5 Lies Colleges Tell Your Kids and How to Debunk Them by Ben Shapiro

There were angry comments on Twitter and Facebook, as well as a number of small protests around campus and letters posted on Twitter. In the days leading up to the event, students, faculty, staff, and parents of students weighed in on Shapiro’s appearance at BU. His appearance was hosted by the Boston University chapter of the conservative youth activism organization Young Americans for Freedom (YAF) and presented by the Young America’s Foundation Fred Allen Lecture Series. And he said that America is “one of the least racist multiracial countries today,” citing Barack Obama’s two terms as president. “Freedom is what makes America unique, not slavery,” said Shapiro, editor-in-chief of the far-right Daily Wire news website, a former Breitbart editor, and host of The Ben Shapiro Show podcast. But by the end of his speech he derided the idea that “every single problem in America today is based on slavery,” asking, “Are teens in Chicago today killing each other at rapid rates because of slavery?” Perhaps surprising some in the audience, Shapiro spent much of his talk outlining the history of American opposition to what he acknowledged as the horrors of slavery and the evils of Jim Crow.

I’d be surprised if Shapiro himself didn’t understand this contradictory dynamic, and actively seek public humiliation, on a regular basis, for the sake of his career.Īnd in that regard, Shapiro is certainly succeeding.Conservative firebrand Ben Shapiro lectured an audience of 1,500 on the legacy of slavery and parried hecklers from the left and the right in an appearance on the Boston University campus Wednesday night that was arranged by a conservative BU student group and protested by some 200 students who marched in silent solidarity up Commonwealth Avenue. The recommendation algorithms on social media might be complex and somewhat mysterious, but they generally favor engagement thus, controversy, followed by mass-mockery, is an ideal way to attract an incredible amount of attention. Retweets, comments, jokes, and memes (and articles like this) only serve in Shapiro’s favor. Shapiro has, seemingly, only benefited from the mass mockery sparked by his deliriously bad takes.

Yes, the man talks like a VHS tape on fast-forward, has an abundance of poorly thought-out opinions, and a puritanical attitude to fun music videos.īut being the punchline of a joke has never negatively affected Shapiro’s ability to reach millions on social media (o n Facebook, Shapiro is followed by 7 million people, and almost 3 million on Twitter).

But the world has been making fun of Shapiro for years, and it's starting to get stale.

5 Lies Colleges Tell Your Kids and How to Debunk Them by Ben Shapiro