Ep.111 Conservative Kids w/ Right Side Rising

In this episode, we interview 15-year-old Gino, the host of the Right Side Rising podcast. Gino discusses his journey into politics, which began in 2020 inspired by President Trump's leadership, and his mission to give a voice to young conservatives. He shares his methods for sourcing information, his experiences attending events like America Fest, and his encounter with Charlie Kirk's influence. Gino also talks about facing intimidation and doxxing as a young conservative content creator. The discussion covers the challenges and benefits of diving into politics at a young age, managing podcasts and social media, and handling feedback from peers and educators.#ProgrammingLionsPodcast

IG: @rightsiderising

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00:00 Intro
00:26 Political Journey
00:54 Sources of Information
01:34 AmericaFest Experience
02:17 Influence of Charlie Kirk
03:17 Challenges and Inspirations
04:49 Starting the Podcast
05:32 Social Media Presence
06:20 Controversial Topics
07:09 Dealing with Doxing
10:57 School Experiences
15:05 Youth in Politics
17:54 Conclusion

Transcript

Gino_Falco-GSD-webcam-00h_00m_00s_291ms-StreamYard 0:00

Welcome back to the Programming Lines podcast. Today we are with Gino here and he has his own podcast. And can you tell us more about that? Yeah, so I'm Gino. I'm 15 and I host the right Side Rising podcast. Um, I wanna give voice to the young conservatives who feel silenced and misrepresented and truly, I think we can really take our country back and lead our country into a new age of freedom and liberty if we just have open dialogue. I like that a lot. Who or what led you into politics? So really I got into politics in about 2020. President Trump really inspired me with his leadership during the Iran crisis when we were seemingly on the brink of nuclear war. And the way he really led us through that time of crisis and just how important politics were and just how much they affected our daily lives and our livelihoods. That's really what got me into politics. So if I were to answer your question, how did I get into politics and who it was, it was President Trump and how he handled leadership. And then what are, like, do you have any like sources or do you only listen to like. Trump when he talks? No. So I, I typically get my, like, quickest information from when Trump puts out his famous truth socials or posts a little quick video. But I always follow it up on, um, usually Google. Google is such, such an important tool. Yeah, I usually check it about, with about five sources or that's like my minimum. If I really wanna make a video or like an episode and I wanna talk about it and learn more about it, I will definitely consult with about five or more sources and not, I won't just listen to Trump, but he, he's definitely the fastest source out there. So. Yeah, he definitely always comes out with something immediately, whether it's controversial or not controversial. Yeah. So obviously right now we're at TPUs a's event, you know, AM Fest. So how did you find out about this event? Yeah, so I found out about at this event America Fest on Charlie Kirk's page. I actually didn't have tickets to this and I applied for a press pass and that's how I really am here now. I first knew about America Fest about last year. Um, I saw some short clips on Charlie's page and I saw actually Trump, the president elect was speaking at America Fest. I was like, I need to be there. The president-elect is there, and I didn't even know about this. So I did a little bit more research. I found out. You can actually apply for a press pass because I actually didn't know that a podcast actually counts as a form of digital media. So that's how I applied for a press pass, and now I'm here. I'm just happy to be here. And do you find, uh, Charlie Kirk? Like how did you find him? Actually, so it's actually funny, I found Charlie, um, I, I watched mostly short clips of him, which tend to be a little bit more controversial. During the election, I think it was about September or October of, um, the election cycle last year, and it was very, very heated. I was in school and I think I just saw short clips and people were bringing them all up of Charlie, like schooling these college liberals and really like. Enlightening them. And that just was really inspiring to me. And then, um, I started following Charlie a little bit more frequently and, um, I listened to his speech at the inauguration. I believe that was the inauguration Eve speech. It was an amazing, and he just, America Fest was also really good. I did not know about America Fest Yeah. Until after it happened. But just listening to him speak and listening to some of his videos and how he really just enlightened people onto college campuses were really, really inspiring. But how I really heard of him originally was through the short clips on Instagram and TikTok. He truly is what was one of the best speakers, I think, of our time. Mm-hmm. Yeah, he was amazing. How did his death, like, um, affect you? So really it made me scared. I'll be really honest because me and Charlie, we weren't very similar. Charlie was like on another level. But yeah. Um, in a way we are similar because we both put ourselves out there. I also podcast and I. By the way, the Charlie Kirk show inspired me to start my own podcast, but we do similar, uh, things like podcasting and uh, social media. And he did a lot more than me. But anyways, it just made me a little, uh, scared to really put my voice out there and put myself out there because the way Charlie did it was he, he was an open book. He talked about Yeah, his life. He was very open guy. He talked about his ways a lot. I mean, he really just put himself out there and it kind of made me a little like hesitant to really put videos out there. Share my name. I definitely consider taking my name off of my podcast and, um, I don't know how I'd go about that. So crazy having to edit out my name out of every podcast, but eventually after kind of just realizing like a, obviously after I processed the whole assassination and just how, um, everything went down, I just said to myself, who am I? If I were to cower away in a moment like this? I mean, Charlie died in public. He died in front of his, basically in front of his family. And in front of thousands of students doing what he loved. Who would I be if I cowered away in this moment in history? So it overall, it inspired me to keep going. Yeah. I think it scared everybody a little bit, but then after that, we all realized, well, if we don't do what he did, this country's gonna go to ruin. Right? Oh yeah. Yeah. So we need to step it up and be like, Charlie Kirk. Of course. Yeah. Yeah. And so how you've been at this for a little while. Can you tell us like how, when you got started and uh, how far into your podcasting you are in terms of episodes and maybe a little bit about where you spent most of your social media energy? Yeah, so I started this back in July. Um, obviously I became a frequent listener of the Charlie Kirk Show. That's kind of how it inspired me to get here. Um, I'm about 25, 25 or so episodes down. I've been doing this, um, pretty frequently. It's definitely, it takes a lot of energy and a lot of time finding guests and Oh, yeah, yeah, really writing out what you wanna ask and stuff like that. But it's just been an amazing experience and, um, I believe, what was the last part of your question? Where do you spend most of your energy in terms of social media? Are you mostly like an instagramer, TikTok, or YouTube? Yeah, so I mostly spend my time on Instagram. That's how I really get the videos out there. I feel like Instagram is a little bit more like open, whereas for TikTok there's more restrictions and I don't wanna go through all those like processes and I really just want to get my word out there quickest, and I feel like Instagram is the best place to do that. And obviously if you ask. Most of the podcasters and people who do social media, they'll say Instagram is the best way to go about, um, getting your word and spreading your image. Right, right. So I spend most of my time there. Do you publish your podcast in both video and audio format? Yeah. So actually I just started video. I got a webcam and I just started, um, uploading it to YouTube. That's where all my video podcasts are. If you wanna go check that out. That's right side, right side. Rising on YouTube. But for a very long time, I think until about October I was doing it, um, through Spotify, apple, and a bunch of audio directory. So I am doing YouTube as of now. Okay. Yeah. Very nice. What, what topic out of,'cause obviously there's a lot of topics like abortion, the border, so many controversial ones. Which one do you think you are most outward about On your podcast or just in general? Oof. I, I definitely cover a lot of topics. Um, probably the, the biggest topic is really. What it's like being a conservative creator. I mean, obviously like immigration when we talk like policy and stuff like that, and more of our beliefs. Immigration is definitely the thing I, um, am most outspoken about on my podcast. But really the topic I go into mostly during my, um, podcast episodes is really just finding that like human aspect of who I'm interviewing, my interviewee, and really just like shedding light on what it's like putting yourself out there and being a conservative creator online. So. Yeah. Yeah. Nice. And to, to that effect, uh, we saw somebody you interviewed recently about doxing. Oh yeah. And we, uh, have been victims of doxing heavily, actually. And so what did you learn through that? Any tips you have for us? Ah, so definitely doxing. That's an interesting topic. The best advice I can give you is just have like try to make those connections so you have somebody to turn to when that happens. Because if, let me know if you're doing this, it's going to happen eventually. Yeah, and there's no way you really can prevent it because we're in the age of AI and social media and everything is so easily accessible and you can reverse search images of your house inside your house and they could find your house on Zillow or whatever. I mean. Like, it's crazy. Yeah. The age of AI and technology, anything's possible. There's no real advice or tips I could give you to as to how, um, you could prevent this type of thing from happening. But kind of building those connections and being able to talk with someone who can give you advice and just be with you through this moment is the best advice that I can give you. Why do you think people do that? I never actually figured out why people think it's okay to just release your address. And the only other like logical explanation I could give to that is they want you to get hurt. They disagree with you. Mm-hmm. So bad. And they can't prove you wrong, so they resort to violence and whether it's actually coming to your house themselves and doing something to you or releasing your information so that other people that are you know, like-minded to them can come to your house and do something. It all comes down to they cannot debate you and they cannot have a discussion with you. They cannot reason with you. It's so weird. Like that's basically everybody. Yeah. They basically, yeah. I cannot go against what you're saying. They just say, oh, that's awful. So then they, so then they post something for somebody else to do where they're not even willing to do it, or they just start name calling you like crazy. Yeah. Yeah. I think in some ways too, I think it could be, maybe they don't mean for you to be hurt or damaged, but they want to threaten you so that you stop talking the way that you're talking and they wanna silence your voice through. Through threats, even if they're somewhat empty, because I do think a lot of people out there are not gonna actually go to the means of being violent, but they put it out there and they send you messages, for example, that are disgusting and, uh, violent, just, just in hopes that you'll shut down and stop. Yeah, I feel like intimidation is a big factor there. I certainly that, um, the intimidation, that's a tactic that a lot of people use. And again, that kind of brings our, brings us back to that. The thing I was just talking about, they can't debate you, so they have to threaten you or intimidate you just by you putting yourself out there and wanting to have open dialogue and open discussion and open debate. You have the high ground now. Essentially these people who are doxing you and putting your information out there, or even just sending you a message and letting you know, Hey, we have your address. They're trying to, they're trying to reclaim that high ground because they don't have it. Yeah, they don't have it. Yeah. When you are not willing to step up to the microphone and have that open discussion and really just face the truth essentially then you do not have the high ground. So essentially I think what these people are trying to do is kind of get that high ground and feel above you so that I don't know, I guess they can feed their ego or I don't, it's so Stu honestly, if I were, if I were them, I would just leave you alone and I would just let you do your thing. I mean, it's not bothering them. Yeah, it's funny, uh, we, we have a lot of people that actually follow our account that absolutely despise us, and I think, well, why would you subject yourself to this every day? Just block us if you don't like what we have to say. Yes. I mean, the scrolling option, that's the easiest. I know. I usually just tend to scroll. I know. Or they're like, yeah, block. Why did I love when they comment, why, how did this come across my feed? This is terrible. I never wanna see this again. And I they'cause they keep commenting on it. Yeah. Usually they'll comment with like, it, it, it. Yeah, it doesn't help. If you comment, you'll probably see our stuff again. Yeah, yeah. But something else that we were, we were talking about before we got into the recording, which is you are all young men in school, you're high school, but you, you guys are about to go into high school. And so what is having your face out there as a conservative and a podcast on social media, I gotta know, what is that like for you at school? Do you get bullied, ridiculed, made fun of? And then boys, I'd love to hear like your experience as well. Well, so maybe we'll start with Gino. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. So certainly the feedback has been mostly negative. I mean, I think that can be attributed to the fact that I go to a heavily liberal school. Um, I mean the, I I believe the of school board is like nine zero Democrat majority. So if, you know, if I wanna give you a better picture on where I go to school, that's the best way to explain it. Now the feedback has been mostly negative. A lot pos a lot of, um, positive responses though too because again, people acknowledge and they might not agree with you, but they acknowledge and respect the fact that you are really putting yourself out there and, um, sharing your beliefs. And again, without restraint, you're not scared because if you do that, that shows that you're not scared and you are definitely willing to stand up for whatever you believe in, be it, politics, religion, anything Now. So the response from teachers, because I, I feel like this is also a big thing too, because the teacher's can be a very big discouragement when it comes to putting yourself out there on social media and especially being a conservative podcaster. I wanna point that out'cause there's a lot of liberals that do what we do, but they don't get the hate that we do. So essentially what the teachers have kind of been, they, I mean, obviously as teachers you can't be biased, even though if you, you, you can, um, word things differently and you know, obviously you can make your bias biases very obvious and I've seen that. Mm-hmm. Really, my teachers haven't cared for the most part. Some of them have just been like, oh yeah, okay, you, you choose, you chose this lifestyle. Like just go do it. Yeah, but again, that's discouraging too. You know, by the way, the best teachers I've had actually have been like, oh, go do your thing. We're so happy for you. Congratulations for getting a press pass. And all these types of things have just been more supportive. So obviously with these teachers and the people who. Essentially, I, I wouldn't wanna say raise you, but, um, these people who make you, who you are and the, the people who teach you if they're there for you and they're just gonna support you in whatever you do, be it, politics or what, that's the most important thing. Mm-hmm. Yeah. I agree. For me, I mean like the feedback's been like medium. Typically anytime I'm recognized they just say, oh wait, you're a conservative kid. Or like, oh wait, you're the I am Charlie, Kirk guy. Right. Other than that, there's not really been much, luckily, actually, there's not really been much many people that are like, oh, I hate your stuff, but. Overall, it's just like, oh, I've seen you before, but like not much. Yeah. I feel like that's a little weird. I feel like I, I guess it's just that age when like anybody sees it, they're like, haha, yeah, you're there. But again, I wanna go back to the, um, how the feedback's been. I feel like the feedback, it's really not targeted at what you say or trying to prove you wrong or having that discussion with that, um, that feedback, that negative feedback really is. Hating on you or making fun of you really what this, what these people are trying to do is just make you feel bad about yourself. Yeah. Yeah. They can't debate you, so they make you feel bad about yourself. You know, there's a, there's an old quote, I think it might be Teddy Roosevelt, who's who had this quote about the man in the arena. And what it talks about is that it's difficult to be the man in the arena fighting the battles, putting yourself out there, getting uncomfortable and taking on the lions, right. It's easy to be sort of in the crowd cheering or booing or criticizing what happens. Or you can think of it even like Monday morning quarterbacking, right? Yeah. Like it's easy to criticize the plays that the quarterback made. But it's not as easy to be out there on the field having 300 pound guys coming at you and being that quarterback. Yeah. Right. Yeah, that'd be scary. And so I think, I think in some ways people do that because they feel superior if they can take you down because you're doing something that they're not willing or uncomfortable or don't understand. Yeah, I totally agree with that. Yeah. It's too bad. Yeah, it's too bad. It sucks. Maybe last question I have is, and I actually, I'd love to hear from all of you on this. Kids getting into politics at a younger age. We get a lot of criticism for this on our page. We've had people do hit pieces on us over it. And so I'm curious, maybe starting with Gino is why do you think it's important and are there any drawbacks of getting into politics at a younger age? Yeah, so definitely the drawbacks of, um, getting into politics at a younger age is people making you, again, feel bad about yourself, but also too. Like your fam, sometimes I've actually gotten some feedback from some from family or, close like friends or whatever. It's really saying, why would you give up your childhood? Like, essentially that's, I mean, I guess I'm a little bit pa a little bit past my, like, childhood stages. But really it pe they make you feel bad about giving up your childhood or exposing yourself at such a young age. But I, I think it's very important to do that actually. Hmm. Yeah. I, I, I, I don't really listen to that because like at the end of the day, this is our future. Yeah. And the people that are telling you that you are too young to be doing this or that, you shouldn't be doing this at such a young age mm-hmm. Are the people who it's not their future. Yeah. It's our future and it's really personally. Mm-hmm. If I would give any advice to somebody who's watching this and you're telling people that they shouldn't be getting involved in politics at a very young age, that's their future. Let them decide what they wanna do with their future and their lives. I don't know if I can explain it much better than that. Yeah. But. Overall I do agree. And to the people that do say like we're giving up our childhood or something, we don't give up our entire childhood, right? We can still have fun and everything. It's just what the occasional time where we go on and like do a podcast or do a live stream or like speak out to everybody on like Instagram or something, speaking our personal views about something which will matter to us in the future. It's not that big. It is like, like not that big of a deal. Yeah. We can have fun. Conservatives have more fun, actually I'll say that. And liberals, all they do is just complain. We have fun and like do this. I think from our vantage point, we've been doing this now for almost a couple of years and I think you guys have learned a lot. Yes, yes. By doing podcasting and I'm sure Gino, you can see this as well. You learn how to prepare, ask good questions, uh, be articulate in the way that you express your views. And so those are skills that are gonna go with you the rest of your life. We've also set up a website. We've set up a merch store, and the boys did a lot of that work. They set up the designs for shirts and. Different things. And so those are business skills that whether this turns into a business or they go work in another business, like those are skills that are gonna transfer. And so there's certainly a lot you can learn doing this at a young age. And we have a lot of fun too. We play Fortnite. Yes. We play sports always. We do all the things that kids do, right? Yeah. Yep. So yeah, fun's not illegal when you do something like this, just so you know, if you wanna do this, fun is not illegal. Yeah. Good point. Good point. Alright, well with that, why don't we wrap it up, but it was a real pleasure. How bro, before we, you know, we log off, how do, how can people find you and like, you know, support you? You can find me on Instagram that's right side Rising on Instagram. I also have a, link tree in my bio where you can click. And that gets kind of, um, a shortcut to finding my YouTube, my Spotify, apple. That's actually the new link I have in my bio if you wanna go check that out. Um, that's my link, me, and that should bring you to my, um, I also wrote like a short little biography, like a hundred words or so, and just a link to all my social. So really search me up on Instagram. You can find me on Spotify, apple, um, that's also, that's Rightside rising on every platform. So, um, feel free to look me up. And yeah, if you wanna support me, I support me. I also have a link. For, um, my cash app, in my bio, essentially monetizing my channel Yeah. And giving me incentive to keep doing what I do. That is also a good, way to support me if you wanna go do that. This stuff doesn't happen for free. Look where we are, like, you know. Yeah. It, uh, for sure. But it was a pleasure, uh, really nice work. We wish you all the luck on your future. Thank you. Yeah, thank you.