Programming Lions

Ep.99 Charlie Kirk's Impact: Healing a Nation w/ Blake Fischer

• Matt Morstad • Episode 99

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Welcome to the Programming Lions podcast! In a special episode, the team hosts political commentator and podcaster Blake Fischer amid the aftermath of the tragic assassination of Charlie Kirk. The episode explores Charlie's influence and heroic status, current events, and the rise of political divisiveness. Blake shares his political journey, the importance of civil debate, and his views on contemporary violence and rhetoric in politics. The discussion also touches on the role of social media in amplifying extreme views and the increasing normalization of antisemitism. In the end, Blake offers valuable advice for the younger generation on understanding civics and engaging productively in society. Tune in to this heartfelt and profound conversation as the Programming Lions reflect on recent tragedies and the path forward.


00:00 Intro

01:02 Blake Journey

03:37 Challenges of Discourse

07:52 Impact of Social Media

14:49 Echo Chambers

19:04 The Algorithm of Fear

19:11 Disgusting Comments

20:08 Chilling Effect on Speech

20:23 Political Commentary and Violence

21:54 Leadership and Responsibility

25:17 Mainstream Antisemitism

28:47 Media Coverage

31:37 Younger Generation

36:08 Education and Civic Engagement

36:53 Concluding Thoughts

Welcome to the Programming Lions podcast. Today we have a special episode featuring Blake Fischer, who is a political commentator and podcaster, and a good, balanced guy. So this one comes with a bit of a solemn tone because as of the recording, Charlie Kirk was assassinated just yesterday and the boys. Are in a bit of shock and still processing a lot of what happened. Charlie was a hero and a friend to us, and this has been a difficult time for us, obviously, and a lot of people. Nonetheless, I had an opportunity to discuss some of the current events and divisiveness and where we go from here, as well as a couple of other topics with Blake. So check it out.

BLAKE_FISCHER-Matt-webcam-00h_00m_00s_334ms-StreamYard:

All right, Blake Fischer, welcome to the podcast. Excited to talk to you tell us a little bit about yourself and how you got into politics. And then given some events of recent, uh, we will dig into the Charlie Kirk assassination and be our primary topic. But, uh, before we do that, can you tell us just a little bit about yourself and your background?

BLAKE_FISCHER-Blake_-_The_Homeless_Conservative-webcam-00h_00m_00s_562ms-StreamYard:

Yeah, I got into politics. I was gonna, I say normally at a younger age than most people do, although your kids are, uh, an example of, not that being the case, but in eighth grade my uncle ran for mayor and I live in Oklahoma City, and that was kind of, you know, it kinda got me a behind the scenes sort of look at running a campaign and stuff. Uh, and. So I think that got me interested earlier than most people are. Most people aren't that interested in politics when they're 14, and then I just kind of always followed it. Um, that's in the late nineties essentially. Um, so obviously a lot happens shortly after that as I'm in high school in nine 11, which we're on the anniversary of that too. And so I've always been really interested. I've always really liked having conversations with friends and even people, I don't know, I just. I've never found it hard to disagree with people and have a discussion about something without getting into vilifying the other person or

BLAKE_FISCHER-Matt-webcam-00h_00m_00s_334ms-StreamYard:

Okay. That's good.

BLAKE_FISCHER-Blake_-_The_Homeless_Conservative-webcam-00h_00m_00s_562ms-StreamYard:

for me. I was a musician, so being a musician in a band, I'm surrounded by more progressive people than me generally, and so just, it was never that odd for me to be having these kind of conversations with people and friends. And so, uh, eventually I knew I wanted to do like a podcast at some point. I just never quite figured out what I wanted to do. And then I finally figured out I've just gotta do it and then figure it out. I think. So I started this a couple years ago, and for the most part it's because I have felt like a lot of the Republican party has left a lot of the values that I've had for 20 years. And it's not that I changed, it's that a lot of the things that came along with Trump specifically, I just didn't feel very conservative. I'm like a free market, uh, constitutionalist kind of thing. And I just feel like a lot of those things have been abandoned for the sake of. Whatever, we've gotta get this done'cause someone else is gonna do something bad. So it hasn't won me a lot of friends because I call out Democrats and Republicans. I think all citizens should, uh, I think that that's the normal thing we're supposed to do. And so that's what I do. A lot of times I, I will call out Republicans, I'll call out my side probably more than Democrats just'cause it's ob. I mean, there's enough conservative commentators that are calling out Democrats and I feel like there's not enough of them saying. Here's a Republican behaving badly, or here's a Democrat that did some, here's something I like that Joe Biden did or something. I just think that stuff is rare nowadays and I, I want it to be more normal to have these kind of discussions.

BLAKE_FISCHER-Matt-webcam-00h_00m_00s_334ms-StreamYard:

We have those same feelings about, there's certain things that we disagree with with Trump. There's, uh, you know, there's, well, it's a very small, but there's a few things we like that Biden did, I'd say, but. Until you get into nuance, like you really can't have those discussions. And so one of the challenges that we've found with social media in particular is you're putting out, you know, clips and reels and, and anything with nuance in it tends to not be interesting for people. So, so, so like nuance type discussions don't get as much attention, unfortunately is, is our observation. But, um, any rate. Okay. Well, a really interesting background and. And, uh, you, you and I talked a little bit leading into this, but the horrific events of yesterday with the assassination of Charlie Kirk. Um, I wanna get into that. And, uh, the boys are have, this is the first podcast they have not been a part of, and they're just not quite sure how to process this. Charlie was like an icon, a hero to them. We had. The tremendous opportunity of meeting Charlie several times, and we live in Phoenix and so we're kind of local to where he is. So we had the opportunity to attend some more intimate events. The boys had chances to ask him questions and uh, so it's really, it's hitting closer to home maybe for us than we anticipated. And, uh, going through just a flurry of emotions, my wife and I yesterday. And then the boys come home from school and we. Told them what happened. And so we've just been really trying to unpack it. And candidly, I I, I don't like know what to think of what to do next with like, ourselves. I, I, I went through sort of sadness, anger, I'm just really angry. And then I'm like, well, that doesn't help. Right? So, struggling and so anyway, the boys are out today. But I thought given your background it could be maybe helpful to talk about this and put it out and see, you know, if other people can weigh in and, uh, make something of all of this mess.

BLAKE_FISCHER-Blake_-_The_Homeless_Conservative-webcam-00h_00m_00s_562ms-StreamYard:

Yeah, I, I feel similarly. It was pretty shocking to me, and I'm not even. I'm not even a huge Charlie Kirk fan. I went to actually an event just like this at Oklahoma State University this past spring to do sort of main on the street stuff. The odd thing was I didn't really get to pay attention to him'cause the speakers they had were so little that you couldn't hear him if you were more than like 20 feet away. It was just kind of an unfortunate thing. So I ended up talking to people in the crowd and stuff. So it's just, it's, that felt a little bit weird for me to be like, uh, and I felt similarly. This sounds like a strange parallel, but um. I was, I'm a huge Batman nerd, so I went to the midnight screening of the Dark Night. And it was weird that that shooting in Aurora, uh, in a, in a movie theater where I was doing the exact same thing as those people. So this feels a little like that. It's like this is something I could be at. And,

BLAKE_FISCHER-Matt-webcam-00h_00m_00s_334ms-StreamYard:

Right.

BLAKE_FISCHER-Blake_-_The_Homeless_Conservative-webcam-00h_00m_00s_562ms-StreamYard:

and I think like earlier when you said the assassination, it's like, I expect the word after that to be attempt. I think we've gotten so used to. Unfortunately this sort of rise of violence, uh, political violence specifically, and most of them have not been successful. Like, we're so fortunate that that's the case. And so I just keep expecting the word attempt to come after assassination and it doesn't, and I think that's really weird for me.

BLAKE_FISCHER-Matt-webcam-00h_00m_00s_334ms-StreamYard:

I agree. I mean, I was, yeah, it's just hard to, I think it's still processing for me. And of course, like when it happened, I, I got a text from somebody almost immediately when it happened, and I saw some of the early footage and it didn't look good. Like, um, if you, if people haven't, haven't seen it, I wouldn't look, it's,

BLAKE_FISCHER-Blake_-_The_Homeless_Conservative-webcam-00h_00m_00s_562ms-StreamYard:

I, I, I have not, and I would not, I'm not a big fan of that kind of thing, but yeah, I've heard nothing but terrible things. Yeah.

BLAKE_FISCHER-Matt-webcam-00h_00m_00s_334ms-StreamYard:

It's, yeah, it's pretty graphic depending on the different scene you see. And, um, I just saw it and I thought that there's just no coming back. I don't see how there's any coming back from this. And, uh, so then we were just holding out hope and prayers as the day went on. And then of course they made an announcement, um, maybe a couple hours later. A few hours later. So, yeah. And I don't know, it's like now the reaction to me is. Very interesting to observe, right? We're seeing a lot of people rightfully condemn these actions and these psychopaths and, and everything. But then we're also seeing people cheer and applaud this as like, well, you know, his words were hateful and he deserved this. And so I find that really disgusting, obviously. Um. Then I think there's people that are becoming more emboldened to make threats. And I can say specifically on our account. Um, but before I get into that, what, like what's your take of the reaction people have had?

BLAKE_FISCHER-Blake_-_The_Homeless_Conservative-webcam-00h_00m_00s_562ms-StreamYard:

Uh, I have tended to stay off of the worst parts of, uh, social media for the last 24 hours.'cause I've just found it doesn't, it's not super helpful. But, I mean, last night I got on Facebook'cause I got an alert and not an alert, like a notification or whatever. And you know, it was like someone I knew from high school. I'm not friends with them, but. They'd posted something like, oh, what's that song? No one mourns the Wicked. And I was just like, God. Like, what? Why? Why is that someone's first reaction? They're like, someone dies whether you like them or not. He's a husband, he's a father. And like, I disagree with Charlie Kirk in a lot of things I, that doesn't mean I disagree with lots of people. I don't want any of them, even the people I disagree with. Vehemently, I don't think they should be assassinated for their political opinions. And Charlie Kirk specifically, the admirable thing that he's doing is going out to college campuses and saying, debate me. I mean, he's like, open invitation. Come up here. Um, you

BLAKE_FISCHER-Matt-webcam-00h_00m_00s_334ms-StreamYard:

Open dialogue. Meet, meeting them where they're at. Yeah.

BLAKE_FISCHER-Blake_-_The_Homeless_Conservative-webcam-00h_00m_00s_562ms-StreamYard:

My criticism was always that, you know, it's little easier to argue with college students than maybe someone your age or something. But you know, he was polite about it. Uh, someone would come up that was more adversarial and the crowd might start booing. He, all the clips I've ever seen him of and when I was there at Oakland State, he would like, no, no, no, let him talk. You know, like he would quiet the crowd to say, no, no, no, we're not doing that. I just think that that's like a civil debate and we should, we should celebrate that, especially in today's media ecosystem where basically everyone's just siloed themselves into these little. I don't ever have to hear anything. I disagree with bubbles, and there's a lot of commentators specifically that will never, they're scared to death to debate someone that has a different, because they know they're not, they can, they might be able to like bullet point something or have a speech or a script, but they're not very good at, on the cuff, someone asking them a question and then, then doing the debate without any sort of prep whatsoever. And so I like, that's admirable in, in today's climate when almost no one else is doing that. And. That to me is the, the worst part about this is that this was about 3000 people had shown up to do that with him. And it's just such a blatant, um, you know, I did a episode earlier and it's like, it's, it's literally like the assassin's Veto. It's, it's going to change the way people have these debates. We probably won't have outdoor things like this anymore. Congressmen are already canceling all their stuff because of the violent rhetoric that happens. And this is like the, in a string of. When I try to list all of the people that have been nearly assassinated over the last 10 years, I will forget people because it happened so often. And unfortunately it's happened with not as prominent names like the Minnesota lawmakers that got shot by that guy a couple months ago. Um, you know, that's terrifying and that's gonna change the way people think about what they say. And that's what's the most concerning to me, is that this will chill free speech. Even if it's not by the letter of the law that it does. So it will do it because people are gonna be scared to say their opinions in public. Uh, especially in that kind of forum where there's really no security that could have protected. I mean, I know there's technology like drone stuff and they could have been on rooftops, but you're talking about a small town and it's a 90,000 person town. It's mostly colleges and stuff, and you got campus police, uh, they have like one murder a year in that town. They're not equipped. To deal with this kinda thing. The Secret Service was not equipped to protect Donald Trump last year. He's fortunate that he turned his head. Otherwise the Secret Service, who he would think is the best at this kind of thing would've failed. And so I think there's no way this doesn't show speech, and that's what worries me even more than the reaction. I don't like the cheering on of these things. It's the grossest form of, it's the grossest form of humanity online. I do still have this. Somewhat of a holdout that most of them are saying things behind a keyboard that they would never say to someone's face. And they would, and much less, they would never actually take action on that. But it doesn't take that many people to do this kind of act to make everything change about this country. And, and you know, it only takes a few crazy people to take it very seriously. I don't think that most people are. Really okay with the violence. I especially because I think they're insulated in their own little world where they've never really had to deal with violence. Especially in America. We are just, most of the people that are online saying that stuff have never dealt with any kinda real violence at all. And, and the people I know that have dealt with real violence, military, police, people like that, like they take it much more seriously. They're like, no, no, no. We don't joke about that kind of thing. It's not. It is not cool. So I, I really don't know why people choose to react and what bothers me more than the, yeah, I didn't like him or he said controversial things or, you know, the hate speech thing is an interesting line to draw for a lot of people, but I think. It doesn't matter. There's just not an excuse for cheering on the, the, the United Healthcare. CEO was the other one that was really shocking to me. That reaction was the, the actual, yes, we need more of this

BLAKE_FISCHER-Matt-webcam-00h_00m_00s_334ms-StreamYard:

Yes.

BLAKE_FISCHER-Blake_-_The_Homeless_Conservative-webcam-00h_00m_00s_562ms-StreamYard:

and actually call like that. That was a turning point in my opinion, and I, I, we could go one of two ways here. I do not have a lot of optimism that we're going to realize the folly of our ways and change them because. Even Donald Trump yesterday in his announcement of this, only mentioned Republicans that have been targeted for assassination only called out Democrats and didn't even look in the mirror at his own rhetoric. He calls people the enemy of the state all the time. He says they're the, they're the biggest threat to democracy that there is is is Democrats and you? I don't think you can say that kind of stuff. I think that we need leaders at the top to actually say. I have messed up here and I'm gonna change, and that's gotta trickle down and I don't see it. It's not bubbling from the bottom right now.

BLAKE_FISCHER-Matt-webcam-00h_00m_00s_334ms-StreamYard:

Yeah. Right, right. And I, I agree there's rhetoric from both sides and there's de this dehumanizing rhetoric, which I think is a big leading indicator to some of these types of violent events because. I was having a recording the other day with the boys. In fact, you know, interesting. We were, we were talking about echo chambers, and when you're in an echo chamber and all you hear is people that agree with you, how dangerous that can be for you, and there's a lot of that out there today. The people that get into their tribes and all of this, and they just hear back what they want to hear. Or even large social media influencers that, you know, the, the opposition to any of their ideas gets drowned out in their comment section because they just, those people just get. Jumped on and hid out of the, out of the system. But certainly it's hard to not look at the rhetoric that's happening. And you mentioned a couple things that Trump has said. Obviously those are not helpful. Um, then you've got. The calls of racists, Nazis, uh, Hitler. I mean, I think about, like, for example, we talk specifically about Hitler references. We get a lot of'em on us in our channel, and, and it's like, well, what? Like this association fallacy of like, well, you are a fascist obviously because you support Donald Trump on most of the things that he does. And so now that makes us. Hitler and then when we are Hitler, I don't know, there's not much worse. Maybe Satan like, okay, so if you're Hitler, like what else could dehumanize a, a person or a family more than that? And so then people are like, yeah, we should like. You would obviously do bad things to Hitler so we can do bad things to you. And like that is, that's scary. Is that propagates, uh, in my opinion, there's a lot of that rhetoric going around. And so I think it's, yes, it's happening on both sides. I don't know how to fix it. It's so divisive. With the onset of social media, to your point, you like all these people that sit behind keyboards, if you had real discussions like you and I are having, like we're looking at each other virtually, um, it's totally different. It completely changes the dynamic of a conversation. When you are present, when you're behind a keyboard, I think people will say the wildest things and so that might be an. I don't know. Again, I'm like processing all this. I don't know what to make of it, but certainly, like, I think social media rhetoric, um, a, are big factors in how this violence has been, you know,

BLAKE_FISCHER-Blake_-_The_Homeless_Conservative-webcam-00h_00m_00s_562ms-StreamYard:

Yeah, and I think it's, so the, the other thing that social media does specifically that I think is really dangerous. Is that it makes people that have fringe ideas, find other people that have those fringe ideas, and then they think that more a, a larger portion of the population has the same ideas that they do. We've seen this profile over and over again of this kind of person. And what the internet has done is kind of accelerate that because now they think, well, there's more of us. We actually like. We have some sort of credibility. I think that the same thing has sort of happened with pedophilia in a way. It's like, oh, I found a bunch of other people online that also like this. And so it makes it distorts reality, especially when you're already in a little echo chamber. And the other thing that there's been studies that show is that as you get into a group of people that you are the exact same. You get more extreme. Because to not be the same as those people, you have to go further. In a, an ex extreme direction. I don't really love the left right paradigm'cause I don't think it's actually right for what today's problems are. But you know, you're, if you sort of are already with some people that are more authoritarian or you know, more fascist or more progressive or communist or whatever it is, you are gonna get more to the extreme of that direction as you only insulate your people around yourself with people that are like you.

BLAKE_FISCHER-Matt-webcam-00h_00m_00s_334ms-StreamYard:

it's become clear to me spending time on social media and having a channel and growing that. The extremes are what are getting a lot of the attention. And of course, like the algorithms are built on. Clicks and ra, like essentially rage. They're, they're built, like they're built on hate. Um, sometimes love, like, but for the most part it's engagement, comments and anger that fuels, like when I look at our most, like, um, successful, like I'll, I'll say successful posts, they're oftentimes the most raget, they're the strongest opinions that we might have. Right. And,

BLAKE_FISCHER-Blake_-_The_Homeless_Conservative-webcam-00h_00m_00s_562ms-StreamYard:

Fear's. The other one that does that too. I mean, like the, the algorithm rewards fear and outrage more than anything else.

BLAKE_FISCHER-Matt-webcam-00h_00m_00s_334ms-StreamYard:

Yeah. Yeah. And then people get off on making disgusting comments and getting them upvoted. Like for example, we posted, Charlie Kirk was. Murdered yesterday and this morning I posted a reel of the boys asking Charlie a question at one of his events about a year and a half ago, and it's a nice, it's a lovely little post, nothing controversial in it. He just said, Hey, we're depending on you guys for the next generation. God bless you, or whatever the top comment is, your next hundreds of. Likes on it. Um, there were multiple of those. Some of them have been taken down, I suppose, reported or Instagram has taken'em down. But, and then if I look through all the comments, it's at least 50 to 70% disgusting stuff about how. If they're happy or that we're next or he got what he deserved. And, and then like the, the, your next thing, obviously, like that's terrifying for people who are trying to speak their mind. And that's one reason my kids are like, whoa, Jesus, what are, we should, what, what do we do with that?

BLAKE_FISCHER-Blake_-_The_Homeless_Conservative-webcam-00h_00m_00s_562ms-StreamYard:

Right. I've, I've had that had the same thoughts. It's like that could be, there's, you know, there's a lot of people that do this, some for fun, some for a living, and I'm sure it's going through all of their head. Like anyone that does any sort of political commentary at all right now is going well. Gosh, like, I mean, I'm not, obviously none of us are as famous as Charlie Kirk.'cause he was probably the most famous, conservative sort of influencer there is right now. But. Yeah, it's, and that's where I'm saying that's a chilling effect on speech.'cause I think that there's no way, it doesn't affect what people say.

BLAKE_FISCHER-Matt-webcam-00h_00m_00s_334ms-StreamYard:

Yeah. Yeah. It's, I can s like, there's a, there's a strong argument to say, just censor. Be quiet and maybe be liberal, like be maybe be liberal and then No, you know,

BLAKE_FISCHER-Blake_-_The_Homeless_Conservative-webcam-00h_00m_00s_562ms-StreamYard:

Well, and I don't, I'm not even sure that works because I think that now, like the, like I said, there's. There's been violence on both sides. I mean, it's, it's, I think there's more of a left wing problem on the cheering on of it. I think that there's a lot of rhetoric on the right that we go, oh, well I didn't mean that by fight I didn't mean you were gonna, if you didn't fight, you were gonna lose your country. But I didn't mean actually physically hurt someone. I mean, you know, there's normally this line, whereas I feel like there's been more, especially with that like. Um, United Healthcare, CEO, where it was so blatantly, we need more of this and like, yes. Like they were literally turning Luigi into a verb of like, this is the next person that should be Luigi. That I have not seen that as much on the right of I, as I've seen on, on the left. But the violent on the, the violence on the right is a little bit more. At the group level, I feel like to, and that's why I think the only solution is leaders from the top down have to make this change. Donald Trump has a complete stranglehold on the Republican party and all the Magar crowd and Republicans in general. If Donald Trump decided tomorrow to say, Hey, I'm never gonna say this kind of stuff about my opposition, I'm gonna say they have bad ideas. I'm gonna say when they're lying. I'm gonna say when they're doing something I think is wrong, but I'm not gonna call them my enemy. I'm not gonna say. That, that you're not gonna have a country if they're in charge. I'm not gonna say any of this stuff. And I would encourage everyone else to not do that as well. Every Republican congressman and senator would get in line. Um, and so would every other MAGA influencer, like, like they do anything he says. Every, like, all the time. He could actually make the difference here. And I don't know who the leader is on the Democratic side, honestly.'cause they don't, they're kind of leaderless right now. But, you know, Joe Biden could come out and say, you know what, when I, uh, when we were running against Mitt Romney in front of a group of black people, I said, if you elect this guy, he's gonna put you back in chains. And that was wrong of me to imply that MIT Romney would put black people back in chains. That is my fault. Like we need more owning of like they are. I don't buy that. Like you can put a direct correlation between someone said something and then someone was violent. Words are not violence. Words are words. Joe Biden has every right to say that, just like Donald Trump has every free speech, right? To say what he says, but there's a responsibility factor there. I think people owning what their responsibility is in it. And I hope people will look in the mirror and go, how have I contributed negatively to this?

BLAKE_FISCHER-Matt-webcam-00h_00m_00s_334ms-StreamYard:

If I put myself in somebody like Trump's shoes, it's gotta be, he's gotta be infuriated with the opposition because they tried to kill him twice. Now they've done this and they pushed immense pressure lawfare, and that's a whole other discussion maybe, but like one could, one could make a strong argument. There's, there's unprecedented, you know, cases that went up against him just because of who he is and all

BLAKE_FISCHER-Blake_-_The_Homeless_Conservative-webcam-00h_00m_00s_562ms-StreamYard:

sure. Absolutely.

BLAKE_FISCHER-Matt-webcam-00h_00m_00s_334ms-StreamYard:

And, and so yes, you're gonna be angry. And, and, and so that is unwarranted from the, from what the left did. And then, but then, yes, his response is unwarranted. And so it is like, well, who started it? Well, I don't know. Like we all started it, I

BLAKE_FISCHER-Blake_-_The_Homeless_Conservative-webcam-00h_00m_00s_562ms-StreamYard:

Right. But you can be the person that ends it if you want to be.

BLAKE_FISCHER-Matt-webcam-00h_00m_00s_334ms-StreamYard:

Who has the bravery to step up and be that person, though I don't think Donald is gonna do it.

BLAKE_FISCHER-Blake_-_The_Homeless_Conservative-webcam-00h_00m_00s_562ms-StreamYard:

No, he's not. And, and I don't think anyone else in the Republican party can because

BLAKE_FISCHER-Matt-webcam-00h_00m_00s_334ms-StreamYard:

it has to be him. He's definitely, like you said, the, the leader of the party and people tow the line,

BLAKE_FISCHER-Blake_-_The_Homeless_Conservative-webcam-00h_00m_00s_562ms-StreamYard:

I said right now, because it was Charlie Kirk, a conservative, I think that right now it needs to be a democratic leader because that's the most recent. Assassination kind of thing. Uh, when it was, and honestly, they o same thing for Josh Shapiro is something that does not get enough coverage. Someone tried to fire bomb his house with his family in it. I mean, they did, they did fire bomb it, but I mean, they, they had the intent of hurting or killing him and his family on Passover, like a blatantly anti-Semitic attack. And it just kind of got skirted over as this person was very clearly. First of all, insane. And most of them are, but they're influenced by the culture around them. And when you say over and over again that you know, Israelis and Jews are, you know, oppressors and they're evil, someone out there might take that seriously and try to take something into their own hands. And I think that one doesn't get talked about enough. Um, and, and the left owns that one, like a thousand percent.

BLAKE_FISCHER-Matt-webcam-00h_00m_00s_334ms-StreamYard:

Yeah. Yeah. Good, good point. In fact, this, this brings up another point that I wanted to ask you about, which is, it seems to me that antisemitism or anti Jew is becoming mainstream. Like you're seeing personalities like Tucker Carlson, Candace Owens, uh, be becoming very popular a around their rhetoric and then of course, like the rise of Nick Fuentes, if you're familiar, like he's. He's gaining incredible popularity with really like, uh, strong opinions, you know? And so what's your take on this, like mainstream antisemitism?

BLAKE_FISCHER-Blake_-_The_Homeless_Conservative-webcam-00h_00m_00s_562ms-StreamYard:

Well, I mean, it's really nothing new. The Jews have been blamed for everything for thousands of years, quite literally thousands of years, and. It always goes back to that. I mean, Hitler, let's go back to Hitler. He blamed the Jews for both American capitalism and Soviet Union Communism. He said the Jews were pulling the strings on both those things, which doesn't make any sense when you say it out loud. I think there's always been a, a fringe anti-Semitic fringe on the left and the right. It's been a pro'cause it's a, it's a global

BLAKE_FISCHER-Matt-webcam-00h_00m_00s_334ms-StreamYard:

It's the one thing that the, the, the fringe is agree on right

BLAKE_FISCHER-Blake_-_The_Homeless_Conservative-webcam-00h_00m_00s_562ms-StreamYard:

Right it is. Um, and I think that the, the right traditionally I think has had more of it just because of the sort of, you know, the sort of alt-right crew that's been around for a while. They were sort of explicitly antisemitic going back. The lefts is much more wrapped up in what appears to be sort of academic. Like, oh, we're such, you know, it's all, it's on college campuses. It's like in the classroom. And I think that's the, that's the scary thing to me is that on the right, it's been this fringe thing that's on message boards. It's, you know, zines and newsletters. If you go back further to like the nineties or the eighties or something, and then obviously the internet accelerates that. And so you've got four chan and all these kind of, that's where the kind of right wing, but it's like. Dudes in their base, in their parents' basement and stuff. And I'm not saying those people aren't threats, I'm saying that's where it lived on the right and on the left. It lives in the highest elite parts of our society. It's in col, it's on college campuses, our most elite college campuses. The idea that most Americans have some sort of antisemitic. Opinion that they think is real even though they don't understand it's anti-Semitic. Then the UN is institutionally racist because they are constantly talking about, you know, calling out Israel stuff, but never other countries. And if you just looked at the total numbers of time that un like condemned Israel for something that other, every other country does. You'd have to go, there's racism there. So I think this is in the press, like worldwide press, the fact that everyone believes Gaza's, ministry of Health, when that's just Hamas, Hamas is giving you those numbers and you believe that over anything else you hear, um, you are complicit in spreading the antisemitism. And yeah, it is like post October 7th, the blood was still wet on the ground on October 8th when people were celebrating it. It had nothing to do with Israel's response. I think most people, if they were actually presented with it, would never claim to be antisemitic. Yet, but that's what's scary about it, is that they're going along with it, not even realizing, it's not like they would proudly say, I hate Jews. They, but they, all their actions and the things they get excited about or repost about or comment on are blatantly antisemitic and they just don't realize it. And that's what concerns me is the people that are going along with it there's no other minority that gets attacked more percentage wise than Jews right now in America.

BLAKE_FISCHER-Matt-webcam-00h_00m_00s_334ms-StreamYard:

We recently talked to somebody that went over to Israel and uh, saw what was happening in Gaza and so that like, I felt like, okay, this is a reputable source. And, and it turns out that a lot of the things we might be hearing about the IDF and the food supplies and how that is getting rationed and, and, and being blocked from going in isn't maybe what. The media is telling us, of course, like you, you look at one faction that's saying, Israel's like trying to starve them out. And then another that says, well, Hamas is taking the goods.

BLAKE_FISCHER-Blake_-_The_Homeless_Conservative-webcam-00h_00m_00s_562ms-StreamYard:

Well, to me, the thing there that is so obvious with when it comes to media covering what's happening inside of Gaza is first of all, the. They, you know, Hamas does not allow Western Press into Gaza. So there's just you, you basically have to rely on the IDF that's there, or the Hamas' spokespeople.'cause we really don't like, the only third parties that are there will try to contract with journalists, but they generally are either on the payroll for Hamas or their lives are threatened by Hamas. Well you, you think if we've got a free speech problem here where free speech is gonna be quelled, imagine actually being. Physically threatened in your family being physically threatened by Hamas, that would be a different level of that.

BLAKE_FISCHER-Matt-webcam-00h_00m_00s_334ms-StreamYard:

I've seen a ton of AI videos of Gaza's trying to get food at sources. And most people can tell that it's ai, but a lot of people fall for it and they're liking it and oh, how horrible. And so it's not, it's not even reality. But I think you're right. I think there's multiple things that can can be true at once.

BLAKE_FISCHER-Blake_-_The_Homeless_Conservative-webcam-00h_00m_00s_562ms-StreamYard:

Absolutely.

BLAKE_FISCHER-Matt-webcam-00h_00m_00s_334ms-StreamYard:

good. These people terrorized Israelis and they have a right to retaliate and try to root out the, the Hamas elements of, of that society. And that's not easy to do.

BLAKE_FISCHER-Blake_-_The_Homeless_Conservative-webcam-00h_00m_00s_562ms-StreamYard:

No, not in an urban environment.

BLAKE_FISCHER-Matt-webcam-00h_00m_00s_334ms-StreamYard:

what's also probably true is like they could have different and better tactics and, and maybe there's fair critiques about their tactics and what they're doing. All of those things can be true at the same time, but.

BLAKE_FISCHER-Blake_-_The_Homeless_Conservative-webcam-00h_00m_00s_562ms-StreamYard:

statistic that I think I point to the most when I'm having this kind of conversation with someone is that it is Israel. The IDF basically has, uh, and it's, I probably outta date at this point, so don't totally quote me on this number. They had something like a 1.5 to one, um, combatant to civilian or civilian to combatant death rate in Gaza in an urban environment. Um, you know, ours in like Iraq or Afghanistan was like eight or nine to

BLAKE_FISCHER-Matt-webcam-00h_00m_00s_334ms-StreamYard:

Right. It's, it's incredible, like the

BLAKE_FISCHER-Blake_-_The_Homeless_Conservative-webcam-00h_00m_00s_562ms-StreamYard:

if you were, if you're trying to kill a population, you're not doing a very good job if you're killing combatant civilian one-to-one. Um, and so that's my point is, and why would you be dropping leaflets and sending text message and warning people about getting out of areas? You're literally telling Hamas where you're going to attack weeks in advance so that you kill fewer civilians. And I go, you've gotta explain that before you can accuse them of genocide, in my opinion.

BLAKE_FISCHER-Matt-webcam-00h_00m_00s_334ms-StreamYard:

How about this, uh, obviously kind of a solemn mood today with the death of Charlie Kirk. Boys aren't on. Uh, kind of a bummer, but they'll, they'll come around, I think as they process this more. But something we always like to ask our guests, uh, maybe in parting is our boys are gen alpha. Okay. They're, they're young and there's a lot going on in the world. We talked about a lot of it today. And so what would be your advice for this younger generation in terms of what to focus on, how to engage, how to be productive in terms of their citizenship

BLAKE_FISCHER-Blake_-_The_Homeless_Conservative-webcam-00h_00m_00s_562ms-StreamYard:

man, I think about this a lot.'cause I've got young kids too. I, I don't have a perfect answer, but I mean, I think the biggest decision we've gotta make as citizens in this country is, do we want. Autocratic, we elect a president and let them just do whatever they want. Is that what we want going forward? Or do we want the constitutional order that we set up almost 250 years ago to sit that says, you know, we're gonna have different branches of government. They're gonna have checks on each other. We're gonna have a Congress. And it's designed to be slow. It's not designed to be fast on purpose because it, it requires negotiation, it requires compromise, it requires all these kind of things. I think that's really the split that we're heading towards. They've seen that the support for free speech, they ask this question, is it okay to use violence? Um, against, uh, speech you don't like, or, and basically it's like, it's always appropriate, it's sometimes appropriate, it's rarely appropriate. People that answered, one of those three things went from 21% a few years ago. I think it's 2021, that's up to like 34% now

BLAKE_FISCHER-Matt-webcam-00h_00m_00s_334ms-StreamYard:

I saw the statistic.

BLAKE_FISCHER-Blake_-_The_Homeless_Conservative-webcam-00h_00m_00s_562ms-StreamYard:

that number increasing is concerning. Right,

BLAKE_FISCHER-Matt-webcam-00h_00m_00s_334ms-StreamYard:

Yes. A third of people think it's okay to use violence against speech you don't agree with.

BLAKE_FISCHER-Blake_-_The_Homeless_Conservative-webcam-00h_00m_00s_562ms-StreamYard:

right.

BLAKE_FISCHER-Matt-webcam-00h_00m_00s_334ms-StreamYard:

That's wild.

BLAKE_FISCHER-Blake_-_The_Homeless_Conservative-webcam-00h_00m_00s_562ms-StreamYard:

Uh, something like 50% of people that Gen Z are younger think that, uh, we should have some limitations on free speech if it hurts people's feelings. Um, and I think that's a really, like, we've gotta decide do we like the First Amendment or are we gonna be like England, who is now arresting people for tweeting things, you know,

BLAKE_FISCHER-Matt-webcam-00h_00m_00s_334ms-StreamYard:

No thanks.

BLAKE_FISCHER-Blake_-_The_Homeless_Conservative-webcam-00h_00m_00s_562ms-StreamYard:

that is not, that's not like Iran we're talking about. That's, that's. England, our closest ally, the country we were birthed out of, and they are arresting people for quote unquote hate speech. Well, I'm like, who gets to decide what's hateful or not? And to me that's the dec is like, you may really like Donald Trump, but do you want President a OC to have the same powers that you're saying you want him to have? And vice versa. Think of your worst case scenario and then think of, do I really want that person in charge for me? Constitutionality is the winner in that debate. Um, we just don't teach civics enough in this country. Most people don't even know there's three branches of the government and I,

BLAKE_FISCHER-Matt-webcam-00h_00m_00s_334ms-StreamYard:

it's scary. It's scary how little they know. And, and to your point, like the trends are pretty alarming. I, I also, I saw another statistic about Gen Z was polled in terms of their support of socialism, and it was staggering. It was like 62% wild.

BLAKE_FISCHER-Blake_-_The_Homeless_Conservative-webcam-00h_00m_00s_562ms-StreamYard:

I

BLAKE_FISCHER-Matt-webcam-00h_00m_00s_334ms-StreamYard:

It's like they haven't seen any history.

BLAKE_FISCHER-Blake_-_The_Homeless_Conservative-webcam-00h_00m_00s_562ms-StreamYard:

well, I, I think that's exactly what it is. I think that the problem is the, the media they're consuming. Is always gonna be more leftish. It's just, that is how it is. So we've gotta decide. I think most people just haven't realized, especially younger people, um. Especially Gen Alpha that really they, you know, nine 11 is history. I mean, my kids are learning about that at school today because it's history for them. It's something that happened before they were born. I don't think people understand what, how privileged they are to have those rights until they're potentially taken away. I don't want to get to the point where they're in, like truly in danger. To have to make that decision. I think we've gotta make that decision before someone tries to take those rights away. And I don't, I think people are willing to trade right now. Most people are willing to trade, um, some rights for a little bit of a sense of safety because I think we're much fear mongering in our culture right it's not a, it's not a binary choice. You, you can have some degree of both, but yeah, we can't protect people from all violence unless we. Use the state's violence to prevent it. That's the only way to do it. At the end of the day, the state has a monopoly on violence. That's really what we've given them the authority to do, and I think it's really, this next generation is gonna be super important because they, they will decide this stuff based on who they vote for.

BLAKE_FISCHER-Matt-webcam-00h_00m_00s_334ms-StreamYard:

Yeah, I agree. And it's, it's definitely be interesting to see how it plays out. I think you touched on a really good point in terms of just education of the youth, uh, around these topics, what the history is of these types of governance systems and ideas. Well, uh, our kids have a lot to deal with. We've left them a handful and, uh, uh, we gotta prepare them, I think the best that we can as parents. And sometimes we might be criticized for that, but I know I am just'cause we, we do some of this. Teaching online with our kids in terms of values and how to look at different issues that are happening in society or economy. But nonetheless, I think parents getting involved and telling their kids about more of this will help because the school systems have, you know, different variations of what they teach. But nonetheless, this was a pleasure to visit with you and so

BLAKE_FISCHER-Blake_-_The_Homeless_Conservative-webcam-00h_00m_00s_562ms-StreamYard:

for having me.

BLAKE_FISCHER-Matt-webcam-00h_00m_00s_334ms-StreamYard:

we'll wrap it up and, uh, it was a lot of fun. We might have to do this again.

BLAKE_FISCHER-Blake_-_The_Homeless_Conservative-webcam-00h_00m_00s_562ms-StreamYard:

I'd love to.