Podcast Summary: The Charlie Kirk Show

Episode: The 10 Rules You Must Know to Fight WOKEISM
Host: Charlie Kirk
Date: April 9, 2021

Episode Overview

In this episode, Charlie Kirk delves into Victor Davis Hanson’s thought-provoking piece, “The 10 Radical New Rules That Are Changing America.” Kirk walks listeners through each of Hanson's ten rules, framing them as essential to understanding the current trajectory of American society under the influence of "wokeism." Drawing sharp contrasts between traditional American values and what he sees as the new radical norms, Kirk offers historical analogies, recent news examples, and vivid critiques of current leadership across politics, academia, and business.

Key Discussion Points and Insights

1. Money Is a Construct

• Summary: Kirk explains Hanson's argument that money and debt no longer appear to matter to elites.
  • The government behaves as if deficits and debt can be ignored, echoing dangerous precedents from other nations such as Venezuela.
  • Cites Modern Monetary Theory as a rationalization for this shift.
• Quote:

  "Money's just a construct. It's not, doesn't represent value. Money is nothing more than than a white supremacist tool to try to keep them in power." (Charlie Kirk paraphrasing societal view, 10:13)

• Analogy: Sugar highs from cheap money likened to Skittles for children and heroin for adults.
• Memorable Moment:

  "Everything's made up. The deficits don't matter. The money doesn't matter. Whose line is in any way seems to be running our government." (Charlie Kirk, 18:15)

2. Laws Are Not Necessarily Binding Anymore

• Summary: Kirk contends that under new norms, enforcement of laws is driven by ideology, not impartiality.
  • Examples include selective enforcement at the southern border and uneven prosecution of rioters.
  • Discusses media silence on crimes that don't fit certain narratives.
• Quote:

  "If you want to enter America illegally, welcome. But if you want to open your church, you're going to jail." (Charlie Kirk, 23:35)

3. Racialism Is Now Acceptable

• Summary: Discusses the increasing emphasis on race over shared national identity.
  • Highlights instances such as race-exclusive college spaces and graduation ceremonies.
  • Warns of a cultural trend towards accepted anti-white sentiment and the power of labeling someone as “racist.”
• Quote:

  "The most powerful force in American politics is being called the R word. It's the worst thing you can call anyone." (Charlie Kirk, 28:01)

4. The Immigrant Is Preferable to the Citizen

• Summary: Argues that newcomers and illegal immigrants are given preferential treatment over law-abiding citizens.
  • Points to policies like New York’s $2.1 billion fund for undocumented immigrants affected by COVID job losses.
• Quote:

  "The person who invades your country is getting preference over the citizen, over you." (Charlie Kirk, 33:45)

• Quote:

  "All you have to do is denounce your citizenship, go to Mexico illegally, break into America, go to New York City and you could be eligible for $15,600." (Charlie Kirk, 34:10)

5. Most Americans Should Be Treated Like Little Children

• Summary: Suggests Americans are seen as incapable of making responsible decisions—except on progressive issues.
  • Mocked the idea that adults can't be trusted with ID for voting, but children can “change their gender.”
  • Lack of transparency or honest explanations for policy changes (e.g., rising utility costs).
• Quote:

  "Americans cannot be asked to provide an ID to vote. Noble lies told by our elites about the Chinese coronavirus are necessary to protect the Neanderthals from themselves." (citing Hanson, 36:40)

6. Hypocrisy Is Passé; Virtue Signaling Is Alive

• Summary: Allegations that elites regularly break the rules they set for the rest of society.
  • Cites climate change activists using private jets, politicians in gated communities, and teachers union leaders sending children to schools they want locked down.
• Quote:

  "What matters is what you say to lesser others about how you live, not about how you yourself live." (Charlie Kirk paraphrasing Hanson, 39:10)

7. Ignoring or Perpetuating Homelessness is Preferable to Ending It

• Summary: Critiques policies that allegedly enable rather than solve homelessness.
  • Personal anecdote about witnessing homeless encampments in Los Angeles.
• Quote:

  "There is a top down draconian order to say we must subsidize homelessness." (Charlie Kirk, 42:20)

8. McCarthyism Is Good (Cancel Culture)

• Summary: Kirk links today’s cancel culture to the era of McCarthyism, arguing that career destruction for dissent is both practiced and applauded.
  • Suggests that the fear of being "cancelled" keeps the public in line.
• Quote:

  "What used to be considered a negative, which was a reign of terror, is that if you step out of line and you don't agree with us, we're going to destroy your life." (Charlie Kirk, 44:14)

9. Ignorance is Preferable to Knowledge

• Summary: Posits that superficial credentials matter more than wisdom or real education.
  • Cites statue toppling, name changing, and the influence of the 1619 Project as proof of disregard for historical fact.
  • Criticizes elite university graduates as often vain and entitled.
• Quote:

  "It is better to know nothing but be very confident about it than to actually pursue knowledge and wisdom." (Charlie Kirk, 46:55)

10. Wokeness Is the New Religion

• Summary: Declares that “wokeness” has replaced traditional faith for many, enforced by powerful institutions like Silicon Valley companies.
  • Draws an analogy between tech leaders and the Vatican (“Silicon Valley is the new Vatican”).
  • Warns that this ideology has permeated society more deeply—and rapidly—than Christianity.
• Quote:

  "Its priesthood wokeness outnumbers the clergy and exercises far more power. Silicon Valley is the new Vatican. And Amazon, Apple, Facebook, Google and Twitter are the new gospels." (Charlie Kirk paraphrasing Hanson, 49:25)

Analysis: How Did We Get Here? What Can Be Done?

• Kirk attributes America’s cultural shift to cowardly and self-interested leadership in institutions, as well as decades of faulty higher education prioritizing status over character or skill-building.
• Quote:

  “We sent way too many kids to college for far too long for a lot of different reasons, but also because parents didn’t want to have to face their neighbors and explain to their friends that their kid wasn’t going to Stanford or Harvard…” (Charlie Kirk, 55:08)

• Calls for universities to focus on developing character and practical skills, and for parents to be strategic and values-oriented about higher education.
• Criticizes corporate leaders such as Delta’s Ed Bastian and Coca-Cola’s James Quincy for failing to stand up to “wokeness” and practicing performative virtue signaling.
• Quote from Hanson:

  "Wokeness is not really about fairness for minorities, the oppressed and the poor... It is mostly a self confessional cult of anointed bullies and hypocrites of all races and genders who seek to flex and increase their own privilege and power." (cited by Charlie Kirk, 59:55)

• Kirk concludes that a lack of courage among American leadership allowed the adoption and entrenchment of these “10 radical rules.”

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• “Everything's made up. The deficits don't matter. The money doesn't matter. Whose line is in any way seems to be running our government.” (Charlie Kirk, 18:15)
• “If you want to enter America illegally, welcome. But if you want to open your church, you're going to jail.” (Charlie Kirk, 23:35)
• “The most powerful force in American politics is being called the R word.” (Charlie Kirk, 28:01)
• "Its priesthood wokeness outnumbers the clergy and exercises far more power. Silicon Valley is the new Vatican. And Amazon, Apple, Facebook, Google and Twitter are the new gospels." (Charlie Kirk paraphrasing Hanson, 49:25)
• "Wokeness is not really about fairness for minorities, the oppressed and the poor... It is mostly a self confessional cult of anointed bullies and hypocrites of all races and genders who seek to flex and increase their own privilege and power." (Victor Davis Hanson quoted by Kirk, 59:55)

Important Timestamps

• 10:13 | Money as a social construct, Venezuela/sugar high analogy
• 18:00–18:25 | “Whose Line Is It Anyway?” parallel to government debt attitude
• 23:35 | Selective enforcement of laws, southern border example
• 28:01 | The cultural power of being labeled “racist”
• 33:45–34:10 | Preferential treatment for immigrants over citizens; New York payout example
• 39:10 | Hypocrisy and elite virtue signaling
• 42:20 | Los Angeles homelessness observations
• 46:55 | Credentials vs. knowledge in academia
• 49:25 | Wokeness as new religion, Big Tech = Vatican
• 55:08 | College attendance and American values
• 59:55 | Hanson’s quote on wokeness and elite power

Conclusion

Charlie Kirk uses Victor Davis Hanson’s “10 rules” to frame modern American life as upended by progressive ideology, or “wokeism,” enforced by complicit elites, academia, and corporations. Throughout, Kirk urges listeners to recognize these trends, push back with courage, and reconsider the value of higher education and the motives of those in power. The episode is rich in historical analogy, rhetorical flourishes, and pointed cultural criticism, making it an engaging distillation of anxieties from the American conservative perspective about the nation’s future.