📄 Extracted Text (11,318 words)
[00:00:00] [Applause]
[00:00:04] [Music]
[00:00:06] Thank you. And thank you, Kelly. Good
[00:00:09] evening, ladies and gentlemen. My name
[00:00:11] is Kyle Pune, and I am the president of
[00:00:13] Young Americans for Freedom here at Iowa
[00:00:16] State University. After hundreds of
[00:00:18] emails, push back, and attempts from
[00:00:20] different parties to cancel this
[00:00:22] lecture, we are finally here.
[00:00:33] It would also not be a YAF event without
[00:00:36] beginning with a quote from Ronald
[00:00:38] Reagan.
[00:00:40] When you can't make them see the light,
[00:00:42] make them feel the heat. So, thank you
[00:00:45] for all joining us here tonight. I have
[00:00:47] the honor of introducing our guest
[00:00:48] speaker, Ben Shapiro.
[00:00:57] First, I would like to thank those that
[00:00:59] made this event possible. A special
[00:01:01] thank you to Fred and Linda Allen for
[00:01:03] their continued and generous support of
[00:01:05] this lecture series. Thank you to the
[00:01:08] Thank you to the YAF staff that gave us
[00:01:10] the ability to host this event and for
[00:01:12] their many hours of work behind the
[00:01:14] scenes, especially Patrick Coyle. Thank
[00:01:17] you to all the other YAF staff that
[00:01:19] provide incredible guidance and
[00:01:21] resources to students on campus. Without
[00:01:23] you, none of this would have happened.
[00:01:25] Thank you to the Iowa State Committee on
[00:01:26] Lectures, which is funded by student
[00:01:28] government. Thank you for your donation
[00:01:30] towards the honorarium and venue.
[00:01:32] Finally, thank you for the Ames Police
[00:01:34] Department, security teams, volunteers,
[00:01:36] and other staff for helping us put this
[00:01:38] together at Steven's Auditorium. Yaff is
[00:01:41] the only principled conservative
[00:01:42] organization on campus fighting for your
[00:01:44] rights as a student. We have ensured
[00:01:46] your freedom of speech inside and
[00:01:47] outside of the classroom causing state
[00:01:49] legislation to be made after the bias we
[00:01:51] found at both ISU and Ames school
[00:01:53] district. If you would like to get
[00:01:55] involved with YAF on campus, we have
[00:01:57] weekly meetings in Carver Hall at 8:00
[00:01:59] p.m. You can sign up for the student
[00:02:01] email list and get updated information
[00:02:03] on events by going to our linkree or
[00:02:05] searching us on social media. Our
[00:02:07] friends at the University of Iowa will
[00:02:09] also be hosting Kellyanne Conway
[00:02:11] tomorrow evening.
[00:02:15] Now, I would like to introduce our long-
[00:02:17] awaited speaker of the night. Ben
[00:02:19] Shapiro is the co-founder and editor
[00:02:21] emeritus of the Daily Wire and host of
[00:02:23] the Ben Shapiro Show, the largest and
[00:02:26] fastest growing conservative podcast and
[00:02:28] radio host in the nation. Shapiro is the
[00:02:30] author of eight non-fiction non-fiction
[00:02:32] books, including the 2021 New York Times
[00:02:35] bestseller, The Author Authoritarian
[00:02:38] Moment: How the Left Weaponized
[00:02:39] America's Institutions Against Disscent.
[00:02:42] Dubbed as a foe of extraordinary pmical
[00:02:45] agility by the Washington Post, Shapiro
[00:02:47] ca became a nationally syndicated
[00:02:49] columnist at age 17 and is one of the
[00:02:51] most requested speakers on college
[00:02:53] campuses across the country. Despite
[00:02:55] facing violent opposition by protesters,
[00:02:58] he graduated UCLA, a bachelor in
[00:03:00] political science, and then Harvard Law
[00:03:02] in 2007 before marrying his wife in
[00:03:04] 2008. The two have been blessed with
[00:03:07] three children, including the youngest,
[00:03:08] Shapiro, born in 2020.
[00:03:11] Now, please help me in bringing a warm
[00:03:14] Iowa State welcome to Mr. Ben Shapiro.
[00:03:20] [Applause]
[00:03:42] Thank you so much.
[00:03:51] Thank you.
[00:03:57] Well, I love you guys right back. I
[00:04:00] appreciate it.
[00:04:03] Well, it's amazing to be here. As you
[00:04:05] heard, I have three kids, so this is a
[00:04:06] break for me.
[00:04:09] So, first want to start off by thanking
[00:04:11] as always Fred and Linda Allen of Young
[00:04:13] America's Foundation for all the hard
[00:04:14] work that they do and the donations they
[00:04:16] make to make these sorts of evenings
[00:04:17] possible. I want to thank Kyle and
[00:04:19] everybody at the student organizations
[00:04:22] making this possible and thank Iowa
[00:04:24] State for making this possible as well.
[00:04:26] So, tonight we're going to talk about
[00:04:28] wokeness and why it has to die. And I
[00:04:30] don't
[00:04:39] I don't mean that wokeness has to be
[00:04:41] defeated as an ideology. I mean that
[00:04:43] people need to stop thinking like this
[00:04:45] at all. I don't mean that we're going to
[00:04:46] do this through force of law. We're not
[00:04:48] going to do this by using violence. The
[00:04:51] idea here is that if we wish to have a
[00:04:52] country at all, people who hope to be
[00:04:55] part of the American bargain are going
[00:04:56] to have to use things like reason and
[00:04:58] discussion, things that are forbidden by
[00:05:00] the ideology of wokeness. To understand
[00:05:02] why I'm saying this, you have to start
[00:05:03] from the beginning, the definition of
[00:05:05] wokeness itself. So in 2017, the word
[00:05:07] woke was actually added to the Oxford
[00:05:09] English dictionary. It didn't mean to be
[00:05:11] awake because that word has been part of
[00:05:13] the dictionary for quite a while.
[00:05:14] Instead, it meant that you were privy to
[00:05:16] certain secret knowledge about the
[00:05:18] universe. Secret knowledge about what
[00:05:20] America is. You were woke to the secret
[00:05:22] that America was racist. Its
[00:05:24] institutions were racist. All of its
[00:05:26] most powerful people were secretly
[00:05:29] inshed in a system of brutal, vicious
[00:05:31] racism. The tenants of wokeism largely
[00:05:34] align with those of the now more
[00:05:36] well-known critical race theory, which
[00:05:38] of course has become a a major issue
[00:05:40] across the country. Professors Richard
[00:05:42] Elgato and and Jean Stfanchic set out
[00:05:44] the basic principles of critical race
[00:05:46] theory in their book critical race
[00:05:47] theory and introduction. The two most
[00:05:49] important principles were these. First,
[00:05:51] racism is ordinary, not aberrational.
[00:05:54] It's just the background noise of daily
[00:05:55] life. Everything around you is racist.
[00:05:58] Even if you're not thinking about it,
[00:05:59] it's racist. And second, that system of
[00:06:02] racism serves the purposes of the people
[00:06:05] in power. Right? Those two ideas
[00:06:08] combined are deeply damaging to the
[00:06:10] American experiment. Because if racism
[00:06:12] isn't just an attitude that people have
[00:06:14] toward one another that is vicious and
[00:06:16] terrible, if racism isn't just you
[00:06:18] believing something bad about something
[00:06:20] or someone on the basis of their race,
[00:06:23] if racism is something deeper and
[00:06:25] subtler, if racism infuses everything
[00:06:28] around us, it's almost impossible to
[00:06:30] fight, which of course is the point. And
[00:06:32] if the systems are so infused with
[00:06:34] racism and they benefit particular
[00:06:36] people, you can now make the argument
[00:06:37] that any disparity is the result of this
[00:06:39] background discrimination and you don't
[00:06:41] even have to identify the
[00:06:42] discrimination. You don't have to
[00:06:43] identify where someone has done
[00:06:44] something wrong or evil or
[00:06:46] discriminatory. You can simply say
[00:06:48] certain people do better than others
[00:06:50] because of this. Any disparity means
[00:06:52] that the background of American life is
[00:06:54] entirely discriminatory and racist. When
[00:06:57] you take this to its logical extension,
[00:06:59] as critical race theory pioneer Derek
[00:07:00] Bell did, you come to the notion that
[00:07:03] basically all the things we consider to
[00:07:04] be good in the United States are shot
[00:07:06] through with evil. So he wrote that the
[00:07:08] whole liberal worldview of private
[00:07:10] rights, this is a direct quote, and
[00:07:11] public sovereignty mediated by the rule
[00:07:13] of law needed to be exploded. A world
[00:07:16] view premised upon the public and
[00:07:17] private spheres is an attractive mirage
[00:07:19] that masks the reality of economic and
[00:07:22] political power. Now, Derek Bell's words
[00:07:25] here are race specific, but there's a
[00:07:27] deeper root ideology beneath the
[00:07:29] wokeism, and that's the philosophy of
[00:07:31] deconstructionism. This philosophy
[00:07:33] suggests that all rules, all roles, all
[00:07:36] supposed eternal truths are nothing of
[00:07:38] the kind. They are just madeup systems
[00:07:40] of power. The chief expositor of this
[00:07:42] dumb idea was the garbage philosopher
[00:07:44] Michelle Fukall, who wrote, "Truth is a
[00:07:46] thing of this world. It is produced only
[00:07:48] by virtue of multiple forms of
[00:07:49] constraint and it induces regular
[00:07:51] effects of power. Okay, I understand
[00:07:53] that's gobbledegook but in English what
[00:07:55] that means is that you can't dismiss any
[00:07:58] it means that you can dismiss anything
[00:08:00] that you don't like as the
[00:08:01] materialization of systems of power that
[00:08:03] are out to get you. So anything in the
[00:08:05] world that you don't like that's not an
[00:08:07] objective truth that you have to cope
[00:08:08] with as as just a part of life. Instead,
[00:08:10] that is the materialization. It's the
[00:08:12] reification of a of a power system that
[00:08:15] is directed at you. So this means that
[00:08:18] racial disparities are the result of an
[00:08:20] evil system that was put in place by
[00:08:22] people who are antithetical to the
[00:08:24] notion of equity. It means that basic
[00:08:26] truths like biology, these things are
[00:08:30] insulting and actually they're not even
[00:08:31] true. There's no such thing as a basic
[00:08:33] biological truth because all societies
[00:08:35] interpret truth differently. And who are
[00:08:37] we to say that there's such a thing as a
[00:08:38] man or a woman? Because after all that
[00:08:40] is just a reification of a system of
[00:08:43] power, gender and sex, our power, right?
[00:08:46] And so therefore, in order to defeat
[00:08:48] power and to let the powerless finally
[00:08:50] have their day, we have to destroy
[00:08:52] concepts like gender and sex. Capitalism
[00:08:54] is merely just a guise for power. The
[00:08:56] only reason that we believe in
[00:08:57] individual rights where you get to own
[00:08:59] the product of your creation, the only
[00:09:01] reason we believe that is because of
[00:09:02] powerful people who sit behind the
[00:09:04] scenes and came up with the system of
[00:09:06] free market economics designed to
[00:09:08] preserve their own power. Free speech,
[00:09:11] another system of power because after
[00:09:13] all, not all of our speech is equally
[00:09:15] heard. Some people have microphones in
[00:09:17] front of thousands of people and some
[00:09:18] people are just shouting on TikTok to
[00:09:20] the crazy people who spend all of their
[00:09:23] time on Tik Tok, right? We are not all
[00:09:25] the same in terms of free speech, which
[00:09:26] means that free speech is inherently
[00:09:27] biased. Free speech is bad. Which is why
[00:09:30] when Elon Musk says that he's going to
[00:09:31] take over Twitter and restore some free
[00:09:33] speech, people on the left go nuts.
[00:09:41] This is why you have, for example, hosts
[00:09:43] on Saturday Night Live suggesting that
[00:09:44] Elon Musk simply bought Twitter so that
[00:09:47] he could use the n-word. or why you have
[00:09:48] Joy Reid on MSNBC suggesting that Elon
[00:09:51] Musk was only trying to reestablish free
[00:09:54] speech for straight white people as
[00:09:57] though free speech only applies to
[00:09:58] straight white people, which of course
[00:09:59] it does not. Well, here's the thing. If
[00:10:02] everything boils down to power, well,
[00:10:04] then everything becomes a power game.
[00:10:06] Principle is of no consequence because
[00:10:08] principles are all lies. And this is why
[00:10:10] the left has redefined racism to mean
[00:10:12] not discrimination on the basis of race,
[00:10:14] but something utterly indefinable.
[00:10:18] Right? Imm Kendy, who is the greatest
[00:10:19] race grifter of our time, he put it this
[00:10:22] way. This is how he defines racism. You
[00:10:23] ready for this? Here we go. Quote, "A
[00:10:25] marriage of racist policies and racist
[00:10:27] ideas that produces and normalizes
[00:10:29] racial inequities."
[00:10:31] Now, this is what we call a circular
[00:10:33] definition, right? Right? I mean, if if
[00:10:35] I if I say to you, I want you to define
[00:10:36] the word chair, and you say that a chair
[00:10:39] is a chair that is made through the
[00:10:42] principles of cheridom. I have not
[00:10:44] offered you any sort of definition of
[00:10:46] the word chair at all. But this is
[00:10:48] exactly what he just did with racism,
[00:10:49] right? Racism is a marriage of racist
[00:10:51] policies and racist ideas that produces
[00:10:54] and normalizes racial inequities. So,
[00:10:56] what does he actually mean by this?
[00:10:58] Well, what he actually means by this,
[00:10:59] and he's pretty clear about this, is
[00:11:00] that any disparity in American life
[00:11:02] between black and white has to be
[00:11:04] chocked up to discrimination.
[00:11:06] This also means that only the less
[00:11:08] powerful can be discriminated against.
[00:11:10] You've heard this from leftist
[00:11:11] professors. They will say that racism
[00:11:12] isn't actually discrimination against
[00:11:14] somebody on the basis of race. It's
[00:11:16] discrimination combined with power.
[00:11:18] That's a deconstructionist idea because
[00:11:21] only the powerful are capable of true
[00:11:23] discrimination. So, for example, if a
[00:11:26] black person beats up an Asian person on
[00:11:28] a subway station in New York, then this
[00:11:30] is not worthy of national news coverage
[00:11:32] in any way because after all, black
[00:11:34] people are by and large victims in
[00:11:35] American society. And even if Asian
[00:11:37] people are sort of victims in American
[00:11:38] society, they do do really well on the
[00:11:39] SATs. So, that means
[00:11:46] so that means that this can't actually
[00:11:47] be a racist act, right? You see this in
[00:11:51] the way that the left treat
[00:11:51] anti-semitism. When a white supremacist
[00:11:53] goes and shoots up a synagogue, that's
[00:11:54] white supremacy and racism and evil.
[00:11:56] When a black Hebrew Israelite tries to
[00:11:58] shoot up a synagogue, then that's just a
[00:12:00] local news story. It's just something
[00:12:01] weird that happened and we can't really
[00:12:03] explain it. It's not racism or
[00:12:04] anti-semitism in any way because in the
[00:12:06] intersectional hierarchy of power, it's
[00:12:08] the power status that matters.
[00:12:10] Everything is shaped around the power
[00:12:11] status.
[00:12:13] Well, Ed Kenny, by the way, he goes all
[00:12:15] the way. He actually suggests that there
[00:12:16] ought to be a federal department of
[00:12:18] anti-racism, not elected, and it should
[00:12:20] give be given the power. I'm I'm not
[00:12:21] kidding. He wrote a piece about this for
[00:12:23] Politico. He suggests that this federal
[00:12:25] department of anti-racism should be able
[00:12:27] to strike down any state, local, or
[00:12:29] federal law that ends in racial
[00:12:31] inequality.
[00:12:33] Okay, that that's all laws, by the way.
[00:12:36] That is because there is not a single
[00:12:37] law that that applies equally across all
[00:12:39] racial groups. It just doesn't work that
[00:12:41] way because again, not all racial to
[00:12:43] take a simple example, there's a big age
[00:12:45] difference between racial groups in the
[00:12:47] United States. Black Americans are
[00:12:48] significantly younger on average than
[00:12:50] white Americans are. This is one of the
[00:12:52] reasons you see an income wealth gap
[00:12:54] between white Americans and not the only
[00:12:55] reason. There are many reasons, but this
[00:12:56] is one reason because as people get
[00:12:58] older, they tend to acrue wealth. So
[00:13:00] what this means that any law is going to
[00:13:03] strike different groups differentially
[00:13:04] because not all groups are similarly
[00:13:06] situated. And that's not always because
[00:13:08] of discrimination. Sometimes that's just
[00:13:10] the reality on the ground. Nobody ever
[00:13:12] suggests that it's discrimination that
[00:13:13] there aren't a bunch of Jews in the NBA.
[00:13:15] There are reasons for that. Jews are on
[00:13:17] average not the tallest of folks. And
[00:13:19] yes, I'm still 5'9. Okay.
[00:13:24] The biggest problem with boiling
[00:13:26] everything down to a question of power
[00:13:27] dynamics is that it gets rid of reason
[00:13:29] entirely. Because any rational argument
[00:13:31] you make is actually just a reflection
[00:13:34] of your own position in the power
[00:13:37] dynamic. Right? Any argument that I make
[00:13:39] to you, I can't convince you because
[00:13:41] after all, I'm speaking from a position
[00:13:42] of privilege or a position of power. You
[00:13:44] don't have any obligation to listen to
[00:13:45] my argument and come up with a
[00:13:46] counterargument. I mean, we may as well
[00:13:48] just be standing there and just shouting
[00:13:50] at each other like Joe Biden woken up in
[00:13:52] the middle of the night to change his
[00:13:53] diaper. Like the it
[00:13:56] Sorry, that wasn't nice.
[00:14:06] When all arguments boil down to power
[00:14:08] dynamics, that means there can't be any
[00:14:10] arguments. Arguments are useless. More
[00:14:12] than that, if my arguments make you feel
[00:14:14] uncomfortable, that's me using my power
[00:14:16] against you. That's me hurting you.
[00:14:17] That's me microaggressing you. And so,
[00:14:19] you have to shut up, right? If if you
[00:14:21] say something to me that hurts me, you
[00:14:22] need to shut up because you're not
[00:14:24] making an argument. Arguments are just
[00:14:25] power. So, if you say something that
[00:14:27] offends me, that's you using your power
[00:14:29] against me in the same way as if you had
[00:14:30] hit me. And so, you need to be quiet.
[00:14:33] That's so that the powerless can
[00:14:35] reassert themselves. It's time to shut
[00:14:36] up and do the work. You have to do the
[00:14:38] work. And the work inevitably, it
[00:14:40] actually is work. You have to sit there
[00:14:41] and listen to a bunch of nonsense from
[00:14:43] people who don't make arguments but talk
[00:14:45] inherently about how suffering they are
[00:14:47] and how difficult their lives are and if
[00:14:49] you have anything to say on the other
[00:14:50] end then you have not done the work. I
[00:14:53] mean at least they're being honest of it
[00:14:54] that it's work. I mean it certainly is
[00:14:56] not play. I'm not sure how else you
[00:14:57] would categorize it. But if you do the
[00:14:59] work this means you're supposed to just
[00:15:00] shut up and listen. And by shutting up
[00:15:02] and listen we mean never having a
[00:15:03] discussion. Of course you should listen
[00:15:04] to the other person's perspective. And
[00:15:05] then you should offer your own. This is
[00:15:06] called the conversation. And grown-up
[00:15:08] adults do it all the time. But according
[00:15:10] to the left, you're not supposed to do
[00:15:11] this sort of stuff. If you speak up, you
[00:15:14] may have committed one of those
[00:15:16] horrible, brutal microaggressions.
[00:15:18] Aggressions that are so small you can't
[00:15:20] even see them. They're so small. They're
[00:15:23] not just big aggressions or medium-sized
[00:15:25] aggressions. They're microaggressions.
[00:15:26] The most insidious kinds of aggressions,
[00:15:28] like dust that gets under your
[00:15:30] fingernails in terms of aggression.
[00:15:33] In fact, if you if you speak up, if you
[00:15:36] say something wrong, the only way that
[00:15:38] we can teach you a lesson is if we
[00:15:39] create, I don't know, like a tree of
[00:15:40] oppression and we just create this giant
[00:15:42] tree in the middle of a campus, say, and
[00:15:44] we just put a bunch of chains on it.
[00:15:46] They call it the tree of oppression. And
[00:15:48] um and it's a magical place. And then we
[00:15:51] will all know that we are all oppressed,
[00:15:53] but we're not all oppressed. Only some
[00:15:54] of us are oppressed. And if you make fun
[00:15:55] of the tree of oppression, you're part
[00:15:56] of the microaggression universe. Or
[00:15:58] maybe you hire Ibram X Kendy to give the
[00:16:00] Martin Luther King Jr. legacy
[00:16:01] convocation in order to ensure that
[00:16:03] somebody has been paid off in order to
[00:16:05] assuage the feelings of the of the broad
[00:16:08] left because if I kendi is able to put
[00:16:11] cash in his bank account then this means
[00:16:12] that you have fought racism in some
[00:16:14] unknowable way. This sort of garbage has
[00:16:17] been written into the code of nearly
[00:16:18] every major institution in American
[00:16:20] life. The term that's used on campus and
[00:16:22] in corporate boardrooms across America
[00:16:23] are diversity, equity, and inclusion,
[00:16:26] which of course is the sort of happy
[00:16:27] talk, the Orwellian happy talk that you
[00:16:29] hear very often from the left is like
[00:16:31] when Twitter says they have a health and
[00:16:32] safety council. And what they really
[00:16:33] mean is you're not allowed to say
[00:16:34] anything we don't like. Like Leah Thomas
[00:16:36] is a dude or we'll ban you because
[00:16:38] that's health and safety, right? So they
[00:16:40] say diversity, equity, and inclusion.
[00:16:41] And what they mean by that is shut up,
[00:16:43] right? They don't mean inclusion because
[00:16:45] if you have a a point of view that
[00:16:46] argues with their own, then you should
[00:16:48] be quiet. And by equity, they mean again
[00:16:51] systems of power that have to be
[00:16:53] reversed. They don't mean equality,
[00:16:54] right? Because equality of rights might
[00:16:56] actually be something worth pursuing.
[00:16:57] What they mean is equity, equality of
[00:16:59] outcome. And that can only be achieved
[00:17:01] if a finger is put on the scale on
[00:17:03] behalf of marginalized groups. So this
[00:17:06] means that institutions are allowed to
[00:17:07] discriminate against Asian-Americans at
[00:17:09] Harvard. So they can't get into the
[00:17:11] schools. you know, make sure that you
[00:17:12] have to correct that historic
[00:17:13] discrimination because, of course,
[00:17:15] Asian-Americans were the chief
[00:17:16] beneficiaries of Harvard when it was
[00:17:18] first established by Asian-Americans in
[00:17:20] the Asian dominant system that was
[00:17:22] created by Asian-Americans at the
[00:17:24] founding of the United States.
[00:17:27] You press forward inclusion by saying
[00:17:29] that anybody who goes to church is
[00:17:30] really, we don't mean you, right? If
[00:17:32] you're one of those crazy people who
[00:17:33] cites the Bible, we don't mean you. When
[00:17:34] we say inclusive, what we really mean is
[00:17:37] like everyone but you mostly.
[00:17:40] And that's inclusion.
[00:17:42] And of course, you have to teach all
[00:17:45] children that this is the most important
[00:17:47] thing. And so we have to do this at the
[00:17:48] earliest possible level, right? You have
[00:17:49] to teach small children in as Iowa to
[00:17:52] engage in Black Lives Matter at school
[00:17:53] week of action in your public schools.
[00:17:55] These are very important things that you
[00:17:57] have to do to forward diversity, equity,
[00:17:59] and inclusion. All of which is designed
[00:18:01] to indoctrinate kids in the idea that
[00:18:03] all argumentation is stupid, that reason
[00:18:06] is bad, that discussions are wrong, and
[00:18:07] that everything is a reflection of
[00:18:09] power. So be quiet. Wokeism is
[00:18:12] destructive to the country. No democracy
[00:18:14] can survive the denial of truth, the
[00:18:16] substitution of narratives of power for
[00:18:18] discussion about ideas. And as it turns
[00:18:20] out, the tenants of wokeism are lies.
[00:18:22] When it comes to race, it is vital to
[00:18:23] understand that what makes America
[00:18:25] different from virtually every other
[00:18:26] country on earth is that the founding
[00:18:28] principles of the United States, what
[00:18:29] makes it distinctive, is that the
[00:18:30] founding principles of the United States
[00:18:32] were universal, not racist. The
[00:18:34] Declaration of Independence's promise,
[00:18:36] which was not fully kept at the time of
[00:18:38] the Declaration of Independence, was a
[00:18:39] universal promise. That's not me saying
[00:18:42] that. That's Frederick Douglas saying
[00:18:43] that. That's Booker T. Washington saying
[00:18:44] that. That's Martin Luther King saying
[00:18:46] that, right? It's black leaders saying
[00:18:48] that the promisory note had to be
[00:18:50] cashed. But that doesn't mean that the
[00:18:52] promise was meant to be evil and
[00:18:54] selective and discriminatory and that
[00:18:56] that's what's written into the DNA of
[00:18:57] the United States. Far from it. The
[00:19:00] Constitution of the United States was
[00:19:02] written, as far as it could be when you
[00:19:04] still had half the the nation
[00:19:06] slaveolding and half the nation free,
[00:19:08] was written to allow for the birth of
[00:19:10] the United States. But it was also
[00:19:11] written to allow a path forward away
[00:19:13] from slavery. The Constitution of the
[00:19:15] United States has a bevy of provisions
[00:19:16] that are designed to move the United
[00:19:18] States away from slavery entirely. The
[00:19:20] Northwest Ordinance signed by George
[00:19:22] Washington in 1787 banned slavery in new
[00:19:25] territories. There are approximately
[00:19:27] 60,000 free black Americans living in
[00:19:29] the United States about the time of the
[00:19:30] founding. The Constitution of the United
[00:19:32] States banned the importation of slaves
[00:19:33] beyond 1808. This is not to deny that
[00:19:36] racism and slavery and racial evil were
[00:19:38] a deep part of US history. Of course,
[00:19:41] they were. But it is to say that what
[00:19:43] makes America special and distinctive
[00:19:44] and great is that the principles that
[00:19:47] really do rest underneath the American
[00:19:50] ideal are not racist. They are
[00:19:52] universal. They are individualistic.
[00:19:54] which is of course why black Americans
[00:19:56] are by all available statistics the
[00:19:58] richest group of black people anywhere
[00:19:59] on earth. It is the reason why the
[00:20:02] United States alone among multi-racial
[00:20:03] democracies has elected a black
[00:20:04] president. I know we're supposed to
[00:20:06] pretend that that's not a data point in
[00:20:07] favor of anything, but it turns out it's
[00:20:08] actually a data point in favor of
[00:20:09] something.
[00:20:11] The United States happens to be by all
[00:20:13] available poll data one of the most
[00:20:14] racially tolerant places on planet
[00:20:16] Earth. And yet the idea is that
[00:20:18] Americans are racist and that if
[00:20:19] Americans aren't racist, they really are
[00:20:21] racist. Right? But if you say you're not
[00:20:23] racist, this is just because you haven't
[00:20:24] accepted your own racism.
[00:20:27] Right? You deep down will give you an
[00:20:29] implicit bias association test, a deeply
[00:20:32] flawed social science nonsense study
[00:20:35] where you click a little button and then
[00:20:36] it tells you if you're racist or not
[00:20:38] based on how quickly you tap on that
[00:20:39] little button. And that's how we'll know
[00:20:41] if you're a racist. We won't know that
[00:20:42] you're a racist because, say, you know,
[00:20:43] it's 1960 and you actually sponsored a
[00:20:45] law in Alabama preventing black people
[00:20:47] from going into restaurants. That's like
[00:20:48] a pretty good indication of race. No,
[00:20:50] what we will do is we'll have you click
[00:20:51] a button in your Harvard class and then
[00:20:52] we'll tell you that you're a racist
[00:20:54] based on no evidence other than how you
[00:20:55] click that button. By the way, you can
[00:20:57] also game that test the second time you
[00:20:59] take it, you almost invariably do better
[00:21:00] than you do the first, which is the mark
[00:21:01] of a bad test, right? Tests are supposed
[00:21:03] to be duplicative. If you take an IQ
[00:21:05] test and one day you score 100 and the
[00:21:07] next day you score 150, that's a bad IQ
[00:21:08] test. You didn't randomly get 50 points
[00:21:10] smarter.
[00:21:14] And wokeism is also wrong in arguing
[00:21:16] that there's no objective truth more
[00:21:17] generally. Of course, biological sex
[00:21:20] exists. Of course, biological sex
[00:21:22] exists. Men and women exist.
[00:21:35] I always choose this example because it
[00:21:36] was only a few years ago that Dennis
[00:21:38] Prager was literally laughed off the set
[00:21:40] of Bill Maher's show for pointing out
[00:21:41] that many people on the left had said
[00:21:43] that men could be women and women could
[00:21:44] be men. And Bill Maher and his sister
[00:21:46] were like, "What kind of crazy are you
[00:21:47] talking?" And now you have Supreme Court
[00:21:49] nominees openly saying they cannot
[00:21:50] define the word woman in hearings and
[00:21:52] then being confirmed. Okay. But as it
[00:21:55] turns out, yes, men and women exist and
[00:21:57] they are different and all reproductive
[00:21:59] capacity for the human species rests on
[00:22:01] this fundamental distinction. And it is
[00:22:03] not all that difficult to define a woman
[00:22:04] or to define a man. You can do it via
[00:22:06] genetics. You can do it via reproductive
[00:22:07] organs. You can do it through secondary
[00:22:09] sex characteristics. There are many
[00:22:10] different ways that you can do this. No,
[00:22:12] there is no random third sex. Know that
[00:22:14] gender fluidity is not a thing. A man
[00:22:16] cannot be a woman and a woman cannot be
[00:22:18] a man. These are basic facts. This
[00:22:20] doesn't mean you should be mean to
[00:22:21] anybody.
[00:22:30] But it turns out that truth is not mean.
[00:22:32] It's just truth. Truth is not a system
[00:22:35] of power. It is just truth. Facts are
[00:22:38] just facts. And as I'm fond of saying,
[00:22:40] they don't care about your feelings.
[00:22:48] Finally, wokeism is wrong because again,
[00:22:51] with all of the stuff that we've talked
[00:22:53] about, in the end, it forecloses
[00:22:54] discussion. And that's what we I mean,
[00:22:56] if we're going to have a functioning
[00:22:57] republic in the United States, we
[00:22:58] actually have to have discussions
[00:23:00] between one another, where we're not so
[00:23:01] insulted that we go off to our safe
[00:23:04] space crying corners and weep about it
[00:23:06] and where we have student activities
[00:23:08] that that are where we have pizza and
[00:23:10] kumbaya sessions just to get away from
[00:23:12] the possibility that someone might
[00:23:14] disagree with you. You're free to do
[00:23:15] that. It's a free country. But it is
[00:23:17] also the case that if you wish to see
[00:23:19] the United States thrive in the future,
[00:23:21] it's going to have to stick to the
[00:23:22] principles that brought us here. Namely,
[00:23:24] things like individual freedom, things
[00:23:26] like objective truth, things like strong
[00:23:28] social institutions that reinforce
[00:23:30] important social rules. These are
[00:23:32] important things. If we can do all of
[00:23:34] that, we'll preserve the United States.
[00:23:35] If we can't, and if we fall to wokeness,
[00:23:37] we're in real trouble. Which is why
[00:23:38] wokeness has to be destroyed. I think
[00:23:40] with the help of God, it will be. Thanks
[00:23:42] so much. Happy to take your questions.
[00:23:58] All right. So, now for the fun part.
[00:24:05] Mathematicians and physicists go first.
[00:24:09] [Applause]
[00:24:14] Mr. Shapiro will now take your
[00:24:16] questions. Please quue here stage left
[00:24:18] along the wall. Please walk up to the
[00:24:21] back and around the seats so as not to
[00:24:23] block anyone's view. Please keep your
[00:24:25] questions brief and to the point. Then
[00:24:28] return to your seat all the way around
[00:24:29] the back again.
[00:24:31] [Applause]
[00:24:44] Good deal.
[00:24:47] Hello there, Mr. Shapiro.
[00:24:49] Howdy. Go for it.
[00:24:50] I would just like to first off apologize
[00:24:52] for the words as a student at UNCC
[00:24:53] Greensboro, but as a biologist here at
[00:24:55] ISU, I can confirm that there are two
[00:24:57] genders. By the way, contrary to the
[00:24:58] mathematician and physicist,
[00:25:06] that's comforting. As a bi I had to hear
[00:25:07] from a biologist before I knew that men
[00:25:09] and women existed. So, thank you.
[00:25:11] Of course, I thought so. So, to my
[00:25:13] question, um, my question is, why do you
[00:25:14] think that CNN Plus has less had less
[00:25:17] subscribers during its crash and burn
[00:25:19] than you do on every single one of your
[00:25:20] YouTube videos? And is there a chance
[00:25:22] that a portion of 10 of those 10,000
[00:25:25] subscribers were bots? and that CNN
[00:25:27] fudged the numbers.
[00:25:29] So, I mean, I will say that we actively
[00:25:31] at Daily Wire considered making a uh a
[00:25:33] buyout offer to CNN Plus for $1421.
[00:25:39] What what I loved is
[00:25:41] there's so there was a story that came
[00:25:43] out yesterday that suggested that CNN
[00:25:45] Plus their plan was that within a few
[00:25:48] years they were going to have I kid you
[00:25:49] not 29 million subscribers. To
[00:25:52] understand how insane this is, you have
[00:25:53] to understand that their top rated prime
[00:25:55] time shows get about half a million
[00:25:57] viewers. So like their big shows like
[00:26:00] Don Lemon, the the immortal intellect,
[00:26:03] Don Lemon or Anderson Cooper, the Wolf
[00:26:06] Husky that these that the these folks
[00:26:08] they draw like they they they draw
[00:26:11] flies. I mean, and fewer flies than
[00:26:13] poop. And yet somehow they're going to
[00:26:15] draw 29 mill. I mean, listen, CNN's
[00:26:18] filled with bad ideas. Uh, so I'm not
[00:26:20] surprised that that one failed. And
[00:26:22] yeah, there might be bots, but I also
[00:26:23] don't know how big Brian Stelter's
[00:26:24] immediate family is. So it could be
[00:26:25] that, too.
[00:26:30] [Applause]
[00:26:36] Hello, Ben. Thank you so much for being
[00:26:38] here. Um, I got a little question uh for
[00:26:40] all the amazing young men and women out
[00:26:43] in the crowd today who are looking to be
[00:26:45] parents in the future. uh because in a
[00:26:47] world that is becoming exponentially
[00:26:49] more and more liberal and woke um how
[00:26:52] might we go about uh raising the next
[00:26:54] generation especially since we can't
[00:26:56] shield them from everything.
[00:26:57] Yeah. I mean this is my chief concern.
[00:26:58] So as I say I have three kids 8, five
[00:27:00] and two. Uh and uh they are the only
[00:27:03] thing I care about in life. Like I love
[00:27:04] you guys but I I care about my kids
[00:27:07] and the only thing I care about when it
[00:27:09] comes to my kids is protecting their
[00:27:11] innocence and protecting the value
[00:27:12] system that I wish to transmit to them.
[00:27:14] And so that means that I live in a
[00:27:15] community of like-minded people. And I
[00:27:16] think that is deeply, deeply important.
[00:27:18] I'm a big fan of the big sort. I think
[00:27:20] it's a really good thing. I think that
[00:27:21] people who have conservative values
[00:27:22] should live in areas where people
[00:27:24] reflect those values and send their kids
[00:27:25] to schools that reflect those values.
[00:27:27] It's why I send my kids to a private
[00:27:28] Jewish day school. It's why I'm a big
[00:27:30] fan of school vouchers. It's why I think
[00:27:31] that what Rhonda Santis did in Florida
[00:27:33] with the parental rights and education
[00:27:34] bill is extraordinarily important.
[00:27:39] the the
[00:27:42] biggest thing that that I would say is
[00:27:44] actually a piece of advice that my
[00:27:45] parents gave me, which is always take
[00:27:46] your kids seriously. If you keep if you
[00:27:48] take your kids seriously from the time
[00:27:50] that they're very little and take their
[00:27:51] concerns seriously, they'll keep talking
[00:27:52] to you as you get older, which of course
[00:27:53] is my great fear. You know, I'm not
[00:27:54] really in a position to give full
[00:27:56] parenting advice because my oldest is 8
[00:27:58] years old. we'll see how they turn out
[00:27:59] when they're 25, but to the point where
[00:28:01] they are right now, you know, keeping
[00:28:03] open communication and also setting very
[00:28:05] clear rules and making clear that there
[00:28:07] are societal roles that are necessary to
[00:28:09] be filled that so you know, I think that
[00:28:11] human happiness too often we we tie
[00:28:13] human happiness to various systems of
[00:28:15] ethics. You have virtue ethics which is
[00:28:16] sort of arisatilian ideals about about
[00:28:19] virtue and and you know the golden mean
[00:28:22] and and trying to cultivate in yourself
[00:28:23] characteristics that make you a better
[00:28:25] human being. And then you have
[00:28:26] deontological ethics which is sort of
[00:28:27] contient ethics where if we just apply
[00:28:28] this rule and this rule then our kids
[00:28:30] will be okay. What I really think is
[00:28:32] that the way you bring up kids is to
[00:28:34] fulfill certain roles which means
[00:28:35] putting responsibility on them very
[00:28:37] early. So for my kids they take care of
[00:28:38] each other. For my kids they go out and
[00:28:40] they do charity events. For my kids they
[00:28:42] go to synagogue and they go on a regular
[00:28:43] basis. Right? Giving them things to do
[00:28:45] and teaching them these roles in life
[00:28:46] are very important. that the role of
[00:28:48] mommy, which what they see when they see
[00:28:50] my wife operate in that role every
[00:28:51] single day, modeling that is supremely
[00:28:54] important for my daughters. And the role
[00:28:55] of father, which is what my if you ask
[00:28:57] my son what he wants to be, it's the
[00:28:58] cutest thing in the world. If you ask my
[00:28:59] son what he wants to be today, he always
[00:29:01] says a daddy. That is his number one
[00:29:02] answer. And that's what all young boys
[00:29:04] should say.
[00:29:12] So bottom line is, you know, you
[00:29:14] preserve those roles. you you you make I
[00:29:16] think we should be very aggressive in in
[00:29:17] in defending these roles. By the way, I
[00:29:19] think one of the mistakes that the right
[00:29:20] makes when it comes to defending values
[00:29:22] is very often we speak in terms of
[00:29:23] liberty and that's great when it comes
[00:29:24] to the government, but when it comes to
[00:29:26] defending our own values, it's not that
[00:29:27] I deserve the liberty to raise my family
[00:29:28] as I see fit, is that my system for
[00:29:30] raising my family is correct and it
[00:29:32] should be defended and it deserves
[00:29:34] defense on its merit. Thank you.
[00:29:46] Uh hello. Um I don't know. Uh when
[00:29:50] Sorry. I'm gonna ask you a few
[00:29:52] questions.
[00:29:53] One question.
[00:29:56] Let's see. Let's start with the one and
[00:29:57] see how good it is and then
[00:29:59] Okay. Uh I have a bunch I could ask you.
[00:30:02] But first of all, um the last temple uh
[00:30:05] for the Jews was destroyed in uh 70 AD,
[00:30:08] you know. Okay. Anyway,
[00:30:11] yeah, bad times.
[00:30:11] Um, so in Daniel in Daniel chapter 9, it
[00:30:14] says that the Messiah will be cut off
[00:30:16] and then the temple will be destroyed.
[00:30:18] Just curious on your thoughts on that.
[00:30:21] I mean, it was so I mean like I mean in
[00:30:24] in the Jewish faith there were there are
[00:30:26] multiple prophecies attesting to the
[00:30:27] destruction of the second temple. And
[00:30:29] then there are also multiple prophecies
[00:30:31] that are interpreted variously in
[00:30:32] different ways by Christians and Jews
[00:30:34] about the coming of the Messiah. And
[00:30:35] those are interpreted in different ways
[00:30:37] as I say by Christians and Jews which is
[00:30:38] why I wear Yamaka and keep Sabbath on a
[00:30:40] Saturday and most of the people in this
[00:30:41] room keep Sabbath on a Sunday and don't
[00:30:43] wear Yamaka.
[00:30:44] So you said that it was destroyed. So if
[00:30:47] Jesus is not the Messiah, then who is
[00:30:50] the Messiah?
[00:30:50] So according to Jewish philosophy, I'm
[00:30:52] I'm going to give you the Jewish point
[00:30:53] of view. So if you want the Christian
[00:30:54] point of view, you should talk to a
[00:30:55] Christian pastor. Okay? So I'm just
[00:30:56] going to put it out there. There are
[00:30:57] Christians, pretty much everyone in this
[00:30:58] room, I would assume, who knows more
[00:30:59] about this than I do. So, you should
[00:31:00] probably go to like a random person and
[00:31:02] throw, you know, throw something at them
[00:31:03] and you'll hit somebody who knows more
[00:31:04] about the New Testament uh than than I
[00:31:07] do. Um, but as a as a casual reader of
[00:31:10] the New Testament as opposed to, you
[00:31:11] know, a person who considers it part of
[00:31:14] biblical cannon, right? I'm Jewish and I
[00:31:16] I say once again, this is not an
[00:31:17] encouragement for Christians not to go
[00:31:19] to church. Keep going to church. It'll
[00:31:20] save the country if you go to church.
[00:31:21] But as a Jew who doesn't go to church, I
[00:31:23] can say that the Jewish version of the
[00:31:24] Messiah is a political figure.
[00:31:26] Mymonities defines the Jewish version of
[00:31:28] the Messiah not as the embodiment of the
[00:31:30] divine on earth. Instead, it's a
[00:31:32] political figure who's going to bring
[00:31:33] about the end gathering of the exiles,
[00:31:34] reestablish the building of the of the
[00:31:36] beta mikdash, the the temple in Israel,
[00:31:38] and reestablish the biblical kingship of
[00:31:39] David. Right? Those are the requirements
[00:31:40] according to my monities for the coming
[00:31:42] of the Messiah. But that's a different
[00:31:43] thing than the way that Christianity
[00:31:45] interprets the very definition of the
[00:31:46] word Messiah.
[00:31:47] So,
[00:31:49] sorry, we can do a theological debate I
[00:31:51] think another time, but yeah, I
[00:31:52] appreciate the question.
[00:31:53] Okay. Can I just say one more thing?
[00:32:02] Sorry, that debate's been going on for a
[00:32:04] couple thousand years at this point. We
[00:32:06] got to get home sometime tonight.
[00:32:08] Hey Ben, I have a question about the
[00:32:10] Parental Rights and Education Act in
[00:32:12] Florida and how that doesn't affect the
[00:32:14] free speech of the teachers. As much as
[00:32:15] I agree with the act,
[00:32:17] so teachers do not have free speech
[00:32:19] right unlimited free speech free speech
[00:32:21] rights in the classroom. End of story.
[00:32:24] Period. Okay.
[00:32:25] Teachers do not have the right to say
[00:32:26] whatever they want in a classroom.
[00:32:27] Classrooms are places
[00:32:28] even though it's a public space.
[00:32:35] I'll give you a perfect example.
[00:32:36] Teachers are not allowed to worship with
[00:32:38] their students in classrooms. Right.
[00:32:39] They're not. I mean, according to
[00:32:40] according to the Supreme Court's
[00:32:41] interpret bad interpretation of the
[00:32:43] Constitution, you are not allowed to say
[00:32:45] a prayer, a public prayer in a classroom
[00:32:48] in in the United States. So, there are
[00:32:49] lots of things that teachers can't do in
[00:32:51] classrooms. teaching six-year-olds that
[00:32:53] boys can be girls and girls can be boys
[00:32:54] seems to me baseline of stuff you
[00:32:56] shouldn't teach kids. By the way, I
[00:32:57] think they should extend that all the
[00:32:58] way up to 18 and maybe forever. Like
[00:32:59] that the as long as you are in a
[00:33:03] if you want to if you want to jabber
[00:33:05] about this stuff on your own time,
[00:33:06] that's one thing. If you want to do it
[00:33:07] on the public dime, that seems to me to
[00:33:09] be quite another. And when it comes to
[00:33:11] the teaching of minors, we have specific
[00:33:13] curricula and guidance for teachers. I
[00:33:16] mean, pretty much everything the
[00:33:17] teachers do is scripted to that
[00:33:18] curriculum. And so the the the notion
[00:33:21] that teachers can basically talk about
[00:33:22] whatever they want in the classroom is
[00:33:23] crazy to me. I first of all on a general
[00:33:25] level, I don't think the teacher should
[00:33:26] be talking about sex in the classroom
[00:33:28] with kids at all at any age. I think
[00:33:30] that human it's it's amazing to me.
[00:33:32] Honestly, this one drives me up a wall.
[00:33:34] How is it that human beings were able to
[00:33:35] propagate for literally tens of
[00:33:36] thousands of years without some schmuck
[00:33:38] teaching them comprehensive sex, without
[00:33:40] rolling a condom on a banana in sixth
[00:33:42] grade? Somehow human beings were able to
[00:33:44] propagate the species for tens of
[00:33:45] thousands of years. So, this this this
[00:33:48] bizarre weird idea that you need
[00:33:50] somebody who just got a teaching
[00:33:52] credential to be lecturing 13-year-old
[00:33:54] girls about sexual pleasure in a
[00:33:57] classroom is super weird and creepy. And
[00:33:59] that becomes even more super weird and
[00:34:00] creepy when you are talking about
[00:34:01] six-year-old girls and then also telling
[00:34:03] them that they get to pick their gender.
[00:34:05] So, no, they have no right to express
[00:34:07] their viewpoints on this stuff in the
[00:34:09] classroom. They are hired to do a
[00:34:10] particular job. They are not the
[00:34:11] teachers kids. They are my kids. And I
[00:34:13] delegate my kids under limited basis to
[00:34:15] those teachers. If if I send my kids to
[00:34:17] summer camp and the people who are in
[00:34:18] charge of the summer camp promptly take
[00:34:20] my kids to a pornography store, I will
[00:34:22] immediately sue them and also there
[00:34:23] might be physical violence involved. If
[00:34:25] I send my kids if I send my kids to a
[00:34:27] public school and the public school
[00:34:29] immediately grabs them and starts
[00:34:30] calling them by a trans name and
[00:34:33] socially transitioning them and not
[00:34:35] telling parents about it, which is what
[00:34:36] was happening in certain schools in the
[00:34:37] state of Florida and around the country.
[00:34:39] I mean, to to my mind, that ought to be
[00:34:41] prosecutable. I mean, you're not even
[00:34:43] allowed to give a kid an Advil in school
[00:34:45] without parental permission.
[00:34:54] Okay. Thank you, Ben.
[00:35:04] Why is this uh microphone so low? That's
[00:35:06] It's weird as hell.
[00:35:09] Hey. Uh, so my name's Ben. I'm, uh, I'm
[00:35:14] also Jew. I, uh, hate public speaking.
[00:35:18] Um,
[00:35:18] well, it's the two of us against the
[00:35:19] world here in Iowa. So,
[00:35:20] yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
[00:35:21] But, yeah,
[00:35:24] you should grow your hair. I mean,
[00:35:25] Jewish people have they have beautiful
[00:35:27] hair, man. You should uh, show it off.
[00:35:30] Um, no, but I I'm not here to talk about
[00:35:34] something that's very funny. I kind of
[00:35:36] have like I don't know much about you so
[00:35:37] I have a series of back and forth
[00:35:39] questions if that's okay just before I
[00:35:41] ask my question. So are your do you come
[00:35:44] from Holocaust survivors or are you a
[00:35:46] Jewish family that didn't?
[00:35:48] Uh so my great great grandparents
[00:35:51] arrived here. A lot of our extended
[00:35:52] family was killed in the Holocaust but
[00:35:53] but our immediate
[00:35:54] Your great great grandparents but not
[00:35:55] your grandparents.
[00:35:57] Right.
[00:35:57] Oh do you have friends whose
[00:35:59] grandparents were Holocaust survivors or
[00:36:00] anything like that?
[00:36:01] Of course many of them. Yeah. I've
[00:36:02] written I've I've helped uh I've helped
[00:36:03] write memoirs of Holocaust.
[00:36:05] Yeah. Yeah. Their families are kind of
[00:36:07] messed up, right? Uh like my family is
[00:36:10] very messed up.
[00:36:11] I mean, if you go through a trauma like
[00:36:12] the Holocaust, I would imagine
[00:36:14] they teach that trauma between
[00:36:15] generations. You know what I mean?
[00:36:17] Well, I mean, trauma very often in a lot
[00:36:19] of circumstances is passed down. I mean,
[00:36:20] I know some kids of Holocaust survivors
[00:36:22] are now fantastic and some who didn't. I
[00:36:23] mean, that's
[00:36:24] Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. So, you are
[00:36:26] officially woke. That is what wokeness
[00:36:29] is about. It's like uh you know people's
[00:36:32] grandparents or their great-grandparents
[00:36:35] were slaves.
[00:36:36] That's okay. No, it's okay.
[00:36:37] you. I'm talking
[00:36:39] guys. I I actually want to hear I I want
[00:36:41] to hear it's okay. It's okay. I want I
[00:36:43] want I want to hear Let's at least hear
[00:36:44] the argument. Let's Okay, so let's let's
[00:36:46] hear it. Let's hear it. Go.
[00:36:47] What? He wants to hear me.
[00:36:48] I do want to hear it. It's fine. Let him
[00:36:49] go. Let's hear it.
[00:36:50] Come on. Just you know.
[00:36:52] So explain how that's woke.
[00:36:54] So I mean the whole thing is is like Oh,
[00:36:58] let's see.
[00:36:59] So during
[00:37:02] silent cow Calvin Kulage's
[00:37:04] administration, do you know about like
[00:37:05] the great Mississippi flood back in the
[00:37:08] 1930s?
[00:37:09] I understand that American history is
[00:37:10] filled with racial evil.
[00:37:11] Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And and that causes
[00:37:13] some intergenerational trauma which
[00:37:15] affects people's ability to be, you
[00:37:18] know, let me things like that.
[00:37:20] Fine. So let me ask you a question. Why?
[00:37:22] So if the idea is that history has
[00:37:25] consequences, of course that's true.
[00:37:26] That's not wokeness. Yeah,
[00:37:27] that is not wokeness. What wokeness
[00:37:29] suggests is that fundamental
[00:37:30] institutions in American society.
[00:37:33] I ran I ran Elizabeth Warren's campaign.
[00:37:37] I helped organize her volunteers around
[00:37:39] here.
[00:37:42] I am I am a representative of wokeness
[00:37:47] and that's just this is all it is. Well,
[00:37:49] I mean,
[00:37:50] like
[00:37:50] I mean I I
[00:37:52] you know when I when I went to go get my
[00:37:54] first tattoo, the guy had lightning
[00:37:57] bolts and 88s tattooed on his neck and
[00:38:01] as a Jewish person that's really messed
[00:38:03] up. It's It's basically a threat.
[00:38:05] There are there are racist people who
[00:38:07] exist. The argument that you're making
[00:38:08] and I'm going to close with this because
[00:38:10] this is going in weird directions and I
[00:38:11] don't really want
[00:38:11] No, it's not I don't really want to get
[00:38:14] Just Hold up a second. I let I let you
[00:38:15] get out your arguments and now it's time
[00:38:17] for me to respond cuz I let you say
[00:38:18] before I'll let you respond. But
[00:38:19] No, no, no. Not but. Now it's my turn.
[00:38:21] You You are not characterizing what I'm
[00:38:25] saying accurately.
[00:38:26] Now, now it's now it's my turn. Your
[00:38:28] your your definition is inaccurate. The
[00:38:30] reason your definition is inaccurate
[00:38:31] because any sentient human being would
[00:38:33] acknowledge that history has
[00:38:34] consequences. But if the idea is but
[00:38:36] that's not what wokeism is. Wokeism is a
[00:38:38] different thing. Wokeism suggests that
[00:38:39] all inequalities of today are
[00:38:41] attributable to not only historic
[00:38:43] injustices but also continuing
[00:38:44] injustices in the now and that all
[00:38:47] disparities
[00:38:48] that a conserv conservative is the only
[00:38:52] person I want to know why. Why is it
[00:38:54] that conservatives are the only people
[00:38:56] who define it like that? Why are
[00:38:58] conservatives the only people
[00:39:00] Okay, so we're going to have to we're
[00:39:02] going to have to stop here because this
[00:39:03] is going nowhere. But
[00:39:04] what's up? I'm going to have to stop
[00:39:05] with this with you because this is going
[00:39:06] nowhere. All I'm going to say is this
[00:39:10] I disagree perspective on
[00:39:14] just one more second
[00:39:17] on a on a fundamental on a fundamental
[00:39:19] level you are shifting definitions to
[00:39:20] avoid the consequences of your own
[00:39:22] argument and if the idea is
[00:39:27] and and final point and final point and
[00:39:31] final point if you are going to hold on
[00:39:33] if you are also
[00:39:36] Also just final point to show him up
[00:39:39] there.
[00:39:47] Final point to
[00:39:48] can follow that.
[00:39:49] Yeah. One I just want to make honestly I
[00:39:51] want to make one final point to sum up
[00:39:53] there. If the idea is that traumas of
[00:39:55] the past invariably bleed down into the
[00:39:58] present, that does not explain why
[00:40:00] certain groups that have been
[00:40:00] historically not only marginalized but
[00:40:02] slaughtered in mass genocide are some of
[00:40:04] the most successful groups in our
[00:40:06] society. So if the idea is
[00:40:12] if the idea is that past trauma always
[00:40:15] equals current inequality or that my
[00:40:17] actions in say robbing a convenience
[00:40:19] store are attributable to bad actions
[00:40:21] that happened in Alabama in 1930. The
[00:40:23] answer to that is no. Don't rob the
[00:40:25] convenience store. The only way that
[00:40:27] you're going to be able to break the
[00:40:28] chain of history is to make good
[00:40:29] decisions. What what people on the left
[00:40:31] don't like to talk about is actual
[00:40:33] solutions. What they like to do is
[00:40:34] about problems that existed 60 years ago
[00:40:36] and blame those for failures to solve
[00:40:38] them now.
[00:40:48] All right, Ben, again, thanks for
[00:40:49] coming. Um, so in 2020, me and the boys
[00:40:52] were deployed, and I want to say thanks
[00:40:54] cuz we pretty much survived on your
[00:40:55] content when we were over there. So, uh,
[00:40:58] thank you for your service.
[00:41:03] So while while over there I was elected
[00:41:05] as county supervisor and one of my goals
[00:41:07] in this selected position is to bridge
[00:41:10] the gap between the older generation of
[00:41:12] conservatives that aren't as focused on
[00:41:15] some of the social issues you know like
[00:41:17] you said only focused on taxes and
[00:41:19] things like that. So what advice do you
[00:41:21] have? How do we bridge the gap between
[00:41:22] young conservatives like myself and the
[00:41:25] older conservatives so we can work
[00:41:27] together and win in 2024, win in 2022?
[00:41:30] So, what advice do you have?
[00:41:32] So, I mean, I think that the these sort
[00:41:33] of establishmentarian conservatives who
[00:41:35] are very concerned with tax rates,
[00:41:38] they're going to vote for Republicans
[00:41:39] anyway, but that's not where the fire
[00:41:41] is, and that's not where the fire ought
[00:41:42] to be because the right, broadly
[00:41:43] speaking, is always in reaction to the
[00:41:46] left. The left's central focus right now
[00:41:48] is on the cultural shift. And if folks
[00:41:50] who are older don't understand that,
[00:41:51] then that's probably because they're not
[00:41:52] operating in the same media that we are.
[00:41:54] But if you spend all day, you know, not
[00:41:56] on the internet, not on Tik Tok, not on
[00:41:58] Twitter, not on Facebook, not, you know,
[00:42:00] in in online spaces where things get
[00:42:02] very radical very quickly, you might
[00:42:04] assume that the national discourse is
[00:42:06] still somewhat reasonable. And then if
[00:42:08] you spend 5 minutes in the actual
[00:42:09] national discourse, you realize that
[00:42:10] things have become completely
[00:42:11] unreasonable. I mean, we spent an entire
[00:42:12] year with the with an entire political
[00:42:15] party basically arguing that police were
[00:42:16] bad while murder rates skyrocketed. And
[00:42:18] it's pretty wild stuff. So I don't think
[00:42:20] that you have to stretch that far to get
[00:42:22] older conservatives to come around to
[00:42:23] this. Frankly, I think that they've
[00:42:24] realized that the the fire has shifted
[00:42:26] and that the main issue right now is not
[00:42:28] per se spending. I think that the main
[00:42:30] issue right now is is the push back
[00:42:32] against woke counter woke culture that
[00:42:35] has taken over nearly every major
[00:42:36] American institution. I don't think it's
[00:42:38] a hard slog. In other words,
[00:42:40] thank you.
[00:42:41] Thank you,
[00:42:47] Ben. Thanks for coming to Ames. Uh in
[00:42:49] 1983, Solen Solseninski
[00:42:53] stated that the evils of the 20th
[00:42:55] century happened because men have
[00:42:58] forgotten God. And I recently read an
[00:43:00] article that said the 21st century can
[00:43:02] be summarized as men are at war with
[00:43:06] God. Where do you think that men
[00:43:09] specifically
[00:43:11] um have gone wrong and how did we get to
[00:43:14] this point? um how can fathers,
[00:43:19] husbands, brothers, boyfriends, sons
[00:43:22] reclaim their place in society and like
[00:43:26] reestablish their authentic masculinity.
[00:43:28] This is a great question. So I think
[00:43:30] that the the basic problem
[00:43:34] is what
[00:43:36] the basic problem is actually a really
[00:43:38] deep problem that I would call the cult
[00:43:40] of authenticity. I'm not the person
[00:43:42] who's really focused on this. is the
[00:43:43] author who's focused on this is a guy
[00:43:44] named Carl Truman down in Utah. He wrote
[00:43:45] a fantastic book called The Rise and
[00:43:47] Triumph of the Modern Self, maybe the
[00:43:48] most important book of the last 10
[00:43:49] years. And what he basically argues is
[00:43:51] that after the rise of the
[00:43:53] Enlightenment, there was also a rise in
[00:43:55] in sort of the Romantic era. And the
[00:43:57] Romantic poets started to argue that
[00:44:00] true authenticity was to be found
[00:44:02] interior, right? It was to be you look
[00:44:04] in yourself and you look into your
[00:44:06] feelings and that's what makes you truly
[00:44:07] authentic. See, traditional religion
[00:44:09] teaches that small children are
[00:44:10] basically tiny barbarians. And if you've
[00:44:12] ever dealt with small children, they are
[00:44:13] they're tiny barbarians, right? They
[00:44:14] they break things and they yell at you
[00:44:16] and they hit you and they're completely
[00:44:17] out of control. And it's your job to
[00:44:18] civilize them as a parent. It's your job
[00:44:20] to teach them rules and to teach them
[00:44:22] rules and to punish them when they do
[00:44:23] bad things and to reward them when they
[00:44:24] do good things. Small children are
[00:44:26] innocent, but they're not good, right?
[00:44:27] It's your job to teach them the rules
[00:44:29] for the roads that they become good
[00:44:30] citizens. Right? This is what the
[00:44:32] process of civil this is why civilizing
[00:44:33] people became a a verb, right? You
[00:44:36] actually had to take people who were not
[00:44:37] civilized, namely kids, and you had to
[00:44:38] civilize them to institutions and
[00:44:40] duties. Then there was the rise of this
[00:44:42] sort of authentic movement, the
[00:44:43] authenticity movement. You have to be so
[00:44:45] authentic. Look to your own feelings.
[00:44:47] That's the thing that really matters
[00:44:48] more than anything. Now, for a while
[00:44:50] that went nowhere. And the reason that
[00:44:51] went nowhere is because when most people
[00:44:52] look to their own feelings, they just
[00:44:53] want to have sex with everything up to
[00:44:54] and including trees. And
[00:44:57] and for most of human history, this
[00:44:59] resulted in some pretty dire
[00:45:00] consequences. Namely, things like single
[00:45:02] motherhood or disease and all the rest
[00:45:03] of this. And then came the 1960s and the
[00:45:06] rise of the birth control pill, which
[00:45:07] has some really salutoatory effects,
[00:45:09] right? allowed people to plan their
[00:45:10] families in different ways, but also had
[00:45:11] one effect which was really core which
[00:45:13] was it disconnected for the first time
[00:45:15] sex and the sort of hedonistic pursuits
[00:45:17] from consequences. And once that
[00:45:19] happened, then there was this real push
[00:45:21] for you can find your happiness in
[00:45:23] finding your authenticity. And the way
[00:45:24] we know you're most authentic is if you
[00:45:26] fight back against all those civilizing
[00:45:28] influences. You see, if you do what
[00:45:30] society expects of you, then you're not
[00:45:32] being yourself. What makes you yourself
[00:45:34] is denying what society expects of you.
[00:45:36] So don't be a mother, don't be a father,
[00:45:38] don't be a husband, don't be a wife,
[00:45:39] don't be a person and father, beloved
[00:45:41] mother and sister, right? Beloved mother
[00:45:43] and wife. That's because that in the end
[00:45:45] is what human beings find fulfilling.
[00:45:47] And if we go back to that, if we go back
[00:45:48] to the fulfillments of those roles, and
[00:45:50] that does mean going back to church and
[00:45:52] finding social institutions to back all
[00:45:53] of that, then we'll have a healthy
[00:45:54] society. And if we don't, then we'll
[00:45:56] completely collapse.
[00:45:57] Amen.
[00:45:58] Thank you.
[00:46:10] Black Lives Matter. Black I'm playing.
[00:46:12] I'm chill to chill. Um I'm playing. Um
[00:46:17] my my question for you uh Bennett is um
[00:46:20] what is like your your your prayer for
[00:46:23] like the future of like your family and
[00:46:25] then the states? And I was wondering if
[00:46:26] I could drop a prayer as well.
[00:46:28] Uh my prayer for the future of my
[00:46:30] family.
[00:46:30] Yeah. like the future and the future of
[00:46:31] like the nation.
[00:46:32] I my prayer for the future of the nation
[00:46:34] is that we live up to our founding
[00:46:35] ideals and that we preserve the
[00:46:37] institutions that built the success that
[00:46:39] this nation has been based upon since
[00:46:41] the beginning. If we preserve those
[00:46:42] institutions and as I say with the help
[00:46:44] of God will succeed and that my kids
[00:46:46] have the ability to grow up in a country
[00:46:47] like that.
[00:46:48] Love that. Is it okay if I drop a prayer
[00:46:49] as well?
[00:46:50] Go for it.
[00:46:51] Okay. Um hey God, thank you for this
[00:46:53] day. Thank you for uh this community.
[00:46:55] Um, and I pray uh for truth um and
[00:46:58] safety as everybody gets out this
[00:46:59] building. And yeah, uh thank you for Ben
[00:47:02] and keep him safe on his on his
[00:47:03] journeys. And I pray. Amen.
[00:47:05] And thank you so much. Amen.
[00:47:16] Hey Ben, thanks for coming to as
[00:47:17] tonight. I know we all appreciate it.
[00:47:19] So, for the last 18 months, we've all
[00:47:21] seen price increases everywhere at the
[00:47:23] gas pump and at grocery stores and um
[00:47:26] all of this affects our wallets. So, my
[00:47:28] question to you is uh given the current
[00:47:30] volatility of the US dollar and a
[00:47:31] possible recession on the horizon um how
[00:47:34] can we as Americans protect ourselves
[00:47:36] from the devaluation of our money?
[00:47:39] [Laughter]
[00:47:45] Well, let me refer to my friends over at
[00:47:46] Birch Gold. Um, but it's uh
[00:47:51] or alternatively alto crypto IRA. I
[00:47:53] mean, I can just do ads all day up here,
[00:47:55] but uh I mean the reality is I agree
[00:47:58] with you. I think that we're about to
[00:47:59] head into a recession. I'd be very
[00:48:00] surprised if we don't hit a recession
[00:48:01] sometime in the next 6 months. Uh that
[00:48:03] that is, you know, bad news for
[00:48:05] everybody. Nobody's rooting for a
[00:48:06] recession. I I think that the the only
[00:48:08] way that I see of protecting yourself
[00:48:10] against recession is to buy assets that
[00:48:13] are not valuable by the government.
[00:48:14] Right? That means hard assets like real
[00:48:16] estate. That means
[00:48:20] yeah, real estate. Uh
[00:48:24] I do think that diversifying into
[00:48:26] listen, I own crypto, right? I have some
[00:48:27] Bitcoin. I have some Ethereum. I think
[00:48:29] it's good. Uh I I own some precious
[00:48:31] metals, but I mean realistically
[00:48:33] speaking, you want to be a Here's my
[00:48:35] view. Never. Okay, if you own stock,
[00:48:37] don't sell it ever. Just hold on to it
[00:48:39] forever. Okay, Warren Buffett was once
[00:48:41] asked about the 2007208 crash. They
[00:48:43] said, "It's a you know, Mr. Mr. Buffett,
[00:48:45] this has been brutal for you. You've
[00:48:46] lost billions of dollars. He said, "What
[00:48:47] are you talking about? I haven't lost a
[00:48:48] buck." I said, "What do you mean you
[00:48:49] haven't lost a buck?" I didn't sell any
[00:48:50] of my stock. So, how do I like if you
[00:48:51] don't realize a loss, it's not a loss.
[00:48:53] So, in other words, just hold on to your
[00:48:55] stock and you'll be okay. The temptation
[00:48:56] is always to sell when the market goes
[00:48:58] down. This is the opposite of what you
[00:48:59] should do. Hold on. Also, you know, you
[00:49:01] should My investment strategy during
[00:49:03] recessions is that I double down on
[00:49:05] buying as much stock as humanly
[00:49:06] possible. The stock market is
[00:49:07] artificially depressed. It tends to go
[00:49:09] back up over time. So when when the uh
[00:49:11] when when the pandemic hit, I told
[00:49:13] people on my show, don't sell your
[00:49:14] stock, start buying stock. Start buy
[00:49:16] this is in March of 2020. I mean, I went
[00:49:18] to my financial advisor and I said,
[00:49:20] "Whatever I'm putting into the stock
[00:49:21] market, every couple of weeks, I want
[00:49:22] you to double or triple it." So I made
[00:49:24] out like a bandit for about a year and a
[00:49:25] half right there. So that, you know, the
[00:49:27] recessions are really when people make
[00:49:28] their fortunes. It's really not when the
[00:49:30] market is tremendous that people make
[00:49:31] their fortunes because the market always
[00:49:32] kind of returns back to some level of
[00:49:34] normaly. It's when you can buy assets up
[00:49:36] on the cheap that people tend to do
[00:49:37] really, really well. So now is a good
[00:49:38] time to get creative and to think
[00:49:39] creative. You're going to have to come
[00:49:41] up with better ideas. I think sometimes,
[00:49:42] you know, recessions are awful. Again,
[00:49:44] they're awful. They're not something we
[00:49:45] should root for, but they do force you
[00:49:47] to winnow out your bad ideas and pick
[00:49:48] some good ideas before you actually
[00:49:49] invest your time and effort into them.
[00:49:51] So, you know, it can be it can be a
[00:49:53] growth opportunity for folks. I came out
[00:49:54] of law school directly during the
[00:49:56] 2007208 recession and it uh it forced
[00:49:59] some some interesting financial
[00:50:00] decision-making for me that I think was
[00:50:01] good for me career-wise in the long run.
[00:50:03] Thanks, Ben.
[00:50:11] Hey Ben, thanks for being here. Uh, this
[00:50:13] is super like surreal for me. Um, my
[00:50:16] question is, um, I was reading about
[00:50:18] modern monetary theory, which basically
[00:50:20] says the only reason we should be taxed
[00:50:22] is number one, so we use, uh, American
[00:50:24] currency and number two to control
[00:50:27] inflation. Uh, that doesn't seem
[00:50:29] convincing to me. Um, do you have any
[00:50:32] thoughts on how people who uh support
[00:50:35] this think like they should be taxed
[00:50:37] alone like a wealth tax like Elizabeth
[00:50:39] Warren?
[00:50:39] I mean, modern monetary theory is one of
[00:50:41] the great boondoggles of all time. Uh,
[00:50:42] so earlier we had a reference uh by a
[00:50:45] person who seemed like a quite brilliant
[00:50:46] Elizabeth Warren supporter. Um, and um,
[00:50:50] Elizabeth Warren is known for a couple
[00:50:52] of things. One, she is uh not Native
[00:50:54] American. And two, she is
[00:51:01] And two, she's kind of a quas devote of
[00:51:03] modern monetary theory. So this is the
[00:51:04] theory that basically you can spend
[00:51:06] endlessly via government because the
[00:51:08] full faith and credit of the United
[00:51:09] States is so strong that nobody will
[00:51:11] ever call in debt and inflation will
[00:51:12] never happen. This was the theory.
[00:51:14] Modern monetary theory was you can bust
[00:51:15] out the spending forever without any
[00:51:17] taxation, without anything else and the
[00:51:20] dollar will never devalue. So, the last
[00:51:22] several months have been probably the
[00:51:25] best rebuttal to modern monetary theory
[00:51:26] I've ever seen. I mean, we we've had we
[00:51:28] have 8% year-on-year inflation. We have
[00:51:30] 40-year highs in inflation. This is what
[00:51:32] happens, predictably enough, when you
[00:51:33] fire hose 7 trillion at the economy in
[00:51:35] 2020 and another 7 trillion to the
[00:51:38] economy in 2021 and when the Fed keeps
[00:51:40] the rates at zero or negative interest
[00:51:42] rates. When you do these things, that is
[00:51:44] modern monetary theory in practice. And
[00:51:46] what you end up with is massive
[00:51:47] inflation. And what you're really going
[00:51:49] to end up with in the end is stagflation
[00:51:51] because the economy is going to
[00:51:53] stagnate. I mean, you're already
[00:51:54] starting to see it. The economy is is
[00:51:56] overregulated. You're seeing I mean, now
[00:51:57] you saw Chuck Schumer came out today,
[00:51:58] the the the majority leader who
[00:52:00] desperately apparently wants to be a
[00:52:01] minority leader. He came out yesterday
[00:52:03] and he said, you know what, we really
[00:52:05] need to solve the inflation re raise the
[00:52:07] taxes. It's like, so your this is your
[00:52:09] election plan? Like going into an
[00:52:11] election, your plan is what if we
[00:52:13] ratchet up inflation to 10% and then tax
[00:52:14] you more? Sounds great, Chuck. Can't
[00:52:17] imagine why you guys are getting your
[00:52:18] asses kicked in November. It's just
[00:52:20] genius stuff over so yeah, modern
[00:52:21] monetary theory has been a boondoggle.
[00:52:23] It always was. It assumed that the
[00:52:24] economy always goes up and never goes
[00:52:26] down and that's just not the way it
[00:52:27] works.
[00:52:27] Thank you.
[00:52:29] [Applause]
[00:52:37] This will be Mr. Shapiro's last
[00:52:39] question.
[00:52:41] I know it's super sad, guys.
[00:52:47] Hi Ben. Uh, I'm Chris. Um, I was
[00:52:51] wondering your thoughts on Russia verse
[00:52:53] Ukraine. There's a popular opinion among
[00:52:55] some people that the United States and
[00:52:58] NATO is intruding. Uh, a comparison I
[00:53:00] have heard is that uh, if Ukraine were
[00:53:02] to join the EU or NATO, it would be
[00:53:04] similar to Russia and Cuba's role in the
[00:53:07] cold war. I mean, the answer to that
[00:53:10] would be no because there's been no
[00:53:12] evidence that NATO has actually
[00:53:13] attempted to overthrow the Russian
[00:53:15] regime up until Joe Biden sort of
[00:53:17] blurted out that he kind of wanted to
[00:53:18] overthrow the Russian regime, which was
[00:53:19] and and I mean the the this is the
[00:53:21] problem with having a scenile person as
[00:53:23] president of the United States. You just
[00:53:25] every so often he just says things and
[00:53:27] then the night nurse comes in, Jen Saki,
[00:53:29] and has to clean him up and and has to
[00:53:32] Joe didn't mean that. He really didn't
[00:53:33] mean that. And it was just he was
[00:53:34] expressing his feelings and Jo's like
[00:53:36] and they just kind of real and then they
[00:53:44] like it's but the but the reason I say
[00:53:48] this is because NATO already bordered
[00:53:50] Russia in several places.
[00:53:52] I mean Poland and borders Russia.
[00:53:55] Latafia, Lithuania, Estonia are part of
[00:53:57] NATO. They all border Russia. So like
[00:53:59] there are already and and by the way if
[00:54:00] you're if you don't if you want to limit
[00:54:02] your border with Russia what you don't
[00:54:03] do is expand your border with Russia by
[00:54:05] taking over Ukraine which dramatically
[00:54:06] widens your border with Russia between
[00:54:08] NATO and and and Russia because Ukraine
[00:54:10] wasn't actually a NATO admit there. This
[00:54:13] is not to say that there weren't
[00:54:13] mistakes made by the west. The big
[00:54:14] mistake by the west is if you're going
[00:54:16] to admit Ukraine to NATO do it. Don't
[00:54:18] start flirting with them and then don't
[00:54:20] do it. That puts them in the worst
[00:54:21] possible position. And it just
[00:54:22] demonstrates that over the past 20 years
[00:54:24] the United States has been a piss poor
[00:54:25] ally. It really has. I mean, the United
[00:54:27] States has stabbed in the back a
[00:54:28] multiplicity of nations to which it
[00:54:30] guaranteed security and prosperity,
[00:54:33] right? I mean, we did nothing when the
[00:54:34] Chinese took Hong Kong. We did nothing
[00:54:35] when not only nothing, we surrendered
[00:54:37] the entire country of Afghanistan to the
[00:54:39] Taliban, leaving Americans behind and
[00:54:42] millions and millions of dollars worth
[00:54:43] of military weaponry over there. If you
[00:54:45] think that didn't play into Putin's
[00:54:46] calculation, you have another thing
[00:54:47] coming. You know, they there just too
[00:54:49] many ally the Kurds in Iraq. I mean,
[00:54:51] there you you can go down the list. And
[00:54:53] so, you know, what we did with Ukraine
[00:54:55] and saying to them, it would be great if
[00:54:56] you join the EU. It'd be great if you
[00:54:57] join NATO. Also, you definitely can't
[00:54:59] join the EU and NATO put them in a
[00:55:01] really awkward position visa v Russia.
[00:55:03] Now, with that said, does that mean that
[00:55:05] Russia then has the right to fully
[00:55:06] invade Ukraine and take it over? Of
[00:55:09] course not. Vlad Putin is operating
[00:55:12] under 19th century power politics
[00:55:13] principles. This is what people don't
[00:55:15] understand. He's not doing anything new.
[00:55:16] He's not crazy. He's just operating like
[00:55:18] all the greats in Russian history do.
[00:55:19] When I say the greats, I mean literally
[00:55:20] people named the great. So, Katherine
[00:55:22] the Great, Peter the Great, he's just
[00:55:24] operating like that. Any Russian leader
[00:55:26] who expands Russian borders is
[00:55:27] considered the great. So, if you're
[00:55:29] Vladimir Putin and you're ending what
[00:55:30] may be the end of your life and you are
[00:55:32] looking to establish your authority, you
[00:55:34] need to expand the borders of Russia and
[00:55:35] that's really what this was about. So,
[00:55:37] was that avoidable by by us, you know,
[00:55:40] sort of being nicer to Vladimir Putin? I
[00:55:41] mean, we're pretty nice when you let him
[00:55:42] have Crimea for no reason and when we
[00:55:44] let him have the Donbass region for no
[00:55:45] reason. So yeah, I I I'm I'm very
[00:55:47] skeptical of the idea that it was we who
[00:55:50] provoked him into war by NATO existing.
[00:55:52] Like I just I just don't think that's a
[00:55:54] correct analysis of the situation.
[00:55:56] Uh I have a follow-up question with that
[00:55:57] too.
[00:55:58] Sure.
[00:55:58] Um so Russia, the left is decrying
[00:56:02] Russia a little bit and uh but not China
[00:56:04] for killing uh Muslims.
[00:56:06] Yes.
[00:56:06] Do you have an opinion on that?
[00:56:08] I mean the the reason for that is
[00:56:10] because the the media constantly reflect
[00:56:11] the will of the presidents of the United
[00:56:13] States even if he has no will of his
[00:56:14] own. So, I mean, Joe Joe I'm just going
[00:56:16] to keep ripping on Biden if you didn't
[00:56:17] notice. Um, the So, if so,
[00:56:23] the simple fact is this. Joe Biden took
[00:56:25] an aggressive line on Ukraine. If he had
[00:56:26] taken a not aggressive line on Ukraine,
[00:56:28] then everything then the media would
[00:56:30] have said he was doing the right thing
[00:56:31] not to take an aggressive line on
[00:56:32] Ukraine. He's taken a not particularly
[00:56:34] aggressive line on China. And so, they
[00:56:35] say he's right to take a not
[00:56:36] particularly aggressive line on China.
[00:56:38] The only shock to me of his entire
[00:56:39] administration in terms of media
[00:56:40] coverage is how antipathetic the media
[00:56:42] were to his moves in Afghanistan. And I
[00:56:44] think that's because a lot of media
[00:56:45] members had actually been on the ground
[00:56:47] with American soldiers in Afghanistan
[00:56:48] and they knew people in Afghanistan. So
[00:56:50] I think they were kind of shocked by how
[00:56:51] quickly things collapsed over there. But
[00:56:53] you know, as far as the the the left's
[00:56:55] perspective on on China and Russia, you
[00:56:57] have to understand the Democratic the
[00:56:59] Democrats and the media are not two
[00:57:00] separate wings. They are the same. They
[00:57:02] are an identity. The Democrats and the
[00:57:04] media, they they eat in the same
[00:57:06] circles. They talk to the same people.
[00:57:08] It is an absolute echo chamber. And so
[00:57:10] whatever Joe Biden wants them to say
[00:57:11] about Ukraine, they're going to say
[00:57:13] about Ukraine. Thank you so much. And
[00:57:15] thank you so much for coming out. I
[00:57:16] really, really appreciate it.
[00:57:20] Hey, Ben. Ben. Ben.
[00:57:28] [Music]
[00:57:51] [Music]
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