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My name is Charlie Kirk. I run the largest pro American student organization in the country, fighting for the future of our republic. My call is to fight evil and to proclaim truth. If the most important thing for you is just feeling good, you're gonna end up miserable. But if the most important thing is doing good, you will end up purposeful. College is a scam, everybody. You gotta stop sending your kids to college. You should get married as young as possible and have as many kids as possible. Go start a Turning Point USA College chapter. Go start a Turning Point USA High School chapter. Go find out how your church can get involved. Sign up and become an activist. I gave my life to the Lord in fifth grade. Most important decision I ever made in my life. And I encourage you to do the same. Here I am, Lord.
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Use me.
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Buckle up, everybody. Here we go. 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. Learn how you could protect your wealth with Noble gold investments@noblegold investments.com, that is. Noblegold investments.com.
B
all right, folks, Ladies and gentlemen, welcome aboard. We're here for, once again, this week's edition of Thought Crime Thursday. We've got some excellent topics for tonight. In fact, in this week, we've also got some live experiments that we are going to be testing out here in the room. Andrew, of course, is not on today, though, so let me not be checking if he has his suit on. Today is actually Andrew's birthday. He is turning 50. He's a very old man, and we are very, very excited for him. And as such, yes, he has taken the day off. But let's see who we do have around with us around the room. I believe we have Russ Basie. Who's Russ?
C
Howdy.
B
Howdy, man. We've got. We've got Blake holding it down.
D
Hoorah.
B
And back after. I mean, the audience didn't really ask for him back, but he's here anyway. It's Mikey.
E
Great topics. Not so great guests.
D
No, no.
B
The guests are a little.
D
A little.
B
A little lackluster. What can I say? Scraping the bottom of the bargain bin for. For. For this week. But, you know. But we will persevere. We will indeed persevere. What are we starting with, guys? What are we. What are we going with? To start out, do we want to
D
start with the energy drinks? Because I think that flows into our experiment. I don't.
B
I don't get the energy drinks thing. I don't even know what this is. So. So you guys have to lead me through this.
D
All right, Russ, I think you're our biggest energy drink expert, so introduce the Jesus. The connoisseur.
C
Cheers. Cheers. Cheers.
D
Tell us about Jesus juice.
C
Yes. So Jesus juice, this has become a
B
fad, but not that Jesus juice. Right, Russ?
C
Yeah. Yes. No, I actually, I've never tried any of these.
E
The.
C
These Christian energy drinks, but it's become a fad that content creator. Christian content creators are starting to create these Christian energy drinks and to counteract the, you know, the existence of monster and Red Bull and. Yeah, well, it's. It's actually kind of funny because this kind of goes full circle for me because when I first started, like, drinking energy drinks, I have a very, like, granola mom. So first off, she was like, oh, well, it's bad for you. It's, you know, it's gonna kill you, all of this. And then she started sending me Facebook stuff about the fact that, like, monster is, like, the mark of the beast and all of this.
B
All of this, like, mom out.
C
Demonic stuff. And actually, we do have. I found. We found.
D
Hold on. Well, hold on. It is the mark of the beast, apparently. Oh, that's a chart.
B
I have seen this.
D
No, if you can't see it, this is, I guess, Hebrew numerals.
B
Yeah.
D
Their way of showing six is very similar to each column on the monster label. That's kind of disturbing. Have they come. Have they ever commented on this?
B
That's really what it looks like. That's like.
C
See, that's. See, Jack, that's where I'm at, too. Like, I agree. I'm like, there with you. I'm like. I think that's also.
B
So I'll throw something else out. That's. That's also in. In Greek. Isn't that just the symbol for. For G? For gamma.
D
I have to look this up.
C
Yeah, I know. I have to.
D
Also, gamma would be the other direction, I think.
C
Yeah, it's the other direction. It looks like a.
B
All right, well, pretty. Okay, it looks like.
C
It looks like an F without the.
D
Okay, so monsters.
B
I mean, like. But it's pretty close to a number of other things. That's all I'm saying.
D
Okay, so. So monsters, demonic. But now I'm looking here, and we've got. There's a lot. I thought this would be about one Christian energy drink.
C
No, there's a lot.
D
But. Okay, we have. We have Yahweh energy, and they have the berry blessed flavor.
C
Exactly.
D
We have agape energy with peach and preach and peach and we have four given with the number four. Are there others? Are there more than these?
C
There's, they're coming. Oh, there's Praise Energy. That's the one that's most recent because the guy is like, he's become very popular on Tik Tok and, and so he was like, hey, I'm coming out with a, a Christian energy.
D
Praise Energy's mascot, Zion the Lion. Zion the lion is a cartoon lion sporting an I heart Jesus T shirt and high top sneakers. And then there's Air lion whose mascot feels like it should be a cartoon lion but confused. Oh wait, there's Airline is just another brand. Oh, it's a totally different brand that doesn't have a lion as. How can there be this many Christian energy drink brands? How many, how many energy drinks do you need to sell to make a profit on these?
B
I mean, because, because what they're doing is, it's, these are all just, these are all just white labels for each various influencer. So it's, it's probably not very much different in terms of what's actually in the can. It's what's different like, like many of the, I'm just guessing. I'm, you know, it's kind of like what's probably being done is that they're being made at one place and then each person is getting their own label on it and then, you know, what goes out is like who gets, who markets what, who gets the, you know, who gets the markup on it.
C
Yeah, it's kind of like what Jake Paul did with, I assume started this energy drink and that kind of stuff. It's like, it's like if you're, if you're any influencer worth their salt, you're going to come out with an energy drink at some point or Tequila company. Yeah, exactly.
E
So it's like every single celebrity.
C
Yeah.
D
So the natural follow up to this. I guess this is silly. I find it funny. But the big question is, is this good or bad or is it even a moral question? Is it good for Christians, Christian influencers to come out with a Christian branded energy drink? Is this grifting? Is this sinful to do? Is it totally fine? Are you representing the faith in the public square? Kind of the way in n out has Bible verses on their fries. What's the right way to go about this, Mikey? How do you feel about it?
E
I don't think there's any problem with this. It's like, it's, it reminds me of the right wing economy that we've built. You Know, everybody was canceling. Conservatives didn't, didn't let conservatives shop at certain places, canceled their accounts, canceled their banks. And then we came up with our own banking system. We came up with our own right wing economy. And I don't think there's a problem with Christians doing the same thing. But also like I, I'm, I'm, I, I talked about this earlier. Like you see Arabic writing and you immediately think of Islam. Like, I want so much Christian, like this Christian economy to be built in the US that anytime you see English you just immediately think of Christianity. And I don't care if it's like, I don't care if it's energy drinks, I don't care if it's a coffee company, I don't care if it's Jeremy's Razors, like, whatever it is, as long as it is true. And you know, a good, like a good virtuous company that's not supporting Planned Parenthood and nasty things like, yeah, build your own, build your own company.
D
Yeah. And I think about, I had a friend who went once to, I think it was Ghana he visited and one of the things he said that stood out to him there is actually how incredibly aggressively Christian a lot of random businesses might be. And so he mentioned, I think he saw like he died for your sins barbershop, basically, or like washed in the blood of the lamb, some other business, bakery, something like that, something like that. And I guess that did actually sound pretty moving to me in the sense obviously they might be good or bad Christians, but it is, we often say, if you are a Christian, people should know you are a Christian. One of the best things about Charlie is every single aspect of his life was pervaded with faith. And I guess it would sound a little picky to then if someone releases, oh, I'm gonna release an energy drink to go with my brand. And yeah, it's going to have Christian labeling on it because I'm a Christian. I guess it would be weird to get too upset about it. But I can definitely imagine versions of this that would be upsetting to me. But it'd probably be upsetting for the same reason a non religious brand might be upsetting.
B
Sure.
C
I think the, I think the, the counter, the counterweight in my head with all of this is that the problem today is that a lot of people do not take pride in their work or they turn something like this specifically when it comes to influencers, this becomes just a gimmick. So then they're put, they don't care what what's in the product, they don't care how it's made. And so then you're, now you're just, hey, it's just a gimmick. And at the same time when you look at like, you know, the Bible talks about that we, that we're supposed to be hard workers and, and everything, I think, I think if you're going to make, if you're going to put Christian labeling on any type of product you need to make it needs to stand up to other products and, and, and show that you've actually put in, you know, the work and the, the effort, in my opinion. You know. What do you think?
E
Yeah, I agree with that.
B
Yeah, no, I, I disagree completely. I think this is incredibly simple. I'm just gonna say like I, I think this is really immoral. Unless people are like giving these away for free or something. Like, if you're making money off of like selling stuff in, in the name of Christ, like what is wrong with you? You know, if, unless you're not donating like the vast mass majority of revenue that comes in from this to, you know, to some kind of charitable organization or you know, to an actual Christian organization, then like, and, but if it's just influencers doing this, like, I mean that's, that's like, like, yeah, that's, that's like kind of stuff you go to hell for. Like, you don't, you don't use Christ's image and likeness as a way to put money in your pocket. You just shouldn't do that. And this is obviously we see Jesus in the Bible being very, very explicit about throwing the money changers out of the temple, that you are not supposed to mix these two things. So yeah, I, I, I actually just, I hadn't known about this. I'd never heard about this. Huge problem, huge problem.
D
So what about, so where, so you, I can imagine, for example, Christian bookstores exist that sell Christian books or we're having a Passion of the Christ sequel come out that is, I believe, going to be a for profit film. Certainly the actors in the film are all for profit.
C
Mel Gibson is going to be making money off of that.
D
Yeah. So is there what things are acceptable and what things aren't? I suppose in your view, Jack?
B
Yeah, well, again, I mean you're making an apples to oranges comparison. You're comparing like going to see a movie or which, which again tells the story of Christ or going to read a book which tells the story of Christ or has an analysis on Christ that's not going into some influencer's pocket. Right. You're talking about something that's mass media versus just like a cheap product.
D
But I'm not sure I see, I see the difference there. Like, or could you, could you do it with the product? So for example, they're not actually include.
B
I get what you're trying to say.
D
A witness to the gospel on it somewhere, like right next to the nutrition facts or something. It could be like some brief repentance.
B
In and out. No, like in and out. I think does it the right way. I think even though as, as, as everyone knows. I see, I, I, I'm on the other side of it.
C
I think they do it, I do
B
it the right way.
C
I just cringe.
B
Like it's super cringe.
E
Is it cringe or are they going to hell? Because you said that this, this is the stuff people go to hell for.
B
So you're saying this is definitely the stuff you don't. If you, okay, so the influencers selling stuff, you will go to hell. Yes.
E
Okay, so the influencers selling this are going to hell. Yes. Okay, where is that biblical? Exactly.
B
Yeah. Again, I literally just gave you the example of throwing out the money changers,
E
Christ flipping the tables. Yeah, how's, how is that, how does
D
that, they were in the temple.
E
Draw a comparison.
D
Are these in the temple?
E
Exactly.
B
Again, like you're being, you're, you're being very like, like word centric. Again, as Christ said, we're not supposed to take the, it's, it's the spirit of the law versus the letter of the law. So what he's saying is you shouldn't mix worship with commerce. That's the point.
D
Well, okay, but let's go back to the movie then. I think then you could argue then they shouldn't sell tickets for the movie. They should only put on broadcasts of the movie and people can go for free.
B
If I were, if I were going to put out something religious like, like, you know, in this vein, you know, I would, I would definitely do something with the profits that wasn't going directly my pocket. 100%. I wouldn't want that on my ledger.
C
Okay, absolutely. But a lot of these people are not like, that's kind of the thing is like a lot of this stuff is, it's all for profit. Mel Gibson's movie talking about Jesus is for profit. It's showing the life of Jesus. He's probably going to donate some of it, but a lot of that is going to be to pay him. It's to pay the actors. It's to pay, you know, it's to pay all of these people.
B
I'm not saying don't make movies about Jesus. I want to be clear about that. I'm not saying don't make movies. I do also think that movies are a fundamentally different thing, which for some reason you guys don't seem to understand.
D
I have no picture. I see this fundamentally.
B
You're all much younger and, and more immature than our old friend Andrew.
E
Of course.
C
But.
E
Yes, of course. But because you're young, you're stupid, right?
B
Well, generally, yes, but not always.
D
Young people are pretty stupid. But no, I, I think I, I'm not sure I see the clear cut distinction here.
C
I will agree with Jack.
E
Can't make Christian movies.
B
Drinks.
E
No, I don't consume Christian merchandise. Can you be a worship artist labeled
B
energy drink in a movie? Like really?
D
No, I don't, I don't see the difference. I don't see the difference in terms of. This is a commercial product you will pay money for, other people will pay money for and it will enrich somebody if this product does well. And so if you were saying these drinks might be okay if someone was giving them away. Well, they're not giving away the movie.
B
And by the way, I'm consistent on this. I've also said in the past that I'm, I'm not a fan of those, those apps where like you pay to pray. They have like, they have like fees that, that you can pay along to, to pray. Like, like, oh, we've got pray extra with this fee and, and pay. And it's like, I'm not a fan. Really?
D
Yeah. That caused a lot of problems for the church 500 years ago too.
B
Yeah.
F
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D
No, no. I think this is a genuinely very interesting topic because again, like I'm thinking as an example, let's say you were running a barbershop. So let's just use a barber shop as an example.
B
Well, I can explain the difference very clearly if you want me to explain the difference. So a story that a film that shares the story of Christ to a mass audience is inherently going out into the world and sharing the gospel.
C
A.
B
An energy drink that is just an energy drink with a picture of Jesus on it is just extracting money from a community of Christian followers and putting in your pocket.
D
Okay, but what if they put Bible verses on the drink? What if they pay to have the drink or they market to have the drink in neutral environments where it could be encountered by a non believer?
B
I think it, if you didn't call it Yahweh juice or whatever they called it then and it just had Bible verses, that'd be fine.
C
I'm on. I'm a little two sided on both of this because I think I am a fan of subtlety in the sense just what Jack said in n out is a perfect example. They're not throwing it in your face but if you happen to look at the bottom of your cup, you're gonna see a Bible verse. But at the same time, another perfect example is Chick Fil A. Like they are very clear on what their organizations morals are. And yes, they've taken a bigger stance than a lot of companies by saying, hey, we're not going to be open on Sundays. But it's not, it's not in your face. Right? Culture has pretty much accepted that. Hey, I can't go to Chick Fil A.
D
But when we say, I think when we say it's not in your face, what are we actually saying? I think a lot of people just say they don't want it in their face because they think it's kind of annoying if something is.
B
Wait, wait, wait, can I give you a.
D
Is it actually bad or immoral to extremely loudly say this is Christian, here is Christianity, here's all this Christian stuff in your face that might be annoying, but is it wrong? I'm not sure if it is.
B
No, no. And by the way, hold On. I've. I'm also not. I'm also, you know, I've also said many times that I'm a huge fan of, like, street preachers. When, you know, we had that street preacher in. In Chaz, you know, years ago, I was right there able to interview him when he got assaulted. You know, that's something. I think those guys are great. I think they're absolutely great. But again, they're not. They're not charging people. And again, the sin doesn't come just from the activity. It comes from what's in the person's heart. So, you know, it could be something where they don't realize that how sinful it is. You know, something where they may need to understand later. The one I want to give you example, a better example of, though, is have you. Are you guys familiar with Sweet Frog? Have you heard about Sweet Frog? Do you know what that is?
D
Sounds like a yogurt company.
B
It is yogurt company, indeed.
D
Oh, wow. And it's.
E
How did you know that?
B
Yeah, it's in the. It's in the D.C. area, which is. Which is maybe why you've heard of it. And so it's Sweet Frog yogurt. And, you know, I. I just know it because it's a. It's a yogurt brand in. In the area. I mean, they. They have about 300, 350 different. You know, apparently they have one in Scottsdale as well. And, you know, they have a bunch of locations, whatever. But here's what I didn't even know until Tanya mentioned it to me the other day, that apparently frog in Sweet Frog is a reference to Christ, even if their mascot is a frog. Yeah, I know.
D
Okay. I looked this up. I thought it was yogurt company because, in fact, there was a sweet frog a block from my place in D.C. and I went to it. I didn't know it was a Christian thing.
B
No, no, you never know that. So to Russ, to your point, this is where, like, the subtlety goes a little bit too awry because it's, like, too clever by half. And. And they say, you know, frog. Okay, so Frog. The frog part of the name stands for fully rely on God, which is bizarre to me.
D
Almost reminds me of Nintendo. Yeah. The video game company. Technically. I mean, they're not Christian, but their. Their Japanese names essentially, like, Leave it to Heaven, more or less like heaven's evidence.
B
Really. I'd never known that.
D
That's cool. Yeah. So I want to get a few because we have the chat. Getting them all first Zuzu's petals is always around, and she points out that Hope Harvard had a Christian makeup line and she spoke at the Young Women's Leadership Summit in the past. That strikes me as, I guess I don't know the details of this makeup brand, but I think that's just a good example of. And also we should note, I mean, Erica herself has proclaim, which is Christian, to Mikey's point.
B
But there's a difference between being like, being Christian and like saying that, that this is Christ. You know what I mean?
E
Yeah, no, I get it.
B
I think even Christian in general and like having crosses, could it be different things and saying that you're, that you're Yahweh juice.
D
Could the, could the problem be specifically putting Jesus on the can?
C
I. I agree with that.
D
I could see that.
B
I see that because, I mean, I think that's a big part of it.
D
I think that's a good point. I also want to get Sandra because she's also says, Jack, specifically on the point of view of the can and it mostly being sold to Christians. Jack, if you carry the drinks around and others see it, they might in turn see that you are a Christian and start conversations similar to wearing a faith based T shirt. So do you have any thoughts on that from Sandra?
B
Yeah, again, I think that being Christian in public is good. I have obviously advocated for that for many years. But at the same time, you know, I don't think you should put money in your pocket for it. People got on me about, you know, having a rosary, for example, and you know, people say, oh, so big is like selling the rosaries. And in fact, I've, I've always turned down, whenever anyone's offered me any partnerships for that, I said, no, I'm more than happy to post it. I'll tell people where they can get, you know, whatever rosary it is that I'm, you know, that I, that I have. But I just, I wouldn't feel right taking money for that.
E
Yeah, I think the best argument, Russ, was what you made at the beginning. Like in Jack, you mentioned this. These are just a bunch of white labels and they're not checking the quality of this. They're not. It's more of like a get rich quick thing. I think when it's sinful is buy this because, you know, God wants you to buy this. Buy this because, you know, God wants us to support each other. Buy this because prosperity gospel, instead of Christians participating in the market, you know, saying that they want to glorify God through their business. But I I do want to say I don't think that this is like a hell driven thing. Like, I don't think you're going to go to hell for doing this. In fact, and I don't want to throw the baby out the bathwater water either. Like, Erica participates with proclaimed streetwear. Like, does this also mean, does this also mean that like worship artists who are getting paid for their worship songs, I mean, they're going to hell. Like clothing brand companies?
B
I, I think, I think I do. And it's, it's kind of like Blake helped me, you know, put it in words better. Was that, you know, the reason the difference is because you're not walking around saying like yahweh clothes or you know, yahweh band. It's, it's just songs about God. That's, that's a band that is Christian or a, a apparel company that is Christian. It's different when you're, you know, really just kind of leaning in and using Jesus. A brand that you can make money off of. Yeah. Like a mascot.
D
You know it when you see it.
C
This is why I also have a problem with Christian, like the, the like pro, like the Christian movie side of things where it's just, it's so forced and then the quality isn't good.
D
Well, sometimes it's just bad because it's bad, but.
C
Yeah, but that's not everyone making movies. Yeah, that's the quality part, right?
B
Yeah, that's. That.
D
That is so a similar comparison here. Just because it makes me wonder if
B
if people are doing that because they just want to make money from a Christian audience, then that would be sinful if they're, if they're actually not caring because.
E
Yeah, but who's to say that these energy drink companies, like, who's to say some of the owners of these don't actually have a good heart behind this? And who's to say they don't actually have. Yeah, exactly. Which is like woe to you who calls evil good and good evil. Like, don't be so quick to judge. What if they are actually donating a majority of their profits to charities and churches furthering the gospel?
B
If they are like, I'm going to
E
be quicker to give them the benefit of the doubt than I am to say that they're going to hell.
D
But one last question on this and then I think we'll move on because we have a very fun food related topic.
B
Like money changers.
C
Yeah.
D
But so one final question is, is there a difference? So we're talking about products Here with an energy drink. Let's suppose a nominally neutral business. I mentioned a barbershop, but maybe a restaurant too. Like, let's imagine an Italian restaurant, but maybe it has a biblically inflected name, like Bread of Life or something. And then it's. Maybe the restaurant has a lot of religious decorations in it. Might have crosses on the wall, might have Jesus art in various places. Just. You can imagine a very aggressively Christian restaurant when you're in it. And obviously you can't really make Jesus food. It's just going to be normal food. But is it exploitative to make your restaurant extremely aggressively religious in the sense that you might be blackmailing is too aggressive of a word. But you're trying to essentially cash in to some extent on. I want Christians to want to come here because it's a super Christian restaurant,
B
I think, oh, there's the word you're looking for. Perhaps Christploitation.
D
Yeah, Christploitation. Potentially. Yeah.
B
So priceploitation is bad. Being Christian is good. That's. That's where I'm gonna. That's where I'm gonna. That's where I'm gonna fall on.
C
I think to Mikey's point, Yeah, I think to Mikey's point, it all has to do with the heart. Right? It has to do with. Is, you know, is the owner a Christian, that he wants that in his store. If that's the case, then. But to your guys's point, like, if he's just exploiting, hey, I can make money. Because Christians will be gullible enough to come. Come to my restaurant because they see all of the iconography, then, you know,
E
but also to Jack's point, it's James, I think James 3:1, which is just. Teachers are held to a more strict standard, and they'll be judged to a more strict standard. So if you are doing this, in a way, you are a teacher. And so you do actually really need to make sure that your heart is in the right place. Because if it's not in the right place, and this is just like a prosperity gospel money grab thing, that is a problem that you are sinning in the. In the midst of that, because you are technically a teacher. You're sharing the gospel. You're participating in sharing the gospel. You're putting it out there. And then I. One of you guys said it earlier, this could lead to conversations about Christ. If that's your heart, that's a good thing.
B
But my house shall be called a house of prayer, and you are making it a den of robbers.
D
All right, well, speaking of hearts, we need to talk about something that might cause heart failure. So we have another food related endeavor. This has gone viral and I saw it and I thought, we've got to get into this. Alright, so we have highlights. There is a new fad of food. It's on TikTok, it's on Instagram, it's on every online platform. Everywhere it is people putting pineapples and Kool Aid. Run the highlight reel. That is clip 13,
G
My boy.
C
Trying the strawberry kiwi. Yeah. 100 out of 10.
D
100 out of 10. Come on now. The juice. Always gonna do it, I'll tell you.
F
Hey, you can put your juice on
D
some ice, you can mix that with some lips.
C
So I've been seeing everybody's Kool Aid pineapple recipe.
D
So let me show you guys how I make mine.
B
First, we start off with the peanut
D
pineapple and the cherry. Let's go ahead and get that up in there. Now you go in nice and ripe. Let's go. Whole bag right there.
C
The viral Kool Aid pineapple. These go for $20 a pop. What you think, man? 10 out of 10?
B
Yeah.
G
Juicy, huh?
C
I appreciate you, dog.
D
So for those who can't see, this is the latest hot trend in the black culinary world. They are making containers of Kool Aid. They're adding extra sugar to it, and then they are soaking pineapple spears in it and they're leaving them overnight to flavor them. And I saw that and I only had one thought enter my head. I've got to try this. And so yesterday, Ryan and I went to the supermarket and let me show you. Russ, you are lucky to be here.
G
Yeah.
C
Let's see it.
D
We have this.
B
No, no, this.
G
Oh, wait. And we have one more.
A
Describe.
C
Describe dark cherry.
D
We have dark cherry. We have grape. We have tropical punch. We have the. We took. We add bottled water and then we poured in them.
B
You made these?
C
We made this.
D
We made these. We left them overnight, the proper amount of seasoning, and we're gonna try them.
B
Where do you. Do you leave them? Do you leave them in the fridge? Do you leave them outside?
D
Just in the fridge.
B
Just in the fridge.
D
Just overnight. And you add extra sugar. So I think we added about half a cup of sugar to each of these jars.
B
And I were like, oh, gosh, sorry, we're not in studio.
C
Yeah, exactly. We see how it is.
B
Yeah. It didn't work out with the schedule. Sorry about that. What are you gonna do?
D
Alrighty. So I'm gonna try. I'm gonna try the tropical punch one here.
C
Black.
D
I've got to find out what this is like.
C
Let's do it.
D
All right, so this is black tropical punch pineapple with Kool Aid. Let's. Let's see how we go. I'm ready to rate this.
E
Okay.
C
Not bad.
B
Eating the pineapple now. Not bad. It's going in.
C
I wouldn't eat this as a regular snack.
D
I like it.
B
You guys seem to like. Good.
D
I like it.
C
It's sugary.
D
This sounds great. It's sugary. Way too much sugar. But, like, it's like. It's like a funne. It's like a junk food I could have at a baseball game, at a jazz festival. I would 100%. All right. I'm endorsing this. I am endorsing Kool Aid. Pineapple to the world. I don't know if I would make it in my washing machine. I feel like other stuff's gone through that washing machine. There was a video I saw, a guy was making it in his washing machine.
C
There was a video I saw a guy went to Costco and bought literally, like, a pallet full of jarred pineapple to do this. It's good. Not bad.
D
This is great. You're missing out, Jack. You're missing out, Mikey.
C
Yeah, you guys are missing out.
F
As an advocate of truth, you know that women shouldn't have to share locker rooms with men. Women shouldn't have to compete against male athletes, and they shouldn't be punished for speaking the truth. But across America, that's exactly what's happening. Men are being allowed to compete in women's sports, robbing girls of scholarships, medals, titles, and safety. Now, the U.S. supreme Court has heard two cases, West Virginia v. BPJ and Little v. Hickox, that could decide the future of women's sports nationwide. This could be a watershed moment in the fight to protect biological reality and fairness. Alliance Defending Freedom needs your voice today. Visit joinadf.com charlie that's joinadf. Or text charlie to 83848. That's charlie to 83848. To add your name to their declaration and side with the truth and fairness. That's joinadf.com Charlie or text Charlie to 83848. What starts in women's sports spreads to school medicine, parental rights. This is our moment to push back. Stand with Alliance. Defending Freedom. Stand with women. Do it today. Join ADF.com Charlie
E
Blake, have you seen the video of that? This, like, young white kid and he tries the pineapple Kool Aid and he's like the big guy. Have you seen this rust?
D
You know, do we have this. Do we have this cut?
E
It went super viral. It was like this young white kid, and it was like a modern cash me outside. How about that moment?
C
Oh, we do.
D
We have it. Play clip 17.
E
Wait, we had to play this? Oh, yeah.
C
Appreciate you, bro. Yes, sir.
D
I'm trying to take these out. They just splatter everywhere.
C
Yeah, they really do here.
D
Do you want to do.
E
That Was the first time I watched
D
one of each other. Otherwise, I'm a coward.
E
Did you drink the liquid? Blake? Can you. Can you give it a gulp?
D
I'm not. I'm not. I'm not slurping the liquid. That's. That's a way to die. That way lies perdition. We were just talking about what could make you go to hell. Well, I think. I think gluttony is a sin. And I think literally, just drinking half a cup of sugar in your Kool Aid water because you're just that decadent for sweetness, that might. That might violate a commandment.
C
No, I'm not doing it either.
E
Blacktivities.
D
All right, so this is black cherry.
C
So here's the problem with slurping it. You cannot see through this. That's the pro. That's the issue. There's so much. There's so much stuff in here that you just can't. That's a problem to me. That's too much black.
D
Black cherry Kool Aid. Pineapple is amazing. I mean, I'm giving that my full, unambiguous, maximum endorsement. That is amazing. You guys gotta. You guys gotta go get this. It takes 24 hours.
C
This is my favorite.
B
Wow.
C
This is my favorite. Definitely not Maha approved. Just so everybody's aware.
B
Oh.
D
Oh, yeah. I think Alex Clark shamed me on X when I could.
B
You. Okay, but could you. Could you make a Maha version of. I mean, you're talking about pineapple and sweet flavoring. Could you make a Maha version of this?
C
I mean, yes, but, like, I don't know if it would taste. I think it would just be more pineapple forward at the end of the day.
D
Now I'm imagining, like, healthy Kool Aid, and you put in stevia or something. Stevia absorbed pineapple.
C
Stevia might not taste great.
D
I feel like that you would lose some of the spirit of it, because I think part of the spirit of this is it is a completely ridiculous food to actually consume.
C
Dylan in the chat goes, watch Blake pull up to the hood to get his. To get his face.
D
Oh, 100%. No, this is great.
B
Grapes.
D
Good, too.
C
Definitely. This is definitely a, like, a nice little. A little, like, snack. But don't. Don't make this a normal thing, because.
D
All right, you guys. I mean, I hope everyone. Everyone should get this.
B
This is.
D
This is amazing. Everyone. Everyone in chat should try Kool Aid pineapple.
C
At least try it. It's a fun. It's a fun little activity.
D
All right, I'm so glad we did this, but we have another topic to get to. We can't marinate too long on Kool Aid pineapple. Jack, you wanted to talk about the downfall of. Of the boomers in Hollywood.
B
They've.
D
They're finally being vanquished.
B
Well, I wasn't so sure if I saw it as much of a generational play in this, because it's not. It's more than just this. But I more wanted to talk about the fact that Star wars specifically has been beaten at the box office. This. This movie Mandalorian, that we were. That we were. That. That we let a boycott on and. And then something.
D
I think only you did, Jack. Everyone else was breaking the boycott, not actually listened to.
B
Which is kind of weird when you give the audience a mission and then the host of the show just don't follow it. But, you know, whatever. We'll figure out how to do podcasting one of these days and. Or, like, political movements. But the. The situation here is that this movie that was made by a YouTuber, and then the movie Back Rooms, which. So that was the movie obsession. Then the movie Back Rooms, which is based on, you know, really just an online creepypasta, which turned into kind of a YouTube trend. Both have beaten Star wars in the past week at. At the box office, and I think that's huge.
C
Yeah, Back Rooms and Obsession.
G
Yeah.
D
I'm looking at residents.
B
You're our resident media guru. Can you give us sort of the, you know, the backstory on those two films, Obsession and Backrooms, just for anyone. Someone has no idea how, you know, how it worked. They didn't really come up the traditional way, did they?
C
No. So the directors are. So the directors are zoomers, right? Zoomers. Like YouTube. YouTube guys. And I mean, this also leads into, you know, Jack, you and I talked about it when we were. When we were at the All American halftime show was the other movie that came out from a YouTuber, which was Iron Lung.
D
What's that?
B
Yeah, exactly.
C
And that was based off of a video game. But he's. Markiplier is the one who directed Markiplier, and that Jack, you saw it did that. That made its money back, didn't it?
B
Like, I have to double check. I'm pretty sure it did pretty well.
C
Yeah.
B
Iron Long, I liked, I liked it a lot. I thought that it could have used a little bit of editing. It was, it was over two hours, which is ambitious for a movie that only has like one. One actor in it. One character. Yeah. I mean, there's some other characters in a few scenes, but no, it was a smash hit. He spent 3 million on it. It made 50 million at the box office.
C
And to that point, I think this comes down to what we're starting to see is this resurgence of. Of movies that are lower budget, that are actually speaking with two audiences in a way that are being able to take over the box office and push something out like a franchise like Star Wars.
D
It's funny you say that because someone was saying, oh, Star wars, this big franchise got beaten by backrooms. And someone chimed in to basically say, actually you only think that because you're over 40. If you're actually under 30. This is a film that is already about a well established franchise. And I went and I looked it up. I'd never heard. I'd heard of the backrooms creepypasta, but I hadn't heard of the series. The first movie in the YouTube series that inspired that movie has almost a hundred million views.
G
Wow.
C
Wow.
B
Yeah. But it still started with a creepypasta. There's no, there's no. You mean. That's just obvious, that. Which is kind of the point, 100%.
D
But what it's saying is there's actually an established franchise, such as it is, of videos. I think there's 30 entries, like 30 episodes. It'd be like, in a sense, it's the modern version of making a film out of a successful TV show. And there's a lot of successful TV shows that have not had 100 million people view their first episode. But apparently that's the case for backrooms. There's. That's making me aware.
B
So by the way, and, and, and backroom started on 4chan, which is crazy. So it did actually start on 4chan. So here's a question that's. That's. So what we're talking about, though, isn't necessarily the establishment of the franchise. What we're talking about is the fact that there are now new paths to get to a wide audience, which is very similar to what we did with the Turning Point halftime show. We, we, you know, we use podcasts, we use, you know, conservative media. Independent media to be able to get to this mass wide audience. You see this in elections when Turning Point Action does the exact same thing. We're using non traditional means to reach out to these audiences. And we found success with that. In terms of the viewership, they're seeing huge success at the box office. And it's kind of just showing that the traditional gatekeeper models are broken. And so the fact that There's a huge YouTube series on it is just kind of making our point that, that this indie media is actually taking off in ways that the old, you know, the old system hasn't quite figured out yet. Blake, I was thinking of an interesting question though would be how do you, you know, how do you credit the original author of Backrooms? If it was a 4chan poster man,
D
it would be, it'd be kind of funny if someone would like, here's, here's a million dollars and I will leave it in escrow and it will go to a person who can come forward and conclusively, satisfactorily prove they authored that post.
C
It's funny.
D
And speaking of Boomer Zoomer Divide, a weird thing about this is Jack, is 4chan dead now? I feel like when's the last time a new thing blew up because it was on 4chan?
B
Well, it's been so dead and it's been. But it was dying before Elon bought X. But it died completely after Elon Bot X. And it's just, it's just not, you know, it had been brigaded too much. It had been inundated with too much just, you know, anon slop. You know, I don't even know what you call it. Just anti 4chan stuff that. Yeah, I don't think anything new has arisen there. But at the same time, a lot of that same anon energy is now just on X.
D
And I suppose it's probably for the best because thinking about how X, thinking about how x how 4chan works with everyone being anonymous, it would get absolutely ruined by modern AI. Everyone would just make an AI account and just spam things all over it. So in a sense, it probably died at the exact right moment where it could live on in our dreams.
C
I think it's.
D
But I also don't think it's not
B
so much that it died, it's that it won and took over. Took over the world, literally.
E
I also think there's a tendency for horror movies with very low budgets to go very viral and do well in the box office. Like, this isn't the first time this has happened. I think it's like Blair Witch Trials was one of it. Paranormal Activities Saw was one of these. The Purge was one of these. Insidious was one of these. All of the, all the movies I just named are all had like a budget under a million, 1.5 million. Like Blair witch trials was like 20,000 to make and it did 100 million in the box office. So there's just a tendency for a lot of people who love horror movies to just support creators that are making a very low budget horror movie and then to just show up at the box office and to do it. I don't know if that's like directly tied to the fact that Star wars also the Mandalorian Grogu also came out around the same time.
C
I also think that this has more also to say just about the people who are being put like, who are doing these projects, actually caring about the, the product. Hilariously enough, going back to even just what we were talking about with the Christian energy drinks. Like when you look at YouTube now and like, like these directors were YouTubers, the amount of like fan films or, or like, or small films that you can find that on YouTube that are really highly produced, but actually like hold on to the, the essence of whatever they're doing in a way that you're like, oh wow, this is really good. Like I remember literally I just watched one of the best things I've seen in a minute. It was essentially the premise is what if Wolverine was a Viking? And honestly probably the best depiction of Wolverine that we've seen in media in quite a, quite a long time.
D
I can, I can really buy that. And I think a big reason I can see it especially in, I think this is the biggest weakness of western big budget cinema is that everything is coming through. Not even just a corporate architecture, but it's a heavily editor and producer driven thing. Everyone get so many hands in the pot, every single, so many cooks in the kitchen and you can get so much. You can get a lot of really terrible stuff. But the opportunity for something really brilliant when something is basically the work of one lone actor who can just decide whatever he wants. And that's how you get things that are really memorable, really iconic, really different. That's actually why the star. Weirdly that's why the Star wars prequels remain so iconic because George Lucas is this weird guy who just threw all this weird stuff. And are they good movies? No, but they're incredibly memorable as a result.
B
I'll say. So I haven't seen backrooms Yet I did see Obsession. And you know, just. Just on that note, you know, you can tell that Backrooms has such a unique kind of story and lore and the way it's set up. And I love the way that it was created. So for. People don't know what it is. It's this. It's this idea that you're. You're. When you go into the back room of a, you know, a hotel or a shopping mall or an office center, an office building or something, you know, what really goes on in those liminal spaces, the spaces between the spaces. And, you know, it's. It's. It's plays with that and plays with the. The horror of those sort of spaces. And so people would be creating their own stories, people would be creating their own versions of this. And then eventually, after it had been quite viral for, you know, some time, this guy took to YouTube and, you know, started making his own movies of it based on a meme that had already existed. And then that guy in turn became, I GUESS it was a 24, came in and made him the director of this. And he does have some, you know, he has quite a few celebrities that are. That are in it. So I can't say that this is completely indie, but the, the process certainly is and I just. Incredibly unique, incredibly amazing. Obsession, on the other hand, good movie, but it's. It's not a unique premise at all. The idea that you're gonna. It's. It's the monkey's paw. So it's just another monkey's paw kind of remake where he goes to a shop and finds that a. You know, take this thing and, you know, make one wish and it'll make whatever your wish come true. So he says, oh, I want this girl at my work to fall in love with me. And then she does and everything goes horribly wrong. So, I mean, that's. That's not really a new premise. It's well made. It wasn't super scary. So if you. If you're not someone who's like, really into horror, I would recommend it as
C
I'm definitely have to check that out.
B
It's not a scary movie. There is some gore, you know, here and there. I didn't particularly find anything scary in the film at all. And, you know, there's some good suspense things like that. But yeah, just as a premise, there was that movie Ruby Sparks that came out a couple years ago, which is more of like a romantic comedy version of the same thing. It's got Paul Dano and I think his Wife, Zoe. Zoe. I forget her last name. And she's the. The star of it, where, you know, kind of the same situation where a man controls a woman in. In all of this. But there's some good twists, there's some good discourse in it. And funny enough, Bishop Barron posted a long, like, review of Obsession, which I thought was really interesting that, you know, here's Bishop Barron commenting on, like, the viral zoomer movie of the summer, you know, and he had a great take on it. He said, don't mess with the demonic as a. Yeah, speaking of demonic.
D
And speaking of demonic. Sorry, More.
B
I think that's. Well, just. Just real quick before you segue. I've always thought that that's a cool. You know, that's kind of like an interesting use for horror, that it's sort of like backdoor, you know, way to, hey, bring people to Christ in a sense, because, hey, you. You need to have some counterbalance to the demons. You can't follow that path.
F
Charlie used to talk a lot about Angel Studios and what they were building, and as you know, I've been a longtime fan of it for the same reason. So I wanted to share some of my favorite films and shows on angel, and I put them all into one easy to use watch list. This is content that's actually worth your time. Not just noise or recycled talking points, but stories that go a level deeper and ask better questions. That's what stands out about angel to me. They're willing to put out films and documentaries that don't just follow the usual script, especially when it comes to politics, culture, and the bigger conversations you and I should be having. So on my watch list, you'll find picks that lean into those topics. But there are also solid options for family or just something meaningful to watch at the end of a stressful day. If you want to check it out, go to angel.comcharlie and take a look at the watch list I put together.
D
Speaking of demonic, we saw this, and this is actually a lot scarier than any of the horror movies that we've discussed, even the spookiest ones. And this just flips it. Russ's new pitch for a documentary, and it's the saga of Matthew. Or not Matthew. Jesse Ridgeway.
E
Jesse.
D
Jesse Ridgeway has decided to tweet his wife's abortion.
B
Oh, yeah. All right. Now that. Yeah, yeah.
D
Wow.
B
That was the next topic.
D
Yeah, this is.
B
Okay. Yeah.
D
So, Russ, you're familiar with who this guy is?
C
I've seen some of his videos. Like, I've seen clips pop up on my TikTok. But he. He is a YouTuber called Mr. Juggernauts.
D
Juggernaut. And he has four and a half million subs or so.
C
Yeah, 4.34 million subs. And what I've seen is that he makes essentially, like, content where it's like, oh, psycho. Like, literally, this is a title.
D
Fake. Real videos.
C
Yeah. Psycho dad destroys Twitch.
D
Yes. Psycho dad runs over video games with Lawnmower.
C
It's very vlog esque style. But he's. He's been vlogging, essentially vlogging his life coming from his marriage and. And all of this different.
D
One of those guys who's just publicly shown every part of his life has taken a really dark turn because yesterday. So Jesse and his wife had announced they were expecting. In fact, I think that destroys Switch two is like their gender reveal, some nonsense like that. Yeah. And then he just announces this. Yesterday, this week, my wife and I made the very difficult decision to terminate our pregnancy due to trisomy 21. That's down syndrome, the extra chromosome. The choice was not made lightly. We really appreciate all of the personal stories you guys shared with us, especially the unconditional support we received from fans no matter what we decided. So I guess he'd announce they'd found this and then left people in suspense about whether they would murder their child or not. He goes on at length. I know some of you will be very disappointed.
B
Wait, Blake, so. So are you saying that he turned this into like. Like an art.
D
Like a LeBron decision?
E
Yes.
C
So literally, I kid you not. These are. These are the last couple of videos that he has. The one. We're having a baby two months ago. A month ago. Psycho dad destroys Nintendo Switch 2, which was also their gender reveal. And then the. A month ago, we received devastating news. Psycho updates.
D
Yeah. And they even. They've done live tweet videos. I'm actually going to warn you, there's nothing gory or whatever, but this is upsetting me to hear them talk. This is a video.
B
Can I just. Can I say, is there a chance that this is all fake?
C
No.
B
Is there a chance that this is all.
D
I hope. You know, I guess I hope it's fake because otherwise they murdered their child and that's.
B
But I mean, there's a chance that this is. I mean, it's a YouTuber, right. So, I mean, you should perhaps take it with a grain of salt.
C
Based off, let's say, style. Based off the style of his videos. The. And the fact that he's using X rather than just using YouTube. This does not. This does not come off as fake.
D
And they made this clip, which also. I mean, I guess they could have acted it. People can act, but they made a clip about. This is kind of their LeBron decision hype, where they found out and they're reacting to it. Clip 16.
G
Not the result we wanted to see, guys. I started to get kind of a not good feeling just when the results were sitting here. That's why I didn't want to open them. I started to feel really uncomfortable about it. Just kind of in shock. Like, truly, we talked before this, guys, about what would we do if we confronted this scenario, because this was the more likely scenario. We talked about terminating the pregnancy. Obviously, things could change because this is traumatic. Like, very traumatic. And I know you guys, even watching this, this is traumatic for the whole community. I think now that we have a definitive result, we'll talk with these counselors, and we're going to have some hard conversations. It's just all very overwhelming and confusing to navigate. Ashley is almost halfway through this thing. Not saying we force it, but, like, the kid seemed healthy. And there's been stories where the kid comes out and is, like, screaming, super functional. And so it's like, I don't know. There's a lot to digest, and we're not really going to be doing that in this video. We just wanted to let you guys in on what the results were.
B
Oh, I was ready. I was ready. I had a start.
D
The start of our journey, you know, of the.
B
Just try to start a family.
D
This is how it starts.
G
A lot of people, it's not easy ever. You know, whether it's a miscarriage out the gate now, it's hard to look at, like, silver linings, but, I mean, the fact that you can get pregnant is good. We weren't sure. And it was, bro. It was instant. We don't know why this happens. Maybe it is a birth control over a decade. Maybe it is just random genetic sequencing and it glitches, you know, just like cancer cells. Like, sometimes it's just. We don't know. So I'm gonna kill the camera.
D
That is one of the most dreadful videos I have ever seen in my so life.
B
So just. Just to understand the context. So. Because he's. I saw the tweet that was up there that said, we have made the decision. But the decision here is this is when they got, like, the final confirmation,
C
when they got the. The sheet of paper that let them
B
know yet made the decision at the point of when they Were filming this.
C
Correct? Correct.
E
Okay.
C
Yeah.
E
What an awful husband. Like, she's crying next to him and he's basically encouraging her and. Encouraging.
C
Yeah, no, exactly. Like, she's like, I was ready. Like, I was so ready. And he's over here like, meh.
E
Like, he could have. He could have. He's like a good husband and been like, super chats. Sorry, this is our time to have a family. Like,
C
yeah, he's a.
D
And they, they go into all, all the horrible things where they say, okay, 50% of babies with down syndrome have heart defects. Many have hearing challenges. I didn't realize how tough it would be for the child, let alone the family. More often than not, they would be dependent on others for the rest of their lives. So instead of that, we killed our baby.
C
Yeah.
E
This is such BS too. Like, they're acting as though they're the victims here. Like, you're killing somebody. You're killing somebody that did not have a choice.
B
And it's.
E
And you're turning yourself into the victim. How hard it is for you.
B
No, everything about this is evil. Everything about this is evil.
C
Just wait, it gets worse because we
B
have just to add. Just to add that. That. Because remember, they're monetizing.
C
Yeah.
B
Their own 100%.
C
They're monetizing their grief
B
and, and murder. They're. They're monetizing the murder of a, Of a child and they're saying that, you know, as you say, they're the victims. So, I mean, yeah, we talk. I talked about exploitation earlier, but this is like exploitation of sin itself.
D
It's literally on. Like, because I have the tweet open. It's suggested as a follow to me, and it just says 4 million on YouTube. 2 billion views. Creator of Psycho. It just, it's incredibly upsetting for me to just see all of his. I'm an influencer. Here's how successful I am as an influencer. He kills his baby and then the whole process is live blogged from beginning to end. Oh, we just got our test results. Here's our reaction. And even maybe someone else did this edit, but I suspect they did this themselves. If that clip they did. It's got those, those jump cut, like little edits where, oh, we have to cut out dead hair.
C
I think the original video was three minutes. I think somebody clipped it down just to cut out some of the pauses. But to make matters worse, throw up. 15. He has a series of tweets that a year ago his dog was diagnosed with stage four cancer. And I kid you not, in this tweet, it literally says, one of the saddest days of my life. And, dude, his dog is alive a year now. Like, it will. Like, it goes to the next one and he's like giving a praise report. But this is the guy who's over here saying that it's too much. It's too much for his family to go to term with a child that's most going to have down.
D
He won't have a disabled child.
C
But this is. We'll spend the money to get our dog free of cancer.
B
Like right now, this is. This is an example. And you can see it. Even personally, I. I could hear it, you know, in. In his voice with the way he's talking. You know, he's just someone who's very weak. He's someone who lacks any physical or moral strength at all, is not willing to live for anyone other than himself, clearly doesn't care that his wife is crying there on camera and is more than willing to exploit her grief and. And that moment. And, oh, my gosh.
C
Yeah, that is not sacrificial love, weakness,
B
a cowless, a narcissism, a lack of actual love. And yeah, it's.
C
That's not a man. That's not a man in our culture.
B
This is, you know, it's. It's everywhere. It's just everywhere.
D
It's one of the most evil things I've ever seen. You know, we were disagreeing. What. What is evil at the start of this. I think we're all in. That's one of those people.
C
Yeah.
D
I want to shout out Zuzu who donated and said, this is what happens when you raise godless beta males.
C
Amen.
D
Definitely a part of it.
C
Amen.
D
I think it is certainly a beta male thing to kill your children as things become slightly difficult.
B
Yeah, actually, I made sure not to. I didn't engage with his tweet. I saw it coming around and I made sure not to engage with it because Twitter bases monetization on engagement now. So if I engage with it, he makes money.
C
Fair.
B
Yeah, Very good.
D
Very good move.
C
Fair this.
B
And I think about that stuff all the time. I think about that stuff all the time. Whether it's, you know, Jesus juice or stuff like this. I just. I don't want to do anything that supports that kind of stuff. I really don't ever.
D
All right, well, we have a hard out here, but this was some very fun topics. One very unfun topic. Happy birthday to Andrew Go Nick Sangelotte,
B
the big five O.
D
And as always, everyone I asked him how 70 was. Well, we'll see how that series goes. Maybe it'll be over by next week. Until then, keep committing thought crimes.
B
For more on many of these stories and news you can Trust, go to charliekirk.com.
Episode Title: Kool-Aid Pineapples? Christian Energy Drinks? Zoomer Hollywood Takeover?
Air Date: June 6, 2026
Host: Charlie Kirk (w/ panelists Russ, Blake, Mikey, Jack, et al.)
This week's Thoughtcrime Thursday is an energetic roundtable plunging into the latest internet fads, the Christianization of the consumer economy, Gen Z's shake-up of Hollywood, and a deeply disturbing viral abortion saga. The core theme? How faith, culture, commerce, and morality are colliding and rapidly evolving—sometimes in ways that baffle, amuse, or horrify. Despite trading barbs over "bargain bin guests" and missing their regular panelist Andrew (turning 50!), the group grapples with everything from Christian energy drinks to the “demonic” commodification of tragedy.
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[27:57–36:06]
[36:18–48:38]
[48:38–60:17]
Episode 130 of Thoughtcrime captures a tumultuous snapshot of modern culture, as young creators storm the gates of Hollywood, consumer Christianity sparks controversy, and the ethics of monetized influencer content reach new and shocking lows. Listeners are left to ponder where commerce, faith, and morality should (and shouldn’t) intersect in a world where everything—sometimes even tragedy—is up for sale. The panel’s wide-ranging, energetic discussion provides both humor and hard-hitting critique for anyone interested in what’s happening beneath the headlines.