One of our YouTube members wrote in. Ben is absolutely lost me at this point. He used to be part of my news diet, but he really crashed out. Yep. So anybody who watches Ben Shapiro or listens to him knows there's only one thing he cares about Israel and tax cuts. I would like to respond to that comment with a personal anecdote that's relevant [00:00:17] to what Ben Shapiro has been saying, not just about the Epstein files, but also about the conduct of the Israeli government and military. A few years ago, I debated Ben Shapiro at a in Pennsylvania for like, it was like [00:00:34] the business community coming together. And I was supposed to be, you know, the the Chamber of Commerce, the Pennsylvania Chamber of Commerce invited me to debate Ben Shapiro on economic matters. Of course, me being the lefty that the business community hates, Ben Shapiro being the champion of the business community. [00:00:50] But something came up in the context of that debate that really stayed with me, because it actually had a positive influence on me in that it helped me understand the argument that some on the right were making because I had misunderstood it. I disagreed with it, but I at least understood at least [00:01:06] what they were talking about. Right. And it was about the shooting of unarmed black people in this country, racism, all of that. And he had said something about how, you know, there is a problem with the amount of, you know, black, young black men who are committing crimes. [00:01:23] They're disproportionately committing crimes in this country. And I asked him a question. I pushed back, obviously, and I said, well, do you think that they're just inherently violent? And he's like, no, no, no, there's a problem with the culture. That's what he said. I, as a parent, believe that if you're going to teach, you. [00:01:38] Think there's no systemic racism. I believe that it depends on how you define systemic racism. So if you're talking about legal regimens of racism, no. If you're talking about history has after effects, of course. So I think there's a real problem with semantic overload and a lot of our political conversations. And when people say systemic racism, sometimes what they mean by systemic [00:01:55] racism is history has consequences. You can't have 150 years of, well, 300 years of slavery, followed by Jim Crow and and that not have After Effects, which of course is true. And sometimes what they mean is that every inequality in American public life is due to some systemic inequity that is currently taking place [00:02:11] in the United States, which I think is absolutely 100% false. I mean, we certainly see that playing out in our criminal justice system. Are you going to deny that or are you going to say that let's say African Americans or Latinos are just inherently more criminal, or. I'm not going to say either of those things. [00:02:26] I'm going to say that why are. - Overrepresented in our prisons? - I mean. Especially when you consider. This may be beyond the scope of our conversation. But the answer is because not all groups commit crimes at the same level. That has nothing to do with genetics. That has everything to do with circumstances. Do you guys hold their thoughts on education? [00:02:42] Because I do want to get back to some of that too. But let me move on to something else we talked about. Now, what's really interesting to me, I keep thinking back at that moment because it's like, okay, well, then you're able to make a distinction between, you know, [00:02:59] collectively thinking of people as inherently bad and actually looking at the culture of a group of people and thinking that there are issues with that culture. Okay. Why is it that you can't make the same argument about the Israelis? [00:03:14] I mean, the Israelis literally He just celebrated, provided cover for and celebrated IDF soldiers who were caught on surveillance camera gang raping a Palestinian prisoner. [00:03:30] Yeah. Popular opinion is on their side, and that is, horrible. Now, if you were to say that there's something wrong with black culture in general, like Ben Shapiro did at that time and has done many, many times, you're going to have no problem at all. [00:03:45] You're not going to be canceled. No one's going to care. He built a career off of making arguments like that. Yeah. That's right. But if you were to say there's something wrong with Israeli culture, you would definitely be canceled. And everybody would say, you're an anti-Semite and the worst person in the world, and no one should ever hire you again, [00:04:02] and your voice should be extinguished. So which one is it? Is it that black people are inferior to Israelis? So we're allowed to talk about their culture? Or is it that it's okay to talk about culture? So let's talk about Israeli culture. Which one is it? Right. And the reality is, of course, no, they want to be able to smear anyone else. [00:04:19] That's why right now, part and parcel of the new Israeli propaganda is getting trying to get the right wing in this country to hate Muslims instead. So they're like, oh no, no hates God hates good. You just shouldn't hate us. You should hate the Muslims. [00:04:35] The Muslims hate them. Okay, no, there's the Israeli culture led to the Israeli government. The Israeli government is one of the worst governments of my lifetime. So, yes, we got to fix things, but you can't have any honest conversation because everyone's going to be called an anti-Semite and smeared forever. [00:04:52] Last thing on Ben Shapiro. I had a debate with him at Politicon and he lost his own audience on one topic when he defended money in politics. Gee, I wonder why Ben Shapiro defended money in politics. Yeah. [00:05:07] Is there a country's followers who have bought 90% of Congress and they love, love, love money in politics because you spend $100 on politicians and you get back $1 million from the American taxpayers. Yeah, you sure do. Every time you ring the bell below, an angel gets his wings. [00:05:25] Totally not true. But it does keep you updated on our live shows.