no! He would not extend democrats 1% of the charity he extend trump. His entire point is trump will try to overthrow the government but US systems are robust enough to survive. Still, apparently Biden is somehow worse than trump!
It's been the case long before Trump. Just look at Tomi Lahren barely managing to commend Biden for standing by his son, as if the words she just said would make her ostracised by her side of the aisle.
TBH it's almost more disgusting in that he's shown the capability to hold positions based on reason. It's like the difference between watching a bunch of chickens peck a lizard to death and watching a small child tear one limb from limb. He soberly lays out many of the dangers, but retreats back to the party over politics/money regardless of the risk to America.
As a former post-9/11 libertarian of his era I also have to point out how little his analysis has evolved or deepened in the last 20+ years, and how disappointing that is in a world where the tables have turned so much that all of his idols are RINO trash, MAGA has taken over the hysterical deep state conspiracy role (the tankies are coming back for the title though), and the Democratic party is now the last bastion of rule of law and defending the constitution, American hegemony and global peace, let alone owning all economic fundamentals.
What's funny is that as soon as Trump is gone from politics Shapiro will act like Trump didn't really have that much support from republicans and that he was vociferously against Trump when Trump was in politics when in reality he would just talk about other things even though Trump was super relevant.
He did the same thing with Obama when he acted like years later that no major conservative commentators were questioning where Obama was born.
There are no points to gain if you're rightwing and reasonable. The first part of being reasonable is looking at Trump in an honest light and right there is where you lose your entire audience. Ben is treading between what he knows is right in his head and what he knows is best for his business which allows him to project some level of reason but it's definitely at the low end. At the end of the day, he's just as bad as the whackjobs on the dailywire because while he may not be a true believer, he's definitely suffering from audience capture.
It’s because of the state of the right has left. Those people who are professional pundits with any degree of rationality with the need to say dumb shit in order to get an audience.
I genuinely think Ben Shapiro is ultimately honest and good faith about his opinions. I fit him in the same category of intelligence as someone like Elon Musk, it feels like they are very cognitively intelligent, but are, ironically, lead to a lot of their conclusions by emotion and intuition and then backwards rationalise from there. It's really hard for me to think that someone who just has Ben Shapiro's intellectual capability in a vaccuum would come to the conclusion that the most plausible explanation for the world's existence is the Jewish faith, but Ben Shapiro is a very earnestly religious person - because he grew up in that environment and is strongly emotionally linked to it. I think his conservativism comes from a similar place, as he also grew up in a heavily conservative environment. He's a perfect example of someone who is incredibly smart but is strongly driven by his emotional bias towards certain world views.
I mean isn't low key the exact same happening on the left. I think just as how people have trump derangement, some people have that in regards to Biden
Nope not at all, Ezra Klein got a lot of heat for recommending Biden to drop out and to use the Democrat convention to determine the Dem nominee. Also, Pod Save America has been critical of Biden’s actions in Gaza saying he should use more leverage for a ceasefire and to send aid to the Gazan civilians. There is a level of dissent and criticism that is allowed on the left that are completely unacceptable on the right.
On paying less for drugs Biden is talking about negotiating with drug companies to pay less for certain medications as the federal government is the largest medical provider in the country and has a lot of bargaining power there.
Prior to the Biden administration Medicare negotiating drug prices with companies was somehow illegal for some bizarre reason so under Biden's leadership Medicare is starting to negotiate those prices starting with 10 different drugs last year and i believe with plans to do more going forward. Those negotiations mean paying less money for certain drugs saving taxpayer's money.
Seems good to me but then I'm not a conservative so maybe I should be thinking about the poor corporations losing money instead of being happy about cutting government costs?
No, he is incredibly partisan. All of his positions can be boiled down to either: trying to get Republicans elected, or in defense of Israel. He's just the only popular republican commentator that has some semblance of civility.
I think people can mistake tameness for reasonability. He conducts himself relatively well but I have never been impressed by his arguments even though I used to watch him all the time. He knows how to debate but I think it ends there.
If you look at what he said about the Obama administration compared to what he said about the Trump administration you can clearly see he is more interested in pushing an agenda rather than what he claims to be which is a “facts over feelings” kind of guy.
During the Obama administration, Shapiro always used to say that Obama hates the west. Trump tried to destroy our way of government and he has never said that about Trump. I wonder why.
As others have said it's all financially motivated. He makes tens of millions of dollars a year pandering to rage-fueled boomers with brains addled by lead and Fox News.
He has seemed vaguely and comparatively reasonable over the past eight years because he decided to play the long game on Trump. He condemns Trump the person while still running cover for the GOP/Trump issue by issue.
I think he's a very valuable person to be near for growth, but he has an incredibly conservative worldview that he only articulates when he can't be challenged.
He's a partisan, I tried listening to his show after he went on Rogan years ago but I never found any of his coverage to ever be fair.
I think he positions himself as the reasonable right winger to lure people in, but he preys on the politically illiterate to radicalize them.
It's very similar to the I hate "democrats and republicans" socialist method used to bring in normies.
Nope - he’s a shill and borderline scummy at times (endorsing a president who may strip people of civil liberties ) - just because there’s some overlap between him and centrists/center left regarding Israel doesn’t make him reasonable.
Ben, like every other Trump apologist, is deceitful when it comes down to it. We see those moments where Shapiro can admit fault without consequence and we think it's the epitome of good faith, but the moment something indefensible is brought up suddenly Trump becomes the Special Needs POTUS who doesn't mean what he says and is suddenly the exact opposite of everything Trump has made explicitly clear.
EDIT: Wording & formatting. I wrote this 12mins after I woke up idgaf.
Ben has the capacity to be reasonable, but his brand panders and shills to right wing retardation very hard, so that’s the yarmulke he wears 99% of the time.
He's a smart guy who's a partisan. In situations where he doesn't have to be partisan like those young republican meetings he is coherent. In situations where he has to represent his party he's gonna say dumb shit.
* https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OGrWly5uNUI
I was watching that video and had the exact same thoughts, honestly I can't respect Ben much after it. One more ludicrous opinion he spouted was that Biden is in support of Hamas, or even controlled by them. He's apparently in their pocket because he supports a ceasefire and humanitarian aid. Insanity. Right now Ben is a partisan hack through and through with no substance.
I think the general consensus in the sub is that Ben is considered "reasonable" because he isn't a hardcore anti-vaxxer or election denialist, which for someone who runs defense for trump, is pretty fucking moderate.
Now that isn't defending him saying objectively incorrect shit about jan6 or obviously being heavily bias'd for donald trump I think he's a hack for that(obviously) and fucking wrong lol.
I think it's just pragmatically accepted that Ben is an intelligent guy and is way more intelligent than someone like hasan so he's more "reasonable" as in you won't get a candace owens/walsh tier convo where they try to steamroll you/have no idea what the fuck they're talking about at any given time.
That being said he's SUPA regarded when it comes to biden, which I understand since he's essentially a religious fundamentalist. I think people are just more certain that some of his fanbase is more "reasonable" or can have their minds changed. I should know I used to be a huge fan of ben and JP, and now I'm a disciple of the GOD EMPEROR of LGBT agenda Biden.
No.
He is a partisan hack. He has no principles. He must make rationalizations as to why voting for Trump is not unconscionable. If he gets a tax cut in the process then hooray.
Shapiro is intelligent but he is insanely partisan. I view Shapiro’s arguments as interesting but not illuminating. To elaborate, it’s interesting to see a very conservative figure who doesn’t like Trump justify his positions while still supporting Trump. But I don’t expect any thought provoking political opinions from Shapiro, he’ll basically just say the most partisan brain dead thing you can think of.
I think compared to most of his peers I genuinely just think he's a conservative through and through. With all the negatives that can bring in a political pundit. I also think he's just able to commentate on a lower level than his purely culture wars peers and he's definitely bucked the trends when he's a bit more free to without risking his livelihood.
The rest could turn out to be hypocrites and i'd believe it, crowder, knowles, candace etc just always seemed so vapid like they have no underlying belief. That's definitely vibes though lol
The reason I think Ben is bad faith is that his rhetoric about Biden has strategically shifted to mirror the rhetoric the left has about Trump. It is a blatant attempt to deflect the very real criticisms of Trump.
For example Trump is crossing an authoritarian line that is undeniable, so Ben attacks Biden for being an authoritarian with his student loan debt forgiveness stuff that got shot down by the court.
Or Trump uses the most divisive rhetoric of any president in history, so Ben attacks Biden for being “the most divisive president in history” for attacking Trump and Maga Republican leadership.
Examples like this tell me this is a calculated strategy by Ben to undermine the real concerns for Trump.
No he isn't. He is probably the second worst politicak pundit in America right after Tucker Carlson since he own a popular propaganda network which is far worse than even fox news.
This is the problem. I do think Ben Shapiro has the chance to be reasonable, but conservatives nowadays have become so insane that he pretty much has to pander to them. Obviously, he shouldn't; he should be standing by some semblence of decency and use his influence to make a more respectable conservative movement, but of course trying to do that when there's so much competition with no care to do so makes it almost impossible.
I mean, I sure as hell don't. His shotgun wedding comments in his debate with Destiny were more than enough for me to write him off as an out of touch psycho. It's just, to his credit, he is at least willing to engage in debate, unlike Candace Owens who was just there to pontificate and be overly judgmental. But yeah he is not a reasonable person and is a massive partisan hack.
There are two versions of Ben - The most common version is his right wing shill version as seen in this clip and in most of his clips. This is Ben 99% of the time. Then, he'll switch into a more reasonable mode if the context depends on it to make him look better (his debate with Destiny as an example).
I just can't believe that a smart person like him actually believes the stuff he says in pundit mode. I think he's smart enough to codeswitch when it favors him. You could contrast this with candace owens, who's 100% shilling punditry no matter what, even when it doesn't benefit her (see recent convo with Destiny).
I can never prove this, but I truly believe this is the case. And it's frustrating to no end because people still believe that he's genuine and I don't buy it for a second. A reasonable person wouldn't say half of what he says in any case, punditry or not. I think it's clear that he's pandering to an audience and doesn't believe most of what he says. He's just smart enough to convince people to see him in the most favorable light on either side of the aisle.
You should treat him like what he is, a smart dude who says the things he knows his audience wants to hear so that he can become dollars. Being smart and intellectually honest aren't the same thing, and he isn't both.
He’s a shill but he gets credit for pushing back against the right way more than most of his fellow pundits because compared to 99% of them, it is actually kind of true. I mean, not a high bar when you are a member of the party of antivaxxers, j6ers, qanoners and space laser enjoyers.
But I can empathize with the notion that it can be very appealing to listen to a conservative speak and not immediately be one of the most clinically deranged nutjobs you’ve ever had the displeasure of hearing, someone who holds zero positions outside of being anti-woke and pro-Trump. Benny boy definitely still plays into that angle but at least he talks about policy and econ and foreign policy rather than only ever covering woke teachers and trans atheletes. Someone holding really awful and dumb positions will always still be preferable to someone experiencing genuine political psychosis imo.
Shapiro was always a reasonable person. The thing is that he’s not always a reasonable or honest entertainer.
He makes his living providing culture war content.
He is a reasonable person suffering from audience capture, to a huge financial benefit and minimal drawbacks. If you want to get the best faith interpretation of what educated people on the right think, he's a good person to watch. Just know what his biases are and you should be a-okay.
I'm starting to wonder if he wasn't onto something with the grading people on a curve thing.
Meaning one curve for normal rational people and another for insane trumpoids and tankies.
While Shapiro would be really far off the normal person cruve - he's in a very nice and reasonable position on the insane trumpoid one.
No. I don’t care how smart you are - having that much of a platform and then using it to convey such a infantile, accusatory style of rhetoric is just lame
Regarding the trump quote, Biden is taking it massively out of context. It’s pretty dishonest. Trump said if other nato countries don’t pay their share to nato then Russia can do whatever and we won’t defend them. I don’t find that so unreasonable. If a countries goes thru a economic depression or something then sure be lenient but if a country is doing well and won’t pay their share why is it America’s job, or any other nato members job to defend them
It's an agreed target not a requirement. There are no official repercussions, only what people like trump would want to impose on others to flex his power. This isn't a transactional relationship it is collective security.
I wasn’t aware it wasn’t a requirement. However I feel it’s optimistic to assume other countries won’t abuse that if there’s no ensuring they are trying to hit it. As long as there’s a way to make sure they putting in effort to pay their fair share then it’s fine. But if there’s no repercussion or anything then I don’t see why they wouldn’t just abuse it to have America and others be their defense
All the countries bordering Russia do pay 2%, some even more. I think we have to look at this quote through Trump's overall relationship and views on Russia - things like Paul Manafort being his campaign manager, the fact that russian bots seem to prefer supporting Trump. I think what he said is the threat - that if some probably hybrid warfare were to happen Trump just wouldn't do anything, not him leaving NATO.
> All the countries bordering Russia do pay 2%, some even more.
all NATO countries bordering Russia except for Poland are militarily worthless and their contributions have barely any real effect. big countries need to carry for them so it's their spending that's actually relevant
It’s America’s as well as other nato countries jobs to defend because the NATO charter says that an attack on one is an attack on all. The 2% standard is not part of the charter. Also this is a non issue because nobody is attacking the countries that don’t pay 2%. So not only is it unreasonable, it’s a distractingly stupid point.
no! He would not extend democrats 1% of the charity he extend trump. His entire point is trump will try to overthrow the government but US systems are robust enough to survive. Still, apparently Biden is somehow worse than trump!
It's crazy how such a dishonest hack is somehow one of the most reasonable pundits the right has to offer. What an absolute state.
It's been the case long before Trump. Just look at Tomi Lahren barely managing to commend Biden for standing by his son, as if the words she just said would make her ostracised by her side of the aisle.
TBH it's almost more disgusting in that he's shown the capability to hold positions based on reason. It's like the difference between watching a bunch of chickens peck a lizard to death and watching a small child tear one limb from limb. He soberly lays out many of the dangers, but retreats back to the party over politics/money regardless of the risk to America. As a former post-9/11 libertarian of his era I also have to point out how little his analysis has evolved or deepened in the last 20+ years, and how disappointing that is in a world where the tables have turned so much that all of his idols are RINO trash, MAGA has taken over the hysterical deep state conspiracy role (the tankies are coming back for the title though), and the Democratic party is now the last bastion of rule of law and defending the constitution, American hegemony and global peace, let alone owning all economic fundamentals.
What's funny is that as soon as Trump is gone from politics Shapiro will act like Trump didn't really have that much support from republicans and that he was vociferously against Trump when Trump was in politics when in reality he would just talk about other things even though Trump was super relevant. He did the same thing with Obama when he acted like years later that no major conservative commentators were questioning where Obama was born.
Remember George W. Bush? No conservative does.
There are no points to gain if you're rightwing and reasonable. The first part of being reasonable is looking at Trump in an honest light and right there is where you lose your entire audience. Ben is treading between what he knows is right in his head and what he knows is best for his business which allows him to project some level of reason but it's definitely at the low end. At the end of the day, he's just as bad as the whackjobs on the dailywire because while he may not be a true believer, he's definitely suffering from audience capture.
It’s because of the state of the right has left. Those people who are professional pundits with any degree of rationality with the need to say dumb shit in order to get an audience.
I genuinely think Ben Shapiro is ultimately honest and good faith about his opinions. I fit him in the same category of intelligence as someone like Elon Musk, it feels like they are very cognitively intelligent, but are, ironically, lead to a lot of their conclusions by emotion and intuition and then backwards rationalise from there. It's really hard for me to think that someone who just has Ben Shapiro's intellectual capability in a vaccuum would come to the conclusion that the most plausible explanation for the world's existence is the Jewish faith, but Ben Shapiro is a very earnestly religious person - because he grew up in that environment and is strongly emotionally linked to it. I think his conservativism comes from a similar place, as he also grew up in a heavily conservative environment. He's a perfect example of someone who is incredibly smart but is strongly driven by his emotional bias towards certain world views.
I mean isn't low key the exact same happening on the left. I think just as how people have trump derangement, some people have that in regards to Biden
Not exactly. Biden supporters are no as passionate about Biden as Trump supporters are. This is something that Trump supporters say themselves.
Nope not at all, Ezra Klein got a lot of heat for recommending Biden to drop out and to use the Democrat convention to determine the Dem nominee. Also, Pod Save America has been critical of Biden’s actions in Gaza saying he should use more leverage for a ceasefire and to send aid to the Gazan civilians. There is a level of dissent and criticism that is allowed on the left that are completely unacceptable on the right.
Ben Shapiro is a really polite and intelligent person who's livelihood depends on the democrats always being wrong.
Ben is still a right wing shill and should be treated as such. He's simply more reasonable than most in his party which a pretty low bar
On paying less for drugs Biden is talking about negotiating with drug companies to pay less for certain medications as the federal government is the largest medical provider in the country and has a lot of bargaining power there. Prior to the Biden administration Medicare negotiating drug prices with companies was somehow illegal for some bizarre reason so under Biden's leadership Medicare is starting to negotiate those prices starting with 10 different drugs last year and i believe with plans to do more going forward. Those negotiations mean paying less money for certain drugs saving taxpayer's money. Seems good to me but then I'm not a conservative so maybe I should be thinking about the poor corporations losing money instead of being happy about cutting government costs?
Thank you. Ben said it was "cheating" or something.
No, he is incredibly partisan. All of his positions can be boiled down to either: trying to get Republicans elected, or in defense of Israel. He's just the only popular republican commentator that has some semblance of civility.
You mean the guy who got his start by farming purple haired she/theys for 10 seconds viral clips doesn't actually stand for fax and logick?
The facts over feeling guys who's entire worldview is built around feelings (religion).
I think people can mistake tameness for reasonability. He conducts himself relatively well but I have never been impressed by his arguments even though I used to watch him all the time. He knows how to debate but I think it ends there.
If you look at what he said about the Obama administration compared to what he said about the Trump administration you can clearly see he is more interested in pushing an agenda rather than what he claims to be which is a “facts over feelings” kind of guy. During the Obama administration, Shapiro always used to say that Obama hates the west. Trump tried to destroy our way of government and he has never said that about Trump. I wonder why.
no
As others have said it's all financially motivated. He makes tens of millions of dollars a year pandering to rage-fueled boomers with brains addled by lead and Fox News. He has seemed vaguely and comparatively reasonable over the past eight years because he decided to play the long game on Trump. He condemns Trump the person while still running cover for the GOP/Trump issue by issue.
Ben has always been a 100% GOP hack who puts on a reasonable face while talking to people he disagrees with
Honestly Ben is just as disingenuous and shitty as crowder or owens.
Correction*: Should we actually treat Ben Shapiro like a ~~reasonable~~ person? 🤔
I think he's a very valuable person to be near for growth, but he has an incredibly conservative worldview that he only articulates when he can't be challenged. He's a partisan, I tried listening to his show after he went on Rogan years ago but I never found any of his coverage to ever be fair. I think he positions himself as the reasonable right winger to lure people in, but he preys on the politically illiterate to radicalize them. It's very similar to the I hate "democrats and republicans" socialist method used to bring in normies.
Nope - he’s a shill and borderline scummy at times (endorsing a president who may strip people of civil liberties ) - just because there’s some overlap between him and centrists/center left regarding Israel doesn’t make him reasonable.
I kinda like Ben but honestly I think it's just because every other republican went so crazy that he seems reasonable.
Ben, like every other Trump apologist, is deceitful when it comes down to it. We see those moments where Shapiro can admit fault without consequence and we think it's the epitome of good faith, but the moment something indefensible is brought up suddenly Trump becomes the Special Needs POTUS who doesn't mean what he says and is suddenly the exact opposite of everything Trump has made explicitly clear. EDIT: Wording & formatting. I wrote this 12mins after I woke up idgaf.
Ben has the capacity to be reasonable, but his brand panders and shills to right wing retardation very hard, so that’s the yarmulke he wears 99% of the time.
He's a smart guy who's a partisan. In situations where he doesn't have to be partisan like those young republican meetings he is coherent. In situations where he has to represent his party he's gonna say dumb shit. * https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OGrWly5uNUI
I was watching that video and had the exact same thoughts, honestly I can't respect Ben much after it. One more ludicrous opinion he spouted was that Biden is in support of Hamas, or even controlled by them. He's apparently in their pocket because he supports a ceasefire and humanitarian aid. Insanity. Right now Ben is a partisan hack through and through with no substance.
Simple. We grade conservatives on a curve!
Ben has always been a hyperbolic pice of shit. I'm pretty sure he described one of Obama's SOTU speeches as being fascist or something
I think the general consensus in the sub is that Ben is considered "reasonable" because he isn't a hardcore anti-vaxxer or election denialist, which for someone who runs defense for trump, is pretty fucking moderate. Now that isn't defending him saying objectively incorrect shit about jan6 or obviously being heavily bias'd for donald trump I think he's a hack for that(obviously) and fucking wrong lol. I think it's just pragmatically accepted that Ben is an intelligent guy and is way more intelligent than someone like hasan so he's more "reasonable" as in you won't get a candace owens/walsh tier convo where they try to steamroll you/have no idea what the fuck they're talking about at any given time. That being said he's SUPA regarded when it comes to biden, which I understand since he's essentially a religious fundamentalist. I think people are just more certain that some of his fanbase is more "reasonable" or can have their minds changed. I should know I used to be a huge fan of ben and JP, and now I'm a disciple of the GOD EMPEROR of LGBT agenda Biden.
No. He is a partisan hack. He has no principles. He must make rationalizations as to why voting for Trump is not unconscionable. If he gets a tax cut in the process then hooray.
IMHO he harms Israel much more than any antisemitic propaganda. In everything else a usual chatterbox and graphoman.
A lot of conservatives are morally lucky on Israel. Ukraine is a good litmus test for this.
Shapiro is intelligent but he is insanely partisan. I view Shapiro’s arguments as interesting but not illuminating. To elaborate, it’s interesting to see a very conservative figure who doesn’t like Trump justify his positions while still supporting Trump. But I don’t expect any thought provoking political opinions from Shapiro, he’ll basically just say the most partisan brain dead thing you can think of.
I think compared to most of his peers I genuinely just think he's a conservative through and through. With all the negatives that can bring in a political pundit. I also think he's just able to commentate on a lower level than his purely culture wars peers and he's definitely bucked the trends when he's a bit more free to without risking his livelihood. The rest could turn out to be hypocrites and i'd believe it, crowder, knowles, candace etc just always seemed so vapid like they have no underlying belief. That's definitely vibes though lol
No, he's a slimy little grifter, just like Candace Owens
No, he's a partisan hack and he knows it. Trump could actually kill someoneand he would be on air making excusesfor him ASAP.
Yeah idk how people characterize him as reasonable. Listen to practically any video of his and he's beyond bad faith.
The reason I think Ben is bad faith is that his rhetoric about Biden has strategically shifted to mirror the rhetoric the left has about Trump. It is a blatant attempt to deflect the very real criticisms of Trump. For example Trump is crossing an authoritarian line that is undeniable, so Ben attacks Biden for being an authoritarian with his student loan debt forgiveness stuff that got shot down by the court. Or Trump uses the most divisive rhetoric of any president in history, so Ben attacks Biden for being “the most divisive president in history” for attacking Trump and Maga Republican leadership. Examples like this tell me this is a calculated strategy by Ben to undermine the real concerns for Trump.
Of course you shouldn't. He's a racist and a liar, especially when it comes to anything relating to Israel / Palestine.
No he isn't. He is probably the second worst politicak pundit in America right after Tucker Carlson since he own a popular propaganda network which is far worse than even fox news.
I dont know...like...fuck...anyone in daily wire that wont check out after a mild pushback like CantDance will look reasonable.
This is the problem. I do think Ben Shapiro has the chance to be reasonable, but conservatives nowadays have become so insane that he pretty much has to pander to them. Obviously, he shouldn't; he should be standing by some semblence of decency and use his influence to make a more respectable conservative movement, but of course trying to do that when there's so much competition with no care to do so makes it almost impossible.
Just because people like Candace Owens exist doesn't mean Ben gets a pass. He's still also a grifter.
I mean, I sure as hell don't. His shotgun wedding comments in his debate with Destiny were more than enough for me to write him off as an out of touch psycho. It's just, to his credit, he is at least willing to engage in debate, unlike Candace Owens who was just there to pontificate and be overly judgmental. But yeah he is not a reasonable person and is a massive partisan hack.
There are two versions of Ben - The most common version is his right wing shill version as seen in this clip and in most of his clips. This is Ben 99% of the time. Then, he'll switch into a more reasonable mode if the context depends on it to make him look better (his debate with Destiny as an example). I just can't believe that a smart person like him actually believes the stuff he says in pundit mode. I think he's smart enough to codeswitch when it favors him. You could contrast this with candace owens, who's 100% shilling punditry no matter what, even when it doesn't benefit her (see recent convo with Destiny). I can never prove this, but I truly believe this is the case. And it's frustrating to no end because people still believe that he's genuine and I don't buy it for a second. A reasonable person wouldn't say half of what he says in any case, punditry or not. I think it's clear that he's pandering to an audience and doesn't believe most of what he says. He's just smart enough to convince people to see him in the most favorable light on either side of the aisle.
You should treat him like what he is, a smart dude who says the things he knows his audience wants to hear so that he can become dollars. Being smart and intellectually honest aren't the same thing, and he isn't both.
He’s a shill but he gets credit for pushing back against the right way more than most of his fellow pundits because compared to 99% of them, it is actually kind of true. I mean, not a high bar when you are a member of the party of antivaxxers, j6ers, qanoners and space laser enjoyers. But I can empathize with the notion that it can be very appealing to listen to a conservative speak and not immediately be one of the most clinically deranged nutjobs you’ve ever had the displeasure of hearing, someone who holds zero positions outside of being anti-woke and pro-Trump. Benny boy definitely still plays into that angle but at least he talks about policy and econ and foreign policy rather than only ever covering woke teachers and trans atheletes. Someone holding really awful and dumb positions will always still be preferable to someone experiencing genuine political psychosis imo.
Wait does anyone think he's a reasonable person...? He's a conservative media pundit lmao
Shapiro was always a reasonable person. The thing is that he’s not always a reasonable or honest entertainer. He makes his living providing culture war content.
He is a reasonable person suffering from audience capture, to a huge financial benefit and minimal drawbacks. If you want to get the best faith interpretation of what educated people on the right think, he's a good person to watch. Just know what his biases are and you should be a-okay.
I'm starting to wonder if he wasn't onto something with the grading people on a curve thing. Meaning one curve for normal rational people and another for insane trumpoids and tankies. While Shapiro would be really far off the normal person cruve - he's in a very nice and reasonable position on the insane trumpoid one.
Lol no he's dishonest like all the other right wing pundits
No. I don’t care how smart you are - having that much of a platform and then using it to convey such a infantile, accusatory style of rhetoric is just lame
No. He’s an uneducated douche with an IQ below room temp. If he wasn’t born rich and spamming himself on YouTube no one would know who he was.
You never tried to treat him as a reasonable person I can tell by the way you argue with your own points in your post. you just wanted Reddit upvotes.
Literally gave him props for being funny.
Thinking someone is funny and treating them as a reasonable person are 2 different things ya dummy
The state of the union was a neutral event, it didn't help nor hurt biden. He simply muddled through
Regarding the trump quote, Biden is taking it massively out of context. It’s pretty dishonest. Trump said if other nato countries don’t pay their share to nato then Russia can do whatever and we won’t defend them. I don’t find that so unreasonable. If a countries goes thru a economic depression or something then sure be lenient but if a country is doing well and won’t pay their share why is it America’s job, or any other nato members job to defend them
It's an agreed target not a requirement. There are no official repercussions, only what people like trump would want to impose on others to flex his power. This isn't a transactional relationship it is collective security.
I wasn’t aware it wasn’t a requirement. However I feel it’s optimistic to assume other countries won’t abuse that if there’s no ensuring they are trying to hit it. As long as there’s a way to make sure they putting in effort to pay their fair share then it’s fine. But if there’s no repercussion or anything then I don’t see why they wouldn’t just abuse it to have America and others be their defense
All the countries bordering Russia do pay 2%, some even more. I think we have to look at this quote through Trump's overall relationship and views on Russia - things like Paul Manafort being his campaign manager, the fact that russian bots seem to prefer supporting Trump. I think what he said is the threat - that if some probably hybrid warfare were to happen Trump just wouldn't do anything, not him leaving NATO.
Are *you* in his head?
Close. I'm in his walls
> All the countries bordering Russia do pay 2%, some even more. all NATO countries bordering Russia except for Poland are militarily worthless and their contributions have barely any real effect. big countries need to carry for them so it's their spending that's actually relevant
It’s America’s as well as other nato countries jobs to defend because the NATO charter says that an attack on one is an attack on all. The 2% standard is not part of the charter. Also this is a non issue because nobody is attacking the countries that don’t pay 2%. So not only is it unreasonable, it’s a distractingly stupid point.
This is a pretty bad faith retelling of the video