Illinois State University’s Turning Point USA (TPUSA) hosted comedian Alex Stein on Monday in the Old Main Room at the Bone Student Center.
Stein, known as “pimp on a blimp” and “prime time 99,” hosts “Prime Time with Alex Stein” on Blaze Media, an American conservative media network.
Stein started by speaking about Derek Lopez, the ISU teaching assistant who recently lost his job, and thanked the audience for being present.
“I know [ISU] has had a lot of controversy; some TA lost his job. I guess he’s mad at me for being conservative,” Stein said.
Stein later answered a question about Lopez.
“Having more class and respect is always the best … so be very careful. That’s the problem; these people are on [selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors] or antidepressants, so they’re impulsive and might try to punch [people],” Stein said.
Stein also described Lopez as someone who “is probably on antidepressants … but anybody that acts like that is screwed up.”
“He’s a girl. That’s what a girl does. He had a very feminine attitude by doing that,” Stein said.
Stein spoke about Charlie Kirk, who visited ISU back in April. Stein said that the only reason he was there was because of Kirk.
“Charlie Kirk was not just a good Christian, a good human being and a guy who actually cares about this country. He was a guy that was all about second chances,” Stein said.
Stein also shared his views on gender roles.
“We need to go back to more traditional roles. Women need to look pretty, men need to look ugly and that’s how we live in society,” Stein said. “We need to take back our masculinity in society and not be afraid to be misogynistic.”
Dietetics and nutrition graduate student Katie Moyer was an attendee who enjoyed the event.
“I was actually a part of Turning Point [during] my undergrad. I think it’s really important for people to open themselves up to hear other people’s side of things,” Moyer said.
“I did notice there was a lot more security. Both sides can be violent, but I feel like there’s a lot of violent rhetoric being pushed from the left,” Moyer continued. “That makes them feel more comfortable that this is something that is acceptable because they know other people on the left are going to accept their behavior.”
College of DuPage sophomore criminal justice major Madison Sanchez discussed the event’s environment.
“I already knew a bit about Alex Stein, so I kind of knew what to expect. It’s going to be a little raunchy,” Sanchez said. “I think at the beginning there was definitely an air of hesitance, especially since Turning Point is trending on Twitter, but I believe as it went on everybody got a little more comfortable.”
After the event, a protester was holding a “Fascists not welcome here” sign. The protester, Eddie, shared their reason for protesting.
“I’m here because the fascists need to leave the campus and go far, far away,” Eddie said. “To me, it’s a bit obvious that the resurgence of anti-trans rhetoric is seeing this massive boost in popularity after these events.”
“To a degree, campuses are often on the front line of the ideological battle in this country,” Eddie continued. “This is an organization that inherently makes people unsafe. Their presence here makes a great number of people feel unsafe.”
The Vidette reached out to TPUSA for a statement but received no comment.
