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Sept. 13, 2017 - Rubin Report - Dave Rubin
06:48
Berkeley "Braces" For Ben Shapiro | DIRECT MESSAGE | Rubin Report
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dave rubin
06:43
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dave rubin
Once in a while, a little voice will pop in my head and say, "Dave, are you sure you aren't overblowing
"any of the big issues that you talk about?"
Maybe the threat to free speech really isn't so bad.
Maybe the assault on open discourse on college campuses isn't all that terrible.
Maybe most of the mainstream media isn't simply pandering for clicks and views.
Then, and it never fails, some current event takes place reminding me that the issues we're talking about related to free speech are not only the most important issues of the day, but perhaps We're actually underestimating the severity of them.
Without an absolute protection of free speech first, we can't have debates around any of the other issues that might be important to you right now.
Care about Betsy DeVos' comments on Title IX?
Care about Trump's decision on DACA or global warming as it relates to the recent spate of hurricanes?
Your freedom of speech and of inquiry is what guarantees that we can have discussions around those issues and everything else.
Tomorrow former Rubin Report guest and a friend of mine, Ben Shapiro, will be speaking at UC Berkeley.
The internet has been lit about the preemptive protests, the counter protests, the safe spaces, and the trigger warnings for this event, even before the event has actually happened.
Sadly, in and of itself, none of this impending and hyped up chaos is new, so I wasn't planning on addressing it before Ben even had the chance to speak.
Then I saw a tweet from the Los Angeles Times, and I felt I needed to discuss it with you.
The tweet reads, quote, Berkeley braces for right wing talk show host Ben Shapiro visit, end quote.
This headline doesn't seem too bad on face value, actually it reads very similarly to how much of the mainstream news is published these days.
If you're looking for it though, and I know many of you are, the headline is actually a loaded combination of subtle bias and outright fake news.
Berkeley braces is an interesting choice of words, because usually in headlines we brace ourselves for a hurricane or another natural disaster.
The attempt here, of course, is to compare Shapiro's words with the same emotional weight as a natural disaster which can end lives.
In a time right after two major storms, Hurricane Harvey and Hurricane Irma hit the United States, this phrasing is particularly useful as we are all subconsciously associating the word brace with death and destruction.
If you think I'm overstating the word brace with hurricanes, just do a Google News search for braces for Harvey or braces for Irma and see what pops up.
Now the Los Angeles Times reader knows that something so horrible is coming that UC Berkeley must brace for it, as it would for a deadly hurricane.
Next, they use the pejorative right wing to opine on Ben's talk show and his views.
Of course, there's no doubt that as a conservative, Ben's political views are on the right, but there's something else when they say right wing.
Virtually every time the mainstream media uses the phrase right wing, it's to paint someone as either scary, evil, or racist.
In and of itself, being right wing isn't bad, it's just a political view, one which you may or may not agree with.
But here we now have students bracing for this right wing speaker.
Sounds scary, doesn't it?
Why does the mainstream media never label anyone or anything left wing when they want to scare you?
Has Antifa been labeled left wing by the LA Times or CNN?
I searched latimes.com for those words together and unsurprisingly it has not.
While right wing is a dog whistle for bad, and left wing is just left out altogether when it doesn't fit the correct narrative, you really have a problem.
Did you see a headline in the LA Times or CNN that read, City University of New York braces for left wing activist Linda Sarsour?
Of course you didn't, and I would argue that Linda Sarsour's ideas are far more dangerous than anything Ben Shapiro talks about.
If you think I'm being a bit melodramatic here, consider this.
As long as the LA Times is using colorful language with their headlines, why didn't they add a fun adjective before UC Berkeley?
Berkeley was once the home for free speech in America, and it is now a cesspool of left wing, see I can do it too, hate.
Why not say Former School of Academic Freedom Berkeley Braces for Right-Wing Talk Show Host Ben Shapiro?
Or Intolerant of Other Ideas Berkeley Braces for Right-Wing Talk Show Host Ben Shapiro?
Or even simply, and most honestly and directly if we're being fair to both sides, Left-Wing Berkeley Braces for Right-Wing Talk Show Host Ben Shapiro?
Certainly that would be true, at least.
But their omission of one label while prescribing another one tells you all you need to know.
This headline, before Ben has even spoken, tells you a story alright, but it isn't the one that the LA Times intended.
The headline tells you the story of the double standard with which mainstream conservatives have to deal with, fueled by a media that inflames the situation when it comes to anyone on the right, but largely ignores it when it comes to anyone on the left.
This tricky use of words and selective writing is largely what people are talking about when they talk about fake news.
The media should be giving us facts straight up, not editorializing through headlines that confuse and conflate what's actually happening on the ground.
If you'd like to know more on how the media confuses us with headlines like this, check out my discussion with Eric Weinstein on the Russell Conjugation, and we'll link to that video right down below.
Ben is going to speak at UC Berkeley and he is going to say some things that will trigger some people, not because he's attacking individual people or because the things he's saying are inherently offensive, but more so because he's challenging the social justice warrior ideology that has ransacked clear thinking on the college campus in America.
If you don't like what he says, write a paper about it, invite a counterspeaker, or non-violently protest in a way which allows the people who do want to hear him have a chance to exercise their right to free speech just as much as you want to exercise yours.
Headlines like this subtly excuse and actually help instigate violence toward anyone who dares step out of groupthink.
I guarantee that the ideas Ben talks about tomorrow are in no way something you have to brace for, and even less something you have to act violently towards.
Defending free speech as a college student now will help ensure that it will be defended when you grow out of the group think as an adult.
So instead of silencing speakers on campus, perhaps do what you're supposed to do in college instead.
Listen to someone who thinks differently than you do.
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