Sep 9, 2026 · 25 min · 9 segments
One year ago, Charlie Kirk was assassinated for discussing his political and religious beliefs. Did the war of ideas die with him? 1\. How did the news of Kirk's death affect you? (2:50) 2\. Which…
Now, anytime you hear a term that you may not be familiar with, in this case, the war of ideas, I hope question five of the grade eight comes to mind and you ask, hey, Victor, what do you mean by that? Well, the war of ideas is the idea, ironically enough, that if we have Open debate.
If we have these laboratories of democracies in different states, that we will be able to see these ideas compete, not only intellectually, but we'll see the results in the real world.
And this is why it's so important to have open debate and open clash and open discussions is because by this process, by these ideas going to war with each other, we can determine which ones are the best, we can implement the best ones in society, helping the millions, the tens of millions, the hundreds of millions of people who live in the United States of America.
Okay, well, the obvious response to this idea of the war of ideas, and remember on this podcast, we're always gonna start with the ideas that I personally disagree with, is that we should abandon the war of ideas.
Look, there is no point discussing ideas as a conservative when the left wants to physically silence you.
We're going to bully you on high school campuses when you try to start a Club America.
In the case of Charlie Kirk or Donald Trump, we will take shots at you because many on the left, not all on the left, obviously, want to silence the strongest voices on the right.
Which of the great eight questions would you use to respond to this argument that the right conservatives, Christians should simply abandon the war of ideas and just look to seize power? And as a reminder, the great eight questions are questions that we put in our mental toolbox in order to unpack and examine the issues that we come across, and they are question one, what happens next? Question two, has this been tried before? Question three, is there a principle involved? Question four, what are the trade-offs? Question five, what do you mean by that? Question six, is it an appeal to emotion or logic? Question seven, am I focused on the speaker or the argument? And question eight, what does the Bible say? And remember, just because you didn't pick the question that I did doesn't mean you're What you picked is wrong.
We have a deeply divided country, two different worldviews, two different desires for where the country should go.
you stop having a human connection with someone you disagree with becomes a lot easier to want to commit violence against that group what we as a culture have to get back to is being able to have reasonable disagreement where violence is not an option so if someone wants to abandon the war of ideas if they say oh we're not doing that anymore I would go to what Charlie Kirk says here, that when we stop talking, the next result is bad.
Even if your side emerges quote-unquote victorious, that the way that you will have achieved victory is through violence, if not all-out civil war, and that is simply not an appealing option.
Now, anytime you hear a term that you may not be familiar with, in this case, the war of ideas, I hope question five of the grade eight comes to mind and you ask, hey, Victor, what do you mean by that? Well, the war of ideas is the idea, ironically enough, that if we have Open debate.
If we have these laboratories of democracies in different states, that we will be able to see these ideas compete, not only intellectually, but we'll see the results in the real world.
And this is why it's so important to have open debate and open clash and open discussions is because by this process, by these ideas going to war with each other, we can determine which ones are the best, we can implement the best ones in society, helping the millions, the tens of millions, the hundreds of millions of people who live in the United States of America.
Okay, well, the obvious response to this idea of the war of ideas, and remember on this podcast, we're always gonna start with the ideas that I personally disagree with, is that we should abandon the war of ideas.
Look, there is no point discussing ideas as a conservative when the left wants to physically silence you.
We're going to bully you on high school campuses when you try to start a Club America.
In the case of Charlie Kirk or Donald Trump, we will take shots at you because many on the left, not all on the left, obviously, want to silence the strongest voices on the right.
Which of the great eight questions would you use to respond to this argument that the right conservatives, Christians should simply abandon the war of ideas and just look to seize power? And as a reminder, the great eight questions are questions that we put in our mental toolbox in order to unpack and examine the issues that we come across, and they are question one, what happens next? Question two, has this been tried before? Question three, is there a principle involved? Question four, what are the trade-offs? Question five, what do you mean by that? Question six, is it an appeal to emotion or logic? Question seven, am I focused on the speaker or the argument? And question eight, what does the Bible say? And remember, just because you didn't pick the question that I did doesn't mean you're What you picked is wrong.
We have a deeply divided country, two different worldviews, two different desires for where the country should go.
you stop having a human connection with someone you disagree with becomes a lot easier to want to commit violence against that group what we as a culture have to get back to is being able to have reasonable disagreement where violence is not an option so if someone wants to abandon the war of ideas if they say oh we're not doing that anymore I would go to what Charlie Kirk says here, that when we stop talking, the next result is bad.
Even if your side emerges quote-unquote victorious, that the way that you will have achieved victory is through violence, if not all-out civil war, and that is simply not an appealing option.
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