for me.

00:33:06.000 That moment probably made me agnostic where I was just like, okay, you know what?

00:33:11.000 Like just blindly assuming this stuff is probably a bad idea.

00:33:14.000 And another moment happened for me where I met the skateboarder guy and he was like well known in the neighborhood, like in the community in Chicago.

00:33:22.000 We're skating.

00:33:23.000 We start talking and I know who he is and I'm a young guy.

00:33:26.000 I'm like 18 and he was like in his mid-20s.

00:33:28.000 And then he was like, the skate park's empty.

00:33:31.000 He's like, what are you doing, man?

00:33:31.000 He's about to leave.

00:33:32.000 You should come hang out with us.

00:33:33.000 We're going to like jam and stuff.

00:33:34.000 And I was like, yeah, dude, that'd be so cool.

00:33:36.000 And I go to his house and he's got a picture of Jesus on his wall.

00:33:39.000 And then I walk in and I'm like, are you like a Christian or something?

00:33:42.000 And at this point, I'm like very much like arrogant, you know, atheist kind of.

00:33:46.000 And he was just like, no.

00:33:47.000 And then I was like, why do you have a picture of Jesus on your wall?

00:33:50.000 And he goes, I just thought a story about a guy going around helping people was kind of cool.

00:33:54.000 So and then I was just like, he's right.

00:33:58.000 That is a cool story.

00:33:59.000 And that's like an oversimplification for what.

00:34:01.000 Mildly.

00:34:02.000 Right, right, right.

00:34:03.000 But to him, this like secular urban liberal guy, the only thing he thought when he saw Jesus was not organized religion, was not war, was none of the bad stuff, none of the arguments.

00:34:14.000 It was simply the general idea is this guy goes around helping people.

00:34:17.000 That's what he got from it.

00:34:18.000 And I was like, you know, if that's what he takes from it, that's actually a really good thing because it's like inspiring him to be a better person.

00:34:25.000 And that for me was another kind of inflection point where I was kind of like, maybe, maybe, maybe I'm wrong about this.

00:34:32.000 Maybe people are lying to me about what this really is.

00:34:34.000 Maybe the atheists, the staunch atheists who hate religion, who are making fun of all time, maybe they're not being honest.

00:34:41.000 And so from there, you know, I just, I read more philosophy and read more about science.

00:34:46.000 And then when I started reading about quantum physics and philosophy in when I was, I think I was like 19, I immediately was like, there's a God.

00:34:54.000 I read this book on quantum physics and I read a book on life and entropy and then immediately was like the most logical conclusion, albeit I would not say I can definitively prove it, but I would say that all signs, based on what we think we know in science, as well as modern philosophical thought, I was like, there has to be a God.

00:35:15.000 And so I was like 19.

00:35:16.000 And so it's funny because I grew up a little kid, there's a God.

00:35:18.000 Then I have this like moment where I go into secular, like liberal atheism.

00:35:23.000 And then I'm 19 and I'm reading this book.

00:35:25.000 And I'm reading physics and then reading physics ultimately connected with all of the religious studies and the philosophical studies.

00:35:34.000 And then I was just like, yeah, there has to be a God.

00:35:36.000 Like to say otherwise would just deny so much of what we think we know about science.

00:35:42.000 So like going back to what that guy was talking about with oxygen, if you follow the science and you believe in it, the end conclusion is extreme probability of God.

00:35:50.000 I combine that with my human experience and my general philosophy.

00:35:54.000 And then I'm like, there's a God.

00:35:57.000 So I'll give you my favorite interpretation of this for the secular atheists who probably aren't watching, but in case they are.

00:36:03.000 We have a couple.

00:36:04.000 Simulation theory, right?

00:36:05.000 Yeah.

00:36:06.000 Elon pushes it every so often.

00:36:06.000 You've heard it.

00:36:08.000 That's right.

00:36:09.000 And so I had this conversation with Seamus Coughlin of Freedom Tunes.

00:36:13.000 And I'm like, what I love so much about simulation theory is that it's like Christianity. 0.89

00:36:17.000 It's like liberals thinking they discovered Christianity.

00:36:21.000 Simulation theory.

00:36:22.000 The idea that we live in a universe that was created by a higher power.

00:36:26.000 With an intent and that it's designed, there's a purpose, and that we serve a function of some sort.

00:36:32.000 That's very, very smart.

00:36:33.000 And then I was just like, aren't you just describing like religion 101?

00:36:38.000 It's like these theologians and philosophers for thousands of years have contemplated that very idea.

00:36:45.000 And then one day a computer gets invented and you think to yourself, maybe.

00:36:50.000 And I'm like, you should talk to a priest or an imam or a rabbi or just anybody who has any theological philosophies that they've studied.

00:36:59.000 And then I'm just like, I take a look at that.

00:37:01.000 Elon Musk said, the fact that we can create probably within 30 years a simulation that will be indistinguishable from the real world suggests we're already in it.

00:37:11.000 And then I'm like, uh-huh.

00:37:13.000 That sounds very much like there's a creator.

00:37:16.000 And then what's really funny is then I was talking to some, I think it was Bryson Gray.

00:37:21.000 And then I was like, this idea that I think he said he thinks dinosaurs are just there.

00:37:26.000 I don't want to put words in his mouth, but there's many religious people who think the earth is 5,000 to 7,000 years old.

00:37:30.000 The fossils and dinosaurs were put there as a test and things like that.

00:37:34.000 And I'm like, let me tell you something.

00:37:37.000 If you believe in simulation theory, those bones were just put there.

00:37:41.000 Because like, you ever play Fallout, the Fallout series?

00:37:45.000 Let's name any video game, GTA.

00:37:45.000 No.

00:37:47.000 You play Grand Theft Auto.

00:37:49.000 You're in Liberty City.

00:37:50.000 It's a fake New York.

00:37:51.000 Those buildings were not built by people.

00:37:51.000 Guess what?

00:37:54.000 They were put there by a creator.

00:37:55.000 And if you think simulation theory is possible, then it is entirely possible that this is only a 5,000-year-old universe. 0.99

00:38:02.000 It's funny that religious people make that point, and then the secular atheist types reject it, saying that's the stupidest thing ever. 0.95

00:38:10.000 Evidence points to all of these things. 0.99

00:38:12.000 Now that simulates, there's this Abigail woman who made this inverse pyramid of conspiracies. 0.99

00:38:18.000 Perfect point. 1.00

00:38:19.000 This is a leftist, journalist, misinformation researcher.

00:38:24.000 And on the second tier of it, it's like MKUltra Epstein, things that are plausible, and it said, we live in a simulation.

00:38:32.000 And I'm like, when you get to the point where leftist atheist types think we live in a simulation, like...

00:38:38.000 They're acknowledging the premise of every religious person's argument.

00:38:42.000 Exactly. 1.00

00:38:43.000 When someone says those dinosaur bones and fossils were always there, and then these atheists are like, that's the stupidest thing I ever heard. 0.99

00:38:51.000 But we could be living in a simulation. 0.77

00:38:53.000 Okay, is it possible the person who made the simulation just dragged and dropped and clicked and put it there?

00:38:57.000 That's correct.

00:38:58.000 Yes, absolutely.

00:38:59.000 So that, you know, I don't consider myself Christian or anything, but I certainly have become more philosophical understanding of.

00:39:06.000 Do you believe there is a God?

00:39:08.000 I think there's definitively a God.

00:39:10.000 And I think that you can draw the logical conclusion to, I think if you draw based on human perception, what we think we know, what we do know, you map out this course that eventually gets you to a point where you come across a keyhole.

00:39:23.000 And when you look through it, the only conclusion you can make is that there is a God.

00:39:27.000 But I'm not going to say definitively, I know, and I have hard proof where I'm like, I think it's more like Sudoku.

00:39:34.000 All of these things all around us.

00:39:36.000 Of course, there's faith.

00:39:36.000 Yes.

00:39:37.000 Right.

00:39:37.000 Absolutely.

00:39:38.000 Draw a conclusion that God is real.

00:39:38.000 Exactly.

00:39:40.000 It's weird though.

00:39:41.000 I just want to say people think I'm an atheist.

00:39:42.000 I don't know why.

00:39:43.000 I get like comments being like, well, Tiff Tim wasn't an atheist.

00:39:46.000 I haven't been an atheist since I was like 18 or 19 years old.

00:39:49.000 Not even an agnostic.

00:39:50.000 I'm like outright, there's a God.

00:39:53.000 So you're a center-left libertarian, in your own words, right?

00:39:57.000 Well, I just took the political compass test.

00:39:59.000 What was your result?

00:39:59.000 I tweeted it.

00:40:00.000 It was not even center-left libertarian.

00:40:02.000 Like, I don't know how that happened.

00:40:05.000 Probably because of like, I don't know how they do it.

00:40:09.000 I don't know how they do it.

00:40:10.000 I don't like these tests for the record.

00:40:12.000 Because a lot of these questions don't necessarily make sense.

00:40:14.000 Like, you know, should marijuana be legal or whatever?

00:40:16.000 Sure.

00:40:17.000 Okay.

00:40:18.000 Oh, yeah, yeah.

00:40:19.000 Like not authoritarian, though.

00:40:20.000 So that's.

00:40:20.000 No, that's my thing.

00:40:21.000 And but the problem is these leftists who claim to be libertarian are all authoritarian.

00:40:26.000 Yeah, so that was going to be my question is that, so you host a really interesting show.

00:40:32.000 Just looking at kind of your guest list, it tends to be a center-right guest roster.

00:40:36.000 Is that fair?

00:40:37.000 Oh, yeah, yeah, absolutely.

00:40:39.000 Libertarian to conservative.

00:40:41.000 And then we periodically have some like, we've had like, I think they're described as authoritarian right probably.

00:40:46.000 Sure.

00:40:47.000 Like new right type, more.

00:40:49.000 No, I wouldn't say new right because with new right, you can get more, you can get libertarian.

00:40:53.000 You know, like, oh, at least the way Michael Malice describes it.

00:40:53.000 Sure.

00:40:56.000 It's like, you know.

00:40:57.000 Michael Malice is great.

00:40:57.000 He's terrific.

00:40:58.000 But I mean, so.

00:40:59.000 Leftists don't want to come on the show.

00:41:01.000 Why?

00:41:02.000 Because they're an occult.

00:41:04.000 Like Jimmy Dore, he's a leftist.

00:41:09.000 I don't know who that is, but yeah.

00:41:10.000 He's got a big YouTube channel.

00:41:11.000 Okay.

00:41:12.000 He's outright leftist, universal healthcare and all that stuff.

00:41:16.000 He hates the Democrats.

00:41:17.000 He hates the Republicans.

00:41:18.000 You would probably get along with him.

00:41:20.000 He appears on Tucker Carlson.

00:41:21.000 It's like, and then the left attacks him for it.

00:41:21.000 Okay.

00:41:24.000 Tulsi Gabbard is probably in the middle right now. 1.00

00:41:28.000 She moved over a little bit.

00:41:29.000 But there are a lot of people who are liberal or left libertarian who are like, they'll hang out and have a conversation.

00:41:38.000 But most of the left, as we describe it, it's not about your political views.

00:41:43.000 So like, the easiest way to describe it, I guess, is: do you believe the media or not?

00:41:52.000 I mean, you know the answer to that for me.

00:41:52.000 Right?

00:41:52.000 Of course.

00:41:53.000 Well, they're lying about everything.

00:41:55.000 Of course.

00:41:55.000 And if you take even a couple seconds, I'll tell you this right now.

00:41:57.000 I'm watching the Kerry Lake trial.

00:41:59.000 I'm glued to it.

00:42:00.000 It is insane.

00:42:02.000 Witness testimony is not definitive proof, is circumstantial evidence.

00:42:06.000 And right now we have circumstantial evidence that there was no chain of custody on 298,000 ballots.

00:42:12.000 The defense, Katie Hobbs, and Maricopa County, presented no evidence of chain of custody.

00:42:17.000 They need only show up and say, Your Honor, here's the chain of custody slit for those ballots, case dismissed.

00:42:22.000 They don't have it.

00:42:23.000 And there's no question.

00:42:24.000 But the media reports, nothing.

00:42:28.000 Then when you get one guy saying there's duplicate ballots that were misprinted and counted, but the originals are missing.

00:42:35.000 What does the media report?

00:42:36.000 Witness claims duplicate ballots are counted.

00:42:39.000 He literally said that would have been impossible.

00:42:40.000 He didn't say that.

00:42:41.000 The media is lying about everything.

00:42:43.000 So if you're the average person and you blindly believe the media, you're probably quadruple vaxed, right?

00:42:48.000 Yes, of course.

00:42:49.000 And then you could be like me.

00:42:51.000 I just showed you my political compass.

00:42:52.000 I'm like, I was supporting Bernie Sanders in 2016.

00:42:55.000 But I think that, so here's my more direct question.

00:43:01.000 Who do you think is a bigger threat to humanity or civilization?

00:43:07.000 The right or the left currently?

00:43:10.000 The left.

00:43:11.000 You say this as someone who's a center-left libertarian.

00:43:11.000 The left.

00:43:15.000 But the left I'm referring to is the tribal American movement.

00:43:18.000 Well, of course, but they control a lot.

00:43:20.000 I mean, that's not a fringe, right?

00:43:21.000 No, no, no.

00:43:22.000 It's the establishment.

00:43:23.000 Yeah.

00:43:24.000 Like even Mitch McConnell may as well be a Democrat.

00:43:26.000 Sure.

00:43:26.000 Especially after today with the Omnibus.

00:43:28.000 I couldn't agree more.

00:43:31.000 These people are.

00:43:33.000 Oh, yeah, yeah.

00:43:34.000 Kevin McCarthy, you know, I'll give him some credit for trying to oppose it, but I would not put weight behind these people.

00:43:42.000 Or I like Harmeda.

00:43:44.000 I like, look, I can disagree on policy, but if we're for the people, or at least we'll have a conversation, I think it says a lot about somebody who will come on your show and talk.

00:43:54.000 I think dialogue is critical to this is this is why conservatives know I'm a liberal because we talk policy and it's just like, oh, this dude's clearly liberal.

00:44:05.000 But I'm not the quote-unquote left because the left is a cult of authoritarians.

00:44:09.000 The left would never have me on their show.

00:44:11.000 They barely, they won't come on my show.

00:44:14.000 I doubt they would come on your show.

00:44:15.000 A small handful may.

00:44:16.000 But let's say Chuck Schumer wanted to come on Tim Cast.

00:44:19.000 Absolutely.

00:44:19.000 You'd have him on?

00:44:20.000 Never going to happen.

00:44:21.000 Yo, I've invited Jenk Uger and Hassan cordially, honestly.

00:44:26.000 I have invited, here's what happens when I invite them.

00:44:28.000 There's one guy I'm not going to name.

00:44:30.000 I say, you know, come on my show.

00:44:32.000 We'll cover all the costs.

00:44:34.000 We're familiar with each other and he says, for sure.

00:44:36.000 And then privately messaged me and says, I'll never go on your show.

00:44:40.000 Then publicly says, Tim Poole is causing problems and, you know, I can't do this and just lies about it and grifts off of it.

00:44:46.000 And I'm like, here's what I think.

00:44:48.000 I think the new right, the right, whatever you want to call it, which is a combination of post-liberal, moderate, independent, libertarian, conservative, is the saving force of this country and the world.

00:45:01.000 And I think the quote-unquote left is a cancerous, chaotic, and destructive force that is consuming and destroying everything around it.

00:45:10.000 That's how I view the culture war.

00:45:12.000 You'll have someone like.

00:45:14.000 That's a big statement.

00:45:16.000 I mean, I've been saying it for a long time.

00:45:19.000 The left, as we describe it, what do they want? 0.90

00:45:22.000 To simulate sodomy in front of children in Texas?

00:45:25.000 Well, what purpose does that serve in terms of protecting life?

00:45:29.000 Let me slow down and break down for you my religious views so you can understand where I'm coming from.

00:45:34.000 What brought me to the path where I said, and it's a gross oversimplification to put it this way, but when I was reading about physics and entropy, the heat death of the universe, things humans think they know, right?

00:45:46.000 Like we've done these tests, we believe this to be the case, but science changes.

00:45:49.000 There's something called negative entropy, and that is life.

00:45:53.000 That while energy is dissipating and evening out, in a sense, certain things are coming together and forming unique complex structures.

00:46:01.000 From the basic molecule, from the basic fundamental quantum element, quantum particle, you have entropy and negative entropy.

00:46:12.000 Negative entropy is the gradual organization of energy into complex systems that eventually grow and grow and grow and grow to the point of humanity.

00:46:22.000 You have electrons, protons, neutrons forming atoms, atoms forming elements, elements forming compounds, compounds forming proteins, et cetera, until life is created.

00:46:32.000 I'm simplifying it for the sake of time.

00:46:34.000 But eventually, you can see that simple organization of energy, like two atoms coming together, like fire, for instance, when oxygen and carbon dioxide or whatever slam into each other.

00:46:47.000 Or I think, I could be getting it wrong.

00:46:50.000 You get a squirrel in a tree.

00:46:53.000 You get single cellular life creating more of itself, organizing energy into life.

00:46:58.000 Then multicellular organisms are now more complicated.

00:47:01.000 Then you get to the point of, say, a squirrel.

00:47:03.000 A squirrel not only is itself complex energy organized in a unique way, but the fact that it buries nuts for food, and those nuts eventually grow into trees, creating this ecosystem, is another complex system.

00:47:17.000 Humans do something tremendously profound and create intangible, complex systems that don't exist anywhere but within the mind.

00:47:25.000 Yeah, because we have reason.

00:47:26.000 So, right.

00:47:26.000 That's why.

00:47:28.000 When we name something.

00:47:29.000 Yes, the common noun miracle.

00:47:31.000 Yeah.

00:47:32.000 Boom.

00:47:34.000 I got to that point reading this book, and then I said, but that's not the end.

00:47:38.000 Humans are not the absolute.

00:47:41.000 Something exists beyond us.

00:47:43.000 That's exactly right.

00:47:44.000 And that's why I said the logical conclusion is a higher power, it must exist.

00:47:49.000 So when I look at the left-hand side would call it an unmoved mover.

00:47:51.000 Yeah.

00:47:52.000 Boom.

00:47:54.000 When I start looking at the left, and they are forces of entropy, that's an inversion of what it is that human life does.

00:48:03.000 It protects, it grows, it reasons, it learns.

00:48:07.000 We reason, we learn.

00:48:10.000 We seek out.

00:48:10.000 We try to understand.

00:48:12.000 We are building things when we make families, when we build cities, when we develop technology, when we send rocket ships to the moon, we are acting forces of order in a chaotic universe.

00:48:23.000 Exactly correct.

00:48:24.000 But the left, they're agents of chaos.

00:48:26.000 They dismantle and destroy.

00:48:29.000 It's something that has order.

00:48:30.000 That's exactly right.

00:48:31.000 So that's why I think the colloquial right in the culture war is life and the left is death.

00:48:40.000 Simple way to put it.

00:48:42.000 And that doesn't change your politics.

00:48:43.000 I guess it changes your politics a little bit, but the political compass test is like, what do you believe on issue by issue?

00:48:48.000 Yeah, the political compass test asked me, do I think there should be protectionism in certain trades?

00:48:53.000 Okay, yeah, sure.

00:48:53.000 But that's seemingly, that's not a game-changing, you know, whether or not you want to see the, you know, the woke mind virus destroyed.

00:49:04.000 That's why when we refer to the left in politics, we're talking about a cult, which what do you mean by that?

00:49:09.000 That's a big, that's a big word.

00:49:11.000 Oh, it's a cult.

00:49:12.000 It's like these people at this point, Jussie Smollett lie.

00:49:17.000 Ukraine gate, the impeachment of Trump lie.

00:49:19.000 Russia gate lie.

00:49:21.000 The whole Twitter thing.

00:49:22.000 The whole, which one?

00:49:23.000 Which one?

00:49:24.000 Well, I mean, Jack Dorsey lying under oath.

00:49:26.000 I know, and I'm just censoring me.

00:49:28.000 Exactly.

00:49:29.000 That was crazy, too.

00:49:30.000 They're like, they're directly targeting you.

00:49:31.000 They lie.

00:49:32.000 You can amplify on my account.

00:49:34.000 You have every day a lie coming out, and they don't care.

00:49:39.000 They keep voting for the same thing.

00:49:41.000 No sane person of sound mind sits there and says, I believe you after this many lies, unless you're in a cult.

00:49:50.000 And your belief structure is not based upon what is true, but based upon what the social organism around you demands of you.

00:49:57.000 So I view that as it's a leviathan.

00:49:59.000 It's a fire.

00:50:00.000 It's burning.

00:50:01.000 And as it burns, it's destroying things around it.

00:50:04.000 It is disorganizing and dismantling the structures that humanity has put together.

00:50:09.000 That's a problem for us.

00:50:09.000 Yes.

00:50:11.000 You know what I want to see?

00:50:13.000 I like Star Trek.

00:50:14.000 I love Star Trek.

00:50:15.000 I'm a big Star Trek fan.

00:50:16.000 See? 0.73

00:50:17.000 Destroy the Borg. 0.99

00:50:18.000 Well, and they're the Borg. 0.77

00:50:19.000 They're going to assimilate. 0.98

00:50:19.000 Of course they're. 0.98

00:50:20.000 Resistance is futile.

00:50:21.000 But to be fair, the Borg actually earns more points than they do.

00:50:24.000 Why?

00:50:25.000 The Borg is organizing things into a bigger and greater system.

00:50:28.000 They're just destroying it.

00:50:30.000 Like at the very least, when the... 0.97

00:50:32.000 They're parasitic.

00:50:33.000 Yeah, it's a virus. 0.62

00:50:36.000 It is infecting and destroying and it's gangrenous.

00:50:40.000 That's not to say that leftist policy ideas in the traditional academic sense are all wrong.

00:50:47.000 It is to say that the modern left as we know it uses those ideas as weapons, misappropriates many of them and uses many of them logically as they were intended to badly and just destroys.

00:51:01.000 I want a future where we're on the enterprise and we're traveling the stars and we're learning more and we're experiencing, coming closer to God, things like that.

00:51:10.000 The left just wants us all to be, I don't know, what, cavemen eating moss off of it.

00:51:15.000 As long as they're in control.

00:51:16.000 Even if it means they destroy everything to get it.

00:51:19.000 So how do, so to close this out, I wish we could keep talking.

00:51:21.000 This is amazing.

00:51:22.000 How do we destroy that Leviathan then?

00:51:25.000 This, doing more of this, you know, I think one of the reasons that my show works is I'm not a staunch conservative.

00:51:34.000 I'm willing to talk to everybody.

00:51:35.000 And there's a lot of regular people who are not staunch conservatives who just want to hear with some basis and reality what's happening.

00:51:43.000 And those conversations are valuable.

00:51:45.000 They wake people up.

00:51:47.000 They're bringing about change.

00:51:48.000 And I got to be honest, I think we're winning.

00:51:50.000 I think the night is always darkest before the dawn.

00:51:52.000 But I think one step at a time, so long as we do not stop, we cannot be stopped.

00:51:58.000 Isn't it interesting that the, I mean, I think you would agree, conservatives, you spend a lot of time around conservatives.

00:52:05.000 Do you find them to be more, like, and this is a generalization, joyful or happy?

00:52:10.000 Done, absolutely.

00:52:12.000 Like, I have a lot of leftist friends, and I would call them like default liberal, as I think Breitbart would call them.

00:52:19.000 They have the pride flags in their windows. 0.91

00:52:21.000 They vote Democrat, but they're not super politically active and they're miserable.

00:52:25.000 And I'm not saying it to be a, some of them are fine. 0.52

00:52:27.000 They skate.

00:52:28.000 But I'm like, I look at my leftist friends and they're entering middle age with no families, with no significant others, with little money, and they have nothing to show but partying.

00:52:40.000 And I look at my conservative friends and they're like in their 20s and they're getting married.

00:52:44.000 And I'm like, what do you think is going to happen?

00:52:46.000 And I've said this to my friends who are like urban liberal types.

00:52:49.000 What are you going to do when you're 60 or 70 years old?

00:52:51.000 Are you going to go live in a home and have some stranger take care of you?

00:52:54.000 Like my conservative friends, because Chicago has the more conservative suburbs, they have kids.

00:53:01.000 Like they're 30 years old with two or three kids already.

00:53:04.000 Like I don't even have kids because I, you know, I grew up much in a similar way to them.

00:53:08.000 Granted, working on it, you know, I have family potentially coming soon because I don't want to live the way they do.

00:53:16.000 I don't want to be 60 years old, just sitting there by myself being like, I had a lot of YouTube followers.

00:53:22.000 You know what I mean?

00:53:23.000 That's a very empty existence.

00:53:24.000 Yeah.

00:53:25.000 And that's where they're headed.

00:53:26.000 So I have a lot of leftist friends who will claim they're happy and successful, but I'm like, bro, you're on antidepressants, man.

00:53:35.000 My conservative friends don't have antidepressants.

00:53:37.000 And it's a weird thing to say, but many of my more conservative friends, when they suffer from depression, they're just like, I go to church.

00:53:44.000 Like they find some kind of inner faith, meditation, prayer, or God.

00:53:49.000 It's transcendent.

00:53:49.000 Yeah.

00:53:50.000 Something to like, it's almost like when they have depression, they just ask someone to help them and give them something.

00:53:59.000 And I'm not saying like literally every single conservative doesn't take no, but these are general approximations of what happens.

00:54:06.000 I would say on average, the conservative people I know who are feeling depressed or down go and talk to a priest or a rabbi and then they work through it.

00:54:15.000 And the liberal friends I have are on their third or fourth prescription.

00:54:18.000 It's not helping them.

00:54:20.000 I got to tell you, man, I know a handful of people.

00:54:22.000 Like I'm just talking about like three or four who became religious and I've never seen them happier.

00:54:29.000 It's like they found something that's given them relief.

00:54:33.000 I think they're like, I think there is an arrogance and defiance in trying to be God, like many of these, these millennials are. 0.99

00:54:42.000 They view themselves as God as the main character of their story.

00:54:46.000 It's not you, man.

00:54:47.000 You know, there's a whole universe around you.

00:54:49.000 And there's a lot of beauty out there.

00:54:53.000 How could people, I mean, people are already following you, but for our listeners, you do podcasts too.

00:54:57.000 You post the audio version, right?

00:54:58.000 Yeah, on Timcast IRL on all the podcast platforms.

00:55:02.000 And Tim Pool Daily Show is my morning monologue.

00:55:05.000 You deserve a lot of credit, Tim, because I think it's just great to have a platform where you can have a robust conversation.

00:55:11.000 It gets a little weird at times, but it stays in the pursuit of truth.

00:55:16.000 That is what dialogue is, right?

00:55:18.000 Exactly.

00:55:19.000 And I'm fine with being wrong.

00:55:21.000 I think I'm right about a lot of things often, but this is why I don't care if a conservative or a liberal comes on the show, because if I get it wrong, I'll be like, oh.

00:55:28.000 You make your best argument, right?

00:55:30.000 But you certainly are able to do something that I am not able to do very well: is that there are a lot of people in the middle that are not overly religious.

00:55:39.000 They're not conservative, but they find something in your voice that is very genuine and authentic.

00:55:47.000 I guess I just tell people, you know, I'm not here to tell you how to live your life.

00:55:51.000 I'm just going to tell you what I'm seeing.

00:55:52.000 And I try to say, like, here's the news.

00:55:55.000 And like, here's my justification for why this is true.

00:55:58.000 Like, here's the source telling you.

00:55:59.000 You know what I mean?

00:56:00.000 We got to beat these bad guys.

00:56:02.000 I'll tell you.

00:56:02.000 Absolutely, man.

00:56:03.000 Thank you, Tim.

00:56:04.000 Thanks for having me.

00:56:04.000 Thank you.

00:56:05.000 Absolutely.

00:56:09.000 Thanks so much for listening, everybody.

00:56:10.000 Email me your thoughts as always.

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The Charlie Kirk Show - December 24, 2022

From Bernie Backer to 'Right Wing Extremist' with Tim Pool

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