The Ben Shapiro Show - Your Taxpayer Bucks Pay For Congress’ Sexual Kicks | Ep. 422

00:00:00.000 An 88-year-old congressperson gets hit with sexual harassment allegations, and we will explain how congresspeople get away with it.

00:00:06.000 Plus, so does Oliver Stone, and so does Charlie Rose. 0.99

00:00:09.000 So pretty much everybody is getting hit with sexual harassment allegations, and that's because everything is hot garbage. 0.98

00:00:14.000 We'll explain why. 0.97

00:00:15.000 I'm Ben Shapiro.

00:00:16.000 This is The Ben Shapiro Show.

00:00:21.000 So I guess that we have to set that workplace counter back to zero.

00:00:25.000 You know, like the one that says, no sexual harassment allegations today, we have to set that one all the way back to zero from one yesterday.

00:00:32.000 Every single day, there are new prominent people who are being hit with sexual harassment allegations and we'll go through them.

00:00:37.000 We'll also explain how it is that Congress gets away with it because they have this very sophisticated system where you're not able to detect

00:00:42.000 Which Congress people were actually sexually harassing or sexually molesting to help.

00:00:47.000 We'll talk about that.

00:00:47.000 Plus, I do want to get to a theory that I have going about why it is that modern society has actually seems to have accentuated the incidents of sexual harassment and sexual assault.

00:01:01.000 We'll talk about that in just a second.

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00:01:53.000 Okay, so.

00:02:16.000 Let's talk about the latest allegations of sexual harassment and sexual assault.

00:02:20.000 So the latest allegations are against John Conyers.

00:02:23.000 Anyone who is surprised by this has not been following politics very long.

00:02:26.000 The Michigan representative John Conyers was caught on a plane a few years back looking at Playboy.

00:02:30.000 So it is not particularly shocking that John Conyers is the type of guy who is trying to hit up the help.

00:02:36.000 According to documents obtained by BuzzFeed News, they've obtained a bunch of documents from a complaint

00:02:44.000 There's a woman who filed, who settled a wrongful dismissal complaint in 2015 from Conyers.

00:02:51.000 She says she was fired because she would, quote, not succumb to his sexual advances.

00:02:55.000 In 2015.

00:02:56.000 I have to say, I don't know what it is about Congress.

00:02:58.000 Is there something that enlivens the prostate in Congress?

00:03:03.000 Is there something in politics that just allows men's prostates to work longer than normal? 0.66

00:03:07.000 Because John Conyers in 2015 was 86 years old and was apparently hitting up the interns for sexual favors.

00:03:15.000 I hope everything, all the plumbing is working correctly for me when I'm that age, but I also know that I'm not going to be hitting up 20-year-old interns when I'm 86 years old.

00:03:23.000 In any case, documents from the complaints obtained by BuzzFeed News include four signed affidavits

00:03:27.000 Three of which are notarized from former staff members who allege that Conyers, the ranking Democrat on the powerful House Judiciary Committee, repeatedly made sexual advances to female staff that included requests for sex acts, contacting and transporting other women with whom they believed Conyers was having affairs, caressing their hands sexually, and rubbing their legs and backs in public.

00:03:45.000 Four people involved in the case verified the documents are authentic.

00:03:48.000 And the documents also show, this is the important part, the secret mechanism by which Congress has kept an unknown number of sexual harassment allegations secret.

00:03:55.000 A grinding, closely held process that left the alleged victim feeling, she told BuzzFeed News,

00:04:00.000 That she had no option rather than to stay quiet and accept a settlement offer to her.

00:04:04.000 She said,

00:04:31.000 Alleging that she was fired for refusing his sexual advances and ended up facing a daunting process that ended with a confidentiality agreement in exchange for a settlement of more than $27,000, which, by the way, is a nothing settlement.

00:04:42.000 I mean, if you were wrongly fired after your boss demanded sex from you and you only get $27,000, that is a nothing of a settlement.

00:04:49.000 The settlement came from a conure's office budget rather than the designated fund for settlements.

00:04:53.000 Congress doesn't have an HR department. 0.97

00:04:55.000 Instead, congressional employees have 180 days to report a sexual harassment incident to the Office of Compliance, which then leads to a lengthy process involving counseling and mediation, and requires the signing of a confidentiality agreement before a complaint can go forward.

00:05:07.000 So you can't even complain.

00:05:09.000 You actually have to go direct to a court and try to sue, or you have to go through this compliance process that requires you to keep your case a secret, which is really horrifying.

00:05:16.000 After this, an employee can choose to take the matter to federal district court, but another avenue is available, an administrative hearing after which a negotiation and settlement may follow.

00:05:24.000 And the agreement says that the complainant agrees she will not disseminate or publish or cause anyone else to disseminate or publish in any manner disparaging or defamatory remarks or comments adverse to the interests of Representative John Conyers, the office of Representative John Conyers, or any of the office's present or former employees.

00:05:41.000 A lot of members of Congress have said that this raises major concerns.

00:05:44.000 Members have argued that 90 days is too long to make a person continue working in the same environment with their harasser, that interns and fellows should be eligible to pursue complaints through this process, and that it is unfair for the victim to have to pay for legal representation while the office of the harasser is represented for free by the House's counsel.

00:05:59.000 In this case, one of Conyers' former employees was offered a settlement in exchange for her silence that would be paid out of Conyers' taxpayer-funded office budget, and then they would rehire the woman as a temporary employee, and they would pay her through employee funds, so it looked as though she was still working and then she was let go, as opposed to there was a settlement to let her go after she was sexually harassed.

00:06:19.000 The draft agreement was unsigned.

00:06:20.000 Congressional employment records match the timing and amounts outlined in the document.

00:06:26.000 A law clerk who represented complained and said the process was disgusting.

00:06:29.000 He said it's a design cover-up.

00:06:30.000 You feel they were betrayed by their government just for coming forward.

00:06:32.000 It's like being abused twice.

00:06:34.000 So, well done, Congress, for creating a process that protects Congress people against their own sexual misconduct.

00:06:43.000 Apparently, a bunch of women have come forward about Conyers.

00:06:47.000 Apparently, the employee said in her affidavit that Conyers made sexual advances toward her.

00:06:50.000 I was driving the congressman in my personal car and resting my hand on the stick shift.

00:06:54.000 Conyers reached over and began to caress my hand in a sexual manner. 0.99

00:06:57.000 The woman said she told Conyers she was married and not interested in pursuing a sexual relationship.

00:07:00.000 She said she was told many times by constituents it was well known Conyers had sexual relationships with his staff and said she and other female staffers felt this undermined their credibility.

00:07:09.000 A male employee said he witnessed Conyers rub the legs and other body parts of complainants in what appeared to be a sexual and inappropriate manner.

00:07:15.000 Conyers said he needed to be more careful because bad publicity would not be as helpful as he runs for reelection.

00:07:20.000 He ended the conversation saying he would work on his behavior.

00:07:24.000 Great behavior by another member of Congress.

00:07:27.000 So again, here's the process.

00:07:29.000 You have 180 days to report your incident.

00:07:31.000 Then you have mandatory counseling.

00:07:33.000 Mandatory counseling can be waived, apparently.

00:07:36.000 The employee is forced to sign a confidentiality agreement to even continue.

00:07:40.000 And then there's mandatory mediation, a mandatory cooling off period.

00:07:43.000 You file a formal complaint or you go to federal district court or administrative hearing.

00:07:47.000 So all of this is required to be kept secret.

00:07:50.000 Just a terrible process and needs to be redone immediately.

00:07:53.000 Congress protecting itself through all of this.

00:07:57.000 Meanwhile, the media continue to protect themselves to a certain extent.

00:08:01.000 Charlie Rose is now under fire.

00:08:02.000 Yes, you heard that correctly.

00:08:04.000 Charlie Rose, who is now 76 years old?

00:08:08.000 Again, amazing. 0.93

00:08:09.000 Apparently, eight women have told the Washington Post that longtime TV host Charlie Rose made unwanted sexual advances on them, including lewd phone calls, walking around naked in their presence, or groping their breasts, buttocks, or genital areas. 0.98

00:08:20.000 He's just a charmer, is Charlie Rose. 0.92

00:08:22.000 It is worth noting that the go-to move for a lot of sexual harassers seems to be showing up naked wearing a robe.

00:08:27.000 Like, apparently Weinstein used to do this.

00:08:29.000 Very weird.

00:08:29.000 Like, I don't know why guys think this is attractive to women.

00:08:33.000 Although, I guess they've been watching too many porn movies.

00:08:35.000 This idea that you show up naked and a woman's just like, oh yeah! 1.00

00:08:39.000 I don't know what in the world would possess men to believe this. 0.99

00:08:42.000 This is a bunch of nonsense.

00:08:43.000 The women were employees or aspired to work for Rose at Charlie Rose from the late 1990s to as recently as 2011. 0.99

00:08:49.000 So, I have a few notes on all of this.

00:09:07.000 Note number one is, it is amazing to see how many women say that the reason they didn't come forward is because they were afraid of repercussions within the industry.

00:09:16.000 And it is true. 0.71

00:09:17.000 There are repercussions, okay?

00:09:18.000 I said this yesterday.

00:09:19.000 In Hollywood, in journalism, in politics, there are repercussions for women who speak out against people who sexually harass or sexually assault them. 1.00

00:09:27.000 Their names are forever linked with these people.

00:09:29.000 It's hard for them to get a job elsewhere because now they try to apply for a job, and people at this new job say, well, maybe the complaint was false.

00:09:35.000 Maybe she's just, you know, the kind of person who's constantly complaining about things, and we don't want to hire her. 0.99

00:09:39.000 She's a sexual harassment risk. 1.00

00:09:40.000 She's going to go to the HR. 0.51

00:09:42.000 She's going to sue. 0.79

00:09:43.000 Do we really want to hire that person?

00:09:44.000 So women stay silent. 1.00

00:09:45.000 But there's something else, and that is, we in American society, you know, it's funny.

00:09:49.000 We all like to say, well, how did all these people knew this was going on?

00:09:52.000 Okay, we all vaguely knew that a lot of this was going on in politics.

00:09:56.000 Because it's always gone on in politics.

00:09:58.000 There are three types of power here.

00:10:01.000 There's money, there's fame, and there's power.

00:10:03.000 All three of those exist in all three of these professions.

00:10:05.000 Journalism, in Hollywood, and in politics.

00:10:10.000 And we have idolized these people.

00:10:13.000 We have idolized these people.

00:10:14.000 Because we have to ask ourselves a question.

00:10:16.000 Why is it that so many of these guys think they can get away with this?

00:10:18.000 Why did Charlie Rose think he could get away with sexually harassing 22-year-old girls when he was in his 70s?

00:10:23.000 Why do you think he could get away with just asking them to come over his house and then showering publicly, naked, and then hitting on them?

00:10:30.000 Like, what made him think that it was okay?

00:10:33.000 Well, misconduct thrives when there's no accountability.

00:10:36.000 Historically speaking, we've always had powerful men who exhibit atrocious behavior.

00:10:40.000 Typically, those were members of the aristocracy.

00:10:42.000 Typically, those were kings, right?

00:10:43.000 Those were people who could actually exercise power over somebody. 0.53

00:10:46.000 There were people who could, you know, there's no real evidence that prime anocta ever took place, the idea that nobles would actually go into peasant villages and on the night of a wedding grab the bride away and have sex with her.

00:10:56.000 That's sort of mythical, but the idea that it did exist came from peasants who were saying, this is how lords and ladies sort of treat us.

00:11:03.000 That there are these aristocrats, that there are these landed classes who would treat people badly because they had power over you and how could you fail to accede to their requests. 0.69

00:11:13.000 I talked about that movie Mudbound.

00:11:15.000 There's that feeling, not with regard to sex in the movie, but with regard to just generalized treatment.

00:11:20.000 That if somebody has power over you, sometimes you gotta keep your head down and there's nothing that you can say about it.

00:11:25.000 So the question is, in an egalitarian, free association society like ours, why is it that so many of these guys thought they could get away with it?

00:11:33.000 I mean, you could see people getting away with it in a time when kings could behead political opponents, in a time when aristocrats could throw you off their land and ensure that you never were able to work anywhere else and you turned into a starving beggar.

00:11:44.000 But in an area where, you know, women are free to work all over the United States in various industries, why were all of these powerful men, why did they believe they could get away with it and why did they get away with it?

00:11:54.000 And this is a sad truth about Americans.

00:11:56.000 We treat our new aristocracy the same way peasants treated the old aristocracy, with deference.

00:12:01.000 We treat Hollywood with deference.

00:12:02.000 We treat politicians with deference.

00:12:04.000 We treat journalists with deference.

00:12:05.000 Elite status in each of those industries doesn't just mean that they have opportunities for brutality, but there's a knowledge that if you engage in this sort of brutality, people are going to look the other way.

00:12:16.000 A lot of Americans seek to curry favor with the powerful, and so there's going to be a lot of opportunities for these guys to engage in sexual misconduct.

00:12:23.000 Does anyone really think that women were dying to meet Harvey Weinstein?

00:12:26.000 The reason women wanted to meet Harvey Weinstein is they thought that he could help their career.

00:12:29.000 So that creates the opportunity for misconduct.

00:12:31.000 And then, there is the failure of consequences for misconduct, and that's because the public offers no consequences.

00:12:40.000 Sometimes victims were blamed, right?

00:12:41.000 Think of Bill Clinton and Monica Lewinsky.

00:12:43.000 Sometimes victims were blamed.

00:12:46.000 Sometimes the darkest side of humanity, there's a dark side of humanity where people do look down on victims in certain situations.

00:12:54.000 This happens throughout world history, where people are victimized and we look down on them.

00:12:57.000 Why didn't they stand up for themselves?

00:12:59.000 Or, well, you know, she had it coming.

00:13:00.000 This kind of disgusting thought.

00:13:02.000 But we have to stop with the idolatry, okay?

00:13:04.000 You can't idolize the aristocracy, whether you're talking about the modern-day aristocracy or whether you're talking about the aristocracy that has existed historically.

00:13:11.000 Okay, so that's point number one.

00:13:13.000 Point number two.

00:13:15.000 I'm seeing this rush to Mia Culpa on Twitter, and it's really irritating.

00:13:20.000 So there's a guy named Ben White, who's the political chief economic correspondent, and he tweeted this morning, my gender is terrible.

00:13:29.000 Well, the good news is your gender is fluid, so you can change it anytime, Ben. 0.95

00:13:31.000 But he says, my gender is terrible.

00:13:33.000 Time politics editor Ryan Lee Beckwith tweeted this morning, or yesterday, not tweeting tomorrow, just retweeting women.

00:13:39.000 Men, join me. 0.97

00:13:41.000 The idea being that men are inherently pigs and evil, and if we just rush forward to disown our own sex, then therefore we'll have done some great grand good. 0.99

00:13:50.000 You get the same thing from white people who intend there's a racist crime, white person against black person. 0.99

00:13:55.000 We've got a bunch of white people saying, I'm ashamed for my white privilege. 0.95

00:13:59.000 This is a trendy habit. 0.72

00:14:01.000 And this is really galling.

00:14:02.000 The reason that it's galling is because it goes to something deeper here.

00:14:06.000 You know, conservatives, traditionalists, they look at what's happening right now in Hollywood and journalism and politics and we say, yeah, yeah.

00:14:14.000 No, it's not a surprise.

00:14:15.000 I'm sorry.

00:14:15.000 It's not a surprise to anyone.

00:14:16.000 Not just because prominent people have always done this, but because human beings are inherently capable of sin.

00:14:21.000 Conservatives look at human beings differently than people on the left do.

00:14:24.000 People in conservative circles, particularly traditional and moral circles, they look at human beings and they say, we are all capable of sin.

00:14:31.000 Men particularly have certain sins that attach to their nature.

00:14:34.000 Men are more driven to treat women like sex objects than women are driven to treat men like sex objects, for example.

00:14:38.000 That's just the way it is.

00:14:40.000 That's not an excuse, and it's a justification in the sense that that is how men are, but it's not an excuse for bad behavior.

00:14:47.000 And that is why what conservatives say is if men have a tendency to do this bad thing,

00:14:51.000 That is why we must have prophylactic rules.

00:14:53.000 That is why we have to train men not to do these things, and train men to be gentlemen, and set up rules that protect women.

00:14:59.000 That is why conservatives are all about rules.

00:15:01.000 I really do love the G.K.

00:15:02.000 Chesterton notion that the difference between the left and the right is how we treat rules.

00:15:06.000 The left comes to a fence in the middle of a field and says, I see no reason for this fence, and they dismantle the fence.

00:15:13.000 The right comes to the fence in the middle of the field and they say, I don't see a reason for this fence.

00:15:18.000 I'm gonna go learn what the reason for this fence is, and then if the reason is bad, I'll dismantle the fence.

00:15:23.000 Okay, the fences that existed for thousands of years were built up around the idea that men were inherently sinful, that men had these drives, and that you needed to build fences around men.

00:15:34.000 Specifically, I mean, this is a very Torah-based concept, a Judaic-based concept, the idea of fences around the Torah.

00:15:39.000 You're gonna build up prophylactic rules that prevent people from engaging in behavior they otherwise would behave in. 0.96

00:15:46.000 You know, conservatives have always said that men left unchecked will act like pigs. 0.99

00:15:49.000 We recognize that men tend to see women as potential sex objects, and that without boundaries, men would treat women as sex objects. 0.99

00:15:56.000 But in order to combat that behavior, it wasn't that conservatives sat around and nodded at that behavior.

00:16:00.000 We said, no, here's a bunch of rules that can help combat that behavior.

00:16:04.000 Right?

00:16:04.000 Here's some of the rules, right?

00:16:05.000 Social expectation that sex would be connected with marriage. 0.71

00:16:09.000 That you would actually have to commit to a woman in order to have sex with her. 0.89

00:16:11.000 This is a very conservative notion.

00:16:13.000 Why was it constructed?

00:16:14.000 To protect women.

00:16:16.000 To protect women.

00:16:16.000 So you didn't have men going around and victimizing women sexually.

00:16:19.000 The idea was that women would not be expected to have sex with men unless it was in the confines of a committed relationship, and men would not be able to have sex with women unless it was in the confines of a committed relationship.

00:16:29.000 Marriage was set up to protect women. 0.84

00:16:31.000 It was not a patriarchal institution for the betterment of men.

00:16:35.000 Most men are not interested in commitment.

00:16:36.000 That's part of human nature.

00:16:38.000 It's part of male nature throughout species.

00:16:40.000 Encouragement of marriage prior to sexual activity.

00:16:43.000 That's something conservatives always said.

00:16:45.000 Get married before you have sex.

00:16:46.000 That's how I was brought up.

00:16:48.000 One of the reasons for that is that you know what a marriage ceremony does?

00:16:52.000 It provides objective measures of consent.

00:16:55.000 That's what a marriage ceremony is.

00:16:57.000 It is a man saying in front of an entire community, I am now going to protect this woman.

00:17:01.000 And a woman saying in front of an entire community, I am now going to be protected by this man and I consent to our sexual relationship.

00:17:07.000 That is an inherent part of marriage.

00:17:10.000 That sort of objective knowledge is good.

00:17:12.000 Because the counter-suggestion, right?

00:17:14.000 Think about it.

00:17:14.000 The counter-suggestion is that it's not so clear that consent has been had in non-marital situations where consent has not been publicly proclaimed.

00:17:21.000 It's amazing.

00:17:21.000 We're setting all up these yes-means-yes rules here in California.

00:17:25.000 We're setting up... I call them no-means-no rules.

00:17:27.000 That's not what they are.

00:17:28.000 They're called yes-means-yes rules in California.

00:17:30.000 Yes-means-yes rules are the... You have to sit there with a contractual checklist.

00:17:34.000 You know, move down the checklist.

00:17:35.000 Can I touch your leg?

00:17:36.000 Yes. 1.00

00:17:37.000 Can I touch your butt? 1.00

00:17:38.000 Yes. 1.00

00:17:38.000 Can I kiss you? 1.00

00:17:39.000 Yes.

00:17:40.000 Right?

00:17:40.000 And now we're gonna actually, like, go down the checklist?

00:17:42.000 Of course, there's no proof of this thing unless it's actually written, so apparently you need a yes-means-yes physical checklist in places like California.

00:17:49.000 That's not, number one, how sex works, but number two, what that's doing is it's actually trying to do the same thing that marriage did before.

00:17:56.000 Marriage was a public proclamation that now you are in a committed and consensual sexual relationship with someone.

00:18:03.000 And the implication was that without that marriage, we don't know.

00:18:07.000 We don't know whether the woman consented or not.

00:18:09.000 We just don't know.

00:18:11.000 That was one of the sort of backhanded ideas behind marriage.

00:18:15.000 Also, the idea that

00:18:18.000 We'd have carefully cultivated rules of contact between men and women. 0.63

00:18:22.000 Right?

00:18:22.000 Not with regard to the workplace, but in many religions, prescribed physical contact, right?

00:18:26.000 There's something in Judaism called Shomar Negiah.

00:18:28.000 The idea is that you're not supposed to actually touch a woman, even, until you're married.

00:18:31.000 You're not supposed to touch her.

00:18:33.000 Now, most people, even in the, I would say, most young Jewish guys in the modern Orthodox community don't hold by this.

00:18:39.000 But the idea was you set up these prophylactic rules specifically so that you don't end up mistreating women.

00:18:44.000 Right?

00:18:44.000 There is a rule that is basically the Pence rule in Judaism.

00:18:47.000 It's called yichud, and the idea is that you're not supposed to be alone in a room with a woman to whom you're not married with the door shut, specifically to minimize the possibility of sexual misconduct by a man.

00:18:57.000 All of these things were based not on the idea that men shouldn't control themselves, but based on the idea that a lot of men don't control themselves, and that's why we should have rules preventing men from getting into situations that put women at risk.

00:19:09.000 That was the idea here.

00:19:11.000 The left wants to hold two simultaneous ideas.

00:19:12.000 Men are pegs and men can be taught not to be pegs.

00:19:16.000 And we can maintain rules that don't restrict men in any way. 1.00

00:19:19.000 That's idiotic. 0.99

00:19:21.000 Either men are pegs or men are not pegs. 1.00

00:19:22.000 Or at least men have the capacity to be pegs.

00:19:24.000 Conservatism were all about this idea that there were rules.

00:19:28.000 That men could not be universally trusted not to sin against women.

00:19:32.000 You know, let's put it in terms leftists can understand.

00:19:34.000 You know, they like gun control?

00:19:35.000 Let's call it male control. 0.93

00:19:36.000 Complete with background checks, mandatory training, a fulsome male enforcement structure. 0.82

00:19:41.000 You gotta go ask dad for permission to marry the girl. 1.00

00:19:43.000 If the girl, if something bad happens to her, dad will come over and beat the living crap out of you, right? 0.99

00:19:48.000 These were all based on sort of conservative sexual notions. 0.99

00:19:51.000 Not because they're trying to victimize women, but precisely the opposite.

00:19:54.000 Now, here's what the left said.

00:19:55.000 The left said, ah, men are still mistreating women though. 0.99

00:19:58.000 You got all these rules and men are still mistreating women. 1.00

00:20:00.000 It can't be that the rules are not

00:20:02.000 Broad enough.

00:20:03.000 The rules are too broad.

00:20:04.000 It must be that the rules themselves are to blame for the exploitation.

00:20:07.000 If we just retrained men, if we somehow perfected human nature and made it so that men didn't see women as sex objects anymore, maybe if we could just teach men, maybe if we could just re-re-enshrine certain basic feminist notions in men, then all of this would go away.

00:20:23.000 And you know what else?

00:20:23.000 We'll get rid of all these rules, because these rules are really just hallmarks of a patriarchal past.

00:20:27.000 I don't see the reason for this fence.

00:20:28.000 I'm removing this fence.

00:20:29.000 In fact, the fence may be the reason that people are jumping

00:20:32.000 We're good to go.

00:20:57.000 Did it result as the left had thought?

00:21:00.000 No, it did not.

00:21:01.000 No, it did not.

00:21:02.000 And so now the left is ad hoc trying to put new rules back in place.

00:21:05.000 Now the left is trying to put rules that they're not even clear on back in place.

00:21:08.000 I saw, for example, a poll yesterday that showed that 25% of American women said that a man asking a woman for a drink was sexual harassment.

00:21:18.000 Is that a more reasonable rule than the idea that sex should be confined within marriage? 0.93

00:21:23.000 Is it really a reasonable rule that if a guy asks a girl for a drink, that's sexual harassment?

00:21:28.000 Or that if a guy says to a girl that she looks pretty, that this constitutes sexual harassment?

00:21:34.000 The rules that the left are now setting up are actually significantly more puritan than the rules that conservatives set up over the course of thousands of years that were tried and tested and largely worked.

00:21:46.000 Are women safer now? 1.00

00:21:47.000 So we got rid of all the rules and now we've constructed this new set of rules that are completely inexact, by the way.

00:21:51.000 Like, absolutely inexact.

00:21:53.000 They're really ad hoc.

00:21:54.000 They're just made up on the spot.

00:21:56.000 Right?

00:21:56.000 If a woman gets drunk with a guy, they both have sex and they both have a good time, then it's totally consensual and fine.

00:22:01.000 If a woman and a man both get drunk, they have sex, the next morning the girl says that that was terrible, then it was rape. 0.91

00:22:05.000 Right?

00:22:05.000 How exactly are we supposed to distinguish these rules that are set up on the basis of radical subjectivism?

00:22:11.000 The left has created a society where you know that there are landmines everywhere, but you don't know exactly where the landmines are until it's too late and you've stepped on one.

00:22:18.000 In fact, we learn where the landmines are by people stepping on them.

00:22:22.000 All of this is not to say there shouldn't be rules.

00:22:24.000 The case I'm making is that there should be consistent rules.

00:22:26.000 And the left is so funny because on the one hand they're saying rules make people worse, and on the other hand they're setting up through the back door all of these rules that are non-equally applied, arbitrarily applied, used as a club to beat down other people, or are insufficient to protect women.

00:22:45.000 All of these things.

00:22:46.000 In other words, the sexual behavior rules that have been set up by the left are completely unworkable.

00:22:51.000 And what's being shown right now is how completely unworkable they are.

00:22:54.000 There is no place more leftist than Hollywood.

00:22:56.000 Sexual harassment is a way of life here, okay?

00:22:58.000 I've lived my entire life in Hollywood.

00:23:01.000 Every woman that I know who works in Hollywood has been sexually harassed or assaulted. 0.78

00:23:04.000 I do not say this with any shred of exaggeration.

00:23:09.000 Every.

00:23:10.000 Single.

00:23:10.000 One.

00:23:11.000 I do not know any who have not been sexually harassed or assaulted in Hollywood by people for whom they worked generally.

00:23:17.000 I really don't.

00:23:18.000 Okay?

00:23:19.000 And I don't think that's rare.

00:23:20.000 Hollywood, this is maybe the most commonplace in the world because Hollywood is a meat market, okay?

00:23:24.000 And men treat it like a meat market. 0.76

00:23:26.000 And they take the absence of these rules, these conservative rules.

00:23:28.000 They were supposed to be chivalrous with regard to women. 0.98

00:23:30.000 They were supposed to marry women before they have sex with them. 1.00

00:23:32.000 They were supposed to abide by certain careful rules of conduct with regard to male-female relationships. 0.98

00:23:37.000 They took all of the 1960s morality, turned it on its head, and abused women. 0.99

00:23:40.000 And we're going to talk about that in Deconstructing the Culture today.

00:23:43.000 We're going to talk about how this has pervaded the culture.

00:23:46.000 It's true in journalism, too.

00:23:47.000 Journalism is a very left field.

00:23:49.000 You're seeing all of these powerful men in journalism doing exactly the same thing.

00:23:52.000 Oh, the woman's liberated. 1.00

00:23:53.000 She's liberated.

00:23:53.000 She'll go out to her drink with me, we'll both get drunk, and then we'll go back to my place, even though I'm married.

00:23:57.000 We're liberated now.

00:23:58.000 Is that a protection for women? 1.00

00:24:00.000 Or is that an invitation to a problem?

00:24:03.000 Apologizing for men's gender is not going to help.

00:24:05.000 So the solution that we've seen from some of these folks is, what if I just apologize for my gender? 1.00

00:24:09.000 You know, men are pigs. 1.00

00:24:10.000 Okay, that's a good starting place, but all people are capable of sin, which is why we need to set up prophylactic rules. 0.99

00:24:18.000 There is a purpose to rules.

00:24:20.000 Only a proactive reinstitution of checks and balances in society is going to help.

00:24:25.000 And in order for us to get there, we're going to have to recognize that human behavior is not eminently malleable.

00:24:29.000 In fact, human behavior is pretty rigid.

00:24:32.000 And the notion that you can ignore the rigidity of human behavior because you just wish to and you wish it were different, that's not going to help anybody.

00:24:40.000 Okay.

00:24:40.000 With all of that said, I now want to say thank you to our sponsors over at Skillshare.

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00:24:54.000 You know, when you send in your resume, there's a skills section.

00:24:56.000 It says, do you know this or that or this?

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00:25:46.000 Make sure you use slash Shapiro so you get the free month and also so that they know that we sent you. 0.50

00:25:50.000 Okay, so these are very serious topics, but we do not treat them seriously because we don't treat anything seriously in the United States anymore.

00:25:58.000 We basically treat everything like a joke.

00:25:59.000 Sexual harassment becomes very serious business when it's a political opponent of yours.

00:26:03.000 When it's a political ally, then you just sort of brush it off.

00:26:06.000 So there are a bunch of

00:26:07.000 Actresses on SNL and writers and producers on SNL, 36 women wrote a letter in support of Al Franken, who, you know, there's a picture of grabbing the boobs of a sleeping woman, so he's a class act.

00:26:18.000 Representative Jackie Speier, who has been talking about how there are members of Congress who are sexually depraved, she comes out and she says she's not going to ask Franken to resign.

00:26:26.000 Democratic commentator, our contributor Sally Cohn, came out today and tweeted, time for Al Franken to go.

00:26:31.000 Wrong is wrong.

00:26:32.000 And the Democrats need to show they strongly and consistently stand for women's rights.

00:26:37.000 You are not willing to go that far, though.

00:26:39.000 Just to be clear, you are not calling for his resignation tonight.

00:26:42.000 Well, I may be calling for his resignation at some point, but I think that... But just not yet, is what I'm saying.

00:26:48.000 You're not there yet.

00:26:49.000 Yes.

00:26:50.000 I'm not there yet.

00:26:51.000 Okay, she's not there.

00:26:52.000 So what exactly would make her be there?

00:26:54.000 Nobody ever has a consistent standard on what would make you be there.

00:26:57.000 I've been pretty consistent on this.

00:26:58.000 Democrats are simply not—we don't treat any of these subjects with real seriousness.

00:27:02.000 We mock seriousness.

00:27:03.000 And then we suggest, when things get really bad, that we're going to be serious.

00:27:07.000 You watch.

00:27:07.000 Within six months, we'll be back to the fully partisan reinterpretation of sexual harassment and assault again.

00:27:13.000 This feels like a turning point.

00:27:14.000 It feels like an inflection point in American culture. 0.99

00:27:16.000 And I hope that it is because I think that pigs should be cast out on their ear. 0.96

00:27:19.000 But do I think that's really where this is going? 0.96

00:27:21.000 No, because I think too many people have a stake in the current system and in protecting men, more importantly, who have engaged in impropriety under the current system.

00:27:29.000 I think there are too many members of the media, too many members of politics, too many members in Hollywood.

00:27:33.000 I don't think

00:27:52.000 CNN had a 20-minute interview with LaVar Ball. 0.99

00:27:55.000 LaVar Ball is this loudmouth moron whose child Lonzo Ball plays for the, is that his name? 0.99

00:28:02.000 Yeah, yeah, Lonzo Ball. 1.00

00:28:04.000 He plays for the Lakers and he has a garbage jump shot.

00:28:06.000 He's basically benched because he's shooting 30% from the field. 0.98

00:28:09.000 He's, you know, just awful.

00:28:10.000 It's amazing to me you get drafted not knowing how to shoot a basketball.

00:28:13.000 Like, this seems to me the number one priority.

00:28:15.000 But in any case, his father, LeVar, had started... He's made a name for Lonzo basically by being a loudmouth and saying his son is better than Michael Jordan, which is absurd.

00:28:22.000 Michael Jordan could shoot and play defense.

00:28:25.000 And LeVar Ball then took on Donald Trump.

00:28:28.000 So his other son, LiAngelo, went to China and started shoplifting in China, which is a genius move.

00:28:33.000 And Trump got him free.

00:28:34.000 And then Trump did what Trump does.

00:28:36.000 He said, I want to thank you.

00:28:37.000 And LiAngelo Ball gave him a thank you, but LeVar Ball did not.

00:28:40.000 Instead, LeVar Ball

00:28:42.000 I would say thank you if he would have put him on his plane and took him home.

00:29:12.000 Then I would have said, thank you, Mr. Trump, for taking my boys out of China and bringing them back to the U.S.

00:29:18.000 There's a lot of room on that plane.

00:29:22.000 I would have said, thank you kindly for that.

00:29:25.000 So, because he didn't take them home on the plane, no thank you.

00:29:30.000 Well, I'm just saying, that's how I would say thank you.

00:29:33.000 I'm just saying, you might say thank you a different way.

00:29:34.000 You just say thank you like it's just any kind of way.

00:29:36.000 It's not how you'll say thank you, it's when you'll say thank you.

00:29:40.000 I can tell you don't mean nothing about it.

00:29:41.000 Uh, what now?

00:29:43.000 So President Trump gets them out of jail in China, but the problem is the plane ride? 1.00

00:29:48.000 So, LeVar Ball, obviously a member of higher intelligence at work, even Shannon Sharp, who's come in for serious criticism on the Ben Shapiro show before, even he says, um, LeVar, you're being an idiot. 0.97

00:29:58.000 I can assure you, even the people that dislike President Trump the most would agree that LeVar Ball is in the wrong in this situation. 0.98

00:30:07.000 I guarantee you that.

00:30:08.000 You might dislike what he's done, what he's said, and who he is, but what he, he had some effect

00:30:15.000 It sure seemed like it.

00:30:16.000 I agree.

00:30:16.000 You're right.

00:30:31.000 Good for Shannon Sharp. 0.83

00:30:32.000 Okay, so I mean, when even Shannon Sharp is critiquing your intelligence, then you know that you've really fallen low, LaVar Ball.

00:30:37.000 So well done media for 20 minutes, 20 minutes.

00:30:40.000 I mean, my God, what a desert wasteland cable television has become and LaVar Ball can fill 20 minutes on your show. 0.99

00:30:47.000 Speaking of stupid things, Kathy Griffin is still out there complaining and suggesting, I don't know, wow. 1.00

00:30:53.000 Kathy Griffin is out there saying that she has been victimized by, you know, Hollywood is very, very pro-Trump. 1.00

00:30:59.000 You know this, right?

00:31:01.000 You don't know this because it's not true?

00:31:02.000 Oh, yeah.

00:31:03.000 So it turns out that she says she's not been able to get any work since holding up a severed head of President Trump, a mock-up of a severed head of President Trump that has less to do with the fact that Hollywood likes Trump because they don't than the fact that Kathy Griffin is terrible at her job.

00:31:17.000 But now she's making a living running around complaining about how everyone is mean to her. 1.00

00:31:21.000 So here we go.

00:31:22.000 I think I should be able to get my life back. 0.96

00:31:24.000 So, I know I took a picture that offended a lot of people, but this wall of crap has never fallen on any woman in the history of America like it has on me.

00:31:34.000 So, and by the way, I know about Eartha Kitt, and I very much encourage you to look her up. 0.84

00:31:40.000 But even Eartha Kitt didn't have, like, Fox News.

00:31:44.000 Uh, um, she's the most victimized woman in American history. 1.00

00:31:47.000 Do you see her hotel room?

00:31:49.000 Like, no.

00:31:50.000 She's not the most victimized woman in American history, okay?

00:31:53.000 She's not even staying in a Motel 6.

00:31:55.000 Like, every person who has stayed in a Motel 6 is more victimized than Kathy Griffin. 0.99

00:31:58.000 She's the most victimized woman in American history. 1.00

00:32:00.000 In American history, according to Kathy Griffin, no wall of crap has ever fallen on anyone more. 0.98

00:32:06.000 Not even like the five-year-old black girls who are attempting to go to school in an integrated school in Birmingham. 0.99

00:32:11.000 Even those girls. 0.99

00:32:12.000 The wall of crap never fell on anyone quite like it fell on Kathy Griffin. 0.99

00:32:16.000 Just astonishing self-centeredness in our media. 0.99

00:32:19.000 And guess what?

00:32:19.000 This is what we'll go back to.

00:32:20.000 The default here is not seriousness about serious topics.

00:32:26.000 The default is Kathy Griffin and LaVar Ball.

00:32:28.000 That's the default.

00:32:29.000 And the media will go back there and we'll forget about all the sexual harassment stuff, I fear.

00:32:33.000 You know why?

00:32:33.000 Because there's no rooted morality in the United States that requires us

00:32:37.000 To abide by moral rules.

00:32:38.000 There is no rooted morality that says you as a human being are worth more than this.

00:32:42.000 Women and men.

00:32:43.000 That you have a soul.

00:32:44.000 You have an immortal soul.

00:32:45.000 And you are required, by God, by nature, you are required to treat other human beings with respect and decency because they are worthy of respect and decency.

00:32:54.000 We are an entertainment culture that treats people as disposable commodities and then we're shocked when people are treated as disposable commodities.

00:33:01.000 We should be shocked, because every so often we're shocked into an awake state.

00:33:05.000 I have a feeling that we're gonna fall back asleep again, which is really horrifying.

00:33:08.000 Okay, I have much more to say on this topic and others.

00:33:11.000 We're going to do a significant deconstructing of the culture today, involving many old songs that you will recognize, but have never really listened to the lyrics to.

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00:34:52.000 Alrighty, okay, so I want to briefly discuss a more serious topic, more serious than Kathy Griffin and LeVar Ball anyway, and that is this AT&T deal.

00:35:00.000 So there's been a lot of talk about the DOJ, the Trump DOJ, is going to crack down, they're filing a lawsuit to stop the merger of AT&T

00:35:10.000 And Time Warner.

00:35:11.000 So it's not Time Warner Cable.

00:35:12.000 It's just Time Warner, the entertainment company.

00:35:14.000 The reason that the DOJ is supposedly stepping in is because what they fear is that AT&T is a distribution network, right?

00:35:20.000 They sell you your internet and they give you your cable.

00:35:24.000 And then they are going to privilege Time Warner content because they own Time Warner content, so they make double bucks, right?

00:35:29.000 So if you subscribe to HBO and you pay AT&T, then AT&T is basically buying HBO, and that means that you're paying AT&T twice.

00:35:36.000 The government really has no business here.

00:35:38.000 I don't think that this is an antitrust violation.

00:35:40.000 I think the vast majority of so-called antitrust violations do not exist.

00:35:43.000 In order for there to be a monopoly, you have to have 100% ownership over a particular area of American commerce.

00:35:49.000 AT&T and Time Warner aren't even in the same industry.

00:35:52.000 AT&T is in the distribution industry.

00:35:53.000 It's vertical integration.

00:35:54.000 AT&T is in the distribution network and industry, and Time Warner is in the entertainment industry.

00:35:59.000 It's the equivalent of AT&T buying MGM, right?

00:36:02.000 They're not the same thing at all.

00:36:04.000 And one acquiring the other actually, in some ways, can make commerce better.

00:36:08.000 It'll make it cheaper because AT&T presumably can charge less for HBO if you're an AT&T subscriber.

00:36:13.000 And also, AT&T does not control the telecommunications market.

00:36:16.000 AT&T is in competition with Verizon.

00:36:19.000 They're in competition with Sprint.

00:36:20.000 They're in competition with a bunch of other different companies.

00:36:23.000 And Time Warner, obviously, is in competition with a lot of other networks, including Fox News.

00:36:28.000 What this has led some people to believe is the real reason that Trump is cracking down, that the DOJ is cracking down, is because Time Warner contains CNN, and Trump doesn't like CNN, so he's trying to damage CNN.

00:36:36.000 The DOJ apparently wanted Time Warner to sell CNN away from Time Warner, to separate it off before it sold itself to AT&T.

00:36:45.000 Let's be blunt here.

00:36:48.000 The President of the United States hates CNN.

00:36:51.000 He's been tweeting about trains hitting people wearing CNN signs.

00:36:57.000 I mean, actual violence.

00:37:01.000 Okay, and I think that that is going to be relevant in these court cases.

00:37:14.000 It's why, you know, President Trump really should not have been speaking out about CNN and then using that as an excuse.

00:37:22.000 I mean, he'll say things like, the Washington Post, Amazon, Bezos consortium.

00:37:27.000 Right, and then if he would crack down on Washington Post, you'd have to imagine that it had less to do with law than it had to do with bias.

00:37:32.000 Now the same thing is sort of true of CNN.

00:37:33.000 He's free to criticize CNN, but he was talking openly during the campaign about how much he hated CNN, and then in the same breath saying that CNN Time War is trying to make a deal with AT&T.

00:37:41.000 That's not good stuff.

00:37:42.000 Okay.

00:37:43.000 Time for some things I like, and then some things I hate, and then we have a pretty significant deconstructing the culture today.

00:37:48.000 So, things that I like.

00:37:49.000 So, Austin threatened to cut the show short because this is in things I like today, but it is indeed in things I like.

00:37:55.000 Justice League is in things I like.

00:37:56.000 It's not in things I love.

00:37:58.000 Okay?

00:37:58.000 It wasn't a great movie.

00:38:00.000 It's not even, I wouldn't say it's like a good movie.

00:38:02.000 I would say that it's an enjoyable movie.

00:38:04.000 There are parts of the movie that are enjoyable. 0.98

00:38:06.000 The villain in the movie is garbage, okay? 0.87

00:38:08.000 The worst part of the movie is that the villain, Steppenwolf, is just a nothing of a villain, right? 0.95

00:38:12.000 I mean, he's like a stock character, he's a 2D character directly from, not even a comic book, directly from like a sketchpad.

00:38:19.000 Steppenwolf is bad.

00:38:21.000 The CGI here has some real problems because they overuse it.

00:38:24.000 I don't understand why Hollywood thinks that

00:38:26.000 That overuse of CGI is better than sparing use of CGI.

00:38:29.000 The best scenes in this movie use CGI sparingly.

00:38:31.000 They don't overuse it.

00:38:32.000 But, like, the entire conclusion, the last... I don't know why every movie now seems like we have to have a monster fight at the end that involves tremendous use of CGI.

00:38:42.000 It's just not my thing.

00:38:44.000 So those are the things about it that I don't like.

00:38:45.000 The other thing I don't like about it is that Ben Affleck, who appears to have developed a serious case of fat face, is... I thought in the last Batman v Superman, which I thought was wildly underrated by the way, I thought it was really mistreated by people at the theaters, The Director's Cut is actually a good movie.

00:39:00.000 The Director's Cut is a very enjoyable movie.

00:39:02.000 It is not a 40% on Rotten Tomatoes movie.

00:39:04.000 It is a 65% movie to me.

00:39:06.000 Batman v. Superman.

00:39:08.000 I watched it twice, okay?

00:39:09.000 I'm not gonna see Justice League twice, I don't think it was as good. 0.94

00:39:11.000 The only truly horrifying DC movie that I've seen in the last four years was Suicide Squad, which is truly a piece of rotten, pernicious garbage. 0.93

00:39:19.000 I mean, it's just horrible. 0.91

00:39:21.000 But, this is not that, okay?

00:39:23.000 It definitely has its moments.

00:39:25.000 The problem I have here is that Ben Affleck in Batman v. Superman plays sort of the Frank Miller Batman, right?

00:39:30.000 This guy who really enjoys making other people suffer and is kind of a sadist, which is kind of fun.

00:39:33.000 In this one,

00:39:34.000 He turns into basically a block of wood.

00:39:36.000 He turns back into Ben Affleck in this one.

00:39:38.000 And he is clearly trying to hand over the reins of leadership to Wonder Woman because Gal Gadot is a breakout star, right?

00:39:43.000 She's terrific and she's really magnetic on screen.

00:39:47.000 The good things about this film, the introduction of the Flash, I think is actually done in a fun way.

00:39:52.000 I like the Flash's character in this.

00:39:54.000 There's one particular shot that is very, very funny in which the Flash is sort of the geeky member of the group.

00:40:03.000 It's not a giveaway.

00:40:04.000 When you look at the poster and you see that Superman's logo is included in the poster, it's not a giveaway that Superman appears in the film.

00:40:10.000 But there's a point where the Flash meets Superman, and let's put it this way, when they meet, it's very funny.

00:40:13.000 There's one little bit that's very, very funny.

00:40:16.000 I thought that the introduction of Cyborg is actually quite well done.

00:40:19.000 So I'm not a huge Cyborg fan in the comics, but I thought that they did a decent job with Cyborg.

00:40:24.000 I thought they really did a poor job with Aquaman.

00:40:26.000 Aquaman is one of the cooler characters in the comics.

00:40:29.000 I'll take that as a yes.

00:40:29.000 What?

00:41:00.000 The ring.

00:41:00.000 The world remains in mourning after the death of Superman.

00:41:14.000 Violence, acts of war, and terrorism are all on the rise.

00:41:18.000 I had a dream.

00:41:24.000 It was the end of the world.

00:41:38.000 I think it's something more.

00:41:42.000 Okay, so the CGI sort of battles.

00:41:44.000 The preview is actually better than the film.

00:41:46.000 The CGI battles that you see there are not particularly good.

00:41:50.000 They kind of stink, actually.

00:41:53.000 But it has its moments.

00:41:54.000 It's not a great movie by any stretch of the imagination, but I have a basic rule of thumb, as I say, when it comes to Rotten Tomatoes.

00:42:00.000 If you want to use the Rotten Tomatoes score as sort of a proxy for how good a movie is, you have to subtract 20 points from every Marvel movie and add 20 points to every DC movie.

00:42:08.000 For some reason,

00:42:09.000 DC, there's a real bias against DC in the critical community.

00:42:11.000 Again, I don't think this is a great movie, but I don't think it's a garbage movie. 0.85

00:42:14.000 And the way that they made out Batman v. Superman, particularly, was that it was a garbage movie.

00:42:17.000 I don't think that's exactly correct.

00:42:19.000 Okay.

00:42:19.000 Other things that I like.

00:42:20.000 So this was just funny.

00:42:22.000 So yesterday, they knocked down the Georgia Dome in Atlanta.

00:42:27.000 And this was much awaited.

00:42:28.000 The Weather Channel set up across the street.

00:42:30.000 The reason they set up across the street is obviously they're trying to see over this kind of cement barrier that you can see there.

00:42:36.000 And if they set up too close, then they don't have the right angle.

00:42:38.000 So they set up across the street, they're about to blow the dome, and then this happens. 0.99

00:43:09.000 What the f***? 0.74

00:43:10.000 Hallelujah! 0.94

00:43:21.000 And then it's gone.

00:43:23.000 So people started photoshopping that bus into various other events.

00:43:28.000 Like, they had the bus driving in front of the game-winning hit from last year's World Series.

00:43:34.000 And they had the bus driving in front of, like, historic events, just as you're about to see them.

00:43:40.000 Like, the moon landing, they had the bus just driving in front of the camera.

00:43:43.000 Pretty spectacular stuff.

00:43:45.000 Very, very funny.

00:43:45.000 OK, time for a couple of quick things that I hate.

00:43:52.000 So, thing that I hate, number one, comes courtesy of a person who I think is awful, Joy Behar.

00:43:56.000 So, Joy Behar, on the ex-Gribble show, The View, which is just... the combined IQ on that show has got to still be in double digits.

00:44:05.000 I mean, it is just a horrific show.

00:44:07.000 Every time I say that, I know I'm foreclosing my possibility of appearing on The View, but I really doubt that I'd ever get an invitation on The View because... I mean, let's be real about this.

00:44:16.000 If The View ever invited me on, it would be the most entertaining hour of television in the history of television.

00:44:20.000 I mean, it would be unbelievable, so...

00:44:23.000 The view.

00:44:23.000 If you want to double your ratings, have me on for an hour and see how it goes.

00:44:26.000 But just because of that, they will never have me on The View.

00:44:29.000 In any case, Joy Behar trotted out this old, tired argument that I'm so sick of hearing from people on the left. 1.00

00:44:34.000 It's so stupid. 1.00

00:44:35.000 It's untrue. 1.00

00:44:36.000 Here is Joy Behar.

00:44:37.000 It's kind of consistent, though, in a way.

00:44:39.000 When you think of a lot of these people who are inside choice, they're very big on the fetus.

00:44:44.000 But as soon as the child is born, they don't vote for additional help for the mother and the child.

00:44:49.000 They don't want to pay for that?

00:44:50.000 No, they won't pay for that.

00:44:52.000 Okay, this is a common argument.

00:44:53.000 Oh, it is what it is.

00:44:54.000 I mean, she knows it.

00:44:55.000 It will be Goldberg, too.

00:45:08.000 Okay, so we can stop it there.

00:45:10.000 Let me start, okay.

00:45:12.000 I'm demanding you have the, okay, so.

00:45:14.000 Let me make this, let's put this in the context of adult conversation.

00:45:17.000 Okay, now we're talking about adults.

00:45:18.000 I don't want you to murder your spouse. 0.59

00:45:20.000 I think it's a bad idea for you to murder your spouse.

00:45:23.000 Do I have to adopt your spouse? 0.97

00:45:25.000 Is it now my necessity that I have to bring your spouse into my home and provide for your spouse?

00:45:30.000 Or, do I just think it's a violation of human rights for you to murder your spouse?

00:45:34.000 This idea that in order for me to say you shouldn't murder your baby, that I have to pay for your baby is so nonsensical.

00:45:41.000 Now, we can have arguments as to what is the best policy for children.

00:45:44.000 We can have arguments over whether there is a real problem of incentivizing women to have children out of wedlock when the government is going to pay for them. 0.70

00:45:53.000 Because the single motherhood rate has skyrocketed in the years since welfare was instituted.

00:45:57.000 We can ask these questions.

00:45:58.000 We can say, is this policy the best one for incentivizing men to stay in the home and raise their children alongside women? 1.00

00:46:04.000 We can say, are these policies sustainable?

00:46:08.000 These are all real questions we can have.

00:46:10.000 Are they generous enough?

00:46:11.000 Should we do more for children?

00:46:13.000 These are questions that we can ask.

00:46:14.000 Does that have anything to do with murdering the baby?

00:46:17.000 This idea that I don't want you to kill someone and therefore I have to make them a part of my immediate family or pay for them is insipid.

00:46:24.000 It's insipid.

00:46:26.000 It's like saying that if you wanted to free the slaves in the South in 1863, well, I don't see you adopting slaves into your family.

00:46:33.000 I don't see you taking that slave and letting him marry your kid. 1.00

00:46:38.000 How about I don't like people being enslaved?

00:46:41.000 Like this utter disconnection.

00:46:42.000 It's a complete non sequitur. 0.95

00:46:44.000 But it's something that the left loves to use because they're trying to evade responsibility for the idea that it's fine for a woman to kill her baby because she's poor. 0.79

00:46:51.000 That's really what they're saying here. 0.96

00:46:52.000 They're really saying that if I'm not going to pay for your baby, you should be allowed to kill your baby, which is an insane argument that they would never actually make. 0.99

00:46:59.000 But that's really what they're saying. 0.99

00:47:00.000 If you get to the root of the logic, that is the logic that they are using.

00:47:02.000 Okay, other things that I hate.

00:47:03.000 There's a New York Times op-ed today saying that Charles Manson was actually a member of the right.

00:47:06.000 This is insipid.

00:47:07.000 Okay, Charles Manson was not a product of the counterculture.

00:47:12.000 What's funny about this column is that when you actually read the column, you can see that the author is getting so close to saying something true and then shies away from the true thing.

00:47:20.000 So the author is a person named

00:47:25.000 Baynard Woods, who's a reporter and editor of the Real News Network, whatever that is.

00:47:29.000 And the piece says, Yeah.

00:47:43.000 Yeah.

00:47:45.000 This sentiment was most famously expressed by Joan Didion in her book, The White Album.

00:47:48.000 She wrote,

00:47:59.000 When Damien was right, we talked about this yesterday, Charles Manson was hanging out with the leading lights of his musical generation.

00:48:06.000 The Beach Boys recorded a Charles Manson song.

00:48:09.000 I think Clavin played it on his show yesterday.

00:48:12.000 Charles Manson was part and parcel of the leftist culture.

00:48:14.000 But here's what's funny, right? 0.55

00:48:16.000 Wood says Manson was a racist and a sexist, and therefore he must have been a right-winger. 0.78

00:48:20.000 Right? 0.94

00:48:20.000 Just like the alt-right. 0.94

00:48:22.000 He says, Mr. Manson was not the endpoint of the counterculture. 0.81

00:48:25.000 If anything, he was a backlash against the civil rights movement and a harbinger of white supremacist race warriors like Dylann Roof, the lunatic fringe of the alt-right.

00:48:32.000 Now, what's hilarious is that he stops one step short. 0.87

00:48:35.000 It is true. 0.99

00:48:35.000 Manson was a racist and a sexist. 0.99

00:48:37.000 And if you read his views on race war, they sound a lot like the views of the alt-right. 0.99

00:48:41.000 That part is true.

00:48:42.000 But he was also a member of the left.

00:48:44.000 Let's connect these two ideas.

00:48:46.000 Is it possible that the alt-right, in many ways, is an outgrowth of...

00:48:51.000 The left?

00:48:52.000 Is that a possibility?

00:48:53.000 Before you dismiss that possibility, recognize that the alt-right has been supremely critical, supremely critical of constitutional conservatism.

00:49:00.000 They've been supremely critical of individualism.

00:49:03.000 They say that they are for an identity politics for white people.

00:49:06.000 That is much closer in notion and orientation to an identity politics of race that the left embraces than it is to an identity politics embraced by the right. 0.96

00:49:14.000 It's one of the reasons why I find the alt-right so repulsive and disgusting.

00:49:17.000 Okay, time to deconstruct a little bit of culture. 1.00

00:49:19.000 So, we're looking at our culture right now and we are saying it's a smoking garbage fire, it's a smoking rubble heap of sexual assault and harassment. 0.96

00:49:27.000 Where could this possibly have come from? 0.92

00:49:29.000 Where would we see some early indicators that maybe this was going to happen?

00:49:33.000 And then you listen to rock music.

00:49:35.000 So,

00:49:36.000 Half of rock music in the 1960s, apparently, was dedicated to the proposition that a 25-year-old shtupping a 14-year-old was fine. 0.52

00:49:42.000 The destruction of traditional sexual mores, the destruction of the idea that there were certain rules you shouldn't break and that consent was not the only standard, was replaced with this free-flowing era of free love, where basically if you said that it was fine to have sex with a girl, and the girl said okay, then it was fine.

00:49:57.000 So if you go back to Animal House, there's an actual scene in Animal House

00:50:01.000 That's right.

00:50:19.000 Right?

00:50:19.000 He doesn't know that she, he doesn't know how old she is, but it's totally fine.

00:50:23.000 Right?

00:50:23.000 It's totally fine.

00:50:24.000 It's played as just sort of a funny, oops, my bad.

00:50:27.000 If you look back at the film Shampoo with Warren Beatty, Carrie Fisher, who is I think 18 at the time, is playing, younger than 18, she's supposed to be playing 16 or 17, and she just has a casual sexual encounter with Warren Beatty, no problem, it's all fine.

00:50:38.000 Right?

00:50:38.000 This was the ethos of the 1960s and 1970s.

00:50:40.000 And you see it in the music.

00:50:43.000 Right, even this song by the Beatles, I saw her standing, there's still a popular old ballad, right?

00:50:48.000 I saw her stand, not really a ballad, but it's still a popular song.

00:50:51.000 I saw her standing, it was played on the Ed Sullivan Show.

00:50:54.000 Okay, listen to the lyrics for a second.

00:50:56.000 Okay, listen to just the beginning of the lyrics.

00:50:58.000 ♪ Well she was just 17, and you know what I mean ♪

00:51:15.000 Okay, so the first lyric there, she was just 17 if you know what I mean.

00:51:18.000 Okay, if you know what I mean was apparently like a side note added by John Lennon.

00:51:23.000 The age of consent in Britain at the time was 16.

00:51:25.000 So when they say if she was just 17, if you know what I mean, what they mean is she's not 17.

00:51:32.000 Right, she's just 17, but we're gonna pretend she's- she's not 17, we're gonna pretend she's 17 for purposes of this sexual encounter, right?

00:51:37.000 I mean, that's really what the song is about.

00:51:39.000 And it's not rare.

00:51:40.000 Okay, Ted Nugent had a song called Jailbait.

00:51:43.000 Okay, it's a pretty horrific song, right?

00:51:45.000 Here's Ted Nugent doing- doing Jailbait, and I will tell you what the lyrics are.

00:52:01.000 Okay.

00:52:03.000 It continues along these lines.

00:52:03.000 It says, Jailbait, you look so good to me.

00:52:05.000 Jailbait, won't you set me free? 1.00

00:52:06.000 The lyrics continue.

00:52:07.000 Well, I don't care if you're just 13.

00:52:09.000 13?

00:52:09.000 What?

00:52:10.000 Yeah, that's in the lyrics.

00:52:13.000 Well, I don't care if you're just 13.

00:52:15.000 You look too good to be true.

00:52:16.000 I just know that you're probably clean.

00:52:18.000 There's one little thing I got to do to you.

00:52:20.000 Okay, this is in the lyrics.

00:52:22.000 And then later he says that maybe he'll go after her mom.

00:52:25.000 And then the police show up, right?

00:52:26.000 And he says, wait a minute, officer.

00:52:28.000 Wait a minute, officer.

00:52:28.000 Don't put those handcuffs on me.

00:52:30.000 What about her?

00:52:30.000 Hey, I'll share her with you.

00:52:33.000 Hey, this is part of the lyric of Jailbait by a huge star, Ted Nugent, who was recently at the White House, by the way, which shows you how our culture has, you know, basically included, you know, a bunch of people who probably would have been in jail for singing this sort of tune in 1930.

00:52:48.000 In any case, this is not the only one.

00:52:51.000 Here is a song from KISS, right?

00:52:52.000 The song is Christine 16 from KISS.

00:52:54.000 ♪ I don't need you to say it like Christine 16 ♪ ♪ But when I saw your funny nose ♪

00:53:16.000 She's been around, but she's young and clean.

00:53:18.000 I've got to have her.

00:53:19.000 Can't live without her.

00:53:20.000 Whoa, no.

00:53:21.000 Christine 16.

00:53:24.000 And then you wonder where this permissive culture came from?

00:53:26.000 You wonder where this culture of sexual abuse came from? 0.91

00:53:28.000 You wonder why it is that men see women as objects when they're seeing 13-year-old girls as sex objects?

00:53:33.000 And when this culture is celebrating them for this?

00:53:35.000 These are all huge hits.

00:53:36.000 These are all major bands.

00:53:38.000 I'm not going far afield and getting you, like, satanic death metal, okay?

00:53:41.000 These are all major bands.

00:53:42.000 Kiss is a major band.

00:53:44.000 The Beatles are a major band.

00:53:45.000 Ted Nugent was a major star.

00:53:47.000 And the way you can see that radicalism has been mainstreamed is

00:53:51.000 I mean, not to put too fine a point on it, but Gene Simmons of KISS was on Fox News regularly for years, okay?

00:53:56.000 Ted Nugent was at the White House.

00:53:58.000 The Beatles are worshipped.

00:54:00.000 Worshipped!

00:54:01.000 Okay, this is the way our culture works.

00:54:03.000 And then we turn around and we're shocked?

00:54:05.000 When the bottom of the culture falls out?

00:54:07.000 We're shocked by this?

00:54:09.000 You can't have it both ways, folks.

00:54:10.000 You can't have a full sexual revolution in which you've tear out every fence available and you celebrate the people tearing out those fences as liberators.

00:54:17.000 You greet them as liberators when in fact they are great annihilators.

00:54:21.000 Okay, we'll be back here tomorrow with all of the latest and for our last show before the Thanksgiving Day weekend.

00:54:25.000 So, be here or be square.

00:54:27.000 Maybe we'll do the mailbag early.

00:54:27.000 Should we do the mailbag early?

00:54:28.000 Probably.

00:54:29.000 We'll do the mailbag early tomorrow, so that should be fun.

00:54:31.000 Okay, so we'll do that tomorrow.

00:54:32.000 Be here.

00:54:33.000 I'm Ben Shapiro.

00:54:34.000 This is The Ben Shapiro Show.

The Ben Shapiro Show - November 21, 2017

Your Taxpayer Bucks Pay For Congress’ Sexual Kicks | Ep. 422

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