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Hey, everybody. Today on the Charlie Kirk show, we wrestle with some very deep and personal topics. I hope that it can touch and bless some of you out there. Email me your questions. Freedomarliekirk.com, freedomarliekirk.com, type in Charlie Kirk show your podcast provider. Make sure you're subscribed. Give us a five star review. Buckle up. This is a different type of episode. I think you'll enjoy it. Here we go. Charlie, what you've done is incredible here. 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. Hey, everybody. So I want to take a little different tactic in this episode. I'm going to talk about something somewhat personal. I'm also going to go into some of the news of the day about the annihilation culture that is spreading across our country at the hands of cultural nihilists. And it's interesting, that word nihilism, it's really been kind of popping up a lot in my readings that I do every single day. And I try to read a couple hours a day and watch lectures and think very deeply about things. A lot for you, by the way, listening to this podcast, because when I see the emails from you and I see the problems you're going through, I take such a deep burden of responsibility to make sure I'm delivering to you things that are grounded in truth and what is good for the world. And so nihilism is a word that's been popping up a lot. It's the philosophical view that all knowledge and values are baseless and that all knowledge lack a certain basis and all values are subjective. Now, mind you, I find nihilism to be sort of useless because nihilists find everything else to be sort of useless. So I was doing a lot of thinking about this. And then on a personal note, a couple days ago, someone who I got to know, I won't say this person's name, decided to commit suicide. And that was horrific. And not the first person I've known to take their own life. One of my childhood friends, Eddie, also committed suicide a couple years ago. And it's happening with a incredibly alarming regularity. And I'm the type of person that if I don't vocalize and create dialogue around something that I'm wrestling with and I'm not actually able to get over it, and if I'm not able to write down my thoughts. And so it's a very difficult thing when you see someone who has a life that seems organized and seems functional to then self exit from existence. And some people that do that, I guess, are engaging in nihilism and they say, what's the point? But I just want to have this conversation first before I get into what the radical left is doing to our children and what they're doing in our culture. And we'll talk about Don Lemon. But for those of you that are listening to this podcast and that are struggling in any way, shape or form with questions of does my life matter? The answer is absolutely it matters. God did not create us to be useless atoms and bouncing cells on a planet for just our own self indulgence. And that's it. Our own hedonistic pleasure. And in fact, you as a human being have very significant meaning. You do. And in fact, we recognize that life is truly suffering. It is. I mean, life is a horrific exercise you guaranteed to suffer, but that means you can feel. And if you can feel, that means you're actually living and that life is a gift from God. And I know there's one person listening to this right now that needs to hear this. And if that one person listening to this is impacted by it, then this is worth it. Because I have lost too many people in my orbit to suicide. And it's something that really bothers me because it's like, how could you do that? But it's not that I'm actually looking for the thought process that would get you there, because if you're honest about wrestling with your own darkness, in some ways you're like, wow, okay, you can see how someone could do that. Instead, it is, how do you, as an individual, through a sequence of broader admissions, think that your decisions no longer mean anything? And so, look, the trap that the nihilists and the secular humanists try to lay for us is that your decisions have no impact. That is not true. Before you think your life has no meaning, straighten out your life the best you can, become the best person you possibly can. Tell the truth. Get your moral decisions in the best order you possibly can, commit to living out the truth. This is something that's very important to vocalize and talk about because far too Often we put a stigma around self struggle. We almost isolate. It's become third rail in a lot of different ways. That human beings are not allowed to wrestle and not allowed to vocalize when they're going through something very difficult. And when they're going through something that is personal, beyond explanation. And people say, well, I can't say this because people are going to think I'm weird or people are going to think I'm not normal. Well, I'm telling you right now, if you're going through any of that right now, you can email me freedomarliekirk.com and if I can help you, I will help you. If I can't, I'll tell you to someone who can help you. Because every single person on this planet has a purpose. That's right, you have a purpose that you have to fulfill, that you have to live out. And I do believe that God gives you a certain amount of free will. I really do believe that. A freedom to be able to make choices. And that's a really hard topic to wrestle with and to struggle with. Because you ask yourself, well, if God is truly almighty, how do I have free will? Is free will just an aberration? And when I see someone who's 29 years old, who is someone that I knew and that I spent time with, decide that their life was no longer worth living, if I didn't believe in free will, that would be a hard thing for me to wrestle with, even harder than I could possibly articulate. So for me personally, I get so much peace believing in Jesus Christ as my Lord and savior, peace in reading the Bible. And the beauty about reading the Bible, it's the only book that the more you read it, it actually reads you. If you're a nihilist, which if you're listening to this, I don't think you are. And you say, what's the point in all this? We're just dust. Nothing means anything. We're just clobbers of cells. We're just kinetic atoms. If that is you or someone that you know, then what is beauty? What is love? And some people don't have answers for that. They say, oh, none of this stuff matters. It's just chemicals bouncing around. I refuse to believe that we are spiritual beings. We are here for a purpose. And if you're listening to this, if you make good choices and you straighten yourself out and you aim yourself correctly, aim yourself towards a goal and you write down on a piece of paper what success looks like and what a flourishing life looks like, that can really have an impact on you. It really can. And so. And something that I've been journaling a lot about and something I've been reading a lot about, because it's just. It's so hard. I mean, how many more funerals do I have to go to for people that commit suicide? I just. It makes me absolutely sick to my stomach. And so here I am right now doing what I believe is the greatest thing I can do, using my platform that is listened to by countless young people and people all across the country. And I'm speaking to you individually right now. Your life matters. You matter. Your decisions matter. You can live an exciting, exhilarating, incredibly fulfilling life. If someone wronged you, that is not a reason to do something to yourself. In fact, doing that to yourself is so incredibly selfish to yourself, and it hurts people around you more than you can put yourself in words. I can't put into words the kind of struggle, mentally I've had to go through at times when people I grow up with decide that they no longer want to be on the planet. Could I have done more? Could I have done something different? Could I have said something? It is a form of torture for those of us that are left behind when someone decides to do that. And I'm not condemning it. I'm just speaking truthfully and honestly about it. I consider this life to be such a gift from God that anyone who does that, it shakes me completely to the core. I remember when Eddie, my childhood friend, committed suicide. I grew up with this kid. I played football with him. I knew his family. I drove him home from high school. He messaged me two weeks before he decided to commit suicide. And I. You want to talk about a demon that I have, having to think to myself, what if I could have done something different or something more? So you can. There's really no happy or easy way to end this sort of discussion, but it just needs to be said, because if we're not talking about something, then you're letting it fester up. And then God knows what happens after that. You're not worthless. You're made beautifully in the image of God, and your life matters so much. So that's my message to you today, to start the podcast, so you guys can email me freedom charliekirk.com and I hope I can help you. I hope I can pray for you. I hope I can be there for you. So I think I'd be doing a moral disservice if I didn't, because it was really been bothering me the last couple days. And what drives a lot of these people to do that is the fact that we have now created a system of what we used to call cyberbullying, we now call social justice. So now I'm transitioning to a couple stories here. I'm going to finish with a critique of Don Lemon and then I'm going to get back to this topic to finish the episode, which is the story from the College Fix. I saw this story and I said, you know what? You want to know why so many kids are committing suicide? It's because of this soon to be Marquette University freshman Samantha Perforol, I might have mispronounced her name, has yet to even set foot on campus yet. She said she's already facing possible dismissal from school. Why? Cuz she made a Donald Trump TikTok on the Chinese app that we have advocated deleting. Video features a Trump 2020 flag as well as a sign reading Marquette 2024, along with a rap song with lyrics he's mad. She's mad. Big sad. Haha. Don't care. Stay mad. Taunting her peers to cancel her for supporting the president. Her post has been seen 600,000 times and has since caught the attention of Marquette community. They then interrogated her. Other people said, I hope you get shot. One commentator says, I'd pray for you, but you're not worth it. Another user added, and of course the media is not covering this. And the university literally approached her and asked her, what is your thoughts on dreamers? What are your thoughts on daca? Interrogating her, threatening to pull her admission to Marquette University. This kind of culture of annihilation, which some people call cancel culture, is having real impacts on our children. That's what makes them think that nothing is worth it. I mean, the left supposedly cares about human beings. They are the nihilists. The left, the ones that are the ones that are doing the cyberbullying. They think everything is useless. Burn it all down. Nietzsche really struggled with this. And Nietzsche talked about this a lot. And he was in some ways a nihilist philosopher. And so did Heidegger and other thinkers and writers. Which is. Who are we but specks of dust? God is dead. Nothing matters. That is not true. It's not. And when we go after our young people like Samantha, who just makes a Trump 2020 TikTok and she gets threatened to have dismissal from her school and she gets interrogated and she gets targeted like this. I mean, my goodness. Now what if I told you that some of the surprising people who would agree with me that this sort of culture is corrosive and a deep rot is Marxist philosopher Noam chomsky and even J.K. rowling. Well, that actually is the case, and in a concise and compelling open letter published recently in Harper's Magazine, which is actually the second oldest monthly magazine in the United States where prominent leftists came forward to condemn Cancel Culture. And by the way, if you email freedom charliekirk.com with who you think America's oldest monthly magazine is with the right answer, I'll send you a free copy of the MAGA Doctrine. We'll see if how your trivia is first. 20 people to get it right. Freedom@charliekirk.com I do want to really read some of this to you because I think it's a real cultural turning point in our society. This is the left clawing the Overton window away from the Marxists, or at least trying to. They're trying to take back control of the narrative and it is indeed brave in this age. Now before I say this, just remember when we have this culture the way that it is, when we have the culture going in the direction that it's going, it explains why 29 year olds are taking their life because you take all of their meaning away. Here's what they the forces of illiberalism are gaining strength throughout the world and have a powerful ally in Donald Trump. Yeah, sure, who represents a real threat to democracy. But resistance must not allow to harden and into its own brand of dogma or coercion which right wing demagogues are already exploiting. The democratic inclusion we want can be achieved only if we speak out against the intolerant climate that is set in on all sides. Okay, I never said it was 100% true, but I said that it's pretty interesting that the left wingers are even speaking out against what's happening. It goes on by saying the free exchange of information and ideas, the lifeblood of a liberal society, is becoming more constricted. We uphold the value of robust and even caustic counterspeech from all quarters. But it is now all too common to hear calls for swift and severe retribution in response to perceived transgressions of speech and thought. More troubling still, institutional leaders in a spirit of panicked damage control, delivering hasty and disproportionate punishments instead of considered reforms. Editors are fired for running controversial pieces, books are withdrawn from alleged inauthenticity, journalists are barred from writing on certain topics, and professors are investigated by for quoting works of literature in class. Part of this, of course, refers to the failing New York Times that was conveniently part of this entire culture. The editor had to step down because he published a piece from Senator Tom Cotton. The letter finishes by saying the stifling atmosphere will ultimately harm the most vital causes of our time. The restriction of debate, whether by a repressive government or an intolerant society, invariably hurts those who lack power make everyone less capable of of democratic participation. The way to defeat bad ideas is by exposure, argument and persuasion, not by trying to silence or wish them away. We refuse any false choice between justice and freedom, which we cannot allow without the other. Now, this one's from Fox News. It says several staffers at Vox have taken to Twitter after journalist Matthew Iglesia signed the open letter to crying Cancel Culture. As a trans woman who very much values her position at Vox and the support the publication has given her throughout the emotional and physical turmoil of the transition, I'm deeply saddened to see Matt and Iglesias signature on the Harper Weekly's letter. Van der Werff began her letter to the editors. Matt is of course entitled to his own opinion, and I know he's a much more nuanced thinker than signing the letter would suggest. He has never been anything but kind to me and has often supported my work publicly, all of which I'm extremely grateful for. So of course the natural reaction to the anti Cancel Culture letter was to immediately try and cancel anyone who signed onto the letter. I do want to conclude this segment with so yes, this is fine, but the left wing elite is still completely oblivious to the real problems in America. And again, you want answers for why people are engaging in self hatred where we're not building people up around meaning it's because you destroy their entire livelihood if they dare speak out against the cultural orthodoxy. You destroy speech. It festers up within somebody and then they might actually take their own life. And we are seeing that happen at a rapid rate. Now mind you, there are plenty of left wing signatories on that letter. One that certainly wasn't there was Don Lemon. And so I want to spend one moment on Don Lemon. Then I want to finish the show here talking about what I started the show with. He said this. Don Lemon said something so unbelievably reprehensible. He said that Jesus Christ admittedly was not perfect while he was here on Earth. Don't believe me? Play tape. Jesus Christ, if you believe in. If you, if that's who you believe in. Jesus Christ admittedly was not perfect when he was here on this earth. So look, this is theologically and morally fallacious. Jesus Christ lived a perfect life so that all of us could have eternal life. See, Jesus Christ was a historical figure. He was a real person raised in Nazareth, called. The twelve disciples in the region around the Sea of Galilee spoke on the Sermon on the mount in Matthew 5 mostly, and the Mount of the Beatitudes. Everything human beings need to hear was said by Jesus Christ. The Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. He was more than just a teacher, though. He was the ultimate sacrifice. Christ is the ultimate truth. So Don Lemon saying he sinned. There is no verse, there is no scripture that supports any of this. Jesus Christ lived a perfect life. And if you're listening to this right now and you feel that you're not enough, surrender to Jesus Christ because you're not enough. You're right. The moment that you surrender to Christ, truly surrender, it is the most liberating feeling you can imagine, giving your life to Jesus Christ. And I know a lot of you listening to this might have had bad experiences with religion, but hear me out. You respect me enough to listen this far into my podcast. You respect me enough to hopefully subscribe to my show. Let me tell you what it's done for my life. When I try to find value and truth, and I can find those things in certain secular documents, when I really dive into the authenticity of the Bible and the story of Christianity, it makes me who I am. Nothing is more important than my faith in a Creator that made us in his image, in the image of God. And we talk about this a lot at the Falkirk center for Faith and Liberty. And I believe firmly that people who struggle deeply with mental health issues and struggle deeply with self identification issues, a lot of it is because they have not come into a relationship with Jesus Christ. And Don Lemon, he's an absolute con man and a grifter. We've been through that previously. And he intentionally misrepresents the gospel of Jesus Christ. We have to understand that life is an enduring struggle. Life does have meaning. However, focus and aim on what matters, and that is Jesus Christ. We are spiritual beings. Jesus came to save us from our horribly broken nature. Every person listening to this podcast has real and major issues. We are totally depraved in our sin. We are so unbelievably far from God. We need Jesus, who is truth and light, to save all of us. We need Christ, who is love in flesh, to help us resist and offer salvation from the darkest elements of our nature. I encourage and implore you to surrender everything to him. Have Jesus become the commander in chief, chairman of the board, CEO and singular director of our lives. I believe God gave us the ability to choose Jesus or reject him. I decide to follow Jesus. I decide to follow truth. I choose to follow what is good and pure in the world. I see beauty and I see future and eternity. In Jesus, I see total redemption through God's Son. Life is a gift. It's a gift because we have Jesus. What are you doing every single day to advance God's glory? What are we doing each and every minute to grow closer to him? Jesus embodies everything that is righteous and good in the world. Obey his commandments, Straighten your path out. There is a point that all of us will meet of total surrender. Life in all of its horrific totality still has meaning. The Christian story, the Christian journey, the Christian truth. The truth is an antidote to all of the nihilists, all of the people that say, what does all this matter? I'll tell you why it matters. Heaven is a real place. Just like Cleveland and just like Des Moines, Iowa are real places. Heaven is a real place you can go to. You surrender to Jesus, where John 3:16 says, For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son and whoever believes in him shall have eternal life. That was, of course with Jesus. Private conversation with Nicodemus. John 3:16, you follow Jesus and you make that your purpose. It does beg the question, why would we exist with all of our faculties, all of our gifts, if nothing mattered? A lot of these thoughts I'm sharing with you, I've wrestled with and I've struggled with and I've poured hours into when I'm grieving. Another person who self exits from our world. It's not an easy thing, you know. It's not to have to see someone in your orbit and see someone that you touched and someone that you knew that decided to not be here anymore. It's an incredibly strenuous experience and I know a lot of you have gone through it. I know some of you are going through it right now. Every day. You can participate in an experiment to make this world a little less like hell and to make yourself closer to God and eventually be with God in heaven, to be able to embrace the Spirit, have the Spirit flow within you, the Holy Spirit. If any of you are struggling with any of these issues, you can email me. There's lots of hotlines available that you can speak to. But more than any of that, I want you to know that you are not alone in what you're going through that there is a better day ahead where you will be free of that inner struggle you might be going through, free of that question, what does all this mean? Is any of it actually matter? The answer is yes, it does. Everything was placed here for a purpose from God for you, including you. I pray that you can live that out and believe it. So thank you guys for supporting our program@charliekirk.com support I know this episode is a little different and deeper than most, but that's what makes our podcast different as we touch on topics and issues, cultural issues that other people won't. So I pray for anyone going through this struggle right now. I pray for anyone that might need those words of encouragement. I pray as I'm recording this right now, I pray that this will touch at least one person that needs to hear this, one person that knows someone that needs to hear this. That would make it all worth it. So thank you guys so much. God bless you. Get involved with TurningPoint USA. Tpusa.com, email me freedom charlie kirk. Com until next time. Thanks so much.