What's with these people with pitchforks for the Ben Shapiros and the "others" of the world?
I hear all these bad things about the "others". How crazy the "others" are. I believe it.
Then when I look into and research those "other" people they are usually totally reasonable.
I don't understand all the hate for the "others".
Covid struck and I became increasingly disappointed with the information I was receiving. It began conflicting with actual scientific research I was reading. I stepped outside my bubble. Boy is the world a bigger and more interesting place. Ben Shapiro promotes old timey family and economic values. That's it. His views would be mildly left to anyone in the 70s or 80s. Of course, to some, old timey family and economic values make him "literally Hitler." Not to me. I don't agree with most of his values but I also think he has a right to speak and discuss his views. He's clearly not crazy, and the world has space for people who believe in nuclear families and proletarian work ethics.
I'll never again make the mistake of not challenging the information I consume. I am now very suspicious of anyone who tells me that challenging authority is wrong.
He makes this statement in that article: "Any incident of white-cop-on-black-suspect violence must be chalked up to the racist system" -- as an attempt to discredit system racism. Only those on the far right believe this. I don't believe Ben himself believes this, but I do believe that he understands that his target market loves it. It's an absurd statement.
The whole article completely misses what system racism is about and why its a useful construct to eliminate racism. Again, Ben seems like a relatively bright guy who I think probably actually understands it. I think that his financial interest is in not understanding, convoluting it, and selling to a group that is willing to suck this up.
The old timey values group wants us to stop talking about all this race stuff. Blacks have it better now than ever before -- what more do they want?! And don't get them stated on the gays and Muslims. But Shapiro pushes it in a way that outright racists can read it and say, "Hey this respectable guy says what I think -- except he uses Harvard JD words to say it!"
> Only those on the far right believe this
I as hyperbolic as the phrase you are critical of, and equally absurd.
Ben Shapiro is pro-vax, does not believe the election was stolen, and has had the FBI arrest alt-right people who made death threats against him multiple times over the years. "Poster child of the movement?" Unless you consider alt-right to be completely the same as far-right, that was never the case. No movement makes death threats against their poster child.
It’s kind of a useless label at this point, since it’s thrown around so much.
So more a label that they slapped on themselves.
A white nationalist launched a webzine called “The Alternative Right”.
Then “His term was shortened to "alt-right" and popularised by far-right participants of /pol/, the politics board of web forum 4chan.”
So other people used the term alt-right and somehow it’s linked to a webzine?
But anyways, thanks for the link, I wasn't aware that at least wikipedia makes that connection. I've alway heard "alt-right" used as "a vague collection of far right people that fall outside the Republican Party". So they could include white supremacists, but aren't exclusively white supremacists.
That's not the bit that people have a problem with, and it's completely disingenuous to frame it that way. They have a problem with his views on transgender people, his views on gay people, his views on same-sex parents, and the views of the people he supports and spreads the agenda of.
To get frustrated that nobody is willing to do that with them.
This is so easy to say about someone you disagree with. But the other side will say the same about your heroes.
Almost anyone in the public eye will say things to get in the public eye. That's what they are good at. In politics, those things will be by definition controversial to some people. Not to mention the opposing media will purposefully twist what you say into controversial things.
I don't see how Ben shapiro is special in this in any way.
Ah yes, Ben Shapiro will radicalize young men to... get married and start a family? I really don't understand the harm from the examples you mentioned. He offers alternative voices that don't get much attention by CNN or NYT. Literally every other media outlet will have the same 5 or 10 same talking heads and officials telling you the science du jour.