[bko]

> provocateurs and hacks like robert malone or ben shapiro on his show... and impressionable young men have been radicalized to a dangerous degree on the internet

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.

[TrispusAttucks]

Your comment makes a good point.

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".

[Gareth321]

Just a couple of years ago the only thing I had ever heard about Ben Shapiro was that he is "crazy." I must admit that I didn't actually follow up on that. I just took it as fact. The truth is that I was living in a very safe, very insular media bubble; consuming news which gave me just one narrow narrative.

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.

[kenjackson]

“Old timey values“ is the best euphemism of the day.

[Chris2048]

If you're implying that it mean "racism" that's not a very good-faith reading.

[kenjackson]

Yes, it's not exclusively racism. But certainly includes it.

[criddell]

Are you saying you believe Ben Shapiro to be a racist?

[steelstraw]

Tribalism. Unfortunately it still exists in the modern day.

[gjsman-1000]

Ben Shapiro is, even though I disagree with him on many things, certainly not alt-right. He is very pro-vaccination and condemned January 6th as an ugly day in American history. His advice to people basically is work hard, get married, have a family, and don't be a criminal.

[PickledHotdog]

While actively denying it's much easier to avoid being a convicted criminal if you're white or rich or both

[gjsman-1000]

He has stated that black incarceration rate is higher and does not deny it. He does not address too much why the rate is higher (he suspects it is related to the same reasons why the marriage is much lower among black people), but he does not actively deny it in any way.

[dfadsadsf]

At least in US the best way to avoid being incarcerated is being Asian. Does Ben deny it?

[p1necone]

Maybe he didn't quite follow the same trajectory of radicalization/insanity as the rest of the alt-right, but he was definitely a poster child of the movement at some point. Him claiming to not be doesn't really change anything.

[gjsman-1000]

The alt-right a loose collection (with overlaps) of January 6th supporters, anti-vaccination activists, people who believe the election was stolen, white supremacists, and so forth.

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.

[_-david-_]

Ben Shapiro was one of the people most attacked by the alt-right. The alt right isn't a big fan of Jews after all.

[refurb]

“Alt-right” is just a label slapped on an unacceptable right-of-center viewpoint that attempts to lump it in with racism, authoritarianism, etc.

It’s kind of a useless label at this point, since it’s thrown around so much.

[jjgreen]

According to Wikipedia [1], the term was coined by American white nationalist Richard B. Spencer and shortened to "alt-right" and popularised by far-right participants of /pol/, the politics board of web forum 4chan.

So more a label that they slapped on themselves.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alt-right

[refurb]

That Wikipedia article seems like a stretch?

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?

[maccard]

> Ah yes, Ben Shapiro will radicalize young men to... get married and start a family?

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.

[scotty79]

> Ben Shapiro will radicalize young men to... get married and start a family?

To get frustrated that nobody is willing to do that with them.

[gorgonzolachz]

Sorry, I made a couple of points in that post, and you're conflating two of them. Ben Shapiro isn't radicalizing anyone, but he's definitely a hack who regularly says controversial things to get into the public eye. In a principled political party he would live on the fringes, like Hasan Piker does for liberals (although that might be a reach, I'm not super familiar with either figure).

[cloutchaser]

> a hack who regularly says controversial things to get into the public eye

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.