Ben Shapiro isn’t a radical himself, the Canadian Broadcast Corporation acknowledges, yet somehow he is radicalizing young men by espousing mainstream beliefs that have only recently become “controversial” to the Left.
That was the cockeyed attack the Daily Wire podcast and radio show host and best-selling author found himself defending against on his program Tuesday. Shapiro was responding to a Monday CBC article headlined, “‘It’s a slippery slope’: How young men fall into online radicalization,” which sought to blame him in part for the fact that some males become alt-right extremists after listening to him.
“Apparently it is fully OK to make a slippery slope argument when I say something that is not extreme, it’s possible to make the argument that somebody might view that and then see something that’s a little more extreme, a little more extreme, that eventually they end up being a Nazi,” Shapiro marveled.
The @CBC says I’m radicalizing young men, but can’t name any radical views I supposedly promote. They merely want to equate conservatism with extremism in order to silence those who dissent from Leftist orthodoxy. pic.twitter.com/Xco9XsdyhD
— Ben Shapiro (@benshapiro) September 20, 2022
Shapiro, an orthodox Jew who is reviled by the alt-right and often reciprocates the animosity, pointed out that his beliefs are well within the mainstream spectrum. The article specifically called Shapiro’s claim that transgender people suffer from a mental disorder “controversial.”
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“We have to pretend that men who say they are women are actually suffering from some sort of mind-bodymisalignment, and the problem is with their bodies,” Shapiro said. “So if you just chop off some body parts, then magically they’re a woman because their brain is the brain of a woman.
“Now, you might have to have a mental disorder to believe that, but that’s actually not science,” he added.
One line in the CBC article captures how it sought to say Shapiro is responsible for extremism – even though he is not an extremist.
“While Shapiro is not affiliated with any hate group, experts in media, gender studies and the radicalization of young men say that the commentator’s content is prevalent in online extremist communities,” author Brock Wilson wrote.
The “experts” are not named.
“And who are these experts?” Shapiro wondered. “Do they just sit in an Ivy League war room and discuss their expertise in front of students?
“They’re experts, by the way, in gender studies,” he continued. “Oh, well! Experts in gender studies, that must mean that they believe a bunch of crap that isn’t true…that is not a major that qualifies you for anything except being a professor in gender studies. That is a fully self-perpetuating cycle of uselessness.”
The “slippery slope” Shapiro is supposedly key to leads to dangerous alt-right views like the objectification of women and racism, ideals Shapiro said he has always vehemently rejected. The real objective of the article, and of much of the Left, Shapiro said in a Monday tweet, is to define speech and beliefs it disagrees with as “harmful” so that it can be silenced and even criminalized.
“Here comes the media attempt to get me banned from social media,” wrote Shapiro, who has 4.5 million Twitter followers and the nation’s biggest political podcast audience. “They can’t name which views of mine are particularly radical, so they just go for the “I’m radicalizing the youths!” Pathetic garbage from the Canada’s public broadcaster.”
Canada has become increasingly intolerant of free speech and unwilling to protect children from the mentally ill adults, Shapiro said. He cited the case of a transgender teacher in Ontario who wears absurdly huge prosthetic breasts in the classroom. Video and images of the teacher went viral, prompting mockery, derision, and concern for the children of Oakville Trafalgar High School. But the school sprang to the defense of the teacher.
“We strive to promote a positive learning environment in schools consistent with the values of the HDSB and to ensure a safe and inclusive environment for all students, staff and the community, regardless of race, age, ability, sex, gender identity, gender expression, sexual orientation, ethnicity, religion, cultural observance, socioeconomic circumstances or body type/size,” school officials wrote in an email to parents.
That, Shapiro said, is how backwards the Left has things.
“See, this is not extreme,” he said. “It’s not extreme to foist upon students sexual perverts. That’s what that is.”
“We’re not even talking about a person who just has gender dysphoria,” he continued. “We’re talking about a person the picture shows who’s wearing watermelon-sized breasts in front of high school students with fake nipples attached to them.”