You're listening to The Buck Sexton Show podcast, make sure you subscribe to the podcast on the iHeartRadio app or wherever you get your podcasts. Hey, welcome to the Buck Sexton Show. On this episode, Daniel Schmidt is with us. He is a conservative activist. He is a student going to be a junior at the University of Chicago and already making waves. I've seen him on Fox News, I've seen his pieces online. Daniel, great to have you on the show.
Hey, thanks for having me. How are you all right?
Man?
It's been an interesting interesting time recently. You know, we had those Supreme Court decisions came down and it really
put tremendous focus on admissions on college campuses. I know you haven't been able to hear from, say, the president of you Chicago, but as a current college student at an elite school, what do you think the response of the president the admissions committee you Chicago and other places like it is going to be to the Supreme Court decision that says it's kind of racist to do what they were doing.
Well, it's actually really funny because the day of that announcement, my administration sent an email to every single student and the subject line was we care about diversity or something like that, and the whole email is basically like, we are troubled by these news and we're going to do everything we can to ensure diversity still remains a focus at our school. And I know Harvard sends some more emails. They all send some more emails, So you know, my
prediction is they're just going to totally find loopholes. They're going to get rid of test scores.
At my school.
For example, the sat act is already test optional, and I think that's very deliberate. It's to place other emphasis on the essays, on the personality arts, which is totally subjective, and I think it's going to allow these emission officers, who, let's face our all liberal are all bleeding hearts, to allow more black kids in, more Hispanic kids in, and
less white kids in, less Asian kids in. You know, I'm a lower middle class white kid, and something I always say is that I look around in my school and I have met very few middle class white kids. It's like a total shock. When I got to school, I found plenty of rich white kids, and I found plenty of rich black kids, but the class, the middle class whites. Those are the group. That's the group that's
totally missing. And I mean, I hope there are more now because affirmative action is gone, but I'm not totally optimistic. I think these administrations are going to find loopholes because they're so dedicated to this religion of diversity.
So you think they're probably gonna keep the numbers of preferred minority categories the same irrespective of this decision.
Yeah, I think so, because you know, it's how it's been for the past twenty years. And if they don't do it, they'll be called racist. And you know, it's so funny because the whole thing about affirmative action, and I'm not the first one to say this, but you know when they say, oh, you know, underprivileged people are getting in, I have not met a single black kid who's from like the ghetto or from the hood. These black kids, they come from school as, they come from
boarding schools. They don't come from places where you know, there really are underprivileged people. So the whole thing about affirmative action is such a farce. But yeah, I think you're just gonna do other things to keep the numbers the same.
How is it to be a an out and about conservative on the U Chicago campus these days. I mean, I was a college Republican at Amherst up in Massachusetts back in oh, god, now, early two thousands. So it's been twenty years. So tell me, Daniel, what's it like these days? I mean, are you do you feel like you're empowered in some sense because at least now with the Internet and with social media, you can share your voice more freely. Or what kind of concerns do you have?
I mean, just what's it like bring us into the life of a campus conservative in twenty twenty three.
Well, I'll give you a little bit of idea. So the first month I started college, you know, I'm a debate kid. I enjoy debate. I couldn't participate in a debate tournament because I'm white. That's not a joke. This debate tournament was only open to non white people. This is my first month in college, and so I kind of knew from that point, Okay, this is what the next four years are going to look like. And I had to do something about it. It had to speak up.
And you're exactly right. The Internet, Twitter, specifically has really allowed this sort of new activism, journalism to happen. I don't know what I would do twenty years ago if the Internet didn't exist. I think I would who knows. I will say this though, Funnily enough, you know a lot of people expect me to be like, oh, you know, I get attacked constantly, I get being up. Surprisingly, I've
never had a single negative interaction of someone. I don't know if that's because they're scared of me or because they just don't care. You know, tons of talking on social media, tons of anonymous whispering, but I've never had anyone come up to me and been like, oh, you're evil, get out of here. So if any students are listening, you might be surprised that if you start speaking up and you're confident about it, you could actually get pretty far.
And you know, it's funny because literally last week, The New York Times dropped like a hit piece on me, and I kind of knew from that point, Okay, I must be doing something. Okay if The New York Times is going after me because I'm literally just a nineteen year old kid, but yeah, yeah.
Hold on, hold on, coody, you can't just skip over this. Probably the New York Times has done hit pieces on me too, my friends, so good job, welcome, welcome to the club. But I guess they're supposed to with me. I do a pretty big radio show, and some people in the movement know who I am. With you, your nineteen year old kid of me. You're already making splashes here you are on this podcast. What were they doing a hit piece on you? Though? Like? What did it say? What have you been up to?
Yeah?
So this all started a few months ago when I was registering for classes and I found this one class. It was called the Problem of Whiteness. And you know, as the title suggests, like what is this saying that there's a problem with white people or whiteness and that therefore there's a solution. I mean, can you imagine if there were a class problem of blackness, problem with any noess? I mean, it would be national outreach. So I saw this class, and you know, I used my Twitter account
primarily to raise awareness of this stuff. So I wrote a thread about the class. I included the course description, which was calling whiteness like a problem with world making effects, and I noted the professor teaching it because I think it's cru sort to know who these people are. A few days later, this professor is calling me a cyber terrorist. She's saying my tweets may encourage an armed school shooter,
and she is demanding my school expel me. She filed two separate complaints to get me expelled, saying I basically led some national harassment campaign against her. So that was all in the span of a few months. Things are quiet, and then go back just a few weeks ago, or actually two weeks ago, and out of nowhere, the New York Times dropped this article about me. They're calling me an instigator. They're basically criticizing my school, you Chicago, They're
saying they should have punished me. And then just a few days after that, CNN drops an article written by some Obama spokesperson, former Obama spokesperson. She's saying I bully people in the silence. She's saying I should be expelled. I mean, it really is a national thing. So I was totally surprised by that, but I guess it means I must be doing something right.
And this professor has just going after me NonStop.
So you still have interactions with the professor.
No, fortunately not.
I'm a little scared because I don't want to be accused of stalking or get a restrained order.
Yeah you're smart, Yeah, yeah, yeah.
You got you gotta. You always got to assume that the left. You can't even give any any daylight, any opening for them to do something nefarious, because I can assure you, Daniel, you know, I've got twenty years of experience dealing with this and they will, right, So if you open the door, they will. I want to come back here in a second. I did you actually take any of the classes in the Problem with Whiteness or do you just see the class description? Like did you show up an audit one?
Well, I was.
Going to, but then the class temp actually got temporarily postponed because I guess she got so many negative emails. She got scared. She demanded increase policing, she demanded this whole thing. And when the class was later taught in the spring, there was no way I'm gonna. I just didn't feel safe taking this class, Like is she going.
Yeah, of course at that point. Yeah, I'd just be so curious. I'd be so curious to see it. I
did take just so you know. It was gosh. Two thousand and three, I took a class in sociology, which is, you know, you're already dealing with sociology right, the American Right, it was called, and there were three conservatives in a class with I don't know, forty students in it or something, and it was the biggest caricature you'll be You'll not be shocked at all to know that the American Right in this Amherst College course was just about ignorance, racism,
and sexism. That's it, That is the America. I was like, oh, wow, okay, that's that's a really, that's a really.
I mean that was before Trump. When Trump came, I mean that totally changed everything. Now it's all about him and how he's racist, evil, So it's even worse now. But yeah, I'm not surprised.
Let's let's I want to get to gender gender identity politics on campus and you can tell us some of the stories about that in a second. We'll get back to it. But first off, how's for everybody at home, how's your energy level these days? Because if you feel like you could use a boost, if you feel like just your overall focused energy drive fitness could use some help, you gotta check out Chalk. These supplements are phenomenal that are helping so many men and women in this audience
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Now?
What's it like these days?
Yeah?
Well, in many classes, the first day of class is always go around, say your name, say your pronouns, and really how a class. Yeah, and if you don't do it, you know, everyone already knows you're a conservative. So you know, it's been a rule for me never. I've never said anything like that so far, and I knew my first day going in everyone's already looking at me when I just say hey, my name's Daniel, and then there's silence afterward. They expected me to say whatever. So yeah, no, that's
totally mandatory. And another thing that's just totally crazy that your listeners may be surprised by is these debate tournaments. I mentioned earlier how I couldn't participate in one because I'm white. It's not just that at the beginning of every round you have to say trigger warnings and if you don't you can actually lose around. I almost lost around. I don't do debate anymore because it's a joke. But when I was doing it initially, I almost lost the round.
We were talking about like the Korean War or something I didn't give a trigger warning for, like war casualties, death destruction, and they SAIDY almost lost, So I mean, it is totally you know, you hear these stories and you assume it's exaggerated.
It's not. It's really as bad as it seems.
Wait, so it's it's mandatory to give a trigger warning in college debate. Now you and if you don't, you get puts off.
Yeah, no, you can lose the round because you know you're doing harm to people. It's I'm not exaggering about that. It's actually insane.
I did. I did high school debate for a little bit, and and even then I felt like it was always very politicized, like if you were arguing, you'd have to argue both sides that right, was Lincoln Douglas style debate. But if they got the sense that you I'm telling you, if they got the sense of your politics, the judges you were, you were in bad shape, bad shape usually. So the gender politics stuff, do you have a lot of conversations on campus about, you know, should the transgender
students use these bathrooms, those bathrooms, et cetera. You know what I mean?
Yeah, let me think not really, you know, uh, we have frat, we have sororities.
I haven't heard much about women trying to join or that's in that.
Not really, I'm trying to think you know my schools, and I will say this, My school is like a very nerdy school.
We're kind of known for like the nerdiness.
So it is relatively apolitical, which I think is probably the reason why I have succeeded so much. I think if I went to like Yale or UC Berkeley, I would probably have been kicked out by now. So I do have to give credits to my school. But it's been pretty common that aspect.
Yeah, well, look that's a good thing. Sounds like you found a place where I mean, I say Amherst. When people would show up, it's all it was all Patagonia fleeces and people wearing sweats and playing soccer in the quad. And then when the parents would drop their kids off and go, it just turned into a Marxist indoctrination factory.
Like everyone just all the professors. I found the one conservative political truly the sole conservative political science professor on the campus, Daniel, and he was it was so tense with his colleagues that they made him leave the political science It's building, Like there was a building where all the professors were co located for their offices, and he was with the admin of like the dean of housing and things like that, because he wasn't able to even
share a building space with other professors who were obviously enormous libs and completely out of their minds. Come back into more with Daniel Schmidt here, and I also want to ask you what it's like to be at your age and already be doing media and stuff and some of your plans, all that good stuff. But the My Pillow team never disappoints. Their close out sale right now on the slippers is phenomenal. Okay, twenty five dollars a pair. Twenty five dollars a pair. This is the best price
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my pillow dot com. Click on the radio listeners square and type in my name. Buck is the promo code get these slippers twenty five dollars the amazing Daniel, do you have you have my slippers yet? They'd be great for campus. You love the my slippers.
I need to get them. I definitely the cop those we did?
We didna get you hooked up with a pair of my slippers. They're phenomenal. So you you did? Uh, you've interviewed Tucker, right, you've done Fox. I mean, how did you get into this game? And also, are you an East Coast guy? You sound to me like you're an East Coast guy.
That's funny.
I'm actually I'm actually from Tennessee, from just like a totally normal town.
So no, well you're like my co host Clay, who's from Nashville and does not has no Southern accident whatsoever. None. Right, yeah, that's so, So how'd you get into all this? Like, you know, you're you're a young guy. You're doing media, you know here you are. I mean, gosh, I was just trying to show up on time for my crappy sociology class when I was your age. So how'd you get into it?
Well?
Listen, I mean I didn't have any grand plans. I still don't have some grand strategy. I kind of just you know, I call out what I think is wrong and I defend what I think is true. That's kind of been my guiding motto. And I started it when I when I got into college, and I've had a lot of success. And you know, you mentioned Tucker Carls and he reached out to me after I asked a question to an Applebaum.
I don't know if you're familiar for this. You know, total lib journalist.
She came to my school and I asked her about Hunter Biden's laptop and her answer was like totally ridiculous. And the video clip got a lot of views, and I guess you saw it.
I remember that. That's right. I should have endewed that. My friend. You had a viral moment just by asking. She's a historian slash lib who's written a lot of books about the Soviet Union and Ukraine, things like that. Stalin, and you asked about the Hunter Biden laptop at some form of Chicago and what did she say?
Her answer was just literally like I don't care, Like that was totally here answer. And even the kids in the audience were looking at me like, what the heck did you just say? I mean, this was the biggest story of the time. I asked her, I said, do you think it was wrong that you claimed the story was rushing? This info turned out to be true. The New York Times confirmed that her answer was I don't care, and I you know, just the arrogance was just totally insane.
Even David Axelrod, you know, Obama's chief strategist, was sitting next there.
He couldn't believe it. He's like, Okay, well, need to shut it down now.
So but but listen, even that example and out the examples. I didn't even know that it was going to be recorded. I didn't have any grand plans going in. I just did it because I got the mic and I was like, let me ask her this stuff. So, you know what I want to achieve in the next two years I'm in college. It's not it's not fame or anything like that. I just want to inspire other students to speak up to do something about it. Because I come from a
single mother household. I don't come from any extraordinary backgrounds, and I've just been doing this and I've you know, now New York Times, I guess is attacking me, so I must be doing something right. So there are any other students listening in or just you know, hear about me, all I want to do is inspire them, show that you can actually achieve more than you think. And you know I've had you know, there is this policy on my school that banned unvaccinated students from dining halls. I
pressed my administration. They reversed it. So just small things like that, you can actually make a bigger difference than you think, and you can also inspire other students around you, and before you know it, there's this like cascading effect where you actually may be surprised how many kids agree with you. So that's been my main goal is just sort of to inspire. But yeah, the Tucker interview was phenomenal. I'm blessed to have that opportunity.
Have you had professors, even if just quietly and in back channel, reach out to you to support you and say they appreciate what you're doing. Have you been surprised at some of the support you've received from people in the administration, not publicly, but just to let you know that they think that you're taking an ethical approach, et cetera.
Yeah, I have had a few professors. Actually a professor I had last quarter, I had no idea. He liked me, and then in the last day of class he was like, hey, I love what do you do it with that problem
of whiteness class? I was like, really, I mean so again, I just want to stress, like you never know, well, like a lot of you know, there's this idea that these universities are just totally liberal dominated, and of course they are, but I think we've gotten to a point where it's so extreme that more and more kids are saying enough is enough. And if you take a stand, you'd be surprised how many professors, students, etc.
Are actually wanting to agree with you.
Ask you some gen Z questions we get back, just so I you know, so I'm up to speed on these things. You're going to be my gen Z correspondent, Like, is it really true that all of you guys and girls get your news from YouTube and TikTok Now? But I'm going to hold off on that for one second. Daniel. The value of for life savings and retirement accounts is
dependent in part on our stock market. Take into account what effects our stock market's performance, and ask yourself, do you really want to put all your marbles in one basket. It's just not wise. All it takes is volatility, and all of a sudden your market can show your accounts are way down. It makes the premise of owning gold right now, this time in history, smart gold has both an investment and a hedge against inflation. Makes a lot of sense. So is my precious metals vendor of choice,
the Oxford Gold Group. I've been buying gold from them for years and my gold holdings have done very well for me. I've got them here in person physically possession of gold and silver. I've got coins, I've got bars, So why not have some gold and silver on hand? Call the Oxford Gold Group. It's who I use to, who I trust. The calls free. The people on the
receiving end of your call are knowledgeable and trustworthy. Eight three three four three zero buck eight three three four three zero b U c K. Tell me about Like, do you watch mister beast? Is that is he like? As this is going on YouTube and there are people on YouTube that I see they've I'm told they've got like a billion followers or something. Crazy, and I'm like,
I don't even know. Is it really YouTube and TikTok that just totally dominate the younger generation now, so like eighteen to eighteen to thirty basically, are you guys all just YouTube and TikTok all the time?
Yeah, I would say it's actually TikTok. You know the app is. I mean, it's the number one app in the world. I think it has more trafficked than Google now if and I'm mistaken, So yeah, I mean it's really interesting because pretty much everyone my age is on TikTok. But I would say only maybe twenty to thirty percent of people my age are on Twitter, So I think Twitter is more for like the older crowd, the more educated crowd, if you are the people who really care
about politics. But pretty much everyone my age is on TikTok, which is why super influential app. And if you have China involved, if you have these people pushing this stuff, you can you can influence the youth incredibly on TikTok, whereas Twitter, it's it's less on the youth and more on you know, political people and more older crowd, So you're gonna get TikTok growing.
App Are you going to get into politics? Do you think when you graduate? I know you've got a couple of years. Is that the plan?
You know? The way I see it is, I don't want to, like, if if I have a calling, I'll get into politics. I think the problem now is so many people just get into politics, you know, just for the fun of it or just because you know fame. But you know, I think one of the things I grew up with the Founding Fathers is only getting the politics.
I feel like you need to.
So if I get a calling, maybe, But I'm more interested in journalism, activism. I think that's where the real power is now is in media. I think you can really have you know, you can call it. The powerful people are there.
Daniel Schmid, Daniel worship. People go to follow you, keep up with your work, all that stuff.
Sure, so you can see me on Twitter.
That's where I post my activism, journalism, that sort of stuff. It's at real d Schmidt. That's the word real, the letter D and then s c h M my DT.
Thank you so much. I really appreciate it.
Thanks for being with us. Everybody