Turning Point USA chief: Internet is silencing conservative voices
Student group leader tells ‘Post’ that growing tide of intolerance among the Left is creating an unhealthy country and civil society
Charlie Kirk has been described as a force to be reckoned with. In six years, the 25-year-old has transformed from an unknown kid from Illinois to a trust confidant of the White House.
Last month, US President Donald Trump addressed thousands of youth at Kirk’s Turning Point USA conference in Washington.
“He has done something that is just incredible for somebody of his age,” Trump said of Kirk at the event. “You need tremendous talent to do what he’s done, building one of the most powerful youth organizations ever created, a movement unlike anything in the history of our nation.”
Only four people showed up to Kirk’s first conservative youth organization meeting, which he planned straight out of high school. But he said he was not deterred. He campaigned relentlessly to create Turning Point, which now has multiple affiliates: Turning Point News, the Turning Point Endowment, Turning Point Action and Students for Trump.
Kirk has become a major social media influencer with millions of followers. He is known as the “best friend” of Donald Trump, Jr. and for his relationship with Turning Point director, Blexit’s Candace Owens. He was also recently invited to Trump’s social media summit.
But mostly, Kirk is trying to fight the silencing of conservative voices on social media and the Internet, he said in an interview with The Jerusalem Post.
“Conservative voices are being silenced all the time,” he said. “This is real and it is happening all across the Internet, the voices of people who believe in free economy, the rule of law and enforced borders are being suppressed by Google and its counterparts.
He mentioned the recent case of Kevin Cernekee, who claimed he was bullied and then fired by Google for his conservative viewpoints. Kirk said that he believes Google is determined to stop Trump getting re-elected.
“We have a situation where “our entire civilization is getting its information from a collection of companies,” explained Kirk, “and all these companies’ employees and leadership think a certain way, and they act on those thoughts. This is a very dangerous pattern of behavior, one that must be addressed, understood and possibly dealt with.”
He said the issue is not the companies’ employees having their perspective, but the fact that they seem not to want others to have different views.
“Conservatives, such as myself, are very concerned that the growing tide of intolerance among the Left will result in a major silencing online, and this is not healthy for our country and for a civil society,” Kirk said.
He added the “control” is often subliminal: “It’s the headlines they write, the type of sources they choose to use or not use, and so on.
“They begin their alleged journalism with a headline in mind such as ‘Trump is the worst president ever,’ which off course is not true, and work backwards, looking for sources to confirm it. But an investigative story should make the argument on both sides, quoting sources on both sides, thus allowing the reader to determine what is going on with that story.
“It used to be the case that sources were corroborated, now its a rumor that turns into a headline,” he continued.
Kirk calls himself pro-Israel, and has taken action against college campuses on which he feels there is pro-BDS activism.
His message to Jewish students is to support Israel, which he considers to be “the only moral state in the Middle East.”
He traveled to Israel to witness the US Embassy move to Jerusalem, and later returned for an “eyeopening” trip to Hebron and the Golan Heights, among other spots.
“The media has been telling lies about Israel for years, but the fact remains that the world is a better place because of Israel,” he said. “It is the only country in the Middle East that values freedom of expression, religious expression.
“In Hebron, I expected to find a heavily occupied Arab population living in dire conditions. But what I saw was the opposite: Israeli Jews have a single street in this metropolis of an Arab-dominated city with shopping malls and taxi cabs, so it’s the Jews that are the minority, the Jews are the ones getting shot by sniper fire.
“I have been pro-Israel my entire life. I am more pro-Israel now because of my visits to Israel.”
He said that he swims up against the stream, “going into the fire, but I embrace it. This is where you make the greatest impact, speaking to people who disagree with you,” Kirk said.
He has his share of detractors. He has been accused of having “a fraught relationship with facts when they get in the way,’ by USA Today and of skirting “campaign-finance laws that bar charitable organizations from participating in political activity” by the New Yorker.
But Kirk said he can take the heat so long as he keeps his mission in mind.
“The society we want to live in is one that allows personal liberty and freedom. We are a collection of individuals, not a collective. There is a big difference,” he said. “Every individual should be taught to act ethically and with virtue.”