The Ben Shapiro Show


How The West Was Won | Ep. 637


Summary

Kanye visits the White House, the press loses their minds, and we check the mailbag. - Ben Shapiro - Elon Musk's theory is we are all living in a computer simulation, and Kanye West and Donald Trump are in the Oval Office, and that was a thing that happened in real life. - Kanye West's MAGA hat - Is he the world's most knowledgeable about politics? And what does he have to say about it? - And why does the media love him so much, and why does everyone else not? - And what do we have to do with it, other than marvel at the artistry of Kanye's artistry and the message he's bringing to the table? - and we'll talk about it all on this episode of The Ben Shapiro Show! Subscribe to the show to get immediate access to all of Ben's latest videos and listen to the latest news, including the latest on the latest in pop culture, politics and pop culture. Subscribe today using our podcast s RSS feed! Subscribe, Like, and Share and Retweet to stay up to date with the latest episodes of the show! Ben Shapiro's new show Another Kingdom: A Man Who Cares About You! is streaming on all major podcasting platforms including Apple Podcasts, PodcastOne, Overcast, Pocketcasts, and Stitcher, wherever you get your favorite podcasting platform, and wherever you re listening. You get the latest updates from Ben Shapiro s latest podcast. . Subscribe and subscribe to his new show on all things podcasting and social media including TikTok, Podulim, Podchaser, The Daily Wire, Pizzagate, The Root, and Pizzarelli, wherever else you get the most authentic and the latest thing going on the highest quality podcast on the internet, including PODCASTING. Thanks for listening to the Ben Shapiroism, Ben Shapiro is the best guy in the greatest podcast on all of your favorite thing! - Thank you for listening and support Ben Shapiro? and PODCASTS! Tweet me , and I'll be listening to Ben Shapiro! and I'm listening to him on the podcast of the best of what you're listening to this podcast, right now! Timestamps: Thank you Ben Shapiro, right here and I hope you like it, right away! Love you, bye, bye bye, Big Jon


Transcript

00:00:00.000 Kanye visits the White House, the press lose their minds, and we check the mailbag.
00:00:04.000 I'm Ben Shapiro.
00:00:04.000 This is The Ben Shapiro Show.
00:00:10.000 So Elon Musk's theory is that we are all living inside a computer simulation.
00:00:14.000 That this all isn't real.
00:00:16.000 Yesterday he had some pretty good evidence for his theory because Kanye West and Donald Trump were in the Oval Office.
00:00:20.000 And Donald Trump is President.
00:00:22.000 And Kanye West was visiting.
00:00:23.000 And that was a thing that happened in real life.
00:00:25.000 And we'll talk about all of those things.
00:00:26.000 First, I have a couple of reminders for you.
00:00:28.000 First of all, tune in today, 2 p.m.
00:00:30.000 Eastern, 11 a.m.
00:00:30.000 Pacific.
00:00:31.000 For another special livestream of Another Kingdom, Season 2, Episodes 1 and 2.
00:00:36.000 Episode 1 will be free in its entirety.
00:00:38.000 Only the first 15 minutes of the second episode will be available to watch on Facebook and YouTube.
00:00:42.000 To be able to watch all of Episode 2 and every other episode in the new season of Another Kingdom, you have to become a Daily Wire subscriber.
00:00:48.000 All you have to do is click on the link in the description.
00:00:51.000 Also, reminder, Sunday.
00:00:53.000 is the final episode of the Ben Shapiro election special on Fox News.
00:00:56.000 We've been blowing out the ratings, and we hope that you will see our final episode.
00:00:59.000 It's going to be awesome.
00:01:00.000 We have lots of great material, so go check that out.
00:01:02.000 It's 8 p.m.
00:01:02.000 Eastern on Fox News on Sunday.
00:01:04.000 Lots of good stuff going to be on that show, so go check that out.
00:01:08.000 And also, before we get to the news, I first need to remind you that you need to eat.
00:01:12.000 Fill your belly and do it in style with Blue Apron.
00:01:15.000 Blue Apron allows you to cook pre-prepared, pre-portioned ingredients
00:01:20.000 I think so.
00:01:36.000 We're good to go.
00:01:58.000 Blue Apron's awesome.
00:01:59.000 People around the office have been using it for a long time.
00:02:01.000 Blueapron.com slash Shapiro.
00:02:03.000 You get your first three meals for free.
00:02:04.000 Again, that's Blueapron.com slash Shapiro to get those first three meals for free.
00:02:08.000 You're going to be cooking stuff like stir-fried sweet chili chicken, right?
00:02:11.000 I mean, this is like gourmet stuff.
00:02:13.000 Tomato and basil pesto pizza with roasted cauliflower on the side.
00:02:16.000 I mean, this is solid stuff.
00:02:18.000 And you're going to be cooking it yourself.
00:02:20.000 And it's less expensive than going to a restaurant.
00:02:23.000 And also, it's better.
00:02:24.000 So go check it out right now.
00:02:25.000 Blueapron.com slash Shapiro.
00:02:28.000 Again, Blueapron.com slash Shapiro to get your first three meals for free.
00:02:31.000 OK, so yesterday was the thing that happened in real life.
00:02:34.000 Kanye West, as I've always said, live by the Kanye, die by the Kanye.
00:02:37.000 But yesterday, the president of the United States lived by the Kanye because Kanye West came to the White House.
00:02:43.000 Now, as I've said for many months at this point,
00:02:47.000 Do I think that Kanye West is the world's best political commentator?
00:02:50.000 Do I think that he's on par with, you know, the late Charles Krauthammer?
00:02:52.000 No, I don't.
00:02:53.000 Do I think that he knows a lot about politics?
00:02:56.000 I don't think that he's read tons of books, but do I think that he has a unique perspective on the world?
00:03:01.000 That I do.
00:03:02.000 And do I think that he has every right to express that perspective just as anyone else would?
00:03:05.000 Absolutely.
00:03:06.000 And do I appreciate more than anything
00:03:08.000 Kanye West has basically said, look, I'm an individual.
00:03:11.000 I'm not just a black man who fits in your category.
00:03:13.000 I'm an individual with my own thoughts and experiences and feelings.
00:03:17.000 And that allows me to think outside the box with regard to my politics without you trying to club me into place like a baby seal.
00:03:23.000 That I appreciate.
00:03:24.000 That I appreciate.
00:03:25.000 And when Kanye wears around the MAGA hat and he says that this basically is me just saying to the world, I can think for myself, that's a message that I like and appreciate and think is actually deeply important.
00:03:36.000 Because even if it's coming from a guy who I don't think is world's most knowledgeable about politics, that's not a message that requires you to be all that knowledgeable about politics.
00:03:44.000 Saying, I like to get more information, I like to think for myself, and I'm not going to be the person you think I ought to be simply based on the color of my skin.
00:03:51.000 Deeply, deeply important message from Kanye West.
00:03:53.000 So, Kanye has been... What's funny is all the people on the left were very upset at Kanye.
00:03:58.000 Like, oh, well, what's Kanye actually doing except shilling for Trump?
00:04:01.000 Kim Kardashian got a woman freed from prison.
00:04:04.000 What have you done lately?
00:04:06.000 I didn't even agree with Trump's decision on that, on Alice Marie Johnson, who was leading a drug ring, it turns out.
00:04:10.000 But she was pardoned by President Trump because Kanye West and Kim Kardashian lobbied.
00:04:15.000 It is that simple.
00:04:16.000 And Kanye West has been pushing hard for criminal justice reform, so has Kim Kardashian.
00:04:21.000 And President Trump is about to overrule Jeff Sessions on criminal justice reform in the same way
00:04:27.000 Largely because of Kanye's lobbying.
00:04:28.000 So, Kanye, by extending a hand, actually received a hand in return.
00:04:33.000 Which is why you saw that meme from Predator going around the other day of the Arnold Schwarzenegger arm and the Apollo Creed arm.
00:04:40.000 You know, the Carl Weathers arm locked in the muscly embrace.
00:04:45.000 That's what you saw yesterday at the White House.
00:04:46.000 So, it was wild.
00:04:47.000 I mean, let's not pretend that this was a meeting of
00:04:51.000 Brilliant minds on serious issues.
00:04:54.000 It was Kanye West and Donald Trump in the Oval Office in a scene directly out of idiocracy.
00:04:58.000 But was it important for the culture that there be somebody in a prominent position to say, yeah, I'm allowed to think for myself?
00:05:05.000 Yeah, that's that's important stuff.
00:05:06.000 So anyway, Kanye goes to the White House.
00:05:07.000 And again, I don't like celebrity politics, but this is the world we have chosen.
00:05:12.000 This is where we live.
00:05:14.000 I hate celebrity politics.
00:05:16.000 When it was Obama, I used to mock the crap out of him for this sort of stuff.
00:05:19.000 I hated it when it was Hillary Clinton.
00:05:20.000 Used to mock her incessantly for this sort of stuff.
00:05:23.000 I don't like it from Republicans either.
00:05:25.000 And so when I say I don't like celebrities in the Oval Office, and I don't like the meeting with the President, and I don't like all of the pomp and circumstance and show and all that, believe me, I don't.
00:05:34.000 But since this is the world we have chosen, and the world we have chosen to live in, it is hypocritical for folks on the left to suggest, great when Obama does it, terrible when Trump does it.
00:05:42.000 Anyway, Kanye shows up at the White House.
00:05:44.000 And things got wild.
00:05:46.000 Things got really wild because it turns out that Kanye is a wild dude.
00:05:50.000 So here he is in the Oval Office wearing his MAGA hat and the press are just eating this stuff up.
00:05:54.000 The press, the very serious press, who say, no, we must treat the president, the presidency and the Oval Office with all sorts of respect.
00:06:03.000 They're eating this up.
00:06:04.000 They love it.
00:06:04.000 They couldn't love anything more.
00:06:05.000 So here was Kanye yesterday saying that Trump did not expect a crazy mofo like Kanye.
00:06:11.000 Fair enough.
00:06:12.000 Here he is.
00:06:12.000 Trump is on his hero's journey right now.
00:06:15.000 And he might not have expected to have a crazy motherfucker like Kanye West run up and support.
00:06:23.000 But best believe we are going to make America great.
00:06:26.000 Okay, so the press went nuts over this particular comment for a couple of reasons.
00:06:30.000 One, saying that Trump was on a hero's journey, which is pretty Joseph Campbell.
00:06:34.000 And second, him dropping mofo on TV in the Oval Office.
00:06:38.000 So, Jim Acosta tweeted this out.
00:06:40.000 Jim Acosta tweeted out,
00:06:47.000 And people are like, are you okay, Jim?
00:06:48.000 Is it gonna be okay, Jim?
00:06:50.000 Because that's ridiculous.
00:06:52.000 Not to put too fine a point on it, but Bill Clinton got blowjobs in the Oval Office.
00:06:56.000 So I'm really not gonna go... If we're gonna talk about things that disgraced the Oval Office... Cigars have had human bodily fluids on them that didn't come from the oral cavity in the Oval Office.
00:07:11.000 They had to steam clean all the carpets after Bill Clinton left.
00:07:15.000 And there's a book fully describing Rahm Emanuel dropping the MF bomb repeatedly in the Oval Office.
00:07:21.000 So, no Jim Acosta.
00:07:23.000 I love Jim Acosta getting all hot and bothered about all of this, like clutching his pearls.
00:07:27.000 It's just, it's amazing.
00:07:28.000 It's just amazing.
00:07:30.000 Jim Acosta.
00:07:47.000 Just the juxtaposition of Kanye, who is, I have been told, by the Utes, one of the cooler people in America, wearing a MAGA hat.
00:07:54.000 And let's be straight about MAGA hats, just as a general rule, just aesthetically.
00:07:58.000 There's something that my family wore at like the Shapiro family picnics in 1996.
00:08:04.000 That you got from, like, the mass production store that had, like, you remember, it had, like, the little woven band that goes just above the brim of the cap?
00:08:10.000 So, Kanye wearing that as sort of an ironic feel is just spectacular.
00:08:16.000 So here's Kanye talking about why MAGA hats are awesome, and you gotta appreciate it, man.
00:08:20.000 You just, you can do one of two things.
00:08:22.000 You can either cry at the tragedy that this is what our national politics has become, or you can laugh at the fact that Donald Trump is now swiveling every pop culture meme the left ever created back on them and slapping them in the face with it, which is just hilarious.
00:08:35.000 It was something about when I put this hat on, it made me feel like Superman.
00:08:39.000 You made a Superman, that's my favorite superhero.
00:08:42.000 And you made a Superman cape.
00:08:43.000 For me, also as a guy that looks up to you, looks up to Ralph Lauren, looks up to American industry guys.
00:08:49.000 Non-political, no bullshit, put the beef on it, however you want to do it, five seconds delay, and just goes in and gets it done.
00:08:58.000 Yes!
00:08:58.000 Okay, so first of all, I learned a couple of things in that clip.
00:09:01.000 One, Superman is Kanye's favorite superhero.
00:09:03.000 Which is good.
00:09:04.000 I mean, that's a good pick.
00:09:05.000 I'd go with Batman myself, but Kanye's got his own taste, man.
00:09:08.000 And then we also learned that the MAGA hat is like a Superman cape, which is just spectacular.
00:09:13.000 You can see the media members in the room collapsing in on themselves like dying stars.
00:09:17.000 It's just great.
00:09:18.000 And then Kanye does the worst thing in the world.
00:09:21.000 He gets up and he says about President Trump, I love this guy.
00:09:23.000 Now, what's hilarious about this is that until Donald Trump ran for president, this was the view of Hollywood.
00:09:28.000 Donald Trump was very popular with all of these people in the media.
00:09:32.000 He was very popular.
00:09:33.000 He was very popular in Hollywood.
00:09:35.000 Like he'd go around in Hollywood, people would be back slapping him, giving him hugs.
00:09:38.000 He was doing cameos on every show.
00:09:40.000 So it's kind of funny now that, oh my God, Kanye gave him a hug.
00:09:43.000 Everybody loved Donald Trump until the guy ran for president in 2016, at which point everybody hated Donald Trump.
00:09:47.000 But here was Kanye breaking the ultimate taboo and making physical contact in the flesh with Donald J. Trump.
00:09:54.000 I love this guy right here.
00:09:55.000 Let me give this guy a hug right here.
00:09:59.000 I love this guy right here.
00:10:01.000 There it is.
00:10:02.000 There's the Carl Weathers, Arnold Schwarzenegger hand grip.
00:10:06.000 Just amazing stuff.
00:10:07.000 And then, Kanye actually had some pretty good political comments.
00:10:10.000 So we'll do the good and then we'll get to, you know, the weird.
00:10:12.000 So, he had some good political comments about racism.
00:10:16.000 What he said is basically, you can't use racism as an excuse for failing in America anymore.
00:10:21.000 Instead, maybe we ought to think about how we actually better the country.
00:10:24.000 Seems pretty fair to me.
00:10:25.000 And this is coming from a guy who, as I understand it, grew up with a single mom in an impoverished area, and then made himself a billionaire.
00:10:32.000 So, even though I don't like rap, and I'm not a fan of Kanye's music, his story is a pretty American story.
00:10:37.000 It's a pretty amazing American story.
00:10:39.000 Here's Kanye talking about racism.
00:10:41.000 A lot of times, it's just the overall lack of reparations that we, at any given point, we say, oh, this is racist, this is racist, this is racist, this is racist.
00:10:50.000 The liberal would try to control a black person through the concept of racism because they know that we are very proud, emotional people.
00:10:57.000 So when I said I like Trump to like someone that's liberal, they'll say, oh, but he's racist.
00:11:01.000 You think racism can control me?
00:11:04.000 Oh, that don't stop me.
00:11:05.000 That's an invisible wall.
00:11:08.000 Yes.
00:11:10.000 Slow clap for Kanye.
00:11:11.000 And this is the point, right?
00:11:12.000 The point that he's actually making here does not require you to be all that learned in politics.
00:11:16.000 When he says that racism is very often used by political actors in order to achieve a particular result, in order to manipulate people, that is certainly true.
00:11:25.000 That is certainly true.
00:11:26.000 So well done, Kanye, there.
00:11:27.000 And then Kanye made everyone's head explode when he defended the Second Amendment, which is just badass.
00:11:32.000 Here's Kanye doing that.
00:11:34.000 Oh, no!
00:11:36.000 All of their heads just exploded!
00:11:48.000 Kanye actually saying the truth constitutionally about the Second Amendment.
00:11:52.000 Now, listen.
00:11:53.000 As I say before, any time you get in bed with a celebrity, you should expect that somebody's gonna get screwed.
00:11:58.000 And the fact is that
00:12:00.000 Something could happen with Kanye as a personality that could be damaging to all of the points that he's making here.
00:12:05.000 But take it at face value for what it is today.
00:12:08.000 He is saying some things that need to be said.
00:12:10.000 And when you hear an argument, you really, instead of first considering the source, you may first want to consider the validity of the argument.
00:12:16.000 The argument that Kanye is making there is exactly right.
00:12:18.000 Now, as I say, live by the Kanye, die by the Kanye.
00:12:20.000 And I will explain in a second how the die by the Kanye half of this works.
00:12:23.000 And then we'll get to the media coverage, which is the real story.
00:12:26.000 The media coverage of this meeting is a much bigger story than Kanye actually visiting the White House.
00:12:31.000 He's been to the White House before, I believe.
00:12:33.000 I mean, he went there when Obama was president, actually.
00:12:35.000 So it's not a giant shock, but we'll talk in a second about the media coverage.
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00:13:46.000 Okay, so, as I say, there's good Kanye, and then there's bad Kanye.
00:13:49.000 So, it's great when people make good arguments.
00:13:51.000 It's not as good when they juxtapose them with crazy talk.
00:13:54.000 So, I do have to point out that Kanye did engage in some very Kanye behavior.
00:13:59.000 Kanye took out his phone, and he proceeded to punch in his code, which, as it turns out, is 0000.
00:14:06.000 And then, it was funny, people were getting uptight about this because, oh, how can you reveal Kanye's code on his phone?
00:14:11.000 Do you have Kanye's phone?
00:14:13.000 You don't, do you?
00:14:14.000 So does it matter?
00:14:17.000 Unless he loses his phone, it's not gonna matter at all.
00:14:19.000 But I will say that Kanye needs better code protection on his phone.
00:14:23.000 Mr. West, I would appreciate it if you used some other number other than 000.
00:14:27.000 In any case, he types in 000, and then he proceeds to show the President of the United States a picture of a hydrogen-powered airplane
00:14:36.000 And this is a thing that happened because... I don't know.
00:14:39.000 I don't know, man.
00:14:39.000 We all hit our head on the toilet and now we invented the flux capacitor or something.
00:14:44.000 Here's Kanye showing President Trump a hydrogen-powered airplane.
00:14:48.000 This right here is the I-Plane 1.
00:14:53.000 It's a hydrogen-powered airplane.
00:14:56.000 And this is what our president should be flying in.
00:14:58.000 Look at this, Jared.
00:15:01.000 We're getting rid of Air Force One.
00:15:02.000 Can we get rid of Air Force One?
00:15:04.000 No?
00:15:04.000 You don't like that.
00:15:05.000 Well, we're going to have Apple, an American company, work on this plane with.
00:15:10.000 This is our president!
00:15:12.000 He has to be the freshest, the flyest, the flyest planes, the best factories.
00:15:17.000 Okay, so, it all comes as a package, man.
00:15:20.000 There is no separating this out.
00:15:21.000 The same guy who's saying some good stuff about politics is also talking about hydrogen-powered I-planes.
00:15:27.000 So, that is a thing.
00:15:28.000 I will say, just as an observer, it was really funny to watch President Trump during this meeting, because President Trump is rarely blown out of a room by somebody else's sort of wackiness and charisma.
00:15:39.000 Usually it's Trump blowing somebody else out of the room with that sort of stuff.
00:15:42.000 Him sitting across from Kanye and looking at the look on President Trump's face, it's kind of like the look that Jeb Bush has on his face when he's in a room with President Trump.
00:15:50.000 It's like Trump suddenly realized what it was like to be Jeb Bush and watch this guy, who's a much bigger celebrity, just jabbering at him and not knowing quite what to do.
00:15:59.000 It was really funny.
00:16:00.000 So you have to appreciate the humor in all of this.
00:16:03.000 And also, is it a big deal that Kanye visited the White House?
00:16:05.000 It would have been if we were a serious country, but we're not a serious country.
00:16:09.000 We're not.
00:16:10.000 Okay, Barack Obama was fine with having celebrities at the White House.
00:16:14.000 I will show you in just one second.
00:16:15.000 So, the media came out.
00:16:17.000 How dare this happen?
00:16:19.000 How dare it?
00:16:20.000 No, it's so bad.
00:16:21.000 It's so terrible.
00:16:22.000 So over on MSNBC, the hosts over there, Stephanie Ruhle and Ali Velshi, they just melted down.
00:16:28.000 They suggested that Kanye West was an insane person, but they also suggested, Stephanie Ruhle goes, this is an assault on the White House.
00:16:36.000 Really, again, in that room, Bill Clinton, Monica Lewinsky, knee pads, in the room.
00:16:43.000 Here's Stephanie Ruhle saying it's an assault on the White House that Kanye West's presence has defiled the Oval Office.
00:16:49.000 Here she is.
00:16:52.000 Wow.
00:16:53.000 Okay.
00:16:54.000 I'm doing this for everybody who's watching us who turned their volume down.
00:16:57.000 You can put it back up again.
00:16:59.000 That was bonkers.
00:16:59.000 But if you think you're going to get a thoughtful play-by-play and political analysis, you're not.
00:17:05.000 Because that was an assault on our White House.
00:17:07.000 We're not.
00:17:07.000 We're not.
00:17:08.000 You can't analyze some of that stuff that was said.
00:17:12.000 As we warned you at the top, there was a little bit of profanity.
00:17:15.000 There was actually more than you heard.
00:17:17.000 We were able to bleep some of it out.
00:17:19.000 But some of it did make it in there.
00:17:22.000 Okay, mom.
00:17:23.000 I love the school barbing there.
00:17:26.000 Oh yeah, it was just so terrible.
00:17:27.000 It was just so awful.
00:17:28.000 I mean, I can't believe anything like that has ever happened at the White House.
00:17:31.000 Flashback, just a few years.
00:17:32.000 Snoop Dogg went to the White House.
00:17:34.000 You know, the great intellectual, Snoop Dogg.
00:17:37.000 Or Snoop Lion.
00:17:38.000 Or whatever he calls himself these days.
00:17:40.000 Whatever variety of animal from Animal Kingdom he calls himself to follow Snoop.
00:17:45.000 Okay, so Snoop Dogg was at the White House.
00:17:46.000 And you know what he did at the White House?
00:17:48.000 Here is Snoop Dogg talking about how he toked at the White House.
00:17:51.000 How he smoked up at the White House.
00:17:53.000 Like smoked pot at the White House.
00:17:54.000 Don't worry.
00:17:55.000 Kanye West's mere presence at the White House defiled it.
00:17:58.000 But Snoop Dogg went there when Obama was president and smoked pot at the White House.
00:18:02.000 And everyone in the media thought this was hilarious.
00:18:06.000 And did you, and when you got high, before the White House, did you also then smoke it up a little bit in the bathroom when you were there?
00:18:12.000 That's what I was trying to get to, you know what I'm saying?
00:18:14.000 You did?
00:18:14.000 Yes, sir.
00:18:15.000 Yes.
00:18:15.000 You like that, don't you?
00:18:17.000 And nobody, and no- And I met the butler.
00:18:19.000 You met the butler?
00:18:20.000 Yes, sir.
00:18:21.000 And did you get him high?
00:18:23.000 I slayed him with a little some-some.
00:18:24.000 Yes!
00:18:26.000 And it was hilarious, and funny, and awesome!
00:18:29.000 Oh my god, it's so great, because Obama's president!
00:18:32.000 And then as soon as Obama's not president, no.
00:18:34.000 This is a stern office.
00:18:36.000 This is an office where only great things have happened.
00:18:39.000 This office.
00:18:40.000 You know, great presidents, Teddy Roosevelt, FDR, they sat in this office.
00:18:45.000 Mandelinsky knelt in this office.
00:18:48.000 I keep coming back to that because, again, if you're talking about defiling the Oval Office, there's a level beyond having Kanye West there.
00:18:54.000 So the media, again, ignoring the fact that Barack Obama was ever president.
00:18:58.000 I love this.
00:18:59.000 Oh my God, how could Trump hobnob with celebrities?
00:19:01.000 How could he have Kid Rock to the White House?
00:19:03.000 Here is a picture of Jay-Z and Beyonce in the Situation Room.
00:19:08.000 Okay, with Jay-Z, who wears a, what is it, the 5% medallion?
00:19:12.000 Which is like a quasi-Black Power medallion at basketball games.
00:19:15.000 There are pictures of him doing that.
00:19:16.000 It's really kind of crazy stuff.
00:19:18.000 There he is, sitting in the Situation Room, in the White House Situation Room, accompanied by Beyoncé.
00:19:22.000 And this was just all fun and games.
00:19:24.000 It was just fun and games, because come on, man!
00:19:27.000 Jay-Z and Beyoncé, they're great!
00:19:29.000 Can't go after Queen Bey!
00:19:30.000 Come on!
00:19:32.000 It was all fun when it was Obama.
00:19:33.000 Then it was Kanye going to the White House and it was just terrible.
00:19:36.000 And then you remember this, you remember Common going to the White House.
00:19:39.000 Now, do you remember Common is a rapper who has in the past cut songs in favor of Assata Shakur, an actual terrorist?
00:19:45.000 An actual terrorist?
00:19:46.000 Well, there he was in the White House.
00:19:48.000 But don't worry, it didn't defile the White House in any way to have
00:19:52.000 It's an honor to be here in the White House Library.
00:19:53.000 The Tiny Desk Concert Series has tried to give voice to people who have something to say in our culture, who move our culture forward and do amazing stuff, and in that spirit, NPR Music
00:20:18.000 Thank you.
00:20:19.000 Thank you so much.
00:20:25.000 This is the dirty little secret about Obama.
00:20:27.000 Obama was just much more celebrity-driven than Donald Trump.
00:20:30.000 Everybody says, oh, he was celebrity president Trump.
00:20:32.000 Obama was the first celebrity president.
00:20:34.000 He had no credentials when he became president.
00:20:36.000 He turned the White House into basically a revolving door of celebrities.
00:20:39.000 He used to, you remember during Benghazi, he did a fundraiser in Las Vegas with Jay-Z and Beyonce.
00:20:45.000 So if you wanna talk about celebrity in the White House, you gotta start with Barack Obama.
00:20:48.000 He was the guy who really turned the White House.
00:20:50.000 The guy did interviews with GloZell.
00:20:53.000 Glozell, like the lady who bathed in a bathtub full of Froot Loops.
00:20:57.000 Come on, come on.
00:20:58.000 Okay, so, in just one second, we're gonna get to the media reaction to all of this, which does show you how racist and terrible the media are.
00:21:05.000 It really is, the reaction to this is astonishing, astonishing.
00:21:09.000 But first, let's talk about your need for energy.
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00:22:21.000 OK, so the media's response to Kanye, as I mentioned before, first of all, there was their shock and horror that Kanye would even be in the way.
00:22:28.000 How dare he?
00:22:30.000 Then we get to the actual racism.
00:22:33.000 So a bunch of Democrats are just racists.
00:22:36.000 They're just racist.
00:22:37.000 They think that the color of Kanye's skin should dictate his political viewpoint.
00:22:42.000 That is racism.
00:22:43.000 Now, I've said in the past that when there are people who say, I am Jewish and I believe in abortion, for example, I've said that's not a Jewish principle.
00:22:51.000 You know why?
00:22:52.000 Because Judaism isn't an ethnicity only, it's a religion.
00:22:55.000 It's an actual set of principles.
00:22:56.000 It's like saying that if you're pro-abortion and you say that you're Christian, that's really difficult to say because Christian is a set of principles.
00:23:02.000 Black is not a set of principles.
00:23:04.000 White is not a set of principles.
00:23:05.000 Asian is not a set of principles.
00:23:07.000 It's an ethnicity.
00:23:08.000 It's a skin color.
00:23:09.000 It's a race.
00:23:10.000 Okay, none of those should dictate anything having to do with what goes on inside your head, obviously, because if we thought that it did, that would be textbook racism.
00:23:19.000 But the left likes to engage in textbook racism.
00:23:21.000 It's their favorite thing.
00:23:22.000 So we begin with Donna Brazile.
00:23:23.000 Donna Brazile, you'll recall, was briefly the head of the DNC before it was learned that she had been allegedly leaking questions in the debates to Hillary Clinton to help her defeat Bernie Sanders when she was working over at CNN.
00:23:34.000 Here is what she tweeted out.
00:23:35.000 Hashtag Kanye West has set us back 155 years.
00:23:39.000 Wish Sojourner Truth could have met him outside the White House and Frederick Douglass inside the Oval Office.
00:23:44.000 Barack Obama never would have become president with this crap.
00:23:46.000 But let's meet Kanye on Election Day by voting for Democrats.
00:23:50.000 So let's do the dating here.
00:23:51.000 Kanye West has set us back 155 years.
00:23:53.000 Well, it's 2018 now.
00:23:53.000 Subtract 155 and you are talking about 1863.
00:23:59.000 When slavery was still present.
00:24:00.000 So let me get this straight.
00:24:02.000 An uber wealthy black guy, like a billionaire black guy, goes to the White House to meet with the president, hugs the president, and gets the president to embrace criminal justice reform that he is pushing specifically because he thinks too many black men are in prison.
00:24:17.000 And that's the same as slavery, according to Donna Brazile.
00:24:21.000 That's the same as slavery, according to Donna Brazile.
00:24:24.000 Oh.
00:24:25.000 Okay.
00:24:26.000 Sure.
00:24:27.000 Why not?
00:24:27.000 Okay, that was not even the worst.
00:24:28.000 Okay, that was just the beginning.
00:24:30.000 Then, there was, then there was these CNN contributors who decided to mock Kanye as a token negro who was illiterate.
00:24:39.000 Because there's nothing that says, I'm not racist, quite like calling a black man who thinks differently a token negro who's illiterate.
00:24:47.000 Nothing quite like saying that.
00:24:49.000 Kanye West is what happens when Negroes don't read.
00:24:52.000 And we have this now, and now Donald Trump is going to use it and pervert it, and he's going to have somebody who can stand with him and take pictures.
00:25:00.000 Just looking at Scott.
00:25:21.000 That's objective news anchor Don Lemon laughing as Bakari Sellers says that Kanye West is what happens when Negroes don't read.
00:25:29.000 Okay, well, imagine if anybody had said that about... Like, how many books does Jay-Z read?
00:25:33.000 Or Beyonce?
00:25:35.000 Do I think that they are the great learned of Western civilization?
00:25:38.000 I mean, I don't know.
00:25:39.000 I somehow doubt it.
00:25:41.000 But does that matter?
00:25:42.000 They're allowed to have their own perspective.
00:25:43.000 This idea that Kanye West is illiterate because he disagrees with you is basically racist.
00:25:48.000 It's essentially racist.
00:25:49.000 But Bakari sellers can get away with it because he's a black man, so it's okay.
00:25:52.000 Because Bakari is black and Kanye is black, he can call Kanye West a token negro who is essentially illiterate and doesn't read books, as opposed to actually engaging with his argument.
00:26:01.000 That wasn't the worst of it either.
00:26:03.000 Then April Ryan shows up.
00:26:05.000 So April Ryan is supposedly a reporter, she's actually mostly an activist.
00:26:08.000 And she was on CNN, and she brought up a guy named Ray J. Now, for those of you who are not culturally fluent, Ray J is most famous for having done a sex tape with Kim Kardashian, who is currently Kanye West's wife.
00:26:21.000 So, Kanye West is married to Kim Kardashian.
00:26:23.000 Kim Kardashian rose to prominence off the, on the back, no pun intended, of the Ray J sex tape.
00:26:29.000 April Ryan went for comment on the Kanye visit to the White House to the guy who stooped Kanye's wife on tape before she knew Kanye.
00:26:38.000 All class, these members of the media.
00:26:39.000 Just all class.
00:26:41.000 Here's April Ryan doing that routine.
00:26:43.000 Okay, reaching out to the ex-lover of a guy's wife for comment?
00:27:09.000 We're good to go.
00:27:27.000 How is that even on CNN?
00:27:28.000 Like, how does CNN call itself a news network and do that sort of thing?
00:27:31.000 That's just garbage.
00:27:33.000 It's just garbage.
00:27:33.000 And it gets even worse than that.
00:27:35.000 So Don Lemon, who is a disgrace to the name of objective journalism, it's amazing.
00:27:39.000 Like, there are people who I think try to be objective on CNN.
00:27:41.000 I've said before, I think Jake Tapper very often tries to be objective and tries to actually do his job.
00:27:47.000 Don Lemon has forsaken all
00:27:50.000 Relationship with objectivity, but still somehow calls himself an objective news reporter, not an opinion journalist.
00:27:56.000 Here is Don Lemon invoking Kanye West's dead mother to attack him.
00:28:03.000 His dead mother to attack him.
00:28:05.000 Don't worry, this is just journalism, guys.
00:28:07.000 So much journalism-ing.
00:28:09.000 So much reporting happening right here.
00:28:12.000 This was an embarrassment.
00:28:14.000 Kanye's mother is rolling over in her grave.
00:28:17.000 I spoke to one of her friends today, or texted with one of her friends today from Chicago, Donda's friends.
00:28:21.000 I used to live there.
00:28:22.000 I know him.
00:28:23.000 She said, Donda would be embarrassed by this.
00:28:28.000 Is that an okay thing?
00:28:29.000 Is that something that we're doing now?
00:28:30.000 We're allowed to attack people's dead relatives?
00:28:31.000 Use their dead relatives to attack them?
00:28:33.000 Not their dead relatives in the sense that their dead relatives did something wrong, but in the sense that a dead relative who you didn't know and know nothing about and had a relationship with this man, that she would be ashamed of him?
00:28:47.000 That she would be ashamed of Kanye West?
00:28:50.000 This is sick.
00:28:51.000 I'm sorry.
00:28:52.000 This is just sick.
00:28:52.000 And the media's overwrought reaction to the fact that Kanye West shows up in the White House is indicative of a couple of different things.
00:28:58.000 One, it is indicative of the fact that when a black person says they like President Trump, the media hates no one like a black person who says they like President Trump.
00:29:06.000 No one.
00:29:06.000 Because they have violated the tenets of intersectionality, which suggests that we all think like our group.
00:29:11.000 We all think like our ethnic group.
00:29:13.000 So if you break away from that ethnic group, or you break away from that sexual group, right?
00:29:16.000 You're a gay person who likes Trump, or you're a woman who likes Trump.
00:29:20.000 If you're any of those things, then you are a traitor.
00:29:22.000 We saw this with all the women who supported Brett Kavanaugh.
00:29:24.000 They were sex traitors.
00:29:26.000 They'd just given in to the patriarchy.
00:29:28.000 They'd internalized the Handmaid's Tale.
00:29:30.000 And now we see this with Kanye West.
00:29:32.000 He's a black guy who's really white on the inside.
00:29:33.000 He's an Oreo, right?
00:29:34.000 I mean, he's black on the outside, but white on the inside.
00:29:37.000 He's in the sunken place, as people are now saying, right?
00:29:42.000 That sort of stuff is deeply racist.
00:29:44.000 But that's why the left is so upset with Kanye, is because he breaks two of their rules.
00:29:48.000 One, he's a black man who supports Trump.
00:29:50.000 Not allowed.
00:29:51.000 Two, he's a celebrity who supports Trump.
00:29:53.000 Also not allowed.
00:29:54.000 For people to understand how much Trump is hated in Hollywood, you have to understand that in Hollywood, if you even express a remotely right-wing opinion, you will never work again.
00:30:04.000 Never work again.
00:30:05.000 I've said this before.
00:30:06.000 I have celebrities who listen to this show.
00:30:07.000 They're major, A-plus.
00:30:08.000 I'm not talking A-celebrities.
00:30:09.000 I'm talking A-plus celebrities who listen to this show.
00:30:12.000 And I've visited with some of them.
00:30:14.000 I've had lunch or breakfast.
00:30:16.000 People have come into this office who are quite famous.
00:30:18.000 And I always tell them, do not mention that you have been here if you wish to work in this town.
00:30:24.000 Because the bias in Hollywood is so extreme that it doesn't matter your size of celebrity.
00:30:28.000 If you say that you've been associated with me, and I didn't vote for Trump in 2016, if you say that you associated with me, just a mainstream conservative who's pretty reasonable, then that is enough to lose you jobs.
00:30:40.000 Right, that actually happened out here with Mark Duplass, who just got destroyed, right?
00:30:43.000 Mark Duplass, the guy who directed Wild Wild Country on Netflix, and he's done a bunch of other, he's on The Mindy Project, he's done a bunch of other stuff.
00:30:50.000 He came in here because he wanted to get a pro-gun opinion from somebody for his new movie.
00:30:55.000 And so he came in, and I gave him like an hour and a half, and I said to him, don't tell anyone you've been here, because if you do, it will blow back on you.
00:31:01.000 And then, he foolishly went on Twitter and said I was a nice guy.
00:31:05.000 And it ended his world.
00:31:07.000 He was attacked so harshly on Twitter, he deleted the tweet and then put up a tweet apologizing for ever having tweeted that I was a nice guy.
00:31:14.000 Right?
00:31:14.000 Apologizing for that.
00:31:16.000 That's how it works in Hollywood.
00:31:17.000 So Kanye has broken two rules.
00:31:18.000 He's a black man and he's extraordinarily famous.
00:31:20.000 And if you are a black, extraordinarily famous person, you are not allowed to be pro-Trump and you are not allowed to be conservative in any way.
00:31:27.000 You have to toe the liberal line.
00:31:29.000 And you wonder why, to Senya's great shock and dismay, Taylor Swift came out and embraced the Democratic Party?
00:31:35.000 Because if you do not embrace the Democratic Party and you are a celebrity, they will tear you down.
00:31:40.000 You know, we on the right joked for a long time about the fact that Taylor Swift did not say anything politically because the left kept calling on her to say something politically.
00:31:48.000 Well, eventually she did because she finally was pressured into it.
00:31:50.000 Well, we'll talk a little bit more about this.
00:31:52.000 Plus, we will get to the mailbag in just a second.
00:31:53.000 But first, let's talk about your imminent doom.
00:31:57.000 We're all going to die.
00:31:58.000 We know it.
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00:32:59.000 Okay, we're going to talk a little bit more about the Kanye of it all.
00:33:02.000 Kanye, I believe it.
00:33:04.000 We'll get to that in just a second.
00:33:05.000 But first, you're going to have to go over to Daily Wire and subscribe.
00:33:08.000 You can get the rest of our show live.
00:33:09.000 You can get the rest of Michael Knowles' terrible show live.
00:33:12.000 You can get the rest of Andrew Klavan's show live.
00:33:13.000 You can get all of those things.
00:33:15.000 Plus, you get special access to Another Kingdom, which I talked about earlier in the show.
00:33:18.000 Season 2, Episodes 1 and 2 are available to subscribers today.
00:33:22.000 So go check it out.
00:33:24.000 Right now, it's got a really cool visual component that we haven't tried before.
00:33:27.000 I think you'll like it.
00:33:27.000 Go check it out for $9.99 a month or for $99 a year.
00:33:29.000 It has returned.
00:33:32.000 The greatest of all beverage vessels.
00:33:34.000 It was missing while I was on the road.
00:33:36.000 I used its cloaking device, but now it is back and it is better than ever and filled with the tears of leftists who don't like Kanye West and are very upset with him this morning.
00:33:45.000 Go check it out over at dailywire.com for $99 a year, which is cheaper than the monthly.
00:33:49.000 See, $99 sounds like it's more than nine, but it isn't because it's for the whole year.
00:33:52.000 So you should get the annual subscription, not just the monthly subscription.
00:33:55.000 Go check it out right now.
00:33:56.000 Also, subscribe over at YouTube or SoundCloud or iTunes, any of these places, and leave us a review at iTunes.
00:34:01.000 Those five-star reviews really help us.
00:34:03.000 Don't leave us those three-star reviews, because you're a jerk.
00:34:05.000 Leave a five-star review.
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00:34:08.000 So go check it out right now, and you get access to the Sunday Special.
00:34:11.000 We have Jocko Willink coming up.
00:34:12.000 We have a bunch of big-name guests who are coming up over the next month.
00:34:15.000 We're very excited to announce those as they come out.
00:34:17.000 We are the largest, fastest-growing conservative podcast in the nation.
00:34:25.000 All righty, so let's talk for one moment more about this celebrity stuff.
00:34:29.000 Again, Kanye broke two rules.
00:34:31.000 Black man, celebrity, can't support President Trump if you are either of these.
00:34:35.000 The polls are showing that President Trump actually has a shot at breaking out of the 5-10% box Republicans have been in in the black community for a long time.
00:34:43.000 And that's because, as it turns out, as I talked about yesterday, minorities are not wedded to the woke social justice warrior version of politics that the Democratic Party wants to embrace.
00:34:52.000 Kanye is showing that right now, and that is good, because there is an important signaling element to the belief that it's okay to break out of the box.
00:35:00.000 That when you expand the Overton window, which is what Kanye is doing right now, then people have the ability to think more freely, more publicly.
00:35:07.000 That's quite a good thing, and I think we should be grateful to Kanye for that, even if we don't like the celebrity politics in which we are engaged, and even if we think that all of this is quite stupid.
00:35:16.000 You know, so we'll talk about that probably a little bit more next week, and we'll talk about it on our Fox News election special that is coming up, our final episode on Sunday at 8.
00:35:25.000 But let's jump into the mailbag.
00:35:26.000 We haven't had like a good solid mailbag in a while, so let's do a mailbag.
00:35:29.000 Krystalyn says, hi Ben.
00:35:31.000 When you take your weekly and holiday Sabbaths and have to unplug, I'm wondering whether you have a hard time letting go of the news.
00:35:36.000 Are you able to forget about it and just focus on your family and activities, or are you distracted and chomping at the bit to find out what's going on outside?
00:35:42.000 I don't have Sabbath, but during the Kavanaugh debacle, I had a hard time even shutting down to go to sleep, have a meal, or take a drive.
00:35:48.000 Thanks for all you do."
00:35:49.000 Well, after years of doing it, you sort of get used to the fact that you're not going to get the news, and so you stop sort of chomping at the bit.
00:35:57.000 There's a radical shift in sort of the pace of life on Sabbath and on Yom Tov, the holidays.
00:36:03.000 Even when the newspaper comes, as somebody who's ensconced in internet news, which is instantaneous, print news is always 24 hours behind, basically.
00:36:11.000 So I usually know everything that was in the newspaper on Saturday already by Friday afternoon.
00:36:16.000 But with all of that said,
00:36:18.000 I find it refreshing.
00:36:19.000 I mean, it's nice.
00:36:20.000 The worst thing is coming off of Sabbath, right?
00:36:21.000 When you come off of Sabbath and you just get hit with the tsunami of news, that is kind of difficult.
00:36:25.000 But I've gotten over, I think, the desire to—it's actually a relief.
00:36:29.000 I actually get to do what I call my serious reading, my non-news-based reading, you know, philosophy or deep history, where I get sort of my background knowledge from.
00:36:37.000 Vince says, Ben, what do you think is the best major city in America to live if weather is a factor?
00:36:41.000 Thanks, love the show.
00:36:42.000 Well, I mean, if weather is a factor, then San Diego is the best city in America.
00:36:46.000 I mean, San Diego's weather is just spectacular year-round.
00:36:49.000 It is just great all the time.
00:36:51.000 In terms of just great American cities, you know, I lived in Boston for three years.
00:36:56.000 Aside from the weather, it was fantastic.
00:36:58.000 But that's a big aside from, because I went to Boston and I'd go in late August for the start of the school year.
00:37:05.000 And they sucker you, because late August is beautiful in Boston.
00:37:08.000 Late August and September, just great.
00:37:10.000 And then it's October.
00:37:11.000 And from October to April, it's just garbage.
00:37:14.000 It is just sleet and rain and snow.
00:37:17.000 And then, you get like three weeks of niceness and then the school year's over.
00:37:20.000 So, you got like six weeks combined of things being great, and the rest of it was just bad.
00:37:25.000 But, Boston's a great historic city.
00:37:27.000 It's a lot of fun to be there.
00:37:29.000 When you can actually move around.
00:37:30.000 So, I did enjoy Boston.
00:37:32.000 Washington, D.C.
00:37:33.000 is fun to visit.
00:37:35.000 I like D.C., but only for short periods of time, because I just can't take it anymore.
00:37:40.000 There are just too many federal employees.
00:37:42.000 I can't handle it.
00:37:43.000 New York, I am not a huge fan of, as I have stated on the program.
00:37:47.000 That's because I grew up in suburbia.
00:37:48.000 In New York, you can't see the sky, so I actually start to get
00:37:51.000 If I can't see the sky.
00:37:52.000 If all I can see is a sliver of sky between tall buildings.
00:37:54.000 And I know New Yorkers have inordinate pride in their city, and they should.
00:37:58.000 It's one of the great cities of the world.
00:38:00.000 It's just not a place that I think I would love to live.
00:38:03.000 I am biased toward my hometown of Los Angeles, although it's gotten increasingly shabby because of Eric Garcetti and the Democrats out here.
00:38:08.000 I mean, it's really become a shabby town.
00:38:10.000 They've done a horrible job of upkeep.
00:38:12.000 And that's been happening in leftist cities all around the United States.
00:38:15.000 Seattle used to be a beautiful city, and then the mayoralty over there has just ruined the city of Seattle.
00:38:21.000 The same thing is happening in San Francisco, which is a beautiful city.
00:38:23.000 But if you're just talking weather, you're just talking whether San Diego is the place to be.
00:38:27.000 In fact, there's a study that suggests suicide rates are higher in San Diego than other places in the United States, specifically because the weather is good.
00:38:33.000 Because people in other places in the country, when they're having a bad day, they're like, yeah, I know I'm depressed, it's because the weather sucks.
00:38:39.000 In San Diego, they look outside and they're like, well,
00:38:41.000 I guess I'm depressed because my life is terrible.
00:38:43.000 The weather's great.
00:38:45.000 Well, first of all,
00:39:01.000 Abortion and killing of animals is not the same thing because human beings and animals are not the same.
00:39:06.000 Right?
00:39:07.000 I'm a believer that human beings have capacities and rational capacities and in a religious sense souls that animals do not have.
00:39:14.000 So, I don't feel the same way about killing of animals for food as I do about killing of humans for any reason.
00:39:19.000 So, that is not a good equivalence in the first place.
00:39:23.000 As far as the argument in favor of animal rights,
00:39:26.000 The fact is that a lot of animals are relatively sentient.
00:39:31.000 I mean, they're pretty with it.
00:39:32.000 And for the same reason that you wouldn't kill your dog and eat it, there's not a terrible argument you shouldn't kill a cow and eat it.
00:39:37.000 Now, can you do it?
00:39:39.000 Because human beings require animal protein to survive.
00:39:42.000 I think for survival reasons and thriving reasons, there's a good argument to be made that you should be able to eat meat.
00:39:47.000 And biblically speaking,
00:39:49.000 When people quote Genesis 9.3, which is the part where it says that anything on the earth you can basically eat when God says that to Noah, which is actually in this week's Bible portion in the Jewish community, it's important to recognize that this was after the expulsion from Eden.
00:40:00.000 In Eden, the typical Jewish philosophy is that you couldn't eat animals, that everybody was sort of a vegetarian in Eden, which doesn't sound that great, honestly.
00:40:07.000 I mean, hamburgers are delicious.
00:40:09.000 But I've said before that in a hundred years, people may look back and say, how could people eat so many animals?
00:40:16.000 And I think that that may be true.
00:40:19.000 That said, we'd have to come up with some pretty good substitutes for animal protein, better than the ones that we have now, for widespread vegetarianism or veganism to take place for human rights, or rather for animal rights reasons.
00:40:30.000 Lee says, Dear Mr. Shapiro, Recently I've gotten into discussions about the rich paying their fair share of taxes.
00:40:34.000 Some of my family, who are Democrats, are pretty wealthy, and they feel they're not taxed enough compared to everyone else.
00:40:38.000 Well, then they can sign a check.
00:40:40.000 Go for it.
00:40:41.000 It's all you, gang.
00:40:42.000 I don't know why you get to stick your hand in my pocket, because you feel you're not giving enough.
00:40:45.000 I give a fair bit of charity.
00:40:47.000 The arguments they use in discussion are the loopholes for the rich and that the trickle-down effect doesn't work.
00:40:51.000 Okay, there are no loopholes for the rich.
00:40:54.000 All the tax breaks exist for everyone.
00:40:56.000 It's just that you only get to exercise certain tax breaks in certain areas.
00:40:59.000 There are people who get the earned income tax credit.
00:41:03.000 I do not receive the earned income tax credit because I make too much money.
00:41:06.000 Most people in the United States make too much money to receive significant amounts of money back for the earned income tax credit.
00:41:12.000 That's a loophole for people who are not as wealthy.
00:41:15.000 That's not a loophole.
00:41:16.000 That's just the way the tax system is structured.
00:41:17.000 When people say loopholes, they act like, well, if I pay my lawyer a little more, then he can find a loophole in the law.
00:41:22.000 That's not how it works.
00:41:23.000 That's not what a loophole is.
00:41:24.000 I don't believe in tax loopholes.
00:41:26.000 I believe everybody should pay a flat tax rate or we should have a national sales tax.
00:41:32.000 There's no such thing as a quote-unquote loophole that only applies to rich people.
00:41:35.000 It's just there are different types of income, like capital gains versus traditional income.
00:41:39.000 And we can discuss whether those are good policy or bad policy, but the language of loopholes is inaccurate.
00:41:43.000 How about the trickle-down effect doesn't work?
00:41:45.000 Well, the trickle-down effect is a term that is coined by leftist economists.
00:41:49.000 No one on the right has ever suggested that there's something called trickle-down, where you give money to rich people and rich people suddenly make everybody else wealthy.
00:41:56.000 The idea is supply-side economics, meaning that people who develop new and better products drive the economy.
00:42:01.000 That the economy is not driven by just handing out money to people who buy things.
00:42:05.000 The economy is driven by entrepreneurs who create new and better products and that creates its own demand.
00:42:10.000 So nobody knew there was a demand for cars until cars were mass produced and suddenly everyone knew there was a demand for cars.
00:42:16.000 Nobody knew, like in 1950, there was no demand for iPhones.
00:42:19.000 Now there's a high demand for iPhones because entrepreneurs created new and better products and that made your life better.
00:42:25.000 I talked about this a little bit earlier this week, the lie that wage stagnation since 1979 means that the quality of living since 1979 is stagnant is just idiotic and ignorant.
00:42:35.000 We live far better than we did in 1979 without any doubt whatsoever, and that's because supply-side economics works.
00:42:41.000 Ronald Reagan's supply-side economic theory led to the greatest peacetime growth in the history of the nation, economically speaking.
00:42:49.000 So, let's see.
00:42:56.000 Yeah, I mean, I think that you should join the party with which you agree.
00:43:03.000 You shouldn't join a party simply out of opposition for another party.
00:43:06.000 So, if I'm an Independent and I don't like the Republicans, because I think whatever, and I don't like the Democrats because they're crazy, that doesn't necessarily mean that you should love the Republicans.
00:43:14.000 You can vote based on which one you think is the lesser of two evils.
00:43:18.000 It's not an argument I love, but it's an argument you can make.
00:43:20.000 But I don't think that you should simply embrace a position because it's the opposite of another position that you don't like.
00:43:25.000 I think reactionary politics is bad on all sides, and that's true right and left.
00:43:29.000 Yeah, I mean, there are a bunch of them.
00:43:31.000 But none of them would come on.
00:43:31.000 Like, I would be very interested in having on
00:43:43.000 Tom Hanks.
00:43:44.000 I'd be interested in having on Denzel Washington.
00:43:46.000 I'd be interested in having on Christopher Nolan, whose work I love.
00:43:50.000 There are a lot of film and TV celebrities, mostly writers and directors I think, that I'd be interested in having on.
00:43:56.000 Actors I don't find quite as interesting as a general rule.
00:44:00.000 That's just because I've lived in Hollywood my whole life and most actors are reading lines written for them.
00:44:04.000 They're not the actual creators of the material.
00:44:07.000 But yeah, I'd love to have all these people on, but the problem is they think that they will lose work if they come on my show.
00:44:11.000 It is that simple.
00:44:12.000 Well, the internet has provided a pretty good outlet for this.
00:44:14.000 Half of Twitter is taken up with, the left says something like, Oh my God!
00:44:27.000 Somebody said MF-er in the Oval Office, like Jim Acosta.
00:44:31.000 And then the right saying, uh, dude, worst things have happened in the Oval Office.
00:44:35.000 The left can only get away with this so long as there's no venue for a countervailing attack.
00:44:39.000 That venue now exists.
00:44:41.000 Courtney says, Dear Supreme Overlord Shapiro, I was just recently hired for my first career job as a seventh grade world history teacher.
00:44:47.000 My question is, do you think that educators in the classroom should be politically neutral, acting more like a moderator in discussions about political views?
00:44:53.000 Or is it OK for an educator to state their point of view on controversial topics?
00:44:57.000 Thank you so much for doing the show.
00:44:58.000 I'm really a big fan.
00:44:59.000 Well, I don't object to either one.
00:45:01.000 I think that if the educator can do their best to present both sides of a topic, that's great.
00:45:06.000 If the educator can't do that, then saying, look, here's my opinion, so take it with a grain of salt, and then here's a bunch of literature that counters my opinion and you make up your own mind, that's probably the most honest way to do it.
00:45:15.000 Because everybody has their biases, and stating your biases up front, I think, is probably a wise idea if the school allows you to do so.
00:45:22.000 Charlie says, Happy Friday.
00:45:23.000 It was a 5'6 Christian Southern conservative educated white male who apparently oozes with privilege.
00:45:28.000 I appreciate everything you and the good folks associated with your company do.
00:45:31.000 This said, do you ever see the mentally ill genie of the Atlantis left going back into the bottle, or do you see things getting worse with no end in sight?
00:45:38.000 Also, what do you think is damaged more beyond repair, the social landscape of our country, or the damage the new Star Wars movies did to the Star Wars universe?
00:45:44.000 Thanks.
00:45:47.000 Well, the social landscape of our country, I think, is more damaged than Star Wars, because I think that people have a unique capacity to buy into reboots.
00:45:54.000 So, if they decided in five years to reboot the entire Star Wars universe, we would all pretend as we should, like The Force Awakens and Last Jedi never happened.
00:46:02.000 And maybe even the prequels?
00:46:04.000 And then we'd all be fine, right?
00:46:05.000 We do this every so often with superhero movies.
00:46:07.000 How many times have they rebooted Batman at this point?
00:46:09.000 A bunch.
00:46:10.000 So I think that we will all get along fine with a reboot in Star Wars land, although they just re-signed Kathleen Kennedy.
00:46:16.000 They just re-signed Kathleen Kennedy.
00:46:19.000 But the question of our social fabric being damaged beyond repair, I'm obviously deeply worried about that.
00:46:26.000 That's what my entire new book is about.
00:46:28.000 Valentino says, why is Batman your favorite superhero when his only superpower is the plot?
00:46:32.000 Well, his only superpower is being extraordinarily rich and being extraordinarily smart.
00:46:37.000 Now I ask you, why is Batman my favorite superhero?
00:46:40.000 It's because Batman is the most shaded of all the superheroes, right?
00:46:47.000 Batman has a dark side.
00:46:48.000 Batman's kind of an anti-hero.
00:46:50.000 I also am, I have to say, I'm a fan of Frank Miller's Batman.
00:46:54.000 So Frank Miller did a comic that nobody appreciates except me called Batman and Robin All-Stars, in which Batman is basically a sadist who enjoys his job.
00:47:02.000 And I have to say that I enjoy that version of Batman because the version of Batman where he's always conflicted and sad about what he's doing,
00:47:08.000 Maybe he just kind of likes going after bad guys.
00:47:11.000 That's what I liked about Batman v Superman, is that Batman in that film was great.
00:47:14.000 Superman was a problem because he wasn't charming.
00:47:16.000 But Batman in that film, forget about Ben Affleck, the character was drawn like Frank Miller would, meaning that it was hardcore, I enjoy branding criminals and hurting them, and I don't mind killing people.
00:47:26.000 Like, okay.
00:47:28.000 I'm with you.
00:47:29.000 That's fine.
00:47:30.000 Remember, Batman doesn't live in a world where jailing people is actually an option.
00:47:33.000 That's why Batman never makes sense in the context of Gotham City, because Batman in Gotham City
00:47:39.000 All he does is jail people in Arkham, and then they immediately escape and kill 10,000 innocent people.
00:47:45.000 Well, at that point, you've got to kill the criminal.
00:47:47.000 Right?
00:47:47.000 If they can't hold the guy, you have to kill him.
00:47:49.000 Because otherwise, if you don't kill him, you just send him back to jail.
00:47:52.000 He escapes again.
00:47:52.000 You send him back to jail.
00:47:53.000 That means what happens to the Joker every five minutes.
00:47:56.000 And that's why when Batman's like, I can't kill the Joker.
00:47:58.000 It's like, no, you should totally kill the Joker, dude.
00:48:01.000 Like, you really should.
00:48:02.000 If it were Osama Bin Laden and you were putting him in Gitmo and then every five minutes he was escaping and committing a terror attack, at a certain point, you put two in his face.
00:48:09.000 Joel says,
00:48:17.000 Well, I mean, as they currently stand, sure.
00:48:20.000 I would prefer a Democratic Party that was not insane, pressing actual solutions that maybe I disagree with so we can have an honest debate about the issues.
00:48:28.000 I think that a two-party healthy system is worthwhile, and I think that right now we have a sick party in the Republican Party and a dying party in the Democratic Party, at least in terms of ideology.
00:48:39.000 And the problem is that there are a lot of people who believe in that ideology.
00:48:42.000 OK, a couple more.
00:48:51.000 I believe that Type B discrimination should be allowed in the private market as competition naturally disinclines business practicing unethical discrimination.
00:48:58.000 Type B discrimination, I've talked about on the show.
00:49:00.000 Type A discrimination is, you're black, I won't hire you.
00:49:02.000 Type B discrimination is, I don't have any information about you and I'm banned by the federal government from having any information about your criminal history.
00:49:09.000 And a person from a group that has more criminal background, just statistically, comes into my office, how do I assess that?
00:49:16.000 So he calls that Type B discrimination because it really isn't, you're black, I won't hire you.
00:49:20.000 It's, I have to use the statistics available to me and the statistics happen to cut against your group.
00:49:26.000 So that's what he's talking about when he says Type B discrimination, just to define it.
00:49:28.000 Because my question is, where should the line be drawn or should a line be drawn by the judicial system in cases of fraud, embezzlement, theft or larceny?
00:49:36.000 Is it morally consistent to oppose anti-discrimination laws, but not the specific cases of malpractice listed above?
00:49:43.000 Well, I think that it depends on the crimes.
00:49:47.000 So, I guess the question is, if you're talking about like insider trading, I'm not a fan of insider trading laws.
00:49:52.000 I think insider trading laws are actually of no benefit to the public of the United States.
00:49:58.000 In fact, if you want to make sure that there is more transparency, then you should get rid of insider trading laws, because you should just assume that if you work for a company, you're going to have knowledge, that you're going to trade on that knowledge, and then the market is more responsive, because we just watch what the executives of the company do with their stock.
00:50:11.000 I actually have professionals who watch what those executives do with their stock, and if they're short-selling their own stock, you know the company's going to tank.
00:50:17.000 It creates faster-moving velocity in the economy, as opposed to shielding the public from the information, and then there's sort of three steps removed from the actual information.
00:50:26.000 Do you think unconscious bias is true?
00:50:34.000 No.
00:50:35.000 I think unconscious bias is indeed a load of crap.
00:50:37.000 There's very little evidence to suggest that the unconscious bias against particular groups manifests in behavior.
00:50:44.000 In fact, the creators of the implicit assessment test actually say this.
00:50:48.000 I said this at USC and there was a guy who got up and he was asking questions about it and he pointed to a study from 2007 suggesting that doctors who showed unconscious bias in studies were less likely to prescribe certain drugs to black people.
00:51:00.000 And I actually looked up the study because I want to know the evidence.
00:51:03.000 What the study actually found is that that was true, but the people who were prescribing the drugs less often to black people were prescribing at parity levels with white people.
00:51:11.000 Meaning that if you were not unconsciously biased, you were over-prescribing drugs to black people.
00:51:16.000 That's what that study actually found.
00:51:17.000 So, it didn't actually show bias in action.
00:51:20.000 So, unconscious bias is one of the least... It's one of the least supported scientific theories out there.
00:51:26.000 It's really bad science.
00:51:28.000 And the implicit assessment tests are not duplicable, meaning you can take them twice and get different results.
00:51:33.000 And they are not verifiable in the real world, meaning that they are not always connected with behavior.
00:51:37.000 Okay.
00:51:38.000 You know what?
00:51:38.000 Let's just skip the thing I like today because we don't have time.
00:51:41.000 Let's go to things that I hate.
00:51:46.000 Okay, so, the view.
00:51:48.000 I still want to be on your show, guys.
00:51:49.000 Like, come on.
00:51:50.000 Just do it already.
00:51:50.000 Come on.
00:51:51.000 This is one of my aspirations in life, is to be on The View.
00:51:54.000 But I criticize them frequently, so I guess I get it.
00:51:56.000 I guess I get it, guys.
00:51:57.000 Okay, in any case, The View went after Melania Trump.
00:52:00.000 Why?
00:52:00.000 Well, because she's Melania Trump, and her last name is Trump, and she's married to Trump.
00:52:04.000 So, they went after her because they said that she is willfully ignorant, right?
00:52:08.000 This is the same spiel they give about Ivanka.
00:52:10.000 She is complicit.
00:52:11.000 Complicit.
00:52:12.000 Okay, but...
00:52:14.000 Complicit in what?
00:52:14.000 Like, the First Lady is not in an elected position.
00:52:17.000 What is she supposed to do?
00:52:18.000 First, I've never understood this idea that we're supposed to care what the First Lady thinks.
00:52:22.000 Really, I don't understand.
00:52:23.000 Like, no one goes to my wife and asks her political opinion because she's not in that profession.
00:52:28.000 She's a doctor.
00:52:29.000 But, on The View, they started ripping into Melania because Melania supposedly wasn't reflecting their ideas or something.
00:52:38.000 Here is The View going after Melania Trump.
00:52:41.000 You have the First Lady of the United States telling women everywhere, your word is not enough.
00:52:50.000 I think it does so much damage.
00:52:52.000 This is also the same woman that, in the midst of what happened to Puerto Rico, wore a jacket that said, I really don't care, do you?
00:52:59.000 So when she threw down that gauntlet, I've decided not to care about anything she says from now on.
00:53:04.000 What she wears, what she does.
00:53:06.000 Okay, well, I don't think you should have cared what she wore or what she did in the first place.
00:53:09.000 Like, why would you?
00:53:11.000 I didn't care what Michelle Obama did or said.
00:53:13.000 Except that when she was campaigning for Barack, she said some pretty bad stuff.
00:53:16.000 But I don't really care what she has to say now.
00:53:18.000 Like, I didn't care what Hillary Clinton said when she was first lady.
00:53:20.000 I'm happy when they say good things, because I'm happy when anybody says good things.
00:53:23.000 But am I going to get, like, really exercised about the first lady of the United States?
00:53:28.000 Not really.
00:53:28.000 She wasn't elected.
00:53:29.000 Nobody put her in that position.
00:53:31.000 This is why it was so bizarre that Hillary ran for Senate after being the wife of the president.
00:53:35.000 It's so weird to me.
00:53:36.000 That is a pure case of non-feminism.
00:53:38.000 It's just riding coattails.
00:53:39.000 Obviously.
00:53:40.000 Obviously.
00:53:41.000 Like if a man, like John Kerry, were to marry up for money, like John Kerry, and then use that money to get elected to the Senate, like John Kerry, and then get married to a richer woman, like John Kerry, and then run for the presidency, like John Kerry, then I might say that he rode a woman's coattails to high office.
00:53:58.000 But again, the attacks on Melania are just silly and inappropriate and stupid.
00:54:03.000 All right.
00:54:03.000 Well, we will be back here on Monday.
00:54:05.000 But, but Fox News Sunday, our final episode of the Ben Shapiro election special.
00:54:10.000 It's been a privilege and a pleasure being on Fox News on Sundays.
00:54:13.000 Our ratings have been blowing it out and we are excited to see you there.
00:54:15.000 We have a great show lined up for you.
00:54:16.000 So be there or be square 8 p.m.
00:54:18.000 Eastern to view the final episode.
00:54:21.000 The Ben Shapiro show, the Ben Shapiro election special.
00:54:24.000 It's it should be a blast.
00:54:25.000 So go check it out on Sunday.
00:54:27.000 And we will see you back here on Monday for much, much more.
00:54:29.000 I'm Ben Shapiro.
00:54:30.000 This is The Ben Shapiro Show.
00:54:35.000 The Ben Shapiro Show is produced by Senya Villareal, executive producer Jeremy Boring, senior producer Jonathan Hay.
00:54:41.000 Our supervising producer is Mathis Glover, and our technical producer is Austin Stevens.
00:54:45.000 Edited by Alex Zingaro.
00:54:47.000 Audio is mixed by Mike Carmina.
00:54:48.000 Hair and makeup is by Jesua Alvera.
00:54:50.000 The Ben Shapiro Show is a Daily Wire Ford Publishing production.
00:54:53.000 Copyright Ford Publishing 2018.