Media Spin Exposed: Left-Wing Violence & Censorship Uncovered — In The Tank Podcast #512 - In The Tank

Episode Transcript
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Linnea Lueken (00:36):
Alright. We are now live. Welcome to the show,
everyone. Violence seems to be acontinuing theme in this country
of late. The mainstream mediahas tried very hard to blame
both sides for it while timidlyand quietly acknowledging that
left wing violence is at leaston the rise.
Though I think we all know thatit was never as rare as
Democrats would like us tobelieve. We will also be talking

(00:58):
about optimism for the future ofGen z conservatism. We are going
to be talking about all of thisand more in episode 512 of the
In the Tank podcast.

Eann Tanng (01:42):
Yeah. Charlie, I also want to, thank you
specifically because I used tobe a Bernie

Alright, everyone. Welcome to the In the
Tank podcast. I am Lanea Luken,your host. We also have Jim
Lakeley, vice president anddirector of communications at
the Heartland Institute, SamKarnik, senior fellow at the
Heartland Institute, and ChrisTalgo, editorial director and
socialism research fellow. Weare also joined by a very
special guest who, I guess, wehad dropped in the beginning

(02:24):
there, our own, wonderfulcommunications department
intern, Ian Tang, who isenjoying some liberal tears at
this moment.
So how is everybody doing thisweek? Ian, you especially. How
are you?

Eann Tanng (02:36):
Good. Thank you. Thank you so much for bringing
me on and especially, like, theaudience to see what I look like
right now. Usually, I don't showpeople that clip because I don't
think I have a lot of hair, andI don't think I look so good.
But, you know, Charlie passedaway.
Very heartbreaking. I'll bebringing that clip up, and thank
you for, yeah, giving me thechance to share my experience as

(02:58):
well.

Yeah. We're really looking forward to
hearing your story here. I lovedhearing that clip of you talking
about how you were a BernieSanders supporter. We're gonna
have to kick you out for that.Just kidding.
But we'll, we'll talk about howyou got here from there. Before
we get started, you guys, asalways, if you want to support
the show, you can go toheartland.org/inthetank and

(03:19):
donate there. You can also clickthe thumbs up to like the video,
remembering that sharing ithelps us to break through some
of YouTube suppression that mayor may not be on the way out,
but we'll see. Still, don'thesitate from clicking like and
sharing this video. Even justleaving a comment helps us too.
If you're an audio listener, youcan help us out by leaving a
nice review. I wanna know whathow everyone else's weeks are

(03:42):
going. So far, it's Thursdayalready. Feels like Tuesday to
me. I don't know why.
But, Jim, how are you?

Jim Lakely (03:49):
I'm fine. You know, the more I prepared for this
show, this week, the, theangrier I got. So there might be
a Jim rant coming in here. Youknow? I read a lot of notes.
I probably won't get throughthem all, but, god, it has been
a rough couple of weeks and, youknow, obviously, the loss of
Charlie Kirk, we're stillgetting over that. But the the

(04:10):
behavior, of the Democraticparty, prominent Democrats in
the media, and the continualviolence on the left, it seems
like there's three a week now. Imean, this is completely crazy,
and there is a reason for that,which we will get in.

Absolutely. Sam, how are you doing?

S.T. Karnick (04:34):
Doing just great. Thanks, Lynne. It's been
actually a very busy week for metoo, developing, promoting the,
free market solutions to theproblems of the day.

Awesome. And, Chris, what have you got going
on? Is it I mean, I guess it'sfootball season now, so
everyone's getting a little bitcompetitive probably in the
office too. Right?

Chris Talgo (04:56):
All I care about is the bears. Bears look great.
Last Sunday, they're gonna playthe Raiders this Sunday, and I
think that we're gonna go to twoand two. But, on more important
topics, I know that we are notgonna have time to do this
today, but, Donald Trump'sspeech at the UN yesterday was
unbelievable. And, I really hopethat everyone saw it and that

(05:18):
his message really hit homebecause everything that he was
talking about with, you know,this crazy immigration stuff,
the crazy, you know, greenenergy stuff is ruining these
countries, and he made that veryclear.
And, I really hope that thathits home. So you shall see.

Yeah. Absolutely. Everyone, if you haven't seen
that speech, go look it up. Wehad this planned, you know, to
go over a little bit of theleftist violence issue and to
talk about Ian's experience as aconservative in college campuses
today. So we had to kind of pickand choose what stories we
covered, but it's definitelyworth it to check out Trump,

(05:54):
beating the heck out of those UNsquares.

Jim Lakely (05:56):
Yeah. And and tomorrow, at this very same
time, on this very same channelon the climate realism show,
that is the main topic tomorrow.I have cut three minutes and
thirty three seconds of thatspeech. Believe me. It was six
minutes just on the climatestuff, and these were the great
highlights.
So if you wanna see it and getour commentary on it, we'll see
you Friday, 1PM eastern.

Just one one last thing on that. And I don't know
if, Jim, you're gonna go intothis tomorrow, but there were
three things that happened whichwere really disturbing. The
escalator just did not work assoon as Donald Trump and,
Melania, stepped on it. The the,teleprompter, of course, broke
as soon as Donald Trump steppedup to the, you know, to give his
speech. And then third, as KatiePavlidge pointed out, the audio

(06:38):
was noticeably lower duringDonald Trump's speech, and I've
also heard that a lot of the,translators could not, you know,
get it through.
So a lot of people just didn'teven hear his speech. So just
goes to show that the UN is is areally corrupt place, and there
was actually reporting, a weekahead of that that some of the
staffers there were gonna messup the elevators and the

(06:59):
escalators and look whathappened. So I don't think that
I do not think that was acoincidence, and I really hope
that they do get to the bottomof it.

Jim Lakely (07:07):
That was dangerous. You can't stop an s he was a
sitting duck out there ifanybody in the UN wanted to take
him out. There needs you know,there needs to be accountability
for that. Probably won't bebecause it's the UN.

Absolutely. Well, please, that was a great pitch
for tomorrow's show, Jim. Soplease join us tomorrow in the
Climate Realism Show at the sametime. So our our first topic
this week, we're gonna we'regonna hit it right off with
Unhinged. And the kind of topictheme of this section here is is

(07:41):
the left violent?
I think so. And is it a bothsides issue? So we're gonna
start the show here with thislovely clip just to set the
tone. That white dudes forHarris clip is a like, I need a

(08:07):
trigger warning for that.Anyway, these are these are some
we're about to show you guys avideo of some left wing
protesters striking at a Trumppinata, I guess, until its head
comes off.
It's lovely. Can we get thevideo, Andy? I think Orwell in

(08:58):
1984 had a a commentary on howwomen were always the most
aggressive party line towers.This is nice. Nice to see the
Democrats are turning down therhetoric here.
But this is, a kind of pale,almost cute example considering
the actual murders that havehappened in the last few weeks

(09:20):
and the fact that Donald Trumpwas you know, had two
assassination attempts on hislife, you know, last year. So
ICE agents and detainees, thatwere just being escorted have
been shot at and the detaineeskilled. Some kind of an
explosive was put underneath afox van in Nevada. Charlie Kirk
was murdered. It's out ofcontrol out there right now.

(09:41):
The far left magazine, TheAtlantic, admits that left wing
terrorism is on the rise. And bytheir own study, that they
conducted, they say, which Ithink they might have included,
I didn't get to look over thewhole study, but they might have
included jihadism on the right,which is kind of how they tend
to fluff the numbers in a lot ofthese studies. But, they say

(10:02):
that left wing terrorism hasactually spiked, especially
since Trump got into office in2016. So, Ian, we wanted to have
you on today, to talk a littlebit about the college campus
experience in the year 2025. Sowhen I was in school around the
time that Trump was elected thefirst time, it was really rough
even then to be a campusconservative.

(10:23):
We were always worried aboutleft wing violence. Our it was
really hard to get any kind ofan event plan because the
university wanted, like,ridiculous amounts of security
for any right wing demonstrationthat we tried to do. People
would tear up our signs when wetabled for college Republicans.
Happened all the time. Nothingever came about of it when we,

(10:44):
you know, reported that kind ofactivity to the campus.
I remember there was this onetime I was tabling with two
other people, and, like, a sixfoot something transgender
student was getting very heatedand demanding that we, like,
take down our stuff in thestudent union. We said no, and
we just kind of, like, waitedfor the situation to fizzle out,
and it did eventually fizzleout. But it's it was crazy back

(11:07):
then. Does it strike you as kindof crazy now when you're told
that this kind of thing is aboth sides issue, especially
when it comes to, like, thecampus level?

Eann Tanng (11:18):
Yeah. First off, I wanna say, yeah, the clip you
show, it's how the left wants uswants America to have unity.
Right? So hitting at a DonaldTrump pinata. And I wanna say
props to you, Lanea.
Like, you were doing in 2,015. II I actually see myself as quite
lucky already. Like, I enteredcollege in 2022, and then I just

(11:38):
graduated in 2025. And then so Iavoided the the pre COVID crazy
era. And then and then secondhalf of of my college is when
the culture has really start toturn conservative, Trump won.
But I wanna kind of recap on theon, like, my reaction of Kirk's

(11:59):
murder first because, like,first of all, I was so if the
audience don't know, like, whenit happened, I was asleep
because I'm in I'm in Asia rightnow. And then so when my dad
told me that it happened, I wasin, like, disbelief because I
thought Kirk was just in Japanor Korea a few days ago, and I
thought he got killed by NorthKoreans or he got killed by

(12:21):
China. No way. But then butthen, yeah, when he told me and
then I opened up my phone, it's,like, flooded with DMs of people
telling me that, yo. You yo.
Charlie Kirk is dead. Yo. Andthen just, like, videos of of it
happening. And then I was incomplete shock that I don't even
know how to react. And then partof the reason I'm stressing this

(12:41):
is because I was in suchcomplete shock, but at the same
time, I saw it coming already.
Meaning that, like, when we whenmy university, when we hosted
Charlie Kirk here, the firstthing we had to deal with is not
like the venue. It's not likemultimedia. The first thing was
security. And in fact, most ofour budget went to security. And

(13:03):
before the event even started,the the police at our school had
to do a bomb sweep of the event.
And just me telling my friendsin Taiwan here that hosting a
political event at my universityrequires a bomb sweep, and then
they were all in, like, completeshock. Like, they were all like,
what's like, what is up withpolitics in America? And,

(13:26):
really, it's like, I it's itjust, like, really annoys me how
the media points out like, keepsaying it's a both sides issue
because I can guarantee youguarantee you this. Like, if
there's ever a left wing figuredout, go to any college campuses
in America, you will never eversee any, college republicans
chapters, any turning pointchapter, any conservative group

(13:48):
chapters preparing to hold somesort of protest. Instead, as
conservatives, we we know thatit's we know that, like,
protesting, like like, what whatgood does it do?
You know? And then we know thatwe can actually not to say beat
them by logic, but we we knowthat, like, even if we don't we

(14:09):
don't completely agree, we cancome to a middle ground to agree
and disagree, and that's how itshould be. That's how politics
should be. So, yeah, it it justpisses me off that the media
always frame this as, like, abull side violence issue.
They'll probably say this is,like, violence, just me drinking
from this, but it's whatever.

Well, that's kinda part of it too. Right? The
violence the, like, the wholepush on the left to say that
words are violence. And so thenthey feel like it's necessary or
appropriate for them to respondwith real violence because
they've been told for so longthat if somebody, you know, says
no to you, basically, they're,like, denying your right to
exist or something. And Sam, weget a lot of tone policing on

(14:53):
the right from our own allies inthis.
We talk we talked a little bitabout it last week, how
spineless so many of ourrepresentatives are. They're
doing the whole, you know, bothsides tour on on many of them
are anyway when they're corneredwhen leaving their offices
during the day. But so the lastfew weeks have seen a flurry of
appalling, but not overlysurprising and not even

(15:17):
unprecedented violence from theleft. And they are way too
comfortable acting like this.And people on the left who
aren't engaging in violence butare kind of either implicitly or
directly encouraging it, are waytoo comfortable doing so.
So what is your position on allof this then?

Thanks, Lynette. The the people on the right who
are sort of weak need about thisare are really doing the same
thing that the, on a on adifferent scale and in a
different form, but the samething that the the, anti police
movement was doing in the in thelate, twenties, tens, and

(16:01):
through the twenty twenties,where the idea was that, well,
we'll we'll all just relax alittle. We'll we'll let things
go. And when the, when somepeople do things that are just
beyond the pale and wrong, Well,we won't call them on it because
that's mean. And so what happensis that the other side the side

(16:23):
that is doing that sort of thinggets emboldened, obviously,
because they can do whateverthey they like and nothing
happens.
And it's been decades sinceconservatives, people on the
right, could speak freely aboutpretty much anything. It it's
it's been a long time sinceconservatives could really
speak. You could you could saythat it is since the mid

(16:48):
nineteen sixties that the theclamps have been going down
tighter and tighter. And so whenyou have that kind of captive
mentality, it's as if they'reperforming Stockholm syndrome
behavior where they're they'reloving the enemy and and finding
excuses for them and findingtheir own allies, their

(17:09):
political allies to be wrong andbeyond the pale and needing to
be silenced. So what happenshere is that we have to take
this seriously, and people onthe right really need to start
to unify.
I think the unity that we needis unity around the idea of

(17:29):
America because we have a lot ofunity against America right now,
and it's not just abroad. It'swithin this country. So if
they're so unified, we need tounify in favor of America and
and the the David Frenches ofthe world and the bulwark
writers of the world have got toreally get on it. They've gotta

(17:54):
make a choice. Either you're forAmerica, what America stands for
and always has stood for,incompletely and imperfectly,
but what we what the Americanway is, you're either for that
or you're against it.
And the one side is very, verystrongly against, and they're
very unified in their oppositionto America. We need some unity

(18:15):
in promoting America.

Absolutely. Jim, I know you have no strong
feelings whatsoever on thistopic.

Jim Lakely (18:23):
Yeah. I have so many I have such lack of strong
feelings. I hardly even knowwhere to start. So it's well, I
mean, first of all, it's it'sthe it's the gaslighting that
we're getting from from themedia. There have been four left
wing acts of violence in justthe last two weeks, and if and
that's only if you start theclock at the assassination of

(18:45):
Charlie Kirk, in which the mediatried to convince us for days.
For days, they pushed the liethat Charlie Kirk was murdered
by, as Jimmy Kimmel put it, oneof their own, meaning a MAGA
person or an extremely rightsomebody who's so far to the
right that he thinks CharlieKirk is a leftist and and
deserves to die. They pushedthat lie on purpose for days

(19:10):
and, to the point where I guessJimmy Kimmel believed it and
pushed it again on his own show.But, you know, what what so one
of the arguments here is that asthe right you know, the other
thing Jimmy Kimmel said is thatthe the right is trying to score
political points on. No. That isnot what the right is trying to
do.
What the right is trying to dois to finally get through to the

(19:34):
mainstream media in thiscountry, the legacy media in
this country, and the Democraticparty to stop with all of this,
what do they call it, stochasticterrorism stuff, which is
inciting mentally ill people whobelieve all of these lies that
have been told for a decade totake action to save the country.
So you have all these rhetoric.So their own argument, by the

(19:56):
way, which makes it even worse,is is this. So all this rhetoric
about ICE being the Gestapo, KimWall said that. I I saw a clip
earlier on on x this week,literally three straight minutes
of Democrats calling ICE theGestapo.
Trump is a fascist and literallyHitler. MAGA are fascists and
brown shirts. Charlie Kirk is aracist and a hate monger.

(20:18):
President Biden called half thiscountry semi fascists who will
destroy democracy if they winthe election. Every single
Democratic elected official hasbeen saying the same thing over
and over and over for a decade.
And the media has beentrumpeting all of this for a
decade without any pushback, andevery late night show has done
the same thing, and that thatthat this is nothing and and now

(20:41):
they say that all of that hasnothing to do with any of this
epidemic of left wing attacksand murders of people on the
right. I will remind you, theseare the same people who say
Donald Trump inspired aninsurrection on January 6. Now
never mind that he told hissupporters the the protest
peacefully and patriotically, Sothere's really no comparison.

(21:03):
But in in in any way but bytheir delusional logic, that
applies to Trump. And then allof this actual decades long
demonization of non leftists byour media and Democrat party is
not an assignment to violenceand not the cause of it.
First of all, it can't be bothways, and we're all very certain
we know it only runs one way.You know? I mean, for crying out

(21:26):
loud, the media criticized Trumpfor criticizing or or, you know,
they they characterized Trump ascriticizing leftist media as
fake news and insulting themdeservedly for engaging in
propaganda and not journalism.They said that that was not only
a direct threat on the FirstAmendment, but a direct threat
on their very lives. Just by hewas putting their lives at risk,

(21:48):
especially the people on CNN bycalling them fake news.
And even after all of this, evenafter Charlie Kirk is dead, even
as they continued to smear himbefore he was even buried, they
have the the media and thetalking heads in this country
have no introspection. They takeno responsibility for toning
down the rhetoric no matter howoften. And it's often that a

(22:09):
lefty believes these lies andworse and then goes down, you
know, discord rabbit holes, andthen they take up arms and
murder people who have differingpolitical views. I will just
close with this because this iswhat really needs to happen. And
if this doesn't happen, then youknow that the Democratic Party
and the legacy meeting in thiscountry are not serious about

(22:30):
trying to save lives and tonedown the political rhetoric in
this country.
They need to look into thecamera, look directly into the
camera, and say we were wrong.Trump is not a fascist. He's not
Hitler. His supporters are notfascists in brown shirts. Those
were just stories we made up forpolitical advantage.
And furthermore, the election ofDonald Trump is you know, and
and the political rise of hissupporters in MAGA do not

(22:53):
represent a threat to ourdemocracy. You should be able to
see that for yourself, by theway, because the country is
still here. It's still operatingas normal. Elections are still
going to happen. They're stilllegitimate, and Trump is not
acting as a tyrant.
He is exercising his legitimatepresidential powers as every
other president before him hasdone. This is not unusual, and
violence is never the answer toour political differences. And

(23:14):
if you are violent and you'reharming people and you're
killing people, causing propertydamage, rioting, targeting ICE
facilities, all this kind ofstuff that you deem direct
action, none of that islegitimate political action, and
it must stop and it must stopnow. Unless and until we see
democrats, prominent democratsstare into the camera and media
members stare into the cameraand say that, I would say

(23:35):
repeatedly for, like, a month.They are not serious about
stopping this, and the onlyconclusion to come is that they
want this.
This is the result they want.That's why they say what they
say, and that's why theydownplay, gaslight, and have no
guilt whatsoever about thedestruction and the death of
people who are not on the left.

Yeah. Absolutely. Chris, I've seen a lot of
people, well, I've seen severaleven even kind of larger figures
in the media say things like,you know, they just they looked
at the Charlie Kirk memorial,for example, which was an
amazing event. I can't believethat that was streamed live for
so many people to see. And say,like, this is I don't understand

(24:20):
this culture from MAGA.
I don't understand what this is.This is weird. This is
unnatural. How far apart have wegotten that that's like, that
just like a basic patrioticrally is horrifying to these
people?

That's a great question. You know, I'm I'm
gonna go I'm gonna go wayfurther back on this, though. I
remember back in the nineteennineties, we had Ruby Bridge. We
had Waco. We had the Atlanta,Olympic bombing.
We had, Timothy McVeigh inOklahoma City. And the narrative
throughout the nineteen ninetieswas right wing violence, and

(24:55):
there were so many of thesethese crazy right right wing
groups that wanted to take overthe government, and I think that
that has been perpetuated. And Iremember, probably twenty tens
maybe when, the FBI was sayingthat the biggest threat in The
United States Of America is,like, racist white wing white,

(25:17):
right wing white nationalists.And then when you would look at
the evidence, it didn't reallybear that out. And, you know, I
just feel like this myth hasbeen perpetuated going on
thirty, forty years, almost myentire lifetime when you just
look at the facts.
And this goes back to, you know,the tea party. This goes, you
know, back to almost all the,right, you know, like, anti left

(25:40):
rallies. They're not violent.They just aren't. They're
peaceful.
They're peaceful protestsbecause the, you know, the first
amendment says that we can dothat. The left in in my in my
lifetime has taken a differenttack. It's much more violent
tack. I think this goes back tothe Olinsky days. I think this
goes back to the WeatherUnderground and a lot of this

(26:00):
nineteen sixties really radicalstuff.
I don't think it's gotten, Idon't think it's reduced. I
think it's gotten much worse. Ithink that there's many reasons
why. I think that a lot of thoseleft wing radicals are now,
professors at, universities, andthey are just straight up
indoctrinating, millions ofAmerican students. I think it's
also happening in, high schoolsand even in middle schools.

(26:23):
Culture is toxic, and, we got alot of work to do.

Yeah. That was one thing that struck me was
realizing that, you know, a lotof the, purportedly, you know,
one way or the another oranother, you know, like, anti
government, which they alwaysslot into the right whether or
not the the the rest of theirphilosophy matches up with the
traditional, you know, like,American GOP type person. They

(26:49):
always slot it into the right ifit's anti government. But

But but Terry Nichols and and Timothy McVeigh
and these Yeah. You know, whackjobs were not creatures of the
right. They were totalanarchists. If anything, they
were, like, antifa, you know,from from the nineties. So I
really I don't buy that, youknow, that conclusion that
they're making that anythingwhere it's, like, you know, pro

(27:13):
anarchy or pro, you know, like,let's let's, you know, get rid
of, the federal governmentbecause they are infringing on
on these liberties, which is,one of the big things that
happened, back in Ruby Ridge.
That is not a classic rightstance. That is an anarchy
stance, and the anarchists aremuch more actually on the left

(27:34):
than they are on the right. Sojust wanna throw that out there.

Yeah. Well, the point that I was getting to was
that it seems like those guyssuffered for their crimes quite
a bit more than anyone from,like, Weather Underground.
People bombed the bombed thePentagon, bombed also, you know,
like, serious violence, not just

Even even even even even the Unabomber. The
Unabomber was a hardcoreleftist, an environmental
nutcase. And just one otherthing just to, you know, kinda
put a close on this. I vividlyremember the Oklahoma City
bombing and all those things.There was no right wing, you
know, celebrations.
No one's saying, yeah. He wasright. It was universally

(28:17):
panned. And here, we're notseeing that. We're seeing a lot
of moral relativism and a lot ofpeople saying, well, it's
justified because he was aracist even though, obviously,
he wasn't.
And, you know, Jim and Donnieand I had a long discussion
about this cut this very topic acouple weeks in the office, and
I, you know, had a, you know I Ihad to admit to Jim and to

(28:38):
Donnie that I was flat out deadwrong about this a couple I
don't know. Maybe, like, tenmonths or so ago maybe, Jim. I
don't know. Like, a year agomaybe when we had a similar
conversation. And, you know,Jim, I've been thinking a lot
about that.
And I think the one of thereasons why I came to that
initial conclusion was because Ithought people had agency. And

(28:59):
I'm kind of thinking now thatmaybe people's agency is, being
reduced because of social mediaand so many other things where
they're not thinking forthemselves. They're not, you
know, they're not reallyengaging in, you know, deep
rooted logical ration basedthinking about a topic. They
just take, you know, thesuperficial, like, slogan and
just run with it, and that'sreally dangerous.

Jim Lakely (29:20):
Well, I mean, we've talked about this in the past.
And why do people engage inpropaganda? Because propaganda
works. You know? It's it's notthey they don't do it just for
them their own selfsatisfaction.
It's because and propaganda, thethe key to it is the
relentlessness of it, and that'swhat's the key. And we've had
for a decade relentlesspropaganda from everywhere you

(29:43):
can possibly imagine, demonizingpeople who are not on the left,
peep conservatives. And I wouldjust I know we've we've already
gone too long on this topic, andI certainly have gone on too
long. I will just add one morebit of fact on this. The
Oklahoma City, Bahamian, BillClinton came out and blamed Rush
Limbaugh for that.
So this has been going on forthirty years of this idea of,

(30:07):
like, you know, the rise ofright wing violence and that
it's to blame you know, the thethe blame for that is, you know,
a guy's talk show. So thatwasn't true then, but it is true
that, you know, propagandaworks. That's why it's applied,
and it's been applied in acomplete flood the zone level
when it comes to, you know,ginning up these sorts of

(30:28):
things. You know? They you know,did they did the did the media
want did they want Charlie Kirkto get killed?
Actually, no, because it wouldactually works against their
purposes. Because as Ian willattest, it has hardened the,
resolve of a lot of youngpeople, around the world, to
stand up for their principlesand push back, and counter, you

(30:50):
know, leftist control andleftist everything. So that's
not what they wanted. But theydo want, basically, everything
else short of murder. I mean,look at how they they like, the
famous it's now a meme.
The famous the famous shot ofreporter for CNN where there's
buildings literally burningbehind him and the and the

(31:11):
chiron on the bottom on thelower third says, fiery but
peaceful protest. You know, ifthat's if if that's not more
proof that this is what theywant, I don't know what to tell
you.

Yeah. Well and I

want everything short of murder that will be
traced directly back to them.They don't mind if people are
killed and and, you don't knowthat who did it.

I I still think this is this is the outcome of
moral relativism. And, you know,everything can be justified if
if they if they say, well,Charlie Kirk was, you know, a
fascist or a Hitler or this orthat. So then, yeah, anything is
justified. You know? It's it'sthe loss of principle.
And I I mean, I don't yeah. Imean, there there's there's

(31:55):
political, reasons for that, butthere's also I I mean, I I know
we don't wanna get into this,you know, side of the
discussion, family and, justmorals. Who are instilling those
morals?

Yeah. Well, I I don't wanna I don't wanna spin
off, but you just made me thinkof something, Chris, which is
that maybe it's not maybe wehave to come to terms with the
fact that on the left, it's nota lack of principle. It's that
their principles include rightwingers getting killed. I mean,
it's it's getting it's prettybad out there. But, I'm going to

(32:34):
wildly shift course on this,conversation and on the podcast
that we're doing right now.
So, Jim, I was wondering if youwould be so kind as to take the
time to thank one of ourwonderful sponsors today.

Jim Lakely (32:49):
You're you're forcing me to do a very, very
dramatic attitude shift. ButYeah. Not be yelling. It's
grieving about it. But, yeah,I'll do my best because wanna
talk to you a little bit aboutour, the sponsor of this show
and the climate realism show, sothe two livestream podcasts of
the Heartland Institute, andthat is Advisor Metals.
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(33:10):
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buying gold and silver and otherprecious metals. And there are
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while you're helping yourself.

Thank you so much, Jim. I know that was
difficult for you to shift yourmindset there, But there really
is no better time to do this adread because all of the topics
today are infuriating in in oneway or another. But alright. So
our second coverage today, youguys, we're we're hitting on
some news that's coming outabout Google or Alphabet's

(35:03):
censorship, which we talk abouta lot on this show because the
Heartland Institute is one ofthe YouTube channels that has
been very badly embattled for along time at this point. So
we're definitely shifting gearshere.
Ohio representative Jim Jordanreports that Google has
committed to offer creators onYouTube who were previously

(35:24):
blacklisted or kicked off awayback onto the platform,
especially if they were kickedout for political speech
violations. Google admits thatthey were pressured by the Biden
administration directly andspecifically to censor speech
from particular peoplesurrounding COVID and suspicious
activity in the twenty twentyelection. So here's one of the

(35:46):
excerpts excerpts from a letterfrom Alphabet that I want to
read to you guys. Senior Bidenadministration officials,
including White House officials,conducted repeated and sustained
outreach to Alphabet and pressedthe company regarding certain
user generated content reallyrelated to the COVID nineteen
pandemic that did not violateits policies. While the company

(36:08):
continued to develop and enforceits policies independently,
Biden administration officialscontinued to press the company
to remove nonviolative usergenerated content.
As online platforms, includingAlphabet, grappled with these
decisions, the administration'sofficials, including president
Biden, created a politicalatmosphere that sought to
influence the actions ofplatform space and their

(36:30):
concerns regardingmisinformation. It is
unacceptable and wrong when anygovernment, including the Biden
administration, attempts todictate how the company
moderates content, and thecompany has consistently fought
against those efforts on FirstAmendment grounds. Yeah. Right.
Alright.
So, there's a lot of interestingstuff in Jim Jordan's thread on
x about it, so I highlyrecommend that you guys go over

(36:52):
there and read it. Jim, this isgood news. It shouldn't surprise
anyone that this has been thecase. But if I may, because I'm
always the one, I think, who's abit more cynical about a lot of
these companies on this panel.But if I can be a bit cynical
here, this stuff started wellbefore Biden came to power.

(37:14):
Right? Like, this is not just aproblem where they were suddenly
being pressured out of nowhereby the Biden administration.
There was censorship andsuppression of conservative
speech even during Trump's firstterm. So how do we know that
they won't go right back to whatthey were doing before the
second that Democrats, you know,god forbid, get back into the
White House?

Jim Lakely (37:34):
No. We don't know that. And in fact, we can fully
expect it. You know? One one ofthe themes I I've mentioned on
this podcast many times is thatthe election of Donald Trump,
the first time in 2016, brokethe brains of so many people in
this country.
And you see it today, the waypeople are absolutely well, you
saw it from that port that whenwe showed the clip of the
grandma, you know, trying todecapitate an effigy of of

(37:55):
Donald Trump with this look ofabsolute she she's like Gollum,
you know, this look or, youknow, or of of not Frodo, but
Bilbo, you know, when he hasthat little moment where he goes
like that and he just, like,reverts into this evil thing
again. It's like the look in herface. It's it's unsettling to
say the least, you know,somebody's grandma trying to

(38:15):
decapitate an effigy of DonaldTrump, and so he broke people's
brains. But one of the things italso did back in 2016 is that
these social media companies, Weplayed this on on a on the
podcast a long time ago, andsome of our viewers and
listeners may remember thatGoogle had a, post election cry
in at their offices. They had awhole staff meeting where they

(38:38):
went on and on for, like, ninetyminutes about, you know, how I
know that you're all very upset,and this is very troubling.
And, you know, they were cryingand, you know, rending their
clothing metaphorically aboutabout Donald Trump being
elected. And so the people thatran that run our social media,
the social media giants,Hollywood, and our news media
blamed themselves for thishorrible thing that happened,

(39:02):
that Donald Trump becamepresident. And they vowed to
never ever let it happen again,that they had the power at their
fingertips to stop Trumpfascism, but they didn't do it.
And so they were gonna do itfrom now on. So, yes, you're
right.
This kind of censorship has beengoing on for a long time. And in
fact, this very channel for thisvery podcast, as Andy knows very

(39:23):
well, our producer, we gotstrikes against us for talking
about COVID in ways that thegovernment not approved. We had
a video actually struck from ourchannel all about COVID, which
got us in big trouble and almostgot us, kicked off YouTube
forever. Once you get kicked offYouTube, it is forever. They
don't even let you come back inand try to, you know, try to

(39:45):
change your name and come inwith a new channel.
They'll they'll sniff that out,and you're busted for good. So,
you know, they they created thisatmosphere of fear. And if you
said the wrong thing, you wouldbe silenced. And, you know, and
a lot of people make a we don'twe don't make money because
we're still demonetized on here.And even when we did, it was

(40:06):
very little very little revenuethat we would generate when we
were monetized.
But there are a lot ofconservative commentators who
who make their living makingbig, you know, content for
YouTube. And where's theirrestitution from Google after
putting them out of business forthe last four years? And this
story really needs to be youknow, I've always I've I've kind

(40:28):
of rolled my eyes, especially,no offense, at Jim Jordan
because all we ever get arehearings and a bunch of argle,
bargle, and yelling andscreaming at people, and then
nothing ever happens. And inreality, really, nothing has
really happened here except thatthey have apparently coerced
Google's attorneys to lay out ina letter exactly how they

(40:49):
violated the first amendmentrights of half of this country
at the behest of the presidentof The United States or the
White House. That's kind of abig deal, but you are right,
Linea.
You are not too cynical. Theywill go right back to this if
and when, and it's whenDemocrats get the White House
and control the bureaucracy onceagain. So it's nice to know what

(41:14):
we already knew. You know? MarkZuckerberg went on Joe Rogan
show and said it and laid itflat out.
Every single social mediacompany and content platform was
censoring non leftist voices atthe behest of the government.
That is actual violation ofFirst Amendment rights, not
Donald Trump calling CNN fakenews.

Well, you know, this brings in mind, section two
thirty. If section two thirtywas passed in 1997 so that
these, that these platformscould have anyone say anything
and they would not be heldliable, then why are they years
after the fact saying, we'regonna take it down because we
could be held liable? That makesno sense. So I really do think
that it is time to, readdresssection two thirty. I think that

(41:59):
that has been completely usedand abused.
But I also wonder if this wouldever have happened had Elon Musk
not bought Twitter. I will goback to that as the as the, for
lack of a better word, turningpoint here because that did
serve as a tipping point inwhich people then could say,

(42:20):
wait a second. Here's what'sgoing on. Twitter is, you know,
doing all these things. Google'sdoing all these things.
YouTube's doing all thesethings, and there was evidence.
There, you know, there was flatout evidence that was pointing
the finger at it. You know, Ikinda go two ways on this
because so if Google was doingthis during Trump's presidency,

(42:43):
but Trump himself wasn't sayingto do it, well, then I guess
they do have the right to dothat. However, if they're doing
it at the discretion of theBiden administration, then,
obviously, that's a big no no.That is a violation of free
speech.
So there was both both thingsgoing on here because Google
even admitted that, hey. Some ofthe stuff we took down and some
of the stuff that we censored,Biden administration didn't even
want us to do it. We just did iton our own volition. So shame on

(43:04):
Google for doing that. But, I dothink that we are in a better
place.
I do think that, a lot of the,things that have been happening
for, you know, eight years nowwith, these social media
companies, you know, throttling,you know, accounts and such is

(43:24):
probably gonna stop, and that'sa great thing. So, you know,
it's and and, you know, justjust to almost, like, you know,
hurt my own argument here. Thereis there is the, there there is
the case to be made that theseplatforms, you know, they can do

(43:45):
whatever they want. Okay? Yeah.
They can. They are free. Theyare open to do whatever they
want. However, you can't have itboth ways. You can't have that
section two thirty liability.
You can't have theCommunications Decency Act cover
you for all these things, butthen at the same time say, hey.
We're gonna get rid of this. Soif, you know, they are trying to
have it both ways.

Yeah. I wanna hear from Andy because he's been
on, you know, the, front linesfighting for Heartland's
monetization and all of that,and we've gotten some some
ringers on the for for, like,the kind of things that we get
struck down for so innocuous allthe time that it's just
ridiculous, Andy.

Speaker 6 (44:22):
Well, yeah. Yeah. You know, it's it was when Jim said,
like, as as Andy knows, like,our channels have been, you
know, demonetized or suppressed,and and I've I've been on the
front of trying to end that,sometimes successfully,
sometimes not so much. But, youknow, it's really amazing how
they do it and how littleinformation they give you, and
that's that's the key for howthey can take a chick a channel

(44:42):
like ours, suppress itpermanently, and and make it
nigh impossible to to recoverit. So let me just, like, kinda
describe how they've done it tous on YouTube just as an example
here.
We have thousands. I I I don'tknow the number off the top of
my head. I probably could havelooked it up in the last few
minutes, but we have thousandsof videos on YouTube. And
eventually, one day, we'll justget a strike on our channel, and

(45:03):
it'll say well, either when weapply for monetization or just
something that they consider solarge, which has happened to us,
that it's like a general channelstrike. And they'll they'll give
us a general topic area.
So for us, it's been hatefulcontent. It first happened, I
believe, during COVID. That wasface or that was Facebook. Yeah.

(45:24):
But but it'll say, like, hatefulor or, like, misinformation.
And they won't tell you whatvideo. They won't even tell you,
like, what topic area. So, like,they won't say if it's related
towards, you know, a a gym rantor something we said about
climate change or anything. Andthey just say, like, you are
allowed to reapply in ninetydays, after you make changes to

(45:45):
your channel. Okay.
Jim just said 2,600 videos afteryou make changes to your channel
to satisfy, like, these terms.So we've we've reapplied many
times, but we we can't makechanges because we don't know
which of these 2,600 videos theytake issue with. So after a
while like, our channel hasgotten big enough to this point
where we are given direct accessto, like, YouTube's customer

(46:06):
support. And first, they send meto a bot. I chat with the bot
for a while, then they send meto a person who says they can't
help me, and I just get angrylong enough, frankly, that they
send me to their manager.
And then the manager willfinally all I'll my my request
every single time is I will dowhatever you guys want. Just
tell me what videos you takeissue with so I can delete the
sections or delete the videosand restore the channel. I I am

(46:28):
willing to play ball. Like like,it's literally where I've I've
they've they've beat me downinto at this point. They, and
they'll say, oh, okay.
We have to send it to ourinternal review team. That'll
take two weeks, and and thenthey can, like, figure out what
the issue is and tell so they'lldo that, and then they switch
you off the chat into email, andthen they slowly switch like,
change where the window is to,like, oh, yeah. No. We're not

(46:50):
gonna tell you what the issueis. We're just gonna help you
reapply for monetization orreinstate your channel until
they eventually completely,like, just change from what they
originally said they were gonnahelp you with, and this has
happened multiple times now,and, deny you again.
So the the entire system is madeeven for someone like a channel
like ours that has access tosupport to to never resolve any

(47:10):
issue. And once they decide toput that strike on you, it is it
is permanent. It is forever. Youyou cannot beat them.

I'm gonna play why we

Speaker 6 (47:18):
have great sponsors like Advisor Metals helping
support shows like these in thebackground, not related towards
YouTube. Thank you to them.Alright. I just wanted to jump
in and and chime in with that.If you have any questions for
me, go for it.
But yeah.

Just can't help myself here. I gotta play
devil's advocate just a littlebit here. So YouTube is a
private company. The HeartlandInstitute does not have a right
to have videos on that entity.That is up to them.
The the thing with, you know,Jimmy Kimmel and this whole free
speech thing, I think, has beengrossly, you know, taken out of

(47:50):
context here because thegovernment did not go to ABC and
say, take him off the air. Thatnever happened. That was a
business decision on behalf ofABC and the affiliates. Same
with YouTube and same withGoogle, except when the Biden
administration went to Googleand said, hey. Take this stuff
down.
So as a as a free speechabsolutist, if if YouTube says,

(48:13):
you know what? We just don'twanna put what you're saying on
our on our platform, I'd say,well, that's really sad, and,
you're gonna lose out on halfthe market because, you know,
theoretically, half the peoplein this country wanna hear what
one side has to say. But if theychoose to do that, that is their
own choice. And I don't reallythink it's a free speech
argument. I you know, I we canwe can have arguments as to
whether it's a good businessdecision.

(48:35):
Yes or no. But I just I I I dowanna make that nuanced point.

Speaker 6 (48:40):
I strongly agree with you on the YouTube side,
honestly. I as as annoying as itis, I I kind of agree with where
you're coming from. With Kimmel,I strongly disagree. Everyone's
kinda saying that, like, AVs ornot, the FCC, like here's what
the FCC did. The the the chair,like, Brendan Carr or something,
went on, some popular podcastwith 5.4

But once again but but once again, that's an
indirect thing. That's himsaying something.

Speaker 6 (49:05):
Oh, yeah. No. Like, an indirect thing. But he
indirectly went on there andthen threatened, like, ABC, but
the FCC doesn't actually have,like, the power to do that. What
he literally did do, though, wassay, like, we're going to
threaten the licenses of thestations that, show Kimmel.
And what next happened isSinclair and Nexstar, which are
the two station group owners,which are the people that

(49:27):
actually have the licenses,like, pulled Kimmel. And

(49:56):
threaten the station groups, andthen have people claim see, they
didn't actually take any directaction, but they threatened
them. The government threatenedprivate companies for the, like,
outcome that they wanted, gotthat outcome, and then went on
Fox News and said, Nexstar andSinclair, and this is days
after, seems like they did thisbecause they wanna protect their
licenses, which is exactly whatthe threat was. So I don't see

(50:20):
this as a free speech issue. Isee this as a gross misuse of
government power, and I stronglydisagree with you on bail.

The original law that established the the FTC,
the Communications Act, gavethem authority to ensure that
all broadcast, material, allbroadcast providers are fair and
and and decent, and they theyhave the authority to do that.

(50:46):
And they still have thatauthority. What's interesting
here is that what Carr did wasstate openly that we have this
authority and we are going tofollow the law, and we are going
to enforce the law. That and andwhat happened then, though, was
that that was very differentfrom what the Biden

(51:08):
administration did, which was goto companies that were not
covered by by this by theCommunications Act. They were
not covered under the law ashaving to operate in the public
interest.
Companies that get spectrum fromthe government have to operate
in the public interest. That'sthe law. If you don't like it,

(51:29):
change the law. But for the foran administration to enforce the
law is actually what their jobis. That's what they're supposed
to do.
What the Biden administrationdid was they went and, jawboned
companies that were not underthis law, and they did it in
secret. So this is a acompletely different situation.

(51:51):
I don't say that necessarilythe, FTC, or FCC was right to do
this, but I do say they had theright, and they should actually
follow the law. If that's whatthe law says, then then they
should do it. And I believe thatthat is what they were doing.
They they are following the law.Again, if you don't like it,

(52:12):
change the laws. Good luck withthat.

I wanna get Ian's take on all of this, especially
as it pertains to, like, socialmedia and YouTube and stuff.
Because I know that, you know,Gen z and, you know, especially
younger millennials and stuff,we get and and even like, Jim, I
know you're in this this grouptoo, get most of their news,
most of their entertainment evenfrom places like YouTube, you

(52:38):
know, Rumble, Twitter, whatever.So I wanna I wanna hear what
your take is on this, Ian.

Eann Tanng (52:44):
Yeah. For sure. Yeah. It was really interesting
on legal debate. I made up mymind not to go to law school, so
I can't really say anythinghere.
Not the expert. First off, Iwanna say, though, like, Jimmy
Kimmel, like, as a Gen Z orthere's another term for for us,
right, called the Zoomersbecause we went through the
whole Zoom generation. And,really, I don't really know any

(53:05):
Gen Zers that that still watchesJimmy Kimmel. Like, I'm serious.
But I will wanna call out twopeople.
First is Hassan Piker and thenalso Destiny Destiny. And to tie
back to our previous topic,like, these two people, it's
kinda crazy how Harlem, we justquestion COVID. We question
climate change, and then ourchannel is, like, completely

(53:27):
demonetized. But you will getHassan Piker and Destiny. For
those that don't know, these twoare basically the liberal
versions of Charlie Kirk.
Like, they are what the left is,the progressive, the far left
are following on on social mediaand are looking up to. These two
on their social media, onstream, would, like, vocally

(53:47):
advocate for killing ofconservatives. I couldn't find a
clip. Maybe YouTube is hiding itfor Hassan, but there's
literally a Hassan Piker clipout there. Go to Twitter to look
up.
Go to X to look up to look itup. But of him calling, like,
for the killing of renters, andyou get Destiny saying that,
like, conservatives need to beafraid after the the Charlie

(54:08):
Kurt assassination. Like, it'sit's just, like, crazy to me.
And then also as someone whowas, like, formerly liberal,
I'll weigh in on that a littlebit later. But the the point I'm
trying to make is that when Ifirst turned conservatives, I
was like, yeah.
I don't wanna be those crazyconservatives. I want to I don't
wanna be, like, watching FoxNews, watching, like, fake news.

(54:32):
Right? So I really follow a lotof those, like, community
guidelines or what are theycalled? Like, the fact checkers
on YouTube, Instagram.
And then and then, like, itturns out all of those fact
checkers are really just, like,opinion checkers. And yeah. And
then so that's why really, likeme, we don't really care about,

(54:56):
like, Jimmy Kimmel or, like,traditional media or, like,
social media. And, like, justlike what Chris said, when Elon
really took over X, it wasreally the turning point. And
then, like, I remember they weretalking about how there were,
like, some CNN reports on how,like, the conservatives have to
build, like, an alternative toeverything.

(55:18):
Like, we have True Social as thealternative to Twitter, and then
we even have they write stuffas, like, a conservative version
of Tinder. Like, we need in thepast, we need literally need to
build, like, a conservativealternative of every social
media platform out there. That'show far the censorship went. And
it's just crazy how, really, whythese leftists are so violent is

(55:40):
because you got, like, literalliteral version of Charlie Kirk
saying that we need to go outand kill conservatives. We need
to be violent.
And they and then they they'restill monetized. Like, they're
still streaming every day, butthen Harlan, I can't even
question whether I want I don'twanna eat Beyond Meat or what.

Yeah. Well and and Piers Morgan had Destiny on
shortly after the Charlie Kirkassassination, and destiny said
something along the lines ofthis is what conservatives get
for electing Trump. And it'slike, okay. So this guy gets to
be you know, I guess he's not hehas you know, he hasn't been
platformed on, Twitch for awhile, but, yeah, it's it's

(56:22):
pretty terrible. And and so butbut sorry.
I heard someone else saysomething.

I was just gonna say that I don't think that
those people are reallyrepresentative of the left in
general, so I don't think it'struly fair to, like, say that
they represent the vast majorityof, like, leftist views. I think
that they are a vol a smokesmall vocal minority. And, you
know, just just go going back tothe, Google censorship stuff

(56:50):
because that's what this, youknow, was originally about. I
also remember and after afterthe the administration was was
doing all that stuff, there wasall this talk about, well, hey.
Conservative places.
Why don't you just set up yourown platforms? And what happened
when we when not we. I didn't doit, but when they were tried.
Amazon Web Services said, yeah.We're not gonna host you.

(57:12):
And, I mean, there were so manyother things that were so many
other, intrusions in place. Sothis this idea that, you know,
you just go go make your ownconservative Twitter. Go make
your own conservative, YouTubeor Google or whatever. Yeah.
That that argument left the doora long time ago because these
companies are total monopolies.

(57:32):
They have, you know, 90 pluspercent of the, of the market
cornered. So we are way beyond,going and starting a new, you
know, platform to, you know,have conservative actually have
a fair chance at, you know,putting their stuff out there.
Just wanna look

Speaker 6 (57:52):
for that out.

Jim Lakely (57:52):
Yeah. I mean, Parler went from being the most
downloaded app on iOS andAndroid to being deleted from
existence within a span of sevendays Mhmm. Because of the power
of the left and, you know, holdsover big tech. And and just just
one more point on this wholething about, you know, YouTube
and, you know, you know, you youmentioned this, Chris, and I
used to do tech policy forHeartland when I first started

(58:15):
with with Heartland back in02/2008. You know, section two
thirty of the CommunicationsDecency Decency Act, it protects
tech companies from liabilitybecause of what somebody may put
on their platforms, but theyhave to pledge to be an open
platform.
Once you start deciding who getsto who get this speech is not is

(58:35):
not good. I don't like it. We'regonna get rid of You you're no
longer you're you're moving awayfrom being a platform of
communications to being apublisher of communications, and
there is a very importantdistinction legally between
those two categories. And that'swhy YouTube and Facebook and all
the others have an obligationunder the law that was passed by

(58:55):
congress to act as platforms,not publishers. And, again, once
you start getting into that ideathat, you know, a heartless tube
video, you know, talking aboutCOVID in ways that the
government does not approve isworthy of not just a reprimand
or a maybe a a note saying becareful, but to have your
channel threatened with its veryexistence and then having the

(59:17):
the video completely struck.
It's still like you I can gofind it in background. I I I
look at it once in a while. Itwas completely struck from you
know, they just deleted it, andso it can't be used again. There
there's a big difference on thatthan Yeah.

There yeah. Yeah.

Jim Lakely (59:31):
Important to just important to mention that
context of of the law when it

1100%. So when when someone sends an op ed to me and
I pitch it to, to a publisher,whether it's American Think or
Red State, the Hail or whatever,they have the ability to say,
yeah. We want that. No. We don'twant that because they have
editorial discretion over what'sgoing on to their their
platform, their website.
Under the law, the 1997 law,when the Internet was first, you

(59:55):
know, coming of age, they didn'twanna have any of that because
they didn't want they wanted tohave a very innovative
entrepreneur driven environment.Here we are now thirty years
later, and it looks like thatmight need to be, looked at
again. And I have heard that Ithink Jim Jordan and Kash Patel
have already started sayingthat, yeah, we do need to reform

(01:00:17):
section two thirty. It's thirtyyears, you know, later, and,
it's not the same environment.So I think that would be a big
help.

Linnea Lueken (01:00:24):
Yep. Absolutely. Dan?

Eann Tanng (01:00:26):
Yeah. I would like to jump in and reply to Chris
for real real quick. Like, I'mnot saying that like, of course,
I believe that the people whoare violent are, like, a like, a
very small minority on the left.But if for people in my
generation, if you actuallyfollow Hassan Piker or Destiny,
they are, like, the biggestfigure on the left right now.
And then I think we can allagree on this that the left is

(01:00:49):
really getting more far left.
Right? Like, I have a lot ofliberal friends who are saying
that they just can't identify asa liberal anymore because they
they just can't support whateverthat's coming that's like,
whatever rhetoric that's beingused on the left. But I would
like to add that Charlie Kirk'smurder, it happened because not
because the left all wanted himto die, but because they they

(01:01:10):
basically fostered thisenvironment by calling him a
Nazi and by having these two, byhaving Hassan Piker and Destiny
constantly pushing these violentrhetoric. And I think it's like
we have to point out the factthat every time when there's,
like, far right on the right,like, doing something stupid,
like the Proud Boys, January 6,whatever, on the right, first

(01:01:30):
thing we have to do is tocondemn them. But but whenever
it's on the left, you'll alwaysget, like, oh, we need to, oh,
tone it down a little bit andkilling people is wrong.
But Charlie Kirk is hateful. Buthe's pro second amendment, so he
got killed. He got his ownmedicine. So I think I wanna
really point this out becauseHassan Piker and Destiny, these
are two are really big figureson the Gen Z. Like, all of the

(01:01:54):
people I know who are liberalfollows him even if they are
not, like, far left.
So that's that's something Ilike to

Chris Talgo (01:01:59):
point No. You you are totally right about that,
and this goes back to a memethat I think Elon Musk kinda
popularized a couple years agowhere it's like, the left here,
and then, like, here's everybodyelse. And I really do I I agree
with you. I think that that isvery, very true. And I go back
to mid nineties Democrats underthe Clinton administration.
They were very moderate. Youknow? They believed in, hey. If

(01:02:22):
you want welfare, you shouldwork. We should have, you know,
a balanced budget.
We should have, you know, closedborders. Like, yes. I I totally
agree with you. So I do thinkthat that is a a big threat and
something that we need to, haveto definitely deal with because
those I mean, Ian, there aremillions of people in your

(01:02:43):
generation who are gonna beleaders and voters, and, you
know, they are they are ourfuture. And if they are buying
this, you know, left wing crap,well, then then I don't feel
very good, very optimistic aboutthe future.
So but then again, I see someonelike you who who who has made
that transformation, and, youknow, I I I am also confident.

(01:03:04):
So I I I don't know. I can seeboth sides of this one for sure.
Yeah. Speaking of

this meme, but then I'm literally this meme, but I
started running to the right in2021, and now we can't even see
me on this spectrum.

Jim Lakely (01:03:16):
It's it's

it's not a joke.

So so speaking of that, our our final topic, and I
know we're running late here,you guys. It's not in the tank
if we don't start late, and it'snot in the tank if we don't run
late. But our main topic todaythat I wanted to get to is
actually kind of interviewingIan on a lot of this stuff, Gen
z and the future ofconservatism. So we're looking

(01:03:38):
at the political future forconservatives. Ian has a great
story about how he came to beconservative and what it's like
right now on college campuses.
In the wake of Charlie Kirk'smurder, there was chaos because
in truth, Charlie isirreplaceable as a leader in the
young conservative space.Nobody, no single person has
that affability and the suiteof, you know, genuine talent

(01:04:02):
that Charlie Kirk had. It'sgoing to be an insanely tough
job to keep that momentum thatTurning Point USA has built over
the last decade. So I wannashare this picture, though, from
outside of the Charlie Kirkmemorial service that was posted
by endwokeness on x. Andy, if wehave that picture that the was
linked.
Yeah. There we go. Okay. So thisis from the waiting line outside

(01:04:25):
of Charlie Kirk's memorialservice. That's a lot of young
people, and they're allmotivated to show up to mourn a
political figure.
I think that this might besomewhat unprecedented. So, I
want you to tell us, what youfeel comfortable telling us,
Ian. But I wanted to start withthis question, which I already
know the answer to, but I'mgonna let you kind of give the

(01:04:48):
story on it. Were you alwaysconservative?

No. So, yeah, like, I was born in a very I wouldn't
say very, but, like, like, mymom's, like, Christian
conservative. My dad's, like, abusinessman. So also, like, lean
right. And then, really, growingup, I never really had, like, a
sense of, like, what is on theleft and what is on the right.
And then I wasn't like, I was,like, political. I was, like,

(01:05:15):
into history and stuff, but Iwasn't so aware. And then what
really introduced me to politicswas when Andrew Yang, he started
running. Right? And I saw, like,another Asian guy who's running
for president, and then he'salso Taiwanese like me,
actually.
And then he has this, like,policy on UBI that we need to
give everyone a thousanddollars. And to put it quite

(01:05:39):
frankly, well, like, just likehow I mentioned he's Taiwanese,
I'm Taiwanese, human aretribalistic. So my first
instinct was like, yeah. I haveto support this guy. And then,
of course, when I brought upabout, like, the UBI one a
thousand dollar, my parentsthought it's, like, ridiculous.
And then but then I was justlike, yeah. It's it sounds

(01:05:59):
ridiculous. But then becauseback then, I I had no clue of,
like, really the left and right,so I was just looking at CNN
and, like, MSNBCs and New YorkTimes. And all of these articles
are, like, justifying a thousandlike, the UPI stuff because
they're saying the rich is notpaying enough and then that,
like, the UBI, like, just yeah.Giving out money is good.

(01:06:20):
It boosts the economy, all ofthat crap. Right? And then,
really, it's, like, BernieSanders that jump on, and I I
saw, like and he's a populist.He's really good at Bernie
Sanders is the smartestcapitalist out there because he
knows how to manipulate thesystem without actually bringing
the positive side of ofcapitalism out. And then so he's

(01:06:40):
the smartest capitalist outthere, but I had no clue back
then.
Right? I was just a I was thedumbest cap well, I was, like,
the dumbest consumer. He's thesmartest capitalist. And then
but what really kinda, like,radicalized me was when, like,
the whole BOM thing happened.And then I was just, like,
convinced that, like, America isjust racist against minorities,

(01:07:01):
racist against people like me.
And then because I was followingBernie Sanders already, and
then, really, the the logic ofthe left is that, like,
everything is evil. The systemis evil. Everything that needs
to the only solution toeverything is that we need,
like, a revolution. Like, weneed that's the Marxist angle.
Right?
Of course, I'm not saying, like,everyone on the left is like

(01:07:22):
this, but the left is headingtoward that direction,
especially under Bernie Sanders.And then so that was, like,
kinda, like, what I believe in.That's that was what my
worldview was about. And thenand then I remember so, like,
yeah, I still remember this goodguy, bad guy. I thought I was in
the good guys team.

(01:07:42):
I didn't know there's reallyleft versus right. And then, of
course, all of my teachers are,like, very liberal. And then
just to give you guys a context,so I grew up in Taiwan. Right?
And then I went to an, like, aAmerican accredited
international school.
So all of my teachers arebasically Americans, but they
are, like, far left Americans.Like, there's a reason why they
don't wanna live in The USanymore. Like, they they hate

(01:08:04):
America. So, of course, they,like, hate Trump, and then
they're, like, very pro Bernie.And all of my classmates are
also very left lee left leaning.
And then there's this issue thatI brought up to my friends,
which is the issue of abortion.It's not even the the economics
yet. Right? And then, basically,I just thought, like, protecting

(01:08:25):
an innocent life in a womanwould be a good guy's position.
So I brought that out.
And then all of my friends justall, like, flip out on me. Like,
they got so angry. Like, for thefur that's, like, my first time
hearing how can you as a mantell a woman what to do with
their body. That was was myfirst time hearing of it, I was
so confused. And I was like,alright.
Alright. Chill. Chill. I'll I'llbe pro choice. I'll be pro

(01:08:47):
choice.
But then I was just so confused.And then and then I clicked on a
Ben Shapiro video, and then thatvideo was, like, my first
introduction to, like,conservatism. It was like, I had
no clue how the pro lifeargument can be defended this
way. I I had no clue how thereare people who are, like, on the

(01:09:08):
right doing activism like this,and that's when I get to Charlie
Kirk. And then what really wokeme up, especially with Charlie
Kirk's argument, is that justbecause there's abuse in the
system, just because there isfraud happening in the system,
just because there are badpeople in the system, doesn't
mean the system is inherentlybad and doesn't mean that we

(01:09:29):
have to tear down everything.
And in fact, if we go towardthat goal, it's extremely
dangerous. And then it has triedin, like, so many countries
already. And then just like mebeing, like, a Taiwanese, I'm in
Taiwan right now. Our greatestenemy is the biggest socialist
state in in the world. Ofcourse, you're gonna get people
saying, oh, it's not socialism.
But our Yeah. Yeah. It'scommunism. It's communism.

(01:09:51):
Communism.
It's yeah. You're you're gettingthere. Right? Like and then and
then that was such a wake upcall because my worldview has
completely been shattered. Andthen so that's really how I
became conservative.

Ian, I got a question for you. So I've got a,
sister who we adopted fromChina, and she came here when
she was about 10 years old, andnow she's about 25. She's been
here about fifteen years, and,she's a little bit older than
you. But, unfortunately, she hasbeen indoctrinated by her
friends and culture and socialmedia and all that stuff. But I

(01:10:28):
wanna ask you something.
You said something about yourfriends saying that America's a
racist place. And I don't wannaput you on the spot here, but I
was just wondering, have youever personally had someone, you
know, throw a racist insult atyou? Because I asked my sister
that, and she has not. And I andI do think that that does go to
show that your currentgeneration really doesn't look

(01:10:51):
at race. They don't care aboutrace.
They care more about, like, youknow, who you are inside. So if
you could just answer that.

Yeah. For sure. Like, as someone like yeah. And
then the story later to, theclip you see previously of me
thanking Charlie Kirk was meestablishing a turning point
chapter on my campus. Right?
So I was, like, really involvedwith these conservative events.
And a lot of times, I go tothese conservative events. Like,
basically, everyone's, white,just like this panel. Like, I'm
I'm, like, one of the only fewminorities there. Right?

(01:11:23):
But I have never felt, like, inany sort of way that I am
ostracized. I am, like like, I'mbeing hated on even though
people like Destiny Hassan willcall it the events I go to,
like, Nazi rally. But, yeah,Nazi rally, and then they allow
Asian there. Interesting. Butthen, like, I have, like, yeah,

(01:11:46):
I have never felt that really.
And then, really, the wake upcall is when I see affirmative
action. Like, if anything, wehave systemic racism in reverse.
Right? And then and then notjust that. I saw news on how,
like, Washington DC hascharacterized Asians as whites
just because Asians do, onaverage, do better in school, on

(01:12:09):
standardized tests, and thenare, like, wealthier.
And then and then that's, like,the most racist thing I've ever
seen. So, really and I want toadd something is that, like, as
the only non white person here,can say this. Like, you know
how, like, the media like toframe the whole Charlie Kirk
murder as, like, white on whitecrime? We really do have a white

(01:12:29):
issue, like, a white liberalissue, really. As a conservative
activist on my campus, really,the meanest, craziest, most
racist people I've met are whiteliberals.
Like, they are telling me, like,how can you as an Asian support
Trump? Like, they're they'retelling me what I should believe
in as a minority. And, really, Ithink and I think it goes back

(01:12:53):
to how this is my opinion. Like,a lot of I think a lot of white
people have abandoned thetraditional Christian moral
values that this country isbuilt on. And so that is why,
like, all the statisticstatistics show that, like,
white liberals on average aretremendous tremendously more far
left than, like, Latinoliberals, Asian liberals, black

(01:13:16):
liberals.
And and no one's talking aboutit. And I think it's a
conversation we need to starthaving if we wanna stop having
all of these, like, shootingsand anticonservative crimes.

One of the one of the biggest, you know,
objectives of the left and andand under you know, in the years
that I've been alive andespecially as an adult is
identity politics. And I Iwonder if it's finally starting
to, you know, come back to bitethem because this this younger
generation is by far the mostdiverse. And if they're not

(01:13:48):
buying that crap that the leftis pushing where if you're, you
know, a nonwhite person, thenyou have to, you know, be a
leftist just just based on youridentity. I think that that I
think that that is really beingplayed out, and I think that we
are finally starting to see theend of that. And that that is a
great thing.

So that you know, all of that, you know, in that
case, you know, when you'redealing with, you know, crazy
people on campus and stuff. Soyou said that you were working
on establishing a turning pointchapter, I think you said, at
the University of Illinois. SoI'm curious since you are in a,
like, post COVID universitysystem. So what was it like then

(01:14:29):
trying to build a conservative,you know, culture on campus
there, especially in Illinois,which is obviously not the most
conservative place in the world.

Yeah. So before I started my turning point
chapter, there's, like, alreadyYaff and all the other
conservative groups. Right? Andthen, really, before I really
started anything, all theseconservative groups are just
basically, like, a social clubor like a like a refuge for for
conservatives to seek out otherconservatives. And then, really

(01:15:02):
initially, I was reallyquestioning, should I do this?
Like, should I put myself on thefront line? And then but then I
just thought to myself, yeah,there's probably so many more
people out there like me who hadreally no clue of how crazy left
wing politics has become and whoonly had a clue had a clue of,
like, good guys versus bad guys.Right? And then so I decided to

(01:15:22):
do it. And then, really, I thinkI'm, like, quite lucky because
because I I don't look like thetypical Turning Point USA
president.
Like, I'm not someone, like,from Nebraska with a big farm
and has, like, AR 15 in at myhome or something. Right? And
then and I grew up in Taiwan. Soeven though I am American, a

(01:15:44):
very proud American, but then soin school everywhere, I I just
tell people, yeah, I'm fromTaiwan. And then they probably
won't assume much.
They won't assume like someonefrom Taiwan is the biggest
conservative activist on ourcampus. But, really, I I I
seriously need to make thisprayer all the time. Every time
I table on campus, I just praythat the lord give me wisdom and
then the lord protect me fromwhatever crazy that's gonna

(01:16:08):
happen. And then and I reallythank god that nothing crazy has
gone down. But, seriously, youwould get people coming up onto
your table and throw off yourthings on the ground and just
say, like, f you.
You guys are a bunch of, like,piece of crap, blah blah blah.
And then, of course, noteveryone is like that, but a lot
of people talking about themurder of Charlie Kirk, there's

(01:16:30):
literally people who come up tome saying, like, how can like,
we should, like, Charlie Kirk.Right? And then, like, yeah, you
but at the same time, really,the biggest relief I've seen is
that people coming up to mesaying, thank you for doing
this. Like, people coming up tome saying, yo.
You're, like, you're the man.Like, you're doing this in
Illinois? Like, I will never dothis, but thank you for doing

(01:16:53):
it. And when Trump won I I needto bring this up. Because when
Trump won, all of my I'm apolitical science major.
And, you know, like, politicalscience major professors are
very are very conservative.Right? And then and then you
would like, very liberal. Right?And then and then, really, when
Trump won, I got an email fromevery professor saying, I know a

(01:17:16):
lot of you are distressed, andthen you guys you guys don't
need to come to class today.
And then I'll be honest withyou. A lot of times, I'm I'm the
type of person that that skipclass or there's something
called an iClicker, basicallyhow we take attendance, and I'll
do that for my for my bedroom sothat I don't need to go to
class. But then when I saw thatemail, I was like, I have to go
to class even even if attendanceis optional. And, really, the

(01:17:39):
whole class is such a, like, ait's such a group therapy
session, really. You get all ofthese, like, people freaking out
asking the craziest question.
Like, yeah, like, is Trump gonnaput me in jail for for visiting
planned parenthood or somethinglike that? And then my
conservative friends and I,we're we're just in the back
enjoying all of this. Like, Ilike, as I've said, I I think

(01:18:01):
I'm extremely lucky that Ididn't have to go through the
2015 era, the the COVID era. I,like, I I went through the era
where Trump become president andwhere, conservatism is really on
the right. So I I felt, like,extremely lucky, especially the
fact that I've never been intoany crazy situations where,

(01:18:22):
like, I get hurt or anything.
But, of course, it's there'sgonna like, there's a bunch of
nasty people out there. And thenif the left wants to say that
I'm playing victim, whatever.Like, unlike you guys, I'm not
asking for reparations. Right?I'm actually thankful that it
happened because it made me atougher person.
Like, as Charlie Kirk said, weknow that gen z are gonna become

(01:18:43):
more conservative becauseconservative gen z's are way
tougher than gen z liberals. Andthen one more thing to add is
that is that I want I need toshow this because I actually
become way more conservativewhen I accept when I fully
accepted my lord and saviorJesus Christ into my heart in
college. And then and then,like, of course, going into

(01:19:07):
college as a young man, there's,like you will have, like, a lot
of evil intentions they wannado. Like, first time your
parents are not around. But,really, god has rescued me, and
then and, yeah, I I just becomelike, I'm probably on a far
right right now, but all thatmeans is that I'm just a
Catholic.

S.T. Karnick (01:19:27):
Ian, I'd I'd like where you've gone with this
discussion, and I would like toask you a question. Do you think
it possible or likely orsomewhere in between that had
there not been Turning PointAmerica that you would have
found your way into the rightanyway?

I think eventually, I'm gonna make my way to the
right. Like, I I always try tobe, like, open minded. Like,
I'll say, like, my ideologiesnow have changed a lot even
since when I was, like, firstconservative, and then I tried
to, like, learn more as I can.But then I would say, though,
like, I don't think I'll reallybe involved in any conservative

(01:20:12):
politics at all if it weren'tfor Turning Point, if it weren't
for the platform I had. Andthen, like, I even made it to
Fox News at one point, and itwas all because of Turning
Point.
And, really, I I still can'tbelieve like, saying this now, I
still can't believe Charlie Kirkis gone. But the moment that he
the moment the day that he gotshot, the day he passed away, I

(01:20:36):
went to I I straight up went tochurch because I can't focus at
all. And thank you, Jim andAndy, for letting me to take my
day off. I went to churchbecause I can't even do work at
all. I was in such shock.
But then I made this prayer toGod saying that, Lord, I don't
need anything Charlie Kirk has.I know he has a beautiful wife,
family. He has so many money.Like, he has so much money.

(01:20:58):
Extremely successful guy.
I don't need anything he has,but just make me a vessel of
yours. Make me someone that youwill use Charlie Kirk for. And
and, yeah, that has like,Charlie Kirk's death has
radicalized me in a lot moreways because now that I know
it's not just, like, a simpleleft versus right. Like, we are

(01:21:21):
really dealing with spiritualevils. Right?
And as Jim, I remember mentionedhow mentioned the bible verse,
we're we for we do not wrestlewith flesh and blood, but
spirits and principalities. Anda lot of these left wing people,
like, they seriously need Jesus.And then, really, coming closer
to God has actually let me getrid of my hatred in my heart.

(01:21:43):
Like, in in the past, I would,like, want vengeance against
these people. But, really, I seea lot of times I see these
people just like me in the past,and then sometimes I'm not even
any better.
I'm still a sinner. Right?

Thank you so much for that, Ian. Gosh, we're
running over, but I wanna keepthis going a little bit if you
guys are all okay with it. Wehave so much to talk about.

I do have we have to ask Ian. It's what it's it's
past 2AM in Taiwan right now.

Am having so much fun. Like, I can do this until
2PM. Like you know?

Alright. Well oh, okay. So I have this. So it's
funny to hear that basicallynothing changed at all between
your college experience and whenI left college. I also was in
college during an election ofDonald Trump.
And when I got to campus thatday in Wyoming, and it was a
more conservative campus thanmost places. Of course, anything
having to do with, like, thestudent government was super

(01:22:37):
liberal. Anything having to dowith most of the professors and
stuff were still super liberal.But the like, it was kind of
like they were aware that theywere not in comfortable
territory in terms of the, like,town that they were in and
stuff. So it usually didn't gotoo bad.
Although someone did firebombthe GOP office shortly after
Trump was elected. So that wasnot so good. And we did have an

(01:23:00):
Antifa contingent that was bustup from Colorado. So that was an
interesting little bit there.But it's it's interesting to
hear you say that, like, they'retearing up signs when you're
tabling or they're, like,destroying your stuff and stuff.
Because even at Wyoming, thatwas the same thing. You know,
you sat down with collegeRepublicans, gear to try to get

(01:23:21):
new members and what whatnot.And some crazy lefty would come
over and, like, tear your signsup or kick over your cardboard
cutout of Trump or whatever itis. And and it's always the
same. But what really struck mewas when Turning Point came on
the scene in a big way at ourschool, The enthusiasm and the,
I guess, the just joy and andeverything that poured off of

(01:23:47):
them was quite different thanwhat you would get from College
Republicans, which I was in, orYoung Americans for Americans
for Liberty or any of thoseother organizations.
They we all were a little bitmore cynical and quite a bit
more reserved. But Turning Pointcame on the scene and kicked it
up several notches instantly.They had the best marketing

(01:24:10):
stuff. They had the most funideas instead of just tabling
and doing, like, we believe infree speech posters or whatever.
They had this giant inflatableball that everyone would write
on with Sharpie marker, youknow, write whatever you want on
it, to get, students engaged andjust like free speech in
general.
They had so much fun, and itcompletely changed the attitude

(01:24:34):
of all of the organizations oncampus. It's crazy how one
group, like, one group reallystanding up and deciding, like,
no. We're right, and we're gonnahave fun with it completely
changes everything. But I I Iwanted to say that your you

(01:24:54):
know, the organization and theirexample and everything is is so
inspiring, and I really hopethat it's continuing. So what
have you heard much from yourcolleagues or from from your
friends back in college andstuff at Turning Point?
Where where is it heading fromhere?

Yeah. Even though, like, just like Lanea, like, the
the whole environment where,like, the people who are still
in charge of universities arestill very left leaning. And
then, of course, I think it's,like, very tragic that we are
seeing more and more violencehere, but it's also a sign
because we're winning. Iremember Matt Walsh had a had a

(01:25:35):
tweet saying that, like, thewhole transgender thing is,
like, really collapsing. Andthen that's be and then that's
because and and we need to bevery careful of that because
those people, the only resortthey have left is violence.
And then I remember a few dayslater, Charlie Kirk got killed.
And then but, really, if anyonewho has seen the memorial of

(01:25:59):
Charlie Kirk, there is nothingbut, like, just hope in in that
in that arena. And then and thenthe reason why I keep bringing
up my face so much, I'm sorry toturn in the tank into EWTN or
something, and not to go fullBilly Graham here, but, really,

(01:26:19):
the the message of CharlieCurry, like, people would not
just remember him as, like,another conservative, another
right wing pundit. He is reallyhe has done more for Christians
than anyone I can really thinkof, than any Catholics as a
Catholic. Like, he's not aCatholic.
Right? But he's done more tobring people to a church than
really any Catholics. And then Ithink it's really remember

(01:26:42):
important to know that, like, asChristians, the reason why I
keep stressing my faith so muchis because it's because our
reward is not on earth. Ourreward is in heaven. And and to,
like, a lot of people who mightbe afraid of speaking up, like,
my biggest encouragement to youis that, like, we are in such
good times already.

(01:27:03):
Like, we we weren't in timeslike 2012 or 2018 where, like,
liberalism was really thedominant culture. Like, we are
in times where we are seeingrecord level of church
attendance. We are seeing, like,really just record level of
conservative. This is the mostconservative generation in fifty
years. And then beyond justconservatism, like, they talk

(01:27:23):
about how culture dominatespolitics, and then and I'll add
one more to that.
Like, religion really dominatesculture, and then we are really
seeing a revival of Christians.And and then for my Turning
Point chapter, when I startedthe Instagram account for my
Turning Point chapter, we wereat, like, 200 followers for the

(01:27:43):
longest of time. All theliberal, like, YDSA, Democrats,
they they had, like, over athousand followers. But just
now, like, our Instagram accounthas, like, surpassed both of
them. We we are, like, thebiggest political student
organization account.
We are at, like, 2,500 orsomething. Like, almost

(01:28:03):
basically, a thousand more thanthe liberal accounts. So,
really, we are like, it's weneed to be hopeful right now.
And then be hopeful in a sensethat not just, like, way and
expect things to go all well inyour way, like, everything
sunshine and rainbow. No.
In fact, everything is going tobe more tornado and tsunami. But

(01:28:23):
then it it's okay because evenif we don't have anyone, we we
have god. Right? And then,really, this generation, I like,
I've met so many of my friendswho not just went from liberal
to conservatives, but also likeme who became who really started
going to church and becameChristian, became Catholics. And
and, yeah, I I just can't thankgod enough.

(01:28:46):
And then, really, Charlie Kirk,he without him, I I could not
see any of this being possibleat all.

I wanna get to Jim here for a second. I think
he has, some commentary hewanted to get in.

Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I just wanted to, first of all,
congratulate Ian for hiscourage. I mean, it used to be
that you as a young person,you'd had to you'd have the
courage to lose friends or notbe seen as cool or maybe pay a
social cost for, you know,countering the liberal orthodoxy
on everything and all the thecool opinions. So but but now

(01:29:19):
being a conservative as a youngperson on a college campus, you
could pay with your life forthat, literally.
I mean, it just happened twoweeks ago. So it takes physical
courage to be a conservativenow, not just moral courage. And
second, you know, Lynea, youmentioned how at the University
of Wyoming, what was it you saidthe College Republican office

(01:29:40):
was, you know, assaulted or orattacked or something or

Yes. Someone threw a Molotov cocktail into
our GOP office downtown.

Right. Yeah. So in Laramie Laramie, Wyoming. And,
you know, so this also pointsout and that was I think, like
you said, that was almost adecade ago. You know, this this
points out the lie, the absolutelie that both sides are engaging
in political violence in thiscountry, and that's why it it
really triggers me so much.
I mean, this has been going backfor literally decades. Anne

(01:30:08):
Coulter tried to give a speechat UC Berkeley, and a freaking
riot broke out, and she had tobe, you know, spirited away by
the police to protect herphysical safety. Riley Gaines
went to give a speech at at auniversity. I forget which one.
And she had to be, again,spirited away by police and
locked into a room where theradical leftists were pounding

(01:30:30):
on it.
They wanted her blood. This was,what, a year ago? Ben, Ben
Shapiro, this happens to him. Iknow Ian follows him. This
happens to him when he tries tospeak on college campuses.
Michael Knowles, another personfrom the Daily Wire, he gave a
talk at my alma mater,University of Pittsburgh, which
is why I will never ever evergive Pitt a a dime of of money

(01:30:52):
as a as an alumni because hegave Michael Knowles gave a
speech there. There was aphysical assault on him trying
to prevent him from speaking. Aa campus cop was severely
injured in this attack, andthese things go on and on and
on. This is not a both sidesthing. Everybody knows it.
Alright? Everybody knows this,and do not put up with the media

(01:31:13):
and your friends or people onsocial media pretending
otherwise. You know? And itdoesn't matter what any of these
rigged bullshit studies onpolitical violence that that we
see being shopped around rightnow. You know, we know what we
see with our own eyes.
We know our own lived experienceas the life as left likes to
say, what is going on in thiscountry. And what is going on in
this country is that radicalleftists who have are now for

(01:31:36):
the first time in decadesstarting to understand what it's
like to not have complete powerover the culture, the politics,
the media, and everything. Andthey are freaking out, and they
are being triggered to commitreal acts of violence and even
kill people who disagree withthem because they cannot deal
with the idea that the majorityof this country doesn't want

(01:31:58):
them controlling every freakingthing in our society anymore. So
the this whole so, Ian, again, Icongratulate you. I'm I'm I'm
you know, I admire your courageand your journey and to talk
about it publicly on thispodcast because it,
unfortunately, really does takephysical courage like it's never
taken it before to be an outloud speaking conservative, in

(01:32:23):
this country, especially ifyou're a young person and happen
to come across a college camp?

At at the Harlan at the Harlan Institute, we don't
really dive much into religious,you know, stuff. But, you know,
as a student of history, thefounding fathers knew that
virtue was an essential, traitfor a country to flourish. And,
you know, the Judeo Christianvalues that the country was

(01:32:52):
founded upon, have beendisregarded for a very long
time. And, I'm not here to saythat one religion or one sect
has it all right or anything,but I am very, glad to see this
spiritual reawakening that'shappening, in, you know, in
young people because it givesthem a a reason for being. It

(01:33:17):
gives them, you know, somethingto fight for.
It gives them something that'sgreater than themselves. It
helps them to reject the leftistcrap, like, you know, envy and
jealousy and and all that kindof stuff. The United States was
founded on Judeo Christianvalues. Individual freedom,

(01:33:38):
liberty, and all that stuff isvirtuous. The opposite of it in
which, oh, the, you know, theends justify the means and the
good, you know, the the good ofthe society trumps the good of
the, you know, the person.
That's immoral. That's notvirtuous. So I am very glad to
see that people in Ian's, youknow, cohort are starting to

(01:34:01):
make that connection herebecause there is a connection
between virtue and liberty anddignity and working hard and all
those kinds of stuff. And theleft, you know, I don't like to
make this so much of a, culturalthing, but a lot of the views
that they espouse, especially inthe modern iteration of them,

(01:34:21):
it's not based on virtue. It'sbased on hatred.
It's based on evil. It's basedon wickedness. So, you know, I
know that I know that, you know,it's there's a there's a fine
line between public policy and,you know, spirituality and all
that kind of stuff. But, youknow, as the founder said and as
many wise men, you know,throughout history have said,

(01:34:44):
those two things areintertwined. And it's just very,
good to see that that connectionis you know, looks like it's
being, you know, refastenedhere.

I wanna get to your thoughts on this, before we
slowly start to close out.

S.T. Karnick (01:34:59):
Thanks, Lynette. You know, some very smart
commentators like, JamesKuntzler have, characterized
the, American left of our timeand especially the Democrat
party, and I don't wanna bepartisan here, but that's what
they're saying. They'recharacter characterized them as
something of a criticalconspiracy, a criminal gang. And

(01:35:23):
that that the that the wholething is a a matter of grabbing
power that really in nonlegitimate ways. Well, criminal
gangs do things like runningproject protection rackets and
the like and, you know, sellingall kinds of horrible things
like maybe pharmaceuticals thatharm people and the like,

(01:35:46):
injections that are not good foryou.
So they they run theseconspiracies to to raise money.
They they run these criminalactivities. And what happens,
though, is that as long as youcooperate, you're safe. As long
as you pay off the protectionracket, you're safe. But the

(01:36:08):
moment you push back, the momentyou say, no.
This is not happening anymore.They get violent. And I think
that's the step that we're we'vereached at this point. That
certainly the left has seen thattheir power is going away and

(01:36:28):
that their ability to frankly,their ability to make money and
get resources and get the thingsthat they want out of life in
the way that they've been doingis going away. And it's making
them violent, and they're usingthugs all over.
All over. They're using thugs toto create an anarcho tyranny in

(01:36:51):
order to cow the customers, us,the the business peep small
business people, us, into givingin. And there's only one way to
deal with that, and you have tofight back through the law.

Yep. Ian, I wanna end on you with this question.
Okay. What would your numberone, you know, kind of set of
advice be to other youngconservatives who are probably
pretty scared right now?

Mhmm. First thing, I will say, like, really to seek
God because when I real justlike what I said, when I first
got into it, I I was, like, alsolike, I'm not violent. Just
clear the air first. But, ofcourse, like, when you're in
such a, like, toxic environment,when you're like like I have,

(01:37:41):
like, a 150 people unfollow me.I have, like, friends, people
who will never talk to me again.
Like, my teacher high schoolteacher has blocked me on, like,
Instagram, Facebook. And then,really, it's really easy for you
to become nihilist. It's reallyeasy for you to become just,
like, constantly angry ateveryone. And so, really, my

(01:38:03):
advice is seek God. Like, I'mnot trying to be all Billy
Graham right here, but, really,like, human beings, like, we we
are not just, like, a mistakenuniverse.
Right? Like, I'm here sharingthis message for a purpose. And
then, really, our soul we needto take care of our soul first
if we wanna spread out the rightmessage. And, really, I was

(01:38:25):
like, the the toughest thing,really, the strongest thing
anyone can do is really toforgive. So when I saw Erica
Kerrigan memorial saying that Iforgave, the shooter, like, I I
teared up so much.
And then it was it was like, Idon't even think I'm able to do
that even though it's the rightthing to do. And, really, when
you when you have God in yourheart, you have a lot more

(01:38:47):
courage because just like what Isaid, our reward is not on
earth. It's in heaven. And thenin fact, Jesus say that said
that if they hated you becausethey hated me first. Like, I
wanna first warn all Gen Zconservatives out there that
it's never going to be, like,fair game to us, really.
I've I've this is a fact thatI've only recently accepted that

(01:39:08):
no matter how bad we are, nomatter, like, if we get Vans
after Trump and then theDeacensives after Vans, Tulsi
after Vans, if we, like, have acomplete even if we have a
complete dominant Republicangovernment, we I just feel like
we will never, like, have a fairbecause, yeah, because the world
was just, like, againstultimately against Christ.

(01:39:28):
Right? And then really and also,like, everything before that,
conservatism, nationalism,patriotism, like, standing for
life. And you will, like, youwill always feel like you're
being unfairly treated. Like, Ifeel like for a while, I've
really resented my friendsbecause I feel like like, why
are you guys always picking onme?
Why are you guys always askingme having wanting to have

(01:39:49):
debates with me? I just wannahang out. But then I eventually
realized that, like, it's goodthat they're asking you
questions because even if theymight disagree, it's gonna plant
a seed in their heart. And,really, like, we are never gonna
have it fair, but but it's okay.That that's what it's meant to
be.
And then what like, yeah. Mysecond advice is so first

(01:40:12):
advice, seek god. Second adviceis that we don't have to be,
like, go full on, like, destroythe lips. Like but we need to be
truthful to our to our beliefs.And then, really, because for a
lot of people, I have a lot ofconservative friends.

(01:40:33):
They would just say liberalstuff in class just just because
they are afraid. But oncethere's a first person that
starts saying anything that's,like, on the conservative side,
people will start people willstart really expressing their
true beliefs. People won't justbe saying stuff so that they can
get a better grade or sayingstuff so that people around them

(01:40:53):
won't hate them. And and it'sokay that, like, you you do it
in a more, like, subtle way.Like, for example, when we are
discussing about taxes in one ofmy political philosophy class,
like, the the common commieswould talk about, yeah, the the
world is so unfair.
We need redistribution. Right?But in my approach would be,

(01:41:14):
like, think of taxes as, like, aservice fee. A service fee that
we pay for the road that wasservicing fee we pay for the
military, for the publicuniversity we go to, and that
will be, like, my approach intrying to strive common ground.
And, of course, at times, if youare really pressed on your your
morals, then absolutely standfor your faith.

(01:41:35):
And then if people will turn onyou just because of what you
believe is right, what youbelieve will make the world a
better place, then they arenever truly your friends. And
so, yeah, my two advice, first,seek God. Second advice, yeah,
never be afraid of your belief.You don't have to go full on
Charlie Kirk destroy liberalstudents on blah blah blah. But

(01:41:57):
be be honest, and then you'renot gonna regret it.

And I can't make so much. Can't make one last thing
because Ian Sure. No. BecauseIan, you know, he brings up many
good points, and I've been inthis world for a long time. Just
been in this world much longerthan me, Sam Karnik as well.
But, you know, one of the thingssorry, guys. Just trying to show
how much wisdom you have. Butone of the things that that I
have noticed over the years isthat when you approach someone

(01:42:23):
who doesn't agree with you, butyou approach them with kindness
and with, you know,understanding and you listen to
them, that helps a lot. So it'sjust something that I've been
better at over the years. And,you know, I'm sure we all have
situations where families arecoming over and, you know,
someone says something.
And maybe years ago where Iwould have really tried to, you

(01:42:46):
know, like, quote, unquote, ownthe libs on that, I I think I'm
I have moved from that position,and one of the reasons why is
because of what Charlie Kirk andErica Kirk and how how they do
have that that just, you know,good attitude and that I wish I
don't I don't wish harm uponpeople that I disagree with. One

(01:43:08):
of my best friends from highschool, you know, we're still
best friends to this day. He andI don't agree on anything, but
we have conversations and welisten to each other. We do it
in a thoughtful manner. I hopethat that becomes more than norm
rather than the exception.

Thank you, guys. I think that's all we got for
today, after going forty fourminutes over. But I think it was
all worth it. I don't think thatwe wasted a single minute here.
I man, thank you guys so muchfor being here.
Everyone who bore with us isalmost two hours. We are live

(01:43:48):
every single week on Thursdaysat noon central on Rumble,
Twitter, YouTube, Facebook. Iwanna go around the panel and
see if anybody has anything topitch this week. Chris, do you
have anything?

There is victory on Sunday.

Alright. Jim?

Yeah. See us here same time, same channel, maybe
not quite as long for theClimate Realism Show tomorrow.

Awesome. Sam?

S.T. Karnick (01:44:13):
At s t karnick dot substack dot com and the
heartland.org website.

And, Ian, what have you got for us?

I plan on starting a YouTube channel just not just to
share my political belief, butthen I wanna share my fave, and
I wanna do all sort of thingsand challenge myself. And then,
of course, thank you to Harlanfor bringing me on. I've been a
honor, really a big honor. Youguys have no clue how thankful I
am to be part of thisinstitution. So go to advisory

(01:44:44):
metal.
Find that real good show theadvisory metal. Right? Support
Harlan, especially we aredemonetizing YouTube. And, yeah,
it's been great to be here. Andthen I would love to come on and
chat, share my thoughts of youngpeople if there's ever a chance.

Absolutely. We'd love to have you back again,
Ian. And we did not pay him tosay all that nice stuff. So, for
our audio listeners, please rateus well in whatever service that
you are using. Leave us areview.
Thank you guys so much,everybody, all of our usual
panelists who are here andeverybody who stuck with us
through this long show. But, wewill see you guys again next

(01:45:24):
week. Having a little ventro.

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Media Spin Exposed: Left-Wing Violence & Censorship Uncovered — In The Tank Podcast #512

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.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}Media Spin Exposed: Left-Wing Violence & Censorship Uncovered — In The Tank Podcast #512