The Ben Shapiro Show - Say Goodbye To 2017 | Ep. 443

00:00:00.000 It's the last show of 2017 and what a show it shall be.

00:00:03.000 President Trump signs into law his tax reform.

00:00:06.000 Nikki Haley becomes our spirit animal and the mailbag.

00:00:09.000 I'm Ben Shapiro.

00:00:09.000 This is The Ben Shapiro Show.

00:00:15.000 Oh, yes, so much to get to here on The Ben Shapiro Show.

00:00:18.000 We finally reached the end of the year.

00:00:20.000 We're here.

00:00:21.000 It's upon us.

00:00:22.000 And we survived.

00:00:23.000 We all got here.

00:00:23.000 You know, that was in doubt.

00:00:25.000 All year long, it was in doubt.

00:00:27.000 Over the last three weeks, it was in doubt.

00:00:28.000 I mean, I know that I was expected to be dead at least twice.

00:00:31.000 I'm not even talking about when I visited Berkeley.

00:00:33.000 I'm just talking about the tax reform and net neutrality.

00:00:34.000 But we'll talk about all of the things that are happening on this, the last workday, essentially, of 2017.

00:00:40.000 But first, I want to say thank you to our sponsors over at Blinkist.

00:00:43.000 So you're going to have some time over the holidays.

00:00:45.000 You don't have time to read a 500-page book.

00:00:47.000 You don't.

00:00:47.000 You have time to listen to a 15-minute segment that basically brings you all the points of the book, because that's all you're going to remember anyway.

00:00:53.000 Well, that's what Blinkist is for. 0.83

00:00:54.000 Instead of having to spend all your time wading through pages and pages of material, you're in the car anyway.

00:00:59.000 You're there for an hour.

00:01:00.000 You don't have my podcast next week.

00:01:02.000 So what are you going to do?

00:01:03.000 You're driving to Grandma's house.

00:01:04.000 What are you going to do all week?

00:01:05.000 Well, this is why you need the Blinkist app.

00:01:06.000 The Blinkist app gives you, in what they call blinks, 15-minute summaries of the main points of 2,000 of the best-selling non-fiction books in America transformed into powerful information packs.

00:01:17.000 Now you can feast your mind on key ideas from top best-selling non-fiction books.

00:01:22.000 Things like Flow, which talks about how to achieve more happiness in your work life, to Why Nations Fail, talking about

00:01:28.000 I think so.

00:01:46.000 Go to Blinkist.com slash Ben right now to start your free trial or get three months off your yearly plan when you join today.

00:01:52.000 That's Blinkist. 0.98

00:01:53.000 Spell B-L-I-N-K-I-S-T.

00:01:55.000 Blinkist.com slash Ben to start your free trial or get three months off your yearly plan.

00:01:59.000 Blinkist.com slash Ben.

00:02:02.000 Use the slash Ben so they know that we sent you.

00:02:04.000 Okay, so today, big day over at the White House.

00:02:06.000 The President of the United States signs into law his ginormous tax cut.

00:02:10.000 And everyone is very excited.

00:02:12.000 So the president signs that into law just before Christmas, and then he says that he's going to have a working vacation.

00:02:17.000 I hope not.

00:02:18.000 I hope the president just takes the time off, lets the media fester.

00:02:21.000 He doesn't need to provide them content.

00:02:24.000 Let them chew on all of the good things that are happening because of this tax cut.

00:02:28.000 Here is an additional list.

00:02:30.000 We gave you a list yesterday of corporations that are now giving bonuses and raises to people and hiring more people because of the tax cut that just passed the Senate and the House and was signed into law by the President in Texas.

00:02:41.000 New Braunfels-based Rush Enterprises is planning to give each of its employees a $1,000 bonus after President Trump signs the tax reform bill into law.

00:02:49.000 The commercial truck dealer said all of its approximately 6,600 U.S.

00:02:52.000 employees will receive the one-time payout, which will cost about $6.6 million.

00:02:57.000 In Wisconsin, Associated Bank said it would boost its minimum hourly wage to $15 and pay workers a $500 bonus.

00:03:03.000 Their current minimum wage is $10 an hour, so that's a 50% increase.

00:03:07.000 The company said that its moves would affect about 3,000 employees.

00:03:10.000 In Idaho, Malaluca Inc., which is run by Frank VanderSloot, VanderSloot's a Republican, he said in a phone interview that his 2,000 workers would get a one-time bonus of $100 for every year they've worked at the company.

00:03:20.000 They have about 150 employees who have worked there for 20 years or more.

00:03:23.000 The average employee will get about an $800 bonus.

00:03:26.000 In Hawaii, the Royal Hawaiian Heritage Jewelry, they've decided to open a second shop.

00:03:32.000 And this is going to happen all over the place.

00:03:34.000 This is going to happen as businesses decide they have more money to spend, and hiring should go up, investment should go up, even if there are stock buybacks.

00:03:41.000 Maybe just your stocks go up.

00:03:42.000 But it's good for the economy when people get to keep their own dollars.

00:03:45.000 Why?

00:03:46.000 Because they get to spend those dollars, they invest those dollars, and you know what you want to buy better than the federal government knows what you want to buy.

00:03:52.000 Now, the left has lost their mind over the tax cut, obviously.

00:03:55.000 They just can't deal with it.

00:03:58.000 And it's really interesting because it sort of betrays what they actually think of America and what they think of your capacity to keep your own money.

00:04:05.000 So Elizabeth Warren, for example, she has an interesting take.

00:04:08.000 Her basic notion here is the reason corporations are now giving bonuses and raises is because they're trying to propagandize to their workers. 0.97

00:04:14.000 Not because they actually like their workers or help their workers.

00:04:17.000 They have nefarious motives.

00:04:19.000 All of the corporations are essentially evil.

00:04:23.000 In the end, they'll just use that money to line their own pockets and give themselves big bonuses.

00:04:27.000 That's what they'll do.

00:04:28.000 They're cruel and plutocratic.

00:04:30.000 Here's Elizabeth Warren sending a few smoke signals of her own. 1.00

00:04:32.000 I want to be absolutely clear.

00:04:34.000 I am delighted when workers get more money.

00:04:37.000 I'm glad when it happens at any corporation in America.

00:04:41.000 Yay! 0.99

00:04:42.000 But let's be really clear.

00:04:44.000 If these corporations had wanted to do that, they already had plenty of profits to do it.

00:04:49.000 The idea that this is trickle-down economics at work rather than just plain old politics is just wrong.

00:04:56.000 The corporate CEOs have already told us what they're going to do with this money.

00:05:01.000 I'll give you an example.

00:05:02.000 Home Depot, right after the Senate passed the tax bill a couple of weeks ago, Home Depot CEO, executive, is interviewed and said, so what are you going to do with all of this money that Home Depot has?

00:05:17.000 They're going to do really well on this.

00:05:19.000 Was it we're going to raise wages for our employees?

00:05:22.000 No.

00:05:23.000 Was it we're going to hire more employees at the Home Depot stores?

00:05:28.000 No.

00:05:29.000 Was it we're going to build more Home Depots across America?

00:05:33.000 No.

00:05:33.000 They said what we're going to do is we're going to do stock buybacks.

00:05:37.000 In other words, we're going to use whatever money comes in to pump up the price of our stock.

00:05:42.000 Okay, so what's hilarious about this is, number one, the Democrats were claiming for years that the stock market growth of the Obama administration was clearly a reflection of his underlying solid economy.

00:05:52.000 Except the job growth didn't keep up because the stocks were actually stock buybacks, right?

00:05:56.000 Now she's ripping stock buybacks. 1.00

00:05:58.000 Stock buybacks are terrible.

00:05:59.000 But the idea here is that corporations are nefarious.

00:06:01.000 They're profit-seeking.

00:06:02.000 Isn't that awful?

00:06:03.000 Now, it's hilarious that the same folks who think that corporations are profit-seeking and evil.

00:06:07.000 Number one, I don't know if they've ever met anyone who runs a corporation, okay?

00:06:11.000 I help run a corporation, right?

00:06:13.000 I, along with my executive team, people I work with, the president of the company and the CEO of the company, we run the company together.

00:06:20.000 We actually do care about our employees.

00:06:22.000 If you went to our Christmas party yesterday, the only employee who got a bad gift at our Christmas party was Michael Knowles because he's a bad employee.

00:06:29.000 He got coal that I gave him for Christmas.

00:06:31.000 But aside from that, it was in a Tiffany's box, so I guess it was nice a little bit.

00:06:35.000 And one day, if Michael really puts himself under pressure, that coal will become a diamond.

00:06:38.000 It was actually me exhorting him to work.

00:06:42.000 Everybody at the company is relatively happy because we are interested in keeping them employed.

00:06:47.000 And if they're good at their jobs, we give them raises.

00:06:49.000 And if they're good at their jobs, we retain them.

00:06:51.000 And if they're bad at their jobs, we fire them.

00:06:52.000 People don't want to fire people.

00:06:54.000 Okay?

00:06:54.000 They actually don't.

00:06:55.000 People are not generally in the business of enjoying firing people.

00:06:58.000 And corporations actually do care about their workers, which is why wages have risen in the United States in terms of what you can buy.

00:07:05.000 They've risen in the United States continuously despite the death of private sector unions.

00:07:09.000 Private sector unions represent something like 3% of the workforce now.

00:07:13.000 They barely exist.

00:07:14.000 All of the unions exist in the public sector, where they're unionizing against the government.

00:07:18.000 But in the private sector, people have decided that they're going to have better luck instead of unionizing, just going and talking to their employer about a raise, which is correct.

00:07:27.000 But the idea from the left is precisely the reverse.

00:07:29.000 Corporations are cruel.

00:07:31.000 They hate you.

00:07:31.000 They want to harm you.

00:07:32.000 They want to use you as slave labor. 1.00

00:07:33.000 But the government is benevolent.

00:07:35.000 So it's benevolent when the government comes to me and takes a gun out and points it at me and says, give me your money.

00:07:39.000 That's benevolent.

00:07:41.000 And if the government gives me my own money back, then that's bad.

00:07:45.000 That's bad because, you know, that's redistributing the wealth.

00:07:49.000 But if a corporation is working and giving bonuses and keeping people employed, then somehow they're cruel.

00:07:55.000 Now, here's the thing.

00:07:56.000 I think most people are motivated by self-interest.

00:07:58.000 The difference is that in a capitalist economy, my self-interest does not manifest as anything good for me unless I give something to you.

00:08:06.000 Capitalism turns self-interest into what I've called forced altruism.

00:08:10.000 The point being that I can be as selfish as I want, but if I don't produce a good or service that you like, I'm gonna starve.

00:08:17.000 That's the beauty of the capitalist free market system.

00:08:19.000 Government has no such qualms.

00:08:21.000 Government has no such issues.

00:08:22.000 If government wants to survive, government can't go bankrupt.

00:08:25.000 It will just bankrupt you.

00:08:26.000 It will take all your money, all your children's money.

00:08:28.000 If we're going to talk about caring levels, corporations versus government, corporations care a hell of a lot more about making sure that you are employed as long as you are doing work for them than the government cares.

00:08:38.000 The government doesn't care at all.

00:08:40.000 The government will just tax the hell out of you if you earn, and they'll give you money if you don't, because the government is interested in your dependency or in sucking money out of your pocket.

00:08:46.000 Those are the only two things the government is interested in on a fiscal level.

00:08:51.000 Either taking your money or turning you into a dependent.

00:08:53.000 Those are the only two things.

00:08:55.000 Government is not interested in boosting you or giving you a hand up.

00:08:58.000 The Democrats will say, we just want to give you a hand out because it's a hand up.

00:09:03.000 And then they promote policies that make sure that people stay in poverty.

00:09:06.000 They pay people to stay off the work lines.

00:09:09.000 They want welfare increased so that people don't have to work jobs.

00:09:12.000 This is why you have Nancy Pelosi saying things like, we want to make sure that you are not burdened by job lock. 0.98

00:09:17.000 That you're not locked into a job you don't want to do.

00:09:20.000 That fundamental difference between how you view private industry and how you view government undergirds this entire thing.

00:09:27.000 And in a second, I do want to discuss what happened at the UN, because that was a major development over at the UN yesterday with Nikki Haley really taking charge.

00:09:35.000 But first, I want to say thank you to our sponsors over at USCCA.

00:09:39.000 So, if you're a gun lover, it's time for you to listen up.

00:09:41.000 How would you like to head to the range tomorrow with a brand new gun?

00:09:44.000 I know you would.

00:09:45.000 It's Christmas time, folks.

00:09:46.000 I know I would, too.

00:09:47.000 Well, my friends over at the USCCA want to get more guns into the hands of more responsible, law-abiding, armed Americans like you.

00:09:53.000 So they are ending 2017 by giving you up to 17 chances to win your new gun every day.

00:09:58.000 That's right, a different gun every single day of the week.

00:10:01.000 Could be a Kimber, 0.99

00:10:01.000 Could be a Lilac, could be a Springfield. 0.99

00:10:03.000 All you have to do is go to DefendMyFamilyNow3.com.

00:10:07.000 DefendMyFamilyNow3.com to reveal which gun you could be taking home tomorrow.

00:10:11.000 It's DefendMyFamilyNow3.com.

00:10:14.000 Remember, not a lot of time.

00:10:15.000 The gun of the day will always disappear at midnight.

00:10:17.000 This will be the last time I'm telling you the website.

00:10:19.000 So, listen carefully.

00:10:20.000 It's DefendMyFamilyNow3.com.

00:10:23.000 DefendMyFamilyNow3.com.

00:10:24.000 Get your chance to win a new gun every single day.

00:10:27.000 But do it right now.

00:10:28.000 DefendMyFamilyNow3.com.

00:10:31.000 Go check it out.

00:10:32.000 USCCA does a lot of fantastic work.

00:10:33.000 You should register with them.

00:10:35.000 In any case, okay, so yesterday, as I said, Nikki Haley, acting as my spirit animal, and she was at the UN. 0.68

00:10:41.000 The UN votes 128 to 9 against the United States moving our embassy to Jerusalem, to which we say, go to hell. 0.66

00:10:46.000 Who cares what you have to say?

00:10:48.000 Why in the world would I care that Yemen doesn't want us to move our embassy to Jerusalem? 1.00

00:10:52.000 Yemen can kiss our ass. 1.00

00:10:54.000 Who cares? 1.00

00:10:56.000 Answer, no one.

00:10:58.000 No one.

00:10:59.000 And Nikki Haley made that pretty clear.

00:11:01.000 She basically looked at the entire UN and she said, guys, you think I'm standing here caring about what you guys have to say?

00:11:07.000 Welcome to Murica.

00:11:09.000 Nikki Haley doing yeoman's work over at the UN.

00:11:12.000 It's always weird.

00:11:12.000 Whenever people speak at the UN, it looks like they're speaking in the bathroom at a Macy's.

00:11:16.000 But in any case, here's Nikki Haley really bashing people about the head. 1.00

00:11:20.000 The United States is by far the single largest contributor to the United Nations and its agencies.

00:11:27.000 When a nation is singled out for attack in this organization, that nation is disrespected.

00:11:34.000 What's more, that nation is asked to pay for the privilege of being disrespected.

00:11:40.000 The United States will remember this day in which it was singled out for attack in the General Assembly for the very act of exercising our right as a sovereign nation.

00:11:51.000 We will remember it when we are called upon to once again make the world's largest contribution to the United Nations.

00:11:58.000 And we will remember it when so many countries come calling on us, as they so often do, to pay even more and to use our influence for their benefit.

00:12:09.000 Cut them off. 0.93

00:12:11.000 Cut them off. 1.00

00:12:12.000 Cut them off.

00:12:13.000 Okay, none of these countries that are voting against the United States ought to take their foreign aid for granted.

00:12:18.000 Now, there are two types of foreign aid that the United States grants.

00:12:21.000 It represents foreign aid, by the way, about 1% of the American federal budget every year.

00:12:24.000 What's breaking the bank is not foreign aid, but we can use this as a tool.

00:12:28.000 You know we give like $100 million to Zimbabwe every year, like in human and development aid?

00:12:33.000 True, it says $135 million every year to Zimbabwe, which was until five minutes ago run by Robert Mugabe, one of the worst people on planet Earth.

00:12:42.000 There have been studies that show that foreign aid does virtually nothing.

00:12:44.000 When you sign a check to a dictator, the dictator takes the check, immediately cashes it, builds himself a new palace, buys himself a couple of new female bodyguards, and then goes about his daily business.

00:12:54.000 By shtipping the bodyguards and murdering his own people. 0.72

00:12:57.000 Foreign aid, unless it is specifically channeled to the right areas, doesn't do a whole hell of a lot.

00:13:02.000 And the UN doesn't do a whole hell of a lot.

00:13:04.000 The idea of attaching strings to the system makes a lot of sense.

00:13:08.000 Now, what's funny is that there are people on the left who don't believe this.

00:13:10.000 So, Philip Mudd is one of these people.

00:13:12.000 His name is Mudd.

00:13:14.000 Literally.

00:13:15.000 And he actually says this. 0.80

00:13:18.000 On CNN, he said that Trump was acting in the form of diplomatic prostitution.

00:13:24.000 He said, let me be blunt here, Wolf.

00:13:26.000 He said this to Wolf Blitzer. 0.71

00:13:27.000 This is diplomatic prostitution.

00:13:28.000 We're telling people, unless you vote with us, we're not going to give you money.

00:13:31.000 And if your heart doesn't agree with American policies, we're not going to support you in terms of USA.

00:13:35.000 That's not prostitution. 1.00

00:13:37.000 It's just called diplomacy.

00:13:39.000 Like we actually get to attach strings to the checks that we sign to people.

00:13:43.000 It's true everywhere, by the way.

00:13:44.000 It's true in domestic policy, too.

00:13:45.000 No such thing as a free lunch, internationally or nationally.

00:13:48.000 But what this really betrays is that there are a lot of people in the United States, living in the United States, who do not actually see the United States as a force for good in the world.

00:13:56.000 They see it as a bad thing.

00:13:58.000 They see it as a bad thing when we exert our power in the world.

00:14:03.000 That's because there are really two different views of America on the world stage. 0.90

00:14:06.000 View number one is that America is a big bully.

00:14:09.000 This was Barack Obama's view in his apology tour early on in his presidency. 0.95

00:14:12.000 That America is the big bully on the world stage.

00:14:14.000 We're mean to people. 0.97

00:14:15.000 We're cruel, we're overreaching, we're sort of a bull in a china shop. 0.98

00:14:19.000 Sure, we try to do the right thing, but we usually do the wrong thing.

00:14:22.000 And then there is the more traditional and correct view of America's role in the world, which is that we are the greatest force for freedom the world has ever seen and ever known.

00:14:29.000 And the fact is, where American boots have set foot, freedom follows.

00:14:33.000 I'm not going to talk about whether we should have been in every war that we've been in, but where America was present, there was freedom, and where America was removed, the freedom went away.

00:14:42.000 This is true in Vietnam, where when we pulled out of Vietnam, South Vietnam, a free country, turns into a communist hellhole. 0.89

00:14:49.000 So does Cambodia. 0.89

00:14:50.000 Cambodia, where the Khmer Rouge end up murdering a million people. 0.98

00:14:55.000 When we pull out of Korea, out of North Korea, North Korea is still a prison camp, 60 odd years later. 0.70

00:15:02.000 And South Korea, where we still have troops, is one of the freest, most prosperous countries in Asia.

00:15:08.000 Forget about Europe, right?

00:15:09.000 I mean, all of Europe would be speaking German right now if it weren't for the United States, including Britain.

00:15:14.000 So the idea that the United States has been a nefarious force on the world stage, or that we have strings attached, we should have strings attached because our strings are good.

00:15:21.000 Our strings are usually things like, we would like you to free up your press.

00:15:25.000 We would like you to not oppress women.

00:15:26.000 We would like for you to support United States foreign policy in strengthening our interests around the world.

00:15:33.000 This is good stuff.

00:15:34.000 The United States has never conquered nations to take them.

00:15:36.000 The United States has conquered nations in order to replace regimes with better regimes.

00:15:41.000 Ask how that's gone for Japan and Germany.

00:15:43.000 The answer is, pretty well.

00:15:45.000 And by the way, it was going a lot better in Iraq until President Obama decided to precipitously withdraw from Iraq, leaving in his wake an Iranian-backed regime and ISIS in the west of the country, in the northwest of the country.

00:15:57.000 So, this view that the United States is being terrible by attaching strings to our funds, it's my money.

00:16:04.000 For God's sake, it's my money.

00:16:06.000 So if it's my money, then I get to determine what happens with it. 0.94

00:16:09.000 This notion that the government has a role in taking my money and then spending it on whatever stupid thing Robert Mugabe wants to spend it on, it verges on taxation without representation, is the truth.

00:16:20.000 Now one of the things that's always interesting is that the UN votes, as I talked about yesterday statistically, insanely and routinely, all the time, they vote against Israel. 0.82

00:16:30.000 A huge percentage of all the votes they've ever taken in the UN General Assembly are against Israel.

00:16:34.000 And the people who vote against Israel are typically, there are a lot of people who abstained yesterday.

00:16:38.000 The people who voted against Israel are largely located in areas with large Muslim populations, Europe, or in the Muslim world itself.

00:16:46.000 So the vote, I say, was 128 to 9.

00:16:49.000 So 57 of those countries were Islamic.

00:16:51.000 So half of them, right off the bat, are Muslim countries that hate Israel and don't believe that it ought to exist. 0.99

00:16:56.000 And then there are another 50-odd countries, and some of those are in Asia, and some of those are in Europe.

00:17:02.000 And what you are seeing is this alliance between members of the European left and radical Islam to condemn Israel.

00:17:10.000 This is where antisemitism exists.

00:17:12.000 I've talked about antisemitism before on the program.

00:17:13.000 There are a few different types.

00:17:15.000 There's religious antisemitism, which is sort of Muslim antisemitism at this point.

00:17:19.000 There's still some Christian antisemitism, but that's become far less of a problem over the last 50 years since the Holocaust.

00:17:26.000 There is, or over the last 70 years since the Holocaust, rather. 0.63

00:17:30.000 There is Muslim antisemitism, so religious antisemitism.

00:17:32.000 There's also secular antisemitism in the form of people who do not like Christianity, do not like Judaism.

00:17:40.000 They're okay with Islam because Islam makes them feel all multicultural and special and warm inside, but they're not big on the Juden.

00:17:47.000 And this is coming out in Europe.

00:17:48.000 So there's a piece in USA Today talking about Germany.

00:17:51.000 Germany voted against the United States moving our embassy to Jerusalem. 0.99

00:17:55.000 Again, none of their damn business. 0.98

00:17:57.000 Again, they'd be speaking Hitler if it weren't for us. 0.99

00:18:00.000 But the idea that Germany is going to tell Israel, a country full of Jews, about the same population of Jews come to think of it as were slaughtered in the Holocaust by the Germans and their allies, that they're going to tell Israel where to put their capital is beyond absurd.

00:18:16.000 The antisemitism in Germany is on the rise.

00:18:18.000 In Europe it's on the rise.

00:18:19.000 So if you wonder if Israel, if the anti-Israel motivation is caused by antisemitism, the answer is yes. 0.98

00:18:25.000 European antisemitism has long roots.

00:18:27.000 Now there's a lot of European antisemitism that's based off of new Muslim migrants and also secular leftists who believe that Israel is a nefarious force for Western imperialism.

00:18:39.000 So there's peace in the USA today.

00:18:40.000 When telecommunications manager Mikhail Tanayev emigrated to Germany in 1998 from his native Russia as a teen, his Jewish faith didn't matter to classmates or neighbors.

00:18:48.000 But now, he says, when I arrived in Germany, I never saw such displays.

00:18:52.000 But now there are thousands of people who are burning Israeli flags in the streets.

00:18:56.000 In 2006, Germany recorded 1,500 anti-Semitic incidents.

00:19:00.000 That was a massive increase from previous years.

00:19:02.000 According to a recent survey in Western Germany, 62% of Jewish respondents said they experienced anti-Semitism in their everyday lives.

00:19:09.000 28% said they were victims of verbal attacks or harassment in the past year.

00:19:12.000 When I visited France, my wife and I were afraid to go in particular districts.

00:19:16.000 While I was wearing a yarmulke, I wore a baseball cap instead.

00:19:19.000 When I was in London, I think I've told this story on the show.

00:19:22.000 When I was in London, there was a situation where we went to Madame Tussauds Wax Museum.

00:19:27.000 We were walking around.

00:19:28.000 Looking at all the statues, no Jewish statues, right? 1.00

00:19:30.000 Except for Albert Einstein.

00:19:32.000 And behind us, there's a group of young Muslims.

00:19:34.000 You can tell because the woman's wearing a hijab. 0.99

00:19:36.000 Surrounded by two guys who also look like they are from Muslim countries.

00:19:40.000 And they actually walk up to the statue of Albert Einstein and start strangling it.

00:19:44.000 And I figured, well, maybe they just don't like the theory of relativity.

00:19:47.000 Turns out not.

00:19:48.000 There's also a wax statue of Hitler.

00:19:50.000 And while every British person there was walking over and strangling Hitler, these young Muslims went over and put their arms around Hitler like he was Uncle Hitler and began taking pictures. 1.00

00:20:00.000 Anti-Semitism is on the rise there.

00:20:02.000 It's on the rise in places like Sweden.

00:20:03.000 Not just because of radical Islam, but also because of a secular movement that sees religious education as backwards and non-progressive.

00:20:11.000 Nordic countries maintain opinion corridors for acceptable ideas in the public square, and those opinion corridors do not include religious people very often.

00:20:20.000 So, anti-Semitism, anti-Israel sentiment.

00:20:23.000 It may be true that not everyone anti-Israel is anti-Semitic, but everyone anti-Semitic is certainly anti-Israel, and there is pretty significant crossover between the two groups.

00:20:31.000 Okay, well, as we continue, I want to get to the mailbag.

00:20:34.000 I want to do a particularly long mailbag, because it's a year-end mailbag.

00:20:36.000 I want to give you a chance.

00:20:37.000 But first, I want to say thank you to our sponsors over at NatureBox.

00:20:41.000 The holidays mean that it is time to do things, right?

00:20:44.000 You need to wrap your gifts.

00:20:45.000 You need to travel.

00:20:46.000 You need to plan that travel.

00:20:47.000 You need a brace for your relatives.

00:20:48.000 You need extra energy, and that's why you need NatureBox.

00:20:51.000 NatureBox has over 100 delicious snacks.

00:20:53.000 All the snacks are made with high-quality, simple ingredients.

00:20:56.000 No artificial colors, flavors, sweeteners.

00:20:57.000 Just go to naturebox.com and choose your snacks, and NatureBox will deliver them directly to your door.

00:21:02.000 They add new snacks every single month, inspired by new food trends, professional chefs, customer feedback.

00:21:08.000 Folks at the office, they particularly like the vanilla bean wafers, dried mango, and coffee kettle popcorn.

00:21:12.000 We took a quick survey of the office, and those are the ones that are the most popular.

00:21:15.000 There is no risk, by the way.

00:21:16.000 If you don't like a snack, NatureBox replaces it for free.

00:21:19.000 There's a reason that everybody around here is obsessed with NatureBox.

00:21:22.000 Right now, NatureBox is offering Ben Shapiro fans 50% off your first order when you go to naturebox.com slash ben.

00:21:28.000 50% off your first order, naturebox.com slash ben.

00:21:31.000 Also makes a really good Christmas gift.

00:21:32.000 You have somebody in your family who's constantly on the run.

00:21:34.000 Naturebox.com slash ben gets you a 50% discount on your first order, which can be your Christmas gift to them.

00:21:40.000 Naturebox.com slash ben.

00:21:42.000 Check it out.

00:21:42.000 Live a more delicious, energy-filled life.

00:21:44.000 Okay, so.

00:21:45.000 I'm not going to do things I like, things I hate in the mailbag today.

00:21:47.000 Instead, I'm going to do lots and lots of mailbagging.

00:21:50.000 We're just going to mailbag it up, yo.

00:21:52.000 So.

00:21:53.000 We'll jump right in and we'll take your live questions as well.

00:21:56.000 So, everything will be fascinating and we will go through as many questions as possible before the end of the year.

00:22:03.000 We begin with Michaela.

00:22:04.000 She says, So the reason that... First of all, let's start with a problem with Google.

00:22:25.000 If you Google trickle-down economics, you are only going to get the failures of trickle-down economics.

00:22:28.000 That's because it's a term that was not coined by the right.

00:22:31.000 It was a term that was coined by the left.

00:22:33.000 The right calls it supply-side economics.

00:22:35.000 Look up supply-side economics on Google, and you will come up with a myriad of examples in which supply-side economics has worked.

00:22:42.000 Supply-side economics is the idea that if you give producers back their money, they're going to produce new and better products, and that generates its own demand.

00:22:48.000 Supply generates its own demand, basically.

00:22:50.000 So if you generate cheaper product, not crap nobody wants to buy, but if you make product cheaper and better, people will want to buy it.

00:22:57.000 If you invent new products, that changes the way people live.

00:22:59.000 Everybody wants to buy it.

00:23:01.000 15 years ago, 20 years ago, nobody ever heard of an iPhone.

00:23:04.000 Now everyone has one.

00:23:05.000 That's because of supply-side.

00:23:06.000 Apple created a product, you wanted the product, you went out and bought the product.

00:23:11.000 What the left likes is what they call demand-side economics.

00:23:13.000 Demand-side economics is the idea that if you give a bunch of money to a bunch of people that they'll spend that money and that will jog the economy.

00:23:19.000 It won't jog the economy in the sense of making people's lives better generally because the products aren't going to get any better.

00:23:26.000 Right?

00:23:26.000 The point being that

00:23:28.000 Here's the great distinction.

00:23:29.000 If you have a million dollars, you give it to, let's say that all else is equal, right?

00:23:34.000 Nobody has a million dollars.

00:23:35.000 We're not talking about equality now.

00:23:38.000 We're just talking about jogging the economy.

00:23:39.000 We're talking about efficiency.

00:23:41.000 You have a million dollars.

00:23:42.000 You give a million dollars to Bill Gates to invest in the building and invention of new product.

00:23:46.000 Or do you give $1,000,000 to a bunch of people so they can go spend it on a burger?

00:23:52.000 Which is going to make the economy better?

00:23:53.000 The answer is you give the $1,000,000 to Bill Gates.

00:23:55.000 The reason is that Bill Gates is then going to create a product that makes everybody's life better.

00:23:59.000 That will create a bunch of new jobs in a growing area where people are opting for the product.

00:24:03.000 That's not a case for impoverishing people, of course.

00:24:06.000 But the point that I am making is that producers, businesses, change the economy at disproportionate levels.

00:24:12.000 So supply-side economics has generated success after the JFK tax cuts.

00:24:15.000 It generated economic success after the Reagan tax cuts in 1981.

00:24:18.000 It generated economic success after the Bush tax cuts of 2001.

00:24:22.000 There was sustained economic growth.

00:24:23.000 People tend to forget this because of the crash in 2007-2008.

00:24:25.000 Even Barack Obama maintained low tax rates in 2010 and 2013.

00:24:31.000 So supply-side economics does indeed work.

00:24:34.000 It's worked in Europe.

00:24:35.000 It's the reason why Denmark, for example, is now cutting its own taxes.

00:24:38.000 It's why European countries that have spent too much money are cutting their own taxes.

00:24:42.000 So don't Google trickle-down.

00:24:43.000 It's a nonsense term made up by the left.

00:24:45.000 The idea would be that people at the top of companies are just going to give the money to their employees.

00:24:49.000 That's not correct.

00:24:50.000 That's not how trickle-down works, right?

00:24:51.000 Supply-side means that you're creating new products and services, and in the course of doing so, it creates jobs.

00:24:56.000 Tina says, hi, my husband just bought me a Christmas present, a subscription to The Daily Wire.

00:25:00.000 Yay! 0.99

00:25:01.000 Well, thank you.

00:25:01.000 Your husband's awesome.

00:25:02.000 What a great husband.

00:25:03.000 You should probably give him a ring.

00:25:06.000 Well, as far as the brainwashing from the schools, I would suggest private school, homeschooling, take over your local school board.

00:25:21.000 You really do have to be very, very involved.

00:25:24.000 As far as are my kids as smart and analytical as I am, my three-and-a-half-year-old, it's hard to tell for the one-and-a-half-year-old boy because that dude's just, I mean, he's just running around the whole time.

00:25:33.000 I haven't seen a lot of analysis from him other than no and also cheese.

00:25:38.000 He really likes cheese.

00:25:39.000 But aside from that, I mean, he's obviously a very smart kid.

00:25:43.000 He's really highly developed in terms of language.

00:25:46.000 My daughter is brilliant.

00:25:47.000 Leah is super smart.

00:25:48.000 My son may be brilliant, I just don't know yet because he's not speaking full sentences.

00:25:51.000 She is really, really intelligent.

00:25:53.000 I mean, she's four.

00:25:54.000 She's not even four.

00:25:55.000 She's already started her violin lessons.

00:25:57.000 She can essentially read.

00:25:59.000 She knows her numbers.

00:26:00.000 And her thought processes are all quite rational.

00:26:04.000 So she's very smart. 0.97

00:26:07.000 Okay, Arya says, Okay, so what Trump can do is shut up.

00:26:15.000 I mean, really, this is what Trump has to do.

00:26:17.000 Trump needs to be quiet, because if he keeps talking, it makes him more unpopular.

00:26:21.000 Also, he needs to go out and talk about his accomplishments.

00:26:24.000 He needs to go out and talk about how to unify Americans.

00:26:27.000 He can have fun, but I think that it's a mistake for him to, I think it's a big mistake for him to go on Twitter and use Twitter the way that he has the past year.

00:26:35.000 I'm hoping that we're beginning to see some discipline from Trump.

00:26:37.000 Listen, there will be losses in the House.

00:26:40.000 But those losses can be mitigated if the economic climate continues to be good and if Trump can make himself less unpopular.

00:26:46.000 He's never going to be super popular.

00:26:48.000 He's never going to get up to 55% in the approval ratings.

00:26:50.000 But right now, according to, I think it was Rasmussen this morning, he's up to 44.

00:26:53.000 If he can get that up to 47, 48, he'll do fine.

00:26:56.000 And Republicans will do fine.

00:26:57.000 Okay, Emanuel says, any word back about the Rosie harassment?

00:27:00.000 So what he is referring to is that today,

00:27:03.000 Sadly, Rosie O'Donnell has some sort of sad obsession, sad sexual obsession with me, which is horrifying in every conceivable way. 1.00

00:27:11.000 And she tweeted out, I told you yesterday that she tweeted that she wanted me to suck her bleep, but her bleep was male genitalia, which is weird. 0.99

00:27:19.000 And I responded that she should stop being homophobic and sexually harassing people. 1.00

00:27:23.000 Me too. 1.00

00:27:25.000 And then she tweeted again today that she wanted me to lick her. 1.00

00:27:30.000 Which, to which I tweeted, no means no, Rosie. 0.94

00:27:35.000 And all victims have a right to be believed.

00:27:37.000 Hashtag me too.

00:27:39.000 And then I reported her to Twitter.

00:27:42.000 Not because I actually want her banned from Twitter or suspended from Twitter.

00:27:44.000 As I've said before, I didn't even want Milo banned or suspended from Twitter.

00:27:47.000 I think that if I were running the place, I pretty much wouldn't suspend anybody except for explicitly violent behavior.

00:27:53.000 But,

00:27:54.000 I do want to see if Twitter is just going to have a radical double standard, right?

00:27:58.000 If they're going to ban people on the right for saying stuff like Rosie said.

00:28:00.000 Like, if I had said that to Rosie, is there any question they would have suspended or banned me?

00:28:04.000 No question.

00:28:05.000 None.

00:28:05.000 Rosie says it to me?

00:28:07.000 Totally fine.

00:28:07.000 So, we will find out.

00:28:08.000 Rosie has blocked me, so I guess that she's moved on from her sexual obsession.

00:28:13.000 So that's sad.

00:28:15.000 It's sad that, number one, it was unrequited.

00:28:17.000 Number two, don't sexually harass people. 0.88

00:28:19.000 Her parting shot to me was something to the effect of, she didn't even know who I was, but I look like a little boy.

00:28:25.000 To which I responded, then why are you sexually propositioning a little boy? 0.98

00:28:29.000 Because that's creepy and terrible. 0.99

00:28:31.000 Okay.

00:28:34.000 My Twitter was pretty fire this week.

00:28:35.000 Okay, so Nathan says, hey Ben, looking good today.

00:28:39.000 Thank you, sir.

00:28:40.000 Of course.

00:28:41.000 He says, how would you define Zionism?

00:28:42.000 And do you consider yourself a Zionist?

00:28:44.000 Thanks, bro.

00:28:44.000 Yes, I consider myself a Zionist.

00:28:46.000 Zionism is the idea that the Jews deserve a state of their own in biblical Israel. 0.76

00:28:51.000 I'm a Zionist because I am a Jew.

00:28:53.000 And Jews, like a Jew who believes in Judaism, not because I'm ethnically Jewish.

00:28:56.000 And Judaism is a Zionist religion that suggests that there should be Jewish rule in the Holy Land and that it was a biblical promise.

00:29:04.000 Now, what's interesting is people take that to mean that there has to be a kingship in the Holy Land.

00:29:08.000 The Bible is, as I've said before, I think I talked about it this week in the Bible segment, the Bible is really ambivalent about state power.

00:29:14.000 It is not big on the idea of theocracy, per se.

00:29:18.000 But the idea that there ought to be a Jewish state based on foundational Jewish principles

00:29:23.000 It's true for a few reasons, among them anti-Semitism and the tremendous outpouring of anti-Semitism that has existed throughout history, and also the idea that a country ruled by Jewish principles will be a good country, just like a country ruled by Christian principles in the United States is a good country.

00:29:39.000 We're going to do a little bit more of the mailbag in just a second.

00:29:43.000 But first, you know, I think I'm going to have to break here on YouTube and Facebook.

00:29:46.000 So let's do that.

00:29:47.000 So for $9.99 a month, you can get the rest of this mailbag and things I like and things I hate.

00:29:51.000 And I have a Christmas message for you that you're going to want to see today.

00:29:54.000 So, for $9.99 a month, you can get your subscription to Daily Wire, you get the rest of the mailbag, get to be part of the mailbag, you get to be part of our show live, you get everything that you could possibly want in life, except for the thing that you get with the annual subscription, which is this, the very greatest, in leftist tears, hot or cold, tumblers.

00:30:11.000 It is the greatest, okay?

00:30:12.000 It's so great that for our Christmas gifts, we got everyone etched tumblers here at the office, and people were literally weeping.

00:30:19.000 I love it.

00:30:19.000 I mean people, Austin loves it.

00:30:21.000 Everyone loves it.

00:30:22.000 People were breaking down.

00:30:24.000 They couldn't believe it.

00:30:25.000 It was like that episode of Oprah where she gave away cars except it was just a cup.

00:30:29.000 But you can get that for $99 a year.

00:30:31.000 You get the annual subscription and it's pretty awesome.

00:30:33.000 And the Shapiro store is coming, I promise.

00:30:35.000 I know, I know.

00:30:36.000 It's coming.

00:30:37.000 Okay, guys?

00:30:38.000 Yes, it's coming.

00:30:38.000 Okay, so you get all that for the annual subscription as well, $99 a year, cheaper than the monthly.

00:30:42.000 And please, subscribe at SoundCloud, iTunes, over at Google Play or Stitcher.

00:30:47.000 Check us out over there.

00:30:48.000 And subscribe to our YouTube channel as well, where we have a Christmas video out today that is simultaneously humiliating and hilarious.

00:30:54.000 So if you want to see me dramatically humiliated, then go check out that Christmas video as well by subscribing to YouTube.

00:30:58.000 We are the largest, fastest-growing conservative podcast in the nation.

00:31:06.000 Alrighty, so Morgan asks, Ben, when your kids are old enough to watch Star Wars, will you show them in the order you saw them as a child or in the order of the saga?

00:31:13.000 Good question, Morgan.

00:31:15.000 So, my wife was not super familiar with Star Wars, so I have put her on a remedial Star Wars course.

00:31:20.000 And I started her with episode four.

00:31:21.000 I will never start any child on episode one.

00:31:24.000 Why would I torture a child that way?

00:31:26.000 That's cruelty to animals and children.

00:31:28.000 Don't do it.

00:31:29.000 Also, the reason is because you have to actually care about Luke and Darth Vader and all these people before you go back and do Anakin.

00:31:35.000 Where do you slot Rogue One?

00:31:52.000 I was not.

00:31:53.000 So where do you watch it?

00:31:53.000 In order, yeah.

00:32:13.000 We're good to go.

00:32:23.000 So it's completely out of order, but once you've watched the movies, you can slot them all in.

00:32:26.000 And there's something that's fun and discoverable about it that way.

00:32:29.000 If you watched Rogue One and then you just watched Episode Four, you'd miss how cool Rogue One is.

00:32:33.000 Right?

00:32:33.000 Because if you watched Rogue One and then Episode Four, then it just fits right in.

00:32:36.000 But the whole point is that they re-slotted in a new movie, which is super cool, and then it transitions right into Episode Four, which is really awesome.

00:32:43.000 Well, Justice Gorsuch.

00:32:49.000 The moving of the embassy to Jerusalem, the cuts in regulations, the tax bill, getting rid of the individual mandate.

00:32:56.000 He's done a lot of good things this year.

00:32:57.000 He's done a lot of good things.

00:32:58.000 This is the big gap for Trump, is that so much of his policy is good and so much of his rhetoric is horrible, that if he can get his rhetoric, you know, in a better direction, then it won't be very hard to support him, will it?

00:33:07.000 Okay, Elliot says,

00:33:09.000 Hey Ben, simple question for you.

00:33:10.000 Should people on welfare be allowed to vote? 1.00

00:33:12.000 No representation without taxation.

00:33:15.000 So people on welfare should be allowed to vote and also there should be no welfare.

00:33:18.000 That's basically my take.

00:33:20.000 Not because, because I think that if you're a law-abiding citizen in the United States then you should have the right to vote.

00:33:26.000 But I also think that the Constitution was designed to prevent welfare.

00:33:29.000 And I think that we are going to have to make a move to convince people that they are not, that they should not be dependent on government.

00:33:36.000 The barrier, by the way, between the presence of welfare and the non-presence of welfare, I do not think is people who are on welfare.

00:33:41.000 I don't think it really is as simple as everybody on welfare votes Democrat and everybody not on welfare votes Republican.

00:33:46.000 I think that we're going to have to make a move toward convincing people that they ought not be on welfare in the first place.

00:33:50.000 That takes a moral shift in the culture.

00:33:52.000 And that's something, I mean, that's what I do every day.

00:33:53.000 That's why I'm here, because I think that's actually important.

00:33:56.000 Not really, which is why I think that you should marry somebody who has the same ideological viewpoint you do.

00:34:00.000 Okay, that's because he wasn't raised in a Jewish family.

00:34:01.000 He was raised in an ethnically Jewish family where they like bagels and lox and think that everybody is anti-Semitic, and they visit Shul once a year on Yom Kippur and break for lunch.

00:34:24.000 OK, so I'm going to challenge that contention that Jewishness makes you reform.

00:34:29.000 I mean that Jewishness makes you a liberal.

00:34:31.000 Jewishness makes you a leftist if by Jewishness you mean ethnic cultural identity and not religious identity. 0.88

00:34:36.000 Because I guarantee you, whichever host that is on Patek of America, their level of Jewish observance is probably lower than many Christians I know.

00:34:43.000 Stefan says, Can you explain the difference between the Reagan tax cuts and the tax cuts that just passed?

00:34:47.000 So the Reagan tax cuts, my understanding is that they were largely individually based.

00:34:50.000 They were all about lowering the individual tax rates.

00:34:54.000 The top tax bracket was dropped from something like 70% to 28%.

00:34:57.000 It was radically eliminated.

00:35:00.000 All the tax brackets were moved down in pretty substantial ways.

00:35:03.000 In fact, you know what?

00:35:04.000 I want to get this answer for you, you know, in a little bit more detail.

00:35:07.000 So I'm actually going to look up the details of the Reagan tax cuts.

00:35:11.000 So the Reagan tax cuts were not basically corporate.

00:35:15.000 It spurred a lot of economic growth.

00:35:17.000 The top rate, it was basically, it was lowering the top tax bracket.

00:35:21.000 So the top rate fell from 70% to 50% and all of the other tax rates dropped similarly.

00:35:30.000 The 86 tax bill was also very different than this one.

00:35:34.000 The reason that people say this is serious tax reform is because it changes the corporate tax rate in a major way.

00:35:39.000 This particular tax rate, again, was based in corporate taxation less than in individual taxation.

00:35:49.000 I'm going to wiki this, okay?

00:35:51.000 So here's what Wikipedia says.

00:35:52.000 Dr. Wikipedia.

00:35:53.000 He says,

00:36:12.000 We're good to go.

00:36:33.000 The best evidence for God, as I have said on the show before, and as I say in debate with Sam Harris, which I think is going to, he'll be putting that out pretty soon if he hasn't already.

00:36:41.000 The basic idea is that if you believe in free will, if you believe in human reason, if you believe in our capacity to understand the universe, if you believe in a predictable universe with laws that govern it, if you believe we do not live in a chaotic universe without meaning, if you believe that you can derive ought from is, then you need to believe in a divine creator.

00:37:00.000 Okay, and that's not an argument for the Bible, but that is an argument for God, right?

00:37:04.000 That's the Aristotelian argument for God, is that there is a rationale behind everything.

00:37:09.000 If you believe there's a rationale behind everything, then you believe in God.

00:37:14.000 And if you believe, as Aquinas did, that that rationale is

00:37:17.000 Purely actual.

00:37:19.000 Here's sort of the argument that Aristotle makes.

00:37:21.000 The argument that Aristotle makes for the unmoved mover is not that everything has a cause and therefore there's God.

00:37:27.000 Because then leftist and atheists just say, well, does God have a cause also?

00:37:32.000 The idea is that everything that you see in front of you at one point was another thing that was actualized.

00:37:39.000 Something has potential and there's the potential in the actual.

00:37:42.000 Like this piece of paper right here, this has the potential to be ash.

00:37:46.000 But it requires fire in order to make it ash.

00:37:49.000 Now fire itself also had a potential at one point, right?

00:37:52.000 It was a match, and it was a piece of wood, or it was a rough surface.

00:37:56.000 So it had the potential to be fire, but it was not fire.

00:37:59.000 So in order for something to become actual, in order for potential to be actualized, it has to be acted upon by something that is either fully actual, or something that is a combination of the actual with its own potential.

00:38:12.000 The idea here would be that there is something that lies behind everything that is purely actual.

00:38:17.000 It is actuality itself.

00:38:18.000 It is the most actual thing.

00:38:20.000 And this thing cannot be material, because if it were material, then it would have potential for change.

00:38:24.000 It doesn't have potential for change, therefore it is purely actual.

00:38:27.000 And that pure actuality also is all-knowing, because anything that exists has to come from a place of capacity for being actualized.

00:38:42.000 Unactualized actualizer is the way that God would be put.

00:38:44.000 If you want to read a good book about proofs of God, then Edward Fazer is a book I've recommended on the show.

00:38:49.000 He has five proofs for the existence of God.

00:38:51.000 Quite a good book.

00:38:52.000 And I recommend you check it out.

00:38:53.000 Good Christmas read, actually.

00:38:54.000 I recommend that you check that out.

00:38:57.000 Again, I think what it comes down to in the end is you either believe there's a purpose and meaning in human life, or you don't.

00:39:03.000 If you don't, you may end up an atheist.

00:39:04.000 If you do, you're going to end up at God no matter how you slice it.

00:39:07.000 And any attempts to avoid that, which is the debate I had with Sam Harris, any attempts to avoid that conclusion are bound to fall short.

00:39:17.000 My advice is that you actually make a list of your accomplishments and that you go in with another job offer in hand.

00:39:25.000 That you actually go out and investigate the market.

00:39:27.000 Let's see, Jason says...

00:39:44.000 You mentioned it was a mistake to have an income tax.

00:39:46.000 What would you do instead if it were up to you?

00:39:48.000 Other than huge spending cuts, of course.

00:39:50.000 So, I think there's a strong case for a national sales tax on transactions.

00:39:56.000 The government taxes, basically, because transactions can only take place in the public square to a certain extent.

00:40:03.000 A consumption tax seems to me more useful than an income tax, because no business of the government is what kind of money I make, but presumably if I'm acting in the public square, then they may have more of an interest in the transactions in which I take part, although they should not obviously restrict consensual transactions.

00:40:19.000 The only reason for

00:40:25.000 publicly run prisons, I would assume, is that you don't want to set up a corrupt system whereby privatized prisons are attempting to create more criminals.

00:40:34.000 But I don't really have a problem with privatized prisons, particularly if you hold them liable for mistreatment of prisoners.

00:40:40.000 If they actually sign contracts with the state that say that we can sue you if you mistreat the prisoners, if you harm the prisoners, that actually creates more accountability, not less.

00:40:47.000 Right.

00:40:47.000 The reason that you have high prices on legal services is because everybody goes to court for every reason.

00:40:50.000 So what you should do instead is we should set up a system like Britain's where if you sue and you lose, you pay the bills.

00:40:54.000 If you do that, that's going to prevent people from going to court with frivolous cases.

00:41:16.000 I celebrate New Year's by deciding who to destroy in the coming year.

00:41:20.000 That's how I celebrate New Year's.

00:41:22.000 Honestly, it's a strain for me even to stay up till midnight on New Year's.

00:41:25.000 The Jewish New Year was already in Rosh Hashanah, and we made not just New Year's resolutions, but commitments to God.

00:41:30.000 So New Year's is like going to a party and getting drunk with people.

00:41:33.000 I'm not big on getting drunk with anybody.

00:41:36.000 I'm really not a big drinker is the truth.

00:41:37.000 Yesterday, everyone at the Christmas party got some form of alcoholic gift, which is why productivity at the company is so low.

00:41:43.000 But I'm not a big drinker.

00:41:46.000 For some reason, a lot of alcohol really gives me heartburn, which is weird.

00:41:51.000 Wine, particularly.

00:41:52.000 But I drink like a girl.

00:41:55.000 I mean, all of the drinks that I like are girls' drinks. 0.99

00:41:57.000 I like things that taste good.

00:41:58.000 I don't understand why guys have this macho thing about drinking turpentine.

00:42:02.000 They sit around smoking on leaves and drinking turpentine.

00:42:05.000 And it's like, why would you do that?

00:42:07.000 There's a thing called sugar. 0.99

00:42:08.000 Try it.

00:42:08.000 It's great.

00:42:15.000 Recently, there's been some controversy when a local synagogue wouldn't allow a married lesbian couple to join the membership, even though they were separate members when they were single.

00:42:21.000 They've since started their own shul, which promotes acceptance of all.

00:42:24.000 It's caused a bit of controversy in the neighborhood, where some are saying a religious institution should adhere to a religious standard.

00:42:29.000 Others are pointing out there are plenty of people who sin.

00:42:31.000 Why should this scene be held to a different standard regarding membership in the shul?

00:42:34.000 I was wondering what your take is on modern orthodox shuls taking on same-sex couples as members.

00:42:38.000 So, my answer is they cannot join as a couple.

00:42:41.000 The answer is that from a religious standard, they cannot join as a couple.

00:42:44.000 They do not get the same rights as married couples. 1.00

00:42:45.000 They should not be treated as a married couple because that's the religious standard.

00:42:48.000 Now, I don't think the government has anything to do here, but the religious standard in Judaism is that homosexuality is a sin, not homosexual orientation, but homosexual activity. 0.65

00:42:57.000 You wouldn't allow somebody to join your Orthodox shul who came in every day, who came into the shul on Saturdays with their cell phone blaring and saying, I'm a non-Sabbath observant Jew, and I'm here to daven. 0.75

00:43:10.000 And doing it openly.

00:43:11.000 It's one thing if they come in with the cell phone in their pocket and it goes off and everybody's a little bit awkward, but the whole point here is that glorification of sin in an orthodox context is not a cool thing.

00:43:20.000 So, I think that's right that they're allowed to be members when they're single.

00:43:23.000 Now that they're married, if they want to join as single members, that's fine, but I don't think that's what they want.

00:43:27.000 What they really want is for the entire community to change its standard of marriage to meet them, and that seems to me an imposition on the community.

00:43:34.000 OK, so we have more questions, but we'll have to save those for next year.

00:43:40.000 We'll have to save those for next year.

00:43:41.000 Now, a quick thing I like, and then a thing I hate, and then I have a quick message of things, actually.

00:43:47.000 I'm capable of saying it.

00:43:47.000 Yes, indeed.

00:43:48.000 OK, so things I like.

00:43:50.000 So we're going to finish the year on a high note with some John Wayne.

00:43:53.000 So if you've never seen this movie, it's actually one of my favorite John Wayne movies.

00:43:57.000 It was not a huge hit, but it is really enjoyable.

00:44:00.000 The movie is called Big Jake.

00:44:02.000 It stars old, fat John Wayne and Maureen O'Hara, who remained gorgeous her entire life.

00:44:09.000 And the basic premise, it's basically taken, but a Western.

00:44:12.000 That's really what it is.

00:44:13.000 It's these guys who come and kidnap a child, and John Wayne is the grandfather, and John Wayne goes after them.

00:44:20.000 And he brings along a couple of his sons, who are the uncles of the kid.

00:44:24.000 And in the movie, one of his sons is actually played by Patrick Wayne, John Wayne's real son.

00:44:29.000 The movie takes place in supposedly 1908,

00:44:32.000 So you see, there's a couple of cars, but he's riding horses, and so there's also this sort of Western versus modern conflict that's going on, where John Wayne represents sort of the Old West, and you need the Old West to come into the modern world and save people when the bad guys show up.

00:44:45.000 It's a really enjoyable flick.

00:44:46.000 Here's a little bit of the preview.

00:44:49.000 I just saw something in your eyes I don't like. 0.98

00:44:52.000 I saw a foolish thought. 0.98

00:44:55.000 You understand me. 0.93

00:44:58.000 Anything happens, anything at all, your fault, my fault, nobody's fault. 1.00

00:45:02.000 My little brother will blow that kid's head right off. 1.00

00:45:05.000 It's as simple as that. 1.00

00:45:08.000 No matter who else gets killed, that boy dies.

00:45:11.000 The shotgun misses him, it don't matter.

00:45:13.000 You already know about the rifle on him.

00:45:15.000 That won't be as messy as a shotgun at three feet, but that boy will be just as dead.

00:45:20.000 You understand me?

00:45:25.000 Say it.

00:45:26.000 I understand.

00:45:27.000 Now open it up.

00:45:46.000 All right, so we'll cut it off there, because this scene gets pretty intense.

00:45:49.000 The other son is played by Christopher Mitchum, who is Robert Mitchum's son.

00:45:53.000 So it's kind of fun.

00:45:54.000 And it's worth watching.

00:45:56.000 The best performance in it is Richard Boone, who plays the villain here.

00:45:59.000 The movie is really good.

00:46:00.000 It's pretty bloody.

00:46:02.000 Basically, it didn't occur to me until I was looking at this yesterday that this is taken.

00:46:09.000 The movie is taken, but it's in Old Western with John Wayne, and it lives up to the hype.

00:46:13.000 Okay, time for a quick thing I hate.

00:46:15.000 One thing I hate, and then I have a message.

00:46:20.000 So the thing I hate today is something that you will like.

00:46:23.000 And that is, we made a Christmas message from The Daily Wire to you.

00:46:27.000 I have to acknowledge that this was my idea, so I can't hate it completely.

00:46:31.000 But now that it has materialized in real life form, I sort of hate it.

00:46:37.000 So here it is.

00:46:37.000 Here is our Christmas video from The Daily Wire to you.

00:46:41.000 This one's for you.

00:46:43.000 Oh, thank you so much, I appreciate it.

00:46:45.000 From Michael.

00:46:45.000 Oh, Michael, what a guy.

00:46:47.000 Thank you so much.

00:46:49.000 How'd you ever know?

00:46:51.000 Ben, we're waiting.

00:46:53.000 Aw, come on, Elisha. 1.00

00:46:55.000 Right now!

00:47:14.000 It looks like a pink nightmare.

00:47:27.000 And I just want to say a couple of quick messages, really, for Christmas and the New Year.

00:47:31.000 It's a great time of the season to spend time with friends and family.

00:47:34.000 And let's remember something.

00:47:35.000 We spend a lot of time on the show, a lot of time on the show, talking about politics and the daily battles they're in.

00:47:40.000 And one of the things I've been thinking about over the last couple of years, and I'm writing a book about it now, is we're so angry at each other all the time.

00:47:46.000 Americans are so angry at each other over politics, over tax cuts, and Obamacare, and foreign policy.

00:47:52.000 And the reality is we must have a common vision, a common purpose.

00:47:56.000 We must feel like we're part of the same team.

00:47:59.000 And one of the ways to do that is to recognize that we are all seeking human happiness in a communal purpose based on virtue.

00:48:06.000 So this Christmas, don't just spend time enjoying with family.

00:48:09.000 Think about how to be a more virtuous human being next year.

00:48:11.000 Think about how to be a better person, not just in terms of interpersonal connections, but how you can be better in terms of thinking about your obligations to your family, to the world.

00:48:21.000 How can you make yourself better?

00:48:21.000 How can you make yourself more successful?

00:48:23.000 If we all think about those things, if we think about our individual purpose, how we can succeed in our own lives, if we think about our communal purpose, what brings us together around common shared principles, then we'll finally have a country worthy of preserving again, and a country where we can act on that founding vision that brought us all together in the first place, and that I think has been fragmenting in the past couple of years.

00:48:43.000 We are all brothers and sisters, whether we recognize it or not.

00:48:47.000 And in the end, we're part of the same family, but that family has to have a common purpose, not just a common heritage.

00:48:52.000 So, let's think about where to go from here.

00:48:54.000 I also want to thank everybody who works on the show over here at The Daily Wire.

00:48:57.000 I want to thank all of my producers.

00:48:59.000 I'm not going to name all of them because I'm sure then I'll forget somebody and be yelled at later.

00:49:03.000 So, just check out the credits at the end of the show.

00:49:04.000 But everybody who works really hard day-to-day on the show, they do.

00:49:07.000 They work extremely hard to cut the clips, play the clips at the right time, make sure the clip is not available for playing Marshall.

00:49:13.000 They really work hard to make sure that the show is as good as it is every day, and they deserve my thanks.

00:49:20.000 And so, really, from the bottom of my heart, it's great to be part of the team with you.

00:49:24.000 We couldn't do it without you.

00:49:25.000 And finally, thank you to our audience.

00:49:28.000 This has been an unbelievable year for The Daily Wire.

00:49:30.000 It's been an incredible year for The Daily Wire.

00:49:32.000 We literally went from a site that did not exist two years ago to a site with 100 million page views a month.

00:49:37.000 We went from a podcast that did not exist two years ago to a podcast that is downloaded well in excess of half a million times a day and that is viewed another half a million times on Facebook.

00:49:48.000 Very often.

00:49:49.000 So we have a million people engaging with the show on a daily basis.

00:49:52.000 That's thanks to you.

00:49:54.000 Thanks for being part of what we're trying to do here.

00:49:56.000 And thanks for giving us a rational hearing.

00:49:58.000 And if you're on the other side in particular, thanks to you for actually spending some time out of your comfort zone and listening to some folks on the other side.

00:50:03.000 Because I think that it makes the country better if we all do that.

00:50:06.000 I'll see you next year.

00:50:07.000 It's been a wonderful year.

00:50:09.000 Thanks once again.

00:50:10.000 And have a very Merry Christmas and a wonderful New Year.

00:50:12.000 I'm Ben Shapiro.

00:50:13.000 This is The Ben Shapiro Show.

00:50:18.000 The Ben Shapiro Show is produced by Mathis Glover.

00:50:20.000 Executive producer, Jeremy Boring.

00:50:22.000 Senior producer, Jonathan Hay.

00:50:23.000 Our technical producer is Austin Stevens.

00:50:25.000 Edited by Alex Zingaro.

00:50:27.000 Audio is mixed by Mike Cormina.

00:50:28.000 Hair and makeup is by Jesua Olvera.

00:50:30.000 The Ben Shapiro Show is a Daily Wire Forward Publishing production.

00:50:33.000 Copyright Forward Publishing 2017.

The Ben Shapiro Show - December 22, 2017

Say Goodbye To 2017 | Ep. 443

Episode Stats

Summary

Transcript