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Right Wing Revolution: How to Beat the Woke and Save the West
The United States of America has long been the lone beacon of freedom and sensibility in a chaotic world. Now, she is under threat from a lethal ideology that seeks to humiliate and erase anyone who does not bow at its altar. The threat in question? Wokeism. In Right Wing Revolution: How to Beat the Woke and Save the West, Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk drags wokeism out of the shadows and details the exact steps needed to stop its toxic spread. Right Wing Revolution is not a cautionary tale. Wokeism has already seeped into every aspect of American society. Instead, Charlie Kirk looks to inform and prepare every reader for the coming confrontation against one of the most existential threats the United States has ever faced.
336 pages, Hardcover
First published June 11, 2024
217 people are currently reading
5097 people want to read
About the author
Charlie Kirk
16 books835 followersCharlie Kirk was the Founder and President of Turning Point USA, a national student movement dedicated to identifying, organizing, and empowering young people to promote the principles of free markets and limited government.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 75 reviews
December 26, 2024
wow this book is so bad. i hate charlie kirk. this book is so stupid it’s only possible use is as kindling for a fire.
edit: yes i read this book cover to cover. As someone who identifies as liberal, I make a point to read political literature by authors with views that I don’t agree with to better understand conservative views and arguments so that I don’t fall subject to conformation bias. However, as a college educated woman- the most eloquent way to describe this book is FLAMING TRASH. staying skinny to defeat the “woke agenda” ??? please. Even besides that, this manifesto offers poorly thought out and incredibly idealistic steps to conquer the left agenda, and truly just wastes time talking bashing liberals and the state of the country. My intake review was written out of spite and in the heat of the moment- but I stand by my one star rating for all of the above reasons.
edit: yes i read this book cover to cover. As someone who identifies as liberal, I make a point to read political literature by authors with views that I don’t agree with to better understand conservative views and arguments so that I don’t fall subject to conformation bias. However, as a college educated woman- the most eloquent way to describe this book is FLAMING TRASH. staying skinny to defeat the “woke agenda” ??? please. Even besides that, this manifesto offers poorly thought out and incredibly idealistic steps to conquer the left agenda, and truly just wastes time talking bashing liberals and the state of the country. My intake review was written out of spite and in the heat of the moment- but I stand by my one star rating for all of the above reasons.
October 14, 2024
Despite loving to watch clips of Charlie on YouTube, for some reason I went into this book with fairly low expectations - and then got completely blown away! This is a book that every Christian/Conservative/anyone with common sense, should read and implement immediately! Charlie clearly outlines the dangerous of the Woke mind virus, gives actionable steps on how to stop it at the Federal, State and Local levels, and finishes the whole thing of with a giant right hook when he unapologetically says that the false religion of Wokeness is truly a spiritual battle of Good vs Evil that will never be won until you submit yourself to the greater belief of a faith in Jesus Christ and let his love transform every aspect of your personal life. I was a big fan and supporter of Charlie before, but after reading this, I can firmly state that I think his is one of the most important voices God has given us for such a time as this. Go get this book and read it today!
Favorite Quote: “I know that not every conservative in America is Christian or even religious. You might be non-religious yourself. So, am I telling you that if you are serious about pushing back wokeness, not just delaying its victory but actually defeating it, you should become Christian? Yes. Yes I am.”
Favorite Quote: “I know that not every conservative in America is Christian or even religious. You might be non-religious yourself. So, am I telling you that if you are serious about pushing back wokeness, not just delaying its victory but actually defeating it, you should become Christian? Yes. Yes I am.”
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September 11, 2025OH MY GOSH this is heartbreaking. R.I.P.
I do not agree with a single bit how Charlie Kirk speaks to nor his approaches to engage with the woke left but it’s 2025 y’all you don’t get killed for VOICING YOUR OPINIONS unless you live in communist fucking China or some shit hole WTF America
I do not agree with a single bit how Charlie Kirk speaks to nor his approaches to engage with the woke left but it’s 2025 y’all you don’t get killed for VOICING YOUR OPINIONS unless you live in communist fucking China or some shit hole WTF America
January 17, 2026
I still can’t believe he’s gone. This book just made me realize that much more how brilliant he was and how where we are in the culture and the conservative wins we have had in the last couple years were largely due to him.
November 25, 2024
Despite some instances of idealism, Kirk’s message in this book really resonated with me. This book has inspired me, and even strengthened my Faith. Wayward souls have replaced objective truth and moral value with moral relativism that offers quick pleasure and satisfaction, and the woke mind virus is running rampant in our country. Ideas such as education vs. credentialism, new age innovation vs traditionalism, and emphasis on keeping red states truly red further confirmed my conservative political outlook.
Kirk has further fueled my future desire to marry a good woman out of college, raise my kids rural, keep them out of the public school system, and provide for a family centered around Christ. Highly recommend this book for any person living in the US these days!
Kirk has further fueled my future desire to marry a good woman out of college, raise my kids rural, keep them out of the public school system, and provide for a family centered around Christ. Highly recommend this book for any person living in the US these days!
October 8, 2025
When Charlie Kirk went to be with the Lord, I decided that it was finally time for me to read one of his books. And since this one has been sitting on my bookshelf for quite some time, I chose this one.
And oh my goodness .... the advice in this book was amazing. Before I read this, for example, my mindset towards marriage was "I'll wait a few years until I'm done with my education. I'm not ready yet." Now? Well, after that admonishment in Charlie's chapter about getting married, I have changed my mind. I'm going to start getting my life in order, and start being serious about finding my future husband. I'm also going to try and be more fit and be a lover of old things. But most importantly, I am going to be more serious about my faith. Some would say Charlie was too blunt, but honestly, it was very refreshing to be told what I needed to hear, not what I necessarily want to hear. Thank you, Charlie, for writing this book. We miss you. <3
And oh my goodness .... the advice in this book was amazing. Before I read this, for example, my mindset towards marriage was "I'll wait a few years until I'm done with my education. I'm not ready yet." Now? Well, after that admonishment in Charlie's chapter about getting married, I have changed my mind. I'm going to start getting my life in order, and start being serious about finding my future husband. I'm also going to try and be more fit and be a lover of old things. But most importantly, I am going to be more serious about my faith. Some would say Charlie was too blunt, but honestly, it was very refreshing to be told what I needed to hear, not what I necessarily want to hear. Thank you, Charlie, for writing this book. We miss you. <3
January 6, 2026
When I bought this book on Amazon it was listed as “Political Commentary and Opinion.”
It’s not.
I’ll get into that in a bit but I wanted to first highlight a couple moments that were particularly funny:
“Study the French Revolution closely, and it had many of the hallmarks of wokeness. Hysterical overreactions over something as simple as a person’s word choice, purity spirals by true believers, the cynical weaponization of ideology to eradicate personal foes, the creation of a new ‘year zero’ that rejects all the heroes and traditions of the past, and the use of high-flown language about ‘liberty’ and ‘democracy’ to entrench oligarchy and tyranny.”
First, this is not a “close study” of anything. This is a superficial compare and contrast and the things that Charlie notes as being “hallmarks of wokeness” are so vague that they can be applied to any time in history.
Second, there is nothing going on in the United States that is comparable to the French Revolution. Later, Charlie makes an even sillier assertion that we’re seeing something similar to the Cultural Revolution here in the United States. The answer to that is also “No.”
This is an example of how a lot of right wing dialogue plays out like that one scene from The Office. After a mean spirited prank Michael Scott proclaims “I am the victim of a hate crime.” and when he’s corrected says “Well, I hated it!”
Same thing here. You were not on a proscription list for “bourgeois tendencies” and sentenced to firing squad. You called someone a racial slur online and got canned. You can debate how and why that’s an acceptable/unacceptable response; you can call it “wokeness” or racism but, at least be realistic about it. A “Hysterical overreaction” indeed.
The second moment: “The speech climate on campus in the late 1980s was much like it is today, unpleasant, shrill, and often oppressive.”
You might be forgiven for wondering (as I do) how Charlie would know about the “speech climate on campus in the late 1980s.” His entire college career amounted to precisely one semester at a local community college; his only personal experience with “speech climates” on any college campus was when he toured colleges with TPUSA and provoked college students whose reactions he recorded and then monetized. Charlie specifically wanted to hear “unpleasant,” “shrill,” and “aggressive” people because those people made him money.
Then of course Charlie was born in 1993.
It is also worth stating that in the 1988 presidential election George H. W. Bush won the 18-29 age demographic 52% to Dukakis’ 48%. By that measure it would appear that the unpleasant, shrill and aggressive people were conservatives just as they are today.
So with those two parts out of the way I’ll go back to the beginning of my review. This book is not political commentary it’s “self-help.”
Self-help has always been a genre ripe for bottom feeding hucksters and Right Wing Revolution is a prime example and you can see the “political commentary” label slough off right at the beginning when Charlie engages with “Wokeness.”
Charlie first sets out a definition. “Wokeness is a mental illness that believes itself to be the cure.” (25) That’s not a specific definition. For instance you can swap out “Wokeness.” “OCD is a mental illness that believes itself to be the cure.” That definition fits based on what we know of OCD and yet it doesn’t tell you anything about what OCD is/isn’t or why it is the way that it is. Charlie next decides that he’s going to chart the origins of “wokeness” and he manages to do an even worse job.
On the same page as his “definition” he says that Wokeism “actually got its start and was popularized on the left, specifically from a slang term used by black Americans, ‘Stay Woke.’ The phrase first emerged…in the 1930s, but its modern burst of popularity began with Erika’s Badu’s 2008 song ‘Master Teacher.’” (25) Three paragraphs later Charlie says: “It’s hard to find the origin of big concepts like wokeness.” (26) Despite just saying that Wokeness originated in the 1930s and was popularized in a 2008 song. Pulling a Ronald Reagan he then says that “In the case of when wokeness as we know it today, it’s really a matter of how far back you want to go.” (26) So, Charlie goes back to 2011. Later he’ll go back to 1789 with the French Revolution and finally at the end of the chapter mull that “Perhaps wokeness…is just a potential within liberalism itself.” So, that takes Wokeism back to 1689 with John Locke’s “Two Treatises of Government,” considered the founding text of political liberalism. To summarize then Charlie has narrowed down the birth of Wokeism to somewhere between 1689 and 2011. In Geologic Time this would be remarkably precise. In history this is so imprecise to be functionally useless.
With no definition, and no origins Charlie moves on to describe what “Woke” is. You might assume that considering its use in the African-American community that Woke is about racism.
Wrong.
“The police were being defunded, their statues were being toppled, their children’s schools were filled with transgender ideology, and suddenly they were being told to call Hispanics ‘Latinx.’” (26) Later on too many movie sequels are also “woke.” On page 28 Charlie mulls if “woke” is actually “an ideological virus unleashed by the intelligence apparatus of [the Soviet Union.” He decides that that’s going too far but that iPhones, Facebook, and Twitter (27) could have created it. At the top of page 29 it was probably because of ‘60s student radicals. Three quarters down on page 29 it was because of socialist college organizations in 1905.
A few more sentences later Charlie starts connecting this to the “big left wing thinkers of the 19th century.” Such as? Fuck you, that’s who!
So “Woke” is about racism, it’s LGBTQ “ideology,” it’s Hollywood movies (specifically sequels, and reboots), it’s related to socialism, it’s maybe a creation of the KGB, it’s the act of removing statues, it’s Obama, it’s related to smartphone technology…
Political commentary engages with opposing philosophies all the time but within a framework. You can argue against Marxism and in turn argue against “socialist realism,” Marxist readings of text, political applications of Marxism and so on. But there is a definition to go off of; Marxism is a form of class analysis within capitalism. Its political application is Marxism-Leninism.
“Wokeism” is simply everything that Charlie hates.
Mutatis mutandis, Right Wing Revolution cannot be understood as political commentary. Instead, it is best read as “self help.” The section titles reflect that mindset while Charlie includes lists of self betterment techniques including exercising, reading the Bible, going to church (a correct non-Woke church of course), homeschooling, etc.
As a self-help book I have no judgement except that Charlie’s closest adherents aren’t particularly happy, or well put together people. I predict that I will be seeing quite a few of them in the comments shortly.
It’s not.
I’ll get into that in a bit but I wanted to first highlight a couple moments that were particularly funny:
“Study the French Revolution closely, and it had many of the hallmarks of wokeness. Hysterical overreactions over something as simple as a person’s word choice, purity spirals by true believers, the cynical weaponization of ideology to eradicate personal foes, the creation of a new ‘year zero’ that rejects all the heroes and traditions of the past, and the use of high-flown language about ‘liberty’ and ‘democracy’ to entrench oligarchy and tyranny.”
First, this is not a “close study” of anything. This is a superficial compare and contrast and the things that Charlie notes as being “hallmarks of wokeness” are so vague that they can be applied to any time in history.
Second, there is nothing going on in the United States that is comparable to the French Revolution. Later, Charlie makes an even sillier assertion that we’re seeing something similar to the Cultural Revolution here in the United States. The answer to that is also “No.”
This is an example of how a lot of right wing dialogue plays out like that one scene from The Office. After a mean spirited prank Michael Scott proclaims “I am the victim of a hate crime.” and when he’s corrected says “Well, I hated it!”
Same thing here. You were not on a proscription list for “bourgeois tendencies” and sentenced to firing squad. You called someone a racial slur online and got canned. You can debate how and why that’s an acceptable/unacceptable response; you can call it “wokeness” or racism but, at least be realistic about it. A “Hysterical overreaction” indeed.
The second moment: “The speech climate on campus in the late 1980s was much like it is today, unpleasant, shrill, and often oppressive.”
You might be forgiven for wondering (as I do) how Charlie would know about the “speech climate on campus in the late 1980s.” His entire college career amounted to precisely one semester at a local community college; his only personal experience with “speech climates” on any college campus was when he toured colleges with TPUSA and provoked college students whose reactions he recorded and then monetized. Charlie specifically wanted to hear “unpleasant,” “shrill,” and “aggressive” people because those people made him money.
Then of course Charlie was born in 1993.
It is also worth stating that in the 1988 presidential election George H. W. Bush won the 18-29 age demographic 52% to Dukakis’ 48%. By that measure it would appear that the unpleasant, shrill and aggressive people were conservatives just as they are today.
So with those two parts out of the way I’ll go back to the beginning of my review. This book is not political commentary it’s “self-help.”
Self-help has always been a genre ripe for bottom feeding hucksters and Right Wing Revolution is a prime example and you can see the “political commentary” label slough off right at the beginning when Charlie engages with “Wokeness.”
Charlie first sets out a definition. “Wokeness is a mental illness that believes itself to be the cure.” (25) That’s not a specific definition. For instance you can swap out “Wokeness.” “OCD is a mental illness that believes itself to be the cure.” That definition fits based on what we know of OCD and yet it doesn’t tell you anything about what OCD is/isn’t or why it is the way that it is. Charlie next decides that he’s going to chart the origins of “wokeness” and he manages to do an even worse job.
On the same page as his “definition” he says that Wokeism “actually got its start and was popularized on the left, specifically from a slang term used by black Americans, ‘Stay Woke.’ The phrase first emerged…in the 1930s, but its modern burst of popularity began with Erika’s Badu’s 2008 song ‘Master Teacher.’” (25) Three paragraphs later Charlie says: “It’s hard to find the origin of big concepts like wokeness.” (26) Despite just saying that Wokeness originated in the 1930s and was popularized in a 2008 song. Pulling a Ronald Reagan he then says that “In the case of when wokeness as we know it today, it’s really a matter of how far back you want to go.” (26) So, Charlie goes back to 2011. Later he’ll go back to 1789 with the French Revolution and finally at the end of the chapter mull that “Perhaps wokeness…is just a potential within liberalism itself.” So, that takes Wokeism back to 1689 with John Locke’s “Two Treatises of Government,” considered the founding text of political liberalism. To summarize then Charlie has narrowed down the birth of Wokeism to somewhere between 1689 and 2011. In Geologic Time this would be remarkably precise. In history this is so imprecise to be functionally useless.
With no definition, and no origins Charlie moves on to describe what “Woke” is. You might assume that considering its use in the African-American community that Woke is about racism.
Wrong.
“The police were being defunded, their statues were being toppled, their children’s schools were filled with transgender ideology, and suddenly they were being told to call Hispanics ‘Latinx.’” (26) Later on too many movie sequels are also “woke.” On page 28 Charlie mulls if “woke” is actually “an ideological virus unleashed by the intelligence apparatus of [the Soviet Union.” He decides that that’s going too far but that iPhones, Facebook, and Twitter (27) could have created it. At the top of page 29 it was probably because of ‘60s student radicals. Three quarters down on page 29 it was because of socialist college organizations in 1905.
A few more sentences later Charlie starts connecting this to the “big left wing thinkers of the 19th century.” Such as? Fuck you, that’s who!
So “Woke” is about racism, it’s LGBTQ “ideology,” it’s Hollywood movies (specifically sequels, and reboots), it’s related to socialism, it’s maybe a creation of the KGB, it’s the act of removing statues, it’s Obama, it’s related to smartphone technology…
Political commentary engages with opposing philosophies all the time but within a framework. You can argue against Marxism and in turn argue against “socialist realism,” Marxist readings of text, political applications of Marxism and so on. But there is a definition to go off of; Marxism is a form of class analysis within capitalism. Its political application is Marxism-Leninism.
“Wokeism” is simply everything that Charlie hates.
Mutatis mutandis, Right Wing Revolution cannot be understood as political commentary. Instead, it is best read as “self help.” The section titles reflect that mindset while Charlie includes lists of self betterment techniques including exercising, reading the Bible, going to church (a correct non-Woke church of course), homeschooling, etc.
As a self-help book I have no judgement except that Charlie’s closest adherents aren’t particularly happy, or well put together people. I predict that I will be seeing quite a few of them in the comments shortly.
September 28, 2024
Charlie Kirk is absolutely fantastic.
I disagree with some of the stuff he says on women looking for men, but you’re not gonna agree with 100% of what people say all the time.
Otherwise, well written and thought-provoking. I especially enjoyed the stuff on reframing leftist thoughts- who is to say their worldview is the correct one, as we’ve all been pushed and led to believe.
Let’s bring back traditional values and ideals- they’ve kept us alive and well for millennia.
Good job Charlie.
I disagree with some of the stuff he says on women looking for men, but you’re not gonna agree with 100% of what people say all the time.
Otherwise, well written and thought-provoking. I especially enjoyed the stuff on reframing leftist thoughts- who is to say their worldview is the correct one, as we’ve all been pushed and led to believe.
Let’s bring back traditional values and ideals- they’ve kept us alive and well for millennia.
Good job Charlie.
December 24, 2024
The book is definitely split into sections of different subject matter. The first part is a rehashing of all the damage woke has done to our country and citizens. If you are conservative and politically astute you may find this first section old news, however political newbies could learn a lot. I found the next two sections extremely logical and well thought out, basically a call to arms (not literally) to all of us individually on how to defeat the woke left. The final section was somewhat like a self help book, which I usually detest, but I really enjoyed his practical, thoughtful and common sense advice and have started to incorporate some of it into my own life. Highly recommend this book for anyone interested in politics or someone who’s not quite sure where they fall on the political spectrum.
July 10, 2025
4 ⭐️
AHHH!! Go me!! This is the first non-fiction book I’ve read since picking back up on reading. I definitely struggled, and I find it even now hard to rate it, given it’s a lot different than rating fiction. I settled on 4 stars because I thought it was a masterfully created piece of literature, one that had deep thought, effort, and time put into it. I love Charlie Kirk’s political commentary, and I agree with most of his views. I did take a star off due to how difficult it was for me to personally get into it, and at times I felt as if I was not the target audience. Some points were hard to swallow, others rooted in truth. I love that Charlie is a christian, and you can truly see that in his writing. I feel as if I will walk away from reading this with new habits id like to practice. So proud of myself!!
AHHH!! Go me!! This is the first non-fiction book I’ve read since picking back up on reading. I definitely struggled, and I find it even now hard to rate it, given it’s a lot different than rating fiction. I settled on 4 stars because I thought it was a masterfully created piece of literature, one that had deep thought, effort, and time put into it. I love Charlie Kirk’s political commentary, and I agree with most of his views. I did take a star off due to how difficult it was for me to personally get into it, and at times I felt as if I was not the target audience. Some points were hard to swallow, others rooted in truth. I love that Charlie is a christian, and you can truly see that in his writing. I feel as if I will walk away from reading this with new habits id like to practice. So proud of myself!!
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August 10, 2024INEVITABILITY WINS. GOD WINS. TRUMP WINS. DECENTRALIZATION WINS. WORLD PEACE ENSUESHERE TO SPREAD THE GQSPEL AND SHARE KNQWLEDGE. 💚 U ALL AND WISH YOU ALL SUCCESS AND BLESSINGS. SPREAD 💚 AND SHARE YOUR BLESSINGS WITH OTHERS. GOD BLESS YOU ALL AND MAY GOD BLESS 🇺🇸 TRUMP 202DIGITAL SOLDIERS... MIKE FLYNN EXPLAINED. YOURE NOW ONE. WWG1WGA 🐸 LFG! WE ARE THE STORM! 🌩 DONT LET ME HAVE TO TELL YOU GUYS.. SPREAD IT. Q WAS RIGHT. PEPE = Q ANON. PEPE BEHIND TRUMP AT 2020 ARMY/NAVY GAME. MILITARY IN CONTROL. THE BEST IS YET TO COME. GOD BLESS IT HAD TO HAPPEN THIS WAY. TRUMP WON 2020 BUT THE PEOPLE NEEDED TO WAKE UP TO EXPOSE THE CORRUPTION IN DC AND AROUND THE WORLD. GREAT AWAKENING - PRECIPICE - STORM ⛈️- PREPARE YOUR BAGS AND 🍿SHEMA YISRAEL ADONAI ELOHANU ADONAI ECHAD 🎅 ✡️ BIBLICAL
November 8, 2024
I love Charlie Kirk! Got a lot of good insight into the woke mind virus. I only gave it 3 stars because I’m not a big fan of “How to” books, they take me longer to get through.
March 19, 2025
Really well written and will clear points as to how to really make an impact in the world today!
September 17, 2025
Love it, thank you Charlie for everything.
October 7, 2025
- content:
charlie kirk is trying to propagate a chauvinist world view, in which women should be pretty, thin, raise children, keep their mouth closed and their legs open (a slightly more euphemistic phrasing namely on pp. 272-273). but because this doesn't sound very nice, he hides it by giving fortune cookie advice ("become happy by making your own bed every day") and attributing it to jordan peterson.
kirk tells young men: "learn a skill in order to make money", while he suggests to young women: "watch your weight and do your best to maintain your attractiveness" (p. 227)
- writing style:
not bad, but also not appropriate for his age. sounds more like a 17year old who wants to seem smart (& a little bit funny)
- sources:
no real literature, almost only links (to youtube-videos, twitter posts, fox news articles and sketchy right-wing-blogs).
so far, i was able to learn at least something in every book i read. this book is a real exception.
charlie kirk is trying to propagate a chauvinist world view, in which women should be pretty, thin, raise children, keep their mouth closed and their legs open (a slightly more euphemistic phrasing namely on pp. 272-273). but because this doesn't sound very nice, he hides it by giving fortune cookie advice ("become happy by making your own bed every day") and attributing it to jordan peterson.
kirk tells young men: "learn a skill in order to make money", while he suggests to young women: "watch your weight and do your best to maintain your attractiveness" (p. 227)
- writing style:
not bad, but also not appropriate for his age. sounds more like a 17year old who wants to seem smart (& a little bit funny)
- sources:
no real literature, almost only links (to youtube-videos, twitter posts, fox news articles and sketchy right-wing-blogs).
so far, i was able to learn at least something in every book i read. this book is a real exception.
July 25, 2025
I like how he tells the truth about how bad Wokeism is. At first, it was good, but it is slowly becoming a propaganda. Brainwashing children and teens into hating Republicans, religion, old fashioned ways of living life, and hating people that disagree with them. People that support Wokeism are indeed angry, hateful, and miserable.
What I disagree with Charlie on is about Religion. People don’t need to be religious to be happy and healthy. Society just needs to go back to following common sense and common knowledge.
What I disagree with Charlie on is about Religion. People don’t need to be religious to be happy and healthy. Society just needs to go back to following common sense and common knowledge.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
July 9, 2024
Charlie Kirk has incredible wisdom for being so young. I am encouraged and excited to take the steps he suggests for saving our country. It won’t be easy but is absolutely POSSIBLE if we take action!
July 20, 2025
Well organized top down plan of attack. Look out 2026!
January 24, 2026
Hard to rate. Wouldn’t have read it if this wasn’t a book club pick. While I agree with post points of the book, this was like reading a textbook and just fact after fact after fact and it became so boring
November 1, 2025
This is the first time I have ever started a book when the author was alive and finished it after they passed. I started about a week before he was killed and needless to say it took me a while to pick it back up again
This book is filled with knowledge and wisdom. I love the way he writes he cracked me up a few times in this. He continually points to Jesus as the best way to solve our countries problems but still gives some great other ways to fight for our country.
I will put a disclaimer that this is a pretty big read with a lot of statistics, facts, and big ideas. If you’re not willing to sit through that kind of thing this may not be the book for you but I encourage and challenge any conservative to read it. Let’s get fired up and stop being stagnant.
This book is filled with knowledge and wisdom. I love the way he writes he cracked me up a few times in this. He continually points to Jesus as the best way to solve our countries problems but still gives some great other ways to fight for our country.
I will put a disclaimer that this is a pretty big read with a lot of statistics, facts, and big ideas. If you’re not willing to sit through that kind of thing this may not be the book for you but I encourage and challenge any conservative to read it. Let’s get fired up and stop being stagnant.
January 25, 2026
Want to Read
Man, I love Charlie. I've wanted to read his books ever since his passing. Because I was just gifted Right Wing Revolution, it looks like I'll be starting with this one! I'm honestly so excited.
I've flipped through it already and it's a literal guidebook on how to live against the leftists and bring America back to the way it was founded. As a young person myself, I'm really looking forward to his advice on marriage and establishing the traditional and Biblical roles of men and women back in society. Our country needs so much help and Charlie was truly the spark of this right wing revolution.
Man, I love Charlie. I've wanted to read his books ever since his passing. Because I was just gifted Right Wing Revolution, it looks like I'll be starting with this one! I'm honestly so excited.
I've flipped through it already and it's a literal guidebook on how to live against the leftists and bring America back to the way it was founded. As a young person myself, I'm really looking forward to his advice on marriage and establishing the traditional and Biblical roles of men and women back in society. Our country needs so much help and Charlie was truly the spark of this right wing revolution.
November 3, 2025
This book really motivated me to want to do more to make our country and this world a better place! I learned so much as well. What a smart man Charlie Kirk was. I’m looking forward to reading more of his books.
April 13, 2025
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September 22, 2025
As a mother, teacher, and Christian (Catholic), this book is so important. Charlie speaks thoughtfully and intentionally about so many topics that weigh on my heart. God Bless America and Charlie Kirk.
November 22, 2025
If only he could see the revolution he started. RIP Charlie, we’ll take it from here ❤️🤍💙
December 24, 2025
Here is my piece that I wrote about Charlie Kirk's book "Right Wing Revolution."
Who Gets to Suffer? Charlie Kirk, Cults, and the Calculus of Worthiness
In the beginning, there was a family — or so we like to imagine. One long, tangled line stretching back to the first tribe huddled around the first fire. We build stories and nations on the idea of who belongs. But beneath all our talk of unity, there’s always been a countercurrent: the temptation to draw boundaries, to say, “You are not part of us. You do not count.” This is the temptation that echoes in Charlie Kirk’s “Right Wing Revolution,” and the reason history, again and again, bows to the charismatic leader of the cult.
I. Purveying Suffering, Policing Mercy
Reading Kirk is to encounter a worldview obsessed with boundaries — who’s in, who’s out, who “deserves” to suffer, and who gets their pain denied or ignored. Much of modern right-wing rhetoric hinges on a strategy as old as humanity itself: the weaponization of memory. Our histories are not only written by the victors, but by those who’ve mastered the art of exclusion — those who assign value not based on mercy, but on allegiance, bloodline, ideology.
Kirk frames contemporary America as a family under siege, beset by enemies (“the left,” “the globalists,” anyone who doesn’t recite the right catechism). But at the heart of his argument is a simple trick of the light: suffering is not universal, but owned. Our side’s pain counts, the other’s does not. Our wounds are real, yours are invented, exaggerated, a threat to the sanctity of the “family.”
This is not uniquely American, nor uniquely of our moment. The World: A Family History of Humanity chronicles, in grim detail, the ways human societies — from ancient tribes to modern nations — have always policed who gets to belong, and who pays the price when the center cannot hold. The “family” has always come with rules.
But what feels especially jarring in Kirk’s vision is the way it is cloaked in Christian language — a rhetoric of love, mercy, and suffering borrowed from the Gospels but warped into a system for rationing empathy. The original Christ is a man who extends wild mercy, embracing lepers and traitors, the unclean and the enemy; his beatitudes lift up precisely those most excluded from normal calculations of worth.
Yet in Kirk’s hands, there is a curious reversal: the calculus of love becomes a test of belonging. Who deserves the balm of healing? Who deserves to be heard? Kirk draws the boundaries — and in so doing, takes on, even usurps, the role not of a wild, radical Christ but of a broker of worthiness. The message is no longer “love anyway”; it’s “love, if.” Mercy is a privilege, not a wild birthright.
II. Why We Fall (Again and Again) for the Strongman
But what makes this approach so magnetic, so effective? Why do people line up, century after century, to be told who belongs, who’s out, and who can be cast aside?
There’s a deep current in human nature, as C.S. Lewis wrote in The Law of Human Nature, towards order, clarity, and certainty. The mess of open-armed mercy is terrifying; it dissolves the lines that make us feel safe, exceptional. Mercy invites chaos. And so, the voice that offers certainty is always powerful: “Follow me, and you’ll be protected. Follow me, and we will draw the line together.”
History doesn’t care about the titles we give these people. They might be preachers, founders, CEOs, messiahs, or talk radio hosts. We recognize them now — Adam Neumann promising transcendence through a co-working company, David Koresh at Waco offering salvation through obedience, Jim Jones reimagining paradise by annihilating those on the outside. The stories change, but the pattern holds.
Each time, we are drawn in not because we are evil, but because we are desperate. There is comfort in handing over our agency to someone who claims to know. There is a kind of relief in relinquishing the burden of universal compassion. Loving, truly loving, is costly; it threatens status, security, certainty. Much easier to love those who are allowed “inside” and ignore — or scorn — the rest.
And the cult always promises: your pain will be real, and witnessed. The pain of those outside? Not your concern. If they suffer, it’s the proof that they don’t deserve to belong.
III. The Usurpation of Mercy
Charlie Kirk is no Jim Jones, and the stakes in his movement are not pitched at the fever of Waco or Jonestown. But the underlying dynamic is not so different. The offer is the same: join the family, define the outsiders, find meaning in denial. Mercy, here, becomes transactional — extended to those who pass the tests, withdrawn from the rest.
This is a shadow Christ, a Jesus remade in the image of the group, presiding over a new beatitude: “Blessed are those who belong, for they shall inherit the comfort of forgetting.” But this is not what the Gospels teach. If anything, the historical Christ is endlessly frustrating to those who want neat lines, playing havoc with every tribal rule. His table is always too strange, too full of the wrong people — prostitutes, traitors, heretics, foreigners.
By taking up the mantle of “savior,” Kirk and his kin aren’t carrying forward the old family so much as multiplying the locks on its doors. They turn the radical openness of love — agape — into a system for rationing it. The hardest part to admit is that it works. History keeps proving our attraction to the strongman, the new Moses, the infallible “us.”
IV. Why We Keep Falling
So why do we keep falling for it? Why, after Waco, after Jonestown, after WeWork and Theranos and every purity cult from the dawn of time, do we still choose the narrow gate and the charismatic judge standing at its entrance?
Because it’s hard. Because true mercy looks like chaos, and belonging can feel like death. Because it hurts to watch our own stories get muddied by the pain of people we’ve been told are not “ours.” Because there is relief in letting someone else decide who we have to care about.
It should be said: the longing for meaning, for belonging, isn’t evil. It’s human. The challenge is to resist the cheap comfort of the boundary-maker, to refuse the deal that trades away compassion for certainty.
V. Conclusion: The Oldest Temptation
Kirk’s “Right Wing Revolution” is not the beginning of something new; it’s the latest iteration of one of our oldest temptations: the offer to belong at someone else’s expense, the call to measure love and mercy and withhold them from those not “like us.” He isn’t the first, and he won’t be the last. The only hope for something different is a family history of humanity that keeps the table open, the boundaries in flux, and the invitation wide enough for anyone with wounds — which is, when you get right down to it, everyone.
Leanne Edwards
Who Gets to Suffer? Charlie Kirk, Cults, and the Calculus of Worthiness
In the beginning, there was a family — or so we like to imagine. One long, tangled line stretching back to the first tribe huddled around the first fire. We build stories and nations on the idea of who belongs. But beneath all our talk of unity, there’s always been a countercurrent: the temptation to draw boundaries, to say, “You are not part of us. You do not count.” This is the temptation that echoes in Charlie Kirk’s “Right Wing Revolution,” and the reason history, again and again, bows to the charismatic leader of the cult.
I. Purveying Suffering, Policing Mercy
Reading Kirk is to encounter a worldview obsessed with boundaries — who’s in, who’s out, who “deserves” to suffer, and who gets their pain denied or ignored. Much of modern right-wing rhetoric hinges on a strategy as old as humanity itself: the weaponization of memory. Our histories are not only written by the victors, but by those who’ve mastered the art of exclusion — those who assign value not based on mercy, but on allegiance, bloodline, ideology.
Kirk frames contemporary America as a family under siege, beset by enemies (“the left,” “the globalists,” anyone who doesn’t recite the right catechism). But at the heart of his argument is a simple trick of the light: suffering is not universal, but owned. Our side’s pain counts, the other’s does not. Our wounds are real, yours are invented, exaggerated, a threat to the sanctity of the “family.”
This is not uniquely American, nor uniquely of our moment. The World: A Family History of Humanity chronicles, in grim detail, the ways human societies — from ancient tribes to modern nations — have always policed who gets to belong, and who pays the price when the center cannot hold. The “family” has always come with rules.
But what feels especially jarring in Kirk’s vision is the way it is cloaked in Christian language — a rhetoric of love, mercy, and suffering borrowed from the Gospels but warped into a system for rationing empathy. The original Christ is a man who extends wild mercy, embracing lepers and traitors, the unclean and the enemy; his beatitudes lift up precisely those most excluded from normal calculations of worth.
Yet in Kirk’s hands, there is a curious reversal: the calculus of love becomes a test of belonging. Who deserves the balm of healing? Who deserves to be heard? Kirk draws the boundaries — and in so doing, takes on, even usurps, the role not of a wild, radical Christ but of a broker of worthiness. The message is no longer “love anyway”; it’s “love, if.” Mercy is a privilege, not a wild birthright.
II. Why We Fall (Again and Again) for the Strongman
But what makes this approach so magnetic, so effective? Why do people line up, century after century, to be told who belongs, who’s out, and who can be cast aside?
There’s a deep current in human nature, as C.S. Lewis wrote in The Law of Human Nature, towards order, clarity, and certainty. The mess of open-armed mercy is terrifying; it dissolves the lines that make us feel safe, exceptional. Mercy invites chaos. And so, the voice that offers certainty is always powerful: “Follow me, and you’ll be protected. Follow me, and we will draw the line together.”
History doesn’t care about the titles we give these people. They might be preachers, founders, CEOs, messiahs, or talk radio hosts. We recognize them now — Adam Neumann promising transcendence through a co-working company, David Koresh at Waco offering salvation through obedience, Jim Jones reimagining paradise by annihilating those on the outside. The stories change, but the pattern holds.
Each time, we are drawn in not because we are evil, but because we are desperate. There is comfort in handing over our agency to someone who claims to know. There is a kind of relief in relinquishing the burden of universal compassion. Loving, truly loving, is costly; it threatens status, security, certainty. Much easier to love those who are allowed “inside” and ignore — or scorn — the rest.
And the cult always promises: your pain will be real, and witnessed. The pain of those outside? Not your concern. If they suffer, it’s the proof that they don’t deserve to belong.
III. The Usurpation of Mercy
Charlie Kirk is no Jim Jones, and the stakes in his movement are not pitched at the fever of Waco or Jonestown. But the underlying dynamic is not so different. The offer is the same: join the family, define the outsiders, find meaning in denial. Mercy, here, becomes transactional — extended to those who pass the tests, withdrawn from the rest.
This is a shadow Christ, a Jesus remade in the image of the group, presiding over a new beatitude: “Blessed are those who belong, for they shall inherit the comfort of forgetting.” But this is not what the Gospels teach. If anything, the historical Christ is endlessly frustrating to those who want neat lines, playing havoc with every tribal rule. His table is always too strange, too full of the wrong people — prostitutes, traitors, heretics, foreigners.
By taking up the mantle of “savior,” Kirk and his kin aren’t carrying forward the old family so much as multiplying the locks on its doors. They turn the radical openness of love — agape — into a system for rationing it. The hardest part to admit is that it works. History keeps proving our attraction to the strongman, the new Moses, the infallible “us.”
IV. Why We Keep Falling
So why do we keep falling for it? Why, after Waco, after Jonestown, after WeWork and Theranos and every purity cult from the dawn of time, do we still choose the narrow gate and the charismatic judge standing at its entrance?
Because it’s hard. Because true mercy looks like chaos, and belonging can feel like death. Because it hurts to watch our own stories get muddied by the pain of people we’ve been told are not “ours.” Because there is relief in letting someone else decide who we have to care about.
It should be said: the longing for meaning, for belonging, isn’t evil. It’s human. The challenge is to resist the cheap comfort of the boundary-maker, to refuse the deal that trades away compassion for certainty.
V. Conclusion: The Oldest Temptation
Kirk’s “Right Wing Revolution” is not the beginning of something new; it’s the latest iteration of one of our oldest temptations: the offer to belong at someone else’s expense, the call to measure love and mercy and withhold them from those not “like us.” He isn’t the first, and he won’t be the last. The only hope for something different is a family history of humanity that keeps the table open, the boundaries in flux, and the invitation wide enough for anyone with wounds — which is, when you get right down to it, everyone.
Leanne Edwards
November 26, 2025
I didn't object to the "anti-woke" political message as much as the personal advice portion of the book. Telling men and women they should get married early and have plenty of babies, and that men don't like tattoos on women (not true IMHO), and that everyone should convert to Christianity. I have no objection to the evangelical lifestyle, but it's not for everyone. Also, transgendered people are individuals with souls and dreams and romances, and not all insane, like the author seems to say. Still, having said all of that, this is simply my thoughts on the subject matter: I think this is an important historical book, and I would recommend reading it for yourself, if the objections I detail here don't deter you. I read political books of all persuasions, and I felt it was important to read this one.
March 7, 2025
Full disclosure I went into this book assuming I'd give it 1/5 but was somewhat surprised. If you're reading this review it's because you already know who Kirk is, and you've already made up your mind. If you support Kirk and his work this review isn't for you. This is for my fellow liberals who are looking at reviews in order to laugh at the book without spending time reading it.
The audience of Right Wing Revolution (RWR) are fellow MAGA conservatives who aren't active enough. The goal is to stir into action the MAGA supporters who are happy to passively watch Fox and share Chris Rufo stories on FB and X. In the first few chapters I worried this would be 'how to insight lone wolf terrorists'. Kirk calls this book "an offensive book", "not a book for would-be monks", "This is a book about launching a right-wing revolution". Luckily it was not that bad. The calls to action are actually why I gave the book two stars instead of one.
RWR is broken up into 4 sections; what the problem is, how to change the mindset, what to do, and how to improve yourself. The first section is just your general red meat to the conservative base. It's really just 40 pages of Kirk complaining about the ways things be. Look at this person who made a cringe TicTok. This professor said black people can't be racist. Crime went up in this city with a progressive DA. Tans people, trans people, and more trans people. Kirk is obsessed with trans people. Every other page in the beginning of the book he's complaining about their existence. The three main groups of "what's wrong in America these days" can be summed up as; trans people exist, white people are the real oppressed group, and soft on crime, Soros funded, DA's. Kirk tries to answer the question "What is woke?" But fails and ends up just giving a list. Going through the 15 pages of listing of "woke is ..." it comes down to "woke is thing I don't like".
Quick aside: As a general rule I don't fact check sources when reading a book. If the author makes a claim like "Teacher Mr. Foobar was fired just because he prayed one time at school" I'll just accept that it's true and see if what follows can be supported by that.
The second section, "Changing your Attitude", is where Kirk really shines. Kirk is so damn good at framing a narrative. He will never talk about trans people without throwing in "man in a dress" or "castrating children". Does the sentence or subject need these phrases; no. But Kirk knows the power of framing an issue and if you can just say "castrating children" every time you talk about laws banning healthcare you win. Finding the right phrase or issue is hard, but the strategy is effective and works on our monkey brains. Kirk also called out a defeatist attitude. One thing that Trump has taught us is that acting like you're winning is almost as good as actually winning.
The main call to action was almost decent. Most of it was reasonable civic involvement. Call your reps, get involved in state and local government. The issue is that you have to dig through so much shit to get to the truffle. Kirk has an entire chapter about how all of the problems with wokeness today are because of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, and repealing it should be the end goal of fighting woke. His chapter on the Federal government is oddly prophetic to Trumps first month in office. He literally has a section "The man who would be (like a) King." calling on a strong executive who can ban all the things he doesn't like. Get rid of all the woke generals and bring back Schedule F.
The sections on state and local government are full of just as much authoritarian garbage but the small nugget of truth under it all is that you will have much more of an impact if you get involved at a local level. Your state Senator has a million different interests pulling them in different directions. You are just one of those voices. But at a city council meeting? You're one of 5 people who show up, and because of that your voice carries so much more weight. This kind of activism is so powerful and has an actual impact on your life.
The last section kind of came out of right field. It's a short self help booklet. Workout, have a family, go to church kind of shit. The main reason Kirk has it is because woke = ugly and atheist, MAGA = hot and christian. There's not much to say about this section. It's, fine. If Kirk telling you to take care of your health is what turns your life around that's good I suppose. The advice is sexist, but just in the normal run of the mill trad-con way. Men need to get a job that can raise a family on one income. Women need to keep up their good looks and be a stay at home mom.
This is the first time I've really spent time with Kirk beyond the occasional podcast clip that makes it way around the internet. And while there's still a dozen little things that I could talk about at the end of the day it all just boils down to Kirk is an authoritarian. He's anti-Liberal who wants the government to enforce the lifestyle he thinks is best. If given the choice of living in an Liberal society where you have to see cringe things at a pride parade, or an authoritarian state like Hungry or Russia, Kirk would choose the authoritarian state. Kirk is also incredibly lazy. The sources where
all either opinion blogs or news articles. Even when trying to talk about data trends or objective data, he would never cite the actual source, but rather a news article talking about the data. One of his sources is literally just "https://archive.fo/rkb64" a dead link that goes nowhere. He has a section on single family zoning where he says that we need more of it because cities are blue. "Lower-density, single-family housing creates conservatives". He doesn't know why, but because high density areas vote blue we should be against that. He constantly talks about homeschooling and fighting against the woke indoctrination in the schools, all to make sure kids never hear a viewpoint that goes against his. Kirk is a deeply uncurious person who's likes to talk about reading Plato and The Federalist Papers, but is incapable of wrestling with the ideas or having a unique thought. Kirk is a master of playing on emotions and rallying a base. And for that you should pay attention to what he has to say.
The audience of Right Wing Revolution (RWR) are fellow MAGA conservatives who aren't active enough. The goal is to stir into action the MAGA supporters who are happy to passively watch Fox and share Chris Rufo stories on FB and X. In the first few chapters I worried this would be 'how to insight lone wolf terrorists'. Kirk calls this book "an offensive book", "not a book for would-be monks", "This is a book about launching a right-wing revolution". Luckily it was not that bad. The calls to action are actually why I gave the book two stars instead of one.
RWR is broken up into 4 sections; what the problem is, how to change the mindset, what to do, and how to improve yourself. The first section is just your general red meat to the conservative base. It's really just 40 pages of Kirk complaining about the ways things be. Look at this person who made a cringe TicTok. This professor said black people can't be racist. Crime went up in this city with a progressive DA. Tans people, trans people, and more trans people. Kirk is obsessed with trans people. Every other page in the beginning of the book he's complaining about their existence. The three main groups of "what's wrong in America these days" can be summed up as; trans people exist, white people are the real oppressed group, and soft on crime, Soros funded, DA's. Kirk tries to answer the question "What is woke?" But fails and ends up just giving a list. Going through the 15 pages of listing of "woke is ..." it comes down to "woke is thing I don't like".
Quick aside: As a general rule I don't fact check sources when reading a book. If the author makes a claim like "Teacher Mr. Foobar was fired just because he prayed one time at school" I'll just accept that it's true and see if what follows can be supported by that.
The second section, "Changing your Attitude", is where Kirk really shines. Kirk is so damn good at framing a narrative. He will never talk about trans people without throwing in "man in a dress" or "castrating children". Does the sentence or subject need these phrases; no. But Kirk knows the power of framing an issue and if you can just say "castrating children" every time you talk about laws banning healthcare you win. Finding the right phrase or issue is hard, but the strategy is effective and works on our monkey brains. Kirk also called out a defeatist attitude. One thing that Trump has taught us is that acting like you're winning is almost as good as actually winning.
The main call to action was almost decent. Most of it was reasonable civic involvement. Call your reps, get involved in state and local government. The issue is that you have to dig through so much shit to get to the truffle. Kirk has an entire chapter about how all of the problems with wokeness today are because of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, and repealing it should be the end goal of fighting woke. His chapter on the Federal government is oddly prophetic to Trumps first month in office. He literally has a section "The man who would be (like a) King." calling on a strong executive who can ban all the things he doesn't like. Get rid of all the woke generals and bring back Schedule F.
The sections on state and local government are full of just as much authoritarian garbage but the small nugget of truth under it all is that you will have much more of an impact if you get involved at a local level. Your state Senator has a million different interests pulling them in different directions. You are just one of those voices. But at a city council meeting? You're one of 5 people who show up, and because of that your voice carries so much more weight. This kind of activism is so powerful and has an actual impact on your life.
The last section kind of came out of right field. It's a short self help booklet. Workout, have a family, go to church kind of shit. The main reason Kirk has it is because woke = ugly and atheist, MAGA = hot and christian. There's not much to say about this section. It's, fine. If Kirk telling you to take care of your health is what turns your life around that's good I suppose. The advice is sexist, but just in the normal run of the mill trad-con way. Men need to get a job that can raise a family on one income. Women need to keep up their good looks and be a stay at home mom.
This is the first time I've really spent time with Kirk beyond the occasional podcast clip that makes it way around the internet. And while there's still a dozen little things that I could talk about at the end of the day it all just boils down to Kirk is an authoritarian. He's anti-Liberal who wants the government to enforce the lifestyle he thinks is best. If given the choice of living in an Liberal society where you have to see cringe things at a pride parade, or an authoritarian state like Hungry or Russia, Kirk would choose the authoritarian state. Kirk is also incredibly lazy. The sources where
all either opinion blogs or news articles. Even when trying to talk about data trends or objective data, he would never cite the actual source, but rather a news article talking about the data. One of his sources is literally just "https://archive.fo/rkb64" a dead link that goes nowhere. He has a section on single family zoning where he says that we need more of it because cities are blue. "Lower-density, single-family housing creates conservatives". He doesn't know why, but because high density areas vote blue we should be against that. He constantly talks about homeschooling and fighting against the woke indoctrination in the schools, all to make sure kids never hear a viewpoint that goes against his. Kirk is a deeply uncurious person who's likes to talk about reading Plato and The Federalist Papers, but is incapable of wrestling with the ideas or having a unique thought. Kirk is a master of playing on emotions and rallying a base. And for that you should pay attention to what he has to say.
April 30, 2025
3.75. I think he is one of the most intelligent people of our time BUT I wasn’t overly into this book. I tend to like reading intellectual concepts and have a harder time with some of the logical steps he was suggesting. A lot of it was above my head but would definitely recommend to people looking for practical steps. A lot of what he said is what you hear him talk about frequently, though I found his comments about weight and weight loss extremely toxic. Didn’t hate it, didn’t love it.
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