THOUGHTCRIME Ep. 95 — Female Umps? Liberal Charlie Kirk? To Weed or Not to Weed?

Summary

The Charlie Kirk Show: THOUGHTCRIME Ep. 95

Female Umps? Liberal Charlie Kirk? To Weed or Not to Weed?
Date: August 16, 2025

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Episode Overview

In this lively episode of "ThoughtCrime," Charlie Kirk and his panel—Tyler, Blake, Jackson, and Jack—delve into headline-grabbing cultural and political topics. Central themes include the upcoming Trump–Putin summit in Alaska, satirical portrayals of Charlie on South Park, the debate over marijuana legalization, and the presence of women and men in traditionally single-gender sports roles. The group mixes sharp conservative commentary with humor, personal anecdotes, and spirited debate, aiming to both entertain and galvanize their audience.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. The Trump–Putin Anchorage Summit: Historical Stakes and Cultural Reverberations

(00:22–13:31)

• Historic Meeting Context

  • First visit ever by a Russian leader to Alaska; recalls the territory’s Russian past.
  • Summit seen as pivotal for global nuclear stability and the ongoing Ukraine war.
  • Jack: "The stakes couldn't be higher...it's a meeting of the two most powerful men in the world, the world's two largest nuclear powers." (01:20)

• Motivations & Geopolitics

  • Trump’s approach to ending conflicts, working through BRICS nations strategically.
  • The meeting framed as a move towards peace, evidenced by the absence of US and Russian defense ministers.

• Optics and Public Perception

  • Amusing speculation about the “return of Alaska” and pop-history facts about Russian connections to the state.
  • Charlie: "Only if they can keep Lisa Murkowski." (05:10)
  • Discussion of Russian ceremonial visits, including graves of WWII Russian pilots in Alaska.

• Alaskan Culture and Wilderness

  • The unique wildness and remoteness of Alaska, high private plane ownership, and Russian religious history.
  • Charlie: "Alaska is one of the great treasures on the planet. It’s unbelievable. It's so wild." (11:00)

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2. South Park and the Conservative Pop Culture Moment

(13:42–19:45)

• Charlie Kirk’s Cameo

  • Panel congratulates Charlie for the high ratings of his South Park parody appearance.
  • Charlie: "They could have had huge views if they made fun of Biden and Kamala…They decided not to be popular." (14:02)
  • Discussion of South Park’s traditional hesitance to satirize sitting presidents, and delight in the nuanced jokes about conservative youth culture.

• Masculinity & Online Culture

  • Jokes about young men being more fixated on conservative debate than other online pursuits.
  • Tyler: "Young men are competing to be more conservative. Like, every single person I talked to…my 14 year old's on TikTok all day long watching nothing but Charlie." (15:33)

• Recognition from Public Figures

  • Scott Adams praised Charlie’s communication style as "commonsensical," arguing the left can’t replicate it (16:37).
  • Brief update on Adams’ health and the community’s support.

• Liberal Critics' Reaction

  • Liberal TikTok and online media are frustrated that Charlie isn’t offended by his parody, ironically validating South Park’s message.
  • Charlie: "The other subtext…is how mad liberal TikTok is that I’m not mad about it. Yeah, that has been hilarious." (18:33)

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3. “Who Is the Left’s Charlie Kirk?”: Hasan Piker, Image Politics, and Masculinity

(19:46–25:32)

• Profiling Hasan Piker

  • Recap and ribbing over GQ’s feature on leftist streamer Hasan Piker, critiquing its “hyper-masculine” imagery as performative.
  • Jack: "This comes across as really gay…and that…is basically what this is. You’re skinsuiting masculinity…you’re skin suiting the working class." (22:10)
  • Group satirizes the contrast between Piker’s image and conservative grassroots activism.

• Conservative Activism vs. Progressive Influencing

  • Emphasizes the relentless, multifaceted effort behind Turning Point USA and Charlie’s work compared to leftist online personalities.
  • Blake: "Charlie’s just a guy with a podcast or just does tables on universities—and they’re really missing the point. The full spectrum Charlie Kirk experience is..." (23:02)

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4. The Weed Debate: Cultural and Societal Implications

(26:32–48:02)

• Trump Administration Considers Weed Reclassification

  • Panel unanimously opposes liberalizing marijuana laws, citing health, societal harms, and misleading pro-legalization arguments.

• Generational Shifts

  • Charlie: "I have to give Boomers a ton of credit. Their greatest take is their anti weed stance. Gen Z's totally wrong on this." (27:38)
  • Points out generational divides in views toward marijuana.

• The Social Cost of Legalizing Weed

  • Strong arguments about adverse effects: youth IQ decline, decreased productivity, normalization leading to higher usage especially among kids.
  • Jack: "When you're smoking weed, it just permeates every single space you're in...it makes our cities absolutely disgusting." (36:42)

• Economic and Cultural Downsides

  • Panel notes weed’s cost, cultural decline, and involvement of cartels even post-legalization.
  • Charlie: "Will this make America a stronger and better country 50 years from now? Increasing drug use?" (32:02)
  • Boomer “Redemption Arc”: Florida boomers credited for recently defeating a marijuana ballot measure.

• Legalization as De Facto Endorsement

  • Explains that many equate legality with morality, leading to higher usage and societal normalization.
  • Jack: "For a lot of people, legality is morality. So ... it's legal, means it's good and you can't say anything about it." (46:30)

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5. Sports Culture Wars: Female Umpires, Male Cheerleaders, and the State of Masculinity

(48:02–63:07)

• “Woke” Expands in Sports Despite Societal Backlash

  • MLB features its first female umpire, Jen Powell, whose debut performance the panel criticizes as unmeritocratic.
  • Charlie: "There should be no female umpires or referees, period, whatsoever." (52:16)
  • Blake: "If you’re a manager…you want to go bark at an umpire...If that's a woman, are you more or less likely to do that?" (53:07)
  • They argue this disrupts the male camaraderie and adversarial rituals central to baseball.

• Male Cheerleaders and Trans Dancers in the NFL

  • Contempt for male and trans cheerleaders in the NFL, naming the Minnesota Vikings and Carolina Panthers as examples.
  • Charlie: "Children are going there, and they have to go watch some trans dude dance with the women." (60:10)
  • Analysis of sports as battleground for leftist social engineering, particularly targeting youth audiences.

• Media Representation & Gender Roles

  • Critiques of female commentators and voice coaching to appear more masculine.
  • Jack: "What you're doing is you're speaking with your lower jaw only, and all from the lower part of your throat, which is just not natural for women." (58:02)

• Underlying Cultural Philosophy

  • Defense of single-sex spaces and male-dominated environments in sports.
  • Charlie: "Male only spaces and female only spaces matter. No different than women should not be on submarines, for obvious reasons." (56:12)

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On the Trump–Putin Alaska Summit:
  Jack (01:20): "The stakes couldn't be higher...this is a meeting of the two most powerful men in the world."
• On the "South Park" cameo:
  Charlie (18:33): "How mad liberal TikTok is that I’m not mad about it. Yeah, that has been hilarious."
• On stoned productivity claims:
  Charlie (27:38): "I'm super productive because I smoke weed...I can't afford a home and I can't afford my... Oh, okay, so which is it exactly?"
• On legalization signaling:
  Jack (46:30): "For a lot of people, legality is morality. So ... it's legal, means it's good."
• On the female baseball umpire:
  Charlie (52:16): "There should be no female umpires or referees, period, whatsoever."
• On sports and woke ideology:
  Jack (62:27): "We are going to take control of [the NFL] from the inside...so you can literally see the culture war being fought out at an NFL game."

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Timestamps for Important Segments

• [01:20] – Analysis of the Trump–Putin summit in Alaska: stakes, strategy
• [13:42] – South Park’s Kirk parody, ratings, and cultural impact
• [19:46] – Discussion of Hasan Piker, masculinity, and left-wing influencer culture
• [26:32] – Marijuana policy debate: generational and societal impacts
• [48:02] – Sports culture war: female umpires, male cheerleaders, 'woke' in the MLB and NFL

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Panel Members (First Name Attribution)

• Charlie Kirk (A): Host
• Tyler (B): Panelist
• Blake (D): Panelist
• Jack (C): Panelist

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Final Thoughts

• Sports remain a key cultural frontier for ideological battles, with traditionalists alarmed at the encroachment of “woke” policies.
• Marijuana legalization is sharply opposed by the panel, who perceive it as a societal decline masked as liberty.
• Pop culture appearances are embraced as victories for conservative messaging, while progressive counterparts are portrayed as lacking authenticity.
• The show’s hallmark: blend of “no-holds-barred” humor, unapologetic social critique, and rallying calls for cultural engagement.

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For further engagement or information:

• Email: freedomarliekirk.com
• More stories: charliekirk.com

Transcript

[A]

Hey, everybody. Today on Thought Crime, we talk a little bit of Trump, Russia and Alaska. We talk about south park and we talk about should men be cheerleaders and should women be umpires? Email us. As always, freedomarliekirk.com get involved with the most important organization in [e-mail] that is tpusa.com Buckle up, everybody. Here we go. Charlie, what you've done is incredible here.

[B]

Maybe Charlie Kirk is on the college campus.

[A]

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. Okay, everybody, it is Thought Crime Thursday. We have a really fun lineup of topics for you. We have Tyler. We have Blake. We have Jackson first. Jack. I know we have what could be called. You have a good term for it. It could be the Anchorage Accords. Jack, I know that they're trying to downplay some expectations here, but just before we even get into the south park episode, Jack, I want your just some news of the day because this could be listened to at any time. But set the table for the stakes of Alaska and then we'll get into south park stuff.

[C]

Well, it's huge. I mean, look, you got the first time that President Trump and Vladimir Putin have ever met together on US Soil. This will be the first time that a Russian leader has ever visited Alaska at all. Which, of course, given the history, Alaska used to be part of the Russian empire. It was discovered by Russian explorers back in the 1700s. But the stakes couldn't be higher because this is a meeting of the two most powerful men in the world, the world's two largest nuclear powers. There's a huge war that's been raging basically since Joe Biden took office. And President Trump made it one of his key points, key policy points in 2024 to work to end that war from day one. And he's been working to end that war from day one. So I don't think anyone else could have done this other than President Trump. He's got an incredible team that's going up there with him and the Anchorage Accords. Look, the stakes couldn't be higher in terms of what this could mean for world peace, what it could mean for the United States and what it could mean for all of us going forward. And I also think, you know, just looking at it, it's interesting the way that President Trump's strategy and Secretary Rubio has talked about this a little bit as well. If you look at brics, it's all about brics, as far as I'm concerned. He's systematically gone through the list, like, you got the B, you got the I, you got the S. So Brazil, India, South Africa and then Russia, because the very last one on that list is who? China. This is all about getting to China. So he's working his way through the various brics nations and the very last one will be China. That is actually the biggest piece of the table right now, even beyond the Ukraine war.

[A]

Do you have a thought on this, Tyler?

[B]

Well, I was just going to say I'm really offended that no one from the Trump administration invited any of Jack's extended family or myself as the only Russian speaker as the.

[A]

As the interlocutors.

[B]

I'm the only American Russian speaker within the orbit and I'm not there.

[A]

And I'm sort of. We've been to sick.

[D]

You're like. I was just thinking you're, like, the only one who, like, can see Russian, who's not. We're, like, going to, like, look up and it's like, oh, Tyler's literally Ukrainian military at some point. Remember the point where, like, in the Ukraine war started, and it's like. And our ambassador, like, was previously with, like, the Ukraine.

[B]

I just think I could go and be useful and just like, you know, like, talk, you know, talk. Talk shop with, like, the outsider guys, you know, Putin's thing.

[A]

So well, it's interesting. So how much of this stuff is public? What am I allowed to say, Jack? Let me ask Jack the question, Jack, how many people are the Russians bringing?

[C]

They've got a full delegation in terms of a couple of flights. I know that.

[A]

Remember what's public or not. But once. It's all.

[C]

I know for a fact that I know. I know for a fact that Russian diplomats from the. From Washington have been heading up to Anchorage all week. And of course, we've seen a few flights now coming across from the U.S. to, you know, excuse me, from Moscow to Anchorage already this week. So, you know what we're. But. And then, of course, he's bringing a lot of the top Kremlin leaders. He's going to be bringing Sergei Lavrov, he's going to be bringing his special envoy, as well as a couple of other top leaders. Interestingly enough, though, I believe that the Russian Minister of Defense, as well as the Secretary of Defense in the US Side, Pete Hegseth, are both not coming to the meeting. And that obviously, is a huge piece of sort of, sort of signaling that this is a peace summit rather than a, you know, a war summit or rather than go to war with each other, Both sides really sending a huge signal with that.

[A]

So there will be, there'll be a lot of fun stories afterwards. But, you know, it's just, let's, let's just.

[D]

I really have enjoyed the freak out where they're like, the implication of us just meeting them in.

[A]

I think it's wonderful.

[D]

Like, is he going to return Alaska to Russia?

[A]

Only if they can keep Lisa Murkowski. That's what I'll say. She did vote for the big, beautiful bill. You'd say something like that.

[C]

I will say, though, that from what I'm hearing, I'm hearing some reports on the Russian side that there's a lot of, there's a lot of cynicism in Moscow, like, they're bringing a massive security detail because there's a lot of people who actually are worried that in Moscow, again, this is, if you, if you go read, like, what people are saying on, on Russian social media, that people are worried that, you know, Trump will betray Putin and, you know, launch an attack on Russia while Putin's in the United States. I'm telling you, like, the whole thing is, is wild in terms of what they're saying. So I wouldn't be surprised if the Russians come in with a really, really big footprint.

[A]

Yeah, it's going to be fun. I'm going to say is just watch it on tv. It's going to be quite the spectacle. I mean, it's, it's going to be great. So, and we're gonna be. So the whole show tomorrow, we're gonna talk about, on the Charlie Kirk show, we're gonna go through the stakes, the land, NATO membership. And I just, I cannot compliment the president enough on this. And Blake, I know you would agree, especially on this just meeting is like an act of courage. Like, there's people mad that he's sitting down and talking to Putin.

[D]

It's so deranged.

[A]

To me, it is.

[D]

It is head of state. And frankly, it seems like that's where he's usually been at his best. There's been some noticing of this where, like, the leaders who bother to talk to Trump end up having good relationships with him. And it often transcends Politics. The funniest one to me was he was buds with Amlo during his first term, the left wing Mexican president. But they talked to each other and like Amlo had thought he kind of had his election stolen the first time he ran for president in like 2008 in Mexico. So he was really understanding. You know, Trump is like, everyone's out to get me. You know, those deep state people. He's like, oh, yeah, Trump, those are very terrible. And like they, so they like made the remain in Mexico deal. Like he had a great relationship with the president of Mexico. That's why the border got so good towards the end of his first term. And that's a left wing guy. And then similarly trade deals, like we're having a lot of this, you know, trade friction. A good example is he's kind of been pretty combative with Narendra Modi in India right now, who's also a conservative. But then Keir Starmer, who we otherwise have basically no reason to like Keir Starmer. But Starmer bit the bullet and was like, I'm going to call Trump and we're just going to like be buds. And now they have.

[A]

The whole thing's wild. All right, so we're all eyes on this. Credit, credit, credit to President Trump for meeting. And by the way, the optics of it are just going to be amazing. It's on a US Air Force base in Alaska. Alaska used to be Russian. So I would speculate that Trump's like, oh, we got, you know, what part of your land kind of like, you know, we want to talk about this.

[D]

Land was your land.

[A]

Now it's my land. And like you want like there's, you know what I mean, Jack? Like there's a little bit of like a, oh, you want to talk about the land thing.

[B]

He's going to totally try to bridge territory.

[A]

Well, and also there is like a, there is a faction of Russian politics that's like, you should have never given up Russia. Alaska.

[C]

Right.

[D]

Shouldn't have a very good deal for us.

[A]

It was an amazing deal. It was so good for us.

[C]

Yeah, there's actually a really cool, just historical fact that I saw and I was, I was reading what the Russian side was announcing about the trip to try to get a sense of because they were putting some stuff out before because they're ahead of us time this morning and they mentioned someone from one of the Kremlin spokesman was saying that there's actually a site on or at least near the base where they're going to be meeting One of the cemeteries actually has Russian soldiers that were pilots that are buried in a US Air Force base right there, I guess, army installation on Elmendorf. And the question is, well, why would, you know, why would Russian soldiers be buried in Alaska? Well, During World War II, these were actually pilots that, when the U.S. was running the Lend Lease program. And so when we were sending tanks and planes, etcetera, and equipment to the Russian army, to the Red army in the ussr, that one of the routes was to fly them from Alaska to Siberia. So the Russians would take a plane, fill it full of pilots, fly that to Alaska, then have the Alaskan pilots, or have the. Have the pilots in Alaska go into the American fighters and bombers, etc. And then fly them across the Bering Strait over to Siberia, Syria. But just given the situation, given the weather, there were a number of people who died. So it wouldn't surprise me if, you know, perhaps there's some ceremonial, you know, visit to the site. And it's. It's really this area where you don't see too many of it, where it's this, this linkage of the U.S. and Russia from this, this World War II operation.

[A]

Have you ever been to Alaska?

[D]

Never.

[B]

I've been. I've been to Sitka.

[A]

Why would you go to Sitka, a.

[B]

Historically Russian island town in Alaska? I've been.

[D]

They have some ify stuff.

[A]

The craziest part, all the places to go, you get to.

[B]

They have a full Orthodox church there.

[C]

Dude, it's like, I've been to Fruit, the craziest one.

[D]

There's a town Alaska Juno. Yeah, there's a town in Alaska that's Russian Old Believers and they moved back there.

[A]

Really?

[C]

Yeah, I've heard about this. Yeah, Blake, I've heard about this.

[D]

So Old Believer, long story, but there was like the Russian Orthodox Church and then they reformed it. And some people were like, that's not cool. That's lame. And they've been this like, dissident religious group in Russia and around the world. And I don't even think they've always been in Alaska. I think they lived in America.

[B]

Yeah.

[D]

And then they're like, we should make our own Old Believers town. So they just moved to Alaska and bought land.

[B]

And because you get free, you get all the free lumber too.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

So you can literally build anything you want in Alaska if you move there.

[D]

You know, it really is kind of the case if you're, if you're complaining that you lack community, you don't really lack community, you just lack will. Because you could move to Alaska and lumber.

[A]

I built a town, so it's a two. So I think Alaska is one of the great treasures on the planet. It is unbelievable. It's so wild. It's so like. It makes Colorado look like just like jv. Yeah.

[C]

It's so another country.

[A]

Wild, Jack. Have you been there?

[C]

Yeah, I've been to. I've been all over, like, the southern part. I actually did a trip up to Prudhoe Bay once. Got to. Got to put my hand in the Arctic Ocean. That's a tough one to get, but.

[A]

I've got to go. That's a big one. So. So, Jack, I think you would agree and Tyler would agree there is like Colorado, Montana, wild. Yes. Where you like, you know, pull. You know, you go to Gl, you're like, wow. You know, that's wild. And then there's like Alaska wild. And you're like, whoa. And you take like 10. You go 10 steps off the highway. Yeah. And all of a sudden it just meets your being and like, there's the nothingness. It's the. It's like a vast abyss of untouched. Vast is the only word I can use right, Jack. It's like anti.

[C]

And it's one of the reasons here that just.

[D]

That's the nickname of the state. The last frontier.

[A]

It still is. I mean, it is.

[C]

It's a state 100.

[A]

It is so vast. It is so wild.

[D]

Now think of what Siberia is like.

[B]

And the ocean.

[A]

I know exactly that. I mean, so kind of like the connective tissue here. Last thing about Alaska. By far the most plane accidents and crashes.

[D]

Gotta fly everywhere.

[C]

I think it's the highest private plane ownership per capita.

[A]

Well, is Alaska. Hold on, hold on. Their private planes are like pontoon boats.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

Okay. Yes. These. These things are a joke. They're like. They look like park them out in their yard sometimes. I mean, these things are single prop. Like, not exactly what we would call. It would be so unsafe. You would look at. I think they have like 400 a year or something.

[B]

It's insane.

[A]

Happens all the time.

[B]

It's. Everybody's so big.

[C]

If you want to go hunting or something, you just, you know, off you go.

[A]

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[D]

We only need to hit this quick, but we just wanted to congratulate you, Charlie. So you were, you were in the episode last week, of course, and apparently in terms of ratings, it was the most viewed south park episode since 2018. Now, I think we probably have to give a lot of the credit, of course, to just the wider context.

[A]

They could have had huge views if they made fun of Biden and Kamala. I mean, they decided not to be popular. Let's just be honest.

[D]

It's very funny to me because south park, they wouldn't really make fun of Bush much when everyone was. And they didn't really do it for Obama or Trump. They did a bit for Trump first and then, yeah, Biden, as you said, they've kind of generally avoided making fun of U.S. presidents. And I thought their reasoning for a long time was good, which was everyone talks about US Presidential stuff forever. There's no new jokes to be made about it. It'll usually, it's like it's low effort. You often make yourself look dumb. And they're sort of proving themselves right. Because I thought the stuff with you was really good.

[A]

I thought it was. It was legitimately hilarious.

[D]

Yeah, the stuff with Trump has, like, not been as good, at least.

[A]

No stuff. Stuff's like whatever. I mean, so. So, Tyler, you made an interesting point that no one's made. So the whole kind of like master debater thing, they were also getting at something that, like, young men are spending more time watching politics than, like, going through pornhub. That was like a buried lead of.

[B]

This is producer Angelo, actually producer Angel.

[A]

Very smart point.

[B]

It Made this point, which is like, how cool is that undertone that they were basically.

[A]

That's a deep pole.

[B]

It was a hugely deep hole that young men were more interested in getting the Charlie Kirk award than the pornhub Award. Now, right?

[D]

Is that, is that an award?

[B]

Well, I mean, you know what I.

[A]

Mean, like the, hey, the, the debate of masturdivation.

[B]

Yeah, the. But they, they were, they were very like leaning in on this, which is.

[D]

Just more Young men is going to be great. Young men are like hilarious.

[B]

Young men are competing to be more conservative. Like, and it's true, like every single person I talked to. I just had a contractor at my house the other day and he's like, well, what do you do? And I explained what I did. He's like, oh my gosh, my kids on tick tock all day. Like my 14 year olds on tick tock all day long watching nothing but Charlie.

[D]

It actually is really funny.

[B]

Like.

[D]

And then, yeah, the competition. Every single most extreme guy. So like you'll get guys online and they'll just be like, well, actually like so and so is a cuck because he doesn't want to like deport the family members of everyone, you know. And like, they get like completely unhinged.

[B]

And that's where young men are now. And that's why we're winning the debate. It's. They're living there and they're, they're taking this. And there's. Every day we're seeing headlines, who's going to be the left? Charlie Kirk.

[D]

Who's going to be the left?

[B]

Charlie Kirk. And there's nobody. And they basically, like south park had to identify that. And then the second piece is, is that all of south park is dependent upon young men and what they care about. And this is what they care about. It's great.

[A]

They do.

[C]

Actually, Charlie did.

[A]

Go ahead.

[C]

Did you see what Scott Adams had actually said about you the other day?

[A]

Very kind. I want to load. I mean, if we want. I mean, it doesn't have to.

[C]

All I meant. Yeah, I meant to mention it to you. I caught it. Yeah, I caught it. It was so nice. I mean, he just said, he said, look, the, the reason, I don't know if you guys have the clip or not, but he said the reason the left can't have a Charlie Kirk is because Charlie Kirk, all he does is, is, is say common sense. He states commonsensical things and he looks at complex issues and puts them out. Given common sense. So the left can't do that because it's Completely against their entire nature. And if you were going to have someone who did that, they would just be another Charlie Kirk.

[A]

Yes. And he also was very complimentary of like how we did our campus interactions. And it's really, really good.

[C]

He loved it. It was a Charlie Kirk love fest. He was loving on you.

[A]

Jerry was very sweet.

[B]

He follows all of our stuff very closely.

[A]

Scott is. How is his health, by the way?

[C]

Jack? So he has a new regimen now that I hear Scott and I share. You know, we're friends and we have chair Joshua Lysack, co author, slash editor. And he's, he's working on a new, a new treatment and I don't know quite all the details with it, but I basically heard that it was like a hormone blocker and so. But like a really, really expensive, brand new one. And he actually said it had something to do with blocking his testosterone. And if I remember correctly, and for some reason that took away like all of his pain. So, you know, talk about thought crimes. He had already scheduled, I think it was the end of June. He was going to do the, the doctor assisted procedure at the end of June and he was going to punch out, but now he's still going strong and he says he thinks he's got at least a couple of years left and you know, obviously looking for a larger solution to the issue to his pancreatic cancer, but same one that Joe Biden has as a matter of fact, but pain wise, he's doing okay, apparently.

[A]

And so the just go back to the ratings themselves. The numbers were very good. And so maybe we'll make another appearance, maybe we won't. And by the way, do we have like the contemplation? The other subtext is, which I just have loved, is how mad liberal TikTok is that I'm not mad about it. Yeah, that has been hilarious.

[D]

There's even been like meta analysis there. Like some people responded like trying to signal that they could take a joke and like, oh, like, oh, we have to war game this.

[A]

I. I don't. It was. It's actually the whole thing's hol. I've watched some of those clips like three or four times. It's funny. It's like well written, it's smart, it's hilarious.

[B]

Every single one of them was like, they're making fun of you, bro.

[A]

Don't you know it? The joke is about you. You're not in on the joke.

[B]

No. It's so fun, you laughing. Well, that's the funny part too. It's like you look at this, you watch the whole thing. It's like there's no part of this that was actually, like, hardcore making fun of you. Even. Like, they weren't going at you that hard. They. It was a, like a level of respect that if you get that from south park, that's like the top tier respect that you saw.

[A]

It's wild. It's crazy.

[B]

It's good stuff.

[A]

So then they. Hassan Piker, who I'm actually gonna be debating at Dartmouth coming up in about a month, round two. So I'm gonna. I'm gonna save all of my commentary and Hassan Piker for that specific moment. But he didn't interview a gq.

[D]

Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. Just. I was saying just because of the whole. There. You know, they're talking so much.

[B]

They need.

[A]

No, hold on. Did he really do the bed picture?

[D]

It appears so, yes.

[A]

Oh, my gosh. I will. You guys have to do all the commentary for me here. I'm gonna say nothing. Yeah.

[D]

So I was. I just found this just because we were talking about, you know, they're saying, oh, they need their left wing Charlie.

[C]

Kirk and, like, who would it be?

[D]

And so.

[A]

Yeah.

[D]

And then just by happenstance yesterday. Do we have the photo of this? Do we have the photo of. Let's. Let's get this up so people can see. Yes, there we do. So they did a profile of Hasan Piker who says America might be cooked. We agree with him on that one. We might be cooked. We're hoping for the best, though. We think we have the guy in charge who can help this, but he's gonna try to turn the tide by wearing a palace, what looks like a Palestine soccer jersey while on some sort of bed somewhere.

[B]

Well, there's that.

[D]

A couch.

[B]

They also have this bathtub one.

[A]

Really?

[C]

This room. This is.

[B]

This is Jack.

[A]

How is it, Jack? How's this not made its way on Twitter yet? I can't. I'm staying out of this one.

[C]

I haven't seen this.

[B]

He posted himself in a bathtub with bubbles. It's a gq. And Hasan Piker shared this with. I thought GQ was trying to be more conservative lately. I thought after.

[C]

This is similar to the. Have you seen the GQ Travis Kelce photo shoot? Because it's. It's very similar to this. I just sent it in the chat that, you know, it's. It's this sort of like, we're liberal, but we're masculine, but we're also like. It's like an aggressive form of hyper masculinity. That you usually see in like, like Marvel movies or something. Yeah, there's the Travis Kelsey. Like, he's, he's a working man. He's. He's blue collar. This is just like aggressively over masculine. And it's, and it's just, I'm sorry, like, it's just, it comes across as really gay and that, you know, go back to one with the boots with Travis Kelsey. I mean, he's, he's on top of like a, a shipping container.

[D]

He looks like a boss in like a 2000s Konami video game.

[B]

This is, this is like gay and questionable. GQ was supposed to get more conservative after Trump got elected. I thought they had turned a new leaf.

[C]

This is like Tim Walls thing where it's like, where it's kind of like, remember the, the Buffalo Bill from Science of the Lambs? And he's like, he's like, thinks he could become a woman by, you know, like wrapping himself in this literal skin suit of women. I mean, that's, that's basically what this is. Your skin suiting masculinity, your skin suiting the working class. I mean, this is just.

[A]

Is that.

[C]

It's like he's got like a frayed pea coat, but it's like fake frayed. I don't know, man. This, this is the one of the weirdest things I've ever seen. Also. Are those like riding boots?

[B]

Hassan Piker's feed is him in a bathtub. And then him and Rashida Talib and him promoting Democratic Socialists of America, their convention for 2025. And this is their answer for Turning Point Charlie Kirk. Like, this is. I feel like they, they're doing our work for us.

[D]

And when they talk about this, they always make the mistake of thinking like, Charlie's just a guy with a podcast or just does tables on universities. And like, they're really missing the point. Like the full spectrum Charlie Kirk experience is like, he's doing the table. And then he's like, also off to do like his entire get out the vote effort. And then he's also off to like, oh, we have to found all of our chapters on all the campuses and raising the money. Now I'm gonna go speak at this church, in that church, and now I'm gonna appear and all. Like, it's just like the relentless stuff. And also he's not posting any photos. I have never seen a photo of Charlie Kirk in a bathtub.

[B]

That will be the day we, we all call in sick.

[D]

That'll be.

[A]

Yeah.

[C]

Wait, but Charlie, would you do you do do your. Your cold plunges. So would you ever do a cold.

[B]

Plunge that's different than Hassan Piker in a bubble bath?

[C]

Okay, like, I know it's different, but I'm just.

[D]

What if we did a bubble cold.

[A]

Plunge that I don't know if.

[C]

Would it be Charlie, other bubbles in your cold plunge?

[A]

There's no bubbles in the cold.

[C]

Do you bring your rubber ducky?

[A]

No. Apparently he does. Apparently, no.

[B]

He's. He's his. All his posts are just like with your.

[C]

Is that a scented candle? Is that a. Is that a pumpkin spice?

[B]

Everything he does is commie and femme. It's.

[D]

I like this. We have to read this quote. We have to read this quote because it's amazing. This is from the GQ article about the man who's going to be the left wing. Charlie Kirk as Piker burns through his 70 minute workout, exhausting himself in the process. He strips his shirt off an army of girls and gays, not to mention admiring looks. Maxers would kill to be where I am now next to Piker as he pants in a pair of neon shorts with black Calvin Klein boxers poking out and sunlight glinting off the sweat beaded on his chest.

[A]

Goodness. This author who wrote this article.

[B]

But this goes back to the point of everybody's looking for answers. The people that they're picking for answers are the reason why we exist. The reason why Charlie Kirk exists is because Hasan Piker. This isn't new. There's been gay commie stuff out there forever. That's what literally spawned Turning Point. That's what gave credence to all this stuff is because nobody, no dude wants this ever. And so they're just put. They're actually helping us. They're just making it even deeper than it is. It's great. Congratulations, gq.

[A]

I have a lot.

[D]

I'll say save it in a month. In a month.

[A]

Charlie Kirk here. We know that rates are still high and that they can make refinancing or purchasing feel out of reach. But markets can shift fast, and when they do, I want you to be in the strike zone. So what is the strike zone? That's a sweet spot when rates dip just enough to meet your target goal. But it doesn't last long. Make sure you're ready to strike first and save big. At Sierra Pacific Mortgage, Andrew and Todd and their team will get you set up and keep you informed so you can strike at the right time. These are the guys I trust with 40 years of experience. They are really the experts and they make it Easy because they keep everything in house. Get pre qualified today. Visit andrewandtod.com do it now to get a priority spot at the front of the line before the rest of the herd jumps in. And when the market enters the strike zone, you'll strike first and save big. Call 888-88-1172. That's 888-88-1172. Or online at andrewandtod.com that is andrewandtod.com they help me and they'll help you. Andrewandtod.com.

[D]

Do you want to talk about weed?

[A]

Yes. All right.

[D]

Weed, the demon weed.

[A]

I think we all agree on this. I think we do, but we should.

[D]

Still talk about it anyway. So for context, for those who didn't see Charlie's show earlier today, there's discussion within the Trump administration because there's, you know, some divisions within the conservative movement on should we loosen the legal restrictions on weed right now? Marijuana is a Schedule 3 drug. I believe that's the most severe category or one of the most severe where it's like basically almost no or no medically valid usage. It's other ones that are scheduled. Three are heroin, lsd, stuff like that generally carries the most punitive federal oversight and penalties. And there's discussion of moving it to schedule one, which is there's some risk of addiction and harm, but it's, you know, less bad overall. And so they would move it from Schedule 3 to Schedule 1. And Trump has said, he said at a press conference that they're looking at, they'll probably decide next week, but they haven't finalized the decision yet. And so we've been weighing in on ourselves. Do we think it would be a good idea?

[A]

It's a terrible idea. We said that today. We disagree with it and it's funny. We did our show live in real America's Voice. The emails were super positive. And then you put a YouTube. The comments are super negative. This is like Boomer redemption arc. I think I have to give Boomers a ton of credit. Their greatest take is their anti weed stance. I'm sorry, we just got to call Sean. We were very unfair to, to the Booms a lot. Not unfair, but I just a little, I just like, you know, a little critical sometimes. I'm sorry. Gen Z's totally wrong on this. They have no idea what they're engaging into. I think I did a ton of talking. So I want you guys to talk on this. We did a whole episode on it today. It's being very well, it's being well received by the older audience, loves it. And the younger audience is like, I'm super productive. And then it's very funny. This is my favorite thing. I'm super productive because I smoke weed. I scroll down their other tweets. I can't afford a home and I can't afford my. Oh, okay, so which is it exactly? Yeah. So, so wait, like weed is. I'm so amazing and I get so much done thanks to weed and I can't afford my groceries.

[D]

It really does. I feel like weed is like the first step on the path of like someone who's like, I am a better person and so I can do drugs with no ill effects. And I'll be frank. I think there probably are some people who have like done drugs and have not had super bad things happen to them. But one you don't necessarily know for sure. Like, I think a lot of the damage is on the margins. We looked at the numbers. If you take a bunch of marijuana when you're a teenager, it'll probably lower your IQ by two points. That's not always super noticeable on an individual to individual basis. But that matters a lot on a country level. Like, if your country has an average of like 102 versus 100, that's like $10,000. And what your country's average incomes are, if you look at it, you know, because that stuff, they measure that stuff by country. And it's just, I really do think it's worth asking ourselves, like, do we want to be a country where a bunch of people where it's like normal to take tons of drugs and a bunch of people are on them? And you can like frame it from this libertarian perspective of like, should people just be allowed to harm their bodies if they want? But at the same time, like, has there ever been a great country where a ton of people are on a ton of different types of dope? I don't really think so.

[A]

No. I did a huge summary on it. I'll try to my best to summarize it. Number one, we talk about the enormous amount of data that it's way worse for young people than we ever imagined. Lowering IQ points, making people less likely to show up on work on time. And the data is just overwhelming. I have some of it here that I can reread.

[D]

And I think all of us know people who. They got into weed and they just became a weed person.

[B]

I actually have it.

[D]

It eats their. It eats their person.

[A]

You know, this reminds me so much in some ways of like the Trans debate. Whereas, like, we know it's wrong and everyone says, no, no, it's fine. Like we need more studies and like we could just see it's bad for people. We could, like, we don't need a blue ribbon commission to tell us that like gender mutilation is wrong. And again, I'm not compare, like, of course some people I guess can be fine and functioning, but the people who say like the cope, oh, I'm super functioning on weed all the time.

[D]

And they get, they get so angry at the prospect of losing it and.

[A]

Their sensitivity towards it.

[B]

Anyway, Tyler, I think there's actually a huge story that we have millennials who are actually converting over to be anti weed, who are big pro weed. And there's a. Again, Jack's about my age. A bunch of us are about the same age. I don't know if you've seen this Jack, but a lot of friends that I've had, acquaintances I know that were really into weed in high school and early college age now have completely just gotten rid of it, got it out of their lives. And part of it is the cost that you brought up. It's on average, I looked it up, it's 300, 400 bucks a month that people are spending. I mean, we're talking like high end.

[A]

Car payments a year.

[B]

Yeah, high end car payments that people are spending on weed per month. And then you double that with alcohol. So people are spending as much on alcohol, weed as you would on a mortgage or rent payment. And that's a pretty common thing that happens a lot with a lot of people. So I think as people age and get older, they're starting to realize, oh my gosh, this has been not good for my life. This hasn't made me more productive. They've realized they're not as productive. They're spending money that they really shouldn't be spending and they don't have. And now they're, they're growing up.

[A]

And I try, I tried to, and I want Jack to get into this, but I try to synthesize these things down to a series of questions. We do the same thing for crime or whatever. Will this make America a stronger and better country? 50 years from now? Increasing drug use? So there are four major lies when it comes to this. I did this on the show. We were told it was going to bring down crime. It hasn't done that. Number two, we were told that kid usage rates are going to go. You call this the worst of the lies, right? Yeah, yeah. We were saying, hey, if you Legalize it. Less kids will do it because it will be harder to access. The opposite has happened. Weed usage amongst kids. And people say, oh, it's not using weed, it's smoking weed. No, you don't understand. Like when I say people, it's not just smoking. There's edibles, there's cookies, there's gummy bears, there's brownies, there's a lot more which.

[C]

Are marketed to kids, by the way, obviously marketing kids.

[A]

The best argument that Blake made today, and I want Blake to take it in a second, but is it going to make America better? That is the most operative question. Because people, we have been lied to by the libertarians to be so narcissistic in our politics. Well, I want it so therefore it must be good. Okay, got it. Great. You're super responsible. That's actually not the question that we're dealing with right now. The question that we're dealing with is a societal one, a quality of life 1. When you walk the streets, do you want to smell it? Do you want your kids to be raised in that way? Will it make us more aspirational? What make us work harder will make us better, grittier? Will it make us more ethical? Will it make us more virtuous? Will it make our street safer? Blake, true or false? There are more DUIs now for weed consumption than for alcohol.

[D]

So I don't know what in terms of arrests, but they looked at the cdc. What they did is they looked at people because the CDC said it's tough to easily track this across states and everything, but they just looked at people who ended up in the hospital from like severe accidents in seven different trauma centers. And a higher percentage of them had marijuana in their systems than had alcohol in their systems when they tested these people.

[A]

No question. And then also we were told the cartels would be weaker. The cartels are richer and more powerful since we've done legalization. And again, some people say, well, what about classic reclassification? All reclassification would do would be yet another win for a lying marijuana industry that does not benefit the well being of the United States of America, period. Now again, if you want to get it for some medical card, okay, I guess I'm sure there's some veteran even.

[D]

That'S always bothered me.

[A]

I know, I just, I don't, I don't think that's the Hill I want to die.

[D]

It's not the hill you want to die on, but it was, it was so. From the beginning, it was so nakedly intended to just be their Beachhead for full legalization, because there's always been ways that they could, like, provide the, like, painkiller benefits in, like, a much more muted, low amount of marijuana way. But people just want to smoke weed. And.

[A]

And again, I just. I worry that it's. And then the other argument that I don't like, which is then that this is how you know you're winning the argument. But, Charlie, it's gonna be politically bad for us. Wait, so doing nothing is politically bad for us? I'm sorry, wait, what? You could just do nothing? So that's. It's not a matter of an action, but who cares if it's politically. That's the more it's not the right thing to do. Jack, are you with us on this? And I think. I don't think the vast majority of Americans are. However, I want to just give everyone some hope. Florida defeated the ballot measure that would have legalized marijuana. Now, again, boomers. Boomers strike back, baby. Is because Florida has a bunch of Midwestern boomers that don't like marijuana. So God bless the boomers. It's. It's the best thing that. That they've done politically recently. Jack.

[C]

Yeah, Charlie. A million percent. And. And you're right that this is one of those issues where it's like, when you call somebody on the phone, they're almost like, because. Because the. The weed lobby, or I call them Big Leaf because Big Leaf is so aggressive, and people, like, run up at you and yell at you in public, or. I tweeted about this the other day, and it just went, you know, avalanche of virality. You retweeted that, which I think led to it, of course. And, you know, so many people responding, very angry. I mean, almost like theologically upset at what I had said and that just said, please, no, because it's like, we're in D.C. and it's disgusting. They don't enforce these laws. There's weed smoke everywhere. The stench is all over the place. And in public, I can't take my kids anywhere without smelling it. And it sticks to you. It permeates everything, and it. It makes our cities dirty, and it makes our cities nasty. And I'm sorry, but it's. It is different. And by. The people know that. And by, like, people always say, like.

[A]

What about alcohol, Jack?

[C]

Like, yeah, okay, I. Everybody knows. Like, I say it all the time. Alcohol is poisonous. I don't drink. I know what the laws are, but I've never once advocated for drinking. And so it's like, you want to do that. But the difference with drinking, other than drinking and driving, if you drink in your own home, then other people aren't going to be affected by that. But when you're smoking weed, it. It just permeates every single space you're in. And people are like, you can't even tell. Like, dude, we can all tell, bro. We can all tell. We can all smell it. You could smell it from a block away. And it makes our cities absolutely disgusting. And the. And the. The blue city cops, or at least, you know, I'm not going to the cops. But the blue cities will not enforce this. They don't enforce any of the laws. So anytime a Big leaf comes up and says, oh, we're going to do this, we're going to do that, no, it's never going to be enforced. And here's the big thing. I don't know if you guys covered this earlier today. I've been running around, but it's the descheduling or rescheduling, whatever you want to call it, that's coming down. This is a massive tax break for the corporate, for big leaf. So it allows these cannabis corporations to be able to take billions upon billions of dollars of deductions from the IRS that they currently can't take because federal law and a lot of state laws are kind of mismatched here. So what they're wanting to do is to be able to take massive deductions, which is going to increase the sales of weed in the country. It's going to increase hundreds of dispensaries. It's going to be all over the place for kids. They're going to be coming in contact with it everywhere. We're already seeing it being marketed towards children. And I couldn't be more against it. Just totally against it.

[A]

Yeah. And I just. As a parent, I could tell you, Tyler, it's not made the Phoenix metro area better. It hasn't made the Valley better. It just. Period. No, Phoenix is a great test case. Right. And it hasn't made us stronger, healthier, happier. And these weed dispensaries, I want you to chime in, they're kind of like slums that you could. You could. It's very interesting. There's one near where I live. When you kind of pull up the people that are going in there are not people you would want to marry your daughter. No, they're not people that this. It brings down the quality of life in the neighborhood. It's. These are not people that, oh, let's go to church and go get an edible on the way. No, it is. It is people that should be challenged to become better, but we're allowing them to go more shallower. Tyler. I want to go first on Phoenix. Blake.

[B]

Well, there's a reason and actually blends right into the commentary that there's a culture around potheads, Right?

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

When you can think it. Whenever you can think of a person that comes out of an activity, then there's a culture that's around it. And if it's a positive culture that you're like, wow, I want to be like that person, then that's a good thing. If it's a negative culture, then it's like, oh, that's probably a bad thing. It's like the simplest way to put it. The problem with weed, to me, that has always existed, and since it got kind of peak popularity from the time I was in high school to now, where it's been, now, it's kind of losing popularity, and we're seeing trends that people are actually shunning it. Even though consumption is probably at its highest ever because it's legalized. You have. You have people who. It's kind of like alcoholism, when you think of an alcoholic, is similar in bad, negative culture that comes to a pothead. The problem is, is that almost everybody that ingests weed, that actually subscribes, smokes, or consumes weed is more likely to become part of that pothead culture than a person who drinks that becomes alcohol. That's just my opinion. I don't think.

[A]

Yeah. And Matt Walsh made an argument, which is a good one. It's not. I wouldn't say it's great, but it's good that generally alcohol, I guess, could be used as, like, a social lubricant. Have a drink, relaxes you. It's. There's a more social component to alcohol. I.

[B]

You know, I think that's how it culturally got introduced to the. To the American populace out of Prohibition.

[A]

Yeah. I'm like, I actually think one of the. I have, like, a bunch of books I want to write throughout my career, and Blake, you can help me with this one. After next project. It'll be the next one is honestly, Prohibition was way more successful than it was realized. I'm sorry. People used.

[D]

It was three gallons of, like, grain alcohol.

[A]

Cirrhosis, which is where your liver dies, was. Yeah, but that was super common before prohibition.

[D]

And, like, you had, like, every social problem we get from drugs was coming from just alcohol in terms of. It was domestic violence, abandonment, you know, vagrancy, and alcohol use. Has never gone up to where it was before the Prohibition.

[B]

It worked.

[D]

But, you know, there was a good point. I think Ross Douthat at the New York Times made this, like, a decade ago. He pointed out that, you know, maybe even if you just say alcohol is poison and it's totally bad, well, it has a long history in civilization. We're probably not going to root it out.

[A]

Fermented drinks are there forever.

[D]

It's used in religious rituals, including in the west and all of that. You're not going to take it out. So maybe you just have to concede. You know what? Maybe it's even worse than marijuana, but we shouldn't stack a bunch of vices on top of it.

[A]

Totally.

[D]

That thing with impaired driving, I think that's become really common in a huge number of crashes, is they're drunk and they're high on weed. Every vice, every vice in America, like, is stacking at the bottom. So you have people who, if you're an alcoholic, you're also more likely to do weed, and you're also more likely to abuse all these other drugs. You're more likely to do opioids and heroin. You're more likely to be addicted to gambling. Every single one of these vices stacks, and it's just nuking the people at the bottom.

[A]

Yeah. And Angela makes a good point. I think the tide is turning with Gen Z leading this religious revival. I think it's just becoming less and less cool to be a degenerate. Yep. And if you. Again, I don't think you're a bad person. It's not an indictment of your character, but I will say, and Jack, Jack, can you expand on this? Some people can tolerate some moderate weed usage. The vast majority of people can't. But they think they can't. That's the key, is that they think they're all fine. Like, oh, I could keep myself. No, we can tell that's why you're flatlining. Like, just. It's not good for you. Stop doing it, Jack.

[C]

Yeah. No, and, Charlie, I'm sure you. You've had your share of experiences of meeting people. You mean like California people, I call them. Right. Or like west coast people, and they'll say, hey, man, I'm a founder, or I'm this, I'm that, you know, and they're in Silicon Valley or wherever they are, and they say, well, you know, I smoke up every day and look how successful I am. So clearly this must be. This must be okay. And it's like, maybe, right?

[A]

Imagine what you would do without weed is my answer. Always, though.

[C]

That's a good one. That's good. But, but what I'm saying is like you, it's to your point, right? You're if those type of people, it's also self selecting, right? There's a self selection bias there because you're already successful. But how many people are also doing this and are not successful and are reaping or, you know, the bad benefits of, you know, the detriments of having used it? And so it's like, it's one of those things where as a society, look, we should have a very strong public policy regarding these things. And it's to your point, Charlie? You know, people want to make these arguments. Well, it's great for me, so I think it should be fine. It's like, that's cool. But public policy is for everybody. And you got to look at people up and down the ladder too. That's what MAGA is supposed to be all about, actually looking at the homeland, figuring out what's good. And by the way, our cities should be incredible. We're trying to clean up the cities, right? That's the whole point of what President Trump's doing with the, you know, with the law enforcement federalizing D.C. so cleaning up the cities and go. And by the way, going after drug dealers is something that President Trump talked about for a long, long time during the campaign. I don't really see how making drugs more accessible cleans up our cities.

[A]

Yeah. And I just, again, we have the before and after and the before and after. Again, Phoenix is resisting a little bit, but not really. I mean, there are parts of Phoenix that have gotten worse since the legalization of weed.

[B]

Well, look at the homelessness, look at the crime rates that have risen. Like, and I know it's like, oh, it's a big jump. But this is all, it's all connected, it's interconnected. When you look at this and you go, when you make this stuff accessible, productivity goes down. And when productivity goes down, homelessness and those that are in the workforce, homelessness goes up, working Americans goes down. Everything costs more. Because also, by the way, this is something that's like, I've been reading and we see that, I mean, we have a ton of employees that are here. Their rent has gone up dramatically. You know, one of the big number one things that landlords are saying that that's happening is they can't get the smell of weed out of the walls. They are charging everybody up. So what that does automatically is rents get raised because of stuff like, it's silly, stupid stuff like this that all of a sudden changes things. Smoking is at a all time low now. Weed usage has actually gone up the amount of weed that's actually being smoked. And it only happens in certain neighborhoods, in certain contexts. And it's with young people in depressed areas where, you know, landlords are high and crime is higher and homelessness peaks. And we're seeing all of this happen in places that people are going, like, I don't even recognize, you know, the downtown portion of our moderate size or small town anymore, because this is what's taken over.

[A]

Yeah. And I just, again, the other part of it is that when you legalize something and Blake, you can attest to is a endorsement for usage. Yeah. And so that is the key. It is a, it is kind of a, A blessing if you.

[D]

There are a lot of people who cannot really, in their head, divide like legality from morality. That's just how a lot of people.

[A]

Every law is. Has a moral root to it. Every law has.

[C]

But Blake, that's an IQ test. Yeah, that's an IQ test because there, for a lot of people, legality is morality. So the idea that, okay, like you understand the difference, it's like saying we're all created equal versus we're all equal in the declaration. All right, Most, like you should say most people, you would hope that most people can understand that, but a ton of people don't. And so to a ton of people, they are going to say that legality is morality. If it's legal means it's good and you can't say anything about it. So if you're a mom or dad out there and your kid comes up to you and says, hey, I've got all these edibles and I've got all these gummies and I've got this and I've got that and this oil and that oil, and I've got, oh, whatever in my geek bar that I'm going to be vaping later today. And you say, well, I don't think you should do that. Then they're going to say, well, what are you going to do, stop me? Because it's legal. It's legal in the city of Phoenix, it's legal in the city of Washington. It's legal wherever, you know, wherever you might be, that it's legal already, Colorado, et cetera. And mom and dad are going to lose that every time. And over time, it's going to lead to more increased drug use. And that's exactly what the cannabis companies want. It's very simple. There's a very obvious corporate interest here. And but one of the other key pieces that I haven't, we haven't really touched on, but you go and look at some of these ICE raids out in California. The cartels are heavily, heavily involved in the supply chain here. We were told that that legalization would get them out. No, it's been the exact opposite. The cartels are expanding operations now into legal wheat grows and they're bringing illegal aliens in, including children, as Gavin Newsom found out.

[A]

Do you ever want to turn off the news and just ignore politics? That's understandable. It's overwhelming. But here's the thing. We're citizens of a republic. The decisions made by our government affect our everyday lives, meaning each of us ought to read and understand the United States Constitution. That's why I'm so excited that Hillsdale College is offering a brand new free online course called the Federalist. The Federalist Papers are written primarily by Alexander Hamilton and James Madison. Together they explain how the United States Constitution established a government strong enough to secure the rights of citizens and safe enough to wield that power. Now it's our responsibility to be vigilant in order to preserve and protect Republican self government. Hillsdale's online course on The Federalist includes 10 lectures, each about 30 minutes long. You can take the course at your own pace. There's no cost to sign up. Go right now to charlieforhillsdale.com to enroll. There's no cost and it's easy to get started. That's C H A r l I e for hillsdale.com, charlieforhillsdale.com America's greatest college. Charlieforhillsdale.com all right, so I want to do one final topic here, which is I want an answer to this. And maybe it's not as deep as I think, but as the country seems to be stripping away from DEI CRT and wokeism, weirdly, sports are moving in the opposite direction and it makes this. Is woke dead or is woke just on vacation? And it's happening in multiple different sectors. So. The first of which I don't know. Jack, I. Jack?

[C]

No. Because I've never loved the WNBA more than I do right now. Well, that's been so good these last couple weeks.

[A]

Yeah, I know. Because sex toys are being thrown on the court. But we'll get to that. Soda.

[C]

A lot of money.

[A]

Yeah. I've been watching a fair amount of baseball this summer. The Cubs are good now. They're on a losing streak. It's not great. Anyway, the whole point is this is that mlb, they. I don't know what they're thinking. So the backbone of American sports are men, Mostly conservative. Center, right. Midwestern and Southern. Very like. Mostly conservative would be like, you know, 55, 60%. Just normal guys. They want to watch sports. They don't want to see progress in sports. And so there was a big fanfare about Major League Baseball having the first ever female umpire. This made the front page of the Wall Street Journal. And you have to always ask yourself the question, why is this a good thing? Why does this matter? Why is this good? For what reason are we saying this is good progress? For what is it going to be better? Will it be more enjoyable? Well, so this woman became an umpire and you could play it. It's cut 471. This was the first call of the game. Her name is Jen Powell. Let's just watch. Jen Powell. We hope you're ready. And here we go. Joey Wentz likes that first call from Jim Brown.

[B]

The pitcher's faces.

[A]

Yeah, well, the best was the pitcher. He was like, okay.

[D]

For those who can't see.

[A]

For those who can't see, the pitcher threw it inside for about a foot. And just so we are clear, she was ranked 13th of 15th on umpires on the entire day. Graded terribly. And in her major league debut, she missed the first call. And she missed 14 calls and had only a correct call. Right. Of 90.3%. So which.

[D]

This is baseball you want a pretty high success rate on?

[A]

Yes, but again, so did she earn it? Is she good? No, of course not. She's not there because she's good or she earned it.

[B]

Everybody was saying online that they're introducing her so that they. We will get to computerized strike calling.

[A]

Oh, is that right?

[D]

Which.

[A]

It's a forcing function.

[D]

If you want a thought crime there. I am rigidly opposed to that.

[A]

I'm very much opposed to.

[D]

I'm very opposed to.

[B]

I'm for. If half the. Half the umps are.

[D]

So I'm gonna. If you want the real thought crime. It's like one woman. And it's not like this is a woman playing baseball. Like, I feel like women probably can call balls and strikes in baseball. Like maybe men have better sight than average.

[A]

No, no. But the point is that you need male only spaces. There should be no female umpires or referees, period, whatsoever.

[D]

Okay.

[A]

And by the way, she's not even. She's not even good.

[B]

Do you know how close umpires have to be on the catcher? I Mean, it's pretty.

[A]

They're on top.

[B]

It's pretty close. I'm just saying they have big chest. It's not about that. It's just the fact that, like, some husky woman is right behind you breathing down your neck the entire time. There is. They spent their entire lives.

[A]

Check the zoom in. I mean, come on, guys. I mean, this is.

[B]

There's. They spent their entire lives.

[A]

What are we doing here?

[B]

With a dude there and now a woman? It just. It throws your train of thought. As a catcher, I would be upset.

[D]

I. I feel like a woman umpire in baseball is probably, like, the least intrusive. Like.

[A]

All right, Blake, then let's defend.

[B]

Wait, wait, wait, wait. The least intrusive referee. She's sitting right on top of the catcher.

[A]

Hold on a second, Blake. Let me challenge that, which. If you are a manager of the Twins and you want to go bark at an umpire. Yeah. And you got to go, like, face to face with the ump, and you're, like, spinning like. That was a strike. What are you talking about? He was. If that's a woman, are you more or less likely to go do that? That. That's like an ancient baseball practice to get right up in the. You know, I'm right. To bark in the face, and all of a sudden, it's a woman. Like, well, excuse me, ma'. Am. I don't think that. No. Like, baseball, it's, like, gets raw. It's primal. It's real. No, it's all right. And they get ejected like, no, you stupid son of a. That guy was safe. Like, what are you talking about?

[B]

You don't talk like, it's almost battery. Like, you can't do that with a woman.

[A]

No, you can't.

[B]

It takes the whole culture of baseball.

[A]

Exactly. So they say. They said it would be the headline. It'd be general. You know, it'd be. It would be the Yankees manager. Manager otherizes or berates woman. That baseball game.

[D]

The problem is you're picking the twins here. And one.

[A]

Because you like the twins.

[D]

Yeah, but I'm feeling down. Well, I'm very lucky that I'm only a Twins fan and not a Vikings fan, because that's the other dimension that.

[A]

Well, no, it's not just. Not just the Vikings. It's the Saints and also the Panthers.

[D]

They did it with the Saints.

[A]

Oh, the Saints have a record amount of male dancers. So.

[D]

Hold on, hold on, hold on. Like, we need to get.

[A]

They can't balance the salary. We're not allowed a lot of dudes.

[D]

Dancing we're not allowed to have teams named like the Redskins or the Fighting sue or whatever, or the whatever because, like, the tribes need to give their approval because it's, like, hurtful. Can we have, like, the Vatican step in and be like, no male dancers on. On the Saints?

[A]

No, there.

[D]

I suppose technically they probably shouldn't like female cheerleaders either.

[A]

There would be. There would be no solidarity there. But. So look, Charlie. Yes.

[C]

You remember this as well as I do that Rush Limbaugh used to always talk about this. He would call it the feminization of America. And he would talk about it again and again. And he saw it. He saw it happening through the 90s. He saw it happening through the 2000s where. And so what you're talking about, this is masculine, right? This. Of course it's in Philly. Right? That.

[A]

There you go. Look at that. That's the best. I mean, there is nothing more American.

[C]

Always warned that we're getting too feminized.

[A]

And all of a sudden you have a female.

[C]

You can also see that this is male confrontation, direct confrontation.

[A]

It's almost like that happens a lot.

[B]

That type of altercation is. It's very intense.

[A]

It's like, it's common.

[D]

I will say, look at the pics. I feel like she could probably fit in. In one of those screens.

[A]

No, but, no, honestly, if you're a male going up, you do not. You should not yell at a woman that way, Period. End of story. It's different. But if it's a man on man thing, it's, by the way, male. Female differences matter.

[B]

It does.

[A]

And so, like, if that's a woman, all of a sudden you're like, okay, excuse me, ma'. Am. I think it was a bad call there. And can you reconsider? And I know you're having a tough day and thank you so much. Thank you. You know.

[B]

Well, and even more importantly, to call you.

[A]

Yeah, exactly. Yeah.

[B]

But more importantly, they call each other names, Charlie. Like, if you read their lips, it's. It's pro profane stuff.

[A]

It's good stuff. That is one of the ancient.

[B]

But you can't do that with red.

[D]

Also, in baseball, they. You can't call tobacco and sunflower seeds. And women are really grossed out by that stuff. You can't do it politely around.

[A]

The whole thing is women should not be referees. I don't care if women should not be umpires, women should not be assistant coaches. Women should not exist in male sport. Like, that should not happen, Period. End of story. It shouldn't. Male Only spaces. And female only spaces matter no different than women should not be on submarines, for obvious reasons. Okay.

[B]

And men. But if you pull this every time, every attendee at sports games, it's like 95% will agree with you with that. This isn't even, like, controversial.

[A]

And by the way, it's this. So why are they doing this? Also, why does ESPN feel the need to have color commentators that are women on football? I'm sorry. If it's sideline reporters, that's fine. Okay? XYZ's injured. Great. If there is a woman that is color commentating a game that she has obviously never played and she never could play. Stop it. That. That is not progress. No one want I actively. And again, it's not about the individual woman. I. Whenever I'm watching like an SEC game and it's like a woman, do you notice they always try to lower her voice? Oh, you know what? What are you doing? Stop it. We don't need that. We didn't ask. Now, if it's a wnba, I hate this. If it's a WNBA game, fine. All the women commentators all day long, fine, whatever. But if I'm watching, like, Texas, Ohio State, and there's like a woman color, you're giving color commentary on a sport you've never suited up on, Jack.

[C]

No, the thing you mentioned, though, just a second ago, about women lowering their voices, particularly when they're around sports, you see it with, like. I do see it with WNBA players. I see it with just. Just anyone who's, you know, a lot of women in tv, there's this, like, I call it jawspeak. But it's also like, like this lower register speak that. But, you know, we're really excited to.

[A]

Be out here today, and I really.

[C]

Can'T believe it's going on. And it's like, so what you're doing is you're speaking with, like, your lower jaw only, and all from the lower part of your throat, which is just not natural for women to speak like that at all. That is not the natural speaking voice of women. Why are you trying to sound like men? So it's, you know, going back to what we said before, they're trying to turn men into women and women into men. Literally.

[A]

Yeah. And it's just. So why. Why is nf. And then let's go to the NFL really quick. So the NFL, this is a video of their new dancer for the Vikings. Now, look, let's all just take a moment and count how many times the Vikings have won a Super Bowl.

[C]

I don't want to watch this. This is. I don't. I don't. I don't want to see this.

[A]

See. See. The studio thought I was calling for a clip. I was merely counting how many super bowl victories the Vikings have won. It's not a lot, which requires absorbed amounts of silence. Now, that was the new Vikings dancer. Why. Why is the NFL doing, like, Blake, from a. Like, from a purely business standpoint, this is dumb. It doesn't do anything. Like, what are they doing here?

[D]

You know, I just think they're doing what Vikings have to do, which is they're failing. They're failing at things.

[A]

So. So this is a good question. Do you think that if the packers did this, it'd be put up with? Like, they would put up with it.

[D]

Packers don't have cheerleaders. You know that.

[A]

Why? It's too cold.

[D]

Well, there's too cold. And they've never done it. I think them and the Steelers have never done it. And, you know, they're.

[A]

The Panthers have a trans dancer for the third year straight. Like, why are the people in.

[D]

I don't think straight's the term I would use to describe them having a trans dancer.

[C]

Third year straight.

[A]

Third year in a row. But why. Why are the people of North Carolina putting up with this? Like, I don't. I mean, the Canthers. Are the Panthers a lot. Laughing stock of the NFL, obviously, but okay, I just. And children are going there, and they have to go watch.

[C]

That's the point.

[A]

Dancers and. Oh, I know. I'm getting to Jack. They have to go watch some trans dude dance with the women. So. So why is the NFL again, I thought woke is dead. Why is the NFL actively at war with its fans?

[C]

Because this is. This is still some of the vestiges that have gone on since. Remember that when BLM got started, it was even prior to George Floyd. One of the biggest early, early sort of public protests that BLM did was, of course, Kaepernick and Travis Kelsey, again, was a huge part of it as well. And kneeling for the national anthem and, you know, expressing hatred towards your country and degrading your country and saying that America is bad in the name of black lives or something some way connecting that to the national anthem. And they've been targeting the NFL for this since the Obama administration when they used the NFL, I believe it was the Baltimore Ravens to push Obamacare. And these operations have been going on because they are social conditioning experiments. This is what the left does. They say, where can we get the most normies? Where can we get the most children? Where can we get the most eyeballs? Okay, so if this is the institution that we need to control to push our social, our various social contagions, then we are going to take control of it from the inside and we are going to push all of this across those, across those channels so that you can literally see the culture war being fought out at an NFL game. When you look at the, you know, the players kneeling for the, the anthem, which is, which is stopped, but then the veterans come out, but then the trainee, you know, cheerleaders come out and the male cheerleaders and it's all sort of mixed together because the NFL is just this sort of, you know, hyper, just hyper compartmented, hyper pressurized version of all of America fighting together at once from a cultural perspective.

[A]

Final thoughts?

[D]

Blake I'm just very glad it was the Minnesota Vikings getting the male cheerleaders because my friend John is a Vikings fan and I now have another thing I can make fun of him for. And I'm sure I'll have a lot because I'll also have their inevitable playoff defeat at the end of this season where they'll get, they'll get all their hopes up, they'll think it's finally our year and then they'll implode in catastrophic fashion. And then I will feel really good and happy until my packers lose the following week to the 49ers.

[A]

Tyler, final thoughts?

[B]

Man, if I see trans cheerleaders in college football, that's going to be. I think we're going to have a cultural meltdown in America. So I hope this doesn't bleed over from corporatized NFL to the ncaa, but I guess we'll see. I guess we'll see. I wouldn't be surprised if Oregon had trans cheerleaders and they'll have really sleek.

[D]

Nike outfits that change.

[A]

They'll lead the way in that crap.

[B]

They will. They will.

[A]

All right, everybody. Til next week, keep committing thought crimes and maybe you'll tune into South Park. See you soon. Thanks so much for listening, everybody. Email us. As always, freedomarliekirk.com thanks so much for listening and God bless.

[C]

For more on many of these stories.

[D]

And news you can Trust, go to charliekirk.com.