The Charlie Kirk Show - THOUGHTCRIME Ep. 129 — Spanking Your Kids? The Death of Reading? Star Wars Boycott?

Episode Date: May 30, 2026

A full Thoughtcrime set comes together to confront the top matters of the moment, including:   -What does it mean that modern "readers" are skipping everything but the dialogue? -Is a Star Wars boycott necessary, and is Jack following his own boycott? -Is spanking a morally acceptable punishment?   Watch every episode ad-free on members.charliekirk.com!    Get new merch at charliekirkstore.com!Support the show: http://www.charliekirk.com/supportSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

My name is Charlie Kirk. I run the largest pro-American student organization in the country fighting for the future of our republic. My call is to fight evil and to proclaim truth. If the most important thing for you is just feeling good, you're going to end up miserable. But if the most important thing is doing good, you will end up purposeful. College is a scam, everybody. You've got to stop sending your kids to college. You should get married as young as possible and have as many kids as possible. Go start a turning point USA college chapter. Go start a turning point you would say high school chapter.

Go find out how your church can get involved. Sign up and become an activist. I gave my life to the Lord in fifth grade. Most important decision I ever made in my life and I encourage you to do the same. Here I am. Lord, use me. Buckle up, everybody. Here we go.

Noble Gold Investments is the official gold sponsor of the Charlie Kirk Show, a company that specializes in gold IRAs and physical delivery of precious metals. Learn how you could protect your wealth with noble gold investments at nobelgoldinvestments.com. That is noble goldinvestments.com. Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to this week's edition of Thought Crime Thursday. We are here. It is an audacious week, an auspicious week. I am in a button down, but I am not in a jacket. Nor will I ever be, as is. tradition. Now, Andrew, Andrew, there were some comments that it looked like you were in a jacket

last week. And Andrew showed up to work today. I was giving you the benefit of the doubt. It looked like a windbreaker. No. No, Jack, Andrews just showed up for this show just a few minutes ago with no shirt on and only a jacket. That's not true. That's and we were like, oh, dude, you got this totally wrong. You're supposed to wear no jacket and a shirt. He got it backwards. He was wearing no shirt and a jacket. I'm dislexic. Oh, you got it backwards. No, I did come in with a jacket. So here's the thing.

So I don't wear jackets very often. And it's funny because I think people just assume I do because of the show. But I come to work and I have an outfit on and I don't have a second outfit. I don't have like a wardrobe. I'm not like some diva that has like multiple wardrobes. I'll never forget. So you just deliberately always bring it in here to fly the rules. I get cold because they keep this place like a freaking ice box because all the studio equipment.

anyways so yeah i'm i'm in my t-shirt this is this is what i do it's uh you you look like you get the swingers the 1950s uh what golf shirt or something this is uh this is just a a nice specific somewhere shirt that was on sale there you go i i i try my best but you know it's funny when i talk about go ahead jack are you seeing what the white house just did no they just announced the existence of aliens oh i'm sure well all right yeah thank you guys say so. Can we, can we pull this up? Whitehouse.gov slash aliens? Yeah. That's been, that's been live for a while. What? Yeah, hasn't it? They just sent it to me now. Bro. They walk among us. They walk among us. Yeah, okay. Wow. Yeah. You guys seeing this? The U.S. government has kept a closely guarded secret that you can tell is definitely real based on this obnoxious website they've made.

Aliens. Oh, this is going to be about illegal aliens. This is going to be about two point. have been walking among us, living in our neighborhoods, interacting with us in our daily lives. They've shopped the same classes. And they live seemingly normal human existences, with one exception. They do not belong here. Oh, that was clever. That was clever.

I like that. Millions arrived under the cover of darkness and embedded themselves directly into our society. The truth is no longer out there. It is right here right now. officials knew exactly what was happening. 3,129,000 encounters. I want to know how many real aliens are also on government subsidized. Wait, scroll down.

There's like a, what is the alien arrest map live? Oh, wow. This is actually cool. This is taking way too long to load. I don't have time to read all of this. But speaking of aliens, scroll past the text, there's a live map. So you scroll down and there's a live. map of like arrests

uh oh i love this that have taken place and you can zoom in anywhere in the country on it look at texas it's like pure red in florida based you know speaking speaking of aliens we have to shout out most of thought crimes listeners

for holding a line and not going to the new star wars movie the mandolarian and grogoo which grossed a mere about a hundred million dollars in its first weekend which in modern inflationary times. No, it did the same as Solo. Yeah, but it's been about a decade

since Solo. Yeah, but you have to change to inflation. Seven years, seven years, well, yeah, Solo was 19, I think. So Solo, but it was the first release in seven years,

first theatrical release. Yeah, first theatrical release of anyone, it barely made 100 million, which is like half the debut. It's like half the debut of Star Wars episode 3. when you adjust for inflation and everything else. But even if most of our viewers weren't holding the line, it seems like there were a lot of defectors in our own studio.

Hold on, hold on. Let's at least take a second to say that congratulate and appreciate those who actually went along with the assignment of boycotting this because Mark Hamill called for Donald Trump to be killed. And of course, by extension, all conservatives. this of course led to a you know we saw something happened where a star wars super fan apparently beat to death a trump that guy ran a trump house in san diego so i mean this was i did see that i'm gonna play both sides you didn't see that no i did see that i did see that i did some guy at a trump house and a guy a guy in a literal star war's shirt uh brutally like beat him to death beat him to death on the street like an Was he like inspired by Mark Hamill?

I don't think he's inspired by Mark Hamill, but he's probably inspired by being a Star Wars fan. He's probably inspired by... I mean, it's pretty one-to-one. Like Mark Hamill says, go kill Trump, and he goes and finds, like, a guy who runs a Trump house and beats him to death. Look, I'm going to play both sides of this debate. I did live by the commitment to not go see it. And that was a tough commitment to keep because I am actually, I like Star Wars, and I actually think that Jack's totally wrong about Star Wars in general.

And his hatred for Star Wars is terrible. And it's anti-American. But here's what I will say. No, I mean, I'm just against LGBT agendas and people who want to say. Let him finish. So I live by it. I didn't go see Mandelorean and Grogu. But I'm going to defend Andrew,

because you added me already I'm going to defend Andrew for doing this and breaking the creed because there's only so much time you have with your kids and if that's your time that you have was this last week I don't think it's up to Hollywood or Jack Posobic to dictate when you can

use your free time with your children so that's what we have to announce everyone Andrew he saw the Mandalorian he didn't just see the Mandalorian he went to like the special sit down like dying in theater he says he was telling us it might be his favorite movie ever

man that is not true I'm sure I don't know what did you eat what did you eat I ate a burger okay which wait which dining movie theater was it no free ads it would just be

it would be vague but it was Central Phoenix area so here's Central Phoenix you went to the bluest part of the state to I mean it is what it is you went to the bluest part of the state to view basically the movie. I'm giving Republicans.

How did you feel during the scene where the Mandalorian, how did you feel about the scene where the Mandalorian turns to the camera and he says, we need to work together to win back the White House in 28? This is MAGA country. This is MAGA. Yeah, yeah, like the bad guy that Rodo the Hut. I will say this. The Mandalorian

and Grogu made a huge mistake and I don't really understand why they made this mistake. I don't like the graphic of the title. No, no. So in recent years, the Star Wars, the only thing that's really been successful in the Star Wars play has been them reintroducing Hayden Christensen into the, into like different parts of the IP. And people love that because he was hated. And now he's like loved. He was so bad. But now he's loved.

He was the worst actor. Now like reintroducing Darth Vader and stuff into stuff has been like super, super successful. And again, I'm going to use the Spider-Man. And when they teased, like intentionally made it try to make it secret that they were going to do the multiverse thing and all the two previous Spider-Men were going to show up in the movie and then it got leaked and all of that. It like hyped up the movie so much that like so many, like you had to go see. Even if you were Jack, you would have and you were anti that, you would have had to go see it and be part of that. There was no hype for this movie. There was nothing exciting.

There was no like special thing that got leaked. There was nothing. It was just like, this is just like an extended episode of the Mandalorian. Yeah. So let me explain what happened. So my, and I don't even feel like defending myself that much because I had a great time with my son and it was awesome. And so like, you know, come at me.

My son had a birthday. He turned six. And he got, we had a little party for him. He got presents. Some of those presents, people got him, expecting him to like the Mandalorian because that's just what people presume. It's a little, he gets a little, he gets a little, mandolorean figurine that he freaking loves. He won't leave this thing alone.

He takes it all over the house. When he's out in the yard, he's got it in his hand. So he starts, like, inventing all this stuff about Mandalorian. He finds out there's a movie coming out. And he's like, can we go please, please, please, please? And so anyways, I show him like the trailer and he's freaking out. So they beg me all Memorial Day weekend to take them to the movie. I find a little pocket at the time.

And I was like, you know what? I'm going to take my son and my daughter to go see the Mandalorian. He was sitting. So the dining theaters, they have these big seats. You can, like, recline or whatever.

He's at, he's at the front edge of his seat the whole time. And he's like, he's like swinging his arms. Like, get him, get him. Get him. Have it a blast.

I loved every minute of it with my son. And I, so it's great. I mean, that's what you're saying is Jackson, in your household, the children are in charge. You know,

I think, uh, you asked me if the movie was any good. I was like, I honestly couldn't tell you if it was that. good. My son loved it and I had so much fun watching. Time out. Let me defend you. Jack's a hypocrite and you know why?

Because he totally yeah, he totally took his kids to Disney to, I think it was Disney World. Oh, are you? No, see, you're, no, this is fake news and this has been fake news for a long time, Tyler. No, that was prior to

the Disney Boycott. That was prior to the Disney boycott and Tanya posted the picture late. Hey, Jack, you remember the same thing. Jack. Kanye posted the picture late after the Disney boycott began. Jack, there's only one person.

There's only like five. There's only like five people in America who lead boycotts and you're one of them. So you're saying you didn't have the gumption to lead the boycott and then took your kids to Disney World before you left the boycott. This is a pre-boycott. I know. So I'm saying, you took your family to Disney World and then let the boycott photo. This is like it was a pre-boycott photo. No, this is like insider training since then.

And we will not go to Disney. This is basically insider trading. No, the guy who runs boycotts took his family to Disney World and then led the boycott after. It was knowing that he was going to lose to boycott later. No, here's no. And then just to rub it in all our faces post the picture after. It's like it's like pulling on. This is like when they pull up the ladder.

Tyler's referring to, which is really, which is hilarious because this is from like, what, four or five years ago. Yeah. Where there was this whole media like freak out on me because of this because I was like leading a Disney boycott over gosh some crazy yeah one of like the LGBT they were doing

but it was like the first one and I called for a Disney boycott but then Tanya of course like not paying attention to what I'm doing on Twitter decides to post our Disney photos from like a month before like at the same time

so they're like what so because at Disney well call it for a boycott of Disney. Actually, funny enough, I can remember... Insider trading. I think I remember the actual day we were there because it was like, randomly enough,

it was the day that the Ukraine war started in 2022. So I think, I think that's like the very day that we went there. It was like that day or the day after was when we were there. And I remember noticing that like, everybody's still at Disney. And like, nobody's, everybody seems to be really sad. I'm going to go home and organize a boycott. So we're, could.

control your woman. So where, so. I'm kidding. I'm kidding. The woman, the woman, children run his household. The situation child power was dealt with.

I'm sure you had a stern conversation. Children run his household. It's very clear. Listen, I had a great time with my son. No, so by the way, my kids,

my kids know how to make fun of the kids who like Star Wars. Like, we mock them in our household. We deride them. We talk about how inferior they are. We talk about how their parents don't have any. about how you mighter because he went to the Star Wars stuff before the boycott.

My kids do that with Lord of the Rings. I see, I never ascribe to the boycott, first of all. I don't think I was on that episode of thought crime. And I was not, I was, so I, listen, here's the other thing I would say. This has been a 10 plus year long boycott. John Fevereaux, uh, directed this. And I thought he did a pretty good job on the Mandalorian. And it's not like woozy stuff.

He's like a masculine director who actually understands. Really? Like, can we show the picture of Pedro Puscal? when he was on Stephen Colbert. I mean, Maskell and Dr. I always want to say it Farvo because it's spelled exactly like Brett Farr. Swingers, baby. Come on.

You're so money, baby. I don't, I've never heard of this movie, actually. I've always said, Fingers. You've never heard of Swingers? No. What? Well, first. Jack, you've heard of Swingers, right?

Okay, well, you're mad. I haven't heard of this movie that grows four million dollars in 1996. I'm well aware of it, but I'm not seen it. Maybe I saw it, but like, forever ago. getting prescription medication shouldn't be this complicated but for a lot of people it still is appointments waiting rooms delays it all adds up but there's a better way to do this with all family pharmacy you get to take control of your health care without the hassle simple safe secure simple to order from home safe medications from a licensed u.s pharmacy and secure checkout from start to finish with

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Anyway, I've never heard this. Anyway, I actually also saw Star Wars, but not the Mandalorian. I saw The Return of the Jedi at the Phoenix Symphony Orchestra with a live symphony, which I will say, excellent. I will say I went on Friday night this time. I'd gone to the prior two original movies on Saturday and Sunday, and you could definitely tell there was a different crowd at the opening performance of this. It was a slightly... Wait, what did you see? Definitely saw more people in costumes.

The funniest thing I saw, there was a woman with her... Jack wants to know what you're talking about right now. Oh, I saw Return of the Jedi. No, you said, but you saw other original movies. What original movies? So I saw Empire Strikes Back and a New Hope. They've done each of the trilogy. It sets me, though, is like, it's almost impossible to find the original original.

Oh, yeah, and that was part of it. I can't stand the CGI. I can find them. Yes, this one had that. It had the terrible. me the link. Yeah, I had the terrible pop star that's singing, you know. Yeah, I hate that. Yeah, they kept that. It was unfortunately

the full George Lucasified version. They had to do that to make money off of it. True story, true story. Because... I don't know why they don't fix that, though. Why don't they fix that now? Because... The CG is so much better now. It's like, why can't they just make that better now? Let's just not. Let's just undo all this, undo all of this. But since it was

opening night, there were more people in costumes, more people in strange t-shirts, more people who were various spherical death star shapes. I saw a mom with her daughter, and I'm not making this up. She was basically in blackface because she was dressed. She was cosplaying as an EWalk. And so she had the EWalk hat, which is kind of orange that the Wicket is the name of the EWalk character.

But then she painted her whole face dark brown. And it was basically. Yeah, it was basically blackface. And I got a big kick out of it. I don't think I was offended. So I apologize, Jack, but worth it. So it's how it is. I didn't get him a bud light or something.

So I'm going to say right now, I'm going to go watch the movie with my kids. But I. It's literally the bud light of movies. I know. But this is the thing is like I've heard it's terrible actually. It's not bad. No, I've heard it's like. Why take your kid?

Why not go see Michael? But here's the the Favro argument. The kitty diddler? I'm just kidding. So I saw Michael. I saw Michael. I saw Michael. The one who is false.

accused my take on my on the mic still don't know what I think about that but yeah my my uh what's obviously fake my my take on on the Michael movie was that wasn't as good as everyone said it was but it's separate it was well made better it was well made but I thought so but anyways going back I still think with the Fabro thing like he was like executive producer I think on like a ton of Marvel like good movies that like Every single one of those movies had like a major hook into it that had like, like it was just chock full of, what do they call them when it's like a set pieces? No, like a just like a special thing that happens in it like that people that's unexpected. What they call that?

Twist. Not a twat twist. No. A jump scare. It had something that they had a bunch of stuff. A bunch of things in it. And this movie has none of that. Yeah.

It's just very like straightforward. Yeah, a lot of action. Straightforward. There's nothing that's like the Star Wars cinematic. The universe that Star Wars is in has so many different things in it now that it's actually criminal to me to not have any like secret things that are pop up in it. That aren't huge. Easter eggs. That's right.

Easter eggs. There was like no Easter eggs in this movie. Yeah. Well, I would tell you that, you know, me and Faz were having this conversation because it's like a lot of. lot of people like to crap on the movie it's not good or whatever it's like well okay but imagine kids it's a movie that kids would really get into and i had so much fun with my kids so i i appreciate it for that i'm not like going to do the full movie critic thing on it uh i don't you know it's it's an action film in the star wars universe and test i know all here how about we do this

um is it going to break even that's a question jack that you might appreciate it probably still was successful. So here's a quick clip of Matt Damon discussing how much a movie needs to make. Clip 13. Or clip 3, sorry, clip 3. To publicize it. You're trying to get everybody. Spending about what the budget was to make it to advertise it.

Because you got 50% of the theater. Yeah, because you split it with the movie house, right? Through the exhibit. So a $25 million movie to break him, you've got to make $100 million. So that movie, that movie, Mandalorian cost about $180 million to make. So that would mean. Wait, that cost $180 million to make that movie

But but and it's You have to add it you have to double that because of P&A That's why you that's why it's four times 360 which means you need to You need to make 360 times two 720 million dollars to break even 720 million dollars

Unless China just goes Gaga for baby Yoda Yeah Is it 360 times two or is it to break even or is it We were taking 360 times two because one They split it with the movie houses. So if you bring in $7.80 times two and that times two. $720 million, you take half of that as profit. The movie houses take the other half.

So if you're going to break even, you need that much. So I mean, there's no DVD sales anymore. There's no DVD. There's no television rights. You can put them on streaming platforms, but that's not. You could get it off of merch, like a lot of Mandalorian sales. Do they get new merch out of this really? they already had baby Yoda came out.

This is what I'm saying. The merch already existed for this. Yeah, but it would, it doesn't have to be new merch. It has to be new sales. Yeah, but think about, this is going to help new sales. Think about my son got a action figure for his birthday party because somebody bought it. Listen, listen, I could be.

See, my, my, my, my people in, in our area, no, not to bring that crap into my household. I could be better than Favro at this than he is right now. Like, think about if they would have introduced another. another baby Yoda or a child By the way, did you know Grogu is not

Baby Yoda? No, I know. It's not. I know, but we call him the idea. I really don't care. I don't know the lore.

I just don't care. No, but imagine a sibling to Baby Yoda. Like, think about, think about when

Guardians of the Galaxy came out and they cut down Groot and then he turned into baby group. Baby group. And it was regular group

and there was baby group. You're thinking about the merch That's what I'm saying. That's what I'm saying. That's the characters in the story. How do you run a billion dollar, multi-billion dollar franchise and nobody thinks about the merch?

And it was like, they produced no, like your point is a really good point. It's like they produced nothing in this movie that could be its own merch. When Baby Yoda was introduced in the Mandalorian, that produced like the biggest boom in merch. The only part that was kind of cool was that Java the Huts, like,

I don't know, it's like his son. Yeah. Uh, is in this. And he's like, he's like a, he's like a,

He's like an MMA fighter. He's a gladiator. No one's buying Which is really stupid. Yeah, but it was like, that's not, it was kind of stupid. Let's take a character who's famously a slug that just sits there and is like lazy and has everyone else do his work.

And now we have jacked, you know, squats 500. Yeah. No, like it could be like 5,000. But yeah. So wait, okay, Jack,

just so I'm clear, if he just take the nine movies in the series, right? From the original four, then the, So, 456, 1, 2, 3, and then 7, 8, 8.9. Which is your favorite of that? Or do you just, like, you're so boycott that you don't care? Or?

I mean, I will send you, I will tell you that I just texted you the link to watch all the despecialized Star Wars editions from the originals. So you can, you know, if you really want to, you can watch those. Genuinely the most important thing to me, I cannot stand the, like, Boo Boo Boo Boo, from like, what was it, like, 1998, I think. Because, yeah, so this is that's really, but what they did, this is a fan project. And you can find it on archive.

So what the fans did was they went in and they like upscaled, you know, to like, I think it's this is 720K or 720P rather, you know, to make it look crisp, you know, on a modern screen, but also preserving the original

of the original series, which, yeah, so if I were still watching Star Wars, I would watch the original originals. I would not be watching. Which one of those is your favorite? I would not be watching the Lucas edited editions with like the Ewok eyelids or Han shooting second or any other crap.

You're evading the question here. What's your favorite? Yeah. I just said that. No, no, your favorite film. These are the ones I'd be watching if I were watching. Which one of these three? Which episode?

Oh, which one of these three? I don't know I never thought of it I guess probably Jedi I'd have to say Jedi That's my favorite Return of the Jedi I'm an absolutist

The original Star Wars film Is the best one And it's actually I would say A new hope A new hope But I just call it Star Wars most of the time Because I think that's the only one That's actually a transcendently great film

I think that is a genuinely Great film Start to finish Every scene is good Amazingly edited Amazingly scored Caboos What's the best

Standalone I like the Just to give the answer I like the, on Jedi, I like the story of redemption, the story of like atonement, redemption. Yeah. You know, a lot of Christian themes. I like that about Jedi.

I'm gonna push back on that. I think the story of redemption in Star Wars is actually kind of bad. It's bad in the sense it's presented in this bizarre, facile way that almost doesn't make sense. So first of all, all we've know of Vader is that he goes and he commits genocide and does insanely evil things and chokes people. and then you show up and return of the Jedi and Luke just says I know you're still good father I know they're still good in you

What? Where is there any evidence that there's good in him There's been none There's just been no actual external evidence of this Well there is if you watch the first three And it presents becoming a good person He just is watching his son get tortured to death And then he goes like no And then he grabs the emperor and throws him down an elevator shaft

Spoilers forever And then like oh he's now good And he's on the light side again I think a lot of bad art has come out of that. Like the presentation of good and evil, almost like a light switch. You're on the light side one moment.

Oh, bam, you switch to the dark side. And then you could switch back again. Comic books do this stuff. He didn't just bam switch back. No, you're just like leaving out a lot of the plot of the movie. What happens? What does Darth Vader do in that movie? That's good.

Other than, other than throw the emperor down on an elevator show. He delivers his son to be tortured by the emperor. The emperor starts torturing him. It's through that torture that he starts remembering what his son says and then he goes and kills the emperor. Okay. So it's like a light switch.

He doesn't just automatically switch over. He's just a good guy again. I guess he just, all the, and then we're treated this as his great redemption. I don't think that would undo. I think if, I think if,

I think if, like, Hitler had a son. I think if like, I think if some guy like worked for Hitler and saw Hitler tortured his son and then suddenly threw Hitler down an elevator shaft, but that guy had otherwise run Auschwitz. I don't think we would say that that, that undid running Auschwitz. I totally disagree.

You're totally skipping over an empire when the interactions that they had together that led him to the moment of him recognizing and reconnecting with his son. Yeah, isn't there? And identifying. I mean, the most famous line in Star Wars history is not in A New Hope. Yeah. And that's also bad. I think that that is, everyone remembers that.

And yet that's also a sign of not just decline in Star Wars, but decline in our pop culture as well, which is let's make an out-of-nowhere plot twist. That's kind of irrelevant. Not out of nowhere. Of course it's out of nowhere. They only made it up for the second movie. It wasn't in the first movie.

George Lucas goes back and says, oh, I totally had it planned from the beginning. George Lucas is full of crap. George Lucas is making that up. George Lucas is making it up as he goes throughout the entire trilogy. I totally think that that plot twist and the way that they were able to keep it under wraps for so long. what is like one of the greatest parts it's one of the greatest moments in an american cinematic history is that they were able to keep that completely secret and again you talk about twists that's like

what made star wars like a long lasting franchise it wasn't a new hope that was good and that made everyone go bonkers it was the fact that they followed it up with such a crazy plot twist that it basically forced america to like star war unlike Jack, like real Americans, like Star Wars. You have to like Star Wars if you want to actually consider yourself a citizen of the United States of America. It took us down the dark path, which we remain on today. You have this giant universe where anything can happen and there's quadrillions of people and infinity planets. And actually everything is just the family drama of one group of people.

That's actually like real life, though. No, it's not. In real life, not everything is a family drama with one family. Or at least it wasn't like that until Donald Trump was president. There's only so many families that people care about. Here's what your financial advisor won't tell you. By the time the news tells you to buy gold, it's too late. You're waiting. I get it.

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or visit nobelgoldinvestments.com slash kirk. That's noblegoldinvestments.com slash kirk for your free investor kit. Five minutes today can protect decades of savings. Noble gold investments.com slash kirk. Tyler's dumping on me. so I want to dump on him and his like his like weakness in not being able to actually like hold on to a boycott because like it's not hard. You just don't give money to people you hate who hate you.

Especially if you already gave money to them right before announcing the boycott. Hey, I showed up today so that you could convince me to not follow the path of the dark side with Andrew and go watch this movie. Yeah, I held out weeks. In fact, you're not watching it right now. Like you're actively not watching it. There's nothing that's been said so far that actually makes me not want to watch this movie. So here's here's. It promotes homosexuality.

It promotes people who hate us. No one is dead. So subtle hints. What's the gay part of the movie? Still had good in him. In a new hope, they show that one scene. There is a one, the human vulnerability where they reveal Vader's scarred face in the meditation chamber.

That is. I believe in the, isn't that in the second movie? No, that's a new hope. they show like no that's in the second movie that's definitely the second movie bro definitely second movie okay this write up says it's in the first one is your write up

generated by a robot on the internet I gotta watch out for the robots on the internet Cloud City duel Vader dominates but doesn't kill Luke that's also the second movie I'm saying that's the second movie I'm saying the first movie this is why my argument was Empire the Empire's the best movie they made this up for the second movie so so that Luke you can destroy

the emperor this is from Empire Strikes Back you can destroy the emperor he has foreseen it is your destiny join me and together we can rule the galaxy as father and son yes all right so so so protective but hesitant actions he wants luke to turn but stop short of lethal force at key points okay but episode so that so he's he's trying to bring him in okay episode this is weak this is why a i generated bad arguments is all good like and then luke this is the stuff you're talking about luke it says uh i can tell there's good in you search your feelings father you can do this i feel the conflicts within you let go of your hate.

Bader denies it, but hesitation proves Luke right. Yeah. Yeah. So episode five is the best because, because again, it solidifies episode four. If there's only two movies that ever get created, it would be four or five. Five was a

great follow up to a great movie, which I agree. Is standalone is the best movie is four. But we're not talking standalone. We're talking about a lot of different movies. Five starts to show the cracks and invaders

uh sithness or whatever right and and then six is just kind of like you expected that to happen even six they're making it up like the whole like leah's luke sister totally made up made it up on the fly you know this is like going in to watch six

again putting myself in the 80s I'm going in to watch episode six in theaters your expectation it's not called episode six It's called Return of the Jedi. Yeah, Return of the Jedi in the 80s, right? The third in the trilogy. Third installment. You are expecting that Vader turns in that movie.

Yeah. Are you not? I don't know. I didn't. Okay. So what's the most exciting movie? The most exciting movie is Empire where it's like you were blown away. Your socks were knocked off.

You loved one. Two blew your mind with that he's his dad. You're dying to go to episode or to. the third installment of the trilogy, and the trilogy delivers exactly what you expected it to do. Yeah. I'm going to have to agree with that. And then by the way,

the next most exciting moment in cinematic history in the Star Wars realm was in episode one, and the poor guy that played Jar Jar Binks got hated his entire life for something that he had to do. Like without Jar Jard Binks, you do not have the positives in that movie. And at the time, I remember going into that.

Charger was, because they're really, you guys are really making a hard sell here. Yeah, I'm just saying if there's, if there's three movies in a row to like, I agree, four and five,

but four and five are a package duo. You have to like them one and two or two or one. Like that has to be your either, the fifth episode, Empire has to be your number one. And New Hope has to be number two or vice versa. But my argument would be the next best, the next best moment actually,

comes in episode three not because the movie because the movie sucks except for the impart the last five minutes of that movie like it doesn't leave you you know it's really funny actually um just to talk about like how media is consumed differently today than when we were kids um i i don't think i when i was a kid i'd only ever seen you know um star wars and jett i never saw empire until i was in high school. Really? And yeah, because I used to just like not,

you know, rent it or... Was it because Jedi was on TV all the time? Dude, I remember Jedi being on TV all the time and I would see it. And like, just the way that you would interact with media was so different because like, you would turn it on and be like, oh, yeah, I'm going to watch the Star Wars for a while. And then you'd watch this other one. And then for whatever reason, I just never watched Empire probably until like 98 or so.

you know what it was when they um when they released the the special editions which is right before the prequels came out so i guess it was like the 20 i watched them in the theaters i remember i watched the re-releases in the theaters because they made to be hype about it like yeah lucas re-releases the originals in the theaters with all this new cg i and i thought okay here we go and i don't think at the time i had the lens to see how bad it was but if you watch them back now it's like they're terrible it's awful um what can you imagine only watching star wars but only watching the dialogue, Jack? What are you talking about?

That doesn't make any sense. That doesn't make any sense. A movie is like basically. Not only Star Wars, but all media. Like, how could you do something about that? That is an interesting segue then, Jack, because that's our next topic. What?

Yes. The trend of reading dialogue instead of an entire novel. All right. Yes. I love this idea. I really like it. So this came out in a recent discovery. this was a tweet I believe

so throw up number four on screen but this was someone remarking on X the other day finding out someone says can we please normalize achievable reading girls 30 or more books a year is not common and then this other person Ali B replied finding out that people on book talk that is TikTok book readers

they skip everything but dialogue which makes reading 30 plus a year books make a lot more sense and let's see, I think they said another thing, and then someone goes, but this is smart. I hate all of the descriptions. Like, I can't even envision it, and it is boring. Although, when I write, I feel like I need to add stuff like that in

to make a good book, crying face. And then Ollie B says, that is not reading or writing. The descriptions are the book. And the person replies, I prioritize character development and plot. Others prioritize prose, declaring one real. over the other is such a weird form of literary gatekeeping. Wow.

Literary gatekeeping if you want people to read the whole book and not just... This makes so much sense. And it's really deeply revealing. Like, you know, this explains like, dude, this explains so much about what I've experienced dealing, you know, doing like this kind of stuff and media commentary, whatever, on, on content over the last funny enough so today I guess is my Twitter

anniversary my exaversary I've been on on Twitter for 14 years as of today and and you know people who know the backstory know that I originally got on to crap on the HBO's Game of Thrones from the perspective of a book reader who was very upset about it

and long story short we're here now and what's What's hilarious is that I used to encounter people like this all the time who were just filthy casuals who clearly like they would these, we used to call my JWs back in the day, but they were like these supporters of the characters like, oh, I'm a Denneri supporter or like, oh, I could never be friends with the status supporter. I'm like, what are you talking about? Like just just watch the show or like read the book. Like why do you have to like be on a side of a character? or something like do you like it or not and i came to find these people like saw themselves or saw characters as themselves rather than as their own you know a character that was objectively a separate individual and so this makes so much sense to me because we're dealing with people now and book talk is huge by the way it's all over the place you see it you see it everywhere uh when i talked about that that

that one show or that that one book series that got turned into a movie with Sidney Sweeney about killing your husband called the handmaiden or excuse me the housemaiden you know it house housemaid housemaid that like it it was a you know really rode the you know the book talk carousel if you will and that's what's going on they're not actually reading these things they're not meant to be fully read it's just like a oh here's what to be like and you killed your husband la la la la and then women go out out and start thinking that way and start like hating men. I think there's a lot to that.

I think Blake has read more books than any of us here. This is so revealing to me. Blake, but you read a lot of history. I know. And so it fluctuates a lot, certainly in the number I can read. So like this year, I think I've probably read like 11 or 12 books this year. But they are pretty hefty. I'm getting through.

I'm reading Imperial China by FW. Moat. Yeah, but what I'm saying is that is distinct from a fiction. True, true. I fluctuate a lot in how much fiction I read. I've read, because when you're reading it, you kind of go on a streak and read a lot by one author in one series. I haven't read, I read C.S. Lewis. I read C.S. Lewis this year. I read that hideous Strength in Peralandra, so the later parts of his space trilogy. Those are all right. I read, I'm reading a big long novel about ancient Rome, which is like, okay, I'd say. It's the Masters of Rome. series. Have you ever heard of that one? Colleen McCullough just wrote, went and wrote 7,000 page long books about ancient Rome. But they're all right. They're all right.

Yeah, but could you imagine reading fiction and only reading the dialogue? What would you miss? I feel like you'd miss a lot. Among other things, you'd probably miss what's actually happening. You've missed like everything. Sometimes, sometimes in a book they'll describe major events in the plot that are not dialogue. I love that like the first tweet that you guys sent in the chat about this one was like, what is happening?

what, what, what? Yeah. Like, somebody's freaking out, discovering that this is like a trend. And by the way, I feel like this is keeping up with the Jones's energy. Like they want to be able to say, oh, I read all these books,

but you actually didn't read the books. It's like you didn't actually do a thing and you want to claim credit for it. And that to me is the most offensive part about this. Yeah, you're missing the art. You're missing everything. But it's this weird drive to sort of say, like I read 14 books or something.

And that gets into another part. Someone pointed out, that in addition to people just skipping large chunks of the book, the way a lot of these books are consumed is they'll just take an audio book of it and they'll run it at one and a half, two times, three times speed as like constant background track of their life. You miss all the joy of a book. Like the only reason I like to read is because it's like I put the kids down

and I sit there with a book and I'm fully consumed by it. Yeah, and I really don't think anything of those are children can be read. any other way. We don't count children's books. A book read quickly is kind of a book not read at all if it's of any substance like I got to count children's books in my book total. Wait, Andrew's like I'm engrossed in this really big series.

It's called C-Spot Run. It's amazing. He just, he just, he can't stop and running. If I could count children's books in my book, my book total in a year, it would be in the hundreds. I know, right? Well, the funny thing is, so many of these books they're reading,

even frankly even if they have graphic sex or like whatever stuff isn't a lot of them are still effectively children's books they are written at a child's reading level that's really depressing very depressing that's actually a really good point too because if you I did read housemaid

and it was very very juvenile writing very amateurish it's it's kind of like I guess this started with um what was that series 50 shades of gray where it was like a fan fiction of Twilight that later became a, you know, like, book series in its own right and then a movie series in its own right, where you just get this, like, really, really just...

So, no, but this is a big concern, you know, like, grade school level writing. Hey, everyone, I'm genuinely excited to share something that has made a significant difference in my own life, and if you experience brain fog, low energy, frequent illnesses, or wake up feeling stiff and achy, you've got to try strong cell. This was Charlie's favorite supplement, and he took it every single day. He would talk about it on the show and even travel the country with it, which is what I do. So for me, strong cell helps keep my mind sharp and focused. It provides clean, natural energy without jitters, weird spikes or afternoon crashes. I genuinely feel like a younger version of myself, like high school version energy. I'm not even kidding. People would ask

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That's strongcell.com promo code Charlie. Charlie always I always recommend in giving Strong Cell six to eight weeks to experience its full benefits, so do yourself a favor. Get Strong Cell today and give it the time it needs to work its magic. It's a big concern because are we just becoming dumber as a culture? And I think like the answer is undoubtedly yes, which is troublesome. It's problematic. I want to, we played one of these Matt Damon clips and so I'm going to play another one because I think it's really telling clip seven. Netflix

you know standard way to make an action movie that we learned was you know you usually have like three set pieces one in the first act one in the second one in the third and you know you kind they kind of ramp up and the big one with all the explosions and you spend most of your money on that one

in the third act that's your kind of finale and now they're you know they're like can we get a big one in the first five minutes to get somebody you know we want people to stay tuned in and can and you know it wouldn't be terrible if you reiterated the plot three or four times in the dialogue because people are on their phones while

they're watching you know what I mean it's the most where it's it's really bad this is totally true though this is how I watch movies though oh bad you know you're this is how you do the show this is this is the fall this is the fall of civilization in a nutshell and you see it everywhere and I think we see this is this is how we this is how you plan the show for me is you get me drawn in the first part and then I and then I and then I sleep through Blake's part in the middle and then I show up at the end oh oh okay That's how it's going to be. Well, Tyler's just thrown out zingers.

Just bangor after bangers. Well, this is the fall. This is the fall of civilization, though. This is as simple as that. I totally just, I totally think that this is fine.

This is not. You think this is fine? Yeah, it's fine that we can't follow a plot or a book and people are subliterate. Life is different. Yeah, it's not about that. It's about attention.

Yeah, life is worse. Yeah, but it's not going back. And that is the fall of civilization. And it's not going back. It's like, we're not going to get rid of cell phones. They're not going to like...

I know. And eventually, civilization will just implode. We're not able to achieve great things anymore. No, I mean, like, it's going to get worse. Yeah. We can achieve great things, though, because the movie Michael is right there for all of us to see, and it's amazing, and everyone should go see it.

So what if... Okay, I can understand not thinking Michael Jackson is guilty. Yeah, you seem really invested in life. Are you invested? Are you financially... Are you financially tied to the success of Michael? Look at you conspiracy theorists. Like, you're just trying to take away my joy.

You're just trying to take away my joy. of loving Michael Jackson No What are your top 30? What are your top 30 favorite Michael Jackson songs? No, who cared about that? Top 30?

I don't know about 30. No, I bet you have a list in your head. I can tell. Top five. So I could, here's the thing though is my kids will get home and then Jack Jack will be like, he'll be like, Daddy, can you put on Thriller?

And I'll put on Thriller. And he starts like moonwalking throughout the living room. Or, you know, we'll put on, we'll put on beat it. We'll put on bad. we'll put on whatever, you know, and he or Billy Jean, obviously, like, man in the middle, black and white, black or white. You've already named more Michael Jackson songs than I could name. We'll put on, no, I mean, he's legitimately.

You think Michael was a Michael Jackson fan? You think, do you think Michael was like a 10 out of 10 movie? No. Well, it's, it depends on what you're going for. Like the experience that we had was 10 out of 10. Yes. If you want to judge it as like a like, Mandelorian and Grozer.

Super film critic had on like I don't know if I'd go all that all the way in. I just know that like in my family and Sernovich was saying the same thing by the way, that it's totally infected his household do. And so like we're now both living like the Michael Jackson life. We're like it's like the music's on all the time. The kids love it. We love it. You know, it's just a good time.

Yeah. No, that's cool. But see, I support that. If that's your like. Can I say this about the Michael movie? I thought the Michael movies. I learned a couple of things. Like generally most Americans know like way too much about Michael Jackson.

But you do learn some stuff, I think. But yeah, I didn't realize how they had like a I learned about. And by the way, I thought it was really cool how the family came together to really honor Michael to make that movie and do all that. And I thought that was really tasteful. It's his nephew. Yeah. And it's his nephew. that was really cool.

Oh, that plays him? Yeah. Is it, is it? That's not CGI. That's his actual nephew. I mean, yeah, I think, I'm sure he uses like a little bit of makeup or something. Who son is it? That's his actual nephew that's playing.

Is it Jermaine's son? Uh, shoot. I think it's Jermaine. I think so, but I have to double-chaquee where it was actually Ice Cube's son who played Ice Cube. Yeah, that's cool. I think it's cool. Like, it tells a story about a family and there's a lot of heartache that's involved

with their family. Like, and that, that's cool. And, like, everybody clearly disliked the dad. And, like, they wanted to get that point across. And, like, kind of sucks if you're dad, but the dad's such a jerk, you know. But, like, don't be a bad dad. Like, I mean, don't be a bad dad is kind of a theme that comes out of that. I thought it was really interesting that I didn't realize they had so many exotic animals just running around.

I didn't know that's either. Yeah, it wasn't just the monkey. No, they had, like, giraffes and all sorts of stuff. Like, the snake. medieval question like that's kind of cool that's kind of when we have it on um my my a j will be like we'll be like daddy daddy get to the snake part i want to see the snake part well and for me like actually like one of the things i pulled away from it and maybe this is subconsciously for america hopefully was that like how cool is that like one of the themes that was in it too was that a family

went from basically nothing you know to like living like quite literally the american dream and nobody nobody like like psychos Psycho-leftist came out of that. You're like, you want to work in a factory like me, boy. How dare they have safari animals, like, living on their property and that, like, but I thought that was pretty cool. And I think that's a cool thing. Isn't that kind of a cliche, though, that we, like, teach by people.

It was obviously cool. If you're going to get the American Dream, it's going to be through, like, you're going to be a rapper or an NBA player. No, but it played it, but it played into this whole thing of, like, clearly Michael Jackson, like, in part one of the themes, too, in that movie was like, like, you never, you never, progressed or grew up like he goes because kind of trapped he kind of was trapped they show that yeah they totally show that that he was like and i think that actually gave a lot more insight to a lot of the misnomer's that people took that kind of claim that he was like this this terrible person but he was like really like what they were saying is like this kid this guy was a kid

since the time because the dad made like kept him in this kid zone that he never got to experience I don't I'm not saying we're done with this topic but I do think this is a weird like we haven't this other topic talking about millennials and gen zes. No, it's an interesting segue. Yeah, yeah. It's a really interesting segue. No, we got to dive into this. Michael Jackson's dad definitely believed in corporate punishment.

Well, and then, and then so, Andrew, you haven't seen the film, right? No, I haven't. And they blamed them. So this is a huge scene in the movie and, you know, spoiler, whatever. But there's a huge scene, you know, pretty early on where he, he, he, you know, Michael doesn't want to perform properly. And this is back when he's like, Jackson 5 Michael Jackson like really young and before they've even taken off and his his dad

he like talks back to his dad and he's like you're going to show me respect and just pulls the belt off and just starts whipping him and they show it on screen and he's like freaking out he's crying and that's that's what Tyler's referring to when he says it kind of you know it kind of shows you know perhaps some of those uh forces and family dynamics and family dynamics dynamics that maybe, you know, made like have this like childlike, you know, personality even as he grew up. Kind of, I think culturally. Like psychologically frozen there. We heard these stories, you know, like, and then I think as a culture, we got away from spanking.

And apparently, according to new study or new reporting, I guess, Gen Z is returning to this apparently. Can we see number nine? put it on the screen shocking number of millennial and Gen Z parents spank their kids study says necessary to raise a child properly so go around the horn

I believe in spanking I don't do it very often but I have not opposed to doing it you believe in it I see no reason to oppose it Tyler no I don't oppose it I think it's I think there's

like anything limits Yeah, I don't believe in like just taking off your belt and whipping the crap out of your kid for like 40 people. I think there's people that probably take like it's as close to like getting to child abuse like from a physical standpoint. Like you shouldn't you shouldn't. Well, you can't do it in anger. Hit kids and angry. If you're going to if you're going to spake your child, you need to be controlled. You need to have your emotions like in check.

You can't be going like, oh, I'm going to get like that's. You could do some damage there. actually psychologically but if you do it and be like listen i told you i'm gonna like so we do a thing in our house like i'm gonna move your body if you refuse to like come to me when we're asking i'm gonna physically move you you have one more option one more chance and then they either come or they don't and then if it escalates like well listen like you know so we'll do like soap in the mouth we actually do that oh wow okay i never ran into that one they they hate it or put like a little um like a little like a little like tabasco on their tongue they can't stand that it's like i think yeah but but like so

there's other ways to do it. So we don't really spank that often, but we do find ways to just like, you know, make make it so that they don't want to experience the accountability. Jack, are you pro or against? Yeah, I think I'm more in your, like, the camp that you're saying there. We're like, we don't like spank, but there are lots of things that we do in terms of discipline. I haven't ever done the Tabasco thing. And it's like a drop, I almost don't want to say this out loud. But I just want to say that we, I remember my parents doing that because I had a bit of a mouth when I was a kid and still do. And definitely remember the basketball on the tongue. And I will just say I have not encountered a situation that necessitated it yet.

And, you know, praise God and hopefully we won't have to. But, you know, that's certainly on the list. One thing that we do, though, is, you know, we definitely do push-ups. We definitely, you know, you do something wrong. It's like dropping Amy 10. And if you're not, make them sit and playing for. Well, and it's like, and if they don't,

it's more push up than plank, but it's like, if you don't go down far enough, then daddy gets out the fist and you have to like go down and you have to get to daddy. You like come all the way down. You know, we do, you know, timeouts, obviously, like that's a big one.

Just a variety of things. And depriving, you know, kids of things. I think, I think there's, there's a lot you can do. I'm not sold. on this science. I mean, there's plenty of studies that are, you know, that show that spanking is, is, like, like, really bad and, you know, leads to, like, Michael Jackson style issues. Well, that's what I'm saying. You're going to do it. I think there's other ways to do it. But I don't think, I, and to be fair, I think some parents probably can't control themselves and do it in,

like, kind of a dispassionate way. Well, and I hate to say it, but I think that's what's going on. So spare the rods, spoil the child. But we're assuming that's a physical rod. It doesn't have to be. It could be Tabasco could be soap in the mouth. But the point is you've got to discipline your kids. Like the Bible says that God disciplines his children. I think it's going to happen. I don't think it has to, I think if you're using it right, it doesn't have to be done often.

But I think a child benefits from the awareness that their parents are capable of hurting them if they need to. Yeah, I think it's important for kids to have a little bit of fear. Like I think I got, I think I got belted one time when I was a kid. Yeah. And I don't think my parents, I mean, my parents were young, our old Gen Xers. And so I think Gen X is kind of like known as like. 45% of Gen X admitted to spanking their children. How much of millennials?

Millennials are the weakest. So it's like the research revealed that when this demographic appearance was asked, whether they had ever spank their child or children with their hand, about 20% said yes. So millennials is 20. Like boomers were probably like 90%. Yeah. And excuse me. Did it have boomers in there?

No, I just had Gen X. I bet boomers, like, legitimately, it's, like, well over 80% spank their kids. It's just, I think. So it's gone down. Do we think kids are better behaved than they were? No, they're worse. Yeah, they're, like, worse. And also just, it's, I'll just say it this way.

It's an overly, it's, like, long-housed and overly feminized, and I think that actually undermines the authority of parents a lot. No, let me say this without exposing, like, my family, but I'm the oldest to my family. and I have four brothers and sisters, three brothers, one sister. And I definitely got, I got belted at least one time, maybe two, like, not like, but it was memorable enough where it like, I never wanted it to happen again. But the kids in my family definitely didn't get, like, as time went on, my parents got weaker. Yeah, they always get softer. And they didn't.

And I also think parents get better. Like I become a better parent as I. my kids have gotten older. And I think actually, in truth, I've used spanking way. I think like my daughter probably was the only one. If I'm actually thinking about it, I think my daughter's the only one I've spanked. I got better at being a parent and using other tools and understanding like how to avoid even having to get to that point. So I think there's some of that too.

I think there's an element. It's not that you get softer, you might just get better. I was just, I was going to say this is the point I was going to make was that if the kids are close enough together, and they observe the corporal punishment of like an older, then you don't need to. Yeah. So like I think that, I mean, I was like for sure like definitely instilled in like my younger.

It was like you don't want to get spanked. So the threat actually became real. Because like they, they knew that I was serious about it because it was like the look they could see in my eyes of like, oh yeah, you don't want that to happen to you. And so you don't have to use it. But if you if you don't do it at least one,

once, right? Like, there's no threat. I think I, I think I spanked my son one time. I think, I think my dad maybe did it once or twice. And it was that level. So he's a you don't like doing it. This Mother's Day month, you can help make motherhood possible. If you've ever joined us providing ultrasounds and saving babies with preborn, thank you. There are babies alive today and mother celebrating this year because of the gift of an ultrasound that helped her know the truth of the babies. that was growing inside of her. Today, you can help another young woman

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100% of your gift goes directly to providing ultrasounds. So call or click right now and join us in saving babies and moms so that next year there's even more to celebrate. Call 833850-850-2-229 or click on the pre-born banner at charliekirk.com. Yeah, so here's the way to put it together because I'm still kind of like, you know, I mean, you could see all the studies out there that say that's banking in general, like is not good for, cognitive development. But it's, but what you know at this university of Texas.

Um, that yeah. Yeah. No lives. At UT Austin. Okay. Yeah. That the, the, the, the, a lot of it is like lack of creativity, but, but the problem though, though, I think though is that people saw all that stuff and they thought like,

oh, we have to go full in on like the therapy style. Like, I'm going to be my kids best friend and I'm going to do this and this whole like non-confrontational parenting. We're like, I want my kid to trust me. Where I'm one of the, I'm one of the buds. Like, I'm a cool parent. And, you know, like, I'm going to give you a sip of beer. I'm going to give you a smoke a cigarette or whatever.

Like, it's really stupid. And the issue that's now created with the unruly kids is that it's been too permissive. And the kids don't actually have any boundaries when they're in that situation. And so, like, you do need to, you do need to drive back. So I think, if anything, with what they're saying about the show, shocking rise is that I think that perhaps like some millennial and Gen Z parents are like, okay, you know, the whole like talk therapy version of parenting is stupid. So I'm going to move in the opposite direction, but then they go too far in the opposite direction. And then you create

terrible kids. So yeah, I mean, I agree. I think actually like if you're reading the article. And then your kids actually beat you. Yeah. Exactly. Let's get big enough. But like, but like, they can try. You're, you're, you're, I think the article is like saying it's shocking still how many parents do this. I think it's actually like to Tyler's point is if there isn't an actual threat of it being real, then it kind of loses its effectiveness. Like it is like peace through strength parenting. But yeah, if you enforce authority and you firmly establish that they need to answer to you and that you're in charge at a very young age,

I do think that you can tend to keep those boundaries more established. But there are there are going to be times where kids try and like defy the parents, you know, like, and I would say to your point on the oldest, like my, my daughter was, she's great now. She's like our easiest kid now. But when she was kind of like spreading her wings and trying to establish kind of the boundary lines with us, she was the hardest that we've had. And so, you know, there needed to be a little bit of like set the pace here that's in theory. Like, but maybe I just wasn't as good of a parent either. Because with the other ones, I have so many more tools in the toolbox to kind of establish, you know, order in the house.

Can I, can I, can I, can I introduce a thought crime here? Sorry, go ahead. So here's my thought crime on this is, and it's something that I just don't see addressed in any parenting literature at all, is that I think, I think that IQ plays a role in this. I think if you have kids who are, you know, people who are lower IQ, then perhaps, you know, perhaps this might be more effective. And we certainly have talked about that in the legal process. process and the judicial process and, you know, the Lee Kuan Yu sort of version of corporal punishment for adults. And I think with kids, it's the same way. Like if you've got, if you've got smarter kids, if you've got kids that are more cognitively aware, then the threat works better than the actual thing.

But if they don't seem to have that, you know, ability to put that all together, then perhaps it is those ones that are lower IQ where this is more effective because I like I have people texting me right now who are watching the show saying like oh you know I tried that and it didn't work like my kid just just kept you know was was like outsmarted me or not outsmarted but was smarter than the punishment and was like just kept going so you know you you've got to find something that meets the kid but that's the thought crime is that you know it's not a one size fits all strategy well I thought that I experienced that with my daughter I got I basically became convinced that it was the it was not the most effective. discipline that we could, you know, meet out. So here's this UT, I guess, U.T. Austin study. In the U.S., 76% of men and 65% of women agree that it is sometimes necessary to discipline a child with a good, hard spanking. 70% of mothers of two-year-olds report spanking their children. By the time they reach, which is interesting, by the way, so 70% of moms, but only 65% of women agree that it's sometimes necessary. By the time they reach fifth grade, 80% of American children report they have been spanked by their parents. I don't know if I believe that. I think a lot of children are like, yeah, me too.

Anyways, but according to UNICEF, 60% of children around the world experience physical punishment from their parents. This study basically, I think, agrees with you, Jack, that it's probably not the most effective. You know, spanking does not make children more compliant in short term. Spanking is awesome. I just don't buy these things. Praise isn't actually in the Bible of spare the rod, spoil the child. That's not what the Bible says. No, it says he who spares the rod, hates his child, he who loves his son, he who loves his son,

disciplines carefully. Yeah. Yeah. So it's about discipline. It's not just about like the rod. The Bible says do not exasperate your children. Yeah, but the Bible says do not exasperate your children, which is another thing, which like as a parent has come into focus a lot because you can feel when you're, if you're trying

to like drive home. a point you can feel when they've kind of had enough and like sometimes you need to pivot to a softer approach but anyways I just think I think people who go out and they'll I bet people can generate studies that'll tell you that

any form of punishment is actually bad because a lot of people they like the anarchy of there being no authority and something that's pointed out that I think is useful is any law we have if we wanted to exist it does ultimately need to be backed up by force it comes up when the you know the police end up

you know, choking or or shooting someone. You know, they're trying to enforce the law. The guy decides to resist arrest and they end up shooting the guy. And everyone says, like, why do you get shot over a loose cigarette? Why do you get shot over a cartels?

Well, in the end, you have to obey the police. And if you don't obey the police, something bad will happen to you. And I think spanking is the micro version of that for a parent. That a parent, ultimately, they have to have authority over their child. There has to be aligned.

Their ultimate apex of that is, is if you do not, listen to what I always say, I will use physical force on you. And I think we have to have it be acceptable for a parent to do that. I think ideally, it's actually quite rare. I think all of us who have said it's okay have said we ourselves experienced it maybe once. And so among other things, I don't imagine any of these studies they're doing are very good at capturing the value that comes from a parent who spanks their child literally once ever while they're growing up. I think that's difficult to capture, but I think the value is real.

Did you guys ever experience any physical punishment when you became like teenagers? My dad, the longest thing he would do, and this is going to sound extremely funny today, but I did once possess hair atop my head. And if my dad thought I was giving him lip or being sassy, he would grab me by the back, by the short hairs in the back right here. Which ones you still have, to be clear. Well, I don't really have them there anymore. He couldn't grab them anymore for sure.

They used to be grabable. My mom used to do that when I was a kid, but not as I was a, one time when I was, I was, I must have been like 14 or 15 and I remember, I sort of vaguely remember it. Um, I actually look back just to be in my dad's defense. I look back and I'm like, totally respected. But I'm, I got really mouthy, like really mouthy, like really mouth. He said some like really like nasty things and I think he slapped me, you know, not very hard, but he slapped me and he said, you will respect me. You will respect me. And, um, and I, like, I remember in the moment I was so shocked. I can't believe you.

Like how do you? Yeah, seriously. That was basically the general energy. And then it like, it like dawned on me when I was like 25. I was like, I like had this like grudging respect for my old man. I was like, yeah, he put me in my place. Like good for him actually. Because I was, I really deserved it.

And now as I get older, as now as I get older, I like, I don't grudgingly respect it. I'm like, that was, that was rad. Like, good for you. Now I'm just thinking on the other. I remember freakouts that they can have from punishments. So we reflect on spanking. I wonder if the experts would now say, like, taking your child's phone away for a prolonged period. That would be dramatic.

And I am thinking, I'm sorry, I'm going to drag one of my sisters here for a bit. I remember one time my parents grounded my sister by taking her phone away for, I believe, one or two days. And I remember her literally screaming, you have ruined my life. Maybe we did. I don't know how her life got gone. As a teenager, I got my dad to use the F word one time. Sorry, Dad, I haven't exposed to you. That was like the only time.

My dad never cussed. My dad's like really slow to anger. He's like really chill. I mean, he never gets angry. He always just like the disappointed. You pushed enough buttons. I pushed enough buttons where he like dropped off on me.

And I started laughing because I was like, I was like shocked and nervous all at the same time. But it was like, like, laughing. But it left like an impression with you. It was like I actually felt bad that I made my dad so mad that it probably similar situation where it was like, like I made. I felt bad that I made my dad so mad that he did that. And I know he was, like, disappointed in himself afterwards that I like, I don't know any Jack, anything for you when you got older and got all Philly and Philly proud? I mean, the one thing that I just have to reflect on is this is going back like, you know,

I guess seven, seven, seven, six or seven years now is that, you know, just over the six or seven years that I've dealt with Andrew Colvette. I mean, I'm right there with his dad. I totally get it. Totally good. I do have. One time when you slapped Andrew in the office, that was pretty awesome. I thought we weren't talking about that on air.

I turned the other cheek. Yeah, I mean, listen, I, maybe I was just a bad teenager. I don't know. I was actually a pretty good kid in general, but I definitely had that coming. Like, I would, I would, I went through this phase where I would say, like, out of line things, you know, like trying to get a shock out of my parents. Anyways, Faz says when I was five, all the kids would talk about spankings and I was curious and the jealous and jealous. and jealous that I never got spanked since my parents were against it. So I kept doing things that were naughty to try and get spanked and then it finally happened.

And I didn't love it. Never happened again. Let's see. There you go. Fah's a good kid. Foss still a good man. So I don't know. I'm kind of with you, Blake.

My instincts say that this is woke garbage and it's probably okay sometimes. You have to do it dispassionally. You can't be like doing it in anger and freaking the kids out. You can't be like beaten with a belt for 40 minutes. Like you have to have, it has to have boundaries and limitations. but if you don't have that as an option on the table, it's kind of like, you know. Well, and there's a lot of other things I was going to bring up that are non-physical.

But it's the same thing. If it's just a threat and you never do it, then there are no teeth. You got to hold your word. You're not your kids' friends. You're not friends. I mean, there's two things. You're the authority.

One thing my dad did, I know we got to go. You can't do that. My dad did one thing, not to me, but to my brother. He had his car. And he threatened like,

hey, if you do, I can't remember what he did, something like goofed off or broke a curfew or did something. It's like, I'm going to take away your car. And my dad did take away my brother's car without him knowing. He had an extra key to it. And then parked it in a storage locker. Like it fit perfectly in the storage locker, closed the door, and gave the storage locker key to my brother, but didn't tell him which storage locker is where it was at. So he had to live with like, hey, if you lose this, now you're responsible for the storage locker key. And if you lose the storage locker key, right, you're never getting your car back because I, I'm not going to tell you where it is, like, it's gone. And so you have to be responsible enough to like keep the

storage locker key for as long. And then when I decide to let it out, it would be really funny to put it in like one of the extremely large storage locker complexes we have in Phoenix and just say like it's one of them. Just make them do every lock. All right, Animal Farm, Jack, take us home on. Oh, yeah. Yeah. I do have to report back that I did finally get a chance to sit down and watch the new animal farm. I think I was actually like live commenting on it in, you know, in our group chat while I was watching it. And yeah, I just totally agree with Blake. I mean, within like the like the first 25 minutes or so are kind of pretty much like beat for beat the same story as like the book. And then it just takes a wild turn.

It becomes extremely anti-capitalist. just it just is. Yeah, I was interested. Like, you, at first you were like, it's not so bad.

By the way. And it's, and it's also just not a good story. You, I was surprised because I was watching your,

your live commentary. You're like, it's not that bad. It's pretty, whatever right now. And then, and then not so much. Yeah, like,

the first third was like kind of the same. And then it just goes off the rails. Completely. All right. Well, it's been a fun episode of very

culture, culture, like media, high culture, Star Wars, trashy books. Animal Farm Bad novel adaptations

We should get back into the thought-crimey stuff next week I think We gotta be tempted To say things We don't want clip But we got to bail So thank you everyone

Take us home Jack Ladies and gentlemen As always go out there And commit more Thoughtcrime For more on many of these stories And news you can trust Go to charliekirk.com