The Charlie Kirk Show - From the Archive: Charlie at the University of Kentucky

00:00:03.000 My name is Charlie Kirk.

00:00:05.000 I run the largest pro-American student organization in the country fighting for the future of our republic.

00:00:11.000 My call is to fight evil and to proclaim truth.

00:00:14.000 If the most important thing for you is just feeling good, you're going to end up miserable.

00:00:19.000 But if the most important thing is doing good, you will end up purposeful.

00:00:24.000 College is a scam, everybody.

00:00:26.000 You've got to stop sending your kids to college.

00:00:28.000 You should get married as young as possible and have as many kids as possible.

00:00:31.000 Go start a turning point USA college chapter.

00:00:33.000 Go start a turning point USA high school chapter.

00:00:35.000 Go find out how your church can get involved.

00:00:37.000 Sign up and become an activist.

00:00:39.000 I gave my life to the Lord in fifth grade.

00:00:41.000 Most important decision I ever made in my life.

00:00:43.000 And I encourage you to do the same.

00:00:45.000 Here I am.

00:00:46.000 Lord, use me.

00:00:48.000 Buckle up, everybody.

00:00:49.000 Here we go.

00:00:56.000 Noble Gold Investments is the official gold sponsor of The Charlie Kirk Show, a company that specializes in gold IRAs and physical delivery of precious metals.

00:01:06.000 Learn how you could protect your wealth with Noble Gold Investments at NobleGoldInvestments.com.

00:01:12.000 That is NobleGoldInvestments.com.

00:01:17.000 Boy, this is the tallest stage I've ever spoken on in the history of stages.

00:01:23.000 It's like a hazard if I fall off this.

00:01:25.000 Hello, everybody.

00:01:26.000 Great to be here.

00:01:27.000 Thank you for taking time tonight.

00:01:29.000 We're going to have some fun, I hope.

00:01:30.000 And I want to thank the university for making this easy.

00:01:33.000 I don't say that about every college I visit.

00:01:37.000 And so this is great, and I appreciate it.

00:01:39.000 And I want to thank our amazing Turning Point USA leaders that helped put this all together.

00:01:44.000 They deserve a lot of credit.

00:01:48.000 And they are doing what I believe is one of the most difficult things for a young person to do in America, which is to vocally state your beliefs against what is popular and what is considered to be the prevailing kind of wisdom of the age, or lack of wisdom, quite honestly.

00:02:06.000 And that's a big deal.

00:02:09.000 As young conservatives, you're basically saying, I don't care if I'm going to be smeared or slandered.

00:02:14.000 If somebody's gonna call me names, I'm gonna stand for what is true.

00:02:18.000 And there's a price to that.

00:02:19.000 And even here in the mostly conservative South, I'm told that there's a fair amount of liberals actually in Lexington.

00:02:26.000 Maybe not, maybe that's not true.

00:02:27.000 We'll find out, I guess, later tonight.

00:02:30.000 But certainly on college campuses, I bet that's true.

00:02:34.000 But it's a big deal when I see young people that are saying, I know the price, I know the cost.

00:02:40.000 And there's a great question that I always ask liberals that come to these events.

00:02:47.000 And it's just very simple, which is, is it difficult to hold the beliefs that you have?

00:02:54.000 And the answer is no.

00:02:55.000 I mean, if you are a BLM LGBTQ activist, that's not difficult.

00:03:00.000 You're accepted by professors, you're accepted by the administration.

00:03:03.000 You know what is difficult?

00:03:04.000 It's difficult at times to be a turning point USA leader on campus.

00:03:08.000 You're graded differently, you're looked at differently, you're even called names.

00:03:12.000 And therefore, the question then should be why do you think I keep on believing in conservative ideas even though it's very difficult?

00:03:24.000 It doesn't make my life easier.

00:03:26.000 Maybe it's because there might be something.

00:03:29.000 To our belief system that makes me want to actually fight for it.

00:03:32.000 That I believe it so much because of what is good, true, and beautiful, and because of the facts and the evidence and the reason and the history behind it.

00:03:39.000 And so I'm super inspired by that.

00:03:42.000 I was traveling here with a friend of mine, Tom Lewis, who's here somewhere, and I asked him the question what I ask most people before I speak, which is, hey, what do you want me to talk about? 0.72

00:03:50.000 And he said, Charlie, I think it would be helpful if you laid out the differences between the wokies and conservatives.

00:03:58.000 The wokies is like a catch all term, right? 0.97

00:04:00.000 Basically, people who are. 0.99

00:04:02.000 Let's say, as far away from enlightenment to believe that men can become pregnant, you know, that's kind of a catch all term.

00:04:09.000 But I think there's really important because people say, Charlie, we are so divided in America.

00:04:13.000 I think there's some truth to that.

00:04:15.000 I think that some divisions are actually healthy to actually see where each side stands and be able to draw those lines and be able to say, you know, that actually isn't my viewpoint.

00:04:25.000 But there are five things that I've come with tonight that I think are really important to show the difference between what I, as a conservative, or we, as people that believe in the natural law, or people that believe in.

00:04:37.000 What would be considered classical conservatism versus kind of this new phenomenon of postmodernism, poststructuralism, you call it leftism or liberalism.

00:04:46.000 And the term woke, by the way, is a catch all term.

00:04:50.000 You can like it, you cannot like it.

00:04:52.000 It actually comes from a belief that you have now been able to wake up to all the systemic injustice and oppression around you.

00:05:00.000 And now you are enlightened enough to be able to see that there's racism around everywhere and that at that moment you're woke.

00:05:07.000 I honestly think it's somewhat helpful to now have a word other than liberal or left to describe the most insane things that are happening.

00:05:14.000 I'll give you one example.

00:05:15.000 And most people don't know this.

00:05:17.000 The Toronto Raptors are a national basketball team, obviously.

00:05:21.000 And they do this video for Women's Month or Women's Week or whatever it is, right?

00:05:27.000 And they're just kind of off the cuff social media video.

00:05:29.000 You've seen those kind of promo videos.

00:05:31.000 And they play them kind of during halftime or during timeouts.

00:05:34.000 And they say, okay, why do you guys appreciate the women in your life?

00:05:38.000 Or why should we appreciate women? 0.98

00:05:41.000 The players for the Raptors say, you know, oh, they're queens and they're amazing and they're the only ones that could procreate. 1.00

00:05:48.000 Oh, can't say that. 0.99

00:05:50.000 The Toronto Raptors published that video and quickly were forced to take down that video and issue a multi-paragraph apology, groveling, that saying that this is not true, we're gonna be better, this is so, we're really learning that the idea that only women can procreate.

00:06:09.000 Could you imagine the locker room after that?

00:06:12.000 The Toronto Raptors? 0.99

00:06:13.000 I mean, no better way to radicalize National Basketball Association players to being right-wingers than being like, no, no, actually you're too dumb to think that only women can become pregnant. 0.98

00:06:24.000 And it's one thing to believe an insane thing, that's nothing new. 0.69

00:06:29.000 What's different, though, is to force us to believe it and not be able to challenge it.

00:06:34.000 And I'm not gonna put up with that, and you shouldn't either.

00:06:37.000 When.

00:06:40.000 This is how you know these ideas are so poisonous and awful, is that they could have let the video play, and then why don't we hear from all the experts that could tell us that what the basketball player said was wrong, where he literally just said, They're the only ones that can procreate.

00:06:58.000 God bless them.

00:06:58.000 They're the mothers of the world.

00:07:00.000 That's not true in the world of the woke because they believe men can become pregnant and birthing people and all that sort of thing, right?

00:07:07.000 And that was so offensive, they had to then use force to take it down.

00:07:10.000 And then, of course, you must then apologize.

00:07:12.000 Even though you're not sorry, that's what's so interesting, I think if you actually are sorry in life, you should apologize.

00:07:21.000 If you're a parent, you don't need to be told that online safety is important.

00:07:24.000 That's why TikTok has over 50 preset safety and privacy settings.

00:07:29.000 And beyond that, parents can set up family pairing to help shape their teens' experience on the app.

00:07:33.000 With family pairing, parents can get visibility into their teens' followers and who they follow, help restrict content that's not right for them, and set screen time limits.

00:07:43.000 Parents can also set restricted times so they're not on TikTok when they shouldn't be, because feeling good about the time your teen spends online shouldn't come with guesswork.

00:07:52.000 In addition to the already built in safety and privacy protections, family pairing gives parents more tools to shape their teens' online experience based on what's right for their family.

00:08:02.000 Remember, when safety comes first, discovery and creativity can follow.

00:08:06.000 Learn more by going to ticktock.comslash guardiansguide.

00:08:13.000 Here's a good rule for life never apologize for if you did not do something wrong and someone is demanding an apology from you.

00:08:20.000 That's a hostage situation.

00:08:21.000 That is not.

00:08:23.000 Necessary of an apology.

00:08:24.000 That's, I'm so, I need you to justify my weird worldview.

00:08:29.000 So please, you know, apologize.

00:08:31.000 What did I do wrong?

00:08:32.000 Well, you hurt my feelings. 1.00

00:08:33.000 Well, okay, but I said that only women can become pregnant. 0.99

00:08:36.000 I have so many examples of this, by the way.

00:08:38.000 For example, Hershey's Chocolate in just the last couple weeks, which is, again, you know, not exactly, I would consider to be a company at the top of the list of, you know, political activism, but Hershey's comes out with a dude that, Is appropriating womanhood and is like dancing around and frolicking and says, you know, what being a woman to me means this.

00:09:00.000 It's a man.

00:09:01.000 It's like a man with long hair telling us, and he's like, go buy Hershey's chocolate.

00:09:06.000 And I have a deeper theory about this that I think is really important, which is the NBA example aside, but certainly with Hershey's and definitely with the NFL and definitely with some other companies.

00:09:16.000 I think these companies use the woke stuff as a way to distract us from the bad stuff these companies are actually doing.

00:09:24.000 For example, maybe it's not a good thing to give eight year olds. chocolate and corn syrup.

00:09:29.000 But Hershey's doesn't want you talking about that because they're cool because they have men frolicking around as women.

00:09:34.000 I think the woke thing serves as almost a smokescreen and a veneer and a camouflage from us actually criticizing some of these companies and organizations from the legitimate damage they're doing to, I don't know, contribute to childhood obesity.

00:09:47.000 I mean, again, Hershey's, I love chocolate, you probably love chocolate, but of all the things I would think that Hershey would be very worried about, I didn't think it would be their gender politics.

00:09:56.000 I just don't think they would weigh in on that.

00:09:58.000 But they do that because they think they can be immune to the pressure from the activist class.

00:10:03.000 If they put out those sort of weird infomercials.

00:10:05.000 The NFL is the same thing, by the way.

00:10:07.000 These nauseating end zones end racism, like all this stuff.

00:10:10.000 The NFL just doesn't want you to talk about concussions.

00:10:12.000 And I love football, by the way.

00:10:14.000 I love football.

00:10:15.000 But the NFL has covered up concussions for the last 20 years, and they act as if it's not a risk factor into playing football.

00:10:22.000 I think football is beautiful.

00:10:24.000 I think we should continue it.

00:10:25.000 I think we've got to figure out a way to try to limit concussions and actually have players not be penalized for actually sitting weeks out, like Tua was totally mistreated with the Miami Dolphins this last season.

00:10:35.000 But the NFL doesn't want you talking about that.

00:10:36.000 Because the NFL instead would say, well, we're enlightened because we have the gay flag or whatever in our end zone and we're going to end racism.

00:10:44.000 Okay, ending racism is a very virtuous thing, obviously, to try to do.

00:10:48.000 Probably going to take more than a decal on the back of a helmet.

00:10:51.000 Just probably.

00:10:51.000 How about we create good people and have kids that can read in our public schools in Baltimore?

00:10:55.000 Like, maybe that's probably more important than ending racism.

00:10:59.000 Just probably, right?

00:11:00.000 Okay, so I have five differences, and you guys can disagree on this, but I actually think these, even if you disagree with everything I stand for and everything that.

00:11:08.000 We believe at Turning Point USA.

00:11:10.000 I think these five differences are actually facts of the distinctions between the divide, the majority divide.

00:11:16.000 Now, there are nuances here.

00:11:18.000 You might be a libertarian, you might be a socialist, you might be, you know, so these are general kind of categories of five things that I think are differences between someone who thinks more on the conservative side or someone who would self identify on the American left.

00:11:33.000 And the first of which is really important do you believe that there is or an ability to believe?

00:11:40.000 In absolute truth?

00:11:42.000 Do you believe that there is truth that might transcend your own opinions?

00:11:46.000 And this is a very important thing.

00:11:48.000 I'm a Christian.

00:11:49.000 I wear it on my sleeve. 1.00

00:11:50.000 I think the further we've gotten away from our Christian roots, the more unhappy, less joyful, more miserable, and violent our country has become. 1.00

00:11:58.000 It's not a popular thing to say in America, but it's true, so you could take it for whatever it's worth. 1.00

00:12:03.000 But in secular society, in the Bible, it says, very famous verse, and man did whatever is right in his own eyes, right?

00:12:09.000 Basically saying, you want moral chaos, you have.

00:12:12.000 Subjectivity.

00:12:13.000 I'm going to do whatever I want whenever I want to do it because I'm the most important thing.

00:12:17.000 That's a very modern way to view your existence, by the way.

00:12:21.000 Very modern.

00:12:22.000 Instead, the more traditional way, which I think is more healthy and actually anchored in wisdom, is that, okay, I do exist, but I'm made in the image of a creator that is much more powerful and is actually divine, and I am not, and I should first care about my obligations and my duty and my service more so than my own personal feelings or my own personal opinions.

00:12:48.000 That's a lot more important than thinking you're the most important thing in the world.

00:12:51.000 In fact, I think it actually creates unhappier people.

00:12:53.000 I'll get to that in a second.

00:12:55.000 Is there truth?

00:12:56.000 And I will hear all the time people will say, Charlie, there is no such thing as absolute truth.

00:13:00.000 The only thing is your own personal perspective andor power dynamics.

00:13:06.000 Not only is this a problem when you play it out in kind of just utilitarian ways, because eventually somebody's gonna be in charge, okay?

00:13:14.000 Eventually somebody's truth is gonna reign supreme.

00:13:16.000 And history shows us that if you believe that there's no absolute truth, you're gonna get a Stalin who's willing to use Brutal power to eventually get to the top of that hierarchy, and nobody wants to live in that country.

00:13:27.000 Okay?

00:13:27.000 I shouldn't say nobody.

00:13:28.000 You shouldn't want to live in that country.

00:13:30.000 Okay?

00:13:31.000 The idea of having absolute truth is basic in speech.

00:13:37.000 If you do not have agreed upon terms or vocabulary where we can have discussion, then what exactly are we ever supposed to remedy our differences?

00:13:46.000 This is why I am so, at times I get accused as being obtuse, which I consider to be a compliment, so firm.

00:13:55.000 About language precision when it comes to sex and gender.

00:13:59.000 Because if you all of a sudden are allowing words to mean whatever those words want them to mean, then you no longer have the ability to be able to remedy your differences with somebody you disagree with.

00:14:10.000 You're talking on different planets, and boy, is that not the case in America today.

00:14:16.000 Imagine being a young woman just finding out that you're pregnant, not knowing where to go or what to do, not even knowing exactly what is going on in your body, while the whole world tells her it's just a clump of cells.

00:14:28.000 You and I, we both know the truth.

00:14:30.000 We know it is a baby.

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00:15:32.000 I'll give you an example.

00:15:33.000 Here's one word that means something completely different to one side than it does to the other side.

00:15:38.000 And this is sad.

00:15:39.000 The word insurrection.

00:15:41.000 Okay?

00:15:42.000 For half the country, they see what happened on January 6th, and they say, that is a violent overthrow of our government.

00:15:49.000 When reviewing the 45,000 hours of footage, I don't think it was a noble thing, obviously, to go smash windows and to try to harm police officers, but largely it was a bunch of buffoons that were kind of like, Amateurville, USA, that had really some planning to no planning whatsoever.

00:16:08.000 And if that's an insurrection, it's the first insurrection in American history where the guards are showing the insurrectionists around the place they're trying to take over.

00:16:16.000 Here, here's the windows and this.

00:16:18.000 They're docents at a museum.

00:16:20.000 That's not an insurrection.

00:16:21.000 That's a tour guide.

00:16:23.000 And yet they keep on repeating this in the last couple of days.

00:16:26.000 Insurrections.

00:16:27.000 That's really bad because then it dilutes the term.

00:16:30.000 I'll give you another example racism.

00:16:33.000 Racism is real.

00:16:35.000 It is.

00:16:35.000 It's evil.

00:16:37.000 Because that means you are putting a label on somebody that they did not earn.

00:16:42.000 Something they cannot change.

00:16:44.000 Something that no matter how hard they try, they can't break outside of that label.

00:16:47.000 That is stereotyping somebody's actions and judging them and putting them in a box before they've ever, ever done something to you.

00:16:53.000 That is evil, it's wrong, it's terrible.

00:16:55.000 But however, if you say racism in America, some people on the left will say, but black people can't be racist.

00:17:03.000 This is a predominant, prevailing view. 0.91

00:17:05.000 Or they say, well, white people are racist no matter what.

00:17:08.000 When basically the classical definition of racism.

00:17:10.000 Is one that we should not just accept, it should be predominant, which is any person of any race could be racist at any time.

00:17:17.000 It's wrong and it's evil.

00:17:18.000 And guess what?

00:17:19.000 We're actually not that racist of a country.

00:17:21.000 We're actually the least racist country ever to exist in the history of the world.

00:17:24.000 We're actually rather decent to each other.

00:17:26.000 Considering we have every nation represented on the planet, every language spoken, we've let more people into our country than any other country ever to exist in the history of the world, and we largely get along, that's a big deal.

00:17:37.000 In fact, we have a supply and demand problem with racism.

00:17:40.000 That if you are a famous, soon to be failed actor in Chicago, you have to fake your own hate crime.

00:17:47.000 There's so little racism that you gotta go all of a sudden put like a noose around your neck and act as if, oh my goodness, they're hunting me down in the streets and screaming, this is MAGA country.

00:17:56.000 That's how you know you don't live in a racist country.

00:17:58.000 You have to fake your own hate crimes.

00:18:00.000 And by the way, you do it really sloppily and you think people are gonna believe you.

00:18:03.000 By the way, I'm from Chicago.

00:18:04.000 I knew this whole thing was BS as soon as I heard negative 30 degrees.

00:18:08.000 You go out to Subway, that's really weird, at like 2 a.m.

00:18:10.000 Like that whole thing is really strange.

00:18:12.000 And then he says that the two people come up with MAGA hats and proclaim this is MAGA country.

00:18:17.000 And then they throw the noose around him.

00:18:18.000 And then when the police come back into his apartment, he's still wearing the noose.

00:18:22.000 And the police officer, God bless him, he said one of the funniest lines in the history of police body cam footage.

00:18:27.000 First thing, first thing the police officer says is, Why are you still wearing the noose?

00:18:31.000 It's like it's been 20 minutes.

00:18:33.000 Like, I get it.

00:18:34.000 It's like, don't you think you'd take it off?

00:18:37.000 Like, that's, you're wearing it like it's a costume because it was a costume, okay?

00:18:42.000 So, when words start to mean something that they don't actually mean, then you get into power dynamics, and that's really bad.

00:18:48.000 So, but deeper than that, my challenge to you, even if you don't think there is absolute truth, I challenge you to at least entertain the idea that there is absolute truth.

00:19:00.000 Because otherwise, you actually then self contradict your own viewpoint.

00:19:05.000 Which one of my favorite dialogues I've ever had with a student is they say, Charlie, there is no such thing as absolute truth.

00:19:10.000 I say, Well, is that absolutely true?

00:19:14.000 And immediately it collapses, right?

00:19:16.000 Because then you're using the paradigm that you're trying to criticize against the person that you're going.

00:19:23.000 Okay, second thing is this, which is, okay, kind of ties into this.

00:19:27.000 What matters more in trying to make difficult political decisions or difficult decisions?

00:19:32.000 Reason or emotions?

00:19:34.000 Okay?

00:19:35.000 Reason should always matter more than your emotions.

00:19:39.000 Your emotions are important.

00:19:41.000 Your emotions, though, can deceive you because they fluctuate.

00:19:45.000 They also are incredibly subjective.

00:19:47.000 We need to go through a political process where reason is much more important than emotion.

00:19:52.000 And emotion should not mean nothing.

00:19:55.000 When you see 5,000 people go across your southern border every single day, you should be angry about that. 0.99

00:20:02.000 When you see children that are allowed to have drag queens performed in front of them, you should be angry about that. 1.00

00:20:09.000 However, the way that we go about actually doing something should dictate and use reason. 1.00

00:20:15.000 Because reason actually tempers that emotion.

00:20:18.000 And then you're able to build consensus based on that reason.

00:20:21.000 You can have agreed upon terms and agreed upon language.

00:20:24.000 I'm afraid that our politics has become way too emotive and not very logical.

00:20:30.000 And by the way, this is actually sometimes both sides are equal opportunity offenders of this.

00:20:35.000 So there's not one side versus the other.

00:20:36.000 I get upset on both sides about this.

00:20:38.000 But largely in American life today, and especially I think in the viewpoint of what we call the wokeys, it is hyper emotional.

00:20:49.000 And very little factual.

00:20:50.000 So, for example, you know, when I will go on a college campus and they'll say, you know, Charlie, you cannot be a black person and walk down the street without the police coming and gunning you down.

00:20:59.000 It's super frequent, it's super common.

00:21:01.000 But then you use your reason, you say, well, how common is it?

00:21:03.000 How many unarmed black men are killed by the police every single year?

00:21:07.000 And estimates, they'll say 1,000, 2,000, 5,000, 10,000, 50,000.

00:21:11.000 It's 18.

00:21:11.000 And that's according to the Washington Post, not exactly a right wing outlet, okay?

00:21:15.000 18 is too much.

00:21:16.000 You go look into that, it's actually less than that.

00:21:18.000 It's more like 10 or 11, because the way they determine it is actually really.

00:21:21.000 Kind of sketchy.

00:21:22.000 It's like some people were trying to run over the cop with a car.

00:21:24.000 They were reaching for something that could have been a weapon.

00:21:26.000 Okay, let's say that it's 15.

00:21:28.000 Out of millions of police interactions every single year and a very, very difficult job that keeps us all safe, are we really supposed to disassemble modern society because of 15 examples that are very subject to error when emotions are heightened and you're in the heat of the moment?

00:21:46.000 See, that's using your reason against emotion to actually come to a conclusion.

00:21:51.000 And the summer of 2020, Floyd-a-Palooza, we decided.

00:21:56.000 To allow our emotion to literally burn down our civilization.

00:22:00.000 We should never let that happen again.

00:22:02.000 Because the reason should have been actually, we're not a racist country.

00:22:05.000 There's no excuse for what happened in Minneapolis.

00:22:08.000 That's bad.

00:22:09.000 It's also extremely rare.

00:22:11.000 And to connect that all of a sudden to 1619 Project, we're systemically racist and all that, it's just not true.

00:22:17.000 But if you don't believe in absolute truth, then that argument is not very convincing, is it?

00:22:21.000 That goes back to the first point.

00:22:23.000 Third one this victims and victors.

00:22:25.000 Look, part of the Marxist view is constantly looking at things through either race, gender, class, right?

00:22:33.000 So Marx originally was really big on class.

00:22:36.000 Actually, he said some things that were sort of true about that. 0.89

00:22:38.000 We can talk about that later. 0.79

00:22:40.000 Then gender came. 1.00

00:22:41.000 They're totally done with that one, by the way, because they can't tell you what a woman is. 0.96

00:22:44.000 But the big one that they're really driving home. 0.99

00:22:48.000 Is race, right?

00:22:49.000 Which is constantly trying to tell people that there is something that you have a disadvantage against you, that you have a barrier, that you have a limitation based on something you can't change.

00:22:59.000 I think this is one of the most immoral and evil things that you can tell a young black person in America or a young Hispanic person or anyone in ethnic minority.

00:23:08.000 If you're telling them out of the gate that there are these boogeyman barriers that might prevent them from flourishing in success and prosperity, by definition, that student will be less likely to take a risk.

00:23:21.000 To engage in self discipline and to try to get to a higher place of flourishing.

00:23:24.000 You're basically telling them the game is so rigged against you, the white man, the structure against you, that you shouldn't do that.

00:23:32.000 Instead, it should be you know what? 0.99

00:23:34.000 You might get gypped here and there by a jerk, but we actually largely live in a decent country and you're going to find some decent people. 0.98

00:23:39.000 And if you don't like that decent person, quit and find a decent person. 0.99

00:23:43.000 Instead, be gritty and be tough.

00:23:46.000 And if you do that, you can succeed in this country.

00:23:49.000 That's a much better message than telling everybody that they're a victim simply because of the color of their skin.

00:23:55.000 And that is a massive divide as we see manifest in our country today.

00:24:01.000 Charlie had an absolutely relentless passion for learning.

00:24:05.000 I saw it up close and personal in every waking moment, every spare moment that he could.

00:24:11.000 He had a book open, he had a podcast open, he had a Hillsdale online course open.

00:24:17.000 He was always diving into new ideas, absorbing information, studying up, and sharpening his skills.

00:24:22.000 That's why I love Dr. Arne at Hillsdale College.

00:24:25.000 They shared a deep understanding that learning is.

00:24:28.000 Is the key to shaping your character, creating courage, and changing lives.

00:24:33.000 Charlie never stopped learning, and neither should you.

00:24:36.000 Through Hillsdale's online courses, he spent time studying the classics, the American founding, and the enduring truths of the Bible.

00:24:43.000 Now it is your turn.

00:24:45.000 With Hillsdale's free online courses, you can follow in his footsteps, learning from real professors and challenging yourself with rigorous coursework that's free and accessible to anybody who's willing to learn.

00:24:57.000 A great place to start is their brand new course on logic and rhetoric.

00:25:00.000 Learn from Hillsdale professors how to speak masterfully, make a powerful point, and see how clear thinking leads to better decision making and more effective speech.

00:25:09.000 Don't wait.

00:25:10.000 Go to charlieforhillsdale.com to enroll today.

00:25:13.000 It's completely free.

00:25:14.000 This is a real good one, by the way Logic and Rhetoric.

00:25:17.000 Pick up the mic, carry it forward, learn like Charlie.

00:25:21.000 Start right now at charlieforhillsdale.com.

00:25:27.000 Okay, I could talk about that one forever, but I'm gonna go quick.

00:25:29.000 Number four, which is probably one of my favorites, and it should be, honestly, if I was king for a day, that would be really something, I gotta tell you.

00:25:38.000 If I was king for a day, I would make it a requirement that every class in college or high school at least debates, thinks, and reads on the topic of whether or not man is basically good or basically evil.

00:25:55.000 This is one of the most fundamental questions.

00:25:57.000 When you talk about politics and life, it informs almost every other question when it comes to politics.

00:26:04.000 Now, spoiler alert if you're a Christian, you cannot believe man is basically good, okay? 0.73

00:26:09.000 It's impossible. 0.91

00:26:10.000 Just a little spoiler alert it's incompatible.

00:26:13.000 Most of the secular world, though, believes that man is born good and corrupted by the influences outside of him.

00:26:22.000 So, born perfect and corrupted by racism, corrupted by capitalism, corrupted by all the corporatism, all this stuff.

00:26:30.000 And therefore, we can't blame the human being who is flawed.

00:26:34.000 We got to change all society, and that will make the world better.

00:26:39.000 I'm a parent of now a six month old.

00:26:41.000 I think other parents would agree.

00:26:43.000 If you want a master class in demonstrating human nature, have children, and you'll learn human nature very quickly.

00:26:50.000 Like, I never taught you that, but that's very bad.

00:26:53.000 Stop doing that.

00:26:55.000 Like, where did you learn that?

00:26:56.000 It's because their nature, I believe, is naturally bad.

00:26:59.000 Does that mean they're all bad?

00:27:01.000 No.

00:27:02.000 There is a tension.

00:27:03.000 You do have a conscience.

00:27:04.000 In fact, in Genesis 3, not to talk too much about the Bible because some of you might find it unpersuasive, even though it built the civilization you're in, but that's a separate issue.

00:27:13.000 Cain, one of the most amazing dialogues, is Cain talking to God, where God asked him, What happened to your brother?

00:27:21.000 And Cain did not immediately say, Well, I murdered him, of course.

00:27:26.000 Instead, his answer, and I'm just paraphrasing from memory, was actually somewhat defensive.

00:27:31.000 Basically, it was like, What am I, my brother's keeper?

00:27:34.000 And there's a lot of different ways to read that verse, but basically, that's playing defense.

00:27:41.000 Because I believe God did put an element of conscience in every single human being.

00:27:45.000 However, it wasn't enough.

00:27:46.000 That's why you had the Noahic covenant and eventually the laws of Israel.

00:27:49.000 And then obviously, we believe as Christians, you know, Jesus Christ, God incarnate, to lead us towards the absolute truth.

00:27:56.000 But the point being is that I do believe there is some agency for a human being to be able to judge good and bad.

00:28:02.000 But guess what?

00:28:03.000 What we know through human history.

00:28:05.000 And just raising children is that usually your nature wins out against the dialogue in your head.

00:28:13.000 So the question should be what do we do about it?

00:28:16.000 Try to raise good people.

00:28:19.000 Pretty simple.

00:28:20.000 Teach young people what is right or wrong and punish them when they do wrong.

00:28:24.000 Well, it's actually not that simple because civilizations have tried to figure it out for quite some time.

00:28:24.000 Pretty simple.

00:28:28.000 In fact, America was figuring it out really well when we used to have a certain model of education.

00:28:33.000 We've gotten away from that.

00:28:34.000 If people are naturally good, then you can excuse all the injustice in the world.

00:28:42.000 If people are naturally not good, then the problem is very simple make them better, understand their nature.

00:28:48.000 You see, When a college student believes they're naturally good and they know they're not, it actually can be very tormenting to them.

00:28:55.000 Instead, we should say, your nature is rather crummy, and if you work hard at it enough, you can actually become a pretty good person.

00:29:03.000 Instead, if you tell a 19-year-old your nature is perfect, they become an activist because they think everything wrong about the world is outside of them.

00:29:16.000 Instead, you should say the biggest problem and the biggest challenge you have every single day is the person you see in the mirror.

00:29:22.000 It's you versus you.

00:29:24.000 It's not you versus climate change.

00:29:25.000 It's not you versus systemic racism.

00:29:28.000 It's not you versus transphobia. 0.98

00:29:30.000 How about you make your bed, shave, and stop smelling like a mess before you tell me that America is systemically racist?

00:29:38.000 We used to tell our children in America, we used to tell our children, you got a lot of problems and America is great.

00:29:48.000 Now we tell our children, America has a lot of problems and you are great.

00:29:53.000 And the result is the most miserable, suicidal, depressed, confused generation in American history.

00:30:01.000 Because we've taught them that their past is crummy, no ability to improve their current life unless they tear everything down around them.

00:30:09.000 That creates activists and arsonists, not good people.

00:30:12.000 Okay, finally, one that I could go on at some length here, which I think is really important, which is what is man's relationship with nature?

00:30:20.000 And this is one that is going to just be the number one issue that I don't know tonight.

00:30:25.000 The questions that we'll get.

00:30:26.000 But I get this question probably more than anything else.

00:30:28.000 Charlie, what do you think about climate change and all this?

00:30:30.000 And I'm happy to discuss all of it.

00:30:31.000 But you cannot even begin to get into that debate until you could tell me on moral terms what you believe man versus nature and how they should coexist.

00:30:43.000 I believe in a hierarchy of man and nature.

00:30:45.000 I believe nature is there for us as human beings to be able to use to put human beings first.

00:30:51.000 I do not believe we're here to worship nature.

00:30:53.000 I do not believe we are here to get some sort of Let's say, religious kick out of nature.

00:31:00.000 I think nature is made by God, who is outside of nature, for man, who is above nature, to be able to flourish.

00:31:07.000 Why does that matter?

00:31:09.000 Well, if you believe that nature and man are equals, or even worse, if you believe that nature is above man, well, then all of a sudden, you then have an argument to shut down industrial production, to limit human population.

00:31:24.000 You see, earth worship is nothing new.

00:31:27.000 It is coming back, though, in great detail.

00:31:31.000 The question in front of us should be, and this is what I always ask of the climate change people, is would you believe the same policy prescriptions that you have to, you know, some of them, there's some nuances here, right?

00:31:43.000 But get rid of fossil fuels, you know, widespread electric vehicles, all this stuff.

00:31:48.000 Would you still believe that if you believe that human beings actually have a hierarchy over nature?

00:31:54.000 And you might say, well, that's insignificant because I want to save the environment to be able to save human beings.

00:31:59.000 Okay, so that's actually a good argument if it was true.

00:32:05.000 If you can get me to buy into quote unquote scientific consensus after everything I've been told by the scientific elites over the last three years has been proven to be a synthetic fabricated lie. 0.85

00:32:17.000 Whether it be the virus came from a bat in the Himalayan mountains and kicking me off Twitter for mentioning it, shutting down kids and putting on masks, of which epidemiologically was one of the worst, stupidest things we could ever do to young teenagers.

00:32:31.000 And then to force on an mRNA gene altering shot onto a younger generation and tell them, if you don't get this, you don't go to college, you can't go to the military, you can't get a job, and then not even an apology from Fauci or Walensky or the people in charge?

00:32:45.000 Yeah, excuse me while I say, yeah, you probably haven't earned my trust the last couple years.

00:32:48.000 In fact, you've earned my distrust.

00:32:50.000 Like when you are really getting towards something, I think there actually might be an ulterior motive behind you.

00:32:55.000 So man's relationship with nature is very important, and I believe you have to be able to express that on moral terms.

00:33:06.000 For more on many of these stories and news you can trust, go to charliekirk.com.

The Charlie Kirk Show - April 12, 2026

From the Archive: Charlie at the University of Kentucky

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