Charlie Sheen, who has historically been known for having more than a mild case of Trump derangement syndrome, recently opened up about changing his political views after taking a long look at the media he consumed.

The famous actor joined Megyn Kelly in an interview published last Friday to discuss his turn away from the left and his embrace of the right.

‘I’m going to do my own research like I’ve done with everything my entire life. I’m going to listen to other voices.’

Kelly asked Sheen if he was getting more comfortable with expressing his political views, to which he replied: “I had to feel something different. Because I think we all, or a lot of us, remain beholden to the structure of the house that we were raised in with politics, with religion, with the arts, with culture.”

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To a round of applause from the audience, Sheen then explained his shift in political views: “And I thought, ‘All right, I’m going to conduct an experiment.’ Literally, I’m going to change the channel. I’m going to do my own research like I’ve done with everything my entire life. I’m going to listen to other voices.”

Sheen continued: “I’m going to explore just hearing both sides of the goddamn story.”

During this process, Charlie Sheen realized the problem with the media he was consuming: “What I was so hypnotized by, in some ways, can be described as state-run media. I’m sorry, but it can. Legacy media is very much like that.”

After months of listening to alternative voices outside legacy media and doing his own research, Sheen had to admit that he had been stuck in an echo chamber.

Then came his moment of realization: “I felt really stupid. Just some of the stuff I’d bought into and some of the stuff I was worshipping and some of the people I was hating because I was told I was supposed to hate them.”

Though Sheen voted for Kamala Harris in 2024, he said it was a vote he wishes he could “have back” following his shift to the right.

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In 2013, Mississippi ranked 49th out of the 50 U.S. states in grade four reading achievement on the National Assessment of Educational Progress — the largest continuing national assessment of American students’ knowledge and capability in math, reading, science, and writing.

In what has repeatedly been dubbed a “miracle,” the state made its way up the list — to 29th in 2019 and then 10 spots higher to ninth place nationally for reading scores last year.

According to the NAEP, black students in Mississippi ranked third nationally last year among their cohort for reading and math scores; Hispanic students in the state ranked first in the nation for reading and second for math scores; and poor students in the Magnolia State ranked first for reading and second for math scores nationally.

‘No, it’s not impossible to teach children, and no, it’s not very costly.’

The assessment noted that “Mississippi is one of only a few states with improved NAEP scores since 2013. In most states, NAEP scores have been falling over the past decade.”

While there have been numerous attempts to explain Mississippi’s success, it appears the “Mississippi miracle” is attributable ultimately to the state’s 2013 Literacy-Based Promotion Act, which conservative commentator Rich Lowry recently noted effectively came down to adopting phonics and setting high standards for students.

Noah Spencer, a researcher at the University of Toronto’s economics department, analyzed the impact of the LBPA — the three pillars of which are improving teaching, identifying and helping kids with reading deficiencies, and holding back third-graders who can’t hack it on an end-of-year reading assessment — in a study published last year in the Economics of Education Review. Spencer found that:

the policy, which included investments in teacher training and coaching, early screening for and targeted assistance to struggling readers, and retention for deficient readers, increased both grade 4 reading and math test scores on a national assessment by 0.14 and 0.18 [standard deviations], respectively, for students with any amount of exposure to the policy, and by 0.23 and 0.29 SDs for students with K-3 exposure to the policy.

Spencer stressed the significance of these increases, citing previous research that found “that ‘children with test scores that are one standard deviation higher at age 12 report 1-2 more years of schooling by age 22’ in the lower- and middle-income countries they study.”

RELATED: Trump admin takes major step toward dismantling Department of Education

Linda McMahon. Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call Inc. via Getty Images

“While these estimates likely do not apply precisely to Mississippi’s context, it does seem reasonable to suggest that, given the LBPA’s sizable effects on test scores for children exposed from kindergarten to grade 3, it may also increase earnings for exposed cohorts in the future,” wrote Spencer. “The impressive effects of this policy change should be noted by policymakers in other jurisdictions.”

Lowry echoed this sentiment, noting that Alabama, Louisiana, and Tennessee, which have employed similar strategies, have also made gains.

“With reading scores nationally sliding the wrong way, especially for the bottom 10% of students, Mississippi and the other Southern states offer a beacon of hope,” wrote Lowry. “Their example shows that, no, it’s not impossible to teach children, and no, it’s not very costly. It’s a good sign that even California just passed a phonics bill.”

‘It’s really smart, local innovation at work.’

U.S. Secretary of Education Linda McMahon has extolled the approach taken in Mississippi, telling the New York Post in September, “What I’m seeing now is a great return to classical learning.”

“We’ve tried a lot of things, you know — No Child Left Behind and Race to the Top — and I believe they were done with the best of intentions, but they were not successful,” said McMahon. “But what we have clearly seen is the science of reading is successful.”

Despite the noted success of the LBPA in Mississippi, some lawmakers around the country still haven’t taken the hint.

Democrats in Michigan, for instance, reportedly repealed similar reforms, eliminating, for instance, an A-F grade-ranking system for every public school in the state and scrapping the requirement that illiterate third-graders get held back.

Whereas last year, the average score of fourth-grade students in Mississippi for reading was 219/500 — higher than the national average score of 214 — the average score in Michigan was 209, which was lower than scores in 31 other states and jurisdictions.

The Mississippi Department of Education announced on Nov. 13 that 85% of the Magnolia State’s third-graders passed the reading assignment required to transition to grade four, a 1-percentage-point increase over last year.

The U.S. Department of Education noted, “Mississippi’s literacy climb may be called ‘miracle,’ but it’s really smart, local innovation at work.”

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On November 7, country music artist Kelsea Ballerini released a single titled “I Sit in Parks.” The two-minute track is a heart-wrenching lamentation of the forsaking of motherhood for career aspirations — a rare message from the secular music world.

The chorus: “Did I miss it? By now is it / A lucid dream? Is it my fault / For chasin’ things a body clock / Doesn’t wait for? I did the d**n tour / It’s what I wanted, what I got / I spun around and then I stopped / And wondered if I missed the mark.”

Ballerini, a 32-year old divorcee with no children, vulnerably admits in the ballad that she chose the freedom to pursue her music career over becoming a mother — a decision that causes her intense regret and pain.

The song has garnered a ton of attention — triggering the girlboss feminist crowd and delighting pro-natalists who hope the feminist stronghold keeping young women single, childless, and on the hamster wheel of careerism is finally beginning to crack.

Allie Beth Stuckey, BlazeTV host of “Relatable,” falls into the latter category, believing the song indicates a positive cultural shift.

“I can see how this vulnerability is speaking to what a lot of people feel. This is certainly not Christian, but it’s kind of reflecting this trend that we’re seeing among a lot of young people … wanting to go back to tradition, wanting to go back to church, wanting to go back to marriage, wanting to actually have children,” she says.

The lie so many young women fall for, Allie explains, is that motherhood isn’t for everyone. Feminist dogma convinced them that being a mom is burdensome and a hindrance to personal ambition. The essential truth it leaves out, however, is that while one can reject motherhood, one cannot reject the motherhood instinct. It is wired into women by God and will always be a central piece of their nature.

“This motherhood instinct that we all have when we’re little girls — it doesn’t go away,” says Allie. “We take care of our pets; we take care of our dolls; we take care of our flowers because that is the instinct that God has given us in general as women.”

Even the women who say they never want a husband or children can’t escape the pull of motherhood. It’s usually just channeled toward their “fur babies,” houseplants, businesses, or elsewhere. And it leaves them deeply unfulfilled.

Allie acknowledges that marriage and childbearing aren’t God’s plan for everyone, but motherhood nonetheless is. That instinct to cultivate and nurture can be and should be channeled toward people in some capacity via ministry, mentorship, or mission work. That’s the only thing that will fill the motherhood cup if marriage and having children aren’t in the cards.

Ballerini’s “I Sit in Parks” is a bleak and honest picture of what happens when women forsake motherhood altogether or channel it in unhealthy directions: a deep loneliness that hollows women out.

To hear more of Allie’s analysis, watch the episode above.

Want more from Allie Beth Stuckey?

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