Charlie Kirk Hypocrisy: The Contradictions You Can’t Ignore

Welcome to Thoughts Off The Stem. In this sesh, I’m digging into the Charlie Kirk debate that’s been taking over social media lately. I didn’t know much about the guy until recently, but the implications of the Charlie Kirk debate for free speech and political polarization are something we need to talk about.

0:06 – The Evolution of the Charlie Kirk Debate

Welcome the thoughts off the stem.

Thank you for joining me Justin Baroni on this session.

That’s great We’re going to have a nice little session.

We’re going to have a discussion.

We’re going to talk about the Charlie Kirk situation because I didn’t know very much about this guy.

The only instance that I’d had that I I’d actively engaged in watching before the events of last week was him debating college students on the merit of Michael Jordan being the GOAT versus LeBron James being the GOAT.

0:34

All of a sudden now he’s this political dude.

Now I get he’s been doing this for a while.

I don’t know how he made the jump from discussing Michael Jordan into all of a sudden this like ginormous political machine, essentially the Michael Jordan versus LeBron, LeBron debate.

0:50

Like there’s no real right and wrong.

There’s also no real consequence to that.

Like you’ll have fans that’ll come up to you and talk shit or tell you this or that or whatever they think.

But on the political landscape, all of a sudden you have like an emotion, a real viable emotion that’s attached to potentially somebody’s life.

1:10

I’m not attached to the fact that I think Michael Jordan is the greatest basketball player of all time.

And you tell me that LeBron is.

I’m not emotionally invested or nor do I like identify my life isn’t the I don’t identify my personality as being that.

1:26

Whereas I think that with politics and religion, you have a lot of people that emotionally invest themselves and identify as being that thing.

It’s seated in a moral belief of conduct and you start applying that moral belief of conduct into whatever your political leaning is.

1:49 – From Basketball Debates to the Political Charlie Kirk Debate

And then on, once you’re invested in the politics of that, you end up turning around and trying to get your voice heard.

And as you start to find that it’s harder and harder to get your voice heard, you start to maybe spin some facts and spin some things that are more in your favor that that get attention, right.

2:12

So what I, what I mean by that, what I’m trying to say by that is that a big, a big portion of Charlie Kirk’s debates we’re fueled by the understanding that he wanted somebody to prove him wrong.

2:30

So he wanted to have an open discourse about the state of America and why the conservative side of things is a stronger belief or an, a stronger identity for the country than the liberal belief, right.

2:49 – Freedom of Speech and Tactics in the Charlie Kirk Debate

I could be wrong, but I’m pretty sure that’s it.

And then that fuels this concept that I’m standing up for freedom of speech, right?

But the undertones of your freedom of speech are based in religion where a lot of people get invested to the point where it’s black and white.

3:08

There’s no, there’s no Gray area of understanding.

There’s I believe it’s this way and This is why it should be this way.

And that’s it.

But his basis was proved me wrong and I didn’t see a lot of instances where it seemed that the people that he debated were were actually like when, when and if they proved him wrong.

3:30

It didn’t seem to resonate that that was the case.

The only, the only real videos that I saw of him, I saw of him admitting a defeat in the debate was when he was talking to a deaf gentleman about the fact about some things that he had said about deaf people.

3:51

And in that case, at the end, he, he basically said, you know what?

You’re, you’re right.

I was wrong.

I shouldn’t have done that.

But that’s about a, a personal choice of words and A and a mis education on what a certain section of society is expecting, right, In terms of in terms of being integrated into the regular function of society.

4:16

So with him, if he offended somebody, he would apologize.

I don’t think that he was a racist.

I don’t really think that he was a Nazi.

I don’t think any of that craziness.

I think that that’s a narrative that people just want to blanket to people when they say something that they don’t necessarily agree with.

4:35

I do think that he posed some things that really make him look bad, but everybody does.

If you’re in the public that often, you’re eventually going to say something that not gets taken out of context, but you’re going to say something that you believe that isn’t well received, right.

4:54

So there’s a few snippets of things that he said where you’re like, well, saying it like that, I can see why people would get this impression.

But again, he’s battling an argument that is that started off as being being bred out of like a pushy kind of accept me for me attitude.

5:15

And he was trying to bring back essentially a way to be heard or an ideology that was being squashed by the louder side of things.

So he just amplified and got louder and louder and louder to the point where I think that in his attempt at trying to debate this and change an opinion, he ended up taking on the tactics that that he complained about the other side taking.

5:45 – Ethics and Tactics Within the Charlie Kirk Debate

So for example, he there was a there was a lot of complaint about how his opposition would fear monger.

They would rage bait and they would create, they would clip farm from events and rallies that they had to show their perspective only.

6:05

But I but the problem is, is that anything that I saw with him, like I had to hunt down clips that were neutral that showed both sides of the point and then allowed both sides of the point to be heard and then showed what the actual outcome was.

6:25

And I think that he started to do what his opponents do and he started to do the same thing.

He started to upload clips that were literally designed to spark emotion to polarize people.

And he would like, I think that the setting of going to a university or college campus to bait to debate college kids is is the like definition of click far or yeah, click farming or clip farming.

6:55

Sorry.

Because as an older person that has more life experience going into an environment like that, you can 1 you put yourself in a position to control the environment.

You put yourself in a position to control the discussion and you put yourself in a position to be able to use tools like verbal traps and, and, and set up directions for the way that you want to take the discussion, right.

7:22

Because when you’re going into something like that, people aren’t necessarily prepared, at least not in the beginning.

They weren’t necessarily prepared to debate them because they hadn’t sat there thinking about it.

But that was his whole purpose for being there.

So he was already coming in with this kind of like, I’m higher, I’m more prepared than you, right?

7:41

And I don’t think that the argument that he didn’t go to college has any weight because he seemed like a relatively thoughtful and intelligent person, at least he seemed to.

He seemed to really think about and understand the concepts that he was talking about.

But he definitely did from time to time cherry pick information to get his point across because there were a few instances where fact checkers and online poll systems, they basically debunked some of the things that he said.

8:13

And within his own clips, you could see that the way that his clips were pointed were definitely to show him in the majority of the time winning the debate, which would obviously gain attention for the ’cause that he’s speaking about, which would all which would ultimately, you know, take that rhetoric and try to get the younger generation to come to his side.

8:36

Which to be honest, like that’s the goal of, of any belief system is to try and get the majority of the population and the younger generation to follow that system so that it becomes prevalent and predominant as you get older.

Right.

And then the, then the people that work in that, that, that work and function in society adopt those rules, morals and mannerisms or whatever.

8:57

And they, that becomes the normal way of life, right?

So I don’t really fault him for doing anything like that.

What I fault him for is putting himself in an environment where he’s more likely than not to be debating somebody that’s less equipped to deal with the conversation that you’re having.

9:22

You can’t have limited life experience and talk about all these political, religious and moral concepts and expect an educated, thoughtful, well understood reception to it, right?

9:43

Or take on it with somebody that’s even four years into college.

You have to get out of college and get into the real world and start operating within the real world to really understand what and how, like how things and what things work well, right?

9:59

And I’m not saying 1 ideology is better than another because there’s some things that I agreed with them on and there’s other things that I definitely didn’t agree with them on.

So I really had this conflict when I was thinking about it because like, I don’t think that when you have, when you have a scenario like this, the hate and the, and the response to the situation that happened with him was disgusting at first.

10:27 – The Consequences of Polarization in the Charlie Kirk Debate

You should never celebrate somebody’s demise based on their words.

There’s no, there’s no, there’s no room in life for having someone’s demise, like having someone’s demise be the result of you disagreeing with their opinion, right?

10:46

Like, I, I feel like we should all be able to agree on that.

So whether you agreed with the guy’s concepts, morals, ideas, ideology, whatever, there’s no reason that this should have happened.

The only reason that this happens is that you’re that potentially the person is so emotionally invested in a different way of thinking that they just can’t take it anymore and they snap.

11:07

That’s what I think.

And as far as something like this happening, I feel like anytime you’re a public speaker, if you are polarizing a whole society and and, and, and like intentionally trying to do so because I intentionally that’s what he’s doing.

11:27

He’s he’s maybe not trying to not really trying to start a fight about it, but he has to recognize at some point that what he’s doing is, and I’m not talking to Charlie Kirk, I’m talking to anybody that takes a stance on one side or the other.

That person, he or she has to understand that if they’re polarizing a large society, the level of danger attached to that and being in public and discussing your views in publics in public becomes a, a big problem, like a, a predominant issue.

12:07

It’s something that you need to be prepared for, right?

Because you, you can’t expect everybody just to be like, OK, because everybody’s not like that, Pete.

There’s all kinds of different people out there that are taking on this information.

And unfortunately, in a lot of in a lot of those environments, you’re not necessarily getting, you know, the cream of the crop of society.

12:29

You’re getting people that want to argue, that want to fight, that are emotionally invested in the fight.

So their emotion rises as their opinion rises.

As your answers come up there, there’s there’s a triggering effect that that puts you in a greater sense or a greater likelihood of danger and direct danger and ultimate imminent danger.

12:53

I think so.

I think that a part of what happened was when he first started doing his debates, he, he, he was kind of easy about it.

But I think that as he rose in the political landscape, he contributed to the potential for more and more danger because he started to adapt a lot of the tactics that he was complaining about from the other side, which ultimately, in my opinion, just fires off an emotional response, right?

13:27

And as we’ve seen time and time again, the more emotional people are and the more emotionally invested in these things people are, the more they become willing to go to extremes to define or win their point, right?

13:51

So I think it’s horrible that a person of his stature could have this happen.

I think that it’s deplorable that people would think that it’s acceptable to celebrate something like that.

I think that it’s disgusting that that people are still trading clips on, oh, he was this.

14:10

They’re still trying to prove it online.

All this is going to do ultimately is create potentially create a larger divide between the two sides.

And I think that this could really have a like a profound effect on how things happen going forward.

14:35

Like there’s a, there’s a good chance that a lot of civil unrest over time is going to come from this because people on both sides aren’t just going to go, oh, well, this happened.

I mean, maybe, maybe we’ll luck out and people will see the, the major issue with having something like this happen and the, the major concerns of, of what this, what the implications mean when something like this happens.

15:06 – Freedom of Speech and the Charlie Kirk Debate Outcome

Because it’s not just about the people involved or the, or the sides that, you know, brought us to this point.

It’s also about the understanding of free speech.

And as much as I don’t think that anybody should ever be, like I said, being in danger for giving their opinion right now in the landscape of life that is act is a is a serious concern.

15:38

Like you should be worried now that you can’t say what you think or what you want because something bad could happen to you.

And on one side, I think this makes people more willing to do certain things because they start seeing, they start seeing actions like this happen and maybe they start thinking, well, yeah, I’m going to change something too.

16:04

But then on the other side, there’s the other part of what we have to get back at these guys, which could cause more a more of an uproar and more of a more of a potentially violent engagement back and forth, right, And an escalation of violence and engagement.

16:23

So I think that really everybody should just kind of take a step back, OK, and think about what the implications of this are and forget about what side you’re on, but understand that this has a real huge, like, stamp on it.

16:44 – Is Freedom of Speech at Risk?

That is freedom of speech is at risk right now because if this is how it goes, people could clam up, stop talking, and then the then the conversation dies.

But I think that we should also highlight the fact that what led to the to these events and these kinds of things happening is the over amplifying of emotion through social media, through all, any type of media really.

17:12

Because think about it.

The thing that gets you to pay attention to something is generally some kind of adverse event.

Something bad happens, then something good happens or something good happens, then something bad.

Like there’s, there’s controversy in everything that we watch now, right?

17:27

So really the only way to get eyes on anything or or ears on anything that you want to bring to the forefront of discussion is it has to be done in a way that is almost guaranteed to cause or manipulate some kind of frustration, right.

17:47

And then the next thing you know, instead of being able to have a debate about it and actually talk civilly and go back and forth on merits and ideas and have a have an open dialogue about it.

You have this very black and white my points better than your point like forum of focus to just go back and forth, right?

18:06

And then within that, because you’re emotionally attached to these ideas, the emotion grows, grows and grows and grows until boom, it just explodes.

And I think that’s what we should be more aware about now.

18:22

I think that our awareness needs to start needs to focus on the on the concept of communication and how we communicate, what we communicate and the way that we construct our delivery of information on both sides.

18:44

Because all this is doing is creating a boiling point of violence.

And that’s it.

That’s my opinion.

That’s what I think.

I know you’re thinking like, Oh yeah, pothead could really tell me about told me, told me about Charlie Kirk.

18:59

Listen dude, we are some of the most political minded or at least aware people on the planet because a lot of stoners, potheads, weed smokers are advocates for change and they always want to find a way to make things more inclusive, more peaceful, more unified.

19:25

So when you say to when, if you have the impression that somebody that smokes pot shouldn’t have an opinion on the political landscape of today, you’re ridiculous because see, there, I just did it.

I just did the same thing.

I just kind of like rage baited you a bit.

You, you’re not ridiculous.

19:42

OK, but but have but thinking like that is is a bad way to think.

Because if you haven’t smoked weed and you don’t understand what weed does, you don’t know that weed will help you think about different angles of all the different situations that you have in life.

20:04

You’ll reflect on it if you get interested, it motivates you to read and learn about it because one thing about pot is that it will make you feel insecure about the things that you don’t know, right?

And if you try to try to start having discussions about things that you don’t know, then the weed itself is going to be like, you don’t know what you’re talking about.

20:22

Shut up.

That’s why it’s taking me like 3, three tries to do this podcast because I’m not trying to talk about Charlie Kirk, the man, because it’s unfortunate what happened to him and it’s never should have happened.

And and it’s actually no matter what his beliefs are, that should never happen to somebody.

20:39

So we can’t condemn a person.

We can’t condemn people for thinking differently than us.

We have to think, we have to allow the the concept of change to take hold in our lives.

20:57

And potheads are really good at doing that because a lot of us are not just the oh, I’m student on the coach Stoner dude that everybody thinks we are.

We’re highly motivated individuals that want to learn about life and how to make life a peaceful coexistence.

21:13

OK.

And we’re very aware what we’re watching, what we’re looking at, and we’re very good at, like I said, reflecting on the values, the morals, the conversation that happens in front of us.

21:32

Because I think that the majority of potheads or stoners don’t think I know everything about everything.

They think I want to learn more about everything.

That’s what I think gives potheads the right to be able to or stoners, whatever you prefer to be called.

21:49

Weed guy.

OK, enthusiasts.

I think that’s what gives us the right to be able to have an opinion on the discussion, because I think the discussion is not about the individuals.

I think the discussion is more about the actions of the individuals.

22:06

And the actions of the individuals are the really telling part of what the disruptor is that’s happening right now.

Does that make sense?

Because right now the disruptor is the fact that neither side can have a debate without emotionally being vested to the point where at at some point you’re going to scream and yell at the person and it’s going to result in name calling versus actually defining what any kind of statistic is or really trying to understand what it is that we’re talking about.

22:41

Sometimes we just get caught up in wanting to explain the point and wanting to be right.

And I think that on both sides, that’s what happened here.

Everyone wants to be right, but instead I think that everybody needs to take a fucking breath and take a set us, take a, take a seat for a minute and just reflect on what this really means for freedom of speech and for communication in general.

23:12 – Why the Charlie Kirk Debate Highlights Social Polarization

We can’t get to the point that we’re shooting people because they don’t believe the things that you believe.

That’s not right.

No matter who it is and what they’re saying.

If they’re not physically harming people or preventing someone else living the way of the way of life that they choose to live, then that person should be allowed to speak and, and, and say their piece without having to worry about what their fate’s going to be.

23:49

That’s my take on the Charlie Kirk thing.

I think it’s very unfortunate.

It really sucks.

And because that was going to be such a heavy episode session, so I decided that I was going to smoke a bit of an indica to keep myself calm and relaxed and try to be as thoughtful as possible.

24:09

So hopefully I was and hopefully you see what you see my point.

You can also tell me if you think I’m wrong, let me know leave a comment.

But to do to do this podcast to keep my energy level at a certain comfort, I decided I was going to smoke and did smoke.

24:30 – Sesh Review: Ripe Flowers Red Bulls Strain

That’s right, this sesh I smoked.

What’s it called?

Ripe flowers, Red Bulls.

Now, I thought this was going to be a sativa.

It’s not.

It’s an indica.

That’s why I decided to smoke it because I wanted to stay calm for this.

And so this is what it is.

24:46

It’s 1g joint or sorry, it was 1g of dried herb.

I put in a joint and it’s 25 point.

No, yeah, 2026.4% THC.

It’s got, it’s got, it doesn’t say what the percentage of terps it it, it is, but it’s top five terpenes are beta carophylline, alpha humaline, D limonene, linaluol, beta miercin.

25:19

Yeah, those are the five.

It’s good.

It’s kind of tasty.

It’s got like an earthier flavor.

It has like a hint of pepper.

It’s a good Hardy smoke.

25:35

It feels, it’s got good mouth feel.

It tastes a little more smoke like than flavorful.

So that’s why I say it tastes earthy ’cause you know how sometimes you get like an earthy smoke and it and it, it’s got like this underlying body where it feels like heavy in your mouth.

This feels heavy.

25:52

But oh, you know what it’s like.

It’s like a a light cigar where you get a little flavor.

But the no, Yeah, yeah.

About a light cigar.

The smoke’s a little heavier than a light cigar, but the flavour is like a light cigar.

That’s what I’m trying to say.

26:12

The effects are very calming.

I just feel relaxed all over.

I feel like if you did some sort of physical exercise and then came home and you just wanted to sit on the couch and zone out and watch TVI feel like I could flat back it and lay down on the couch and just zone out.

26:29

You know what I’m saying, after smoking this, it’s not really a head high.

It doesn’t really hit you in the head at all.

It’s all, it’s pretty much all body, which I think is why I was able to explain myself in this one because I, like I said, I tried this like four or five times and it didn’t work out as well as I thought it was.

26:50

It burns nice and slow.

The ash is Gray, so that’s nice.

It doesn’t really, I mean, I did cough, but it doesn’t really give you a bad cough.

It tastes like it should kind of OK.

But yeah, I would recommend it.

27:06

I’d recommend it if, because I don’t know what it cost, it was donated to the show.

So if it’s not an expensive half quarter, like if it costs you 25 to 30 bucks, then it’s a good pick.

27:24

If it costs you any more than that, I wouldn’t bother.

You could get better stuff, but for just having a laid back high, I don’t know how long it’ll last.

Hopefully a bit.

This one’s really nice.

It’d be good After workout high, after workout smoke.

Make sure that you don’t get any muscle cramps the next day.

27:44

Yeah, it’s got point O 7% CBD now about what, 3/4 of the way through this gram joint that I rolled of it and I feel like the taste is getting to me.

28:01

So I’d say if you’re going to smoke this, do like a half 1/2 gram.

You probably don’t need the whole gram.

It seems strong enough.

You feel a bit in your eyes, mostly in your eyes, your cheeks, and then your whole body’s just like, oh, I’m good, I’m just going to lay back here.

But your mind is you could be social on it.

28:20

It’s a good social relaxer.

So if you have social anxiety, this might be good for you, especially if you’re a little bit high, like tightly wound, this might bring you down a bit.

Could be good.

So I recommend it.

Yeah, that’s what I say.

I say check that out.

I say what happened to Charlie Kirk is it didn’t need to happen.

28:44

It’s very disappointing act that shows you the state of society right now.

And I think that it should be a it should be a, it should be a turning point in history to adjust how we’re doing some things because violence and and aggression are becoming too familiar.

29:13

I think we need more unity and I think that that’s what this incident should show us is that that’s what we need.

We need to unify.

We need to we got to find the common ground, the middle spot, the sweet spot, and we got to start, you know, interacting on that level because the way that we’re going right now is just dude, it’s it’s leaning to chaos.

29:46

But those are my thoughts off the stem for this week.

Hope you enjoyed the sesh.

Hope you come back next week.

Thank you for joining me, Justin Baroni, your friendly neighborhood pothead.

Yeah, come back next week on Spotify and Google.

Spotify, Google Podcasts, Apple Podcasts, iTunes, YouTube, Good pods, Pod Chaser, Pod Bean, Pandora.

30:14

Anywhere you get a podcast, really, it’s out there.

Check out tots420.com.

Oh, you know what I’m going to do so on tops420.com, I’m going to put up the I had a chat with ChatGPT about what I was trying to find out about Charlie Kirk.

30:34

So I’ll put that whole conversation up so you can read it because I think it was a fair discussion.

And I think that, well, you look at it and and you decide.

Check out tos420.com.

30:51

OK?

Subscribe to the channel.

If you made it this far, let me know what you think of the episode.

And yeah, until next time, keep your lids low, baby.

The Charlie Kirk debate is about more than just one person; it’s a reflection of how we communicate as a society. While I explored the Charlie Kirk debate during this sesh, I hope we can move toward more unified, civil discourse.

You can see the full Sesh here on Spotify and Youtube