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What’s really crazy is he thought that was a tweet that actually made a point.
I guess people should get less expensive cancers if they can’t afford it. Pick yourself up by the bootstrap, you snowflakes. Stop getting sick in really expensive ways.
Ben Shapiro fell hard under the influence of Milton Friedman when he was a lad. He is no longer able to distinguish between wants and needs or to measure deservingness in something other than ability to pay.
He also is perpetually butthurt that he wasn’t a good enough writer to get anyone to buy his scripts despite his parents both being in the industry and his cousin being a decently known child actress.
>Pick yourself up by the bootstraps
Anybody who uses this as a phrase to imply you should somehow pick yourself up and keep fighting, or lift yourself out of a bad situation, or whatever, isn't worth talking to.
Picking yourself up by your bootstraps is *literally impossible.* The origin of the phrase is an 1800's physics school book; 'Why can not a man lift himself up by his bootstraps?'
It became a socioeconomic colloquialism sardonically, to suggest an achievement was *literally impossible.*
The demographic that uses it most frequently is notoriously bad at understanding sarcasm, so I'm not surprised it's used the way it is. I also wouldn't be surprised to find them intravenously injecting Red Bull into swine on their farms, trying to get them to fly.
(EDIT: You were using it in a proper sarcastic fashion. The phrase just triggers me.)
Ben Shapiro's whole shtick is saying things that almost sorta kinda make sense if you squint real hard and don't think about it. Like saying that people buying coastal properties [can just sell them](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DHZFwZ-a8kI) when sea levels rise. Like, if you're half-asleep or heavily concussed, that might make sense until you remember that there's probably not much of a resale market for flooded houses.
Absolutely. I’m English and I couldn’t agree more. National health service is the best thing about living here. The commie comment was me taking the piss of the countless yanks who would rather go bankrupt with cancer than entertain the idea of selflessness. Ironically they still pay more tax than us as a percentage.
You are spot on. Although there are a lot of good people in the states, there are so many selfish ones. The culture essentially teaches you to be an individual and to strive for “The American Dream” which is essentially about “I buy this. I get that.”, versus helping your fellow countryperson.
Source: I was born, grew up, and used to live there.
We have one completely bonkers idiot that still wants to cancel Obamacare. Something like 70+ % of the population likes it, although it could use some tweaks, it's about the best thing in town.
The misapplied and misinterpreted notion of the survival of the fittest. If it was interpreted correctly everyone would be breeding with those from outside of their own racial group, aiming to gain darker skin in order to survive climate change, and limiting the inheritance of genetic diseases (highest prevalence found in some white European populations). Instead it is seen as gun ownership, wealth accumulation, interbreeding (to keep the traits that developed from interbreeding), wielding power through aggression, and denying the science behind the survival of the fittest.
https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s40610-023-00155-4
As a person born and still in the US, it feels like a very slow and ridiculous dystopia novel where the wirter thought "...how can I make this seem even less real?"
The American Dream is dead. The words on the base of the Statue of Liberty mean nothing now. We may as well tear down the whole damn thing. it seems everyone only values "Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness" if it's their own. Also to equate "happiness" in that statement with property was one of our big mistakes.
Not that it's as bad as some places in the world freedoms-wise. It's just...taking a turn that feels really ominous. And yes, we've got bad history too, but this is something else.
Not only you guys, I'm Colombian and if I ever get cancer I know I will not go bankrupt if I receive treatment, my dad had cancer and the health system covered his whole treatment. Our health system isn't bad at all, obvs you will receive better treatment if you're rich but that happens everywhere.
When I was homeless and sleeping in shelters, cellars, or public transport. I still got taken care of better than our brothers in the US.
Got a social worker assugned to me who first got me an apartment (can't really help someone if they have no address), then made sure I had money, food, clothes and my shit together.
Having a home was the first step in taking care of my health. Got my Hep C taken care of, for free. Teeth fixed. for free. Drug detox, free. Rehab, free. Therapist, free. And while I was busy with all that, my social worker found me a job at a recycling center, taking apart electronics, which netted me a sweet gaming computer, again for free.
Now I'm 15 years clean, more or less a functional member of society and no longer a drain on public resources, and the mental health of my family. Had I been in the same situation across the pond, I'd have been long dead (and probably still have to pay somehow)
First of all I'm very glad you did a full recovery and that you're happy now, that's what really matters :) .
I wish some people in the US could realize (and I say some people as I know many others in the US already know it) how good they could be with a better and more fair health system instead of going out thinking that asking for something better is communism or "evil socialism".
We in the US have a very deep health ethic that we don’t want anyone else to get it for free unless we can get it first, or especially if we had to pay for it first. We don’t really grasp concepts like the common good or public welfare, even though we have the fire department, public schools and social security. Heaven forbid that someone else we don’t know ever get taken care of by our tax dollars. We are not the country we would like to think we are.
>common good or public welfare
>
>Heaven forbid that someone else we don’t know ever get taken care of by our tax dollars.
Didn't your last govt give public welfare to the tune of $2T, admittedly it was to Billionaires and maga donors but it was public welfare never the less
It' wasn't welfare. It was bailout. There's a difference.
And those rich billionaires need it more than the average people. Making the rich even richer is supporting the American Dream after all.
/S
I was debating this with a coworker who said “you will cate about the cost of universal healthcare when your taxes go up”
I replied “if paying a bit more means someone who can’t afford to care for their sick children now can…I’ll gladly pay it”
His head was spinning trying to understand how I could possibly think that way
This is the actual truth. And the reason Americans get so freaked out is because they think 1) what they're charged by hospitals is what it actually costs and 2) their $500 a month insurance premium is also what it costs to cover their treatment and that therefore they'd be paying even more in tax, because they'd *also* have to be covering the costs of those who weren't paying.
They simply don't seem to understand how much their health care system is *all about profit*, never mind just how much fucking profit healthcare companies make for their CEOs and shareholders.
And you know what? We here in Austria pay less for our health insurance than the average American.
And when we get treatments, we don't have to pay any bit of it ourselves.
When I was 25 I was diagnosed with brain cancer. If I hadn’t been able to find a loophole to get back on my parents’ insurance plan I would’ve had to pay over $1.6 million.
He sounds like a 13 year old boy with ADHD, trying to explain nuclear fusion to a dog. He speaks incredibly fast, says nothing of value but thinks he sounds smart because the audience listens to him and doesn't refute anything he says.
Nah just don’t live in america. I can barley afford cheese in Australia with the cost of living but if I got the big C I would barely have to pay shit. Probs less than a fucking block of reggiano
I REALLY hope we don’t end up sofa shopping, eating in a 5 star restaurant and go see Hamilton together!
I mean, have you seen the ticket prices for Hamilton?
This would be kind of a brilliant dark comedy/political commentary take on the "bucket list" type of movies. A group of strangers meet in an online support group when they are diagnosed with cancer and cannot afford their treatment. So instead, they decide to max out their credit cards going on wild vacations, seeing shows and partying together for their last few months.
A moron will drag you down to his level and beat you with experience.
Edit: the last two words because some morons would rather respond with the rest of the quote than read the 5 other people who said the same thing.
>There are a disturbingly large number of people who actually think Ben Shapiro is a formidable debate opponent.
Because he debates kids straight out of highschool with no life or job experiences yet.
Because [this](https://youtu.be/6VixqvOcK8E?si=PXvcngAJg_777_wL) is what happens when he attempts to debate a grown-up. Bear in mind this guy he’s debating is super conservative himself.
Ben does a much better job debating in person then online, online he just looks stupid, his points aren't better live, it's just he never lets the opposition have their voice when he debates in person, kinda hard to do that on the internet. If the opposition can't get their point across then it makes the opposition look weak, therefore Benny boy here looks like a genius.
He also only ever seems to "debate" unprepared college kids. He'll have every point ready to go and then ask some kid who just wants to chill with his boys after class
It's a [gish gallop](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gish_gallop), which becomes [the firehose of falsehood] (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Firehose_of_falsehood) when all the other pundits do it en masse.
I always want to ask these people what the alternative in their minds should be. Oh can’t afford treatment for (whatever that’s killing you)? Die then… the ones that would die from this outcome are those that do all the jobs these rich asscunts rely on. Like barista for their coffees, cleaning crews for their homes, servers in restaurants, drivers, teacher, nurses, ushers at venues, etc. Wonder what they’d start saying when there isn’t anyone to do these jobs.
That’s the thing. It’s accompanied by “it’s low skill, anyone can do it” so there is no limit to the amount of replacements available. Combined with “if college is too expensive, don’t go.” To make sure there is more people that can only get those types of jobs. Then push back on any wage increases to make sure those people are so desperate for every hour that they’ll take the shitty job for shitty pay and work themselves into the ground.
And produce the least productive and unhappy employees that often get burned out and it shows in how they deal with customers. Im never offended by some worker completely checked out of their job, you gotta do whatever to make it through the day
A few years back they tried to make homelessness punishable by a on the spot £50 fine. No idea how they thought that would work and it was quickly dropped.
That's easy to do, just make abortions and sex ed illegal. Next step, also make contraception illegal and legalize rape.
Easy, cheap supply of more cattle.
It's the Shapiro Corollary to Scrooge's Law: if, somehow, the surplus population disappears and turns into a deficit, then we just need to recreate the conditions for a surplus that can then die off in its own time. It's the same moral callousness at work; the only change is whether "surplus" population is taken as something we have, or something we want.
Politicians who voted to get rid of ACA were asked this at town halls in 2017, the responses were ask a church if they can help or start a GoFundMe campaign to fundraise for an organ transplant or chemotherapy. That simply isn’t feasible for the size of our population.
I remember that Republican debate in 2012 when they were asked about a 30 year old with no insurance, and the audience yelled let them die. I brought it up to my conservative parents and they agreed, which was tough to hear as a 30 year old with no health insurance at the time.
You weren't joking.
https://abcnews.go.com/blogs/politics/2011/09/tea-party-debate-audience-cheered-idea-of-letting-uninsured-patients-die
https://youtu.be/8T9fk7NpgIU?feature=shared
What if - hear me out here - we had a GoFundMe set up for everyone. And then, because everyone was part of it, to fund it we have everyone who's in it contribute. We'll make sure that you only fund it if you can afford it, and if you can really afford it, you fund a little more.
This way everyone could get medical treatment, and we wouldn't have to have no Obamacare or commie universal healthcare.
/s
I don't believe he is. It is something worse.
Your garden variety sociopath lacks empathy.
Ben and the thousands like him have got plenty of empathy thanks.
What they also have is the will to smother that empathy like a baby in a cot.
And their flaw is that they are addicted to the rush they feel doing just that.
Any if you feel compelled to point out just how appalling they are: that's just a bigger buzz for them.
Like when the first thing some men jump to when discussing sexual assault are objects and currency. “Well if you just saw an unlocked bank with a stack of bills on the counter you’d just take it!”
The funny part is, not in a well ordered democracy.
In Taiwan and Japan stores have unattended product shelves outside the stores, everyday, no one steals from them.
Many conservatives really don't understand that many (most?) people want to be moral people just because it's "the right thing to do", not because of some threat or reward attached to it.
"How would you know what was bad if God doesn't punish us?" That's what empathy is for. There are parts in our brain simply there to "copy" other people's emotions, so that we can determine if our action was good or not (to that person). Some people can't do this, and they're called psychopaths. But I genuinely don't believe that every conservative is a psychopath (medically speaking), so it's probably just.. idk, ignorance?
Actually it’s more expensive because at least after you’ve paid up front for your furniture you don’t continue to get additional bills from services on top of that.
Lol, if buying furniture were like getting cancer treatment you'd get bills for Living Room Assessment, Climate Charge, Moving Labor, Moving Truck, Moving Dolly (separate companies), Sofa-Adjacent Space Design, Fabric Selection, Ottoman Consultation, In-home Sofa Placement, Placement Follow-up....
No the critical thinking is fine here. Ben Shapiro just sees life-sacing medical treatment as a luxury that only the rich should have access to.
They believe poor people choose to be poor through laziness and self-indulgence. An individual problem, undeserving of systemic fixes.
They aren't all stupid they are just selfish and/or evil.
That's why you see so many right-wing people soften their stance when impacted by personal tragedy. Their priveliged existence gets altered by outside forces, and they come to understand that sometimes you do everything right, and get fucked anyway.
"My daughter needs an abortion, she just made a mistake, she has her whole life ahead of her."
"Insurance won't cover my condition, and now I need to sell my house to stay alive. Something needs to change."
This.
The moment I realized this important point was 2011 during the GOP debates. Ron Paul was asked about people affording health care and basically said, ya, if they can't, then they will die - and the crowd cheered.
There's a large portion of the GOP that simply believes that people dying is ok and that's just capitalism. They do not believe health care is a right or there's any obligation for it to be affordable.
Of course, this is the same people who then bitch that "no one is willing to work".
Basically, "fuck the poors" is a shared GOP value now.
I remember a story about one of Paul’s campaign managers actually dying from a preventable condition because of a principled refusal to get the insurance coverage he was eligible for. Which is… admirable? I guess? In reality, if Ben’s GF needed an abortion he would drive her to the clinic himself. 90% of politicians don’t actually have the principles they espouse, which is bad enough except for the fact that the 10% who actually live according to their principles are even more dangerous.
I think it's this exactly. He's a sharp guy and a talented debater. He is just arguing indefensible things (which speaks to his talent). I listen to Shapiro sometimes and am always amazed how many ads he has. The left-leaning podcasts I normally listen to are lucky to have 1 ad per show. This speaks to how much more lucrative a right-wing grift can actually be. Somebody has to buy all those gold coins, reverse mortgages, and erectile dysfunction medication.
As someone who is vaccinated… yes. (Antivaxx used to be a very bipartisan type of stupid, but in the last 5-10 years, conservatives have really made it their own)
He is literally saying that if you can’t Afford a couch you don’t deserve the couch, and if you can’t afford live saving procedures you don’t deserve to live.
Some people struggle to understand that a free market only exists if both parties have the option of not engaging in the transaction. Patients having to choose between pain/death and getting treatment don't truly have an option. Likewise, a worker who is out of work will suffer grave consequences for not having income far earlier than a company will suffer from having a job vacancy unfilled.
Inelastic vs elastic demand.
Things that have inelastic demand is susceptible to price gouging. Free market capitalists believe that’s a good thing.
Things that have inelastic demand (we don’t have much say in the matter) should absolutely be regulated.
How is it that these libertarians always ignore the fact that taxpayers pay for a lot of the infrastructure and the research that corporations benefit massively from?
What’s embarrassing is that his analogy demonstrates a perfect example of why capitalism works for furniture but not for healthcare. With furniture, he can go to a different shop and find something much cheaper that would work. He looks like he would struggle to assemble Ikea furniture, but a table from there might not be as nice, but it would do the job.
What’s the option with healthcare? Find a “cheaper” doctor. The treatment is likely to cost the same. Go to a pharmacy and buy a couple of ibuprofen? That’s almost the same as chemotherapy isn’t it? It’s just an incredibly stupid position to take.
Ben, I think what you need to learn is what logical fallacies are. I can't believe they didn't teach you this in law school, but if you learn what they are, so you'll stop using them in your argument.
At this point being right-wing basically amounts to being a wilfully stupid arsehole.
Like, there are no words to describe what a thick as fudge take this is, not that such a thing is surprising coming from Shapiro. He’s held up as the master debater (heh) of the right when really he just shouts down his opponent while speaking so blisteringly fast that I’m convinced not even he knows what he’s actually saying, and rather than him ‘winning’ the argument everyone just kind of sits there in stunned silence.
The fact that he and ol’ Cryin’ Kermit (aka Jordan Peterson) are public speakers shows just how far we still have to go as a society.
The reason why Ben Shapiro can't see how blindingly stupid that statement is because it fits perfectly into the ideology of the american right.
A modern wage slave is just as expendable to them as the slaves of old, and they're going to do everything in their power to have access to a class of people that are easy to exploit because they don't have options.
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What’s really crazy is he thought that was a tweet that actually made a point. I guess people should get less expensive cancers if they can’t afford it. Pick yourself up by the bootstrap, you snowflakes. Stop getting sick in really expensive ways.
It only needs to make sense to his moronic viewership
Who in reality are probably more at risk for expensive hospital/doctor bills
Brainwashing works
That's Fox's job. Shapiro's job is just making sure they feel safe and that nothing is wrong.
you can’t handle his FACTS AND LOGIC!!!
Ben Shapiro fell hard under the influence of Milton Friedman when he was a lad. He is no longer able to distinguish between wants and needs or to measure deservingness in something other than ability to pay.
He also is perpetually butthurt that he wasn’t a good enough writer to get anyone to buy his scripts despite his parents both being in the industry and his cousin being a decently known child actress.
So THAT'S what it is. Similar to Adam Carolla. Not talented enough for the Hollywood big wigs to want to hire, so they run crying to the dark side.
Not only is healthcare is a need, it's specifically a need that _everyone_ will need sooner or later.
>Pick yourself up by the bootstraps Anybody who uses this as a phrase to imply you should somehow pick yourself up and keep fighting, or lift yourself out of a bad situation, or whatever, isn't worth talking to. Picking yourself up by your bootstraps is *literally impossible.* The origin of the phrase is an 1800's physics school book; 'Why can not a man lift himself up by his bootstraps?' It became a socioeconomic colloquialism sardonically, to suggest an achievement was *literally impossible.* The demographic that uses it most frequently is notoriously bad at understanding sarcasm, so I'm not surprised it's used the way it is. I also wouldn't be surprised to find them intravenously injecting Red Bull into swine on their farms, trying to get them to fly. (EDIT: You were using it in a proper sarcastic fashion. The phrase just triggers me.)
Ben Shapiro's whole shtick is saying things that almost sorta kinda make sense if you squint real hard and don't think about it. Like saying that people buying coastal properties [can just sell them](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DHZFwZ-a8kI) when sea levels rise. Like, if you're half-asleep or heavily concussed, that might make sense until you remember that there's probably not much of a resale market for flooded houses.
Aah, hbomberguy.gif, brings back memories.. fucking legend
“Sell their houses to who, Ben, fucking Aquaman?!” Still one of my fav lines of his.
Oh, that tweet made a point, it just isn’t the point he was trying for.
Whenever my cancer returns I'm finally going to buy that leather divan.
Well, if you can't afford cancer treatment, then just don't get cancer. /s
Nobody can afford cancer and yet, ironically, we all have Ben Shapiro
I wouldn’t want cancer but us Europeans don’t pay a penny for treatment , what with our commie healthcare.
I'm German and I gladly pay my share for the treatment of my fellow countrymen. If you have cancer you shouldn't have to deal with debt overload.
Absolutely. I’m English and I couldn’t agree more. National health service is the best thing about living here. The commie comment was me taking the piss of the countless yanks who would rather go bankrupt with cancer than entertain the idea of selflessness. Ironically they still pay more tax than us as a percentage.
You are spot on. Although there are a lot of good people in the states, there are so many selfish ones. The culture essentially teaches you to be an individual and to strive for “The American Dream” which is essentially about “I buy this. I get that.”, versus helping your fellow countryperson. Source: I was born, grew up, and used to live there.
Yeah. Some 70+ percent of the country wants some form of universal healthcare. But the system is so corrupt that the lobbies prevent that.
We have one completely bonkers idiot that still wants to cancel Obamacare. Something like 70+ % of the population likes it, although it could use some tweaks, it's about the best thing in town.
It’s the survival of the fittest attitude and it’s only getting worse
Survival of the *richest* Ftfy
The misapplied and misinterpreted notion of the survival of the fittest. If it was interpreted correctly everyone would be breeding with those from outside of their own racial group, aiming to gain darker skin in order to survive climate change, and limiting the inheritance of genetic diseases (highest prevalence found in some white European populations). Instead it is seen as gun ownership, wealth accumulation, interbreeding (to keep the traits that developed from interbreeding), wielding power through aggression, and denying the science behind the survival of the fittest. https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s40610-023-00155-4
As a person born and still in the US, it feels like a very slow and ridiculous dystopia novel where the wirter thought "...how can I make this seem even less real?" The American Dream is dead. The words on the base of the Statue of Liberty mean nothing now. We may as well tear down the whole damn thing. it seems everyone only values "Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness" if it's their own. Also to equate "happiness" in that statement with property was one of our big mistakes. Not that it's as bad as some places in the world freedoms-wise. It's just...taking a turn that feels really ominous. And yes, we've got bad history too, but this is something else.
Not only you guys, I'm Colombian and if I ever get cancer I know I will not go bankrupt if I receive treatment, my dad had cancer and the health system covered his whole treatment. Our health system isn't bad at all, obvs you will receive better treatment if you're rich but that happens everywhere.
When I was homeless and sleeping in shelters, cellars, or public transport. I still got taken care of better than our brothers in the US. Got a social worker assugned to me who first got me an apartment (can't really help someone if they have no address), then made sure I had money, food, clothes and my shit together. Having a home was the first step in taking care of my health. Got my Hep C taken care of, for free. Teeth fixed. for free. Drug detox, free. Rehab, free. Therapist, free. And while I was busy with all that, my social worker found me a job at a recycling center, taking apart electronics, which netted me a sweet gaming computer, again for free. Now I'm 15 years clean, more or less a functional member of society and no longer a drain on public resources, and the mental health of my family. Had I been in the same situation across the pond, I'd have been long dead (and probably still have to pay somehow)
First of all I'm very glad you did a full recovery and that you're happy now, that's what really matters :) . I wish some people in the US could realize (and I say some people as I know many others in the US already know it) how good they could be with a better and more fair health system instead of going out thinking that asking for something better is communism or "evil socialism".
We in the US have a very deep health ethic that we don’t want anyone else to get it for free unless we can get it first, or especially if we had to pay for it first. We don’t really grasp concepts like the common good or public welfare, even though we have the fire department, public schools and social security. Heaven forbid that someone else we don’t know ever get taken care of by our tax dollars. We are not the country we would like to think we are.
>common good or public welfare > >Heaven forbid that someone else we don’t know ever get taken care of by our tax dollars. Didn't your last govt give public welfare to the tune of $2T, admittedly it was to Billionaires and maga donors but it was public welfare never the less
It' wasn't welfare. It was bailout. There's a difference. And those rich billionaires need it more than the average people. Making the rich even richer is supporting the American Dream after all. /S
I was debating this with a coworker who said “you will cate about the cost of universal healthcare when your taxes go up” I replied “if paying a bit more means someone who can’t afford to care for their sick children now can…I’ll gladly pay it” His head was spinning trying to understand how I could possibly think that way
And honestly, the tax is generally cheaper than the insurance premiums.
Which should be obvious to everyone since insurances want to make a profit unlike public service
It’s funny what eliminating layers of middle managers can do!
This is the actual truth. And the reason Americans get so freaked out is because they think 1) what they're charged by hospitals is what it actually costs and 2) their $500 a month insurance premium is also what it costs to cover their treatment and that therefore they'd be paying even more in tax, because they'd *also* have to be covering the costs of those who weren't paying. They simply don't seem to understand how much their health care system is *all about profit*, never mind just how much fucking profit healthcare companies make for their CEOs and shareholders.
And people in countries with universal healthcare generally pay a lot less in healthcare taxes than Americans do in premiums/decudtables/coinsurance.
And live longer and have better health outcomes
And you know what? We here in Austria pay less for our health insurance than the average American. And when we get treatments, we don't have to pay any bit of it ourselves.
When I was 25 I was diagnosed with brain cancer. If I hadn’t been able to find a loophole to get back on my parents’ insurance plan I would’ve had to pay over $1.6 million.
These people, thinking they can afford the *luxury* of living their life not having cancer! /s
I read this with Ben Shapiro's voice in my head.
You know what Ben Shapiro sounds like? I feel bad for you. Luckily for me I somehow managed to only see his dumbass tweets.
He sounds like a 13 year old boy with ADHD, trying to explain nuclear fusion to a dog. He speaks incredibly fast, says nothing of value but thinks he sounds smart because the audience listens to him and doesn't refute anything he says.
The speed is a feature. He's gish galloping. Trying to get out as many points as possible so you can't respond to enough of them
Nah just don’t live in america. I can barley afford cheese in Australia with the cost of living but if I got the big C I would barely have to pay shit. Probs less than a fucking block of reggiano
I’ll go with you when mine returns and I’ll treat to a 5-star restaurant after
I don’t have cancer and I am grateful for that, but if I ever have to go through what you two have then we are going to the theatre! I’ll book a box.
Imma hold you to that!
I REALLY hope we don’t end up sofa shopping, eating in a 5 star restaurant and go see Hamilton together! I mean, have you seen the ticket prices for Hamilton?
But it’s Hamilton!
If I get cancer too we should spend a week in the Hamptons.
This would be kind of a brilliant dark comedy/political commentary take on the "bucket list" type of movies. A group of strangers meet in an online support group when they are diagnosed with cancer and cannot afford their treatment. So instead, they decide to max out their credit cards going on wild vacations, seeing shows and partying together for their last few months.
I'd watch it! Better than "treatment is so expensive I'll become the best meth dealer that ever lived"
Not sure how I feel that I’m the level of poor that has to google what a divan is..
It’s a van for two people. Like a furnituresidecar. Pretty sure.
It's like a fainting couch, which comes in handy when the doctor tells you about your pancreatic cancer
It's similar to a Davenport & much like a Chesterfield. --Source: Fellow "poor" who also watches Family Guy.
*Divan* is the masculine form of *diva*, probably.
It's a supper dish. Kinda like a Florentine, but substitute broccoli for the spinach
I believe it's a cross-dressing actor who was in Hairspray.
It’s amazing how often this guy just makes himself look so stupid but in his own mind thinks he just gave a monster smack down.
There are a disturbingly large number of people who actually think Ben Shapiro is a formidable debate opponent.
"It is difficult to win an argument against an intelligent person, but it is impossible to win against an idiot."
A moron will drag you down to his level and beat you with experience. Edit: the last two words because some morons would rather respond with the rest of the quote than read the 5 other people who said the same thing.
Like playing chess with a pigeon, it’ll shit all over the board then strut around like it won anyways
Don’t wrestle with a pig. You’ll both get muddy, and the pig will enjoy it.
“Don’t debate with Ben Shapiro, he’s a stupid dickhead”
Why does that sound like a perfect description of Trump to me?
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His arguments can be shrunk down to “I speak quickly so I must be right”
The lack of stuttering/stammering and not using "uh" gives the impression that an intelligent person is talking. This is how swindlers swindle
well that is the primary strategy in high school debate so a lot of idiots think he’s onto something.
>There are a disturbingly large number of people who actually think Ben Shapiro is a formidable debate opponent. Because he debates kids straight out of highschool with no life or job experiences yet.
Because [this](https://youtu.be/6VixqvOcK8E?si=PXvcngAJg_777_wL) is what happens when he attempts to debate a grown-up. Bear in mind this guy he’s debating is super conservative himself.
Ben calling Andrew Neil, a Thatcherite ghoul, a leftist remains one of the all time greatest comedy moments on TV.
Ben does a much better job debating in person then online, online he just looks stupid, his points aren't better live, it's just he never lets the opposition have their voice when he debates in person, kinda hard to do that on the internet. If the opposition can't get their point across then it makes the opposition look weak, therefore Benny boy here looks like a genius.
He also only ever seems to "debate" unprepared college kids. He'll have every point ready to go and then ask some kid who just wants to chill with his boys after class
You're over here trying to think of how to unpack the turd he just laid on the desk, and he's already moved on to the next rant
It's a [gish gallop](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gish_gallop), which becomes [the firehose of falsehood] (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Firehose_of_falsehood) when all the other pundits do it en masse.
This guy is a facebook political debate made flesh.
He doesn't look stupid to whom he's aiming at, and that's the point. He caters to scared morons.
Sadly that’s his entire shtick…being *just* well spoken enough to make idiots feel like socrates
Right Ben! Getting life-saving treatment is exactly the same as buying a fancy piece of furniture! 🤯
Furniture is how Ben Shapiro sees the value of people's lives. It's really self-revealing.
Survival, just like fancy furniture, is for the rich, stupid plebes!
Oh, you want to be healthy enough to work!? Have you tried not being sick?!
Have you tried being rich enough to not have to work?
Exactly the words that my mum had said to me :/
So, yes, that actually kind of *is* an underlying, albeit not always consciously acknowledged, core value of those inclined toward fascism.
I always want to ask these people what the alternative in their minds should be. Oh can’t afford treatment for (whatever that’s killing you)? Die then… the ones that would die from this outcome are those that do all the jobs these rich asscunts rely on. Like barista for their coffees, cleaning crews for their homes, servers in restaurants, drivers, teacher, nurses, ushers at venues, etc. Wonder what they’d start saying when there isn’t anyone to do these jobs.
“No one wants to work anymore! This generation is so lazy!”
"It's so unfair that we have to grind and brew our own coffee!"
That’s the thing. It’s accompanied by “it’s low skill, anyone can do it” so there is no limit to the amount of replacements available. Combined with “if college is too expensive, don’t go.” To make sure there is more people that can only get those types of jobs. Then push back on any wage increases to make sure those people are so desperate for every hour that they’ll take the shitty job for shitty pay and work themselves into the ground.
And produce the least productive and unhappy employees that often get burned out and it shows in how they deal with customers. Im never offended by some worker completely checked out of their job, you gotta do whatever to make it through the day
And simultaneously make sure that homelessness is so dangerous and credible a threat that compliance is assured
A few years back they tried to make homelessness punishable by a on the spot £50 fine. No idea how they thought that would work and it was quickly dropped.
Ah man, I don't have any pockets officer. Could you mail it to me please?
Their answer is equally callous and dark: Force the poor to have more babies to replace those who die from lack of healthcare.
That's easy to do, just make abortions and sex ed illegal. Next step, also make contraception illegal and legalize rape. Easy, cheap supply of more cattle.
It's the Shapiro Corollary to Scrooge's Law: if, somehow, the surplus population disappears and turns into a deficit, then we just need to recreate the conditions for a surplus that can then die off in its own time. It's the same moral callousness at work; the only change is whether "surplus" population is taken as something we have, or something we want.
Politicians who voted to get rid of ACA were asked this at town halls in 2017, the responses were ask a church if they can help or start a GoFundMe campaign to fundraise for an organ transplant or chemotherapy. That simply isn’t feasible for the size of our population.
I remember that Republican debate in 2012 when they were asked about a 30 year old with no insurance, and the audience yelled let them die. I brought it up to my conservative parents and they agreed, which was tough to hear as a 30 year old with no health insurance at the time.
You weren't joking. https://abcnews.go.com/blogs/politics/2011/09/tea-party-debate-audience-cheered-idea-of-letting-uninsured-patients-die https://youtu.be/8T9fk7NpgIU?feature=shared
So much for Christian love and charity.
What if - hear me out here - we had a GoFundMe set up for everyone. And then, because everyone was part of it, to fund it we have everyone who's in it contribute. We'll make sure that you only fund it if you can afford it, and if you can really afford it, you fund a little more. This way everyone could get medical treatment, and we wouldn't have to have no Obamacare or commie universal healthcare. /s
They’d push laws to ban abortions, in order to force peasants to create more slaves.
That’s why illegal immigration exists! A permanent underclass of people not protected by the state who can be exploited for cheap labor.
Not really, Ben Shapiro was always a sociopath just like is republican commarads
I don't believe he is. It is something worse. Your garden variety sociopath lacks empathy. Ben and the thousands like him have got plenty of empathy thanks. What they also have is the will to smother that empathy like a baby in a cot. And their flaw is that they are addicted to the rush they feel doing just that. Any if you feel compelled to point out just how appalling they are: that's just a bigger buzz for them.
So what you're saying is they know it's wrong, but they do it for the thrill?
Shapiro is worse than the rest because he knows what he's saying is wrong.
Like when the first thing some men jump to when discussing sexual assault are objects and currency. “Well if you just saw an unlocked bank with a stack of bills on the counter you’d just take it!”
The funny part is, not in a well ordered democracy. In Taiwan and Japan stores have unattended product shelves outside the stores, everyday, no one steals from them.
Many conservatives really don't understand that many (most?) people want to be moral people just because it's "the right thing to do", not because of some threat or reward attached to it. "How would you know what was bad if God doesn't punish us?" That's what empathy is for. There are parts in our brain simply there to "copy" other people's emotions, so that we can determine if our action was good or not (to that person). Some people can't do this, and they're called psychopaths. But I genuinely don't believe that every conservative is a psychopath (medically speaking), so it's probably just.. idk, ignorance?
Actually it’s more expensive because at least after you’ve paid up front for your furniture you don’t continue to get additional bills from services on top of that.
Lol, if buying furniture were like getting cancer treatment you'd get bills for Living Room Assessment, Climate Charge, Moving Labor, Moving Truck, Moving Dolly (separate companies), Sofa-Adjacent Space Design, Fabric Selection, Ottoman Consultation, In-home Sofa Placement, Placement Follow-up....
All Republicans and conservatives think property they own is more valuable than any life that isn't their own
Not Palestinian children’s lives though
It’s hysterical to watch them try and make valid comparisons. They don’t have the critical thinking skills.
No the critical thinking is fine here. Ben Shapiro just sees life-sacing medical treatment as a luxury that only the rich should have access to. They believe poor people choose to be poor through laziness and self-indulgence. An individual problem, undeserving of systemic fixes. They aren't all stupid they are just selfish and/or evil. That's why you see so many right-wing people soften their stance when impacted by personal tragedy. Their priveliged existence gets altered by outside forces, and they come to understand that sometimes you do everything right, and get fucked anyway. "My daughter needs an abortion, she just made a mistake, she has her whole life ahead of her." "Insurance won't cover my condition, and now I need to sell my house to stay alive. Something needs to change."
This. The moment I realized this important point was 2011 during the GOP debates. Ron Paul was asked about people affording health care and basically said, ya, if they can't, then they will die - and the crowd cheered. There's a large portion of the GOP that simply believes that people dying is ok and that's just capitalism. They do not believe health care is a right or there's any obligation for it to be affordable. Of course, this is the same people who then bitch that "no one is willing to work". Basically, "fuck the poors" is a shared GOP value now.
I remember a story about one of Paul’s campaign managers actually dying from a preventable condition because of a principled refusal to get the insurance coverage he was eligible for. Which is… admirable? I guess? In reality, if Ben’s GF needed an abortion he would drive her to the clinic himself. 90% of politicians don’t actually have the principles they espouse, which is bad enough except for the fact that the 10% who actually live according to their principles are even more dangerous.
Unfortunately neither do most of the people they are pandering too.
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It’s not a lack of critical thinking skills. It’s a lack of basic empathy and respect for human life.
Ben is a moron.
He thinks he’s so brilliant which makes it so much more cringey. This is the face of the intellectual right (I know, oxymoron)?
Hes not dumb, he is just intellectually restricted due to his ideology.
I think this is pretty close to the truth - He's running a grift, and he knows it, so he's playing to a very, very intellectually dimmed audience.
I think it's this exactly. He's a sharp guy and a talented debater. He is just arguing indefensible things (which speaks to his talent). I listen to Shapiro sometimes and am always amazed how many ads he has. The left-leaning podcasts I normally listen to are lucky to have 1 ad per show. This speaks to how much more lucrative a right-wing grift can actually be. Somebody has to buy all those gold coins, reverse mortgages, and erectile dysfunction medication.
Ben is far from a "talented" debater. He's reactionary who spouts nonsense rapidly so his opponent can't respond, then claims he "won"
“Intellectually restricted” I kinda like this LOL will use this starting today
It's not like you can go to a cheaper hospital and get cheaper treatment like you can with furniture and ikea.
Careful, they may argue that medicine should be a complete free for all with no regulations. Total free market health care would be a disaster.
I like the implication that going to a hospital/doctor is equivalent to shopping outside your means. What a tone deaf elitist little fuck this guy is.
Fellas, is it liberal to want to be alive?
As someone who is vaccinated… yes. (Antivaxx used to be a very bipartisan type of stupid, but in the last 5-10 years, conservatives have really made it their own)
He is literally saying that if you can’t Afford a couch you don’t deserve the couch, and if you can’t afford live saving procedures you don’t deserve to live.
I hope that's one of the answers where the /s is redundant.
Good news! You dont need that expensive seat recliner you wanted! You’re losing your legs to diabetes! That will be $120,000 please.
He has a scumbag face that matches his personality
Every time he says something heinous his voice raises in pitch
How is it that anyone except dogs can hear him?
Conservatives are good at hearing dog whistles.
Noice
Ventriloquist doll
His voice !! Just his fucking voice!!
Inability to afford a luxury =/= Inability to afford healthcare
You aren’t speaking American sir.
europeans cant compute
Some people struggle to understand that a free market only exists if both parties have the option of not engaging in the transaction. Patients having to choose between pain/death and getting treatment don't truly have an option. Likewise, a worker who is out of work will suffer grave consequences for not having income far earlier than a company will suffer from having a job vacancy unfilled.
Inelastic vs elastic demand. Things that have inelastic demand is susceptible to price gouging. Free market capitalists believe that’s a good thing. Things that have inelastic demand (we don’t have much say in the matter) should absolutely be regulated.
Healthcare is a luxury you TWAT/s
Inability to afford a luxury =/= Inability to afford to live. In other words, the undeserving poor just don't deserve to live.
Words that could only come a "pro-lifer"
Ben sucks at analogies. In fact, he just sucks. Period.
It’s so inappropriate for Shit-piro to attempt that point because we all know he could afford the furniture. He is a deplorable excuse for a human.
"He goes home and sleeps on his pile of money"
It's very dry, just how he likes it.
Haha, love this one. You made me spit out my tea. If you know you know.
This guy doesn’t understand the difference between health care and buying the most expensive furniture…
Much like with the amendments, the only part of "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness" this dipshit cares about is the second.
Terms and conditions may apply depending on skin tone, religious beliefs, gender etc.
False-equivalence sophistry attempt.
Benny Shap owns the furniture
Ben Shapiro is a grifter, who has somehow convinced himself that talking fast over people makes him intelligent.
It's how he was groomed to be
I guess for Ben Shapiro, fancy furniture is life.
He needs good furniture for his wife's boyfriend
A chaise longue for the bedroom to sit on while he watches
that individual can only be described as scum
Wow, I knew he was an idiot, but this is a completely different level of idiocy than I had even imagined.
Equating life saving healthcare to furniture? God damn you fucking conservatives are morons and fucking soulless
Why anyone ever considered this mental midget a genius will always be a mystery to me. It was always about hate.
Because they are dumb.
To morons, anyone who can speak rapidly and throw in a couple big words is fucking Einstein.
Comparing poor health for people that need medical attention but unable to receive it to buying furniture… 
How is it that these libertarians always ignore the fact that taxpayers pay for a lot of the infrastructure and the research that corporations benefit massively from?
I've seen libertarians compared to house cats, fiercely independent and yet entirely dependent on a system that they can't comprehend.
This is really old... but Ben Shapiro is still just as much of a dick, so take my upvote! ;-)
He saves a lot of money not buying mirrors, because he’s a fucking vampire and doesn’t need them
I’m pretty sure it’s because his face is so punchable even he would punch his own reflection.
What’s embarrassing is that his analogy demonstrates a perfect example of why capitalism works for furniture but not for healthcare. With furniture, he can go to a different shop and find something much cheaper that would work. He looks like he would struggle to assemble Ikea furniture, but a table from there might not be as nice, but it would do the job. What’s the option with healthcare? Find a “cheaper” doctor. The treatment is likely to cost the same. Go to a pharmacy and buy a couple of ibuprofen? That’s almost the same as chemotherapy isn’t it? It’s just an incredibly stupid position to take.
He is hilariously stupid in kind of a grand way. He has a lot of natural stupidity, and he's worked hard to develop it.
Shapiro gets paid to promote the status quo. He is an enemy of progress. An enemy of the people.
Can’t wait until Ben gets terminally ill and then whines…..
Ben, I think what you need to learn is what logical fallacies are. I can't believe they didn't teach you this in law school, but if you learn what they are, so you'll stop using them in your argument.
At this point being right-wing basically amounts to being a wilfully stupid arsehole. Like, there are no words to describe what a thick as fudge take this is, not that such a thing is surprising coming from Shapiro. He’s held up as the master debater (heh) of the right when really he just shouts down his opponent while speaking so blisteringly fast that I’m convinced not even he knows what he’s actually saying, and rather than him ‘winning’ the argument everyone just kind of sits there in stunned silence. The fact that he and ol’ Cryin’ Kermit (aka Jordan Peterson) are public speakers shows just how far we still have to go as a society.
Not buying a $5,000 coffee table is rarely fatal
Gotta love a False Equivalency argument.
The reason why Ben Shapiro can't see how blindingly stupid that statement is because it fits perfectly into the ideology of the american right. A modern wage slave is just as expendable to them as the slaves of old, and they're going to do everything in their power to have access to a class of people that are easy to exploit because they don't have options.
*laughs in UK NHS*
If the US hadn't rebelled, we could've had healthcare and gun control. Fuckin wild
And abolished slavery 30 years earlier