On Ben Shapiro

He made conservatism great again

I cannot remember when I first came across Ben Shapiro of the Daily Wire but it was either when my eldest or second eldest were babies. So at least 10 years ago. I watched his podcasts while nursing whichever baby it was. I also read quite a few of his books.

In many ways Shapiro should never have become the media success he is – a fast talker at a slightly higher tone than I’d usually favour. He is a walking Jewish stereotype: the super smart nerd who graduated from Harvard law at the age of 24. This is young by American standards. He was born, appropriately, in 1984, which makes him three years younger than my 1981. He also plays the violin, obviously.

It is easy to forget just how left wing the political and social culture was when Shapiro first came on the scene. President Obama was wrapping up his 8 years but it was also, from memory, a time of the Great Awokening.

Left wing students and the media were implementing its terrifying cancel culture. If you stepped outside the ever changing speech codes of what was acceptable by woke standards they could end your career. They really could ruin a life and livelihood in a day.

Undergraduates were shouting in the faces of their long standing professors, and it was the professor that was getting the boot. The foundations of Me Too were laid on the US campus. A young man could have his entire life ruined on the say-so of a female university student. The universities would launch some kangaroo court to investigate ‘wrongdoing’ and that was enough to have him kicked out. Noble prize winning scientists were destroyed on the say-so of the internet, because he said women sometimes cry.

The regime was growing in strength and speed. It was into this that Shapiro stepped. He was writing a syndicated column from the age of 17, challenging the leftist narrative. But his public profile exploded after he went head to head with Piers Morgan on his show on CNN (remember that.) Morgan went after him over American gun-laws. Shapiro came armed with the little book - the US Constitution.

Ben Shapiro was the brand and personality of The Daily Wire. It became gargantuan, the go-to media outlet for conservatism. Shapiro informed an entire generation that ‘facts don’t care about your feelings.’

I did not watch Shapiro religiously. I preferred Michael Knowles, the Italian American Catholic who is easy on the eye. But Shapiro was the brand that led the Daily Wire to international recognition. No other media platform on the right in the UK or Europe produces the sheer volume of content the Daily Wire does.

It is easy to forget that Shapiro was once routinely called far-right, fascist and sometimes Nazi not just by online leftist nutjobs, but mainstream left media both in the UK and the US. Although the Nazi jibe was harder to land on the orthodox Jew. The attacks were relentless but he stayed the course.

Shapiro made conservative principles respectable and mainstream. He also made them fashionable with the rising generation of students on campus. Shapiro explained and advocated for the free market, free speech, fair procedure (to counter cancel culture and the MeToo cancellations), the family and pro-life arguments. He made them accessible and convincing first to his own side and a broader audience. I didn’t agree with him on everything, he is probably too liberal on immigration and to neo-con on wars, but the one thing he Shapiro has always been is consistent.

Now, we are told by the left gatekeeping media and the far-right that his time is up. Shapiro and the Daily Wire are losing views and support. Maybe. But even if this is the case, so what?

The reason why I will always believe that Shapiro is the real deal is that he is consistent. And I have been watching, listening and reading him on and off for about 15 years. As he said in a recent clip replying to various hit pieces: he hasn’t changed. Maybe that makes him boring or predictable. Do you know what it also makes him? Trustworthy. Shapiro says what he believes to be true, not what he thinks will get the most clicks or online views.

Things have changed on the right. Antisemitism is fashionable again, always the light sleeper. Now left wing media outlets who once called Shapiro a fascist and a Nazi for being pro-life, will quote actual Nazi sympathisers such as Nick Fuentes against him. They will also quote Candace Owens who has taken quite a lot of time out of the schedule to discuss the sex organs of the spouse of the President of France. Thanks, but no thanks.

What’s my point? My point is like Douglas Murray – I’m standing with Ben Shapiro, for what’s worth. It’s true when he says, he hasn’t changed. That is a good quality to have as a conservative. You must adjust to the times, while your fundamental principles stay the same.

Shapiro has done more to advocate for conservatism than any of the aforementioned clowns have. In the desperate challenge to be ‘relevant’ and make a quick buck there are plenty who will say lots of bat shit crazy things on the interweb. That’s up to them but you can count me out.

I’ll be sticking with Shapiro not because of ‘gatekeeping’ or respectability although it is about decency. Ben Shapiro made conservatism great again a long time before the likes of Nick Fuentes and Candace Owens came on the scene. I’m not about to have my views dictated to me by an algorithm.

Shapiro is older, his doctor wife is more senior in her profession and his four children are growing up (about 12 years of age down to three.) But he hasn’t sold out and he hasn’t changed his core values.

In many ways I reckon Shapiro is a simple man. Predictable. Most of all Shapiro works incredibly hard, he’s a husband and a father to four children. He values his Jewish heritage and religion. And he believes that America, despite it all, is still the last great hope.

That’s enough for me.