Ben Shapiro

[TroutBum]

Smart people...

 

[Harambe]

You should keep your antics up until you've alienated and ran off every last poster in GD. I think Siro is your last hold out; he seems to enjoy kids who don't grow out of know-it-all syndrome but become radicalized instead.

Take a hint from all the people who have either told you to **** off, put you on ignore, and now have self banned. It's not a short list, but good job adding Archie as a trophy to your collection.

Your jelly is showing so bad. Unfortunately it's grape, and that truly sucks.

If people have left because of a single poster, it's you. You're just ****ing awful, and your shtick is tired and predictable.

 

[Harambe]

I was meaning in general, lately. I disagree with you. Maybe it's just me but lately you have become a much more abrasive poster and it's not really fun to debate with you or engage with you anymore. To me you come off just as I have said. I miss the Dala that was able to make his point without being a jerk. Something you were quite good at IMO.

Just my .02

It's just you. I haven't noticed any real difference than maybe he's had more time to post. Same ol' Dalabro.

I think the cowboy thing hit people around you pretty hard. That's had you pulling further to the right. Dal, being on the left, naturally seems more abrasive.

 

[RandyForRubio]

I've met Shapiro before as a friend of a friend (someone I went to college with knew him in law school). He's a very specific kind of guy that you collect a handful of when you spend time at elite colleges: very very smart people who take ridiculous positions almost as a challenge to prove how smart they are. These people are not evil per se, but they're inherently kind of narcissistic and they can really lose track of what it is they really believe because one of the ways of proving that you're a genius is to perceive the world in a different way than other people. (Yes, I've been guilty of this behavior before).

The one time I met him I made fun of him (lightly, and this was a party for people who were 20-24 so there was booze involved) for writing a book about how evil and liberal college was when he was 17 and had never been to college. The joke was light but pointed, getting to the "but how did you know?" and he 100% refused to back down on the idea that he didn't have perfect knowledge of both what college was like when he was 17 and what the objectively neutral political view should be on every topic taught in college. Find a 17 year old and tell me that isn't comical.

In sum, Ben Shapiro is the definition of intelligence without wisdom. That's good enough to be successful, but not good enough to be truly valuable.

I completely agree with how you view his character, I mean, spot on...but didn't he start college at 16? Or maybe he was just accepted. Doesn't matter, just curious.

 

[RandyForRubio]

This thread is funny to me, because it's missed what in my opinion is the most important part.

In regards to CSULA, his character is irrelevant. Agree with him, disagree with him, it doesn't matter. What matters is that we had a tax funded college approve a speaker twice, then when pushed by a vocal group, try to cancel it last minute. So much for free speech. Then when deciding to go anyways, he was protested. Now I'm ok with people protesting it, they have that right. That's not all that happened though...they wouldn't let people enter. They were violent towards people who wanted to attend, physically and verbally. They had to sneak people in a back entrance 4 at a time! And this is at a public university in a country that promotes free speech for all. I don't care what side you support, actions like that are wrong. Those protesters were essentially saying you must agree with us, or we beat you. That's not right. That does not promote education. That does not promote self learning. Is Shapiro a vile human? Without a doubt, but so are those who were protesting him at CSULA.

 

[Siro]

This thread is funny to me, because it's missed what in my opinion is the most important part.

In regards to CSULA, his character is irrelevant. Agree with him, disagree with him, it doesn't matter. What matters is that we had a tax funded college approve a speaker twice, then when pushed by a vocal group, try to cancel it last minute. So much for free speech. Then when deciding to go anyways, he was protested. Now I'm ok with people protesting it, they have that right. That's not all that happened though...they wouldn't let people enter. They were violent towards people who wanted to attend, physically and verbally. They had to sneak people in a back entrance 4 at a time! And this is at a public university in a country that promotes free speech for all. I don't care what side you support, actions like that are wrong. Those protesters were essentially saying you must agree with us, or we beat you. That's not right. That does not promote education. That does not promote self learning. Is Shapiro a vile human? Without a doubt, but so are those who were protesting him at CSULA.

Now this is an interesting discussion that more of us can get behind. It is true that progressives have become militant about promoting their own opinions and suppressing disagreement. I am not saying conservatives do not do the same thing. They most certainly do. But liberalism is SUPPOSED to be about maximizing individual liberty, and that includes the freedom to express your opinions whatever they may be.

 

[sirkickyass]

I completely agree with how you view his character, I mean, spot on...but didn't he start college at 16? Or maybe he was just accepted. Doesn't matter, just curious.

I'm simplifying the conversation a little bit for clarity. Part of the discussion is the degree to which you can actually be a peer of the other students and participate in their shared experience when you're substantially younger (I went to college at 17 as well) and to what extent confirmation bias about college creeps in.

Going to college a little too young has a warping effect on people because skipping grades comes to define some percentage of them. My wife went to college at 16 and is kind of convinced that everyone that graduates on time is a moron. Does it matter to her that graduating early when you're home-schooled is a little meaningless? Not really. The point is she was 16 and took it so everyone who didn't just wasted a couple years for no reason.

 

[sirkickyass]

This thread is funny to me, because it's missed what in my opinion is the most important part.

In regards to CSULA, his character is irrelevant. Agree with him, disagree with him, it doesn't matter. What matters is that we had a tax funded college approve a speaker twice, then when pushed by a vocal group, try to cancel it last minute. So much for free speech. Then when deciding to go anyways, he was protested. Now I'm ok with people protesting it, they have that right. That's not all that happened though...they wouldn't let people enter. They were violent towards people who wanted to attend, physically and verbally. They had to sneak people in a back entrance 4 at a time! And this is at a public university in a country that promotes free speech for all. I don't care what side you support, actions like that are wrong. Those protesters were essentially saying you must agree with us, or we beat you. That's not right. That does not promote education. That does not promote self learning. Is Shapiro a vile human? Without a doubt, but so are those who were protesting him at CSULA.

Now this is an interesting discussion that more of us can get behind. It is true that progressives have become militant about promoting their own opinions and suppressing disagreement. I am not saying conservatives do not do the same thing. They most certainly do. But liberalism is SUPPOSED to be about maximizing individual liberty, and that includes the freedom to express your opinions whatever they may be.

I think almost all stories like this can be chalked up to "college is a strange place where weird things happen." There's beauty in that and there's some regrettable crap in that.

If I had to rank the top issues on college campuses today I'd say too little representation of conservative speakers wouldn't crack my top 50 and the one-off instances of bad behavior that occur during campus protests for a variety of reasons wouldn't crack the top 10. Every campus has some version of this story and it generally has little lasting impact. It will be handled internally, some people will be disciplined, and that will be that.

 

[RandyForRubio]

Kicky, I think the issue is that it's being seen more and more. To write it off feels foolish to me. Of all places, college should be the last place where we attempt to limit free speech. It goes against everything college is about.

 

[Siro]

I think almost all stories like this can be chalked up to "college is a strange place where weird things happen." There's beauty in that and there's some regrettable crap in that.

If I had to rank the top issues on college campuses today I'd say too little representation of conservative speakers wouldn't crack my top 50 and the one-off instances of bad behavior that occur during campus protests for a variety of reasons wouldn't crack the top 10. Every campus has some version of this story and it generally has little lasting impact. It will be handled internally, some people will be disciplined, and that will be that.

Nah, it's not just colleges. Take for example when the revelation that Mozilla's new CEO was not a supporter for same-sex marriage. The outcry was so intense, that he was forced to step down. Or the Chick-fil-a debacle. Many on the left have become extremely intolerant of anyone who holds an opinion that doesn't fit into their current bubble of what is considered "progressive".

And sometimes, it can be taken to truly absurd levels. Following Sam Smith's Oscar win and pro-LGBT speech, some leftist blogs exploded about how he had no right to speak for the LGBT community as a "white cis-male" who is merely gay. Not even transgendered! How dare he!

It would really be comical if it wasn't so troubling.

 

[Stoked]

It's just you. I haven't noticed any real difference than maybe he's had more time to post. Same ol' Dalabro.

I think the cowboy thing hit people around you pretty hard. That's had you pulling further to the right. Dal, being on the left, naturally seems more abrasive.

I'm not so sure. It is Dala specifically and not other left leaning posters. But some bias on my part is certainly possible. But they are not mutually exclusive or inclusive. So we will never truly be sure.

 

[TroutBum]

I'm simplifying the conversation a little bit for clarity. Part of the discussion is the degree to which you can actually be a peer of the other students and participate in their shared experience when you're substantially younger (I went to college at 17 as well) and to what extent confirmation bias about college creeps in.

Going to college a little too young has a warping effect on people because skipping grades comes to define some percentage of them. My wife went to college at 16 and is kind of convinced that everyone that graduates on time is a moron. Does it matter to her that graduating early when you're home-schooled is a little meaningless? Not really. The point is she was 16 and took it so everyone who didn't just wasted a couple years for no reason.