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Charlie Kirk
Hey, everybody. Happy Sunday. My conversation at the University of Wyoming. I take questions from the audience. I was on actually no sleep for three days straight. So you tell me how I did for almost no sleep in Laramie, Wyoming. Great conversation with the audience there. I think you're really going to enjoy it. Email me as always, freedomarliekirk.com get involved with turningpointusa@tpusa.com that is tpusa.com Start a high school or college chapter today at tpusa.com thanks to Alan Jackson Ministries for your continued support. Email me. As always, freedomarliekirk.com Buckle up, everybody. Here we go.
Audience Member
Charlie, what you've done is incredible here.
Charlie Kirk
Maybe Charlie Kirk is on the college campus. I want you to know we are lucky to have Charlie Kirk. Charlie Kirk's running the White House, folks. I want to thank Charlie. He's an incredible guy. His spirit, his love of this country. He's done an amazing job building one of the most powerful youth organizations ever created, Turning Point usa. We will not embrace the ideas that have destroyed countries, destroyed lives, and we are going to fight for freedom on campuses across the country. That's why we are here. 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@noblegoldinvestments.com that is noblegoldinvestments.com it's where I buy all of my gold. Go to noblegoldinvestments.com all right, great to be here, everybody. Lots to cover, of course. Thank you, Joe, Bob, for the introduction. Thank you to our wonderful Turning Point USA chapter for putting this on. Give it up for the chapter. They work so hard. Thank you to the university for hosting us. It's been amazing to work with all you guys and yeah, it's gonna be fun. We'll do some question and answer. Hopefully there are some liberals in Wyoming. Are there a couple? I don't know. Maybe. Or not. We'll see. If not, we could just have a great time talking the entire time. So. Okay, so couple things I want to talk about. First of all, there's so much noise going around the Trump presidency. I want to focus on four things that President Trump has done that is going to make America a more competitive country that is going to impact everybody in this room when it comes to hiring practices, the military, and it's four things that you might not even recognize or realize. You might have heard these terms before. But they're very important and they're executive orders that President Trump has signed regarding critical race theory, affirmative action, disparate impact, and also the backbone of all of them, which really people don't talk about a lot, which is dei. I mean, they're talking about in recent times. What exactly does DEI mean? So these four things together, I kind of call the like four horsemen of the like, anti racism monster that has been taking over this country. Now, why does this impact all of you? Very simply, we as conservatives have a super simple belief. We believe that when you hire somebody, you should hire based on skill and character, not on skin color. Skin color should not matter when you hire or when you accept somebody into a school, period. When you're trying to accept somebody into college or accept somebody into the military, it does not matter what the color of the skin of the person that you are communicating with. It matters. Can they do the job, Are they competent, are they qualified? And over the last couple of decades in America, we've seen a little bit of a slippage into mediocrity. When meritocracy is not prioritized, a country will descend into mediocrity. And these four things together very well might be well intentioned. And I'll explain the kind of how they play one and the other, the first of which is critical race theory. We don't have to spend too much time on this. This is the philosophical backbone. It basically is a belief that America is super racist to its core. Racism is normative. There's really nothing we could do to get rid of it except become like anti racist fighters ourselves. In fact, Ibram X Kendi, who's kind of one of the scholars of the anti racism machine, has said that the answer to past discrimination is, is more discrimination. So we need to discriminate against white people because black people were once discriminated against. Essentially, it's now time for us to be racist. Because some people were racist a long time ago, we kind of look at that and say, wait a second, if racism was wrong then, then racism is wrong today, so we should not have any racism, period. So on and so forth. But anyway, the belief system of critical race theory is taught in many schools. Thankfully, President Trump signed an executive order saying crt will nobody be taught in any schools that receive federal or taxpayer funding? A major victory, Something very significant. So we start with crt. Now out of crt, of course, then became affirmative action. This is something that probably everybody in this audience knows about. You heard about affirmative action. You think you know what it is actually deeply unpopular with the American people. At Harvard, we know exactly how affirmative action worked. If you were a white student applying to Harvard, according to the Students for Fair Admission Supreme Court case, you, you had points taken off of your SAT score correlated versus a black student. In fact, a black student was able to get in with a 100 point less SAT score than a white student and 300 points less than Asians poor. You know, the Asians, they just can't get ahead. It's too bad, and it's amazing. Like you look at this and we're discriminating against another minority because we're trying to be anti racist. The Supreme Court actually ruled that this was unconstitutional. They struck it down and they said we're not going to have affirmative action in our country anymore now and it should be applauded. The problem is a lot of schools ignored it and still to this day, they ignored it. And President Trump signed the executive order saying, actually no, Supreme Court ruled you're not allowed to do this. And so when you applied for college or when you apply for law school, if you guys want to go to law school, and if you are a white male, you should not have points taken off of your LSAT based on the color of your skin. Let me break this down even further. You should not be penalized based on things you cannot change no matter how hard you try. Now, I'm not discounted that some people come from different backgrounds, but you can actually change your circumstance. Even if you come from a bad background, you can't change that you're white. Well, some people try, but you can't change that you're white, nor should you actually want to change if you're white. This whole idea that you're bad if you're white and you're bad that you're a man is actually, no, God made you that way. And stop calling that person racist just because they're of a white skin color and that you're told that they're racist. I think it's disgusting and reprehensible to its core. So affirmative action, the second of which you probably hear a lot of, and that is dei. DEI is the slow moving bureaucracy that has found itself in so many institutions. Thrilled by the way, University of Wyoming got rid of its DEI office. So that's great credit on University of Wyoming. It's great. In fact, my friend Karen here, I even looked at it ahead of time, I was like, this better be gone. It's gone. Good. So. And if it's not, you guys can get in the question line and tell me all about it. So which is the DEI is these forced diversity departments, and they are the commissars. They are the enforcement arm of the belief of critical race theory. These are where you have to sit through these endless seminars to learn how to be an anti racist. This is where you could be fired by using the wrong pronouns. This is where they say, well, we want to try to have 10% of our workforce be a certain color. This makes us less competitive and it actually makes us more tribal. It makes us less likely to create a community that is based on what matters most, which is, why are we here? Are you trying to build an institution of excellence or one where everyone looks different but thinks the same? As Bill Maher told me on his podcast, he said the left wants college campuses to look like Angelina Jolie's Christmas card. Where it's just, who cares? The color of the skin of people I care about, Most importantly, what is the character? What is the work ethic? What are you gonna bring to the table? What is your skill? What is your intellect? What is your iq? And most and most importantly in all that, as a Christian, like, what are the values that you bring? Are you a good person? Are you gonna tell the truth? You know, none of that based on the color of somebody's skin. None of it. In fact, if you think you know that based on the color of somebody's skin, we have a word for that. In fact, that's literally what CRT and DEI and affirmative action is. Is those things embodied, which is, of course, racism. So, dei, then finally, what President Trump signed yesterday is the most important, 1234, which is this thing called disparate impact. Now, this gets a little bit wonky, and this goes back about 50 years from an executive order signed by Richard Nixon and Lyndon Baines Johnson. This is the legal theory that supports this kind of this monstrosity. So remember, we have affirmative action, which is how they do it in practice, dei, which is that kind of the slow moving corporate policing of the jobs that you will get. And then, of course, critical race theory, which is the philosophical backbone. And then we have disparate impact, which is the legal theory that lets this all happen. Disparate impact of all the things is one of those that has compromised the excellence of America more than almost anything else over the last 40 years. And here's what it is. If there is anything that can show that a certain racial group that's minority has a different impact, the answer must be racism. So therefore, if you have for example, let's just take. Let's take the wealth gap, income gap, how good black students are at algebra. If anything shows that a certain group is not doing as well as another group, the answer must be racism, and we must get rid of it. That is called disparate impact. So it's not about equality of opportunity. It's that they actually want equality of outcome, that there must be something wrong with the test. Think about it this way. Disparate impact would be basically getting rid of the test when a student fails instead of failing the student and keeping the test basically saying, well, there's. There must be something wrong with the test because, you know, XYZ group doesn't do as well, when in reality, there's never been a test created where all groups do the same. We have differences. Men and women have differences. You're going to have different outcomes over time. And by the way, the most important differences, mind you, are not racial differences. You know what they are. Whether or not you have two parents in your house when you're growing up, that's actually the most important difference. Those differences actually shrink when black students have moms and dads around, when Hispanics have moms or dads around, when you have single moms raising millions and millions of black youth in this country, you start to see the data go in a very negative direction. So disparate impact, basically, is this. If you succeed in a test as a white student, that test must have been rigged racially in your favor, and we have to get rid of that test. I want you to think and contemplate how insane that must be and how compromising that is. President Trump yesterday in the Oval Office signed an executive order undoing 50 years of damage of that policy in the federal government, getting rid of it completely. So all that to say, what is the country we want to live in? And I want to try to articulate that. And then let's do some questions, which is, we want to live in a country that is not just competitive, but that is going to beat China. China doesn't mess around with any of this stuff. China plays to win. Now, China's totalitarian. So our issue, not our problem, but we are a free society trying to compete with a totalitarian country. Now, the fact that we're a free society is actually a competitive edge. We'll start more companies, we'll have more unique ideas. Our people will be more creative. We'll have more ingenuity. But the issue when we go up against China is they could say from a decree they could be like, yeah, we're not doing any of this victim based, critical race theory, affirmative action, disparate impact. We're not doing any of that. We're going to be a country based on excellence. And it really is a question as we enter in to the remainder of this century, for those of you that are 18, 19, 20, 21, 22 years old, the type of country that we want to live in is the one that we've lost, that we want to try to get back, which is, if you have a certain circumstance and it might not be as diverse as you'd like, you should ask the question, but is it excellent? And if it's not diverse, but it's excellent, then that's okay, because we prioritize excellence over diversity. Because this idea that the pigmentation of your skin is what is going to make us stronger and better is actually a faulty premise from its core. For example, you go look at the moon landing, room after room after room are these people that were incredible at astrophysics and the smartest mathematicians imaginable. But if you go watch that, some people would teach and say, well, look, those are just rooms full of white dudes. You know, there's also a lot of white dudes that stormed Normandy Beach. A lot of white dudes that founded this country. The question is, does it really matter the color of their skin? No, it actually doesn't. Instead, what should matter is what are you accomplishing? Is that the configuration of the melanin content of what you actually put together is irrelevant. President Trump ran against many different things back in November. And I'm so pleased that he put this on the ballot. And here's the hopeful news. Yes, President Trump has secured the southern border and we have stopped the invasion on the southern border, which is amazing and must be mentioned and noticed. President Trump also ran on no men and female sports. And he ran on drill, baby, drill. And he ran on getting rid of the chemical castration of our kids. All of this is amazing. But he also put woke on the ballot. Now, what is woke? Call something racist till you control it. That's what woke is. Write it down, commit it to memory. That's what it is. Call something racist until you control it. That's racist. That's racist. That's racist. That's racist. Give me the keys. That's woke. So it's a means to power. And President Trump put that on a referendum. And here is the most optimistic thing. The American people saw this, measured it, weighed it, and said, you know what? I actually, I Don't want to live in a race obsessed country. So I'm 31 years old and I could tell you my upbringing 15 years ago, we talked about race way less and was a better country. I grew up in a very racially diverse part of Chicago, suburbs of Chicago, over 100 different countries, nationalities represented. It wasn't a priority, it wasn't an obsession, it wasn't white privilege walks and I'm going to tell you that you're a terrible person. Instead, it was actually, okay, that's cool, tell me where you're from. Different cultures. But what makes us strong is not the diversity, it's actually the unity. What makes us strong is not the differences, it's actually the harmony. What makes us strong is can we bring people from different backgrounds and combine them when actually those backgrounds are not as important? And that goes down to the key promise of what we as conservatives believe in, as Dennis Prager would say. I think Dennis has spoke here before in this auditorium. If not mistaken, he would say that America has a trinity. In God we trust, liberty. And that last phrase, e pluribus unum. That is a Latin phrase. Our founding fathers believed in it. It means out of many 1. The Founding Fathers detested faction factions, especially racial factions will bring down your country quicker than anything else. If you want to sink the United States of America, teach kids about race all the time and have them race obsessed. If you want the United States to thrive and be the greatest nation on the planet, continuing for the next 20 or 30 years, de emphasize race be like, yeah, of course you see it, but that's actually not who somebody is. Instead, it matters how they act. It matters who they are. It matters what they bring to the table. It matters their soul. Because in God's economy, skin color actually doesn't matter to God. He says neither slave nor Greek nor Jew, we're all one in Christ Jesus. It's a statement of universal human equality. It's one that God loves all of us, regardless of how we look and how we're configured. And if we want to go the way of hyper tribalism, there's nothing elevated about that. That's actually a regression. Almost every other country in the world lives in the second and third world poverty. They'll have tribes that will govern whether Middle Eastern countries, African countries. That's very uninteresting to me and it should be to you. The question is, how can we actually rise above that? How can we be a better country? And President Trump, to his great credit because he's called they're calling him a racist for undoing the most racist stuff that we've actually had on the books. And that, let me tell you why. Because in critical race theory, they believe you cannot be racist against white people. Let me tell you, you can be racist against anybody. You can be racist against black people, and you absolutely can be racist against white people. And anti white racism has been growing like crazy the last 10 years in this country. And the reason they say that is, well, white people are in charge. And so racism is a power dynamic. And therefore you're not able to be racist against a group that is in charge. That's complete rubbish. We know that when somebody is prejudicing somebody or stereotyping based on the color skin, solely based on the color skin, that is textbook racism. And so this really is a question of the type of nation we want to live in. But here is the final good news for all of you now entering corporate America. For all of you. That. And by the way, we have people all different skin colors here. You should want this stuff gone, too. You know why? You should want to enter into an environment where you don't get extra points just because you're melanin content. You want to always be viewed as someone who did earn it and not someone who didn't earn it. That's what DEI really stands for, didn't earn it, by the way, which is to get down to the core and the essence of the matter. And it is a hopeful time. It's not going to be easy. Some judge is probably going to enjoy this, and it's going to go all the way up to the Supreme Court. But the American promise is one that remains clear, which is that we want to value hard work above tribal identity. We want to value grit and hustle and character above. Just what do you look like? What you look like is actually infants. We want to elevate above that. We want to be more sophisticated. In fact, this is a fight for Western civilization, a fight that, praise God, President Trump is taking to the left every single day, and this is one of his greatest successes so far. We're honored to be partnering with the Alan Jackson Ministries. And today I want to point you to their podcast. It's called Culture and Christianity, the Alan Jackson Podcast. What makes it unique is Pastor Alan's biblical perspective. He takes the truth from the Bible and applies it to issues that we're facing today. Gender confusion, abortion, immigration, Doge Trump and the White House issues in the church. He doesn't just discuss the problems in every episode. He gives practical things we can can do to make a difference. His guests have incredible expertise and powerful testimonies. Each episode will make you recognize the power of your faith and how God can use your life to impact our world. Today, the Culture and Christianity podcast is informative and encouraging. You can find it on YouTube, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts. Be sure to subscribe so you don't miss any episodes. Alan Jackson Ministries is working hard to get biblical truth back into our culture. You can find out more about Pastor Allen and the ministry at@AlanJackson.com that is AlanJackson.com again that is AlanJackson.com okay, so we'll do some questions here. If you guys disagree, we'll bring it to the front of the line and then we'll do some Q and A and Yep, let's begin here.
Ethan Casper
My name is Ethan Casper and about a month ago I toured Turning Point usa. And when I was on my tour I talked to a lot of your employees and a lot of them went to college. And so I was wondering why would you not hire someone like minded as you?
Charlie Kirk
Oh, that's a good question. Yeah, just so you know, we don't require a college degree to work at Turning Point usa. But that's a good question. A lot of people that work for us are actually graduates of college. Just so you guys know, I'm not like the biggest fan of college if you haven't noticed that I wrote a whole book called the College Scam except University of Wyoming. Karen. I love this place. It's great. So of course so I gotta have a carve out. But my main contention is this, know why you are here. Don't go to college to discover yourself. Don't go to college to find yourself. Bad idea. And definitely don't borrow a bunch of money to go study things that don't matter to go find jobs that don't exist. And so equally, and I think the Wyoming hard work culture will appreciate this, we need actually more people that are entrepreneurs, more people that work with their hands. We need more electricians, we need more plumbers, we need more carpenters in this country. And so we need as a culture to stop looking down on people that don't have a four year degree. We need to say just because you don't have a piece of paper doesn't mean you're not allowed in the cool kids club. In fact, one thing that I am pushing President Trump on and I think he signed a executive order on this, it's that it shouldn't be a requirement to go to college, even work in the federal government. And let me be also clear, it's not that all colleges are bad. It's just that oftentimes many colleges are a waste. A waste of your time and a waste of your treasure. Those are four of your most valuable years of life. And if you're spending them and you're getting a lot out of it, great. But I go to college campuses so you guys don't have to, Okay? I go to the most liberal places on the planet and so many kids leave with regret. Less energy, more debt, more confusion about the world. And I look at these amazing 18 year olds, I say, boy, I wish that they would be given an environment where they're supercharged for four years, not weighed down and demoralized after four years. God bless you, man. I hope you'll work for Turning Point USA one day. Thank you.
Remington Coltis
Good evening, Charlie. My name is Remington Coltis and I had the pleasure of spending the day with your wonderful Turning Point USA chapter.
Charlie Kirk
Your name's Remington? That's the most Wyoming name I've ever heard in history.
Remington Coltis
My old man was a marine.
Charlie Kirk
Thank you for his service. And by the way, we have a family from the Abbey Gate. I think they're here somewhere. God bless you guys. Terrible situation. Lost their life. Their. Their loved one lost their life at Abbey Gate in Kabul, Afghanistan. Never should have happened under Joe Biden. So thank you for being here, guys. God bless you and thank you for his service. Thank you. Please.
Remington Coltis
Absolutely. And thank you so much for saying that, Charlie. That means so much. So the reason I came here today is because I wrote a book for my very young infant son that I intend to give to him when you he is a teenager. I was raised without a father and many of us were. And in this book, I detail a lot of the things that a child should know, should learn from his father. And I've left a copy of that with your wonderful Turning Point USA chapter. I was hoping you would do me the honor of reading it before I finalize it.
Charlie Kirk
Thank you. I will. Thank you.
Remington Coltis
Thank you, sir.
Charlie Kirk
And I'll just say one thing. The fact you were raised as a father, you now have unique opportunity to give the blessing that you never had, which I think will heal a lot of maybe of the regret or sorrow, frustration that you might have been raised with. And that's my advice to young men all the time that were raised without fathers that don't walk around being bitter. Look and aim yourself to be the father that you wish you would have had. And that is the most beautiful way to kind of complete the circle and make the world a profoundly better place. So God bless you, man. Thank you so much.
Remington Coltis
God bless you. Praise Jesus Christ.
Audience Member
Hello, Mr. Kirk. I am here to ask you about. I'm assuming you are a big fan of RFK Jr and just a few days ago, he made a speech about autism. And in that, he made some very specific things claiming that autism has increased, which is true. Rates of diagnosis have increased. But he has also stated that autistic people are unable to pay taxes, unable to take care of themselves, and are a net drain.
Charlie Kirk
He said some autistic people, which of course is true.
Audience Member
He emphasized most of them. Okay, yes, he did.
Charlie Kirk
No, that's not even close to. You know, that's not true, man. Okay?
Audience Member
You know that he did. I saw the video. You did, too. That's what he stated.
Charlie Kirk
It's called the spectrum for a reason. Right? There's people.
Audience Member
I would know that. I'm on the spectrum.
Charlie Kirk
Okay? I. Great. Okay, so fine. Congratulations. I mean, I don't know what to tell you now. It's completely irrelevant information, but it gives.
Audience Member
Information because I should know more about this than the average person. That's my credentials compared to you. So I should know more about this than you.
Charlie Kirk
Okay, but again, Bobby Kennedy, who spent his entire life trying to get to the root cause of autism, I think you should agree, we should try to find that out, right?
Audience Member
We already know it's a genetic issue. It just so happens to show up in people.
Charlie Kirk
Hold on. So but if that's. If that's the case, why is it that autism was 1 in 30,000 in the 1970s and now it's 1 in 2017?
Audience Member
That's simple. We had Covid, the lockdown, which affected people. Let me speak. Let me speak. During COVID people isolated, they didn't socialize with other people, and they developed similar traits, such as being unable to maintain eye contact and fidgeting, which are generally associated with autism right now. But that is part of the reason why we have higher rates of high functioning autistic people, and the rates of low functioning autistic people have stayed relatively stagnant.
Charlie Kirk
Respectfully, then, hold on, guys. Why did the rate go up so much from 1990 to 2020, then? No, Covid.
Audience Member
It's because people were being diagnosed more. We had more exposure.
Charlie Kirk
The test is exactly the same. The test does not change.
Audience Member
Testing more people. Okay, well, if people become normalized in society and more people are being tested for it, this has been more people are going to be diagnosed.
Charlie Kirk
This has been widespread, debunked in many ways.
Audience Member
No, it hasn't.
Charlie Kirk
And, but testing better made sense for a while. But then if it keeps going up over a period of time when the test doesn't change, then there's probably an environmental factor.
Audience Member
And I gave you the environmental factor.
Charlie Kirk
Right, so. So it's just genes.
Audience Member
Never said it was genes. The reason why we have had. The reason we have had higher rates of autism specifically in the last few years is because of lockdown and not socializing with others. If we had similar statistics from back when the lockdowns from Spanish, we would observe similar higher rates.
Charlie Kirk
Just so we're clear, it was 1 in 33 kids around 2019 and now it's 1 in 27. So it went from 1 in 27,000 to 1 in about 33 and now 1 in 27. So you go from 1 in 27,000 all the way down to almost a thousand times increase. There's something probably causing it. And I'm not even saying it's vaccines. I don't know that. Some people believe it, some people don't believe.
Audience Member
Well, we know it's not vaccine. The original study was 20 years ago.
Charlie Kirk
That you don't know.
Audience Member
Yes, we. Dr. Andrew. I'm sorry, disgraced ex Dr. Andrew Wakefield.
Charlie Kirk
Fine. But I will say that to have the hubris or the pride that you constantly know everything about the autistic autism topic.
Audience Member
I know more about this than you, Charlie.
Charlie Kirk
Okay, well, fine, just allow me to finish talking. Right. Is I think, I think exactly why we have not been able to find a determinative reason why so many kids have like, let's just say neurodiverse disorders. Right. And so do you think there's anything about the plastics in our food from.
Audience Member
The type of diet that microplastics could be a factor?
Charlie Kirk
Okay, well now that's environmental. So hold on. Are microplastics in vaccines? Yes, they are. So. But I'm not saying that that's the only way microplastics come in.
Audience Member
So now you're playing ball for a debunked myth.
Charlie Kirk
Well, actually I'm not.
Audience Member
Yes, you are. You just stated a tacit endorsement.
Charlie Kirk
I am. No, I'm not.
Audience Member
In fact, you're not explicitly saying you're giving enough for your audience to.
Charlie Kirk
I think, I think you, as someone who cares about this topic should be extremely open minded to all the data and not ideological about this. Whatever the studies end up showing that should need to be controlled, that need to be double peer reviewed and we.
Audience Member
Have those studies, Charlie. We don't need more. We may find some that do change it and then if that does happen, I'll change my mind. But as of now, almost every single study shows that vaccine, vaccines do not cause.
Charlie Kirk
I'm not even saying they do. What I, what I do find a problem with is people that don't even want to continue to explore that topic or that question. And let me tell you why. The very same people that don't even want us to try to test that are the same people that told us the COVID vaccine was safe and effective and told us to lock down our kids during COVID They and my.
Audience Member
Would you have rather had millions people of people die from COVID or would you have rather had people being locked down?
Charlie Kirk
I don't want to go down that rabbit hole. We should never have locked down anybody. The lockdowns did not save a single life.
Audience Member
Yes it did.
Charlie Kirk
The lockdowns ruined millions of lives via suicide speech, delays, kids.
Audience Member
That is a negative effect of the lockdowns from the perspective of the government working people.
Charlie Kirk
All lockdowns did people. All lockdowns.
Audience Member
Everybody is dying in the hospital because there's not enough beds. Then there's not going to be enough people to work the factories that you want to bring back.
Charlie Kirk
Right. So again, all lockdowns did was delay the inevitable. Yeah, everybody.
Audience Member
And that was the point. The point was to delay it so we have a longer spread of people getting it. So there were hospital beds.
Charlie Kirk
Just so we are people live Again, I don't want to go down that rabbit hole. But the real reason why we locked down was because our public health authorities of Mr. Fauci and Ms. Burks and all of the gang over there, they refused to ever entertain early interventions that could have helped people fight Covid. Like vitamin D supplementation potentially.
Audience Member
It should have been debunked, Charlie. Okay, so we know this.
Charlie Kirk
So you think that vitamin D has been debunked when it comes to fighting.
Audience Member
Vitamin D explicitly doesn't make Covid better because we are slobs and do not go out. We are unable to get vitamin D. And having a good vitamin supplement makes it so you're able to fight back all diseases. Things along other lines such as ivermectin did not work.
Charlie Kirk
Let's get to the next question. So here, here, here we have a difference.
Audience Member
I get it. You're scared.
Charlie Kirk
We just have. We have clarity but not agreement. I am limitlessly open minded to what is causing the nationwide crisis. Of autism in our kids. Do you think it's a crisis? No.
Audience Member
There's nothing inherently wrong with being autistic.
Charlie Kirk
Well, so I don't know if it's wrong, but it can be very challenging for some people. For some people can be a superpower. But there are severely autistic kids as well that bang their heads up against the walls. Thousands and thousands of families, tens of thousands of families have to deal with that. And I think that if we start to see something that pops up so often and I would ask the question, if there is nothing wrong with autistic kids, why do they need medication?
Audience Member
They don't need medication.
Charlie Kirk
Well, many of them actually do.
Audience Member
That's because of other things. Autism isn't a medical, a medicated disease. You do realize that talking about wanting to hear autism is eugenics, right? You do realize that.
Charlie Kirk
Hold on. So no one wants to kill anybody, but if you have brain inflammation to the extent.
Audience Member
I never said killing eugenics isn't just killing people.
Charlie Kirk
Wanting to remove this is outrageous of.
Audience Member
People is eugenic an out.
Charlie Kirk
I no one remove them. I want a kid who's in seventh grade right now in Casper, Wyoming who can't focus enough to take a math test or does not understand social cues from his classmates to be able to have his brain inflammation go down by maybe 20% so that he can have an elevated social life. I want that for the millions of kids that are diagnosed with autism in this country. So anyway, we have agree, we don't have agreement. Thank you for your time. Private student loan debt in America totals about $300 billion. About 45 billion of that is labeled as distress. Go to yrefi.com they provide you with a custom loan payment based on your ability to Pay. Go to yrefi.com if your private student loan debt is keeping you up at night and running your life. It doesn't have to just call yrefi. Why refi offers a three minute rate check without any credit impact. Go to yrefi.com that is yrefy.com you you don't have to ignore that mountain of student loan statements on your kitchen table anymore. Again, go to yrefi.com that is yre fy.com so take a look at it. Just call 888. Yrefi 34 may not be available in all 50 states because of private student loan debt. So many Americans feel stuck and helpless. Even if they've lost hope. Yrefi gives you a light at the end of the tunnel. Why refi does not care what your credit score is, go to yrefi.com that is yr. That is yrefi.com refinances distress than defaulted private student loans, which are different from federal loans.
Audience Member
Hey, do I just go?
Charlie Kirk
Yeah.
Audience Member
Okay, cool. So you've talked a little bit about American competitiveness tonight, and I'm getting a sense that you're also not a huge fan of college. Is that correct?
Charlie Kirk
Somewhat, yes.
Audience Member
Okay, somewhat. And you are also not a fan of immigrants. So given those two stances, you are proposing cutting off a substantial part of America's labor supply, both in skilled and unskilled sectors. And you don't have, you're not encouraging young people, or rather you are actively discouraging young people from gaining the necessary skills to replace the skilled immigrants that are coming in. So given that you hold these two stances, how is America going to become more competitive when you. Especially in fields that require highly skilled labor, such as medical research and material science and engineering?
Charlie Kirk
Of course I want people to get skills. So that's not a correct representation. Does college provide skills to the most majority of people that go. Does a woman's study degree give you any skills that was going to help us fight China?
Audience Member
Well, you're taking, and I know why you're doing.
Charlie Kirk
That's a majority of degrees. And people that go to college are, are in the social sciences, are in communications and they're in irrelevant degrees. A majority. So a majority of the 21 million people that are in college right now are there studying stuff that you and I would laugh at.
Audience Member
Oh, I wouldn't laugh at that at all. I think that people go to college for a variety of reasons.
Charlie Kirk
No, I know that, but do you think that when we're looking at American competitiveness, studying North African lesbian poetry is going to make us more competitive? Well.
Audience Member
I don't think that a person's decision to pursue an education should be determined by what is necessarily for the greater good of the country.
Charlie Kirk
Well, that's a separate issue. I'm not even contending that everyone has a right to do that. You can make whatever path you want. I'm making a broader macro point of competitiveness. That when you have millions of your best people studying stuff that's complete trash and complete nonsense to just go be kind, become mid level manager, paper pusher, bureaucrats, not good. So I do have to ask the question.
Audience Member
Well, you haven't answered my question yet because you're going on and you're talking about, okay, some degrees are not some okay, majority. I'll Grant you that. So you're saying a majority of degrees that are granted in the United States are not going to make America competitive in STEM fields. Okay, fine. I asked, given that you are anti immigration and that you are disparaging going.
Charlie Kirk
To college anti illegal immigration, just to make sure I'm anti foreigners breaking into our country. So I have to clarify you on my position, but go ahead.
Audience Member
So the Trump administration's deportation of academics, that's bad, you would say?
Charlie Kirk
Well, again, it depends on what they're being deported for and what they're teaching and the criteria around that.
Audience Member
So the cancer researcher at, what was it, Boston U, Harvard, some Boston University that was deported for forgetting to declare frog embryos in her carry on. That was a dangerous person that needed to be deported. Would you agree with that?
Charlie Kirk
I don't know enough about the frog embryo thief.
Audience Member
Oh, okay. Thief. Oh, no, no, no, no.
Charlie Kirk
These were. Smuggler. Sorry, smuggler.
Audience Member
Related to her research.
Charlie Kirk
Frog embryo smuggler. Let's talk more broadly though. If we are thinking about going up against China, do we want more universities that are of the liberal arts direction or more that are doing really like artificial intelligence preparedness, astrophysics, engineering, of which of course I totally support, but that's less than 12% of all students that go to college study those things.
Audience Member
So you're asking what exactly?
Charlie Kirk
What's gonna make us more competitive? The current college model or one that is significantly changed and somewhat reconfigured? I mean, but just so you know, China's premise is that we're competing with them. I would say we're an enemy with the Chinese Communist Party, not just a trading partner, that they're an enemy of the United States. But I don't want to go too far down that rabbit hole. Back to immigration. I'm against illegal immigration. I want the best people to be here merit based. But I don't believe immigration is a charity. You should not come here just because you want to. And we're not going to open our doors. It's just an act of benevolencely. We want the best people that are going to assimilate and make our country more competitive.
Audience Member
So you don't think we should open our doors to anyone with say a PhD or a high skill?
Charlie Kirk
It depends. Of course not.
Audience Member
So that is an arbitrary, you know, trimming of a labor supply that we could use. How is that good for American competition? These are highly skilled. Highly.
Charlie Kirk
Well, maybe again if they have PhD, if they have a PhD in Islamic science studies, what are they going to bring to America. That's good. Okay. No, no, seriously. If they. If they have a PhD and they wrote their dissertation on how wonderful Muhammad was. Sorry, I don't want you in my country. Okay. You can go to France.
Audience Member
Right. Okay, so you're.
Charlie Kirk
That's why I said it depends.
Audience Member
Okay.
Charlie Kirk
Yeah. My answer was it depends. Now, if you have a Ph.D. and you, you know, you've written extensively on how the atom was split, and you're from Japan, then, yeah, we'll entertain you coming to this country. And we want that, of course. But again, if you're. You have to have some nuance into who you're going to let into our country. Not just your blanket statement, let anybody with a Ph.D. come into America. That's silly.
Audience Member
You don't think that humanities have any value at all? So history.
Charlie Kirk
Well, I do, actually, the way that it's taught and configured. So are you here at University of Wyoming?
Audience Member
Yes, I am.
Charlie Kirk
Okay. Are you in the humanities or what are you?
Audience Member
Oh, it depends on who you ask. I'm studying to be a Doctor of Economics.
Charlie Kirk
Oh, great, good. So you guys have spent a lot of time studying Thomas Sowell.
Audience Member
Yes.
Charlie Kirk
And Milton Friedman.
Audience Member
Yes.
Charlie Kirk
And F.A. hayek and Ludwig von Mises.
Audience Member
Yes, all of that. My work is actually quite closely related to Friedrich Hayek.
Charlie Kirk
Great. So do you think most college kids across the country are learning Hayek?
Audience Member
Actually, yes. I was introduced to Hayek and Bastiat.
Charlie Kirk
That's a joke and you know it. Oh, really? You're the first economic student in the country I ever know that even knows who Hayek.
Audience Member
Well, I think that's because a lot of people enter economics thinking that it's just another business degree, that it's just.
Charlie Kirk
About how it works. I mean, it's a rigorous study to obviously go after. The humanities as they're configured, are wretched to the core with anti Western teaching, anti American literature, anti Western teaching, an emphasis on Herbert Marcuse and Angela Davis and Kimberly Crenshaw and Judith Butler and. What? Derrick Bell?
Audience Member
What's wrong with Angela Davis? She's a great woman.
Charlie Kirk
Angela Davis, the outspoken vocal communist? Yeah, she's a great woman. Yeah. Yeah. That's why kids shouldn't go to college to learn from communists. That proves my point. Angela Davis has nothing to offer to the academy. She is the disciple of Herbert Marcuse.
Audience Member
I don't think a diverse education and political theory is useful.
Charlie Kirk
You can learn about those perspectives, but studying them as your primary perspective.
Audience Member
Do you think that who's studying Angela Davis as their primary perspective? That's a Leap. That is a leap.
Charlie Kirk
No, it's. Hold on. Angela Davis's or the post modern school of thought brought to you by Marcuse and the Frankfurt School and Jacques Derrida is the predominant philosophical worldview that is put forward in the humanities across the country, that is.
Audience Member
We've strayed pretty far from my original point. We've got people behind us. Well, hold on. I'm just going to give you an opportunity to clearly answer the questions that I had given that you are anti immigration.
Charlie Kirk
Anti illegal immigration.
Audience Member
Okay, fine. Anti illegal immigration. That's fine.
Charlie Kirk
I'll want you more Elon Musk and less Elon Omar. Does that make sense?
Audience Member
That's fate.
Charlie Kirk
But okay, so that's the type of legal immigration I want. More Elons, Less Elons.
Audience Member
Okay, we're gonna ignore that bait.
Charlie Kirk
No, but that's my answer. I mean, you have merit over earlier.
Audience Member
Muslim totalitarian said you are against some highly educated, highly skilled immigrants that come in based on your personal criteria. Fine. And you are against training our young people to fill their shoes. How does this make America more competitive? And you've spent a lot of time talking about immigration and the fact that some college degrees are worthless, but you have not at all addressed how your viewpoint makes America more competitive.
Charlie Kirk
Apprenticeships, trade schools, community colleges, there's other options than four year colleges to be able to get skills of which I highly support. Did you know there are 11 million job openings in this country right now that do not require. Require a college degree. That just requires some form of technical training. So yes, we need less people going to college and more people that are going to enter the muscular class of this country.
Audience Member
Community college isn't going to teach you how to cure cancer. But that's my time.
Charlie Kirk
All right. Okay. But a community college actually might teach you how to change a tire, which millions Americans don't know how to do. Okay, thank you for your time. As if studying the humanities, you're learning how to cure cancer. It's really something. Yeah.
Audience Member
Evening. I guess my biggest question is I don't entirely understand what the point of this is. Not what you're doing right now, but kind of this movement as a whole. I, I genuinely don't know what the end goal is of any of this. It's literally called the American comeback. But you're talking about, you know, past American values, past this, or differences that existed for the 21st century, but automation, progression, things like that. Those don't get a go back. Like you can't re. You can't de. Invent some of the things we've done, when it comes to rhetoric around, like trans people, it's always now, now, now, but 25, 50, 100 years in the future? Like, I just don't know what the point of these arguments is. Like, take genetic engineering for an example. It's changing a lot of things about humanity and pretty much everything else in the world. Do you really think that innovation is going to stop 25, 50, 100 years in the future? Like the ability to change something about a person pretty much arbitrarily if you felt like it. Or bringing back American jobs? Except a lot of jobs are already being supplanted by automation, artificial intelligence. Like, if we keep doing that, there might not even be a point of working in the future. So I guess my real question is, what do you expect in 100 years from now out of humanity or hell, even the US if it still exists? I don't know.
Charlie Kirk
Okay. I mean, that's a good question. So what do we want? I mean, for example, we want to reverse the fertility crisis in the West. We are increasingly having less children and we have a population collapse that is plaguing our entire society. People need to get married more and have children younger and have a lot more children in this country. We want to see that reverse. And that actually plays into your question. With automation, AI and the hyper digitization of our country, we are becoming less human to one another. I want to see more people go back to church. I want to see church attendance go up. I want us to become a less violent country and have violence go down. I want a country where you don't have to your doors at night because you know your neighbor by the name and you don't have to worry that someone's going to come in and steal your stuff. I think Wyoming's a great model for part of the America that we lost, where there is that kind of rugged independence, but there's also that neighborly dependence where you're so far from the town center that if something happens to your kid, you drive to a neighbor first to see if they can help or they can pitch in. We've lost that. We're increasingly a nation of strangers. We're foreign to one another. And so those are just some things. I mean, as far as 100 years from now, I would love to see what the current trends that we are seeing. I'd love to see the suicide epidemic in this country reverse, the drug epidemic in this country reverse. I'd love to see us become less obese and improve our diets. And so it's just some of the things that we're aiming for to come back to the country we used to have.
Audience Member
That's the thing I struggle with though. You talk about a comeback, but the United States has its fair share of issues in the past. I mean, the whole point is that we try to move on from those.
Charlie Kirk
Like, do we have anything great in the past?
Audience Member
We do. There's also plenty of bad things, but.
Charlie Kirk
Okay, then we want to go back.
Audience Member
To the business, I guess. I don't like this rhetoric of walking it back.
Charlie Kirk
Why the future will happen. Why does that bother you? Why does it bother you to say, hey, we want to go back to how it was in the 1980s where divorce rates were lower and that kids weren't staring at screens all the time. Like, why is that bad?
Audience Member
1980S, there was a ton of drug abuse.
Charlie Kirk
Every era has a problem, but objectively, the 80s were a better country to be raised as a kid than today. Objectively, the 90s, you could say the same. The number one killer of our nation's young people is self inflicted suicide. When suicide is the leading cause of death to your nation's young people, there's something like so alarmingly wrong that we should press pause and ask the question why?
Audience Member
I guess, like I said though, we can't walk back a lot of what we've done. The Internet isn't going away. Same thing for artificial intelligence.
Charlie Kirk
I'm not even recommending.
Audience Member
But like a lot of those points in time you reference to, it's always about like social media is causing, you know, the decay of the country or decay of humanity or just all these things. But this stuff isn't going away and it's not likely to change.
Charlie Kirk
So I, again, it's just, respectfully, I reject your whole attitude. We can change things. You don't have to be on your phone all the time. You don't have to have it as if it's like some augmentation of your being. We can turn off our phones and be human again. You don't have to all of a sudden bend a knee to the technological leviathan or the beast and act as if you're just a vassal of the major social media companies. The technology might keep proceeding, but they're also going to be a remnant of those of us that want to remain human. So thank you.
Audience Member
So here's my question. I, I fundamentally disagree with you in regards to having a family and getting married in this day and age, and I'll tell you why. 70% of the divorce rates happen because of women. Okay. That's a fact. Before we get angry, let's talk about the facts that you can Google this, too. And on top of that. And on top of that, 85. Hey, hey, hey. 85% of the men, or I should say people in jail, Corrobo. In fatherless homes. So there's a direct correlation between those two things. So my thinking is that we don't need to necessarily have more families unless we have a complete change to the system. Now, what do you think about that? We need a change of the system in order for us to have a nice conversation about having a family because the state incentivizes single motherhood in this country. And you're looking at me with that face, but tell me why.
Charlie Kirk
I'm trying to understand what you're saying. What is your contention that we shouldn't get married and have kids?
Audience Member
We shouldn't currently. Because of this particular issue right now. What is the issue is.
Charlie Kirk
Build that out further for me.
Audience Member
Okay, okay, let me explain.
Charlie Kirk
Outside of the fact that the anti woman thing that you said.
Audience Member
Well, it's not necessarily anti woman. It's a fact. You can Google this, too, and look at the divorce rates in this country. I'm just saying that if we're going to have more families, we need some protections in place for men. Because right now, the legal system actively destroys the man in court. All right, is that false or is that true?
Charlie Kirk
I mean, yeah, of course it's true that the state encourages divorce, but. Yeah, how about you find a woman that you want to spend the rest of your life.
Audience Member
I was married for 10 years.
Charlie Kirk
And then you should take responsibility for your own actions. Like, why is that my problem?
Audience Member
Another thing is that you're saying you should. You're asking me if I should find women.
Charlie Kirk
But hold on. You're going up in front of people. Time out to say marriage is bad because I had a bad experience. No, no, no.
Audience Member
But it's true. Statistically, we can look at the data. Is it wrong to say that, hey, 70% of divorces are initiated by women when the data says that.
Charlie Kirk
Can I ask you a.
Audience Member
Don't care about feelings.
Charlie Kirk
Right. Can I ask you a provocative question? Did you. Did you do anything that led to your divorce?
Audience Member
Absolutely.
Charlie Kirk
Okay, so it wasn't all the woman's fault. No, no, no.
Audience Member
But I'm saying. No, but here's the thing. 70% of the divorces are initiated by them.
Charlie Kirk
And.
Audience Member
Yes, well, this is an anecdotal situation.
Charlie Kirk
See, I reject the premise. I Reject the premise. I think that we as men must lead. Women might initiate it, but we as men don't take the directive to have peace in the home. I reject the premise. Hold on, hold on. Time out. Let me finish. I reject the premise. Yes, women might initiate the divorce proceeding, but we are the one as men that ignore the subterranean thrill and the brush fire that is growing. We're the ones that should take the family back to church, that go seek counseling if necessary. And it's not. It's not good enough just to say, like, hey, you know, oh, it's women that initiate it. It's men who don't act, I think, confidently and strong enough in most cases to actually make sure that marriage is a safe haven to have children in a holy protected place.
Audience Member
And I think that makes sense. And let me say this. Okay? Let's find some common ground. So we. We know that the system is flawed, right? So here's the thing that's flawed about it. When the federal government incentivizes the state at the state level for child support enforcement programs, and we have a system where the state makes a bunch of money off of this, it's pretty parasitic because there's no such thing as a 50, 50 custody in Wyoming, even if you get along with the parents. So when the state is actively involved with family matters and women are getting paid off from this, and this is not false, we have a toxic system that probably needs to be revised. Do you not disagree with that? Because.
Charlie Kirk
Well, I think we should revise. I do think. I do believe in more men's rights in custody. I think that's fine. But like, let's take a step back, though. And I think it's very important is that. That men are objectively better when they are married and they don't stay as grown infant boys watching porn and playing video games all day long.
Audience Member
And I don't disagree with that.
Charlie Kirk
Good. So we agree. I agree. Here's my argument. Despite. Here's my. Despite the problems of the legal system, of which your argument has some merit, yeah. We still should get married because it is the right thing to do, despite the technical problems, despite the difficulties. In fact, it's up us for up men, us men, to find a woman that we love and to protect that marriage and hope that it never goes in the direction of divorce. And just 30% though, that's 30% chances again. So. Well, no, no, about half marriages continue. It's not 30%.
Audience Member
No. Because if 70. No, hold on a second. Because look at this. Why do we have such a society that is so hyper focused on we need to have a bunch of children and get married. But we have this system in place and I'm talking about the federal government that incentivizes single parenthood. And we can look at most of these inmates in jail come from fatherless homes. Maybe we should get rid of the state involved in personal family matters.
Charlie Kirk
So you're conflating, you know why the fatherless homes you're talking about.
Audience Member
Yes.
Charlie Kirk
Are people that never got married in the first place. Most of the time they're men.
Audience Member
Yes, that's true.
Charlie Kirk
They're men that impregnate women and flee the women that they were with. But understand this, that every generation has had troubles. Yeah. Our duty as men is to overcome obstacles, not whine about them and not complain about them. So, yes, there is a problem here. But I would reject the premise. Every man here should not. Every young man should say, I'm not going to be a boy and I'm going to go do the hard thing and get married and have children. And I would just push back against some of your narrative where you're telling like, well, men, it might not be good, it might not be this. Yes, life has lots of things that could throw at you, but marriage is a holy, holy institution that we should aim for. And the fact that marriage is slipping in the west is one of the great damaging indicators as to why our country is falling apart.
Audience Member
Should we revise it?
Charlie Kirk
Should we revise it? Yes, I think we should revise some of the laws. I agree. But the answer is not to not get married or run away from that institution. It's tough. Okay. Still, go get married and have kids. Thank you very much. I appreciate it. If you want to make sense of the change and the chaos happening around us, you're going to need God's help. That's why Alan Jackson Ministries, a friend of mine, created the Culture and Christianity podcast, the Culture and Christianity Conference, and their weeknight news show, Alan Jackson. Now, millions of people also listen to Pastor Alan Jackson's powerful sermons each week. I do. On radio, television, satellite and online. In today's world, there's desperate need for truth, and Alan Jackson Ministries feels a sense of urgency to deliver God's truth and a biblical perspective to anyone who will listen. We can't afford to be complacent. Their mission is to help people become more fully devoted followers of Jesus Christ, which is the most important thing, giving your life to the Lord. Including here on the Charlie Kirk show. Go to alanjackson.com Charlie that is alanjackson.com Charlie to find recent podcasts, shows and sermons. Be informed, find encouragement. Hear the truth delivered in a way that just makes sense. Sense. You'll also find books, studies, prayers and other tools to help you grow in your faith again. That's alanjackson.com Charlie alanjackson.com Charlie this is our time to make a difference. Check it out right now.
Madison
Hello, my name is Madison. I'm a student at the University of Wyoming currently. Next semester I'll be taking a step away from college specifically and I'll be getting my license in vet tech work. But go uw. I do have a question for you. I grew up in a conservative household, thank God. I'm very glad to be a conservative in this day. And I have recently kind of had some conflicting feelings and I think that they kind of in terms of like, view differ from what your view is. And I guess I'm really wanting to kind of get to a solid middle ground here and find some balance. In my opinion. I am kind of rising to the mindset of being an advocate for Hispanics specifically, if I can give you an example. So recently, I think within the last year, she lives in a different state, but if I can share this in confidence, I guess, I mean, without great detail, she is an illegal alien. And this was kind of of a shock to me, being a conservative and her asking me what my viewpoints are and compared to hers. And she's become like one of my best friends and I love her dearly and I've seen her grow within the last year working in this country, providing a lot to this country and helping America become excellent. She's currently a student in a university. And a lot with the recent election, which I'm proud of who I voted for, but she's not necessarily the same viewpoint. And I guess like my biggest conflict here is what would you like to see going forward for the Hispanic community, especially young women and men who are in their 20s who are illegal, being able to have the same equal opportunity in this country as I do, because that's my conflict, you know.
Charlie Kirk
Yeah. So thank you. Great question. I'm gonna gently correct some stuff. Yeah, it's okay. Not all Hispanics are illegal. In fact, there's a lot of Hispanics that are here legally. So I know you said Hispanics twice. I don't want to loop the idea that every Hispanic is here that broke into the country illegally. Secondly. No, I know. And that not all illegals are Hispanic. There's a Lot of other countries that people that break those laws. I don't know enough about the situation here, but here's just the general rule that if you break our law there must be a penalty period. And so if you are here and you came into the country illegally, I don't know the circumstances, if they were carried as a kid. It's a little bit more complicated.
Madison
She was when she was 2.
Charlie Kirk
Well, so then her parents are the ones that should go back to wherever she came from with her because her parents made that mistake with her. I'm a incredibly like non negotiating hawk when it comes to immigration because if you come here without permission, if you come here without warrant, then we don't have an immigration system. We basically just have a bum rush on the southern border. It could be very hard for you because you know this person and you like this person at the same time. We're the only country in the world that says, you know what, I understand that you're not supposed to be here and that you haven't been here for the right reason and we're just going to allow you to stay here. That's how we've gotten to the place where we have 20 million people illegally in our country. And so and I just like, just to be clear that her parents are the ones that basically cut in line and then used her kind of as a way to get into the country. And I don't love the idea of emotional manipulation. I'm basically a blind justice guy. If you're not here legally, we will humanely return you to your country of origin. And so you might not agree or like that, but we have to be a nation of laws. We're not going to be just the nation of feelings.
Madison
Right. I really appreciate that. Thank you so much.
Charlie Kirk
Thank you for your question. Really appreciate it. Thank you.
Kit
Hello, my name is Kit. So I am a generally like conservative libertarian. However, one thing I've noticed about the consultation conservative movement over the past couple years is almost an over fixation on the left's obsession with identity politics. And I think what it, I mean what it seems like it's turning into is that we're becoming so obsessed with getting rid of identity politics that it is effectively becoming our identity politics where it seems like it could be a tool that's used to hide bad policy and ignore good policy that needs to be implemented. And I just wonder like, do you think that this over fixation on getting rid of identity politics could eventually hurt the conservative movement?
Charlie Kirk
Can I ask you to give an example? Is that.
Kit
Okay, well, as an example for your entire introduction here, the majority of it was talking about, you know, getting rid of dei. And don't get me wrong, DEI isn't a good thing.
Charlie Kirk
I'm glad to have it gone. Well, no, so identity politics, just so we're clear, is your political affiliation is your skin color. Getting rid of things that believe that your political affiliation is your skin color is not identity politics, and it's not our identity. We're simply just fixing an error. Does that make sense?
Kit
Yes, but the over fixation on those things, because we do definitely have genuine issues that I hear almost nothing about from either side, actually, or there are things that I hear from the left, but they don't actually do anything about because the goal is to not.
Charlie Kirk
Yeah, fair enough. We would just say, though, that those four examples I gave crt, dei, affirmative action, disparate impact, these are incredibly important. And what I'm doing is celebrating like a glorious achievement. And I only have so much time to talk here. And we should get rid of bad things, and we should celebrate it when we get rid of bad things.
Kit
Right, but the focus with getting rid of bad things, I mean, don't you think that the focus of getting rid of bad things is to then talk about what new things we can move on to?
Charlie Kirk
Sure, yeah. I mean, I think President Trump is doing that as well. But I mean, have you seen emphasis on the disparate impact stuff? Probably not. I mean, this is in a monumental step forward for the country because we're getting rid of this, this monstrosity. And getting rid of DEI means we're bringing back merit. That means more innovation, that means more entrepreneurs, that means more risk taking, more invention. And so I think they actually play in together. Thank you. I got to get the next question. Thank you very.
Audience Member
Much.
Charlie Kirk
Hi, Charlie. I go to a decently sized trade school here in town called wyotech. Good for you. God bless you.
Audience Member
I know there's quite a few of us here, so I just had a quick question.
Charlie Kirk
What's your advice for the blue collar community? Man, first of all, God bless you. My message to those that work with your hands, not only do you matter, but we would not have a country without those of you that work in the invisible jobs behind the scenes. Three things. Four things. Build skills, build businesses, build wealth, build character, build a family. Five things. Do those five things and you in a blue collar job, you have a very unique blessing. And I find this. You know what your blessing is? You can what I call layer. Layering is where you do one thing and you can add another productive thing on top of it. So can I ask you, what is your proficiency? What are you? I'm in collision and refinishing. Great. So I imagine. Thank you, by the way. Collision and refinishing. You're gonna have a job for a long time. Just so we're clear. Especially with Wyoming winters. Right. So while you're doing that work, I imagine you could listen to a podcast. Right? So my advice to blue collar America is you could become incredibly wise and deep and proficient while you're making an income. A lot of people that are sitting in meetings all day long that work in the laptop class, not the, you know, muscular class, they don't have the ability to do that. So what I'm getting at is in the time that you're working with your hands, you're able to also train and learn and dive deep into ideas. That's why I believe the average plumber in this country has more wisdom than the average college professor in this country. Country. Because they are. They are. They are consuming such necessary information and then finally, never let anybody, anybody talk down to you or what you're doing just because you did not go to college. Prove them wrong. Start a business, build a lot of wealth. Not only is it critically important, but, you know, we have a colossal shortage in this country of people that know how to do things. And when you can do things, you are valuable and. And therefore you are powerful. So God bless you, man. Thank you so much. Thank you.
Audience Member
Thank you for all you've done for this generation.
Charlie Kirk
Just a reminder, disagreements will work you through the line. Yeah. Hi, Charlie. My name is Lenny, and it's very nice to meet you. I'm a conservative through and through, and something I struggle with a lot is some of my family members are Democrats, and I like to debate with them a lot, but they always get me with the tariff conversation. So I was wondering if you could kind of elaborate on the benefits of the tariffs. Yeah, I mean, look, it's way too soon for anyone to win that debate. It's very. Let's just start with China. We do not make our own vitamin C in this country anymore. We don't make the. The. The ingredients to be able to make our own antibiotics or our own drones. What President Trump is doing is, number one, the people voted for tariffs to bring jobs back to this country. Number two, he's using this as a negotiating tactic to be able to bring countries to the table so that they will buy more of our goods and services. How does this impact Wyoming. You guys have a lot of LNG in this state, right? Got a lot of liquefied natural gas. You should be able to sell Wyoming LNG to Japan and to Europe without any tariff. And they should buy Wyoming lng, not Iranian oil or gas. That's what the tariffs are actually going to allow us to do. They're a negotiation tool to be able to bring people to the table. I think we're going to get phenomenal deals out of this. Look, America has two oceans to our sides and a continent of resources very, very rare. And we have two friendly neighbors. Yeah, we have two friendly neighbors. And we've allowed ourselves to become dependent on countries that aren't like us. The tariffs are a message and a signal that we want to be a self sufficient country and that we will not be a vassal state to the Chinese Communist Party. Thank you so much. Appreciate it. God bless. Thank you. Hi, Charlie. My name is Keith Stuttervin and I was running. What is a woman? Well, an adult human female with XX chromosomes. That's what a woman is. Thank you.
Ethan Casper
Hi, Charlie. My name is Ali Edwards and I'm a student here at the University of Wyoming and I'm studying rangeland ecology and watershed management. I guess my question is I'm concerned about the reduction of staff in public land agencies like BLM and Forest Service, given how crucial public lands are to Wyoming's economy. Why are these cuts happening? And how do you recommend that we manage these lands effectively with fewer resources, given that in Wyoming especially, we are going to feel this on the fire lines this summer.
Charlie Kirk
Yeah. Again, I don't know enough about it. Do you think there's any waste in these departments? That'd be my first question.
Ethan Casper
Definitely. So I always like to joke. I had a boss who never showed.
Charlie Kirk
Up to work, so maybe that's who Elon fired.
Ethan Casper
Yep. He didn't. He fired me.
Charlie Kirk
Oh, okay. Well, yeah. I'm sorry that you got fired.
Ethan Casper
Well, no, I mean, I'm a seasonal employee, but the hiring freeze. They could not hire interns this summer. But, you know, I had some friends that worked the Forest Service as well who lost their jobs and they were participating in their jobs every day.
Charlie Kirk
Yeah. So again, you isolated one thing of waste. I wish they would have cut that, not you. You seem very sweet. I don't. I don't know nearly enough about that, but. Yeah, look, the. The intent. Let me go to the broad intent, and I think a lot of that will get worked through Senator Barrasso and Senator Lummis. I'm sure are working through, through all that is this. We are a nation careening towards bankruptcy. We are going to be borrowing trillions of dollars that we do not have. We're $35 trillion in debt. You have to make tough cuts when that happens. And I also think when you make a mistake and you cut things that you shouldn't, you should fix that mistake, of which I think is happening in certain areas. But I would prefer an administration that moves fat fast to cut spending than never moves at all to cut spending because we have a massive problem with our debt and deficit in this country. So I hope you'll be back on the fire lines this summer.
Ethan Casper
Thank you.
Charlie Kirk
God bless you. Thank you. Great question.
Audience Member
Hello, Charlie. My name is also Charlie, so good name. I'm a member, I'm actually an editor at the student newspaper here, the Branding Iron. And I was just wondering, sort of a politically neutral question, I guess. Well, two parter. First of all, I think I already know the answer to this, but do you think that there's a bias in American media today? And secondly, as a member, I kind of figured. But secondly, as a member of the press, you know, I want to be a journalist. What can I be doing to combat that, in your view?
Charlie Kirk
So the first part of bias is story selection bias, which is the stories they don't cover. So my first piece of advice is it's not even the story composition itself, which is of course bad, but it's are you covering the stories that might make one side look bad or actually might elevate another side? So story selection bias is big. Finally, it's also the facts that they emphasize or they will not emphasize. So my other piece of advice to you is that when you are writing the story, if you're describing, for example, Charlie Kirk, the liberal media would say, look, white supremacist Charlie Kirk, that doesn't have journalist intent, right? That's just complete BS garbage. Rubbish. There's nothing behind it. So try to refrain from like very incendiary descriptions or adjectives and try to. And I'm sure they teach this as you're a journalist, right? Be incredibly factual in the way that you can. You can write it. In fact, your job should be, this is your goal. The reader should never know your politics. If the reader does not know how you vote, you're an honest journalist. If the reader is left in mystery about your reporting, you're a good journalist.
Audience Member
Fair enough. That's always been my goal.
Charlie Kirk
God bless you, man. Thank you so much. We'll take a couple More.
Audience Member
Yes, My name is Sarah and I'm an adjunct person professor at this university.
Charlie Kirk
And one of the things that you.
Audience Member
Say is that university is a waste.
Charlie Kirk
And I would like to know what.
Audience Member
Can professors do to make university not a waste?
Charlie Kirk
Great question. What, what do you teach by or help teach?
Audience Member
I teach agriculture law.
Charlie Kirk
Great. The more applicability in the classroom, the better. So let me say this. In your particular domain, things that can be immediately useful and that can be applied to the domain of which they're in school for is incredibly important. Professors should also focus on building a network of employers that can come in and teach and meet the kids in class because they actually want people to hire and then the kids would be thrilled that they get to go meet people that could potentially hire them. And so as a professor, just a piece of advice. In agricultural law, I bet there's like 10 big ag law firms in Wyoming, I'm just guessing, right, that do the. I bet there's like a big three and there's probably 10 that you know of. They should come in and present, you know, once a semester. I'm sure probably this already happens, but then the students are able to communicate with them. They get to know them, you know, and develop relationships with them. So thank you, thank you so much. God bless you. Thank you. Got one or two more. Hello, my name is Dominic Reed, I'm a WyoTech student. I'm currently in the diesel program. I have a question. Awesome. I have a question about the mass diagnosis of adhd, ADD and then essentially just mass prescribing Ritalin and other amphetamines to children. I was prescribed that a Ritalin. I got a Ritalin prescription at like third grade and it turns out that all I needed to do was work with cars and with my hands and that I actually focus. What is your opinion on like America, this is. So we take more medications than any other country on the planet. That's not a good thing. We think we need a pill for every ill. And what's happened with adhd and the New York Times did a massive story on this is that it's actually for the parents benefit, not for the kids benefit to medicate third and fourth year old fourth grade boys because they're too rambunctious. Hey, you want your men to be full of energy when they're in fifth, sixth and seventh grade. You do not want them medicated. Just staring into the sky and look at you. All you needed was to find something that you cared about that you were passionate about. You didn't need to have a bunch of pharmacological agents pumping through your body. It's a problem of values. People want a pill to solve their troubles and we mass over prescribe adhd. Imagine all the geniuses, all the brilliance that we are currently medicating in this country because they're too unruly. You think about it, if you want to neuter the men of a country, you give them a bunch of drugs, makes them more agreeable, makes them easier to control. So my final point on this is, I'm glad you found something that you could pour yourself into. Mass medication and over prescription is a major structural problem in this country on our part. Do you think that has an effect on the amount of like drug addiction in this country mass prescribed? Potentially, yeah. I mean, I think that philosophy has led to the mass prescription of drugs in this country. There are two types of problems. There are acute problems and there are chronic problems. For acute problems, drugs are great. If you have, you know, you broke your leg or that you have a back problem, those are temporary. Chronic is a much different. That could be adhd, it could be lupus, it could be all sorts of issues. When it comes down to those specific issues, I think we need to look at more natural solutions. Becoming more in touch with our bodies, going on a walk, not being on the phone, getting in the sun, working with our hands, being around family, going to church, eating well, you know, and not being catastrophically overweight I think is a lot better than taking six pills every single day. God bless you, man. Thank you so much. Thank you. Okay, this will be the final question.
Isaac
Hi, Charlie, My name is Isaac. I'm 20 years old.
Charlie Kirk
That means laughter does.
Isaac
And I do like to laugh a lot.
Charlie Kirk
Good.
Isaac
So a couple years ago on the way home from high school, when I was in high school, I was listening to your show and I heard you advocate for the trades and not going to college. So I wanted to thank you for that input because I gladly skipped college and I've been an electrician for two years now. I love it.
Audience Member
So thank you.
Charlie Kirk
Great for you, man.
Isaac
My question is a faith related one actually. So I'm sure you know that most tradesmen are either alcoholics or divorced or felons or sometimes all three. But it's okay, we love them. What would your advice be to young tradesmen who love Jesus more than anything and want to exemplify them or exemplify him in every word and action, but have a really hard time consistently operating that way in an environment where mentioning Jesus is like committing a war crime, man.
Charlie Kirk
First of all, God bless you and thank you for. I just, I love the hard working men of Wyoming. Can we. It just gives me so much hope. It's just amazing. Number one, you have to make faith your center in everything that you do, in all that you do, in the same advice I gave previously. It's a podcast you listen to while you're doing your work. Make it sermons, make it teachings, make it speeches that glorify God and all that you do. If you know that most tradesmen have problems drinking, maybe you're just going to say, I'm going to not drink in my life. I don't drink. And it's a great way to live. Everybody, Tucker Carlson doesn't drink. Donald Trump doesn't drink. You got a lot of energy when you don't drink.
Isaac
And I'm seven months sober, by the way.
Charlie Kirk
Praise God, man, that's amazing. Good for you. And let me ask you, are you, do you see a positive benefit from.
Isaac
That in every aspect of every second of every day?
Charlie Kirk
Praise the Lord. And my advice for people in this audience is that if you're struggling with alcohol, tomorrow can be a new day where it can be your day. One, Jesus Christ is with you through every single one of those steps and those struggles. And even if you say, well, you know, I don't have an alcohol problem, that's fine. That's not actually the contention. The contention is, is it good for you in what you want to do? So here's what I say to young men, and Jordan Peterson's been saying this for a while, which is, what are you aiming at? What is your goal? What is your destination? And so by not drinking, what you've done is you've just taken one of those variables completely off the table. And let me tell you, if you're an alcoholic, you're more likely to get divorced. So you now have decreased the likelihood of getting divorced. I don't know if you're married or if you're, you know, look, you're looking for.
Isaac
My whole heart belongs to Jesus right now.
Charlie Kirk
Amazing. There's a lot of women here that I think would love to meet you. So. So. And read the word every single day and come up with clear rules for your life of things that you will not do, things you will not watch, ways that you will not engage. And finally, never be satisfied with the skill set you have. Learn a different language, learn more about a specific topic that you enjoy. Start another business. And finally, you're in a unique place because when people call an electrician, they're looking for help, you have a chance to minister. So when you walk in to be an electrician, you don't have to be like Billy Graham and so proclaim it. You don't have to be that. But you could say, hey, how are you doing? You having a good week? People will talk to you. It's amazing how they'll talk to people they welcome into their home. Especially if you have a good way about you and you're organized and you're put together and you don't have alcohol on your breath, they'll talk to you and they'll say, oh, it's just terrible. You know, my kid is this and that. Be like, can I pray for you? And by the way, this is Wyoming, right? This is not San Francisco. So a lot of people will say yes, right? And then you can all of a sudden use your electrician job as a way to witness to other people. And you would be shocked at how God is going to use you to be able to spread the gospel in places where people would never ever come into gospel before. And it doesn't mean you have to all of a sudden rename your electrical company to like, you know, Jesus heals your electrical problems, right? At the same time, you need to be a witness in every way because you're going to find people that are suffering. You're going to see kind of, you know, discord and, you know, disillusionment. And you are now a missionary and you didn't even realize it. You get to go into more homes that I get to. I mean, I broadcast a lot of homes, but you're going to be intimate. And even if you walk into a business, you get to meet in your career. How old are you?
Isaac
20 years old.
Charlie Kirk
You're 20 years old. So you're going to be an electrician probably for the next 40 years, 50 years, you're probably going to walk into 10,000 to 15,000 homes. That is a mission field the likes of which that now at 20, you can be like, you know what my aim is? My aim is to bring 250 people to Jesus over the next decade. Or my, my, why is to do that? So now all of a sudden you're using a trade that can then feed, you know, feed your family eventually and make you money to go glorify God on an ultimate purpose. And that's my advice for all of us, is to infuse your daily work for God's glory and to do it in ways that we could never imagine. And so, man, God bless you. And I just want to say that, like, I love people that, that go in the contrarian way. I'm sure there was a lot of pressure to go to college, but you're going to earn a great living being an electrician. There's a shortage of electricians in this country, as you well know, all across, because we look down upon these trades in this country and we said we should elevate them. So I'm counting on you to be the missionary electrician from Laramie, Wyoming. God bless you, man. Thank you so much. All right, everybody, final point, Wyoming. I didn't talk about Wyoming politics. You guys need to stay involved in local politics, in your state politics. This state should be the most conservative state in the country politically. It is in presidential politics. It needs to start acting that way in who you elect and how you keep the pressure on. I'm thrilled that you guys retired. Liz Cheney, keep that up, everybody. We love that. God bless you and God bless Wyoming. Thank you guys so much. Thanks so much for listening, everybody. Email us. As always, freedomarliekirk.com thanks so much for listening and God bless.
Audience Member
For more on many of these stories and news you can Trust, go to charliekirk.com.
Podcast Summary: "Getting the American Youth Back in the Game — My Speech at the University of Wyoming"
Podcast Information:
Charlie Kirk begins his speech at the University of Wyoming by acknowledging the audience and briefly mentioning his experience of speaking without sleep for three consecutive days. He expresses gratitude towards Turning Point USA members and the university for hosting the event. Kirk sets the tone for an engaging question-and-answer session, anticipating diverse viewpoints from the attendees.
Kirk focuses on four key executive orders signed by former President Donald Trump that he believes enhance America's global competitiveness:
Critical Race Theory (CRT): Kirk defines CRT as a philosophy asserting that America is fundamentally racist. He criticizes scholars like Ibram X. Kendi, referring to their stance that racism is endemic and perpetual. (00:34)
Affirmative Action: He critiques affirmative action policies, highlighting Supreme Court rulings that found such practices unconstitutional due to their discriminatory impact on white and Asian students. Kirk emphasizes meritocracy over race-based considerations. (02:15)
Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI): Kirk describes DEI as bureaucratic enforcement of CRT principles, leading to forced diversity and tribalism within institutions. He praises the University of Wyoming for eliminating its DEI office. (09:42)
Disparate Impact: He explains this legal theory as one that attributes any differing outcomes among racial groups to racism, thereby undermining equality of opportunity. Kirk lauds Trump's executive order nullifying disparate impact policies. (11:05)
Kirk underscores the conservative belief in hiring and admissions based solely on skill and character, rejecting race-based preferences. He argues that prioritizing merit prevents mediocrity and fosters a competitive, innovative society. (06:30)
Challenging the traditional emphasis on four-year college degrees, Kirk advocates for vocational training and trade schools. He criticizes the current college system for producing graduates in irrelevant fields, thereby contributing to America's decline in competitiveness. (19:35)
Kirk takes a stringent stance on immigration, particularly illegal immigration. He argues for a merit-based system that prioritizes highly skilled immigrants who can contribute to America's competitiveness, while discouraging unskilled or low-skilled immigration. (32:40)
Kirk addresses the societal issues stemming from high divorce rates and fatherless homes. He emphasizes the importance of marriage as a foundational institution and encourages men to take responsibility in maintaining family structures. (47:00)
Responding to questions about media bias, Kirk asserts that American media exhibits significant bias through story selection and fact emphasis. He advises journalists to remain factual and avoid incendiary language to maintain objectivity. (68:07)
Kirk offers encouragement and strategies for blue-collar workers, highlighting the value of trades in sustaining the economy. He urges workers to build skills, wealth, and character, and to view their professions as avenues for personal and spiritual growth. (60:43)
In response to concerns about the mass diagnosis and medication of ADHD, Kirk criticizes the over-reliance on pharmacological solutions. He advocates for alternative approaches such as engaging in hands-on activities and fostering personal interests to address behavioral issues. (71:15)
Throughout the Q&A session, Kirk engages with various audience members, addressing their concerns and reinforcing his viewpoints. Key interactions include:
On Labor and Immigration: A student questions how banning skilled immigrants impacts competitiveness. Kirk reiterates the need for a selective, merit-based immigration system that supports America's strategic interests, especially in combating global competitors like China.
On Family and Divorce: A listener discusses the high rate of divorces initiated by women, prompting Kirk to emphasize men's responsibility in upholding marital stability. He acknowledges systemic issues but maintains that personal accountability is paramount.
On Media and Journalism: An editor from the student newspaper seeks advice on combating media bias. Kirk advises focusing on factual reporting, avoiding partisan language, and maintaining journalistic integrity.
On Faith and Trades: A young tradesman who is seven months sober and devout in his faith seeks guidance on exemplifying his beliefs in a challenging environment. Kirk encourages integrating faith into daily work, using one's profession as a platform for witnessing, and maintaining personal integrity.
Charlie Kirk concludes his speech by reiterating the importance of preserving American values centered on meritocracy, personal responsibility, and faith. He calls on the youth to stay involved in local politics, support conservative leaders, and actively work towards rebuilding a competitive and harmonious America. Kirk emphasizes the role of initiatives like Turning Point USA in mobilizing young people to champion these causes.
Final Notable Quote: "God bless Wyoming. Thank you guys so much. Thanks so much for listening, everybody."
This summary encapsulates the core themes and discussions from Charlie Kirk's speech at the University of Wyoming, highlighting his perspectives on education, immigration, family values, media bias, and the overarching goal of restoring American competitiveness through conservative principles.