Episode 5: Romanticizing Crime

Episode 5 of The Reagan Faulkner Show titled "Romanticizing Crime," spotlights host Reagan Faulkner's sharp, insightful take on a cultural trend of glamorizing criminal behavior. Aimed at conservative college students and young adults, the episode dissects how movies, social media, and mainstream news sometimes frame lawbreakers as misunderstood heroes or rebels, fueling a dangerous disconnect between popular culture and reality. Faulkner draws listeners in with relatable stories and current examples, encouraging them to question the subtle ways entertainment and society reshape our collective attitudes toward crime.

Throughout the episode, Reagan Faulkner challenges her audience to confront the ethical consequences of celebrating antiheroes and criminal lifestyles. She explores how this romanticization distorts young people's views of justice, safety, and personal accountability. Using thoughtful commentary and real-world parallels, Faulkner illustrates the risks of normalizing—or even idolizing—criminal acts, especially in college environments where impressionable minds are still forming core values.

Faulkner’s engaging, conversational style invites listeners to reflect on the broader impact of these narratives within their own communities. She empowers conservative students to resist peer pressure and mainstream messaging that downplays the seriousness of crime. The episode concludes with a call to action: to champion a culture that values integrity, upholds the rule of law, and actively resists the allure of sensationalized lawlessness. Whether you're on campus or beyond, Episode 5 offers an urgent, thought-provoking perspective on defending truth and personal responsibility in today’s fast-changing world.

Transcript

Reagan Faulkner: 0:05

Hi, guys, and welcome back to the Reagan Faulkner Show. Today we're going to be diving in to how American youth are romanticizing crime and the growing assassination culture across the United States. As many of you all know, two Sundays ago there was a heist at the Louvre where millions and millions of dollars worth of jewels and historic relics were stolen right out from underneath the noses of the Louvre and security and everybody. And as somebody who loves history myself, I find this awful. I was devastated to hear this I love history. I think that museums and relics are absolutely fascinating, and it was just honestly heartbreaking to hear what had happened and how these criminals got away with the crime, and kind of how there isn't a lot of evidence or ability to find them. We know that as of when I'm recording this, two people were arrested, but they can't find the jewels. They don't know if they've been melted down. They don't know what's going on. And I think a lot of, um, Americans in the international community as a whole are worried and concerned about this. But we look at Gen Z. Gen Alpha, and even some millennials, and we see a completely different attitude. Just go on TikTok, go on Instagram, go on X, and you will see a huge romanticization of this heist, this robbery, this thievery that's been happening. If you look at TikToks, you see, um, people that take these beautiful images of the Louvre and they filter them and they put them to a song, a beautiful song, a Taylor Swift song, anything like that. And they're like, this is how I imagine the Louvre robbery felt. And it's like, there's nothing romantic about this. This was a robbery. This was an attack on history. This was, honest to goodness, an attack on France. But some of these comments on these TikToks are saying things about how they're so happy to see a a crime that was committed in the US that was nonviolent. Um, hello. What do you mean, a crime that was nonviolent? I mean, yeah, nobody got hurt, but there were plenty of opportunities. They think that most of the jewels were already stolen. One comment historically said that, oh, well, all these relics and museums are basically already stolen. What difference does it make? I'm sorry. What are we talking about? What difference does it make that three independent or four independent people stole jewels from the French government that have been in the hands of the French government, like, forever? Not forever, but I mean, for centuries, like that is a crime that is not just this nonviolent thing. And then we see other people saying that heists are sexy and they're attractive and they're so chic. Like, what is chic about committing a crime? It is insane. I swear, my generation has completely lost their mind. If they think that this is okay and it's something to be celebrated. And honestly, if you look at the the news reports on TikTok about these two people being caught and being interrogated, they're even comments saying like, oh, they have an alibi. They were with me that day, or oh no, I can't believe they got caught. I didn't want them to get caught. I think as anybody, whether American or young or old or part of the international community, we should all want to see these beautiful relics being preserved and taken care of and able to be enjoyed by everybody. But I mean, obviously, these people think that they can belong to anybody and be melted down and destroyed and never seen again. It's it's insane. I don't think that any of the people commenting on these posts and talking about it have and that are romanticizing it, not just anybody, but the people specifically romanticizing it, have any clue what's at stake and what the cultural and historical significance of these relics are. I mean, they were priceless. They were worth €88 million, which in US dollars translates to about $102 million. That is an unfathomable amount of money. And that is just strictly their worth based on the jewels. And, um, what was embodying these relics? The gold, the emeralds, all of that strictly its value as an entity. It is not counting the cultural value or significance or historic value or significance. None of that, just strictly its value based on what comprised these artifacts. And it's just absolutely insane. They also belong to the wife of Napoleon the Third, which is a huge cultural significance to France and to Western Europe as a whole. And lastly, I think we need to talk about just the fact that the Louvre is the most visited museum in the world. Like this is these are artifacts that are enjoyed by the entire international community. They are not only priceless to France, but it's something that people from Europe, people from the Middle East, people from Asia and America and South America, like they venture there to go see, obviously the Mona Lisa and the priceless artwork. But these jewels that France holds so dear and so important and that we can romanticize for people stealing the joy of seeing these things from just honestly about 7 billion people, all the people of the world that May 1st day get to go see the Louvre, that for people can impact 7 billion people by taking these priceless relics away, that they can embarrass France and make them feel that their country has been attacked and humiliated on the national stage. That we can romanticize that. It's absolutely ridiculous. So let's dive into some problems with romanticizing this and why I think it's honestly humiliating to my generation, to Gen Z as a whole, that we are celebrating this robbery and everything. So first of all, stealing is illegal. Whether you think that you're justified in doing it or whether it doesn't matter whether it's a petty crime because it's not violent, whatever the justification is, stealing is illegal and heist much more illegal than just stealing your neighbor's car or stealing your friend's iPhone or something. I mean, a heist is highly, highly illegal. Second of all, breaking and entering is illegal. As you all know, they literally scaled the wall with a construction crane construction vehicle ladder, however you want to phrase it, scaled the wall and cut through a window. That is the definition of breaking and entering. I mean, they literally carved out the window and walked in. Highly illegal. Now. Yeah, it wasn't nonviolent or it was nonviolent. Nobody got hurt. Sure. But multiple reports cite that these robbers did threaten and intimidate the guards that were there. Like it was nonviolent, but it was criminal. Threats were made. And also with the sheer amount of heavy equipment that these individuals had, there was very much risk that it could have turned violent very quickly. It was just that nobody knew that they weren't supposed to be there, which is a whole nother problem for a whole nother episode. But the sheer oblivion that the Louvre staff had, the guards that weren't threatened had the passers by the visitors like that. Nobody thought that this was suspicious, that everybody was so entranced in their own selves, their own jobs, their own perspectives, their phones, their vacation, whatever they were doing that they were so entrenched in themselves, in their own personal experience that nobody looked around and said, hmm, that's really weird. Maybe we shouldn't just not question this construction vehicles, ladder scaling the Louvre and people carving through the window. That's that's kind of weird. The fact that nobody questioned that is insane to me and insane to everybody that I've talked to. I mean, it is wild where we are as a society and where we are as people who are just so ingrained in ourselves and our own personal experiences. And I mean, some of these comments, and you can see the direct quote on the video of this if you're listening on Spotify. I don't have the direct quote, but it'll be on the video. There was one teacher that was saying, I'm imagining she's preschool elementary school. She said that she teaches young children, and she said that the kids that she teaches are so upset about the Louvre as they should be. I mean, kids are kind of uncanny and understanding the The emotional significance of some things. She said that it's hard for her to pretend to be sad for these young children, that she has to pretend to be sad as a teacher. It's it's their job to understand the cultural and significant the cultural and historical significance of these items. I mean, and I think the lack of understanding and the celebration is a straight, straight identifier of how poor our education system is right now. The fact that we're not teaching people my age and even some millennials indefinitely, Gen Alpha like world history to a degree where they understand how significant these relics are. It is it is a direct representation of how poor our education system is. And again, that's for a whole nother episode. But we've also seen people saying that the heist is the only good thing to come out of 2025. I'm sorry. What a robbery on the most visited museum in the world. And the stealing of relics that millions and hundreds of millions of people see each year, that that's the best thing to come out of 2025. I mean, I get it, 2025 has not been a stellar year. We've seen a lot go wrong, but I definitely think that we can find a better highlight of 2025 than that. I mean, I am certain that something better has happened than watching $108 million worth of priceless historic artifacts get stolen out of the world's most visited museum. There's definitely something better than that that's happened in 2025, another person said. It's nice to see a good old fashioned crime where nobody got hurt violently. Yeah, nobody got hurt. Nobody was attacked. Nobody was murdered. Nothing like that happened. But the Louvre was attacked. They lost €88 million worth worth of priceless artifacts. Priceless pieces that people pay to go and see. Paris got hurt. That is one of their biggest tourist destinations, and now people might not feel safe going. People know that they can't see these artifacts. I mean, obviously Paris is going to take a hit from this. They've been having a crime problem for years because of their illegal immigration policies, and obviously that's going to impact their tourist industry. Obviously, people are going to maybe not feel confident in going to the Louvre now. France as a whole got hurt. This is a national humiliation. I mean, can you imagine if something got stolen out of one of our Smithsonian museums or got stolen out of the National Archives? I mean, that is a national embarrassment for France. And they've been going through a lot recently. We've seen them struggling through a lot of PR crises recently, and this is just kind of the cherry on top of the cake for them right now. The insurance companies that are going to have to pay for this, that are going to have to cover this, obviously they're going to be harmed. They're going to have to have a huge payout to the Louvre and work through figuring this out and whether or not the relics are going to be recovered or partially recovered or recovered in a melted down state. And then that kind of goes into history. I mean, imagine if these relics are melted down and like sold or recovered in a destroyed state like that is a harm on history. These are priceless. These are centuries old. Like this was not a harmless crime. It wasn't a violent crime, but it was very much a harmful crime. And all of these got hurt. And then finally leading us into our next part. One of the top TikTok comments, comments as a whole has been that people cannot wait for the Netflix special. We all watched this happen in real life. Why do we need a Netflix special on it? We we are watching it. We are eyewitnesses on the global stage of this happening. We do not need Netflix to make a mediocre special mediocre series. Mediocre movie that's only halfway historically accurate about this. We're all watching it and experiencing it in real time. So why are we romanticizing crime right now? Why are we romanticizing, breaking the law? Justifying? Breaking the law? Why? Why is this something that's happening? Well, one of the big, big main prompts behind what's causing this is pop culture's fixation on crime. I mean, we see true crime podcasts. We see obsessions with things like Dateline and NCIS and CSI and all those. And I mean great shows, maybe. I mean NCIS, CSI, not exactly accurate, but great shows. But really, what it comes down to is Netflix has created a new industry for romanticizing and humanizing crime, and their documentaries and shows and movies have, quite frankly, had a sick fascination with romanticizing crime and with humanizing absolute monsters. And we see this through their series titled monsters. Um, there was the Jeffrey Dahmer Story, which was in this monster series. There was the Lyle and Erik Menendez story, which was in this monster series. There was the movie Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil and Vile, which was about Ted Bundy, and the Ted Bundy was played by Zac Efron. And if you go back and watch these, for the most part, they actually portray the murderers as famous, very, very attractive male celebrities. They are very much trying to make these murderers seem sexy and attractive and misunderstood. And then also there's the, uh, it's not based on a true story. It's based on a novel. But the show you, which follows Joel Goldberg And his stalking of women, and he kind of tries to protect these women until he ultimately decides that he has to kill them because they have seen the crimes that he's been committing. And I'm just very sick and twisted, but kind of what the show does is it goes through Joe's internal monologue, and it really tries to humanize him and almost make the watcher sympathize with him as he kills people. You kind of sit there and you're like, oh, yeah, that's kind of valid. And then once you stop watching the show, you're like, oh my gosh, he just killed somebody. That is not valid at all. That is not okay. We cannot go around killing people. And Netflix really has been doing this and been humanizing these sick, sick, evil people, whether they're true stories like Ted Bundy and the Menendez Brothers and Dahmer or whether they're fake like Joe Goldberg, they have been just romanticizing this to an extensive degree. And then recently a study was released in the journal Deviant Behavior, which showed that females aged 18 to 27 who binge watch TikToks, um, romanticizing crime and criminals and kind of these quote unquote thirst traps of, um, some of the men in these Netflix portrayals and Netflix remakes have been found more likely to develop Hybristophilia. So what hybristophilia is, is a condition where women find themselves sexually attracted to men who commit criminal acts. So really what we're seeing is Netflix is putting out these shows with these attractive actors. Then people are making TikTok videos highlighting these actors who are not criminals themselves. Obviously, Zac Efron is not a criminal. He makes great films. He started off in High School Musical and was in multiple comedies. Um, great, great actor. And they're not real. They are actors. They are not these real, actual sick people. But then the TikToks go in to making films of um, or videos of the real life people, the real life Ted Bundy, the real life Dahmer. And these women are just being like, oh, no, they're actually kind of attractive. Well, they don't look that bad. And then they become actually attracted to criminals and to these, um, these serial killers and to other criminals. And it really highlights the fact that and I am a female, obviously. So I'm kind of calling out my own here. But women have been, you know, there's been this attractiveness to edgy, daring, potentially dangerous men. We've seen it in Hollywood and novels, and we've seen it in real life with women who write love letters to people like Ted Bundy and who write love letters to cult leaders while they're in jail. And, you know, these TikToks and Netflix and, um, other forms of media really are not helping this condition. They're worsening it to a point where Here. We can't call out crime for what it is for being illegal, for being crime, for being terrible, terrible things. And I think it really culminates with the women who have defended Luigi Mangione, the slayer of the United Healthcare CEO. And any of you who are online, I'm sure, have seen the videos of people who have taken these clips of Luigi and tried to make him look attractive and look normal, and women who have said like, oh my gosh, he's he's innocent, he's okay, he can't be that bad. And in California, there's a legislative act that was tried to be passed in his namesake, whose charges were dropped from first degree to second degree murder. And we saw women and other people literally celebrating that his charges were dropped to something less severe. I mean, he killed a man, a father, in broad daylight on the streets of New York, Asked if this had been anything else, it would have been condemned if this had been a white police officer on a black man. It would be condemned. But here we are. Just because this guy was a billionaire and Luigi Mangioni was a hot socialist. We're going to celebrate him. It is ridiculous. And I am ashamed to be part of the group that is celebrating him. I am truly embarrassed and humiliated to call this group of Gen Z women my peers and part of my own group. It is sick. So it's not just women, Gen Z women, millennial women that are, um, romanticizing and justifying criminal activity and assassinations. It is honestly a radical sect of the left. And I'm not talking about people with leftist policies or anything like that. I am specifically targeting a group that is a radical Sect of the left. So when you listen to this and people want to cherry pick what I say, I'm not talking about the left as a whole or Democrats as a whole. I am talking about a very, very specific group that identifies within the left. And according to a study reported by the Network Contagion Research Institute, this assassination, culture and attraction to criminals is not just confined within the few examples that I've talked about and that I'm going to talk about within this episode. So first, um, quote, the group explains that rather than left of center, this group that is central to this belief system that we're talking about here, assassination culture is, quote, left wing authoritarianism characterized by moral absolutism, punitive attitudes toward ideological components, opponents, and a willingness to use coercion for progressive aims. End quote. So really what it's talking about is, like I specified, it is a far left sect. It is left wing authoritarianism. It is not people who want to save the turtles and that, you know, believe in some gun restriction and other more democratic policies. It is this authoritarianism, left wing group. People like Antifa, very, very separate types of people. But the report, um, is saying basically that over half of those who were surveyed, so they did a survey on a group of people and over half, 55.2% who identified as left of center reported that, quote, if someone murdered Donald Trump, they would be at least somewhat justified, end quote. Can you all believe that that of this group of people that identified as left of center, 55.2% of those who identified as left of center, believe that it would be somewhat justified if Donald Trump were murdered. I cannot think of any circumstance where it would be justified to end the life of any other human being. Nobody should ever be murdered. And we there are people. There's 55.2% of people saying it would be at least somewhat justified to murder the sitting president of the United States. That is a problem, and that is a mental disorder. There is something wrong with anybody who believes that it is ever justified to murder another human being. And of this group, 48% said it would be somewhat justified to murder Elon Musk, a man who was never elected, a man who was appointed to do the nation a service. He was appointed so that everybody not just Republicans, Republicans, Democrats, left wing radicals, Everybody would get tax breaks, would have to pay less taxes, that the national debt would go down, that we would have a better standard of living in the United States. Elon Musk did not work for just Republicans or just the oligarchs or just billionaires. He worked for the American people. And ultimately he stepped down, most likely because it was hurting his companies and because there were threats against his life. He has multiple children and there were threats against his wife. I mean, that is not a safe place to be as a man, as a father, as a business owner. And then of this group, 40% said that it was understandable to attack a Tesla dealership. I mean, to attack a dealership full of inanimate objects. To do what? I mean, I'm not validating murder, but when you murder somebody, like they're not an office, I guess, or they're not doing whatever they're doing to attack a Tesla dealership is just firebombing a ton of inanimate objects. What good is that going to do? Like, why would that? Why does that even make sense? Why would it ever be justified? It's just honestly gonna get you arrested and gonna get you charged a lot of fines. If you're the person firebombing the Tesla dealership, it's going to inconvenience the Tesla dealership. And Elon Musk has more money than God, so it really doesn't affect him. Whatever. He will never feel the pain of a Tesla dealership being firebombed. So I don't understand why anybody would think that would be understandable because it's quite frankly just stupid. The other understandable that somebody would be murdered is evil. Understandable that to attack an inanimate object is just dumb. But out of this, this was 31% and 28% of the total respondents. So out of the entire population surveyed, 55.2% that identified as left of center and 48% that identified as left of center sinner believed it's justified to murder Donald Trump and Ellen, respectively. And then that was 31% and 28% of total respondents, respectively. So this new sect of the left is violent in nature. They are obsessed with breaking the law, and they are obsessed with assassinating the opposition. And obviously we can see this predominantly. Just in the last year and a half, we saw the assassination attempt, the two assassination attempts on Donald Trump July 13th, the 2024 and the other one, I believe it was in September of 2024. We saw the successful assassination of Charlie Kirk on September 10th of this year. There was a bomb threat on Rfk's home in Washington, DC. On September 20th, 2025, there was a bomb that failed to detonate after being lit underneath a Fox 13 van in Salt Lake City, Utah on September 12th. I believe while it was, um, covering the Charlie Kirk assassination story. There is obviously the shooting on the ice facility in Texas that killed two detainees, but reportedly that was targeting Ice agents, not detainees. We've seen the anti Ice protests that are calling for the murder and literally swarming Ice agents as they tried to do their job. Ice agents are now having to wear masks so that they're not identified when they go out to public, so that they can protect themselves and their families, because people are literally trying to take out and murder these Ice agents, they are literally impeding them from doing their jobs during these anti ice riots. They're not protesting. They're not we can call it for what it is. They are riots that are trying to stop the illegal activity of these Ice agents who are doing what their employer is telling them to do. We've seen it in Los Angeles, Chicago, Portland and numerous other cities. They are not just anti ice protests, they are riots. And they are there to stop Ice agents from doing their job. They are there to hurt Ice agents and they are there to kill Ice agents. And then we see Jay Jones running for attorney general in Virginia, literally calling for Republican Todd Gilbert to be shot and killed. And he didn't stop there. He said that Todd Gilbert deserved to be shot and killed, that if he had multiple bullets and he had Hitler and a million other extremely evil people from history, he would use all of his bullets on Todd Gilbert because that's how much he hated him. Just because they had a difference in opinion, a difference on policy. And then he went on to say that he wanted Todd Gilbert to watch his children be murdered, because the only way for Todd to ever change his views on policy was to personally experience heartache and just sheer, I don't even know, just sheer trauma that that Jay Jones believed that was the only way that Todd would ever change his policy. And I don't think policy is that important? I mean, I'm not familiar with what Todd Gilbert's policy is, nor am I familiar with what Jay Jones's policy specifically are. But I think Jay Jones's policy of literally calling for other people's murders and like that and like putting trauma onto other people, that is a way worse policy than anything Todd Gilbert could have ever called for. And I don't think we need to forcefully change people's policy issues. I mean, that's why America has worked so well is because we are just a diverse group of people who are able to talk and bounce ideas off of each other. And there are conservatives and Democrats and progressives and Republicans and liberals and populists. We have everybody in America, and our government works the way it does, because we can all talk and converse and bounce different policy so that we're always evolving. We don't need to forcefully change other people's policies, and especially not through violence and killing them, or killing their kids or killing their wives. That is mental and that is insane. And we also can't forget about the No Kings protest, which were mostly peaceful. Quote. Because the communists, the Denver Communists had a tent at their No Kings rally and or no Kings protest that literally said Charlie Kirk had it coming. That is not peaceful. That is that is foul. That is evil. That is insane. That is assassination culture at its peak. We saw an elementary school teacher reenacting Kirk's death by putting finger guns to her neck and skipping across the camera as she was protesting a, um, conservative counter protest, I guess. I guess she was she was protesting, and then she was protesting the counter protest by reenacting Kirk's death. And she teaches children. She's an elementary school teacher. Do you want your kids being taught by somebody that mental, that insane that they're going to reenact somebody's death. I mean, Charlie's kids were in. They were preschool aged. She could have taught them as an elementary school teacher. One day. She's teaching an age group that would be his kids. He is a father to reenact. That is just sick. And then we also saw an older gentleman literally dressed as Kirk's killer. Same hat, same shirt, just walking around the way anybody would walk around as, like George Washington for Halloween or for a festival or something. He was just walking around as Charlie Kirk's killer. I mean, there is something wrong with people that would do that. You would never see somebody dressed up walking around as Ted Bundy or the Menendez brothers at a quote unquote, peaceful event. I mean, how how can we call that peaceful and how can we call this normal? And the list goes on and on. I will not bore you with the list of everything that's happened, but there are more. You can look it up. Assassination culture is at its peak right now, our country is unstable and something has got to change. We have a sick and twisted culture of violence, of oppression and of silencing. And it is a moral and a spiritual problem that is facing our nation right now. And honestly, another source of this assassination culture, this romanticizing of crime, this justification of crime and criminal activity and murder is really stemming from the fact that as conservatives, we have been called Nazis, we have been called fascists. They have been calling for eradication for of Republicans for years, ever since the MAGA movement, ever since 2016. Trump, these names and these calls to action have been coming out. And now, once these fringe radicals are actually taking heed to it, and they're they're taking the call to action and they're doing action, then we see Democrats telling Republicans that we need to tone down the rhetoric. I'm sorry there has not been a blatant assault on an opposing party from Republicans in the way that there has been from Democrats. I just named off seven or 8 or 9 different instances of Democrats attacking Republicans. And I know on campus, I hear all the time, well, Republicans did this or Republicans did that. Well, there's this fringe event that happened. Okay. Maybe there is. I'm not saying that Republicans are perfect, and I'm not going to vouch that our party is perfect. There are radicals in the Republican Party as well. But what I can say is, for the most part, we can control our own, and we do control our own. And what we're seeing from the left is this call for, oh, no, the Republicans need to turn down just this political rhetoric, this violent rhetoric. And then we see the Virginia Democratic Party defending J.A. Jones and what he said against Todd Gilbert. I mean, just look at that. Who is espousing this rhetoric, because I don't see it coming from Republicans, I really don't. And correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't think Republicans are the problem. And I don't think that there is a mass attack on Democrats by Republicans by means of violence right now. I don't. Nor do I think there has been in decades, if not more so. We also see this kind of call to action, this issue being paired with the mainstream media and left wing radicals. And they're just they've created this set, the mainstream media calling like the BLM protests, mostly peaceful quotes and things like that. I mean, they're just creating this, this radical sect within the left. And it started out as a fringe group. It really did. Antifa was very fringe, very, um, you know, not really supported. They were they were like, oh, it's mostly peaceful. We we don't want to acknowledge Antifa and that sect group, those left wing authoritarians, were pushing to eliminate and assassinate any voice that didn't align with their own. But then what we saw was people with Trump Derangement Syndrome, people who viscerally hate Trump kind of joining this group. And then we saw it gaining traction. And then we see it on TikTok, and then we see it through independent journalists. And now it is completely mainstream. I mean, now these these calls to action, these calls to murder, these calls to attack our mainstream. This is not normal. This is not cute. And this should never be romanticized. This should never be justified. This should never be defended. We should never call for the attack, for the murder, for the elimination of anybody or just any thought process that doesn't align with our own. That is what freedom of speech is, what freedom of expression is. What our First Amendment is all about is being able to go around and talk and express different ideas and viewpoints. And I'm not calling for any of this to be silenced. I know some of my conservative counterparts believe that this should be silenced. But we've had some long talks about this on campus. And, um, you know, as as a Republican, I personally do not believe in hate speech. Now, I do think calling for the murder of somebody is a criminal offense that is a threat. So I guess in a way, yeah, it should be silenced because it's illegal. It's like like, yeah, I don't think hate speech exists. I really don't I think hate speech is something that's been made up to try to silence conservative voices. But if you're threatening to kill somebody, that's just a threat. That is not hate speech. That is a literal threat. You should be arrested for making threats. You should be investigated. No, it's not hate speech. It's a threat. It's illegal. And the social media, television, 24 hour news cycle has desensitized Americans to violence, to threats to death, to political intolerance. Because we see it 24 over seven. You turn on TikTok news story. You look at social media news story, you turn on Abc11 Eyewitness News. Somebody got murdered in Durham. Somebody got murdered in Raleigh. Local news, wherever you're from. I'm from North Carolina. So those are our top two. Wherever you're from, you turn on your eyewitness local news. There was a death. There was a murder, there was a robbery. It is sick. But we have become desensitized to it because we see it 24 over seven. You turn on Fox News. Some terrible thing happened overseas or in America, and even on TikTok or Instagram Reels or Facebook Reels or whatever you might watch. You're scrolling. And I know for my boyfriend, he'll scroll. He'll see somebody die in a terrible car accident or off a cliff. He'll scroll again. He'll see a puppy video. Then he might see a video that's explaining workout techniques. And then he gets an ad from TMU or the TikTok shop. Like our souls were not meant for that. Our souls were never meant to watch Charlie Kirk's death. It was never meant to be broadcast to hundreds of millions of people. We were not made for that and that we all saw that at the same moment in time for a split second, and moved on 24 or 48 hours later. I know many of us never moved on from that. We're still sad. We're still angry. We're still coping with what we saw, but that the 2440 eight hour news cycle stopped and it was something else that happened. We weren't made for that. That is not how God made our souls. We are meant to mourn another person's death. We are meant to mourn with another person's family. This 24 hour constant stream of information, constant stream of stimulation. It's not what we were made for, and it is not what God intended. And as Christians and as conservatives, we are meant to protect ourselves from what we watch, what we listen to, and what we believe we need to protect ourselves. And I'm sure y'all are much like me. I'm nosy. I want to get on TikTok and be like, ooh, what happened? What's going on? But that's not what God meant for us. Sometimes we really do need to retract. We need to step back. We need to internalize what we've witnessed and what we've experienced and go touch grass. Really, that is that is my advice is to go touch grass, go run, go read a novel that's not a murder novel or anything like that. Somebody something upbeat and joyous about somebody having a real life experience. Go hang out with your kids or your husband or your boyfriend. Just go. Go and do something positive. Go do community service. Just anything but touch grass. Because when you do things like that and you interact with your community, for the most part, you actually do realize that this is a far, far sect radical group, that it's not an everyday individual. There are plenty of Republicans and there are plenty of Democrats. I'm speaking to both right now that are completely normal. And if you go out and you talk to a Republican or you talk to a Democrat and you're the other party, you're going to realize that nine times out of ten they are completely normal. Now, depending on where you live and who your neighbor is, maybe not. Maybe they really are crazy. But for the most part, they're normal and they're just like you, and they enjoy drinking a cup of coffee and reading a book. But you have got to go touch grass and just watch what you see. Watch what you believe, especially in the world of AI. Just take a step back, retract yourself, and really internalize what you've experienced and what you've been seeing. Because our souls were not made for this. They we really weren't. But predominantly this violence that we've been talking about, this assassination culture, this romanticization, romanticization of criminal activity. It's stemming from one place and one party, and it's against another group of people and another party. It is left wing authoritarians that are seeking to disrupt and dismantle the foundation of American ideals and morals. They want to destroy it. They want to see it destroyed. We can look at images from the Communists of America highlighting Luigi Mangione, calling for the destruction of billionaires like it is coming from one group. It is coming from a group that wants to destroy America. They want to destroy what we hold dear, and they want to demolish the foundational values of the United States of America. They do not want to see America live. They do not want to see her succeed. They want to see communism. They want to see socialism. They want to see Marxism become the new norm here. And if we look at history, assassination culture is where every major global conflict and every major political turmoil has taken place. Look at the French Revolution, look at the Soviets. Look at World War One, political assassination. Silencing of other opinions is where political turmoil and national destruction start. Criminal activity and assassinations should never be romanticized. And as Christians and as conservatives and as true Americans, quite frankly, it is our job to say enough is enough and to say no, this ends now. Thank you so much for joining me on this episode of The Reagan Faulkner Show. If you enjoyed this week's comment, remember to like, subscribe and share the video or the Spotify wherever you listen to it. I can't wait for you to join me next week, where we talk about more hot takes and cultural issues affecting the US. For more, be sure to follow us at the Reagan Faulkner Show on TikTok, Instagram and Facebook and the Wilmington Standard on the same. And also be sure to check us out at Reagan faulkner.com and the Wilmington Standard. Com. Can't wait to see y'all next time.