Podcast Movement, Ben Shapiro & Cancel Culture

 Right-wing media ramped up their outrage machine because of infuriated reaction by some attendees to the unscheduled appearance of conservative commentator Ben Shapiro at the Podcast Movement in Dallas two weeks ago. Podcast movement officials first apologized to those attendees and then after the conference apologized to the Shapiro. 

The whole event was a bloody battle of culture warriors. 

For the right and Shapiro, who showed up without registering like attendees should have, you have to wonder if Shapiro showed up secretly chanting to himself, "Please kick me out. Please kick me out."

They didn't but probably did something worse that angered everyone and mollified no one.

The script on the right is the woke mob is out of control and after anyone who doesn't agree with them. 

I can see Shapiro saying to the culture judge, "Your honor, I present the Podcast Movement as evidence that the left is a woke mob who attacks Christian values through cancel culture."

Ben Shapiro is a smart guy. He's well-read, well-educated. He's no Donald Trump, who couldn't even read all the constitutional amendments and thinks an evaluation for dementia is an intelligence test. Ben Shapiro happens to be the host of a popular conservative podcast. One of his taglines to prod liberals is, "Facts don't care about your feelings."

Of course, Shapiro has a history of "trumpifying" facts when they don't fit his feelings.

In one past speech, Shapiro said, “A man and a woman do a better job of raising a child than two men or two women.” 

FACT: Research using government tracking data shows children raised by same-sex couples do as well, if not better in some areas, than children raised by different-sex couples.

About transgender people, Shapiro "fact-spoke," that "It is a psychological disorder. So that's not an insult to people who suffer from psychological disorders…you are not doing a service to people who are suffering from a mental disorder to humor them by suggesting that their mental disorder is reflected in objective reality." FACT: The American Psychological Association does not define being transgender as a mental illness.

Somehow, Shapiro's fact-based mantra transformed into a feeling -- and a disgusting one at that -- when he called trans actor Elliot Page’s coming out announcement  "awkward, creepy, disgusting, and pathetic." 

Sorry, facts don't care about your feelings, Mr. Shapiro.

Shapiro and his producers also like to show video of Shapiro spontaneously debating a teenager about a topic like abortion, as the podcast host systematically dismantles their argument and dignity. 

Meanwhile, when Daily Beast journalist Ben Burgis was on Joe Rogan six months ago, he asked Shapiro to appear with him on Rogan's podcast to discuss their ideological differences. Rogan assured him that Shapiro would agree. Burgis is still waiting. 

In 2019, Shapiro walked off in the middle of an interview with BBC commentator Andrew Neil, simply because Neil seemed to have little respect for Shapiro's "facts." 

So here's the point. Yes, there is cancel culture. It's on the left. It's often ridiculous and tends to see insults, put-downs, bullying, and threats in a person's words that have been parsed so much for cryptic meaning that no one would escape the wrath of these virtuous warriors.

But the right turns a blind eye to more invasive, nasty, soul-crushing cancel culture that it unleashes with all the hunger that a lion has for a tasty antelope. While the Left often uses social ostracism as its weapon of choice, the Right employs the nuclear option. People lose their jobs and laws are passed to criminalize their behavior.

Liz Cheney is a lifelong conservative Republican who was the GOP conference chairwoman and voted with the Republicans 90 percent of the time. Canceled. Why? Because she refused to believe an election lie. Georgia Governor Brian Kemp. Canceled. Cindy McCain, wife of the late Arizona Senator and war hero John McCain. Canceled. Why? I still don't know. 

What is more frightening and ultimately more pernicious is the weaponization of cancel culture by the right to limit the free expression of ideas.

Tolerance, inclusion, diversity, and the willingness to combat systemic racism are portrayed as anti-Christian, un-American, and a platform for a radical socialist agenda. Book banning by some parents has replaced hounding their kids to complete their summer reading assignments. 

Worst of all, is the cancellation of vigorous debate of the facts, Mr. Shapiro's favorite oratorical device. Much of the right now replaces a debate about facts with a theological, non-debatable rant about unknowable boogeymen and Dr. Evil level technology (tracking chips, vote-beaming satellites, Jewish laser beams, food additives that turn you gay). These furtive enemies of the state reside in "those states" and are embraced by "those people," whether it be the Deep State, radical socialist Democrats, groomers, pedophile pizza owners, nameless bureaucrats out to destroy this nation, and RINOs (Republicans in Name Only) who have not passed the purity test. 

In perhaps the most disturbing example of Republicans eating their young, Log Cabin Republicans -- the nation’s largest Republican organization dedicated to representing LGBT conservatives and allies -- was again denied entry and a booth at this July's Texas Republican Convention. Booths are granted to all sorts of conservative interest groups, advocating for issues related to gun rights, anti-abortion issues and freedom from vaccines. A booth, in many ways, is symbolic of a seat at the table. 

For Trump supporters, canceling a person revolves around one overarching belief. Did Donald Trump really win the 2020 election? If you don't believe that fiction, join the growing crowd of those canceled. It's a much longer line than on the left. 

My favorite rant of the right is that celebrities that buck the liberal agenda are then canceled. Victims of that cancel culture are comedians Kevin Hart, Dave Chappelle and writer J. K. Rowling. When the TV show Last Man Standing was canceled by ABC, conservatives howled that it was cancel culture because of star's Tim Allen's conservative beliefs. The show switched networks, which is common, and ran for two more seasons. Cancel the cancel culture red alert!

J.K. Rowling is worth over a billion dollars and still thriving with multimedia content, while Hart's movies and commercials are seemingly everywhere. Chappelle is still a highly successful comedian worth hundreds of millions of dollars. Somehow, any criticism of a performer or celebrity is a cancel culture event. The Right seemed to be apoplectic with anyone who did not absolutely love, love, love Top Gun: Maverick. It simply wasn't enough to like it.

I truly wonder who is the snowflake here?

By contrast. Liz Cheney lost her membership in the Wyoming Republican Party, lost her Republican Party leadership, lost the Republican primary and ultimately her job in January. In essence, she was fired for her beliefs. 

It appears that Mr. Shapiro intends to make a career and extend his celebrity by announcing his own crucifixion by the left at the Podcast Movement conference. 

This episode seems to be a rerun of his publicity campaign upon the release of his 2019 book, The Right Side of History: How Reason and Moral Purpose Made the West Great, when Mr. Shapiro also jabbered how UC Berkeley security had to protect him from protestors when he spoke on the campus in 2017. 

I think it likely that Mr. Shapiro will show up unannounced at the studios of MSNBC, hoping and praying to be escorted off the property. 

If that stunt doesn't garner enough publicity, Mr. Shapiro could show up at Nancy Pelosi's doorstep, salivating at the thought of Madam Speaker calling the police on him.

Sadly, for people like Ben Shapiro, every criticism is an insult. Every disagreement is a punch in the gut. In order to maintain those ratings on his podcast, new enemies must be identified and vilified. Outrage, grievance, and anger must be dialed up like a nuclear reactor. Anyone who does not comply with his self-described Christian norms must be satanic. Welcome to the Salem Witch Trials -- 2022 edition. 

Photo by Petr Ganaj