Greg Gutfeld, Charlie Kirk slam 'toxin of wokeness' at TPUSA's AmericaFest

Speaking from the main stage at Turning Point USA’s Americafest, Charlie Kirk and Greg Gutfeld, wearing a Cramps t-shirt, spoke on the "toxin of wokeism," and how "wokeism is a shield" for companies and corporations.

"If you start making fun of a leftist and they get pissed off, you know, it’s — you’re seeing this now with Twitter. It’s like, they were laughing their butts off when somebody would get permanently banned, but you give them a one-day suspension or a seven-day suspension, they call it a massacre," said Gutfeld. He was referring to Twitter's ban on dozens of journalists over doxxing, which has long been a policy on Twitter's terms of service.

"They don’t talk about fentanyl, they don’t talk about the crime epidemic, but wait a minute, you suspended Taylor Lorenz? Oh my God. Somebody do a welfare check on her," he added. Lorenz caught a Twitter ban on Saturday, but was back on the platform by Sunday.

Kirk and Gutfeld noted her current position as a technology reporter with the Washington Post, with Gutfeld adding about her previous position with the New York Times, "If the New York Times fires a leftist, that’s a bad leftist. Because generally they don’t — they only fire conservatives, but they even knew she was psychotic."

"And she, there’s some people when you look at them you can see it, they got crazy eyes," Gutfeld added, to which Kirk brought up now former Biden Energy Department official Sam Brinton.

"It’s like he doesn’t get cited for anything, but he gets this major job in the government, and why? Because he ticked the intersectional boxes. It’s the toxin of wokeness. It doesn’t matter if you’re incompetent. And of course what happens to the crazy eyes thing when you see somebody that is clearly not well, you can see it, but wokeism tells you that it’s on you, it’s your fault if you see it," said Gutfeld.

Gutfeld continued on to note Brinton’s involvement in fetish and BDSM communities, mainly puppy play, as well as his recent charges and arrest for stealing women’s luggage in airports.

"I think what’s so interesting about the story though, is anyone who dare notice and that’s a theme I want to explore with you, Greg, is the crime of noticing," said Kirk.

"We were called bigot, anti-trans and actually, in reality, it’s like, okay, this person has, I believe deep-seated mental problems. I don't want to trivialize that. He is in charge of something rather significant, right? It's not as if he was in charge of us like a dog catcher for the Sacramento local mosquito abatement district. Okay, this guy is in charge of getting rid of the nuclear waste."

"It doesn't matter because you feel good that you hired him. It doesn't matter if a disaster is looming. It's important that you are so progressive, and that you know, 'Oh, my friends are bigots.' They don't understand this," said Gutfeld.

Gutfeld continued on to speak in regard to college students with left-leaning politics, saying that he believed that these politics would never leave campus, and that once these students entered the "real world," and begin doing things like finding a job and paying taxes, "they’ll become a conservative."

"Boy, was I wrong," said Gutfeld, later adding "I thought that this stuff would end but no, Disney, look at Disney. What happened at Disney? Look at American Girl," noting the recent release of their book for children "A Smart Girl's Guide: Body Image."

"Why do you do the woke stuff? The woke stuff is their shield against being called greedy capitalists," said Gutfeld, who added that "all of this wokeism" is "energized by China."

"They want our companies to be obsessed with this stuff. So like, 'oh, like, I'm not I'm not greedy. Look how many special days we have.' Right? Like if you work in a company, how many special days are there? It's insane."

"It's like, there's so many, but it's like this is what — this is to protect themselves from being the bad guy. And all they have to do is throw money at this stuff and it’s —  and they think it goes away."

Kirk responded that wokeism becomes "a almost Iron Dome missile defense system of the most unethical behaviors of corporate America," adding that "you cannot criticize" companies like Goldman Sachs, American Express, or Coca Cola "because they say 'hey, we got a bunch of trans people in our HR department and don't you know, today is December 18. Yes, which is, you know, you know, the lesbian Navajo Nation day or whatever.'" 

Gutfeld later added, "again, wokeism is designed as a shield. So if you look at every company that is doing wokeism, you could almost always find a reason. It’s like the old 'follow the money.' Follow the guilt," noting as examples Democrat donor Harvey Weinstein or disgraced FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried.