Turning Point USA is holding their annual AmericaFest 2021 conference this weekend in Phoenix, where they are based. Founder Charlie Kirk and Fox News personality Tucker Carlson spoke Friday on opening night.
Kirk opened the event, hitting on a lot of social and cultural issues during his speech. He told the attendees not to let it bother them when the left calls them names for saying something true. He acknowledged that it’s so bad that if you speak out, “you might not be able to get a job in your field.”
He said it’s a “tyranny of the minority,” but “there are more of us than them.” He lamented the situation where “We don’t know our history or past,” we have amnesia, because the left doesn’t want us to have a historical reference point.
Kirk directed much of his ire at the creator of the 1619 Project, Nicole Hannah-Jones. He said the 1619 Project t is “total garbage” and described her as a “con artist.” “She’s a liar and shouldn’t be a professor.” He pointed out how she never discusses all the efforts Thomas Jefferson made to end slavery.
He said we should be grateful to live in the least racist country in the world. “If a nation has gratitude, it’s harder to have a revolution.” He said, “Saying thank-you slows you down,” people are less likely to get agitated and riot.
Kirk ended his speech saying we are fortunate to have 10,000 in a room for the event during COVID-19; in Germany or Australia they would call the police. He reminisced on how he formed Turning Point as an 18-year old with no money, and is amazed at how far he’s come with it due to living in the U.S.
Tucker Carlson spoke about the difference between the left trying to pretend they are happy living in a miserable situation versus the right enjoying freedom. He said the left is lying about liking where they’re at, “Who actually wants a crappy living situation?” Paying exorbitant amounts for parking, driving in bad traffic around miserable people are “manufactured desires.”
He stressed that life is not perfect, despite the left criticizing everything. “Everything in life is a mixed blessing.” He said, “If you wake up and everything is perfect, you’re dead.”
He said, “One good thing about corona is the freedom it gives young people to opt out.” They “don’t have to participate in systems that are oppressing people.” A 50-year-old nurse knows more about the science than Biden.
He discussed community, how it’s the people you know, not the people you are lumped in with as group identity. Yet “everything is now supposedly a community.” There are “fake communities on the internet,” but no one ever spends a night on the internet and comes back saying they are loved. Instead, he said your circle should be your family. The left doesn’t agree, in fact they want you to turn in your family and report them.
“We spend way too much time thinking about people we will never meet.” He’s tired of the left’s attitude, “Impose your vision on people who actually don’t need your help.”
Carlson said what really struck him after living in Washington, D.C. for 35 years is how 95% of members of Congress have bad home lives. It’s a “disproportionately sad group.” “You can’t have good leadership from people with unbalanced lives.”
He saved some of his most vicious criticism for COVID-19. He said healthy 25-year olds shouldn’t pay the price for people who are “worried about being super sick.” He thundered, “You narcissistic creep! It’s not about you!”
“We all have irrational fears,” he said, but “You can’t lead if afraid.” Carlson pointed out that “no country puts terrified people in charge,” and similarly with animals — “Whimpering dogs don’t lead the pack.” He said it’s pathetic that we have a “terrified old guy in charge of corona.”
“Nature writes the rules. Period,” he declared. “Nature — God — is out of our control. We can respond” is all.
This is “not some crackpot right-wing theory I made up this afternoon,” he emphasized. “I don’t want to be around crazy people who want to wreck stuff rather than build. You are either making stuff or breaking it.”
Carlson concluded by advising people not to bother arguing with those on the other side, since it’s not going to win them over. “I don’t care what people with two degrees on Twitter are telling you. Get as far away as possible from these people to stay sane.”
In between the speakers at the conference are live country music stars performing. An exhibition hall features exhibits that include lots of Let’s Go Brandon gear, MAGA gear and pro-life booths. Speakers coming up at the rest of the event include Donald Trump Jr., Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas), Rep. Jim Jordan (R-04-Ohio), Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-14-Ga.), Kayleigh McEnany, Candace Owens, Jesse Waters and Kyle Rittenhouse. The conference is being live streamed all weekend.
Thousands of freedom-loving Americans all in one room… not a mask in sight
Welcome back, America!#AMFEST2021 pic.twitter.com/J2tLInvfbW
— Turning Point USA (@TPUSA) December 19, 2021
– – –
Rachel Alexander is a reporter at The Arizona Sun Times and The Star News Network. Follow Rachel on Twitter. Email tips to [email protected].
Photo “Tucker Carlson and Charlie Kirk” by Gage Skidmore CC BY-SA 2.0.
